The Economy

[ethelkilledfred]

Re: The Economy

THAT DOG IS MINT! Maybe you and him can go into home demolition. ;)

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack the thread but here is the mutt:



Funny thing I came home, after the first time he went through that door, he was wedged under the back of the Torino, and could not get out.
He has mellowed out alot, but he killed 4 doors. The I went steel.
Half German Sherpard, Half husky, all freak.

BTW cool looking dog

[Eliteman76]

Re: The Economy

Thanks...
I can only dread what your truckers are dealing with...I mean, good God, the diesel here is over $4.30 a gallon now.
I noticed the other day, of all things, at a small gas station in a small town, a dozen donuts, $8.99 for a dozen freaking donuts.
I know it's something small and stupid, but I recall paying like $4 for a dozen not that long ago.
Some things are up right now...but like it has been said before, things are down it seems all over.
I try to not pay too much heed to all the doom and gloom, but seriously, I am hoping I managed to find a job really quick...I had a good feeling today about my first interview, so who knows...was in there for over an hour and a half. Found out the guy that interviewed me buys his modified dirt track parts from my cousin's race shop.

I just am doing my best to not get all bummed out over stuff.
Like I said before, I'm on vacation right now. The pay sucks, but I'm pretty relaxed. :-\

[SpeedJunkee's Carbs]

Re: The Economy

I recently lost my job, and I went on the hunt for a new job today, all I got was "The economy just aint good enough right now, bussiness is to slow to hire anyone else right now".....

[Fordplay0621]

Re: The Economy

At least Saudi Arabia is only paying $0.45 a gallon.

I think we should tell Saudi Arabia that we are going to close down all of the US Military Bases on thier Lands. They also wanted Close to a Billion Dollars to improve the areas around those Bases. WTF are they thinking. I'm sure our GOv't will pay them for it to. F them Bastards, 90 % of the Terrorist were Saudi's. Pull the Support until Oil goes down to $1.50 again.

[joe_rocket45]

Re: The Economy

Pull the Support until Oil goes down to $1.50 again.

what's that tell ya???

[FORDGUY]

Re: The Economy

I work with a guy who thinks that Katrina, the tsunami is SE Asia, and now this Chinese earthquake have all been orchestrated by a secretive group of government control types who want to eliminate 1/2 of the earth's population and get rid of the poor because they don't contribute. He truly believes that Katrina was "steered". :P

isnt China bragging about controlling weather for the olympics? I am not saying I believe any of this but having them say that may lead people to believe the theory of the disasters, ya know?

[Brian Lohnes]

Re: The Economy

I guess they should have worked on controlling earthquakes.

Brian

[bnjny]

Re: The Economy

Ignoring the conspiracy theories...

I am concerned that we have not stepped up to blame ourselves...

Buying a house or car you can't afford is your own fault...

I feel for those who lost their jobs and have fallen on hard times. But we put ourselves in a corner and now want help out of it... High lines of credit and not making enough to pay it back equal disaster.

I hope things get better for those of you who have lost work.

[Eliteman76]

Re: The Economy

Ignoring the conspiracy theories...

I am concerned that we have not stepped up to blame ourselves...

Buying a house or car you can't afford is your own fault...

I totally agree.
I bought my first house 3 years ago, and while no million dollar place, for $95k, I can't complain. The payment is reasonable, the gas and light bill ain't bad as long as I am not playing too much with the welder...
I see on tv, these people on these shows "they only have $700k to find a house what ever will they do?" and while I realize on the coasts land is a lot of $$$ I still shake my head.
I've seen first hand how good times go bad, you have alot of contractors that a few years back while the housing market was out of control, all sorts of new development, then that bubble burst and it was like everything ground to a hault. I can only think of alot of the guys that had bought new trucks and equipment out of work now because of how slow things are.
From the back of my house, I watched 2 years ago farm land being graded for a new development, and in that time, only recently has some of the concrete been laid for the streets.

[milner351]

Re: The Economy

For sure the mortgage companies are to blame for dangling the carrot - but so many folks are even more guilty for taking a big bite.

I've now heard the "recession" has hit our brothers to the north badly - in the lumber industry that is slowing to a crawl thanks to the lack of building.


Did everyone really think that they could take all the equity out of their homes to buy cars, plasma TV's, and take plush vacations, and never think they'd be paying for those things for 30 years?
OR - that the housing market can adjust just like the stock market?

I know we are upside down on the house we live in, and at least one of our rental properties - while that sucks - we are not moving anytime soon - so we just have to ride it out.

Politics and oil -- if you can't find the logic - follow the money!

I'm looking seriously into brewing my own biodiesel and trading the gas vehicles for oil burners.

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: The Economy

The Mortgage companies dangled that adjustable rate mortgage in front of me, when shopping around some were down right pushy with it. I told them all to hell with that. Got a standard 30 year fixed. Now that the rates have dropped more since then I've started a re-fi for a 15-year fixed. I've gotten lucky so far and my house appraised for $25,000 more than I owe (Just bought it 2 years ago) and if I get the landscaping done in the back yard (literally nothing but dirt and weeds now) I'm sure the value/equity would only increase. I can't see myself pulling any equity value out for anything except to re-invest back into the house or second house (or shop?? ;D) I know a guy that pulled $50k equity out of his house, bought a brand new Diesel F-350, now complains that his house isn't worth what he owe's on it, I didn't bother to mention to him that he is now paying for that truck for the next 30 years instead of 3-5 years. Wonder if he'll have that truck 30 years from now? Which reminds me, the Hardware store should be open now, I'm heading out to rent a rototiller for the yard.

[ethelkilledfred]

Re: The Economy

IMO-In the housing market, people got ripped off out here. If one or two people were fooled into buy more than they could afford, then maybe shame on them, but with so many people being scammed, then there was something wrong in the way business was being conducted. They were lead to believe that it was OK to buy a house they could not afford, because the payments would be low for 2 years and then they would triple and by then they will sell that house at a profit and buy another one with less financed, or they were miss lead about the variable interest all together, saying that it was all they qualified for. Either way they lost their house along with their $50,000 to $100,000 down payment. Only one who won was the loan company and the guy who put the loan together.

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: The Economy

If someone had $50,000-$100,000 to put on a down payment and still fell into the ARM trap I'd look into how they are making their money. Saving up that kind of cash doesn't come from making stupid money related decisions. The banks are feeling the hurt too with the defaults, but I do agree with you on the shear number of people that got caught in it something was flawed and exploited. The interest only loans are even worse, you're better off renting. I'm no economist, but the quick fix to me would be to lock the ARM rates in at some fairly low number (6-7%?) and if the people can afford it so be it, if not means they bought a bigger more expensive home than they could afford and some times that's the way it goes when you don't pay attention.

[SpeedJunkee's Carbs]

Re: The Economy

Ignoring the conspiracy theories...

I am concerned that we have not stepped up to blame ourselves...

Buying a house or car you can't afford is your own fault...

I feel for those who lost their jobs and have fallen on hard times. But we put ourselves in a corner and now want help out of it... High lines of credit and not making enough to pay it back equal disaster.

I hope things get better for those of you who have lost work.

I'm not in debt, never live outside my bounders. I always buy cheap cars for cash and live as cheap as possible, save more money for thing I like and can pay for then not later. But I have noticed it is harder to find a job and keep it these days.
I used to have offers for jobs even when I had a job, and now I am lucky to get a offer in 3 months.......

And I know you wasn't pointing but you made a good point about people living outside there bounders

[cal67ss396]

Re: The Economy

After reading the last few posts in this thread people have been talking about people living beyond there means. In my town they just announced 600 hundred new jobs. What they arent anouncing is that those jobs pay $9.00/hr., so lets just say these people have a car that holds 15 gallons of fuel. Their weekly income is only $360.00 dollars before taxes so minus 20% for taxes. Now that $360 becomes $298 well to put the 15 gallons is gonna cost them $60.00 almost, at $3.98/gallon take that times 4 times a month and it becomes $240.00 dollars almost a 1/4 of their monthly income. That is the problem with this country all of the greedy bastards that run companies and don't want to pay the help that is really doing the work. We really need to keep importing all of the crap from overseas and just wait this country will fold.