I am guilty of making subprime loans.

[NickD 202]

Defining a loan is where you take money out of your mattress and put it in a bank or investment company to earn dividends or interest. The current subprime rate is either 4.5 or 5% depending upon whom you want to believe. It seems since I am effectively loaning my money to banks or to an investment company, to avoid being guilty of making an effective loan, should be at least getting the prime rate for my money.

Checked into our 401K plan actually losing money now, not very much, but told to think long term, but sure ain't making money and certainly not the prime rate.

Best CD's I can find with a trusted bank is 3.6%, better than nothing, but still well below the prime rate. Passbook savings are even much lower at a mere 2%.

Checking accounts are a joke, free checking they claim, well free for the bank, they pay 0% interest for the use of my money.

So I am loaning my money to the banks and investment companies at subprime rates, so according to the news, I am responsible for the current economic crisis, the worse this country has seen since the great depression.

What really is a ripoff is you have to pay taxes on your interest, and this is based on the absolute value of your principle, not the inflated value, just by hanging on to you cash it's value after a year can be anywhere form 2-5% less, and since you have to pay taxes on that interest, your losses are even greater! Seems to me the IRS should let you deduct the inflated value of your money from whatever little interest you have earned, but they are their to rip you off.

Wife suggested we pull our cash and invest it in real estate, that would be a major loss the way property taxes are today, and while the news is claiming the price of real estate is coming way down, not seeing that on the market, feel the news is 100% BS. But there is no way a home will increase in value faster than the property tax rate, or even land for that matter. This was true 30 years ago, but not today.

She said we can buy a home and rent it, yeah, if you can find a reliable tenant, we are already having tenant problems with our property in Venezuela, don't need more. I had to sit in court with a crooked insurance company and listen to a couple of dozen landlord cases that were scheduled in front of me. Our landlords trying to collect their rent and rightfully so, either have to pay the bank if they have a loan, and definitely property taxes. In each case, the just ruled in favor of the tenant stating, I cannot throw these people out into the street where they would freeze to death. Landlord is also responsible for utility bills.

Do have a friend that tried this, had to get a second job and put his wife to work just to prevent foreclosure. And that foreclosure can come either from the bank or the state in property taxes. If the bank takes that home, still owe money to the state for taxes, no getting around that, and filing bankruptcy does not free you from taxes. This is how rotten this country has become. We have a fear with our property in Venezuela, Hugo is making collecting past due rent extremely difficult and expensive, plus is talking about confiscating our property and giving it to that lazy tenant. Why even bother working and getting an education? Can understand the homeless in this country, they have true freedom, you if you have anything, they can't take it away from you.

Hope that Paulson gets his money from the feds for his seven properties he ended up with, that and gets to keep the properties. Shouldn't our leaders be in jail instead? That's what they do with kids that swipe a candy bar from Wal-Mart, stick them in jail.