Al Gore Ready to Run for President?
Al Gore takes home the Nobel Peace Prize. Is his next move to run for President? I think maybe.
Tagged: Politics RSS
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Bill Rice
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Bill Rice
Heaven Help Us, Politics Enters Mortgage Market
We thought there were problems in the mortgage market, but now we are guaranteed long-term ramifications of this dramatic correction–the politicians have made it their issue.
Let’s take a look at what they are proposing and hypothesize what the long-term effect might become.
The Federal Reserve
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke issues his assurance that The Fed stands ready to assist the mortgage market "as needed," an obvious sound bite intended to inject stabilizing confidence into the market. But is the Federal Reserve equipped to manage this crisis?
“The reason there isn’t a market for these credits is that people don’t know what price they should be trading at,” said Edward E. Leamer, professor of management at the University of California, Los Angeles, who presented a paper during the weekend at the Federal Reserve’s symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyo. “That’s not going to be affected by a small change in the federal funds rate.”
All indication are that the Federal Reserve will follow it’s lowering of the benchmark fed funds rate on overnight loans between banks with a lowering of the fed funds rate on September 18th, more directly affecting the consumer debt market.
The White House
Bush thus far has emphasized a classic conservative response to economic market dynamics, moderation and natural market forces.
Both Bernanke and Bush emphasized that their actions were not aimed at bailing out investors who had made bad decisions.
"It’s not the government’s job to bail out speculators or those who made the decision to buy a home they knew they could never afford," Bush said in the Rose Garden. "Yet there are many American homeowners who could get through this difficult time with a little flexibility from their lenders or a little help from their government."
Bush’s proposal includes the use of the FHA to absorb some of the risk of refinancing borrowers who are beginning to struggle as the result of resetting ARMs.
Bush’s proposals unveiled Friday are designed to help combat those defaults. They would make it easier for borrowers now holding adjustable rate mortgages that are resetting to higher monthly payments to refinance those loans using the resources of the Federal Housing Administration. The FHA is a Depression-era agency created to help low and moderate-income Americans afford homes.
Under the Bush proposal, which FHA officials said would take effect immediately, an estimated 60,000 homeowners who have fallen behind on payments because their mortgages have reset would be able to refinance with FHA-insured loans. That marks a significant change because FHA does not now insure refinanced loans from borrowers who are currently delinquent.
The President’s proposal also includes support for, across the aisle, Senator Debbie Stabenow’s (D-MI) sponsored bill for tax relief on forgiven debt.
As another part of his mortgage package, Bush said he would support legislation pending in Congress that would temporarily change tax law to let homeowners avoid paying taxes on forgiven debt in loans being restructured by financial institutions. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat from Michigan, a state particularly hardhit by foreclosures because of auto industry layoffs, is sponsoring that legislation.
Democratic Presidential Hopefuls
The most dangerous proposals are probably coming from the field of Democrats that are willing to appeal to emotions to gain favor and votes. Unhampered by a need for execution and immediacy several are flinging around dramatic responses.
Senator Clinton (D-NY) proposes "clamping down on lending abuses" and a $1 billion fund to aid state agencies helping borrowers catch up on late payments.
Meanwhile, Senator Obama (D-IL) goes hard-charging under his own pen in the Financial Times calling for more regulation and enforcement.
Mr Obama said the government needed to "stop the unlicensed, unregulated, fly-by-night mortgage brokers who are hoodwinking low-income borrowers into loans they can’t afford".
He added that "Washington needs to stop acting like an industry advocate and start acting like a public advocate".
It gives me cold chills thinking what the tax-payer price tag might be on that solution, not to mention how little effect I think it will probably bring.
Then there is John Edwards who keeps waving his hands and saying they are not doing enough and I am glad they are following my lead???
The campaign for former Sen. John Edwards, who is third in polls of the Democratic race, quickly countered that Clinton’s plan failed to go far enough and he has already offered "a real plan to punish predatory lenders and protect homeowners, and we’re glad Senator Clinton has chosen to follow his lead."
As for me, I think that letting the market work is always the best solution. Think about it:
- The bad brokers and lenders are already being punished–back to the used car lots and bankruptcy
- The investors get more conservative–pulling back investments and credit
- The borrowers finances get reset–bankruptcy protection
- And it doesn’t last forever. The markets can’t hold off their voracious appetite for high-quality, long-term, secured debt.
This is a dramatic example of a free market economy at work. Let it work!
Tags: mortgage, mortgage implosion, bush, obama, clinton, bernanke, politics
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FHA Loan Advice
Bill Rice
ex-Soviet nation (Belarus) and Iran forge military alliance
Foreboding military alliance between former Soviet nation (Belarus) and Iran?
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Fits in with an ongoing thread–again, not in any of the US papers…
This is another great demonstration of the power of RSS and feed readers as an information UI. I am sure this persistent disconnect in US and foreign press is not a new thing, but it is glaringly obvious as I diversify my news sources in my reader.
Alliances like this, relative to ongoing US actions, should be considered in our future foreign policy and certainly our public perception of the effectiveness of current foreign policy.
Unfortunately, I am sure most of our political leaders couldn’t spell RSS and probably don’t use feeds as an efficient way to aggregate, consume, and synthesize public information.
(Via RIA Novosti.)
Bill Rice
Connecting Unusual Dots in Your Feed Reader
This is the second time in a couple of weeks that I have noticed treads of significant issues showing in my increasingly International perspective RSS feed reader that are not appearing in the US press I typically read: NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Washington Times, NY Post, Wall Street Journal, memeorandum.
The first was a tingle I got in reading an Al-Jazeera post about the Iraqi President’s trip to Syria, but that turned to a cold chill when Dave Winer highlighted the full feeling.
Then last night I got this from my Digg “Banking” feed: “ING Investment Bank Warns Investors of Israeli Strike on Iran.” Notice only 11 Diggs–not near enough to put it above any fold, but it got into my reader!
This made me remember this post I read on Sunday from Joel Rosenberg’s feed: “DISPATCH FROM JERUSALEM: Bush speech seen as preparing for war with Iran” that included this ominous quote from his interview with Benjamin Netanyahu:
I asked Netanyahu how much time the West has to stop Ahmadinejad. “Not much,” he said, noting that when he was Prime Minister both India and Pakistan tested nuclear weapons to the shock of all Western intelligence agencies and that Iran could be much closer to getting the Bomb than anyone realizes. “Nothing else matters – not Iraq, not the peace process with the Palestinians – if Iran is allowed to obtain nuclear weapons. They must be stopped.”
I think this one is particularly interesting in that these are two very different circles of information potentially reaching very obvious conclusions about a very significant future World event without a “top fold” article in any of the US national press. You can find it at the International Herald.
Lesson: diversify your feeds!
Bill Rice
Iraqi President Visits Syria
Dave Winer notes that no one in the US press is reporting the Iraqi President’s visit to Syria.
Coincidentally, I just added the English Al-Jazeera to my feed reader and saw this to be a key story in their reporting. This gave me the same tingling sensation that something was not right.
Bill Rice
Bloggers Start Stepping into the 2008 Presidential Race
Robert Scoble, generally an apolitical blogger has just stepped in his blog and video camera into the 2008 Presidential race as a invited journalist of the Edwards’ campaign.
With the tech savvy Edwards and Barack Obama (with a regular blog and podcast) throwing their hat in the ring perhaps Joe Trippi’s decree, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” will be more real than ever in 2008.
(Via Scobleizer.)
Bill Rice
Who reads newspapers anymore?
I guess President Bush reading newspapers constitutes a Christmas Day scoop for the New York Times. I think a bigger story might be if he didn’t read newspapers, but had found that he could consume about 50 times the amount of news, from more diverse perspectives using a news reader and RSS from hundreds of sources.
I haven’t had a subscription to a print newspaper in well over five years and I think I am better informed than when I used to get the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and New York Times.
Bill Rice
When Your Vision is Failure, You will Fail
This Washington Post article on the Dems is a great life lesson. When you are focused on why you will not succeed or you forewarning excuses why you may not succeed–you will fail. A defeatist attitude will always defeat you.
The Democrats have still not found that core leader or leadership cadre that can make them believe they can win. They no longer believe in the vision of JFK and they do not have their Reagan. 2006 and 2008 will be interesting political cycles for this reason.
Bill Rice
Net Neutrality–Danger of Legislating Markets
The debate around Net Neutrality should not only focus on barriers to entry and discrimination of content. We should consider all of the unknow effects inherent in regulating and legislating markets.
I think we should let free markets do their thing. If the market determines that it is not getting enough out of the infrastructure providers then incentive will emerge. For example, if Google or Yahoo do not think Verizon or AT&T are providing sufficient infrastructure performance they will strike a partnership and create mechanisms and business arrangements to produce the results. If consumers are clamouring for faster content then charge them and see if they buy it. It worked with cable and satellite TV. I now pay for what I used to get free on TV and I pay four times what I would pay for dial-up Internet because I want higher performance.
Markets work these incentives out not legislatures–dangerous times for free markets.
Bill Rice
Karl Rove Indicted on Charges of Perjury, Lying to Investigators. I won’t even go into the political ramifications of this report if it is true because I am again intrigued by the power of the “blogosphere.” Once again the phenomenon of blogging has completely scooped the news cycle and traditional media.
My quick survey of the online versions of the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal at 8:30 am EST shows no mention of this story, yet bloggers have surged this story to the top of Memeorandum. I know where I go these days for breaking news.
(Via Memeorandum.)
Wow, it looks like this post could have been made today 12/6 instead of back in September!