The markets rejoiced yesterday. But the wider economic slowdown is well underway, and local governments are feeling the pinch. California — one of America’s richest states — recently asked for emergency federal funds to relieve a deficit crisis. Andrew Snyder says more states are heading in that direction. This means spending cuts and higher taxes at the worse possible time…

The Treasury and Federal Reserve are throwing everything but the kitchen sink to get Wall Street back on track.

But measures so far may pale in comparison to what’s to come.

Mark Nestmann says President Bush just has to declare a “state of national economic emergency” to open up a whole new range of drastic measures.

Past presidents have shut down stock markets, frozen bank accounts, taxed foreign investments and even confiscated gold.

When US stocks dived following the passing of the bailout bill, President Bush sought to calm investors. He said it would “take a while” for the bill to take effect. Problem is George W doesn’t have much of time.

In less than one month, Americans will vote into office either Barack Obama or John McCain. Each has very different ideas about how to tackle the financial crisis.

Martin Hutchinson says Obama is most likely to win on a populist anti-Wall Street platform. But if he follows up this rhetoric with more regulation and protectionism, this could hurt US investors even more in the long run.

The $700 billion bank bailout has passed Congress. Except now it’s more like a $850 billion bill. Andrew Snyder says corrupt politicians have tacked on countless spending and tax initiatives with the sole purpose of boosting their political capitol in the run-up to elections. The shortcomings of the plan, of course, remain unchanged…

Justice Litle at Taipan Publishing has come up with a few ‘fantasy’ questions he’d like to ask the presidential candidates in their next debate. Of course, these would never pass the screening process.

September 2008 will go down in the history books as the month in which the bulls finally looked like losers. It took eight and a half years. March 2000 marked the end of the Reagan stock market boom, although the supposed experts did not see this at the time or thereafter. Even after the NASDAQ had declined 80% by 2003, they still told people that the best strategy is to buy stocks and hold them long-term.

The buzz on Capitol Hill is that Congress could pass an updated version of the bailout bill before the end of the week. But Shah Gilani in Money Morning says taxpayers are being “force-fed a political solution, instead of a sound economic market-based solution to a financial crisis.” He says the the bailout bill has eight key failings.

Palm Can’t Compete; Oracle Reports Profit Jump; Gustav Drives Unemployment; AIG Taps Edward Liddy; McCain Wants SEC Chief Canned; FedEx Felled by Fuel Costs

Andy Carpenter says US foreign policy is isolating the country from the rest of the oil-producing world. President McCain/Palin will only make this worse. They want the US to return to the 1950s and the Red Scare. Obama, on the other hand, wants to make friends with the world…

Analysts are trumpeting the recent drop in oil prices as a step toward normalcy. But is this celebration premature? Or perhaps even misplaced? After all, we all know that over the long haul, energy prices are headed in only one direction – higher.