comMITTed to Romney!

Woo Hoo!! At last, some common sense. Now if we poor, exploited taxpayers could get back the $440,000 blown by the big-spending party boys over at AIG, I’d be feeling better about the bailout, but not by much.

~~John Cronin~~

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122687023712831667.html

By SUSANNE CRAIG

The seven top executives at Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will not receive bonuses for 2008, according to a Goldman spokesman.

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The market internals were so weak this past Thursday, that I doubted any rally would have the chops to sustain itself and sure enough, there was a sharp pull back today from Friday’s surge.

I put up some of the headlines from Market Watch to give our readers a very generalized view of some of the market headlines today.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/newswatch-us-stocks-sink-bailout/story.aspx?guid={ADAD7263-026D-4225-AA93-D5B23FF14177}&dist=hplatest

By MarketWatch

Last update: 5:00 p.m. EDT Sept. 22, 2008

Stocks give back some of their sharp gains from Friday, as the market started digesting details of a $700 billion plan to take the bad assets off ailing financial firms’ balance sheets to stem the yearlong credit crisis. See full story.

McCain, Obama trade barbs on financial rescue plan

The presidential candidates trade barbs on the campaign trail over the nation’s financial-rescue plan, with each accusing the other of inaction and of failing to grasp what’s needed in the crisis. See full story.

The end of Wall Street may mean less profit for Goldman, Morgan

For Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the benefits of being bank holding companies may come at a cost. See full story.

Short-sale ban list expanded to include GE, GM, 28 others

Pushing on to shore up the markets, the list of banned short-sale stocks has been expanded to include the likes of blue chips General Electric, General Motors and American Express. See full story.

Microsoft sets largest-ever buyback plan; H-P, Nike follow suit

Microsoft annouces $40 billion share buyback, the largest on record. Nike and Hewlett-Packard also approve repurchases. See full story.

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Wall Street is reeling from a series of blows that are coming from several directions at once. The mortgage mess precipitated the crisis and now the ripple effects are being seen in areas as diverse as majors selloffs in the stocks of the two remaining independent investment banks, Goldman and Morgan Stanley, as well as a major money market fund that has exposure to Lehman Bros. bonds, which are now valued at zero. What a tumultuous 10 day period in our country’s financial history. We are witnessing history being made before our eyes.

~~John Cronin~~

By Greg Morcroft, MarketWatch
Last update: 4:21 p.m. EDT Sept. 17, 2008

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Outright fear gripped the U.S. financial sector on Wednesday and investors aggressively sold off shares of the two largest remaining U.S. investment banks, signaling a rapidly waning confidence in the structural integrity of the nation’s financial system.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley shares suffered their biggest one day losses ever, falling 19% and 27%, respectively. The shares are off 30% and 43%, respectively, for the week.

Investor worries are growing about brokers’ access to funding in the current environment, and the companies have been trying to scale back their balance sheets. Bear Stearns’ demise was driven by an unwillingness of its partners to trade with it.

The market remained beset as well by concerns about the fate of the freshly bailed out American International Group and fresh concerns about the solvency of money market funds after one of the largest in the country froze redemptions yesterday.

And, in another troubling development from the financial crisis, one of the original and largest money market funds has put a seven-day freeze on investor redemptions after the net asset value of its shares fell below $1, in an extremely rare instance in the fund industry of what is called “breaking the buck.”

Primary Fund, managed by New York-based money market fund inventor The Reserve, said late Tuesday that its $785 million holding of Lehman Brothers Holdings debt has been valued at zero.
While Primary Fund’s Lehman holding was small compared to the fund’s overall size, the fact that it froze redemptions reflects a surge in redemption requests by investors

That news helped pressure shares of fund companies and online brokers, on concerns that investors might rush to make withdrawals in order to be sure their money is safe.

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