On September 25th, we posted Part 1 of  the analysis of the  $700 billion Wall Street bailout as it was being debated in the Congress. Much has happened since, and the subject needs to be revisited.

First the bailout, as originally presented, never happened. The Treasury is still setting up the facilities, and hiring the personnel, through which the proposed purchase of "toxic assets" is to be

There is a striking pattern in the roughly 40 % plus fall of the US stock market since October 2007: downward slides followed by bounces, in turn followed by further slides, similar to the path of a ball bouncing down a stair. The pattern shows a remarkable consistency: each move downwards results from events internal to the economy: drops in employment, reductions of economic activity,

The Democratic nomination race is close, but Barack Obama still has the lead in both delegates and popular votes. He has been somewhat damaged by the Jeremiah Wright fracas, but not nearly as much as his right-wing critics would like. There may well be, in fact, a backlash in his favor, in the sense that the intense attacks against him would have fired up more Obama supporters than they turned

How well are our traditional parties doing right now? The democrats have a civil war on their hands, with the Clinton and Obama factions at each other's throats. Senator Mc Cain, at best a tepid Republican choice, is wooing a reluctant right and attempting to pad his campaign coffers. In the meantime, the economy is going south, the wars drag on and somewhere between two thirds and three quarters

If you are watching TV or listening to Radio, shut it off and start looking up where the candidates stand on the issues.

One thing we have, is a  race that is based on personalities, not on the issues and the things we are going to be living with for the next four to eight years. If you do see or hear some one bring up a candidate's positions, they are over ran with a slew of venom and/or

 In the previous column we have examined the causes of the current financial meltdown ("credit crunch") and their effect on the markets. In summary, the underlying cause is the proliferation of new financial "assets" or "financial instruments" which often have only a tenuous connection with any real, marketable collateral. Because the worth assigned to these assets contains a large amount of

 Anyone following the stock market cannot but feel that something is seriously out of joint. At this time last year the market was roaring ahead and the Dow (by some estimates) was headed for 16,000. Then the "subprime" problem showed up, eventually turning into a "credit crunch", which became a "crisis of confidence" now morphing  into a massive government bail-out of Wall Street. We have had

 Barack Obama has raked in a mind boggling $7.5 million in contributions so far just in the time since the polls closed on Super Tuesday.  He has probably shattered the single day  record of $6 million set by Ron Paul last year.                           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now contrast this with the email Hillary Clinton sent out yesterday asking supporters to send her $3 million in 3 days, setting this up