I have been avoiding my blog. I have pretty much been avoiding my life the last couple of weeks. I would explain more except that 1) there is just too much, and 2) I really do not understand the funk myself.

A Tree in the Forest

So, if I post a blog and nobody reads it, does it still use up ink? How about space? Is there any limit to cyber space? What about gravitational pull?

Tell Me Why This Can't Work

I am not an economist, nor am I a financial wizard, but I wonder sometimes if the simplest solution might just be the best. Some of the people in trouble with their mortgages may have overextended themselves thinking their house value would go up or their income would increase. What then happened is an adjustable rate mortgage adjusted and the payments are too much. At the same time, they cannot sell since they would have to come up with money at closing. Maybe they even anticipated refinancing but could not since they owe more than what the house is now worth in this market. Why could they not re-amortize what is still owed over 35 or 40 years? Payments would go down at least a little, and if they stay in the house for ten years or more, they may be able to eventually sell at better than a loss. The lenders would continue to have income and the collateral, the homes, would have an opportunity to gain in value so that the loan to value ratio might actually improve over time. The only place I see in this scheme for any government bailing would be to bring some of the ridiculous A.R.M.s down a point or two.
Folks who invested in houses just to flip them in a year or so for a profit would not gain by this plan, but they are really in business rather than occupying a primary residence. They are not my concern.
People might have to stay in "starter" houses a decade instead of a couple of years, but wouldn't that be better than suffering foreclosure or spending my tax money to save them from bad decisions they may have made?
Then we look closely at when and how we got into this mess. Who thought that 100% financing was a good idea? And about this bundling of mortgages to spread risk. . . it got spread right into all of our living rooms. Let's look long and hard at the regulations over the past 10+ years and make sure the congresspeople and other decision makers who were in the lobbyists' pockets have to look for other work soon.

Time Marches

Almost March. . . I can't believe it. One of the Denver newspapers bit the dust this week, makes me sad. Will the internet really take up the slack? Slack, hmmmm. Slacking in their responsibility to report the news could have been what killed the newspaper business. Trying to be everything to everyone is not a successful business plan.

Sleepy

I am at about stage three of exhaustion. That's when I become what I refer to as "honest." Friends and relatives have pointed out that "cruel" or "nasty" might be more appropriate. I will be making some offhand comment like, "This bitch who sits in the last row in class had the audacity to say. . ." and I catch myself. Whomever I was addressing either has assumed an expression of horror or just stopped listening.
I really need sleep. Most other deprivations do not phase me, but lack of sleep drives me crazy, or should I say crazier? But here I am at 10:30 at night finding so many ways to occupy my time.

3rd Rock

So I was watching Third Rock From the Sun. Yeh, I admit I watch way too much late night, rerun TV. Anyway, as an alien, Dick (John Lithgow) is able to spout such pearls of wisdom. What freedom with a character. And Jane Curtain's character is such a perfect foil. She was angry at Dick for his having been honest at a meeting he attended in her stead. So she says, "Since you value honesty, I'll be brutally frank." He replies, "All right. I'll be Genuine Dick." I need to watch that show more often.

On the Information Highway

I just watched a video on one of my daughters' blogs and it occurred to me that we bloggers are really street musicians. Instead of making music for passers-by, we throw down words for readers-by. We are all just hoping to find an audience who clicks, someone who understands. . .