Economic Bad Times for many

[Sassy]

The Sky is Falling...

I also have to vent about the new media is fulling the fire. People should know as many times at the media has cried wolf not to believe half of what they report. We've all ranted about their coverage of steroids. Think back on to 1999... what happened to Y2K?

Recently during hurricane Ike a DJ on the local radio caused a panic over gas. He was reporting lines and pricing going up 50¢ to as much as a $1 more for gas. Needless to say people were lined up at the stations and there were even some fighting over gas by the end of the night. The governor announced that he was lifting the summer restrictions of the type gas that was supplied to the state to help relieve increasing gas prices, but the media didn't cover that... they didn't explain this to people.

The media fueling the fire has caused people to run to their financial institutes and pull their money out of the stock market therefore cause stock to tumble. I'm I just too optimistic here, but there still are some very good companies out there. Yes their earnings might be down, but that is a given when you look at gas prices. These things fluctuate all the time. The stock market has always worked in cycles. I was looking at it as a discount sale on stocks and there were some great buys on some good long term investments.

 

[morepain]

I also have to vent about the new media is fulling the fire. People should know as many times at the media has cried wolf not to believe half of what they report. We've all ranted about their coverage of steroids. Think back on to 1999... what happened to Y2K?

Recently during hurricane Ike a DJ on the local radio caused a panic over gas. He was reporting lines and pricing going up 50¢ to as much as a $1 more for gas. Needless to say people were lined up at the stations and there were even some fighting over gas by the end of the night. The governor announced that he was lifting the summer restrictions of the type gas that was supplied to the state to help relieve increasing gas prices, but the media didn't cover that... they didn't explain this to people.

The media fueling the fire has caused people to run to their financial institutes and pull their money out of the stock market therefore cause stock to tumble. I'm I just too optimistic here, but there still are some very good companies out there. Yes their earnings might be down, but that is a given when you look at gas prices. These things fluctuate all the time. The stock market has always worked in cycles. I was looking at it as a discount sale on stocks and there were some great buys on some good long term investments.

thats funny...i still have my company's Y2K preparation manual on my bookshelf!

 

[nosmas]

Sometimes I seriously contemplate total liquidation and just getting out of here

This is not the first time I have heard this sort of wording and a perfect example of how serious the current situation is considering we are the country that says "well if you don't like it then get the hell out" and now some of us are asking the last one to leave the country to please turn out the lights!

The most important calculation of how good or bad our economy is the consumers confidence in and expectations of the future and right now many of us are putting on our life preservers.

 

[mooshue]

sorry if my thread came across wrong dude, i wasnt intending on saying fuck em im good to everyone, i just meant those who caused the problems.
I have been homeless, business shut down federal lawsuit by Sony Computer Entertainment of America, on third stike at job, divorced all at the same time. I know hardship. I was just trying to let everyone know it doesn't have to be that way. You have to take control, manage your money correctly and wisely. Everyone wants to live beyond their means, but as i've learned that is just a road to destruction. We never spend what we dont have, credit cards are the devil :star-wars

 

[OuchThatHurts]

sorry if my thread came across wrong dude, i wasnt intending on saying fuck em im good to everyone, i just meant those who caused the problems.
I have been homeless, business shut down federal lawsuit by Sony Computer Entertainment of America, on third stike at job, divorced all at the same time. I know hardship. I was just trying to let everyone know it doesn't have to be that way. You have to take control, manage your money correctly and wisely. Everyone wants to live beyond their means, but as i've learned that is just a road to destruction. We never spend what we dont have, credit cards are the devil :star-wars

I wasn't sure. Thanks for clarifying. Sounds like you've been waste-deep yourself! I totally agree with what you said about the ones that caused this mess (and I do suppose we're all a bit guilty). My father worked hard. Heck, he made us work hard. I'm no stranger to the digging iron. He made all the boys vow that we would use our heads and not our backs and I think we did him proud. I think I probably look up to him and being the most decent man I've ever known. We worked hard and all the boys attained some level of success and are educated and honest men. I think a lot of the reason I do what I do today is because of where I come from. I still consider myself a working man. Not a business man.

My fingers just ran away from me here. Peace.

 

[Sassy]

This mostly applies to US citizens and I'm sure many of you are feeling the effects of economic downturn. For those not in the US, you probably already know what is going on here. I don't want a political hate thread so I'll just say that a combination of problems here in the US have forced the American people into homelessness, foreclosure, unemployment, and general financial hardship of all kinds.

I just wanted to extend a note of sympathy out there to all those people and families. I have been forced to write off more losses this year than I ever have by people that simply just cannot afford to pay some days it almost seems like not-for-profit organization around here.

I just wanted to create a thread to allow anyone to tell their story if they wish. While most Americans are strivng to figure out how they make if from one week to the next and keep food on the table, other Americans are having hardships of another variety. Let quote a recent ABC story to demonstrate:

"A lot of those people will have to sell their homes, they're going to cut back on the private jets and the vacations. They may even have to take their kids out of private school," said Frank. "It's a total reworking of their lifestyle."

He added that it's going to be no easy task.

"It's going to be very hard psychologically for these people," Frank said. "I talked to one guy who had to give up his private jet recently. And he said of all the trials in his life, giving that up was the hardest thing he's ever done."(1)

I posted the above excerpt to show you how ridiculous and upside down things have become here. To my foreign brothers and sisters in foreign countries that think Americans are lazy or self-indulgent or carry with them an inflated sense of entitlement, I want to assure you that only a small percentage of Americans act and live this way. America is made up of hardworking men, women, and families just like our foreign counterparts. It's the leadership and our economic domestic and foreign policies that are tearing us apart from within. It's hurting Americans and hurting foreign people as well.

Rather than get into all that, if you feel you need to vent or just dump, feel free. I'm sure you'll find plenty to sympathize with your situation, including yours truly. I'm writing this because I've seen and listened to so many stories in the last few months that the situation can simply no longer be ignored.

Again, I'm asking you please not turn this into a political rant thread. Ranting about politics at this point is pointless. We just need to stick together and be there for each other.

(1) ABC News: The Fall of the Gilded Age

You know OTH when I first read that part in your post about how shallow American are it infuriated me, and then I had time to digested it. After given some time to think about it, I asked myself have people really started cutting back. What have they stopped spending money on?

I don't really feel bad for the people who screwed themselves by knowingly purchasing homes far beyond what they could afford, fuck em. I don't feel bad for agents or brokers who knowingly pushed and sold these loans and raked in millions from it, fuck em harder.
I do feel bad for the people who are suffering indirectly, small business owners, job cutbacks, people who bought new homes when their old hadnt sold because they could afford to keep em both for a few months, layoffs for construction etc.... but that's the risks you take when you take on those types of jobs.
I saw a great quote by someone on one of those news shows, "successful people are doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing"

I for one am doing just that, i've been in my brand new home for about 9 months, we go on vacations often, we buy new things almost every week, then again we chose professions that don't really get affected by what goes on around us. Everyone needs computers and needs them fixed asap, and medical research will never stop as long as there are people who aren't sick!!

mooshue, I don't think you are that wrong to feel the way you do. There are some people out there who had to "keep up with the Jones" and now look at them. Then I realized that another reason I'm so mad over this situation. This reminds me of the Ant & Grasshopper. All these grasshoppers all these year just spent all their money and borrowed until they are over their heads, and now they are wanting the Ants to bail them out.

I'm not talking about people who have worked hard and had unfortunate situations like the hurricanes, fires out in California, and large medical bills that have taken everything they have worked for. I realize some people have become causality to the fall out of the greed of others. It's become a domino effect.

My question is will bailing out AIG, Frannie & Freddie and other large financial companies really help the economy? If you or I got over extended and owed too much credit, then we would go to credit counseling, cut up our credit cards, and slowly but eventually pay off all the debt we owe. Is the media and all these politicians crying wolf again? Would the economy really crash? How bad would it really get? Are we just saving the rich?

 

[OuchThatHurts]

You know OTH when I first read that part in your post about how shallow American are it infuriated me, and then I had time to digested it. After given some time to think about it, I asked myself have people really started cutting back. What have they stopped spending money on?

I never said Americans were shallow! Quite the opposite. Please read again. I don't understand how you came away with that.

 

[Sassy]

I never said Americans were shallow! Quite the opposite. Please read again. I don't understand how you came away with that.

I'm sorry... I didn't mean that you said it. I was talking about the writer of that blog... Brain Ross and his buddies. I was responding to their article. I know you doing think that.

 

[mooshue]

i'm with you Sassy, i don't think giving all this money to lending institutions, who promote and accept excessive destructive behavior in their business strategies, is going to fix anything. I think they should all fail, they should all be forced to sell out for pennies on the dollar, go bankrupt, whatever. The media and the government are giving them all prizes for bad and wreckless behavior. No one bails us out when we don't have enough money to get by, why should corporations be any different?
I really don't believe its going to be as bad as everyone assumes it will if some of these giants fall. It would cause some damage to the national economy, but what doesn't now a days with irresponsible media reporting. If theres nothing for you where you everlast currently are, pick up and move somewhere that has opportunities like Vegas with me

 

[OuchThatHurts]

I'm sorry... I didn't mean that you said it. I was talking about the writer of that blog... Brain Ross and his buddies. I was responding to their article. I know you doing think that.

My bad. The article wasn't the best.

I sort of agree with mooshue. Let them fail. The banks and other financials that made smart decisions and hedged their risks properly will survive and prosper and the weaker ones will fall (which they should anyway). Yes it will be a bad time but bad times come and they go. I don't remember anyone throwing money into technology firms when the dotcom bubble burst and the market took a huge hit.

Not to mention, why not give the treasury relief to the homeowners and try to firm the system up from the bottom up instead of business as usual and hope it trickles down. Much of that 700B will probably go to multi-million dollar severance packages for the ousted CEO's of all these trash financials.

Sometimes it takes a crash so that changes are made.

 

[mooshue]

My bad. The article wasn't the best.

I sort of agree with mooshue. Let them fail. The banks and other financials that made smart decisions and hedged their risks properly will survive and prosper and the weaker ones will fall (which they should anyway). Yes it will be a bad time but bad times come and they go. I don't remember anyone throwing money into technology firms when the dotcom bubble burst and the market took a huge hit.

Not to mention, why not give the treasury relief to the homeowners and try to firm the system up from the bottom up instead of business as usual and hope it trickles down. Much of that 700B will probably go to multi-million dollar severance packages for the ousted CEO's of all these trash financials.

Sometimes it takes a crash so that changes are made.

great call with the dotcom failure. Hundreds of thousands out of jobs, billions lost, economy shot to hell, bounced back strong. I do agree with some sort of government mingling to an extent, not to bail them out, but to help them liquidate and sell off to responsible lending institutions, set rules and mandates to exactly who gets money for what, increase the terms and conditions on people who borrow.
If anyone is really that worried about their money in the possibly failing banks, they would put it into a global bank, not some crappy local, state or wreckless national institution. HSBC has some great interest rates right now, global bank with minimal risk of failure.
There is only 1 guarantee and absolute, and that is change.