October 2008

It's time to get more aggressive. The Fed and Treasury have added more than a trillion dollars in total in the past few months to the banking system through discount window borrowing, government backed loans, auctions and debt sales.  This is on top of the $700 billion dollar rescue package Congress passed last week.    It has not stemmed the tide of pain in the stock or credit markets.   ... read more

Now that the rescue plan is passed, Congress and the candidates need to turn their attention to the overall economy.   Whatever you want to call the economic slowdown we are facing, don't call it mild.   The rapid loss of jobs and weak condition of housing are proof enough that the economy needs triage.   Some economic wounds can be healed with tax cuts.   Now.  Especially for American ... read more

Phase 1 is over. The creation of the concept, drafting and selling of the bill, and the passing in Congress signals that the beginning of the story is over.   But just the beginning.   As 40 year NYSE veteran Teddy Weisberg said, "now the hard part begins."    That is phase 2; the actual implementation and execution of the rescue package. There are now more questions than answers.  ... read more

Earlier this week Citigroup agreed to buy Wachovia. This morning, Wells Fargo stepped in and outbid Citigroup to make its own deal for Wachovia. Citigroup was blindsided and now claims it had a firm deal for Wachovia, Wells acted inappropriately, and it is considering suing Wells Fargo.    We don't know who will win the battle for ... read more

Good background today on what to expect from the Fox Business Washington team: The House is scheduled to meet at 9 am ET. It will move quickly to consider what is known as 'the rule.'  These are the parameters which the House must first establish to bring the actual financial crisis bill to the floor. Nearly every piece of legislation in the House gets a rule. Usually you don't have to ... read more

The loss of 159,000 jobs in September was worse than the consensus.     With other numbers coming in weak lately, unless we have a strong trade figure its going to be very hard to have a positive GDP figure for the 3rd quarter. Watch trade.  If that slows, its likely we could have a negative GDP number. Below is the analysis from Fox Business Senior Economist Mark Lieberman: read more

I wrote a few days about about what I called the "shadow bailout."   It's about how while DC talks, the Fed is acting by becoming the lender of last resort in a big way. Well, the weekly data released today from the Fed confirms that report.    And the numbers are staggering. Here are the official Fed numbers: Discount window lending to banks (direct from Fed) = $49.5 BLN (up 26% ... read more

Fox News has learned that the House Rules Commitee will meet today around 4pm ET.   This is signifcant because the Committee generally meets the day before a vote to work out details over how it will proceed. And don't think this is a done deal either. Maryland Democrat Steny Hoyer telling Fox News today that the 'sweeteners' added to the Senate bill (tax break extenders, AMT changes, etc) ... read more

On September 22nd I detailed my reasons why this is not just a "Wall Street bailout."     That many on Main Street and in various parts of the economy would be impacted by the credit crunch.    Most of you disagreed and are clearly against the plan.    But while the long-term benefit of the plan is still unknown, what we do know is that the difficulties in the market are having a very ... read more

In the last few weeks we have hear much about the potential crisis facing America.    The mysterious entity known collectively as the "credit markets" is tightening up and cutting the ability to borrow money.   Big banks are failing, being chopped up and sold off.   Job losses are growing.    These are difficult, complex and scary times for many Americans. Because of that, I want to ... read more