"America is finished. We are going to destroy this country. Our economy is just going to unravel. The question is how much money is the world going to lose before it writes us off?"
- Peter Schiff, July 2008
July 30, 2008
HousingPANIC Quote of the Day (WARNING - HIDE THE CHILDREN)
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61 comments:
Good article on protecting assets.
I'll go first.
As a patriotic, optimistic American, I was a bit offended by Schiff's quote at first.
We're a great nation. We have some great companies. We've got a lot of really, really smart and hard working people. We've been through hard spots before, and always come out on top.
But in those trying times in the past, we faced our problems head on, dealt with them, and moved on.
Not this time HP'ers. We're not dealing with our problems. We're making them even worse.
So, if we continue down this path, Schiff will be right, America will be in a heap of trouble, especially if our foreign sugar daddies cut us off.
If, however, we elect new leadership who makes the hard decisions, and makes us take our medicine, then we'll be fine (in the long run).
But the people are going to have to demand that type of leadership,and demand those tough decisions be made.
The Debt
Social Security
Medicaid
Medicare
Military overspending
Education
Energy
Tax policy
The dollar
Infrastructure
The Fed
Corruption in DC
I could go on.
Americans have been distracted these past 16 years or so by bogus BS issues (flag burning, gay marriage, abortion, etc). And they didn't pay attention to the issues that really mattered for the nation's future.
Now it's time for the grownups.
America is in serious, serious trouble.
We can have more bailouts, more money printing, more borrowing, more sweeping problems under the rug.
Or we can roll up the sleeves, tighten the belt, and do what's needed.
America's in trouble. Trouble of its own making. What will it do?
"If, however, we elect new leadership who makes the hard decisions, and makes us take our medicine, then we'll be fine (in the long run)."
Dream On!
The problems are too big and the leaches will keep fighting for their piece of the pie until this pony keels over and dies. See what the California state "workers" are doing right now. California is bankrupt already but they will scrap and fight over the carcass.
Despite the very clear writing on the wall, as long as oil & energy holds around recent levels I suspect the powers that be will put off the crisis for a bit -- only because they always seem to. Your list of trains rushing down the tunnel looks pretty familiar, like we may have been talking about them for the last 20 years or so.
One day it is going to hit us like a 2X4 between the eyes, but the track record has been pretty good on delaying the inevitable so far.
However, I have been making some prudent investments -- gold, foreign currency plays, firearms & ammo, building up my gardening skills (love those fresh veggies!), etc.
Things certainly could get more interesting, but stall tactics can get us a very long way --- just look at the history.
Well said Keith. I too was a bit offended, but damn sometimes the truth hurts.
All I can say at this point is LISTEN TO PETER SCHIFF and anyone else telling you that things are bad and going to get worse. Do yourself another favor and call the folks at Europacific Capital and talk to some of their investment managers. Great advice, and they don't all agree totally with Peter's doom and gloom analysis, but they do agree that there is tremendous pain coming for the US economy.
My wife and I set up a Europac account last November. We are up over 7% ytd, plus reinvestments in dividend-paying securites. All foreign, and my wealth is growing in non-dollar denominated assets, so the gains, in US terms, are even greater. Compare that with the Dow (down 12%) or the S&P (down 14%), and then factor in the declining dollar and real inflation.
I have nothing to gain by telling people this, other than sharing my experience. I do not work for Peter, nor am I in any way associated with his firm. I am just like all of you - I see trouble ahead and I am looking for ways to protect my family. These people really know what they are doing in these troubled times. Again, do yourself a favor and at least talk to them (www.europac.net).
Full disclosure, I do not have all of our money with Peter's firm, but I mut admit I am tempted to do so. We have a Merril and a Wachovia account, bith of which have TANKED this year. Anyone out there with other investment advise, I'm all ears.
Later...
Ed in NH
Unfortunately disaster capitalism needs more disasters to keep making it's billions... and the old us of a is a disaster thats been postponed for long enough. Schiff is spot on. It's game over time.
He's been right on so far, however I think that he'll overplay things for longer than they are an issue so that he can get his own fleecing in.
OH
MY
GOD
it's like y2k all over again. oh wait...
keith said:
As a patriotic, optimistic American, I was a bit offended by Schiff's quote at first.
=======
LOLZ. you, patriotic? good one dude. thanks for the early morning laugh.
"If, however, we elect new leadership who makes the hard decisions, and makes us take our medicine, then we'll be fine (in the long run)."
...and they lived happily ever after.
Get real Keith. It's more probable that it will rain gold Thalers from the sky than we getting politicians making the right descisions. Society and values are different today than they were in the past. What's in it for me? Will I get re-elected? How can I maximizes profits in the shortest possible time? Whose butt do I need to kiss to keep the $$ coming? Can I push my problems off to somebody else? Spend now, let someone else worry about it later! What will happen after me? Frankly I don't give a damn! I had mine and that's all I care about.
Those are the underlying philosophies of our society. They don't bode well for our collecitve future. There is no political will to face unpleasant truths. All politicians do is try to postpone the inevitable and pray that it won't blow up during their term. It seems like we're getting dangerously close to "IT" blowing up...but who knows?
All you really can do is to prepare on a personal level. Stay healthy (kiss medicare/medicaid good bye), protect your assets (get out of the $$), get out of debt and learn some valuable skills like gardening or getting fit so you can ride your bike for 10+ miles. Yes, a bicycle,...thingy with 2 wheels, entirely muscle powered. Good for getting from point A to point B. No, it's not a Harley I am talking about.
Don't worry - Obama's plan for massive tax hikes and a massive expansion of government will fix this...
"America's in trouble. Trouble of its own making. What will it do?"
IT will die a painful remorseless and much deserved death.
The sooner the better, in my view.
DIE U PIG
Schiff has a way of sugarcoating bad news :)
The former head of Harvard's endowment said to Charlie Rose, "..where are people around the world going to put their money? America protects property rights, there is a respect for the law."
Has he been keeping up with current events? The last 8 years in particular?
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
It will take a whole new set of players and new rules on the American financial side before folks overseas have enough confidence to return in force to our markets.
Peter Schiff is so full of it. America is the greatest nation in the world and that ever existed. Our people are unique and superior to anyone else in the world.
We Americans are tough and ingenious. We will overcome the challenges that lay ahead to form a more better and perfect union.
Besides, America is too big to fail. Also, I say fuck the foreigners. We don't need them. We don't need to listen to them. All we have to do is lower interest rates to zero and then watch the brave American consumer make purchases and then our economy will purr like a kitty again.
THE WORLD NEEDS AMERICA MORE THAN AMERICA NEEDS THE WORLD!!!!
Nick said...
We Americans are tough and ingenious....
Besides, America is too big to fail. Also, I say fuck the foreigners. We don't need them. All we have to do is lower interest rates to zero and then watch the brave American consumer make purchases and then our economy will purr like a kitty again.
THE WORLD NEEDS AMERICA MORE THAN AMERICA NEEDS THE WORLD!!!!
You forgot the "Shining Beacon of Light on the Hilltop of Freedom" part.
JaneZ
Oh one more thing, I don't care about the so called "foreign sugar daddies". We are Americans, who cares what the Japanese, Koreans, Chinese, German, British, Canadians, South Americans, think? I don't. As far as I am concerned, they could all go to hell. Even if they don't lend us more money, we will be fine. Besides, they have no alternative, they invested way too many dollars and now they are either stuck with depreciating dollars or they have to throw good money after bad.So FUCK YOU FOREIGNERS THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT.
Also, if plan A fails, then our military can invade other countries and just take what they have. Might is right.
Had a friend who bought a beach house in the outer banks in NC. She went down there for the last two weeks and it was a eye opener!. Her rental people were talking to her saying don't talk about this, but the first time that they can remember people are not coming to the beach "even after putting down 50% " They would rather lose the 50% then lose a lot more in gas, food, loss of wages and other expenses. Its goes to show that, what we already knew, people are cutting back. Remember these places rent 2300 to 4000 a week. she also said a bunch of those places are heading into foreclose hell.
All you Americans are nothing more than WHINERS.
But, but, but, Phil "Bunsen" Gramm and St John de Tucson sez the recession is just psychological!
And maybe it is for them, what with Gramm's UBS biz and McCain's filthy-rich, pill-popping trollop wife.
'We're a great nation. We have some great companies. We've got a lot of really, really smart and hard working people. We've been through hard spots before, and always come out on top.'
I've been listening to a lot of right-wing radio lately. Is it just me, or does this all sound like the same drivel used to get into a girl's pants?
Until this language stops, cash is paid, and financial promises are broken, NOTHING WILL CHANGE.
We don't need to listen to Schiff anymore.
It's all over, crisis is done.
Didn't you see Cramer last night? He called the bottom.
http://tinyurl.com/6gptew
Cramer's Says:
"Finally there was a bulk sale that put a price at which those bad bonds, the CDOs, could be sold. Granted, Merrill earned only 22 cents on the dollar, getting $6.7 billion from Lone Star Capital on what amounted to $30.6 billion in CDOs. But at least the market found a bottom. Wall Street needed that. Now Citigroup follow Merrill’s lead"
See, Problem solved..... All they have to do is sell all those (Toxic and fraudulent mortgages written from 2005-2007 <-- Cramer's words.) CDOs for twenty two cents on the dollar. Problem solved, and thats why we had yesterday's big "rally". Just like that, housing has bottomed, the fundamentals are strong, the credit crisis is over. Oil is down, Gold is down, , manufactured fictional, err um I mean, "quarterly" earnings are up, BOOYAH!! it's time to BUY BUY BUY!!!
Of course, he didn't mention that the Fed also had another super secret auction yesterday for 75 billion, I wonder how much of that went to the Lehman's 380 million share offer to raise capital. (that they didn't need to cover the CDOs that they just sold for $0.22 on the dollar.)
Coincidence?
I would think that the CDO sale price is a bad thing, I mean, if the mortgages that comprise the CDOs are only worth $0.22 on the dollar wouldn't that indicate that the homes that the mortgages are are on are in turn worth $0.22 on the dollar? Wouldn't that mean that the bottom in housing is now, thanks to the sale, even further away?
Ok, Back to reality...
I hate to say it, Schiff is right, it's something I feel in my own gut. I think in a short while we will look back on the events of the last few weeks and possibly the next month going forward and it will be dubbed the "The Great Denial Rally of 08."
The new housing bill should have been subtitled: "For 10 Years of Economic Stagnation Malaise." Thanks congress, bush
excuse me didn't the rest of the world make all that money off Ameicans and built their economies on American's buying shit at Walmart and the dollar store. Okay I keep asking if George Bush had "experience" as people keep saying Obama has none, why is this country so fucked up. Is this what experience gets you.
I say let them suffer without us buying (from houses to cars to clothes to trinkets to customer service to computers and anything else we use them for) bet you all sorts of attitudes will change. Unless they plan to industralize Africa and put big screen TV's in their huts and computers in the schools they have run out of big spenders unless Chinese plan to buy like American's do. No one spends like American's (proof is the scenes of Chinese and thier traffic)and once you have had a taste of the good life it's hard to go back. Why may I ask is everyone worried about the NAFTA superhighway when you have car pool lanes everywhere for the toyota prius. Just like the great depression the US came out of it and it will again. Maybe a little scarred, maybe a little more thoughtful (as in the depression people thought of food and learned to make do)perhaps with the thought of gas at 4.50 a gallon, loosing their homes, perhaps we can't afford all those toys things will change and that will get us back on the right road.
"America is finished. We are going to destroy this country. Our economy is just going to unravel. The question is how much money is the world going to lose before it writes us off?"
--------------------------------
Translation: Quick. We need to deregulate something else. Maybe the water supply?
"consultant said...
The former head of Harvard's endowment said to Charlie Rose, "..where are people around the world going to put their money? America protects property rights, there is a respect for the law."
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
run this video forward to 1:00 to see how a Bright Yalie interprets the above statement...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kpJZQUd83TM&feature=related
If I was Berrak Obama, I would just say, "Forget it!!!!"...
"I'm not taking over a country that the Bush administration (and the rest of his military and oil industry thugs)destroyed."
Califonia: Billions and billions in the red...
New York: Billions and billions in the red....
Massive loss of jobs, bank failures, home forclosures and a BUSH STARTED WAR that BUSH LOST, a major 9/11 cover-up, out of control energy costs, massive out-of-control spending, home values destroyed, businesses going under, etc, etc, etc....
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!!!!!
ARREST BUSH NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hello????
Congress? House members? Media giants???? Nanci? Kerry? Hillary?
Anyone???
WaAaAaAaA-ooUUoOoOoOooooooooo!!!!!
The Ipod indicator is saying all is well
Quick, we need more social programs like Fanie Mae and Freddie Mac. That will solve all the problems. We will all be rich like the Cubans who are jumping on rafts to get to America.
ummm, all the continents are all in the same boat called earth. thus,we'll either swim or sink together, as they say.
I am deeply offended by Schiff. I understand the bitterness due to his father's incarceration, but he's risking his well-earned reputation with this garbage. If he doesn't cool it, he'll be the new millennium's Joe Granville.
Keep a level head, Peter.
Nick--
Better learn to speak Chinese in a hurry, and stock up on K-Y!!
The Chinese OWN your ass at this point, and you are going to be squeeling like a pig before long!!
Where do you think your govt. borrowed the stimulus money from??
Yeah, American's spend alright, but they can spend only what they BORROW !!!
Once the credit spigot is turned off, Americans are F'd.
I would highly recommend the 8-part you tube series by Peter Schiff to a group of Mtg Brokers on our economy and what's coming...(I think Keith posted one of them the other day)--
We are in debt up to our eyeballs and going down faaaast.
How much is your home worth? Well, it all depends where you live.
The real estate market is still shaking. New data suggests that home prices have hit a new record low. In every new study that comes out, homeowners from Miami, to Las Vegas, Phoenix and Los Angeles, have seen their home value go lower every time.
Is that disappointing? Of course it is.
Should we sell? Is not a good time.
Should we stick to it? Yes, if you can.
Have we hit bottom? Nobody knows.
Banks are facing their worst foreclosure crisis.
Don’t take me wrong, it’s good if you are in the market to buy a home for yourself or if you are an investor, but if you are not, and you own a home, most likely the value of your property is down at least 15 %.
Why do banks care if you are loosing your home? By having to sell repossessed homes, banks have to literally slash their prices down. It gets very costly for them, after all, they have to pay property taxes, maintenance costs, and whatever utilities that need to be paid, all of this expenses for a house that it’s just sitting there, vacant, and the bank is getting nothing in return.
The latest study by the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index of 20 cities, revealed the news that for 22 consecutive months home prices dropped. Only from April to May, 2009 the decline was of 0.9 %
Well, it happened today, congratulations
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25928299/
on Wednesday signed a massive housing bill intended to provide mortgage relief for 400,000 struggling homeowners and stabilize financial markets.
Bush signed the bill without any fanfare or signing ceremony, affixing his signature to the measure he once threatened to veto, in the Oval Office in the early morning hours. He was surrounded by top administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Housing Secretary Steve Preston.
“We look forward to put in place new authorities to improve confidence and stability in markets,” White House spokesman Tony Fratto said. He said that the Federal Housing Administration would begin right away to implement new policies “intended to keep more deserving American families in their homes.”
"If, however, we elect new leadership who makes the hard decisions, and makes us take our medicine, then we'll be fine (in the long run)."
"Dream On!"
Our leaders are picked for us before we ever have a chance to vote. It always has been ...see Nathanial Hawthorne book The house of Seven Gables.
Another book you should check out is Bambie, A Life in the Woods by Austrian Felix Salten 1923. Adolf Hitler banned this book.This book written as a children's book but many believe to be a polical aligory; you have Stock Market Crash; War; Big Brother taking care of you (security) at the expense of freedom, the secret of survival as the world becomes totalitarian.
Highly recommended for the whole family!!
Ed said...
Well said Keith. I too was a bit offended, but damn sometimes the truth hurts.
-------------
You Liberals just don't get it! The world isn't a dooms day. People continue to work in this country. Get a life you freak!
anon 4:46:
One silver lining. You don't need to stock up on K-Y. Chinese people aren't well endowed. You may feel it but it's not going to be a big deal. If we owed tons to Africa we'd be in much worse shape.
-Mike
Peter Schiff is the only man with the BALLS to tell the truth, and it's a truth he has been telling for YEARS.
Like it or not, everything he has predicted, has come to pass. I would advise doing a lot less talking, and a lot more listening.
You can't go wrong listening to Pete, ever. I would bet the farm on his advice.
I'm going to MISS this country! It was nice while it lasted.
All your debt are belong to us!
No wait!
We don't want your debt!
Here, you can have it back!
I'll even loan you the money to buy it back!
PRETTY PLEEEEAAAAASSSSEEEEE!!!!
I would rather live in america than anywhere else.
I am depressed again today.Walmart did not hire me because I failed the drug test.I guess it's time to clean up for good.
I met a hottie at taco bell today.She gave me a free taco and a diet coke.Things are looking up.
Peter schiff is way to doom and gloom.He must be short everything.I wish he would just leave america and go to cuba.
toilet bowl protest tomorrow in DC
join us
http://fedupusa.org/node/24
LIKE THE MONEY MAN WAS SAYING THE PAPER RELATED TO HOUSING IS ONLY WORTH 22 CENTS TO THE DOLLAR SPENT....THATS WHAT I WILL BE OFFERING...................FOR CLEAR TITLES AND DEEDS...............
No reason to get offended.
The US will get through it. It won't be the economic super power it was, but assuming the great fall knocks some sense into people there's no reason the US won't build back up.
It isn't going to be a pleasant fall though. I'm not sure that the average American is going to cope with their standard of living dropping through the floor.
But nations get through such things. See the collapse of the USSR and Russia now. Germany and hyperinflation in the 1920s, and Germany now.
It isn't unpatriotic to point out the problems the country is facing. The opposite is true, it's unpatriotic to stick your head in the sand and pretend everything is great.
To Nick:
You are right, America is too big. Too fat, obese and lazy.
The kids are fat and obese. Doesn't bode well for the future,eh?
"Americans have been distracted these past 16 years or so by bogus BS issues (flag burning, gay marriage, abortion, etc). And they didn't pay attention to the issues that really mattered for the nation's future."
-----------------------------------
More like 40 years. The Libertarians launched their counterattack on the New Deal forty years ago.
"Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil."
Jeremiah 13:23
In other words, NOPE!
We are who we are, we are what we are, and we will continue on our same unchangeable path to our inevitable Fate.
The federal government has morphed into an Enron-like entity.
By using Enron as a comparative model, we can predict how this 'ship of tools' will respond to this ongoing 'crisis' that is entirely symptomatic of their corrupt mismanagement.
Maybe we can default on our debt and then buy it back for 22 cents on the dollar...just a thought.
Absolutely shocking.
I thought it was bad when Regan bailed out Chrysler.
This situation is 100 times worse.
There is nothing average citizens can do. We could write to our congressman all we want, they do as they please. Dont care about anyone else outside their realm.
Why would government want to give homeowners a 15,000 loan?! Its absurd and totally unacceptable, but they will do it anyway.
I wonder if the homeowner can do whatever he wants with his "free loan" footed by the taxpayer?
Spend it and then go forclosure anyway? How will government collect on this if they go bankrupt?
Its going to cause a domino effect of housing forclosures for sure. The homeowners who "bought up" and actually put down a huge chunk of change from their previous home will also end up being forclosed on due to the fact their house is worth a lot less than what they paid for it. No area will be spared. My hunch is that prices will never recover, then everyone will bail out.
Loans should only be given to people who have a substantial downpayment and have the means of paying off the mortgage. With prices so out of wack with incomes, I just dont see how it will happen.
You are right. Our entire country is run like ENRON, only the corruption is far more pervasive, and just WORSE on every level.
Everything Bush has touched is in RUIN. There is not one thing about our country or economy that has been spared his gross mismanagement!!
SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS
Oooooh, yeahh right about the Chinese....no K-Y needed for those "Little Smokie sausages"
Now that is "glass half full thinking"!! haaaaaaaaa
After reading this quote from Peter Schiff I'm now convinced that Peter posts on this site under the name Andrew Hac.
Peter, you like the snapper turtle or what???
-Mike
What Schiff wanted to say was...
ENJOY THE DIE OFF!!!!!!!
People are really not ready to hear that message though...
Won't change anything not hearing it...
It's coming...fast...you best get some food together.
"Anonymous said...
Absolutely shocking.
I thought it was bad when Regan bailed out Chrysler.
This situation is 100 times worse."
I understand why you post anon, because YOU ARE STUPID.
First and Last time: Chrysler recieved a LOAN GUARANTEE, NOT A BAIL OUT!!! Chrysler repaid their Loan so early that the government didn't know how to negotiate their repayment check - True Story.
Why not pull your head out-of-your-ass and at least get the facts straight retard.
The shit hapening today will never be repaid and the taxpayed gets burned. NOT tha case with Chrysler.
Get it, stupid? Go order some more cheese doodles and nachos JSP, NASCAR on soon.
IDIOTS
Don't you worry Americans, Hussein Obama and the Democratic Party are in charge now. Once the Messiah waves his magic wand, food stamps and section 8 housing and bailouts will fall from the sky.
Then Boxer, Feinstein and Pelosi will be at the border giving cookies to welcome another wave of 20 million illiterate illegals who will breed like flies into another 80 million. And as they breed and breed like crazy rabbits, more and more crooked Mexicans will be elected into office or fill our prisons at a cost of $80k per inmate. It's already happening in California. Washington state and Oregon will be next, so you Birskenstock-granola bar-code monkeys better spin that hamster wheel faster because the illegals are coming for your wallet and to run your cities to the ground.
Your country is doomed!
Califonia: Billions and billions in the red...
New York: Billions and billions in the red....
ill add one
New Jersey: Billions and billions in the red....
What do they all have in common?
They've been run by fiscally irresponsible socialist welfare state Democrats for a long, long time. Wait till that other one "St. Barry" brings this to us on a nationwide scale. See you all on the soup lines, sheeple!
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Nick--
Better learn to speak Chinese in a hurry, and stock up on K-Y!!
The Chinese OWN your ass at this point, and you are going to be squeeling like a pig before long!!
Where do you think your govt. borrowed the stimulus money from??
July 30, 2008 4:46 PM
Who cares? The Chinese have no other alternative than to continue to dump their dollars in America and finance our way of life.
It's not my fault that the rest of the world wants to fight over who gives us their capital. There you have it, Yankee Ingenuity: we spend and consume and they toil and work!!!
I dunno, but it is strange they have this article on the front page of the NYT tonight.
http://tinyurl.com/6r4tk4
funny to read all the misinformation that passes for knowledge on this blog...
California isn't 'broke'..there are several public properties that could be sold off and cover the states budget for centuries..
what is broke is the process by which a budget for deciding how to allocate taxes and other state spending.. once there is a budget things will stablize and move on... and California has the one thing no other state has.. its voters can place binding resolutions on the state ballot to be voted on .. passed.. and then enforced...
New York was run by Republican governor for those critical years leading up to the current administration.. there is more than enough blame to go around for the current mess... if there was a citizens proposition process like in CA this whole economic shell game would have been cleaned up yeras ago..
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