Links and Minifeatures 11 08 Thursday

Carnival of Personal Finance

Congress hands Bush first veto override

"The president is standing up for the taxpayers," White House press secretary Dana Perino said. "No one is surprised that this veto is overridden. We understand that members of Congress are going to support the projects in their districts. Budgeting is about making choices and defining priorities - it doesn't mean you can have everything. This bill doesn't make the difficult choices; it says we can fund every idea out there. That's not a responsible way to budget."

The bill funds hundreds of Army Corps of Engineers projects, such as dams, sewage plants and beach restoration, that are important to local communities and their representatives. It also includes money for the hurricane-hit Gulf Coast and for Florida Everglades restoration efforts.

The majority of this bill consists of home district earmarks for the house and senate.

This goes to show there is one thing more powerful in national politics than anything else: Pork.

A matter for considerable concern: Ground said rising at Yellowstone Park

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Yellowstone National Park, once the site of a giant volcano, has begun swelling up, possibly because molten rock is accumulating beneath the surface, scientists report.

I saw a Discovery Channel documentary on this a couple years ago. Yellowstone is not merely a volcano site, it is the site if one of the most powerful volcanoes on Earth. Erupting at about 600,000 year intervals, it typically blows with 1000 times the force Mt. St. Helens did. The entire valley is an active caldera - that's why the geysers. If it goes, everything from there to Chicago could be buried under a foot or more of ash.

A very interesting development, from one of my wholesalers:

Ginnie Mae recently announced that it would no longer limit loan amounts to the one-unit conforming loan limits on mortgages guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The current limits are $417,000 ($625,500 in Alaska and Hawaii).

To support this initiative, DELETED will allow VA loans up to $700,000, effective Nov. 19. Exceptions for higher loan amounts (up to $1.5 million) will be considered on a case-by-case basis...

Talk about changing the calculus of the VA loan!

Just FYI, I'll be doing a seminar, at 7pm on the 15th at my office. This is going to become a regular feature, on second Thursdays. This month is going to be on buying foreclosure with zero down, but it's going to have a lot of applicability to people who want to do one or the other, as well as both.

Email for for directions

Next month, I choose the topic.