Wall Street and the stock market crashed in October 1929. What a difference an economic meltdown makes. In 1928 Herbert Hoover received 444 electoral votes, four years later he was only able to scrape up 59:
Maps from 270 to Win
Saturday, October 11, 2008
This is the actual absentee ballot that was sent out to voters in New York State’s Rensselaer County. I’m not sure which is worse — believing the county election officials who claim that it was a simple typo that made it past three separate proof readers (are the ‘B’ and ‘S’ keys right next to each other on their keyboards?), or not believing them, which means that it was done on purpose.
From Blogflict
Saturday, October 11, 2008
As goes the economy, so goes McCain — down:
From Arjun Modi
From Steve Lombardo in Pollster.com:
The past 14 days have transformed this election. The financial crisis has catapulted Obama into the lead both nationally and in key states. We have been saying for six months that the political environment has favored the Democrats significantly, but it took a near global financial meltdown for things to finally reach the tipping point. The economic situation has virtually ended John McCain’s presidential aspirations and no amount of tactical maneuvering in the final 29 days is likely to change that equation.
UPDATE: One final observation:
© Clay Bennett
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Following the problems in the sub-prime lending market in America and the run on HBOS in the UK, the financial crisis has now hit Japan.
In the last 7 hours Origami Bank has folded, Sumo Bank has gone belly up and Bonsai Bank announced plans to cut some of its branches.
Yesterday, it was announced that Karaoke Bank is up for sale and will likely go for a song, while today shares in Kamikaze Bank were suspended after they nose-dived.
Samurai Bank is soldiering on following sharp cutbacks, Ninja Bank is reported to have taken a hit, but they remain in the black.
Furthermore, 500 staff at Karate Bank got the chop and analysts report that there is something fishy going on at Sushi Bank where it is feared that staff may get a raw deal.
© Keyes (Dublin)
Saturday, October 11, 2008
At one of his town hall events, a woman in the audience said “I’ve heard that Senator Obama is an Arab.”
To his credit, McCain cut the woman off and said “No, maam. He’s a decent family man and citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues.” My opinion of McCain went way up in that moment. You can see the video here.
Likewise, at a similar event a man told McCain he’s “scared” of an Obama presidency and who he’d select for the Supreme Court.
Again, McCain responded “I have to tell you. Senator Obama is decent person and a person you don’t have to be scared of as president of the United States.”
Unfortunately, at the second event McCain’s audience booed him. Sad, that.
UPDATE: The other sad thing in this case is the mainstream media:
UPDATE 2: William F. Buckley’s son Christopher has a good summation of McCain’s situation: “If he goes out losing ugly, it will be beyond tragic.”
UPDATE 3: Obama thanks McCain for helping to tone down the rhetoric. “I appreciated his reminder that we can disagree while still being respectful of each other.”
This week, the World Economic Forum rated Canada as having the soundest banking system in the world. The US was rated #40. Even Switzerland, which is known for their banks, ranked #16. According to Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, “We’re a relative rock of stability in this situation, but of course we’re vulnerable to spillovers from what’s happening elsewhere.”
Why is Canada managing to avoid the financial meltdown that is affecting the US, Europe, and much of the rest of the world? Because of “strict regulation“. That’s right, their government regulates banks much more than most countries. And rather than hurt their economy, it has protected it.
Canada has some of the strictest capitalization requirements in the world — the amount of money a bank has to hang onto to be able to deal with bad loans or other financial problems. Canada has also refused to approve the merger of any of Canada’s big banks. And finally, banking regulations kept Canadian banks from catching the fever for subprime mortgages that spread like a plague across the rest of the world.
Compare this to the US, where deregulation, mergers, and subprime mortgages have been all the rage, but are leading to the end of American capitalism.
So the next time someone says that there wasn’t anything the government could have done to prevent the current financial crisis, or claims that government regulation of business is always bad, all you have to do is point next door.
