LkwdSteve

Two things I would like to write more about, but don't have the time at the moment.

1. What should be a key presidential campaign issue and isn't.

The power of the financial lobby and the problem of free financial markets. How it is my belief that betting in the stock market on winning and ESPECIALLY LOSING is philisophically unacceptable. How some fininaacial instruments should be outlawed from Wall Street.

2. Discuss voluntary public funding for major national elections campaigning. How it would reduce special interest influence and reduce campaign time (particularly for incumbents who HAVE AN OFFICE TO RUN).

matclone

On #1: Last night I was ruing my massive student loan debt and thinking if I got hurt or something else bad happened, how I would be unable to pay this--and how so many Americans are probably in a similar boat (the housing crisis--the credit card debt crisis*--the payday lenders on every corner of every blue collar community in America)--and the role of the financial cos. in encouraging and perpetuating this--and how close we are to disaster. I hope the present financial problems are not just the tip of the iceberg but I'm not particularly optimistic--especially given that all the top policymakers are evidently quite worried.

*I read in a magazine recently, that in 1970, only 9% of Americans had a credit card. And today? And how did we get this way?

On #2: opponents of public financing will, and do, make a free speech argument. If I have millions, who are you to tell me I can't use it to support my political views? That's the argument proponents (including myself) must deal with.

matclone

On #2: Have any of the major candidates indicated they would support public financing of elections? I assume silence on their part means no.

RYou

If you're debt is federal debt, all you need to do write the loan institutiion and ask for a temporary deferral.

matclone

If you're referring to my student loan debt, thanks for the tip, but deferred interest only adds to the outstanding debt--becomes capitalized. I have no problem paying the current loan. It's just that over the long run, it's a lot of debt to carry around.

Do you know anything about LIBOR (A British Bankers Association index)? Is it historically a stable index? I meant to add this account of credit in crisis: a smaller portion of my loan debt is a variable rate that has continually climbed over the past two years or so. Now my lender is offering us a choice of sticking with the current index formula (based on the lender's periodic selling of their bonds at auction), or changing to one based on LIBOR. I'm guessing LIBOR is probably more stable (especially given the rather large rise recently in the other index), but wondered if you know anything about this (the loan company (Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corp) of course is not much help in the matter--they don't say why they're offering this option or otherwise give us much information except to refer us to the BBA website).

Caspiantiger

Man this is so boring.

LkwdSteve

To be clearer, fundraising, a specific campaign activity, takes a great amount of an incumbent's time. Time that's better spent on the job. I believe that a couple of state's have some type of public funding going. Arizona, maybe?

Both Hillary and Barak profess to be in favor I believe. And I think McCain helped get Arizona on board (I'm guessing here though).

matclone

Last I knew, Arizona and Maine were the only states with public financing (I've heard these also referred to as clean election laws)(a rhetorical claim).

skipster

In regards to the first question:

Money is nothing more than personal property. It has a value, but so does property. When a storm blows through an area, the damage is reported in dollar values of the items lost or damaged. They don't usually say that three troll knick-knacks, 5 valuable antiques, and an Elvis record were damaged. The dollar value is used. Money and property are synonomous. There is no way to separate the two.

This is one of my main problems with people wanting to regulate financial markets or who say they have a problem with free markets. If you are OK with the government regulating someone else's money, you are explicitly sayign you are OK with the government regulating your personal assets -- your money, your car, your home, your socks. Just how much of ourselves do we want to give to the government? What's really scarry about those situations is that there is no recourse for actions you don't like. If we allow the government to regulate financial markets, we have no legal way to stop them from taking our kitchen tables or our shoes. Who gets to decide how many TVs you have in your house or how many pairs of shoes you can buy for your children? Are you prepared to give up that freedom?

But, you're talking abotu specifics, like some of the financial stuff that's going on right now. There were some bad decisions made. Those who made them are reaping the consequences. The ones who made good decisions are reaping the consequences of their actions. One thing that is really awful about this latest news item is that the media and some in congress have made this issue out to be worse than it is.

They are trying to sell us this story that mean, greedy, predatory lenders lured unsuspecting, innocent, good credit people into bad home loans. But, that is not the case. Currently, only 4 percent of US mortgages are 3 or more months late. 96% of US mortgages are fine!! Of the 4% of mortgages that are delinquent, only 2.5% are sub-primes! Some lenders made loans to people they knew had a high propensity to default. Some people who knew they couldn't afford the payments signed up for the mortgage anyhow. Now, those who can't afford their payments are facing foreclosure and the lenders who lent to default risks are goign out of business. The free market is doing its job wonderfully! If you want to blame greed, remember that lenders thought they could get money they had a high risk of not getting and borrowers got greedy, thinking they could buy more house than they could afford and get away with not paying much. They both got caught.

Times are a little tougher for some than they may like to see. But, hard times and poor decisions by a few certainly does not indicate that a system that protects freedom (the free market) should be compromised. Be wary of giving your rights up to the government. The single largest and most powerful protector and guarantor of freedoms in the world in the free market.

slayer

"Be wary of giving your rights up to the government."

Besides cheerleading for corporations, do you believe in warrantless wiretapping in regards to our Federal Government?