heavyaslead

In news today, this Sunday, Germany will finish last reparation payment of 100M for WWI. Almost 100 years later.

thecommander

You are right Eric...

At least someone takes there debt seriously. If we received re-payment on the Lend Lease program with interest from WWII, we could erase the US national debt. Will you be making it to Danville in November? I'd love to battle against your Black Eagle with my Leo.

Bob

PS Pictured below is just one of the thousands of M4s we sent to Europe built with US dollars. It still proudly watches over the artificial harbors at Normandy visilble in the distant sea.

rivetcounter

I hope this isn't another one of those ill researched rants where you try to blame every one for the present economic disaster bar the bankers the caused the problem in the first place

Fact.
On 31 December 2006, England made a final payment of about $83m (ÂŁ45.5m) to the US and so discharge the last of its loans from World War II.

giving vast bonuses to bank managers giving mortgages and loans to people who either cant afford the repayments or don't have a job this is what truly caused the current economic crisis pure greed, and I can guarantee that not one of them who masterminded this catastrophe is short of vast amounts cash themselves, before you blame other nations look at your own first

thecommander

I'm gald to hear that about England. One of our best allies, even now.... And what about the other allies from WW II? I'm no economics expert ...just a history buff. There is plenty of blame to go around on the national debt. It is one reason I thought the "Gold Standard" should have been adhered to.

Bob

BIGMIG

Don't like the political posts..... We know what happened here...What about the rest of the world.???? It is best to look and take care of one's own back yard before telling someone else how to take care of their's.

BIGMIG

rivetcounter

If you are trying to suggest that past loans are to blame for the current economic problems then you would be completely wrong as the US would never have got to it’s present position in the world if this was the case, the present problem and it’s a world wide problem is much more recent both England and the US gave the banks unlimited powers to invest by whatever means they saw fit this included giving mortgages and loans to people who couldn’t afford them or who were not working so couldn’t afford them these banks then sold these mortgages to other banks without telling them about the lack of ability to re-pay, these are called sub prime mortgages the more the bank sells the higher the bonus paid, some bankers who are already paid in excess of €1m were paid many times there basic salary in bonus payments as in up to 10x this encouraged reckless behaviour on the bankers behalf, think of it like this would you sell a tank to a person who couldn’t afford any repayments then sell the dept on to a third party assuring them that all was well and that they would make lots of money out of the deal, this is exactly what the banks did, they worked to benefit themselves not the country. When the bankers of England sort financial help they were hours away from collapse if they had of collapsed they would have bankrupted the country overnight turning us into a third world country, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are at the centre of England’s problems and the US banks are at the centre of the US’s problems not other countries and not past loans and defiantly nothing you or I have control over

BIGMIG

Sometimes you remind me of a "Chihuahua" Barking at a "Grizzly Bear"..............Not much of a threat......

The war is over long time ago....live with it..

BIGMIG

HondoBob

I like cheese. [8D]

Tanque

Have you ever heard of the CRA Rivit? The Community Reinvestment Act? Read about it and see if you can figure out why
US banks were pushed into a corner to offer credit or to fund lenders who did CRA type loans. Under a certain president who will remain unnamed as I don't wish to get embroiled in a political squabble; the CRA was 'broadened' to get extend credit to 'low income' families. Criteria that had for years been the staple of evaluations were cast aside.

Keep these points in mind(bullet point text borrowed from http://www.businessinsider.com/the-c...s-guide-2009-6) :

-The regulators charged with enforcing the CRA praised the lowering of down payments and even their elimination. They told banks that lending standards that exceeded that of regulators would be considered evidence of unfair lending. This effectively meant that no money down mortgages were required. A Treasury Department study published in 2000 found that the CRA had successfully lowered down payments not just for CRA loans, but for all mortgages.

-Regulators instructed banks to consider alternatives to traditional credit histories because CRA targeted borrowers often lacked traditional credit histories. The banks were expected to become creative, to consider other indicators of reliability.

No matter what you read, no matter what you've heard no one ever held a gun to a person's head to take out a loan
they were ill equipped to repay. If these people really thought magic would happen when they signed the mortgage documents the only real failure of banks were to fund lenders who didn't check the IQ of borrowers. Basically what everyone loves to bash as corporate greed at the institutional level we are made to feel compassionate, even sympathetic for the poor misled borrower whose eyes lit up when he really believed he could afford a house proportionately 100 times more expensive than that of his parents' generation. Please.

Unfortunately their stupidity has become our problem.

Also, I'd trust no one is stupid enough to lay blame for these economic times in WWII area expenditures and lend-lease.

Jerry

heavyaslead

Hello Bob

Not sure about Nov, though I will try to go.

So you have a Leo now? I do not believe I have seen any pics of your Leo model, is it NATO or German? A4 or A6?

My Black Eagle is always up for a fight, the antiquated WWII stuff is such a yawner for it!

thecommander

Hi Eric,

I've have a Leo for about a year and a half now. It was a shelf queen that bought it shortly after you last came to Danville. I don't bring it everytime though. Whereas it is fun to battle, it is just to overwhelming unless there is a equal tank on the opposing team. Consequently, I don't take it out much. I just did a commisioned build of a FO Leo for Joe and his dad, James for NC this summer. I intended to do a build post here but I had next to no internet service while on vacation with the RV. I did most of the build in there when we camped at night. I didn't bother posting mine here as somone had just posted his Leo build and felt it would be too redundant. I don't run it as much beasuce I enjoy running my Jagdtiger so much. The guys go berzerk when I bring that beast out. I recently posted youtube video with my newest HD camera setup on another post. Did you see it? This September I brought my other JT out as well. It is a little too fast due to stock geaboxes but I just got some 3:1 Impacts for it. Joe did run his Leo but since he is just getting used to it I didn't want to battle against him when he is so green with it. It was a fun and time consuming build. I didn't have to paint it as Joey wanted to do that himself. He did a great job too.
Bob

Chally2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lend-Lease

"Large quantities of goods were in Britain or in transit when the United States terminated Lend-Lease when the war ended on 2 September 1945. Britain wished to retain some of this equipment in the immediate post war period. In 1946, the post-war Anglo-American loan further indebted Britain to the U.S. Lend-lease items retained were sold to Britain at 10% of nominal value, giving an initial loan value of ÂŁ1.075 billion for the Lend Lease portion of the post-war loans. Payment was to be stretched out over 50 annual payments, starting in 1951 and with five years of deferred payments, at 2% interest.[8] The final payment of $83.3 million (ÂŁ42.5 million), due on 31 December 2006 (repayment having been deferred in the allowed five years), was made on 29 December 2006 (the last working day of the year). After this final payment Britain's Economic Secretary, Ed Balls, formally thanked the U.S. for its wartime support. Many think it strange that repayment was still required after the USA later joined World War Two. However, the continued repayment nearly crippled the post-war UK economy and certainly resulted, to the benefit of the USA, in the decline of Britain's influence in the world.

"Before Lend-Lease aid could begin, Britain was forced to sell all her commercial assets in the United States and turn over all her gold. FDR (US president Franklin D. Roosevelt) sent his own ship the Quincy, to Simonstown near Cape Town (South Africa, then a British colony) to pick up the last $50 million in British gold reserves."[9]".