[El Scorcho]

agreed- but you guys are gonna agitate LUconn again, and that's just not nice.

I don't see how we would. He was just talking about letting capitalism and the market straighten itself out. Now we're venting about the government intervening. Seems like we're on the same side to me.

[Fumblerooskies]

horrible? I think you're exagerating a bit much. The real estate/mortgage markets are correcting themselves after years of ridiculous growth so that's just capitalism at work. I know you seem to focus a lot on the national debt, I'm not to thrilled with it either, but it's pretty normal of an industrialized nation.

LUconn is absolutely right...so Medic...I am not agitating him. The problem comes when the government tries to interfere with a free market...and that is what President <del>Cheney</del> Bush is trying to do.

[LUconn]

oh I'm definatly not cool with the government helping these folks out. They do need help though, in one way or another, but it's certainly not the government's job. Although if they didn't, I don't see the church stepping in as they should, and at the very least educate some of these overspenders if not help them out financially. I get torn between thinking they should fall on their face to learn a lesson and doing the charitable thing to pull these folks out of a hole. I guess you can pull them out and teach them to fish as well. At any rate it's for people far more godly than I to decide and certainly not for the government to.

[El Scorcho]

Moody’s says spending threatens US rating

By Francesco Guerrera, Aline van Duyn and Daniel Pimlott in New York

Published: January 10 2008 18:36
Last updated: January 10 2008 18:36

The US is at risk of losing its top-notch triple-A credit rating within a decade unless it takes radical action to curb soaring healthcare and social security spending, Moody’s, the credit rating agency, said on Thursday.

The warning over the future of the triple-A rating – granted to US government debt since it was first assessed in 1917 – reflects growing concerns over the country’s ability to retain its financial and economic supremacy.

It could also put further pressure on candidates from both the Republican and Democratic parties to sharpen their focus on healthcare and pensions in the run-up to November’s presidential elections.

Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/40f3a2be-bfa9 ... ck_check=1

Choice quote:

Steven Hess, Moody’s lead analyst for the US, told the Financial Times that in order to protect the country’s top rating, future administrations would have to rein in healthcare and social security costs.

“If no policy changes are made, in 10 years from now we would have to look very seriously at whether the US is still a triple-A credit,” he said.

Mr Hess said any downgrade in the US rating would have serious consequences on the global economy. “The US rating is the anchor of the world’s financial system. If you have a downgrade, you have a problem,” he said.

Spending is a major problem. The Republicans have dramatically increased it over the last 7 years and the Democrats want to spend even more. Someone had better wake up and start asking these politicians to make the tough decisions. We have to cut spending in a dramatic fashion or we're going to screw ourselves in a big way.

[ALUmnus]

Not so fast on all the recession talk. People need to take a chill. Our economy is not ready to roll over yet.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... refer=news

[El Scorcho]

Not so fast on all the recession talk. People need to take a chill. Our economy is not ready to roll over yet.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... refer=news

I don't have any questions about consumer spending or industrial output. My concern is with government spending, as I stated above. That's good news, though.

[ATrain]

What I want to know is who is going to take steps to increase the value of the dollar against the euro? We're seeing it drop lower and lower and lower...and I'm not sure I like foreign governments (well, I'm ok with Singapore, S. Korea and Japan...the arab contries I'm a little iffy about) investing a lot of money into our banking system.

[cheerbren]

The only thing I have to say is that we were at the Mall of America on Saturday and it was packed. People on rides, people in store lines, people eating and drinking expensive coffee. If we are doing bad financially I don't think that people know it yet.

[LUconn]

What I want to know is who is going to take steps to increase the value of the dollar against the euro? We're seeing it drop lower and lower and lower...and I'm not sure I like foreign governments (well, I'm ok with Singapore, S. Korea and Japan...the arab contries I'm a little iffy about) investing a lot of money into our banking system.

Who says it's bad? We'll get more shopping tourists from other countries. We'll export more goods because it'll be cheaper. Lot's of pluses to a lower value. Although it sucks for us importing.

[El Scorcho]

The only thing I have to say is that we were at the Mall of America on Saturday and it was packed. People on rides, people in store lines, people eating and drinking expensive coffee. If we are doing bad financially I don't think that people know it yet.

Like, I said, I'm not worried about consumer spending. Although, I will admit that I'm worried about how they're spending. Credit still seems to be king, which helps me to understand why most people in America don't seem to understand the problem with our government's spending.

[ATrain]

What I want to know is who is going to take steps to increase the value of the dollar against the euro? We're seeing it drop lower and lower and lower...and I'm not sure I like foreign governments (well, I'm ok with Singapore, S. Korea and Japan...the arab contries I'm a little iffy about) investing a lot of money into our banking system.

Who says it's bad? We'll get more shopping tourists from other countries. We'll export more goods because it'll be cheaper. Lot's of pluses to a lower value. Although it sucks for us importing.

Yes, but when I go to other countries it'll be bad for me shopping over there...though if it does help to reduce the trade deficit then that is a good thing I guess.

[El Scorcho]

Hillary's modest proposal (to wreck the housing market)

The current mortgage mess requires a more intelligent approach than the buzzsaw plan floated by Hillary Clinton.

By Jon Birger, senior writer

(Fortune) -- Hillary Clinton is no dummy. Even her detractors know that. And yet in last night's Democratic presidential debate in Nevada, Clinton floated what is perhaps the dumbest solution to the current mortgage mess I've heard from a top presidential contender.

"I have a plan - a moratorium on foreclosures for 90 days [and] freezing interest rates for five years, which I think we should do immediately," Clinton announced at what was the last Democratic debate before the Nevada Caucus on Jan. 19. A 90-day moratorium on foreclosures would throw a lifeline to some deserving homeowners, though I suspect it would only delay the inevitable for most. That's not my beef.

Where Clinton goes awry is her proposal to freeze mortgage rates for five years, which is essentially a much broader version of a deal President Bush recently hammered out with lenders to assist some subprime borrowers. If Clinton's only goal were to bail out homeowners facing steep rate resets on adjustable mortgages, her plan would work just fine.

For everyone else though, such a freeze would be disastrous. Interest rates on new mortgages would skyrocket - perhaps past 8 percent, as the mutual funds, pension funds and other investors who typically provide capital to the mortgage market shift their money into other investments where the government isn't impairing returns. With higher mortgage rates eroding buying power, the downward pressure on home prices would only increase. Lower home prices would lead to even more defaults, as more folks who'd lost the equity in their homes choose to walk away from their mortgages.

Full Article: http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/16/comment ... 2008011617

She takes what was already a bad plan from Bush and expands it. Brilliant. The D's and the R's grow ever closer.

[LUconn]

I want to know when somebody's gonna pay my mortgage for me. It's about time somebody stepped up and implimented that.