RichH wrote:
But the cost of *inflation will make sure that the $$$ you have are
greatly reduced in purchasing value; plus, the cost of maintenance,
etc. will escalate by the same value % of what you lost in capital

Just wait until Uncle Sam loses his AAA+ bond rating.

Two 'characters' are essentially and primarily responsible for all
this - senate banking and house banking committees.....
simply sat on their dead asses. *The chairmen (Dodd and Frank) of
these committees are leading socialistic members of the US Congress.
This is the 'change' that everyone voted for in 2006; I hope you all
are happy now.

I know you want to say, it, go ahead and get it out of your system...

IT'S ALL CLINTON'S FAULT!!!!

The problems in the insurance & finance sector never really were cured
from the 1987 meltdown under President Reagan. It's been building a
long time; but if the smart bankers like AIG and UBS didn't see it
coming then how do you expect a bunch of dumb politicians? Especially
when most of them are being "lobbied" by the very crooks they are
supposed to be protecting us from.

Dodd & Frank may be "Socialistic," but the "free-market" Republicans
certainly share a lot of the blame... why didn't they do a better job
during the 14 years *they* had a strong majority, hmm???

I think it may be time to build a fence around Washington DC and
simply hang everybody inside from the nearest lamp post. Let God sort
'em out.

DSK

wrote

It's all political name calling at this point but
*http://bigpicture.typepad.com/commen...tory-exem.html
is interesting.


That *is* interesting, thanks.

(brief quote)
"...the events of the past year are not a mere accident, but are the
results of a conscious and willful SEC decision to allow these firms
to legally violate existing net capital rules that, in the past 30
years, had limited broker dealers debt-to-net capital ratio to 12-
to-1.
...... the five that received this special exemption? You won't be
surprised to learn that they were Goldman, Merrill, Lehman, Bear
Stearns, and Morgan Stanley. " (end quote)

I dunno if it's the same with fiscal regulations as it is with
environmental & safety regs, but federal agencies handing out 'get-out-
of-jail-free' cards defeats the whole purpose of regulation. Why
didn't the competing companies call foul, and why didn't our
supposedly free press get the word out? Betcha this was not mentioned
in any of the five's report to their stockholders, either.


To put a sailing bent on it my plan is to go cruising in the
developing world; a place where everyone understands that most folks
are broke.


Good thinking.

I lost enthusiasm for piddling around in the tribal areas, myself...
not as afraid of being knocked on the head as I am of picking up
intestinal parasites or malaria or something. Besides, it's easy to
go to someplace along the swampy south-east US coast where there
aren't any people at all.

As for good boat bargains, the window of opportunity may be rather
short, since the time frame between sellers needing cash deciding to
unload cheap, and sellers needing cash deciding to simply duck out
from under and letting the boat go to pot, may be short

An awful lot of the boats I saw destroyed in pics of Hurricane Ike's
aftermath were obviously not taken care of. Case in point- I would not
buy a boat from the sort of owner who left a roller-furler jib in
place with a hurricane imminent, no matter how good a deal it is. You
just don't know what other sorts of dumbass things he's done with/to
the boat, and those kinds of surprises are usually unpleasant.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

On 18 Sep 2008 09:24:02 -0500, Dave wrote:

On a somewhat impressionistic basis, it seems to me that investment bankers
who own boats generally own power boats.

Have you ever hung out at Larchmont or American YC ? There are a lot
of them sailing dinghys and other one designs for the fun of it.

On Sep 18, 12:54*pm, wrote:
....
I lost enthusiasm for piddling around in the tribal areas, myself...
not as afraid of being knocked on the head as I am of picking up
intestinal parasites or malaria or something. ...

We've had a lot of good experiences in seriously tiny and remote
places, but we've had some _interesting_ talks with our travel doctor,
too. Also, had a good friend pretty much wiped out for years because
of malaria and another on permanent disability because of a horrid
belly bug. And, we hear lots of horror stories. So, I understand your
view on this. We do take some precautions --we epically try to avoid
large population centers in the 3rd world and malaria hot spots-- but
we realize that we are at enhanced risk not just from tropical rot but
from acute medical issues that would be dealt with easily in the
States but will kill you in the bush. In the Pacific Islands we've
been lucky and happy. I'm keeping an open mind about Mexico, but if
it sucks the islands are to leeward!

-- Tom.

The Sea of Cortez is great... pretty much untouched. Just make sure you have
fishing permits aboard. They are really picky about it. We were boarded by
the Navy, and that's all they cared about... I guess there's a poacher
problem.

When are you off?

wrote in message
...
On Sep 18, 12:54 pm, wrote:
....
I lost enthusiasm for piddling around in the tribal areas, myself...
not as afraid of being knocked on the head as I am of picking up
intestinal parasites or malaria or something. ...

We've had a lot of good experiences in seriously tiny and remote
places, but we've had some _interesting_ talks with our travel doctor,
too. Also, had a good friend pretty much wiped out for years because
of malaria and another on permanent disability because of a horrid
belly bug. And, we hear lots of horror stories. So, I understand your
view on this. We do take some precautions --we epically try to avoid
large population centers in the 3rd world and malaria hot spots-- but
we realize that we are at enhanced risk not just from tropical rot but
from acute medical issues that would be dealt with easily in the
States but will kill you in the bush. In the Pacific Islands we've
been lucky and happy. I'm keeping an open mind about Mexico, but if
it sucks the islands are to leeward!

-- Tom.



--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Dave" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:33:15 -0400, Gogarty
said:


I used to write extensively for banking and finance magazines.
Glass/Steagall
is no buzz word.

So how is Gramm-Leach-Bliley responsible for the current mortgage-related
securities problems?


I take the following from a comment on
http://www.newsweek.com/id/159346/page/1.

The Gramm-Leach-Biley Act stripped away the regulations separating banking
from investment companies, insurance companies and mortgage guaranty
companies. Those regulations were added after the Great Depression when it
became obvious that allowing banks to be in bed with the stock market was a
sure way to rig the system to collapse, as it did in 1929.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

Dave wrote:

First, the description of GLB is totally inaccurate. Second, you haven't
explained how GLB is responsible for the current mortgage-related
securities problems.

Well Dave, since you are our resident expert, could you be so kind as to
precis this bill for us?

Cheers
Marty

"Marty" wrote in message
news
Dave wrote:

First, the description of GLB is totally inaccurate. Second, you haven't
explained how GLB is responsible for the current mortgage-related
securities problems.

Well Dave, since you are our resident expert, could you be so kind as to
precis this bill for us?

Cheers
Marty


Yes. He advises regulators, so perhaps he's got a few skeletons in the
closet about the mess.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

On Sep 18, 3:51*pm, "Capt. JG" wrote:
....
When are you off?

Soon? We're planning on following the ha-ha out of SD. They take
off in the 3rd week of October. So, all else being equal we're
looking at arriving SD thenish and departing when the wx looks ok
(with a fishing license). We've still got a steering issue to get
fixed before we take off from here. So, I guess twoish weeks... Or
something else... It's starting to get cold for us tropical types so
I think that will drive us off before all that long anyway.

-- Tom.

On Thu, 18 Sep 2008 20:25:00 -0400, Marty wrote:

Dave wrote:

First, the description of GLB is totally inaccurate. Second, you
haven't explained how GLB is responsible for the current
mortgage-related securities problems.

Well Dave, since you are our resident expert, could you be so kind as to
precis this bill for us?

what's that sound?
oh yeah...it's a deafening silence...
seemed like such a simple question too...
pity...