Asked at Massachusetts Street on March 1, 2007

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“No, it will go back up. The market naturally fluctuates.”

— Ellen Casagrande, school administrator, Lawrence

“Yes, I am actually, because I do have stocks that are declining right now.”

— Chris Braden, network operations technician, Lawrence

“Yeah. It got my attention, but I’m going to keep my money in and ride it out.”

— Vickie Hane, school secretary, Topeka

“No. I didn’t even know about it, so I guess I can’t be too concerned.”

— James Hogwood, writer, Lawrence

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Isn't it odd how China can shake up america without launching a missle? Yet our debt to China continues to escalate at machine gun rapidity. Internet lines were overloaded and running quite slow that day.

bytheway 8 years ago

Currently Ben Bernanke is the chairman says the markets are working well. Hopefully he is right since we just had a third day of trouble in Asia. They better hope it is going to get better. Personally, I have stock so I am a little afraid to check it out. Knowing how the markets work, they will eventually go back up. I would be worried about a recession. I think one is going to happen anyways if there is an increase in the minimum wage. I think a minimum wage increase is good but it will probably cause inflation. Things to be seen. It could get interesting.

trinity 8 years ago

i don't know enough about it to know if i should be frightened or not.

but katie horner sure did whip me into a frenzy last night; had a hard time un-crouching from my fetal position covered in heavy blankets in the middle of my trailer with my winter coat&HELMET on. :)

imastinker 8 years ago

The marked hasn't naturally fluctuated like this since the 40's. This is a big fluctuation.

I'm not nervous because of this, but what caused tis. China's economy is in bad shape right now, and Alan Greenspan is issuing warnings about a recession. That's a BIG deal there.

thomgreen 8 years ago

I agree with imastinker, Alan Greenspan is retired, yet a day after he remarked that we're heading for a recession (maybe I'm wrong, but I thought he meant the U.S. was headed for a recession), the stock market takes a dump. I know he's aware of the power his comments carry, was this a calculated move? Sorry, don't mean to get all conspiracy theory on here. Just a thought, that is all.

jonas 8 years ago

Too true.

sgtwolverine 8 years ago

Is there snow on it? Can I ski on it? If not, then no, I suppose I'm not concerned about it.

paladin 8 years ago

Its very frightening and prophetic that the US economy takes its cues from China. They have been, and possibly have, gained control of the economic fate of the US. The indisputable benefits of slave labor cannot be countered except, perhaps, with slave labor. When you lie down with dogs. Life, as we have known it, appears to have a short and bleak future. You can thank your selected representatives in government and the corporate moguls and other holders of real wealth for that. Not that they care much about your fate.

jonas 8 years ago

Has anyone mentioned yet that this is like, totally Bush's fault? He's obviously been seeking the death of middle-America for so long now, but this is the first obvious move of his to indenture the middle class to the rich.

Flap Doodle 8 years ago

Today is also the birthday of Roger Daltrey. The lad turns 63.

trinity 8 years ago

hah, thankfully no headphones were needed. no, instead i sat on my couch in my trailer with the sirens blaring&katie in a state of near panic, laughing my fool head off when she recommended grabbing the bike helmets to wear. i know it's irreverant-sorry R_I, lol-but damn, couldn't help but get a mental picture of a lil' family huddled in the basement shelter; momma, daddy, two toddlers&a baby-all decked out in winter coats&helmets. sigh gotta love kansas! ;)

jonas 8 years ago

"Posted by right_thinker (anonymous) on March 1, 2007 at 8:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Has anyone mentioned yet that when it approached 13000 is was like, totally Bush's fault?"

How could Bush have anything to do with THAT?! That's a positive development. Bush can't produce a positive development. It's unpossible!

Linda Aikins 8 years ago

The market naturally flatuates? That stinks!!

Our financial guy moved a big chunk of our money out of stock last month. He gets a reward!

TOB, what is the SLR Liberty hall show about?

Linda Aikins 8 years ago

Oh wait - flatulates. Sgt, proofreader alert!!!

50YearResident 8 years ago

The market is down another 167 points right now! This is Bush's idea of "The economy is great". As long oil prices stay up he thinks things are going well.

For people that are retired with 401K plans, 10% of thier retirement savings have just vanished.

Bush wants everyone to put thier SS Money in the market. Then we can all be broke.

GREAT JOB Mr. President. This is the third time on your watch.

average 8 years ago

Shrug. It's all a bunch of meaningless numbers. A dollar isn't anything but a fervent hope that the Fed won't print 500 trillion of them tomorrow. How many dollars are out there? The Fed stopped keeping track (at least officially) last year.

An "economy" is trading promises that "I'll give you more tomorrow than you gave me today". But, the planet is finite. The Providence-given natural resources of the earth are severely stretched (whether oil and gas or the earth's fertility), and further extraction for growth will eventually fail.

jonas 8 years ago

O-Bob: /pouting

http://static.flickr.com/27/57720234_8032264c80_m.jpg

Linda Endicott 8 years ago

I don't own stock, so no, it didn't worry me. It was interesting to watch the chickens running around in a panic on TV, though.

Hey, guys, why all the flak toward Katie? It was the weather service that issued the tornado warnings, you know...she only reported it. And gee, she wasn't the only one on TV to do that, either...did you also tape up pics of Mike Thompson and Gary Lezak while you were at it? They were doing a pretty good panic dance, too.

I live in an upstairs apartment, so I rushed me and my daughter and my cat downstairs when the sirens went off. If it had actually hit, I know which part of this old house would have gone first!

Came back upstairs after that was over, and stayed. Had another storm later on with LOTS of hail (very small; I never saw any quarter-sized stuff), and that was an adventure. Sounded like they were doing river dance on the roof.

I'd rather spend ten times going for shelter and have nothing happen than spend one time not going for shelter and have a tornado hit. Identifying dead people isn't pleasant, you know.

So it inconvenienced you. Big whoop. I suppose if no one had reported any of the warnings last night, and something bad had happened to someone, you'd be complaining about that, too.

jonas 8 years ago

O-Bob: One more time?!?! Pllllllleeeeeeeeaaaaassse?!?!?!

jonas 8 years ago

with sugar on top?

sgtwolverine 8 years ago

r_t, the unpossible thing is a Simpson's quote. "I'm failing English? That's unpossible!"

Okay. Now I have to get back to planning my strategery for photographing tonight's hockey game.

sunflower_sue 8 years ago

The only thing about the decline in the stock market that concerns me is that I won't buy at the lowest point. Since I haven't funded my '07 IRA yet, I'll be doing that soon. If I were of retirement age, I would be very concerned.

MyName 8 years ago

sunflower_sue:

If you were about to retire, you probably wouldn't be invested in stocks, at least not very heavily. But yeah, I'm like: "why couldn't this have happened a month or two ago when I would have bought cheaper".

prioress 8 years ago

Its very frightening and prophetic that the US economy takes its cues from China.

Part of that is because China "owns" us in many ways, and our reliance on debt being funded by financial interests outside the US. Get used to it; I just hope I live long enough to see what happens when they cash in.

sunflower_sue 8 years ago

MyName, you are hopefully right about that, but I knew several people that were ready to retire before the last big crash and made the mistake of having too much left in stock. I hope apathy and a false sense of security doesn't lead me down that same path.

Sigmund 8 years ago

"An "economy" is trading promises that "I'll give you more tomorrow than you gave me today"".

That is completely untrue. An economy is made up of an equal trade, Ill give you a dollar today for a dollars worth of stuff today. Even investments in futures contracts and stocks discount tomorrow's value at todays price.

"Bt, the planet is finite. The Providence-given natural resources of the earth are severely stretched (whether oil and gas or the earth's fertility), and further extraction for growth will eventually fail."

Assuming that you are not overstating things just a tad (yes there is a finite number of grains of sand, we are not likely to find that limit anytime soon), then the scarcity you predict would only drive their value up reducing the use of that item. Lot less use of oil at $600/ barrel than $60/barrel. Which is something I would think you would approve of.

Shelby 8 years ago

I've always called her "Hell-on-Earth" Horner.

sunflower_sue 8 years ago

RI, I watched Elisabeth Shue the other night (w/ kiddies) in "Dreamer." She looks exactly the same as she did 20 years ago. And stop it with the "big words" already. Muliebral? Give me a break. Can'tcha just say "feminine" like normal people? Word snob!

Sigmund 8 years ago

"Part of that is because China "owns" us in many ways, and our reliance on debt being funded by financial interests outside the US. Get used to it; I just hope I live long enough to see what happens when they cash in."

China doesn't own the US. We have their stuff, they have our paper. Seems like a fair trade, after all what can they do with our paper? They could trade that paper with the US for some of our stuff, or with other nations for their paper or their stuff.

This same xenophobic hysteria happen in the late 60's with all the "petrol dollars" going to the UAE, the Arab's were going to buy all of our farmland, and they did at incredibly high prices right before the value of farmland collapsed. When it collapsed it wasn't the farmers that sold who got hurt, it was the Arab's who bought all that farmland at ridiculous prices.

It happened again in the late 90's when the Japanese were taking all their US dollars from selling electronic and automobiles and besides traveling to the US with their fancy camera's and spending lots of money at tourist traps, bought high tech stocks right before the dot com bubble. To be fair, they also opened up US factories for Toyota, Honda, and Mazda pumping a lot of that that money back to the US.

Now the Chinese are going to buy, what? Whatever they buy they will likely drive the price sky high, right before it too collapses.

dotteboy 8 years ago

No, I'm not at all concerned or surprised. The stock market is a big boy, big money game. They are just shuffling their wealth now.

"No, it will go back up. The market naturally fluctuates."

This is what they tell the average sucker to set the hook. And the majority of the money you invest in your 401K goes toward "investment fees".

beatrice 8 years ago

Somewhat.

Bone777 8 years ago

You have to be dense not to realize the market was going to decline.

It was an omen the minute that Britney shaved the 'rest' of her hair. ( I saw the previous pictures of her on the internet getting into a car. )

She is now totally hairless.

RonBurgandy 8 years ago

Yes and no. Maybe a little, but no more than somewhat.

beatrice 8 years ago

"Somewhat" is a perfectly fine word. It means I'm keeping an eye on the matter, but not letting it consume my time. There is some concern, but a concern that is not equal to worry. I appreciate that the market fluctuates yet climbs with the passage of years. I am in for the long-haul, not the day to day highs and lows. If I were closer to retirement my degree of concern, as the question is stated, would likely be slightly above "somewhat," possibly even to "fairly."

sunflower_sue 8 years ago

Py, that was funny, but for a minute, I thought I was reading something Bea had written...so you get a "damn, Py!"

RI, So don't tell me, you might just let it go!

james bush 8 years ago

Of course not! Soon Hillary and Reid and Pelosie will make the rich "market-players" pay and the working class democrats will make things right....or left?... whichever she says is better!

Kidding, I hope!?! The ones I listen to/follow say 10 percent or less and then resume the cyclical bull market "for awhile?!?". Haven't sold .............but wish I had so that I could buy back in for less in the next few weeks or days!

Ragingbear 8 years ago

When the DOW is going down, then that means the economy is improving. When it goes up, that means that there are more people out of work. I am not sure exactly how the entire thing works, but it basically boils down to a way really really rich people and corperations screw the working man once again.

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