News of the day

If time allows I will add links, but for now I at least wanted to post quick blurbs.

1) Fed is temporarily willing to swap up to $200B of AAA structured financial products whose values are difficult to ascertain in the market (no such animal - if nobody wants them in the open market then their value is $0) for Treasuries. This will NOT end well, yet the market rallied on the news. Although subsequent analysis has shown that the added liquidity has not improved the credit crunch. Banks can take all the liquidity the Fed offers, but if they are not willing to lend then that doesn't really matter, does it?

2) A second SocGen trader has been brought in by the French police for questioning. It appears the rot goes a lot deeper than the lone trader that brought down Barings.

3) Chrysler is shutting down for two weeks to cut costs. If every car they make leaves them with a loss, perhaps the proper solution is to shut down for 50 additional weeks.

4) SecTreas Paulson says the current financial crisis shows that deregulation has failed us. We have regulations coming out of our ears; it is the regulators who failed us. Where were the SEC, the Fed, and all the other myriad regulators while mortgage banks were making all these worthless loans and Wall Street was pushing all these worthless structured products?