you know, the gold standard is only as good as the gold… i read something recently about the downfall of rome as a result of dilution of the gold content of their coins. wiki charles ii and specie or something…

there is essentially zero oversight of the federal reserve, the financial companies, wall street… like in big fish where steve buscheme’s (sp?) character takes off for wall street where the real crimes take place. if the people trusted with the security of the dollar or gold coin or clam shells or sticks can’t be trusted, it doesn’t matter what you chose to represent your tomatoes. without trust, it’s back to barter and good luck carrying even lunch money worth of tomatoes in your gold plated money clip.

you know, the gold standard is only as good as the gold… i read something recently about the downfall of rome as a result of dilution of the gold content of their coins. wiki charles ii and specie or something…

there is essentially zero oversight of the federal reserve, the financial companies, wall street… like in big fish where steve buscheme’s (sp?) character takes off for wall street where the real crimes take place. if the people trusted with the security of the dollar or gold coin or clam shells or sticks can’t be trusted, it doesn’t matter what you chose to represent your tomatoes. without trust, it’s back to barter and good luck carrying even lunch money worth of tomatoes in your gold plated money clip.

If the Fed doesn’t ease and truly allows the market to fix itself, I think the dollar is done going down. A credit crunch is a deflationary monetary event. I believe the dollar has already started rallying against foreign currencies. Home prices, as well as the prices of other assets, will come down if the Fed doesn’t ease here. I hope Bernanke has the balls to stick to his guns.

And not everything is FDIC insured. There is nothing I can move my 401(k) money into that is FDIC insured. I’ve put my money in the Fidelity money market associated with my 401(k), but, as near as I can tell, up to 25% of that money market can be invested in the MBS market. I think it is restricted to investing only in Fannie- and Freddie-backed securities, but there’s no federal guarantee on Fannie and Freddie either.

My brokerage account is also not FDIC insured. There is something called the SIPC that protects that account, but I don’t believe that is a federal government entity.

The amount of exposure I have personally to this disaster actually caught me off guard. Potentially, my 401(k) money market account and my brokerage account could be wiped out. It really sucks that, although I’ve been very responsible with my money, I could still lose money based on what idiot bankers and brokers have done.

I don’t trust any of the media. They aren’t very good at predictions, but they definitely are good at pile on the prevalent news. That is, they are great at taking an issue and blowing it completely out of proportion.

When the economy is great and wall street is great, big headlines say how great the economy is. When oil prices are high, they blow it out of proportion that “oil is going to go insane”…Now with the credit crunch, they headlines are all “credit crisis” blah blah blah.

Media, for all purposes, is just to catch eyeballs. That’s why they won’t ever report something against the current trend or reader sentiment. For that, I’m contrarian against the media. Whenever the media is reporting something, I going to be doing the opposite..Because by the time the media reports it, it already happened.

frankly, I’m still pretty bullish about technology…Because working in tech area, I’m seeing companies spending more on tech, simply because they haven’t done so for so long…

Doom-dayers will probably think this is absurd. But, like I said, our own company has been upgrading/updating like mad…And talking with other peers in the industry, they seem to be saying the same thing. The only exception are my peers in the defense industry, which are reporting contract stalls/and tightening budgets, namely because some of the companies are waiting on a big defense contract. If it doesn’t happen, peers are reporting there will be layoffs.

I don’t trust any of the media. They aren’t very good at predictions, but they definitely are good at pile on the prevalent news. That is, they are great at taking an issue and blowing it completely out of proportion.

When the economy is great and wall street is great, big headlines say how great the economy is. When oil prices are high, they blow it out of proportion that “oil is going to go insane”…Now with the credit crunch, they headlines are all “credit crisis” blah blah blah.

Media, for all purposes, is just to catch eyeballs. That’s why they won’t ever report something against the current trend or reader sentiment. For that, I’m contrarian against the media. Whenever the media is reporting something, I going to be doing the opposite..Because by the time the media reports it, it already happened.

frankly, I’m still pretty bullish about technology…Because working in tech area, I’m seeing companies spending more on tech, simply because they haven’t done so for so long…

Doom-dayers will probably think this is absurd. But, like I said, our own company has been upgrading/updating like mad…And talking with other peers in the industry, they seem to be saying the same thing. The only exception are my peers in the defense industry, which are reporting contract stalls/and tightening budgets, namely because some of the companies are waiting on a big defense contract. If it doesn’t happen, peers are reporting there will be layoffs.

“All news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea.”

Henry David Thoreau