Bits Bucket And Craigslist Finds For March 18, 2008
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End Of Cheap Credit… And with the FED getting ready to drop to 2%. Card companies are raising their rates.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/17/AR2008031702616.html
You know what I’ve been doing lately? Trolling through Craigslist for people who are being harrassed by collection agencies who shouldn’t be (elderly, people who can’t work because of medical conditions, etc.) There have been several lately. Most of the time these people are uneducated as to their rights against these vultures so I’ve been taking their cases on for free and either filing suit against the collector or defending them against suits filed by collectors. It’s fun. The lawyers who take these cases for collectors are not far removed from pond scum.
Very admirable, Chick. How do you find the time? I thought it was complicated to sue. (Luckily I’ve never been sued, but I’ve had to testify a couple of times and it seemed very complex.)
I’m bored more than half the day. I have plenty of time. Most of the time, all you have to do is file an answer to the collector’s complaint in county or JP court, hit ‘em with boilerplate discovery and force them to prove up their debt, which they can’t do 90% of the time.
TXchick- think about locating a good consumer collections defense lawyer. That would allow counterclaims based on the fair debt collection laws, which can get the scummy collections attorneys paying damages to these people. Legal ethics do not allow lawyers to troll the craigslist boards, but as long as you don’t get a cut of the action you can do so.
My apologies if you know this already - I am sure many here do not.
From what I recall violations of the fair debt collection laws are $1000 per violation statutory minimum…
TH. I know. We (my husband and I) don’t charge a dime, nor do we advertise.
Tx, sounds like a neat idea. Would you send me a copy of your boilerplate? I don’t know your email addy.
its nice to know that there are people out there looking out for our elderly. IMO, the only people who “deserve” our social welfare.
That’s a very generous attitude, DcBob, considering that everyone eventually is elderly, and that we are living very long lives, necessitating “social welfare” for decades. I would add to that the unfortunate individuals with various handicaps, such as mental retardation or disabilities requiring huge amounts of health care. How the hell are we going to pay for it?
ummm… With tax revenues?
Ah yes, the panacea of societies troubles. Tax revenues. It’s better when you call it “tax revenues” instead of something like “other peoples money.” People get prickly when you call it the latter.
Exeter, you should know better.
Highways, bridges, and public buildings practically build themselves. Poor people and elderly people can pay for themselves by selling cool stuff on eBay or working at Walmart. Our police and military are clearly not vital in this New Global Era of Peace & Prosperity. Corporations need no governmental oversight — it’s completely obvious they can police themselves.
Who needs tax revenues? You’re positively Un-American.
Damn ET your right. I forgot that it’s all “my money” and I owe no repsonsibility to a civilized society. I have to go draw water from the creek for my weekly bath now. See you guys later.
“How the hell are we going to pay for it”
one thing we’re going to need to address is why health care is so damn expensive in this country, when damn little material wealth is actually being “consumed” by it. The process is chocked full of rentiers extracting their economic rents, from the neonatal unit to the undertaker.
Hear, hear!
Agree with you, exeter and Troy.
I did get one “inquiry” from a guy who is a “real estate investor” - i.e., Casey Serin type who had run up credit card debt to “buy” houses and was now unable to pay. I told that one to go get a job and pay his damn bills. LOL
Last year I posted about an elderly lady who lived with her blind, brain-injured adult son in a paid-for little house who was talked into refinancing by a creep who absconded with the money they took out and disappeared. She couldn’t pay the mortgage with their social security and got a NOD last year. I recently saw them again and asked about the house. They haven’t heard a word from the bank yet. The house is in a poverty area, so it must be a low priority for the bank.
email me and tell me where this is
A couple of years ago, the retarded neighbor who mowed my mother’s lawn got sucked into signing up for a $10K student loan for an online trade school. He was truly the victim of fraud. Mowing the neighbors’ lawns was the most responsible job he could ever hold, or ever hope to hold, a true accomplishment for him. He never should have been allowed to sign any legal document. We reported the school to the Fort Worth district attorney’s office but nothing came of it and the kid’s family did end up having to pay back the loan. Wish I had known you then, TX! You are a saint.
“its nice to know that there are people out there looking out for our elderly. IMO, the only people who “deserve” our social welfare.”
Not necessarily. All those people who are busy raiding their 401Ks (or not even contributing) will be elderly someday…will they “deserve” social welfare just because they are lucky enough to grow old?
Charles Manson will be 73 this May.
DcBob:
I agree most elderly should be protected…Different era…not used to the high pressure scam artist out there..But this generation should really know better…
Also lets face it, we see stories everyday of elderly doing really dumb azz things….Heloc’ing a paid off house for fun, not medical expenses. Sorry their children should hang them and not bail them out for throwing their retirement home into the gutter
—————————————————–
its nice to know that there are people out there looking out for our elderly. IMO, the only people who “deserve” our social welfare.
Good for you!!!
You are probably doing for “good” than a 100 government employees for defenseless citizens and if you get a kick out, fantastic!
Yeah, I agree. Major good karma.
There are government employees who are paid to do exactly this work. They are at the consumer fraud division at your state’s Attorney General office. I suppose the quality of these offices may vary greatly, but they can be a great resource.
They can be great if they don’t get gutted because of state budgets.
What kind of “ad” would that be?? I’ve never heard of that.
How interesting. On one hand here you say that the people should be foreclosed on to learn a lesson, except certains ones as decided by you get free help. Who appointed you God?
if she has the time, she can spend how she likes!
There has to be some benchmark for deciding who is “deserving” as opposed to “undeserving” poor. Otherwise there is no accountability for spending taxpayers’ funds to where they would provide the most benefit, and no motivation for people to improve their own situations/make better decisions.
I suspect many of us on this blog probably do volunteer work in our communities. Speaking strictly from personal experience, it isn’t always possible to distinguish between the “deserving” and the “undeserving”. Sometimes, when you are delivering Thanksgiving turkeys, or Meals on Wheels, or baskets for God’s Love We Deliver (for AIDS patients in NYC) a couple of people who don’t technically “deserve” the food, who bought their troubles on themselves, are going to get the vittles nonetheless. So be it. The alternative is to do nothing at all. The only way to make that call is to personally meet the people you are trying to help. It sounds like TX is doing just that.
What bicoastal said.
That’s what I like about private charities, and personal work such as txchick is doing - they tend to be a lot better than the government at discriminating who really needs the help vs. who doesn’t.
I’m always surprised at the deserving individuals that are dead broke but always seem to find a way to pay for cigarettes, cell phone, $100 NIKEs and satellite TV.
I’m always surprised at the deserving individuals that are dead broke but always seem to find a way to pay for cigarettes, cell phone, $100 NIKEs and satellite TV.
Why is that surprising? That is precisely WHY they are dead broke.
And, knowledge-4-u, who appointed you judge?
I will have to inform all my senior citizen friends to take out mortgage loans they can not afford to buy a home they can not afford because you will represent them for free then. Laughing at your hypocracy
“I will have to inform all my senior citizen friends to take out mortgage loans they can not afford to buy a home they can not afford because you will represent them for free then.”
To drag them down with you?
I’m not god at all but I can help whoever I choose to.
Who appointed you God?
She has an LL.D
txchick - you need a show on CNBC to replace Suze Orman.
It would be so refreshing to hear it like it is instead of the droll, robotic tripe from Orman.
You know what I’ve been doing lately? Trolling through Craigslist for people who are being harassed by collection agencies who shouldn’t be (elderly, people who can’t work because of medical conditions, etc.) There have been several lately. Most of the time these people are uneducated as to their rights against these vultures so I’ve been taking their cases on for free and either filing suit against the collector or defending them against suits filed by collectors. It’s fun. The lawyers who take these cases for collectors are not far removed from pond scum.
ANYONE, being “harassed” by collection agencies has rights under the FDCPA and individual State laws. The hard part (nearly impossible) is to prove is that “harassment has occurred, in fact this is the most difficult violation of the FDCPA to prove. What might feel like harassment to one person may not feel or look like harassment to another. E.g., the statement “pay your bill” could be taken as harassment by some and not even noticed by others simply by the sensitivity of the party involved. Even though, the “tone” used could also be used against someone in a law suit without well documented proof of this with logs, and tape recorded conversations, (only allowed in one party States) it would be very hard or nearly impossible to prove. Texas is considered a one party State meaning only one person needs to be aware that the conversation is being recorded.
Violations of the FDCPA such as calling outside of the hours of 8 am and 9 p.m. and personal threats that have been recorded on to an answering machine, racist comments, misrepresentation of the debt and amount, legal status and others are much more easily to prove and win in a court and would be a stronger case to take to court.
Also, these seniors always plead, “ I ain’t got no money”, you can’t get blood out of a turnip”, or they are “on disability”. I always wonder why did they apply for a credit card and receive one
If they didn’t have the means to re pay it in the first place?
Honestly think a lot of seniors are the world’s biggest scammers and they come out looking and smelling like roses. The bill collectors come out smelling like pond scum.
Although I agree there are a LOT of collectors that violate the law all day long, there are MORE collectors that stay within the confines of the laws and are using empathy and treat debtors with dignity and respect.
My job was a trainer and recruiter for the world’s largest accounts receivable.
BTW, 99% of the lawsuits are settled out of court.
“Also, these seniors always plead, “ I ain’t got no money”, you can’t get blood out of a turnip”, or they are “on disability”. I always wonder why did they apply for a credit card and receive one
If they didn’t have the means to re pay it in the first place?”
Why was it offered and then approved?
That has not been my experience. They’re being trained not to overtly violate the law but given the low pay and personalities attracted to that work, violations are a given.
I have personal experience with this, having sued a collector (a Nasdaq traded one in fact) for putting false information on my credit report and then “verifying” it twice when I disputed it. They paid me many multiples of the amount they were supposedly owed (which was completely false).
And yet they have an entire compliance department.
I agree with txchic on this one, and not only ’cause she’s a fellow Texas lawyer, but because I’ve seen first hand how collections people (including the lawyers who they send to court to collect the debts) bully the poor. Also, they usually can’t prove up the debt.
I had an interview* with a collections law firm recently and I had to decline the offer even though they were willing to wait for me to finish my judicial clerkship. I can’t see myself on the dark side.
* Only interviewed as a courtesy, because I know the principal partner.
TxChick:
i wish you could help me..I run into massive age discrimination even getting an entry job in a law firm.
Daily i see recent college grad ads or Paralegals, even from a Civil Rights law firm….I know i made a really bad choice in life but i had no idea old people are just not wanted in law firms. Do you know any law firms that take EEOC seriously?
, these seniors always plead, “ I ain’t got no money”, you can’t get blood out of a turnip”, or they are “on disability”. I always wonder why did they apply for a credit card and receive one
Circumstances change. Often drastically. And quite suddenly.
Excellent Job! The abuse by collection agencies is large!
You are blessed with the talent, education and generosity to help folks who are into heavy stress and panic and have no way out. Good for you. Wonder how much of this we’d see at SDCIA.
A while back I was at the local Greek Grille having a Gyro, and overheard a conversation between a young, biker-looking guy in a wheelchair with serious leg injuries and his buddy. This guy had been injured while riding his motorcycle by a careless motorist who then tried to leave the scene but got blocked in. I’ve had a number of close calls due to idiot drivers, so I ended up talking to the guys. I guess because they thought since I was wearing a coat and tie I was well-educated enough to read a legal contract, so the injured guy asked if I would mind going with him to the lawyer’s office, since he suspected - correctly - that the shyster was trying to snake him. I used my connections to help him find a much better lawyer who did all right by him. It took up a few hours of my time, but the gratitude from the guy and his biker buddies was priceless.
“Banks really need depositors to put money in them”, Wu said. “They’re desperate to get more money.”
Then they’ll have to offer depositors an attractive interest rate.
We have entered an era where cash is king, when those who have money call the shots.
It’s about time, IMO.
“Attractive interest rate” doen’t seem to be part of the plan so far!
So far you are correct. But stay tuned.
A year or so ago the MSM was reporting about the world being awash in liquidity, of how investors were chasing yields and ending up pounding down the risk/reward ratio whereby highly risky investment vehicles were priced as is they were AAA rated.
Not anymore. The liquidity is gone and the risk/reward ration is very much alive.
Cash is back.
WHAT??????
“Banks really need depositors to put money in them”, Wu said. “They’re desperate to get more money.” What utter B.S. The banks just want something for nothing. When they really want more deposits, they can pay for them with higher interest rates and lower fees.
An alcoholic needs access to more alcohol. A gambler needs access to yet more money.
Right.
Wow. Full page spread in WSJ today begging the Fed not to pull “crap” MTGs onto their books. Saying “the AAA rating means nothing” and “garbage is garbage, even with fancy wrapping paper”..
Very interesting. It’s an “advertisement” section, but it’s not advertising anything, someone just paid for a full page spread. It was written by Andy Beal of Dallas, TX.
Very interesting.. Ben, did you put Andy up to this?
Andy can afford it
http://www.bealaerospace.com/articles/DMagazine/index.html
and apparently so can Tiger Woods
http://www.nypost.com/seven/03182008/news/nationalnews/65m_sand_bunker_102460.htm
No, but who cares what the Fed puts on their books? It’s a private, um, club. I haven’t heard that they have a single mortgage derivative on the balance sheet. (Not that we’d know, they’ve never been audited).
I wish we could stick to facts here. It really has gotten to the point that people will post anything about this corporate situation now. Especially the ‘we’re screwed crowd.’ I can’t figure out why they are so anxious to be so.
I hate the victim mentality, no matter where it’s propounded, including here. If you disagree with anything that is happening, you don’t have to sit and “be screwed.” There are always things you can do.
I read here to get ideas of how to avoid belonging to the “we’re screwed” crowd.
While I agree with you regarding “hopeless” individuals that just complain and want someone else to “fix” this mess and are unwilling to adapt, it does not change the fact that there are things that are outside of any particular individuals control and these things can and will screw us all to some degree.
You could buy gold/silver and have it confiscated… screwed
You could hold dollars and have them hyper-inflated away… screwed
You could start a revolution and get killed… screwed.
When the powers that be can change the rules of the game at any time and for any reason there is little anyone can do to avoid being screwed.
There is no reason that you cannot be joyful always while being screwed and a victim. So I have no problem with people who feel victimized by the system because they *are* victims. By victim I mean people on this board who behaved responsibly and had their wealth/freedom stolen by others despite their best laid plans.
Many would put me in the ‘we’re screwed crowd’, but I will say that I am not anxious to be so screwed. I am also not sitting around and doing nothing, but learning as much as I can so that I can get as far way from the train wreck as possible. This doesn’t mean that we aren’t all screwed.
I would have no problem with the “private” FED doing what ever it wants if it didn’t have government enforced monopoly roping everyone into the consequences! Those who call for the Fed to do this or that need to wake up and call for the government to stop giving the fed a license to counterfeit and to stop enforcing the “legal tender” value of a Federal Reserve Note.
The real victim mentality that I cannot stand is those who expect others to do something against their best interests. In this case, those who demand that the FED put society over its own self preservation/interests. This is no different than a bum expecting/demanding that someone give them a meal instead of taking action to earn a meal. It is because I expect the FED to act in its own interests (save the banks) and the government to act in its own interests (more power) that I believe we are all screwed. And by screwed I mean forced to pay a heavy price (possibly with our lives) in order to fix things.
“By victim I mean people on this board who behaved responsibly and had their wealth/freedom stolen by others despite their best laid plans.”
I’m in this crowd, basicly it’s pretty clear the gov takes from the middle and gives to the top and bottom, so you have to choices either try with everyone else to got to the top, or stop struggling and sink to the bottom, but being in the midddle is the worst most fustrating place to be….Meanwhile wall street gets bailouts by the billions for being greedy, and some waste of life with 10 kids and no job gets thousands in “assitance” to sit on there ass…
Voicing extreme displeasure with governmental (or corporate) decisions isn’t synonymous with having a victim mentality. It’s ones long term response to such events which is important. Me, I like to gripe a little, stir things up, but I always adapt. I realized early in life that I’m no more a victim than any other person on this planet. Blowing off steam is OK, but it needs to be followed up with action. Those who don’t act, do take on the “victim mentality”.
I can’t figure out why they are so anxious to be so.
There are two parts to many difficult situations:
1. Identifying the cause,
2. Identifying the solution.
Often, people get very good at one and not the other. I sense that the “we’re screwed” (again and again and again) crowd is quite good at #1.
I’ve also seen many posts complaining about nominally smart people that are slow to understand the bubble. Those are folks that are good in category #2.
The people that can do #1 and #2 as needed are rarer than you would think.
Causes are inherently easier to identify than are solutions.
You cannot be good at coming up with solutions unless you are good at understanding the cause. Only once you understand the cause/effect of your actions can you hope to predict the effects your “solutions” will cause. This is a fairly universal principle that can apply to all areas of R&D/science. Luck and trial and error methods used by engineers to solve/(discover solutions to) problems don’t work so well in finding large scale economic solutions.
In the long run there must be a plan to eliminate the causes of bad problems.
“Luck and trial and error methods used by engineers”
????
What freakin engineers do you know that use this method? If you are one of those, don’t apply at my company.
You cannot be good at coming up with solutions unless you are good at understanding the cause.
Not true. Much medicine is performed with the premise that the cause is not knowable on a time scale relevant to the patient. Much engineering is devoted to methods avoiding knowing the causation (or any details.)
Luck and trial and error methods used by engineers to solve/(discover solutions to) problems don’t work so well in finding large scale economic solutions.
I would argue that Finance policy is nothing more than an application of control systems theory, because you can not account for all of the elements of the economy just as you cannot account for all the air currents during airplane flight.
If you applied no feedback, you would end up with wild depressions. If you apply too much feedback, you would end up with Soviet central planning.
As usual, the game is to design the “right” amount of feedback. Since it is phenomenological, it is category 2.
For whatever reason, this board attracts many in category 1, and I sense fewer in category 2. Or perhaps, those in category 1 are more vocal / have more posting time.
Well maybe not by individual engineers, but as a profession, sure. Tacoma Narrows, the Tower of Pisa, etc.: when you push the envelope, sometimes you learn what not to do. So you look at what failed and what worked before, add a safety factor and keep on going.
“Luck and trial and error methods used by engineers”
I think he must work at NASA…
“In the long run there must be a plan to eliminate the causes of bad problems.”
Not politically expedient. Without bad problems, politicians will have no rights to claim their policies saved the populace.
JP — Truly awesome post. Can you furnish any useful references? I would like to read whatever you have been reading…
Cracker,
Engineers/Scientists do this all the time. You propose an hypothosis and then test it out. Many things don’t end up with a clear closed form mathmatical expression either.
Also with complicated systems you test things out to see if you missed something; hence prototypes.
Calling it trial and error is not all that outrageous.
Prof Bear:
Thanks, and sorry I do not have much to recommend in the way of useful refs. (The post was more a product of my background: My training is EECS, of which feedback theory is a staple.) I’m sure somebody has taken a control theory model to finance, but I have not found the right ref yet. Maybe we should write one in our copious spare time.
JP — I was afraid you were going to say you came up with those thoughts off the top of your head
(P.S. For those who think education is worthless, I suggest that JP’s post suggests otherwise…)
Not true. Much medicine is performed with the premise that the cause is not knowable on a time scale relevant to the patient
Heh. I would argue that Western medicine is terrible at coming up with solutions, precisely because they aren’t interested in the cause. War on cancer, obesity, or diabesty anyone?
“Heh. I would argue that Western medicine is terrible at coming up with solutions, precisely because they aren’t interested in the cause”
Well, I would certainly rather have a baby in 2008 than 1750. I expect the doctors knew what the cause was then, too, though!
“Especially the ‘we’re screwed crowd.’ I can’t figure out why they are so anxious to be so.”
Ah, Ben, you just made my day. If anyone thinks it’s easier to be screwed than to carry on with style, well…they’re wrong.
lefty loosey, righty tighty
I post to warn people . I post sometimes to expose BS . I post to try to push for government money being spent in a more construction way .I post to try to get a better future for my grand children hoping that people care about the future of America also . I post feelings ,including anger ,and I post opinions .Often times the” we are screwed statements “,are just people expressing their anger over a most absurd greedy housing bubble that they had no hand in creating . Examining the causes of this monster is constructive I believe . Justice doesn’t seem to be prevailing with this housing boom aftermath (except for the exception that prices will go down and affordable houses will return with time ).It gets really annoying when government prolongs the pain of correction .
I have saved a number of people from making some mistakes regarding this bubble ,but not enough.(Ben gets the credit for saving thousands ) I stopped a old lady yesterday from putting her money into MBS’s that some slick salesman was trying to make her think they were FDIC insured .
This blog often times is way ahead of the MSM ,and we all know how cheer-leading the MSM can be . During my lifetime I have always been a active fighter against crime and unfair situations. Right now I’m running into a lot of older peoples problems ,and boy do they have problems . The mortgage industry seems to be preying on the old people right now ,(believe me, in a lot of cases the air just isn’t getting to the brain ).
Sometimes I think the “we are so screwed statements ” are just the anger stage of loss . It’s also amazing watching the aftermath of this real estate bubble play out in living color ,in real life . Sometimes I think I must be watching a movie ,and it can’t be true …..and as one blogger is known to say ,”You just can’t make this stuff up “.
End punctuation goes at the end of the sentence it’s ending or the phrase it’s ending, snugged right up next to it, no space. Opening quotation marks must snug up right next to whatever they’re opening, and close quotes snug up next to whatever they’re closing.
Like this: “Hi, there!” she said.
Not like this :” Hi, there !”she said .
Like this.
Not like this .
Like this, and not like this ,because this :is what we call” wrong “.
(There’s a rule about punctuation going inside quotation marks, too, but a lot of people mess that up. I am harping on the spacing today because almost nobody on Earth spaces before commas and periods: that you need to quit doing yesterday, because it’s distracting from what you’re saying. It’s like if you were dressed impeccably but wearing very loud very bad perfume.)
If you doubt me, look at the sentences you’ve written that include quotation marks. See how your quotation marks point the wrong way on your last sentence? It’s supposed to be like this:
…one blogger is known to say, “You just can’t make this stuff up.” But you’re putting the spaces in the wrong places and it’s confusing the autopunctuater and you’re getting freaky wrongway quotes. Space AFTER the comma, not before.
I know ………Will you please forgive me . I peck at the typewriter ,but I won’t post anymore if you want .
All you had to do was wait–you watch: nine more people will hammer me for talking about punctuation. Blab about punctuation drives way more people crazy than punctuation errors. Meanwhile, though, you might start noticing the spaces and where they tend to go, and then maybe change where you put them and then people will pay attention to what your sentences are actually saying instead of fixating on the dots in them.
You didn’t answer my question . I asked you if you didn’t want me to post anymore .
Housing,
Tsk, Tsk, Tsk.
You didn’t ask a question. You made a statement: I won’t post anymore if you want .
Of course I want you to keep posting–I think what you say makes sense. But what does it matter what I want, anyhow? What’s important is what you want. Do you want ALL people to read and enjoy your posts? Or just the people who aren’t annoyed by co n ,fus in g punc t uati ,on and spac ing ,yo ? be cau se right? now .yo ur pos ts are discr i mina t ing again st peo ple who ar e bot h er ed by ran do m aba n don men t of t he spa ,cing and pun ,ctuat ion co n ven ti on s th a t mak ,e pr os ,e rea d a ,ble .Th is ha rms the m .Sor ,ry ,bu t i t is tr ue
.
Kandi,
LOL. I like how you make your point.
HousingWizard,
Take your lumps man.
I just found out something today (on this blog) that I did not know after many years as a practicing Professional Engineer, i.e;
“Luck and trial and error methods used by engineers”
Crap!
I wasted all that time trying to get it right the first time!
Kandy - Wiz has been on the board a long, long time and I really enjoy reading his posts. All regulars here have long since gotten used to his punctuation style. Other posters have problems with spelling. It is my experience, and I’ve been here longer than all but a dozen or fewer of the regulars (more as a supporter than a contributor of great observations), that occasionally we would correct those whose writing was so atrocious that it could not be comprehended without reading three times or more. It’s always good to have new and excited posters join us. I doubt that Wiz is overly offended by your comments. We’ll be much happier to read your thoughts about housing.
I recommend you steer clear of any reference to the use of quotation marks, since, as you know, American and British rules for that are quite different. It is the reason I didn’t give the “Panda” book to my children, hoping that an Americanized version will be marketed soon enough.
run-onsentencesarereallyhardtoread.
Ok, lets all exaggerate grammar or punctuation sins so that the grammar cops can get what they want . I’m not trying to defend my punctuation sins because I have more important things in my view to defend in life . My follow up question is asking you if you want me to stop posting . You have the power right now for this second to make me go away forever into the sunset .I don’t understand why a grammar cop wouldn’t take the opportunity to get rid of such a offensive poster if they had the chance .Your post had such passion in it that this must be important to you . I am not going to change pursuant you lecture ,I know myself enough to know that ,(oh maybe by accident I might make the space right like you want ). I just asked you if you wanted me to stop posting .
I have filed many legal briefs in my lifetime and have had won many a time because of the content of my thoughts .In fact, I have gone to arenas in law that many attorneys have not gotten to .
But many a person will argue that form can be more important than substance and the job of the writer is to make it easy for the reader . Ben hasn’t posted any rules of grammar to post on his blog ,I suppose if a post was to messed up Ben would dump it .
You could skip over my posts if you wanted to .
Hmmm…what exactly is the purpose of language? To communicate. Leave the Wiz alone, no one has any trouble understanding him/her.
PS I have an MA in Linguistics, so I know whereof I talk, just sayin’…
I don’t have anything to say about housing except that I am living in a place with carpet even though I hate carpet because all the places with hard flooring in my area suddenly shot up to $500,000 for no reason I can see. Housing seems far more complicated than commas to me. I think the British rules for quotation marks make better sense than the American rules. I contend that even that _Eats, Shoots, and Leaves_ lady would put the punctuation inside the quotes in a complete sentence in quotations, but I do not believe that anyone should talk about quotation marks because no one cares about them. It’s only when some thwarting of convention has the potential to surprise the reader and distract from what is being said that it becomes a problem worth mention. And nobody ought to mention it even then unless they’re prepared for the smackdown they deserve for being rude beyond belief. I do know it’s very very rude to talk about people’s usage errors. It’s just that this time the error pattern was so consistent, it looked temptingly easy to repair–somebody simply got the rule flipped backwards. So I decided I would go ahead and be rude on the chance that Housing Wizard would read the rudeness and eventually flip the other way with the punctuation+space rule. What if (s)he’s writing letters to the editor of the local paper that could prevent dozens more people from buying $500,000 houses and the letters are not getting published because some picky editor won’t read past the first sentence? It ain’t right that people should be left in ignorance about how much weight certain other people put on these usage rules. Too much rides on this to not speak up about a small and easily fixed mistake that stands out and could make bad trouble for someone, or lose someone a good opportunity. It would be like not telling somebody they have spinach on their teeth. You could argue, I suppose, that it’s fine not to mention a fleck of spinach on an incisor if it’s just the two of you at lunch and it doesn’t bother you, but are you really gonna let your friend get up and go back to work with spinachy teeth? For some reason it’s different in writing than in talking, even though the effect on the person is compounded and worse. People who are friends can’t tell one another when they make errors in written English. I have nothing to lose, being new.
OK, then start using paragraphs, if you really care.
All I want to know is if I have to put up with a grammar heckler after every one of my posts ,who has just stated they don’t know anything about housing ?
The reason I’m responding to your posts is because I don’t want to go off on some side-bar of a English lesson after every one of my posts . Pretty soon this blog will be filled with English lessons rather than housing content and casual conversations about the subject of this blog . Because I like to post ,and in my posting it might create many English lessons
from you ,I was willing to spare the blog the excess posts and go off in the sunset and never post again .
Now your going to say ,”Why don’t you just clean up your
act, when I give you a lesson ?” Than I’m going to say ,”Cause I don’t want to !”
Parasaywhat? Nah, I don’t care about that B.S., I only care about sentence-level stuff. Paragraphs are beyond me. Housing Wizard I hope you know my mammerings do not amount to nans among people who actually read what you write. Everybody came to your defense because you write well and they want to read what you say and so do I and this is the first I ever even noticed the spaces and punctuation thing and I’ve been reading your posts for weeks and this is a runon sentence which you never write and I am not trying to say you do I am to the contrary trying to say you write well so please don’t stop posting because I promise never to mention another thing about the typing and only talk about what you’re actually trying to say now and forevermore because you say good stuff okay bye.
Rlly, y dnt nd t wrt ny vwls nd th mng f th sntnc wll stll b ndrstd!
Ok, your real funny with this exaggeration about my writing style. I guess you don’t like to read James Joyce either .You can always skip over my posts . You have just managed to exalt form over substance a little to much .
Ok ,I won’t post anymore because what you have to say is way more important and I won’t bore you or surprise you anymore with some run-on sentences .
Hey, i thought it was great someone is trying to get our grammar correct. Our folks paid heavy taxes to send us off to school those many years ago. Let us prove it was worth it !! [my high school days were the best 5 years I ever lived]
Oy VAY: now I know what it feels like.
You are ignoring my repeated efforts to reconcile because you’d rather focus on my initial rudeness. I was pretty unbearably rude, now that I look back at it, and then I followed up with the spinach metaphor, which was not liable to improve things. So I can understand why you’d be in a towering rage, but I have to tell you, I think you’re doing exactly the same thing I did: I concentrated exclusively on the dots and white spaces in your post and ignored what you tried to say and you’re responding by concentrating on my snotty way of saying things and missing what I’m trying to say. The problem is, I quit being snotty at least two posts ago and you haven’t noticed.
You do not write run-on sentences, and I would therefore not SAY that you write run-on sentences. That is why I said the exact OPPOSITE. Somebody accused me of running on up there somewhere and it’s true that I do that, and I was NOT immitating you, since you DON’T do that, I was instead exaggerating my own tendencies and tah-RYing to show that I’m not anybody’s grammarian idol.
I meant it when I said that you write well; it’s clear that your idiosyncracies with punctuation and spacing bother exactly NO ONE ON THE HOUSING BUBBLE BLOG, INCLUDING ME, since I didn’t even notice them until today; and - - I wish you could see it - - I have just now chewed a hole in my arm so that I can type this in blood:
I swear that if you will continue to post on the Housing Bubble Blog I will never mention spaces or punctuation marks or anything else about the way you type your posts ever again so long as I live. As you very sensibly said, there are more important things to defend in life than grammar conventions.
Please ,you have a right to free speech and to voice whatever is important to you . Grammar conventions can be very important as you noted in one of your posts above . lskfl;s;;l
slkjhggdksdkrrrkldslsl,,,,,,,,weellll;;,,,,,ffkkgpappaapp.klgld;;
sfklk;;hhlj;jldkldlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllsdjddd;;;;;d;;;;;;;;.. kkklll’ll
kkkkkkkkkkkoo,,,,,,,,,………….. ,Now ,have we settled everything .
LOL, Wiz!
Don’t let it get to you. We all have to deal with the odd “offensive” posts from time to time.
As you know, most of us really appreciate your posts, and since Ben won’t give us back the “edit” button ;), I think we all need to be a bit more generous where grammar and spelling are concerned.
BTW, I really liked your post!
Cheers!
You know Ca. renter ,its people like you that make me want say that America is going to get through this .
Ditto.
Failure to understand the true exposure to our economy in connection with debt leverage is what got us into this situation. Hopefully, recognizing it now will help guide our course of action more effectively. I don’t understand any implication that understanding the gravity of one’s exposure somehow suggests a victim mentality. In my business the opposite is true. Once you understand your exposure you can act to hedge effectively. If you don’t understand it, you become a victim unless you are just plain lucky.
Agree, the key to NOT getting screwed is to understand what’s going on.
“Agree, the key to NOT getting screwed is to understand what’s going on.”
Or knowing who has hold of your knickers, you or someone else.
Well said, Tim!
“No, but who cares what the Fed puts on their books?”
Because later on the Government will buy it from them, at full price, using taxpayers money.
Where do taxpayer monies come from?
From taxpayers? You and me.
that must mean . . . “we’re screwed”
Oh wait, I’m not supposed to say that.
Yes, it’s a private “club”. But we care what’s on their books because they happen to be the private club with the exclusive right to print money for the world’s largest economy.
The combined ability to assume massive, unprecedented debt, along with the ability to create dollars to pay it off is disturbing to say the least.
Check this out:
Home Sweet Investment
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/opinion/18tabarrok.html?ref=opinion
Now that’s funny. The Times runs an editorial written by the dolts at George Mason U. What’s next? An essay by Snaith tomorrow?
Yep, and Manhattan and San Francisco weren’t desirable, say in 1925 or 1995.
It’s only in the last few years that they have suddenly changed all their characteristics and become “desirable”.
Somebody should tell the good professor that while the “desire” to live in these places may be infinite, the means to do so are decidedly not.
Un-freakin-believable!
I’ll see if we can get the chief economist for DeVry Institute to weigh in on this subject.
So basically, “they’re not making any more land”.
Gee whiz. Where have we heard that one before?
Is it 2005?
“But there are good reasons to believe that much of the increase in prices was a rational response to changes in fundamental factors like interest rates and supply. The deeper fundamentals continue to suggest strong housing prices for the future.”
Barf bag alert. Why is crap like this still get published when it should be obvious to most by now that the fundamentals are lacking and prices are going to fall a lot? Those “strong housing prices” are as “strong” as the dollar and headed in the same direction.
Well there IS a point in the first sentance. The first few years of the bubble were arguablely a response to lowering rates and the last few to lowered underwriting standards. But since underwriting standards are tightening dramaticly, and intrest rate spreads are moving up, aren’t price declines similarly rational responses? What EXACTLY are the DEEPER fundamentals that support continued higher prices? I don’t think there are any.
There are too many houses, and not enough people to occupy them?
They should immediately burn down George Mason University and salt the ground upon which it stood. That guy is teaching the next generation of economic putzes? We’re in big trouble.
Tabarrok has a very widely-read blog and is treated as a great intellectual the Glibertarians on the internet. I don’t know when GMU became a cheap version of the Hoover Institute, but that seems to be the case.
Got the link to Tabarrok’s blog?
I think we should all ‘party’ on over to his site for a day or two.
Ya know sort of being ‘pranksters’ but in an enlightening way!
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/
From what I remember in econ classes in college, a variety of inputs need to be considered in viewing supply and demand. I’ve noticed that income is strangely absent from his discussion.
I guess your professors did not believe in the “money grows on trees” hypothesis.
My intermediate micro professor was a rarity- a libertarian.
The poor libertarians get tarred and feathered by the establishment.
I remember Krugman referring to the von Mises crowd dismissively as “liquidationists”.
Sorry, but the “poor libertarians” are the establishment, and have been ever since the Chicago School got in bed with Pinochet. But I guess just because an ideology doesn’t work is no reason to stop clinging to it . . .
Actually the “monetarists” are the establishment not the “libertarians”.
Thanks for playing though!
That was my favorite econ class - intermediate micro. Early ’60s.
aimeejd:
How in God’s name could you think the establishment is Libertarian?
It’s spin doctor speak to say the establishment is Libertarian, Esoteric. I have an acquaintance who calls me a “rent slave.” Of course, he is overweighted in real estate. It’s twisting words to make them mean the opposite.
“…the resemblance isn’t as close as the graph makes it appear. The Japanese run-up in home prices was faster and reached higher levels than the one in the United States. In addition, the Japanese population at the time wasn’t growing, and today it’s shrinking. (None of the major presidential candidates favor drastic reductions in immigration, so population growth in the United States will continue.) As a result of these and other problems, the Japanese economy was moribund from 1992 to 2002, which kept housing prices low…”
A. Does it matter that Japan’s rise was faster and higher? Does that really mitigate the US’ problem?
B. So we are relying on immigrants to save us from catastrophe?
IMHO, I believe that immigration was another prop to maintain the “wealth illusion” by having more first time buyers purchase over priced homes. Unfortunately, the ponzi mouse-trap closed before future immigrants (legal and legal)were caught!
Because lawn workers and itenerant painters support a $450k price for starter homes in CA.
“If house prices are heading back to the levels seen in 1997, then we are facing catastrophe.”
By “we” he means older generations looking to see, and those with lots of wealth in mortgage bonds.
If housing prices do not return to 1997 levels, then “they” are facing catastrophe. By “they” I mean everyone who doesn’t own a home and hopes to live in one without a radically lower standard of living, including all future generations.
Well put. That article would have us believe 2004 prices were aligned with fundamentals. Uh, not mine.
‘The debut of the reality television show “Flip That House” on Discovery Home Channel, followed shortly by “Flip This House” on A&E, was a clear sign that the boom’s end was near.’
Hmm, using that logic, is the debut of the reality show “The Real Housewives of Orange County” followed by the debut of “The Real Housewives of NYC”, both on Bravo, a clear sign that the era of brainless, shallow, materialistic, silicon-enhanced women is near? I hope so…
Uh-oh…I wonder what the debut of Terminator: The Sara Connor Chronicles is a sign of?
That you should hide guns behind your drywall?
Uh-oh…I wonder what the debut of Terminator: The Sara Connor Chronicles is a sign of?
that new creative storylines are getting harder and harder to come by. ; )
It means a good show. I’ve watched it and have been impressed.
Uncle Buck falls, breaks hip:
March 18 (Bloomberg) — The dollar fell for a fifth day against the euro as traders increased bets the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at least a full percentage point in an attempt to restore confidence to financial markets.
The U.S. currency gained against the yen after Japan’s Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga said the dollar’s 9 percent slump in the past four weeks is “excessive,” raising speculation that central banks will act to damp currency movements. The dollar plunged yesterday after the fire sale of Bear Stearns Cos. caused financial stocks to slump.
http://tinyurl.com/2wug3s
Boring. Find a new schtick.
Don’t like it? Don’t read it.
I took her comment to mean that the FR has to find a new schtick.
Hank Paulson on Today Show, “we know we’re in a sharp ‘downcline’.
Downcline eh? Leave it to Stutterin’ Hank to fabricate new euphemisms.
Waterboarding the English language.
Holy moly, “downcline”?
where DO we get all these idiots who are in charge?
If this were the olden days, if the “king” didn’t laugh at the “Jester”Paulson’s jokes,
Off with his head,
or the thumbscrews, or the gallows.
And all this time, I thought Being Ben Bernanke (triple-b rated) was the Jester…
“we know we’re in a sharp ‘downcline’
So Paulson has come up with a new word, ‘downcline” is that different from decline?
Downcline is a decline that is contained or in for a soft landing.
LOL!
A declining downturn?
It’s all downtained.
Downcline is the shape of a toilet bowl. Soft landing… yeah
lol. Some posters are funnier than any commedian. Very witty.
I believe the word “downcline” literally means “down slope.” Anyone who has viewed recent stock charts of FNM, FRE, BSC etc can easily get the picture.
Since an up slope is an “incline”, shouldn’t a down slope be an “outcline”?
Downcline to me is peering over your skis on top of a steep slope (beginner skier) and wondering what did I just get myself into.
Hey, I invented that word when I was in engineering school (briefly–not an engineer, and I don’t have an engineering degree).
You owe me royalties, Hank. Pay up! I think $90,000 in small, unmarked bills will be reasonable.
You might want to get that in Euros.
yes, but how will I evade taxes then?
/totally kidding here, guys
Paulson’s clueless or delusional:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7302068.stm
“US job growth was also negative in February, but Mr Paulson said he expected the economic package and further rate cuts to lead to 500,000 more jobs this year.”
We’re more likely to lose 500,000 jobs this year than gain that many.
Got my stimulus letter from the IRS. Need to send my 2008 tax forms first to get it. HAH! I usually file an extension. I have way too much stuff to file on time.
Even if we did get the full $1200 (married), that’s a couple of high steak house dinners with friends. In addition, I don’t get what Paulsen is saying. Bankers are very nervous to lend. They will only lend to top quality borrowers but will screw them with high interest rates. It looks like mney doesn’t really trickle down to the entities that really drive this economy.
I know of a company that is growing fast. They received tons of money from VC’s and have a GREAT product. They tried to get net30 terms on day to day computer equipments (laptop, LCD’s, Printers etc.) purchases and the manufacturer flat out turned them down. They said all the bullshit like it’s a young company, they don’t have a credit history, someone needs to be a cosigner, etc. Mind you that they just received close to 40 million. So they go to a local Computer store and by with cash.
If a company with 40 million can’t get credit, how can a consumer with pennies to his/her name get credit. This economy will NOT improve in the next 5 years.
what reputation?
WASHINGTON: Far more than at any time before, the Federal Reserve is putting its vast resources and its reputation on the line to rescue Wall Street’s biggest institutions from their far-reaching mistakes.
Over the next few months, the central bank will lend hundreds of billions of dollars to banks and investment firms that financed a mountain of mortgages now headed toward default.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/18/business/18fed.php
anti-Volcker:
March 18 (Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke may be readying the deepest interest-rate cut in a generation as the central bank struggles to prevent a meltdown in financial markets and a recession.
http://tinyurl.com/39bdqh
He could put a severe hurting on the commodity speculators by simply announcing a pause in interest rate changes. I’d love to see that happen.
You are right, but throwing a curve ball at this developing crisis could make it get much worse very quickly and blame would be heaped on the Fed. My guess is that the plan is to stay on track and let markets adjust to the track they are on.
We are all speculators. Most don’t understand the difference between investment or speculation in the classical sense of the term.
Keeping dollars versus getting rid of them for something else is speculation. Every person, whether they realize it or not, is anticipating the future price of the good and making their decisions appropriately. Unfortunately, that is the system we are currently living.
Sometimes interest rates offset the loss in value of the money-in the real sense. When they are artificially manipulated, the chances that a central body will “get it right” are even fewer.
“Keeping dollars versus getting rid of them for something else is speculation.”
Particularly under current circumstances.
Actually, it’s not.
We know that the Remnimbi, Real, Rupee are being kept artificially low by their central banks. They are trying to set both the interest rate, and the exchange rate (not possible.)
Since the interest rate is higher than the US, and they refuse to let their currencies appreciate, they are effectively printing money to maintain the peg.
So put it in those currencies. You get a higher rate until they remove the peg, and you get an exit bonus when they let it appreciate.
Who’s getting screwed in this “heads you win, tails you win”. Well, that would be their (Chinese, Brazilian, Indian) tax payers.
Sounds good to me.
Since the interest rate is higher than the US, and they refuse to let their currencies appreciate…”
What? Both the renimbi and the real have been appreciating against the dollar. Also, the interest rate is not the only factor in currency valuation. The CHF and yen have a lower interest rate than the dollar, and both are appreciating against USD.
Thanks for the insightful suggestion, Faster Pussycat.
How does one go about changing dollars to some other currency and also buy securities at those foreign rates? Is there a single online forex trader that can provide all that?
I’ve got cash laying around I need to put somewhere for the next year or so and I don’t want to tie it up in CD’s. (plus I would like a better return)
Also Faster Pussycat, do you have any recommendations on how I can become more informed on the fundamentals of forex?
Don’t club the Renmimbi and Rupee in the same bucket. China has a trade surplus, India has a deficit. The Rupee exchange rate isn’t set - it does trade within a band with some small amount of central bank intervention but that’s more to stabilize volatility than anything else. The RMB is fully engineered, exchange rate is set every morning by the high command.
In the recent past (few weeks) the RMB has risen and Rupee interestingly has fallen with institutional investors pulling out of the Indian market (margin calls?).
It’s fashionable to put countries into blocks or BRICs, but the ground realities are very different. I don’t know about Brazil so I won’t comment further.
At this point in the game, interest rates mean not so much…
Evidence all the houses selling, since Being Ben Bernanke (triple-b rated) has lowered them, many times.
Flights to quality are still leaving on schedule.
An interesting perspective from a former Fed Reserve bank governor was floated last nite. He suggested that the Fed has been increasing their leverage in investment banks a’la JPM/Chase/BearStearns and discount window as a means to institute sane lending practices and clean house and get rid of the thieving mag pies.
One possibility is that flushing Wall Street with liquidity serves to increase the rate of price discovery (aka setting the new comps), whether by accident or design. The BSC settlement price of $2/share offers no contrary evidence.
IMO, this scenario is consistent with a strong dollar policy.
This scenario is also consistent with the metaphor of a “liquidity tornado.” Is Lehman next in the storm’s path?
IMO, this scenario is consistent with a strong dollar policy.
Can you explain that a little, assuming you weren’t being sarcastic?
Not being sarcastic. But as usual, I defer to the experts who post here to offer opinion on my hypothesis.
The Wall Street investment houses made a pact with their perceived devil. The Federal Reserve had never had oversight of Wall Street. Now the street is under the Federal Reserve and not the SEC.
Different rules, different regulations. A lot tighter regulations.
…under the Fed and not the SEC.
As always, Mr. Hoz, you cut completely to the chase. Thank you for your (I’m betting,) hard-earned wisdom and the willingness to share it.
Hoz,
So true, so true. I didn’t realize that until you pointed it out.
I have a question for you. If Bear Stearns was allowed to fail or go into bankruptcy would there be enough money in SPIC fund to pay the share holders and their customers?
SPIC would not pay either. SPIC only guarantees the cash and securities that are held in your name, not the price you get for the securities.
I have typing acronyms. SIPC, not SPIC.
I keep doing that.
SPIC/SIPC
inflation watch:
March 18 (Bloomberg) — China told banks to set aside more reserves for the second time this year, hours after Premier Wen Jiabao said the government will take “forceful” steps to damp inflation at an 11-year high.
http://tinyurl.com/2uq966
UK consumer inflation reached its highest level in nine months last month, due to a new method for calculating energy bills.
The Office for National Statistics said the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) hit 2.5% on an annual basis in February, up from 2.2% in January.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7302297.stm
Canada’s inflation rate is at a 6-month low. Cost of food staples and cars are down…and housing is high and still gaining. we’re different!
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3d3esz
Yay for Canadian savers! Our dollars are made out of metal, eh?
Woke up in London this morning and read a couple of the local papers. Many stories on the recent financial events (noting that they have a global impact). Several mentions of “meltdown” and possible global depression. The English do tend to like a bit of hyperbole with their morning paper, but is meltdown an exaggeration?
One other angle I see often in the English press is that they contend that this is a US problem that has spread its misery to the rest of the world. However, I have been coming to this country for 15 years now, and I can say that Brits live well beyond their means. House prices are easily 10x the average wage in many parts of the country. Yes, the US has sold some junk assets, but I find it hard to believe this is a wholly American created contagion.
IMO, it’s a central bank/multinational corp created situation.
References, please?
The central banks and big business were enablers, but the housing bubble only happened because buyers were willing to pay ridiculous prices for houses. All these people were already living somewhere. They didn’t have to buy anything.
As with all bubbles: no willing buyers, no bubble.
Home debtors blaming the bankers is akin to an alcoholic who blames his overly-friendly bartender.
As with all bubbles: no willing buyers, no bubble.”
There are always buyers if there is easy credit. They will even buy useless things like tulips and beanie babies. Credit is the key.
‘the housing bubble only happened because buyers were willing to pay ridiculous prices for houses.’
“Only” That’s basically the ‘bubbles just happen’ line.
Original sin “only happened because” Eve made Adam bite the apple.
“Home debtors blaming the bankers is akin to an alcoholic who blames his overly-friendly bartender.”
If the bartender gives out free booze - I blame the bartender.
Much like drug dealers who give out free samples to get someone hooked. Sure the addict is to blame for lack of self-control, but the dealer isn’t innocent either.
Giving out free booze has a way of getting alcoholics to consume more than their fair share of the available liquidity supply.
The bubble happened because real estate transactions often boil down to “How much is this house?” - “Well, how much ya got?”
With the credit bubble, the “How much ya got” part skyrocketed. People were able to raise absurd amounts of money. Thus real estate prices skyrocketed.
“Home debtors blaming the bankers is akin to an alcoholic who blames his overly-friendly bartender.”
Yeah, kinda. It’s akin to a drunk blaming his overly friendly bartender for letting him and all the other drunks in the neighborhood run tabs despite knowing perfectly well the drunkards are penniless and in endstage liver failure but planning to real quick before all the drunks die sell the outstanding tabs to somebody far away and move to Tahiti. It would be like saying a guy like that took a big dumb risk.
It would be so cool if bartenders worked like mortgage brokers. Party party party, but if it takes you too long to pay your tab, they’ll demand that you give back all those drinks you drank. I could get behind that plan! I’m paying for my drinks and then giving them back to area gutters and flower beds–I’d a lot rather not pay and give them back to the bar.
Gurglemail!
Thanks, neuro. I’m going to steal this thought and use it on some family members; I think it might be easier for them to understand than some of my past arguments. Everything I’ve said so far is mostly in-one-ear and out-the-other.
We now need references for our opinions? LOL
My last ex-wife often accused me this way;
“That’s the trouble with you, you always think your opinions are right!”
‘my last ex-wife”…no more, or the most recent???
and PB’s “eve made adam bite the apple”..how do you know she Made him bite said apple? You know how men are with food, show man food, man eat food, man like food, man want nap then nookie then food or vice versa.
hehe
Two X’s, last one gone 7 years;
I got tired of splitting my pea.
I agree with Ben, the corp’se is largely responsible for all the housing cadavers strewn across the world, and the central banks supplied the coffin money.
Yeah, the Brits just love U.S. troubles and of course, tabloid them to the best of their unquestioned ability. The guy who was on that Jim Rodgers video clip yesterday could barely contain his smirk.
Yeah, the British are even more obessed with the whole consumer culture/celebrity culture thing. They overpay for everything from utilities to housing to cars to gas - they deserve everything they have got coming.
Quick question: Can we export JT’s to England?
Let’s see…America…Australia…India…the English sure know how to get rid of unusable real estate & undesirables.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnnOOo6tRs8
I agree.
BBC News- LA becoming a tent city.
Bush Leagues
“Several mentions of “meltdown” and possible global depression. The English do tend to like a bit of hyperbole with their morning paper, but is meltdown an exaggeration?”
Considering the property bubble is global and some places outside the U.S. bubbled far higher than the U.S., there are many other places that could be in trouble soon. That would be true even if there were no junk U.S. “assets”. I agree with the possibility of a meltdown that is global and think the risk of that possibility is continuing to increase.
I regularly look at the Guardian and Independent and sometimes the Telegraph and Times. Which paper had the “global depression” story today?
Just ask nhz…I’m sure he’ll pipe up about the situation in the Netherlands being worse than in the U.S…
Global Depression = Self Full Fillling Prophecy
Left behind,
Do you go over to London for business or vacation? Where do you stay? I want to take my Mom to London. She has never been there.
Thanks.
If mom is a little adventurous, look into the Penn Club. It was where the Quakers boarded when they were driving ambulances during the blitz as religious objectors. Fun histoty and they serve meals family style so you bump into interesting people. I met some philosophy professors who were thre for a conference on Bertrand Russel and some other cool people. But you have to be willing to go outside your room to get to a bathroom. Also used to be fairly cheap. That is all relative now. It is near the British Museum.
Polly,
My mom would love the Penn Club. She loves meeting and talking to people.
Thank you.
Absolute auction for 100 condos in Orlando. The 1 bedroom usually rents around 700/month. It should be interesting to see what these go for. I’m considering going to just see if I can find the shills.
http://www.national-auction.com/auction_detail.php?ID=378473
Also I noticed the Orlando Sentinel is now advertising real estate on the front page of the paper. Never noticed that until about 2 weeks ago.
should be under 90k
$700 rent x 120 by traditional measures
but fees are the killer w condos
“fees are the killer w condos”
Exactly. I know of no better way than to tether oneself to a stream of outgoing payments than buying a condo.
checked that hood you were considering buying in, not bad
city-data.com you can enter the zip code and it gives you tons of demographic data
and the fees are UNBOUNDED! IN fact, the more neighbors that aren’t paying their HOA and other fees, the more YOU have to pay!
So this story in the Orlando Sentinel today is about a 5000sf house, $100 raffle…So you win the house for a $100, then owe $370, 000 in taxes on your “prize”
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-houseraffle1808mar18,0,6473255.story
awesome
Interesting to see if they go for $55K or $110K, or whether they just go unsold…
Strategy of Fed praised by Bush
Critics say hardships of homeowners ignored
By Steven Lee Myers
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
I thought that a hardship was something that happened to somebody that was beyond their control. Like people losing their houses in a flood or earthquake, not because they paid more than they could afford.
‘Ol Lou Dobbs was sure stoking the fire last night - gettin’ in a hizzy over bank “bailouts” and no help for the “middle class”. It was comical.
Has Lou colored his hair or what?
Ever since that idea that he might be looking to run for pres, someone has spiffed up his look to the degree that his demeanor and his look are dandified. His mannerisms,demeanor, and look are somewhat, uh plastic?
Can’t figure out the finer point of this. Just kinda weird.
Like the guy in church who has a bad bad bad combover but dresses perfectly, pocket scarf and everything.
Shrub also publicly “thanked” Paulson for working “over the weekend”….you’re doing “a heck of a job” Henry!
In 2005, he said Brownie was doing a heck of a job too!
Continuing the pattern: Shortly before Rumsfeld resigned, Bush complimented his good work in a similar way.
’ssshrubery is good with the comps.
I noticed that, too. How funny that the President of the United States thinks it is going above and beyond the call of duty to work over the weekend!
Well, what’s puzzling is how he would even know the difference between a weekday and weekend day to begin with.
Weekdays are when everyone else is at work and can’t play.
If Bush tells Paulson “Mission Accomplished,” I’m heading for the bunker.
PAGE ONE
U.S. Mulls Next Steps in Crisis
By BOB DAVIS, GREG IP and DAMIAN PALETTA
March 18, 2008; Page A1
ANALYSIS
Fed carrying more than just financial risk
Decisions put credibility of central bank on the line
By Edmund L. Andrews
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
March 18, 2008
This morning the talking heads on bloomberg and cnbc said in the long run the fed may end up making money on the takeover of bsc. Question, if they do should not the shareholders of bsc be the recipient of those profits?
I suggest those shareholders be allowed to use the rest of their personal wealth to take that stuff off the Fed’s books anytime they want. We’ve hand one iteration of privatized profits and socialized losses. We don’t need two.
The friggin company was BK on Saturday, JP Morgan stepped in and guaranteed $25B and the Federal reserve put up $30B. JPM put $6B in addtl reserves or not one firm would have traded with BSC yesterday. This is buying by mopes that think there may be a value to putting Bear into BK and hopefully become the DIP.
NO.
longer answer was lost in cyberspace.
Spring Cleaning for the Free Market
http://www.minyanville.com/articles/MER-CFC-C-jpm-bac-BSC/index/a/16311
A day after da Bear’s collapse, almost all signs are happy (and the unhappy ones lend themselves to a happy interpretation…).
March 18, 2008 9:12 A.M.ET
BULLETIN
Wall Street takes data in stride
Bulls call the Tuesday tune
with my renewed interest in the market and overall economy, I am curious how short sighted the market appears to be. Yesterday morning we were on crisis footing while this morning all is well with LEH and GS reporting better than expected numbers? CNBC is all but calling a bottom . Have all of the potential negatives been priced into the market? Or is Wall street looking the other way for the day as traders cash in on the daily swings?
They are for the time being. IMO.
Panic makes the market very susceptible to perception volatility.
BSC trading as though they are something other than an ex-investment bank. Very interesting.
IMF chief says contagion risk ‘very high’
By Reuters, March 17
You know, I have heard it said that our economic problem, the crisis of confidence, could be resolved immediately if either the financial institutions immediately open their books to show what they have or the USGovt force them to do so (FED or SEC).
From my recent readings on the internet, neither businesses nor the Govt. will do so, because they are collectively afraid that it will show that they are technically bankrupt, thereby causing in their mind a worst problem than they current preceive. Also, I suspect that, because they have no solution to BK situation, they are afraid of losing their lofty position in our society.
Just mho. So am I reading the situation wrong?
i think you’re reading it correctly. what would come to light in terms of business practices, off-books transactions, etc. would make enron look like a 3rd rate tea party. the whole host of outright scams, credit swaps, leverages with no backing would be out there for all to see and critique.
which is why it’ll never happen.
So, daniel, do you think, because of the bigwigs ego, loss of status and possibly loss of financial resources, they are going for broke? That they are operating on a wing and a prayer that somehow, someway that the problem isn’t as big as their greatest fears or that the public will rescue them from telling the truth?
Just a question, not a fact or an opinion.
http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aTdCg4dcOgxY&refer=home
Funny, BS and Lehman are now old news- time to look at Merrill.
“Merrill Lynch & Co. “is the riskiest” of the largest remaining U.S. investment banks, while Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. has the strongest access to capital, according to Wachovia Corp. analyst Douglas Sipkin.”
Crap, I have an IRA with Merrill Lynch. Forgive my naivety, but what would happen to that if Merrill imploded? Would I lose it all?
Man, this debacle just pisses me off more and more and more…
I think you have a couple hundred thou of insurance per account…
of course, how much is that insurance really worth these days?
I live in Montgomery County, Md and came home yesterday to find a flyer stuck in my door. The local police were alerting me to the fact that a convicted child molester has now moved in directly across the street from me (it’s a townhouse community, so this is a matter of a few yards). There was never a ‘for rent’ or ‘for sale’ sign on the front lawn. Evidently the guy is a boarder or a friend of the people who live there, because they are of different races. I am a single mother w a young teenage daughter. I do not want to break my lease, but to me, this is a material factor affecting the desirability of my rental property. I’m giving my notice and getting out.
Yikes. But fortunately, you’re a renter and not a home loaner, so at least you can move out quick.
I absolutely understand your concern, but I have to say I’m not sure where you’re going to move where there want be sex offenders of some kind in the immediate vicinity, convicted or otherwise. The only kind they can warn you about are the ones they have caught, actually managed to convict of a sex crime, and thus forced to register as sex offenders. There’s a lot more out there who don’t fit that profile. I guess moving will at least get you away from the devil you know . . .
Honestly, I’d rather be notified when a convicted HOME BURGLAR moves into my neighborhood.
Go to the http://www.familywatchdog.us/. You may be surprised to find several other sex offenders already living nearby. That site will tell you what they were convicted of as well as where they live. I found someone I knew once (someone who was very close to someone else in my family at the time). It was creepy (offense was rape of a child).
Link to Government Stats.
Law and Order and other TV shows have built up paranoia to a level that is unreasonable. I don’t blame you for not wanting to live next door to the person, but the statistics show that the chances of this person doing it again before your daughter heads off to college are a lot smaller than the chances of a whole lot of other things you don’t want your daughter involved in.
There was a convicted sex offender who lived two doors down from us in Arlington (before we sold). We honestly saw someone go in/out of the house maybe twice a year and never saw the molester…it was actually pretty creepy. (Probably some kind of Al Qaeuda-in-Arlington safe house.) Anyway, you should check online for molesters living near any new place before you sign the lease. They sadly seem to be everywhere.
While doing our due diligence when buying our house, we found that a neighbor was a registered sex offender. Rather than panic, and realizing that they are probably all around, we went to the court and pulled his record. Based on that we determined that he would not be a threat. We talked to other neighbors and they all told us, which turned out to be true, that he kept to himself. I am in NO WAY defending perverts, but perhaps the specifics to this guys case might make the threat tolerable. Plus this guy might not stay as was the case with us. If he is a predator type, then you have already been living across from some real creeps..the ones that would take him in. Does that make sense?
In San Diego most good neighborhoods have at least 1 to 3 sex offenders living there. My feeling is no matter where you live there will be at least one convicted sex offender in your neighborhood and a few more that haven’t been caught yet. I can’t remember the exact number but sex offenders usually have many victims before they are caught. While I’m sure most of them cr@p in their own backyard so to speak, they can drive to other neighborhoods to commit their crimes.
The highest concentrations of sex offenders are in poor neighborhoods and the least in the more affluent neighborhoods. Areas like City Heights are literally dots on top of dots on the map.
Wickedheart,
The highest concentrations of sex offenders are in families.
GS reported higher revs from interest rate products, currencies and commodities, isn’t that the next bubble to pop?
Closed out BSC for another $2/share. I’m not sure selling that is the right thing to do though.
Who took the rest of the hit?
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/lehman-takes-18-bln-write-downs/story.aspx?guid=%7B7CABA017%2D9F2A%2D41B0%2D8202%2D5D2781850BBE%7D&dist=TQP_Mod_mktwN
It wasn’t. Damn
Yup - I’m still holding half. Waiting to dump the rest after the interest rate hike.
What the hell is going on with the Bear???
Lawsuit leverage to try to negotiate a better price.
I bid 2.50 yesterday a.m. Nobody would sell to me. Tried 3, then 3.25 where I finally got some.
Sold UGY this morning. SRS is scraping bottom + I’m looking to buy some after the rate cut. Anticipate selling SRS anywhere from 2 hours to a week later. This is an extremely risky trade - the faint of heart need not apply. Just wanted to share in case anyone’s interested.
The FEDs. Its on their books now.
I meant the 3B “risk mitigation”. Who was on the other side of the trade?
“…
Finally, they came to a conclusion. J.P. Morgan wouldn’t buy Bear Stearns on its own. The bank needed help before it would do the deal.
Mr. Paulson was frequently on the phone with Bear and J. P. Morgan executives, negotiating the details of the deal, the senior Treasury official said. Initially, Morgan wanted to pick off select parts of Bear, but Mr. Paulson insisted that it take the entire Bear portfolio, the official said.
This was no normal negotiation, says one person involved in the matter. Instead of two parties, there were three, this person explains, the third being the government. It is unclear what explicit requests were made by the Fed or Treasury. But the deal now in place has a number of features that are highly unusual, according to people who worked on the transaction.
In addition to its option to purchase Bear’s headquarters building, J.P. Morgan has the option to purchase just under 20% of Bear Stearns’s shares at a price of $2 each. That feature that gives J.P. Morgan an ability to largely block a rival offer, says a person with knowledge of the contract.
The deal also is highly “locked up,” meaning that J.P. Morgan cannot walk, even if there is a heavy deterioration in Bear’s business or future prospects. Bear Stearns holders can, of course, vote the deal down. But the effect that would have on J.P. Morgan’s ongoing managerial oversight and the Fed’s guarantees is largely unknown….”
Wall Street Journal
The Week That Shook Wall Street:
Inside the Demise of Bear Stearns
By ROBIN SIDEL, GREG IP, MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS and KATE KELLY
March 18, 2008; Page A1
link
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120580966534444395.html?mod=MKTW
“When you’re looking into the abyss, you don’t quibble over details,” said New York Democratic Senator Charles Schumer.
Which means, ‘…somebody’s gonna get hosed, but at least it isn’t me and my friends’.
That article practically begs you to get rid of all Dollar denominated assets…
Apparently not? $8.00+…
Now $6.50 30 minutes later. Sounds like fun.
It is very fun, scary and the key is to not get long when reality hits. The stock will be down to $1.80 before the dust settles, but the market can stay irrational a lot longer than most shorts can stay solvent.
The time to buy was yesterday, not today. I’m finished with it.
TMA is a safer play
What’s that?
This one is a hoot, particularly the last paragraph. It was published before the Bear Stearns deal.
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB120553465607937899.html?mod=b_hpp_9_0002_b_this_weeks_magazine_home_top
This question has probably been asked a thousand times, so sorry for the repeat, but what is a reputable firm with an online site from which you can purchase foreign currency to be maintained in an account with them that will accrue interest in that denomination? Something that doesn’t involve any risk of principal loss.
Thanks in advance.
Something that doesn’t involve any risk of principal loss.
Good luck with that.
Yes, I’m not talking about the currency itself losing money because of the exchange rate, but rather I’m not looking to use leverage. I don’t want to use 100k to borrow and bet 500k so to speak. I just want to deposit dollars, turn them into say francs, and let is sit drawing interest.
I am assuming you don’t mean ‘no exchange rate risk’ but rather ‘insured deposits in that denomination’. If you want to open deposit accounts (that are insured in some way) in other countries, you may well be able to do that, but don’t expect a simple way to conduct forex trades using such accounts.
You can look at Everbank which offers CDs tied to forwards/futures in foreign currencies. The equivalent US dollar principal is FDIC insured but you can lose on the exchange rate. Also, Everbank takes a big cut on the exchange rate. I’m just guessing but I suspect that a 5% gross FX profit ends up as a 3% net FX profit for the investor.
You can also buy the Rydex currency ETFs but the underlying asset is an FX denominated account at the JPMorgan-Chase London branch. You might consider these carry too much credit risk.
If you’re interested in the Canadian dollar it’s easy to open an HSBC Canada account if you live near an HSBC USA branch. Canada, like the US has deposit insurance. The problem here is that for small balances the transaction expenses are fairly high (account opening fees, wire tranfer charges, and retail exchange rates).
There are also some open-ended mutual funds that invest in very short term foreign sovereign debt. The two that I have been in for years are MERKX and PSAFX.
March 17, 2008 - Views: 23721
Broken Arrow
“Stocks before whoor, everyone’s poor.”
Crisis in the Chartland
“It’s called Gravitational Altitude Correction.”
LOL!
I think Jon Stewart has the best job on earth, and I’m green with envy.
The part about Cramer was great.
Great stuff last night.
Asif’s bit was very funny.
Have fun with this quote from the NY Times on Bear Sterns.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/business/18bear.html?_r=2&ref=business&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Across the firm, executives and employees declined to speak publicly, a reflection of the fluid events as well as a reluctance to anger their prospective bosses from JPMorgan who were already on the premises Monday, appraising their new investment.
But privately they expressed raw dismay, their voices heavy with sadness and shock.
“My life has been flushed down the drain,” said one person. There was talk Monday that with their life savings nearly depleted, some executives had moved quickly, putting their weekend homes on the market.
http://www.rutledgeblog.com/
From Professor Bear’s comments way upthread:
“One possibility is that flushing Wall Street with liquidity serves to increase the rate of price discovery (aka setting the new comps), whether by accident or design. The BSC settlement price of $2/share offers no contrary evidence.”
and
“IMO ..consistent with a strong dollar policy”
Agree. The more fictitious capital that is destroyed, (without increasing the monetary base) increases the value of the dollar. Remember that at some time, the debt of the government will have to be serviced with dollars, and the dollar is still and will remain the world’s reserve currency.
From Ouro’s Rutledge link:
“If you prefer to think in terms of the Monetary Base, the aggregate that the Fed actually controls made up of bank reserves plus outstanding currency, you reach the same conclusion. The Monetary Base on March 12 (the most recent figure) stood at $857.6 billion. That’s less than it was at the end of January ($860.7 billion), and almost exactly equal to its level on August 15, 2007 when the mortgage crisis first hit the headlines. In other words, all the Fed’s stimulus since then amounts to a 0% growth in the Monetary Base.”
The fed isn’t ‘printing money’. It is not increasing the monetary base. Again, the question remains how far the dollar will fall before the ’strengthening’ occurs.
The fed isn’t ‘printing money’. It is not increasing the monetary base.
So the argument here is that wealth destruction is happening at a greater rate than additional injections … ?
I’m still not clear how this amounts to a “strong dollar policy,” unless the inference is that the sick old wildebeests are culled from the herd, leaving only the hardiest to forage in the capital markets — which doesn’t seem to be happening.
Yes, injections are zero. Deleveraging and destruction of debt is what’s happening now. This is a deflationary environment. The hyperinflation has already occured and now the Fed is in the ‘liquidity trap’.
DJIA = 12.2K and holding
Don’t Fed days almost always open on the upside?
MARKET SNAPSHOT
Fed day opens on the upside
Dow industrials jump 250-plus points Tuesday, as investors place their bets on an extraordinarily aggressive Fed cut at 2:15 p.m. Eastern.
Watch the fed only do .5, i don’t think a full point is warranted.
I will be shocked and awed if they do 0.5, and also relieved that I did not buy the dip. But I am expecting 0.75 or 1.0.
I don’t think they will, if things were that dire they would have cut the discount more than .25. The Primary Dealer Credit Facility gives them more leeway on the rate side. I say .5 ff and another .25 discount cut.
Let’s be honest…
You could lower interest rates to 0%, and nobody would buy houses, as most everybody that was going to buy a house, has bought one already, for too much money.
Then let’s price fix!
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/retooling-1930s-idea-could-halt/story.aspx?guid=%7B6DF943BC%2D9311%2D4AB0%2DAB3A%2D0E7233C68499%7D
“IRWIN KELLNER
Hitting home”
These eastern seaboard chaps really do need to get out west a bit more often, so they can see how many vacant homes they are proposing the U.S. taxpayer to buy up. Was there anything like the current glut of vacant homes in the 1930s?
Fed funds futures price in 1-point cut, not more
By Laura Mandaro
Last update: 11:25 a.m. EDT March 18, 2008
The stock market seems to be dictating monetary policy anymore.
Ok, I have been reading that there is a general unwinding of “leverage” all around the world. I’m reading this to mean that entities of all kinds are no long taking on debt for various purposes nor lending money for those purposes. I won’t comment on the usefulness of the lending and borrowing. I’m sure some is good and some not.
My question: Since this de-leveraging is not only cutting the idiots out but cutting the good stuff along with it, then why is the stock market going through a small rally? Is the stock market in denial or is the situation not as dire as it seems?
WS appears to be slowly working its way through the mountains of excess money that is spread around the world. I point to the volatility of the last 6 months.
I suspect that while the Fed does not want a crash, it doesn’t seem to care about de-leveraging. That being said, I strongly suspect that the Fed does NOT want a realistic risk re-pricing. That would cause a crash.
Your thoughts, please.
Roidy
That’s what they are trying to do. Seems to me this bubble will be difficult to deleverage in an orderly manner.
http://www.contraryinvestor.com/imagesCImain/bankcds022408.png
TYX and are in choppy waters…
Garbled that post; should say “and TNX”…
TNX yield rocketed up on the 2:15 EST announcement…
Let me try again.
- Both TYX and TNX yields had a quick dip on the rate cut announcement.
- But both turned tail and rocketed up 15 minutes hence.
From Markewatch:
Discount window access “incredibly attractive”: Lehman CFO
So is the atm at the casino, lol.
What a Difference a Year Makes
I’m not sure what all of this means but the changes are dramatic. Look what has happended in the debt markets over the last year.
The 3-month/30-year Treasury spread has gone from 30 BPs to 330 BPs. The 6-month T-Bill/insured CD spread has gone from 10 BPs to 220 BPs. The 10-Year Treasury/AAA G.O. muni spread has gone from -80 BPs to +60 BPs. (Yes, tax-exempt municipal bonds have a higher nominal yield than taxable Federal bonds.)
To me this indicates that debt investors are now pricing in risk and investors in other asset classes are scared and are moving into T-Bills and short term T-Notes. Also, the steep yield curve implies rising interest rates. I have no real expertise in this area so I would welcome any comments from those who know something about bond markets.
Reposted from last night:
telegraph.co.uk
Wall Street rallies to aid Lehman
“Wall street’s leading investment banks have rallied around ailing rival Lehman Brothers after the Federal Reserve Bank of New York urged them to support the institution in order to try and preserve financial stability…
…One American banker said: “[We heard] from the top, ‘Do not encourage calls to Lehman clients. We want to run that up the flagpole. We don’t want another run on a bank.’ ”
As a result, it is believed that bankers were told not to solicit Lehman’s clients for business or to give the impression the bank is uncreditworthy.
Lehman’s business model is closest to that of Bear Stearns, and there has been considerable speculation surrounding the state of its balance sheet…”
When live gives you Lehmans…
funny
New York Times Opinion page
Alex Tabarrok is a professor of economics at George Mason University and the research director for the Independent Institute.
“…The collapse of housing prices certainly feels painful, and for some homeowners, it will be. But the houses are still there, as good as ever. Most of the gains going up were paper gains, and most of the losses going down are paper losses….”
http://tinyurl.com/284e7c
“Most of the gains going up were paper gains, and most of the losses going down are paper losses….”
Q. What is the difference between paper gains and paper losses?
A. You can’t eat your paper losses.
WTF is he talking about?
A loss that is not “marked-to-market” is not a loss? Really?!? So Enron and JDSU will be coming back any day soon, eh?
And this is an economist? Unreal.
On a side note, I once fired someone for making that stupid comment.
–
David Rosenberg:
“Gallup poll shows 76% of the public see a recession; 59% a depression ….
“We still have an economic recession to contend with – While all the focus is on the Fed and how it is now sacrificing its balance sheet to prevent a contagion, we still have this little matter to contend called an economic recession, which is only going to serve to exacerbate credit quality strains in the financial system: Indeed, a USA Today/Gallup poll just found that 76% of the public believe the economy is in recession vs 22% who believe it is not. You have to back to 1992 to see the last time the public was this downbeat on the economy – and let’s face it, the average Joe did a better job than the average economist did that year (economists, after missing the recession, then go back into dream-land and predict V-shaped recoveries because their models, based on the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, shows that Fed policy triggers sharp recoveries. But that is not the case as we saw in the early 1990s and 2000-01 when it involved intense balance sheet repair and deflation in the capital stock). By the way, 59% of those surveyed think we are in a modern-day depression. And the poll was completed on Sunday, before we found out about the practical demise of an 85-year old Wall Street giant.”
I think that the average Joe and Jane know lot more about forecasting recessions and depressions than economists, most of whom qualify as rogue economists because they purposely lie about recessions.
For example, CA entered recession in Jun-Jul’07 (based on employment and unemployment rate data for the state) and I got a call around the same time from a buddy who fully qualifies as an average Joe, whose work, or lack thereof, depends on the health of the economy, who said that we are in recession/depression. The rogue economists at UCLA Anderson School are still busy denying the recession in CA and forecasting no recession any time soon. These guys need to leave the ivory tower and check out the real economy around them.
Jas
A person is smart, people are stupid.
http://www.despair.com/meetings.html
Upon accepting the one office job I had in my life, the first thing to appear on my office wall was:
http://www.despair.com/motivation.html
Genius.
–
Hoz,
One guy, born in the US and in his 60s, tried to convince me that democracy always produces good result because people may be stupid individually but are wise collectively (this guy is the biggest Bush defender I know). Wisdom of the crowds or the masses?!
Jas
This argument is used by Index fund believers as well. When the whole system is corrupt, or fully gamed, such averages just don’t work.
No its not. All you need is a small number of rational players in a market to set the market price. Prices are set at the margins.
In other words the market is smart collectively because some players are smart.
Well that guy is Stupid for sure. Wisdom for him is an elusive entity. W supporter? good gawd. Still?
People are wise collectively in the sense that each individual adds his/her individual point of view to the wisdom of the group.
But individual wisdom prevails when the wise individual is able to sort through the often contradictory points-of-view of this collective wisdom and selects the wisest option.
Democratic voting produces average results by definition, doesn’t it?
I think that the average Joe and Jane know lot more about forecasting recessions and depressions than economists
I suspect it more a matter of honesty than knowledge. Economists who are paraded in the press are there to sooth the reader.
–
MEston,
We agree if you get the gist of some of my comments. I use the term rogue economists for thsoe who purposely mislead by bullish commentary than the reality.
Jas
Do you see any parallel between economists cited in the MSM and hit-a-number appraisers? I see lots of parallels…
Follow the money, follow the money. Look at who is paying the economists bills.
I nominate this for a HBB time-share:
http://tinyurl.com/357s8s
OUR ROAD, WHICH IS A DEAD END!
If it was my ad, I would have said a ‘cul-de-sac’ otherwise his sale is a dead end for sure. Nice area but the price? not.
Blast from the Past.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 28, 2004
SCHUMER: LI MIDDLE CLASS HOUSING SHORTAGES REACHING CRISIS LEVELS - UNVEILS MAJOR NEW FEDERAL PLAN FOR EXPANSION
LI housing prices skyrocketing 81%; In one generation skyrocketing housing costs will prevent Policemen, Firemen, Nurses, Teachers from living on Long Island
Schumer announces dramatic $300 million expansion of oversubscribed Fannie Mae initiative letting middle class families purchase homes with little or no down payment at Long Island Housing Partnership on Monday
Schumer Plan also starts conversion of 1/3 of vacant federal property on LI for middle-class housing; new bill to also make Feds insure zero-down-payment mortgages for first-time home buyers
http://www.senate.gov/~schumer/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/press_releases/2004/PR02714.LIHousing062804.html
Since no-down loans have worked out so very well thus far, I totally get CS’s motives for expanding such programs.
Actually, I was kidding. On a serious level, why do D-ratic pols want to expose themselves to future accusations that they encouraged low income hhs to catch falling knives? I realize that I may be overlooking something important here (i.e., “Real estate always goes up”).
The same people that helped create this mess are going to be the ones that clean it up. God help us.
I expect that in a few short years, Long Island’s problem will be having the middle class replaced by the working poor. Perhaps then Schumer, from Brooklyn, will be blamed for having “them” move out there.
Well Tx
We are up quite a bit today and about 1/3rd of where I am looking to sell.
Keep reminding me not to get greedy.
I’m thinking more in terms of time than price. Going to ride this one up for awhile.
I get nervous when long in a bear market.
“Thanks to modern management techniques and high technology, though, we can now achieve near- complete amnesia in a year or two.”
John Dizard
I think a day or two.
We could lock in a trading range of 1270 to 1350 until the next bad news hits.
I do not think so, the market is a coiled spring on the verge of breaking. The reaction could be in any direction. (I think down)
Looks ready to exploded.
Beautiful analogy, Hoz. I agree the market seems likely to break, but the direction is unclear. I suppose options traders have a strategy which lets them win in either case (buy out of the money puts and calls at the same time?)…
Explode one way or the other.
Were’s the earth shattering boom? There should have been an earth shattering boom?
Is the short end pricing in deflation? Rates are negative with inflation running over 2%.
http://finance.yahoo.com/bonds/composite_bond_rates
There are a lot of lawsuits filed and planned against Bear Stearns. This lawsuit is just incredible. I thought every financial firm had learned its lesson a decade or two ago.
ERISA violations investing in its own stock. That is stupid.
Got a link to it?
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1214891/
Enron II. At least they didn’t freeze the accounts so employees couldn’t sell.
Can the fed be sued? (bsc shareholders suing the fed for bankrolling jpm)
http://www.save-a-patriot.org/files/view/frcourt.html
under certain conditions (Federal Tort Claims Act) but I doubt this is one of them
But the Ninth Circuit ruled the fed is a private corporation, doesn’t the Federal Tort Claims Act only cover the government?
the fed. right. I was thinking government.
Enron II. At least they didn’t freeze the accounts so employees couldn’t sell.
But cramer on Tuesday last, kept screaming, you would be stupid( ?) to sell Bear now. Kept screaming it.
Thank you Jon Stewart.
“kept screaming, you would be stupid”
Guy needs training in making proper eye contact with the camera when he screams.
There should be nothing left to sue.
BSC stockholders can vote no, and if they do, they’d better be in a position to blackmail the financial system. Otherwise, bye bye Fed $30 billion and they get nothing, IMHO.
Spring home-selling season could disappoint: Soleil
By John Spence
Last update: 1:06 p.m. EDT March 18, 2008
Circus Maxedoubtus
S.P.Q.A.
Bennie and the Feds are on deck. Tick, tock.
The Fed Can’t Do it Alone
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/17/AR2008031702152.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
He’s lying, flat-out lying.
Anyway, isn’t the one who publicly declared on PBS that the “last duty of a central banker is to tell the public the truth”?
The people who are walking from their houses are not stupid. Nor were the people who pulled a “bank run” on Northern Rock.
They may not be able to recite the causes and facts backwards and forwards like this crowd here but they “get” it, they get it in spades.
The Bailout Artists
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/opinion/18brooks.html?_r=2&ref=opinion&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
With this kind of speculation taking place, it gets hard for Bennie and the Feds to surprise on the upper end of the potential rate cut, especially given the FFR’s current proximity to 0 pct.
Pressure on Fed to slash interest rates
By Krishna Guha in London
Published: March 17 2008 18:58 | Last updated: March 17 2008 18:58
The Federal Reserve faces pressure to cut interest rates by as much as a full percentage point or more at its scheduled policy meeting on Tuesday.
In early trading on Monday, options prices indicated roughly even odds of a 75- basis-point cut or a 100-basis-point cut – with some traders betting on an even bigger 125-basis-point reduction.
I found this on Yahoo News.
http://tinyurl.com/36e4xk
It seems that the American Consumer has found out about savings and living without debt. This is a very good thing. This is the best news I have heard in a long time. Sensible spending, saving, and living within your means is a virtue not only in itself but good for the country. I would think that the Gov’t, WS, etc. would not like this development. Expect hysterical efforts to “stimulate the economy”.
Roidy
Pretty anecdotal and just forced economies and outrageous spending curtailed. Any actual “saving” going on?
Hey, it’s a start. Give it time. I’m an optimist about this.
Roidy
75 : 2 voted against
Wow! .75 across the board. Almost out of ammo.
almost being the operative word
We’re at 2.25% now. Greenspan took it all the way down to 1% for a year (2003-2004). Will gentle Ben do the same? Me thinks yes…and more.
Now to see how I can get access to that money to start another bubble…
BB just shot himself in the foot again. Crude up over $2 and gasoline up almost $.10.
Why do you say he shot himself in the foot?
Yeah, no kidding. Where can I get me a NINA mortgage?
Save Wall St first. Main Street can wait.
WS will be “disappointed”. They wanted more. Always more.
Roidy
Looks like some are unhappy that it’s “only” 75.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=%5EGSPC&t=1d
Arabs are happy.
Market Last Change %
Crude Oil 106.59 +2.36 +2.26
Up it goes.
Market Last Change %
Crude Oil 108.09 +3.86 +3.69
March 18, 2008, 2:58 pm
The Double Dissent: Dallas’s Fisher and Philadelphia’s Plosser
March 18 (Bloomberg) — Schwab YieldPlus Fund tumbled 9.9 percent this month, the most among peers sold as alternatives to low-risk money-market accounts, as subprime-bond losses infected home loans to borrowers with better credit.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=agkule6TwsTs&refer=home
This guy on Youtube really loves rate cuts.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=rOVXh4xM-Ww#QlyumXzjYEU
The price of gas directly affects the price of food (transportation costs, etc). And Wall Street is partly to blame for high oil prices (investors buying oil futures driving price higher). But the main reason for high oil prices is high demand worldwide, and risk factors in the Middle East and other oil-producing countries. Plus OPEC not increasing production; they’re holding us hostage.
Regarding interest rates: In the US nearly EVERYONE 18 & up is in debt. So, viva las rate cuts!
For Canadian housing discussion with Garth Turner, the Globe has it at
http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080317.wturnerdiscussion0317/BNStory/Business/home
Best wishes to all,
NR
I like the name of Garth Turner’s book, “The Greater Fool”.
Northern Renter and others, have you ever read the book “Bank Heist” by Walter Stewart? I highly recommend it.
He explains banks’ gambling in derivatives and the dangers thereof years before other people caught on. And it is an easy read, too.
Nope, haven’t read it. And Walter Stewart is a name I haven’t heard in a long time. Wasn’t he a cabinet minister back for Pearson or Trudeau?
NR
PS I don’t always hold with Garth Turner but I liked what he said in the discussion and how he brushed off dissenters.
2:45 PM like clockwork–let’s see if it sticks.
Nasdaq. See it, be it, live it
Anybody loading back up on SKF after today?
Down 12% just today.
Just picked up SRS @ 105.20. Would feel more comfortable picking up SKF under $115 - not sure if it’ll get there.
Bought SRS 120 calls for a song. Time will tell.
Nope. Maybe in a few months.
I planned to buy the markets today, then short. I am ill and woke up at 12:30PM PST. 420 pts! Dammit!
Can I claim victim status?
Would you buy a house from this man? http://newhomes.wcicommunities.com/?url=www.youcouldwait.com&vid=1051_7
REIC stocks and close relatives are greener than the Emerald Isles in a wet spring. Was there a closed-door policy decision announced on Wall Street that the rest of us will hear about tomorrow?
Eyeballing those green numbers, I would have to guess that FNM is involved…
The fed atm is open to all. Why not extend the discount window to the gse’s and homebuilders? Heck, why not let me hit them up for a loan @ 2.25%.
That was my thought — how hard is it to qualify for a 2.25% loan?
You have to be breathing.
Short the 2 yr treasuries = less than 2% for 2 yrs an ARM.
I was just looking at that. Why does the curve invert at 3 yrs?
All this free market interference makes Captain Contagion wanna puke. May the farce be with you. Down, down, and away!
Today was a total suspension of disbelief; witness the funniest headline ever:
Dollar Recovers After Fed Rate Cut
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The U.S. dollar moved higher against several major currencies Tuesday after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by three quarters of a percentage point - a less aggressive move than some investors were hoping for.
The 15-nation euro traded at $1.5715, down from $1.5731 late Monday. But prior to the Fed’s decision to cut interest rates, the euro was trading $1.5792.
My subjective impression is that today’s financial markets action was an instantiation of
The Imperius Curse.
Dollar and crude up, bonds down. Let’s see if this trend continues.
Political question: would the proposed regulations that Bush & Co shot down have helped prevent this catastrophe? I thought those were mostly about predatory lending. They might have done some good, but I thought no one in Govt understood the moral hazard in CDOs, MBSs to really do anything about them at the time they took off.
In the comments section of one of PB’s linked articles above…this comment is priceless:
>>
Clinton is correct that we need to curb the foreclosures to stop this decline. The government has to step in and allow - or force - real estate appraisers to quit using foreclosed homes in valuation analysis’ of current homes values. These foreclosed properties are not truly indicative of an actual value - or comparable - in the surrounding area, as they are being liquidated at a much lower (as low as 50%) sale price than what the actual market dictates. This alone would stop the bleeding on many levels, as refinancing would be a valid option for many people again, as long as the foreclosed comparable were not being evaluated against the subject properties. Think about it, the US is the largest importer and consumer of all of the worlds goods, and for many years the American Dream has been being financed from the real estate market. That rug has now been pulled out from underneath us, and we are left without valid options to consolidate our debt - or even to purchase new goods/services. This impacts vehicles, boats, student loans, credit cards, etc, all of which have been absorbed into mortgage debt in the past, but now this isn’t an option. This will lead to a very widely spread world depression if something isn’t done immediately. The US won’t be able to sell or import the goods anymore, and you can believe that other nations will not be able to pick up that slack.
Comment by Phil Begin - March 18, 2008 at 4:28 pm
What this tool doesn’t get is that the lower sales values ARE what the market dictates!
Here is that inane comment:
Clinton is correct that we need to curb the foreclosures to stop this decline. The government has to step in and allow - or force - real estate appraisers to quit using foreclosed homes in valuation analysis’ of current homes values. These foreclosed properties are not truly indicative of an actual value - or comparable - in the surrounding area, as they are being liquidated at a much lower (as low as 50%) sale price than what the actual market dictates. This alone would stop the bleeding on many levels, as refinancing would be a valid option for many people again, as long as the foreclosed comparable were not being evaluated against the subject properties. Think about it, the US is the largest importer and consumer of all of the worlds goods, and for many years the American Dream has been being financed from the real estate market. That rug has now been pulled out from underneath us, and we are left without valid options to consolidate our debt - or even to purchase new goods/services. This impacts vehicles, boats, student loans, credit cards, etc, all of which have been absorbed into mortgage debt in the past, but now this isn’t an option. This will lead to a very widely spread world depression if something isn’t done immediately. The US won’t be able to sell or import the goods anymore, and you can believe that other nations will not be able to pick up that slack.
Comment by Phil Begin - March 18, 2008 at 4:28 pm
USA short term rates are so low compared to other countries. When the dust settles I expect alot of dollars leaving the Country for better rates.
“Clinton is correct that we need to curb the foreclosures to stop this decline. The government has to step in and allow - or force - real estate appraisers to quit using foreclosed homes in valuation analysis’ of current homes values. These foreclosed properties are not truly indicative of an actual value - or comparable - in the surrounding area, as they are being liquidated at a much lower (as low as 50%) sale price than what the actual market dictates. This alone would stop the bleeding on many levels, as refinancing would be a valid option for many people again, as long as the foreclosed comparable were not being evaluated against the subject properties. Think about it, the US is the largest importer and consumer of all of the worlds goods, and for many years the American Dream has been being financed from the real estate market. That rug has now been pulled out from underneath us, and we are left without valid options to consolidate our debt - or even to purchase new goods/services. This impacts vehicles, boats, student loans, credit cards, etc, all of which have been absorbed into mortgage debt in the past, but now this isn’t an option. This will lead to a very widely spread world depression if something isn’t done immediately. The US won’t be able to sell or import the goods anymore, and you can believe that other nations will not be able to pick up that slack.”
Comment by Phil Begin - March 18, 2008 at 4:28 pm
“The government has to step in and allow - or force - real estate appraisers to quit using foreclosed homes in valuation analysis’ of current homes values.”
Oh, goody — HC is openly advocating policies to aid and abet appraisal fraud!
I received an email that actually made some sense on why they were buying Bear Stearns Stock all day. These were Bear Stearns bond holders that are buying. They wish to have the company taken over by JPM because their bonds would be paid. Buying the stock is cheap insurance, like a cheap put. They vote for the takeover. lose $6 on the stock and are whole on the corporate debt.
Hahahah. Good move.
I just saw Cramer bitching that “tech is ramping on nothing.” It isn’t nothing. If the market is going to rally for awhile, this is the same game as last August. Beta stocks to make back performance quickly. You can rationalize that if the worst is out (I don’t believe this), that tech will lead the economy back. What the hell, it worked in 1995 and beyond . . . that’s why they tanked the Nasdaq much harder than the other indices yesterday IMO, to shake every last mullet out before running it the other way.
Ms. Tx, I am a coward in trading what I do not understand in 5 minutes. Tech stocks I do not understand. I’m just not smart enough. manufacturing, transportation, finance, currencies no problemo.
Hugh Barnsley, Markham:Several reports have released stats that the average appreciation in Canadian real estate has been 6-7% over the last 10 years, but these refer to depressed prices of the 90’s real estate crash. The stock market has risen far more than this, although there is severe reversal now. Recent demand to date is based on use, not on speculation, and is prompted by immigration demand, and the current reconfiguratiuon of the ‘family unit’. I do not expect continued appreciation at 7%, but I see no reason for a 1990’s type deflation. Why am I wrong?
Garth Turner: Real estate is a commodity whose value is determined by supply and demand. People pay what they think it’s worth, and according to their own ability to finance it. Now that the average house is out of reach of the average family, and since average income has not moved in almost a decade, the only way real estate continues to appreciate is if people can swallow more debt. Already we’re pushing the limits with zero-down and 40-year mortgages. So, your stats are meaningless. Real estate fatigue is about to settle upon us.
Morgan Eisenhaur, Summerside: What do you think will happen to the cottage market in Canada and in particular, Eastern Canada?
Garth Turner: Recreational and cottage properties are always among the first casualties of a real estate meltdown. The reason is simple — people in a financial bind try to sell off the secondary property first. But the odds are higher this time, since many cottage buyers borrowed against the inflated equity in their city homes to get their rural retreats. Now, with all housing about to deflate in value, they are left with debt, and second thoughts. Good news, though, if you’re a buyer - get them to throw in the boat!
Sue W: We might never be able to sell, except to a greater fool? Never Sell? Please Mr. Turner, could you please provide a few examples of some properties which have NEVER sold.
Garth Turner: Did I say that? Think not. As with stocks and mutual funds, there’s always a buyer for real estate, at a current market value. For example, a share of Bear Stearns was worth $170 last year and $30 last week. On Sunday it sold for $2. If you think real estate is different from every other asset, and that this boom is never-ending, you must be from Vancouver.
Interesting about the “cottage market” in Eastern Canada. That’s where my place is (Nova Scotia South Shore). The appreciation has been insane around there. I’d be worried if I didn’t have a zero cost basis in the place (inherited it). That is such a neat area, I just can’t bear to sell it.
I hear ya. I have relatives in many of those parts of the country.
Me three. Family hails from NS (Cape Breton). Beautiful it is. Don’t much understand the appreciation. Though same can be said of most parts of ‘North Americay.’
Gabriel Iordache, Toronto: How do you think the pending retirement of baby boomers will affect house prices in general (and the GTA in particular)?
Garth Turner: Badly. This is the most real estate-heavy generation in history, who have confused house-buying with financial planning. They have little in the way of assured pension income, woefully under-funded RRSPs, few financial assets, too much real estate and (incredibly) mortgage debt. Many dumb Boomers have actually been investing in trophy houses and recreational properties. I thought people were supposed to get smarter as they got older…
H Duong, Montreal: I have heard the oft-used justification for owning a home is that “renting is just throwing your money away.” I have never owned a home and have been renting at my current location for the past three years. My monthly rent is a little over $1000/mo. How does one determine objectively whether owning a home or renting is more beneficial financially?
Garth Turner: Simple. You have to live somewhere, of course, but there’s no reason to kneecap yourself financially in the process. So, compare renting to owning in strict cash flow terms first - rent versus the mortgage payment, property taxes, maintenance and lost opportunity cost of the money used for a downpayment. That’s simple enough, and in most markets, renting wins. Then try to guess the potential for capital gains, which will offset the cash flow deficiency of owning. Remember that capital gains on a principal residence are tax-free - good in rising markets. But capital losses on the house are not tax-deductible - bad news in falling markets. Right now, I’d stay a renter for a while longer.
Steve Ladurantaye, Globe and Mail: Thanks for doing this, Garth. To close things off, what sort of research should potential homeowners be doing before jumping into this market?
Garth Turner: Definitely more than taking their housing advice from industry professionals. I am appalled at the shilling by the major real estate marketers which passes for informed comment. Far too many American investors were lulled into buying at precisely the wrong moment by words of assurance given by self-dealers. My view is that Canada is at that same moment now, with ample evidence the market is turning quickly beneath our feet.
Of course, I could be wrong, and many people hope so! But I think not. This is one of those times when you want to find a greater fool, not become one.
Thanks to our moderator, and to the Globe for hosting this. There’s more at my site - http://www.GreaterFool.ca.
Be careful out there!
Garth
Aloha Eric, Toronto: Do you think Ontario Securities Commission-type regulation on the marketing of mutual funds is needed for the real estate industry? The OSC regulates marketing material that is selective, unsubstantiated, or highlights or exaggerates favourable points while omitting unfavourable facts, which is exactly the type of marketing that the real estate associations engage in.
Garth Turner: Absolutely, and thanks for making that point, which is a central one in my book. No securities regulator would let you buy a stock with 1.5% down and 98.5% leveraging, but we do it without a thought when it comes to financing for first-time buyers, for example. I was the only MP two years ago who raised an objection to the introduction of the 40-year amortization. Sadly, I lost and Jim Flaherty won that one. The real estate industry is built on hype, fabricated self-collecting polling ’statistics’ and economists who work for mortgage lenders. Go figure.
holytrainwreck,
Is Garth one fo the HBB’s?
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2008/3512paulson_incomptnt.html
LaRouche Declares: “Paulson is F***ing Incompetent!”
Paulson declares that LaRouche is incompetent, millions agree.
As many of you know , I have nothing against the idea of a central bank - I wwish we were more like the Riksbank, but c’est la guerre.
From the Bank of Australia.
Monetary Policy and Inflation: How Does it Work?
Glenn Stevens
Governor
Remarks to the Australian Treasury Seminar Series
Canberra - 11 March 2008
“…My own view is that monetary policy is most effective when actions are seen to be consistent with the factual evidence available on the economy, a sensible assessment about future risks, and a framework that has a clear medium‑term objective for policy. Apart from that, we have to accept that the likely effect of any one move of 25 or even 50 basis points is, while uncertain, probably only modest. It is the combination of changes, and more particularly the level reached, that will do most of the work.
A second version of the ‘ineffectiveness’ argument holds that (1) the price rises are coming from factors beyond the control of any Australian policy, and particularly from abroad, from which it follows that (2) monetary policy cannot do anything about them. For some people, it follows that it is therefore (3) futile, and unnecessarily disruptive, to try.
I have already addressed the question of whether all the price rises can be put down to a few special factors, obviously not under our control. The fact is that the price rises are broader than that….”
http://tinyurl.com/2ts587
Monetary policy is a dead end.
Gee, does the street number being different by 1 make a $144,000 difference in value? Oh those pesky neighbors that keep “giving” their houses away bringing down the whole neighborhood’s value. I have always wondered why the neighbors don’t band together and pay the person moving out what they think the house should sell for???
House number 1: 4131 S Adelle St priced at $399,000 http://tinyurl.com/ysyntt
House number 2: 4132 S Adelle St priced at $543,000 http://tinyurl.com/25t56x
Must be at least 15 degrees cooler in the summer across the street from the cheaper one to make up for the large price difference.
I got depressed just looking at those interior shots. I couldn’t imagine living there. Blech.
http://cnyhomes.com/Listing/Search/more_photos.cgi?mlnum=183629
$35k+/year in New York State taxes and that’s before the state is forced to make up for those teacher pensions lost at Bear Stearns
I wonder why they’re selling.
http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Whistleblower_exposes_insider_trading_program_at_JP_Morgan
Whistleblower exposes insider trading program at JP Morgan
LEGAL INSIDER TRADING IN THREE EASY STEPS, BROUGHT TO YOU BY JP MORGAN AND THE SEC
KEVIN WILSON, MARIA CHRISTINA PADRO, JULIAN ASSANGE & staff
Monday March 17, 2008
A confidential memo obtained by Wikileaks shows that not only has the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission created an insider trading loophole big enough to drive a truck through, but that Wall Street is taking full advantage of it, establishing ‘how-to’ programs and even client service divisions to help well-heeled clients circumvent insider trading regulations.
Most of us think of insider trading as illegal. It allows those with inside knowledge to tilt the playing field, with the small investors invariably losing to the privileged few. Unfortunately for the small investor, the big boys get to play by different rules, and it has all been made legal, thanks to the SEC.
In 2000 the SEC promulgated Rule 10b5-1. The new Rule was designed to address the confusion caused by a series of court decisions that had left investors uncertain about what constitutes insider trading. Rule 10b5-1 was designed to “clarify” what constitutes illegal insider trading.
March 18, 2008, 11:06 pm
Volcker: Fed’s ‘Extreme’ Intervention ‘Raises Some Real Questions’
PAGE ONE
Housing Bust Fuels Blame Game
Democrats Seize On
Opponents’ Role;
Bipartisan Failures
By GREG IP, JAMES R. HAGERTY and JONATHAN KARP
February 27, 2008; Page A1
As the falling housing market shakes financial institutions and pummels Americans in an election year, the nation’s economic woes have surged to the top of voters’ minds. The timely question: To what extent are politicians and regulators at fault?
The Economy March 19, 2008, 12:01AM EST
The Fed Is Too Easy on Wall Street
I’m confused as to what happened but CNYhomes listings went from less than 3500 to 4075 in one week. I don’t think we were this high until the end of the summer last year and lots of those were sales that weren’t pulled out of the system yet.
Lots of high end homes got added and I noticed a Fannie Mae foreclosure that hadn’t been advertised before is now there. Also to-be-built’s being advertised have skyrocketed.