May 09, 2007

HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day


Why is everyone blaming the subprime blowup for the housing crash?

Are they really that dumb? Or do they really think we're that dumb?

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Top ten reasons

10) Congenitally sunny disposition

9) Suzanne researched it.

8) CEO can't unload all his shares yet

7) Now we can blame those brown subprime subpeople for the crash! Why didn't we kick them off the property ladder before?

6) We're so much smarter than Casey

5) They aren't making any more identical low-efficiency flimsy crackerbox homes in suburban hells anymore!

4) Well it's different *here*, and not like the other places *there*.

3) Haven't you ever gone swimming in that cool refreshing Big River In Egypt? Try it sometime!

2) Bubbles are for Bathtubs!

1) But mom, David Lereah was doing it too!

Paul E. Math said...

Our culture has a problem with personal responsibility. It should come as no surprise that finger-pointing is competing with baseball as the national pastime.

The homebuyer doesn't realize how stupid he/she is. Their parents and grandparents grew up in an age where bank approval was the main obstacle to buying a home. Children never questioned the premise.

Dramatic credit expansion sparked banks to try to sell more mortgages and people were entirely unprepared to think for themselves. Their only worry was whether the bank would lend them the money, not what it would take to pay it back.

It was Greenspan's easy money policy that enabled this bubble but let's not forget to blame greedy Realtors, mortgage brokers and intellectually lazy, gullible homebuyers. They are all responsible.

Anonymous said...

Screw bargaining: blaming everyone else should be added to the famous pattern of grief, to be experienced by those facing loss:

Denial
Anger
Blame
Depression
Acceptance (however reluctant)

Anonymous said...

.



Keith,

I'll tell you why...It's really simple.

So they can place the blame on poor people, minorities (especially immigrants) and the uneducated. When the only one to blame is really none other than
ALAN GREENSPAN.

Anonymous said...

What housing blowup?

Anonymous said...

CFC pump and dump evidence:

http://tinyurl.com/2noykm

Anonymous said...

Subliminally, subprime = poor people. "We can keep this thing contained to poor people. That way, it won't affect us rich people and our portfolios."

"We rich people know how to borrow cheap money and use it to trade assets and jack up prices. Then, we leave poor people holding the bag."

The problem is...poor people, young people, blacks and Hispanics (all those subprimers) have a lot of votes. And soon, they're gonna have a chance to use them. That will create all kinds of serious long-term financial problems for rich people that the rich people will argue against intellectually and morally until they are blue in the face. And most of those rich people will never understand that you can't argue your way out of the poor house. Who's in the poor house is all about who uses power.

Anonymous said...

Hey, when the most famous investor in America says this, maybe it's time to take a look...

Warren Buffett says:

“The introduction of derivatives just made any regulation of leverage a joke. It’s an anachronism,” he said. Because of them, “there will be some very unpleasant things that happen” in the financial markets. “We may not know exactly where the danger begins and at what point it becomes a super danger.”

Uh, "super danger"?!? A modest, humble man who happens to be one of the world's richest and resides in fly-over country, identifies a 'super danger'??? Is 'super danger' seemingly a step above Al Qaeda on the attention level??

Please people, don't be so naive to think this does not deserve your attention.

Anonymous said...

Has to be subprime to blame. Has to be. And the media. And these dang bloggers. And the liberals, don't forget them. And Venezuela. And the gravitational pull from Saturn these days.

Can't possibly be greed coupled with a market farther from economic fundamentals than has ever been in history. Can't be that. Can't be the idiotic line of thinking that was pushed by realtwhores that "values" would increase double digits until the Second Coming. That couldn't have been it.

Anonymous said...

GREED, IGNORANCE, EGO...shall I go on?

Anonymous said...

Blame on Bill Clinton, since Republicans blame Clinton for EVERYTHING. Look, it's raining...Clinton's fault. Look, it's sunny...Clinton's fault.

Anonymous said...

Even better, blaming the media and bubble bloggers for it!

Go us. Didn't realize we had that power.

*waves hand to impeach Bush*

Anonymous said...

It is some of both - but mostly the latter.

Anonymous said...

I blame it on the sunshine.

Anonymous said...

In as much as possible I try *not* to politicize the bubble. Really I do. Subprime is a SYMPTOM *not* the cause of the bubble.

The 250/500 Cap Gains Exemption passed in 1997 (I can't recall who was in the White House at the time) is at the root of the cause.

TAX FREE MONEY! What's not to like!? Just saying subprime=poor people is greatly over simplifying the debacle. You can have an 850 FICO and a great job but if you keep running out and over leveraging that by buying "2nd/vacation" homes your DTI alone will push you into the subprime zone.

The MSM LOVES to focus on minorities getting screwed so if it bleeds it LEADS! At first I didn't find this all that annoying b/c it was at least bringing attention to a very sick industry. By now though you'd think that we'd have learned to make the distinction. I have met subprime, and we are it.

DinOR

Anonymous said...

I ax again, what housing blowup?

Anonymous said...

"The problem is...poor people, young people, blacks and Hispanics (all those subprimers) have a lot of votes."

HAHAHA ROLFL, wait, that was a joke right?

The thing IS... Poor people, young people, blacks, and hispanics are TOO STUPID TO VOTE, and probably wouldnt know HOW.

Anonymous said...

I MUST BE MISSING SOMETHING!
WHAT WORLD ARE YOU PEOPLE LIVING IN?
BLAME WHO, FOR WHAT?????
THINGS STILL LOOK GOOD TO ME!!
MUST BE THE IMAGINARY DREAM WORLD!!!

Anonymous said...

Some wanker on the east coast just sold his 11,000sq, 2ac. home for 5.9 million, 500k less than he was asking....and he's crying! All the way to the bank!

born to lose said...

Irresponsibility

No single raindrop believes it is to blame for the flood.

Anonymous said...

Some Jackass in coastal L.A. had an older home on the beach (I think Malibu) For sale for 2.79 milllion!
He was offered 2.5, his response was...."NO, I want every penny"!!

I wonder if he ever sold, and if he did how much?

Greed and ignorance, mostly greed!

Anonymous said...

You renting fools missed out on all the fun and profits. So I blame your stupidity for missing out on the boom.

Anonymous said...

I can't watch/read the MSM anymore. I scan the headlines on bloomberg and elsewhere just to get an idea of what's being reported. Our LOCAL news station just started running a series bragging that they are "making government accountable". Who the hell do these people think they are??? It's a circus.

Anonymous said...

"So they can place the blame on poor people, minorities (especially immigrants) and the uneducated. When the only one to blame is really none other than ALAN GREENSPAN."

I bought several flippers on the way up with sub prime loans from 1999 - 2003. Sub prime loans made it easy to make a killing in real estate as the market soared, at least for me.


I am white, born in Denver and have an MBA.

I sold all my rental properties except one, and the one I live in, prior to Sept 2005. What a ride.

If I had kept those properties, I would be facing a bleak financial future.

My dad always told me to get out of a market before it peaks, because you never know if it can continue onward and upward.

I sold all my stocks in March and my last rental property; I missed out on about 600 DOW points and had to drop the price on the house about 15%.


Waiting on the sidelines with cash in hand, gold in the safety deposit box with no mortgage or debt.



Happy White Educated Baby Boomer in Glendale AZ who used Sub Prime Loans to get wealthy.

Anonymous said...

The investors are to blame. First the supplied the money, then the cut it off, and imposed strict regulations.