Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comInvestors have lost some of their bravado when facing bad economic news.
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If our economy is dependent upon GM's being able to avoid bankruptcy, then the country's finances are down the tubes.
Then again the stimulus may kick in and companies will start hiring.
The reason Detroit is in such peril started when Bush's Press Secretary
Ari Fleisher answered the following question :
does the President believe we need to correct our lifestyles to address the energy problem?
with: That's a BIG NO !
You can blame Obama and the Dems for all this since apparently
the GOP and their followers can't handle the truth...
more >>
Secretary Paulsen gave his Wall Street buddies $350 billion
with no strings attached to reward their 30-40X leveraging.
Did you know Paulsen left Goldman Sachs in 2006 with $500
million and paid no capital gains tax on the stock sale?
"investors were able to find signs of hope in reports that showed a still struggling economy."
You mean the reports showed a struggling economy? That's odd because 90% of everything published on MSNBC said that the economy was all fixed or at least improving. I can't believe that lies from the government and media haven't resulted in fixing the economy.
More Genius from the people that brought us Rachel Madcow and Keith Ubermann.
Overseas Investors They’re dumping U.S. assets.
They’re driving those assets down in price.
And they’re threatening to sink our entire economy into a THIRD phase of this crisis.
Remember: The first phase was the debt disaster. The second phase was the collapse in the economy. Now, in the third phase, Treasury bonds and the U.S. dollar are getting hit hard, largely due to foreign selling.
The latest drama began this past Thursday …
The supply of U.S. Treasury bonds dumped on the market was so overwhelming, even the Federal Reserve, with all its massive efforts to buy up bonds, could not stop the avalanche.
By the time most traders left for the weekend Friday afternoon, ALL of the gains in bond prices the Fed had been able to engineer in recent weeks were wiped out — vanquished by market forces beyond the Fed’s control.
Why The U.S. Government Is the Next Victim of the Market’s Revenge!
Look. In each successive phase of this debt crisis, investors have consistently attacked and destroyed the market value of institutions that owned large amounts of toxic assets — Countrywide Financial, Fannie Mae, Citigroup, Bank of America and many others.
The shares of these companies were pummeled; their ability to raise new capital, virtually extinguished.
Now it’s the U.S. government that’s the next victim of the market’s revenge.
Why?
Because the government never was — and never will be — immune to market selling. Like private corporations, it borrows. Like any borrower, it has creditors. And like all creditors, it’s ultimately up to THEM — not up to the borrower — to decide what to do with their money.
But unlike most borrowers, the U.S. government has arrogantly thumbed its nose at its creditors. Without remorse.
“We can do anything we damn please,” was the message from Uncle Sam.
“We can spend our money wantonly. We can bail out our giant corporations to our heart’s content. We can even debase our currency.
“But YOU, our creditors, are stuck with us. No matter what we do, you’ve got to keep loaning us more money, endlessly.”
Our creditors swallowed hard and tolerated this message for a while. But not now.
Now they’re fed up. They can’t take it anymore.
The last short lived rally seems to be coming to a fizzle as optimisim is wearing kind of thin.
How can there be positive signs about the economy when homeless are in the streets while houses are vacant all over the country and debt-ridden consumers wait to get laid off and money heavy stock manipulaters play among themselves?
It's a shame all the Christian GOP have bankrupt our country
and created more homeless while they buy up cheap houses.
Would Jesus start wars, torture and rob people blind ?
WHEN GM goes into bankruptcy - the housing market will too. How long can we lose over 600,000 jobs a week and expect the housing market to recover? How many years before all the low paying "green jobs' even exist and how do you pay for housing and go to school and take care of your family in the meantime? How long can the press HIDE the homeless from the American public? Why would anyone expect people to spend money when they don't have jobs or are scared to death they're going to lose one? If you took comfort in the reporting that massive lay-offs from large corporations have bottomed out and yet we're still losing jobs at nearly the same rate- I wouldn't. You should be scared silly because that means the little companies are closing their doors because they can't hold on any longer. The commercial real estate 'bubble' is now bursting. 600,000 more people every week aren't shopping for anything they don't 'have to have' and a lot of things they need are not being purchased either. Medical facilities are losing staff because so many people are out of work and now don't have insurance. Teachers, firemen and police are being laid off in droves too. Who pays the bills while we all retrain for jobs that don't exist? If you still have a job, count yourself as blessed and PLAN for being laid off more than 6 months if you lose it. Remember the same numbers used for reporting the unemployment rate to the public are NOT the same ones used in 1982. If you use the same information the rate is almost double what is currently being reported. I don't know who is investing in the stock market but maybe they have more guts than brains. The same derivitives and credit default swaps are still going on in the banking industry that brought this economy to its knees. Jobs are still being sent overseas - including the manufacture of wind turbines and solar panels by American companies. I'm afraid the downward spiral is still ongoing and without jobs NOW, it will continue. As long as people continue to lose their homes, whether they rent or own, we won't find the bottom to the mortgage mess or fix the economy.
Add to that the record number of people surviving on unemployment, who will not be able to find a job when their unemployment runs out. That´s when the fun´ll begin.
Last time MSNBC tried to make a prediction on what the stocks were going to do, it didnt happen. I don't recall the actual text but something to the line of stocks are going to tumble after the up week, and they didn't. Its not going to drop to where it was at, not till the word that the Chinese want their money back. Then write a story, quit trying to predict, isnt that what gets us into these messes.
How is any of this a surprise? GM going into bankruptcy should be no surprise. What would be surprising is if it didn't. Wall Street and Bank CEO's and Board of Directors are a bunch of 'Wet Nurses'.
All the so called brilliant economists keep telling us they want us to spend, they want to see the housing market rebound. Duh -- At the same time companies continue to send our jobs overseas. Our lawmakers have made it SO profitable for big business to take our jobs and give them to Chinese and other countries who pay $100 to $200 a month for labor that of course they are moving our jobs offshore. Greed for more and more at the top and untold dollars spent to lobby lawmakers (they would rather spend it on lobbying than keeping jobs for Americans) has now resulted in so many Americans out of work or underemployed that we no longer have any money to spend. They apparently are so brilliant they cannot figure out that if Americans are not working, Americans cannot SPEND, they cannot buy houses, they cannot hold onto the houses they bought when they DID have a job.
Many Americans who still have a job are so scared of losing it they are trying to save for the day their pink slip comes, trying to pay down as much debt as they can before the pink slip comes and many are having to help family members who have already lost their jobs or seen their businesses collapse. Our government REWARDS companies for outsourcing and it seems they AND the big business owners will not be satisfied until all of us have to work for $100 or $200 a month if we can even find that.
Our gov. allows poison and unsafe imports of foods, toys, tires, meds, toiletries - name it and it comes into America UNINSPECTED and goes onto the shelves and WE buy it. We, too, are to blame for ever seeking the "cheapest" gadgets and supplies we can find without a thought that every product we buy made in China or elsewhere comes at the cost of a job for a fellow American. We should DEMAND that ALL imports be inspected BEFORE being allowed to hit our shelves and the cost of these inspections be incorporated into the cost of those products. If China has a problem with an import, they just BAN all of them. It is time for the US to do the same. It is time for "FREE" trade to be replaced with "FAIR" trade so our businesses who try to stay here CAN compete. If we don't stand up as a people united, then we are headed for wages of $100 or $200 a month if we can even get that.
It is far past due that we demand SAFE products on our shelves and that INCLUDES imports as well as domestic products. Until we see lawmakers whose loyalty is to OUR flag instead of any and all countries but ours, nothing will change and it will only get worse.
When will all those brilliant, over paid experts figure out and SAY the truth - it is jobs, jobs, jobs and the only way to have jobs is to have a fair trade policy with a level playing field for OUR people. When are we, as a people, going to realize we must support our OWN nation and stop bashing companies who pay their people a living wage and maybe benefits? When are we going to support THOSE companies and not the ones who outsource our jobs? When are we going to be willing to pay a little more for American products knowing that we are helping a fellow American keep a job instead of losing it to the Chinese or Hondurans or any number of OTHER countries? When are we going to demand our lawmakers start looking out for American workers instead of making it ever easier and more profitable for companies to outsource our jobs and services and import foreign workers to work cheaper than we can work? Will we wait till we, too, are forced to work for $200 a month? What a legacy for our children and grandchildren if we sit on our apathy and continue to allow this to continue.
What rally?? The market (S&P) is still down well over 600 ppoints from it's high. Whan it hits 1200 then maybe we can say there WAS a rally.
This economy will remain mired for years to come. The stock market will bounce along the bottom without either going up very much, or down very much. Once it stablizes in about 2015 we may see things improve. But it will be a cautious improvement. In the near term, get used to downsizing your entire life, from cable tv and cell phones to automobiles and homes. No one will want to pay to excessive charges for anything. We didn't keep inflation under control, we merely postponed it and now it will swamp everyone.
From the other side . . . during the 'boom' unemployment was, let's say, 5%. Today, it's double that, or 10%. That means during boom times, 19 out of every 20 people were employed. Today, it's 18 out of 20.
Yeah, the numbers can be made to sound terrible. But the reality is just a bit different.
This is not to diminish the suffering of the unemployed, but most people are still trudging off to work, buying groceries, buying gas, furniture, appliances . . . The unemployed will return to the workforce.
I am a Bond holder, $30K, and the Union and Obama are trying to screw us. I wlll hold hold and lose everything before I give in. If GM said to me, " Bond holder I will pay you 7% and not the 8 1/4% until maturite and we will not pay you the principal of 30K in 2023 I would accept that with a smile. Now what will the Union do????? Those cheap BA
Man, isn't everyone including the doom and gloom of tv get over tehmselves. The sky hasn't fallen, there is still alot of good things happening, record high employment of what 7-8% which means there is a 90%+ EMPLOYMENT rate. Just because the whole economy has reset itself doesn't mean its all down the tube. Is it a mess, yes, is it the worst, not by a landslide. and yes unlike these moron experts who couldn't see this coming to begin with, the consumers will pull us out as we always do. The only think I'd like to see Obama do is to shut up these idiots who couldn't predict the winner of a 1 horse, horse race. Byt eh way I am 44, and yes my 401k is down but I'm not planning on retiring anytime soon and I actually have more money in my pocket than I did a year ago. Its nice not paying $4.50 a gallon for gas. I hope it stays that way.
sky falling:
I share your desire to look at the glass half full, but there are serious issues, and it pays to be aware of the potential threats to your well being. Gas will not stay down. This has less to do with gauging, or demand, and more to do with the declining value of the dollar. The less it is worth the more suppliers charge to make up the difference. With the debt we now owe, given the trillions in funny money we printed, we are very likely to take a big hit from inflation...at some point. And, considering on a global scale that the U.S. looks like California looks to the other States...and over extended loser...if China, and others decide to quit buying our debt......we are broke...very broke as a country..bankrupt, and in trouble. Obama is not your savior in this matter. He is part of the problem.
The sleeping sheep have been cheering the fake rally, folks if you have your money still in the stock market or dollar and you get out last, don't blame anyone apart from yourself, gold is still cheap, move your money overseas, you can even plan on relocationg because other countries will fair better than the US when the biggest ever bubble bursts "the bail out bubble" has $12tn in the pipeline and when that floods the market, everyone will try to get out of the dollar at the same time and thats when a rush to buy gold will set in. Again you dont have to believe me, its up to you if you want continue to watch the American Idol and those sickening CNBC/CNN/NBC controlled media. Good luck to you.