Nanny State Britannia run amok: YouTube bans knife and gun videos in England. I suppose that this ban will also include instructional and safety videos, but worry not: They tell us that it is all for the public good! (Tut, tut! We mustn’t “glamorise!”) OBTW, I think that using a third party web browsing portal such as Anonymizer will probably remove any do-gooder impediments. (And, BTW, it is wise for everyone to use Anonymizer, just on general principle, to prevent leaving an audit trail of your web browsing. Think OPSEC!)
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From Cheryl, our Economic Editor: Bush, Congress Working on $700 Billion Bailout — 12th Bank Failure of the Year (AmeriBank Inc.) — Paulson Commits Trillions of Dollars to the MOAB (“The global mass exodus from the U.S. dollar and Treasury debt is about to begin: Do not get caught in the stampede.”) — US Gov’t Disaster Fix-it Plan Send Stock Markets Soaring — US Economy Stares Into The Abyss — Money Market Accounts Shaken (“This week, shareholders pulled more than 60 percent of the assets from Reserve Primary Fund, which on Wednesday became the first money-market fund in 14 years to expose investors to losses.”) — GM Tapping Remainder $3.5 Billion Credit Line (“Everyone is running to cash, hoarding it, and we’re not out of the woods yet,” Mikelic said. “There’s a little less pressure with the government stepping in. But the government needs to keep printing money, printing securities, even if there is negative yield.”)
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I spotted this linked at Drudge: Almost Armageddon: Markets Were 500 Trades From A Meltdown. The $1.00 Net Asset Value (NAV) barrier for money market funds is practically sacrosanct. The Fed has promised to continue to step in whenever a $1.00 NAV is in danger. But given the sheer scale of money market investing, I wonder how long that this can go on. I therefore urge SurvivalBlog readers to divest from any uninsured money market accounts, ASAP. Reinvest those funds in tangibles and perhaps some Treasury Inflation-Protected Security (TIPS). Most other US Treasury paper is risky, since US Dollar inflation is very likely to accelerate radically in the next few years, threatening the real value of any investment that is denominated in dollars.
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Several readers mentioned this Politico piece by Mike Allen: Foreign banks may get help. I must ask: How big can the Mother of All Bailouts (MOAB) get if it also includes foreign entities?