Woody wrote:Berkshire Hathaway is going to invest like a gazillion in Goldman Sachs ($5B, with possible more later I think)

jerseyhoya wrote:The Kramer/Pearlstein thing Floppy referenced earlier that was on MSNBC, they said basically it would be a 700 billion investment, with a 200 billion plus or minus range on potential profit/loss for the government, and it was vital to do for stability.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he has no preference between the U.S. presidential candidates.

VoxOrion wrote:On NPR the head of the Texas Reserve Bank (or something) was saying that the $700 billion (or $2 Trillion) won't all be laid on tax payers - the Fed will be buying tons of mortgages at fire sale prices and will almost certianly make good profits selling them back or holding them for later.

Or something.

Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.

It is not the first time an active-duty unit has been tapped to help at home. In August 2005, for example, when Hurricane Katrina unleashed hell in Mississippi and Louisiana, several active-duty units were pulled from various posts and mobilized to those areas.

But this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities.

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Training for homeland scenarios has already begun at Fort Stewart and includes specialty tasks such as knowing how to use the “jaws of life” to extract a person from a mangled vehicle; extra medical training for a CBRNE incident; and working with U.S. Forestry Service experts on how to go in with chainsaws and cut and clear trees to clear a road or area.

The 1st BCT’s soldiers also will learn how to use “the first ever nonlethal package that the Army has fielded,” 1st BCT commander Col. Roger Cloutier said, referring to crowd and traffic control equipment and nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them.

“It’s a new modular package of nonlethal capabilities that they’re fielding. They’ve been using pieces of it in Iraq, but this is the first time that these modules were consolidated and this package fielded, and because of this mission we’re undertaking we were the first to get it.”

drsmooth wrote:

jeff2sf wrote:What do you want smoothy? And talk like a normal person when you lay it out for me, as if I'm at a 5th grade level (which may be about my level of smarts compared to you).

what do I want?

I'm not sure how that's relevant to my observations about what I see taking place.

But sure, I'll humor you.

Paulson & Bernanke (and scores of Wall St suits) want you & me & congress to believe that a solution to the current mess is a simple matter of applied economics, applied according to their tidy, albeit hastily scrawled, blueprint.

which is b u l l s h i t, of course.

in application, economics and politics bleed sloppily into one another, which makes sense, since each are sloppy attempts to abstract (mostly)human behavior for academic study. Leaving out the politics leaves out reality - the slop.

I don't give a damn for 'calming the market', because there is no entity 'the market' - I want all of that sort of nonsensical jabber ceased. Part of me wants these tinhorn econofascists shown up - upbraided, belittled, scorned & humiliated for days on end, because I enjoy it. Others should to, enjoy it until you can't forget what it means, which is they do not know best for you, or me, or anyone really. They know what they want, & they want it because it is good for them, rather than for you, or for me.

Another part of me wants these very smart guys to do a very good, very thorough, very persuasive explanation of why what they want to do is very good for all of us - for "our way of life" - , or at least for an overwhelming many of us.

Might their plan be good for you & me somehow? Sure. They should be prepared to tell you, & me, & everybody, at excruciating, detailed length, how & why.

I'm not gonna be content to believe they know what they're doing. I want to be convinced.

That's what I want.

As long as it does not pre-empt any phillies post-season games.

FTN wrote: This crisis really is hurting institutions that lend money. No one is willing to lend money right now, not even to corporations (like McDonalds) who want to use the money to make improvements in areas that affect the average consumer. The more Congress drags its feet on this trying to murk up the waters, the bigger the impact.

jeff2sf wrote:The problem I have with what Monkeyboy and Doc are saying is that you both throw around "transparency" and "no strings attached" too easily. Of course there were strings attached to the 700 billion. They're not the strings YOU would like to attach, but hey, that's why the plan is being negotiated.

VoxOrion wrote: There's ideology and perspective mixed up in this, and I can't even tell what is ideology and what is a representation of "fact based" sound economic guesswork.

VoxOrion wrote:I find this entire thing baffling. I not only feel helpless in terms of forming an opinion, but in trusting that the folks who intend to do something will to the right thing. There's ideology and perspective mixed up in this, and I can't even tell what is ideology and what is a representation of "fact based" sound economic guesswork.

VoxOrion wrote:I know I'd prefer to let a failed private institution fail, but I feel like the cost is very high to allow that to happen in this case because of the nature of these businesses (sorry, I'm not sweating the little guy and his job).