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Economic Armegeddon is vague. Does it mean we will end up with a barter economy with massive riots over basic survival material such as food and energy? Or does it mean we will slip into a severe depression lasting decades …where all government entitlements such as education and social security will be severly limited or gone?
Edited on Sep 28, 2008 15:02
Scott,
700 billion the “tip of the iceberg”? I am hearing it could go as high a 1 trillion but nobody anywhwere, even the most bearish of bears, is talking about the numbers you allude to. Have you any internet site articles by credible soures that back those numbers up?Nobody says the “bail out” will work for sure. I am reading that we could very well still have a great depression. What disturbs me the most is that the greatest authorities on this matter DO NOT KNOW what will happen next. I am hearing no encouraging words from any of the people to whom I would normally pay attention.
Edited on Sep 28, 2008 10:57
Edited on Sep 28, 2008 10:57
Edited on Sep 28, 2008 10:58
Caladana,
go to the same site and look at the lengthy write up on the good ol U.S.A. My god, we have to be among the most callous vilotaors of human rights on the planet.And you think Chavas is bad? Where did you see that? There was nothing on Venezuela of any substance. In fact, they poointed out there was no death penalty and the site criticized the Venezuelan government for not using enough force to quell demonstrations.Edited on Sep 27, 2008 14:14
Name ONE Venezuelan who was imprisoned for political disagreement with Chavez. And don’t list a name of a person who was a part of the CIA plot to oust Chavez.
Americans are angry about the “bail out” for the wrong reasons. They should be angry about their relative helpless situation as slaves controlled by the people who are getting the bail out, not about the bail out itself.
The government plan is necessary to stop a general panic run on banks and to shore up home values eventually. Without the plan, the US and the rest of the world will probably cascade into a horrible depression. It may happen anyway.
Those corporate recipients of the trillion dollars already have their fortunes. They are currently holding a gun to head of the American public to “contribute” more to their fortunes. The gun they are holding is a crippling world depression. We have no choice but to pay up. If you are being robbed at gun point, and you are unarmed, you surrender your wallet. Get angry about the fact that you were not carrying a gun for self defense, not sdo much about the 20 bucks you gave up to the crook.
In the end, most of the working people around the planet don’t give a hoot about the finer points of economic or political morality. They take action,usually belatedly, only after extreme abuse of power by controlling right wing governance.
Cuba has won its independence from the US at a material cost which it has slowly recovered after almost half a century. Venezuela will not have that steep a cost since they have oil. Both countries are governed by populist and popular leaders. Both countries have elections whic may well be more honest and forthright thanour ownherein the States have been recently.
Chavez is the result of US meddling and unregulated capitalism. It is the usual reaction to concentration of wealth in the hands of a few and apeople getting tired of abuse by a ruling class.
I would be more concerned about these events giving the U.S. possible excuses for further meddling in Central America. That has NEVER resulted in anything good for Central Americans. Ever. The more balanced the international involvement in any country, the better.
On the other hand, look at Venezuela and Cuba. Both of those countries now have a high level of self respect and respect from neighbors for being able to oust strangling American corporate controllers. Panama and Guatemala cannot say that and Nicaragua is still trying to get back on the right path.
you may get the same results with americans on that question. My various homes have been robbed three times and once a car was stolen out of my drive way here in a good suburb of Miami.I have never been personally assaulted because I just don’t walk around places where such things happen.
One good thing about being a progressive; one can change direction more quickly than a conservative. I am seriously considering taking up some instruction on hand gun use.
I wonder what that protection business contract looks like. Do you suppose business is conducted without one?
This sort of thing makes Costa Rica sound like Dodge City of the old west. I guess when there is no decent police force around, people take matters into their own hands.
Perhaps I should shed some of my liberal attitudes about gun ownership before I move there.I moved all my positions to cash in June. Not because I was fearful of the end of the world as we know it but because I simply stopped beliving in the “buy and hold” philosphy that people like Warren Buffet foist onto the public. Stocks are just paper or electronic data whose value is a product of faith. Once purchased, they only attain or lose real value when they are ACTED upon by selling them. The more you act upon stocks,the more value you can squeeze from them. I buy and hold stocks now for minutes or even seconds but never more than a day.
If today’s fall in the market means that we are on a terminal slide to oblivion, it won’t matter whether you are sitting on a pile of cash or a pile of stocks or even a pile of gold. At some point on the way down, only food, shelter and energy will have any value at all. So either we are OK and the market will contiue chugging along, or we are NOT OK, and anything you do now short of heading for the hills will be a waste of time.
Edited on Sep 17, 2008 17:40
WOW! “survival mode”? Land easy to defend”? Are we talking about a Mad Max world, a complete societal breakdown just because the economy goes into one of its cyclical down turns? If that happens, I don’t think it will matter whether you have dollars or colones. Neither will be any good no matter where you are.
There has never been a time in history when all trade and investment stopped for good. Yet. A human life time is about 75 years long and most of us will see or will have seen several major direction changes in the world economies before our time is up. If you truly believe this is the end of civilization, you better be doing more than just re-allocating your assets. Much more.
Edited on Sep 16, 2008 16:29
It makes perfect sense to own financial stocks right now…for about 20 seconds. I have been shorting the dickens out of Lehman, Citi and Merril Lynch for days now.
There have been some rather dire predictions today after the market close. Some have been comparing today’s event as similar to the beginning of the Great Depression. Then of course there is global climate change, the pandemic infectious diseases, over population and the ever present, ever threatening terrorism of Muslim extremists. Plenty to worry about if you are the worrying type.
Pick and choose what stories you want to believe. First of all, I find it hard to accept that you know nobody who has NOT been robbed. I don’t know anyone who HAS been robbed. I guess we hang out with a different crowd, huh? I wonder which o us is more likely to be a victim of crime.
The English language press may be aiming at Americans who are notoriously fearful by nature. A valid argument could be made that many Americans are just plain stupid when it comes to analysis. Look at today’s big stink about the Obama comment about lipstick on a pig and how the McCain campaign has been able to trick much of the public into thinking Obama is a misogynist because of it.
