TIPPING POINT

[cottonpicken]

It is my feeling that a tipping point of understanding has been reached.

The finacial chaos has provided people to become more motivated to figure out what exactly is going on.

The moves,maybe starting tonight and at the latest right after the election,will be so drastic it will make your head spin.

Inflation hedged investments will soar.

[jensend]

do you foresee price controls on food? it's an essential product, many more consumers than producers and the option is probably politically palatable.

[jensend]

lots of questions - what's the real cost if they say $700 billion? could be 1.4 trillion, 2.1 or 2.8 or more. does the haste with which this is being done indicate a level of panic they are trying to hide? now paulson wants to cover foreign banks with exposure in the united states. this will either explode this week or the mess will be bigger when it blows up after the election.

[mustardman]

I just bet that people that voted for George 4 years ago thinking that George will keep us safe in these uncertain times , are now wishing they hadn't .

[mustardman]

Now they are getting a dose of -reverse socialism- as a taxpayer you will be expected to partake in a share of the losses but Not a share of the Profits....

[jensend]

most good capitalists know that the easiest way to make money is to take it from the government (taxpayer).

[cottonpicken]

I always seem to freak fixed income and savers peolpe out when i tell them they have lost half of their purchasing power in a couple of years.

Then i tell them their about to lose another half.

Then they tell me i dont know what i'm talking about.

Why people resist this info is beyond me.

[btjadenlepp]

It is quite hard to wrap one's head around.

[TOM4CWB]

C.P.
The US was in way worse problems financially after the Civil War... we are not jumping off a cliff...


OPEC and the ruskies are still making trillions... people still need and will pay for black oil.

[Fransisco]

jensen that is socialism, not Capitalism.

So-called businessmen or corporate welfare bums who are looking for help from Washington or Ottawa are not "capitalists".

[just_wondering]

btjadenlepp
heard you on cross country checkup yesterday, good comments!

[FarmRanger]

“I just bet that people that voted for George 4 years ago thinking that George will keep us safe in these uncertain times , are now wishing they hadn't .”

Banks going broke was a major problem in the depression. What was the government of the day’s solution?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass-Steagall_Act

And why aren’t those safeguards still there?

From wikipedia:
“Provisions that prohibit a bank holding company from owning other financial companies were repealed on November 12, 1999 by a bipartisan, conference committee version of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act signed by President Bill Clinton”

And who tried to fix it 5 years ago, but was blocked?
“The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.” NY Times, Sept. 11, 2003

Those who voted for Clinton should be the ones now wishing they hadn't.

[agstar77]

Second commodity wave is about to hit. U.S. dollar is crashing, good for commodity prices but may lead to economic collapse of industry in Canada.

[charliep]

It is perhaps a real important time to have a clear understanding of investment objectives, time horizon, risk tolerance, etc. I like grassfarmers comments a couple of threads back about looking for quality but even then there will be risk short term. Will get hit from the critics but I don't mind having people solidify their balance sheet by paying debt first and parking money in safer income based investments until more is known about the current economic storm.

Also note agstar77 comments about US currency. Getting out the printing press to look after the rescue effort is not likely to help US currency much.

[charliep]

Will note the overall increase in commodity prices today. One day is not a market but interesting.

As a student of the market (can't claim to be an expert), I always find it interesting to note the relationship between risk and behavior. Will note the potential $700 mln (or whatever the real number is) has added liquidity back into the markets. The interesting thing to watch is how businesses behave after perhaps a near death experience. From there, how governments monitor the situation and what if any other tools they will use to insure value for taxpayers investment.