This was to be in response to Victor Davis Hanson’s column: Wall Street 101,

I took action in the spring of 2007 that led me where I am today.  I found and bought a retirement home in a depressed market.  There was no sub-prime mortgage for me.  There was a conventional 30 year loan and my lender allowed me a very limited amount since I already had a home in a higher market where I worked.  I knew I couldn't keep both homes so I put the home where I worked on the market. Funds from my Roth IRA were used for the down payment on the retirement home.  In Feb. 2008 my company announced that 20 positions would be eliminated by June 2, 2008 as a result of off-shoring.  The same day I closed on the sale of my home, I was also notified that my position had been eliminated.  So after 22 years with a company I got 26 weeks of severance pay in the very low five figures.  And I was a top performing editor analyst.  But I sold in a worsening market and paid off all my debts, except for the mortgage on my retirement home.

So am I angry?  Yes.  I'm angry.  I worked on my education, worked at my job and received production and quality awards, bought and sold property.  And now I find out that playing by the rules doesn’t count. Executives of failed companies walk away with millions. Why? They failed. Someone with no income, no assets, no credit check could get a mortgage for 125% of the value of a home purchase. And every mortgage agent, loan originator, home inspector, home appraiser, title company, and insurance agent is culpable in this sub-prime mortgage mess, but only because the mortgage companies had to set aside a certain number of loans for sub-prime. And who set those standards? The government did.

And so, who gets a lipstick, the cheapest, gaudiest red? The swine herd that is congress and the pigsty that is the Capitol get just one lipstick and they have to share it. The reality is that a lot of people are going to have to do without for a long time. I, meanwhile, am not eager to rejoin the work force. Work is not appreciated by corporate America. Only cheaper is appreciated. I made my own plan and it worked. I bought the best piece of property that I could for my money; brick and mortar on Main Street, USA. The Roth stock that I sold in 2007 for the down payment on my retirement home dropped from $13.00 a share in 2007 (when I sold) to $8.50 a share now. Does that make me look like a genius now? I don’t know. Maybe I heard the hoof beats of the coming financial apocalypse or perhaps I was listening to God whispering in my ear. 

From my corner of Main Street and Beech in Rocky Ford, CO

Dr. K