The Slavery of the Free

If you've been watching the financial markets the last week you've probably been wondering at all the erratic action and bearish movement. I know I have. Usually I can read bear markets better than bull markets and tend to feel more comfortable with support rather than resistance, but this erratic behavior has got me stumped. Elliot waves, symmetrical triangles and all the other tricks didn’t look very inviting or reliable at all last week. Then I read an article on the current sub prime crisis and the debt issues our nation is facing. That one hit home!

In case the above paragraph makes no sense and you're wondering what in the world I'm talking about, let me switch gears.

Plain and simple: Americans are so bogged down in debt that they can’t see straight. This is slowly bleeding our country into spasms of greed and desperation that won’t simply go away by lower interest rates and reassuring memos from the fed.

The way I understand it, credit used to be something you had to earn over many years, it was usually synonymous with trust. Not nowadays! You need a loan? Credit down the toilet? No problem! Just call our friendly credit adviser and he or she will bluster your way through to a nice fat loan with interest rates sky high. Then comes the months of toil at $7.50 / hr to try to pay off your $250,000 home. Lets see, at 6 – 8% APR, that would take what, roughly 300 years? Don’t get me wrong, many families have roofs over their heads instead of living on the street because of this, but it’s a dangerous trade and one in which there isn’t much security!

The statistics very wildly on exactly how debt prone Americans are, but none of them look very comforting. Some random stats:

• More than a third -- 36% -- of those who owe more than $10,000 on their credit cards have household incomes under $50,000, according to the VIP Forum analysis.
• 13% who owe that much have household incomes under $30,000.
• The median value of total outstanding debt owed by households rose 9.6% between 1998 and 2001.
• Bankruptcies set another record in 2003, with 1.6 million personal filings

The bankruptcy rules were changed in 2005, so there is now a large percent of the population who are completely overburdened with debt and stuck in the never-ending cycle of trying to pay it off with dwindling resources.

Enter Mr. Foreclosure…

There really is no quick solution! The average person can’t come near to paying cash for a home or business and if it weren’t for the availability of a loan he or she would starve to death.

Enter Mr. Hard Work and Mrs. Living-within-her-means.

It doesn’t matter how much money one makes, you can still be on the verge of going bankrupt (or broke as the case is now) if you live above what you earn. Hello! It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you make $30,00 a year you shouldn’t be trying to buy a $500,000 home. But with the banks lending to just about anyone these days, that's exactly what's happening.

Who cares if the Joneses are doing it? Who cares if they bought a new Hummer? You’ll have the last laugh when you buy something more along your abilities and the Joneses are moving out of their nice home into the Rescue Mission! If you can truly afford a Hummer, then by all means enjoy it; but if a good ol’ Jeep is all that’s in the budget, stay with it.

True riches are found in the small things; time with family and friends, starting and finishing a project that means a lot to someone special, volunteering at your local rescue mission (where you get to serve the “Joneses” soup!), fixing a neighbor child’s bike or hanging out with a lonely retiree for a day.

I wish I had more workable answers for the financial crisis many find themselves in, but all I can promise is a lot of discipline and hard work! And wisdom, don’t forget her…

la Viva France

It's a long way from an outright change of heart, but France is slowly coming around to real life, finally. I think they've realized that toothless Socialism is a poor way of living in the terrorist age and have decided to come around to a more democratic style of government. Snooty aristocrats aside, I think it's grand that the former Prime Minister is under the investigation that he is, I only wish they would dig deeper to find out how really bad he hurt France.

To my friends across the sea, welcome to the 21st century!

Ron Paul?

I've been disgusted of late as to the absolute lack of ideas and charisma in the Presidential contenders for 2008. It's a sad day indeed when the best our nation can field are a bunch of bickering, small minded and overgrown brats. The debates make me want to vomit, not to mention the candidates themselves!

Like many of my generation, we are looking for a fresh, inventive and solid individual to take the reins in 2008. One who will not back down in the face of special interest and overstuffed lobbyists. Could Ron Paul be that man? I don't know as of yet. I've never met him, haven't heard him speak and don't know his entire voting record and past exploits.

What I do know is that he champions the Gold Standard, voted against the Iraqi war, believes in true small government, detests the U.N. and is full of actual ideas that make sense to an average American like me. What he has going against him is his political associations as well as a certain senile (in my grandfathers words) look to him. Is he emotionally stable enough to run our country? Does he possess the mental powers to stand up to the bully congress? And more importantly, is he a member of the Skull and Crossbones Society? (I was only half kidding on that last one) Only time will tell.

In the mean time, keep an eye on Fred Thompson, er 'scuse me, Jeri Thompson...