Gotta go.

Signing off (again).

Fight the good fight folks.

Especially against the ignorant, the corrupt and the powerful.

Thanks to the regular posters here.

Been real.

What happens if everyone walks away from their debt-traps? Walks away from their car payments? Walks away from their credit card bills? Let's see.

This ain't over.

Anyone underwater on a home loan should be economically motivated to no longer make payments. Live rent-free for a year or two. And eventually be out from under that crushing realtor-inspired debt.

Anyone with an auto payment or credit card bill should be thinking twice now about paying it.

The debt of the past twenty years will be simply washed away. The government will put the taxpayer (i.e. their children and their children's children) on the hook for most of it, so net-net it may be a wash. But just watch this video, and you'll see what's really going on out there.

The bankers got their bonuses. The congressmen got their bribes. And the poor and the middle class got killed.

We've been here before.

I like Beck.

He entertains me.

He's a circus clown.

He makes me laugh.

Even though he may have raped and murdered a girl in 1990.

But I've got a feeling that oddly, some aren't laughing. Some aren't in on the joke. Some actually believe what the circus clown says.

So be afraid.

The "Summer of American Rage™" is turning into something quite unexpected.

Paranoid + broke + racist + uneducated + underemployed + ignorant. Quite a combustible combo we have in post-crash Fox-News-watching America today.

And Beck (and Coulter and Limbaugh and Hannity and Malkin and the rest) are simply arsonists, with a proven business model, laughing all the way to the bank, while their nation burns.

Peter Schiff for Senate Money Bomb 9/9/09

$1.5 million and he's in for sure.

Donate here

Yes, this could be fun.

Ron Paul didn't have the fire in his belly. He was too nice. And he was too old.

That's why we need Schiff.

Schiff vs. Dodd?

Schiff vs. Reid?

Schiff vs. Frank?

Schiff vs. McConnell and Kyl?

Let's get it on!

Do you have health insurance? Would you like to be able to buy cheaper insurance?

OK, go ahead.

Have at it.

I for one enjoy my high-deductible, low-cost, major medical insurance (i.e. you go to the doctor (or the clinics that should be at every Wal-Mart) for a cold, you pay. go to the doctor for cancer or a heart attack, they pay). And if private companies won't offer this out of concern for profits, then the government, on a revenue-neutral basis, should.

What I don't want is a government "takeover" of healthcare. What I don't want is the disaster of the UK - massive taxes for crappy health care.

Government should be in the insurance business, if it's necessary. However they should NOT be in the health care delivery business. And it should not be in the 50% tax bracket business (like the fools in the UK). Never.

Should be another interesting few months, as the American Summer of Rage™ moves on to the American Autumn of Ignorance™

Here's an excerpt from Obama's speech to schoolkids that some idiots are pulling their kids out of class this week so as not to hear

You know, I guess it's good that some Fox-News-watching, misinformed, ignorant idiots parents are keeping their kids out of school this week, forbidding them to hear a message about studying and pursuing their dreams from the President.

Why?

Because we'll need some kids to grow up to serve us our burgers and clean our toilets (and be realtors, if that job still exists).

(note to any American kids reading this - if your mom or dad watch Fox News and Glenn Beck all day, think about running away now. You'll be glad you did.)

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama Back to School Event

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

Oh, gee, what a shock. The FHA is bust, and another massive hundreds-of-billions taxpayer bailout will be on the way.

People should go to jail.

Period.

If a bunch of idiots like us knew that Fannie, Freddie and the FHA were going to go bust, didn't they?

The answer of course is yes, they did. But the short-term exec bonuses were just too tasty. As well as the lobbyist dollars showered on Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and friends.

What a clusterf*ck. And them grifters, they was good. Real good.

FHA Time Bomb Explodes...Bailout Coming Next!

Mortgage-related losses may push the reserves at the Federal Housing Administration below the level required by Congress. The Wall Street Journal describes this as “a development that could raise concerns about whether the agency needs a taxpayer bailout.”

The FHA has played a key role in the government’s attempts to stabilize the housing market. In the past two years, it has rapidly expanded its loan guarantee portfolio in an effort to encourage mortgage lending. FHA-backed loans outstanding, which totaled $429 billion in fiscal 2008, are projected to hit $627 billion this year. FHA market share rose from 2.7% in 2006 to 23% last quarter.

The FHA will insure loans with down payments as little as 3.5% of a home’s price, and until last year it guaranteed down payment assistance programs that basically let borrowers buy houses with no money down.

It takes a real man to stand up and do what's right. George Will is now such a man. Bravo. Now let's get the f*ck out of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Too bad there aren't more adults on the right, or the left.

Let's hope this and this represent a start.

Out of Afghanistan.

Out of Iraq.

Admit to the mistakes and move on.

Grow the f*ck up, and get America back on track.

George Will has now given crucial political cover for Obama to do the right and smart thing. Let's see if he takes advantage of this golden opportunity. Or not.

George Will's Moment of Courage, September 2009:

On Afghanistan:

"Forces should be substantially reduced to serve a comprehensively revised policy: America should do only what can be done from offshore, using intelligence, drones, cruise missiles, airstrikes and small, potent special forces units, concentrating on the porous 1,500-mile border with Pakistan, a nation that actually matters. Genius, said de Gaulle, recalling Bismarck's decision to halt German forces short of Paris in 1870, sometimes consists of knowing when to stop."

On Iraq:

"Many scholars believe, Pollack says, that nations that suffer civil wars as large as Iraq's between 2004 and 2006 have "a terrifyingly high rate of recidivism." Two more years of U.S. military presence cannot control whether that is in Iraq's future. Some people believe the war in Iraq was not only "won," but vindicated by the success of the 2007 U.S. troop surge. Yet as Iraqi violence is resurgent, the logic of triumphalism leads here:

If, in spite of contrary evidence, the U.S. surge permanently dampened sectarian violence, all U.S. forces can come home sooner than the end of 2011. If, however, the surge did not so succeed, U.S. forces must come home sooner."

Is the worst over?

Mortgage, banking and securities fraud used to be a crime in America. As we can all see today under Eric Holder and Barack Obama, not so much.

Frog marches.

By the tens of thousands.

Start with Mozilo, Perry and Fuld.

And then work backwards all the way to Casey Serin.

In the 90's, after the S&L debacle, thousands went to jail.

Today?

[/sound of crickets chirping]

Yes, the wheels of justice turn slowly. Yes, investigating this clusterf*ck will take time. Yes, the SEC barely existed under Bush.

But seriously, come on, how much more obvious can criminal cases be than Angelo Mozilo's? And Michael Perry? A fifth grader could prosecute those cases.

Frog marches. Now. And for every bigtime banker humiliated on his frog march to justice (complete with recovery of ill-gotten gains), Obama's approval rating will go up 1%.


Insight: A matter of retribution - Financial Times

Between 1990 and 1995 no less than 1,852 S&L officials were prosecuted, and 1,072 placed behind bars. Another 2,558 bankers were also jailed, often for offenses which were S&L-linked too.

Barack Obama: Another Failed US Presidency (so far)

Winning was the easy part.

Governing, well, that's a bit tricky.

Barack Obama is so far just yet another failed American presidency. When leadership is called for, he punts. When strong and decisive decisions are needed, he defers to Congress. When clear and powerful communication from the bully pulpit are in demand, he's out golfing.

So, I submit, 10 Things That Barack Obama Has F*cked Up, and 10 Things that Barack Obama Needs To Do ASAP:

10 Things Barack Obama Has F*cked Up:

1) Completely losing control of the healthcare debate, while serving as a whore to his trial lawyer pimps
2) Mangling relations with Russia
3) Continuing with Bush's Iraq and Afghanistan debacles
4) Not prosecuting Angelo Mozilo, Dick Fuld, Michael Perry and the rest of the mortgage fraudsters
5) Not launching investigations of the Bush administration for illegal wiretapping, torture and the Iraq debacle
6) Not taking on Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security first
7) Pussyfooting the GOP, when he should be dancing on their grave
8) Deferring to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi on pretty much everything
9) Not pursuing a radical flat-rate tax overhaul
10) Not giving America a new Big Goal

10 Things Barack Obama Needs To Do ASAP:

1) Do a prime time address from the oval office and address to Congress, complete with Ross Perot charts and graphs, showing that America is bankrupt, that we can no longer pave the streets with gold, and that we'll need to bite the bullet on health care, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, with urgency
2) Ask Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to step aside immediately
3) Request that Eric Holder arrest Angelo Mozilo, Dick Fuld and Michael Perry immediately
4) Request that Eric Holder name an independent special prosecutor to look at crimes committed by the Bush administration
5) Request that Eric Holder name an independent special prosecutor to look into crimes committed by the US congress during the Great Housing Bubble
6) Announce that the USA has canceled Bush's stupid missile defense system plans for East Europe
7) Announce that 100% of US troops will be out of Iraq and Afghanistan by 12/31, with CIA and Special Ops forces to remain to support the democratically elected governments as requested
8) Mandate that 100% of new cars and trucks sold in 2025 are electric or electric hybrid, that America will get 90% of its electricity from nuclear, solar and wind power by 2025, and allocate $250 billion for electric trains and light rail
9) Announce that he is no longer a member of the Democratic Party, and that if he runs for re-election in 2012 it will be as an Independent
10) Demand that the US Federal Reserve books be opened to the public, and that the US submit audited financial statements as per Sarbanes-Oxley effective 2010

And as a bonus,

11+) Break up the NAR on anti-racketeering and restraint-of-trade charges, allow gays in the military and gay civil unions, close 80% of overseas US military bases by 2015, legalize pot, tell Israel to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities, replace income tax with 20% flat tax and 5% sales tax, raise tax on gasoline $1 a gallon, reduce corporate tax rate to 10%, allow unlimited legal migration to anyone in the world with clean legal record, English proficiency, high school equivalent degree and $10,000 savings, and most of all, last but not least, require an NCAA football playoff using the bowls as early round games

Mommy, why are all those people in suits walking out of the casino at the same time?

The game feels rigged sometimes doesn't it?

After that massive rally, the sidelines are feeling pretty darn good. Market may go up another 50%, but of course, it could fall another 50% too. I'm pretty sure which one is worse - suffering a 50% fall from here, versus missing another 50% up. Should be an interesting few months.

BTW, remember when George Bush wanted people to put their Social Security accounts into the casino? Now THAT would have been interesting. You know we'd be talking about bailing out failed speculators right about now.



Why Investors Need to See the Light and Slow Down

In August, corporate insiders -- officers and directors of public companies -- sold nearly 31 times as much stock as they bought. From last September through this past March, in the depths of the bear market, that ratio was just 2 to 1, according to TrimTabs Investment Research of Sausalito, Calif. The long-term average is about 7 to 1.

The people who run companies don't know exactly what the future holds, but they do know more about their own firms than outsiders do. If they are furiously selling, how eagerly should the rest of us be buying?

All you need to know about the Great American Ponzi Scheme

Thank you Baby Boomers!!! Thank you GenX!!!

Future generations will come to hate you.




Inflation: How China May Be Forced To Use The Nuclear Option

The US government is currently indebted to the tune of approximately $11 trillion. Amazingly, that doesn’t account for the $49 trillion of Medicare and Social Security entitlement liabilities which will need to be paid off in the future.

The United States Treasury Department doesn’t use these entitlements when calculating their debt to GDP ratio, but if they did it would be 680%!

This partly explains why entitlements are not included in the calculations; if they were it would become painfully obvious that the country is basically insolvent.

Look away. Hide the children.

At one point, for the majority of people in America, it will no longer make economic sense to keep paying their mortgages.

What happens when the homedebtors of a nation simply walk away?

Hint. You'll need more popcorn.

No matter what the NAR, CNBC and realtors on commission tell you.



[image source]

As homeowners head 'underwater,' another housing crisis looms

Almost half of homeowners with a mortgage could be underwater by 2011, says Deutsche Bank.

I think the surprise is prime quality mortgages. That's where the biggest deterioration could take place in the next leg. Right now about 16% of those borrowers are underwater. If our home price forecast is correct, down another 14%, we could have 41% of borrowers underwater in the prime mortgage space. That's what happens when another 14% decline occurs.

Does this lead to a new wave of foreclosures?

Well, we don't think that the wave has stopped in any sense. But the wave is clearly building. That is evident by looking at serious delinquencies. If you look at a chart of how many borrowers have missed more than two payments, a large portion of those people are going to end up being foreclosures.

Well, that rate of serious delinquency has been rising rapidly and continues to rise, pretty much in tandem with unemployment. As long as you have serious delinquencies going up, you know for the next year and a half, a large portion of those are going to turn into foreclosures.

Of subprime and Alt-A (Alternative A-paper) borrowers, about 33% of those borrowers are seriously delinquent. If you look at prime jumbo, the highest quality mortgages, 6.2% are seriously delinquent. That sounds like a low number. But two years ago that number was 1%. It's a very straight trajectory from September 2007, pretty closely mimicking unemployment.

At what point of being underwater do homeowners start falling into foreclosure rapidly?

Once you get to the point where negative equity is significant -- for example, 25% or more -- there have been studies that suggest you get more strategic defaults.

People say, "I bought my house for $500,000, it's worth $250,000, there are 10 available for sale in my neighborhood. It makes no economic sense to spend the rest of my life trying to pay off a $500,000 debt when there's no reasonable likelihood to expect this house to go back up to $500,000."

Bull. Bear. Keyboard Cat.

Bull:

Bear:



Keyboard Cat:

If you're Phoenix realtor Greg Swann, who in 2006 told people to BUY BUY BUY (and had 21 reasons), this graph should just about do the trick.

Them facts, they can be pesky little things.

Karma can be a bit of a bitch too.

And gravity.

Shouldn't the commissions for expert "advice" and "guidance" be given back?

Here ya go. Like "Suzanne", one for the ages.


21 reasons to bank on the Phoenix real estate market (July 2006)

Obviously, I consider this a profoundly silly question, but to lurk among the BubbleBloggers and their seething commentariat is to acquire an education in a slice of America invisible from this side of the sewer gratings. Notwithstanding the idiotic economic analysis, which is really no worse than the static-market fallacies paraded as profundities in the pages of the Arizona Republic, these sites — and not just HousingPanic — are infested with a cult-like fever to inflict suffering — at second hand, to be sure — on people who are in fact guilty of nothing except failing to have drunk the BubbleBlogger KoolAde.

That’s all one. I don’t care. The whole of the last century was dominated by the bad behavior of viciously angry wretches, but look where it got them. The BubbleBloggers will someday bawl balefully in private, but they will never, ever admit that they have been very publicly very foolish. You will know and I will know and in the secret chambers of their hearts they will know they were wrong all along. But as long as you don’t hold your breath waiting for that contrite admission of error, you should be fine.

In any case, here do I compile my list of 21 really good reasons to bank on the future of the Phoenix area real estate market:

1. The migration from the Snow Belt states to Metropolitan Phoenix has been unabated for 60 years.
2. A similar extended migration is now occurring from the Northwestern states and Western Canada.
3. The “installed base” of all those migrants brings a steady stream of extended family members.
4. Proposition 13 makes moving up difficult in California; many Golden State sellers buy in the Phoenix area.
5. Californians in pursuit of other objectives — e.g., a friendlier business climate — migrate to the Valley of the Sun.
6. Baby Boomers will retire in droves to warmer climes — the Atlantic coast, the Gulf states and the Southwest.
7. Among those locales, Phoenix is by far the least prone to natural disasters.
8. Because of this, people from disaster-afflicted regions have formed a new stream of in-migration.
9. There is a steady migration of new residents from Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries south of the border.
10. Phoenix is a destination of choice or the second-landing city for immigrants from all over the world.
11. While higher oil prices will put a strain on our far-flung suburbs, the greatest pain will be felt in Northern states where fuel oil or natural gas are used as heat sources; even people who don’t hate the winter will move to the Phoenix area to escape high heating bills.
12. The Phoenix Metropolitan area is a dynamic jobs creation machine, adding tens of thousand of new jobs every year.
13. People who have or hope to have children move here as soon as they can manage it.
14. Compared to the areas from which many of our in-migrants are drawn, our homes are still very affordable.
15. We build thousands more new homes every year.
16. The Greater Phoenix area has 60 years of sustained practice at managing extreme growth — this in contrast to thrashing cities like Las Vegas.
17. Snowbirds, politely known as Our Winter Visitors, eventually move here year-around.
18. Our first waves of massive migration occurred after WW II; mustered out soldiers who had been stationed here came back with their families; this pattern continues among people who are posted here temporarily for various reasons.
19. People who stay at our resorts often fall in love with the Valley of the Sun and return as soon as they are able.
20. A significant number of active and retired professional athletes maintain homes here, in no small part because the Phoenix/Scottsdale area has…
21. Year-around golf.

"Pastor" Steven Anderson (Arizona nut), calling for the death of the president: "I'm going to pray that he (Obama) dies and goes to hell."

Want to see why the GOP is now a dead fringe party, hijacked by crazed christian fundamentalist loons?

Want to hear a pure voice of evil?

Here ya go. Skip ahead to 3:36 for the good stuff.

Bonus - why do some "christians" think that god is a god of wrath and vengeance, capable of hate? You think al-qaeda is a threat to America? Look over your shoulder first.

(meanwhile, where's the Secret Service on this one? And anyone want to bet Steven Anderson is yet another closeted Ted Haggard/Larry Craig/Ken Mehlman/Mark Foley gay?)

Heard about the new real estate scam? (hint - realtors ain't done yet)

Everyone heard about the new realtor/homedebtor scam?

I'll sum it up as quick as I can.

1) F*cked homedebtor owes $500,000 on a place now worth $250,000. But they're still employed, can still borrow from a stupid bank (who sells the paper to Fannie)

2) Encouraged by realtors and mortgage brokers, the upside down homedebtor buys the similar place across the street for $250,000.

3) F*cked homedebtor then stops paying on their original home, as they move into their new home. They rent out the old home and earn $2,000 a month cash

4) A year goes by, the homedebtor is finally foreclosed, up $24,000 in cash, and has a $250,000 mortgage instead of a $500,000 one.

America. What a country.

Read the Time magazine cover story on the scam in Vegas. You'll hurl. Here's a snippet.

Boemio specializes in short selling, in a particularly Vegas way. Basically, she finds clients who owe more on their house than the house is worth (and that's about 60% of homeowners in Las Vegas) and sells them a new house similar to the one they've been living in at half the price they paid for their old house.

Then she tells them to stop paying the mortgage on their old place until the bank becomes so fed up that it's willing to let the owner sell the house at a huge loss rather than dragging everyone through foreclosure. Since that takes about nine months, many of the owners even rent out their old house in the interim, pocketing a profit.

Call it by its name. Ignorance.

Ignorant of economics.

Ignorant of history.

Ignorant of religion.

Ignorant of science.

Ignorant of world affairs.

Ignorant of math.

Ignorant of facts.

Ignorant of the fact that they're ignorant.

Willfully ignorant. Swimming in ignorance. Celebrating ignorance.

America, circa 2009. Watching (hopefully) the death throes of ignorance.

America, circa 2009. Where a new and informed generation can't come along soon enough.



[Glad to be retired from blogging during this summer of ignorant American rage]