“A record 12 percent of homeowners with a mortgage are behind on their payments or in foreclosure as the housing crisis spreads to borrowers with good credit. And the wave of foreclosures isn’t expected to crest until the end of next year, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday.”

The “fence sitters” got off the fence and quit paying. Obviously, there are probably other reasons as well; but I’m thinkin’ of this newer increase .. there’s a slug that are wanting to take advantage of the “new deal(s)”.

Same thing with unemployment. Extend the benefits .. and people stay on it longer (working for cash on the side). Oddly enough (ha, ha), those numbers are up, too. Again, this may not be the sole reason; but you can bet here too, there’s plenty of it going on.

My normal corporate pension, NOT RETIREMENT, is the same as it was when I started in 1967. Sort of like that old army joke or song, “$21.00 a day once a month” per year of service, discounted for early distribution. But there is life after normal corporate employment.

Never goes up.

From the Oval Office carpet, upon which he laid sprawled like a broken winged butterfly, the 44th president gazed up at his towering, glowering life partner.

“Oh hi honey” he slurred in that slow, deep, stately voice of his. “You shay that like it’s a bad thing”.

“It is!” Michelle’s sculpted arms rippled menacingly. “Look at the state of you!”

“The shtate of me?” wondered her sozzled spouse. “Shtate of what? Pershonally, I think I my state looks darn good from where I’m shitting, I mean sitting”.

“Ha! Just look at you” reiterated Michelle. “What happened to ‘Mr Cool’ and ‘No Drama Obama’? You’re a mess! How much have you had anyway?” she demanded, her large and expensively shod foot tapping furiously.

“I dunno…a couple of beers…”

“A couple of barrels, more likely – you reek of cigarettes and malt liquor! Your tie is all askew! And what happened to your teleprompters?”

“Dunno. Musta left ‘em in the car or shomething…”

“And where IS the car, exactly?”

“Gee…you know; that’sh an excellent queshtion….really, really excellent. I’ll have shomeone get right back to you on that”.

“Well, you’re not getting into bed with me in that condition. No sir. You can sleep down here for all I care”.

“Fine, fine – whatever” mumbled the blotto Barack. “Go ahead and waterboard me if you wanna. I jusht went out for a few beers with the guys. So what? You don’t hafta make a Federal case out of it”.

“With the guys? What guys?”

“You know –the guys from the Shecret Shervice. What; now I can’t have friendsh or shomething?”

“You never mentioned any friends”.

“Maybe that’s because you never asked! Geez, I gotta life too, you know” muttered the tipsy progressive. “Ballbreakin’ bish”.

“WHAT did you say?”

“Nuthin’. Forget it. I didn’t say nuthin’…”

“You just called me a ‘bish’! Why, you lousy…”

“C’mon, baby; so me and shome of the guys went out for a few drinks to celebrate – what’sh the big deal?”

“Celebrate? Celebrate what?”

“Don’t you read the papersh? Celebrate how good the economy’s goin’, of courshe”.

“Don’t you? The economy’s in the toilet”.

“Exshactly! ‘The worse the better’ –that’sh what Lenin shaid –and he was one shmart Russkie. The worse it all gets, the better it ish for my poshitive agenda of hope and change, shee? We’ll turn this country into Sweden by Labor Day at this rate. It’s alimentary, baby!”

“You mean ‘elementary’, you half-educated goof. ‘Alimentary’ refers to the digestive system of the higher mammals, from the mouth to the intestines to the anus”.

“Are you callin’ me an anush? Huh? Who are you to go callin’ me an anush, huh?”

Michelle sighed heavily. “Just sober up, Barack”.

“Sober shmober – I’m fine. Now lemme get a little shuteye, huh? Gotta shave the world tomorrow”.

“Shave the world?”

“Save” hiccuped the wasted statesman. “I shaid SAVE goddammit! Now lemme rest…I’m real tired all of a shudden”. Obama closed his eyes and curled into a tight little ball and, legs twitching, began to snore.

“Barack Hussein Obama!” roared a furious First Lady. “You’re DRUNK!”

From the Oval Office carpet, upon which he laid sprawled like a broken winged butterfly, the 44th president gazed up at his towering, glowering life partner.

“Oh hi honey” he slurred in that slow, deep, stately voice of his. “You shay that like it’s a bad thing”.

“It is!” Michelle’s sculpted arms rippled menacingly. “Look at the state of you!”

“The shtate of me?” wondered her sozzled spouse. “Shtate of what? Pershonally, I think I my state looks darn good from where I’m shitting, I mean sitting”.

“Ha! Just look at you” reiterated Michelle. “What happened to ‘Mr Cool’ and ‘No Drama Obama’? You’re a mess! How much have you had anyway?” she demanded, her large and expensively shod foot tapping furiously.

“I dunno…a couple of beers…”

“A couple of barrels, more likely – you reek of cigarettes and malt liquor! Your tie is all askew! And what happened to your teleprompters?”

“Dunno. Musta left ‘em in the car or shomething…”

“And where IS the car, exactly?”

“Gee…you know; that’sh an excellent queshtion….really, really excellent. I’ll have shomeone get right back to you on that”.

“Well, you’re not getting into bed with me in that condition. No sir. You can sleep down here for all I care”.

“Fine, fine – whatever” mumbled the blotto Barack. “Go ahead and waterboard me if you wanna. I jusht went out for a few beers with the guys. So what? You don’t hafta make a Federal case out of it”.

“With the guys? What guys?”

“You know –the guys from the Shecret Shervice. What; now I can’t have friendsh or shomething?”

“You never mentioned any friends”.

“Maybe that’s because you never asked! Geez, I gotta life too, you know” muttered the tipsy progressive. “Ballbreakin’ bish”.

“WHAT did you say?”

“Nuthin’. Forget it. I didn’t say nuthin’…”

“You just called me a ‘bish’! Why, you lousy…”

“C’mon, baby; so me and shome of the guys went out for a few drinks to celebrate – what’sh the big deal?”

“Celebrate? Celebrate what?”

“Don’t you read the papersh? Celebrate how good the economy’s goin’, of courshe”.

“Don’t you? The economy’s in the toilet”.

“Exshactly! ‘The worse the better’ –that’sh what Lenin shaid –and he was one shmart Russkie. The worse it all gets, the better it ish for my poshitive agenda of hope and change, shee? We’ll turn this country into Sweden by Labor Day at this rate. It’s alimentary, baby!”

“You mean ‘elementary’, you half-educated goof. ‘Alimentary’ refers to the digestive system of the higher mammals, from the mouth to the intestines to the anus”.

“Are you callin’ me an anush? Huh? Who are you to go callin’ me an anush, huh?”

Michelle sighed heavily. “Just sober up, Barack”.

“Sober shmober – I’m fine. Now lemme get a little shuteye, huh? Gotta shave the world tomorrow”.

“Shave the world?”

“Save” hiccuped the wasted statesman. “I shaid SAVE goddammit! Now lemme rest…I’m real tired all of a shudden”. Obama closed his eyes and curled into a tight little ball and, legs twitching, began to snore.

People who are still working but rent can get by, because their income can rise as costs rise.

People who are still working and have big fixed mortgages actually come out ahead, since their income can rise as costs rise, but the fixed mortgage payments look smaller and smaller.

People who own property are usually helped, because they can lift rents over costs that are partially fixed. Plus the property can increase in value with inflation.

Unemployed people get killed because costs rise and their savings are depleted faster.

So when the inflation kicks in big-time, the most vulnerable people get kicked in the shins, and the least vulnerable people come out ahead.

So much for hopey-changey

NOW because of the printing presses which surely must run day and night soon, we face an inflation cycle that will likely inspire jealousy (and lust) in the hearts of those such as Jimmy Carter, and his like.

We are in DEEP DOO DOO.. We will see higher numbers by the time gas hits $5 a gal at the end of the year.

Some stimulus, huh?”

Hmmm, just enough time to get to another POTUS election.

Maybe some of the stimulu$ can be used to buy nice touch screen voting machines for our voting precinct. The ones we have now make me itch. We had nice ones but they weren’t certified, or some such technicality.

Yeah, I worked part time at the post office and quit in 2007. Now they are laying off 25,000 people, people who had their jobs just to clean up after me. Ask any postmaster.

I had been preventing the lay off of 25,000 people.

QED to the most casual observor.

SSI doesn’t get a stimulus, I guess those people are otherwise wealthy.

We got a “letter” in or about April that said we would get our$250 in late May.

Bingo, late May.

Some stimulus, huh?

And nobody is saying where the Oct 2008 boondoggle money has gone, except that a lot has been spent and hundreds of millions went to foreign banks. Since it is now known that Europe had credit problems that were not directly tied to the US problems, why did we bail THEM out?

And then there is the auto bailout which has simply been welfare for the UAW and other auto company employees.

What a nightmare.

Ever feel like you’re living in 1935? I do. Everyone is sleeping and we can’t for the life of us wake their sorry butts up!
I feel like I’m screaming in the dark sometimes..