What's the scariest investing story of 2008 so far?

roccman

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the government agency that protects the pensions of 44 million workers in case their employers can't (or won't) pay promised benefits, has announced that to avoid going bust it will double the percentage of its portfolio -- to 45% -- that it puts into stocks. An additional 10% will go into alternative investments, including hedge funds.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm...

Hedge funds and stock market ...??
_________________
"There must be a bogeyman; there always is, and it cannot be something as esoteric as "resource depletion." You can't go to war with that." Emersonbiggins

"... hope is a rotten-thighed whore" Niko Kazantzakis

We are going back to roccland - me

Clouseau2

Double or nothing! Waitress, another whiskey, please!

efarmer · Heavy Crude Joined: Mar 17, 2006 Posts: 488

True genius here. If we can also get the Social Security money
tossed in to sweeten the deal we are poised for the next big
bubble ride. First we have to allow people to borrow against
their future Social Security benefits or trade them for stock on
Wall Street. Then we can enjoy:

The SUBPRIME RETIREMENT Bubble!

This is where the folks that walked away from their upside down
mortgage get to crawl away from their upside down retirement.
Now if we can just move the District of Columbia to the Cayman Islands, we're right back in the game!

Remember, if someone tells you the party is over and you still see
any middle class people left. They're lying to you.

Investment tip: Companies that ferry old people to Havana for
medical care.

heroineworshipper

13.4% import price inflation. U ever buy anything that wasn't imported? Savings & loans will get bailed out just like the 80's, but workers R going to be paying $20 for gas and $4000 for rent.
_________________
People first, then things, then dollars.
There will be enslavement, cannibalism, & zombie invasions.

joeltrout · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Sep 19, 2007 Posts: 1317

Buying my house in Feb 2007. Smile

joeltrout

erb

mkwin · Intermediate Crude Joined: Jun 01, 2007 Posts: 596

I read in the paper this evening that 25% of people in the UK are considering a property investment as a way of securing their retirement. If only they knew.

joeltrout · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Sep 19, 2007 Posts: 1317

steam_cannon · Expert Joined: Dec 28, 2006 Posts: 2467 Location: MA

Iaato

Rocc, I think your PBGC double-down story wins for 2008. Since we're on the topic of reverse retirements, I'd like to nominate one for 2009--the rise of the reverse mortgage.

heroineworshipper

Foreign countries won't have the kind of housing deflation that Detroit & Bakersfield R having. Our problem is massive housing inflation & not enough money available to keep up with prices.

Foreign countries have not had nearly the same inflation so their money supply is enough to sustain prices.
_________________
People first, then things, then dollars.
There will be enslavement, cannibalism, & zombie invasions.

billp · TMA 1.65 -1.75 -51.47% Thursday March 6, 2008

New Mexico Thornburg may be a great buy. If you are able to tolerate risk.

ONE New Mexico investment counselor advised in the summer of 2007 that TMA was a good company and a great buy at about $9.00.

SECOND investment counselor phoned to discuss Thornburg options on Thursday March 6, 2008.

We read on internet that an investor bought 20,000 shares at about $3-5.

jato

A good way to blow your investments into our hurting economy:

401k Debit Card

Starvid · Last edited by Starvid on Fri Mar 07, 2008 1:33 pm; edited 1 time in total

It's quite terrifying that a pension company has such a small part of its holding in stocks in the first place!

PS. The very fact that the company mentioned even have yo exist is such a damning indiction of the utter retardation of the US system of "benefits" that I don't even know where to begin.
_________________
Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

Starvid