The Federal Reserve has been keeping interest rates BELOW inflation levels for nearly 2-3 years now (depending on how you look at inflation). That has skewed all measures of risk in the economy.

This economy now punishes people who save money. Actually it goes even further than that. It punishes anybody who does not leverage their income to live beyond their means. In order to just keep up with inflation people are forced to put their money into riskier and riskier investments (stocks, currencies etc). That might be good for stock values in the short term, but it is an incredibly dangerous way to run an economy as we are seeing now.

More than $2 TRILLION dollars in investment wealth have been lost in the last few months. People living on fixed incomes or who are close to retirement and can’t afford to risk their money in stocks are losing purchasing power daily as their savings rates fall further and further BELOW the rates of inflation, making them poorer every day despite having done everything right.

And you are correct, the risk of lending is high – interest rates MUST reflect that risk. The problem is not DEMAND for loans (everybody wants cash) the problem is SUPPLY. Cutting rates is designed to spur demand. If one wants to increase SUPPLE then rates must RISE.

Bush hasn't made a speech in couple of days. Maybe that's why the markets went up.

It is kind of interesting, all last week Bush kept trying to calm things down and market kept plunging. Bush shuts up for a couple of days, European leaders take center stage to announce the new plan and the market goes up.

So it seems the first rule to stabilizing markets is to muzzle George Bush.

Everybody is talking about how Monday was the fourth highest gain in DOW history. But watching, of all things, The Daily Show yesterday I learned that the three highest increases occurred DURING the height of the Great Depression.

In other words, this is FAR from over.

If the intent was to not influence the election or to hurt McCain, then blocking the release was a stupid move. Now the movie will get far more media attention because of the attempt at 'censorship' than it ever would have recieved as a simple DVD release.

Now McCain and Republicans can rail against 'Hollywood Liberals' and the media will spend a couple of days talking about his POW status (turning the page on the economy).

If anything this move HELPS McCain not hurts him. Probably won't help that much, more as yet another way to rile up the base.

Way more than I was spending on gas just a year and half ago.

I use to be able to fill my tank for $30-35, now, even with the 'decline', it still costs me around $45 to fill a tank. That's the way it plays out all the oil 'shocks' of the last few years. The new equilibrium price for gas is always $.75-1.00 higher than it was before the run up. Starts at $2.50 shoots up to over $4.0 than settles down at $3.00-$3.50 and people are supposed to be happy that they are saving a $1.00 or so per gallon fromm the high.

By the end William Buckley all but outright repudiated modern conservative 'thought'. He rejected the Neocon view of the world, disdained the anti-intellectulism of the religious right and one could see in his writings a sadness in how far movement he helped to find and shape had strayed from his ideals.

I disagreed with William Buckley on many positions (as I do his son Christopher) but I always respected his mind. His arguements were reasoned, largely consistent and well presented. The antithesis of modern conservatism.

The rich are BAD managers and stewards of money. It really is that simple. What have they done for the past 20 years, puffed up one bubble after another, commercial real estate (80s), technology (90s), housing/stocks (00s). Each bubble has burst. But with a brief exception during the 90s the average person has been left out of the bubble (except when it came time to bail out the idiots).

Since the 80s the US has abandoned investment in real things like factories, infrastructure, educaction, basic sciences, wages.

I loved listening to John Stewart last night talking about how we've geared the economy to benefit ONLY the investment class and perhaps its time for the other 90% of us to get in on the game.

I know this question has been asked by others before.

Is there any realistic scenario for a McCain win if he looses Florida?

I just don't see it, especially given that Obama is near certain to hold all the Kerry states.

Of course a LOT can happen in three weeks we must remain focused. Turnout is key, don't let any of friends say 'it looks like an Obama blowout so I'm not going to bother'. Make SURE everybody you know votes.

And don't forget, down ticket races matter, so even if you are in a safe state you can still make certain the Dems control congress and have more influence at the local level (the place where future national leaders come from). For example, here in Oregon we're a 'safe' Obama state but we still need to take out Senator Steve Smith.

Get out and VOTE.

At this point its all about minimizing the impact of the recession/depression that is already here.

We have spent 30 years creating an economy that punishes savings and rewards speculative investment fueled by debt (politely called 'leverage').

The bill is coming due.

And its going to hurt like hell to pay it.

I can almost guarantee within the first 15 minutes of the debate Bob Scheiffer will ask a question along the lines of:

"What do you feel about the tone of the campaign?"

or something along those lines.

That will be McCain's opening to go after Obama on Ayers IF he chooses to take it.