2024 Election

[gil]

Thanks for posting that.

Now take into account that it (unfortunately) is a world economy, the reason the world has inflation, is because of us....no, no, no. It's because Biden spent too much with his Green New Deal.....sorry. I mean the Inflation Reduction Act.

You realize that after promising to reduce it, Trump actually ran the national debt up more than practically any other president in history. Seems silly to me to try and pin it on one particular party. It doesn't work that way

The growth in the annual deficit under Trump ranks as the third-biggest increase, relative to the size of the economy, of any U.S. presidential administration, according to a calculation by a leading Washington budget maven, Eugene Steuerle, co-founder of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. And unlike George W. Bush and Abraham Lincoln, who oversaw the larger relative increases in deficits, Trump did not launch two foreign conflicts or have to pay for a civil war.

Yeah, I've given up on the Democrats ever balancing the budget, but I used to hope that Republicans would. They certainly talk a good game when there is a Democratic president (and I suppose that is part of why I used to consider myself a Republican). But then along comes an economy humming along happily, like what Trump inherited, and he pushes for (and gets) a massive tax cut, instead of staying the course and reducing the deficit, year by year, like a sensible fiscal conservative would have.

[D-train]

As far as the economy goes, I think its the people on the lower income side that are affected most, but everybody has less disposable income than they would if prices were lower still, obviously.

Homeowners have been positively impacted for the most part, especially if they sell, because not much has outpaced inflation more than real estate.

But then they're presented with another problem. Finding another house and paying the going rate.

And when they do that, even they're going to notice that their new place costs twice as much per month.

The prices of everything else have risen also, food costs are even way up.

It's the lower income people Democrats claim to care about that are having a hard time. Unless they're on government handouts. Then, of course they're fine.

Any guesses what happens if 20 million illegals get deported? That mortgage on the expensive new house won't look so great all of a sudden with millions of homes now empty.

We've all watched the last few years as Blackstone and other corps have gobbled up every house to hit Zillow within days. Then, they rent them out through these government programs housing illegals for 2-3x the going rent rate.

Wonder what happens when that comes tumbling down..

I sold my house in Kirkland in May of 2020 for $1.5M. It then went to $2.9M in about a year! If I was hired by Biogen 3 weeks later I never would have had to move because of Covid and I would still be in that house which is now at $2.4M. I could sell it and retire TOMORROW! I bought our house in MA for $1.2M in Aug. 2020. I have been trying selling it for 6 fucking months and still not a single offer despite coming down from $1.4M to $1.3M. Now we are thinking about renting it out until Spring when rates are better but that means another 6 months of a cash strapped stressfest with my housing expenses over $12k a month. Can't make it up.

[gil]

As far as the economy goes, I think its the people on the lower income side that are affected most, but everybody has less disposable income than they would if prices were lower still, obviously.

Homeowners have been positively impacted for the most part, especially if they sell, because not much has outpaced inflation more than real estate.

But then they're presented with another problem. Finding another house and paying the going rate.

And when they do that, even they're going to notice that their new place costs twice as much per month.

The prices of everything else have risen also, food costs are even way up.

It's the lower income people Democrats claim to care about that are having a hard time. Unless they're on government handouts. Then, of course they're fine.

Any guesses what happens if 20 million illegals get deported? That mortgage on the expensive new house won't look so great all of a sudden with millions of homes now empty.

We've all watched the last few years as Blackstone and other corps have gobbled up every house to hit Zillow within days. Then, they rent them out through these government programs housing illegals for 2-3x the going rent rate.

Wonder what happens when that comes tumbling down..

I sold my house in Kirkland in May of 2020 for $1.5M. It then went to $2.9M in about a year! If I was hired by Biogen 3 weeks later I never would have had to move because of Covid and I would still be in that house which is now at $2.4M. I could sell it and retire TOMORROW! I bought our house in MA for $1.2M in Aug. 2020. I have been trying selling it for 6 fucking months and still not a single offer despite coming down from $1.4M to $1.3M. Now we are thinking about renting it out until Spring when rates are better but that means another 6 months of a cash strapped stressfest with my housing expenses over $12k a month. Can't make it up.

Man, that is some unfortunate timing. I didn't realize.

Hopefully the market in Massachusetts picks up. I've seen the photos you have posted of that house and I would have thought it would be selling at that price ... or higher.

[D-train]

We can't believe it. We both fell in love with it second we saw it. Saw it on a Friday. Went to open house on Saturday. Made an offer $5k over on Sunday and they accepted on Monday. It seems to be priced correctly but nothing. One flaw is it isn't really a house for a growing family because the parents and one kid would have to share a bathroom upstairs or use the one downstairs.

But a swimming pool and 100 yards from the beach should outweigh that.

Also I moved to California to work onsite at Amgen and now I am 30 minutes away from landing in Newark to present a proposal at Merck tomorrow. Happy to be on the West Coast but can't believe I am making another 20 hour round trip.

[bpj]

Thanks for posting that.

Now take into account that it (unfortunately) is a world economy, the reason the world has inflation, is because of us....no, no, no. It's because Biden spent too much with his Green New Deal.....sorry. I mean the Inflation Reduction Act.

You realize that after promising to reduce it, Trump actually ran the national debt up more than practically any other president in history. Seems silly to me to try and pin it on one particular party. It doesn't work that way

The growth in the annual deficit under Trump ranks as the third-biggest increase, relative to the size of the economy, of any U.S. presidential administration, according to a calculation by a leading Washington budget maven, Eugene Steuerle, co-founder of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. And unlike George W. Bush and Abraham Lincoln, who oversaw the larger relative increases in deficits, Trump did not launch two foreign conflicts or have to pay for a civil war.

I didn't think posting that meant I was taking any side at all.

I blame pretty much everybody in all government and Congress except Thomas Massie and Rand Paul.

Although I think Covid nonsense pushed Trump's problems. Like when he gave people $1400 checks and only Thimas Massie opposed it. I do think they would bring in a lot using tariffs by making overseas products comparable in price to American made products.

At least Paul and Massie have tried to stop these lunatics from running the country into the ground.

[bpj]

This article says it's costing Oregonians $10,000 more per year (13% of their income) to maintain the same standard of living as 2019.

https://katu.com/news/local/oregonians- ... study-says

[gil]

This article says it's costing Oregonians $10,000 more per year (13% of their income) to maintain the same standard of living as 2019.

https://katu.com/news/local/oregonians- ... study-says

The report details the increases

$3,659 more for housing and utilities
$4,808 more for food
$767 for recreation
$817 more for gasoline

"Not good news for people on fixed incomes" was my first reaction.

But who is on a "fixed income"? Someone in the same job, no wage increase? Someone who is self-employed, with no increase in revenues? This report sounds dire, but it ignores the income side of a person's or a household's budget.

When we think of fixed incomes, we often think of seniors on social security. I just looked it up: in the past 4 years (2021-2024) social security benefits increased 20.3%. (This is just adding the annual cost of living increases of 5.9, 8.7, 3.2, and 2.4. WIth compounding, social security benefits increased 21.76%.)

In other words, if someone's only income source was social security, that income would have grown at about the rate of the cost increases from the report. (The report's wording is a bit confusing to me with regard to how the calculations were done, but it says " the average household has effectively lost 20.6% of their income to inflation.")

It obviously has been a bad 4 years for someone with an investment strategy of keeping money hidden in a mattress!

[Walla Walla Dawg II]

[Donn Beach]

Okay, and Trump was one of the all time biggest spenders. The last time the budget was balanced was under a Democratic

[Walla Walla Dawg II]

Okay, and Trump was one of the all time biggest spenders. The last time the budget was balanced was under a Democratic

I rarely look at your posts, but you are WRONG again.

Do a simple search: The last time the USA had a balanced budget?

2001
The U.S. has experienced a fiscal year-end budget surplus 4 times in the last 50 years, most recently in 2001. When there is no deficit or surplus due to spending and revenue being equal, the budget is considered balanced .

I don't know about you, but I believe Bush was the President then.... granted, not a very good one, but a Republican.