Ants and Grasshoppers

Sept. 23, 2005, 1:25AM



Plague is coming for our nation of grasshoppers
By FROMA HARROP


''Be prepared" is the Boy Scout motto.


"Be prepared for what?" someone once asked the Scouts' founder, Robert Baden-Powell.

"Why, for any old thing," he replied.

For a people raised on that motto, Americans do remarkably little preparation. This is a nation of grasshoppers, not ants.

As the fable goes: All summer, the ants worked hard, busily storing grain. The grasshopper just played. Come winter, the grasshopper begged the ants for some of their corn. The ants asked him why he hadn't gotten ready for winter. He responded, "I was so busy singing that I hadn't the time."

When it comes to money, many Americans routinely don't think past the next paycheck. They're unprepared for things that are utterly predictable, much less the bolts from the blue.

Recent headline: "Consumer spending rises, savings rate dips." The U.S. personal-savings rate in June was the lowest on record. In fact, it was minus 0.6 percent. That means people are not only failing to save, they're dipping into their reserves to spend money — or just borrowing more. Which brings us to the next headline:

"Debt load makes Americans vulnerable." Outstanding balances on credit cards now average $7,200 per household. That's more than double the level of a decade ago. And that doesn't include car loans, or mortgages.

For the past year, you couldn't pick up a newspaper without reading about the absurd housing prices in much of the country. Ignoring the alerts about a bubble soon to break, people continue to buy in risky markets. And to pay these high house prices, they are taking out risky mortgages.

Over a third of new or refinanced mortgages are the adjustable-rate type. The monthly payments in such mortgages are tied to changes in various interest rates. They are exactly the kind of mortgage you don't want when interest rates rise, which they will surely do.

As a come-on, lenders offer very low initial rates on these mortgages. The temporary low rates let people borrow more money than they ordinarily could or should. What will happen when their mortgage costs go up and housing values go down? Let's just say that it won't be pretty.

The banks pushing these mortgages are also not prepared. Mortgage-related loans now account for 61 percent of bank credit.

Banks are in the bubble big-time. Despite these rising risks, banks are setting aside little money to protect themselves against a tide of bum loans. In 1992, their reserves against losses from bad loans were nearly 3 percent. Now, they're 1.2 percent.

A personal finance rule of thumb is to save six months' worth of wages. The object is to protect the family against the loss of a job. How many of you out there have six months' worth of savings? Don't all raise your hands at once.

President Bush inherited a handsome budget surplus. It could have served as a cushion for the near future, when retiring baby boomers put extra strain on the Treasury. But as the swingers say, "Cash is trash." Our so-called conservatives slashed taxes and spent wildly, turning the surplus into a deep deficit.

Bush apologists like to blame "unforeseen events" for the spending: 9/11, the war in Iraq and now New Orleans. How could Bush have known about any of this?

Of course, he didn't know — but doesn't "stuff happen"? When in history hasn't it?

The Bush administration may be Bible-friendly, but it learns not from the Good Book. It certainly didn't take anything from the story of Joseph — the government adviser who urged setting aside grain during the seven fat years to feed people in the seven lean ones.

Frankly, the "events beyond our control" excuse doesn't float. "Even after excluding spending on defense and homeland security," a Cato Institute report says, "Bush is still the biggest-spending president in 30 years."

The report adds, "Since Bush took office, domestic spending has shot up by 36 percent." And that doesn't include the enormously expensive new Medicare drug benefit that will kick in next year.

Be prepared for an economic meltdown — as rising interest rates sink a people floating on debt. This grasshopper mentality is a plague upon the nation.

Harrop is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Providence, R.I.


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