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Terrel L. Shields said:
The problem is if the FED lowers rates...then inflation is likely to increase and offset the lower interest rates. Catch 22. I am thinking interest rates remain stubbornly high for more than a year and I suspect will not return to 3% for perhaps years after I return to room temperature.
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Obama brought the interest rates down to virtually zero to save our economy in 2008 from meltdown assisted by wacko 'no downpayment', 'no qualifying', 'if you're breathing we'll give you the money' mortgages, and as a result we did not have a 2nd Great Recession. However, those rates stayed artificially low for TOO LONG, until people thought it was NORMAL to have a 3% 30-year mortgage. Well folks, IT'S NOT NORMAL. The last previous time interest rates were in that neighborhood was just after WWII, and then rates 'normalized' around 7% +/- for a very long time, until the S&L debacle period, post-Vietnam war spending, and "Stagflation" raised its ugly head with pre-determined wage increases built into employment contracts to attempt to address the increasing prices. That spurred the government to hike interest rates to try to stop the inflation, with interest rates rising FROM 10% around 1982 TO 16.5% FHA with 6 points around 1984.

We are not going to see 3% interest rates again for decades, unless the Powers That Be REALLY screw up the economy again through financial malfeasance, pushing us towards another Great Recession. 3% interest rates signal something really dire IS or RECENTLY just happened. Not a circumstance to look forward to.

IMO, when the economy was no longer in danger of collapse, say 2014-15-16, IF the FED had increased rates 1/4% every 6 months, the economy would not have suffered, our work load would have likely been more stable, and we'd probably be at around 7%-7.5% mortgage interest rates today without all that downside. But that didn't happen. They waited too long to head off inflation, then used an ax rather than a scalpel to address the disease. And here we are. Whining for lack of sales and appraisals. Ppl got spoiled with the 3% loans, thinking that was NORMAL. It was NEVER normal; it was the result of catastrophically stupid financial management, and though we survived without being taken out by a cannon, we, as a profession, have been taking some bullets for about 3 years now unnecessarily. As I recall, in 1980-82, 10% mortgage rates had become normal, though early '70s the rates were around 7%-7-1/2%. We got used to the 7%, got used to the 10% (more creative financing available then), and unfortunately we got used to 3%. I expect rates will soon stabilize in the 7%-7-1/2% range again so that savers will have some reason to leave money in the bank (which will be liquid and re-lent out), and borrowers will get real with the 7% rates. Perhaps that will squelch the bounding value appreciation we have been experiencing in many areas. But if not, then it will take more paycheck to put a roof over the heads, likely leading to wage increases or smaller living spaces and/or doubling/tripling up housing density.
 
Regardless of busy or slow years, January is always a slow month, especially the first two or so weeks.
 
J Grant said:
Getting the wealthy to pay a share that reflects their income is not punitive. I read that with all the loopholes and deductions, they pay an average of 8%, even though their bracket might say 40%. They need to work on some of the tax code and enforce what exists. The R party is built around cutting benefits to us, the working class, to keep taxes ultra-low for their cronies.
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move your comment to the watercooler, you are always bring your pro-communist views to appraisal threads
 
Prior to "communism" there was the system of plebians and peons, of lords and serfs. Is our current reality so much different now? The lords at the top sitting on the wealth provided by a portion of all the sweat of labor and fruits of intelligent creativity which the serfs labor at daily? The current gulf between 97+% of the population which has approximately 3% of the wealth vs 3% of the population which has an estimated 97% of the wealth is far out of balance, enabling the top of the money chain to also control our government and therefore the laws that affect us all. As America was increasing its wealth and prestige in the world, especially in the 1950s & 1960s, I think there was not such wide disparity, so that the little guy/gal had the ability to put a roof over their head and food on the table. As a bookkeeper for a number of companies in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, I found the owners' income was typically 5 to 10 times the average worker's pay. Now we frequently see corporation heads making THOUSANDS of times what their workers make. And our own oligarchs devise systems whereby they are able to take a thin slice of money from millions of us every month, which provides exorbitant un-ending passive income to them. Do I subscribe to Amazon Prime? NOPE! Will I buy a Tesla? NOPE! Just doing my part to not enrich the oligarchs.
When pressed by other automakers that he was paying too high wages and thus 'stealing' potential employees away from other automakers in Detroit, Henry Ford said he wanted his employees to be able to afford to buy the cars they were building. When corporate taxes were significantly higher in the 1960s, my boss who owned a new car dealership was asked why he paid his people large bonuses at the end of the year, he responded that he'd rather pay his employees so they could create better lives for their families rather than showing more profit and thereby owing more taxes to the government. He also remarked that paying his people well made them more loyal, they stayed with the company longer, and he had few cases of thievery and such. For decades now, corporate leaders' pay has skyrocketed (greed), wages have stagnated (more poverty, food stamps, subsidized housing). It's hard to support a family on one income anymore like in the 'old days', and that has its own societal implications.
 
ddnma said:
move your comment to the watercooler, you are always bring your pro-communist views to appraisal threads
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Why is expecting the wealthy to pay their share of taxes a pro-communist view?
 
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