Thanks Mr.M for your reply in the thread.

Hot stock tip everyone...buy , my doomer supplies are running low and I need to replenish them.

Rising imports & flat exports - and a rising savings rate - hmmmm.

1) More vacant car dealers.
2) What will college professors drive?

2) What will college professors drive?

Windmill powered go carts and walk a lot more.

Let them caulk.

The local rag ran this story on tuesday.

NORFOLK — The Port of Virginia says container traffic declined in October but exports continued to outpace imports.

In a posting on its Web site, the port says it handled 159,781 containers in October, a decline of 28,945 compared to October 2008.

For the year, container traffic is down 18 percent. The port says it handled 1.4 million containers from January to October, compared to 1.75 million during the same period in 2008.

October’s trade balance was unchanged from September, with 57 percent exports and 43 imports. For the year, the trade balance was 56 percent exports and 44 percent imports.

DOW 6000 wrote:

The Chinese don't need any of our plastic trinkets

Hu - "We don't need no stinkin' trinkets ... "

Most people here don't need any more trinkets. We could just have garage sales and sell the junk to each other for years to come.

I just knew somebody would go there.

picking up on a previous comment about retail sales. According to the Washington Post the commerce department surveys 5500 establishments. In a survey that small there has to be a huge survivor bias. There also has to be a huge adjustment the equivalent of the birth death model to take into account the sales at very small retailers. Those two factors IMO make this a meaningless report given that in a credit crunch it is the small business that is hurt most.

Cinco-X wrote:

I thought that was part of the female anatomy!?

cinco - we have to have a talk. Sit down and let me explain ....

josap wrote:

cinco - we have to have a talk. Sit down and let me explain ....

Ummm....your place or mine

Lobbyist Ben Dover wrote:

Chinese buying Volvo gives them an in to the US and world markets, Known product, name and technology

I understand their thinking but it is seriously deluded. I have owned nothing but Volvos for the last 25 years. If it was a Chinese owned brand I definitely wouldn't purchase another one. My guess is that sentiment is probably true for a large number of Volvo owners. Conservative estimate- if the Chinese end up owning Volvo their sales fall probably 50% in the US.

While the TEUs are up 11% y-o-y the dollar index is down... 11% y-o-y. Funny that.

Spoke to my family in Greece. Things are getting bad. There is talk of general strikes if the government puts austerity measures into place. At some point, something has to give. The government is broke, the Germans don't want to bail them out, and the people are unwilling to except any cuts.

and the people are unwilling to except any cuts.

that will change

Yes, I agree there will be cuts (there is no alternative). However, there will also be blood (witty, huh).

At least exports are not declining. I'm okay with imports falling into line with exports. It wouldn't be the optimal soft landing but at least it stanches the bleeding.

From the prior thread:

Treasury officials said the government needed to grant the tax break in order to sell its shares in Citigroup because the company could not afford the loss.

BULL SHEEP!!! What the h*ll kind of people have infected the NATIONAL TREASURY????

Officials also said that preserving the tax break would help the government sell its shares at a higher price.

Like, they have a crystal ball or something? If they wanted to recover the people's money, they should've sold the government's stake BEFORE Citi went out and raised additional capital.

I mean, if Citi was healthy enough to repay the TARP, they should've been healthy enough for us not to need to own 34% of the company, no?

IMO Geely buying Volvo is just a politically acceptable way for Ford and China Inc. to get in bed and start swapping body parts. The technology sharing at Ford means giving the Chicomms the automakers best inside information. Sure they get a "market" but for all the units they might sell in asia nothing of value will ever return to these shores.

Wisdom Speaker wrote:

From the prior thread:
Treasury officials said the government needed to grant the tax break in order to sell its shares in Citigroup because the company could not afford the loss.
BULL SHEEP!!! What the h*ll kind of people have infected the NATIONAL TREASURY????

god forbid a flipping bank should have a loss, poor things,

CV

There are always people who will turn away and some who would embrace the change. I won't buy a UAW government car either. Chinese have lots of cash and it may be immaterial what they pay for it in the long run. Time will tell.

Nuke wrote:

Spoke to my family in Greece. Things are getting bad. There is talk of general strikes if the government puts austerity measures into place. At some point, something has to give. The government is broke, the Germans don't want to bail them out, and the people are unwilling to except any cuts.

Maybe the Turks will be willing to help?

Cinco-X wrote:

Maybe the Turks will be willing to help?

How, by buying Cyprus?

black dog wrote:

Budget cuts are coming to virginia.
$7 billion has been cut the last 2+ years from the budget. Governor Kaine today will announce another $3.5 billion in cuts for the 2010 -2012 budget.

Those cuts are a larger percentage of the 2007 budget than CA. Guess which state has a balanced budget and a high credit rating?

"The lack of further export growth to Asia is definitely discouraging."

I think they are buying glod.

Does this mean I can no longer get oceangoing containers nearly free?

some investor guy wrote:

Budget cuts are coming to virginia.
$7 billion has been cut the last 2+ years from the budget. Governor Kaine today will announce another $3.5 billion in cuts for the 2010 -2012 budget.
Those cuts are a larger percentage of the 2007 budget than CA. Guess which state has a balanced budget and a high credit rating?

The one closest to the Federal teat.

Nuke wrote:

The government is broke, the Germans don't want to bail them out, and the people are unwilling to except any cuts.

sounds just like the US.

''Why is the media constantly telling me that the Tao is up, or the Tao is down? I thought the Tao just Is."

Tao jones - Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia

I fear for those little princesses who haven't a clue about what is coming their way. Survival of the fittest again only this time its going to take on something besides playing backstabbing games and popularity contests.

Wow.

Instead of the expected $3.5 billion cut Kaine just announced a $4.2 billion cut.

Juvenal Delinquent wrote:
By definition, these people have set themselves up for failure, as they aren't any different than the institutions they ran into the ground, on account of greed.
Sounds like survival of the fittest, then, applies to them as well. I guess they just made bad choices.

The $700 (million) Club?

PTL

The impending snow storm in the northeast corridor is getting interesting.

One of the moderators for a weather blog in DC:

"This is still looking like one for the record books in the area. Most forecast #s will have to go up today."

Posted by: Ian-CapitalWeatherGang | December 18, 2009 10:05 AM

Wouldn't it be poetic if Obama's return from Copenhagen were delayed?

black dog its down here in south ga no t-storms yet but rain rain rain

The Unknown

As we know,
There are known knowns,
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don’t know we don’t know.

Rumsfeld, D.

Wow is right. The counties in No. VA that are ones farthest away from DC and still qualify as commuting distance are getting killed. They built up to fast, never got the infrastructure in place to support it, and now they don't have the money.

You're talking about MY hood...and you're Spot On!

HomeGnome wrote:
Methinks the "princesses" are in for a rude shock.
Debt bondage.
They may be into that. Different strokes...

josap<
What do the princesses plan on doing once Mom and Dad die?
Boom!

Midnight in the food-stamp economy - Yahoo! News

As food stamps become an increasingly common currency in a struggling U.S. economy, they are dictating changes in how even the biggest retailers do business.

From Costco to Wal-Mart, store chains are rethinking years of strategy as they watch prized customers lose jobs and turn to this benefit, the stigma of which is disappearing not just in society, but in corporate America.

Besides staffing up for the spike in shoppers on the first day of the month, retailers are adjusting when and what they stock, updating point-of-sale systems to accept food stamps and shifting expansion plans to focus on lower-income shoppers.

......

In the fiscal year that ended in September, 193,753 U.S. retailers accepted food stamps, 17 percent more than the same period two years earlier. "For some chains... it's 10 to 12 percent of their revenues," Concannon said. "Depending on how poor the area may be, it may even be higher."

Tellingly, electronic benefits transfer (EBT) transactions processed by retailers jumped 53 percent this year on a same-store sales basis on Black Friday, the kickoff to the U.S. holiday shopping season, payments processor First Data told Reuters.

EBT includes food stamps and other government benefits like temporary cash assistance for needy families and food assistance for new and expecting mothers.

.....

Greeks strike like Americans shop, it's in their blood. When their socialist leaders throw them under the bus in February, they'll finally WTFU. Debt rollover is manageable, but this is Greece's Thatcher moment.

Rob Dawg wrote:

Wow, look at all the people falling off the back end of the BLS unemployment figures.

Can't be a good time of year to fall off either.

Those that depend upon a free breakfast, lunch and dinner ought to be called:

Foodladleists, as most of them are unhinged financially.

HomeGnome wrote:

Methinks the "princesses" future husbands are in for a rude shock.

IFIFY

homeGnome
they are getting it Now!

One princess is married. Hubby works for his dad - taking care of Mommy. Honest to god, he is paid to be a compainon to mom. And paid well.

When will the government issued Mastercards arrive? 100K limit for every person with a SSN along with no payments (ever) and 0% interest (forever) should help get things moving again.

longwaver for Fed Chairman (and Person of the Year)

The Celebrated Jumping Fraud of Veritas Accounting?
JD you crack me up, I do so enjoy your sense of humor +++++100

longwaver wrote:

When will the government issued Mastercards arrive? 100K limit for every person with a SSN along with no payments (ever) and 0% interest (forever) should help get things moving again.

They did a debit card program post Katrina, which allowed some form of tracking on what was purchased.

Not sure how widespread the fraud was, but some interesting purchases.

Wow MaryAnn. This makes me wonder just how profound next year is going to be.

MaryAnn wrote:

The local Ace Hardware that had been in business nearly forty years closed one day this week in our hood. Older generation had left it to the younger kids and boom it took less than two years to run it in the ground.

"Left it?" I doubt it. More likely they sold it and it was the debt load that did them in. Don't be so quick to blame when there are so many other possibilities.

The third brick wrote:

"We went as low as we possibly could in price during the negotiations but it wasn't enough,"

I've wondered how many companies that actually have cash and lines of credit are using it to run the competition out of business.

Sell at a loss today, monopoly tomorrow. Too many competitors in this field for that to be likely.

12th percentile:

You are referring to Cousins fish market, no doubt.

Where's my employment ?

12.3% UE in South Carolina.

The November jobless rate released Friday by the state Employment Security Commission sets a record. Officials attribute the rise to continued losses in the hospitality and construction sectors.

Officials also adjusted the state's October jobless rate down slightly, to 12 percent. It had been 12.1 percent, a figure that placed the state fifth-highest in the country and matched a state record earlier in the year.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to release state-by-state figures later Friday.

Earlier this month, economists disagreed over when South Carolina's economy will begin recovering but agreed it will take years for the state to see single-digit unemployment.

I feel much more pity than contempt, but, true - the kids between ten and fifteen are going to get the brunt of the Boomer destruction of the country. their entire prime earning years will be a total void.

LBB<

American fucked up, delusional, narcissistic, ueberselfish

---Sounds like the qualifications for political office to me.

Image is nothing.

That lesson is about to be shown to all.

snopes.com: Debit Card Abuse

this is katrina debit cards

Rob Dawg, The daughter inherited it from her mamma who worked seven days a week who had inherited the old hardware from her father who had owned the local drugstore, local parts store and the building that housed the local medical clinic and sat on the bank board. Extended family, personal knowledge.

Writers of the storm
Writers of the storm
Into this housing bubble we're borne
Into this world we're thrown
Like a dog without a bone
An actor out a loan
Writers of the storm

There's a Unabanker on the road
His brain is squirmin' like a parboiled toad
Take some bonus pay
Let your money play
If ya give this man a right
Economic memory will die
Killer on the road, yeah

Hu gotta loan to the man
Hu gotta loan to the man
Take him by the hand
Make him understand
The world on you depends
Our consumer way of life will never end
Gotta loan to the man, yeah

Wow!

Writers of the storm
Writers of the storm
Into this housing bubble we're borne
Into this world we're thrown
Like a dog without a bone
An actor out a loan
Writers of the storm

Writers of the storm
Writers of the storm
Writers of the storm
Writers of the storm
Writers of the storm

YouTube - NIgel Kennedy, Riders on the storm

My Dad, through years of hard work and thrift, is pretty wealthy. He kicked me out of the house at 18, and cut me off financially after college. I tuned out better than many of my peers from HS, some of whom still live at home. I did know a few kids that got new cars for their 17th birthday. Some succeeded, some crashed and burned.

Sebastian wrote:

Makes me a little more cynical and less trusting of other posters here, too, I'm sad to say. How many others who are howling at the unfairness of it all have only themselves to blame?

Sebastian. You don't know half the story or trials and tribulations of most people on this board.
My advise would be to ask polite questions before jumping to erroneous conclusions.

Sebastian: I just pulled a good chunk of money out of my S&P 500 index fund and into long dated Treasuries. Using the Sebastian counter-cyclical model, I think we are due for and equity correction and a flight to safety.

Makes me a little more cynical and less trusting of other posters here, too, I'm sad to say. How many others who are howling at the unfairness of it all have only themselves to blame?

Sebastian

Can I have some porridge please Seb?

LoserBeachBum wrote:

American teenage princesses future job prospects: blowjob assistants or jail pet mates

Ha, here we go again. "The unique feature of misogynists is that their abusive, nonempathetic grandiosity is directed toward the women in their lives. Misogynists may occasionally exhibit these characteristics toward other people, but the brunt of their disorder is aimed at their wives or girlfriends."

And during you ego boost of superiority, please don't forget the young male teenagers media-endoctrinated to accept that being older men's playthingies is a worthy profession. Perversion runs both ways.

DJIA just went

josap said: "Sebastian. You don't know half the story or trials and tribulations of most people on this board.
My advise would be to ask polite questions before jumping to erroneous conclusions."

You're right, I don't know the other half of the story. Now I'm discovering what it is, and I feel like I've been duped and had my sympathy preyed on.

Sebastian

rps
oh there are princes too not just princesses. their parents them like that,why i do not know

oh wow, a little perspective just brought my way. A 42 year old neighbor, nice guy, hardworking died. Leaves a family, business, etc. And right behind him his next door neighbor also in their 40s died the this week. We're sorta isolate here and spread apart so news just reached us.

I'm in my 40's, should I be worried?

"Makes me a little more cynical and less trusting of other posters here, too, I'm sad to say. How many others who are howling at the unfairness of it all have only themselves to blame?"

Seb, about the time you believe everything you read, you might want to seek counseling. Some here talk a game they can't play, some of it can be blamed on youth, and some on ignorance. Being the skeptic, I don't believe much of anything, unless I can touch it, feel it, smell it, and taste it - then I might believe it's NOT a bunch of horse-sh**!

CCLT<

Do you have any sales info on Volvos?
Or recent FICO scoring?

I'm well past 40, so guess i am safe.

Sorry to hear about your neighbors.

I don't know any princesses, but I do know a bunch of bad-ass backcountry women that are the polar opposite of landed gentry, and money means bupkis to them.

I think it is rather obvious most people make emotional financial decisions and refuse to see their mistakes and learn from them . It is popular peer pressure to be the victim and an easy out. My guess only a few get financial responsibility regard less of education or social standing. There are many victims on this board.

I don't know... Georgia has a pretty hot hand

No one knows what life will bring them or when> the lessons I can tell just from being around for while, nothing is ever certain, no one is irreplaceable (despite what our best and brightest TBTF people tell us) and life isn't a game, one chance to get it right and keep ones head firmly attached to their body, responsible for for each our own actions.

BFF, Have not voted yet, still thinking it over. It's the week before Christmas and even Shelia has an image to keep, while so many employee's take their vacation this time of year. Is either of these two things going to matter?

homeGnome
are you being mean to volvos? my 87 volvo station wagon is reading over my shoulder,so i must ask this question.
please say that you're not.please remember that i have to go to the store at least once this week.
she pouts

Nanoo-Nanoo wrote:

A 42 year old neighbor, nice guy, hardworking died. Leaves a family, business, etc. And right behind him his next door neighbor also in their 40s died the this week

That is sad. Life is to short to be mean to people I really do not know yet I do it regularly.

De-nihilists

Surprisingly, Princes & Princesses of all kinds of dysfunctional tendencies tend to get pulled together in Marriages of . Would it surprise you how many princess b^^ches marry vain narcissists (at least the ones who end up divorcing later)? Makes sense in a way because only someone totally self-absorbed could overlook the b^^chiness of their mate.

MaryAnn wrote:

mamma who worked seven days a week

Any chance more time at home with the daughter might have been valuable?

From and investments guy I know "Are you surprised you don't like your kids values when they are/were raised by minimum wage care givers?"

The studies I read suggest most "successful" people have a couple of failures under their belt; failure is very educational.

gabyjan wrote:

my 87 volvo station wagon is reading over my shoulder,so i must ask this question.
please say that you're not.please remember that i have to go to the store at least once this week.
she pouts

I got parts. Need anything?

failure is very educational.

+1

gabyjan,

OUR young men and women have been dumbed down, endoctrinated by a lousy over-priced educational system, and subverted by perverse media conglomerates who create britneys, jessicas, pamelas, adams, as the images to emulate, Those pointed fingers should be directed at the adults for the failure to inspire, educate, and nuture them as future citizens of this country. This failure falls upon us.

HomeGnome wrote:

You need to leave the ranch once in a while.

LOL.....it's not as if I was "gawking" at the spectacle, it was between swear words while working on the tractor in my livingroom.....

jd
i had to look up bupkis and im on their side,could be because im lazy
disclaimer all my f**k-up have been mine no one elses just mine and i do try to learn from my fu*k-ups
ps saw the pig but clicked on save anyhow

Yes, but why invest anything remotely emotional into what others write on a forum in the first place. Furthermore, using CK's car choice as a weather vane to determine what the healthy level of skepticism is for you on any given day, seems incredibly insincere. Reading your previous posts....you have thick skin...and definitely radiate a 'self-made' man mentality. That doesn't compute with this act of feigned innocence lost. It just seems petty and beneath you in my honest opinion.

LoserBeachBum wrote:

You must be one of those "meat is murder and men are murderers"-femanazis who eats only flowers

Lashing out eh? and a rush limbaugh dittohead as well. Still hurting from the rejection? How's that working out for you? Femanazi is as offensive and sensless as jewanazi, think about it..............

rob dawg
are you kidding me? please you arent. she's a 240 an she really needs two signal light covers(before i get stopped and ticketed) auto parts people say only go down to 244s.
you got catalog?

Sebastian's More Optimistic Half would be so excited about the recovery if someone was buying a Mercedes. Who is this new cynical Seb?

And when you weren't here for a year when the markets tanked, I felt like you had preyed upon my optimism. Where was the Wright Model B when I needed it most?.

Seb, I dont think anyone here has blamed this all on the lenders..takes 2 parties to reach a deal...

I do believe your doing your regular snow job thing by picking on one data point.

Everyone makes errors in judgement.. Including you and me...

Your example above applies to everyone who went out and purchased a car on credit..