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Bailout Plans Stink to High Heaven

Chuck Ponzi June 21st, 2008

If you’re not in the know on the recent bailout news, there are 3 main points to be aware of:

1. It seems that Bank of America essentially wrote the Dodd Bailout Bill along with Countrywide (merger expected soon). They have probably the most to gain with a generous bailout bill. It helps noone since it doesn’t resolve the fundamental problem of affordability in house, in fact it makes the problem worse. Ever wonder why the 90’s in Japan were referred to as the “lost decade”? It’s because their banking system did the same thing we’re trying to do here. Anyone else see the problem with not punishing gambling banks and housing speculators?

2. The “Subprime Six” were a group of lawmakers given special treatment in exchange for what? What exactly did Senator Dodd besides favorable treatment in his housing financing? What else could be lurking in his past? If you haven’t read about the “Subprime Six”, follow the link. Investor Business Daily, the Wall Street Journal, and the LA times have picked up the story. It’s a story of insider grift and political pandering. If it weren’t so real and true, it might remind me of one of my favorite film lines:

Stuart: Well, it’s a well-known fact, Sunny Jim, that there’s a secret society of the five wealthiest people in the world, known as “The Pentavret.” Who run everything in the world, including the newspapers, and meet tri-annually at a secret country mansion in Colorado known as “The Meadows.”
Tony: So, who’s in this “Pentavret?”
Stuart: The Queen, the Vatican, the Gettys, the Rothschilds, and Colonel Sanders before he went tits up. Oooh, I hated the Colonel, with his wee beady eyes and that smug look on his face. “Oooh you’re gonna buy my chicken, oooh…”
Charlie: Dad? How can you hate the Colonel?
Stuart: Because he puts an addictive chemical in his chicken that makes you crave it fortnightly, smartass.

3. For all of the crap that our President Bush gets, at least he has the foresight to threaten a veto to said bill. There should be no bailout, not just because it’s not fair and would embolden speculators, but because it’s destined to put our banking system in jeapordy for the forseeable future with taxpayers footing the bill. It’s generally understood that this bill has to be done and voted on by July 4th if it is to carry. Any senator that signs this (if it passes) is hopefully going to be thoroughly trounced in the upcoming elections. This is not only unreasonable, it’s unamerican. This place is going to hell in a handbasket. If something like that goes through, I’ll be posting a list of every person that voted for it and their political affiliation here as a feature story.

So, what do I recommend? I’d say get a year’s worth of food and 6 month’s worth of remaining expenses together, if our politicians have any say in it, this is going to be one whopper of a crash and accompanying recession. On the lighter side of things, our grandchildren will be still paying so that people like this can “keep” their homes (and by homes, I mean plural, because, isn’t every good American not just entitled, but guaranteed to own more than one house?).

California Foreclosures are Ramping

Chuck Ponzi May 13th, 2008

There are 2 must-reads for the future of foreclosures:

1. Calculated Risk has a great visual of projected 2008 foreclosures in “1000 Foreclosures per Day in California

Calc Risk

2008 is off the charts. Anyone calling a bottom at this point doesn’t have the facts straight. Notice of Defaults are projected at over 450K based on Q1 data. You may start to see some houses make sense in pricing, but there’s no doubt we’re going to overshoot fair valuation on the way down this time. No doubt at all.

2. The second one is Mr. Mortgage’s videolog and blog where he recieved California Foreclosure stats from Foreclosure Radar 2 days early. You can alternatively read it here
if you cannot access youtube. (at work, anyone?)

Some great excerpts:

we will have approx 122,000 units slamming the CA auctions over the next 4 months.

That’s over 1000 per day. That’s making the 90’s bust look like a walk in the park. However, when one considers that it is likely that more than half of all purchases within the last 3 years were speculative, the toll is likely largely hitting only those who took excessive risk. Boo Hoo.

Remember to visit Angry Renter. Please be sure to check out ways to contact your local representative to voice your opinion against any kind of government intervention. The invisible hand of the market is in the process of sifting the wheat from the chaff.

In California, renters and homeowners with no mortgage outnumber by a wide margin the number of reckless individuals who overextended themselves. Don’t let yourself be duped into inaction. I’ll post more on specifics later.