Title: It's the Economy, Stupid
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Blog Entry: As usual, the economy is rearing its ugly head just in time for an election, and every single politician is now promising (or will promise) to have the solution to the economy “crisis”—or at least work toward a solution. You can’t go a day without hearing something on the news about oil and gas prices, the housing slump, or the unemployment rate. Now it's the predicted spike in winter heating bills. But, as Zig Ziggler says, “The media have predicted 36 of the last two recessions.” Today, less than one half of one percent of homes are being threatened with foreclosure and almost all of them are Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs) people shouldn’t have gotten into in the first place. But all we hear on the nightly news is “150,000 more homes in the country are being foreclosed on.” The federal interest rate has never been lower. The unemployment rate is still as low as it ever was in the Clinton administration. More people have opened their own businesses—than ever before, and most of these businesses are owned by women or minorities. Home ownership, especially among minorities, is at one of the highest rates in this country’s history. Yet Americans as a whole have a negative savings rate (we are spending more than we can bring in). Unsecured debt (credit cards) is at the highest rate ever, and continuing to grow. Every year, credit card companies spend billions to entice us to spend their trillions of dollars offered in credit. Recently, the mortgage “crisis” received a stay of execution when the senate voted overwhelmingly to force banks to make it easier for people to get out of their ARMs. This bill—which is now on its way to the president’s desk—allocates $300 billion in taxpayer dollars to help those who are (an actual quote from the bill) “too financially risky” for a traditional federally-backed loan. The bill would allow the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to help 400,000 of the riskiest home buyers to have a federally backed loan (that’s $750,000 per applicant! My own house only cost $60,000!). This is ON TOP OF the federal backing of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Now, the people who thought they were signing up for fixed rates but the mortgage brokers put them in adjustable rates instead should have their day in court and they should be given the rates they thought they were getting. The banks and lenders that made this a regular practice should have their FDIC backing revoked. But why should those whose house payments are fixed and up to date pay for those who made unwise decisions? When deciding for whom to vote this November, remember something that Ron Paul said in the debate at the Reagan Presidential Library last fall (yeah, I’m one of those nerds who watched all the debates—on both sides—as she could). Romney and McCain were fighting about what to do about the economy and each were giving their own opinions on how they could help. Paul spoke up and reminded them that it’s not the president’s job to “help” the economy. The president is not the Chief Executive Officer of the United States; he is the Commander in Chief. While our family greatly appreciated the stimulus check we received in May, we are not quite so eager to receive Pelosi’s proposed second check this winter. The economy is a living thing… and like most living things if it’s not poked and prodded all the time, it can take pretty good care of itself.
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