The futures markets for stock indexes are currently (8:45 a.m. EDT) “locked,” because they have reached their down limit of a 5% price drop.

When the NYSE opens, the limits change to 10% – when the Dow and S&P 500 drop by 10% trading will be halted for 1 hour. This could happen within the first few minutes of trading.

The percentage limits are set at the beginning of each calendar quarter. The 10% limit was based on a Dow of 11,000, so the drop that halts trading will be 1100 Dow points.

The “silver lining” if there is one, is that oil prices have also crashed, even with an OPEC “emergency cut” of 1.5 million BPD.

So why was it so important to pass this crappy bailout bill again?

Barneys scheme was about socialist control and so is carbon credits/tax!!”

Don I think you nailed it. I would add one further point which can also be blamed squarely on government. The free trade deals which were enacted by both parties have caused American industries to move their plants to China for low labor costs. The displaced American workers found themselves unemployed or employed at lower paying jobs. So the mortgage payments which were affordable when the wages were higher, are now unaffordable and the homeowner is forced into default.

Click here for NYT video

My summary of the NYT video:

5 firms – Goldman Sachs, Merril Lynch, Lehman Bros, Morgan Stanley and Bears Stern, applied in Apr 2004, to change investment rules. Basically, they were allowed to use computer models to assess the level of risk in investments.

My commentary:

Gore says that climate models can be trusted, because Wall Street has used similar models for years.

Look how that turned out, on wall street, for these firms.

The weakness, or outright failure of each, is a major contributor to the financial crisis of 2008.

Now, my question to the believers of Climate Models:

Should we invest 40 trillion in these models?

My question to the SEC:

ARE YOU GUYS ON CRACK?

172 Dems and 91 Reps voted YES

63 Dems 108 Reps voted NO

By vote of 268 – 148

Final bill: H.R.1424 Emergency Economic Stabilization Act

SEC. 115. TAX CREDIT FOR CARBON DIOXIDE SEQUESTRATION.

She was incoherent, trying to come down on both sides. Not impressive.

Politicians need to hear the mantra repeated: It’s getting cooler.

Citizen complaints about this bill, or sections of it, are justified and appropriate, but better be quick. Pressure on the House seems to be building, and pretty soon, whatever the bill was at its heart will be covered over with the layers of porcine excess.

That puts you on a par with the average American voter.

Such snipping would no longer be enough. The senate took a 100-page bailout by Paulson/Bernanke and created a 450-page, pork-laden monstrosity.

Who inserted the carbon credits nonsense?

When I first saw the Senate leaders come out during the press conference and explain their rescue Bill, I thought at last there is some hope in the Senate. Boy was I naive !!!
Now we know that the $700 bill grew to $812 billion and was filled with all kinds of goodies for NASCAR, wooden Arrows, extending tax breaks for film and television productions, mine rescue training, undercover operations, railway maintenance, idling reduction units in trucks, refined coal used by steel producers, small wind power projects, donations of food or books to charities, hurricane relief employees and people affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill, etc.

Also burried in the bill is increased taxes on fossil fuels that will increase the price of gasoline and heating oil. See the URL below.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6035335.html

They should have told us about this during the press conference.

Paulson IS an AGW- and enviro-nut. He’s also too close to Wall Street and too close to a certain party now running Congress that caused this mess because they wanted more home loans to people who didn’t qualify.

It was passed in stand-alone form by the Senate 92-3 last week. A slightly different version has already been passed by the House three times this year. The problem – the Senate version is not revenue-neutral, i.e., it will increase the deficit. The revised PAYGO rules of the House make it almost impossible to pass as a stand-alone bill. The House versions of the bill contain revenue-raising provisions designed to punish the petroleum industry, which has resulted in Republican filibusters in the Senate.

By attaching this popular bill to the financial bailout legislation, the Senate is attempting to break the deadlock and get the extenders bill passed. This is how our Congress works today (I am using the term ‘works’ loosely.)

This statement appears to be taken from Barney Franks playbook. Set up a system to Force the banks to make loans to people who have no downpayment or means to make the payments, disparage those who warn the system is headed for a trainwreck, when the scheme collapses blame the greedy bankers, and finally tell the taxpayers they will be stuck with the bill.

Barneys scheme was about socialist control and so is carbon credits/tax!!