Christ, could we have a little bit MORE fearmongering here tonight? Chicken Littles,

[Redstone]

the lot of you.

You're going to MAKE a recession happen, aren't you, whether it was going to happen before you started yelling and screaming and panicking about it or not.

Give it a fucking break, would you?

Redstone

[bemildred]

1. I think you overestimate our influence.

But I do admit the constant blubbering is annoying.

[Ian David]

2. Is your first name Sumner?

I'm just wondering.

[wtmusic]

3. Thank you.

May everyone who's put their life savings into derivatives and subprime mortgage hedge funds lose their shirts.

For the rest of us, tomorrow will be just peachy.

[Hannah Bell]

36. You mean like...

pension funds, city & state govs, & such-like?

[wtmusic]

42. Pensions and government agencies avoid those investments

because they're risky. And if they didn't, one can only assume they're morons or were willing to accept the risk.

[Hannah Bell]

43. You sure? n/t

[Hannah Bell]

55. for example:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=114x36226

[Hannah Bell]

56. Elites us OPM: other people's money. n/t

[Hannah Bell]

57. "hedge funds have become the dominant...

players in the runaway debt market, particularly in complex market segments, trading about 30% of the US fixed-income market, 55% of US derivative transaction, 80% of high-yield/high-risk derivatives, 80% of distressed debts and 55% of the emerging-market bonds.

Investors in hedge funds include mutual funds, insurance companies, pension funds, banks, brokerage house proprietary trading desks, endowment funds, even central banks."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/II06Dj03.html

Not just a few "stupid" folk who "should have known better".

The economy is a system; the rot is ubiquitous.

[OwnedByFerrets]

45. Might be peachie for you

but for me, I am down to working 28 hrs a week and my wife was denied her State Unemployment Benefits after paying into them for 30 fucking years. I wont be able to pay my mortgage next month. Yes, life is just peachie for the rest of us.

[angstlessk]

4. tell that to the poor suckers who own Bear Sterns stock

I ain't one of em!

[HuffleClaw]

5. Run Away! Run Away! n/t

[bicentennial_baby]

6. The recession is aleady here, my friend...

And, the actions of the Fed and the drop in the Asian markets this morning are definitely something to be concerned about. Sorry.

[Redstone]

8. The recession is here if people WANT it to be here.

Redstone

[bicentennial_baby]

10. Er, no...

The "people" have no control over what's going on here. It's so much bigger than that. Have you looked at the markets tonight? Or last week?

[Hannah Bell]

37. Yes Oprah. "The Secret" for economics. n/t

[girl gone mad]

58. This is Rovian logic.

That you can create your own reality just by ignoring the truth and only reporting the positive.

The problems that we are facing are very real.

[Echo In Light]

62. ...or, Orwellian "logic." {Newspeak}

[NashVegas]

7. The Price Of Gold Has Risen $30 in the Last Four Hours

No one on DU had anything to do with that.

[Maggie_May]

12. gold at 1028 oil at 111.06

[angrycarpenter]

9. If we had that kind of influence

bush would be in jail.

[Brigid]

50. Bingo.

We have a winner. Here's your prize: :toast:

[Maggie_May]

11. Well with the dollar dropping like a ton of bricks

I think we need to be a little worried gold right now at 1024 and oil at 111. The price of gas and food is going to go through the roof so yes I am upset very.

[NashVegas]

13. Thank Goodness

I filled up the gas tank today and did all my grocery shopping for the next two weeks. After that? Who knows.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Ichingcarpenter]

15. I admit.... I did all of this with the price of gold, oil, prime rate,

bear stearns, falling asian markets, price of gasoline all in one day.

Listen, there was serious shit done by the banks, markets and feds over the fucking weekend.
that have not ever happened before in economic history
maybe they will get a handle on it, maybe not. I hope they do.


If you're not alarmed then you're not paying attention

[chknltl]

16. Hey!!1!1 For the record: I had NOTHING to do with this!

:grr: chknltl

[tachyon]

17. Don't worry, the DU community is way too tiny to matter.

Hey, it is just a fact...

[Warren DeMontague]

18. Hey, at least we're not getting 5 threads a day about the IMMINENT WAR WITH IRAN!!!1111!!!! anymore.

Be thankful for small favors.

[high density]

19. Buy gold! Buy guns! Buy ammo!

It's a constant thing on this board... It's a lot worse tonight than normal, though. It's like all the people who were shitting themselves over Rev. Wright are now shitting themselves over stock market futures.

Everybody on here seems to think they've got a crystal ball.

[nashville_brook]

20. DU can neither start nor stop an economic crisis. People are right to be alarmed,

and right to seek counsel and comfort among friends.

if it makes you uncomfortable, don't open those threads. asking people who are worried to censor themselves is not cool.

[high density]

26. They've beyond alarmed

They're acting like their life savings are in Bear Stearns stock or the world starts and ends with whether or not the S&P 500 is up or down tomorrow. If you have money you need to use for tomorrow, it shouldn't be in the stock market. If you have money in the stock market for a 10+ year investment horizon, then you shouldn't give a crap about the day to day swings of the market. If you don't have money in the stock market, stop using it as some sort of economy disaster gauge.

[Mojorabbit]

This affects all of us

it isn't just Bear Sterns. The dollar is tanking and that means the price of everything is going to go thru the roof. Some of us have IRA's and 401K's with our measly retirement dollars. This isn't looking like a little bump in the market.

[high density]

32. Who knows what it looks like?

That's the problem: people are pulling predictions out of their butt or posting predictions that have been pulled out of somebody else's butt and picked up by tabloids in the UK.

By the way, I'm one of the "some of us" that has an IRA and 401k, so I see the red in my account too. There's just no reason to get all whipped out of shape about it. I can't control it, I can only hope that over the long term it goes up. I do have faith that this country will rebound from this current rut we are in.

[Occulus]

44. Who knows what it looks like?

The people who are still alive who lived through the Great Depression.

They know what it looks like. How about we ask them?

[Thickasabrick]

21. Krugman predicted this two years but noone listened to him. n/t

[wtmusic]

24. The critical element is whether there will be a selloff in foreign investment

in treasuries.

We're not there yet, but it's a little spooky.

[high density]

28. I predict the market will go up or down tomorrow n/t

[Dr. Strange]

40. If enough people start thinking like that...

the market WILL go up or down tomorrow! Think about what you're doing!

[Pierre.Suave]

63. I was predicting it 4-5 years ago

do you think anyone listened to me...

[seabeyond]

22. damn, so i run in to hubby nad he turns to cnn... no they arent worried

msnbc not worried.... cnbc has commercial.... nope nothing there. lol

i hear ya. but i had fun with it tonight

[Ichingcarpenter]

27. I'm watching the John Adams series again

I missed the first part. So the networks are not covering the war, the economy, the crimes of this administration what a surprise.

[seabeyond]

31. cnbc is talking about it and excitedly. desperation moves by the feds....

coming up.

asia news, pacific rim...

[Yael]

23. We have so much influence yet

impeachment is off the table, the occupation of Iraq continues and the asian markets are in free fall.

Hows about we recognize it when we see it, and we are passively talking about it on the internet? I think I will go with that explanation.

[libnnc]

25. I'm not making the numbers in my 401k balance red

Not my doing.

Folks here are just trying to pay attention. This is a pretty big deal, Redstone.

[Xenotime]

29. Pick up a fucking paper and read what's happening around you!?

Gasoline prices
The nation's economy
The large and growing federal budget deficit
The job situation
The trade deficit
Global warming
The illegal war in Iraq
The affordability of housing
Trouble paying bills
Unemployment
Low-paying jobs
Lack of Healthcare
The high cost of health insurance
People losing their homes
Personal bankruptcy
Increasing debt and interest rates
Loss of raw materials
Energy costs
Inflation
Exporting labor
Foreign competition

But you are right.. we should just sit back and pretend like nothing is happening

[madrchsod]

41. "ball of confusion"

written by Whitfield and Strong in 1970.


"And the band played on."

[Brigid]

51. You forgot . . .

stagnant wages. But I think you pretty well have it all covered. :(

[Lost-in-FL]

30. DU isn't that significant.

Don't worry, DU won't cause a recession. :hi:

[DainBramaged]

33. Not me, nope, too poor to affect the markets

:patriot:

[angrycarpenter]

34. I knew being broke would pay off.

I have no credit cards to ruin my life.
I have no house to suck out my livelihood.
The only thing I have is a job and many, many real world skills.
People have looked me in the face and told me I was stupid for refusing to go into debt.

I have little of value but I owe no one.
I know very little about economics but a plan built only on paper is like a house built on shifting sands, great will be its fall.
I am just barely holding my head above water but at least I am not carrying an anchor.

I have the deepest concern about this crisis but truth be told, I don't really understand it.

[marmar]

35. DU is going to make a recession happen?

We've got Yoda-like powers.....

[rhett o rick]

38. That's it, blame the victims. If a crisis happens it is because we discussed it here. This crisis

has been in the making for over a decade. What we do here or say here has absolutely no effect. Man do I wish I had the power to "MAKE a recession happen" or not. If you live in a house of cards, it is going to crash sooner or later, don't blame the poor person that breaths first.

[Malikshah]

39. I think folks are missing the OPs point. Panic never does anyone good.

The hysteria on the boards over the last few weeks has been, well, hysterical.

I don't think folks here are going to affect the economy with the hysteria--they will however, create panic in others--which in the end is a useless, ineffective state to be in.

Y2K all over again.

Some folks, I imagine, love to be the bearer of bad tidings. They love the drama. Maybe it makes them feel alive.

Is it rough out there? Yup. Do we know what's going to happen this time tomorrow night? Nope.

Can we pontificate, predict, and collectively soil ourselves in the meantime? That's already being done in spades. Is this useful? Hell no.

Step away from the key boards, check on the kids. Hug your spouse. Take the dog walkies. Brush the cat.

Just don't break out in assholes and shit yourselves to death.

As the inestimable George Carlin said.

Chill. Have some dip.

[FlyingSquirrel]

46. I think we at DU just wanna be ahead of the curve.

We get the news a day or two before it appears in the paper. It hits the tv sooner of course, but doesn't get discussed in depth (unless it's something as unimportant as, say, a governor caught in a sex scandal). So we're really sending out constant feelers trying to find out whether this impending recession/depression is real, what it might entail, how it might affect us personally - hoping to get some kind of inside info that just might give us a leg up on the rest of the people around us. It's only natural.

[Brigid]

49. No too long ago . . .

A DUer talked about how he got rid of his overpriced 'burb box of a house before the housing market tanked because people here were talking about trouble brewing in that sector. He said at the time that the house was already worth far less than he sold it for. I'm sure it's worth even less now. Point being, paying attention (ie, keeping current by visiting DU), can save you, like you said.

[lonestarnot]

48. Love your post!

:toast:

[Midlodemocrat]

60. Exactly. Panic never does anyone any good.

[lonestarnot]

47. Redstone.

You need some pharmaceutical stock, I recommend GlaxoSmithKline http://www.gsk.com/investors/

[alfredo]

52. I'm not worried, what will be will be. I'll survive.

Once you've been dirt poor, living on the streets, you never want to go back there, but you know you have the skills to survive if push comes to shove.

[better tomorrow]

53. Buy bread and freeze it....it is going up 4 percent.....

:donut:

[jobycom]

54. We have accurately predicted ten of the last five market crashes around here.

You know, if we all scream "The sky is falling!" all the time, then the one time it does fall, we can all say "I told you so!" Then who wouldn't want to worship us?

[Asia Expat]

59. Should I add the economy to my ignore list? nt

[KG]

61. is the sky blue on your planet? must be well insulated there. but i work for a residential builder

and have seen half the workforce laid-off in less than a year.

the recession is here, bubba. it's real, it will get worse.

i'm picking out the bridge i might be living under. be sure to wave as you drive by in your expensive silver sports car.... :eyes:

[hunter]

64. Pffffffft. The sun always rises and a new day begins.

If you've lived to see that you did better than some.