Gold?

HOUSINGPANIC EXCLUSIVE: Interview with world's #1 housing-bubble-buster and REIC nightmare Peter Schiff of EuroPacific Capital

You'll love this interview HP'ers. Peter Schiff is the man, and while David Lereah, Nicholas Retsinas, Alan Greenspan, George Bush, Kendra Todd and millions of REIC on commission were out saying "it's different this time" and "bubbles are for bathtubs", Schiff was one of the lonely voices in the wilderness saying "hey, hold on, this sucker's gonna blow".

And as we all know now, Schiff was right and all those cheerleaders were wrong, and now the world pays the price.

Please join me in thanking Schiff for not shutting up when housing was skyrocketing, for not backing down to the REIC, and for being a cool dude and interviewing on HP.

Here's Schiff, and for A.D.D. HP'ers I bolded the good stuff.

HP: You nailed the housing bubble and crash. When the masses were still listening to David Lereah and Nicholas Retsinas in the mainstream press, a few people who looked harder heard your message, sold their homes and rented. Do you feel vindicated, and do you think the MSM has housing crash blood on their hands today?

Schiff: I do not necessarily feel vindicated as I have always known I had this one right. However, as was the case with the internet mania, my early diagnoses of the problem caused many arguments over the years.

However, even now most of my critics still do not give me the proper credit for having laid it out so correctly years in advance. I would recommended reading some of the commentary I posted on my web site over the years to get an idea of accurate my forecasts were.

Also, my book “Crash Proof” has an entire chapter devote to the real estate bubble. Those who have not read it yet can order a copy here

However, not all of my predictions on real estate have come true. Prices have not yet collapsed to the extent that I expect they will and we are not yet in the serious recession I predict will follow the bursting of this bubble. However, I am confident that I will be 100% vindicated on every prediction I made on the real estate market, the economy, the dollar, commodity prices, etc.

HP: If I handed you $500,000 today, what would you do with it?

Schiff: My advice would be to convert your dollars to foreign assets, mostly quality, high yielding stocks, as well as some physical precious metals and mining and energy stocks.

Under no circumstances should anything be left in U.S. dollars. The biggest casualty of the real estate bubble, and any attempted government bailout, will be the value of our currency.

HP: You've heard the rumblings for some sort of government bailout, led by the Democratic Congress and Bush. What do you think about this idea, and is a bailout even feasible?

Schiff: No bailout is possible as just about every American with a mortgage is going to need one. The moral hazards of any “bailout” will only exacerbate the problem, and anything that prevents real estate prices from returning to normal levels simply guarantees an even bigger “bailout” being required in the future.

Of course, contrary to the political rhetoric, it is the lenders, not the borrowers, that need the bailout. Most borrowers either put nothing down, or extracted any original down payment with home equity loans. For most homeowners, all the losses will be mental, as the illusions of paper real estate gains fade.

However, the lenders will loss real money, as they funded the bubble. Even if some government bailout results in lenders get their money back, the dollars they receive will have very little purchasing power. No matter what, the lenders will be the biggest losers.

HP: In order, who/what were the top five causes of the Great Housing Ponzi Scheme?

Schiff:
1. Greenspan and the Federal Reserve
2. Wall Street Investment banks
3. Lenders (banks, originators, etc)
4. Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae
5. Congress & Pres. Bush
6. Appraisers
7. Rating agencies
8. Individual home buyers and speculators
9. Realtors
10. The media.

I guess I did not want to leave anyone out...

HP: You bump into Alan Greenspan in an elevator, what do you say to him?

Schiff: I’d ask him if he had read my book. If he had not I would give him a copy. If I thought he would give me honest answers there would be a number of questions I would ask him as to why he did what he did, but I doubt that he would be forthright.

I just hope he lives long enough to see the full results of his incompetence.

THIS IS IT FOLKS. THIS IS THE WEEK. THE GREAT UNWINDING AND THE GREAT HOUSING CRASH HAVE ARRIVED. HEAD TO THE CELLAR. HOUSINGPANIC IS HERE.

EMERGENCY

EMERGENCY

EMERGENCY

FULL SYSTEM MELTDOWN

FULL SYSTEM MELTDOWN

FULL SYSTEM MELTDOWN

SHOCKING FLASH: Alan Greenspan shocks markets, says home prices are going to crash and crash significantly. No, I'm not making this up.

- Cause greatest financial mania in human history - check

- During mania, tell people to take our adjustable rate loans - check

- During mania, deny there was a mania - check

- After crash starts, admit you screwed up - check

- To finish things off, tell the world that home values are gonna crash and crash significantly - check

Wow.

A HOUSINGPANIC MESSAGE FOR ALAN GREENSPAN - GO F*CK YOURSELF. YOU RUINED LIVES. YOU DESTROYED FAMILIES. AND YOU WILL NOT BE FORGIVEN.

Greenspan alert on US house prices

US house prices are likely to fall significantly from their present levels, Alan Greenspan has told the Financial Times, admitting that there was a bubble in the US housing market.

In an interview ahead of the release on Monday of his widely-anticipated memoirs, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve said the decline in house prices “is going to be larger than most people expect”.

Special all-weekend thread to talk about what Ben Bernanke and the Fed will do with rates on Tuesday (announcement due 18:15 GMT / 2:15 EST)

cut 1/2?

cut 1/4?

no change?

divided vote?

change in bias?

admit they royally screwed up under Greenspan?

mention 'moral hazard'?

let the dollar melt down in order to bail out hedge funds and banks?

don't move and let the market know they're done with bubbles?

What's the worst housing-bubble-blighted city in America?

What American city best exemplifies the housing bubble and crash?

You know, with swarms of realtors on commission, thousands of bartenders and call-center-jockeys-turned-mortgage brokers, illegals everywhere, city government dominated by REIC spawn, a local population suckered into the Ponzi Scheme, soulless neighborhoods, Wal-Marts and strip malls everywhere, and poor-urban-planning-decay?

Give us your top 5

TIME magazine pulls their REIC-sponsored head out of their ass and writes for the first time about the Great Housing Crash

Hey, it's only been two years. Nice to see America's most trusted weekly news magazine FINALLY write about the biggest story in the land.

HP MEMO TO TIME MAGAZINE EDITORS - YOU'RE INCOMPETENT AT BEST, CORRUPT AT WORST, AND YOU ARE IRRELEVANT. YOU MISSED ONE OF THE BIGGEST STORIES IN AMERICAN HISTORY, AND NOW, IT'S TOO LATE. YOU SUCK.

I'd give you more of their story here, but they add nothing to the debate and nothing to the story. If you subscribe to TIME magazine, you should cancel, and subscribe to a REAL news magazine, like The Economist, or better yet the daily Financial Times. TIME magazine is a joke. People-Magazine-like joke. A Screech-from-Saved-By-the-Bell-type-joke. A Hi-my-name-is-Scotter-Libby-type joke.