David Martin

Worldwide Housing Declines: U.S. Halfway Down the List

Anyone else spot 'the dog that did not bark?'
Germany is nowhere on the list - I suspect because prices have hardly moved.

Iceland: When Too Big to Fail Becomes Too Big to Rescue

In this context the guarantees for unlimited amounts for depositors in Irish, and, God forfend, Greece, show themselves for what they are - desperation ploys.
The hot money which is flowing in in a desperate attempt to find security can just as easily flow out, and when realisation dawns that the tax base of neither economy is strong enough to honour the guarantees they are blithely issuing they will indeed flow out, leaving the respective economies as wreckage.

Treasury Bailout Plan: Devil's in the Details

Sorry, pressed the publish button too early:-
He is seeking to overthrow the American Constitution, and in my view is an indictable criminal.

Treasury Bailout Plan: Devil's in the Details

Paulson has explicitly asked for authority to buy whatever he wants at whatever price he wants and to pay any 'administration' charges he chooses and that THIS SHOULD NOT BE SUBJECT TO ANY REVIEW OR CONTROL BY THE COURTS

U.S. Household Net Worth Is Up by 43% Since 2002

Yep, the notional value of a home which is often unsaleable has been inflated since 2002.
What a consolation!

Can Paulson Add $700B Worth of Value to the Mortgage Market?

This is not socialism. It is corporate fascism. All assets will be subject to the Fuhrer's confiscation should he deem it necessary, and no Court or other review is to be permitted.
This is a raw power grab, with one man to be in charge of the US.
And that man is not Obama or McCain.

An Open Letter to Congress on the $700B Paulson Bailout Plan

I would second that Paulson is in fact engaged in a criminal conspiracy to undermine the US Constitution, openly asking for him and his appointees to be over and above the law, not subject to the courts or any check, seizing assets where they will whilst paying themselves huge 'administration' fees.

In Defense of the Paulson Plan

Your analysis falls at the first hurdle.
You say that fingers are crossed that the Government will not overpay for the assets, ne toxic waste.
There would be no need to put in any government money if there were any intention of paying the market clearing rate, they would sell for a few cents on the dollar.
The whole point of the scheme is to overpay, and take money from the taxpayer for those who created these pyramid selling frauds based on the house markets.
Paulson also wants to cream off fat fees in 'administration charges' to his buddies for doing the stealing, whilst wrecking the Constitution by making these frauds not subject to the Court or subject to review,

Fed Is Likely to Make Money from Its Bank Buyouts

Correct. If it is the taxpayer that takes the risks, it is the taxpayer that should own the company.
It appears that Paulson is actually aiming at a financial dictatorship, where he can provide sweet deals for his buddies to get 'administration' fees whilst gutting the companies and landing the waste on the taxpayer, and all this with immunity to the law of the land and not subject to any review or check!
Nothing like this has been seen since the oligarchs stole the Russian economy.
These are thieves and scammers who seek to violate the American constitution.

The Bailout to End All Bailouts

How about a 95% tax on bonuses paid over the last 5 years to executives in companies which go bust due to their pyramid selling schemes on the house markets?
That includes their bundling into derivatives, of course.
That should raise a fair few billions in contributions to clearing up the mess they have made,
Hopefully they will join the homeless who suffer for their reckless endangerment of the financial system.
A little fairer than charging people who have in no way profited from these scams, I think.
Too big to fail? Then bankrupt them and split them up.
Liquidity should be injected into the system through new institutions set up for the purpose who would buy the assets of the failed institutions at their true market rate.
If anyone disagrees and thinks that taxpayers money should be used to prop up the present system, then they should be given the opportunity of leading the charge by putting up their own assets.

"Moral Hazard" Meets "Too Big to Fail"

Actually, the top executives who ruined their companies then scarpered with huge bonuses seem to have done quite well, as do the various politicians and folk like Bernanke who aided and abetted them, and will doubtless be suitably rewarded.
These are criminally negligent actions, not that of folk who bear 'some responsibility', just like the the folk who have lost their houses and been ruined, who according to you should not be cross and nasty at the scammers who have been pillaging the country.

When Can We Start Breathing Again?

Sounds like the takeover of Merril Lynch could be toxic to bac.
Would they be 'too big to fail?'
Or are they big enough to take down the financial system if they went, or the Fed if it tried to bail them?

The Great Dollar Pump of 2008: A Doomed Central Bank Intervention

A very illuminating article.
I have one question though:
The ECB has probably also swapped toxic debt of a similar order to the Fed for bonds, so perhaps the drop of the dollar will be less than projected, although inflation etc will be just as bad?

Bear Market In Its Final Stages?

Once the Framie debacle unwinds, and the realisation dawns that housing cannot recover with present earnings/price ratios but in the process the credit worthiness of the Treasury has been trashed, interest rates will rise, unemployment soar and house prices fall still further to go with a stock market crash.
A massive transfer of wealth to the banking sector has been carried out, and the cost is the financial stability of the US Treasury.

Forget the Moral Outrage: Just Restore the Mortgage Markets

Yeah, Fannie and Freddie and the big 3 auto makers are such bargains that it is really weird that the only ones who want to 'invest' in them is politicians with the taxpayers money.