They’ve been there for seven years and were never charged with anything. Naturally the Bush Administration is protesting this unwarranted intrusion of respect for the law and Constitution as being contrary to their expressed belief that they should be able to detain and torture anyone, anywhere, without a trial and with no explanation.

Let’s hope we do have war crimes trials for Bush and Cheney. That they are guilty of them is not in dispute.

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This on a day where the Fed announced they would take the extraordinary step of buying short-term commercial paper in hopes of unlocking the credit markets.

The Dow is now lower than when George Bush first took office.

As I write this, the Nikkei (Japan) is down 4.5% and the Hang Seng (China) is down 5% in trading on 10/08. The carnage continues.

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The snap polls and pundits are showing that Obama won.  Mr. Grumpy apparently couldn’t bring himself to shake Obama’s hand at the end. The Republicans are already trying to spin it as not a real debate.

Jake Marsh via Twitter

Congratulations to Not-Yet-President Obama on winning our second presidential debate. Can’t wait for January so America can start growing up

Yes, it will be nice to have a rational adult in the White House again, won’t it? And not a belligerent, proudly ignorant frat boy or vile-tempered old geezer.

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This is “Outlaw Planet”, one of six videos from Superstruct, “the worlds’s first massively multiplayer forecasting game. Watch the videos. Play the game. Invent the future.” I’m polizeros, see you there.

By playing the game, you’ll help us chronicle the world of 2019–and imagine how we might solve the problems we’ll face. Because this is about more than just envisioning the future. It’s about making the future, inventing new ways to organize the human race and augment our collective human potential.

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Turn the chart upside down to see how far and fast the Iceland krona has fallen compared to the euro. This is a direct result of the collapse of Lehman, who was the major lending facility for the third largest (and way over-extended) bank in Iceland.

TimesOnLine: Iceland has suspended trading in their banks, and the domino effect is hitting the UK.

From the comments:

Have been trying to get our money out of IceSave (Landsbanki) all day. It’s impossible. Website allows you to log on, but will not recognize any attempted transfer of funds. We get a message asking us to call the bank, but nobody is there to take the calls. This is a nightmare.

The crisis is now directly impacting small countries, not just corporations.

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Socialist Unity

If the left publicly opposes the bail out of the banking system, so that we are actually encouraging the collapse of the economy, the tens of thousands of redundancies that would entail, the poverty and homelessness, then we just prove that we are idiots who should never be listened to.

There are, I think, three main reasons why some on the the left oppose the bailouts.

1) It’s a hoax, the crisis is not real, Naomi Klein is right. It’s disaster capitalism, a mild problem exploited for political gain.

Response: After the collapse of the biggest mortgage players in the US, the biggest insurance company in the world, several major US investments banks, a major German mortgage lender, a Brit bank or two, and Iceland, only the most Black Helicopterish would say this is somehow a manufactured crisis.

2) It helps the rich only.

Response: Bank failures and credit market freeze ups affect everyone. Call me crazy, but I like going to the ATM, withdrawing $100, and having the machine give it to me.

3) A collapse would mean the end of capitalism and thus the birth of a glorious new day for socialism.

Response: This is the unfortunate subtext of why some lefties oppose the bailouts. They want the system to collapse, and are secretly cheering on this “crisis of capitalism.” That millions would suffer during such a collapse with no guarantee they would turn to socialism just shows how deluded and self-serving such lefties are. Inept too. Standing on the sidelines clucking about how Marx (or anarchist theory) predicted this would happen, instead of coming up with answers that will help those worst affected, is worse than useless.

The current crisis is a perfect organizing platform for the left. Everything they’ve been saying is right out in the open. Class. A tiny few grabbing the money. The bulk of the population getting screwed. But to organize on it, they need to leave the leftie enclaves and make themselves useful to those who are getting shafted. That’s how to build a mass movement. First, help them. Then deliver the message. Not the other way around.

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Robert Reich, former Treasury Secretary, on the financial crisis

Put simply, the Bailout of All Bailouts has been a dud, at least so far.
Several nations (Ireland, Greece, Germany) have basically guaranteed all deposits. As a result, global capital is moving their way. They’re also thereby creating a new form of socialized capitalism. At the rate they’re going, these nations will soon own and run their financial markets, and maybe a big chunk of the world’s.

If the US does not guarantee all deposits, that giant sucking sound will be billions of dollars leaving US banks. Some think this has already started.

I fault Hank Paulson, first and foremost. He never succeeded in explaining to anyone what exactly he’ll do with the bailout money.

He plans to use the money to bailout Goldman Sachs and screw everyone else. Next question. Oh, sorry, am I being snarky? Well, maybe not. Even the Wall Street Journal says “A Goldman Sachs Group alumnus in charge of the nation’s economic rescue? How unusual.”

Paulson has proven himself uniquely unable to explain anything to anyone. George W. Bush, for his part, is hopeless and hapless. Worse than a lame duck, he’s a seriously disabled parakeet, with no remaining store of public trust. Ben Bernanke seems like an able fellow but his capacity to communicate is almost as bad as his predecessor’s. Obama does understand what’s happening, and could calm global capital markets if he were already president. But he is not president as yet, nor even president-elect.

Paulson’s seeming inability to explain anything is suspect. Either he is incompetent and has no plan (doubtful) or he knows precisely what his plan is and doesn’t want to tell the public.

The leadership vacuum could not happen at a worse time. If credit markets remain frozen, we’ll soon witness a huge round of business bankruptcies. We’re in completely uncharted terrain.

That is the bottom line. Yes, the greedheads are still probably plotting how to grab billions more, but the credit markets are seized tight, and that can not continue. Expect the government to start buying commercial paper and drop the interest rate to 1% in a desperation move.

“This ain’t no party / This ain’t no disco / This ain’t no fooling around.” The world economic system is on the brink. It behooves us all to work together and somehow bring it back.

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Homeless on the High Desert

I can’t help but wonder what would happen if Ayers endorsed McCain?

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