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A: well if they are brown eyes, they are puupy colored...
Q: If ARMs reset in the forest and no one is around to hear it, do you still have to pay money to the bank? Or can you just ATM the heck out of your house until the lumberjacks come?
Just the other day, I was walking home to my pathetic rental, when I was attacked by a gang of ruthless subprime thugs. They beat me up, took my wallet and forced me to sign up for a NINJA loan. When I woke up in a ditch several hours later (minus a kidney), I found out I was the proud owner of this.
The government needs to do something!!
HARM,
Once again, an excellent thread! I just emailed a graphic for your consideration for the thread.
Some additional victims:
Joe Hedge Fund Manager: "If those MBS products didn't seem so delicious, I would never have poured the entire fund into them and lost billions of dollars for so and so's pension fund. Oh well, only a $1M bonus this year."
Hillary Clinton: "If I hadn't endorsed a FB bailout, I would have won the Presidency! (Besides, I hated having a Snuke up my Snizzle...)"
Mr. and Mrs. tech worker/immigrant parent: "If it weren't for this housing bubble, we could have afforded a home in Palo Alto or Cupertino, and our kid would have ended up at Harvard. Instead, he's a Realtor (TM)."
@skibum,
Very appropriate comic --but I might be forced to pay royalties to Bill Watterson if I use it.
Btw, you guys should check your mutual fund portfolio, it is not what the name suggests.
I had a very small position in Pimco's international bond fund, which stipulates very clearly on prospectus that it was intentionally taking an UNHEDGED forex position and concentrated on FOREIGN bonds to take advantage of the fall of the dollar. That was about 3 years ago.
Then last year, when I started reading the mid-year statement they sent me, I found that about 45% of their freaking fund was invested in MBS! WTF! It was called INTERNATIONAL bond fund and was almost half invested in MBS denominated in the falling USD!! So I yanked out all my money from that fund right away. That is why I love the simple index fund, give me a Euro FXE fund, I know exactly what I am getting into, and I don't want surprises. Ever since 05, the last thing I have wanted to get into is USD bonds, let alone USD-denominated, MBS crap.
I suspect that some mutual fund houses may be buying things to save their under-water dog funds. For example, PIMCO is heavily invested in USD bonds, maybe the USD bonds were not looking too good, so the big boss tells the international bond fund manager to take over some of the loser MBS to dress up the performance number for the entire fund house.
In recent times, this country always makes the perpetrator the victim and the victim the perpetrator!
Maybe housing will be the new exception. Buyers, lenders, realtwhores and builders are all victims and it is the renters who are the perpetrators!
Patricks bailout letter is starting to get some attention.
Recent hearings in the United States Senate have led to talk of bailouts for subprime borrowers spurring a "Stop the Subprime Bailout" letter writing campaign from long-time Bay Area housing bubble watcher Patrick Killelea at Patrick.net.
I am guilty of failing to support the Amerikan Dream by not buying a POS with a NINJA. I must want the terrorists to win :-(
@ allah,
Yeah it's like crying for Enron execs because they were out of work. What about my grandmother who was out about $1M when the stock went to zero. That was stock my grandfather earned and purchased over the decades working for predecessor nat. gas companies. In the new world it's probably grandma's fault!
Paul
Let's not forget the 23 year old MB from Kuhjerkistan talking on 2 cell phones at a time driving w/his knees trying to find the Phoenix homes he'd already bought! I suppose the Kuhjerkistani Mob held him up to it?
allah, nice find! You know you've arrived when you're getting mention on Seeking Alpha.
On a different note, Mr. & Mrs. HARM did a little "house-hunting" for the first time in nearly 3 years last Sunday, and were somewhat surprised by the results. Keep in mind we were just lookie-loos, not serious lowball buyers with offer in-hand, as our esteemed Mr. H.
Open house locations:
Pasadena, Monrovia & Duarte, CA
Observations:
--Sellers are much less arrogant/cavalier than before, and more polite/attentive to prospective buyers, even deigning to speak with obvious low-rent filth like myself.
--However, while asking prices have come down somewhat, they are *still* in delusional-to-nuts range (average 1950s 2-3Bdm 1200 sft stucco box = $600-900K). That's still an improvement over last year's euphoric-to-psychotic.
--I've also noticed that virtually all the older houses we saw had significant new upgrades (of the pergraniteel variety) and were usually in near-turnkey condition, vs. the "let's not even bother to clear out the trash in the living room or weed the lawn" condition that was so common a couple years ago.
--Most new developments here (yes, there are some even in built-up L.A. County), tend to be of the mini-Mcmansion or multi-story "luxury" townhouse on-a-postage-stamp variety. Almost nothing new under $1 million. There was even one devlopment in Monrovia that --get this-- starts from $1.8 million and is being sold through Sothebys (the London-based auction house for the uber-rich). This in a predominantly middle and working-class neighborhood. Here's the link: http://www.sothebysrealty.com/PropertySearchResults.aspx?N=12+4294967274+4294967261+4294967081
"From his front lawn, Corchuelo likes to smile up at the cranes and listen to the clang of construction.
“It’s a good sound,†he said.
All day and all night!
Sometimes the crack addicted hookers strole in and give him
a freebe...just to crash in the pad!
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One of the more interesting side-effects of the housing bubble's collapse is its ability to produce victims from some rather unexpected places. For example: Lennar Corporation, one of the nation's largest home builders which profited handsomely during the run-up (and has been accused by some of substandard workmanship), has just officially been granted victim status from the media:
Apparently, the recent sub-prime credit crunch has also produced quite a few human victims among those who can no longer borrow beyond their means indefinitely and add to their already crushing debt loads:
And the damage is not just limited to uneducated, Joe 6-pack types with limited means and bad credit. Look what just happened to a PhD with a good job:
If these people can become media "victims" of the housing bubble, who's next? Some possibilities:
Alan Greenspan:
"I was forced to lower rates to 1% to moderate the tech bubble recession, and to make the economy look good, so incumbents could get reelected. Those big, mean politicians were really pressuring me! How was I supposed to know it would spawn an even bigger bubble in real estate?? I'm just a powerless (former) central bankster!"
David Lereah:
"I didn't want to keep fanning the flames with outrageous lies and baseless industry propaganda, but I had to feed my family. The NAR kept on blackmailing me with my enormous salary and benefits. What was I supposed to do --quit and become a regular working-stiff like all you low-rent schmucks out there?"
Gary Watts:
"If I didn't come right out and say '15% was in the bag' for 2006, they would have hurt my family. I practically choked on those words, but it was either say it or 'lights out' for little Billy and Janie. I had to choose between my family or my integrity --what would anyone have done in my situation?"
Casey Serin:
"How could I say 'no' to such sweet deals, when everything I learned from those R.K./Robert G. Allen books and seminars was screaming 'Yes, yes, yes!' Besides, Galina was really pressuring me to 'get a house'. How was I suppoosed to know she meant only one? Besides, all those sellers really tricked me --they used my Macaroni Grill & Jamba Juice addiction to talk me into those illegal cash-back deals. They preyed on my fears of being a Looser and took full advantage of me. I feel so... violated."
Discuss, enjoy...
HARM
#housing