Comments on: Can 1/4% hurt? http://capitalistmarks.com/economic-daydreaming/2010/02/can-14-hurt Economic musings and more from Scott Hogan Mon, 10 May 2010 04:15:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Joseph De Luca http://capitalistmarks.com/economic-daydreaming/2010/02/can-14-hurt/comment-page-1#comment-2241 Joseph De Luca Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:46:41 +0000 http://capitalistmarks.com/?p=1055#comment-2241 This change is just a small push for the government to see if any change can result out of it. In other words, they are taking half a baby step to not fully fall face flat on the economy. I don't think it is enough but it's better than sitting around and pointing fingers at each other. I feel they need to look for alternatives to tax on, like daily consumer items. For example a 10 cent tax on milk would be a simple fix only if the revenue was spent correctly by the government. Perhaps the government has the "slow and steady wins the race" attitude to fix the economy. It's a safe approach, but time isn't on the government's side right now. This change is just a small push for the government to see if any change can result out of it. In other words, they are taking half a baby step to not fully fall face flat on the economy. I don’t think it is enough but it’s better than sitting around and pointing fingers at each other. I feel they need to look for alternatives to tax on, like daily consumer items. For example a 10 cent tax on milk would be a simple fix only if the revenue was spent correctly by the government. Perhaps the government has the “slow and steady wins the race” attitude to fix the economy. It’s a safe approach, but time isn’t on the government’s side right now.

]]> By: Chris Lemmon http://capitalistmarks.com/economic-daydreaming/2010/02/can-14-hurt/comment-page-1#comment-2240 Chris Lemmon Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:47:42 +0000 http://capitalistmarks.com/?p=1055#comment-2240 First impressions on this article are how glad I am that I just locked in my interest rate on my first home purchase at 4.875% only days prior. Second, and I may be wrong on this, but I see this small increase as a good thing for unemployment. One of the reasons unemployment sits where its at is because welfare is too easy to get and is just enough to pay the credit card bills. But with interest rates going higher the welfare check won’t be enough. This in turn will force people back to employment. Which will shrink the availability of unskilled jobs. Which will force people back to school. Which will create higher paying jobs. Which will increase the GDP. Which will give Obama an excuse to spend more money (off topic but true). And who knows, we might even help pay off part of the debt which will increase our credit as a nation and will increase confidence of other nations in investing in the US again. So even though it I don’t think increasing the rate will make life easier for the here and now, I do agree with the change. If my theory is right, I would advocate a higher increase, maybe by a full 1-2% (again I reiterate that I just locked in my mortgage rate:). First impressions on this article are how glad I am that I just locked in my interest rate on my first home purchase at 4.875% only days prior.

Second, and I may be wrong on this, but I see this small increase as a good thing for unemployment. One of the reasons unemployment sits where its at is because welfare is too easy to get and is just enough to pay the credit card bills. But with interest rates going higher the welfare check won’t be enough.

This in turn will force people back to employment. Which will shrink the availability of unskilled jobs. Which will force people back to school. Which will create higher paying jobs. Which will increase the GDP. Which will give Obama an excuse to spend more money (off topic but true). And who knows, we might even help pay off part of the debt which will increase our credit as a nation and will increase confidence of other nations in investing in the US again.

So even though it I don’t think increasing the rate will make life easier for the here and now, I do agree with the change. If my theory is right, I would advocate a higher increase, maybe by a full 1-2% (again I reiterate that I just locked in my mortgage rate:).

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