Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac wobble then recover

The two have lost as much as 50% today and Henry Paulson has said no bailout for either. The never ending Lehman Brothers rumors continue to swirl and they dropped as much as 20%. By the end of the day thanks to reassurance from Senator Dodd, Freddie and Fannie miraculously bounced back though this is not going to be the end of the story. Keep the Rolaids handy.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shares plummeted again on Friday morning — and the broader stock market followed suit — as concern mounted that the government will be forced to take over the beleaguered mortgage finance companies, which some investors fear are at risk of default.

Even after a week of unprecedented losses, the companies’ declines on Friday were the sharpest yet: Freddie Mac shares were down 45 percent from Thursday’s closing price, to $4.42 a share, and Fannie Mae stock fell 39 percent to $8.06 a share.

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US Air to remove passengers to save on fuel costs

Not yet, but you know they're thinking about it. US Air's newest cost cutting (removing entertainment systems) is yet another way to alienate customers. This is from the airline who declared bankruptcy twice in the last few years despite the taxpayer bailout though the executive board never thought it was necessary to trim their own annual pay under a few million dollars because they were so fantastic. In a crowded field of bad industry management, US Air always stands out as the leader of the losers.

Can fliers get by without onboard entertainment? Of course. They can also make every effort to fly with an airline that bothers to care about customers. Read the rest of this post...

Harry Reid blasts Gramm and McCain: "We should all worry about the Republican nominee"

Yesterday, Roll Call, which is like the high school paper for Capitol Hill, reported that the Capitol Hill press corps wasn't all that interested in the McCain/Gramm "nation of whiners" story:

Despite the media hubbub over former Sen. Phil Gramm’s (R-Texas) comments that the U.S. is in a “mental recession” and a “nation of whiners,” only a handful of reporters showed up Thursday to hear Senate Democrats blast the high-profile economic adviser to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.).

Those Hill reporters are all way too busy to cover the political story of the day. Plus, they might have to be critical of John McCain and miss a chance to ride on the Lap Dog Express.

But, Harry Reid is undeterred by that lack of media interest -- did his part to keep the story going and upped the ante. Reid blasted Gramm -- and McCain today. Nico Pitney at Huffington Post has the story and the video:

"Graham has a view of government which is that government is the enemy, not a friend," Reid said in an interview this afternoon with CongressionalVideo.com. "And, obviously from his comments, he now believes the American people are not his friend either, and he has a low view of the American people. Thinks they're a bunch of whiners."

In fact, Reid said, "every segment of our economy is in deep trouble. Deep trouble. We have the housing market, which is falling apart. We have gas prices which are astronomical, people can't even afford to drive to work in many instances."

The Senate Majority Leader saved some of his powder for his colleague from Arizona. "You tie that in with what McCain has said, that he doesn't understand the economy...and he's relying on someone who says that the economy is in good shape and the Americans are a bunch of whiners. We should all worry about the Republican nominee."

Yes, we should. Read the rest of this post...

France's national train company scored a $1.5 billion profit last year

How's Amtrak doing? Oh, I'm sorry, I must be suffering from a mental recession. America's trains are really number one, dag gummit. Just clap your hands, click your heels, vote for John McCain, and it will all be better because we have no problems - we're Amurikans. Well, the rest of the world is actually investing in their future, and they're leaving us behind. Read the rest of this post...

"Net Neutrality" looking good

If it does win, it will be thanks to Comcast. I never thought I would have a good thing to say about that slimy company, but it looks as though we can thank them for this. What is it about cable TV companies? My experiences with them in the US were terrible and they're no better here in France where one operator went by the name of "Noos" which suited them perfectly. (An American company bought the business and re-branded the company with that name. It has since been re-sold and re-named.)

When Comcast admitted last fall that it was blocking — or slowing down, as the company preferred to call it — certain file transfers by customers, a lot of people complained that the company was unfairly discriminating against heavy Internet users.

Now it seems that the Federal Communications Commission is poised to agree.

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Kid from Arizona does YouTube about John McCain

An interesting take on McCain from a kid in Arizona. What really interested me in this video is how regular guy this kid is. This isn't some liberal activist, it's just a young guy, who's a bit irreverent at times, but who did his research and isn't happy, so he made a video. I just find that fascinating, how easy it is for someone to speak out with YouTube, etc.

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Bush EPA: life is less valuable today than five years ago

It's hard to imagine where Republicans get the reputation for being in favor of the rich and against the middle class and poor.

The "value of a statistical life" is $6.9 million in today's dollars, the Environmental Protection Agency reckoned in May — a drop of nearly $1 million from just five years ago.

The Associated Press discovered the change after a review of cost-benefit analyses over more than a dozen years.

Though it may seem like a harmless bureaucratic recalculation, the devaluation has real consequences.

When drawing up regulations, government agencies put a value on human life and then weigh the costs versus the lifesaving benefits of a proposed rule. The less a life is worth to the government, the less the need for a regulation, such as tighter restrictions on pollution.

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How low can the Dow go?

As the "mental recession" talk continues among the UBS elite, the debate in the real world of focused on where the Dow is going. The current trend is going downward with most analysts watching for support at 11,000 or roughly 130 points below where it started today. Failure to stay above 11,000 could easily trigger the hard fall that is being predicted, possibly down to 9,500. At the start of the day it looked as though we would safely stay above but as of 12:57 the Dow has tested 11,000 five times going as low as 10,980. The first four tests it managed to bounce back but this time it's struggling to bounce back above 11,000. Failure to stay above 11,000 opens up the gates and that won't be pretty for anyone.

A severe decline increasingly is turning to when, not if. The only people who don't think it's a problem are McCain and Phil Gramm, but then again, neither can relate to this situation. When you sit on the board of one of the world's most elite and largest banks or you marry into $100 million, you can't relate and they don't. Read the rest of this post...

What is John McCain's problem with birth control?

Over the past couple days, a new issue has emerged in the 2008 presidential race. It emerged from the McCain campaign itself: McCain has a problem with birth control -- and that issue is becoming a major political liability for him. He looks very old-fashioned, very out-of-touch and very uncaring about women.

This all started when top McCain adviser Carly Fiorina opened this real can of worms earlier this week when she raised the issue of the disparate treatment from insurance companies for Viagra, used by men, and most birth control used by women:

Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chief who is now the Republican National Committee's "Victory Chairman," was discussing consumer-driven health insurance at a breakfast with reporters when she proposed "a real, live example which I've been hearing a lot about from women: There are many health insurance plans that will cover Viagra but won't cover birth-control medication. Those women would like a choice." For effect, the woman frequently mentioned as a possible McCain running mate repeated: "Those women would like a choice."

Yes, those women would like a choice. Fiorina clearly doesn't know McCain's record because McCain voted against giving them that choice. In 2003, McCain voted against a bill "To improve the availability of contraceptives for women." Ms. Fiorina seems equally unaware that birth control is actually a controversial issue for the base of the Republican Party.

Which is why as Jed astutely noted yesterday, it isn't Viagra that freaks out McCain, it's birth control:

...it's not that McCain didn't want to talk about Viagra. It's that he didn't want to talk about birth control. And it's not that McCain isn't familiar with either the pill or Viagra -- it's that for McCain, birth control is a politically touchy subject.

Believe it or not, many wingers think birth control should be made illegal. Case in point: Mike Huckabee. And McCain doesn't want to run afoul of them.

Jed's right. It isn't just Huckabee. Missouri Republicans launched a war on birth control back in 2006. With that in mind, watch the video:



McCain is so uncomfortable -- and claims he doesn't know his own record. He needs to kowtow to his theocratic base. But, in the real world, this issue is resonating -- I hear that recent polls have shown McCain's support from independent women tanks because of this issue.

One more thing that this election is about: preserving access to safe and effective birth control. That's really something out of the 50s and 60s. Read the rest of this post...

AP writes puff piece on McCain Swift Boat supporter, doesn't even mention Swift Boat link till 12th paragraph

Attaboy, AP. Don't even mention that this "ex-POW" was a Swift Boater until the 12th paragraph. If you missed that part of the story, and only read the first 11 paragraphs, you'd think this guy was some ex-POW hero, and if he supports McCain, well heck, McCain must be pretty darn good. Oh, and AP does tell you in the 12th paragraph that "many" of the Swift Boat accusations were proven untrue. Many? I guess that means that many of their accusations weren't proven to be untrue. Nice. Who was saying the other day that the media had roundly rebuked the Swift Boaters? Well, here's a Swift Boater that the McCain campaign put on a conference call with reporters two weeks ago, and look how reporters are handling him. Rather than excoriating McCain, rather than giving you any detail as to how vicious these people were to a vet who risked his life to save his fellow service members, AP is treating this ass like a freaking war hero. Oh, and McCain's campaign chair in Iowa actually praised this guy's involvement in their McCain. Did AP specifically ask McCain's campaign why they were using this nut on their campaign? How McCain could complain about attacks on his military experience while using a Swift Boat Veteran as a campaign surrogate? Not a word from AP.

One more point. The Democrats are just as much to blame as AP. When the Republicans see something they don't like, they all yell and scream about it. From the RNC, to Republican surrogates, the McCain campaign itself. They pass the offending quote to all the media and express their outrage while demanding media coverage. It's up the DNC, Obama, and other Democratic surrogates to express outrage about McCain embracing a Swift Boat Veteran. Until they do that, they deserve whatever crap McCain throws at them.

Still, AP and the media are on John McCain's side. They'd have never let Obama get away with this. Donuts anyone? Read the rest of this post...

McCain was still married to his wife when he got married to his mistress

Why does the Los Angeles Times hate America?. They're mean. John McCain was tortured in Vietnam. So stop talking about his credibility. You can only ask Barack Obama questions about his credibility, and his patriotism, about whether his preacher loves America and whether Obama has a personal problem with the American flag. But don't ask John McCain anything because John McCain is a hero. Even though now we find out that our hero was still living with his wife when he started dating his mistress. It gets even better: McCain was still legally married to his first wife when he got a marriage license for his second wife. I guess adultery and bigamy aren't such a big deal anymore with "family values" leaders like Ohio's Phil Burress who are now supporting McCain. And in any case, they were youthful indiscretions - McCain was only in his 40s at the time. In political reinvention terms, that's practically puberty.

An examination of court documents tells a different story. McCain did not sue his wife for divorce until Feb. 19, 1980, and he wrote in his court petition that he and his wife had "cohabited" until Jan. 7 of that year -- or for the first nine months of his relationship with Hensley.

Although McCain suggested in his autobiography that months passed between his divorce and remarriage, the divorce was granted April 2, 1980, and he wed Hensley in a private ceremony five weeks later. McCain obtained an Arizona marriage license on March 6, 1980, while still legally married to his first wife.

In all seriousness, putting the snark aside. Imagine if Barack Obama had two marriages at the same time. Imagine had Barack Obama lied about living with his first wife while having a mistress on the side. Imagine that all this happened while Obama had promised to speak out vocally about how gay people are a threat to marriage. We'd never hear the end of it from the Republicans and the media. Read the rest of this post...

Gramm stands by "whiners" remark; McCain claims Gramm, the guy he has speak for him publicly, doesn't speak for him. Huh?

Much like John McCain, Phil Gramm doesn't quite realize what it means to live in 2008 when video is almost immediately available online. In another era, Gramm and McCain could easily rely on friends in the media to back them up but as Joe posted here, you can watch and listen and make your own decision. Phil Gramm called the US "a nation of whiners," and in no way implied this was a reference to politicians. It's a convenient after thought to suggest he meant otherwise. He meant you, the American people, don't get it. You think we're having economic problems - but you're wrong, according to John McCain's top economic adviser.

But let's again look at what Gramm said. He talked about the booming export economy and yes, that's true, exports are doing well. However, that completely ignores the economic impact of the cheap dollar policy which has played a critical role in high import prices, primarily for oil. It also is linked to increasing food prices since the world is buying more US food because it's so cheap, again, driving up prices. Inflation is crushing the middle class, but McCain and Gramm are among the nations financial elite. And "if things are not as bad as you think" as he says, then why has Gramm been lobbying Washington for handouts to his employer Swiss giant UBS? Please tell us more. We're all ears.

If things were going so well, the Swiss bank UBS would not be fishing for money in middle class pockets. Heck, if you played by Gramm's word, the market would take care of UBS and they would fend for themselves. Instead, we all know that UBS would be sold at a fire sale if they didn't rely on special tax loopholes to make a bad situation look a bit better. Maybe we should ask Gramm to just let the market take care of UBS and see what happens. This is clearly a case where I'd love to see the market rule the day. Then we could see how much whining Gramm does when his million dollar job disappears. And while that's going down, let's see how well Gramm does when he has to even think about a food and gas budget or keeping his house. Go ahead Phil, let your market do it's magic and then come talk.

John McCain needs to stop playing games with his wacky surrogates. They either speak for you or they don't speak for you. But when they're your top economic adviser, when you send them to public gatherings and to the media as your spokesman on the economy and your character, then they speak for you. Not to mention, when you refuse to fire them, when you keep someone as your top adviser who thinks gas prices aren't hurting Americans, who thinks the American economy isn't suffering, who thinks the American people aren't suffering, then yes, Mr. McCain, your actions speak for themselves. Read the rest of this post...

Friday Morning Open Thread

Good morning, fellow whiners.

I want to repeat my assertion from yesterday: McCain's campaign is out-of-control. If McCain didn't have so many friends in the media protecting him, this thing would be over. It's a joke, albeit a joke with a lot of money. With McCain's campaign spiraling, expect the GOP attacks on Obama to get uglier and nastier. That's their only option. And, the Repubs will have the money to do it.

Start threading the news....

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Oil hits new high at $145.86

To be fair to Phil Gramm and John McCain, it's probably a mental oil price increase. If only mental could pay at the pump or put food on the table then we'd be all set. Maybe Dr Phil can tell us how that works. Read the rest of this post...

Sudanese president to be charged with genocide

It's shocking to see this come to this point and it will be even more shocking if it manages to get the president to The Hague. This will be a first.

The chief prosecutor of the Internationals Criminal Court will seek an arrest warrant Monday for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, charging him with genocide and crimes against humanity in the orchestration of a campaign of violence that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians in the nation's Darfur region during the past five years, according to U.N. officials and diplomats.

The action by the prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo of Argentina, will mark the first time that the tribunal in The Hague charges a sitting head of state with such crimes, and represents a major step by the court to implicate the highest levels of the Sudanese government for the atrocities in Darfur.

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McCain initially for Gramm comments, before being against them

Not that it's much of a surprise because McCain has been saying much of the same on the campaign trail except for the "whiner" remark. Of course psychology is important with economics, but then again, so are basic economic fundamentals such. Call me old fashioned, but the little things, such as cash flow, somehow mean something. Speaking of cash flow, Phil Gramm's employer UBS.

Interestingly enough, in this morning's FT there is an article about how Swiss regulators are telling UBS that they need to set aside more money to prevent a complete meltdown. In other words, Phil Gramm's employer better be sitting on a lot more cash if they are to avoid a Bear Stearns collapse. In the case of UBS, it's much worse though because it's a much larger organization. UBS has already written down close to $40 billion due to the subprime crisis, has had four consecutive quarters of losses and there is no end in site. Read more here about the outstanding problems at UBS including an inability to raise capital to remain afloat.

For McCain's economic brain to call the country "whiners" is amazing, since he has had a front row seat in the current crisis. He created the legislation that ushered in this new "anything goes" environment in finance and then went to work for one of the largest financial organizations in the world. No conflict of interest there, is there? More recently McCain's economic adviser lobbied for the troubled Swiss banking giant, seeking handouts by the American taxpayers for the self-created problems. So now Phil Gramm wants to call the US a bunch of whiners? Really? Are McCain and Gramm that out of touch that they can't appreciate the anger Americans have related to this subject?

To hell with whining, we're goddamn furious that elitists such as McCain and Gramm dumped this financial mess on the country and stuck average Americans with the bill. Can you imagine, one of the largest banks in the world asking for welfare handouts from middle class Americans? A bank? A Swiss bank, asking for American tax dollars? Gramm needs to quit his own whining about asking for corporate welfare. People living on million dollar salaries from exclusive Swiss banks or people who marry a trust fund have no idea what it's like for the rest of us. Maybe this BS works in their social circles, but it doesn't cut it back in the real world. Read the rest of this post...

Office pet peeves

Working in an office is misery for me because I'm too easily distracted by everything. The biggest issue I have now is the cats staying quiet during conference calls or Sushi wanting to sleep on one of my laptops. The dirty coffee mug story in here reminds me of what I would do...throw the things out until there were none. I think I did that with a roommate ages ago who refused to clean...anything. Passive aggressive? Absolutely.

What's your biggest office pet peeve? Read the rest of this post...