will inflation eat away at my downpayment?

[simple]

[Lake Hills Renter]

Inflation penalizes savings and rewards debt by making the dollar worth less, so yes your (and mine) downpayments are getting eaten away daily. The Fed has apparently decided they want to reward debtors at the expense of savers, and thus lowered rates.

[MrRational]

[aldreth]

[wreckingbull]

[laxtosnoco]

[carlislematthew]

[BallardRat]

[perplexd]

[urban exile]

Ben Stein's column in today's New York Times that sheds some historical light on the situation:

[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/business/23every.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
[/url]

[perplexd]

is a link to the story where you don't have to log in.

(I love when people offer me a link where I can give out my personal info to a large corporation - thanks so much. It is an even bigger bonus now that Murdoch owns them!)

But, don't bother. Ben's full of shit. He doesn't know what he's talking about. . Watch that linked video and then read Ben's article again. If you understand the video, you'll do what I did halfway through reading Ben: stop.