www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Same here. Got my buy in! To the dollar only that is!

One of their columnists on what the next "credit crunch" will be--easy access to credit cards. Interesting, to say the least. We are nowhere near the bottom. I am probably the least knowledgeable poster here but the consensus is...
http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/18/news/ec ... /index.htm

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"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

What the heck are you guys reading??!!! The dollar was just at 6 month highs! It's not so much that the dollar is strengthening more than the rest of the world is taking a bit of a breather. If you look at liberal websites like CNN they rip america apart and usually say anything Bush bad...the economy especially. The dollar is going to strengthen against the Euro and the rest of the world. Everything is cyclical and the dollar will come back just like the Yen and the Euro did against the dollar. Don't believe everything you read. The dollar has made some people 10% over the last 6 months when you double leverage your returns. This doesn't seem like much but is big when everybody in the market is down about 15%.

I also read that the dollar is going to continue strengthening through the end of the year. This is good for those of us going in November!!!!

You've got to remember this thread was started almost 2 months ago. Yes, the dollar has gained tremendous strength recently. But, historically speaking, it is still weak. The way currency is valued is voodoo science if you ask me.

dapanz1

Yep, I didn't look at the time of the thread, but I did put some money where my mouth is about 6 months ago. So I did believe that the dollar was going to go on the rise. I'm not an economist either, but I do a lot of reading. The dollar has been on a downward spiral for the last 6 years. It seems as though the people who made a lot of money on that trade are starting to unwind their position. If this is true, then you are going to see the dollar continue to strengthen.

IMHO...

So where is Wall Street going next? What will they run up beyond where it makes sense and the run away from it? I'm looking, I have my eye out for whatever is next.

If anyone has any idea, please PM me if you don't want to air your opinions in public. I'm all ears!

Oh, right, and now we hear the world's bigger banks are having a rough time getting their own debt refinanced and that's at a high rate of interest . What does that say about us snuffies?
www.wsj.com/article/SB121978478790274083.html

That "oh, right" wasn't a response to anyone else's comments. More like, "What's the next bag of crap that's gonna fall on us?"

_________________
"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

And now...presenting to you live. The crime of the century in the making...worse yet, no one really cares. Sad. It's simply the price we pay as a dumbed down society that cares more about who got voted off Survivor Island or who pays cien and who doesn't than who is running our country and making our laws. So without further ado let me introduce you to your new, improved master.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080906/ap_ ... nts_crisis

dapanz1

And now Lehman Bros. I hope they don't bail this one out. Financials meltdown, 401Ks down by 50%!!!!!!!

Luckily I have some years before cashing in and balances not too substantial. Should have converted them to cash but then even Money Markets could be at risk these days!

Guys, this is very serious sh*t. It's not so much the fall of these individual banks on an individual basis. It's the SYSTEMIC risk that they pose. So, Lehman is bk, BOA and Merrill are going to merge. Now, AIG is begging for 40 billion. AIG WAS the only AAA rated insurer, besides Western & Southern in the US. We haven't even begun to talk about Wamu, the largest savings bank in the US nor the other almost 200 banks on the watch list. But, no we are not in recession .

Anyone remember the movie the Titanic? (Think US economy.) Unsinkable, luxury liner. The news hit that the ship had hit the iceberg and no one listened. After all, this was the unsinkable ship. The band continued to play, the passengers continued to eat, drink and be merry. Even as the ship was taking on heavy water. (Bank failures, mortgage crisis, commodity crisis). No one cared. It wasn't until the water reached cabin level did anyone think there was a problem. Still, the music played, the passengers continued to sing and dance. Finally, as the ship began to sink, did anyone care. By then, it was too late.

One more very, very important lesson I learned from that movie. Remember the very wealthy man who was desperate to leave the ship in one of the lifeboats? He offered to pay the crew some ungodly sum of money (don't remember the amount) to board a lifeboat. But there were no more lifeboats available. They had all been taken by women and Ch*ldren. His money was useless. All the money in the world could not save his life. We have some very well healed guys on this board, just remember, sometimes, all the money in the world means nothing. Just some food for thought.

dapanz1

:shock: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Business/Barclays-has-pulled-out-of-talks-to-buy-struggling-US-investment-bank-Lehman-Brothers/Article/200809215099249?lpos=Business_0&lid=ARTICLE_15099249_Barclays%2Bhas%2Bpulled%2Bout%2Bof%2Btalks%2Bto%2Bbuy%2Bstruggling%2BUS%2Binvestment%2Bbank%2BLehman%2BBrothers

Lots of feces hitting the abanico, y'all. Given the irrationality of Wall Street, a giant rally isn't out of the question. But if there's another emergency Fed rate cut, the almighty dollar might give back a little of it's recent gains. I caution myself and everyone who will listen not to put too much faith in anything, be it the CNBC bobble-heads or monger's opinions. These are interesting times, in the Chinese sense of that phrase. I hope to avoid disaster more than cash in on my brilliance.

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"The only normal people are those you don't know very well." Joe Ancis

They say that if AIG goes belly up it will be even worse than the Great Depression since there is no where else to turn to since they insured all these investment banks in trouble!

There was already moaning and knashing of teeth on Wall Street seen on CNN. They were trying to report in front of Lehman and this angry man (proly just lost his job) was yelling to go after so and so. Guess it was directed at some higher up within Lehman that proly got a nice severance package unlike the 95% that didn't.

I strongly believe the current Administration has been and is still desperately trying to do everything they can now before the election but afterwards then the caca will really hit the wall....

Hold onto all the cash you can and only in FDIC insured accounts and only $100K per institution.

Latest as of 4PM EST the Dow is down 414!! By itself not a major major decline but combined with all the other recent declines = 20-25% then any future declines for anything else will be very ugly.

We are most likely headed for a depression the likes of which haven't been seen in almost 80 years.

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I believe in moderation in everything except excess.
I phuck 'em just to see the look on their face.
Klatu, berata, nicto.