Does this scare anyone else?

[Kodatech]

msnbc.com Video Player

[omegajim]

It's the Fed doing what it's supposed to; avoiding crisis.

It concerns me, sure, but the Fed - which needs to take drastic steps in drastic times, is doing pretty much what it should do.

Letting one bank buy out another, with the gov'ts blessing, is an alternative I prefer over us, the taxpayer, just plunking down money for these things.

Will we, the us taxpayer end up footing the bill?

Yes, to some degree.

That said, there will be some mergers that will be allowed that would be considered incredible just a couple of years ago.

Are the fundamentals there?

I tend think so.

Are we in a financial panic of sorts?

Yes.

Once our economy starts running in one direction, it will tend to run in that direction until there is bloody good argument for it to slow down, stop, and change direction.

Call it the economic equivalent of "Newton's laws of motion."

[Kodatech]

Maybe I should have elaborated. I am not so much worried about the Fed doing what they are doing. I guess what concerns me most is that although we ALL know the US economy is bad, it is REALLY bad when banks start going under.

If more banks (and other large important businesses) start to fail, the government wont be able to help them all.

[clockdaddy]

CREDIT-CREDIT-CREDIT
For the last forty years everyone has been brainwashed into thinking that credit is the panasia. The individual, the banks, and the Federal Gov't has practiced poor money management, mostly because of greed, and spent far more than they are capable of supporting with their income.
This is exactly what happened to cause the "Great Depression". Money flowed like water and people, businesses, and the Feds, saw no end to the economic good times. No one seemed to notice the true, daily inflation rates and causes. If they came up a little short of money, it was soooo convenient to just borrow a little more until better financial (income) times. Everyone owed somebody!!
Same thing now. If our government, businesses, and we can't live within our budgets and continue to live on credit, it'll come back to bite us in the a$$.
Common sense says that you pay your bills first, set aside a few dollars for difficult times, and whatever is left over can be used for investment purposes or for helping others. Somehow we got it all turned around. Our government gives away untold billions to foreign countries to help them, buy their friendship, or just to take care of their political hacks. Businesses tend to look at investments first then operate as though they already have the money coming in from them. How do you make a budget when it's based on "ghost money"? Individuals tend to buy what they want first and what they need only as they have to have it. There's no such thing as "extra" money.
We all knew that this way of life (credit) could only last so long until we had to pay the "piper", but everyone kept living as though the money would never run out. Well, as chicken little said, "The sky IS falling!".
The Stearns bank is simply the tip of the iceburg. Chrysler is also wavering and appears ready to fall (again!). They were saved once in the seventies and the bad money practices were continued. All the government did was to put off the inevitable.
Now the government wants to prop up the economy by giving us all "rebates" on our taxes. For financially troubled people, again, all this does is put off the inevitable. If financial habits aren't changed, all that is being done is throwing money into the "poker game". The odds are against us.
I fear that the tiger is about to bite us back. The snowball effect of economic investment losses is beginning to roll and will devastate a lot of individuals and businesses. The Feds simply can't handle this magnitude of an impact. Getting back on our feet is going to take a long while.

CD

[the_privateer]

you're gonna have to break that into smaller paragraphs if you want anyone to read it

[busa-boy33]

"Hey Banks.. go ahead and foreclose on some more homes! That strategy worked great ya greedy bastages!!!"

[buster]

Originally Posted by clockdaddy

CREDIT-CREDIT-CREDIT
For the last forty years everyone has been brainwashed into thinking that credit is the panasia. The individual, the banks, and the Federal Gov't has practiced poor money management, mostly because of greed, and spent far more than they are capable of supporting with their income.
This is exactly what happened to cause the "Great Depression". Money flowed like water and people, businesses, and the Feds, saw no end to the economic good times. No one seemed to notice the true, daily inflation rates and causes. If they came up a little short of money, it was soooo convenient to just borrow a little more until better financial (income) times. Everyone owed somebody!!
Same thing now. If our government, businesses, and we can't live within our budgets and continue to live on credit, it'll come back to bite us in the a$$.
Common sense says that you pay your bills first, set aside a few dollars for difficult times, and whatever is left over can be used for investment purposes or for helping others. Somehow we got it all turned around. Our government gives away untold billions to foreign countries to help them, buy their friendship, or just to take care of their political hacks. Businesses tend to look at investments first then operate as though they already have the money coming in from them. How do you make a budget when it's based on "ghost money"? Individuals tend to buy what they want first and what they need only as they have to have it. There's no such thing as "extra" money.
We all knew that this way of life (credit) could only last so long until we had to pay the "piper", but everyone kept living as though the money would never run out. Well, as chicken little said, "The sky IS falling!".
The Stearns bank is simply the tip of the iceburg. Chrysler is also wavering and appears ready to fall (again!). They were saved once in the seventies and the bad money practices were continued. All the government did was to put off the inevitable.
Now the government wants to prop up the economy by giving us all "rebates" on our taxes. For financially troubled people, again, all this does is put off the inevitable. If financial habits aren't changed, all that is being done is throwing money into the "poker game". The odds are against us.
I fear that the tiger is about to bite us back. The snowball effect of economic investment losses is beginning to roll and will devastate a lot of individuals and businesses. The Feds simply can't handle this magnitude of an impact. Getting back on our feet is going to take a long while.

CD

BINGO!

Right on the nail, we are experiencing something similar, although it is much slighter, being as ours is just the spin off from your situation, you know, where money has been tied up in foreign investments ..us.. and the institutions that own these investments faltering, yours.

Our guys don't think we will go into the flat spin that is being prophesied, we will merely plateau. Thank %%%% we didn't go into the Euro!

[KD57]

clockdaddy. High gas prices don't help much either. Same thing happened in the 70's is happening again today. It's just gonna fuel things. When the cost of goods increase dramatically, and your pay doesn't, it just forces people to use more credit, and they over extended as it is. You think high gas is causing problems, wait until you can't even get it.

[Apertureguy]

Yup...Clockdaddy knows exactly what time it is.



no pun intended.

[omegajim]

The credit crunch is hitting in combination with several other factors which exasperate the situation.

........and credit is no panacea.

I also agree that the rebates are just a bad idea. Giving a drunk more booze doesn't help any either.

[tricker]

Originally Posted by omegajim

The credit crunch is hitting in combination with several other factors which exasperate the situation.

........and credit is no panacea.

I also agree that the rebates are just a bad idea. Giving a drunk more booze doesn't help any either.

what about liqour?

[omegajim]

we are now dealing with the hangover of the boom boom 90's.

0% on average is not a good national savings rate.

[amvince]

Just remember the guys that caused this mess will still be very rich when this is over. I've seen many of my peers lose jobs over the last 2 years that were honest and hard working so the Exects could make hundres of thousands to millions of dollars knowing all of this was going to happen. Give people money with bad credit, no income verfication and no money down and this is the result. If I could see it from my low level position how come the guys making all the money couldn't. Oh now I rmember they don't care. I'm ranting again and believe me I'm not bitter at all. Can't you tell? Bastards.

[clockdaddy]

If I were a big Exec. I'd want to lay everyone off too. I'd screw up the company so bad that the Board of Directors would happily give me my 20 million dollars severance pay and send me packing.

No wonder everything's so screwed up!
CD

[omegajim]

If I could see it from my low level position how come the guys making all the money couldn't. Oh now I rmember they don't care

the top dogs just figured the house of cards was going to keep on keepin' on.

Just like the lone analyst who said "Enron does not have the fundamentals, I will not buy it, or recommend it to anyone else."

Everybody said he was crying wolf; he wasn't.

Now, all the banks are going back to the fundamenatals that they claimed they were using the whole time. But they weren't.

Capitalism, wild swings in the economy are going to happen. The alternative being ridiculous regulation/communism.