Are you a “responsible homeowner?” If so, President Obama has a gift for you.

The days of shouted orders and crumpled trade tickets on vast floors jammed with frantic stock traders are numbered. Turns out the human faces of Wall Street are rapidly being replaced by nondescript computer technicians quietly monitoring speedy rack-mounted servers.  They execute billions of trades daily in placid data centers located in remote locations far from the high rises (and high rents) of Manhattan.

President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team is reportedly putting the finishing touches on an economic recovery plan that could run from $675 billion to $1 trillion, though many experts believe the program will most like range between $700 billion and $800 billion.

Underlying the credit crisis gripping the U.S. and world economies is a crisis of confidence. Blame has been laid at the feet of the U.S. Federal Reserve, and an investment bankers’ brew of toxic financial products. Ultimately, however, it was the supposedly trustworthy rating agencies that got everyone to drink the poisoned Kool-Aid.

AT&T Disconnecting 12,000 Jobs; Credit Suisse Announces 5,300; Capital One Puts Chevy Chase in Its Wallet; Argentina Announces $3.9 Billion Stimulus, Jobless Benefits at 26-year High; Dupont Cuts 2,500 Employees; Williams-Sonoma Beats Estimates; Oil Falls 5%

Consumer Confidence Climbs; Home Prices Record Plunge; Troubled Banks on the Rise; Oil Falls 7%; Slim’s Bank Buys Citi Stock; D.R. Horton Shares Vault

Buy gold, silver and oil as fast as you can, you morons, or die a horrible death by inflation like the people of Zimbabwe!

The base metals were all well into positive territory on Tuesday. Copper bottomed just north of $1.75 in the pre-dawn hours, then went near-vertical before leveling off in the late morning to cruise to a finish at $1.9393/lb., up more than 11 cents. Nickel pushed upward for most of the day, regaining the $5 mark and holding to close at its intraday high of $5.40/lb., up 40 cents.

Consumer Confidence at All-Time Low; Home Prices Continue Collapse; OPEC Still Not Satisfied; Whirlpool Circles the Drain; Optimistic Wall Street; Banks Balk on Buyout; Stop the Presses?

CenturyTel Inc. (CTL) will acquire rival Embarq Corp. (EQ) in an $11.6 billion deal that could kick-start a flurry of mergers among rural-regional telephone carriers. The deal should be good for the two companies, said Jeff Kagan, an independent analyst who is well known for his coverage of the telecom sector.