So what’s the deal now, are we gonna bail out every failing industry?
Understand that the Detroit automakers are important, as are the jobs in that industry. But if the industry gets this aid - what will it do with it? Will it use the money to retool the industry, to make more efficient vehicles? But […]

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It’s a mark of how volatility has become the new normal that you go to the Yahoo! Business page and spend a few moments actually looking around to see what stocks are doing, finally find the story halfway-down the page - and discover that stocks are down 250 points today.
Pshaw. Get back to us when we’ve […]

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Via Kos, this one’s just strange.
For these and other reasons Cindy is calling for a Day of Prayer for the World’s Economies on Wednesday, October 29, 2008. They are calling for prayer for the stock markets, banks, and financial institutions of the world on the date the stock market crashed in 1929. They are meeting […]

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I’m told that when Fred Thompson blew into town yesterday to rally the Republican faithful, he arrived late and wound up speaking a grand total of eight minutes.
On the front page of today’s Intell, we see Dave Pigeon’s story telling us that he spent those eight minutes advising Americans to pity the poor rich man:
The […]

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Or, how you know you’re in a recession:
The nation’s largest employer and retailer is a bellwether for many things, but theft may be its greatest contribution. Due to the sheer size of its stores – coupled with chronic short-staffing and no security staff – Wal-Mart tends to be ground-zero for shoplifting.
The evidence comes from the […]

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Like a rocket. Market up 581 points as of this writing.
Update: Try 684, 3:43 p.m.
Update 2: OK, try 891.
891? Good lord.
Update 3: Ends the day up 889. But tomorrow you might want to sell:
“There is nothing fundamental that came out today or yesterday that would take it up or down. We’re all groping for something […]

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Should feature a guy standing there saying:
“Joe the Plumber makes $250,000 a year.
“I am not Joe the Plumber.”
Then a whole parade of people: “I am not Joe the Plumber.”
GOP seems to think that even those just scraping by are ideologically opposed to higher taxes on those making six figured. Methinks they are going to be disabused of […]

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Question: With oil trading today below $64 per barrel, why am I still paying $2.65 per gallon at my local Turkey Hill?

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Don’t let it fall on me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1ZV4Mx7tw8

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…it’s up to my eyes.
Stock index futures tumbled so sharply on Friday that they had to be frozen at several points as global markets tumbled on signs the global economy is in the throes of recession.
Stock markets were in freefall around the world as panicked investors moved to liquidate risky positions. Japan’s Nikkei index ended […]

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Stocks up 218 as of this writing. We’re really getting to a point where - if the market plunges one day, buy buy buy, because it’s going back up the next. Then the next day - sell sell sell, because it’s going back down.

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Stocks end the day down 514 points.

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Henry Blodgett on why this recession is a’gonna be different:
Because the US consumer is finally broke.  For thirty years, we piled on debt and then spent almost every new penny we got.  This borrowing spree was made possible by a smorgasbord of no-money-down lending products and ever-appreciating asset prices. Unfortunately, the situation has now changed. […]

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Stocks down 315 as of this writing, after falling 231 yesterday. Monday’s big gain is now erased; Dow’s back below 9,000.
But with this volatility, by the end of the day - we could be up 500 points. But if you’ve got investments, you watch all this and you think, with a growing sense of panic: What should […]

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Stocks now up 237 points.
Up, down, all around like a rollercoaster.
Update: Ends the day up 401 points.
And so you think: Well, is now a good time to buy? Does the market plunge tomorrow because it went up today? And if it does plunge tomorrow - does it soar again on Monday?
There is no stability to this […]

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Dow down 277 as of this writing. Which means as of this moment, we’re below where we were before Monday’s huge surge upward.
Oil down under $68 though - which is of course connected. I’ve heard from a lot of people in recent weeks that now is really the time to buy oil - that however much […]

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Stocks down 421 as of this writing. But who knows, could be up 421 by day’s end.
It’s the volatility that makes all of this so unnerving. But if there’s anyone doing well in this environment - I suspect it’s the day traders.

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The Washington Post wonders. Which makes the complaints of McCain fans even more tenuous. You know, we may not have a choice but socialism, or an increased tendency toward socialism, at least for a while.

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Struck last night when I logged onto Yahoo! News, where the major story, of course, was the stock market plunge. Huge photo of a trader with head in hands; story after story about the plunge, about what it means, about what’s going to happen today, about how the world is reacting to all of this.
Second […]

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Dow down 450 points today, broke through the 9,000 floor. With no end, it seems, in sight.
But let’s talk about Bill Ayers!
Update: Check that - now down 646 points. Black Thursday?
Update II: Ends down almost 679 points.
In what may (or may not) be a related move, Obama purchases a half-hour of airtime on CBS, and is […]

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