Betty Davis said it best in the movie All About Eve, "Buckle your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy ride." But, she wasn't talking about what might happen on Wall Street today with the recent financial troubles of Lehman Brothers (bankruptcy), Merrill Lynch (acquisition under pressure by Bank of New York), and AIG (bridge loans & asset sales). Don't forget that it's long-term gains when you invest in the market and we'll try to do the same.
We have a lot of empathy for the thousands of people who are likely to lose their jobs, which is a crisis as significant as most natural disasters. It might be worse because it could be considered to be self-inflicted in many respects.
xo, Cindy & Scott
Photo Credit : Conceptualist
eek.
ReplyDeleteIt made me real sad to see those guys leaving the building with their stuff,and uncertainty written all over their faces. We as a family have been there before,and it is not easy. Soon as big companies take over others, that is the first thing I think about. All the people that will be out of a job and all the families being scared out of their minds!
ReplyDeleteThis has been on my mind much today, and lately. I've heard talk of civil war here in USA. It's things like this play catalyst. Bush has bankrupt how many companies, who didn't know he would bankrupt this country?...
ReplyDeleteThird reich wanted to prevent corporations from controlling people. Current 'fourth reich' wants companies to control people, and they are....
Prayers for all.
Wow! This has been a scary ride, the quote from All about Eve is perfect!
ReplyDeleteHang in there!
Oh I know...such scary times...keep us updated.
ReplyDeleteIt's stressful how bad the job market and economy are doing. All we can really do is wait it out and hope for the best.
ReplyDeleteBetween natural and "manmade" it's been a pretty scary week, hasn't it?
ReplyDeletewe've never been caught up in anything as massive as these layoffs, but have suffered from the ugly-side of cash flows issues. it is heartbreaking to say the least.
ReplyDeleteit has been really scary lately and feels more like 'the united states of heartbreak' vs. america.
let's hope we turn the corner very soon.
xo, c
Cheers to that Cindy.
ReplyDeleteWe can all do our parts by concentrating on the real issues of this election like keeping our votes AWAY from the party that sanctioned deregulation in the first place. We may never see social security the way our parents did. I agree in long-term gain in the market but many of those stockholders are older Americans. The real people who made money are those who bet AGAINST these firms and of course their CEO's and the ones wo suffer are the little worker bees (thanks again George W.)
ReplyDeleteyou are right deb. it is so important to pay attention and educate ourselves about the issues that matter and cast a vote this november. and yes, a whole generation of baby boomers has invested in the market through their 401k/IRA plans and time is running out to recoup the losses.
ReplyDeletexo, c
right on sister...these are times that might shock us all into paying attention. i can;t WAIT to see the debates--maybe we should to plaster them all over all over our blogs...the dates of the debates... and get as many people to watch as possible!
ReplyDeletesounds good to me!
ReplyDeletei really can not wait for the debates as i have concerns in one way or another about all of the players in the running, especially in light of the troubles on 'wall street', which might start to really impact the economy as a whole (aig).
xo, cindy
absolutely--maybe this is alarmist but this could make the Great Depression of '29 look like a picnic.
ReplyDeleteInteresting ploy of the republicans to chant Obama will raise taxes, meanwhile it's we the taxpayers who are bailing out Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae because of their failed "the market will sort itself out" policies. I guess the market is sorting itself out, a market run by criminals and White House cronies.
I can't help the feeling that life as we know it will become a very different thing soon enough. But I remain positive in our power to really influence a shift to a better place. Whoever gets elected has a lot of cleaning up to do, but I'd trust the guy who isn't involved in these old circles more than the one who is.
and now, we're all shareholders in aig because of greed and dumb decisions by corporate executives (credit default swaps got the company into trouble, which is an area that is unregulated and very risky). but, the company had to be saved because it's failure would reverberate around the world.
ReplyDeleteimagine if you just suffered through hurricane ike and your home insurance policy was through aig?
it's really depressing this week, but i believe in americans and in our ability to always find our way out of the dark into the light. we're optimists at heart i guess?
thanks for your comments deb - i think we could go on like this for hours.
Cheers to taking a stand and educating ourselves and as many people as possible! It scares me when people say that the only thing we can do is wait it out. I think that that is what these people are counting on.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing that will shift all of this is solidarity on the part of the little people. It is the only thing that has historically changed the direction of things. It is true that things are about to change and we all know that change can be scary, but let's remember that change is what we really want. The trick is to remember what is REALLY important and work together towards it. Time to stop being so dependent on our governments to take care of things for us and demand that they do their job of representing us. We sit in history class dumbfounded that Hitler could do what he did with entire countries of people, but all sit around and wait for an election instead of standing up for ourselves!
Whew... that was a rant, sorry... but it's time to start paying attention.
andrea, more ranting and less complacency would probably go a long way. thanks for sharing your thoughts.
ReplyDelete