A Chicago Blog

The sell-off continues. People laugh when I call this is the Obama-effect, but I really think it is. Professional investors don’t know what the capital gains tax is going to be next year and are likely sitting on the sidelines instead of jumping in to buy up below-cost stocks.

I have to defer to Mitt Romney on this one: Let Detroit Go Bankrupt. Here’s an excerpt from his New York Times piece making the case:
A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs. The [...]

It’s looking more and more like Ron Paul was right. Gerald O’Driscall writing in the Wall Street Journal:
To avoid such a fate, Mr. Obama needs to stop the next asset bubble from being inflated by imposing a commodity standard on the Fed. A commodity standard (such as a gold standard) imposes discipline on a central [...]

Here’s a frightening story from Bloomberg:
Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with [...]

From the LA Times:
And what about the American citizens who inundated the U.S. Capitol switchboard with calls of protest? The ones who vented their rage on radio talk shows and propelled a revolt by House Republicans that nearly derailed the proposal? Apparently they like the plan even less now than they did before.

By Joseph L. Bast
President of The Heartland Institute
The front page of today’s Wall Street Journal carries a story titled “At Moment of Truth, U.S. Forced Big Bankers to Blink,” . In the quarter century I’ve been reading the Journal, I’ve never read a news story that was more disturbing.
The article describes the Monday, October 13 [...]

Terry Savage thinks this weeks Wall Street Rally’s merely signaled the end of the beginning of the recession. The panic is over but the recession is in full swing:
If you’re asking about bear markets, historian Jim Stack says the median “bear market” duration since 1929 is 15 months. In 1929, the bear growled for 33 [...]

As if we needed one more sign the world is coming to an end. Krugman is notable for defending bad government and attacking free markets. But apparently he’s worthy of the prize. Take for instance this quote:
The fact that we’re here celebrating Social Security shows some politicians’ promises are worth more than others. Social Security [...]

In honor of the Investment Crisis turned full blown panic, try and have a good laugh:

The Dow is down 335 points already this morning. Thank god we past that bailout! It’s saving the economy already. Can’t you tell?