John McCain on the state of the economy

1/10 McCain: I don't believe we're headed into a recession. I believe the fundamentals of this economy are strong, and I believe they will remain strong.

Huzzah, the fundamentals are strong!

OK, I was wrong. Really wrong. I was sure politicians would approve this bailout bill, no matter how publicly unpopular it was. The short-term risks of not doing something seemed too enormous - a complete freeze of the credit markets and the subsequent collapse of the economic system that relies so heavily on that free flow of credit.

sarah palin is a total INSPIRATION to me!! i am SOOOOOOOO EXCITED that she could be our next vice president, maybe even our PRESIDENT!  for someone with her talent to be a vice president proves that anyone can make it in america. YAY SARAH!!!!!!!!! you go, GIRL!!!!!!

From Friday's debate:

Hey folks. I think that I need a new handle to maintain parity with the other "men" at this site, and I'm taking suggestions. It doesn't have to start with G, but it would be nice to maintain some connection to the name of the blog

Current candidates:

• G-man
• Grooveyman
• Unman
• Gingerbreadman
• Gingerman

Unman is my fav, but it doesn't start with G. After that I like Gingerman for the gingerbread and literary references. I would probably use this image as my avatar:

This post is not about the horse race or who "won" the debate. This post is about the greatest problem facing America today, a greater problem than we have faced in many years. This post is about the economy. I'm sorry to say that neither of the candidates took the opportunity to address it in a serious manner.

We are facing the worst economic crisis since the 1980's. WaMu just set a record as the "Largest U.S. Bank Failure Ever." (Mazel-tov, WaMu.) Investment titans are on the knees, the ones that haven't gone under or been torn apart. Debt is at a historic high. Credit is tight. People are losing their houses and their jobs. Everyone is angry. Everyone is afraid.

I wrote this piece some years ago, before I was 30. I'm now probably in what could be called an on-schedule midlife crisis, but this article still seems relevant. I've updated it slightly to make it current with the times...

OK, the market's up big. The bailout plan is about to be unveiled. What does it all mean? Here are my thoughts.

America is fortunate to have a choice between two men of honor this election year. In another election, the candidates might have tried to exploit the financial crisis for petty political gain. But not this year. John McCain has gone so far as to propose delaying the first debate with Barack Obama so that they can solve our crisis:

We've been told for so long that everything is OK with the economy. Nothing to see here, they've said. McCain calls the economy fundamentally strong; his economic adviser calls the American people a bunch of whiners; Greenspan says we are nearing the bottom of the housing meltdown; Barney Frank dismisses the problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as overstated.

So McCain wants to put politics aside in order to solve the economic crisis ...

Bah! Man, maybe I'm too cynical, but I can't even imagine a more political tactic.

McCain just gave a speech saying he wants to suspend his political campaign and postpone Friday's presidential debate until Congress agrees on legislation to solve this crisis.

That's just silly.

The blogosphere is abuzz with rumors about a secret deal between John McCain and Satan. A contributor to popular political blog, TPM Cafe, first broke the story last week in a post entitled, Lady MacDeath - A Faustian Bargain of Sinister Deception. According to blogger TheraP, who does not quote any sources, Satan promised John McCain the Presidency in 2008 in return for sacrificing his soul and selecting Sarah Palin to be his running mate.

Oh things are going well my friends. This stock market crash could not have come at a better time. Just look at John McCain squirm. All we need are a few more major bankruptcies, and we'll have the election locked up. As a special bonus, the greedy bankers are getting screwed too.

It astounds me, but my 'Please Fire Linehan' post from two weeks ago is still getting the most traffic on my blog. It seems people care a lot more about a crappy football coach on a crappy football team than the potential collapse of the stock market and U.S. economy ... Seems about right to me!

Back in the doom-and-gloom days of...um...last week, there were a number of stalwart cheerleaders at TPM Cafe who airily assured us that Obama had everything under control. While I wasn't particularly concerned about the polls--I've seen enough elections not to get my knickers in a twist over weekly fluctuations--I had the sense that at least some of those cheerleaders would insist that all was well up to the moment of crushing defeat. The knowing assurances that Obama's hesitance to attack was part of his rope-a-dope strategy seemed the most suspect.

Ok, so I've admitted that the government probably had to do something to stem the financial crisis.

Now I'm going to talk about all the ways this bailout could - and probably will - go wrong (with the caveat that all the details still haven't been worked out).

The SEC has banned short-selling on financial stocks. The Treasury has guaranteed money market funds and is cooking up plans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to buy distressed assets and save troubled banks. The market has rebounded huge, taking back all of this month's losses.

So are we all clear??

Hardly.

Whoo-boy. Another fun day on Wall Street. I just got done watching another episode of Jim Cramer's Mad Money and I gotta vent a little bit here.

I like Cramer. A lot of people think he's a buffoon, but I think he's incredibly smart, and he entertains and informs like few others in the business. And there is no denying his stellar record as a hedge fund manager in his former career (though I would venture that a lot of the practices he now rails against as a voice for the common man- like naked short selling - helped contribute to a lot of that performance).