Posted on 01/05/2015 10:57:16 AM PST by Signalman
It's quite the sobering Monday on Wall Street as many traders and investors return from their holiday hiatus. The Dow plunged over 300 points in mid-day trading as stock markets around the world fell sharply.
What's going on? The main culprits of market jitters these days are falling oil prices and the souring global economy. Crude oil now trades at about $50 and even dipped briefly below that level on Monday -- another psychological threshold for the market.
Experts now predict oil could go as low as $40 or even $30 a barrel. While that's great for U.S. consumers, who are enjoying gas prices of $2 or less not seen since the worst of the Great Recession, there comes a point when sustained low prices begin to really hurt energy company stocks and jobs in the U.S. and other countries around the world.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Barry's "boomin'" economy has been ruined by the drop in gas prices that has caused the GOOBers to want to pass a federal gas tax increase so the American people can pay for more government handouts and freebies. This is some weird ****.
Talk about a "rollercoaster" ride.
I agree. I don’t need my money from the stock market for 20 years at least. I like my cheep gas today. Please continue to fall. I want gas 95 cents a gallon like 1995....the good year!!!!!
And I thought the DOW plunge was because 0bama came back to town and is getting ready for a road show on how he plans to help the middle class next. With half of obamacare folks about to get an audit, I don’t think anyone needs any more of his help.
Those who live by “Other People’s Money,” have made their bed, and will have to sleep in it.
A country may be like a body, but you can’t lop off an arm without affecting the whole thing. And in the case of the current US, it has a heart problem. Removing it will be problematic.
Yeah, QE.. What is it now... XVIII?
Mathematically, everything has fluctuation within bounds. If anything happens to thwart those normal fluctuations, the fluctuations become more extreme until it all spins out of control. What's happened with the US economy is that since George 2 started the manipulation by saving banks that failed, the economy has been totally rigged. Interest rates can't go any lower, and if they go higher the gov can't pay its debt. The debt easily spun out of control with interest rates near zero. Quantitative easing infused big money in to the economy, which has nowhere to go except the stock market with such low interest rates not a good option for those who still have resources.
The government can chug along and keep printing more money and prop up the stock market and burn up people's savings, I guess. Now there's low gas which consummers say yeah!!!! but will mess up loans to oil companies, emerging economies, successful pockets of the economy that got that way because of oil revenues. The world's a mess and powers we don't understand just keep selling oil hoping the other guy folds first.
Logically, at some point the manipulation will stop working The manipulators only care about saving themselves and their interests, which they do quite well. But when they lose control (like what happened with the real estate bubble) in a global economy problems can happen all over. Now there's the factor of crazies all over the world, due in great part to regions where we've played regime change and nation building.
Mathematically, the wild swings mean it's getting more difficult for the manipulators to control it. That's when it goes tangential, or reaches a point where it can no longer fluctuate. Is this economy meets asymptote?
(I'm not a professional, just someone who's studied a little economics and math, and likes to observe and analyze things. Please correct me where I'm wrong)
You might not have noticed, but millions are already there and have been for years. They'll be waitin for you to join them.
You and I are on the same page. What I rarely mention is that my tag line is not so much about Obama as it is about the time we are living in. We just happen to have a total incompetent at the helm of the (arguably) greatest economy on the planet at the time - which does have SOME impact.
Yes, very true. Already marginal operations in the oil patch with debt tied to high prices are starting to hurt and folks dependent on them are having hours cut back.
Actually I’d liken the wild swings more like the Tacoma narrows bridge. galloping gertie.
Yeah, QE.. What is it now... XVIII?
When the QE numbers pass the super bowl numbers it is far too late....
[ And in the case of the current US, it has a heart problem.
Soul problem. ]
No I would say the entire abdominal and chest cavity has been scooped out at this point... the brain just hasn’t realized it yet....
We have been hollowed out, literally...
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the US is now a net exporter of energy supplies and refined products. Oil and gas jobs are among the highest paying with greatest opportunities for advancement and entrepreurship. This has been the lone area of actual economic growth in the US economy, as opposed to service jobs or government service.
The industry has employed millions, either in direct E&P (exploration and production) activities or in infrastructure such as steel, rails, pipe, sand, and oil field services, not to mention the spin-off effects of oil and gas revenues being invested in homes, restaurants, hotels, air travel and the like. This will have a dramatic and wide spread effect on the US economy.
Enjoy your cheap gas until your employer announces they have to lay you off.
The tens of millions who were laid off, lost careers, jobs, investments and on and on, when gas was sky high, probably don’t have much sympathy...
Maybe the feds can start 3D printing gold, eh?
So energy prices should only be allowed to go up?
They’re falling now back in line to where they have been longer term.
I watched the volatility and it seemed insane that the market wasn't going to crash (again) a couple years ago. Moved all my stuff into safe, but next to zero interest, areas then and lost a lot by doing so. Still not going back in because I can afford a lack of growth far better than a substantial loss of worth.
The market reminds me of a downed high tension line - when one hits the ground it gives of sparks and flashes and big bangs and it jumps and thrashes like a wounded snake. It' makes me feel like the world really has gone insane and there is no foundation to rest upon - like Alice ...
So energy prices should only be allowed to go up?
That means that deflation will cause a reduction in income and taxes, and taxes are the income of the government, which owes a LOT of money. So if debt remains the same or even increases while income declines, the economy just gets worse and worse until it reaches a tipping point.
I don’t know what that tipping point is.
Individually, if you keep your job and your income, you will do well, but when the tipping point comes (and we may already be feeling the first wave of it) social unrest will have an impact on everyone to one degree or another, depending on where you live.
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