Dear Shareholder

"For the 12-month reporting period ended December 31, 2015, yields on taxable money market securities remained at historically low levels. Short-term interest rates stayed near zero percent until December, when the Federal Reserve(the Fed) ended months of speculation by raising the target federal funds rate. It was the first time in nine years that the central bank moved to increase rates and it signaled confidence in the U.S. economic recovery."

 

Imagine that.  Nine years to signal confidence in the U.S. economic recovery when the recession was officially over in June 2009.  President Obama has kept the business cycle in constant disarray, especially with the health insurance situation, with investors holding back and small business, the engine of the economy, afraid to hire or expand.  Meanwhile, investors were kept calm by the Fed artificially keeping interest rates low.

Payday loans--Ohio votes

Here's what I said on this topic in January. It seems to be another feel good topic for liberals, believing they will help the poor more by pushing them into more government help and away from high interest loans. One more door shut on access and choice for the poor (and the wealthy trying to hide their assets).

Our polls are very, very crowded with early voting. 51% are Democrats, 4% are Republicans, and the rest state no party preference according to the Columbus Dispatch. The Obama people have been flawless (not fraudless) in their machinations. McCain-Palin, at least in Franklin County, is not well organized and ran out of yard signs and badges some time ago (probably picked up by Obama trojan horses). As of yesterday at Vets Memorial, I think they had more absentee voters than people eligible to vote in three of our northwest suburbs--Upper Arlington, Grandview and Marble Cliff.

4735

If I were younger

I'd buy a house. The bargains right now are fabulous compared to 3 or 4 years ago when buyers were bidding up the seller's price. And 20 years ago? My goodness! We got a mortgage at 10.5% and were happy to get it. We checked at our local bank this week about some property we plan to sell, and the rates for either conventional or FHA were 5.75%. That's lower than we paid in 1962 when we bought our first home, a duplex in Champaign, Illinois. We were in the bottom quintile, the down payment was a gift from my father, he took the 2nd mortgage so we paid on two mortgages (renters paid one), and we lived on the first floor and rented the second floor. Being a landlord is a huge hassle, particularly when you are 22 years old, but that rent put us where we are today. When we sold the house on land contract upon moving to Columbus in 1967, the mortgage payment also covered our car loan. Then it turned out the bank had made an error in calculating the principle, so we got a little unexpected cash bonus when the new owner finally paid it off. Young people today have many more options, but they complain more and are less willing to sacrifice. (My parents thought the same of us because they were young adults during the Great Depression.) One option that we didn't have, which was a blessing, was that banks would not consider a wife's income in figuring what you could pay. So many people have lived to the max the last 30 years that when the economy "hits a rough patch" as it will do in cycles, they have no resources.



By the time this photo was taken, the house had been painted charcoal grey, my husband had installed a separate door for the tenants, put a wall between the stairs and our apartment, and built a wall through the upstairs kitchen to create a small second bedroom. He also remodeled our kitchen, divided our dining room so we would have two bedrooms, and built a linen closet in the bathroom. He was quite handy with a limited set of tools. The basement had a dirt floor, so on damp days it could be creepy with crawly things. There was no garage, and although that looks like grass, I think it was mainly weeds. That's my mother's car on the gravel driveway from the brick street, but eventually we bought that too.

What are you waiting for? Here's some bargains I saw in today's paper: In Chicago, on north Astor you can get a Gold Coast penthouse with 10' ceilings, living room, dining room, 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths for $1,150,000. Fabulous location. If I could choose anyplace in the world to live (and had my children near by) it would be Chicago.

In West Virginia there are some bargain homesites at New River Gorge for $60,000. The only interesting property I saw in Ohio in the WSJ was an auction for 2-3 acres near Hinkley (isn't that where the buzzards fly to?) with wooded, scenic ravines. But there are great properties all over central Ohio.