Here's a very good article on the housing crash going mainstream (why is what's happening such a shock to "analysts" and MSM, when we've all known EXACTLY what's going to happen all along?). I really liked the author's conclusion statement, which I publish here:
There’ll probably always be some doubt as to whether the $11 trillion housing bubble was merely an accident of misguided monetary policy or if it was part of a larger plan to shift wealth from the middle class to the ultra-rich.
By seducing working class people with low interest rates, policymakers were able conceal the real effects of the unfunded tax cuts, currency deregulation, and the humongous trade deficits. As time goes by, however, the effects of those changes are becoming more apparent.
The country has undergone an unprecedented expansion of personal debt which has engendered the greatest wealth gap since the Gilded Age.
The deep economic divisions are creating problems that could end in political turmoil. The present uneven distribution of wealth is inimical to democratic institutions.
We should anticipate trouble ahead.
There’ll probably always be some doubt as to whether the $11 trillion housing bubble was merely an accident of misguided monetary policy or if it was part of a larger plan to shift wealth from the middle class to the ultra-rich.
By seducing working class people with low interest rates, policymakers were able conceal the real effects of the unfunded tax cuts, currency deregulation, and the humongous trade deficits. As time goes by, however, the effects of those changes are becoming more apparent.
The country has undergone an unprecedented expansion of personal debt which has engendered the greatest wealth gap since the Gilded Age.
The deep economic divisions are creating problems that could end in political turmoil. The present uneven distribution of wealth is inimical to democratic institutions.
We should anticipate trouble ahead.
32 comments:
Don't worry...there will be a BB&B in debtor's prison. Also "Best Cell" award gets you an extra scoop of gruel.
Imagine several hundred years ago and that somehow the pirates ended up ruling the most powerful countries and dictating their policies...which of course would favor the pirates.
Do you think pirates ever gave a rip about anyone other than their own?
That is EXACTLY what has happened except that today's pirates sail corporations instead of schooners...
Is anything being done for the common good anymore?
Why is the bottom line for everything profit?
Why is it that CEOs pay has gone thru the roof while inflation wages/buying power of the average work continues to drop?
Why are American jobs being shutdown, boxed up, and moved overseas with a promise to "retrain you for a McJob" that pays minimum wage?
Why is it that the leadership of the major western countries is disconnected from the will of the people (e.g. BushCo)?
Why is there so much greed and corruption and why doesn't anyone appear to care?
How did a Nazi manifesto like the Patriot Act ever get passed and why was such a huge piece of legislation "ready to go" immediately after 9/11?
How did an unelected/unaccountable organization like the World Trade Organization worm its way to the position to making global decisions that override the decisions of sovereign states and their voters?
How did an unelected/unaccountable NONGOVERNMENT organization like the FED get a stranglehold on the American economy?
Why do only shills, liars, and crooks get quoted by the MSM repeatedly even though anyone with half a brain can easily see a pattern of lying, contradiction, and being wrong?
Why does the MSM appear to be ignorant, stupid, and unaware (or just spinning and lying thru their teeth) of the reality that is so obvious to folks like HP'ers?
Why does everything seem to be going to hell in a handbasket? (e.g. schools, infrastructure, government, economy, etc.)
Why do "big campaign issues" always boil down to gays, abortion, and other "non-issues" when nobody tackles the very real and big issues (economy, long term planning for the common good, rooting out criminal activity in our major institutions, etc.)
Why are there always "endless wars" which always pit our 21st century military against a bunch of peasants or 3rd world people simply trying to defend their country from being raped? (remember Grenada...laughable if not so sad and stupid)
Why in a country of hundreds of millions of people do our choices for president for the past few decades always include a Bush or a Clinton? (look for Jeb vs Chelsea in 2012)?
Because pirates rule the world and they only think about amassing ever more "loot" for themselves.
If you see everything thru the eyes of a pirate the world makes perfect sense....
At some point...this parasitic and cancerous condition will exhaust the world and there will be massive change....probably violent.
Bond, James bond...
That pic is from the movie "The Great Gatsby" and my point is I hope we all either are already rich, will get rich in a really fast, or have rich friends.
te he
DUH!
I seem to remember an ongoing commedy sketch on In Living Color (remember that) about a family of immigrants (perhaps Jamacan's) who had 5 or 6 jobs each. . .so Keith - THAT is how all of this works. . .the guy who used to earn $30 an hour at GM or Ford, now can earn the same if he has 4 jobs. . .Starbucks in the morning, Denny's at noon, Home Depot in the afternoon, and night watchman in the evening. . .as simple as that - then his teenage brats will do all the shopping and consuming. . .it all works out - trust me and have faith.
How did an unelected/unaccountable NONGOVERNMENT organization like the FED get a stranglehold on the American economy?
Independant???
"Greenspan's official visits with Capitol Hill lawmakers, excluding public testimony, also have picked up in recent years, averaging about 21.3 per year in 1996 through 1998, then surging to an average of 35.8 per year since 1999."
http://foi.missouri.edu/federalfoia/morefreqvisitor.html
Why are American jobs being shutdown, boxed up, and moved overseas with a promise to "retrain you for a McJob" that pays minimum wage?
Because greed in America isn't restricted to the rich. It covers all classes, especially the working class.
Why does an American web designer want to charge me $3,000 to create a website when I can have someone in India do it for $50, or better yet, buy a pre-made template for $50?
American automakers are going broke because of the scum unions that demand getting paid 4x what their jobs are worth, and the corrupt democrat blue states back unions and FORCE the automakers to bow down to them.
Why do American workers think they are entitled to automatic pay raises every year based on seniority, when they're not producing any more than they did last year, not working any harder, and are not doing anything to DESERVE a pay raise? THAT, my friend, is pure evil GREED.
In my business I have thousands of American customers who buy a $97 product then DEMAND $1,000 in service and support because they believe they're ENTITLED to it. Non-American customers do not pull this crap. They understand that they paid $97 and are only entitled to $97 worth of product and service.
When the American working class stops trying to RAPE their employers and businesses, and starts to get off their lazy asses and begin earning what they're worth, maybe this screwed up economy will straighten itself out.
As for me, when I need to hire a programmer or someone else along those lines I'll do it in India or Romania where I can get an over-qualified guy for $12,000 a year vs. an under-qualified American for $80,000 a year who will sue me for millions if I have to fire him for not doing his job.
You know 4 months after the "summer of love" started in San Francisco they hippies had to start handing out flyers on avoiding gang bangs and theft.
Human exploitation of one another and the planet is the rule, not the exception. So why do we refuse to plan for it via reasonable guidance, regulation and punitive measures to combat it.
From the article, referring to the sub-prime borrowers: "Last week, a report on CNBC announced that “Mortgage Delinquencies Hit Record High in First Quarter.” The article is another bleak account of the millions of people who are losing their homes because they cannot make their payments after their loans reset."
Losing their homes? They're houses, not homes. And they were never theirs.
i remember the community poor houses, and the C.D, at every local level, civilian defence and employments that were not private corporate profited prison labor and the peoples rights, that included the communitys assets and control of those assets
So long middle class
At some point...this parasitic and cancerous condition will exhaust the world and there will be massive change...probably violent.
Doubtful as long as humanity sees the problem on an individual basis rather than a problemo that could kill us all...
Frank said...
Because greed in America isn't restricted to the rich. It covers all classes, especially the working class.
When the American working class stops trying to RAPE their employers and businesses, and starts to get off their lazy asses and begin earning what they're worth, maybe this screwed up economy will straighten itself out.
My advice, stop listening to Drug-Rush Limbaugh, you're losing touch with reality ;-)
Sure, greed is the oil that makes the capitalistic wheel go 'round, but if the Global Banking Cartel and their pawns in the Global Corporate Pirates had their way Amerikans would be working 80 hour weeks along side their children in sweat factories.
Sure, unions have been corrupted by meglo-maniacal tyrants, but that's just an outgrowth of mankind's inability to evolve beyond turning every leader into a hero for the worship idol of the vassals...
The issues here are FAR more complex than class struggle/envy, it involves the nature of the human race and it’s seemingly inability to avoid jumping from mania-to-mania.
If I, like you, had to make a blanket statement concerning the insanity I'd say that greed is a disease acquired by Capitalistic system in general, though I don't have any quick solutions as to the remedy - Mankind's alternatives to the "problem" (e.g. fascism, communism, et al.) have been worse than the initial problem (i.e. Capitalism).
Then again, one only has to look to the global rape of the planet under imperialistic capitalism to say perhaps that both evils are essentially catastrophic and doomed to failure...
Socialism is a failure. Get over it. People who support such ideas are failures who want to bring everyone down to their same mediocre level.
Hot UK home prices poised for a steep crash
AGENCIES[ SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2007 12:10:29 AM]
EDINBURGH/LONDON: UK home prices, rising at the fastest pace in two years, are “very highly inflated” and at risk of collapsing, said Vincent Tchenguiz, one of Britain’s largest residential property owners. A shortage of housing has driven the price of an average home up 11% over the past year, according to HBOS, the UK’s largest mortgage lender, even after the Bank of England raised its benchmark interest rate three times to a 5 1/2-year high.
“It is not sustainable in the long term, prices are very high,” Mr Tchenguiz, 50, said in an interview. “The bubble could burst in the event of a financial shock or terrorism.” The influx of international capital into the UK has created a real estate market similar to the one in Japan that collapsed in 1991, said Mr Tchenguiz. Japanese land prices have dropped about 50% from their peak. They increased in 2006 for the first time in 16 years.
Mr Tchenguiz lives and works in London’s Mayfair district and has an office that overlooks Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park. By the end of June, he plans to buy the freehold to 300,000 properties. The £500 million ($1 billion) acquisition would double the UK residential holdings of Consensus Business Group, Mr Tchenguiz’s investment firm. Freeholders can insulate themselves from fluctuations in the real estate market by selling leases on their properties.
Consensus collects rents on the land from people leasing his properties and also manages house and apartments. “Our core residential business is pretty much recession-proof,” said Mr Tchenguiz.
Mr Tchenguiz said he may buy property in the US as home prices fall amid the collapse of more than 50 US subprime mortgage lenders.
“Now is the right time to start looking to acquire assets in Florida and California, or to buy stock that is being built as there is quite a lot that is not selling,” said Mr Tchenguiz, whose family came to London in 1979 following the overthrow of the Shah of Iran.
In the US at the end of March, 545,000 new homes were for sale. Inventory peaked in July 2006 at 573,000 new houses for sale. The figure at the end of last month was about 100,000 higher than two years ago. Mr Tchenguiz, a co-owner of Shell-Mex House next to the Savoy Hotel in London, said he and his partners will decide in the next few weeks whether to sell the largest building in the West End, home to the world’s most expensive offices. “We are not in a hurry,” he said.
The building’s lease is for 25 years with the tenants’ payments increasing in line with inflation, he said. The property market “doesn’t differentiate between the credit of the deals and the length of the lease, so they will be undervaluing it at all times,” said Mr Tchenguiz. “So a likely event might be a financing.” Prices of UK commercial real estate, which has returned 18% in each of the last three years as asset values have increased, may continue to rise a little as yields fall further, Mr Tchenguiz said. — Bloomberg
Frank said...
Blah, blah, blah..
Another Great American. How do you expect the politicians to help when the so many average folks are in bed with the rapists, even while taking it up the *ss.
I am not gonna respond to Frank but after the revolution, guys like him will be used to make dog food (domestically). What a tool!
Mortgages to the poor is taken from the "lend money to Africa" model. Debt is a great tax collector to consolidate wealth to the unelected minority, like Frank above.
Get all the poor chumps in debt, and somehow this vicious logic justifies transferring a continuous flow of cash up the class ladder.
Start making guillotines folks, we're gonna need a lot of em.
Frank said...
Why does an American web designer want to charge me $3,000 to create a website when I can have someone in India do it for $50, or better yet, buy a pre-made template for $50?
So $3000 is too much for several weeks of research, custom artwork, copy editing, design, scripting, testing, search optimization, and server deployment?
Big American companies charge 100K-500K for that kind of thing - but the talented young American worker isn't worth 3K?
Socialism is a failure. Get over it. People who support such ideas are failures who want to bring everyone down to their same mediocre level.
Get over it? LOL
Socialism is one of the prevalent "income redistribution" systems in the US today, along with Corp. welfare, better known as Fascism.
FWIW, capitalism would trump all the other "income redistribution" systems (yes, it's one too), if it was ran fairly and within reason.
But, it isn't (as anyone with a brain can deduce)...the financial systems are corrupted and turned into an insiders game day in and day out, the banking systems are an old family monopoly system that goes back to feudal Europe and 19th century robber barons...
Then we have the gov't., which was established by the Sons of Liberty to "Protect & Serve", but now has been perverted by the elite to "Extract & Be Served".
The world is so upside-down it makes one want to become a futilitarian...
American workers do not suck! We have always been the best of breed in the world in just about everything.
If we are not getting enough done - look to your managers, look to politics, look to cancelled projects, moving targets, look to the Gov that can't build a fence, for Gods sake, look around, look at failed parents (too busy working/spending to raise kids), look at colleges who are supposed to train us to be the best and instead look for grant money all day. Look to failed incentives, look to broken faith. Amereicans have always been the best, it's in us. That's how America got rich dumb *ss. Look at any field, America leads at the top.
Keep voting republican and things will only get worse.
I always predicted that the conservative revolution started by Reagan (may he rot in Hell) would turn us into a South American-style culture where 5% have all the wealth and the rest beg for scraps.
The only humane, just society is a socialist one.
Why is it that CEOs pay has gone thru the roof while inflation wages/buying power of the average work continues to drop?
Why does a dog lick his balls?
Why are American jobs being shutdown, boxed up, and moved overseas with a promise to "retrain you for a McJob" that pays minimum wage?
Why does a dog lick his balls?
How did a Nazi manifesto like the Patriot Act ever get passed and why was such a huge piece of legislation "ready to go" immediately after 9/11?
Why does a dog lick his balls?
How did an unelected/unaccountable organization like the World Trade Organization worm its way to the position to making global decisions that override the decisions of sovereign states and their voters?
Why does a dog lick his balls?
Because he can.
The only humane, just society is a socialist one.
Socialism is just as bad a wealth distribution form of gov't. as the current insanity the US has been in the grips of since the robber baron families hooked-up with the Eurotrash feudal families in an effort to solidify their positions in the face of rising Populist movements of the late 19th century:
A. One unfairly benefits the lazy, good for nothing poor.
B. One unfairly benefits the lazy, good for nothing rich.
How about the human race evolve beyond that and come up with a NEW solution that doesn't grant the refuse of humanity the ability to vote themselves goodies from the publik treasury and/or empower those that are born on third-base the fantasy that they've hit a home run and the world is their oyster?
Perhaps I expect too much from the mankind to think in such a fair, homeomorphic fashion?
so that he can have the leizure time to lick his balls.
I have been driving cross country for the past 4 days. Started in California and I type this from Alabama this morning. Hotels are packed. Roadside diners, packed. Gas stations with 5-10 minute lineups. And it's not even summer vacation time yet.
No evidence of an economic slowdown out in flyover country.
"I have been driving cross country for the past 4 days. Started in California and I type this from Alabama this morning. Hotels are packed. Roadside diners, packed. Gas stations with 5-10 minute lineups. And it's not even summer vacation time yet."
Your anecdotal evidence is not evidence of anything. Yesterday's GDP report of 1.3% growth in the first quarter is proof of a slowdown. Nice try troll!
Bitter Renter wrote:
"I always predicted that the conservative revolution started by Reagan (may he rot in Hell) "
You sure are one very angry person. I was no fan of Reaganomics but I never spoke like that. You really need psychological help!
Perhaps I expect too much from the mankind to think in such a fair, homeomorphic fashion?
Sounds good to me.
There’ll probably always be some doubt as to whether the $11 trillion housing bubble was merely an accident of misguided monetary policy or if it was part of a larger plan to shift wealth from the middle class to the ultra-rich."
Careful there Keith. The conservative Republican Libtards will be all over you screaming "class warfare".
"Socialism is just as bad a wealth distribution form of gov't. as the current insanity the US has been in the grips of since the robber baron families"
You are sooo idiot. You should try living in one of the Scandinavian countries for a while. They are the very best of human societies ever formed on this planet.
oh boy, it is really sounds like your precious American capitalism does not work at all for the poor. Welcome to the reality at last.
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