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DJIA: -29.93 CLOSE 9,280.67
S&P 500 -3.29 CLOSE 994.75
NASDAQ -1.82 CLOSE 1,967.07
MARKETWATCH: U.S. stocks on Wednesday finished lower for a fourth consecutive session, with financials hardest hit in a day of cautious trade in the countdown to Friday's much-anticipated monthly jobs report . . . READ MORE
ASSOCIATED PRESS: The stock market extended its slide as investors worried that a weak job market will trip up a recovery in the economy . . . The Dow Jones industrial average lost another 30 points after skidding 186 points Tuesday . . . READ MORE
FED OFFICIALS: SLOW RECOVERY,
ECONOMY REMAINS 'VULNERABLE'
BLOOMBERG: Federal Reserve officials in their August meeting discussed extending the end-date for purchases of mortgage bonds to minimize any market disruptions, and expressed concern about the pace of a likely economic recovery . . . "Most participants saw the economy as likely to recover only slowly during the second half of this year, and all saw it as still vulnerable to adverse shocks," the Fed said in today’s minutes. "Labor market conditions remained of particular concern to meeting participants" . . . READ MORE
CNN/MONEY: Fed members added that the chances of the economy getting worse are "now considerably reduced" but that the recovery is "likely to be damped." Those concerns are likely the biggest reason why the Fed left its key interest rate near 0% at the meeting and did not announce any move to pull back on the more than $1 trillion it has pumped into the economy over the last year through various lending programs . . . READ MORE
FDIC CHIEF BAIR WARNS ABOUT
'LOOMING PROBLEM' FOR BANKS
REUTERS: FDIC head Sheila Bair told CNBC Tuesday evening that commercial real estate loans remain a "looming problem" for banks' balance sheets and she expects the area to increasingly be a driver for bank failures during the remainder of this year and 2010. So far, this year 84 U.S. banks have failed, compared to 25 last year and only three in 2008 . . . READ MORE
$1 TRILLION 'TIME BOMB'
WALL STREET JOURNAL: U.S. banks are holding more than $1 trillion of mortgages backed by commercial property that is fast losing value. According to analysts at Deutsche Bank AG, as property value declines and scarce credit continue to drive commercial property developers and investors into default, total lifetime losses on banks' $1 trillion "core" commercial-mortgage holdings, or those backed by income-producing properties, would reach between 11.6% and 15.3%, or $115 billion and $150 billion . . . READ MORE
GOLD PRICE HITS 3-MONTH HIGH
WALL STREET JOURNAL: Gold companies' shares soared Wednesday amid a sharp rally in gold prices . . . Gold prices reached their highest point in nearly three months as the U.S. dollar weakened and participants bought in a flight-to-quality bid based on economic uncertainty and concerns about the stock market . . . READ MORE
REUTERS: Dollar weakness also made gold more attractive to non-U.S. investors, traders said, while the move through pivotal technical resistance levels triggered heavy buying. "In the mid to long term, gold is definitely a buy -- especially if you have lost trust in stocks, or expect a down-move there," Commerzbank senior trader Michael Kempinski said . . . READ MORE
WATCHDOG: SEC MISSED
'RED FLAGS' ON MADOFF
NEW YORK TIMES: The Securities and Exchange Commission repeatedly missed chances, because of inexperience and incompetence, to head off the huge investment fraud carried out for years by the disgraced money manager, Bernard L. Madoff . . . In a damning report on the S.E.C.’s performance, the agency’s inspector general, H. David Kotz, said numerous “red flags” had been missed by the agency, including some warnings sounded by journalists, well before Mr. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme imploded in 2008 . . . READ MORE
BP FINDS OIL DEEP IN GULF
CNN/MONEY: BP has drilled one of the deepest oil reservoirs ever discovered, the company said Wednesday. The Tiber well, located about 250 miles southeast of Houston in the Gulf of Mexico, was drilled about 35,055 feet deep . . . READ MORE
CAP-AND-TRADE WOULD COST
UP TO $600 BILLION A YEAR
NEW YORK TIMES: It will cost between $500 billion and $600 billion every year for the next 10 years to allow developing nations to grow using renewable energy resources, instead of relying on dirty fuels that worsen global warming, according to a United Nations report . . . READ MORE
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
U.S. WILL 'PAY . . A LONG TIME'
FOR BAILOUTS, AUTHOR SAYS
AMERICAN SPECTATOR: The American economy will suffer "a long time" as a result of last year's federal bailout of the financial industry, according to Johan Norberg, author of a new book about the policies that caused the banking meltdown. . . . "The bailouts . . . the debts -- we won't be able to pay them back. We're going to pay for it for a long time . . . READ MORE
HOYER FACES BIG CROWD
AT HEALTH-CARE TOWN HALL
By JIMMIE BISE JR.
NTCNews.com
WALDORF, MD - A standing room-only audience of more than 1,500 crowded into North Point High School in Southern Maryland for a spirited health care town hall meeting hosted by Representative Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).
The crowd, some of whom began queuing before 4 P.M. for the 7 P.M. meeting, showed little sign outside of the boisterousness they would show once the meeting began. Hoyer was jeered by opponents of the Democratic health care plan and cheered loudly by supporters, according to Politico, One man was escorted from the meeting by police.
The second-ranking Democrat in the House, Hoyer was repeatedly questioned about whether tort-reform provisions -- to protect health-care providers against lawsuits -- would be included in the legislation, but refused to commit to support such a measure, the Baltimore Sun noted.
Hoyer also maintained his support for the controversial "public option" provision in the legislation, the Associated Press reported.
MORE COVERAGE:
NTCNews.com
WALDORF, MD - A standing room-only audience of more than 1,500 crowded into North Point High School in Southern Maryland for a spirited health care town hall meeting hosted by Representative Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).
The crowd, some of whom began queuing before 4 P.M. for the 7 P.M. meeting, showed little sign outside of the boisterousness they would show once the meeting began. Hoyer was jeered by opponents of the Democratic health care plan and cheered loudly by supporters, according to Politico, One man was escorted from the meeting by police.
The second-ranking Democrat in the House, Hoyer was repeatedly questioned about whether tort-reform provisions -- to protect health-care providers against lawsuits -- would be included in the legislation, but refused to commit to support such a measure, the Baltimore Sun noted.
Hoyer also maintained his support for the controversial "public option" provision in the legislation, the Associated Press reported.
MORE COVERAGE:
300 WORDS OR LESS 09.02.09
The Sweep of History Back Towards Federalism
~150 years ago, an agrarian, Jeffersonian South waged war against an industrial, corporatist North. Federalism, where each State delegated some portion of its sovereignty to a central government, was diminished in response to the South's rash secession. Subordinating the states was justifiable as a response, and, as appropriate, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, issued the Gettysburg Address, and used the Federal government's authority to win the war and preserve the Union.
Lost were the fine points of the South's arguments put forth by men like Randolph and Calhoun, where States jealously guarding their ability to tend to its citizens in ways both local and traditional. With the ratification of the 16th and 17th amendments and the Federal Reserve Act passed, Washington D.C. was enshrined as the central source of power in America. Lacking cash, principle, and a morale mandate, the States had no recourse against Wilson's Progressivism or F.D.R's sweeping, bureaucratic Proceduralism.
Now, Progressivism and Proceduralism have reached their logical nationalized limit - health care, insurance, banking, market regulation, and energy taxes build upon nationalized education policy, drug policy, and social safety nets. What was once arguably compassion has turned into an excuse to reinvent Lincoln himself, less the mandate or moral clarity involved in preserving the Union and abolishing slavery.
With the election of an African American President, surely it is time to revisit the issue of State's rights, now undeniably free of the specter of slavery. We should revisit the 16th Amendment and its support of national income tax, and repeal the 17th Amendment, effectively re-energizing state legislatures in their long argument with an effete and ineffective U.S. Congress. In short, it is time to reestablish the States as equal partners, willfully participating in a Federalist system.
--AnalogKid
~150 years ago, an agrarian, Jeffersonian South waged war against an industrial, corporatist North. Federalism, where each State delegated some portion of its sovereignty to a central government, was diminished in response to the South's rash secession. Subordinating the states was justifiable as a response, and, as appropriate, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, issued the Gettysburg Address, and used the Federal government's authority to win the war and preserve the Union.
Lost were the fine points of the South's arguments put forth by men like Randolph and Calhoun, where States jealously guarding their ability to tend to its citizens in ways both local and traditional. With the ratification of the 16th and 17th amendments and the Federal Reserve Act passed, Washington D.C. was enshrined as the central source of power in America. Lacking cash, principle, and a morale mandate, the States had no recourse against Wilson's Progressivism or F.D.R's sweeping, bureaucratic Proceduralism.
Now, Progressivism and Proceduralism have reached their logical nationalized limit - health care, insurance, banking, market regulation, and energy taxes build upon nationalized education policy, drug policy, and social safety nets. What was once arguably compassion has turned into an excuse to reinvent Lincoln himself, less the mandate or moral clarity involved in preserving the Union and abolishing slavery.
With the election of an African American President, surely it is time to revisit the issue of State's rights, now undeniably free of the specter of slavery. We should revisit the 16th Amendment and its support of national income tax, and repeal the 17th Amendment, effectively re-energizing state legislatures in their long argument with an effete and ineffective U.S. Congress. In short, it is time to reestablish the States as equal partners, willfully participating in a Federalist system.
--AnalogKid
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