June 22, 2008

HousingPANIC Quote of the Day

"As we discussed it may not be a meltdown for the general economy but in our world it will be. Wall Street will be hammered with lawsuits. Dealers will lose millions and the CDO business will not be the same for years."

- Arrested Bear Stearns toxic loan hedge fund manager Ralph Cioffi, in his intercepted March 2007 email subject line "FEAR". Meanwhile, he was out pumping the funds and raising more cash from clueless investors. And now the US taxpayer holds $29 billion in unsaleable likely-worthless Bear Stearns garbage.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Apply death penalty for white collar crime.

Do IT NOW.

Anonymous said...

Wall Street should be hammered - it's basically legalized gambling with other people's money. Thank goodness Republicans were not successful in privatizing SS even though the overwhelming majority of Americans want to keep it. Just look at the amount of ivy-league educated people that "knew" what they were doing and still managed to invest in things like the Bayou Fund with a minimum $250K investment. Imagine if you took the average joe that didn't know enough that he couldn't afford a $500K house on his $50K salary and told him he now had to manage his own 401K. What a joke. The only people making money are the ones that talk you into investing your money and then collect the fees and commissions - but "joe" will be lucky to get 6-9% minus fees and the taxes he'll still have to pay when he starts pulling it out.

Anonymous said...

THIS ANGELO MOZILO ARREST WATCH THING, AND THE RECENT ARRESTS OF HUNDREDS OF OTHER SHILLS IS BEGINNING TO WORRY ME...

THAT'S THE PROBLEM WITH GIVING CROOKED HOUSING FORECASTS, THEY'RE ARCHIVED FOREVER ALL OVER THE INTERNET...

Anonymous said...

greedy WHITE people.

Anonymous said...

Ironic, as Goldman Sachs was hailed by investors as genuises in the aftermath of the sub-prime meltdown by hedging against the inevitable downfall. Americans love a winner, even if the public is getting screwed!

If you don't know: GS brokers were advising and selling CDOs out of the front office, while a small group of employees in the back office were hedging against the same inevitable CDOs and derivatives collapse. So GS obviously KNEW this stuff was crapola, but they STILL foisted it on the public out the front door? Slimy.

And now GS is considered geniuses, while BS are criminals for doing the exact same thing (well, not hedging sufficiently, which explains why they're out of business)?

Don't you love how BS employees are going to be made out as the scapegoats, the cause of the collapse, when the real (or worser) culprits are no doubt lying on some beach in the Hamptons today....

Anonymous said...

And how about how Mozilo pumped up his stock by allowing very bad lending to generate fees ,and than dumped his stock at the crest of the market .

But the market makers who sold mortgage backed security instruments were really really big thieves .

Anonymous said...

Kill all these corrupt bastards !

Anonymous said...

Thank goodness I'm forced to contribute nearly 8% of my income into the social security ponzi scheme and I'll never see a penny of it when I retire.