Orange Cat

When the government changes the rules, you cannot play in the game. It is insanity. It is hard enough predicting human action, but to predict government favoritism is impossible. This article says it so well: What will it take for Joe the Plumber to Invest in the Stock Market: It seems these days the question for every stock market pundit is "what will make the common man feel safe again about investing in the stock market?" Sadly, every government intervening solution they propose completely misses the mark. The simple answer is: nothing. Do nothing and people might start investing again. I can't speak for all people, but I am certainly a common person. I do not have a ton of money to invest. I have a small IRA that now will not get me through 4 months of retirement let alone get me through my golden years. Yet, through my IRA I was invested in the stock market, although now it is mostly in cash. (I must make a small disclosure here. My name is not Joe and I am not a plumber.) I admit I am not a sophisticated investor. I am just an average person. But this average person sees that the government is playing favorites and unless you know who are on their "special" list then you have no way of knowing how to invest. If you see a housing market slowing, you can make a decision based on that information, but what do you do when the government decides one day that the housing market cannot slow: You lose your shirt because all your investments just fell through the floor. ... (the article continues here: http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/hamilton6.html) I didn't write it and it is only fair the writer gets credit for her work.

I found this amazing article that summed it all up for me: http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/hamilton6.html You cannot play in the game when the rules keep changing.

Hi all, I found this incredible article. I didn't write it, but I love it. I won't post the whole thing, so click on the link if you want to read the rest. There was also this amazing article about voting for none of the above instead of just not voting. That one I will just link to: http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/hamilton5.html But here is the beginning of the other article by Sandra Hamilton called TOXIC ANGER: "Most of us know by now that a lot of toxic debt has been filling up the balance sheets of our financial institutions creating one heck of a financial meltdown. What we do not know is what the solutions to those problems are going to create in terms of human emotion. Everywhere you turn these days you hear cries of "we have to save the homeowners; we must lower their payments and keep them in their homes." Why? Why do we have to save these people? Why should someone get to have a home that they can only keep if others help pay for it? Why do we have to save the institutions that lent to them? "They" say they need one trillion dollars or more of my money to bail out a lot of people. Why on earth do I have to give my hard-earned money to irresponsible people? The thought is making me very angry. Several years ago I bought a house. I had an option for the financing; I could take a rather high interest rate (for the time) that was fixed or I could put nothing down and pay nearly nothing for an adjustable rate mortgage. I decided not to gamble. I knew interest rates can and do rise. I opted to pay a lot more for my house and to have the security of a fixed rate loan. That decision cost me a lot of money over the past five years, but it was supposed to save me money when the tide turned. Now, I am paying for that decision. I am paying for my neighbor’s house down the road who did not want to pay more at the time. I am paying so that my neighbor and yours, who took out a mortgage with no down payment and paid next to nothing for the past five years, can get his mortgage reduced with my money. How is that fair?" (Finish the article here: http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/hamilton7.html) I didn't think it right for me to "steal" this author's work without giving her a chance to get some credit for it. She goes on to relate all this to Atlas Shrugged. Quite brilliantly I would add.