The trouble started investment goals moved towards capital appreciation instead of profits. The only reason to buy stock is to purchase ownership in a company for a certain ammount with he expectation of getting paid back and then some in the future through dividends.

For that matter, the only reason to buy an investment property is to rent it out at a profit. When people bid up the value of stocks or real estate beyond the reasonable expectation of profits over a 30 year period, you've got trouble.

An aquantance of mine recently took advantage of a city housing authority program in which the government essentially pays $100,000 to renovate a house in a neighborhood so crumby that the finished houses are worth about $50,000, in the hopes that eventually this redevopment will reverse the neighborhood's decline. Each low-income buyer takes out a 30-year fixed mortgage for the $50,000 purchase price. The housing authority holds a second 10-year mortgage for the other $50,000. If the new owner of the house sells in the first 10 years, he must satisfy the remaining balance on both mortgages. After 10 years, the second mortgage is forgiven. This could be a model we could use to keep people in their houses, keep those houses off the market, and ensure that nobody makes a quick buck on the deal.

Sure, Hillary did well in PA thanks to our many, many old white people. It didn't help that Obama endorsed a black guy named Chaka Fattah in the Philadelphia mayoral race (he lost, to another black man who got more of the white vote than the leading white guy. BUT PHILLY WILL CARRY THIS STATE FOR OBAMA. Every black voter will turn out this election day for the chance to vote for the first black candidate for president in a general election. Every young white voter will turn out to vote.

Obama might not even need to spread around the street money (although it couldn't hurt ) but he needs to make some appearances here though. He's in my neighborhood tonight for a $30,000/plate fundraiser, but by the end of the month he better be out on the Parkway.

We need to force the lenders to refinance the homes at 6% fixed, current value, but give them a clause that lets them recoup a certain percentage of ther principal if the house is sold - 100% in year one, 80% year two, etc. Don't put out money on the line, put theirs. Don't reward irresponsible homeowners, but keep them int heir homes.

If the best dirt anybody can dig up on Obama is this junk, he must be the most innocent and pure person to ever run for public office!

I mean really,this Ayers guy was Chicago Citizen of the Year, and the boards he and Obama sat on also included many Republicans.

I've been wondering why McCain kept running this stupid ad about Obama and congressional liberals. I still can't believe Ayers is the best they can come up with.

Every hometown newspaper needs columnists devoted to local issues, but sex is not a local issue. In the Internet age, we don't need as many sex columnists and more than we need a lot of book and movie reviewers.

In the Depression, fruit rotted on the trees because farmers couldn't make money taking it to market. This is disturbingly similar. We are so screwed.

Despite the "he said she said" that passes for journalistic objectivity these days, there is still an objective reality, and reality has favored the left of late.

Supposedly, SS and Medicare are not the same as regular taxes because they earn benefit eligibity in the future. If that were only the case! SS & Medicare don't have a separate budget;, they are an appropriation. As John McCain reminded us, Tip O'Neill, Ted Kennedey and Ronald Reagan worked out a deal to raise payroll taxes to pay for an SS shortfall for a few decades, but the gov't "borrowed" the resulting SS surplus to pay for the rest of the budget.

Later, when Bush was promoting letting younger Americans partially opt out of SS, the conservatives told us that that "borrowed" SS money that wage earners had been paying SS taxes for was not really there (and they made fun of Gore for the "Lock Box" idea). So yeah, I'm sick of Republicans saying the rich pay more than their fair share and wage slaves pay nothing. If they are going to spend the annual surplus of my SS taxes on the war, then tell me we need to raise payroll taxes or cut benefits when the shortfall starts, screw em.

Jeez, this is the third and last debate. I hope they don't spend it arguing over whether we should publically say we might bomb Pakisatan, seeing as how we are bombing in Pakistan with unmaned drones, and a timetable in Iraq, seeing as how Negroponte is ALREADY hammering out the timeline w/ the Iraqis!

You just haven't seen that kind of vitriol on the left since the days of Bill Ayers. Same is true when it comes to political violence - that has been generally right wing for years, excluding west coast enviro arsonists.

I think allowing Americans to withdraw from their IRA and 401(k) accounts tax free is a bizarre and stupid ploy. Our dismal savings is what got us into this mess, and Americans are already woefully underprepared for retiremment. Plus, selling stocks in this market is a bad idea for the people selling them and for the market. This is Obama's one horrible idea, just like McCain's one good idea is halting required IRA withdrawals for people over 70. Now I, for one, may take advantage of Obama's proposal in order to more fully fund my Roth IRA (since I expect taxes to be far higher in 35 years), but I doubt others will follow suit.

With the credit crunch severely curtailing cotporate lines of credit, who is floating these losers at the RNC a $5 million note?