Market Rally: Why You Should Be Worried [View article]
When rates are low you should have money to pay down debt so that when rates increase, you don't default.
If you increase debt while rates are low, then I would think that you invite catastrophe when rates increase. Even merely doubling these abnormally low rates would cripple us at current debt levels and would devastate us at higher debt levels.
Banking Reform: Do We Need More Regulation Or Just Better Regulation? [View article]
What needs to happen, in my humble opinion, is to terminate the alliance between the TBTF banks and Uncle Sam. This can be best done and serve the most important services to our citizens by breaking up the TBTF banks like Ma Bell was dismantled. Too much power in too few hands is too much temptation and results in too little liberty.
Who's Really Ignoring 47% Of Americans Today? [View article]
toncuz,
Your memory is defective or simply clouded by ideology.
Bill Clinton inherited a decent economy. By 2007, he was presiding over a recession, which contributed to Bush's election. The Bush tax cuts helped restore the economy.
Then, the mortgage crisis, caused by alliance of Wall Street TBTF banks and two of the the Dem's favorite agencies, Fannie and Freddie, drove the country into recession.
Conservative policies did not contribute to the dotcom bubble.
Liberal policies caused the 2007 recession and the 2008 financial meltdown.
Those who want to re-write history risk repeating it.
In fact, during his stint in the Senate, Obama collected more contributions from the GSE's than any other member of Congress and, in 2008, Wall Street repaid the Dems for their frat party by contributing 70% of their campaign contributions to Obama's campaign. It was Chris Dodd, then chairman of the Senate Finace Committee who was next in line (and received a "friends of Angelo" mortgage from Countrywide. It was Barney Frank who opposed reform by publically taking the stance that Freddie and Fannie were financially "sound" and claiming those who wanted reform simply opposed making homewnership available to more people.
Dems want to blame Bush simply because they cannot deal with their own guilt and admit they are the major source of the problem, rather than the solution.
Who's Really Ignoring 47% Of Americans Today? [View article]
The fact is that any progressive effect of the income tax is more than offset by the regressive effect of the payroll tax, especially upon the self-employed. (The payroll tax is a regressive income tax, not a retirement contribution as the funds are not protected in a true trust fund and are not segregated for the contributors, either as a group or individually).
Who's Really Ignoring 47% Of Americans Today? [View article]
I agree. I apologized publically for my self-indulgent reply. I beat myself up this morning for the personal atttack. I will not respond again by making an issue of the idelogical messengers. My excuses are irrelevant.
Who's Really Ignoring 47% Of Americans Today? [View article]
I am not a Repub or a Dem. I only want liberty, mercy and truth to prevail and I beleive in limited govt. I don't like the Repub leadership either, but they are the lesser (by slight measure only) of two evils.
Gold Is Not Money - It's Something Better [View article]
Yes ,it is a big part, but the TBTF banks also make money borrowing from the discount window at 0% and buying Treasurines. Why do you think that they own @ 10% of the US debt?
Who's Really Ignoring 47% Of Americans Today? [View article]
Toncuz,
You are a stupid idiot to make such generalizations. You need to be warned not to engage in an intellectual battle unarmed. If you look at every one of the studies ever performed on the realtive IQ's of those voting Dem and those voitng Repub, you would find that they have all concluded that Republicans have higher average and higher mean IQ's than Dems.
Gold Is Not Money - It's Something Better [View article]
The author says people don't want to borrow. Hogwash. My wife is a realtor and many of her potential clients with reasonably decent credit can't get mortgage loans and many of those who do get approved find the process to be excessively lengthy, onerous and frustrating. I won't even go into the lowered wages and higher unemployment issues, but I will address less commonly discussed issues which have kept people from being able to borrow.
The fact is that banks do not want to make mortgage loans unless FHA or the GSE's will buy them. Even if they make such loans, it is done reluctantly and against the new higher requirements for cash reserves and in the face of FDIC opposition to bank lending.
Additionally, many people want to borrow but cannot because the havoc created by the financial crisis caused personal credit problems for them.
Consumer credit scores were hurt initially by dropping credit limits down to the amounts outstanding on credit lines such as credit cards even if the consumer had never made a payment late. That happened to many people I know, including myslef and the wife. That hurt the self-employed most, and middle-class and even lower-economic class consumers have been significantly hurt as well.
Then credit score requirements were raised while credit scores were damaged. As a real estate attorney I closed thousands of mortgage loans over the years with people whose credit scores were in the 500's and even some in the low 500's, perhaps a few in the high 400's (for which there was little excuse for loan approval other than the GSE's would buy the loans). In 2007, anyone with a 580 was considered to have "B" credit which was a good enough score for any mortgage lender. Now, even an FHA loan requires a 640. Although the official requirement according to FHA is much lower, I have not seen anyone recently get an FHA loan with less than a 620.
Also, historically, individual real estate investors, have cumulatively accounted for a fair portion of mortgage loans. They still do. When the finacial crisis hit, those who were real estate heavy and cash strapped, like I was, had major hits to their ability to service their debt obligations.
Many people have lost income in this economy; far more than the govt stats show because the hardest hit are the ones not included in the stats, the self-employed, painters, plumbers, electricians, handymen, carpenters, lawyers, realtors, restauranteurs, etc. ad infinitum, most of whose businesses are either suffering or going under.
Ask these people whether banks want to lend. The answer is clearly "NO, not to me."
The stock market indices don't measure how small business, defined in the vernacular, is doing. The GDP does not accurately indicate how citizens are doing. Uncle Sam publishes the stats which indicate how the oligarchy is doing. The dirty secret is that people are hurting as a result of the nefarious acts of those whom Washington prefers to serve.
Who's Really Ignoring 47% Of Americans Today? [View article]
Everyone who has ever talked more than 10 minutes to a confirmed democrat knows that they are almost always self-absorbed enough to believe they are smarter than everyone else and are entitled to run the lives of other people.
It makes sense that truly intelligent people who have any sense of humility do not want to associate with such a group. Like many others, I have known a number of people who would be eligible to join MENSA, but none of them ever mentioned that they had joined. Perhaps they felt no need for such affirmation.
What Do The Independent Inflation Gauges Say? [View article]
I need to find the grocery store where the food prices are deflating. I must be shopping at the wrong stores. Corn, wheat, milk, beef, pork, and what else are on sale? LOL
Plans for a covered-call Gold ETN are unveiled by Credit Suisse just days after the bank sold its European ETF business to iShares. The fund will hold GLD and try to boost returns - and provide downside protection - by selling "out of the money" calls against it. The launch could come as soon as this month. [View news story]
Market Rally: Why You Should Be Worried [View article]
If you increase debt while rates are low, then I would think that you invite catastrophe when rates increase. Even merely doubling these abnormally low rates would cripple us at current debt levels and would devastate us at higher debt levels.
Banking Reform: Do We Need More Regulation Or Just Better Regulation? [View article]
Currency Wars And The ECB's Shrinking Balance Sheet [View article]
Is the problem with the American economy really in Europe?
Perhaps a move toward austerity works.
Silver Forecast Is $90 In 2013? [View article]
Who's Really Ignoring 47% Of Americans Today? [View article]
Your memory is defective or simply clouded by ideology.
Bill Clinton inherited a decent economy. By 2007, he was presiding over a recession, which contributed to Bush's election. The Bush tax cuts helped restore the economy.
Then, the mortgage crisis, caused by alliance of Wall Street TBTF banks and two of the the Dem's favorite agencies, Fannie and Freddie, drove the country into recession.
Conservative policies did not contribute to the dotcom bubble.
Liberal policies caused the 2007 recession and the 2008 financial meltdown.
Those who want to re-write history risk repeating it.
In fact, during his stint in the Senate, Obama collected more contributions from the GSE's than any other member of Congress and, in 2008, Wall Street repaid the Dems for their frat party by contributing 70% of their campaign contributions to Obama's campaign. It was Chris Dodd, then chairman of the Senate Finace Committee who was next in line (and received a "friends of Angelo" mortgage from Countrywide. It was Barney Frank who opposed reform by publically taking the stance that Freddie and Fannie were financially "sound" and claiming those who wanted reform simply opposed making homewnership available to more people.
Dems want to blame Bush simply because they cannot deal with their own guilt and admit they are the major source of the problem, rather than the solution.
Who's Really Ignoring 47% Of Americans Today? [View article]
Who's Really Ignoring 47% Of Americans Today? [View article]
Who's Really Ignoring 47% Of Americans Today? [View article]
Who's Really Ignoring 47% Of Americans Today? [View article]
Gold Is Not Money - It's Something Better [View article]
Who's Really Ignoring 47% Of Americans Today? [View article]
You are a stupid idiot to make such generalizations. You need to be warned not to engage in an intellectual battle unarmed. If you look at every one of the studies ever performed on the realtive IQ's of those voting Dem and those voitng Repub, you would find that they have all concluded that Republicans have higher average and higher mean IQ's than Dems.
Gold Is Not Money - It's Something Better [View article]
The fact is that banks do not want to make mortgage loans unless FHA or the GSE's will buy them. Even if they make such loans, it is done reluctantly and against the new higher requirements for cash reserves and in the face of FDIC opposition to bank lending.
Additionally, many people want to borrow but cannot because the havoc created by the financial crisis caused personal credit problems for them.
Consumer credit scores were hurt initially by dropping credit limits down to the amounts outstanding on credit lines such as credit cards even if the consumer had never made a payment late. That happened to many people I know, including myslef and the wife. That hurt the self-employed most, and middle-class and even lower-economic class consumers have been significantly hurt as well.
Then credit score requirements were raised while credit scores were damaged. As a real estate attorney I closed thousands of mortgage loans over the years with people whose credit scores were in the 500's and even some in the low 500's, perhaps a few in the high 400's (for which there was little excuse for loan approval other than the GSE's would buy the loans). In 2007, anyone with a 580 was considered to have "B" credit which was a good enough score for any mortgage lender. Now, even an FHA loan requires a 640. Although the official requirement according to FHA is much lower, I have not seen anyone recently get an FHA loan with less than a 620.
Also, historically, individual real estate investors, have cumulatively accounted for a fair portion of mortgage loans. They still do. When the finacial crisis hit, those who were real estate heavy and cash strapped, like I was, had major hits to their ability to service their debt obligations.
Many people have lost income in this economy; far more than the govt stats show because the hardest hit are the ones not included in the stats, the self-employed, painters, plumbers, electricians, handymen, carpenters, lawyers, realtors, restauranteurs, etc. ad infinitum, most of whose businesses are either suffering or going under.
Ask these people whether banks want to lend. The answer is clearly "NO, not to me."
The stock market indices don't measure how small business, defined in the vernacular, is doing. The GDP does not accurately indicate how citizens are doing. Uncle Sam publishes the stats which indicate how the oligarchy is doing. The dirty secret is that people are hurting as a result of the nefarious acts of those whom Washington prefers to serve.
Who's Really Ignoring 47% Of Americans Today? [View article]
It makes sense that truly intelligent people who have any sense of humility do not want to associate with such a group. Like many others, I have known a number of people who would be eligible to join MENSA, but none of them ever mentioned that they had joined. Perhaps they felt no need for such affirmation.
What Do The Independent Inflation Gauges Say? [View article]
Plans for a covered-call Gold ETN are unveiled by Credit Suisse just days after the bank sold its European ETF business to iShares. The fund will hold GLD and try to boost returns - and provide downside protection - by selling "out of the money" calls against it. The launch could come as soon as this month. [View news story]