JPF Home Page Forums Stop The Bailout

Both parties are again to blame for nothing passing, or in my opinion, both deserve CREDIT for not passing it. But here's the worst possible thing... the hit has been taken for not passing it... we're all still here... if they pass it now, we'll get the worst of both worlds. And guess what will likely happen? They'll pass something... meaning we get hit from both sides.

The market has been artificially inflated for a very long time. It needed to be reset. I am guessing it's not done yet. Apple is a great example.. it's stock was not worth 175 dollars, even with the enormous success it has had. That higher number was always based on "potential" rather than reality. We need a market that has more to do with some reality going forward. Then you can find legitimately well run companies to invest in, not pie in the sky get rich quick companies.

We've lost over 75% of the value of our own stocks. BUT.. in all cases, we're still above what we paid for them all. Even with a 75% sell off, they are still fundamentally sound companies and all we lost was the funny money speculation that was built into the market. It sucks because that money was going to help fund some JPF stuff (our success in the market has been part of how we've funded it all along) but it has always been a little like playing Vegas. The difference here is that we made those choices, whereas these special interest whore politicians from both parties have let OTHER people make all the decisions for US.

People said that AIG had 1 trillion dollars worth of assets. They didn't need a bailout. They needed to sell off their stuff to pay their much lower debt. That's what assets are for. They could have paid off everything and still been totally solvent, but far less bloated. But that wasn't allowed. It's like a person with 5 houses, 10 cars and a jet going into serious debt but being unwilling to sell off half the cars and houses and rent the jet out to get out of debt.... they want to keep it ALL... we should have let them pay their bills just like all private interests must do.

Like Mike Dunbar, we have no debt other than our house which has a fixed rate mortgage. I hope folks going forward will make it their mission to do the same. We don't spend money unless we have it in hand. We have a little money saved for emergency expenses and we have a plan on what to do if that isn't enough. We've even been looking at finding a small piece of property somewhere where we can build a small house that is paid in full so we have to worry even less about about happens to markets and banks etc. It might be time for others to do the same. Don't buy computers and XBox's and new cars and giant TV's until you have the cash to pay for them in hand. If we all did that, none of us would be as affected by what the politicians are doing right now nearly as much. The other side of this is that in the market, when it bottoms out, the REAL companies that are solid will be priced where they should be for a change and with a little money invested in them, it can still grow.

Brian