It’s Friday, the markets are in shambles, and we could use some financial heroes about now. [Sorry Bernanke and Paulson, but you guys aren't exactly "hero" material.]
A couple of years ago Doom posted a video entitled "Real Financial Heroes". [One of my personal favorites.] Now that our "heroes" seem to have disappeared, I thought it would be fun to rerun the video and ask, "Ah yes, where are they now?"
What else should we look at this morning? This is an open thread, so please send us your best links, comments, stories- whatever’s on your mind.
it’s gettin uglier every day. people aren’t chargin beef jerky makers and $300 shoes anymore. they’re chargin groceries and other monthly bills….even utilities and car payments. not a good sign. forget about retail this season…..how will these people get by once their card is maxed out? i heard a guy from visa last month saying they weren’t worried about business because although the retail and big ticket charging was way down, the consumers were now using their cards for the every day staples and even to pay other bills so these transactions will make up for the decrease on the other types of transactions????? could he not see that the next “decreasing transaction” will be the one where the cardholder actually PAYS the credit card bill?
twist -
Our morning paper plopped on the doorstep with this prescription that if we only treat the symptoms our jerky-jerk will be back in a flash:
“Pessimism biggest challenge when fighting a recession”, by Roger Taylor, Halifax Chronicle-Herald, November 14, 2008.
… however, the actual magnitude of the real difficulty is now becoming all too obvious.
“Americans teetering on $14 trillion debt pile”, by Emily Kaiser, Reuters, November 14, 2008.
hillarious the jerky guy throwing up then putting the jerky maker on the closet shelf next to the other mistakes. And the couple in the new house. regretfully this is it. Got a call fron a lady I know in Las Vegas who took her investment out of natural gas and stuck it in an investment paying 12-14% for a high end mobile home park. Her 70k was puny next to the people trying to open the locked door at their office that lost their retirement money of much more. The fact the fbi is all over this scum isn’t going to change a thing. They’re broke, just like the couple in the big house. These are life changing times and finding the culprit is hard. All I know is Greenspan and Bernake should be criminally prosecuted. For what I don’t know. This is just so pathetic.
Listen to the story now:
She lived in a 6,000 sq ft McMansion with a leased BMW. She stood there, at her upgraded granite countertop, drinking a $5 Starbucks latte, which she had paid for with home equity which came out of the tap. She had voted for Obama and now she was thinking, Is my name Megan or Heather?
John-
We now have a generation of baby boomers who are realizing that their house is NOT going to finance their retirement. It’s obscene that the government wants to solve things by “stimulating” us into spending, when it’s about time we quit buying stuff we don’t need, downsize and put some money in the bank. [Or maybe a mattress!]
Consumers aren’t suffering from “pessimism”- it’s more that the Reality Fairy has finally hit home. No “happy talk” from the Fed or the Treasury is going to change that.
You’ve got it Igor- consumers have “no money”.
Paulson and Co. want to reignite the heroic firey passion of “keeping up with the Jones-es”. ITEOTWAWKI