Wild Times on Wall Street: What Now for Investors?

"Jerry S - Wednesday July 16, 2008 10:01AM EDT The chickens have come home to roost.Seven years of war,endless spending by Dubya Dubya II have put America at the brink of disaster.Speculators artificially raising the price of oil,loss of jobs paying a living wage , manufacturing dessimated ,real estate in the hopper.It is only a matter of time before we are all standing in line at the soup kitchen" It is always goo to see someone who has no clue on how federal spending is controlled in the U.S. The President doesn't set the federal budget, CONGRESS does. Once the President PROPOSES a budget, it goes to CONGRESS, where they change it anyway they want and it is approved WITHOUT the President ever seeing it again. The blame for the $500 Billion dollar deficit this year should be laid at the door of Congress, where it belongs. The approval rating for Congress has NEVER been lower, and there are a lot of reasons for this, the deficit (and federal debt) are just two.

Obviously this administration is a complete failure to the ultimate degree. The tiny minority of people who don't think so tend to be poor toothless uneducated hicks. So why even debate that issue? I think this author is correct in expecting a short-term bounce, perhaps even to the 12000 level on the Dow. However given the depth of the problems in the banking sector I don't think we have seen a bottom. If oil came down to below $125 we could see a lot of recovery in the market just based on that given how heavily fuel costs are weighing on profit marigns and consumer spending.

jsiegfried35, every item you mention the "Administration" being AWOL on is controlled by CONGRESS, as thoses issues are controlled by bills and laws. Put the blame where it belongs, on Congress. What is killing the Economy, the dollar, high gas prices, etc? IT IS THE SPENDING, STUPID! Who controls the spending? CONGRESS.

What a sad situation we live in......this is America.......the politicians argue about this and that (repulicans are doing this)(democrats arent doing that).....what kind of situation are we gonna be in if our government cannot figure out how to work together. Everytime I watch the news they look like children bickering and fighting. We have a real crisis on our hands....our country has always helped in all the worlds crisis so we need to pull together in this crisis of our own. We are America lets start acting like it.

For all you idiot Bush bashers out there - just remember that Congress has consistantly held a much lower polled approval rating than Bush since the Dumbocraps took power on Capital Hill. Don't just blame Bush for this mess, although he is an oil friendly big part of it, give blame where it's due, like former President Bill Clinton for creating this oil commodities speculative frenzy situtation by signing into law the ability of speculators to use only 2% of their money to purchase oil futures contracts when they have no intent to receive delivery of oil. Oil speculators have as they stated primary goal, "to stabilize the price movements of oil for the benefit of their customers through oil contracts". You have to be an idiot to think they are succeeding at that primary goal. I heard a big name economist on Walstreet actually defending oil speculators recently by stating that oil prices would be $200 today without oil speculators - BULLSHIT. What has happened recently is they are starting to realize that they have created DEMAND DESTRUCTION sooner than they thought would happen. Now demand is WAY down with supplies WAY up. And yes, OPEC DOES want oil prices to come down since ironically the oil sheiks are smarter about this than the average American, they know they canmake more money by selling more oil.gas at a lower price. Use your brains people.

The market is pricing in the risk of comrade Obama presidency. His reign of bigger government will have long lasting damage to capitalism. Obama's damage will stretch far beyond a temporary slowdown: Tax 1: lift caps off to feed the Social Security scam Tax 2: let Bush tax cuts expire, raise other payroll taxes Tax 3: let death tax to come back in 2011, higher than ever Tax 4: tax any industry that he may deem to have 'windfall' profits Tax 5: overtax any industry in the name of environment Tax 6: double (!!!) capital gains tax - it's never been done before, watch trillions of dollars leave the US. Obama promised to lower middle class taxes. Huh! Yeah right. How is that going to happen if there won't be much of the economy left after the 6 taxes above kill it. Also don't forget his bloated goverment-run inefficient health care and many other programs worth many trillions of dollars. Obama is on track do more to damage capitalism than anyone in the old USSR. He is not running for Carter's 2nd term. His reign will make Carter administration look good.

The market is pricing in the risk of comrade Obama presidency. His reign of bigger government will have long lasting damage to capitalism. Obama's damage will stretch far beyond a temporary slowdown: Tax 1: lift caps off to feed the Social Security scam Tax 2: let Bush tax cuts expire, raise other payroll taxes Tax 3: let death tax to come back in 2011, higher than ever Tax 4: tax any industry that he may deem to have 'windfall' profits Tax 5: overtax any industry in the name of environment Tax 6: double (!!!) capital gains tax - it's never been done before, watch trillions of dollars leave the US. Obama promised to lower middle class taxes. Huh! Yeah right. How is that going to happen if there won't be much of the economy left after the 6 taxes above kill it. Also don't forget his bloated goverment-run inefficient health care and many other programs worth many trillions of dollars. Obama is on track do more to damage capitalism than anyone in the old USSR. He is not running for Carter's 2nd term. His reign will make Carter administration look good.

The one thing that is fairly consistent in all your comments is uncertainty about the future. This uncertainty is caused by a number of things but the root of it is poor American leadership and bad decision making. What's tragic is for the most part, this mess were in was not necessary.

It's all over boys.Maybe the AMISH life style was right all along. Greed...follow the money

The market is pricing in the risk of comrade Obama presidency. His reign of bigger government will have long lasting damage to capitalism. Obama's damage will stretch far beyond a temporary slowdown: Tax 1: lift caps off to feed the Social Security scam Tax 2: let Bush tax cuts expire, raise other payroll taxes Tax 3: let death tax to come back in 2011, higher than ever Tax 4: tax any industry that he may deem to have 'windfall' profits Tax 5: overtax any industry in the name of environment Tax 6: double (!!!) capital gains tax - it's never been done before, watch trillions of dollars leave the US. Obama promised to lower middle class taxes. Huh! Yeah right. How is that going to happen if there won't be much of the economy left after the 6 taxes above kill it. Also don't forget his bloated goverment-run inefficient health care and many other programs worth many trillions of dollars. Obama is on track do more to damage capitalism than anyone in the old USSR. He is not running for Carter's 2nd term. His reign will make Carter administration look good.

Seriously folks, the people getting the loans they couldn't afford is only a small part of the problem. They should have never given the money to the people in the first place. By deregulating the industry it allowed the brokers to give the money to those who couldn't afford it, collect a commission and pass the loan on. But hey, keep watching Faux News, you're learning a lot about nothing.

The market is pricing in the risk of comrade Obama presidency. Obama's damage will stretch far beyond a temporary slowdown: Tax 1: lift caps off to feed the Social Security scam Tax 2: let Bush tax cuts expire, raise other payroll taxes Tax 3: let death tax to come back in 2011, higher than ever Tax 4: tax any industry that he may deem to have 'windfall' profits Tax 5: overtax any industry in the name of environment Tax 6: double (!!!) capital gains tax - it's never been done before, watch trillions of dollars leave the US. Obama promised to lower middle class taxes. Huh! Yeah right. How is that going to happen if there won't be much of the economy left after the 6 taxes above kill it. Also don't forget his bloated goverment-run inefficient health care and many other programs worth many trillions of dollars. Obama is on track do more to damage capitalism than anyone in the old USSR. He is not running for Carter's 2nd term. His reign will make Carter administration look good.

I must have been investing in a different market during the Bush administration than most of you.

Many factors are causing the current situation now and not everything can be blamed on any one source. The worst case scenario would be to panic and lose faith in the country that is the strongest in the world. Quit whining and do your own part. I am so sick of listening to people crying boohoo over every little thing. I have been through things no one should have to because of problems in our health programs and such but I don't sit and blame everyone else. If you don't like the gas prices, do your part to decrease your dependence on it. Quit blaming others for your problems and develop an attide of the final outcome rests with you.

Haha...what happens now? Gas goes to $40 a barrel...that's what happens...droppin!!

Everyone go back and read Mr. 'liftoff" post relative to oil. liftoff is right on the money. Let's hope the Arabs continue to try to help our greedy as*** here in America. In the name of capitalism we have become giant greedy galoots. Our wonderful business schools teach this greedy crap to our young and they don't temper it with an moral responsibility. You just know it needs to come home to roost. Good Luck to all investors and screw the traders and speculators. I need to hold down a real job and don't have the time to "Make Money Off of Others misfortunes. I find some the practices going on today on Wall Street disgusting.....and now Bernake , Bush, Paulson want to save all their sorry butts! Sure they need to, now, so that they don't drag me down with them.

most people (97%) do not realize that the SOLE urpose of federal taxes is to reduce the money supply. If you dont have adequate taxes the economy will inflate out of sight. Now we have the most rapid price increases in history. Taxes must increase or we will be like Germany in 1921. Not alive then? Read about it! It really happened. The final result was a dictator in the most literate country in the world.

Gosh, I didn't realize Bush had so much power! Don't we have checks and balances,i.e. Congress, Supreme Court? According to the Dems on this site, Bush has single handedly crapped everything. Well, where was the Democrat Congress? Asleep at the helm I suppose. Reality is that the Dems started all the entitlement programs over 40 years ago (that bleed the taxpayer) and have been the ones (with help from the media of course) to foster the mentality that is doing us in - namely that we are all entitled and the Government should take care of us from the cradle to the grave. Great way to build a voter base and stay in power!.

One of the biggest mistakes this country has ever made is becoming far too dependent on the rest of the world. In the beginning the country was totally self sufficient because the technology of transportation, travel etc. was not developed. Now, we have not only "farmed out" practically everything to the rest of the world, we have practically "given the farm away"! This country desperately needs to return to self sufficiency ASAP, and it needs to begin with energy. E.g. all the environmental and political correctness crap needs start playing "second fiddle" to real priorities!

Boy if this isn't panic I don't know what is! One of you is even blaming future administrations for the past 30 years of government mismanagement of our public finances. Buy FREDDIE/FANNIE stock, it is FDIC insured, because our goverment told us they won't let it go bankrupt.