tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post2500288134470020406..comments2023-12-30T10:06:37.450+00:00Comments on HousingPANIC - The Housing Bubble Blog with an Attitude Problem, 2005 - 2008: Open thread to talk about Bernanke's move todaybloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06585266242070350399noreply@blogger.comBlogger83125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-76002086015584507592008-01-31T15:13:00.000+00:002008-01-31T15:13:00.000+00:00Gavin said: "Blowing a bubble requires the availab...Gavin said: "Blowing a bubble requires the availability of credit, and right now there is none."<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>Agree. Anyone who thinks otherwise is in for a lot of pain.Miss Goldbughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10801986805626811706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-53399531114742685622008-01-31T15:09:00.000+00:002008-01-31T15:09:00.000+00:00"DOES ANYONE OUT THERE AGREE WITH CRAMER????"Hell ..."DOES ANYONE OUT THERE AGREE WITH CRAMER????"<BR/><BR/><BR/>Hell No! cramer is the biggest shill there is. <BR/><BR/>If you want to get burned bad, and dont mind losing all your money, then by no means do what cramer says to do.Miss Goldbughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10801986805626811706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-36055330536653589292008-01-31T15:02:00.000+00:002008-01-31T15:02:00.000+00:00DCFred said:"just discovered something which does ...DCFred said:"just discovered something which does not augur well for the future.<BR/><BR/>The treasury used to allow individuals to buy up to $30,000, per calendar year, of I-bonds, which are tax-deferred for up to 30 years. I just found out that they have reduced the limit to $5000 per CY, per individual. The only reason to do this would be that the government expects high inflation and they want to limit their exposure. Aint looking good, Kido."<BR/><BR/><BR/>I heard this news last week also. 5,000 per bond catagory is nothing! <BR/><BR/>When the feds resort to this we are in REALLY bad trouble!Miss Goldbughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10801986805626811706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-84704291301115407612008-01-31T14:55:00.000+00:002008-01-31T14:55:00.000+00:00Ben can try to create a new bubble in the stock ma...Ben can try to create a new bubble in the stock market, but its not going to work. Has anyone noticed the market is reacting less and less to his rate cuts? <BR/><BR/>The market is over valued and rate cuts will do nothing to get the dow back to 12,000. I see the dow floating down to 8,000 in less than 2 years. <BR/><BR/>In the meantime, beware - dont listen to these 'economists' who say the only way to grow your retirement fund is through the stock market! <BR/><BR/>Go safe with your money, or else you'll be sorry...Miss Goldbughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10801986805626811706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-83541771920665928052008-01-31T10:20:00.000+00:002008-01-31T10:20:00.000+00:00To e34 - Rick James says, 'Hell yeah!'That's why m...To e34 - Rick James says, 'Hell yeah!'<BR/><BR/>That's why my Momma's house in 1959 cost $10,000. Too bad I slapped the sheriff and they repo'd that beyatch!I'm Rick James, beyatch!https://www.blogger.com/profile/01501505891091148411noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-18020474403768875382008-01-31T09:40:00.000+00:002008-01-31T09:40:00.000+00:00Dudes, did you see this new chick with Jim Cramer....Dudes, did you see this new chick with Jim Cramer. I couldn't hear anything he was saying :)Martin Hristoforovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16697312269465297697noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-38096733434300106302008-01-31T09:31:00.000+00:002008-01-31T09:31:00.000+00:00Danny, all retailers slash prices after the holida...Danny, all retailers slash prices after the holidays. They have a lot of unsold inventory that has to go, so they can get the spring stuff in. Idiot.<BR/><BR/>MartyMartin Hristoforovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16697312269465297697noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-6373670396564645452008-01-31T07:50:00.000+00:002008-01-31T07:50:00.000+00:00I am by no means an expert in economics, but from ...I am by no means an expert in economics, but from all what I have been reading regarding the tanking dollar on this blog, I agree with Cramer. If the value of the dollar sinks, then more $$$ are needed to buy everyday things which means inflation. If I buy a house now that is in foreclosure at 50% of top value and inflation hits, then that 50% price I paid is even smaller.<BR/><BR/>I am just trying to learn to know what's the best thing I can do for my future. I don't understand the stock market enough to short or not short stocks and hoping in the long run that real estate will be my savings in 20-30 years.<BR/><BR/>E34 in NovaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-25420059001614125552008-01-31T04:56:00.000+00:002008-01-31T04:56:00.000+00:00If you want to get really angry, watch Mike Mandel...If you want to get really angry, watch Mike Mandel's video on Businesweek today:<BR/>With a straight face:<BR/>"The subprime crisis started when the Fed raised interest rates".<BR/>http://preview.tinyurl.com/yuf24n<BR/>Hellooo???<BR/>Another sad day for the fiscally responsible. A dying breed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-46858887140856182832008-01-31T04:35:00.000+00:002008-01-31T04:35:00.000+00:00Notes on Cramer's Mad Money show calling it a scre...Notes on Cramer's Mad Money show calling it a screaming bull market BUY!<BR/><BR/>http://tinyurl.com/3642sxAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-60034957719055896092008-01-31T04:28:00.001+00:002008-01-31T04:28:00.001+00:00This last week has looked like a fool's rally to m...This last week has looked like a fool's rally to me. Remember the dot.com bust. Fed started cutting in Jan 2001 and the stock market finally bottomed in March 2003.<BR/><BR/>As for foreign currency, I would recommend the Yen or the Swiss Franc. The Euro in my mind is almost as flawed as the dollar. The ECB is all to willing to devalue the Euro by cutting interest rates and injecting liquidity. <BR/><BR/>-ChrisAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-56282243764208707722008-01-31T04:28:00.000+00:002008-01-31T04:28:00.000+00:00Cramer just called the bottom tonight. He's buyin...Cramer just called the bottom tonight. He's buying banks, homebuilders, and he insists he's gonna buy a house now.<BR/><BR/>No kidding.<BR/><BR/>Buy a house. I know shorting is crazy right now. And you cant find the fed. But he believes the market will be WAY up in 9 months or so.<BR/><BR/>He's going by history of rate cuts over the last 30 years. Will history repeat? Or are things different this time.<BR/><BR/><BR/>DOES ANYONE OUT THERE AGREE WITH CRAMER????Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-75073985365256681022008-01-31T04:07:00.000+00:002008-01-31T04:07:00.000+00:00We have seen the last American Century. (1900-2000...We have seen the last American Century. (1900-2000) This next century will belong to others, while America slips into second- and maybe even third-class nation status. The money people who destroyed America won't care. Like soon-to-be-ex-Prez , they will be living on their stolen dollars in Paraguay, or some similar backwater, which is certainly welcome to them...... The corporations and manufacturing jobs need to come home. ....However, that isn't going to happen.<BR/>Nor are Americans going to stand up and demand a decent living wage. The unions have been smashed,<BR/>with the full approval of American wage earners.<BR/>Sure, they we are working longer and harder than ever before. our children will work even harder and longer again for less wages.<BR/>America is morphing into a Third World Country with super rich overlords at the top and the peasantry underneath.Billhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06623291271325261181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-29057750844209616702008-01-31T03:38:00.000+00:002008-01-31T03:38:00.000+00:00"Go to www.hsbc.com and click on any one of the fo..."Go to www.hsbc.com and click on any one of the foreign countries. You can open an HSBC account in any country and the bank is kept in that foreign currency."<BR/><BR/>I went to the site. They open RMB accounts only for domestic Chinese citizens. <BR/><BR/>http://www.hsbc.com.cn/1/2/misc/faqs#b1Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-12805833826392182332008-01-31T03:00:00.000+00:002008-01-31T03:00:00.000+00:00Keith,I told you it's deflation.Walmart and TGT sl...Keith,<BR/><BR/>I told you it's deflation.<BR/><BR/>Walmart and TGT slashing prices. Matter of fact, I see sales everywhere right now. Even Abercrombie slashing stuff by more than 50%.<BR/><BR/>I guess that .50 point drop in the rates didnt do anything for the market when billions worth of garbage are being downgraded. Those bond insurers are the kiss of the deflation death. Once they get downgraded, this bubble will crash.<BR/><BR/>DannyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-55644397735459548202008-01-31T02:00:00.000+00:002008-01-31T02:00:00.000+00:00no more bubbles out of this one baby! the only wa...no more bubbles out of this one baby! the only way out of this mess is lawsuits! plenty of them. credit is disappearning. so you have to go after cash. where do you get cash? not credit or an iou. but a way so you go and file a lawsuit or make a claim. future prediction: you're going to see plenty of claims against insurance companies, aka arson claims, robbery claims, etc, etc. Those who can get away with it will. Its already starting to happen. what about the catholic church? why not just sue them, liquidate all their holdings, property and financials, and bingo, you got a solution to a hundred billion dollars or so and the housing mess is solved!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-48702017169558758042008-01-31T01:32:00.000+00:002008-01-31T01:32:00.000+00:00more Subprime losses to more than $265 billion !!!...more Subprime losses to more than $265 billion !!!<BR/><BR/>S&P Lowers or May Cut $534 Billion of Subprime Debt <BR/>By Jody Shen<BR/>http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=am2Nk1VM5YsA&refer=news<BR/><BR/>Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Standard & Poor's said it cut or may reduce ratings on $534 billion of subprime-mortgage securities and collateralized debt obligations, the most sweeping action in response to rising since home-loan defaults. <BR/><BR/>The downgrades may extend bank losses to more than $265 billion and have a ``ripple impact'' on the broader financial markets, S&P said in a statement today. The securities represent $270.1 billion, or 47 percent, of subprime mortgage bonds rated between January 2006 and June 2007. The New York-based ratings company also said it may cut 572 CDOs valued at $263.9 billion. <BR/><BR/>The reductions may increase losses at European, Asian and U.S. regional banks, credit unions and government-sponsored enterprises such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks, S&P said. Many of those institutions haven't written down their subprime holdings to reflect a drop in market values and these downgrades may force them to recognize losses, S&P said. <BR/><BR/>``It is difficult to predict the magnitude of any such effect, but we believe it will have implications for trading revenues, general business activity, and liquidity for the banks,'' S&P said. The ratings company will start reviewing its rankings for some banks, especially those that ``are thinly capitalized,'' it said. <BR/><BR/>S&P downgraded $50.1 billion of subprime-mortgage securities, none rated higher than A+. More than 69 percent of the AAA rated subprime securities from 2006 and 46 percent from the first half of 2007 were placed on review. <BR/><BR/>Didn't See It <BR/><BR/>``This one, I didn't see coming,'' said Mark Adelson a consultant at Adelson & Jacob Consulting LLC in New York, and a former asset-backed bond analyst at Nomura Securities. <BR/><BR/>Some of the largest global banks have already taken ``significant'' losses and they aren't likely to have more writedowns, S&P said. CDOs repackage assets into new securities with varying degrees of risk, from AAA grade to unrated classes. Subprime loans are made to people with poor credit. <BR/><BR/>Under accounting rules, many smaller banks haven't been required to write down their holdings until the credit ratings fell, enabling them to avoid the losses at bigger competitors including Citigroup Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and UBS AG. The world's largest banks have reported losses exceeding $133 billion related to mortgages, CDOs and high-yield, high-risk loans, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. <BR/><BR/>``If you're holding a AAA piece and it's now downgraded to AA, you might have to write it down, even if you're holding it for an investment,'' Gary Gordon, a bank stock analyst at Portales Partners LLC in New York, said. ``The longer it goes on and the higher the credit rating of the instrument downgraded, the wider the pain.'' <BR/><BR/>Foreclosures <BR/><BR/>S&P's move comes a day after RealtyTrac Inc. said the number of U.S. homeowners entering foreclosure climbed 75 percent in 2007 from a year earlier as mortgages became more difficult to refinance and falling property values made it tougher to sell. <BR/><BR/>More than 1 percent of U.S. households were in some stage of foreclosure during the year, up from 0.58 percent in 2006, according to RealtyTrac, an Irvine, California-based seller of real estate data. <BR/><BR/>Home prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas fell 7.7 percent in November, the 11th consecutive month of declines, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index released this week.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-63220187638362615102008-01-31T01:31:00.000+00:002008-01-31T01:31:00.000+00:00"...the U.S. government has a technology, called a..."...the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost. By increasing the number of U.S. dollars in circulation, or even by credibly threatening to do so, the U.S. government can also reduce the value of a dollar in terms of goods and services, which is equivalent to raising the prices in dollars of those goods and services. We conclude that, under a paper-money system, a determined government can always generate higher spending and hence positive inflation...."<BR/><BR/>-- Ben S. Bernanke, November 21, 2002<BR/><BR/>So just HOW are we going to have DEFLATION?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-476753186020870882008-01-31T01:20:00.000+00:002008-01-31T01:20:00.000+00:00There are several possible metaphors for the ratio...There are several possible metaphors for the rationale behind the Fed's actions. <BR/>I think they're like the firefighters at the airport who've received notice of a plane in serious distress coming in for a crash landing. They're piling the foam on the runway hoping to mitigate the destruction and loss of life. <BR/>Meanwhile Joe and Betty Mainstreet are standing in the airport arrivals lounge waving their little paper American flags...completely oblivious to the emergency activity in the control tower and on the runway. Except that they've noticed a whole series of flight delays starting to appear on the arrivals board, and a few airport staff have been seen running through the corridors.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-45112845626530734102008-01-31T01:07:00.000+00:002008-01-31T01:07:00.000+00:00Hell, if the Fed thinks the financial system and/o...Hell, if the Fed thinks the financial system and/or the economy are going into the crapper, I'm not going to argue. This time, "Don't fight the Fed" has a whole new meaning.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-51800667989308925492008-01-31T00:21:00.000+00:002008-01-31T00:21:00.000+00:00The Medicine's not working well enough anymore, an...The Medicine's not working well enough anymore, and we only have a few doses left.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-12841229766119152522008-01-31T00:15:00.000+00:002008-01-31T00:15:00.000+00:00I appreciate everyone's advice.I think it would be...I appreciate everyone's advice.<BR/><BR/>I think it would be unfair of me to monopolize the HP thread with all of my particular questions and concerns about this.<BR/><BR/>If foreign accounts are something you do yourself; and you have the time to dish out some free advice, please read and respond to an open thread I've set up on my blog.<BR/><BR/>http://malcolmrant.blogspot.com/2008/01/foreign-currency-banking-open-thread.html<BR/><BR/>Use the same thread to discuss any foreign stock ideas you may have.<BR/><BR/>As always, I'm looking for LEGAL ideas only :)Malcolmhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14203165125962395123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-68166069712433217362008-01-31T00:00:00.000+00:002008-01-31T00:00:00.000+00:00We could be getting close to the desperation phase...We could be getting close to the desperation phase.<BR/><BR/>C'mon, Fed cutting 1.25% in weeks? Sounds like they are reacting to something.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-89644686600187451462008-01-30T23:43:00.000+00:002008-01-30T23:43:00.000+00:00" gadfly said... I wonder what Bernanke will do wh..." gadfly said... <BR/>I wonder what Bernanke will do when rates get down to zero. Perhaps dollar printing presses in every home would do the trick.<BR/><BR/>January 30, 2008 10:08 PM"<BR/><BR/>Maybe Bush can run the printing presses in reverse? That should solve everything except the hungry and sick children of FB living in the gutter once the H2 is gone...<BR/><BR/>God Bless AmericaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18675105.post-18466783589041996402008-01-30T23:37:00.000+00:002008-01-30T23:37:00.000+00:00I am having visions of Helicopter standing on a st...I am having visions of Helicopter standing on a street corner asking anyone to take a "dollar".<BR/><BR/>Sadly, the poor and destitute who used to own a mcmansion don't want the dollar! They look at Helicopter with a sad look and just keep on walking.<BR/><BR/>Poor Helicopter, noone wants his dollars!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com