For the first time in nearly 4 years, the US unemployment rate has topped 6%, landing at 6.1% for the month of August. The news coming out of the Midwest and California is even worse. Michigan has an 8.9% unemployment rate, and California comes in at 7.7%
Update 09/28/08: If you are looking for the latest draft of the bill, look here. The draft in this blog post is now out of date - The Economic Populist Admin.
Calculated Risk has the scoop on the text of the bailout bill.
Hat tip to Calculated Risk via Kossack 3 goldens, who has supplied the text of the Wall Street Bailout Act that Bush expects Congress to approve within the next week.
CNBC is reportingWall Street May Manage Its Own Bad Debt: Treasury. It's not official, but considering how fast they are throwing this entire thing together, I'd say it's probable.
It's the usual question that someone asks after getting hit over the head and mugged, or if they were in the immediate vicinity of an explosion.
For the American taxpayer, both of those things happened during these past two weeks.
So many unprecedented events took place in such a short period of time that it was hard to keep up. Lots of people said lots of scary things, but few stopped to break down the most important issues, which are: a) how did we get here, b) what exactly is being done, and c) what does it all mean.
I'm going to try to help with those question.
Congratulations! You now own the mortgage industry!
And so, they have finally done it. Washington has finally bet every dollar of earnings and wealth you and I and every other taxpayer has ever made in our entire lives; every dollar that will ever be made by our children's generation; and every dollar that will ever be made by our grandchildren's generation; in an attempt -- that is by no means guaranteed to succeed -- to prop up reckless and malign investments by Wall Street.
The more I mull the idea that a bunch of completely irresponsible corporations who through default credit swaps and other exotic finance derivatives managed to crash their businesses are getting a potential $1.7 trillion bailout infuriates me. I was wondering if any of our representatives were not towing the Corporate Party line?
Bloomberg has well basically no details except they are negotiating that some of that money should go to the taxpayer. The taxpayer, just some???? We're paying for it assholes therefore it's ALL ours!
Negotiate? Unbelievable. This is in addition to the $900 billion dollars of the other bail out tally.
It's Friday Night! Party Time! Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy! Well, not really this evening. It is more like time to breath. We need an educational catch up on the real causes of this financial crisis and resulting bail out, which is derivatives (and not falling housing prices per say).
This weeks video clip theme is education on derivatives and credit default swaps (CDS). These vehicles are so complex frankly it's tough to find material which explains them clearly.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission took what it called "emergency action" Friday and temporarily banned investors from short-selling 799 financial companies.
The temporary ban, aimed at helping restore falling stock prices that have shattered confidence in the financial markets, takes effect immediately
I wake up this morning and this is what I find, the entire rules of the game changed overnight. SEC bans short selling
It's one thing to ban naked shorts but to just change a major trading method on certain stocks overnight?
I thought these guys loved free markets? Comrade, not when they are losing money on their stocks?
This is actually a continuation or sequel to yesterday's updates on the proposed plan to clean the bad debt. As news comes forward, I will update ASAP. I've been up most of the night, considering that Washington has been as well, attempting to nail something out.
It's Friday Night! Party Time! Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy! Well, not really this evening. It is more like time to breath. We need an educational catch up on the real causes of this financial crisis and resulting bail out, which is derivatives (and not falling housing prices per say).
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