Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia has taken a 5% pay cut, omitted some Executive positions, trimmed the grocery bill at the Governor's mansion and other measures that comprise the first 1.4 million of an expected nearly $2 billion in austerity measures.
Meanwhile, England's Prime Minister Gordon Brown partially nationalized 8 banks--but not by buying toxic assets. The British bailout provides $90 billion in taxpayer funds, $500 billion in loan guarantees to get banks lending to each other and $350 billion for short term-lending. The British bailout makes their taxpayers investors, so when the economy rebounds, they'll actually profit, following Sweden's example from the 1990s.
Meanwhile, our Federal Reserve Bank, in conjunction with Central Banks in Europe, Canada and Switzerland decreased interest rates by a half point. Stocks rallied at first, but still closed down 189 points; down for the 6th day in a row. The Dow has lost over 1/3 of its value since this time last year, and over a thousand points since the bailout passed (last week?) that was supposed to stabilize the market.
And I'm pretty sure I just heard on the 5:00 news that in addition to the $85 billion bailout we gave AIG, while their executives were floating away on $20 million golden parachutes with fresh massages mani and pedis, we're adding another $30 million to the buyout.
sigh.
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