patrick.net

I was talking with an upper manager at a large Southern Ca. credit union. They told me they were going back to school for their masters because the credit union was going to fold in 2 years (This was 6 months ago). Toxic mortgages were the reason. I mentioned I thought that credit unions didn't make those types of loans and was told that all credit unions did. It was too hard to resist the easy money.

Sorry fpr the vagueness. I have no wish to cause this person to have a shortened career at this CU.

Since the foreclosure moratorium have been pushed by local and state goverments, this will has pushed the recognition of writedowns by banks further out. Add to that the Alt-A which is rich in Californa (San Mateo/Santa Clara) as the next wave starting to hit I would say very long indeed. It still hasnt dawned on the goverments that price appreciation dating back to pre-2000 (here locally in Santa Clara) were never sustainable.

The recent blip up in prices only signaled price volitity by external factors weighing on the market. I dont expect either to last
long.

People are gonna have to get back to work before the credit crunch is alleviated. At least a year or two, I'd say, before it starts to get better.

My credit union OnPoint in Portland used CountyFried for their mortgage service up until recently but one has to wonder about HELOCs.

I dont think nobody would have facts, because of the govt relaxation of mark to market. Every bank is imagining some value for the house putting it in the asset column. If and when that rule is out, we will know where we are. Until then, its really tough to say. I think every bank is equally exposed. One word, Greed!

Not sure whats worst.. fact we are seeing tax credit fraud or our news media is now run out of India. (see last line)
You know, its not a far stretch we may see foreigners claiming tax credit at our expense.

IRS probing home-buyer tax credit claims: report
1 hr 18 mins ago
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091020/ts_nm/us_homebuyercredit/print
(Reuters) – The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is probing more than 100,000 doubtful claims of a tax credit meant for first-time home buyers, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website on Tuesday.

The $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed in February to help prod the U.S. economy back to life.

Lawmakers have expressed concern that significant number of claims might turn out to be fraudulent, the paper said.

The IRS was investigating 167 "criminal schemes" involving the credit, according to the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, the paper said.

The IRS was not available to comment.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Dan Lalor)

thomas.wong87 says

Since the foreclosure moratorium have been pushed by local and state goverments, this will has pushed the recognition of writedowns by banks further out. Add to that the Alt-A which is rich in Californa (San Mateo/Santa Clara) as the next wave starting to hit I would say very long indeed. It still hasnt dawned on the goverments that price appreciation dating back to pre-2000 (here locally in Santa Clara) were never sustainable.
The recent blip up in prices only signaled price volitity by external factors weighing on the market. I dont expect either to last
long.

100% correct in my opinion. Well said.

thomas.wong87 says

Not sure whats worst.. fact we are seeing tax credit fraud or our news media is now run out of India. (see last line)

You know, its not a far stretch we may see foreigners claiming tax credit at our expense.
IRS probing home-buyer tax credit claims: report

1 hr 18 mins ago

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091020/ts_nm/us_homebuyercredit/print

(Reuters) – The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is probing more than 100,000 doubtful claims of a tax credit meant for first-time home buyers, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website on Tuesday.
The $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed in February to help prod the U.S. economy back to life.
Lawmakers have expressed concern that significant number of claims might turn out to be fraudulent, the paper said.
The IRS was investigating 167 “criminal schemes” involving the credit, according to the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, the paper said.
The IRS was not available to comment.
(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Dan Lalor)

Surprised to hear a prejudice against Indians by some one whose last name is "wong".

I talk a lot with a bonds trader. He knows enough - and about 3-4 months ago he said they were only halfway done unwinding the bad debt. My guess is mid-2010 based on that.

cloud13:

In defense of Mr. Wong, he did not make a prejudicial post against Indians; he merely posted a humorous, sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek remark regarding our "esteemed" news organizations, many of whom are smarting from low viewership levels and ratings. The only news organization currently enjoying a 20 percent ratings increase is FOX News.

Its a bit eyebrow-raising to have a non-native report from some other country on the other side of the Earth, reporting on another country's financial news to that country.

As a former WSJ reader, this position of theirs (among others) strikes me as a cost-cutting move on their part (and other news groups) to employ reporters on the cheap, much like corporations such as Intel hiring Indian engineers for $20k per year instead of American engineers who are at the mercy of the local real estate industry/landlords/sellers.

This is nothing more than offshoring one of our Constitutionally protected freedoms to some other country for the sake of paying low wages.

btw, "Wong" is a surname of Chinese origin, not Indian.

~Misstrial (who lives in the Bay Area and whose neighbors are Caucasian/Asian/Indian)

Misstrial says

cloud13:
In defense of Mr. Wong, he did not make a prejudicial post against Indians; he merely posted a humorous, sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek remark regarding our “esteemed” news organizations, many of whom are smarting from low viewership levels and ratings. The only news organization currently enjoying a 20 percent ratings increase is FOX News.
Its a bit eyebrow-raising to have a non-native report from some other country on the other side of the Earth, reporting on another country’s financial news to that country.
btw, “Wong” is a surname of Chinese origin, not Indian.
~Misstrial (who lives in the Bay Area and whose neighbors are Caucasian/Asian/Indian)

I guess that is the point he is trying to make.....When you see walmart run out of China...Mr Wong probably have no problem with that....And what is wrong in News media being run out of India...Hey at least they can see things more objectively rather than keep arguing endlessly about whether they are libs, cons, neocons, libertarians, dems, repubs....:-)

no offense to anyone or any race...

"I guess that is the point he is trying to make…..When you see walmart run out of China…Mr Wong probably have no problem with that……"

Perhaps Mr. Wong did not remark about Walmart or its imports from China because that was not the topic. Walmart's conduct is not directly related to the First Amendment either unlike the topic which was U.S. news organizations hiring foreign reporters to report on U.S. news :/

I mean, if I want a foreign perspective, I can simply log on to the BBC online and get their views; same with any other international perspective I desire. Most foreign news organizations have their own online site.

I would like to add that there are long-time citizens in California who are of Chinese heritage whose ancestors were brought here during the Gold Rush by Charles Crocker and others. In exchange for their slave labor building tunnels and assisting gold miners, the Chinese "coolies" were given US citizenship.

Just because his last name is "Wong" does not indicate that he is a recent arrival who espouses offshoring.

Just sayin'....

~Misstrial (4th generation Californian)

thomas.wong87 says

Not sure whats worst.. fact we are seeing tax credit fraud or our news media is now run out of India. (see last line)

I'll just note how the originating news agency for that story (Reuters) is based in the UK. I suspect they have an office in Bangalore? Maybe. News feeds, as seen on Yahoo, etc. come from various sources--the US did not offshore that one directly. ;-)

KurtS says

thomas.wong87 says

Not sure whats worst.. fact we are seeing tax credit fraud or our news media is now run out of India. (see last line)

I’ll just note how the originating news agency for that story (Reuters) is based in the UK. I suspect they have an office in Bangalore? Maybe. News feeds, as seen on Yahoo, etc. come from various sources–the US did not offshore that one directly.

Thank you for clearing that up, KurtS.

Major sites, such as Yahoo News and Google News, give a foreign and domestic perspective by offering viewers multiple choices of news organizations when viewing an online news piece.

~Misstrial

Hmm.... Your question is interesting, "Any chance their suffering will end in near future." Let me answer your question with a question.

Do you really want a return of the big bloated credit monster that helped to inflate the price of everything over the last two decades? Really? Truly? Which does come first? Do high prices demand an expansion of credit, or does too much easy credit facilitate higher prices? I know which one I would bet on.

If we continue to see denial of credit to consumers, it means one thing. People will have less credit to spend. This may induce savings and propagate continued "pain" through retail sales, but the end result will be a reduction in prices.... eventually. The part that will suck is that everyone who did not save, or had no chance to build any savings will suffer quite badly.

The alternative would be to socialize the "pain" so that all may suffer in a prescribed and approved, unequal and unjust fashion.