Quoted from necro_nemesis

I was taking more of a clean slate approach. Take the current personal debt situation and give people an incentive to get it down, but take away the incentive if you borrow more. With interest rates so low there is no incentive for fiscal responsibility. Instead of an incentive to throw money at these CEO's to squander, at least we could pay down our debts.

But those low interest rates you mention are for new loans. There's plenty of incentive to pay down currently held loans with fixed rates. Of course this is different if you are referring to variable rate loans. Or do I have no idea what I'm talking about? (as usual)

Hey Norts (Nortel guys), hope all the best...I have many other "non-pin" friends that are also in the same 'predicament'...

And to say that in the late 90s, a friend of mine (who was laid off, to go back 3 yrs later) tried to coerce me to get out of the federal gov't to come to Nortel...more $$$, stock, etc... I'm happy that I declined at that time (although it WAS a tough decision), but on the other hand, I feel your pain...unfortunately, although it'll be a problem in a few years due to massive retirement, there's not a lot of IT hiring in the gov't...

BTW, not to be an a$$, but Nortel stock his $125, not $1250... We have an ex-Nort guy here and it looks like he'll be working for a while (he's in his 40s) as his "freedom 55" retirement savings plan consisted of Nortel Stock, this his new plan is more aptly called "Freedom 75". Probably you've seen the infamous joke between invest in Beer vs. Nortel stock?

it sux...

Good Luck!

mes deux cennes,
Frosken

Quoted from jonny_eh

But those low interest rates you mention are for new loans.

Unless your locked into something like a fixed rate mortgage or bullshit car loan, there really is no such thing as a long term loan. If you have a good credit rating you borrow where money is cheapest and pay off the loans that are at higher rates. If you aren't getting a good rate by now with the rates being low for some time, your doing something wrong.

I was never loyal to one bank or another. They all played the interest rate game come refinance time which made me not want to give any of them my loyalty. When I paid my mortgage off they all came knocking on my door wanting to load me money. Where the hell were they when I was struggling to finance my first house?

Banks put their trust in assests and not people. What goes around comes around and therefore no loyalty to anyone of them.

Quoted from frosken

BTW, not to be an a$$, but Nortel stock his $125, not $1250...

Frosken

$1250 factors in the 10:1 reverse split from 2006.

Quoted from jonny_eh

If you could allow debt payment write-offs, then wouldn't that encourage people to gather debt just to pay it off and get the tax credit?

I think what necro was trying to say is that the Canadian Government gives you an income tax deduction on the interest for investment loans (to buy stocks, etc) but you are not allowed to deduct the interest you pay on your mortgage or car loan.

In the US - the interest you pay on your mortgage is tax deductible, for whatever reason the Canadian government does not allow that.

Quoted from newf112

$1250 factors in the 10:1 reverse split from 2006.

Correct.

The top stock price "was"  $125,
but the stock has since reversed-split 10:1  (ie. 10 shares became 1 share ),
so today's current price of 7cents is actually the value of 10 "old shares"  (combined!)
which would have been worth $1250 before the reverse split.

Trust me Frosken, we are all WELL aware of how much money we all lost...    

Steph

You guys are absolutely right about the greed that has so infected western society.

Funny thing is when I used to go home (to the US) and if you even mentioned about corporate execs being greedy - you'd be pretty much called a communist.  Remember when Obama told Joe the plumber his plan was to spread the wealth around and McCain and the republicans jumped all over him?  Then the scandals hit and everyone suddenly sees the light.  
Having spent extensive time in both countries its pretty clear that Canadians have a much stronger sense that everyone from the CEO to the secretary should share in the wealth to some degree.

I still find it absolutely incredible that Bernie Madoff stole $50 billion dollars - the largest individual fraud in the history of the world and the judge in his case has given him bail - which means he is confined to his $7 million dollar condo in New York with his own personal chef and maids, etc.  He was caught with $173 million dollars worth of cheques in his desk (money that belonged to investors) and the cheques were all made out to friends and family.  After he got bail - he was caught mailing out over $1 million dollars in jewelry, etc to family members (a blatant violation of his bail conditions) yet the judge still refused to put him behind bars.

I guess the lesson is if you are going to steal - make sure you steal BIG!

Quoted from jayd

I guess the lesson is if you are going to steal - make sure you steal BIG!

Not only that the guy can afford the best legal counsel money can buy with the victims money. How is that for adding insult to injury?

Quoted from Steph

For those who haven't heard , Nortel Networks has filed for Bankruptcy protection this morning.

There are several of us here a Nortel  (Me, Sylvain, Tuborg, Newf112,  [others? ] )
who are probably dusting off their CV's this morning ... sighh...

Hang in there, Steph!  I know things look bleak right now, but maybe things will turn around again.

I went through job re-assignment 9 years ago...and it's a depressing process.  I was given some really good advice at the time, which was "when one door closes, other doors open".  It's true.

Best of luck to all of you at Nortel.

Quoted from Steph

There are several of us here a Nortel  (Me, Sylvain, Tuborg, Newf112,  [others? ] )
who are probably dusting off their CV's this morning ... sighh...

Wow... I had no idea there were so many CV's in the Ottawa region. And are you really neglecting them so much that they collect dust! That's sad. And wrong. Just wrong.  


Wait.... I think I'm confusing my pin abbreviations with something else.  



I hope it all works out for the best, guys!!

Quoted from necro_nemesis

Not only that the guy can afford the best legal counsel money can buy with the victims money. How is that for adding insult to injury?

He can buy the courtroom as well.

Quoted from necro_nemesis

Unless your locked into something like a fixed rate mortgage or bullshit car loan, there really is no such thing as a long term loan. If you have a good credit rating you borrow where money is cheapest and pay off the loans that are at higher rates. If you aren't getting a good rate by now with the rates being low for some time, your doing something wrong.

I was never loyal to one bank or another. They all played the interest rate game come refinance time which made me not want to give any of them my loyalty. When I paid my mortgage off they all came knocking on my door wanting to load me money. Where the hell were they when I was struggling to finance my first house?

Banks put their trust in assests and not people. What goes around comes around and therefore no loyalty to anyone of them.

Ya, I made the goof up of buying my house with a 5 year fixed mortgage, ugh. I also just paid off my car loan, so no longer need to worry about that! What a great feeling!

Quoted from jayd

I still find it absolutely incredible that Bernie Madoff stole $50 billion dollars - the largest individual fraud in the history of the world and the judge in his case has given him bail - which means he is confined to his $7 million dollar condo in New York with his own personal chef and maids, etc.  He was caught with $173 million dollars worth of cheques in his desk (money that belonged to investors) and the cheques were all made out to friends and family.  After he got bail - he was caught mailing out over $1 million dollars in jewelry, etc to family members (a blatant violation of his bail conditions) yet the judge still refused to put him behind bars.

I guess the lesson is if you are going to steal - make sure you steal BIG!

First of all, innocent until proven guilty. That means we don't keep people in prison unless we think they might ditch the country before the trial. The judge decided that Madoff wasn't a flight risk, so there ya go. Don't worry, if he's guilty he'll do time. Just look at Conrad Black, his fancy lawyers didn't help him one bit!