USA: What are you going to do with your rebate check?

[goo0h]

Sam Adams Boston Lager. Go USA!

Best answer so far! 😀

(Though, lately I've been enjoying some Murphy's stout. So I guess I'm contributing to the trade imbalance. Oh well, need to get some more HP5+ soon anyway.)

 

[navilluspm]

Best investment

Best investment

A friend told me that the Societe General has some great investors. I think we should all pool our money and have Jerome Kerviel invest it. Just think of the money we could make! 😀

 

[dlove5]

Hmm, 1 kid in college and the other entering later this year.... Nah - Vacation!!!!! Always a good excuse to actually use some of my camera gear.

 

[Thardy]

Yes, more cuts. I'm being totally serious.

 

[raid]

Home Improvements.

 

[pesphoto]

How much are we supposed to get if we're married?

---just checked....$1200 if taxes filed jointly! I'll take it.

 

[Berliner]

The 'idea' is that everyone who receives a refund check spends it/takes on more debt, and that -at least short term- WILL stimulate the economy.

But, the current state of the US economy has much less to do with our national debt, and much more to do with PERSONAL debt, the retracting housing market, raising unemployment, the credit crunch (still just the tip of the iceberg), and the cost of bread, sugar, milk, petroleum, etc., (Inflation). Poor George…He takes the rap on everything.

The President HAS to state that the ‘fundamentals’ of the economy are good. If he says otherwise, the situation spirals farther into panic. It was a very smart thing to do, and should help short-term. Long term—yikes! I am seriously worried, we all should be, and by all accounts it will get worse. As we saw at the beginning of the week, the rest of the world markets are highly correlated to the US market…

That China/India Growth fund sounds sweet! What’s the ticker???

 

[Damaso]

Buy some more gear. Mebbe that new CV 35 or a rapidwinder...

 

[splitimageview]

Can someone explain this 'housing crisis?' We have lenders who lent money to relatively suspect borrowers, and borrowers who are faced with adjustable rate mortgage increases. No guns were put to either the lender's or the borrower's heads. Both parties were betting the real estate value would continue to increase.

So, some of the irrational exhuberance calms down and there is a correction in the real estate market. These borrowers now have no equity or negative equity in their homes. OK, so this is a problem only if they have to sell (or decide to sell) their home. And the lenders should learn from their risky ways, should they not? If someone makes a poor business decision, should the government be there to bail them out?

Compare this to the millions of auto loans where customers drive off the lot with their new car and instantly have negative equity. Yet no one is talking about freezing interest rates for these people, and there are FAR more people upside down in auto loans than home loans. And the automobile value, unlike real estate, inexorably approaches zero.

Media doom/gloom/crisis. The more they talk about it, the more it becomes self-fulfilling.

 

[grizzz]

I'll be gettting nothing. I am not rich. No one on my salary in the Washington DC area would ever consider that $75k is rich. What really irks me is my boss makes well into six figures and his wife works at a day care place a few times a week. I am sure they come in just under the $150k and will get a nice check from the gov't no doubt to buy little accent peices for their pool. I could use the dough towards repairing my basement wall that is caving in casue I can't afford to live in his neighborhood.

 

[Berliner]

but most people do not RESIDE in their autos--yet...

 

[Thardy]

I'll be gettting nothing. I am not rich. No one on my salary in the Washington DC area would ever consider that $75k is rich. What really irks me is my boss makes well into six figures and his wife works at a day care place a few times a week. I am sure they come in just under the $150k and will get a nice check from the gov't no doubt to buy little accent peices for their pool. I could use the dough towards repairing my basement wall that is caving in casue I can't afford to live in his neighborhood.

Why does the boss get the rebate and you don't?

 

[rover]

Married filing jointly with combined income under the max due to wife's part time employement status.

 

[Al Kaplan]

Nobody expects to keep a new car more than perhaps three years or so. It's an expendable asset like a TV or computer. Houses are supposed to keep going up.

Housing prices went into an upward spiral when interest rates fell a few years ago. The average person bases what house he can afford on the monthly payment amount, not the actual price of the house. With low interest rates sellers could ask more and buyers were willing to pay more because the monthly payment was their only concern. Variable rate mortgages caused a lot of the problem, with monthly payments suddenly increasing by a significant amount.

My next door neighbor bought at the top of the market a couple of years ago, put a fortune into remodeling inside and out, and now has the fanciest house in the neighborhood. It now has a for sale sign out front but he's not likely to get his down payment and remodelling "investment" back. He'll probably take at least a $50,000 loss if he finds a buyer. More likely the bank will take it back and he'll have to file bankruptcy to get out of the remodelling loans.

"Flipping" only paid off with an investment house. If you lived in it you'd just get stuck buying another house at an inflated price, a zero sum game. It doesn't bother me that my house is down about $50,000 dollars from the peak. I bought it in the fall of 1967 for $13.500 and paid off the mortgage years ago.

 

[Thardy]

Why does the boss get the rebate and you don't?

Yeah, I took another look at it. Not really fair. 🙁

 

[rover]

Yeah, I took another look at it. Not really fair. 🙁

That depends on how much she eats.

 

[uhligfd]

I thought Leica users earned too much to qualify for the hand-out.

Was I ever wrong! High value camera apparently does not equal a high income.

How cute! On RFForum we thus all "suffer" for our artsy desires. Great!

 

[Thardy]

That depends on how much she eats.

I don't quite follow what you mean. 😱

 

[Thardy]

I thought Leica users earned too much to qualify for the hand-out.

Was I ever wrong! High value camera apparently does not equal a high income.

How cute! On RFForum we thus all "suffer" for our artsy desires. Great!

Oh, not nice.

Actually it's just us Americans with our devalued houses, stagnant wages, puny dollar, and shrinking stock portfolio. We might have to sell our Leicas for food and fuel oil soon. Hmm, all have have is a Bessa and an FSU lens. I'm screwed.

 

[varjag]

Can someone explain this 'housing crisis?' We have lenders who lent money to relatively suspect borrowers, and borrowers who are faced with adjustable rate mortgage increases. No guns were put to either the lender's or the borrower's heads. Both parties were betting the real estate value would continue to increase.

So, some of the irrational exhuberance calms down and there is a correction in the real estate market. These borrowers now have no equity or negative equity in their homes. OK, so this is a problem only if they have to sell (or decide to sell) their home. And the lenders should learn from their risky ways, should they not? If someone makes a poor business decision, should the government be there to bail them out?

As I understand it, it became crisis when these loans to suspect borrowers were selected out, repackaged as bonds and sold to financial institutions (hedge and pension funds) in non-transparent packages. So now if all of the loans quickly devalue, there is a risk of huge chain reaction throughout the financial system. It is in best interest of everyone to at least smooth out devaluation.

Was it a form of fraud? Probably, at least borderline to it. But as they say, "if you owe bank a thousand, it's your problem, if you owe it a million, it is bank's problem".