Black Monday victory?

Well, dear reader, I missed the mark on the depth of the first plunge, but only by a little bit. I told you this morning that I expected a 300-point drop, perhaps twice that. Instead, we got a 700-point drop, which, while the single biggest point drop in history, is still not quite as big as the percentage-point drops suffered in the original Great Depression or the 1987 debacle. Still, it points out that there is panic in the halls of the would-be kings of the banking world, and this may not be such a bad thing. The people have risen up and expressed a near-violent outrage against oiling the wheels of the machine that has functioned to enrich the few on the backs of the many. I applaud all of you who took the time to write, call, or send smoke signals to your elected officials regarding this matter. It appears that we do have a voice in this republic after all! To have ignored this would have placed the Congress in the untenable position of having to "fall on the sword", not once, but repeatedly.

And shame on you, Nazi Pelosi, for calling the Republicans who "didn't come to the table" as being "unpatriotic". You locked them out, you had them thrown out of meetings, you tried to sneak "earmarks" into this bill that had NO PLACE in it. You also were only too willing to grant Hank Paulson virtually unlimited powers to buy ANY assets he deemed necessary to preserve his profits, and likely your own profits as well, including bad foreign-owned financial instruments. I have no respect for you or your gang of thieves, shame on you for trying to give our country away. There is a reason your Demican/Republicrat party turned their backs on you and your siamese twin Jorge Arbusto, and that reason is US! We, the people! We spoke, our representatives listened, for once, and defeated the bill you and Jorge tried in vain to shove down our throats. The reason for your secrecy and your rush to pass this legislation? I have my suspicions that you, too, are making bets against the economy, shorting the US economy, as it were. YOU are the unpatriotic one, Grandma! I am ashamed of you, and those of your ilk!

For the rest of us on Main Street who pushed back against this bad piece of legislation, please- keep it up. Be involved. This is but a small victory in the taking back of America. The monsters on Wall Street are very much against Main Street, don't let their lies and perversions of the truth fool you. They are out to make a buck. Your buck. We need more vigilance, more involvement in our government than we have been given to exercising lately. Our complacency has nearly cost us our very freedom, and the attacks came from within. Nice to see not everyone was asleep at the wheel this time- don't nod off now. They will try again by the end of the week.

When they DO try, look at the bill as it is drafted. Look carefully for protections for the common man, look for true oversight- the dead bill had an oversight committee consisting of Paulson, Cox, the Secretary of HUD. THAT, my friends, is giving the fox the keys to the henhouse! Not wise, even by today's lax standards! Look also for unbridled power to be given to either Paulson, or one (or more) of his cronies, such as the Federal Reserve Board, or even the GAO. Watch for tricks in the wording that will allow great latitudes in powers, or in what types of financial instruments are allowed to be bought or sold. What we really need right now is a complete overhaul of the system, but the weasels of Wall Street are screaming for more cash. They're pathetic, like junkies looking for their next fix. It sickens me. The crafters of this bill also told us (Hank Paulson & friends) that there would be "protections against golden parachute clauses". That, dear readers, was an outright lie. The only thing mentioned in the bill that referred to "excessive compensation" was a small passage that said "Excessive compensation will be levied a tax at the rate of 20% on the excessive gains of the top 5 persons leaving any firm". Not even what I pay on my puny salary! And it opens the door to the "carryout profits buffet". Just underpay the next 5 in line, and have them carry the profits out the door and to the alley, where the top fat cats will be waiting in the line of limos. Thievery. Utter trash.

I expect tomorrow's market will see a 400-800 point drop, especially since the European markets are undergoing their own bank failures right now (Fortis). In fact, some are calling for up to a 4-6,000 point drop in the Dow before we settle out. That, my friends, is what I call devastating. But it can happen. Be prepared, as much as you can. Unemployment will likely exceed 10% in the coming months. I don't think that it will be as bad as the 1930's, when unemployment hit a whopping 25%, but it could get close. The difference this time is that firms aren't experiencing as much contraction to preserve capital as before. With the credit market bone-dry, I don't expect to see too much growth, but it may not be the end of the world.

So, be aware of every penny for the time being, and don't spend needlessly. We must prepare ourselves for a new paradigm- living on what we truly need, not on what we truly want. We will adjust to this new lifestyle, I already have. Sure, I have some toys, I'm not rich, I live in a modest little home in a modest little neighborhood, and I don't own a single new car. I also don't have as much debt as most average Americans, which is good. But I also don't have as big a cushion as I'd like. I'm working on that part, and so should you.

Happy "Black Monday" to you all, and celebrate the victory, but not too much, there is still a very large war, and this is but one small battle. Be brave, have courage, and know that "we done good" this time.

As always, I am...

Amir Fazadh

And the hangman pulls the lever....

Get ready people. We are standing on the gallows, and the hangman has pulled the lever. The floor we were standing on is falling away now, and we are starting our plummet. Don't worry, it's not the drop that will kill you, it's the suden stop at the end, with the rope tightening and the knot on our left ear snapping our head off to an impossible angle. I wonder how many times our feet will twitch?

Main Street is just about there. We are on the cusp of a major revolution. We the people are getting VERY ANGRY at what is perceived as the big guys preserving their buddies' "golden parachute funds". The time has come.

The only thing that will stop the situation at this point would be to hold the elections today, and have everyone vote out the incumbents, and write in a candidate for president that is not currently on the ticket. But that isn't going to happen. What they'll do is fund this trillion-dollar "bailout" of the financial sector. This is not for our own good, I'm telling you. This is not capitalism, it is fascism, pure and simple. And we're going to let this happen? I've been writing that this country is in a death spiral for a while now, and I'm predicting at least a 300-pt drop in the Dow today, perhaps double that. The market is broken, and our fearful leaders are taking the cash register and going home.

What about the average Joe Sixpack? The gang of thieves in Weaselton DC seem content to saddle us with the bill while they print ever more worthless fiat currency known as the "almighty dollar". The "almighty dollar" is looked upon with scorn in the world now, they see how thin the trappings of "success" are, they know we are going down for the count, and accordingly are saying "thanks, but no thanks" to our overtures for more investment here. The world's capital has dried up, the ATM is now unplugged. This nation's excessive, consumer-driven expenses are coming home to roost, and the waiter has just slipped us the bill. Our goose has been cooked, and the people know it.

This situation is being seen as "the beginning of the end" by most. I see it as the "end of the beginning". It's going to get much, much worse. If you were planning, like me, to retire at some point and enjoy "the golden years", please be aware that you will now have to work for approximately 137 more years, if you are nearing retirement. Your "golden years" are now a "lead ballon"- unless, of course, your name happens to be Bush, Cheney, Paulson, Bernanke, or Cox. Or the name of any CEO on Wall Street. That is where my little daughter's future is being sold out.

Despite Bush's "the sky is falling" speech, I don't buy for a second the specter of total anihilation of the markets if we let Goldman-Sucks fail. It will be yet another bank failure. We have seen large firms fail before- witness Enron, and the dreadful knee-jerk reaction of the politicos known as "Sarbanes-Oxley Act". That one crippled normal businesses, in an effort to "protect the shareholders". It was supposed to result in more transparency, but the net result is that no company can do anything without going through a checklist of Byzantine proportion, and a whole industry developed around it to siphon off profits. Entire corps of lawyers and accountants sprung up from the ashes of the failed energy giant. Think of what it will be like now, er, "going forward", to use a now common biz-speak term.

Protect your assets, and invest in commodities like gold and silver, and lead. It's time to rise up, unified, grab OurPitchforksAndTorches, and put this matter to rest once and for all. Greed is NOT good. It is the cancer that has taken over this nation, and driven us to ruin.

As always, I am...

Amir Fazadh

$700 Billion dollar reward for screwing our economy?

Well, Bush and his Gang of Thieves certainly are pushing hard for this "bailout". Having just been through Hurricane Ike, I turned to my government for some assistance. I asked for the really huge and expensive assistance, to the tune of about $5. I just wanted some ice and water. But that help never came. I was eventually able to find ice, at $2.19/bag. But someone else in my neighborhood brought some water to us, and we survived.

I asked my lenders for a bit of help coping with this national disaster, and was rebuffed with a hearty "Sorry, pay your bill. No help for you, and no, you can't have one payment put off to the end of the loan."

I was charged $75 to cancel my flight.

My cruise line cheerfully refunded my money in full for our December cruise that we can no longer go on. They will get my booking next time.

What irks me is that I was given no quarter, no relief from ANYONE from this storm, despite living less than 10 miles from where Ike rumbled ashore, and the eye passed directly over my house. I wasn't asking for a lot of assistance, just a little relief from the ravages of the storm. Enough breathing room to not go under. What I got was the proverbial "sharp stick in the eye".

After 13 days, we finally have power. Life will return to normal.

What will NOT return to normal, in my opinion, is the venereal, er, venerable, institutions known as "Wall Street". What they are doing is asking us, the taxpayer, to foot the bill for the multi-million-dollar "exit packages", the bonus that executives get for ruining a company and sending it into the abyss of history. They want us to bail them out, to save them from the abyss they threw themselves into through bad decision-making, and plain, unadulterated greed. They want us to save them from the fires of hell with our own money. I am against this "plan". They want US to give them more money? After they have plundered the US treasury, ruined our economy, offshored our jobs, debased our currency, robbed my children of their futures, and now they want to saddle us with even MORE DEBT? The kind that takes generations to pay off? Are they insane? We're supposed to trust these vermin? We're supposed to give them even more money to reward them for this thievery? No. Not only no, but HELL NO! These people have nothing in the game. I would make this loan only under the following conditions-

1) All profit comes back to the people after the principal is paid, and with a stiff penalty.

2) All property, including thier personal residences, retirement accounts, golden parachutes, and stock options, all bank accounts, cash, and vehicles should be immediately forfeit. They can serve as the "down payment", so to speak. Let's get these bastards to have some "skin: in the game.

3) Immediate cancellation of all bonuses and regular salary for the CEOs of the affected companies. Put those twoard the repayment of this debt. They can have it back if and when the markets recover.

What is happening with Bush and cronies proclaiming the end of the world if we don't approve their looting of the Treasury is nothing short of financial terrorism. It's like rewarding the captain of the Exxon Valdez with a bigger ship full of oil, and a case of Scotch to go with it. If my banks won't even grant me ONE DEFERRED PAYMENT to help me get past a declared national disaster, why should I be expected to give my child's future to them? Let Goldman Sachs fail. It would probably do MORE for the world economy's trust to let them fail than to reward bad behavior with saddling the taxpayer with debt and risk.

What they are doing, in a nutshell, is giving us the risk while they reap the rewards. This is flat-out WRONG. It is thievery, plain and simple. "Hank" Paulson was the CEO of Goldman Sachs up until 2 years ago. Why would he give up the $16Billion bonuses and the salary of that job for a $400,000 a yr job in the government, unless he knew that this was going to happen? He was one of the architects of this destruction, let him enjoy the reward of seeing his creation through. Let him give up all his ill-gotten gains. Let him feel the pain he is causing us. He earned it!

We need to get out OurPitchforksAndTorches and give ol' Hank a sharp stick in the ass. Just like he's doing to us! How's it feel, Hank?