Into Debt We Will Go »
So "new" accounting rules (that are, in fact, about two years old) are being noticed, meaning that credit card companies will shortly increase that minimum payment on you. In some cases, it might as much as double - meaning that it will no longer take 40 years to pay off your card balance, but only 10. That's nice.
Meanwhile, mortgages are being extended to 40 years, allowing the new home buyer to pay interest only for the first 10 years. In one example, your mortgage payment goes down by about $100 per month, because of the longer life of the loan. Unfortunately, they interest paid goes up by more than 50%. Good work if you can get it, and the mortgage companies appear able to do just that.
Lest we forget, our governments are busy illustrating why exactly they shouldn't be in the money business. As if the ever-rising cost of the first Charlotte light-rail line wasn't bad enough (that has apparently now been frozen at $427 million because of a deal with the federal government - not sure how that works), now they are bickering over the cost of getting around the train.
Some brilliant folks decided that the train needed to go through our convention center. A convention center which isn't heavily used, and in fact needs a new ballroom, courtesy of the NASCAR Hall of Fame that officials hope to build, at a cost in the hundreds of millions. In any case, since the train goes through the convention center, people within need to be able to get around it. The only problem is that the overhead solution they had planned has now increased in price by $7 million and no one wants to pay it. Does it never end?
Comments (1)
It is the nature of governments that they steal from and beat on their citizenry.
Posted by Ted on July 26, 2005 8:32 PM