This ongoing debt crisis continues to act like an A.D.D. glutton at Golden Corral, gobbling up market-share seemingly at random and in large quantities. Our super-committee (or “not-so-super committee” as I call them) has proven to be as petty as the broader parties they represent, gnashing their teeth at one another while accomplishing nothing. Their original purpose was to help close the Grand Canyon-esque U.S. budget deficit by at least 1.2 trillion over the next decade.
Well, that didn’t happen. Today is their official deadline and I wouldn’t be surprised if they did some sort of kick-the-can-down-the-road move to try and save their political lives. Unfortunately, such actions may not be very warmly received by the ratings agencies, threatening yet another eventual U.S. debt downgrade despite recent reaffirmations of their latest AAA (or in S&P’s case AA+) assessments.
I’d love to tell you I understand all the various ramifications of this failure. I don’t. There’s all sorts of tax cuts and spending that could expire if immediate action isn’t taken. I’m fairly sure our boss-hos Obama could veto…something in there. I dunno. Politics give me migraines.
What I do know is that this is one of many nails holding the coffin door shut on our economic growth and it isn’t getting loosened any time soon. A sobering example of the cost political jockeying has on our country. It has, however, had a very suppressing effect on interest rates which maintain their bottom-of-the-barrel status. I point this out as a valuable lesson. Markets will react to this tension, rest assured. And the outcome is very likely going to be non-end-of-the-world-y and we’ll eventually go back to business as usual. But this slight hiccup, this slight aberration in the grand scheme of things is something that can be capitalized upon if you play your cards right AND you play them at the right time.
So I sincerely hope that if you or anyone you know is thinking about real estate either as a home or for investment, you’re consulting with people who can help guide you through these economic waves. And if the people you are consulting with are awesome and handsome (like me) then that’s a bonus.
Yup. Awesome AND handsome. That’s a double-whammy.
Holiday season is officially upon us. Enjoy gaining ten pounds between now and the end of the year. I know I will. Heck, I plan on getting a head start on Thanksgiving: the only holiday where engorging yourself to the point of discomfort becomes a patriotic duty. Afterwards please spend copious sums of cash out there on Black Friday. Uncle Sam needs some good earnings reports out of the retail sector pretty soon to jolly up what is proving to be a sputtering Q4.
Republicans enjoyed a rousing debate concerning foreign policy this Tuesday on CNN. Evidently Newt Gingrich is doing well in the polls, bringing new scrutiny to his defense of Freddie Mac executives’ bonuses and his previous advising role with Freddie. This is coming after Herman Cain allegedly molested a woman, Rick Perry forgot who he was and what the hell he was doing on national television and Mitt Romney…was Mormon. All equally egregious actions. Frankly, I’ve quit keeping track. I’m write-in voting for the Elmo/Oscar the Grouch ticket in the preliminaries because they bal¬ance one another well and approach most of the hard-hitting issues with “hugs” and “educational and catchy tunes”.
Yes, I am a registered Republican which probably shocks a large majority of you.
Anyone remember the re-vamping of HAMP that our executive branch was all excited about late October? No? Yeah, that’s because no one picked up the ball and ran with it. Because it would essentially become a game of kill the lender with the ball.
Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Qishan announced that global economic outlook remains grim and that we are staring at an inevitably protracted economic downturn. Not downing the validity of Wang’s claim, but this is the Joe Biden of China we’re talking about. If Joe came out and announced that we all need to go on a Chihuahua-only diet I wouldn’t be entirely surprised. They are high in protein.
Okay, I know there is a Chinese president and comparing Wang to Biden isn’t a proper parallel, but I wanted to make this Biden joke. Deal with it.
Anywho, I hope this brought a smile to your face. Things’ll get gooder out there. In the meantime, let’s take this opportunity to be thankful for all the good things we’ve all got going on in our individual lives. I wish each and every one of you a Happy Thanksgiving and a prosperous tail end to 2011.
All your mortgages are belong to Greg.
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