February 19, 2008
Perspective on Real Estate
A far too long election period—so that media can make millions in profits—and that is the reason it expands like a breathing organism!
A very young and brilliantly articulate man is matched against a brilliant, hard-nosed woman. If we criticize one or the other for too much ambition, we cannot understand anything about what a President must be in order to lead. Without ambition, there is no energy. Without a hard nose, they cannot lead past tyrants who have nothing but ambition, without any ethics at all. The fact that the man is not white, we reach a rare milestone. The fact that a female can progress so far is another welcome milestone.
The other party looks to present a man of integrity, former prisoner of war, courageous, periodically cranky and very decent. We will have choice and perhaps the two best candidates we’ve had in too many years.
The Constitution, which we think we worship, is rife with mostly unwelcome changes and realizations—like too much power for the executive who cannot recognize the difference between truth and fiction, who surrounds himself with party loyalists rather than wise citizens.
The fact that we face a slowdown in our economy usually would doom any incumbent. Now we are no longer sure that this will continue to prevail! Our indebtedness should be the biggest argument in this election, mixed with a very controversial war and tax reductions that should never happen during wartime!
Have you noticed the number of ads for loans during a time when financing is reported to be so difficult to obtain? What is this all about? My conclusion is that it is a time for great caution on the part of borrowers. More than 1.6 million mortgage holders missed payments last year. We have the largest delinquency rate since records were first kept in 1979.
We are having a crisis of trust, of faith in institutions, which we are used to trusting! This will continue until trust returns, but first it will become worse!
Accounting, upon which so much depends, has become less than dependable as short-cuts raise risks. The mortgage crisis spreads beyond sub prime loans. Payments rise as home values fall, pinching the credit worthy. Stupidity spreads like a disease. Will we ever learn to be wise rather than greedy? What is capitalism when greed prevails? Fools’ gold!
The Economist cover (Feb. 16-22): "But Could He Deliver?" (Obama). In closely watching and listening to the Obama’s, two most attractive people, I am flooded with how easy it seems to be for them and how that creates vanity in people. I note more of the arrogance of winning, as adulation of crowds will spoil the stew as sure as history assures us. We are all watching this couple hoping that he is what he appears to be, that he can change the political stew that stinks far more than it should!
Following the present President’s terms lends this election more importance than usual. People are tired of usual politics and the divisiveness that accompanies it
While the FED appears to be taking fast action, the government is not! It is far too slow, and is not doing enough to build consumer trust in the system and that’s all there is to it. It is all a problem of faithlessness in what we used to take for granted!
One continuing problem is that the economy is being judged as if it were global warming—along party lines!
srg
