By Eddie Evans and Ralph Boulton
U.S. factory orders fell 4 percent in August, on top of data on Wednesday that showed manufacturing activity in September at its weakest since the 2001 recession. U.S. jobless claims rose last week to their highest level in seven years, ahead of September payrolls data due out on Friday.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20922.htm
Soros Says Paulson's Financial-Rescue Plan Is `Ill-Conceived'
Billionaire investor George Soros said the U.S. should inject equity into banks rather than buy their bad debts as proposed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in his financial-rescue package.
http://tinyurl.com/4soldv
Wall Street battered by economic fears, credit worry
Stocks slid on Thursday as tight credit markets and bleak economic data forced investors to focus on the rocky road still ahead for the U.S. economy even if Congress passes a $700 billion rescue package.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE48S24L20081002
Middle Americans unite against the great bank rescue
"It's g... un-American," Mr Benway said as he leant against his pickup outside the Thrift Store in Richfield, Minnesota. "We don't give money to companies. We're not France - yet." For Ms Valentine, sitting in a nearby mall: "Congress was right to vote the Bill down. It doesn't tackle the root causes or help the people that need it."
http://tinyurl.com/3uffz8
From Information Clearing House
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Economist Asks: Is Bailout Necessary?
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/10/02
How the Media Sold Their Souls to Wall Street
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/10/02-3
This Crisis Is Also a Big Opportunity
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/10/02-1
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How to break the money monopoly
The Nation/Howl
by Nicholas von Hoffman
10/02/08
Once again, the small group of financial organizations and the few thousand people who constitute what we call Wall Street have brought the country to the verge of ruin. It’s been barely ten years since they visited the dot-com boom and bust on the nation and twenty years since they took us to the edge of ruin in the savings and loan scandals. Leading the first response team trying to save Wall Street is Henry Paulson, secretary of the treasury and the former CEO of Goldman Sachs. While at Goldman Sachs, Paulson is estimated to have enriched himself by a one-half billion to three-quarters of a billion dollars...
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081020/howl
Deflation on the horizon
The Nation
by Nicholas von Hoffman
09/30/08
The next phase in this great unraveling is deflation. Deflation is when you go to the supermarket and things cost less. Deflation is when prices go down–but in our present situation that is nothing to cheer about. If everyday life is hit by a deflationary wave, it will bring extreme hardship to millions. This will not be a gentle dropping of prices, as when safe and competent hands are running the Federal Reserve Board and those in charge are simply steadying the value of money. This, if it comes, will be a brutal and jarring drop in prices. We have just experienced one example of a deflationary drop when the stock market took a nose dive and share prices went down at a sickening speed. In one day pension funds, 401(k)s, college savings accounts, charitable foundations, college and university endowments collectively lost $1.3 trillion. That’s deflation of the brutal kind...
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081013/howl2
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bailout
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Paulson
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Wall+Street
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Goldman+Sachs
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=$700
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=credit+market
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=stock+market
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Federal+Reserve
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=deflation
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=jobless
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Dean+Baker
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Josh+Silver
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Johann+Hari
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Nicholas+von+Hoffman