Calm & Prosperous Voyage
CALM RETURNS
LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks were at near three-year lows on Tuesday but fears of a major market meltdown failed to carry through from Wall Street to Europe as confidence in bank rescue packages persisted.
The U.S. Congress's rejection of a bank rescue plan tore nearly 9 percent off the broad S&P 500 on Monday but European shares and many Asian stock markets clawed back from early losses on hopes the U.S. plan would eventually go through.
There's more, of course. I note the italics are mine. Again and again the statement is made that markets have solidified "on hopes the U.S. plan would eventually go through." There are a billion people making decisions whether to sell, buy, or hold, and this is the only thought they've got in there mind? This is perhaps one thought every mind has, but along with that other thoughts of a billion different varieties. To explain markets on the basis of what the U.S. congress might or might do seems to me to be thinking within a very small box. It's that small box made the whole globe that creates the hysteria.
I think the next thing we have to do is put Barney Frank in jail and there will be peace and plenty thereafter forevermore.
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Hmm'n, it appears Nancy Pelosi doesn't want to put Barney in jail. This is at the end of the article and it's not specifically about Barney and I've inverted the paragraphs:
Emanuel apparently is concerned the roles former Clinton Administration members may have played in the mortgage industry collapse could be politically -- or worse, if the Department of Justice had its way, legally -- treacherous for many.
[He] has received assurances from Pelosi that she will not allow what he termed a "witch hunt" to take place during the next Congressional session over the role Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac played in the economic crisis.
Of course, to my mind if you do not put these people in jail, that is, publicly establish the cause of the collapse, you can have no resolution and no protection against the same thing happening again. I sure would like to see congress get out of the pass-the-money-around business and into the blame business.
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Right now I think my attitude is that I wish congress would just go home, George Bush would just go play golf, Harry Hank Hooey Paulson --whatever his name -- would just fly off in his golden parachute, and all the old-men-hysterics having their period would just jump off a building. --Give the FDIC greater authority, and then let the financials work things out themselves. It's not that I don't think there must be some intelligent thing that could be done, it's just that I don't think there's anyone out there just now, in charge, who's not lunatic. --I would further note that the markets being positive when the congress is not in session is a pretty good indication of what the congress should be doing. I'll bet tomorrow when they start haggling they'll screw things up again.
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Gingrich on The Mess. Really good. Fire Paulson!
Fire the Tin Pot!
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5:45 PM
Ha!
Statement by McCain-Palin senior policy adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin on the SEC's plan to relax mark-to-market accounting requirements: [Rich Lowry]
John McCain is pleased to see that the SEC has finally decided to permit alternative accounting methods to mark-to-market accounting for securities where no active market exists. There is serious concern that these accounting rules are worsening the credit crunch, making it difficult for small businesses to stay afloat and squeezing family budgets. In March, John McCain called for a meeting of accounting professionals to discuss whether mark-to-market accounting was magnifying problems in the financial markets."
This means the markets will be fine tomorrow. Now if only we can send congress to Mexico or the South Antilles or maybe to the South Pole where they can cool off.