Odds and ends

Up early
I was up early this morning which is of course not all that unusual. I went out for a little drive; just cruising around the are. The city is very empty these days. Neighborhoods that would have no parking on a Sunday morning suddenly have places to park.

I went to the grocery store and was able to find yellow bananas. This is about the only time I'm able to find them.

Also as I pulled into the parking lot there were at least half a dozen day laborers milling about. The Home Depot didn't open for almost an hour but yet they were still there. I could see others walking toward the parking lot as I was leaving.

Housing/Credit Market
All sorts of to do over the subprime lending market problems coming home to roust. Here's an article from Friday's Post. There is a great deal of blame to go around. But part of it has to rest with the regulators who simply looked the other way when these loans were being giving out to people.

Also the Federal Reserve needs to take some responsibilities for its actions. It has continued to raise rates to "fight" inflation that age old bug-a-boo it floats out to justify raising interest rates. This has been their refrain for the last 15 years.

There's an estimate that something like several million people have these loans. And they are still in the low interest part of the loan. That will change starting this fall and extend into next year. A way to help these people not to default on the loans would be lower the prime interest rate. So while having the fed pump all this money into the economy is a good thing, in the long haul, they are going to have to lower interest rates or this problem will only get worse.

Heat reprieve
The heat wave here has broken. Yesterday was a wonderful day. Low humidity and middle 80s. Today it is supposed to be a little warmer but it should still be nice. I'm going to take a long walk a little later in the day.