[geeks] FYI: CompUSA is offering OS X 10.5 for $99 (after rebate)

[Patrick Giagnocavo]

On Oct 29, 2007, at 11:54 PM, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
>
>> Oh, another change we need: split the national ticket so that
>> president and vice president run on separate tickets.
>>
>> It wasn't that long ago that American had split parties in the White
>> House.
>
> Look at the problems with a split house/senate and president have
> caused. The U.S. is in the early stages of a depression that will
> end up like Germany in the 1930's. Have you seen the value of the
> dollar on international markets? Oil was $85 a barrel a few days
> ago.
>

Touched $90 today.

There is a whiff of Weimar about the USA at the moment.  Whether it  
is temporary or not is hard to tell.  If Hillary gets and appears to  
be able to actually wield power, I have the option of moving to Asia.

> While there have been many forclosures over the last summer in the
> poor parts of the U.S., wait until all of those sub-prime mortgages
> (almost all of them are adjustable rate) adjust to current rates.

The largest ARM resets happen between August 2007 and March or April  
2008.

see:

http://www.bubbleinfo.com/journal/2007/8/22/interpreting-arm-reset- 
chart.html

Supposedly, this has changed and is now spread out more "evenly"  
across all of 08:

http://mortgage.freedomblogging.com/2007/09/26/reset-pain-postponed/

even then we are talking hundreds of $B of mortgages resetting to  
higher rates.


> My prediction is  that if a Republican gets elected in 2008, then
> they will go to 15% and if a Democrat gets elected, 21% like in
> the Carter days. I'll go even further. If Ron Paul gets elected,
> mortgages will go down to 5% because the Saudi's are prohibited
> from charging "excessive" interest, but they will own your ass.

Biting the bullet would have meant issuing presidential directives  
authorizing any and all oil drilling on Sept 12th, 2001 in ANWR and  
the Florida Everglades; and the immediate granting of a permit for  
longwall coal mining under the Grand Staircase Escalante area -  
Clinton's parting gift to the Riadys and the Chicoms as he left  
office, since it is a huge deposit of low-sulfur coal that has now  
been locked away forever.

But the "new tone" in Washington prevailed over reality, and this was  
not done, because a sub-Secretary of Putting Things In the Basement  
from the Clinton years might have written a mean column in the  
Washington Post accusing Bush of doing it to hurt the children.

--Patrick