From AFP:

The ripple in Arizona’s economy has spread to other sectors. Real estate agent John Aguero Sr. said he gets four to seven calls each day from people asking about what they can do with their homes.

Fifteen out of 100 people who call Aguero “are just walking away from their property,” he said.

One man called and asked how long the foreclosure process would take if he skipped his 1,600 house payments. Aguero told him four months.

“Well, I’ll save that and just go home (to Guatemala),” Aguero said. “His wife is a citizen but he’s not. The whole family will pack up and leave. He has three children, all of whom were born here.”

Still waiting for the mainstream media to discuss this aspect, but I certainly won’t be holding my breath while I wait.

We hear all the time – it’s for the children – then why on earth are they insistent upon saddling the children with a mess?

…tightening credit and liquidity would be the better long-term strategy… That kind of strategy would force the country — and the globe — to suffer a recession as a corrective…

Yes, God forbid politicians advocate that borrowers and lenders face the consequences of their actions…

Do I understand you correctly? You want the Fed to tighten
credit and cause a global recession on purpose? And you think that only evil lenders and irresponsible borrowers will be hurt by this? I suppose you will take care of any innocent people who lose their jobs or spouses during this recession and can neither make their payments nor sell their homes?

The last recession was triggered by Osama Bin Laden. I’m sure he thought triggering a US recession “would be good for the soul.” That was sure a lot of fun. Let’s do it again! How about an order of famine and pestilence to go with that recession?

I’ve got another idea. Since the Fed doesn’t listen to any of us, what if we just elect a Democrat for President? Then our taxes will increase until sooner or later we will get that recession we so long for.

President Bush won’t rule out the possibility of a larger economic stimulus package than the $150 bi…

The laws of economics are inviolate. They are as solid as mathematics, they are far more trustworthy than physics. As long as there are individuals, and there are values, and knowledge and abilities differ, there will me economics. Governments can try to change the game, bend the rules, load the dice, but they cannot escape the unpredictable costs and consequences of their actions. Trust me: they will not like the consequences. Neither will we.

Or to put it another way: “compassionate conservatism” = economic incompetence.

1. Canning the AMT
2. Making the tax cuts permanent
3. Cutting spending

So, what is it?

1. Keeping the non-inflation adjusted AMT to keep taxing the rich! damnit! We need that easy money! We can’t give it up now.
2. Making sure we get a Democrat in office, and keep the congress in our hands so we can get rid of this stupid tax cuts for the rich! Imagine if we can’t tax the dead anymore! We can’t possibly have that!
3. Let’s spend more money, we’ll just tax the rich when we need to. That’s what we’ve always done in the past.

IMHO

World markets are set up with speculation playing a certain percentage and those that gamble swim like a school of fish toward a food source in a feeding frenzy or franticly fleeing a shark.

Other than its good for the Feds to lower the interest rates, the market isn’t that bad, the doom and gloomers just have to much influence.