the economy: a friendly question and answer.

[deviantsaint]

one friend of mine posted this

Comments

[napalmgod]

The thing to remember, though, is that the other countries who could stop buying treasury notes unless they give a better interest rate, won't

[abrasax]

(FYI: I was the one who asked the initial question)

There's a saying that I think sums up what your describing: "If you borrow $100k, the bank owns you. If you borrow $100 million, you own the bank."

Two other points that came to mind:

I *had* an ARM recently and it did include a limit on how much the rate could adjust (3%).

Regarding the nationalization of the banks: Didn't we do that before? Isn't that what provoked the crash around the turn of the 19th century and led to the formation of the Fed to begin with? I dunno. While I'm obviously not totally settled on all the facets of the problem, I have to favor privatized, but regulated, banks. the key may be in better regulation against just this sort of thing. Mandating a higher % of cash to debt, for example.

one more thing

[napalmgod]

One of the reasons why the US dollar is the premiere currency is that OPEC sells oil in dollars. If you want oil, you have to have dollars.

If OPEC were to change that, the dollar would plummet like a rock.

It's kind of like an 'oil standard' instead of gold or silver.

[mekanikalangel]

Oh, not sure if you've filed your taxes yet or not. But my stimulus check from 08 got deducted from my tax refund. I would have gotten close to 5K back if I hadn't gotten that damned check last year.

The $300 check?

[sheilagh]

so you got closer to $4,000 instead?

(confused)

Re: The $300 check?

[mekanikalangel]

nope, actually got just under 3K.