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Politics : Dutch Central Bank Sale Announcement Imminent? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sea_urchin who wrote (21242)	6/18/2004 9:24:32 PM
From: philv	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81904

"Amazing what rubbish one can read and people are paid big money to write it." True. Equally amazing that anyone pays any attention at all to any of these inane utterances. It seems that people have abandoned all original thought, and are content to be spoon fed with these utterances, which become widely repeated and which seem to take on a mantle of authority. Especially if uttered incoherently with numerous caveats, with words like if, should, may, etc. like Greenspan is prone to do. There is a good probability it will rain if it clouds over.

To: sea_urchin who wrote (21242)	6/19/2004 9:14:08 PM
From: sea_urchin	Respond to of 81904

And now it's back to the debt. theglobeandmail.com >>Household debt levels in Canada and the United States are at record highs, and are continuing to grow rapidly. Is that a dangerous sign of financial instability and underlying economic weakness? U.S. Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan says it isn't — but others disagree. They say the impact of rising interest rates on that mountain of consumer debt could well have severe repercussions for the economy. A look at debt in Canada and the United States reveals some eye-popping numbers: In both countries, the level of debt to disposable income is at about 115 per cent, meaning residents owe more than their entire available annual income. A decade ago, that ratio was closer to 85 per cent, and even as recently as three years ago it was less than 100 per cent. In his confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate this week, however, Mr. Greenspan said he was "not actually concerned at this point that we are looking at a real serious consumer debt problem," because mortgages add an asset to consumer balance sheets and delinquency rates are low. The Fed chairman says debt levels should be less of an issue as the economy grows. The fact remains, however, that U.S. household debt has risen twice as quickly as household income has over the past three years, while mortgage debt has soared by almost 50 per cent. That may have helped the U.S. economy through the recent downturn, but it still represents a very large bill that will have to be paid — and the cost of paying it is going up.<<