Has anyone been following the economic debacle we're in right now?

[Chubz]

Has anyone been following the mess that is the stock market and housing market? I have CNBC on almost all day. I was never really into business at all, but over the last year I have. Housing prices in the first quarter fell 14 percent! That's insane and it has even more room to fall. Houses that you thought you could not ever afford 2 years ago are now more than affordable in some areas.

Oil at 132.00 a barrel is a slap in the face. OPEC says it's a supply and demand thing and it doesn't dictate the price. Which in some ways is true. But it's not supply and demand. The worldwide demand for oil is only up 1% from last year when a barrel of oil was around 70.00. It's all speculation that's driving the market up for oil. Sooner or later, the oil bubble is gonna burst...just like the housing bubble.

[cruzg24]

Yea, and what i'd like to know is what happens when those bubbles do burst....

[Chubz]

oil drops back to normal levels as quickly or fasterthan the rise up

[Wilson_]

thats why me and the wife are still waiting to get a house, we are all ready preapproved just waiting so it drops some more.

we have seen some houses that were on the market last year at this same time for 200k more than what they are now.

[dohcdelsol93]

the housing market in our area has not fallen too badly compared to the rest of the nation, it's still holding pretty strong since local economy is still booming fairly well.

Since most banks/mortgage companies are national rather than local we can still get the great APR's but you usually have to have a good or better credit score to get a rate you can afford since there are so many forclosures across the states.

I don't pay attention to the stock market or buisness news. The only thing that affects my buisness is the weather.

I pray for plenty of rain and ice/snow storms. I also love thunderstorms, tropical storms and other acts of nature that cause storm damage.

[cruzg24]

I pray for plenty of rain and ice/snow storms. I also love thunderstorms, tropical storms and other acts of nature that cause storm damage.

Lol, im actually the complete opposite, I need good weather to do my local solos, its so annoying cuz here in Daytona Beach theres thunderstorms everyday and its gay cuz i cant finish these flight activites because my school values their $500,000 airplane and so would I if some punk was flying it, lol. Yea so hopefully I can fly today at 2pm, please lord please....

[oceanspraypink]

Yeah Im with Josh, Ryan gets paid so much more when we have storms around...

Yeah the whole gas thing is insane...in 2002 my American History teacher said kids one day gas will be $5 a gallon, we all laughed in his face, but he was right. Ever since the hurricanes a few years back knocked the oil supply down for the Eastern coast gas has been high. I saw yeasterday it was 135 a barrel..thats $10 in a week.

The food cost rising has already started panic in other areas of the World, and alot of places are putting on a hiring freeze due to budget crunches. It's getting crazy....

[dohcdelsol93]

the world's economy always cycles, from extreme lows to extreme highs.

I think America would be in alot better shape than the rest of the world if we would do away with the Federal Reserve. It would get rid of almost all national debts and allow the tax payers to keep much of their money in their pockets and with the addition of some sort of fair tax or flat tax it would help to not only keep jobs in the US but also bring alot of jobs back to the US.

in the end it all boils down to the rich getting greedier and the poor/middle class getting the shit end of it.

[paxil4x4]

I don't think we've seen the worst of it yet. The market housing, stocks and commodities are no longer tied to anything but speculation in the short term.

Today's investors want double digit returns per quarter instead of nice steady gains compounded over years.

The United States is going to eat a big bowl of shit in the long term. I'm thinking Great Depression take two considering the negative savings rate of Americans and the debt we are carrying as a country and individually.

I think that going through another deep recession or depression will be good for the country, maybe it will restore us to traditional values, instead of thinking about short lived ideas and material goods.

[Jerome]

ralph, why did you form another tin foil hat committee in here? why couldn't you just keep it on ht?

[Phistar]

who here wears the tin foil hat?

*grabs and loads up the shotgun*

[dohcdelsol93]

they can't read our minds throught the tinfoil hat