Eye on the US Economy.

I hope people act like maroons. U chicago has the best economics department in the world. Unfortunately, there's a fine line between maroon and moron. We're firmly on the moron side now. There are massive sell-offs going on, which are largely justified, but are certainly making things more difficult for everyone right now.

What I don't get is why people are selling off an tanking the share price of companies that are extremely unlikely to go under, they must be losing an asstonne on them. BHP for example aren't going anywhere yet their share price is tanking.
 
In the hypothetical situation of Porsche buying out GM, every UAW member would collectively shit their pants at the thought of being cut out of the equation in the ensuing reorganization.
 
Really? Wow.

If Porsche can buy a majority in VW, does that mean that theoretically Porsche could buy GM?

I mean, I'm fairly sure it'd never happen (why would they / the US Gov't would probably stop it etc), but if that's possible, wow.

The small sports car company's gone big.

You just have to consider that Porsche didn't get to be so profitable by being mind-numbingly stupid with they're investments.

"Vat? Ewe do not manufak-sher ze Corvair? Vat is dis dis-kan-tin-you zey sprechen?"
 
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Isn't it about time they slowed down, though? For every dollar they lend out to someone, they're printing ten more they don't have. The money's coming out of thin air, respectively.
It's called credit, it's what our economies are based on. Stopping lending means stopping, or more likely, reversing economic growth. The DOW can drop all it wants, it needs to adjust to reflect real values. But if we don't have anyone lending money we will see long term economic stagnation. Due to the financial crisis banks want to hang onto all the assets they can and thus aren't lending money to other banks. We're already seeing the effects of this trickle down to the general public. Unemployment has been increasing all year and you already can't get a car or home loan without near perfect credit.

If Porsche buys GM, they might have to actually assemble their cars for once.
Not if they don't get rid of the UAW, nothing would change. :|
 
If Porsche buys GM, they might have to actually assemble their cars for once.

Rear engined rear wheel drive Cobalt, oh yeah. :p

But seriously though, the Dow dropped pretty badly today, I think we're heading to another great depression if the $700 billion really have no effect. :|
 
Hang on a minute - 700 billion USD is 'lent' to who? Banks I hear you say, but the Govt does not have 700 billion (see deficit) so they have to borrow the money. From whom do they borrow the money? Er Banks I hear you say again.

Now call me simple but I understood that the reason we are ALL in the doggie doo doo is that Banks won't lend to Banks, so WTF?
 
If Porsche buys GM, they might have to actually assemble their cars for once.

In the hypothetical situation of Porsche buying out GM, every UAW member would collectively shit their pants at the thought of being cut out of the equation in the ensuing reorganization.

And Porsche would collect that shit and produce a car that would run on it. They would have built a car that runs on tears but they taste so good.

Rear engined rear wheel drive Cobalt, oh yeah. :p

But seriously though, the Dow dropped pretty badly today, I think we're heading to another great depression if the $700 billion really have no effect. :|

It dropped just under 6% all totaled from day one we still are not as bad off as say the UK or Japan all that are falling 10% in a day. They may have voted on it but it will take them time to buy and prop up the market.

What I don't get is why people are selling off an tanking the share price of companies that are extremely unlikely to go under, they must be losing an asstonne on them. BHP for example aren't going anywhere yet their share price is tanking.

Because they are maroons they are scared and if someone said that it was the fault of terrorist we would invade someone. The media megaphone is shouting that we will all be poor over and over again and the best that people can do is get out now making it worse.
 
Germany is good at invading countries, disbanding defunct conglomerates can't be that hard. And they can convince all the ex-union workers it's a good idea. :p
Mein Fuhrer! I mean, erm, Mr. President ...

But seriously though, the Dow dropped pretty badly today, I think we're heading to another great depression if the $700 billion really have no effect. :|
I saw that it was down around 8,000 practically as soon as trading opened. That's a 40% drop in the last year :?. But just about every economist I've heard thinks it's a good thing. Once the market hits bottom things are supposed to get better, and the bottom, the actual real value of assets, is supposed to be around 8,000. The only problem is that no one wants to buy until stock are at their lowest.

Hang on a minute - 700 billion USD is 'lent' to who?
It's not going to banks, not as far as I've heard anyway. The Treasury gets the power to buy mortgage-backed securities and other related shares. Congress will have oversight and there will be judicial review. Bankruptcy judges won't get to rewrite mortgages, but there will be a separate program allowing the government to purchase failing mortgages and rewrite them to give defaulting homeowners better terms. The gov't is also loaning money to companies like GM and AIG (and now owns something likt 80% of AIG, too).
 
below 8000 now, WTF if a company beats earnings (IBM, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs) then why sell?
 
below 8000 now, WTF if a company beats earnings (IBM, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs) then why sell?
That's the stupid part. There are companies that have solid assets and are in the black, but no one will invest in them. If I wasn't so broke, I'd be very seriously looking at buying a lot of stock right now.
 
That's the stupid part. There are companies that have solid assets and are in the black, but no one will invest in them. If I wasn't so broke, I'd be very seriously looking at buying a lot of stock right now.

Me too, kinda makes me angry. Stupid new car, you could be a sound investment, but nooooo, you have to just be expensive as hell.
 
I actually just opened an account w/ TDameritrade. I get 100 free trades since I have more than 2k in my account. Now to go bargain hunting, oh wait everything in on sale already :drums:
 
That is actually rather spooky, considering it was posted on YouTube in February this year.

But also extremely funny and true. Makes everybody understand what actually happened now.
 
^ John Bird and John Fortune (on Rory Bremner's show) BTW.

Hang on a minute - 700 billion USD is 'lent' to who?

It's not going to banks, not as far as I've heard anyway. The Treasury gets the power to buy mortgage-backed securities and other related shares. Congress will have oversight and there will be judicial review. Bankruptcy judges won't get to rewrite mortgages, but there will be a separate program allowing the government to purchase failing mortgages and rewrite them to give defaulting homeowners better terms. The gov't is also loaning money to companies like GM and AIG (and now owns something likt 80% of AIG, too).
OK I am with you, so instead of lending to Banks directly or buying shares a la Nationalisation (Prefential Shares as in some Banks in the UK, or full blown Northern Rock nationalisation variant) you take the sub prime loans on as your liability and rewrite the terms to be better for the mortgagor.

On another subject - I think I am going for some stock too - golden once in a lifetime opportunity RBS for me chaps!
 
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