patrick.net

Bap33, yeah, see you in November.

Justme:
Issues blown out of proportion? Like Global Warming, maybe? Yeah, I know what you're saying. What then do you think are the "true" issues people *should be* concerned about? Corporate Greed? Like the government priveledged and protected Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac CEOs who provided the secondary marketfor crappy loans that the rest of the financial industry then turned into this mess? Why the F were they created in the first place? And it was the CRA Regulation (not de-regulation) that forced all banks to start loaning to people who basically couldn't pay them back. That's the foundation of the problem. I remember that 1990s MSM campaign against "red-lining" and "racist lending practices," (otherwise known as "responsible lending.") Talk about manufactured issues.

I was against the bail-out long before I knew how "my party" would vote. I'm still against it. I think there should be fraud investigations, and anybody, CEO, GSE officer, or Congressional Member who aided and abbeted should be held responsible to the fullest extent of the law.

I'm not a single-issue voter, but you think our Reps. handing over control of a third of our Federal budget to a single man is *not* something that should guide decisions? Really?

Not that my vote will help: I live in Massachusetts.

Maybe it is not the political system that sucks, may be it is the public that sucks. I agree with George Carlin, and I think he is very insightful on this one, funny but real, where do these corrupt and evil politicians come from? The American system.

Where are the visionary politicians with conscience? They are NOT wanted by the voters, look at what the American public is like today. 1/3 obese, not just fat, but obese (and I have the same thought when I see obese couples together wondering how they structurally achieve penetration). I don't know about literacy but I have met so many home grown Americans who cannot spell properly, without spell check they are doomed. Then look at American TV, how many mainstream inspiring programs of high morals and educational value have you seen lately? It's all about get rich fast, get famous fast.

These corrupt politicians are exactly what the American public desire. How do you explain that American voted for Bush twice? Even till now he still has 25% approval rating, who are these idiots that still approve of him? In any other European country or a developed country, he would have been impeached long time ago, and I am going out on a limb to say even for countries like China and Russia, the politburo will never allow a person of such low IQ to be the head of the state, he doesn't have the clout to "settle" things internally.

So folks, let's face the reality, until the public is pushed to the brink and there is some kind of revolution from within, we will stay the course for many years to come. In the meantime we will just enjoy these puppet shows every 4 years.

OO,

Exactly. But the public sucks partly because the powers that be want them to suck, and feed them mindless TV and propaganda.

MST,

Global Warming as an "issue" is deeply unpopular. Most people would rather forget about it and go on their merry way. So again a false issue on your part.

FNM/FRE: Don't you think that the FIC (FInancial Industry Complex) where more than happy to have FNM and FRE? FIC is the ones that really wanted them to "guarantee" the mortgages. The whole thing about "affordability" and such was just a convenient ruse tfor them.

CRA: another red herring. Then why did this blowup not happen in 1994-1996? Wall St did not need any encouragement to make bad loans, once they figured out how to CDO and CDS the loans. Community Reinvestment Act had nothing to do with.

Any iother false issues you want to bring up while you are at it?

So when will Uncle Ben give us the rate cut we want? Let's cut a straight 1%, stop dicking around with stealth rate cuts, whatever facilities, be direct, trash the USD faster (and save me some waiting time) and we can all live a happy life ever after.

Man oh man am I realizing I'm playing for the wrong team....

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/livecoverage/2008/10/after_bailout_aig_executives_h.html

Justme:

AGW: deeply unpopular? Not for want of trying.

FNM/FRE: Of course the FIC loves them. Government Guarantees are great for huge firms. Government intervention in the marketplace skews things, large corporations love things to be skewed their way. That's where lobbyists come from. In another context, it's called fascism. The government has been skewing the housing market more and more toward people who can't quite pay since FDR. The CDS FIC stuff should live or die on its own merits, and would *except for the stupid "implied" guarantee of the GSEs.* When corporations get to write their own regulations (as has been the case since Wilson and FDR) they'll screw anybody in their way.

CRA regulations were "eased" (meaning enabling FNM/FRE to take on even worse paper) by Franklin Raines in 1999. Over Conservative objections, and predictions of financial meltdown. That's when sub-prime really started to roll. I can cite the NYT article again, if you want.

MST,

You see, we actually agree on something. The bad things are caused by FIC and REIC that want to write their own regulations.

MST, time and events will prove our correctness.

MST,

I would say that the real problem was the rule allowed i-banks to increase their leverage to 30/1 in 2004, by decree of the Bush-appointed SEC chaired by Bush-strawman Christopher Cox. THAT was the real reason it went to hell.

That would not be a problem if those i-banks were allowed to fail.

Off topic; just venting.

If I hear of 401(k)'s being referred to as "savings," one more time..........

Didn't the people know they were playing the market? I have no pity.

If I hear of 401(k)’s being referred to as “savings,” one more time……….

Better than homes being referred to as "savings." :)

OMG, Nikkei extremely ugly, Hang Seng extremely ugly, it is going on 24x7 again.

Ben probably needs to cut 1.5% by tomorrow. He is not pumping fast enough, hopefully he will correct that mistake soon.

Nikkei reached 38,000 in 1990, and 18 years later, it is at 9695.

We will see a similar pattern with DOW in another 2 decades. Japan showed us the way.

I guess the Fed wants to bypass the banks and give money directly to companies.

I'm now afraid to ask: "What else can they (the government) do?"

Bap33, I already donated some money to Obama last week. If he asks, I'll say $100 of t is from you.

Did McCain say in tonight's debate that he's going to request another bailout on top of the bailout to purchase bad mortgages? Is he kidding, senile, or what? What exactly is he proposing?

RaiderJeff Says:

Did McCain say in tonight’s debate that he’s going to request another bailout on top of the bailout to purchase bad mortgages? Is he kidding, senile, or what? What exactly is he proposing?

There is no doubt he is senile. If you carefully observe his talking style and content, you can discern that he keeps repeating stuff over and over again.He clearly shows that most of his brain cells are either dead or frozen with old ideas.
There should be a new rule banning people with IQ less than 100 or age great than 70 from contesting in presidential races.

"...There should be a new rule banning people with IQ less than 100 or age great than 70 from contesting in presidential races."

And what about his running mate. Isn't she a piece of work. I just can't believe he would alienate conservatives even further by suggesting he would spend billions more to purchase bad mortgages. Didn't he notice that people around the country weren't too thrilled about the idea of a huge bailout? Now he's offering another bailout to fix a problem that should take care of itself?

McCain is really a horrible image to show the rest of the world, America is so short on talent that we need to vote for a somewhat incapacitated President?

He won't last through the first 4 years, especially given what he has to face. Stroke is a very big risk and there is no medicine for stopping that, you can only reduce the risk but there is no guarantee. When he responds to questions, the way he blinks bothers the hell outta me, it is a sign of his brain's functional decline. Reagan, alternatively, was in much better physical shape when he ran.

I am not comfortable with a senile old fart's finger is on the button. For that reason, I would rather vote for Palin, and have her pick another VP.

Peter P. says capitalism is the only thing that can work.
Is he kidding?
"For that reason, I would rather vote for Palin, and have her pick another VP."
There's another good idea: Vote for a total idealogue and hope her No.2 is less bad.
Does this blog have any useful ideas?

Hey, it is a puppet show anyway, so why bother choosing one candidate over the other?

As long as the next President won't get us into a nuclear warfare, or foolishly outsource the whole country, I am content.

If I am going to choose a clown, I might as well choose a hot woman so that when she opens her mouth, her stupid words can be overcome by her pretty face (and body).

The only useful idea is, get yourself diversified, both careerwise and moneywise. Do not see retirement in the US as a must.

RaiderJeff,

Indeed McCain did. I wonder exactly which incumbents this is going to make a certain crowd of people vote against.

justme,

I don't know. One of my local reps (Campbell, of Orange County) is a far right leaning conservative who voted in favor of the bailout. I emailed him to say his opponent will be getting my vote. His office sent back a response (probably a canned response), which tried to explain why the bailout was necessary. I didn't email his office back. Nevertheless, his message was more or less an excuse, and it didn't cause me to change my mind.

His office sent back a response (probably a canned response), which tried to explain why the bailout was necessary.

"There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses."

-- Andrew Jackson

Based on mccain's POW record, its clear that mccain is a very patriotic guy.There is no doubt, he would " try " to do all he can to improve the country.
The only problem : he is not smart enough to do that

moreover, he too old to learn anything new to enhance his decision making skills. He will eventually rely on others for his core decisions. Just like Bush relied on cheny !!

BTW, My dog is also very loyal to me and wants to do all it can for me.
The only problem : it does not have the brains.

From the International Herald Tribune:
"Consumer borrowing fell in August for the first time in more than a decade as U.S. households cut back sharply on their use of credit.

Economists are worried that consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of total economic activity, will decline"

About fucking time that consumer _spending_ caught up with consumer _earning_. Funny how none of the talking-heads on telly mention consumer earning.

Duke said:
The days of how-mucha-month are over. Everyone now knows that buying today means you will lose your 20% down payment AND be stuck for a very long time since you will not be able to sell.

Really? There still seems to be no shortage of complete retards around here who still are hoping for low interest rates to buy a house. I have given up trying to reason with these cretins.

I completely agree with your premise on why it is a lousy time to buy - just that I think it will take a few more months for the sheeple to turn.

MST said:
Throw the bums out. Right, Left, Center. Presidents one term (with the threat of a second?), House “members” maybe three, Senators maybe two, then out with the scoundrels.

I support term limits - one term in office, and one term in jail.

He will eventually rely on others for his core decisions. Just like Bush relied on cheny !!

So Palin will be the man behind the curtain.

RaiderJeff Says:
And what about his running mate. Isn’t she a piece of work.

I kept an open mind on this. Governor of Alaska, got some tough legislation going, seems to know how to get some results, outside the beltway candidate, etc. Besides, if she gets elected, it would validate my prediction about the Republicans getting a woman to the white house first (though I had someone like Mrs. Dole in mind at the time I said that).

Then I heard a speech she gave, and then saw the deer-in-the-headlights at the debate. Oy vey. Can we get Dan Quayle back?

Peter P Says:
He will eventually rely on others for his core decisions. Just like Bush relied on cheny !! So Palin will be the man behind the curtain.

Dick-less Cheney

NIKKEI -952.58 -9.38%

Sweetness. TOB, time to post that economist cover again. You may have to bring that out every day now.

I am fine with the current system, only that I believe that the voters are the problem.

We need a system in which the voters themselves have to score at least 100 on IQ test, and they actually can deal with more than one issue in their head. All eligible voters have to memorize at least 5 issues the candidates are rooting for.

There should be a new rule banning people with IQ less than 100 or age great than 70 from contesting in presidential races.

And no more boner pills for boomers!

OO Says:
Ben probably needs to cut 1.5% by tomorrow. He is not pumping fast enough, hopefully he will correct that mistake soon.

Ben will pretty much have to cut. In his October newsletter, Bill Gross has already ordered Bernanke to:
1. buy commercial paper (done today)
2. cut fed rate to 1%
3. co-ordinate a worldwide rate cut with other CB's

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/1007083aig1.html

Here is a copy of the AIG party invoice.

Neutron,

Any comments from Hank Paulson about this abuse of taxpayer money? I will be looking carefully for some immediate sign of leadership on this action of theft.

MST,

Barry Ritholtz of bigpicture blog fame has the following to say about the right-wingnut meme meme that Jimmy Carter and the CRA of 1977 is somehow to fault for the housing bubble and ensuing financial crisis:

From a speech back in 2004 comes this telling quote:
>

"One other thing I've done, is I've called on private sector mortgage banks and banks to be more aggressive about lending money to first-time home buyers. And the response has been really good. There's a lot of people in this -- our communities around the country that deeply care about the issue of homeownership, and they've been responsive."

- George W. Bush, U.S. President, March 26, 2004.

>

Its important to understand how this situation occurred in the first place, if we want to be able to fix it. Blaming the CRA and Fannie/Freddie is a total misunderstanding of how the problem occurred, and what we need to do to fix it now, and avoid doing it again in the future.

To repeat my prior arguments, the proximate cause of the Housing crisis were 1) Ultra-low rates; and 2) Abdication of traditional lending standards, thanks to 3) originators ability to resell mortgages for securitization purposes, and hence, 4) not have to worry about loan defaults.

The credit crisis was caused by 1) the above securitized mortgage paper, that was 2) rated triple AAA by Moody's and Standard & Poors, which then 3) Which was then "insured" by credit default swaps (CDS) -- the unreserved for, shadow insurance products 4) whose exemption was made possible by the Commodities Futures Modernization Act. That legislation exempted these derivatives from any supervision or regulation. The lack of reserve requirements is why there is now $62 trillion in CDS, many of which will never pay their counter parties the promised insurance.

If you are going to blame Fannie/Freddie/CRA, or George Bush or Barney Frank, you are missing the big picture.