Regulators seize Washington Mutual and JPMorgan mops up: IN what is by far the largest bank failure in US history, federal regulators seized Washington Mutual and struck a deal to sell the bulk of its operations to JPMorgan Chase How the Washington Mutual Takeover Will Affect Consumers: The government seized banking giant Washington Mutual last night and then sold some pieces of it to JPMorgan Chase for approximately $1.9 billion. Here is how this will affect former Washington Mutual consumers: UK banks hold £95bn of sour assets that could qualify for US bailout plan: Britain’s five leading high street banks have as much as £95.3 billion ($175 billion) of distressed assets on their books that may qualify for the American bailout scheme. Big bailout is unlikely to work: The U.S. "hold-to-maturity" bailout plan is really just the new "mark-to-myth," and even its heroic proportions are not likely to paper over solvency problems in the banking system. Asia Needs Deal to Prevent Panic Selling of U.S. Debt, Yu Says: Japan, China and other holders of U.S. government debt must quickly reach an agreement to prevent panic sales leading to a global financial collapse, said Yu Yongding, a former adviser to the Chinese central bank. Bank borrowing from Fed reaches record $188 billion a day: Federal Reserve data showed on Thursday the total amount banks borrowed nearly quadrupled the previous record of $47.97 billion per day notched just the week before. HSBC to cut 1,100 jobs worldwide: HSBC Holdings PLC, Europe's largest bank by market value, is cutting 1,100 jobs worldwide in the wake of the financial turmoil, a spokesman said Friday. Bailout Can't Hide It - The United States Is Broke “Why Is There Need for a Bailout?” Economists Against The Paulson Plan US Taxpayers are Being Enrolled in an Economic Chain Gang A Bailout and a New World
By Andrew Clark
The failure of the Seattle-based bank Washington Mutual undermined confidence in a fresh clutch of US household names today, as investors digested the implications of the biggest collapse of a high-street bank on record. Continue
By Chris Powell
The bad-debt bailout would be the biggest government patronage program in history and would amount to declaring martial law over the U.S. financial system and economy. Even if such martial law is necessary, its implementation should be put in democratic hands - a non-partisan agency with full transparency, statutory standards for its purchases, and close accountability to Congress. Continue
By Ralph Nader
It’s eerily reminiscent, when you listen to Bush yesterday, of how he stampeded the Congress and the country into the criminal war invasion of Iraq in 2003. I mean, look at all his statements: this could do this, this would do that, farms failing, small business, tada, tada. The first question we have to ask as citizens is, why is there a need for a bailout? Continue
To the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate:
As economists, we want to express to Congress our great concern for the plan proposed by Treasury Secretary Paulson to deal with the financial crisis. We are well aware of the difficulty of the current financial situation and we agree with the need for bold action to ensure that the financial system continues to function. We see three fatal pitfalls in the currently proposed plan.Continue
By Jeff Randall
"To preserve their [the people's] independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our selection between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude" - Thomas Jefferson - Continue
By Pepe Escobar
What the UN is NOT talking about is how the US will be able to sustain wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and go against Iran, the Pashtuns in Pakistan or Russia if the Chinese, the Japanese and sovereign wealth funds of the Gulf petromonarchies decide to stop financing these demented adventures. That's the larger-than-life elephant in the UN house: everybody knows that the end of the unipolar world is tied to the fact that Washington simply cannot continue to be a superpower financed by foreigners. Continue
Saturday, 27 September 2008
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