Posted on 09/02/2003 5:20:25 PM PDT by arete
au contrare, mon frare.
By reducing my interest rate from 8.5 to 5.5 my total payback was reduced 100K, or to put it in real terms my 30 year mortgage is now a 20 year mortgage at a lower monthly premium.
ergo, I eliminated 100K worth of debt. now multiply that by the millions of people and businesses who did the same thing and you'll get an inkling of where this recovery is coming from.
And just how freeking strong its going to be.
Show me the figures.
starved capital markets
Again show me the figures.
All you give is opinion, show me the money.
Richard W.
My debt to equity ratio has increased significantly.
My cash flow is better than its been in years and as a result I have more purchasing power.
I think you bear marketeers have significantly underestimated several key elements:
1) The refinancing boom we've been discussing
2) W's tax reduction which also increasing purchasing power as well as the ability to save and/or pay down debt
3) The broadband market is set to take off. This like points 1 & 2 is a mulitplier in that not only will the telecoms be able to roll out new services but hardware, software, and business efficencies will improve, ie increased productivity.
4) The real estate market has not collapsed, its still a very good investment w/ interest rates where they are.
I believe Greenspan when he says the market is poised for a comeback.
I not playing semantics. If you had a $200,000 mortgage loan and did a refi, you still have a $200,000 mortgage loan. Refi's simply don't make debt disappear regardless of what you'd like to believe. Trust me, there is no free lunch.
Richard W.
My brothers and I bought a boat from a guy several years ago, it involved more than $10,000. The seller requested the cashiers checks be made out in smaller amounts than $10,000 for just that reason. Of course the guy, ironically I guess, was an undercover narcotics officer.
I'm having trouble believing that the 2 party system is a secret conspiracy. Even if I admit that they are becoming increasingly similar and statist. Especially considering the remarks by Mr. Gillespie.
"Arbitrary law has trumped objective law as a policy tool for each of them." Hultberg is right on with this remark, IMO, so maybe it is moot whether it's a conspiracy or not, the result's the same.
"This doctrine states that America needs to abandon the conventional foreign policy model of national defense and actively pursue a reshaping of the world"
It's very possible that we have no choice other than pursuing such if we are to restrain the terror threat against us. Or we must end our dependence on Middle Eastern Oil.
"Greenspan's wild, hallucinatory expansion of the money supply that culminated in the blow off top of the stock"
Pardon my ignorance, does the above refer to his lowering of interest rates and encouraging of corporate debt?
Yeah, I agree with the thrust of this article, I am sure that one cannot successfully manipulate the market to achieve political ends, as statists imagine. No matter what, the market will rule, fooling with it too much is, I am sure, asking for trouble (or catastrophe, as the author anticipates).
I fully agree with him that we are headed for serious trouble or catastrophe, mostly for the reasons he gives, because we have given up our founders' ideals in favor of statism and arbitrary rule. Whether or not the catastrophe is now upon us is beyond my meager ability to really guess. But I don't doubt that when it occurs, the Left, and probably the Right will call for yet more statism to correct it.
This whole thing is really over my head. However, I'm going to get out my Ben Graham stuff and look at my portfolio, what's left of it, in terms of fundamental "value," I guess. Probably be a good idea to look at the amount of debt compainies are carrying.
Thanks
Well, not a secret conspiracy per se. You have two groups of professional politicians whose primary purpose is the retention of power and in many cases privilege. For all the obvious reasons, they sure as heck can't look and talk like the same party even though they probably have more in common than you may think. I've always looked at them more or less as organized crime families fighting over territory. We are also starting to see more family "clan" activity especially evident with the Kennedys and less so with other political families. It's society's "ruling class elite" in a general sense.
It's very possible that we have no choice other than pursuing such if we are to restrain the terror threat against us. Or we must end our dependence on Middle Eastern Oil.
If the terror threat didn't exist, we'd have to create it. For the consolidation of even more power in Washington and in order to fulfill any "new world order" agenda designed at the reshaping of the world, we need a lot of bad guys. Preemptively attacking another sovereign nation was a major step. A war on terrorism is going to provide cover for all sorts of arbitrary uses of domestic and international powers.
"Greenspan's wild, hallucinatory expansion of the money supply that culminated in the blow off top of the stock"
Pardon my ignorance, does the above refer to his lowering of interest rates and encouraging of corporate debt?
I think that most reasonable people are quickly realizing that the FED has become totally corrupted and politicized. There are normal and natural business cycles that economies go through. Boom and bust. The problem is that Greenspan (Rubin) handed Bubba a rip roaring economy to cover his sorry rear and keep his job approval ratings up. Greenspan just kept pumping liquidity into the system without regard for where the heck it was going. Much of it went into wild speculative ventures that would never have been funded (selling dog food on the internet) and also created a stock market bubble. The bubble started collapsing as it should to clean out the excesses but instead of letting it complete the job, Greenspan has again started reinflating the bubble -- and again for purely political purposes. Now, GW needs a boost because of the war and having a re-election coming up. Now we have not only the first bubble, but additional debt, consumer and housing bubbles. It would seem that Greenspan has driven us past the point of no return since collapsing any or all of the bubbles would be too horrid to even think about. All he can do is to keep pumping and trying to delay the day of reckoning. Expect to see even more need for the government to expand and spend money (create debt) or, as in the case of the odd (timely) power grid failure, legislation directed at forcing business to create debt and spend money. It's the only way they can keep the wheels on the wagon a little longer. Inflate or die.
Richard W.
That would be relative if I had the 200K to pay off the debt immediately. Since I don't, the reality is that the debt "service" and the principle are combined into one total outstanding debt.
I can further lessen my combined service/principle by paying the loan off early, which will be much easier to do now than it had been previously.
No matter how you add it up my financial situation has been improved significantly.
This isn't a free lunch, but it is a far better deal--and that my friend is why capitalism works. EVERYBODY is always looking for a better deal.
Good, glad to see that you are at least making some progress. Refis don't eliminate debt. They reduce overall service charges by way a reduction in interest rates thereby eliminating a portion of the expense of the loan -- not the loan itself. It doesn't put actual money in your pocket. It is money that won't have to come out of your pocket.
Richard W.
Sadly, that is the new way of things, isn't it?
Richard W.
Do you mean by "pumping liquidity" the lowering of interest rates to allow more borrowing and thus more spending? Sorry, I'm not much of an economist.
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