~Journal of My Journey~

Knit Together In Love

MY GOAL IS THAT THEIR HEARTS, HAVING BEEN KNIT TOGETHER IN LOVE, MAY BE ENCOURAGED, AND THAT THEY MAY HAVE ALL THE RICHES THAT ASSURANCE BRINGS IN THEIR UNDERSTANDING OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE MYSTERY OF GOD, NAMELY, CHRIST, IN WHOM ARE HIDDEN ALL THE TREASURES OF WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE. I SAY THIS SO THAT NO ONE WILL DECEIVE YOU THROUGH ARGUMENTS THAT SOUND REASONABLE. FOR THOUGH I AM ABSENT FROM YOU IN BODY, I AM PRESENT WITH YOU IN SPIRIT, REJOICING TO SEE YOUR MORALE AND THE FIRMNESS OF YOUR FAITH IN CHRIST. THEREFORE, JUST AS YOU RECEIVED CHRIST JESUS AS LORD, CONTINUE TO LIVE YOUR LIVES IN HIM ROOTED AND BUILT UP IN HIM AND FIRM IN YOUR FAITH JUST AS YOU WERE TAUGHT, AND OVERFLOWING WITH THANKFULNESS. ~COL 2:2-7

Collapse Of America: How Did We Get Here?

What you shouldn't do is panic. We'll get through this--don't pull all of your money out of the bank but have enough cash on-hand to meet any possible emergencies. 

First, you've got to get the stock market's ups-and-downs out of your mind. The recent drops and upticks are short-term. Our economic problems are much bigger and deeper. Too many people believe that if the stock market goes up our problems are behind us and that's simply not true.

Last week the market had big drops and big upswings. In the end, the market ended down more than 800 points and lots of 'experts' were shouting it was a time to buy. I don't see it that way.

Did you know that just two days after the stock market crashed in October 1929 the market actually gained ground the next two days? The New York Times reported that "the market quickly regained its poise and stability...." Today, Wall Street 'pros' are telling us it's a good time to invest because Warren Buffet is investing. A lot of people were probably using the same argument when the Rockefeller family was buying stocks right after the 1929 crash, what they didn't know was that it would take Wall Street ten more years to see those prices again.

Our current economic crisis was caused by politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, who perverted the American Dream by treating home ownership as an undeniable right rather than what it really is, a privilege. President Bush aggressively promoted the benefits of home ownership through various policy positions, including a reckless zero down-payment initiative for some homebuyers and praised Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac even after concerns about their accounting standards began to surface. 

Home ownership has always been part of the American Dream. It allows individuals and families to build wealth by having them pay themselves instead of a landlord or rental company and vests people in their communities by grounding them in local schools, stores and government. 

The concept that owning a home was a privilege and not a right began to change in 1992 following a flawed Boston Federal Reserve Board study whichallegedly found subtle discrimination in loan and mortgage lending by banks and mortgage lenders.

Politicians didn't care that the study was full of errors. The study found discrimination took place when five minority applicants were rejected for special low-income loans even though the applicants were rejected because they made too much money to qualify for a low-income loan, not because of their race. The report also classified as 'rejected' the applications of eight minority borrowers even though these borrowers voluntarily withdrew their mortgage applications. The study's sloppiness also went the other way.

The study reported that a white applicant was approved for a $3,115,000 loan in order to purchase a home valued at $445,000. It was later demonstrated that the actual loan was approved for $311,500, far less than $3 million reported and more importantly, less than the home's purchase price. When these and other errors were corrected no evidence of discrimination existed.

But politicians didn't care. They used this report as the basis to fix a problem which didn't exist. Leading the charge for change was President Clinton who immediately set-out to rework the Community Reinvestment Act to give federal officials the power to pressure banks to make loans they otherwise considered too risky or uneconomical.

Traditional lending requirements were labeled 'outdated' and discriminatory. What 'traditional lending requirements' were viewed as 'outdated' and 'discriminatory'? (1) banks were told that a "lack of credit history should not be seen as a negative factor" and that "past credit problems"  should be viewed and considered in light of any "extenuating circumstances" so loans could be extended when they otherwise would have been denied; (2) banks were encouraged to let borrowers without enough money for a down-payment make-up any deficiency with "gifts, grants, or loans from relatives, nonprofit organizations, or municipal agencies" even though banks considered this risky as the home buyer would have little or no equity in the house; (3) banks were also instructed that borrowers who received child support, welfare payments or unemployment benefits could count that as 'income' for borrowing purposes.

Call me crazy but if you need to count child support money that's intended for your child, or are in such bad economic shape that you're relying on welfare payments to make ends meet or are unemployed, maybe, just maybe, you shouldn't be buying a house. Too bad our politicians and the 'best and brightest' on Wall Street couldn't figure that out! 

Community groups like ACORN, threatened to cry racism if banks didn't increase their loans to subprime borrowers. Banks typically avoided subprime loans as they carried a greater risk of default, but with law on its side, ACORN and other groups intimidated lending institutions into making such loans.

Banks soon learned, however, that making subprime loans actually could increase their profits without increasing their risk. Once the banks extended a loan to a subprime borrower that loan could then be sold by the bank to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, two government sponsored entities charged with making home ownership affordable to all Americans.

Banks, Wall Street, and mortgage lenders were soon eager to extend mortgages to subprime borrowers because they could make lots of money without carrying any risk. Fannie and Freddie carried all the risk once the original lending agency sold the loan to them. And once Fannie and Freddie bought the loan this freed up the banks to make even more subprime loans.

So everyone was a winner. The subprime borrower got the money to buy a house. The banks generated mortgages and made a nice profit and Fannie and Freddie executives made tens-of-millions of dollars in salaries and bonuses by hitting their annual goals.

The problem was that in order to keep all of this going lending standards were continually lowered to help the next level of subprime borrowers qualify for mortgages and no one had an incentive to make sure that the new subprime borrowers would actually be capable of making regular mortgage payments. The banks which extended the loans really didn't care because they were just going to sell the loan off to Fannie or Freddie. Fannie and Freddie weren't too concerned because it wasn't their money-they knew that they were insured by the 'full faith and credit' of the federal government (that's government lingo for "you and me").

So when federal regulators began to warn the executives at Fannie and Freddie about the increasing risks of non-payment by subprime borrowers the companies did nothing and when the regulators took their concerns to congress their warnings were met with scorn and contempt. The politicians who received the most political contributions from Fannie and Freddie, by pure coincidence, just happened to be their biggest defenders: Chris Dodd (D-$133,900), John Kerry (D-$111,000) and Barack Obama (D-$105,189).

Representative Barney Frank, who has been a fierce defender of Fannie and Freddie, actually said, while arguing against more regulation, "I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation towards subsidized housing.... " It's nice to know that he doesn't mind gambling with our money. Senator Chris Dodd, in praising Fannie and Freddie said, "I, just briefly will say, Mr. Chairman, obviously, like most of us here, this is one of the great success stories of all time. 
"While Senator Charles Schumer said, "And my worry is that we're using the recent safety and soundness concerns, particularly with Freddie, and with a poor regulator, as a straw man to curtail Fannie and Freddie's mission."

Barack Obama has received more money from Fannie and Freddie than any other senator, with the exception of Senator Dodd, in the last four years. Before entering the senate, Obama filed a class-action lawsuit against Citibank, alleging that the bank was red-lining, or not doing enough lending in certain areas. That lawsuit was eventually settled. Arguably, Barack Obama helped cause the problem he now wants to fix.

The Federal Reserve Board was doing its part by throwing huge piles of cash at would-be home buyers by keeping interest rates too low. With low interest rates speculators began to look at houses as business opportunities, while others began to look at their homes as a giant piggy bank rather than a place where you actually lived and raised a family. Alan Greenspan encouraged this type of behavior and proudly said, "American consumers might benefit if lenders provided greater mortgage product alternatives to the traditional fixed-rate mortgages..." President Bush, responding to September 11th unwisely encouraged us to "go shopping" rather than hunker down financially and contribute to the War on Terror in other ways (can you say home equity loans?).

The SEC also shares in the blame. It failed to do its job (failed to adequately regulate mortgage brokers, the credit rating companies, and naked short-sellers), acted only after the markets froze-up (finally addressed mark-to-market rules) and refused to examine how the credit-default-swap market could grow from $919 billion in 2001 to over $54 trillion by 2008 (which allowed companies to make wild financial bets with the false confidence that 'insurance' would be there if the deal went south).

So what happened? Home-ownership rates which had been relatively constant for 25 years began a 10 year upward climb beginning in 1995, around the same time that government began its push and pressure for banks to make more subprime loans. The politicians, banks, lenders and Wall Streeters were thrilled because they were all making gobs of money.

Today we are all paying the price for the decisions made long ago. I have spoken to people involved at the highest levels and they now are all saying the same thing, "it is worse than anyone knows" and "worse than I even thought." Political and business leaders who I respect have told me that the economy is on the edge of an abyss.

The bailout is an outrage and is designed only to buy time for the politicians. It will delay the real hard times from hitting until after the November elections. Not one politician has said that this bailout legislation will put us on a better financial footing or that our economic problems will be put behind us. In fact, we'll be worse off because our politicians, even in this crisis, can't stop themselves from spending. This bill includes an extension of the rum tax benefits for Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands ($192 million), tax benefits for companies which manufacture wooden arrows for kids ($6 million), car racing tracks ($128 million), a provision which forces insurance companies to treat mental health problems like physical problems ($3.8 billion) and many, many more.

International markets don't offer any better alternative. Germany, England, theNetherlands, and Russia have all come out with their own government backed bailout plans. There are now calls for more international regulation (presumably led by the United Nations) and China has taken this opportunity to call for "a diversified currency and financial system and fair and just financial order that isnot dependent on the United States." Meanwhile, there is increasing international indications that the dollar will lose its place as the reserve currencyof the world.

The politicians from both political parties continue to lie to us. They promise us better healthcare and more government programs. The only thing either party will be able to deliver is higher, much higher, taxes as the debt swells and government revenues fall. The same politicians remain silent, while capitalism, which brought us the highest standard of living in the world, is increasingly attacked and discredited by its enemies. 

But it's not capitalism which has been discredited by our current crisis, it's greed that has been shown to be at the root of our present economic uncertainty, and greed is unfortunately a universal human trait and has demonstrated its reach in socialism, fascism, communism and capitalism. The greed of Wall Street is nothing compared to the greed of our politicians who have continued to expand their power and influence at the expense of their country.

Our children and grandchildren will ultimately pay the price for their failure to act prudently and in the best interest of our country because they will be the ones saddled with mountains of debt and diminished standard of living.

I hope that this summary gives you a better idea of how the people who caused this fire are the same ones who are now telling us that they know best how to put it out and a reason not to believe their current promises.

We have faced tough times before. We fought the Nazis in World War II, defeated communism in the Cold War and Americans fought each other to keep our country together in our own Civil War. These tough times require us to educate ourselves and help others understand what has brought us to this point and the grave consequences of what will happen if we let this continue-that is our fight.

In my next email letter I will answer the other question you asked, "what's coming?"

Source:  Glenn Beck

*** Ham Loaf ***

1 lb fresh ground turkey

1 lb ham, ground (or turkey ham)

1 cup breadcrumbs

1 egg

1  teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

3/4 cup milk

SAUCE

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup vinegar

Directions:  Grind meat (if necessary) and mix all loaf ingredients. Shape into a loaf. Bake at 350°F for one hour. Mix sauce ingredients together. Pour sauce over loaf and continue to bake for another hour. SERVES 8

Old is new again...

Well, I had nothing better to do with a lazy Sunday afternoon evidently, than to sit here and re-create my "old" look for this blog.  (this involved a lot of digging for where I'd put graphics.)  I guess I must be nostalgic for this place, since this was my first blog, and I can't help but blog over here.  Maybe more homesteady stuff here, and life in general over there. Who knows!  Thanks for putting up with my finicky-ness. Peace~

Shari

Christmas Contest...

Starting to think about the holidays?  Well, if you are, then head over to The Mennobrarian's blog... She's having a great giveaway to help you get in the holiday spirit!  Peace~

Shari

J.J. Heller... Painted Red

I've downloaded J.J. Heller's latest Album FOR FREE.  It is the most uplifting, beautiful, encouraging, love-giving, Christian Album I've heard in a very long time. 

Heller's music is unique and well-written.  The songs haven't been sung a million times over, and really pull on a persons heart-strings.

I offer you the opportunity to download her Album FOR FREE by going to her site.  You must have a compression program in order to open the music in zipfile.  Once you get it, you will be reminded of Gods great love and that He is always with us, no matter what we go through.

The Free Download ends November 1, 2008. So get it while you can!

Enjoy!

Rebekah

Our Electric Bill

We have had so many inquiries from those who read my husband's and my blogs about our electric bill that I wanted to post.  Yesterday, we received our first bill that has a full month of the limited usage.  Last August, when we started this journey towards cutting out the majority of our electricity usage, our electric bill was $250 for 1 month of usage!  That was the bill which had my Beloved reaching the point where enough was enough.  So, we started making changes.  These changes have paid off greatly.  We removed the air conditioners, TV, VCR, DVD, many of the small appliances from the kitchen, and much more. Granted, the air conditioners were the major contributor to our bill, but the other things also had an effect. 

So, what was the new amount for the current bill?  It was $51 for the month!  What a blessing it was to see that the changes are having such a pronounced effect.  The lower bill gives us also the drive to try and take it further, lower our usage even more.

Thank you to all who have emailed, sent messages, or left comments about our changing to a more simple lifestyle.

***Tomato Salsa ***

4 C peeled, cored, chopped slicing tomatoes (5-6 tomatoes)
2 1/2 C seeded chopped chiles and peppers, any combination
( you can also use 1 long green chili, 4 fresh jalepenos and about 1 C canned jalepenos)
3/4 C chopped onion
4 cloves shopped garlic
2 C vinegar
1 t ground cumin
1 T oregano
1 T fresh cilantro
1 1/2 t salt

Combine and boil. Reduce to simmer and let simmer for 20 minutes. Pour into pint and half pint jars with 1/2 inch headspace. Water bath for 15 minutes. Makes 4 pints.

Source:  Aventures In Daily Living

Good Afternoon Everyone!!

I am so very sorry I have not been a very dedicated blogger and I apologize. My Dad was in the hospital with a very bad kidney infection but he is out now and seems to be doing better my sister came over last weekend with my neices and nephews and we had to take my 3 year old nephew Jayden to the ER  he had a very high temperature and they diagnoised him with some kind of throat infection and gave him Tylenol w/ Codeine I have been real busy with College and worth actually while I am typing i am doing overtime.. we are backlogged so we are trying to catch up on everything.... well you all have a wonderful blessed day.. I know what I will be doing when I get gome... LAUNDRY....

Blessings,

Alyssa

New Christmas Giveaway

There is a new Christmas Giveaway taking place!  Mennobrarian has put together a wonderful giveaway Christmas themed package  The drawing will be held on October 8th.  You can read about it and sign up at her blog. 

Best Wishes!