magicpony

Why We Need Deflation

You lost me a few paragraphs in... You should come to China someday. Have a look around. People's lives have improved dramatically in the last 30 years. Frankly, the average American has also benefited by being able to get cheap goods. Wallmart could get you a nice pair of shoes for 20 bucks. If you want to pay built in promotional fees for "Nike" shoes because you think it's "top of the market", then that's your problem. You really think things were groovy during the 70's, huh? Globalism is a net benefit to the world (if not always to individual sectors of any country in the short term; see, e.g., unionized U.S. autoworkers). This is basic economic theory. But, then, you're not an economist... why am I reading this again?

The Economics and Ethics of Mortgage Default

Mr. Cornelison, you said "By the way, anytime the government offers you money, the collateral is your soul". I have a question for you. I locked in an extremely low interest gov't subsidized loan when I was in law school on a lot of law school debt. I modified it to be a 30 year term. I have the money to pay it back, but I'm not, cause I would never get this kind of interest rate anywhere else and I can get a higher rate of return (even including taxes) elsewhere. I make minimum payments.

Some of my family members are very old school (like you) and they think this is stealing from the gov't... I disagree. I'm making all my payments... haven't broken any laws. I also pay a crap load of taxes (with Social security payments that will, over the term of the loan, easily exceed the loan principal and market interest, the benefits of which (given the crappy state of SS) I don't ever expect to see).

Do you think my decision is immoral?

Is it immoral to engage in legal tax avoidance (for instance selling losing stocks, keeping winners)?

Where do you draw the line, Mr. Cornelison?

Should We Really Bail Out the Big Three Automakers with $73.20 Per Hour Labor?

So much scapegoating on the CEOs...

That is A problem... but not THE problem even if a CEO makes 100+ times what an average worker makes, we're talking about tens of thousands of workers here..

throwing the CEO on the street won't solve the problem...

Toyota must be doing something right if their costs are so much lower... maybe it's just greater efficiency... I wouldn't support using tax dollars to support an inefficient, non-competitive industry...

Quite frankly, there's not much that's going to stop people from mass producing cars in China and India in the future... it will take some time, but believe me it's in the works...

good wages for auto workers are a thing of the past... at least Detroit cost of housing is reasonable... some $1 houses there... and going lower...

Will Housing Bottom in 2010 or 2012?

Grammar is not good in this article. Thoughts are muddled. In and out of recesssion (i.e. double dip) is W. Japan, in which there was a prolongued recession (not in an out) is an L.

Been waiting for the collapse for some time. Now that it's here, it's natural that people will go too far in the other direction. When thoughts like that articulated in this article become mainstream, I will be buying if I can. 2012 is pretty ridiculous IMO. 2010 maybe. Maybe bottom in 2009. But we'll see.