Curmudgeon's Corner

A Couple of Things on a Saturday Morning

Posted by Al Campbell on July 14, 2012

U.S., Quality of Life, Political, Economy

A couple of current news items piqued my curiosity:

The recent uptick in home sales, slowing in foreclosures and the general feeling that maybe we’d come out of that awful period may be short-lived.  Banks were assailed by the feds for supposedly not staying on the straight and narrow so far as verifying documents before proceeding to foreclosure.  That brought foreclosures to a near-halt while the banking institutions reviewed practices and policies.  Fines were paid by some banks and the foreclosure process is again moving forward.

There are winners and losers in foreclosures.  Some lose everything and others get great buys.  But the glut of such housing serves as a depressant on the economic growth since it stymies renewed building, sales of building products, etc. and ripples through the economy.

This will probably not be too much a factor in the Presidential elections since the stepped-up process won’t become too apparent until early in 2012…after the elections.  A skeptic might question if there was some ulterior motive in the timing and duration of the foreclosure ‘issue’ that the Feds managed.

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A McClatchy-Marist poll just released carries interesting results on the question of repealing Bush tax cuts.  Of course, President Obama is adament that he will cancel all the Bush tax cuts for everyone over $250,000 in income if re-elected.

52% of all registered voters say they want all the tax cuts extended even for those over $250,000 in income, while 43% want the cuts extended for only those under the $250,000 income level.

Young voters ages 18-29 who are thought to be stronger Obama supporters favor the cuts being extended for everyone by 69% to 29%.

Latinos, who are often thought to favor Obama almost uniformly, favored the cuts being extended for everyone by 62% to 36%.

Whites favor the extension of the Bush tax cuts for everyone by 50% to 44%.

African-Americans split with 48% favoring extension of the cuts for just those under $250,000 in annual income while 47% favored extension for everyone.

Those making less than $50,000 per year favored tax cuts remaining for all income groups by 53% to 41%.

Could it be that President Obama has handed a significant win on this point to Candidate Romney by his position on the Bush tax cuts?  Maybe we voters are smarter than the average bear, although that could be denigrating to bears in general.  If I’ve offended any bears, I apologize.

(The survey polled 1,010 adults and there was a +/- 3.5% margin of error for registered voters, and +/- 3% for all adults.)