Mental Masturbation Saturday

OK, this is a mental masturbation Saturday. I've been on the road and have had some thoughts, let's see if I can remember the core of them and get them out there.

Economics

I was asked how I would solve this mess. What would I do?

• Bail out the banks that needed bailing out.
• Only people who can prove they were defrauded in mortgage lending get bailed out. Everyone else has to chalk it up as a bad decision and move on with their life.
• Brokerage/investment firms are left on their own. If they fail, they fail. If mergers happen, then they happen. Essentially, they went bankrupt so let them go into the bankruptcy process.
• Suspend capital gains taxes for regular retirement fund redemption for 5 years.

Economics and Politics

• This post points to other articles that point out the lie that minorities caused the mortgage failure mess.
• For the second half of 2006, 55 percent of subprime originations were for refinance purposes unchanged from the first half of 2006 (see Chart 1).  Among subprime refinances, 87 percent were for cash-out purposes compared with 75 percent for the first half of 2006. However, in the first half of 2006, 12 percent of refinances were reported as "unknown" or "other purposes" and thus, the refinance for cash-out purposes in the first half of 2006 could very well be higher. Based on loan count, 32 percent of subprime purchase loans were made to a first-time home buyer, up from 25 percent in the first half of 2006.   
• Obama nor McCain know what to do,  so they should just the hell up. The Bush administration should just stop and do no more damage.
• If conservatives hated McCain Feingold and hate "socialist policies" of Obama, they should be up in arms over McCain's mortgage bailout plan and looking at other alternatives.
  

Family

• Potty training a boy is a beast. Just. A. Beast. #1? No problem. #2? ....
• Putting a 3 year old in soccer is just a crazy idea. Don't do it.
• Sometimes you have to let your kids fail. You hope they learn the lesson, and if they don't, they are just a** out.

Stuff

• The number of short sells in Bowie, Maryland and Mitchelleville, MD, is mind boggling. But living in the high tax and obnoxious traffic of Prince Georges County, is really keeping me from pulling the trigger on homes in the area, but you can get A LOT of home for a reasonable by D.C. metro area standards price.
• If GM and Chrysler make a deal (which I heard is a 50/50 possibility), then the combined company deserves to go under. GM is already too damn big! Like I wrote before, Pontiac or Buick needs to go, most likely Pontiac! Chrysler brings nothing except Jeep and that's just a label no one wants to see die, when maybe it should be left to fend for itself.

You know what? i gotta go enjoy my family. This post stinks, but published it is...