Letters to the Editor
aveutter
Published Letters: 198 Editor's Choice: 32
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Anyone with a mortgage should be worried
[Read the article: A mixed message on subprime from the IMF]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The financial wizardry which converts debt to investment paper has reached beyond what is a comfortable limit for individual borrowers, as opposed to governments and corporations, who must routinely deal with the fickleness of the bond market, but who says that just because you signed an agreement to honor a debt, that the paper shouldn't be routinely bought and sold, and occasionally marked to market. In the old days the bank would sit on your mortgage, for 30 years, while interest rates and inflation made your loan look more like a gift, and unless the bank was in trouble they would never call you in to renegotiate the terms. Those days are gone forever.
As fluid as the credit market was on the way up, it will be equally flexible on the way down. Think you have a lock on that Refi at 6%, when rates climb to 8 or 10%. Forget it. Mortgage holders don't understand, they have sold bonds against their net worth, just like rock stars, and celebrities sell bonds on their future earnings.
If the housing market drops the hedge funds who own the mortgage paper are going to liquidate, in order to acquire your equity. Additionally you have to wonder if they won't call in your mortgage when it becomes evident that their return on investment is underperforming inflation.
Borrowers may think all they have to worry about is staying current, they need to grow their assets faster than inflation, or what happens to them is what happens to any investment which underperforms.
The accusations that Bernanke was way over the top on the recent series of rates cuts, fails to take this is into account, the system is highly vulnerable, the value of subprime debt has to mature along a very narrow set of parameters; assets fall, investors liquidate, inflation starts up, investors liquidate. Mr. Nice Guy Banker guy is gone, America's housing market is controlled by highly speculative hedge funds, where the buyers and the sellers of the debt are often one in the same. Did anyone ever imagine that it was possible to lend yourself money, by selling your mortgage to your own retirement fund? Will it be possible to foreclose on yourself? We are about to find out. The only thing keeping this charade going is the stock market, which is the glue which holds these two opposing bits of logic together.
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How we bombed North Vietnam, the No-Fly Zone, and the stealth attack on Syria
[Read the article: The U.S. military's role in preventing the bombing of Iran]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Three factors almost guarantee some sort of action against Iran. The historical imperative makes this a certainty. Congressional restrictions against bombing North Vietnam were never observed. When you have a large number of aircraft, supporting a war, a No-Fly Zone is almost impossible to police. American warplanes were everywhere in Southeast Asia. The North resorted to publicity tours, luring American celebrities into Hanoi to expose the deceit.
The No-Fly Zone in Iraq, their No-Fly-Zone, defined the combat theatre, and the rules of engagement, but it was also a similar abuse of power.
American war planes were hitting infrastructure in Iraq; hospitals, schools. The Democratic President consulted regularly with Republican Senators, who wanted more. In his second term, the President, who wanted to move to the middle, gave them more than he should have. A similar No-fly-Zone over the Southern border of Iran would represent an equally hypocritical position in US policy, one that allows both parties to sleep at night (in the same bed). Additionally the recent sleath attack on Syria, proves that covert bombing is not only possible, it is likely. Will Tehran keep it's mouth shut, if US or Israeli bombers hit sensitive targets, or will they attempt to propagandize the event? I tend to believe they will do what Syria is doing, keep quiet and continue to work to acquire nuclear technology and weapons. After all the Bush policy isn't mean to permanently deny rogue countries the right to nuclear power, but to make it more difficult and push their time table back. Something very worrisome happened in Syria, and we know this because Syria has said nothing.
Once a No-Fly-Zone to protect the Persian Gulf is established, and to patrol the Iran/Iraq border, there are so many causes here, that even Bush could think of a few, abuses of the rules of engagement can follow. Those abuses will include carefully planned raids against Iran, by politically motivated pilots, circa Vietnam. Or what was John McCain doing there?
When the Al-Jazeera News network is taken out in the opening raid, you can guess where it will all be going. Democrats have signed on early, rather than being labeled Dovish for protesting these limited operations, obstensibly offered to protect the backs of our troops. Get over it America, we're going there.