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Sunday, February 22, 2009

Thoughts and Fears about Stimulas for Home owners

This week the Obama administration announced plans to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. I saw the Chairperson of the FDIC, Sheila Bair, talk about it on CNN and I heard people talk about it on KQED Forum. People have been talking about the plans and try to figure out what is really in the package. Even with the package being announced, people are not sure how it is really going to work.

I ask the question, "How important is it that the Stimulus package be fare in the way it helps homeowners?" When I was listening to KQED I was getting angry. I am not a home owner. I have been sitting in Silicon Valley watching house prices get further and further out of my reach. The housing bubble had a lot of air around here. I am angry at the idea of those house prices not getting to the bottom. I am angry that my tax dollars will be keeping the price of the house I buy someday higher. It is if I can ever afford to buy a house. I am worried my tax dollars will build the wealth of home owners.

Today on CNN I saw Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan say, "This package helps all Americans." Then he went on and talked about how all house prices go down when I house is foreclosed on and all homeowners should support this. I guess I am not an American because I do not own a house.

I am not too worried about the fairness of who gets help and who does not. I am not worried that we are not helping people who will stay current without help. Helping them is a waste of taxpayers money. I am reading a lot from these homeowners in the papers.

My fear is clear, I am worried that house prices will not reach the bottom. I have spent the last decade watching home ownership get further and further away from me. Even as my career has improved and my salary has increased, I still not afford to buy a condo without help. I am worried that if house prices do not hit the bottom there will be another bubble. I am worried that fixing the Crisis will not fix the problem. I am worried that we will back at this point again if we do not fix it correctly.

Also Read: WSJ Dukes of Moral Hazard

Labels: Barack Obama, CNN, Economics, homeowners, Shaun Donovan, Sheila Bair

- Rich, 10:44 AM

Monday, January 05, 2009

War Crimes in Palistine

On Fareed Zakaria 's GPS on CNN Bernard-Henri Levy called the actions of Hamas a war crime. He said that Hamas is using the citizens of the West Bank as human shields. He is talking about reports of Hamas using the bottom floor of a hospital as a base. Is there any chance that we would see a war crimes trial on this? I think it would be great to see war crime trails for people on both sides of this conflict. I know it will not happen.

Labels: Bernard-Henri Levy, CNN, Fareed Zakaria

- Rich, 1:37 PM

Monday, August 25, 2008

CNN

I recorded the CNN coverage of the political convention. I will admit that I picked them because they are in HD. If MSNBC was also in HD on my cable service I might need to pick them.

In the first three hours that I watched, it was 80% about the Clinton and Obama struggle. Will the Clinton support vote for Obama? Did Obama do enough to reach out to Clinton and her supporter? Are Bill and Hillary to blame for being bad losers? The same questions over and over again to different people.

The next 20% were about the horse race between Obama and McCain. What Obama needs to do to win. How he needs Clinton Supporters to win. How McCain is trying to drive a wedge.

They used up a lot of time without making mention of the platform at all. They did all this without even covering what Obama wants to do as president. I think this is one of the big problems with American political news. They cover the race far better than they cover the polices and platforms. In the end the electorate is much worse off for it. No surprise that Americans vote for the candidate who they want to share a beer with and not whose policies are better.

PS. CNN, stop having Wolff Blitzer say "The Best Team in Politics." It is cheap and cheezy.

Labels: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, CNN, convention, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, politics

- Rich, 7:11 PM

Saturday, February 16, 2002

Everything will kill you

It is not official, everything I enjoy is bad for my health. My goodness! Really, I need to get less sleep. The next thing they will find out is that laughing will kill people.

Would you sleep less to lengthen your life?

Labels: CNN, health, sleep

- Rich, 1:24 AM

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