Posted on 01/16/2009 2:07:59 PM PST by Golddigger3
In this video a leading retail investor, Howard Davidowitz, says retail and banking will get "dramatically worse":
-"nothing will get the consumer spending again - for ever"
-"this is just the tip of the iceburg, 21 publically-traded retail companies are on the cusp of going down"
-a major mall was just sold for "40% of the mortgage". "This is crazy, and this will go to the banks balance sheets."
-"We should let all the companies in all the industries fail . . . It makes no since to give trillions of dollars to the least productive parts of the economy . . . We need pain to fix things."
-"We're in la la land with all this Obama happy talk."
Riveting video!
Who is Howard Davidowitz?
I’ve never understood how 0bama bailing out the auto industry is a good thing. Don’t autos pollute the earth and lead to global warming with all the freezing temps we’ve had lately?
It seems to me 0bama is in the pocket of Big Oil and Big Auto. Why else would he funnel money to corporations that are killing the earth?
Throwing good money into bad.
mark in the event I later feel like getting really depressed...
It charged me up.
“It makes no since to give trillions of dollars to the least productive parts of the economy”
Such as the government?
Hey, someone had to say it. :)
“nothing will get the consumer spending again - for ever”
Nonsense.
charged - Poor word choice?
Davidowitz & Associates is one of the most successful firms in its niche providing consulting and investment banking services to the retail industry since 1981. Our focus is on strategic management, acquisitions and divestitures, restructuring and ownership transactions.
Howard Davidowitz, Chairman and sole stockholder, has extensive experience as a representative of buyers and sellers, and as a principal, in upper and middle market transactions. He has helped clients to identify, value, finance and negotiate deals across a broad range of retail segments.
bookmark
“nothing will get the consumer spending again - for ever”
...what he’s saying is that people have gone so beyond their limit in “bling” that they won’t be satisfied with less shiny “bling”. That will be all people can afford.
Nonsense.
I didn't do him justice with this tiny quote. I'm confident you would think the video is worthwhile. The guy knows what he's talking about, he invests hundreds of millions of his own money in retail.
He meant that they will never spend at the previous levels again.
Good for you. Maybe for me too...
The only gubmint “spending” that might have a chance of working is MASSIVE TAX RELIEF for those who have money, but won’t spend it because they just lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in home value and in the market.
I disagree.
It is quite likely there have been some fundamental, structural changes in the economy. People will not be trading up houses again for a very long time; they will stay put. People will not be buying a new car because they want to; they will hang on to the old one until they actually need a new one.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg on how the consumer mentality has changed and will remain changed for quite a while, probably decades.
When a substantial percentage of those who had saved considerable amounts for retirement, thus demonstrating already a propensity toward fiscal conservatism, get shocked to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses over a two-week or so period, they are not the types who, once contracting their spending as much as possible, cavalierly go back to spending just because.
Ahhhh, vintage Uncle Tupelo, unscheduled chord change and all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMz4cWBtZAMIf
That tune long ago became my default tonic for “all things depressing.”
NO DEPRESSION
Fear the hearts of men are failing
These our latter days we know
The great depression now is spreading
God's word declared it would be so
I'm going where there's no depression
To a better land that's free from care
I'll leave this world of toil and trouble
My home's in heaven
I'm going there
In this dark hour, midnight nearing
The tribulation time will come
The storms will hurl the midnight fear
And sweep lost millions to their doom
I'm going where there's no depression
To a better land that's free from care
I'll leave this world of toil and trouble
My home's in heaven
I'm going there
I'm going where there's no depression
To a better land that's free from care
I'll leave this world of toil and trouble
My home's in heaven
I'm going there
— Like Steve Martin said, everything sounds happy when you add a banjo. I think Steve did not anticipate the Davidowitz video and the mess we're in. There just are not enough banjos and pickers to pluck them in all the world to fix that.:(
Accordingly, I am praying for some “DPPI”: Divine Banjo-Picking Intervention.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.