I got through to everyone - but I was calling way early, about 6 AM out here - 9 AM in Washington.

Hopefully, some of the lines will be busy now.

From the Wall Street Journal, there does seem to be a bill emerging on the Democrats side - limit on executive compensation, warrants by which the government can obtain shares in companies the begin to be profitable, beefed up oversight to be handled by the GAO - that's a good one, I think. It does seem as if they are not going to try and address the underlying problem as outlined by Hillary, but since the Dems solution had been bankruptcy court, I'm not as worried about that as some are. There is a huge amount more that has to be done to address the underlying issues - reform and re-regulation - there is time in January, with a new congress to do that, the right way, and frankly, I think that and HOLC is much more likely to happen then, whereas if the bankruptcy court clause passes now, HOLC becomes less likely.

Democrats are no longer trying to limit the total size of the bailout but it appears that what they are going to posit is that funds be released in discrete payments - from the Wall St. Journal

One scenario being discussed by Democrats would be to establish benchmarks to periodically measure the bailout's performance. Those benchmarks would have to be met before further allotments of government money could be used -- in effect, potentially breaking the bailout funds into several installments. The administration doesn't want Congress to split up dispersing the funds, particularly if that would require returning for continual congressional approval, according to people familiar with the matter.

That is the absolute minimum that Democrats should insist on. Stress that if you call. Ask whomever answers to take down notes on your concerns, and emphasize that there are lots of indications that this might not work, and Democrats and Obama will be holding the bag, instead of the bag men holding it.

Bernie rocks. Sign his petition to shut down the bailout.

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/issues/cri...

I love this job!

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/news/recor...

I kind of like where he's going with this. Here's a good one:

"I have proposed a four part plan to accomplish that goal which includes a five-year, 10% surtax on the income of individuals above $500,000 a year, and $1 million a year for couples; a requirement that the price the government pays for any mortgage assets are discounted appropriately so that government can recover the amount it paid for them; and, finally, the government should receive equity in the companies it bails out so that when the stock of these companies rises after the bailout, taxpayers also have the opportunity to share in the resulting windfall. Taken together, these measures would provide the best guarantee that at the end of five years, the government will have gotten back the money it put out. "

I love this job!

Everyone, go and sign the petition.

Another possible talking point - wish you guys could be listening to various call in radio shows - on NPR out here in LA, callers are outraged - a woman who works for a board which services small businesses just said that she hasn't talked to any of them who want this bailout to happen; they'll take their chances - and they need liquidity, but this price is too high.

Remember, if Bush and Paulson start to bargain and pushback - tell the Democrats, that means there isn't a crisis. CALL THEIR FUCKING BLUFF FOR FUCKING ONCE. Leave out the f-words, I just had to get it out of my system before I start calling again.

Oh, and call your friends and relatives and ask them to call.

I may be steering people wrong in terms of what arguments to make. Apparently, bankruptcy provision is still in, BTD thinks they can swope it for language commits to creating HOLC even if it isn't created in whole in this bill.

Check it out hereK/a>.

"If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?"
Lather. rinse, repeat.
Come together at The Confluence

this afternoon. He's furious, too. Everyone he knows, including people in the financial sector think this is wrong. It seems the only people who like this idea work on Wall Street or get campaign donations from Wall Street.

Transparency.
Cooperation with SEC/FBI investigations.
Hedge Funds banned from bailout participation.

Said these points to my reps' reps, through the local offices.

"... “I appreciate all of the input that I’m getting from my constituents, but I’m just not reacting to that — I can’t until I understand it better and feel comfortable with my vote. And I’m not sure how I’m going to be voting yet.” ..."

this person needs to be gone, like any and all who rush this thru and/or vote in favor.

Only the Democrats are saying there's a deal--they've been for this all along. It's the GOP who's against it.

FDIC May Need $150 Billion Bailout as More Banks Fail --- http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=2...

"... It won't take many more failures before the FDIC itself runs out of money. The agency had $45.2 billion in its coffers as of June 30, far short of the $200 billion Whalen says it will need to pay claims by the end of next year. The U.S. Treasury will almost certainly come to the rescue. ...."

Dear Senator X,

I'm emailing about Sec. Paulson's $700 billion bailout of the financial markets and am going to try really hard not to use bad language. I am deeply angry that somehow bankers and hedge fund managers don't need to take their losses when they make bad business decisions since Sec. Paulson thinks we taxpayers (that's you, too, Senator, as well as your staff, friends, and the nice person who cuts your hair) will cover it for them.

The answer is no.

I'm not saying people don't need help---some do. So why not concentrate on that first? Your friend and mine, Sen. Hillary Clinton, is right when she proposes a new Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC). She's also right about fundamental principles, as she wrote in the Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12223076...

So first things first: help out homeowners so we can repair the financial damage before it becomes an economic meltdown.

We need you, Senator. Stand up and speak out.

Thanks for reading.

P.S. See? Not one bad word. It was hard, though.

I'll call tomorrow. It's the one-two punch. Probably won't work, but never fear, my little chipmunks, I am working on a cunning plan. All I need is a briefcase, a haircut, and some business cards. And does anyone have an opinion on whether "Bank" or "Banque" looks classier?

/yell out the window, Bernhard at Moon of AL links to Mark Faber who predicts currency restrictions, among other other not such fun stuff.

As in, you can't take money out of the country bcz the Paulson Fix won't work, money becomes even more illiquid, and then the money which hadn't already gone overseas tries to do so. That would be mostly the little people, btw, bcz the Big Banker Boiz will have done all they can to preserve their fortunes.

"About 15 percent of U.S. households have negative equity. Who supplied the leverage into the system? It's called the Federal Reserve Board," Faber said.

"If I'm the drug dealer I'm not responsible that everybody takes drugs, but I facilitate it, especially if I give it out free of charge, I can enlarge the market share, and that's what the Fed has done."
...
"Short sellers are not responsible for current problems. The current problems are caused by the US Fed (Federal Reserve), that was sitting there and letting credit growth go out of bounds," Faber said.

"We have to see very clearly that the cause of the problem was excess leverage. The biggest hedge funds were Fannie Mae [FNM 1.94 --- UNCH (0) ] and Freddie Mac [FRE 1.86 --- UNCH (0) ], they had the leverage of one over 150 and under the eyes of Congress, under the eyes of the SEC and everybody… and nobody did anything about it. Then, people go and bitch about the short sellers," he added.

The fact that the rules on short-selling are changing nearly daily, with new names added to the list of securities in which short-selling is banned or with specific rules regarding hedging and confidentiality contributes to adding uncertainty, he said.

The problem is also exacerbated by the fact that nobody knows how long the emergency measure will last or what is next.

"The next emergency measure will be that Americans are not allowed to buy foreign currency and transfer money overseas, and the next measure will be not permitting Americans to buy gold and so on and so forth…. It creates even more uncertainty in the market place when you continually change the rules," Faber said.

Email tonight; call tomorrow.

They must not give all the money away to Paulson--we're going to need it for the worse times ahead. If they don't do HOLC now, don't do some other things now, they will have to be done later, at greater cost.

And where will the money come from???

Bernhard is not terribly upbeat, to put it mildly.
~~~
Listening to Dodd right now, who seems to believe the doom and gloom Paulson is putting out. Must have the money or the economy dies! Does he realize there's worse to come??

Thanked him for his work so far and asked him to keep pushing for HOLC and refer to Sen. Clinton's op-ed in the WSJ.

Little joke. Attempt.

Tell 'em what you really think!

Also, I can take pretty good pictures...

He could pick up your madrona on the way.

sound like only recalcitrant Repubs are keeping this from being a done deal! Wow! See what I mean by scary?

Oh, and per the Politico reporter those pesky voters are also against the Paulson Fix Is In $700B. And they come in way far back second to the power of the recalcitrant Repubs.

New news: Dodd says will be couple days more.

Monday is Jewish holiday, so if not done by Sunday, markets won't like it.

In which case, "drips over into next week."

Gee, sounds like the effects of some kind of STD.
~~~
Now, NYTimes reporter, Viktor Bajah (sp?), saying no one knows the value of the dicey assets--and Wall St can't find the value.

No one talks about CDS's (credit default swaps)--except on NPR yesterday or this morning. In passing, with no explanation.
~~~
On the Diane Reems Show, economist against the Fix said Treasury is bringing in all these unemployed Wall St. types and ex-hedge fund managers to determine the value of the assets for which they were previously unable to determine a value...so they can get new jobs on Wall St. and do this all over again....

a body want to wander on out there.

Really, great reading.

But...little blunderbuss?

it’s not Emperor Paulson’s bill anymore — It’s the Bush-Frank-Reid-Pelosi-Obama-McCain

Obama and McCain have sponsored this bill how exactly? That's of course assuming there even is a bill, which seems less than clear.

I think of you every time I see it, but It really is growing IN the terraces (of 2-3 man rocks) between the neighbor's and my yard. I have no idea how we'd get it out.

Maybe I will get brave and do a Madrona post for you.

I saw gqm wandering around here a few days ago.

I can't figure out how to get a picture into the blog and I don't have my own website anymore, so I can't link it.

I have to go to a class, but I will try again when I get back.

Jen