Our financial system is crumbling this week.

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TheoSqua
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Re: Our financial system is crumbling this week.

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G. Keenan wrote:
thrill wrote:Good news, guys. My dad says if Trump gets reelected, our economy is going up like a damn rocket ship. This changes everything.
This really is an interesting phenomenon. Despite actual numbers showing that hiring, wage growth, manufacturing, and exports have slowed under Trump vs. Obama, that farm bankruptcies are up like 30%, and that consumer prices are rising due to tariffs, he keeps the faith. And of course the deficit is skyrocketing.

Like, Trump is actually president right now and has a full year left in his term. I guess he is still building the rocket ship and we'll have to wait for a second term to see it take flight.
I've always wondered if relatively poor people who advocate for economic policies that benefit the wealthy are focused on what life will be like when they are also wealthy. Since the overall economy has grown the last few years, it means that life will be good for when they hit it rich. Basically a subset of people who identify as what they want to be as opposed to what they are.

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thrill
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Re: Our financial system is crumbling this week.

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G. Keenan wrote:
thrill wrote:Good news, guys. My dad says if Trump gets reelected, our economy is going up like a damn rocket ship. This changes everything.
This really is an interesting phenomenon. Despite actual numbers showing that hiring, wage growth, manufacturing, and exports have slowed under Trump vs. Obama, that farm bankruptcies are up like 30%, and that consumer prices are rising due to tariffs, he keeps the faith. And of course the deficit is skyrocketing.

Like, Trump is actually president right now and has a full year left in his term. I guess he is still building the rocket ship and we'll have to wait for a second term to see it take flight.
My dad isn't even a Trump guy, or political at all. He's libertarian in temperment. His financial advisor is a friend of his who manages really large accounts and does my dad's retirement planning as a favor. So he's super credible on paper, but has totally bought into the Trump nonsense (and is a conservative in general), so when I talk to my dad about it, he understandably goes with the wealth management guy's opinion over mine, even though it's pretty obvious based on his long track record of business practices that all Trump is doing is exactly what he's always done in his businesses - i.e. beg, borrowing, and stealing everything possible to juice his asset so he can walk away with the looted profits before the bottom drops out. It's very, very obvious, but people believe what they want to believe.

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BottenFieldofDreams
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Re: Our financial system is crumbling this week.

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These opioid settlements are going to be like $30 billion. That should boost consumer activity.

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Re: Our financial system is crumbling this week.

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G. Keenan wrote:This really is an interesting phenomenon. Despite actual numbers showing that hiring, wage growth, manufacturing, and exports have slowed under Trump vs. Obama, that farm bankruptcies are up like 30%, and that consumer prices are rising due to tariffs, he keeps the faith. And of course the deficit is skyrocketing.
He seems a lot like my dad who thinks that the stock market is the only indicator of a healthy economy.

Sure, the people with lots of money to invest are doing better than ever but the rest of us are either getting screwed or will be hurting before too long. The NASDAQ could quintuple in the next week and I wouldn't see a single penny of that. My company wouldn't suddenly give me a raise or bonus. They wouldn't start hiring. It's all smoke and mirrors as far as I'm concerned. When a simple rumor can cause the value of a company to dramatically rise or fall in a matter of hours, that's a sign to me that the stock market is not a good indicator of ANYTHING. It's just rich guys playing a game to make more money. If a company's stock suddenly doubles, that doesn't put any more cash in the company coffers. It may help them get a new line of credit but they aren't any more profitable than they were before the stock doubled.

When a company is new and the company sells its initial stock, I get that being an infusion of cash into the business. That makes complete sense to me and it is a true investment that can help a company expand... but once the shares are just sold from institution to institution (or investor to investor in some cases I guess), the company isn't seeing a tangible benefit to those sales yet it influences how much the company is worth. It's all stupid to me. Somebody give me a Masters course in finance please because I just don't get how the market is a true indicator of the strength of the economy. The company I work for has tons of cash on hand. Our stock price could drop to zero tomorrow and we could still pay our bills, produce our product and make a profit... but we'd still go under. I seriously need somebody to help me understand how that is.

*** Yes, I get that my 401k would benefit from the market quintupling but the chances of me living to retirement age are slim so I don't care. And yes, I fully admit that when it comes to finance and economics at large, my overall knowledge is that of a preschool child for what it's worth.

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Re: Our financial system is crumbling this week.

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Freed Roger
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Re: Our financial system is crumbling this week.

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Beanie Babies in the attic are officially available for barter. What ya got? IMA, how about an 8th of a beef for the whole lot?

Zeus , I'll take your Robot Pencil Sharpener in cancellation of your Busy Bee debts.

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Re: Our financial system is crumbling this week.

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Plasma for sale! Mostly Clean!

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Re: Our financial system is crumbling this week.

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Amazon changing payment methods to Organ parts. Delivery by Ox Cart in 20 to 500 days.

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Re: Our financial system is crumbling this week.

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Marketplace program is calling this a market correction, triggered by Coronavirus fears - businesses tied to Asian production (apple, microsoft) took a big hit. Mainly though, the market was getting over inflated It could have been anything to start the correction.

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Re: Our financial system is crumbling this week.

Post by Arthur Dent »

S&P 500 crashes all the way down to ... it's valuation in October last year.

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