"The US will begin investing in synthetic fuels and alternate fuel sources"
Yer right. that's what should happen. Let me ask you then.. How come it's not happening? How long has oil been over $50.00 per barrel?
Answer, since early 2005.
Could it be that as long as Exxon-Mobile own the guy from Texas currently in the whlte house this is just not going to happen??? .... Unless of course we somehow pass legislation against Lobbying and have true election reform.
If not it will be different players but just more of the same.
Bio-diesel and ethenol are the current jokes of the day, they cost to much to produce and their savings to the economy and evrions are minimal at best...
The housing market is at best cyclical. Build a pile of houses, give them away to anyone with a checking account regardless of ability to pay, huge growth for the past what, 2-3 yrs? Now forclosures=up, people are "wait and see" waiting for a good deal, rather than a "come hither" rate, apartments are @ 98% in most cities, now a housing glut, inventory at about 140-180 days for existing units, mortgage money dries up, investors want bail outs,
The sky is falling, the sky is falling, the sky is falling, jesus h., mary and joey, still nobody is buying it.
We don't have our collective heads in the sand, (pun intended). Its just that things are not that bad, really!
Piss and moan about Bush all you want, Blame Exxon/Mobil all you want, they're just playing by the rules set forth. I don't think many of Exxon's shareholders are crying about the billions in profit quarterly. Bush has nothing to do with Exxon, wheres the executive order that says, go ahead Exxon, bend us over.
Why aren't you all ticked off at Chevron, Why are you buying Cheveron gas? They're owned by the other nut-jobs country, Venzuela. Wheres your moral outrage? Want to see him reduced to a pile of coffee beans? Stop buying Chevron products. Within months, his pile of petro dollars would dry up. The US is by far and away his biggest customer. Yes, He'd have to ship to Europe/Asia, but its just not cost conducive for him to do so when BP and Shell are right there.
Who I do hear crying is the now out of work snake oil mortgage brokers that played by the rules at the time too. Nobody was complaining when the sub-primers were shoveling dollars from fee's, points, rebates, and bundling up these piles of paper and selling the bales as diamonds (and making a tidy sum).
Now that the hog trough is empty they're crying, pointing fingers and wanting bail outs. Oh piss off, deal with it, Should have bought a CD or put the commissions under a rock in the back yard, those days are over.
and, for what its worth, the drug companies give far more than the oil lobbies.
Face it, you think its always someone elses fault when things go tits up. When you were passing out those sub-primes, you were doing a service, a big ass public service, helping people buy homes, thats the american dream, and you were a big player. Now that the river has done run dry... its somebody elses fault. Pull up your big girl panties and get on with life. I hear there are a couple of boat broker openings in Florida. While I'm at it, out of over 350 posts, less than 24 have to do with sailing. all the rest are on 3 off topic subjects. I'm just sayin'
__________________
We are not primarily on earth to see through one another, but to see one another through
Some people are like slinkies: not really good for anything... but you can't help laughing when you push them down the stairs
Last edited by cardiacpaul : 01-17-2008 at 04:43 PM.
Now that the BUYERS and complicit lenders who committed fraud are going belly up...let's us loyal, honest, hard-working taxpayers ante-up to bail them out since it isn't "fair" that they should lose their homes or write off their bad loans. Fraud Seen as a Driver
In Wave of Foreclosures
Atlanta Ring Scams
Bear Stearns, Getting
$6.8 Million in Loans
think the housing mkt isn't cyclical?
heres some data from the NAHB (new home builders)
Year Single-Family Multifamily Total
2006 1,465,400 335,500 1,800,900
2005 1,715,800 352,500 2,068,300
2004 1,610,500 345,300 1,955,800
2003 1,499,000 348,700 1,847,700
2002 1,358,600 346,400 1,704,900
2001 1,273,300 329,400 1,602,700
2000 1,230,900 337,800 1,568,700
1999 1,302,400 338,500 1,640.900
1998 1,271,400 345,500 1,616,900
1997 1,133,700 340,300 1,474,000
1996 1,160,900 316,100 1,476,800
1995 1,076,200 277,900 1,354,100
Ten years of SOLID growth, now, jeez, i dunno, theres a housing glut, oh my its got to be Bushs fault!
__________________
We are not primarily on earth to see through one another, but to see one another through
Some people are like slinkies: not really good for anything... but you can't help laughing when you push them down the stairs
Last edited by cardiacpaul : 01-17-2008 at 05:13 PM.
Anyone else eat it in the shorts today besides myself?
__________________
To get the most from Sailnet, read the link in SD's signature Sin City, Liquor all day, Poker all night...Channel Islands & Diego, So Cal BJ & Nimfa
S/V Flocerfida
If You dont Stand Behind our troops...Feel Free To STAND IN FRONT OF THEM
Me
(had some selling I meant to do right after the New Year, oops....)
__________________
"... the only matter of consequence before me is what I will do with my alloted time. I can remain on shore, paralyzed with fear, or I can raise my sails and dip and soar in the breeze." - Richard Bode, First you have to row a little boat (pg. 94)
Rick's victory celebration consists of an attempted thesis on how a few oil rich countries can stop all trade with the US. The fact that the US does not buy Iranian crude directly should have already shown him the fungible nature of money and of oil itself. The money and oil just flow in a slightly different, more convoluted, direction. If you don't know the meaning of the word fungible and it's applicability to economics I'd be looking for a refund from whatever community college you got your econ. classes from.
We've got too many houses and not enough oil. So What? The market is addressing both issues quite effectively. The only glitch is that your politicians refuse to let the market work. In a normal world, without undue political influence, every Tom, Dick, and Harry oil company with a drilling machine would be drilling for oil right now-the price demands it. But Bill Clinton and, more recently, the Congress have determined that drilling on a percent of a percent of ANWR, and other places, is unallowable. had we been drilling there 10 years ago we'd have a nice addition to the world's crude supplies and be seeing significantly lower prices. Yeah, I know, those pesky matters of capitalism and economics intrude once again. It's easier to blame Exxon/Mobil.
If you slept through econ but remained awake for history you'd know that oil goes through a similar cycle about every 25-30 years or so. In times like these, with record profits to be made, oil companies are usually drilling, over-drilling in fact. Once those wells come on line there is usually an over supply of oil for quite some time resulting in price stability, much like we've seen since the last energy crisis of the late seventies.
Unemployment and other indicators remain solid and if there is a recession, we may have already been through it. That will not do much to disuade the president and the Congress, with the help of Mr. Bernake-who should know better, to try a stimulus plan. Of course none of them have the stomach for a major tax cut which would provide some real sustainable long term stimilus, and increase government revenues, I might add. We'll now go through, once again, the ardous process of trying to send money to people who don't pay taxes in the first place.
Having shown the economic acumen similar to that possessed by the average used car dealer, Rick now thinks that ignoring Ben Stein is the route to go. Ben is probably no more often right than any other economist and is unusually willing to admit it. He's also familiar with how a society can actually talk itself into a recession, something Rick's rhetoric seems designed to do. Since Ben Stein already has a PhD in economics and Rick has an under utilized real estate license, it would probably make far more sense for Rick to stifle himself and perhaps consider some continuing ed. at a more reliable institution.
I must admit though, I really enjoyed the part where he was explaining how China and Iran were going to put the kibosh on the world's largest economy. China really wants to flex it's economic muscle. You betcha. Fortunately there are probably Chinese who've already considered the implications of having no one to sell their goods to. They didn't sleep through econ. 101.
__________________
“Scientists are people who build the Brooklyn Bridge and then buy it.” Wm. F. Buckley, Jr.
The sky is falling, the sky is falling, the sky is falling, jesus h., mary and joey, still nobody is buying it.
We don't have our collective heads in the sand, (pun intended). Its just that things are not that bad, really!
Trouble with your reading glasses prescription? Or do you just prefer to type without reading? It is "That Bad"
__________________________________________________ __________
Thu Jan 17, 8:49 AM ET
CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Sandra Pianalto said on Thursday the economy has shifted to a lower growth track given restraints led by weak housing prices and falling equities prices.
"The residential real estate market still appears to be in freefall," Pianalto said in remarks to the Association for Corporate Growth, her first comments on the economy in three months.
"We are also seeing a related slowing in consumer spending, perhaps in response to reduced household wealth. Tightened credit market conditions could also hinder economic growth this year for both businesses and consumers," she said.
__________________________________________________ _________
Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Manufacturing in the Philadelphia region contracted more than forecast in January to a six-year low, adding to evidence factories are throttling back as the economy slows.
__________________________________________________ ______________
Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Builders in the U.S. broke ground in December on fewer houses than forecast, making last year's decline in homebuilding the worst in almost three decades.
The 14 percent decrease to an annual rate of 1.006 million, the lowest since 1991, followed a 1.173 million pace the prior month, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. For all of 2007, starts were down 25 percent, the biggest decline since 1980, to 1.354 million.
_____________________
I mentioned Exxon Mobile because they financed Bush's campaign. He's their man in Washington just as his dad is the Saudis man in the USA. Lookup ownership of "The Carlyle Group". Senior runs it. Some say they now control 5% of our GDP.
Well, it's a shame you weren't inspired by example and not slept through it as well.
You mention we might have already been through a recession. When would that have been? You mean it was when you were typing in this very same thread how solid our economy was? Back when I was telling you about how we were heading for recession and you accused me of what was it now... I forget?
The fact is, you were wrong then, and are finally getting around to admitting that now. While carefully and, admittedly skillfully, ommiting the fact that I was in fact right.
You are wrong yet again. You still don't get it. Housing is the symptom, not the cause. If you were a Doctor you'd be amputating arms to treat a hangnail. The stock market will go up and down. It has nothing to do with this countrys' disappearing middle class nor the reasons this is happening.
As far as pundants being less than accurate. Of course I concur. However, in the future you might try and find one who's right more than he's wrong before you quote him.
Actually, in rereading your posts from last fall, I'd like to know exactly where you think your credibility stems?
Exxon/Mobil, and if you're going to criticize spelling you might get better at it yourself, financed both Dem's and Republicans. They financed both Bush and his French opponent. You coul look it up.
Your diurnal appearance has reached new heights in sophomoric simplicities and I think I'm long overdue in bidding this discussion ado. Good luck selling the condo. I look forward to seeing your posts in the sailing threads.
__________________
“Scientists are people who build the Brooklyn Bridge and then buy it.” Wm. F. Buckley, Jr.
Sin City, Liquor all day, Poker all night...Channel Islands & Diego, So Cal
