Rob's Blog

I have never met Homer Simpson, and yet I consider him a friend of URBaCS. Yes I realize Homer is a fictional caricature on the FOX  television show The Simpsons,  but he helps me solve so many of life's little questions. Here are a couple of examples.

Last week President Bush  made an address to the nation reassuring us that we would get through the current credit crisis. Up until his speech I didn't realize that we were in any kind of credit trouble. Each week Chase and the "Whats in your wallet?" company send me a couple of pre-approved credit cards. I figured as long as I was getting those, we had plenty of credit to go around. Then President Bush spelled out the problems for me. Here is the short version of what it sounded like to me;

President Bush - "Hank, we've got a credit crisis. Fix it!"

Hank Paulson  - "No Problem. All I need is 700 Billion and I can fix it instantly." 

President Bush - "Cool."

Congress - "Instant, but we want it fixed now! (And we want someone to blame...)"

Hmmm.

Last week a writer for the IBJ  wrote in his blog Property Lines  a small post about the housing market and mentioned a couple of local builders, C.P. Morgan  and Estridge.  His post consisted of information about the proposed bailout, a quote from Paul Estridge Jr., a graphic from C.P. Morgan, and the question what do you think. Less than 35 words in all and it drew quited a bit of negative comments about the builders. 

It looks as though the public is acting a little like congress. 

Government - "We have a problem in the housing sector."

Markets - "We are working through the problem. It will be better soon. 

People - "Soon, but we want it now... And who can we blame?" (Translate - Instant, but I want it now!)

Saturday Night Live, back when it was still funny, had a caricature played by Gilda Radner called Rosann Rosannadana.  At the end of a long rambling rant she would sum it all up with her tag line - "Well Jane it just goes to show you. It's always something!"

That pretty much sums it up.