let's all hope China keeps buying dollars.
― jessie monster, Tuesday, 18 March 2008 18:30 (sixteen years ago) link
are we in negative interest rate territory yet?
― brownie, Tuesday, 18 March 2008 18:34 (sixteen years ago) link
we should all be keeping our savings under our mattresses.
― jessie monster, Tuesday, 18 March 2008 18:36 (sixteen years ago) link
mattresses generate back pay! should I submit this to Readers Digest y/n?
― brownie, Tuesday, 18 March 2008 18:39 (sixteen years ago) link
omg did anyone else see jim kramer yesterday - raaaaare form - shit was apocalyptic
― jhøshea, Tuesday, 18 March 2008 18:40 (sixteen years ago) link
it should be the caption of a New Yorker cartoon. xp
― jessie monster, Tuesday, 18 March 2008 18:40 (sixteen years ago) link
Cramer can kiss my ass.
― Dandy Don Weiner, Tuesday, 18 March 2008 19:13 (sixteen years ago) link
jim cramer has been pretty amusing lately.
― El Tomboto, Tuesday, 18 March 2008 19:23 (sixteen years ago) link
"Bear Stearns is gonna be fiiiiiiine!"
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, 18 March 2008 19:44 (sixteen years ago) link
cramer can roll his bald head around my exponentially descending ball sack
― burt_stanton, Tuesday, 18 March 2008 19:58 (sixteen years ago) link
why is your ball sack descending, burt_stanton?
― max, Tuesday, 18 March 2008 19:59 (sixteen years ago) link
i don't know :[
― burt_stanton, Tuesday, 18 March 2008 19:59 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/mar/16/creditcrunch.useconomy
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/steve_bell/2008/03/18/BEARMARKET512.jpg
― Ed, Tuesday, 18 March 2008 20:42 (sixteen years ago) link
^ exponentially descending
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, 18 March 2008 21:35 (sixteen years ago) link
oh just STFU already
the money quote:
``He sounds like Herbert Hoover in 1930,'' said Bruce Bartlett, who served as a Treasury Department economist under President George H.W. Bush.
― Eisbaer, Wednesday, 19 March 2008 04:33 (sixteen years ago) link
A persuasive argument for increasing regulatory capital requirements on banks (written last November but still relevant):
Why banking remains an accident waiting to happen
― o. nate, Wednesday, 19 March 2008 15:47 (sixteen years ago) link
It's like the executive tells young J.R. in the Gaddis novel - "Make other people's money work for you."
― Hurting 2, Wednesday, 19 March 2008 15:58 (sixteen years ago) link
is anyone calling for capital controls yet? :p
― jessie monster, Wednesday, 19 March 2008 16:00 (sixteen years ago) link
Hey so maybe this is working for a minute anyway?
Shit is rallyin.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 19 March 2008 17:11 (sixteen years ago) link
Rally, pah
Shit Dead Cat Bounced.
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/steve_bell/2008/03/19/DOWNCLIMB512.jpg
― Ed, Wednesday, 19 March 2008 17:14 (sixteen years ago) link
Bounced? Dead cat is down so far today.
― Hurting 2, Wednesday, 19 March 2008 17:16 (sixteen years ago) link
The Subprime Primer
― Daniel, Esq., Wednesday, 19 March 2008 19:57 (sixteen years ago) link
Rep. Barney Frank, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, had this to say today:
US investment banks need more regulation-Rep. Frank
― o. nate, Wednesday, 19 March 2008 20:08 (sixteen years ago) link
water rolling downhill, etc.
― Dandy Don Weiner, Wednesday, 19 March 2008 20:22 (sixteen years ago) link
Hey so maybe this is working for a minute anyway?Shit is rallyin.-- BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, March 19, 2008 12:11 PM (3 hours ago)
-- BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, March 19, 2008 12:11 PM (3 hours ago)
HAW
― El Tomboto, Wednesday, 19 March 2008 20:54 (sixteen years ago) link
we have a 4-pane screen in here and right now it is like so:
TUNER 1, CSPAN 2: CEO Pay For Home Mortgage Companies TUNER 2, CSPAN : Allegations of Fraud, Waste & Abuse in Iraq War Spending TUNER 3, CNBC : Fannie & Freddie's Surplus Capital Requirement Cut From 30% to 20% TUNER 4, CNN : Lou Dobbs Tonight will be discussing the dwindling US Economy with some economists (right now cafferty is reading mail about iraq)
― El Tomboto, Wednesday, 19 March 2008 20:59 (sixteen years ago) link
it is no longer necessary to use cut-ups or any other particularly holistic technique to see where my country is headed
― El Tomboto, Wednesday, 19 March 2008 21:00 (sixteen years ago) link
shitbin
http://www.treehugger.com/toilet-llqq-001.jpg
― Dandy Don Weiner, Wednesday, 19 March 2008 21:11 (sixteen years ago) link
round the bowl down the hole roll tide roll
― El Tomboto, Wednesday, 19 March 2008 21:26 (sixteen years ago) link
fuckin stan goff flippin me out with shit like this
Mark Jones eight years ago described the post-Cold War booms as the capitalist metropoles digesting the fallen Eastern Bloc, somewhat slowly, “like a snake who’s swallowed a goat.” The snake is shitting now… and starving.
The unfolding economic crisis — which surprised the mainstream commentators and analysts, but about which those crazy leftists have been Playing Cassandra for a decade — is now firmly off the tracks and roaring toward some abyss.
Maybe this belongs in Rolling Looming Apocalypse?
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, 21 March 2008 00:40 (sixteen years ago) link
haw
― El Tomboto, Friday, 21 March 2008 00:41 (sixteen years ago) link
everybody wants to live in the end times
even I don't believe suburbanites are going to rise up. that's crazy talk
― El Tomboto, Friday, 21 March 2008 00:45 (sixteen years ago) link
like, the suburban and exurban folks losing so much that they start a revolution because of this is like people saying microsoft is going to go out of business because everybody hates vista and the xbox is a money pit
― El Tomboto, Friday, 21 March 2008 00:46 (sixteen years ago) link
-- El Tomboto, Friday, March 21, 2008 12:45 AM
this is heartening somehow
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, 21 March 2008 00:59 (sixteen years ago) link
When it comes to the economy the suburban people, as they say, wouldn't know how to pour pee out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel. They'd be just as likely to blame illegal immigrants, or too-high taxes on business.
― Aimless, Friday, 21 March 2008 01:00 (sixteen years ago) link
haha yeah democracy and its attendant myths are also a good hedge against uprisings. of course everyone probably said exactly that about feudalism too
― El Tomboto, Friday, 21 March 2008 01:02 (sixteen years ago) link
barry's column in esquire is pretty much why I love him: http://www.esquire.com/the-side/opinion/dont-fear-bear-stearns
You're supposed to raise your standard of living by working harder, being clever, earning more income -- not by using your long-term savings. And now this current generation is pretty much fucked. When push comes to shove and they go to take money out of their houses at retirement time, they’re going to find out that there ain’t a whole lot there. They better pray that Social Security is still around in 20 years -– not exactly a sure thing.
plus the fact that as a dude who runs his own firm in downtown manhattan and rolls out on the weekends to mcfuckin' richdude town, he still posts excitedly when he gets a great deal on some gadget - "Hey guys I found this 7.2 megapixel camera for only $174!!" total money nerd bro
― El Tomboto, Friday, 21 March 2008 01:51 (sixteen years ago) link
they won't rise up, but I wonder what it'd take for a mortgage strike. Rent strikes weren't that long ago, after all.
― stet, Friday, 21 March 2008 02:45 (sixteen years ago) link
It's important not to conflate well-grounded economic chicken littlism with grab-bag political nutso fantasizing
actually I'm not really sure why that's important at this point
― Hurting 2, Friday, 21 March 2008 03:51 (sixteen years ago) link
lol
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, 21 March 2008 04:22 (sixteen years ago) link
My workplace automatically enrolls us in some sort of mandatory-contribution pension, but the 401K/or whatever variation thereof, is optional. I requested information, but it seems I had to pick the stocks myself, rather than just sit back and let them do it for me. They don't match, so is it worth it to even do it?
― Virginia Plain, Sunday, 23 March 2008 06:48 (sixteen years ago) link
There are probably tax benefits, although I don't know if they're better than IRA or ROTH IRA accounts - you should probably ask the benefits person about that. I'd also guess you have options besides just straight stock-picking. I don't know a lot about it because my job doesn't offer any kind of 401k. But if you can, you're probably better off with mutual funds or indexes than trying to pick stocks.
― Hurting 2, Sunday, 23 March 2008 15:45 (sixteen years ago) link
I've never heard of a 401K plan where you straight up picked stocks instead of funds (and company shares). Look at the pension plan, think about what you'll need or want when you retire that the pension doesn't cover, then whip out a calculator or use any of dozens of free online retirement calculators to figure out what kind of percentage you ought to be putting away. When I select for my 401K contribs I go 50% fixed income/bond backed funds, 30% indices (like S&P 500 or dj small cap index) and 20% "growth" funds. Probably nothing wrong with 100% fixed/bond backed, I just like to tinker with everything.
― El Tomboto, Sunday, 23 March 2008 15:51 (sixteen years ago) link
the tax benefit is the same as a regular IRA in terms of effectively deferring taxes until you withdraw
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/401(k)_IRA_matrix
― El Tomboto, Sunday, 23 March 2008 15:54 (sixteen years ago) link
there are some 401(k)s that have a brokerage option, where you can buy individual securities or non-plan mutual funds or ETFs. mine doesn't, though, and i wish that it did b/c some of the fund offerings are pretty shitty.
― Eisbaer, Sunday, 23 March 2008 15:58 (sixteen years ago) link
also, i would take the roth 401(k) if it is offered -- b/c distributions will be tax free when they are made (absent some future congressional tinkering). it does hurt your paycheck, though, b/c contributions are post-tax.
― Eisbaer, Sunday, 23 March 2008 16:01 (sixteen years ago) link
pfft I don't need that many choices, I'd spend all day trying to allocate
― El Tomboto, Sunday, 23 March 2008 16:02 (sixteen years ago) link
and the equivalent of a "mortgage strike" is called "jingle mail" -- i.e., when one realizes that the "flip that house!" nonsense isn't gonna work any more and the house is worth less than the mortgage, and one just mails back the keys to the McMansion or the luxury condo to the mortgage processor.
― Eisbaer, Sunday, 23 March 2008 16:03 (sixteen years ago) link
I prefer the extra liquidity now over the roth stuff. I know that my overall effective tax rate in 2042 will be in all likelihood quite a bit higher than 19.82% but by 2042 I will probably just be a brain in a jar anyway
― El Tomboto, Sunday, 23 March 2008 16:09 (sixteen years ago) link