Already I can tell it’s gearing up to be a “Let’s blame the media!” cry once again.  For what? Ohhh, pull anything out of a hat:  It’s the media’s fault that….

–Lenders wrote bad mortgages to people who could never afford to make the payments

–The financial mess turned into a crisis

–Bear and Lehman took ridiculous bets on exotic financial instruments that, as it turns out, even the company leaders didn’t understand

Oh, the list goes on. But who’s fault is this REALLY? Where did it all begin?

i’d love your thoughts.

See you on Fox Business, and thanks again for being a part of what we do.

–Liz

How long will it take to regain the money now lost in my kids’ college funds?

How much longer will I be forced to put off retirement now that my retirement nest-egg has been decimated?

Should I pull all my money out of the stock market?

Could this all happen again one day?

Why, when I never invested in anything close to a credit default swap, am I now forced to save everyone who did?

What happens next?

Folks: tell me what worries you now. We should be talking about these issues on the show. I want to hear your thoughts. Let me know.

–Hang in there….

Liz

After a harrowing couple of weeks of market insanity, one thing we know for sure: it’s not over yet, but life does go on.  Therefore, we are continuing with our fabulous series here on FBN: “Opportunity in America: My Hometown.”  We’ve been sending all our anchors back to their respective hometowns to get a pulse check of local economies and opportunities.  Jeff Flock took us back to Waretown, NJ, Charles Payne led us through his hometown of Harlem, NY,  Jenna Lee gave us the tour of her San Francisco, and Friday, it’s my turn to go back to………..

Beverly Hills.

Yep, I was born in LA and raised in BH.  I can’t WAIT to take you back there to see a bit of my world.  My twist is that all the people whom I will interview Friday are people I’ve known since elementary school, some even since Kindergarten.  All of them are still there, finding—nay, CARVING OUT opportunity in our hometown.  (I’m the only one who left, hello?)  So please join me, starting at 8am ET this Friday October 17th for Liz’s Opportunity in America: My Hometown right here on Fox Business.

See you then!

Liz

  It’s been a harrowing 2 and a half weeks and I’m still shell (and sticker!!) shocked—$700 BILLION??– by all that’s come to pass.  Just to give you the inside story, for me it all started with Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy.  Folks, Friday September 19th, I was literally swinging from the Beverly Hills city limits sign shooting my “Opportunity in America: My Hometown of Beverly Hills” story when my cell phone rang.  It was a source of mine telling me that Lehman was hanging by a thread that would soon snap.  The source told me that if Lehman didn’t find a cash infusion or partner over the weekend (unlikely), then pre-packaged bankruptcy would be staring them in the face come Monday.  I dropped to the grass, told my crew I had to make some phone calls and rushed to the car where I chased down a couple of other sources, got the story confirmed, called into “Countdown to the Closing Bell” (which Brian Sullivan was anchoring for me) and went with the news. 

I took no joy in breaking the news.  You know from this blog that I actually believed the Lehman Bros. would pull a rabbit out of the hat and surprise us all.  Clearly I was wrong.  CEO Dick Fuld’s window has slammed shut right on his fingers.  Closed, never to open again.  I went back to playing Tarzan on the Beverly Hills sign (which you’ll all see Friday October 17th barring any new financial dramas) and finished my shoot with somewhat of a heavy heart.  

I had NO IDEA what Lehman’s failure would trigger.

Since then, it’s been a focused push by our team at Fox Business to cover each and every single development of this monster of a story.  Some of us hopped on planes, others stayed up all night waiting for comment from various Congressional members, others ran to Times Square to get comments from regular folk who’s 401k’s and pensions were shrinking by the minute.  There’s been no breakfast except coffee from our green room, and lunch, but only in the form of high-protein Ensure drinks (vanilla’s the best).  I ran from my own shows (which we quickly moved to the New York Stock Exchange) to the O’Reilly Factor, to syndicated radio programs across the nation, to CBS News’ The Early Show to the “Mike and Juliet Show” and back again just to tell people what was going on with each new development.  Mike and Juliet have a live audience and at one point, I turned to them and said something like, “This is YOUR money. Don’t you want answers??” and the entire audience cheered.  I got the blogosphere version of that with your comments.  I was just spending some of my Sunday reading your replies to my “And What Do YOU Think?” blog from last week and I am so bowled over by your responses.  They are so thoughtful and smart and ….ANGRY.  I completely get that emotion, especially when you look at the price-tag of this bill-that’s-now-a-law.

Thank you SO much for taking the time to comment.  Knowing where our viewers stand on this is crucial. We’re in this for you.  This is FAR from over, I’m sorry to say.  But we’ll do our fighting best to give you the proper perspective you won’t get anywhere else.  I’m so proud of our team but I’m even more proud that our viewers are with us.  THANK YOU. 

See you tomorrow,

Liz

David Asman and I spoke with Warren Buffett this afternoon on Fox Business not only about his $5 billion dollar investment in Goldman Sachs (GS) preferred shares but about the urgency of the U.S. financial crisis.

To say that Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) feels this needs to get pushed through quickly is an understatement.  He noted that short-term Treasurys and the LIBOR rate are all screaming out that there are deep fissures in the debt market right now that threaten to crack right under our feet. Lending is drying up very quickly .  When I asked what might happen if the $700 billion dollar rescue plan failed to pass, he said, “Heaven help us.” When the world’s richest man explains the situation like that, you get the sense he’s extremely worried… not the word I would have ever used to describe the usually optimistic Buffett.

He also said that if the deal doesn’t pass, he probably would regret having made such a hefty investment in Goldman.  But he also stressed that he does NOT believe that Goldman would have failed without his cash infusion. He doesn’t like investing in companies that would go down without his money going in.  He’s been approached by many financial institutions for help but only extended to Goldman. He categorically said his investment is a bet not on the market as a whole, but on Goldman Sachs.

–Liz

Warren Buffett, the Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) will only be speaking with one news network during market hours today: Fox Business.  Here’s why this interview takes on added importance and urgency: the bond market is showing signs of cracks in early trade.

After making a $5 billion dollar bet on Goldman Sachs (GS) last night by investing the grand chunk of money in Goldman’s preferred shares, Warren Buffett’s coming on to talk with us on Fox Business at 2pm ET to tell us WHY he did it, WHY he feels Congress needs to pass this rescue plan ASAP, WHAT he finds attractive in the deal, WHO he thinks needs to run the government’s rescue plan, and HOW he thinks this financial crisis will eventually play out.  Don’t miss it. 2pm ET.