are you feeling the pinch

[Jim Thomsen]

The worst thing about todays news (besides retiring early a couple of years ago, planning to live off income from investments, having property in California and cruising in Europe paying for it with US$) is that our winter marina (Spain) has good internet access and I can't help myself from checking the news and our investments!

The only thing I knew for sure when I retired was that over the next 20 years (I plan to live that long!) the economy would have some major downturns and some really good years. Right now it looks like we are on the down. Sometime it will go back up (and then probably have another bad time). But, unlike many of my friends with the same worries, I'm on a boat in the Med. We will have to be more careful with money this year, but the best things, when cruising, really are free.
On a positive note for anyone looking for a boat, I bet the next couple of years (in the USA) will have some incredible deals on great boats.
Jim

[philip van praag]

thanks for all the stuff so far!
i set the post up to give encoragement
by people discusing there stratergies and changes, they are making to make shure they still follow there dream.

[MarkJ]

I gota agree that todays 7% dump in Europe and Australias 4.57% dump is a bit unnerving. Wall Street closed for a holiday in these times is weird, but probably better than being open. Next trades on wall st will be 'interesting'!

And even though the stockmarkets are doing a plummet the USD is going up, so you yankies may keep us imperialists out of your boat buying markets yet!

If it keeps going like this I will be heading to Europe on my tub bustin jaunt!

The thing that gets me is that all our economies are going great guns. It was only that cashed up companies tried to lend money to people who can't afford it and then sell, undisclosed, the risk.

Anyway, you gotta ride with this storm because the economies are strong so the market will heal quickly.

imho (that means in my hopeful opinion! )

[Celestialsailor]

Not sure where you get the idea that the USD is going up. We are $1.00 to 1.443 EU...and sinking. Its like the 70's movie..."Poisiden Adventure" Watch the US fight its way to the bottom of a sinking ship!

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

Not sure where you get the idea that the USD is going up.

Yes, you are quite correct that generally the USD has been going down. But in the last week as the share markets have faller the USD has shot up. Thats the point

The chart below shows where it changed its trend - see the orange line crossing the black one. This is USD v EUR.

Anyway, coconuts still grow at the same speed no matter what the sharemarket does

[Kanani]

Tomorrow may well be the worst market day in recent history. This may be just the correction that the market needs. If it falls 800pts (I think it may), it may stabilize after a few more smaller down days. I'm thinking maybe around Dow 11,000 (but 10,000 wouldn't shock me). If we have a terrorist strike tomorrow, we could see even worse.

Just like the real-estate market. There was NO WAY that it could sustain the prices where they were. They just went too high, too fast. It was all because of the "Funny money" generated by the lending institution.

The economy has been held up by the fact that real-estate was continuing to increase in value and people were refinancing and putting that $ into the economy to the tune of about 5 trillion dollars (for the last 5-7 years). Now the real-estate is falling, that option is gone. (You can't refi-when your house is worth less than you owe). Therefore cash infusion into the economy is gone. The wage earner that earns $50K a year, has no way to come up with more. When real-estate was raising so fast, Average Joe was doing a refi every other year. This was taking a guy that had the spending power of $35K (after taxes) and gave him the spending power of $100K. That had a tremendous impact on the economy. However, no one was talking about that.

The market sees that there is no way for fresh $ to enter the market so the big boys are shorting the market.

This is a very very dangerous situation that we've gotten ourselves into in this country. You and I are just typical examples of the damage of false inflationary trends can cause. The other problem is that Bush keeps lying to people, telling them how great the economy is. That's BS clear and simple. Home refi's have been the only thing that this economy has been able to thrive on. Now it's gone and gone for a long time.

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Yes, you are quite correct that generally the USD has been going down. But in the last week as the share markets have faller the USD has shot up. Thats the point

The chart below shows where it changed its trend - see the orange line crossing the black one. This is USD v EUR.

Anyway, coconuts still grow at the same speed no matter what the sharemarket does

Hell...You can do my taxes...at least you're paying attention...he he he

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by Kanani

Tomorrow may well be the worst market day in recent history. This may be just the correction that the market needs. If it falls 800pts (I think it may), it may stabilize after a few more smaller down days. I'm thinking maybe around Dow 11,000 (but 10,000 wouldn't shock me). If we have a terrorist strike tomorrow, we could see even worse.

Just like the real-estate market. There was NO WAY that it could sustain the prices where they were. They just went too high, too fast. It was all because of the "Funny money" generated by the lending institution.

The economy has been held up by the fact that real-estate was continuing to increase in value and people were refinancing and putting that $ into the economy to the tune of about 5 trillion dollars (for the last 5-7 years). Now the real-estate is falling, that option is gone. (You can't refi-when your house is worth less than you owe). Therefore cash infusion into the economy is gone. The wage earner that earns $50K a year, has no way to come up with more. When real-estate was raising so fast, Average Joe was doing a refi every other year. This was taking a guy that had the spending power of $35K (after taxes) and gave him the spending power of $100K. That had a tremendous impact on the economy. However, no one was talking about that.

The market sees that there is no way for fresh $ to enter the market so the big boys are shorting the market.

This is a very very dangerous situation that we've gotten ourselves into in this country. You and I are just typical examples of the damage of false inflationary trends can cause. The other problem is that Bush keeps lying to people, telling them how great the economy is. That's BS clear and simple. Home refi's have been the only thing that this economy has been able to thrive on. Now it's gone and gone for a long time.

Ya...its kind of funny isnt it. Now that the public is worried about the economy, the feds are going to print more $$$ and send us checks so we can spend it and show consumer confidence. That will work like a generator coupled to an electric motor and expecting it to run each other continuously. I'm glad my house, boat and all transportation is paid off. That and I live in Hawaii where is do not need to heat. I feel really bad for the people that got caught up in the mortgage mess.

[philip van praag]

we woke to the overnight falls is this it.
i think as alredy said the midia will play a strong part in what happens
it was the midia that drove the public to crash one of our banks
and now the tax payers are to foot the bill.
im glad we are all paid up and can sit and watch the show.
but as in my orignal poast what to do with the kity.
or do i run for the US and make my £s go a bit further.

[seafox]

Go sailing.

[GordMay]

World markets appear to have decided that a U.S. recession is inevitable, and that the rest of the world will not avoid the fallout.
Some of Monday’s (Jan. 21) losses:
* Bombay's Sensex -7.4%
* Frankfurt's DAX -7.2%
* Hong Kong's Hang Seng -5.5%
* London's FTSE -5.5%
* Shanghai's Shanghai Composite -5.1%
* Toronto’s S&P/TSX Composite -4.75%
* Tokyo's Nikkei 225 -3.9%

[MarkJ]

Yeah, but London this morning it 45 pts up but very volatile it was in the red on open.
Its the US market which will be interesting as they were closed yesterday. If wall st goes down because of sentiment of all other indexes, then the rest of us will follow tomorrow. So the cycle will continue annother 24 hours! LOL Public holidays can be very expensive at times.

[cooper]

Go sailing.

..Yep : )...

[GordMay]

Bluefin Tuna is selling for 3,000 to 5,300 Yen per kG at this morning’s Tokyo Central Market (wholesale). (121-122 Yen = U.S.$1.00 )

Awaiting Wall Street’s Open, Asia Markets Plunge
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/bu...rssnyt&emc=rss

[ssullivan]

Is it wrong of me to be hoping for a steeper drop in the American Indexes? I am hoping for a good 10,000 or under on the Dow, so I can get in. I'm with Mark J on all this.