Dapanz1 wrote:
Quote:
Dapanz1 the mortgage backed security company quasi gov. of which you speak have been given unlimited access to the fed window as of this friday. And as you know just having that access to liquidity can be night and day. So they got a lifeline for now that will float the for a bit. Maybe you are not speaking of fannie mae or freddie mac but those are the two cos that have implied gov backing that are in trouble but access to the fed window is HUGE.
Yes, access to the Fed window is huge. Yes, it was Fannie and Freddie. I am not sure that the official decision has been made to give them unlimited access. But, here are 2 things to consider. First, if we print more money to bail out a multi TRILLION dollar problem we have in the mortgage industry, what will that do to the dollar? The answer is easy, incredible dilution thus forcing the value of the greenback down further. Any money loaned to these institutions will have to be paid back WITH interest. Where will that money come from? The homeowners/taxpayers who are already strapped so f*cking bad they have to chose whether to eat or pay for the house.
Second, brace yourself for this one. The Federal Reserve is a private corporation. It is a FOR PROFIT corporation. It is not federal in nature nor does it have any reserves, nor is it audited by congress.
They pay the private shareholders a stated 6% dividend, hell or high water. These funds used to pay these divdends are directly from yours and my taxes. Given this information does anyone think that a private, for profit corporation, who controls a nations money supply is going to cut us any breaks?
Back to the point. The world will be importing our inflation. It's just a natural law that must occur as long as the dollar devalues. So, it's just going to happen that we will be paying more for our foreign mongering adventures. I wish I could say I have a plan to strengthen the dollar but I don't.
Bilko, I think you and I are definately on the same page about this one.
dapanz1
Dapanz1 I'm with you I agree on all those points, us bailing out high risk taking Bear Stearns is the ultimate in encouraging risk taking behavior. Take the risk and if all goes bad the gov. will bail you out. Two things bad about that first is that you devalue your currency by printing all that money to bail em out and second is you send a message to the currency markets that in the future you are willing to bail out your big corporations by just printing more money....this is really bad for currency valuation.
Now on to practical matters to save money in the face of a devalued dollar:
A)Stay at hotels that have dollar denominated rates for example Presidente is 45-55 bucks a night, pay in cash dollars and you wont get screwed on the currency conversion. No increase here 45-55 bucks is decent.
B) Use lan.com to buy your tickets, Im paying the same prices I paid in 2002-2006 so no increase here for me
C) Eat at sodas for a two bucks is certainly cheaper than US.
D) Rents are still cheap in SJO vs US
E) If you pay your dollar denominated cash and you are feeling bold you can remove 80 bucks off your 500 dollar hotel bill telling the clerk you dont have to pay sales taxes because you are an Oregon resident or any other reason you can think of, i'm from NY but it still works 75% of the time...... giving a 2-5K tip at the beginning of checkout helps as well and also helps you get a good room the next time you check in. Forget this strategy if you are paying credit card or you dont enjoy haggling but if paying cash the smart hotel operator/proprietor will just never claim you stayed there pocket the cash and pay no sales tax AND no income tax since there is absolutely no way to track the sale, no inventory supplier product, record etc. Oz hotel and Paradise hotel gave me this deal 100% of the time, they may have paid the taxes anyway (similar to no sales tax weekends at furniture stores etc) and chopped the base rate since I was being so persistent and they wanted repeat business these hotels have changed owners thats the only reason I mention them. Just be firm that you are not obligated to pay sales taxes where you are from and lay the exact correct amount on the table minus taxes in CASH, and act devoutly confused why you should pay their sales tax for their country since you dont use their schools, health care, etc. this is bold but amazingly it works and is effective. You can also try to negotiate this upon check in I havent done it that way but saw my buddy be successful at it, any hotel that is not near full capacity probably pays the tax and chops your base rate since they would rather collect x dollars than none at all, these haggling tactics will not work at large hotel chains or full capacity high demand hotels. In Europe and Canada you get the 20% VAT tax back when you leave the country due to the fact you dont live there, same logic and justification here, if you like haggling try it, you will be surprised. Europe and Canada give you your tax money back because that is the ethical and right thing to do since you dont live there, CR should do the same but we all know the CR government is ethically challenged. In CR the government has a difficult time collecting property taxes and income taxes so it has resorted to high taxes on goods... effectively a flat tax via sales tax since the collect neglible amounts in income taxes, and mucho tax on imports who cares about free trade.....thats income for the gov. so the sales tax in effect subsidizes the lack of collectible income tax, grand cayman is an extreme example of this where you pay 25% sales tax and no income tax. But as a US resident you have already paid taxes on your money once and ethically you should not have to pay taxes again in CR since you are not a resident and you have already paid taxes on your hard earned money.... Europe and Canada return your tax money because its the right and ethical thing to do because you are bringing your hard earned already been taxed money into their economy and spending and pumping it on their economy yet you are not using their infrastructure day to day so the europeans return your tax money to you. Hey they want you back again next year to canada or sweden to spend more money next year from an outside economy, tourist dollars are golden for economies.
F) If you invest, you can hedge the weak dollar by buying into Petrobras PBR which is a brazilian oil company. This created two hedges, if dollar devalues and then oil goes up and you are protected, also you are protected when the Brazil Real increases vs the dollar for all you RIO fans this may take the sting out of the stronger REAL. Their management is pretty conservative on stating oil reserves since they are all engineers by training. Other good co is NE noble which is also a good hedge and value as well with a low downside since the PE is so low. They announce earnings on the 23 and should blow out earnings it trades at 58 today but you can mark this post and look later it will be at least above 60 after the 24th with the earnings pop.
G) For all you hard negotiators prices may have risen BUT For all you cien people out there the price is still the same seems like that has been the default number for the last three years....
But for me the last four years have not increased since its always free for me since Im such a stud
BTW before the flaming the last part is just a joke pointed at all the people one upping on discounts and negotiation.... whoops look at e) guilty....
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! It is coming NO DOUBT ABOUT IT!
. The cost of Flights are only headed north as we try to fly south. We have seen the end of the cheap energy as we have known it to be all the while the dollar is losing ground. This may change some guys plans as when to make a move there.
