Here's another way the economy situation is screwing the average, hard-working homeowner like me. Two years ago I moved to South Jersey from a NYC suburb (goodbye SB). I bought a bigger house than I needed, but it cost less than the house I sold, so I made a little money. We all know how the real estate business went. My timing has never been good. So now my mortgage company-Wells Fargo- sends me an offer to refinance for free. Well I don't qualify. They appraised my house at 15% less than what I bought it for. I have a big mortgage, so my loan to value is 92.5% and it has to be 80%. I don't qualify for a conventional refinance either. All I want to do is lower my monthly payments, so I have more money to pump back into the economy.

Then I thought about my Homerowners Insurance. If the value of my house went down, how about the value of my insurance. No such luck. It's gone up 5% each of the past two years and I quote, "Coverage for your home has been increased by 5% to more adequately reflect the cost to rebuild your home."

Dear MC, please bend over so we can screw you more easily. Thank you for tipping your ass upward in the submissive posture.