Greg Palast: Billionaires and Ballot Bandits

Greg Palast on the Koch Brothers, Karl Rove, and their buddies.

US Equity and Option Markets Are Closed

US Equity and Options Markets are closed today because of the oncoming hurricane. The NYSE is closing for the first time in 27 years.

Bond markets are open, but will close early around noon.

The Holland and Battery Park Tunnels will be closing this afternoon, and the bridges will be closing when the winds intensify.  

No man is an island, but Manhattan is.

There are blizzard warnings going up on the lee side of the storm, as the moisture of the hurricane meets the Canadian cold front.

This is likely to be a multi-day event.

My meteorologist friend said that the hurricane may present a new record low pressure reading for this area when it makes landfall in New Jersey, most likely a little to the north of the Atlantic City area.

Millions of people may lose power, and some of them for seven to ten days.

If you are in this area, make any last preparations if you must, but be prepared to stay in your home and 'hunker down' for the next two days. Listen to any public advisories, and if requested to evacuate follow instructions.

NYC to Close Schools, Subways, and Orders Evacuations - CME Closes Trading Floor

"New York City has issued a mandatory evacuation of Zone A, which includes CME Group's NYMEX World Headquarters and New York trading floor. As a result, the New York trading floor will be closed on Monday, October 29. We will open all of our electronic markets at their regularly scheduled times on CME Globex and CME ClearPort, our online electronic platforms."

As the northeastern US braces for landfall of Hurricane Sandy tomorrow, high tides and a storm surge expected to run from 5 to 9 feet has caused the bottleneck low-lying areas in the New York boroughs to be evacuated.

A storm surge and tide combination of over 8 feet will breach the seawall in Battery Park.

NYC schools and the subway system will also be closed tomorrow.

Atlantic City casinos have closed for the first time in their history.

Widespread power outages are expected to affect over ten million people.

The storm is expected to make landfall tomorrow in central New Jersey. Although there is a possibility that the storm will not follow the predicted path, the probability of a turn west is growing greater by the hour.

The most powerful winds and waves in a counterclockwise rotating storm are in the right quadrant.

There is no existential uncertainty involved here. Take precautions and keep yourself and your family protected. Listen to advisories and updates. Stay safe.

It will be interesting to see if this impacts any of the NYSE trading tomorrow. The NYMEX is closing floor trading for the day. I hope the floor brokers bring their galoshes.