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Can We Survive the Next Financial Crisis?

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Re: Can We Survive the Next Financial Crisis?

#231

Post by madengr »

icedchai wrote: post #114
y-c-o-m-b wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. Net worth is an unstable data point and I always view it as a status symbol more than a realistic means of acquiring cash. For example in a market where nobody is willing (or able) to buy your home, your net worth can be ... well, worthless. In a financial crisis it's even worse. Your "on-demand" cash is what's in your checking or savings account. There's no guarantee you'll be able to tap into your home,…

This is why you invest outside of retirement accounts. Your on-demand cash isn't getting much, if any, return. Your home equity and retirement funds are expensive to access.

Though retirement funds are usually exempted from lawsuits. If you are sued for medical debt, they can’t touch your retirement funds.

Re: Can We Survive the Next Financial Crisis?

#232

Post by seanmcdirmid »

y-c-o-m-b wrote: post #136
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what state can debtees garnish debtor wages? To my knowledge, only the government has that power, and only uses for taxes or child support reasons.

Any creditor can garnish wages by taking you to court. There are state and federal limits to how much they can garnish though. Here is a law office that deals specifically with this: http://georgettemillerlaw.com/can-hospitals-garnish-my-wages...

Thanks. I’ve never heard of this before. When my parents went through bankruptcy, it never reached that point, I guess.

Re: Can We Survive the Next Financial Crisis?

#233

Post by cliffordthedog »

headmelted wrote: post #146
gascan wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the idea that you can get sick one time and be financially ruined is still astonishing to me. FWIW I'm not aware of many people who come down with a cold and are financially ruined. The people I know who are in crippling medical debt have, for example, had both kidneys replaced. While I'm not happy they are in those circumstances, it's not hard to picture two replacement kidneys and all the other treatments involved…

Still though (and correct me if I'm wrong), but if you get sick tomorrow with some ailment for which treatment is complex (and therefore expensive) AND you don't have insurance - your options are to find the money or go bankrupt? That's nuts in 2018 in a wealthy democracy.

Nah, you can also just die.

Re: Can We Survive the Next Financial Crisis?

#234

Post by AnimalMuppet »

nonbel wrote: post #229
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's not controversial. However, it also doesn't seem to respond to anything chimeracoder said. You sound like you think you're arguing with chimeracoder, but I don't see which point you're responding to.

From a few posts up: >"This is backwards. Inflation destroys the value of debt. Poor tend to be borrowers and rich tend to be lenders, so inflation is an equalizer." chimeracoder seemed to be agreeing with this "equalizer" position by saying: >"Ceteris paribus, inflation hurts debtholders (who, incidentally, tend to be wealthy), and it helps debtors (who, incidentally, tend to be poorer)."

All true. But I fail to see how your point about raises happening after price increases refutes the point that inflation destroys (reduces) the value of debt.

Now, true, if you're a worker who owes money, and inflation kills your cash flow (because raises come later than price increases), it may not matter to you that the value of your debt decreased, because the cash flow problem is going to bankrupt you before the debt erosion helps you. But it's still a separate effect.

Re: Can We Survive the Next Financial Crisis?

#235

Post by wrycoder »

gdubs wrote: post #206
briatx wrote: post #38

Yes. The lesson of 2008-9 is that TBTF and bailouts will be applied in case of any financial crisis. Not much has been done to rein in moral hazard and so institutions will continue to offload risk to the public when they can. This works as long as the Treasury and Fed can absorb the shock and will create near term stability, at the potential cost of a currency crisis if the shock is too big to be absorbed.

Part of the story of 2008-9 was that congress nearly didn't act, with Paulson famously getting down on bended knee to beg Pelosi to whip the necessary votes. The government has the capacity to act – but there's no guarantee that they'll make the correct choices in a timely manner.

I'm pretty sure that Hank was part of the decision to let Lehman go, so he knew he screwed up.

Re: Can We Survive the Next Financial Crisis?

#236

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

camjohnson26 wrote: post #110
airstrike wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> famous for shorting the housing market before the bubble burst Also famous for losing more than $3 billion (or $7.7 million per day) on Valeant http://fortune.com/2017/03/15/valeant-stock-bill-ackman/

Famous for taking big risks that sometimes pay out and sometimes fail dramatically.

Taking big risks is only laudable if you win.

https://assets.pershingsquareholdings.com/media/2014/09/1712...

Oof. Up 1% over a time period where the S&P is up 118%. Brutal.

Re: Can We Survive the Next Financial Crisis?

#237

Post by yborg »

wrycoder wrote: post #235
gdubs wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of the story of 2008-9 was that congress nearly didn't act, with Paulson famously getting down on bended knee to beg Pelosi to whip the necessary votes. The government has the capacity to act – but there's no guarantee that they'll make the correct choices in a timely manner.

I'm pretty sure that Hank was part of the decision to let Lehman go, so he knew he screwed up.

That was just GS thinning out the competition.

Re: Can We Survive the Next Financial Crisis?

#238

Post by gruez »

adreamingsoul wrote: post #199

Just my opinion, but... Our survival depends on local farms and businesses that are able to produce real value for people. I define "real value" as resources having the ability to be bought, sold, and traded for other resources. For example, one hour of labor is worth X pounds of produce from a local farmer. Our culture has too much of a dependence on global supply chains that will become increasingly expensive and s…

>Our survival depends on local farms and businesses that are able to produce real value for people.

"real value" - that's a vague term. can you expand on that more? how does $6/lb (random guess at the price) bananas from california , provide more "real value" than $0.4/lb bananas from central america?

>Our culture has too much of a dependence on global supply chains that will become increasingly expensive and scarce in the coming years.

so globalized stuff is going to get more and more expensive, relative to more local stuff. isn't that supposed to be good, given how much you like local goods?

Re: Can We Survive the Next Financial Crisis?

#239

Post by marktangotango »

smidgeoncoup wrote: post #211
dc_gregory wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With what money?

any consumer rights attorney will take debt collector abuse cases on contingency - 40% cut. Abuse is so rampant (at least it was after the last financial crisis) it literally is like playing whack-a-mole for $1k/pop for every violation. A collector that repeatedly called my place of employment after being told I couldn't accept calls there, and threatened jail time, was forced to pay me $10k to me for their violation…

Very interesting indeed, have you written about this anywhere I can read more?

Re: Can We Survive the Next Financial Crisis?

#240

Post by pjmorris »

noobermin wrote: post #126
craftyguy wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The surprise that is coming is that the working class won't tolerate being robbed in the next financial crisis. If that's true, then why is the current government working hard to remove any protection (however meager it is/was) to prevent the same mistakes from happening all over again? If the working class has no tolerance for these things, then it definitely isn't reflected in the people the working class has ele…

The working poor did not vote for Trump more than they didn't vote. But even if you break down the vote by income, more wealthy folk voted for Trump and poorer people voted for Clinton, but more importantly, most of them didn't vote because they reckoned that neither choice affected them. I never understood this argument that poor people voted in Trump especially because it does square with exit poll data. I do think…

Could you provide some citations for your claims (e.g. 'poorer people voted for Clinton')? If you do, I'll go look up my old sources. It's been awhile, but I came away with the impression that economic hardship was one of the drivers behind the election result.
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