Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac combined, underwrote over $7 trillion in mortgage backed securities. This is roughly 60% of the U.S. GDP. If a souring economy sends millions more to the unemployment lines, these mortgages will be at risk. And now The Fed has claimed to back these two mortgage monsters with the U.S. Treasury. Want a dollar that trades at ten plus to the Euro? This is how you get there. Unlike the Great Depression which saw the dollar soar in value, as natural attrition created a deflationary vortex, this potential calamity could have us looking like Argentina in the Eighties. Reason enough for worry?

to snowman.

anyone who is obsessed about ending up "eating out of a dumpster" or "reduced to living in a shack" is full of fear and loathing. fear of their own miserable selves ending up at the dumpster and loathing of the scum who actually live in shacks.

and the best part is you don't even know it.

who's the kapusta here?

Nik13: 'Media telling the honest truth? Yeah, right. Recession means two consecutive quarters when economy shrinks. Hasn't happened & economy, while sluggish grows....'

Actually, the economy is shrinking in many areas. The reason it doesn't show up in a lot of the statistics is that the money is being rapidly inflated while the numbers are adjusted to make it seem that it is not. If you cast, say, stock prices or personal incomes or net worth in terms of oil, gold or euros the downward momentum will become clear.

The government and the FRB have been, in effect, printing funny money for many years now. Most of it went into real estate and stock bubbles and weird high-management salaries. That has to be sweated out now. As usual, the upper classes will try to make the lower classes pay for the correction, as by taxing them pay for the current series of bank and brokerage house busts and effectively reducing their wages. Will the suckers stand still for it? We'll see.

He needs to take a refresher course on how to fake empathy.

:p

Snowman, wrong target.

kapusta=Polish for head of cabbage. Major stress on "pusta", meaning "empty' in singular, feminine.

That's because we are gradually entering a recession (it's just beginning!).

It's going to last several years and turn into a full blown inflationary depression.

Obama nor Mc Cain can't fixed it, the problem is the Federal Reserve!

"in response to mihow...on dec.7,1941 the well educated, concerned citizens of the democracy The United States of America had "...nothing to fear but fear itself."

on sept.11,2001 the ignorant enslaved taxpayers of the fascist religious theocracy the Imperial US Empire had everything to fear including fear itself."

Huh??

...And to everyone who is saying that all the doom and gloom about the economy in the media soo totally accurate. I'd urge you to give some thought to that position. Media companies need to sell their media and this is where things get a little sleazy sometimes. Times are certainly tough but no one on here ate out of a dumpster today; or was reduced to living in a shack in central park; everyone probably went to work... Just something to think about.

Media telling the honest truth? Yeah, right. Recession means two consecutive quarters when economy shrinks. Hasn't happened & economy, while sluggish grows. People are uncertain about future, but I recall same "doomsday news" during each & every election cycle.

Same people who cite $4 gallon of gas as sign of impending & inevitable doom, have no problem paying that for an 8oz cup of artificially flavored Starbucks brew or a bag of supposedly organic arugula at Whole Foods.

hey glenn, ever think people are ridiculing bush's quote because all he is capable of doing is passing off some glib, obvious statement without any sense of depth?

oh no, you probably wouldn't have noticed. enjoy your podcasts.

President Bush held his first news conference in months...

Months?? That is inaccurate. Our President has press conferences regularly... President Bush and Prime Minister of Japan just participated in a joint press conference (with Q&A time allocated of course) on July 6th!

Hint: "Presidential Speeches and Remarks" are available as a Podcast in iTunes.

Do you disagree with the President's quote "We're Going Through a Tough Time?"

Hate makes people want to argue with our President even when they agree with him! LOL

Work for economic justice and speak that truth to power. Capitalism all by itself simply does not work. It needs responsible regulation. The Republicans basically know this and don't care. (The Dems aren't much better). The protestant work ethic is a myth to dope the masses. The "trickle down economy" concept of Reagan, etc. is, in the end, just a golden shower. (Okay, in better times you get to have some toys, but how about a meaningful life beyond god, country and family) Even the war in Iraq is just an extension of their cavalier thievery of the commonwealth. Institutionalized exploitation. Thousands of deaths, trillions of dollars. Misery for profit. Jeesh!

he just looks lost, and deeply troubled that he is not loved...

It's not that the Media is trying to instill fear in the public, it's that they CAN'T deny it anymore.

They have been denying for quite sometime, but the Federal Reserve among other Financial experts have known about this for years.

It took the media a long time to come to terms with the truth, now the problem is so much worse at such a faster pace, that they can't deny it anymore.

It's the reality people, just prepare.

in response to mihow...on dec.7,1941 the well educated, concerned citizens of the democracy The United States of America had "...nothing to fear but fear itself."

on sept.11,2001 the ignorant enslaved taxpayers of the fascist religious theocracy the Imperial US Empire had everything to fear including fear itself.

in response to the God W..."we're going through a tough time".

what do you mean "we" rich boy?

I wish the media would take some responsibility and stop reporting toward people's fears. It's ugly and does no good.

I'm afraid it's a bit more than fear. It's reality. Would you rather the media keep reporting blue skies when we're deep in the perfect storm?

I really hope the next president immediately declassifies all of Bush's papers. We deserve to know just how this knucklehead made more bad decisions than his five immediate predecessors combined. Only Mr. "I am not a crook" seemed to make worse decisions.

bxbrian- he'll be hangin' out with good ole kenny boy

what's the over/under on this clown winding up dead 4-8 years after 2009?

You're doing a heck of a job Bushie.

I think the first sentence should read "his first news conference in months."

That aside, good ole W, master of the understatement. This is not all hype. IndyMac might not be a big regional bank around here, but that was the second largest bank failure in history. That's sort of a big deal.