Overnight peoples (aka. Who's up?)

[Adeptus_Minor]

Personally I wish I had the resources to invest in devalued stocks and real estate right now.

[t-homo]

The market is a very self fulfilling prophesy it seems to me. If people are confident in it, then it will thrive, but if people get scared and start pulling out, it will crash. All we need now is for the country to start re-investing, businesses will stop going under (GM is really fuckin close to losing it.), and the market will go back up. Same with the housing market, but there is way too much supply for the amount of demand, lowering the prices until qualified buyers start buying again, increasing demand and prices.

[Adeptus_Minor]

Wouldn't it be nice if we could just tell people to quit pulling their money out at the slightest sign of a downturn?
I mean, I've always wondered why there even HAS to be a downswing.
Sure.. free market and all that... but if so much of our prosperity as a nation rides on those seemingly arbitrary numbers on the stock ticker, why isn't there a little more control to keep it from getting into a downward spiral?

Yes... I'm 34 years old and asking a 19 year old about the economy...

[t-homo]

The downturn in the stock market was caused by the huge numbers of housing foreclosures. These were caused because the term "newly-approved" came about. It actually means not-approved, but the banks were willing to go out on a limb and offer mortgages to these people. They figured the foreclosure rate would go up maybe a little bit, but didn't expect it to go from 1% to 6%. With so many people defaulting, they had to pull what money they had in the market out to try to pay off their mortgages that were doomed from the day they originated. These peoples money started causing prices to drop, scaring more people and making them pull money. Also, the banks that had given all of the loans that were now defaulting were losing tons and tons of money causing their stocks to drop in price and eventually file for bankruptcy or hope for a bailout. At least that is my take on the whole thing. My major is tied very closely to the economy so its been a great learning period for me. I'm glad I am in school when it happened rather than happening a year after I graduate.

[tommymac]

Man this stinks, not very busy tonigh tbut more bad stuff happenin in the ER. Will def hoist a few cold ones at dinner tonight.

Tom

[tommymac]

Originally Posted by Adeptus_Minor

Personally I wish I had the resources to invest in devalued stocks and real estate right now.

I thought about doing stuff like that. My investments are taking a beating now, bu tthough tabout investing more since I will be buying in at a cheaper price.

Were currently saving for a house and hope to pull the trigger soon, the nice thing is prices are comming down so we should get a better deal, now we just need to lock in a good intrest rate.

Tom

[t-homo]

Originally Posted by tommymac

I thought about doing stuff like that. My investments are taking a beating now, bu tthough tabout investing more since I will be buying in at a cheaper price.

Were currently saving for a house and hope to pull the trigger soon, the nice thing is prices are comming down so we should get a better deal, now we just need to lock in a good intrest rate.

Tom

You will probably get a better price for the house itself, but interest rates will be higher as banks will be making sure not to have many defaults. How long are you planning on staying in the same house? If you are planning on being there for a long time, you will probably be better off buying down the interest rate by paying an extra point or point and a half up front, but it depends on your time frame. Stay with a fixed rate mortgage if it will be long term.