Muscatine

G'morning Max, others,

There I go again getting into dutch for skipping a few details. I have to give you credit, at times you do give me something else to consider. I'll agree that when a, "just getting by" potential borrower sits before the loan officer and gets the skinny,.... they(assuming it's a couple) listen to the newly empowered lender's offerings, and they should have walked away. Not many did....nor seemed to realize (not just guessing here) that the attractive A.R.M. they were quoted would likely end up costing them everything. The lender did have a responsibility to point that out unless..........he didn't have the integrity to do so. Granted you, me, or  some others........ we might know to give it more thought than some. But still, we are talking about 40% or less of the total foreclosures of those I spoke of. 60% or more were those defaulting upon major development mortgages. Millions upon millions at a time. Traders speculations only exacerbated it further.  Then as I tried (poorly) to get across, if it hadn't been for the underhanded legislating and mindless passage of these bills/acts, it never would have happened in the first place. It was exactly why our finance system was modified 70 years ago. There are those who cannot see that far ahead, and would put their finances in jeopardy as easily. But if anyone disputes that we were better off eight years ago, then they were children then or a prisoner. Today,.... well as of this past July, the cost of energy has had a greater impact on LITERALLY EVERYsort of goods and services, not only here in America, but globally. 50% increases in most cases, than almost everything else over the last decade. So by that measure alone, what seemed do-able then isn't today. The mortgage system has been another victim of the out of control energy industry, also directly affected by the weakening of commodities and futures regulation the was established after the depression.(irrefutable)?

I must agree in Principal with you folks. I, as a potential borrower would give some serious thought before I signed "that" contract. Especially with all the uncertainty surrounding our economy, and manufacturing leaving the country to the tune of 10 MILLION since NAFTA(Clinton's signature) was passed. Although the NAFTA "Slick Willie" signed isn't the NAFTA of today. But I have to agree with Mr. Parot, "That giant sucking sound" WAS and still IS... "All our jobs going south of the border."  But a president of today, should have known better that to just keep adding fuel to that fire by signing another five "free trade" corporate giveaways. These things are the irrefutable I speak of.  The hyperbole I sometimes am guilty of, isn't within the real issues behind this mess. There are culprits hidden and in the open behind all this. You might be aware of an old saying, "There's a flea for every dog"? it's not just as easy as it looks. To simply say,  those losing a home is their own fault. NOT all of them could see it coming, but I agree with you and others, there are some/ perhaps many of that 40% that could have. Even Gates got hit hard this past quarter. 

I really wish we could get off the "Crude Trail" and get to financing a national push into Wind, Solar, Compressed Natural Gas, and electric cars again. Even the Diesel VW our daughter drove a few years ago, got over 50 MPG, But I understand up in this area that might be a tough sell in the winter.

Thank you for not poking fun at my name. It's why I go by Rose/Rosy (mother's first)I was happy not to have gotten my grandmother's (first), Mable.

God Bless

here is a thought. when I was just a young boy in grade school my mom and pops worked at IH. they were bringing home close to 4000 a month, damn good money then. pops told me at that time a person could quit IH and be hire into Deere or case the same day. mom and pops first new car was a 1975 Chevy van(man I loved the van) that pops paid 7500. their second new car was a 1976 Monte Carlo for 4500. gas was less than 75 cent. now I am in a licensed  trade and the top of the pay is around 20.00 (an hour), cars are now close to 20 grand and gas is down to almost 2.00. hell a candy bar cost 1.09. there is no quit a good job and find another the same day. because of the paper money system and the fact that they keep creating new money and credit the value drops, which in turn raises the prices, yet it does not affect the hourly workers pay. as the factory jobs head south and east(china) we are left with less high paying jobs and more people to compete for the lower paying jobs. then take in consideration of the unlicensed construction worker facing competition against illegals who will work for less and you spell disaster for our economy. you have these elected officials that are passing bills that help the insurance, credit, and corporations and this is what we get. as Jefferson stated " allow private banks to print your money and watch as the banks and the corporations grow up around you until your grand children wake up homeless. why did we reward the banks for these foreclosures and not help the people, would that not have helped the banks in turn. these guys play loaning games with the citizens and messed up the whole system and we reward their behavior. all these corporate higher ups rake in large salaries and we get stuck paying the bill. I think our elected officials should shoulder some of if not a major part of the blame !

Good morning,

The first car I drove was a 40 Mercury coupe. My father had a 36 Chevrolet step-side pickup truck. I could never drive that thing. Mother never drove anything her entire life. When we got married, we had a green 1966 Thunderbird. Oh heavens I loved that car. It got horrid mileage, but as you said, gas was cheap and we were doing well in the world..... for southern "hicks." What times the sixties were. Plenty to do, the sexual revolution hit like a bull in a china shop. Food was plentiful and cheap. Houses were going up like fox-tail. I smoked then and that was cheap. Martin(hubby) loved Peach Schnapps (not to excess) TV blossomed like never before and then the war hit. We lost family and the country got all weird, hippies and dopers. War protesters and then Nixon pulled us out. A loss for us some said. Anyway we got most our family back, not all intact for a couple, but that's another story. But oh how I loved that time in our history.

I think your point is clear, anyway to me. The economy was much better with our electeds' in check. I recall my father just hated Jimmy Carter because the farming industry was put in jeopardy after the Arabs took us to task. But after some years under Reagan he finally figured out that it was actually the Nixon/Ford years that set the stage for that mess. But father didn't live through all eight years of Reagan and Bush. He did get through most of the first four and went to his reward just spittin bullets over his policies. Jobs jobs jobs, that was all the man could talk about through his campaigning and soon as he got the pen, he hit American workers right where they lived. At work. He began to deregulate everything and started to destroy collective bargaining. So here we are today, hardly any one party's fault to be sure, but the ideology has barely changes but for the worst, and like you seem to be eluding, our elected need to be more accountable and take more of the blame.

I don't recall the name of, but I do recall the post left recently, about the 535 losers, liars, cheats, and thieves running our country. I have to mostly agree and feel even more helpless as each day goes by. I know I/you/we/many get into heated discussions at times and say things we feel are correct but are sometimes impassioned opinion. We quote facts and figures from the news, books and magazines often. I try to be factual and open minded as we trudge along in life. But above ALL THAT.... we know the truth. Our representatives have just simply failed us. Our government has fallen into as close an oligarchy as we might have ever imagined it could. The ideals of a small handful of those most wealthy and powerful have become more important to our elected than the betterment of our ENTIRE nation. Really only caring about how to get the most in the quickest fashion, with a "devil may care" attitude while blaming the whole of a nation leaping over THREE HUNDRED MILLION people, for what they set us up for. I do agree with some of the more prolific posters that some of us Americans are too stupid to escape a wet sack, but most are smart, frugal, caring and honest people who just simply didn't see this coming and took some risks (or not) that they shouldn't have. But as things worsen(and they will) even those who would rather blame each other, will have to concede that maybe those lefties and middle of the roaders' were right. That tiny 10% who have 90% of all the wealth will do almost anything to get it..... and keep all the Money=greed=power=corruption=eventual disaster for that 90% uf us at the middle and bottom.

I do believe that who ever succeeds next week McCain/Palin or Obama/Biden, will have  an unpresidented "tough row to hoe"that four years won't be near enough time and will likely get the blame in the long run. That, in spit of the fact that many of us are already sunk and those not yet sunk, will likely be. In closing that argument, I personally do trust that John McCain would be a better president than he has been a representative. And, if he wins, we need to come together as a nation again, fall in behind him and play it smart. If Obama wins, he should be given the same faith. Besides, what other real choices do we have in this day and age? Our system is in trouble and no matter how skeptical or mad we are, on the 4th there will only be one of these teams to take us ahead from here.

God Bless Everyone.