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  • Great Depression Not Imminent, But Inevitable
    Yee-ha. So many theories. So many opinions. All are a gross waste of time, at this point. Essentially what has happened over the past few years is that supposedly astute financial sectors have abandoned sound principles (example, underwriting), and now the white-hot pressure of failure is upon all these financial sectors. What did these mental midgets expect?
    Dec 17 15:31 pm |Rating: +9 -2 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Great Depression 2.0: Acceptance is Spreading
    I accepted this direction early, approximately six months ago, and I'm gearing my actions based upon the certainty that it's all over, for the way we've been spending money. Virtually every product (except for possibly wildly extravagant things that I can't afford, anyway, and would not pay that much for, if I could afford it) is going to cost much, much less, going forward so far that I can't even see the end of it. Cash will be THE ANSWER. Keep your cash close, because it's going to go unbelievably further than most living human beings can remember. One example: Within two years, most new cars will be selling for half what they were priced at, in early 2008. Riciculous, you say. Yeah, that's what I was told, last year, when I said that I thought house prices would inevitably drop 50%, which is now headed this way, at runaway train-speed.
    Jan 07 19:49 pm |Rating: +3 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Nine Reasons This Recession Is Welcome
    How did you conclude that we are in the "middle" of this recession? That implies that about a year or 18 months will fix this mess - it won't happen that way. This recession is far, far more complicated than the previous ten or so recessions you referred to. Look closely at housing, one of the prime reasons for this mess, and you will see that we are years away from the bottom in housing. Unemployment will blow past eight percent (8%) like that number wasn't even there. It is my considered opinion from all that I read and see firsthand that before this is over, at least one person in five previously employed workers will experience at least one very noticeable period of joblessness. That's going to really hurt any recovery, and personally I believe that the unemployment potential is the really dirty little secret that is being kept hidden by lack of public attention being paid to it. This is a "life-changing&qu... event for Americans, due to the extreme width and depth of factors driving the economic fall from grace. This is the one that folks will tell their grandchildren about, in much the same way that those who experienced the Great Depression told their children of that experience, in the hope that the kids' generation would be wise enough to avoid such a catastrophe. Unfortunately, experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.
    Dec 28 19:42 pm |Rating: +3 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • What Happened to the American Dream?
    On Dec 25, 2008, at 07:02 AM redbaron wrote, "Great analysis, but very short on solutions." Well, duuhh, the solution(s) to this fantastic mess will become one of the greatest accomplishments of the 21st century, as far as economics is concerned. Another example of our instant-gratification syndrome.
    Dec 25 14:30 pm |Rating: +3 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • The Brighter Side of Falling Home Prices
    Optimism is fine, but there is no real basis for the optimism put forth in this article. What data was used, to deduce that real disposable personal income is up just over 15%, since 2002? (I can't find anything that substantiates that conclusion.) And so what, if mortgage rates are lower than before? If a potential buyer does not have the money for the down payment, what difference does the rate make? And have you been paying attention to the news that jobs are flying away, like birds in winter? People are afraid, now, that they won't have ANY income, due to a job loss, and that kind of fear supercedes any desire to participate in the now largely discredited "American Dream" of owning a house.
    Dec 31 14:37 pm |Rating: +2 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • The Housing Market Will Improve with Lower Prices, not Lower Interest Rates
    Oh, so many different perspectives; but.never mind; house prices are going to continue falling like a spear made of lead. A house is a box that sits in the rain and deteriorates; the time has come when houses will be priced as the deteriorating assets they are.
    Dec 26 19:27 pm |Rating: +2 -1 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Cramer's Mad Money - Social Insecurity (12/17/08)
    hwood007: "...the NON-POLITICAL AIER?" Are you out of your mind? That outfit was founded by a zealot engineer named E.C. Harwood, at the encouragement of none other than one Vannevar BUSH!!!!! E.C. Harwood zealously advocated that ordinary working folk invest their money in the stock market, despite the fact that at that time no one other than the stock market's manipulators knew how the market worked. Oh, yes, and Mr. Harwood's favorite stock was South African gold mines!!! You are aware of the fact that at that time (and, who knows? maybe now, too) these mines were mostly worked by SLAVE LABOR, aren't you??? As for your (hwood007's) ridiculous assertion that social security is kept afloat "only" by "gov't IOU's," those so-called "IOU's" are only for money that the U.S. Treasury BORROWS FROM THE SURPLUS OF SOCIAL SECURITY. SURPLUS, get it??? SURPLUS!!! I have been reading and hearing dire predictions of social security's demise for over fifty (50) years, and the subject is getting dog-earred, for me. Your premise is absurd, on its face, and your motives are naked. You belong to that lunatic fringe of right-wing psychos who want nothing less than the abject surrender, to you, of all rights to how capital is used. Well, George W. Bush and his owners were not able to hoodwink their way into control of social security funds, and hopefully no other right-wing zealots will be able to, either. The shoe fits. Wear it.
    Dec 18 18:50 pm |Rating: +2 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Cramer's Mad Money - Social Insecurity (12/17/08)
    I have always recognized that Cramer is a narcissist and a blowhard. Add to that the fact that his financial advice is worthless. His personality is truly offensive to anyone who does not condone filthy, sneering, snarling, smug facial expressions and hostile attitudes. Now he has further revealed that he hates social security, a fact that unmasks his Nazi mentality. There is nothing wrong with social security, and pogues like mad dog Cramer know this. Social security will not go broke, as ignorant pretenders like mad dog Cramer are always snarling will happen. (I notice that as the years go by, their predictions of WHEN social security will "go broke" are pushed further and further into the future.) What is irking mad dog Cramer and others like him is that social security is actuarily sound, and will continue to be sound as long as premiums are kept in line with benefits, the very benefits that do in fact keep millions of elderly persons from starving, after the unsound investing schemes of people like mad dog Cramer have wiped out these elderly people's other savings.
    Dec 18 16:04 pm |Rating: +2 -2 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Great Depression 2.0: Acceptance is Spreading
    On Jan. 8, 2009, at 01:30 am, dtv999 wrote, "Hm, sorry but cars weren't appreciating at a 30% rate a few years ago like houses were. So I don't see car prices falling 50%." I don't know why dtv999 thinks car prices won't fall 50%, despite the fact that "...cars weren't appreciating at a 30% rate a few years ago like houses were..." The reason that car prices will fall 50% is that car buyers are getting to be somewhat of a rarity, already, and in two years' time car prices will be down 50%, for the simple reason that dealers and anyone else trying to sell cars will HAVE TO DROP THE PRICES THAT MUCH, in order to sell any cars, at all. Anything, even a Mercedes, is only worth what someone is willing (AND ABLE) to pay for it.
    Jan 08 17:44 pm |Rating: +1 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • The Invisible Stimulus
    All these quick-fix things are basically cotton candy, but slipping $10 a week into folks' paychecks is the same thing as doing nothing. (I know, I know, if everybody spends the $10, every week, it will add up to more gross revenue for the fat cats, who need it least, but that's no help to the average American.) It's just disgusting to me that a government (which, after all, is supposed to work FOR its citizens, remember?) that has stupidly allowed this massive failure of management to occur, now has only, and please excuse my "French," bullshit solutions to throw at their failures.
    Jan 01 16:26 pm |Rating: +1 -1 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Social Security: A Ponzi Scheme?
    As I read some of the ignorant comments regarding what the commentors' supposed "understanding&qu... of how social security works is, I sometimes want to try to get every school teacher in America fired, for turning out so many fools and idiots. Social security takes a small piece of one's income, in return for at least a safety net, late in life, the time when a lot of people will need it. Yes, I am aware that a fair number of people will be capable (and LUCKY) enough not to need social security income. It is, though, annoying to note that so many commentors THINK they know they will not need social security, and these small-minded individuals resent having a program in place that takes a little of their income, along with a portion of the incomes of other people, so that a great number of persons will not be in a dangerously deprived position in their old age. And to those prepetual knee-jerk jerks who will want to start typing on their computers about what a communist or socialist or whatever they think I am, bear this is mind: I am a decorated combat veteran, I pay my taxes, and I do not take advantage of other peoples' rights. I am just as American as anybody out there, but I seem to be one of a dwindling number of Americans who still realize that it is a worthwhile thing for a government to do, to maintain a program that actually HELPS its citizens.
    Dec 30 20:54 pm |Rating: +1 -1 |Link to Comment |View article
  • What Will Happen If America Returns to an Historical Savings Rate?
    Bottom line: I have said all along that a lower standard of living, which will last for the rest of all our lives is now visible on the horizon. This article confirms in more detail what my gut feeling has been for more than a year. Why do I keep referring to what I think? Because I am a non-guru person, and I can see the writing on the wall. I believe that many others can see, as well. For that reason I think the American savings rate will go quite high, and this is going to throw a monkey wrench into the plans of the gurus who want to return to the bad old days of having the consumer spend every dime he gets his hands on. Who knows? This may rid us, once and for all time, of those damned yuppies.
    Dec 30 15:44 pm |Rating: +1 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Prophet Bernanke Plans for Inflation
    Deport Bernanke now, before the Mad Printer screws up this country even more than he already has. Perhaps it is time for Economic War Crime Trials to begin, with Bernanke's trial being first on the docket.
    Dec 28 20:22 pm |Rating: +1 -1 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Our Economically Frugal Present
    Mr. Panzer, you have a much more realistic view of what's coming than the vast majority of writers whose articles I have read. I personally have been very skeptical of the cheerleading that started almost as soon as the downturn started. I share what I comprehend as your view that it's going to be a much subdued American consumer, as the reality sinks in that we simply cannot afford all this stuff we've been buying - along with the realization that we didn't need half of the stuff, anyway. Surprisingly, for me, I find myself not entirely dissatisfied by the prospect of a more sedate, sober, and sane lifestyle spreading across this country, even if it is driven by economic necessity.
    Dec 28 20:02 pm |Rating: +1 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • The Economic Meltdown: Dismantling, Yes; Doom, No
    "Effete, diluted and feeble POLITICAL rubbish presented beneath the cloak of analysis", wrote CautiousInvestor, today, in this site. I agree. I also agree with CLH, who wrote, today, "Probably one of the worst if not the WORST ARTICLE I have ever read on Seeking alpha. It belongs in the trash can..." To these I add only that it is unfortunate that a big financial crisis such as the current one flushes out every ham who wants his name out there with the other writers, and Ashkan Karbasfrooshan seems about as hammy as they get.
    Dec 27 12:51 pm |Rating: +1 0 |Link to Comment |View article

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