axelrod608

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

The reports that GDP is growing based on "stimulus" money being dumped into economies is misleading, at best. Reminds me of the "personal income growth" reported by adding refi proceeds to national income figures and "GDP growth" adding the same to GDP. If you backed the refi proceeds out of the GDP numbers, we had negative GDP "growth" most of the 2000 - 2007 period. It's smoke and mirrors accounting.

Anyone who thinks you "grow" anything other than debt load by borrowing money or spending money you don't have just doesn't understand the basic underlying principles of economics or accounting.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

The only "green shoots" are the beginnings of next season's crop of weed our political, financial and economic "leaders" are smoking.

One has to be seriously ignorant to not understand that credit and debt are two sides of the same coin. We do not have a credit crisis. We have a DEBT crisis. First home"owners" with stupid mortgages were unable to service their debt. Then the holders of those mortgages couldn't service their debt. Then the companies that made believe they insured the financials that held the mortgages failed to have money to cover their bogus CDS's.

Now we have most of the commercial real estate industry approaching inability to service their debt. And the insurance industry - also heavily invested in CRE - are close behind. And virtually ALL governments, federal, state and local, are approaching the tipping point.

The folks trying to fix this mess are either dumber than algae ( which I doubt) or they're blowing smoke and setting up $trillions of mirrors. The idea that "leaders" can spend the equivalent of the next decade's tax receipts and reflate the credit bubble is beyond absurd. WTF are they thinking ??

It looks like every community in the nation got together and sent all their village idiots to DC.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

>> "Let nature take its course." >> ? Even if it destroys the national economy ? The losses are in the tens of Trillions of dollars.

>> "Pain is good." >> Not if the patient dies.

>> "The moral hazard all this activity is creating will destroy us" >> It's hard to tell which is more certain to cause unchangeable economic destruction - the debt crisis or the bailouts.

NOBODY is more opposed to corporate welfare than me. I'd like to see an amendment to the constitution requiring ALL governments to keep balanced budgets and remove ( imprison ?)all executive and congressional members who break it. I'd like to make government debt illegal. I'd like to see government expenditures capped at 5% of GDP. And I'm realistic enough to know it ain't gonna happen.

Reading through Seeking Alpha's many mortgage related articles, I see huge numbers of "thumbs down" on every comment about fixing the mortgage problem. Folks, if the government is going to spend money - and they are - it is in our best interest to try to make them do it wisely and in a manner that actually solves the problem. So far, what they've done and are planning to do is pure WASTE and it will have noi significant long term effect on foreclosures.

The plan I posted above would STOP foreclosures and it would make the idiots who bought homes they could not afford PAY for it. Is this not what we all want ?

I fear that letting foreclosure and bankruptcy take its course will also devastate the national economy, putting us ALL in severe economic distress. Again, is that what people want ?

I want to teach the greedy and stupid a lesson as much as the next guy, but if the price for doing that is to ruin the entire country, it's too much to pay just for a little payback.

Our government IS COMMITTED TO THROWING AN UNGODLY AMOUNT OF MONEY AT THIS PROBLEM. NOTHING WILL STOP THEM.

For heaven's sake lets make them do it in an effective manner, in a way that will SOLVE the problem.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

The piddling little being applied to the mortgage crisis - the major factor in the national economic downward spiral - will be ineffective. If the federales don't do something radical in that area, the downward spiral will persist.

Reducing mortgage payments by a few percentage points of income will not stimulate spending. All the current programs are a product of inside-the-box thinking.

Have the government pay off mortgages in full as foreclosures happen, taking a lien of up-to the amount it costs to pay it off. The lenders are made whole - no loss to write off and plenty of money to lend again.

Let the people stay in the house. They would be barred from taking out any equity loans on the property. With no mortgage payment, they will start spending again. Some payment plan should be started if they are still in the house after a period of time. Those payments would go directly to pay down the cost of the program.

When the home sells, the government gets the net up to the amount they bought the mortgage for.

This is the ONLY way to stem the tide of foreclosures. There are millions of ARM's out there that will be resetting well into 2012. They will be a continuing source of new foreclosures wel into 2013 unless "foreclosure" is eliminated. And the only way to make the financial sector whole is to pay off those mortgages.

Eliminate foreclosures or they will persist for another five years, and all the other related problems will stay with us as well.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

"They" guess and place their bets...

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Good job - a wide ranging "breakfast" buffet. But the news is troubling.

"The pace of economic activity appears to have slowed markedly, owing importantly to a decline in consumer expenditures," The Fed Is it just me or is this expectable ? Hundreds of thousands of Americans are no longer getting paychecks this year, with another 100,000 scheduled to join them by year's end. Would not a slowdown in consumer spending be expected ? If so, why is the Fed trying to return to "normal" (whatever that is).

"... downside risks to growth remain. The Committee will monitor economic and financial developments carefully and will act as needed to promote sustainable economic growth " If the consumer accounts for 70% of the economy and the financial sector somewhere near half of the rest - and both are swirling in the bowl - is it realistic to expect any growth whatsoever ? Are these people kidding themselves or us ?

I remember writing over a year ago on the precipitous condition of pension funds, mostly "funded" by stock. When will we see the foolishness of that policy ? Pension funds should be funded like reserve insurance funds with assured value instruments.

It is bewildering to see, in a serious market trough, the flimsy underpinnings of what we used to think of as the greatest economy the world has ever known. And it is unsettling to see the actions our "leaders" are taking designed - at least in their minds - to fix the situation.

Consumer sentiment is at an all-time low and 9% of Americans say we're on the right track. Jusifiably so. I sure wish our "leaders" were doing more than "the same old thing". Reminds me of the line in Casablanca - "round up the usual suspects"....