Turbulent Times

Congress and the bureaucrats cannot leave well enough alone. Each day brings some new intervention or threat of one that absolutely guarantees instability in equity markets, credit markets (including mortgages), and business in general. There is apparently going to be a new "Car Czar" to oversee manufacturing of the Big Three. Probably just in design, emission standards, number of doors and colors. Not certainly in labor costs. It will be easy to select the new "Czar" from the large pool of people who have been in charge of Social Security, Medicare, the Post Office and providing oversight to Fannie and Freddy.
So far the stock market is still in turmoil, credit is frozen, and mortgages are uncertain. At our very low level of participation in the economy, trying to sell and finance homes for people, people ready to make a move are now on hold again because the treasury may be providing 4.5% interest money in the near future, so everything waits for that to happen, or not, as the case may be. The altruistic move to force loan modification on lenders to benefit delinquent borrowers has been less than satisfactory. One third of mortgages are again delinquent three months after modification, and after eight months fully 58% are delinquent again. Nothing is more frightening to investors and businessmen than unpredictability, and the frantic behavior of legislators and bureaucrats is providing more fear than the markets can stand, and creating an instability that threatens to bury us all. As this is written the former CEO'S of Fannie and Freddie are undergoing a scorching at the hands of a Congressional Committee for causing the financial mess we're suffering through. Just a few short months ago these same Congressmen were exerting pressure on these same CEO'S to make risky loans to expand home "ownership", and their institutions were threatening lenders to make such loans or risk being eliminated from participation in the loan pools and guarantees. Why do we continue to return these misfits to office? Pelosi, Dodd, Reid, Frank, Schumer, Waxman are unfit to manage a magazine stand, and here they are standing and posing for pictures while giving away billions of tax dollars and contriving to appear able to ask intelligent questions of business people (who are not blameless). A clear picture of what these people are really all about is being developed by the current Governor of Illinois. Egocentricity and greed in its most naked form on display, and as voters we ignore it on election day.
This was going to be on the subject of real estate commissions but that will wait for another day. My ranting about politicians won't have any impact, but maybe will keep my own heartbeat in parameters.

As usual,
Thanks for visiting.