I don't usually read Bill Kristol's column, but once in a while, my eyes get caught by a headline (that's the difference between reading online and "on paper"), and I'll check out what he has to say. The other day, I read his column "Admit we don't know" on the current economic crisis that, while not in my mind "wrong", seemed puzzling to me. Pay attention to the last paragraph (highlighted in bold).

...basically, it seems to me, we're all flying blind. The markets are spiraling down, and our leading experts don't have much of a clue as to what to do.

Given that, one has to welcome the expected appointment to senior positions in the Obama administration of economists like Lawrence Summers, Timothy Geithner, Jason Furman, Peter Orszag, and Goolsbee himself. They're sober and competent people who know we face a real crisis -- and who, importantly, may be more

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November 26, 2008 ndash; For all of the stimulus that the economic chieftains in Washington are recommending, we are disappointed that so much focus has been on stimulating consumption again to get the economy going, as opposed to stimulating savings, which is the real problem, in our opinion. That we were heading into a consumer-led recession was obvious to us a year ago, given the fact that consumers have been straddled with record credit debt and negative personal savings. After all, consumers are the key cog in the economyrsquo;s machine, representing more than 70% of GDP. On August 14, 2007 we wrote: We would also point out that the average U.S. consumers savings are negative ndash; and have been this way for years. The only reason consumers have been able to hold up their share of the GDP has been their credit.nbsp; We have watched in horror each month while ...

In the currency market, the dollar slipped further against the euro, falling below the $1.30 mark. Late Tuesday, the euro was trading at $1.3013 vs. $1.2905 on Monday.

Traders reacted with disdain for the Fed’s latest inflationary move, a plan under which it will lend up to $800 billion to support the issuance of debt backed by consumer and small-business debt — such as credit-card loans, student debt, auto loans and loans backed by the Small Business Administration.

“The Bush administration … has now made a colossal announcement aimed at putting a bottom in the asset market,” wrote Kathy Lien, of Global Forex Trading. “For investors that have been concerned about the funding crisis, this is an even bigger reason to sell dollars,” she said, noting it will cause the Fed’s balance sheet to balloon to $3 trillion.

Nor were the day’s hard numbers encouraging, with the Commerce Department saying the U.S.

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President-elect Barack Obama yesterday (Monday) formally unveiled his economic team, including the nomination of New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy F. Geithner as the new administration’s U.S. Treasury secretary. The team’s first challenge will be assembling an economic stimulus package that could be even larger than the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) the Bush Administration has deployed.

The nomination of Geithner to succeed current U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. was leaked over the weekend, and was reported by Money Morning yesterday.

Geithner (pronounced: GITE-ner) obtained a Master of Arts degree in International Economics and East Asian Studies from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in 1985. He also has studied Japanese and Chinese and has lived in present-day Zimbabwe, India, Thailand and China.

As

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Bailout fuels a rally… How long the rally last?  A slew of data today…  Thoughts from Jim Rogers… And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Good day… And a Terrific Tuesday to you! Now that was quite the Investment Conference I just attended and gave two presentations to! Someone sent me a headline that appeared on the internet prior to the Conference that read: Three Kings of the Financial World on Tap to Speak for the Next WMI M2… And guess what? They considered me as one of those in the headline! WOW! OK, no… I’m not getting a big head, I’ve got my beautiful bride to keep me humble. She responded to hearing about this article with a heaping helping of, “OK King, take out the trash!” HAHAHAHAHAHA!

“The currencies continued their assault on the dollar today as investors felt more comfortable returning to the higher yielding currencies. Brazil was the biggest mover,

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While no one was looking the Bush Administration quietly changed regulations that would allow oil companies to extract shale from public lands. The U.S. Department of the Interior made both a land grab and a regulatory grab for enormous swaths of shale that have previously been off limits.

We believe this is another body blow to the ailing green industry, as Washington taps a source of energy with huge potential returns. Moreover, president-elect Obama has hedged his bets on oil shale - perhaps surprising many green advocates.

On October 27, 2008, Obama told supporters in Denver…

“When it comes to oil shale right now, I think we have to do more research and more science to discover whether or not the amount of oil that would be generated would justify what would inevitably be some disruption of the landscape here in Colorado…Colorado is blessed with a lot of natural resources.”

By opening up 1.9

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Day after day we get continued evidence of a major policy mistake that is costly for the average investor with a retirement account. The Bush Administration, led by Hank Paulson, stepped in when faced with a crisis.  It was courageous and correct, even if the plan was a bit sketchy. When they finally got Congressional approval it included both additional powers and additional oversight.  Paulson used the additional powers to make direct investments in financial firms, something that many top economists and fund managers thought was a good idea.  This move took the "bulls eye" off of some of the top firms.  It was a good step for an immediate crisis. The Mistake It was at this point that Paulson's effort went off the rails.  We have listened and read everything on this topic.  From our perspective, as experienced observers of government, we think that Paulson ...

The G20 Summit was first proposed by the UK and France during the first waves of the global economic meltdown. It was long anticipated as a coming together of the major nations in the world to discuss necessary changes to help better regulate international finance, attempt to help stabilize the current turbulent markets, and discuss ways to have additional oversight on the international playing field.

After unprecedented global cooperation of bank bailouts and stimulus packages during the crisis, there was much debate about the outcome of the summit this past weekend. Unfortunately, world markets reflect a relatively negative viewpoint of the outcome– falling multiple percentage points in Europe (-2.4% UK, -3.35% Germany, -3.3% France), the Middle East (approx. -1.0% in Israel, Kenya, and Egypt, and 6% in Saudi Arabia), and mixed returns in Asia (+3/4% in Japan,

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Press secretary Dana Perino reiterated the Bush administration’s official position on offering aid to the Big Three on Monday. The White House supports assistance for the troubled automakers, but not at the expense of September’s TARP rescue package.

Stating that TARP was only ever intended to re-inject life into a crumbling credit market, Perino said, “The auto industry is an important part of our manufacturing base, and we want the industry to succeed and compete in the global economy. We believe assistance should come from the program created by Congress that was specifically designed to assist the automakers — from the $25 billion Department of Energy loan program.”

President-elect Barack Obama supports a long-term aid program for the industry, but not an immediate ‘blank-check’ bailout. Unless the undesirable practices which led to the current state are corrected, there are those of the opinion that the Big Three should be

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The record drop in consumer spending in October is clear evidence of a profound weakening of the US economy.  Even President Bush think thinks the situation is bad. At the G20 summit over the weekend, he said it was conceivable that the US “could go into a depression greater than the Great Depression“.

- Of course a depression is what they used to call a recession. Then came the Great Depression. After that, economists and politicians stopped using the word for fear of jinxing the economy. Now, a depression means a severe and protracted recession.

- Bush may be right about the chances of the US slumping into a depression. Part of the problem is that it’s not only the US that’s suffering a bout of economic woes. Japan’s economy, the world’s second largest, has just officially entered its first recession since 2001.

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