Groundhog

Lock in Low Gas Prices

I give up. It's your world. I'm just living in it. Thanks for the advice. See ya later alligator.

Lock in Low Gas Prices

What part of the definition of the word "cartel" don't you guys understand?

Lock in Low Gas Prices

Trade negotiations, PaulK8756. In our bid to dismantle OPEC, the United States will offer to discontinue agricultural subsitdies to its farmers while gaining the support of the African and South American agricultural interests. The argument being affordable food stuffs for all in the long run and market driven fossil fuel prices. This will give the developed and developing world a level playing field on which they both can implement more energy efficient economies. In short, the American way for everyone...and they'll like it. By the way wise guy, I think everyone riding bicycles to work is an excellent idea. Your SUV makes you look fat.

Lock in Low Gas Prices

The reason oil and it's fuel products fluctuate so outrageously in price is that oil is the only commodity that doesn't trade on a "free market." So while our politicians have been drumming free market economics into "joe six-packs" ears since the Nixon administration, they've been sucking up to OPEC and their Saudi overlords. Now is our chance to break the back of OPEC. Let's do it. Let's tell OPEC to put their anti-free market cartel where their sun don't shine.

Revisiting the Dow's Late 1930s Rally

Uh...remember why we're in the mess we're in. All that wealth we thought we had was fantasy. Desperate to make up their losses, traders and speculators are writing a new fantasy tale everyday, and the financial media is trying to suspend our disbelief. Are we on the path to sustainable energy sources? Is Detroit making cars that people can afford to drive in the future? Does the USA have an industrial, manufacturing, agricultural, and services economy ready to meet the competetive challenges of the 21st century? Is our commercial utility infrastructure dynamic and robust? Are our urban youth staying in school and educating themselves for a prosperous future? Does our goverment operate on a balanced budget? Do I have a real job? Is my opinion worth the steam off of yesterday's you know what? The answer to all of these questions is no. So I don't think this is an economy worth investing in yet, and when it is, the investor will still have to pick and choose based on the financial fundamentals of individual corporations. Everyday is market day on Wall Street. Don't be distracted by the fanfare. Stay in your houses, if you still have one. This is the eye of the storm.

The Shallowest Generation

Mr. Quinn obviously had to let off a lot of steam. Unlike most of his fellow irates, he has the statistics to keep his kettle on boil. However, I disagree with the popular assumption that my parents generation was the "greatest" generation.

The financial failure of the 30s, environmental degradation as witnessed in the dust bowl of "The Grapes of Wrath," the rise of facism in Europe, their acquiesence to Hitler before WWII and the subsequent dominance of the "military industrial complex" after WWII, then the Korean War and the Vietnam War...all of this was rendered unto their children. They made big mistakes, and their children made big mistakes. The sins of the fathers shall be visited upon their sons.

The point being, since The Great Depression, the United States of America has been unable to find its purpose in the world. Herbert Hoover was much maligned for his saying that "the business of America is business." Business is a sustainable enterprise that sufficiently satisfies current economic needs while creating a surplus of capital for building sustainable growth and prosperity. This concept of business does very well under the influence of a democratic government because everybody has the same basic economic needs. So to paraphrase Mr. Hoover, 'the business of America is on-going.'

Yes, this is a frightening time we are living in because most of us "Baby Boomers" have never experienced real want in our lives. We should reflect on the much more frightening world very many other people who are not US citizens are living in at this very moment. Some of that fear, in fact, is our own doing simply because we have never found our true purpose as a nation.

I agree with Herbert Hoover. America should get back to business. We've had a financial hurricane that has swept through corporate and household America like an act of God. Yes, we are suffering for our sins, but our failings are nothing new under the sun, and a failure can become a success when rescued by honest hard work and commitment to others who are working in earnest.

Remember, capitalism doesn't kill people, capitalists do. ...the Groundhog

Apocalypse Dow: The Search for Scapegoats

Ah...bliss: A rational voice speaks, but why do we have to have a witch hunt? Why can't we simply determine what mistakes were made, and then correct the errors.

Where We Go from Here: Best and Worst Cases

Gentlemen: Please be rational. Minding our usage, grammar, and syntax as much as possible would be helpful too. Remember, there is a logic to the English language. All of this the-sky-is-falling blabber is nonsense. It is as much of a mistake to be irrationally fearful as it is to be irrationally greedy.

Where We Go from Here: Best and Worst Cases

I liked Cam Hui's balanced assessment of the financial meltdown, because he is reminding us that as of yet, this is only a financial meltdown. The means of production are still as dynamic and robust throughout the economy as when the Dow was at 14,000. Also, everyone still needs the products and services produced by these means.

However, Keer-eh Khar asks two fundamental questions about marketing the financial sector's failures in order to re-capitalize our banks. What are we buying, and once bought, what will there be to sell? The genius of the financial sector is that it can create capital out of nothing, but without integrity and high moral standards, the lack of any sense of fiduciary responsibility quickly returns this capital to the abyss of nothingness.

Finance is based on trust and the assumption that we will all be here tomorrow doing the best we can to pay our bills and service our debt. For the past 20 years, the financial sector has been sponsoring one get-rich-quick scheme after another. How can we trust the financiers to be any different this time around?

Will they ever have enough money, houses, yachts, airplanes, country clubs, and day spas? Most of us work for food, shelter, clothing, transportation, and our human dignity? The financial "geniuses" seek wealth for wealth's sake and the power that wealth gives them over men and women with simpler lives and less ambitious goals.

If we simpler folk are to buy anything from them or sell anything back to them, they have to become trustworthy citizens with a sense of responsibility to the whole economy. This won't happen without the rule of law, government oversight, and sensible regulations. So along with the re-capitalization of our financial sector, the federal government will have to sort out the good, the bad, and the ugly actors that created this financial meltdown.

U.S. Dollar: Best of the Worst?

In response to your question, I think that we should "forget about it." The it is money. People still need to do the work that has to be done. Especially all the "poor" and "middle class" people who provide all the mundane goods and services that everyone enjoys everyday. We can let our fixation on money drive us to wreck and ruin or we can get on with the work that has to be done. We all still need to provide the basics for each other rich, middle class or poor. We need to eat. We need to clothe ourselves, and we need a roof over our heads. If we focus on making sure everyone in this country has these necessities in sufficient quantity to maintain their human dignity, then the money or capital that has been lost will gradually be regenerated. There is still enough money to pay people for the work that has to still be done so that food can be eaten, clothes can be worn, and rents can be paid. We just have to give up the notion of surplus wealth until we have regained sufficient wealth for a well functioning and sustainable economy.