Flying in the US may become even less pleasant

[Camerous]

Originally Posted by Astrocreep

If its easier to spend in america wont more people abroad want to use the US as a resource for cheap goods like we do in china? Isnt that a plus? I honestly dont see a downside like some of you doom and gloomers do. Does anyone here feel financially repressed by today's economy?

In the past 2 years we have seen a net loss of over 500k compared to what we were making the year before these past 2 so yes we are feeling financially repressed. Further more we have a whole subdivision, 18 houses, sitting vacant atm that no one will buy and at 2k a house in interest a month X the 6 months they have been sitting that adds up to over 200k loss this year alone. Most people don't understand how bad things are getting.. and since oil just topped 80 bucks a barrel and is predicated to crest 100 it is about to get a lot worse.

And blaming GWB all the time is getting fucking old. If the congress really wanted us out of Iraq they could pass a bill requiring us to with draw troops so stick all that blame up your fucking ass. Yes I am dissatisfied with what he has done but blaming him alone for all this mess is retarded.

[Astrocreep]

But wasnt it predicted for a few years now that the housing boom was bound to slow down? How is it the failing economy's fault for everyone and their mother getting into the real estate business? Is it the failing economy's fault for people to be lured into mortgages by low interest rates and getting assfucked when the rate shoots back up?
Not for nothing those houses will still sell, its not like they are worthless, you just cant sell em for what they used to.

Im not trying to be argumentative but i cant see how all of these things are the blame of the declining value of our dollar.

[Tolanin]

the housing market was massively inflated... it needed to crash, home values rising at like 10 percent per year didn't tip you off that something was seriously wrong?

Oh and no astro thats not a good thing unless you want to be poor like the chinese... i mean if you dont mind being poor and working in a low skill factory then i guess its a good thing... exporting jobs to china is not a bad thing, exporting low paying jobs out of the country is actually more a sign of prosperity than impending doom.

[Astrocreep]

No doubt, the poverty in china is ridiculous, i was just using their system as an example. China is considered the new world power and a roaring success primarily because things from there are so cheap.

[Tolanin]

They are a shining example of globalization working correctly and on a more massive scale than most of the previous countrys that industrialized, still its them who are aspiring to have a high skill, high output economy like the western countries, not us who should be aspiring to be like them. A deflated dollar will make foreigners buy more from us but we will be able to buy less from foreigners.

[Camerous]

Originally Posted by Astrocreep

But wasnt it predicted for a few years now that the housing boom was bound to slow down? How is it the failing economy's fault for everyone and their mother getting into the real estate business? Is it the failing economy's fault for people to be lured into mortgages by low interest rates and getting assfucked when the rate shoots back up?
Not for nothing those houses will still sell, its not like they are worthless, you just cant sell em for what they used to.

Im not trying to be argumentative but i cant see how all of these things are the blame of the declining value of our dollar.

Since our company has been in business for over thirty years I don't think we just got into real estate.

And the point is NO ONE IS BUYING... not because of interest rates but because no one has any disposable cash atm. Also the area where we work was one of the fastest growing counties in the nation 3 years ago, with some months having 1000 personal homes being built. Now we go some months wiht only 10 - 20... that is a HUGE difference. I don't understand what your getting at here when the whole reason the housing market is crashing is because no one is buying anything cause they can't afford to purchase anything like a house atm.

Bank aren't lending money cause people are defaulting on loans at record rates, at least around the Atlanta area. One of our banker friends was telling us how he had one builder come in and throw 20 sets of keys down on his desk. This guy had just came in a couple weeks before and took out equity mortgages on all of these houses. He pulled out over 2 million on the houses. Now the bank is sitting on them and can't even rent the damn things out. So the bank instituted a no Equity mortgage rule until this current crisis is over and he said he knew of at least 5 other banks who were doing the same. Now what that means is people who could have pulled out some money on a house and used that money to buy another house while their's sold are now just sitting in their old houses. And people like my brother-in-law who renovates, the buzz word is "flips" now days, old houses and sells them can't atm cause he can't pull out enough money on his houses to keep going.

But you are right... it's not because of the economy at all...

[Astrocreep]

But you are right... it's not because of the economy at all...

Sorry, i dont think i said it wasnt, i said i didnt see how the economy relates to the slowdown in the housing boom which was predicted to slow down several years ago. Isnt it at least possible that the market was flooded with too many high priced homes in areas that not enough people could afford them? I watch flip this house too and these guys are always talking about getting the cheapest renovation they could so they could net a quick fat check on the resell. Could it be that some people got a little greedy and soured the market?

[Zarcath]

Originally Posted by Bralkan

Experts: Student with fake bomb lucky wasn't shot -- Newsday.com

good ol' boston. I guess I shouldn't carry around a laptop and have my headphones coming out of my backpack, wouldn't want to get shot.

and why is their procedure to use lethal force? I don't see how that would prevent a triggering device from going off, can't they use tranq darts or some shit?

[AngryGerbil]

Man, if I became Emperor of Earth tomorrow, I'd have a lot of good ideas (bounce them off Algrinon and Tad, if they hate them, they are probably good ideas) to implement. But I gotta say, this economy stuff is just over my head. For some reason, money bores me to tears. I hate the stuff. I just don't have the patience to know about it.

So anyway, is it a good time to get a government job or not?

[Deris]

Smart Terrorists would just blow up a a couple of schools around the country. Talk about widespread chaos and the economy crashing.

Few hundred dead kids, millions of freaked out parents that pull their kids from school and stay home to watch them.

This is super easy too considering the joke security at 99.9% of all schools. Drive a truck into the lunch room laden with explosives and fertilizer during lunch - I'd guess 3-400 students dead assuming a decent yield from the explosion. Maybe more if you can fit napalm into the equation. Next day the economy freezes, over half of the workforce doesn't show up, etc.

Yeah it'll happen someday. Yeah theres nothing we can do to stop it really.

[Rythonn]

Originally Posted by Zarcath

good ol' boston. I guess I shouldn't carry around a laptop and have my headphones coming out of my backpack, wouldn't want to get shot.

Yeah if your laptop was attached to your chest and had a circuit board on the outside and randomly blinking lights with a 9-volt battery attached and you had a lump of play-doh in your hand, then yes you might get shot for carrying it into an airport.

[Vinen]

Originally Posted by Tolanin

the housing market was massively inflated... it needed to crash, home values rising at like 10 percent per year didn't tip you off that something was seriously wrong?

Oh and no astro thats not a good thing unless you want to be poor like the chinese... i mean if you dont mind being poor and working in a low skill factory then i guess its a good thing... exporting jobs to china is not a bad thing, exporting low paying jobs out of the country is actually more a sign of prosperity than impending doom.

Fuck, I want the housing market to crash. Then I might have a chance at affording a home while single and or before I'm fucking 30. I make nearly 60k/year at 23 and I can't even fathom to think about purchasing a house right now where I live (Southern NH).

[Havelock]

Originally Posted by Vinen

Fuck, I want the housing market to crash. Then I might have a chance at affording a home while single and or before I'm fucking 30. I make nearly 60k/year at 23 and I can't even fathom to think about purchasing a house right now where I live (Southern NH).

I'm a little older and make a little more but feel very similarly. A one bedroom condo should not cost $400kish.

[Twobit Whore]

Housing market must vary from place to place because we just sold a house in a town that isn't really growing at all in no time flat. Realtors were clamoring to represent it for us and we had at least a dozen lookers in the first couple of weeks. It wound up selling for 50% more than was paid for it 10 years ago when it was built.

[spronk]

Originally Posted by Astrocreep

If its easier to spend in america wont more people abroad want to use the US as a resource for cheap goods like we do in china? Isnt that a plus? I honestly dont see a downside like some of you doom and gloomers do. Does anyone here feel financially repressed by today's economy?

The problem is that the Chinese currency (rmb) is tied to the US dollar and does not float freely. So no matter how low we go, the RMB stays relatively the same to Europeans, Canadians, etc and so its always going to be cheaper to get stuff done there due to labor markets. The US is no longer a real manufacturing base anyways, we have become more of a technological base (which India and China are eyeing) and a consumer (spending) economy.

Currency de-valuation is tied intimately with inflation, because eventually the goods and services we buy from foreign countries have to increase in price as they won't sell stuff at a loss. So inflation will begin to rise.

As inflation gets higher and higher very bad things happen. To take the extreme, look at Zimbabwe where inflation is 4000%+ a year. Prices on items double every week (in the black market, the government has tried to "fix" prices in the open market which means almost all goods have been driven to the black market).

For a less extreme example, look at Argentina a few years ago. It got to the point where they had too much debt and the interest payments per year were unpayable. So they defaulted on their debts. Almost immediately all foreign investment pulled out and their currency went into a free-fall. Millions lost their jobs, real estate market crashed, etc. It took 3-4 years to recover but its more or less back to where it was before the crash.

I'm not saying we are near Argentina, but the effects of a worldwide loss of confidence in the US dollar will be pretty brutal to not just us but everyone in the world. Sadly its already begin, and a few more things will just hasten the collapse. The middle east repricing petrodollars into petroeuros, China selling off its treasury reserves, further housing market collapses in the US, etc all could lead to a unwillingness by the world economic market to purchase US treasuries.