I smell Onion.
Yes it does smell like Onion, but it’s not.
Here’s the link borowitzreport.com/
Sorry, forgot to put it in.
HG
This is a good overview of what happened to the real estate market.
Enjoy!
haha nice one
Spot on. The only thing they left out is the chronic sleep deprivation in the finance industry that leaves these “clever” folks making complicated decisions with about half the brain capacity intact.
Scary, scary.
HG
Whoa…the local newspaper had, I would estimate, about four times the foreclosure announcements as usual. Most of the announcements were in these neighboring towns that just threw up housing in order to attract more people. Most of the houses are in the $150,000-$225,000 range (which is considered very cheap around here) but one was in the $450,000 range.
You can see it in the news or read about it but to actually “see” the housing mess really drives the issue home.(no pun intended)
I predict a lot more hurt coming our way.
NZ banks are about to start raising rates “due to the US credit crunch”…WTF?
It pisses me off no end. Rates are already 10.55% in NZ, and with those rates people just keep sending USD/JPY/GBP into NZD pushing it up higher. Getting squeezed both ways.
Dear Merril Lynch,
Fuck you. You got greedy and offered subprime loans to people who otherwise could not afford the houses they bought and now they are out of their “investment” and you are 10 billion dollars light…which if I am not mistaken is a lot of money. You should be banned from soup kitchens. At least BoA has the 'nads to do something about their position.
Dear Subprime Mortgage Holders,
Fuck you also. You know who you are. You’re the ones who lived in a dump but have a $800 per month car payment parked on your front lawn. Then you thought you could continue your “wise spending habits” by getting into a house via a subprime mortgage that you could not otherwise afford.
You’re probably the same pieces of shit that my repossession buddy sees when he comes to your door, “take the kids’ furniture but leave the flat screen” (I shit you not).
Both you should slap yourselves. ML for being overly greedy and the SMHers for being stupid.
Regards,
Durins Bane
Responsible Investor Being Hosed
:raspberry: :upyours:
[quote=“Durins Bane”]Dear Merril Lynch,
Fuck you. You got greedy and offered subprime loans to people who otherwise could not afford the houses they bought and now they are out of their “investment” and you are 10 billion dollars light…which if I am not mistaken is a lot of money. You should be banned from soup kitchens. At least BoA has the 'nads to do something about their position.
Dear Subprime Mortgage Holders,
Fuck you also. You know who you are. You’re the ones who lived in a dump but have a $800 per month car payment parked on your front lawn. Then you thought you could continue your “wise spending habits” by getting into a house via a subprime mortgage that you could not otherwise afford.
You’re probably the same pieces of shit that my repossession buddy sees when he comes to your door, “take the kids’ furniture but leave the flat screen” (I shit you not).
Both you should slap yourselves. ML for being overly greedy and the SMHers for being stupid.
Regards,
Durins Bane
Responsible Investor Being Hosed
:raspberry: :upyours:[/quote]
:bravo:
Testify!
Fuck dumb people! Let them work rake. Try EARNING a living.
And truant, 10%%%%%
Geezus H Christ!
Stay here. At least you can dive for 200NT a tank.
[quote=“jdsmith”]
And truant, 10%%%%%
Geezus H Christ!
Stay here. At least you can dive for 200NT a tank.[/quote]
1 word: Lifestyle.
But yes, 10.55% to borrow for a house also means you get over 8% guaranteed return by putting cash in the bank. At these times, it’s very very attractive if you have cash, particularly to Asians who have cashed up but can only get 1-2% from the bank in their own currency.
The NZD/USD is currently around 76-78c US, which is at the higher end of the scale over the last 20 years. There is a forex risk for sure. It all depends how long the USD will stay down, but something to keep an eye on if you want a ‘safe’ haven for your cash.
IMO DB has it spot-on with his summation.
I watched this “sub-prime” fiasco grow in the southern California mortgage market starting around 2001. It was not something the local lenders wanted to engage in but they were eventually forces into writing the tickets via legislated attempts at providing “affordable” housing for those at the bottom end of the economic scale. Factor in "racial/gender/economic/illegal citizenship/identity verification issues into this and you basically had a market for warm bodies who could walk in the door qualifying for US$250,000 - US$500,000 first mortgages and other “creative” refinance packages at governmental gunpoint. Read - "You cannot discriminate because someone is illegal/has no SSI #/US citizenship papers/permanent address/income qualification/time on job requirement/etc.
A friend at the time was a VP of a local bank who told me at the time that these issues would pop ans POP! they have. He literally would beg people who wanted in on the 5-year balloon payment deals to consider what they were setting themselves up for. Then he got a notice from his banks head office telling him that they were “in business to write loans - not offer counseling.” Thats where the pressure came from for him.
As housing prices went up the pressure to get these otherwise non-qualifying people in a mortgage and a house was immense. Homeownership began to be viewed as a right rather than a privilege and it snow-balled from there.
Rates did drop for 20 & 30 year fixed packages. The 15 year fixed rate package became available along with some very good refi rates for existing homwowners who wanted to take advantage. I have a personal friend who refi’ed her families mortgage and went from a 8.5 % down to a 5.5% fixed. Sweet deal. That dropping of 3 points was a major score for them.
But the other packages that developed and were allowed to be marketed by finance companies was a pure shame…and IMO, a crime.
I used to drive to Newport Beach on Pacific Coast Highway every morning. Along the way I saw 2 finance companies open shop in strip malls along the road. Both were located at stoplights. I watched the cars in their parking spaces over the time and saw the cars go from Tercels, Mazdas and econo-boxes to Lexuses, BMW’s and MB’s. They were raking in the money. The business was better and better as the laws were relaxed and the ‘creativity’ increased.
Was it a crime? IMO yeah.
And the ‘criminal’ perpetrators were the real estate boards who lobbied for and the legislature that allowed these packages to come about.
The people who went hook, line and sinker for these ‘too good to be true’ deals were simply sheep there for the fleecing.
Bitch & moan all you want…but if it didn’t line someones pockets it would have never came about.
Common sense? Bah! They got RIGHTS! to the American dream!
From a socal perspective.
So now banks will own property. Ha. They hate that.
Dat dey do…indeedy dooo
And thus the ‘write-offs’ on all this bad paper they wound up with.
But believe you me bubba…they will figure out a way to turn this around. I’m certain they are wining and dining members of banking committees and legislatures as we type to make this pile of cow pies into a rose garden.
And they will…bet yer burkha they will.
I think this pretty much sums it up.
All around me I see people with very poor money sense.
From my jackass neighbors who are running their house into the ground. The nicest neighborhood in a great little town and they let their deep forest wood floors warp and their kitchen looks like it belongs in a frat house (my kitchen is a piece of shit also, but at least I recognize the fact and are making plans for it). Then they complain that they can’t get the price that other houses in the neighborhood have gone for.
Side note to my jackass neighbors: IF YOU ARE READING THIS, PARK YOUR TRUCK IN FRONT OF YOUR OWN HOUSE AND KEEP YOUR FUCKING GARBAGE CANS ON YOUR OWN PROPERTY. IF YOU DON’T THEN I WILL SCREW YOUR TRUCK’S MUFFLER AND TAKE A CRAP ON THE HANDLES OF SAID GARBAGE CAN…YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
The parents of one of my boys’ friends had one of their cars repossessed. Said boy also cleaned up for Christmas…top of the line cell phone, PS3, XBox 360, and much more. They have to borrow granddad’s truck to get around.
If you want to gamble both your life and sanity, go to a Walmart on a Saturday afternoon and check out what people are buying…if I started a company that wraps up turds in a pretty package I’d make a fortune.
I dunno, perhaps I am old fashioned or out of touch with reality. If I see a penny on the ground I pick it up. My hand shakes when I use a credit card to buy 20 bucks worth of gas. I don’t buy fancily wrapped dog turds at Walmart.
Taiwan was very kind to me in the fact that I was able to put away a few pennies. I don’t even think about my Taiwan pennies here in the States because I don’t want to be tempted to touch them…though touching them would make my life easier in the short term. It keeps me honest about finances that way. The debt I have taken on is for a house, a car, and education, though in a moment of weakness (during the football season) I bought a flat screen TV on time payments (it is interest free however). Absolutely nothing more. I like to look at the debt I have as “strategic debt”. The house is an investment and the payments are tax deductible. My student loan will be paid off by the government because I work at a low-income PI school, and the car is a vital tool that makes everything go.
There we are…
[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Meanwhile the Texas teacher retirement funds. . . well sod them.
[/quote]
I’m a Texas teacher right now, so all I have to say is “Amen.” I assume you were talking about the Texas TRS system and not the teachers. TRS recently upped the retirement age requirement, contributions are mandatory, and Texas made SS benefits inaccessible to most teachers. Let me bend over and have another, please!:fume:
I’m ready to quit my current position, cash out of TRS completely, deposit it in an IRA or money market, and return to Taiwan to stash a few more bucks away. At the rate I’m going, I’ll have about 5 good years of retirement income at age 59. 
I’m in the US right now, and the ads here stagger me.
Many new cars are being advertised something like “No Deposit, Interest free for 30 months, First payment waiver and $4500 instant cashback” 
No wonder there are problems. Many people wouldn’t be able to resist that.
[quote]But yes, 10.55% to borrow for a house also means you get over 8% guaranteed return by putting cash in the bank. At these times, it’s very very attractive if you have cash, particularly to Asians who have cashed up but can only get 1-2% from the bank in their own currency.
The NZD/USD is currently around 76-78c US, which is at the higher end of the scale over the last 20 years. There is a forex risk for sure. It all depends how long the USD will stay down, but something to keep an eye on if you want a ‘safe’ haven for your cash.
[/quote]
I agree that sounds OK, but my prediction is for the currency markets to turn dramatically against the New Zealand dollar and the Aussie dollar. Probably more so against the NZ. My reasoning is that so much volatility increases the exchange rate risk to a degree that is intolerable for the carry trade (borrowing in Japan or from other low yielding currencies and investing in a high yielding currency). The outlook for the USD is bleak but perhaps not over the medium term. If the US goes into recession say for two quaters it will drag the rest of the world with it for sure, but since historically two quaters is considered a long recession the prospects for the US economy say in 2009 probably seem brighter. I’m not at all certain about that but I believe it will be the popular perception. In which case the Aussie dollar and NZ dollars will be being traded in an environment characterized by falling interest rates whilst the USD will be shoring up with an outlook for rising rates. That at least initially bodes badly for both the AUD and NZD. So I’m thinking of buying some USDs now.
Exactly. We get at least 8 credit card ads in the mail every week. Everyone advertising, “No money down, interest free until…” or, “Buy now, pay later.” They suck people in then want a pound of flesh in repayment. I’ve been offered cards with the “low” APR of 23%. And “payday” loans generally run about 150% APR. 
I sure hope so, and the sooner the better.
Yesterday in the NZ news, data is out that NZ houses are the least affordable in the world. stuff.co.nz/4366750a10.html