Everything points to the need for a New New Deal. Here is a 1.5 minute video comparing FDR and Obama. To make a contribution link here.

Can it be that the world as we know it may be coming to an end? Naw, it can’t be that bad, can it? Well, I’ve been cramming as much of this global financial predicament as I can stand into my head the last couple days, between going about my daily chores and ablutions. And, as one might say, this is serious shit. Paul Krugman’s blogs have been my main starting points, but also I watched online Bill Moyers’ interview of George Soros, the man who predicted this perilous predicament a number of months ago. George states that we have wasted valuable time and are still behind the curve but may be lucky. Nothing less than a coordinated intervention by all the countries into their banking systems to supply vast sums of equity, plus huge economic stimulus packages and bailouts for homeowners, will work. Or at least it seems so. Tomorrow, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2008, may be the D-Day, D for decision. Will it work? We’ll have to see.
Update Oct. 12: Well, here it is Oct. 12, Sunday, and it looks like the Europeans at least are starting to get their acts together. We’ll see about the U.S.of A. Paul Krugman still has doubts about our commitments, but thankfully our markets are closed tomorrow, the day Columbus discovered America, or so the story goes…… Oh, and here’s another great source of info on the current situation.

Nobody expects the

Spanish Inquisition!!!

So saeth Monty Python!

Paul Krugman, the noted economist, sees a lead in with our economy here:

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Fear and negative equity … The two things we have to fear are fear itself and negative equity, and the depleted capital of financial institutions … Amongst the things we have to fear are fear itself, negative equity, and the depleted capital of financial institutions.

In the house of God, whoops, I mean, of McCain there are many mansions. See this 4-minute video for a description of these many McCain mansions. Hear McCain’s prescriptions for what should done about the enormous increase in housing foreclosures. Short answer: not much, just don’t expect government handouts!

UPDATE: McCain doesn’t even know how many mansions he owns.

Juan Cole provides an interesting news item from Aljazeera this morning: “Almost all of the wealth generated in Iraq comes from two off-shore oil rigs. Guarding these sites is a priority, not just for war-torn Iraq, but for a world in which oil prices have touched record highs.”

Here’s a six minute clip from a new film, Chalmers Johnson on American Hegemony. This is part of the Speaking Freely series in which Johnson discusses “military Keynesianism” and imperial bankruptcy.

He speaks very clearly, and this is pretty frightening stuff, in the opposite sense from the stuff promulgated by Dick Cheney. In other words, what he’s saying is that we have a suicide pact with our own military, speaking as Americans.

For more by Chalmers Johnson on the effects of Military Keynesianism, see Going Bankrupt: Why the Debt Crisis Is Now the Greatest Threat to the American Republic.