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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Really. It’s too much. Yesterday, George W. Bush told foreign leaders “Our aim should not be more government, It should be smarter government.” Didn’t Bush just spend the past eight years embodying the exact opposite? Where was the smart part creating an “ownership society” with phony money? Where was the smart part of running up record deficits? Or the war in Iraq?

- But W. didn’t stop there. Apart from wanting governments to be “smarter” (who doesn’t?), he called for called for leaders to recognize that “government intervention is not a cure-all” for economic problems. So what was Fannie and Freddie all about? Or Hank Paulson’s Troubled Assets Relief Program. Or the bailout of AIG? If government is not a cure-all, then why has Bush orchestrated the biggest government intervention in the free markets in history? Is he really that unaware of

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Really. It’s too much. Yesterday, George W. Bush told foreign leaders “Our aim should not be more government, It should be smarter government.” Didn’t Bush just spend the past eight years embodying the exact opposite? Where was the smart part creating an “ownership society” with phony money? Where was the smart part of running up record deficits? Or the war in Iraq?

- But W. didn’t stop there. Apart from wanting governments to be “smarter” (who doesn’t?), he called for called for leaders to recognize that “government intervention is not a cure-all” for economic problems. So what was Fannie and Freddie all about? Or Hank Paulson’s Troubled Assets Relief Program. Or the bailout of AIG? If government is not a cure-all, then why has Bush orchestrated the biggest government intervention in the free markets in history? Is he really that unaware of

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NYU Economist and former Clinton administration Council on Economic Advisors member Nouriel Roubini has been uncannily correct about the global financial meltdown, earning him the nickname "Dr. Doom."Late yesterday, speaking at a Bloomberg Media forum in New York City, Roubini called for an immediate $400-$500 billion U.S. economic stimulus package focused upon projects to improve our country's infrastructure: "U.S. Should Enact $400 Billion Stimulus, Roubini Says."Some excerpts from the Bloomberg story ... Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) --"The only way to increase aggregate demand is going to be through" government spending on roads, bridges and other infrastructure, Roubini said at a Bloomberg conference in New York. "We need a huge plan, $300 billion is not going to be enough. I think we're going to need a plan of $400 billion to $500 billion."--SNIP--"If we don't do that fiscal stimulus today, three months from ...

A very cool, very clever black man overcomes racism and ignorance to triumph over his detractors thanks to superior intellect and a methodical nature. No, not the Presidential election, but the plot of the multiple Oscar winning movie 'In the Heat of the Night', which was released over 40 years ago but resonates today on the cusp of a generational political shift in US politics. Having watched it again at the weekend, and amid the endless stream of apocalyptic economic comment (I'm a longtime fan of NYU economist Nouriel Roubini, but he's becoming the Henry Blodget of the bear case, and we all know how that ended), Americans can feel justifiably proud that in a generation we have got to this point. It looks increasingly likely that the Democrats will seize not only the White House, but a filibuster proof majority in the Senate as well, ...

We all know we up to our ears in trouble. What people want to know now is how bad is this financial storm going to get. Bill Bonner in The Daily Reckoning says unfortunately the answer could be “a lot worse.” He points readers to the following quote from Professor of Economics at the NYU Nouriel Roubini.

This from The Daily Reckoning:

“The crisis was caused by the largest leveraged asset bubble and credit bubble in the history of humanity where excessive leveraging and bubbles were not limited to housing in the U.S. but also to housing in many other countries and excessive borrowing by financial institutions and some segments of the corporate sector and of the public sector in many and different economies: an housing bubble, a mortgage bubble, an equity bubble, a bond bubble, a credit bubble, a commodity bubble, a private equity bubble, a hedge

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Nouriel Roubini - a professor of economics at NYU - says it is futile to think about avoiding a global recession now. We are already there. The only objective for governments and central bank now should be damage limitation.

This from rgemonitor.com:

"So we are now very close to the systemic financial meltdown that I outlined in my February paper. But radical action can be taken and should be taken to control the damage and prevent this meltdown from occurring. At this point the US, the advanced economies (and now most likely even some emerging market economies) will experience an ugly recession and an ugly financial and banking crisis regardless of what we do from now on. We are already now in a global recession that is getting worse by the day. What radical policy action can only do is preventing what will now be an ugly and nasty two-year recession and

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Although its seems like capital has dried up with everyone these days, if you've got some, history shows that now is the time to think about putting it to work. This is purely odds, statistics and history. Although people like to say "this time it's different", it usually isn't. History is usually a good guide for these things.Those who cried that this crisis would happen are finally getting major airtime. Specifically NYU professor Nouriel Roubini. Six months ago, his statements sounded crazy. Today, his statements have been proved mostly ture, and now he's all over the news and they're using him for ratings. Funny how things change. And all the "financial crisis bears" are running around and talking about how right they were, as they obviously feel vindicated. And of course, they're all continuing to lay it on, saying ...