HousingPANIC Quote of the Day

“We need a plan that stimulates savings and production not more of the reckless borrowing and consumption that got us into this mess in the first place. Ron Paul’s plan is the only one that amounts to a step in the right direction.

If you want meaningful change - for the better that is - Ron Paul is the only candidate capable of delivering it. The others merely promise to continue the failed policies that are at the root of our current economic problems.”

-Peter Schiff, Economic Advisor to Presidential Candidate Ron Paul, January 2008

Seriously, Peter Schiff is Ron Paul's new economic advisor. Man, it all comes together here on HousingPANIC, eh? What's next, Lawrence Yun and Kendra Todd advising Hillary Clinton?

And how sad is it that Ron Paul's plan has zero chance of getting even looked at, let alone passed. Americans want their money from the sky so they can buy sh*t from Wal-Mart. Savings? Production? We're AMERICA - we don't need to save or produce anymore!

We're doomed. We're run by monkeys, and our population is clueless.

Thanks HP'ers for the link.

UPDATE: Bailout Bernanke didn't know about rogue trader, panicked 3/4 point cut now seen as glaring mistake. So, will Bernanke fix his error now?

WE ARE RUN BY CORRUPT INCOMPETENT MONKEYS

Congress should immediately call Bernanke in for questioning, and open an investigation into the Fed's behavior since 2001

This latest glaring market-induced mistake should be corrected immediately. The technical sell-off on Monday that had day trader Bernanke panicking on Tuesday is now being reversed, and so should this rate cut.

What is most shameful and scandalous for the Fed is that Societe Generale had informed the Bank of France about what was going on on Monday, YET THE FED AND THE BANK OF FRANCE DID NOT COMMUNICATE, so the Fed went ahead and put in their market stop-loss order on Tuesday morning before the market opened. If they had known the truth, there's NOW WAY IN HELL THEY WOULD HAVE MADE THIS GLARING MISTAKE. NO WAY.

Ben Bernanke should resign, the Fed should be investigated, and this 3/4 point mistake should be reverse post-haste. And if you believe Bernanke made a historic mistake, you might want to think about getting long.

Fed didn't know about SocGen trades on Monday - Revelations spur market to reassess central bank's intentions in a new light

The Federal Reserve was not aware that Societe Generale was unwinding trades in Europe on Monday that had been amassed by a rogue trader at the French bank, a Fed source said Thursday.

Some observers, citing Societe Generale's sensational announcement, say the Fed's dramatic policy remedy may have been too much too fast.

Why the Fed, which usually keeps in contact with the world's central bankers, wasn't aware of this when Bernanke held his emergency policy meeting remains an unanswered question that might dog officials in coming days.

Longer-term, if the Fed was spooked into making an emergency rate cut this week on the back of what was just technical selling, it could further undermine market confidence in Bernanke.

Get your guesses in here - how much housing crash "free money" will the wildly unpopular George Bush drop from the sky today?

It is an election year of course, and the GOP is getting slaughtered in the opinion polls, so I would expect this socialist masquerading as a Republican to announce at least $500 per person of "stimulus cash"

And that'd be $500 more than any US president should EVER propose. A country $52 trillion in debt should not be sending out "free money". And anyone who loans money to such a reckless country, or holds their currency, is a fool.

Screw George Bush. Screw Hillary Clinton. Screw Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Screw Ben Bernanke. What they're doing is shameful, it's unethical, it's immoral, it's reckless and it's the worst pandering I've ever seen desperate incumbents ever do.

I hope a few of the candidates running for president have the courage to speak out and speak out forcefully against this parachute drop.

But I'm not counting on it. Since that would be the right thing to do.

I'll take "Why government idiots shouldn't bail out failing banks" for $110 Billion Alex

The UK taxpayer has been raped by the incompetent stooges running their government, who have now bailed out failed bank Northern Rock for £55 billion and counting, even though the taxpayer never had a say in this slippery slope disaster. Yes, that's £55 billion and counting. That's more than the annual education budget for the nation. And it didn't have to be.

When a bank makes stupid decisions, the bank should fail. Period. When depositors deposit more than the protected amount in a bank, and the bank goes tits up, the depositor should lose his money. The rules going into the game were clear. When the government changes the rules mid-game, credibility dies and moral hazard skyrockets. And that's where we are now, since we're run by monkeys, and it's just gonna get worse.

Meanwhile, the US taxpayer in on the hook now for hundreds of billions at the FHLB, an institution with an implicit taxpayer guarantee who's pissing money away to the likes of soon-to-go-bankrupt WaMu and Countrywide at an alarming rate, and the taxpayer will end up bailing out all of 'em.

And then there's Fannie and Freddie, who stand to lose TRILLIONS before the smoke clears. And again, even though there's no law that says we have to, the US taxpayer will end up paying.

There should be outrage. There should be investigations. There should be a media storm. There should be PANIC.

(sound of crickets chirping)

At least you know what's happening HP'ers, and what's going to happen. Lot of good that'll do you, but at least you know.

At the stroke of a pen, the Government has again weighed into the catastrophe at Northern Rock.

In its latest move, it is offering banks who lend to the beleaguered mortgage lender in the wholesale market an open-ended guarantee that they will not lose any money.

This extraordinary action, which makes the rescue of Northern Rock the most expensive in financial history, came on the day that the Bank of England made it clear that the £55 billion-plus bail-out is part of something much worse.

Did the US Fed and Bank of England just sink into a housing crash moral hazard abyss?

Have the recent moves of the US Fed and Bank of England to bail out failed mortgage gambler banks at taxpayer expense left you with a sickening feeling in the pit of your stomach that nobody competent is minding the store?

Here's the word on the street from the UK, where moral hazard is raging and a great collapse is now assured.

The first thing to remember about the collapse and de facto nationalisation of Northern Rock is that it was essentially about house prices. Since ministers have done so much to inflate those prices, it is understandable that they should feel obliged to relieve Northern Rock's depositors of any risk.

I repeat, this all began with houses. For half a century home ownership in Britain - termed a "right" by Brown - has been indulged beyond economic reason. It has sucked savings out of the productive sector. It has tied up pension money that should be helping the economy in the stock market. Its tax reliefs have immobilised young people who, in most countries, remain in the more fluid rented sector until later in life. It has led to mass hysteria with every price rise or fall. Housing sees the British, their rulers and their newspapers, at their most innumerate and irrational.

Want proof that the incompetent Bush Administration is partly responsible for the Housing Bubble? Here you go...

Housing Doom brings you the smoking gun. This will make you laugh, then it will make you mad. Our nation was run by monkeys these past 6 years. And now the house of cards is all falling apart. The Bush Administration - the best president the homebuilders' and NAR's money could buy.

From Bush's HUD secretary Martinez in 2003, addressing the puppetmaster homebuilders:

We also must work in close partnership to dispel the myth that our nation is experiencing a "housing bubble."

Although the United States is the best-housed nation in the world, we as a country still face a housing shortage. In fact, housing experts, economists and analysts met this past week at a conference in California and concluded that the momentum gained from low mortgage interest rates will carry strong home sales through the end of this year.

Not long after 9-11, however, a number of leading experts predicted that the housing bubble would burst. They were clearly wrong. Instead, many Americans chose to simply delay, rather than cancel, their plans to buy. And home purchases ended up reaching an all-time high in 2001. While the final numbers are not in, sales in 2002 are expected to eclipse the 2001 record.

Bubbles of course do burst, but the housing market is not in the same category of other weaker and less competitive sectors of the economy.

Plus, this Administration is making it easier for people to purchase their own homes - a change that will help drive home development and sales. And, it will help more minorities become homeowners.

Just like FEMA during New Orleans' downfall, we'll come to understand that our government was run by monkeys during the out of control housing bubble

Doing a heckava job Greenspan

Doing a heckava job Bernanke

Doing a heckava job Dodd

Doing a heckava job Bush

What a clusterf*ck

Monkeys I tell ya. Monkeys.