But, no matter. If you max out on one card, just return the pre-printed form you got in the mail yesterday and another $2,500 to $5,000 in free money becomes available today for you to buy whatever decide you want tomorrow.
And for those who couldn't wait to score big in the housing boom:
"Among the most exposed are those who bought into one of the great fads in mortgage lending in recent years - adjustable rates - [which are] scheduled to readjust to a higher interest rate for the first time…"
Want a bigger house right now? No problem. We have a whole array of esoteric mortgage products available for you.
Of course, you are betting on interest rates remaining low and resale prices remaining high. If you lose the bet on either one, you may also lose your house.
Those who have lost the bet will try to unload the house they can't (and never could) afford driving housing prices below what the banks have lent, causing a national mortgage margin call which will lead to more houses being dumped on the market which will then lead to … a call for the federal government to bail out everyone whose every expectation was not immediately met.
Robert Browning wrote in 1855: "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?"
The problem with Americans is we expect our reach, should it exceed our grasp (thus creating an expectation gap), to be met by our government; not by a hand up, but by a handout.
On the Secret Decoder Ring Page today: Links to the Washington Post piece and to the poem by Robert Browning (which, if you attempt to read you will certainly turn to stone); plus a darkly Metaphorical Mullfoto; and the worst pun in the past 2,000 years as the Catchy Caption of the Day.