This is in addition to the U.S. Banks Driving Credit Crunch ON PURPOSE!!
"Unknown terrain for economy" by Robert Gavin and Casey Ross, Globe Staff | September 30, 2008
In an example of how fragile credit markets have become, the state of Massachusetts yesterday tried to borrow $400 million to make its routine quarterly local aid payments to cities and towns.
WTF are we doing BORROWING to meet AID PAYMENTS? WTF, readers?
Please read: Mass. Economy at the Mercy of Wall Street as it Borrows Itself Into Oblivion
Of course, "flushing . . . millions of dollars away supporting a highly profitable industry" when it comes to $300 million in taxpayer dollars for Hollywood is o.k., even as the price of a school lunch rises; paying $13 million for a computer software system that could have cost less than $3 million is all right because the winner was a close friend of the House speaker, even as my poorer-than-dirt district "has been struggling to close a $2 million budget gap."; the lottery shellling out "millions of dollars" for sports tickets for "lottery officials, their family members, and friends" is fine, even as schools are closing; making interest payments to banks to the tune of "a staggering $22 billion" for the Big Pit, as we call it around here, is required, even as bridges are neglected across the state; and again, paying off banks like UBS, who can "demand repayment of an additional $2 million a month beginning in January" while also receiving a "$179 million payment," while the state pension fund loses $1 billion dollars -- which still didn't stop the executive director from carving himself a nice "$64,000 bonus on top of his $322,000 annual salary."
Oh, and did I not mention the $1 BILLION dollar giveaway to the pharmaceutical corporations, even though "it's never been easy to turn a profit in biotech?" Flush that money away, too, taxpayer. Of course, the war looters were next in line for a handout. And should the state be appropriating money for a "multimillion-dollar reconstruction" of golf courses?
State treasury officials said the credit markets abruptly froze midday, leaving them $170 million short. The state will have to use its own funds to complete the local aid payments, draining the state's balance to extremely low levels.
"I don't think any treasurer alive could say they've ever seen anything like this," said Timothy P. Cahill, the state's treasurer. "There have always been cash shortages, but you could always go to the market and get more. This is the first time we haven't been able to do that."
Cahill said he believes the credit market will in effect remain shuttered today as the nation's largest lenders hold on to their cash amid uncertainty over plans for a federal bailout. In short, the House's rejection of a $700 billion Wall Street bailout plan takes Massachusetts and the rest of the US economy into territory that few policy makers and analysts wanted to explore.
It tests the forecasts of Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that failure to approve the plan will dry up credit markets, damage the financial system, and send the fragile US economy spiraling into a deep recession. The economy may yet muddle through, analysts said, but the risks of a catastrophic downturn have risen.
Because the BANKS are HOLDING BACK!!!! This DESTRUCTION of the U.S. ECONOMY is being done ON PURPOSE, folks!!!!
Eugene White, economics professor at Rutgers University, said the collapse of the financial system and the subsequent drying up of credit created such a spiral in the early 1930s, turning the economic downturn into the Great Depression. He said the House's failure to act could be compared to the Fed of that period, which largely stood on the sidelines during a wave of bank failures. "We need government to come in and take decisive action," White said.
The AGENDA-PUSHING NEVER ENDS!!!
The situation, however, is nowhere near as bad as in the 1930s, in large part because the Federal Reserve today has acted aggressively, analysts said.
Then WTF is with the RHETORIC?!!!!
The Fed has cut interest rates by more than 3 percentage points in a little more than a year, and, working with other central banks, pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into credit markets to keep the global financial system operating. Yesterday, the Fed and foreign central banks acted to pump hundreds of billions more into the financial system.
Yeah, about 600 BILLION!
And WHERE is that MONEY GOING? WHERE is the CREDIT? Banks are just HOLDING the BILLIONS with their TIGHT FISTS, huh? America, do the LIES EVER STOP?!!!
The rejection of the bailout package leaves the Fed on its own, analysts said. After rushing to prevent the collapse of firms such as AIG and Freddie and Fannie, and combating panic across global markets, Fed officials and the Bush administration sought the bailout as a comprehensive approach to shore up the financial system.
William Niskanen, an economist at Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, said a case-by-case approach would be best. He said some large financial institutions might yet fail, but ultimately the economy needs to work out the excesses of the housing and credit bubbles without massive government intervention.
Also see: Economists Say Bailout Bill Won't Work
The Fed, however, can still help the economy avoid a deep downturn by aggressively cutting interest rates, said Brian Bethune, an economist at Global Insight, a Waltham forecasting firm. Lower interest rates encourage businesses and consumers to borrow and spend, which boosts economic activity.
Even though that will DESTROY the DOLLAR!!! Damned if you do, damned if you don't, America, that is your economic system. And these guys want authority to "fix" the problems?
Bethune said the Fed needs to cut its key interest rate, which now stands at a historically low 2 percent, by half or three-quarters of a percentage point. It could provide an additional boost by coordinating its rate cuts with foreign central banks.
"This puts the onus on the Fed," Bethune said. "The game isn't over, but it's halftime and we're down three touchdowns." --more--"
It is NOT a GAME, dammit!!!
Besides, I thought the Feds had done better than in '33? WTF is with the LYING in the SAME ARTICLE, agenda-pushers?
