Does anyone else believe the impending financial crash will be bigger than 2008-2009?

[Anonymous]

Glasses: One company controls roughly 30% of the global eyewear market, owns numerous brands (Ray-Ban, Oakley, and more), optical stores (LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut), and insurance partnerships. Some estimates suggest control near 80% of major eyewear brands.

Anthem Health: In many U.S. states, Anthem holds over 50% market share in commercial health insurance—crossing into monopolistic territory in certain regions. Just three companies—CVS Caremark, Cigna’s Express Scripts, and UnitedHealth’s OptumRx—control ~80% of the prescription drug middleman market. Hospital mergers have left many U.S. regions with just 1–2 dominant hospital systems. Research shows this raises prices by 20–40% for patients.

Meatpacking (Beef, Pork, Poultry): Four companies—Tyson Foods, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef—control 80–85% of beef processing in the U.S. Similar concentration exists in pork and chicken. This impacts grocery prices, farmer contracts, and food supply stability.

Seeds & Agrochemicals: The “Big Four” (Bayer/Monsanto, Corteva, Syngenta/ChemChina, BASF) control over 60% of the global seed market and ~70% of agricultural chemicals. Farmers often have little choice but to buy from them.

Grain Trading (ABCD firms): ADM, Bunge, Cargill, Louis Dreyfus dominate global grain trading. They control supply chains that affect bread, cereals, and animal feed prices worldwide.

Waste collection: Two giant companies control 50–60% of U.S. garbage collection and disposal.

Groceries: In many U.S. metro areas, Kroger and Albertsons (pending merger) could control over 70% of grocery sales. Walmart already captures ~25% of all grocery spending nationwide.

Banks: The “Big Four” (JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup) control nearly 40% of U.S. deposits.

Hedge funds and large chains (like Gannett and Alden Global Capital) now own the majority of U.S. newspapers. Entire states have only one or two daily papers left.

[Anonymous]

Ms. monopoly above is correct. This is a huge problem as competition is stifled and therefore there are no incentives to lower prices. No one thought Ma Bell could be broken up but it was and in a very short period of time, all of the “Baby Bells” soon had higher market valuations than the original. Competition is good for the economy. Sadly, we don’t see much of that theses days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ms. monopoly above is correct. This is a huge problem as competition is stifled and therefore there are no incentives to lower prices. No one thought Ma Bell could be broken up but it was and in a very short period of time, all of the “Baby Bells” soon had higher market valuations than the original. Competition is good for the economy. Sadly, we don’t see much of that theses days.

Well the tech sector claimed any antitrust actions against them would cede AI to China. It's impossible to break up monopolies now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know what to think, so I'm just sticking with my current allocation. I've never successfully timed the market.

+1. I worry about a lot of things, but not this. Who knows what the market will do?

[Anonymous]

There will be no crash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There will be no crash.

lol. Fox News tell ya that? Reality says otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What 2008 Crash? Nobody remembers that far back. We dont even remember the Tarriff sell off

You will when your taxes get raised to pay back the monies Trump now owes to Canter Fitzgerald.

Cantor Fitzgerald is a company owned by Howard Ludnick and his kids.

Howard Ludnick is in Trump's administration.

Howard Ludnick is also in the heritage foundation who wrote project 2025 which is the playbook Trump's handlers are following.

Cantor Fitzgerald has been offering to pay 20-30% of tariffs for companies. The catch is if the tariffs get reversed by the courts then Cantor Fitzgerald gets 100% of the refunds for the tariffs from the federal government.

Cantor Fitzgerald wouldn't do this unless they thought it would make them lots and lots of money.

The money collected for tariffs won't be sitting in an account somewhere. So when it's gotta be returned it'll be the American taxpayers who need to pay it all back.

The American consumers are the ones paying for the tariffs now

So once they get overturned and it's time for Cantor Fitzgerald to collect the American taxpayers get to pay for the tariffs a 2nd time since they originally paid it the first time too.

All this shit so a handful of billionaires can make billions and billions more.

I hadn't heard about this, but just Googled and, of course, Elizabeth Warren is on it. Not that anything will change.

The grift in this admin is unreal. It's just beyond.

Oh, also Moody's said yesterday we'll be in recession by the year's end.

https://www.finance.senate.gov/ranking-members-news/wyden-warren-probe-lutnick-firms-potential-conflicts-of-interest-related-to-massive-tariff-bets

The grift is absolutely appalling.

[Anonymous]

Stupid fear-mongering

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Glasses: One company controls roughly 30% of the global eyewear market, owns numerous brands (Ray-Ban, Oakley, and more), optical stores (LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut), and insurance partnerships. Some estimates suggest control near 80% of major eyewear brands.

Anthem Health: In many U.S. states, Anthem holds over 50% market share in commercial health insurance—crossing into monopolistic territory in certain regions. Just three companies—CVS Caremark, Cigna’s Express Scripts, and UnitedHealth’s OptumRx—control ~80% of the prescription drug middleman market. Hospital mergers have left many U.S. regions with just 1–2 dominant hospital systems. Research shows this raises prices by 20–40% for patients.

Meatpacking (Beef, Pork, Poultry): Four companies—Tyson Foods, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef—control 80–85% of beef processing in the U.S. Similar concentration exists in pork and chicken. This impacts grocery prices, farmer contracts, and food supply stability.

Seeds & Agrochemicals: The “Big Four” (Bayer/Monsanto, Corteva, Syngenta/ChemChina, BASF) control over 60% of the global seed market and ~70% of agricultural chemicals. Farmers often have little choice but to buy from them.

Grain Trading (ABCD firms): ADM, Bunge, Cargill, Louis Dreyfus dominate global grain trading. They control supply chains that affect bread, cereals, and animal feed prices worldwide.

Waste collection: Two giant companies control 50–60% of U.S. garbage collection and disposal.

Groceries: In many U.S. metro areas, Kroger and Albertsons (pending merger) could control over 70% of grocery sales. Walmart already captures ~25% of all grocery spending nationwide.

Banks: The “Big Four” (JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup) control nearly 40% of U.S. deposits.

Hedge funds and large chains (like Gannett and Alden Global Capital) now own the majority of U.S. newspapers. Entire states have only one or two daily papers left.

Thank you PP for sharing this. And these corporations are more powerful than the government. We all now in America $$$$ gets you what you want. These monopolies have the means to challenge any disruption to their market share at any level (judicial, legislative, executive).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stupid fear-mongering

Yeah, it is. These policies are so great. There’s no way the market won’t keep going up.

[Anonymous]

There’s no way gold doesn’t keep going up. We either get rate cuts that further cause inflation thus driving people to gold for safety or we don’t get rate cuts because the Fed is already aware it needs to control inflation that is ticking up. Both scenarios drive folks to gold.

The likeliest bet is we get rate cuts like t wants and then we further drive up inflation. Sure stocks will rally for a while longer, but anyone with two fking brain cells can see the clouds coming. The economy is not okay. Jobs report was bad. Everything is way expensive and wages haven’t kept pace. Like, basically, if you’re an investor you need to keep some gold or gold ETFs right now because they’ll keep going up and will be useful soon to sell for stocks. Bitcoin is okay, but is still less of a good inflation hedge.

[Anonymous]

Ms Monopoly here - a great book about the problem is Matt Stoller's Goliath. https://www.openmarketsinstitute.org/publications/goliath-matt-stollers-new-book-american-democracy-monopoly-now

The book details how Americans once understood the connection between corporate monopolies and authoritarianism and successfully opposed both through antitrust and other competition policies. Going back to our country’s founding, a concentration of power—whether by government or banks—was understood as autocratic and dangerous to individual liberty and democracy. In the 1930s, people observed that the Great Depression was caused by financial concentration in the hands of a few whose misuse of their power induced a financial collapse.

[Anonymous]

We are in the exact same situation as under Calvin Coolidge in the 1920s - whose economic policies included high tariffs, reverse immigration, low taxes for the wealthy and low government spending. The wealthy are betting that this time will somehow be different. It won't. If anything, it will be worse.

[Anonymous]

I really want to Tesla stock guy who calls anyone worried about a recession a fear monger with TDS to show up and tell us why we’re stupid. Like i actively enjoy these oats because the dude is cocksure that all is well. Like it’s hilarious that anything negative is so uncomfortable. We are going to have a crash. Please come back and defend the state to the economy and tariffs. Please. I will be polite I’m serious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really want to Tesla stock guy who calls anyone worried about a recession a fear monger with TDS to show up and tell us why we’re stupid. Like i actively enjoy these oats because the dude is cocksure that all is well. Like it’s hilarious that anything negative is so uncomfortable. We are going to have a crash. Please come back and defend the state to the economy and tariffs. Please. I will be polite I’m serious.

+1