The Stock Markets and the Banks

[oldbadger]

They have an interesting strategy....some loathe it as unfair, but I
see it as benefiting us early buyers. Every few months, they sell
a bunch'o bikes to new buyers at full retail price. (I paid half price.)
They get ahead of us, but the cash flow enables buying more
machinery for production, making it faster & better. I'll wager
that this speeds things up for me, & gets me a better product.
Also, let the early buyers deal with start-up bugs. I'll get a more
refined product by waiting.

OK......
As long as you and the earlier 1/2 price customers are happy, then that's fine.

At my age I am a member of the 'wannit-now!' mob..... tend to live for today. A friend of mine wanted a new Morgan sports car (back in the early 80's), he paid a large deposit with his order and then had to wait years before the car was ready for him to collect and pay up for. Many folks would offer new owners very large profits if they would immediately sell their Morgans on receipt.

Until this year Rolex watches had a long waiting list for certain models and would withhold certificates and docs from new owners for one year to try and cut down on the 'immediate resale market'. They've been stopped from doing that now by some Civil Court cases.

So the 'deposit and wait' market exists in many forms.

They have an interesting strategy....some loathe it as unfair, but I
see it as benefiting us early buyers. Every few months, they sell
a bunch'o bikes to new buyers at full retail price. (I paid half price.)
They get ahead of us, but the cash flow enables buying more
machinery for production, making it faster & better. I'll wager
that this speeds things up for me, & gets me a better product.
Also, let the early buyers deal with start-up bugs. I'll get a more
refined product by waiting.

OK......
As long as you and the earlier 1/2 price customers are happy, then that's fine.

At my age I am a member of the 'wannit-now!' mob..... tend to live for today. A friend of mine wanted a new Morgan sports car (back in the early 80's), he paid a large deposit with his order and then had to wait years before the car was ready for him to collect and pay up for. Many folks would offer new owners very large profits if they would immediately sell their Morgans on receipt.

Until this year Rolex watches had a long waiting list for certain models and would withhold certificates and docs from new owners for one year to try and cut down on the 'immediate resale market'. They've been stopped from doing that now by some Civil Court cases.

So the 'deposit and wait' market exists in many forms.

 

[oldbadger]

They have an interesting strategy....some loathe it as unfair, but I
see it as benefiting us early buyers. Every few months, they sell
a bunch'o bikes to new buyers at full retail price. (I paid half price.)
They get ahead of us, but the cash flow enables buying more
machinery for production, making it faster & better. I'll wager
that this speeds things up for me, & gets me a better product.
Also, let the early buyers deal with start-up bugs. I'll get a more
refined product by waiting.

OK......
As long as you and the earlier 1/2 price customers are happy, then that's fine.

At my age I am a member of the 'wannit-now!' mob..... tend to live for today. A friend of mine wanted a new Morgan sports car (back in the early 80's), he paid a large deposit with his order and then had to wait years before the car was ready for him to collect and pay up for. Many folks would offer new owners very large profits if they would immediately sell their Morgans on receipt.

Until this year Rolex watches had a long waiting list for certain models and would withhold certificates and docs from new owners for one year to try and cut down on the 'immediate resale market'. They've been stopped from doing that now by some Civil Court cases.

So the 'deposit and wait' market exists in many forms.

They have an interesting strategy....some loathe it as unfair, but I
see it as benefiting us early buyers. Every few months, they sell
a bunch'o bikes to new buyers at full retail price. (I paid half price.)
They get ahead of us, but the cash flow enables buying more
machinery for production, making it faster & better. I'll wager
that this speeds things up for me, & gets me a better product.
Also, let the early buyers deal with start-up bugs. I'll get a more
refined product by waiting.

OK......
As long as you and the earlier 1/2 price customers are happy, then that's fine.

At my age I am a member of the 'wannit-now!' mob..... tend to live for today. A friend of mine wanted a new Morgan sports car (back in the early 80's), he paid a large deposit with his order and then had to wait years before the car was ready for him to collect and pay up for. Many folks would offer new owners very large profits if they would immediately sell their Morgans on receipt.

Until this year Rolex watches had a long waiting list for certain models and would withhold certificates and docs from new owners for one year to try and cut down on the 'immediate resale market'. They've been stopped from doing that now by some Civil Court cases.

So the 'deposit and wait' market exists in many forms.

 

[oldbadger]

Diversity is good. I've got a few gold coins in a safety deposit box along with a bit of silver. Add to that stocks, mutual funds, bonds, bank accounts etc and we'll still be eating as long as everything does not turn to slime.

Snap!
My second pension was built from saving pound coins each month and then buying either a sovereign, half sovereign or 1/10th Krugerrand at the end of each month with them.
I still buy silver for fun but at £380 per sovereign I don't buy gold any more.

Sure we know what to do but don't have the will to do it. Back in the late 1990's, I think, the statement of how to do security was articulated: "The only truly secure system is one that is powered off, cast in a block of concrete and sealed in a lead-lined room with armed guards - and even then I have my doubts."

Sure.... 100% security does not exist.
But...... IT crime is too fast, too smart.
I used to catch retail thieves 3-days a week as a bread-and-butter income and was good at it. In 1997 Sa---bury's Supermarkets opened their first 'Self-Tills' in a West London store and I was there for a couple of days on the opening week. A schoolkid, 9 years old, selected a £50 IT game from the media section, took it to the Self-Tills and paid the price of an apple for it. He had figured out that by telling the system he had an apple and inputting the apple price manually that anybody watching would assume he had paid full price for the game. Kids had figured that out by the end of the first couple of days. I knew then that IT finances were stuffed.

We don't know how IT finances will get hit next, from which direction, how badly.........

One (just one!) of last month's scams was Paypal customers being advised that their accounts had been put on suspend or restrict by a wonky system, and to re-enter their details for a re-start. It was a scam.

Three months ago my mobile 'phone told me that my time and date needed resetting and when I looked, it did! I was told to enter my pin number and reset all, but switched off my phone and tunred it on again ten minutes later. My time and date was correct...... that had been a scam. Sure!

And as for big big IT crime....... the losers are TOO BLOOMING EMBARRASSED to tell the world about it.... after all they're supposed to be the experts.

 

[Revoltingest]

With only a rare tiny exception, the only time I use cash is at the Farmer's market. I'd rather they get to keep everything I give them rather than have the credit processing company suck some of their profits away in fees.

I don't feel that way when it comes to corporations I buy things from.

One time I bargained a bit. There was something I was buying that cost $102. I said that I'd pay $100 cash and they would not get charged whatever the bank took, call it 4%. So $100 cash or $98 after the bank took theirs off the top. I saved call it $2 and so did the business I was buying from.

You're also helping farmers avoid income tax when you pay cash.

 

[Revoltingest]

OK......
As long as you and the earlier 1/2 price customers are happy, then that's fine.

At my age I am a member of the 'wannit-now!' mob..... tend to live for today. A friend of mine wanted a new Morgan sports car (back in the early 80's), he paid a large deposit with his order and then had to wait years before the car was ready for him to collect and pay up for. Many folks would offer new owners very large profits if they would immediately sell their Morgans on receipt.

Until this year Rolex watches had a long waiting list for certain models and would withhold certificates and docs from new owners for one year to try and cut down on the 'immediate resale market'. They've been stopped from doing that now by some Civil Court cases.

So the 'deposit and wait' market exists in many forms.

A Russian ex-pat friend put a deposit down on a new car back in 1975.
(He'd saved up for 20 years to afford it.) The salesman said that there
was a waiting list, & that he could pick up the car on at noon on
July 1, 1985. My friend was dismayed because of a schedule conflict.
That's was when the plumber was to arrive to fix the water heater.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Whoa. You Americans still use cash? I haven’t handled money in literally years. It’s all on “tap and go” cards these days.

I hate using plastic because it gives the banks even more money every time theyre used.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I do not believe you can point to any material change in the way business is being funded that threatens the banks and stock markets.

I am pointing at what I do believe are the seeds of a new system being planted.

 

[exchemist]

I am pointing at what I do believe are the seeds of a new system being planted.

Do you really see new power stations, or vehicle factories, being financed by kickstarter?

 

[oldbadger]

A Russian ex-pat friend put a deposit down on a new car back in 1975.
(He'd saved up for 20 years to afford it.) The salesman said that there
was a waiting list, & that he could pick up the car on at noon on
July 1, 1985. My friend was dismayed because of a schedule conflict.
That's was when the plumber was to arrive to fix the water heater.

Been in your country for 20 years, had he?
Really........

 

[Revoltingest]

Been in your country for 20 years, had he?
Really........

I worked with Ivan (an engineer) back in the...uh....what were we talking about?

 

[oldbadger]

I

I worked with Ivan (an engineer) back in the...uh....what were we talking about?

You see?
It's the failing circulation thru the brainy bits......
I'm feeling that a bit these days.

 

[sun rise]

You're also helping farmers avoid income tax when you pay cash.

I assume honesty - it's not on me to police their actions.

 

[Revoltingest]

I assume honesty - it's not on me to police their actions.

Sure....we'll go with that.