Americans holding back on spending

Americans holding back on spending? Well gee, someone has to do it. Congress certainly isn't. Then again, if I was spending OPM, I woundn't care either.

I hope we continue to hold back on our spending, until some of these Corporations get the message. Leave our government and our representatives alone. Quit with the bribes, the perks, the gifts and the vacations. Quit bribing out-of-workers, down and outers, retirees, to support those measures that they don't know are hurtful to them, who are being paid to make the ruckus, yet they don't know that you lied to them to do it, in the first place !! Why should we buy anything, but what is really necessary? We should just buy our necessities, food, clothing, shelter and forgo the cable, the computer, the cellphones, the car, altogether. Let's show these middlemen that we don't need the goods, coming in from overseas, Corporate-sponsored goods, made for a penny on our dollar and then charged us, as though they were made in America. Let's do it America, let Corporate International know, we are tired of their inferior goods, their over-priced, seat-shop made, toxic goods. All brought to us, by our bought and sold politicians. Wouldn't that be wonderful, Corporate International gave a bargan-basement sale and a boycott broke-out !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.

Obama needs more than guts. He needs some basic understanding of business and finance rather than his speechifying and populism. Never has a President been so ill informed as Obama. Silva is also amusing in complaining about Wall Street but neglecting the massive interventions in housing from the government. In fact, why are Dodd and Frank even still involved, let alone chairmen.

BTW. if you think the Fannie and Freddie problems are over, guess again. The $8k first time buyer credit is being used as a down payment, putting Fannie and Freddie in the position (again) of buying 100% mortgages which are likely to default in four years. Way to go government. They learn nothing.

People are cautious with their spending because they cannot take on any more debt. They know that the employment situation will not improve for a long time. And, they fear both substantially increased taxes, mandates for health insurance (which will be costly), the huge hidden taxes of cap and trade, and the massive increase in government spending on interest alone.

Rick

B-b-b-b-but the economy is getting better. Look at all the sweet jobs that have been "saved or created" at a cost to the American Tax Payer of $750,000 per job!

This economy has a fevah, and the only prescription is more 'Hope & Change'!

It seems to me the President should be following the publics lead. Duh!

The $8k first time buyer credit is being used as a down payment, putting Fannie and Freddie in the position (again) of buying 100% mortgages which are likely to default in four years. Way to go government. They learn nothing.
Posted by: Rick Caird | September 17, 2009 9:27 AM

How does one say downpayment and 100% loan in one sentence? If they use that 8K for their 20% downpayment that means they are buying a 42K home? With homeowners losing 3.3 trillion in home values, it is obvious that this sector needs the most active help.

I remember 1982 - 10.2% unemployment, 18% interest rates, Federal borrowing at the highest level since WW2, Presidential approval at 37%. 1984 - Reagan won a landslide. The current leading economic indicators point for an unemployment improvement just in time for the next two elections. One third of the stimulas was tax cuts/rebates, one third is currently being spent on infrustructure and one third will be spent just before the election. I would bet that there is a 90% chance that Obama will be re-elected.

Ah Mark, it is good to be back around checking up on the Swamp and your updated poll numbers for Obama. It continues to amaze me how selective the Swamp is in finding polls with numbers that give the most positive spin to Obama and his now quite exposed lefty band in the WH and those socialist goals he is attempting to imposed upon the America folks. The once mainstream media is now fast becoming (polls reveal a whopping majority of American viewed them with liberal bias and mistrust) known as the peripheral media. Folks are tired of the self-serving, selective reporting media (with the delusional thinking of being elites in their profession) hyping an agenda from a WH that America is rejecting. From ignoring the ACORN corruption, to dismissing the tea party tax protesters, to calling us an angry mob as we reject the Dems healthcare charade, to failing to asses the dismal failure of Obama's stimulus, the list grows, with the net result of distrust and outright skepticism of the media and the press not being our once trusted watchdogs of our government and that should give you pause. Americans are very worried about this massive gov't spending and debt, this unnecessary assault on our healthcare, these flaky WH advisors (czars are now passe' according to the new WH spin), cap and tax based on unproven, hyped rhetoric, unemployment rising with little prospect of improvement other than a gov't job, the growing Afghan quagmire, now considered Obama's "just war", corruption with Democract members in the House who are proposing to tax us to death, just to name a few things. And the Swamp lets us know we have "cut back" on spending and goofy poll numbers for Obama. The folks sure have hunkered down. Anyone watching this government and this WH has to have great anxiety because no seems to be in charge.

I don't plan on making any purchases for at least 3 years!
Let the democrats support the economy for their boy.
All republicans should stop buying anything - remember the democrats say that we're irrelevant - let's show them how relevant we truly are!
Boycott GM and Chrysler, and stop spending to send a message to the incompetents in Washington.
The democrats will sink themselves with this healthcare debacle. Always fun to watch them demonstrate their incompetence once every couple of terms!

Spend it if you got it - otherwise do not charge it and end up paying 30 percent more for something due to interest going to the dang banks.. for once I agree with DonF - wow

" bill r". No savings. No skin in the game. Slightest drop in value of the house will put them underwater. These are exactly the problems that created the sub prime mess in the first place. But, now Fannie and Freddie will be unable to securitize and resell these mortgage. They will have to hold them. This is a very, very bad idea

One couple in the news lately used only a part of the $8k as a down payment and spent the rest on furniture. What could possible go wrong?

BTW, Barney Frank never learns. He is trying to resurrect the CRA and call it the CRA "modernization" act.

Rick

Posted by: moreofthesame | September 17, 2009 12:35 PM
You do realize you are calling for an attack on all Americans with jobs don"t you?

Posted by: makes sense 2 crazies | September 17, 2009 2:18 PM

You do realize that according to the poll numbers above one third of the population already plans to cut spending. As for GM, let the new owners, the UAW and Obama figure out how to design, build and market to the 50% that disapprove of nationalizing the largest car maker. You can bet it will be a chilly day down under before I buy one of Obama's Trabants.

Rick......You are quite mistaken. The best you can get from a bank is a 90% loan to value., and that would be with a rating of 780 or better in which case your point is moot. Any couple who would qualify for this 8k first time buyers credit would certainly pay a down of 20%. Now ...I don't know what the prices are in your market, but median prices for the country are at 199K. A 20% down would require roughly 40K down to secure a loan. Also your CRA bologna is old and debunked. CRA never said what you claim, and was not the root of the problem. Read the bill.......

"27 percent said their credit-card interest rates have risen dramatically "


A predictable (and actually widely predicted) consequence of Obama's credit card reform bill. Go figure.

Rick is right, it is absolutekly crucial that the CRA be repealled so that banks can return to the practice of redlining minority neighborhoods and discriminating against qualified miniority borrowers. Racial discrimination is the core of the American banking system, as Rick well knows. The passage of the CRA was a sad day for bankers everywhere. On that day they lost the ability to favor their white customers obver their minority customers. Can you believe we ever made a practice like that illegal? We must return to our racist, discriminatory roots, as Rick so ably points out. WE need to ,listen to voice like Ricks, bravely calling fdfor the right of companies to discriminate based on race and ethnicity and to reject the tired notion of equailty.

" bill r". The way the program works, though, is they borrow the $8K against the expected tax refund. There is no requirement for a 20% down payment.

My CRA points have never been debunked. Without the CRA, particularly the 1995 "enhancement" Clinton held out for, there would never have been a sub prime market. Even then, it would not have been the problem if Fannie and Freddie had not gotten the brilliant idea to securitize those mortgages. The government encouraged all that, so the others took what they were given. At the same time ACORN was forcing banks to grant more sub prime mortgages by opposing anything the banks wanted to do. Fannie and Freddie were losing market share, so they started taking 100% mortgages. All this frothed the housing market. In South Florida, home prices were increasing at 25% a year.

All was well with the sub prime as long prices were increasing. If someone got in trouble, they could sell and pay off the market. But, when it rolled over the problems snowballed. Now they are in the prime and sub prime mortgages.

I won't go into how most of our banks are bankrupt and should be seized.

Rick

" We must let banks redline": Are you back with a different handle? Let me know when you actually understand any of the topics and we will talk. Until then, it is impossible to teach you anything.

Rick

Bill r: I just checked and FHA mortgages require 3.5% down.

Rick

"Bill r." I was following up on your comment last night. I found web sites advertising 0-5% down and you could use the advance against your $8k.

You are right, though. We need to require 20% down and verify that the mortgage amount fits the income including other debts. When banks held the mortgage, they did that.

Rick