1929 All Over Again

There was a great financier who stepped in on the second day of the Stock Market Crash in 1929. He was the richest man in the country and he had decided enough was enough. He would personally save Americas bacon by bailing out the stock market. He went around and bought shares in every large company, infusing millions and millions of dollars  all over the stock market horizon. The market would not crash on his watch and for a while it seemed to work. The crash paused while people took heart that the richest man in the world had just rescued the market and by proxy the American economy. Then it went to the floor.

Now we seeWarren Buffet bailing out Bank of America with billions. Bank of America stock goes up nine percent and people are taking heart that one of the richest men in the world is giving the bank a vote of confidence. Too bad he gave the money to the wrong people. Bank of America is in the toilet because our homes are worthless and becoming more worthless. He should have just given the money to the homeowners. The bank mirrors the market and the derivatives that killed it and is now on the hook for billions in litigation. The great ship Buffet will not stem this tide. Bank of America is too big to fail but it seems destined too.

Because no one is doing anything for the very people who can bail out BOA: their customers. The bank prefers to just let everyone default while they foreclose on people whose only sin was to own a home that is now worthless. Bank of America is the Titanic of the Housing Crash. She holds tons of soured mortgage securities pawned off to people who are now suing them. She bought Countrywide. Talk about an iceberg laden with sub prime garbage. And she is taking water so fast that even Warren Buffets patch will not work. What is scary is that Buffett had to do this.

And what will the government do? Bail them out again? More money after bad. President Obama better do something for housing or he will be the Captain John Smith of the SS BOA breaking in two and heading for the icy darkness of our second Great Depression. Oh, that financier who tried to bail us out the last time: JP Morgan.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/

Rocket Man

FEAR ITSELF

1929. Fear itself. That rainy drizzly inaugural day in Washington with the stock market decimated and Mr. Roosevelt standing next to Mr. Hoover in those tall stove pipe hats, everything as somber as the black and white film where Mr. Roosevelt tells a crowd of black umbrellas--the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself. Quaint words once upon a time, but we know fear itself don't we? We feel it when we watch the cable channels and listen to wrestlers and has been kung fu actors tell us who we should vote for. We feel it when we can no longer decipher between news and entertainment where Larry King holds us hostage with who the Donald will endorse for President. Where have all the real people gone? We feel it when the market plunges nearly five hundred points and nobody can really have a serious discussion about the problem because everyone is busy being a celebrity. Are there any adults left in the house?Are we now victim to the Sara Palins who are as much a phenomenon for her hair and accent as her experience? Where is Mr. Obama now? Has he been swiftboated by the forces that be? Has the news media finally devoured their own? Where did all that hope go to in two short weeks? Could a woman who likes to shoot wolves from a helicoter and field dress a moose and talk about war with Russia and not even know what the Bush doctrine is really derail our best hope for change in this country? Could an old man with a rich Stepford wife really inherit the White House by proxy, hiding behind the short skirts and updo of a woman half his age who is married to snow mobile racing First Dude, a woman who tries to ban books, fire state troopers, and has her husband call people to tell them she is not happy with them? Where is that higher calling? Has it really all been sold down the river with the rest of our values? For what? A buck? Where is our Mr. Roosevelt now? We need him and we need him badly, because my friends, we are the ones standing in the rain now, and it's 2008.