Rolling US Economy Into The Shitbin Thread

That and selling oil.

Maybe the two could be combined?

I am thinking the porn industry has the only viable business model left.

Not so much.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2001/03/42061

That's from 2001 and outlines a really basic problem that is still around. When was the last time you paid to look at something wank-worthy?

And this is from July:

http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/turns-out-por-1.html

Egad! Shall we be seeing sex workers selling pencils or apples on street corners?

Thing with porn is, the only people making any money in it nowadays are what Al Swearengen would call "specialists". ("Something ya gotta know about specialists – they pay a premium, and they never cause fuckin’ trouble. Sometimes I imagine in my declining years runnin’ a small joint in Manchester, England, catering to specialists exclusive. And to let ‘em know they’re amongst their own, maybe I’ll operate from the corner, hanging upside down like a fuckin’ bat.")

Problem is, like Abbie says on the TMI porn thread, the specialist nowadays are so desensitized that we're getting into areas of specialization that push the boundaries of "community standards" even on the internet.

Off topic, sorry, don't get me started about porn. It's fascinating and extremely problematic.

Egad! Shall we be seeing sex workers selling pencils or apples on street corners?

Well snarked, but how about giving them health care?

OK. If I get some, too.

True enough. I'll be in that line.

Is it ok to admit that I really preferred this thread before USA Today covered it and everybody crashed our little nerd party?

Tom if you've got the most excellent phrase "into the shitbin" into the (cough) msm, isn't it worth it though?

I am thinking the porn industry has the only viable business model left.

― Aimless, Saturday, October 4, 2008 2:32 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest

I said this earlier and I will say it again, the McCains are in control of BOOZE, which has been around since the days of the pharaohs and is going NOWHERE. Plus, the worse things are the more people are going to want to drink. When all the gas is gone from the planet and the stock market is a thing of the past beer will be the most valuable commodity on Earth.

They know what they're doing.

Is it ok to admit that I really preferred this thread before USA Today covered it and everybody crashed our little nerd party?

USA Today covered this thread? link plz

Also way to bring about demise of their Dem-voting enemies: ethanolcarowners vs winobrigade in eternal scarce-resource deathmatch!

OK, stop it stop it, this sketch is getting silly.

xpost

the earlier thread, from 2004

How close is the US economy to collapse?

pre-USA Today

We face extreme danger. Unless there is immediate intervention on every front by all the major powers acting in concert, we risk a disintegration of global finance within days. Nobody will be spared, unless they own gold bars.

UK'sTelegraph brings good cheer

yeah the thread title is starting to feel entirely too parochial.

fun thing will be if/when dow jones tanks monday (on the heels of declines in asia and europe) and angry americans go "hey wtf! we bailed you out!"

USA Today covered this thread? link plz

― abanana, Saturday, October 4, 2008 6:23 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

...

he was referring to the golden age before us morons who read the first section of the newspaper and have no stock holdings stepped in

back when the shitbin was a trifle more prospective than descriptive

do people really have names like Ambrose Evans-Pritchard?

i've only ever heard of e.e., wonder if they're related.

his son apparently. (and an ass, from the sound of it.)

During his time in Washington, his stories often attracted the ire of the Clinton administration, and on Evans-Pritchard's departure from Washington in 1997 a White House aide was quoted in George saying "That's another British invasion we're glad is over. The guy was nothing but a pain in the ass".

I guess being British helps explain the name. I'm kind of fond of rarely encountered saints' names, though.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/05/iceland.creditcrunch

The krona, Iceland's currency, is in freefall and is rated just above those of Zimbabwe and Turkmenistan.

!!!

wow, i wonder when that started (or became noticeable). i was in iceland for the summer and heard nothing about it, and everything was unbelievably expensive.

Dow below 10,000 this morning.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27045699/

that should make cramer's show kinda tricky. how do you go on tv for a half-hour every day and just say "sell everything now!"

won't he be telling everyone to buy next week?

The other time I remember him issuing a "get out now" call was in the fall of 1998 -- he goes into detail about it in his memoir. (Cramer was pretty much one of the first mainstream bloggers, don't you think?) Maybe Mad Money will merge with Antiques Roadshow. I do love the guy.

we gonna die

Good Stiglitz piece on how we got into this mess and how to get out:

Reversal of Fortune
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/11/stiglitz200811

freefall... i am too scared to look at any stocks i own :(

Dow is -28% YTD, brutal

http://www.amazon.com/Dow-2008-Different-This-Time/dp/1893958701 lol

how do you go on tv for a half-hour every day and just say "sell everything now!"

Kramer says: "Sell everything now"

the This american life this week is useful and strangely comforting @ the end

I haven't listened to that yet, but does it include bits of this interview?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2008/10/hear_wamu_banker_bares_soul.html

Because I thought that was excellent. No so much "soul-baring" as just clear and informative. And pants-shittingly scary.

i don't think so -- it's like the big pool of money episode two months ago.

...and i dodn't recall WaMu getting mentioned. I listened to it twice

Oh. Well, that's a good interview, for real.

“Whatever money you may need for the next five years, please take it out of the stock market right now"

well, at least I don't need my 401k for another 20, right? right?

How can you tell how much money you need for the next 5 years, given the unpredictability of inflation rates?

Wait, in the past month or so Kramer has been absolutely dead wrong. Maybe this is good news for the economy?

haha have you only been paying attention to kramer for a month, then?

we gonna die fyi