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Archive for the 'Economy' Category

Throw the bums out!

For the last few days, I’ve been writing about risk and responsibility.  Specifically, I’ve tried to point out that individual decision-making played at least some role in setting up this current financial crisis.
Some seem to think I’m saying that the borrowers are the primary problem in all this — but that’s not it.   What […]

Thanks so much, everybody… /snark

I’d just like to add to the general cacophony online for a moment:  I’M PISSED OFF!!!
Here I sit, in my mortgaged-with-20%-down house and ZERO credit card debt, watching my government prepare to rescue reward  bail-out companies who made reckless, irresponsible, and criminal lending decisions to people who couldn’t afford their payments and did not hold […]

Resisting the financial panic. Barely.

Evidently, while Hurricane Ike had us distracted down my way, the downward-spiraling financial crisis began making sucking noises as it approached the drain.
Ummm….   this is pretty freakin’ scary — and it’s made worse for me because I’m probably only a peg above normal-level ignorance on economics, generally.    Furthermore, my usual font of information […]

Shiny Red Boots

When Adorable Child was in elementary school, I volunteered to teach a Junior Achievement module. The subject was “Want vs Need”, and my targets were squirmy little six-year-olds in first grade.
Since I had an entire six weeks with which to work, I decided to build a frame first… and so we started with shoes […]

Buckle up, Baby. We’re goin’ for a ride!

In the last few days, the economic news has been increasingly grim, and the latest is the failure of IndyMac:
IndyMac Bancorp Inc. became the second- biggest federally insured financial company to be seized by U.S. regulators after a run by depositors left the California mortgage lender short on cash. […Snip…]
The Pasadena, California-based lender specialized […]