Pay down debt!

Dee I hope the stimulus package will have an effect. I do see some irony when the Government gives me back my own money and says they are giving me something. They are just refunding me something that I gave to them. In addition they don't have it to give since they spent it building bridges to nowhere but in spite of this I think it will give us a blip up.

After this blip though we have some decisions to make. Are we going to continue to allow our Congress to waste money? Are we going to try to reign in the tide of waste that our Government spends on pork to get elected. Perhaps we will realize that the waste and wild spending by both the parties that run our country needs to end. Perhaps we will look at the upcoming elections not just on the Presidential side but how our legislator for our particular area voted on pork.

I for one am tired of borrowing from my grand kids to support the entire world. It is time to stop this madness. We do need a stimulus but perhaps the stimulus is in voters rather than the pittance they will receive. Perhaps the real thing that should be addressed is people looking at our situation and realizing that elected officials have not done what is best for us.

As a Capitalist and someone that believes in the Constitution, I have to say that our founders are probably sitting up in their graves wondering how we went so wrong. The government was established to protect not provide.  We have so many entitlements now that our economy is saddled to the point of no return. Taxes will go up, the business sector will go down because of it but we will survive. The price we pay will be dependant on how people look at their responsibility to be informed.

When you do your budget you look at what you can afford. Our Government looks at it a lot different. They say let's do this and this and we will hide this tax and pay for it later. There is No party out there that can take pride in the elected because there is no one out there crying foul. Making it known that the fat remains and the budget is bloated. Until you have legislators that care about something other than bringing back pork and getting their piece of the pie, we will have the same.

The Mantra of the Presidential election has been change. I want change too! I want everyone of the elected officials currently in office out because they have shown they can not do the job. If they could, why haven't they? Just some food for thought!

I just got my check Gary

The NAR congratulated Congress !!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22846111/displaymode/1107/s/2/framenumber/4/

As usual, too little, too late.  We need in addittion to a balanced budget mandate a mandate that Goverment workers get no special retirment programs, health care, etc. that "we the people" don't get.

We need to have a Fed Chairman and Treasury Secretary that get a LOW salary so they know what Americans are feeling and whether or not we are in a recession.

I am not an economist, but I can tell you we are in at least the 2nd full quarter of a recession.  If these dufuses think we are not in one, have not been in one, then I am scared to think what their version of a recession is.

Gary I am on board with you---let's stop stealing our grand childrens futures.

As always IMHO.

Gary, I am not a fatalist, but I do think that we have come so far down this road, it may take a substantial crisis to compell the kind of change that you are seeking. The consensus of opinion out there is that our country is moving more and more to the philosophical center, that this election will be determined by that center.  This means (IMHO) that the trend will probably be toward more government (spending) not less. The only bright spot is that one candidate, (the one that says he didn’t vote for the Bush tax cuts, was because it did not simultaneously limit spending), is purported to believe in restraining government spending.

The inherent problem in all this is that everyone asks their representative “What did you do for us?” Each one likes to answer that they got millions appropriated for this or that project that will improve our state immeasurably.  If they answer, “Well I helped defeat that bill to reduce overall government spending!”  Their opponent next time uses that to defeat him, because our state didn’t get our share of the pie! The citizens want the representative from the “other states” to stop spending, not in their own.

I firmly believe that the Constitutional Amendment making Senators popularly elected instead of appointed by the State Legislature greatly enhanced the control of the Federal Government and reduced the power of the individual States.

But to me, the biggest impediment to change is the seniority system that exists within Congress! They have obviously created it to make it much less likely that we will “throw the bums out”.  The difference in influence that a freshman representative has, vs. a committee chair, make it very difficult to make drastic change, even when it is so desperately needed, especially in less populous states.

Gary, I think these factors all sum up… “…why haven't they?”  In the current political environment and for as far as the eye can see, I am not optimistic. Without some catastrophic event as a catalyst I see only the status quo.  About the best we can hope for is a President with a veto stamp! Hint, hint.

We're borrowing from foreign entities to stimulate our economy? And fund a war?

It's called Borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.  Or....paying the Visa with the Master Card so we can continue to pay the minimum and use the Discover, while running up the AMEX.

What's wrong with THIS picture?

What Dollar?

http://www.linktv.org/video/2045?gclid=CIap8-uJy5ECFQOllgodbXeh3A

Orlando Listings in Euros!

http://www.usaflorida.eu/orlandoslides.html

It really is a buyers market, but not for the dollar.. maybe we can just print some more and just let the grand children pay.

http://www.usaflorida.eu/whybuynow.html

America On Sale.

hmmm ... what Dollar ...

when I came to the US in 1999 to study, the exchange rate I had to use to pay for everything here was $1 to almost 40 Czech Crowns. You know what it is now? ... 8 years later? ... $1 to 16.7 Czech Crowns. Does it mean that Crown has gotten so much stronger? No way ... the dollar went down the drain ... especially the last few years. I ended up following the American dream right into the recession. :-(

I have friends who've lived here fr 10 or 12 years, worked here, paid taxes but always were planning on moving back to Europe. Now they lost a ton of money in the real estate market (if they were lucky enough to even sell) and whatever money they are left with doesn't buy them very much back there. Thanks to the Dollar falling so badly the last few years, for my friends it pretty much means after working hard for years, they ended up taking an instant  60% paycut on whatever they saved up.

Do I believe that the stimulus package will help? Not really. The smarter people will pay off some debt, the rest will just go and buy themselves a big screen tv (or something of that kind). Hopefully the FHA loans will bring some ease but nothing substantial.

Well, Gary, how do you really feel. I agree will you. I pay into taxes and they give me a small % back. What a great countary we live in, you know? WOW...

Dee: I'll use the money to buy MORE stock in Fannie Mae (FNM) its about $30 a share and pays 6% dividend.

I did say the smarter people will use it to pay off some debt ... I consider myself one of the smarter ones ... debt it is!

I'm with Candice and Michaela...paying down debt...though it does bother me that in order to do this we are borrowing the money from China and then we have to pay it back WITH INTEREST!!!  Not good!

But as others have written, I don't see it changing anytime soon and since everyone, but one, has a plan that will increase government spending looks like it will be more of the same for some time.

But...since I don't live my life according to what's happening with our government and my life is firmly grounded in Biblical principles, I'll keep a watchful eye and just keep moving along in my business, which I thoroughly enjoy - in spite of this so-called recession!!!!

Dee and all the rest, tomorrow will provide a new opportunity. Will we change what has happened in the past and make it better. Yes, I think we will, because the will of the many overcomes the will of the power. Each and every day I hope for the best and understand I will not receive it but hope is still burning bright. Someday the elected will look at the total and say what did our founders want, then they will realize they wanted fairness and a way for all to exist. They didn't want to make it easier for anyone or slant the guidelines to favor the privileged they wanted everyone to enjoy the chance. You make of it what you will. Is their a fairer system? I can come up with one but maybe you can find better one and I would love to hear it.

You see to make people more productive, you need to educate them, motivate them and get them to believe they can be. If you fail in anyone of those areas, you fail! Our present system fails in all areas, it is time for a change but it is less government, not more, since I have seen what they can do!

You see our founders were not rich or some elite class they were as we are, just ordinary people with an extrodinary view of how the world should operate. They developed a plan that said you have a government to protect the people. They never said to provide for the people. Somewhere a long the way we lost tract of their intentions. We decided that it was the Governments role to provide. (FDR) We then went on to say that this and that was also the responsibility of the government, although the founders never perceived it. It wasn't long before we had an electorate that was controlled by the programs that the government spent. That is called entitlements.

There was something in the bible that said teach the man to fish rather than give him a fish, I am not someone that is Biblical or knows the bible but those words like the commandments are pretty profound. The said our present plan is we have opted for feeding rather than teaching. We have opted for the easy way v/s the more challenging route.

I will never change things because they have gone much too far. I can only hope to enlighten those that are blind to the reality. Our Government was not and is not the provider. You are! They manufacture nothing and produce nothing. They can not or can they change the economy. They can hurt it by taxing those that will provide the jobs of tomorrow. Since the people with money to invest are the ones paying the highest amount of taxes and providing at the same time the money to open the next new business. Does it make sense to take that capital away and give it to congress to build the next bridge to nowhere?

Dee: Look what I've done, I've created a monster!!  Beside Candice no one said what they are doing with the stipend.

Ok Dee, here is what I will do with my new found fortune.

I will pay my REALTOR own MLS the almost $400 bucks in dues coming up, and save the extra $200 bucks for next year board dues..this should give the housing slump the boost we all are looking for.

Better yet maybe NAR /and there Owned MLS can match the stipend and waive there charges to help with the stimulus package that would help me save around $900 bucks to pump back into economy with my $600, of course my wife will also contribute her $600 into the mix to.

Now that is my  stimulus package

What say you NAR?

Central bankers and finance ministers from the world’s top-10 economic powers, huddled behind closed doors in Tokyo last weekend, trying to work out a joint strategy to rescue the global stock markets from another possible meltdown. Roughly $6-trillion was lost on global stock markets in the month of January, triggered by the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, and a US housing slide, that could topple the giant US economy into recession.

After surveying the global landscape, the G-7 warned, “Downside risks still persist, including further deterioration of the US residential housing markets and tighter credit conditions.” Bank of Italy chief Mario Draghi added, “Risks are further shocks may lead to a prolonged recurrence of the acute liquidity pressures experienced last year. We face a prolonged adjustment, which could be difficult,” he warned.

Banks and brokerage firms around the world face $400 billion in write-offs of toxic sub-prime US mortgages, said German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck on Feb 11th. “The crisis that spread from the US property market to global financial markets may continue well into 2008,” he warned. The US credit crisis is no longer just a sub-prime mortgage problem. Many prime loans made in recent years also allowed borrowers to pay less initially, but with higher adjustable payments in later years.

With US home prices falling and lenders clamping down, homeowners with solid credit are also under the same financial stress as those with sub-prime credit. Over 40% of all mortgages issued from late 2005 to early 2007 are based on adjustable rates, so about $45 billion would reset each month this year. The expected tax rebates from Washington will cover less than two months of home payments.

Wall Street fueled the growth of sub-prime lending by packaging $1.8 trillion of risky home loans into bundled securities, and then marketing them as high-grade investments. But with US mortgage foreclosures set to top 1 million this year and home prices falling at the fastest pace since the Great Depression, the same Wall Street investment banks who profited by putting buyers into properties they couldn’t afford, are begging central banks and governments to manage the bust.

In Chicago, futures contracts for the Case-Shiller Home Price Index in the 20-biggest US cities are 9.4% lower from a year ago, and the slide might get worse as $550 billion of sub-prime adjustable rate mortgages adjust upwards this year. The Fed’s rate cutting spree since September, slashing the fed funds rate by 2.25%, might help by reducing the reset rate for many adjustable-rate loans.

The big threat to US household spending is primarily focused on the slumping housing market, but a double-barreled assault can be disastrous, so if the US stock markets keeps sliding, it would probably tip the economy into recession. And a US recession could undermine the global economy, like tumbling dominoes, since the US consumer buys about 20% of the world’s $14.5 trillion of exports.

Central banks are flooding the markets with paper, and nobody takes the dollar, the Euro, the yen, or the pound seriously. Investors are turning to gold because it is the only true store of value. The Arab oil kingdoms and Asian exporting nations are importing inflation through their currency pegs and dirty floats, but their patience with the US dollar is near the snapping point.

The US Treasury and the Fed are risking a disastrous replay of the 1970’s, when high oil prices fueled double-digit inflation. Every time the Fed lowered rates to boost job growth, inflation took off, causing a vicious price spiral. The Fed let inflation rage for so long that it took a strict monetarist approach, adopted by Paul Volcker in 1979 to finally defeat inflation. However, the cost of subduing the inflation monster was a deep recession, with unemployment hitting 11% in 1982.

Excessive monetary accommodation just takes the economy from bubble to bubble to bubble. This time around, the Fed’s devaluation of the dollar, based upon Mr. Greenspan’s 2001-02 blueprints, has unleashed the biggest wave of commodity inflation seen since the 1970’s.

AL

Bonds and

SP500 Trader

( Downtrend

continues)

Michaela:

"hmmm ... what Dollar ...

"when I came to the US in 1999 to study, the exchange rate"

I have had this New currency below since 2004 when it was at 4,000 dinar to one US!

Its around 1,200 dinars to one US now and due to open up on the world markets (OIL) Dinars = Dollars.

From what I have read in 2010 the oil producing countries will tie the Oil to a basket of currencies not just Dollars ( world weakness over the years)

http://www.cbiraq.org/cbs5_a.htm

What most do not know that before 1990 the old dinar traded at $3.31 US to one dinar !!! (OIL) again back then..

You can actually buy stock on the ISX stock market in Iraq  Right NOW.. http://www.isx-iq.net/ and I did buy some in bank stock.

Like they use to say years ago,

"A Dollar Don't Buy Much Anymore" and they were right!

Vance, I need an agent in Pensacola, Fl for a referral. Do you work that area? If so, contact me.

The best stimulus package is less government, a free market, and returning to the principles set forth in the United States Constitution.