Who will win, Obama or McCain?

[Kirkland Laing]

I know i'll probabably get blasted for this, but voting is silly, it's all a big game letting people think they have a voice in the process, so we can't bitch about it down the road. Our votes aren't even counted they are just used to supposidly influence the elec college who is up for grabs not for the people but whoever has the most cash. For example what good does it do at all to be in california and support McCain when this state will never go republican. Look how much of a say we have in their salries, which continue to skyrocket while teachers here in cali are getting laid off due to lack of funds, now here in cali they want to cut pay for state workers to 6.55 an hour less than fast food joints pay like the state employess had anything to do with the budget. People are loosing jobs while politicians are on vacation not loosing a thing. But pay any money you owe them late and go on vacation and see what happens when you get back. Don't hate me just my opinion. Voting is a huge waste of time. It's become a circus, wrestlers, actors and various others in office that have no experience but win elections based on thier name and hype instead of qualifications, you tube debates with people dressed in costumes, paris hilton spifs, tire gauges etc, it's just too much it's a wonder that there are people out there that can look at the whole thing with seriousness at heart, i see no difference between politics and the wwe or f or whatever it's called these days.

As with all elections there's an element of "it doesn't matter who you vote for the government always gets in" and it's certainly no different in America. There'll be very little difference no matter who wins except the Democrats don't have insane economic policies.

It would be great if the campaign coverage featured the actual policies of the two sides but since one side doesn't have anything to offer but negative adverts and the media is too cowed to call them on it that's what we're stuck with.

[Kirkland Laing]

Whoever wins will be inheriting one of the worst problems the US has had in a long, long time. The Iraq quagmire and the worsening economy - feel sorry for the guy. If I were them, I wouldn't be so eager take it... but then, that's how politicians are everywhere, always harboring unsatiable ambition... let 'em have it and eat 'em too.

Seriously, untangling the Iraq web will be the most difficult... but walking away from it will not be the solution as it involves the pride and credibility of the Americans and the well-being of another nation. So here, I'm going with McCain...but as miles said, the man looks pretty old, so the question is will he be able to stand the rigors of the office during these exceptionally tough times? Hmmm...

The economy is another. It was clearly a case of gross mismanagement of the financial sector which up to now, nobody has been held responsible for... (Strange how the western credit agencies scrutinize banks of small countries like ours with a microscope and show absolutely no mercy in giving out their ratings, to utter dissappointment of our banks...but...giving out A+ ratings on their own that were about to go bankrupt. That just not right.) The US will definitely be feeling the effects the crisis for some years to come. At the best, a mild to moderate recession will drag along in the coming years. At the worst...maybe Kirkland Laing can answer that.

My Infallibility tells me that there's a lot more bad news to come. What we're currently facing is always described as a credit crisis but that's bs, it's actually a solvency crisis. The Fed can produce (and are doing) untold billions of new dollars with the click of a mouse so there's no shortage of credit, the financial system is swimming in the stuff. The problem is that no banks want to lend each other money (short-term interbank loans being the oil that lubricates the economy) because they don't know if the other bank will end up insolvent and unable to pay them back. So the system is gummed up right now and everybody is sitting on their hands waiting to see where the bodies are buried before business can get back to normal again (the reason I have 1500 posts since this thing started. )

When the media finally start calling this a solvency crisis we should be getting a rough idea of how bad things are. Probably pretty bad though. Subprime we know about but prime loans (you're going to start hearing a lot about Alt-A loans, mezzanine tranches etc.) are going to start causing problems soon. The banks have trillions of mortgage-backed debt securities that were issued when house prices were much higher. Now that house prices are falling the value of a lot of those securities is falling too. Banks that looked solvent with (say) $200 billion of mortgage-backed securities in the safe are hit by falling house prices and those securities fall to maybe 50-70% of their original value, so all of a sudden they're insolvent ( like Bear Stearns). And house prices will continue to fall for at least another year, so banks that appear to be solvent now are going to go bust as house prices continue to fall.

[Kirkland Laing]

If we left Iraq i'd be like fuckin Mogadishu with regional war lords taking over... C'mon... everyone that thinks we can leave Iraq today or in a year is a fuckin retard.

Iraq is already run by regional warlords. The US is currently fighting and dying to keep them in power. The two main parties in the government are Iranian-backed Islamic fundamentalist groups whose militias are now trained and armed by us and make up the Iraqi secuity forces. A large number of these forces actually fought for Iran against Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war and are still recieving pensions from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. The group the Iraqi Prime Minister Al-Maliki comes from have a long democratic tradition of car bombing, hijacking airliners and notably blowing up the US embassy in Kuwait in 1982. Meanwhile Iran, who controls these groups are pissing themselves laughing at how they've got their greatest enemy to fight and die to hand over to them efective control of the world's second-largest oil reserve and Bush has humiliated and weakened America for all to see in the Middle East. Now they're going to kick the US out so they can take full control of the oil-bearing Shiite part of Iraq, leaving Kurdistan to the two terrorist-harbouring warlords that run it and the Sunni region to Saddam's heirs.

[PRIDE OF BOSTON]

Oh yeah? Well you don't know how McCain really got his arms broken. From jerking all those charlies.

It was probably fighting in a war that all the hippy fucks like yourself and Bill CLinton were running to Canada to get away from their born duty.

(of course the war was un winnable but that is besides the point... the soldiers were ORDERED ther while fucking people spit on them and calling them baby killers)

Careful Killface, you're hitting a nerve... My father recieved 2 purple hearts in Vietnam.

That's funny, PoB. 'Cause you joked, then I joked and you got offended. I didn't say anything about your father and what I wrote was no worse than McCain calling Asian people "gooks". How do you know my father wasn't a Democrat who was slain in the South whilst trying to register blacks to vote? In that case, would not you have offended me just as much as I offended you?

Point taken... I acted like a douchbag...

I drank to much redbull yesterday. You are absolutly correct. I'm not really sure what even set me off. I can admit when I act like a tool though

[Wayne]

It was probably fighting in a war that all the hippy fucks like yourself and Bill CLinton were running to Canada to get away from their born duty.

(of course the war was un winnable but that is besides the point... the soldiers were ORDERED ther while fucking people spit on them and calling them baby killers)

Careful Killface, you're hitting a nerve... My father recieved 2 purple hearts in Vietnam.

That's funny, PoB. 'Cause you joked, then I joked and you got offended. I didn't say anything about your father and what I wrote was no worse than McCain calling Asian people "gooks". How do you know my father wasn't a Democrat who was slain in the South whilst trying to register blacks to vote? In that case, would not you have offended me just as much as I offended you?

Point taken... I acted like a douchbag...

I drank to much redbull yesterday. You are absolutly correct. I'm not really sure what even set me off. I can admit when I act like a tool though

No worries. I respect people who can admit a mistake the most. Now back to John McCain taking it in the can in that tiger cage...

I kid.

[PRIDE OF BOSTON]

That's funny, PoB. 'Cause you joked, then I joked and you got offended. I didn't say anything about your father and what I wrote was no worse than McCain calling Asian people "gooks". How do you know my father wasn't a Democrat who was slain in the South whilst trying to register blacks to vote? In that case, would not you have offended me just as much as I offended you?

Point taken... I acted like a douchbag...

I drank to much redbull yesterday. You are absolutly correct. I'm not really sure what even set me off. I can admit when I act like a tool though

No worries. I respect people who can admit a mistake the most. Now back to John McCain taking it in the can in that tiger cage...

I kid.

You're an asshole

[El Kabong]

It looks like it's going to be Obama unfortunately. What will probably clinch it for him is the economy continuing to go south. Americans will not want another four years of Bush economics come November. It's starting to look like the subprime meltdown was the tip of the iceberg and there'll be plenty more bad news between now and November, although I'm guessing the worst won't become apparent till after the election. But there'll be more than enough problems to sink McCain no matter how dirty his campaign gets over the next few months.

Economy keep going south eh? You're a retard

[Kirkland Laing]

It looks like it's going to be Obama unfortunately. What will probably clinch it for him is the economy continuing to go south. Americans will not want another four years of Bush economics come November. It's starting to look like the subprime meltdown was the tip of the iceberg and there'll be plenty more bad news between now and November, although I'm guessing the worst won't become apparent till after the election. But there'll be more than enough problems to sink McCain no matter how dirty his campaign gets over the next few months.

Economy keep going south eh? You're a retard

You would have thought that by now you'd have begun to recognise the futility of arguing with somebody who is always right about everything but obviously not. Exactly why do you think the economy is doing well?

[El Kabong]

Are we in a reccession Is oil getting more expensive? Is the stock market crashing Is the dollar still falling?


I'm sorry buddy but the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse ain't riding through that door....you're wishing, you're hoping but it's not happening. And WHY you would support a dumbass like Obama is beyond me if it's not written for him to read then he doesn't know a God damn thing! He just told a 7 year old girl "America isn't what it once was and it's not what it could be".....and that's why he got in the race?!?!?! He COULD have said "America is facing new and important challenges and I believe that the solutions I bring to the table will keep the United States as the one shining example of greatness in the world" or something inspirational like that but NOOOOOO he just told a 7 year old her country sucks.....what a fucking jackass!

[pacfan]

Whoever wins will be inheriting one of the worst problems the US has had in a long, long time. The Iraq quagmire and the worsening economy - feel sorry for the guy. If I were them, I wouldn't be so eager take it... but then, that's how politicians are everywhere, always harboring unsatiable ambition... let 'em have it and eat 'em too.

Seriously, untangling the Iraq web will be the most difficult... but walking away from it will not be the solution as it involves the pride and credibility of the Americans and the well-being of another nation. So here, I'm going with McCain...but as miles said, the man looks pretty old, so the question is will he be able to stand the rigors of the office during these exceptionally tough times? Hmmm...

The economy is another. It was clearly a case of gross mismanagement of the financial sector which up to now, nobody has been held responsible for... (Strange how the western credit agencies scrutinize banks of small countries like ours with a microscope and show absolutely no mercy in giving out their ratings, to utter dissappointment of our banks...but...giving out A+ ratings on their own that were about to go bankrupt. That just not right.) The US will definitely be feeling the effects the crisis for some years to come. At the best, a mild to moderate recession will drag along in the coming years. At the worst...maybe Kirkland Laing can answer that.

My Infallibility tells me that there's a lot more bad news to come. What we're currently facing is always described as a credit crisis but that's bs, it's actually a solvency crisis. The Fed can produce (and are doing) untold billions of new dollars with the click of a mouse so there's no shortage of credit, the financial system is swimming in the stuff. The problem is that no banks want to lend each other money (short-term interbank loans being the oil that lubricates the economy) because they don't know if the other bank will end up insolvent and unable to pay them back. So the system is gummed up right now and everybody is sitting on their hands waiting to see where the bodies are buried before business can get back to normal again (the reason I have 1500 posts since this thing started. )

When the media finally start calling this a solvency crisis we should be getting a rough idea of how bad things are. Probably pretty bad though. Subprime we know about but prime loans (you're going to start hearing a lot about Alt-A loans, mezzanine tranches etc.) are going to start causing problems soon. The banks have trillions of mortgage-backed debt securities that were issued when house prices were much higher. Now that house prices are falling the value of a lot of those securities is falling too. Banks that looked solvent with (say) $200 billion of mortgage-backed securities in the safe are hit by falling house prices and those securities fall to maybe 50-70% of their original value, so all of a sudden they're insolvent ( like Bear Stearns). And house prices will continue to fall for at least another year, so banks that appear to be solvent now are going to go bust as house prices continue to fall.

Kirkland never disappoint us, does he? This is as bad as it can be...

Keep your cool, folks.

[Kirkland Laing]

Whoever wins will be inheriting one of the worst problems the US has had in a long, long time. The Iraq quagmire and the worsening economy - feel sorry for the guy. If I were them, I wouldn't be so eager take it... but then, that's how politicians are everywhere, always harboring unsatiable ambition... let 'em have it and eat 'em too.

Seriously, untangling the Iraq web will be the most difficult... but walking away from it will not be the solution as it involves the pride and credibility of the Americans and the well-being of another nation. So here, I'm going with McCain...but as miles said, the man looks pretty old, so the question is will he be able to stand the rigors of the office during these exceptionally tough times? Hmmm...

The economy is another. It was clearly a case of gross mismanagement of the financial sector which up to now, nobody has been held responsible for... (Strange how the western credit agencies scrutinize banks of small countries like ours with a microscope and show absolutely no mercy in giving out their ratings, to utter dissappointment of our banks...but...giving out A+ ratings on their own that were about to go bankrupt. That just not right.) The US will definitely be feeling the effects the crisis for some years to come. At the best, a mild to moderate recession will drag along in the coming years. At the worst...maybe Kirkland Laing can answer that.

My Infallibility tells me that there's a lot more bad news to come. What we're currently facing is always described as a credit crisis but that's bs, it's actually a solvency crisis. The Fed can produce (and are doing) untold billions of new dollars with the click of a mouse so there's no shortage of credit, the financial system is swimming in the stuff. The problem is that no banks want to lend each other money (short-term interbank loans being the oil that lubricates the economy) because they don't know if the other bank will end up insolvent and unable to pay them back. So the system is gummed up right now and everybody is sitting on their hands waiting to see where the bodies are buried before business can get back to normal again (the reason I have 1500 posts since this thing started. )

When the media finally start calling this a solvency crisis we should be getting a rough idea of how bad things are. Probably pretty bad though. Subprime we know about but prime loans (you're going to start hearing a lot about Alt-A loans, mezzanine tranches etc.) are going to start causing problems soon. The banks have trillions of mortgage-backed debt securities that were issued when house prices were much higher. Now that house prices are falling the value of a lot of those securities is falling too. Banks that looked solvent with (say) $200 billion of mortgage-backed securities in the safe are hit by falling house prices and those securities fall to maybe 50-70% of their original value, so all of a sudden they're insolvent ( like Bear Stearns). And house prices will continue to fall for at least another year, so banks that appear to be solvent now are going to go bust as house prices continue to fall.

Kirkland never disappoint us, does he? This is as bad as it can be...

Keep your cool, folks.

That isn't remotely as bad as it can be. That's close to a best-case scenario. If nothing unfortunate happens, we can expect a slow-motion slowdown with a bunch of banks going bust (it's already nearly double figures in terms of bank insolvencies since this started) with the Fed printing huge quantities of dollars to bail everybody out that then cause quite high inflation over the next decade or so. But that's if we're lucky. It's impossible to overstate the stresses on the global financial system right now.

[Kirkland Laing]

Are we in a reccession Is oil getting more expensive? Is the stock market crashing Is the dollar still falling?


I'm sorry buddy but the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse ain't riding through that door....you're wishing, you're hoping but it's not happening. And WHY you would support a dumbass like Obama is beyond me if it's not written for him to read then he doesn't know a God damn thing! He just told a 7 year old girl "America isn't what it once was and it's not what it could be".....and that's why he got in the race?!?!?! He COULD have said "America is facing new and important challenges and I believe that the solutions I bring to the table will keep the United States as the one shining example of greatness in the world" or something inspirational like that but NOOOOOO he just told a 7 year old her country sucks.....what a fucking jackass!

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

And I really hope Obama blows it. I hope we discover he has a secret love child with Osama in October.

[Plopeater]

Just be glad you don't have Gordon Brown

[El Kabong]

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

And I really hope Obama blows it. I hope we discover he has a secret love child with Osama in October.

.....you don't look at the stock market often do you?

Obama is an empty suit much like John Edwards...ever hear him answer questions and decide which side of an argument he's on, you'd think you were in a special ed class.

Wait until the debates Obama is going to look like a fool

[Kirkland Laing]

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

And I really hope Obama blows it. I hope we discover he has a secret love child with Osama in October.

.....you don't look at the stock market often do you?

Obama is an empty suit much like John Edwards...ever hear him answer questions and decide which side of an argument he's on, you'd think you were in a special ed class.

Wait until the debates Obama is going to look like a fool

I've worked in the market for nearly twenty years now. What were you doing in 1991? I started work in the trading room of one of the world's biggest investment banks then. Since then I've had quite a good career, so I'm speaking with a degree of confidence in my ability to know what I'm talking about. You're aware the stock market is down around 20% from its previous high, right?

I really hope Obama screws the debates up but unfortunately it's hard to see how he can be worse than the doddering old elitist guy he's up against :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWX5u...ointsmemo.com/