LowellDeeds

Last week's report that the US economy only created 1000 jobs in December (149,000 less than expected) was bad news. I'm no economist, but something about this economic "recovery" just hasn't seemed right. Yesterday's New York Times business section had an article ("The No-Bang, All-Whimper Recovery" by Gretchen Morgenson) that helped put things into context. Many of today's homeowners, who reached adulthood during the hyper-inflationary 1970s, learned that you should spend not just out of your paycheck, but out of your assets as well, including your house. That mentality, as much as low interest rates, drove the recently ended refinancing boom that pumped billions of dollars into the economy. But that's over and now the government is printing money (big deficits are back) to finance the war in Iraq and tax cuts that will let most of us keep a few more dollars come April 15. Hmmm, big deficits, tax cuts, a multi billion dollar bill for Iraq - it sounds like inflation is right around the corner. Hopefully, we'll record more mortgages than foreclosure deeds in 2004 . . .