Augering In
It's twenty minutes past midnight as I post this, and the calendar just flipped over to January 22nd -- known henceforth as the date the shit hit the fan. The Dow Jones, S&P 500, and NASDAQ are about to collapse into fear and loathing in about 7 hours... and the Bush Administration is partially to blame and probably unable to stanch the bloodshed. Hope your portfolio is heavy on overseas product and light on the domestic. Remember: Liquidity is your friend.
Update, Tuesday, 1 p.m.: The Fed met Monday night and cut the federal lending rate 3/4s of a percent, which seemed to quell nervous investors. Although the Dow dropped 450 points after opening this morning, it rallied back to a drop of 131 -- 1% -- as of 11:30 a.m. local time. According to the Washington Post, the Bush Administration is meeting to discuss further financial windfalls for rich people as of this update.
The Fed cut the federal funds rate, the rate at which banks lend to each other, to 3.5 percent, from 4.25 percent. The last time it cut rates that much was 1984. In its last surprise rate cut, following the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, it cut the rate by half a point. The decision was reached by the Federal Open Market Committee in an emergency videoconference last night that followed a cascading plunge of stock markets around the world.The week is still young. Let's hope for the best...
Update, Tuesday, 2:15 p.m.: The Dow Jones rallied to finish down only 128 points. I received this in an email from my stock market analyst/son...
The market opened and the NASDAQ traded 1 billion shares in the first minutes, which is an all-time record (not even in early 2000s did that happen), and everything pretty much gapped downward. BUT idiots have now come into the market and are buying these stupid things up a bit so that we're only down about 1%.
In my opinion this reeks of a fake bottom still and the true carnage has been postponed to a little bit in the future (probably when MBIA or Ambac, 2 bond re-insurers, file for bankruptcy, essentially cutting the ratings of TONS of 'good credit' bonds down). Ugliness still on the horizon.
posted by Howard at 12:20 AM
3 Comments:
Yo Panic Boy,
First off, the DOW and all the rest take a huge dump in January. Look at the history. Second of all, Poor GW has one real power granted to him by that thing called the Constitution and that is Foreign Policy. He can only make suggestions and strong arm Domestic Policy. Soooo, who does that let us to blame. Bingo, Nancy and the gang. Oh by the way, she get's to take an Air Force Jet to Cali anytime she wants! Sorry, I digress. Anyway, It is our elected Congress and Senate that dictate domestic policy. All GW gets is veto power. So give old GW a break. He's lookin' pretty bad these days and needs a hug. At least he rides a Mtn Bike!
v/r Mozam
First off, the dump the Dow took this January is far more massive than in any year in the history of the Dow. And we still have a week to go. Hold onto your britches.
Second, a President's Administration has massive powers in the form of control over the regulatory, bureaucratic, and investigative functions of government, and the Bush Administration has had more partisan fingers in more traditionally non-partisan pies than any Administration in history.
Third, if the roles were reversed, and the Republicans controlled Congress and things were heading south, would you still blame Congress? Because that's where we were during the last three recessions.
All GW gets is veto power with regards to Congress's bills? Are you serious? Have you heard about his signing statements where he's changed the intent of the laws he's signed?
Yup, GeeDub mountain bikes. That's a very good thing. I hear he's a pretty dedicated brush clearer too. Less than a year before he gets to re-dedicate himself... and get that ghost-writer busy with his memoirs.
Here's a link that explains more about Bush's signing statements that make it clear that he has no intention of following laws passed by Congress that he doesn't agree with, thereby overruling the Legislative Branch of the Government:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/29/signing-statement-iraq/
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