Penny Manis
AC360 Senior Producer
Good morning everyone! If I could insert sound effects into this blog, I’d have Aretha Franklin blaring this morning- seems fitting given that we are hearing about the Bush Administration’s plan to use $250 billion to rescue credit markets which includes taking equity stakes in financial institutions. (This money comes from the $700 billion dollar bailout we’ve heard so much about.)
We’re hearing details about this plan today as President Bush, Secretary Paulson, Fed Chairman Bernanke make these announcements in the 8am hour.
This news comes on the heels of a huge rally yesterday which continued throughout global markets overnight, and Dow Futures is up this morning too. Last week ended up as the Dow’s worst ever. We saw a 22 percent decline, wiping out $2.4 trillion in market value. Ouch. Yesterday’s bounce translates into the largest gain ever recorded, it recovers half the paper value lost last week.
Ali Velshi tried to take the day off yesterday after working day and night for weeks on end for us, but the markets wouldn’t let him, though it was nice to pull him into work for ‘good breaking news’ on the financial front, for a change. You can be sure he’ll follow all this again for us today, and tell us if this is a turning point, or a blip.
On the political front, Senator Obama outlined his economic ideas yesterday. Fear about the economy has benefited the democratic ticket, so you can be sure he will keep addressing this crisis. Not only is it legitimately the main voter concern in these elections, but it is also allowing him to remain on cruise control. Right now he has a projected 264 electoral votes, compared to 174 for Senator John McCain. 100 votes still remain in toss-up states, and each needs 270 ultimately to win the Election.
John McCain will unveil new economic ideas of his own today. Candy Crowley, Ed Henry, and our other political correspondents will follow this closely tonight. And don’t forget tomorrow Obama and McCain will meet for their 3rd and final debate in New York at Hofstra University.
Gary Tuchman is following Sarah Palin around this week, and focusing on the folks who are turning up at her rallies to see how they feel about the elections. He will do the same next week at Joe Biden’s events.
Last but not least, Tom Foreman offers us the latest report we are calling 10 Most Wanted: Culprits of the Collapse. We are ‘naming names’ and figuring out which folks created policies that may have contributed to this financial mess! See you at 10pet!
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