So-o...Darrell! How's them STOCKS of yours doin'? Snappin' up bargains left 'n right, I'm sure. Stupid people "talking down the economy" are creating quite the windfall for an astute shopper such as yourself, no doubt!

Oh, no need to acknowledge that I was right six months or a year or two ago. No, no groveling necessary.

This bailout is just one more example of the indivisible handjob stroking irresponsible CEOs and CFOs with billions so that they can run the American economy even further into the ground. So much for Keynesian economics. If the goal is to stimulate the economy, why not give the money directly to the American taxpayers? The government could do twice as much good for the economy by returning half as much money (as the bailout requires) directly to the hardworking American taxpayers. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush administration.

Yeah you and Ravi Batra-- "Surviving the Great Depression of 1990,(1989)" Say anything for twenty-eight years and you may be right some day.

You'd do well to re-read what I actually said and see how the recent events are affirmation of my opinions. Business fundamentals aren't driving this 'correction'.

Maybe banks should sue the Federal Gov't for strong-arming them (through million dollar fines and threats of multi-billion dollar fines) into ignoring sound business practice to achieve social engineering goals.
If legislators thought that everyone should have a house, they should have put their careers on the line and come out with a taxpayer funded program to do that in the first place. Of course they may have been voted out the next time they had to run to keep their seats. Maybe those same cowards should push to raise the minimum wage to $30/hr now. That should help move things along.

The provisions in the CRA that caused the crisis should be struck down immediately, as should the mechanisms that help people make fortunes by driving down the price of financial assets, then benefiting through credit-default swap derivatives.

If America starts bleeding internally, the rest of the world is going to start coughing up major organs. Try laughing when that starts to happen, Euro-Fucks!

Obama is just too important for the US to Bogart him: I say just appoint him to the Euro Presidency now! Sorry, Tony. . .

You'd do well to re-read what I actually said...

I've been doing just that.

You seemed quite certain a little under a year ago on this very blog that the crisis in the subprime market shouldn't concern you in the least. "The market will work it out, it always does", you said.

My position at the time was that the severity of the crisis was being "papered over" by the economic powers that be. That it may not have been as obvious as the ugly all over Helen Thomas as it is today is true, but it was plenty clear to see for those with eyes sober and unclouded by partisan enthusiasm.

So far your blase' attitude appears to have been unfounded. Whatever you think about the business cycle or the legislation at the root of this mess, you have to admit that my analysis eleven months ago of where we were headed was Spot. On.

Who's talking about the War on Terror" as the "primary challenge we face today" now? As I asserted then, this worldwide credit meltdown has taken front and center stage. The only thing I have to revise is that, as the global economic slowdown progresses, commodity prices are finally coming down from their ridiculous highs more than I expected.

So anyway...did you pick up some of those snazzy stock bargains you were hoping for in the interim?

Related from Ace.

That's exactly where I'm coming from. Fluffy Bunny Happy Talk helps nothing when the stakes are high.

Yeah, we should have all panicked a year ago and thrown the World into a depression them. And you wouldn't even had to restock all that food in your bunker, then. I can't argue with that logic. Nothing can be made worse by knee-jerk over-reactions after all.

Go ahead people! Close out your retirement accounts for $1.98!!! Buy shiny coins, tulip bulbs, and MREs. Vote Ron Paul.

You have a convert.

Darrell, Darrell, Darrell...

The problem here is not one of overreaction, but of a massive *underreaction* of the vast majority of people who are too fat and lazy to have the slightest *clue* of where we are in history.

There *will be* panic, yes. There *is* panic now in the markets. But it's not because people were warning about this one or three years ago. When you see winter coming you make preparations. No need to panic, just work at your plan. When you see fat grasshoppers whiling away the last days of Indian summer, you might think to warn them, but hey, don't upset their applecart! The weather is too beautiful to worry!

You seem to think it's a *good* thing that people had the wool pulled over their eyes for an additional year while the big boys covered their ass and got out? People like those Sandler's parodied in the SNL skit? Real nice guy you are. Real friend of the people there.

"Shut up Sheep! Quit your BA-A-ing! That sound you hear is NOT the sound of a plague of locusts about to destroy your pastoral meadow! Shut UP before you panic the herd!"

Anyone listening a year ago would not have been closing out their retirement accounts at $1.98. Today yes. *Cash* would have been a far better investment in the interim.

The only thing that happened in the last year was a failed and failing effort to keep the bubble inflated long enough for the big players to reposition themselves for the next push to consolidate worldwide economic control.

They've made remarkable strides in the last couple of weeks.

OK, then. We'll use the way-back machine to cash out in 2006. Who says there's not news we can use?

A couple years ago I advised everyone to put all their money into "Forever Stamps." Who's going to look like a genius in 2022?

Right. It's rather too late for a few things now, isn't it? But don't you worry! Bernacke is predicting a recovery for the first part of next year...just like he predicted a year ago for today.

(Fluffy Happy Bunny sez "Oh Goody!" I say "pure bullshit--there's more pain to come", but don't worry about listening to me...)

Cheer up! Things can always get worse.
I've never bet against this country and I'm not going to start at this late date.

Like another 600 point decline on the DOW.

Woo Hoo! Par-tee time!

If you channeled your pessimism into short selling, you would have been a billionaire right now. Bet that could get you one bitchin' bunker!

If you think the forces that back 'O' aren't behind this; backed by cheerleading from the people that lead and hardly inform public opinion; backed by brokers that see more potential in the downside than the upside as measured by the commissions piled up in every corner of their homes, then I fear for us all. BTW, the Dow closed at 14,164.53 on Oct. 9, 2007. Think Bernacke needed to apologize for that? Or give hope that things will get better?

I hope our "face" is sufficiently spited!