The Slowdown.....is it here ?

[Lost Coyotes]

Okay, I'll bite one time, and then I'm not going to be drawn into a political debate. (or religious, either).
Please give me your source for that information.
Apparently I got the story all wrong.

[shamustwin]

What happened to Murph the Serf anyway?
I'm giving my economic stimuli check to my wife, cause I kept our tax refund
Which, in part went for a Rickenbacker!
Duh-bya's nice to use our taxes to give us a handout to make him look better. I say we all buy him a going away present with it.

[teeder]

Anyone who thinks our problems started with "W" has had his head in the sand. Not saying he's done everything or even most things right. It just didn't start with him. It goes way back.

[VRICKY63]

"W" has no Rickenbacker ! That's his biggest problem

[heinpete]

Rick, I guess you figured out "W"'s real problem...
However every country has the leaders it deserves...we had Helmut Kohl
He also had no Rickenbacker... is there a pattern?

[teeder]

Ah, now we're talking some sense! You guys are on to something!

[jakeox]

OK, I'll run for president next time around, because I have Rickenbackers. You guys will vote for me, right?

I still think prices are way higher than they were this time last year. The run of the mill Ricks in particular are going for much more than they used to, and some of the more rare models are still seeing some high sales prices. Maybe more of these sales are going overseas, though, I don't have a good sense of who's buying.

[johnallg]

Anyone who thinks our problems started with "W" has had his head in the sand. Not saying he's done everything or even most things right. It just didn't start with him. It goes way back.

It at least goes back to when Congress decided not to cut spending, but to borrow the "surplus" out of the Social Security funds, leaving a nice IOU note in the coffers, to balance the budget. Now when the Boomers are beginning to draw SS, all of a sudden like, there isn't going to be enough to cover all the payments that will be needed. We all contributed to the SS fund in good faith (more like our "contributions" were withheld with no say from us) and now we learn it probably won't be there when we are supposed to draw it out. I realized this back in the mid-80s when 401k accounts were first started. I decided at that time not to count on getting any check from SS, to save as much as possible towards my retirement, and if I did get any SS checks, to count them as a bonus.

Meanwhile our kids and grandkids will be carrying the load of our congressional excesses.

[johnallg]

Damn,

Ours is going to the "Our daughter needs braces" fund.

BTDT, twice. They are 28 and 25 now and have great looking teeth though.

[chefothefuture]

The point I was originaly making was that it was a pretty silly idea
for the gov't to borrow the money to do the refunds. Since there is allready
a huge debt, why make it worse?

Yes- Rickenbackers in the White House would be a cool thing....

[nukebass]

I would argue there is no reason to not be able to afford to give the supposed "rebates" with a nearly 3 trillion dollar budget. To really boost the economy, which isn't as bad overall as the current perception seems to be, we need an across the board tax cut. Less tax equals more money to spend on Rickenbackers!!!!! I'd do my part to boost the economy; I've proven that already

When the dollar recovers, the production cost on a lot of items should go down a little (imports and oil based products should be cheaper). I don't know if that will really translate into street price reductions of some of our favorite things (such as guitars...), but I imagine it would stave off further price increases for a while.

[sloop_john_b]

Make sure she wears her retainer, Tony. I didn't after three years of braces and, well, you'd never know I had 'em.

[johneek]

Damn,

Ours is going to the "Our daughter needs braces" fund.

BTDT, twice. They are 28 and 25 now and have great looking teeth though.

BTDT 4 times...one staring grad school in the Fall, another off to UVA....mine is destined for the, "I need a laptop for school" fund.

BTW, JB's advice above about retainers is right on the money.....

[johnallg]

Make sure she wears her retainer, Tony. I didn't after three years of braces and, well, you'd never know I had 'em.

I was surprised to find out both girls sleep with the retainer in still, many years after. Like I said though, I noticed on the Easter weekend when we were all together, their teeth are just about perfectly aligned still.

[s4001]

I say we organize a million Ric march on Washington.