Here's the deal: A buys too much house during the bubble, can't keep up with it after the bubble bursts; he defaults, and walks away.
B buys the house he can afford and can easily keep up with it after the bubble bursts, but the house has lost value because of all the A's out there and he now owes more than the house is worth. B has two options: dump money down that hole; or default: let the house go into foreclosure, and get a different house that has a value more in line with the post-bubble market.
Which would you do? The A's of the world are getting away with an act which used to be incredibly toxic to your credit rating. Why should B--who has done everything correctly--have to suffer while A can start over anew?
Many B's are going to decide this shit's not worth it and default on their mortgages, because there's no downside for them: the default won't affect their credit rating as negatively as it would have before all this, and they'll end up paying a lot less for housing than they were.
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Obama's not about to subject himself to Fox News. Obama has never yet had to face real questions from journalists. He knows that Fox News won't pitch softball questions, the way the mainstream media will.
In general the Democrats do their best to avoid Fox News because they don't want to legitimize it; but this will end up backfiring. Fox News is the most popular television news source for a reason, and the more prominent Democrats avoid it, the more it makes them look like cowards to a very large segment of the population.
Obama is afraid of having to answer tough questions. This is why he avoids Fox News.
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This is what a real 240 MPG car looks like. And as I expected, it's a diesel-electric hybrid that uses a small turbodiesel engine.
It also weighs 840 lbs. Do not expect a production version--particularly one for the American market--to be that efficient on fuel unless it's classified as a motorcycle: you can't make a car that light which will meet US safety standards.
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Friday night I went out to McDonald's for some mcnuggets, and on the way back I was accelerating up the long hill from the S-curve. The Escort was in 4th gear, running properly...and then I felt a very slight change in the way the engine was running. It wasn't so much missing as it was losing power.
I haven't pulled the #4 spark plug yet, but I'm betting it'll be partly gunked up; and at higher engine speeds I would expect that gunk on the plug would make ignition in that cylinder less efficient.
Well it won't be long now before I'm putting the other drivetrain in. I still have to go order some parts, though, damn it....