Takin' on water..

[BlueStreak]

".....where is the feast we were promised?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hfS9Ck8FnA

Dave

[hillbilly]

Originally Posted by BlueStreak

I have no faith in anyone, anymore, beyond family, Flac. And some of them are kinda shaky.

Least of all your beloved Wall Street pirates.
I believe they would stand idly by and watch us all starve to death before they would lift a finger. Until there's a buck in it for them, of course.

And, Oh, yes he did.

Here's one for ya.

He and his brothers once had to fight a railroad yard Bull.

Why?

Because it was January and they lived in St. Louis, Minnesota just west of
Duluth. It was a particularly brutal winter. The wood they cut in the fall was gone and any they cut anew wouldn't be seasoned soon enough. So, after they had burned all of the furniture, they took pillowcases and jumped the fence at the local steel plant. Started filling up the pillow cases with coal from the trains. A "Bull" caught them. Lucky for them there were three of them and one of him. 'Cuz when he whacked my Uncle Harold in the head with his nightstick, they jumped him and beat his ass, then ran. They were teenagers.

Nice, Huh?

It kills me that I know people who can't conceive of it getting that bad.

My other Uncle, Robert, died in 1992 at 76. His Sister, her husband and my cousins searched his property...........for money. In the toilet tank, in the walls, under the carpet, in jars buried in the yard and in the flower beds in his greenhouse, (He was a florist. Retired Navy and ironically, he had retired as a maintenance supervisor from that same steel plant.) they found almost $300,000 in cash. He had no bank accounts, and no investments.

One quote I recall from him;
"Bankers don't get rich by throwing money around. They get rich by keeping it. And they'll never get any of mine."

These are the things I know about the "Great Depression". The way the folks that survived it didn't trust Wall Street, or banks, "....any farther than you can throw them."

Keep on trusting "Bankers" and the "Corporate World". You think any of those "Masters of the Universe" will be around to ladle out the soup when the shit hits the fan? Nope, they just send the Sheriff around to toss you out on your ass when you stop paying your bills.

That's what I learned from the elders in my family.

It's just as foolish as trusting the government. Actually, nowadays, I'd surmise the two are becoming one and the same. They have us by the nuts, and they feel they have been far too permissive with us.

Dave

Dave, I'd like to ask something about burried money. I know some old timers that have no saving or checking. They keep their worth private in cash not only to keep from losing a dime if things go belly-up, but also a small town bank can't spread gossip around town about how much or how little they have saved. Hardly anything is kept secret in a small town.

But here's what I'm wondering. I've heard stores of people having a wad of cash taken by police ( it's assumed to be drug money automaticly until you can prove you saved it, or withdrew it from savings, etc ). It seems as though it's slowly becoming a crime to keep your savings personal, and out of a bank.

More and more places are forcing their workers to use direct deposit, and a paycheck is not an option. Ok, what happens when cold hard cash is done away with ( no more printed money ) and all your worth is in a bank, and then we have a crash in a plastic world? Who will still be wining and dining while many starve? Honestly, I've often wondered how our childrens future will play out ... or possibly even our own future.

[whell]

C'mon guys. A market correction is all this is, and is not unusual after a couple months of quick gains like we've recently had. I think a bit of perspective is in order.

That said, we do have our share of economic issues. They are correctable. But the doom and gloom stuff has about as much credibility with me as Chariots of the Gods.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by whell

C'mon guys. A market correction is all this is, and is not unusual after a couple months of quick gains like we've recently had. I think a bit of perspective is in order.

That said, we do have our share of economic issues. They are correctable. But the doom and gloom stuff has about as much credibility with me as Chariots of the Gods.

+1. When I start hearing despair like this, I buy. Conversely, I sell on "irrational exuberance".

[merrylander]

I was born at home, in December of 1930, if you want to know about the Great Depression, just ask.

But having a Father who worked hard, and a Mother who stretched every dollar to the maximum we survived it quite well. But that was a different era where people were curteous and kinder. We moved to a small town that my uncle and another man started when I was just three. Like most small towns everyone knew everyone else and pretty much knew their business. The thing that is forgotten is that when someone was hurting we were all there to help. People mocked Hillary when she said it takes a village but you had to live in one to know. As a child you behaved yourself because if you messed up your parents would know about it before you even got home.

Now people have no social graces, get on an airplane and watch. Normally civil people walk down the ramp and emerge at the door of the aircraft as neanderthals. Drive our highways for an object lesson if you will. A friend sent me some pictures of the devastation in Joplin. Rescuers found a dog in a flattened house and put him in their SUV. Then they found another and put her in the SUV, the dogs bonded instantly. They found two more dogs and it was the same story and finally a cat that the dogs accepted instantly. Animals behave better than people, something we see daily with our five feral cats.

My referance to aircraft travel made me think of a letter in today's WaPo, the writer was bitching about aid to Amtrak, completely forgetting about the subsidies to airlines and trucking companies. Please name the airline that built its own airport, or the trucking company that built its own higways. Having travelled from Glenwood, MD, to Glenwood Springs, CO on Amtrak we have concluded that it is the one remaining civilized mode of travel. People are nicer, the food was fabulous, and you see this beautiful land in a manner that is impossible from 30,000 feet. We even got mooned by three teens just outside Omaha, NB

I am able to post here any time of day because I am retired with a pension from an honest Canadian company that will not declare bankruptcy so they can get some judge to absolve then of their promised pension. No my friends it is a far far different world than the one I grew up in and except for my beloved wife and beautiful granddaughters I would not regret leaving it.

[merrylander]

Some interesting statistics on the economy. Michael Spence, author of The Next Convergence looked at which American companies created jobs at home from 1990 to 2008, a period of exreme globalization. The companies that did business in global markets, including manufacturers, banks, exporters, energy firms and financial services contributed almost nothing to overall American job growth. in fact from 2000 to 2007 we saw the weakest period of job creation since the Great Depression.

Firms that did contribute were ones that operated mainly in the U.S., healthcare companies, government agencies, retailers, hotels but these are all low paying jobs. So much for free trade.

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by whell

C'mon guys. A market correction is all this is, and is not unusual after a couple months of quick gains like we've recently had. I think a bit of perspective is in order.

That said, we do have our share of economic issues. They are correctable. But the doom and gloom stuff has about as much credibility with me as Chariots of the Gods.

Agreed.

So once your stinking party stops spreading the doom and gloom predictions around as thick as they possibly can, the economy might recover? I tend to believe so.

"Vote GOP or you'll end up eating you pets!"

Such BS. I believe the country would survive if they disappeared altogether.

Because I have faith in America.

Dave

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by hillbilly

Dave, I'd like to ask something about burried money. I know some old timers that have no saving or checking. They keep their worth private in cash not only to keep from losing a dime if things go belly-up, but also a small town bank can't spread gossip around town about how much or how little they have saved. Hardly anything is kept secret in a small town.

But here's what I'm wondering. I've heard stores of people having a wad of cash taken by police ( it's assumed to be drug money automaticly until you can prove you saved it, or withdrew it from savings, etc ). It seems as though it's slowly becoming a crime to keep your savings personal, and out of a bank.

More and more places are forcing their workers to use direct deposit, and a paycheck is not an option. Ok, what happens when cold hard cash is done away with ( no more printed money ) and all your worth is in a bank, and then we have a crash in a plastic world? Who will still be wining and dining while many starve? Honestly, I've often wondered how our childrens future will play out ... or possibly even our own future.

I've been wondering the same thing myself. Actually, what I've been wondering is this;

If we go "paperless", what replaces the paper? And what sort of "fees" will be attached to using it? Because you know who ever ends up administering the cards, be it the government, and/or private banks, they are going to claim "Administrative costs" and charge you for using it, over and above existing sales taxes/interest rates of course. (Let's see, what are the interest rates on those cards in your wallet already? Somewhere around 20%?).

It's just another way of fleecing the public, Hillbilly. You're exactly right about that.

However, if it is private banks that do the fleecing, I suppose we'll be told that that's just fine...........

Dave

[whell]

Originally Posted by merrylander

Some interesting statistics on the economy. Michael Spence, author of The Next Convergence looked at which American companies created jobs at home from 1990 to 2008, a period of exreme globalization. The companies that did business in global markets, including manufacturers, banks, exporters, energy firms and financial services contributed almost nothing to overall American job growth. in fact from 2000 to 2007 we saw the weakest period of job creation since the Great Depression.

Firms that did contribute were ones that operated mainly in the U.S., healthcare companies, government agencies, retailers, hotels but these are all low paying jobs. So much for free trade.

2000 - 2007 is a period that included the midst of the dot com bubble burst, the WTC attack and subsequent strain on the finance and insurance markets, Enron/Worldcom/Tyco, a recession, and the financial market meltdown that tightened credit and the availability of capital, and an expansion of government spending that also sucked capital out of the market.

Conversely, it also saw the rise of Asian economies, particularly China, and a modest growth of Western European economies. This all by itself likely explains the divergent results. But, I'd be curious what the author suggests is the reason for the disparity.

[BlueStreak]

Speaking of Pops. On the main rig as I type;

"String of Pearls", Glenn Miller.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg2vtWezWbw

Enjoy,

Dave