CrazedWalrus's Journal: In the news today

In the news this week:

The US government could be entering a bottomless pit of bailouts if it starts propping up failing companies outside the financial sector: (Hoorah for corporate welfare! Glad we're propping up our biggest, most irresponsible and short-sighted companies for another few months!)

http://www.cnbc.com/id/27662540/

Lobbyists swarm the U.S. Treasury for a helping of bailout pie (Guess that's what happens when you open up the chum bucket to a bunch of sharks!)

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/12/business/12lobbying.php

Hard Times, But Big Wall Street Bonuses: (Glad they're making good use of their bailouts...)

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/12/earlyshow/main4595179.shtml

American Express seeking $3.5 billion as part of government bailout program: (Business plan is to loan irresponsibly, sell the risk to others, and then ask for $3.5bn of taxpayer money so they can do it again!)

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081112/american_express_ahead_of_the_bell.html?.v=1

Pelosi supports new help for ailing US automakers (So these guys want to sell low-quality cars that no one buys, disregard market trends, and then ask for a bailout. Join the club. Glad the Dems have their hands in our pockets as much as the Republicans did. Maybe they'll realize that if we wanted to give GM and Ford our money, we'd BUY ONE OF THEIR FREAKIN CARS!)

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081112/D94DD29O0.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aT78uzonQ2P0&refer=worldwide

Who Got That $2 Trillion? Fed Won't Tell (At least the Fed is refusing to tell us where $2 TRILLION (yes, "Trillion" with a "T") of our money went! They're afraid it'll cause the stocks to decline. Sure, then they'll tell us that it's the "free market" that doesn't work, and we obviously need the Fed to regulate it more. Way to be accountable, Fed. Note that this and about $800Bn of other money was NOT requested nor approved by Congress. )

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aatlky_cH.tY&refer=worldwide

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=au7CSC89tBYs&refer=home

http://harpers.org/archive/2008/11/hbc-90003834

US May Lose Its 'AAA' Rating: (all of this leading to the devaluation of the dollar and possible default by the US Government. You can only print so much money before it's not worth anything. Then how do you repay your debt?)

http://www.cnbc.com/id/27641538

Paulson backs off asset plan; crisis deals at risk (Apparently even Paulson realizes this is a fool's errand, even if it only means he's correcting course to yet another fool's errand. Which fool's errand, you ask? Surprise! Giving banks even more taxpayer money, of course! At least he's trying, bless his heart.)

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/081112/business_us_financial6.html?.v=6

Meanwhile, the jobs continue to melt away, after we lost 284,000 jobs in September: ("Job losses in September actually totalled 284,000 - 78% more than the 159,000 losses the government guestimated last month. November losses stretched to 240,000 on top of that, brining the unemployment rate to 6.5% - the steepest since March 1994.")

http://blogs.barrons.com/stockstowatchtoday/2008/11/07/job-losses-swell-past-million-signalling-deepening-recession/

First-ever layoff at the Post Office will claim 40,000 jobs:

http://www.labornotes.org/node/1947

And Wall Street begins plans to collectively lay off yet ANOTHER 70,000, in addition to the 150,000 they've already lost:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/27639559

So the bailout won't be helping. It's already proven to be insufficient before it's even given out, and the sharks are circling, trying to get the choicest morsels. Even Paulson is reconsidering what to do with the money, although he's apparently more of a fool than I'd initially given him credit for. Instead of buying the securities as he promised the public, where the money could be recouped at a later time, he's now thinking he'll just give it to the banks instead. Way to go, guy.

In the meantime, deepening job losses and spiraling debt are dragging down the demand side of the S&D, which produces a glut on the supply side and eventual additional layoffs.

All of this likely leads to the ultimate collapse of the US dollar, and the rise of the Amero (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amero). One more step on the path to a world-wide monetary union and eventual new world order, which will be the Only Possible Solution To Save Us All:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=aIcEL0jjSK74&refer=home

http://eux.tv/article.aspx?articleId=15099

Yes, I realize this last part is highly speculative and borders on "conspiracy theory," but it's sounding more and more plausible every day. Where last year at this time, it would have been dismissed out of hand, now you actually have to entertain the idea, and could even see how it could happen.