Rolling US Economy Into The Shitbin Thread

so we get our stimulus checks by what, August? I NEED NOW

Instead of taking a stand and recognizing the serious errors made in this little economic situation, once again it's ... easy solutions that'll lead to the same problems again.

Who are these people running our country? Man alive.

And down it goes....

So money is basically free now.

This intraday and day-to-day volatility in stocks is just INSANE. Makes 1999 look stable.

My totally inexpert guess is that you're seeing push/pull between fear of recession and people thinking "gee, this is a great buy-in point" (who are presumably also ignoring/downplaying the fear). I'd also bet you'd see a similar pattern right before past recessions.

Hello everyone when is the next cut?

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/28b464a2-cf50-11dc-854a-0000779fd2ac.html

The US should face its need for adjustment with courage and reason, not fear. It should stop behaving as the whiner of first resort, ready to waste all its dry powder on a short-sighted attempt to prevent a 2008 recession. Many poorer countries with weaker markets and institutions have survived and benefited from an adjustment that involves a year of negative growth. Faster bank recapitalisation, fiscal investment stimulus and international co-ordination should be first on the ­policy agenda.

OTM--the U.S. seems to've got itself locked into a boom-bust cycle again through short sighted monetary policy.

My totally inexpert guess is that you're seeing push/pull between fear of recession and people thinking "gee, this is a great buy-in point" (who are presumably also ignoring/downplaying the fear). I'd also bet you'd see a similar pattern right before past recessions in the history of capitalism, cause that's what capitalism is.

boom-bust cycles as we know them today are around 300 years old

the graph at the top of this thread was a brilliant move

I'd also bet you'd see a similar pattern right before past recessions in the history of capitalism, cause that's what capitalism is.

I mean the unusual volatility of the market right now. I mean I'd guess that before recessions you tend to see big ups and downs with an overall downward trend, the greater downward force being fear of recession and the lesser upward force being denial

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h3/Current/

can anyone explain why the 'reserves of non-borrowed reserves' rapidly went into negative territory in January? Am i misreading this? How can reserves be negative??

So I couldn't find any other thread to put this in but surely this is the kind of thing to make Tombot point and laugh. Favorite part:

After a month of heartbreak and frustration, I finally decided to suck it up and ask my contacts for assistance. They tried, but to no avail. I then asked my White House intern friends for help, but since I had changed political sides after my internship, they were not willing to help me.

From a Dartmouth grad, ladies and gentlemen.

"Euros Accepted" signs in NYC

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0655798320080206

Talking about retail on CNN: "...worst January in forty years."

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0655798320080206

I scored a temporary job long enough to pay my phone bill.

articles like that always leave a lot to the imagination.

It's a little hard for me to believe that int'l relations-related entry level jobs would suffer that significantly from the current economic downturn, at least so soon. More likely it's just a highly competitive field - low demand, lots of highly educated people wanting to do it.

"If I can't even find a job the economy must be really bad"

actually I would say underemployment around here is hitting pretty much every stripe and maybe even my crowd (the cleared people) - I'm on a program that's going nowhere but up, but I keep hearing from everybody else that they're worried/looking around

When you wet, it's slippery (yeah)
When it damp, it crampin
If you slidin', you're tumblin' down
Don't want you on the ground!

I am kind of amazed I still have a job, especially since I work for a real estate company. At least once a day I take a minute to count my blessings. Then I count again to make sure that my blessings will still cover my rent.

I do my best not to take my job for granted, that's for sure.

xxpost - even if that's true, I don't think that article is representative. Although she was a fulbright scholar and all that, underneath it just sounds like the same "I just got out of college and life isn't as easy as I thought," article I've been reading every year for as long as I can remember.

that said, of course, I'm REALLY lucky to have my job (I'm no Fulbright scholar), and really glad to be going back to school next year.

laxalt, somebody pointed me toward this link today, about "non-borrowed reserves".. i can't say i understand it though -

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/02/borrowed-reserves-and-tin-foil-hats.html

Well, I guess we are going to find out sooner or later whether negative non-borrowed reserves are as bad a thing as they would appear to be!

It would be interesting to see what the equivalent figures in the UK and Euro would be (and is that Iceland sailing into the same murky waters?)

that chick must be doing something wrong--my school has a big I.R. program and isnt anywhere near as good as dartmouth and large portions of its graduates get jobs pretty easily w/ the govt and NGOs

After a month of heartbreak and frustration, I finally decided to suck it up and ask my contacts for assistance.

ok someone who doesnt use any connections theyre lucky enough to have as an opening strategy is prob just a retard or rich enough that they have the luxury to prove it to themselves and the world that they can make it on their own

i mean do they not teach you this shit in college?

my friend went to Dartmouth--she just has to breath and she has jobs thrown at her in NYC. I went to a shitty state college ... took about 7 months to find anything, with 90% of the interviews starting with, "so, where did you go to school?... really?" and ending with, "you really don't like Perec?"

aka, people who don't use their school connections are dinguses.

weren't you not going to post here anymore or something?

I don't think you "get it"

(tips a wink at burt, who covertly signals thumbs up)

Aw, you're in love.

In love with life, Ned. With life!

Fun fun:

The banking industry, struggling to contain the fallout from the mortgage debacle, is urgently shopping proposals to Congress and the Bush administration that could shift some of the risk for troubled loans to the federal government.

One proposal, advanced by officials at Credit Suisse Group, would expand the scope of loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration. The proposal would let the FHA guarantee mortgage refinancings by some delinquent borrowers.

Credit Suisse officials have met with senior officials from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which runs the FHA, and other policy makers to discuss the proposal.

lol Ned I missed that! especially funny considering how CS had to revise down again this week. shitbirds.

So is Obama being set up as Carter II or what?

We've got plenty of time to get all the hate out pre-November. And won't Bush's farewell address be inspiring.

Another article from Portfolio on the rising pressure for a government bailout of the big financial firms:

The Bankers' Bailout

The rescue operation brings to mind John Kenneth Galbraith's dictum that in the United States, the only respectable form of socialism is socialism for the rich.

http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/02/quote-of-the--5.html

JKG getting big kudos from the bears post facto!

http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4996

"Skyrocketing oil prices, a falling dollar, and collapsing financial markets are the key ingredients in an economic brew that could end up in more than just an ordinary recession."

very OTM inetrnetter comment on today's action. (prognosticate all you will about the economy in general, but there is just NO predicting to stock markets.)

by FreddieMac 6 hours ago

So the DJIA spends the greater part of the day (plus last few days) solidly in negative territory, and at 3:35PM Eastern Time the market suddenly explodes into POSITIVE territory (230 points, from peak-to-trough), as incredibly large volumes of funds SUDDENLY flow into the market? That was about as subtle as the Navy's missile hitting the disabled satellite the other day!

This AMBAC story is absolute poppycock: is THIS the best they could come up with, the unlikely explanation to provide cover for the CO-ORDINATED buy? Once again, the infamous Plunge Protection Team was leading the way, providing government liquidity to the big banks to flood the market to rally stocks.

If you ever doubted it, this clearly shows how the market is rigged, and is no more allowed to operate on free-market principles than the Soviet Republic communist system EVER was. Get used to it, as it is what it is.

Oh, well, the government giving money to banks to prop up the stock market (which is reaching some technical levels that are very worriesome) is no doubt better than the idea of giving recession rebate checks to the sheeple..... But this market is about as sustainable on it's own strength as Terry Schiavo was when hooked up to life-support.

Rising Risk of a Systematic Economic Meltdown

http://pub32.bravenet.com/photocenter/remote/2724789253/1B96860485.jpg

"Is It Thunderdome Yet?" A Rolling Looming Apocalypse Thread

More on bailout talk in Washington:

A 'Moral Hazard' for a Housing Bailout: Sorting the Victims From Those Who Volunteered

fuck republicans

you all realize this makes the hillary vs obama race completely moot, right? and the GOP already figured this out and is just letting McCain be their fall guy for this round?

That's why this year is going to be such a goddamn trudge to November!