August 12, 2007

Sorry folks - I'll be on a boat in Greece next few days. Breathe deep. Breathe deep.


Not likely to have much 'net access down here, so you're on your own. I recommend Blown Mortgage and HousingDoom in my absence. I'll be back on Friday, ready for battle!

I know, I know, I disappear the one week when the housing and mortgage contagion really kicks in. When the cat comes out of the bag. When people on main street realize how F'd they are. When the dominos fall. When housing panic sets in - worldwide.

Good luck out there. And remember - cash is king. Especially when you're on a boat in Greece during a housing panic.

43 comments:

Anonymous said...

Keep wearing you Life Jackets all the time in the Aegean Sea.

These days no Lifeboats don't work.

Anonymous said...

mudderf*cker!

Anonymous said...

I'm going over to Forbes to see what they have to say, just for a laugh.

Anonymous said...

6:21PM Fannie Mae announces Government rejects easing limits (FNM) 66.46 +0.53 : The government on Friday said it will not ease investment limits on home-loan finance giants FNM and Freddie Mac (FRE). The companies had argued that allowing them to take on more debt would help pump cash into the struggling mortgage market. The announcement by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight came at the end of a week of speculation that the regulators would allow the government-sponsored companies a wider investment berth. The companies' shares had soared on Wall Street in an otherwise skidding market. OFHEO Director James B. Lockhart said the risk of allowing the two companies to take on more debt was too great. Combined, FNM and FRE hold or guarantee two-thirds of all U.S. home mortgages. "Their safety and soundness is of paramount importance," Lockhart said.

Anonymous said...

Ship o' fools!

Anonymous said...

He'll be on a ship up to his knees in grease!

Paul E. Math said...

Can't believe you're leaving us at home alone without a babysitter - that's just irresponsible parenting.

Can't you get a guest moderator for a week? Someone with your own flair for the dramatic, who shares your sense of contagion and doom?

We could have an HP election for 'Keith for a Week', based on a combination of realtor-focused vitriol, Yun-bashing and Austrian economics.

C'mon Keith, what am I going to do here in my parents basement all week?

Anonymous said...

The comments on this site are always good for a laugh. muddaf*ckers! lol!!

Anonymous said...

Keith, give us a free day or two without censorship or blog author moderation. I would like to see how many trolls appear here and what they say. I would also like to have a conversation with somebody without you moderating it all the time, I mean, let us have some fun once in awhile, Thanks.

Anonymous said...

traveling, one of the many more exciting, interesting and fulfilling things to do rather than diy projects around the house.

pwnd

Anonymous said...

Have a great cruise.

And, would you mind starting a new general-opening thread if you still have time.

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

A well deserved vacation - you/we have done our job here. . .now let the the MSM take over for a few weeks. . .Jim Cramer's panic attach seems to have given them license to be bold - the local radio talk show here was gloom and doom all weekend - words like panic, crash, housing collapse . . .sounded like a HP radio show.

Anonymous said...

Enjoy your trip to Greece Keith!

Anonymous said...

Have a nice time Keith.
The food is great, the music is great, as are the people.
My favorite has always been Santorini!
Also, a little village in Crete known as Lisithi....back in 1980, it was powered solely by cloth windmills....too cool! The Minoan ruins are fascinating.

Anonymous said...

How dare you!

Anonymous said...

WHAT A CRASH!!

Not DOPES

Not MORONS

IMBECILES!!

Enjoy your cruise there Keefeee, just remember what the Greeks are all about....something about naked javelin competitions

Anonymous said...

downtown o-town said...

Have a great cruise.




Ass Kisser!

MelodyofLove said...

Oh how I envy your travels. Go have some fun.

The crash is in full swing. I wonder how bad it would really be if they didn't pump up the market with liquidity?

Anonymous said...

http://www.melissadata.com/lists/ezlists/
ezhomeowners.aspx

Check your zip code. I don't know about you, but my neck of the woods is doing just fine. Zip 89135 had 69 sales in July. Compare that to 77 July 2006.

So far we are 1/3 into August and the number of sales is on track to be higher than August 2006. Average price $671K in 2007 vs. $500K in 2006.

Yep a housing crash of historical proportions.

brokersleaveyoubroke said...

This is no time for a cruise. You'll miss all the fun. Washington Mutual warned today, The biggest mortgage broker in Atlanta just went chapter 11, Citigroup took a big loss, Mozillo just compared the current market with the depression and there are so many subprime and Alt-A tales of woe in the MSN I dont have time to read half of them.

Anonymous said...

enjoy your vacation...well deserved. also thanks to mark in san diego.

Anonymous said...

Its hit Australia now

THE US mortgage crisis has hit Australian home buyers for the first time after one lender yesterday hiked its rates by up to double last week's official interest rate rise.

Bluestone, with about $3billion worth of loans on its books, yesterday blamed higher funding costs as a result of the global credit squeeze for its decision to lift its lending rates by between 17 and 55 basis points.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22240945-601,00.html

Anonymous said...

Wednesday could be really interesting!

Hedge fund losses prompt exits as deadline looms
Mon Aug 13, 2007 2:15PM EDT


BOSTON (Reuters) - For hedge funds, August 15 may be D-Day, when investors rattled by heavy losses demand their money back from big and small portfolios alike.

"We are seeing a 'shoot first and ask questions later' mentality among many investors," said Philippe Bonnefoy, chairman of hedge fund advisory group Cedars Partners, describing how everyone from the wealthy to chief investment officers at endowments are now shunning risk.

Unnerved by heavy losses at some of the $1.75 trillion industry's most famous offerings, including AQR Capital Management, Highbridge Capital Management, D.E. Shaw and Goldman Sachs (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research), many people want out before things get worse.

But exiting can be a difficult process in an industry where managers routinely lock up money for months, if not years, and often require 45 days' advance notice before returning it.

To pull out at the end of the third quarter, investors will have to notify their managers by August 15.

"Everyone always waits until the last second to get out, and (Wednesday) is the last second," said Mike Hennessy, managing director at hedge fund of funds Morgan Creek Capital.

Redemption notices began piling up weeks ago at hedge funds that specialize in subprime mortgages after two prominent Bear Stearns funds collapsed.

Now, what seemed like a contained problem has spread from credit-focused strategies to a broad range of funds, including one with a so-called market-neutral focus, that are not supposed to see huge losses, analysts and investors said.

Market-neutral funds, which hope to exploit market discrepancies by buying undervalued securities and taking an equal, short position in a different and overvalued security, returned nearly 6 percent during the first seven months of the year, delivering some of the industry's more robust performances. But the U.S. stock market's recent quick-paced decline, followed by a brief rally and then more losses, erased all gains and left the group with losses, according to investors who have seen weekly numbers.

Anonymous said...

"Most people wait their whole life for their ship to come in, only to one day, wake-up and realize that they never have sent one out."

jk39 USA

Anonymous said...

"Breathe deep the gathering gloom. Watch lights fade from every room. Bedsitter people * look back and lament, another day's useless energy spent."

* i,e, bitter renters

Anonymous said...

Sorry folks - I'll be on a boat in Greece next few days

You bastard. You think as an American you're just free to do as you want? The housing bailout is not going to pay for itself. YOU should be back here working and paying taxes. Like the REST OF US!

speedingpullet said...

Yassou, Keith, endaxi?

One of the most beautiful places in the world, Greece.

Have an ouzo and little plate of mezes for me, you lucky bugger.

Anonymous said...

http://cryptome.org/hud081307.htm

List of dead beat lenders from HUD

Anonymous said...

NEWS FLASH * * JUST IN...

BOOM!! BANK CRASH!!!!!!!!

Aug. 14, 2007) -- Sentinel Management Group Inc., the Illinois-based firm that manages $1.6 billion, said it asked regulators for permission to freeze client withdrawals because credit-market turmoil made it impossible to trade.

(bloomberg)
+ + + + + +

Do you know what that means Troll's???

It means this HUGE bank is asking the gov to stop it's clients from withdrawing their own money!!!!!

BWAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TSHTF!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Is it just me or is anyone else going through withdrawl? I've tried the other blogs but they just don't satisfy me. You just want to rip your hair out on Diana Olick's page - there's just no substance. Five days is just too long for a fix

Anonymous said...

You'll have a lot of catching up to do as we are accelerating solidly into the fear phase and denial is finally a distant memory in our rear view mirror!!

Anonymous said...

keith, that giant sucking sound is not jobs going to mexico....

it is that cruise ship going down in the aegean sea.........

as soon as you hit the water bud start swimming like a mo fo to get the hell out of there.....

Anonymous said...

at least you could post some pics of scantily clad greek girls......

Anonymous said...

RED Alert-----RealWhores that aren't bagging groceries,or pushing fries,are back to there same ol BS.
A real whore ,according to an FB I know, has been telling him that he won't be 1099'ed because all the FBs that he has contact with haven't been TEN NINETY NINED.
AyeeeCaa-EFFING -ROMMBAA!!

Anonymous said...

Humm, the way things are going looks like all the trash talking trolls are about to lose another trite, empty comment to refute reality. After today's drop in the Dow, we only have 6oo or so more points before we're back where the Dow was to start the year. This is good news, if for no other reason than to shut the pie whole of all the trolls who yell "Dow's up X% for the year" When its down X% for the year, I'm sure they'll ignore it and find something else to grasp onto but out side of welfare/unemployment/worker's comp I do not think the trolls are going to have much more to hang onto!!!

SidneyPrice said...

Keith

Did you go to Patmos on your cruise? You MUST see the rock where John heard about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse! Important for the blog.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

Humm, the way things are going looks like all the trash talking trolls are about to lose another trite, empty comment to refute reality. After today's drop in the Dow, we only have 6oo or so more points before we're back where the Dow was to start the year. This is good news, if for no other reason than to shut the pie whole of all the trolls who yell "Dow's up X% for the year" When its down X% for the year, I'm sure they'll ignore it and find something else to grasp onto but out side of welfare/unemployment/worker's comp I do not think the trolls are going to have much more to hang onto!!!

August 15, 2007 4:31 AM <<<<


speaking of trolls , .......where is dopes and not dopes.....awol as usual when the stuff is hitting the fan...

Anonymous said...

DOW up 100

70% of cities show home price appreciation this quarter

renters, just give up already and go hug your 5% CD

you are finished your day is over, back to the basement apartment you go

anon said...

>> Most people wait their whole life for their ship to come in, only to one day, wake-up and realize that they never have sent one out.

My ship finally came in last year - and it turned out to be a garbage barge.

Anonymous said...

We have Greek restaurant here in town. They have a sign in front that says "Parking in Rear". Figures...

Anonymous said...

Call me naive, but the billions of $ that the Fed just "pumped" into the markets - where exactly did that money come from?

Anonymous said...

Help!! I'm going through HP withdrawl!! Come back soon, Keith...you picked a fine time to go on vacation! The world's coming apart at the seams and you're off in Greece?? :))) You picked a fine time to abandon us...we miss you!

The whole thing could come crashing down and you'd be there sipping an Ouzo...and miss it all!

Seriously, enjoy your vacation, but come back soon! I hope we're all still here and the world doesn't implode...

Anonymous said...

Welcome back Keith.

5 days has been absolutely, positively and undeniably too long a time without my HP fix.

I’ve been watching on the sidelines since March this year.

This site is THE BEST.

Phenomenal insight, commentary, collective wisdom and tons of experienced history observers.

By the way, I like Ramen noodles!!!....must be the Ex-Realtor in me!!!