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StumbleLETTER TO THE EDITOR:
$700 billion will buy us problematic future
Sunday, Oct. 5, 2008 | 2:06 a.m.
It appears the U.S. economy is largely being held hostage by low-interest loans for exorbitantly— and illogically — priced homes and by the failed, endless and costly wars in Iraq and elsewhere.
To truly resolve this crisis, we should consider:
• The $700 billion of relief approved by Congress is merely a “quick fix” that will further add to our catastrophic national debt (in the trillions), which will cause further devaluation of the dollar. This will increase the price of energy, which we mostly import, and food.
• As banks find it harder to maintain liquid assets, interest rates should increase. Interest rates are far too low, which spurred the explosion of home prices. By discouraging an increase in the interest rate for borrowing money, we are discouraging saving and limiting the availability of capital to banks.
• We are not addressing the root causes of this crisis: Our leaders are desperately borrowing from our future without regard for the long-term consequences to our devastated economy. Where has the concept of fiscal conservatism gone?
Let the failing companies fail. “Survival of the fittest” is what makes economies improve. That’s the spirit of the free market.
We can’t reinforce selfish and careless behavior of lenders, or of borrowers for that matter. We’ve got to stop the culture of spending to “keep up with the Joneses.”
We need more regulation of chief executives to prevent problems rather than have to cure them. Don’t abrogate the responsibilities of these “elites” in creating this mess. They must be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Foreclosures or not, we must be wary of the entire economy and not just the real estate sector. If people lose their jobs because of increasing taxes and food and energy costs, there will be far more foreclosures. We also have to stop our expensive, quixotic adventurism abroad and focus on the really difficult problems at home.
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I agree with you about letting failing companies fail but remember, fannie and freddie are 80 percent of the home mortgages in this country, it would be a bit more than a sting if we let them fail. People who would have the absolute benefit of experiencing the great depression to its fullest just are not around anymore, or,
really old. You are right, the fat cat overpaid CEO's with zero accountability never changes....... Fiscal Conservatism? Go ahead, vote for Barack subprime Obama and company and Capitalism will suffocate with his re-distribution ideas which include national health care, that price tag will make this 700 billion dollar bailout look like a scooby snack.
By the way our total bailout dollars so far add up to 1.8 trillion, remember they have been pumping billions in to the financial market before this little package. (bear stearns, fannie, freddie, aig, fha, jp morgan etc. are not included in the 700 billion)
I always get a kick out of people who will continue to say "failed war". what difference does it make? Its water under the bridge, get over it and move on, We went in its what we did and its measure of success is..........kind of hard to figure but to say it failed is not fair to any of the soldiers who went their or the iraqi people, let them decide. Getting rid of saddam and his evil regime is no way a bad thing, to say "failed war" means? Anyway we spent the money and people have given lives, out of respect for them i would like to think we can find successes out of the war. (its more than unpatriotic to say your kid went over there and got killed for absolutely nothing, he did not help anyone when he died) Wars have never been popular and presidents during wars are even less popular.
You say the economy could help cause more foreclosures.. well..... it is.
Wait just a little while you'll see a lot more
homes and businesses fail. I predicted the bank failures long ago, and i predict we will be seeing large corrections across the board, more foreclosures, more businesses closing,(watch this one, the strip malls are gonna look like swiss friggin cheese) and big lifestyle changes.
Enjoyed your letter, most of it anyway.
Barack was one of the henchman for acorn, membership over 100,000. this group has been the proponent for subprime and uses gangster tactics to force banks into making risky loans, barney franks and obama have both supported this group.
Check out Barack's questionable friends, do your own due diligence. economy was good during clinton because of the reagan administration, that is a fact. wallstreet fiasco's occurred during clintons oversight as well, by the time bush stepped in those full blown problems were all ready to pop, some did. I apologize i mis-quoted fannie and freddie.
You build from the bottom up in third world countries, not established countries.
8 years of bush did not create an economy.
Reagans plan of trickle down worked, If it were not him clinton would have had more to do than sit around the white house playing with interns.
Day one Bush stepped in it was one problem after another we have had from democrat spending. How long does it take to have success in fixing an economy? more than 8 years gordon.
Say what you want gordon but how can you have the same preacher for 25 years and not really know him too well? All of a sudden Barack does'nt want anything to do with him. Obama worked acorn at street level. What year did the internet bubble pop? As I said, Clintons presidency followed solid economic policy of reagan, thats what got things on track, 8 years of clinton and bush walked into a mess.
Gordon.....thank you for reconizing that Bush's first year recession was a product of the Clinton administration and Clinton's boom years were a result of Bush Sr.
The Bush's 1st year, there was a recession that started in Clinton's last quarter.
Jimmy Carter did an excellent job running the government...LOL
Also, I think you have to have your head bury very very deep in the sand if you do not know that the Democrats have been for decades pushing, pushing, pushing and pushing the sub-prime market so that minorities can get into houses.
Every time someone uses the word minority they are automatically a bigot, please explain why.
The other day I said poor people and I was a racist, I am confused about that.
Look at nances post you say he said "all minorities" when clearly he did not.
typical example of spin and twist.
Gordon,
there was more than one person driving vehicles here, you are correct that sub-prime did not take off until 2003, when clearly they started relaxing the no-doc (liar loan) loan.
It went from a little doc to almost no doc, these were pushed by many a democrat, I never said guilt is 100 percent democrat but these loans in particular, are pretty much the problem for the mess, by the time it was recognized as to what was going on, nobody knew the magnitude, even alan greenspan said there was no problem, of course he snuck out the back door before the we the mushroom cloud was visible to everyone.
but you cannot say bush did this. This is clearly a faux by many with including democrats,
Barney Frank and Barack yours truly Obama.
Let em all fail. It won't destroy our economy and we will recover much faster.
FOrce the Federal Reserve to combat inflation only and forget about raising and lowering rates like they're playing with the accelerator of a sports car.
Gordon, regarding the deficit you are off. 1) You haven't adjusted for inflation and 2) you haven't adjusted for social programs under non appropriated spending policies adopted by congress and set through formulas.
The bulk of debt is from social welfare policies.
...social welfare spending that has seen drastic increases under Reagan and Bush II btw.
JERUSALEM -- The board of a nonprofit organization on which Sen. Barack Obama served as a paid director alongside a confessed domestic terrorist granted funding to a controversial Arab group that mourns the establishment of Israel as a "catastrophe" and supports intense immigration reform, including providing drivers licenses and education to illegal aliens.
The co-founder of the Arab group in question, Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi, also has held a fundraiser for Obama. Khalidi is a harsh critic of Israel, has made statements supportive of Palestinian terror and reportedly has worked on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization while it was involved in anti-Western terrorism and was labeled by the State Department as a terror group.
In 2001, the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based nonprofit that describes itself as a group helping the disadvantaged, provided a $40,000 grant to the Arab American Action Network, or AAAN, for which Khalidi's wife, Mona, serves as president. The Fund provided a second grant to the AAAN for $35,000 in 2002.
Obama was a director of the Woods Fund board from 1999 to Dec. 11, 2002, according to the Fund's website. According to tax filings, Obama received compensation of $6,000 per year for his service in 1999 and 2000.
Obama served on the Wood's Fund board alongside William C. Ayers, a member of the Weathermen terrorist group which sought to overthrow of the U.S. government and took responsibility for bombing the U.S. Capitol in 1971.
Ayers, who still serves on the Woods Fund board, contributed $200 to Obama's senatorial campaign fund and has served on panels with Obama at numerous public speaking engagements. Ayers admitted to involvement in the bombings of U.S. governmental buildings in the 1970s. He is a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
OBAMA LIES ABOUT RELATIONSHIP WITH TERRORISTS
In spite of Sen. Barack Obama's claims to the contrary, the Democratic presidential nominee had a close working relationship with former Weathermen terrorist leader William Ayers when the two served alongside each other on a hundred-million-dollar education foundation, according to the group's own archived records.
The records also show Obama's and Ayers' foundation granted money to radical leftist activist causes.
News reports, archived records, interviews and Ayers' own curriculum vitae document that Ayers was the founder of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, or CAC, which bills itself as a school reform organization. Ayers also served as co-chairman of the Chicago School Reform Collaborative, one of the two operational arms of the CAC, from its formation in 1995 until 2000.
In 1995, Obama was appointed as the CAC's first chairman.
In response to a query by National Review Online writer Stanley Kurtz, the Obama campaign issued a statement claiming Ayers was not involved with Obama's "recruitment" to the CAC board. The statement said Deborah Leff and Patricia Albjerg Graham, who served as presidents of other foundations, recruited Obama.
Last April, Obama dismissed Ayers as just "a guy who lives in my neighborhood," and "not somebody who I exchange ideas with on a regular basis."
But Kurtz reviewed the CAC archives at the Richard J. Daley Library at the University of Illinois at Chicago, which houses CAC board meeting minutes and other documentation from the education foundation. He found that along with Leff and Graham, Ayers was one of a working group of five who assembled the initial board of the CAC, which hired Obama.
Jim, according to actual economists (not the "analysts" who are all over Fox, etc.), that recession started in March, 2001, not Clinton's last quarter.
However, on or about December 13, 2000, Cheney & Co. were all over the so-called "liberal media" screeching about THE RECESSION THE RECESSION THE RECESSION.
Unfortunately for them (and those of you who would re-write history as you've done with the St. Ronnie of the Raygun years), it hadn't quite begun yet.
Gordon,
Yes democrats pushed subprime. To increase home ownership Democrats really advanced the idea of getting people into "affordable housing"
"Affordable housing" was achieved through "Creative financing" which was given to people with below average or bad credit since the government required loans to be given to low income bad credit Americans.
So yes, read increasing homeownership as increasing subprime mortgages.
Also note, that by artificially trying to increase home ownership you drive up the price of homes faster than they otherwise would have gone.