Return on Investment

That is politicians taking money from the right pocket so it can be stuffed into the left pocket.

It's like Cheney giving no-bid, no-oversight contracts to Halliburton (and its subsidiaries) in Iraq.
.
He knows that, eventually, that money will come back to him.
.
Your 401(k) be damned.

Karen: I've told my mom to stop looking at her statements. She's very upset that her finacial guy never called her. I told her I don't think anyone knows what to do. Hunker down, I guess. Don't want to pull everything out at a loss.

Ruth Ginsberg having pancreatic cancer surgery today. Hopefully found it early enough. Fingers crossed.

Well KT consider yourself lucky -- a lot people are done by 50%. But of course now that we have the McCain stimulus bill we're going to alright right?

oops, done=down

Yes but those same businessman's children will have to pay for all the bailout, which once again points to there being little reason to invest in our childrens futures, clearly they already are failures, I mean look at them, we just found a trillion dollars lieing around and they're already a trillion dollars in debt and some of them haven't even been born yet. So who's really the ones with bad fiscal policy?

KT:
That's only TARP money.
.
What about this money?
.
http://www.geldpress.com/2008/12/bailout-cost-85-trillion/
.
That is 28.8 times as much!

KT, so this is your attempt to jump on 'stimulus is just pork' meme? Did these financial institutions increase their contributions w/ the expectation that they would receive a greater portion of TARP money? Or was it just business as usual? Is it your contention that TARP money should only be given to financial institutions that haven't made political contributions? I tend to get as angry about our blatant pay-to-play government, but that's not what this post is about...is it? This seems like another attempt to turn public opinion against the bill w/ some old time populist outrage.

You are right KT...it gets confusing sometimes. The numbers don't show a correlation between campaign contributions and TARP money received however. If your trying to make the pay to play argument, and I believe you are, then this seems to belie that argument. Normally I'd be right on board w/ you on general principle.
.
"i do love having my economic destiny in the hands of the same people who brought us the time-warner/aol merger."
.
...about as much as I love having my economic destiny is in the hands of the American populace who are being informed by the same people who reported that there were WMDs in Iraq and that Saddam Hussein was involved w/ 9/11.
.

KT:
.
Would you address the other money? Does it make sense to ignore these funds, when they were issued without oversight?

This is TARP, which is different from the stimulus package.
.
And, of course, passed in a big hurry because Paulson and Bernancke told us that the country was going to swirl into the ocean if we didnt' give them all the money they wanted. There was a fight to keep half of it for later, as I recall. And, as I recall, this was all under the BUSH admin.

After all, KT, doesn't it make sense to talk about the elephant behind you instead of just pointing at the mouse scampering across the floor?
.
Or is that elephant on 'relentlessly ignore'...

KT:
jeopardy.wav
jeopardy.wav
jeopardy.wav
jeopardy.wav

"Just a question: Is there ANYTHING that I could post where your answer wouldn't be: THIS IS ALL ABOUT THE MEDIA!!!"

Careful, people might confuse you w/ a media critic talkin' like that! If this country finds itself on the brink of collapse with the media, I'm sure we could do it without you. Could you even make the argument that things would somehow be worse if the media had ceased to exist 8 years ago. No. No you can't.

actually, my 401(k) does appear to have been damned. down 37% last year.
_
I do hope you realize that the increase in the value of your 401(k) in previous years was based on the "smoke and mirrors" financial system, and the funny-money it pumped into the stock market...
_

Just a question: Is there ANYTHING that I could post where your answer wouldn't be: THIS IS ALL ABOUT THE MEDIA!!!
.
Jessica Simpson's weight? No. No, that was the media's fault too.

plukasiak, the prior year increases were not "funny money" for those who moved their 401(k) or other accounts out of funny money central in mid 2007.

Simpson's weight issues are, in particular, a television media phenomenon, since TV adds 10 pounds, right?