The Economy.. will hi end audio mfgs lower prices?

Very good question, it is not likely you will see a big reduction in price on retail unless the company is going out of business but look for falling prices on used gear. If you realistically want to sell used on Audiogon you will have to be willing to compromise on your asking price or not sell at all. Also high ticket items will be a tough sell. During this recession audiophiles are faced with the same economic problems as the rest of the population, and the amount of money allocated to this hobby is somewhat diminshed. I was called a fool two years ago on Audiogon when I suggested that the US economy was heading for a recession & facing hard times.

Do I have a crystal ball? no not really but because of my occupation I was around alot of older folks who lived through the great depession & knew the warning signs. Also when top executives in this country can no longer be trusted to govern Americas institutions, business or otherwise, we have a serious problem. Republicans believe in deregulation but that only works when these institutions are honest & can be trusted. Sorry but my two cents.

Right on PhD!

Republicans believe in deregulation but that only works when these institutions are honest & can be trusted.

Good one. Yes indeed what can we "trust" - the problems run deep!

"Trust Me" the wild claims are all bona fide from

Speaker cable and interconnect manufacturers (especally above $100)

Global Warming Alarmists and the IPCC

The next new wonder drug, diet or herbal remedy

The always low government reported Inflation figures

Food safety (especially dog food, babies milk and kids chocolates)

Drug enhanced atheletic perfroamces

Under age olympic gymnasts

Did anyone read about how hard Markopolos tried to warn the SEC about Madoff (many years ago)?

Just WHO can you trust and WHO can you turn to these days? (The silence is deafening)

Another post-modern era has just passed us by, LOL. Humans will continue to make mistakes till the end of time. I can already see another post-modern era coming, you can bet the world improvers already doing their planning.

Privatization was the delusion of ideologs, they truly believed they were honest geniuses, a superior race leading us into material utopia. And then there were the liars and scammers to pick up from the delusional. Can you imagine if we had privatized the social security system! History will definitely be LOL!

And then, I can't imagine a less efficient means of redistributing wealth, the financial sector has created so many derivatives and investment vehicles, money gets turned over dozens of times, each entity gets their fee/cut of that original investment. I would suggest the whole thing is a Ponzi scheme gone wrong with the gvt. (us) holding the bag! I would even suggest many of these guys could forsee a collapse and gvt. bailouts, they would make off with millions and leave us holding the bag. Otherwise they're just plain idiots.

What happened to a time when a local bank loaned you the money for your house, held the note for the life of the loan. I know, the financial gurus will tell you that is a slow way to accumulate wealth, we need to have a huge credit market so people can have everything they want today. Well, you see where that's gotten us.

And then, can we trust gvt? Aren't these the geniuses who allowed Madoffs and credit default swaps! And so, who can we trust?

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Shadorne....thanks for the Markopolos investigation link...it was great reading.
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