Woof, if the dollar is worthless and we're in the next great depression, who cares how many dollars gold can buy?
As for me, I don't believe the dollar will be worthless thus causing an economic collapse, others do. So, since I don't believe the economic collapse is inevitable, then I think you should invest in gold (or anything else) that you think will increase in value.
I don't understand how somebody thinks gold will have value if our economy collapses.
Do some research what gold and precious metals did during the previous financial panics, depressions, and severe economic crises. Not just America, but around the globe and long before America existed as it does today.
Our govt and some business leaders believe they have recreated the business cycle via massive debt and printing too much fiat money...they will soon enough discover that they are wrong as other masters of the universe throughout history have bankrupted once great nations.
If Steamdaddy is in Argentina, maybe he will share some stories of things that happened there earlier this decade when the sky actually did fall there.
Willie, gold is rising and will continue rising for our government and other govts around the globe believe they can avoid economic downturns via printing as much money as they wish.
If that were possible, why not just print enough money to hand everyone a check for a million, what the heck, since it doesnt seem to matter, why not chop down the forests and hand each person in the world a few billion?
Sorry for being late. I can't access this site at work so I have to wait till I get home.
What does Ben do now? If he has balls, he leaves rates right where they are. If he caves to the market and cuts 50 points, it'll just keep the dollar tanking. Huge move in the dollar today. Thought that might keep asset inflation up but that little yen problem reared its head again as it rallied....The loons on here think the weaker the dollar gets the better. Huh. Then why don't we devalue the hell out of it. We could do that. Then our exports will be even better!!!
I wish I had a gold position like Woof. I don't. Instead I am left with savings that lose money in the bank. Thank God I saw the housing crash coming, as did others, and didn't buy anything. Then I'd really be in the shitter....My guess is he cuts a quarter at the meeting even though he shouldn't even do that. They are supposed to fight inflation first. They aren't. They are trying to prop markets and save housing. ARMs resetting won't be saved by multiple basis point cuts at this point...No win situation. Does Ben have guts? I think deep down he hates the fact that the dollar is going to go lower and gold is going to go higher b/c he understand the ramifications. But can he take the heat from the Wall Street morons as the stock markets tanks as well....
What does Ben do now? If he has balls, he leaves rates right where they are. If he caves to the market and cuts 50 points, it'll just keep the dollar tanking. Huge move in the dollar today. Thought that might keep asset inflation up but that little yen problem reared its head again as it rallied....The loons on here think the weaker the dollar gets the better. Huh. Then why don't we devalue the hell out of it. We could do that. Then our exports will be even better!!!
I wish I had a gold position like Woof. I don't. Instead I am left with savings that lose money in the bank. Thank God I saw the housing crash coming, as did others, and didn't buy anything. Then I'd really be in the shitter....My guess is he cuts a quarter at the meeting even though he shouldn't even do that. They are supposed to fight inflation first. They aren't. They are trying to prop markets and save housing. ARMs resetting won't be saved by multiple basis point cuts at this point...No win situation. Does Ben have guts? I think deep down he hates the fact that the dollar is going to go lower and gold is going to go higher b/c he understand the ramifications. But can he take the heat from the Wall Street morons as the stock markets tanks as well....
Here's what Ben SHOULD do. Let the folks with the bad loans go down the shitter, both lenders and borrower. Then he should raise the rate a full one percent because when the canadien looney starts approaching the dollar your in for a world of hurt.
Like I said, this yen thing is gonna come back to haunt us all. Now the looney is right there with the yen. Not good, bad, very bad.
Get them fences up, and start drilling for our own oil is the cure for this ailment. Pull....Bam! This shit is easy.
Like I said, this yen thing is gonna come back to haunt us all. Now the looney is right there with the yen. Not good, bad, very bad.
Get them fences up, and start drilling for our own oil is the cure for this ailment. Pull....Bam! This shit is easy.
So does Basey now owe Cussy a crispy
I wonder if he's going to shoot a 62 this week...
Hells no. Cuss is in trouble.
Todays "surprising" job data only solidifies my (and many others) position that a rate cut (or two or three)is forthcoming.For those who are already thinking about how said rate change will effect the day to day operation of the markets,its good news.Until recently Ive never seen the markets act with such kneejerk mentality to daily releases (good and bad).Market pops on Monday IMHO as cooler heads prevail and all the propaganda regarding the almost certainty of a rate cut takes hold.
I wonder how many of the folks bringing down the payroll data worked in the mortgage business?
Ive never shot a 62 eek. I did shoot a 69 ONCE.
good luck with a monday pop basehead, countrywide drops a bomb for people to digest over the weekend as well, right after job data sucked they cutting 12k jobs
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Countrywide to Cut Up to 12,000 Jobs
Friday September 7, 9:07 pm ET
By Alex Veiga, AP Business Writer
Countrywide to Cut Up to 12,000 Jobs in Bid to Slash Costs and Cope With Soaring Foreclosures
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Struggling mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. will cut as many as 12,000 jobs in a bid to slash costs and cope with soaring foreclosures and defaults, the company said Friday.
The cuts, amounting to as much as 20 percent of its work force, are needed because the company expects new mortgages to fall about 25 percent in 2008 from this year's levels, Countrywide said.
In a letter distributed to employees, Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo called the current market cycle "the most severe in the contemporary history of our industry."
"During the past two years the growth in home price appreciation has stopped dead in its tracks and in many areas of the country it has turned in the wrong direction," Mozilo said in the letter.
In recent weeks, Countrywide borrowed $11.5 billion and sold a $2 billion stake to Bank of America so it could keep operating its retail banking and mortgage lending businesses.
The job cuts planned during the next three months are expected to center primarily on the company's production divisions and its general and administrative support areas.
Actual reductions could be lower if interest rates and other market conditions improve, Countrywide said.
The latest cuts followed the elimination of about 900 positions earlier this week and 500 others last month.
The Calabasas-based company employed more than 61,000 people as of July 31, with about 34,000 working in loan production.
Earlier Friday, IndyMac Bancorp Inc. announced plans to eliminate as many as 1,000 jobs, citing difficulties from the mortgage lending and housing market downturns.
The Pasadena, Calif.-based mortgage lender and bank said it expects its loan production volume to decline by roughly half in the fourth quarter.
Countrywide said it intends to keep transferring its residential lending business into its Countrywide Bank unit as a way to strengthen its access to funding.
Almost all of its residential lending activity will be originated through the bank by the end of this month, the company said.
Countrywide has also shifted its loan production guidelines and now only makes loans that can be sold on the secondary market to government-backed enterprises such as Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac or that qualify under investment requirements for its banking unit.
Countrywide has been struggling as the housing slump led to a sharp rise in mortgage defaults and foreclosures, particularly among borrowers with subprime loans.
The mortgage fallout has left many lenders strapped for money to fund new loans.
Lenders that relied on selling loans on the secondary market to fund their operations have been particularly hard hit, with dozens going out of business or forced into bankruptcy this year.
That has resulted in tens of thousands of jobs being lost industrywide.
Like other lenders, Countrywide has tightened its credit guidelines and stopped selling some types of adjustable rate loans.
In the letter to employees, Mozilo outlined additional steps the company is taking to shore up its operations.
Among the changes, the company is consolidating its sales force and plans to keep targeting borrowers who now have adjustable rate subprime loans with offers to refinance with prime loans that carry more stable payments.
Mozilo noted some 75 percent of the company's Full Spectrum Lending Division's loans this year have been prime loans, many sold to borrowers who refinanced from subprime loans.
Despite the layoffs, Mozilo said in the letter that Countrywide's consumer markets division would keep expanding its sales force.
Last month, the division hired nearly 1,000 sales people, a record for the unit, he said.
"As we carry out our plan, the company's overarching focus is exactly where it has always been: to remain an industry leader in the U.S. residential lending business," Mozilo said in a prepared statement issued to the media.
The company declined further comment.
Countrywide shares fell 27 cents to $18.21 on Friday. In after-market trading, shares rose to $18.48. Shares of IndyMac fell 25 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $21.41.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Countrywide to Cut Up to 12,000 Jobs
Friday September 7, 9:07 pm ET
By Alex Veiga, AP Business Writer
Countrywide to Cut Up to 12,000 Jobs in Bid to Slash Costs and Cope With Soaring Foreclosures
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Struggling mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. will cut as many as 12,000 jobs in a bid to slash costs and cope with soaring foreclosures and defaults, the company said Friday.
The cuts, amounting to as much as 20 percent of its work force, are needed because the company expects new mortgages to fall about 25 percent in 2008 from this year's levels, Countrywide said.
In a letter distributed to employees, Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo called the current market cycle "the most severe in the contemporary history of our industry."
"During the past two years the growth in home price appreciation has stopped dead in its tracks and in many areas of the country it has turned in the wrong direction," Mozilo said in the letter.
In recent weeks, Countrywide borrowed $11.5 billion and sold a $2 billion stake to Bank of America so it could keep operating its retail banking and mortgage lending businesses.
The job cuts planned during the next three months are expected to center primarily on the company's production divisions and its general and administrative support areas.
Actual reductions could be lower if interest rates and other market conditions improve, Countrywide said.
The latest cuts followed the elimination of about 900 positions earlier this week and 500 others last month.
The Calabasas-based company employed more than 61,000 people as of July 31, with about 34,000 working in loan production.
Earlier Friday, IndyMac Bancorp Inc. announced plans to eliminate as many as 1,000 jobs, citing difficulties from the mortgage lending and housing market downturns.
The Pasadena, Calif.-based mortgage lender and bank said it expects its loan production volume to decline by roughly half in the fourth quarter.
Countrywide said it intends to keep transferring its residential lending business into its Countrywide Bank unit as a way to strengthen its access to funding.
Almost all of its residential lending activity will be originated through the bank by the end of this month, the company said.
Countrywide has also shifted its loan production guidelines and now only makes loans that can be sold on the secondary market to government-backed enterprises such as Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac or that qualify under investment requirements for its banking unit.
Countrywide has been struggling as the housing slump led to a sharp rise in mortgage defaults and foreclosures, particularly among borrowers with subprime loans.
The mortgage fallout has left many lenders strapped for money to fund new loans.
Lenders that relied on selling loans on the secondary market to fund their operations have been particularly hard hit, with dozens going out of business or forced into bankruptcy this year.
That has resulted in tens of thousands of jobs being lost industrywide.
Like other lenders, Countrywide has tightened its credit guidelines and stopped selling some types of adjustable rate loans.
In the letter to employees, Mozilo outlined additional steps the company is taking to shore up its operations.
Among the changes, the company is consolidating its sales force and plans to keep targeting borrowers who now have adjustable rate subprime loans with offers to refinance with prime loans that carry more stable payments.
Mozilo noted some 75 percent of the company's Full Spectrum Lending Division's loans this year have been prime loans, many sold to borrowers who refinanced from subprime loans.
Despite the layoffs, Mozilo said in the letter that Countrywide's consumer markets division would keep expanding its sales force.
Last month, the division hired nearly 1,000 sales people, a record for the unit, he said.
"As we carry out our plan, the company's overarching focus is exactly where it has always been: to remain an industry leader in the U.S. residential lending business," Mozilo said in a prepared statement issued to the media.
The company declined further comment.
Countrywide shares fell 27 cents to $18.21 on Friday. In after-market trading, shares rose to $18.48. Shares of IndyMac fell 25 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $21.41.
This is a good except from an article I read. Even bulls and bears on here realize the housing situation is getting worse.
Wall Street's and the Media's talking heads who can't see any further than their nose can't seem to figure out that it's the availability of credit that is of utmost importance, not how much you pay for it. Reminds me of when I got a job as the Manager of the EF Hutton office in Great Neck NY in 1983 and bought a townhouse; by the time I closed, the mortgage rate was 13% but from the day I moved in, it started to appreciate at a rate of $10,000 a month. Yet two and a half years later, although its price had doubled, the amount that they were renting for had not changed. So I sold it and rented one instead. The moral of the story is: It was not the 1% interest rate, it was the availability and ease of getting a mortgage and the belief that prices would continue to appreciate at a 25% clip that caused the bubble. Now that the bubble has burst, cutting the interest rates while imposing stricter lending standards along with a 20% down payment will not ease the crisis one iota.
Wall Street's and the Media's talking heads who can't see any further than their nose can't seem to figure out that it's the availability of credit that is of utmost importance, not how much you pay for it. Reminds me of when I got a job as the Manager of the EF Hutton office in Great Neck NY in 1983 and bought a townhouse; by the time I closed, the mortgage rate was 13% but from the day I moved in, it started to appreciate at a rate of $10,000 a month. Yet two and a half years later, although its price had doubled, the amount that they were renting for had not changed. So I sold it and rented one instead. The moral of the story is: It was not the 1% interest rate, it was the availability and ease of getting a mortgage and the belief that prices would continue to appreciate at a 25% clip that caused the bubble. Now that the bubble has burst, cutting the interest rates while imposing stricter lending standards along with a 20% down payment will not ease the crisis one iota.
Since Willie and Base think I never consider bullish sentiment, an article for you...I actually strongly believe we rally in most asset classes into the end of the year and take out 14k and 14,500 by the end of January(remember 500 points when the market is at 14k is not a big % move anymore). A weaker dollar will only help do that...Maybe the Yen will be weak for the bulls also. Gold will push 825. Housing will still suck....Then we'll see what happens.
The Gambill Oscillator tracks corporate insider activity in the Russell 3000 stocks. Along with the VXO, the Gambill Oscillator is showing the highest level of insider buying since the March 2003 bear market low. Since 2002 when this indicator was first created, whenever the oscillator went above 25% (which it did in the latest correction), the stock market was up over 10% in the coming six months and up 22% over the next year. The Gambill Oscillator hit a high reading of 75% during the broad market decline.
Another point worth making is that since 1990, whenever the Volatility Index has been between 30 and 40, as it was during the recent correction, the stock market has been up by an average of nearly 11% over the next six months. Moreover, the market's gains over the following 12 months has been an average 16.2%. This compares with average "normal" market returns of 4.8% and 10.2%, respectively, over the 6-month and 12-month time frames.
Bolstering this bullish stock market outlook based on the insider sales data is a recent report by a respected financial newspaper. According to the Financial Times, total insider buying in the U.S. stock market reached $252 million in August, the highest level since 2003. This compares to a seasonal average of $186 million. At the same time, insider sales have dropped sharply from a four-year monthly average of $4 billion to $2.9 billion.
Volatility can indeed be used as a "big stick" to hit small investors with and send them running for cover. But this stick has two edges and the end result of the recent volatility spike will be positive for stocks.
The Gambill Oscillator tracks corporate insider activity in the Russell 3000 stocks. Along with the VXO, the Gambill Oscillator is showing the highest level of insider buying since the March 2003 bear market low. Since 2002 when this indicator was first created, whenever the oscillator went above 25% (which it did in the latest correction), the stock market was up over 10% in the coming six months and up 22% over the next year. The Gambill Oscillator hit a high reading of 75% during the broad market decline.
Another point worth making is that since 1990, whenever the Volatility Index has been between 30 and 40, as it was during the recent correction, the stock market has been up by an average of nearly 11% over the next six months. Moreover, the market's gains over the following 12 months has been an average 16.2%. This compares with average "normal" market returns of 4.8% and 10.2%, respectively, over the 6-month and 12-month time frames.
Bolstering this bullish stock market outlook based on the insider sales data is a recent report by a respected financial newspaper. According to the Financial Times, total insider buying in the U.S. stock market reached $252 million in August, the highest level since 2003. This compares to a seasonal average of $186 million. At the same time, insider sales have dropped sharply from a four-year monthly average of $4 billion to $2.9 billion.
Volatility can indeed be used as a "big stick" to hit small investors with and send them running for cover. But this stick has two edges and the end result of the recent volatility spike will be positive for stocks.
I'm confused though tiz....the rednecks on here say that a weak USD is a good thing.....of course they are just parroting what they heard on CNBC:WTF:
the truth is, 99.7% of all oil trades worldwide are settled in USD
when the dollar drops, oil producing nations have to raise the price of oil to compensate for the drop and raise the price, and of course gas prices rise as well. how can that be good for the economy?
hmm....could it be that the fascist (read corporate) controlled US Gov't actually wants a weak dollar so the products said corporations produce are cheaper overseas?
And of course the corporate controlled media are going to sing the praises of a weak USD
I'm sure the politicians are willing to sign off on this too(not that they have much of a say) - a weak USD means cheap, plentiful money. Joe six-pack sees that he is able to drive nice cars, his 401K is on the rise, got a nice plasma TV, he's happy. And apt to vote for the incumbents.
Protect your wealth. Buy Gold
