Now that Barack Obama has won the election I can say, without any fear that my blog might damage his chances, that deep within the heart of Barack Obama there lurks the spirit of the British romantic poets, whose hopes were dashed by the leaders who took power after the French Revolution, and who lived to mourn the fall of France to the new imperialist, Napoleon Bonaparte.

In my view, Obama is a true revolutionary, imbued with the spirit of the founding fathers of the US, who sailed away from England to create their own Utopia. But American independence from the British crown was won after a bitter war of independence, when the Generals, including George Washington, ousted the Brits by firepower.

Obama, by contrast, came to power via the ballot box, and with no allegations so far of vote rigging. So his victory is a triumpth for democracy. And, note, that far from executing his opponents, he is offering them a place in his government, which takes power shortly after my 75th birthday in January.

So I write tonight full of hope, for myself, for my children and, above all, for my grandchildren. Which does not mean that I underestimate the difficulties he faces, including the recession, which I am now convinced is going to be the worst since the 1930s. I don’t want to speculate just who he will have in his cabinet, whether Hillary Clinton will be Secretary of State and whether John McCain, might be enlisted as an ally.

The point is that it is now clear that Obama is going to a different President than any President in history. Not another Jack Kennedy, nor a black Bill Clinton, not even a twenty-first century version of Franklin D Roosevelt. But his own man, an unusual mixture of romantic poet, Harvard egg-head, political organiser.

So I am full of hope. But dismayed. Because although I have repeatedly said that this is the most important US election of my life-time, I have not written a blog since 5 November. And that blog was full of mistakes which I have not had time to correct.

Problem is that a lot has been happening in my own life, which has required my full attention, and damaged my ability to blog.

I have been seeking to follow my own dream of 2006, buying a bungalow by the seaside and a flat in town. The bungalow was bought in August 2007, but there were no flats available we could afford, so I have been renting a second floor flat, whereas I need to pause to catch my breath at first floor level.

The good news is that we found a ground floor flat we liked and could afford in early September. It should have been easy and quick. But thanks to legal complications, which my lawyer had to investigate and minor calamities while the decorators were doing their job once we had taken possession, we did not actualy move in til last Saturday. And we had to leave at dawn on Monday morning to meet commitments is Dorset, where I am now.

The decorators stopped work on their second day, because the loo had flooded. This was because the plumbers who fitted the new bathroom of my vendor, just over two years ago, had fitted the wrong innards. Which I did not know for sure, until my own plumber made it right in less than two hours on Saturday, while the removal men were putting our possessions from our rented flat into their van.

But I was already incapacitated, because in hurrying to meet the plumber I had slipped on wet leaves and ‘dislocated my little finger’. The duty doctor at Royal Free accident and emergency, injected my and attempted to pull it straight. When that did not work, he called in his boss man, who turned over my hands, and told me that I had Dupuytren’s Contrature, which was indentified by Baron Dupuytren in 1831. He thought it was caused by too many years of holding on to the reins of his horse.

Now, 177 years later, the doctors are sure that this was not the cause, but they have no idea what the actual cause is. Pictures, and more thoughts on this in a later blog.

The Royal Free man said that I should go to to my doctor and get him to get me an appointment with a consultant surgeon who would operate to repair my hands. I saw my doctor in Dorset yesterday, who confirmed the diagnosis, but said that I need not have an operation, unless my crooked little finger and the bumps on my hands prevented me doing what I needed to do.

Which they don’t. Which is why I am able to write this blog.

And why I am able to get back to thinking about Obama’s election and what it means to the world. Not tonight.

But over dinner my wife passed across the table the picture below of three pregnant ladies, who all happen to be friends of my eldest daughter’s. And the picture was taken on Hampstead Heath about 200 yards from my new flat.

The products of those pregnancies are now growing up. And thanks to the election of Obama, I am hopeful that they will be able to grow up and enjoy the ‘country in the town’ which is Hampstead Heath.

And be inspired by the poetry of the romantics - Keat’s Ode to a Nightingale was written two hundred yards away. And the prose of George Orwell, some of which was written in the Prompt Corner cafe, two hundred yards in the opposite direction.

God Bless America. And all those Americans, including Obama, who still strive to make a better world than the one we inhabit.

America and the world wakes up this morning to learn that the American dream has at last become a reality. In his six minute acceptance speech, that was both modest and sober yet demontrated beyond all doubt that hi eloquence comes from within, not from the speech writers.Barack Hussein Obama,

“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer,” he said.

“It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.”

The result was never in doubt as the night unfolded but by around 4 AM GMT it becaame clear that the majority was almost as huge of that won by Bill Clinton in his second term, with 338 electoral college votes cast for Obama against just 155 votes for John McCain. The eight-year reign of George W Bush has ended. Although Bush remains in charge of the White House until 20 January 2009, from this day on he wil consult wiith Obama when any major problems arise.

The result brought tears to the eyes of the Rev Jesse Jackson, the veteran black politician, who himself bid to win the Presidency. Like Obama, Jackson was inspired by the dream of Martin Luther king who lit the fires of the civil rights movement with his ‘I have a dream’ speech in 1963. The news that there will be an Afro-American in the White House is a tonic for black people everywhere. The turn-out at the polls was an all-time record for an American election. Obama’s eloquence, combined with the brilliance of his organisation and the $5 billion he was able to raise brought out the black vote. Many black votes voted for the first time in their lifetime.

But in his acceptance speech Obama re-iterated that although he is black, Democrat, liberal and left-wing, that he wants to form something like a government of national unity.

‘We are, and always will be, the United States of America”

In the last few weeks Obama has been helped by the financial crisis. We shall never know whether Obama would have won, in the melt-down had not occurred, if George W Bush, had not had to back-track on his free market beliefs and pump billions of Goverment money into the economy and near-nationalise leading banks. But the crisis gave Obama his chance to kill the negative campaigning that attempted to brand him a man of insufficient experience to be entrusted with the world’s top job. The team of Hilary Clinton, in the Democratic primaries, and some of the Republicans in John McCain’s team, played on fears that Obama was not to be trusted with nuclear button.

During the campaign there were also repeated attempts to play on the racial prejudice, which undoubedly exist in the minds and hearts of some American. Early in the campaign there was a concerted attempt to cast Obama as a black revolutinary, by using the words of his long-time pastor, Jerimiah Wright. The Murdoch-owned Fox Television repeatedly used his full name, Barack Hussein Obama, to imply that he sympathesied with Musliim terrorists.

Rupert Murdoch himself appeared on US television last night to voice his continued fears about Obama’s leftyness. But his papers in London were already being printed with hugely positive headlines. The Sun proclaimed:

One giant leap for mankind

The headline writers of The Times called it a ‘New World’. Their first leader could not have been more positive. Here is the opening:

Barack Obama fulfills the dream

Forty years after the murder of Martin Luther King the United States has elected an African American president. It is a moment to savour

The election of Barack Obama, the son of a Kenyan goatherd, as the 44th President of the United States of America is a moment to savour, proof that the promise of a better day, expressed in prose that rises like poetry, can still carry an electorate. The margin of victory was emphatic and, whatever else follows, today the world changed. The cheers of the exultant crowd in Grant Park, Chicago will find their echo across the free world.

This is not to belittle the Republican candidate John McCain. We knew from his life that he is a brave man. We know from his campaign that he is a good man. But, from today, a black child born in America will look on his nation with greater pride because he will feel that the highest office in the land is open to him. The American nation will replenish the confidence that it has lately lost. In the eyes of the world, the slate will be clean and the pretext, always spurious, for anti-Americanism has been removed. On his very first day, and without doing a thing, Barack Obama has brought America together and brought America closer to the world.

And here is the conclusion:

But the achievements, the arguments, the what-ifs, the fear of disappointment: these are not for now. The essential point about President Barack Obama is the privilege of being able to write this sentence. A black man has been elected to the highest office of the most powerful country of the world and, to borrow one of his own phrases, a righteous wind is at his back.

Whether Obama will actually be able to do enough to save the world from a major recession. But this far the stock markets are giving him the thumbs up. Wall Street rose 4 per cent on election day as the predictions were showing a clear Obama victory. Asian markets rose by about 5 per cent this morning after his victory was confirmed.

…….in the most important US election in my lifetime.

But most of the British press has it’s priorities all wrong.

The Guaridan is leading tonight on the Congo. The Times is urging its readres to starve the fat cats of TV like Jonathan Ross. The Daily  Telegraph is finding a glimmer of hope for John McCain in the US election. The Daily Mail is splashing on what a man called Hamilton is doing for people who still think that the future of the world rests with people who can dirve their motor cars faster than anyone else. Irrespective of what they may do to global warming or adding to the toll of people killed on the roads.

More shamefully, The Daily Mirror, is also splashing on Lewis Hamilton. As if their working class readership was interested in nothing but sport. As those Mirror readers are so dumb that they do not connect the troubles they are now facing with the credit crunch, the melt-down and the behaviiour of the banks building societies and credit card companies they deal with.

But, for those who care about journalism this evening’s news is not all bad.

The Financial Times leads with the news that it will take a miracle for McCain to reverse the commanding lead that Barack Obama has taken in the minds of American voters.

Not many of the British working classes read the Financial Times. But what it is saying today is of much more importance to their daily lives than the so-called popular papers are telling them.

Have just checked.

The Sun and the Daily Express are also leading on Lewis Hamilton.

None of the publishers and editors of these papers would think there is anything wrong with this. The working classes are interested in sport. Just like the middle classes and the upper classes. But they know where to find the sports pages.

In today’s crisis, the working classes want to know about the national and international politics even more than the better off. Because they are suffering more.

They all know someone who has got in trouble because they cannot afford their mortgage payments, urged on them by the banks, behaving in the way they have been encouraged to behave by Margaret Thatcher and George W Bush.

They know that who gets the White House and who governs in Downing Street is much more important to their survival than the exploits of Lewis Hamilton.

It is not at all surprising that the Rupert Murdoch’s of this world should peddle sport and sex to the working classes, who are foder to buy his satellite dishes and movies to take their minds off their troubles.

But the really depressing thing is that The Independent, which was created to provide an alternative, has all too obviously given up. It to spashes this evening on Lewis Hamilton. It was started by a bunch of journalists, led by Andreas Whittam Smith, who was a high minded churchly man who believed in decent journalism, ethics and truth. The majority owner is now Tony O’Reilly, who has, and is spending millions of the money he has made from his busines activities to support these ideals.

He is wasting his money.

The Independent is no longer leading the pack. It is shilly shallying between its own idiosyncratic splashes and pandering, as tonight, to the lowest of the low popular newspaper criteria established by Northcliffe’s Daily Mail in Britain.

In the current crisis, all of us want to know, what our political leaeder are going to about the banks and other financial institutions who have led us into this crisis.

Like the Halifax Builidng Society, to which the working classes have entrusted their savings. Now surviving thanks to government bail-outs.

That’s why this US election is important to all Brits. That’s what should be on the front pages.

Despite the meltdown and the continuing credit crunch the London property market has not ground to halt. I can tell you on first hand evidence. Because on Friday, around 5 PM we completed on the purchase of a London flat to replace the flat we have been renting since April of last year. So all readers of The Daily Novel should know that I have put my money where my mouth is.

What we are facing at present is a crisis of confidence. This has been evident to me over the past few weeks, when I have had to deal with all sorts of advice that we should NOT buy this flat. So although what I have to say in this post is typical journalistic anecdotal evidence, it does reflect the crisis of confidence that is deterring thousands of people who are wanting to move home.

What has changed during the last few weeks is not the reality situation, it is the public perception of it. But I have not had time to blog about this, because my time has been consumed in meeting the objections to my own modest purchase.

So  this blog is just about one UK property purchaser, wanting to buy a flat in a 1930s block on the bottom side of Hampstead on Parliament Hill. Because we have lived around this area for many years, we, and our friends, know several people who live in this block, mostly very happily. And, I know, that it brings me nearest to the house in which John Keates wrote ‘Ode to a Nightingale’, which i read when i was a teenager in Wolverhampton in the heart of the Black Country.

It was a very nice place to live in Keates’ time when the the eighteenth century was coming to terms with the realities of the nineteenth century, when the beacons on Parliament Hill were ready to be lit when Napoleon invaded. It is still a very nice place to live in 2008. Not least because Hampstead Heath is now actually bigger than it was in Keates’ time. And is a mixture of lawns and woodland that beats Hyde Park into a cocked hat.

Nevertheless, i was besieged by advice from my advisers with reasons why I should NOT buy this flat now.

But first, i should report what the estate agent said.

This flat was an Art Deco development with panoramic views over London. True, because although we are on the ground floor, we can see, as Janet noticed when we first went there, that you can acually see the Obelisk.

What I noticed when we first visited is that looming much larger in the near view is the Royal Free Hospital, which is one of the ugliiest modern buildings in the whole of Lonodn. (Although it’s medical care is far above average in the NHS.).

But the avalanche of negative comment I got from the professionals when we put in our offer did not mention the ugliness of the Royal Free, looming large in the foreground of our ‘panoramic’ views over London.

It came from other objections.

First, my surveyor, who told me over the telephone, it is a brick box near an electricity sub-station. To interpret. Our new flat does not have the high ceilings of the Victorian house we lived in around here for 39 years. And, the electricity sub-station, while not a healthy risk, might deter some purchasers.

Next my lawyer, who informed me, along with many queries about the complicated long lease, that my intended property was adjacent to the North London Railway, which might well deter some purchasers. He was quite right, but there are also some people like myself, and, Michael Palin, who actually like living near to railway lines.

The Palin’s and us bought our first small houses around here in 1967 in Oak Village. Michael is still there, having coped with the expansion of his family and his increasing riches, by buying two adjoining houses in Oak Villiage. We moved in 1976 a few hundred yards to a bigger Victorian house on the other side of the Mansfield Road.

But my point is, that my lawyer is quite right to point out that some people will absolutely not want to live by a railway. But, it is equally true, that some people like it!

Finally, my financial adviser told me that i should consider the advantages of going on renting. His advice, I think, was sound. If i wait a year or two, it is likely that I could buy a flat like this more cheaply.

So I don’t think that we have made the best possible property investment by buying our new flat.

But buying a flat or a house in much more than property investment. It is buying a home.

We took possession yesterday in the worst possible conditions. It was pouring with rain. You could barely see the Royal Free Hospital, let alone the Obelisk.

So we had lunch at the Magala pub just down the road. Since we had driven up from Dorset to collect the keys, I wanted to order the full Enlish breakfast. The disk they provided was the 2008 equivalent. I protested, because i could not find the bacon.

But I was wrong. Because, as was pointed out to me, it was there. Not rashers of bacon, but tiny bits smaller than the old English farthing.

But, one of the reasons that I was happy with our new flat, is that I first visited the Magdala, in 1959, when i had a bedsit nearby. It did not serve any food in those days, but it had a healthy custom because, alllegly it had in the wall, a bullet fired from the gun of Ruth Ellis who was the last woman hanged in Britain for murder.

This was a fake. Although, Ruth Ellis did indeed shoot her lover outside the Magdala, the then-pub management faked the bullet hole. And for many years the media substantiated the myth.

But it was in 1959, and still is today, decent pub.

Which is perhaps one of the reasons that I have ignored all the nay-sayers who advised me to think again before i bought this flat.

So to bring this blog back from the personal to the political.

The current crisis requies not only than governments stake their money.

It requires that everyone who can afford it should spend.

Not listen to all the advice that tells them that if they hold off they can buy more chealyl than today.

Tomorrow, which is almost here in UK, there will be eight days to go before the US election. The latest polls suggest that Obama will win comfortably. And John McCain’s camp are already starting to blame each other. They are thinking in terms of how to preserve their own careers by blaming the impending defeat on someone else.

The Murdoch press is not shouting for McCain, but they are running stories about the danger of a world we have not seen since 1932, when a Democratic President may come to power, with a majority in both houses of Congress, making it far easier for him to get his proprosals into law.

So the Murdoch press is not saying Obama is bad news. But they are warning their readers that, come November 4, the Democrats are likely, not only to have the White House, but they will also have comfortable majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate. So they are telling their readers not to give him, and the Democrats, too big a majority.

Depending on which Murdoch paper you read, this is a threat of America being taken over by a lefty lot or by a liberal lot.

Despite his conversion to the born again Christian beliefs, Murdoch retains his pragmatism and his ability to see where his profits are coming from.

So the message from Rupert is not vote McCain. It is now,  don’t give Obama and the Democrats too big a majority.

Because, although Murdoch is no lover of banks, who were not very nice to him, when he was struggling to stave off bankruptscy, he realises that he cannot go on making his millions, if the banks collapse.

A lot can happen in eight days. And the issues which face US electors on polling day may not be those we are thinking about today.

But what is absolutely certain is that the worries about the banking crisis will not be resolved before November 4. It is not such a surprise that Gordon Brown, with his roots in Old Labour has nationalised the banks. But the fact, that George W Bush, the disciple of Thatcher and the believer that God not only rewards the faithful in the hereafter, but makes them rich on earth, has been forced to do the same.

The world is indeed very different, from what it was a few weeks ago. And it is comforting that Bush and Brown and the European Community, are reacting with the knowledge of what happened in 1929 and how John Maynard Keynes and Franklin D Roosevelt steered America and the world out of the depression.

But what we are facing today, although quite as serious as the Great Depression, is not just the same. It needs a different approach.

Which will be the subject of a later blog.

But meanwhile, if you are American, vote Obama and vote Democrat. Because neither McCain, nor the Repbublican Party has the frameworks of thinking that enable them to begin to think out the solutions.

Because those solutions violate their honestly held beliefs in their own doctrines.

Since writing my posts this evening I have read an article in The Guardian by Jenni Russell. It was headlined, Consuming Anxiety. But it is the nearest article that I have read to what I was writing myself.

Many other articles in The Guardian, and other serious newspapers read mostly by the middle classes, have been giving them all sorts of hints about how they should be cutting down their spending to deal with the recession, which, at last, the boom for ever lot have agreed is now upon us.

Guardian readers, although they probably do not include many of the super rich, are mostly comfortably off. More of them, than the readers of The Times and The Daily Telegraph, work in the public sector. Which is less at risk (but certainly not immune from risk) in the coming recession.

Some Guardian readers are students, with expectations, rather than money. Others have huge mortgages. But some of them are financially secure. Who do not get their satisfaction from conspicuous consumption.

Although they enjoy the good life.

Now is the time for them to spend, spend, spend with a clear conscience. By doing so they are helping the global economy.

The answer is quite simple. Vote Democrat.

This is not only because the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, has demonstrated beyond all doubt that he has a clearer mind of how to cope with the current financial crisis, than the Republican candidate, John McCain.

It is because the Democratic Party has the right ideology and the right policies to deal with the present crisis. What the US and the world needs to deal with this global crisis, is someone from the same stable as Franklin D Roosevelt.

The cause of the present melt-down is the un-regluated free market ethos, introduced to the world by Margaret Thatcher is Britain in the 1980s, and taken up ethusiastically by American Presidents. First Ronald Reagan and more recently, George W Bush.

This has taken the world from the excesses of over-optimism which continued for over a year, when the economists were warning of the dangers ahead, first signalled by the problems in the US housing market, which was in crisis because the banks had encouraged people to buy far beyond their means.

Now, in the space of a few weeks, the money men have led the worlld into excessive over-pessimism.

The best way citizens can help governments to stop this spiralling panic, is to spend. And spend now. Don’t wait til next year, when you might possibly be able to buy a new home, or a good second hand anything more cheaply.

So don’t put off building that new extension, order it now. Go off on the holiday of your dreams. Etc. Etc.

This only applies to those citizens who can afford it. Which includes many middle class people whose jobs are not in danger and who have savings.

And of course it applies to the new super rich who have benefited most from the excesses of the last thirty years.

Now is the chance for them to spend their not very well-gotten gains. And spend it in ways that give employment to those who do do decent day’s work for a fair wage.

Capitalists of the world unite. Spend now. You have nothing to lose but the chains of your beliefs.

Do not ask yourself what the world economy can do for you. Ask what you can do for the world economy.

Today has been yet another Black Friday, with Far Eastern stock markets plunging by between 8 and 12 per cent. This provoked further falls in London and on Wall Street, after a few days when it seemed the markets were steadying, following the injection of vast sums of money into the banking system, by governments in the US, Britain and Europe. But some financial men seem determined to to urge the market on and drive the markets done even more steeply than in the Great Crash of 1929.

Stand up Martin D. Weiss, Ph D.

In his newsletter today, headlined:

Urgent Warning: Crash Today!

he boasts that in July he predicted the Dow Jones would fall to 7200.

He writes piously

I prayed it would not come to pass, but now that it’s here…

He then goes on to say that he does not think that 7200 is the bottom. Investors must expect further falls. So he urges them to sell half their holdings of equities and mutual funds immediately. If big investors followed his advice that would indeed produce a bigger crash than 1929.

I am not going to predict how far the Dow will fall, nor how long and deep the recession will last.

But before you follow Dr Weiss’s advice, I would ask you to note his prediction of the Dow at 7200 is not yet here. With most of the day over the lowest point the Dow reached was about 8200.

It was financial men like Weiss, who drove the stock markets up to astronomic levels on the assumption that the boom would go on ever. Now they are trying to profit by urging the market down.

It is up to rest of us to stay cool. And it is up to Governments to give a clear message to the financiers, the banks and the big companies, that, they, like all other citizens, need regulation.

Below is the Weiss newsletter in full. In my next blog I will suggest a few things that ordinary citizens, like me and my readers, can do to reduce the severity of the recession.

MONEYANDMARKETS» Special Edition Friday, October 24, 2008                 YOUR BEST SOURCE FOR THE UNBIASED MARKET COMMENTARY YOU WON’T GET FROM WALL STREET       [«] Money and Markets 2008 Archive View This Issue On Our Website [»] Urgent warning: Crash TODAY! by Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D. Dear Subscriber, Today could go down in history as one of the worst stock market crashes of all time, and it gives me no pleasure to see my dire warnings come true. I have dreaded this day as often as I have predicted it. In July, our Safe Money Report declared the Dow would fall to 7,200. And virtually every day since, our e-mails have warned, nagged, cajoled and shouted the same message from the rooftops. I prayed it would not come to pass. But now that it’s here, I have a new prayer … That you are out of danger and ready for the worst; That the worst will strike swiftly and end swiftly; That, once we hit bottom, no matter how ugly the future may appear, you, we and others will have the fortitude to reinvest, help get the country back on its feet, and move on to better times. Today and for the foreseeable future, however, the market is going down. Asian stock markets have crashed this morning. The global economy is sinking rapidly. Deflation is sweeping the globe. (For more on deflation, be sure not to miss the important alert we sent you yesterday, as well as my October 6 issue “Sinking Rapidly into Depression.”) Yes, our long-standing forecast for this phase of the decline is 7,200 on the Dow. But do not assume that will be the final bottom. With a global depression striking rapidly … with most U.S. corporations likely to sink into the red … and with many going bankrupt … it would be foolish to expect that any line drawn on any chart can be a reliable barrier to further sharp declines. In his testimony before Congress yesterday, former Fed Chairman Greenspan confessed that this financial crisis may be the worst in 100 years. If that’s the case, then it’s not beyond the realm of reason to anticipate a stock market decline that’s also among the worst in 100 years. If you are not ready — if you followed a broker who told you to just “buy, buy, hold, hold” — here’s what to do: Step 1. Call your broker immediately and tell him to sell HALF of your stocks and stock mutual funds at the market. If he tries to talk you out of it, don’t let him. And if you’d like to be prepared for the counter-arguments he may give you, see my September 30 issue, “Urgent from Martin: Your Last Chance to Act.” Important: Do not be deterred by any trading halts if they should occur. Today, for example, if the Dow Jones Industrials falls 10% (869 points) prior to 2 PM Eastern Time, the New York Stock Exchange will declare a one-hour trading halt. Alternatively, if the Dow falls the 10% between 2 PM and 2:30 PM, the NYSE will declare a half-hour trading halt. However, after 2:30 PM, the 10% limit will no longer be in effect. Therefore, even in a worst case scenario, there should be ample opportunity for you to execute your orders to avoid further damage. Step 2. We may get a sharp rally at any time, especially if the government intervenes. If so, use it as your opportunity to sell the balance. This is where I believe your broker or adviser can be of value to you, helping you set exit price targets (limit orders) and giving you his opinion regarding how much of a rally might be reasonable to expect. Step 3. If you are working with a money manager, ask if he has strategies specifically designed to profit in bear markets. If the answer is “yes,” switch the amount you and he feel are appropriate to that strategy, erring on the side of more rather than less. If the answer is “no,” ask him to follow steps #1 and #2 above. Then, move your funds to a manager who does deploy bear market strategies. (For more information on bear market strategies, see Bear Market Defense Forum Transcript Part I and Part II.) Step 4. Just because your money is in cash, don’t assume that cash is safe. There’s a real chance the global banking bailout will fail. (For the reasons, see our recent whitepaper submitted to Congress on September 25, “Proposed $700 Billion Bailout Is Too Little, Too Late to End the Debt Crisis; Too Much, Too Soon for the U.S. Bond Market.” Also see our recent Congressional submission, “Many Banks and Thrifts Overly Reliant on ‘Hot Money’ Deposits: Why an FDIC Coverage Increase to $250,000 May Not Stop Bank Runs and Could Cause Other Collateral Damage.”) If the global bailout does fail, as I fear it will, an international banking holiday could ensue, trapping your cash when you may want or need it the most. To avoid this danger, move as much of your cash as you can to U.S. Treasury bills or a Treasury-only money market fund. (For more information on how to buy Treasury bills, be sure to watch our 1-hour emergency Q&A video and read this recent message from our affiliate.) Step 5. If you continue to hold stocks that you’re unwilling or unable to sell, carefully consider the instructions in my November 2007 report, “How to Protect Your Stock Portfolio From the Spreading Credit Crunch.” Step 6. A crisis like this one can be a nightmare for nearly everyone. But crisis is also opportunity — for the country to heal itself and for you to build your wealth. Investors who have followed our recommendations to use contrarian investments are doing just that right now. The more the market falls, the more money they make. And since markets usually fall faster than they rise, the speed and magnitude of the potential profits are among the greatest of any time in modern history. In 1929, my father borrowed $500 from his mother and used it to sell short the stock market. He told me that, by the time the market hit bottom, he had close to $100,000. And he didn’t start before the crash; he actually began in April of 1930 after the ‘29 crash. Today, fortunately, you don’t have to short the market to make money in a crash. You can use investments that limit your risk and require no borrowing or margin. Consider these strategies for a portion of your funds. You can do it on your own. Or, if you’d like some guidance, call or write. The number of Weiss Research’s inverse ETF trading publication is 800-393-1706. Or, for a managed account program dedicated to bear market investing, call our separate affiliate at 800-814-3045. They can also advise you on how to exit the market in an orderly fashion. No matter what, do not delay. But also do not act in panic. Your response to this crash should be both prompt and planned; both bold and prudent. And no matter how bad the future may appear, do not forget what I have been saying from the outset: This is not the end of the world. Our country has been through worse before, and we survived. We will survive this time as well. Good luck and God bless! Martin About Money and Markets For more information and archived issues, visit http://www.moneyandmarkets.com Money and Markets (MaM) is published by Weiss Research, Inc. and written by Martin D. Weiss along with Tony Sagami, Nilus Mattive, Sean Brodrick, Larry Edelson, Michael Larson and Jack Crooks. To avoid conflicts of interest, Weiss Research and its staff do not hold positions in companies recommended in MaM, nor do we accept any compensation for such recommendations. The comments, graphs, forecasts, and indices published in MaM are based upon data whose accuracy is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Performance returns cited are derived from our best estimates but must be considered hypothetical in as much as we do not track the actual prices investors pay or receive. Regular contributors and staff include Kristen Adams, Andrea Baumwald, John Burke, Amber Dakar, Dinesh Kalera, Red Morgan, Maryellen Murphy, Jennifer Newman-Amos, Adam Shafer, Julie Trudeau and Leslie Underwood. Attention editors and publishers! Money and Markets issues can be republished. Republished issues MUST include attribution of the author(s) and the following short paragraph: This investment news is brought to you by Money and Markets. Money and Markets is a free daily investment newsletter from Martin D. Weiss and Weiss Research analysts offering the latest investing news and financial insights for the stock market, including tips and advice on investing in gold, energy and oil. Dr. Weiss is a leader in the fields of investing, interest rates, financial safety and economic forecasting. To view archives or subscribe, visit http://www.moneyandmarkets.com. From time to time, Money and Markets may have information from select third-party advertisers known as “external sponsorships.” We cannot guarantee the accuracy of these ads. In addition, these ads do not necessarily express the viewpoints of Money and Markets or its editors. For more information, see our terms and conditions. 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….flounderin arouni it the farmyard, with no idea of where to go.

In the last two weeks George W Bush, has had to depart from his free market doctrine and temporarily nationalise some of the country’s leading banks. But the free market verdict on his rescue plan has been a resounding thumbs down. Stock markets have continued to plunge, with further falls of around 6 per cent in share prices in the Far East, who get up before we do in London, and a similar fall in London.

Wall Street opened with further stock market falls, explained by the analysts, as a result of investors facing up to the real economic data, with falling retail sales figures, and the prospect of rising un-employment. But in te last hour of trading today, Wall Street soared over 400 points. Other investors poured in, deciding that the fall had been overdone!!!

Last night, in the last of the three Presidential debates between Barack Obama and John McCain, the media verdict was that McCain had not done well enough to dent the lenghthening lead in the opinion polls Obama has enjoyed since the financial crisis started to bite. Fourteen points ahead was the favourite figure. And the polls taken after the television debate all showed a resounding lead for Obama with viewers who watched the debate.

But today’s poll from the veteran pollstter Gallup, gives Obama only a four point lead. And his lead with vaters who said they were most likely to vote was only 2 per cent.

Well within the pollsters’ marggin of error. So if Gallup is right, the US election is still wide open. Far from the walk-over several media pundits were  talking about earlier today.

For most of the rest of the world, it is obvious that the current crisis demonstrates that the un-regulated free market, ushered in by Margaret Thatcher and echoed by Ronald Reagan has got the world economy in a terrible mess and left home owners and small busineses with the threat of bankruptscy and repossession. It has caused several leading banks to fail.

But there are still lots of Americans who don’t want to give up on era of Thatcherism, where a few people got very rich indeed. And thereby confirmed the myth that anyone in the US, however poor, could rise to the ranks of the super rich.

In the last of the great debates McCain did not deliver any knock-out blows. But he showed that he was a fighter, a man Americans can  rely on to sort out upstart states like iran and old enemies like Putin’s Russia.

His credentials for piloting the US in the current financial crisis are not obvious. But for some Americans he is is infinitely preferable to Obama, a black man with a foreign sounding name, who is the same race as the Muslim terrorists. In the debates and in his campaign McCain is trying to smear Obama as a closet terrorist, by focussing on the fact that he knows and sits on the same board as a former radical lefty ‘terrorist’ who is now a university professor. Obama is portrayed not only as a socialist, but a socialist who joins with ‘terrorists’ to prosecute armed revolution.

This was not credible for anyone who watched the debate or who has listened to his speeches. But as this battle for the Presidency nears its end, it may play with some voters.

This election is not a foregone conclusion. And there is also the fact that Obama is black which raises all sorts of fears and antagonisms amoungst the white working class.

This election is not a walkover. The world can see the need for re-regualtion of the American banking system. But despite the present havoc, and the blight it brings to many ordinary Americans, there is still  powerful support for the Thatcher/Reagan myth.

America is a headless chicken, because George W is at the end of his power. And there is a real difference between the two contenders for the crown. We will not know until November 5th whether the new leader is going to a less doctrnaire version of George W, worshipping in the church of the unregulated free market, or someone who realises that the complexities of the global economy require a less simplistic approach.

But today’s figures from Gallup, one o