patrick.net

I know, I've been waiting to see a chain gang of brokers. Instead, they are crying about how slow business is and our impartial government seems to be letting them run the policy.

I can say in all certainty that We are screwed this November. One of the "Keating Five" is a nomination for president and the other 2 contenders are fighting it out for the Democrats nomination are not much better.

I am 27 years old and have only managed to save $15,000 for a home downpayment. The way prices keep going up and my wages not keeping up is seriously hurting me. Since paying off my 2005 Saturn Ion, I have been able to save more. It is all almost futile! I have no debt and am struggling to keep my living standard, which is not great, from going down more.

At this point, I would welcome foreign governments changing over to a Euro for Oil policy. I want this crap to collapse and do the Coup De grace to the struggling banks that created this mess. I want the dollar to deflate and make the savers the people who are rewarded. The sooner we can get through the collapse the sooner we can start to rebuild our economy.

I much rather have one of the "Keating Five" than someone who will raise tax.

> Just because you give loans backed by crap MBS doesn’t mean you create money.

Actually, it does. Those loans were made with money created from NOTHING. The Fed creates the money it lends out. That dilutes the cash you have in your pocket.

The collateral accepted for that new cash is crap. Ergo, the Fed is making a gift of cash in exchange for crap loans.

Who loses? You do, when you buy gas, milk, bread for higher prices.

Who wins? Banks, because they can keep their profits, and the Fed makes you pay their losses.

Again, I have no problem with the Fed bailing out banks.

This deflation = apocolypse talk is really just the banksters covering their asses.

Anyone with in interest in social stability should agree that *broad-based* deflation should be avoided at all cost.

If the dollar sinks past a certain threshold, India has got millions of unemployed young people to worry about.

When that happens, will that be bullish (geopolitical instability) or bearish (jewelery demand) for gold?

My hands are sweating after reading the blogs, and checking out Bloomberg tonight.
Most of my friends are clueless as to what has been happening in the financial world in the last few months. They are still very trusting of our government and are hopeful about the near future.

In addition, a coworker says there have been multiple offers on homes in the last few weeks in Antioch.

What a bizarre juxtaposition of thoughts and events !

Peter P the stench of a rat is all over you. You strike me as the kind of guy that goes out to dinner with "friends" and then bail to the bathroom when the check arrives. Your attitude reminds me a fat peer in grade school that was always trying to get food from everyone else's lunch after eating all of his but never returned the favor by sharing his candy.

Like it or not, taxes need to be raised and we must cut spending all across the board. We have been using the collective gubermint cc too long and now we must endure a hangover of pain for a long time. The alternative is to get rid of the SS system, medicare, medicaid and other programs that are breaking the system. You will also have to relax the gun laws for the law abiding citizen because you will see many desperate criminals on the streets when the gubermint tit is removed.

Just hope we still have something of value to give back to the Chinese and Arabs for all that crap paper we gave them. Unlike the Indians, which we gave firewater and small pox contaminated blankets for land, we can't screw these trade partners. I hope we can pay off these debts with grain grown in our bread basket. The last time I looked, China is losing massive amounts of farm land every year and will soon be looking for ways to feed its people.

It is people like Peter P who made me leave the Republican Party and declare myself an independent in 2000. You people always want others to pay for gubermint programs that we can't afford and will stop at nothing to destroy this great country. When fiscal sanity is again returned to government I will become a bull again. You all claim to be patriotic by waving that "Made in China" American flag, but when push comes to shove, you are going to cut and run from your fair share of the costs to run the gubermint.

The fiscal prudence of the "greatest generation" and the "boomers" make me want to puck.

Huh?

I never wanted government programs. We should eliminate most welfare programs and privatize most government services.

And yes, I agree the gun laws must be relaxed.

At $2 per share, Bare Sterns is overpriced by about $5 per share.

JPM seems to have agreed only because the F'ed shoveled non-recourse money to them plus a promise to cover losses in mortgage securities (to the tune of $30 Billion!) - in exchange, JPM is gifted with BSC's prime brokerage business for next to nothing.

If things were not heading over the edge of the abyss, I would have thought JPM was a screaming buy - but given how fucked up this is getting, I don't know anymore...

"Soft landing", my arse.

China is losing massive amounts of farm land every year and will soon be looking for ways to feed its people.

Look at wheat:

http://futuresource.quote.com/charts/charts.jsp?s=W%20K8&o=&a=W&z=610x300&d=medium&b=bar&st=

will they lower the stupid-as-all-hell minimum wage?

The only smart minimum wage is $0.00/hr.

It is just as bad as Prop 13 and rent control.

If things were not heading over the edge of the abyss, I would have thought JPM was a screaming buy

What about a pair-trade with a not-so-solid bank?

Not investment advice.

PRIVATIZATION is not the answer. You still don't it. I want some government programs like roads, military defense (note I said defense and not imperial invader), schools, basic police and firefighter’s protection. These are used by everyone. The programs that are aimed to the benefit of a small segment of the population are not what we need/can afford.

Taxes are what pay for stuff. If you privatize these services, you will end up paying more in the long run. Can you afford to build a road that only you can drive on?

Admin, I want dollar deflation bad. The people that carelessly played with the fire of derivatives, securitization of bad loans, and outright gambling with other people's money need to be burned.

Just for kicks and giggles, I checked out the anal'yst opinions on Bear Stearns (from finance.yahoo.com)

Anal'yst Opinion
PRICE TARGET SUMMARY
Mean Target: 94.50
Median Target: 93.00
High Target: 160.00
Low Target: 35.00
No. of Brokers: 12

Public safety needs to be run by the government. This I agree. However, most other services are best run by the market.

If you privatize these services, you will end up paying more in the long run.

How so?

"At $2 per share, Bare Sterns is overpriced by about $5 per share."

That's funny!

It's kinda weird that Bare Sterns refused to participate in the bailout of LTCM.

"We" gotta make an example outta SOMEBODY......sometime....don't we??

High Target: 160.00

LOL! I thought Pets.com was more promising.

Wow - my RSS feeds are getting jammed with stories about Bear Stearns and Lehman (next?), and a dozen monks getting murdered in Tibet.

Unless a Paris-Spitzer-Britney three-way sex tape emerges in time, I think the MSM has little chance of distracting Joe Sixpack from this week's events...

March OTM Puts on LEH appear to have very high IV.

Peter P if you live in The People's Republic of Califonia, you can see it in your electric bill. I am very familiar with the operations of a large power plant.

I work at a power plant that converts a small amount of mass from Uranium into heat. This heat is used to power a steam plant that generates about 950 MW of electricity. If about 800 homes are powered with one megawatt of juice, my crew serves about 760,000 homes. The bare minimum required to run the plant is about 10 people. That corresponds to about 76,000 homes that I help power every day that I work. This place is a cash cow. During the summer months, we make over a million dollars an hour when that turbine is rolling. It is a privately owned power plant.

If you look at City Public Services of San Antonio, you will see they own about half of South Texas Project. This nuke facility makes about 2,000 megawatts at a price cheaper than coal, oil, or natural gas. San Antonio has some of the lowest electric rates in the nation. The city owned utility actually makes money from the excess electricity that it sells to other towns. This money goes to the city treasury and has allowed San Antonio to lower taxes. Before I moved from Texas, I never looked at the electric rates because it was so cheap.

The people of San Antonio paid a large sum of money to get this plant built and for a few years it looked like a huge mistake. Cost overuns from the builder and other problems made Austin run away from the project. Now the investment is paying off in big ways and the plant is one of the newest in the nation. It will probably get a license extension and operate for another 40 years.

Peter P if you live in The People’s Republic of Califonia, you can see it in your electric bill. I am very familiar with the operations of a large power plant.

California also has unique problems like NIMBYism.

# goober Says:
It’s kinda weird that Bare Sterns refused to participate in the bailout of LTCM. “We” gotta make an example outta SOMEBODY……sometime….don’t we??

You know, that had not occurred to me. Maybe the bankster mafia decided to send the horse's head to BSC so that no one, and I mean, NO ONE refuses to play ball the next time one of their own needs a bailout... not sending the message would have been one of them 'moral hazard' things... :-)

SP, too funny. I wonder what Crammer is going to say about this crap. When BSC refused to help LTCM they looked so smug and smart. The next question is, will there be hit contracts taken out on the people responsible for losing all that money?

RE: losing all that money

Money is created and destroyedre-created, it is not lost. :)

Bap, easy... I am not easily offended. Anyone is entitled to calling me anything.

BAP33, I call it how I see it. We must all accept a lower standard of living while we pay off the bills from the party we have been throwing the last 30 years. It is the responsibility of all of us to pay the collective debts/bills that we allowed our politicians to make.

I agree with you 100% that we need to cut spending. Housing is just a small symtom of a larger problem. Along with spending cuts, I also recognize that this will not be enough to fix the problem. The US is facing a 50 trillion dollar liability for the promises it made and can't keep unless we raise taxes. I would prefer to welch on these promises and cut spending all across the board. The problem with my idea is that it will hurt many people who did not contribute to the mess. At this point I can see no better alternatives.

The government bail out might as well be a burn barrel and a cardboard box, it won't work.

The US is facing a 50 trillion dollar liability for the promises it made and can’t keep unless we raise taxes.

Or... managed inflation.

There is really no painless way out. We are living in interesting times.

My favorite part of the BSC story is the part where the Fed told BSC's board to hurry up and get it done before the Japan market opened. "We may not be there tomorrow to back you up."

That says it all: Here is the lifeboat - Get in. Sit down. Hold on. And shut up.

Peter, Inflation is just another tax. It hurts me more than just ending the games we have been playing. My wages are only going up 3% per year. The last I looked, real US inflation is at 11% and climbing.

Praising the criminals of the last big bank screw up, SNL, because he won't make me pay for our foolishness (increase taxes) is wrong.

I dislike Hillary and Obama as well. Obama want to take my 2nd amendment rights away. Hillary and Johny Boy are both guilty of abdicating their constitutional powers under Article 1, Section 8 of the US constitution. They swore to uphold and defend the constitution from ALL enemies foreign and domestic. They both failed in that oath.

I am now trying to decide if I should flip a coin for November 5 or just stay at home.

OriginalBankster, it is a fat chance at me leaving. I love this country too much. The last 8 years have made me very sad. I am losing my guarantee of habeas corpus, a right that dates back to 1215. I am losing my money due to inflation. I am losing my rights to privacy. I am still not prepared to give up and leave. I am up to the challenge of working hard and digging out of this hole. We all need to chip in together and make this mess right. The only thing I ask is that the pain is not doled out to only the working people.

neutron,

you should vote for McCain. Anyone who wants an instant collapse should vote for McCain. I will do so myself because I don't want to spend the next 2 decades in recession / depression. I want all the sh*t to hit the fan at once.

Given the way things go, I may not even need to endorse an Alzheimer patient on Nov 5.

Astrologically, a major war is quite likely during the next few years.

Don't you want a war hero as the president? :)

Actually our inflation is VERY mild compared to what China is going through. China's today will be our tomorrow if they cannot sustain it any more.

Food over there is going up 20% a quarter, some (cooking oil in particular) is going up more than other. The country is imposing a price control on gasoline because the Commies are in a powwow to appoint the next politburo and President. As a result, many parts of China are running out of gasoline because the monopolistic PTR refuses to sell gas at a loss. Trucks have to wait for hours to load up just 10 litres of gas. Only those who bribe can get enough gas to carry on their business.

I have to say I am thankful that our grocery price doesn't change on a weekly or daily basis.

SP Says:
At $2 per share, Bare Sterns is overpriced

Oh, my mistake - the $2 is NOT a cash offer, but paid in JPM stock. Which probably means it is worthless anyway. A few months from now, when JPM walks the plank, the Fed will probably offer JPM share-holders $2 in pets.com stock... :-)

peter, I take a casual interest in this subject. Why do you think this?

I recommend this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Financial-Universe-Investments-Astrological-Forecasting/dp/1898595445/ref=pd_sim_b_title_6

The books is more of a big picture overview about possible futures than a text on financial astrology.

Of course, Astrology is all about influences, not predictions.

What kind of astrology are you most interested in?

China’s today will be our tomorrow if they cannot sustain it any more.

Hopefully there will be no price control here.