Can You Balance Your Checkbook?

LC…We know Young Married Couples who paniced and bought a house thry couldnt afford because the Media Hype was that Housing Prices would just keep going Higher…The Media is to Blame to for not doing its Homewsork and creating some Public Angst..IMO

You’re exactly right, Larry. I’m now starting to believe that the American public just might be right on this. Let ‘em go under. The Federal Reserve can continue top provide liquidity to the banking system so that credit doesn’t totally freeze up. Meanwhile, those involved can do the needed digging and back-tracking to find out exactly who is holding the toxic mortgages. Once it’s know where the turds are and who exactly owns them, then things can start to return to normal.

If there is any kind of rescue package put together, then let it consist of loans or insurance of some kind. I don’t want the government in the real estate business if at all possible.

As for the Wall Street genuises who got themselves into this mess … Screw ‘em. Let ‘em go under. We need to get away from the concept in this country that once a business becomes big enough, no matter how crappily it’s managed the government will come riding to the rescue at the end of the day. There are plenty of financial services companies out there that DIDN’T chase the easy bucks in the mortgage racket. They should now be able reap the rewards of their prudent management by taking away market share and assets from those that did.

Thanks Larry

I was starting to think I was the only one who felt this way – not unlike how I felt during the run up to war and the Obama crush. People need to look at the situation rationally. Yes, banks will fail, and investors who freak out and sell their stock on this panic dive, are going to lose money. But we’ve been through the ups and downs on Wall Street before and we’ll get through this one too.

I can’t help but think that Paulson is taking care of his own here. There are plenty of other options no one is even discussing. It’s the throw money at the problem and hope it sticks mentality. All it’s going to do is screw taxpayers.

Amen, Larry. You always deliver. God Bless ya.

Larry…A fitting FDR moment…Nothing To Fear But Fear Itself…Thanks. NQ Rocks!

When I moved out to California, I didn’t “panic and buy a house because I was afraid prices were only going higher”. Instead, I saw how silly things were out here and I opted to rent instead. Boy am I glad I did! Now, when things bottom out in mid-2009 or so, I’m gonna be able to get a great deal on a house.

Whatever happened to just letting them jump out of their windows, like they did in 1929? Those were the days.

Thanks Larry, good article and some common sense. I don’t want to bail out Wall Street. I have a feeling that most of this wailing is simply a show. Newgt Gingrich has a couple of good ideas that would make a bailout unnecessary which he mentioned on Fox last night and either President Bush or SEC head Christopher Cox could do it with the stroke of a pen without congress or the senate being involved. The bailout would then be unnecessary. However, Pelosi et al want this bailout and screams of doom and gloom to continue because it helps Obama because most of Americans think is the repubs fault. Baloney. Its the dems fault. They bucked ever single time that the repubs including Bush (who I can’t stand) tried to initiate some safeguards before this happened. Kurtz has a great article about ACORN at http://www.nypost.com/php/ pfrien…pals_131216.htm. Pelosi knew this bill was going to fail because the black caucus all voted against it because there is no ACORN money. Now she can work to add it back in. The democratic party is working against the American people. They are fast becoming the worst party in history.

I don’t know what the right thing to do is… but I suspect the right thing is to leave things alone.

Every intervention seems to beget new unforeseen problems.

I”m glad the Republicans have proved me wrong about their cowardice. (although I suspect that Nancy sabotaged the vote) and defeated the bill.

Now if McCain will get his butt in gear and talk to the American people and be a leader.

Nobody pushed them out, did they? Better they jump than use my tax dollars to bail them out of a mess of their own making.

I agree.

When Bush, Polosi and Frank are at odds with the public and congress you know something is rotten.

Your friendly neighborhood newspaper gets a lot of ad revenue from Your Friendly Neighborhood Realtor.

Anytime a writer went off the reservation and wrote an ariticle even hinting of a housing bubble, his bosses shot him down.

And let’s face it, the MSM is populated by numbnuts. I can now see the lack of critical thinking ability manifest in the journalism world.
They may have degrees from institutions of higher learning, but their work product betrays a real boneheadedness and refusal to step out of their comfort zone.

[The Democrats] are fast becoming the worst party in history.

I’m still voting for the party that let 9/11 happen, lost New Orleans, started an illegal war, committed constant war crimes during that war, made torture national policy, wiped their butts with the Constitution, let our wounded vets lie around in their own urine, piddled away the Clinton surplus, and engineered the second Great Depression as being the worst party ever—but that’s just me.

Larry, I couldn’t disagree with you more. I think you have jumped over to the other side.

Balancing a checkbook? How about political imbeciles who put us deeper in debt to the tune of hundreds of billions each year?

By Larry Johnson’s standards, almost no politicians (with the exception of a few sincere fiscal conservatives like Ron Paul) are qualified to talk about this crisis.

Perry…Everyone has a right to their opinion currently in this country…
I am voting for an atypical Republican for POTUS because my Atypical Democratic Candidate was screwed out of the nomination by Corrupted Party Leaders…
2 WRONGS DON’T MAKE A RIGHT

I’M JUST SAYIN’…COUNTRY FIRST

omg…LMAO….

Can You Balance Your Checkbook?

If the answer is no, then I don’t want to hear a peep out of your pie hole about the financial crisis–or lets call it the hysteria about the financial crisis. You are not qualified to even have an opinion on this mess. Learn to balance your checkbook then come back.

Can I nitpick?

Larry I assume when you say “balance your checkbook” you mean living within your means, income and assets. I think there are people who are math challenged in the checkbook balancing area yet still live within their means. There are also people who can balance their checkbook who owe plenty. Perhaps “keeping their asset and liability ledger in the black” would be better?

Well anywho thanks for the post. There do seem to be plenty of Chicken Littles spewing sky is falling nonsense.

We did the same thing, Duras. We have a very nice income, and could have bought 2 years ago. We chose not to, because in the words of my husband, “This market is insanely inflated. INSANELY. No way those houses are going to be worth that in a few years – why would I buy in this market?”

So we kept our money, biding our time, and have been modestly renting, and waiting for it to bottom out before we step in and buy. Any idiot could have seen this coming. Are we to be punished now because we had foresight and common sense?

Barney Frank in the Boston Herald today blamed
TALK RADIO. Wow…I didn’t know you could pass the buck THAT far.

Larry was making a metaphor.

Can you explain *why* you disagree with Larry?

thank you Larry, excellent post…ain’t it the truth.
Let them divebomb…if they finally are allowed to stand before the world w their pants around their ankles, maybe we can stop this BS. Enough. S & L’s, Enron, this. These people have been having a good laugh at our expense. Fuck ‘em…

It was not just the media… it was mortgage brokers and real estate agents pushing people into homes that were above their means. Remember, both get commissions at the sale, the higher the price, the higher the commission…

When I moved to North Tx, I had an agent and WAMU mortgage broker trying to get me into a home that was $150,000 over what I could realistically afford. At the 3% she was due to receive, the real estate agent would have earned $4500 more if I had fallen for it!

Needless to say, I found a new agent and mortgage broker.

I’m not voting for a party, I am voting for a person. I would have voted for the PERSON Hillary Clinton, but now will be voting for the PERSON John McCain.

Seems like replacing Hitler with Stalin would not be a good idea. So I agree with you artist.

My son out of the Navy with “nuke” training got an amazing job with a huge salary in San Bernadino. He soon realized that with his high salary, he still wouldn’t be able to afford a house closer than a 3-hour drive from work. So he went back out on Monster, got a different job in Tennessee that pays the same, but he now has a very nice new home, completely furnished and three vehicles, without much debt.

The point is that people need to manage their money and balance checkbooks, as Larry says. They also need to make sure they aren’t overpaying for things–which is the point McCain was making during the debate about ways to handle government finance. It sounds too simple, but what is good for individuals is the same thing that is good for governments.

to Perry Logan – Ditto!

The media, banks, mortgage companies, investors all might be party to blame, but the largest portion of the blame is directly on the young couple. You can’t afford a house then you don’t buy it. It is as simple as that, nothing more nothing less.

I couldn’t agree more. I am furious that responsible people like my husband and I are paying the price for the greedy and irresponsible. We bought a house we could afford with a good old fashioned 30 year fixed rate mortgage. We make extra payments whenever we can and because of this we are in no danger of being under water. What we didn’t do was take out up to 120% of our home’s value to buy things we really couldn’t afford and didn’t need. It would have been easy to do, as we used to be inundated with calls from companies begging us to take their money.

As a prime example of how crooked this fix is, check out the audio of a conference call between the Treasury Department and top Wall Street analysts describing the bill and reassuring the fat cats that all will be well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXmFADm61Rc

There are five parts in all.

Larry I couldn’t agree more.

I’m so sick and tired of doom and gloom. I told my husband yesterday I wish I was one of those people that doesn’t give a shit. That way it wouldn’t drive me so crazy.

We are a nation built on credit..everyone has credit cards and lines of credit and some businesses operate on it, so it’s going to be a bit painful to come out of this. I think credit should be harder to get and I think it’s going to benefit our country if we all learn to live within our means. For some, it’s going to be a learning experience. But in the end, I think we’ll all be better off.

And yes. I can balance my checkbook..to the penny.

if someone cannot do simple math of adding and subtracting, they shouldn’t have a checkbook.

They pressure tactics are good by those out to make a buck!

Well, your choice boils down to voting for the party that allowed all the above to happen or you can vote for the party that didn’t do too much to keep any of that from happening. IOW, where were the Dems when the GOP was doing all that? The Dems, while a Senate minority, still had the votes to filibuster EVERYTHING they didn’t like (41 votes is all it takes to keep a bill from being voted on; the Dems ALWAYS had at least 44) but could never seem to muster the necessary political will to stop Bush or the GOP on a single issue.
And when the Dems gained control of both houses in 2006, what did they do for the most part? Let Bush have everything he wanted, just like his “rubber-stamping” GOP.
As long as people like you continue enabling the failed two-party system, you’re a part of the problem, not the solution.

I can’t stand to reward EITHER pack of vicious, corrupt jackals, so I’m voting Green this time.

The trouble is/was, rents in California are very high and on par with mortgages. That is how a lot of people who had little to no money down were lured into the housing market. Back in 2002, rent on a home in the LA area was close to $2000/month, and I’m not talking about mansions, just 3 bed/1 bath tract homes.

The gloom and doom sayers were right yesterday, and wrong today. Is the market factoring in a bailout and getting in now on good value?

Jim Cramer says that 60% of these subprime loans are in California and Florida. There should be a CA-FL specific plan to either re-write these loans are buy them out our-right.

If you lose 777 points on one day without a bailout, and recoup nearly half of it the next day, that says that momentum is moving forward, not downward into the abyss.

Throw in the politics of this: trying to benefit one candidate over the other, Representatives CYAing before the election day, Pelosi and Obama trying to aid corrupt organizations such as ACORN while the whirlwind of ‘get it done now’ – and you have the ironies of all ironies – a market healing itself.

When I taught basic research writing at the Freshman level at a local university, some of my worst researchers were the journalism students. They were being taught simply to get quotes from someone and put that in as research. They did little background research to know what questions to ask, what points to bring up. Just get a quote her from this “expert”/”spokesman” and then get one from the other point of view if you can.

Sound familiar?

*The* sorry typos are my specialty…

“Stocks fell minimally (1 percent) in Germany and went up slightly in Britain.”

I don’t know what they taught you in that ivy-league spy school at Langley but we were taught to scan the immediate area first and then increase distance.

What is there about Der Speigel’s article that you do not understand?

Hypo Real Estate, Fortis, Bradford & Bingley. Three European banks nearly collapsed in the course of just two days on Sunday and Monday, showing that the Wall Street financial crisis is pulling European companies into its pincers at an ever-faster clip. With trust between banks waning, analysts believe Europe is threatened with a serious credit crunch.

Congratulations on the cheaper Euro, pints will be less painful. Sorry about the SEP.

Oct. 1st Military starts Martial Law Mission
something big is going down.

Is that tinnitus or is your shoe really ringing?

Country before party.

I sell real estate, and I will say that ALL real estate is LOCAL, and an appraisel is only GOOD at the moment it done…Now that doesnt relinquish responsibility for over appraises, and bad lenders who wanted to get a fast buck…But remember the FEDS threatened to charge lenders with REDLINING if they DIDNT loan money to POOR people(especially the poor black folks)….So what is a lender to do? You know what they did…No one wants to be charged as a RACIST, especially a bizness…The NAR is just as guilty of implementing this program as the FEDS…

My view is, NOT every deserves to be able to buy a home, white or black…Race shouldnt have been a part of the equation, but only CREDITWORTHYNESS…So many will call me a RACIST, but I’m NOT, I’m just one who believes that people should get what they earn and can afford…

The NAR is so liberal. they want ILLEGALS to be able to buy homes and the NAR pushes agents to learn SPANISH…Anything for a buck….

OBOMBA and his Marxist pals are the reason this happenend under the Community Re-investment Act…And Yes Bill Clinton was just as GUILTY for this, for a VOTE…

Come on Bill, FESS UP…Assign BLAME where it lies…and the REPUBLICANS didnt do enuff to stop it…

And also, OBOMBA SUCKS….Country First…

Perry,

The VA Hines in Chicago has been under Dem rule for decades. Dems never did anything for it-I know, one of my relatives was a physician there for 20 years and it madse him sick. When he began to make noise they asked him to retire.

unfortunately that is what happened. I am disgusted by it as I am sure every single person here is. That being said, I don’t believe for one minute that John McCain would do such things. With he and Palin’s record, I have to hold out hope that they will show the American people that there are some decent people running for office who truly believe in the purpose of their public service. I have never been one to vote by party. I always look at both sides. Past performance does not dissuade me in the least. All Democratic Presidents have not done well either. If we judge a candidate by a letter of the alphabet then we would not really have a reason to vote at all would we?

No, that says that the rich are getting richer. They’re buying low so they can make tons of money.

“Can you balance your checkbook?”
Yes I can. I use Excel to do it, but it gets done nevertheless, so here goes.

This post in summary says ‘grow up and take responsibility’. And How!

I would just like too add that the same rule applies also to the banking industry, since they literally create 98% of the money in the first place. NO, most money is in fact NOT printed (except for that 1% of currency known as federal reserve notes you have in your wallet). Banks create this 98% of money from lines of credit and interest due, and it’s tracked in accounting databases in bank computers.

Borrowers of course have an adult responsibility, regardless of whether they know it or not. Likewise, banks do also. It is completely irresponsible for banks to engage in a fantasy of believing that loaned money is safe, simply because they bought hedging securities, when many of these securities were based on an insurance bet that a price would go down. Guess what? When the price went down, no one backed the insurance.

I stongly suspect that bank’s willingness to do this was their way of not facing the fact that the virtual comodity known as money was, over time, increasingly based by other forms of un-backed virtual money, as the real commodities of the means of production were shrinking.

I’ve yakked before on this, but it bears repeating – the sooner we wake up to the fact that we have to get back to real production of real stuff like domestically produced goods and services, the sooner our money problems will be solved.

Former CEO of Sony, Akio Morito once said over a decade ago (paraphrasing from memory), Americans make money by moving it around from place to place, instead of producing things of actual value.

Its not that simple actually when you factor in bank charges, ATM transactions that are pending, etc.

LOL!

McCain will pull a Teddy Roosevelt…He is not a GOP Goosestepper anymore than Hillary was a Party goostepper…They have more in common than most folks think. Barky on the other hand has destroyed the Party Built By FDR with the assistance of Pelosi,Dean,Brazille,Kerry,Kennedy,Reid and the list goes on and on ad infinitum….What do they all have in common…FEAR & LOATHING OF THE CENTRIST DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM AND SUCCESS…FEAR OF CLINTON…ANY CLINTON…

I sell real estate, and I will say that ALL real estate is LOCAL, and an appraisel is only GOOD at the moment it done…Now that doesnt relinquish responsibility for over appraises, and bad lenders who wanted to get a fast buck…But remember the FEDS threatened to charge lenders with REDLINING if they DIDNT loan money to POOR people(especially the poor black folks)….So what is a lender to do? You know what they did…No one wants to be charged as a RACIST, especially a bizness…The NAR is just as guilty of implementing this program as the FEDS…

My view is, NOT every deserves to be able to buy a home, white or black…Race shouldnt have been a part of the equation, but only CREDITWORTHYNESS…So many will call me a RACIST, but I’m NOT, I’m just one who believes that people should get what they earn and can afford…

The NAR is so liberal. they want ILLEGALS to be able to buy homes and the NAR pushes agents to learn SPANISH…Anything for a buck….

OBOMBA and his Marxist pals are the reason this happenend under the Community Re-investment Act…And Yes Bill Clinton was just as GUILTY for this, for a VOTE…

Come on Bill, FESS UP…Assign BLAME where it lies…and the REPUBLICANS didnt do enuff to stop it…

And also, OBOMBA SUCKS….Country First…PALIN for Prez

I say no bail out…stop throwing money at them and let it correct its self…I have seen the dollar hold its own or improve the last two days….

They are just doing to wall st. what they did to people who could not pay for the houses they bought in a way…using others money..

The DOW is up^ +363.35 right now…I say cut the purse strings to wall st. if the banks bought these bad loans it is not my fault or yours…if they are weak they will fail and if they didn’t mess with the crap they will still be standing.

Bah! The Democrats and Republicans are like two people shitting in a bucket and fighting over who’s more full of shit. No matter what, it still stinks.

The Republicans have a plan.

http://mikepence.house.gov/UploadedFiles/RSC%20Version%20Economic%20Rescue%20Alternative%209-29-08%20(2).pdf

I like it.

I wondered how people here illegally were buying homes….yes it happens folks…that is why we need the laws we have to be put into effect…If they don’t have a green card don’t hire them…yes many are to blame in this mess.

Sorry, the like doesn’t work.

Try this one and then go to the right of the page.

http://mikepence.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=104038

Sorry, the link doesn’t work.

Try this one and then click on “Republican Study Committee Alternative Plan”.

http://mikepence.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=104038

I agree!!

I find myself agreeing that there is too much fear being spewed. It appears to me to be a way to skew the election in favor of one party over another.

It would be silly to do anything until real accountablility and agreement can be reached. I really, really don’t want tax dollars going anywhere to organizations and people who can’t be trusted. I know that means most politicians–who can be trusted less?

Every time I would leave my house, I would drive by a brand new housing development going up. It just seemed absolutely crazy. I knew the market had gone off the deep end. Many of those developments are not sold. Many are almost totally in foreclosure now. We need to stop and let things right themselves, and I know that will mean some people will be financially challenged. But it is the U.S. and not the Third World. They’ll survive.

amen! right on larry! finally a sane voice! there are still not saying how the problem is going to be fixed. yea- the bail will out will do this or that but, nothing how it will be corrected or prevented or stopped from ever happening in the future.

Are you meaning this?

Brigade homeland tours start Oct. 1

It just gets crazier and crazier, and if the polls are any indication, people are stupid enough to believe it.

oops-meant to type they are not there are. my bad.

I could not understand how so many people could afford a million dollar home.
We lived in a crappy little apartment in LA within our means.
I’m not jealous anymore.

I was the FIRST ONE to say you LIBS have been seeing things as they aren’t like in the movie “They Live”…

You have been bamboozeled for YEARS…Wake Up, and put on the GLASSES so you can see the propaganda from the DNC and the RNC…Vote CONSERVATIVE, you cant go wrong…

Now that SOME of you have put on the ‘glasses’ you see the DNC has sold you out, and that the Rockefeller Republicans are of the same BREED…TOO LIBERAL…

Please continue to think ‘country first’, and vote that way…OBOMBAS trolls are constantly on here, and all you hear is, that I want to overturn Roe vs. Wade…The truth is I DO, but it won’t happen in my life time, if ever…and that is the flat out truth…I wish it could be overturned, but I don’t believe it will EVER happen…There is too many judges in FAVOR of Roe v. Wade…

But we can stop OBOMBA, and you can convince your lib friends to vote AGAINST him…

Come on Black folk and white folk and latino folks, and all others…BAN together to DEFEAT OBOMBA for the GOOD of the country, NOT party….

I was thinking of going over to a casino and seeing if I couldn’t get 777 to come up for me….Hey, it’s just as safe as what t hey are wanting to do with our tax dollars…

Since Congress cannot balance it’s check book, then they should shut up.

So true the Panic! is being manufactured.

Excellent call out.

About ten years ago Japan went through a similar banking crisis and the government stepped in to help. The Japanese commercial banking crisis appeared to never end and the Nikkei even in 2003 flirted with 20 year lows.

One of the business people who turned things around in Japan recently was quoted as saying “Now that all the top U.S. investment banks have decided to adopt holding company structures, they will have to abandon their business models based on highly leveraged investment and devise new ones”, said Nomura Holdings Inc. Chairman Junichi Ujiie.

I love the use of the term “highly leveraged”. So the investment banks did buyouts using a lot of what was meant to be high yielding debt and now need a bailout here. Does this mean that the trouble has been casued by two problems – package sub-prime mortgages and selling them as invetsments and doing “highly leveraged” mergers and acquisitions.

There’s no question we have to maintain liquidity in the financial system but any bill that requires doing so should insure that it is used to maintain liquidity in the system and not just to pay off an individual investment banks debt.

Some may go bankrupt. Sorry, but who put a gun to your head and told you to go on a spending spree.?

Ever been at a Big Box retailer check-out line and watched some fool paging through credit cards, trying one after another, desperate to find one that isn’t already maxed out so he can buy one more piece of lifestyle/self-image-validating crap?

“but the soldiers with 1st BCT, who returned in April after 15 months in Iraq, will operate out of their home post at Fort Stewart, Ga.”

A bit far to help out on the Potomac or in Manhattan.

Is a Confederate rising in the offing?

Just a thought, since the Dem’s simply want to give away billions of taxpayers money, when not do something more responsable such as what is forthcoming over the next 2 years of 4 million more foreclosures:

Feds buy up 1/2 of the mortgages of those unable to pay the high rate mortages and become 1st mortgage holders, the banks keep the balance of the mortgage as a second mortgage holder (cost $400 billion)

Terms are when a property is sold, the mortgage to the Feds is paid off first, banks second.

Although the banks will be required to maintain the majority of work on the mortgages, the transparency is there because the banks cannot foreclose without the Feds approval as 1st mortgage holders.

This give liquidity to the banks again, but not a cash cow giveaway they want, they hold a brunt of the cause for the mess presently still.

This also stablizies the housing market by not having millions of homes yet to be foreclosed on and smacks Wall Street with having to do some work and not just bask in dividends for shareholders.

Just a thought that can be a win for the American people and not Wall Street and Obama’s ACORN buddies!

McCain is trying to talk, but the MSM won’t carry the story. They only cover Nobama “The bill will pass” garbage, as if he is speaking from Mt. Olympus.

Military is in Galveston Right Now….
You can check out the Pics by google Houston Chronicle or Galveston Daily.
Navy brought in Ships and landed with Gear and soldiers to help with the cleanup. The are needed badly.

“Well, I think there are a whole host of areas where Republicans in some cases may have a better idea. Well, on issues of regulation. I think that back in the ’60s and ’70s a lot of the way we regulated industry was top-down command and control, we’re going to tell businesses exactly how to do things. . . And you know, I think that the Republican Party and people who thought about the markets came up with the notion that, “You know what? If you simply set some guidelines, some rules and incentives, for businesses — let them figure out how they’re going to, for example, reduce pollution.”

Barack Obama on Fox News Sunday, April 28, 2008

Yes, they will probably have him on tv holding 2 tablets.

I seldom read a more balanced informative blog. Just want you to know you make common sense out of nonsense. Keep up the good work.

I have put you on my blogroll. I hate to miss one day of your posts.

Thanks for your excellent work.

lol…yes…crazy isn’t it?

Sounds very familiar, but I can top it.

I was working with a journalist from a major paper at the beginning of the year. She was writing a piece and needed some historical background that I can provide. I sent her tons of research, quotes and cites from speeches, white papers, newspaper articles, foreign medical journals and relevant textbooks, quotes and cites from history books, links to online resources maintained by a major university, and when all was said and done…
she said she did not believe that what numerous, credible resources said was true. I sent her a massive amount of documentation that would pass muster in any courtroom or PhD diss exam.

She did not believe it, despite all sorts of documentation, including the words of the perpetrators themselves that establish motive and amount to a confession.

She simply said she did not believe it.

You know why?

She did not want to believe it. Despite all the evidence right there in front of her face, she did not want to believe it. I don’t think this one was beng paid to ignore the facts, although I don’t disallow the possibility. I think she just doesn’t get it, despite the history being crystal clear. I conclude that there isn’t room in her mental landscape for the facts.

But the facts are there for anyone to see. Even she could have seen them if she cared enough to focus here eyes for a second or two.

Here’s another fact,: When people like that have the ear of the American people, we’re all screwed.

Duras,
Your comment makes so much sense. Funny how common sense is so rare these days, isn’t it?

30yrdem-not any more; in California is it no longer a cottage industry. It is big business.

What is interesting to me is that people who are the most “panicked” about the market are the ones that loved selling short.

These mortgage securities were being passed around like hot potatoes and play a game of musical chairs.

What is the long term outlook?
What is a Nation State in a global economy?
Sorry the years of actually going out and buying the duck-tape are numbered. Certainly the fear meme is spent.

Thank you Larry Johnson! I’m so sick and tired of the fear mongering and melodrama. “This could be the end of civilization as we know it!” Give me a break.

It’s just all crazy political theater and people don’t even question it. C’mon, if this was the end of the world, the House wouldn’t just take a few days off. I’ve got nothing against holidays, but if civilization itself is at stake, then I’d even have to insist people work on Christmas.

Yesterday, around 3:50 pm I heard the head of the Dow talking to CNBC reporters. He said he could put together a team to place a near accurate value on each troubled mortgage, which would be better than marking them all down to zero. The subject changed as they were watching the board drop and a very important follow-up question was not asked. Has anyone from the Fed, White House or Congress reached out and asked for that information? Did you not think to offer your help? If you did, why was it not done?

To boil this down to a small example. If I owned a bank and I wanted to unload some tough loans I would expect than any prospective buyers would want a full evaluation of the loan, the property securing the loan and the borrower behind each loan. And I would prepare that BEFORE I tried to sell the lot.

I too am leaning to no bail out. But, if they really wanted us to support the plan should they not have told us, as close to the penny as possible, the approximate value of the paper we are being asked to buy. At least an inventory would have helped. It is 1 million home loans? 5 million call loans? 10 million credit card accounts? 100,000 ACORN workers?

Balance their checkbook? Heck, they don’t even know where it is!

car loans not call

When I taught basic research writing at the Freshman level at a local university, some of my worst researchers were the journalism students.

Have you considered teaching research writing in a blog?

Unfortunately, the Democratic idea worked, while the Republican idea doesn’t work.

For example, the Democratic “top-down” method managed to clean up the Great Lakes.

The Republican “bottom-up” method has allowed the Great Lakes to become seriously polluted again.

Republican policies never work, but Republicans have managed not to notice this.

OT, but

We had weeks of non-stop media hysteria over Hillary’s Bosnia sniper fire comment. Left Blogistsan was rending their clothes, frothing at the mouth, and shrieking LIAR LIAR OMG HOW COULD YOU TRUST THIS PERSON??!!

Yet Biden can run around falsely claiming he was “shot at” in Iraq and there is not one peep from the mainstream media:

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/30/unlike-clinton-biden-gets-pass-saying-shot-iraq/comments/

I bought both my house and land at good fixed interest rates. The land is on the Veterans Land Board contract, the house is through a bank. But what ticks me off is, if this financial situation creates inflation then I may as well have a fluctuating interest rate because on a fixed income I can’t earn more to compensate for the loss of the value in the dollar. Even if my property payments stay the same just paying for the other essentials of life makes it harder to pay my house and land payments. Everything stinks.LOL! . I am not saying G-D America though, but G-D the political parties.

Here’s another fact,: When people like that have the ear of the American people, we’re all screwed.

Most voters have so little knowledge on the issues that they can be swayed, and are, by a bumper-sticker or sound bite sized quanta of “info.”

Should they change to Hari Kari? Nah, there’s no shame in squandering the assets of millions of people these days by criminal CEO’s.

I think ACORN is a huge part of why the Dems didn’t pass this bill. Right now we’re seeing the idea of bringing the original bill back for a vote. Obama said in a speech yesterday if he’s elected he will immediately bring that bill to his desk and go over it line by line to take care of homeowners…does anyone doubt that when he talks about housing it’s ACORN?

In one of the many WTF moments I’ve lived through lately I heard George Will say something on This Week that I thought was spot on.

Will: “We assumed that in time the congress would see how the average American Family lived within it’s means, used credit only as necessary and stayed out of debt. Instead the American Family emulated the congress and went deep in debt, used credit irresponsibly and profligately and lived way beyond their means. Thus both country and families are now in crisis.”

I can and do balance my checkbook. I keep track of my account daily on-line and I don’t have nor want a credit card.

If I can’t pay for it, I don’t buy it. I don’t view “shopping” as a recreation or aquiring “stuff” as my life’s work.

I don’t much like the idea of bailing out the rich pinheads or the people that acted irresponsibly. So what if someone pushed them to buy something that couldn’t afford. Responsible adults say no thanks.

Much has been said on this thread about panic.

The term “panic” is an interesting one when viewed from the historical perspective on hysteria.

Bank Panics were the common term used in the Nineteenth Century and early Twentieth Century for economic downturns.

We only got around to abandoning it as a economic referent when Herbert Hoover tried to spin the aftermath of the 1929 market crash as a slight “depression” in the economic cycle.

Moving right along to the Fab 50′s, when 1958 rolled along both “panic” and “depression” were proscribed terms.

The Eisenhower administration spin doctors concocted the term “recession” as a substitute. We have been using it for the last forty-odd years. It is getting long in the tooth.

Who knows what wondrous syllables of spin this latest meltdown with inject into the lingua franca.

Yet in my view all of you may have a little problem with the bill. TSCzar will hold ‘his’ properties until the housing market is high enough to make a profit from the sale or action of the properties. That would be nice, wouldn’t it?

So when the bottom falls out, they’ll say America is “economically challenged.”

Will somebody please explain this to me? Why do we need a Congress if this goes on without oversight all the time anyway?

The Federal Reserve will pump an additional $630 billion into the global financial system, flooding banks with cash to alleviate the worst banking crisis since the Great Depression.

The Fed’s expansion of liquidity, the biggest since credit markets seized up last year, came hours before the U.S. House of Representatives rejected a $700 billion bailout for the financial industry.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ahwz_k5JvuB8&refer=worldwide

More likely there will be a ‘burning bush’ with Obama’s voice coming from it.

OT (but important imo)

Many of you have seen the video “Burning Down the House” posted on YouTube by TheMouthPeace. The first video had over 1 million views and was then taken down by YouTube. The 2nd video version was put up this morning and had about 9,000 views as people started to find it again. Sometime in the last hour or two YouTube took the video down again citing copyright infringement.

MouthPeace had excerted his right to the “Fair Use Doctrine” and it appears he was NOT in violation of any copyright laws. (The doctrine is explained in the video.)

Here is a 3rd version of the video posted by a different user and given a new name:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIrzlFYaSks

The video was up less than a week and was going viral and the Obama goons are desperate to take it down. What has this country become? This is making me physically ill.

Larry has spoken the ugly truth. I wish it was otherwise. The suffering that will occur to the average citizen is being used as cover for Wall Street to get what it wants, someone to pay for its mistakes. I believe we are all going to suffer as a consequence, but we know who won’t.

I cannot believe the fear mongering coming from a POTUS. I know, it is GWB, but I am talking about the principle of fear mongering from the highest official of the U.S. This situation is not ever going to be right unless they make the people handing out loans accountable in the future. It is not enough for them to just walk away and let the government pick up the pieces. The underlying problem must be addressed and I haven’t heard anything about that. I think there should be public hearings on the bailout before anything happens. The heads of the banks need to be called before the American people and explain how this situation developed and how it can be prevented from happening again.

Yeah, you’ve got a d-mn good point with that post.

Why isn’t Congress pushing to set up a mechanism to quickly unbundle and rate the various components of all that questionable paper?

This would not only restore value to the solid components, but eventually reveal who the culprits in this whole mess really are.

Maybe that latter part is why it isn’t being suggested?

And then some. No, who one needs to blame even more are the Regional, State and National board of Realtors. These are headed by brokers and yes, they knew exactly what was going on but they like to put a big amount in the offering plate at their churches, when they go to church and feel good about it. When they ask forgiveness for their sins they stump their prayers with a few extra dollars. And their pastors love it. They absolutely love it.

This is a youtube of Ken Blackwell on ACORN and OBAMA on Foxnews today that someone put up less than 30 minutes ago but it is really poor quality and at the end, around the last minute there is no sound. This is an excellent video exposing Obama and needs to be posted and emailed EVERYWHERE!!!!! If someone else taped this and it is in good quality. Please upload it to youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSd5t2jP4iY

Any time anybody who is trying to sell you something (that includes politicians) is yelling “gotta act now!”; that is the time to keep your hand on your wallet. They are trying to push something past you.

Larry,

This important video you placed in an earlier post has been removed by youtube, due to complaints over the use of copywrighted background music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5tZc8oH–o

It is an excellent 10 minuute history of the root causes of the financial collapse.

Do you know who created it?
Is there another version without the music?

It was posted on your blog
Here

and here

Can you update your “Baack’s Buddies Post with a new link?

I have been emaling the link to this video to everyone and urging them to view it.

perry, you are such a schill for faux dims.

There has to be a special place in hell for those who simply take from those many millions of us who work hard and save what we can just to have enough to live a reasonably descent life.

Bankers, mortgage brokers and investors all go to church on Sundays. Not the media. So they know what they were doing. But their pastors said to them, ‘brother, would you like to be a deacon?’

Please see my post above Johnny. Here is a new link. It has been reposted by another user and with a different title:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIrzlFYaSks

The Obama goons are really afraid of this one!

My single big question is where the bail-out money is supposed to come from. Do they figure on actually borrowing it somewhere? Or are they really just talking about increasing the money supply as needed, without the formality of loans? Maybe they’ll unload T-bills to keep up appearances.

This is a terrific set of proposals, and will actually improve the functioning of the financial sector instead of just bandaiding over the current mess.

The bailout would then be unnecessary.

That’s not quite how I remember what Newt said. I thought he said that the President or Cox could implement ‘mark to market’ without approval of Congress and that Sarbames-Oxley could or should be modified. He said that would buy us some time to craft a better bill. But there would still have to be some sort of economic recovery plan to help stablize and reorganize the economy.

sorry about the spelling… bad keyboard…
tip – keep liquids away from keyboards.

Not only are these people buying homes they can’t afford, they want to keep up with the Joneses and buy all this crap for their home. Flat screen tvs, new furniture, the whole kit and caboodle. I have a friend who doesn’t even have 3 months rent in the bank but has enough money for $100 worth of magazine subscription a month, cell phone, cable tv, a budget for eating out weekly. That’s insane!

Sen. Obama’s looking-down-his-nose, chin-in-the-air stance actually reminds me more of Benito Mussolini. Oh, well, perhaps if he wins, the trains will run on time.

I tried that too, and I just kept getting 666 to come up.

Pardon my naiveness, but I really do not understand Americans allegiance to ‘party’. I must know, is it a requirement to declare a party allegiance (or that of an independent) in order to register to vote? And if you are registered with a certain party, are you obligated to vote for said party? As a Canadian, we here do not necessarily vote according ‘party’. Nor do we register with a party unless you choose to. I consider myself a Conservative, but if the Leader of the Con Party is a dolt, I certainly would not feel obligated to vote for the Cons. Most here in Canada tend to vote on the issues and what they feel would benefit the country and themselves the best. Of course there are always exceptions to the rule, but they seem to fall more in line with the far left thinking that pervades in both of our countries. Plus in Canada, the far left gains most of the immigrant vote due to their lies that they will offer the most for nothing. I do not mean to be disrespectful in any way, so please do not take offense in thinking I am criticizing for the way many seem to vote in your country. I just don’t understand as to why it matters if there if a ‘D’ or an ‘R’ in one’s name to determine your futures.
On a side note, it is good to see that so many here are thinking about their vote, as opposed to just casting one.

lol and I just saw and old clip of Alec Baldwin jumping out of a window while talking on the phone to continue selling. lol

It was not just the poor that got suckered by ACORN crooks. The “FREE MONEY” era ushered in by ACORN hooked all the weak, greedy and materialistic show offs, regardless of their class or station in life.

But now, all of the honest, hard working people who led the boring life of living within their means are going to pay.

I think they are more interested in making it seem impossible to untangle the various loans, claiming that they have been ‘sliced and diced’ so many times no one knows what is where.

Your point is a great one — I also find this very hard to believe, knowing what accountants and financial officers are like, not just professionally but also workattitudes-wise.

They’re probably planning on going to one of the more upscale areas of hell, with gated communities, swimming pools, air conditioning, etc…

How reassuring to learn that our high school term papers were better researched than the typical contemporary newspaper article.

Locally, the Phila. Inquirer used to have a reputation for great investigative journalism.
Now when we do buy it, usually it’s for the sale ads and weekend activities section.

Larry thanks for your propositions. I kind of disagree with your “balancing” position. Sort of look at my take on it. “Balancing you say?”

The question in our country has always been to post GDP growth. This obsession with GDP growth is what drives our country’s economic process. The obsession is with growth. Somehow it is so important that it be growing.

Balancing GDP would be a much more productive endeavor. But no. Bush had to be obsessed with growth. So whatever whatever if it pushes growth. This started with Reagan and that’s why I disagree that he was a great President. He was a mediocre President. He borrowed in order to make sure he had a positive growth on the GDP. It gets complicated.

But what president wants to be known as a great “balancer” of GDP?

America and Americans have a bad habit of using plastic to pay for everything. It has to stop. We have to live within our means. What has been happening should not have been allowed to happen. It is sad that more will be struggling because of high-level greed. My area is riddled with “cornfield mansions.” Farmers cannot make a living growing food, so they sell their land to developers who build those huge homes. What a waste all the way around. In the end, it is the people who suffer from debt of their overpriced homes, gas to drive anywhere because they live in the middle of nowhere, and the high cost of food because the farms have been disappearing to make room for unaffordable housing. Of course there are many factors in the high cost of food, but loss of farmers and fields is one. And of course, those people should not have bought unaffordable homes. But that is all there is around here, unless you are one of the lucky ones like me who bought before the prices went totally insane.

Here in the D.C. area, mortgages have been outrageous for the past five years. In the past year, they’ve started to drop and as someone said further up-thread about the area where they live, thankfully, they will continue to level out. Then, I too will consider buying something.

Benito Mussolini.

That’s it!! He does resemble Mussolini in appearance, manner and ideals.

I must know, is it a requirement to declare a party allegiance (or that of an independent) in order to register to vote?

I believe the answer is yes but each state has its own laws.

And if you are registered with a certain party, are you obligated to vote for said party?

It depends on the state and nature of the election. If during a primary contest generally you are given the ballot for the party you are registered to. But I think some states let you ask for the ballot of another party. If you are nonenrolled (there is an Independant Party) you can ask for whatever ballot you wish.

In a general election you can vote for any party.

This is my understanding of the process. Hard to give a precise answer when there are states involved.

We Americans have a thing for “Blind Loyalty”.

Which is ironic, given that the US and it’s Constitution were formed out of DISLOYALTY to the Crown, and out of respect for individual thought.

Ah the profound wisdom of cutting off one’s proboscis to spite said one’s face.

Standard…I could not agree with you more…chuckle…When times were good I worked hard t keep my kid in Catholic School because I knew it would pay off later down the road with scholarships…it has. But I never could afford to own a home or a fancy new car…chuckle…Always saved my money and paid in cash for used vehicles…
Saving money now and have been without a vehicle for 4 years now. I walk to the store and carry my groceries on my back.
I don’t have cable TV.
My kids in college and so I now live in a small studio apt.
I’m doin the best I can with what I’ve got. The Government won’t bail me out of poverty…But I’m not askin them to anyway. All I want is a fair shake at opportunity. These folks probably thought that’s what they were gettin too and just didn’t use common sense or were too naive.
I think it’s EVIL to exploit anyone’s hope for the American Dream and it is STUPID TO EXPECT SOMETHING FOR NOTHING. I GAVE UP ON THE TOOTH FAIRY A LONG TIME AGO…Wall Street Should too. There are alternatives that should be examined.
COOLER HEADS MUST PREVAIL HONESTLY

I’m doing the same thing. Housing is ridiculously inflated where I live. I refuse to pay double for what I know the worth of a house is. I rent; but, now, when everyone else is defaulting and in crisis, I am fine and I still have my money so when houses get down to a fair price, I think I might buy one.

I have been sitting tight since 2001, and I never even thought about buying in this inflated market. If I have enough sense, why did my fellow Americans, including family, get caught up in it? I think you are on to something, the media was complicit in this. When are we going to tell Madison Avenue, Wall Street, the Media, and the Politicians to Fuck Off?!? We should stop reading, watching, and listening to these mind-fuckers for once and for all.

of course not, it’s not Palin saying it so it’s not important to call on it. Was thinking last night that with all the talk of the stock market dominating the news, the McCain camp could release a tape with Barry admitting that he’s got three citizenship and no one would cover it.

Waiter!

I’ll have another order of Intellectual Laziness, please. With a side of Close Mindedness, and I’ll- Believe- Whatever- The Hell- I- Want- To- Believe Dressing on my Word salad. Diet Denial Cola to drink.

O, and supersize it.

Do you take credit cards?

…absolute power corrupts absolutely. Stupid human beings always forgetting history and repeating it ad nauseam.

It is gone again!!

Do you have another link?

copyright infringement? What?! You can youtube search tons of clips from Pixar, Disney, etc. and it’s all there. Can we say Communist Google?

and we certainly should stop letting them program our minds, our tastes, our spending habits, our proclivities and everything else.

It was a completely shocking experience, to say the least.

This entire year has been an eye opener in so many ways. In a sane year, this deal with the reporter would have been the Most Shocking Story Of The Year, at least for me.

But it hasn’t been a particularly sane year, has it?

the great depression was so bad it was not really until world war 2 that we pulled out of it.

i hope all of those who are so sure they know what is right ARE right, because we really have no way of knowing, and if they are WRONG, well….let’s just say i would not want to be responsible for being in that position.

and where are those october surprises?

I can see it…try again. Let’s send this thing viral again!

i guess we will all find out, won’t we?

all the outrage and indignation…..feels good now but i just hope that it is not leading us down the wrong path.

i don’t pretend to have the answers, but i don’t feel it’s productive to join the outrage/rant crowd in this.

i wanna see an election that gets us out of the hands of those who started this (dems/obama) and i’d like to see some energy put into THAT. mac needs to step it up.

This is a fantastic video — everyone should send it everywhere they can, asap!

Got it. Thanks.

I think I picked up some viral crap that screws up my browser.

I ran anti virus and spy scan. I don’t know how that stuff gets in.

BTW.. You cannot believe how many times I have been called RACIST for emailing that video.

Larry says about monetary policy:

will ultimately make us all better off.

The nation has an obesity epidemic. Like Bush’s and every economist and market analysts obsession with GDP/GNP growth, they want to consume more than the energy they want to excrete.

This obsession with more is a national obsession. A way of life. A corrupted emblem of the American dream.

Most children in America today and most young adults and middle age and mature adults have learned and have internalized the satisfaction that consumption of more brings to them.

Obama wins because it offers more and people like it.

Two things.

One, it would be good if our educational system would encourage ‘balance.’ Equal amounts of intake and excrement.

Two, more and more usually leads to sicknesses, illness and chronic deceases.

Obama winning is and will constitute the sickness, illness and his presidency will evolve into a country known for having a chronic decease. Marxism. That’s okay, we have two nice friends going to through the same illness, Russia and China.

The biggest problem with this bailout, it that these notes are divvied up and have been resold ad infinitum in the markets, so that the US Government will not own the mortgages, but only percentages of them. This is a freaking mess, and I say, let the note holders sort their mess out. It might create an unreal backlog in the courts, but the alternative is not workable. They bought into the mess, and its their problem, not OURS, the US TAXPAYERS.

That’s because when you’re young you don’t think about those things. You live for the moment. I told my husband last night we’ve done stupid things when we were young. Took risks with our money, we even took risks with our lives.

I used to do really stupid things, I’ll admit it, it’s amazing I am even alive. When I was a kid my brothers, sisters and I would wait for an opportunity for my mother not to be looking. We would climb out our second story bathroom window onto the little roof and jump into a 3 foot swimming pool. When I was a teenager I would hang drop 3 stories to sneak out with my friends. Several times I got stuck in the chain link fence. That’s why I have a messed up shoulder now.

Just look how many middle aged couples have prepared for their death, to make sure their family is cared for, have plots. You won’t find many. They think they’ll live into their 80′s. Most don’t even begin to think of that till their in their 60′s. So those young couples are doing exactly what we did when we were young. They’re living for today. In some ways I look at them and wish I still had just a 1/4 of their optimism.

And we all know how old Benito ended up…

Excellent article Larry! Your take on the current financial fiasco makes good sense in light of how quickly the stock market entered recovery mode today. I, too, want to believe the sky isn’t going to fall if Congress doesn’t come up with a rescue plan of sorts. On the opposite side of the fence, there are those who strongly believe there must be at least an effort to stabilize the economy in order to stave off a credit system in deadlock that could take years to recover. Whatever plan is on the table, there must be oversight and not by those directly responsible for this debacle. To deign to do otherwise (as was the objective of the current proposal that got nixed and rightly so) is akin to giving the fox the key to the henhouse.

When banks like Wachovia fail, the FDIC is called in to protect customers. Unfortunately, at the end of the line it is the taxpayer who picks up the tab. The banking/CPA arm of my family insist that an avalanche of banks in collapse mode will in the end make a $700 million rescue plan look like chump change. I hope they’re wrong and that the choices don’t come down to either footing the bill for this riduculous bail out or paying an even steeper price further down the road.

The Dems don’t want a bail-out. If the “crisis” is solved, it moves off the front pages. As long as the economy is topic one, Obama gains. Now Obama has come out with a plan to increase the amount of money one can have insured in the bank. That was originally in the Repubs plan. McCain needs to get a little more aggressive in pointing these things out (including Acorn, etc.)

LMAO, my feelings exactly!

I am again going ot – so sorry – but there is a video on drudge report showing children singing songs for Obama like he is the savour of the world. Really scary stuff – you won’t believe it. I would post a link but not sure how.

IMO, if Palin does not win, you can forget about the bottom of foreclosures and forget about the rest. Your CPA is correct imo. We have Palin but then who wants or thinks that a woman can bring a macho country like America to success. No. We always look to males as the harbingers of success. This is what I say about that.

Pppprrrroooofffffrrsssssstttt.

In this debate, I expect Palin to define Oblahblah as a fly catcher. Everything that flies ends up in his tongue.

I really have to wonder what role George Soros has played in this economic collapse, being that he has managed to cause economic disaster and panic in several countries and that this current economic disaster is aiding Soros’ candidate, Barack Obama, so immensly.

very nice. Clear and simply explained.

“The Meltdown For Dummies.”

If they pull it again, take out the soundtrack and add kazoo music.

Really great post Larry!

You mean this one? C-R-E-E-P-Y!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW9b0xr06qA

Jeez, reminds me of stories my Chinese mother used to tell me of her youth in China…yikes.

The rules for primaries vary by state – these are the party elections to come up with their nominees.

For the general election it is one American one vote, and you do not have to vote for any particular party, or even belong to one.

Rush was talking about this earlier today. VERY scary stuff. McCain needs to create an ad about this. Well, maybe some 527 because this is too much!!!

Here is a very interesting article from the NYT about how Sweden dealt with and solved its banking crisis in 1992.

They took a totally different approach than America so far. Those of you who are against a bailout might like what Sweden did. Basically they went after stockholders.

I might not wait that long! There a GREAT deals out there right now…and if you wait for the “bottom”, by the time you and the media get around to announcing the “bottom”…it was actually 3-4 months ago and prices are back to creeping up.

I do know this, (I am in the real estate business here in California) we are actually seeing MULTIPLE offers now on short sales and bank-owned foreclosed homes which means that prices are ALREADY at the “bottom”. The only thing that remains to be seen is how much more the ADDITIONAL foreclosures that are coming will affect the market…and YES, there are many more to come!

Reminds me of the former East Germany. How is this happening here? Can America be this dumb?

REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: This is a copy of the bill which will provide for a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street. It has provisions in it where it talks about helping homeowners, but when you read the fine print, you see it has language like “may” instead of “shall” and “encouraging” instead of “mandating” help for the millions of homeowners who are worried right now about whether they’re going to lose their home. There’s no help for them in this.

So what we have here is a rescue plan that essentially gives all the speculators a bailout and puts the bad debts in the custody of the government. The president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank has said that this plan could create a fiscal chasm, says that the problem isn’t tight monetary policy, it’s the reckless behavior of some of these investors who have now found themselves in a position where a government bailout is going to help reward their bad behavior.

Later on there is this, Obama wanted no protection for the homeowners…?

AMY GOODMAN: You were told that Barack Obama did not want this in the bill?

REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: That he didn’t want the bankruptcy provisions in the bill. Now, you know, that’s what we were told. And I don’t understand why he would say that, if he did say that. And I think that there is a—the fact that we didn’t put bankruptcy provisions in, that actually we removed any hope for judges to do any loan modifications or any forbearance. There’s no moratorium on mortgage foreclosures in here. So, who’s getting—who’s really getting helped by this bill? This is a bailout, pure and simple, of Wall Street interests who have been involved in speculation.

For complete interview from Democracy Now:
http://tinyurl.com/4rsxgu

Hey, some places three of a kind still pays even if sixs!

Thanx for clearing it up for me. Appreciate it

The primaries are different then actual elections. In the primary you have to vote for someone in your party, or not vote, or re-register to another party. In the actual election you can vote for whomever you wish. But, you’re correct about how many of us have voted for years. Although I voted for Reagan against my party, I have pretty much stuck to voting that party. I have voted for other Republicans, but for the most part I have voted the Democrat, even when I disagreed with some of the things they said. This year I learned a very hard lesson. I learned I’m an “American” first and foremost. No party defines who I am as a person. That no longer will I blindly give my allegiance to any party. As other posters have said from here on out it is, “Country Before Party”.

News just said the stock market has gained back two-thirds of it’s loss from yesterday. Gain of 491 points and bargain hunting. Hmmm…. makes you wonder about all this doom and gloom scare tactics.

Line by line? Has even read it yet? There is nothing in there to bail out homeowners. Oh yeah there is the modification of loans but they are already being done by lenders except the bill is for people who are current on their payments and the lenders are doing Mods for people who are in default. Big difference. The check book balancing statement is symbolic of how most people are stangers to their finances and how most people including congress know nothing about credit. They are dimwits with math and frankly, accounting for funds scare them.

It’s not the pub party at fault. It’s Bush and his neo-cons. Pubs went through the same thing we Dems are going through now. Being taken over by the finge is no fun.

the market is expecting the provision bill to pass sometime soon, and then the sell off begins again. Feel manipulated much?

No, it doesn’t.

It means that those of us who waited to make wise choices, without a lot of debt, actually saving wisely, are now in a position to buy low.

If other Americans had made the same choices, they could do the same.

Didn’t your grandmother teach you that choices have consequences?

We Scots/Irish Appalachians have a LOT to teach ole bitter, clingy Obama and his cohorts.

i meant 700 billion! sheesh! what’s a few billion more amongst taxpayers/friends?

Actually I ended up with exactly $100 too much in my account – probably an ATM withdrawal that I thought I made but didn’t. But in general I balance that sucker to the penny, and IAWLJ 100% about the bailout.

The thing that bugs me the most now is that any time the market goes up, the pundits say it’s because Wall Street expects a bailout, and any time it goes down, they say it’s because Wall Street is fearful of the bailout being rejected. Like Mad Magazine used to say, “You can’t argue with a ____”

I’d like to see these kids singing or talking about the issues, not a person.

Very creepy.

Well, if it does become a depression, America can blame the Congressional Black Caucus for voting en masse against the bailout.

And blame Obama for not influencing them to do otherwise.

And Jim Clyburn can flat resign.

ObamaNot is not racist at all, he just repeats racist talking points. Nothing to see here move along, move along.

Good post. As I was typing last night, like yelling fire in a crowded theater these histrionics the MSM is pulling.

This is a manufactured panic. And it’s criminal. And all the so-called news stations have been indulging themselves in this.

Your Dem party has vanished. Stop defending them. They are clueless. All that’s left is the New Dem socilaist Party. Get over it! Please refrain from party bashing.

The wild, unending threats of doom leading up to yesterday’s probably contributed to yesterday’s big drop in the DOW, maybe even more than the vote itself. A common phrase used by some Talking Heads yesterday was “Rome is burning” and there is a suggestion that by opposing the bailout we were “burning down the house”. Before they throw water on the fire, they better make sure it isn’t a grease or electric fire.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st1lH8zcIuQ

I am glad the bailout plan did not pass on Monday. A trillion dollars of taxpayers’ money and unfettered power and discretion to use it is a bad idea. I would be saying the same thing even if it was Buffet and not Paulson spending the money.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvgZkm1xWPE

There were a few people like this on television yesterday. Thank goodness they are more calm today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvgZkm1xWPE

“I’m doin the best I can with what I’ve got. The Government won’t bail me out of poverty…But I’m not askin them to anyway. All I want is a fair shake at opportunity. These folks probably thought that’s what they were gettin too and just didn’t use common sense or were too naive.”

I think you’re being too kind. We personally know a lot of people here, in Las Vegas, who bought houses at prices that were 6 to even 10 times their income! If I know I can’t afford that, then why didn’t they? I don’t want to bail anyone like that out.

I want Hillary’s 5 yr rate freeze plan on current loans. That will give values a chance to stablize and people can stay in their home.

Want vs Need
That is today’s problem. People want to hear that this is not going to be long term and they don’t need to hear about life’s miseries.
People need to understand why we are in the trashcan at this time. Do they won’t want to listen?

The last song was suppose to be this one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYbUCvz1LYE

Texas Congressman Ron Paul — libertarian gadfly and current Republican Presidential hopeful — has made a name for himself as a critic of overspending. But it seems even he can’t resist the political allure of earmarks.

After reporters started asking questions, the Congressman disclosed his requests this year for about $400 million worth of federal funding for no fewer than 65 earmarks. They include such urgent national wartime priorities as an $8 million request for the marketing of wild American shrimp and $2.3 million to fund shrimp-fishing research.

From WSJ:
http://tinyurl.com/4scvfv

There is only one who has NEVER requested earmarks that has tried to rein in spending from both sides of the aisle the entire time he’s been in office. That is John McCain. There are only 6 others that even come close to his record of not requesting earmarks the entire time they’ve been in office.

Coburn, Tom (R-OK) Did not request earmarks
Corker, Bob (R-TN) Did not request earmarks
DeMint, Jim, (R-SC) Did not request earmarks
Feingold, Russell D. (D-WI) Did not request earmarks
McCain, John S. (R-AZ) Did not request earmarks
McCaskill, Claire C. (D-MO) Did not request earmarks
Rockefeller, John D. “Jay” (D-WV) Did not request earmarks

From Citizens against wasteful spending:
http://tinyurl.com/3kvdxm

Here you go the PDF to the 2008 Congressional Pig Book Summary.
http://tinyurl.com/3cs6zs

We wanted to “buy up” five years ago, but that’s when our housing market here really took off and sky rocketed. We’ve been living in our tiny, affordable little house, paying on the principle, and just waiting for housing prices to tank.

What really infuriates me here in Las Vegas is our local media’s constant effort to keep helping the prices stay outrageously, and artificially, high. Just today they were saying that prices have leveled off in the past three months, saying this is good news. No, it’s not good news. The longer they do this, the harder the crash.

They have raided every fund there is. Social security, Medicare, Transportation & infrastructure, the list is endless. Maybe the T-bills are next.
I can’t wait for Mac and Sarah to get in their to clean this up. Experience counts! Pelosi is shaking in her boots over what Mac and Sarah will find with the accounting and Pork. It’s not all Bush’s doing. Pelosi is in bed with Bush.

Far as we know it was ALL Pork for ACORN. ACORN is a black enterprise.

I agree with Clinton who supports the bailout:

Clinton: ‘It Sounds Dire, But Commerce Could Stop’
Says She Understands The Concerns Of ‘Innocent Taxpayers,’ But A Possible ‘Recession Impacts Everyone’
WASHINGTON (CBS/AP) ― Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton says the U.S. Senate may have to lead the way in passing a $700 billion Wall Street bailout package, now that the House has rejected the measure.

“I certainly would support the Senate going first, so long as we have the votes … as early as tomorrow if that’s what would make this process successful,” Clinton told reporters by phone Tuesday.

The New York Democrat, who nearly won her party’s presidential nomination, said she believes public opposition to the bailout deal may be weakening after the market reacted badly to the failed House vote Monday and more businesses express worries about the future.

“It sounds dire but there is a risk that commerce could grind to a halt,” she said.

After the deal failed in the House Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial average sank 778 points, or nearly 7 percent, to its lowest close in nearly three years. It was the largest point drop and 17th largest percentage drop in its history, but far less severe than the 20-plus-percentage drops seen in the stock market crash of October 1987 and before the Great Depression.

The market recovered somewhat in Tuesday morning trading, rising more than 200 points by midday.

Clinton suggested negotiators on the government bailout package should “maybe cool off a little from the emotion and the pressure of the last two weeks and get back to Washington starting tomorrow and do what we have to do to try to stabilize not only our nation but the entire world.”

Voters furious over the proposal to have taxpayers foot the bill should understand that it’s not just a problem facing bankers, Clinton said.

“They have to recognize that we are facing a very serious economic slowdown, a recession that could be of long-lasting and deep impact,” she said.

Without a bailout, Clinton said, “I think it will be even more expensive and difficult to dig ourselves out of this deep hole that we’re in.”

Just heard Obama say that the Dems and Repubs who voted against the bill should “step up to the plate” and do what’s right. I hope that hurts him. Just yesterday an African-American supporter of his said that he’ll withdraw his support if Obama votes yes.

BTW, I’m starting to think we are a nation of whiners. My first mortgage was at 12% interest with 20% down. The world did not end. We are children who don’t want to delay gratification.

Also read in Biz Week that only 25% of all student loans are government loans with reasonable rates of interest simply because borrowers are too lazy or ignorant to submit a FAFSA form. Instead, they take private loans or use their credit cards! Now the media and govt officials are screaming that students won’t be able to get loans unless we pass this bill. A bunch of baloney!

Jeebus chris. I couldn’t finish watching it. rule the world? Live as one? I like my autonomy-Puleeze.

I think it is a political ploy. We have been having banks implode all around us for the last 2 years. What changed?

289 banks and lenders have failed since Dec. 2006. Has that affected main street?

The New York Democrat, who nearly won her party’s presidential nomination

Nearly won?
Stupid Pelosi, Alice Germond and their gang of thieves stole the election. They are crooked from the get go and why should we trust them with money when they can’t even be trusted to record our votes correctly? And they want to give the billions to the crooked ACORN and it’s affiliate companies to steal more elections under the guise of a low income housing company? NOT!

Thanks for the visuals…

“Pelosi is in bed with Bush”

oh, REALLY bad visual!!!

Also, Mussolini started as a leftist, as did Goebbels.

McCain & Obama are full of s..t. This bill is a total disaster. Thank God there are 218 honest Congressmen/women.

Bush is an idiot, Mccain is clueless and Obama is both dazed and confused.

This manufactured crisis has shown us the candidates better than any number of debates ever could. What it’s shown me, unfortunately, is that I wouldn’t trust either of them to take out the trash for me much less govern the country.

Really, she’s got a face that’d make a train take a dirt road.

I agree with you Larry that both streets need a good shaking out of those who ran up bad debts.

If you have a lot of debt, and a bad credit history, you should not be getting loans. After this, you never will.

People who earn $50k or less per year have no business buying million dollar homes.

The bad institutions should be allowed to fail. The institutions that did not bet the farm on subprime, should be assisted.

Why? Because there are hard working Americans, and businesses that depend upon the credit markets. These are the people that pay their bills, and did not overextend themselves with credit.

These people need to be rewarded rather than punished along with the greedy and deadbeats.

As a country we need to once again embrace our values of getting ahead through hard work, perseverence, and strong ethics.

Values. Here is what the late A. Bartlett Giamatti had to say: “I grew up believing in values, but also realizing I would often come up short of them. The best hitters fail 70% of the time, but that is no reason for them or anyone else to give up”.

We have our faults, but we are a great people. And, we need to reward, not punish those who strive to achieve strong ethics and values.

That is what has made this country a world leader and strong for more than 200 years, and will lead it for the next 200.

Jim Cramer says that 60% of these subprime loans are in California and Florida.

California and Florida? Does that suggest the majority who took out subprime loans may not have been on the lower end of the income spectrum?

America is great in spite of its “leaders”, not because of them. Never was this seen more clearly than in the last week.

The same comment goes for our pathetic media outlets.

I have not been pleased with McCain or Obama on this issue, but at least McCain tried to get something done and he made sure the House Republicans were involved in the negotiation. He has been getting attacked in the media for it, and he bought some time for people to giver the plan greater scrutiny. Obama has been MIA except when he thought there was a deal and then he was all over the media saying he made it happen. President McCain, you might disagree with him, but you know the bucks stops with him. With Present Obama (it’s not a typo), the buck stops with ACORN, Freddie, and Fannie.

I disagree with Clinton, just as I disagree with Obama and McCain.

Why lend right now when they can wait and get a higher price for the toxic debts from government than what the market is offering right now, and lend at a lower risk? Wasn’t this the type of stuff that fueled the sub-prime lending problem?

Im disappointed with the self-righteous tone of this blog from Larry and many others on here. This financial situation is not just about bad mortgages. The financeer-pirates should be held accountable, if Martha Stewart can spend time in jail so can these bozos.
While y’all are sitting around feeling complacent because you are renting instead of having bought a home, this non-crisis as you call it has caused many older people to lose their retirement, and others who invested in 401K’s to lose their assets. That is not bad judgment. Not many of us have degrees in finance. Yes, I can balance my checkbook very well thank you. and luckily I havent lost a penny, but many people who are those who were the least that could afford to lose have lost. Have some compassion for them for Chris-sake.

Record personal debt. Record bankruptcies and foreclosures. Blocking medical bankruptcies. Allowing corporations to still do it, denying the little guy the same rights. Record deficits and revenue shortfalls.

As for rent prices here, they’re more absurd than housing prices, and the city is needing millages just to get past revenue shortfalls and fuel spikes.

As for the checkbook, the last one written had not cleared and it had been two weeks. It won’t happen again, John McCain and Mike Milken promise.

This is one time I have to disagree with you Larry!

I was an Iron Worker making close to 100.000 a year. I was injured on the job and lost “Everything’ I owned to pay off my medical bills. What I saved was lost. The only saving grace was that My Wife and I had put some of our money away in CD’s so that my children could go to college and they did! Thanks to Ratheon…My time card and employment history…”Disappeared!”

It happened..I got over it and moved on no thanks to the Bitches I worked with and the payoffs they received for NOT showing up at the Compensation hearing!

Now…

I am disabled and shuffling around at home. My wife is working her ass off at her job and we just don’t seem to be getting anywhere!

today I had to go pay my real estate taxes and they have almost doubled in the last 5 years. I am now paying close to 5 grand a year for a home that is losing value…

Sorry I am having trouble balancing my check book Larry…

But many of us are in the same damn boat!

Still love ya though Brother!

Maybe a 527 should put lots of commercials out to bring attention to the media’s bias and unprofessionalism. There are so many examples. I still run into people that are clueless when I broach this topic and say “but they wouldn’t do that would they”? Oops have to switch from Fox News since Kerry is on. I no longer listen to idiots so he is banned from my TV.

Perry, how well do you know your candidate, Obama, to trust him the safety of your family and of this great nation? IMO, he will really bring “CHANGE” to my beloved America,if ever he wins (God forbids )from better to worst ! His advisers are mostly the corrupt Wall Street CEOs, friend of anti-America, friend of domestic terrorists, friend of world dictators and owned by the media moguls.Pay-back time !
Obama is going to take your freedom of speech, Perry, I give you the right to exercise your freedom to do research now before it is too late !I will NOT do it for you, Mr.
If only people work harder for the money & sweat for their life-styles, we will not be in this mess. Hand-outs, that’s what is Obama good for, isn’t he a great model? Do not work but fleece the government for your dreams to come true. That is Obama, never did a real job in his younger years.Even now, the taxpayers’ money is paying him to work, but no, “Call me if you need me!
Don’t disturb,I’m busy,so busy fooling people so I’ll get my dream:to become the POTUS.”
VOTE MCCAIN/PALIN ’08
HILLARY’ 12

GOD BLESS AMERICA !!!

Jane,
You are right! I feel like you do. dorianb

Did anyone say there is no problem with the economy? Have we not been saying the economy is probably going to enter a recession? What we are saying is this that the MSM is behaving hysterically, terrorizing people into believing that if the Paulson plan is not approved, the economy will collapse and we will be in a depression. Confidence, stability in the economy? If that is the aim of Wall Street and Congress, their reckless predictions of a depression is creating a lot of insecurity and instability.

What would be complacent is letting ignorant politicians who did not know enough to see the problem until it became a “crisis” decide what is the best way to handle this crisis. What would be complacent is to overreact and rush to create a new government program that will cost taxpayers a trillion dollars which might not work and may even make things worse and create a bad precedent. Complacent would be not considering alternative options, or refusing to listen to expert economists and business people who do not have a vested interest in the outcome.

I find it disgusting how many people are irresponsibly scaring elderly people about their 401K and creating more uncertainty in the market by screaming about the next depression. It was this hysteria that caused such a big drop in the market when the bill did not get passed. They are doing the same thing today, building expectations about the bill, drawing catastrophic scenarios if it does not get passed.

RedDragon2

I am not sure why your property tax has risen so quickly. This is one area where government can help main street. They can decrease property tax to match declining housing prices or make a cut in in property tax.

If you are having trouble making payment on your mortgage or other bills, there are consumer groups or legal aid offices that might be able to help you negotiate a lower payment.

Thank you MMI. I really do appreciate your honest concern.

My family is okay. We, as many others across this great nation, are feeling the pinch not only of higher gas prices, food prices, medical prices but also here in Illinois we have the highest taxes in the damn nation!

Guess who helped pass those increases? Obama!

That is why I am so damn angry at the media and those Kool-Aid drinking ‘Bots!

They have no idea what this man and his “Chicago Friends” have in store for them!

They will find out if Obama should make it to the White House…Boy will they ever!

Jane, I went back and reread what I wrote, and I realized I used very harsh language. I apologize. I think part of the frustration with this bailout is that it is taking money from the public, many of whom are struggling to make it month to month, and using it to bail out businesses that by their own actions and incompetence should be reformed or go into bankruptcy, and then using exaggerated claims of economic collapse and a depression to get us to support it. Anyway, sorry.

Inflation is one of the concern people have about this plan. I don’t know enough to predict whether or not it will happen but I know that it will add an additional burden to everyone’s pocketbooks in addition to the 10,000 dollar we are asked to give government up front.

I wish the MSM would report about the tax hikes Obama passed in Chicago and how it effected everyone, not just the top 5%,

No problem MMI. I admit I dont understand much of this and Im keeping an open mind when it comes to the remote possibility that politicians and other mega-financeers are purposely obfuscating events, (ya think?)
I do think the white collar criminals should be pursued. The new bill saysit doesnt offer any financial rewards to exiting CEO’s. I do know that something had to be done in terms of stabilizing the market. It isnt as if these puppet masters really have the kind of control over the market many people seem to believe. I tend to mentally lump people who believe that with conspiracy theorists, meaning those who have a tendency to believe that others control each situation and that they themselves are a victim, rather than an actor. The market is more like a set of ocean waves than it is like a cut and dried situation. Control is only possible in a small area.
I dont believe this catastrophe is a future situation, when it comes to people, especially the senior population, losing their 401K’s. I lost mine in the 97-98 market crash. Fortunately for me Im still able to work. Others cant just go back to work and recoup, you know? Harsh!
Like you maybe, I trust the MSM about as far as I can throw them.

To RedDragon62-
Yes, I do think if your property taxes have risen so severely there may be alternatives for you. Number one you have a disability now, this must be considered when the county tries to heap more taxes on you. You may be eligible for a tax credit there on that. Secondly at least here in Tx a property owner can hire a broker to represent him/her to the tax appraisal board, often resulting in a reduction in taxes. I urge you to look for some help in approaching your prop taxes. They may be assessing unfairly given your situation. Also you could be eligible for a reverse mortgage. Good luck to you.