Thursday, September 18, 2008
Link to Bush still hurting McCain, poll finds
Link to Bush still hurting McCain, poll finds
Candidates back to where they were before conventions, and Palin pick
September 18, 2008
WASHINGTON - Despite an intense effort to distance himself from the way his party has done business in Washington, Senator John McCain is seen by voters as far less likely to bring change to Washington than Senator Barack Obama. Mr. McCain is widely viewed as a “typical Republican” who would continue or expand President Bush’s policies, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.
Polls taken after the Republican convention suggested that Mr. McCain had enjoyed a surge of support — particularly among white women after his selection of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate — but the latest poll indicates “the Palin effect” was, at least so far, a limited burst of interest.
Read the rest of the story:
Link to Bush still hurting McCain, poll finds
Candidates back to where they were before conventions, and Palin pick
September 18, 2008
WASHINGTON - Despite an intense effort to distance himself from the way his party has done business in Washington, Senator John McCain is seen by voters as far less likely to bring change to Washington than Senator Barack Obama. Mr. McCain is widely viewed as a “typical Republican” who would continue or expand President Bush’s policies, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.
Polls taken after the Republican convention suggested that Mr. McCain had enjoyed a surge of support — particularly among white women after his selection of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate — but the latest poll indicates “the Palin effect” was, at least so far, a limited burst of interest.
Read the rest of the story:
Link to Bush still hurting McCain, poll finds
Palin won't pave way for moms
Palin won't pave way for moms
Dallas News - September 18, 2008
Sarah Palin's story of raising five children while serving as small-town mayor, then Alaska governor since December 2006 raises expectations and hopes for working mothers, but it's a fantasy for most of us.
Most mothers cannot take a newborn to work with them – unless she's an elected official, a Hollywood celebrity or self-employed.
It's a great dream, but don't expect a McCain-Palin administration to promote policies that make it easier for working mothers.
Palin won't pave way for moms
Dallas News - September 18, 2008
Sarah Palin's story of raising five children while serving as small-town mayor, then Alaska governor since December 2006 raises expectations and hopes for working mothers, but it's a fantasy for most of us.
Most mothers cannot take a newborn to work with them – unless she's an elected official, a Hollywood celebrity or self-employed.
It's a great dream, but don't expect a McCain-Palin administration to promote policies that make it easier for working mothers.
Palin won't pave way for moms
Are Fixed-Rate Loans About To Vanish?
Are Fixed-Rate Loans About To Vanish?
Realty Trac - September 18, 2008
Peter G. Miller
For decades the surest and safest mortgage has been the quiet and dull fixed-rate loan. With fixed-rate loans the monthly payment for principal and interest never changes, the interest rate stays the same, the loan balance declines every month and the threat of payment shock is non-existent. The biggest choice faced by fixed-rate borrowers is 30 years or 15.
Given the mortgage calamities seen during the past year it might seem logical that lenders would be pushing fixed-rate mortgages, but the good things which make such loans safe and secure for borrowers are increasingly unattractive to mortgage investors, the people who actually buy loans. The result is that fixed-rate mortgages are about to become increasingly rare even for the best borrowers.
The Good Old Days
One of the first homes I bought was financed in a way that would make TV real estate wizards proud: I assumed a 6 percent mortgage and the seller took back a second loan at the same rate for much of the rest of the purchase price.
This was long, long ago and each month I went to the local bank and made my payment on the first mortgage. The teller would mark my passbook by hand and as corny as it seems I actually looked forward to my monthly trips to the bank and the gradual reduction of my debt.
The problem was that with every payment the lender lost money.
The lender, I have no doubt, hated me. Nothing personal, merely a reflection of the reality that while I was paying 6 percent the very same lender was making mortgage loans in the late 1970s and early 1980s at 12, 13 and 14 percent.
My lender was financing long-term mortgages such as mine with short-term borrowing. The interest rates paid by the lender were higher than my loan rate, so the lender was losing money with every payment I made.
“Today lenders have gotten smarter,” says James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer at RealtyTrac.com, the nation’s best known source of foreclosure data and listings. “Freely-assumable loans don’t exist and the companies we see as ‘lenders’ are most-often mortgage retailers, companies without a vault, deposits or cash of their own. For the past few years the game has been to originate loans, sell them as quickly as possible, and then use the cash from the sale of one loan to finance the next.
“While the system of selling loans has been good in the sense of adding liquidity to the marketplace,” said Sacaccio, “ultimately it’s unchanged from the days of passbook loans: In the end there’s an investor putting up the cash for a mortgage and that investor does not want to take a loss.”
Read the whole story here:
Are Fixed-Rate Loans About To Vanish?
Realty Trac - September 18, 2008
Peter G. Miller
For decades the surest and safest mortgage has been the quiet and dull fixed-rate loan. With fixed-rate loans the monthly payment for principal and interest never changes, the interest rate stays the same, the loan balance declines every month and the threat of payment shock is non-existent. The biggest choice faced by fixed-rate borrowers is 30 years or 15.
Given the mortgage calamities seen during the past year it might seem logical that lenders would be pushing fixed-rate mortgages, but the good things which make such loans safe and secure for borrowers are increasingly unattractive to mortgage investors, the people who actually buy loans. The result is that fixed-rate mortgages are about to become increasingly rare even for the best borrowers.
The Good Old Days
One of the first homes I bought was financed in a way that would make TV real estate wizards proud: I assumed a 6 percent mortgage and the seller took back a second loan at the same rate for much of the rest of the purchase price.
This was long, long ago and each month I went to the local bank and made my payment on the first mortgage. The teller would mark my passbook by hand and as corny as it seems I actually looked forward to my monthly trips to the bank and the gradual reduction of my debt.
The problem was that with every payment the lender lost money.
The lender, I have no doubt, hated me. Nothing personal, merely a reflection of the reality that while I was paying 6 percent the very same lender was making mortgage loans in the late 1970s and early 1980s at 12, 13 and 14 percent.
My lender was financing long-term mortgages such as mine with short-term borrowing. The interest rates paid by the lender were higher than my loan rate, so the lender was losing money with every payment I made.
“Today lenders have gotten smarter,” says James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer at RealtyTrac.com, the nation’s best known source of foreclosure data and listings. “Freely-assumable loans don’t exist and the companies we see as ‘lenders’ are most-often mortgage retailers, companies without a vault, deposits or cash of their own. For the past few years the game has been to originate loans, sell them as quickly as possible, and then use the cash from the sale of one loan to finance the next.
“While the system of selling loans has been good in the sense of adding liquidity to the marketplace,” said Sacaccio, “ultimately it’s unchanged from the days of passbook loans: In the end there’s an investor putting up the cash for a mortgage and that investor does not want to take a loss.”
Read the whole story here:
Are Fixed-Rate Loans About To Vanish?
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Israel, Iran, and the November election
Israel, Iran, and the November election
Chad Groening OneNewsNow.com
US and Israeli flagsA Jerusalem-based journalist says the overwhelming sentiment in Israel right now is that Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States, and that the Jewish state will have to take care of the Iranian nuclear problem on its own.
Aaron Klein, Jerusalem bureau chief for WorldNetDaily, covered Senator Obama's recent visit to the Holy City. Even before Obama's arrival in Israel, says Klein, the people there had already made up their minds about the inevitability of Obama becoming president. So the clock may already be ticking for a unilateral Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear program, he says.
"In Israel, there already is an assumption that Obama is going to win," the journalist states. "And then Israel knows that the window to do anything about it [Iran] would have to be before...the November elections or before the next president, which Israel does assume to be Barack Obama, is installed in January."
On the other hand, Klein does not think it would be wise for Israel to attack Iran as long as Ehud Olmert is prime minister there. "[T]he man couldn't handle a war against a few thousand guerrilla troops in Lebanon in 2006 [and] he has bungled every Israeli Defense Force operation since he's been in office," says the Middle East observer.
Klein admits he is concerned about a scenario in which Barack Obama is the U.S. president at the same time Ehud Olmert is prime minister of Israel.
Israel, Iran, and the November election
Chad Groening OneNewsNow.com
US and Israeli flagsA Jerusalem-based journalist says the overwhelming sentiment in Israel right now is that Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States, and that the Jewish state will have to take care of the Iranian nuclear problem on its own.
Aaron Klein, Jerusalem bureau chief for WorldNetDaily, covered Senator Obama's recent visit to the Holy City. Even before Obama's arrival in Israel, says Klein, the people there had already made up their minds about the inevitability of Obama becoming president. So the clock may already be ticking for a unilateral Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear program, he says.
"In Israel, there already is an assumption that Obama is going to win," the journalist states. "And then Israel knows that the window to do anything about it [Iran] would have to be before...the November elections or before the next president, which Israel does assume to be Barack Obama, is installed in January."
On the other hand, Klein does not think it would be wise for Israel to attack Iran as long as Ehud Olmert is prime minister there. "[T]he man couldn't handle a war against a few thousand guerrilla troops in Lebanon in 2006 [and] he has bungled every Israeli Defense Force operation since he's been in office," says the Middle East observer.
Klein admits he is concerned about a scenario in which Barack Obama is the U.S. president at the same time Ehud Olmert is prime minister of Israel.
Israel, Iran, and the November election
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