“Hope for New Year 5769”

Yesterday at sunset, Jews around the world began to celebrate Rosh Hashanah for Jewish Year 5769. I like the tradition of both reflecting on the past and looking forward to the future. Considering what has just occurred yesterday, over the past two weeks and the entire year, there is certainly a lot of material for both activities.

I want to stay positive for the New Year, so here is my number one hope: that Congressmen/women and their constituents review their investment accounts through yesterday and then rethink their positions on the “TARP” proposal from the Treasury. Yesterday, the House of Representatives delivered a surprising defeat to the plan, which was designed to rescue the nation's troubled financial system. The 228-205 vote spoke to the mistrust and general discomfort among lawmakers in both parties with what would be an unprecedented intervention in the private sector.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 777.68 points, its biggest one-day drop in history, down 7% at 10365.45. The broader based S&P 500 plummeted 8.6%, or 103.98 points, to 1109.03 and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index fell 9.1%, or 199.61 points, to 1983.73. Spooked investors flocked to U.S. government debt: the yield on the three-month Treasury bill, considered the safest short-term investment, fell to about 0.14% from 0.87% late Friday; the price of the benchmark 10-year note jumped 1-29/32, pushing the yield down to 3.624%, compared to 3.827% late Friday.

Oil futures plunged $10.52, or 9.8%, to $96.37 a barrel in New York as fears about slowing demand due to global economic weakness gripped the commodity markets. In a flight to quality, gold futures jumped after the bailout plan was rejected -- after settling $5.90 higher at $894.40, December gold futures surged in after-hours electronic trading -- at 3:34 p.m. EDT, the contract was up $38.90, or more than 4.3%, at $927.40. For those who wanted some suffering for the evil Wall Street-ers (see yesterday’s article), here is the silver lining: about $1trillion in market capitalization was lost in yesterday’s stock market drubbing—just vaporized in a day. That kind of action makes you pine for a mere $700 billion being used to actually buy something, doesn’t it?

The most disheartening part of the bill’s demise was not the stock market plunge—that was to be expected when the deal was scrapped. No, the worst part was the absurd performance of the nation’s politicians amid the upcoming elections. It was disheartening to see how many lawmakers could not put the nation's financial and economic safety before political gamesmanship. Even those who voted for the bill could not help but turn the whole thing into a political fiasco. It was ultimately a bipartisan embarrassment.

Well as the sun is about to set and I am off to temple, I’m going to pray for world peace, for troops who fight on our behalf, an end to the genocide in Darfur and that our lawmakers come to their senses. Perhaps with a little perspective, they may come to the table and help restore our confidence in their abilities to lead.