The fun has only just begun.

Federal bank insurance fund dwindling

WASHINGTON (AP) — Banks are not the only ones struggling in the growing financial crisis. The fund established to insure their deposits is also feeling the pinch, and the taxpayer may be the lender of last resort.

Additional failures of large banks or savings and loans companies seem likely, and that could overwhelm the FDIC's insurance fund, said Brian Bethune, U.S. economist at consulting firm Global Insight.

"We've got a ... retail bank run forming in this country," said Christopher Whalen, senior vice president and managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i-pLQW20k50DG8EF0T3RFrFdH96wD9384DM00

Lending Among Banks Freezes

Banks abruptly stopped lending to each other or charged exorbitantly high rates Tuesday, threatening to spread the troubles of American International Group Inc. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. to a broad range of financial institutions and the global economy.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122156888040242963.html

The Worst Financial Crisis Since the Great Depression

http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/roubini/253618/the_worst_financial_crisis_since_the_great_depression

Housing Lenders Fear Bigger Wave of Loan Defaults

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/business/04lend.html?em=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1217957113-pFlrUGvr7OAaQuMcyPKCbg

The economy trumps any/all other issues in the election.

By election day, it will be known as 'The Bush Depression'

McCain cannot unshackle himself from Bush.

Palin is now irrelevant. She is nothing but a hood ornament on the derailed 'Straight Talk Express'.

Buh bye!

The real question now is: Will the entire economic system collapse?

Can central banks go broke?

Can the central bank become insolvent? How and by whom or by what institution should the central bank be recapitalised, if its capital were deemed insufficient? These are relevant questions not just in Zimbabwe and Tajikistan today, but wherever central banks have taken on or may be asked to take on large exposures to private credit risk. This includes the USA, the Euro Area, the UK, Iceland and many other advanced industrial countries.

http://blogs.ft.com/maverecon/2008/05/can-central-banks-go-broke/

Retiring Republican Senator Chuck Hagel told the Omaha World Herald today that he does not think Sarah Palin is qualified to be president. “I think it's a stretch to, in any way, to say that she's got the experience to be president of the United States,” he said. “She doesn't have any foreign policy credentials," Hagel added. “You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say. You can't say anything.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/09/18/politics/horserace/entry4457880.shtml

And the glassy-eyed 'pubs chant, "Sa-rah! Sa-rah!"

Greetings, old friend.

A couple articles of interest:

The worst is yet to come

http://tinyurl.com/3oezmw

Bloomberg warns of possible ''next wave'' crisis

http://tinyurl.com/4mvy9e

The U.S. is going to wind up being one giant FEMA trailer city.

I'll save you a place in the soup line. We can swap stories around the campfire about the good old days of bashing neocon heads on the NYT.

re: "We see that the Fed has now gotten some other central banks to stick their fingers in the dike also, so maybe it's gotten serious. No word yet on how actual dike repairs are coming along."

Will the Levee Break? An Ocean of Bad Debt Rises despite Fed Rescues

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2050