“Blessedly my husband doesn’t put his faith in the power of the federal government to get it right, we’ve been out of the market since before this all happened and don’t intend to return anytime soon.”
Gee…good thing that the GOP didn’t get their way and privatize Social Security, right Michele? Can you imagine the place we would be in as a nation if our safety net retirement from Social Security were wrapped up in stocks right now?
Thank goodness the GOP lost that battle. Funny…where did all the advocates for privatizing Social Security go? Probably to their stock brokers to pull their money out of stocks before they lost all of it.

GOP didn’t get their way and privatize Social Security
I was thinking that too, imagine! Let me get this straight, capitalists who think it can only go up?!
Anyway, I’m ready to get back into the market, however my husband is the capitalist (and not an Obama supporter) who holds the purse strings in this family … so it’s up to him and I’m lucky if he tells me boo about it.

“good thing that the [bushies] didn’t get their way and privatize Social Security”
EXACTLY.
and for the record, this supporter of president obama never got out of the market. i’ve been buying stocks over the past few months, because i do believe that these companies will make it.

Keep throwing your money in there, someone has to lose it all for us… and lets keep giving money to failing companies, after all, its only our money, but don’t worry the end is sight…. yeah right, keep telling yourselves that.

So Obama’s a big fan of trying to time the market, eh? THAT always works well.
Nobody should be either staying out of the market or trying to time when to jump back in. Invest a certain percentage of your income every month in a mix of stocks, bonds, and other securities balanced to your time horizon. Re-balance once a year on the same date. That way you buy low, sell high, and will be fine over the long term. 100% of the ten-year periods in the history of the market have made money.

“100% of the ten-year periods in the history of the market have made money.”
With the exception of the last 10 years.
I did market timing. I started getting out in July 2007, and had sold everything by July of last year. I made about 14% last year and over 70% in 2007. So, yes, market timing works well. Leaving it in has devastated millions.

Your name,
I didn’t say 100% of the 10 year periods HAD POSITIVE PRICE MOVEMENT, I said they made money. Have you ever heard of something called “dividends”? You buy stock to buy a piece of the company’s profits, not just to gamble on the price. Counting dividends, the last 10 have still been strongly positive.
And since we’re allowing totally unverifiable personal claims as justification, I’ll go ahead and claim I’ve done cost averaging over 20 years and come out a millionaire.

Does anybody have any statistics that might indicate that we’ve hit bottom?

GM closed at under $2 today, more than 90% off it’s 52 week high of $24.24.
Citigroup closed at $1.22, 96% off its 52 week high of $27.35.
S&P 500 made a low of 752 last November, which was tested in February, but shattered in the last week. Same story with the DOW, November bottom of 7552, blown through with no sign of support.
While I appreciate the sound investment advice Obama is offering, I think I’ll keep my cash under the mattress just a little while longer.

By the way, you remember that bank that was too big to fail? It’s already failed, in spite of the huge chunk of money propping it up. AIG is off it’s 52 week high of $49.50 to $0.43.
$50 dollars to less than 50 cents. And yet the feds keep throwing money at it. Yeah, there’s a sound fiscal policy for ya!

Hope and change.

“Hope and change.”
do you expect that obama and his administration can fix this in a matter of 2 months? it’s the largest economical crapfest in decades and you want instant fixes? sorry, hon, the market doesn’t work that fast.
what ever happened to “THE FUNDAMENTALS OF OUR ECONOMY ARE STRONG?”

I find it very curious that over the last 20 years in every presidential debate the 2 big topics of social security and medicare have been a big platform for both candidates! Yet, this most recent debate theses 2 subjects were not even discussed. I think that what most people are failing to think about is the dramatic effects that 77 million people who are currently paying billions of dollars each year into social security taxes and medicare taxes and income taxes are beginning to retire soon. When this occures over the next 10 years, you can hopefully see that not only will they stop these contributions which will stop the flow of $ coming into these programs, but these programs will then begin to pay out billions to this group of americans. Billions coming in, billions stop coming in, then billions go out! And the next generation of americans, the Gen x, are suppose to fill these shoes?? How can we when we are 35% smaller than the Baby Boomers. What as the markets continue to slide as the 77 million Boomers begin removing their retirement savings. Or best case they leave it but they will stop pumping billions per year into 401k, IRA, Pension funds because they are retiring. The boom over the last 20 years in the markets are a direct result of 77 million americans pumping retirement savings away into our investment systems. Once they stop, and even if they leave those assets where they are now, we wont see the financial growth in the markets that we have been observing over the last 20 years. If they remove these assets to preserve what they have remaining, the markets are coming crashing down!

genxer said, “I find it very curious that over the last 20 years in every presidential debate the 2 big topics of social security and medicare have been a big platform for both candidates! Yet, this most recent debate theses 2 subjects were not even discussed.”
The subject did receive coverage in the debuts. Obama wanted to raise the amount of contributions for the above $250,000 taxpayers.
McCain double talked in an attempt to hide that he wanted to cut social security and medicare. McCain said he would work across the isle for a solution, no other detail. The media ignored that cuts in social security and medicare were in his farce balance the budget plan. McCain also tried to hide that he supported privatize Social Security.

“THE FUNDAMENTALS OF OUR ECONOMY ARE STRONG?”
I think the new administration is spending them.
I ask again….are there any statistics indicating that we’ve hit bottom?

MzEllen said, “I ask again….are there any statistics indicating that we’ve hit bottom?”
Being in the stock market has always been a gamble. There has never been any guarantees. It is the level of risk someone wants to take.
Obama’s statement was guarded. He did not say – go invest in the stock market.
“Wall Street rallied Wednesday amid signs on improvement in China’s economy and as federal officials unveiled details of President Obama’s $75 billion foreclosure prevention plan.”

“While I appreciate the sound investment advice Obama is offering, I think I’ll keep my cash under the mattress just a little while longer.”
as the rule goes… buy low, sell high. not the other way around.

“I think the new administration is spending them.”
need i remind you that you didn’t even know what the fundamentals were?
“I ask again….are there any statistics indicating that we’ve hit bottom?”
not that i’ve seen. however, i should ask you, what statistics were you going by when you thought the economy was just fine, when in fact it was already in decline?

I guess that’s a no. There’s not evidence that says we’ve hit bottom.

“I guess that’s a no. There’s not evidence that says we’ve hit bottom.”
that’s a “no” from me. i haven’t seen any indication. but i don’t think you can therefore make the leap to your second claim. you make lots of big assumptions based on very little evidence.
btw, you didn’t answer my question. so i ask again: what statistics were you going by when you thought the economy was just fine, when in fact it was already in decline?

The economy hasn’t been “Just fine” for a while.
Debt upon debt upon debt. Bad loans and more bad loans.
Depending on your definition of “the fundamentals”, we could either free it up or pack it down. We could encourage US employment by giving heavy tax breaks to businesses that keep jobs here. Or we could borrow against our children’s futures.
We could have “taken our lumps” a long time ago when the economy had a flesh wound. Now it’s a heavy bleeder.

i ask again: what statistics were you going by when you thought the economy was just fine, when in fact it was already in decline?
“We could encourage US employment by giving heavy tax breaks to businesses that keep jobs here.”
businesses already have 2 heavy tax breaks… they’re called loop holes and avoidance. i believe it’s 1/3 of businesses actually pay at least some part of their taxes.
“Or we could borrow against our children’s futures.”
and when bush was borrowing against our children’s futures by bombing away other countries’ children’s futures, you said… ?
obama is investing in our children’s futures. that’s the difference that you fail to acknowledge.