Pundits

With the stock market plunging and regaining and plunging, I've been more attuned to market commentators. I think it was CNN the other night, I saw one talking head proclaiming we were headed to a depression worse than the great one back in the 1930s.

On the radio, another voice proclaiming we were in the beginning of a mega inflation period. The price of gas was headed higher by at least a $ before July. We must move our investment $ to government bonds as soon as possible.

Have you heard any of these? Many concerned voices blaming the mortgage crisis as the beginning of the end. Fingers pointing at banking, fingers pointing at dishonest lending, and more fingers pointing at Congress.

Makes me hold my breath. I know many folks are really in a bind. Those adjustables have done just what their name implies. They have adjusted and many of these by 2% or whatever the maximum allowed by contract.

People used 100% financing to get into homes of their own. The American dream. The demand for more houses drove the building boom and inflated house prices. I'm afraid many did not understand much past "here's what your monthly payment is." To them that was the bottom line and they were not listening or understanding the rest of the creative financing contracts they signed.

Another pundit last night says things are worsening for millions of these folks in that they are waiting for the government to pave the way out of their contracts. They are not making payments or are not making full payments. This will shut the door on their future home ownership.

There is no way the government can undo these contracts. They can put more regulations on lenders like warning stickers on packs of cigarettes. But it's deeper than that.

Americans have come to rely on government - I think big G Government - to take care of them. We expect Government to protect us from ourselves. These folks are waiting for a way out paved by Government. Government must protect us from ourselves.

But this time, they just can't. It's not that the banks and mortgage companies want to foreclose. They do not want these houses back. These properties are now worth less than they were say 3 years ago - that is in most real estate markets.

But they are not charities either. Folks will loose their American Dream and we will all be smarter - hopefully not more dependent on Uncle Sam. We need more of that independent spirit that motivated persecuted Europeans to board boats bound for the unknown. They came to escape religious persecution and they came to a land free of tax bondage.

Oh my, today the religious (except Muslins) are denied many rights and recognition. [A moment of silence is not allowed in our public schools locally.] Today we are taxed but we do have representation, right?

'til later