When you look at the housing crash and mortgage meltdown (and America in general) you see stupid people everywhere:
- Stupid people at the ratings agencies giving AAA ratings to worthless crap
- Stupid mortgage brokers committing rampant fraud, thinking they wouldn't get caught
- Stupid appraisers wildly overstating the value of homes
- Stupid realtors telling their suckers there were 21 Reasons to Buy, when instead there were 21 Reasons to Sell and Rent
-Stupid people at the Fed not seeing the housing bubble, not raising rates faster, and not regulating the out of control lenders that they were supposed to be regulating
- Stupid people in the White House telling people it was a great time to buy at the peak
- Stupid people in the MSM not doing their jobs, and interviewing stupid realtors as "experts"
- Stupid people by the millions buying second homes as investments, spending five times their incomes on a home, or believing what MTV, HGTV and the Learning Channel were selling them
- Stupid people who stood in lines to "buy" a house that cost three times more than renting the same house would have cost, while using stupid toxic loans that they knew would explode
I think I'm seeing even more stupid people than corrupt ones. Stupid people who blew up the United States real estate and financial markets, stupid people that didn't understand that we were in a classic financial mania, and stupid people who are now unemployed and asking for government handouts by the millions.
I think it's time for the stupid people to learn a valuable (albeit tough) lesson. And hopefully that'll make them a bit smarter.
February 19, 2008
How big of a role did just plain stupid people play in the housing crash and mortgage meltdown?
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63 comments:
yeah, in the usa.....tough lessons?
from the "we are all winners" approach to grade school sports to the "no real losers" treatment of the lazy and stupid adults through welfare programes.
we as a society have become weak and need a real kick in the nuts to bring us back to reality.
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It's Suzanne!
RayNLA
"Stupid people who stood in lines to "buy" a house that cost three times more than renting the same house would have cost"
What blows my mind is how many idiots are still saying it's somehow smart to pay 3x to "buy" a house instead of renting it, like they're totally brainwashed zombies who just spew this nonsense for no reason.
a big-un.
the failed gamblers are the only stupid ones on that list. the others all got transaction fees, salaries, etc.
companies have gone under, but the greedy executives and board members leave rich, while the tax payers pay unemployment for the underlings who lost their jobs.
since the government is too busy with baseball, private shareholders need to sue the corrupt execs and board members. how could these people claim they made innocent mistakes with a straight face? these people knew or absolutely should have known their borrowers could not pay back these loans. the liar loans were just a reckless way to get more fees off of people they knew could not really qualify.
That's Kelly Pickler, right? I'd do her.
Obligatory hate : prices need to come down 40% across the board.
What blows my mind is how many idiots are still saying it's somehow smart to pay 3x to "buy" a house instead of renting it, like they're totally brainwashed zombies who just spew this nonsense for no reason.
February 19, 2008 8:54 AM
If anyone is expert to speak to the brainwashed zombie problem it would be you, Frank.
Stupid people hold a lot of the blame for the housing debacle, and also the state of the country I live in. These idiots all want their hands held through life, and actually want the government 'fixing' every little problem for them. This is why I've lost hope in America. The stupid people are the majority, and stupid people let the government enslave them.
U.S. banks already borrowed 50 billion dollars from the Fed this month. No wonder the stock market "only goes up."
"Stupid people who stood in lines to "buy" a house that cost three times more than renting the same house would have cost"
------------------------------
No dude, you got it all wrong.
The Stupid people did not stand in line for that reason, then stood in line for the
FREE MONEY
that they thought they were convinced was a guaranteed sure thing.
The idiots are at all levels. I paid off my house back in 2000 and was told by the banker who was preparing my cashiers check that, “you do know that you will not have that mortgage tax deduction any more”. I thought to myself, well duh, I won’t be spending $21,000 a year on interest and getting a tax deduction of $ 7,000. F$%@#&% idiot Amerikans.
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Mama always say's
"Stupid is as stupid does"!
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Just watch the series "Century of the Self" by BBC. It will explain alot of things.
The corporations decided (before WW2) that it would be irresponsible to let people determine their own fates since according to Freudian psychology, sooner or later the repressed beast will show itself (prime examples are WW1 and WW2).
Anyhow - to make a long story short, the corporations decided that it would be better to manufacture wants and then provide those wants to the masses (sort of like bread and circuses). It wouldn't solve anything - but it would keep the population docile and manageable.
I'd like to say they were wrong - but it's worked for the last 60 years and the 'stupidity' is just the end state of a long period of training people to essentially be cows. The stupider they become, the easier they are to satisfy. Just throw in some cable tv and sport sex, and they will never truly yearn for a higher level of existence.
Can anyone else explain the phenomenon that is Spears, Lohan and Hilton?
At any rate - go watch the videos on Youtube - it'll explain things alot better than I ever could.
Stupid like a fox. Hundreds of thousand$ w/ no personal risk. I wish I was that stupid, really. Now I just pray for pain to be inflicted upon the infidels.
I have to think that the “market” is starting to wise up.
Every time Uncle Ben talks, the market tanks.
I think this is because he keeps saying “everything’s fine”, and they know that he’s full of s**t.
If they were to just come out and admit the hard ugly truth, the markets might respond to this self-evident fact with a little optimism.
Here is how capitalism works ... they need the most hard working employees that cost least amount of money, so they go to China. They need the most emotional, stinkingly rich customers to buy the crap, so they converted the Americans.
So the American people have been purposely and systematically dumbed down by the elite capitalists because a stupid and emotional customer fits best into their business model .. that is, before they suck all your money, bury you in debt, and then kick you out on the street.
Keith,
For a flying monkey you've been calling the wave pretty accurately! My favourite boob - Swann boy - has been offering articulate advice which would land the average punter in foreclosure. You've been fanning the flames of dissent and have called things pretty much as they are. As have a lot of other bloggers.
I think we should all admit to one paradigm shift - MSM, CNBC, Cramer et al have failed at delivering quality information to a wider audience in a TIMELY FASHION.
Yes, now they've all jumped the bandwagon. Blogs such as yours have excelled in getting there first. Which is what I thought journalism prided itself upon.
Well done!
Cheers, Haggis
NEWS FROM OBAMA-LAND!
The only thing that Obama and his ilk are going to change is how wide your a-hole is:
City transfer tax may expand to cover incomplete real estate deals
The city's real estate transfer tax is a proven cash cow, but the Daley administration -- ever on the lookout for ways to generate revenue -- is considering ways to make Bossy produce more milk.
Man, that girl is beautiful but DUMB
when you look like that you don't have to be smart.
unfortunate but the truth.
Frank is exactly right. You read the Florida section of City Data Forum and you see the majority of the people STILL don't get it. They still spout the same nonsense about rent vs buy, as the entire system crumbles around them. They are still arrogant and ignorant no matter how many times informed posters direct them to this site and other blogs with good information. I think many Americans are beyond hope or help and will have to be financially destroyed before they will get it.
The funny thing is the bubble is bigger in the UK. :)
"The stupid people are the majority, and stupid people let the government enslave them."
There was a reason the founding fathers only granted certain peoples the right to vote - it was not "wrong" as asserted by revisionist thinkers, but rather, was nothing more than the realization and acceptance of the predilection of peoples (and savages), of which, I am afraid, will be soon found by "modern" thinkers to be wholly prescient.
I think this would have been a more meaningful post if the word STUPID had been replaced with something like GREEDY. In most cases the people involved weren't stupid, they were just doing what was necessary to make money or keep their jobs. Amorality and greed should not be conflated with a lack of intelligence.
The Washington Post ran a piece about the dumbing down of America this weekend. Pretty sad stuff...
"A Nation Of Idiots?"
http://www.boom2bust.com/2008/02/19/a-nation-of-idiots/
I wouldnt even call these people stupid.....just looking at their own self interest. i.e. if I sell I get this, this is my commision, i get 4000 sq. ft. for this a month. etc... I doubt very many of em thought much of the big picture till now when they might be in financial straights.
Only smart people in the situation were the ones that thought the mess was nuts. like us on this blog
please make it stop.
Anonymous said...
"the failed gamblers are the only stupid ones on that list. the others all got transaction fees, salaries, etc."
Not so. Too many of them drank their own kool-aid. "But housing never goes down!" Yeah, whatever.
Those are the same stupid people who are now rallying after Nostradamus' Black Pope.
Make sure that by Dec 21, 2012 you be in bunker deep in the mountains. Everything is unfolding like a script.
"the bubble is bigger in the UK"
Good point! It's pretty big in Spain too, and British Columbia. In other words, either stupidity really isn't confined to the US, or people aren't that stupid, just short-sighted.
I mean, the mortgage scam handed out free money. People took it. A lot of them have bought cars with the cash and then walked away from the mortgage that gave them the cash. Pretty smart. They robbed the bank and got away with it.
Watch the movie Idiocracy on Youtube (divided in 4 parts). It's a eerie resemblance of our society.
She is hot, until she opens up her trap and tries to mutter something.
Stupidity as the reason? I feel pretty confident in saying that the reason for the mess we are in right now is one or more of the following: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, or pride.
There is no new thing under the sun.
Think there's a lot of stupid people in America? the UK must have at least 3x the concentration of stupid people. Their housing bubble expanded faster and more insanely than the one in America.
Here is how capitalism works ... they need the most hard working employees that cost least amount of money, so they go to China.
Ok... I'm not an American, I don't live in the US, and Lord knows the current debacle in the mideast is not going to make me heap much praise on either Americans or their government.
That said, however, I still think that the US worker is probably the most productive worker on the planet - even more productive than the Chinese.
Mind you - I said 'productive' not 'hard working'.
For the longest time, the "average" American had a good balance of education, work ethic, common sense, and ability which made him produce more goods at a higher quality and a lower cost than anyone else on the planet. Give him a decent wage, and the average American will outproduce anyone else by far.
The biggest problem is not the workers in the US - it's the management which screws everything up most of the time. The reason why most companies are packing up and leaving is not because they can't get workers to do useful work - it's just that they make such stupid decisions that it's easier to pay for it with cheaper labour than it is to own up to it at the shareholder meeting.
As an example - the decision to move offshore is usually a management decision. (Shows how bright they are.)
As another example... just take a look at your president and how he's "managed" your country into the ground.
If you only had decent some decent leaders...
12 - steps to financial disaster.
America's economy risks the mother of all meltdowns
Financial Times
http://tinyurl.com/2p424m
Buy now or be priced out forever.
They arent making any more land.
Jan 2008 was the market bottom.
Where's my rebate check?
This nation and most of its citizens, residents, dwellers have no ethic, no moral, no responsibility. What it has in plenty is greed, self-centerness, ignorance, pompousness.
The housing bubble is a shiny mirror in which the Americano can look at itself and ponder upon what may the future brings upon this land of the Snapper Turtle.
A nation that mostly comprises of pigs feeding, tearing, roosting, chomping at the trough.
A nation with most of its dwellers obese, fat, diabetic, and plain ugly like a chimpanzee.
A nation where a Walmart cashier can buy a house for $500K.
A nation in which its citizen's brain IQ is lower than a snapper turtle.
A nation which rules by turkey and skunk.
The Americano nation is as toasted as a roasted armadillo skewered from mouth to ass sizzling, popping, oozing with melted golden fat over a bed of white hot charcoal.
Stupid or greedy? I think it is the mix of these two ingredients that fuels just about everything today.
Butt wat doo i no, i m frum amarika.
Stupidity as the reason? I feel pretty confident in saying that the reason for the mess we are in right now is one or more of the following: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, or pride.
The seven deadly sins are as follows: Luxuria (extravagance, later lust), Gula (gluttony), Avaritia (greed), Acedia (sloth), Ira (wrath), Invidia (envy), and Superbia (pride).
It's not really a matter of intelligence. It's a matter of objectivity.
I don't think most of us are geniuses for spotting the housing bubble. We just somehow had the objectivity.
Maybe for many of us it was only that we were priced out of a decent home and went looking for something that would make us feel better. It was that search that lead us to the housing bubble and made our minds very open to the idea, because it was to our benefit if our situation could be explained by the irrationality of others.
It feels good to make fun of another's lesser intelligence. But it's seldom justified.
Also, I think this chick is like Marilyn Monroe - not as dumb as she acts.
America has definitely become a society of the stupid,for the supid,and by the stupid.
How else can you explain 49% of the voting public favoring an idiot like Bush in 2000 and the common opinion among them that they did not like Gore because they felt "he was too smart"!
Remember, ignorant and stupid people feel very threatened and defensive when they encounter a 'sovereign' especially members of the so-called professional and executive classes where they are practically brainwashed to be 'team players' and threatened with punishment should they ever decide to become a 'sovereign' or independent thinker.
Go to YouTube and watch the famous music video by RUSH entitled "SUBURBS"....'conform or be cast out!!'
Idiocracy here we come. The scary part is that those people actually reproduce at a faster rate than smart people. No more thinning of the herd. Want a glimpse into the future? Watch Idiocracy by Mike Judge. At some distant point in the future everybody is as dumb as we just witnessed.
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NO brains,
Better be a Scorchin F**K
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s2pidd iz azz stoopyd duzz.
"Frank is exactly right. You read the Florida section of City Data Forum and you see the majority of the people STILL don't get it. They still spout the same nonsense about rent vs buy, as the entire system crumbles around them."
That's because City Data is owned and operated by realtors who run a sham site pretending to be unbiased. They're breaking a multitude of FTC regulations and probably some state laws as well since they're practicing deceptive marketing by using a supposedly "unbiased" site to trick people into buying houses from them.
It's no different than if I created a phony book review site and gave my own books all the awards. Same thing as what they're doing.
People are evil these days .To many people think that they can break the rules ,because they are special and they deserve whatever they want because the TV told them so .
The children are out of control ,the society is out of control ,and all this liberal thinking didn't do shit but make everybody into a bunch of opportunist.
If people would of loved their neighbors as much as themselves ,this housing crash would of never happened .
something something idiocracy something something
You know what, she had me fooled. She is really not that ignorant. Come on, it is a ploy. By the way, I would gladly go down on her.
Living in a country that celebrates Paris Hilton, being a professional idiot can be a lucrative career.
If people would of loved their neighbors as much as themselves ,this housing crash would of never happened .
Hard to love someone else when you don't love yourself... If people liked themselves they would not care about the Joneses. Obviously, society is full of insecure people. And our capitalist system THRIVES on insecurity. That's what we've sowed, that's what we're reaping!
Blogger Andrew Hac said...
This nation and most of its citizens, residents, dwellers have no ethic, no moral, no responsibility. What it has in plenty is greed, self-centerness, ignorance, pompousness.
The housing bubble is a shiny mirror in which the Americano can look at itself and ponder upon what may the future brings upon this land of the Snapper Turtle.
A nation that mostly comprises of pigs feeding, tearing, roosting, chomping at the trough.
A nation with most of its dwellers obese, fat, diabetic, and plain ugly like a chimpanzee.
A nation where a Walmart cashier can buy a house for $500K.
A nation in which its citizen's brain IQ is lower than a snapper turtle.
A nation which rules by turkey and skunk.
The Americano nation is as toasted as a roasted armadillo skewered from mouth to ass sizzling, popping, oozing with melted golden fat over a bed of white hot charcoal.
February 20, 2008 12:37 AM
Hey Andrew Hac, why don't you worry about your own country (i.e. China). America is way ahead of China. China is still a third world country, yet just about every single day, you espouse the same argument "Americano is toasted as a snapper turtle oozing...". Is that the best cogent argument you can make? America is number one in the number and quality of universities (that is why students from China and India come to the U.S. to study), America has the largest economy in the world (oh, I forgot though, according to your logic, America is full of stupid pigs). I can go on and on but you know it and I know it that America is a great nation. Just knowing that is eating you up. Oh, BTW, if you Chinese people are so damn smart, then why do you keep buying worthless American I.O.U.'s (treasury bonds)? Who is stupid now? Americans who sold that worthless piece of paper or the Chinese?
Andrew Hac China is a third world nation. What are you talking about by saying America is a land full of pigs, stupid people, etc... When compared to Chinese, Americans are still smarter. For example, America is number one in patents produced in the world. Oh but I forgot, since Andrew Hac said all Americans are stupid pigs then it must be true! Andrew Hac would be better served in bettering the nation of China than criticizing the American people.
Does this remind anyone of the end of the Roman Empire?
Greed, gluttony as everyone tries to get rich quick? Laziness as we use our own imported "slaves" from Mexico? Cable TV and sports to keep the masses entertained?
I acknowledge not everyone is like that, but a large enough % of America is spoiled, dishonest and greedy to bring the nation down. We have generational welfare, thieves running Washington DC and Wall Street. We have fraudsters and scam artists running free, while the clowns at the FBI chases down the paparazzi and geriatric poker players.
Now that everyone is college degreed, people are dumber, more corrupt, more myoptic, and less productive then ever before.
I have begun to use colleged-degreed as a pejorative term to express someone preoccupied with style over substance:
- wearing the right suits, driving the right oversized SUV, and saying nothing of substance during meetings (so as to shirk accountability)
- extremely unproductive, no pragmatic understanding of creating REAL humantistic applied value, AND creating it efficiently.
- most important role at work is to walk hurriedly from cube to cube, using important sounding buzzwords in front of the boss, saying the same thing over day after day, ultimately (after much ado) just making life and processes more complicated and bureaucratic before the next college-degreed fool changes the rules to something else.
- someone who stopped reading non-fiction at age 22, hasn't visited the public library in 10 years, someone who will only learn if they can get additional certifications to put on their resume.
- someone who idea of culture and erudition is repeating second rate T&A jokes around the water cooler.
- someone who doesn't stand for anything other than consumerism; someone who can't think independently.
The truth hurts
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Those were the girls in high school and college that where Fun, but in the long run very aggravating.
Cute but what a Twit!
Although they knew the way to the backseat of the car.
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SORRY..MY BAD...NY BAD.
The song by RUSH that I mentioned in the previous post is not"SUBURBS"......It is..
"SUBDIVISIONS"
Another great subversive song from the 80s is "SILENT RUNNING" by MIKE AND THE MECHANICS..."Pledge allegiance to the flag or whatever flag they offer..just dont let them know how you really feel."
Besides HP, another great spot for sovereigns/independent thinkers is the late night radio talk show COAST TO COAST AM WITH GEORGE NOORY aka THE ART BELL SHOW. Back in 2002, C2C featured the following guests warning about the housing bubble and the crashing dollar:
Dan Mcalvany of Mcalvany and Assoc.(Enter MCALVANY on YouTube search and several of his seminars will appear).
Bob Chapman of THEINTERNATIONALFORECASTER.COM
Cathering Austin Fitts of SOLARI.COM (Also on YouTube,listen to her lecture on the 'popsicle index'.) Fascinating lady.A former HUD asst. secretary under Bush 1 and former partner in a quiet yet very powerful Boston investment firm: Dillon and Reed. She will show you how the SYSTEM REALLY WORKS!
Michael Rupert of COPVCIA.COM. A very brave soul who as a former LAPD narcotics detective discovered and revealed to those who would listen about OPERATION PEGASUS: a CIA program that was funneling drugs into southcentral Los Angeles. Also author of CROSSING THE RUBICON,a real eyeopener into who was behind 911, invasion of Irag, 'peak oil',and how all of this relates to the crashing dollar and the housing bubble.
Al Martin of ALMARTINRAW.COM. Google/search his article PROTOCOLS OF US ECONOMIC COLLAPSE 2008 BY AL MARTIN. A whistleblower has revealed our governments 'protocols' in the eventual 'event' of economic judgement day: dollar and bond and stock market freefall/meltdown.
THESE GUESTS SAVED MY FINANCIAL REAR END!!!
A big round of applause for Keith in creating the HP website, and Keith if you havent been already, many of us look forward to hearing you one night on Coast to Coast. I have e-mailed C2C recommending you as a future guest. Hope you hear from George Noory or Art Bell soon.
GOD BLESS ALL OF YOU.
Hey Andrew Hac, why don't you worry about your own country (i.e. China). America is way ahead of China. China is still a third world country, yet just about every single day, you espouse the same argument "Americano is toasted as a snapper turtle oozing...". Is that the best cogent argument you can make? America is number one in the number and quality of universities (that is why students from China and India come to the U.S. to study), America has the largest economy in the world (oh, I forgot though, according to your logic, America is full of stupid pigs). I can go on and on but you know it and I know it that America is a great nation. Just knowing that is eating you up. Oh, BTW, if you Chinese people are so damn smart, then why do you keep buying worthless American I.O.U.'s (treasury bonds)? Who is stupid now? Americans who sold that worthless piece of paper or the Chinese?
Andrew Hac is not Chinese.
I realize the question in the video is just an aside, but that's a pretty hard question at the grade school level. I would have answered "Romania" - and been wrong. (BUCHAREST is the capital of Romania, Budapest is the capital of Hungary.)
We did state capitals, not national capitals. We did have to try to fill in blank maps with the country names for several (perhaps all) continents. Of course, we weren't taught anything about the countries, and so were likely to forget the names pretty quickly.
Do most countries do better than the USA on this?
All you have to do is spend a day or two driving around Las Cruces. You will see house after house that are flipper owned.
God knows how they are keeping up the payments. Some of them have been on the market since last April.
In the meantime, folks are keeping their prices up, hoping against hope they the Tooth Fairy will drop down out of the sky and save them.
It ain't gonna happen.
that woman tried to say nothing and speak for 4 minuits....our next exaulted leader???
HU IS A MEXICAN HENSE THE SNAPPER TURTLE QUOTE
Shows that hot young women don't have to do anything other than be hot.
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