Ike has pummelled Texas and millions of dollars will need to be funneled there for disaster relief. I suspect that since Katrina, the federal government is trying to go overboard as opposed to ignoring them, so that should be pricey.
First Bear Stearns, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and now Lehman Brothers. The Bush administation has not taken an approach yet to this situation, but both McCain and Obama favor a private solution to this. (The Fed provided a loan of $29 billion as part of JP Morgan's takeover of Bear Stearns and the government acted aggressively in taking over Freddie and Fannie.) Greenspan has commented that continuing to bail out institutions of this size is not sustainable in the financial markets and is dragging down companies such as AIG, the world's largest insurer, and Washington Mutual Inc., the nation's biggest savings bank.
90,000 passengers were stranded over the weekend when their airline went bust. This is a warning, according to the industry -- just a sampling of things to come if oil prices continue to rise.
Gas prices soared to $5 in various parts of the country in response to Ike. I can't find detailed reports, but through the many blogs I read there are apparently even gas shortages. By that I mean people go to gas stations and there is no gas. So while the price of oil has gone down to $97 a barrel, the price of gas goes up due to the threat to the refineries. Talk about not getting a break at the pumps!
Venezuela's Chavez is threatening to stop giving us oil. ARE WE DONE WITH OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN FREAKSHOWS FOR OIL YET?
Well, anyway, the world is clearly falling apart at the seams and it is only Monday. I woke up to a strange day -- the wind was howling through the house and at 7:00 this morning it was 75 degrees -- this was before the sun was up. It's much hotter now. (And with a nice touch to the whole end of the world scenario the power just went out!)
So, in an attempt to balance this blog from doom to good news, I want to report that Jennifer Lopez ran a marathon over the weekend, and that very same day dressed up and looked "like a million bucks" at her husband's birthday party. It was also noted that she has her body back completely after giving birth to twins several months ago. (Or longer, seriously I don't care).
So I guess the world isn't completely different, right? As long as celebrities can get their bodies back after giving birth, then all is not lost.
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