Are you worried about the current worldwide financial crisis

[wavemeister]

I suppose it is true that the effect of businesses losing money and having to cut costs will transfer to people who are looking for work. I get the feeling that the job market was already crap in a lot of sectors even BEFORE the current financial crisis, though. If it's not the stock market, it's oil prices. If it's not oil prices, it's something else. There's ALWAYS something else.

In Germany, we just had a "job boom", with the numbers of unemployed constantly falling - if you believe to the media of the gouvernment in blind, very blind faith.
The truth (everyone can find if they want to even in the official statements of the employment agency) is that more and more people are working in mini jobs and temp work - usually the first to get the boot when somewhere in the world someone lets a fart. And thanks to the "Agenda 2010" (similar to the "Contract on America"), more and more people will take a hard crash landing.

Now THAT is what pisses me off about the whole current situation the most, quite frankly. The US government decides to spend $700 billion to try and keep these giant lenders from going under due to all the bad mortgages, but where the hell's the accountability? These companies give out tons of extremely risky loans of their own volition, but instead of having to face the consequences of their own greed when it comes back and bites them in the arse, the government bails them out? The only message that sends is "Oh, I don't have to worry about taking ridiculous risks with my money! The government will protect me from my own stupidity!" While I understand that it'd be bad for a lot of normal people who have investments with companies like AIG if they went under (not to mention everyone who works for AIG), maybe if the government just said "You know what? This is your own damn fault. Go reap what you've sown" and let them fail, it'd set an example for the REST of the industry and maybe prevent this from happning again in the future. As long as taxpayer money is always going to end up being used to put up a bailout safety net, this idiocy is going to continue.

I just thank God the Republicans in Congress managed to keep the initial emergency draft of that stupid bailout bill from passing. It would have essentially written a $700 billion blank check worth of taxpayers' money to Paulson, the Secretary of the Treasury, to spend however he wanted. This is a guy who is a former CEO of Goldman Sachs; he's exactly like the Wall Street execs who lets things get this bad in the first place. Giving him that kind of unprecedented authority would have been an absolute disaster, but the final version of the bill that passed put at least some measure of oversight on it and broke the $700 billion into installments, as far as I know. I think if a chunk of it isn't spent properly, the next chunk won't be issued. ZOMG, some common sense for a change.

Hey, wanna buy a blank piece of paper from me - for, let's say $10 bn? In Soviet Germany, the banks are now allowed to do like this basically. The gouvernment is going to back up if that blank piece of paper is just worth 0.01 ct. Let's talk about stupidity.

Of course, lost in all this are the individual people who took out these subprime mortgages that they couldn't afford. If you know you won't likely have the money to pay off a mortgage and you're not sure if the rate will go up or not, don't sign your name to it in the first place. Fookin' irresponsible morons.

</rant>

Umm...not to stir up a shitstorm, but wasn't that the policy of the US banks? "Take another credit card if the first one isn't enough" and stuff? You can't blame the people in the first degree if they were constantly supplied with cash/debts by even more moronic bankers who had dished out the money in the knowledge that the pay backs are not always guaranteed or the debts reaching astronomical heights.

Okay, today no bank would give me anything more than a worn out pair of Hush Puppies, but just a few years ago, I was good for racking up a lot of debts - although I had a bad rep in my past. I should have taken the money and run.

[Frong]

Umm...not to stir up a shitstorm, but wasn't that the policy of the US banks? "Take another credit card if the first one isn't enough" and stuff? You can't blame the people in the first degree if they were constantly supplied with cash/debts by even more moronic bankers who had dished out the money in the knowledge that the pay backs are not always guaranteed or the debts reaching astronomical heights.

Oh, it was, absolutely. That's why the banks are just as much at fault as the people they suckered into taking out subprime mortgages or digging themselves into massive credit card debt. That said, there's a very simple principle that could have been applied here that hordes of people inexplicably continue to ignore - don't buy things with money you don't or won't have. Having some debt is OK, but only if you know for a certainty you'll have the funds both to pay it off in a timely manner and to support yourself in the meantime. If you're not sure you can cover it (or know for certain you can't, as I bet many people do know), don't even go there in the first place, regardless of what the banks or credit card companies tell you. Not a complicated concept, yet it still manages to elude thousands and thousands of people. Weak-minded fools. They fall victim all too easily to the lenders' Dark Jedi mind tricks.

[80's fanatic]

Thank God for my daughter helping when she can.....

Aww that's sweet of her! How is she doing? Is she driving a lot now? I remember when she got her license and how nervous you were!

Jesse's surgery is only 2 days away? Sending my best wishes for a quick recovery! Please keep us posted on this.

Yes, it is Ingrid..... she's been my saving grace many times. She is driving all the time now, especially with her working 2nd shift and working about 12 miles away. She really is a good driver, and is careful when she's behind the wheel.

Jesse's surgery got canceled because his sugar was too high..... big fight with the anestegiolist and head nurse because they were supposed to get it down by giving him insulin and did NOTHING.... so the surgeon reamed them a new @sshole and rescheduled his surgery to Oct. 30th... it was a mess !!!!

[punkypower]

I'm not too worried right now. The economy in Michigan really, really, really sucks right now, but my job is secure, so I'm okay for awhile. Things will turn around sometime so I'm just riding it out.

[Nakor]

So, yeah, Iceland kinda went bankrupt. That's the first result on Google, but there's a whole lot of other articles that might be better if you're up to searching.

[Frong]

The problem with Iceland was that it had an insanely massive investment in loans in continental Europe, and when the ripple effect of the economic wonkiness in the US hit the banks in Europe, it practically killed off Iceland's banks entirely. The government ended up practically having to reset the currency, I think, just to keep it solvent. Or something like that.

[Nakor]

Iceland is incredibly trade reliant too, especially when it comes to food of all things. The worst part about it is they're going to have to borrow more just to survive.

[wavemeister]

The problem with Iceland was that it had an insanely massive investment in loans in continental Europe, and when the ripple effect of the economic wonkiness in the US hit the banks in Europe, it practically killed off Iceland's banks entirely. The government ended up practically having to reset the currency, I think, just to keep it solvent. Or something like that.

Nah, Iceland is likely to seek for shelter under the big EU umbrella, which means that we get another substantial economy tiger like Romania and the Baltic nations. Huzzah.

[Nakor]

They're seeking loans under a fund whose name I can't recall, something roughly in the range of $6 billion I believe. The EU would be crazy to invite Icelandic currency into their Euro right now, unless you want to see the Euro's value take a huge dive. Iceland would love it, but it would be a terrible decision for the Euro.

[wavemeister]

They're seeking loans under a fund whose name I can't recall, something roughly in the range of $6 billion I believe. The EU would be crazy to invite Icelandic currency into their Euro right now, unless you want to see the Euro's value take a huge dive. Iceland would love it, but it would be a terrible decision for the Euro.

The IMF is providing the bankers with fresh money to burn...

[Frong]

The IMF and the World Bank are run by morons. I read a book for my Economics of Developing Countries class in college by a guy who used to work for the World Bank but essentially got dismissed for making too much sense and questioning their doofus policies. I wish I could remember the book's title.

[wavemeister]

The IMF and the World Bank are run by morons. I read a book for my Economics of Developing Countries class in college by a guy who used to work for the World Bank but essentially got dismissed for making too much sense and questioning their doofus policies. I wish I could remember the book's title.

And now you know why Germany's being especially fvcked...because the former head of the International Moron Fund acts now as the President, technically being the mightiest man as he's the one signing laws into effect and stuff.

Mr Köhler knows which side of his bread is buttered.

[Frong]

Oh, great. So how did the former head of the International Moron Fund manage to get elected President of Germany? I thought Germany was a democratic nation. Or maybe too many of the people are too stupid to know who they're really voting for. Kind of like in this country, or really, like in just about every democracy in existance. Educated populace, my arse.

[wavemeister]

Oh, great. So how did the former head of the International Moron Fund manage to get elected President of Germany? I thought Germany was a democratic nation. Or maybe too many of the people are too stupid to know who they're really voting for. Kind of like in this country, or really, like in just about every democracy in existance. Educated populace, my arse.

Usually, it's the other way around...become a minister or chancellor, help the minority getting fatter and fatter by impoverishing the majority, then earn the reward in the form of one or more handsomely paid seats at a head of a big company. Like Mr Schröder, former chancellor of Germany and now one of Putins bestest friends at Gazprom. Yeah, so-called democracy and capitalism...

Voter? Educated??? Not in a billion years. They keep on voting their own demise even if they sink in the shizam.

[Frong]

I know for a fact that not all politicians really have that close of ties to big business in the US, but I have no idea about how it is in Europe. That said, the Secretary of the Treasury sure as hell seems to be a position gained in this country by being a business tycoon. Honesty and integrity are probably optional. You mainly just have to be really rich and successful.

It really does amaze me how dumb and/or ignorant some voters are, though. If someone knows the candidates and issues properly and I don't happen to agree with them on who to vote for, that's fine. We can agree to disagree. What pisses me off is the thought that the vote of one highly educated, intelligent person can be cancelled out just like that by the vote of some idiot who doesn't know squat and chooses a candidate based upon race or age or some other meaningless factor (or sometimes for no reason at all; they just pick someone because they can). If all the morons simply didn't care, didn't vote, and the candidate I preferred lost anyway, then I could live with that. At least whoever won was elected by mostly knowledgeable people. I shudder at the thought of what could happen if the intelligent minority were overridden by the zealous-but-brainless majority.