^?#$%! and the Mortgage Crisis

A note to the loyal readers of this blog (all three of you): the following post is rated PG-13. We all have not-so-fond memories of the mortgage crisis.  Home values collapsed, the investors who bought these mortgage-backed securities blamed one another, and Uncle Sam...

Addicted to Debt

For those of us who may have been living in a cave, here is the latest financial news: the United States government has a debt problem.  In fact, one prominent bond manager says that the United States is addicted to debt.  “The U.S., in fact, is a serial offender, an...

Addition and Subtraction

Bank of America recently announced that it would be forgiving the second mortgages of some 150,000 “pre-qualified” homeowners.  Of course, this is fantastic news if you are one of the bank’s hand-picked distressed borrowers.  But what if you were not lucky enough to...

Big Brother is Watching…

…but not necessarily watching out for you.  For macroeconomic reasons that this blogger frankly has problems understanding, the government wants higher prices on items like food and energy.  And with wage growth expected to be moderate or unchanged, it doesn’t take a...

Happy Days Are (Never Coming Back) Again?

In the past, the economy has generally been cyclical: a period of prosperity followed by a period of recession followed by a period of prosperity, and so on.  But now, “[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes”...