Anybody Buying Yet? Where’s the Bottom?

[BigHornRam]

Cons gonna con.

Absolutely! Art's where the real money is.

Hunter Biden’s art now sells for up to $225,000 to anonymous buyers despite ethics concerns - Washington Examiner

The artwork of Hunter Biden is now selling for up to $225,000 to anonymous buyers at a new exhibition in Manhattan despite concerns over ethics and the prospect of multiple investigations into President Joe Biden's son. SoHo gallery owner George Berges, who is the art dealer for Hunter Biden...

www.washingtonexaminer.com

 

[SAJ-99]

Absolutely! Art's where the real money is.

Hunter Biden’s art now sells for up to $225,000 to anonymous buyers despite ethics concerns - Washington Examiner

The artwork of Hunter Biden is now selling for up to $225,000 to anonymous buyers at a new exhibition in Manhattan despite concerns over ethics and the prospect of multiple investigations into President Joe Biden's son. SoHo gallery owner George Berges, who is the art dealer for Hunter Biden...

www.washingtonexaminer.com

Yep. Hard to find the bigger idiot in this contest.

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

Absolutely! Art's where the real money is.

Hunter Biden’s art now sells for up to $225,000 to anonymous buyers despite ethics concerns - Washington Examiner

The artwork of Hunter Biden is now selling for up to $225,000 to anonymous buyers at a new exhibition in Manhattan despite concerns over ethics and the prospect of multiple investigations into President Joe Biden's son. SoHo gallery owner George Berges, who is the art dealer for Hunter Biden...

www.washingtonexaminer.com

Indeed...

 

[BigHornRam]

Yep. Hard to find the bigger idiot in this contest.

How about the person that thought this would be a good idea?

Fetterman to appear in Netflix movie starring Christian Bale

John Fetterman makes a cameo in a new Netflix movie starring Christian Bale.

www.wpxi.com

 

[longbow51]

Most of the lifetime pensions I know about in government went the way of the dodo bird 15 years ago. They were generally insolvent. Most Federal government workers now a days have a fairly small pension that needs to be supplemented by a defined contribution plan invested in the stock market like a 401k.

The legend of the lazy ass gubmint worker is generally just that…legend.

I was referencing state employees, who do indeed have lifelong pensions at a high % of their highest income, at least here.

And I know of at least 535 Fed employees who do little or nothing, and they seem to do OK.

 

[rogerthat]

I was referencing state employees, who do indeed have lifelong pensions at a high % of their highest income, at least here.

And I know of at least 535 Fed employees who do little or nothing, and they seem to do OK.

Yeah I know some business owners who do little to nothing and do pretty well too. There’s always a few bad apples in every stereotyping

 

[SAJ-99]

Yeah I know some business owners who do little to nothing and do pretty well too. There’s always a few bad apples in every stereotyping

Bad apples? Most workers I see are doing as little as possible for the check they receive. If they could get paid more for doing less, they would take it.

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

Yeah I know some business owners who do little to nothing and do pretty well too. There’s always a few bad apples in every stereotyping

I know an engineer who did jackshit for 6 months but use his company card to buy expensive dinners, he got fired and then got a check for $300,000 when the company sold 2 months later

 

[rogerthat]

I know an engineer who did jackshit for 6 months but use his company card to buy expensive dinners, he got fired and then got a check for $300,000 when the company sold 2 months later

An engineer not doing jack shit isn’t surprising

 

[Nickman123]

Most of the lifetime pensions I know about in government went the way of the dodo bird 15 years ago. They were generally insolvent. Most Federal government workers now a days have a fairly small pension that needs to be supplemented by a defined contribution plan invested in the stock market like a 401k.

The legend of the lazy ass gubmint worker is generally just that…legend.

Don't want to be salty, but really not sure what you are talking about. Pretty much every Federal employee I know still is getting a guaranteed lifetime pension. As far as state and local, might be different in other states, but here in Commiefornia every government employee from the Governor himself down to the local city dogcatcher is earning a guaranteed lifetime pension.

 

[rogerthat]

Don't want to be salty, but really not sure what you are talking about. Pretty much every Federal employee I know still is getting a guaranteed lifetime pension. As far as state and local, might be different in other states, but here in Commiefornia every government employee from the Governor himself down to the local city dogcatcher is earning a guaranteed lifetime pension.

Federal employees will generally be GS or WG employees. They are the same across the nation. Their pension called the FERS is really small. The state of Montana went away from the types of pensions you mentioned around 2008ish or so. As far as state and local in cali that sure could be. Most of those systems fail long term.

 

[SAJ-99]

Get your new Ford truck now. 1000 more skilled people leaving the workforce because of a stupid math calculation.

1,000 salaried Ford workers retire after pension warning from automaker

Retirement-eligible salaried employees at Ford were warned about retiring this year to maximize a lump sum pension payment.

www.usatoday.com

 

[TOGIE]

Get your new Ford truck now. 1000 more skilled people leaving the workforce because of a stupid math calculation.

1,000 salaried Ford workers retire after pension warning from automaker

Retirement-eligible salaried employees at Ford were warned about retiring this year to maximize a lump sum pension payment.

www.usatoday.com

We’ve probably lost nearly a 1000 years of experience at my org in the last two years for this exact reason

 

[BigHornRam]

Good article. This guy gets it.

The big story on the market downturn: The wealth bubble is popping

The implications are huge for economies, fiscal and monetary policy, investors and savers everywhere.

thehill.com

Rare to hear anyone make this comment. Going to be the biggest negative economic influence going forward IMO.

"Who are the possible losers? Today’s taxpayers, for one, who must pay the higher cost of servicing our very large government debt once real interest rates rise."

 

[SAJ-99]

Good article. This guy gets it.

The big story on the market downturn: The wealth bubble is popping

The implications are huge for economies, fiscal and monetary policy, investors and savers everywhere.

thehill.com

Rare to hear anyone make this comment. Going to be the biggest negative economic influence going forward IMO.

"Who are the possible losers? Today’s taxpayers, for one, who must pay the higher cost of servicing our very large government debt once real interest rates rise."

Strange for an economic think-tank and their top-notched resumes to come to the obvious conclusion that debt is paid for by the tax payer. A person could argue that it was the taxpayers that were the winners too. Remember that tax cut? Taxpayers also get Social Security, higher rates on savings etc. The vast majority is money to ourselves, so yeah, we will have to pay the bill. It is really just an argument on whether we will pay it, or the next generation, or the next, or...well, you get the picture.

 

[BigHornRam]

Strange for an economic think-tank and their top-notched resumes to come to the obvious conclusion that debt is paid for by the tax payer. A person could argue that it was the taxpayers that were the winners too. Remember that tax cut? Taxpayers also get Social Security, higher rates on savings etc. The vast majority is money to ourselves, so yeah, we will have to pay the bill. It is really just an argument on whether we will pay it, or the next generation, or the next, or...well, you get the picture.

You sound kind of cranky SAJ-99. Bad trading day?

 

[jt13]

I got in on one of the last years of guaranteed defined benefit pensions in my state. It pay's 2% per year of service- need minimum of both 25 years of service and 55 years of age (LE early retirement/everyone else is 65). Healthcare is included but only until you reach medicare age.

Using me as an example: At 55 years of age/32 years of service, I'd collect 64% of high average salary for life. We pay in 6.5-9% of our salary into the pension fund annually. Average salary is around $65k, top rate is around $80k. Recently lot's of guys have discovered that they can't retire at 55 even though they are eligible because they cant afford it, most staying on until 60-65, some even longer.

 

[SAJ-99]

You sound kind of cranky SAJ-99. Bad trading day?

Nope. Just standard disdain for economists who don't realize how the real world works outside the model. He complains that asset values are too high versus history, completely ignoring the lack of income growth. Also, 20+yrs ago the group was big on Americans not saving enough for retirement. Americans then started putting money away in retirement (financial assets) or houses (RE assets) thereby creating a "bubble" he is complaining about. The author knows this, just chooses to ignore it. He states a claim about Real rates and inflation that you can see from a previous post I don't think is true. It is flawed to look at inflation today (backward looking) and compare it to bond yields, which are future payments. We don't know if a 1yr bill at a yield of 4.6% is still below inflation because we won't know what that inflation is until Dec 2023. I do know that the Fed stopped buying bonds and the market is back to normal participants trying to predict what the yield should be. The market is pretty good at figuring this stuff out. Economists writing op-eds...well, not so much. I do know the solutions aren't going to be easy.

 

[BigHornRam]

The "bubble" was created with cheap borrowed money.

 

[SAJ-99]

The "bubble" was created with cheap borrowed money.

View attachment 255906

Not really arguing that. I can say there have always been bubbles- Tulip bulbs, South China Sea co, Railroads and Radios, Internet, Housing. And there will be more. I just don't know what the author's point was. He said low rates hurt savers and pushed them into risky assets causing a bubble, but also said they were a group going to get hurt - "Savers, for another, who already have limited ways to diversify to protect their portfolios from decline." My response is WTF!. Pick a lane. You can't have a bubble and then complain people who enjoyed the bubble need to be able to protect their bubble-driven gains.