A Look in My Mirror

I just saw this article about Indymac’s new fast track loan system.  Indymac was taken over by the FDIC in July and has been restructuring their mortgage loans.  This program reworks the loans to offer lower payments.  They take the information they have about earnings and structure the loan so it is no more than 38% of income.  Good idea.  They also offer financial counseling for those that have late payments.  So it will help people learn to work to get total spending down or better. It is an interesting idea I hope works.  This is a market solution.  They admit that even these new loans won’t work for everybody but if it works for the estimates 2/3 they are hoping it helps, it is great.

Here is the article.  Go to the article link in this blog.

According to U.S Population Clock, run by the census bureau, there are approximately 305,000,000 people int the United States.  If there is ten percent of the population making $250,000 or more we can remove them.  That leaves roughly 30,500,000 people that make under $250,000.  If the $700,000,000,000 bailout was divided evenly among all those people it would give each person roughly $22,000.  Why not send the money to the people who need it and split it this way.  Better yet, cut out all the people who don’t make taxes and you could increase that number by 1/3 to 1/2.  Could you imagine getting a check in the mail for $30,000.  What would you do with it?  Why not pass a law like that.  Then what you can do is direct the money that is going to a person that is behind on their mortgage to the lending institute that holds their note.  Any money left over goes to the person.  Any student loan, car loan, etc… that is behind will be caught up and the excess will go to the tax payer that needs the money for gas, or what ever.  If m wife and I got that money, $60,000, we would pay off all our debts, expect a few key pieces, and set the rest into an account to gain interest.  It is a win all around.  My Student loans would be paid off, my car would be paid off.  I wouldn’t need to worry as much about a summer job, I work for a traditional calendar school.  Think about all you could do with that money.

Oh, well…  It is good to dream big.  I just hope the next economic stimulus package is passed.  Even $1,000 each would be nice.

Okay, now we have the buckets going, what now?  I am still not happy with the bailout.  I do believe the free market would have eventually worked something out.  My thought, what about all the people who have been doing the right thing, paying their bills on time, etc…  What kind of break do they get?  Also, I thought Sarah Palin summed up the problem well when she made the point that mortgage companies convinced people who could only afford $100,000 homes that they could really afford $300,000 homes.  Oddly enough, she seems to be making more sense then the major candidates.  Oh well…

Of course, one of the economists I respect, Steve Forbes, did make the point that the bailout and the stock buying that is part of it, should stabilize the banks enough to unclog the pipes.  His point now is that the economy is health except for the blockage of funds.  If the funds stay blocked the economy will go down hill fast.

I have been in the process of moving so I am not as available the last few weeks.  We hope to get the majority of our items moved tomorrow.  Cross your fingers.  And our Internet, which was supposed to be hooked up either Monday or Tuesday now won’t be hooked up until Thursday or Friday.  Go Time Warner Cable.   Yeah!!!!!!

p.s. Is Internet a proper name?  The blog spell checker always shows Internet should be capitalized.  Or is this just the first wave of the machine finding a life of its own?

“We are now in the golden age of thieves. And where I come from we put thieves in jail, we don’t bail them out.” — Rep. Pete Visclosky, Democrat Indiana.

Also, Jeffrey Miron makes a great point in his column.  He makes the point that if any of the assets the government wants to buy had the potential to be profitable than a private market would have opened up for the assets.  So, when you hear a congressman tell you we may make money on this deal, don’t drink the kool-aid.  The free market would have solved the problem without the government if there was a solution to the problem.  Since the free market doesn’t want to touch these loans and other debts, why should the tax payers.  Something stinks in the land of Washington.

People who know me know I am a strong Republican.  I plan to vote for John McCain because I believe he better represents my views.  I am also a white southern male.  Since I am not going to vote for Obama, because I disagree with his politics, am I a bigot?  It seems that every time I turn around there are commentators who seem to suggest any time I disagree with Obama I am being bigoted.  A comment I heard on CNN’s Roland Martin Show claims that the white people who are voting for Obama are also being bigoted because they are voting for him because he acts more “white” than “black”.  So it doesn’t matter, if you are white you are being bigoted no matter how you react to Obama.  So, I guess I am a bigot by that definition.