So, the market is tanking after Geitner's speech.  I called my stock broker, and out of intellectual curiousity asked why?

He said the banks had expected Santa Claus to come and magically take away all their toxic debt and leave them with bushels of money.  Except there is no Santa Claus, and the government is apparently telling the banks that while they will help the banks will have to deal with some of this debt all by them little selves.

I say tough despite the fact I'm in the market.  Their idiocy helped create this mess.  Why should they get a free pass?

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I actually watched the full hour of a presidential press conference last night.  I haven’t done that in eight years.  Well, actually seven.  I tried listening to the first couple of Bush press conferences, but soon gave up.  Aside from the fact I felt the man was an imposter in the White House, I couldn’t take the mangled syntax and simplistic answers.

Boy, was last night ever a difference.  Detailed, thoughtful, nuanced, _long_ answers delivered in complete English sentences.  Honesty, in admitting that he’s not certain that everything in the Recovery Plan will work, but knowing as FDR knew in 1933 that doing nothing is not an option.

For the first time in my life I’m scared. I’ve always ridden out the downturns, and watch my investments come roaring back.  I hope it’s going to happen this time, but I’m resigned to the fact it’s probably going to take seven to ten years.
Rachel Maddow showed a graph present by Nancy Pelosi of job losses in the two previous recessions, and job losses in this recession.  It looks like a car going over a cliff.  You can take a look at the scary picture at the Daily Nugget.  And it’s not just a picture for me.

 My friend Chip was laid off last Tuesday without any warning.  Now he has no heath insurance, no income and he’ll be relying on unemployment insurance while he looks for a new job.  In construction.  And the Republicans succeeded in having money for state services slashed.  Maybe all the unemployed folks should just go live with a Republican lawmaker until the economy turns around.

And on other hot stories of the day.  What’s with this crazy octuplets mother?  Did none of the doctors at the fertility clinic notice this woman has extreme emotional and mental problems?  What kind of doctor enables an unemployed, single mother to have 14 kids?  If she was this desperate for children there are a whole lot of kids waiting to be adopted.  Oh wait, she might have had to go through a screening, and someone might have noticed she was nuts.

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