OT: Stock Market Watch, October, '15

[Tony T]

Originally Posted by Louis

I think all you guys crying "the sky is falling" are getting a bit greedy:

Yep, just a blip today. (btw, when the DOW was up 250pts last week, I must have missed that OT Thread )

[fuzzalow]

I agree and I had posted this same view months ago in another thread.

C'mon, can't squeeze blood from a rock - which in so many words is what the Germans want. They are pissed off that they are "funding" the lion's share of these endless bailouts. But they haven't yet come to the conclusion that all the EU will have to write-off their exposure to Greek debt. Not a haircut, a write-off.

The Greeks got a lot to revamp in their society too, lotta tom foolery about tax collection, bloated public sector and pensions.

The EU is a tough nut - single currency but no fiscal coherence or unity between sovereign member states.

[biker72]

Looks like a good "buy" opportunity to me.

[Peter P.]

Buy an index fund and stop trying to beat the market. Most of us don't have the financial backing nor the knowledge to make those hedge fund-like returns.

And don't forget dollar cost averaging, baby!

[Ralph]

I bought some energy stocks today. A bet oil and nat gas prices will be higher toward end of year. A contrarian move. Markets been making new all time highs recently...a mild correction is overdue. Greek problem is a convenient excuse. Nothing new here.

[Tony T]

Originally Posted by biker72

Looks like a good "buy" opportunity to me.

Has been the last 5 times DOW dipped below 18k, but this time, who knows.

[54ny77]

greece contagion?

to me, that's the equivalent of too many in-laws coming over for an unscheduled visit.

[Llewellyn]

Originally Posted by biker72

Looks like a good "buy" opportunity to me.

This

[texbike]

Originally Posted by biker72

Looks like a good "buy" opportunity to me.

Originally Posted by Ralph

I bought some energy stocks today. A bet oil and nat gas prices will be higher toward end of year. A contrarian move. Markets been making new all time highs recently...a mild correction is overdue. Greek problem is a convenient excuse. Nothing new here.

Originally Posted by Llewellyn

This

Exactly! I love these pull-backs. Let people freak out a lttle bit more...

Texbike

[rounder]

I don't know more than anyone else but believe that Greece is responsible for the market decline. I do not believe it is a matter of austerity. I think it is more a matter of belief in the austerity program. To me, if the folks there are not on board with the austerity program or any pother economic rogram, things there are likely to be bad.

[Louis]

VIX (S&P 500 volatility index, aka "the Fear Index")

[goonster]

Originally Posted by fuzzalow

I fear they will not see past their own suffering

It is very easy to see past other people's suffering.

What's the upside to a Yes vote? How is the economy supposed to grow? Where is the light at the end of the tunnel? Any halfway red-blooded American with a pulse and a set of b***s in this scenario would vote No. With a bullet.

In any sort of rational endgame, the creditors take a haircut to stave off default, so why won't they take a hit here?

(Don't bother. I know. I'm German . . . )

[makoti]

Buy. Hold. Sleep easy.

[unterhausen]

Krugman says that the Greeks have to leave. It's going to be a mess

Originally Posted by Krugman

To understand why I say this, you need to realize that most — not all, but most — of what you’ve heard about Greek profligacy and irresponsibility is false. .... If you add up all the austerity measures, they have been more than enough to eliminate the original deficit and turn it into a large surplus.

So why didn’t this happen? Because the Greek economy collapsed, largely as a result of those very austerity measures, dragging revenues down with it.

And this collapse, in turn, had a lot to do with the euro, which trapped Greece in an economic straitjacket. Cases of successful austerity, in which countries rein in deficits without bringing on a depression, typically involve large currency devaluations that make their exports more competitive. This is what happened, for example, in Canada in the 1990s, and to an important extent it’s what happened in Iceland more recently. But Greece, without its own currency, didn’t have that option.

[Louis]

It's super easy to say now, and all economists admit this, but the Euro is clearly flawed given the current political set up in the European Union and the differences between countries.

The only real issue is how long will it take for the Europeans to fix the problems? Or will they let catastrophe after catastrophe fix it for them the hard way? (of course the US is not in a position to teach them any lessons, but at least here something like the issues in Puerto Rico won't threaten to bring down the whole US system)