The coming financial crisis

[Seabiscuit36]

Boom goes the Dynamite

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

I'm bullish long-term, but I almost agree with Jim Cramer that we still have some way to go before it hits bottom.

[Seabiscuit36]

whats funny is everyone said Cramer was crazy last year for his "Armegeddon" rant...

[PhillyPhreak54]

With the Dow continuing to fall, can someone explain to me why that is? Wasn't this bailout supposed to be the end-all or at least the beginning to recovery?

Or is it basically like someone plugging a leak in a damn with bubblegum?

[Seabiscuit36]

Did you hear

[Cerevant]

With the Dow continuing to fall, can someone explain to me why that is? Wasn't this bailout supposed to be the end-all or at least the beginning to recovery?

Or is it basically like someone plugging a leak in a damn with bubblegum?

No, more like plugging a leak in a dam by pissing on it.

[Phanatic]

7 billion is not enough...

Fed to buy massive amounts of short-term debts

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081007/ap_on_bi_ge/financial_meltdown_32

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Bueller?  Bueller?  Ben Stein explains the best way to ruin an economy.

[Zanshin]

Does it involve winning his money?  If so, I'm for it.

[phattymatty]

i feel like this last sentence has to be a joke...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081009/ap_on_bi_ge/virginia_layoffs

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Obama camp's vetting skills > McCain camp's vetting skills

[rjs246]

I had a long conversation with someone this week who understands the economy a lot better than I do and it was fairly eye-opening. I won't bore everyone with the details but he did a fairly good job of convincing me that throwing money at this problem ultimately was the only thing that could be done by the government, and that it was actually very necessary, despite the fact that there are MASSIVE problems with it (giving the Fed way too much power, socializing corporate losses while privatizing corporate gains, etc.).

His contention, essentially, was that the big players on Wall Street drove things to the point where credit really was frozen, and it would have taken months if not a year or more for them to unfreeze "naturally". The stock market has lost money in enormous chunks in just two weeks and allowing the markets to correct themselves wouldn't have resulted in a depression but in an absolute collapse of our economic system. All of this means that doing nothing wasn't an option. So despite the fact that the plan is awful and they rushed into it, probably making it less than ideal, failing to act would have been even more irresponsible.

The end result is that I am still rooting for all of the big investment houses to fail and die screaming, but I have backed off of my red-faced screaming about the government intervening. My red-faced screaming is now directed at the people that caused it rather than the people trying (no matter how half-assedly) to fix it.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Thanks for the update, but you're always a red-faced drunk, so a lot of that was redundant. 

[rjs246]

Fine I'll summarize:

Negatives associates with the bailout:
- It gives too much power to the Fed to shape the economy. One person or branch of government should not have that kind of power.
- It socializes corporate losses while keeping any gains privatized, costing all of us a whole lot of money in the mean time.
- It represents absolutely no punishment for the people responsible for this mess and thereby is likely to encourage similarly risky behavior in the future.

Positives associated with the bailout:
- It averts a total systemic collapse of our economy, keeping us from falling into third-world status.


As previously discussed, there is a big part of me that roots for chaos and the apocalypse, so in that sense I still wish the spineless fargs in congress had shot it down. But at least now I can see the argument for the bailout in much clearer terms.

[phattymatty]

this is beautiful...from Drew Magary

I'm not sure if you knew this, but it appears the national economy is in a bit of snit right now. I'm not totally clear on what the exact problem is, except that it would appear a generous portion of my life savings were wiped out, and that there's no clear solution to the problem, and that no one knows just how bad it will get, or how long a recovery will take, and that we may all soon need to eat raw sewage and form large huddles to keep warm.

In times such as these, it's important to keep a level head and remain focused on what is absolutely the most important thing to do in these circumstances: finding someone to get really farging pissed at. I lack the basic intelligence to come up with a constructive reaction and solution to these problems, so I think it's best for me to lash out at anyone and everyone in my path, regardless of culpability.

After all, I don't know much about economics, but I do know that none of this shtein is MY fargING FAULT. I was just going about my business, drinking lean like a good citizen. I never bought a place. I rented. So farg you, you house-buying fargfaces. "Oh, honey! Look at these granite countertops! I'm so glad we took out that 1,000-year mortgage!" Die. I also never worked at a Wall Street firm and sold consolidated debt packages. So again, farg those people in the ass with an over-sized hairbrush. And, as always, farg Congress. Hard. Right in the Barney Frankhole.

I'd also like to use this economic crisis to make convenient scapegoats out of large groups of people who clearly had nothing to do with perpetuating this crisis, but whom I've long despised anyway. Like French immigrants. God, I farging hate those people. At least Mexican immigrants are PRODUCTIVE. Ever see a French immigrant doing useful landscaping work? No. STOP SUCKING ON THE ENGORGED TEAT OF MY BELOVED COUNTRY, YOU BAGUETTE-EATING iceholeS. I'm going to meet up at the beer hall with my friends, form a new political party rooted in fear and intolerance, and discuss a "solution" for what to do about them. Rolf will be in charge of the train schedule.

I'd also like to blame the group Fall Out Boy. Because they suck and I hope they die in a tour bus accident. And I'd like to blame Sarah Palin. Because she's a farging moosetard and I hope she gets trapped under an ice floe.

In addition to blaming others for the downfall of the country, there's one other thing that can help us all feel better, and that is reveling in the financial misfortune of others. Sure, I'm going broke. But at least some cocky trader fargfaces are getting dumped by their shallow, horrible trophy fiancees. That makes me feel better. I'm also heartened to know that, now that the economy is the way it is, the party is farging over for publicly financed stadiums.

By my count, there are five NFL franchises currently trying to get new stadiums for themselves: the Saints, Bills, 49ers, Chargers, and Vikings. You could maybe add the Jags, taterskins, Rams, and Raiders to this list. But the first five teams are the ones really desperate for new, high-revenue digs.

And guess what, Mr. Spanos, and Mr. Wilf, and Ms. York, and Mr. Wilson, and Mr. Rosenbloom? YOU AREN'T GETTING shtein.

If you didn't get your new stadium in before this shteinstorm, like the Colts and New York teams did, guess what? YOU ARE fargED. No stadium for you, gentlemen. Enjoy the urinal cake-scented municipal shteinholes your teams currently reside in, because you are there FOREVER now. No one's gonna be dumb enough to plunk down public money for a $1.5 billion stadium/mall/amusement park/convention center/promenade/banquet hall/hurricane shelter anymore. Unless it's a town presided over by former DC mayor Anthony Williams.

People have long despised the idea of public financing for new stadiums. But, despite that general sentiment, pro sports owners have always managed to sucker some idiot mayor or county commissioner somewhere to either build them a new Ball Mahal, or to help them gain leverage against other local officials.

But those days were all but instantly ended by the events of the past few weeks. There will be no more sweetheart deals. There will be no more looming threats of moving a team as a way for owners to get what they want. What's that? You're gonna move the team to LA? Sure you are, icehole. I'm sure California officials, now in need of a $6 billion federal loan, will help you out. Good luck with that.

If there's any good to come out of this complete disaster of an economy, it's that the all the carping of supposedly needy pro sports owners will either go away, or be met with pure, brutal hostility. "We can't compete at this revenue level." "We reserve the right to explore our options." Yeah? WELL farg YOU, AL DAVIS. I can't afford to go to a movie, so farg your gay stadium. No more leverage for you. If you want a new stadium, you're gonna have to pony up for the whole farging thing yourself. Maybe you can take out a loan. I hear real estate loans are real easy to come by lately. Eat shtein and farging die.

So say goodbye the era of massive stadium boondoggles. Let's all celebrate with a tall glass of toilet wine. I only wish the market had crashed before Clay Bennett had acquired the Sonics.

Buttfarger.