financial stuff

Some person being interviewed said that it took us seven years to get in this mess. It is going to take us several years to get out of it. I hate to tell him, but we are not done getting in to the mess yet. Economic stimulus comes when people have jobs that they trust will be there beyond the end of the current pay period. Economic stimulus comes when people think about the future and think about what university they want their kids to go to, not where their meals will come from, how they are going to make rent, will the car make it another year.

Some people sound optimistic. More people sound pessimistic. The people who are making money sound like the kind of people who will always be in a good situation. There are just some people who always seem to come out on top. There are plenty of people who find themselves on the other end of that spectrum.

It has gotten bad enough that the radio people on the BBC show "Wakeup to Money" have asked listeners for new analogies. They are sick of the standard lot they have been putting out over and over.

No one in any important position is going to call what we are in a depression until we are out of it. Pumping money in to the banks hasn't helped. The obvious solution is to pump even more money in to the banks. That should do the trick. Just don't pay attention to the billions going to banker's bonuses. That fact kind of fractures the narrative. The guy who did Freakonomics called what we are in "re great depression". That is the bravest move I've heard yet to let people know what situation we are in.

The markets are up 5% one day and down 5% the next day. Things are bat-shit nuts on the market right now. We don't have people jumping out of windows on Wall Street, but none of those windows open if memory serves.

The only reason there is no wild fractionation in the currency markets is interconnectivity. That is, as one country takes a hit, many of the countries around them feel the hit through the interconnected markets. Thus, the currencies from the different countries reflect the hit to some extent. Unemployment, lack of stability in most forms cross borders more than ever. Heck, people complaining on Twitter about losing on a stock sends ripples around the world. At some point, governments are going to ban complaining about a stock for 24 hours after the first affect.

Someone estimated that four trillion dollars have been wiped off world wide markets in the last two weeks. The gravy train has left the station.

On All Over the Shop, a comedy show in Australia, they recommend buying a ream of paper and holding on to it. The blank paper will be worth more in a couple years then the equivalent weight in stock certificates. Sounds like a plan to me.