[travelstiles]

In Today's Headlines:
Tue, July 15, 2008

Reuters - Bernanke, Paulson Say Stability Critical Goal Amid 'Difficulties' - Bernanke and Paulson said stability remains a top priority in separate remarks before the Senate Banking Committee. The Fed chairman highlighted the "numerous difficulties" the economy faces, adding that the inflation outlook is "unusually uncertain." 2:38 p.m. WSJ
...
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Weak retail sales and a rise in producer prices at their highest annual rate in 27 years provided further evidence of "stagflation" in the U.S. economy on Tuesday.
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LOS ANGELES - Police ordered angry customers lined up outside an IndyMac Bank branch to remain calm or face arrest Tuesday as they tried to pull their money on the second day of the failed institution's federal takeover
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DETROIT - General Motors Corp. said Tuesday it will lay off salaried workers, cut truck production, suspend its dividend and borrow $2 billion to $3 billion to weather a severe downturn in the U.S. market.
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I find today's headlines to be very disturbing. For example, GM's "cost cutting" strategy. Today's announcement by the Chairman of GM, states that their plans include the following:

-Reducing U.S. and Canada salaried headcount in 2008
-Beginning in 2009, eliminating health care coverage for U.S. salaried retirees over 65, partially offset by pension increases

http://media.gm.com/servlet/GatewayS...74&docid=47124

Because GM focused on short-term profits from SUV and truck sales, retiree benefits are now being cut. While GM is closing plants, Toyota is converting their truck plants in the US to small vehicle manufacturing facilities.

I fear we are becoming too short-sighted as a nation, with an unhealthy focus on immediate gratification that is jeopardizing our future. For shareholders, short-term profit, the next earnings reports and not the long-term, big picture.

Unfortunately some people do not realize (or maybe care) what is happening till it hits home. I truly feel badly for the GM retirees who will be effected by these cost cuts.

[Boomer]

Travel,

I run in and out of TOTV when I am at home. The kitchen computer thing. And I can sashay around here and look for some place to land and have a little fast fun. Smile and move on.

But I gotta tellya, Travel. There is more to me than just that. And that part is not smiling. That part is in white hot terror over this economy. I am a financial conservative. I have always been a fan of business. And I would not be retired unless I thought I had figured out how to retire.

For many years, I have had a fascination with how it all works.

A few weeks ago, I started a thread that did not go far. The thread was titled "Et tu, Budweiser?" and sure enough, it looks like the deal is going through. And it is making me sick. BUD to Belgium. I don't own any BUD, except in the refrigerator. But I am an American.

Somewhere on here, when writing about the housing mess and telling little stories about it, I used the quote, "Unrestrained greed is not only bad morals, it's bad economics." I don't know who said it, but it is blindingly true in our country today. And I am afraid it will still be true tomorrow and tomorrow.

I used to yell at Alan Greenspan when he was on television. I do stuff like that. You know, like people yell at refs and umpires, through the screen.

I would yell, "Alan, what are you thinkin'? Have you never heard of having to carry money to the store in a bushel basket to buy bread? Stop giving it away. Get a grip. You are rendering our money worthless."

But in the beginning, Alan G. was one of those men that I shamelessly loved from afar. But I broke up with him so fast when he kept lowering that rate to the point of ridiculous. Easy money. Not much reg. Yeah, a brilliant guy. I know that. He used to party with Ayn Rand. Maybe he should have been partying with Boomer. Or maybe he should have just stuck with the saxophone.

I think I did an old thing long ago here called, "Will Bernanke see his shadow today when he comes out of his hole?"

Oh I know. I know. The Fed fears inflation. I was around in the Carter years. I was young, but I was saving my daughter's college money in those 17% CD's. And I knew that was not right either.

Oh, what do I know. I am here in my kitchen in one of the most conservatively invested cities in the US. I hope I never wake up some morning to a headline that makes me start another thread that I call "Et tu, P&G."

So anyway. Enough from me. For now. But I just had to jump in it. If the admins ever start a forum on here called "Talk of the Money" I am toast. I will never get up off this exercise ball that I use for a desk chair.

Boomer, On the Money

And that's only the first chapter.

[gfmucci]

This old quote comes to mind...

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury."

Alexis de Tocqueville

Loose morals; loose fiscal discipline: they go hand in hand.

[samhass]

What does Alexis say about a Republic?

[travelstiles]

Back to the GM post - a question:
What would you do if your health benefits were cut? Do you feel you have enough financial resources to cover your health care needs (before and after eligibility for Medicare), go back to work? I, for one, could not have retired when I did (I'm 54) if my husband did not have a good retiree health plan.
Will we be forced by employee benefit cuts such as those at GM to increase federal and state spending for increased health care? Do you feel that in their quest for shareholder returns that corporations are in fact driving us to socialized medicine?
Something to think about before the election as well...

[Boomer]

Travel,

:edit: :edit: :edit:

I really have to get out of this kitchen today. Do you have a club that talks about this stuff there? If so, I may have to come down there just for the meetings.

Now, I have to tell a little story.

Remember Hercules and all those tasks he had to perform Remember the Hydra. It was a monster. He had to cut off its head. So he took his sword and he cut off the Hydra's vicious head. And the Hydra grew two heads in the place of one. Herc cut off both heads. And then there were four. You get the drift.

Anyway, finally old Herc heated up his sword. And when he cut off all those heads with that hot sword, none could ever grow back. It was kind of a mythological cauterization process so to speak. A healing.

When I am not ranting about the econ mess, I am ranting about healthcare. It all runs together. Mr. B and I retired because we have access to good coverage. Had we not, we would have not been able to retire. But it costs more every year and we are out here slouching toward Medicare. But we have a way to go. Early retirement. We took a chance. No regrets so far. But we know that those big companies can always drop the other shoe. Headline news. We will see how it goes. We took a chance. We knew it. The rest of it we could pretty much financially predict. Affordable healthcare access is the unknown in the equation. Here today. Gone tomorrow?

I hate it when people take the "I got mine. Too bad ya don't got yours" attitude about healthcare. We are in it together. Got it or not. And all of it is precarious. To say the least.

Socialized Medicine? The battle cry. To distract the masses. To stay in power while offering no solutions.

The people I know who are sweating this do not want socialized medicine. My friends are not looking for a free ride. They are just looking for access. They just want to be able to buy a ticket to ride. To not be stuck trying to retire with some lame individual plan. Only to have it become cost prohibitive if they get sick. Really sick. It happens. Maybe not to everybody. But it happens.

Small business owners trying to retire often get hit really hard. So often they have no access to retiree healthcare that is not cost prohibitive. The ultimate American Dreamer. The small business owner is really hurting sometimes when it comes to access to a good healthcare plan. Affordable access.

And those I know who are trying to retire from state jobs are finding out that maybe they can afford to cover their own plan, but those spousal plans are skyrocketing. Half of a couple might have to just keep slouching toward Medicare.

And I really have to stop now. And I do not know what to do anyway. About any of this mess. Because nobody has any answers. And it was my party and I will cry if I want to. And I don't know where to turn in November. And I see so many who want to believe. But I am a bit jaded, And I have nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. And I keep talking in song lyrics this morning. And I really have to leave. And I need to ask Mr. Boomer to disembowel my computer. Just for awhile.

But before I leave, back to Hercules and those labors of his. Maybe we need to heat up our swords. And cut off a few heads. Permanently. Term limitations come to mind. But they would have to vote that in for themselves wouldn't they? A hydra-headed monster.

And while we are reminiscing, well I am anyway, about Hercules, we can recall another of his labors.

He needed to clean out the Aegean Stables.

Years and years of you know what. Piles and piles of that stinking mess. Thick with flies.

Herc had to change the course of a river to get those stables cleaned out. It may have been two rivers. But poor Herc. If he tried to help us today, he would just get into trouble for being so ungreen.

So anyway. Not only am I digressing this morning. I am alluding. And the speaking in song lyrics really must stop. At least all of you know the same songs. And I really need to hit the road. And I have no answers. So if anybody figures it out, let me know. Because I am in white hot terror.

Boomer, The Other Side of Boomer, Chapter 2

[graciegirl]

Boom.

If you didn't teach math or economics somewhere, I will eat my hat.

I will never know who you are Boom. Never.

You are so smart and when you write, I agree with everything you say...except I didn't get title insurance.

I am getting crazy in my old age.

Boom. WHO are you?

Your devoted friend and fellow Buckeye and fellow Cincinnati-ite,

GG

[Sidney Lanier]

Quite a long time ago I went through a period without useful health coverage, and those were scary times. Later I was involved with a small group of people bringing the Hospice movement into our rural area in NYS, worked as a volunteer on the 'front lines' with terminally ill people and their families, and learned the horrors of facing serious and terminal health issues either without health coverage or being traumatized and being taken advantage of by insurance companies. At what time are people least equipped to handle the bureaucracy and denials as when they are dying (or someone in their household is)?

Originally Posted by Boomer BeBack

I hate it when people take the "I got mine. Too bad ya don't got yours" attitude about healthcare. We are in it together. Got it or not. And all of it is precarious. To say the least.

Boy, isn't this the truth, Boomer! I hate to generalize, whether it's about health care or the price of gas and heating oil or any other issue that's both social and economic, we tend to bury our heads in the sand, that is, until it affects us personally. Reminds me of the minister in Germany during WWII (can't remember the quote exactly) that as the Nazis came for this group and then that group and then the other group, he didn't speak up as he wasn't a member of any of those groups, and when they came for him, there was no one left to speak up....

Travel makes a thoughtful point--if we're willing to think about it! That is, what's happening out there will assuredly affect us in here, even if it's not direct at first, and any attempt to deny it and pretend that everything's hunky dory because "we worked hard all our lives and we deserve it" will only come back to haunt us:

Originally Posted by travel

What would you do if your health benefits were cut? Do you feel you have enough financial resources to cover your health care needs (before and after eligibility for Medicare).... Will we be forced by employee benefit cuts such as those at GM to increase federal and state spending for increased health care? Do you feel that in their quest for shareholder returns that corporations are in fact driving us to socialized medicine? Something to think about....

We have a close friend who's been through the ups and downs of being a businessperson, sometimes working for others and most of the time creating his own businesses, and he maintains that these things always run in cycles, that if the reports are such that, say, the economy is in the toilet, now things can only get better. Maybe this is true, but as I suggested to him, it may be a good thing to have lacked a crystal ball at the beginning of the Great Depression just how long that cycle would take--how many people wouldn't even live to see the end of it--and how many people lived with lasting effects of it for years afterwards....

Call me a pessimist if you wish (and personally I am not; those who know my personal life and what I've lived through know this), but until 'the cycle' reverses itself, we're in deep excrement, IMHO....