Just ....wooow.
 

Bush says everything is good, basically. What planet is he on?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080715/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush

Umm, I'm a full time, salaried employee, and I AM struggling. Come ON, 11/4/08.

He also said that things aren't as good as he would have liked.

Look, I'm a Republican who isn't in favor of a lot of Bush's policies...but I can't think of a President who would sit up there and say "Yeah, the economy is in the toilet, we're all screwed, better start selling off grandma's jewelry." Every President is going to try to put a positive spin on things.

This is what I don't understand. Everyone bitches and gripes about how the government mishandles things, then they finally get something right and everyone is still pissed off. The system is working, there is very little the government can do in this situation without jeopardizing the american way of free trade. If they step in and try to regulate prices, then demand is going to shoot out of the roof and you will be hard pressed to find gas period. I think one thing really sticks out in my mind about the article, where bush says that the companies will still be shareholder owned, which is one of the most important things for a market such as americas to succeed. So I don't disagree with the stuggling and such, but, its a very delicate situation the economy will rebound from, and will be fine.


ETA: The reporter who wrote the article, which I feel was manipulated hugely to appeal against bush due his very bias toward liberal views and his dislike for bush.

I think you hit it on the head....a SPIN.

In terms of spin, the morning papers are just full of it today:
The following is a summery of the morning head-lines:
The Sky Is Falling
"The economic news yesterday was bad, bad, and more bad, and it is the lead story of all the newspapers. "A sense of economic gloom gripped Washington on Tuesday," the New York Times writes. The Washington Post goes with a near-banner headline, "An Economy Thrown Into Turmoil." USA Today's front page also features several big arrows; the ones for good things are going down and those for bad things are going up. "So this is what a day of reckoning feels like. … If it wasn't clear before Tuesday, it is now: This is no ordinary economic crisis, and it won't be over anytime soon," the paper writes.
So what all was going wrong? Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified in front of Congress that economic growth was "on a sluggish pace," and that on top of that, inflation was a risk. The Commerce Department reported that wholesale prices were up 1.8 percent, and retail sales rose just 0.1 percent in June over the previous month and were down 0.5 percent when gas-station sales were excluded. The stock market was down 93 points, and stocks in London, Paris, and Tokyo suffered as well. The dollar fell to a new low against the euro. Police in California had to be summoned to restore order at banks, where customers waited in line to withdraw their money. "It was a day of ugliness," said one analyst quoted in the Los Angeles Times. "What else can you say?"
The lone (sort of) optimistic voice of the day belonged to President Bush, who held a snap press conference at which, in the words of the New York Times, "he felt compelled to remind Americans that their deposits were insured up to $100,000." ........
http://www.slate.com/id/2195464?wpisrc=newsletter

The media is nothing more than a bunch of people who are really experts in nothing taking other peoples words out of context to accomplish selling a paper.

As the Dow is up more than 2% today.

Well, it's definitely the time to buy for those with the resources to do so.

I'm actually in agreement that things aren't as dire as some of the media makes it out to be, the sensationalism, of course, drives revenue for them. But it also unfortunately affects the mindset of average Americans who believe the economy is irreversably circling the drain and that's not good for anybody.

Every month since February or so, I've seen headlines that sales of homes "unexpectedly" rose -- that's a GOOD thing. But then there's the quick follow-up line that "but prices are down". Well, yes, but that's because prices were so insanely over-inflated 3-5 years ago, they're settling back to where they should have been all along. Some people, unfortunately, ended up upside-down in their houses in the meantime and they and all the fly-by-night mortgage companies that sprang up are paying the price. But if home sales are up, that means the market is moving, that's a good thing, let's let everyone get some positive news for once. People are more likely to spend when they have some confidence in things, we do need the positive messages to come down from the top to keep people sane (while they're pulling up to pay $4/gallon at the pump).

I do think that it's better in some parts of the country than in Michigan, but things are really dismal here and still getting worse. When people sit around at work comparing how many houses are abandoned on their streets, things are pretty bad.

I took a quick look last night and my 401k is down just over 9% from the beginning of the year.

I can't figure out how to blame the media for that.

I'd feel a whole lot more comfortable if I were twenty-something and had a long time for it (them, actually) to rebound. The older I get, the less comfortable it is.

It sure is nice to know that we're not technically in a recession.

Right.

I suppose someday I'll figure out the logic of cutting taxes and then not seeming to worry about controlling spending, including funding a couple of wars.

New math, I guess.

What is going on right now is that there are lots of plenty of positive economic indicators- but they do not necessarily benefit most Americans. With so much growth abroad, improved business for many US companies does not always mean that other companies are doing well. If a US steel fabricator has a boom year, it does not mean that construction in the US is doing well- it means construction is booming in some other country. So the good news for many US companies does not have the traditionally expected benefit for the US at large.

A few months ago I predicted the Dow would fall to the upper to mid 10,000s and then shoot back up very quickly when investors woke up and realized what great investments are out there right now. It has not gone quite as low as I predicted, but the volume on the rally today was huge- close to 7 billion shares on the NYSE.

That is very significant. A lot of the market volatility in the last few months has been on very low volume. What we have observed in the last 2 weeks is far more indicative of reality. I still think we will test a new by August, but maybe not. Either way, today proved that I was right 3 months ago that there is a LOT of money on the sidelines ready to pounce into the markets.

GM is suffering, but US Steel is doing great. For every staple American manufacturing company that is facing gloomy prospects, there is another that is experiencing a historic resurgence. Life in Michigan may not be so good, but Pennsylvania is having some great times like they have not in many a year.

For the first time in history there is truly a global economy in which the United States is a key player as both an exporter and an importer. It is not just about globalization but about the fact our currency has declined in value so much. We are exporting raw materials and manufactured goods in a way that has never happened before. It is a complete reversal of our trend of importing such things. And kudos to Bush's team in the Fed for devaluing the US dollar. If we had not devalued our currency to incentivize exports, we would be in far worse shape than we are in right now. International growth is about the only bright spot for a huge number of US companies.

We are entering into a period that has been coming for a few years now where there will be a fundamental shift in what US industries will be innovative and which will be stable long term investments. That is what is going on, and while it is very good news for a lot of Americans- it will be disastrous for many more.

But we are all going to have to suffer the fallout of constricted credit and a falling housing market for at least the rest of this year.

However this is a good thing. Housing prices have fallen, but they are still very far above where they were just 2-3 years ago in many markets. Prices went up very fast not because people were making more money, but because credit was made easier to obtain.

So a crash in housing and the resulting crisis in consumer spending is a good thing since it will get prices back to where more Americans can afford to buy homes that are priced where someone can buy one using a conventional mortgage. If the government does any housing bailouts it will merely artificially prop up real estate prices and- for most who receive aid- it will just delay inevitable financial ruin.

As for the auto markets- it is hard to say. The US automakers got hit, but Toyota got hit worse. Still, the US is behind the curve on many quality measures and on really actively promoting fuel efficient vehicles. And that is their fault. Chevy delayed the hybrid Tahoe by 2 years- and that is the kind of thing that is hurting them now. They did a very bad job of being innovative and forward thinkers.

I know that does not put food on the table for a lot of people, but there it is.

Use more than 8 months, use 3-5, all that number is doing is playing head games with you, you are still making money.

Nate;
If you have some extra monies, I am sure DA and I (and a few others) would be more than willing to help you lighten up the load in your wallet;):D

no im just saying, the market is working effectively and how it should.

I've started shorting the oil contracts. Predict it might go down to $115 to $120.

I think the derivative, commodity and forex people are the only one making good money right.

I've been going against the dollars for some time now. Made good money on the pound and euro.