Wisdom for a punch-drunk Wall Street (FT)

Book review of Henry Kaufman's The Road to Financial Reformation: Warnings, Consequences, Reforms. One of the Wall Street elder statesman's "biggest beefs is the Fed's tolerance of concentration in the financial system." Ten largest U.S. financial institutions control more than 50 percent of country's financial assets, compared with only about 10 percent in 1990. Glass-Steagall, he says, should have never been repealed.

Madoff Victims: Are You Kidding Me?! (WallStNation)

People duped by Bernie want not only their initial investments back but also the phony profits Madoff told them they earned. "U.S. greed rolls on."

Raft of Deals for Failed Banks Puts U.S. on Hook for Billions (WSJ)

FDIC's absorbing banks' risk on billions in loans. Shudder. Call it the Bank Buying Bubble. But the NYT looks at the bright side: "As Big Banks Repay Bailout Money, U.S. Sees a Profit," saying that "taxpayers have begun seeing profits" from the bailout of banks.

Can Rally Run Without Revenue? (WSJ)

OK, all these companies are leaner, and their quarterly reports reflect that, and investors are happy. Now, what about revenue? Sales are disappointing, most people are still in the grip of a recession that will get worse. We'll see when the third quarter reports are in just how bad the damage still is. NYT version: "Some Analysts See an End to Market Rally." More immediately, CNN says, "Wall Street braces for a hit." Sobering news that the market may be at its peak right now. Gloomy news from the Mole on Seeking Alpha: "Preview from Europe: Stocks Get the China Syndrome." And watch out: Inflation forces "are brewing."

MORE HEADLINES FOLLOW

Complete with charts that make the two social-welfare programs look like skyscrapers, the old-news story reports that their financial condition has deteriorated "in part because of the recession" and that the Social Security trust fund "will be exhausted" in 2037, "four years earlier than expected."

By that time, I'm going to be one really pissed-off 90-year-old.

Yes, it's a problem, but who's got memory loss here? The Times and other mainstream media. A little perspective, please. They don't mention that the non-9/11 defense budget has been growing at a faster rate than these "entitlement" programs, as some of us noted in March. Nor do they point out, as many of us did last month, that there's a bigger picture here. See "The Red Ink of a Greyer Future" for demographic details.

Not to mention that just as much of a long-term threat to the budget as a Social Security shortfall is the specter that the Bush regime's tax cuts for the rich will remain in place — despite Barack Obama's plans. As Bob Greenstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says about the impact of Social Security and Medicare on the federal budget:

Greenstein also notes that the 2037 date for exhaustion of Social Security money is not a new prediction; it was also the date predicted in 2000 by the trustees of the SS monies.