patrick.net

theotherside:

“Whatever shocks are ahead,” says del Missier, “the markets are better positioned to deal with them than they’ve ever been.”

Wow. :-) It's ironic that this is posted today. This article is a gem of "cluelessness". It talks about cheap money without mentioning anything about the currency manipulation and uncontrolled credit expansion. If anyone is interested in an easy primer, please check out the current post on Mish's blog for a hilarious take on this.

I will include additional quotes, far more interesting than you included.

And derivatives let financial institutions and traders manage their risks with mind-blowing precision.
...
What's more, many are depending on instruments that are highly leveraged, numbingly complex, and untested by a market downturn. Then again, derivatives might cushion the blow when the reckoning comes.

Derivatives are going to save the world. Yeah, right !

HARM, cuddle, I too am Wesley Crusher

Bummer, I'm Data?!!##!@

I don't like personality tests though, their choices never encompass my entire personality.

That's why I hate Crazy Casey so much, he spouts his Riggs result (probably something he took in middle school) as though it makes out his entire destiny.

StuckinBA - doesn't say much

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070210/bs_nm/markets_usa_stocks_dc;_ylt=AoX9ZVKu0lm5k7XyHx1frM2573QA

Bummer, I’m Data?!!##!@

My wife used to think I was Data. Then I became Harry Potter. :(

Soon I will be Barney.

It serves me right for misspelling Ford Prefect.

Here you go, 2 - 10 by 10 1 bedroom cells in the dungeon for $550/month (price negotiable if you don't mind the rats). Help a fellow FB save his house!

Peter, I just realized you linked to the sci-fi/fantasy character thingy on my blog. Too funny.

SQT, I love your blog. :) Keep up the good work. Let us know if you want to inflate some thread bubbles there.

allah - for $500 a month, it's hard to find a room to rent in the Bay Area. And you can be sure it won't have its own entrance.

Here's the first one that popped up that's actually in the Bay Area:

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/roo/276562722.html

$500 Share 2 bedroom duplex *** female perfered (san jose west)

Hi i looking to share two bedroom one bathroom duplex in west san jose ,located by sjcc ,this house comes with a very friendly pit bull ,Im a single dad and have my daughter part time so this is why i perfer a women over a man (safty)Utilities,basic cable ,wi-fi internet included ,$500 deposit

Uh yeah... that's not going to be awkward at all.

Why so many people think that the "1% fixed rate" will never end:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fAYnc_-ddlw

"Derivatives are going to save the world. Yeah right !"

SiBA, your comments (along w/Mish's predictably sober view of reality) are the absolute correct context for that hastily put together article. Btw (and not to plug) but Mish had an announcement that he is joining www.sitkapacific.com (for all you *non-momentum players!) :)

Given his take on the economy I'm confident he'll do quite well. When appropriate..... I SAID (when appropriate!) throw some business at this guy. Anybody with that much passion for the truth has got to be a pretty stand up guy. Seattle could use some sobering up.

"perfer a women over a man"

WomEn? Freudian slip if ever.....

Perhaps you will find a school marm type that can teach to freaking spell in between having torrid sex w/her/her friends?

WAFL!!!

SQT,

Galadriel? :(

Can I try again? (I promise not to give a rip about anyone or any thing) if it would get me a cooler name. I was thinking....... Sledge Riprock?

Any MST3K fans out there?

“perfer a women over a man”

Does he mean 'prefer' or 'pervert'?

allah,

Pervert.

A few comments back, someone said that they knew of someone with a 4 1/4% FRM. Let me just say that I find that unlikely. What is their total APR? They must have paid a bunch of points or something to get that rate.

In any case though, that is a very good move.

I am much prouder of my 5 1/4% 30 year FRM than the price I paid for my duplex. Though it has appreciated quite a bit since 2003, I cannot convince my wife to unload it, or even half of it, since you guys have me convinced that it is unlikely to appreciate much over the next 20 years.

She works in finance and I showed her the bubblizer, so there is hope...

Jimbo,

That was probably me. I used to work with a guy that claimed whatever the *best possible rate was...... well that was what he got. Then again he'd been in the front row of Woodstock when Jimi Hendrix played the Star Spangled Banner. (rolls eyes into back of head) We figured out (given the range of ages he'd given over the years) that he would've been between 11 and 15 at the time.

Then, as now, it comes under "Whatever dude".

Heh, okay then. I never realized that loans ever even got that cheap.

Maaaaybe a 15 year, but even that was not really ever much lower than 4 3/4%. And that is not a jumbo, which is what you need here in the BA.

I do know a guy who got a 15 year FRM at 4 5/8% in Albequerque, but that was lowest one I have had from a reliable source. And I think he paid a point, so his real rate is a bit higher.

Riggs, or Myer-Briggs?

Jimbo,

It's just part of the frustration that comes w/this whole package. My buddies that cold call for mortgages are forever telling me about loanowners that "have a growing family tree" (as per FAB's youtube link) not being able to distinguish between fixed and teaser rates.

"Oh, my loan is at ____% ! Can you BEAT THAT!"

Uh.... lady, you're SURE that's "fixed"?

Pause..... Oh I'm SURE!

Pffft. Whatever dudette.

Jimbo Says:

> A few comments back, someone said that they
> knew of someone with a 4 1/4% FRM. Let me
> just say that I find that unlikely. What is their total
> APR? They must have paid a bunch of points or
> something to get that rate.

Not a lot of people have FRMs under 5%, but quite a few people that locked their rates between March and July 2003 when rates dropped like a rock did get rates that low. The low rates are what helped so many FBs get in to homes. The yield on the 10 year treasury almost went below 3% in June 2003 and LIBOR was below 2% for most of 2002-04. P.S. I locked the rate on a 10 year fixed rate apartment loan in the summer of 2003 with all in rate (just) under 4.25%...

Somebody wrote on here why they "hate (somebody) so much".

Panic buying to "get in before (prices, loan rates) go up" is a (self-destructive) emotional reaction.

So is hate.

Wow, so it was possible. That was right about the time we purchased, March 2003.

Cheap money could still extend this out quite a bit. I don't really see any big impetus to drive rates up, but increased lender scrutiny of marginal homebuyers could have the same effect, at least on the bottom end of the market.

Haha, where did you get your number that 1/4 of the mortgages in Vallejo are in foreclosure? That numbers seems hard to believe to me. Is it just a "projected" number? If so, what is your source?

Probably Myer-Briggs. Too much time thinking about Friday Night Lights and very little time thinking about personality tests...

PS - anyone else here upgrade to Vista? I just bought a laptop loaded with Vista (because I recently spilled juice on my old laptop and killed it) and I'm not at all impressed. It seems to run very slowly.

I may return this laptop and get myself a Linux machine.

PS - anyone else here upgrade to Vista? I just bought a laptop loaded with Vista (because I recently spilled juice on my old laptop and killed it) and I’m not at all impressed. It seems to run very slowly.

I upgraded a laptop I got in 2004 with Vista. It actually boots FASTER. The other apps run just as fast.

The key is that I have 1.5 gigs of memory. If you don't have more than 1gig - uh... yeah... :(

No, I think it's 512 MB expandable to 2 gigs. I'll have to try it with a memory stick and see if that helps it run faster.

It does boot up faster.

Pitbull, kid on weekend, barely literate casanova wannabe, SHARING A BATHROOM...WTF?

Yes, of course I'd want to room with this guy. The only thing missing from the description is an interest in activites at 420 and the career choice of drummer in a garage band.

I like the Debt Relief of America, Inc. banner ad right now. "Eliminate up to 75% of your debt. Never pay back the debt that is settled!"

See, money is free. We all need to loosen up our spending and borrowing so that we can keep the U.S. economy clipping along at its current rate of growth. And if you borrow too much, just settle the debt and get out of jail free!

No, I think it’s 512 MB expandable to 2 gigs. I’ll have to try it with a memory stick and see if that helps it run faster.

Yes, you definitely want at least 1 gig of RAM. What kind of memory stick do you have?

Just remember, and tell yourself while you look into the mirror, "I am a baller", tell yourself this each and every day, when you drive your Hyundai, "I'm a baller", when you pay over 1/2 of your monthly take home pay towards a I/O mortgage, "I'm a baller", when you pay your rent with a credit card check, "I'm a baller", when you wonder why that 60" plasma didn't make you happy after all, "I'm a baller".

On second thought, just go fuck yourself.

Why the fuck not?

tinyurl.com/2bhmso

Actually, memory sticks can make Vista run faster. It's called ReadyBoost.

It really really really helps computers with only 512 MB according to the reports I've read.

Looks like time to shop for a memory upgrade for the laptop.

I did run it with memory stick (pretty sure it's just a conventional mass storage device) and it really seems to help things run a bit faster and smoother.

Peter P,

I just have a Memorex 512 MB stick I bought about three years ago.

Yeah, you need a memory upgrade instead. 512MB is marginal even for XP.

Myer-Briggs is INTJ and ENFP and all that stuff. Based on Jungian constructs, never been validated on a population as constructs, full of binary opposites in execution, and much beloved of HR types...

astrid,

Peter P is correct, 512 MB is indeed marginal for XP.

I have just finished loading a couple of old boxes with XP Pro and Office 2003 for use as breakdown spares. CPU's are identical (AMD 1.3 Celerons, which themselves are a bit marginal). One has 512 MB and the other has 1 GB, and it's quite startling how much difference the extra memory makes.

Mind you, if you want slow I once saw a 64 MB laptop with XP loaded (an end-user decided to upgrade his software without seeking advice from the 'useless shower in IT Support', and then came bitching to us about performance).

XP actually did load and run (a bit of a surprise; 64 MB is below the Evil Empire's stated minimum), and once it was running you could do work if you could live with not-so-occasional long pauses, but it took 20-25 minutes from power-on to get the desktop. We politely suggested new hardware.

SP/eburbed,

I would imagine ReadyBoost is using the memory stick to speed up page swapping. OK as a stop-gap, but not nearly as good as getting more true memory.

Here in South-Eastern Australia, both yesterday and today (Sunday, Oz time) the Canberra and Sydney papers have had HUGE spreads on the ongoing 'rental crisis', and how it's going to push up house prices so 'buy now before you're priced out forever'.

Sigh ... :(