August 2006 Weddings
MeredithE
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
I feel like whining, so here goes.
I appreciate most topics on the E08 board, but I don't understand why there isn't more talk about the economy. Is it because only a few people feel comfortable addressing the subject? I am whining for two reasons :
(1) The economy is currently my #1 concern, and I would guess its in everyone else's top 3.
(2) I want to learn more about Economics. Since it consists of many theories, so I need to hear MORE.
I am selfish aren't I?
"HOW many US citizens and ranchers have been decapitated in Arizona by roving bands of paperless aliens, and how will a requirement that I have papers on me make that not happen?"courtesy of SueSue
Re: I feel like whining, so here goes.
Here's why I don't talk about it more:
1. I don't fully understand what's going on and it's really complicated and overwhelming.
2. It terrifies and depresses me, and for the moment I am sticking my head in the sand about it since there's absolutely nothing I can do.
my read shelf:
Well if you are concerned about the economy it is because you live above your means or did not save the appropriate $100K. If you were doing everything right then you would not be phased by the economy and recognize that it is cyclical and will rebound.
Ugh.
I feel you, I am concerned as well Meredith. There are a few posters, jla comes to mind, that actually try to share their knowledge on the subject which I really appreciate. From my standpoint, I don't see the economy as a partisan issue right now. I know people keep bringing up taxes, but there is more than that involved right now. The credit markets have effectively seized up and we can keep blaming the lowly homeowner if we want, but they are not the ones that took those loans, packaged them up and sold them through the securitization process, and then sold the resulting securities to every major investment bank. The lowly homeowner was not the one who caused the major credit rating agencies to give positive ratings when they probably weren't deserved. The lowly homeowner did not cause large companies to go out and insure these securities.
I don't think people understand the vast amount that happened way beyond the actual granting of the initial mortgage that caused this decline to be so widespread.
We also never talk about the devaluation of the dollar, the other countries that are holders of significant amount of our debt, job loss and sales of major US companies to companies overseas. It is frustrating.
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Love it!?
my read shelf:
I think the reason economics isn't really being discussed is because the new people over there would rather talk about abortion.
Zoe- National Debt is actually a good thing. ?Granted, it is much bigger than it should ever be right now, but a country can't really get credit unless it has a credit history in the form of debt. ?Pay it down a bit, yes, but don't get rid of it completely.?
Also, I don't foresee it being paid down in my lifetime. ?At this point the cynic in me would settle for a balanced budget.?
I'd love to talk about it and understand it better, but I don't know where to start.
I appreciate when people like JLA post and explain things, but I'm guessing maybe she doesn't want to play teacher in every one of these posts.
"As of page 2 this might be the most boring argument ever. It's making me long for Rape Day." - Mouse
I'd be up for a lot more discussion, although I'm ignorant too.
I'd keep it here. The main E08 won't bite on a substantive topic, in my (snotty) opinion.
:: Brushing off my cobweb-covered economics degree. ::
I would love to talk about the economy all day on the boards! Unfortunately, this week was just not the week for me to be able to do it. Today looks so much better than the last four, so I will try to find some good articles to use as a starting point for discussions.
The few articles posted regarding economics never seem to get many responses. I try my best to answer with whatever knowledge I can gather as well as my own commentary. Unfortunately, it is hard to talk to keep talking to myself sometimes. lol.
Zoe/Amanda, my apologies for not being able to go back to your questions from yesterday. We were in risk analysis mode yesterday in my group. I am in the bond markets and we were not enjoying the gains that the equity markets were yesterday.
I can't speak too much about my job, but let's just say that I know all too well what this credit crunch can do to a business. Add that to the fact that my sector is in commercial mortgages and well...I am just thankful we belong to a huge asset management firm and that we always operate on a skeleton crew.
Most times I am not exactly sure what people want to discuss about the economy so I don't really start topics. I promise to keep responding to the posts though.
Our deficit is only going to increase even more now that the government issued a plan to help ease the credit crunch. However, I am still not sure that it is that much of a nationary security concern given how important it is for these questionable countries to ensure the stability of the U.S. economy.
my read shelf:
Economics was my weak subject in college! Even as a CPA it is hard for me to fully grasp what needs to be done. I sort of can understand it due to my business background and am smart enough to know there are no simple solutions.
And McCain & Obama really don't seem to have an answer. I can;t blame them. There is no simple sound bite answer the average voter could understand.
McCain mentioned firing the head of the SEC. Well that might be extreme but the SEC does play a critical role in overseeing the finanical reporting of these companies. So could there be something that needs to be address with SEC regulations - probably.
One of Obama's supporters last night (some Congresswoman from Florida) was asked by Chris Matthews on Hardball last night what was Obama's plan for the economy? Her answer pushed his tax plan - more taxes for the wealthy with 95% of Americans getting tax cuts. Chris just accepted that as good enough.
First off it will take some work in Congress to get a tax package but cutting taxes will not fix what is going on Wall St. Even DH who is not a finance person at all thinks neither candidate will be cutting taxes with this mess. As DH said to support why we all are going to be getting higher taxes no matter what is our freaking deficit is out of control. And there is another area that needs serious attention - our deficit.
Let's add energy to the mix. It is connected to our economy. As energy costs have gone up it has hit the pocketbooks of all individuals and businesses.
Enough rambling but just trying to show there are many angles to this darn economic issue and it is not going to be an easy fix.
LOL, Zoe!!
This is EXACTLY where I'm coming from, Fenton.
ditto all, especially the notion that nest discussions on the economy turn into class warfare and MM refresher courses. really, it's bigger than one person's misguided decision to take out a subprime loan or another's vow to cut cable. this thing is huge and it impacts us all.
:: running off to gather some good articles to post ::