Weekend Topic Suggestions
Please post ideas for weekend topics here!
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Is the difference between limited bubble deflation in New York City and a few other cities relative to the rest of the country indicative of a shift in relative value?
Of is the relatively low amount of cash out refi, HELOC and subprime mortgages in these markets, and thus lower rates of foreclosure, merely allowed extend and pretend to disguise price drops by keeping houses off the market?
Many helicopter drops of bailout money land on Wall Street.
Why is Seattle doing so well?
Why is Seattle doing so well?
Tech giants with virtual monopolies? Microsoft and Google and lots of H1-Bs? Lots of asian immigrants? A pretty varied economy rather than one built around building and selling RE to each other?
(just a series of guesses).
“Is the difference between limited bubble deflation in New York City and a few other cities relative to the rest of the country indicative of a shift in relative value?”
“Or is the relatively low amount of cash out refi, HELOC and subprime mortgages in these markets, and thus lower rates of foreclosure, merely allowed extend and pretend to disguise price drops by keeping houses off the market?”
Good questions. NYC people don’t need cars as much, live in condos which don’t need renos or pools, but possibly take same or more amount of vacations. They probably have more trouble arranging financing on condos and I think they have a higher percentage of condos to single family homes than other parts of NA. I don’t know if the higher population of bankers and Wall St people have anything to do with it.
Once located I would also imagine they are more prone to stay in place and therefore a larger percentage had their homes before the carnage.
Didn’t they have, or still have, tough rent controls which might be locking related ownership values in place. I know the prices of condos in Toronto and Vancouver are higher than NYC - much - except for the ultra penthouse types.
It will be interesting to see how this thread develops. You could be identifying the new “Class System” for America. Economics cerrtainly will have to be considered (jobs).
There are those who have asserted that a limited number of cities that attract billionaires around the world are doing “better” (ie. are less affordable) than other markets in the same countries.
But I don’t think we have enough billionaire’s to fill a city with 3 million housing units.
The city has become more attractive relative to the suburbs. And young people from across the country because they want to live in cities, and there are only a few left in the U.S. that aren’t socially and economically dead.
But those young people cannot afford the prices being charged, and neither can those who grew up here, who tend to be worse off. And although NYC immigrants are far more likely to be legal and come from around the world rather than just Mexico, most of them can’t afford it either.
I agree with PB. I think it has much more to do with the corrupt transfer of borrowed money TO the banking elite (i.e., “New York”), FROM the rest of us. That, of course, is temporary.
I do not think that New Yorkers stay in place longer than anyone else in this country. NY is famous for receiving young people from other states, who burn out in 2-3 years before moving somewhere more reasonable. Their retirees also love to go elsewhere, where the cost of living is lower.
They don’t have cars because they can’t have cars. This is because they pay too much for everything else, and also because there’s no parking and traffic is hell. It’s not exactly a money saver. They still have to pay for public transport, and then it’s really inconvenient when they have to haul anything, such as groceries, pets, kids, etc.
Condos come with huge fees.
Vancouver has nothing to do with it. You could just as easily argue that “Vancouver condos are more expensive than Arizona condos. Therefore, Arizona condos are underpriced.” Canada = Socialist housing bubble = Bigger problem.
But no one dropped money on Brooklyn, and prices are inflating there too. Perhaps the banksters are moving in. There goes the neighborhood.
Someone who lives in Manhattan once told me that significant # of rich people (> 100 mil) all over the world has an apartment in NYC forcing the low-paid bankers and executives to move to Brooklyn or other cheaper nabes.
But no one dropped money on Brooklyn, and prices are inflating there too.
There are surely many Wall Streeters who commute from Brooklyn. I know several personally and I’m not even a New Yorker, but a Californian.
“Canada = Socialist housing bubble = Bigger problem.”
What exactly is a socialist housing bubble?
It’s not just the city. I live 300 miles to the west and it is taking a very long time for the price wishing to crack. It has started, and the voices have changed, but the prices are still in the sky.
Will the debt ceiling be raised, and what are the likely consequences for mortgage interest rates (if any) in case it is not raised?
The Associated Press June 9, 2011, 1:31PM ET
Biden-led budget talks resume on Capitol Hill
By ANDREW TAYLOR
WASHINGTON
With an early August deadline looming, lawmakers and the White House are finding out just how difficult it is to come up with $2.5 trillion in budget savings over the next decade. That’s the price Republicans are demanding to let the government continue piling on debt.
Failure to raise the nation’s debt ceiling could lead to a first-ever U.S. default on its obligations, sure to roil stock markets.
…
uh.oh.
sure to roil stock markets.
I would like that….
Finding $250 billion a year is easier than you think, IF you’re willing to change the tax code, bring home the military, stop the outsourcing, and institute single-payer health care. Congress just doesn’t have the balls to do it.
Didn’t Weiner just showed some of his…..
It will roil a heck of a lot more than stock markets. What happens to your local hospital and doctors if the government significanly cuts payments for Medicare patients and says the rest will show up when the debt ceiling it raised? What happens to a huge number of high tech jobs if the government goes to all the military contractors and says please don’t stop doing your work but we aren’t going to be sending you any money for your deliverables for a while? What happens to universites if no more checks go out for federal research grants? And what happens all over the country if regular Social Security and SSI checks get cut by 30% with a promise for the rest of the money to be paid later?
The stock market problems might hit first, but they are the least of the issue.
What me worry? There’s always the barter economy.
Question is: What do most people have to barter?
Could a real estate agent barter his/her “expertise”?
What happens to universites if no more checks go out for federal research grants?
Not just universities, but people like me. A lot of my university-related design work comes from research grant funding.
Yup. Small businesses that are connected to government contracts/grants in any way will take a beating for as long as it lasts.
Eight to ten years ago small manufacturers supplying the auto industry were given a blanket purchase order for parts to be supplied for the following year.
They retooled for these parts and then -
About three months into the PO they were told that unless they dropped their prices by 30% they would be replaced.
They implented Lean Manufacturing principles and DID get their costs down to be able to continue to supply.
Then the auto companies said fine - now reduce it another X % or else.
The Chinese now supply those parts.
Do you think the Chinese will provide North American government “Essential Services” ultimately?
BIG V - What is a “Socialist Housing Bubble”? Canada’s last election proved the country is Conservative.
I said it yesterday. The President is required to spend X, authorized to collect taxes equal to X*.6, and not permitted to borrow.
Since that is impossible, he should just announce that the Republicans have just forced him to spend X*.6. But as Commander in Chief he insists that the troops and wounded be fed, paid and cared for, and he refuse to let any American starve to death.
So therefore he is reducing everything else to X *.4. And let people, particularly those over 65 live with it.
Give the Tea Party credit. What they might make happen now is just what Generation Greed has planned to make happen later, when they are gone.
It would, at least, not be boring.
Give the Tea Party credit. What they might make happen now is just what Generation Greed has planned to make happen later, when they are gone.
I find it intriguing that the “blame” here is falling on those who are trying to make steps towards stopping the deficit spending.
If we didn’t have a huge debt and weren’t running a huge deficit, this wouldn’t even be an issue. Why are the people who are acknowledging and trying to address the problem the “Bad Guys”?
That’s an interesting perspective.
Because it is being done in a deceptive way. If you want to actually balance the budget immediately you should have to get a balanced budget passed - say you are going to reduce the Medicare reimbursement schedule by 50% and let hospitals then announce what they will do to compensate. Say you are going to cut SS and SSI payments by 30%. Say you are going to tell the military contractors that they have to do the work for 40% less money and if they want out, they should turn over what they have and the contract will be bid out for someone that can do it at the government’s price.
That is the honest way to do it. Not to appropriate all the money at current levels and then tell the executive branch agencies that they can’t have the money they have been ordered to spend.
The next budget year starts October 1st. It isn’t that far away.
The next budget year starts October 1st. It isn’t that far away.
so you’re suggesting they simply set aside their principles right now, even though there’s a pertinent issue up for a vote?
It’s a battle that needs to be fought at every opportunity. If they had voted for the current budget, and are now against raising the debt ceiling, then I’ll agree with you. Otherwise, I think you’re overlooking the fact there are new congresspeople who were elected on exactly this platform. It’s not “deceptive” of them to act along the lines of the platform on which they ran when given the opportunity.
They did vote for the current budget. That was the budget that was passed twenty minutes before the government shut down in the spring.
They did vote for the current budget
While the sitting congress did, are you sure the ones who are currently demanding spending cuts actually voted ‘yay’ on the current budget?
I honestly don’t know..but speaking in aggregates here isn’t helpful. In the end it’s about individuals, and whether they’re being hypocritical pains in the ass or principled.
The budget passed with reasonable support including Boehner who negotiated it. Now he/they want to force the president to break the law that they passed and he signed requiring him to spend the money they appropriated by making it impossible. They tried a “clean” increase on the debt limit which did not pass, so some of the people who voted for the budget voted against the debt limit increase. The debt limit would have to be increased even if they put Paul Ryan’s budget into effect. It is irresponsible. October 1st isn’t that far away.
i would like to know if there is a way to get local/regional CPI.
would be neat to compare it to housing prices in the worst hit markets.
my parents have been visiting me in the DC metro area for the past 10 days…from Mississippi and are flabergasted by the food prices.
now…i know there is a significant difference in cost of living between the two areas and my parents understand that…yet the disparity was much more than they expected.
just curious.
years ago there was a site that let you calculate how much x dollars was worh in another market..so it had the local cpi built in.
I used to live in the San Francisco Bay area. Before that, I lived in San Diego. Food prices in Richmond, VA are waaaaayyyy higher than food prices in either of those other, MORE EXPENSIVE places. There is something going on with food in this state. Maybe some issue with permits or paving over too much farmland? I would really like to know what’s causing the disparity.
Check the stickers on your produce. They don’t say “Virginia” on them. However, I don’t get the expensive meat. Plenty of meat in this area. The DelMarVa peninsula is chock full of chickens.
Corrction: by “don’t get,” I mean “I don’t understand why meat is so expensive.”
Cigarettes are cheaper in Virginia.
Gas too.
I moved from Roanoke, VA to Chicagoland and food prices are about 30% higher here.
There are some decent sales at Harris Teeter this week. Vidalias at 79 cents a pound, I think. They have good supply lines through the South. One reason why their shelves were so bare during the Southern snow storms.
About the 100 watt Light bulbs I am hoarding . I do insist on USA made ones from sylvania, in the red boxes, which are made at St Marys Pa. USA . They are still producing 2 million a day , but are planning to cut production fairly soon . All the Regular bulb makers from China etc. produce absolute trash . Don’t buy them..
I’ve got CFLs and am looking forward to replacing them with LEDs. But I’m funny that way. I don’t mind the chloronated water, and had my kids get their vaccines.
As far as I’m concerned, the anti-CFL reaction is based on the idea that people might be asked to do something they don’t feel like doing that would benefit everyone else, or benefit the future, neither of which they care about. There were a couple of generations of Americans who were opposed to that. And it shows.
I don’t mind using CFL bulbs, and I have them in most of my lamps. My biggest issue with them is that when they stop working, they are toxic waste, and while I will certainly dispose of mine properly, I have no doubt that millions and millions of them will end up in landfills.
I agree with you and feel the same way about transit, carbon taxes, gas taxes, etc. Let’s encourage as many people as possible to use mass transit in the cities where there is the density to support it. Let’s provide subsidies to rural farmers, truck drivers, and others who live in places where density does not support transit.
About the 100 watt Light bulbs I am hoarding ??
So, exactly what kind of bulbs are getting phased out… Florescent tube bulbs also ??
The restriction in the US is not on the type of bulb, but the number of lumens per watt.
You’d think there would also be a restriction on opacity of the lampshade, since that has just as much, if not more, of an impact on lumens per watt.
I have never been able to figure out black, dark brown, navy, etc. lamp shades. Why even bother?
Why even bother?
Gives you directional light, I suppose, if that’s what you’re going for?
Isn’t that what task lighting is for? And torchiers, I guess. Only regular lamps with dark shades are much less efficient than either one of those.
I shouldn’t get started on lamps. I got rid of a lot of my boring but unobtrusive IKEA one when I spent 5 years in an apartment that had a lot of lights installed. Then I moved here with a lot less landlord provided lighting, so I had to get more. Nearly everything is both ugly and overpriced. I’ve picked up 3 on craigs list. A matched standing/table pair a while ago and another table one recently. Spent $60 on all three. I still keep an eye out for ones that will fit in with my current set up, but I don’t like much of what I see.
I use high-wattage incandescent bulbs for wintertime light and heat, halogens for track lighting and close-up work, clustered LED$ (which supposedly have a 50,000+ hour life,) for ambient light (I am visually impaired,) and mercury vapor for outside security.
What I do NOT use are those gawd-awful fluorescent things. They literally make me physically sick. (Visual disturbance, agitation, cognitive and auditory impairment.) Their 32 cycle flicker (yes, even the new “improved” ones,) and my 33 cycle brain waves simply do not jibe. About fifteen minutes in a store, home, or office that uses them is all I can take before I feel like biting something.
Then there is the matter of clean up and disposal if one of them should happen to break or shatter. Me senses that Someone’s brother-in-law owns a substantial piece of whatever entity holds the patent on CFL’s.
Google “negative side of fluorescent bulbs” for more on the health impact of these infernal things.
“They literally make me physically sick. (Visual disturbance, agitation, cognitive and auditory impairment.) ”
Dang, I thought I was just getting older.
I don’t remember what percentage of the population can discern the cycling on fluorescents, but it isn’t insignificant. Fortunately, I’m not one of them. But some of them hum and that does drive me nuts.
Aren’t loan modifications best left as a private matter between borrower and lender, rather than an area for federal government involvement?
And is the potential loss of $24m in monthly fees enough to make a Wall Street banker bat an eye?
Big Banks Penalized for Performance In Mortgage Modification Program
By ANDREW MARTIN
Published: June 9, 2011
As the nation’s housing market continues to teeter, the Treasury Department on Thursday penalized three of the nation’s largest banks for subpar performance in administrating a government-sponsored program to modify mortgage loans for distressed homeowners.
As part of a new assessment of mortgage servicers, Treasury officials said they would withhold incentive payments for the three banks — Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo — until the problems are resolved. At that point, those payments would be made, a Treasury spokeswoman said.
In May, the three banks received $24 million in incentives as part of the modification program.
The Treasury Department has previously withheld payments from mortgage servicers, but Thursday’s action focused on some of the biggest players in the program. Called the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, it is voluntary for mortgage servicers. Nearly all of the nation’s largest banks have signed contracts to participate.
The Obama administration has long been criticized as being too easy on the mortgage servicers, and Thursday’s announcement did little to quiet that criticism.
Neil M. Barofsky, who resigned in March as special inspector general for the bank bailout, described the assessments and penalties as a “lost opportunity” to hold lenders more accountable.
“It further reaffirms Treasury’s long-running toothless response to the servicers’ disregard of their contract with Treasury, and by extension, the American taxpayer,” Mr. Barofsky said in an e-mail.
…
Palin emails to be released in free archive at msnbc.com
By Bill Dedman
Investigative reporter
msnbc.com msnbc.com
updated 49 minutes ago 2011-06-10T11:54:11
“If your idea of an engrossing tour through American history is reading 24,199 pages of emails from Sarah Palin’s first two years as governor of Alaska, then set aside some time Friday afternoon and over the next week. A free, searchable, online archive of the former governor’s public records will be available Friday through msnbc.com.
At roughly 9 a.m. in Juneau (1 p.m. ET), the governor’s office in Juneau will release to reporters 250 pounds of printed emails sent between the former governor (and her husband) and 50 state officials.”
Is it even possible to write that much email in 2.5 years as governor?
This is what is wrong with the leftists media and lefties in general. Now, we are going to scrutnize countless “Honey, bring some milk for the kid with the weird name on your way home ….”
WaPo, NyTimes and now MSNDC….G*d, I hate them all.
I do not like Sarah Palin and will not vote for her. Sh!t like this makes me wish for Palin presidency next yr.
I’m pretty sure all emails from prior gov are also released. It’s just these emails are more likely to be read by the public as she has been in the public spotlight since day 1.
You might want to hold your hatred of all lefties for something a bit more meaningful.
I heard that these were requested in 2008 and are just now being released.
Why do you think the conservative media is any better?
….Is it even possible to write that much email in 2.5 years as governor?…
Are we counting “tweets” with photos?
Lately I’ve been wondering about this “you must miss some payments before you can get help on a modification” thing.
Is this just confusion and incompetence or was it a way to further F the FB’s by seeing who would take the bait?
Might have been in the servicing contract with the trust that issued the bonds - that nothing can happen at all if the mortgage is current.
Weekend topic suggestion: the “wilding” attacks and the motivation and socioeconomic factors behind them
It even made the Wall Street Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304778304576375661383528354.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read
Given that incomes for most quartiles has been flat in real terms over the past few decades, why have people borrowed and then spent as if their incomes were growing? We wouldn’t be in as big a mess as we are now if everybody simply lived within their means. Instead a very large proportion of the US has borrowed and lived beyond their means. Yes, there are always some people who will borrow their way to the poor house. But ISTM that ever greater levels of indebtedness have become the norm rather than the exception.
Is credit to easily available? Are rates too low? Is the boomer cohort at a spending, rather than saving age? Have advertisements suddenly become more effective at making people want things? All else being equal, in the face of flat real wages one would anticipate flat real spending, not greater spending funded by greater debt. There’s something else in the equation, and I’m not sure what it is.
My guess is that the average person was more dependent on the bank to determine what they could handle than the average HBB participant might have originally thought. Combine a rah-rah atmosphere where it looks like everybody is getting rich and living the good life and have the bankers cut the brake lines and color it all with the assumption that housing always goes up and here we are.
My guess is that the average person was more dependent on the bank to determine what they could handle than the average HBB participant might have originally thought.
I wonder if there are historical stats for loan (mortgage?) applications vs those that are granted? It’d be interesting to see if there has been an increase in applications in percentage terms.
Of course that doesn’t control for people moving houses more frequently (thus more mortgages), and for increased size of mortgages due to banks being willing to lend more.
I think people just didn’t understand the relationship between the interest rate, the length of the loan and the monthly payment.
Using a very simple case, if the mortgage pusher says you can refi your mortgage, have a lower payment and get $20,000 cash, are most people going to realize that they have added 15 years to their mortgage pay off date and handed a $10,000 fee to the bank? Maybe, but maybe not.
And this is even before you ask if they realized that they converted their fixed rate fully amortizing loan to an adjustable rate, negative amortization loan with a 6 month teaser rate.
And this is even before you ask if they realized that they converted their fixed rate fully amortizing loan to an adjustable rate, negative amortization loan with a 6 month teaser rate.
…and turned it from a non-recourse into a recourse loan…
What is this non-recourse loan you speak of. They don’t exist in Maryland.
They don’t exist in Maryland.
They do in other states. California, I believe? And florida? Origonal (purchase) loans are non-recourse. Any re-finance becomes recourse.
I think you’ve got the main reasons. The easy availability of credit at low rates allowed people to achieve the lifestyle that the media told them they deserved. The only thing I’d add is that the above reasons produced an attitude change; that might be the something else in the equation. So many people seem to think that having a load of debt is natural without understanding the true cost of it.
One thing I noted was how ‘equity’ became a household word. The old system was you bought a house and enjoyed seeing the slow reduction in the mortgage balance; it was debt focussed. The new system was to buy a house and brag to everyone how quickly your equity was building. It didn’t even matter if the debt was shrinking as long as your equity was going up. The switch from debt focus to equity focus was, in my mind, a brilliantly retarded move.
I’m reaching here, but didn’t they used to teach basic finances in Home Economics back in the day? Falling along traditional gender lines, the intent was to prepare a woman for running the household?
That certainly wasn’t the case for my generation - it was just simple cooking and sewing and carrying around a fake baby IIRC.
I did take a business “elective” in high school which taught about budgeting, types and cost of insurance, investments, etc. But it was an elective.
Perhaps folks are simply lacking a basic education in financial matters that happened to be part of the core curriculum “back in the day”??
All we got in home ec was cooking and sewing. Shop invloved tools that weren’t common in many households (band saw? acetylene torch?). And there was a consumer math class, but I don’t think they learned about banking or insurance. It was mostly basic calculation. Maybe they went over how to keep a check ledger to balance a checkbook. Maybe.
And round these parts “consumer math” was what the shuffled those who weren’t goning to be able to pass algebra 1 into.
In 1964 when I took Home Ec, it was cookinig and sewing. Nothing financial at all.
On the largest AM all-news radio station in LA this week, I heard an ad for a 125% HELOC! Honest-to-God, are we back to that? Other area ads?
Ahhhhhh…. Lightbulb from another post. Recourse!!!
Looks like Obama is about to side with the banks again
According to Bloomberg News and other news outlets, the Obama Administration is considering appointing Raj Date, a top deputy to Elizabeth Warren at the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), as the bureau’s permanent director before it goes live on July 21.
Which isn’t to stay he’s a better pick than Warren, who remains the preferred candidate among financial reform advocates. He’s still a banking industry veteran at a time when the public remains skeptical of the banks, and it’s unclear if he has the moxy and stature to go up against the $3 trillion financial services industry. He’s a skilled technocrat, adept at working behind the scenes, but not necessarily the type of dynamic leader and charasmatic public face the new bureau needs in order to establish its identity and credibility among the public. The CFPB was Warren’s idea, and she’s the most qualified person to run the bureau.
Senate Republicans have made clear they’ll try to block whoever the Administration picks to formally run the CFPB, which virtually guarantees a recess appointment. The banking lobby hates the bureau as much as Warren, which means that any “consensus candidate” is bound to face fierce resistance once the CFPB is up and running. Support continues to grow for a Warren appointment, including an endorsement today from the AFL-CIO, which is by far the biggest group to come out in favor of a recess appointment thus far.
Yet the Obama Administration seems determined to push Warren out the door at the very moment it needs her the most. She’s the best spokesperson Obama has on economic policy, especially compared to a Wall Street-friendly stiff like Tim Geithner, and has spent her whole life fighting for the middle class, which is the stated priority of the Obama administration. The consumer bureau is the most popular and tangible aspect of Dodd-Frank, which was the most popular piece of legislation enacted by the administration in its first two years in office. Yet the bureau and Dodd-Frank are under attack from the banking lobby and Congressional Republicans, who’d like to return to the pre-financial crisis status quo. Any retreat by the Obama administration will hand opponents of reform a major victory—and embolden them to go further.
Four of the nation’s biggest banks—JP Morgan, Bank of America, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs—are among the ten most unpopular companies in America, according to a new Harris Interactive poll. The public hates the banks. And they love Warren and consumer protection. Who to side with should be a no-brainer for the Obama administration
news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20110609/cm_thenation/161310
I think this is a smokescreen. Yes, he’s considering Raj. Just like he’s considering, oh, the Easter Bunny or Bo the dog.
This is a way of throwing the banksters off his trail as he figures out some way to get Warren into the top CFPB job.
Personally, I think he should just deploy Seal Team Six to Wall Street and have them take care of the banksters. IMHO, that would eclipse the taking-out of Osama by a wide margin.
BINGO
Last week I received notification that my monthly Blue Cross/Anthem (CA) premiums had been cut (that is correct, cut,) by 11%.
And last week I also got notice that my monthly SSI/SSD stipend had been cut by another 7%, for a total of 11% this year. Curiously, the two are now nearly the same amount. Income=outflow.
Hand of the market, or silent conspiracy? YOU be the judge….
There was a NYT article earlier this week about the BC/BS premiums going down in your market. Some of the more recent increases have been based on projected expenses (medical “losses”) that never happened because people are so broke they can’t afford the co-pays so they are going to the doctor less. Also some nasty publicity about multi-million dollar salary of their chief executive. Sounds more like a coincidence to me. BC/BS decided they needed to do something to avoid getting an anvil dropped on them. Happened about the same time as a reduction in your benefits. Just a guess.
Some of the more recent increases have been based on projected expenses (medical “losses”) that never happened because people are so broke they can’t afford the co-pays so they are going to the doctor less.
There’s a free health fair over at the neighborhood center tomorrow morning. I’ve been going for the past several years because, well, you’ve heard all about my stories about doctors and dentists and their fees going up to the moon.
I noticed that, unlike previous years, I didn’t get a mailed reminder about this fair. But I have heard promos about it on KXCI.
Be interesting to see what tomorrow’s turnout will be like. It was pretty sparse last year, and that really surprised me. Back in ‘09, this health fair was almost overrun with people.
Comment by liz pendens
2011-06-10 11:49:23
Flopping: realtors are liars-
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/real-estate-scam-thats-devastating-prices-2011-06-10
Doesn’t seem like anyone from Wall Street to Realtors to FBs living in there homes for free for years is afraid of any kind of punishment.
“Doesn’t seem like anyone from Wall Street to Realtors to FBs living in there homes for free for years is afraid of any kind of punishment.”
This would indicate just how fragile the entire system is right now; thus the willingness to overlook the law…for now. The paperwork trail is already there, so once things are clearly stable the sentencing will begin, IMHO.
I certainly am not running out of hand lotion any time soon, as I sold all my stock holdings last month.
Stocks Swoon, Worry Rises
For all the drama of Friday’s stock market drop, the extent of the market’s recent decline has been relatively mild. But if past investor behavior is a guide, the market could be in for a more severe decline.
Much to their credit, the Fed appears to be following through with long-heralded plans to unwind their toxic asset laden balance sheet. How it became their duty to prop up the value of shitty assets in the first place is quite a mystery to me. The losses on these belong to the banks that own them and to the shareholders who own the banks. Let me, and anyone else who did not buy into the notion that “real estate always goes up,” out of it, please.
MARKETS
JUNE 10, 2011
As ‘Junk’ Bonds Fall, Some Blame the Fed
By SERENA NG And MATT WIRZ
A steep decline in prices of bonds backed by subprime mortgages has spread through the riskiest segments of the credit markets, ending rallies in high-yield corporate bonds and commercial real-estate debt.
Weak economic data including falling home prices and disappointing jobs numbers have led investors to dump these securities, which had risen strongly since the financial crisis.
The decline in high-yield, or “junk,” corporate bonds accelerated after last week’s employment figures, with prices falling nearly 1% on Thursday, the worst one-day loss in three months. Junk bonds offer high yields due to high default risks.
The market for subprime bonds started falling in early April, around the time the Federal Reserve Bank of New York launched an effort to sell pieces of a multibillion-dollar portfolio of subprime bonds it has been holding since late 2008.
Since April, prices of many subprime mortgage securities have declined between 15% and 20%, sparking concerns from traders and investors that the Fed’s sales are pressuring a weakening market.
On Thursday, the New York Fed sold only half of a $3.8 billion batch of bonds it sought to auction off this week.
Some of the selloff can be attributed to a heavy supply of these bonds, both from the Fed and from companies taking advantage of better market conditions since the crisis. Companies issued a record $114 billion worth of junk bonds through June 2, a 27% increase of the same period last year, according to Standard & Poor’s Leveraged Commentary & Data.
“The timing couldn’t be worse for the market,” said Marina Tukhin, head of asset-backed securities trading at Gleacher Descap in New York, referring to the effect of the Fed’s auctions on the mortgage market, which she calls “oversaturated” with troubled assets.
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