Every time I pick up a paper and read about some stimulus plan or mortgage modification scheme I say to myself you must be really dumb if you don’t get this.
A new plan about to be launched by the government will modify underwater mortgages for people who owe more than the property is worth. At the risk of demonstrating my dumbness I ask, “why?”.
An example in the Wall Street Journal talks about a 62 two year old with a condo worth $92,000 less than she owes. The worry is that when her interest only loan expires in five years she may not be able to make the payments. Here goes my dumbness again, what has that got to do with the fact the condo is worth less than she owes? Oh wait, a light has gone off…she will just walk away.
Should I ask why she has a condo she apparently couldn’t afford regardless of the current value? Better not or my dumbness will be on display for the third time in one article.
I guess the riskiest part of being dumb is that you expect people to act responsibly, to buy only what they can afford, to meet their obligations, pay their bills and otherwise not place more tax and other financial burdens on those of us in the population who are on top of the dumbness scale.
Given I’m nearly sixty-seven, maybe it’s time to get smart, take a second mortgage on my home of thirty-six years and just live it up until I too need some modification. Perhaps then I can avoid the perils of being dumb.
Now the President wants another $50 billion to repair roads, build transit systems, fix bridges. Who can argue with such activity? We certainly need to repair roads, etc., but isn’t that what money we don’t have has been doing for the last eighteen months with little success in stimulating the economy? What am I missing here? We keep throwing money around with not much to show in the way of results. I know, it takes times and that is true, but are we aiming at the right target? Does major infrastructure construction create that many new jobs or filter benefits throughout the economy or it is just that spending all that money is more visible because we are all stuck in a construction zone sooner or later.
Is the stimulus being used wisely and in the right places?
If we are going to mortgage our children and grandchildren’s future, the least we can do is spend some of the money on Chinese language lessons.
I have already admitted my state of dumbness, so why stop now. If we are going to spend all this money let’s focus it on things that get ALL Americans spending and stimulating the economy. We know rebates don’t work, apparently large project spending fails as well. As I may have said before, duh! Spend some money and have the states suspend their sales taxes periodically over the next year. Once that happens it is quite likely retailers will have sales and bargains galore to compound the effect. There is no doubt that every penny spent means real stimulation for large sections of the economy.
But what do I know, I’m just another dumb guy, but here is an editorial that I think provides a good assessment of where we have been and where we are going.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
