Rolling US Economy Into The Shitbin Thread

yeah Tracer it's also called "negative equity"

Not to mention saddling us with ridiculous expectations. Why do I have to be the one to tell my PARENTS "No, I can't make a living doing whatever I want."

I know several people who live in homes that cost more than $500K that signed unbelievably stupid loans.

Today the news is telling me the economy is going great - no need to worry. about anything. I'm glad all this mess is finally, somehow, over.

I love how the financial press keeps reporting that the subprime crisis is *not turning out to be as bad as we thought* when it hasn't even come near its peak. No one could have predicted the levees wouldn't hold, etc.

No one could have predicted that Bin Laden was determined to strike inside the United States!

No one could have predicted that he would use planes as missiles!

Dear US economy,

I love you. Send money. Thanks loads. Ta!

oh certainly! well played baby boom letting healthcare slide for the 20 years you've owned the electorate

Yeah, that's something, among numerous other socio-political phenomena that baffles me. Does that mean that all that "hippies done sold out and became heartless, vacuous yuppies" stuff is true?

sure, whatever that means.

side note: the word "yuppie" did once have a specific meaning. I'm a little tired of it just signifying everyone upper-middle class and below retirement age.

how funny will it be when affluent boomers need their money to pay for their own lifestyle instead of being able to just throw it away on their kids' rent and shit?

It once meant a specific kind of douchebag, now the term encompasses too many douchebag subcategories.

xp

I agree, Hurting, Abbott...I think that "yuppie" is about as useful a word as "hipster" (or arguably, "hippie"). But, I'm thinking of all the press about baby boomers -> "yuppies" that was the subject of Time and Newsweek, etc., cover stories when I was growing up in the eighties.

Not all that funny, if it also means my already-rent-paying ass has to start supporting my parents, which is already a situation I have a small reason to worry about (xpost)

Yeah but overall pretty funny, right?

even that's pretty funny - the last 50 years of not giving a shit about our elders are something of an aberration, no?

also funny because my brother is way more successful than me and any duties are going to fall on him. haha

gotta get back to my law school applications...

This is where repeated viewings of the movie "Disorderlies" becomes inspiration for a lucrative career path, I guess...

So, are there any nurses or people going to nursing school or working towards related professions in this bitch?

Dollar is now at a 26-year low against the pound after that rate cut. $2.08!

i'll never save up enough money to move back to the uk at that rate.

Hurting, when the financial press say that sub-prime is not turning out as bad as expected, what they're really talking saying is: it's not turning out as bad as expected for the big financial institutions. No doubt, a lot more *individuals* are going to start defaulting when they come off teaser rates, but the investment banks have already marked to market the securities backed by them so, in theory, they have no exposure left to them.

The judge said the church's financial statements, sealed earlier, could be released to the plaintiffs.

Ooooooooh! I want to see these.

Who the hell lawyers for PhelpsCo.?

The weak dollar is also driving up the cost of oil since the leading petroleum nations trade oil in US currency and buy most of their durable goods in Euros.

god hates the us economy xp

Dollar is now at a 26-year low against the pound after that rate cut. $2.08!

-- stet, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 22:43 (Yesterday) Link

i have so many unwatched US dvds from the last few months, but they're giving them away.

when the financial press say that sub-prime is not turning out as bad as expected, what they're really talking saying is: it's not turning out as bad as expected for the big financial institutions. No doubt, a lot more *individuals* are going to start defaulting when they come off teaser rates, but the investment banks have already marked to market the securities backed by them so, in theory, they have no exposure left to them.

I've heard this explanation before, but I'm still not sure it makes sense to me -- how can the holders of those securities know exactly how bad the fallout is going to be when more of the mortgages reset? Like do they know exactly how many people are going to default? What if it's a lot more than expected because other economic conditions are worse than expected?

The markets sure weren't expecting the UBS writedown this morning. I think it is unravelling worse than expected.

I added the google DJI chart to the top so we can watch shit meet fan

today looks like it's going to be pretty exciting

I'VE BEEN WAITED SO LONG TIME.. THE BEGINNING IS JUST NOW

This is where repeated viewings of the movie "Disorderlies" becomes inspiration for a lucrative career path, I guess...

Get real fat and become a rapper?

A point that I've seen made on some of these goldbug blogs but which still seems pretty OTM is that the stock market actually HAS been falling for the last several years, basically since the summer of 2000, if you measured US stock prices in, say, pounds sterling, or Euros, or gold. The decline of the dollar as meant that even if your stock stays steady, its "actual" (?) value has decreased.

It 'as meant, gun'nor, wot wot

i.e. http://www.financialsense.com/Market/allison/2007/0430.html

So, are there any nurses or people going to nursing school or working towards related professions in this bitch?

i know several people who have switched to nursing/public health/related fields within the past two years or so.

oil = $96/barrel
dollar = £2.08

has the dollar really fallen eight cents in the past, what, three weeks??

No, not quite 3 weeks

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/fds/hi/business/market_data/currency/img/77+X_SGBPUSD+bbc-big_thick-line+one_month.png

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/fds/hi/business/market_data/currency/11/12/img/77+X_SGBPUSD+bbc-big_thick-line+three_month.png

Also semantic pedantry, the dolalr can't fall by cents it has to fall by pence. the pounds has gone up by 8 cents.

Unless a dollar really is worth 92 cents.

The dollar is even falling against the penny. We're doomed.

The purchasing power of little kids and grandmas has increased dramatically though.

Like do they know exactly how many people are going to default?

simply put, it's an educated guess that is mostly based on historical data and complex mathematical formulas.

why compare the USD to the pound; as opposed to, say, US's largest trading partner?

because i live in the UK and travel to the US a lot.

ah - it was more of a general question actually. i see the two compared alot and wonder why it isn't held up against it's two north american trading partners more often.

even that's pretty funny - the last 50 years of not giving a shit about our elders are something of an aberration, no?

somebody in Suck.com wrote years ago and wondered if the "Greatest Generation" thing was something that boomers came up with so that everybody could now counteract the shit they put their own parents thru for 30+ years, and for the young folks of today not to give them the same decades of shit they themselves gave.

The dollar is falling against the penny there is more than 1.2cents worth of copper in a penny.

(In the UK we make our pennies out of steel, but this is also true for pre-1992 UK copper coins)

why compare the USD to the pound; as opposed to, say, US's largest trading partner?

Because the US's largest trading partner (china) pegs its currency to the dollar and it's second largest (japan) does it's darndest to keep itself weak vs the dollar. Euro and Pound free float. Euro is probably the more important measure as the pound is strong as well as the dollar being weak. the Euro is more comperable.

when the financial press say that sub-prime is not turning out as bad as expected, what they're really talking saying is: it's not turning out as bad as expected for the big financial institutions. No doubt, a lot more *individuals* are going to start defaulting when they come off teaser rates, but the investment banks have already marked to market the securities backed by them so, in theory, they have no exposure left to them.

I've heard this explanation before, but I'm still not sure it makes sense to me -- how can the holders of those securities know exactly how bad the fallout is going to be when more of the mortgages reset? Like do they know exactly how many people are going to default? What if it's a lot more than expected because other economic conditions are worse than expected?

The holders of the securities won't know how bad the fallout is, but the holders will now all be speculative investors, hedge funds, conduits etc. Whatever subprime backed securities were on the bank's balance sheets when the shit hit the fan are being moved off the bank's balance sheets (but obviously, they're having to sell at a loss, which is what all these write downs are). That doesn't mean it can't sneak in the back door, so you might still get the odd unexpected write down, but for the most part the banks will have cut their losses.

so when should i sell all my stocks?

just batshit crazy. it’s nearly impossible to do anything without access to a computer of some sort and for the vast majority of the population, that’s a phone

one of the things support groups use to help the unhoused is to help them charge their phones. what are they going to do, sell their phone for exactly zero dollars and then be even worse off?