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Glad (if you can say that) to see others aren't completely blind to what's going on out here...
There's No Pill for This Kind of Depression
online.wsj.com...
Six months after the collapse, a "pandemic of fear."
It is six months since Lehman fell and the crash (or the great recession, or the collapse—it's time it got its name) began. An aspect of the story given less attention than it is due, perhaps because it doesn't lend itself to statistics, is the psychic woe beneath the economic blow. There are two parts to this. One is that we have arrived at the first fatigue. The heart-pumping drama of last September is gone, replaced by the drip-drip-drip of pink slips, foreclosures and closed stores. We are tired. It doesn't feel like 1929, but 1930. People are in a kind of suspended alarm, waiting for the future to unspool and not expecting it to unspool happily.
Two, the economy isn't the only reason for our unease. There's more to it. People sense something slipping away, a world receding, not only an economic one but a world of old structures, old ways and assumptions. People don't talk about this much because it's too big, but I suspect more than a few see themselves, deep down, as "the designated mourner," from the title of the Wallace Shawn play.
:snip:
Gun sales continue up. The FBI's criminal background check system showed a 23% increase in February over the previous year, a 29% increase in January, a 24% increase in December and a 42% increase in November, when a record 1.5 million background checks were performed. Yes, people fear Obama will take away the guns he thinks they cling to, but a likely equal contributor to what The Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch called a "gun-buying binge" is captured in the slogan on one firearms maker's Web site: "Smith & Wesson stands for protection." People are scared.
They are taking cash out of the bank in preparation for a long-haul bad time. A friend in Florida told me the local bank was out of hundred-dollar bills on Wednesday because a man had come in the day before and withdrawn $90,000. Five weeks ago, when I asked a Wall Street titan what one should do to be safe in the future, he took me aback with the concreteness of his advice, and its bottom-line nature. Everyone should try to own a house, he said, no matter how big or small, but it has to have some land, on which you should learn how to grow things. He also recommended gold coins, such as American Eagles. I went to the U.S. Mint website the next day, but there was a six-week wait due to high demand. (I just went on the Web site again: Production of gold Eagle coins "has been temporarily suspended because of unprecedented demand" for bullion.)
Originally posted by Hx3_1963
reply to post by marg6043
Between that buying and the memo, I think someone should be looking into to this pronto!!!
Major big time scam!!!
I can't believe not one word mentioned about it yet...well...except us...
Life insurers may need to raise capital, FBR says
Sector may find it tough to earn its way out of trouble as credit losses mount
www.marketwatch.com...
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Life and health insurers, including MetLife Inc. and Conseco Inc., may need to raise capital because they will find it more difficult to earn their way out of trouble amid mounting credit losses and slumping equity markets, analysts at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey said Tuesday.
FBR's Randy Binner and Kevin Barker downgraded MetLife to market perform from outperform, saying these insurers may be particularly vulnerable to such issues.
MetLife shares jumped 15% to $14.83, buoyed by a broad surge among financial-services shares after several days of losses. Conseco slumped 23% to 29 cents.
"Recent spread-widening and economic deterioration significantly impacted our analysis, which implies that most life and health insurers are at risk of needing to raise capital as their prospects for earning their way out of the credit losses are diminishing, especially for stock-market-sensitive names," the analysts wrote in a note to investors.
A gloomy forecast of future credit losses suffered by life and health insurers, which includes losses that have yet to be realized, suggests there's a "significant" need for capital across the industry, they said.
Originally posted by xoxo stacie
reply to post by Hx3_1963
Well hunny alot of that fear is well founded I believe. Last night we had a group of at least 3 teen aged gang bangers try and break in when my hub left for his poker game. Luckily he had brought me a 357 super mag from my bro in law due to robberies in the area. Needless to say I stuck it in their faces told em to pull down the bandanna's then told them I knew them and if i ever saw them again I wouldn't think twice! then I told them to walk off and pretend we never met.
That's funny as heck!!!
Holy cow, stacie! That was pretty gangster in and of itself. After you said that you stuck the gun in their faces, I half expected you to tie them up, rob them, beat the snot out of them, and then call the police on them.
Marvelous...great...fantastic...
Looming transatlantic clash
www.marketwatch.com...
Clash over stimulus spending clouds G20 outlook
U.S. officials turning up pressure on Europe to boost stimulus
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Don't look for the world's most powerful economic policy makers to come up with a sweeping prescription for a deepening global recession when they gather this weekend in southern England.
The meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from the world's 20 largest industrialized and emerging economies Friday and Saturday at a luxury hotel near Brighton comes amid a growing disagreement between the United States and Europe over Washington's call for additional government spending to rev up slumping global demand.
European officials say they've done enough on the spending front and that the focus should now be on overhauling how the global financial system is regulated.
"The possibility that the upcoming [Group of 20] meeting could provide a unified plan to help tackle the 'Great Recession' seems to be receding very rapidly," said Simon Derrick, chief currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon. "Instead, the evidence of the past few days indicates an increased split of opinion between the U.S. and the euro zone over the best approach."
US warships head for South China Sea after standoff
The episode complicated fragile military relations between the US and China, which appeared to have improved after the two held defence talks in Beijing last month.
Originally posted by marg6043
reply to post by xoxo stacie
I thank our good fortune that our neighborhood is nice and quiet and we have a sheriff living down the street.