Grouper

Cramdowns and Refinancings Won't Need Appraisals

Follow the money. The appraisers are POd because a bunch of transactions can be done without meaningless appraisals, which means a bunch of money doesn't get spent on appraisals, which means they make less money.

During the 80s, we referred to FIRREA as the full employment act for appraisers. Millions of dollars were spent getting appraisers to tell us what we already knew.

America: Is This the End of an Era?

Great article, mostly uninformed comments. Go get a list of the world's largest economies, ranked by total output. The US is so far ahead of its closest competitor it is a joke. So we are "insolvent" as a country. Who has the bigger problem if we default or if we inflate our way out of debt? Us, or the countries that "loaned" us the money? You just saw what happens to the price of oil and every other economy when the US is in a fairly severe downturn. Oil drops 70%, and everyone else panics. China is getting ready to stimulate local demand with a stimulus package in the range of 15% of its annual economic output. It will be fun to see them spend their US dollar reserves if we default......And oh, by the way, is there anything other than consumption? Think about it.