A coincidence ?
It came and went completely unnoticed by the world but the collapse of Fannie May and Freddie Mac occured 2 days short of September 11th and 7 years after that terrible event that first registered a financial earthquake on Wall Street.

The reasons behind 9/11 are often sited as "because they hate our freedoms" but it's also claimed that the World Trade Centre represented everything that was bad about the USA and thus it was symbolic attack.

Now the US financial system is in melt-down.Is this the end of the American Century and are we now in the Chinese Century ?

Consider this-China now has a middle-class that is far larger than the US middle-class and is growing in leaps and bounds, unlike the US middle-class which is rapidly turning into the working poor. This makes that Chinese class the most powerful on the planet.

They will become the new consumers, Backed by hundreds of millions of peasants who toil away producing every good under the sun.

If the Chinese can take a Lhamborgini and do a ripe-off of it that only experts can spot- think what they can do with the humble Toyota Corolla ( the biggest selling auto in the world).
Well actually they already have-with a few cosmetic changes, and are turning them out for half the cost.

And they are promising a small city car, ideal for European cities that could sell as low as 3000 pounds.Plus they practically "own" the US dollar.

Perhaps the Yanks need to re-think their role and take up new skills. Running restaurants, cleaning houses, washing cars.The roles are reversing.

Someone call David Icke !

Perhaps it is - I dont understand how all Governments are usuing Tax Payers money to bail our PRIVATE banking.

It just does not make sense....

We shall have to wait and see.

The Biggest Secret 1999 ( you ALL have to read this book - if you have not already - it is hard work but it has many answers about what is happening )

I can hardly believe this - but MICHAEL MOORE has just issued a message urging the AMERICAN PEOPLE to take to the streets and block the "Bail Out" - it is getting very scary over there and I am getting concerned about family and friends.

Here it is :

Friends,

Let me cut to the chase. The biggest robbery in the history of this country is taking place as you read this. Though no guns are being used, 300 million hostages are being taken. Make no mistake about it: After stealing a half trillion dollars to line the pockets of their war-profiteering backers for the past five years, after lining the pockets of their fellow oilmen to the tune of over a hundred billion dollars in just the last two years, Bush and his cronies -- who must soon vacate the White House -- are looting the U.S. Treasury of every dollar they can grab. They are swiping as much of the silverware as they can on their way out the door.

No matter what they say, no matter how many scare words they use, they are up to their old tricks of creating fear and confusion in order to make and keep themselves and the upper one percent filthy rich. Just read the first four paragraphs of the lead story in last Monday's New York Times and you can see what the real deal is:

"Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from it.

"Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments covered, not just those related to mortgages.

"At the same time, investment firms were jockeying to oversee all the assets that Treasury plans to take off the books of financial institutions, a role that could earn them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fees.

"Nobody wants to be left out of Treasury's proposal to buy up bad assets of financial institutions."
Unbelievable. Wall Street and its backers created this mess and now they are going to clean up like bandits. Even Rudy Giuliani is lobbying for his firm to be hired (and paid) to "consult" in the bailout.

The problem is, nobody truly knows what this "collapse" is all about. Even Treasury Secretary Paulson admitted he doesn't know the exact amount that is needed (he just picked the $700 billion number out of his head!). The head of the congressional budget office said he can't figure it out nor can he explain it to anyone.

And yet, they are screeching about how the end is near! Panic! Recession! The Great Depression! Y2K! Bird flu! Killer bees! We must pass the bailout bill today!! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Falling for whom? NOTHING in this "bailout" package will lower the price of the gas you have to put in your car to get to work. NOTHING in this bill will protect you from losing your home. NOTHING in this bill will give you health insurance.

Health insurance? Mike, why are you bringing this up? What's this got to do with the Wall Street collapse?

It has everything to do with it. This so-called "collapse" was triggered by the massive defaulting and foreclosures going on with people's home mortgages. Do you know why so many Americans are losing their homes? To hear the Republicans describe it, it's because too many working class idiots were given mortgages that they really couldn't afford. Here's the truth: The number one cause of people declaring bankruptcy is because of medical bills. Let me state this simply: If we had had universal health coverage, this mortgage "crisis" may never have happened.

This bailout's mission is to protect the obscene amount of wealth that has been accumulated in the last eight years. It's to protect the top shareholders who own and control corporate America. It's to make sure their yachts and mansions and "way of life" go uninterrupted while the rest of America suffers and struggles to pay the bills. Let the rich suffer for once. Let them pay for the bailout. We are spending 400 million dollars a day on the war in Iraq. Let them end the war immediately and save us all another half-trillion dollars!

I have to stop writing this and you have to stop reading it. They are staging a financial coup this morning in our country. They are hoping Congress will act fast before they stop to think, before we have a chance to stop them ourselves. So stop reading this and do something -- NOW! Here's what you can do immediately:

1. Call or e-mail Senator Obama. Tell him he does not need to be sitting there trying to help prop up Bush and Cheney and the mess they've made. Tell him we know he has the smarts to slow this thing down and figure out what's the best route to take. Tell him the rich have to pay for whatever help is offered. Use the leverage we have now to insist on a moratorium on home foreclosures, to insist on a move to universal health coverage, and tell him that we the people need to be in charge of the economic decisions that affect our lives, not the barons of Wall Street.

2. Take to the streets. Participate in one of the hundreds of quickly-called demonstrations that are taking place all over the country (especially those near Wall Street and DC).

3. Call your Representative in Congress and your Senators. (click here to find their phone numbers). Tell them what you told Senator Obama.

When you screw up in life, there is hell to pay. Each and every one of you reading this knows that basic lesson and has paid the consequences of your actions at some point. In this great democracy, we cannot let there be one set of rules for the vast majority of hard-working citizens, and another set of rules for the elite, who, when they screw up, are handed one more gift on a silver platter. No more! Not again!

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. Having read further the details of this bailout bill, you need to know you are being lied to. They talk about how they will prevent golden parachutes. It says NOTHING about what these executives and fat cats will make in SALARY. According to Rep. Brad Sherman of California, these top managers will continue to receive million-dollar-a-month paychecks under this new bill. There is no direct ownership given to the American people for the money being handed over. Foreign banks and investors will be allowed to receive billion-dollar handouts. A large chunk of this $700 billion is going to be given directly to Chinese and Middle Eastern banks. There is NO guarantee of ever seeing that money again.

P.P.S. From talking to people I know in DC, they say the reason so many Dems are behind this is because Wall Street this weekend put a gun to their heads and said either turn over the $700 billion or the first thing we'll start blowing up are the pension funds and 401(k)s of your middle class constituents. The Dems are scared they may make good on their threat. But this is not the time to back down or act like the typical Democrat we have witnessed for the last eight years. The Dems handed a stolen election over to Bush. The Dems gave Bush the votes he needed to invade a sovereign country. Once they took over Congress in 2007, they refused to pull the plug on the war. And now they have been cowered into being accomplices in the crime of the century. You have to call them now and say "NO!" If we let them do this, just imagine how hard it will be to get anything good done when President Obama is in the White House. THESE DEMOCRATS ARE ONLY AS STRONG AS THE BACKBONE WE GIVE THEM. CALL CONGRESS NOW

Michael Moore is correct but think back and remember-when Adolph Hitler and Mussolini rose to power it was on the backs of collapsed economies.

The way to Fasism is by first collapsing the economy !.

And further consider this: the next tsunami in the great "melt -down" will be credit cards. The USA, UK & Australia have credit card debt that is staggering..into the hundreds of billions $$. It was never sustainable but in the USA particularly Americans have been using credit to prop up the falling value in wages.

As mortgages begin to collapse dramatically, so will credit card companies. Interest rates will soar and the cycle increase..and it will hit the UK and elsewhere.

And now you know why Bush & Co rushed in an bill in Congress 2 years ago whereby Americans can no longer declare bankruptcy over credit card debt.

How odd to pick on the most vunerable when the richest as in Wall Street are rewarded for failure ?.

And what does this mean ? You can't get blood out of a stone if people are broke but it means the debt remains there forever until paid..and will escalate along with interest rates.

Welcome to the new indentured labour : the American worker.

Looks as if BUSH was bluffing.

Stability today on the markets - just threats by bankers to cut creditlines to customers ( Banks really are nasty institutions ! )

They wanted the bailout to pay themselves more and guarantee their futures - at TAXPAYERS expense.

The MARKET is actually going up today because investors dont seem to be ruffled by everything.

We are in a recession - they need to realise that they cant stop it - they just want to get their noses in the trough first.

In fact if we bail out the bankers then where will the money come from to bail out the rest of us in hard times ?

This is a very good article: "Take A Deep Breath: Some Perspective On The Financial Crisis" http://techdirt.com/articles/20080929/0426042403.shtml

"There's a common refrain among many, many people, that this is just the result of greedy Wall Street bankers, and the proper thing to do here is to just let them all fail. It's not that easy. The ripple effects here would be pretty serious -- and while I don't think the economy would fully seize up, it would be really painful across the board. The lack of liquidity in the commercial paper world (short term lending, mostly) would impact a lot of businesses that you might not think have such exposure to Wall Street.* And that, in turn, could create an ongoing spiral"

*Guy Hands could certainly elaborate on this point ...

I agree there could be some "pain" in the developed world - but when you consider the Undeveloped World is struggling to pay for enough food to eat because of the rising credit costs perhaps it would be better to let the market correct itself to proper levels.

I feel that the "poor" of the World are always being made to pay the costs of the "rich"

This whole crisis seems to be an illusion.

They say Markets Will Crash - yet within hours Asian stocks were rebounding and also the FTSE.

Something does not feel at all right about all of this.

Walk around the West End on this weekend and tell me that we are in a credit crunch ? or go to Tescos tonight shopping ? Yes - some businesses are always going to go to the wall ( this time it is the weak banks turn ) but I think the economy is very healthy and this is a way of the Governments increasing taxes through the back door again.

You only have to look at the price of oil - now around 90 dollars a barrel - just 8 weeks ago it was 147 due to "economic growth and demand" - this put 20% on food and fuel costs for us all ( And our energy bills now reflect this ) yet 8 weeks later we are told there is no growth and no demand and the economy is on the rocks.......will we see the Energy Companies cut the prices to reflect the price of oil ? will we see food come back down to the price it was at the beginning of the year ?

We are being lied to - the economic "market" is toying with the public trying to screw more money out of us. Simple as that. Pretending all is brilliant so prices go up - and then pretending everything is bad so prices go down FOR THEM and yet we are all stranded high and dry with the costs of the BRILLIANT.

This is basically one of the biggest cons ever done on the public - and yet many people have not even realised what has been done. It is smoke and mirrors on our dumbed down population.

There is no credit crunch - it is self made by the bankers.

I agree with DJones-the"ripple"effect could be quite terrifying.

It must happening in the UK-it's happening here in Australia after the government encouraged people to invest in superannuation about 15 years ago and suddenly the value of that super has dropped overnight with this crisis.

This means a whole swag of people who could self-fund their retirement will now rely on government subsidies..what next-more taxes to pay for a whole host of "ripple" effect problems ?.

PS: I heard Rupert Murdoch on Sydney radio in 2004 say :"the Iraq War is going swimingly and by next year oil should be $20 a barrel !"

In the USA they are just waking up to the fact that much of the bailout is for UK banks. So I doubt if it will pass congress now - may scrape through the Senate tonight.

Senator Dodds who is leading the charge for the bail out is funded by 5 big companies.....including THE BANK OF SCOTLAND ( who rob all of us who have accounts with them with sharp practice * )

If you go near your limit with RBS they start changing the dates of your direct debits - this means on one day ALL OF THEM can be presented - and then your account goes overdrawn - they charge