Still Renting

Preview from Europe: Rejected Auto Bailout Tanks Markets

Simple and best solution, still, is chapter 11. And let's be frank here, you cannot be comptetitive with other manufacturers if you pay your people more than those other manufacturers. That is, unless you automate and lay everyone off.

Hey! How about the Brazil thing. They could tool that up with the bailout!

Chicago Standoff, Redefaults Bode Ill for Bank Shares

"Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's decision to suspend all state business with Bank of America (BAC) on Monday was disturbing enough for those who believe that political appointees have no business micro-managing lending at the street level. "

More importantly, right now the gov is in police custody.

Bank of America: 'Paulson Plan Benefits Mostly Goldman, Morgan'

If this thing goes through, I will see it like I see 911 and Pearl Harbor. Or like the day they "fully ratified" the 16th ammendment, or created social security.

It will be a huge slide down that slippery slope and, in the long run, do NOTHING good.

Credit Crisis Review: ARMed for Failure

I blame the consumer. The reason? I rent because there is no way I was going to compete with what others were doing to buy a home. Meanwhile, I rent at 1980s rental costs. It was a no brainer, really.

Truth be told, if I had known this bubble would go up as much as it did, I still would have bought early on and then just sold last year. I suppose these things always take a bit longer to get here than you expect.

Credit Crisis Review: ARMed for Failure

I expect a lot of people who CAN make their payments to stop making them anyway in some states. Sure, you sour your credit rating, but with a few months-years of free rent and losing the albatross of being upside down to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars can make up for a damaged credit rating. Significantly so.

Shoot, you can just pay CASH for your next house...

Hitting the Reset Button On Home Mortgages

If I owned a home on which I owed $500k and it had dropped in value to $400k (and the market will be going down for another two to three years, I'm betting), even if my credit rating was over 800, last months payment would be the last one I would make. I would live in it rent free for as long as possible and simply move to a rental when necessary.

I would invest the monthly savings in gold - that I can hold in my hand - and it would be in a safe deposit box. That would be the only gold portion of my portfolio.

Which is worse, bad credit for a relatively short time, or spending the rest of my life paying off a home I could never get out from under? The home loan is a secured loan. The bank gets their "security" in the end.