Originally Posted By Sport Goofy <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gZuG-52js0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...uG-52js0</a> Very interesting perspective on the financial crises that are unfolding. It is really sad to see the current administration kick the can down the road until after the election to really deal with this mess. Hard times are ahead in 2009 for the next President and Congress to deal with. It's increasingly starting to look like economic depression for the United States. That means a lot of hardship for a lot of people -- and not the executives of the financial institutions that are going under right now. It will be interesting to see how things turn out for Lehman and WaMu over the weekend. The dominoes are starting to fall more rapidly now. Can the Red and administration hold the really bad news off until the election?
Originally Posted By Mr X Really wish I shorted more. I got nervous after Countrywide failed. I made a bundle on them, and wanted to short more. But I thought to myself "all the banks in America can't fail, can they?". Well, can they?
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy Last sentence in OP shoud reach "Can the Fed" not "Red." Typos . . . .
Originally Posted By cmpaley Ah, yet another reason I'm glad I dumped my WaMu account and only use credit unions.
Originally Posted By Mr X Are credit unions properly insured? Better find out (I really have no idea). One thing is that you ARE guaranteed to recover your money under FDIC, backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. gubmint (thanks S.D. for the civics lesson!)...so unless things REALLY go to heck in a handbasket you should be okay. NOT so with some money market accounts, some certificate of deposits (some are insured, some are not...be careful!), and as for credit unions I have no clue. Are they FDIC insured like banks?
Originally Posted By mawnck >>Are they FDIC insured like banks?<< Yes, but by a different government agency - the NCUA. Same $100,000 limit.
Originally Posted By DyGDisney I hope so because my main savings account is at a Credit Union. My WaMu accts are our accounts we use, the credit union savings acct is the one we never touch.
Originally Posted By DyGDisney I just checked on their website. They are. I couldn't imagine that a credit union wouldn't fall under the same FDIC coverage as a bank. Does anyone worry that a run on the bank will happen like happened in the great depression? A friend I was talking with last night said she told her husband she wanted to take all of their money out of the bank and put it in a safe. I think she was kidding, but sometimes I wonder what would happen if the stock market crashed.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>I think she was kidding, but sometimes I wonder what would happen if the stock market crashed.<< It's doing it now. Just not as suddenly. I don't see any way out of it. The whole economy is being propped up by money owed by the middle class to the rich - but the middle class are no longer being paid enough for their work BY the rich to pay it all back. Short of the French Revolution, or perhaps higher taxes on the rich to fund lots of stimulus checks for the rest of us, I don't see any way out of this.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/26656750/site/14081545/" target="_blank">http://www.cnbc.com/id/2665675...4081545/</a> Another interesting video here that shows a money manager predicting depression when the U.S. government runs out of money to pay for all the bailouts. I also read where the government is planning to not add the balance sheet for Freddie and Fannie to the other government budget figures -- probably because the $1.5 trillion dollars in liabilities would create such an elevated federal debt problem that bankruptcy might not be as far-fetched as some would like you to believe.
Originally Posted By DyGDisney I keep checking our 401K, it just goes up and down, but is not steadily declining. I'm not sure what the stock market is doing!! I can tell you we had $2000 more in January than now, but that's not a huge difference by any means. Maybe our money is in safer investments, my dh does all of that.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>I keep checking our 401K, it just goes up and down, but is not steadily declining.<< Your DH is doing a bang-up job, then. Mind if I ask what he's investing in, because I'm getting clocked. Down about 25% since the high point last year.
Originally Posted By DyGDisney I can tell you he's moved to a lot of safer investments. One is Artisan Mid Cap, which is an equity mutual fund which seeks maximum long-term capital growth. Another is CRM Mid Cap Value Instl CL which is a mid cap value mutual fund. Also Spartan U.S. Equity Index Fund - Investor Class, Pimco and a couple others. Pimco is generally his favorite, but Artisan and CRM have the most growth recently. This is Fidelity by the way. I know different 401K plans have different choices.
