| You know Jim Cramer. He's the host of CNBC's "Mad Money". Basically he screams at you about the stock markets and investment. Big guru. I'm not good with screamers, so I can't watch him for more than a minute without having to change the channel. Besides, I don't have any money anyway.
He was on the Today Show this morning, he was calm, he was quiet, and his advice was this: Get out. Get your money out of the market. And he panned, it's "hard to say this on TV".
Chilling.
As I write this, the Feds are busy trying to find ways to pump more money into the market, moving up TAF auctions, paying interest, etc., don't ask me to explain it. Indications are, the bailout can't come fast enough to alleviate this crisis, and the shock waves are traveling the globe as foreign markets tank and governments move to bail out their financial institutions.
Investors have come to the realization that the Bush administration's $700 billion rescue plan won't work quickly enough to unfreeze the credit markets, and that many banks are still having difficulties gaining access to cash.
With dawning horror, everyone is starting to realize that, oh dear God, the fast and loose free market Republicans broke the world economy, and we are in for a "deep and painful recession".
Employers are shedding jobs at the fastest clip since 2003.
Increasingly skittish employers dropped the ax even harder in September, chopping payrolls by 159,000 - more than double the cuts made just one month before. It was the ninth straight month of job losses. A staggering 760,000 jobs have disappeared so far this year.
Consumers - the lifeblood of the American economy - have stopped spending.
In response to the falling value of their homes and high gasoline prices, Americans have become more frugal all year. But in recent weeks, as the financial crisis reverberated from Wall Street to Washington, consumers appear to have cut back sharply. Even with the government beginning a giant bailout of the financial system, their confidence may have been too shaken for them to resume their free-spending ways any time soon.
Recent figures from companies, and interviews across the country, show that automobile sales are plummeting, airline traffic is dropping, restaurant chains are struggling to fill tables, customers are sparse in stores.
Banks will continue to fail.
Here's a safe bet for uncertain times: A lot of banks won't survive the next year of upheaval despite the U.S. government's $700 billion plan to restore order to the financial industry.
The biggest question is how many will perish and how they will be put out of their misery - in outright closures by regulators scrambling to preserve the dwindling deposit insurance fund or in fire sales made under government pressure.
Translation: We. are. screwed.
In light of all of this, John McCain's attempt to "turn the page" on the economy and resorting to swiftboat attacks becomes all the more disgusting. Is this the kind of leadership we want?
When the going gets tough, and the country is in crisis, John McCain lies to try to save himself first.
In her character attack, Palin questions Obama's association with William Ayers, a member of the Vietnam-era Weather Underground. Her reference was exaggerated at best if not outright false. No evidence shows they were "pals" or even close when they worked on community boards years ago and Ayers hosted a political event for Obama early in his career.
How insulting to the American people.
Had enough yet? Make sure you are registered to vote. Today is the last day here in Michigan - time to put a stop to "more of the same" and get these people the hell away from the levers of power. |
