DISCUSS!!!
;D
Ah, a man after my own cold reanimated heart. After polishing off the better part of 1/2 of a liter of Danish Double IPA my manner might be only slightly more urbane than in the last few hours (but don’t hold your breath).
Total meltdown, I couldn’t agree more. Fannie Maye and Freddie Mac, then Lehmann Bros, and now AIG? All with Uncle Scam taking a majority interest? This means we should be getting universal healthcare in about, oh, I don’t know…never?
I hear Vancouver is lovely this time of year.
Count d’Moneay: Sire, the people are revolting.
King Louie of France: You said it, they stink on ice.
The gambling aspects of the world’s financial markets have increased in popularity over the past twenty-five years, mostly because of the electronic ability of traders to buy and sell within minutes and seconds of minor changes in corporate and government issues.
This inflates the value of so many “tradable” items in the marketplace, like the “dot coms” did throughout the 90s. People were investing in internet sites that had no intrinsic value because there was no real product offered beyond advertising on each other’s sites. When purchasing of goods on the internet became a measurable reality, those inflated site values bottomed out, and the market followed accordingly, stimulated by the political unrest of a tied presidential election and a dubious resolution of it.
Well the same thing has happened here, only in the mortgage and loan markets, and curiously enough, with the same uncertainty tied to a presidential election. The market players are not fond of the prospects of a democratic candidate winning a presidential election. The perception is that Obama will tax capital gains more, increase taxes overall, and take more available money out of the marketplace and feed it to government coffers for re-distribution through social programs.
This prospects adds and underlying nervousness that is making people react to the re-adjustment the markets have to go through for all of the gambling it did on the mortgage and loan markets that have fallen through. This failure was also caused by the government who mandated the lending institutions lower lending standards to provide mortgage money to people who couldn’t otherwised afford it. They did this because the housing market in many areas was pricing itself beyond certain income levels and Congress thought it could “fix” this.
Instead of letting the natural course of the housing market take its course, ie, people who are priced out of a market have to move to cheaper markets where the process of suburban spread and development begins anew, they thought they could help the lower income folks stay where they wanted and buy houses they really couldn’t afford. The law of unintended consequences took over, in this case, because people can only afford according to what they make. Sooner or later the bill comes due.
The markets are readjusting to where they should be, and as long as most people don’t freak out and start jumping off of bridges, the economy will stablize on its own. The economy is more tied to world markets to the point where that adjustment is global and all the major players will help one another until the jitters settle down and they start buying up the bargains and the next cycle will begin again.
There still is so much real product being produced and sold globally, that I don’t believe any serious damage can be done to the “stock market” per se. It only matters if you have investments that you have to cash out during these downward adjustments. And the losses you believe yourself to experience are only in paper value based upon the highest value you saw your investments at.
People get nervous, become conservative in their buying habits for a while, but then decide that holding onto your money conservatively doesn’t do much for you. The healots will come out from under their blankets sooner or later, and the game will resume. It’s just interesting to watch how the media likes to sensationalize everything for ratings and their own profits.
How does a man profit?
^u got to steal underwear to profit, it’s the only way, only way
Completely, 100% overrated and only being mentioned because the 24/7 newsgroups need something to fill in all that time. The market is designed to never have anything like the Depression ever happen again. People don’t seem to realize that an economy can’t keep growing for 20 years straight…it’s like they’re shocked at this.
In fact, I love how the Conservatives always preach about a small government yet they’re the biggest advocates behind these bailouts for Freddie/Fanny. I say let them crash. Isn’t that the whole point of a free economy. If you give bad loans to people who shouldn’t have them and, surprise surprise, they can’t pay the loans and you’re left with their debt when the house is foreclosed and you can’t sell it, then you deserve to have your company collapse. They deserve it anyway for trying to screw over tons of desperate poor people anyway. There’s tons of small finance companies who took care of themselves who are more than ready to take Freddie/Fanny’s place in the market. That’s how it’s SUPPOSED to work. The economy is designed to take care of itself. The same applies to all the investors…if you want to invest in a company with known shady practices, then you deserve to lose your cash when they bottom up as well. It’s always their own fault.
Of course, this all stems to government having no clue how the economy works so they stick their noses in and always make things worse. (Not to mention that they’re all slaves to the billions of Fanny/Freddy lobbying dollars so they’re just paying them back). Ahhhh, corruption…
Stevo
I love me some IPA…
hmmmmm
everythings ALWAYS ok…
dodo do doot do~ I’m lovin it!!!
I have taken quite a hit this week due to this anoyingness…Gone is the downpayment for my next house until the market bounces back in a few years
What would you do if bush suspended the elections due to the financial meltdown?
this is obviously all Brett’s fault.
^^laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and cry.
^Yeah, me too…sigh…
and right before the reunion too. DAMN!
look on the bright side. maybe the new Ameros will be pretty w/ lots of cool symbolic pictures on them.
LOL, I guess there is a bright side…
For what it’s worth, here’s what Ron has to say about it…
[flash=350,287]http://www.youtube.com/v/3qLefrvxbq8&hl=en&fs=1[/flash]
Although it probably doesn’t change anything at this point, Ron Paul’s commentary is currently the #1 most commonly read article at CNN.com At least people are being exposed to the ideas.
does anybody else find it hard to disagree with that Iranian president sometimes?
he was interviewed in this morning’s LA Times and although he is himself obviously a full-of-shit-anti-semetic-untrustworthy-politician, he really makes Bush look like an ass clown in this interview.
I always look at the title of this thread and assume that it’s about me.
A note of appreciation from the rich
By Author Unknown
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20833.htm
21/09/08 "ICH’ – - Let’s be honest: you’ll never win the lottery.
On the other hand, the chances are pretty good that you’ll slave away at some miserable job the rest of your life. That’s because you were in all likelihood born into the wrong social class. Let’s face it – you’re a member of the working caste. Sorry!
As a result, you don’t have the education, upbringing, connections, manners, appearance, and good taste to ever become one of us. In fact, you’d probably need a book the size of the yellow pages to list all the unfair advantages we have over you. That’s why we’re so relieved to know that you still continue to believe all those silly fairy tales about “justice” and “equal opportunity” in America.
Of course, in a hierarchical social system like ours, there’s never been much room at the top to begin with. Besides, it’s already occupied by us – and we like it up here so much that we intend to keep it that way. But at least there’s usually someone lower in the social hierarchy you can feel superior to and kick in the teeth once in a while. Even a lowly dishwasher can easily find some poor slob further down in the pecking order to sneer and spit at. So be thankful for migrant workers, prostitutes, and homeless street people.
Always remember that if everyone like you were economically secure and socially privileged like us, there would be no one left to fill all those boring, dangerous, low-paid jobs in our economy. And no one to fight our wars for us, or blindly follow orders in our totalitarian corporate institutions. And certainly no one to meekly go to their grave without having lived a full and creative life. So please, keep up the good work!
You also probably don’t have the same greedy, compulsive drive to possess wealth, power, and prestige that we have. And even though you may sincerely want to change the way you live, you’re also afraid of the very change you desire, thus keeping you and others like you in a nervous state of limbo. So you go through life mechanically playing your assigned social role, terrified what others would think should you ever dare to “break out of the mold.”
Naturally, we try to play you off against each other whenever it suits our purposes: high-waged workers against low-waged, unionized against non-unionized, Black against White, male against female, American workers against Japanese against Mexican against… We continually push your wages down by invoking “foreign competition,” “the law of supply and demand,” “national security,” or “the bloated federal deficit.” We throw you on the unemployed scrap heap if you step out of line or jeopardize our profits. And to give you an occasional break from the monotony of our daily economic blackmail, we allow you to participate in our stage-managed electoral shell games, better known to you ordinary folks as “elections.” Happily, you haven’t a clue as to what’s really happening – instead, you blame “Aliens,” “Tree-hugging Environmentalists,” “Niggers,” “Jews,” Welfare Queens," and countless others for your troubled situation.
We’re also very pleased that many of you still embrace the “work ethic,” even though most jobs in our economy degrade the environment, undermine your physical and emotional health, and basically suck your one and only life right out of you. We obviously don’t know much about work, but we’re sure glad you do!
Of course, life could be different. Society could be intelligently organized to meet the real needs of the general population. You and others like you could collectively fight to free yourselves from our domination. But you don’t know that. In fact, you can’t even imagine that another way of life is possible. And that’s probably the greatest, most significant achievement of our system – robbing you of your imagination, your creativity, your ability to think and act for yourself.
So we’d truly like to thank you from the bottom of our heartless hearts. Your loyal sacrifice makes possible our corrupt luxury; your work makes our system work. Thanks so much for “knowing your place” – without even knowing it!
Here comes the New World Order in full effect.
Socialism is the solution to the “capitalism mess” that greed has caused.
You will soon see new renditions of the image above to feed into the frenzy.
The image of course is compelling because it is real. The only problem is that the people on top do not represent capitalism, but NWO control over everyone.
It is not a big pile of money called “capitalism” but a curtain hiding their manipulations, deceptions, diivide and conquer tactics.
Come on man…I’m all for everyone having there own theories and whatnot, but I’m just not buying it. The only New World Order I knew of Hulk Hogan was the leader. Well to each their own.
It’s like Stevo mentioned above. The market is undergoing a serious correction. Remember how we’ve heard all these records were being set. “The Dow is the highest it’s ever been” blah blah blah. The market fluctuates. That’s how it works. It’ll come back around. What goes up comes down. What goes down goes up. You watch eventually the dollar will regain steam and once again reign supreme over all other currency. It’s a cycle. Were currently on a down swing. How much further down. That’s the question. I’m a firm believer that if you invest in the market your there for the long haul. Over the long haul your return on investment will eventually override any short-term losses.