Monday, March 17, 2008

It's all contained

So said Jorge W. So said Kudlow. So said the NAR. So said the so-called experts on CNBC. So said everybody. It's all contained. Housing won't affect the broader economy said the same so-called experts. Only doomsayers think so. How's all that working out for everyone?

And now we are supposed to listen to these same people tell us everything will be OK because the Fed is lowering rates. Yeah, OK. Rates could go to 0% and it won't make a damn bit of difference. The economy is in deep trouble due to a decade's worth of a bubble driven economy. We should have had a severe recession in 2001. We didn't because after the .com bubble, the Fed created the housing bubble. And that bubble was even bigger than the previous bubble. And now, in 2008 and 2009 we will have one hell of a recession.

The fact that this is happening during an election year will make things that much worse. If the government were to just let this thing run its course it would be over by the end of the year. But instead idiots from both parties will come up with bad idea after bad idea to solve an unsolvable problem. From the 'buy a house and we'll pay you $15K' idiocy of Georgia's 2 Senators to the Chris Dodd and Chuck Shumer let's bail out every homeowner no matter what, both parties are tripping over themselves.

As Ronald Reagan said, the scariest words in the English language are 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help'.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Forget recession, we're heading for a severe depression. Get ready.

Malcolm said...

My theory (and I may be repeating myself) is this:

As long as they keep saying wildly untrue things like “Everything’s fine” or “We believe in a strong dollar”, things will not get better.

The uncertainty in the market, I think, is directly related to the fact that the people in a position of control can’t be trusted.

If they were to come out and say “ya, things are scr*wed, things might get better.

Ed said...

I agree Malcolm. But unfortunately in an election no politician has the balls to do that. I heard Bush compared to Hoover a few times and my reaction is I wish he were like Hoover and would let market forces do their thing.

Anonymous said...

So . . . real question here . . . I have a chunk of money I want to put away and I was just met with an investment advisor and he told me to put it in a money market account for now.

How bad is this stuff? Should we be taking our money out of the banks and stuffing it under our mattresses? Out of our growth funds? Out of our money market accounts?

Ed said...

"I have a chunk of money I want to put away and I was just met with an investment advisor and he told me to put it in a money market account for now."

Mistake #1 listening to an "expert" on what to do with your money. Chances are the MM fund he recommended has a healthy kickback to him.

And despite what people think MM accounts are not guaranteed. A MM fund can go to $0. Unlikely but has happened before.

If you want safe, put money into FDIC insured accounts, in increments of $100K. Yeah, FDIC could default as well, but if that ever were to happen we'd be so screwed that it wouldn't even matter.

This stuff is bad, but not end of the world bad. It is needed to clean out the crap that has been building up for years and years. If the gubermint lets it happen in an orderly way it will be a quick hit. If the gubermint tries to help, god help us.