Economic depression

[ManDownUnder]

Time to ditch the debt boys and girls. Sell the house - watch the prices drop, buy it back at the lower price - all that kind of clever stuff...

Get lines of credit available and DON'T USE THEM unless you absolutely have to. It's gonna be a bumpy landing...

[imdying]

So long as I'm getting sex I'm fine.

A good point

Just eat cashews.

Really? What's the deal with that then?

[puddytat]

I had the disturbing pleasure of watching the movie ZEITGEIST the other day...you can take what they say regarding 911 with a grain of salt,but thier predictions of this financial crisis is spot on & the way they are trying to bail out the system is chillingly like what happened at the beginning of the Great Depression...watch it folks & be very, very worried.

[Naki Rat]

The US can print money more easily than almost any other country as the have this magic chequebook.
The fact that all oil trades are in US dollars.
The overcame that little glitch when Iraq decided payment should be in Euros. Fixed that little problem.

October Investigate magazine has a great article by Richard Prosser (p.18-19) on this subject. Well worth the read and very enlightening on the real reasons behind the US's actions against Iraq, Saddam Hussein, 'WMD' - not so much oil as US$ vs. Euros. And now the Iranian oil Bourse is heading the Euro way...... uh-oh!

[MadDuck]

Subsequently the shops are looking at their stock levels. They won't hold as much stock.

Oddly our policy is quite the opposite. Our stock levels are higher than they have ever been and increasing.

The theory being that every person that walks in is a potential customer and should not leave "empty handed". This will also (hopefully) mean they will return as we were the only place that had what they wanted.

Empty shelves can give the wrong impression to people. Such as cant afford to hold stock so likely to go out of business ...so no follow up service.

[chrisso]

''There is no Depression In NZ''....wasnt that a song by????? in the 80s??

[Mom]

Just eat cashews.

and grow your own.....




Veges of course

[riffer]

''There is no Depression In NZ''....wasnt that a song by????? in the 80s??

Yeah, by Blam Blam Blam.

Been reading a bit about this.

I'm of the opinion that the US should learn to take their economic medicine.

Read this article.

[no-coast-punk]

As someone born, raised and living in the US I'm getting a kick out of these replies.

On behalf of the American people I apologize for our stupidity and the fact that our failure at basic math has caused you guys financial hardship.

What you guys are saying is basically pretty indicative of what the few remaining sane pockets of our society are saying. We've totally screwed the pooch for about two generations and now it's catching up to us. This situation really IS the fault of the average American consumer.

There is nothing inherently wrong with making credit easily accessible to the masses. Before the credit market imploded I could go finance a new R1 for ~$95USD/month at 0% interest. Good for me. I live within my means and keep a tight reign on my finances. I could have paid the balance of my loan at any time I wanted. It's just a better deal for me to finance at 0% and go spend/invest that money elsewhere. Also good for Yamaha because they can sell more bikes this way.

Problem comes when American public schools turn out a few consecutive generations of illiterate lazy fucktards with a sense of entitlement that can't do basic math. Put access to easy credit in their hands and we get where we are now. Believe me when I say that the fault of this really lays squarely in the hands of the average American.

The finance industry is kind of a mindless organism that does one thing and does it extremely well. Make money and increase shareholder value. Firms that were not engaging in these risky pyramid schemes were treated as total fucking outcasts by the average investor. Firms that were making good sound financial decisions either tanked years ago, or were purchased by the rising tide of mismanaged firms. If firms in this country don't go with the flow and do what everyone else is doing... the board of directors gets flooded with angry calls from investors. It sucks but it's the sad reality.

For a better understanding of what really happened you should all listen to this podcast:

http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1242

It basically explains in very clear terms how things turned into such a clusterfuck.

A little anecdote from my own life:

I was living in LA at the peak of the housing bubble here. I had moved there for a really cush job at Mercedes Benz of Beverly Hills. Beverly hills is basically ground zero for irresponsible behavior. I lost track of the number of people driving around in $200,000 Benzo's that they had taken out second mortages on their homes to purchase. These people also didn't have the money to keep tires or brakes on the things simply because they hadn't budgeted well.

Housing prices were basically out of control too. Access to easy credit drives up prices. If someone making $20,000/year can afford (on paper) a loan on a $500,000 house. Suddenly all houses will be more than $500,000.

I wanted to keep myself out of that whole fiasco lifestyle so I opted for the cheapest place I could find within ~20 minutes of the dealership. This put me in South Central LA. Yes, that South Central. The one that rappers always rap about.

The house I was renting was a TINY and run down one bedroom affair (but it had a huge garage) built in 1927 with about fuckall maintenance since about 1957. The neighborhood was typical South Central. Two weeks after I had moved into the neighborhood a police helicopter got shot down a few blocks away. Not some action movie fireball affair. But the thing had enough holes punched in it from incoming ground fire that they had to make an emergency landing in the soccer field at the elementary school a few blocks away. All in all a really nice and quaint neighborhood. The sound of sporadic automatic weapons fire eventually turned into a soothing affair... sort of like living next to a babbling brook.

My tiny piece of shit run down rental house in a neighborhood that could have passed for downtown Mogadishu was worth $1.1 million US dollars (before our currency tanked). There was something seriously wrong with that picture but so few people seemed to realize that.

The reason I've got my eye on heading to NZ is that it's one of the few remaining western style countries that seems to have an economy and society grounded in reality.

Lots of people like me have seen this coming. Even though I could have afforded to buy a nice house for several years now I've continued to rent because prices were just totally unsustainable. I've also been keeping money in the bank instead of new investing or buying stupid shit. All of the stocks I owned have lost about 75% of their value this year. Good times.

[alanzs]

The reason I've got my eye on heading to NZ is that it's one of the few remaining western style countries that seems to have an economy and society grounded in reality.

If you really decide to come on down, feel free to pm me if you have any questions. I'm from LA originally. Been here since just before GW got in the 2nd time. Voted with my feet. NZ is a great place. Things be way different here bro, just a heads up. We ain't in Kansas anymore...

[Hinny]

A good point
Really? What's the deal with that then?

Cashews are an alternative to anti-depressant and maybe anti- psychotic.prescription meds. Contain the same chemicals.

Try them and see if you notice any difference to how you feel.

[MadDuck]

The reason I've got my eye on heading to NZ is that it's one of the few remaining western style countries that seems to have an economy and society grounded in reality.

Yep the same reason Tony Alexander from the BNZ is predicting a housing shortage here in 2009/10. New housing consents have had a huge decrease in August and September.

Will be interesting to see how it all pans out.

PS: Not sure about "grounded in reality" though.

[Naki Rat]

Lots of people like me have seen this coming. ............. Good times.

Your post sounds similar to a mate who lived in Southern California for 14 years up until moving back to NZ about 5 years back. Surrounded by people funding their lifestyle by using their homes as ATMs, and since being back here has maintained his disbelief that the whole US/Californian economy hasn't long since crashed and burned.

[alanzs]

Cashews are an alternative to anti-depressant and maybe anti- psychotic.prescription meds. Contain the same chemicals.

Try them and see if you notice any difference to how you feel.

So that I get it right, if I eat a lot of cashews the voices telling me to not bring my gun to work will go away?

[alanzs]

Your post sounds similar to a mate who lived in Southern California for 14 years up until moving back to NZ about 5 years back. Surrounded by people funding their lifestyle by using their homes as ATMs, and since being back here has maintained his disbelief that the whole US/Californian economy hasn't long since crashed and burned.

Had a house in L.A. The value rose 100% in three years. Refinanced once a year and took out a shit load of money each time, and always had a lower fixed interest rate and payments than before. It was like a cash machine. I had a fixed rate loan for 25 years at 5.1%. I didn't even go for the ARM loans, which were as low as 2.5% for 5 years. Heady days they were, heady days. Anyone with any sense saw that unsustainable bubble bursting. Like now!