patrick.net

Wow, there is a serious meltdown of subprime mortgages going on.

Is it time to start a new thread about it?

Is the meltdown of subprime mortgages going to finally bring about the collapse of the whole house of cards?

Remember, the newspaper headline cheating scandal a couple of years ago was in priviledged Saratoga, those poor little rich kids feeling so much pressure to have high grades. They got caught cheating, but they were just victims.

Let's put on the cynic hat for a moment: is cheating really that wrong? if anything, these kids are learning the right skills to get ahead and succeed in the future.

Remember that in the future, there will only be winners, and people working at Walmart. There won't be a middle class in America - it'll be in India/China.

Director level or above, or bust!

Tamparenter,

That's a pretty dramatic one day move (Novastar).

HARM,

Here's another glossary possibility, thought of when posting at Ben's.

"Reset From Hell" (RFH) - Originally coined to describe a NAAVLP unexpectedly (for the borrower) and painfully resetting from a low teaser payment when it hits its LTV ceiling. More generally; any mortgage reset which results in a dramatically increase in monthly payment.

-dramatically
+dramatic

Sybrib said: "Isn’t Taiwan a province of China?"

Astrid, you've been baited! :)

"instead of playing the bubble sitting game"

Close your eyes... The date is 03/01/2008. The market is down 32% from it's all time high in 2005. You're standing in a line to challenge your now outrageously fluffed up property tax bill and the line to the county tax assesor's office is down the block and around the corner.

Your funny money paper "gains" have evaporated completely and while you harbor little hope of getting your ridiculous tax bill reduced you are now just looking forward to "getting inside the building". Damn it's cold out here. :(

Doug H,

Surprisingly, that's how most Chinese people view the situation. I've always viewed Taiwan as a soverign nation, but that's because I believe in self determination - esp. democratic self determination - for any people wishing it. I feel the same way about Tibet, but it's not a popular opinion.

I don't know if it's verboten to respond to theotherside on this board, but who goes.

"Your dream house in your dream school district is for sale and you can really really easily afford it… what do you do?"

Implicit in your hypothetical example is that rental yields are close to purchasing costs, and prices overall are near or below their long-term trend. Therefore, I buy the house.

"If you choose 1, you are in the same boat as current owners who bought a long time ago, have plenty of funny paper equity and decided to sit tight in their house instead of playing the bubble sitting game"

No, this is incorrect. Right now owners are at the peak. In your hypothetical example I would be at least 22% off-peak. Potential losses are reduced by at least 22%.

"So ask yourself, are you really going to choose choice 1 above or have you been recently been thinking hard about getting back into the S&P500 now that all records have been broken…"

Yes, I will choose #1. With regards to the stock market, I dollar-cost invest across time. I don't "get back in" to the market at all, as I have never left it.

theotherside: in my opinion your post sets up a straw-man argument.

With regards to good schoold district - I just want my kids to go to a school where they don't have to worry about wearing certain colors incase they get mistaken for gang members and attacked by another gang!

"Isn’t it a rather popular opinion among the people of Tibet?"

Perhaps amongst Tibetans, though they are unlikely to share their opinions with a Han Chinese. Furthermore, similar to Russian settlements in the Soviet Central Asia republics, mass Han Chinese migration into Tibet (and the Muslim far west and Inner Mongolia) is really diluting the local population. A lot of Tibetans are now minorities on their own ancestral lands.

I'm shutting this thread down to prevent more spam (stuck in moderation, thankfully). Thank you all for participating.