FARK the Dow! It also falls when employment numbers go UP.

FireBreathingLiberal: FARK the Dow!

Indeed... aren't these guys the same people that got you into trouble in the first place?

FireBreathingLiberal: FARK the Dow! It also falls when employment numbers go UP.

Indeed. The stock market is probably one of the most twisted, ultracapitalist views on the health of the economy. Doubling your profit margin is viewed in the same light if people buy more, or you fire half your workers. Actually, they probably prefer firing the workers... your market share can always go up.

i guess you guys don't have a pension fund or 401(k)

geithner needs to seriously flesh out his plan more. so far, it's conceivable that it might not suck, but it's more likely that it will.

already back up 84 points today but that shouldn't matter when we're just trying to find ways to slam an obama appointee.

albo: i guess you guys don't have a pension fund or 401(k)

A 300 point drop now is not that big of a deal, after it lost almost 5000 points in the past year.

albo: i guess you guys don't have a pension fund or 401(k)

I had a bigger one, but now it's got numbers that are so much more manageable.

burndtdan: geithner needs to seriously flesh out his plan more. so far, it's conceivable that it might not suck, but it's more likely that it will.

He can't... if he actually brings the details of his plan to the general public it is going to scare the shiat out of people who will be worried that their bank is going to be one of the ones that gets staked out for sacrifice to the bigger healthier banks.

Most people don't understand the complex machinations of the financial industry... and there is not enough time to educate the public on it. Too much information about how this is going to work without public knowledge of the mechanisms could theoretically cause another panic.

Code_Archeologist: A 300 point drop now is not that big of a deal, after it lost almost 5000 points in the past year.

but a 300 point drop now is like a 600 point drop back then when the value was double

albo: Code_Archeologist: A 300 point drop now is not that big of a deal, after it lost almost 5000 points in the past year.

but a 300 point drop now is like a 600 point drop back then when the value was double

The way I see it, it just gives me more reason to increase the percentage of my salary that is vested in my 401k.

Really, calling a single down day on the DOW some kind of marker is like predicting long term weather based on what it's doing outside today.

Oh come on man... Obama's been President for three whole weeks... why aren't I farting rainbows yet?

/He needs to get off his ass and prioritize

Code_Archeologist: He can't

he has to.

one of the biggest problems with the original TARP, more troublesome than the half-assed idea behind it, was that no one was sure what that half-assed idea was. the markets can't stabilize around a plan if they don't know exactly what that plan is.

the criticism i've seen the most about geithner's press conferece yesterday was that they were expecting a plan, and instead got vague promises about the plan. basically, that there was no point to have a presser if he couldn't actually unveil the plan.

besides, if a real plan will frighten people, the alternative is to have them stick their heads in the sand. we can't do that anymore.

So the job of the treasury secretary is to make Wall Street happy?

FireBreathingLiberal: FARK the Dow! It also falls when employment numbers go UP.

Of course! Higher unemployment means wages can go down.

Wacthing a one day reaction by the stock market? How did he get his job?

Not sure where subby has been the last six months, but the DJIA dropping like a gut-shot pheasant just means it's Wednesday.

The banks are pissing themselves because they will be held accountable. Wall Street hates that.

The market hates the government. Always has.

albo: Code_Archeologist: A 300 point drop now is not that big of a deal, after it lost almost 5000 points in the past year.

but a 300 point drop now is like a 600 point drop back then when the value was double

Which just shows, once again, that we can not base our society on imaginary wealth.

albo: i guess you guys don't have a pension fund or 401(k)

None of us do, anymore...

Haven't we learned anything about Wall Street over the last year? They are an indicator of Wall Street and nothing else.

albo: i guess you guys don't have a pension fund or 401(k)

Hell yeah, and I doubled my contributions after Lehman Bros. went under. You know what Warren Buffet always says...

BTW, it's back up 65 points right now. I guess they got over their dislike.

The DOW right now is +63, which brings it to 7952. If you haven't noticed, the DOW has been in the 8000 range for about 3 months. Yesterday's drop brought the market back to where it was about a week ago, before several days of gains. Hardly cataclysmic.

Thread:

Anyone who can look at a market that's been swinging a 1000 points or more over the course of several months and make a definitive statement about a particular swing of minor comparative magnitude is either a prophet, a lair, or mentally ill.


People that use it for political purposes are whores and people who believe it are stupider than a sack of hammers.

While we're on the subject, I like to think about what would happen to the dow if we even declared a single day capital gains tax holiday. Talk about mass-liquidation.

albo: but a 300 point drop now is like a 600 point drop back then when the value was double

On the plus side, we're closer to reaching zero, and once that happens then the stock market can only get better.

The only way Wall Street would have been happy with the plan is if it involved a convoy of semis dumping trillions of dollars at their collective feet.

But since it's probably going to involve some hardship, sacrifice, and discipline, these clueless, out of touch bankers don't know what to make of it.

Which just shows, once again, that we can not base our society on imaginary wealth.

all wealth is imaginary

Bored Horde: FireBreathingLiberal: FARK the Dow! It also falls when employment numbers go UP.

Indeed. The stock market is probably one of the most twisted, ultracapitalist views on the health of the economy. Doubling your profit margin is viewed in the same light if people buy more, or you fire half your workers. Actually, they probably prefer firing the workers... your market share can always go up.

It's also heavily manipulated by speculation, insider trading and other evil influences.

This just in: people are stupid. If anything, it's a GOOD sign that investors don't know what to think about this plan

Spindle: The DOW right now is +63, which brings it to 7952. If you haven't noticed, the DOW has been in the 8000 range for about 3 months. Yesterday's drop brought the market back to where it was about a week ago, before several days of gains. Hardly cataclysmic.

It should never really be OVER 8,000. You start going over that and you see gross over inflation of stocks. Then things like this happen.

I'm amazed that this guy can't come up with a way to fix the global financial meltdown right away.

albo: all wealth is imaginary

FTFA:I'm not an economist
Stopped reading right there.

Meh. These are the same people who went long on pets.com.

albo: Which just shows, once again, that we can not base our society on imaginary wealth.

all wealth is imaginary

Not really. I see what you're saying, but if you say that company X has a million dollars in tangible assets (real estate, buildings, diamonds, whatever) then you value their stock accordingly. Now, as they buy assets, spending money or sell things off, their stock adjusts. Maybe there was a run on diamonds and their stock pile increases in value. That's all fine and good. Now, if you do all this in a realistic manner and there is free exchange on honest information, the stock is going to be worth about as much as the company would be if it was fully liquidated.

The issue is that when you add in the "insurances" and start to gamble on people's mortgages that you had nothing to do with (you just start betting on it) and then you play games and artificially inflate something like real estate, then you are basing stock prices on a bet. There where companies that had little or no profit that were valued at millions more than they were worth because of gambles. That's the imaginary wealth. Artificially inflated prices based on nothing more than a guess that nothing would go wrong.

Spindle: The DOW right now is +63, which brings it to 7952. If you haven't noticed, the DOW has been in the 8000 range for about 3 months. Yesterday's drop brought the market back to where it was about a week ago, before several days of gains. Hardly cataclysmic.

Are you saying the market fluctuates?

Hedge Funds and Derivatives and Their Implications for the Financial System (new window)

Who predicted the credit crunch abyss? (new window)

He chose... wisely.

Code_Archeologist: Most people don't understand the complex machinations of the financial industry... and there is not enough time to educate the public on it.

But trust us.

Most people don't understand the complex machinations of the financial industry cataclysmic climate changes... and there is not enough time to educate the public on it.

But trust us.

albo: i guess you guys don't have a pension fund or 401(k)

Oh, I do . And I am very worried that under the new Administration, the Dow is no longer that model of stable, controlled growth that we had come to know and love. Oh, wait...

Looking at the Dow in this case is silly, but the consensus on the press conference yesterday was pretty much: WHAT?!

They were even tearing him a new ass on NPR yesterday.

albo: i guess you guys don't have a pension fund or 401(k)

Compared to what I lost over the past year, BFD.

Bored Horde:
Indeed. The stock market is probably one of the most twisted, ultracapitalist views on the health of the economy. Doubling your profit margin is viewed in the same light if people buy more, or you fire half your workers. Actually, they probably prefer firing the workers... your market share can always go up.

I see the words 'profit margin' and 'market share,' but given the context, it is clear that you have no idea what they mean.