Irvine Housing Forums

It’s official. We are in a recession.

2008-12-01T11:12:01-08:00

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com)—The National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007, making official what most Americans have already believed about the state of the economy .

American Eagle silver sold out at APMEX within 24 hours…silver maples still avail $3.49 above spot

2008-12-01T18:27:33-08:00

200,000 Silver American Eagles Sold Out in 24 Hours… Amazing!
12/01/2008 01:53:00 PM, Posted by APMEX, One Comment

APMEX kicked off our 12 Days of Christmas promotion on Cyber Monday and the results have been phenomenal. We expected this would be a great sale on a very popular item, but didn’t expect the flood of customers. It was like watching the flood of people at Wal-Mart on Black Friday looking for flat panel TV’s.

Amazingly, we sold out of our supply of 200,000 Silver American eagles within the span of 24 hours!

A huge number of customers flooded the site, causing the shopping cart system to crash earlier in the day. With our site down, customers lined up on the phone to place their orders. Needless to say, our trading department was a madhouse. Phones were ringing off the hook from the colossal amounts of orders.

While we would have liked to be able to return everyone’s calls, the sheer volume made this impossible. We’re trying our best to order more, but at this point we can’t make any guarantees. Be sure and check back with us regularly. We’ll keep you updated on events as they develop.

As a substitution we have reduced the price of 2009 Silver Maple Leafs to $3.49 over spot in any quantity while supplies last.

Don’t wait for the next rush, get yours today!

———-
I tried at least 10 times to get my order in, was finally able to do so at 11:53am. Their 800 number was busy since 7am. Was so tempted to borrow from my 0% credit card, but good sense prevailed. Silver maples @$3.49 above spot is a good price also.

irvinefsbo

Gold

2008-05-20T11:09:06-08:00

For all of you gold experts out there, I purchased some shares of a gold mutual fund in my IRA account and it has increased 40% in less than a year. Is now a good time to sell or is gold going to continue to rise?

19,000 WaMu Employees Will Be Synergized Out Of A Job

2008-11-30T20:09:23-08:00

Nov 30, 2008

Up to 19,000 employees of Washington Mutual face being laid off this weekend as JPMorgan Chase turns up the synergy on its recent acquisition.

On Friday, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) said it expects to retain the 22,000 employees who work at Washington Mutual branches and 2,000 workers in the mortgage and wealth management divisions in California, spokesman Tom Kelly told Forbes.com. The company has not yet determined the total numbers to be cut in other states, but it planning to inform all former WaMu employees of their job status by Monday.

WaMu had about 43,000 employees as of June, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Combined, Chase and WaMu have about 5,400 branches. The company said it only plans to close about 10.0%.

The bulk of the job cuts will be at the Washington Mutual headquarters in Seattle due to the overlap in operations with the current employees at JPMorgan.

Link from Mish’s Blog

America must keep consumer liquidity flowing by Meredith Whitney

2008-12-01T12:09:34-08:00

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/11344d06-befb-11dd-ae63-0000779fd18c.html

Stock Market Day-Trading Discussion Thread

2008-10-29T14:09:29-08:00

Since there are a handful of you guys that trade and others who are curious to know what us traders do, I thought it’d be a good idea to create a thread for us to bounce ideas and strategies off each other.

Auto Dealership Deathwatch

2008-11-06T22:34:53-08:00

If you’re Lambo, what’s it like to lose 10% of your market overnight?

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9497OEO0.htm

The world’s largest dealer of Lamborghini has shut down.

Lamborghini Orange County was renown for catering to the glamorous fans of the 12-cylinder, $600,000 sports cars. It’s doors were padlocked Wednesday.

It sold about 10 percent of the 2,400 Lamborghinis made in the world each year. NBA stars Kobe Bryant and Dennis Rodman were among its customers.

The dealership flew in actors Eric Roberts and Luke Perry by helicopter from Los Angeles to attend a company event earlier this year. Other promotional parties have featured stars such as Elton John and Sharon Stone.

The owner of the Santa Ana-based dealership would not comment on the closure.

Lamborghini’s separate sales company in the United States says the dealer closed because of its own mistakes, not the economy.

But wait -there’s more:

http://www.ocbj.com/industry_article.asp?aID=18148615.1323008.1704781.49317502.7996927.434&aID2=131128

Italy’s Automobili Lamborghini Holding SPA is trying to help reopen its largest U.S. dealership, Lamborghini Orange County, which abruptly closed this week.

“This is our first priority,” said Pietro Frigerio, chief operating officer for Automobili Lamborghini, a unit of Germany’s Volkswagen AG that is in the process or relocating its North American headquarters to Santa Monica.

The automaker declined to say how it was helping or provide any word on the status of Lamborghini Orange County.

The Santa Ana dealership, the nation’s top seller of pricey Italian Lamborghinis, closed due to undisclosed financial issues that aren’t related to the economy.

“We do not have all of the information and, therefore, cannot comment on the status of Lamborghini Orange County’s financial situation,” Frigerio said.

He said the management at Lamborghini Orange County made a few “unfortunate business decisions, independent of Automobili Lamborghini, which have caused the current issues that they are trying to resolve now.”

Siblings Vik, Nora, Sossi and Astrid Keuylian own and run Lamborghini Orange County.

Their 4,000 square-foot Calabasas Lamborghini dealership, which opened in 2007, also is closed.

Calls made to the family haven’t been returned.

Earlier this week, the dealer’s receptionist said it was undergoing an “ownership change” and would reopen in about 10 days.

Phones weren’t being answered Thursday.

Representatives for the state attorney general’s office and the Orange County district attorney’s office said they have no information about the dealership’s closure.

Lamborghini owners for now will have to turn to Lamborghini Beverly Hills or Lamborghini San Diego for service.

If they were 10% of total worldwide sales out of that shitty building (240 cars, $600K a copy, $144,000,000 a year!) what does Beverly Hills do? “We keep a low overhead Santa Ana location and pass on the savings to you!“ does not seem to be a viable marketing stragety, but maybe…...

Rick Santelli is knowledgable. Dennis Kneale is a fool. Kudlow is a clown.

2008-10-29T13:12:12-08:00

This is a thread for your interpretation of economic events or writings.

The Fed lowered the overnight rate by 50 basis points. Yawn.

Who buys American Cars? $25 Billion idea

2008-11-19T20:01:19-08:00

Instead of begging for money they should put out some pro american commercials. However, they do’t make good cars. The problem is simple foreign cars will survive and american will not. Detroit is to far gone at this point. Any thoughts? Should we save them?

Interesting short term history of consumer debt.

2008-11-29T19:15:52-08:00

This article has some interesting time lines for consumer debt leading up to the current events.

Enjoy!