OK, I'm not an economist or financial advisor, but our roller-coaster, bubble and crash

[raccoon]

economy to me looks...weird. Even more unpredictable than in previous decades.

First it's tech stocks, then it's housing, then it's oil. I wonder if we all should put our money in CD's, just park it there and leave it. Granted you don't get much of a return, but at least you won't lose your shirt.

[Warren Stupidity]

1. Peak oil induced economic turbulence

we are in unchartered territory.

[sendero]

5. Easy money..

.... (artificially low interest rates) coupled with energy induced.

And the Fed just keeps making it worse and worse.

[FreakinDJ]

2. More foreclosures now then the Great Depression

Just wait until the inflation really kicks in. Were in for 1 hell of a ride

[elleng]

3. Soros had it right, I think;

basically, speculators, and we're all subject to such due to communications.

[AngryAmish]

4. You are wrong

People forget virtually everything in economic history. Our brains are at fault. Do you know more money has been lost in various crashes than has ever been made in banking? Yet people open banks all the time. It is stupid but people do it.

[global1]

6. Exactly What I Did With My Retirement Money.......

I told my account mgr that I don't trust *Co and I can't risk seeing all my interest and perhaps principle erode because of these war criminals in office. I told her I'm concerned that before they leave office that they might hit Iran and if that happened we would have even more economic calamity here. So we pulled most all my $'s out of stock funds and parked the money in CD's. At least I will maintain the status quo and not lose. The only fund we purchased was one that has the flexibility to take positions on stocks; sell short; etc - basically able to make moves whether things go down or up. And only put a little $'s at risk. The CD's I parked the money in won't mature until after Jan 09 after the GE and at that time we'll re-evaluate.

*Co is just crazy enough to pull something before the GE and I don't trust them. I can't wait until they are out of office and we return to some sense of normalty here.

[predfan]

7. IMO, in the long haul this oil thing will be a good thing...............lots of short term pain for

the short term, but when the public discovers conservation techniques that aren't nearly as painful as we'd feared............when small cars finally become the norm.......gas usage will drop dramatically....If we had any leadership, the interstate speed limits would be rolled back to 55-60 today , and cut funding to states who refused to follow suit. That'd drop demand by 5-10 % overnight. Real leaders would challenge us to use more mass transit, then set an example for us.

If you ever wondered what a country run by big oil would look like, look around. It would look just like this.

[Kansas Wyatt]

8. It's been a shell-game presented by our Corporate Government...

While the 'New Deal' has been reduced and eliminated over the years, since Nixon.

[HereSince1628]

9. Right now there is a bubble building in food stuffs.

The danger is obviously financial over-extension on the producer side during the boom, followed by loss of actual food production when the system goes bust leaving producers without the means to plant a crop. We saw a precursor of this cycle in the 70s.

[ben_meyers]

10. After the so called "Great" Depression

laws and regulations were put into place to regulate the domestic financial markets. The Glass-Stegal Act was repealed in the banking deregulation act of 1999. Since then large "bubble and bust" swings in the economy have occurred.

Read the Mother Jones article titled "It's the deregulation, stupid"

It's the Deregulation, Stupid

Commentary: Democrats from Carter to Clinton helped roll back the government's regulatory power, but as the economic crisis deepens, "regulation" is no longer such a dirty word.

By James Ridgeway

March 28, 2008

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2008/03/deregulation-economic-crisis.html

And from Streetsmart

http://www.streetsmartreport.com/school/Commentaries/My%202006%20Wish%20for%20the%20U.S.%20Financial%20System.html

[Captain Angry]

11. There is *SO* much money in the global economy now.

With that much more money invested, it can lead to wilder swings as momentum builds up.

In the past, few people had any control over where money went, and the technology didn't allow for things to move too quickly. Billions are bet on fractions of a cent for portions of a second now.

CDs won't protect against inflation rates higher than the CD's interest rate.

The key is, if you're not a financial expert, following it daily, with a true understanding of how to build a portfolio, don't trade on your own. Find a financial adviser you trust and task them with protecting your assets. People lose money because they didn't build a portfolio that can handle a downturn.

If the market drops by 3% in one day, and your portfolio is structured correctly, you should range from a 1% loss to a 1% gain. My portfolio went up yesterday. And when the market goes up 250 points next week, my portfolio will probably go up again. If oil falls, gold falls, other stocks will rise.

There is a methodology. The people that don't know how to structure themselves to avoid losses shouldn't be in the market. These people should have somebody that can demonstrate their ability to protect your portfolio's value in any conditions. But greed enters in. People think that by doing it themselves they don't have to pay higher commissions. When the market goes up for months, everybody's an expert. The true test is what happens in these conditions. Go to an adviser and say can you model how my portfolio would do after an event like September 11th, or the 400 point loss on Friday, etc. That adviser can make suggestions and implement a strategy that will preserve the balance.

If you're content with a 2-5% return from your CDs, awesome. But remember, the bank is using your money to get a better return for themselves.

[safeinOhio]

12. Cash is king

as long as it's not green and says "In God We Trust". Make sure your CDs are, at least, somewhat in other currencies. Australia looks good at the moment. Add some metals and a few good defensive stocks(beer). My best $ advice, do every thing you can to get Obama and other, progressive, Ds elected. Good luck.