EconomicCrisis.US

The titanic $700 billion-plus bailout plan for financial firms, which were reeling from toxic debts spawned from the subprime mortgage crisis, was cast back in September as a desperately needed package essential to staving off a complete meltdown of the U.S. economy.

Now, after all the intense economic and political drama attached to the federal proposal, it seems like the punch line of a very bad joke.

It has been reported that almost $300 billion of that bailout plan has been doled out, but that money has yet to reach anyone on main street. Some of the banking institutions that received the helping hand from the taxpayers have instead paid out dividends to shareholders, handed out bonuses to executives and are allegedly pooling the resources to acquire other troubled banks and consolidate their assets.
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The government released a quartet of reports Wednesday that paint a bleak picture of the nation’s economy: Jobless claims remain at recessionary levels, Americans cut back on their spending by the largest amount since the 2001 terrorist attacks, orders to U.S. factories plummeted and new-home sales fell to the lowest level in nearly 18 years.

The Labor Department reported that initial requests for unemployment benefits fell to a seasonally adjusted 529,000 from the previous week’s upwardly revised figure of 543,000. But claims remain at recessionary levels. The four-week average, which smooths out fluctuations, rose to 518,000, its highest level since January 1983, when the economy was emerging from a steep recession.
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Other Americans may take the day off. But not us…. not here at the headquarters of the Daily Reckoning. We’ve got some reckoning to do.

But let us take a moment to bow our heads and offer this Prayer of Thanksgiving…

Thank you, good Lord, for everything. We are still alive. We are still solvent. Help us stay that way. If not both, at least the former.

Lead us not into temptation. Keep us in gold and cash until this is over.

And thank you for bringing the man called Obama to the White House… he might not be any better, but he could hardly be worse; or could he?
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The government released a trio of reports today that paint a bleak picture of the nation’s economy: obless claims remain at recessionary levels, while Americans cut back on their spending by the largest amount since the 2001 terrorist attacks and orders to U.S. factories plummeted.

The Labor Department reported that initial requests for unemployment benefits fell to a seasonally adjusted 529,000 from the previous week’s upwardly revised figure of 543,000. But claims remain at recessionary levels. The four-week average, which smooths out fluctuations, rose to 518,000, its highest level since January 1983, when the economy was emerging from a steep recession.
Read the rest of this entry »