(Links to market meltdown stories are at end of post.)
As Wall Street and the world financial markets stand on the verge of a meltdown, Fed chair Ben Bernanke -- showing he is willing to work weekends and holidays -- announced emergency measures Sunday evening designed, he believes, to steady the markets and restore calm.
Asian markets immediately took a nosedive.
Obama and Clinton need to wake up immediately. The 'experience' argument is dead in the water -- no one in living memory is going to have the experience to deal with the mess the world faces that has been triggered by the collapse of the subprime mortgage market and its seemingly endless ripples.
Health care as an issue is going to take a back seat. Alleged foreign policy experience isn't going to make the difference. (Read the tea leaves in the links at the end of this story.)
Remember the line that tanked Bush père: "It's about the economy, stupid!"
Well, it's about the economy, smarties!
- Wall Street Journal --
- "J.P. Morgan Buys Bear in Fire Sale; Fed Widens Credit to Avert Crisis"
- "Fed Aims to Prevent Panic With More Direct Borrowing" -- Read the fine print.
- Bloomberg --
- (Breaking): "Stocks Tumble Around World, Dollar Declines After Fed Cuts Rate"
- "Fed Lends More to Avert Meltdown" -- "...putting the Fed's balance sheet in harm's way".
- "U.S. Futures, Global Stocks, Dollar Decline After Fed Cuts Rate"
- Two of my fave financial bloggers --
- Reggie Middleton: "This is going to be a scary morning" -- Street savvy New Yorker.
- Willem Buiter: "Rescuing the Bear: why and why this way?" -- Paragraph two will make your eyes pop. A Bagehot-style tough-love advocate. Not anything the Fed or Bush has the stomach for. As for whether the weekend action passes legal muster, see here.
-- Dan Damon
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