Hi Bethesdamanman, My apologies then, Dave. I thought that I had recalled you posting on the other board that mortgage rates would stay low for years and years, and that we would never return to the high rates of years past. My error. Eeeesschhh .... well.... actually... kinda sorta, YES.... your apologies in this case are NOT warranted. Herein lies a case of "text failing where a verbal conversation *may* have worked better." I've never said rates would stay low "well... forever".... I HAVE said rates (30 FRM rates to be precise) will unlikely climb over 7% in our lifetimes. I *STILL* stand by that.... albeit, I am now offering that we are entering a territory of government-induced inflation at levels I (perhaps naively) thought the United States political system was above. If we continue down the path of dollar-dilution that we've begun accelerating along, there are only two end-game results; A) we reverse course back out of it before we self-destruct in revolution, B) we self-destruct (and the devil we do not know is always a potential problem.) *IF* we successfully reverse and dig ourselves out of the hole of trouble our most recent past and our current government administrations are hell-bent on digging us into... there are only two ways of "sopping back & vacuuming up" the diluted unbacked funny-money that has been injected out into the system; A) The Treasury collects more taxes than it provides to the government to spend, and/or, B) The Fed increases interest rates higher than its blended payout on the treasury bonds (and then some... the greater the positive income spread to the Fed, the more painful to the "fixed-income retired crowd" which is our baby-boomer bubble... who will rally with AARP-sponsored pitchforks.) Both A & B will be met with *MASSIVE* resistance from the only crowd that the poloticos *KNOW* will consistently show up to vote, and have almost unlimited spare time to write, call, email, and generally pester the daylights out of the politicians; The Seniors. SO.... I've learned to never rely on "common sense" when it comes to anticipating "government logic" (an oxymoron if there ever was one.) Obama has enlisted the original architect of option B... Paul Volcker... as a "senior economic advisor." ("Senior" may (MAY) work somewhat to our advantage here... as Gramps Volcker *MIGHT* have some age-gained sensitivity to his classmate comrade's plight.) Volcker is the one who decided to fight inflation in the 1970's by driving short-term interest rates up to the 20%'s... The late '70's and early '80's result was that Volcker recaptured (in a VERY painful way) the excess liquidity (flooding of funny money) our country created by going off the gold standard and adopting a "weak dollar" policy through the 1960's. WHAT WILL WA DC DO??????????????? I dunno.... (I know what I pray/chant/meditate they will do...) *IF* the government (both the loonie left & jackthug right) get OUT of the way of the naturally balancing markets... then my expectations and predictions stand, with virtually my 100% confidence. My fears are that the United States idea of a market-based capitalist self-righting system has been a grand and wonderful social experiment... but that the human frailties (compounded in mob psychology) are sabotaging the underlying DNA strands that made it possible to stand. My COMFORTING REALIZATION... is that despite my egoistic pride for being part of a "successful system".... even if that system turns out to be a decaying failure, INDIDIVIDUALLY I and my family, and those I guide, can still retain their own personal success and quality of life. Cheers, Dave Donhoff Leverage Planner

the loss of 25% is not too bad compared to Social Security going bankrupt in 7 yrs or less, Medicaid & medicare are down to 5 yrs now. the treasury dept sounded the alarm more than a yr ago but i guess everyone has their butt's covered and can do w/o in 7 yrs cuz no one is talking about this lol. it amazes me no one is concerned, like it will just get fixed somehow, when in reality considering the economy we know better than that. i've CMA to go completely w/o so i don't care...other than i've already at 40 yrs old made enough money over working for 25 yrs, to get the maximum payout according to my SS statements. atleast i can say i paid my share in ~ liz

Really, it's just not going to happen. You seem awfully certain... for something that's years away. Did anyone seriously think T could win? We don't know what is going to happen in 4 years. At this point in B. Clinton's first term, his approval ratings were lower than T's are now. Events have a way of happening and changing what everyone thought was a political certainty. Trump recent weekly average- May 22-28- 41% approval Bill Clinton June 1993- 37% approval Aside from which, if T is really so corrupt and there's so much evidence as people here are suggesting, he could be impeached w/in the first 2 years. Then, Ryan and long-awaited and vitally necessary entitlement reform! You think people are going to vote for someone who wants to hurt them by taking away their health insurance, Medicare or social security? Yes. I do. First off, Obamacare really really really sucks. People hate it. And Medicare and Social Security have a lot of fiscal problems coming over the long-term. I'd be thrilled if both programs were fundamentally reformed or phased out over time. And people vote for lots of other reasons other than politicians promising to let them keep government programs. If people primarily voted on the basis of protecting these programs, republicans wouldn't control every single branch of government and the vast majority of states and fill just about every elected office higher than dog catcher in most of the country between the coasts. Whether Trump / Pence / Ryan can win is a major function of whomever the democrats can find to run. Could any one of those 3 R's beat Biden? Probably not, although Biden's gonna be really old. But all of those 3 could beat Hillary (and I would not be surprised if she ran again--- she just won't go ever away!) or Chelsea C (and I cannot believe the way the media is pushing her... seriously, you'd think the democrats would want this whole family to just disappear!) or E. Warren or Bernie. Right now, I'm hard pressed to see who the democrats could run, other than Biden, with a reasonable shot at winning. Dems are going to have to figure out who their base is. Do they want to be the progressive coastal party or try to get some of the woking class voters back who live between the coasts (this isn't to say R's aren't divided too... they definitely are... but I think R's tend to fall in line/ come home to whomever their candidate is more so than D's do)

page 1 Henry David Thoreau Quotes American - Author July 12, 1817 - May 6, 1862 The language of friendship is not words but meanings. Henry David Thoreau It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see. Henry David Thoreau Friends... they cherish one another's hopes. They are kind to one another's dreams. Henry David Thoreau As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives. Henry David Thoreau Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. Henry David Thoreau An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day. Henry David Thoreau Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. Henry David Thoreau This world is but a canvas to our imagination. Henry David Thoreau You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Henry David Thoreau The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend. Henry David Thoreau True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance. Henry David Thoreau Wealth is the ability to fully experience life. Henry David Thoreau It is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are... than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise. Henry David Thoreau It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about? Henry David Thoreau I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. Henry David Thoreau What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us. Henry David Thoreau If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. Henry David Thoreau The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. Henry David Thoreau Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence. Henry David Thoreau Truths and roses have thorns about them. Henry David Thoreau If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. Henry David Thoreau Men have become the tools of their tools. Henry David Thoreau I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. Henry David Thoreau Goodness is the only investment that never fails. Henry David Thoreau Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain. Henry David Thoreau If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen. Henry David Thoreau Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new. Henry David Thoreau Never look back unless you are planning to go that way. Henry David Thoreau Live your life, do your work, then take your hat. Henry David Thoreau Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves. Henry David Thoreau Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still. Henry David Thoreau If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment. Henry David Thoreau In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood. Henry David Thoreau If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. Henry David Thoreau To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Henry David Thoreau There is no remedy for love but to love more. Henry David Thoreau Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around. Henry David Thoreau I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion. Henry David Thoreau It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know. Henry David Thoreau Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh. Henry David Thoreau Alas! how little does the memory of these human inhabitants enhance the beauty of the landscape! Henry David Thoreau The bluebird carries the sky on his back. Henry David Thoreau Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it. Henry David Thoreau We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect. Henry David Thoreau There are moments when all anxiety and stated toil are becalmed in the infinite leisure and repose of nature. Henry David Thoreau Things do not change; we change. Henry David Thoreau Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Henry David Thoreau As if you could kill time without injuring eternity. Henry David Thoreau Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends... Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. Henry David Thoreau I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now. Henry David Thoreau Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. Henry David Thoreau The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. Henry David Thoreau Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new. Henry David Thoreau The savage in man is never quite eradicated. Henry David Thoreau Our life is frittered away by detail... simplify, simplify. Henry David Thoreau I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor. Henry David Thoreau While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. It has created palaces, but it was not so easy to create noblemen and kings. Henry David Thoreau Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. Henry David Thoreau It is never too late to give up our prejudices. Henry David Thoreau Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another? Henry David Thoreau The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them. Henry David Thoreau Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it. Henry David Thoreau Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant? Henry David Thoreau Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake. Henry David Thoreau Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. Henry David Thoreau Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads. Henry David Thoreau What is once well done is done forever. Henry David Thoreau As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness. Henry David Thoreau Live the life you've dreamed. Henry David Thoreau The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star. Henry David Thoreau Be not simply good - be good for something. Henry David Thoreau I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society. Henry David Thoreau It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things. Henry David Thoreau That government is best which governs least. Henry David Thoreau Every man casts a shadow; not his body only, but his imperfectly mingled spirit. This is his grief. Let him turn which way he will, it falls opposite to the sun; short at noon, long at eve. Did you never see it? Henry David Thoreau None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm. Henry David Thoreau Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand. Henry David Thoreau The perception of beauty is a moral test. Henry David Thoreau In wildness is the preservation of the world. Henry David Thoreau Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes. Henry David Thoreau I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live and could not spare any more time for that one. Henry David Thoreau To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea. Henry David Thoreau I put a piece of paper under my pillow, and when I could not sleep I wrote in the dark. Henry David Thoreau There are old heads in the world who cannot help me by their example or advice to live worthily and satisfactorily to myself; but I believe that it is in my power to elevate myself this very hour above the common level of my life. Henry David Thoreau The heart is forever inexperienced. Henry David Thoreau Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind. Henry David Thoreau There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself. Henry David Thoreau There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root. Henry David Thoreau Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something. Henry David Thoreau When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest. Henry David Thoreau The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready. Henry David Thoreau We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn. Henry David Thoreau Thaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one melts, the other breaks into pieces. Henry David Thoreau Books are to be distinguished by the grandeur of their topics even more than by the manner in which they are treated. Henry David Thoreau There is one consolation in being sick; and that is the possibility that you may recover to a better state than you were ever in before. Henry David Thoreau It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes. Henry David Thoreau Before printing was discovered, a century was equal to a thousand years. Henry David Thoreau I have found that hollow, which even I had relied on for solid. Henry David Thoreau The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest. Henry David Thoreau The universe is wider than our views of it. Henry David Thoreau A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone. Henry David Thoreau Dreams are the touchstones of our character. Henry David Thoreau Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Henry David Thoreau Only that day dawns to which we are awake. Henry David Thoreau Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed by them. Henry David Thoreau We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success. Henry David Thoreau The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer. Henry David Thoreau I am sorry to think that you do not get a man's most effective criticism until you provoke him. Severe truth is expressed with some bitterness. Henry David Thoreau Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul. Henry David Thoreau Faith keeps many doubts in her pay. If I could not doubt, I should not believe. Henry David Thoreau If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Henry David Thoreau If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life. Henry David Thoreau How does it become a man to behave towards the American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it. Henry David Thoreau Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can write will be the best you are. Henry David Thoreau I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes. Henry David Thoreau I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business. Henry David Thoreau Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth. Henry David Thoreau It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both man and nature. Henry David Thoreau Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself. Henry David Thoreau What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on? Henry David Thoreau How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live. Henry David Thoreau There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living. Henry David Thoreau Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all. Henry David Thoreau What is called genius is the abundance of life and health. Henry David Thoreau What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new. Henry David Thoreau A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting. Henry David Thoreau If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated? Henry David Thoreau We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will. Henry David Thoreau It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear. Henry David Thoreau It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. Henry David Thoreau Men are born to succeed, not to fail. Henry David Thoreau What is human warfare but just this; an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party. Henry David Thoreau Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something. Henry David Thoreau Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it. Henry David Thoreau Only he is successful in his business who makes that pursuit which affords him the highest pleasure sustain him. Henry David Thoreau All this worldly wisdom was once the unamiable heresy of some wise man. Henry David Thoreau Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors. Henry David Thoreau Our moments of inspiration are not lost though we have no particular poem to show for them; for those experiences have left an indelible impression, and we are ever and anon reminded of them. Henry David Thoreau If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see. Henry David Thoreau I have a great deal of company in the house, especially in the morning when nobody calls. Henry David Thoreau It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart; it being much more sensitive. Henry David Thoreau Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison. Henry David Thoreau Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. Henry David Thoreau A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man's life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars. Henry David Thoreau Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end. Henry David Thoreau The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time. Henry David Thoreau That man is rich whose pleasures are the cheapest. Henry David Thoreau The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run. Henry David Thoreau How could youths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living? Henry David Thoreau The fibers of all things have their tension and are strained like the strings of an instrument. Henry David Thoreau If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for myself. Henry David Thoreau We know but a few men, a great many coats and breeches. Henry David Thoreau To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle. Henry David Thoreau There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted. Henry David Thoreau The Artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works of Genius, whether of man or Nature. The Artisan is he who merely applies the rules which others have detected. Henry David Thoreau As for doing good; that is one of the professions which is full. Moreover I have tried it fairly and, strange as it may seem, am satisfied that it does not agree with my constitution. Henry David Thoreau There is no rule more invariable than that we are paid for our suspicions by finding what we suspect. Henry David Thoreau A man cannot be said to succeed in this life who does not satisfy one friend. Henry David Thoreau In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high. Henry David Thoreau It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all. Henry David Thoreau If misery loves company, misery has company enough. Henry David Thoreau Simplify, simplify. Henry David Thoreau '