Great ideas. I have one of those small wine bottles from the wine 4 packs at the grocery that I repurposed to hold baking soda based tooth powder. It works great for pouring a bit in your hand. An old large pickle jar holds epsom salts. It looks nicer in the cupboard than the cardboard box did. I also saved all those really cool bottles that gifts of bath salts and bubble bath came in to reuse for other things in the bathroom that come in ugly containers.
In the summer I keep some nice smaller wicker baskets and a few of those chrome mesh baskets in the kitchen to gather things out of the garden. They make interesting decor in the kitchen while waiting to be used.
I know it's pretty unfair but while your issue is being resolved with a servicer you have to pay the full amount they request. If you don't pay the full amount they reserve to not apply partial payments to your mortgage, and then they say your mortgage is late. That's how bad servicers get to people. I really suggest that you file a complaint with the FTC and your attorney general's office. It's pretty sad that Countrywide is still up to this shadiness after being sued by so many states. It's also aggravating that they have so many politicians in their pockets and secured so much taxpayer money in bailouts.
Countrywide is the scumbag of the mortgage industry. They raised my FIXED RATE mortgage, which had always been paid on time, considerably. Their excuse was that they were setting up an escrow account to pay my taxes-that has never been part of my mortgage and I have always paid my taxes on time. Well suprise suprise when I got letters for both my county and my local taxes saying past due! I ended up paying the taxes myself. When I contacted Countrywide they could offer no explanation of why they didn't pay the taxes so I informed them that I would no longer be paying the extra couple hundred dollars with my payments. After two months of only paying my actual mortgage payment I received an Act 91 letter stating that my mortgage was past due and they would begin foreclosure proceedings if not paid the money due. When I called them they said the letter was because I had failed to remit to them the extra money for the escrow account which was to pay the real estate taxes--BALONEY!
And the government and the media continue to blame the housing and foreclosure crisis on adjustable rate mortgages. I also personally know one person whose home was foreclosed on for this same reason. Her fixed rate mortgage payment was $800.00, her bank increased it to $1400.00 for an "escrow account"-when she couldn't pay that amount monthly she lost her home.
I have not tried to use cash 4 gold. but i do know that alot of these companies that advertise that claim to reduce your credit card babts and stuff like that are a scam. Dont fall for television ads, radio ads or ads that find their way to your e-mail. (I experienced this personally). Before getting into something like that, deal with local folks first. Maybe go to a GOOD jeweler downtown and have your jewelry appraised and take their advice on how to sell it. Then maybe sell it on ebay as well.
There's simply no way to prop up peak bubble prices in the most overheated markets.
As much as we can sympathize, those of you who paid $475,000 for a home when comps on your street are now selling for $325,000 or less likely will not get any money back out of the house.
Regardless of how much money the government throws around.
If your income has dropped to or by 40% of previous levels it is now time to have a yard sale and look for a smaller, cheaper rental.
Rather than expect you will be able, somehow, to hang on to the house.
I still see on TV people on a single disability income hoping they will somehow be able to keep their 4-bedroom house.
How much is the mortgage/taxes/insurance on your house?
If you are like a couple I know who were 30% underwater on their $475,000 starter home, letting it go into foreclosure and renting freed up several thousand a month in cash flow.
And moving from 2 (or more) new car payments to used cars or bus passes saves several hundred a month.
I wish this site would get back to 1001 pumpkin recipes and how to make Christmas toys out of newspaper, chewing gum and duct tape instead of arguing the political differences that have torn this country apart for the past 50 years.
Wake-up you brother's keepers. The "everybody for their damn selfers" have won. Let the suffering begin (or continue as it has for millenium).
Life always brings you the experiences necessary to instill some compassion.
I have a feeling, in the end, this downturn will leave no uncompassionate soul behind.
Just be patient.
But please, in the meantime, doesn't someone just have a nifty "gardening in 2 square feet" tip?
My girlfriend and I just found a "too good to be true" ad on craigslist. The email we recieved after we contacted them was almost EXACTLY what you posted as your example. Its hilarious how similar they are. We even went to the address today just to scope it out, and it was in fact the same house from the ad. And it did appear to be vacant...with a note taped to the front door. Who knows what that was... Probably a potential "sucker" that came by to check the place out.
Anyway...needless to say, we wont be sending the deposit to nigeria as they asked us. They went as far as to say that they had the keys there, so we couldnt take a tour. That we were free to check out the area and drive past...but do not go on the property, because we would be trespassing. It really is silly.
Just thought it was funny how similar the two reponses were. Idiots...
When did it become "OK" to be more concerned about other countries economic conditions than our own? When did it become "OK" to NOT protect the American economy? When did it become "OK" to put our personal self-interest above that of our country or our family?
How can we take care of other people if we can't take care of ourselves?
Without a strong manufacturing base we are at the mercy of other countries interests and agendas. If we manufacture it then they must compete for business, our business.
Most manufacturing companies left the USA not because they could no longer compete but because they could move and get cheaper labor which meant their profit could be higher. Shareholders could make more money.
The loss of jobs from a plant closing means millions of dollars less going into our economy. Hersey Corporation didn't move to Mexico last year because they weren't making money on the chocolate products they manufactured in Hersey, Pennsylvania - they moved because they can make MORE money by using cheap labor in Mexico. If we penalized such behavior though tariffs, taxes and boycotts these companies wouldn't move out.
Hersey's payroll provided over 1 Billion dollars to the local, state and federal economy in 2007. WE are paying the same price for their products now that we were when they were made here. The only difference is that WE now receive no benefit from the manufacturing of their product.
When you multiply this by the estimated 50,000 manufactures who have moved to other countries, in the last 20 years, you can begin to see why we need to "Buy American". Labor costs are the excuse not the problem. Hersey was exporting to every country on the planet and still is - we just no longer receive anything from the products they manufacture, except cavities; vacant homes and higher unemployment rates.
When Sunkist tuna moved their operations from California to Mexico, the US government gave them 50% of the money they needed to build their new plant in Mexico. Shutting down 4 plants on the California coast. Sunkist's operations in the USA had all been profitable prior to this move. We still buy Sunkist but they provide no jobs for any of us.
Poor people can't help poor people. Poor countries can't help poor countries. We must help ourselves first or we will become what Mexico was - poor.
When the "Made in America" label becomes the first thing we look for then we will be reversing this economy for all of us.
Well... these other countries have trade barriers too. How about they lower their trade barriers too?
Also, how much purchasing can be done with the stim money?
Doesn't a lot go toward labor?
(As far as companies leaving - they have already left. That's why so many things are imports. How are you supposed to buy American when America makes less stuff than the world?)
While I agree with your sentiment about the bribes for the mortgage lenders and loan modifiers, look at it this way: these once-great jobs are now lousy jobs. Most of these yahoos who are still employed are burning through their profits. These people need work. If you didn't bribe them, they wouldn't do the work. This is partly a jobs program of sorts.
It seems like what will happen is, if the refinance and cram down are applied, the lenders will get back their principal, but lose the profit (and then some), due to the payment schedule being drawn out so long.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Banks will potentially have all these assets that pay a low interest rate for a long, long time. Foreclosures, which are just losses, become assets-of a sort.
That's stability.
That bogeyman about the foreclosed houses in the hood are only true in working-class areas, and yuppie areas, where the old rentals were sold to sub-prime borrowers. In stable neighborhoods, so few houses were sold that there won't be much of an issue.
Also, people who get these cram downs will tend to stay during the duration of this depression. If they walk away from the loan, they will ruin their credit and likely spend more money on a rental.
As people lose a lot of money in the stock market and in real estate loses it's value,Good patents that solves a big problem,makes more sense to invest in manufacturing the problem solved patented invention then one could imagin,when some inventions could make Billions of dollars it's only smart for one to look at Patent #6,926.702 called Diaper With Legs, After all this is well needed by baby's ,toddler's,and adults with needs.Inventor of Diaper With Legs Lisa Wilkinson
I just found this, obviously it's old, but I wanted to comment. I've had an apple logo tattoo for quite some time and I thought this was really hilarious. I was getting mad because I was thinking, "Damn! I could have been getting paid for this thing???" haha.
bravo.
Well, the Wikipedia paradigm of 'community contribution/editing' will, by nature, involve community viewpoints/opinions/spins, whether neutral, conflicting or sympathetic. The issue of the Exxon edits is a rather clear example of this problem. Exxon is a member of the community, Exxon is embarrassed by the Valdez incident, and whomever edited the Wikipedia entries clearly lost touch with the magnitude of the issues of the Valdez spill. That would be an example of conflicting viewpoints, and is also an argument in support of open editing; why debate each other on the subject? Similar issues exist for lower level Wikipedia entries, but the check and balance end of Wikipedia entries are often much less informed of the details of the lower level items; hence, some lower level entries can often be moderately inaccurate for years without corrections. After all, so many times through the years SINCE I was in school, I've learned that the textbooks which I had to read while I was IN school were not clearly presenting relevant details about "American History".
A well-done profit-sharing scheme is a great idea. It has obvious benefits for workers, but also benefits for the enterprise--during bad times the cost of employment goes down automatically, without any need to cut anyone's pay.
Management, though, always screws it up. First, they screw it up by turning it into an incentive program (with the problems that I discussed in detail in Incentive plans always go awry). Second, they really only want to have a profit-sharing program when profits are small. On those occasions when there are outsized profits, the managers want to shrink the profit-sharing program, figuring that the profits really belong to the owners, not to the workers (even if the workers had for years been settling for less than their fair value, in anticipation of future profit sharing).
As I say, though, if it's well done, it's a great idea.
I HAVE BEEN USING THE BOOK FOR 2 YEARS AND I FEEL WITH THE ECOMONY THISW BOOK HAS BEEN VERY HELPFUL TO ME, BECUASUE I AM ON A TIGHT INCOME AND ALL THE OFFERS I HAVE USED IN THE BOOK HAVE HELPED ME GET WHAT HAS BEEN OFFERED, I DOLOKE THE 2FOR1 AND THE COUPONS FOR STORES. I HOPE I DO WIN I AM GOING THROUGH A DIVORCIE AFTER BEEN MARRIED FOR A VERY VEY LONG TIME, I AM ON MY OWN ON A FIXED INCOME. TRYING TO MAKE ENDS MEET.
I am so mad that I am going to be footing the bill for others failure to plan.
I don't know what people were thinking when they bought these huge houses! Did they really think that they could afford them? Unfortunately we are rewarding the bad financial decisions of others by bailing them out and then giving them 1000 bucks if they manage to pay their bills on time.
In all the years I have had my home, I have NEVER been late paying the mortgage. Yes there were times when we ate Ramen for weeks, sold stuff on Ebay and had garage sales, but we paid our bills!
I keep extra money in my underwear drawer inside of a sock. It probably isn't the safest place for a robbery by a stranger. But for a friend/family thief it would be weird for them to be found going through my underwear.
I am not optimistic about the eventual outcome of our current problems. Worse yet, I don't anticipate a recovery in my limited lifetime.
I should like to think we DO learn, and am hopeful that the problems that have occurred over the past 10 year might eventually see solutions.
My hope is that as the malaise that covers America today continues, thoughtful persons will look beyond what we know today, and what we've learned from the past, and will design a new framework for a fairer economy. An economy that has room for the entrepreneur, the investor, and the capitalist, but which also allows the rest of the country to share in the wealth that our productivity produces and what our people earn.
I hope for a rediscovery of "Binary Economics". The book from the 1950's is "The Capitalist Manifesto", by Louis Kelso.
While virtually ignored, the concept is vitually perfect.
Other than a very cursory and flawed overview from wiki, there are few sites that take time or effort to explain or analyze the concept. I would suggest that a reading of book may convince doubters, and those who are to quick to criticize what they do not understand.
One of the hardest parts of any economic model, is the introduction and transition... often preceded by war or social upheaval. Binary Economics provides a relatively painless transition, that does not include a redistribution of wealth or a heavy hand.
Overly simple, but think "profit sharing" from the 1950's. (Kelso was an initiator of ESOP, and the Capitalist Manifesto is an outgrowth of that.)
We have never had the luxury of having a period in our history, where the discontent of the people might give pause to the "in" government to stop the excesses of power. We may be at that point within another year. As America scrambles for answers, we might just seed for new growth. We have the ability... As the staus quo weakens, it's just possible that there could be a new paradigm, closer to what we knew as the American Dream.
Countrywide was the leader in writing fraudulent mortgages, so this is hardly surprising. This is what happens when law enforcement is corrupted and zombie banks continue to stumble around in their continued quest for HUMAN FLESH
okay, so lets do nothing. there were no oversights in place, obviously, when these lenders were giving these BS loans so lets leave everything as is. And no, I don't want to hear any of you yelling for government intervention when your house is worth squat because of all the vacant foreclosed houses in your neighborhood or when you or hubby lose your job. none of you even took one moment to think maybe, just maybe it does help someone who acted responsibly but saw their income diminish considerably, i.e., layoff. you all must lead a charmed life, whatever income you have will never be affected, ever and no sudden illness will never befall a member of your fam. boy, it must be nice to be all of you. Me, I'm just one of those "loser" homeowners, that low and behold, got let go from their well paying job only to not be able to find comparable work and silly me. So working the 2 partimers that pays only 40% of my previous salary has put me in a very daunting position. Loser. Ah, yes but I live in the real world. I will be glad when that real world knocks on a couple of your doors.
Great ideas. I have one of those small wine bottles from the wine 4 packs at the grocery that I repurposed to hold baking soda based tooth powder. It works great for pouring a bit in your hand. An old large pickle jar holds epsom salts. It looks nicer in the cupboard than the cardboard box did. I also saved all those really cool bottles that gifts of bath salts and bubble bath came in to reuse for other things in the bathroom that come in ugly containers.
In the summer I keep some nice smaller wicker baskets and a few of those chrome mesh baskets in the kitchen to gather things out of the garden. They make interesting decor in the kitchen while waiting to be used.
Cool post. Very nerdy I must say. Philip will like it.
Hi Guest,
I know it's pretty unfair but while your issue is being resolved with a servicer you have to pay the full amount they request. If you don't pay the full amount they reserve to not apply partial payments to your mortgage, and then they say your mortgage is late. That's how bad servicers get to people. I really suggest that you file a complaint with the FTC and your attorney general's office. It's pretty sad that Countrywide is still up to this shadiness after being sued by so many states. It's also aggravating that they have so many politicians in their pockets and secured so much taxpayer money in bailouts.
Countrywide is the scumbag of the mortgage industry. They raised my FIXED RATE mortgage, which had always been paid on time, considerably. Their excuse was that they were setting up an escrow account to pay my taxes-that has never been part of my mortgage and I have always paid my taxes on time. Well suprise suprise when I got letters for both my county and my local taxes saying past due! I ended up paying the taxes myself. When I contacted Countrywide they could offer no explanation of why they didn't pay the taxes so I informed them that I would no longer be paying the extra couple hundred dollars with my payments. After two months of only paying my actual mortgage payment I received an Act 91 letter stating that my mortgage was past due and they would begin foreclosure proceedings if not paid the money due. When I called them they said the letter was because I had failed to remit to them the extra money for the escrow account which was to pay the real estate taxes--BALONEY!
And the government and the media continue to blame the housing and foreclosure crisis on adjustable rate mortgages. I also personally know one person whose home was foreclosed on for this same reason. Her fixed rate mortgage payment was $800.00, her bank increased it to $1400.00 for an "escrow account"-when she couldn't pay that amount monthly she lost her home.
I have not tried to use cash 4 gold. but i do know that alot of these companies that advertise that claim to reduce your credit card babts and stuff like that are a scam. Dont fall for television ads, radio ads or ads that find their way to your e-mail. (I experienced this personally). Before getting into something like that, deal with local folks first. Maybe go to a GOOD jeweler downtown and have your jewelry appraised and take their advice on how to sell it. Then maybe sell it on ebay as well.
There's simply no way to prop up peak bubble prices in the most overheated markets.
As much as we can sympathize, those of you who paid $475,000 for a home when comps on your street are now selling for $325,000 or less likely will not get any money back out of the house.
Regardless of how much money the government throws around.
If your income has dropped to or by 40% of previous levels it is now time to have a yard sale and look for a smaller, cheaper rental.
Rather than expect you will be able, somehow, to hang on to the house.
I still see on TV people on a single disability income hoping they will somehow be able to keep their 4-bedroom house.
Forget $4 lattes and $200/month cable.
How much is the mortgage/taxes/insurance on your house?
If you are like a couple I know who were 30% underwater on their $475,000 starter home, letting it go into foreclosure and renting freed up several thousand a month in cash flow.
And moving from 2 (or more) new car payments to used cars or bus passes saves several hundred a month.
There's overcapacity in every other "asset class"
It shouldn't surprise anyone that there is much less demand for workers as well, regardless of their skill-set or experience.
I don't see real household incomes increasing up anytime in the next several years.
Most households will have to work very hard to not lose more than 20% of their current income.
I will recommend using
DesktopBudget.com to manage personal finances. Its the best offline personal finance manager I have seen so far.
I wish this site would get back to 1001 pumpkin recipes and how to make Christmas toys out of newspaper, chewing gum and duct tape instead of arguing the political differences that have torn this country apart for the past 50 years.
Wake-up you brother's keepers. The "everybody for their damn selfers" have won. Let the suffering begin (or continue as it has for millenium).
Life always brings you the experiences necessary to instill some compassion.
I have a feeling, in the end, this downturn will leave no uncompassionate soul behind.
Just be patient.
But please, in the meantime, doesn't someone just have a nifty "gardening in 2 square feet" tip?
My girlfriend and I just found a "too good to be true" ad on craigslist. The email we recieved after we contacted them was almost EXACTLY what you posted as your example. Its hilarious how similar they are. We even went to the address today just to scope it out, and it was in fact the same house from the ad. And it did appear to be vacant...with a note taped to the front door. Who knows what that was... Probably a potential "sucker" that came by to check the place out.
Anyway...needless to say, we wont be sending the deposit to nigeria as they asked us. They went as far as to say that they had the keys there, so we couldnt take a tour. That we were free to check out the area and drive past...but do not go on the property, because we would be trespassing. It really is silly.
Just thought it was funny how similar the two reponses were. Idiots...
Justin
When did it become "OK" to be more concerned about other countries economic conditions than our own? When did it become "OK" to NOT protect the American economy? When did it become "OK" to put our personal self-interest above that of our country or our family?
How can we take care of other people if we can't take care of ourselves?
Without a strong manufacturing base we are at the mercy of other countries interests and agendas. If we manufacture it then they must compete for business, our business.
Most manufacturing companies left the USA not because they could no longer compete but because they could move and get cheaper labor which meant their profit could be higher. Shareholders could make more money.
The loss of jobs from a plant closing means millions of dollars less going into our economy. Hersey Corporation didn't move to Mexico last year because they weren't making money on the chocolate products they manufactured in Hersey, Pennsylvania - they moved because they can make MORE money by using cheap labor in Mexico. If we penalized such behavior though tariffs, taxes and boycotts these companies wouldn't move out.
Hersey's payroll provided over 1 Billion dollars to the local, state and federal economy in 2007. WE are paying the same price for their products now that we were when they were made here. The only difference is that WE now receive no benefit from the manufacturing of their product.
When you multiply this by the estimated 50,000 manufactures who have moved to other countries, in the last 20 years, you can begin to see why we need to "Buy American". Labor costs are the excuse not the problem. Hersey was exporting to every country on the planet and still is - we just no longer receive anything from the products they manufacture, except cavities; vacant homes and higher unemployment rates.
When Sunkist tuna moved their operations from California to Mexico, the US government gave them 50% of the money they needed to build their new plant in Mexico. Shutting down 4 plants on the California coast. Sunkist's operations in the USA had all been profitable prior to this move. We still buy Sunkist but they provide no jobs for any of us.
Poor people can't help poor people. Poor countries can't help poor countries. We must help ourselves first or we will become what Mexico was - poor.
When the "Made in America" label becomes the first thing we look for then we will be reversing this economy for all of us.
Well... these other countries have trade barriers too. How about they lower their trade barriers too?
Also, how much purchasing can be done with the stim money?
Doesn't a lot go toward labor?
(As far as companies leaving - they have already left. That's why so many things are imports. How are you supposed to buy American when America makes less stuff than the world?)
While I agree with your sentiment about the bribes for the mortgage lenders and loan modifiers, look at it this way: these once-great jobs are now lousy jobs. Most of these yahoos who are still employed are burning through their profits. These people need work. If you didn't bribe them, they wouldn't do the work. This is partly a jobs program of sorts.
It seems like what will happen is, if the refinance and cram down are applied, the lenders will get back their principal, but lose the profit (and then some), due to the payment schedule being drawn out so long.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Banks will potentially have all these assets that pay a low interest rate for a long, long time. Foreclosures, which are just losses, become assets-of a sort.
That's stability.
That bogeyman about the foreclosed houses in the hood are only true in working-class areas, and yuppie areas, where the old rentals were sold to sub-prime borrowers. In stable neighborhoods, so few houses were sold that there won't be much of an issue.
Also, people who get these cram downs will tend to stay during the duration of this depression. If they walk away from the loan, they will ruin their credit and likely spend more money on a rental.
As people lose a lot of money in the stock market and in real estate loses it's value,Good patents that solves a big problem,makes more sense to invest in manufacturing the problem solved patented invention then one could imagin,when some inventions could make Billions of dollars it's only smart for one to look at Patent #6,926.702 called Diaper With Legs, After all this is well needed by baby's ,toddler's,and adults with needs.Inventor of Diaper With Legs Lisa Wilkinson
the maltastar link http://www.maltastar.com/pages/msFullArt.asp?an=14323 is listed by AVG as a virus site?
I just found this, obviously it's old, but I wanted to comment. I've had an apple logo tattoo for quite some time and I thought this was really hilarious. I was getting mad because I was thinking, "Damn! I could have been getting paid for this thing???" haha.
bravo.
Well, the Wikipedia paradigm of 'community contribution/editing' will, by nature, involve community viewpoints/opinions/spins, whether neutral, conflicting or sympathetic. The issue of the Exxon edits is a rather clear example of this problem. Exxon is a member of the community, Exxon is embarrassed by the Valdez incident, and whomever edited the Wikipedia entries clearly lost touch with the magnitude of the issues of the Valdez spill. That would be an example of conflicting viewpoints, and is also an argument in support of open editing; why debate each other on the subject? Similar issues exist for lower level Wikipedia entries, but the check and balance end of Wikipedia entries are often much less informed of the details of the lower level items; hence, some lower level entries can often be moderately inaccurate for years without corrections. After all, so many times through the years SINCE I was in school, I've learned that the textbooks which I had to read while I was IN school were not clearly presenting relevant details about "American History".
A well-done profit-sharing scheme is a great idea. It has obvious benefits for workers, but also benefits for the enterprise--during bad times the cost of employment goes down automatically, without any need to cut anyone's pay.
Management, though, always screws it up. First, they screw it up by turning it into an incentive program (with the problems that I discussed in detail in Incentive plans always go awry). Second, they really only want to have a profit-sharing program when profits are small. On those occasions when there are outsized profits, the managers want to shrink the profit-sharing program, figuring that the profits really belong to the owners, not to the workers (even if the workers had for years been settling for less than their fair value, in anticipation of future profit sharing).
As I say, though, if it's well done, it's a great idea.
I HAVE BEEN USING THE BOOK FOR 2 YEARS AND I FEEL WITH THE ECOMONY THISW BOOK HAS BEEN VERY HELPFUL TO ME, BECUASUE I AM ON A TIGHT INCOME AND ALL THE OFFERS I HAVE USED IN THE BOOK HAVE HELPED ME GET WHAT HAS BEEN OFFERED, I DOLOKE THE 2FOR1 AND THE COUPONS FOR STORES. I HOPE I DO WIN I AM GOING THROUGH A DIVORCIE AFTER BEEN MARRIED FOR A VERY VEY LONG TIME, I AM ON MY OWN ON A FIXED INCOME. TRYING TO MAKE ENDS MEET.
I am so mad that I am going to be footing the bill for others failure to plan.
I don't know what people were thinking when they bought these huge houses! Did they really think that they could afford them? Unfortunately we are rewarding the bad financial decisions of others by bailing them out and then giving them 1000 bucks if they manage to pay their bills on time.
In all the years I have had my home, I have NEVER been late paying the mortgage. Yes there were times when we ate Ramen for weeks, sold stuff on Ebay and had garage sales, but we paid our bills!
Where is my reward?
I can't beleive that no one mentioned my idea-
I keep extra money in my underwear drawer inside of a sock. It probably isn't the safest place for a robbery by a stranger. But for a friend/family thief it would be weird for them to be found going through my underwear.
I am not optimistic about the eventual outcome of our current problems. Worse yet, I don't anticipate a recovery in my limited lifetime.
I should like to think we DO learn, and am hopeful that the problems that have occurred over the past 10 year might eventually see solutions.
My hope is that as the malaise that covers America today continues, thoughtful persons will look beyond what we know today, and what we've learned from the past, and will design a new framework for a fairer economy. An economy that has room for the entrepreneur, the investor, and the capitalist, but which also allows the rest of the country to share in the wealth that our productivity produces and what our people earn.
I hope for a rediscovery of "Binary Economics". The book from the 1950's is "The Capitalist Manifesto", by Louis Kelso.
While virtually ignored, the concept is vitually perfect.
Other than a very cursory and flawed overview from wiki, there are few sites that take time or effort to explain or analyze the concept. I would suggest that a reading of book may convince doubters, and those who are to quick to criticize what they do not understand.
One of the hardest parts of any economic model, is the introduction and transition... often preceded by war or social upheaval. Binary Economics provides a relatively painless transition, that does not include a redistribution of wealth or a heavy hand.
Overly simple, but think "profit sharing" from the 1950's. (Kelso was an initiator of ESOP, and the Capitalist Manifesto is an outgrowth of that.)
We have never had the luxury of having a period in our history, where the discontent of the people might give pause to the "in" government to stop the excesses of power. We may be at that point within another year. As America scrambles for answers, we might just seed for new growth. We have the ability... As the staus quo weakens, it's just possible that there could be a new paradigm, closer to what we knew as the American Dream.
my opinion only
Countrywide was the leader in writing fraudulent mortgages, so this is hardly surprising. This is what happens when law enforcement is corrupted and zombie banks continue to stumble around in their continued quest for HUMAN FLESH
okay, so lets do nothing. there were no oversights in place, obviously, when these lenders were giving these BS loans so lets leave everything as is. And no, I don't want to hear any of you yelling for government intervention when your house is worth squat because of all the vacant foreclosed houses in your neighborhood or when you or hubby lose your job. none of you even took one moment to think maybe, just maybe it does help someone who acted responsibly but saw their income diminish considerably, i.e., layoff. you all must lead a charmed life, whatever income you have will never be affected, ever and no sudden illness will never befall a member of your fam. boy, it must be nice to be all of you. Me, I'm just one of those "loser" homeowners, that low and behold, got let go from their well paying job only to not be able to find comparable work and silly me. So working the 2 partimers that pays only 40% of my previous salary has put me in a very daunting position. Loser. Ah, yes but I live in the real world. I will be glad when that real world knocks on a couple of your doors.