Mikeylikesit saidDCEric saidColbert_Nation saidIt might not be so bad if most of America's retirement programs weren't stock market based.
We all got screwed letting them switch guaranteed benefit retirements to 401k.
Are you kidding? Everything is on sale! Buy now! When this turns around in the next couple of years BOOM!
The market always comes back.
I hate to tell its gonna be more then a couple of years....try more like 10,15-20 years.......I feel Really bad for all the people that are about to retire & lost all their IRA money......But are they supost to do!.....
i agree on your projections for how many years until there will be a bounce-back.
the crisis has barely begun, and people are talking as if the "recession" will be done with by 2010.
hate to break it to you all, but the IMF recently stated that the western developed nations are now in a depression. only thing is, we havent figured it out yet.
the recession took so long for the media to acknowledge, when do you think we will be told we are in a depression... waiting in bread lines? hopefully we figure it out by then.
from my perspective the only worthy investments are:
- physical hard metals - gold, silver... in hand, not stocks, certificates, etc... in HAND - as a hedge against inflation
- storable foods - for obvious reasons
in case you are wondering why a little runt like myself thinks he can speak on these matters to those who are in the "business" of stocks, etc... i am a global political economy major, as well as history student, and my job is working for a think tank in researching and analyzing world trends/events, specifically as of late, the financial crisis.
top economists and even politicians in Europe and North America have been warning that there will be riots in the US and other western nations... there are even preparations on the part of governments to declare martial law in this event.
this is not a "housing" crisis... that was simply the FISRT bubble to burst. there are many more... the biggest of which... the DEBT bubble. the US is $45 trillion in debt, that is total government, corporate and personal debt. this is impossible to pay back...
governments keep giving out "stimulus" packages in a vain effort to delay the inevitable. printing more money in the hopes that they can position the wealthy to be ready for the collapse. with every dollar more that is printed, more interest is owed to the Federal Reserve, which is not a "public" agency, as it is generally perceived.
central banks caused this crisis, as they caused the Great Depression, and the recession in 79 and the debt crisis that followed. the neoliberal era of the 80s onward (of which we are witnessing the collapse), was marked by the rise of speculative assaults against nations (Mexican Peso crisis, 94; East Asian FInancial Crisis, 97; Russia, 98; etc).
we now have the dangerous mix:
- a debt-inflated economy courtesy of central bank monetary policies
- a massive speculative market in currency
--> nations around the world are already realizing that the US dollar is a bad investment (long run)... they are leaving the dollar
- eventually, there will likely be a massive speculative onslaught against the dollar, when this happens --> hyperinflation (see: Weimar Germany)
two years ago, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), the central bank of the central banks, where they meet and determine and coordinate (with no oversight) world monetary policies of the major industrialized western nations - warned that we are headed for a Great Depression... they would know... they caused it
buying any stock in anything is a bad idea. and to say that the "market will be back, because it always has been" ignores the big picture here.
we are about to witness the greatest financial disaster in world history (almost definitely), out of which we will witness the greatest restructuring of the global political economy (international system) ever witnessed... being restructured by the very ones that caused its collapse.
time to make secure, yourself and loved ones. the media will lie to the bitter end, because they are owned by the very banks that are being bailed out and they want to keep the people in the dark as long as humanly possible.
so... either, see me as a crackpot, pessimist, crazy person, just plain wrong, totally misinformed, or.... do a little research, and maybe, just maybe, re-think "investing".
--> it helps to look back at the causes of the Great Depression. do not use one "official" source for this. it is best to examine several different perspectives, (as the causes are still up for discussion), and dont simply fall into the "over-production, lack of buying power" thesis... there is much more to it than that.
cheers, and good luck
(p.s. - if enough people want info/sources, etc... including where this crisis is "leading" - i would be happy to start a thread with this information available.)
All the best