Being Thankful and Thoughtful This Holiday Season
by Efin Advisor | November 25, 2008
With a new federal government coming into office, a new economic team brainstorming visionary, new ideas, and new hope for the greening of American jobs, transportation, infrastructure and a sustainable energy future, Americans can find at least one thing to be thankful for this Thanksgiving holiday — the thoughtfulness of everyone working to find solutions to the crisis.
The government unveiled two new programs Tuesday that will provide $800 billion to try to help unfreeze the market for consumer debt from home mortgages to credit cards.
To try to increase the availability of home loans to borrowers, the Federal Reserve said it will buy up to $100 billion in direct obligations from mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well as the Federal Home Loan Banks. The Fed also will buy $500 billion in mortgage-backed securities, pools of mortgages that are bundled together and sold to investors.
The program on consumer debt will lend up to $200 billion to the holders of securities backed by various types of consumer loans. It will be supported by $20 billion of credit protection from the $700 billion bailout package that was enacted last month.
In a promising sign that homeowners’ mortgage rates could tumble, rates on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debt fell Tuesday after Treasury Secretary Paulson announced the new plan.
The holiday retail forecast, bleaker than in year’s past, may also offer some semblance of a silver lining to consumers through a number of eye-popping deals in the days after Thanksgiving.
Among many in the retail sector, Wal-Mart is paying attention to customers. The nation’s biggest retailer recently announced a new plan called Operation Main Street. “We anticipate saving customers $200 million” through the program, which discounts some of the most popular store items, Wal-Mart spokeswoman Melissa O’Brien said. The company has been promoting its $35 complete Thanksgiving dinner for eight, including a turkey and all the necessary ingredients.
All of us at Efinancial extend our very best wishes to you and yours this holiday season. Thanks for sharing your thoughts at Efinancialblog.com!
I am no expert in economics, but it seems to me that more loan guarantees are only a band-aid, and don’t actually solve the problem. Forgiving debt and buying up mortgages is good, and may get our economy through the holiday season, but we still need to see some real action towards diagnosing the problem, or we are just going to end up here again. Why haven’t we heard anything about the real problems which plague our economy? I think that we deserve to know about what is being done to ensure that the bottom doesn’t fall out again for us, or our children.
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I wish I had known about the offer that wal-mart had for thanksgiving. We have a wal-mart a few towns over from mine that I can go to, but it is too far for me to see much of their advertising. I am glad that corporations are stepping up to make things easier for us. I for one appreciate the helping hand and I think that we should all show our appreciation for these companies by meeting them half way, and spending some of our money to help them out as well.
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It’s nice that people were able to see the silver lining during the Thanksgiving holiday, but don’t let yourself be fooled. We’ve officially been in a recession for the past year, and GM says that without a bailout it’ll be out of business by January 1. It is entirely possible that we just had the last Thanksgiving for a long time in the U.S. as we currently know it; next year turkeys may be luxuries. It really all relies on what Obama does, but unfortunately there are many economic realities that cause things to be beyond repair. I hope as much as the next guy that we can make the necessary positive changes, but I’m not thinking as wishfully as others seem to fancy…
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Its easy to forget all that we should be grateful about in these times, but thanksgiving is a good reminder of what is truly important. Even though we may have a harder time making ends meat, we have a large support network of people who care about us that can always bring smiles to our faces. This holiday reminds us that we should be thankful for what we have and what we have gained over the years. Recessions come and go and there is little we can do to change it on a personal level, but we can all make a difference in the lives of our family and friends.
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