November 21, 2006
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A time capsule of the greatest financial mania in the history of mankind, told in real-time by regular folks and patriots. May future generations better understand the madness of crowds, and how power and money corrupt.
66 comments:
While it would'nt matter if the treasonous scumbag GW Bush or Ozzie Osbourne were president in terms of fighting these wars for israel, you still have to respect Olbermann for somewhat telling the truth. Rarely can you hear that on the talmudvision today.
Honica, for the first time in the blog's history, you and I agree.
I'm amazed Olbermann is allowed to do what he's doing.
His work is what is historic. Movies will be written about this time, and his voice, 50 years from now.
He makes me proud to be an American, fighting the good fight against corruption, evil and incompetence.
If I was in the US, I'd be thinking of protesting outside the white house full time right about now.
Where is the outrage?
Yeah, Sr's is brought on by old age and booze, GW's is brought on by cocaine inflicted brain damage and booze.
I love to watch Olbermann. His sense of outrage is so palpable, but without being crazy like o'reilly and his ilk.
Rhoid, you really are a mental midget. You think an administration lying AN ENTIRE COUNTRY into a foreign war is on par with a president not taking (illegal) action against a country for the arrest of CIA operatives? Are you really this disillusioned? Were you even alive in 1979?
Honica I was and I would say that Carter was pretty bad and incompetent. Bush's biggest mistake was having Rumsfield and Cheney as advisors. A president is only as good as his advisors.
Hard to believe that he and his father managed the country so different.
We don't know the future so I'd have to say that time will tell if he ends up being the worst. We dont' know what idiot will be in power down the road.
I think until the globalists gain universal power this monetary game will continue and Bush is just one of the leaders involved in globalization. Fear not the people you see out front but the advisors behind the scene you do not see for they pull the puppets strings.
Oh, what a shocker.
Turns out Israel's been stealing land from Palestinian owners by declaring the privately owned land "state land".
Common thieves.
Israel stole private land for settlements: report
I have to agree with honica on this one. How old are you 'rhoid? Do you remember the cold war at all?
Well, I've said that all along. I just happen to also take note of the fact that most are jews.
And are you saying that bush is JUST pretty bad and incompetent? What would be REALLY bad in your book?
'rhoid thinks if we had waged a genocidal war on the ayatolla everything would be peachy right now. lol. Kick their ass and take their gas, eh 'rhoid?
honica thinks it's all the Jews fault. lol. Fine bunch you have here Kweef.
for the record, I thought Carter was a boob too. Weak with a capital W. I would have invaded Iran ruthlessly in '79. We wouldn't be in the mess we're in today if we had taken care of business then.
Same with Bush I in Iraq - if he had just taken care of business, finished off Saddam, and used that international force and goodwill to restore order. Now it's up to the incompetent son and the bankrupt US on her own.
Rhoid, the embassy "staff" was full of CIA spies, under international law they could have been tried and executed in Iran, they got off easy. Take a look at history without the kosher colored glasses, you may be able to think (well, you probably won't) more clearly.
How old were you in '79 keith? 6 years old? Lol, you were pretty smart back then.
(If Jimmy Carter had done what he should have in 1979 and turned Iran into a parking lot this president wouldn't have had the opportunity to get us mired in this Iraqi debacle.
The only thing the idiots in the middle east understand is blood and death. Jimmy Carter should have given it to them then, instead now we have this little idiot in Iran trying his best to bring about the apocolypse and bring out the hidden inmam.)
oh my god, aren't we showing the Iraqis right now blood and death? how's that working? your idea is foolish and would have made carter's presidency a complete disaster.
Don't try to use logic and reason with this guy john, most of his brain went up in smoke.
Don't try to use logic and reason with this guy john, most of his brain went up in smoke.
I cannot believe the level of stupidity on this blog. Do you people have any idea how crappy the standard of living was for the average Iranian under the Shah? Do you have any idea what it is like for the average Iraqi right now? The US is not the nice country you numb-nuts seem to think it is.
Yeah buzz, rhoid brings the collective IQ down a few standard deviations thats for sure.
now you're talkin' 'rhoid.
Rhoid, turn off the talmudvision. I repeat, turn off the talmudvision.
And what are you talking about stopping the spread of communism? Are you some kind of nazi or what?
Jesus Rhoid, are our Soldiers over there fighting an dyeing? NO! Why? Because they are no threat to israel (and are already nuclear armed) So no it's is not a jew war.
My god man, if it's not relevant to the U.S. I'm not gonna be as outspoken. Why are you playing captain obvious with this MAD crap? How is this important now?
Yeah, we've really been tearing it up over there in the far east I tell ya, whew!
You might as well get your news from the National Inquirer.
If the Shrub had come out and said straight out that he didn't care about peace in the middle east that he just wanted to destabilize the region and maybe suck some bucks out out for Chain Knee and his Halliburton buddies, and if a few soldiers died, and many Iraqis died and the rest live in misery, so what? He hasn't accomplished what civilized men would want, but he surely has accomplished something, even if its spending lots of money and killing lots of American soldiers and Iraqis. The Shrub is a bona fide war criminal, and I hope that he surely gets tried for crimes against humanity, but that will depend on the failure of the American Empire. When the bubbles collapse, and the empire is impoverished by war, it will collapse leaving a vacuum behind. When that happens, the state of Israël will be in a rather uncomfortable position. Given the rather negative attitude that Islamic states have towards Israel, its gonna be ug-lee.
Dear Keith,
I am a crack dealer in Bradenton who has recently been diagnosed as a carrier
of the HIV virus. My parents live in a suburb of Tampa and one of my sisters,
who lives in Sarasota, is married to a transvestite. My father and mother have
recently been arrested for growing and selling marijuana and are currently
dependent on my other two sisters who are prostitutes in Miami.
I have two brothers. One is currently serving a non-parole life sentence at
Stark for murder of a teenage boy in 1994. The other brother is currently being
held in the Manatee County Jail on charges of neglecting his three children.
I have recently become engaged to marry a former Thai prostitute who lives in
Jacksonville and, indeed, is still a part-time "working girl" in a brothel.
My problem is this: I love my fiancé and look forward to bringing her into the
family and of course I want to be totally honest with her.
Should I tell her about my uncle who voted for Bush?
Please don't tell my folks I work in the oil patch, they think I'm a piano player in a whorehouse. Friends don't let friends admit they voted for Dubya.
Hey, are you insulting Ozzy's intelligence?
"Rhoid, the embassy "staff" was full of CIA spies, under international law they could have been tried and executed in Iran, they got off easy."
Actually, if they had official cover, i.e. with a diplomatic passport (and hence known to the authorities) by international law they could have been deported, only.
Never taken hostage.
The Iranian embassy to the U.N. in NYC is similarly full of Iranian intelligence agents---just like all the other embassies all over the world.
"Take a look at history without the kosher colored glasses, you may be able to think (well, you probably won't) more clearly."
This one was started on their side. The Shah was no Gandhi but modern Islamic fundamentalism is its own creation and they act on their own initiative for their own ideological reasons.
Some people have the delusion that non Westerners only have animal-like reflex-like 'reactions' which absolve them of any moral responsibility or intentional choice. Baloney.
Jimmy Carter wasn't remotely the worst president. He was insufficiently effective in the horribly corrupt politics of dealing with Congress.
But read one of his supposed "malaise" or whatever speeches about energy efficiency and security---if we did what he said, we'd be so much better off now.
Ronald Reagan sold us on delusionary political crack (i.e. 'optimism' is better than dealing with reality) as Nancy nancied the chillren with "just say no".
Why does everybody pick on Jimmycarter about the hostages, when Ronald Reagan cut-and-ran against a deliberate murder by Hezbollah in an internationally sanctioned U.N. mission? Jimmy Carter believed in normal accounting and he was shafted by an oil crisis he did nothing to bring on.
Reagan was rescued by an oil glut, which also bankrupted the oil-exporting USSR, along with their war in Afghanistan.
OH!! the give aways next year are going to be sweet..
Ford, GM down - banks move in for the kill:
While the nation is busy grappling with constant insults from endless war on every front, one ruthless knife in the backbone of our economy has gone largely unnoticed.
For the first time in history, two of the nation's Big Three car manufacturers are in such dire straits that they have to take out loans secured by their most essential assets, yet no one, neither in our government nor in our media has raised an eyebrow at the stakes.
http://tinyurl.com/ykbze8
The builders already gave away one new house in my town. Told ya they'd be giving them away soon.
Man I can't believe GWB didn't answer the question about parallel's between Vietnam and Iraq with something along the lines of, "Well I can't pronounce anyone's name in either country, but in Iraq there's a lot more oil."
Dude - your housing blog is great but stay away from polictics or overall economics. Your ideas are old and yaaawn boring. You don't know enough about either to sound intelligent. "Duh..housing down...uh..duh...economy down?...duh..duh President must suck! LOL" My world shows new highs on the DOW, 40% increase in hosing values, great quarterly reports (most recently from Dell) and 5 years of safe living. I guess people see what they want to...
Keith,
I'm not a big fan of GW, but it's time for a dose of reality here. GW didn't have a lot to do with this housing bubble. The blame rests squarely on the shoulders of Greenscam, the FED, and their globalist masters. It's easily shown by looking at price fundamentals that the RE bubble really began in the 1997-1998 time frame. Yes, the 2002-2005 period was parabolic, but nonetheless the bubble began building in 1997 around the time of the Asian currency crises and was solidified during the LTCM meltdown (and subsequent reflationary reaction by the FED.)
The FED is a bunch of liars and thieves and they exist solely to enrich bankers and other globalist Wall St. elite power-brokers. I could actually argue that this whole monstrous bubble was really purposely engineered by the FED to impoverish and destroy the middle class and facilitate a giant land/power grab in the next few years. Whether purposeful or not, this will be the end result.
The Demicans and Republicrats exist as part of a two-card-monti scheme where they divide the population and share the spoils. There is no substantive difference between the parties, or between GW or Clinton for that matter. The major parties are nothing more than extensions (and puppets) of the globalist elite power structure whose true face remains hidden and acts as a shadow government.
GW does whatever he is told to do. Remember when GW was droning on about the "ownership society" and this lasted a couple of months until they shut him up? The power-elite realized they had a bubble on their hands and didn't want the true nature of their "sharecropper society" scam to be revealed by GW's fumbling.
"My world shows new highs on the DOW, 40% increase in hosing values, great quarterly reports (most recently from Dell) and 5 years of safe living. I guess people see what they want to..."
Stop living in a dream world and wake up to reality. This entire "expansion" that you are referring to was built on a mountain of new debt. There are 10 dollars of credit created for every 1 dollar of GDP. This is extremely unstable and dangerous.
Everything you are referring to is the real economy. There is a huge difference between the economic sphere and the financial sphere. I'll pose some questions to you and if you get the answers you will be on the road to understanding what is really going on behind the green curtain.
1.) Why does the Government want and need huge deficits?
2.) Why are there now $370TR of derivatives floating around?
3.) What is up with all of the corporate stock buyback programs?
4.) With the risks of default mounting, why are interest rates falling?
5.) How has every economic expansion that was fueled by credit expansion ended?
Remember, all of the above works fine, until one day it doesn't.
dan,
read the whole post and comment. I slam Bush as a fumbling puppet but the RE bubble clearly started in 1997. Show me evidence to the contrary.
You sound like one of these mindless bush-bashers that don't realize there are things going on much bigger than the Prez. Things that have been going on for decades and span numerous presidents of both parties.
In fact, it's idiots like you that play right into their hands: Divide and conquer, divide and conquer. Keep people medicated with porno, sports, and entertainment while we sell their future down the river. Wake up before it's too late.
I'm truly amazed that there are people out there (not many) who still support this president.
Call a spade a spade folks. This guy is incompetent. Sure, he seems like a nice guy, good christian dude, but come on, this is a failed presidency.
Too bad we can't fire him (and cheney) now and move on. Two more years of this is gonna be bad.
"You sound like one of these mindless bush-bashers that don't realize there are things going on much bigger than the Prez."
I guess that 600,000+ dead Iraqis isn't big enough for you.
Honica --
Stop blaming others for your trailer ass existence, especially the Jews, who did nothing but get your pagan ass saved with some Western Civilization. You live in SW Missouri -- probably met about 2 Jews in your life. Go back under that slippery rock you came from, ok? Do you hate Jesus?
"You sound like one of these mindless bush-bashers that don't realize there are things going on much bigger than the Prez.
--------------------
Thanks for the Insight Karl Rove, I'll bring this up at the next Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney hunting trip.
If I was in the US, I'd be thinking of protesting outside the white house full time right about now.
Where is the outrage?
HERE================
Dear Keith,
The Washington DC Habeas Corpus Protest you were asking for/about is now scheduled for tomorrow.
“V” Meets The Secret Service
On Monday, November 6, 2006, “V” visited security check points at the White House, the main Treasury, IRS and Justice Department Buildings and the Capitol. “V’s” purpose was to deliver the People’s Petitions for Redress of Grievances relating to the Government’s violations of the war powers, tax, privacy and money clauses of the Constitution, and to inform key Government officials that at least 100 more “Vs” would be at their doorstep on November 14th expecting a response to the Petitions.
All in all, Monday’s “dry run” was beneficial. All local and federal law enforcement agencies in DC have now been introduced to “V.” They now know that on November 14th there will be more than 100 “Vs” rallying at Lafayette Park and the Reflecting Pool and marching from one rally to the other along the streets of DC, stopping at various federal buildings to await a response to certain Petitions for Redress.
All local and federal law enforcement agencies in DC now know the purpose of these events is to show peaceful support for the First Amendment Right to Petition Government for Redress of Grievances and to give expression to the fact that too many Americans are beginning to fear the Government and that that is unhealthy to the longevity of a free people and our Republic.
All participants are asked to arrive at Lafayette Park between 11 and 11:30 am on the 14th. The event starts at NOON. The group will wait up to 1 hour for a representative of President Bush to appear and to tell the group when they might expect to receive a response to the Petitions for Redress of Grievances.
Monday, November 13, 2006 7:52:37 PM
Delete
Monday, November 13, 2006 7:53:44 PM
AND HERE===============
November 18, 2006
“V” Makes A Mark In DC
100 people show up, see link for follow up story and pic.
IW
Worldwide Interest in RTP Stirred
It’s working.
We are making good use of the powerful concept of en masse activist resistance used in the movie, “V for Vendetta.”
“V” is helping us as we build support for the unalienable Right to a Response from Government to our Petitions for Redress of Grievances regarding the Government’s violation of the war powers, tax, privacy and money clauses of the Constitution.
“V” is helping us as we educate the public about the First Amendment’s guarantee of our Right to Petition Government for Redress of Grievances.
http://tinyurl.com/y66rr5
Bork,
Re: your 4:09:50 AM post about the US car mfr’s being in trouble, just wait another year or two ‘til China begins selling their cars here.
This may be the final nail in their coffin, as all the cash-squeezed car buyers flock toward the lower prices.
-Mammoth
Anon:Wednesday, November 22, 2006 6:01:46 AM
"the RE bubble clearly started in 1997."
Does this mean you expect real estate prices to roll back to 1997?
Anon:
"1.) Why does the Government want and need huge deficits?
2.) Why are there now $370TR of derivatives floating around?
3.) What is up with all of the corporate stock buyback programs?
4.) With the risks of default mounting, why are interest rates falling?"
Godd questions. I'd like to know your answers as a starting point for discussion.
This country was warned at the onset not to make long standing entanglements and relationships with foreign governments. We did not heed that advice and now pay a dear price for thinking we could. The shah of Iran was our guy in power and the soviets had their own reach in Iraq during that time. The shah abused his power and was eventually overthrown by his people who chose a theocracy as their form of government. In my opinion, if jimmy carter had been smart he would have done what was necessary to secure the release of the hostages held there, left the area and let the soviet backed Iraqis and Iranians duke it out among themselves from that point forward and shift focus toward energy independence and oil rationing. To his credit, he did float that idea but Americans were not sold on the necessity of establishing a lifestyle that was independent of the chief export of that area of the world. We pay for that notion even today. Better that they kill one another than us. It did not and would not change anything in my life if some pissed Iranian decides to go off an equally pissed Iraqi.
Smug Bastard
Greenspan, Bush, Lereah (spelling), Rove, Cheney, etc.
These guys do have their flaws but they are not smart enough to have ochestrated the credit bubble chasing real estate we've witnessed in the past 5 - 10 years. This started when Clinton removed the heavy taxation on the profit from selling your house (as near as I can tell), a big unchecked influx of people coming in from foreign countries and then a ton of cheap credit, lots of money flowing back from the Japanese and Chinese to buy up our government's issued debt, etc., etc. Often tax policies, tax changes, the notion of floating debt in order to pay for some perceived "need" today are done with the best of intentions... but...
the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
When the price becomes too high (and it will), the collective psychology will be to "leave well enough alone" and then the pendulum will start swinging back toward the other direction toward center. (It may already be there) It's going to be a bumpy (and heavilly taxed) ride though. IMHO
Smug Bastard
There is a reason
As soon as Democrats regained power in the Houses, some of the first ideas that have been floated are:
increase taxes (Rubin former Treasury Secretary under Clinton)
come back with a draft (Rangel from NY)
Going to need something for all those unemployed roofers, carpenters, plumbers, etc. to do.
Both parties will come together on an amnesty plan for illegals here. IMHO. I don't know if a young guy can do it today but I knew a fellow from the Phillipines who earned his US citizenship by doing a few years in the Navy. He had a given name I could not pronounce but went by "Jim". Nice guy - liked to eat boiled fish heads and rice - no lie. Anyway, he signed up over in Manilla or some other city in the Philipines during the end of the 70's or early 80's, did his time in Navy and then moved to the States with full citizenship. Hmmm.....
Smug Bastard
November 22, 2006 3:27:32 PM
"These guys do have their flaws but they are not smart enough to have ochestrated the credit bubble chasing real estate we've witnessed in the past 5 - 10 years"
Wasn't there some major bank deregulation that is at the center of this? What about the packaging of MBS that enables the banks to off load risk - thereby creating moral hazard in the lending arena?
"I guess that 600,000+ dead Iraqis isn't big enough for you"
Listen, the reason we need a war right now is for the same reason the gov. needs to run huge deficits - to avoid deflation, plain and simple.
Greenie told Bush that it was looking like a deflationary depression was looming after the dot-bomb collapse. The best "cure" for deflation is loads and loads of inflation and since it didn't look good from the consumer end in 2000-2001, what was needed is the bid of last resort. War and deficits go hand in hand and are hugely inflationary. The war staved of the depression (albeit temporarily.)
BTW: 600K dead is nothing compared to what is coming (I'm thinking 200+ mil or so dead in the coming WWIII.) Whatever the FED and the gov might do, we are still headed for a deflationary depression, and it's now right around the corner with the busting housing situation. Credit and monetary inflation don't work against a backdrop of cascading cross-defaults.
Here's what's going to happen (in order): a wave of defaults will prick the derivatives and bond bubble, causing risk premiums to skyrocket, further exacerbating the housing bust. This will lead indirectly to a stock market crash (Dow to around 4000) and waves of layoffs. After deflation has set in, Heli-Ben will do the exact wrong thing and trash the currency which will lead to a complete debasement of the dollar and failure of the USD as a worldwide reserve currency. This will create worldwide instability and a power vacuum. The gov will then replace the dollar with the Amero or some other crappy currency, but deflation will persist and job losses and civil strife will mount. Civil war will then break out between the disenfranchised American (former) worker and all of the illegal aliens and foreigners.
Militias will form and many Mexicans and others will die, with many others fleeing back across the border to the (relative) safety of Mexico. As a last ditch effort, the gov. will let some fanatical Muzzy group (assisted with the Saudis) light off a few nukes in some American cities and then the real fun begins (WWIII) with the Russians and the Chinese joining into the fray, internment camps, Logan's Run-style forced euthanasia for seniors and the whole bit.
Remember people, Bush is a puppet and nothing more. He is told what to do by the globalist power brokers (CFR, etc.) and Hillary won't do anything different. The power-elite drum up phony Dem Vs. Rep battles to take your eye off of the ball. But these power brokers are just people and will fail in their grand designs and millions and millions will die as a result.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
MBS's and CMO's and other derivatives do spread the risks out for mortgage lending and to make the mortgage funding business more liquid. You have to remember a time before Freddie and then Fannie became so big. At one time, when you wanted to get a mortgage on 123 Main St. in Anytown, you went down to the local First National Bank of Anytown and made an application. John Q. Banker at FNB scrutinzied your application 8 ways to Sunday and talked to your boss, verified your down payment, got credit references from anybody you borrowed money from during the past 20 years, put you under a bright light to question you, looked at your relatives accounts there at FNB and basically looked for a reason to turn your sorry untrustworthy ass down for the mortgage you were applying for. If you passed muster, he would write you a mortgage with a balloon payment due (usually 3 - 7 years) when the whole process was repeated. This was to protect the bank against interest rate risk and to make sure that the borrower was still credit worthy. Sometimes, depending upon business conditions, the bank wouldn't extend your financing and you'd have to go shop around to pay off your balloon with them. Fixed rate, long term financing (20 - 30 years) was around but it was used a lot more sparingly. It wasn't a bad thing that the folks decided to make the availibility of credit more stable. Things got out of hand and credit was doled out to people that shouldn't have had it and because of the tax environment, the collective wisdom that borrowing to buy your home is the way to go, etc. you wind up with a long built up credit bubble chasing real estate - just my theory.
Smug Bastard
"I guess that 600,000+ dead Iraqis isn't big enough for you"
Listen, the reason we need a war right now is for the same reason the gov. needs to run huge deficits - to avoid deflation, plain and simple.
Greenie told Bush that it was looking like a deflationary depression was looming after the dot-bomb collapse. The best "cure" for deflation is loads and loads of inflation and since it didn't look good from the consumer end in 2000-2001, what was needed is the bid of last resort. War and deficits go hand in hand and are hugely inflationary. The war staved of the depression (albeit temporarily.)
BTW: 600K dead is nothing compared to what is coming (I'm thinking 200+ mil or so dead in the coming WWIII.) Whatever the FED and the gov might do, we are still headed for a deflationary depression, and it's now right around the corner with the busting housing situation. Credit and monetary inflation don't work against a backdrop of cascading cross-defaults.
Here's what's going to happen (in order): a wave of defaults will prick the derivatives and bond bubble, causing risk premiums to skyrocket, further exacerbating the housing bust. This will lead indirectly to a stock market crash (Dow to around 4000) and waves of layoffs. After deflation has set in, Heli-Ben will do the exact wrong thing and trash the currency which will lead to a complete debasement of the dollar and failure of the USD as a worldwide reserve currency. This will create worldwide instability and a power vacuum. The gov will then replace the dollar with the Amero or some other crappy currency, but deflation will persist and job losses and civil strife will mount. Civil war will then break out between the disenfranchised American (former) worker and all of the illegal aliens and foreigners.
Militias will form and many Mexicans and others will die, with many others fleeing back across the border to the (relative) safety of Mexico. As a last ditch effort, the gov. will let some fanatical Muzzy group (assisted with the Saudis) light off a few nukes in some American cities and then the real fun begins (WWIII) with the Russians and the Chinese joining into the fray, internment camps, Logan's Run-style forced euthanasia for seniors and the whole bit.
Remember people, Bush is a puppet and nothing more. He is told what to do by the globalist power brokers (CFR, etc.) and Hillary won't do anything different. The power-elite drum up phony Dem Vs. Rep battles to take your eye off of the ball. But these power brokers are just people and will fail in their grand designs and millions and millions will die as a result.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
-----------------
Albit Crack induced Euforia, some of what you wrote i agree with fully.
Deflation is right around the corner..we are seeing it now with Walmart cutting thanksgiving food prices. In this Economy you are either making it, on the edge of loosing everything...or already lost everything..messed up times we live in for sure.
Smug Bastard:
I bought my first house many years ago. Fixed rate mortgages wwere by far the most common type of mortgage. You're right - the lending was done by banks, but they covered interest rate risk by lock-in and other fees. Variable and jumbo rate mortgages were available, but not widely used. One can argue that easy credit makes business expansion, etc., possible, but de-linking risk is a recipe for moral hazard. You'll end up with everybody lending as much as they possibly can and heding any risk either by selling it off or insuring against it. You'll end up with a financial bubble. Oh wait. We're already there.
Frankly, I think we were a lot better off when credit was difficult to come by.
Bernanke Is Flooding the Economy With Money:
With the recent passing of Milton Friedman, it is indeed fortuitous that Barry Rithotlz over at the Big Picture Blog has found a new source for M3. And folks, the picture ain't pretty:
http://tinyurl.com/ygtpdk
Anon 5:44:28 AM:
"The major parties are nothing more than extensions (and puppets) of the globalist elite power structure whose true face remains hidden and acts as a shadow government."
Every time I hear this, I can't help but think, "Ooooh, the boogeyman!" It's hard to believe it's true. If so, surely by now some blog somewhere would be "outing" these people.
George Soros, sounding heart-breakingly sincere about his distaste for fascism, did everything he could to foil GW's re-election. Surely, if there were some secret global-elitist club using GW as a front man, Soros would have either spoken up about it, or not spent all that effort trying to get rid of GW.
Anon 6:08:30
How many years ago was several years ago? The FHA has been around since the 1930's. The FHA became part of HUD in the 1960's. The VA has guaranteed long term mortgages for veterans for decades now. These entities did not grow overnight and the products that they either originated or guaranteed (long term 20-30 year fixed rate mortgages) became the norm - private lenders found themselves more and more forced to either compete with well meaning government entities with unlimited funds (power to tax) or exit the market. Lending standards within the FHA and VA were lax to begin with (that's putting it mildly) and have become more and more lax with time. So much so that the VA goes so far as to just plainly state "got bad credit and no cash to put down? No problem" to drum up business and no one even bothers to think about what the ramifications of that practice will be over time.
Smug Bastard
Smug Bastard,
Sorry, I don't follow you. You initially sounded like you felt it was a good thing to relax lending standards and implied that variable rates were the norm. Now you're talking about VA loans?
The Fha and Va (Veteran home loan) have similarities. The loans are both insured by nn entity of the Federal government. This means that the underwriting guidelines are set forth by the government and more over the lenders are insured as long as the loan was underwritten within these guidelines. The money that is lent is capital from the banks, brokers or lending institutions. The money is not actually from any government fund. What happens is H.U.D and/or the VA will guarantee that the loan will be reimbursed to the lender if the borrower does not pay. Usually, this money to insure the loan is from a pool of capital from mortgage insurance payments by borrowers. The result is more lenient lending policies and the ability of institutions to issue more loans at a less restrictive pace. Veterans can quality to borrow 100% of the sales price plus an additional 3% which can be used to pay closing costs. There mortgage insurance associated with this loan. It may be monthly as well as an up-front premium. It all depends of the status of discharge and LTV. Va home loans do require good credit but the underwriters will work with derogatory situations. FHA loans, unlike VA loans, are available to the general public. The loan will finance 97% of the purchase price and does require a minimum of a 3% down payment. The seller is allow to contribute up to 6% to closing cost. This allows the borrowers to obtain the home for the minimum amount. The underwriting guide-lines also tend to be more lenient with credit. Even if no credit history is established an FHA loan may allow for alternative credit such as cell phone, rental history, home phone, gas and electric or other monthly service payments. These alternative credits should have 12 month history and will help establish credit.
That's a LOT of guarantees made by people with the power to tax, folks. I look around me at some of the people walking around today and would wonder about guaranteeing anything where their capacity and character would be concerned in repaying a debt, much less a debt into the 100's of thousands of dollars strung out over 20 or 30 years with not much collateral backing it up.
Smug Bastard
No, don't misinterpret me. I believe the extremely lax lending standards that exist today are a very, very, very, very baddddd thing. Not just for folks living today but maybe for those yet to be born. The commitments made by those with the power to tax may have been made with the best of intentions, but over time, the amount of loan guarantees could become unstable (I believe that is where wer are today) and then become overwhelming. As far as I can tell, there are only a limited number of ways that these entities can make good on all these commitments and the one that would hurt the most is to jack up taxes to pay for all this nonsense. It is one thing to pass and collect a tax to build a dam or a road or something that improves peoples lives but it is quite another to do it to pay for a past fu*kup. I think that is where this could very well lead up to because of the lack of forethought.
Smug Bastard
"If you passed muster, he would write you a mortgage with a balloon payment due (usually 3 - 7 years) when the whole process was repeated. This was to protect the bank against interest rate risk and to make sure that the borrower was still credit worthy. Sometimes, depending upon business conditions, the bank wouldn't extend your financing and you'd have to go shop around to pay off your balloon with them.
**Fixed rate, long term financing (20 - 30 years) was around but it was used a lot more sparingly.**
It wasn't a bad thing that the folks decided to make the availibility of credit more stable. Things got out of hand and credit was doled out to people that shouldn't have had it and because of the tax environment, the collective wisdom that borrowing to buy your home is the way to go, etc. you wind up with a long built up credit bubble chasing real estate - just my theory."
Anon, I don't think we are talking about the same time frames and quite possibly different areas. Part of the reason the FHA came about after the depression was because in parts of the country, you couldn't find anyone to make mortgage on a piece of property no matter what the terms of the loan.
Smug Bastard
Not variable rate loan - balloon loan. Borrow at a set interest rate for 83 months and on the 84th month, the remaining principle is due. Make a new application to carry this balance for another 36, 48, 60, 72, or 84 months at prevailing interest rates upon approval and the ability of the bank to carry a new note for the duration, etc.
A string of cross defaults that forces these entities to make good on the repayment of all the mortgages that have been orginated over a long period of time could spell big problems. When a bad loan is made, it usually takes anywhere from 12 - 24 months for the bad decision to manifest itself with a default. When entities (like the VA) openly invite those with poor past credit histories and no cash money of their own to plunk down in the purchase of a house, I believe it will have disasterous consequences. I would be more surprised to see things just hum along without a large number of defualts, foreclosures and short sales than not. It is too loose credit.
Smug Bastard
Did you know you can get full FHA backing of your financing for a house purchase even if you filed for bankruptcy within the past two years? Wow, what a country! Go Chapter 7 and burn everyone you owe, piddle away 24 months of time and then go balls to the wall with buying a piece of real estate to live in with no substantial money of your own to invest in said real estate and good old Uncle Sam will "get your back" with the lender assuming you've met all other "stringent and rigorous" criteria he lays out. *sarcasm*
I know, the debtor isn't going to get off scott free if he goes south but, unfortunately, Joe Q. Taxpayer is going to be in the same leaky boat with this defaulting ass clown.
Smug Bastard
Every time I hear this, I can't help but think, "Ooooh, the boogeyman!" It's hard to believe it's true. If so, surely by now some blog somewhere would be "outing" these people.
+++++++++++
You are stuck in the Matrix.
Have a nice day.
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