This makes me sick!

[xschop]

The point

but guys, you are missing the point

.......My point was my Grandfather's point of NOT using credit....cheap or not....There is a verse in the Bible to "Owe no man"...It is the reason why we are bankrupt as a nation now.....

[fredintoon]

Everybody owes somebody

Hi Chop,
your grandpa was right, so is the Bible, even Shakespeare, "Neither a lender nor a borrower be." But you have to live somewhere and for most that means buying a house or a condo. Unless you win a lottery buying a place to live means getting a mortgage. And there you are, sweating the interest rates on the perhaps 1/4million that you owe some grasping faceless expletive deleted.

[xschop]

going above and beyond

beyond......your means that is...... I can honestly say that I have only taken out a loan on homes before....all were paid off early because I never fell into the trap that a few friends are in.....(the mortgage companies all wanted you to get the biggest house possible with just stated income)......

[psycoreefer]

I agree that credit is a major problem right now. Most folks owe 5 or six figures not including a home.
I can say that I'm in better shape then most and struggling to get out of debt but sometimes you have no choice but to borrow.

I currently owe on:
My house
My student loans
SWMBO student loans
and One Credit card with a small balance.

What sucks is that there is no way for an average person like me, from a middle class family to start adult life without an incredible amount of debt, and once your under its hard to get out.

If you want a good job you have to have college, if you want college you have to pay "out of pocket" because the free money is all for the poor and the minority. College is so expensive that despite working 2 part time jobs all but my freshmen year I owe close to $20,000.00 and SWMBO even more because she didn't work.

Then you graduate, now you have to spend the next 10 years of your life giving every dime you earn to the loan companies, its hard not to get overwhelmed and say screw it, I mean once your behind you might as well enjoy having the things you want while the banks suck you dry.

If they want to improve the "indebtedness" of America make college free, so people can start life with a clean slate and have the opportunity to save and spend cash instead of borrowed money.

[planedick]

Let them crash

The DOW is only 30 companies. Mostly big banks and such. We have stock in the medical equipment industry, MDT & BEC and when the big 777 hit we lost $0.30 on stock worth about $70/share. Retiement is close here too.

I think it would be better for the FED to bail out homeowners by freezing all foreclosures and paying half of the difference between the market price and the financed price to the bank, give the homowner a new mortgage with a 7% rate for 30 yrs and the remainder of the difference to be an extension at the end of the 30yr mortgage. Would save the economy, bail out wall street and save the homeowners too. For sure would cost lots less and be fair to all. Please use your contacts to further the plan to help the homeowners and not just the wall street rich. I have sent e-mail to my representives, but I don't have much faith that they will even get it.

[Korr]

Thanks for this thread guys. It is a VERY good read and CHEERS to Bobby Jindal! Three people resigned AHAHAHAHAHAH! This thread reminds me of that movie Lions for Lambs. Check it out if you have not read the book or seen the movie.

[Montreux_Blue]

Re: going above and beyond

Originally posted by xschop
beyond......your means that is...... I can honestly say that I have only taken out a loan on homes before....all were paid off early because I never fell into the trap that a few friends are in.....(the mortgage companies all wanted you to get the biggest house possible with just stated income)......

I try to pay cash for everything and only have one regular credit card; use it for ebay, paypal, online stuff, hotel; and a gas credit card that sits in my truck just in case I don't have cash. I pay off the whole balance on them right after I use it. Paid cash for my truck and we will have our house paid off in 18 more months, been paying for it for 18 months so far. We put in about $3,500 a month on the mortgage and budget everything else with about $10,000 is savings for the unexpected. You just have to think about how much money you can save (roughly $200,000+ that we will save in interest) and make a sacrifice for a few years. Then it's easy street!

[xschop]

bailout plan

I bailed out of my last mortgage......I bought a home that was going into foreclosure in 2001 and paid it off in 2006.....The guy I bought it from drove off from closing in an Escalade....I guess he has some square footage there....

[xschop]

Comrades!

The socialistic bill passed at the Kremlin, oh I mean Congress then onto the Kremlin.....gotta get my Soviet departments straight for the new era.....

[mstic2000]

I think everyone should see this at least once. It shines some light on the current situation....

The Secret History of the Credit Card

[xs11jack]

My turn

to rant a bit. I too, am burned up about the bailout. In the last 15 years or so, Congress has totally disregarded the voters and has gotten so out of hand that I think that the only way out is term limits. Missouri has a bunch on the state level, but not the national level. The key bunch of congressional mafia, Pelosi and her thugs are doing just as they please and are giving the taxpayer the finger! Each state has to get serious about term limits on their senators and congressmen. With the stolen taxpayers money in their pocket, there is no way that they will be voted out of office. Now here is something that most people either ignore or don't know about. Back in the Sixty's, the bankers got to gether and said we are going to give the young wage earning couples instant gratification. How did they do this? Simple, on mortgages they added the earning power of the working wife. Think about it!! Now a twenty something couple could get a loan on a house that ordinarily took twenty years of work and saving to buy. And now the working wife had her own credit card and the huge debt that went with it. All those mortgages hinged on the two person income. The wife could not stay home and have children. If she did become pregnant, she had to pay a babysitter to raise the kid because of the mortgage credit cards and cars all were hanging over their heads. Now instant gratification is normal in the population. Credit, credit, credit. Gotta have it NOW. Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac catered to that gratification urge, and now everyone is in trouble. Did you hear or read Nancy Pelosi's speech before congress the first time congress voted on the bailout? Basically she said that only if the republicans vote for it should the Democrats vote for it too because that way, the Democrats have the republicans to blame. And that is what you will hear come election time. Well, there you have the Smith political theory course 101. So vote for term limits......
Jack (throw them out) Smith

[mstic2000]

yup.....if the bailout helps, which I really doubt, everybody will try and take credit for it. If it fails everybody will be blaming each other.......LOL

[planedick]

Simple fact`

The media, and everyone else it seems, forgets that the Democrats are in control of the situation. They keep blaming the Bush administration when in fact the congress makes the rules and policy. The only thing Bush can do is sign it or veto it. Why can't the American people see through this? The Democrats blame the Bush administration when they are the ones responsible for the problems. The Democratic voters consist of mostly poor people who are uneducated about the process and the congress can do what they want because the voters don't know any better. Additionally, the Democratic voters keep growing because the Democratic congress keeps making more and more people poor which increases the voter base. The basic differences are the Democrats want to increase the taxes and control over the masses and the Republicans want to decrease taxes and control. Tax big business? That only sends the business elsewhere. They cry because business people make too much money. I ask you, who gives you a job, the poor man or the rich man?

IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECCESSARY TO HAVE A REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT WHEN THE CONGRESS IS CONTROLLED BY THE DEMOCRATS AND VISA VERSA OTHERWISE THEY TEND TO "RUN AMUCK"

[Jerry]

Actually, the Republicans controlled the House for 2 years under Clinton, then 6 years under Bush, total 8 years running. During the same time, Republicans controlled the Senate for 2 years under Clinton and 4 years under Bush, 6 years running. During the Bush administration the Republicans controlled the Presidency, House, and Senate for 4 years. Even today, the Democrats hold the senate by 1 vote. There are 2 independent seats (1 is Joe Lieberman, often mentioned as a potential Republican VP choice.) One cannot say the Democrats "control" the Senate, even today. For details of all predidents and who controlled what brances of govt., see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidents_and_control_of_congress

This mess is lesss the Democrats fault than Republican. The Republican party has always been about lowering coprorate taxes and "getting government out of the way", i.e. free markets will regulate themselves. It is under the Republican Party's watch that CDS (Credit Default Swaps) became the prefered instrument of investments, aided by the fact that there was no regulation on them. Excellent Newsweek article at: http://www.newsweek.com/id/161199

Then there is this from Marketplace, April 2008:

"Robert Rubin, President Clinton's Treasury Secretary, has proposed treating credit insurance policies the same way stocks and bonds are regulated. That means licensing traders, just like stockbrokers. Requiring that traders have reserves to cover sales or defaults. I talked to one former regulator who warns that, you know, setting up government oversight isn't going to be easy. Michael Greenberger was at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 2000, back when Congress deregulated credit swaps, and Greenberger says that the investment banks are going to lobby extremely hard against any attempt to make the government a market referee. " (Bold emphasis added by me.) Test of interview is at http://marketplace.publicradio.org/d...02/cds_regs_q/

Clinton warned the Republican-contolled House and Senate that there was going to be a poblem with CDS; the Republicans went ahead and de-regulated them in 2000.

So don't tell me the Democrats are responsible for this mess. It is a Republican issue through and through. Don't know why anyone would want to elect another Repulbican to the Presidency when it is the Republicans (McCain voted for the deregulation) who created this meltdown.

We keep hearing that less government is the answer, tax breaks will create jobs (Bush has passed tax cuts for the last 6 years, funny that we have lost over 700,000 jobs this year alone and the projections are this will get worse) and McCain has no solution other than to continue the Bush policies. McCain can blame Wall Street for "greed and corruptuion" alll he wants; anyone who has looked into this issue at all knows this is not true and McCain only pandering to voters because he can't admit he was wrong to vote with other Republicans to to deregulate CDS. He's running as if he were not a Republican, but his policies and voting record on deregulation are Republican through and through.

Are you better off today than you were 8 (or even 4) years ago?

I think not.

[mstic2000]

One of the salesmen where I work went out to do an estimate today. 10 minutes before he got there the couple opened their mail and found out they lost $9000.00 from Merrill Lynch this month. While the salesman was there the guy was having a heart attack and they had to call 911!

I've already lost $750 commission in sales this week because of this economic B.S.!

I think the chaos & pandamonium will soon begin!