lrm21, you made some good points, but as I understand the argument it is basically "We are damned if we do and damned if we don't". So my conclusion is that I'd rather take a chance and do something in the hope that it will work, rather then stand back and hope that it will resolve it self. I'm not sure what you do for a living, so I won't make guesses on how aware you are of what is going on at the bank trading and commercial lending desks, but from my vantage point I can tell you it is so bad that if this "credit" crises continues many good companies will not receive loans which they need to carry on their day to day business at fair rates. This situation will cascade down to every average American and cause good companies along with the bad to go under. If the bail out doesn't go thru I sincerely hope you are correct and everything resolves on its own. -Neo
My knee-jerk reaction is how can you have a good, sound, long term viable business if you depend on cheap easy credit to do things like operate on a day-to-day basis or meet payroll? My father, brother and I all own small businesses, and the thought of running a business this way is a complete joke. But I'm sure I'm just naive.
Fed Funds is a target, don't ever forget that. This is much worse than 1929 simply because the government is substantially bigger this time. When the government gets involved you lose the efficiencies of the free market. It's a bureaucrat hiring his buddies with no oversight to ensure that the job is done in an efficient manner. Government is a cancer in a "free market" system. The unfortunate reality is that the average person is cancerous (Stage 3) as well. The only way to "solve" this problem is for a massive decrease in global population and a new system to evolve. It's that simple.
You're Anti-American, brother. Leverage is Patriotism! Load up on debt as much as you can so the fed can just inflate it away. I just maxed out all my available credit.
I think thats too simplistic of a view. There are such things as receivables.... It takes time for customers to pay for products, and therefore large multi-national companies operate on credit, not cash. -Neo