**Fortis Bank Predicts U.S. Financial Market Meltdown Within Weeks**

I don't know, but my wife's dad owns land in Colorado. my last resort would be to go out there and literally live off the land. they have cows and chickens and a big garden. if I lose my job, i'll go there and ride it out.

noodles_jefferson wrote:

I can't really control what my 403b invests in, it's either high yield or low yield. but if you can manage your money, you should be buying gold. gold will retain it's value and actually go up while the dollar is in a free fall. If i had any expendable income, i would be buying gold and silver...

Well expendable income is something I do not have loads of right now. I"m trying to put as much as possible away in case the agency I work for does have to start laying off. I have been on a few interviews in the past two weeks with pharma firms so hopefully I can land a job with one of them and use some of that saving to start purchasing gold as an investment. That still doesn't ease my concern over my stocks. I currently have about 50K tied up in the market and my good friend, who is also my broker, is telling me to sit tight but my gut intuition is to sell and buy gold.

noodles_jefferson wrote:

I'll tell you one thing. the super rich will be fine. the poor and destitute are way ahead of the curve when the shit hits the fan. when you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose. but they know how to live with next to nothing, they've been doing it for years. It's us that are facing a major culture shock and lifestyle adjustment.

I don't think so. The super rich are rich because they've learned to exploit cheap labor. If the don't have the support of the poor to make their businesses run efficiently, they are fucked. What are they going to do with all their money when it won't buy them anything.

http://www.fortis.com

Not sure if this has anything to do with the post. !st page of a PDF file

Press release
Brussels / Utrecht, 26 June 2008
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR
DISTRIBUTION DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY IN OR INTO THE UNITED
STATES, CANADA, AUSTRALIA OR JAPAN.
Fortis accelerates the execution of its solvency plan
Equity raising of EUR 1.5 billion launched today; proposal for full-year dividend paid
in shares based on full-year profit and no interim dividend
Fortis announces today its intention to accelerate its solvency plan. Fortis confirms that its
current solvency is strong and that the commercial momentum of its businesses remains
resilient. The decision to accelerate the plan is based on the expected outcome in the coming
weeks of the imposed sale of some of the Dutch commercial banking activities under the
European Commission (EC) remedies ruling, the planned acquisition of the remaining 51%
stake in the Dutch insurance joint venture with Delta Lloyd, and anticipates a continued
challenging market environment as well as taking a prudent stance on required capital in the
current environment.
To achieve this acceleration, the Fortis Board of Directors has decided to take additional
measures, some of which will have an immediate impact. These measures include:
• an equity raising of approximately EUR 1.5 billion by means of an accelerated
bookbuilding offering, starting today. This increase is well within the mandate given by
shareholders to the Board to issue new shares
• the decision not to pay an interim 2008 dividend. This will preserve solvency as the
interim dividend was expected to impact second quarter solvency by EUR 1.3 billion. A
proposal to pay the full-year 2008 dividend in shares will be made to the Annual General
Meetings of Shareholders in March 2009.
Current exceptional circumstances necessitate these exceptional measures. The Board of
Directors of Fortis has decided that under the current circumstances it is more prudent to
strengthen the capital base and not pay an interim dividend. Fortis intends to resume its
practice of paying dividend in cash, probably as early as the interim 2009 dividend.
In addition, the updated solvency plan now includes:
• a capital relief programme and a sale and lease-back transaction of real estate, for around
EUR 1.5 billion
• the issuance of non-dilutive capital instruments up to EUR 2 billion
• additional disposals of mature non-core assets, which are expected to lead to a total
solvency uplift of around EUR 2 billion
The updated solvency plan is expected to result in more than EUR 8 billion of additional
solvency in total in the short to medium term. The capital raising of approximately EUR 1.5
billion will broadly offset the future impact on solvency of the EC remedies and the intended
acquisition of the Dutch insurance joint venture. These measures will increase the core Tier 1
ratio of Fortis Bank, which at the end of the first quarter stood at 8.5%, and will –
considering full consolidation of the acquired ABN AMRO assets – enable Fortis to keep the
core Tier 1 ratio well above 6% by year-end 2009 (under Basel I).

mammasan wrote:

Point me to a store that sells any products made in the US. In fact point me to any product, besides cars, motorcycles, or other motorized vehicles, that are made in the US.

and that my friend is the crux of the problem ...

although there are tons of things outside your list that are made locally - like clothes, food products, plates, cups, etc ...

mammasan wrote:

I'm in the opposite situation as you. I work in advertising, most of our clients are financial firms, and I'm looking to leave. I'm still going to stay in advertising but I'm looking to get back into pharmaceutical advertising. It is one of those industries where economic downturns do not affect as much as other areas of advertising. I'm scared shitless of what might happen. I have a pretty decent amount of money tied up in stocks and mutual funds. I have taken a bit of a beating lately but I'm still up from when I first got into the market. I ponder daily wether I should get my money out now or ride this shit storm out.

I am a man of many hats. I was an engineer while at the same time I was a freelance photographer for many newpapers and a few mags. When I was downsized in 05 in Telecom I started working fulltime as a photographer. Well lets say that well dried up pretty quick. Newpapers are cutting everyone so once I saw that market drying up I decided to get myself a job that needed to be done on a daily basis. Now I have been offered by a few Telecoms a position but I was in that industry for 12 years and I know how ficil(sp??) it can be. Do I risk the stability I have now for a bigger payout that most likely will not last as long. As far as my stocks and what not, I am not worried I don't have any real money in anything right now so I am not losing much. For me its a question of stability.

On a side note, where are you in Jersey?

Pacomc79 wrote:

Make the US an attractive haven for industry with a good tax system and a ready made labor force. IE. Bring trade school back into high school. Don't make Vocations seem like bad options. Liberal Arts colleges have done a great job at marketing especially with all the great lottery paid scholarship options but at the end of the day... how is an Art degree really going to get you paid? Hell I majored in Communication and Electronic Media, if I relied completely on that I'd only be making around 12 grand a year unless I was doing more with promotions and advertising but I wanted to be a broadcaster.

Perhaps the standard of living is artificially too high or rather we have simply found ways to increase profitablility that are no longer viable. Sure labor is cheap in china, but fuel costs are now leveling the playing field. The market has changed, same with groceries. In a world where energy costs are high, in season local fruits and veggies become far smarter options than prepackaged frozen dinners or foriegn foods, but the people have to learn to adjust to these changes and adapt.

Tarriffs only hurt the rest of the worlds peoples. I'd rather find ways to make companies want to invest in this country.

you make such a great point about our standard of living. it is artificially high. look at how much crap we buy that we don't need. we work our asses off to afford all the crap we use, most of which is unnecessasy stuff just make to make our convenient lives that much more convenient, to the point that it becomes inconvenient, needing two incomes jsut to get by. fuel costs and insurance rates are artificially high so that the fat cats in those industries can get richer and ricjer. and we keep goign more and more into debt to keep up, spurring the current credit crisis. i suppose it's like consumption bubble or a standard of living bubble that is going to pop and We'll have to simplify big time to get ourselves out if it.

regaerding making our country an attractive haven for businesses, which candidate do you think has the best plan to do this? I've heard Obama mention lowein the corporate tax rate but also closing tax loopholes. sounds nice but i ahven't realyl heard enough specifics from either side, although I imagine they will both be talknig about it a lot more pretty soon if fortis' prediction is correct.

DriftingByTheStorm wrote:

I guess the markets plunged a bit yesterday (dow down 200pts or so, SP down 28).

Remember, Jlew was calling a bottom at DOW 12,800 - 12,600.
DOW is now at 11,160. Thats about 1,500 points lower.

No end is in sight.

US Home Foreclosures DOUBLED AGAIN in June.
I think they doubled in Feb or March, so the is really a QUADRUPLING.

BERNANKE's dumb ass is on TV right now, testifying about how best to INTERVENE in the markets ... about what is needed, what further power is needed for the Fed to save us all.

What a big fucking joke.

:sigh:

Yeah, I saw that. It is disappointing to say the least, but not entirely surprising.

DriftingByTheStorm wrote:

what do you fucking want from me?

i mean,
even when it is in a legitimate news source,
you people give me shit.

sometimes bad things happen.
you may have to deal with it some day.

god forbid, i try and give someone some warning.

guess it is unwanted.

it's all good.
thing is, as others already mention...what to do with this information? sure, people may 'know...but then what? do i really pull all my $$$ out of the stock market at a tremendous loss on a 'what-if'.......or ride it out til things self-correct, as the cycles usually do? beyond that, most have very little control over their jobs, prices, etc. so yes...we can know and it's great to be informed....but yea, that's it?

so no, not unwanted...but sure to some degree most probably don't like to be reminded of things so out of their own control that leaves them feeling rather helpless. it's ominous and sure, rather depressing eh. sure, good idea to try and save up some cash, have a nest egg, etc. my personal nest egg is all invested, so yes...i just hope all can hold on, at least ride out the storm until needed. or, guess i'd take a big hit...that's the gamble, that's life. i sure HOPE we don't have a true depression again, i cannot even imagine...but i am an optimist at heart, so yea.....still hope things won't get THAT bad. and if they do? well we're fucked, most of us anyway, in any case. yikes.