February 14, 2007

Wonk Alert: Really smart economists (i.e. not The Corrupt David Lereah) dissect the housing bubble and crash

Enjoy HP'ers. I hope a lot of you can make it through the whole video. Anyone who watches this will understand. And there will be no surprises.

WARNING: THE REIC DOES NOT WANT YOU TO SEE THIS VIDEO

20 comments:

Downturn said...

These speakers are obviously disgruntled renters!!!

Anonymous said...

murderer's row of economists.

Metroplexual said...
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Anonymous said...

what would you do if i sang out of tune...

FlyingMonkeyWarrior said...

Watched it and No Surprises.
No surprises because of your Blog, Keith.

Anonymous said...

It appears they have a power point presentation going also, anyone find it?

Love those facts and data.

Anonymous said...
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Larry Roberts said...

Fantastic! Interesting that the policymakers are already focusing on regulation in the aftermath of the disaster. To them, the disaster appears to be a foregone conclusion.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Go to AmericanProgress.org. The written report is listed under Domestic and Economy. "The House that Subprime Loans Built"

Anonymous said...

I will be very pleased to see the realtor/mortgage broker suicide rates increasing dramatically. I will giggle when I hear about RE specuvestors going postal on their Real-whores(TM), gunning down every agent in the office. LOL

Paul E. Math said...

Great panel of presenters. You have multiple reputable economists providing data and information relating to the size and scope of the housing bubble. Of course they don't agree on the size of the bubble but that's the only thing that's not in unanimous - the fact that there is a bubble is beyond dispute at this point.

But I'm glad I watched to the end to see the reasons why this bubble is bad for those most vulnerable. New loan products with lower qualifying criteria allowed a whole new group of people to experience the temporary joys of home ownership, soon to be followed by the long-term repercussions of mortgage foreclosure.

It scared me to hear Zandi (2nd panelist) talking about the benefits of these loan innovations and arguing that we have to preserve them in order to maintain the higher level of home ownership - I couldn't disagree more. Home ownership in itself is not a universal unequivocal benefit. Safe, stable and secure housing and retirements are universal goods and homeownership, as we are about to see, does not always equate to stable housing and a secure retirement.

Anonymous said...

Last speaker: 1/4 of all loans are in the subprime bucket; 80% of those toxic; underwritten to the teaser rate and not beyond ("beyond+ = 40% hike). All new to me.

And...err..hubbah-hubbah!


p.s. - would have liked to hear Sarbanes.

Anonymous said...

None were too concerned about spillover into the general economy, except maybe 2nd-to-last speaker, and even he qualified his remarks. That seems like it was taped back in December - implode-O-meter was at zero at that time, so they might have a different read on things now. Time will tell.

Anonymous said...

http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/BloodhoundBlog/?p=1042#comments

Greg Swann will slowly turn into Keith, probably without acknowlegment.

Look at those comments!

RipeDurian said...

Great video!

Anonymous said...

David lereah has been arrested for dui.He was so hammered he actually admitted to an officer that there was a housing bubble and told them to protect their families and not buy for at least 10 years.Officers pulled over his car after they noticed him swerving and comeing dangerously close to a sign twirler near walmart.

Anonymous said...

This was the best presentation from a group of mainstay moderate and centrist policy reviewers.

I also liked the fact that Zandi tried to underplay the need for more regulations w/o additional considerations. His more 'right of center' fiscally conservative leaning viewpoint actually gives this panel more credibility than a group of anti-ARM demagogues. So instead of hearing the olde HPer mantra, we get to see the wider picture from different angles and it still points to the fact that HPers were on the mark this whole time. Great find Keith!

Anonymous said...

I thought the black women didn't understand what "civil rights" REALLY MEANT outside of MLK's interpretation.

As Barnimum Bailey once said: "there's a sucker born every moment" and, in the housing bubble, that included both rich and the poor.

As far as I've observed, politicians seem gleeful when poor residents get kicked out of their apartments because condos generate property taxes.

Guliani liked doing that in NYC... Trump is now investing in Harlem, etc...

Thus, I still say there is a GIANT disconnection between "policy wonks" and "reality on the ground."

Anonymous said...

Watched th entire video and the woman at the end is wrong about escrowed taxes and ins not being calculated in the overall debt ratio. There ARE factored in but the critical difference is that most aubprime loans don't require the escrow. I'm sure lots of new home owners will be surpried to learn there are lots of property taxes to be paid in addition to supplemental property taxes.
On a side note, the subprime company I used to work for has stopped offering all 2nd mortgage loans.....wonder if the industry will follow. Maybe the good ole days of 20% down will come back which would force down demand and prices.