| Author |
Message |
    
themp
Citizen
Username: Themp
Post Number: 420
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 12:56 pm: |     |
Jan. 26, 2004 | WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal deficits will total nearly $2.4 trillion over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office projected Monday, a worsening of nearly $1 trillion since its last forecast in August.
In its annual wintertime economic update, Congress' nonpartisan fiscal analyst also projected that the red ink would hit a record $477 billion this year.
I'll say he's serious! |
cjc
Citizen
Username: Cjc
Post Number: 781
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 1:08 pm: | |
He's not serious, democrats aren't serious, and Perot isn't running (and he lost because the public wasn't serious about the deficit either).
Deficits going up and interest rates are low. Who'd a thunk it it would happen again and again and again. |
JJC
Citizen
Username: Mercury
Post Number: 182
Registered: 12-2002
| | Posted on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 1:09 pm: | |
under a Republican administration? |
cjc
Citizen
Username: Cjc
Post Number: 783
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 1:35 pm: | |
yes...Reagan and Bush both had rising deficits and low interest rates. |
JJC
Citizen
Username: Mercury
Post Number: 183
Registered: 12-2002
| | Posted on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 1:52 pm: | |
You can't compare Bush II to Reagan. |
cjc
Citizen
Username: Cjc
Post Number: 784
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 2:15 pm: | |
and why is that? |
bobk
Supporter
Username: Bobk
Post Number: 4447
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 2:20 pm: | |
Cjc, check your facts. I am old enough to remember 14% interest rates in the Ronnie Reagan years. |
cjc
Citizen
Username: Cjc
Post Number: 785
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 2:44 pm: | |
True bobk....interest rates were high at the beginning of Reagan's terms. As the mid-80s approached and the deficits rose, interest rates actually fell. I too remember mortgage rates being like today's credit cards during the days of the Carter's Misery Index.
My point is, the theory that high deficits automatically make interest rates rise (as has been said on the campaign trail) isn't necessarily true. There are a bunch of other factors involved. Inflation caused Volcker at the Fed to keep interest rates high. As I recall, as the 'surplus' came into being at the end of Clinton's terms, interest rates did not fall. We have high deficits now, but no threat of inflation at all. That should keep interest rates down. |
bobk
Supporter
Username: Bobk
Post Number: 4450
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 5:45 pm: | |
Cjc - Again the short memories. When we bought stately K manor in late 1987 we were lucky to get a 10 1/2% mortgage rate and that was for an adjustable rate.
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cjc
Citizen
Username: Cjc
Post Number: 786
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 9:28 am: | |
I guess it depends on the viewfinder you're using. If the prime lending rate in 1981 was over 18%, your mortgage was comparitively less expensive in 1987, but surely no where near as low as my 4.9% on a 15 year today.
Do you remember 1981 rates? |
Tom Reingold
Citizen
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 1875
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 9:43 am: | |
Why compare your mortgage to the prime rate? The prime rate was an indicator of everyone else's rate, and when all are up, all pay more, which is nothing to be happy about unless you're the lender.
Tom Reingold the prissy-pants
There is nothing
|
Dave
Citizen
Username: Dave
Post Number: 6219
Registered: 4-1998
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 9:48 am: | |
Here's a very effective bit of communication on the budget.
Link |
bobk
Supporter
Username: Bobk
Post Number: 4460
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 11:11 am: | |
If by rates you mean mortgage rates, the 14% was an early 1980s number, from memory I admit.
In 1979 when we bought our first house we got an 8 1/2% rate, which is where mortgage rates had been for years because of Savings and Loan regulations (Regulation Q?). |
kathy
Citizen
Username: Kathy
Post Number: 722
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 - 8:33 pm: | |
When we bought our first house in 1978 the mortgage was at 10 3/4%. My recollection is that rates mostly went up from there, although our next-door neighbors who bought a few months after we did got a rate around 8 1/2% that was subsidized by the town for first-time homeowners. A couple of years later, someone I worked with got a mortgage at 16%!!
Our 1986 mortgage was at 9 3/4%, and we refinanced in 1992 at 7 3/8. |
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