how about that stock market

[TomRay]

[El and Bill]

Continued concerns regarding the credit crisis, a slowdown in consumer spending, and a further weakening of the US economy is still sending the Dow down today. We just marked the one-year anniversary of the current correction. The Dow put in its record high of 14,164.53 back on October 9, 2007. Now the Dow is near 8,000 -- down almost 40% from its one year old peak.

For some perspective on the magnitude of the current decline, the first year of the current correction has been more severe than the first year of any correction since 1900 -- and that includes the correction that began in 1929.

[Sneaks]

[localboy]

I finally took a look at my account today. I just couldn't bring myself to do it before this. Down about 18% since March 2008. I told my wife the "news" and she was shocked. The mutual funds took the greatest hit, obviously. Moved my future investments around and increased my money market percentage (I'm no expert) but I'm not selling anything. Guess I'll be watching it more closely, trying not to panic or have a heart attack and riding it out until I turn 58. Cross your collective fingers. Ugh...

[Hunkydory]

I'm seeing more and more silver lining in this crises. a couple months ago our biggest worry affecting retirement was gas and diesel at 7 to 10 bucks a gallon and that was a real possibility. The price of a barrel of oil has matched the decline of the stock market. Market topped out at around 14000 points, oil at close to 140 dollars. Today market 8000 oil 80. Unlike many of the brats we never had much investments to lose and the little we have was and is in a safe place. We are in a much better position for retirement in 21 months from now then we were a year ago. Present personal concerns are not a depression, but inflation. All the government money thrown at this crises has so far not helped, but if continued severe inflation is right around the corner and that will hurt all much more than the present losses suffered by many.

Speculation that we all condemned that raised the price of gas like it did was not confined just to oil. The housing market, commodities and the rest of the markets were just as involved and most all of us reaped the benefits of going along for the ride. Well the rides over and its time to adjust to real values. Of course this crash was mainly brought on by the greed and corruption in the government and markets, but its not much different then what caused past financial crises. The great depression involved the whole world too.

Not all that concerned about what the rest of the world thinks of this country at our worst we still shine in comparison. Most countries have either looked down there noses at us or haven't been able to contain there jealousy since our conception even at times when our best were dying for them.

Jay

[SENSEI]

Retirement Plan??


If you had purchased $1000.00 of Nortel
stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49.00.

With Enron, you would have $16.50 left of the original
$1000.

With WorldCom, you would have less than $5.00 left.

If you had purchased $1000.00 of Delta Air Lines
stock you would? have $49.00 left.

If you had purchased United Airlines, you would
have nothing left.


But, if you had purchased $1000.00 worth of beer one
year ago, drank all the beer,
then turned in the cans for recycling, you would have $214.00.

Based on the above, the best current investment advice
is to drink heavily and recycle.

This is called the 401-Keg Plan

[chromer]

Here is a guideline: When you feel good and counting up all the value in your portfolio to see your net worth - its time to sell.

When the panic is on - buy

[Sea Wolf]

US to buy stake in banks, first since Depression
Friday, October 10, 2008 9:40 PM EDT
The Associated Press
By JEANNINE AVERSA AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government will buy an ownership stake in a broad array of American banks for the first time since the Great Depression, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said late Friday, announcing the historic step after stock markets jolted still lower around the world despite all efforts to slow the selling stampede.
Separately, the U.S. and the globe's other industrial powers pledged to take "decisive action and use all available tools" to prevent a worldwide economic catastrophe.
"This is a period like none of us has ever seen before," declared Paulson at a rare Friday night news conference. He said the government program to purchase stock in private U.S. financial firms will be open to a broad array of institutions, including banks, in an effort to help them raise desperately needed money.
The administration received the authority to take such direct action in the $700 billion economic rescue bill that Congress passed and President Bush signed last week.
Earlier Friday, stock prices hurtled downward in the United States, Europe and Asia, even as President Bush tried to reassure Americans and the world that the U.S. and other governments were aggressively addressing what has become a near panic.
A sign of how bad things have gotten: A drop of 128 points in the Dow Jones industrials was greeted with sighs of relief after the index had plummeted much further on previous days. The week ended as the Dow's worst ever, with the index down an incredible 40.3 percent since its record close almost exactly one year earlier, on Oct. 9. 2007.
Investors suffered a paper loss of $2.4 trillion for the week, as measured by the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 index, and for the past year the losses have totaled $8.4 trillion.
It was even worse overseas on Friday. Britain's FTSE index ended below the 4,000 level for the first time in five years; Germany's DAX fell 7 percent and France's CAC-40 finished down 7.7 percent. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 9.6 percent, also hitting a five-year low. For the week, the Nikkei lost nearly a quarter of its value. Russia's market never even opened.
Paulson announced the administration's new effort to prop up banks at the conclusion of discussions among finance officials of the Group of Seven major industrialized countries. That group endorsed the outlines of a sweeping program to combat the worst global credit crisis in decades.
Earlier this week, Britain had moved to pour cash into its troubled banks in exchange for stakes in them — a partial nationalization.
Paulson said the U.S. program would be designed to complement banks' own efforts to raise fresh capital from private sources. The government's stock purchases will be of nonvoting shares so it will not have power to run the companies.
The purchase of stakes in companies would be in addition to the main thrust of the $700 billion rescue effort, which is to buy bad mortgages and other distressed assets from financial institutions. The aim is to unthaw frozen credit, get banks to resume more normal lending operations and stave off severe problems for businesses and everyday Americans alike.
It would mark the first time the government has taken equity ownership in banks in this manner since a similar program was employed during the Depression.
In 1989, the government created the Resolution Trust Corp. to deal with the aftermath of the savings and loan crisis. It disposed of the assets of failed savings and loans.
Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke met with their counterparts from the world's six other richest countries late in the day as the rout of financial markets sped ahead despite earlier dramatic rescue efforts in the U.S. and abroad.
In a statement at the end of that meeting, the G7 officials vowed to protect major banks and to prevent their failure. They also committed to working to get credit flowing more freely again, to support the efforts of banks to raise money from both public and private sources, to bolster deposit insurance and to revive the battered mortgage financing market.
They did not provide specifics beyond that five-point framework.
At the White House earlier in the day, Bush said, "We're in this together and we'll come through this together." He added, "Anxiety can feed anxiety, and that can make it hard to see all that's being done to solve the problem."
He made it clear the United States must work with other countries to battle the worst financial crisis that has jolted the world economy in more than a half-century.
"We've seen that problems in the financial system are not isolated to the United States," he said. "So we're working closely with partners around the world to ensure that our actions are coordinated and effective."
The Dow dropped a little over 100 points while he was speaking.
Fear has tightened its grip on investors worldwide even as the United States and other countries have taken a series of radical actions including an unprecedented, coordinated interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and other major central banks.
Besides the United States, the other members of the G7 meeting in Washington are Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada. Finance officials also planned to meet with Bush Saturday at the White House.
"We are in a development where the downward spiral is picking up speed," said Germany's Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck, who wanted to see an orchestrated response among the G7.
So did French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, who said a "coordinated, synchronized and rightly timed approach" was needed.
An even larger group of nations — called the G20 — will meet with Paulson on Saturday evening. How the world's finance officials and central bank presidents can better contain the spreading financial crisis also will dominate discussions at the weekend meetings of the 185-nation International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington.
The British, who recently announced a plan to guarantee billions of dollar worth of debt held by major banks, have been pitching that idea to the rest of the G7 members.
The idea behind all these ideas — as well as bold steps previously announced in recent weeks — is to get credit flowing more freely again.
In the United States, hard-pressed banks and investment firms are drawing emergency loans from the Federal Reserve because they can't get money elsewhere. Skittish investors have cut them off, moving their money into safer Treasury securities. Financial institutions are hoarding whatever cash they have, rather than lending it to each other or customers.
The lending lockup — which is making it harder and more expensive for businesses and ordinary people to borrow money — is threatening to push the United States and the world economy as a whole into a deep and painful recession.
In Europe, governments have moved to protect nervous bank depositors. Germany pledged to guarantee all private bank savings and CDs in the country, and Iceland and Denmark followed suit. Ireland went even further by also guaranteeing Irish banks' debts. The United States will temporarily boost deposit insurance from $100,000 to $250,000 in cases where its banks or savings and loans fail.
The Fed, meanwhile, has repeatedly tapped its Depression-era authority to be a lender of last resort, not only to financial institutions but also to other types of companies. Earlier this week, the Fed said it would buy massive amounts of companies' debts, in another unprecedented effort to break through the credit clog.
———
Associated Press writers Harry Dunphy, Desmond Butler, Martin Crutsinger and Deb Reichmann contributed to this report.

[ccflyer]

It's kind of like buying a lottery ticket - the market crash ends when the price of stock is so compelling people's greed over takes their fear of losing. This is best reflected when Warren Buffet says be fearful when everybody's greedy and greedy when everybody's fearful.

I reached that point yesterday afternoon.

There are some great companies selling dirt cheap. If Campbell's Soup and Dow Chemical go under I'll have lost my bet and should have stuck with the scratch tickets.