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Credit Crunch might be yummy, but I haven't tasted it yet :-(


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2007 Dec 18, 7:07am   26,662 views  123 comments

by StuckInBA   ➕follow (0)   💰tip   ignore  

In this age of fast moving information, some catchy phrases get very quickly regurgitated by clueless journalists. First it was Goldilocks and now it is the scary monster called "Credit Crunch".

Problem is, I don't see it. I don't doubt that it is happening at the intitutional level where financial institutions are afraid of lending money to each other.

But at the individual borrower level, things seem fine. Now "fine" is a relative word. Things are definitely not fine if you consider recent past as any benchmark. But recent past is simply not a good benchmark.

It should be hard for borrowers to get loans without proving their incomes. It should be hard for borrowers to get loans 10 times their incomes for an asset that is likely to depreciate. It should be hard to to get a negative amortization, 100% loan.

If that is what is happening, then it is simply a return to normal lending standards. This is not credit crunch. This is what it should have always been and I hope this what it will be for a long long time.

When a double income, 800 FICO family finds it impossible to get a loan without 30% down payment - I will call it credit crunch. That may happen very soon, or may take a while.

What do you say ?

StuckInBA

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119   SQT15   2007 Dec 20, 8:24am  

He also tried to move in with my older brother, kind of came to visit and wouldn’t leave

I'm totally afraid of this. I'm not going to let them stay with me. I don't trust them to leave.

Some fucked up parents out there. Producing some seriously fucked up kids (US).

Ain't that the truth....

120   john364   2007 Dec 21, 12:59am  

by credit crunch, they mean credit crunch. when asset backed securities have an increasingly hard time to put value on and, at the same time, the value of them is falling, then investors don't want them. if investors don't want them banks can't sell them. if banks can't sell them, buyers can't borrow from banks. if buyers and businesses can't borrow from banks, this puts brakes on the velocity of money in the economy. this slows consumption, employment,...etc. thats why a credit crunch may not be seen by someone with a 9-5 job who doesn't work in the credit or banking industry. but it's powerful enough to throw this economy out of balance.

121   SP   2007 Dec 21, 7:37am  

john said:
but it’s powerful enough to throw this economy out of balance.

Some would argue that the economy has been thrown off balance a long time ago. The credit crunch is actually going to get things back into balance.

122   Eliza   2007 Dec 22, 1:22pm  

SQT,
Sorry to hear about your parents. I remember a time when it sounded like things were going to work out sort of OK for them.

Not knowing the situation, I don't know what to say. It sounds like you definitely need to keep a strong boundary with them in order to avoid giving more than you have available to give. Difficult, that. But, yeah, you probably don't want to have them living in your house. Or borrowing your money. It sounds like advising them in any way is really difficult, too.

It is always possible that they will change enough that you will be able to help them in some way in the future--advice if they are able to accept it, maybe helping them to find their way into a budget and reasonable housing (not yours). Or maybe just giving them love and no additional rope.

123   apostasy   2007 Dec 23, 2:10am  

@Steveoh

In the graphic for this thread, what is the asterisk after “Free Helicopter Inside!” denoting?

Straight answer to your question can be found in the Wikipedia article that describes why Bernanke is derisively called "Helicopter Ben" by his critics. Note that his actual remarks were more nuanced than what critics have attributed to him. Furthermore, an argument could be made that stealth inflationary injections of the sort he described in his remarks are exactly what has been transpiring this month.

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