The founders of the United States were brilliant human beings who developed and left us a framework for existence that we continue to ignore to our detriment. The framework I am talking about, of course, is the Constitution. In the current economic crisis, the regime in D.C. is ignoring it by devising new ways to “stabilize” our economy, the harmful effects of which are already appearing.
According to Bankrate.com, average mortgage rates on 30-year fixed home loans have increased more than one half a percentage point to 6.74 percent in the last week. This represents the largest weekly increase since April 1987, when the 30-year rate rose 0.84 points. For the average borrower with a $200,000 loan, this means they will pay $1,296 a month – an increase of $100 more a month and $1,200 more a year than the same loan would have cost just a few weeks ago.
But, weren’t the policies enacted by the Bush Administration, Federal Reserve, and Congress supposed to “unfreeze” the credit markets and relieve the pressure on our financial system so that it could work again? The answer is yes, but once again, the unintended consequences of federal actions have prevailed. You see, in order to fund Washington’s rescue of the economy and the new government debt guarantees, the Treasury is selling a bundle of new Treasury bills to raise money (more debt). Treasury has to offer higher interest rates to sell these debt assets and since mortgage rates move in step with 10-year Treasury yields they have risen with the actions of Paulson, et al.
Additionally, because Uncle Sam is guaranteeing bank debt, it is becoming more attractive for investors and creating more competition for his own firms - Fannie and Freddie, when they seek to sell their securities. To compete for investors, the nationalized companies must raise their own yields and then charge borrowers higher rates for mortgages. As a matter of fact, mortgage rates are higher now than they were before the Fannie/Freddie bailout was launched. Naturally, this was not the government’s intention, just the consequence of its actions.
Article comments
1 - Ms. Know
The Liberal Illuminati will allow America to feel the urgency to buy more things, even with the bailout plan. The truth of the matter is these Ivy-League politicians should tell us to hold on to our money, instead of get further into debt.
2 - moon
I think that some measure of mass psychosis has taken over Gringolandia--it clearly was beginning to show its symptomology before 9/11, but after that date it became full-blown.
Looking at the situation from the outside--and even from the inside, as I was just in McCain's state of Arizona a couple of weeks ago for 10 days--it absolutely boggles my mind that folks who elected a man with a dramatically below normal IQ to be their president, their face to the rest of the world, expected that singularly damaged person to make WISE decisions in their name.
This is way beyond the satire of Hal Ashby's film, "Being There", with its much-touted Peter Sellers performance as a retarded gardener who became a presidential adviser. In this case the guy who was too damaged to even function as a gardener (I wouldn't let Bush anywhere near MY rose bushes, I can tell you) IS the president. And YOU voted for him.
The OP says the founding fathers were brilliant men. I don't know that there has ever been any evidence of their brilliance--but by the same token they were not retarded men. They had the skills to oversee plantations teeming with African slaves and run successful businesses, whereas Bush failed extravagantly at every business he was involved in.
WHY, in the name of pure common sense, would you expect Bush to be successful in a BIGGER business arena when he failed in the bush leagues (sorry, but that's the term)?
There were no best laid plans here. All there was was giving money--billions of dollars of it--to cronies who told the little guy that he could wear the pointed hat of presidentialism for them.
Read the Constitution? This is a man who cannot read. Folks with IQs in the 70s have severe problems lining up their eyes to read, much less keeping the letters in proper order. But when this man TOLD you, on nationwide tv, that he couldn't speak or read English you thought he was JOKING!
Frankly, what I am seeing and hearing from Gringolandia are gringos trying to blame their woes and their upcoming greater woes on somebody else: Hugo Chavez, who overcharged them for the gas in their SUVs--or the president of Iran, or Putin--or the doggone Bogey Man.
This kind of infantilism leads directly to the abyss, folks.
Get a grip--that slope is getting steeper by the second, and it is all downhill.