Bush's conservative government

[acmanko]

is getting involved in personal finance. In my opinion , people who got these loans should not get government help. But the economy could crash.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071203/mortgage_crisis.html

[coordinatesales]

I can see both sides of this story. A few years ago, when I was in financial straits we refinanced and took some of the equity from our house to catch up the bills. The mortgage company had a fixed rate for 2 years and then became adjustable. It had an early payoff penalty for paying off earlier than 3 years. We were assured by the loan officer that the rates wouldn't go up much if any, after all look at the prime rate (which is NOT what our loan was based on). After 2 years, the rate and therefore the payments shot up hundreds of dollars a month making it unfordable for us. We refinanced again with a more ethical lender, payed the early penalty from the first loan and still wound up saving money.

We were stupid for taking out that first refinance loan. We didn't understand enough of the details and trusted the loan officer. It almost cost us everything. I take responsibility for what I did and we fixed it ourselves at considerable expense but I understand how easy it is for people to fall for these schemes.

[acmanko]

well, first off, I congratulate you on taking care of your own problems. But this fix is not really for the benefit of homeowners who got in over their head, its hidden agenda is to prop up greedy investment houses that schemed to make their fortunes off unsuspecting citizens chasing the American Dream. These loans are packaged as securities to enable greedy investors that were salivating at the mouth over the high interest rates they would recieve. not counting on unforseen rises in energy, and people not able to pay steep mortgage increases, thereby causing default. Government is not responsible for these debts, or changing laws to help private investment.

[RoBoTeq]

Bush is not very conservative at all and this issue is more proof of that fact. We have problems that have been created by many factors. A liberal government would raise taxes, give away 30% to take care of the issue and use 70% to create more beauracracy.

A conservative government would let those who can't pay suffer the consequences and bring them to their knees.

President Bush is more moderate then any president that has been in power in my lifetime. While I don't agree with some of President Bush's stands, I do believe he is a decent, moderate leader.

[jmac00]

why is this a "Bush" problem? or even a "congress" problem

The major banks have all ready said they were not going to reset many ARM. but there are some rules;

One: in order to maintain your current interest rate, you must be current on your payments.

Two: you must prove you can not afford the *new* higher rate. (How they are going to go about this, no one knows)

Now it would seem the government wants to take credit for something the banks said they would do voluntarily, BTW:the banks came up with this plan over a week or two ago.

sheesh:rolleyes:

[forged alloy]

Republicans may be anxious to address this somehow to keep it from becoming an election year issue.

This is an issue many will feel pain from right here at home, and if it can be characterized as a Republican created problem it could be devestating to them next year. It doesn't matter if in fact it is or not, just how it is generally perceived.

[bootlen]

Exactly, Robo. W is NOT a conservative. But that is not news. W is a Kennedy (JFK) type. The Dems just won't admit it because they want to claim JFK was an ultra-lib so they can say, "See? This is who we are."

[glennac]

is getting involved in personal finance. In my opinion , people who got these loans should not get government help. But the economy could crash.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071203/mortgage_crisis.html

Your portrayal of Bush's admin as conservative is funny. I guess a liberal admin would be like N. Korea's government. What would a leftest admin be like. Unreal.

[fixacr]

A thousand kudos to coordinatesales for taking care of his situation instead of sitting on his butt waiting for someone else to do it.

This subject is yet another symptom of what I believe is the biggest domestic problem facing our country today- people who believe that it is the government's job to bail them out of the consequences of stupid personal decisions.

[acmanko]

Your portrayal of Bush's admin as conservative is funny. I guess a liberal admin would be like N. Korea's government. What would a leftest admin be like. Unreal.
So, in essence you nd Bootlen voted for a liberal in the last 2 Presidential elections.

Reasoning. Kerry is Liberal, Bush is Liberal. I hope you voted.

[bootlen]

So, in essence you nd Bootlen voted for a liberal in the last 2 Presidential elections.

Reasoning. Kerry is Liberal, Bush is Liberal. I hope you voted.

W is liberal. Kerry is socialist.

[glennac]

W is liberal. Kerry is socialist.

Your kind Bootlen. I would have to add a traitor also and possibly a commie to boot.

[bootlen]

Well, he certainly qualifies for both.

[coordinatesales]

Thanks for the comments.....I can understand some people wanting help and being scammed into something not right for them but it comes down to responsibility. I was responsible for my mess, I paid the price to fix it. Other individuals are in the same mess, they have to pay the consequences. Banks and lenders are finding they are in a mess over it, guess what? THEY should pay the consequences of it. I paid for my mess. I don't want to pay again to fix someone else's.

[jmac00]

this is a pretty good article from Investors Daily Edge. This may help explain partly how the government is going to screw up our lives~~~~~EVERYONES lives:

You can thank The Federal reserve and Alan Greenspan for most of our current problems.

================================================== ==========


I’m going to attempt a simple English explanation of how the Federal Reserve acts like a feudal landlord as it creates and manages its paper products. You need to understand the basic principles and end results of Fed activities. That is much more important than wandering through the maze of their contorted mechanisms.

Principle #1: The Fed is a private corporation that has been granted a license to print money for the United States

“Bucks R Us,” if you will. The ultimate franchise. This is supposed to be Congress’ job, but they wimped out in 1913. Not that you’d want our current Congress to administrate money or manage the economy. They can hardly manage their own personal hygiene.

Their duty, per the Constitution, is to make the money and hold its value steady. The free market takes over from there. The endless booms and busts we’ve seen since 1913 are a direct result of monetary mismanagement by the Fed. Rising prices through the decades is also of their doing.

Principle #2: The Fed takes their cut on every dollar they create

Sorry, the Fed is not exactly a benevolent charitable organization. This is the ultimate “for profit” confidence game. It’s been going on for nearly a century. Here’s a quote from a 1936 Congressional bill that attempted to end the Federal Reserve:

The banks manufacture, without borrowing it, the monetary credit which they loan to the government. For every dollar they themselves contribute to the loaning process, they manufacture 10 credit dollars, and call them their own, although they base the credit dollars on human sweat and labor and productive genius that is not their own. We need to be delivered of the curse of a money system that is not owned, as a cash-credit system, by the American people.

Needless to say, this bill never passed. The Fed continues to create money out of nothing and charges the American people interest for these keyboard entries. Americans pay back this interest through the fruit of daily effort and work.

How would you like to type up trillions of dollars of paper money, loan it out, and collect the interest? Don’t try this at home.


Principle #3: There are no practical restraints to money creation

The Fed can “monetize” whatever they want. “Monetize” means creating what we use as money out of pretty much anything. In theory, an elitist banker could send the Fed six chickens and the Fed could turn over $2 billion to his buddy. Don’t laugh, they’ve done worse.

Here’s a controversial quote from the current Bucks R Us head, Ben Bernanke:

...the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost.

Yes, the Fed can produce the dollars at “essentially no cost.” Unless you take into account what that does to Jane and Joe and their currently held dollar-denominated assets. Ben has been known as “Helicopter Ben” ever since. Print the money, drop it from helicopters, and inflate your way out of any self-induced mess.

Principle #4: Inflation is a hidden tax

You’ve just seen a glimpse of whom and what creates what is commonly called “inflation.” The Masters. Every extra piece of paper funny money produced dilutes those already in existence. Prices then rise because current money is cheapened. The Fed is an instrument of inflation. It’s what they excel at most. The more money they create, the more interest they make. You’re cheated on both ends of the transaction.

This is so simple you must be extremely educated (indoctrinated) not to understand it.

Now just might be the perfect time to invest in helicopters. Ben is on the pad and only Plan H is in the playbook.

We’ll continue this discourse next week. Protect yourself. Precious metals are a prime method of protection.

Invest Resourcefully,

Rusty

================================================== =========

You can stop blaming Bush, Congress and any other politician. The Federal reserve is our single biggest enemy, and they are doing everything in there power to send our economy into a major recession. By this time next year we will have a very bad case of Inflation that is going to last several years.............get use to it, this crap has been coming for some time and it ain't going to go away anytime soon:(

[The Doctor]

The extent of the MBS mortgage-backed securities in the big picture is like 6%, even though the stats in the article below make it sound like 30% of the ARM holders are about to try to bail...

Are we suggesting that the economy will falter without intervention?

Notice that a freeze has been issued.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aUtXgB6b6ybU&refer=home

What ever happened to free trade and natural market corrections? Gov't distorts market every time it intervenes.

[acmanko]

If the Government wants to freeze rates, they should freeze the underlying cause of the proble. Oil Prices. return them to the price before the Iraq debacle and stop the bleeding at the pump.

[bootlen]

The U.S. gummint has no jurisdiction in international affairs. The "middle man" (oil marketers) are the ones who set the price of barrel oil, not the driller. Each echelon under that is victimized by these marketers. And these marketers are not located in the U.S. They can mostly be found in Europe and some in the M.E.

[acmanko]

If The Bush administration would be more dovish, the analysts that set prices for commodities would not freak out over every little incident , man made or natural.. I'll go so far as to make a prediction. When Bush's term is up the price of Oil will fall dramatically

[bootlen]

If The Bush administration would be more dovish, the analysts that set prices for commodities would not freak out over every little incident , man made or natural.. I'll go so far as to make a prediction. When Bush's term is up the price of Oil will fall dramatically

I'm gonna remind you of this. MOF, I'm pasting it to my desktop.

(This should be fun.:cool:)

[jmac00]

If The Bush administration would be more dovish, the analysts that set prices for commodities would not freak out over every little incident , man made or natural.. I'll go so far as to make a prediction. When Bush's term is up the price of Oil will fall dramatically

I predict that oil prices will go the other way, By this time next year we will be paying $4+/gal,

OPEC, sets the price of oil by controlling the amount of oil they produce on a daily basis. The Chinese are using up oil at record rates, we get 25% of our oil from Venezuela. If we have bad weather, or terrorists hit a refinery in Nigeria, the price of oil will go through the moon in a heart beat.

Bush and the US government have nothing to do with the price of oil, we could pull out of Iraq tonight, and the price will still go up.

[kim]

FDR is the poster boy for the conservative's view of a liberal.

How did he earn this title?
He brought America out of a banking crisis that makes the current "crisis" look like a torn fingernail.

How did he do it?
He did increase the size of the governemnt, but mainly he put people to work on building our infastruture.
Imagine that: putting people to work is a liberal thing and giving money away is a conservative thing.

That is the problem. Too many labels not enough leaders.
The other problem: people think the government should carry them craddle to grave.
If you are not smart enough to leave when the government says a hurricane is going to blow you away, it is the governments fault.

If you do not take advantage of the nearly free education the government provides for all of us, the government should support you.

[kim]

I can't remember the name of Adam Smith's ground breaking book on the nature of modern economics, but it is more true now than when it was written 200 years ago. (google him)

He wrote that money is a means of exchange. The boss does not pay you in milk, but you can say you earn 100 gallons of milk a week.

Inflation is a way to re-allicate scarce resources with-out makeing people feel bad. Your pay does not go down, but it does not keep up with inflation. It all means your resources are not as scarce as they used to be. But also if there are not a new stream of people becoming refrigeration techs, your resources become more scarce and your pay increases faster than inflation.

The FED does not make inflation, it tries to manage money supply and demand to control inflation. Inflation might not be good, but some inflation is inevitable.
We the people, do more to create inflation with the idea that the government owes us something. We will not put up with a congressman that does not deliver our "fair slice of the government pie". We vote his sorry ass out to get somebody more simpathetic to our preceived plite. They have to spend more and more money to get re-elected, because we all deserve the biggest slice of pie.

We also need to realize that we live in a global economy. The people that have the oil want to get as much from their resources as they can. You do the same thing when you quit a job for a better job. When we buy cheap chinese crap, we save money. In a global economy, the chinese have more american money. If they do not want things from America, that money becomes less scarce and decreases in value. The price of chinese good goes up (inflation) and we look for new ways to maximize the quantity of scarce resources we can aquire.

Money is not a concept that is easy to understand. In the old days, it meant that is how much gold you can get your hands on. Now it is more like the numbers on a thermometer. The meaning of 70F is obtuse. You know 70F when you see it,but can not tell somebody, without a degree in thermodynamics, what it means.