Modern Day Gangsters

Hedge Funds - these are companies that take their investors money and use it to "sell short". That is, to place bets that a companies stock price will go down.

However, they are not required to say which companies they have shorted. The result is that they can massively short a company and regular investors won't know that this is what is happening. All they will know is that suddenly there is a LOT of negative sentiment about that company ... this causes THEM to sell (or buy shorts of there own) and further drives the price down.
... but wait, it get's better!
These hedge funds were allowed to short a company like Lehman Brothers (now out of business) and then buy insurance on them - betting that the company wouldn't be able to meet it's financial obligations.

The Securities and Exchange commission allowed these hedge funds to buy over 300 Billion dollars worth of insurance on the 100 Billion in debt that Lehman brothers had.


So here is the summary.
The Hedge funds made big bets that Lehman Brother's price would go down.
Then these funds were allowed to buy insurance (more then 3 times what they were worth) that paid them if Lehman Brothers got in financial trouble. Then the funds actively started rumors that Lehman was in trouble because the were so heavily shorted. This caused the companies to be downgraded by financial analysts. Which increased the stocks downward spiral and resulted in a capital problem at Lehman that kept them from meeting there debt and ran them out of business.


You get to pick up the tab.
So it seems that a major percentage of these more then 300 Billion in insurance policies that hedge funds were allowed (by the government) to take out against Lehman Bros. ... were written by AIG.
Since then the Government (our tax dollars) has stepped in and bailed out AIG, becoming part owners of that company.

So on Oct. 21st, you and I will have to pay these hedge funds the 300 Billion dollars worth of insurance policies they placed on 100 Billion in assets that they themselves then destroyed when they made a killing on there "short sells" of the company.

All of this was legal and had the blessing of lawmakers who are STILL screaming that "DEregulation" of the financial industry is the key to success.

Theirs perhaps ... but certainly NOT this country's.

Scare Tactics - does this seem familure?

Once again, reasonable America (the "middle" majority), is left wondering why the two candidates can't simply run on their ideas. Why can't they just present their plans and let us pick the one we like?

If you believe the economy is best served by giving tax breaks to Corporations with the idea that they might in turn share some of that with the bulk of the public ... then say so and be proud of your stance.
If you believe the economy is best served by giving the tax cuts directly to the bulk of the public so that they have the money to go and BUY those corporation's products ... then make THAT point and let the public decided which plan they like the best.

What McCain is doing instead, is attempting to resuscitate the threadbare narrative which holds that Obama, by merit of color and heritage, is something foreign, something scary, something not of us.

While speakers at McCain rallies have taken once again to chanting Obama's middle name -- Hussein, Gov. Sarah Palin has been, accusing Obama of ''palling around'' with terrorists. The senator maliciously told an audience that Obama doesn't like the troops and doesn't see America ''the way you and I see America.'' McCain himself has been muttering ''Who is the real Barack Obama?'

That many McCain supporters embrace such words (and deeds?) is plain from the racial invective, death threats and visceral anger of his recent rallies. Enough that the senator was required -- to a chorus of boos -- to ask them to dial it down.

It's an offensive argument, yes. But in a nation such as ours that has been subjected to 8 years of planned divisiveness and incessant fear mongering from it's ruling party, it is also a dangerous one.

Nice work, Dubya.

Trashing the U.S. economy so that immigrants won't want to come here seems counter productive. Then again, "Counter Productive" is the Bush Administrations Legacy.

Read more here -
Illegal immigration declines as U.S. economy falters.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081002/ap_on_re_us/illegal_immigration

Duck and cover - Palin Speaks

When ask by a voter on Monday what SHE would do about Pakistan, Sarah Palin gave an answer similar to Barack Obama. Problem is John McCain chided Obama during Friday's presidential debate for taking that stance.

Once again, she has blamed her misstatement on being ask a question she hadn't been given an answer to and on the media for telling everyone about it.

As she wants to be on standby for the office of the President, you have to ask "What part of "strong leadership" is any of that?"

You can read the article here -
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080930/ap_on_el_pr/palin_pakistan;_ylt=AhYonm6uz6flazEQo9zgCJTCw5R4

Taxing my patients.

If there is one thing that the RNC is REALLY good at, it's repeating , misinformation until the average Joe thinks it's the true.

I still have people (whom I consider intellegent and aware) telling me, "But I hear from non-"Faux News" sources that Obama is going to raise our taxes and put the country in debt from his proposals.
As for the taxes, this is just plain WRONG (unless you make more then $200,000 and even then it would only be a 1% increase). As for increasing the debt, the Republicans have done this for 8 years and McCain's plan will continue to do this.

So, according to the Tax Policy Center, both candidates will increase the debt.
McCain does so while offering a larger tax cut then Obama but McCain would give the bulk of those cuts to about 5% of the tax payers (the highest income brackets).
McCain would essentially be continuing the "tax cuts" that the Bush Administration ram-rodded through a Republican controlled congress.

Obama on the other hand, would maintain the "Bush Tax Cut" but turn it upside down, giving the tax cuts to the lower and middle classes while covering some of these cost by increasing taxes on those highest income 5%.

Here is some info -
++++++++++++++
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?ID=411750

This short paper summarizes the Updated Analysis of the 2008 Presidential Candidates' Tax Plans: Revised September 15, 2008
Abstract

Both John McCain and Barack Obama have proposed tax plans that would substantially increase the national debt over the next ten years, according to a newly updated analysis by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center.
Compared to current law, TPC estimates the Obama plan would cut taxes by $2.9 trillion from 2009-2018. McCain would reduce taxes by nearly $4.2 trillion.

Obama would give larger tax cuts to low- and moderate-income households and pay some of the cost by raising taxes on high-income taxpayers. In contrast, McCain would cut taxes across the board and give the biggest cuts to the highest-income households.

Obama sees gains

Obama inches ahead in tight race

Entire article at
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20080929/ts_csm/akickoff;_ylt=AiD2R27Rary1wmZ_xxSIPLus0NUE

Pundits point to a variety of reasons for the shift in the dynamics of the presidential race. First is the steady stream of bad economic news. Polls consistently show that voters think Democrats are better at handling the economy.

Then there's the way Senator McCain reacted to the crisis. Initially calling the fundamentals of the economy strong, he then decided the crisis was so bad he needed to suspend his campaign, even calling for a postponement of the first presidential debate on Friday.

His campaign had hoped that would reinforce his stance as a leader that put the country first. But to many people it instead reinforced the notion that McCain could be impulsive and erratic.

(Encouraging ... and yet, not far enough ahead to overcome the "Diebold Factor")

Get a Job!!!!

"WASHINGTON - New claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to their highest level in seven years"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080925/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/jobless_claims;_ylt=Aqlw4pq7hsaR9prvCXLZL92s0NUE

WASHINGTON - New home sales tumbled in August to the slowest pace in 17 years, while the average sales price fell by the largest amount on record, demonstrating the depth of the problem

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080925/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/economy;_ylt=Ah9a4.i10EQF36M.9bBpMd.s0NUE

A flailing economy - Just another facet of the Bush Legacy.

One would hope that the lesson learned from this last 8 years is that the Republican ideals of "Give tax breaks to the top 5% and they will re-distribute it to the rest of the tax payers" and "If you want the economy to flourish, leave corporations and financial firms to regulate themselves" are complete fantasy.

These ideals have proven themselves time and again to be failed policies. I can only hope that this time around the country will have learn from this lesson because it has been a VERY expensive one.