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Fed says? Sure they do. That’s their way of keeping the market up and us peonz settled down. It’s not like congers didn’t just give Bidum an extra two trillion bucks to spread around? No Sir. Nothing to go wrong with that. When that inflation hits there is no bleeping way the gummint is going to keep borrowing at 5+%. And they’ve shot their wad at the Fed printing IOU’s to themselves. And they’ve already used up the scams that LBJ used to paper over the Veetnam spending which is what caused the inflation and high interest rates of the 80’s.

Saw a biznews story yesterday about the youngish couple who wanted to trade up but couldn’t qualify at 5.5%. Folks are way too used to thinking 3% mortgage rates are normal. Yup, sure they are. I well remember being the last guy in my town to qualify for a mortgage at 8 3/8% in 1970. The market was dead for at least two years after that. And they went up from there while prices floated down.

Financial things are going to get tough until we can get that whole federal spending thing under some kind of control. Bush43 sabotaged us with those low cost liar loans and we haven’t paid the whole price for that yet. Odumbo kept them going so we have an inflated real estate market that has little to do with what people can really afford.

In 1970 it was normal for lenders to say one could afford a house that was three times his annual income. By 1973 they bumped that up to-—wwweeellll maybe we can go four times? By the turn of the century it was——oh, maybe 5 or 6 times. Locally, in recent years, I’ve seen people getting loans around ten times their annual income, what with super low interest rates, and all. What could go wrong? Hang around and we’ll see what can go wrong. There is pain, consternation, confusion, disappointment, and a whole lot of heavy thinking coming. Hate to be a downer but the numbers are just too plain.