Hi Bethesdamanman, My apologies then, Dave. I thought that I had recalled you posting on the other board that mortgage rates would stay low for years and years, and that we would never return to the high rates of years past. My error. Eeeesschhh .... well.... actually... kinda sorta, YES.... your apologies in this case are NOT warranted. Herein lies a case of "text failing where a verbal conversation *may* have worked better." I've never said rates would stay low "well... forever".... I HAVE said rates (30 FRM rates to be precise) will unlikely climb over 7% in our lifetimes. I *STILL* stand by that.... albeit, I am now offering that we are entering a territory of government-induced inflation at levels I (perhaps naively) thought the United States political system was above. If we continue down the path of dollar-dilution that we've begun accelerating along, there are only two end-game results; A) we reverse course back out of it before we self-destruct in revolution, B) we self-destruct (and the devil we do not know is always a potential problem.) *IF* we successfully reverse and dig ourselves out of the hole of trouble our most recent past and our current government administrations are hell-bent on digging us into... there are only two ways of "sopping back & vacuuming up" the diluted unbacked funny-money that has been injected out into the system; A) The Treasury collects more taxes than it provides to the government to spend, and/or, B) The Fed increases interest rates higher than its blended payout on the treasury bonds (and then some... the greater the positive income spread to the Fed, the more painful to the "fixed-income retired crowd" which is our baby-boomer bubble... who will rally with AARP-sponsored pitchforks.) Both A & B will be met with *MASSIVE* resistance from the only crowd that the poloticos *KNOW* will consistently show up to vote, and have almost unlimited spare time to write, call, email, and generally pester the daylights out of the politicians; The Seniors. SO.... I've learned to never rely on "common sense" when it comes to anticipating "government logic" (an oxymoron if there ever was one.) Obama has enlisted the original architect of option B... Paul Volcker... as a "senior economic advisor." ("Senior" may (MAY) work somewhat to our advantage here... as Gramps Volcker *MIGHT* have some age-gained sensitivity to his classmate comrade's plight.) Volcker is the one who decided to fight inflation in the 1970's by driving short-term interest rates up to the 20%'s... The late '70's and early '80's result was that Volcker recaptured (in a VERY painful way) the excess liquidity (flooding of funny money) our country created by going off the gold standard and adopting a "weak dollar" policy through the 1960's. WHAT WILL WA DC DO??????????????? I dunno.... (I know what I pray/chant/meditate they will do...) *IF* the government (both the loonie left & jackthug right) get OUT of the way of the naturally balancing markets... then my expectations and predictions stand, with virtually my 100% confidence. My fears are that the United States idea of a market-based capitalist self-righting system has been a grand and wonderful social experiment... but that the human frailties (compounded in mob psychology) are sabotaging the underlying DNA strands that made it possible to stand. My COMFORTING REALIZATION... is that despite my egoistic pride for being part of a "successful system".... even if that system turns out to be a decaying failure, INDIDIVIDUALLY I and my family, and those I guide, can still retain their own personal success and quality of life. Cheers, Dave Donhoff Leverage Planner

Funny but in the 1980's I was buying my Volvos in Canada and bringing them to the states. I got about a 35% exchange on my money, a bigger discount from the dealer in Canada and got refunded the manufacturing tax that was supposedly included in the sticker price of the Canadian car. I paid no sales tax or value added tax, but had to pay the US State sales tax. I paid a tariff of 2% or about $280 per car. If I had bought a US brand car manufactured in Canada, there would be no tariff. The funny thing is I was getting such a deal on the cars that a few times I sold the car in the US at one year old for more than I paid for it new. So, for a few years I had a new car for no more out of pocket funds. The New England volvo dealers put pressure on Canadian Volvo and thereafter they would no longer put the proper EPA and DOT stickers on the cars so they couldn't be imported by individuals. The warranties were good in either country. In fact if you read most vehicle warranties it says that they are good in the US or Canada. My US Volvo dealer told me to bring the car in anytime for warranty work and they would treat me the same as if I had purchased the car from them. They always did....no waiting and no fuss.

Good advice

Ya right Most Canadians don't have dividend income. Most Canadians don't have near the money set aside to retire at 45 and live for 20 years with no income. Most Canadians take their Canada Pension early, because it gives you income for 5 years before the Old Age Pension kicks in. Go whistle up another tree and start living in the real world. Anyone who needs your information is rich enough to have a money manager and not need your information at all.