NEW YORK - Wall Street has ended a volatile session sharply higher after a stunning late-session turnaround that sent the Dow Jones industrials up about 400 points. The big comeback followed a report that the federal government may create an entity that will take over banks' bad debt.
The report on CNBC said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is considering the creation of an entity like the Resolution Trust Corp. that was set up during the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Investors have been cheered by the notion of a huge federal intervention like the establishment of RTC to acquire the mortgage debt that has hobbled financial institutions and led to the intense volatility in the markets this week.
According to preliminary calculations, the Dow is up about 401 at the 11,010 level.
Tribun wrote:So in effect they are relieved that someone else has to pay for them fucking up.
Precisely. Socialize all the costs of failure on the taxpayers so they can keep their profits. Fucking despicable leeches.
Warwolf Urban Combat Specialist
Why is it so goddamned hard to get little assholes like you to admit it when you fuck up? Is it pride? What gives you the right to have any pride?
–Darth Wong to vivftp
GOP message? Why don't they just come out of the closet: FASCISTS R' US –Patrick Degan
The GOP has a problem with anyone coming out of the closet. –18-till-I-die
Tribun wrote:So in effect they are relieved that someone else has to pay for them fucking up.
Precisely. Socialize all the costs of failure on the taxpayers so they can keep their profits. Fucking despicable leeches.
Don't forget that you're a filthy communist for suggesting you socialize something really important like, oh, I don't know, HEALTHCARE. This whole week in the financials is making me physically ill.
I'd love to see what happens when who knows how many trillion dollars of radioactive mortgage debts & various investment vehicles gets dumped onto the US balance sheets. The Fed is completely out of short term T-bills, they'll have to sell their long term Treasuries which is going to blow the yield sky high, welcome to 15% mortgage rates. Or they can put it onto the Treasury department, which is to say fire up the printing presses and print until the greenback isn't worth the paper it's printed on. Call it the Zimbabwe model.
If they're stupid enough to go through with the scheme it's a death sentence for US dollar and the entire US economy. Jesus christ I can't believe they're even thinking about doing it.
This post is a 100% natural organic product.
The slight variations in spelling and grammar enhance its individual character and beauty and in no way are to be considered flaws or defects
I'm not sure why people choose 'To Love is to Bury' as their wedding song...It's about a murder-suicide
- Margo Timmins
When it becomes serious, you have to lie
- Jean-Claude Juncker
SirNitram wrote:Even if it's Kraft Cheese, of all strange entrants.
Well, sales of Kraft Dinner should boom quite nicely in the coming depression.
This post is a 100% natural organic product.
The slight variations in spelling and grammar enhance its individual character and beauty and in no way are to be considered flaws or defects
I'm not sure why people choose 'To Love is to Bury' as their wedding song...It's about a murder-suicide
- Margo Timmins
When it becomes serious, you have to lie
- Jean-Claude Juncker
Didn't Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Dinners get started in the Great Depression?
Yep - looked it up, introduced in 1937
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
Breaking news on CNN, the proposed plan will cost TRILLIONS. No idea what it is yet, but trying to do a RTC buyout will cost trillions.
dumbass talking head advisor: keep putting money into your 401k investments, or you'll miss out on the buy of a lifetime.
Fucking christ, just shut up already.
aerius: I'll vote for you if you sleep with me. Lusankya: Deal!
Say, do you want it to be a threesome with your wife? Or a foursome with your wife and sister-in-law? I'm up for either.
aerius wrote:dumbass talking head advisor: keep putting money into your 401k investments, or you'll miss out on the buy of a lifetime.
What would you tell people to do?
"You know what the problem with Hollywood is. They make shit. Unbelievable. Unremarkable. Shit." - Gabriel Shear, Swordfish
"This statement, in its utterly clueless hubristic stupidity, cannot be improved upon. I merely quote it in admiration of its perfection." - Garibaldi in reply to an incredibly stupid post.
The Fifth Illuminatus Primus | Warsie | Skeptical Empiricist | Florida Gator | Sustainability Advocate | LibertarianSocialist |
Kanastrous wrote:I know where I'm investing my $$$...
Where? Guns? Food? Gold? Printed pornography??
Don't hold out on us!
"There is no "taboo" on using nuclear weapons." -Julhelm
What is Project Zohar? "On a serious note (well not really) I did sometimes jump in and rate nBSG episodes a '5' before the episode even aired or I saw it."- RogueIce explaining that episode ratings on SDN tv show threads are bunk
aerius wrote:dumbass talking head advisor: keep putting money into your 401k investments, or you'll miss out on the buy of a lifetime.
What would you tell people to do?
Hide under the bed.
Invest in canned food, MRE's, and ammo.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
aerius wrote:dumbass talking head advisor: keep putting money into your 401k investments, or you'll miss out on the buy of a lifetime.
What would you tell people to do?
Buy a little extra land, a bunch of food crop seeds, and some chooks.
"Doctors keep their scalpels and other instruments handy, for emergencies. Keep your philosophy ready too—ready to understand heaven and earth. In everything you do, even the smallest thing, remember the chain that links them. Nothing earthly succeeds by ignoring heaven, nothing heavenly by ignoring the earth." M.A.A.A
aerius wrote:dumbass talking head advisor: keep putting money into your 401k investments, or you'll miss out on the buy of a lifetime.
What would you tell people to do?
Buy a little extra land, a bunch of food crop seeds, and some chooks.
Butchering lessons wouldn't hurt either.
Via money Europe could become political in five years" "... the current communities should be completed by a Finance Common Market which would lead us to European economic unity. Only then would ... the mutual commitments make it fairly easy to produce the political union which is the goal"
SEC issues temporary ban on short sales
Fri Sep 19, 2008 8:02am EDT
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued an emergency order on Friday temporarily halting the short selling of 799 financial stocks in an effort to protect investors and markets.
The measure underscores growing concerns that short-selling has led to sharp declines in U.S. and European financial stocks since the onset of the credit crunch.
"The emergency order temporarily banning short selling of financial stocks will restore equilibrium to markets," SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said in a statement. "This action, which would not be necessary in a well-functioning market, is temporary in nature and part of the comprehensive set of steps being taken by the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, and the Congress."
The SEC order followed a formal SEC meeting on Thursday night and a separate extraordinary meeting that Cox attended in the Capitol building the same evening. At that session, senior administration officials asked Congressional leaders for additional authority to soothe turbulent capital markets.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke asked top lawmakers for legislation that would give the U.S. government the power to buy up illiquid assets that are plaguing financial companies.
The SEC order will end at 11:59 p.m. EDT on October 2, and may be extended for 10 days if the agency deems it necessary. The SEC measure can only last a total of 30 calendar days.
Under the emergency order, institutional money managers will be required to report their new short sales of certain publicly traded securities. Investors are already required to report significant long positions.
The SEC also temporarily eased restrictions to give companies more flexibility to repurchase their stock.
Short sellers borrow stock in anticipation the price will fall, allowing the stock to be bought back more cheaply.
A widely followed exchange-traded fund that tracks the S&P 500 financial sector, the Financial Select Sector SPDR, rose 17 percent in U.S. premarket trading.
The SEC order followed similar action by the U.K. Financial Services Authority, which imposed a temporary four-month ban on short-selling of financial stocks on Thursday.
The U.K. ban drove up stocks there by as much as 40 percent. Ireland also announced a ban on short sales, while Australia said it would ban so-called naked short-selling starting next Monday.
TD Ameritrade Holding Corp Chief Executive Joe Moglia told CNBC on Friday he did not know before this morning that his online brokerage company was on the SEC's list of stocks included in the short-selling halt.
He said the investor community is entitled to engage in short selling but acknowledged emergency action is needed in turbulent times.
"This is an emergency mode. This is a crisis mode," Moglia said. "So for Congress and regulatory bodies to be able to step up and say at least temporarily we think we need to do this and move quickly, I support that."
Financial companies have pushed the SEC to take more action to end abusive short selling that they said was unfairly driving down their stock prices, especially after Lehman Brothers Holding Inc was forced into bankruptcy protection earlier this week and Merrill Lynch & Co Inc agreed to be bought by Bank of America Corp.
On Wednesday, the SEC issued rules requiring short sellers and their broker-dealers to deliver securities by the close of the business on the settlement date, three days after the sale.
Friday's SEC emergency action goes even further, saying, "The Commission will continue to consider measures to address short selling concerns in other publicly traded companies."
(Reporting by Rachelle Younglai, Karey Wutkowski and Christopher Kaufman; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn/Jeffrey Benkoe)
Treasury Announces Guaranty Program for Money Market Funds
Washington- The U.S. Treasury Department today announced the establishment of a temporary guaranty program for the U.S. money market mutual fund industry. For the next year, the U.S. Treasury will insure the holdings of any publicly offered eligible money market mutual fund – both retail and institutional – that pays a fee to participate in the program.
President George W. Bush approved the use of existing authorities by Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. to make available as necessary the assets of the Exchange Stabilization Fund for up to $50 billion to guarantee the payment in the circumstances described below.
Money market funds play an important role as a savings and investment vehicle for many Americans; they are also a fundamental source of financing for our capital markets and financial institutions. Maintaining confidence in the money market fund industry is critical to protecting the integrity and stability of the global financial system.
Concerns about the net asset value of money market funds falling below $1 have exacerbated global financial market turmoil and caused severe liquidity strains in world markets. In turn, these pressures have caused a spike in some short term interest and funding rates, and significantly heightened volatility in exchange markets. Absent the provision of such financing, there is a substantial risk of further heightened global instability.
Maintenance of the standard $1 net asset value for money market mutual funds is important to investors. If the net asset value for a fund falls below $1, this undermines investor confidence. The program provides support to investors in funds that participate in the program and those funds will not "break the buck".
This action should enhance market confidence and alleviate investors' concerns about the ability for money market mutual funds to absorb a loss. Investors in money market mutual funds with a net asset value that falls below $1 would be notified that their fund triggered the insurance program.
The Exchange Stabilization Fund was established by the Gold Reserve Act of 1934. This Act authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury, with the approval of the President, "to deal in gold, foreign exchange, and other instruments of credit and securities" consistent with the obligations of the U.S. government in the International Monetary Fund to promote international financial stability. More information on the Exchange Stabilization Fund can be found at http://www.treas.gov/offices/international-affairs/esf/.
Neither one of these measures has been seen since the Great Depression.
Think about that. It's not reassuring. At all.
This post is a 100% natural organic product.
The slight variations in spelling and grammar enhance its individual character and beauty and in no way are to be considered flaws or defects
I'm not sure why people choose 'To Love is to Bury' as their wedding song...It's about a murder-suicide
- Margo Timmins
When it becomes serious, you have to lie
- Jean-Claude Juncker
First Fannie, then Freddie, now this shit. There's one unanswered question here: who's going to buy the Treasury notes? China already has hundreds of billions, if not over a trillion, dollars of US debt. Ditto for Japan.
Last night's estimates are that is could 'cost' $900 billion. August's M1 money supply, per the Fed, is $1,391,200,000,000 (and from May to August, that's up 7.1%). The LOW estimate is almost as much cash as currently circulates in the US economy! Better get ready for $5 gas, $6 milk, and $4 bread.
As for impact on us, let's do the easy math. 900 billion dollars divided by 300 million Americans = $3,000 for every man, woman and child in the US. Take out the non-working population - we're down to about 154,800,000 people to pay it back (August 08 BLS statistics). Take out government employees - all twenty-two million, four hundred eighty-six thousand of them! - and we're left with 132,314,000 Americans to pay for this shit. $6,812 apiece not including accumulated interest. On top of Fed-induced inflation we're already trying to cope with, plus our current taxes, fees, etc. etc.
The Fed fucktards are acting like the knights in shining armor on this, when THEY created the goddamn problem in the first place! Where do you think these dumbass 'investment' firms, Fannie and Freddie got their money? That's right, the Fed. Bernanke's trying to be the hero, when in reality his old boss Greenspan lit the fuse on this steaming pile of shit. All Helicopter Ben has done is add dynamite to the stack, and now the fuse has reached the TNT. We're fucked, and I don't mean '80s RTC style, or '30s Depression style. We're fucked early '30s German style.
The only people who were safe were the legion; after one of their AT-ATs got painted dayglo pink with scarlet go faster stripes, they identified the perpetrators and exacted revenge. - Eleventh Century Remnant
"You know what the problem with Hollywood is. They make shit. Unbelievable. Unremarkable. Shit." - Gabriel Shear, Swordfish
"This statement, in its utterly clueless hubristic stupidity, cannot be improved upon. I merely quote it in admiration of its perfection." - Garibaldi in reply to an incredibly stupid post.
The Fifth Illuminatus Primus | Warsie | Skeptical Empiricist | Florida Gator | Sustainability Advocate | LibertarianSocialist |
Oops! Yeah, got the decade wrong. Meant the Weimar Republic, wipe your ass with marks, take a wheelbarrow full of cash to the baker's for a loaf of bread times. You know, the times that Hitler capitalized on in his rise to power. 1923, not 1933. Thanks for the catch.
The only people who were safe were the legion; after one of their AT-ATs got painted dayglo pink with scarlet go faster stripes, they identified the perpetrators and exacted revenge. - Eleventh Century Remnant
