Madoff Client List

Here is the 130 page list of Bernard Madoff's clients. There are literally thousands of people on the list, it is the size of a phone book. See if anyone you know or have heard of is on the list. This is one evil and dangerous man. I still can't believe he is free to stay in his $10 million penthouse, he should be in a nasty NY jail getting his justice.-Lou

Read List Here:

http://media.cnbc.com/i/CNBC/Sections/News_And_Analysis/_News/__EDIT%20Singapore/madoffryanruggiero1.pdf

How Much Is A Trillion??

$1,000,000,000,000

With the stimulus bill nearing a trillion dollars, how much is a trillion really? Watch this interesting video.-Lou

Watch Here:
http://money.cnn.com/video/#/video/news/2009/02/04/news.romans.trillion.cnnmoney

Obama caps executive pay tied to bailout money

So now the government owns large pieces of U.S. banks and will now dictate what executives get paid. This is more of a political move than one that has any real effect on the nation's economy. I'm really not sure how I feel about this. On one hand I despise the fact that the guys who effectively destroyed their companies are rewarded with huge compensation, on the other hand will they not now go to non-bailout companies for larger compensation and leave the companies with a lack of talent? When a government controls corporations and employees pay, is that not Socilaism or worse?-Lou

Obama caps executive pay tied to bailout money

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama on Wednesday imposed $500,000 caps on senior executive pay for the most distressed financial institutions receiving federal bailout money, saying Americans are upset with "executives being rewarded for failure."

Obama announced the dramatic new government intervention into corporate America at the White House, with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner at his side. The president said the executive-pay limits are a first step, to be followed by the unveiling next week of a sweeping new framework for spending what remains of the $700 billion financial industry bailout that Congress created last year.

Read Article Here:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Obama-caps-executive-pay-tied-apf-14250829.html

FDIC seeks to triple Treasury Dept borrowing power

Last Friday the FDIC announced the closure of three banks. I expect more than 300 banks to fail this year. This $100 billion credit line is just for starters, the FDIC will need at least ten times that much when this is all over-Lou

FDIC seeks to triple Treasury Dept borrowing power

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp is seeking to more than triple its credit line with the U.S. Treasury Department to $100 billion, a move to give it more financial power to handle U.S. bank failures, the agency said on Monday.

The FDIC and Congress are working to boost the agency's current $30 billion borrowing power in legislation being crafted by U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
The move comes as the FDIC's deposit insurance fund has shrunk due to a significant uptick in bank failures over the past year. The insurance fund's value dropped 24 percent in the 2008 third quarter to $34.6 billion.

Read Article Here:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/usPoliticsNews/idUKTRE51164C20090202

Democrat: Obama Team 'Encouraged' Defiance of Pelosi on Stimulus

Public support for the pork laden "Stimulus Bill" continues to erode as Americans become aware that there is very little stimulus and mostly gifts to Democratic supporters. Even the Obama administration is against the makeup of the bill-Lou

Democrat: Obama Team 'Encouraged' Defiance of Pelosi on Stimulus

Rep. Jim Cooper, a conservative Democrat from Tennessee, told a liberal radio network on Sunday that the Obama White House encouraged him to defy House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the $819 billion economic stimulus bill.

"Well, I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but I actually got some quiet encouragement from the Obama folks for what I’m doing," said Cooper, one of only 11 Democrats to vote against the economic stimulus plan that passed the House last week.

"They know its a messy bill and they wanted a clean bill," he said. "Now, I got in terrible trouble with our leadership because they don’t care what’s in the bill, they just want it to pass and they want it to be unanimous."

Read Article Here:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,487632,00.html

California goes broke, halts $3.5 billion in payments

This unreal situation will be played out in many states this year. There is no easy way out, expect services to be curtailed. Municipal bonds, a conservative investment in past years are now very risky.-Lou

California goes broke, halts $3.5 billion in payments

California, the eighth largest economy in the world, is broke. "People are going to be hurt starting today," said Hallye Jordan, speaking on behalf of the state Controller.

"There's no money."Since state legislators failed to meet an end of January deadline on an agreement to make up for California's $40 billion budget gap, residents won't be getting their state tax rebates, scholarships to Cal Grant college will go unpaid, vendors invoices will remain uncollected and county social services will cease.

Read Article Here:

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/California_goes_broke_halts_3.5_billion_0202.html

Auto Industry In Depression

The auto industry worldwide and especially in the U.S. is in a major depression. Within a year I expect at least one and most likely two U.S. auto companies to be in Chapter 11. I would not touch an auto stock with a ten foot pole. GM stock is going to 0-Lou

Auto sales near 27-year low

Auto sales near 27-year low DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co posted a 40 percent drop in January sales in the United States, the sharpest decline for the No. 2 U.S. automaker in 10 months of double-digit sales declines in the world's largest market for new cars and trucks. Toyota Motor Corp, the world's largest automaker, was hit with a 34 percent sales decline, a drop that underscores how the U.S. recession has tripped up even the industry's strongest players. Sales for Nissan Motor Co were off almost 30 percent.

The results from Toyota, Ford and Nissan on Tuesday were among the first from major automakers for a month expected to show overall sales near 27-year lows, extending a stretch of 15 months of consecutive auto sales declines.

Quote Of The Day

"Make no mistake, tax cheaters cheat us all, and the IRS should enforce our laws to the letter." Senator Tom Daschle, Congressional Record, May 7, 1998 page S5407

As The Stimulus Plan Grows...

Now that the Senate has it's hands on the "Stimulus Bill", it is getting larger as all kinds of lobbyists plead for more goodies. The plan has already grown from $820 billion to $885 billion and is expected to grow much larger. Every industry that can afford a parasite known as a lobbyist is twisting arms in the Senate for a bigger piece of the pork dinner.-Lou

Daschle 'disappointed' by errors

All I can say is this is unreal. I'm glad Senator Daschle is "disappointed" that he cheated on his taxes. It was only $146,000, no problem.-Lou

Daschle apologizes to senators over tax errors

Obama says he 'absolutely' backs Daschle to head HHS

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Tom Daschle, President Barack Obama's choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services, apologized in a letter to senators and tried to explain errors in reporting his taxes as his nomination was thrown into some question as lawmakers prepared to question him on Monday.

Daschle, a former Senate Democratic leader, recently paid $146,000 in back taxes and interest to correct the errors.

Treasury Borrowing 493 Billion This Quarter

The Treasury Department today said that the U.S. government will borrow almost $500 billion this quarter. This follows $569 billion borrowed in the 4th quarter of 2008.

So simple math tells us that the U.S. Treasury will borrow over $1 trillion over just a six month period. There is no way that we will not see 1. a lower dollar, 2. rising inflation and 3. rising long term interest rates.

 

This really scary stuff

Lou Scatigna

Listen Live To This Week's Radio Show

Listen Live today at 11AM EST to "The Financial Physician" Radio Program. This is my first live show in three weeks and there is much to talk about.

Listen Here:

http://player.streamtheworld.com/liveplayer.php?callsign=WOBMAM#Main

If you miss the live show, tune in all week and listen to the archived show.

Listen Here:

http://wobmam.com/personalities_lou_scatigna.html

A Very Scary Chart

click on charts to enlarge

The top chart shows U.S. banks borrowing from the Federal Reserve through December 2007.

The bottom chart is the same through December 2008. There is something seriously wrong out there, how can a Depression be avoided?-Lou

Sunday Financial Funnies

This is really outrageous, the head of the Treasury Department is also the head of the IRS. This guy was the head of the NY Fed and has been instrumental in all the failed actions of the Fed since day one. Now it is learned that Tom Daschle, former Senator and Secretary of Heath and Human Services nominee just amended his taxes and payed over $100,000 in back taxes. He is still expected to be confirmed. I wonder how Congress would react if it these guys were nominated by a Republican President?-Lou