Bye Bye Banks and Wall Street

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

$ource (Bolding is mine.)
Wow. This is intense.

Just for reference sake, percentage wise today's drop is not even in the top 5.

[Kevy Baby]

Records were made to be broken.


I wouldn't panic. This is just crap on paper and will balance itself out.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

I wouldn't panic. This is just crap on paper and will balance itself out.

B.S. The numbers may be on paper, but somewhere down the line people's lives are affected. And just because the numbers eventually come back doesn't mean people aren't left in the dust when they do. It's not about balance sheets, it's about people who are very likely to get screwed by the dumb risks that other people have taken.

I am not in support of a blank-check bailout plan that props up the people who made the mistakes (and that includes the consumers who willingly took loans they couldn't afford). But that doesn't mean I don't believe that something needs to be done, relatively quickly, to prevent their mistakes from adversely affecting those who did NOT take part in the reckless risk taking.

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

I wouldn't panic. This is just crap on paper and will balance itself out.

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

B.S. The numbers may be on paper, but somewhere down the line people's lives are affected. And just because the numbers eventually come back doesn't mean people aren't left in the dust when they do. It's not about balance sheets, it's about people who are very likely to get screwed by the dumb risks that other people have taken.

I am not in support of a blank-check bailout plan that props up the people who made the mistakes (and that includes the consumers who willingly took loans they couldn't afford). But that doesn't mean I don't believe that something needs to be done, relatively quickly, to prevent their mistakes from adversely affecting those who did NOT take part in the reckless risk taking.

I took Kevy's comments to be about today's stock market dip rather than the crisis as a whole. People who own stocks don't need to panic due to today's drop, they just need to ride it out. Sure on paper some of my investments are worth about 6% less this afternoon than this morning. Meh. I'll just wait for tomorrow, or the next day, or the next month or the next year..

[3894]

Originally Posted by Moonliner

I'll just wait for tomorrow, or the next day, or the next month or the next year..

Which is fine ... if you can wait. What about the retirees and the college students and all the others who, for one reason of another, truly need the money to be there?

No guarantees in life, not for retirement or college or any of it. This is the way the Reagan era dies, not with a whimper but a bang.

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by 3894

Which is fine ... if you can wait. What about the retirees and the college students and all the others who, for one reason of another, truly need the money to be there?

No guarantees in life, not for retirement or college or any of it. This is the way the Reagan era dies, not with a whimper but a bang.

Then they were idiots for having it in the stock markets. That is not a place to keep money you need anytime soon.

[innerSpaceman]

it's all self-fullfilling disaster. The only reason something now needs to be done to calm the markets is because Paulson told the world that Congress would do something this week to calm the markets. Now that they might not, the markets are in a panic they wouldn't otherwise have been.


Similarly, I can't blame anyone for balking when the Treasury and the Fed are asking for 3/4 of a trillion dollars to control, claiming they are the only guys smart enough to fix the problem they weren't smart enough to contribute mightily to in the first place.


It's all topsy-turvy, LewisCarollian illogical craziness. Burn, baby, burn.



Very callous of me, but things will play out whether we throw money at it or not ... might as well not, imo.

[Morrigoon]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

It's all topsy-turvy, LewisCarollian illogical craziness. Burn, baby, burn.



Very callous of me, but things will play out whether we throw money at it or not ... might as well not, imo.

Noted. So any LoTers who lose their homes/jobs to this crisis can come stay at your place, right?

[innerSpaceman]

Originally Posted by Morrigoon

So any LoTers who lose their homes/jobs to this crisis can come stay at your place, right?

Oh, all those people have my sympathies. But that's about it.


That's not about to make me trust the wolves to suddenly guard the henhouse better. Congress? The Federal Reserve? The Treasury Department? The Administration? Oh, and add-in the Wall Street firms who would manage the re-packaging of the deabbeat mortgage debts for purchase by the government.


Nope sorry. Not gonna trust a one of 'em to get us out of the mess they got us into. And I don't think their puny offer of $2300 from each and every American is going to solve the problem anyway.

[CoasterMatt]

Why doesn't the government call one of those 800 numbers that advertises about every 10 minutes, how they can help people work out their debts?