July 01, 2007

Some call HP "pessimistic". I find that hilarious, because deep down HP seems to be the only one who optimistically wants change



I'm optimistic homes will one day again be affordable, safe investments that people live in, raise families in and never again consider lottery tickets and get-rich-quick schemes


I'm optimistic that the rampant corruption amongst realtors, investors, appraisers, builders, lenders, mortgage brokers, politicians and the NAR will be uncovered and dealt with severely


I'm optimistic that people worldwide will come to realize they were suckered into the biggest Ponzi Scheme of all time, and won't let it happen again (at least for a few generations)


I'm optimistic the housing and credit crash will end the out-of-control shallow consumerism running rampant in the developed world (and especially Scottsdale, Arizona)


I'm optimistic that George Bush will come to be seen as the worst president in US history, that our corrupt Congress will be ousted, and that the dysfunctional two-party stranglehold on American politics will be challenged


I'm optimistic that the media will be called to account for their disastrous performance on Iraq and the Housing Bubble, and that a new generation of reporters will make amends for the mistakes of their corrupted peers


I'm optimistic it'll be more expensive to rent one day than own (thus time to buy)


I'm optimistic people will see the NAR and realtors as a corrupt group of discredited lying hacks that should go the way of buggy whip salesmen


I'm optimistic people will have to have a down payment and income verification before being able take on the responsibility of home ownership


I'm optimistic that Generation X and Generation Y will wake the fu*k up and do something about the out of control entitlements mess doomed to bankrupt America


I'm optimistic that the housing crash will serve as a serious and memorable wake up call for a world on a decidedly wrong track


Now take the flipside of all of those points. Wouldn't maintaining the status quo and doing nothing to fix what's wrong be incredibly pessimistic and destructive?

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

How much money was spent on real estate advertising this past winter and spring, in order to prop up the housing market? What an unmitigated mis-allocation of capitol that was.

Anonymous said...

You may get your change but this country unfortunately is a shell of her former self. It will take 20 years to get back to somewhat normal. My grandfather lived through the last depression and I am prepared for this one. However it will be painful to watch everyone go down in flames. Well most everyone screw the following. REALTORS,Mortgage Brokers,and Bush and Co can you say I wish my interest rate on my mortgage could be as low as his lowest approval rating. 0% financing

sequoia512

Anonymous said...

I'm optimistic that the media will be called to account for their disastrous performance on Iraq and the Housing Bubble, and that a new generation of reporters will make amends for the mistakes of their corrupted peers

Bzzzzttttt. But thanks for playing.

The media no longer makes a pretense of providing a check on political power. Put another way, investigative journalism is dead. Why? I don't know. The most shocking failure of the media in recent memory was the pimping of the Iraq war by nationally respected media. BushCO played the NY Times (e.g., Judith Miller and her editors) like a 2 dollar fiddle.

Today's media is more concerned with events (Paris Hilton, terra terra terra, etc.) than dissecting who's standing behind the curtain, furiously yanking the levers of power.

Anonymous said...

Keith,

Thanks for the very well expressed comeback to your description on the top 25.

I couldn't agree more, especially about Scottsdale.

Anonymous said...

From scottsdalesucks:

Reader Comment of the Day!
Wow, this comment is so spot on that I had to make it a full post:

Scottsdale, Phoenix, Tempe, Glendale, etc. are all about to have a giant economic enema, courtesy of the housing bubble blowout!

I moved here in the late '90s, and yes, it was a better place because housing was affordable and there wasn't so much anxiety over the lack of real, big-city wages. People weren't trying to be something they were not: rich!

And you didn't have to be rich because things like housing were affordable, and left money to spend on other activities.

Sure, Scottsdale was always supposed to be a "cut above" the other Phoenix suburbs, and high-class, and we could all tolerate a little pretentiousness from that crew now and then.

But a new breed moved in after 2001. Sporting a few chin whiskers, unkept shirts, and walking around in black dress shoes and baggy-jeans--that looked like someone just dropped a load in 'em: the post-modern, wanna-be, nuveaux riche, pastiche dumb-ass.

Now I'm not claiming to be Mr. Cosmopolitan, or sophisticated. I'm a State school MBA for godsakes. However, I can tell a rat when I see one. And the current breed of quick-buck, con artist rat that moved into Scottsdale--possibly because he couldn't afford to live in a real wealthy area, for instance Cupertino, Los Altos, Saratoga or San Francisco--is truly a pathetic creature. [Frank's comments - that's the only reason they move to Scottsdale - they can't hang in a truly affluent community and wouldn't be welcome. Hence Scottsdale, mecca for phonies and rejects of all kinds.]

How many credit cards can a person max out? How many payments can one miss on his Adjustable Rate McMansion Mortgage and Hummer before dude's girlfriend finds out that he's really just a high school dropout, GED-carrying construction guy or roofer posing as a real suburban professional?

Then the scrounge-lizards hit the jackpot: Instead of slapping tiles on a roof in 118 degree temperatures, they discovered that if you could put on some TJ Maxx slacks and a ruffled white shirt, slap some gel on your Carsten haircut, pick up a phone, take a few people out to lunch in a rented BMW then viola! You could transmorgrify from a frog into a prince: a Real Estate Agent or Mortgage Broker.

The sad and funny thing is, many unqualified schmucks made a sh-tload of money for bamboozling people who couldn't afford a house, into over-reaching for the American dream.

What's even funnier, is that most of these bozos blew their newfangled cash on Blackjack at the Indian casinos, Adjustable Rate Mortgage payments on a McMansion, a BMW or Hummer and drinks every night in some trendy, fly-by-night Scottsdale bar.

Boy, livin' the large life was good wasn't it? That was a good ride! Ha, ha! The game is over. The great housing crash of 2007+ has begun.

Time, once again, to put on your baggy blue jeans and wrinkled shirt, give back all the toys, and move into your South Phoenix dive apartment with two other dudes, so you can just get by like the roofer that you are and always will be.

Or better yet, go back to Jersey, Ohio, Detroit and Illinois.

Watch how bad real estate is going to get. You aren't going to believe it.

It's gonna' be a royal economic enema of historic proportions. It will clean out all of the Scottsdale trailer trash, that's for sure.

Perhaps the scampering rats will move to Reno or Vegas next.

http://nevercoldcall.typepad.com/scottsdale_sucks/

Anonymous said...

All our elected US officials have turned their backs on the Americans. There are so many crooks, liars, war-mongers and cheaters in Washington DC that you can smell their stentch from 10 miles out. All of them.

Maybe we should build a fence around Washington DC, and the only way out is to take a lie detector test. If a government worker or elected official fails the test, they go right to the electric chair. Our slogan would be: "You're either with us, or against us!"....

Anonymous said...

If you don't buy the MSM then your "pessimistic", come along sheeple....

Anonymous said...

Keith for president!

Anonymous said...

Well, if the CDO meltdown doesn't take us back to The Stone Age & barter system (but with a sh*tload of nukes), then there's reason to believe that one day the sun will come out.

Anonymous said...

Today's media is more concerned with events (Paris Hilton, terra terra terra, etc.)

I hear Larry King got his best rating in a long time with the paris interview. Nothing can be done about it, most of our fellow man are idiots. The positive news is that it's always been this way and humanity has managed to survive.

Anonymous said...

UGH for god's sake can you pleaze, pleaze, pretty pleaze stop lumping BMWs and hummers together? Seriously. Hummers are, well I don't even know what words to use to describe them. Awful? Horrible? Ridiculous? Am I getting close?

BMWs on the other hand, granted a tad overpriced (and by tad I mean a lot), are fantastic cars. I have owned 6 BMWs and each one was purchased because I love driving them. Can any Hummer owners really say that? Hummers are simply "LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME" behemoths that have no purpose in life.

Thank you, rant off.

Anonymous said...

Sorry buster but in my experience, everytime a driver doesn't respect the 30 limit in a residential area it just so happens to be someone driving a BMW.

Anonymous said...

I guess only 60% of BMW drivers are annoying douchebag losers versus 100% of hummers.

Intersetingly BMW cyclists seem pretty cool---the harleys seem to attract the posers.

Anonymous said...

me too.

Roccman said...

Yeah!!

And I'm optimistic that only 85% of the human species will die off in the next decade...

...not 95%.

Cheers

Anonymous said...

Cheney has turned george bush into his little b tch

Anonymous said...

Why is seeing a downward trend
(for good reason)and following it through, considered pessimistic?

Anonymous said...

D. said...
Sorry buster but in my experience, everytime a driver doesn't respect the 30 limit in a residential area it just so happens to be someone driving a BMW.

July 01, 2007 3:52 PM

===================================

buster?

You mean to tell me NOBODY who drives a Chevy, Ford, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Lexus, Mercedes, Kia, Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler, Pontiac, Buick, Porsche, Ferrari, Audi, Volvo, Saab, VW or Hyundai EVER speeds?

You sir are truly the douchebag of the week.

Anonymous said...

BMWs are fine cars but at the same time they do tend to attract pretentious owners. I mean, face it, driving a brand that never sells new cars for less than 30k gets people to think you are rich. It doesnt make financial sense to buy a BMW, they dont hold their value that well. (varies by model obviously)

You have to be a serious car enthusiast to make any kind of case for plunking down the extra cash for a beamer without adding in the 'status symbol' value. Luxury cars in general are a waste of money unless you either want the status symbol value or you spend a whole lot of time in your car and you can justify spending 10s of thousands of dollars on some of its features.

RJ said...

decaffeinated said:
"The media no longer makes a pretense of providing a check on political power. Put another way, investigative journalism is dead. Why? I don't know."

Here's six reasons. The owners of our MSM:
1. General Electric
2. Time Warner
3. Walt Disney
4. News Corp
5. CBS
6. Viacom
All are part of the Wall St./Government complex. They do not exist to inform and enlighten the public. They exist to make money and shape government policy in Wall St.'s favor. That is why the internet is so vital to preserving our democratic republic. Talk radio, much of it owned by Clear Channel Communications, has been the exception. We'll see if Congress' "fairness" legislation is resurrected to whack that flow of information.

Anonymous said...

Somebody over in Britland is making bombs out of expensive Mercedes>>>