Bob Mitchell - Realtor St. Louis

This morning as I was driving across town I had my radio tuned into my local NPR affiliate when a local show called, "St. Louis On The Air" came on. It's a call in talk show and the today's topic was, "Diversity In The Workplace".

It turned out that the guests were all associated with a program called the "St. Louis Business Diversity Initiative" which is a program that was created and funded by a group here in St. Louis called, "Civic Progress" which is a business group made of the CEO's of St. Louis' largest 30 corporations.

As I drove I listened to the guests outline what their program was about. Several times in the first minutes of the program I head the guests talk about being "inclusive". Then I listened to them talk about how their various programs, which included programs that included applicants being able to attend graduate school at Washington University, were designed to help young people succeed in business. They went on to say that these programs were "open to all people of color"

I was like, "Wait!" First you were talking about being inclusive and now you're talking about these programs only being open to people of color? That didn't seem to "inclusive" to me, so I called in.

I pointed out that if somebody had a group that described themselves in exactly the same way except that they said that membership was only open to "white" people that they would get sued and maybe even prosecuted by the equal opportunity commission or something to that effect.

I then hung up to hear their response, which was basically (and I paraphrase here) that it's not discriminatory to discriminate against white people because Missouri had been a slave state or something to that effect.

I had already hung up so I couldn't rebut this on the air, but does this really make any sense? Where does the assumption that ALL white people have a leg up because of things that happened a hundred and forty years ago. My daughter, who just graduated from Ohio State is back in St. Louis looking for a job and would love to participate in a leadership program that would give HER the kind of leg up that this program is intended to give, but she's ineligible because of the color of her skin. Plain and simple.

True, slavery was and discrimination against minorities still is a terrible thing, but the fact of the matter is that my daughter has never owned a slave and is pretty much color blind when it comes to skin color. She's also of Polish and Irish heritage which are two ethnic groups that have also had their fair share of troubles over the years. Also, our families journey to St. Louis came via the Appalachian coal mines! Neither of my parents had a high school diploma and if white people were given special consideration along the way, my family apparently missed out.

I realize that I'm being politically incorrect here, but I think that this is BS! I grew up in a poor, predominately black part of St. Louis (in an area called Laclede Town). When I was a kid, it wasn't uncommon for little Johnny to not be allowed to play with me because I was a honky, so I understand what it feels like to be discriminated against. I also understand that discrimination against minorities is alive and well, but two wrongs don't make a right!

You can't discriminate in favor of one group without discriminating against another. If minorities are under represented in Corporate St. Louis (and I believe this to be true) then make sure that your company isn't discriminating. Plain and simple! If you want to bring kids along, then that's great too. As long as you bring ALL kids along.

The Declaration of Independence is very specific when it states;

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ALL men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain UNALIENABLE RIGHTS, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

It's clear. These rights are INDIVIDUAL, not collective. Just because Missouri was a slave state doesn't negate my daughter's INDIVIDUAL rights to not be discriminated against on the basis of her race. While the goal here is admirable, the very existence of programs such as these is a slap in the face to all those who have fought and died to defend our constitution.

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

The honest truth of the matter is that the US economy is in a world of hurt. The fiscal policies of the last 7 years have painted the Fed into a corner. If they cut interest rates, the dollar is in danger of tanking. If the dollar tanks, inflation is likely to raise it's ugly head.

If they don't cut rates, then the economy stagnates. The worst case scenario is when we have both, inflation and stagnation at the same time. This happened in the 70's and the term "Stagflation" was coined to describe it.

This is how come the Fed hasn't rushed into cutting rates. They don't want to a "stagflation" scenario.

So, what can be done to right our economy and specifically, to "fix" the housing markets? Below, I will outline 4 concrete steps that our government, if they have the balls to do it, can take to right our economy.

1) Stop coddling the oil companies.

The truth of the matter is that the technology to switch to a hydrogen based economy has been around for decades. In 1969 NASA not only operated a fuel cell vehicle, they flew it to the moon and televised it bouncing around on national television.

Several major automobile companies have cars that are ready for production RIGHT NOW that are powered by hydrogen. As the ad for the BMW Hydrogen 7 says, "We're ready for the world, when the world is ready for us!"

The only reason that we're not ready for them is that the oil companies wouldn't make as much money selling hydrogen to us as they do selling us gasoline. The truth of the matter is that the oil companies are terrified of a hydrogen based economy because there is actually very little keeping people from being able to manufacture their own hydrogen!

Well screw the oil companies. It's time for our government to look out for the good of the people as opposed to looking out for big money special interest groups such as the oil companies.

2) Stop spending money like a drunken sailor on a Saturday Night Shore Leave!

When the Bush administration took office 7 years ago the US government was actually running a surplus. The big debate was whether we should cut taxes or pay down our debt. Well, the tech bubble burst and government revenues declined, so this kind of became a mute point and going back to running a deficit wasn't 100% George W's fault. However, since that time government spending has increased on a percentage basis faster than it ever has before.

True, the economy did continue to perk right along, but as I've written about before, you can throw a hell of a party on a charge card! The problems don't arrive until the bill becomes due. Well, guess what? The bill is here and it's a whopper!

If we combined points one and two above by immediately establishing a nation wide distribution network for hydrogen, we could cut our trade deficit (a huge amount of our trade deficit is directly related to our purchase of overseas oil) and by lessening our dependence upon this foreign oil, we could cut back on our military expenditures in the middle east. The only reason that we're there is because of the oil. Don't ever let anyone ever tell you anything different!

3) Increase the government's income.

Part of this would be to rescind the tax cuts for the wealthy. They don't need them!

I'm not saying to go back to the days when rich people were taxed at ungodly rates. You don't have to screw them, but it's ridiculous for Warren Buffet to only being paying 17.9% in federal income taxes whereas his secretary is paying around 30%! Not only is it not "fair" it's stupid!

Part of the reason that Mr. Buffet only pays 17.9% is because he can afford accountants and lawyers to make the tax code work for him. This is not something that the other 90 percent of us can do.

No matter how you do it, we need to make the rich pay their fair share in taxes. I personally think that a national sales tax system would be the way to go, but no matter how it's done, this is something that needs to be done now!

Another thing that we can do to increase the governments income is to legalize and tax recreational drugs. Not only would we NOT spend the billions of dollars a year that our society currently spends on the War On Drugs, we could tax it.

Think how much money the government could raise if it simply legalized pot. Pot could be sold at or near the same prices that the 30 million Americans who currently purchase pot are paying and instead of inflated profits going to criminals, a fair profit would be earned by the US farmers who grew it and of say the pharmaceutical industry who would distribute it. The government would collect the difference as tax income.

4) Stop pussy footing around with the credit markets.

The only reason that the US housing market is in trouble is because the credit markets are in trouble. If there had not been a credit meltdown, most if not all of the various US housing markets would still be buzzing right along.

The government needs to create a temporary agency, similar to the Resolution Trust Corporation, to purchase these sub prime mortgages and to get them off of Wall Streets books. This would free the credit markets up to go back to lending people money to buy houses in a responsible way.

After the agency bought the mortgages (at say .50 cents on the dollar) they could renegotiate the terms of the mortgage to where people could afford to keep their homes. For example, a person who bought a home on a 2/28 at 7% could have their mortgage turned into a 30 year fixed rate at 7.5%.

Their payment would go up, but not nearly as much as it's going up now. After the borrower made their payment for 24 months in a row, the mortgage could be resold onto the secondary mortgage market at full value. The profits from these sales would go to offset any losses that would be incurred from mortgages that were not able to be rehabilitated.

The Whole Outweighs The Sum Of It's Parts

If we were to do all four of these things, our deficit and debt would shrink, our environment would improve, we would be more secure and consumer confidence would improve. If all of that were to happen, then the housing market would go right back to where it was at and buying a home would return to it's proper place as one of a person's best investment opportunities!

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

Bob Mitchell is the president of ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc., St. Louis' largest discount/full-service real estate and mortgage company. To find out more about Bob, ValueList or our flat-fee listing program please feel free to visit our web page, valuelistre.com

This post is the follow up to my post, "Take Two Fed Cuts And Call Me In The Morning" where I compared the Bush administration's economic policies to those of college students with their first charge cards. In it, I painted a dire economic picture that I feel accurately reflects the current state of our economy. In this post I'm going to suggest some concrete measures that we, as a country, can implement that can restore our economy.

Bob, Is There Anything That We Can Do To Help Our Economy Recover?

Yes, there is. As bad as it is, there are self-correcting mechanisms that are going to kick in. The foreign countries that are now financing our fiscal irresponsibilities are eventually going to get worried and stop investing money into our economy. When this happens, it's going to be painful, but we will have no choice but to reign spending in. Also, when we start to feel enough pain, the powers that be will have no choice but to actually take steps to put our economic house in order.

Step One: Accept the fact that the government can not continue to spend more than it makes.

Recognizing the problem is always the first step in fixing a problem. For the last 7 years we've blindly accepted the idea that we could spend money and not have to worry about how much money we were making. The fact of the matter is that it doesn't matter if you're talking about a household or a government, that spending more than you are making doesn't work in the long run!

Step Two: We need to reduce our spending

Recognizing it isn't enough! We need to take concrete steps to see that it happens. What we've been doing is the same thing that the person who looks in the mirror and thinks, "I'm fat!" Then goes out to the Country Buffet!. We need to take concrete steps.

For all you neo-cons out there, this is going to hurt.......We need to end the War In Iraq! In addition, we need to put an end or at least curtail all of the various corporate welfare programs that are now in place.

We can also save money by ending the War On Drugs. I heard on the radio the other day that it is estimated that the Federal Government just surpassed Five Hundred Trillion Dollars spent on the war on drugs and that was just the federal government! What do you think that figure would be if you included all the money that state and local governments have spent?

Step Three: Increase our income

This is a dicey one because if you increase taxes you run the risk of suppressing economic growth. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the income tax and would much prefer a national sales tax, but for the purpose of this post, let's assume that we have to stay with the income tax.

While it's true that increasing taxes does suppress economic growth, that's not to say that you can't change how different income groups are taxed. You might have heard Warren Buffet, the third wealthiest person in America's testimony to Congress where he pointed out that he only has to pay 17.9% in federal income taxes whereas his secretary, who earns around $60,000 a year, has to pay somewhere near 30% of her income in federal income taxes.

Well, not only is this not fair, it's also somewhere where we can go to increase the government's income. That is, we can rescind Bush's tax breaks for the wealthy, as well as close many of the loop holes in the tax code that only the wealthy can afford to take advantage of. There is absolutely no reason that a person should have to have an advanced degree to fully understand our country's tax code!

Also, as mentioned above, ending the War On Drugs not only would save us money, it could also be a source of income. Depending upon who you believe, the underground economy, which drugs make up a large part of, makes up anywhere between 15% and 50% of our total economy. Even if you take the most conservative estimate, this is still a huge potential money maker! Will ending the War On Drugs come with costs?

Oh yeah! Just as alcohol being legal comes with costs, so would having various drugs being legal come with costs. These costs however will be far less than the costs that we now pay both directly and indirectly by having drugs being illegal.

Step Four: Stabilize the credit and housing markets.

As I've written about before, the current crises in the housing market isn't because of any kind of irrational exuberance in that market. The problems in the housing market are being caused by the problems in the credit markets.

If you fix the problems in the credit markets, the housing markets will stabilize on their own because the fact of the matter is that our population is continuing to grow and these new people need roofs over their heads!

Again, as I've written about before, it's fully within the government's capabilities to not only fix the credit markets, but I believe that they can do it and actually end up making money for their efforts!

By stabilizing the housing markets, you'll increase consumer confidence. Increase consumer confidence and people will start spending money again, tax revenues will rise and as long as we keep spending in check our budgets will eventually balance and we will once again have a healthy economy!

Professor Bob has spoken......let the arguments begin!

R. B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

Bob Mitchell is the president of ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc., St. Louis' largest discount/full-service real estate and mortgage company. To find out more about Bob, ValueList or our flat-fee listing program please feel free to visit our web page, valuelistre.com

If you watch the talking heads on the various business/news shows on a regular basis, you might have noticed that they change their tune to fit whatever the realities of the day are. A couple of years ago when the economy was slowing they would say that housing was keeping the economy afloat.

When the sub-prime flu hit and the housing market got sick, consumer spending was what was keeping the economy afloat. Now it's over seas investors who are going to keep our economy afloat. What or who is it going to be next? The Martians coming to our rescue?

The fact is that our economy is in dire straits. And it should come as no surprise. Several years ago I wrote a commentary called, "Anybody Can Throw A Party On A Charge Card" where I compared the way that the Bush administration was spending money to a kegger that we threw in college when some bank was stupid enough to give my roommate a charge card.

Needed more beer? Send Mark down to the liquor store with his charge. People are hungry? "Hey Mark, Call Pizza Hut!"

It was a hell of a party! Especially if you were a Halliburton or other such company. But the sad fact is that while you can keep the party going for quite some time using your charge cards, eventually the bills come due. Fancy footwork with your accounting may be able to stretch things out for a bit, but eventually it's time to turn the music down, the lights off and go to bed.

How many of you guys remember those mornings after?

You felt like crap, didn't you? Well, get ready folks! We've got a world class hangover on it's way! As a matter of fact, we're already starting to feel it.

The dollar is in the tank. To the point where the, "Take Two Fed Interest Rate Cuts and Call Me In The Morning" treatment isn't going to work. It's not going to work because further interest rate cuts are going to put more downward pressure on the value of the dollar.

The dollar has lost enough value already to put upward pressures on inflation. Further cuts could send inflation spiraling out of control. We're to the point where the rest of the world is starting to lose faith in the dollar and I wouldn't be surprised to see indications of this such as oil being priced in Euros instead of dollars. Don't want to think about how this would affect our economy? Don't worry, economists don't want to even think about it either! Suffice it to say that it wouldn't be a good thing!

So Bob, Is It Too Late To Save The Empire?

First of all, I have faith in our economy and the fact that Americans are resilient. I also have faith in the fact that there are self-correcting mechanisms that will kick to cushion our fall. I also think that there are steps that we, as a people can take to get our economic situation under control, but that is the subject of my next post. So, as soon as I've written it, I'll link to it and you will be able to see what Professor Bob thinks that we should do!

Here's Part II, "Is It Too Late To Save The Empire?"

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

Bob Mitchell is the president of ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc., St. Louis' largest discount/full-service real estate and mortgage company. To find out more about Bob, ValueList or our flat-fee listing program please feel free to visit our web page, valuelistre.com

Every once in a while I'll read a blog on blogging. Some of them go into the technical aspects of it. Others go into the SEO benefits, etc.

Well, today I discovered another benefit. The joy of communicating!

What happened was this, I posted a blog called, "Traffic Cameras, Good Thing or Bad" and while I only got a few comments on it, I enjoyed writing it because it got something that was bothering me off of my chest.

I'll admit, that I thought that I would get a bit more response from it and was somewhat disappointed in the lack of interest in it, but that's the way that it goes sometimes here on AR. If you're not poking fun at Broker Bryant, nobody seems to care!

Then the phone rang! On the other end was an elderly lady who had stumbled across the post on the internet and she was so happy that somebody else was bothered by these damn traffic cameras that they had taken the time to write about it. I was like, "Cool!"

Chances are she's not going to be selling a house or that I'll ever see a dime because she happened to read my post, but it still made my day! I had communicated to the universe and the universe had spoken back! How cool is that?

So, if you've ever wondered if blogging is worth the effort just remember that one of the neatest things about blogging is that you never truly know who's life you may touch with what you write. In this case, that lady and I shared a common beef. In and of itself, that might not mean anything, but the fact that she took the time to not only read what I had written, but to have also taken the time and effort to call me, made it all seem worthwhile!

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

Bob Mitchell is the president of ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc., St. Louis' largest discount/full-service real estate and mortgage company. To find out more about Bob, ValueList or our flat-fee listing program please feel free to visit our web page, valuelistre.com