you guys wouldn't believe how long ago i stopped caring about what was in the thread i started!

Is this due to our failure to answer your original question, "I can't get excited about either one. What to do?"? Did you expect a useful answer? Your thread allowed us to blab textwise about a subject that much interested us. I'd be flabbergasted if any of us thought, "After reading some posts in this thread, I intend to vote for A instead of B." Thanks Empicard, for initiating this thread, allowing us to pack the webmaster's server drive with all this precious prose.

Yes it is, but the cause is not simply because people have decided not to save money.

Hard Facts:
The average money market account yields just 2.4% while a 1-year CD has a yield of only 3.69%. Inflation, meanwhile, is running at 5.4%.

And the stock market does has not have much to offer the common person looking to save. Housing to many that was their savings has been a bust.

So how would average person start saving more? This issue is caused manily by goverment and feds direction, and it will not reverse without action from them regardless if everyone just simply starting stuffing money under the matriss.

I don't think so, because this problem was around long before inflation started outpacing interest rates. Personal savings rates have been dropping steadily for the past 25 years (see fig. 1 on the second page on the linked article). Also, credit card debt has steadily increased.

So it seems to me that many people are simply spending more than their incomes, which is not sustainable regardless of what the fed does. Surely it's better to put money in the mattress, or a savings account, than on a credit card bill that can't be paid off, even in today's investment climate. But the numbers show that hasn't been the choice many people have been making for quite some time.

I bet the "average" person still has his cable, internet and budweiser. Average Joe for the most part chooses not to save IMO, because he has different priorities and saving for the future isn't one of them.



Where is the talk of Fannie mae's CEO, Dick Fuld, running the company into the toilet and being held accountable like Ebbers, Lay, et al? Where's Chris Dodd chair of the Senate Banking Committee in all of this? No doubt enjoying his Countrywide sweetheart deal. Where are Hillary Clinton, Obama, Kerry, and Dodd in all of this, remarkably silent since they were the top four recipients of Fannie and Freddie campaign contributions from 1988 to 2008. Published in February 2004, Dodd can find on Page 82 of the budget's Analytical Perspectives these words, Fannie, Freddie and other GSEs "are highly leveraged, holding much less capital in relation to their assets than similarly sized financial institutions. . . . A misjudgment or unexpected economic event could quickly deplete this capital, potentially making it difficult for a GSE to meet its debt obligations. Given the very large size of each enterprise, even a small mistake by a GSE could have consequences throughout the economy." But the Fannie 4 repeatedly blocked attempts at beefing up regulation of these agencies. Listen to the silence and follow the money.

The amount of credit card dept nationally is directly related to cheap money. Money has been relatively cheap for so long (starting in earnest near the end of the 80’s) Make money expensive and people will save it, and not overuse it.

Still the hardest part of this is that most people in the lower half have no way of turning this around right now on their own. Stuffing money under a mattress (in principle) is a very bad idea. You will save yourself poor. Granted running up credit card dept will certainly not help matters. Access to money (in the form of credit card dept) is sooooo cheap its hard for people to say no to such bad habits. This is why my liver is very happy a good single malt is so expensive.

Remember also that people need a reasonable goal to save for. Many Americans don't have enough left over at the end of the week to make a worthwhile goal attainable. They can't save to afford that second home, college etc.. So they might as well blow it on the everyday pleasures they can afford.

people forget than $1/day can make a difference.
ask that fat chick.

I wanted to applaud Daniel for his sound, politically well versed, and informative replies. Daniel does all this without ever bashing one side and remains objective to both sides. Daniel has actually made me think on who I may vote for come November. Despite our political differences we have exchanged pm's and hopefully I will climb w/ Dan in future.

As For the person (Mim) who has sent me inane emails belittling the Republican thinker, makes me think wow are all these extreme political wing nuts have nothing better to do but to find worst in the candidates. This goes both sides which is just a drag. It shouldn't matter who has done this or that but what they Are going to do. If an election was up to what they have done, do you really think that Winston Churchill would have been Prime Minister?

milf? what? never! she's pretty nasty.

Heck, it's official. Access Voteforthemilf.com

Finally, I think Obama will respect the Constitution more than McCain. McCain, to his credit, has said he will close Guantanamo. This is sensible if only because it has cost us far more than it has benefited us.