WALL STREET'S UPS AND DOWNS, THE BANKS' STRESS TEST AND TEA PARTIES

Despite the recent rally on Wall Street, and Obama's and Bernanke's attempts to cheer us up >



http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a595960c-29e6-11de-9e56-00144feabdc0.html


news from the "real economy" are not very encouraging. Foreclosures are revving up again dramatically:


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aRDQUt6RM.FE&refer=home



The administration is caught between Scylla and Charybdis when it comes to the results of the banks' stress test. If they don' tell us which banks are at risk, we'll continue to lose faith in the financial system as a whole. If they tell us which are and that there are some big ones among them, is that going to signal that their policy is not working?



http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e0f79e86-2aa7-11de-8415-00144feabdc0.html



In the meantime, latter day's Boston tea-party emulators protested against increased government spending.



http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/04/16/tea-party-protests-could-they-rally-change-in-government/



We need to keep on working to pass the Obama's agenda, health care especially, before the radical fringes on the right push everyone else on the defensive.