Peace treaties tend to get signed at economic peaks, wars tend to break out at economic bottoms. As far as what is morally acceptable, you will often see a severe split between opposing views, and only when the political scene gets taken over by a dictatorship does the morally-conservative side totally control the social scene.

Good idea. I’m thinking about moving to a “captcha” system in the future. As always, it’s the spam problem.

http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=reg_ls_capitalism_without_guilt

http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=5297

http://mises.org/story/3128

**Guys, there needs to be a way to edit comments or at least preview them before posting**

I could move back into the market in an instant, but I won’t.

What I see at issue right now is that consumers haven’t actually started paying down debt for real. And when they start doing that, earning are going to ramp down for many quarters in a row. While current P/E for a lot of companies looks pretty good right now (i.e., oversold, and that’s IF you trust their balance sheets and I don’t), what they are going to look like with people putting 10% into savings every months could be a totally different story.

But, that’s me.

I think it has to be considered as close to corrected at this point. The various central banks are pouring cash into the world markets, and at some point, the smart guys will begin bargain hunting.

The problem is primarily in the banking and finance system, not manufacturing, but a major credit crunch does hurt them. The stocks are not just Monopoly Money, unlike some of the crap the high finance guys have been selling each other. The stocks represent real shares in real companies, and most likely will turn around. For that matter, the sub-prime mortgages may not be performing, but they also represent ownership of real property, which still has real value, and is an asset that historically goes up in value.

I know it is hard to think this way in a panic, but the only way to end a panic is for people to take their fingers off the panic button. Somewhere there will be a bottom to this, and the truth is, the faster you nose dive, the faster you get to the bottom. A buying opportunity will emerge at the end of the dive. People who have cash and are smart shoppers will pick up some real bargains. Once that begins, the worst will be over, and the world economy will pick up.

I suspect that many of the old common sense rules on investment will return, like the basic concept that you can’t play the game unless enough of your own money is on the table to make you take it seriously, having a real wall of separation between those who create, rate, underwrite, and sell investments, and rewarding financial managers for the long term results of their decisions, as opposed to today’s sales numbers. In the end, these practices are the only ones that insure long term orderly growth and stability.

Remember, you should plan for a recovery. If it happens, you’ll be well positioned. If it doesn’t, you’ll be in the soup line with everyone else, whatever actions you take.

In any case, I was going to start investing–probably with Fidelity, now that I have a good job. But I’m not sure, with things being what they are. Anyone looking to take advantage of the current situation to invest in a few choice companies? Please share! Lol.

They don’t want to have sex because they are not attracted to their husbands.

It’s really that simple.

They may love their husbands very much, and not want to leave them (or have the husbands leave), but sex is off the table, period.

This is why we have always claimed “The game starts for real in relationships.”

Any fool can learn to pick up one woman after another using the same old schtick.

It’s much harder to pick up the same woman year in and year out.

That’s why learning pickup is a valuable skill.

Cool beans.

Harold