Usenet Newsgroups Re: Attention Conservatives: Today, America Honors Organized Labor, So Put Down the BBQ and Get Your bum to Work From: imbibe@mindspring.com ((David P.)) "F.H." <connectut...@verizon.net> wrote: I wonder how much the conservatives, who supposedly love our history, actually know why they get the day off today. Labor Day, an annual celebration of workers & their achievements, originated during one of our labor history's most dismal chapters. In the late 1800s, at the height of the Industrial Revolution in the US, the average American worked 12-hour days and seven-day weeks in order to eke out a basic living. How many hours a week were they working out on the farm? Despite restrictions in some states, children as young as 5 or 6 toiled in mills, factories and mines across the country, earning a fraction of their adult counterparts' wages. Kids weren't working out on the farms? People of all ages, particularly the very poor and recent immigrants, often faced extremely unsafe working conditions, with insufficient access to fresh air, sanitary facilities and breaks. Still...., why all the fuss? I'm quite certain the free market would've worked all that out...., eventually. Housing Woes Bring New Cry: Let Market Fall By David Streitfeld: Sep 5, 2010 The unexpectedly deep plunge in home sales this summer is likely to force the Obama administration to choose between future homeowners and current ones, a predicament officials had been eager to avoid.  Over the last 18 months, the admin has rolled out just about every program it could think of to prop up the ailing housing market, using tax credits, mortgage modification programs, low interest rates, govt-backed loans & other assistance intended to keep values up & delinquent borrowers out of foreclosure. The goal was to stabilize the market until a resurgent economy created new households that demanded places to live.  As the economy again sputters and potential buyers flee -- July housing sales sank 26% from July'09 -- there is a growing sense of exhaustion with gov't intervention. Some economists & analysts are now urging dose of shock therapy that would greatly shift the benefits to future homeowners: Let the housing market crash.  When prices are lower, these experts argue, buyers will pour in, creating the elusive stability the government has spent billions upon billions trying to achieve. "Housing needs to go back to reasonable levels," said Anthony B. Sanders, a professor of real estate finance at George Mason Univ. "If we keep trying to stimulate the market, that's the definition of insanity."  The further the market descends, however, the more miserable one group -- important both politically & economically -- will be: the tens of millions of homeowners who have already seen their home values drop an average of 30%.  The poorer these owners feel, the less likely they will indulge in the sort of consumer spending the economy needs to recover. If they see an identical house nearby going for half what they owe, the temptation to default might be irresistible. That could make the market's current malaise seem minor.  Caught in the middle is an admin that gambled on a recovery that is not happening.  "The admin made a bet that a rising economy would solve the housing problem & now they are out of chips," said Howard Glaser, a former Clinton administration housing official with close ties to policy makers in the administration. "They are deeply worried and don't really know what to do."  That was clear last week, when the secretary of housing & urban development, Shaun Donovan, appeared to side with current homeowners, telling CNN the administration would "go everywhere we can" to make sure the slumping market recovers. Donovan even opened the door to another housing tax credit like the one that expired last spring, which paid first-time buyers as much as $8,000 & buyers who were moving up $6,500. The cost to taxpayers was in the neighborhood of $30 billion, much of which went to people who would've bought anyway.  Admin press officers quickly backpedaled from his comment, saying a revived credit was either highly unlikely or flat-out impossible. Donovan declined to be interviewed for this article. In a statement, a White House spokeswoman responded to questions about possible new stimulus measures by pointing to those already in the works.  "In the weeks ahead, we will focus on successfully getting off the ground pgms we've recently announced," the spokeswoman, Amy Brundage, said. Among those initiatives are $3 bill to keep the unemployed from losing their homes & a refinancing program that will try to cut the mortgage balances of owners who owe more than their property is worth. A previous pgm with similar goals had limited success. If last year's tax credit was supposed to be a bridge over a rough patch, it ended with a glimpse of the abyss. The average home now takes more than a year to sell. Add in the homes that are foreclosed but not yet for sale & the total is greater still. Builders are in even worse shape. Sales of new homes are lower than in the depths of the recession of the early 1980s, when mortgage rates were double what they are now, unemployment was pervasive and the gloom was at least as thick.  The deteriorating circumstances have given a new voice to the "do nothing" chorus, whose members think the era of trying to buy stability while hoping the market will catch fire -- called "extend and pretend" or "delay and pray" -- has run its course.  "We've had enough artificial support & need to let the free market do its thing," said the housing analyst Ivy Zelman.  Michael L. Moskowitz, pres. of Equity Now, a direct mortgage lender that operates in NY & 7 other states, also advocates letting the market fall. "Prices are still artificially high," he said. "The gov't is discrimin- ating against the renters who are able to buy at $200,000 but can't at $250,000."  A small decline in home prices might not make too much difference to a slack economy. But an unchecked drop of 10% or more might prove entirely discouraging to the millions of owners just hanging on, especially those who bought in the last few years under the impression that a turnaround had already begun. The gov't is on the hook for many of these mortgages, another reason policy makers have been aggressively seeking stability. What helped support the market last year could now cause it to crumble.  Since '06, the FHA has insured millions of low down payment loans. During the first two years, officials concede, the credit quality of the borrowers was too low.  With little at Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 stake & queasy economy, buyers bailed: ~12% were delinquent Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 after a year. Last fall, FHA cash reserves fell below Congress- Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 ionally mandated minimum, and the agency had to shore up its Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 finances.  Govt-backed loans in '09 went to buyers with higher Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 credit scores. Yet the percentage of 1st-yr defaults was still Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 5%, according to data from the research firm CoreLogic.  "These Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 are at-risk buyers," said Sam Khater, a CoreLogic economist. Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 "They have very little equity, and that's the largest predictor Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 of default."  This is the risk policy makers face. "If home Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 prices begin to fall again with any serious velocity, borrowers Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 may stay away in such numbers that the market never recovers," Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 said Mr. Glaser, a consultant whose clients include the National Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 Association of Realtors. Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 Those sorts of worries have a few people from the world of Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 finance suggesting that the administration should do much more, Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 not less.  William H. Gross, managing director at Pimco, a giant Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 manager of bond funds, has proposed the government refinance at Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 lower rates millions of mortgages it owns or insures. Such a bold Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 action, Gross said in a recent speech, would "provide a crucial Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 stimulus of $50-$60 bill in consumption," as well as increase Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 housing prices.  The idea has gained little traction. Instead, Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 there is a sense that, even with much more modest notions, gov't Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 intervention is not the answer. The National Assn of Realtors, Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 the driving force behind the credit last year, isn't calling for Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 a new round of stimulus.  Some members of the National Assn of Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 Home Builders say a new credit of $25,000 would raise demand but Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 their chances of getting this through Congress are nonexistent. Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 "Our members are saying that if we can't get a very large tax Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 credit -- one that really brings people off the bench -- why use Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 our political capital at all?" said David Crowe, the chief econ Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 for the home builders.  That might give the Obama administration Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 permission to take the risk of doing nothing. Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 .. Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 .. Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 -- Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 Things you should know about labor day: Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/link.php on line 13 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/cyberfiber/cyberfiber.com/health+support+recovery/lib/censor.php on line 11 Subject