Another bad day for stocks, which seems to be a habit lately. Fear is the big factor. Fear over the latest credit-crunch freeze-up in short-term lending markets. Fear over deepening recession. Fear over profits.    Read More

Right now polls paint a dismal picture for Sen. McCain. Rasmussen shows Obama leading 52-44, Obama’s highest level ever. (Moving above 50 percent is a key indicator.) The RealClearPolitics average has Obama up 6 points.   Read More

I sure hope Sarah Palin talks at some length about drilling in tonight’s debate with Sen. Joe Biden. Palin is an energy expert. And if she is unleashed she can score major points against her opponent, who has opposed every expansion of oil, gas, and nuclear down through the years   Read More

Now, the dollar is up strong, and gold is off $35. Those are positive signs that the Treasury bailout will improve the quality of U.S. credit. More and more over the past year, I have come to believe that gold and the greenback are more closely correlated with our credit problems than with inflation fears.    Read More

The Republican from Oklahoma brilliantly explains why the Senate must pass this bill now.   Read More

You know what? Hank Paulson may not be the most powerful financial person in the country right now. That honor goes to Sheila Bair, the chairman of the FDIC. In recent weeks, Ms. Bair has held the banking system together, coordinating smooth takeovers of distressed banks in deals run and controlled by her agency.   Read More

A number of Republican House members and staff, along with others who are plugged in, are telling me that Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats will come back with a new bill that includes all the left-wing stuff that was scrubbed from the bill that was defeated today in the House.    Read More

The single-biggest mistake in the Paulson bank-rescue-plan marketing effort has been the failure to explain clearly how taxpayers are going to recoup $700 billion used to buy toxic assets at auction in order to unfreeze the banking system.    Read More

If the bailout bill allows executive pay-caps and government ownership warrants for all buying or selling institutions, I must withdraw my support for the bill.    Read More

I thought he was pretty good. Kinda gave us some economic history about the mortgage credit collapse. Might have said a bit more on the taxpayers making good money as the mortgage loans are auctioned off and then worked out profitably.   Read More