We had a hand in stopping the immigration bulls*it and now HP'ers should lead in letting our NAR-funded "leaders" know that any taxpayer bailout of housing gamblers will amount to a declaration of war against us (the taxpayers)
August 31, 2007
Special HousingPANIC open thread - vent your rage and disgust with George Bush and the US Congress over any attempt to bail out housing gamblers here
Posted by
blogger
at
8/31/2007
110
comments
Labels: you bail out housing gamblers with our money and we'll take this government down
Will Bernanke cut rates to bail out mortgage gamblers?
Two words Ben: Moral Hazard.
The Fed chairman made it clear that there would be no rate cuts simply to bail out investors, declaring "it is not the responsibility of the Federal Reserve - nor would it be appropriate - to protect lenders and investors from the consequences of their financial decisions."
Posted by
blogger
at
8/31/2007
30
comments
Labels: bernanke, fed policy, housing gamblers
Countrywide Mortgage's Orange Mozilo says he did no marketing to potential homebuyers. "They came to us". Sorry, Angelo. Incorrect. Liar.
Here's the Orange One, to Maria Bartiromo in a follow-up interview to the softball piece she did the other day:
Posted by
blogger
at
8/31/2007
22
comments
Labels: countrywide bankruptcy. fdic insurance, countrywide home loan, countrywide mortgage
George W. Bush, The Worst President Ever, and misguided promoter of "the ownership society" (aka "buy at the peak!") makes matters ever worse today
That's it HP'ers, today's the day. The Worst President Ever steps straight into the subprime disaster wad of dung that he helped create today.
Are you a housing gambler in need of a government bailout? You've come to the right place.
Casey Serin - today's your lucky day
Failed flippers - here comes George, with loads of taxpayer money to the rescue
Housing gamblers - why stop now! Go double down, because if things don't work out, the taxpayers who didn't gamble will bail you out.
Bush Banker Buddies - don't worry, you may own crap loans, but Georgie will do his best to make sure the sheeple don't just turn in the keys and walk away
HP'ers, IF (big IF) one dollar of your taxpayer money goes toward bailing out failed flippers and housing gamblers, the level of rage and distrust for this government should go off the charts.
George W. Bush - The Worst President Ever - and our Nero. We are indeed run by monkeys.
Bush Moves to Aid Homeowners
WASHINGTON -- President Bush, looking for ways to respond to the subprime-mortgage crisis, will outline a series of policy changes and recommendations today to help borrowers avoid default, senior administration officials said.
Among the moves will be an administrative change to allow the Federal Housing Administration, which insures mortgages for low- and middle-income borrowers, to guarantee loans for delinquent borrowers. The change is intended to help borrowers who are at least 90 days behind in payments but still living in their homes avoid foreclosure; the guarantees help homeowners by allowing them to refinance at more favorable rates.
Mr. Bush also will ask Congress to suspend, for a limited period, an Internal Revenue Service provision that penalizes borrowers who refinance the terms of their mortgage to reduce the size of the loan or who lose their homes to foreclosure. And he will announce an initiative, to be led jointly by the Treasury and Housing and Urban Development departments, to identify people who are in danger of defaulting over the next two years and work with lenders, insurers and others to develop more favorable loan products for those borrowers.
Posted by
blogger
at
8/31/2007
110
comments
Labels: crime pays, failed flippers, government bailout, housing gamblers, take care of bush's banker buddies
I don't think anyone knows just how bad this mortgage meltdown / ARM reset debacle is gonna be
The hardest hit are expected to be people who have less-than-stellar credit and cannot afford to make the new payments. An increase of several hundred dollars a month will force them either to get relief or to default. The prospect of significant and growing losses has already rocked Wall Street and shaken up the broader mortgage markets. And, concerned about the human suffering, policymakers are already searching for ways to help people out.
"The meltdown in the subprime market is the biggest threat to the housing market and the broader economy," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy. com. "It is at the vortex of the problem."
Over the next several months, banks will be changing the "teaser rates" that homeowners received two years ago.
The peak for resetting loans will be in October, when the rates on some $50 billion worth of mortgages are likely to rise by 2 percentage points or more. This could mean a rise of several hundred dollars a month for many borrowers.
Posted by
blogger
at
8/31/2007
25
comments
Labels: arm reset, foreclosures, housing crash, thank you countrywide, time bomb, toxic loans
August 30, 2007
Here's the result of letting your spouse (and a realtor on commission) steer you into a toxic mortgage and the worst financial mistake of your life
(Bump)
SUZANNNNNEEEE!!!!!
hat-tip to Tim at Seattle Bubble for catching this real-life housing horror story - the wife who pressured her husband into paying way to much for a house, and you know how the sad story ends...
So here's the question HP'ers - did women's nesting instinct help cause the housing bubble? (sorry ladies - just asking the question, feel free to respond yourselves...) Or are men equally guilty - takes two to tango (and sign mortgage docs) after all...
Posted by
blogger
at
8/30/2007
136
comments
Labels: did women cause the housing bubble, suzanne made her commission, suzanne researched it
Sen. Schumer threatens Countrywide Mortgage and Orange Mozilo. HP just laughs and laughs and laughs some more
Senator Schumer, you, my friend, are a poodle.
Don't you get it? The cat is already out of the bag. The damage has been done. Your banker buddies got burned. And all your grandstanding and blowharding (is that a word?) isn't gonna help 'em, or America. We're toast.
Sure, go after Countrywide and Orange Mozilo - good luck with that. Once they file for Bankruptcy protection, is there really much you or they can do? (note - I'm short CFC)
Here's Schumer's money boys FYI. All the big banks and bagholders that got burned by Countrywide's reckless lending. Kinda makes you see things in a different light, eh HP'ers?
Schumer Tells Countrywide To End Lending Practices
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC) should stop paying brokers higher commissions for steering borrowers to adjustable rate subprime home loans, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday.
"Startling reports have shed light on how Countrywide has led the industry in the practice of steering borrowers into risky subprime loans," said Schumer, who is chairman of the Senate Housing Subcommittee. Schumer said that as of June 30, approximately one in four of the subprime loans issued by Countrywide was delinquent.
Posted by
blogger
at
8/30/2007
18
comments
Labels: countrywide bankruptcy. fdic insurance, oh crap it's too late, schumer, senate hearings
HousingPANIC Stupid realtor Quote of the Day
"I'm not a real estate bum. I wear diamonds, Rolexes and necklaces. I'm a classy Realtor."
- Liz Seither, President of Executive Preferred Properties
(check out the full article HP'ers - nice to see realtors were among the biggest housing gamblers. Like crack dealers doing crack. Not a good idea.)
Posted by
blogger
at
8/30/2007
37
comments
Labels: realtors are not smart people, realtors gotta love 'em, realtors on commission
FLASH: The Corrupt David Lereah (TCDL) finally admits he f*cked up, housing bubble did exist, crash now underway
HP note to TCDL: Your lies and spin ruined lives. You are a shameful, corrupt little man who knowingly enriched himself at the expense of America. History will not be kind to you or to your replacement stooge Lawrence Yun.
In an interview, Mr. Lereah, now an executive at Move Inc., which operates a real estate Web site, acknowledged he had gotten it wrong, saying he did not fully realize how loose lending standards had become and how quickly they would tighten up again this summer. But he argued that many of his critics have also been proved wrong, because they were bearish as early as 2002.
“The bears were bears way too early, and the bulls were bulls too late,” he said. “You need to know when you are straying from fundamentals. It’s hard, when you are in the middle of the storm, to know.”
Posted by
blogger
at
8/30/2007
16
comments
Labels: blather, david lereah, incompetent msm, nar lies, nar spin, realtors are not smart people, tcdl
I spent too much this weekend in Prague, even lost $60 at roulette. Can I get a federal government bailout too?
Hey, that $60 meant a lot to me. I was taken advantage of. I didn't read the fine print. And I was led to believe that roulette spins were all winners.
Posted by
blogger
at
8/30/2007
32
comments
Labels: corrupt congress, goodbye dollar, government bailout, personal responsibility, taxpayer ripoff, US deficit
As predicted by HP, laid-off homebuilder illegals now fleeing housing-crash-central Arizona in droves. What's that giant sucking sound now?
If you're still in that camp, hopefully this article will make you understand.
Illegals built the houses. Some illegals bought the houses (using toxic loans of course). And now that the corrupt REIC work has dried up, and home prices are falling, plus the states are making it illegal to hire an illegal, we've got a big stinking mess on our hands.
Will they stay, go underground, and turn to lives of crime?
Will they go home, leaving ghost towns of run down neighborhoods, empty Wal-Mart stores, and a sea of foreclosures?
Or will they rob the banks on the way out (Countrywide and Indymac of course), doing cash-out refis with bloated appraisals, never intending to pay back the loans?
What a mess. Ay caramba. Here's a report from housing-crash and illegal-immigration-hellhole Phoenix Arizona.
New hiring law nears, migrants flee
Immigration hard-liners cheer, but economic fallout begins
Undocumented immigrants are starting to leave Arizona because of the new employer-sanctions law.
The state's strong economy has been a magnet for illegal immigrants for years. But a growing number are pulling up stakes out of fear they will be jobless come Jan. 1, when the law takes effect. The departures are drawing cheers from immigration hard-liners and alarm from business owners already seeing a drop in sales.
Some are moving to other states, where they think they will have an easier time getting jobs. Others are returning to Mexico, selling their effects and putting their houses on the market.
Adrian, a 34-year-old undocumented immigrant from Sonora, plans to move back to Mexico as soon as he can sell a 2-acre tract he owns in Tonopah.
Posted by
blogger
at
8/30/2007
28
comments
Labels: arizona housing bubble, cash back mortgage fraud, illegal immigration, phoenix arizona housing crash, toxic loans, what will the illegals do now
August 29, 2007
PIMCO's Bill Gross calls for taxpayers to bail out failed housing gamblers. HousingPANIC calls for Bill Gross to pull his head out of his ass
Some days, I can't believe what I read from our "leaders".
Posted by
blogger
at
8/29/2007
39
comments
Labels: bill gross, cheats, gamblers, gambling doesn't pay, idiots, incompetence, liars, pimco, ponzi scheme, scam artists, stupidity
Are you a Desperate Homedebtor trying to sell your depreciating housing asset for more than $417,000? Good luck with that. Jumbo mortgages now AWOL.
I've got baaaaaaaaaaaaaddd news for anyone who is trying to sell a home for more than the Jumbo max ($417k). Your pool of prospective buyers, already freaked out by collapsing home prices, now can't get a mortgage even if they wanted to. God forbid an interest-only, no-down mortgage either. Those days are O-V-E-R. And so are 2005 prices.
Yes, the housing crash really goes into overdrive now, thank you Mortgage Meltdown, and the realities of Jumbo mortgages and the death of confidence.
Subprime Mortgage Woes Spreading - Subprime Mortgage Crisis Spreading to High-End Housing Market
As lending has rapidly gotten more restrictive for borrowers taking out large loans, sales of expensive homes have fallen sharply around the country during what should be one of the busiest seasons for buyers and sellers, mortgage bankers and real estate agents say.
"Showings are down, contracts written are down, and sellers are just as backed away as buyers are," said Lou Barnes, a partner in mortgage bank and brokerage Boulder West Financial Services in Boulder, Colo. The company arranges for financing on many higher-priced condominiums and houses in the state.
"I think the psychological damage is worse than the financial damage" which is already bad enough, he said. Even for buyers who have plenty of cash or can easily afford higher mortgage rates, the sudden change in the financing environment reduces "the ardor to buy a house unless you have to," he adds.
Posted by
blogger
at
8/29/2007
29
comments
Labels: Fannie Mae, freddie mac, housing bubble, housing crash, jumbo loans
HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day
Posted by
blogger
at
8/29/2007
25
comments
Labels: corrupt mortgage brokers, ponzi scheme, realtors on commission, the blame game
Housing bubble enabler Blanche Evans of Realty Times in an illogical diatribe again blames media for housing panic
Posted by
blogger
at
8/29/2007
33
comments
Labels: blather, lies, nar spin, realtors say the dumbest things, realty times
TIME Magazine FINALLY allows a housing crash article into their fine magazine (chuckle chuckle): "The value of our homes is collapsing"
I still can't believe these yahoos at TIME haven't put the housing crash or current debt crisis on their cover yet. Even from a business perspective, since the housing crash effects nearly every person in America, seems like they'd want to sell a few magazines.
Posted by
blogger
at
8/29/2007
13
comments
Labels: epic financial collapse, housing bubble, housing crash, mortgage meltdown, ponzi scheme, time magazine
BUBBLETALK - New thread to talk about the mortgage meltdown and housing collapse
HousingPANIC is here.
Use this thread to post articles (use tinyurl and hit the highlights), talk about random topics, and have a good chat
Posted by
blogger
at
8/29/2007
378
comments
HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day
Is it just me, or does it seem everywhere you look, Housing PANIC is there?
Posted by
blogger
at
8/29/2007
24
comments
August 28, 2007
HousingPANIC Thought of the Day
Isn't it kinda funny that the same people who didn't see the NASDAQ bubble (rode it up, rode it down) are the same people who didn't see the Housing Bubble (rode it up, rode it down)?
List dot-com and dot-condo similarities here...
Posted by
blogger
at
8/28/2007
33
comments
August 27, 2007
ABC Nightline says the P word... "Panic"
Great series on the housing crash underway on Nightline. Here's their story about the condo panic in Miami - "Fools Gold". You're going to see 50%+ drops in real home prices (not "median", but "real" or "marked to market" price) in some of these bubble cities folks - no matter what the government, realtors on commission or the NAR tell you.
Condo Fever in Miami Brings Profits, Then Panic
Posted by
blogger
at
8/27/2007
44
comments
Labels: dot-condo, florida condo crash, housing crash, mortgage meltdown
August 25, 2007
I wonder if these scummy mortgage agents still have their jobs. Doubt it. Good.
America, you got gamed by 20-something call-center-jockey kids pumping mortgages you couldn't afford and even they didn't understand so they could make a quick commission.
Tens of thousands of life's losers - call center jockeys, bartenders, used car salesmen, Herbalife distributors (you get the picture) - found their way into the unregulated and out-of-control REIC over these past few years. The one saving grace is that they're getting canned left and right - the party is over.
I wonder who'll be picking up the bottle service tab in Scottsdale tonight? Anyone? Anyone?
Posted by
blogger
at
8/25/2007
23
comments
Labels: call center jockeys, con men, corrupt mortgage brokers, drug dealers, ponzi scheme, realtors on commission
HP message to the realtors of America - Find new work. Move on. It's over. And good luck out there.
The hundreds of thousands of realtors who are no longer making any money won't show up in the government unemployment report, just like the millions of unemployed illegals no longer building homes. But they're still jobless, still unable to earn a living, and it's just gonna get worse.
Mortgage Lending Crisis Puts the Squeeze on Realtors
The National Association of Realtors expects a 4 percent drop in membership this year, the first decline in a decade.
Many Bay Area real estate agents are feeling the squeeze. When the housing market was hot, some people abandoned their jobs to get a real estate license.
"I do the real estate five days a week and then I work part-time three nights a week at a department store," said Crystal Carreno, who got into the Vallejo market three years ago.
American Canyon realtor Erin Heeley said it wasn’t long ago when the city was considered the fastest growing in the Bay Area. She never used to see more than 35 homes on the market at a time, but the glut of foreclosures has now pushed inventory to over 170.
"The sad thing is I also have lender friends and title and escrow friends who have lost their jobs that are out looking for full-time jobs," said Heeley.
Things are tough even on the pricier Peninsula, where realtor Mike Karamitas sold his software consulting company four years ago after the bottom dropped out of the tech market, only to find another bubble bursting in housing.
"I know there's people in our office who are really really in trouble. I'm in trouble. I'm almost living hand to mouth. Some months it's very lean," he said.
California expects to see a 7 percent drop in realtors this year.
Posted by
blogger
at
8/25/2007
35
comments
Labels: housing meltdown, mcdonald's is hiring, mortgage meltdown, realtor meltdown
HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day
For HP'ers - serious question.
What is it about you that made you find your way to HP, and realize a great housing ponzi scheme was happening before the rest of the sheeple figured it out?
Your parents and upbringing?
Your education?
Your life experiences?
Your open mind?
Your bullsh*t detector?
Your work ethic?
Your distrust of the media and people in power?
What is it?
Why were you out putting up sandbags when the sun was shining? Why were you the one warning others when nobody would listen?
Posted by
blogger
at
8/25/2007
116
comments
Sorry HP'ers I'm gonna be in Prague until Tuesday. Head on over to Blown Mortgage again for great housing crash info and chatter
London weather is awful, so gonna get to Prague for the weekend. I'll be interested to see how overpriced real estate got in this ex-communist city. Maybe I could find something in a Soviet-style junker for a reasonable price. We'll see..
Posted by
blogger
at
8/25/2007
9
comments
August 24, 2007
Ask yourselves America why the MSM would report new home sales falling 10% and prices falling as "Home Sales Up!"
Posted by
blogger
at
8/24/2007
63
comments
Labels: MSM reports new home sales up again, new home sales down again
HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day
Posted by
blogger
at
8/24/2007
57
comments
Labels: housing crash, unemployed illegals, unemployed mortgage brokers, unemployed realtors
Vulture Financing Alert: Countrywide pays BofA 7.25% until they can pay no more. Then Bof A gets to help wind-up and dissolve Countrywide
Pretty nifty move by BofA, taking over a cash-desperate CFC for $2 Billion with zero risk if they hedged. They're probably betting that once Countrywide's assets are sold off, or this competitor goes away, they'll do OK. Or if they were even smarter, they bought a ton of CFC put options yesterday at the open. Yes, I'm short CFC.
Posted by
blogger
at
8/24/2007
6
comments
Labels: bank runs, countrywide bankruptcy. vulture financing, desperate times call for desperate measures, panic
Dot-com to dot-condo - here come the massive layoffs
40,000 in the mortgage biz gone already - heck, 25,000 just last week. And 100,000 less realtors. And we're just getting started.
Companies stop 'on a dime'; 25,000 positions eliminated so far this month
Posted by
blogger
at
8/24/2007
20
comments
Labels: corrput reic, corrupt mortgage brokers, job loss, layoffs, realtors are dinosaurs
August 23, 2007
Here's could-go-bankrupt Countrywide Mortgage's Orange Mozilo on CNBC earlier today
Posted by
blogger
at
8/23/2007
53
comments
Labels: alt-a, cnbc, countrywide mortgage, housing crash, liar's loans, pump and dump, subprime, video
HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day
Posted by
blogger
at
8/23/2007
50
comments
HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day
In other words:
* Pre-bubble: Was a kinda cool city with good prospects, good jobs and high quality of life
* Post-bubble: Pretty much sucks, unemployed illegals and REIC losers, totally screwed
BONUS: What housing-bubble-created factors messed up American towns?
Posted by
blogger
at
8/23/2007
61
comments
Labels: america's bubble cities, housing bubble, housing crash
Want to see which banks of mortgage lenders may fail first? Well, here you go..
Posted by
blogger
at
8/23/2007
30
comments
Labels: countrywide run on banks, toxic loans, washington mutual
BofA pays $2 Billion for a share of could-go-bankrupt, desperate-for-cash Countrywide Mortgage
And Mozilo, in the middle of a massive dumping of CFC shares, put out this news with some hilarious "vote of confidence" spin, in a desperate attempt to pop the shares and stop the run on his banks.
Bottom line: He needs cash and needs it bad. The deal is at $18 a share. And it puts BofA second in line to the bond holders after the bankruptcy filing as the shares are preferred.
Countrywide Financial Says Bank of America Made Equity Investment of $2 Billion Into Company
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Countrywide Financial Corp. said Bank of America Corp. made a $2 billion investment in the company Wednesday as the nation's largest mortgage lender tries to weather a credit crunch that's rocked Wall Street and the mortgage industry.
"Bank of America's investment in Countrywide represents a vote of confidence and strengthens our balance sheet, enabling us to position Countrywide for future growth and success," Angelo R. Mozilo, Countrywide's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.
Posted by
blogger
at
8/23/2007
29
comments
Labels: countrywide, ponzi scheme
August 22, 2007
HousingPANIC Thought of the Day
I doubt most folks understand what "Mark to Market" means to them. But then again, most folks don't really understand much of anything, do they.
In finance and accounting, mark to market is the act of assigning a value to a position held in a financial instrument based on the current market price for that instrument or similar instruments. For example, the final value of a futures contract that expires in 9 months will not be known until it expires. If it is marked to market, for accounting purposes it is assigned the value that it would fetch in the open market currently.
Posted by
blogger
at
8/22/2007
35
comments
Labels: alt-a, cdo's hedge funds, countrywide, goodbye indymac, mark to market, what are homes really worth
HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day: Debt
HP'ers - how much debt do you have? (Post as anon)
1) Mortgage
2) Cars
3) Credit cards
4) Student loans
5) Other debt
I think if we asked this question to John Q. Public, versus HP'ers, we'd get vastly different answers. I expect "$0" to be quite common here.
Posted by
blogger
at
8/22/2007
276
comments
Labels: debt = slavery, debt bomb, debt consolidation, mortgage debt, overspending
The Economist Magazine launches a nuclear attack on Phoenix Arizona: "Phoenix - Into the Ashes"
But in the past few years the awards have mostly dried up and things have started to go wrong. Burglary, theft and car crime are among the highest in the country. Newcomers who left Los Angeles to avoid smog and commuter traffic find that both are little better in Phoenix, and the area scores embarrassingly low in national education ratings. In October the Morgan Quitno Press, a research group, credited Arizona with the worst public education in the country, thanks to overcrowded classrooms, poor test scores and low salaries for teachers.
![](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wFWqWIH-WFU/RrJb_hEKj_I/AAAAAAAAByw/KkI_UKpTGh8/s320/Pheonix%2Bgraph.jpg)
Posted by
blogger
at
8/22/2007
55
comments
Labels: phoenix home prices, phoenix housing bubble, phoenix housing crash, phoenix is a hellhole, phoenix real estate
Want to see the housing version of f*ckedcompany.com? Just go to the data section at National Mortgage News
![](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wFWqWIH-WFU/RrWsthEKkeI/AAAAAAAAB2o/tjPEbAmnzEk/s400/existing.gif)
![](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wFWqWIH-WFU/RrWsmxEKkdI/AAAAAAAAB2g/13EBSqO7aHM/s400/3q06jumorig.gif)
![](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wFWqWIH-WFU/RrWshhEKkcI/AAAAAAAAB2Y/xtdPEsRFKQA/s400/3q06ioorig.gif)
![](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wFWqWIH-WFU/RrWscxEKkbI/AAAAAAAAB2Q/UhZswCa4OVU/s400/3q06altaorig.gif)
![](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wFWqWIH-WFU/RrWsXBEKkaI/AAAAAAAAB2I/dQU6C1QsPBc/s400/2q06bcor.gif)
Posted by
blogger
at
8/22/2007
7
comments
Labels: alt-a, countrywide, goodbye indymac, home sales down again, housing crash, liar's loans, mortgage meltdown, subprime, wells fargo
August 21, 2007
HousingPANIC Thought of the Day
It's time like these it kinda sucks we've lost our
manufacturing base, eh?
The manufacturing sector and its workers were hardest hit by the growth of Wal-Mart’s imports. Wal-Mart’s increased trade deficit with China eliminated 133,000 manufacturing jobs, 68% of those jobs lost from Wal-Mart’s imports. Jobs in the manufacturing sector pay higher wages and provide better benefits than most other industries, especially for workers with less than a college education.
Posted by
blogger
at
8/21/2007
52
comments
Labels: american manufacturing base, china, chinese crap, job loss, stupid americans, wal-mart
Our corrupt and pathetic Congress hits all-time low approval rating at a shocking 18%. And the housing crash is just gonna make it worse.
You vote for boobs. Party boobs. Dem and Rep boobs.
You get your news from Faux News and Daily Kos. You listen to Rush Limbaugh and Al Franken. You don't think for yourselves. You stupidly believe what the government and your media source tells you. You don't ask yourself why you're a Dem or a Rep - you just are because you always were.
You vote for Republicans who have no new ideas except blowing holes in our deficit, launching stupid wars, codifying their religious beliefs and hating Democrats.
Meanwhile, NAR and NAHB money pours into their corrupted coffers, they talk about home flipper bailouts and we sink $50 Trillion plus into debt.
It's your fault Americans. Keep it up.
Or not.
HP's 2008 election recommendation - VOTE AGAINST EVERY SINGLE INCUMBENT. EVERY LAST ONE OF 'EM.
And for President?
In the GOP primary, Ron Paul of course. In the Democratic primary, you're on your own. And in the general election, vote for the Independent. Send a message. And this year, the Independent can win. The two-party system is yesterday's news. Just like the NAR and MLS. And the housing crash will be the catalyst.
Congress Approval Rating Matches Historical Low
Just 18% approve of job Congress is doing
PRINCETON, NJ -- A new Gallup Poll finds Congress' approval rating the lowest it has been since Gallup first tracked public opinion of Congress with this measure in 1974. Just 18% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, while 76% disapprove, according to the August 13-16, 2007, Gallup Poll.
That 18% job approval rating matches the low recorded in March 1992, when a check-bouncing scandal was one of several scandals besetting Congress, leading many states to pass term limits measures for U.S. representatives (which the Supreme Court later declared unconstitutional). Congress had a similarly low 19% approval rating during the energy crisis in the summer of 1979.
Posted by
blogger
at
8/21/2007
65
comments
Labels: corrupt congress, death of the gop, democrats suck, incomptent politicians, ron paul
Ron Paul on the Mortgage Meltdown, Bond Market Blowup and Incompetent Federal Reserve
"More inflation is, however, never the answer to inflation.
The truth is that business involves risk, and businesses that miscalculate risk should be liquidated, so their assets can be reallocated to businesses that correctly judge risk and make profits.
Instead, the Fed has injected $64 billion into the jittery markets, effectively amounting to a bailout that keeps these malinvestments afloat, but eventually they will become the undoing of our economy."
-Ron Paul August 2007
Posted by
blogger
at
8/21/2007
26
comments
Labels: dollar downfall, fed bailout, inflation, interest rates, ron paul 2008
HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day
Sadly, how screwed are the retiring Baby Boomers who counted on the proceeds from their house to fund their retirement?
Posted by
blogger
at
8/21/2007
52
comments
Labels: baby boomers, negative savings rate, retirement, wal-mart is hiring
Think you're safe putting your cash into money market funds? Think again - they're CDO mortgage investors, and they ain't FDIC insured
The biggest problem with the CDO con-game is that S&P and Moody's hilariously gave this toxic loan cancer AAA or investment grade ratings, so "safe" funds (money markets, pensions, etc) could barrel in.
Amazing. Good luck out there.
Unlike bank accounts, money market funds aren't insured by the federal government. They almost never fail.
Unbeknownst to most investors, some of the largest money market funds today are putting part of their cash into one of the riskiest debt investments in the world: collateralized debt obligations backed by subprime mortgage loans.
Under SEC rules, money market managers must invest in securities with ``minimal credit risks.'' Joseph Mason, a finance professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia and a former economist at the U.S. Treasury Department, says subprime debt in money market funds is far from safe.
``This creates tremendous risk for today's money market investors,'' says Mason, who wrote an 84-page report on CDOs this year. ``Right now, I'm not comfortable investing anything in CDOs.''
Posted by
blogger
at
8/21/2007
23
comments
Labels: alt-a, cdo's, countrywide, indymac, mortgage mess, ponzi scheme, subprime
August 20, 2007
And then the housing rage started... And it got really ugly out there
Damn, this is one good rant. Dude's a bit nuts, but he hit it out of the park.
There's gonna be rage out there HP'ers. Real, tangible rage.
Rage against lying ignorant realtors on commission
Rage against corrupt lenders and bankers
Rage against Congress and Bush and Greenspan and Bernanke
Rage against home builders
Rage against bubble blogs.
Rage. Pure housing rage.
Didn't have to be this way.
Posted by
blogger
at
8/20/2007
23
comments
Labels: housing rage, ponzi scheme
Want to see what "Cash is King" and "Flight to Safety" look like during a period of financial panic and fear? Here you go...
From MPC:
· The final phase is a self-feeding panic, where the bubble bursts. People of wealth and credit scramble to unload whatever they have bought at greater and greater losses, and cash becomes king.
From reality today:
Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Yields on U.S. Treasury bills fell the most in two decades on demand for the safest securities amid concern over a widening credit crunch.
Three-month yields dropped the most since the stock market crash of 1987 and more than in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the U.S, as funds shunned assets that may be linked to a weakening mortgage market.
``The market is totally, absolutely, completely in fear mode,'' said John Jansen, who sells Treasuries at CastleOak Securities LP in New York. ``People are afraid that lots and lots of mortgage paper and mortgage paper derivatives of all sorts is completely opaque and they can't price it.''
Posted by
blogger
at
8/20/2007
22
comments
Labels: alt-a, cdo-s, countrywide, goodbye indymac, housing bubble, housing crash, manias panics crashes, ponzi scheme, run for your lives, toxic loans
HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day
Posted by
blogger
at
8/20/2007
47
comments
Labels: ben bernanke, fed funds rate, federal reserve, housing panic, interest rates, thanks alan
FLASH: And then right on schedule the layoffs started at could-go-bankrupt Countrywide Mortgage
Yup, still short CFC...
Hope Angelo can unload a few hundred more million dollars of shares QUICK!!
Report: Countrywide laying off loan originatorsMonday August 20, 12:36 pm ET
Countrywide Financial Corp. has started laying off loan originators, according to a report in Monday's Wall Street Journal, as the credit crunch continues to impact the nation's largest mortgage lender.
The layoffs hit the company's Full Spectrum unit, which handles "Alt-A" loans, which fall between the prime and subprime categories and often are for those applying for loans that don't document their income.
The number of employees laid off was not disclosed. Full Spectrum employed a sales force of about 6,800, with Countrywide as a whole sporting a loan-origination sales force of about 18,000
Posted by
blogger
at
8/20/2007
38
comments
Labels: alt-a, congame, countrywide, liar's loans, mortgage
The monkey-run National Association of Realtors STILL has their anti-bubble talking points up
Monkeys I tell ya. The NAR is run by monkeys...
Most metropolitan areas, especially in the Midwest and South, have not experienced price declines in the era of modern recordkeeping
Should we be concerned that home prices are rising faster than family income?
Overall housing affordability remains favorable in historic terms.
There is virtually no risk of a national housing price bubble
It is possible for local bubbles to surface under the right circumstances, but that also is unlikely in the current environment
The strong underlying demand for homes results from the simple fact that the population is growing faster than the supply of homes
Baby boomers remain in their peak earning years. Echo boomers – the children of the baby boom generation – are just entering the period of life in which people typically buy their first home.
If conditions become unfavorable, home buying may be postponed, but a general price decline remains highly unlikely.
Posted by
blogger
at
8/20/2007
11
comments
Labels: it's a great time to earn a commission, realtors are not smart people, the nar is run by monkeys
Discredited REIC hack Nicholas Retsinas of the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies gets slapped with cold hard housing reality
I guess now that the checks (and cash?) he was receiving from his failing REIC masters (homebuilders, lenders, etc) are bouncing, he feels like he should try to gain back some credibility and admit to the crash underway. Nick - nice try. Too late.
Posted by
blogger
at
8/20/2007
18
comments
Labels: chicken little, discredited hacks, harvard jchs, hp haters, liars, nicholas retsinas, oops my bad, reic corruption
August 19, 2007
Major mortgage lenders, big homebuilders or the chief ponzi scheme enablers - who goes bankrupt first?
Who goes bankrupt first:
1) Countrywide
2) IndyMac
3) Toll Brothers
4) KB Home
5) Fannie Mae
6) The US Government
Make your bets!
(I'm short CFC, FNM and IMB, should be short KBH, TOL and US$)
Posted by
blogger
at
8/19/2007
52
comments
Labels: countrywide, dollars are worthless, Fannie Mae, goodbye indymac, interest only, kb home, liar's loans, mortgage meltdown, toll brothers
HousingPANIC Quote of the Day
"This will go down as one of the biggest financial illusions the world has EVER seen"
- Randall W. Forsyth, writing in Barron's - Aug 2007
For you wonks, here's a bit more from the Barron's piece, care of WC:
How did this all come about? A (bearish) hedge-fund operator, in a letter to his investors, describes how a senior Wall Street marketing director recounted the genesis of the current situation:
"'Real money' (U.S. insurance companies, pension funds, etc.) accounts had stopped purchasing mezzanine tranches of U.S. subprime debt in late 2003 and [Wall Street] needed a mechanism that could enable them to 'mark up' these loans, package them opaquely, and EXPORT THE NEWLY PACKAGED RISK TO UNWITTING BUYERS IN ASIA AND CENTRAL EUROPE!!!!
"He told me with a straight face that these CDOs were the only way to get rid of the riskiest tranches of subprime debt. Interestingly enough, these buyers (mainland Chinese banks, the Chinese Government, Taiwanese banks, Korean banks, German banks, French banks, U.K. banks) possess the 'excess' pools of liquidity around the globe. These pools are basically derived from two sources: 1) massive trade surpluses with the U.S. in U.S. dollars, 2) petrodollar recyclers. These two pools of excess capital are U.S. dollar-denominated and have had a virtually insatiable demand for U.S. dollar-denominated debt... until now."
These investors then had standing orders on Wall Street desks for any U.S. debt rated triple-A. Through the "alchemy of CDOs" and "the help of the ratings agencies," the CDO managers collected triple-B and triple-B-minus subprime and repackaged them so the top tier got paid out first. Then leverage the lower mezzanine tranches by 10-20 times and, "POOF... you magically have 80% of the structure rated 'AAA' by the ratings agencies, despite the underlying collateral being a collection of BBB and BBB- rated assets."
The letter concludes: "This will go down as one of the biggest financial illusions the world has EVER seen."
Posted by
blogger
at
8/19/2007
44
comments
Labels: cdo blowup, con game, housing crash, illusion, mortgage meltdown, ponzi scheme, scam, suckers
HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day
What are the chances you'll lose your job or income stream during this economic downfall?
Posted by
blogger
at
8/19/2007
68
comments
Labels: a, job loss, recession, the great unwinding is here
Per bankrate.com, guess which two (soon to be bankrupt) companies have the highest paying 1-year CD's? Yup, Mozilo's Countrywide and IndyMac banks
Hey, who cares if the taxpayer (FDIC) will be left holding the bag? Get those high rates up there, attract some last few suckers with 5.6%, meanwhile dump shares like crazy, and then hit the road!
Posted by
blogger
at
8/19/2007
24
comments
Labels: countrywide is enron, desperate lenders, goodbye indymac, housing crash, ponzi scheme
How bad is the housing crash getting in Phoenix? Here's a home $220,000 below appraisal - yours to buy or maybe even commit mortgage fraud!
Hell, you find a home in housing-crash-central-Phoenix listed at $220,000 below appraisal, just go get yourself a loan for the appraised amount with no down and no doc (IndyMac might be able to help you there if you hurry), move in, then do the American thing and NEVER MAKE A PAYMENT.
Posted by
blogger
at
8/19/2007
24
comments
Labels: arizona home prices, arizona housing bubble, arizona housing crash, bubble, housingpanic, it's the p/e stupid, mortgage meltdown
August 18, 2007
People of the world it's time to listen. Housing PANIC is here. The time is nigh. The Greatest Ponzi Scheme is over.
HP has been a cute little blog these past couple of years, seeking to warn, inform and entertain. We talked in theory, we debated in potentials.
No more.
The Great Housing Crash and the Great Unwinding are now here.
If you haven't sold your home yet, and you need to, put it on the market now - as in today - and put it out at "drama price" - undercut your neighbors by at least 10% and get the hell out of dodge. Take any offer. But don't hold your breath - it's already too late.
If you're thinking of listening to a realtor on commission and buying a home (renting money from a bank), DON'T. Homes will be cheaper, SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper, months and years from now. We're in the early innings of the greatest crash of all time.
If you're invested in the stock market, GET OUT. The Fed Bump will be oh so brief. A meltdown awaits.
If you have all your assets in US dollars, SPREAD THE RISK.
If your job is tied in any way to housing, get ready to lose it.
And if you don't believe us, just go read the blog, from start to finish, all 3,300 posts. We've been mocked, we've been slandered, we've been criticized and we've been defamed.
But we were right.
And now housing PANIC is here.
And there's nothing you can do about it. This crash will be a crash of necessity. We got off the track. And after it's over, we'll be better off.
Good luck out there. You're gonna need it.
Posted by
blogger
at
8/18/2007
35
comments
Labels: housing panic
HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day
Posted by
blogger
at
8/18/2007
46
comments
Labels: housing bubble, housing crash, mortgage meltdown
Come on! Work with me people! Fear has to be here by now, eh? Let's get this crash over already and move on.
If home prices are simply "Marked to Market", the old prices and expectations thrown away, then we could move on.
Posted by
blogger
at
8/18/2007
55
comments
Labels: anxiety, denial, desperation, euphoria, fear, housing bubble, housing crash, mortgage meltdown, panic