bearfund

Financials and Housing: The Outlook Remains Ugly

TomArmistead writes "The transactions that carry the most weight would be paying 20% too much for a house in California, not making the payments, and then in a matter of months being foreclosed and selling for 20% too little."

A superb synopsis of leverage-driven bubbles if ever I've heard one.

Dinallo Comes Down on Monoline Bears

neeb??: Rhetorical question, of course. But it does well to highlight the fact that most of these companies' problems are of their own making. Too many lies, too many optimistic statements that rapidly proved false, too little transparency. There are very few companies in this industry that deserve any shareholder trust whatsoever. Most of them deserve to trade at 40% of book, little more than speculative plays on a hypothetical recovery that may well never come.

Ten Comments on Housing

“The prudent will have to pay for the profligate.”

I refuse, sorry. Their misbehaviour did me too little good, I'm too young, and the bill is too large; stick me with it now and I'll never recover. If you insist, I'll buy more gold. If you keep insisting, I'll put it in a briefcase and leave the country with it. If you can't handle that, I'll arm myself heavily and smuggle it out. A nation of looters has no chance and I'm not going down with your ship.