| Jackson blasts Bush mortgage plan
Bush's recent bailout plan doesn't go far enough to solve the problem of foreclosures, Jackson said, pointing to the voluntary nature of Bush's program to freeze adjustable mortgage rates for five years. "By and large they will not do it because it's voluntary," Jackson said. "There is no structure in place to in fact begin to exact from them exploitative amounts of resources. There must be some government plan in place because it's about sparing the nation a recession." Glenn Mueller, a professor at the Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management at the University of Denver, went even further. He told The Denver Post "the liars have won," saying that the mortgage plan rewards the lenders, whom he called cheaters. However, Robert Steel, the undersecretary of the treasury for domestic finance, told National Public Radio that the Bush plan will buy affected homeowners time to refinance their mortgages.
Virgin set to sell short
The Virgin plan would offer shareholders some hope of getting something. Roger Lawson, of the UK Shareholders Association, said it welcomed the move. "We believe that it is important that shareholders have a say in the outcome of what happens to their company, and the assets of the business." The question has to be asked: "Why?" These are the same shareholders who allowed the immediate past resigning executives to let Northern Rock go on its extraordinary journey. A point worth making is that the Rock-slide was not chaired by some City of London banker but the Eton-educated Dr Matt Ridley. Matt Ridley, above, is an aristocrat, the son and heir of former chairman of Northumberland County and junior only to the Duke of Northumberland, the often bellicose, Viscount Ridley.
They ought to draw a go-to-jail card
It's the perfect crime, so big and so reeking of establishment that few recognize the inherent criminality, but the results are the same as if some street thug held us all up at gunpoint. This country is spiraling toward recession. Huge amounts of wealth have disappeared with upward of 2-million families in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure, all because of the corruption of people in suits. When someone gets mugged for the few dollars in their wallet, the thief goes to prison for years. But when bankers, mortgage brokers, credit rating agencies and investment firms conspire to scam investors and exploit the naivete of borrowers in order to enrich themselves to the tune of billions of dollars, no one goes to jail. It's a story as old as the expression "money talks." When the crooks maintain country club memberships, we call their actions misjudgments or "froth," the way someone might get caught up in a pique of enthusiasm.
Ailing market a healthy opportunity
On the next market surge, you'll realize a greater gain than if you'd stood pat. It goes without saying but I'll say it anyway. Selling off quality in a down market is not smart.It's foolish to think that by realizing your paper losses, you can benefit in the long run. Investing is a long-term process. It requires the setting of goals and the allocation of assets using historical perspective on how they perform in up and down markets over a long period of time. Having that in place goes a long way toward being able to avoid being spooked by market turbulence. Knowing that it will surely happen, expecting it to happen makes it far less unsettling. No one says it's easy, just that it works.
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