tedstr

Do You Believe Borrowing Leads to Prosperity? (Part 2)

I mostly agree but one fine point. I lease a Mercedes. About $50,000. Nicest car I ever owned or anyone in my family ever owned. My father would think me a fool for leasing this car if he were still around.

But I like it a lot. I have leased several less expense cars over the past 7-8 years. I only lease the ones that have special factory deals. The terms on these cars are great and the car companies have been taking it in the shorts on the residual values and the finance rates to move some of these slow selling cars. Meanwhile I keep the $4-$8,000 in deposit money I would have spent and leave it in a fund making money.

In December the lease was up on the Mercedes and they offered finacing to buy the car at market rates and for a price that was below book value. No cash. So I financed in for the next five years. I will be driving this car for 7.5 years and at the rate it is going, it may still look like and behave like new when I finally own it at my age then of 60.

My point is, you are right, paying cash and paying off your car is smart way to go, but it is not neccesarily a clear choice.

Quality of life matters. There are deals out there. Don't get over your head but buy smart and use some limited debt within your means to maximize your return on a life lived well.

Paulson Throws Bernanke Under the Bus, Backs Ken Lewis

I don't get all the hullabaloo here. What did you all think was going on? Does anyone really think the BOFA actually WANTED to buy Merrill in the first place? Besides, BOFA didn't really buy Merrill, Uncle Sam did.

Betting on the Big Banks

How tough is this to figure out. 20 years of increasing consumer debt with late stage shenanigans added in to give the bubble one last peak. Boom. It's over. GE Capital is the poster child

Debt was all the rage. Now not so much. Won't be like that again in our lifetimes. Sure most of them will get back to a decent business, but the non-banks and the credit cards will go back to being a shell of their former selves and GE will go back to mostly making locomotives or look for some other story they can sell like smart grid.

Probly ride them back up 100-200% from their bottoms(already done), but if anyone thinks they are going back 5-10x to their tops, good luck.

Nothing to see here folks, move along.

Why I'm Holding On to Citigroup Stock

No one mentioned that 5% of Citibank is owned by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal who is $8 Bil underwater on this deal. Don't you think he want's his money back? At least some of it? Do you think Barrack Hussein Obama wants to nationalize the Saudis? I think not.

Why GM's Wagoner and Not BofA's Lewis?

Countrywide was the BOFA mortgage sales department. Uncle Sam already fired that CEO and told BOFA to take care of the mess they created there....oh and BTW do us a favor and save Merrill too. We'll pay you $500k/yr to do it. I'd say Mr. Lewis is still in detention right now and if he doesn't keep things on the right course quickly, he will be opening up a Mortgage Brokers annonymous half way house soon.

Hi my name is Ken and I sell Alt-A mortgages......Hi Ken.