I'm back...

July 25, 2008

I'm back...

Kinda strange being away from civilization for a week. Anything happen?

64 comments:

Anonymous said...: Oh my God ,a whole lot of shit happened when you were gone . You better catch on everything Keith .; July 25, 2008 10:05 PM
Frank R said...: Yes, I learned that I'm VERY happy not to "own":

Our a/c went out again, odd for a place just built in 2004. A/C guy came out and determined that the entire compressor is shot, $2,500 to replace.

To top it all, the reason the compressor is wasted is because the HOA's sprinklers were way out of whack and shooting all over the place and hitting the compressor, destroying it.

I hope the owner has enough brains to go after them for the cost of the new compressor. And I'm happy not to have to pay for it. Or even arrange for the repairs :); July 25, 2008 10:11 PM
Anonymous said...: Keith....

You were gone too long... You missed it, it's all over..

Everyone is calling bottom in housing, financials, and stocks. Oil is dropping like well, Oil. DOW is up, and everyone is buying iPods.

Seems all it took was a bailout for Fannie and Freddie and W. to repeal the OCS Drilling ban, and it's all fixed. It's blue skies from here on out. Everything is great, even WAMU.

Everything is great, housing panic over, I am going to go call my Realtor and buy while it's still the best time to buy. Heck I may even get my license.

Seriously, Welcome back, hope the trip was fun.; July 25, 2008 10:11 PM
Anonymous said...: UBS is getting some long overdue attention.

Smug Bastard; July 25, 2008 10:12 PM
blogger said...: quick scan of headlines, looks like candidates for posts tomorrow are:

* Bush confirms his status as The Worst President Ever as he goes against his own words and the vast, vast majority of his doomed party to sign Dodd's corrupt housing gambler bad banker bailout bill

* When WaMu fails and the sheeple are outside the branches saying they had no warning, should we be upset?

* It doesn't appear Mozilo or Perry were arrested last week. Maybe the feds are waiting for an "october surprise"?

* Fannie and Freddie common stock is still trading. Why?

* Obama draws 200,000 in Germany, while McCain would be pelted with rocks and garbage if he ever showed his face in public in Europe. The 2008 election is over, and I truly feel sorry for McCain and the GOP.

* Lawrence Yun calls bottom again. America laughs. And the MSM prints Yun's comments without questioning.

* UK bubble enabler Gordon Brown to be shown the door in the UK within days

* Ramen eaters splurging, going with Mac & Cheese, thinking we've hit housing bottom and 6% is in the bag

* Oil bubble popped; July 25, 2008 10:34 PM
Anonymous said...: how come you left us hanging? that wasn't very nice. I was thinking that the folks after Casey got to you to!; July 25, 2008 10:38 PM
Anonymous said...: The oil bubble hasn't popped. We're just seeing a little pullback. All Americans could buy Priuses, and the GLOBAL supply-demand picture, and the demise of the dollar, will still drive oil higher.

NOW is when you should create your blog threads hyping oil, gold and silver. It's the dips where we should get excited, as they are buying opportunities.

You're just like the lemmings who took out option ARMs, Keith, only in a sideways fashion.; July 25, 2008 10:51 PM
Anonymous said...: keith,

it's the same 'ol, same 'ol thing...nothing's really changed...we're just in deeper shit this week than we were last week...still heading straight toward global financial armageddon. oh, yes, the Criminals of the United States of America (formerly known as Congress of the USA) have decided to try to stop judgement day from coming, but nothing really serious has happened since you left. you coulda taken another week!; July 25, 2008 11:04 PM
Anonymous said...: Welcome back, Keith. We missed your sane voice in this crazy world.

If you notice any strange cars parked outside your house, though, be warned: the FDIC chairwoman thinks certain bloggers "know too much."

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/07/fdic-chairman-shelia-bair-is-out-of.html; July 25, 2008 11:10 PM
Anonymous said...: Nothing, go back to sleep, traitor; July 25, 2008 11:25 PM
Anonymous said...: just in time keith

wamu is on life support....; July 25, 2008 11:27 PM
Anonymous said...: frank, i see you bought one of those custom homes with the cheap air conditioning units........; July 25, 2008 11:28 PM
Anonymous said...: well obama made many stops. of course all of our presidents or presidential candidates, have to go put a note in the wailing wall in jerusalem in order to tell the jews that they are in full support of whatever it is that they want them to do, no matter that they are american presidential candidates...our country dies, but we pay them in euros. they take most of the foreign aid budget and cause hate and discontent in the middle east and it has been that way since the mid 1940's but we are told they are our only friends........yeh sure. with friends like them who needs enemies....; July 25, 2008 11:31 PM
Anonymous said...: Welcome back Keith. Hope you had a great trip.

I would start off with the WaMu headline. Stock price below $4 per share is bad sign. We need to warn the good folks before they go the way of IMB customers.; July 25, 2008 11:38 PM
Anonymous said...: NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc agreed to pay departing executive Michael Klein about $42.6 million, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday.

Klein, a former investment banking head, is receiving roughly as much as the bank awarded Charles Prince, the Citi chairman and chief executive, who retired in November as the bank prepared to post billions of dollars of write-downs; July 25, 2008 11:40 PM
Anonymous said...: Welcome back, Keith! I was so glad to see your back! I love your blog!; July 25, 2008 11:41 PM
The DA said...: Keith man you were gone too long!!! I neglected to read one of your posts and didn't realize you were leaving for a week...Started searching internet notices for missing persons!!

Really though in addition to the meltdown we are seeing I despise the sneaky legislative item crawling under the bailout bill - you know the one where PAYPAL and others have to start reporting on payouts of $10K or more yearly or on persons with more than 200 transactions....

Seems like the taxing never ceases.; July 25, 2008 11:43 PM
Anonymous said...: Russian stock market plummets! Did you talk to Putin?

http://tinyurl.com/5r86az; July 25, 2008 11:46 PM
Anonymous said...: Looking good Keith, you are little less furry all over in this picture but not by much.; July 25, 2008 11:54 PM
Anonymous said...: Dont forget the sad sad story of the poor woman ho was forced to kill herself because "her" house was going to be foreclosed upon. I guess they dont have rentals in the town she came from.

its unbelievable how the MSM is playing her self imposed death due to her self imposed problem as a tragic result of the "foreclosure crisis" Are we, my fellow citizens really this retarded?; July 25, 2008 11:56 PM
Anonymous said...: Kudlow's having wet dreams about Reagan playing old grainy clips between shouting matches. Old man needs to be put out to pasture.

This clusterfuck won't be over till the dow falls below 10,000, Citigroup, and General Motors go bankrupt.

SELL SELL SELL !!!; July 26, 2008 12:29 AM
Anonymous said...: The Senate will gather tomorrow for a RARE Saturday session to pass the big RIPOFF socialist for the wealthy and corrupt bankers BAILOUT plan.

Millions of us still have no health coverage. Just gotta love this shit.; July 26, 2008 12:35 AM
-FutureShock- said...: Welcome back! Hope you had a good break.

This is just the calm before the storm.; July 26, 2008 12:49 AM
Anonymous said...: Keith,

I thought for a second the SEC and FED had come for you. They issue a statement last week that they were going to start going after anyone making statements or spreading rumors about the current situation.

Good to see it wasn't the case. But you never know with the way things are going it might just happen.; July 26, 2008 12:58 AM
Anonymous said...: Frank,
It's a good thing you don't own. Sprinklers can't distroy a compressor (they're waterproof). It would be like your car being distroyed by rain! New compressors cost about $8,000, not $2500. The repair guy probably changed the relay (a $35.00 part) and charged the owner $2500. He probably cleaned it up with some 409.; July 26, 2008 1:00 AM
Anonymous said...: Keith,
You need to let us know when you are going to be gone for any extended period of time. I was about to contact the state dept. or some shit, thought they had sent a black car after your a$$. Anyway I’m glad you are back and alright! I have been a daily reader from the beginning…; July 26, 2008 1:05 AM
Anonymous said...: Keith,

Oh and Keith, I think you need to put a ticker as to when a housing blog will be shut down by the fed. I think we can bet that sooner or later as things get worst the FED will be out with a vengeance in trying to shut free speech down. Prepare.; July 26, 2008 1:05 AM
Anonymous said...: Keith,

Glad your back - I've been hanging out a Ticker Forum. Check it out. . . .

They have a tight crew and they got A LOT accomplolished while you were gone . . . They could care less about where you vacation; but we all have the same aggenda.

37,000+ hits and counting on their video within the past 36 hours.

This isn't the FedUpUSA site but it is a link to the AWESOME video they put out. . . . . .

http://theseuncertaintimes.blogspot.com/

Beignet; July 26, 2008 1:08 AM
Anonymous said...: Written on Sunday July 20 by Jim Kunstler
http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/clusterfuck_nation/

Keith, here's a great recap. I just had to copy it all here:

The comprehensive bankruptcy of the United States, at every level, in all corners, atop each hill and mole-hill, and down not a few rat-holes, is preceding like some kind of hideous multi-media, inter-dimensional cosmic grand opera as produced and directed by the Devil. Every week, some bizarre new subplot is introduced by the stage managers, each turn and twist geared to produce maximum pain and carnage in the US economy, as if to foreclose any possibility of redemption on the way down. Well, the absence of hope is, after all, the essential nature of Hell (setting aside, for the moment, J.P. Sartre's quaint notion that Hell is other people).
Among the many developments in the story last week was the solidifying consensus that the nation is in really serious trouble, and the noticeable slippage of legitimacy among those pretending to run financial affairs. The howler of the week was the Securities and Exchange Commission's edict that Wall Street sportsters would be prohibited from trafficking in so-called "naked short" sales against a cherry-picked bunch of 19 banks and financial companies for the next two weeks. A cute trick, naked shorting is done by pretending to borrow a bunch of stocks, pretending to sell them high just before the share-price falls, pretending to buy them back at a lower price when the share price has fallen, and then pretending to return exactly the same number of lower-priced shares to the lender, pocketing the difference. Real shorting is cute enough, and involves "clearing" the sales -- i.e. proving that real stocks were really lent and really returned. Shorting is helped along by generating rumors that a given company is in trouble, thus nudging share prices down. This works really well when a company already is known to be struggling, as many now are. In fact, it usually works best when a struggle turns into a feeding-frenzy -- as when a bleeding mullet attracts the swarming sharks. When this scam is run using odd-lots of millions and tens-of-millions of shares sharked up at many dollars each, the profits to be made in this sport is obviously huge.
With naked shorting, however, the stocks being shorted are basically non-existent, imaginary, made-up, fictional, registered only as pixels in a program. It's a racket, pure and simple, run by both the supposed borrower of the stocks and the supposed lender and, more to the point, was wholly and absolutely against the law before the SEC declared a selective holiday from it last week. So, what the SEC action really demonstrates is the utter lawlessness reigning on Wall Street, and the SEC's singular unfitness as an enforcer of the laws, not to mention the criminal irresponsibility of the clearing authorities who only pretend to go through the motions of certifying the sales. What's more, the companies cherry-picked for immunity against shorting were some of the very companies believed to be most active in profiting off naked short sales against other companies.
Thus, the credibility of all the authorities in American finance, including the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Paulson, the head of the Federal Reserve, Mr. Bernanke, the director of the SEC, Mr. Cox, takes on the aroma of week-old dead carp, while the affairs of American banking and business as a general proposition look to the rest of the world like a simple looting operation, reflecting poorly on the paper certificates that we use as "money" in the land of the free. The odor of blood and desperation around these activities must be sending a strong signal to those offshore who hold American dollars in some form or other. It must make them rather itchy to dump them while the dumping is good -- before some clever American B-School Boyz figure out a way to short their own country (if they haven't already done that). Finally, Mr. Bush presides at a remove from all this, sitting just offstage in his own special velveteen loge of Hell, watching this opera-to-end-all-operas, and waiting for his reputation to be sealed as the historical equivalent of something found in a colostomy bag.
The sub-plot of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac just lends a romantic edge to the show. You could spin it off as a sitcom called "The Fucked and the Feckless." This would include all the poor shlubs who signed $XXX-K mortgage contracts, for houses now worth $XXX-K-minus-XX-K (and still sinking), as well as the shareholders, who saw their share prices approach penny stock range (especially the pensioners whose fund managers gorged on Fannie and Freddie paper) and not least the sovereign wealth funds of China and Russia. Those responsible for fucking everybody, the investment bankers who engineered the tranches of securitized bundled non-performing mortgages, and pocketed huge fees for doing so, are now conniving to off-load the liability of all this worthless paper on the taxpayers, led by chief conniver, Secretary Paulson.
Meanwhile, the runs on the banks are just beginning with Indymac last week and Whachovia warming up to catch the baton this week, with more banks waiting to enter the relay race to insolvency. It's becoming obvious that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will choke and croak on this wad of losses, and its liabilities will also be fobbed onto the taxpayers. In the meantime, though, it will be obvious that the full faith backing of the United States is an empty promise. That may be the near-term endgame for all this pretending. When American depositors get screwed out of their deposits and the deposit insurance doesn't come through, the full force of the fiasco will drag the dollar underwater like the legendary Kraken of old preying on a babe thrown overboard.
Then the forces of darkness will really be loosed.
Things may get so chaotic that Mr. Bush and his circle may actually be removed from the scene before his term in office expires. He could go out of office much the way he came in: by means unconventional. Mrs. Pelosi will keep the seat in the oval office warm for a few months. Then the prosecutions will begin.; July 26, 2008 1:13 AM
Anonymous said...: Keith! Good to hear you're well!

NEWS: The Nuremberg Trials are ready for Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and McCain.

Other than that, the White House says its Obama's fault that gas prices are so high.; July 26, 2008 1:34 AM
Anonymous said...: i said to myself, he musta really needed a rest. good for you. Although I was sorta thinking Bush sent someone after you and they were successful. Guess not, does that make me the sky is falling kinda person.; July 26, 2008 1:41 AM
Anonymous said...: Well, the wacko tree sitters in Berkley are still at it. Complete with throwing urine at anyone who comes close to their "tree".

This Tueday is when the University finally gets enough courage to evict them.

Liberalism truly is a mental disorder...; July 26, 2008 1:44 AM
Anonymous said...: OK, I copied this from somewhere (can't remember where), but it's a good piece:

>Through the years of the housing boom, many Americans came to treat their homes like automated teller machines that never required a deposit. They harvested cash through sales, second mortgages and home equity lines of credit — an artery of finance that reached $840 billion a year from 2004 to 2006, according to work by the economists James Kennedy and Alan Greenspan [hugh???]. That allowed Americans to live far in excess of what they brought home from work.

But by the first three months of this year, that flow had constricted to an annual rate of about $200 billion.
Average household debt has swelled to 120 percent of annual income, up from 60 percent in 1984, according to the Federal Reserve.
And now the banks are turning off the credit taps.

"Credit is going to remain tight for a time potentially measured in years," said Mr. Tilton, the Goldman Sachs economist.; July 26, 2008 2:19 AM
Anonymous said...: Welcome Back Keith!

Amidst all the big stories, here's a little gem that neatly sums up the Bubbletimes:

The winner of one of the "Extreme Makeover Home Edition" houses milked all the equity they could--to start a construction biz!

http://perezhilton.com/2008-07-25-extreme-foreclosure

(Sorry no tinyurl); July 26, 2008 2:49 AM
Unknown said...: Foreclosure suicide:
http://tinyurl.com/6nzg38; July 26, 2008 2:49 AM
Anonymous said...: Don't worry Keith. You didn't miss any more than the average dumbass American glued to Fox News, CNN and MSNBC would have missed.

For example, today we had the Congressional Judicial Hearings that were formerly known as impeachment hearings against George W Bush but the accessories to the crime in CONgress couldn't allow any nasty talk against our wonderful leader so they banned any mention of "impeachment" or crime from the hearings.

Of course, our wonderful media will barely mention this historical hearing but you can see a repeat on CSPAN tonight at 8:00pm. Very dramatic stuff and a lot of guilty looking CONgressmen trying to belittle and shutdown the hearings.

You can also go to infowars.com for some real information on what is happening to this country. Here are some excerpts from the hearing:

John Conyers and the Constitutional Clock

Video: Vincent Bugliosi’s Testimony Before the House Judiciary Committee

Kucinich’s Statement in Judiciary Hearing; July 26, 2008 3:00 AM
Anonymous said...: Wow thought maybe Countrywide kidnapped you was checking all area hospitals for anyone named keith welcome back almost felt like a 5-4 vote not reading you for a week; July 26, 2008 3:11 AM
Chris said...: "It doesn't appear Mozilo or Perry were arrested last week. Maybe the feds are waiting for an 'october surprise'?

IndyMac is being investigated for appraisal fraud. It's the beginning of the end for Perry, and the first in a long line of steps toward free conjugal visits with Bubba.

Also, Wamu is f**ked. Gimme Credit reports people are taking out their money from Wamu at a higher rate than normal.

The biggest surprise was the bounce in some of the financial stocks earlier this week. FirstFed's stock went up over 40% in one day because their monthly deliquency numbers came out and it wasn't completely catastrophic. The stock is tanking hard again though.; July 26, 2008 3:21 AM
DCfred said...: Thousands line up two blocks from the White House for a chance of saving their home from foreclosure!

http://www.nbc4.com/news/16968123/detail.html; July 26, 2008 4:13 AM
Anonymous said...: This is a job for Steve Austin.
Shakster; July 26, 2008 4:17 AM
bay400 said...: I have been looking to buy a home for two years-sold my house at the peak. I looked at a house 1 1/2 years ago-fabulous location. The house is 25 years old-extremely dated, needs lots of updating and renovation. The seller was asking 900k-I told my realtor the guy was crazy and my realtor agreed-The seller said he wouldn't let go of it for under 800K. The seller called my realtor a couple of days ago (remember this house has sat on the market for 1 1/2 years) and asked if we were still interested. My realtor told him that we might still be interested for about 500k. The guy said he would think about it. Well, he thought about it and is willing to consider that price. Interesting thing is that this is an older gentleman-original owner of the house-Why would he have held out for so long for such an absurd price?; July 26, 2008 4:23 AM
Anonymous said...: The deeks in the provda-esque MSM finally admit that Toyota has overtaken Gebrony Motors.
More meth heads ,and thieves have surfaced in my area.
Arnold is posturing in Califuckya.
voters still suck; July 26, 2008 4:26 AM
Anonymous said...: Stocks looked good then went to hell. NV multi-branch bank now closed.; July 26, 2008 4:53 AM
Casey Serin said...: Keith, you missed my putting up some e-book crap at my website, escapemyhouse.com ...

I pulled it for the time being, because I'm a bipolar flipper who can't make any decision without flip-flopping 46 times.

Oh well, for those who want to see how gay I currently look, here's my latest picture... :-); July 26, 2008 5:17 AM
Anonymous said...: Housing gambler bill. 800B blank check.

Bush now wants to sign now. Flip flopped.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzjlaiIXqHM; July 26, 2008 5:48 AM
Anonymous said...: Keith, what are you saying??? I can't hear you! I am stuck in shit ear deep. Last thing I heared is we have bottomed...aks Lawernce Yun! Go long WaMu and Wachovia!; July 26, 2008 6:15 AM
Anonymous said...: Two more banks just failed
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121703904765687047.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

All day friday..... crickets. The MSM hid it until early saturday morning. American public still ignorant of what is happening.; July 26, 2008 6:16 AM
Anonymous said...: Keith,

Now all of our credit card information goes straight to the IRS. This was slipped into the Fannie/Freddie bailout while the sheeple were sleeping.

RayNLA; July 26, 2008 6:38 AM
Anonymous said...: Frank@Scottsdale-Sucks.com said...
Yes, I learned that I'm VERY happy not to "own":

Our a/c went out again, odd for a place just built in 2004. A/C guy came out and determined that the entire compressor is shot, $2,500 to replace.

To top it all, the reason the compressor is wasted is because the HOA's sprinklers were way out of whack and shooting all over the place and hitting the compressor, destroying it.

I hope the owner has enough brains to go after them for the cost of the new compressor. And I'm happy not to have to pay for it. Or even arrange for the repairs.

______________________________________________________________________

Frank,

You sure you live in Newport Beach and not Scottsdale?

You don't need AC in Newport Beach Frank! I am in HB and we don't even have AC.

Come Clean Frankie!!!

RayNLA; July 26, 2008 6:47 AM
Anonymous said...: Well, China is bullying another one of its neighbor and even threatening the biggest American corp. Exxon Mobile, but no response from the oil team in the White House yet.

www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSPEK26269420080720; July 26, 2008 7:47 AM
Anonymous said...: Here is another link to an editorial:

http://www.ibdeditorials.com/FeaturedCategories.aspx?sid=1812; July 26, 2008 8:14 AM
Anonymous said...: Man, you scared the b-geezus out of me. I though that "our" blog was under siege by the crooks that run the country.; July 26, 2008 9:13 AM
Anonymous said...: Oh well, for those who want to see how gay I currently look, here's my latest picture... :-)

That must be the gayest emo look I've ever seen. We should have Casey in one of those Conan O'Brien TV Screens, like Arnold S. and Don King. Only his mouth would move to yell, "Sweeeet!", every a few seconds.; July 26, 2008 9:29 AM
Anonymous said...: I'm glad that you're back, Keith, since I'm more available to chat than hookers on Sunset Boulevard.; July 26, 2008 9:32 AM
shtove said...: Thought you were dead. Welcome back.; July 26, 2008 10:28 AM
Blueyz said...: I thought the Feds closed down the blog too!! I have been wondering how many crooked realtors/mortgage brokers it took to bring us down. Now I find they had a lot of help. Here is a link to the Miami expose about how State regulators (in Florida) allowed thousands of ex-convicts to enter a profession that gave them access to the most sensitive and personal financial information: credit cards, bank accounts and Social Security numbers.

You are right Keith - transparency is here for all to finally understand what is happening to our country.

Here's the link:
http://www.miamiherald.com/multimedia/news/mortgage/brokers.html; July 26, 2008 12:57 PM
Anonymous said...: Welcome Back Keith, Hope you had a good time. I really missed the blog last week I never though I be on a blog and learning so much. I am very grateful to everyone on the blog. But I did know to sell my house in 2005 and rent . :) I'M JUST LEARNING A LOT MORE TKS AGAIN EVERYONE :); July 26, 2008 4:40 PM
Anonymous said...: sigh.... housing bill passes 72-13, dubbya to sign as soon as he gets it.

Nice to see you Keith! Got worried there for a bit, when the latest post was dated July 18th....

... though, word to the wise, leiderhosen doesn't do your legs justice, and the beard makes you look too much like Radovan Karadzic....; July 26, 2008 5:08 PM
Anonymous said...: "...we're just in deeper shit this week than we were last week.."

I find this quote inspirational in these troubled times:

"I'm deeper than the shit I'm in, and I don't give a damn." - Iggy Pop; July 26, 2008 5:10 PM
Anonymous said...: i believe that some people would have air conditioning in places like newport beach, where they really don't need air conditioning.

kind of like when slaves fanned the pharoahs in egypt.

so, a total waste of money. i mean it's hot like 5 days a year near the coast. get a fan and toughen up; July 26, 2008 5:20 PM
blogger said...: Man, I told you guys I'd be gone for a week (see the post with the castle picture). Gotta pay attention!

It was really weird having no idea what was happening out there. I just pictured Mozilo being arrested and me not being around for it.

I think we should start making plans now for that day. Mozilo Arrest Day. Some sort of celebration will be called for.; July 26, 2008 6:16 PM
Frank R said...: McCain would be pelted with rocks and garbage if he ever showed his face in public in Europe.

That alone is reason to vote for him. Anyone who is accepted in Europe with their irrational anti-Americanism is BAD NEWS.

It will be amusing to watch four years of the Obama Catastrophe ... and people thought Bush was bad?

LOL; July 26, 2008 7:22 PM
Miss Goldbug said...: How could you leave us and not say anything??

I know...you deserve a vacation, but really, let us know next time!

The SHTF last week with the cake topper on Friday of two banks getting FDIC'd. Wonder what's in store this week?; July 27, 2008 6:24 AM
Anonymous said...: Glad to see you are back. I thought your site was taken down because it spoke the truth.; July 27, 2008 4:37 PM

HousingPANIC - The Housing Bubble Blog with an Attitude Problem, 2005 - 2008

July 25, 2008

I'm back...

64 comments:

About Me

HP blogs & websites

Blog Archive