American optimism at all-time low, 2009 recession imminent… Fannie and Freddie to the rescue? Chris Mayer with good news for oil investors. Another day, another double-digit decline… Russian market, currency plummeting. Pat Cox with a “huge” breakthrough medical tech about to become reality. Have we hit a nerve? The automaker debate rages on in The 5’s inbox

Oy. “The $700 billion financial bailout program,” the New York Times sums up Treasury Secretary Paulson’s speech this morning, “will not be used to buy troubled mortgage-backed assets, as originally intended. Instead, capital would be provided directly to nonbank companies, as well as banks and financial institutions, and that more would be done to prevent home foreclosures.”

Is it any wonder 83% of Americans think the U.S. is “headed in the wrong direction”?

...

American optimism at all-time low, 2009 recession imminent… Fannie and Freddie to the rescue? Chris Mayer with good news for oil investors. Another day, another double-digit decline… Russian market, currency plummeting. Pat Cox with a “huge” breakthrough medical tech about to become reality. Have we hit a nerve? The automaker debate rages on in The 5’s inbox

Oy. “The $700 billion financial bailout program,” the New York Times sums up Treasury Secretary Paulson’s speech this morning, “will not be used to buy troubled mortgage-backed assets, as originally intended. Instead, capital would be provided directly to nonbank companies, as well as banks and financial institutions, and that more would be done to prevent home foreclosures.”

Is it any wonder 83% of Americans think the U.S. is “headed in the wrong direction”?

...

by Edward Hugh : BarcelonaAccording to preliminary data from national statistics office ISTAT this morning Italy's GDP fell 0.3 percent in the second quarter compared with the first three months of the year and was unchanged year-on-year (ie zero percent annual growth). Final data and a detailed breakdown for the second quarter will be released on Sept. 10. In the first quarter, GDP rose 0.5 percent quarter-on-quarter and increased 0.3 percent year-on-year.European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet stated yesterday that economic growth was expected to be "particularly weak" in the third quarter after bank policy makers left borrowing costs at 4.25 percent, so it is not unreasonable to anticipate a second consecutive quarter of negative growth in Q3, and hence in all probability Italy is now in recession.Italian consumer ...