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

1984ReturnsForReal_2

mcc100 wrote: »

As Julieq is always right Generali, then you are clearly wrong .....

Is JulieQ CarolT?

ruggedtoast

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!

House prices are still going to go up though right?

ManAtHome

Thrugelmir wrote: »

At a 6% yield. In addition the BOA will pay a 5% premium to purchase the stock back.

If that wasn't enough there's options on 700 million share warrants that can be exercised over the next 10 years.

WB always takes a long term view.

Wasn't it preferential stock (paid back before the plebs anyway), and would already have got back a fair heap if the share warrants could have been flogged after the 'buffy bounce' (dunno what the t&c's were on them). Not convinced he's taking the long term view here...

Shakethedisease

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 %.

Didn't a lot of really rich people do that before the Wall St crash to try and bolster confidence ?? Is it not a known confidence trick in the markets ? I have no idea myself to be honest, but when I saw the mention of some billionaire investing in stock that's been falling fast.. I knew I'd read about the same sort of thing happening somewhere before et voila...

At 1pm several leading Wall Street bankers met to find a solution to the panic and chaos on the trading floor.[8] The meeting included Thomas W. Lamont, acting head of Morgan Bank; Albert Wiggin, head of the Chase National Bank; and Charles E. Mitchell, president of the National City Bank of New York. They chose Richard Whitney, vice president of the Exchange, to act on their behalf. With the bankers' financial resources behind him, Whitney placed a bid to purchase a large block of shares in U.S. Steel at a price well above the current market. As traders watched, Whitney then placed similar bids on other "blue chip" stocks.

This tactic was similar to a tactic that ended the Panic of 1907, and succeeded in halting the slide that day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered with a slight increase, closing with it down only 6.38 points for that day. In this case, however, the respite was only temporary.

pqrdef

Well the US government is now suing the banks, including BoA. So they must feel that the banks can totally afford this and the markets are nowhere near a total crisis of confidence, mustn't they.

AD9898_2

As many a older poster will know I've long exercised my view that our current form of civilisation is unsustainable and therefore doomed, as were many before it.

The only uncertainty is when, I'll stick to my long held prediction of within 15 years..

martinthebandit

For more unbiase opinion, read here,

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90780/91343/7587442.html

ceridwen

tomterm8 wrote: »

I think it is easy to be too pessimistic. These problems are not unique. They have happened before. This can give us great hope, since if our fathers and grandfathers could solve them, so can we. These economic problems are human problems: made by people, and therefore possible to be solved by people. All these terrible problems will, sooner or later, be history. It is easy to become very negative, but, you must remember that even at this moment hundreds of millions of people are working, hard, to improve their lives and the lives of their families.

In other words, this, too, shall pass.

I rather thought the last lot of major problems got "solved" by the outbreak of World War 2.

Now what was that comment about - if theres a World War 3 then the next war will be fought with bows and arrows.:cool:

abankerbutnotafatcat

We live in interesting times. I work for a 'bank' that neither takes deposits (we would like to but people seem to find safer havens for their money) or makes advances.

Not much any of us can do other than look after our own affairs as best as we can and be thankful for that roof over our heads and food in our bellies which is more than a lot of ppl had in historic economic crises (sp?)

atush

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

They are inhabited by automatic electronic selling proglrams that ramp up selling/losses.