The State of the Markets

pumpndump

One way or another, I have been involved in investing since 1974. I can tell you that in 34 years, I ain't ever seen the market like this. Ever. If you had told me last week that a huge American holding company would go bust, 5,000 people in Canary Wharf would have been tossed out of work without wages or compensation, that the Federal Reserve would have taken over AIG, that Lloyds and HBOS would be merging...I would have laughed out loud.

Everything - equities, commodities, bonds, currencies - are oscillating all over the place. Several brokers firms' computers have crashed, because they cannot cope with the trading volumes, and have gone back to using runners.
Small fortunes are being made and lost in a single day.

I ain't ever been here b4. And I don't know what is going to happen next - really I don't. And of course I don't know what to do next.

Anybody got any ideas? Or was Private Fraser right all along?

ultra10

I have an "O" level in Economics & it was obvious to me something was going to give sooner or later, & have been saying as much since last autumn, perhaps sometimes Economists cannot see the wood for the trees, The Bottom line is that the Western (particularly U.S,U.K, Irish) Economies were pumped up to such highly leveraged levels, that something had to give big time, It amazed me 2 or 3 years back how the B.O.A & greenspan just kept adding fuel to the fire or at least doing little to stop House prices / debt going completley mad .. These so called "Experts" couldn't see what many others could .. now its payback time, & it is far from over yet ..

wombat42_2

The people in charge have Narcissistic Personality Disorder which manifests itself as special entitlement, gradiosity, lack of empathy, greed etc, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_personality_disorder

pumpndump

Thanks.

Yes, the collapse in the house prices was easy to see coming, because the housing market is supposed to run in 18-year cycles. And even if you didn't know that, you could see that it couldn't go on...

I was watching some of the Lehman Brothers employees in Canary Wharf being tossed out. During my life I have seen people being tossed out of factories - this time the clothes were different. Of course, the sad thing is that the people who are responsible for this disgrace will go back to their mansions and yachts, and, before long, will be on the boards of some other companies.