As I am not convinced Obama is a real progressive and I disagree with his hawkish views on Iran and Pakistan and am appalled by his FISA vote (he is a constitutional lawyer after all) I am still on the fence about who to vote for. Having said all that, I must concede that McCain would be far worse, in my opinion, so I am not disheartened to see his campaign falling apart.
Nevertheless, the view from abroad must be pretty entertaining. This from the Guardian
Shares in London slumped by more than 140 points while Wall Street plunged 150 points at the open. The price of gold – seen as a safe haven investment in turbulent times – surged by $38 to $920.1 an ounce, a 4.3% increase.
The Bush administration’s $700bn (£380bn) rescue plan for the financial sector has stalled amid increasingly acriminious talks between the government and US Congress.
It had been thought last night that lawmakers were close to a final agreement on the bail-out, but an emergency White House meeting between congressional leaders and Bush “devolved into a contentious shouting match”, according to a statement from the John McCain campaign. The meeting was attended by the two presidential candidates, McCain and Barack Obama.
Republicans balked at treasury secretary Henry Paulson’s proposal to buy bad debts from banks and instead floated an alternative mortgage insurance plan.
And from Asia Times
coming on top of unprecedented deficits run up by the administration of President George W Bush, especially in its
ongoing $15 billion a month wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the current crisis – and the major new burden it adds to US taxpayers – will almost certainly damage Washington’s ability to get its way abroad, according to many experts.
Thankfully, the energy business is still growing as of 15 minutes ago.
