Originally Posted By wonderingalice Just another sunny day in Wonderland... <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/04/markets/markets_newyork/index.htm?cnn=yes" target="_blank">http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/0...?cnn=yes</a> Great.
Originally Posted By mawnck Too bad, ultra-rich people. You can't take any more of our money. You already have all of it. I wonder if McCain will bring THIS up in his speech this evening. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say nuh-uh.
Originally Posted By utahjosh Shoot. I was going to take bets on how long it would be till someone made a political statement out of this. mawnck won the race, I guess.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy The DJIA is at the same level as it was 7.5 years ago. The S&P 500 is at the same spot is was over 8 years ago. Great economy, eh?
Originally Posted By mawnck >>Shoot. I was going to take bets on how long it would be till someone made a political statement out of this.<< As a political statement, it absolutely speaks for itself.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy Wal-Mart Stores was up today, though. In this economy, everyone is forced to be a Wal-Mart shopper to make ends meet.
Originally Posted By utahjosh <As a political statement, it absolutely speaks for itself.> I agree. The democratic congress has done nothing to help.
Originally Posted By fkurucz Here is anothe rlittle tidbit: <a href="http://www.dailyreckoning.com/Writers/Mogambo/DREssays/MG090308.html" target="_blank">http://www.dailyreckoning.com/...308.html</a> Apparently the gov't has been fudging the GDP numbers (again!). They used an inflation index of 1.2% when "deflating" the GDP to account for inflation. What can I say? Was this too the Democrat Congress's fault too? I guess that while we are at it we should blame them for the Fed's inflationary monetary policies and the housing bubble that started around 2002 as well.
Originally Posted By fkurucz Some anecdotes: Our dishwasher broke for the umpteenth (and last) time. So off we go shopping. So, on a Saturday afternoon, everyplace we went was .... deserted. We were the ONLY customers looking at appliances. Also all the local cars dealers (Japanese, American and European) are packed with cars but not with customers. All the local eateries have plenty of empty tables and no waiting on Saturday night.
Originally Posted By Mrs ElderP hey, congress, as a group is NOT on my favorite people list... my represenative in particular I am NOT a fan of (Jerry Lewis) He is a major professional polition in a bad way!! I don't think the Congress cause many of these problems, and I don't think they could have fixed many of them (gas prices in particular). However, I'm disapointed that they couldn't have come together more to get more done with regulation, immigration, and ending stupid wars. The only group of people I dislike more than the US Congress is the CA state legislature, ugh and uck!!
Originally Posted By DyGDisney I stopped at Starbucks today cause I heard they got in their pumpkin spice lattes, which I love. It was deserted. Least crowded I had ever seen this particular Starbucks. I knew that it was because people are holding on tight to their money (me too, but I had to have my pumpkin!!). I've cut waaaaaay back on Starbucks as well.
Originally Posted By gadzuux On the California state legislature, we can go ahead and fingerpoint at the republicans. They're stuck in their thirty year old mantra "no new taxes" while they stare down the barrel of a $19 billion dollar deficit. Do they honestly think they can close a $19 billion dollar gap with cuts alone? Even the putative leader of the California GOP is frustrated by his own party. Ultimately it's arnold's responsibility to sign a balanced budget, but it's his own party that's being obstructionist. And this has been the case for years. And it's not much better at the federal level. People like to point at the "do-nothing" congress but the reasons are simple - republicans blocking every attempt at legislation. Sure, there's some around here who think that both sides are equally to blame but it's just not the case. Let's lay the responsiblity for this gridlock squarely at the feet of republicans - where it belongs.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy It's going to be hard for the stock market to keep up as people start raiding they 401(K), IRA, and other retirement accounts to pay for lifestyle expenses that used to be paid for by the home equity line of credit.
Originally Posted By wonderingalice "La la la, nice lady!" Oops... Wrong Jerry Lewis. ;-) Re: Starbucks... Ditto. I was getting two or three a week (though I'm a relatively new convert to the yummy stuff), but not it's one about every two weeks and cheap "workplace" coffee otherwise. Starbucks is more of a special treat now.
Originally Posted By wonderingalice Funny you should mention 401Ks, SG... After today's news, I did what I should have done a long time ago and dropped my "contribution" (boy, has that word gotten a more literal meaning over the last 8 years!) down to our company match of 6%. I was putting in 10% and pretty much never seeing an increase in the bottomline. My balance is actually 10% lower than it was 8 years ago. How pathetic (and stupid on my part) is that? I've tried rearranging things and it just does NO good at all. BAH!
Originally Posted By LadyKluck ^^Heck it seems grocery shopping for more than milk and bread is a "special treat" these days! I feel like we're one paycheck away from the government cheese line some days... (Not that government cheese is bad cheese...)
Originally Posted By wonderingalice ^^Just cut away the green! Get it?? The green?! $$$! Muhahahahaha! (I'm so ridiculously sad... ;-)
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder "I agree. The democratic congress has done nothing to help." Statements like these make me angry. When we don't have an ideologue for a president, who likely doesn't even know what the term means, but suddenly found his veto pen, get back to us.
