On Wednesday, the House passed a mammoth defense bill by a 392-39 vote. It's expected to clear the Senate with little difficulty next week. 

It was part of a trillion-dollar stop-gap measure to keep programs running through next March, allowing lawmakers to skip town without passing a final budget.

Washington Mutual, the giant lender that came to symbolize the excesses of the mortgage boom, was seized by federal regulators on Thursday night, in what is by far the largest bank failure in American history.

On Thursday morning, September 18, 2008 a tragedy almost befell the 450 billionaires and 3,000,000 millionaires that live in the United States.  

The billionaires were on their way to becoming millionaires and the millionaires were about to leave the club.

Luckily, Hank Paulson, U.S. Treasury Secretary, felt their pain.  

Americans’ anger is in full bloom, jumping off the screen in capital letters and exclamation points, in the e-mail in-boxes of elected representatives in the nation’s capital. 

“I am hoping Congress can find the backbone to stand on their feet and not their knees before BIG BUSINESS,” one correspondent wrote to Representative Jim McDermott of Washington. 

The Queen and the Government are locked in a secret dispute over royal demands for increased public funding to meet the growing expense of the monarchy. 

Palace aides have told ministers they need extra money to offset the cost of maintaining the Royal Estate of palaces and pay for increased fuel, food and staffing costs.  

ANZ Bank chief executive Mike Smith says Australian banks are looking very strong, despite the current financial market turmoil. 

Mr Smith, who was speaking at an Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce (AICC) lunch in Sydney, said the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) had been ahead of game in dealing with the ramifications of the crisis, which began in the US. 

The timing and urgency of the Bush Administration's call for action from Congress on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's plan to save the financial industry from collapse leaves only two possibilities.

Either the White House is criminally incompetent when it comes to the economy, or our current financial status is part of a structured crisis planned as an early October surprise. 

from Crikey ….. 

George Bush: proof there is life on Mars 

'as under-heard' on Fran Kelly's Radio National show by Gus' vivid imagination...

from Crikey ….. 

Vanstone may have to walk over mafia visa 

Barry Everingham writes: 

The bailout doesn't smell right to the people of Manassas Park, where the foreclosure signs are as common as azaleas. They know all about bad debt here. 

This is a terrain of oversize dreams, misjudgement, financial calamity - and empty houses. "Foreclosure. Foreclosure. Foreclosure," said Ed Merkle, 58, as he pointed to the "for sale" signs lining his street. 

Why should American taxpayers give US Treasury Secretary "Hank" Paulson a blank check to bail out the shareholders of busted banks?  

Why should the Treasury turn itself into a toxic waste dump for their bad loans?  

Adapted/reversed by Gus from Julie Bishop blogs exclusively for BusinessDay/ TheAge

As Shadow Prime Minister Turnbull complains about Rudd's latest overseas adventure, why does he remind me of Don Quixote? The fictional Man of La Mancha famous for his delusional missions to save the world.

The financial crisis that began in the United States spread to many corners of the globe. Now, the American bailout looks as if it is going global, too, a move that could raise its cost and intensify scrutiny by Congress and critics. 

Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from it.  

Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments covered, not just those related to mortgages.