Krugman on McCain and Healthcare

This From His Blog:

Here’s what McCain has to say about the wonders of market-based health reform:

“Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.”

So McCain, who now poses as the scourge of Wall Street, was praising financial deregulation like 10 seconds ago — and promising that if we marketize health care, it will perform as well as the financial industry!

Ouch! That was tough.

There is no denying it. The Republican Party is the wrong side of all the issues. I’ll be the first to admit this. Especially the economy. I know, many people within that party will deny this, but it is true. However, I will say this also. It is because of recklessness in both parties, Democrats and Republicans both, and yes, that does include the Clinton Administration as well, that we’re in the situation we are in now.  

I just hope that the powers that be, will make decisions for the well being of the country and will put partisan politics aside.

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End of Day Market Numbers

As I reported earlier. It was going to be a bad day on the stock market. Unfortunately, I was right.

Market Chart

Dow

10,917.51
-504.48
(-4.42%)

Nasdaq

2,179.91
-81.36
(-3.60%)

S&P 500

1,192.69
-59.01
(-4.71%)

10y bond

3.39%
-0.15
(-4.24%)

USD-Euro

0.7044
+0.0004
(0.06%)

USD-Yen

  • 105.8300
    -1.8000
    (-1.67%)

USD-GBP

0.5587
+0.0007
(0.13%)

Hopefully tomorrow will be better for everyone.

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A possible dicey day on Wall St.

I knew about the problems that were happening over on Wall Street and in the banking world. I was just unaware of just how bad it is.

It turns out, that it is really bad. I mean, really seriously bad!

The Wall Street has a great Video and Story up over on their site.

Here’s the Video:

Quote from WSJ:

The American financial system was shaken to its core on Sunday. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. said it would file for bankruptcy protection, and Merrill Lynch & Co. agreed to be sold to Bank of America Corp.

The U.S. government, which bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a week ago and orchestrated the sale of Bear Stearns Cos. to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in March, played much tougher with Lehman. It refused to provide a financial backstop to potential buyers. Without such support, Barclays PLC and Bank of America, the two most interested buyers, walked away. Barclays said Monday it pulled out of the potential deal after deciding it wasn’t in the best interest of shareholders.

Late Sunday night, Lehman said it intends to file for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Lehman said none of the broker-dealer subsidiaries or other subsidiaries of LBHI will be included in the Chapter 11 filing and all of the broker-dealers will continue to operate. Customers of Lehman Brothers, including customers of its wholly owned subsidiary, Neuberger Berman Holdings LLC, may continue to trade or take other actions with respect to their accounts, Lehman said.

On Sunday night, Bank of America struck an all-stock deal to buy Merrill Lynch for $29 a share, or $50 billion.

Though it steered clear of a bailout, the Federal Reserve is expected to take new steps to stabilize the broader financial system. These steps, expected to be temporary, would make it easier for banks and securities firms to borrow from the central bank by using a wider range of collateral. Bankers say these financial institutions might need short-term funds as they unwind their many trading positions with Lehman.

While I do not have anything invested on Wall Street, I know people who do, in fact, my parents have stock options in G.M. So, this may just affect them. I will be watching this story all day today. This Blog is mainly politics, but I also Blog about other news stories of interest. Anyhow, this could trigger panic selling everywhere and could trigger a massive crash of the stock market, rivaling the crash of the 1930’s or at least rivaling the mini-crash of the 1980’s.

I do realize that the FDR did put some protection in our bank system to prevent another major crash, as to just good those protections are, we will see I suppose. I do not claim to be a banking nor financial expert. But I can see the panic in the eyes of those men that made that video. So, I expect a horrible day on the stock market.

Of course, our communist liberals, especially the far left with their anti-capitalist mentality, will be cheering this little misfortune. I’m sure that B. Hussein Obama will be saying stuff like, “They deserve to be punished, for making the little people suffer!” and “It was George W. Bush’s fault that the stock market crashed!”

On the other hand, John McCain will most likely make some rather stupid comment and then blame his time as a P.O.W. on his idiotic gaffe. Like he always does. 🙄

Either way, this story is going to be interesting to follow. Stay tuned. 

Update: Michelle Malkin says “The Fit has hit the shanIndeed. But she also says:

And now is the time where I get to say, “See, I told you so.” From March 17, 2008, as the Bear Stearns bailout was underway:

I warned from the start of stimulus-palooza that we were headed in this direction. Both political parties support these massive government interventions–from empowering judges to meddle with private contracts to backing billions in mortgage securities. This isn’t the last step. It’s the first. And you know who will end up getting screwed: The responsible and the frugal.

True Michelle, But don’t you think that Mr. “Nation of whiners“, has to share some of the blame, because of his lobbying for the deregulation of the housing industry? Which caused all of this in the first place? I think so. What is really known, is the fact that it is going to get a hell of lot worse, before it gets any better. *gulp!*

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