And It Just Gets Worse

[Ron61]

This is really strating to get to the pont where I fear bad things are going to happen.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080317/...arns_fed_dc_16

Ron

[392cobra]

Looks like it could be a really good day to be buying.Cerrtainly not selling.

[4RE KLR]

You beat me to it Fred. I think the bear will make it but due to the rumors of last week it needs a bit of help for the interim.

Anyone remember AMR selling for less than a dollar?

How about LUV (Southwest Airlines) at @ $4.00

They deals are out there right now if you do your homework first!

[427sharpe]

Maybe we can buy it up and outsource some top executive jobs to Pakistan or Mexico!

[Ron61]

I saw that Delta airlines is going to lay off 6,000 employees I think it was and that the price of tickets and checked baggage is going to jump due to the higher fuel prices.
Also in the local paper they are starting to have problems with houses they have foreclosed on. They are getting run down and the neighbors want the yards and houses cleaned up as transients and dopers are breaking in and living in them. The city has no money and may have to lay off emergency personnel, IE Foremen & police. But they just spent $10 million on another Gas powered turbine to provide electricity and then stated that they would have to raise the electrics rates by at least 6% per year for the next 10 years. And that will go up as the price of fuel increases. Two more of the small businesses closed down this week and the city is flat broke and in the red, so they may have to increase the taxes on the remaining businesses to make up for the lost revenue, which will just force more of them to close.

Ron

[427 S/O]

Ron, Delta Airlines is offering voluntary severance payouts to roughly 30,000 employees.
I suspect most will be replaced by contract workers.

[Ron61]

Perry,

I just sent you a test PM to see if you get it. As of this morning I am not getting any e-mail notifications from here and I tried sending myself an e-mail through the club and never received it. Same for when I sent myself a PM I never received any notification, but am getting them from other sites.

Ron

[Wes Tausend]

...

Ron,

On the light side, I'm waiting for the Feds to lower rates so much that they start to pay us an interest rate to borrow money.

Now I know that a lot of foolish Americans have run their credit cards up to the hilt and can't possibly (reasonably?) borrow any more money ...but it just so happens that I wouldn't owe anything if my lovely wife hadn't recently bought a new car ...so I have a lot of credit to go. I think I can help.

You've heard the expression that "the rich get richer"? Well, I'm thinking it's time for the thrifty to get richer. I'm planning on soon borrowing as much as I can and then using the interest profits paid me to continuously loan myself even more, through an appropriate Federal agency of course. That should kick-start the economy while it's down. After a bit, I'll be able to return the principle and help keep consumer spending up with just the interest profits.

On the down side, during the last nasty '90's Bush Sr. recession, it slowed down so much that our coal hauling business dropped off about 25%. I didn't see how the public could choose to use less power, but part of it was that Ford quit taking coal for their foundry and I'm sure many other industrial power users slowed also. That was the most notable economic sector failure last time, where people quit buying cars for a while, especially American made.

The '80's recession before that, during Carter/Reagan, was mostly a major housing downturn. A friend of mine recently bought a large pre-manufactured house from Canada. After completion of the north-south NAFTA highway, we'll be able to get our houses cheaper yet from Mexico. First foreign cars, now this.

That's the scary part ...that both major sectors are falling together now along with general retail sales and stocks. Might get ugly alright.


...

[trularin]

Have you guys purchased food lately?

[Ron61]

Wes,

Fortunately I don't have any debts except my usual monthly bills and insurance payments. I paid cash for everything I have and don't know if I could borrow any money or not as I have no debt rating for them to check. I do have one credit card that I use all the time as I hate to write checks, so I use the credit card and pay it off each month.
Yes, the rich get richer but that is because they can absorb a loss easier than a poor person can. And most of them worked to get there so I have no problem with them and really don't think much of the tax the rich more. As long as they are paying their fair share I think that is the way it should be. Some have all kinds of tax shelters but if I were wealthy I would most likely use them too. A couple of my friends are very wealthy and they pay huge amounts of taxes.

Tru,

Yes, I have bought food lately. I can't walk out of the store for less than $100 no matter how little I buy.

Ron

[Wes Tausend]

Originally Posted by trularin

Have you guys purchased food lately?

Yeah. Yipes!

As soon as the food industry can organize as well as the pharmaceutical industry, I think it's going to get higher. After all, food, like drugs, is something we all have to have and they can charge whatever the market will bear. That's only fair in a purely capitalist society.

I'm going to use part of my profits to buy into a food club and get a plastic food card, all from interest-paid-to-me via borrowing Federal money. My understanding is that I can get a steep discount on food as a privileged member. If my debtor windfall plan doesn't work out, I'm going to smuggle food from Canada since I live in the last border state to have Homeland Security.

I'm using the rest of my "prime rate" money to buy bullets in case my hungry neighbor(s) "comes over for a cup of sugar".

=============================================\

Ron,

I always figure that somebody else can't work more than twice as hard as me. I already work about 72 hours a week. So if they have more than twice as much money as I do, they have swiped it from somebody else anyway. So I think they should be taxed at exhorbant rates. Might have been my money that they swiped ...swiped to start with ...while I wasn't watching closely, being busy at actual work and all.

I do the same thing with a credit card, paid off once a month. Since way before it became popular. And that was when it became known cash or check was the slower way to move the checkout line. I'm always in a hurry since I constantly have to get back to real work to fund the rich guys that spend all day swiping my money for a living.



...

[Ron61]

Wes,

That is where an old retired guy like me has an advantage over you and the wealthy. I don't have any money for anyone to swipe and I don't have to work those long shifts any more. The credit card thing I have done for many years as I just always hated to have checks out everywhere and writing one to pay for most of my purchases was far more convenient.
Now I see in the news that some big food store chain back East has had a bunch of their customers debit card numbers swiped by a hacker. I didn't see the whole thing so I don't know exactly what all happened.

Ron

[392cobra]

I'm certainly not trying or wanting to start an argument or anything.

This about the so called "rich & poor".I say so called because the example is my ex-wife and me.

When I hear about how the rich should be paying more taxes and how hard the poor are having it ,I am reminded of my ex-wife.

Everytime she shows up with her hand out,I get to hear how rich and uncaring I am and how it isn't "fair".

I live a simple and uncomplicated life now.Since I divorced,I got back to zero debt.like I was before getting married to her.While married,my wife could spend it faster than I could bring it in.
AND there would be nothing to show for it.

I am retired at 59.

She will never beable to retire with anything.Her choices will be what brand & flavor of dawg food she will have for dinner.
It isn't because of her income ,AT ALL.She has a good income.She is working on spending next year's income and never a thought about saving !
She has a good income and her home is paid off.Yet she still thinks she is poor and deserving.

The point is... there are a lot of people that would trade places with her !!!
Just because you have more than some other person doesn't make you "rich",nor having less "poor'.

There will always be people with more & less than you.Try to happy with what you have,instead of pi$$ed off.

Happiness is a personal choice.

[Wes Tausend]

...

Fred,

It sounds like your ex is trying to be in both the top 5th and bottom 5th to me.

Happiness is a personal choice.

Some of us choose to be p'd off ...not because it is easy, but because it is hard, because that goal will serve to measure and organize the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to eventually give up and be happy.


...

[392cobra]

What made the difference in me being able to retire early is getting a stable of Humpin' Ho Frogs.
I understand pimping Ho Frogs isn't for everyone.

[Smokingcobra2]

392 cobra just showed my wife your lovely picture from email she swears she never took it. lol

joe

[Wayne Maybury]

If you think food is expensive now, wait for a while, it is going to go up. Fuel ethanol, combined with some poor harvests in the rest of the world, has driven up the price of corn which in turn is driving up the price of other grains and cereals which is going to drive up the price of meat, and just about everything else.

How would you have liked to have purchased some gold 2 or 3 days ago? It is off $60 an ounce today alone. Oil is down $5 so that should reduce the price of gas if the trend continues. I was at a conference last week and the economist giving a presentation said that between $20 and $30 and possibly as much as $50 a barrel of the cost of oil right now is pure speculation. Many econominst feel that the actual present cost of oil is in the $60 to $80 range, not the $110 that it is being sold at. All the rest is speculation markup. Some people are making billions right now as they manipulate the futures markets.

Wayne