Late Night Econ

Oh, Nikkei's down 911 at the lunch break. Japan's PM Taro Aso called the US out on its bank plan. After today's nasty drop, more will come.

Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso said the U.S. government must accelerate steps to prop up financial institutions or face mounting consequences that include slumping stock values.

The Bush administration said this week it plans to spend $250 million buying stakes in thousands of financial firms to help halt a credit freeze.

``People think the $250 billion plan is insufficient and that's why markets are falling,'' Aso told lawmakers in parliament in Tokyo today. ``They need to make a quick decision to inject capital.''

Aso, who made similar remarks to lawmakers yesterday, said the lesson from Japan's bank bailout 10 years ago was that time is of essence. ``Looking at Japan's experience from 1997 to 1998, unless you take action quickly, you end up paying a higher price,'' he said.

I love it. Aso thinks we haven't thrown enough money at the problem and wants to know when we're going to get serious about saving our economy.

We haven't even started being serious about saving our economy yet. The credit markets are glacially thawing, at this rate we might see bank lending in six months...far too late. What makes anybody think we're going to start now? Did anyone here see the debate? Both candidates talked about wild programs that will never happen. We're not getting health care. We're not getting tax cuts. We're not getting tax credits on things.

We're in the poorhouse. Our standard of living is going to evaporate over the next several months and years. If gas was $8 a gallon and food was twice the cost, could you afford things? You'd better think about that. That's where we are headed. How many more 700 point drops can we take?

By my math, 11. Do you think this country can survive another 2 weeks of 700 point losses? This is not a healthy market when we are losing 9-10% a day and gaining 10% another day. We're in dire, serious trouble still and this is happening worldwide, in real time. Like the vibrations of a loose jet engine part, something's going to break off and when it does we're going to crash. Hard. It's going to take years and years to recover from this and when we do recover we're not going to be a world power any longer. Our time is done. It's China or India's turn soon. Unless we see a major turnaround in confidence in a few days, it's over, folks. The bank nationalization plan is not working. There's too much bad news. Confidence is key and there is no confidence out there.

America will not be the same. Pundits are still talking about a "probable recession" in much the same way a volcano forming in your living room is a probable source of geothermal heat.

Can you imagine the mood of the country as we vote with the Dow at something ridiculous like 2,800? Is Dow 2,800 really that insane after this week?

I'm going to bed. I'm scaring myself again.