AIG IN TROUBLE NOW

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

Ike remnants blamed for Midwest deaths, blackouts By DANIEL J. YOVICH, Associated Press Writer SEPT 15,08

CHICAGO - Residents of the Midwest faced blackouts affecting more than 2 million homes and businesses and flooded homes Monday after a weekend of devastating weather caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ike. The violent weather in the Midwest, the latest in a brutal summer that has slammed parts of the region with severe flooding, brought Ike's total death toll to at least 34 in nine states from the Gulf Coast to the Ohio Valley.As Ike faded and headed off toward the northeast, combining with a weather system that arrived from the west, it dumped as much as 6 to 8 inches of rain on parts of Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. It spawned a tornado in Arkansas that damaged several buildings, and delivered hurricane-force wind to Ohio, temporarily shutting down Cincinnati's main airport during the weekend. Missouri had widespread flooding, and high water on the Mississippi River was expected to close a riverfront street later this week in front of St. Louis' famed Gateway Arch.

We've got flash flooding all over the place, National Weather Service hydrologist Mark Fuchs said of Missouri.We've never had flooding like this, said Tom DeGiulio, town manager in Munster, Ind. About 40 Indiana National Guard troops were activated Sunday to assist with the evacuation of up to 5,000 residents there.About 2 million homes and businesses across Ohio had no electricity Monday, including some in Columbus and Cincinnati, Gov. Ted Strickland said as he declared a state of emergency, which allows the Ohio Department of Transportation to help communities remove debris from roads. He said it would take days to restore power in all areas of the state.About 450 Ohio school districts canceled classes Monday, and the blackouts shut down one-third of the state's traffic signals, officials said.The Ohio outage was the biggest in Duke Power history, said Duke spokeswoman Kathy Meinke. We've never seen anything like this in early fall, American Electric Power spokesman Jeff Rennie said of Ohio's problems.Evacuees who spent the night in a shelter set up at a school in Munster said Monday that the water rose quickly.

The water was nothing but a trickle in the middle of the street and by the time we decided what to do it was too late, said George Polvich, one of the Munster residents rescued by boat. There was, like, three feet of water.The record rainfall also threatened farmers' harvests.Indiana utilities reported more than 100,000 customers without power Monday, and in New York more than 130,000 customers had no electrical service. The utility Entergy Arkansas said about 75,000 customers remained without power in its state Monday.A busy stretch of Interstate 80/94 just east of the Indiana-Illinois state line was closed by flooding Monday and Indiana highway officials had no estimate when it could be reopened.Major flooding is predicted this week for towns in Missouri, including Arnold, where the Meramec River is expected to reach a major flood stage for the third time this year. Fortunately, Arnold still had sandbags in place that were piled up during the first flood in March.The Missouri River is likely to reach more than 11 feet above flood stage in Missouri's St. Charles County, threatening seven private levees, officials said.

Illinois officials said they would ask Gov. Rod Blagojevich to issue a disaster declaration for the city of Chicago and surrounding Cook County, where dozens of people were rescued from rising water by boat.Elsewhere across Illinois, volunteers sandbagged the banks of the overflowing DuPage and Des Plaines Rivers. In Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood, truckloads of sand were delivered to help hold back the rising North Branch of the Chicago River.Also in Illinois, the weekend's record rainfall and flooding were threatening corn and soybean yields. University of Illinois agricultural economist Stu Ellis said the rain could provide the right environment for fungus to spread in soybean fields and further weaken corn crops, already fragile from the summer's drought. Seven people died in the flooding and high wind in Indiana, the state's Department of Homeland Security said Monday. Among them were a teacher and his father who were sucked into a culvert and drowned Sunday while trying to rescue a 10-year-old boy from a flooded ditch, state officials said.

Elsewhere in the Midwest, the weather was blamed for four deaths in Ohio, four in Missouri, two in Tennessee and one each in Arkansas and Kentucky. Associated Press reporters Tom Coyne in Indiana and Meghan Barr in Ohio contributed to this report.

More than 25,000 customers across Ontario lose power after stormy night
Sep 15, 8:38 AM By The Canadian Press

TORONTO - More than 25-thousand customers are without electricity Monday morning across Ontario after a night of rain and gusting winds. Worst-hit areas include Alliston, Peterborough and Bancroft, while Hydro One isn't reporting any outages in some southwestern regions. In Fenelon Falls, more than 5,300 customers are affected by outages. Service isn't expected to be restored until later in the day.

HOARDING OF GOLD AND SILVER

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

THE DOW WAS DOWN 504 POINTS ON THE DAY AND AIG IS IN BIG TROUBLE 75 BILLION WORTH, AND THE GOVERNMENT IS TRYNG TO GET TO BANKS JP MORGAN AND 1 OTHER ONE TO BAIL IT OUT.

Stocks tumble amid new Wall Street landscape By TIM PARADIS, AP Business Writer SEPT 15,08

NEW YORK - A stunning makeover of the Wall Street landscape sent stocks falling precipitously Monday, with the Dow Jones industrials sliding 500 points in their worst point drop since the September 2001 terrorist attacks. Investors reacted badly to a shakeup of the financial industry that took out two storied names: Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. Stocks also posted big losses in markets across much of the globe as investors absorbed Lehman's bankruptcy filing and what was essentially a forced sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America for $50 billion in stock. While those companies' situations had reached some resolution, the market remained anxious about American International Group Inc., which is seeking emergency funding to shore up its balance sheet. A faltering of the world's largest insurance company likely would have financial implications far beyond that of Lehman, the largest U.S. bankruptcy.The swift developments that took place Sunday are the biggest yet in the 14-month-old credit crises that stems from now toxic subprime mortgage debt. For the first part of Monday's trading, the market was falling, but in a largely orderly fashion as investors seemed to draw some relief from the resolution of Lehman's problems.But as the session wore on, and there was no word about AIG, the market's suffered another bout of fear that the ongoing credit crisis will continue to devastate the financial sector, and selling accelerated in the final hour.Investors are worried that trouble at AIG and the bankruptcy filing by Lehman, felled by $60 billion in bad debt and a dearth of investor confidence, will touch off another series of troubles for banks and financial institutions that may be forced to further write down the value of their own debt assets. Wall Street had been hopeful six months ago that the collapse of Bear Stearns would mark the darkest day of the credit crisis.AIG's troubles a week after its stock dropped 45 percent are worrisome for some investors because of the company's enormous balance sheet and the risks that troubles with that companies finances could spill over to the companies with which it does business. AIG, one of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow industrials, fell $6.93, or 57 percent, to $5.21 Monday as investors worried that it would be the subject of downgrades from credit ratings agencies.

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow fell 504.48, or 4.42 percent, to 10,917.51, moving below the 11,000 mark for the first time since mid-July. It was the worst point drop for the Dow since it lost 684.81 on Sept. 17, 2001, the first day of trading after the terror attacks. It was also the sixth-largest point drop in the Dow, just behind the 508.00 it suffered in the October 1987 crash.Broader stock indicators also fell. The Standard & Poor's 500 index declined 58.74, or 4.69 percent, to 1,192.96, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 81.36, or 3.60 percent, to 2,179.91.The S&P 500 broke through the 1,200.44 trading low seen in mid-July, a key level traders watch. Much of the trading day until about the last hour had been orderly because the market had tested another key level early in the session and managed to stay above it. But the eventual drift lower prompted some investors to hit the sell button.

AIG struggles to survive financial tsunami By Lilla Zuill and Joseph A. Giannone SEPT 15,08

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Insurer American International Group struggled for survival a day after a financial tsunami overtook investment bank Lehman and forced the sale of rival Merrill Lynch in the biggest financial industry shake-up since the Great Depression. AIG's struggles followed the failure of frantic attempts to find a rescuer for investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, and Merrill Lynch & Co's agreement to be taken over by Bank of America Corp.The U.S. Federal Reserve has hired investment bank Morgan Stanley to review options for AIG, which has lost some 90 percent of its value so far this year, a person familiar with the situation said on Monday.Fearing a meltdown on Wall Street, the U.S. presidential candidates sparred Monday over who could best restore financial health, with John McCain pledging reform and Barack Obama saying hands-off Republican policies were the problem.U.S. stocks fell sharply across the board, but not as much as some expected.

One of the biggest decliners was Bank of America, whose planned takeover of Merrill would allow it to surpass Citigroup as the country's largest bank by assets.The concern for Bank of America is the debt that they are acquiring, said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald & Co in San Francisco. Secondly, is it too big of a purchase? They are dealing with Countrywide right now. Did they need to be dealing with this as well? There's some concern they might have bit more than they could chew, he added.

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

As a deepening crisis took new, bigger victims, the Fed for the first time said it would accept stock in exchange for cash loans, and 10 of the world's top banks agreed to establish a $70 billion emergency fund, with any one of them able to tap up to a third of that.The Dow Jones industrial average was down 2.4 percent in early-afternoon trading, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 2.3 percent.Lehman shares fell some 95 percent to 19 cents even as the Wall Street Journal reported that the once proud bank was moving to sell 100 percent of its investment management unit and had a potential list of buyers including private equity firms Bain Capital, Hellman & Friedman and Clayton Dubilier & Rice.The events signaled a seismic shift in Wall Street's power structure, with big name investment banks biting the dust and major banks like Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase becoming the survivors.It's a return to pure capitalism, the survival of the fittest -- the government can't and won't bail everybody out, said Justin Urquhart Stewart, investment director at 7 Investment Management in London.Investors will now retreat to the trustworthy banks, though that's not a phrase that trips off the tongue easily nowadays.

SHELLSHOCKED

Scores of Lehman employees began showing up at dawn at the company's New York headquarters, many dressed in casual clothes. Most were carrying duffel bags and suitcases, as if they were planning to pack up and leave.Merrill workers were also uncertain about their future. New York Gov. David Paterson said Wall Street might lay off 30,000 workers in a worst-case scenario. Everybody has been shellshocked, a Merrill trader said on his way into the headquarters building. Nobody thought we'd be bought by Bank of America in a million years. At least we won't be bankrupt. It should be a interesting day at work.AIG could be the next U.S. financial giant to run into serious trouble. U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, who shocked many on Wall Street by insisting there would be no taxpayer funds to help Lehman, said at a press briefing that there were private sector talks under way in New York on AIG that had nothing to do with any government bridge loan. But an official told Reuters that New York Federal Reserve, which was active in talks over Lehman this weekend, was hosting meetings on AIG with representatives of the Treasury Department, financial services firms and state officials. Separately, a source familiar with the situation said that weekend talks between billionaire investor Warren Buffett and AIG had ended with no deal.

MERRILL SELLS, LEHMAN EXITS

Shares of U.S. banks tumbled in the wake of the Lehman news, with Washington Mutual down 17 percent, Wachovia Corp losing 21 percent, Morgan Stanley falling 13 percent and Citigroup dropping 14 percent. Merrill shares roughly halved earlier gains to 16 percent. The Bank of America offer was worth $29 a share when it was announced, almost $12 above Merrill's Friday closing price. Lehman said it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and was attempting to sell assets, becoming Wall Street's highest-profile bankruptcy since junk bond specialist Drexel Burnham Lambert succumbed in 1990. Lehman's European arm appointed administrators, who said they would wind down the business in as orderly a manner as possible. Lehman's bankruptcy petition followed three days of talks between bank CEOs and regulators at the Fed's fortress-like building in lower Manhattan. The euro jumped as high as $1.4479, up 1.7percent from Friday, and U.S. Treasury yields dropped to five-month lows on concern about the stability of the U.S. financial system and as investors increased bets that the Fed will cut interest rates. The euro later weakened to $1.4189. With Lehman and Merrill out of the picture, three of the top five U.S. investment banks would have departed the scene inside six months. Bear Stearns was acquired in a fire sale by JPMorgan in March. Authorities sought to prop up market confidence with announcements late on Sunday. The Fed said it would accept equities as collateral for emergency loans, and laid out a series of steps to calm markets and brace for Lehman's collapse. In addition to broadening the collateral it will accept from investment banks in exchange for direct loans, the Fed said it would increase the amount of Treasury securities it auctions on a regular basis under one of its lending programs. (Additional reporting by Steve Slater, Sitaraman Shankar, Brian Gorman, Jane Baird and Olesya Dmitracova in London; Jessica Hall in Philadelphia and Ellis Mnyandu in New York; Writing by Christian Plumb and Bill Rigby; Editing by Maureen Bavdek, John Wallace and Steve Orlofsky)

Wall Street crisis could put Fed rate cut in play By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer SEPT 15,08

WASHINGTON - Wreckage from a massive crisis on Wall Street could prompt the Federal Reserve to do an about face and once again cut a key interest rate this week or possibly later this year, economists said Monday. Just a few days ago, a rate cut appeared largely off the table. Now it has emerged as a possibility as the Fed prepares to meet Tuesday against a backdrop of historic upheaval in the U.S. financial system.Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the country's fourth-largest investment firm, filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday. And, Bank of America is buying Merrill Lynch in a $50 billion deal.It puts a Fed rate cut back on the table, said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group.Seeking to calm frazzled markets, President Bush assured the country his administration is working to reduce disruptions and minimize the impact of these developments on the broader economy.The Dow Jones industrial average plunged more than 300 points in afternoon trading.On the other side of the Atlantic, major European central banks plowed billions into markets Monday with the hope of averting a lending freeze-up in the wake of Lehman's failure.It is an ongoing process and we have to remain extraordinarily alert, said European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet.

In Asia, China's central bank cut a key interest rate to stimulate growth as inflation has eased. It was the first rate cut there in almost six years. Chinese regulators have steadily raised interest rates over the past three years to contain inflation pressure.During emergency sessions over the weekend, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson made clear there would be no government bailout of Lehman. The Fed took steps Sunday night to keep cash flowing to major Wall Street players by expanding its loan programs, however.Before the extraordinary events over the weekend, the prevailing wisdom was that the Fed would hold its key interest rate steady at 2 percent at its next meeting on Tuesday.

Although that still could happen, a growing number of economists and investors now believes there is a chance the Fed could reduce its rate by one-quarter or even a bolder one-half percentage point on Tuesday. Much hinges on the information the Fed gets about how the inner workings of the U.S. financial system are functioning and how Wall Street investors react to the crisis.It is a different ballgame. Anything can be expected and a rate cut is possible, said economist Richard Yamarone, economist at Argus Research. Yamarone thinks the Fed on Tuesday will decide to stay the course and leave rates alone, fearing another cut would hurt the value of the U.S. dollar more. Hoffman, too, isn't convinced a rate cut will happen.Were the Fed to slice its key rate, the prime lending rate for millions of consumers and businesses — now at 5 percent — would drop by a corresponding amount. The prime rate applies to certain credit cards, home equity lines of credit and other loans. The Fed's key rate and the prime rate are at four-year lows.Even if the Fed doesn't lower rates on Tuesday, analysts believe the central bank could switch signals and suggest it could cut rates sooner down the road.Over the last few months, Bernanke and his Fed colleagues have signaled that the central bank's next move on interest rates would probably be an increase to fend off inflation. Given all the economic and financial stresses, though, economists are now saying the likelihood of a rate increase over the next six to nine months is virtually nil.A recent retreat in record-high oil prices and improved readings on wholesale prices, however, gives the Fed more leeway to lower rates if needed or at least hold them steady.The Fed in June halted its most aggressive rate-cutting campaign to shore up the economy out of fears that those low rates were aggravating inflation. It didn't budge the rate at the last meeting in August for the same reason. Fed officials have suggested that harder-to-get credit and financial troubles have blunted the energizing impact of the central bank's already-ordered rate cuts on consumers and businesses. Economic growth is slowing and the unemployment rate is at a five-year high of 6.1 percent.

Some argued that an additional rate cut might offer a psychological boost to shaken Wall Street investors, but probably wouldn't do much to turn around worried consumers and bolster the economy. Others feared another rate cut could send a wrong message to financial companies that made bad bets. I see very little gain of lower rates at this time and some may argue that extremely low rates may encourage the type of risky behavior on the part of investors which is exactly what the Fed wants to avoid, said Victor Li, an economics professor at the Villanova School of Business.