"Reckon" is an Old English (OE) word, which means it's been around too long to know when its usage began. The Oxford English Dictionary includes several meanings for "reckon," from the mundane ("to count or put straight") to the unnerving ("account for one's life to God after death").
If the exact size and duration of the financial crisis is unclear, what's obvious is that it amounts to a Reckoning on an epic scale. It is bigger than a presidential election. It is not containable by fiscal, monetary, or political solutions. It will have a chapter in every history book to come that describes the early 21st century. Books dedicated to it will retell the story from every angle for decades.
I've often said on this page that, when it comes to your finances, you are on your own. Has this ever been more obvious than today?
This morning I had intended to write about a news story which said that the Federal Reserve had injected another $630 billion into the financial system, both for domestic and foreign banks. Yet the "no" vote in Congress and largest ever one-day point decline in the Dow Industrials put that story off until tomorrow. You probably didn't (and won't) hear about it elsewhere for the same reason. Other news is managing to overwhelm stories about ever-larger dollar amounts running into the hundreds of billions.
I will look into and write about those stories (see below). In the meantime: You CAN help yourself, and we CAN help you. Bob Prechter's Elliott Wave Theorist and the just-published October Elliott Wave Financial Forecast have never been more important as vehicles for delivering tomorrow's news today. Click here to see what I mean.
$138 Billion Inferences Update
In reading about the labyrinthine claims surrounding Lehman's bankruptcy, I came across (only) the second mention in a news story of the Federal Reserve's September 15 transfer of $138 billion, to wit:
JPMorgan has provided funds to settle Lehman trades since the Sept. 15 bankruptcy, providing about $138 billion in the two days after the Chapter 11 filing, according to court papers. Those loans were covered by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Also, you'll recall that on Friday I phoned the New York branch of the Federal Reserve, where a nice lady took my information and told me to expect a follow-up call to answer my questions.
Thus far I have not received that call. So, this afternoon I phoned the Fed's Atlanta branch, which referred me to the Federal Reserve Consumer Help Center in Annapolis, which referred me to the Fed's Public Affairs Office in Washington, D.C.
A nice gentleman in that Public Affairs Office took my contact information and inquired about the purpose of my call. He told me to expect a follow-up call to answer my questions.
As a matter of interest I entered the Public Affairs Office phone number into Google. The first hit was a link to a "Government in the Sunshine Meeting Notice," which was open to the public this past May at the Fed's headquarters in Washington. The item on the "Discussion Agenda" was, "Proposed Amendments to Consumer Regulations to Prohibit Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices by Banks."
More tomorrow.