On 2011-03-29, PrecisionmachinisT wrote:

"Ignoramus7104" wrote in message
...
On 2011-03-28, PrecisionmachinisT wrote:

"Ignoramus7104" wrote in message
...
On 2011-03-28, PrecisionmachinisT
wrote:

"azotic" wrote in message
...
New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Illinois-states that are the
most
heavily reliant on the taxes of the wealthy-are now among those with
the
biggest budget holes.

As they've grown, the incomes of the wealthy have become more
unstable.
Between 2007 and 2008, the incomes of the top-earning 1% fell 16%,
compared


I feel so sorry for them really I do.

FWIW:

My 401K has more than doubled under Obama.

Mine, too.

You should be more thankful to Bush for this, who contributed greatly
to a market panic, which created an opportunity to buy stocks on the
cheap.


NO

Under Bush, my 401K had lost over 2/3 of it's value

Mine did not, because I stayed away from stocks when they were
expensive.


This was a company sponsored 401K, invested in mutual funds--had I known, I
would have withdrawn most of the funds and transferred to a
self-administered program.

Not true.

All company sponsored 401k plans have a money market (stable value) or
other safe option.


--about $100K of it was lost because unbeknownst to me, Bank Of America
had
been unlawfully taking very short term postions on one of my mutual
funds....I recovered a little over $700 as the result of a class action
suit
~ last Aug IIRC

What fund was that? What happened?


Here is a brief mention :

http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/St...&tof =9&frt=2

The actual settlement papers I would have to look around for...

From what I understand, Bank of America was illegally taking short term
positions effectively manipulating the stock prices within the fund.

Would be interesting to read the court filings.

You are trying to look at things from the perspective of an
ideologue. Not really very different from the perspective of right
wingers -- seeing everything through the prism of certain preconceived
notions.

We were losing jobs at a rate of 700,000 a month and the banks had
no money to loan even if they could have found some sucker that
wanted to go further into debt...



I try to see things as they are, without being constrained by a
specific ideology, trying to be a good analyst (and not always
succeeding).


The way I see it, 2 decades of savings went down the drain because somebody
tossed Bush's favorite chew-toy into the brush someplace over in Iraq.

This underscores the riskiness of capital markets (and idiocy of the
republican idea of gambling with Social Security funds).

I did not make an enormous amount of money on the recession, but I did
have a decent positive return, because I actively tried to avoid doing
anything that would be silly in my opinion.

I am well aware that a lot of people lost huge amounts of money, and
to this day, I wonder if I was just lucky.

In any case, having a value based outlook and not going along with the
crowd, seems to prevent major disasters.

IMO you have it backwards---in his second term, Bush oversaw a selling
opportunity which lasted a very long time before finally burstng.

I consider myself a value investor, buy things when they are cheap,
and sell when they are expensive. Listening to Warren Buffett keeps me
out of trouble.

Suggest think extra hard when financial advisors keep telling you "Don't
sell now because the market will surely recover soon".

First, I never, ever, listen to any advisors.

Second, I was buying when the market was going down, and I have no
problem with that. I thought that the prices were quite attractive,
and had no way to know that they would become even more attractive.


But financial instability and inflation that comes from an unbalanced
budget, may easily make "the rich" lose their shirts.

If I was rich, I would certainly root for having a stable budget and
stable financial system.

If *you* were rich, most likely it would be because you are a stingy
ruthless psychotic ******* who despises the poor and enjoys watching the
gap
between the middle and upper classes grow increasingly wider.

But you aren't, and you don't.


I am a stingy psychotic *******, but I do not wish ill to general
categories of people. I would like to be rich some day.

I have no desire to become rich--seen though the eyes of many, I'm already
quite wealthy.

Good for you!

What I do not
do is spend time with excuses on why exactly I cannot be doing
something productive.

One excuse is as good as another--if I don't feel like doing something
productive then it's my perogative...no excuses needed.

This is true, also.

i