I totally understand how you can make money with them, but at the same time it just sort of blows my mind that non dividend paying stocks have no more intrinsic worth than baseball cards.
I've had that occur to me every now and then for a long time, but I always figured that I was just missing some part of it because the world couldn't possibly be that insane.
Slightly off topic, but I've always wondered about stock like Google. If a stock doesn't pay dividends is there any point in owning it beyond hoping that some sucker will pay more for it than you?
I agree about using the waste heat. This proves effective in many urban areas. On the other hand, the economics of this change a lot when you have a population that's widely dispersed or doesn't live close to the power plant.
Even if it could be done economically can significant thermal losses be avoided with miles of steam/hot water pipes?
I mean, would you accept the availability of low-cost stolen car stereos and GPS-devices as a valid argument for why the electronics manufacturers should lower their prices? Absolutely. Or they could design stereos that are more difficult to steal. Or they could work with police to shut down the markets for stolen goods. But they are competing with stolen goods. Pretending that they aren't doesn't solve the problem.
I have no sympathy for these people and don't believe that the mortgage market should be regulated. That's not really what I was saying at all. I also certainly wouldn't want to bail out stupid financial decisions: it begets more stupid financial decisions and is stealing from people that showed restraint and common sense.
What I am saying is that I don't think we would have seen the poor investment over the past few years if interest rates weren't artificially low. When interest rates were lowered people raised the prices of their homes because buyers only look at their monthly payment, less interest but more principal. Typically, when rates are raised again this trend will reverse itself and real estate will get marginally cheaper.
That's obviously not what happened, though. People saw that the value went up XX% (because of the low interest rates) and bought into that continuing forever. It's completely stupid and greedy, but they always do. So they made it reality by using exotic mortgages that simulated ever ridiculously lower interest rates, even negative interest rates. And then when they reset and had to pay the real market rate for their risky decision, well, you get what we have here today.
What I am saying is that you should consider that interest rate manipulation is actually a really big deal and is at the root of a lot of these problems. Furthermore, these malinvestments end up costing everyone, even people not involved in them.
Well we're all obviously either anti woman or pro baby killing. Of course, they both sound so appealing that I often have trouble deciding which camp I'm in.
The housing bubble was due to greed and bad loans, not interest rate manipulation.
Greed wouldn't have mattered if they couldn't get the loans, and the loans wouldn't have even existed without the interest rate manipulations. When the federal funds rate is low it encourages people to take out loans and do more risky investing. All that money tries to find a home somewhere, and it causes a bubble. It's one of the most predictable aspects of the modern economy.
Blaming the financial problems of the past few years on greed is stupid; it's not as if greed just started showing up in people recently.
I disagreed with the Iraq war from the beginning, but I have to agree with you. What kind of people would we be if we destroyed their country and left it that way? We caused this. It's our responsibility to fix it. We can't just shrug our shoulders and say, "Oh well, we tried." By shirking our responsibility in this disaster, we dishonor the people who've died there. You also don't really need a crystal ball to know that leaving Iraq the way it is will probably seriously bite us in the ass down the line somewhere.
While it would've been nice to not have involved ourselves in Iraq at all, what we need now is a different strategy for fixing what we've broken, not a strategy for cowardly sweeping it under the rug.
This isn't food or medlcal supplies, it's just a stupid game console. If some idiot is willing to spend $1500 on it, why not sell it to him? If there is a human tragedy here, it's that these people are unwilling to wait two or three months in order to save $500-$1000. Gotta have it now! Need instant gratification! Please sell me more crap, I'll buy anything!
I agree with the parent. Having a college education specifically in the field you want to enter can help, but it's not everything. All my hard work in school really didn't get me into a career developing software, as it was the middle of the tech bust. But, I just sat down and started writing software anyway, whatever interested me. I figured that even if I couldn't get a job, they certainly couldn't stop me from programming. Eventually a company noticed me, and it's been totally tits since then.
However, there are some benefits to college that are worth considering:
It costs enough money that you'll likely stick to it even during periods where your interest wanes,
It will get you to learn about things you might not discover on your own,
and you'll feel a lot more confident when you're being interviewed.
Slashdot Mirror
I totally understand how you can make money with them, but at the same time it just sort of blows my mind that non dividend paying stocks have no more intrinsic worth than baseball cards. I've had that occur to me every now and then for a long time, but I always figured that I was just missing some part of it because the world couldn't possibly be that insane.
Slightly off topic, but I've always wondered about stock like Google. If a stock doesn't pay dividends is there any point in owning it beyond hoping that some sucker will pay more for it than you?
I agree about using the waste heat. This proves effective in many urban areas. On the other hand, the economics of this change a lot when you have a population that's widely dispersed or doesn't live close to the power plant. Even if it could be done economically can significant thermal losses be avoided with miles of steam/hot water pipes?
I have no sympathy for these people and don't believe that the mortgage market should be regulated. That's not really what I was saying at all. I also certainly wouldn't want to bail out stupid financial decisions: it begets more stupid financial decisions and is stealing from people that showed restraint and common sense.
What I am saying is that I don't think we would have seen the poor investment over the past few years if interest rates weren't artificially low. When interest rates were lowered people raised the prices of their homes because buyers only look at their monthly payment, less interest but more principal. Typically, when rates are raised again this trend will reverse itself and real estate will get marginally cheaper.
That's obviously not what happened, though. People saw that the value went up XX% (because of the low interest rates) and bought into that continuing forever. It's completely stupid and greedy, but they always do. So they made it reality by using exotic mortgages that simulated ever ridiculously lower interest rates, even negative interest rates. And then when they reset and had to pay the real market rate for their risky decision, well, you get what we have here today.
What I am saying is that you should consider that interest rate manipulation is actually a really big deal and is at the root of a lot of these problems. Furthermore, these malinvestments end up costing everyone, even people not involved in them.
Well we're all obviously either anti woman or pro baby killing. Of course, they both sound so appealing that I often have trouble deciding which camp I'm in.
Greed wouldn't have mattered if they couldn't get the loans, and the loans wouldn't have even existed without the interest rate manipulations. When the federal funds rate is low it encourages people to take out loans and do more risky investing. All that money tries to find a home somewhere, and it causes a bubble. It's one of the most predictable aspects of the modern economy.
Blaming the financial problems of the past few years on greed is stupid; it's not as if greed just started showing up in people recently.
$599 to $399 price drop in 2 months - EXTREMELY BONED
I don't think the type of people who spend $599 on a phone are all that worried about it, though. Not that I'd know...
I disagreed with the Iraq war from the beginning, but I have to agree with you. What kind of people would we be if we destroyed their country and left it that way? We caused this. It's our responsibility to fix it. We can't just shrug our shoulders and say, "Oh well, we tried." By shirking our responsibility in this disaster, we dishonor the people who've died there. You also don't really need a crystal ball to know that leaving Iraq the way it is will probably seriously bite us in the ass down the line somewhere. While it would've been nice to not have involved ourselves in Iraq at all, what we need now is a different strategy for fixing what we've broken, not a strategy for cowardly sweeping it under the rug.
This isn't food or medlcal supplies, it's just a stupid game console. If some idiot is willing to spend $1500 on it, why not sell it to him? If there is a human tragedy here, it's that these people are unwilling to wait two or three months in order to save $500-$1000. Gotta have it now! Need instant gratification! Please sell me more crap, I'll buy anything!
I agree with the parent. Having a college education specifically in the field you want to enter can help, but it's not everything. All my hard work in school really didn't get me into a career developing software, as it was the middle of the tech bust. But, I just sat down and started writing software anyway, whatever interested me. I figured that even if I couldn't get a job, they certainly couldn't stop me from programming. Eventually a company noticed me, and it's been totally tits since then.
However, there are some benefits to college that are worth considering: