Day of Reckoning: Washington Post,1/13/08 P. F3

The takeover of the nation's largest mortgage lender, Countrywide Financial, by the nation's largest bank, Bank of America, had all the earmarks of a rescue effort encouraged and blessed by regulators. Merrill Lynch and Citigroup were reported to be trolling overseas for big equity. My comment: Globalization is in action, and Sino-American economics would be revealing in such deals. The nervousness on the part of industry executives and economic policymakers is now almost palpable. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, acknowledging that the housing crisis has not hit bottom, promised to move quickly on a proposal for an economic stimulus package. And the chairman of the FED made clear that the central bank stands ready to lower interst rates and inject even more money into the banking system. Alan Greenspan said that recession is here or about to be here as per WTOP radio broadcast on January 15, 2008. How deep will it be? It is still too early to say. My comment: I sent my blog several months ago as my prediction. The severity of stagflation remains to be seen apropos of empirical evidence. Today is M. L. King's real birthday but it will be officially observed on Monday,Jan. 21, 2008 for a long weekend. I wonder if such modification would be acceptable to the late Martin Luther King? Well,he is not in this world and the folks in charge make decisions. Economics or otherwise,the decison makers make decision as known to all seasoned observers. I am a lifelong student searching for knowledge and wisdom as an octogenarian. But such search is endless,similar to surfing on the web for knowledge!? Hehehahahoho all the way and we shall live to be centenarians! Francis Shieh, a.k.a. Xie Shihao on Tuesday, January 15, 2008