kapkomet

The "rally" is starting to fizzle. It will be interesting to see how the day ends today.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Aug 17, 2007 -> 02:34 PM) Insurance companies have to have their premiums paid by one of the three. That's what I was pointing to. Who should be paying the premiums? The government, on our behalf.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 17, 2007 -> 02:09 PM) You missed the two other big players - insurance companies, and health care companies. And pharma companies... The thing is, though, the way that pharma co.'s report, they have spent trillions on R & D - then after the products get released, only then do they get to recoup their costs.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 17, 2007 -> 02:07 PM) And now that everyone is panicking, the markets are rallying. S&P up over 2% so far. The cut to the discount rate obviously is what Wall Street wanted.

QUOTE(Soxy @ Aug 17, 2007 -> 01:54 PM) Yeah, truth is, I just don't want to deal with windows anymore. Much less Vista. And I don't mind macs, I think they're pretty intuitive. And I'll mostly just need the damn thing for writing (which makes the crappy keyboard even worse). Well, that and playing iTunes, of course. Can they migrate my songs (that are on a pc) to a mac? Yes.

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Aug 17, 2007 -> 01:21 PM) The 2007 Football schedule in spreadsheet form--with helmets! http://www.cobrabrigade.com/excel/2007_NCAAF_Schedule.xls Holy crap... that is cool as hell. Someone had waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time on their hands.

That mine sounds particularly dangerous.

QUOTE(Soxy @ Aug 17, 2007 -> 01:36 PM) I am seriously thinking of getting a new computer and switching over to the dark side (mac). Flaxx will be happy.

The Fed cut the discount rate (not the federal funds rate) this morning by a half point... everyone's starting to really panic.

The volitility is the price you pay for easy money - I can't stress that enough. If you look at the amount of $$ pumped into the financial system, it's hardcore going to effect the value of the dollar, which is what the foreign markets are responding to. The dollar was already low going into this, now it has the potential to be even lower.

I think there's like 4 links to it elsewhere.

QUOTE(WilliamTell @ Aug 16, 2007 -> 08:07 PM) can someone please inform me how piazza gets a triple? He runs HARD.

QUOTE(briguy27 @ Aug 16, 2007 -> 08:06 PM) New site? Come on dude. Fess up. PM me, because I know you know what I'm talking about.

*yawn* People are working. Kids are back in school. The usual August drop off on soxtalk. How about that new site?

The place I work is RIGHT off a runway that the Blue Angels will be flying at in October. And I do mean RIGHT off the runway (I can just about spit on it). The cool thing is we get a "private party" for the air show. It will be fun.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Aug 16, 2007 -> 06:44 PM) I hate to say it, but I'm probably about 3-4 years away from actually being able to purchase a home because I'll finally be done with the Ph.D. and looking for something tenure track...and I couldn't be happier about the timing of this. Home price shifts usually take years to work their way entirely through the market and to hit everywhere, and this one will probably be no different, so with a little bit of luck, I'll be able to hop in at the bottom. Also, I will note one other thing...while the credit crunch is only directly hitting those groups you mention, the real risk has always been in the indirect results of it. An awful lot of the recent economic expansion has been done on the expansion of credit; real wages have barely changed in the last 6 years or so since the dot com bubble burst, but consumer spending has kept going up and up and up, and so much of that has been done because of the easy access to low interest credit. Something like 10-12% of the economy I believe directly deals with home sales, construction, etc., and then beyond that, you have the people taking out equity to purchase new items, new appliances, new things for the home, etc., and if this crunch really winds up finally contracting the credit market a bit, it might well finally be the thing that slows down the consumer spending binge. That's true. I also don't think that's a bad thing - if the overall health of the economic picture trues itself up into more of a more traditional model, if you will. Everyone will be better off.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Aug 16, 2007 -> 06:32 PM) LINK LINK LINK OMG! THE WORLD IS FALLING! OMG! You're something else. Everything has to be negative spew. The constant focus - the laser like intensity for negative news must leave you in such a bright, cheery mood every day. We really need to become a socialist nation and have our government give us EVERYTHING so there's no incentive to grow ourselves. We need to insulate ourselves from all other nations. NO FREE TRADE! NO CHEAP GOODS FROM CHINA! NO CARS! (I know you don't have one - which is kind of cool actually, but back to my hyperbolic post). I want to be a mindless drone so I don't have to worry about how BAD things are every day. WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?!? So it's slowing. So what? It's still a pretty good economy all things considered. The housing market is "dragging" the economy... WOOOOOOO, IT's HORRIBLE! IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD! OMG!!! *sigh*

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Aug 16, 2007 -> 05:47 PM) It's getting plenty of press. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3683270/ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20280389/ http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/16/markets/ma...dex.htm?cnn=yes http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/moneym...ymag/index.html http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070816/ap_on_...meZtY55P39v24cA Yes, because the economy is based SOLELY on the DJIA. I really need to go back and find that thread about how GRAND and GREAT those "easy credit" mortgages are for people. You can't get anything for free, people, and this is the best lesson of that. OVERALL, the economy is in decent shape. Let's put it this way - we'd be in a lot more of a world of hurt with this if the economy wasn't in decent shape. We're able to sustain this pretty well BECAUSE the economy isn't bad right now. BTW, the market rocketed back up pretty quickly off of the lows, back nearly to the 10% - so there is some resisitance there.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 16, 2007 -> 02:01 PM) OK. I believe you, its just very unusual. The whole thing was funny actually. I had a rental car with New York plates - if I had Illinois plates, there's no way I would have gotten pulled over, because there were people passing me and I got picked.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 16, 2007 -> 01:14 PM) That's bizarre. How many years ago was this? Chicago PD gave up traffic control on the interstates a long time ago. The only time you see them out there is to get from A to B (and, I suppose, if they witness a felony in commision or something). I've never seen CPD pull someone over on the interstate. Did they get you for something that happened before you got on? Nope. It was going west into Chicago on the Skyway at (nearly) the Stoney Island Exit. It was two years ago. They had signs up for construction, for about 1/2 mile... I don't even think they were doing anything at all at the time. But it was absolutely Chicago PD.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 16, 2007 -> 12:36 PM) Wouldn't have been CPD on the Skyway - State Patrol. CPD hasn't had traffic jurisdiction on the expressways in a couple decades, they gave it up to the state. It was Chicago PD. For sure. It was west of the Skyway Bridge and the tollbooth.

QUOTE(StrangeSox @ Aug 16, 2007 -> 02:53 AM) Similar story happened to my mom's friend. She was going up 55 back towards Chicago from central Illinois. She passed through a mile long "construction zone" that was nothing but two signs saying "construction starts" and "construction ends." She had severe stomach pains and just wanted to get home and maybe to the doctor. She was pulled over by the police and ticketed for speeding in a construction zone (10 or 15 over the limit). She did end up going to the doctor and needed emergency surgery to remove her appendix. They still wouldn't throw the ticket out and she was forced to pay $500. I got my "construction zone by sign only" ticket on the skyway a couple years ago... nice people, those CPD people are.

QUOTE(Rex Kicka** @ Aug 16, 2007 -> 12:54 AM) So, the bear market officially starts at 12,700 then roughly? For all the doom and gloomers, yes. Realistically, I would say no... but you will see where the floor is once you hit that 10% number.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Aug 15, 2007 -> 11:10 PM) Well I suppose it's the "major" correction we had to have, or at least that's what I'm hearing. I suppose it's really a perfect buying oppurtunity, I mean especially down here, because if a stock has gone downhill up here just because some guy in Wyoming can't pay off his mortgage (something like that is the terminology we've been using down here), then it shouldn't affect the outlook of stocks down here, especially considering the boom in China etc. with resources. It's a little more complex then that... but it will correct itself. The market usually does. Have you noticed that all the mergers and acquisitions have all but stopped? Where did these people get their money? Just some things to think about...

I'd expect we'll probably hold around this for a while, as long as nothing major happens (read: Hurricane Dean) or the Fed doesn't change rates (although I would say that is still a slim bet right now) before the next meeting. They are trying to infuse cash into the system without cutting rates while keeping an eye on inflation. It's a tough task.