September 25, 2006

Are little kids with play money crashing the global markets (again)?


This 24-year-old "Casey" thing, where a kid could get $2.2 Million in liars loans to then go out and flip houses a-la Donald Trump, combined with the Amaranth Advisors hedge fund blowup, where a 32-year-old trader cost his firm 2/3 of its assets ($6 Billion) plus untold billions for unrelated holders of assets Amaranth had to dump in their firesale, has got me thinking that it's kids again (20's, 30's) who are largely responsible for the housing bubble shenanigans, and the mess we're about to go through.

It's likely kids who are the aggressive, "screw the ethics - I gotta make my commission", unregulated mortgage brokers, writing up the "liar's loans" and putting the uneducated masses into option-ARMs.

It's likely kids who are the aggressive flippers, buying and selling condos and homes like shares of pets.com in its heyday.

It's likely kids rushing in to get their real estate licenses these past few years, seeking fame and fortune 6% at a time.

It's likely kids who joined the ranks of bought-and-paid-for appraisers, stealing business away from old-timers, writing up home values to unrealistic levels so that "they can make the numbers work" for their corrupt realtor and mortgage banker buddies

In total, it's likely kids who figured out how to game the system, ditch the ethics, run the scam and leave the country holding the bag.

Haven't we seen this all before (fill in the name dot-com)?

If it indeed was the kids, as I suspect, the generational war has started early. Because these kids will have led to the upcoming collapse of the global economic system and world markets, where the soon-to-retire grown-ups have their life's savings.

Damn kids!

23 comments:

ocrenter said...

If kids without money or assets are getting $2.2 million to spend on flips, how much do you think the banks are giving out to adults with jobs and a house to pull HELOC from?

anyhow, check out a few examples of retards jumping into the market just a little too late here in SD.

check out some guy that bought a $580,000 condo only to have the complex returning to an apartment (in other word he just spent almost $600,000 on an aparment unit!)

then there's this guy that lost $175,000 in equity the moment the escrow closed because the builder slashed prices in a major way just a couple of days before close of escrow.

Anonymous said...

HOUSING IN FOCUS

Concern that a fallout from a slowing U.S. housing market could stymie economic growth and hurt corporate profit, has gripped sentiment in recent sessions.

The potential for surprise on this front, in particular in new home sales, is more likely to be on the downside, said Martin Slaney, head of spread betting at GFT Global Markets in London.

"We haven't seen housing starts drop below 6 million since June 2003, so anything below this figure will touch a nerve. New home sales are out on Wednesday which will provide further clues," Slaney said.

Anonymous said...

...and those kids are the product of the MOST corrupt, selfish, navel-gazing, me-first, immature, hedonistic, live-for-today, I-am-a-victim, where's-MINE?, lazy, ignorant, clueless generation in the history of mankind:

Baby Boomers!!!

(And I should know, I am one!!!)

Indeed, we are screwed. The kids are running amok but their playground is the fraudulent, bogus, "Wild-West" monetary scheme of fiat currency, fractional reserve lending, central banking, securitization and derivatives.

Their favorite toys are hedge funds...

Anonymous said...

ttgsrth

Anonymous said...

Keith, the MSM published stories about kids in the dot-com days b/c it sells copy. But all the MONEY for BOTH bubbles came from somewhere else.

As slimy as brokers are, remember that you can't con an honest man. People getting 1% loans believed they were getting away with something - dishonest.

delilahboyd said...

I know a "kid" in DC, who owns 5 rental houses on Capitol Hill. The first one he bought (in 2001) is now for sale because the "kid" is being eaten alive by the alligator (ARMs and maintenance on the other 4 rental houses).

He didn't realize that DC has very strict Rent Control laws, and he can't just raise the rent to cover his costs and make the nice profit he thought he'd enjoy). He now needs the cash equity from the first house to feed the alligator.

But no one is buying the first house ($535K asking price for a tiny s&*t box).

Pass the popcorn. This could get interesting.

Anonymous said...

Monkey see and monkey do. These were the teenagers and young adults who watched their idiot parents participate in the stock price run up and crash. The same parents who STILL participate or gamble in the stock market today and funnel huge amounts of would be retirement money every payroll cycle into the stock of corporations so that a few at their top management levels can live like wannabe rock stars (aging, wrinkeling and balding rock stars but rock stars nonetheless). This is more a nation full of Eddie Haskells than a nation of of Wally and Beaver Cleavers. What goes around comes around so if the vast majority take an a*s raping so that a few make out like wannabe Robert Plants (love Led Zepp!) so be it - you can't raise 'em. Cheers!

Anonymous said...

Don't forget Nick Leeson -- Bankrupted Britain's oldest bank (Baring's) back in 1995 with his 'double-down-on-your-losses' daytrading when he was only 28 years old:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Leeson

Anonymous said...

I don't want to pay for the boomers retirement, medical bills and pensions. I would rather see them dead than to drag our economy down the tubes to care for the worst generation boomers. The greedy fat pig boomers sicken me.

Anonymous said...

The only thing the "kids" are at fault for is being stupid enough to openly talk about it. Keith, this is a ridiculous post. Like the baby boomers are innocent and wise or something? Give me a break? Look around? It's people of all ages and all backgrounds playing this game. I like to call them "detached from reality" and trust me...there are plenty of the 40 and 50 somethings in this lot. The bubble was created by the fed reserve for all the whining baby boomers who lost $$$ in the dot com bust. It's the 20 and 30 somethings that will pay the price for the baby boomers mistakes. Is the fed reserve made up of a bunch of young pups? I think not...rather a bunch of old timers looking out for their generation, if anything. Do you think it's the baby boomers that will pay off this deficit? I think not. It's the young pups that will suffer the most from the mistakes that are made today by our leaders. Are there naive 20 and 30 somethings? Yes! But can you blame them for playing the game generations before us created? I think not... Please don't lower yourself to blaming young people for the financial bubble...it's simply ridiculous. There are people without values in every generation. Furthermore, there are people that always think the government will take care of them...in every generation. As a 30 something...I'm ready for some reform. How about you?

ocrenter said...

"Oh and the Casey thing is a scam!"

the problem with this is no one has varified his story. I couldn't find any of his properties on foreclosure.com even though he claimed he is at least 4 months behind on payment on each of the properties. how is it that the lenders are giving him so much break? no one with true MLS access has checked these homes he listed to see if he really is the owner.

these things need to be varified! I varify everything I put on my blog, there's just too much doubtors out there and too many bulls waiting to jump on bloggers to allow for unvarified stories.

Anonymous said...

Has anyone seen Neal Bush lately! Maybe he is manipulating these kids like "Gold Finger". And it's not their fault that they got that liars loan by over stating the $25k Starbuck salary with that little white lie, saying they accidential put in an extra zero, makig it $250k.

Anonymous said...

Kids were not responsible for the lax lending standards and an irresponsible fed. If anything, kids today were watching the price of homes go up by 20% every year while their wages stayed practically the same. They felt they had to get into the market or else they would never be able to. The rampant consumerism and keep-up-with-the-Jones' mentality is strictly from the baby boomers, and unfortunately, it will be today's kids (and their kids) that end up paying the price for this mother of all scams perpetrated on them by their parents.

Anonymous said...

Here's what the "kids" saw:

1) working your ass off in school, especially in hard science and engineering majors, gets you jack squat.

2) you need to be wwwwwrich! and flashy to be considered a success at anything, and to get laid if you're a guy. Try this at some party: "I do Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulations for proton scattering" vs "I'm an independent real estate investor"

3) it's all about The Deal. It's crack and crystal dealing for white boyz in da (Republican) hood. Plus you're not gonna get capped. (but just wait)

4) All their parents made out like bandits buying great cribs at low low prices (back when one income could support a family and prices were normal) and they brag about it, and tell their children "You gotta buy now or be priced out forever".

Anonymous said...

ocrenter:

You're right. The kid is not in foreclosure yet. I checked his property in Modesto, CA. without a notice of default even. My suspicion was he was trying to rid of his properties, even on a breakeven, through sympathy from people who would fall to his story. You may never know, there might be some rich big mama who will bail him out.

txchic57 said...

Casey had an acceleration letter on his site for the Dallas property. It will be posted for foreclosure very soon I am sure. They do so many of them in DFW, it's like a conveyer belt and law firms exist (like the one who sent him the letter) who do nothing but that. I also verified that he "owns" the Dallas shitbox.

Anonymous said...

It's the fault of the stupid and the lazy, age is no factor.

ocrenter said...

thanks, txchic

Anonymous said...

Damned kids? In the 1980's it was the yuppies everyone was chiding; remember the t-shirts the read: die yuppie scum. I think the only thing driving greed is the availability and susceptability of people that freely give their money to these asswipes through their frivolous purchases a la keep up with the jones' move-up status anxiety ethos.

Keith, I love your blog, but this post tries to dogear only part of the problem. Remember all the board of directors are run by people closer to your age...and they are really the ones driving the expectations of these hedgefunds. I'm seeing this with the homebuilder prices and refusal to stop building spec homes in the Phoenix market..

Anonymous said...

Butch said...

"...and those kids are the product of the MOST corrupt, selfish, navel-gazing, me-first, immature, hedonistic, live-for-today, I-am-a-victim, where's-MINE?, lazy, ignorant, clueless generation in the history of mankind:

"Baby Boomers!!!

"(And I should know, I am one!!!)"

Wrong. They're the children of the 1980s and 90s yuppies, who really don't qualify as baby boomers. The same yuppies who have us an obsession with designer labels, wine and cheese parties, "ambience," and everything else ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad to hear that someone else besides the baby boomers are also getting some of the blame. Baby boomers didn't go to school wearing designer jeans and had no problem with part-time jobs when they were in high school. So give them some credit, please. Also, I don't think baby boomers hold guns to other peoples' heads and make them go out and buy things they can't afford, make stupid decisions and create financial disasters for themselves. They do that all on their own. We have a development of McMansions right down the road from us and it seems to be mostly people with small children, judging from the backyards filled with cheap-looking plastic playthings. I doubt if they're baby boomers.

Anonymous said...

Oh and the Casey thing is a scam!"

the problem with this is no one has varified his story. I couldn't find any of his properties on foreclosure.com even though he claimed he is at least 4 months behind on payment on each of the properties. how is it that the lenders are giving him so much break? no one with true MLS access has checked these homes he listed to see if he really is the owner.

these things need to be varified! I varify everything I put on my blog, there's just too much doubtors out there and too many bulls waiting to jump on bloggers to allow for unvarified stories.

Monday, September 25, 2006 5:50:27 PM

This is true and verified at:

http://www.co.utah.ut.us/Dept/Record/LandRecordsandMaps/PartyDetail.asp?avnameptr=1795535&avkoigroup=

Anonymous said...

FUCKING DAMN KIDS!!! WHERE'S AN ABORTION CLINIC WHEN YOU NEED ONE!!!

OH WAIT A MINUTE...

POST-PARTUM ABORTION AKA THE DEATH PENALTY.