If I remember correctly the Democratics have been in charge of Congress the last two years.

With wealth redistribution, I’m wondering why I go to work in the morning. I should stay home and let the government take care of me. They are such an efficient machine they run everything perfectly (IRS, Postal Service, Social Security, Medicare, Military Spending)

love the italics.

And while prices were perhaps artificially high, now they are dropping artificially. OPEC released more oil , and prices continued to drop. Where’s the actual market in all of this?

Anyway, long term changes in behavior require long term stimuli.

ONLY if you can buy. If you are renting because you can’t buy, homes are less affordable.

Rents in my area are up 25 percent over the last three years. MY rent is up almost 50 percent.

How is that More Affordable?

If only I had withdrawn money from stocks last December… I do have some cash but not immediately – most of it is in CDs, so as my CDs mature I may start investing a bit of it. Start with highest rated company bonds (not funds, individual bonds), then maybe a little into selected stocks – so many good companies with great earnings, great cash positions, good guidance and no credit problems are on sale now.

Two weeks ago at the height of the crisis was the best for municipal and company bonds. I didn’t have cash on hand, and only managed to transfer a little bit of money to my TD Ameritrade account last week, so I caught the tail end of it: got tax free 5.36% on my state’s municipal bond that has 10 years on it remaining.

I also have around 50% of 401K in stable value. I started moving into highest quality company bond funds last week; will move some parts into stocks gradually over next few months.

I’ve been thinking about #10 for a while. The only problem is inventory – they told on TV merchants are having problems getting credit to buy the inventory. So we may have sales, but there may be less of a choice. Still, will be interesting.

#9 worries me. I am afraid of the effect on economy taxing the corporations that pay our salaries may have. I am afraid higher capital gains/stock dividend taxes may have on the stock market. I am also afraid of one party being in charge without anything to stop them. At the same time, I think a lot of it is already priced into the market or will be soon.

The decimation of the auto industry has nothing to do with this meltdown. The unions have such a stranglehold on the auto industry that they have not been competitive in decades! GM alone starts the year $6 billion in the red due to health care, pensions and generally providing for people who no longer even work for company. Automakers don’t even make a profit to speak of from the automobiles anymore – just the financing.

Personally, I think the comment on #5 is a bit misplaced. The FDIC can’t really run out of money as it essentially has access to the printing presses. Now a currency can fail, no question about that, but that’s an issue bigger than the FDIC. If you’re worried about that kind of “big collapse” stuff, I tentatively offer this: http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic14183.html Buy your guns now.

Now item #10 had actually occurred to me already. My wife is always getting on me for waiting for bargains, and I had just commented that we may end up getting more this holiday season because the bargains might actually be bargains for a change.