Good Morning NOT, Instead of one real long post, I cut this in two…. Lots to talk about these days. Sorry for crowding the board... The bailout. These bankers want the powers that be to hand over $700B, pretty much no questions asked. “We need it or we are hooped and your voters will know it was you who didn’t step up. “ Lets rush this thing in, lets paint a dire, dire picture, lets get the politicians over the barrel, and for a lot of money... a king’s ransom. Get Comrade Paulson on the airwave… demanding money from our leaders… what a charade. Sounds like Iraq to me… there, I already digress. Many smart writers have warned of this... ie, "This is it, it is now." The bankers and sooth sayers have lived in denial, or more likely lied and lied and lied... until now, when they can hold up congress and politicians as an election is in the balance. I say it again; some of these bankers should hang… swing in the wind... at minimum, start taking names. So both sides, Dems and Republicans, balk at the deal, they want to work a better deal, although I don’t trust the politicos, I suspect they due have the best interest of their constituents in mind… at worst, their continued battle with bankers is rekindled. What happens next? At some point the market will force a deal... that's my bet. If the market were to fall to the edge, or teeter over, it would force the elected officials into action. A deal would get done... lets hope it doesn't fall too far. All I ask, and I realise it may be too much, but why can't the public be put first inline should this deal be done. Here's how it should work. imho If your company, bank, is bankrupt, ie you need to trade your junk holdings for cash to stay solvent, you have a serious problem. If the amount you need is more then your equity, you are bankrupt... lets acknowledge that… and as Stewart Smalley of SNL fame might say, “ It’s OK to be bankrupt, because I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and people like me.” Lol. The good old days, might as well get Hank Paulson on Saturday Night Live this weekend to preach his stance. Let the insolvent bank come to the gov't over the weekend, when these things tend to happen, and disclose their positions. Then let the dealers at the gov’t deal with it… put the PPT into different use. What I mean by this, the bank in question should see its shareholders equity wiped out... the shares are worthless. See Lehman trading last week for a good example. Then, the bank is folded and auctioned over the weekend to a stronger bank. If a deal needs to be made to secure the bigger bank in taking the smaller ones assets, fine. Otherwise, the bigger bank just picked up one heck of a business, at least in normal times, for next to nothing. Shareholders in the insolvent bank are left with nothing, bond holders of the insolvent bank may or may not be affected depending on the deal... and depositors just wound up in a much stronger bank, which should make them more confident. In addition, the gov't likely didn't have to fork over much more money. If the current plan is how I think it is, the gov't, ie the taxpayers or the US dollar, assume a very weak financial position for all of their hard work. If I had the cash, and all the cards in my hand, I would make the rules exactly how I want them... I would take a first position on all the assets... as it is now, I suspect the interest of both the shareholders and bondholders of these institutions come before the tax payers position... it doesn't seem fair. If we aren’t going to bankrupt the banks and move them to stronger hands… lets take positions like this one… this is a great framework for how the gov’t should operate … I’m not advocating more gov’t involvement… but lets face it, if we want $700B, that’s serious gov’t involvement, lets set the terms. Berkshire's preferred stock in Goldman will pay 10 percent and can be bought back any time at 10 percent premium. The warrants allow Berkshire to buy $5 billion in common stock at $115 per share any time over the next five years What are these banks lending money at or charging in fees at that they can afford to pay anyone 10% on there money… let alone attach an at the money warrant for 5 years… what is this??? Junior mining lol… and this should instil confidence? Holy shit…. Short term I’m sure… long term, no thanks… what a deal for Buffet, but, it leads back to what the gov’t should look for when they do this deal…. US gov’t, Don’t take nothing for nothing, your money’s still worth some gold. This ordeal has the potential to grow into a full-blown panic, and I agree a rescue plan is needed. Alas, no one seems to care for “the devil in the details." These bankers are suspect, we have to be honest about this... we need to bail them, but, many of them need to be broken and become insolvent themselves... They bet the house, pardon the pun, and the house should break them. Second and related to NOT,… I have seen to charts the last few day discussing the state of the junior market… first, on jsmineset there is a chart showing the relative value of the junior mining space vs the price of gold…. The point, this space is at 30 year lows in valuation… who knows if we are at the bottom, but, in a few years I suspect we will have considered "this brief history in time" the bottom, (sorry Steven Hawking. Lol) Next, there was a chart sent out to many showing the current working capital vs. market cap of many juniors… my jaw dropped wide open. There are plenty of companies trading for 80 plus percent of their cash/working capital on hand… some of these companies have real properties, and essentially trade for cash… sentiment is poor… if you believe what the books say, buy when sentiment is poor… and hold for the turnaround… #1 on the list, for what is worth is NUS, it was trading for less then cash value…. Nothing more to say about that… onward to NOT continued…