So, Paul Vocker died...

[K Frame]

He was the Fed chairman in the late 70s/early 80s who took on the rampant inflation of the earlier 1970s. The result was very high interest rates for a time, but it helped set the stage for the really good economic period that started in the mid 1980s.

Gotta love the picture of him here, testifying at a House hearing while smoking a cigar...

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/09/paul-volcker-the-carter-reagan-fed-chairman-who-beat-inflation-dies-at-92.html

[MillCreek]

Well, since I graduated from undergrad/grad school and bought a house during the Great Recession of the early 80's, I sure remember him.  No jobs in my field and 16% interest rate for our first house.

[zahc]

If you bought a house during the era of high rates you actually made out. The high rates suppressed house prices, and you were able to refinance throughout the following period of dropping interest rates, meanwhile any bond investments you made at the same time went bonkers with the dropping rates as well.

It's actually much worse to be buying a house now. The low rates we've had over the last decade have inflated house prices, and if interest rates ever go back up, it will depress house appreciation rates, kill any bond investments you might have, and no way to benefit by refinancing. Yet another way the millennials are screwed.

[Angel Eyes]

No jobs in my field

I'm not seeing how Volcker is to blame for that.

[brimic]

If you bought a house during the era of high rates you actually made out. The high rates suppressed house prices, and you were able to refinance throughout the following period of dropping interest rates, meanwhile any bond investments you made at the same time went bonkers with the dropping rates as well.

It's actually much worse to be buying a house now. The low rates we've had over the last decade have inflated house prices, and if interest rates ever go back up, it will depress house appreciation rates, kill any bond investments you might have, and no way to benefit by refinancing. Yet another way the millennials are screwed.

The currency has been manipulated to the point where there is little room other than negative interest rates.
You can't blame the boomers or even Volcker for this one, the blame goes solely on President Wilson and the banksters of the early 20th century.

https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/351153-the-federal-reserve-is-setting-america-up-for-economic-disaster

[MillCreek]

If you bought a house during the era of high rates you actually made out. The high rates suppressed house prices, and you were able to refinance throughout the following period of dropping interest rates, meanwhile any bond investments you made at the same time went bonkers with the dropping rates as well.

Our first house was a 1500 square foot daylight basement rambler built in the early 50's 1 mile north of the Seattle city limits.  3 bedrooms and 1.5 baths on a quarter-acre city lot.  We bought it in 1983 for $ 68,000 with a 16% interest rate that we bought down from 18%.  We sold it in 1988 for $ 84,000.  Out of curiosity, I looked it up on the Zillow/Redfin/etc. websites last year and noted that the current value was $ 540,000, some 35 years after we bought it. 

[K Frame]

A mile outside of Seattle city limits?

I'm shocked there's not a 1 in front of the 5.

[brimic]

Our first house was a 1500 square foot daylight basement rambler built in the early 50's 1 mile north of the Seattle city limits.  3 bedrooms and 1.5 baths on a quarter-acre city lot.  We bought it in 1983 for $ 68,000 with a 16% interest rate that we bought down from 18%.  We sold it in 1988 for $ 84,000.  Out of curiosity, I looked it up on the Zillow/Redfin/etc. websites last year and noted that the current value was $ 540,000, some 35 years after we bought it. 

 

[Northwoods]

Our first house was a 1500 square foot daylight basement rambler built in the early 50's 1 mile north of the Seattle city limits.  3 bedrooms and 1.5 baths on a quarter-acre city lot.  We bought it in 1983 for $ 68,000 with a 16% interest rate that we bought down from 18%.  We sold it in 1988 for $ 84,000.  Out of curiosity, I looked it up on the Zillow/Redfin/etc. websites last year and noted that the current value was $ 540,000, some 35 years after we bought it. 

Neighborhood must have really gone to hell.  My sister sold a 1300sf 2 story for $600k several years ago.  Though that house was probably still inside city limits, but was only a mile or so west of Aurora.

[Ron]

If only he had known, he could have had low rates and economic growth just by redifining inflation as to not include food, housing and energy prices in the official rate ...

rip