Comments Posted By Whitehall
Displaying 1 To 8 Of 8 Comments
THE ETHICS OF 'WALKING AWAY' FROM YOUR MORTGAGE
As a long time renter who SOMEDAY wants to buy a home, my interests are in letting the market reach a real equilibrium. It is a long way from that where I live, in Silicon Valley. I've watched for years as the prices kept jumping higher and higher, much higher than the incomes. Plenty of people took advantage of their windfall equity increases by driving Mercedes, extensive remodels, vacations, etc, etc.
The prices of homes here are being propped up with MY tax dollars (current and future) in ways that work against my interest.
While a FICO score substitutes for a moral judgment by the community, default is a real option for ALL debtors. There are prices to be paid and the moral calculus must be weighed by all parties.
It's just business.
Let homeowners default. What will happen is the federal government will reimburse the banks with everyone's tax dollars or through massive inflation so that their reserve margins keep them in business. After all, the banking/financial system is more important than the housing market.
Someday home prices will match incomes. Until then, I'll save thousands every month by renting.
Comment Posted By Whitehall On 4.02.2010 @ 13:31
WHAT'S SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT CLIMATEGATE? EVERYTHING
Sit down at a poker game. One guy keeps drawing straight flushes or four-of-a-kind and raking in your chips.
THEN you discover he is a card cheat and has cards up his sleeve.
Did he EVER earn your chips? Does he get to keep your money even after discovery?
Common sense - once a con man, always treat as a con man.
My revelation was in reading the 2001 IPCC technical report. The politicized summary was not supported by the technical part. The discussion of the various forcing functions put anthropogenic CO2 as a minor one that could be positive or negative. They noted the lack of understanding of how the various forcing fumctions interacted and made no conclusions.
Subsequent IPCC reports didn't allow that to happen again.
Comment Posted By Whitehall On 10.12.2009 @ 12:52
MEN AND WOMEN AND PORN: A LOVE STORY
While pornography has a stimulating effect on libido in the short term, it does saturate like most stimuli. It then enters the definition of "vice" in that it is another way to fool ourselves, it this case, that we have a sexual appetite and an avenue of release for it.
So a little is OK but a lot is bad. Sounds like the moral verdict on chocolate, doesn't it?
Speaking of "chocolate".... to "the three orifaces," the Incas were very big on the back door if their pottery and other surviving artwork is any indication. Maybe it was a state-encouraged method of birth control?
Comment Posted By Whitehall On 1.09.2009 @ 14:21
So we've elected Obama. So be it. He and the Democrat Congress will pass legislation that I will not like. That is the right of the victors.
HOWEVER, the Democrat party has been mentioning possible iniatives that go over the line into unacceptability. Serious attempts to breach our democratic covenant will see serious pushback. Examples of unacceptable policies, those that undermine our Constitution and our fundamental principles of governance, include:
1) a domestic security force. This has political intimidation possibilities written all over it. what other use will it have?
2) the Fairness Doctrine and other efforts to block opposing political speech
3) further erosion of the legitimacy of our election processes.
4) greater access to our political process by foreigners and foreign interests.
There will other bad ideas forthcoming.
Americans must draw a line in the sand when one party starts to change the systems of power ascension to ensure continued power for that party.
Comment Posted By Whitehall On 5.11.2008 @ 13:14
I'm one of those 9%ers.
I'm a long-term renter who sat out the housing bubble. It sure looked faked and unsubstantable to me and I've been proved right.
I build nuclear power plants. Business has never been better, at least since the early 70's. I got a 50% raise in February, better benefits, longer vacation, nicer office, when I changed jobs. There will be work for the rest of my life doing what I love - health permitting, I won't want to retire.
Some of us, through our life choices and sometimes astute planning, are contracyclical.
Comment Posted By Whitehall On 8.10.2008 @ 12:50
NOW GRAMM FEELS OUR PAIN - AND McCAIN'S BOOT
As to why the new auto plants are being built in the South, maybe it is the electricity. Those states have new nuclear power plants in the works.
Of course, they have lower taxes and less favorable laws for unions too.
Comment Posted By Whitehall On 12.07.2008 @ 15:53
Hate to disagree but Gramm was dead on the money. He should have been a bit more specific about exactly WHO the whiners were - that would be the MSM and the Democrats.
There is ALWAYS someone on the short end of the stick economically. We've all seen hard times. The answer is to get out and solve your own problems. If the plant closes and you lose your job you hustle up a new one or move or get some more training. We do have a substantial safety net (unemployment, retraining funds, etc) for anyone with will and drive.
So times are not as flush as they have been the last couple of decades; they are by no means fatal for anyone with some energy. The conomy has to do some cycling or we'd be stuck with a bunch of dumb ideas that didn't get weeded out.
Let's get on with it.
Comment Posted By Whitehall On 12.07.2008 @ 13:03
LOOKING FOR MIDDLE GROUND IN THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE
It's less of an issue of Republican vs. Democrats. At heart, it is a battle between the political classes and the American people.
Don't 70 to 80% of the American public want a buttoned-down border first? I'd think a majority are on board for employer sanctions too but all we get from Bush is a weasel word - "accountable."
No elected official that I've heard is calling for mass deportations. I personally don't know anyone that mean. Bush's use of that particular strawman was uncalled for and a low blow.
The obvious compromise is a proven, buttoned-down border, clear and visible employer sanctions THEN we can grant permanent resident visas to those established here with clean noses. I live in the VERY liberal San Francisco Bay Area and everyone I talk with agrees.
The anger over this issue is due to 20 years of dishonest government.
Comment Posted By Whitehall On 17.05.2006 @ 19:42
