John Adams

Sorry, having something called a central bank and getting it to act with so many puppet masters is another thing. There's no way all the countries can agree on what to let it do. How could it raise money? Raising taxes? That's a country by country issue. So while it's called the central bank, it's had little work to do because the EU has been in such a boom since its inception. Things are going to be really hairy now that action is needed. Most countries are already preferring their own country-by-country solution rather than trying to fix the entire EU. (For example, why should Spain pay for the sins of Germany and vice versa.) I suspect that will continue to be the case. How the EU comes through this will be interesting but not smooth. In the US, banks have deposits of 96 cents for every dollar loaned. In Europe that ratio is 1 to 1.4 Euros--not a good time to be a European bank.

It's been said but bears repeating since you're obviously dense. If someone is within 5 years of retirement and just lost 20% of their savings, they had the worst financial advisor on the planet. If I'm within 5 years of retirement, I expect to have no more than 10% of my money in equities unless I'm really gambling, and if I'm gambling, I am an ass.

I don't buy this curtain closed picture that the NPR-types are painting. If you're a racist, closet or open, you can figure out ways to dislike Obama and vote McCain without saying he's black. You think someone is going to lie to a pollster and say they are voting for Obama and then a voting curtain sill somehow free them to be racist? This is some liberal hype.

Unless McCain has a video of Obama crapping burning dead babies onto an American flag, he my be the first man to lose in all 50 states.

I'd love to argue but I have no idea. Predicting where this heads is like walking the stairs in an Escher.

She's mavericky. Adjective. She acted mavericky. Adverb. (Maybe -lt works?) In a verb form, "She mavericked the electorate when she became the first politician to tell the truth."

I'm not smart/dumb enough to do that. I can just tell you taht I'm looking for big blue chip stocks whose prices have taken a hit but still pay high dividends. But I'm not in "the game" much. Most of my money is allocated in funds appropriate for someone my age, which means it's getting reamed.

Europe and Asia's little bit of Schadenfreude is catching them off-guard and they are not moving as fast or as confidently as the US. They are going to get swamped by this. Europe in particular is a mess because the Euro is not governed by a country and Europe has no central bank. Trying to get all those countries to agree on monetary policy won't happen. This is just a prediction. I would not have thought we'd be at Dow sub 9000 shortly either. But what looms in Europe is bad news and the USA is a better place for money than anywhere on the planet, despite all our problems.

A post without a misspelling. Bravo. If calling you stupid makes me sound like a Democrat, I guess I'll cross party lines for a moment and join them.

Johnny Coli says you're rich.

Too bad he didn't get acquitted of the murder in 1969 huh? We could have cheered a murderer (you know, for his on the field exploits) and the gave him thunderous ovations as they wrote his name on the Wall of Fame. God how ridiculous. The guy is a murderer (confirmed by all but 12 ninnies at the time). He's a wife beater (confirmed). He's a dirtbag (confirmed). He's going to jail again (confirmed). But sure, absolve him of all that because he was a good football player. That's an excellent message. Really great. Here's hoping the Bills draft the next Lawrence Phillips.

Do what you want. I'm buying plenty. Nice high dividend stocks that are taking hits now. There are a lot of companies sitting on a lot of cash just like there are a lot of people now with a lot of cash they've pulled out of the market. Don't expect investors to prefer their mattresses to the market for long. When the money starts flowing back in, it will flow back in big time. But also expect recession. As a country, we won't be out of the dark for a while. The good news is that all the current actions should put us WAY ahead of what's about to happen to the world economy. If you're planning a trip abroad, next year is looking good--the dollar should be kicking a lot of currency tail by then in spite of all the funny money we're printing.

Right and worse, they share a common currency, which creates a ton of problems when managing this mess.

It's a good thought experiment. I don't think that it would cure the problem if done because many wouldn't tap it (like me). But it would probably infuse some money into the mortgage market and make some difference. None of the solutions: suspending mtm, bailout, strengthening the dollar, this idea--none will fix all the problem. Combined, many of them will right the ship. The biggest difference between the current fiasco and certain earlier ones is how proactive the government and private sector is being in clearing the hurdle. Certain cooler heads are trying hard to take care of the problems so this doesn't last long. I heard several European commentators on Bloomberg today saying that what the US is doing puts the Eu countries to shame, and the EU countries are going to be much harder hit by this crisis, for many reasons, but not the least of which is that they have been slow to react. My econ background is The Wall Street Journal daily and Forbes weekly but the above makes sense to me.

His agreement has no relationship to your stupidity.

You started this. Capitalize the "c."

Agreed 100%. I'm sure some people would jump at the chance though.

Because you acted as lexicographer in applying a definition to the term "windfall profits," which we all conceded that we could not define. That specific enough? Go read a book about the Tsesarevich egghead.

A better example. I wonder what President Obama's anti-free trade policies will do to raw materials and US manufacturing. I'm not sure the answer is simple.

That's as creative a reasonable solution as I've heard. I wouldn't do it. My interest rate is so low that the mortgage is practically free and I have more confidence (maybe misplaced) that the market will go up faster than my home value. That's based on historical values of real estate, which barely beat inflation. The "tax-free" angle is inviting but I still wouldn't do it.

No kidding Ahab. I don't think there are many here who thought YOU defined windfall profit that way. You were defining it for Obama and I agree with your definition, which is not your definition, but rather your amusing guess at what Obama might mean by "windfall profits." (There, enough caveats to make you happy now?)

AKA, buy financials.

Up 9,000+ in the last 90 years baby.

I don't eat paste. I eat glue. I like him more than you. By all means, be his champion.

"Making money by selling to the American consumer" is a good approximation of "profits." I stand by my quote Senator.