If you're not worried about what's going on....

Generali

....then you don't understand the scale of the problem!

The US Government now owns 1/4 million foreclosed homes which it has no idea what to do with. (email [EMAIL="reo.rfi@fhfa.gov"]reo.rfi@fhfa.gov[/EMAIL] if you have any ideas).

Bank of America may well be insolvent.

16.2% of Americans are unemployed and the US added no net new jobs in the whole of July.

The US is almost 1/4 of the world's economy and if they are screwed, so are the rest of us.

Investors seem to have lost all confidence in the entire European banking system.

Oh and in an act of total lunacy, S&P are still giving AAA ratings to securitized sub-prime mortgages.

Have a great weekend!

ILW

What's the point in worrying about it?

kevin52

Warren Buffet has just invested five billion dollars in Bank of America so he doesn't agree with you. The US unemployment rate is 9.1 %.

TruckerT

ILW wrote: »

What's the point in worrying about it?

I'm thinking that if the economic system that we all know and love is about to hit the buffers, then we all need to worry about where each of us might find ourselves in the new pecking order which would emerge from the ashes

I reckon it's a certainty that the rich (ie the bankers and their cronies) have covered/protected themselves against all possible outcomes - what should/can the rest of us do?

TruckerT

Rinoa

Generali wrote: »

....then you don't understand the scale of the problem!

The US Government now owns 1/4 million foreclosed homes which it has no idea what to do with. (email [EMAIL="reo.rfi@fhfa.gov"]reo.rfi@fhfa.gov[/EMAIL] if you have any ideas).

Bank of America may well be insolvent.

16.2% of Americans are unemployed and the US added no net new jobs in the whole of July.

The US is almost 1/4 of the world's economy and if they are screwed, so are the rest of us.

Investors seem to have lost all confidence in the entire European banking system.

Oh and in an act of total lunacy, S&P are still giving AAA ratings to securitized sub-prime mortgages.

Have a great weekend!

TBH I thought the US Gov.t owned far more than 248,000.

Either way it'll all get sorted eventually, always does.

TruckerT

Rinoa wrote: »

it'll all get sorted eventually, always does.

but somebody will pay the price, always do

hope it isn't you (or me)

TruckerT

wotsthat

I'm worried about how the markets seemed to be inhabited by headless chickens.

I'm a long way off from being some sort of financial guru but I remain surprised at how surprised the stock markets are by what should be on the list of the bleedin' obvious (and therefore priced in).

USA - they ain't never paying that debt back. They must be laughing their t**ts off when people keep investing in their safe haven currency. They seem to be having a debate at the moment about whether to get into frakking in a big way - the pro side say it would help energy security. Why not drive 1.6 litre cars instead and stop buying tat from China - that'd help too.

CHINA - they'll keep lending because if they don't the USA can't afford to keep importing Chinese tat. They are in the s**t, not only do they have a housing bubble waiting to burst their biggest creditor has the ability to print trillion dollar bills, pop a few in an envelope and clear the debt although not until they stockpiled the worlds biggest mountain of tat to keep them going.

ECB - don't know what they are doing. Economic growth, apart from default, is the only way that the junk countries can get out of the mess they are in. What do the ECB do? Raise interest rates - nice signal!

Greece - they never intended to pay off the debt to start with. They lied about their credentials to get into the Euro and they are lying about austerity measures now. Pay Day loans wouldn't touch them.

Portugal - austerity measures won't work. The Portuguese will just vote in someone who says they will 'stand up' to their creditors i.e. default. The average Portuguese if they have credit on their phone, half a tank of petrol, and 20 euros in their pocket will just take a couple of days of work and then turn up when they are skint.

Ireland - Celtic Tiger - another name for a bubble.

I wish I know how to make some money from these idiots. At the moment I'm continuing to drip feed investments and 'enjoying' the lower prices. Maybe that's the answer - just keep a level head.

Generali

kevin52 wrote: »

Warren Buffet has just invested five billion dollars in Bank of America so he doesn't agree with you. The US unemployment rate is 9.1 %.

There's more than one measure of US unemployment. By the broadest official measure (including 'discouraged seekers', ie those people that don't have a job, would like one but are fed up with looking) 16% of USians are unemployed.

Yours is a narrow measure, non-farm payrolls. Agriculture is excluded because of its seasonal nature. I suspect that unemployed agricultural workers feel just as unemployed as anyone else.

TruckerT

kevin52 wrote: »

Warren Buffet has just invested five billion dollars in Bank of America so he doesn't agree with you

The 'poverty trap' operates at many levels - Warren Buffet can easily afford to lose 5billion (I think...) - but if his gamble pays off, then he will win in a way that is never going to be possible for a non-member of his social group

Those 23-yr-olds, back from a year's travelling, are like salmon returning to spawn - most of them will perish in the attempt

TruckerT

kabayiri

Are we allowed to propose possible solutions if they are not palatable ?

Pandemics definitely reduce the number of people concerned about the economic troubles.

Global conflicts also reduce the numbers; they require vast financing to execute; and they require significant amounts of rebuilding work afterwards.

TruckerT

kabayiri wrote: »

Are we allowed to propose possible solutions if they are not palatable ?

Pandemics definitely reduce the number of people concerned about the economic troubles.

Global conflicts also reduce the numbers; they require vast financing to execute; and they require significant amounts of rebuilding work afterwards.

Pandemics and Global Conflicts are similar in that they both result in whole populations becoming fearful for their immediate safety and security

It is a great pity that world governments have failed, and continue to fail, to put the banks under similar pressures

TruckerT