Lesley and I are going to the heart of McCain country, Arizona and New Mexico, really we want to see New Mexico. I have had a long put off dream of seeing the Grand Canyon but yet again we just could not fit it in, what time we spend in Arizona will be in South Eastern AZ, the Grand Canyon is in the North West corner of that state. One of these days we will see the work that hundreds of millions of years of erosion did to the Arizona desert, just not this time.
Although I do not expect to have too many chances to update this blog I will be keeping a travel journal. I imagine the perspective I have, a Canadian in Arizona the week before the presidential election where Arizona's favorite son is due to be emasculated and eviscerated, may, I hope prove informative. I will be taking Friday off work, I will drive to Lesley's office at noon, pick her up and we will drive to Buffalo, we will fly to Phoenix via Philadelphia (sadly I will miss Pittsburgh the one other American city of any size, that I can think of, with a name that starts with P... Pensacola, oops, forgot about that one!). We will return a week and a day later, Saturday night. (Why fly out of Buffalo? Because the airfare is less than half the price, important moral tale if you plan to fly to the United States, drive to Buffalo or Detroit first.)
I expect to have commentary on two things, the experiment in self government we call the United States of America, and what things are like in the South Western Desert.
Other than that, it looks like the weather will be downright awful in Toronto while I am gone, so I am glad Lesley picked this coming week to go.
In unrelated news, a friend of mine sent me a comic explanation of the Subprime meltdown. I have been trying to convert it from PowerPoint to Jpeg so I can upload it to the blog. Suffice it to say, there is a reason people should not use Microsoft products!
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Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
On recent rides
Saturday I went for a ride with one of my neighbours. She just got her road bike in July so it was a relatively gentle ride. Here is the route, or see below.
Given that my neighbour was not clipped into her pedals she did reasonably well for herself. But if there had been more time I would have liked to go a lot further. It seems rather silly to me to get all suited up and then just do 40 or 50km.
Sunday was the regular BCC Sunday morning ride. I have to admit I found it frustrating, and it took me a while to figure out why. I am of the school of thought that says, if this is a group ride we ride as a group, so periodically the group ought to wait for anyone who has been dropped. I made sure on more than one occasion to stop the entire pack long enough for everyone to get back on. Ultimately though I got dropped, I have a problem wherein I don't pace myself properly. I was really strong for the first 40 or 45km but then I started to wear out. Yes I was with the advanced group, my bad, but generally I can hold my own with them. On Sunday when I went for the ride I found that after a while sustaining 37~40km/h was just too hard and I had to throttle back to 30km/h.
There is quite possibly no feeling as bad as when the whole pack up and drops you, with no one willing to go a little slower to make sure you get home alright. I did make it home alright, but still the message the pack sent me every time they ran a red light as I got close, or took off as soon as a train cleared the intersection, again as I got close, was pretty clear.
After the coffee stop I rode home with some slower guys, this time I made sure to have a formal no drop policy in effect, and thank goodness, a road was closed and it turned out that one of the guys who had told us not to worry about him earlier was the only one who knew their way around the neighbourhood where the closure was.
Riding as fast as you possibly can is fun, but riding with friends is a lot better.
Anyway here is the route on Sunday or see below.
Here are some pictures from that ride, notice I am wearing the bright red booties, at least you can pick me out from a mile away!
Arrgh! Must remember to remove sun glasses prior to all photos!
At the coffee shop. Does that guy look frustrated?
Given that my neighbour was not clipped into her pedals she did reasonably well for herself. But if there had been more time I would have liked to go a lot further. It seems rather silly to me to get all suited up and then just do 40 or 50km.
Sunday was the regular BCC Sunday morning ride. I have to admit I found it frustrating, and it took me a while to figure out why. I am of the school of thought that says, if this is a group ride we ride as a group, so periodically the group ought to wait for anyone who has been dropped. I made sure on more than one occasion to stop the entire pack long enough for everyone to get back on. Ultimately though I got dropped, I have a problem wherein I don't pace myself properly. I was really strong for the first 40 or 45km but then I started to wear out. Yes I was with the advanced group, my bad, but generally I can hold my own with them. On Sunday when I went for the ride I found that after a while sustaining 37~40km/h was just too hard and I had to throttle back to 30km/h.
There is quite possibly no feeling as bad as when the whole pack up and drops you, with no one willing to go a little slower to make sure you get home alright. I did make it home alright, but still the message the pack sent me every time they ran a red light as I got close, or took off as soon as a train cleared the intersection, again as I got close, was pretty clear.
After the coffee stop I rode home with some slower guys, this time I made sure to have a formal no drop policy in effect, and thank goodness, a road was closed and it turned out that one of the guys who had told us not to worry about him earlier was the only one who knew their way around the neighbourhood where the closure was.
Riding as fast as you possibly can is fun, but riding with friends is a lot better.
Anyway here is the route on Sunday or see below.
Here are some pictures from that ride, notice I am wearing the bright red booties, at least you can pick me out from a mile away!
Arrgh! Must remember to remove sun glasses prior to all photos!
At the coffee shop. Does that guy look frustrated?
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
On Past rides and fuel
Last night was another Escape The Don ride. It was fast, furiously fast, except we only averaged 29km/h, of course it was very hilly so that might partially explain things. It was cold too, much colder than it was in the late afternoon, I was under dressed, which did not help the situation at all.
You can view the route we took here, note that it is not very different from last week, except I was properly dressed that evening.
Recently I had the chance to talk about fueling with Eric Gee of EGCSkates.com. As I documented in my Riding Too Far blog he gave me some suggested reading. Slowly I have been working my way through the paper by the guys at Hammer Nutrition. I have to admit I have not been able to devote much time to a good many things that I would like to, reading up on proper nutrition is one of the things that has fallen a little by the wayside. Fortunately I have found that at least as far as water and carbs go I am already doing almost exactly the correct thing, at least my understanding of things is I am doing things pretty much correctly. First I start by admitting I am a big guy, even if I have lost a bajillion pounds of fat, what I lost on the oranges I more than made up for on the apples. Or in this case, what I lost on the waste line I picked up in massive "tree trunk" legs. I'm not sure how noticeable it is to anyone besides Lesley, but the fact is my pants are now tight in the upper leg area and really loose around the waste. Anyway so by my reading, the guide seems to suggest I should be consuming about 700~800mL/water per hour and about 250~350 calories per hour.
Its an interesting notion. I am sure we have all been told at some point that we ought to replace what we consume. Implicitly I knew that was lunacy. The day I rode with Aaron and Sigrid out to Harriston my GPS told me I burned off over 7500 calories. I would have had to eat an entire chocolate cake every two hours, or three and a half cakes, full size cakes mind you, not cup-cakes, or some other pansy ass BS. The fact that I bonked tells me I did not have things quite right, but I was probably better off bonking than over consuming. (In fact over consumption of water can lead to fatalities during training.)
I suppose the problem most people have is that they view their gastroenterological system as a big huge gas tank. You gas it up and go, but it doesn't work that way guys. Its a very complex network that requires oxygen and fuel in its own right in order to operate. Hence when training the body reduces the metabolic processes in order to conserve resources for the systems that are operating full blast, legs, cardiovascular, whatever else. The fact is your body can only metabolize at a certain rate and when you exercise that rate drops way off. Over consumption will just cause problems, most likely bloating, possibly a DNF, at worst it has been known to cause death. The moral is consume what you can handle, this coupled with the stores of energy already stockpiled will allow you to operate at the best possible potential, but do not bother to over-consume, it does not good to practice gluttony while training. At least that is my understanding, but hey what do I know, I'm an engineer not a doctor, sorry mom.
You can view the route we took here, note that it is not very different from last week, except I was properly dressed that evening.
I wonder why I was adjusting my shorts? Those are good bib-shorts, although the leg warmers are not the best, maybe they were causing an itch? This image is at the Tim Hortons just west of Highway 400 on the south side of Steeles Ave.
Recently I had the chance to talk about fueling with Eric Gee of EGCSkates.com. As I documented in my Riding Too Far blog he gave me some suggested reading. Slowly I have been working my way through the paper by the guys at Hammer Nutrition. I have to admit I have not been able to devote much time to a good many things that I would like to, reading up on proper nutrition is one of the things that has fallen a little by the wayside. Fortunately I have found that at least as far as water and carbs go I am already doing almost exactly the correct thing, at least my understanding of things is I am doing things pretty much correctly. First I start by admitting I am a big guy, even if I have lost a bajillion pounds of fat, what I lost on the oranges I more than made up for on the apples. Or in this case, what I lost on the waste line I picked up in massive "tree trunk" legs. I'm not sure how noticeable it is to anyone besides Lesley, but the fact is my pants are now tight in the upper leg area and really loose around the waste. Anyway so by my reading, the guide seems to suggest I should be consuming about 700~800mL/water per hour and about 250~350 calories per hour.
Its an interesting notion. I am sure we have all been told at some point that we ought to replace what we consume. Implicitly I knew that was lunacy. The day I rode with Aaron and Sigrid out to Harriston my GPS told me I burned off over 7500 calories. I would have had to eat an entire chocolate cake every two hours, or three and a half cakes, full size cakes mind you, not cup-cakes, or some other pansy ass BS. The fact that I bonked tells me I did not have things quite right, but I was probably better off bonking than over consuming. (In fact over consumption of water can lead to fatalities during training.)
I suppose the problem most people have is that they view their gastroenterological system as a big huge gas tank. You gas it up and go, but it doesn't work that way guys. Its a very complex network that requires oxygen and fuel in its own right in order to operate. Hence when training the body reduces the metabolic processes in order to conserve resources for the systems that are operating full blast, legs, cardiovascular, whatever else. The fact is your body can only metabolize at a certain rate and when you exercise that rate drops way off. Over consumption will just cause problems, most likely bloating, possibly a DNF, at worst it has been known to cause death. The moral is consume what you can handle, this coupled with the stores of energy already stockpiled will allow you to operate at the best possible potential, but do not bother to over-consume, it does not good to practice gluttony while training. At least that is my understanding, but hey what do I know, I'm an engineer not a doctor, sorry mom.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
On climbing rattle snake with images
We went to Rattlesnake point again. The route is close enough to what we did last week that I will not bother publishing it here. I will however publish a bunch of pictures from that ride. I am easy to spot, here is a big hint, I wore my bright red booties, and my feet were nice and warm the whole ride.
Can you see me? I am fifth from the far right, by that time I had loaded my bike up, someone else gave me a ride home. I promised Lesley we would see a musical that day so I had to get a lift. Its the second time I have done that and yes, I feel really guilty about it.
I needed to shave.
Appleby Line, at Britannia Rd.
I think this must be on Lakeshore road, but it seems awfully bright given the time of day, maybe this was during the ride home?
Notice I am pulling the pack, I am pleased to report I was able to pull my share this weekend.
Yes, the booties do not work with the BCC kit. That said I have a red Cannondale jacket and black shorts that work pretty well, it even matches the colour scheme of my bike.
I honestly feel like I am wearing my pajamas when I am on the saddle with all that stuff. (Maybe because pajamas are comfortable?)
If you want a nice 120km ride this is a pretty good one, except if you have the time, I would suggest taking 10'th line (Reesor Road) south all the way in and then Guildwood, it is a much nicer road. That said, on Kennedy road, around Elgin Mills a pack of four cyclists blasted past the two of us (my neighbour came out with me on Saturday morning.) I started spinning hard to catch up, surprisingly I did not have any trouble, for all the show these guys did of being faster than us, they were not very strong. They said they were not in an organized group ride, which is probably the smartest thing to have said, otherwise I'd know exactly which bike club to make merciless fun of.
Can you see me? I am fifth from the far right, by that time I had loaded my bike up, someone else gave me a ride home. I promised Lesley we would see a musical that day so I had to get a lift. Its the second time I have done that and yes, I feel really guilty about it.
I needed to shave.
Appleby Line, at Britannia Rd.
I think this must be on Lakeshore road, but it seems awfully bright given the time of day, maybe this was during the ride home?
Notice I am pulling the pack, I am pleased to report I was able to pull my share this weekend.
Yes, the booties do not work with the BCC kit. That said I have a red Cannondale jacket and black shorts that work pretty well, it even matches the colour scheme of my bike.
I honestly feel like I am wearing my pajamas when I am on the saddle with all that stuff. (Maybe because pajamas are comfortable?) Anyway the day before I went for a little tour of roads north of the city. Here is the route I took.
If you want a nice 120km ride this is a pretty good one, except if you have the time, I would suggest taking 10'th line (Reesor Road) south all the way in and then Guildwood, it is a much nicer road. That said, on Kennedy road, around Elgin Mills a pack of four cyclists blasted past the two of us (my neighbour came out with me on Saturday morning.) I started spinning hard to catch up, surprisingly I did not have any trouble, for all the show these guys did of being faster than us, they were not very strong. They said they were not in an organized group ride, which is probably the smartest thing to have said, otherwise I'd know exactly which bike club to make merciless fun of.
This Saturday is the Toronto bike show I want two things, a set of pedals, that are compatible with the Ultegra's on Erin, for the Coppi. Also I need to start looking at bike racks for the car. Yes, I feel really guilty about that but in my defence, in winter when I go to the spinning studio I don't want to ride Erin through snow and slush. Also, Lesley is willing to ride with me, if we drive out of the city first.
Speaking of which, Monday afternoon I took Lesley, in the car, out to Rattlesnake and drove up it. She was pretty impressed that I had biked up it, three times now!
Friday, October 10, 2008
On Electric wheel chairs and climbing Rattlesnakeh
In the last few years I have noticed an unsettling increase in the number of electric wheel chairs for people who do not need them. I recall first reading about it in the Globe sometime ago, people who felt lazy (or lacked the dignity, or I suppose ate too much at the buffets) could ride up and down Las Vegas Blvd. ("The Strip" to its friends and problem gamblers) without incurring all the problems one associates with walking down the street, i.e. exercise, weight loss, better health, & cetra. But even before that article appeared in my Saturday paper there were a group of people (who live in a group home - of course!) not far from my parents, these people had taken to the chair with all the reckless abandon of an alcoholic in a brewery.
I use the expression 'alcoholic in a brewery" very appropriately as my mother would point out. Mom was walking down the street, okay sidewalk, one day when one of these individuals came up behind her and ordered her to 'move' in an exceedingly rude tone. The drunken disorderly nature of those who choose to drive this machines makes my little remark about the alcoholic all the more ironic. I personally have seen bike lanes as well as sidewalks get crowded, it depends on ones mode of transportation. When on the saddle the comings and goings of the sidewalk are of little concern, similarly who watches what goes on in a bike lane?
I should ask, what are the legalities of a wheel chair in a bike lane? I'd like to think the answer is overwhelmingly 'don't' but let's be honest, what cop of sound mind could ever give a ticket to someone in a wheel chair?
A few days ago I had to stop at the supermarket on my way home from work. Obviously I rode in to work on Erin and only realised after getting to the office that I needed groceries. Well the Lowblaws at Leslie and Lakeshore seems pretty cool about riding. Specifically besides bike racks in front of the store they have never stopped me when I walk in with my bike very firmly in tow. (No way I am trusting Erin to some flimsy two or three hundred dollar lock.)
Well that particular trip to Lowblaws I was walking through the store looking for something, I'd like to say tomatoes or maybe some romaine lettuce but knowing my eating habits it was probably cookies. Anyway I was very self conscious, besides having a rather expensive road bike in one hand I was also wearing a full skin hugging kit, not the most sensible grocery shopping attire. Well coming at me as I searched for my high fat, lots of bad carbs, cookies, was someone on an electric wheel chair, they were far too young and clearly in reasonable shape, they were lazy. That little run in made me appreciate the value of electric wheel chairs, the chair gives me prerogative to feel completely smug whilst wearing a kit in a supermarket and buying cookies.
Speaking of riding, I did Rattlesnake point with the BCC on Sunday October 5, and we are doing it again this Sunday (October 12). I ended up riding with the advanced group, that was an accident, if I had known we were pulling away from the slower group I would have throttled back, but remarkably I was able to hold my ground the entire ride, I even did my share of the pulling. (Truth be told I think the guys were just feeling slow that day.) But anyway here are some pictures.
This was not so candid, but still I wish I was facing the camera. And notice my whistle? Not required for the ride to the meeting point and even more useless thereafter. (I wish I had remembered to take it off.)
Tuesday we did the Escape the Don ride. Here is the route, or look below.
I actually forgot to start my GPS at first, but the ride started at Main and Gerrard and then we proceeded North East at what I would have thought was a sprint, but in fact was just Q.B.'s idea of a warm up. When the guys started pulling away from me on Steeles near Keele I stole a glance at my GPS, 37km/h. What a leg burner! Anyway here is an after photo.
Notice my flaming red ankle booties. Laugh all you want, my feet were warm!
This morning my neighbour wanted to do some hill climbing, so we did a nice short 20km ride, up and down, up and down. Here is that route. Tomorrow he wants to go to Newmarket and back, with a bright and early 6:30 start so I better stop now and get some rest.
I use the expression 'alcoholic in a brewery" very appropriately as my mother would point out. Mom was walking down the street, okay sidewalk, one day when one of these individuals came up behind her and ordered her to 'move' in an exceedingly rude tone. The drunken disorderly nature of those who choose to drive this machines makes my little remark about the alcoholic all the more ironic. I personally have seen bike lanes as well as sidewalks get crowded, it depends on ones mode of transportation. When on the saddle the comings and goings of the sidewalk are of little concern, similarly who watches what goes on in a bike lane?
I should ask, what are the legalities of a wheel chair in a bike lane? I'd like to think the answer is overwhelmingly 'don't' but let's be honest, what cop of sound mind could ever give a ticket to someone in a wheel chair?
A few days ago I had to stop at the supermarket on my way home from work. Obviously I rode in to work on Erin and only realised after getting to the office that I needed groceries. Well the Lowblaws at Leslie and Lakeshore seems pretty cool about riding. Specifically besides bike racks in front of the store they have never stopped me when I walk in with my bike very firmly in tow. (No way I am trusting Erin to some flimsy two or three hundred dollar lock.)
Well that particular trip to Lowblaws I was walking through the store looking for something, I'd like to say tomatoes or maybe some romaine lettuce but knowing my eating habits it was probably cookies. Anyway I was very self conscious, besides having a rather expensive road bike in one hand I was also wearing a full skin hugging kit, not the most sensible grocery shopping attire. Well coming at me as I searched for my high fat, lots of bad carbs, cookies, was someone on an electric wheel chair, they were far too young and clearly in reasonable shape, they were lazy. That little run in made me appreciate the value of electric wheel chairs, the chair gives me prerogative to feel completely smug whilst wearing a kit in a supermarket and buying cookies.
Speaking of riding, I did Rattlesnake point with the BCC on Sunday October 5, and we are doing it again this Sunday (October 12). I ended up riding with the advanced group, that was an accident, if I had known we were pulling away from the slower group I would have throttled back, but remarkably I was able to hold my ground the entire ride, I even did my share of the pulling. (Truth be told I think the guys were just feeling slow that day.) But anyway here are some pictures.
This was not so candid, but still I wish I was facing the camera. And notice my whistle? Not required for the ride to the meeting point and even more useless thereafter. (I wish I had remembered to take it off.)Tuesday we did the Escape the Don ride. Here is the route, or look below.
I actually forgot to start my GPS at first, but the ride started at Main and Gerrard and then we proceeded North East at what I would have thought was a sprint, but in fact was just Q.B.'s idea of a warm up. When the guys started pulling away from me on Steeles near Keele I stole a glance at my GPS, 37km/h. What a leg burner! Anyway here is an after photo.
Notice my flaming red ankle booties. Laugh all you want, my feet were warm!This morning my neighbour wanted to do some hill climbing, so we did a nice short 20km ride, up and down, up and down. Here is that route. Tomorrow he wants to go to Newmarket and back, with a bright and early 6:30 start so I better stop now and get some rest.
Monday, October 6, 2008
On Leg Burners
Yesterday I climbed Rattlesnake, for the second time. It was hard, but not as bad as the first time. Truth is Rattlesnake has gone from a mythical destroyer of ego to nothing but a steep hill. Another fact for me to be proud of, I was able to keep up with the strong guys in the Beaches Club. It no doubt helped that they did two climbs of Rattlesnake to my one, but still I was able to do my share of pulling and kept up with them, mostly. At the end of the ride, Thi and I rode home together from Mary Curtis park, as we got to Queens Quay and Parliament Thi started to pull ahead, I tried to catch up long enough to tell him to have fun as I was exhausted and wanted to cool down anyway, but I just could not, oh well at least there isn't quite so much ego to deflate on the Tuesday night hammerfeast known as the Escape the Don ride. (Although this Tuesday the ride starts rather far from the Don, although it does end there, so would it be better to call it a return to the Don?)
Here is the route we took, it is a nice one, if you are looking for a good way to get to Rattlesnake from downtown with moderate car traffic, at least on Sunday morning. Mind you on Appleby Line, just North of Derry Road the road goes almost vertical, so don't do a 53/11 ratio on your gears. ;-)
Here is the route we took, it is a nice one, if you are looking for a good way to get to Rattlesnake from downtown with moderate car traffic, at least on Sunday morning. Mind you on Appleby Line, just North of Derry Road the road goes almost vertical, so don't do a 53/11 ratio on your gears. ;-)
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
On Economics
I should confess here that I am by no means an economist or an expert on these matters. I ride with people who are - honest to goodness, I was asking someone at the BCC what his day job was. When he told me I asked him why I never saw his name in the Report on Business in the Globe and Mail. He replied that a few years ago I would have, but he has been promoted out of that role. So in truth I should turn to him, but I rather doubt he has time to contribute a blog post.
You want to get terrorized? Don't go to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and stand in downtown Mecca and declare your unfailing love of the state of Isreal, that's for pussies! Don't go to Belfast and scream loyalist slogans at the top of your lungs - any girly man can do that! Tell Augusto Pinochet you voted for Allende? No I have a better way to be terrorized. Read today's business news.
To a large extent reporters like to make things sound worse than they really are. After all nobody made money selling good news, hence the expression, "If it bleeds, it leads". But the sudden downturn in the economic condition of the World is not just a matter reporters jawboning us into a recession, the is a real problem out there.
Specifically, as I documented in the past, Americans were a little to quick to whip out the Visa card through most of the past ten years. As long ago as 1996 I recall reading an article in the Atlantic Monthly Magazine that described in disconcerting detail how America's economic growth had for the past few years been primarily a result of increased consumer debt and not because of productivity gains. In the 12 years since that Atlantic article the situation has gone from bad to horrendous.
Well the chickens came home to roost.
Starting around 2006 the housing market in the United States started to contract, gas was getting expensive and jobs were becoming hard to find. Meanwhile builders reported growing inventories of unsold properties. At the same time there was another problem, many Americans were over leveraged on their property. Some had interest only loans, for example, suppose you need one hundred thousand dollars, now suppose you can only afford to pay say, five hundred dollars a month, well lets say the bank loans you that hundred thousand at six percent, you pay five hundred a month every month and when you sell the property all you have done is service the interest without reducing the principal one cent. That is alright, because while you bought your home for a hundred thousand it is now worth one hundred twenty, so you pocket twenty thousand, but what happens if your home looses value instead?
Credit card and mortgage companies had other nasty tricks up their sleeve, one nice one was the introductory interest rate, borrow ten thousand dollars against say the Visa card at six percent, or fifty dollars a month, then after say six months jack the rate up to twenty four percent or two hundred dollars a month. Well hey that is not so bad, its only an extra hundred fifty bucks, but what if that happens to your Visa, and your mortgage while your home looses value, you take a pay cut and the price of a gallon of gas goes from less than three dollars to more than four?
People could not make ends meet, they gave up and walked away from their homes, banks foreclosed on homes which lowered the value of all the other homes on the street, so someone who bought a house with a nice big down payment and was paying down their mortgage might suddenly find that their home, once worth maybe half a million was now worth a quarter million but they owed over three hundred on the property. The home owner went from a conventional to sub prime mortgage over night because of something that happened to their neighbours. Meanwhile some homes were now worth between five and fifty thousand dollars, meaning the copper wiring inside a house might be worth more than the property itself. Vandalism of unsellable foreclosed properties skyrocketed. (And yes, you can buy a house in some cities in the United States for under fifty thousand dollars, I have heard that in some places homes now go for as little as four thousand dollars.)
Who is to blame? Well basically everyone in the United States. American borrowers over extended themselves in their massive binge feast. American bankers got greedy, went for short term profits, and loaned money to people who could not possibly pay the bills. American politicians, mostly Republican, took money from the banking lobby and enacted laws written by the banks. To call the laws written by companies like MBNA draconian is an understatement.
What is to be done? I don't know. But I think a good place to start is to make sure that we in Canada, and well everywhere start to live within our means. No more spending money we don't already have, buy a house on a mortgage, sure, but make damned sure you can put some money down and the interest rate is affordable, even if the rate goes up a couple points. Don't decry regulation just because you can, sometimes laws are good even if they limit our ability to over extend ourselves.
On an unrelated note, has anyone seen a Velomobile? Apparently while harder to accelerate it is easier to sustain high speeds in them. They sound cool, but at $8,000 to $15000 a pop I think I'd rather stay with a conventional road bike. Besides I am just having so much fun on Erin why on Earth would I want a banana in the garage?
You want to get terrorized? Don't go to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and stand in downtown Mecca and declare your unfailing love of the state of Isreal, that's for pussies! Don't go to Belfast and scream loyalist slogans at the top of your lungs - any girly man can do that! Tell Augusto Pinochet you voted for Allende? No I have a better way to be terrorized. Read today's business news.
To a large extent reporters like to make things sound worse than they really are. After all nobody made money selling good news, hence the expression, "If it bleeds, it leads". But the sudden downturn in the economic condition of the World is not just a matter reporters jawboning us into a recession, the is a real problem out there.
Specifically, as I documented in the past, Americans were a little to quick to whip out the Visa card through most of the past ten years. As long ago as 1996 I recall reading an article in the Atlantic Monthly Magazine that described in disconcerting detail how America's economic growth had for the past few years been primarily a result of increased consumer debt and not because of productivity gains. In the 12 years since that Atlantic article the situation has gone from bad to horrendous.
Well the chickens came home to roost.
Starting around 2006 the housing market in the United States started to contract, gas was getting expensive and jobs were becoming hard to find. Meanwhile builders reported growing inventories of unsold properties. At the same time there was another problem, many Americans were over leveraged on their property. Some had interest only loans, for example, suppose you need one hundred thousand dollars, now suppose you can only afford to pay say, five hundred dollars a month, well lets say the bank loans you that hundred thousand at six percent, you pay five hundred a month every month and when you sell the property all you have done is service the interest without reducing the principal one cent. That is alright, because while you bought your home for a hundred thousand it is now worth one hundred twenty, so you pocket twenty thousand, but what happens if your home looses value instead?
Credit card and mortgage companies had other nasty tricks up their sleeve, one nice one was the introductory interest rate, borrow ten thousand dollars against say the Visa card at six percent, or fifty dollars a month, then after say six months jack the rate up to twenty four percent or two hundred dollars a month. Well hey that is not so bad, its only an extra hundred fifty bucks, but what if that happens to your Visa, and your mortgage while your home looses value, you take a pay cut and the price of a gallon of gas goes from less than three dollars to more than four?
People could not make ends meet, they gave up and walked away from their homes, banks foreclosed on homes which lowered the value of all the other homes on the street, so someone who bought a house with a nice big down payment and was paying down their mortgage might suddenly find that their home, once worth maybe half a million was now worth a quarter million but they owed over three hundred on the property. The home owner went from a conventional to sub prime mortgage over night because of something that happened to their neighbours. Meanwhile some homes were now worth between five and fifty thousand dollars, meaning the copper wiring inside a house might be worth more than the property itself. Vandalism of unsellable foreclosed properties skyrocketed. (And yes, you can buy a house in some cities in the United States for under fifty thousand dollars, I have heard that in some places homes now go for as little as four thousand dollars.)
Who is to blame? Well basically everyone in the United States. American borrowers over extended themselves in their massive binge feast. American bankers got greedy, went for short term profits, and loaned money to people who could not possibly pay the bills. American politicians, mostly Republican, took money from the banking lobby and enacted laws written by the banks. To call the laws written by companies like MBNA draconian is an understatement.
What is to be done? I don't know. But I think a good place to start is to make sure that we in Canada, and well everywhere start to live within our means. No more spending money we don't already have, buy a house on a mortgage, sure, but make damned sure you can put some money down and the interest rate is affordable, even if the rate goes up a couple points. Don't decry regulation just because you can, sometimes laws are good even if they limit our ability to over extend ourselves.
On an unrelated note, has anyone seen a Velomobile? Apparently while harder to accelerate it is easier to sustain high speeds in them. They sound cool, but at $8,000 to $15000 a pop I think I'd rather stay with a conventional road bike. Besides I am just having so much fun on Erin why on Earth would I want a banana in the garage?
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