Financial markets 'still far from normal,' Fed's Bernanke says

Despite some signs of improvement, financial markets remain severely stressed, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday.

The U.S. central bank's efforts to provide cash to financial markets have helped, Bernanke said, citing a lessening of pressure on brokerage firms, better conditions in the Treasury repurchasing market and a return of liquidity to several other markets.

[LocalBoy]

Pumping up his buddies needing their fix.
Looks like the house is letting the homeboys play at no cost, just capture some more from the people and all will be fine.
Anybody think the homeboyz will speculate the price of commodities up ?

He makes Jefferson look like an economic god.

[TOM REGAN]

...severly stressed!! every week my $$$ go down in value, but my fuel stock goes up and up. i'm glad i don't drive a car...way to go. i hope gas goes up to $6.00

[Hijacked Journalism]

I have a friend who is a Senator. He told me the story of an acrimonious meeting toward the end of 1992, when the 12 members of the Senate Special Committee on POW/MIA Affairs were finishing up their report. It featured a hot debate over how to deal with former U.S. Marine Bobby Garwood, a former POW who'd been an accused defector.

The question was whether Garwood should be included in the report along with all the other POWs and MIAs, or if he had diminished his status and therefore only merited inclusion in the report's attachments. Half the room thought he was a traitor, a deserter who knew about POWs held after the war but didn't do anything about it, and McCain fell into that camp. The other half -- which included Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa -- thought that Garwood had been unfairly blamed.

"Bobby Garwood is a traitor, and I and a whole bunch of other POWs got beat because of him," the hot-headed McCain argued, according to a senator present during the debate.

Then Grassley started screaming. "Chuck has a temper, too," the senator relates. "So McCain started shouting back."

Grassley got in McCain's face, and the two pit bulls started barking at each other while the other senators in the room sat back and watched. The pair got so close to one another that the senator who tells me the story -- aware that because of war injuries, McCain's arms don't fully extend -- was convinced McCain "was going to drive the top of his head into Grassley's nose. I was convinced that bone fragments were going to go into Chuck's brain, and I was sitting there and was about to witness a murder."

McCain suddenly stood up. But instead of a head-butting homicide, he delivered a crushing blow of words.

"You know, senator," McCain said, seething, "I thought your problem was that you don't listen. But that's not it at all. Your problem is that you're a fucking jerk and if my arms could extend, I would kick your fucking ass, you bastard".

[Donna Atlanta GA]

TOM REGAN wrote:

...severly stressed!! every week my $$$ go down in value, but my fuel stock goes up and up. i'm glad i don't drive a car...way to go. i hope gas goes up to $6.00

Yeah, me too, because then Americans can stop purchasing goods and services other than absolute necessities and we can watch lots of American companies go belly-up, put more people out of work, and we'll see the economy tank completely. Sounds like a plan.