by Karl Denninger
"Told you so."
If you're getting this by fax - go to the web site and read those three Tickers, then keep going backward. Its all chronicled there.
To Congress: I did my damnedest. You decided to listen to Bernanke and Paulson, the people who caused this mess, instead of people like myself who did not and who have been trying like hell to help you fix it. For more than a year.
To America: Congress didn't want to hear from people like myself, Nouriel Roubini, "Mish" Shedlock and, in fact, you. In fact, they refused to speak with us. We have called, faxed, written. You have signed petitions, which I and others have faxed on your behalf. Many of you called Congress when they were debating the EESA, and told them to vote NO. I have repeatedly offered to get in a plane and fly to DC to testify before Congress - at my expense - in letters faxed to all 535 members of Congress. I have written to both Presidential Campaigns. Senator Martinez' office (R-FL) has one legislative aide who has been willing to spend some time on the phone with me, but The Senator hasn't deigned to speak with me, despite the fact that I am his constituent. Allen Boyd, my Congressman, has deliberately blocked my fax line from connecting to his machine.
Not one Statesman has been found among Congress who has been willing to get in front of a TV Camera and demand that this madness end, that the people who committed this fraud go to prison, and that the taxpayer checkbook snap shut until the thieves and liars are purged from the system. I have repeatedly asked for Senator Martinez to do so and left my phone number with his staff, asking that he call me so I can explain personally why it is so important that it happen now. Instead both House and Senate have coddled the rich and powerful on Wall Street and K Street. Yes, even those who voted "no" on the EESA.
Sometimes a vote isn't enough. Sometimes history calls for you to band together with the others in your legislative body who believe as you do and make a big stink in the Media, continuing to holler and raise hell until you effect change.
This was one of those times, and still is.
Congress has refused to rise to the challenge.
Congress poured $700 billion worth of gasoline on a raging credit fire all at once, and more than $1.5 trillion over the last few months - a fire caused by too much "liquidity", too much and too cheap credit.
This has turned what was a mess into a conflagration and destroyed what confidence was left in the system. The EESA is the proximate cause of the crash, but the root cause is Congressional refusal over the last year, as chronicled at http://supportedthebailout.org, to listen to all of us in America.
Congress instead listened to the very people who made the mess, who profited from the mess, who gave Congress millions of dollars in campaign contributions ("bribes", as I see it) and who have in fact robbed your neighbors of their homes and you of your 401k and IRA balances.
It is now up to America and Americans to hold Congress, Treasury and The Fed accountable.
Absent something extraordinary, we are going to crash this morning in the stock market.
For real.
No, what you saw earlier this month wasn't a crash.
This is a crash.
I expect some sort of intervention will be attempted. It won't work for long, if at all.
I need a drink, and its 5:30 in the morning.
10:00 CT Update: Obvious intervention in the FX (and flowing through to stock) market. "Saved" us? Uh, no, we're down 5%ish anyway. Beware buying this bounce off the lock levels - it may hold for an hour, a day, a week or a month, but you will get an ugly surprise if you think it will hold - interventions never do (just ask Japan)
