February 27, 2009
Four For Friday
Q1 - Foreclosure: Millions of Americans are currently facing home foreclosure. For some, real estate and mortgage fraud is to blame, while for others it is a combination of using their home as an ATM machine and living beyond their means, or job losses or resetting adjustable rate mortgages. If you were in charge, how would you manage the housing crisis in America. Would you simply reset everyone's mortgage to more affordable rates, allow those who bit off more than they can chew to lose their homes, take everyone's situation into account on a case-by-case basis, do nothing, do something else, etc.?
Q2 - Troop Withdrawal: A new poll indicates that a majority of Americans support President Barack Obama's plan to send nearly 20,000 U.S. troops to the conflict in Afghanistan. What do you think of President Obama's recently announced plan to have U.S. combat troops out of Iraq by August 2010?
Q3 - Success: In large numbers, U.S. teens today express a troubling contradiction when it comes to ethical readiness for the workforce. At the same time, they express confidence in their preparedness to make the right choices in the future, they freely admit to unethical behavior today. Those are among the key findings of a new study from Junior Achievement and Deloitte, the results of which reveal considerable ethical confusion among teens regarding what types of behavior are appropriate in order to succeed. Do you think it is possible to be successful beyond even your wildest dreams by playing by the rules, or is some level of unethical behavior required to succeed beyond measure?
Q4 - Picture: According to market research released at the end of 2008, the most lucrative consumer segment within the digital camera market is mothers, defined as females between the ages of 25 and 44 with children under age 12. Mothers exhibit particularly unique preferences and behaviors when it comes to digital photography, the research concluded, and will account for more digital camera sales in 2009 than any previous year. Think for a moment... what were the last three pictures you shot with your camera, and what do you plan on doing with them?
Posted by Mikal at February 27, 2009 9:31 PM
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Q1 - This is a hard one since I don't know all of the implications. In my own purchasing of a home, I tend to be fiscally conservative - I don't want to stretch what I can afford and end up house-poor. I would think it would be best to reset the interest rates, which would lower payments. Even with the loss of income for the banks, it would be better than the widespread foreclosure we're seeing now.
Q2 - I think we need to get out of there at some point, so it's good that they're looking toward that end. Of course, we have to try to minimize the unrest that will be left.
Q3 - I think you have to play within the rules and work the rules to your advantage.
Q4 - The last 3 pictures I took were of my son's birthday celebration. I am that target market.
1. This is tough because there's so many variables, but here's my take. I'd renegotiate mortgages of those who have the ability to pay their mortgages at a lower interest rate. Those who are unable to afford their houses even with lowered interest rates and payments could be allowed to sell their houses and use the proceeds to pay off their mortgage in full and possibly get them into a house they CAN afford. I'd also introduce some sort of regulation that requires income verification and standards that were ignored and which contributed to the problem and allowed borrowers to overextend themselves. This would only apply to borrowers in trouble with their primary residences. Secondary residences or investment properties wouldn't qualify and would be dealt with in the manner they are now.
2. I think that no matter when we pull out of Iraq there will be a power vacuum and civil war, so the actual timetable for withdrawal is more or less irrelevant. Afghanistan? An increase could help there, particularly if an effort is placed on working on the widespread corruption there.
3. I think it's possible to get ahead by playing within the rules, but when those who succeed by cheating get only token punishments it's legitimized. It's human nature to take the path of least resistance and cheating allows one to take slide down that ethical slippery slope. If one cheats a little without getting caught, the temptation is to keep pushing the envelope.
4. 1) A brownie recipe that I tried that will be posted along with the recipe on the blog; 2) A house that I may be interested in buying-it'll be on the laptop so I can add it to the list of properties I'm interested in; 3) A picture of Bailey that I'll post also.
1- I might be a little heartless, but I would let things work themselves out without any government interference. Some homes will be foreclosed, some banks might go under, but you can't erase the consequences of bad decisions and expect people to do anything different (responsible) in the future.
2- I think no matter what the politicians say, we'll wind up with some sort of military prescience there on a near permanent basis.
3- I think its possible to play by the rules and be a huge success. I think the problem is that we let so many people, particularly prominent people, get away with nearly no consequences, and that in turns leads others to think there is value in this sort of 'success'.
4- Picture of the girlfriend, which was deleted because she didn't like it. Picture of my stitches since I can't see my own back, since deleted as I only needed a one time observation. Picture of my girlfriend blowing out candles on her birthday cake, which she doesn't know I took... going to keep that one.
Q1 - Foreclosure: My father was a prime example to me of responsibility. Not everybody had that (and not everybody learns from examples, as I am a prime example of that!) Thus, we learn from experience. I'm with Greg on this. And maybe next time the gov will butt out and not force banks to do things they know are bad for business.
Q2 - Troop Withdrawal: I have a t-shirt with the American flag and the words "These Colors Don't Run." It's very saddening to me that they do, in fact, run. Don't run. That's how I feel.
Q3 - Success: Ethics... such a tricky thing. What I consider ethical may differ from what you consider to be the same. That being said, I used to think that the the only way to get ahead was to cheat. Now that I am older and wiser, and have met people that got ahead within the rules of the system (and what I consider to be ethically... but perhaps not always morally) I have changed my mind.
Q4 - Picture: Oh boy, this could get embarrassing. Okay...
1. The back window of a Dodge Charger that had, in a hot pink and very "girly" font, the letters "USMC". I plan to post it on my blog someday.
2. A 2' tall Superman action figure alongside a man in the distance to create the illusion that they were about the same size. I'm going to edit it and send it to a few people, just for fun.
3. Uh... a body part, which I sent to my wife. Pretend it was my elbow.
Q1: "If you were in charge, how would you manage the housing crisis in America?" There is nothing to manage. A centralized management philosophy IS the problem. Fractional reserve banking and the federal reserve are two big pieces to this problem. We need to get rid of both. Any form of government control/bailout is wrong, and exacerbates the problem.
Q2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFcQutO5Lgs
Q1: "If you were in charge, how would you manage the housing crisis in America?" There is nothing to manage. A centralized management philosophy IS the problem. Fractional reserve banking and the federal reserve are two big pieces to this problem. We need to get rid of both. Any form of government control/bailout is wrong, and exacerbates the problem.
Q2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFcQutO5Lgs
1. Most of these homeowners got into this situation knowing that 0% for five years is only for 5 years. Their question should have been whats the cap when the rate goes up and figure out if they can afford it then. I have a 30 yr. fixed and theres a reason for that.
2.I think the withdrawal is good, but I think we need to wait and see with each step of the troop withdrawal.
3.I think you play by the rules.
4. Pics of my kids dance recital. I am that market.
Q1: I would do nothing. I mean I would spend all my time and energy promoting the fact that I was choosing to do nothing and why I was doing it. I think a large part of the problem was caused by corruption. Throwing more money at the problem simply provides the con artists and opportunists more to steal.
Q2: I think he's inherited a mess and is doing the best he possibly can with it. Unfortunately, this means handing Iraq over to Iran, but we did that when we took out Hussein and bumbled the rebuilding efforts. Afghanistan is a mess, and we're not likely to get much help from Pakistan. Is pouring more troops into it going to help? I hope so, but I doubt it.
Q3: Depends how you define success. If you define success in terms of material wealth, then I believe that in many cases, you must sacrifice ethics. We make trade-offs in life. Look at all those poor saps who are destroying their bodies with steroids to achieve athletic greatness. If you define success as acting with integrity, then you will achieve the highest level of success by acting ethically. You may even achieve monetary success as well. How's that for waffling on an issue?
Q4: I've taken several pictures of my son's cat, Juno. He's very cute, often injured, and he sits up on my desk and nods off as I work, which I've never seen a cat do. His head actually starts to bob, like in those Diet Pepsi Max commercials, and then he catches himself. I've captured it on video with my digital camera. Generally, I don't like taking photos. It brings me out of the moment of fully enjoying what I'm doing. Yet, I like having photos to look back on.
It's interesting when most responding to this series of questions, voted for Obama. Now, for some reason, the idea of over-spending and bail-outs doesn't look so good. Hmmm.
How many times did Obama say that spending and 'investing' was part of his campaign platform???
Let the poor behaviors in the corporate AND personal world pay the price. We should be feeling some temporary pain right now, to rid ourselves of the poor business decisions made to date.
Instead, we are watching the effects of Depression #2.
Nice going, Obama. Nothing like spending ourselves into debt and beyond. We can now see that our President is trying to preserve himself for the second term, hoping that this bail-out 'band-aid' will postpone the pain until after the 1st term.
Re: the question on children being confused on ethical behavior... Look at absentee parents, broken families and our liberal college system for the answer.
Did any of the left-wingers here research the Florida college prof/admin who decided to steal a student's bike to give to a homeless student instead of ponying up the dough to buy the bike himself with his $300k+ salary???
Why is that libs and left-wingers are SO good at giving up other people's money, but don't seem to give much on their own?? Remember Biden's charitable donations listed on his tax return??
OH - Paying taxes is our patriotic duty (Biden) AND American taxes are VOLUNTARY (Reid)!!!
I hope everyone here truly understands the impact of electing an inexperienced leader into the White House, who has decided to spend money we don't have at the worst possible time in US history.
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