$1200!!!

[Kenny1234]

The Fed's quick-draw tendency to be a "price fixer" with regards to interest rates to appease this new breed of quick-buck investor that has surfaced in the past decade IS the problem.

Its like trying to navigate the titanic around an iceberg. The ship wasn't built to perform a slalom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgnfxtrAFJQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efrt2h1AH_A

.

[zzmikezz]

Worse than that, they usually over-control, adding stimulus when a recession will be seen to have ended months earlier, and putting the brakes on too hard when busting bubbles.

So I agree. The Fed IS the problem. But we don't dare change horses in the middle of this particular stream, at least not the way I see it.

[zzmikezz]

Very interesting links, thank you.

I knew next to nothing about Ron Paul prior to watching the clips. I'm glad that he has a grip on the fundamentals. However, having listened to what he had to say, in my view he is the right man at the wrong time. If a depression does happen, I would want someone like him at the helm while the new ship is being built, if I may mix metaphors here.

My problem is that, even though I am a Libertarian at heart, I recognize that this is a viewpoint just as utopian as Marxism. Not only does the man stand no chance at all of being elected, I don’t WANT him to be elected, even though is right in principle.

It’s like when Ross Perot ran for president - - a breath of fresh air. I was mesmerized the first time I saw Perot speak on TV. For the next several weeks I kept saying to myself, This man has a real chance of being elected, and he has a real chance of turning the entrenched Washington establishment upside down . . .

And then I realized that this was a danger, not a solution. Add the Brownshirts and you have Germany just before Hitler came to power. That insight hit me hard while he was speaking one night, and I realized right then and there that I not only had to stop supporting this man, I had to start speaking out about the threat he posed. Fortunately a whole bunch of other people apparently came to the much the same conclusion at just about the same time, and his campaign proved to be a flash in the pan.

So while in my heart I inhabit a Libertarian world, in my head I ask “Okay, which politicians stand real chances of being elected, and which of them do I dislike least?” I’m sorry that this is the way the world works, but it does actually work this way. So when we come to the question of what the Fed’s guiding principles ought to be, or even whether it ought to exist at all (it replaced J. P. Morgan himself), the fact is that we gotta do what we gotta do.

Which do we prefer? A politically correct depression? Or a really dumb bailout that is intended to avoid depression, and that probably will be made to work, if the Fed now acts swiftly enough but carefully enough. I think those are the choices. My vote is for depression avoidance, even though it is going to hurt my wife and me very badly, the alternative being even worse for the rest of my family, and for the nation.

So I won't be voting for Ron Paul because he is on the other side of the issue that scares me most. If he were elected, he would feel as Perot did -- "This is my chance to fix the nation, to make it work the way I think it ought to work. Of course this is going to take time, and there's considerable opposition, so in the interests of efficiency I have just declared myself President For Life."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As Nels’ partner Dan Linton once said to me, “My 17.5 cents, = 2 cents adjusted for inflation.”

[Baldwinbob]

I wish I could say I understand this world economics stuff, which I don't, but tomorrow could be a very interesting day on Wall Street.




Bob

[zzmikezz]

Bob, Those are very scary numbers for one-day declines. Let's hope that they get reversed during the course of today USA time.


Now ... You might want to try this classic paperback by Milton Friedman ...

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780156334600&itm=2

It will tell you everything you need to know to be an informed citizen, and it will do it in a strangely entertaining way, which is why it is a classic. Roughly 350 pages. Read a page a day in the john and in a year you'll be up to speed, if not sooner.

[kevarc]

We have talked about this in other forums and the concensus is - there are no GOOD choices. It boils down to the lesser of 2 evils.

[zzmikezz]

Agreed, Kevin.

It's just that I have Celtic Writing Genes and it take me forever to say what you were able to say in nine words.

[kevarc]

yep

To be a politician, you have to check your personality at the door. Look at the elections since Nixon. The stiff almost always loses. Mcgovern, Ford, Carter, Mondale, Dukakis (who can forget him in the tank, jeez), Bush, Dole, Gore, and Kerry. Dole and Kerry looked like they were both embalmed.

[Baldwinbob]

"Dole and Kerry looked like they were both embalmed."


I'll have to agree with you on that one. I like Dole and Bush 41, both have a great sense of humor.

Kerry....what can I say....thank God for the mute button?


Bob

[gallopta]

Re the recession and stock market crashes , the Australian stock exchange dropped over 11% today, due to the mortgage crisis over your side.
Expect similar if not bigger crashes tomorrow when Wall St opens.
Overall economically we are more tied to China these days thankfully.
Cheers
Ian

[Baldwinbob]

Thanks Mike, I think I'll order it today.

Page a day? That's my downfall, if it's interesting I'll read till the sun comes up which really pisses off my dog.

Thanks

Bob

[zzmikezz]

You're welcome.

One weekend thirty years ago I decided to read a two-hundred-year-old book that I had heard about, the Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith.

I went into that Friday night a socialist. I barely slept that weekend, and by Monday morning I had been converted to a ... well ... maybe a Libertarian though I didn't use the term. All I knew was that my eyes had been opened by that book, and they would never close again.

[Kenny1234]

Fed makes a 3/4 point cut this morning, 15 minutes before the opening bell.

[Kenny1234]

Dow down 450 pts in 3 minutes, oil down $3, Nasdaq down 120

[zzmikezz]

You're kidding, Kenny, yes? ... Oh Deity. I was just out to MSNBC and you're not kidding.