Pieces of Mind

My cousin, Wendell Stoltzfus, posted a link on Facebook to this article from the New York Times. In response to his link I wrote:

I wonder if there would be wider systemic repercussions if people started to do this more? Courson does mention that a contract default is not without its ugly consequences, but he doesn’t go into a lot of detail. This certainly sounds more appealing than giving a lot of cash to big banks, especially if it would effectively create incentive for the banks to renegotiate underwater loans. That’s something that I’ve heard is not happening much because–surprise!–there is little incentive for the banks to renegotiate.
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I think our gov’t should encourage this by making a law that your credit rating and other property (cars, savings) cannot be harmed *IF* you default on an underwater loan (i.e. make a smart business decision). Would that be the equivalent of giving money to the big Wall Street corp’s in hopes of bringing them back to life?

Then things got interesting…
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Natalie and I went on vacation in Maine earlier this month (Oct. 1-9). Armed with a new digital camera, I took what I thought was a LOT of pictures–about 700. That is, until I talked to my friend Jerry who took about three times as many on his vacation of about the same length.

Anyway, without further ado go and see.