Status of various things

[altivo]

Oil down $4 to under $50? Incredible. They say demand is off so much that the price just keeps dropping. Also incredible. I just bought gas for $1.95/gal and I honestly don't remember the last time it was below $2 around here. Certainly it's been at least three years. The rate of drop is more amazing, and in my entire life I've never seen anything

Comments

[wolfgrowl]

I'm starting to wonder where this will end. Glad I don't have a mortgage.

[altivo]

LOL! When I saw that the response was from you, I expected either words of encouragement or else a lecture on my pessimistic and unwashed view of economics.

Yeah. We don't have a mortgage any more either and we're really glad. If things keep sliding, I sure hope our real estate taxes slide with them or we'll still have problems.

We could eat the sheep and remaining ducks I suppose... Well, maybe not. I don't like mutton at all, and both are just loaded with cholesterol which neither of us needs. ;p

[wolfgrowl]

Greenspan admitted his models were flawed. He is a genius but economists are only as good as their data. And how good is that data? A one in a hundred year event won't necessarily show up in 30 years of modern economic history!

We can only say why things are happening but it all the models are out the window and we can't honestly say how and when this will end. Hard or soft landing?

There are a lot of things out there that seem undervalued. But I would have said that quite a while ago. Throw deflation, and a big loss in GDP into the equation who knows? We've gone from a record run for commodities to prices we never thought we would see again. Currencies are flying up and down as bad as penny stock. Major companies start to slide below liquidation values.

My solution is to hold what's in the retirement funds, buy a small amount more each month to average down a bit to benefit by a recovery when and if it happens, and keep the rest in cash.

[quickcasey]

My room mate(s) must run the Indiana snow gauntet also.

[altivo]

I imagine they'll all get through, but it's likely to take longer than they planned or will appreciate.

[saythename]

I guess the bubble has burst.

Now its Walmart or Aldis or friends sharing
food at the church.

Welcome to my world everyone.

Except for the guys flying in on the
private jets.

I like the guy that said;

"These guys fly in on private jets, get
off, and rattle a tin can for change"

XD

Let them burn.

[altivo]

I wish it were so simple, I'd certainly agree with burning CEOs at the stake. And that's a big one, coming from me. But these jerks are the ones who really made this effing mess, and they aren't really feeling at at all except maybe that they'll have to let one or two household servants go

[doco]

It's always amazed me to see that there is so much variation between the local stations in the US - over here, the gap between 119.9 at BP and 114.9 at ConocoPhilips' brand of the day is considered *huge*.

OTOH, interesting times we're living in. Our economies may tank a bit, but I guess there'll be no real -crisis- per se - a war is a crisis, an economic downturn is merely a disturbance. My parents and grandparents have escaped the horrors of WWII unscathed, and they've always said how the recession in the '70s was just peanuts. I think the 2010s may well become the decade of the return of the politician as the strong man, after they pretty much were stripped of their power in the late 80s by the common CEO. Also, probably more ordoliberalism, at least here in Europe. Dunno if America's going to get the curve... but with the few options left, they'll have to.

I still will have 50 to 70 years to live and see how it all ended up. :D

[altivo]

I'm fully expecting something as serious as the depression of the 1930s now. You might not call it a "crisis" but it's a disaster just the same, and for a lot of people.

[doco]

My grandfather, who was born in 1908, said the times of hyperinflation in late 1923 (with inflation at 1000% per day) were only noticeable because you had to carry your pay home in a wheelbarrow, rich farmers were stockpiling pianos and expensive carpets, and the occasional guy was dangling from the nearest chestnut tree... hello, dot-com bubble anyone

[songdogmi]

I was watching Jim Cramer's show Mad Money on CNBC a few weeks ago, and his advice then was to keep the money where it is, unless you need it soon. His example was, he has a 17-year-old daughter who will going to college very soon, so he's taking money out for that now and putting it somewhere safe. For his 14-year-old daughter, he's leaving the money invested because he expects things to improve before she needs it. So Gary probably did just the right thing, if one accepts Cramer's advice, but ... yes, it's still very frightening.

At the rate the stock market is going, it'll be worth zero by Christmas. Then in the new year, we can start something new. Maybe a barter economy.

[altivo]

In that barter economy, I hope the scalps of CEOs and Republican economists are highly valued.

We have seen Reaganomics through to the bitter end. It didn't work. Or at least, if it worked then it was advertised falsely. It makes a few already rich people obscenely wealthy at everyone else's expense, and that's the end of it. This has been obvious for nearly 30 years now, but for some reason the American public is really, really slow to catch on.