9:30 PM EST

U.S. BUYING INTO FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

This move, announced today, is absolute confirmation for me that this is an intentioned shut down of the economy. Each bank or financial institution that the Treasury buys into will give it (and Goldman Sachs) the power to shut each bank down and to decide when it shuts down. It couldn't be more transparent. They're going to turn out the lights in an orderly fashion and it's obviously an attempt at a controlled fast crash. They've only got three months left in office. That would essentially make Barack Obama an economic janitor employed by the same firm. I can just hear Bush and Cheney cracking a joke about it.

MCR

c. 5 P.M. EST

UNDERSTANDING FRIDAY, Oct. 10th, 2008 -- NO CAPITULATION AND WORRIES ABOUT THE ELECTION

[DISCLAIMER:

From here on out I will write under the assumption that those who read me are familiar with Rubicon, the FTW site and its archives, and my videotapes. I'll assume that you already know what GATA is and that you understand all of my/our previous work on gold, intelligence agencies and economics. The reason for that is that I am, and will always be, most loyal and responsive to the thousands --perhaps tens of thousands -- who have been with me and the FTW gang for years. I cannot and will not go back and rewrite what I spent years writing and waste the time or focus of those who just need/want to hear what my inisghts are today. We just don't have time to waste. For those willing to do a little homework, the FTW acrhives are there and available. The easiest thing to do is to go to the FTW search engine (not a great one) and, under Search Options select "Find exact phrase". Then enter whatever terms or subjects that we use here andyou will find a quick-study course to help bring you up to speed. --MCR]


Bear in mind that everything that happened today happened in absolute silence about Citigroup. The latest there is that there is supposed to be a court hearing next week about a suit Citi may bring against Wells and Wachovia. Meantime, Citigroup has waived all claims to acquiring any of Wachovia's assets (cash deposits). My suspicion is that out of fear Citi is hanging back for any kind of discussion about its stability. Then again, they just might be waiting for the right moment to break the bad news to achieve the worst effect: capitulation. Citigroup is in a worse position than it was two weeks ago. It is still heavily weighed by bad mortgage debt and "bailout options" are becoming an endangered species, especially when Citigroup would be the biggest bailout ever -- by a wide margin. The seemingly blessed AIGwas/is nowhere near as big, especially in terms of impact.

VOLATILITY --

I have never seen such a volatile market as I saw today. I saw (maybe there were more) no less than eight swings back and forth between positive and negative in the Dow. Five of them were in the last hour of trading. Up by a hundred then down 800. Then back up to even. Then back down again to -600. And then back and forth by 200-300 pts five times. A key moment, when the Dow was down by 600+ was a sudden drop in the price of gold by around $50 an ounce -- out of nowehere. When that happened, the 600 point loss evaporated to 128 or so points. The continuing blatant manipulation in gold prices is so obvious as to be ludicrous. It is sucking the last bits of cash out there into the markets. GATA has been right all along and I have said so consistently for many years. The panicked sheep who have been"looking at" gold (late, but not too late) will hesitate and leave their money in stocks, blindly believing we have hit the bottom on Wall Street.

There is no bottom until there is CAPITULATION. Today's volatility was anything but CAPITULATION. It looks to me like the violent, last-gasp throes before death which I have seen before in real life.

Capitulation is when the market hits a bottom and just stays there...for days and weeks. When there are no signs of struggle or life. No heartbeat. No thrashing.

When the Citigoup bomb is going to drop is anybody's guess but I just don't see how we can go through next week without major media starting to ask questions on the air and in print.

I repeat that the U.S. government is doing everything it can to step on the economy like a cockroach. Every move by the Executive or the Fed has not helped, but hurt share prices. This is deliberate.

Christ, I'm tired. We all must be. And now I must sound a warning about something else. I am worried about the election. I am not predicting anything but I am worried.

Let me sum it up. Yesterday, I went to the dog park with Rags and we ran into a friend, an accomplished musician with a house and 401k and a pension plan. He stopped me and he said, "Mike, they can take my house, They can wipe out my stocks. I can sleep in my car. But please tell me that there will be an election, that it will be fair, and that there will be an inauguration." -- I looked at him and said, "I can't." I don't believe Obama's going to save us but no one will cry a bigger cry of gratitude and relief than I will on January 20th when someone else becomes president. It is clear that it should be Barack Obama. And it is about time that all the Goldwater/Dirksen Republicans started saying Bush and Cheney ain't any kind of Republicans we know." I'm starting to hear that a lot.

The hate levels are rising way too fast. The McCain campaign and the Bushes behind it are lighting matches under dry piles of bigotry, stupidity and viciousness. In the midst of this, the ACORN scandal erupts with the same kind of force that should have been used to focus on the 2000 and 2004 races. What the Republicans did then was orders of magnitude worse. But any attempt, by anybody, to mess with a free and fair vote should be pretty close to a capital offense. The Obama campaign is not doing what it should be doing, which is to take the lead on that story, get in front of it, and denounce ACORN with all the fire it has. The Democratic Party must stake out the ground that it protects the right to free and fair votes. But how often has the Democratic Party done what it should have done over the last eight years?

Last night I saw a video clip where Congressman Brad Sherman said, on the House floor, that Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson threatened martial law if the bailout bill was not passed last week. I repeat that martial law, as we have conceived it is not possible. There are not enough troops, badges and guns to impose it. Yet the citizenry may come to ask for it. Now my worry is that civil unrest will erupt under any of a half dozen scenarios: Election with harrassment and voters turned away. Election with eletronic votes stolen (which thepeople will not cave over this time) and Obama does not win: Further economic crises or just the impacts of the last two weeks reaching Main Street. Obama wins, things go south and Bush (Cheney) suspend the inauguration. Write your own...

There is nothing to do but wait and ride it out. Today presented a great opportunity to buy gold for those who haven't.

My plans for the weekend are to go out to dinner with a very exciting and fun person, play with my dog, take a long walk and work on my book.

I remember a line from a Robert Ludlum spy novel. "Rest is a weapon. Use it."

-- MCR