Ain't this a b#@ch

O.K. Fe26, (sorry for the thread high jack, maybe the political nature this thread has taken will determine its fate?)

The "regulators" went to the "Hill",to warn them, Barney and Maxine (Barney is Barney Frank chairman of house finance committee)said that home ownership was up and that was what was more important. (Shouting from the hilltop) ALL WERE WARNED! Fact is, politics is nothing but a (huge) money grab, We argue right/left while they rob us blind. Except maybe not in the land down under?

Done

 

Tradrod, thanks for your reply.
Firstly; I should like to express my surprise the moderators have allowed the polictical/financial tone that has developed within this thread to continue. I hope that it is because they (moderators) see that a rodder has had to sell his truck because of his entrapment in the financial crisis, and, that finance and politics are directly linked one to the other as they are also linked to the sale of a truck.
Secondly, The pain the American people are feeling is likely to get worse. Life will in all likelyhood never be the same again, the wealth that has been lost will never be recovered even in your great grandchildrens lifetimes. The USA's debt before the GFC was too large to ever be repaid. History has tought your leaders that to do nothing in response would have plunged the world into a depression (as happened in the 1929 crash) that would have been many times worse than the '29 crash. Sadly, borrowing to cushion your fall will in the end only prolong the problem. However the alternative (do nothing) would have resulted in the total and immediate destruction of all you hold dear. Now that twelve trillion dollars ( just to let you know how big that number is, imagine having a million dollars to spend each day.... neat eh! Imagine you get to spend a million a day for the next two thousand seven hundred years) has been borrowed to bail out your economy + your old debt and you now see the desperate trouble your country is in.
Thirdly, as Clinton said mockingly to GW Bush "It's the economy stupid"! It is the economy, it is of absolutley no consequence which side of politics you are on, the Republicans (if they were in power) would have no choice in the matter, their decisions would be exactly the same as those the Democrats are now forced to make. If any of you beg to differ remember it is the lender who ditates terms in a crisis, the terms are not palatable but remember the lenders are now very worried about your capacity as a country to repay even a part of what you owe foreign lenders.
Fourthly, soon (months maybe a year) your country will have to make a very unplalatable choice; either you will advise the World Bank you are going to default on your loan repayments or you will devalue your currency. Be reassured many other American countries to the south of you have been doing this for years, we call them 'Banana Republics'. This previous comment will cause offence to some, but sometimes in exasperation one feels no other action will do other than a slap in the face.
In all probability your government will devalue the greenback. The worlds lenders will apply sanctions to you, particulary the Chinese lender to whom you owe more than eighty billion (the biggest single lender). The US Dollar will be replaced as the worlds benchmark currency. Emergency measures will be announced to protect your economy from total collapse, and if any of you think that the sale of a working mans truck can cause a little consternation on the HAMB, wait until whats coming.

PsssT!!!! It was never going to be the Russians.

 

That, I can almost agree to, but didnt I say that earlier? We have borrowed more than we can repay, and we have people too deep in our pockets. China will be the new SuperPower.

IMOP, we should have let it crash, when you are in a hole.....stop digging.

 

If we did deeply enough, will we get to China? This thread needs to die. I want to talk about cars.

 

Fe26.. Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. I always thought the same as it's not political they are all on the same team.

 

Ok fuck it no politics. If I was within the means to do so, I'd offer 90 days buy it back terms to select folk in your situation. We all need help from time to time and it's hard to get it being that we're all a buncha hoodlums n shit. The reality is that what we have has value and it helps us build our net worth as well as meet personal goals. I've sacrificed race cars, classics, muscle, bikes, all to keep going. Be glad you can. Be proud you have enough assets to do what you need to because I can tell ya from experience, and LOTS OF IT, it's all replaceable. Most times for the better. Good luck dude and hang in there.

 

The list of cars I've sold ... to pay for kid's education, or family needs, or medical bills ... is a long one. Without independent means, having to make difficult choices between family and personal interests is just a recurring fact of life. It also means I typically have to sell a car that I really like in order to finance the next car that I really like too. I'm sorry you find yourself in such a state right now...but it's pretty much the way most of us hot rodders live.

 

I know your hatred of W most likely has no bounds, and your love affair with O probably has the same limits, but it wasn't GW Bush to whom Clinton made that comment, it was his father, GHW Bush.

I can tell that you've spent quite awhile working up your dream scenario to put our fair country "in it's place", and I can feel the fervor in your windy explanation of it.

The irony is that all of this has happened because spend-thrift financial conservatives haven't been at the helm in, well, forever. Before the needless finance and auto bailouts, we have been paying people to be unproductive for decades, and enforcing the idea that there's no need to plan for your own retirement because of social security. We've taught our kids that you shouldn't have to look after your parents or grandparents when they can't do for themselves, just put them in a home and let the govt. pay for it. All of it...*all* of it can be tracked back to a system instituted by those who have "social welfare" in mind....spread the suffering equally, and sock it to the successful. Would our nation have taken a hit from the equity choking unions killing off GM? Yeah, but then they could have reformed into another company which get's their pay and benefits in line with the rest of the free market. Nissan and Toyota have plants in the US, down south, where their average employee investment is half of their Detroit counterparts, and the company doesn't have to raise a beggars hand so they can pay for the legacy costs of several generations of ex-employees.

Our US members wouldn't be suffering the way they are if the govt hadn't made a business of giving people "free" money. Your claims of the similarities to 29 and what would have happened if we had allowed these companies to fail is overstated malarchy. Bankruptcy would have allowed them to restructure under new ownership that could have negated legacy costs and put them into profitability in a relatively short period of time. Ford saw it coming and did just that, which is why they didn't have to pander to O and Bawney to suckle on the govt. teet. If our govt. were "realigned" to reflect spend-thrift tactics and cancel the Porkulus bill and bailouts immediately, things would restructure so our guys could go buy their cars back.

 

I like the Man alot more than I like the truck....

Some things are met to go, some are met to stay....