September 28, 2008
Roger at a seminary gathering, and having had a bit too much to drink. I believe my eyes are closed!
If you haven't heard: The Federal Government has taken control of Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac.
Yahoo.com Los Angeles Times WashingtonPost CNN CNN (Rescue Cost) BBC MarketWatch USAToday
Look, the two aforementioned Government-Sponsored-Agencies hold about half of the 12 Trillion in Mortgages in the United States. In the last year, they have suffered over 10 Billion dollars in loses. The bailout here will be in the billions. The housing market will not improve in middle to late 2009 as I had predicted. I do not see it improving until 2010 at the earliest.
Deals can be found now, but the reality is that in 2009, deals will be even better if you want to purchase a home. The market is in a tailspin and will continue for the near future. I am glad that I told my clients to get out when I did. In 2005 and 2006, I recommended to my clients to sell because a correction was coming. I envisioned a ten percent correction! I figured that it would be small but that it was coming. Several did sell and reaped while others now can not sell or would sell at a value far below what it was not two years.
Why is it that financial crisis' almost always take place during Republican administrations? The Great Depression? The S&L Crisis, The Energy Crisis, The Mortgage Loan Crisis? Unemployment is up, jobs are being lost inmass. Gas prices, food prices are out of control. Why? First and foremost, we are spending beyond our means. Our debt is so huge that our currency is losing value around the world. We are spending so much for the military operations in Iraq. Why? We were wrong. The primary reason we went in was to get the WMD's. The second was destroy the link with Al Qaeda. There never were any and the link never existed.
Free Trade is code for taking good paying jobs overseas. Why destroy jobs here and send them overseas? If America has the strongest economy in the world, why must we compete? The lifting of trade barriers only serves the multi-national corporations. You want to protect good paying jobs? Protect them by raising tariffs. If we are so concerned about shoddy goods coming from China, revoke it's "Most Favored Nation" status and have that economy pay tariffs. Remember, you get what you pay for and if all you want is cheap, just don't do anything and keep going to Wal Mart. Where does all the money you spend on your necessities go? Overseas. Tariffs keep the money here, at home. If the overseas companies want to compete, why not come to America and build here, create jobs and send it back home?
You know why food prices are sky high? Ethanol baby. The Republican tact to move us to Ethanol from corn is killing us and the world right now. We are paying so much for corn to produce Ethanol that prices are skyrocketing in this give away of public funds. It actually costs more to make ethanol. Ethanol is better for the environment but you spend more to refine it than you do for oil.
Yes, I know it is a jumbled mess. I am pissed at yet another government take-over.
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September 6, 2008
WE visited the FFG-41, The U.S.S. McClusky at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Center.
