wrote in message
...
On Sat, 12 Jun 2010 23:54:54 -0700, "nom=de=plume"
wrote:

The real question still comes down to what the world will pay for our
paper. Most of our debt is in short term notes. All it will take to
bury us is for that interest rate we need to make our paper attractive
go up to 7 or 8%
The only reason they like the dollar is the rest of the western
economies are in worse trouble than we are.

Well, the world isn't having much of a problem so far. With all the
trouble
in Europe, the money seems to be invested in the US even more lately, as
you
said... they are in worse shape. China isn't going to do much, given they
would lose lots and be much worse off if they decided to pull out of their
investment in a precipitous fashion.


China is still propping us up but that could change. To say there are
no problems in Europe is just naive. Greece still has not agreed to
the reforms necessary to get their house in order and the population
is rioting in the street over it. They are telling people they will
actually have to pay the taxes necessary to support their expenditures
and pensioners are going to get a pay cut along with all of the
government workers.
We will have riots here when we get there too.

Umm... who said Europe doesn't have problems? Again, there is no melt-down
crisis looming. It's just not the case. Most societies adjust to financial
changes. The riots will not be televised... lol




Not really... there are always foolish people, but there are lots of
people
already in debt who don't pull out their money. As I said, the tax
consequences alone usually give people pause. Many boomers are in debt
in
one form or another... mortgages are a good example. Most people think
of
their home as an asset, but if you owe money, it's really a
liability...
certainly one kind of liability that's easy to live with, even in
retirement.


The tax consequences disappear at 59.5 years old. If you are carrying
a big balance on a 29.99% credit card, that 10-15% you will have to
give Sam starts looking very attractive.


Completely untrue. If you liquidate a regular IRA, you have to pay taxes
on
whatever you receive over some base amount. There are certainly going to
be
people with a 30% rate, but the vast majority won't be in that
situation.
And, as I said, it's not going to happen all at once. Where are the ones
who
have that rate now? I don't see any run on the banks happening.

You don't need all the boomers to liquidate all of their 401k/IRA
holding to seriously impact the markets, you just need the hint that
they will and some movement in that direction. The rumor of a run on
one stock caused the Dow to lose 1000 points in about 15 minutes.


There is no such hint. That particular drop still hasn't been fully
explained, and banks have failed in greater numbers in previous years. No
run on banks happened then either.

Keep whistling through that grave yard.


No whistling required. Show me the "hint" besides empty statements...