[kickback]

:agree: I do remember it very well. I also remember that it took a bold economic policy from our next president to get us out of the Carter mess. The difference this time is that the economic policy of our new president just wont work. BTW It was worse then than it is right now but you wouldn't know it by what is being reported by the media. We haven't got to double digit inflation and unemployment yet. JMHO

True, as you say, yet, we're headed that way. It sounds like Harley is betting that in the near future 15% is going to look like a bargain when the Fed is forced to raise rates to fight hyper inflation.

 

[3putt]

Quote:
Hopefully, most of us Wingnuts are old enough to remember the Jimmy Cater administration. Remember...Peanut farmer...Change...Well, we are there again and the same thing is about to happen. You don't need a Ph.D in economics to see this one coming at you


IMO, it is usually not the president at the time who caused the problem. Carter was president just after the Vietnam war whereby the the government printed a bunch of money to pay for it. Inflation naturally came along just as it will after our current economic policy. President Clinton enjoyed the Bill Gates computer years when trillions of dollars came into this country. That period slowed drastically for the Bush years and the added wars and the stupid lending program will cause an even greater round of inflation. I believe that our government is very corrupt and most of congress does not have the courage to vote for whats good for America for the long haul. They vote simply to get reelected and that causes problems.

 

[hondaglide]

Quote:
I believe that our government is very corrupt and most of congress does not have the courage to vote for whats good for America for the long haul. They vote simply to get reelected and that causes problems.

This is invariably the bottom line: a politican is only or mostly concerned with

--getting elected
--retaining their elected position

They will do whatever it takes to achieve the above and the better we understand this the better off we'll all be.

 

[LDimick]

Quote:
Hopefully, most of us Wingnuts are old enough to remember the Jimmy Cater administration. Remember...Peanut farmer...Change...Well, we are there again and the same thing is about to happen. You don't need a Ph.D in economics to see this one coming at you


quote]

And before Carter it was NIxon. Remember WIN? Whip Inflation Now and the 90 day price freeze?

It took a LONG time to get over that mess.

 

[Circles]

Anybody that borrows money at 15% in in serious trouble. You can bet that Buffett has some gotchas in that agreement to make sure he comes out whole. If he really wanted HD he would just start buying up the stock like he has with many other companies. In this case he is just making a buck, he is not taking an equity position in HD. For Berkshire, that is probably a small loan and worth the risk for 15%.

 

[BigBugKiller]

I was at my HD dealership today and we discussed this loan or investment. The salesman said the money went into Harley's fin division. In other words the money would be used to fin new bikes for less than prime time buyers. Haley fin now sales bikes from 8.5 to as high as 22% he said. So I guess it's not bad for HD to borrow money at 15 and loan it at 22 when it's also moving a bike off the floor that might not have been sold other wise.