March 16, 2008

HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day


Does reading the newspaper these days give you the sense that you now have special powers that allowed you to see the future?

Or is that just because you simply read Manias, Panics and Crashes?


27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bragging?

Anonymous said...

Special Powers.
No joke.
Followed up with a lot of study.

My next prediction is a quick rise in sea level, not the gradual one they talk about.

I don't know how far off it is but it will be disastrous.

Right now, we will see much more disorderly deleveraging coming up soon. Then they will realize how bad the pension funds are being hit and everyone will start freaking out.

AuAgPb said...

Actually, it makes me disgusted with the MSM. I feel especially bad for busy parents, who think they are getting information from the newspapers and television news, only to get information that is in their rear view mirror. MSM is simply infotainment and should not be used to make major lifestyle decisions. Hopefully they will lose a lot of credibility over this fiasco, but I am not holding my breath.

Paul E. Math said...

Not exactly special powers but I have become more confident in my predictions. Not that they're really my predictions since they were formed from reading countless articles online and visiting some well-informed blogs like this one.

But you're right, I rarely bother to read the newspaper and when I do I find it to be several weeks behind. I'm wondering who is reading this and thinking it's actually news.

Mind you, it's still tough to say what will be next. Will the monoline situation become worse? Will Fannie Mae need a bailout? Will it be another investment bank, Countrywide, major homebuilder to become insolvent?

There are so many 'other shoes' to drop, it's going to be like Katrina.

blogger said...

"I feel especially bad for busy parents, who think they are getting information from the newspapers and television news, only to get information that is in their rear view mirror."

Couldn't agree more. Millions of families were just out there doing their thing these past few years, going to work, putting kids through school, if they were lucky they had enough time to catch "MTV Cribs" or "House Hunters", or talked to their nice friendly REALTOR at church, and decided to buy a home.

And they got destroyed. Didn't really do anything wrong, and they got destroyed. Probably causing divorces now, and some pretty bad heartache.

Why?

Because people made a massive financial decision without doing the homework. And they trusted the MSM. And they trusted "professionals" to look after them, not understanding that those "professionals" weren't on their side at all - they were just out to make a commission.

There are plenty of guilty parties - flippers, gamblers, nad the live-beyond-their-means crowd, but there are plenty of innocents too who got burned by this bubble.

Anonymous said...

Yes, absolutely. Been reading HP.com since fall of 06 and read Kindelberger's book. It is eerie. I just read an article in the NY Times (i don't buy it...found a copy this morning at starbucks) about the alt-a problem that Thornburg is having...the MSM is finally starting to pick up on this. The article called alt-a's another iceberg. Had it not been for HP.com I would not have known last spring/summer that these loans would be an issue...and in my opinion, an even bigger problem than subprime.

thanks for this site keith!

Anonymous said...

IT DOESN'T TAKE SPECIAL POWERS TO MAIL THOSE SILLY KEYS BACK IN A BIG, ORANGE ENVELOPE...

SPECIAL DELIVERY BABY!!!

ORANGE EXPRESS!!!

JINGLE MAIL!!!

JINGLE MAIL!!!

SEND ANGELO'S KEYS TODAY!!!

DOPES!!!

Anonymous said...

You need to slowly start evolving your site into current events keith. You have a way of keeping things simple and entertaining. I get most of my current news from this site and when the housing bubble becomes old news I think you may lose alot of traffic. You could become the mainstream news of the internet if you play your cards right.

Anonymous said...

Try finding a decent home for under $750K in Los Angeles.

Anonymous said...

"Anonymous said...
Try finding a decent home for under $750K in Los Angeles.
March 16, 2008 2:34 PM"

Decent anything and Los Angeles do not go together...

Anonymous said...

read the paper for information only, come to your own conclusions. remember a journalist is not a financial expert

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

You need to slowly start evolving your site into current events keith. You have a way of keeping things simple and entertaining. I get most of my current news from this site and when the housing bubble becomes old news I think you may lose alot of traffic. You could become the mainstream news of the internet if you play your cards right.

http://tinyurl.com/2y45m9
europac.net
prudentbear.com
financialsense.com
minyanville.com
seekingalpha.com
marketwatch.com
http://tinyurl.com/ytn8ru

Should get you started.

Anonymous said...

People are squatting in foreclosed homes, nobody can prove ownership so it takes over a year to get them out.

Foreclosures challenged aren't happening because nobody has original loan Docs.
Your loan has been sliced and diced, 30% in Saudi Arabia, 20% in France no docs, no foreclosure. A shift has occurred, the meek shall inherit the earth. LOL

Anonymous said...

NO DOC LOAN

The banks don't have the docs...LMAO

Anonymous said...

AuAgPb said...
Actually, it makes me disgusted with the MSM. I feel especially bad for busy parents, who think they are getting information from the newspapers and television news, only to get information that is in their rear view mirror. MSM is simply infotainment and should not be used to make major lifestyle decisions. Hopefully they will lose a lot of credibility over this fiasco, but I am not holding my breath.

March 16, 2008 12:54 PM
===========================
Good call. The only thing I read is the classified section anyway to check for sales and auctions. I have a nice neighbor who only reads the market section to see how his stocks are doing and sticks the rest in my mailbox.

Interesting note. I went to a breakfast buffet/town meeting hosted by the local parasite recently. You know, my elected "servant?"
This individual, whom I had never met before, proved to be your usual idiot (Rethug, but could have been a Demcrap, same-same,) totally out of touch with any reality one inch outside of his body surface.
When I asked questions it was: Economy, going great.
PA government, excellent ratings, never better. Housing, what bubble? And just WHERE do you get you information Mr. Voter, Sir? Oooooooh, the Internet (big wink-wink, nudge-nudge, laugh-laugh to all his so up to date cronies in the audience)

Like I was supposed to listen to the big three plus Fox News for their soooo unbiased reporting? Only if I want to find out what Britney’s doing lately.

And the local paper, last Tuesday they reported that Dewey won the election, PLEASE!

Anonymous said...

Do people still read newspapers? Very 20th century.

Anonymous said...

Yes I feel like the amazing Kreskin. And the best part is I was right all along wait let me just say that again I was right all along. I took a lot of shit from people in 05 and 06. O the Schadenfreude of it all. I was able to save a few people along the way.

The people who listened think I am some type of God. They keep asking what to do next the only good advice I can give them is to pay attention to what is going on, remain liquid, and mobile. The people who did not listen well we don’t talk as much as we used to. Sometimes like last week when the Fed was F ing with the market people were feeling their oats wanted to talk shit. Who can blame them after so much bad news for them lately? Luckily I can shut them up in five words or less.

All in all it has been a good thing for me. I have not lost any cash yet and I spent the last couple of years paying down debt and saving money. I now have the cash resources and confidence to break from the pack and go in the direction that makes sense to me.

Burn Baby Burn

Anonymous said...

There are plenty of nice condos in good areas in L.A. for under $750K. I almost bought a great place in 2/2006 for $475K. You must want 2+ bedrooms or a yard.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I feel just terrible for people that thought they were doing the right thing to buy a home and they got sucked into foreclosure. Sad.

Anonymous said...

I've been waiting for 3 frickin years for the meltdown,

finally looks like it's here!


Congrats!

Unknown said...

I don't buy the innocent "busy parents" stuff at all. They did not research the biggest financial decision of their lives very much.

While they were watching American Idol, running little Susie to soccer and ballet and karate, taking vacations, spending hours on the internet and cell phones, voting for Bush or not voting....all this happened. We are busy parents also, but prioritize educating ourselves with independent sources at the very top.

There are very few innocents among he middle and upper middle class.

Anonymous said...

This post is in response to the statement that "Journalist are not financial experts."

If a journalist is not a financial expert,than why did they quote real estate sales people as if they were financial experts? Shouldn't journalist know the financial credentials of the parties they are allowing to spin "spin" '.

I guess as a journalist I'm going to go out and interview a 2 year old about the economy because I'm not responsible for knowing if that 2 year old is capable of giving a objective response .Its not my job to know the special interest group that the party might be soap-boxing for .As a news person its not my job to provide another opinion and only give one one-sided opinions from a self-serving trade group that were trying to push a ponzi scheme on the public .

Had the MSM ,just once, publish a article about the lack of buyers being able to qualify ,or asked "how are these borrower qualifying ",than maybe the truth of the Ponzi scheme and liar loans could of come out sooner . Face it ,the MSM ,because of ad revenue ,was just as blackmailed as the appraisers .

To bad you journalist missed the biggest story of the century, and the biggest crime wave of the century .How does it feel MSM when the real estate business is threatening you that unless you publish positive articles about real estate they are going to pull ads ? Must not feel so good .

Anonymous said...

To bad the news people can't print the truth or challenge the profit seeking entities of America anymore. No more Walter Cronkite ,no more objective journalism ,(just pushing a political agenda or a business motive to sell something ). No more just printing the facts man ,or it might offend someone, or get in the way of a sale of a product .

As far as seeing the future goes, I have always seen the future long before other people could see it, don't know why ,it just comes to me . I don't know if it's just a understanding of cause and effect ,or if it involves a power to see into the future .

Anonymous said...

http://tinyurl.com/2y45m9
europac.net
prudentbear.com
financialsense.com
minyanville.com
seekingalpha.com
marketwatch.com
http://tinyurl.com/ytn8ru


Hey thanks for all those links, I see I'm behind the times and I have alot of catching up to do.

Anonymous said...

One has to look at why the sheep of all ages and economic classes bought into the real estate ponzi-scheme and were even willing to submit liar loans and go on bad toxic loans to get that money making piece of the America pie .

Have you ever seen so many people be insecure about the future that they would buy real estate that they couldn't afford, based on a scheme that a greater fool would buy it from them and real estate always goes up .

So why were people so insecure ?

First the young were insecure because they saw the Corporations out-source jobs , not give them health benefits and pensions and expect them to compete with people who will work for a dollar a hour .
People fresh out of college noticed it was hard getting a job placement .The young were trying to provide for their current lifestyle and the future while not having a belief that Social Security would be there for them .

The hated baby boomers bought into the housing scheme because they never saved enough for retirement and they thought that real estate investment could supplement their lack of savings for retirement .

Old people bought into the real estate scheme of the century because they were in fear of inflation and high medical costs forcing them into eating dog food.

Middle age people bought into the housing scheme for the normal fears of being out-sourced by Corporations and not getting SSI at all by the time they reach retirement ,and perhaps a little fear of not being able to keep up the life-style they were in . These were people that climbed up the property ladder ,had already bought a cheap house once,and now bought Mc Mansions they could not afford .

Criminals bought into the housing schemes because it was the sure way to get cash back fraud money,and take the money and run .

Builders bought into the housing ponzi scheme because they never had it so good that people would buy property off them with no intent to live in it ,so that made it easier to make crap houses at a huge profit .

Real estate sales people always buy into housing schemes .

The government bought into the housing scheme because oh those tax revenues from property tax and all that spending was so good .Planning departments bought into the housing scheme for the same reasons .Regulators were not about to spoil the party .

Lenders bought into the housing scheme because they could make quick profits off of fee income by passing the junk on to the secondary market where their friends Wall Street would get investors to buy junk and they would say that it's AAA rated .

Investors bought into Mortgage backed securities because they were not making good yields on savings accounts because Greenspan kept the rate to low for to long .Wall Street made the loan investors think they were getting AAA paper . Investors were insecure because there wasn't places to make money .


Greenspan kept the rate to low for to long because he was insecure that the economy would go into a recession and people would start belly-aching after the 2000 stock market crash and 911 thing .

The MSM was insecure that they would not get ad revenue if they weren't cheerleaders and positive about real estate .

Appraisers were insecure that they would be blackballed and not have work if they didn't hit the mark on appraisals .

Poor people were shocked that lenders would give them loan money and give them the opportunity to become rich , or live like kings ,even if they didn't deserve the loan ,and no way are they not getting into that action ..

People who like to party and spend money got into the action also.

So I'm saying wasn't the great housing scheme really a problem of insecurity .The Corporations liked the scheme because the people spent money for their goods from housing equity and that way they didn't have to give them a raise .The Corporations also got good tax brakes .

tater said...

I can predict the future pretty good. In fact, I predict that I will sign off on this post with "WHOA"!

Keep up the good blog, Keefer. The MSM and the slime need to be exposed.

Now, what do you think about Bear Stearns getting bought out for TWO DOLLARS a share? I predict that the shit is hitting the fan for the rest of the week, and that's just for starters!

WHOA ! <<<<(See what I mean.):<)

Anonymous said...

anon 3:38: that's a good list of financial information sites.

Add www.321gold.com to it.

The focus is on gold and silver, but the section of political and general economic articles is well-chosen and always informative. I've learned a lot there.