Dear Friend and Reader,

Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average starting cranking up the steep roller-coaster incline, climbing 936.42 points to 9387.61 as of 4:30 pm EST, making it the largest point increase, in a single day, since the Great Depression.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, showing daily rates over the last two months.

After weeks of record drops, it seems we either hit bottom and had nowhere to go but up, or the international bank solvency and bailout plans in the European Union and the United States, made over the weekend and this morning, are actually working.

Monday morning, the U.S. Federal Reserve announced that it would flood three international banks with as much U.S. cash as they can hold, making it possible for these larger banks to trade with each other and also assist smaller institutions.

The bounce back is the first increase since the market started steadily free falling on Oct. 1, and with a general downward trend since Sept. 19. The question on our lips is: will it last? It’s impossible to tell at this stage, but Tuesday’s closing points will certainly be an indicator of days to come, as the bond market re-opens following Columbus Day weekend.

Yours & truly,

Editor’s Note: The Down Jones has now rebounded 500 points, up 100 since this article was posted two hours ago. Remember that the Dow Jones Industrial Average is just one small measure of a vastly complex economy, one that is often determined by psychological factors.

Good morning, cosmic siblings,

With the Moon coming to full phase and Mercury stationing direct this week, world finance leaders acted heroically over the weekend, holding meetings on both sides of the Atlantic. In a major strategy move, the Bush administration changed course. Instead of merely buying worthless assets of banks, it will be infusing cash directly into the system, including into foreign banks. Every single rule of a free market economy is being broken; the world has seen nothing like this since the Soviet Union crumbled.

We are as concerned as you are as the situation unfolds, doing our best to approach it with a sense of adventure. However, with all this action being taken with Mercury retrograde, it is questionable whether it will get any results at all: we need to be prepared for that possibility. Some are saying it’s going to stem the tide but not bring the game back to full speed; the game consumed itself, like holding an edible baseball eating competition at the World Series.

Former headquarters of the regional bank of Iceland in Reykjavík, where many European problems are centered.

Banking customers in Iceland were the first and hopefully the last to see their country run out of cash, unable to take money out of ATMs anymore. The emphasis of the crisis has shifted to Europe, for the moment, with a bit part of the problem in Iceland, where England had £840 million in cash from more than 100 UK local authorities was invested. In other words, local towns in England had their money in the bank offshore, in Iceland — and basically lost their money.

It’s not all bad news though; here is what we know from Columbus Day weekend. Stock markets are open today, banks are closed and bond markets are closed. News sources are reporting that the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 400 points Monday “following a series of measures and cash injections by governments and central banks designed to prop up the banking sector and avoid a global meltdown,” according to CNBC.

“G-7 met Friday [the biggest seven industrial countries] and issued a statement of cooperation, committing to use all tools to support systemically important financial institutions and to work together to unfreeze credit markets. Earlier in the week, major central banks cooperated in a coordinated interest rate reduction. The G-20 [G-20 includes the G-7 plus countries like India, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Brazil] met Saturday in Washington and Eurozone leaders met Sunday in Paris.”

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Dear Friend and Reader,

After sundown last night, the Senate voted on a new version of the $700 billion bailout bill, and it passed 74-25. Barack Obama and John McCain were present, both voting affirmatively. In fact, the only person who wasn’t present was Ted Kennedy, who is recovering from surgery. (For a full run-down, click here for the list of “yeas” and “nays”).

The US Capital building, where the Senate meets in Washington, DC.

The next move is the vote in the House of Representatives, which is scheduled for tomorrow. The general feeling is that the bill will pass the second time around, particularly after some changes were made, such as $100,000 in tax breaks for the middle class and businesses; plus, the bailout seems less slapped-together, appearing to have a bit more concern for the taxpayer than it did initially.

Word that a major, unnamed-to-the-press, insurance company is about to topple may push the bill on ahead as well.

“The heart of the bill, and the opposition to it,” Breitbart reports, “remained the same. It would enable the government to spend billions of dollars to buy bad mortgage-related securities and other devalued assets held by troubled financial institutions. If successful, advocates say, that would allow frozen credit to begin flowing again and keep the economy from a deep recession.”

Reports stating that the bill is now 451 pages long, as opposed to the measly three pages it started out with (keep in mind we’re talking about $700 billion here), suggests we should do more research and get back to you on what’s changed. Check back in later today and I’ll have some more information for you.

Yours & truly,

Dear Friend and Reader,

In the midst of the financial tumble, the majority of us are watching the news and doing our best to get a grasp on things and understand how we’re affected by the loss of major banks and financial institutions, the failure of the initial $700 billion bailout plan and the biggest one-day drop in Dow history.

Wind turbines are a useful form of alternative energy. Although wind produces about 1% of world-wide electricity use,[2] it accounts for approximately 19% of electricity production in Denmark

Our immediate surroundings lead us to personal questions: will I lose my job; will I lose my home? Then it spreads out to the world around us: will this affect how people vote in the election; and if all this taxpayer money is going towards the bailout, then what will we expect to lose in the re-structuring of funds?

While it’s too early to say how the vice presidential debates will go, let alone the election, there is one major project that will start simmering on the back burner: the environment.

While McCain isn’t paying much attention to alternative energy anyway, focusing instead on our dependence on foreign oil (how many times have you heard those four words strung together?), Reuters reports that Barack Obama: “previously promised to invest $150 billion over the next decade to develop affordable, renewable energy sources and clean coal, touting these as a long-term energy solution rather than new, off-shore oil drilling.”

This plan will now be scaled back to accommodate the squeakiest wheel — crashing financial institutions.

While this is disconcerting news, I’m not sure that it’s time to panic just yet. There’s going to be a re-vote on the bailout today, and it includes new provisions, according to The New York Times. “Top lawmakers said the Senate proposal, worked out after a day of behind the scenes maneuvering, would include tax breaks for businesses and alternative energy and higher government insurance for bank deposits.”

At this point, the best we can do is wait and see, and try to stay positive. There are some people in the Senate and House of Representatives that are committed to we average citizens and the fate of the planet: not just those of the biggest banks, the largest institutions.

Yours & truly,

AS CONGRESS FAILED TO REACH CONSENSUS on the Wall Street two-party compromise bailout bill this week, we are haunted by the words of Eliot Spitzer, New York’s former Governor and former Attorney General–also known as the “Sheriff of Wall Street” whose career was destroyed by his own doing, with quite a bit of help from some dirty tricksters. In an op-ed in the Washington Post written February 13, 2008, Spitzer wrote:

When history tells the story of the subprime lending crisis and recounts its devastating effects on the lives of so many innocent homeowners, the Bush administration will not be judged favorably. The tale is still unfolding, but when the dust settles, it will be judged as a willing accomplice to the lenders who went to any lengths in their quest for profits. So willing, in fact, that it used the power of the federal government in an unprecedented assault on state legislatures, as well as on state attorneys general and anyone else on the side of consumers.

Within one day of that appearing in print, Spitzer was in hot water, accused of soliciting prostitution after a search of his tax records revealed the funds transfers allegedly used to pay sexworkers. Eric did a weekly edition in mid-March covering the Spitzer resignation press conference. Near the end of the article, he wrote:

The 10th ruler, Mars, also rules the president of the country in question, and that 12th house Mars in Cancer bears a striking resemblance to our secretive, war-obsessed Cancerian president, George Bush. He is still lurking in the wings of the 12th house, in total denial, and at odds with all sensibility or respect for the law. All of these facts are consistent with a process which is not the investigation of a crime, but rather an attempt to target and build a case against an individual

Of all the Democratic governors to get, Spitzer probably ranked as one of the highest trophies for Alberto Gonzales’ politically-motivated Department of Justice. Too many corporate friends of the administration were threatened by Spitzer’s investigations. By the time Spitzer’s op-ed appeared in the Washington Post his former office was either arriving at the conclusions of the investigation he conducted on Wall Street, part of his purview as Attorney General, or his last official act as New York’s governor with some credibility intact before the shit hit the fan and they ruined his career. You may think it was a crime he committed, rather than politics; that nobody is really above the law. But in politics, everything is above the law, and it’s all politics.

– Fe Bongolan in San Francisco