Guero

How Much Lower Will Equities Go?

Near a bottom? Nope, stay the he# away from equities.

Pink Slips Being Readied in California

What about pay cuts for everyone from the Governor on down? Maybe that could at least lower the number of laid-off.

According to the Market, Obama Is Off to a Very Bad Start

So, in your opinion tanking demand, negative earnings, limited available capital, asset deflation, and bloated capacity and overhead have nothing to do with the poor performance of equities? In your world it all has to do with whomever is in the White House. The author needs to go work for CNBC as a talking head, he is as clueless as Mark Haines or Erin Burnett.

Pulte: Government Is the Only (Lending) Game in Town

Yeah that's the point exactly! Without the gubmint, NO ONE is getting funding, EVEN GOOD CREDIT RISKS! FHA, VA, Fannie, Freddie.....THESE are the only types of loans getting through these days.

What's your solution? Let everything grind to a freakin' halt? Real smooth solution there, the economy is in the crapper thanks to 8 years of failed econ policy....but at least we stuck to our free market guns! Just make sure your powder's dry & plenty of bottled water/canned goods. Sheesh.


On Feb 09 05:46 PM Socialism cannot compete! wrote:

> [quote]
> Yeah, so much for "evil socialists." The gubbmint's the only lender
> in town right now.
> [end quote]
>
> Um, that's kinda the point -- *smart* lenders don't wanna lend to
> certain (unprofitable) companies right now. Why should tax dollars
> be used in those cases -- that means the government is losing money
> on the deal. If there was money to be made, private dollars would
> be going into those businesses. We MUST let capitalism work!!

Commercial Real Estate Bubble Is Set to Burst

Spot on, although I have seen similar analysis elsewhere, this was the clearest explanation. As for the Escalade Mama Brigade, you could have been describing my 'burb here in TX.

I have an epilogue, though. Many of these empty commercial spaces are helpfully contiguous within their respective strip malls, which facilitates conversion to new scores of new mega-churches, to minister to the busted masses who have found Jesus.

Pulte: Government Is the Only (Lending) Game in Town

Yeah, so much for "evil socialists." The gubbmint's the only lender in town right now.

The other point that might interest anyone following homebuilders: Pulte is very proud of the fact they are able to steer 92% of their buyers through their in-house mortgage operation. The other builders try like hell to reach 92% retention. Mortgage is an important profit center for the large production builders. And Pulte wholly owns their mortgage company, similar to Centex.

There are others (ex:KBH) that have joint ventures set up with outside firms. In KBH's case it is Countrywide. That means a loss of control & a loss of profits, and possibly getting a bit bloodied if your JV partner is being chewed up in the press.

Housing Price Decline: You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

But Reggie, we've been re-assured numerous times that the Wall Street bonus babies will be able to pick up their ball & move anywhere they want.

Yeah, that's why were told that caps on compensation won't work because anyone will take the fat bonus babies & their rich, fabulous book of clients. So the gravy train will keep on rolling, right Reggie?

U.S. Debt Default, Dollar Collapse Altogether Likely

Attention everyone:

I have a gun & I'm not afraid to use it!

Centex: Do We Have an Uptrend Yet?

Writing a sales contract is one thing, getting a loan approval in this environment is something totally different. I'll start believing again when today's sales start becoming tomorrow's closings. The number to watch is the cancellation rate.

$5k Vouchers for Car Purchases: Utter Nonsense

How about a $5k voucher towards a used car? That's something I can get behind!

The Housing Bubble Isn't Funny Anymore

It's not breaking the law to stay in a house after you received the foreclosure notice on that house. All states have some period of time after notice is recieved in which the occupant can cure the situation. Granted it is a long shot situation, but the occupants don't have to vacate just because the bank sent them the notice. The congresswoman is not advocating breaking the law in this situation.

The Truth Behind New Home Sales

Where is the discussion of foreclosure inventory in this article? If you are not accounting for foreclosure inventories then this article may be moot. I know I know, this is an article on *new* homes, but whether or not homebuilder CEO's like it, they are competing against foreclosures. Not to mention sellers willing to do a short-sale, of which there are many.

MySpace CEO Jabs Back at Yahoo's Bartz

C'mon, two tech CEO's are butting heads and we end up with no gratuitous usage of tech buzzwords to show for it. What, no mention of "scaling up" or "mindshare" or "sync-ability" or some other hogwash?

Save the Wall St. Bonuses for Real Talent

Where will they go indeed. Withhold & claw-back the bonuses & dare them to jump. Just read the "Laid off & Looking" blog on Wall Street Journal online & witness the boo-hoo'ng of unemployed banksters thrown to the wolves looking for new jobs. It almost breaks your heart to read the blog posts & comments until you realize that these are some of the same SOB's that helped put us in this pickle.

GeoEye: 10 Thoughts on What's Going On

No tranparency regarding their certification process? That's not encouraging. It sounds like they should have their problems ironed out soon, butare they going to be more forthright regarding future issues?

And yes, that inauguration photo was amazing. The image quality is all its cracked up to be.