No buyers on Wall Street — the collapse continues to drive stock prices lower and cut even deeper into ordinary Joe and Jane’s retirement and college savings. Not only has today’s drop put the DJIA to extremely low levels, it is frightening all who have savings associated with stocks and mutual funds. Blood is flowing and the survival of many companies is also on the line. It is looking more and more as if this world impacting crisis might threaten what we see as normal life in the U.S. for a long time to come. I’m no longer worried about future prosperity, but am concerned more and more about today; job losses for many are right around the corner — start watching for company and store door closings. Without a fast change, its going to get very ugly.
The National Debt Clock in New York City has run out of numbers and as a temporary fix has replaced the “dollar sign” with a digit to move past the $9 trillion and to $10 trillion. The sign was put up years ago by a real estate developer when the U.S. national debt was approaching $3 trillion. For a temporary time the clock stopped when the U.S. started running a surplus, but has picked up the pace after 9/11, the War on Terror and heavy government spending. With the recent economic crisis and slowing economy there is little chance that this 10.2 trillion dollar debt will be worked on soon, so perhaps the sign needs to be permanently expanded?
In an attempt to get money/credit flowing around the world, six central banks in coordination moved to cut interest rates on Wednesday. The goal is to offset a global economic slowdown that has been rippling through the financial and business world. This half-point rate cut included the central banks in the U.K., Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.S and in Europe. These cuts followed separate rate cuts in China, Hong Kong and Australia. The Fed’s reduction brought its interest-rate target down to 1.5%, ahead of its regularly scheduled meeting October 28-29, as the U.S. economy faces the prospect of deteriorating significantly in the coming months due to credit-market turmoil. Until recent weeks, Fed officials had resisted further easing due to worries about aggravating inflation risks after watching volatile swings in commodity prices throughout the past year.
I headed home to check on the arrival of the shingles for the south side of my roof in order to repair the damage left by Hurricane Ike … yes I’m in Ohio.
😀
As the economy struggles, Obama and Biden gain as the McCain/Palin campaign take the bruising. There seems to be a backlash against the GOP for the mess we are in? Perhaps its the Wall Street “fatcat” image or just the fact that a Republican has been in the Whitehouse for 8 years. Nevertheless, most polls have Obama up with near a comfortable 8 point lead going into the second debate and less than 30 days from the election. Unless something changes for the McCain campaign, prepare for a one party dominance this next go around.
The financial crisis is rippling around the world and that fear is being reflected on Wall Street as the DJIA dropped a full 800 points during trading on Monday, although recovered somewhat to close off only 370 points at 9955.50. Almost all stocks took a beating again today shrinking all who invest for college or retirement. Where this will “blood in the street” be enough?
Hopefully all the old posts and comments have been updated to this new 2.6.2 install of WordPress. It was not an easy task, but finally this update should correct many long standing problems associated with the old installation. Categories and tagging have been changed considerably and will require a significant database rebuild; this is something I’m not ready to work on at the moment. Nevertheless, My Desultory Blog is back in operation.
Life needs a little perspective. I’m spending far too much time concerned over things I have little control over — the economic mess. What I can do, is get motivated to work on my Sonex project and this video of USAF test pilot Roger Tanner and Sonex founder John Monnett might be just what I need? They are flying a Sonex Sport Aero in the clip below.
It was a rough day on Wall Street, but nothing like it will be if they aren’t able to pass a bill to keep money flowing in the U.S. When paychecks are no long being cashed and layoffs start occurring in full force, their will be blood. For most, the losses are currently just on paper as the DJIA closes at 10,365.45, down 777.68 points 7% drop. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 were even worse, down about 9% at the close … big numbers for those of us funding, or planning to fund, our children’s education and trying to be responsible about retirement.
The Republican minority in congress who thought they had enough votes to pass the rescue/bailout bill today, said that it was a “poisoned” partisan speech from House Leader Nancy Pelosi delivered before the vote that sabotaged the distasteful $700 Billion bill — nobody actually likes it, but most fear the outcome if one isn’t passed. The vote was 228-205 against the measure, with one member not voting. There was broad bipartisan opposition, so neither side can really complain, even though they will. More than 90 Democrats and 130 Republicans voted against the bill. (NYTime article)
John Boehner (R – OH) voices frustration and
blames today’s bill failure on Nancy Pelosi
No buyers on Wall Street — the collapse continues to drive stock prices lower and cut even deeper into ordinary Joe and Jane’s retirement and college savings. Not only has today’s drop put the DJIA to extremely low levels, it is frightening all who have savings associated with stocks and mutual funds. Blood is flowing and the survival of many companies is also on the line. It is looking more and more as if this world impacting crisis might threaten what we see as normal life in the U.S. for a long time to come. I’m no longer worried about future prosperity, but am concerned more and more about today; job losses for many are right around the corner — start watching for company and store door closings. Without a fast change, its going to get very ugly.
The National Debt Clock in New York City has run out of numbers and as a temporary fix has replaced the “dollar sign” with a digit to move past the $9 trillion and to $10 trillion. The sign was put up years ago by a real estate developer when the U.S. national debt was approaching $3 trillion. For a temporary time the clock stopped when the U.S. started running a surplus, but has picked up the pace after 9/11, the War on Terror and heavy government spending. With the recent economic crisis and slowing economy there is little chance that this 10.2 trillion dollar debt will be worked on soon, so perhaps the sign needs to be permanently expanded?
This half-point rate cut included the central banks in the U.K., Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.S and in Europe. These cuts followed separate rate cuts in China, Hong Kong and Australia. The Fed’s reduction brought its interest-rate target down to 1.5%, ahead of its regularly scheduled meeting October 28-29, as the U.S. economy faces the prospect of deteriorating significantly in the coming months due to credit-market turmoil. Until recent weeks, Fed officials had resisted further easing due to worries about aggravating inflation risks after watching volatile swings in commodity prices throughout the past year.
It was a rough day on Wall Street, but nothing like it will be if they aren’t able to pass a bill to keep money flowing in the U.S. When paychecks are no long being cashed and layoffs start occurring in full force, their will be blood. For most, the losses are currently just on paper as the DJIA closes at 10,365.45, down 777.68 points 7% drop. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 were even worse, down about 9% at the close … big numbers for those of us funding, or planning to fund, our children’s education and trying to be responsible about retirement.