The world economy?

[Brendan]

The world markets are all over the place at the minute! How are you reacting to it, and what measures are you taking to protect yourselves against losses?

I am personally still investing in property and cash.. which seems to be a consistent long term performer.

What are some of your predictions for the future, where do you think we should be investing?

[JamesGG]

Hiya,

They say that cash is king; it looks to me as though the king is worth a lot less now than it was a month or so ago. Anyone still calling parity by xmas...?

The world economy is, using technical accounting language, f*cked. I have no idea where the best place to store excess funds might be atm, but in all markets, there are bargains to be found.

I have seen previously that when the sharemarket tanks, investors often like to look at stable asset classes, like property. Falling interest rates, rising rents, and a messy asx, might perhaps point to positive signs in the property market...?

I also think that for the time being, at least, I am fairly safe with my business. Death and taxes, y'know.

But, just random musings at midnight. It's all crystal ball stuff, really.

Cheers

James.

[Slade]

I guess I am just holding my ground, I haven't really changed the way I live or invest at present, and hope not to change and just ride through it.

I think things will get a fair bit worse, credit will be harder to come by, not necessarily more expensive, just harder to get. I beleive inflation will rise with all these banks 'finding' money to pump into the markets, not really sure what impact that is going to have.

I hope the major lenders learn a lot from this brutal bashing they are getting and not to over value assets and things that don't exist!

[Thomas]

I'm not in anything at the moment. Waiting for the market to settle before I start building my long term share portfolio, and still looking for a good bujy in the property market (might give it another 6 months)

[geraldbell]

Please list what indolent behavior the Bush administration indulged in that makes you think the economy is their fault!

The indolent behavior was actually on the part of:

Carter who enacted the community reinvestment act which forced banks to give loans to people who could not otherwise qualify.

Bill Clinton who made the community reinvestment stronger and more powerfull making banks give even more bad loans. Also for appointing Jim Johnson and Franking Raines to run Fannie Mae. They cooked the books paying themselves millions of dollars in bonuses that they were not entitled to.

Acorn for using the community reinvestment act to blackmail and bully banks to give even more bad loans.

The Democrat party and mainstream media two years ago for protecting and lying about what was going on at Frannie Mae to keep Republicans from reforming it and killing their cash cow.

Barney Franks, Pelosi, and Chris Dodd for investigating the problem that they, the Democrat party, and mainstream caused and protected and of course found themselves not responsible for.


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[Carl Taylor]

I'm holding strong, as James said bargains are to be found.

So personally i'm not stopping any investments, i do still and always have felt that business is the safest and most profitable investment however as long as you have the knowledge to make it successful

[geraldbell]

A one world monetary system is coming, for good or bad, and it will be mostly electronic, which is much easier than the cost of printing trillions of dollars, euros, or whatever it is called..



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Software Programming UK (http://www.symtex.co.uk/software-programming/default.aspx)

[moneymagnets]

Well since we moved to Australia the UK doesn't want to give us any more mortgages (not lending to non-residents), and Australia doesn't either (self employed with no tax returns yet), so we're doing share options.

We started trading about 15 months ago so with hindsight we could have picked a better time to start!

However we have learnt a lot and there are bargains to be had as long as you do your research.

Regards,
Karen