A less dark view of the bailout and crisis

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

If we get through this debacle (feels like a big "if" right about now), and if it happens in time to salvage most of our retirement plans, part of me sees it like a long overdue flushing of a toilet that has been plugged for the past 12 years.

• Large investment banks gone? Good riddance.
• Structured products gone? Adios.
• Greedy mortgage lenders up in smoke? Bye, bye.
• Real regulation to rein in the excesses that led to this? Bout time.
• Moody and S&P "rating" the companies with one hand in their wallet? So long.
• People driving a little less, serious research into alternative fuels? Bring it on.

I could go on, and I realize this is oversimplified, but in the end I believe the net effect off all this may do some good. I just hope it all unfolds quickly enough for all of us to enjoy (or continue to enjoy) a secure retirement. Meantime, yes, it's a little scary but we're in it together - liberal, conservative, Democrats and Republicans.

Any more positives to add to the list?

 

[Texarkandy]

You forgot:

• Responsible consumer borrowing and lending

 

[REWahoo]

Any more positives to add to the list?

What doesn't kill you makes [-]the few who manage to survive weak and susceptible to disease[/-] you stronger.

 

[al_bundy]

i think there is a secret plan b we don't know yet that was hatched up over the weekend and the vote was rigged today. last week the repubs are tough, today they are almost crying and the vote fails. something isn't right.

 

[toofrugalformycat]

I'd add
- frugality might become all the rage. Waste not, want not. I wouldn't feel like such a weirdo!

 

[Martha]

Maybe rather than having companies too big to fail, the split ups will make for more nimble businesses.

 

[FinanceDude]

i think there is a secret plan b we don't know yet that was hatched up over the weekend and the vote was rigged today. last week the repubs are tough, today they are almost crying and the vote fails. something isn't right.

Probably some "tack-on" legislation that included pet projects and earmarks.......must be something smelly in there if even the Dems didn't like the smell of it.........

Good for the House GOPs and Dems, who refused to let the Senate kick sand in their faces for the 1000th time.........

 

[Brat]

So many are SO ANGRY about what has happened during the current administration I think there will be few R elected in either legislature - it won't matter how they voted in the 'bailout'.

Financial managers themselves could be at serious personal risk. Were I they I would start taking generic taxis to work, wear casual clothing and well used athletic shoes on the street. Keep a very low profile.

 

[Bestwifeever]

End of homes=piggy banks and helocs.

 

[Dawg52]

I'd add
- frugality might become all the rage. Waste not, want not. I wouldn't feel like such a weirdo!

The only other thing I could do is cut out golf. That's the only thing I spend money on. Might as well go back to work.

 

[IBWino]

I agree that this is mostly good for the long run, but one concern is that the ensuing economic melee may significantly delay long overdue healthcare reforms.

Healthcare is a greater impediment to my wife’s and my RE plans than our recent portfolio losses.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

maybe even those who sold during the bubble, jacking up their neighborhood prices, and bragging about their profiteering at the expense of today's economy will quit bitching about how unfair it is that their buyer might now be helped with their mortgages while they have to continue paying the conventional mortgage on their new downsize and instead fork over some of those bubbly profits back to we who are now asked to foot the bill.

someone asked on another thread, i forget which, but no one answered "where did all the money go?"

guy a sells at an outrageous profit to guy b and now guy c (me) has to pay guy b to stay in his house? i think i'd rather guy a pay for it. i think for a lesser dark view that a little redistributing of the wealth is in order.

 

[MGYog]

Hopefully, we should learn to start saving much more of what we earn, similar to the Asians. Our national savings rate is atrocious, that is why we need to borrow money abroad.

 

[W2R]

The only other thing I could do is cut out golf. That's the only thing I spend money on. Might as well go back to work.

Why not get out your mower, set it short, and make a little green in your back yard? You could dig a hole and put a can in it, to make the hole. Then you could practice your putting for free for a couple of years. When the market recovers, you could start playing golf again and you will be the best putter at your club.

Yeah, I know. Frank looked at me like that when I suggested it to him. He didn't do it either.

 

[samclem]

Maybe America's capital, talented people, and corporate focus will return to doing "real things"--producing actual products (that people want to buy), and performing valuable services (that actually improve lives). For the last 10 years or so we've focused on arbitrage, hedging, making money from the ever-expanding financial house of cards, etc. We'll be better off when our economy returns to making, marketing, and delivering readily explainable and understood goods and services. Maybe the folks who do these things won't be thought of as throwbacks or suckers who just are too clueless to have discovered how to make money in the "new economy."

 

[youbet]

Any more positives to add to the list?

Absolutely! Here's my positive......

When I first joined this fine group, talk was dominated by discussions of strategy of how to spend it all by the time we leave this world. Plan after plan about how to have the check to the funeral director bounce and all that..... Now, we're wondering if we'll make it through RE or ever get to RE for those not yet enjoying the life of leisure.

With the goal of a long life in mind, I started trying to take a little better care of myself thinking it would be nice to live a nice long life to enjoy the fruits of all my LBYM and saving. I gave up a number of things I like to do.

But, hell, no need to worry about that anymore. I know now I can run out of money very, very easily even if I don't live so long. Sooooo...... hey time to renew my acquaintance with a coupleof old friends from down at the pub that I've been missing:

 

[Marquette]

Any more positives to add to the list?

Yes. Thank God you didn't retire this year!

 

[W2R]

As for the positive side of this - - it is hard to be afraid of something we have faced and survived in the past.

Maybe people will start growing their own vegetables more, and feel healthier as a consequence.

 

[socca]

Lately I've been wondering whether occasional recessions and even depressions aren't as necessary to the good health of a free-market economic system as occasional forest fires are to a forest. If so, then perhaps we need to jettison the Keynesian toolkit and develop some new tools/methodologies that don't get us stuck in an ever-rising spiral of public debt.

Keynesian economics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm not an economist, so I'll leave the details to the experts.

 

[CuppaJoe]

....

With the goal of a long life in mind, I started trying to take a little better care of myself thinking it would be nice to live a nice long life to enjoy the fruits of all my LBYM and saving. I gave up a number of things I like to do.

But, hell, no need to worry about that anymore. I know now I can run out of money very, very easily even if I don't live so long. Sooooo...... hey time to renew my acquaintance with a couple of old friends from down at the pub that I've been missing:

-
At last, springing from a short-lived family comes into fashion. I'm a happy camper.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Yes. Thank God you didn't retire this year!

No sh#&!

I've pointed that out to myself more than once in the last week or two.

 

[REWahoo]

I've pointed that out to myself more than once in the last week or two.

...and 37 times today - so far.

 

[Dawg52]

Absolutely! Here's my positive......


But, hell, no need to worry about that anymore. I know now I can run out of money very, very easily even if I don't live so long. Sooooo...... hey time to renew my acquaintance with a coupleof old friends from down at the pub that I've been missing:

Sounds like a plan. It's greasy fries and cheese burgers from now on. Gonna cut out the cholesterol pill too.

 

[Zoocat]

Maybe America's capital, talented people, and corporate focus will return to doing "real things"--producing actual products (that people want to buy), and performing valuable services (that actually improve lives). For the last 10 years or so we've focused on arbitrage, hedging, making money from the ever-expanding financial house of cards, etc. We'll be better off when our economy returns to making, marketing, and delivering readily explainable and understood goods and services. Maybe the folks who do these things won't be thought of as throwbacks or suckers who just are too clueless to have discovered how to make money in the "new economy."

I agree with this totally. Also,

Our financial firms will stop exporting CDOs (doubt that international investors would buy them anyway)

Also, people our age will take a hit in the stock market, but maybe the younger generation will see what happened and create a society that is built on production and not upon debt.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

...and 37 times today - so far.

Thanks for the reminder -- make it 38.

But I'm not one to gloat (it is not a good idea in my particular line of work), and no doubt something like this will strike again during the course of a hopefully long retirement, maybe even a few times. Granted, there is much reassurance in still being in the work force, but at the moment I happen to be on the lucky side of the fence; my day will come (soon, I hope), so my hat's off to those just a small bit ahead of me.

When I imagine how I would be reacting to this had I just retired, I see myself more worried, tightening the belt, wishing I'd worked just one more year... but all of that in moderation. I think my Buckets type plan is reassuring to me.

Meantime I'm mentally filing all this away so that when it strikes again I'll remember not to panic, to stay the course, and have faith that sooner or later it will cycle back.