Octopus Overlords

ImLawBoy wrote:
I'm thinking of investing in Lotto tickets . . . .

I have some old ones I'd let you have for cheap.

Lehman was a pretty big client of my company's.

HP just announced they're laying off 25,000 professional services folks, half of them in the U.S. - even if only a tiny percentage is in my specialty, that's still going to be enough to alter the job market.

Fortunately, I rent, I have no debt, and I just cashed out my only actual investment in the market, so the impact is limited to making me anxious about the future for now.

Worst-case scenario, firms no longer have consulting dollars, and things get tight at work - I highly doubt I'd find another consulting job with a small firm, and I don't really want to work for one of the big four companies. Best-case scenario, crazy NYC real estate prices slip a little without too much inflation happening as a significant portion of the finance people can no longer afford their places and I can actually afford to own something nice out here in Queens.

Today's headlines gave me second thoughts about subscribing to the newspaper. The financial bailout seems to be deadlocked. We are in a worsening recession that will not turn around until 2010 (no word on how they know that). The housing market fell again. Tolls on the Mass Pike are about to go way, way up -- maybe as much as eight bucks to get to the airport. Nobody knows if tonight's presidential debate is going to happen or not. US and Pakistani troops traded gunfire at the Afghan border.

Sheesh. Grim and grimmer.

Now I have to go shop for a monitor to replace the one that crapped out on me last night.

My bank failed last night.

I'm thinking of withdrawing all my money, putting it in a pillow case and hiding it under the mattress.

I been able to save up some cash over past year so should be ok for a some while, but the economy has and will even more hurt my business. Since what i sell is more or less is a luxury good. I was thinking converting some currency into Euro, but Europeans seem to be doing pretty badly themselves. So they might experience inflation too.

Exodor wrote:My bank failed last night.

I'm thinking of withdrawing all my money, putting it in a pillow case and hiding it under the mattress.

But what about when the currency is worthless?

Austin wrote:

Exodor wrote:My bank failed last night.

I'm thinking of withdrawing all my money, putting it in a pillow case and hiding it under the mattress.

But what about when the currency is worthless?

What's vaguely amusing to me is that in many of the post-apocalyptic novels I read growing up, people had bags of silver and gold to trade for goods because it was the only acceptable currency. I remember thinking how ridiculous that seemed given my experience. Today, someone speculated on what would happen if our currency crashed -- "Well, the only real accepted currency at that point would be gold. Transporting it and storing it would become a real issue for both personal safety and finance. Bartering services and un-needed goods might return..."

i was thinking that , post apocalyptic novels. I havent read one about financial market collapse that would lead to the apocalyptic collapse. I am assured after this real scare "?" there will be a few written in no time.

I don't know if it's been brought up in this thread before or not, but you know when they have those police articles about people having thousands of rounds of ammo? That's only a headline grabber to people who are afraid of guns.

If you are a recreational shooter or an actual "professional" shooter, having under 1000 rounds means you're running low! Rifles: 20 to a box, plinking is about 10 per magazine, depending on the rifle. It is incredibly easy to go through 200+ rounds in a typical range session. Unless you are sighting in your rifle if you take longer than 5 minutes to make 10 shots you suck and should leave the range.

I don't know what my crazy manifesto-like screed has to do with anything except for this: Bullets can be used to obtain food.

And you can interpret that in any way you like.

PS My 401k, IRA and savings accounts are all fine given the current economic outlook.

killbot737 wrote:I don't know if it's been brought up in this thread before or not, but you know when they have those police articles about people having thousands of rounds of ammo? That's only a headline grabber to people who are afraid of guns.

If you are a recreational shooter or an actual "professional" shooter, having under 1000 rounds means you're running low! Rifles: 20 to a box, plinking is about 10 per magazine, depending on the rifle. It is incredibly easy to go through 200+ rounds in a typical range session. Unless you are sighting in your rifle if you take longer than 5 minutes to make 10 shots you suck and should leave the range.

I don't know what my crazy manifesto-like screed has to do with anything except for this: Bullets can be used to obtain food.

And you can interpret that in any way you like.

PS My 401k, IRA and savings accounts are all fine given the current economic outlook.

We don't go shooting any more, since the economic downturn. A day in Hell costs about hundred bucks in ammo per person. It's crazy how much you actually shoot when you go out shooting. It's like you're carrying an armory. Fortunately, TJ makes a lot of his shotgun shells and such.

No bail out comments, no impression of biggest drop of DOW in 1 day, in history. The rifle joke, might not be a joke in near future. Cool site to check out is nakedcapitalism.com It covers daily financial and economic turmoil with dozens of posts and links.

Every Tuesday night since 1999, I've gotten together with a group of people to play Buzztime trivia (formerly NTN). Over the years we have been through five host bars. Four of them went out of business. Last week, our most recent home joined the defunct.

Jimbos was once the nicest seafood restaurant in our area, a pricey special-occasion place that had the bonus of being only half a mile from home, so we could walk there. It changed ownership a couple of times. Each time, quality and prices both slipped. The most recent owner turned into a moderately successful sports bar with the the usual formula of cheap appetizers, drink specials, karaoke, trivia, etc., but it was still attached to a huge old restaurant that was empty most of the time. The old clientele drifted away or died out, and no new one replaced them. After 50+ years of continuous operation, it's shuttered now.

I will bet you the credit crisis killed it. The owner must have been bumping along from month to month, and finally just couldn't cover the rent anymore.

Tonight my trivia team is meeting to discuss whether we have a future. There are two venues within realistic distance. Bucks is a rundown old redneck bar with marginal food and terrible draft beer choices that draws an older lowlife neighborhood crowd. Basta is a townie dive with terrible food and a good draft beer selection that draws a young lowlife darts-and-pool crowd. Both bars are inconveniently located, unpleasant, and poorly suited to hosting our team.

Because our group is mostly over the age of 60 -- and because they all either don't drink alcohol at all, or drink cheap mass-market beer --- they will almost surely vote for old rednecks and bad beer over young townies and good beer. I would have to drop out if that happens. Maybe I can start a splinter team at Basta. More likely, it's the end of a nine-year tradition.

So the recent economic turmoil killed another host bar and will probably break up our team.

Anyone else following news on economy? very quiet in this forum about it. Here is another dusy, European banks on the brink of collapse, 5 have collapsed last week. Talking about scary stuff, they are worse off then america. Dont put your money in Euro. I guess gold or silver is best way to go. Here is a link to a European story.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9680da1a-9179 ... fd18c.html" target="_blank

Matrix wrote:Anyone else following news on economy? very quiet in this forum about it. Here is another dusy, European banks on the brink of collapse, 5 have collapsed last week. Talking about scary stuff, they are worse off then america. Dont put your money in Euro. I guess gold or silver is best way to go. Here is a link to a European story.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9680da1a-9179 ... fd18c.html" target="_blank

Since it's so tied to the current political season, most of it's hiding out in R&P, where most sane people fear to tread.

Isgrimnur wrote:

Matrix wrote:Anyone else following news on economy? very quiet in this forum about it. Here is another dusy, European banks on the brink of collapse, 5 have collapsed last week. Talking about scary stuff, they are worse off then america. Dont put your money in Euro. I guess gold or silver is best way to go. Here is a link to a European story.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9680da1a-9179 ... fd18c.html" target="_blank

Since it's so tied to the current political season, most of it's hiding out in R&P, where most sane people fear to tread.

Between the election and the financial meltdown, R&P has been considerably livelier than EBG for the past several weeks. Not as many posters, but boy, do they ever have a lot to say!

On topic...I heard last night that one of my friends was laid off from HP after nine years. But she got a decent severance package, and already has another good job lined up. She hopes.

I'm doing fine...we haven't really noticed it at my office. Same for my wife, even though she works for a small business, they don't really use much in the way of credit. I think all my siblings are doing ok, as are my parents, though I'm sure their retirement funds are hurting a little. So that's good.

My sister in law (crashing with us for the moment) has had zero luck finding a job, though. And my cousin's husband remains unemployed after 3 months of looking. I'm starting to get really worried about them. They have three kids, and not much in the way of savings. I'm honestly not sure what they will do once they finish eating their retirements. And I'm not in a position to help them much...we already have three additional tenants.

Hopefully the bailout will fix everything right quick.

LR, the bailout is no silver bullet. It's meant to keep the system from collapsing completely, but it is no guarantee of happy fun playtime.

The pain is still coming. Hopefully the edge will be taken off it though.

People continue to avail themselves of healthcare services. In fact, I think after today we might see an uptick in the cardiovascular center.

All my play money is disappearing though.

I'm not sure that this is relevant, but in the past few weeks credit card payments have declined from being at least 3/4 of my business to 1/4 at most. Sales are holding up alright so far, but customers have shifted to PayPal. I actually put through a test charge this morning to make sure the gateway is working properly (Authorize.net did some system maintenance last night). I think shoppers have simply cut way back on their charge card usage.

Credit card and PayPal processing costs are almost identical. PayPal is effectively instantaneous, and pays interest on the account balance, so I slightly prefer it. Charge sales can take a week to hit my checking account.

Well, looks like whole europe is colapsing like house of cards, 5 banks went down last week, we thought we were in bad shape, europe is probably in worse shape the US, barely hanging in there. It seems all major countries are griping with financial problem, So far Canada and Japan have been more stable.

I am noticing significant drop in conversion rate of sales, people come in, look around ask about service, and then leave. Not good. I have to start introducing smaller packages, and give bigger discounts, maybe throw in extra services.

Hasn't affected me at all, since retirement is a long, long way away, and buying shares at depressed rates will bring me ahead in the end.

Might affect me next year when I want to buy a new car, though.

The recent turmoil has resulted in a 20-30% cut in the Engineering staff here at work. While I was not impacted, many of my friends here were. It blows.

pr0ner wrote:Might affect me next year when I want to buy a new car, though.

We find ourselves in the car market with enough cash in the bank to write a check for the entire purchase price of a vehicle.

I'm hoping to wait another month or two until the car dealers are really desperate. I'm assuming we'll be able to get a really, really good deal.

pr0ner wrote:Hasn't affected me at all, since retirement is a long, long way away,

I doubt that I'll be able to retire at all, but my date for getting full soc sec benefits (my nominal "retirement age") is almost exactly 15 years away. I wonder how many of those years our 401ks will spend simply regaining lost ground. Ah well, if it weren't for schadenfreud I wouldn't have no freud at all.

Since I'm only in my early 30's, the bulk of my 401k is in stocks. Just checked and my total 401k balance is down about 20% in the last year. Obviously I have years and years before this money comes to me, but still...fuck.

Otherwise, as long as I keep my job we'll be fine. I am somewhat questioning the wisdom of the vacation we just took last week, though.

Exodor wrote: We find ourselves in the car market with enough cash in the bank to write a check for the entire purchase price of a vehicle.

I'm hoping to wait another month or two until the car dealers are really desperate. I'm assuming we'll be able to get a really, really good deal.

I would wait until you see an economic turnaround and/or you just can't wait any longer.

One project on hold, probably indefinitely (now is not a good time to be trying to finance a spec house). Two on hold that will probably go through eventually. Nothing new on the horizon. So the work situation is getting pretty lean. Still, my job is safe for now. Boss man says we have enough money in the bank to keep us going for months without any income. After that? Well, here's hoping things pick up.

noxiousdog wrote:

Exodor wrote: We find ourselves in the car market with enough cash in the bank to write a check for the entire purchase price of a vehicle.

I'm hoping to wait another month or two until the car dealers are really desperate. I'm assuming we'll be able to get a really, really good deal.

I would wait until you see an economic turnaround and/or you just can't wait any longer.

That's more or less what I'm doing but for different reasons.

Know this. Cars are going to continue to go up in price and with financing collapsing, dealer incentives are going to go down as well. Dealers getting more desperate won't matter when their invoices increase.

At the same time, we aren't that far away from changes to fuel efficiency, which probably will come with tax incentives to bring the cars to full production quicker. I now see three E85 stations around my house. The hybrid that you can plug in for it's initial charge is nearing market. Compressed Natural gas is all the talk. And this is to say nothing of trying out the pnuematic engine.

noxiousdog wrote:I would wait until you see an economic turnaround and/or you just can't wait any longer.

We have a child and two vehicles.

Mine's a '96 Honda Del Sol. That's a two-seater.

My wife's is a '94 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme with 144,000 miles.

If her car dies we have to replace it immediately.

The plan is to drive both cars until they require an expensive repair. Her car is starting to shudder and run badly. I don't expect it to last much longer.

I hear dealers have started offering the "hookers and beer" incentive package for anyone willing to drive a Tahoe or Hummer off their lot. Apparently the "we'll pay you" package wasn't working.

Exodor wrote: We have a child and two vehicles.

Mine's a '96 Honda Del Sol. That's a two-seater.

My wife's is a '94 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme with 144,000 miles.

If her car dies we have to replace it immediately.

The plan is to drive both cars until they require an expensive repair. Her car is starting to shudder and run badly. I don't expect it to last much longer.

The really good deal isn't going to happen. But the longer you wait, the less money you put into having a car. If you're ready then now is as good time as any until the year end. Watch the incentives. They stayed steady in August, even if the invoices on cars went up. I don't know how long that will last, unless you a light truck, SUV, and I'd imagine by Christmas, a CUV. Personally, I don't recommend buying a car built in August or one built around hunting season (late October thru November). But that's me and my superstitions on work ethic XMas, Hunting, and Automotive Shutdown (new/model retooling time). I have no data to back those superstitions up.

Ironrod wrote:Every Tuesday night since 1999, I've gotten together with a group of people to play Buzztime trivia (formerly NTN). Over the years we have been through five host bars. Four of them went out of business. Last week, our most recent home joined the defunct.

Jimbos was once the nicest seafood restaurant in our area, a pricey special-occasion place that had the bonus of being only half a mile from home, so we could walk there. It changed ownership a couple of times. Each time, quality and prices both slipped. The most recent owner turned into a moderately successful sports bar with the the usual formula of cheap appetizers, drink specials, karaoke, trivia, etc., but it was still attached to a huge old restaurant that was empty most of the time. The old clientele drifted away or died out, and no new one replaced them. After 50+ years of continuous operation, it's shuttered now.

I will bet you the credit crisis killed it. The owner must have been bumping along from month to month, and finally just couldn't cover the rent anymore.

Tonight my trivia team is meeting to discuss whether we have a future. There are two venues within realistic distance. Bucks is a rundown old redneck bar with marginal food and terrible draft beer choices that draws an older lowlife neighborhood crowd. Basta is a townie dive with terrible food and a good draft beer selection that draws a young lowlife darts-and-pool crowd. Both bars are inconveniently located, unpleasant, and poorly suited to hosting our team.

Because our group is mostly over the age of 60 -- and because they all either don't drink alcohol at all, or drink cheap mass-market beer --- they will almost surely vote for old rednecks and bad beer over young townies and good beer. I would have to drop out if that happens. Maybe I can start a splinter team at Basta. More likely, it's the end of a nine-year tradition.

So the recent economic turmoil killed another host bar and will probably break up our team.

Wait...Boston has REDNECKS? Get out. I just visited that fair city for the first time, and I was extremely impressed. I love Chicago too, but Boston is a little smaller and was bowled over by the friendliness of the natives I met. Very cool frickin' city.

Carpet_pissr wrote:

Ironrod wrote: Tonight my trivia team is meeting to discuss whether we have a future. There are two venues within realistic distance. Bucks is a rundown old redneck bar with marginal food and terrible draft beer choices that draws an older lowlife neighborhood crowd. Basta is a townie dive with terrible food and a good draft beer selection that draws a young lowlife darts-and-pool crowd. Both bars are inconveniently located, unpleasant, and poorly suited to hosting our team.

Because our group is mostly over the age of 60 -- and because they all either don't drink alcohol at all, or drink cheap mass-market beer --- they will almost surely vote for old rednecks and bad beer over young townies and good beer. I would have to drop out if that happens. Maybe I can start a splinter team at Basta. More likely, it's the end of a nine-year tradition.

So the recent economic turmoil killed another host bar and will probably break up our team.

Wait...Boston has REDNECKS? Get out. I just visited that fair city for the first time, and I was extremely impressed. I love Chicago too, but Boston is a little smaller and was bowled over by the friendliness of the natives I met. Very cool frickin' city.

You won't run into many in the city. In the burbs and exurbs ye shall find them, although not in great numbers. Bucks -- where we did, indeed, end up -- is a redneck magnet just like a Michigan bar: dead deer heads on the pine-paneled walls, parking lot filled with pickup trucks, all the patrons in flannel shirts. Their three taps are Bud, Bud Light, and Sams Seasonal, but everybody drinks Bud in bottles.

That baffles me. Why would you pay $3 for the same beer you can have at home for 50 cents?

Anyway, I'm stuck with Bucks for the foreseeable future, at least as long as that Sams Seasonal tap holds out. Once that happens there will be nothing there that I can drink. At least their food is pretty good. They make an awesome grilled cheese hamburger.

Glad you liked Boston.

Ironrod wrote:
That baffles me. Why would you pay $3 for the same beer you can have at home for 50 cents?

Because you get to drink it away from home.

Is a grilled cheese hamburger anything like a cheeseburger?

Also, what LawBeef said.

Two Sheds wrote:Is a grilled cheese hamburger anything like a cheeseburger?

Also, what LawBeef said.

It's more like a grilled cheese sandwich with a hamburger patty inside, made with good, thick, coarse bread instead of a bun. And grilled. With lots of cheese.

I want that.

Is that like a patty melt without onions?

Phone call this morning--there goes another project. Part of the problem is the client's money is mostly in international finance, which (I gather) isn't doing too hot right now. He has the money and the loan, but he doesn't "feel comofortable right now." Oh well.

I had been working 9+ hour days to make a little extra cash to put towards credit cards and student loans, but the boss man just told us all we should be on a "no more than 8-hour day" schedule.

Ironrod wrote:

That baffles me. Why would you pay $3 for the same beer you can have at home for 50 cents?

The same reason you pay $6 for the same beer you can have at home for $2: Wives.