Obama Cabinet

"Good Morning America" news anchor Chris Cuomo conducted a surprisingly tough interview with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday, grilling her on the lack of accountability for how 2008's financial bailout money has been spent. He told the powerful Democrat, "...I think there are a few issues that unite Americans like this. Don't waste our money, especially right now."
[NewsBusters.org]

Regarding the news that Congress doesn't know how much of the $350 billion T.A.R.P has been spent, Cuomo challenged, "Why didn't savvy lawmakers like yourself, like Barney Frank, say, 'We're not going to just release this money with no strings. We'll build it in the law. We'll build in accountability?' Why didn't you do that?"

When the Speaker of the House attempted to pass blame off to President Bush, the ABC journalist retorted, "Are you saying that you can promise the American people, that going forward, with your president and your party, things will be different? That they will know where the money is?" During a discussion of the possible distribution of the second $350 billion funds, Pelosi again blamed Bush. Regarding that money, Cuomo proclaimed, "I guess the way to say it, this will be on Obama's account. Not on Bush's account, how this money is spent."

After Cuomo called for no more pointing at the administration and saying, "Well, they screwed up T.A.R.P.," a unrepentant Pelosi attacked back, "Well, they did. But they did." The GMA news anchor closed out the discussion by again instructing, "Now, it's you. It really is you by any other definition."

Cuomo did offer some softball questions for the liberal congresswoman. On the topic of a children's health care program, he blandly wondered, "With everything that's going on, this is a very important first step for you. You want this high on the agenda. Why?" The network host followed up with the equally uninteresting query: "So, what is the message that you're hoping to send by bringing this up early? And I guess, with your hopes, getting passage, with a President Obama?" But, overall, Cuomo should be commended for pressing the House Speaker on accountability.

A transcript of the January 14 segment, which aired at 7:15, follows:

CHRIS CUOMO: We have an exclusive interview for you this morning, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. About to enter a new era with a Democrat in the White House. The big issue, of course, is the economy and the problem the government has had managing the use of your tax dollars. What went wrong with the first $350 billion? What will be different going forward? That's where we started with the speaker in her Capitol Hill office. Why didn't savvy lawmakers like yourself, like Barney Frank, say, 'We're not going to just release this money with no strings. We'll build it in the law. We'll build in accountability?' Why didn't you do that?

HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI: Well, we did build it in, by having an oversight committee and an inspector general. But that- the next thing we could do was to go down to Pennsylvania Avenue with a set of handcuffs and say to them you're no longer allowed to enforce this law because you're not doing it right. Instead, we had an election. And we changed the country. And now we have a new president.

CUOMO: But, Congress passed the law.

PELOSI: Right. We passed the law. The President-

CUOMO: You could have put in the conditions. There were other things in there.

PELOSI: We did put in the conditions. We did put in conditions.

CUOMO: But now you know in retrospect they aren't enough, right?

PELOSI: Well, you don't expect somebody to give somebody tens of billions of dollars and say, don't tell me how you're going to spend it. There was a purpose for the money, but they did not insist upon it.

CUOMO: I mean, I think there are a few issues that unite Americans like this. Don't waste our money, especially right now. And a situation you all have to deal with the new president is, you have Citibank, Morgan Stanley thinking about merging. It just gets slipped out in the news that they're reserving $2 to $3 billion, for retention payments. We both know that word means one thing. Bonuses.

PELOSI: Bonuses. Well, let me say this: There's nobody more disappointed than how the Bush administration executed the T.A.R.P. law, than the members of Congress who sent the bill to them. And so, yes. When people see bonuses under any name, whatever they want to call them, they're fighting words for the members.

CUOMO: Haven't heard anybody complaining about the Citigroup/Morgan Stanley, $3 billion in retention payments. Barney Frank, he's no shrinking violet. Haven't heard him come out about this. You know, where's the outrage?

PELOSI: Well, the- You talk anecdotally about one thing or another. There's tremendous outrage about CEO compensation in general.

CUOMO: Are you saying that you can promise the American people, that going forward, with your president and your party, things will be different? That they will know where the money is?

PELOSI: Things will be different because we will have a president who will enforce the law. And, again, with the light of transparency that will be built into any new- if there is to be anymore T.A.R.P. funding.

CUOMO: Well, he's asking for $350 billion.

PELOSI: President Bush has sent over the request. He sent it over yesterday.

CUOMO: For Obama. It's not that it's being asked for by Bush. He wants it. He asked for it.

PELOSI: No, no. The official request has been made by President Bush.

CUOMO: Because he's the president.

PELOSI: That's right.

CUOMO: But, he's asking for it because President-elect Obama wants it.

PELOSI: Well, he's asking for it because he wants President Obama to be identified with it. But we're comfortable with that because President Obama will enforced the law in a completely different way.

CUOMO: This money- I guess the way to say it, this will be on Obama's account. Not on Bush's account, how this money is spent.

PELOSI: Absolutely.

CUOMO: And the responsibility is on the Democrats, because there will be no more just pointing at the administration and saying, 'Well, they screwed up T.A.R.P.' 'Well, they got us in this mess.'

PELOSI: Well, they did. But they did.

CUOMO: Now, it's you. It really is you by any other definition.

PELOSI: And you will see a difference.

CUOMO: Pelosi could not be more confident about better days to come under President-elect Obama, an administration whose first legislative achievement won't deal with the economy, but health care. A program the speaker and President Bush were at odds over. This state child health insurance program. With everything that's going on, this is a very important first step for you. You want this high on the agenda. Why?

PELOSI: Over 11 million children will have access to health care cause of this legislation. In the previous administration, President Bush said we couldn't afford it. It would cost 40 days in Iraq to insure over 10 million children for one year. Certainly, we can afford it.

CUOMO: So, what is the message that you're hoping to send by bringing this up early? And I guess, with your hopes, getting passage, with a President Obama?

PELOSI: Well, that a new day has dawned. President Bush objected. President Obama supports it. And supports providing health care for our children. It's a shared value that we have in a bipartisan way in the Congress. And now, with the president of the United States.

CUOMO: Thank you very much for taking the time to do the interview.

PELOSI: My pleasure.

CUOMO: Appreciate the opportunity.

Barack Obama's Impact On the Project Management World

Barack Obama's imminent presidential inauguration has been predicted by many to have significant impacts in various, if not all, industries. Given the current challenges, there will, inevitably, be ever-changing priorities on his to-do list, in the way that some elements will remain consistent. Let's have a look at how these elements are bound to transform.

Let's have a look at five priority areas. Here is my take on how they might influence project and program management:

1. Health care reform. Reform in health care is aimed at controlling costs and making health care more available and more affordable to many more people in the United States. On the cost control side, it would seem that we can expect companies and organizations of all sorts will put an increasing emphasis on accelerating cost-containment in their organizations. These methods are already in operation, possibly, but there remain untested policy initiatives that could speed up and make more efficient these methods.

Projects of the Six Sigma nature should be incorporated more into health care projects, particularly among care providers and employees of pharmaceutical firms. It could include rethinking of priorities in favor of cost control and containment. Based upon many statements made, we can expect emphasis on more efficient information systems to manage personal and general health care information. The move to make health care available to most, or all, American citizens would seem to be quite a logistical and administrative challenge, spawning further projects in information technology and records management.

2. Energy. There has been a lot of talk about energy throughout the campaign, and hopefully not everything will shift as dramatically as energy prices have! But I think this will be a continuing source of projects of all sorts, and virtually everything in the energy field is big and requires expert project management skills. There are tremendous logistical and operational challenges throughout the whole supply chain, from extraction all the way through getting product to the consumer. Keeping some semblance of balance in that supply chain, especially in the face of erratic pricing and markets, makes that even more challenging.

There is likely to be an increased interest in alternative energy sources, including an emphasis on natural gas, drilling in new areas, wind energy, and solar energy. The key factor in my mind is the economics of each and tracking the variability in those factors, so that when changes come projects can be started rapidly. Given that most of these are large capital intensive projects, and that they are long term in nature, they will be hard to stop once started, and project selection and portfolio management will require exceptional skill.

3. Tax reform. Much emphasis has been put on tax fairness. This has been a clear indication that higher income individuals will receive higher tax rates. This could have an effect on consumer spending and possibly investment, thus effecting projects accordingly. It also may be that capital gains taxes will increase, and this will have a direct impact on the viability of projects many projects. The question is, how much of an impact, and specifically where?

My guess is that these tax policy changes will have a marginal impact as far as project managers go. I believe that those viable projects will remain viable, and only a few from the status quo will have to be changed. Of course in the short term, at least, the availability of money to finance many projects is a huge factor.

4. Education. Frankly, I am not sure at all what education reforms might be viable, but here are some ideas. Any educational service related to technology and the bringing of books, virtual classrooms, and interactive learning that bring efficiencies to the educational process will be considered. Other things that I think will be considered relate to customization of educational services or segments, such as charter schools who want to make their own innovative programs.

There may also be some macro changes in the educational system, related to local versus broader control of education. This type of thing would likely spawn information technology projects aimed at tying together information across local domains. Other changes in this area could relate to sharing teaching resources and flexibility across educational domains for both students and teachers.

5. Regulatory reform and infrastructure spending. There will likely an increased number of regulatory reform projects related to new financial regulations probably at the top of the list, just as there have been a plethora of Sarbanes-Oxley projects in the last few years, though there will be an increasing number of projects of that sort with the new changes to come.

We're Too Damned Fat, America!

Last Spring I wrote an article on America's weight problem, a short piece based mostly on my personal views and observations. Since then I have been reading more on the dilemma and have become a more avid 'weight watcher'. (No, not my own as I still need to lose some excess pounds to reach my optimum weight.) I have been watching other people a little more closely - making mental notes of what I see - and have been appalled at what I observe in my everyday travels about town. Fat people galore! - especially young people who should never be in that condition.

By young people I mean those between the ages of 15 to 35 years old. From this group the majority of future health problems - and costs - are going to leap upon us as a society. These are the people who should now be targeted for changing their lifestyles to eliminate the causes of being overweight. These are the individuals most moldable now whose behaviors can be modified more easily than older fatties before irreversible harm has been done to their bodies.

While it may not be politically correct to ridicule overweight people, the time has come to fully and publicly recognize the extent of the problem of Americans being overweight. It is apparent that we have reached a near epidemic of fatness and obesity in our society. While this may be an appearance detractor, played to by television advertising for any number of weight reduction gimmicks, more importantly it is a health problem creeping up on us and is going to be pandemic in our country with costly consequences.

How bad is the problem? Very bad according to the Centers for Disease Control and other government agencies and medical organizations monitoring the situation. Factually, more than 65% of adult Americans are currently overweight. More than 20% of our children are similarly affected by this condition. More than one third of adult Americans go beyond being overweight - they are considered obese, fat to the extent it is extreme. This equates to more than 70 million potential health problems which will significantly impact the health care system of the United States in the not so distant future. This is not a problem to ignore as it is predicted by medical experts to be much worse in the near term. By 2015 - a mere six years from now - the percent of adult Americans considered overweight will approach 75% and obesity will increase to over 40%. Alarming, isn't it?

Obesity kills! The incidences of Type 2 diabetes are growing at an alarming rate, more than doubling over the past 30 years in consonance with increasing levels of obesity. Heart disease is similarly on the increase as are a number of other ailments related to being overweight. Studies and reports can be easily found in numerous government and medical publications, but they don't seem to attract the attention of anyone other than medical experts. They certainly haven't swayed the general public if the fat statistics are to be believed. We get fatter as a nation by the year.

Yet, little is being done to correct the situation and change lifestyles of Americans, especially our youth. The government and medical organizations have published reports on the problem repeatedly. Who reads government reports? Not many of us - particularly not our fast food chomping youth who have been raised on high calorie meals of cheeseburgers and french fries, tacos and lard laden burritos, and other fast food fat producing short cuts to a healthy diet. Our American youngsters have been 'supersized' by the fast food industry - and negligent parents - to the extent they are now to an alarming degree overweight, unfit, and, in a significantly increasing number, obese.

Our society - particularly our youth - has become increasingly sedimentary forsaking real exercise for television reality shows and spectator sports - watching rather than doing - and playing computer action games rather than getting outdoors and becoming involved with bona fide action games as in playing rigorously. The lack of any actually strenuous daily activities involving working up a little sweat is causing this problem. (That and our poor choices of food in our diets.) Americans, I fear, have become lazy when it comes to getting enough exercise to ward off becoming overweight.

The simple fact that even a daily brisk walk of about three miles would be highly beneficial if combined with a reduction in calories by eating less fast food. Playing PlayStation for hours on end has no benefit at all in ridding ourselves of excess fat. Neither does hours of couch - sitting while watching the twaddle on television that has become our entertainment.

As Americans, we basically consume too much fat in our daily diet and get too little exercise. The problem is as simple as that - easily curable and reversed. But not without some education, effort, and headship by our leaders.

In a recent column, Morton Kondracke (Roll Call) called upon President - elect Barack Obama to make this a priority early in his administration, to declare a war on obesity, and to encourage Americans to join him in slimming the country down. Kondracke points out that Barack is one who Americans would follow in the battle to eat better, exercise more, and loose the fat now dragging us all into a health crisis. Morton states "…Obama is singularly positioned to lead the charge against excess flab: he's lean, he exercises, and he can set a great example for getting the nation fit again."

The new President certainly has enough wars to deal with. But a new war - on obesity -can be easily engaged, promoted, and won. We just need someone like Barack - and perhaps other influential leaders in the sports field - to declare it an immediately necessary ongoing battle and encourage the general populace, especially young people, to join the ranks of all Americans in the fight to rid ourselves of this burdensome and dangerous health concern. The young are enthusiastic over the election of Barack and will undoubtedly follow his marching orders to get up off the couch, drop that cheeseburger, and get fit. (President Kennedy encouraged youth fitness as important to our society as have other Presidents. None have had the success Barack would have as an example of an active and fit adult.)

That is an excellent possible solution to an imminent, though silent, disaster looming on our horizon. It would not be costly, it would not take an excess effort, and it would be effective and nearly immediate in its taking hold. If Barack simply stated in his first speeches on health care that we can all help solve the problem by diet and exercise, people would understand and get on board. We all know through observing those around us and looking in the mirror that most of us need to shed a few pounds and we all know we need to get involved in a more active lifestyle. We recognize that we spend too much time on the couch and not enough time outdoors. Barack could prompt us to change. After all, he damned the status quo of the health care system and promised change when campaigning. This type of change would be, most likely, the easiest thing to do in his administration. And, one to produce credible, effective, and long lasting benefits.

Parents can neither escape criticism for this growing problem nor can they shrink from their own responsibility in solving it. Parents promote the inevitable fatness of their children by condoning calorie laden fast foods, sodas, and other unhealthy choices. They allow sedentary behavior. In fact, they set the example many times with their own. An active parent is almost always an example for encouraging a child to follow suit. As a parent, get your kids up off their chairs, out from behind those computer screens, away from the malls and fast food shops, and instead get them active in action playing requiring physical exertion. Do your part.

As I stated at the beginning, I am an avid weight watcher. And I don't like who I see walking around the shopping centers gobbling a fatty snack from a fast food purveyor while quaffing a supersized cola of some sort. Fat people galore! Young fat people which is most disturbing. Yes, we're too damned fat, America, and we need to do something about it! Now!

The Good and Bad of 2009

2008 has turned out to be the worst year for financial markets I can remember, and a lot worse than I expected. The S&P/ASX200 will be down close to 40% for the year while global markets have performed much the same. In contrast, the Australian economy has held up better than expected, with unemployment barely rising and most companies only feeling the impact of the world slowdown very late in the year. The huge amount of global deleveraging (the reduction of borrowed money) that we are seeing has had most impact on the economies with large financial sectors, particularly the US and UK.

Tough year ahead

As we move into 2009 the level of pessimism is deepening and most expect it to be another tough year. It is possible, however, that we will see the reverse pattern to 2008, with markets showing resilience, even as economic conditions are likely to deteriorate. This would not be unusual, especially given the amount of policy stimulus that has already been thrown at the economic crisis and given that all policy makers have expressed willingness to continue on this path. Let's look at the policy responses - which cover both monetary (or quantitative) and fiscal measures:

Policy responses will soothe the pain

First, we now have zero interest rate policies (quantitative easing) in the two largest world economies - the US and Japan - with the UK and Europe looking to be moving rapidly in the same direction. Australian interest rates are moving towards 4% and could go a lot lower. The 40% fall in the A$ is an additional boost that will be very supportive of our economy and markets in the coming year.

What does this monetary easing mean? For the economy, it soothes the pain of deleveraging, by lowering or offsetting, much of the rising interest burden caused by the credit crunch. In countries moving to a zero interest rate policy, it means the central banks are actually buying back from the market the debt securities that no one else wants and quantitatively forcing up the supply of money. With inflation still positive (ie negative real rates of interest), this is a big incentive for consumers and business to start spending again.

If we are moving into a true deflationary crisis for the economy, where low interest rates have limited impact, then it is important to see fiscal policy fill the void left by falling demand. To date, the fiscal responses we have seen from across the industrial world have been encouraging. Unlike the 1930s, governments do understand the need to let the budget position move into deficit during down-cycles. Further US fiscal support is likely in the first quarter of 2009 with the arrival of Obama and his new team.

Bad economic news, but perhaps good news for markets

These policy impacts will, however, take time to offset the negative momentum that was allowed to build up in the later part of 2008. For that reason, I would expect further bad economic news, especially here in Australia, where we have lagged this cycle. Ironically, while the economic news will probably get worse, the chances of a market rebound are improving. In financial markets, cash is now piling up fast, with individuals and institutions facing rapid declines in the overall income they are getting from their portfolio. For the first time I can recall, dividend yields are now higher than risk free rates of return in almost every major country and many investors have allowed their equity exposures to fall below long-run targets. I expect this combination means investors gradually look to rebalance back to equities, and that a substantial short-covering rally is likely in the first half of 2009.

How BTIM portfolios are positioned

Our portfolios remain focused on quality large-cap companies and securities (under-weight smaller leveraged companies and sectors). We also favour international markets and have stayed underweight Australian equities (the falling A$ has really helped this strategy). Assuming the world economy does respond to the "wall of money" stimulus coming from governments globally, then it is likely that, here at BTIM, we will start to add to Australian equities and the smaller, leveraged companies in the New Year, and trim international equities and cash.

Eloquent Reminders For Planning Your 2009 Business Ventures: Very, Very Hot!

Having a recap for 2008 took around a full hour for some TV channels and around four full weeks of December, every single day until the New Year for other media channels. But putting it in simpler terms where you do not have to waste your precious time, a precise in-a-nutshell recap of 2008 most important realities that had some type of effect can be resumed in as little as one sentence or a simple article so you consider what you should choose to do in 2009 and what might happen if you elect to do nothing.

Year 2008 for the economy went in precise as: the famous bubble burst is finally out in the media, how much is worth your home right now and how much you owe on it or what's the appreciated value? Second, everything in regards to or that can be associated with treasury, starts warming up. At this time lies about investing your money on many investing opportunities start jumping in many magazines and sufficient amount of TV channels for people who decided to have a keen eye on patterns for potential economy nightmares. Check some of my interesting articles and predictions back in 2006 and 2007.

Interesting, CDs begin having different set of patterns according to some newsworthy news. You check resources like the Morning Star online and some forums and the correct English term is swaps. Swaps and investments take place to protect the ultra rich and investors with equivalent power to avoid financial pockets of value to personally go bankrupt! Interesting, for some reasons a company called Enron boggled my mind as continue writing. Then, the mortgage collapse!

At this time for your own health you could not turn the TV on. You had from 2 to 100 financial experts or gurus talking about finances. But hey, without being sarcastic - many of say it's good TV! Around this time, greed hit gas prices. For some reason, not every Arab likes the US! Next in no particular chronological order of historic disaster you have Lehman Brothers and bigger companies flocking into financial disaster.

At this time some international minds light a Cuban tobacco and interesting enough oil prices go record high. At this time, you probably said to yourself: do I need a BMW, Infiniti, Mercedes or a nice car to look or be even hotter? Or perhaps you predicted this much earlier and dump unnecessary luxuries. Then, the amount of corruption, fraud and coercion begins.

A prudent next step begins after, the bailout begins. Some if not all of 2006 and 2007 tax dollars are given to save Wall Street and million dollar parties among those who got richer or saved by the bailout go bigger than previous year as far recording and some TV news channels let us know. Unfortunately, it isn't wishful thinking! It was and continues to be reality.

Then my next door neighbor boughs a shotgun! An economic freeze began at such times and 401k gets bigger volatile hits in people with such investments. Finally Obama wins and millions of people see him as the savior and winning strategist of the influential or should I say, past irresponsible leader leading America?

In ending review, if you had or already have multiple successful correctly ran businesses running on the internet: you survived or thrived on the worst of those days. If you did not, you learned a powerful lesson that should not ever repeat itself as you gain knowledge and experience. My question would be, what would you do in 2009 and every other year to thrive?

The Obama Factor - Does the US Hold The Solution to the Sub-Prime Crisis?

The economic crisis that has enveloped the 'developed' world has it origins in the US mortgage market - or to be more accurate the 'boom' in the housing market and the inevitable 'bust' that followed it. Symptoms of the 'boom' included consumers drunk on irresponsible lending by the banks, on properties that they could ill afford, and borrowing well beyond their means. America has been a scapegoat, as many lenders in the UK behaved erroneously on the FSA watch. Self declaration of income only encouraged unaffordable loans. Plenty were warned but no one listened.

Over the past few days, Harvard economist Robert Shiller has been in the UK. Shiller is a Harvard economist who predicted the dot com bubble burst and the current mortgage crisis. He has been meeting with, amongst others, Gordon Brown and Mervin King to offer his perspective on the lending crisis and how it can be resolved. There have been similarities between the reactions of the UK and the US to date. For example, the recent cut in interest rates to 2% by the Bank of England comes at a time when the Federal Reserve is set to slash borrowing rates to zero. Our transatlantic cousins are generally seen as being further through the 'bust' period than us, and many economists predict it will only be a matter of time before the UK interest rates are at an unprecedented 0%.

Remortgages and mortgages should track the same borrowing formula. I.E. if a bank borrow at libor they lend at libor plus. If they borrow at base, they lend at base plus. Mortgages with rate spikes are not needed, and long term fixed rate mortgages as per America should be encouraged. All lending should be regulated by one regulator. 'Flash Gordon' Brown was hailed as a superhero and saviour of the economy on both sides of the Atlantic when he came up with the bank bailout plan, but this has had intangible effects for the average homeowner and consumer to date.

There have been signs in recent days that the Bank of England is turning to increasingly drastic measures (a la USA), in a bid to get banks lending again. Alistair Darling recently announced that he was looking to implement the recommendation in the Crosby report to guarantee securities backed by new mortgages. This follows the Federal Reserve's announcement that it will purchase half a trillion dollars in mortgage backed securities in the States. This is a great idea. It moves the problem cases to a new body who have to have the ability to resolve unaffordability, reduce balances, extend term etc, otherwise it is still a repossession ,but by a different institution. Any regulated lender should have access to the scheme.

At the end of the day, the US and UK economies are different animals. The UK economy is reliant on property and the banking system. The US has industries such as manufacturing to fall back on. If channels of lending are to open up again, we need to take a 'back to basics approach.' This means that lenders, brokers and borrowers all take their fair share of responsibility, and accurate and proper criteria is applied when gauging the affordability of loans. Whether secured, unsecured or mortgage based

Obama Foresees Years Of Trillion $ Deficits!

President Elect, Barack Obama prophesized yesterday that the U.S. would see "trillion-dollar deficits for years to come", and added that the country will need to continue spending taxpayer dollars in order to get the economy back on track.

Obama, who was speaking to reporters at his Washington transition office, admitted that he didn't want to get into specific budget numbers because his proposal is still to be worked out with lawmakers and has yet to be submitted for debate, but he did caution that he expects a trillion-dollar deficit before the next fiscal-year budget is even proposed.

"We're already looking at a trillion-dollar budget deficit or close to a trillion-dollar budget deficit, and that potentially we've got trillion-dollar deficits for years to come, even with the economic recovery that we are working on at this point".

When asked to answer to the numerous concerns related to increased deficit spending, Obama said, "We know that we're going to have to spend money to jump-start the economy".

Obama added that he is plans to establish an oversight board that will meet publicly and then issue reports to Congress on how the money is being spent.

This is the first time for sixteen years that Democrats have controlled both houses of Congress and we might finally see a somewhat fruitful session if Obama is able to muster Republican support for his initiatives and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., promised on Monday as she welcomed Obama to her office, "We will hit the ground running, to address the pain being felt by the American people".

Democrats will soon attempt to use their bolstered majority to push through several changes to House rules which include a repeal of the six-year term limit for committee chairmen which is a rule that was imposed when Republicans took control of the Congress in 1995.

Life is obviously going to get harder over the next few years but people can at least try to forestall approaching foreclosures and bankruptcies and some advice on how to do so can be found on a small network of sites at http://home-loan-help.org