It only gets more surreal.
You can read about the latest at Crooks & Liars and Firedoglake.
None of this is about the economy. It’s about rescuing McCain’s campaign, not Wall Street. But reportedly McCain’s “help” comes down to supporting a proposal by House Republican Leader John Boehner:
That proposal reportedly includes even more deregulation and further tax breaks to the financial sector, plus a prayer that Wall Street can rescue itself if the restraints are removed.
The $700 billion bail out is wildly unpopular in the States, to put it mildly. But not because the American people are taking a stand against regulation.
Update: Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings on how the deal was scuttled. McCain’s lying about his part in it, as is now routine.
McCain and hardline cronies have destroyed the plan in order to save it, this is too awesome and it probably means no debate tomorrow morning, or at least no McCain. This election gets crazier every hour.
Vote 1 Grandpa Simpson!
Also, WTF does he think will happen at all those debate parties around the country now that he’s pulled out? People will just casually mull over the day’s sports results?? They rate higher than the superbowl ffs.
Back on the Street, Washington Mutual goes to JP Morgan; biggest failure in history.
The biggest con job in history, one last kick in the guts to economy by the republican vaccum cleaners.
Update: Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings on how the deal was scuttled. McCain’s lying about his part in it, as is now routine.
The McCain plan:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/25/201722/173/600/610627
The integration team at J.P. Morgan are going to be busy, what with them acquiring Merrill Lynch and WaMu.
Back to McCain, perhaps he is thinking that if he can’t be President, he will destroy the United States of America in the biggest act of spite in world history.
Anybody thought the unthinkable? That there won’t be an election?
The thought had flitted across my mind, Adrian.
I’m not sure about how such an extraordinary event may be ordered. As I understand it, the mechanics of the election are carried out by the states. Some states may obey a presidential order not to hold them, others may not.
Moreover, I’m not sure how such an order might be enforced. Quietly, the Congress has passed laws repealing the right of the president to take control unilaterally of the various State National Guards. These outfits would pack the muscle needed to prevent elections from occurring.
If elections did occur, the Congress ratifies the process and the outcome, leaving the incumbent president out of the loop.
Postponing the election would be a difficult and uncertain proceeding.
Postponing the election would be a crisis far in excess of the current one.
What we are seeing is that Bush has lost control of his party, the conservatives have revolted. It’s a reversal of the times when Clinton relied on the Republicans to pass free trade agreements. McCain has kept the Republicans together as an electoral force with Palin but they cannot unite on policy.
There’ll be an election. It’s just that McCain thinks he will have a better chance of winning it if there’s no campaign. (At least for him and Palin. His “surrogates” have been busy attacking Obama while the campaign is allegedly suspended.)
I’d worry a lot less about those guys and much more about the morons running our economy. There was a slight, admittedly very slight, that Oz would get out of this mess with only a small recession.
Unfortunately the Ridiculous Bunch of Ar*eholes (some people call them the Reserve Bank of Australia, but I dispute that) have ensured that we will go down the tubes in a big way. Plus the Dudd Govt will make exactly the wrong decisions at every turn to make things worse. That is because they totally subscribe to neo-liberal ‘economics’, its not of course, just another idiotology.
So as not to be accused of not offering alternatives here’s what I’d do:
(1) Drop interest rates to 4%, if the Rediculous Bunch blanch, change the law and force them.
(2) Issues a (at least) $300B 10 year Govt bond issue (preferably $500B). It gives a safe home for all the super funds and gives the Govt a lot of cash to play with. Those pension funds that balk, force them to put their money into it, at least they will stop losing money for their members.
Announce and implement a massive
(1) Rail program, metro and inter state
(2) Total rebuild of our electricity grid
(3) Huge new energy program
(4) Water and new agriculture programs.
Plus I’d cut immigration to about 100,000 p.a. or less (keep all humanitarian schemes of course). Then I’d change laws impacting mortgages, allowing people to walk away without the loan on their heads forever (note this gives a way out of a lot of foreign owned debt).
On day 2 I’d start on other areas, e.g. technical training, infrastructure nationalisation (for as short a term as necessary). Stop all planned tariff cuts.
Kill the dollar, drop it real fast by any means necessary, this works as an effective tariff, drops imports fast, help exports. Forget about inflation, anything under 10% is ok (important debt destruction move). Provided you put in the debt protection, then even though the value of the overseas debt increases in $A terms, people can walk away scot free = creditor problem.
Increase wages, sounds heretical, but given the above helps debt destruction, with the low dollar protecting company profits.
On day 3 …..
It is a revelation or maybe not on how Republicans reguard McCain and Palin
Frank: Republicans “winced” when McCain was mentioned in meeting
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said that “nobody mentioned McCain” during the several-hour-long meeting on the $700 billion market rescue plan, other than Frank and that his Republican colleagues “winced” when he did.
“He’s been irrelevant to the process. He remains to be,” said Frank. “I was afraid that his dropping in here, like Andy Kaufman’s Mighty Mouse—’here I am to save the day’—I thought that would slow things down. I didn’t see any sign of our Republican colleagues paying any attention to him whatsoever.”
Franks went on. “Nobody mentioned him. The man’s irrelevant to the whole process. No Republican mentioned his name. I’m the only one who raised his name. They winced when I did,” he said.
“I don’t think anyone takes that seriously,” said Frank of McCain’s suggestion that Friday’s debate be delayed. “Sen. McCain trying to use the necessity for his presence to reach a deal that we’ve already reached as a reason to duck the debate is unworthy of him. There is absolutely no reason not to go to the debate.”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0908/Frank_Republicans_winced_when_McCain_was_mentioned_in_meeting.html?showall
Kim,
Well, I don’t know if US voters are at all politically engaged at the moment, but this move was just so deeply cynical on so many levels:
1) The ’suspension’ of the campaign was merely an admission that Campaign MKII (post-Palin) is now officially ditched.
2) The campaign hasn’t been suspended. His surrogates crawl over the networks like lice. The ads still run. The local campaign committees still operate.
3) He went to Washington not to achieve a deal, but in order to wreck one. Which he did. Even now he refuses to say what model of Titanic lifeboat he supports.
If this man wins the election, I’m leaving the planet. After Palin’s interview with Couric - where incoherent sentences, trussed-up as talking points, flung about the at random, are supposed mean something (Oh, and Katie Couric as Chief Inquisitor! FFS.) - the whole thing is beyond parody.
Did I mention that she blinks?
If after eight years of Republican administration that’s left two dead-end wars, a destroyed city, torture de jour, and a wrecked economy…you guys seriously need a different model.
A bit of speculation as to what McCain’s game might be:
http://www.anonymousliberal.com/2008/09/whats-next.html
Kim,
Don’t disagree. He’s derailed it all to his own fucktard ends. There is nothing else to say about this contemptible being.
Yep, CK, he’s only a “maverick” insofar as he’s even more outrageously cynical than even other notably disgraceful Republicans.
Suspending the election would only happen if there was a significant great depression style event where the republicans would find yet another excuse for a power grab.
In 1933, a few years into the great depression, a group of wealthy financiers tried to coordinate a coup d’etat against Roosevelt, the President. The group of financiers, aka Fascists, included… JP Morgan. the same company that is buying WaMu.
partial wiki below:
The Business Plot (also the Plot Against FDR and the White House Putsch) was a political conspiracy in 1933 wherein wealthy businessmen and corporations plotted a coup d’état to overthrow United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1934, the Business Plot was publicly revealed by retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler testifying to the McCormack-Dickstein Congressional Committee. [1] In his testimony, Butler claimed that a group of men had approached him as part of a plot to overthrow Roosevelt in a military coup. One of the alleged plotters, Gerald MacGuire, vehemently denied any such plot.
The one that really got me was the Republican claiming the bail-out was Socialism.
Very big note: Socialists never bail out capitalists - we want to see them crash and burn.
I think it’s interesting that this is the only US political event to make it to my personal inbox. I’ve recieved 3 different versions of the “let’s give every american $3000 instead” email, but the below is my favourite. They’ve all come from people that I know who have NO political interest, and this one was sent to an international Ducati motorcycle mailing list I am on. It makes it pretty clear that people are seeing this as a scam. I think it might be a hard sell in November.
Dear American:
I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.
I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.
I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transaction is 100% safe.
This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.
Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.
Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Paulson
Not very reassuring!