Last night I heard Katie Couric report (with a smile on her face) that with the dollar being worth so little, Europeans shoppers are flocking to the US to take advantage of the exchange rate. I don't say this as anything against the shoppers, I know US people have gone overseas to shop for the same reason.

I only post this because of the irony...

_________________
Melissa

Sis Melissa you wrote;

"Last night I heard Katie Couric report (with a smile on her face) that with the dollar being worth so little, Europeans shoppers are flocking to the US to take advantage of the exchange rate. "

--- i saw that too ... but what struck me was that you said (with a smile on her face) ...

One of the most surrealistic things about all this to me is the "business as usual, spit and polish delivery" of even news of economic woe ... i wonder if the talking heads ever concider that they just may be a part of the "have nots" in this fall ... Beats me, but it seems many think that this will only effect the other guy, or a certain segment of folk below them as it's doing now ... i don't think anyone who's seeing the bigger picture could report on this so blase' ... It's like everyones on Valium, or Prozac or something ...

The other surrealism is to have seen many on so called Black Friday rushing, and running, thru store doors to purchase so called "bargains" of even more crap we don't need ... It was estimated that at least 147 million souls hit the Malls that Friday ---

yes, it seems like the reporters don't even pay attention to what they are saying. Or maybe they have already read it and so are braced to say it without emotion...I would think that the value of the dollar (or lack thereof) would affect all of us who use it as currency.

It definitely makes me realize that God is my portion, not my paycheck or my husband's.

_________________
Melissa

Florida Fund's Debt Has `Indeterminate Value,' BlackRock Says
By Darrell Preston and David Evans


Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Much of the debt held by a $14 billion Florida investment fund for schools and local governments is worth less than face value and the rest is so troubled that its value can't be determined, according to an official at the Wall Street firm hired to turn around the fund.

``I don't think there are very many securities in this market we can liquidate at par,'' or 100 cents on the dollar, Chris Stavrakos, co-managing head of cash management for New York-based BlackRock Inc., said in an interview yesterday.

The more than $2 billion of the worst securities that state officials agreed yesterday to spin off into a second investment pool have an ``indeterminate value,'' he said. Of that, about $867 million is in default, or 6 percent.

Coleman Stipanovich, the executive director of the agency that oversees the fund, resigned yesterday and BlackRock, which invests more than $1.3 trillion in fixed-income and other assets, was named interim manager.

Stipanovich's resignation came after more than $13 billion was pulled from the fund as the extent of the assets in trouble came to light. Investors have been cut off from their funds since Nov. 29, when the State Board of Administration froze withdrawals amid a run on the pool, which was the largest of its kind in the U.S. at $27 billion.

Local governments, school districts and other participants in the pool, a type of money-market fund, will have to wait to find out when and how much they will recover. The investors will temporarily lose access to 14 percent of their cash under BlackRock's plan.

Access to Money

The plan allows for local governments to take out the greater of 15 percent of their holdings or $2 million without penalty. BlackRock executives estimated the fund, called the Local Government Investment Pool, may reopen as soon as tomorrow.

``The plan BlackRock submitted is very responsible,'' Governor Charlie Crist, a Republican, said in an interview after a Cabinet meeting in Tallahassee. ``For those who need money, we can accommodate them.''

Crist, state Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and Attorney General Bill McCollum are the state board's trustees. BlackRock, hired by the state Nov. 30 to review the fund, had at least six bankers going through its holdings last weekend to develop the plan presented yesterday, Stavrakos said.

The fund owns $175 million of debt issued by Axon Financial, a structured investment vehicle that has defaulted. It also holds $180 million of debt sold by Ottimo Funding, an SIV that had its credit rating slashed to D from C by Standard & Poor's on Nov. 9.

`Nobody Will Buy'

``Nobody will buy that paper,'' Stavrakos said. The fund owns $168 million of short-term debt issued by KKR Atlantic Funding Trust and $356 million from KKR Pacific Funding Trust, securities whose values aren't ``transparent,'' he said.

KKR Atlantic's ratings were cut to D from B by Fitch Ratings on Oct. 8, while KKR Pacific was lowered to D from B on Oct. 2. Fitch said the reduction to default on the debt reflected non-payment under the original terms. The debt was restructured to extend the maturities to February and March, and interest payments are continuing.

State officials have said that under existing law they are unable to guarantee repayment of the funds local governments and schools invested in the pool, according to Bill Montford, chief executive officer of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents. Crist and other state officials didn't discuss the issue yesterday even after investors asked for a guarantee in a document presented at the meeting.

``It isn't going to fly without a guarantee,'' said Wayne Blanton, executive director of the Florida School Boards Association.


end of article....

No one knows how much "junk" Wall Street has sold to the unsuspecting public.

In Christ
Jeff

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Jeff Marshalek

Bro Jeff you wrote;
"No one knows how much "junk" Wall Street has sold to the unsuspecting public."

---Amen ... but everytime one of these "junk" packages explodes it leaves dye marks all over the place like those explosive packs they put in bank robbers bags when they steal money ... Of the junk derivatives packages sold it's just amazing to watch them as the explode all over the world, in places you'd never suspect, many of them that are by law not even suppose to have them, and the destructive effect their having not only on destroying financial institutions,
but the canceling out of the general publics fiat based assets, especially pensions ... So much corruption being brought to light ---

To those of you interested in the information of this thread you will find the following link informative in the technical "hows" of this present fiscal American disaster ...

http://www.financialsense.com/Experts/2007/Schiff.html


i believe there's soon to be upon some of us a time of "work" because there will be so much confusion (even amongst Christians) about the crashing of our economy and just how it happened, a time of explanation in natural terms in tandem with ministering and witnessing to others via Scripture as to the spiritual explanation and subsequent consolation ... As you well know the two go hand in hand in ways that seem to be clearer in the OT dealings of God with His house than in the NT, and is perhaps why we have become so lulled into being Laodicean blind to our degredations ... Most folk do suspect something is amiss, but have no idea to the degree, but don't really want to hear any "doom" warnings at all ... But just wait until the idol topples and folk begin quickly to look to blame anybody else (including God) but themselves for their part in it ... In the house of God for some there will be repentance - a recall to solemnity and Revival to pureness of "first love/works", whilst for others there will be a falling away under the strain of - "How could God allow this to happen to me"? ...

When the time for "explanation & consolotion" arrives, may you be prepared mightily of Holy Spirit to "minister" to befuddled saints, and "witness" to the baffled unsaved toward a further bringing in of the sheaves of His vessels
of mercy ...

Blessings in He who has/is/ and will continue His establishing of you in every good word and work ...

[b]2 Thes. 2:
[15] Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.
[16] Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,
[17] Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.[/b]