This Times story is interesting because it actually shows how in the world the "Aos, with $50,000 in income, owe a total of $607,000 on mortgages for two houses they bought since they moved to the Phoenix area about two years ago." The emphasis is mine. They also have a $14,000 in credit card balances. Assuming that's their total current debt, they owe nearly twelve-and-a-half times their annual income. Clearly the rational step would be to declare bankruptcy, but that's become conveniently . . . difficult. Curiously, new restrictions on personal bankruptcies were passed at exactly the teetering crest of the housing-market wave-break. I'm sure that was just a coincidence, though.
For some additional Schadenfreude:
And while the region counts the aerospace company Honeywell International and computer chipmaker Intel among its largest employers, housing is the biggest component of the local economy, with construction accounting for nearly one in 10 jobs, or about 50 percent more than the national average.A classic pyramid scheme is "the biggest component of the local economy." Well, there's always Amway.
"Our economy out here is based on residential growth. That's our engine," said William A. Gosnell, a principal in Lee & Associates, one of Phoenix's largest commercial real estate firms. But with housing inventories and foreclosures up and prices down, residential construction slowed to a crawl, crippling the overall economy in the process.
6 comments:
I guess it's time to bring back debtor's prisons?
YF
Penalties, late fees, hidden charges… we’re lining the pockets of credit card companies with $8 billion in fees every year. Where is the love??? Go to www.creditcardreform.org and with one click you can send a Valentine’s postcard to your Representative and Senators telling them it’s time to kiss credit card rip-offs goodbye! Consumers Union will hand deliver your postcards on Valentine’s day to tell your legislators it’s time for real reforms in credit card company practices.
Well gee Blake, I can't speak for everyone else, but I'm sure MY Congress critters will certainly hop to if I tell them to.
Fuck, if I roll my eyes any harder I fear I'll suffer an aneurysm.
LOL, anonymous. I'll add this to my list of things to do right after I send an e-mail to Nancy Pelosi asking her to impeach W, end the War, and give me a bright blue Pony in my apartment courtyard! I feel the magical power of the Citizen, don't you know? CHANGE!
It's good to see how many of the Party of the People eagerly jumped to "reform" the bankruptcy laws, no?
I may have to file for Chapter 7 by the end of the year, due to underemployment. I can't even get a job at Big Lots here in Michigan right now. At least I've got the means test aced. I shudder to think of the BK showing up on my credit report for the next 10 years, but so many people are probably going to file over the next few years, the stigma may be reduced, who knows. I'm already living with my parents, so fuck it. I'm starting a vegetable garden in the back yard, so at least I'll have something to do.
"But right now," she said, "we're just throwing our money away every month."
But Rebekah, "throwing money away every month" is the very foundation stone of our economy. It's the least you can do, to feed the "engine" of economic growth. Remember, you are here to serve the economy, not the other way around.
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