The Economy
Stocks sink after government bailout of AIG

By MADLEN READ, AP Business Writer
2 HOURS AGO
NEW YORK - Wall Street stumbled again Wednesday, with anxieties about the financial system
still running high even after the government bailed out the insurer American International Group
Inc. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped about 300 points.

The Federal Reserve is giving a two-year, $85 billion loan to AIG in exchange for a nearly 80
percent stake in the insurer, after it lost billions in the risky business of insuring against bond
defaults. Wall Street had feared that the conglomerate, which has its tentacles in various financial
services industries around the world, would follow the investment bank Lehman Brothers
Holdings Inc. into bankruptcy.

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Fed’s $85 Billion Loan Rescues Insurer

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS, MICHAEL J. de la MERCED and MARY WILLIAMS WALSH
Published: September 16, 2008

WASHINGTON — Fearing a financial crisis worldwide, the Federal Reserve reversed course on
Tuesday and agreed to an $85 billion bailout that would give the government control of the
troubled insurance giant American International Group.

The decision, only two weeks after the Treasury took over the federally chartered mortgage
finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is the most radical intervention in private
business in the central bank’s history.

With time running out after A.I.G. failed to get a bank loan to avoid bankruptcy, Treasury
Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, convened a meeting with
House and Senate leaders on Capitol Hill about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to explain the rescue plan. They
emerged just after 7:30 p.m. with Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke looking grim, but with top
lawmakers initially expressing support for the plan. But the bailout is likely to prove controversial,
because it effectively puts taxpayer money at risk while protecting bad investments made by A.I.
G. and other institutions it does business with.

What frightened Fed and Treasury officials was not simply the prospect of another giant
corporate bankruptcy, but A.I.G.’s role as an enormous provider of esoteric financial insurance
contracts to investors who bought complex debt securities. They effectively required A.I.G. to
cover losses suffered by the buyers in the event the securities defaulted. It meant A.I.G. was
potentially on the hook for billions of dollars’ worth of risky securities that were once considered
safe.

If A.I.G. had collapsed — and been unable to pay all of its insurance claims — institutional
investors around the world would have been instantly forced to reappraise the value of those
securities, and that in turn would have reduced their own capital and the value of their own debt.
Small investors, including anyone who owned money market funds with A.I.G. securities, could
have been hurt, too. And some insurance policy holders were worried, even though they have
some protections.

“It would have been a chain reaction,” said Uwe Reinhardt, a professor of economics at Princeton
University. “The spillover effects could have been incredible.”

Financial markets, which on Monday had plunged over worries about A.I.G.’s possible collapse
and the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, reacted with relief to the news of the bailout. In
anticipation of a deal, stocks rose about 1 percent in the United States on Tuesday. Asian stock
markets opened with strong gains on Wednesday morning, but the rally lost steam as worries
returned about the extent of harm to the global financial system.

Still, the move will likely start an intense political debate during the presidential election campaign
over who is to blame for the financial crisis that prompted the rescue.

Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts and chairman of the House Financial
Services Committee, said Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke had not requested any new legislative
authority for the bailout at Tuesday night’s meeting. “The secretary and the chairman of the Fed,
two Bush appointees, came down here and said, ‘We’re from the government, we’re here to help
them,’ ” Mr. Frank said. “I mean this is one more affirmation that the lack of regulation has
caused serious problems. That the private market screwed itself up and they need the government
to come help them unscrew it.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi quickly criticized the rescue, calling the $85 billion a "staggering
sum." Ms. Pelosi said the bailout was "just too enormous for the American people to guarantee."
Her comments suggested that the Bush administration and the Fed would face sharp questioning
in Congressional hearings. President Bush was briefed earlier in the afternoon.

A major concern is that the A.I.G. rescue won’t be the last. At Tuesday night’s meeting.
lawmakers asked if there was any way of knowing if this would be the final major government
intervention. Mr. Bernanke and Mr. Paulson said there was not. Indeed, the markets remain
worried about the financial condition of major regional banks as well as that of Washington
Mutual, the nation’s largest thrift.

The decision was a remarkable turnaround by the Bush administration and Mr. Paulson, who had
flatly refused over the weekend to risk taxpayer money to prevent the collapse of Lehman
Brothers or the distressed sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America. Earlier this year, the
government bailed out another investment bank, Bear Stearns, by engineering a sale to JPMorgan
Chase that left taxpayers on the hook for up to $29 billion of bad investments by Bear Stearns.
The government hoped at the time that this unusual step would both calm markets and lead to a
recovery by the financial system. But critics warned at the time that it would only encourage
others to seek bailouts, and the eventual costs to the government would be staggering.

The decision to rescue A.I.G. came on the same day that the Fed decided to leave its benchmark
interest rate unchanged at 2 percent, turning aside hopes by many on Wall Street that the Fed
would try to shore up confidence by cutting rates once again.

Fed and Treasury officials initially turned a cold shoulder to A.I.G. when company executives
pleaded on Sunday night for the Fed to provide a $40 billion bridge loan to stave off a crippling
downgrade of its credit ratings as a result of investment losses that totalled tens of billions of
dollars.
read full article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/business/17insure.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
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Fed pumps $70B into nation's financial system

By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer
Tue Sep 16, 9:57 AM ET

WASHINGTON - Urgently trying to keep cash flowing amid a Wall Street meltdown, the Federal
Reserve on Tuesday pumped another $70 billion into the nation's financial system to help ease
credit stresses.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's action came in two operations in which $50 billion and
then another regularly scheduled $20 billion were injected in temporary reserves.

The maneuver takes place as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his central bank
colleagues prepare to meet to decide their next move on interest rates and conduct a fresh
assessment of the country's financial and economic troubles.

Some believe the financial system turmoil raises the odds the Fed will cut rates. Others still predict
the Fed will hold its key rate steady at 2 percent.

In the last few days, the American financial system has been badly shaken as bad bets on dodgy
mortgage-backed securities claimed more Wall Street giants.

Lehman Brothers, the country's fourth-largest investment bank, filed for bankruptcy protection. A
weakened Merrill Lynch, deciding it couldn't go it alone anymore, found help in the arms of Bank
of America. Now, the insurance giant American International Group is dangerously wobbling.
Against this backdrop, Wall Street on Monday plunged 500 points, the most since the September
2001 terror attacks.

The cash infusion Tuesday was designed to help ease a spike in the overnight lending rate
between banks. A sharp rise in such borrowing costs makes banks reluctant to lend to each other
and to hoard cash, worsening already tight credit conditions. Harder-to-get credit has crimped
spending by consumers and business, a factor in the slowing economy.

To help grease the financial plumbing Monday, the Fed pumped a total of $70 billion into the
system through open market operations.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080916/ap_on_bi_ge/fed_credit_crisis
ECONOMY
In the past few weeks, the case has been made and maintained, for a serious downward
trend in global economies.  As of today with the Dow plunged a further 600 points on
news that the US economy began its recession in Dec 2007. JP Morgan lay off 9,200 jobs
at Washington Mutual and the national debt has reached $10,647,917,555,364.39  .
Regrettably the trends continue in line with what we wrote in our book - only the more
important reports will now be added.

March 29, 2009
Gerald Celente Predicts Economic Armageddon by 2012. HERE

March 13, 2009
'The Daily Show' with Jon Stewart. Worth watching as the humor and his hatchet reveals the
pain we have to go through as the cleansing of our ways takes place. Sometimes our wrath
finds the wrong guy to hang it on but we must learn by all this.  Take a moment to watch this
exchange between Jon Stewart and Crammer (March 13, 2009): HERE

March 12, 2009
I dont know about you but have been totally amazed that there are so few 'financial experts'
who seem able to explain this crisis.  Here is one simple explanation that I finally understand:
HERE

December 6, 2008
November employment figures in the U.S. show even worse job cuts than forecast.  533,000
job cuts with an unemployment rate of 6.7% and rising.

December 5, 2008
Bush acknowledges a recession.  HERE

November 25, 2008
Fed says it will buy mortgage-related assets.
WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve said Tuesday it will buy up to $600 billion in mortgage-
backed assets in another attempt to deal with the financial crisis.

The Fed said it will purchase up to $100 billion in direct obligations from mortgage giants Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac as well as the Federal Home Loan Banks. It also will purchase another
$500 billion in mortgage-backed securities, pools of mortgages that are bundled together and
sold to investors.

The $600 billion effort on mortgages came as the Fed also unveiled a new program to help
unfreeze the market that backs consumer debt such as credit cards, auto loans and student loans.

The program on consumer debt will lend up to $200 billion to the holders of securities backed
by various types of consumer loans. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson had said recently that
the government was working on the new program, which will be supported by $20 billion of
credit protection provided by the $700 billion bailout fund.

The Fed said that the $600 billion effort to support the mortgage market was being taken to
reduce the cost of home mortgages and increase their availability. It said the purchases of the
mortgages and mortgage-backed securities would take place over a number of months.

The severe financial crisis that is rocking global markets at the moment began more than a year
ago with rising defaults on subprime mortgages, loans provided to borrowers with weak credit
histories.

The billions of dollars of losses financial institutions have suffered on their mortgage loans have
caused banks to stop making new loans of various types, which almost certainly has helped
push the country into a deep recession.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081125/ap_on_bi_ge/mortgage_debt

November 24, 2008
WASHINGTON – Rushing to rescue Citigroup, the government agreed to shoulder hundreds of
billions of dollars in possible losses at the stricken bank and to plow a fresh $20 billion into the
company.

November 17, 2008:
Group of 20, which included the world's wealthiest countries such as the United States, Japan,
Germany, Britain and France plus emerging powers such as China, Russia, Brazil and India
pledge to work together to tackle global economy, undergoing its worst upheavals in decades.

November 17, 2008:
Citigroup to cut another 53,000 jobs.

November 14 2008:
President Bush wants $25B in loans released to U.S. car-makers.

November 14, 2008:
Euro sinks into recession for first time.

November 14, 2008:
My personal comment:  "With such financial calamity and so few who seem to understand the
cause, even among the 'big players', why have we not so far heard the word 'GOLD' ?

November 11, 2008:
General Motors stock has sunk to the lowest level since WWII. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
GM's market value is back to where it was when we had just defeated the Nazis. The
company's CEO now says they will need a bailout from the lame-duck Congress. They can't
even survive until Obama gets in office.

November 10, 2008:
Circuit City files for bankruptcy protection

September 26, 2008:
JPMorgan Chase has taken over Washington Mutual after it collapsed in the largest US bank
failure ever, adding to the massive pressures on the US financial system

September 21, 2008:
Paulson urges quick action on $700 billion bailout.
Thats written: $700,000,000,000.00 Spoken: Seven hundred thousand million dollars.

September 19, 2008:
America's financial crisis: The Party is Over. Its the end of an era and the beginning of another.
By Pat Buchanan.

September 18, 2008:
Wall Street's biggest crisis since the Great Depression forced the Federal Reserve and central
banks in other countries to pump billions of dollars into the world's banking system

September 17, 2008:
Stocks sink after government bailout of A.I.G.

September 16, 2008:  
Fed pumps $70B into nation's financial system.
Fed’s $85 Billion Loan Rescues Insurer A.I.G.

July 19, 2008:
President Bush Says The Economy Is Sound As Inflation Rises To Record Levels.

March 14th, 2008:
President Bush insisted that despite a weak dollar and soaring oil prices, the US economy
remained fundamentally sound and said the biggest challenge was for the US Congress not to
overcompensate.
2012 Debate.  This is why 2012 is different.
       New Book published October 2008.

From Penguin Books official web site:

Book: Paperback | 8.26 x 5.23in | 352 pages | ISBN 9781592578030 | 07 Oct 2008 | Alpha | 18 -
AND UP

The final countdown?

On December 21, 2012, the Mayan calendar will complete its thirteenth cycle. According to the
Mayan belief system, the world will end. And if you don’t believe the Mayans, you can check in
with The Bible Code, The Nostradamus Code, or The Orion Prophecy, all of which predict planet-
wide doom. Then again, maybe the year 2012 is just a new opportunity. Could 2012 bring us good
things instead of bad? This book gives readers a look at what the Mayan prophecy is all about,
what it means to them, and much more.

•Addresses Mayan predictions about global warming and climate change
•Includes a glossary of terms and symbols, resources for a changing world, and exercises to
assist the reader in their journey
•The existence of almost 600,000 websites on 2012 indicates a huge fascination with this subject
U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK
The Outstanding Public Debt as of 13 Nov 2008 at 02:17:59 AM GMT is:
The estimated population of the United States is 305,083,721
so each citizen's share of this debt is $34,845.60.

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$3.95 billion per day since September 28, 2007!
PETER SCHIFF, CEO and chief global strategist for Euro Pacific Capital was right about
the United States economic collapse two years ago. Watch video of interview.
object width="425" height="344">
U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK
The Outstanding Public Debt as of 14 Nov 2008 at 02:17:59 AM GMT is:
The increase debt in 24 hours is of bewildering proportions.
Congressman Don Manzullo grills Interim Assistant Treasury
Secretary Neel Kashkari on the bailout plan, questioning why a
failed company that was bailed out with taxpayer dollars -- AIG
-- was allo...
Where Has the Gold Gone?  Could this be an even larger crime
than the banks theft of our billions?
Colin Andrews.

                 ---------------------------------------------------------
Goldseek.com
By: Rob Kirby

“Gold Finger - A New Take On Operation Grand Slam With A Tungsten Twist”

I’ve already reported on irregular physical gold settlements which occurred in London,
England back in the first week of October, 2009.  Specifically, these settlements
involved the intermediation of at least one Central Bank [The Bank of England] to
resolve allocated settlements on behalf of J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank – who DID
NOT have the gold bullion that they had sold short and were contracted to deliver.  At
the same time I reported on two other unusual occurrences:

1] -    irregularities in the publication of the gold ETF - GLD’s bar list from Sept. 25 –
Oct.14 where the length of the bar list went from 1,381 pages to under 200 pages and
then back up to 800 or so pages.

2] -    reports of 400 oz. “good delivery” bricks of gold found gutted and filled with
tungsten within the confines of LBMA approved vaults in Hong Kong.

Why Tungsten? ………Whole article: http://news.goldseek.
com/GoldSeek/1258049769.php