interests and interest
According to Karl, Now and Then Books in downtown Kitchener\'s on its last legs (again). So I ran down at lunch and picked up my Doctor Who Magazine subscription. This is a little irritating, since I just moved my subscription there ( from Belleville) a year ago. (Not to mention, I like Now and Then...). They haven\'t been terribly reliable getting it, either, but I\'m guessing that\'s probably not their fault. Their lack of concern about missed issues is disheartening, though. I also picked up a few other things (including an English-translated Japanese Kindaichi novel for cheap). So I ended up dropping over $80 on them. If it helps, great. If not, I dunno... I suppose Gemini Jetpack can order it if it\'s in Diamond.
Hrm. Alan Greenspan is hinting that people should lock in their mortgages.
When Alan Greenspan hints things, particularly about interest rates, it\'s generally a good idea to listen. Thing is, though, I\'m not too sure what this means for Canadian interest rates. Along with energy-fueled inflation, the US has a huge deficit it has to finance. That means the federal government needs high interest rates to make it\'s debt attractive to buyers. Canada, while still having debt to service, doesn\'t really have this problem. We used to lock in our interest rates just above the US rates so foreigners would buy our government debt instead of the US\'. We don\'t have to do that anymore, and we haven\'t been. Still, if US rates skyrocket, they\'re going to drive ours up as well, or our dollar suffers (and at the moment, I can\'t remember if it goes up or down. Either way, drastic currency market changes are never good).
Here\'s the thing. I could lock in my mortgage, but that means a fixed 2% jump in the rate that I\'m paying now. I\'m holding onto my variable rate on the theory that average rates over the next five years won\'t be more than two percent above what I\'m paying now. Even though I know Canadian rates are going up in the short term, I still think that\'s a pretty safe assumption... it\'s not going to take a lot to slow down either the US or Canadian economy if we start seeing real inflationary pressures. I don\'t think it\'s that strong to begin with. After that, all the BoC and the Feds have to get us out of a recession is to lower interest rates (well, Canada has some fiscal room to maneouver, but the US certainly doesn\'t). US fiscal policy and energy prices are the wild cards here. Can you say \"stagflation,\" boys and girls? In other words, my confidence is wavering.
I\'m fairly confident about my house\'s overall equity (in the longish term, anyway). Interest rate hikes could end up hurting, though. Hm...