To: TobagoJack who wrote (12801 ) 1/11/2002 11:08:44 PM From: Maurice Winn Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 74559 Jay, there's something to be said for a lot of debt [not for the person with the debt unless it's leveraged them into QUALCOMM in 1998]. For "the economy" it's a good thing. Economies are not driven by a bunch of happy-go-lucky, south Pacific paradise troppo layabouts hooking snapper from the sea and mangoes off a tree, then dancing by a fire in the evening and sleeping contentedly in a little house on the shore, ready to view the ocean sunrise. Economies are driven by crazed, materialistic people, with a drive for progress and a Protestant work ethic, [or Confucian or other work ethic], with hungry mouths to feed. One of the things which give impetus is debt, as in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", with the dwarfs marching off to the mine to work singing, "I owe! I owe! It's off to work I go." No debt and hassles from the debt collector and a lot of people would figure they might as well just take it easy and not bother with the latest CDMA cyberphone. That is NOT what we [meaning me] want. We want a lot of hungry materialistic maniacs racing down the freeway and working dawn to dusk, paying off their loans and buying more stuff to get some retail therapy to recover from a tough day in the cubicle and traffic jam. Hooray for debt. Bad luck for the lenders who will also have to go back to work and produce more stuff to make up their trade deficit. Uncle Al sure does know how to stimulate lenders and borrowers to get back to work producing and buying. Debtors just love low interest rates and have gone nuts shopping for SUVs and all sorts of things. Now they are hooked and will have to work until they drop. Especially when interest rates start rising again. Monks don't make a market. That's my theory anyway. Mqurice PS: I saw a little joke today. In Britain, they no longer speak about 'spending a penny'. They say 'euronating'. I thought it was funny anyway.