tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post1466668309768765816..comments2023-09-23T11:16:00.352+02:00Comments on The Franco-American Flophouse has moved: DebtVictoria FERAUGEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16319699673885400472noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-20025115856071881902013-04-29T18:30:55.699+02:002013-04-29T18:30:55.699+02:00@Victoria: Here's an interesting perspective ...@Victoria: Here's an interesting perspective on the War On Savers.<br /><br />http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/04/26/f-rfa-macdonald-power-shift-savers.html<br /><br />According to this, anyone who has been frugal and saved has seen their income go down while those with big debts have seen their incomes go up.<br /><br />In fact, this article says: "As stupid as it might sound, older people everywhere would probably be better off if they'd abandoned prudence and borrowed more."<br /><br />When I said North Americans and their financial institutions could not survive without debt, I had no idea it was actually planned on such a global scale by the "monarchs of money" through "quantitative easing."<br /><br />Blazehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12871285356307431578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-12109058180211454632013-04-29T01:49:21.259+02:002013-04-29T01:49:21.259+02:00@Tim: To answer your question about where others ...@Tim: To answer your question about where others grew up or have ties to in US, I was born and raised in a small village in Pennsylvania (population 300).<br /><br />When I was 17, I headed off to New York City before moving to Montreal, then back to NYC. <br /><br />However, my return in 1970 to US was too much culture shock for me after having spent a year in Montreal. I was soon back in Canada as what Arrow calls a "spiritual draft dodger" I applied to become a Canadian citizen two days after I was eligible(My actual eligibility date was a Saturday, so I waited until the following Monday).Blazehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12871285356307431578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-60532398579226317912013-04-28T07:58:48.964+02:002013-04-28T07:58:48.964+02:00@blaze, Thank you for a great story. I agree - t...@blaze, Thank you for a great story. I agree - the concept of "no debt" seems to have pretty much disappeared from the North American cultural landscape. In Payback Atwood says that the word 'mortgage' comes from French and combines "mort" (dead) and "gage" (pledge). The latter, she says,<br /><br />"like the part in medieval romances where the knight throws down his glove, thus challenging another knight to a duel - the glove or gage being the pledge that the guy will actually show up on time to get his head bashed in..."<br /><br />@Tim, Yep, I am perilously close to becoming an Old Lady. The end of the Vietnam War, Nanny Noodles (hippy day care), temperate zone rain forests, community radio, Reagan, the sanctuary movement, demonstrating against nuclear weapons (Archbishop Hunthausen), virtual communities, the NW Folklife Festival.....<br /><br />I was very surprised and pleased when I found out that Just Me was also from Seattle. Other places I have ties to are Sandpoint, Idaho (Palin Country) and the Nile Valley in Eastern Washington state.<br /><br />To be honest the rest of the country is pretty much a blank slate. Never been to the south or the midwest. When I was growing up someone from Texas was a real oddity - incomprehensible accent and under suspicion until he proved his ability to integrate. :-)<br /><br />@Andrew, I agree. I've lived both and I really prefer a system that slows me down before I can make a complete and total ass of myself. One bood I really enjoyed is Thaler and Sunstein's "Nudge." They argue for more paternalism but in sneaky ways.Victoria FERAUGEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16319699673885400472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-1298481831629097482013-04-27T12:34:41.973+02:002013-04-27T12:34:41.973+02:00Nice review and glad you are enjoying the list.
O...Nice review and glad you are enjoying the list.<br /><br />One of the things that I can't stand about arguments about paternalism and nanny statism is that it assumes people are rational individual actors, immune to advertising and other societal influences. The reality is far more complex, and just as we see in rising obesity, the majority of people will eat and borrow to excess.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-37067223140231783752013-04-27T05:52:46.174+02:002013-04-27T05:52:46.174+02:00One reasons I kind of spontaneously wrote my previ...One reasons I kind of spontaneously wrote my previous post is I am curious for example what places in the US people grew up in or have family ties to for example. I know for example Just Me and Victoria are from Seattle. I am very familiar with most of the Northeast US and Canada and traveled to Paris several times but I personally have NEVER been to Seattle. So while I have lived for long periods of time in the US I am personally more familiar with Paris than I am of Seattle.<br /><br />I know for example many people here know Carolyn Maloney is the chair of the Americans Abroad Caucus but how many people are actually from her district or have ever even visited it. I only bring this because I once lived in her district and it is about as foreign and alien to the rest of the US in many ways as France is. That can be a good or bad thing from the standpoint of Americans Abroad. Timhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03894651289037073128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-64222909978956459872013-04-27T05:07:23.733+02:002013-04-27T05:07:23.733+02:00So getting off topic I never realized you were a c...So getting off topic I never realized you were a child of the 1980s. Fortionately or unfortionately depending on how you look at it I am much younger and was not a child of the 1980s. However, one of the more interesting experiences of my life was going with a group of mostly European college classmates(I went to school in the US with a lot EU students including yes one from Neuilly Sur Seine who knew Sarkozy long before he became President)on a college fieldtrip to NYC. The first night on someone elses suggestion I found myself at Joshua Tree which is "the" 1980s bar in NYC(Also in the part of NYC represented by Carolyn Maloney). A rather weird and eye opening experience. I almost feel Joshua Tree should be type of museum to 1980s American culture. I also remember well having to drag much of the group back to our hotel extremely drunk at 3:30 AM(Bars in NYC close at 4:00AM). For some strange reasons I still remember like yesterday this strange immersion I had into 1980s music and culture.<br /><br />Read the descriptions of the place on Yelp a lot of other people had the same experience.<br />http://www.yelp.com/biz/joshua-tree-new-yorkTimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03894651289037073128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-90350728617425719142013-04-26T21:47:44.324+02:002013-04-26T21:47:44.324+02:00North Americans love debt. They and their financi...North Americans love debt. They and their financial institutions would not survive without it.<br /><br />This was reinforced to me recently. I sold my home where I lived for 24 years. I bought a condo and planned about $20,000 of equity for renos (Of course, I exceeded that amount!)<br /><br />I planned six weeeks after the condo closed before the house closed so I could do the renos. <br /><br />I, of course, needed some bridge financing. My bank, where I have been a customer for 32 years and my credit union where I have been a customer for 14 years acted like I was some kind of fincial freak because I do not have a mmortgage or other debt and because I have savings.<br /><br />They both demanded to know why I didn't want a long-time mortgage or line of credit on my new condo. "Because I don't need it," I said repeatedly. I didn't understand why the idea that someone 62 had been mortgage free for 10 years and had retirement and other savings was so hard to understand. "Isn't that what financial planners and Canadian government recommend?" I asked.<br /><br />If I had been willing to take on a huge mortgage, there would have been no problem. Short-term credit with a guaranteed loan that would be paid the day my house sold was more difficult for them to grasp.<br /><br />"It's amazing someone 62 has no debt," said the young man at the credit union. He almost fell off his chair when I said I had not had a mortgage in more than 10 years and had not had a car loan or any other debt in 25 years.<br /><br />My grandparents who raised their family during the Great Depression were a large part of raising me. Perhaps I got my money management from their frugal ways.<br /><br />In any case, the credit union did eventually see things my way and gave me a bridge loan. I quickly let my bank know that the equity being freed up will be invested with the credit union and not with the bank. They are now trying to make amends and offering me various investment options, but I'm sticking with the credit union for that.<br /><br />Yet, two years ago, someone at my bank told me if interest rates go up 1%, 25% of all mortgaages in Canada could default.<br /><br />How did we get here? I remember paying 18% when I had my first mortgage in 1981. Most of my generation had the same experience. When interest rates decreased to 12%, we thought we had been handed a huge gift. Many of us kept our mortgage payments the same, which is the reason we were debt free in our early 50s.Blazehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12871285356307431578noreply@blogger.com