Economic "Death Pool"

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

While this could be a political thread, it's not meant to be one. The question here is: When do you predict the worldwide market crash to take place? The European markets are reeling like ours, as are the Asian markets so it is probably inevitable that we will see another Depression in our future.

I am doing what I can to sure up my finances right now by eliminating debt, paying off my car insurance FAST, and will start working to get my Olds going again starting next week, so I have a second car to fall back on. I'm also fixing things around my house that are broken, and looking at ways to minimize monthly expenses for when the worst happens-because it is going to happen no matter what happens on election day. I give it until the end of January before we plunge headlong into another Great Depression. It's just a hunch, but then again I saw the mortgage crisis coming 5 years ago.

Post your prediction for the end of our economy here!

Me: End of January 2009

 

[v8power]

February. no debt here, and going to keep it that way.

 

[1986montecarlols]

I dont

have any debt either except school loans. Will I still be able to get school loans if this happens?

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Who knows? I have heard it is becoming much harder to get student loans as the whole credit market grinds to a halt. If the whole thing goes to hell like it could in a worst-case scenario, food will be a bigger concern than student loans. I am worried about the pizza business drying up as people become more desperate, which will pretty much destroy me economically. I'd probably move back in with my parents as my dad is a cop and business will be booming for him if it gets really bad. I hope it doesn't, but things are not looking too good.

 

[1986montecarlols]

yeha

that would really not be good for me. In my case a bach. degree in history is nothing unless you want to be a teacher. For my case I need at least my masters degree. Geez

 

[Uncletruck]

Let's not worry ourselves sick over this. I have seen much worse times in my own lifetime, and things will most likely recover. As of today, people in my average middle class neighborhood are still getting up and going to work, they are still eating, houses are not being abandoned, banks are still providing mortgages and car loans, etc-etc, in other words day to day life is still happening. No need to bury yourself in a fallout shelter just yet.

Water always reaches its level. The real estate market reached a breaking point simply because it HAD to. It has been a market that has been WAY over-rated for WAY too long. I just take for instance a house that my parents had built for them 30 years ago for $55k selling on the market a year ago for $250k. Definitely something wrong with that picture. It's just one more thing that needs to be brought more in line with reality as to what these homes and property are actually worth, not how much money banks will give people to buy these homes they default on until the banks go belly up, which is what happened.

I'm not about this government number out of the hat "bail out," one bit. Those who made the mistakes should pay the penalties for them, and if that means the bank or insurance company or whatever closing its doors than so be it. When the trucking business I had for 10 years got to the point it was no longer profitable, I closed up shop and sold my assets BEFORE it went in to debt. Somehow, these big companies are given all the loans in the world to continue on and on, just racking up debt to no end at the directon of their "highly educated" people at the top. Then we the taxpayers have to "bail them out," knowing damn well the CEO and presidents and VP's are still going to get their annual Christmas bonus and all their pension when they retire for all the excellent decisions they made? All I can do is shake my head as I work for a company that will probably get some of this donation money despite them being in the top 200 of the Forbes 500. The department I work in just had its most profitable month ever in Sept, so I guess I'll be employed for a few more weeks anyway LOL!

-UT-

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

What I find disturbing is just how many houses are getting abandoned in my delivery area. My neighborhood has a few, but the higher income neighborhoods have been hit pretty hard in some cases. As for a depression, it may not happen, and I hope it won't. But it is only prudent to prepare in case it does. The initial post was intended to be a bit of black humor with truth thrown in for good measure. I am not building a fallout shelter ( but I may try to buy a geiger counter...lol), but I am preparing for hard times as best I can by doing things that make sense in any economy. If it does happen, I'll be clinging to my guns and religion...so I guess I should think about getting a gun to cling to huh? :lol:

Also, this bailout stinks and it won't solve anything. Real Estate got too high and people got too greedy. That money is not coming back because the market corrected based on the normal fundamentals of the real estate market. The market just needs to work itself out and go back to workable ratios of home value to ability to pay. The government can't do anything to fix this, and by incurring almost a trillion dollars in additional debt will only make it worse. Eventually, the debt will have to be paid back and we are all going to be stuck paying for it. Putting it off for our children to deal with so that we can live off the excess is not a good idea. We need sensible reforms to the way the government operates, but that would be too painful to keep people in office. Cutting government benefits instead of incurring new ones and using the savings to pay off the debt is the best thing we could do. But, politicians don't like doing that because they need the money to buy votes. Oh well. I guess there's nothing we can do. We're all on the hook for it now.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

The worldwide markets continue to drop today as nothing seems to help. Now McCain and Obama both want to have the right to "reevaluate" people's mortgages and set lower payments and interest rates for those who may lose their homes. This is a BAD idea. On the surface, it looks good, but the lesson it teaches those who are paying is that it does not pay to do the right thing. What will end up happening should this go through is that everyone will default on their mortgages to get a bailout and cheaper payments. Why not? It doesn't seem to have any ill effects on you. This will only end up further destabilizing the markets and force the government to essentially own everyone's house. And so Capitalism ends and National Socialism begins. My only question is just how far this will go? I think we would have been better off letting it all collapse rather than go down this road. We could be headed down the road to a Democratic form of Communism no matter who gets elected. After all, it would be essentially a government controlled housing market where the government sets the prices and not the market value. This is a large part of the theories of Marx and Engalls. Add to it nationalizing heath care, carbon taxes, controls on free speech (via the "Fairness Doctrine"), etc. and it's bye bye Constitution. McCain already wanted to limit bloggers with McCain/Feingold, and Obama wants to limit talk radio and broadcast TV with The "Fairness Doctrine".

 

[JDub]

we wont go into a depression. recession, probable. depression, doubtful.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

WooHooo!!! Dow down below 8600!!! Where does it stop? I'll place my bet at 5,000.