Thursday 28th of March 2024

economan .....

economan .....

European shares were mixed Tuesday, following a similar pattern in Asia, as investors refused to panic about the failure of American lawmakers to pass a financial bailout and were encouraged by gains in futures contracts on Wall Street indexes.

There was disappointment that lawmakers rejected the $700 billion emergency rescue plan Monday and more fears about European lenders after Dexia, a Brussels-based lender, was given a 6.4 billion euro, or $9.2 billion, government-backed rescue Tuesday.

Global Markets Mixed After Bailout Plan Vote 

Gus: The patient seemed to recover even without the sticky plaster from Doktor Georg...

dopey deal

The US stock market has opened higher as investors reacted to US President George W Bush's assurance that the multi-billion dollar rescue package was not dead after yesterday's defeat in Congress.

US stocks jumped a day after Wall Street's worst day in 20 years, as investors voiced optimism Congress will eventually pass the plan to rescue tainted banking assets, lifting the US dollar and crude oil.

Shortly after the open, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 189.80 points, or 1.83 per cent, at 10,555.25. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 24.42 points, or 2.21 per cent, at 1,130.81. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 34.64 points, or 1.75 per cent, at 2,018.37.

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Gus: Assurance? The package of 700 billions US dollars should be sunk. The money will seep through the floor of Wall Street, line the banks walls with gold wallpaper and leave the ordinary struggler in the street struggling some more. Foreclose this arse-up dopey deal...

late night latte

From the NYT laughlines

Aired Tuesday night on NBC [Jay Leno] :

Happy Rosh Hashanah! With the holiday, Congress is not in session. Coincidentally, the stock market made a big comeback today. See, that’s the key to saving the economy. Send these idiots home so they can’t screw up anymore.

As you know, Congress voted against the bailout. See, the problem in this case is that members of Congress were told to vote their conscience. And of course, this totally confused them. “Conscience?”

Lawmakers that are for the bailout argued that the government could actually end up making money on this deal, in much the same way that the government made money on Amtrak and the Post Office. Oh yeah, that money is just rolling in.

Right after the bailout vote, President Bush met behind closed doors with his economic team. Yeah, that was my thought too. Bush has an economic team?

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read more at the NYT and see toon above...