This is the mother of all heists. It is a total ripoff of taxpayer money that will do absolutely nothing to prevent the incipient depression; indeed, the inflation that will be ignited by the Treasury borrowing yet another trillion dollars (for starters) will serve only to speed up the collapse. It will succeed only in bailing out a bunch of well-connected criminals, including many of Paulson's old cronies.

It appears that the Congress and both Presidential candidates, in spite of the wishes of the American people, are going to shove this down our throats.

I am sick at heart.

It's pretty clear to any thinking person that Obama had the broader grasp of the issues and the more forward looking policies. It was certainly disappointing, however, to realize that there's not much difference between the candidates positions and rhetoric on Iran, Israel and Russia/Georgia.

The real question is not how this played among supporters of either candidate. It's how those infamous undecided voters saw it. CBS had a group of them together and the clear majority thought Obama won. One of them offered the opinion that it looked like the Kennedy-Nixon debates, with McCain playing the Tricky Dick role. And CBS's instant scientific poll showed the same results. This means that, barring any unforeseen problems, the ones who will swing this election have swung over to Obama.

The final nail in the coffin will be the Biden-Palin debate. I doubt any thinking (or even semi-conscious) person who is yet undecided will be swayed by the MILF from Alaska's pathetic grasp of the issues and rehearsed answers, especially when compared to Biden.

Now, if only we can make it to the election without Dubya starting a "nukular" war, we might yet have some hope for the future.

Au contraire.

McCain's entire world view is stuck in a 20th century cold war mentality. He is pathetically attempting to exorcise the ghost of Vietnam by "winning" in Iraq. If it takes the loss of countless more lives, so be it. Like a gambling junkie playing roulette, he's convinced that just one more spin of the wheel will vindicate his ill-informed support of the Iraq debacle.

His approach to the economy is the same stale recitation of Republican fundamentalism that has now driven us to the brink of another Great Depression: Cut corporate taxes, blah blah blah.

That he would even bring up his joke of a running mate as "a partner that's a good maverick along with me" shows just how clueless and dangerous he really is.

I hate to be a party pooper, but, no, we can't.

I've previously used the 'Titanic' analogy for our situation. The collapse of the economy is now a mathematical certainty. The hole in the hull is just too big and the amount of water rushing in is too great for the pumps to stop the inevitable. As the character, Mr.Andrews, noted in 'Titanic', "The pumps buy you time, but minutes only. From this moment, no matter what we do, Titanic will founder."

As another character noted, following the rats might be a good idea:

Gold and silver dealer reports an ‘unprecedented’ shortage of metals

A surge for demand in gold and silver has resulted in an unprecedented shortage of the metals for retail investors in recent days, according to Gold and Silver Investments, a Dublin-based firm that allows retail investors to speculate on movements in the value of precious metals.

Gold and Silver Investments director Mark O’Byrne said the supply of gold and silver available for small retail investors suffered a dramatic deterioration within hours on Friday, as wholesalers reported that government mints and refiners, the primary suppliers of the metals, had stopped offering new supplies.

"It’s absolutely unprecedented,” said O’Byrne, who said the shortages were likely to drive up the costs of gold and silver in the secondary market.

‘‘This did not happen even in the 1930s and the 1970s, and will result in markedly higher prices in the coming months.”

According to O’Byrne, gold and silver were now only easily accessible in the primary market, which consisted of central banks and other major traders of the precious metals.

However, he said that minimum transaction sizes in this market were out of reach for most retail investors - at approximately $350,000 for gold and $135,000 for silver.

http://www.thepost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=MARKETS-qqqm=nav-qqqid=36223-qqqx=1.asp

re: "Why aren't they following the Swedish model?"

I've watched the economy for 30 years. Now I'm truly scared

"...the core proposal remains. The government will buy toxic debt rather than inject government funds into the banks' capital base, in other words, reject even partially nationalising the entire US banking system as the Swedes had to in 1992. I don't know - nobody does - whether the Paulson plan would be sufficient or whether ultimately the Americans will have to go for nationalisation. What I do know is that unless there is a radical and government-led change in ownership, structure, regulation and incentives so that the principles of fairness are put at the heart of the Anglo American financial system - proportionality of reward and fair distribution of risk - there is no chance of the return of trust and integrity upon which long-term recovery depends."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/28/globaleconomy.creditcrunch

SEE ALSO:

Treasury Would Emerge With Vast New Power

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/business/29bill.html?hp