Money

Got our tax stuff done. We are getting just enough back to cover the higher property taxes and pay off the credit card. That's nice. That includes the stimulus money The President is so proud of. So, we are treading water. I haven't had a raise in four years. Inflation is like 12% over that period. Food and energy are through the roof. We may have to look for a cheaper place to live, but we will never sell the house. We are upside down. It would cost us about ten grand to walk away from this pit.

Morgen buys Sterns. The American tax payers, like myself, are footing the bill for Sterns' meltdown.  Why are Sterns' assets crumbling from under it? Because investing in people's willingness to pay their mortgage used to be considered a rock solid place to put your money. Every one pays their mortgage. Even before they pay other bills. Right? ... Right?

At any time in the past, say, 3% of homes were in some sort of foreclosure. Right now it is more like 9%.  Which 9%? No one really knows. These things are so mixed up in to bundles and split up that you can't sit down and say "This one is good and that one is bad." This means that they are all worthless until people who are going to go broke and not pay their mortgage are either bailed out or bite the bullet and crash. The bad debt that all these high dollar investors took on bought needs to be shaken out so that only the good loans are left before the asset will be worth anything at all.That will take five to ten years I've heard. Investors want liquidity right goddamn now.

What wold make me feel better about the economy? If some very rich people spent about twenty years of their lives in prison with the general population busting some fucking rocks next to liquor store stickup crack-heads only to go back to their insomniac cell mate Bubba who has a tonsil fetish. That would make me feel better about the economy.

The fed lowers interest rates. That's great if people are willing to both lend and barrow more money to fix things.  The stock market rallies. I'm still broke. I'm not buying anything that is not absolutely life support right now.

I'm not looking forward to a time in the foreseeable future where I'm in a comfortable position to buy anything that isn't a necessity.Some say we are only about a quarter in to the recession. Some compare what is happening now to what happened in the great depression of 29. Ah, what interesting times we live in.

Lehman Brothers could be next.