Comparing now not to 1929, but to 1873

[Kupek]

Interesting read: http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?i ... 4hy9z83x18

The author (who happens to teach at William and Mary, where I was two years ago) argues that the current situation is more like what happened in 1873 than in 1929. The depression in 1873 was initiated by - wait for it - a construction boom and the assumption that values would continue to rise.

[SineSwiper]

That construction boom was brought about by something. Maybe it was that people that couldn't afford houses were getting subprime loans. Where's your Chicken and Egg God now?

Also, there's no denying that removing safeguards that were in place after the GD still had an effect on our own situation.

[Zeus]

Yeah, that does sound like it has a helluva lot more parallels than the Great Depression. It's almost like what's going on is an update version of that in today's economy based on that article.

What was that old addage we always hear: those who don't learn from history are bound to repeat it?

[Imakeholesinu]

Dow to close below 10,000 today.

So, how about that bailout?

[Zeus]

Dow to close below 10,000 today.

So, how about that bailout?

I can't wait for my RRSPs to rebound HUGE when the idiot speculators stop freaking out. This same shit happened a couple of years ago, it always rebounds.

[Oracle]

You do realize the bailout isn't going to directly impact the stock market, right?

The companies who have public stocks have to be making money for their stocks to go up. That means people have to spend money. That means people have to have money. Guess what? The economy sucks, and no amount of money aimed at bailing out financial institutions is going to fix that immediately.

People need to have money to invest, and the financial crisis is helping people to realize that money is tight right now, so you better grab what you got and hold on tight.

You won't see a dramatic upswing this year, methinks. But then again, I don't have an economics degree.

[SineSwiper]

Guess what? You have a 401k? Go put as much towards your 401k as you can, and target any new payments towards mutual funds, instead of bonds. While your 401k may have lost a bunch of money because of the stock market, you will be buying the new stock at discount prices, and the market will recover eventually. So, in the long term, you'll be getting quite a profit to more than recover your losses.

And if you don't have a 401k? What the fuck is your problem?! You think you'll retire off of hopes and dreams?

[Zeus]

This bailout is designed to stop the collapse and not immediately prop up the economy. It will lead to that, hopefully, if they do it right. But stopping the downward spiral is first and foremost. They're basically fixing what they've spent a decade or more fucking up

But we may see a sudden spike for a day or two here and there as I think these huge drops have been more a result of people freaking and overreacting, which the speculators do very well. But it's not like we'll have a 14K DJI in 2 months or anything

[SineSwiper]

It's not like we'll have a 2k DJI either.