Another Great Depression?

[Katie.Marie]

Very discouraging coming out of college with a social work degree that took 5 years! Starting at $30,000 it just not enough for working with social services and anyone in general!

[Mr. SR500]

I really wonder how much is media driven. If your told the economy is bad enough, eventually you'll start changing your habits and then things will really turn. My business is SLOW, but it's off-season so I'm hoping for a recovery this fall, but I've had to make changes to account for the lower income and higher expenses we now have. Gas is still cheaper then in Europe, but with coal and natural gas recently going up, we will get hit again this heating season. Who knows, but I'm hoping things will turn around soon.

[Crankin]

Yes, people have been routinely paying 7-10 dollars a gallon for gas in Europe for a long time. Guess what? They have cars that get good gas mileage, they have good public transportation, and they ride their bikes. When are we going to wake up?
I am still an optimist, even if banks keep giving mortgages to people who can't afford them...

[Trek420]

I am still an optimist, even if banks keep giving mortgages to people who can't afford them...

Yep, and I just need ONE of those folks to buy my condo, or one of our Bay Area super commuters wising up to the fact that "hey, having a smaller place less than 2 bikeable miles to light rail is smart. I never see my MacMansion anyway with all the hours spent driving"

But I've noticed even with our tiny patios more of my neighbors are growing vegies. Who knew corn grows well here?

[TahoeDirtGirl]

I always like to see the good side of things n I'll duck any salmonella peppers (cause we ran out of tomatoes) that people will throw

I think "whatever you would call this financial situation" has a hidden blessing for the USA. It reminds me of the 70s with the gas crisis (I was 4 at the time) and for the most part, it is teaching people how to live 'simply' and with less things. It's getting people to ride bikes to work, hang laundry out to dry and grow tomatoes where ever they can. It is getting people to look at solar energy and alternative energy a little more seriously. Maybe this time we will follow through?

The money part always makes my head whirl, but I'm really good at buying and selling stocks. I buy low and sell high. I'm not being a wise pants about it, I really do. I bought Northwest Airlines at .53 and sold it at almost 7. There are other ones, but I digress.

If you have the cash, invest in some stock that you like. I loved Northwest. There are some stocks I'm eyeballing right now. I guess the bottom could just fall out and everything could crash, but I don't see that I guess.

As far as the FDIC that is one I sometimes don't understand- the banks I have my money in, if they went under, and my $100K was still in the vault, how is the FDIC going to get it for me? That is the part I don't understand, if things are that bad, how is the FDIC going to make everything better? Money is so transparent that it's electronically moved around and around, there really isn't anything kept in a vault....is there?

As an aside, and anybody speak up if they know better, just because you have a second account in the same bank with $100K doesn't mean you are insured. It's only one account per bank per person. Unless it is a 401K or IRA.

[Paradox]

I really wonder how much is media driven. If your told the economy is bad enough, eventually you'll start changing your habits and then things will really turn.

I think a lot of the anxiety is media-driven, now that we have access to 24/7 constant (bad) news. In prior economic downturns, it didn't seem like all media outlets were competing for the most depressing story. Now, I work in the mortgage/finance industry, so I'm pretty up to date on what's going on in the economy, and no, it is not pretty. But is it any worse than anything the U.S. has been through before? Probably not. Things go in cycles. The dot-com bust hurt a lot of people too.

I found these two things humorous for anyone who wants a less-depressing take on things from the media:

http://www.theonion.com/content/news...nation_demands

http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2...d-economy.html

[Mr. Bloom]

I'm about to go out for a ride, so I'll just post this and comment later:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/21/news...ion=2008072104

[Zen]

All my money is in a mayonnaise jar on the kitchen counter.
As long as I have my dogs, it's safe.

[Fredwina]

I may be stealing mr. S's thunder here, but IndyMac (independent mortgage acceptance Corp.) Bank did most of there business with so-called "liar" (I think the correct term is "stated income" ) and NINA (no income no assets) loans ( basically, no verification was done re:borrower's income or assets). Reminds me of a story on NPR a while. A lady had a gross income of $24k/year, but qualified for a $2000/month mortgage.
Most of folk with $ in in Indymac were there because of their interest - Bring ti mind the old axiom i learned in B-school - the higher the return, the higher the risk.

[grey]

*snip* it is teaching people how to live 'simply' and with less things. It's getting people to ride bikes to work, hang laundry out to dry and grow tomatoes where ever they can. It is getting people to look at solar energy and alternative energy a little more seriously. Maybe this time we will follow through?

I agree 100%. This year I have really been learning how to can, freeze, and preserve just about everything I grow, and I put in a much larger garden this year. Next year's will be even bigger. I do hang laundry on the line - I actually enjoy it, somehow it doesn't bother me as much to fold laundry as I take it down as it does to pull that big wad of clothes from a dryer. When gas hits $5 a gallon, I hope I'm in good enough shape to finally ride up that mountain for the place I work at on some weekends. It may be brutal, but at least the route home is cake.

*snip*As far as the FDIC that is one I sometimes don't understand- the banks I have my money in, if they went under, and my $100K was still in the vault, how is the FDIC going to get it for me? That is the part I don't understand, if things are that bad, how is the FDIC going to make everything better?

As I understand it, the FDIC can return your money to you anytime within 50 years or something like that. They aren't under the gun to give it to you during your lifetime.

[Mr. Bloom]

As I understand it, the FDIC can return your money to you anytime within 50 years or something like that. They aren't under the gun to give it to you during your lifetime.

As a practical matter, I don't believe that this is true for insured deposits. That may be the case for uninsured deposits where the underlying assets (generally loans) of the institution have to be collected first. Uninsured deposits will still have priority to other creditors in liquidation. With Indymac, they've already approved a 50% dividend which means that half of the uninsured deposits are being made available to the account holders (indicating that they believe there's value in the liquidation).

As a practical matter, on insured deposits, the name of the bank simply chanages following the failure...

If anyone knows differently, I welcome the record being set strength.

Keep in mind, when I say "as a practical matter", there's been over 3,000 bank failures in the last 30 years...there's good precedent on their actions/behaviors.

[OakLeaf]

Water's going to be the big sticking point.

It's easy to learn to grow your own food - even staples aren't TOO terribly hard to thresh, such as many people did when they were panicked about the Y2K bug. And transportation machinery (bicycles, wagons etc.) can last a long time.

Water is another thing. In many parts of the country it's easy enough to build windmills. In other parts, people's water currently comes from as far away as their electricity. (Remember the opening chapter of "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" on why she decided to move the family back East? And, water was the huge omission from "The Omnivore's Dilemma.")

There used to be a saying "water will be the next oil." Now that we're far enough past peak oil that people are starting to notice, I think we're about to understand that saying.

[pll]

Liquidity for a small business? Liquidity for a big purchase in the near term?

Well, why do people put more than the insured $100 K in a bank account?? I want to say the Dr. Phil line, "What were you thinking?" I mean, who would invest all of that money in an account getting 3% interest?

[tulip]

I'm buying a house, as some of you know. This is my third house purchase. It's quite a simple house, and quite a low price, well within my means. My credit is great, and I'm a good catch for a lender! The mortgage payments will be several hundred dollars less than my current rent.

It's been quite a ride to get approved this time around. Yesterday I got official notice of approval by the lender. Part of it may be that it's an FHA loan, but I think that lenders are being super careful and scrutinizing everything. Jeez, when I bought my house in DC (double this house!) it was practically automatic. I was biting my nails over this one...and will continue to do so until they give me the key.

Once I get the key, however, I'm putting in a veggie garden and putting up a clothes line. Oh, and I also have to build a kitchen. Details, details.

[Fredwina]

with IndyMac, they were giving cashiers check to people who pulled their money out. Some bank were slapping 8 week hold when they were deposited, though.