Wall Street pares losses in volatile trading

Gary wrote:

Here's the scary part of the story.
This country hasn't elected a senator to the presidency since JFK, and he wasn't an outstanding leader, despite what his admirers continue to believe.
Senators don't have to govern! They simply have to consider legislation and vote on it. They don't have to administer the many laws and statutes they vote into being.
Governors and other government types have to actually 'run' their states and do so effectively.
Well, we now are faced with Senator Obama and Senator McCain each vying for the right to live in the White House.
Has either one governed successfully? Does either one know what it's like to administer a budget, work with a legislature, or answer to citizens for their actions?
The answer is NO, and, despite the thin resume McCain sports, Obama's is as thin as any presidential contender ever.
What makes us believe that Obama's mantra of CHANGE is actually change for the better?
We were duped for change a couple of decades ago. His name was Jimmy Carter!

And JFK was the first sitting U.S. Senator to be elected President since Warren G Harding in 1920. Neither Obama or McCain has any executive or governing experience. Although it should be pointed that McCain did command men in the military. But neither ran a company or a state government.

We are still in deep deep trouble. Gas will not go down significantly, food is up, foreclosures loom, banks are on the brink of failure. Funny how this rag of a paper puts some fat guy on the cover. Obesity is hardly a problem when people will be going homeless and hungry soon! Just idiotic!!!

All these conservalists that "believe" in the free market and supply and demand. "We must allow supply and demand to run the markets, unless people demand my supply, then we need to influence the market to make my life easier. Help me government, help me please!" So they demand more drilling, as if the oil companies are going to drill to increase supply and cut their profits! Yeah, corporations don't care if you are liberal or conservative, they are going to extract the maximum profit from each of us, until we buy less. So now people are buying less and oil prices are going down. THAT'S supply and demand you hypocritical socialatives! We can lower prices by using less oil. But you seem to think that's some sort of liberal propaganda. In fact, reducing dependence on oil NOW is the most conservative (and patriotic) concept in the market today.

Bottom line:

You cannot let politicians create money out of thin air and think that it will turn out okay.

Dump anything priced in dollars. This is merely a short-covering rally. You've been warned.

The economy will recover when I tell it to.

Dragon wrote:

<quoted text>
Who do you think you are, talking to people like that? Let's hear you say that to this former 1/Lt of Infantry.
Who is this "us", you speak of, you sure don't speak for me.
I also know something about the services. You say you are a "15" year Navy vet. My question is what happened to the other 5 years, when it takes 20 years to retire. did you just throw those 15 years down the tube, or was there some other reason why you didn't stay in the navy for the full twenty and retirement.
The next time you feel the need to make a post like that, you had better check out who is reading them.
Dragon

If you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you can't see Chuck Norris you may be only seconds away from death.

Daryl wrote:

As long as Obama and the Democrats in Congress oppose the quest for America to become self-sufficient in oil by allowing more drilling and refining, citizens

Uhh, the US will NEVER become self-sufficient in oil (and even if we were - the oil would be sold at MARKET prices).

And oh, btw, I guess it wasn't Republicans - Jeb Bush and Senator Martinez who were AGAINST drilling off the Florida coast.

Or what about Republicans (as well as some Democrats) who were against raising CAFE standards - most of whom now REGRET doing so.

Don't be such a one-sided political hack (btw, I'm a life-long Republican).

PJR wrote:

<quoted text>
The government needs to STOP RESTRICTING THE MARKET.
Get the hell out of the way and let people produce!!

Really?

Even Martin Feldstein, Harvard economist and the "father of Reaganomics" and the Bush tax cuts, has stated that the downfall in the economy due to the sub-prime mess is due in part to DEREGULATION or the lack of supervision by the govt. entities such as the SEC (thanks to Bush).

What do you think the dot.com bubble/crash, ENRON and the real estate bubble/crash all have in common (not to mention the high price of oil)?

DEREGULATION of the commodities markets and the doing away w/ the separation btwn I-banks and brokerages (all of which, btw, Phil Gramm had a role in doing away w/).

When you have unfettered free-markets what you end up w/ is EXCESSES - excesses like the current sub-prime mess which Feldstein thinks is the worst economic disaster since THE DEPRESSION.

With the escalation of food prices world wide and the sharp rise in heating we have all stood back and finally said enough is enough, here in the U K people have actually lost their jobs because they could not afford to fuel their car to get to work, simply because a gallon of petrol ( gas ) is around $12.
Now people walk to the shops if possible or take public transport, quite a few of my friends have purchased electric cars and bikes and have refused to buy gas again or let oil companies hold them to ransom.
Perhaps the oil companies don't actually know it but they have awoken a sleeping giant, because the people of this country will bring the price of oil tumbling by their pure tenacity alone. We will not be held to ransom or pay ridiculas prices for a commodity that is worth around $70- 80 dollars a barrel and we will not stand by and let the speculators of the markets starve and destroy whole societies around the world to satisfy their pure and utter greed for money.
Where people used to shop 5 or 6 times a week they now shop once every two weeks, so their fuel consumption is dropping dramatically this is not just locally but on a national scale.
People have over the Internet arranged longer journeys with car buddies, with up to four persons sharing and bringing down the cost of fuel by three quarters, yes we might be on the ropes but there is a good few rounds left in us yet and we will not relent until the price of oil drops like a stone and you had better bloody believe it!

The economy of the invasive shrub. It is all good for millionaires. For the rest of us, not so much.

What a bunch of panic mongering.

Step back away from that podium and leave this stuff to the professionals. Doubly so when you react like good little parrots.