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**touchring** · March 16, 2008, 11:33 PM

Re: Is this Black Monday? Pro/contra, live report from the front/sofa generals

In times like this, rumor alone can bring down a bank. We all know who is next.

**Jim Nickerson** · March 16, 2008, 11:35 PM

Re: Is this Black Monday? Pro/contra, live report from the front/sofa generals

Originally posted by touchring View Post

In times like this, rumor alone can bring down a bank. We all know who is next.

I'll be damned if I know who is next? Please apprise us, or at least me.

**World Traveler** · March 17, 2008, 12:58 AM

Marketwatch article: Candidates? "Firms that should be cautious..."

From Marketwatch article:

The death of risk
Commentary: Bear is swallowed and the Street braces for more
By MarketWatch
Last update: 11:11 p.m. EDT March 16, 2008

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The failure of Bear Stearns Cos. ushers in a new era on Wall Street.
For a while, it will be an era of less risk taking, and perhaps, less highs. There will be layoffs and fortunes lost. A new legion of brokerages, the survivors, will become clearinghouses to sort out the damage. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and

JPM) are frontrunners to emerge as the strongest institutions when a recovery eventually begins.

Until then, investors and brokers should be troubled that the government, for all of its good intentions and its backing, still could not save Bear Stearns (BSC).

As the survivors move forward, they will find that even the most generous of government bailout is not a guarantee for survival.

Firms on the edge Citigroup Inc., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, Merrill Lynch & Co must tread cautiously in the days ahead to avoid the confidence freefall that enveloped their competitor..."

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/stor...9C2F61A66BF%7D

**Nervous Drake** · March 17, 2008, 01:27 AM

Re: Is this Black Monday? Pro/contra, live report from the front/sofa generals

.

**krakknisse** · March 17, 2008, 01:57 AM

Re: Is this Black Monday? Pro/contra, live report from the front/sofa generals

Originally posted by Jim Nickerson View Post

So far this is a relatively "nothing" night. 1/21 and 1/22 seemed much more ominous. ... maybe you won't have grandchildren because things will be so bad

Nikkei down 3.7% at closing. Hang Seng -4% now . Gold at 1024, spiked at 1030. EUR/USD at 1.582. Oil WTI spot at 110.21. Looking to be "interesting" at least when markets open in Europe. It still could be "it": the day when the crash/really seriously shitty situation came to be evident to everybody. I subscribe to EJ's "crash is process" meme, but I'd still really like to catch me some falling brokers...

Never, ever give up, ever. Kids are the future. Sooner than you think, you'll be "pining for the fjords", "kicking up daisies" etc. Control over reproduction is the last step in the crushing grip of state power. So keep those kids coming.

**Slimprofits** · March 17, 2008, 03:39 AM

Re: Is this Black Monday? Pro/contra, live report from the front/sofa generals

The $4.00 gasoline barrier has been broken in California.

**Slimprofits** · March 17, 2008, 03:42 AM

Re: Is this Black Monday? Pro/contra, live report from the front/sofa generals

Originally posted by Jim Nickerson View Post

I'll be damned if I know who is next? Please apprise us, or at least me.

Jim, I think that was a joke. An all too perfect one for the internet, where sarcasm is sometimes hard to discern.

- Dan

**Finster** · March 17, 2008, 05:47 AM

Re: Is this Black Monday? Pro/contra, live report from the front/sofa generals

Originally posted by goldisliberty View Post

... The FED is trembling about the "SANCTITY OF THE BANKING SYSTEM," ...

The Fed SHOULD have been "trembling about the sanctity of the banking system" when it was blowing it out 3-4-5 years ago.

**tree** · March 17, 2008, 07:51 AM

Stating the obvious

Sat, March 15: Beware the Ides of March
And then....April is the cruelest month, as well as the most beautiful in Washington, D.C.

**Jeff** · March 17, 2008, 08:10 AM

Re: Is this Black Monday? Pro/contra, live report from the front/sofa generals

I just wanna know if this will be known as Green Monday or The St. Patty's Day Crash of '08?

**Jim Nickerson** · March 17, 2008, 08:26 AM

Re: Is this Black Monday? Pro/contra, live report from the front/sofa generals

Originally posted by krakknisse View Post

Nikkei down 3.7% at closing. Hang Seng -4% now . Gold at 1024, spiked at 1030. EUR/USD at 1.582. Oil WTI spot at 110.21. Looking to be "interesting" at least when markets open in Europe. It still could be "it": the day when the crash/really seriously shitty situation came to be evident to everybody. I subscribe to EJ's "crash is process" meme, but I'd still really like to catch me some falling brokers...

Never, ever give up, ever. Kids are the future. Sooner than you think, you'll be "pining for the fjords", "kicking up daisies" etc. Control over reproduction is the last step in the crushing grip of state power. So keep those kids coming.

I think even as cynical as I am and not having children, I might appreciate the perceived value of women spitting out more and more babies, but when I look at laws--all of which represent attempts at societal control--there are damn few of them that seem to get passed except as reactions to human's inabilities or unwillingness to control things themselves as it usually relates to considerations for the other inhabitants of the society.

Of all the things that could one day curb the population explosion, probably rational decision making on the part of humans causing the population exploration is the one probably totally doomed to fail. Though if people were rational and given a choice between population control through disease, starvation, war, global warming detriment, natural disasters versus curtailing screwing without consideration of the consequences, I expect they would actually start being responsible when it comes to screwing. But that isn't going to happen--the matter of choice. I don't know if the planet will ever experience another depression, but it would take something on that order to come close to forcing people to consider what they are doing when they allow new fetuses to spring up without any consideration for the life to be lived once that bugger sees the light of day.

**krakknisse** · March 17, 2008, 10:49 AM

Re: Is this Black Monday? Pro/contra, live report from the front/sofa generals

So was this another false alarm? DJIA down insignificantly 0.51%, S&P500 -1%. Gold hit 1030 then down to 1000 and now up to 1010. Oil significantly down to 103 (-3%). EUR/USD hit 1.58, now 1.575. Europe red all over, FTSE -2.44%, DAX -3.45%. Red everywhere but DJIA. Beats me why DJIA isn't blood-red - I think everybody excepts a 1 pct cut by the Heli Ben & FOMC. Fun to watch anyway.

**Jim Nickerson** · March 17, 2008, 11:28 AM

Re: Is this Black Monday? Pro/contra, live report from the front/sofa generals

Originally posted by krakknisse View Post

So was this another false alarm? DJIA down insignificantly 0.51%, S&P500 -1%. Gold hit 1030 then down to 1000 and now up to 1010. Oil significantly down to 103 (-3%). EUR/USD hit 1.58, now 1.575. Europe red all over, FTSE -2.44%, DAX -3.45%. Red everywhere but DJIA. Beats me why DJIA isn't blood-red - I think everybody excepts a 1 pct cut by the Heli Ben & FOMC. Fun to watch anyway.

"Fun" was being long and watching the market go down on whatever Monday it was in Oct. 1987.

**Nicolasd** · March 17, 2008, 12:13 PM

Re: Is this Black Monday? Pro/contra, live report from the front/sofa generals

Hej Krakknisse !

FWIW, If you were long on the DJIA since 1999 and have made the purchase by converting EUR , your "investement" would be half of the face value it is today when converting back to EUR.That is not accounting inflation hit either--just in nominal value !

**Verrocchio** · March 17, 2008, 12:18 PM

Re: Is this Black Monday? Pro/contra, live report from the front/sofa generals

Godmorgen, krakknisse. Hope you had some sleep. EJ was right; the crash is a process (slow motion train wreck), not a spectator sport. Still, though, there are moments of high drama, and this period offered some of that. More to come, I should think.