Change

[ME BIGGD01]

*George Bush has been in office for 7 1/2 years. The first six the economy was fine.*

*A little over one year ago
1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;
2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;
3) the unemployment rate was 4.5%.
4) the DOW JONES hit a record high--14,000 +
5) Americans were buying new cars, taking cruises, vacations overseas, living large!

But Americans wanted 'CHANGE'! So, in 2006 they voted in a Democratic Congress and yes--we got 'CHANGE' all right.

In the PAST YEAR:

1) Consumer confidence has plummeted;
2) Gasoline is now over $4 a gallon & climbing!;
3) Unemployment is up to 5.5% (a 10% increase);
4) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $12 TRILLION and prices still dropping;
5) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.
6) as I write, THE DOW is probing another low – $2.5 TRILLION HAS EVAPORATED FROM
THEIR STOCKS, BONDS & MUTUAL FUNDS INVESTMENT PORTFOLIOS!

YES, IN 2006 AMERICA VOTED20FOR CHANGE...AND WE SURE GOT IT! ....*

REMEMBER THE PRESIDENT HAS NO CONTROL OVER ANY OF THESE ISSUES, ONLY CONGRESS.*

AND WHAT HAS CONGRESS DONE IN THE LAST TWO YEARS, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.*

NOW THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT CLAIMS HE IS GOING TO REALLY GIVE US CHANGE ALONG WITH A DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS!!!!

[JIMINATOR]

eh, why do you post this BS?

The prosperity of the last 7 years was an illusion. All of this "growth" was financed and based on overinflated property values. There are endless stories about how land going for $5k 10 years ago was being sold for $120k at the top of the market. Did they suddenly find oil or gold on the property? No. It was what people would pay. Now the bubble went pop. Why? A whole bunch of greedy and stupid people assumed that land and home values would continue to increase, year after year, forever. If you know anything about the stock market then you will know everything works in cycles. The value of something will increase until it reaches a high, and then it will decrease until it reaches a low. Only thing with homes is that it became a death spiral. Yeah, all the companies were shovelling in the cash. They all became so blind and greedy that they overleveraged themselves. That meant for example every dollar they owned was the insurance for $47 dollars of mortgage. Surprise, Bear Stearns, Freddie Mac, Fannie May, AIG, Lehman, the list goes on and on. The money did not disappear. Reality happened, and the reality is that all these mortgages were written on overvalued homes to "Ninjas" - people with no income, no job and no assets. But what the heck, lets bail them all out, and while we are at it, send more troops to iraq. Wasting our time and borrowed money in a pointless war is a sure way to solve all our problems at home.

[ME BIGGD01]

But what does that have to do with what I posted? Regardless of property value at a high or low? YEs I agree the market changes and Values were a bit over rated but people were buying and with what? How was it a person making 40-50,000 a year was able to get a loan? The truth is the bogus loans that were given to people that could not actually afford the home. Now what does that have to do with it if you ask? It is the source of the main problem with all those you mentioned. BS? Yes because we the tax payers will end up paying for it. And is there like a choice to not bail these scams out?

On a side note, Jim, the past almost 8 years have been hell for this country. Considering the terror attacks, the wars, storms, etc... Up until the Dems took over congress for change things have gotten worst which is mainly the point of the thread. I amsure you or other will point a finger at one person but think about being realistic.

[JIMINATOR]

A lot of the points in your post are directly related. Everything you posted is related to the ability of the taxpayer to make and pay on loans. The past 7 years americans have picked up 7 trillion dollars in debt. Average credit card balance per person are at $8000. Average savings balances are at $300. This borrowing also applies to the government, which is much worse than the taxpayers. Do you want to know how to get rid of the national deficit? Keep a balanced budget for 30 years, and it will be gone as all of the notes are paid off. Well, the balanced budget lasted for about a year.

You can't have people borrow money all over the place going into huge debt and then call that "prosperity". That is total BS. It was fine when a small percent would default on the loans, the companies could write that off because they had so much other money coming in
and besides land and home values were going up anyway. But then a critical mass of people that were defaulting was reached. The companies started to get bloody. Corporate growth the past 7 years has averaged 10%. Put your money in most any stock and you would have seen a 10% return every single year. Look at all the "premium" products companies put out, as a way of milking the consumer. That is corporate greed. Now that the companies see their bottom lines start to suffer, how do they respond? With job cuts. So now there are more unemployeed that can no longer afford starbucks and that too big of a house. More defaults, more losses, more job cuts, and so on.

What really do the democrats have to do with any of that? All of congress are a bunch of morons. Its not surprising though, they think they have the right to print money. What does the huge deficit mean for you? Ultimately the rest of the world is growing increasing worried about the ability of the US taxpayers to pay off all the huge debt owed by the government. That means that more people want the Euro instead of Dollars, same with other foreign currencies, as a result everything we import costs more. Voila, higher gas prices.

[Mr Clean]

Fact about the economy:

If you remove the housing and automobile sectors, which account for about 6% of the economy, the other 94% has grown at a 5% clip this year. So, except for oil and bad loans and debt by the financial sector, our economy is really quite sound.

This information came from a msnbc.com article last week.

Another fact: Although the rate of loan defaults has doubled, the ACTUAL percentage of defaults compared to all loans is a very small number, and double that very small number is still a very small number. Most home buyers are still meeting their loan obligations.

Jim, remember how Japan was going to own us in the 80s because of budget deficits and debt? Remember what happened? Nothing, that's what...

[ME BIGGD01]

"You can't have people borrow money all over the place going into huge debt and then call that "prosperity". That is total BS."


This is what happened during the Clinton era so why was it not BS then.
Also this is my argument all along and can not understand why you can't see it. Look in to which party felt it was smart.

Regardless, of that debate, I am unsire if you are missing my point. I also do not deny the problems we have. I think considering of all the things happening or happened we were doing well up until the Democrats were crying CHANGE, CHANGE, CHANGE!!!! People think that word is always a positive. I just wish people would open the eyes and look at the record of those that want to change things because in all reality these same poeple are the cancer of America.

[JIMINATOR]

ok, exactly what policies were passed the past 2 years that caused the current economic crysis? I must have missed something. This situation has been a long time in the making.

Borrowing money is not necessarily bad, it just depends on the purpose. Business borrow money to grow their business and make more money. People used to either borrow money as a short term loan or for a long term mortgage. Now borrowing money has become a lifestyle. There is no need to work and save to buy something when you get multiple credit card applications every single day. We have become a borrower nation. An individual can only borrow so much money before it becomes impossible to pay it back. Someone having an $8000/9% credit card balance is going to have to pay $60 a month in interest just to stay even. Now with a sucky card you can double or triple the interest.

Now we are expected to bail out the fat cats, because they are too big to fail. The price tag, $2000 per person, or perhaps more before it is all done with. At least the good thing about it is that the junk mail has decreased considerably.

In a way its kind of funny, I see so many people on tv crying about how they have to scrape to make ends meet, unlike a couple of years ago, when they were raking in the dough, either building or selling these houses. The worst was watching a mortgage broker cry about how he was bring home $450k a year. Like right.

[ME BIGGD01]

I am not sure how I feel about the bailouts either because we are going to lose a lot either way. It pisses me off when I hear the CEO is still going to get millions which is BS. The only bailouts should be for us who's mooney may be tied in with the banks. I mean first Enron and now this? These people should be publicly killed slowly. If they are bailed out people should not have to pay back what they owe. I can't see these people getting rich both ways and I hope there is someone who has nothing to live for out there decides to start killing these scumbags.

[Nitro]

I am not sure how I feel about the bailouts either because we are going to lose a lot either way. It pisses me off when I hear the CEO is still going to get millions which is BS. The only bailouts should be for us who's mooney may be tied in with the banks. I mean first Enron and now this? These people should be publicly killed slowly. If they are bailed out people should not have to pay back what they owe. I can't see these people getting rich both ways and I hope there is someone who has nothing to live for out there decides to start killing these scumbags.

US Treasury Secretary Paulsen was CEO of Goldman Sachs. When his former competitors are going backrupt as in the case of Lehman Brothers, he could care less. But when it's directly affecting his money in Goldman, seeing as the stock was freefalling this past week, he runs to congress to try to get 700 billions dollars that you, the average middle class American will never benefit from and you are paying for his continued wealth and others like him, and that amount of money would not even buy coffee for the $1-2 QUADRILLION global derivatives market that is the real thing everyone should be crapping their pants about.

[JIMINATOR]

speaking of change, washington mutual collapsed and was taken over yesterday. parts of it became jp morgan chase. It looks like the same is in the process of happening to wachovia bank. They are trying to sell themselves to citibank before the fdic takes them over and the shareholders get nothing. too bad, since they were a good bank. they are in their current mess because they paid 20 billion dollars to buy golden west with their subprime mortgage portfolio. Becoming greedy killed this company.