True, everybody involved is to blame, to an extent.

You have to wonder, though, what Greenspan's state of mind was when he had the epiphany that printing truck-loads of money, driving the trucks up to the banks front doors and saying: "Here, get rid of it" was a good idea. Sounds like something a mafia boss would do with his soldiers and a truckload of fake cash.

I keep having thoughts of the confederate dollar; I hope they're not premonitions... I've had them before.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confede...America_dollar

 

Not fixed income...........

Limited income.

 

There's ample evidence now that it was more than overlooking bad loans, they were actually encouraging bad loans. Many loan originators (including banks) no longer hold on to loans to make their money from the interest, they make their money from fees associated with writing the loans. They have little incentive to care about whether the loan is a good loan as the loan itself is sold to investors. As long as it's not so bad that the loan can't be sold, the quality of the borrower, the equity to back the loan - those things don't matter. Check the news for Countryside and some of the practices they're accused of using to get the wrong people into the wrong loans which they then palm off to investors - it's amazingly sleazy stuff.

 

i believe they posted a major loss themselves, looks like they set themselves up

 

Call it what you like, the basic fact is that there is a fundamental difference in the ability to change your income level if you're in the work force, or have retired from it. If your only income is SS, then (without an act of Congress - literally), your income is fixed. Or "limited" if you prefer. My mother is retired. If the price of milk goes up, it takes a larger percentage of her income to buy a gallon - nothing she can so about that. I have the option of working more hours, or getting another job, or getting an additional job (not much chance of that - I got four right now!) and raising my income so that the higher priced gallon of milk now takes no more percentage of my income as before.

 

WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Thursday that a host of economic problems, including the severe housing slump, will cause business growth to slow noticeably in coming months.

Bernanke told Congress’ Joint Economic Committee that the central bank is watching developments closely, but gave no signal that it’s prepared at the current time to cut interest rates even further.


all coexists togeather-

oil per barrell rising
value of dollar is dropping
record home forclosures
rise in wholesale costs
gas prises on rise
home heating oil on the rise
dow dropping
retail spending will be down this year
housing market values going down
on brink of recession
business growth expected to halt

am i forgetting anything?

 

Countrywide has a huge facility 20 minutes from the house. So anything they do is pretty big news around here. Over the past couple of years they went thru a huge employment expansion driven by their sub-prime marketing efforts. Hired tons of people. My wife, being an H.R. Manager was aggressively sought after at the time she was working out a "stay-bonus" when Ericsson bought her company and was in an employment search mode. She elected to except an offer from another company. Well, thing happens for a reason...Countrywide is now laying people off in mass quantities and a year later she has been promoted a popped a pretty damned good pay increase.

 

heartbreak of psoriasis?

(hey, you got to keep laughing, right?)

 

So someone makes it to retirement age and all they have is Social Security, and they had 45+ years to make investments.... not very good decision making, wouldn't you say?

A retired person has the option of being a greeter at Walmart, working at Mac Donalds, getting a room-mate, moving in with the kids, etc. They also have the option of reversing their mortgage to take equity back out. If they do not have enough money to be retired, and their health allows, why are they retired? Retirement is not an entitlement - its something you work and save for.

 

A note on the manufacturing arena that I am familiar with and it's impact on the price of milk:

Oil pricing will / is having a direct impact on petro chemical pricing which in-turn is impacting resin pricing to all manufacturers of plastic products. Everything from the plastic bottle your milk comes in, to trash bags, grocery bags, syringes, laminated flooring, plastic utensils at KFC, condom wrappers, etc., will increase in cost. This cost, of course, will be transfered to the price the consumer pays for almost everything we touch.

My company designs and builds equipment generally specific to the plastics industry. Most of our equipment is manufactured from aluminum and stainless material. The increased cost of these metals is having a direct impact on our pricing to our manufactures of the above noted plastics industry. This too, is passed on to the consumer which causes that gallon of milk to rise in price.

The cost of fuels to maintain ranches for feed and dairy cows has already affected the price of a gallon of milk.

End result NewEnglandHerdsman, the price of milk will likely go up again, in the very near future.

On a side note and not really related at all....My current cost per gallon of beer is approximately $ 7.50. So it is still cheaper to drink milk...I just don't see hot wings or brauts and milk going that well together...

 

If you want to assert that everyone that ends up on a fixed income is finanically stupid, then ok - but even that conclusion agrees that being the state of being on a fixed income exists, doesn't it? The question was whether being on a fixed income was a real condition or not, not the financial intelligence of people in that state.

I will say that I have a friend who suffered a stroke at an early age and will be dependent on SS and the like for the rest of her life. I consider her quite unlucky, not a bad decision maker.

My mother is on a fixed income. She's financially very well off, as her income is pretty hefty. She's got more money than me! But her income is still "fixed".

 

Some folks suffer more from "Fixed Thinking". Apparently, a worse condition than "Fixed Incomes".

 

Such as a has-been rock star making remarks about denying the rights of due process.

 

That's why I said barring health issues. Obviously there's always the roll of the dice which hits some people. I'm speaking in more general terms. There are always going to be individuals in any group which are exceptions to the rule. On broad general terms, we're all in the boat which is the general the result of our decisions.

I still don't believe in the term fixed income as applied to retires. As noted, limited would be a better term. Those with only SS could get part-time jobs. Those like your mother could re-allocate investments and see their draw either increase or decrease (its all dependent on how risk adverse she is).

<!--StartFragment -->Ultimately, it does not matter what my position on the matter is. I am not unfeeling but feeling bad for the world does nothing for it. When times get tough for some all the concerns in the world I may have does nothing for them. I help my friends, my family and the charities I choose with my time and money but its not my responsibility nor obligation to take care of the world. Its my responsibility and obligation to work harder and to seek opportunities to help insure my family will never be in their shoes.

It applies to gas prices as well. Do I whine about it or seek the opportunies it may bring?

 

tell that to umpteen millions of americans, that have worked there whole lives, and made the best of what they could, and are just tired of working.
doesnt mean they have to struggle due to what the goverment can control and choose to ignore, or let politics(money making), put a damper on living.

and your right the person can people greet at walmart to make up for the increased costs of living, I.E. health care-prescription drugs.