Change

Damn Jeremy, quit being a lazy asshole and get to studying.

Stocks

Oi! So, since I've invested $400 into my Ameritrade.com account, I've lost $52.19 mostly because of investing in Whole Foods (WFMI) too early. They hit a record low of 9.91 earlier in the week that I bought some stock in it, so I felt it would do nothing but go up. Nope. Today it closed at a new low of 8.78! I bought it at 10.65! That's about a 17.5% loss! It's upsetting of course, but what I hate most is that I could have waited and bought it at this 8.78 price. I guess it could still go down, and who am I to say that it won't but hey, at least I wouldn't be losing as much money. Luckily, I invested a little in Ford (F) which has only lost me 4.6%. The stocks will go up, this is a time of crisis. I don't care about them hurrying about going up in price, I just down want them to sink much lower so all this "coulda woulda shoulda" would stop!

I'm thinking about finding a very detailed book that gives a good view of the global elite.  In times like these, it is obvious how economically inter-connected the world is, America being the epicenter, because of how much our mortgage crisis domino effect of fear has sent the world on one wild ride.  What are the motivations and the spending habits of the super-wealthy?  I don't mean Snoop Dogg; we know his money's going to Patron, the best marie-jane, and rottweiler training instructional videos.

Really, though, by looking at the facts, the richest people in the world live in America, many are 1st or 2nd-generation Americans, so obviously there is going to be much interest vested into their other home (physically, familial, spiritual even).  America, always touted as the superpower yada yada, naturally has more money than everyone else (GDP).  Funny though, we're also the poorest nation if you want to be a spoiler and mention the national debt of $10+ trillion.  Yeah, 10,000 billion dollars.  Let's see, that increases our national debt to about $11 trillion (or 11,000 billion dollars) with this corporate bailout crap going on.  

Think about this bailout and the precedent that it is setting or example that it is making.  CEO's are the guys that always win when you're competing in some way.  They were the kids that had the paper route at 10 years old, a savings account by 11, and mowed the neighborhood lawns.  Ah yes and you hate when someone compares you to them (damn you parents for trying to encourage hard work to generation x and y!).  Yes, it's a different world nowadays, I'm not really sure if kids can do paper routes and your parents risk being sued if you run into one of your neighbor's lawn gnomes, so the same type of mentality does not work the same anymore though being gung-ho does.  

Anyways, this bailout favored a select group of people (stockholders in mortgage companies) to a large extent with money from the general population.  That is earmarking, which does not make it bad, but earmarking is supposed to microscopically redistribute the wealth so that the public museum doesn't shut down, the parks are still parks, and so communities can feel a little better and not have to get mad at so and so about such things.  The bailout gave $250 billion for Paulson to use, $100 billion more if the president agrees, and $350 billion reserved for if Congress can agree on how to use it.  It's not that I disagree completely with the bailout as it does have terms for reductions in CEO pay and some other good points.  Yes, mortgage companies need to be stable for most other companies (especially small businesses) to grow or stay open, so the bailout was needed, but it still is likely to have some terrible consequences.  Ford and other big companies need major help because of the mortgage companies' mistakes, but it is going to be a lot harder for Congress to agree upon how to divide their $350 billion stake since everyone's freaking out and talking about how we never should have had a bailout in the first place.  This will likely make Congress more hesitant to give a company money because they won't get that majority vote without each one of the Congressman's favorite company to get a slice of the pie.  As the media was quick to point out, the bailout did not mandate that Congress give money to help with this foreclosure mess a.k.a. "redistribution of the land."  The bill (made BY Congress mind you) assumes that Congress knows it will do what is right with its $350 billion expense account.  

Though it was set up poorly, it SEEMS like it might play out better than we would expect.  Obama has indicated that he will use what funds he has available to stabilize the foreclosures to buy time for the market to stabilize and people to get jobs.

Well, I'm gonna go take a nap with my lady.