A year of panic and overreaction

[Camino LS6]

This morning it really hit me like a ton of bricks.

This year has been all about panic and overreaction.

From the obvious confusion of all of the federal legislators to the G3, there has been a strong tendancy to rush headlong into disaster mode. Yes, things are bad and will get worse, but I can't help thinking that no one is thinking anything through before reacting. Maybe it is just that I have had the experience of living through the late '70's, but I see the degree of panic exhibited across our society as near-hysterical.

I don't mean to diminish the severity of things, but I do worry that we are so afraid now that we are flailing about and taking actions we will find hard to live with down the road.

[daves87rs]

It's been a rough year, that is for sure...

[SoCalCTS]

The last 7 years have been about panic and overreaction. This is the Bush era. What a series of ill-conceived actions!

Edited September 30, 2008 by SoCalCTS

[LosAngeles]

Shoot, I know people that talk like it's the biblical last days....literally. For those of who've been thru similar panicked times, did this talk also come up?

[Sixty8panther]

This country is sinking fast like the Titanic... and the lifeboats are all

afloat, every one of them about 80s% empty.

[Camino LS6]

Shoot, I know people that talk like it's the biblical last days....literally. For those of who've been thru similar panicked times, did this talk also come up?

In a word: yes.

[trinacriabob]

We are subject to some bad cycles in the economy but, for some reason, this one is a little scarier...possibly because 9/11 occurred within the last decade and the war is a war on an "unknown."

There is no way to know how Bush would have done without 9/11 and without waging a reactionary (to 9/11 in my mind) war in Iraq to flex muscle. I'm not a fan of his, but it's way more complicated than that.

I'm trying to look at the present as "the glass is half full" and get through this.

[balthazar]

There is a certain... faction that strives to push society towards panic & anger, because it helps pave their way to get their agenda in place. Add to that the doom-n-gloom mainstream media, which thrives on blood and scandal, AND the glut of available John Q Public's opinion echoing the same (the BlogOSphere), and that's about all you hear, so the response is not only to be expected, but it self-perpetuates.

[daves87rs]

It's getting so bad I've had to stop watching the news.....

[Sixty8panther]

It's getting so bad I've had to stop watching the news.....

It's never a good time to watch (and believe a word of) the news in modern day USA.

[regfootball]

the one aspect that is real is the major loss of value in people's assets they have worked so hard to attain.

home values which have really dropped, 20, 25% or more. Equity=gone.

Stocks, mutual funds etc. I know a gentlemen who retired who might have to go back to work because his stocks he was going to live on have declined so bad lately.

We've stripped our avegage folks of all their assets and their earning power. People I know are losing jobs left and right (I might even be there soon).

This f@#king eight years of hell and incompetence from a leadership standpoint can't end fast enough.

[RichW5]

the one aspect that is real is the major loss of value in people's assets they have worked so hard to attain.

home values which have really dropped, 20, 25% or more. Equity=gone.

Stocks, mutual funds etc. I know a gentlemen who retired who might have to go back to work because his stocks he was going to live on have declined so bad lately.

We've stripped our avegage folks of all their assets and their earning power. People I know are losing jobs left and right (I might even be there soon).

This f@#king eight years of hell and incompetence from a leadership standpoint can't end fast enough.

I know how you feel. But maybe they'll get Pelosi and Barney out of there and it'll get better.

[balthazar]

Nice one, Rich!

But as Camino stated- this is being blown out of proportion. The number of people in trouble WRT home values / potential foreclosures is a small minority vs. everyone else... yet the 'news' reads like EVERYONE is poised to live in Tent Cities while 200 million houses sit empty.

"Equity=gone" will come into play if you still owe the bulk of what you borrowed to get it. Not EVERYONE is upsidedown, and wouldn't it be refreshing for even ONE story to lay out actual figures so Joe Schmo can get his own grasp on the extent of the situation? Don't hold your breath.

[Teh Ricer Civic!]

Unfortunately policies carried on through several administrations have lead to the housing bubble, it just happened to blow up in Bush's face. The economy will rebound with or without government intervention. It will likely rebound stronger and more stable without government intervention, but there will be some hard years to come.

Bush has never done a good job about not sending people into a panic. However, it must be noted that consumer confidence has risen as of late (product wise, not financial wise), even with the stock markets on their see saw. The DOW is up today.

Several banks have failed due to "runs on banks" which is tied directly to people panicking about their savings.

Bush's administration has made several grave errors of sending people into near panic or outright panic (as of this financial crisis).

If Ron Paul is to be believed (and really i see no reason why he shouldn't) the victim of this crisis will be the US dollar with or without government intervention. The Fed has already extend several hundred billion dollars of credit into the economy and as you can see it has not really done a whole lot.

[CARBIZ]

There is a certain... faction that strives to push society towards panic & anger, because it helps pave their way to get their agenda in place. Add to that the doom-n-gloom mainstream media, which thrives on blood and scandal, AND the glut of available John Q Public's opinion echoing the same (the BlogOSphere), and that's about all you hear, so the response is not only to be expected, but it self-perpetuates.

+1 There are high rollers out there just itching to buy up banks and investment houses at distress-sale prices. As usual, we little people will pay the bill. Heads should roll over who was authorizing these ridiculous investment packages. It looks like a lot of people were just buying these investments without taking a peek at what they were actually buying!

Every night when I go home I listen to my other half bitching about how much money we have lost in the past few months. He already took everything he had in Latin America funds and moved them (at quite a loss) about 2 weeks ago. I wish I had, when I looked today my investment there is down 39% since March.

Still, I keep trying to tell him that we need to just sit tight and ride this out.

[knightfan26917]

I don't mean to diminish the severity of things, but I do worry that we are so afraid now that we are flailing about and taking actions we will find hard to live with down the road.

Been wondering that myself the last few days.

It seems that you hear how "badly" the baillout needs to be done. Yet, it seems like most Americans are telling representatives to NOT support the baillout package...regardless of the "doomsday" scenario being played as possible dire consequences.

*shrugs*

Don't know what to make of it all ... so, I just try to keep livin'....

Cort | 35swm | "Mr Monte Carlo"."Mr Road Trip" | pig valve.pacemaker

WRMNshowcase.legos.HO.models.MCs.RTs.CHD = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort

"Just a little insight won't make this right" ... All-American Rejects ... 'It Ends Tonight'

[Paolino]

Shoot, I know people that talk like it's the biblical last days....literally. For those of who've been thru similar panicked times, did this talk also come up?

Yup.

[Camino LS6]

Nice to see lucid responses to this, I had half expected to be shouted down by the Chicken Littles.

[mustang84]

Personally, I have not felt the pinch at all. The company I am at is growing, the market here in the Midwest is pretty stable (we rarely ever see huge bumps or dips), I have no assets, no house payment, no car payment, etc. The only debt I hold are my school loans, but they are at a fixed interest rate. I've been taking this opportunity to get started in the stock market; I've been steadily buying up Ford shares at each dip, and today I bought a couple dozen GM shares for the first time. I've held off on major purchases since starting full-time last May and have built up a little savings cushion.

I know a lot of people are hurting from this economic slide, but it has been a benefit to those like me who are starting out fresh.

[regfootball]

ok, mustang, let me blunt your enthusiasm.

LOL

not, actually. the company where i am at, the business has dried up due to banks not lending. We develop real estate. We build buildings and lease and sell them. Housing, industrial, office, all sorts.

Office buzz is that more layoffs are due very soon. Its a terrible atmosphere here and no one is busy.

I get an email this morning, an excoworkers friend was part of a big layoff at another firm. Another friend who was laid off from here who found a temp gig may not get hired at that office.....as recently as a month ago, things looked good there. Another engineer friend lost his job a couple months ago and has yet to find anything.

In my industry at least, $h! has hit the fan, people are starting to lose jobs en masse. I've known a few others who have lost jobs in the last 3 months and haven't been able to find anything yet.

Myself, I put off a new vehicle purchase this past weekend when i found out about the severe downturn and layoffs forecasted here. And no glimmer of positivity.

Its all due to the BANKS overreacting and being tight fisted. Credit flow is how they make money, and they just haven't determined how they can do it yet when its not raping the public and taking candy from a baby. So in the interim, the banks decided they will hold us all hostage until the govt bails them out. Bush's last hurrah. Line the pockets of a bunch of people who will make a killing on undervalued assets. Buy em cheap with the govt covering the losses, and then resell them and make a killing.

The company I work at is no fly by night. We make money, our credit is stellar, and have been in business a long time. We're one of the top performers in what we do. If we can't even get any money, then something is amok.

I don't know why everyone is putting our lives on hold until the election and after. the bailout BS only makes the whole thing worse.

I still go back to this. The root of all the problems the last few years, people's incomes have gone down, or jobs been outsourced...and in the meantime energy, food, all that went up exponentially. Had people's wages kept pace, there wouldn't be a real estate bubble. Prices would have levelled and stagnated and that would have been fine.

People don't need and shouldn't tap home equity to buy a new Lexus. One thing i will say. Those that did do that stuff need to now buy chevy's and fords like the rest of us. Maybe all the glorification of expensive imports will end and maybe we'll get sensible criticism of bread and butter cars again. Because more and more folks will have to stoop and buy that.

I was pleased to see GM get back to 27% share and only have a 16% drop last month. Toyota and Nissan though....OUCH!

[Teh Ricer Civic!]

Its all due to the BANKS overreacting and being tight fisted. Credit flow is how they make money, and they just haven't determined how they can do it yet when its not raping the public and taking candy from a baby. So in the interim, the banks decided they will hold us all hostage until the govt bails them out.

I'm sorry for your industry, really i am. I know the pressures that job security has. However blaming banks for this is just wrong. Banks are stingy right now because they are afraid of people making runs on banks, which has already sent the likes of WaMu down the drain (WaMu finally went under when a run on them dropped their $$$ too low to make loans or cover deposits), they are afriad of making loans to people who may or may not be able to repay them.

Tightening credit is what banks to in this type of environment, they invest heavily in treasury bonds because they are quite low risk and banks become VERY risk aversive until they get through this mess.

And like i said, i know that these are becoming rather desperate times for some, but to cast the blame solely on the banks is quite unfair.

Edited October 2, 2008 by Teh Ricer Civic!

[traumadog]

Hey, it'll all be good... according to the Mayans, we'll have until Dec. 2012 anyway.

[frogger]

What will people do if they can't afford hardwood floors, granite countertops, a renovated bathroom, stainless steel appliances and neutral decors they saw on TV? World must be ending.