U.S. Dollar

[Dave W]

Don't worry, our great-grandchildren will be paying for it.

And look at the bright side. Poor Heather Mills was awarded £24.3 million today. If she had settled immediately for that amount, it would only be about $35 million. Thanks to the sinking dollar, it's now worth $50 million! 

[gweimer]

All this reminds me of a club owner we knew back in the '70s.  Tommy Olsen owned The Night Gallery outside Waukegan, IL.  He owned the property and the business.  Every few years, he'd get tired of running the business, so he'd sell it, and lease his property to the new bar owner.  Inevitably, the bar would fail, and Tommy would reclaim the bar business in default.

My employers just picked up Bear-Sterns this week.

[eb2]

Ahh, the mortgage crisis.  About 6 or 7 years ago, I had friends who were waiting tables quit to get into mortgage brokering.  Such easy money!  Seeing as the rates were soooo low, all you had to do was peddle some refinancing package, with much lower rates, and people were lining up.  And all those condos that were being built, you just signed up for one, or 30, and when they were finished you sold them.  Who could lose?  Yeah, the rates were variable, but you would make your money right away, and the rates were so low.  And yes, there were was a speculator that literally bought 30 condos in FLA on spec.  When people figured out there was no real demand for all of them, this character did some quick math and walked on the down payment rather than assume the mortgage payments.  Take that Bear-Stearns.  Take that, American tax payer (hint - not the poor or the very rich).

[Dave W]

The other day (just before the Bear-Stearns meltdown) someone sent me a hilarious and all-to-true slideshow presentation about the mortgage crisis. It's a powerpoint (.pps) file but I found an online version here: http://docs.google.com/TeamPresent?docid=ddp4zq7n_0cdjsr4fn&skipauth=true&pli=1

(Caution: language)

[uwe]

Pretty good depiction.