What Prince did not say

After the Crash, a Crashing Bore

Excerpt:

"Let's be real. This is what happened the past 10 years. You, for political reasons, both Republicans and Democrats, finagled the mortgage system so that people who make, like, zero dollars a year were given mortgages for $600,000 houses. You got to run around and crow about how under your watch everyone became a homeowner. You shook down the taxpayer and hoped for the best.

"Democrats did it because they thought it would make everyone Democrats: 'Look what I give you!' Republicans did it because they thought it would make everyone Republicans: 'I'm a homeowner, I've got a stake, don't raise my property taxes, get off my lawn!' And Wall Street? We went to town, baby. We bundled the mortgages and sold them to fools, or we held them, called them assets, and made believe everyone would pay their mortgage. As if we cared. We invented financial instruments so complicated no one, even the people who sold them, understood what they were.

"You're finaglers and we're finaglers. I play for dollars, you play for votes. In our own ways we're all thieves. We would be called desperadoes if we weren't so boring, so utterly banal in our soft-jawed, full-jowled selfishness. If there were any justice, we'd be forced to duel, with the peasants of America holding our cloaks. Only we'd both make sure we missed, wouldn't we?"

Comment: Obfuscation

First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit: Ins and Outs

First-Time Homebuyers: It's Time to Get on the Stick

Excerpt:

The credit allows first-time homebuyers to obtain a tax credit amounting to 10% of their home's purchase price, up to a maximum of $8,000. But you have to close on the home before Dec. 1, 2009. Given that it often takes two months to go from contract to closing, that leaves first-timers with less than two months to find a house.

Here's the skinny on how the credit works.

Comment: Worth a look!