Two items of special note in the AIG article - she discusses only the derivatives (credit default swaps and interest rate swaps) that were made by AIG to insure counterparties to contracts.  She doesn't discuss the derivatives that were traded.  (I may be getting this wrong.)  The other item is that one of the actions taken by the Fed was to buy a pool of toxic securities that had a credit default swap issued by AIG in order to prevent the CDS from being triggered.  This illustrates a bit of the complex array of tools at the government's.

Economics panel featured authors Ian Bremmer,  Niall Ferguson (also Harvard Prof), David Frum, and Barbara Ehrenreich.

The chat with Mubarak can be seen at CNN's website - truly worth the time.  Mubarak has international view, is extremely tactful without hiding his views. Among other things, welcomed Obama administration's unprecedented overtures to the Mideast and travel by SOS Clinton; last 8 years derailed Mideast peace, by definition difficult, & made peace now even more difficult, but he is hopeful.

I think she has lost her marbles.

By Joseph L. Galloway | McClatchy Newspapers
(1st parts:)
It turns out that even the most paranoid among us were right to be afraid of what George W. Bush's White House and Justice Department were up to in the days and months after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

This week the Justice Department declassified and released two memos and seven so-called legal opinions that, taken together, informed President Bush that, as a wartime chief executive, he had unfettered dictatorial powers.

We already knew that Bush dispensed with the Fourth Amendment, suspended the right of the people to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures and ordered warrantless wiretapping and surveillance of untold billions of e-mails and telephone calls to and from American citizens.

But who knew that his political appointees in the White House counsel's office and the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel were telling him that he could also suspend the First Amendment in a nation that was founded on guarantees of freedom of freedom of speech and of the press?

The Republican legal vultures -- John Yoo, Jay Bybee and Steven Bradbury -- told the panicked cowboy president that he could do anything he chose, anyway he saw fit, and not only was it legal, it also wasn't subject to any congressional or judicial oversight.

Jobs would not heal credit, foreclosure or liquidity trap but is a far better stabilizer than TARP which essentially has not stabilized banks to any degree relative to loosening of credit.  

Any predictions on the next 6 months?

CRE crash
Auto market crash
Hospitality crash

Bottom prediction for market October 09.  

Stimulus net efffect, negligible at best.  You cannot recover from this recession until you stop the hemorraghing of job loss.  

I said it last September and November and unfortunately it is now too late.  

As evidenced by the stress test the gov't is applying to banks which they use 10.3 for "next year" which is also complete BS as they knew we would be close to 10% this year, and if they didn't their economic forecasting is PITIFUL.  

Larry Summers and Geithner have engendered zero confidence from anyone.  I applaud the HC efforts but give this admin an F on economic policy.  

If it is going to take 3 trillion to bail out the banks, which is where i guess it is now and will be at 6-7 trillion in October because CRE defaults and airlines and hospitality defaults will be soaring, I think I may have to finally agree with BTD to cut losses TODAY.  Problem is even with nationalization the shortage in stimulus and the lack of DO NOTHING last September through November put us in this position.  

For those of you who have argued that Bush would have vetoed it, the democrats would have had more political capital today for TRYING.  

This is unquestionably the greatest economic turbulence since the great depression and the big idea president has given us one big idea that was a big idea in the 90's.  

Your government is ok with 10% unemployment and an economy that is stuck in the 1970's.  

The more dim prognostications push the recovery areas out another quarter in each category.