Amen #1.

WHY IS THIS A SURPRISE TO ANYONE?

And half of Americans want more of the same for four more years.

As an American who is proud of the principles laid down by the founding fathers, I am mad as hell at the ideologues and predators ruining our economy and our culture. But all they have to do is mention partial birth abortions and they get voted right back in.

I propose two American states: America, which will uphold the foundation laid by its founders; and Merica, where all the predatory capitalists can pick away at the willfully ignorant, superstitious underclass as long and as hard as they please.

I haz a hedge fund.

U can haz too.

Hello Jack,

take a few steps back and look beyond your 401k and the immediate mortgage crisis. All this happened because the assets of America are concentrated in less and less hands. That concentration is accelerating and if people ever feared a black hole that should be when only very few will own everything. That is the result of perpetual economic growth, invented to perpetuate economic domination of the few. The citizen of the rich countries, us, were included in those “few” and we reaped the benefits of it, albeit only on the margins, granted. But, as concentration increases, more and more will be rejected until it all breaks down.

We have been riding bubbles for a long time.

The mortgage scam existed because the owners of those assets just had no place to invest but in fictitious undertakings : we have stopped to invest. It was a desperate move, one that was so bound to fail that anybody with an ounce of judgment and clarity of mind could see coming. It was forecast months in advance. Why then did they go ahead with it ? They had no choice so they tried their old trick of escaping by running faster forward, toward nothing.

It is not over and it will get much worse, if not during this crisis the during the next.

J.

Except, how many savings accounts can the FDIC replenish before having to go to the Fed to borrow money to keep up with the guarantee?

Despite the fact, I’m keeping all $1000 of my life’s work in the bank. I think of it as doing my part to keep breadlines at bay.

NPR: Planet Money Podcast
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_detail.php?siteId=94411890

Can’t E.T. show himself to the world right about now so we can all have something to hope for?

I mean, seriously, what’s so free market about medicare, faith-based initiatives, and a trillion dollar war?

What do you call this act? The Neo-Cons!

http://keithmo.com/Misc/market-update.jpg

I refreshed the page and it came back correctly. Of course the real values are not exactly what I want to see either, but they’re better than “NaN”.

Unfortunately some ruling nut almost always goes the route of a big war in the end to “save the nation” from really bad economic times. that leaves lots of free surplus ammo laying around on the ground for free, along with the surplus flowering of youth wasted before its time.

People should take a look at Lehman Brothers (LEH) on the NYSE though. *Giggles*

And at this point the DJ Industrial is down 218 points.

that OK, maybe not what you were lead to hope for but our grand-parents and grand-grand-parents lived and raised families through that nearly a century ago (then 100 families owned 80% of the assets) and I still can see them smiling on their sepia photos.
You are alive aren’t you ? And so are those who you love ?
For myself, as long as I can dream of Xenophilia…
:D

J.

Corporations don’t pay taxes and shouldn’t be collecting taxes for the government. All taxes come out of our pockets one way or the other. I vote for a tiered tax table without exemptions. The only way to get out of paying is if you are disabled, have no earned income, or capital gains. No taxes on SS, and no one collects SS who does not need it. This all means no corporate taxes, no property taxes, no state taxes, no inventory taxes, no estate taxes, no gift taxes, no usage fees, no license fees, no municipal franchise fees, no taxes on fuels, no sales tax or sin tax. No taxes period except individual income tax. The entire tax code on one piece of 8.5 x 14 paper

Think of how much money we would save if corporations were not collecting taxes, fighting taxes, cheating on taxes, or hiring tax accountants and lawyers. Imagine a multi-billion Dollar industry phased out in a matter of ten years.

“Yikes!”

The open secret to long-term success in investing is to buy when everyone is selling, and sell when everyone is buying.

Foetusnail @73, Sir John Templeton (1912-2008) said “‘It’s different this time’ are the four most expensive words in the English language.”

“The initial fall had brought a prodigious number of sellers to the market; one man’s selling alarms another; and makes him sell, and thus the stock has run down insensibly, till all the people are put in a Fright; and such has been the panic Fear, that it brought great confusion along with it.” — re the South Sea bubble of the 1720s, quoted by Edward Chancellor in Devil Take the Hindmost.

1: Republican talks up markets
1a: Profit!
2: Republican legislates opposite of his talk
2a: Annual Bonus Profit!
3: legislation causes foreseeable disaster
3a: Golden Parachute Profit!
4: market is blamed
4a: return to 1

Suck you nation’s energy and wealth away with meaningless wars and the populous—poor, tired, and half starving—suddenly become much easier to control. It’s been happening for years.

Dow circuitbreakers kick in when the Dow is down 1200 points or about 10%.

When government willfully refuses to regulate, then you can expect stuff like this will eventually happen.