January 19, 2008

HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day


Did you ever in your wildest dreams think you would care this much about ECONOMICS? I mean really, boring, dry, wonkish ECONOMICS?

This was supposed to be some really boring sh*t.
And then these guys got hold of it, and we all know how that turned out.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, because I graduated with a minor in Economics. I like it.

Anonymous said...

Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, had some questions she wanted answered about the subprime mortgage crisis, and she wanted them answered now. So when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was before the House Budget Committee to talk about the economy on Thursday, she went on the attack.

"Seeing as how you were the former CEO of Goldman Sachs," she said before Bernanke interrupted.

"No, no, no, you're confusing me with the treasury secretary," he said, noting that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was indeed the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, but that Bernanke himself was, in fact, not technically Paulson.

"I've got the wrong firm? Paulson? Oh, okay," Kaptur said. But she wasn't quite ready to believe Bernanke was blameless. "Where were you, sir?"

"CEO of the Princeton economics department," Bernanke said. Princeton is notinvolved with subprime mortgages. At that point, Kaptur gave up.

"Oh, all right, sorry. I got you confused with the other one," she said. "I'm glad you clarified that for the record."

http://www.sptimes.com/2008/01/19/
Worldandnation/Those_finance_guys
_ar.shtml

Anonymous said...

No.

Also, it's a puzzle box. The more you learn, the more you realize you don't know anything. The hard sciences refer to this as a "highly stochastic" problem. "Quants" (language pollution alert!) like it for just that reason. I suppose we have some good general models, but doubt the certainty is high. Hopefully it can help avoid bad policy moves?

kmudrick said...

Never in my wildest dreams.

But then again, growing up, I never imagined we'd actually elect a president who is dumber than the average American... twice!

Anonymous said...

If Denninger is right, then we're all fewked.

Everyone should visit his site, every day, just to keep a handle on what's happening in the US.

Anonymous said...

This is going to get real bad that's why I already took my money out of the bank - I believe Warren Buffet once said you can never sell too early - well, you can never take you money out too early too I guess - avoid the run on the bank, get you money now.

Anonymous said...

Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio

Otherwise known as Genius.

She should run for President, obviously she is better informed than the current President.

Miss Goldbug said...

I find economics and the business cycle in general facinating.

One of my dream has come true.

When I was much younger, I wondered how some people knew almost by instint, which investments were good and more importantly, the timing of how long to stay in various types of investments. Us here at HP have the trait, it's very simple: wisdom and common sense.

I never wanted to be on the wrong side of an investment when it went bad. I always wanted to be ahead of the pack. Well, that time has come for all of us here at HP...

Thanks so much Keith for having this site so we could read, post, and exchange ideas and thoughts on what's shaping up to be the biggest credit crash in history.

Deep down, I believe everything will be ok however, it's going to be a hard lesson for the majority of the population who did not see the danger signs.

Ed said...

I majored it in so yeah, I did. Although my entire career has been non-economics related.

Anonymous said...

The united states and the world will be a better place once this massive house of cards collapses.

No stimulus packages, no more bubbles, let the steaming pile of shit collapse.

Bill said...

Your right Keith...I never thought I would care as mush as I do at this stage in my life....but in reality I am consumed by it...and I am going to buy all the Fucked Borrowers stuff..for 10 cents on the dollar...when the time is right....yes I am.........right now I am 35% cash and staying that way..for quite a while....but more silver is on the way via UPS.....Sweet!!! And with Bushes..Hard on..I mean stimulus check...i am buying all silver....thanks be to the Guberment, free money to make money.....what a country...see you at Wal-Mart....oh wait no I wont.

Anonymous said...

.



Looks to me like those that were interested in ECON didn't care enough to do the right thing!



.

Anonymous said...


Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, had some questions she wanted answered about the subprime mortgage crisis, and she wanted them answered now. So when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was before the House Budget Committee to talk about the economy on Thursday, she went on the attack.

"Seeing as how you were the former CEO of Goldman Sachs," she said before Bernanke interrupted.


That's what happens when bimbo soccermom housewives are elected to Congress instead of taking their natural part-time job as realtors.

Anonymous said...

And what exactly does that YouTube video have to do with economics? Is that supposed to SAY anything?

What a stupid waste of bandwidth and time, with images of Ben and Paul superimposed over stock images of nuke weapon testing, while techno musick (it ain't really music) plays in the background. Probably made by some zit-faced teen, buzzed on Jolt Cola and Dominos pizza who just got iMovie, I bet. Pathetic.

el bee said...

A few years back, I had trouble balancing my checkbook and had never heard of a non-conforming jumbo loan. But now I've become so interested in economics and real estate that I started a housing blog.

Who would have thought?

Paul E. Math said...

I minored in economics but I didn't find it as stimulating as I would have liked because it was too theoretical - classes failed to make the subject matter 'real world' and practical. By the end of my degree I thought that's what economics was.

But with the internet and blogs like this one, all that has changed. You don't need to know complex mathematical calculations or have perfect recall of obscure data - it's all available online. Someone else has already done the analysis and you just need a grounding in the subject matter and some critical thinking and the truth is fairly easily and accurately determined.

Economics has finally come to life!

Anonymous said...

People often misunderstand economics, thinking it is merely math. Math helps understand trends, but economics is the study of shortages.
I've always find it fascinating. I love reading economic history. That's why I teach econ and history.
On the other hand, I still get emails from friends and aquaintences that they'd rather not hear such 'gloom and doom'... people can't handle too much reality.
But, like I tell them all... whether or not you understand econ, or believe its boring... we're all going to go through this together.
They don't like that. Oh well. At least my students understand.

Anonymous said...

Economics as taught in school IS boring. It's full of lies and inconsistencies. True economics is interesting and actually does make sense.

“Something is rotten in the state of economics. In the middle of the 20th century a group of bankers bribed some of the nation’s top colleges to peddle a reactionary economic theory (which was to make bankers a lot of money). This theory swept American higher education with the result that pretty well everybody who has graduated with a degree in economics no longer has the slightest idea of what he is talking about… There is nothing wrong with the science of economics, but there is something terribly wrong with the kind of trash handed out by our nation’s colleges today. It is people dumb enough to imbibe such trash who are the reporters and columnists in most of the media, and these are the people giving most Americans economic advice.”

Howard Katz

Anonymous said...

"That's what happens when bimbo soccermom housewives are elected to Congress instead of taking their natural part-time job as realtors.

January 19, 2008 6:46 PM"

The female version of the Jackson-Sharpton shakedown twins...

Anonymous said...

Not too surprising in my case; econ was my favorite college subject.

This lesson in real life is unforgettable, though.

The saddest part is how we've moved from Adam Smith, the Pin Factory, and common sense to this tragic, empty shuffle of financing schemes.

Anonymous said...

Um, does it count I got A's in economics in college .. I cheated the first course and felt so guilty about it I worked my butt off on the remaining classes to really get the A's.

For the average Joe, yes -- its hard to believe how much we need to hear about it and how many so called economists screw up constantly.

Anonymous said...

re Marcy Kaptur

This is what happens when womens is elected to office. So just you be votin for a black man and alls will be coolz.