Hey Dave,One thing that is happening alot in my area (at least the worst neighborhoods) is thieves breaking into vacant foreclosed houses and stealing the copper pipes, and selling it by the pound to scrap dealers.

we have just heard that of today the Bank of Scotland is putting outa form that every one has to fill in broker solicitor vendor they want to put a halt to the NMD deals so every pound has to be accounted for. so we cannot walk away with any cash backs. first BOS tomorrow the rest.of the lenders creative thinking neededRegardsLes

Hey Phil, As you know it is a good time to buy in the US with the housing mark plummenting and the strength of the pound in the Euro.

Talk about Penny smart, Pound foolish!

so it would be pointless to do what youre saying. buy gold if you want protection. my buddy bought 8 pounds of gold bricks back when it was trading for around 400/oz and he stuck them in a bank safe not in his closet. now thats a sure investment Yeah Jordan, try telling a 70-year old widow that her $45k 'is cash that isn't worth anything and she shouldn't worry about protecting it'.

About this same time, I had let my weight get up over 300 pounds(I'm 5'6"!)

Pounding on a VP machine for $10 an hour sounds like a job, not fun.Jon

One of the most moronic things we've done in recent years was REDUCE the tax credit on hybrids, yet we had a HUGE TAX CREDIT for anyone who purchased one of the bigger SUVs that had a GVW over (I think it was) 5,000 pounds.

That's for an average sized house (under 2000 sf) with an average sized yard (our 80 pound German Shepherd is pretty happy playing back there).

Don't be penny wise and pound foolish.