June 13, 2006

Dumb, incompetent, insane, corrupt or just covering his ass? Greenspan says housing meltdown won't impact broader economy


When we all know, the current housing meltdown underway will destroy the broader economy. Even if folks have that 'equity cushion', I don't think they'll be out buying Hummers when they feel like they just lost $100,000.

Greenspan, bad news. You created the monster, he's now running havoc in the streets of America, your boom and bust legacy is a joke, and we're in deep, deep trouble thanks to your incompetence.


Frothy housing markets in some regions of the United States aren't a risk to the overall U.S. economy, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Thursday.

Even if housing prices fall in some regions, there isn't likely to be much fallout in the broader economy, he said in testimony to the Joint Economic Committee.

Greenspan repeated recent comments that there is no national housing bubble but there are signs of "froth" in some local markets where home prices have risen to unsustainable levels.

Read full testimony.

Greenspan noted that most homeowners have considerable equity in their houses, so that even a sharp decline in prices would not force them into bankruptcy. In the first quarter, for instance, homeowners' equity totaled 56.3% of the market value of residential real estate.

Nonetheless, Greenspan did not appear comfortable with recent trends in the housing market.
The Fed chief said he was concerned about the growing use of interest-only loans and other exotic forms of adjustable-rate mortgages that are used by homebuyers who could not otherwise afford to purchase a home.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

They can blame it on energy because it is beyond their control.

Fill it up with premium.

That will be $85.00

Wash your own windows and check your own oil. Sorry, no restroom, would you like a healthy snack?

Anonymous said...

The markets had another fine day...OF LOSSES.

LOL.

Anonymous said...

Listen to Greenspan's words; he is giving himself an out.

"Exotic loans". Yip, when this ponzi scheme collapses he can say that it was undone by exotic loans. There was no risk to the broader economy UNTIL exotic loans.

I can see the headlines already...he chooses his words very carefully, being vauge so no one can pin him to the wall.

Anonymous said...

more evidence of Greenspan's failure.

He is a bubble blower extraordiniare

Anonymous said...

HP= broken record

Anonymous said...

Why do these types of people just seem to live on and on and on..........

Anonymous said...

Only the good die young.

Anonymous said...

anon: your the broken record and will be a broken individual by this winter.

Anonymous said...

let's do a roll call vote.

gspan man. is imho

1st, corrupt
2nd covering his ass
3rd, mildly insane

Anonymous said...

well he is right about one thing,only 29% of homebuyers had no equity or negative equity as of january...no worries.

Anonymous said...

Hot markets were disproportionate percent of sales. . .

What Greenspan and Co. don't seem to get is that the hot markets of the last 2 to 3 years had a larger percent of sales than slow markets like Cleveland or St. Louis. So a disproportionate amount of economic activity took place there. He may think Phoenix, Las Vegas, Miami, Southern California, D.C., and Metro NY and Mass are not significant, but they are a huge portion on the US economy.

Anonymous said...

tom stone,
29% is huge... that number will drag prices down as this housing bear market unfolds, look out.

Anonymous said...

Is this April Fool's Day?

Why are we talking about GS? He said all this crap exactly 6 months ago. Can we move on to Bernanke?

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