STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday October 20

[ozymandius]

Source: du

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday October 20, 2008

COUNTING THE DAYS
DAYS REMAINING IN THE * REGIME 92
DAYS SINCE DEMOCRACY DIED (12/12/00) 2827 DAYS
WHERE'S OSAMA BIN-LADEN? 2552 DAYS
DAYS SINCE ENRON COLLAPSE = 2843
Number of Enron Execs in handcuffs = 19
ENRON EXECS CONVICTED = 10
Enron execs conveniently deceased = 3
Other Arrests of Execs = 54

---

U.S. FUTURES &
MARKETS INDICATORS>
NASDAQ FUTURES-----------------------------S&P FUTURES

---

AT THE CLOSING BELL WHEN BUSH TOOK OFFICE on January 22, 2001
Dow - 10,578.24
Nasdaq - 2,757.91
S&P 500 - 1,342.90
Oil - $27.69/bbl
Gold - $266.70/oz.
$1 USD = EUR 1.06678
$1 USD = JPY 116.6200

In recognition of those prescient of the Dow's precipitous return of Bush values (9/29/08): JuneBourder and AnneD

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON October 17, 2008

Dow... 8,852.22 -127.04 (-1.41%)
Nasdaq... 1,711.29 -6.42 (-0.37%)
S&P 500... 940.55 -5.88 (-0.62%)
Gold future... 787.70 -16.80 (-2.13%)
30-Year Bond 4.31% +0.09 (+2.01%)
10-Yr Bond... 3.94% +0.00 (+0.05%)






GOLD,EURO, YEN, Loonie and Silver

---

PIEHOLE ALERT

Heads Up!
Preliminary info on appearances by Bush & Co. throughout the country. Details & links are added as they become available so check back. And if you know more, are organizing something, or would like to, contact [e-mail]

For information on protests and other actions Citizens For Legitimate Government

---

Read more: du

[ozymandius]

1. Market WrapUp by Tim Wood

Here if you want it.

http://www.financialsense.com/Market/wrapup.htm

[specimenfred1984]

33. WTF, now he's seen manipulation since 2002?

Quote "As the market declined into the 2002 low we began to see more manipulation and efforts to hold the market up than ever before."

Richard Clarke said it best "These people should not be allowed back into polite society". Of course, he was referring to war criminals but Tim Wood's lies are almost as bad and just as continual. I'll go as far as to finally say it too, posting Tim Woods BULLSHIT degrades the integrity of this DU thread.

[Demeter]

36. Call in the Forensic Accountants!

We may not really know what has been going on in BushWorld for a generation (although I would like to think that these days we don't have to wait for all the guilty to die to get at the truth, Residential Orders notwithstanding.

Hold on to your skepticism just a bit.

[Dr.Phool]

38. Ozy posts a link and a clip from Financial Sense every morning.

Unfortunately Tim Wood is one of them. We all know he' full of shit, but Oz doesn't even bother with an excerpt of his "non-confirmations" anymore. Just a link. I read him for comedic value. And I feel much smarter after reading him.

[UpInArms]

50. it's amazing, isn't if Fred?

Tim Wood has a wooden head.

someone just needs to turn him into a free market totem pole

:hi:

[ozymandius]

2. Today's Report

Oct 20 10:00 Leading Indicators Sep
Briefing.com NA
Consensus -0.3%
Prior -0.5%

http://www.briefing.com/Investor/Public/Calendars/EconomicCalendar.htm

[UpInArms]

51. Leading indicators rise 0.3% in September

81. Leading indicators rise 0.3% in September
10:00 AM ET, Oct 20, 2008

[ozymandius]

3. Oil rises to $73 on expectation of OPEC cut

SINGAPORE – Oil prices rose to $73 a barrel in Asia on Monday on expectations that OPEC will cut production quotas at an extraordinary meeting later this week.

Light, sweet crude for November delivery rose $1.16 to $73.01 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Singapore. The contract Friday gained $1.53 to settle at $71.38.

Chakib Khelil, president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, said Sunday that members plan to announce a "substantial" cut at a meeting that begins Oct. 24 in Vienna.

...

In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures rose 1.65 cents to $2.15 a gallon, while gasoline prices gained 2.44 cents to $1.69 a gallon. Natural gas for November delivery jumped 14 cents to $6.93 per 1,000 cubic feet.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/oil_prices

[ozymandius]

4. OPEC may cut oil supplies in 2 rounds: Khelil

ALGIERS (Reuters) – OPEC oil producers may cut oil supplies in two rounds, one when they meet next week in Vienna and a second later on, to drain oil supply surplus off markets and firm up prices, the group president on Sunday.

....

Pressure is mounting within OPEC to reduce supplies as oil prices have fallen more than 50 percent from July's record of $147.27 and expectations have grown that a global recession will erode fuel demand.

"I think firstly there is a consensus over the meeting among OPEC members, then an urgency for all members. So, there is no doubt that all members agree that oil inventories are very high and supply is higher than demand by around 2 million barrels per day," said Khelil.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081019/bs_nm/us_opec_cut_algeria

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

29. These morons are doing it again.

All this will do is result in more demand destruction for them and they will keep making less.

Greed: the basest urge of man.

[ozymandius]

5. AP IMPACT: Mortgage firm arranged stealth campaign

WASHINGTON – Freddie Mac secretly paid a Republican consulting firm $2 million to kill legislation that would have regulated and trimmed the mortgage finance giant and its sister company, Fannie Mae, three years before the government took control to prevent their collapse.

In the cross hairs of the campaign carried out by DCI of Washington were Republican senators and a regulatory overhaul bill sponsored by Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. DCI's chief executive is Doug Goodyear, whom John McCain's campaign later hired to manage the GOP convention in September.

Freddie Mac's payments to DCI began shortly after the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee sent Hagel's bill to the then GOP-run Senate on July 28, 2005. All GOP members of the committee supported it; all Democrats opposed it.

In the midst of DCI's yearlong effort, Hagel and 25 other Republican senators pleaded unsuccessfully with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., to allow a vote.

Unknown to the senators, DCI was undermining support for the bill in a campaign targeting 17 Republican senators in 13 states, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. The states and the senators targeted changed over time, but always stayed on the Republican side.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081020/ap_on_bi_ge/the_influence_game_housing

[Hugin]

9. Wowza... Quite the revelation.

This should be as big as the Attorney Firing Scandal, if one were to ask me... Also, it should bring about a
Watergate level self-examination by the Republicans. But, I'm not a Republican... So, I'm not going to hold my
breath.

[ozymandius]

12. Self-examination is rarely characteristic of conservatism.

This also means, by extension, Republicanism rarely self-examines itself. Not out of contrition. Self-examination frequently arrives after the shock of getting caught committing an illegal/unethical act and usually in the form of a legal defense.

Holding breath? I'm with you. I have better things to do.

[Hugin]

14. What should concern us is...

If they were doing this to their own, what skulduggery were they perpetrating on the Opposition and how much (if any)
taxpayer money was being spent on it?

Where there's smoke, there's fire.

Does explain Sen. Hagel's actions lately, though.

[ozymandius]

17. There's the rub: totally opacity of these deals and maneuvers.

Read the Fannie/Freddie drama. Bear Stearns was bailed out because no one knew the extent of their investments and liabilities. Much the same with these lobbying firms gaming our government officials: we do not know the extents of their deals either. Opacity has been strategy for doing whatever they want, either legitimate or illegal or just unethical.

[antigop]

24. Sirota:"..the government is being transparent about exactly where it is being secretive"

http://action.credomobile.com/sirota/2008/10/treasury_blacks_out_key_parts.html

Remember how Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson promised full transparency in spending the $700 billion bailout money? And remember how bailout opponents predicted that the failure to mandate such transparency would allow all sorts of Halliburton-style shenanigans? From the looks of the first private contracts issued by the Treasury Department, it looks like the bailout opponents were correct.

As flagged by BailoutSleuth.com, Paulson is blacking out the sections of government contracts that spell out how much private firms will be paid for their services in administering taxpayer money. Here's a page from the compensation part of a contract with Bank of New York, which has been hired to do some of the bookkeeping (because, of course, the Bush administration is happy to privatize that function):

[ozymandius]

13. The Role of Fannie & Freddie

From The Big Picture

A very good description of Fannie/Freddie, via Doug Diamond and Anil Kashyap, posting at the Freakonomics blog:

"The Fannie and Freddie situation was a result of their unique roles in the economy. They had been set up to support the housing market. They helped guarantee mortgages (provided they met certain standards), and were able to fund these guarantees by issuing their own debt, which was in turn tacitly backed by the government. The government guarantees allowed Fannie and Freddie to take on far more debt than a normal company. In principle, they were also supposed to use the government guarantee to reduce the mortgage cost to the homeowners, but the Fed and others have argued that this hardly occurred. Instead, they appear to have used the funding advantage to rack up huge profits and squeeze the private sector out of the “conforming” mortgage market. Regardless, many firms and foreign governments considered the debt of Fannie and Freddie as a substitute for U.S. Treasury securities and snapped it up eagerly.

Fannie and Freddie were weakly supervised and strayed from the core mission. They began using their subsidized financing to buy mortgage-backed securities which were backed by pools of mortgages that did not meet their usual standards. Over the last year, it became clear that their thin capital was not enough to cover the losses on these subprime mortgages. The massive amount of diffusely held debt would have caused collapses everywhere if it was defaulted upon; so the Treasury announced that it would explicitly guarantee the debt.

But once the debt was guaranteed to be secure (and the government would wipe out shareholders if it carried through with the guarantee), no self-interested investor was willing to supply more equity to help buffer the losses. Hence, the Treasury ended up taking them over."

"That's about as cogent an explanation as I have come across . . . " - so says Barry Ritholtz.

http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/10/the-role-of-fan.html

[ozymandius]

16. Other cogent answers about Bear Stearns' bailout -

Why did the Treasury and Fed let Lehman fail but rescue Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and A.I.G.?

...
Bear Stearns was bailed out for two reasons. One was that the Fed had very imperfect information about what was going on at Bear. The Fed was not Bear’s regulator, the amount of publicly available information was limited, and its staff was not versed in all of the ways in which Bear might have been connected to other parts of the financial system.

The second problem was that Bear’s counterparties in many transactions were not prepared for the sudden demise of Bear. A Bear bankruptcy might have triggered a wave of forced selling of collateral that Bear would have given its counterparties. Given the potential chaos that would have resulted from Bear Stearns filing for bankruptcy, the Fed had little choice but to engineer a rescue. In doing so, the Fed argued that the rescue was a rare, perhaps once-in-a-generation, event.

...

Against this backdrop, if the government had rescued Lehman, it would have repudiated the claim that the Bear rescue was extraordinary; it would have also conceded that in the six months since Bear failed, neither the new facility that it set up nor the other steps to make markets more robust were reliable. Essentially, the Fed and the Treasury would have been admitting that they had lied or were incompetent in stabilizing the financial system — or both.

[ozymandius]

6. Bush Adviser Says Parts Of U.S. Are in Recession (Clue Phone reconnected?)

LAS VEGAS -- One of President Bush's top economic advisers said yesterday that parts of the country are experiencing a recession and that it could be "a few months" before the $700 billion financial rescue plan really takes hold. "We are seeing what I think anyone would characterize as a recession in certain parts of the country," Edward P. Lazear, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said on CNN's "Late Edition." The White House has been loath to discuss whether the U.S. economy is in recession, in part because the word carries such a negative connotation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/19/AR2008101901950.html

..very brief..

[Hugin]

10. Okay, now the next step is to look at the National Average.

I know it's bitter medicine, but, you'll find that average is below the Recession line too, dudes.

[ozymandius]

7. ING shares surge after 10 billion euro capital deal

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Shares in banking and insurance giant ING jumped over 20% on Monday after the group said it will receive a 10 billion euro ($13.4 billion) capital injection from the Dutch government.

In exchange for the cash, the government will receive non-voting preference shares paying 8.5% interest or more as well as the right to nominate two new members of the group's supervisory board.

ING said the deal will boost its core Tier 1 capital ratio to 8% and will cut its debt-to-equity ratio to around 10% from 15%. Like other European banks that have accepted government cash, ING said it also won't pay a final dividend for the year.

Shares in the group jumped 22% in early Amsterdam trading. Still, that wasn't enough to claw back the stock's 27% drop on Friday, when it warned it faces a 500 million euro quarterly loss following further write-downs.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/ing-shares-surge-after-agreeing/story.aspx?guid={202C6ABA-6226-49EC-B4EC-FAE149B24D71}&dist=msr_1

[ozymandius]

8. China's Economy Grows 9%, Slowest Pace in Five Years

Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- China's economy, the biggest contributor to global growth, expanded at the slowest pace in five years as the financial crisis cut demand for exports.

Gross domestic product rose 9 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said in Beijing today. That was less than any of the 12 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey and the 10.1 percent gain in the previous three months.

The fifth quarter of slowing growth may exacerbate declines this year in iron ore, copper and oil prices and undermine demand for exports within Asia, where economies are already contracting. The cabinet announced yesterday increased infrastructure spending and tax cuts for exporters and the central bank may be poised to cut interest rates for the third time this year.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=aJJBaErjZEqk&refer=home

[ozymandius]

11. Turmoil May Make Americans Savers, Worsening `Nasty' Recession

Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. may be on its way to becoming a nation of savers, whether Americans like it or not.

With home and stock prices declining and credit hard to come by, consumers who have fallen out of the savings habit are being forced to curb borrowing and rein in spending.

...

The big concern is that households, spooked by the turmoil in financial markets, will cut back rapidly and sharply, plunging companies into bankruptcy and deepening a recession that many economists say has already begun.

...

In the long run, higher savings would be good news for the U.S. economy, because the extra money would help put household finances on a sounder footing and lessen U.S. dependence on investment by China and other foreign countries to finance economic growth.

In the shorter run, though, it will likely mean wrenching changes for companies that have become reliant on rapidly growing consumer spending. Some firms have already begun cutting back to bring operations in line with lower demand.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=axsUMrc.liiE&refer=exclusive

[Festivito]

15. Debt: 10/16/2008 10,331,139,000,845.90 (UP 5,083,620,581.80) (15% of report-avg)

(Not up by as much. Maybe they are slowing down the heavy borrowing.)

= Held by the Public + Intragovernmental(FICA)
= 6,060,010,376,937.96 + 4,271,128,623,907.96
UP 4,314,322,948.32 + UP 769,297,633.49

Source: Debt to the penny:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np

ANALYSIS:
There were 21 reports in the last 30 days.
The average for the last 21 reported increases in debt is 32,921,301,662.76.
The average for the last 30 days would be 23,044,911,163.93.

There were 252 reports in 365 days of FY2007 averaging 1.99B$ per report, 1.37B$/day.
There were 253 reports in 366 days of FY2008 averaging 4.02B$ per report, 2.78B$/day.
There were 11 reports in 16 days of FY2009 averaging 27.86B$ per report, 19.15B$/day.

PROJECTION:
GWB** must relinquish the presidency in 96 days.
By that time the debt could be between 10.5 and 12.5T$.
It could be higher. It could be lower.

HISTORICAL:
President's term begins and ends on Jan 20.
(Guess who might want to hide the Reagan Bush years. Jan 20 data is missing before 1993.)
01/20/1993 _4,188,092,107,183.60 WJC Inaugural
01/22/2001 _5,728,195,796,181.57 WJC (UP 1,540,103,688,997.97)
10/16/2008 10,331,139,000,845.90 GWB (UP 4,602,943,204,664.33 so far since Bush took office)

Fiscal Year ends: Sep 30
Borrowed in FY1993: (Maybe later.)
Borrowed in FY1994: 281,261,026,873.94
Borrowed in FY1995: 281,232,990,696.07
Borrowed in FY1996: 250,828,038,426.34
Borrowed in FY1997: 188,335,072,261.61
Borrowed in FY1998: 113,046,997,500.28
Borrowed in FY1999: 130,077,892,735.81
Borrowed in FY2000: _17,907,308,253.43 Bill alone
Borrowed in FY2001: 133,285,202,313.20 Bill and George
Borrowed in FY2002: 420,772,553,397.10 All George
Borrowed in FY2003: 554,995,097,146.46
Borrowed in FY2004: 595,821,633,586.70
Borrowed in FY2005: 553,656,965,393.18
Borrowed in FY2006: 574,264,237,491.73
Borrowed in FY2007: 500,679,473,047.25
Borrowed in FY2008: 1,017,071,524,650.01
Borrowed in FY2009: 306,414,103,933.50 so far.

For a prettier and more explanatory view of our nation's debt:
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock

(Debt to the penny keeps changing. Stuff is missing. Best to keep our own history.) YESTERDAY'S POST LINK:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3548499&mesg_id=3549341

[Festivito]

47. Debt: 10/17/2008 10,334,206,499,002.10 (UP 3,067,498,156.20) (9% of report-avg)

(Maybe we're back to normally obnoxiously high borrowing by Republicans.)

= Held by the Public + Intragovernmental(FICA)
= 6,059,726,289,765.44 + 4,274,480,209,236.71
DOWN 284,087,172.52 + UP 3,351,585,328.75

Source: Debt to the penny:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np

ANALYSIS:
There were 21 reports in the last 30 days.
The average for the last 21 reported increases in debt is 32,717,097,068.91.
The average for the last 30 days would be 22,901,967,948.24.

There were 252 reports in 365 days of FY2007 averaging 1.99B$ per report, 1.37B$/day.
There were 253 reports in 366 days of FY2008 averaging 4.02B$ per report, 2.78B$/day.
There were 12 reports in 17 days of FY2009 averaging 25.79B$ per report, 18.20B$/day.

PROJECTION:
GWB** must relinquish the presidency in 95 days.
By that time the debt could be between 10.5 and 12.5T$.
It could be higher. It could be lower.

HISTORICAL:
President's term begins and ends on Jan 20.
(Guess who might want to hide the Reagan Bush years. Jan 20 data is missing before 1993.)
01/20/1993 _4,188,092,107,183.60 WJC Inaugural
01/22/2001 _5,728,195,796,181.57 WJC (UP 1,540,103,688,997.97)
10/17/2008 10,334,206,499,002.10 GWB (UP 4,606,010,702,820.53 so far since Bush took office)

Fiscal Year ends: Sep 30
Borrowed in FY1993: (Maybe later.)
Borrowed in FY1994: 281,261,026,873.94
Borrowed in FY1995: 281,232,990,696.07
Borrowed in FY1996: 250,828,038,426.34
Borrowed in FY1997: 188,335,072,261.61
Borrowed in FY1998: 113,046,997,500.28
Borrowed in FY1999: 130,077,892,735.81
Borrowed in FY2000: _17,907,308,253.43 Bill alone
Borrowed in FY2001: 133,285,202,313.20 Bill and George
Borrowed in FY2002: 420,772,553,397.10 All George
Borrowed in FY2003: 554,995,097,146.46
Borrowed in FY2004: 595,821,633,586.70
Borrowed in FY2005: 553,656,965,393.18
Borrowed in FY2006: 574,264,237,491.73
Borrowed in FY2007: 500,679,473,047.25
Borrowed in FY2008: 1,017,071,524,650.01
Borrowed in FY2009: 309,481,602,089.70 so far.

For a prettier and more explanatory view of our nation's debt:
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock

(Debt to the penny keeps changing. Stuff is missing. Best to keep our own history.) YESTERDAY'S POST LINK:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3553335&mesg_id=3553366

[ozymandius]

18. Executives Selling Shares to Meet Margin Calls

From Naked Capitalism

Another symptom of equity-market distress. And the New York Times also provides an interesting discussion of the behavioral implications of corporate officers borrowing against their holdings:

When executives own big stakes in the companies they run, investors can rest a little more easily at night, knowing those managers have the shareholders’ best interests at heart.

Except when maybe they don’t....

Already this month, there have been about $1 billion in sales by company insiders dumping stock to meet margin calls, as lenders’ demands for the stock sales are known. According to Equilar, an executive compensation research firm in Redwood Shores, Calif., executives at three dozen companies have disclosed such sales since October...

Under Securities and Exchange Commission rules, executives are typically required to disclose insider sales within two days of making them and indicate why they were sold, including as a result of a margin call. But experts say there are no rules requiring that the public be told ahead of time that an executive has pledged stock in a margin loan or how the borrowed money is being used. It might be a loan to buy more shares of the company’s stock — which would indicate a vote of confidence in the shares. Or it might be a loan to buy some other company’s stock or something else altogether — possibly a sign that the executive thinks there are better places to invest.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/10/executives-selling-shares-to-meet.html

[ozymandius]

19. 1927-1933 Chart of Pompous Prognosticators (funny in retrospect)

Funny despite the fact that a favorite of mine, John Maynard Keynes, is the first voice. FDR is the last - hardly could be a pompous prognosticating quote. Hoover carries a heavy share of the idiotic comments.

1. "We will not have any more crashes in our time."
- John Maynard Keynes in 1927


2. "I cannot help but raise a dissenting voice to statements that we are living in a fool's paradise, and that prosperity in this country must necessarily diminish and recede in the near future."
- E. H. H. Simmons, President, New York Stock Exchange, January 12, 1928

"There will be no interruption of our permanent prosperity."
- Myron E. Forbes, President, Pierce Arrow Motor Car Co., January 12, 1928


3. "No Congress of the United States ever assembled, on surveying the state of the Union, has met with a more pleasing prospect than that which appears at the present time. In the domestic field there is tranquility and contentment...and the highest record of years of prosperity. In the foreign field there is peace, the goodwill which comes from mutual understanding."
- Calvin Coolidge December 4, 1928


4. "There may be a recession in stock prices, but not anything in the nature of a crash."
- Irving Fisher, leading U.S. economist , New York Times, Sept. 5, 1929


5. "Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau. I do not feel there will be soon if ever a 50 or 60 point break from present levels, such as (bears) have predicted. I expect to see the stock market a good deal higher within a few months."
- Irving Fisher, Ph.D. in economics, Oct. 17, 1929

"This crash is not going to have much effect on business."
- Arthur Reynolds, Chairman of Continental Illinois Bank of Chicago, October 24, 1929

"There will be no repetition of the break of yesterday... I have no fear of another comparable decline."
- Arthur W. Loasby (President of the Equitable Trust Company), quoted in NYT, Friday, October 25, 1929

"We feel that fundamentally Wall Street is sound, and that for people who can afford to pay for them outright, good stocks are cheap at these prices."
- Goodbody and Company market-letter quoted in The New York Times, Friday, October 25, 1929

http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2006/11/19271933_chart_.html

[DemReadingDU]

20. Columbus, Oh - National Century Trial update

The trial has been on break and will resume today.

This article isn't about the trial, but discusses receivables financing in the healthcare industry


10/17/08 Medical Accounts Receivables Funding Industry Evolves in Wake of NCFE by Cynthia Wilson

Long a practice in commercial markets, receivables financing in the healthcare industry evolved significantly after the collapse of an early front-runner.

When National Century Financial Enterprises collapsed in 2002 under the pressure of a federal investigation into fraud and money laundering charges, medical accounts receivables (MAR) funding companies who bought third party medical claims were generally untapped financing sources for most health care providers.

The MAR process involves a healthcare provider borrowing money against the receivables on its books. In a lot of cases, the receivables are third-party, meaning the money is to be paid by insurance companies or Medicare and Medicaid programs

Industry insiders say most MAR customers were either large health care systems with millions in monthly receivables, or small, cash-strapped operators struggling to stay afloat. However, industry insiders tell insideARM that the economic turmoil that is creating sweeping changes to credit markets will force more hospitals and health care providers to expand their funding options as financing dries up benefiting MAR companies.

more...
http://www.insidearm.com/go/arm-news/medical-accounts-receivables-funding-industry-evolves-in-wake-of-ncfe



Link backwards to Trial articles from Saturday, October 11, 2008, and older
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=392231&mesg_id=392323

[UpInArms]

21. dollar watch

http://quotes.ino.com/chart/?s=NYBOT_DX&v=i

Last trade 82.415 Change -0.137 (-0.18%)

The End of Fear?

http://www.bktraderfx.com/site/fx-weekly-reports/bkt-fx-weekly-review-the-end-of-fear-1017-2508

“Never underestimate Americans ability to do the right thing ….eventually” Winston Churchill.

What do Hank Paulson and Joe the Plumber have in common? They were both completely wrong. By the end of this week Paulson had to apologize for his original misguided idea of TARP as he adopted the much more sensible direct capital injection plan of UK PM Gordon Brown. Meanwhile Joe the Plumber had to admit that the Obama policies would actually lower his taxes instead of raising them since he never stood to make than $250K net from his would be “plumbing business.”

To some, the two men on the opposite ends of the socio-economic spectrum, represent everything that is wrong with America today. An infantile nation of intellectually incompetent, hypocritical, self-absorbed citizens that have neither the educational foundation nor the moral fortitude to face the problems that are about to challenge them. The litany of woes is well known.

1. We teeter on the verge of bankruptcy having run chronic current account deficits for more than a quarter century.
2. The demographics of our country are such that greater and greater amounts of our resources will have to be allocated to the least productive part of our population - the elderly, who through the advances of modern medicine are now living longer but have less assets to pay for their nursing care. The young, therefore, already burdened with stratospheric debts from their college education will be forced to pay more of their income to support the bulging elderly population resulting in a massive generational conflict.
3. The latest orgy of credit has resulted in nothing more than endless rows of useless and now worthless McMansions without expanding the economy’s productive capacity one bit.

No doubt, the picture is bleak and the problems are real but Americans ability to adjust and adapt, is unsurpassed in the history of mankind. When given lemons, Americans always try to turn them into lemonade. The pragmatism of Americans has always been stronger than their “fundamentalism”. Despite utter cultural primitivism, Americans have always embraced invention and innovation with open arms and that’s been our saving grace. Thus, robotics may solve the nursing problem. Bio-engineering the food and energy shortages. Stem cell research a hots of medical problems. And the productivity waves that these industries trigger should be able to pay for all excesses of the past. That’s the long view and I hope it comes true.

Meanwhile, in the short term we are likely to see more economic pain. The news this week, was nothing if not bleak. Industrial production saw the biggest drop since 1974. U of M consumer sentiment survey sank like a stone in the wake of troubles in the financial sector and Retail Sales were twice as bad as forecast. Yet the markets stabilized with most traders betting that the worst was behind us.

Does this new calm mean the return of risk? I doubt it. As I wrote on Friday, “The docile pace of trade is unsurprising given the fact that volatility is far more mean-reverting in the markets than price. Indeed, if the credit crisis conditions ease, the next few weeks may bring on a frustratingly rangebound environment as traders begin to assess the impact of the financial meltdown on the real economy. There is little doubt that some sort of contraction will occur and the only question facing the market is will the recession be shallow or deep.”

...more...



http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=0fd35b90-4e86-46fc-91cd-2426a0a658ff

Whatever their squabbling in Washington this week, one thing Democrats and Republicans were able to agree on was the apparent novelty of the country's current financial woes. "We have an unprecedented crisis," said House Minority Leader John Boehner, in a phrase frequently invoked by other congressional leaders. But, in truth, the dire situation in the United States does have a precedent: It looks remarkably like the crisis that struck Japan 20 years ago, when a stock market meltdown exposed years of speculative lending, mostly dependent on real estate, and led to an economic collapse. In response, Japan's government launched a strategy that actually made the problem worse, leading to ten years of stagnation, which became known as Japan's "lost decade. " The bad news is that, today, the United States may be making some of the same mistakes; the good news is that, just as Japan ultimately righted its economy, so can we.

Much like American financial institutions in the 2000s, Japanese banks in the 1980s loaned wildly, gambling on rising real estate prices. Quickly, a bubble built up. At one point in 1990, the value of land in Japan was reportedly greater on paper than the value of all the land in the rest of the world. But, in December 1989, the gamble failed, as the stock market turned down and investors realized how many bad loans the banks had made, many of them with Japan's overvalued land as collateral. Most Japanese banks became afraid to lend any more money, and capital dried up.

At first, Japan's leaders propped up the value of financial assets, convinced that the banks--intertwined as they were with Japanese corporations--were too important to fail. This protected Japan's ailing banks, allowing them to continue lending when they should have been cutting back. The government also started plowing money into the public sector to keep the economy alive. "The additional spending was largely directed toward public works projects, shoring up a weak financial system, and subsidies to the weakest of Japan's businesses, which, in retrospect, ought to have been allowed to fail," writes American Enterprise Institute economist John Makin. "While the direct stimulus of government works projects and subsidies to weak businesses kept the economy from falling back into negative growth for a time, the weakness resumed once the direct stimulative effects of the spending packages wore off."

Indeed, the stimulus just served as a smoke screen. Banks, never forced to acknowledge their mistakes, appeared healthier than they were, and companies that should have gone bankrupt stayed open. Initially, the strategy did produce a minor boost in growth, but the economy never regained its momentum. Worse, Japan became addicted to the idea of recovery without pain, so, for ten years, one Japanese prime minister after the next did what they could to keep the economy afloat through multibilliondollar infusions. Yet banks never gained enough confidence to lend aggressively, weak companies barely stayed alive, and uncertainty kept consumers out of the stores. By 2000, Japan had piled up debt worth more than 150 percent of its gross domestic product, and average citizens were no better off--more than $10 trillion in wealth and savings destroyed since the early '90s.

...more...

[Demeter]

23. Having Passed the Half-Century Birthday, I Am Increasingly Annoyed by Elder Bashing

The elderly are a damn sight more productive than anyone under 21, and can provide for that younger age group essential educational and care-giving. It is the way everything is monetized and segregated in this society that wastes so much of our useful capacity at all stages of life for most people.

Disability affects all ages and all economic groups. Yet we hear no calls for euthanasia, no, we don't even permit those desperate for relief from permanent and unmanageable pain the release of a chosen peaceful death.

Bash not the elderly, they (we) are completely willing and able to return the blows.

[Tansy_Gold]

28. I just passed the decade after that, Demeter, so I hear you

even louder and clearer!

But with two kids and two kids-in-law who are 30s and productive, I have to say I put a good part of the blame for youthful slackerdom on The System that has never rewarded them. Low pay, no benefits, contract and temp work -- all goodies of the "free market" for labor -- have sapped them of ambition.

Therefore, I don't wonder at the appeal of our erstwhile Wurzelbacher the plumber -- owning one's own business and being master of one's fate is a part of the American dream. Wage slavery is, well, slavery. I don't know too many who are enthusiastic and productive under that kind of economic regime.

I may not be wealthy, and indeed I have my financial difficulties right now, but I do sincerely appreciate the opportunity afforded by a contractor-status job that gives me a lot of independence and leeway in how much I can make. I'm far closer to being really and truly SELF-employed than I am a temp worker, which I have been for many many years in my lifetime.


Now if I can just make it to social security. . . . .


Tansy Gold, wishing SS weren't such a lifeline. . ..

[Demeter]

35. You Got the Other Points, Too!

Youth is not encouraged to produce, not encouraged to learn, not encouraged to excell. That started in the 80's, good old Ronnie, destroying the economy for generations to come.

[Tansy_Gold]

49. Reagan the smiling destroyer.

gag.


And that's why it's going to be so difficult to come back from 8 years of boooosh. It's not 8 years; it's really 28. There's been a whole lot of destruction, not just to the manufacturing industries but to the manufacturing mindset. We no longer have a national "We Can Do It!" attitude.

But I think we can get it back. I think the nature of the human animal is to put much greater reliance in hope and positive thinking than in despair and negative thinking. And that statement comes from one who is frequently negative and despairing. As long as suicide -- the total abandonment of all hope -- remains a rare event, hope remains paramount. That's what we have to build on.


Consider me a builder named



Tansy Gold (and an editor who can't type!)

[Karenina]

37. Happy Birthday, TG!

The 13th IIRC. :hug: :toast: :hug: My cousin and I made a proclamation when we turned 40 that staying alive had earned us a MONTH to party! ALL meetings and greetings 2 weeks before or after are considered ON TIME and an integral part of the birthday party package. Mine is today and I'm 2 years behind you.

I was expecting a bit of excitement today, with Lehman's having to crack a BIG nut tomorrow, or so I've read. But the night is yet young! This one's for YOU! :toast:

:loveya:

[Tansy_Gold]

48. thanks! Yep, the 13th, stockmarket holiday!

So at least nothing crashed on my birthday, even though I bet a fortune on it! ha ha -- NOT.

[AnneD]

22. Morning Marketeers....

:donut: Word is starting to trickle out as to exactly how the bailout is being spent, and it as corrupt as we thought. And colour me surprised but much of it is being reported by the overseas press but the WSJ is starting to pick it up. I will be glad when the election is over and the nations and Congress' attention is focused on this. Next step-some come to Jesus meetings with individual members of the Dem Party-Barack's discussion with Lieberman comes to mind.

I tried to vote early this am but the early polls open at 8 so I came in today and will try again this afternoon. If not, I maye be late one day this week. We are going to have a record smashing turnout. I was at the poll at 615am and decided to leave. There were 6 other folks that came behind me. Now you get 7 people up and dressed by 615 in the morning to vote, on the first day of early election-it's a harbinger of things to come.

Vote early vote late, just vote. GoBama.

Happy hunting and watch out for the bears.

[antigop]

25. NY, Justice zero in on possible credit swap manipulation: report

http://financialweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081020/REG/810209997/1036

New York state and federal prosecutors have launched an investigation into the role of credit-default swaps in the U.S. financial crisis, the New York Times reported.

Prosecutors are looking at whether there was manipulation in the largely unregulated market for credit-default swaps (CDS) to drive down the price of financial shares over the last year, the paper said, citing people briefed on the investigation.

Representatives for New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and U.S. attorney in Manhattan Michael Garcia confirmed to the Times on Friday that they will be jointly investigating the matter, the paper said.

As part of the probe, Mr. Cuomo’s office has issued subpoenas seeking data from various parts of the industry, including stock exchanges, investment firms and three companies involved in processing trades in swaps and stocks, sources told the paper.

The Times said subpoenas have been issued to clearing agent Depository Trust Clearing Corp (DTCC), swaps data provider Markit and financial data company Bloomberg.

[antigop]

26. WSJ: Bernanke signals support for second stimulus

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122451123648250027.html

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Monday threw his support behind a second round of fiscal stimulus by the government to limit the risk of a "protracted" slowdown in the economy.

"With the economy likely to be weak for several quarters, and with some risk of a protracted slowdown, consideration of a fiscal package by the Congress at this juncture seems appropriate," Mr. Bernanke said in prepared remarks to the House Budget Committee.

Mr. Bernanke offered many caveats, however. Any stimulus should be "well-targeted," he said, and focused on ways to "help improve access to credit by consumers, homebuyers, businesses, and other borrowers."

Meanwhile, "any program should be designed, to the extent possible, to limit longer-term effects on the federal government's structural budget deficit," Mr. Bernanke said.

Democratic lawmakers are considering a stimulus package targeted at infrastructure spending, aid to states, food stamps and jobless benefits. The White House has so far been cool to the Democrats' proposals.

[Wednesdays]

27. No goodies for *'s rich friends

"Democratic lawmakers are considering a stimulus package targeted at infrastructure spending, aid to states, food stamps and jobless benefits. The White House has so far been cool to the Democrats' proposals."

And a Merry Christmas to you too, Ebenzer! :argh:

[AnneD]

30. Column: Sub-$3 gasoline is a bad sign

With the economy faltering and the stock market tumbling, it's only natural we take some comfort in the lower prices at the gas pump. But as I discussed in my Sunday column, falling pump prices aren't really something to cheer.

The column begins:

Last week, I did something I haven't done in a long time. I bought gasoline for $2.88 a gallon.

Amid a financial crisis that's eroding our retirement savings and raising fears of a socks-and-underwear holiday season, at least we can feel a slight tug of joy when we pull up to the pump.

Ah, the simple pleasure of sub-$3 gasoline. It's enough to make you fill up the Suburban and drive to Amarillo to watch the sunset.


http://blogs.chron.com/lorensteffy/2008/10/column_sub3_gas.html It depends on your POV but gas was way down when went through our downturn here in Houston. Some good reasons....

[AnneD]

31. Some broke parents turn to their children

Sue Martin does her best to be a dutiful and loving daughter.

So when her 84-year-old mother finally retired from a family electronics business — at age 82 — Martin bought the small three-bedroom ranch house next door to her own home in Claymont, Del., and moved her mother in.

It hasn't been easy. Martin, who's divorced, had planned to retire next year from her job as a legal assistant at a pharmaceutical company. But while she has a retirement fund of her own, her mother does not.

So now, Martin plans to work, indefinitely, to help cover the portion of the mortgage and living expenses that her mother's Social Security and small allotment of food stamps don't.

More....

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6065522.html A very interesting article and our future I fear........

[mnhtnbb]

41. Saw an ad while glancing at CNBC today promoting the idea

that a woman was texting her husband to tell him that friends of theirs had moved in with
their children. Wife was asking, promise me we won't have to do that. The guy was staring
off into space--no promise--then the graphics come up promoting whatever brokerage or mutual fund company. See? I paid zero attention to the company, but I got the concept!

[InkAddict]

57. Been there; done that

but the children asked us to go before we'll recover much of a cushion since the last layoff and perhaps the next is just around the corner; we cramp their lifestyle. Guess the doggies will miss the attention, but the kids won't miss the helping hand w/a project, the anytime pet sitting, the dishwasher, the coffee set up person. Since it was gonna work out so great, we donated our large TV and much of our furnishings to charity before moving in w/them. HOWEVER, they feared we would "take over" and have asked us specifically not to clean though we're quite willing and they seldom do, yuck; there's no communication about menu planning or dinner plans; SIL is the chef when HE wants to be, so I never know when to shop for groceries or put out something that needs to thaw and, when I do, I fear it's something with which he was planning something else some other day, and no one wants to use the last of anything.

What they won't miss is having their cinammon rolls and TP go twice as fast and that annoying sound of someone else moving around the house before they get up at noon or after they've gone to bed early. We've been limited to speak only on topics of their choice, usually TV, celebrity gossip, and the weather. Anything serious or in any way a planning session is off-limits for conversation since it might stir dreaded CONFLICT. If it's like this when we're well enough to help out, I'd want to wait a long time before I find out how it's gonna be when the inevitable illness strikes or maybe I don't want to know at all, ever. Statistics lean toward me being the one to find out how it will be.

We have no life insurance, no savings to speak of, and no steady healthcare. We weren't poor in that other life, but LIVED modestly. Now, we escape POORLY. We're less than a half a decade from SS/Medicare. Those "assets" went away caring for our remaining parent and living through many periods of unemployment that sacked what was left while making sure the kids didn't suffer too many no's.

It's sad that we used to be a lot kinder to each other and less afraid of each other's toes -- before it was "FEND FOR YOURSELF."

It's sad that the "caretaking" that really need not have been has been bumped up by almost two decades. I hope things stablize soon. Now I understand why Hope was in Pandora's evil little box too.

[AnneD]

32. Rats! Top 5 rodent-infested airports

Like rats jumping from a sinking ship, disease-carrying rodents apparently sense the dreadful state of air travel today. Perhaps that’s why they’re abandoning the planes and taking up residence in the airport terminals instead.

Along with crowds of summer travelers and rude TSA agents, rats and mice are making an appearance at an airport near you. Here are the five most rodent-infested airports.

Chicago O’Hare International
Yesterday we reported that dozens upon dozens of rats have taken up residence in at least one concourse of Terminal 1 at Chicago O’Hare. One traveler reported that during a March snowstorm, she saw children feeding mice. Can you say “disgusting”?

Orlando International
Orlando is home to at least one famous mouse, of course. But at the airport? Maybe Mickey just wanted a vacation far away from Disney World. Technically, these were Mickey’s cousins. Plus, they were dead. The overpowering stench nauseated both workers and passengers, some of whom were sent home sick

more.....

http://www.tripso.com/today/rats-top-5-rodent-infested-airports/

Just in time for your traveling season. I can't tell if they are entertainment, food, fellow travelers, or what:eyes:

[librechik]

34. WTF is happening with gold??? (don't laugh)

we have some, and have been waiting for a spike to sell & pay our bills.

In this climate of uncertainty, I would expect gold to be climbing, at least a little.

Is there some kind of manipulation going on? Or am I misunderstanding something--(quite likely)

[mile18blister]

39. I'm not laughing.

I'm asking the same question. I've heard rumors of market manipulation. In the meantime, I'm sitting tight, grinding my teeth and :banghead:

[AnneD]

45. I went to my numismatist this weekend.....

they are the only place around that still has bullion-they get call from NY,NJ, etc. I asked him the same question....he thinks it is manipulation. I just use the low cost to buy. He also wonders if this credit crunch isn't causing so folks to cash in. You aren't charged sales tax is you buy over 100k in bullion.

[mnhtnbb]

40. Wait for the next sell-off of the DJI. Gold will spike. Also, oil is down--although

rising.

[librechik]

46. thx for the info! n/t

[InkAddict]

58. Perhaps they can't get the loan to buy it; hence more supply and

lower price...nah...taxpayer bucks are now king; it buys our trade, it buys the banks; it buys the economies of the world...gold is pase' ... whoopee! But I'm real tired expending all that ENERGY and getting nothing to show for it...I want to see a little bling on the A-Team Paulson, cause I just love it when a plan comes together :woohoo:

[Dr.Phool]

42. It sure is quiet around here lately.

[mnhtnbb]

43. I'll make some noise! I bought this a.m.

:applause:

On edit: buying all dividend payers--best (a local utility) was up 7.25% today.

[Demeter]

56. I Make Noise on the Weekend! (No Time During the Week)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=394114&mesg_id=394114

and still 40 emails to go--they just keep sending this stuff to me, and I can't read it all....

[Robbien]

44. T. Boone Pickens files $60 million lawsuit against Lehman Brothers

Pickens' lawsuit demands $60 million plus interest and attorney fees from a unit of the late great Lehman Brothers investment bank. Pickens personally claims the largest share of this money—$18.2 million. Four of his BP Capital hedge funds claim the balance (including one registered in the Cayman Islands, a popular tax haven).

The Pickens plaintiffs allege that they entered into derivatives contracts with a Lehman Brothers unit in October 2007. Such contracts are widely used to hedge the financial risks that investors face as a result of the fluctuating value of such commodities as foreign currencies or oil. The plaintiffs allege that these contracts contained default clauses that obligated Lehman to make substantial, immediate payments in the event of bankruptcy. Not surprisingly, the plaintiffs claim that Lehman has not made any such post-bankruptcy payments.


http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2008/oct/20/dallas-billionaire-t-boone-pickens-files-60-millio/

Pickens made sure his derivative had a special bankruptcy clause added to the contract? Oh come on, and now they are trying to spin that these guys weren't fully aware of what was going to be happening here. Bankruptcy insurance.

[InkAddict]

59. Three words

Lee Emil Wanta

:headbang:
:headbang:
:headbang:
:headbang:

Did somebody with more $ than Paulson get stiffed???????

:rofl:
:rofl:
:rofl:

Get over it Boone - that contract is just a sheet of paper now; like our Constitution under the GOP!

[54anickel]

52. Bwahahaha, just read the closing blather. Thank Bob!!! Another stimulus package

4:20 pm : Stocks rallied Monday as investors welcomed positive developments in the credit markets and Fed Chairman Bernanke supporting the idea of a second fiscal stimulus package.

In the end, the S&P 500 rallied 4.8%, settling at session highs thanks to a late-session surge in buying interest. Strength was mostly broad-based, with all ten sectors posting a gain. Volume, however, was on the light side with only 1.23 billion shares exchanging hands on the NYSE, compared to the one-year average of 1.49 billion.

During testimony to the House Budget Committee, Fed Chairman Bernanke said he feels the government's recent efforts will help restore the financial system, but cautioned the stabilization of the financial system will not quickly eliminate economic challenges.

Given the likelihood of a weak economy for several quarters, Bernanke said it would be appropriate for Congress to consider a second fiscal stimulus. He feels that a fiscal package should be targeted to boost overall spending and economic activity, aimed at improving credit for consumers, home buyers, business and other buyers and limit long-term effects on the government's budget deficit.

Meanwhile, overseas governments took more actions to help alleviate the financial market turmoil. India cut its key lending rate for the first time since 2004, South Korea said it will guarantee some of the foreign debt held by its banks, and the Netherlands is injecting approximately $13 billion in ING (ING 12.93, +2.28).

Credit markets continue to show improvements. Short-term interbank lending in dollars, measured by Libor, declined across all terms. The difference between what banks pay each other for three-month loans and what the government pays, known as the TED Spread, declined 65 basis points to 2.96%. The TED Spread is well off its 4.34% high reached on October 10, but levels remain substantially above the historically average of roughly 0.4%.

In corporate news, utility company Exelon (EXC 54.58, +0.08) made an unsolicited proposal to acquire NRG Energy (NRG 25.00, +5.67) for $26.43 per share, or $6.2 billion, in stock. The offer represents a 37% premium to Friday's closing level. The utilities sector as a whole climbed 8.1%.

Eaton (ETN 45.05, +0.63), Halliburton (HAL 20.80, +2.54), and Hasbro (HAS 28.79, -1.33) topped estimates for their respective latest quarters. On the negative side, Novartis AG (NVS 52.16, +1.22) and Mattel (MAT 14.07, -0.38) reported earnings that fell short of expectations.

The better-than-expected results from Halliburton, and a 3.8% gain in oil prices, helped the energy sector spike 11.2%.

The financial sector (+2.8%) underperformed on a relative basis, with notable weakness in retail (-3.4%) and industrial (-2.1%) REITs.

In economic news, September leading indicators rose 0.3%, although August's decline of 0.5% was widened to 0.9%. Economists had forecast a drop of 0.1% in September. The leading indicators report is mostly a collection of previously announced economic indicators.DJ30 +413.21 NASDAQ +58.74 SP500 +44.85 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 2099/2.05 bln/696 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2657/1.23 bln/492

3:30 pm : The S&P 500 trades near session highs, as every attempt to climb higher is met with modest resistance.

Earnings will be in focus ahead of the opening bell tomorrow. After the close today, 17 companies are confirmed to report their quarterly results, including American Express (AXP 23.89, +0.56) and Texas Instruments (TXN 17.77, +0.12). Tomorrow before the open, 56 companies are confirmed to report, including 3M (MMM 56.31, -0.18), Caterpillar (CAT 40.05, +0.73), DuPont (DD 35.13, +1.36), Pfizer (PFE 17.21, +0.30) and US Bancorp (USB 30.62, +0.07).DJ30 +263.15 NASDAQ +29.78 SP500 +29.73 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1880/1.67 bln/876 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2525/879 mln/613

3:00 pm : The major indices are stuck in a trading range near session highs.

Treasuries are enjoying some buying interest on the long end of the curve, while the short end is under pressure. The 10-year note is up 11 ticks and the 30-year bond is up 23 ticks. Meanwhile, the three month T-bill yield has spiked 36 basis points to 1.56%.DJ30 +234.16 NASDAQ +24.86 SP500 +25.51 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1823/1.50 bln/918 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2434/789 mln/692

[UpInArms]

53. some numbers to go with that blather

Dow 9,265.43 413.21 (4.67%)
Nasdaq 1,770.03 58.74 (3.43%)
S&P 500 985.40 44.85 (4.77%)
10-Yr Bond 3.886% 0.052

NYSE Volume 5,252,215,000
Nasdaq Volume 2,073,275,500

[CatholicEdHead]

54. We cannot have endless stimulus packages

We need to let this run its course no matter how hard it is.

[Demeter]

55. The Right Kind of Stimulus Would Only Need One Application

(Is that guillotine ready yet, Francoise?)