Like, maybe "Bubbletainment"?
Do you find yourself tossing the sports pages aside and going right to the business section now? Is the Financial Times the new People Magazine?
Don't get me wrong, it disgusts me to no end what's happened in America and around the world with the housing bubble and now crash. I know millions are being financially destroyed, families are being ruined, marriages are falling apart, and people are losing their jobs. And the actions of realtors, mortgage brokers, our political leaders and our rotten businesses are criminal.
But damn, no matter what, it is all a bit entertaining. What's Paulson gonnna do next? How stupid can George Bush be? How screwed up is Congress? What corrupt sleazy thing is Bernanke gonna do this week? How big of a lie with the NAR tell now? How dumb will realtor bloggers be today?
The hits just keep coming.
And the housing crash as entertainment.
Wow.
That's sick.
Watch the six-percenters now go into a tizzy - "Oh, those bubble heads, they're sick - they're actually ENTERTAINED by our demise. ENTERTAINED by families being thrown out of THEIR houses"
Yeah, grossed out. Sickened. Concerned. Mad as hell. Furious.
And bubbletained.
April 08, 2008
So, be honest. Has the Great Unwinding, Mortgage Meltdown, Bank Blowup and Housing Crash now veered over into just plain old entertainment?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
34 comments:
hell yeah
Personally, I feel more than a twinge of BubbleFreude.
If you haven't done it before, it would be nice to start an "honor roll" of the lone voices in the desert, years ago.
Folks like Bill Fleckenstein come to mind.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/P85418.asp
It's all fun and games until somebody loses an eye - or a house
My landlord called me yesterday to see if I could meet him. Seems the $300,000 I'm renting from him (that he paid $600K for) for $2300 a month is a bit of a money drain and was wondering if I would take it off his hands for $580K...I nearly spit my drink out!
So, he gives me the lowdown (with supporting paperwork). Paid $600K in 2005 - 20% down, $480K Pay Option ARM. With $2300 coming in and paying out $2700 a month + taxes he's managed to pay down his mortgage to $510K (oh, wait, that's not down is it? My bad).
The house two doors down (identical) has been on the market 210 days vacant and is down to $480K.
I was going to suggest he might try writing a book, "How to lose 5 times your annual salary in only 36 months", but I thought that would be rude. On a personal level, I feel bad for the guy (nice guy in over his head), but I gambled on what my head told me and won and he gambled on what his realtor buddies told him and lost.
So, yeah, a little schadenfreude here.
Try to, but I can't look away.
We're all being played like violins by the global elite. Do you really think the heads of the global investment banks were dumb enough to not see this coming?
Ron Paul's book "Pillars of Prosperity" details how the housing bubble would unfold and those predictions were from speeches he made back in 2001. So I don't believe for one second that this was all a giant clusterf*ck on the behalf of the Fed and the global investment banks.
I'm addicted like a crack addict!
There should be a show on TV thats nothing but REALTORS who can't pay their bills
Yo Keith, wat up wit the Tibet crap all of a sudden? Fuckin' there are like so many people suffering immensely more without flaunting it in everyones' face. U see u forget Afghanistan, Chechnya, Sudan, and all others because they don't get their boss spilling bullshit next to Bush? I mean shit son, this is the dang Olympics. For the world of me I don't know why the heck they would want to do it in China, but don't take the torch out! Take the damn committee that decided on this shitstane China.
So Keith, instead of posting George Carlin better watch it, especially the part about douches that take them self too seriously!
Marty
Great fun. I pray to the green cheese moon goddess for a deep dark dank depression in the U.S. every day. I enjoy every minute I spend watching Rome burn.
YES!
Not only is it amusing but I have to admit I love the BubbleFreude watching all those nasty, rude, mean, snotty Scottsdale people getting what they deserve.
Beats anything on TV...with or without the writers. The next step is when the missing credit lube (since last Sept.) finally makes the engine seize up. I think that's when the media will finally notice. Maybe.
As Jodi Foster quotes Baron de Rothschild:
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=tQoLLu5TMZ8
danimal,
Maybe your landlord showed you enough paperwork and cancelled checks to prove otherwise, but I doubt that he actually paid 20% down on that house. He may have a second mortgage/home equity loan/HELOC tacked on to the property as well. However, if the total loan balance really is $510K, ask him what conditions make the loan reset. There is a decent chance that the amount he needs to pay is at least ticking up slightly right now (which is called a "recast"), and at some point there will be a massive reset which is clearly spelled out in the terms. That will either be this year or in 2010 (3-year or 5-year reset).
This is why stocks like DSL and FED are in so much trouble. These Pay Option ARMs are such toxic waste that I don't see how those companies can survive. However, these companies have banking arms to their businesses and I'm skeptical about the Federal Reserve and the FHLBs changing the terms of lending to these institutions.
I think your post should have its own thread so people can "advise" you on what you should tell your landlord. That would be pretty fun to see the responses.
It would be more entertaining for me if the value of my hard earned money wasn't being destroyed in the process. It feels like I can't win.
It's like watching that German movie 'Funny Games'...or the movie 'Vulgar' about the clown that gets raped by that Father and sons.
Disturbingly dark entertainment...yet still quite uncomfortable.
We finally get what we deserve. Kind'o the satisfaction you get when that terrible 5 year old throwing a temper tantrum finally gets a well deserved spanking.
This is what needs to be in the MSM.
http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read/140497?ref=patrick.net
Beignet
I read bubble news everyday. I love it.
Is that Gene Wilder with Peter Boyle on the picture?
"If you're blue, and you don't know where to go to, why don't you go where fashion sits...
UTTIN' ON THE 'IIIIITZ..."
"I know millions are being financially destroyed, families are being ruined, marriages are falling apart, and people are losing their jobs. And the actions of realtors, mortgage brokers, our political leaders and our rotten businesses are criminal."
Put these words to music and you have a symphony.
F*ck America. America is Dead.
Like watching a never ending train wreck (oops, that the Bushco Administration), I would say, more accurately like the feeling you get coming upon the aftermath of a bad multiple injury/fatal car crash, you are interested in watching and glad it is not you because you are a responsible and skilled driver...
Idea for new industry: "House-in-the-Box". A relocation kit for those removed from their former home that the bank nows owns. E-mail for details, franchises available in most areas...
Watch an entire society simultaneously hit rock bottom after the largest and longest binge in the history of man?
It's Televised?
It's on The Google??
It’s on the The Intarwebs???
How can you not be entertained?
What else is there to do now? Can't save money, can't put it in a safe harbor, can’t protect it. All bets are off; no one knows where the bottom is, or the middle for that matter. Most sheeple are still clueless, they may never wake up.
We are just barley cresting the clickity-clickty-clickty upward part of the ride and while we can't quite see it yet, we know any second we will be staring down a huge vertical drop.
The excitement, anticipation, and terror is killing us.
Dance for my entertainment Monkey Boy Ben!!!!
I feel a perverse pleasure at watching the bubble burst! I feel the stupid American sheeple are getting what they deserve for their greed for easy money, smugness, self-righteousness, gluttony, debtorship, and overconsumption... I guess America isn't the greatest country in the world after all! And the best part: it's spreading to Europe as well!
why are you people saying you can't protect your money from inflation? check out peter schiff's company - europac.net. he recommends gold, foreign currency, foreign (dividend) stocks, agriculture.
I have no sympathy for anyone who buys a house that they cannot afford.
NOBODY HAS TO BUY A HOUSE.
Everyone has to work. Everyone has to eat. Everyone has to have shelter, but NOBODY HAS TO BUY A HOUSE OR A CONDO.
If you see fit to borrow huge sums of money, you are responsible for understanding the ramifications, the details, and the risks.
I have no sympathy whatsoever for any homedebtor/borrower.
Nor any bank. Nor any other lender.
As for the rest of us, well, we live among idiots and it is up to us to govern our personal financial lives accordingly.
It is always entertaining to watch suckers get killed. It is always entertaining to see yourself proven right. It is always entertaining to see others suffer a fate you avoided, especially when they were laughing at you and calling you stupid/paranoid/wimpy/etc.
We are humans. Idiocy and One-up-man-ship are two of the many standard operating procedures of humans.
Yes, I am thoroughly entertained.
I am masturbating to Armageddon.
I make no apologies for that.
- bryce in canada
Entertainment?
Yeah- There were now 2 flipping house shows where the flippers couldn't sell. I remember at least two programs where the flipper ended up living in the failed flip because it wouldn't sell.
You have to watch carefully at the end of the show- a little "update" gets snuck in where the flipper has to fess up that he goofed, the house didn't sell and now he has to live there or is renting it out w/ neg cash flow.
People always say "go with your gut". Relatives of mine kept pushing me to "get a mortgage...everyone can get a mortgage these days...its so easy to buy a house these days" but my gut was telling me that it did not make sense how McDonald's cashiers could buy a house when I couldn't even properly afford rents in my area. Its nice to have my gut instincts affirmed.
This looks more like a wreck I saw a few years ago, out on I80, it was on a long hill coated with ice..we were at the bottom and JUST WATCHED AS THE CARS N TRUCKS CAME DOWN CRASHING INTO AN EVER GROWING SWARM OF WRECKS...YOU SIT ON THE OTHER SIDE OF GUARD RAIL AND JUST HAVE TO CHUCKLE AT THIS POINT CAUSE THERS NOT A THING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT..(and yes my truck was in that swarm of wrecks)
GREAT BLOG THERE KEITH ..KUDOS
mesmerized - I always read the business section first now and check cnbc.com as soon as I get home from work.
I love Phil's idea of the honor roll - I seem to remember someone from HSBC coming out with a report on the fact that there was a housing bubble ~2004 or 2005 that everyone shunned at the time - it gave me hope
I love waking up every day and know I get to read more about people losing homes that were never theirs! Bankers lose billions, realators lose their jobs, Bernanke keeps trying to put a cork in this breaking dam and I love every minute!!
The pending mess did seem kinda scary. But now that I have a box of MRE's in my trunk it means that at least the first ten days of chaos will be entertaining. After that I'll starve like everyone else.
Thanks WC.
Another one for the honor roll:
John Talbott - April 2003
http://tinyurl.com/5xu9kw
It's "fun" to read reader's comments on the book and how they evolved over the years.
And to think that the show hasn't even really gotten started yet ...
kind of like watching the movie trailers first.
If anyone on this blog has a chance to take a trip down to Southern California, I recommend bringing your video camera along and taking some shots of the ever increasing number of for-sale signs along the coast.
Sellers are still resisting bringing down prices, but in the end, it all comes way down.
Housing prices here will reset drastically.
Anonymous said...
I feel a perverse pleasure at watching the bubble burst! I feel the stupid American sheeple are getting what they deserve for their greed for easy money, smugness, self-righteousness, gluttony, debtorship, and overconsumption... I guess America isn't the greatest country in the world after all! And the best part: it's spreading to Europe as well!
Post a Comment