Saturday, October 4, 2008

Great. We're in debt.

I don't want to get too detailed. And you can argue with me and probably win. But I don't like this bail out package. I think we're a capitalist society that should have let the companies that made bad decisions die from their fallout. I support some laws to protect homeowners from said companies that would try to foreclose on their homes. But I don't like us being so far in debt.

I wish everyone would quit talking about Sarah Palin and start talking about the actual candidates. We're about 6 weeks away from the election and all I hear about is the VP candidate. What's up with that? This economy is also distracting from the election. I wonder what the candidates and campaigns think about that.

I also don't like the media's insinuation that the state of the economy is a direct result of whomever is in the White House. There are business cycles and consequences for companies' actions. The current recession is just part of it, and I don't think it could have been avoided much. Things were too crazy in the 90's. Things had to come back down at some time.

Oh, and some news outlet reported that Barack Obama was predicting the mortgage crisis 2 years ago. *I* was predicting the mortgage crisis 3 years ago! Anyone who knows anything about finances could tell that when you make loans to people who don't know how to handle that much money, things are going to be bad! When regular people tell themselves, "Well, we had to take the ARM with the low interest rate b/c that's the only way we could afford the house", then they CAN'T AFFORD THE HOUSE! Because the ADJUSTABLE rate mortgage is going to go UP!

My best strategy is to follow Dave Ramsey's advice. Start an emergency fund, pay off your debts, (except the house, for now), and control your own spending.

/Rant

Ok. I'm done now. Back to happy and fun posts!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You put a lot of thought into this post, so I thought it deserved a comment. So here's a comment. I really don't have anything useful to add, though; I think you just about covered it. :)

Wendy Thibault Kane said...

Thank you, Jennifer! I just had to get that off my chest. I probably should have written a senator or representative. Oh, well. Who has time for that?

Anonymous said...

Totally agree with you on the bailout. We teach children that there are consequences but it doesn't like that in the real world if you're connected!