mlimberg

Peter Schiff: Wrong on the Economy, Wrong on Healthcare (Part 3 of 4)

Not listening to Peter Shiff at this point is like being the radio operator on the Titanic who did not pass along the information, something about an iceberg?

Yes, Grasshopper, the sky "IS" falling... or was that Chicken Little.... these darn details keep getting in the way of a good story....

Can the interest rate payments on reserves mop up liquidity?

There is only one policy that functions in Capitalism. We must manage effectively on every level of this economy. That means failure on all levels must be a normal event. Even if labeled as "to big to fail", we must return to a "buyer beware", where we are all responsible for our investments.

If AIG went under, who really would have suffered? We hear we all would have. But, it's likely we all will anyway. Spending makes the future worth less, if not worthless altogether.

It's time to let mis-managed companies, households and political groups fail. Both the Republicans and Democrats are a failed system. It's time to move away from a "party" in the political system. We must all once again become "independent", not a party, but as a voter. Good people will need to step up. Americans will need to make their own judgements, and base their views on a view suggested by a television report. We must once again think for ourselves. We need to become "thinkers" again, and seek the truth ourselves. We, as a People, have been lead astray, like "dumb" sheep, right into the "wolves den"......

Step our of your lives, review where it is that your family came from and how we got to where we are. Someone in your family worked hard for you to be successful. Was it you?

Is The Mini-Boom In Housing All About Investors?

It's still too early... these investors will be the next foreclosures alone with all the 5 and 7 year arms that will reset in 2010 thru 2012.... 600k people are still losing their jobs, and the ones who find jobs are not amking what they once did...

We are still 5 to 7 years from a bottom...

Home Prices Still Dropping - Just Not as Fast

It's all in the data folks:

Unemployment is increasing.
Home values are falling.
Loan requirements are stiffening.
Personal income is falling.
Interest rates are Low, and their next move will be higher.
Credit Card Debt and interest rates on card debt is increasing.
Foreclosures are increasing.
Foreclosures in the future are expected in increase in numbers.
Property Taxes and insurance are rising.
HOA's are Bankrupt.
Your Federal Income Tax Rate will increase in the near future.
State income tax rates will likely raise.

But, almost all Realtors want you to believe that now is the best time to buy.... It's not. Three years from now, real estate will be much cheaper.

Housing Crisis Likely to Wipe Out Two Decades of Family-Earned Wealth

When will people get it? Until the value of "0" changes, which it won't, home prices can only go so high, and they went way beyond what people could ever hope to afford, thye had to reset. Currently we are in the process of resetting. The real value of a home is thousands of dollars less than everyone paid for the past 15 years.

Face it, lose a job in a two income family, it is highly likely you will lose your home, since you likely bought it based on two incomes. Unemployment pays next to nothing. No income is "0" income. Can't amke huge unreasonable house payments on that amount. So, moral of the story, until the value of "0" increases, it is possible that some day you too could find yourself understanding the value of "0" first hand.

Are Short Sales Shorting the Real Estate Market?

I agree with westwest888, much higher interest is the best solution to get out of this mess. Waiting for the non-fixed loans to reset will drag this issue out for the next 6 years... or the max length of the non-fixed loans. 8 or 9% will bring the price of a home to reasonable levels.

It's like buying a car, they want to sell you the car based on the payment... The only figure I want to know is the cost of the home... Any mention of payment is based on this cost first and the interest can be changed as time goes on and according to market conditions.

Home Prices: Location, Location, Location [Housing Tracker]

Nice try Realtors.... I hear the Fat Lady Singing......

Oil Bubble Spin

Barnburner...

""As he pointed out, the common wisdom of five years ago was "there are more and more people that need housing and a limited amount of land-there's not place for housing prices to go but up" and, like oil, it was a commodity that people "needed". ""

Farmers said the same thing in the 1970's, farmland, they don't make anymore... but you got to pay the bill for it someday.

Americans today are "Ilfunctional literates":

Individuals who are educated, yet fail to apply basic mathematics, reading and logic to simple everyday contracts.

I saw the housing thing coming because it looked just like the farming mess of the 70's... It will take years for this to correct. In the mean time, banks will fail just like the S&L's did....

Oil Bubble Spin

This information would be true and correct if this was 1970 and China was not buying cars like American kids want iPods? Asians are buying cars like crazy... Where they use to ride the bus to work, they now drive a car. Factories have fewer and fewer bused employees and more and more cars in their parking lots. I see it everytime I go there... not only are they building factories, there are building huge parking lots and expanding parking lots too... So if every one of the cars that are parked there are half full of gas, the increase in demand is apparent. The USA does not determine the price of oil anymore. Asia does. We will see $200/barrel before we see sub $100/barrel oil. Sorry America, no bubble in oil... Gas will be $10/gallon in a few years...

US Housing Inventories Reach Record Highs

Anyone who insists that "Now is the time to buy a House" is both an idiot and a real estate agent.....

Bank of America: Better Than Treasuries

CrossProfit, Dude, what the hell are you smoking?

We're going to wake up one Monday morning soon and see the same news about B of A as we saw about Bear Strearns...

Are you in over your head and hope that others will buy this dog?

Will the Next Banking Crisis Originate in Europe?

And now, something real important....

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Among the nightmares lurking around the corner for the already battered housing and credit markets would be a meltdown at mortgage financing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Although few are predicting an imminent need for a bailout just yet, credit rating agency Standard & Poor's recently placed an estimated price tag on this worst case scenario -- $420 billion to $1.1 trillion of taxpayer's money.
This dwarfs how much it cost to help banks during the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980's and early 1990's. That cost taxpayers about $250 billion in today's dollars.

Has anyone added all the lost money and compaired that to the perceived worth of the world? What % of the beleive wealth of the world is the loss we have seen and the loss not yet reported? At some point we may have spent all our wealth?

Time to go back to the gold standard....

Dear Ben...

If individuals would take personal responsibility for their action and how they manage or not manage their money, Ben would have a "cake" time at this job. But since the "we want it all and we want it now" crowd took over as the philosophers of the moment, we have a mess.

Fine in 2009 (Not So Great in 2008)

Really? Fine in 2009? And I'll bet you think Bank of America buying Countrywide is a good idea too?

With Government intervention, this downward spiral should be resolved in 12 years. It's an election year, and yes our mental midgets wanting to be a President will promise everything. Keep in mind that one person caqn not make a difference without the support of the House of Reps and Senate. It's a system of Checks and Balances, and Our system of Government does not allow for a Dictatorship, where a single person can "fix" anything.

Housing Bubble and Real Estate Market Tracker

At the peak of the market in 1991, property in Japan was worth four times the value of all property in the US – on paper anyway.
Buoyed by low interest rates, financiers introduced the concept of intergenerational loans, and eased credit standards as a way of helping people attain the booming prices.
Every day investors were caught up in the mania. Many salarymen, fearing they'd be priced out of the market as it continued higher, bought properties they knew they couldn't afford, in the hope that price increases would wipe away their folly.
Between 1989 and 1990 the Bank of Japan became worried that the property boom was becoming a bubble and took preventative steps, tightening interest rates. The bubble popped.
The resulting bust saw housing prices fall for 14 years in a row, and prices retreated as far as 60 per cent in Japan's capital cities.
The stockmarket crashed 80 per cent, consumers slowed their spending and the economy plunged into a prolonged recession.
Daisuke Sato was one bloke I met who was caught in the crash. He bought an apartment in 1990 for (roughly) $500,000, and 17 years later the pad is worth only $280,000.
Sato has a constant reminder of the mania – a massive mortgage that needs to be paid back regardless of the price of his home.