Gas prices

If businesses were privately owned you wouldnt need the regulations to keep people honest.. as again it would be thier money and they would think long term. But with monster public corporations it is all about the quick short term score, they are spending your money and the risk is yours and if it blows up before the people running it leave and move to the next one they still get paid. Without the real threat of enforcement and meaningful regulations they will push and push till they implode, or get bailed out. It is always more likely to happen after a time of growth because middle class people have excess money to invest and they put that in the hands of other people to invest and rarely care where or how it is invested.

I love free markets and fair competition.. I dont believe either is possible with massive unregulated corporations in the picture.

I am not a massive fan of all government but too often the small government guys are used and funded by those looking to make sure that the entrenched monster corporations can do whatever they want whenever they want.. and it eventually leads to disaster. Its the reason why man formed government.

Should have never privatized fannie and probably never have created freddie and it would have not only continued to work but also continued to provide income to the government. We made them private, the bush senior made them work to increase home ownership... but still left them private. That was an untenable situation and it put pressure on them from both sides. Eventually then they paid newt to find out who was ammenable to a little grease to let them run a little more fast and loose. Money well spent for them.

john b wrote: I find it funny that those who complain about the cost of gasoline the most are usually those with the least efficient vehicles. Go figure. If you drive a Tundra, Titan, Suburban, or any of the barges you are getting what you asked for. If history has taught you anything you know that prices aren't going down over the long run. I understand that some of you rely on trucks for business, but I see UPS and the USPS are still in business. It is just rolled into the price of the product. Gas is about $4.50 in Chicago right now, and it's cheap at that price. I think it's cheap at $5.00. A $1.00 increase only increases my gasoline cost $30 per 1000 miles, from 121.21 to $151.50, because I drive a car that averages 33 mpg. A $30 per thousand mile gasoline cost increase shouldn't hurt anyone who can afford a boat. Now if you drive some pig like the Jeep Grand Cherokee my wife mistakenly bought thinking it wouldn't use too much gas, and couldn't trade fast enough, he 1000 mile price at it's slightly less that 15MPG lifetime average is $266.00. A $1.00 increase in gas price makes it $333.30, an increase of $67.00. A Correct Craft, or any other inboard ski boat, or any boat at all,is a pipe dream to most Americans. The US government never promised anyone a competition ski boat in the driveway of their second home, yet I see many here complaining about the sacrifices they will have to make so they can enjoy barefoot skiing. It's fun if you can afford it, but never forget how fortunate you are for your material trappings. No one disputes that we are running out of oil. It will only get worse. We should use the resources of others as long as we can while developing other sources of energy. Natural gas is a good quick alternative. If we develop all of our oil fields that MAY be productive we will only deplete any buffer we may have as the world supply becomes tighter and tighter. Energy independence is the key to security. I am also disappointed to see many of you "small government" guys looking to the government for a solution to your problem of not being able to afford the gas for the luxury boat you bought. I don't feel any more moved by the complaints of the high cost of boat gas than I am of my pilot friends complaints of the cost of their 80/87 aircraft fuel. At least the federal government pays billions every year to subsidize their general aviation airport playgrounds, that's more than we, the boated, get. Oil IS a global commodity and they aren't making any more.

John, I can't let this rant go, Your premise is correct that those using the most gas complain the most when the price rises. Not everyone is retired, and not everyone who drives a gas guzzler has the choice to drive a hybrid, or can afford a 60,000 dollar diesel sprinter van. Many of us are struggling to get by in a very difficult construction economy and can use whatever break we can find. By the way, the USPS is barely in business and no where near profitable.

Right now gas is at a record high for this time of year. To say record high is cheap is a misrepresentation. When Obama took office gas was under $2, and I would say from a recent average that WAS cheap, but not now. The only way to come to the conclusion that it is cheap is to compare it to Europe, and that has been made artificially high. I am glad you can feel comfortable with the price but that is you, don't speak for the rest of us.

When Obama took office my American dream included a cabin and my 1987 $4,000 "luxury" boat. I have since sold my cabin at a reduced value to make ends meet. This is the reality of hope and change. That leaves the "luxury" boat to keep the dream alive, and five dollars a gallon will take a big chunk out of that dream.

Oil is a finite resource, but we are not running out any time soon. Known reserves keep increasing and current known reserves will last another 50 years. If you look at the rate of scientific advances in solar, fuel cells,.....that we have had in the last 20 years I have no concerns about replacing oil 50 years from now. In the mean time we have a global economy and we are shooting ourselves in the foot by not taking advantage of our own resources to be competitive in that economy.

We are the Saudi Arabia of coal, it is cheap and a great source of energy for applications like power plants. It is not killing us, our air is the cleanest it has been in over 100 years. I drive by coal power plants and I do not see black smoke billowing out the stacks, just scrubbed vapor. They are so clean that the wacko left is grasping at carbon dioxide, the stuff that puts the bubbles in our soda that we drink everyday, as a pollutant because the real ones are not a problem. Natural gas is great for heating our home, but it to is a finite resource, when we take the coal option away from power plants they compete for our natural gas supply and drive up home heating costs. If we start to fuel cars and boats with it it will only get worse. Each government solution creates a new problem. Regan was right when he said the government does not solve problems, it subsidizes them.

Us small government guys are not asking for a big government solution. I don't want them to release reserves, I just want them to get out of the way, stop regulating the industry to death, and let us have our own energy. We have china drilling sideways from Cuba to get our reserves, but we will not use them. We have Canada offering their reserves but we will not build a straw through which to suck it down here. How stupid is this administration? And how many more excuses will you make for them?

JoeinNY wrote: Should have never privatized fannie and probably never have created freddie and it would have not only continued to work but also continued to provide income to the government. We made them private, the bush senior made them work to increase home ownership... but still left them private. That was an untenable situation and it put pressure on them from both sides. Eventually then they paid newt to find out who was ammenable to a little grease to let them run a little more fast and loose. Money well spent for them.

The GSE aren't private Joe. They are partially owned by the government, and partialy owned by private investors. Hence the term GSE as in Government Sponsored Enterprise.

In 1992, the Democratic House and Senate did send a bill to Bush Sr. And he did sign it. It was the "Community Development Act of '92". It was part of Congress' mandate to increase home ownership in low-middle income areas.

In '99, the Clinton administration pushed for even lower standards, and to make even more loans in poor inner city areas designated in the Community Reinvestment Act of '77.

The link below is a great history on the GSE's, how they came about, and thier roll in the collapse. Scroll down to the section on the "1990's". Great review of just what we are talking about here.

There were lots of "warning signals" things could go horribly wrong if the sun, the moon, and the earth didn't all line up just right forever. Well, they didn't and it all came crashing down in 2008/9.


History of Fannie Mae

You mean "publicly traded" since 1968. It has always been a GSE. Part government/part private. They are now in recievership and are hemoraging red ink big time that we (U.S. taxpayers) have bailed them to the tune of $150 BILLION since around 2008.

Edit: Became a GSE around 1954. Hasn't ALWAYS been a GSE.


From wikipedia...
"Fannie Mae was founded in 1938 during the Great Depression as part of the New Deal. It is a government-sponsored enterprise (GSE), though it has been a publicly traded company since 1968"

Well if you read the history of Fannie Mae then you would see that it was the unregulated private wall street investment banks that played fastest and loosest and kept on running fast and loose til death fell upon them and the disease spread from there since all homes are valued by the homes around it...

All it took was 1 borrower who had a 100% loan to get stuck without an ability to pay or sell and the cards began to fall

Fannie and Freddie didn't do 100% loans.(97% ya maybe but only to a guy with gold balls)

GlassSeeker wrote: Well if you read the history of Fannie Mae then you would see that it was the unregulated private wall street investment banks that played fastest and loosest and kept on running fast and loose til death fell upon them and the disease spread from there since all homes are valued by the homes around it... All it took was 1 borrower who had a 100% loan to get stuck without an ability to pay or sell and the cards began to fall Fannie and Freddie didn't do 100% loans.(97% ya maybe but only to a guy with gold balls)

If I were to take that whole history and boil it down to your statement I would get this "As usual dave your qoutes are cherry picked and strategically doctored... Way to continually prove the rights arguments can not stand on the facts ... " from Joe.

Your complaining about a symptom of the real problem and cherry picking who deserves the blame.

Barrack is announcing his latest housing solution today, (how many is that now? and we still need another) What is his solution? Government insured loans, Here we go again! We are watching another bubble being inflated by the government, but it will be the banks fault when it bursts.

[QUOTE=GlassSeeker] History repeats, short term memories are not learning from the past.

It's not Democrats or Republicans, It's both, It's corruption in our government, big or small, greed, addiction to money, mo money...

Best congress money can buy...[/QUOTE ]


WoW!!!! Finally you get it. Now hold that thought!

Don't forget Syria!

http://www.breakingnews.ie/archives/2012/0306/world/mccain-calls-for-airstrikes-in-syria-542396.html

After all the US does have one of the largest(if not the largest) Weapons manufacturing/exporting industries in the world....the more bombs get dropped the more money is made, seems like an obvious way to boost the economy

Riley wrote: [QUOTE=harddock] [QUOTE=GlassSeeker] Exactly!!! Other than some relatively minor philisophical issues, our government functions the same no matter who's running it! Obamma ran as the anti war president. This week he's saying the same thing that McCain said before the election, that he'll go to war over Iran having nukes. Joe, hindsight is 20/20 ain't it?

The differnce this time is Obama will send some nukes (WMD's) for us to find. Bush should have done that!

Iraq was blown to smitherenes in the 80's, it was impossible for them to come up with Nukes, hence, Iran, easily has the timeline to develop nukes

I've been through 2 boom and bust cylcles and many people knew the end was coming, but no one knew just when or how bad. When the big players begin believing their own BS, that is a clear sign that the end is near...

In defense of FNMA, they long had in place a rule that stated that people in the production end of the loan process could not be involved in the loan process itself, ie, selection of the real estate appraiser. All mortgage companies I ever dealt with always allowed the the orginator to deal with the appraiser and in the 90's many banks re interperted that rule and did away with their processing departments and allowed the originator to control the process as well, including verication of documents. Evan FHA got rid of their rotation list and left selection up to the originators. That was a corrupt system and contributed to the mess. That said, never once in 27 years, even today, have I felt that most lending institutions were thankful to the appraiser for telling them that a property wasn't worth what they needed it to be to do the loan, just the opposite, often disbelief with a "how can this be?".

Fannie and Freddie are worth while institutions and home ownership is still a good thing. Just don't buy stupid.

I bet it will happen again. In the 2000's there was a whole group of buyers and lenders that were young enough who didn't/couldn't remember the early 90's or found it too hard to believe that we ever had a bad real estate market. Right now things are very restrictive. They'll loosen up if the market ever gets better. That's human nature.

I know some of you have worked in "sales". Eric brought up Ameriquest...I worked there for a while in a huge room full of unlicensed (because they didn't have to be)"loan officers" they were 21 years old mostly who had no idea what they were doing, while being micro managed and PRESSURED to produce every 15 minutes by the manager...how much $$$ are you gonna close this month? you better hit your numbers, why can't you close that loan? you promised you were closing 1 mil, why is it only 850,000...they held people after work after 5pm at the end of the month to apply more pressure, and there was not a thing any of them could do about closing a loan after 5pm. It was ridiculous. I had a real estate license and had worked for a broker and knew what ethics were and knew what buying a loan back meant.

I heard one of them say - if you go through a broker you will have to pay closing costs but not here at Ameriquest.

I finally just walked out and got my brokers license and opened my own company.

As for appraisals--- It is a value good for 1 day--- Any lender accepting the loan package could demand an appraisal review or new appraisal---and sometimes they did. Jumbos always required at least two appraisals. Still an appraised value is only good for 1 day.

[QUOTE=GlassSeeker] I know some of you have worked in "sales". Eric brought up Ameriquest...I worked there for a while in a huge room full of unlicensed (because they didn't have to be)"loan officers" they were 21 years old mostly who had no idea what they were doing, while being micro managed and PRESSURED to produce every 15 minutes by the manager...how much $$$ are you gonna close this month? you better hit your numbers, why can't you close that loan? you promised you were closing 1 mil, why is it only 850,000...they held people after work after 5pm at the end of the month to apply more pressure, and there was not a thing any of them could do about closing a loan after 5pm. It was ridiculous. I had a real estate license and had worked for a broker and knew what ethics were and knew what buying a loan back meant.


I thought ypu were in law enforcement...

not that we need smaller government but i would love to know why we need 33 sign off signatures to build a new house on a perked and approved lot in this town........and why it has to be built so green .. the cost of building has gone up way beyond the value .