patrick.net

Don't read it if you don't like it.

Just don't get me wrong. The bailout has made Bush unredeemable in my eyes.

Think the financial crisis is bad? Wait until you see the entitlement crisis.

But I won't call you in idiot because you are entitled to your opinion as much as I am entitled to mine.

Pasadena woman facing eviction is found dead in burning home
"She was made aware of Monday's eviction," he said. "That may have been what precipitated the arson and death."

Police are still trying to determine the history of the house's ownership.

Neighbors said Dunn's grandparents owned the house before it was passed down to her parents and then to Dunn and her sister.

A few years ago, neighbors said, Dunn and her sister took out a loan on the house but couldn't repay it and had to sell.

The new owner, who let Dunn continue to live there and pay rent, lost the home to foreclosure in May, neighbors said. Washington Mutual bank was listed in property records as the current owner.

The spin that Paulson had to "force" the banks to take the $125B is utter baloney:

If you put gang-of-9 bank CEOs together in a room, it is very predictable what will happen.
They will all try to out-pretend each other that they "do not need it", and then "reluctantly" sign. They all just want plausible deniability before they sign.

The problem is that instead of lending the money out, they are all going to add it to their acquisition war chest and strut around trying to force the other guy into acquisition submission. What a farce.

The banks will still refuse to lend out money against shriveling assets as security. This is just like 2001. They will be looking for another bubble to inflate rather than spending the money on what it is supposed to be for. "Trickle down" voodoo economics does not work in banking, either.

Wake up you sleepy Kahl ee for nee onnz.

It wa a short rally. (As opposed to a short rally?) We're back down scraping the 9000 mark.

Today's spin? "Recession Fears."

The above is with reference to a NY Times article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/15/business/economy/15bailout.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

MST,

Indeed.

Now here's one place the "Credit Crunch" actually bites.

http://benbittrolff.blogspot.com/2008/10/credit-crunch-baltic-dry.html

1) No letters of credit? No freight.
2) No Freight? No parts available for manufacturing.
3) No Manufacturing? No Money to service debt.
4) No debt service? Return to step one.

I think Reflation will be successful if they start sending checks to people directly. Fortunately ben can't do it directly. We need congress to come in and legislate.

Extend Unemployment benefits for longer periods.
Rebate Checks.
Tax Cuts to all kinds of people/business.

When they start doing these, I would start worrying about Reflation. Until then we would be in Deflation.

Is this the bottom?

How much lower can we go when we are throwing people in jail now for not being able to keep their lawns green!

http://search.live.com/news/results.aspx?q=Brown+lawn+jail+Joseph+Prudente&form=MSNHPM

Is this the bottom?

Well, throw in an Iranian/Chinese freighter dirty bomb aimed at wiping out Israel on Yom Kippur, which was only prevented by being seized by Somali pirates.

http://tinyurl.com/4zzxgt

Are we having fun yet?

This is starting to sound like a Tom Clancy novel.

Again.

The spin that Paulson had to “force” the banks to take the $125B is utter baloney:

Yeah, I can't imagine they were forced into it. They probably were more than happy to receive the much needed cash. They probably put up a poker face to media and as soon as they went into their office, started dancing all around.

MST, I think that link IS a Tom Clancy novel, and not reality. There is no way the MSM would not have reported something on this if it were true.

MST - thanks for the info about Alt-A's, a bit late,but I don't get the chance to check back frequently.

I can't see things getting sorted out until the resets for the next 2 years are past.

They need to come up with at least a 4 year economic plan to sooth the masses (that acknowledges that there will be more businesses failing or earning less profits and job losses and foreclosures), not instant fixes that turn out to be only temporary band-aids for the markets.

OK, I'm getting a little nervous that I'm not finding any articles saying that MST's story is a hoax, or nonsense. Will someone please provide a link dispelling the story so that I don't start building a fallout shelter in my back yard? I'm really not in the mood to start digging right now. I'm surprised Iran is still on the map if this is true.

I was curious how the story died out so quickly. I didn't even know it had ended, last thing I had heard was the pirates were on the ship and were negotiating because there were rumors of infighting among them.

JustYou:

There is no way the MSM would not have reported something on this if it were true.

uh, yeah, OK. We'll let that pass.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,430681,00.html
http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Article.aspx?id=851953

As well as others.

No doubt, there is such an Iranian ship, hijacked on August 21. No doubt Somali Pirates did it. Very little doubt some became mysteriously sick and probably died after getting into the cargo => not iron ore, but something not good. Descriptions of the malady match Rad. Sickness.

The question then is about the "Russian report". I haven't found independent confirmation of that one. Still looking.

We'll see.

The whole thing is interesting. I'm of course skeptical but I'm not finding anyone saying that it is not true.

I'm getting a sinking feeling that this time next year for the first time in my life there might be a decline in the global population.

I’m getting a sinking feeling that this time next year for the first time in my life there might be a decline in the global population.

That may help reduce carbon emission.

There is more than one thing going on. Is the Russian captured ship with the tanks still going on?

This was a seperate Iranian tanker that evidently didn't make the news, or I just missed it. I'm confused but it is crazy nonetheless.

Getting back on topic....

....yes this must be the bottom: I have it on the best authority. :)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/10/15/financial/f090057D89.DTL&tsp=1

The worst is over ... said Leslie Appleton-Young

Malcolm/TOB:

Oh, yeah, the Ukranian troop/tanks/weapons ship is still out there:

http://www.wlos.com/template/inews_wire/wires.international/23588081-www.wlos.com.shtml

As for "Iranian/Chinese": sorry for my shorthand. The whateveritis cargo of MV Iran Deyanat was loaded in Nanjing, the shipping company regularly falsifies its manifests to get around UN sanctions (of the IAEA-Uranium Enrichment type), and China has certainly been selling weapons, missiles and apparently "fissiles" to mid-east tin-pots for decades now. I wasn't claiming this as a joint military exercise, nor that China would have known what was up, but wouldn't China dearly love to see us embroiled in more middle-east horror shows?

Still haven't found a contradiction in these stories... still looking for the Russian confirmation... Still waiting on Armeggeddon...

Oh, yeah... That 900 point rally? Um. Nevermind.

TOB:

We're talking about two ships here just to clarify for Malcolm: the Ukranian one with the guns, soldiers and tanks, and the Iranian bulk carrier with the Mysterious Cargo.

The second is the one that is killing it's Somali Pirates stangely. Iranian ship, mostly Iranian crew, Loaded in China, seized August 21. Anchored off Eyl (?)

Sorry for the confusion. 2 different ships.

MST Says:
October 15th, 2008 at 10:21 am
"JustYou:
There is no way the MSM would not have reported something on this if it were true".
uh, yeah, OK. We’ll let that pass.

__________

Thanks for finding a real link at least confirming the story of the cargo and the deaths. That is really disturbing.

stangely = strangely

MST Says:
October 15th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
"TOB:
We’re talking about two ships here just to clarify for Malcolm: the Ukranian one with the guns, soldiers and tanks, and the Iranian bulk carrier with the Mysterious Cargo."

I figured it out eventually but thanks.

I understand the relationships at hand, before today I wasn't aware of the Iranian ship being seized.

The Original Bankster Says:
October 15th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
"the idea of a Iranian ship being hijacked by somali pirates and getting radiation disease:"

MST provided the link substantiating the general facts.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,430681,00.html

I agree FOX News is biased but I accept that as confirmation of the story.

The Original Bankster Says:
October 15th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
"come on, remember how Fox news was reporting on the Georgian conflict?"

Not sure what this is, she told a different story than they were expecting and they allowed them to tell the story.

Like I say, Fox News can be accused of being biased to the right, while other networks are to the left, but you can't honestly say that Fox News link is in the same realm as the dozens of conspiracy sites. It is a legitimate news network.

Well, TOB, even the Iranians agree the ship was hijacked:
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=179673

And yes, Putin makes me nervous as well. The last thing we need right now is for Russia to go back to its old ways.

‘Russia attacked Georgia’

I honestly don't know but the other related videos were titled things like "Fox cuts off girl telling the truth" and that stuff. I thought that was the point. I didn't see it that way.

Rather than debate it, why don't you tell us why Georgia attacked Russia? I wasn't aware that was in dispute. Be quick before the OT police start whining.

And that other link:
http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Article.aspx?id=851953
Is the Times of South Africa, which confirms most of the broad outlines of the story. Please note the date: Sep. 28.

Not a Murdoch paper, AFAIK. ;-)

You can sample here, too:
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/09/mystery_surrounds_hi.php

As read on the link above on Iceland.
"Iceland was one of the richest countries in the world. A pale reflection of the golden age in Icelandic economy which is now going up in flames. Where’s the smoke?...The world is treating us like we’re dead. Bank accounts frozen. No business without cash payments in advance."

I talk to friends in Iceland frequently, and during the high point most admitted to an unreal amount of economic activity, although the bubble were chalked up to the inherent "success" of their economy. Of course, massively excessive leverage was pushing the facade of their economy along. Assumptions drove more assumptions, until fundamentals are completely forgotten--sound familiar? Judging from that article, it doesn't sound like many people are owning up to the causes--familiar again.

And yes, Putin makes me nervous as well. The last thing we need right now is for Russia to go back to its old ways.

Russia is now rich, with mega-yachts to protect. I doubt they will go back to their old ways.

But they play games well. Back in the days when humans could beat computers in chess, the best players were Russians. :)

I would think they were doing pretty well. I can't wait for Bush to go and maybe we can get back on track to some sort of productive relationship with Russia. Bush sure has a way of pissing other countries off. I saw him lecturing Putin one time on democracy. Oh boy, I thought, that was pretty stupid.

That I do know.

That's just the way of life over there. Just like in all the latin countries, organized crime runs things the same way.

I played volleyball with a guy who was Russian but looked Japanese. Another player asked me on the side how that could be. I rolled my eyes and said, "figure it out."