December 09, 2007

WONK ALERT: HP geek heaven - here's an hour-long roundtable with Maria Bartiromo, Mark Zandi, Bob Toll and Angelo Mozilo


BNN has the video

Posted by blogger at 12/09/2007

8 comments:

Paul E. Math said...

Mark Zandi co-founded Economy.com and sold it to Moody's. So he's probably doing okay. But it was good that he disclosed that he's a homeowner and that he is watching his investment sink like a stone.

Anyway, what's hilarious about this video is how much of an egomaniac Mozillo comes off as. He's really lost it. He states that he has founded and ran Countrywide for the sole purpose of 'helping people' live 'the american dream' of home ownership. Like he's some kind of humanitarian Christ-figure. The truth is that he made himself filthy rich selling mortgages that people couldn't afford. He has played a lead role in the bankrupting of an entire generation yet he believes people should look up to him and worship him.

Equally hilarious is that Mozillo blames the whole housing crash on the 'liquidity crisis'. Okay, dumbass, now why is there a liquidity crisis? Bartiromo tries to get him to answer the question, to dig a little deeper, and he blames it on something vague like 'investor mentality'.

Mozillo steadfastly refuses to acknowledge the fundamental issue of affordability. The reason there's a liquidity crisis is that investors have finally realized that it's a bad idea to lend someone money when they don't have the income to pay it back and the asset securing the loan is rapidly depreciating.

I thought Fred Cannon made an excellent point when he identified the fundamental flaw in the way mortgages were qualified in the last few years. Cannon says we got away from 'income based' qualification and were using an 'asset based' qualification system.

For the last few years it didn't matter if someone didn't have the income to support their mortgage because they could always sell the home if they got into trouble. That would work fine if housing were some sort of magic asset that never declines in price, which is what these fools believed.

This is why the price/income ratio is such a 'one stop shop' indicator of whether home prices are too high or not. People pay for their homes with their incomes.

The historic average price/income ratio is 2.7, although anything up to 3.5 is 'normal'. You'd really have to justify anything above 3.5. In 2005, San Diego got up to 9.29. How crazy would you have to be to buy a home at that level? You'd have to be crazier than a shit-house rat.

The prudent course of action is a return to income based mortgage qualification.

December 09, 2007 2:45 PM
Anonymous said...

UNFRACKINGBELEIVABLE!!!!!!

KATRINA??!?!?!?!?

BWAHAHAHHAHAHA

December 09, 2007 4:01 PM
Anonymous said...

kick myself????

comparing to speed limit changes????

December 09, 2007 4:03 PM
Anonymous said...

Bartiromo: Is she the one with the botox face and masive overblown lips who looks like a clown experiment gone horribly wrong?

Who would take that freak seriously? Orange Man has more selling power than clown face.

They are all disgusting and many are horribly disfigured.

Bartiromo is disgusting to view. At BEST, it should be on the radio...

Give us a break. Haven't we suffered enough already?

December 09, 2007 4:26 PM
Anonymous said...

Clown face Bartiromo should be in tent at a carnival,charging 25cents a person to see a clown experiment gone wrong.She would do the world a great favor,and make more money.

December 09, 2007 5:10 PM
Anonymous said...

They should have included Peter Schiff; that would have been hilarious.

December 09, 2007 6:26 PM
Anonymous said...

"Clown face Bartiromo should be in tent at a carnival,charging 25cents a person to see a clown experiment gone wrong.She would do the world a great favor,and make more money.'

What the heck was the deal with the big kiss that Clown face gave orange man IN THE BEGINNING OF THE SHOW...I almost THREW UP.....

December 09, 2007 7:15 PM
Anonymous said...

In contrast to the other jokers on the set, Orangeman was the only person who put on the poker face and side stepped any blame. If anything, he's covered himself quite well for what could be an expensive trial, in the future, for insider selling. All and all, if it's simply liquidity in the financial sector which suddenly froze up then Orange isn't guilty of anything. He was "side swiped" by forces greater than him, a great and efficacious defense for a con man who knew exactly what he was doing.

December 11, 2007 10:32 PM

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