Time to be honest: We've got money problems

[marmar]

from the Detroit Free Press:




SUSAN TOMPOR
Time to be honest: We've got money problems
Credit crisis hurts, but there's hope
BY SUSAN TOMPOR • FREE PRESS PERSONAL FINANCE COLUMNIST • March 9, 2008



We're knee-deep into the credit crunch and only one thing is certain: We're not as rich as we thought we were. And we must come clean and admit it.

Every day, sometimes twice a day, we get hit by tales of financial turmoil. Banks are edgy about handing over money to everybody from hedge funds to homeowners. The stock market stinks. Our homes aren't the nest egg that we thought, either.

Jobs, the price of gas and groceries, you name it -- everything makes you worry about just how bad things could get. No matter what the numbers say, things seem far more ominous than just a run-of-the-mill slowdown. Are they? No one knows.

On Friday, U.S. stocks fell to the lowest point since October 2006. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 11,893.69 points -- down 146.7 points.

The Dow Average has fallen 16% -- or 2,270.84 points -- since closing at 14,164.53 on Oct. 9.

As oil shot up above $100 a barrel, auto stocks have sped to a stop. General Motors Corp.'s stock had been trading around $40 a share in mid-October. But GM closed at $21.96 a share Friday, down 39 cents, or 1.74%, for the day.

Ford Motor Co. -- which had been about $9 a share in mid-October -- closed at $5.78 a share, down 16 cents, or 2.69%, Friday.

We also heard Friday about the biggest drop in jobs in five years: The Labor Department reported that employers nationwide slashed 63,000 jobs in February. The nation's jobless rate dipped to 4.8% in February, down from 4.9% in January, mainly because many people got discouraged and stopped looking for work. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080309/COL07/803090698

[NMDemDist2]

1. ya know what pisses me off?

that they still claim low unemployment :banghead:

I have been under employed and now totally unemployed for a couple years. I worked my whole life since the 1970s and now I'm not.

Luckily, I can afford to do it, but so many can't....

it's just pure unadulterated bullshit these employment numbers they are throwing around....

[midnight]

2. Thank you for posting this very serious and catastrophic

issue that many Americans are in or heading into. We also heard Friday about the biggest drop in jobs in five years: The Labor Department reported that employers nationwide slashed 63,000 jobs in February. The nation's jobless rate dipped to 4.8% in February, down from 4.9% in January, mainly because many people got discouraged and stopped looking for work. .......(more)But instead on this Board we hear about is outrage being faked and who is the real change and blah blah blah. I can't hardly believe how this intelligent group of folks here have been drawn into distraction. We should be hearing this and how each of our candidates is going to address this problem and not this other popularity nonsense.

[bluerum]

3. Wait until monday morning,,,

...banks are facing a "systemic margin call" that may deplete banks of $325 billion of capital due to deteriorating sub-prime U.S. mortgages.

I am thinking that the stuff is really going to hit the fan.

The unemployment numbers are complete fabrications. They do not count people who are "out of the labor market", such as the seriously underemployed, overqualified, aged, young, wrong race color or religion or political beliefs.

My question is, who the fuck DOES count as unemployed.

[SoCalDem]

4. as a boomer, I have expected this all along.. You didn't think that a group as large

as the boomer generation, would actually be allowed to "cash-out", did you??

There are more shoes to drop...

Since the home equity is gone, and the houses are hard to sell, people who need to retire, but have not yet paid off the house, will have to start draining any 401-ks & IRAs they may have.. (paying penalties & taxes)..

People in their late 50's & early 60's often have (had) ONE real asset.. their home... and now they may not even be able to sell it ..especially if they fell into the re-fi trap a few years ago. The only people who will be able to buy houses soon, are rich speculators who want rock-bottom prices.. Most other prospective buyers might be losing jobs soon and might not be able to get a loan (now that someone figured out that people need to be vetted before getting loans)

Since we have no pensions (most of us), we have only what we have saved (most people. have little or none) what we have in IRAs & 401-ks, so once we start cashing them out, and we are no longer in the workforce, who knows how that will affect the "markets".. "Experts" assure us all the time that the market is too big for that to be a problem...but look how many times they have been WRONG..

And just as we are being downsized out of jobs we'll need until we qualify for medicare, the unemployment rates are shooting up..and benefits are not as prevalent in jobs these days..

Look for lots of people to be moving in with their kids.. (assuming their 30-something kids have even moved OUT of Mom & Dad's house yet).. The money in those 401-ks..devalued as it is, will end up in the bank accounts of Big Pharma & HMOs as we try to bridge that gap between getting forced out of the workforce, and the onset of medicare coverage..

[stellanoir]

5. Oh just be quiet and take your 600 dollar bribe to not complain about

your 20,000 dollar debt that you've gone and squandered on an illegal invasion and occupation of two countries with no accountability whatsoever.

Sounds fair. . . right. . .?

/sarcasm

[crikkett]

6. It's important to include the ray of hope in the article's conclusion

"Step back, take a breath and think about where you are as an individual," suggests Michael Eisenberg, a certified public accountant and principal of Eisenberg Financial Advisors in Los Angeles. He is a member of the National CPA Financial Literacy Commission.

If you're still able to pay your bills, there isn't reason to panic. But given tougher times, he said there may be reason to build a thicker safety cushion.

...

"...Most of us will have to buckle down and save more. We can't depend on rising home values, a hot stock market or even easy-flowing cheap credit to make us feel rich. The sooner we all realize it, the better."

In other words, whatever.

[marmar]

7. "Most of us will have to buckle down and save more."

And what does that mean for an economy based 75 percent on consumer spending? :scared: ..... Buckle up!

[OwnedByFerrets]

9. Save more my ass....

I cant make my bills as it is. :mad:

[Nay]

10. Well, exactly. The whole economy has been propped up by

consumers using their house equity to buy shit, and all of a sudden they're supposed to save money??

This is the same hogwash we have heard for years--with our lousy $35,000 a yr jobs we are supposed to:
Save a million $ for our retirement
put our kids thru college
put our parents (4 of them) into decent retirement homes
pay off our house early
buy enough junk to keep the economy rolling forever


It's a hoax, folks. Nobody can do this. It's a way for the rich to blame us for not taking care of ourselves, so they can further rape us by devaluing whatever it is we have managed to keep, whether it's a house, a bit of savings, a job.

[dajoki]

8. Yeah, right...

But given tougher times, he said there may be reason to build a thicker safety cushion.
...
"...Most of us will have to buckle down and save more.

Save more of what?