Glass Houses

Agreed!SWGILM have been worthless way before this recession. If they are so fucking wonderful, why the fuck do we have a recession every ten or so years? Would anyone be upset if SWGILM just showed small modest realistic gains year after year? The SWGILM are nothing more than table dealers in Vegas. Their opinions and analysis are wrong and any economic stimulus plan that would give them a Viagara hard on should scare the living shit out of the modest investor.However, I am making a future playing a fake investment game in my finance course. I have invested solely in ingredients involved in infrastructure and green technology. So there may be a really bright light at the end of this long dark tunnel. The SWGILM think that President Obama is serious about building roads, bridges, and Green Technology.

Pot, Kettle.Yes, they are magnificently clueful. They make their money mostly by per transaction charges and insider information. Their policies (who do you think is really running things) have brought down the entire house of cards that these highly clueful rocket scientists had created and thus killed that goose that laid the golden eggs. Not many transactions to charge when everyone is jobless. Also much harder to cover up the insider trading when it’s all you have left.Two words: Criminal Arrogance.

There’s a good article on this very subject in the Washington Post today, called “Stumbling on their Sense of Entitlement”.

Hey, I’m sorry this is OT, but somehow I just got signed up for SarahPAC. I definitely didn’t sign up for it…anyone else have this happen to them?

When the manufactures of the problem get hit by the downside swat, I can only see that they are the clueless ones.Since the banks and hence the shareholders loved fantastic upside, they should have bailed at or near the top; when the whole thing started to slide they needed to jump off the bank stock holdings.The only way for this to change is what Arianna was stating. Let the banks slide to be replaced by better ones or more nimble ones.Sure, middle class retirements/401Ks hold bank stocks. But the holder of the mutual fund needs to be aware that the risk taken may indeed bite them. If the bailout doesn’t pour money into the average stockholder’s pocket, it certainly shouldn’t pour it into the pockets of the architects of insanity.It’s simple, just tie any future bailout funds to banks who have replaced their senior leadership with proven performers. Their are banks making money right now. The officers and managers of those banks ought to be offered the opportunity to turn these failing banks around. Or don’t give them anymore money. Capitalism will take care of the rest.

GI Joe,Careful with those green stocks! The color of the next bubble is green.Alas, we individuals are every bit as guilty as corporate America for our current crisis. I’ve got stats that would amaze (scare?) you. I wrote a post today about this, but to save you time, 9 out of 10 people cannot tell me how much after-tax income they spend on average per month. They have no clue. 40% own no life insurance. 82% own too little. Guess who pays for their families when they die? 3 out 100 have an adequately funded emergency stash. Another 12 have “something” that might be an emergency stash, but is vastly underfunded. 30% have never even heard of an emergency fund, i.e, they do not know what one is for.Of the people I meet, one in three is spending more than they earn. Of those who are spending more, one in two did not realize they were before they met me. Which leads to the question, “How can you not know?”As much as I love railing on Wall Street execs and politicians, we Americans need to castrate our spending or it won’t matter how much this stimulus bill costs.

One further stat. One in three do not know how much they earn each much. Most have a general idea, but few know with any accuracy how much money they take home.

“each much” is supposed to be each month

PPP -

As much as I love railing on Wall Street execs and politicians, we Americans need to castrate our spending or it won’t matter how much this stimulus bill costs.

Your observtions agree with my own. I am not involved with financial planning or insurance, but discussions with colleagues confirms your data is in the correct ballpark. Engineers are educated professionals and so may be slightly better than than the average, but probably very slightly.I always found it hard to believe that engineers could be so haphazard about their personal finances when they are so anal retentive (by necessity) about their work. Never the less, haphazard personal finances were the rule, not the exception.I’ll have to violently agree with you again with the following caveat.We need the spending spree in the short term to stimulate the economy. I am on the same page with you for the long term. People need to apply some planning and discipline to their personal finances or we will continue with this problem forever.

9 out of 10 people cannot tell me how much after-tax income they spend on average per month.

When a majority of people live paycheck to paycheck, the answer is all of it, which takes care of the rest of these stats.

40% own no life insurance.

Can’t afford it.

82% own too little.

It’s all they can afford.

3 out 100 have an adequately funded emergency stash. Another 12 have “something” that might be an emergency stash, but is vastly underfunded.

If you’re living hand to mouth, not much in the way of savings.

30% have never even heard of an emergency fund, i.e, they do not know what one is for.

Every day is an emergency. I’m not trying to be a smart ass, but there a lot more people than we realize in this situation. And more every week with the unemployment numbers being what they are.

Carl,I understand what you are saying, and I’d agree with you that there are more people living hand to mouth than we know.Where I disagree is what got us here. Anyone earning less than $25,000/year in the Midwest is probably having a hard time. $35,000 on either end of the nation is hard living. But I know of one 26 year old couple with four children, earning $28,000, owns their own house, and is making it, and saving, and they are not monks. It can be done.”40% own no life insurance.Can’t afford it.82% own too little.It’s all they can afford.”Carl,If you saw what I see, you might change your mind about some of this. I talk with people from all earnings sectors. Many people make a choice to not save by the way they spend their money. I’m not talking about people below, at, or just above the poverty level. They need help, and should get it.But the people who have had a job for ten years, a home, two cars, and every motherloving device you can buy, they have made a choice. There is no doubt that our nation has a savings problem.So here’s some advice. It can be done, but it’s also not easy. I mentioned in my post that now more than ever, we should try to save ten percent. Some of our creditors will work with us if we need to postpone payments to them in order to start. Do it automatically. I set my clients up having ten percent automatically withdrawn every month from their bank account. For the first two months, I tell them that if they should run short of cash, I’ll give them the (10%) for free.Carl, I have never had even a single client call me for help, nor have I had a single client cancel their auto withdrawal once they started it.It’s a proven fact that if you do it automatically, soon you will not miss it. That’s all it takes.As for life insurance, a 30 year old male can buy $300,000 for $19/month. In the homes of the people I visit, I see their cell phone bills, I see their Wii and their flat screen tv’s, and I see fifty barely used $25 games. “Can’t afford it” isn’t a valid excuse for people in that situation.A majority of the majority living paycheck to paycheck have put themselves in that position. That was the point I was making, Carl.