Getting a Mortgage

I have had to get a mortgage three times in my life, and it usually went like this.  I walk into the bank, the bank has me fill out a few documents and I walk out with the mortgage. Things have changed a lot.


First I filled out the documents, then had to set the interest rate, then I paid $400 to hold it for two months. That was 8 weeks ago. One more week and we lose the interest. If we don't get the mortgage I have to pull out more than $130,000 to pay the mortgage off. Yuk!!!!


But it came through today and Monday we sign the papers. Yippee!!!

Greece and its Debt

Once upon a time in the world of finance, Germany and France got together and decided to adopt a common currency, the Euro. Thus was born the Euro zone. Ah, but they needed others to join the zone, otherwise there would be  no trading partners, so they invited the Benelux countries, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece,as well as some Eastern European countries. Whether their citizens were happy with it or not, they were encouraged, actually pushed by their own governments, to adopt the Euro as their currency. Banks and investment groups were excited  the new countries to invest in, countries that were backed by Germany and the Euro.

Like errant children, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland were ecstatic. They borrowed and spent, borrowed and spent to their heart's content. And no one questioned them. Then in order to pay their debts, they borrowed more until someone said no. And the financial world came toppling down.

How did they borrow?  The countries created bonds, and the banks all over the world snatched them up. No one bothered to see if the countries could actually pay the bonds back.

And so we sit and watch the never ending soap opera played out in the market, on the news programs and in the newspapers. Don't we have enough problems of our own to talk about? And if the big banks were foolish enough to invest in what is now considered "Junk" bonds, let them suffer. There are hundreds of little banks that didn't make that mistake.