Our Excellent Adventures

The three major automakers met with Congress today to press their case for additional bailout money. They were accompanied by the head of the Teamster’s Union.

Here’s a clue . . . dump the Teamster’s guy. He is one of the major reasons you are begging now.

The public doesn’t like these bailouts and we particularly will be really upset if bailout money goes in anyway (including dues) to the Teamsters. Unions are sooo 19th century.

We are tired of watching some person get paid $20-30 per hour for watching some robot tighten a nut. I’m tired of hearing stories of some third generation auto worker having a hard time. Third generation? Come on. Get out of town. There really are other opportunities in life. You should run for Congress!

Now that inspite of what the voters wanted, Congress has set up the bailout at 750 no, I think 850 billion dollars. Also while our back was turned they passed a 45 billion bail-out for the auto industry.

Done deal. All we can do now is hang on, watch and wait until we get the bill. So, in the interim, I suggest we go camping! Or, at least think about camping!

Get out there. Build that campfire. Reminisce about Grandpa.

. . . when Grandpa was young they didn’t have credit cards . . . to buy a home you needed at least 20% down and a job . . . Grandpa says Great Grandpa rode a horse from Salt Lake City to Provo (it took all day) so he could work during the harvest . . . no KOA’s so Grandpa camped about anywhere there was public land . . . time for marshmallows . . . most people camped in tents and slept under the stars . . . Grandpa saw Sputnik . . . what was that . . . he saw lots we don’t see . . . doctor’s made house calls . . . what was that . . . the movies were $0.35 and a movie called Psycho scared him to death . . . he worked in the laundry and bowling alley during school and at Frosty’s Market and at a truck stop . . . he had a paper route . . . what was that . . . his bike only had one gear . . . there was no Safeway or Walmart . . . he liked camping a lot . . . and apple cider pressed right in the field and marshmallows . . . he liked his burnt . . . he made hobo stew . . . what was that?

I bet you know who that “someone” is. You and me . . . the American taxpayer. The latest bailout (and that is exactly what it is) stops the system as it was correcting for misguided or dishonest mistakes. It is so in keeping with the past decade’s or so - we don’t want anyone to feel bad - everyone’s a winner philosophy. Are we going to buy back the properties that foreign investors bought? Everyone bought these damaged mortgages as an investment, not in the community, not in a family but an investment in the money. Every investment carries a statement like this, “Not FDIC insured, no bank guarantee, may lose value. There is no assurance that any fund/stock/bond, etc. will make money. The prices and investment returns will fluctuate with changes in the market. When you sell, you may get less than what you paid. You can lose money investing in any fund/stock/bond, etc .”  

It will not end the problem of Wall Street’s too cosy relationship with Washington, DC. It does not fix the accounting rules that are wrong. It does not fix the problem of loosie, goosie regulations and relaxed rules. It doesn’t differentiate between the greedy, the illegal or just the unlucky. More importantly, this will not end the problem in the housing market. The inventory is still there - just a new owner.

Everyone knew this problem was there. From lending money with 0 down to let short sellers get away with an actual crime. And all we have done is put off the problem - you can’t have a country that can legally carry a 11+ trillion dollar deficit. It won’t last. The house of cards will fall down.