Time for a change

Well it looks like the economic stimulus plan will be done through giving us taxpayers a rebate. Even though I personally like the ideal of the government handing me some money and hope that people that owe me money will now pay me back (ok not that likely) I think we should all look at something and that is the fact that we did this all 6 years ago.



Since we are once again in the same but I think maybe people should look at the fact that more then likely will only be a short term fix and we need to look at the under lining problems in the American economy right now.



For example many people point to a big reason for this “economic slow down” is due to the mortgage crisis but it really goes deeper then that. A large number of people who fell victim to predatory lenders where themselves already not doing so well finically. There where a lot of people that took out mortgages to get the money to pay of bills or couldn’t make a payment when the mortgage bill went up because they either lost a job or had a job that didn’t pay to much.



The average American hasn’t really been facing an economic boon. The job creation rate has fallen below the number of people entering the job market and many of the job created don’t really pay that well.



And even for those that do have a good paying job may still be broke because of credit cards.



Until we fix those underlining issues in 5 or 6 years are just going to have to do this all over again. But since this is an election year one can hope that the new president will create policy that will foster a better economy.

Recession fix

Well Bush and Congress are going to pass something to help boost the American economy to make sure we don’t fall into a recession.



There has been much talk about what will be the best way to do this. Some think it is best to give money directly to people in the middle class. Others think giving tax cuts to business should do this. While others fill the best way to boost the economy is giving money to the poor (in things like an increase in food stamps or unemployment benefits).



I even heard some say that the money should be used to fund public work projects.



More then likely it well be done in the form of a rebate check some where around $300 to $800 giving to people in the middle class. And even though I like the ideal of getting some extra money directly into my pockets I think we will get more bang for our buck if the money was used for a public work program or giving to the poor.



Giving the money to the poor makes a lot of sense since statistically poor people will be less likely to save money then people of middle and upper classes and we want this money spent and placed into economy as fast as possible.



The public work project one can be a twofer, not only do you give jobs to people (which would take people who are un(or under)employed and give them pay checks that they will spend) but you fix our aging infrastructure (by doing things like fixing roads and bridges etc) and also create new infrastructure for a number of different things that we as a society (and the American economy) will benefit from now and in the future.

jerk who wanted $100 oil

the bbc has a report about a futures trader who is credit for why the price of oil is over $100 per barrel. The reason why he bought the oil at that price...so he can tell is grandkids that he was the first person in the world to pay $100.

those kids should have at least one of two responces.

1)That was stupid
2)your a real a'hole granddad.

to bad the bcc didn't print this guys name, but if they did I guess everyone who has to pay more at the pump will try to hunt this guy down.

They made their beds why shouldn’t we let them sleep in it?

We all know about the trouble housing marketing going on right now. The busting of the homing market has effected many people in this country. From the single mother of lower middle class income trying to figure out how she can pay the bills and keep from having her house fall under foreclosure to the CEO of large bank trying to figure out how to turn his company around since it is clear they can’t dump their subprime loans on someone else.



It’s clear that all of this trouble is effecting everyone, even if we aren’t people with these loans or part of the companies that deal with them and many economic forecast say that it’s more likely to get worst before it even begins to look like it’s well get better.



Sir the people in Washington will do (and are doing) what they think they should to make sure the impact isn’t too bad. One of the steps to done to try and advert an economic crisis is to that there has been some bailing out. Which leads to the question…



WHY THE HECK SHOULD WE BAIL THESE PEOPLE OUT? THEY KNEW THE RISK BEFORE THEY GOT INTO THIS?



At least that is something I have heard more then a few times and to be honest I am not sure if this is the best thing to do or not.



But to be honest it depends on who we are helping out, because some people I am more open to throwing a life boat then others.



I’m not sure I how much help really should go to the people/companies that sold these loans to people. Honestly the only reason I see to help them is the fear that if nothing is done this might take out some of the big players in the American Banking industry and of course crash our economy. But I’m hardest on these companies because the people working at them should have know better. They should have looked at the people who they where giving subprime loans to or more importantly when they did they should have stopped since many of those people really couldn’t (or I should say would be able in the future to be able to) afford to pay those loans at the terms set.



In fact I am even hard on our banks because they are a big reason why we are dealing with this crap right now. Example Washington Mutual pushed hard to get laws changed to make it hard for people to go into bankruptcy because of credit card debt. Now it seems that one of the reason for so money foreclosures is that people who might have gone in to bankruptcy couldn’t and so they to user their income to pay off their credit card bills instead of their mortgage.



But that is only one example there has been a lot of deregulation in the banking industry done on behest of the banking industry.





It might be because I’m a little to nice but I the people who should be helped first and foremost are those who going to lose there homes because these subprime loans. From the looks of it President Bush is going to do something to help some people who may face troubles in the future. But the bill is so narrow, that it leaves out a lot of people (like those who may have missed a payment or not really have good credit) whom maybe the people who will need the most help. Also the bill he past won’t do anything for people who already faced foreclosures because of bad loans.



Another big reason I would help them over the banks is that unlike the lenders a lot of people where not fully informed on how these loans worked and the lenders made big pushes to lure people in to taking out loans. There many things like ads aimed at poorer income people telling them that “Hey, you not think you could afford a home but we can help” or “Need money let use refinance and get you the cash you need.” It was shameful and you can still see these types of ads on air/print.



And to end this off I don’t think any help should be giving to speculators. They tried to game the system I can’t cry because they where the ones that ended up getting played. What’s worst about the speculators is the fact that the average person who is faced to the fact that they might lose their home gets mixed up with them when people talk about not wanting to help anyone who got a subprime loan.



Whatever is done to help people that are in trouble now I think it is a good ideal to regulate the banking industry so we can be sure we wont face this problem again in the future. Make it so the banks have to make sure people have the income to pay off their mortgage before they lend to them. Maybe make it so the banks should make sure that the person taking out the loan knows the terms of the loans 100%.



Honestly, because of this I clear must say we should treat the banking industry like little children. Even though there will be times that they whine about wanting something we have to be firm and tell them no from time to time because the bankers don’t really know what is good for them and this subprime loan/housing crisis is just proof of that.



And if you want more just look at credit cards.