Monday, March 23, 2009

03-23-09
  • Restore the Rule of Law! --- Israeli and US War Crimes in Gaza:
  • The Great Economic Shakedown - Cash for Trash:
    • Geithner details ‘toxic asset' purchase plan (miamiherald - democracynow - guardian/uk - oxdown) "Has the Obama Administration really sunk to this? What possible excuses do they have?" -- Wall Street bought it up (500 points on the Dow) - Krugman hates it, saying it won't work (reuters). - Again, any profits will be privatized, but any losses over 15% will be socialized, that is, charged yet again to the taxpayer and his children and their children. - As of a recent comment, Roubini regards SPX 500 to 600 as the probable bottom, then more and more probably a lot of relative sideways motion for several years (the L-shaped economic decline). Some institutional investors took heart at his remarks and at the fact that Citibank had a profitable quarter, and now think the upside/downside risk favors taking some long-term positions. This rally has been going on for the couple weeks since then. When everyone is in who will get in, it will be over.
    • Update 03-24-09: Stiglitz rips the Geithner plan - calls it "robbery" (americablog) "The U.S. government plan to rid banks of toxic assets will rob American taxpayers by exposing them to too much risk and is unlikely to work as long as the economy remains weak. . . ."
    • Thom Hartmann: The Real Criminals are Neither Lynndie England nor the AIG Traders (commondreams) -- "But the real criminals of the AIG mess - and the entire financial meltdown that was set up between 1999 and 2006 and crashed starting in 2007 - were Grover Norquist, Phil and Wendy Graham, Tom Delay, and, sadly, Bill Clinton."
  • The Seahorse of the Large Magellanic Cloud (apod)
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