DISQUS

PeteWa · 1 year ago

Heck of an economy, Bushie.

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

Doesn't seem to bother the criminals on Wall St., though. They'll lie their way through anything.

jr · 1 year ago

"I'll cut rates again to make them quintuple"-helicopter Ben

Dave of the Jungle · 1 year ago

Busboy down to -513

Impressive.

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

MSNBC reporting that after Oprah endorsed Obama, her ratings fell 13%. Wonder how many of those white women she gave cars to gave them back? And say what you want about Oprah, this is over the top--one video lambasting her "new age" philosophy (and mentioning Obama) has had over 4M hits.

http://youtube.com/user/lsim13

Rightwingnuttery at its worst...

ChicagoKid · 1 year ago

OT: SEEMS McSAME'S WIFE HAS BEEN STEALING CREDIT FOR "McCain Family Recipes."


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-weiner/mcca...

Mike_H · 1 year ago

It's really scary that no one seems to have learned a lesson from the 1970s. All of this agony and heartache was completely preventable.

Thanks, GOP!

Andrew · 1 year ago

The financial firestorm that is hitting our shores now can easily be pineed on fast money and greed from Wall Street as well as the banks and lack of government regulation. This is the legacy of Greenspan and his chairmanship at the Federal Reserve.
Yes, the borrowers are also at fault, and 'no one made them borrow' as the Wall Streeters like to say at post-bubble times like these (remember the tech bubble: 'no one made them buy stocks'). But let's not allow the spin to muddy the waters.
It was fraud. Fraud on a massive and pre-meditated scale. Not unprecedented unfortunately. It had its core enablers in the Clinton-Bush administrations and the chairmanship of Alan Greenspan. It was aided and abetted by a host of enablers in the media and the universities. And at the heart of it all was the Wall Street Banks.
There is madness in crowds, but the genesis in the madness is in those who assemble the crowds, give them the weapons, and walk among them whispering.... madness.
Let there be no doubt. The housing bubble was a financially engineered Ponzi scheme with the Wall Street Banks at the center. And its not over yet. The banks must be restrained.
"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency...the banks and the corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs." ...........Thomas Jefferson

medium lebowski · 1 year ago

If I could believe "it's the 1970s all over again" I'd be a lot less worried. After all, the 70s oil shock came to an end and prices dropped. That kind of drop doesn't look likely here in the 21st century.

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

Andrew, the typical homebuyer is not the same as the typical investor. Mortgage companies, appraisers, real estate agents--all are involved in this scheme to separate the "little people" from their hard-earned bucks. They know how to handle everything, which most homeowners (esp. first timers) don't have a clue about, being given instructions on signing "here, here and here" without a moment to even read and understand what they're signing.

Neither of the 2 closing I participated in (and I was a paralegal) allowed me to actually read in full everything put in front of me, although I did try, and did ask questions. I also had full and accurate documentation of my income, assets and liabilities to secure the loans. I've heard practices of mortgage companies changing documents AFTER they were signed to ensure there were no hitches in getting the loans, among other criminal activities in this latest wave of selling.

How many people do you actually know who have real estate, appraisal, banking and legal skills when they purchase property?

Andrew · 1 year ago

Older and Wiser....To some extent your very right but in any transaction it always takes two parties to complete. We can always blame the lack of oversight in mortgages on the jobs that regulators didn't do. If there was theft via changing of documents, that's another matter altogether. Maybe we can blame our educational system and a dumbed down society for not understanding what is placed in front of them before signing. As many would say, let the buyer beware. I agree that many first time buyers made foolish mistakes especially in not bringing the familiy attorney with them during the closing. But when it comes to a lifetime purchase like a home and considering the monies involved, I really believe it is the buyers responsibility to educate themselves as to what they are getting themselves into as well as the banks responsibility in explaing what lies before the buyer in open and plain english..

Andrew · 1 year ago

Older and wiser, here's a thought. Let Congress decide how much balme on a percentage basis the banks and mortgage lenders should assume and how much the borrower should assume. Let's say the banks were at fault at a level of 70% and the buyer at 30%. Then cut the price of the current mortgage by 70% leaving the buyer to refinance the 30% at whatever the going rate is. There is no doubt in my mind that something like the above will eventually come to pass because as the system now stands it is totally corrupt, bankrupt and on the verge of collapse.

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

Andrew, and exactly how many people making under $50K a year (even some above that) have a "family attorney?" Besides, in NC, a closing takes place in front of an attorney, who must be approved by both parties (and how does one know if that attorney is ethical and knowledgeable in such matters? Most people just agree to whatever attorney the real estate agent recommends).

The sad fact is, yes, you should be "educated" as much as possible about what's going on with your home purchase, but let's not forget--you're up against professionals, and most likely, you're the only one who's not a professional.

Andrew · 1 year ago

Older and wiser.....All the more reason to have your own attorney with you looking out for you, not the other side. Most people don't bring an attorney with them because they want to cut down on closing expenses. sometimes an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Personally I wouldn't sit across the table from a banking vulture with legal representation that wasn't looking out for my interests rather than a lawyer agreed to by both sides.

cowboyneok · 1 year ago

You will have to be part of the $5 million dollar a year club in the mainstream media, a celebrity, famous actor or professional athlete to afford to drive or eat good in this brave new American economy thanks to that endless War Forever, Tax Cuts for the Wealthy philosophy of the Republican Party. For those that voted for George Dubya Bush. We all GOT just what you VOTED FOR. John McCain is just MORE of the same.

Busboy · 1 year ago

So, cowboy; you missing meals and going to bed hungry at night?

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

Since my son is in his second week off from his construction job, he's doing work they say Americans don't want--landscaping for the lakeside dwellers around here, making the same $10/hr...but with fewer hours since he and his buddy are doing the work his buddy usually does alone. That's real friendship, you know.

Yeah, it's getting tough.

mike31c · 1 year ago

Stop. lying busboy. There will be NO DIFFERENCE to energy prices. The only thing that will be accomplished will be the destruction of the pristine condition ANWR. Secondly, it will be a DECADE or more even if the oil slugs started building today.

You want nuclear power? Fine by me! First new plant should be built next door to YOU. How about that? All here agree?

mike31c · 1 year ago

Stop. lying busboy. There will be NO DIFFERENCE to energy prices. The only thing that will be accomplished will be the destruction of the pristine condition ANWR. Secondly, it will be a DECADE or more even if the oil slugs started building today.

You want nuclear power? Fine by me! First new plant should be built next door to YOU. How about that? All here agree?

Hangtown Danile · 1 year ago

OK Mike lets build a wind power plant in your back yard. I'll take the Nuke. At least mine makes REAL ENERGY.
What a dumbass...

Busboy · 1 year ago

The law of unintended consequences has reared it's ugly head and we now have the specter of mass starvation. Thanks a lot, environmental whackos. Wouldn't it have been more humane to build nuclear plants and drill in ANWR and offshore California?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml...

mike31c · 1 year ago

First of all, busboy, more drilling in ANWR would only produce up two million barrels of oil a day and STILL not make a dent in prices of oil since the US uses more then 25 MILLION barrels a day. And that was their best guess and NOT a promise of that much oil.

Secondly, environmental policies is not causing mass starvation. It's the greedy farmers sending their food stocks to greedy energy producers to make into ethanol because of high ethanol prices. And for what? Ethanol pump prices (E85) are STILL over $5.00 a gallon in places while the price of ethanol is dropping to $1.50 a gallon. That's where your food are. The Farmers can make more $$$ making ethanol then selling corn to YOU.

Thirdly, more farms were being converted into housing with artificial prices and bad loans from people like country wide. Less farms=less food.

Fourth point: The prices of basic foodstuff, such as rice, cooking oil, corn and yes even Gasoline, in these third-world countries are SUBSIDIZED by their governments. They have been for a LONG time. The governments finally can't support both cheap food prices AND subsidized gasoline.

Busboy · 1 year ago

2 million barrels a day means 200 million dollars a day staying in the USA and benefitting our people. Not to mention the billions of dollars that would be spent on infrastrucure and salaries to find and produce the oil. Nuclear energy has made France one of the economies most impervious to oil blackmail. I offered solutions. All you offered was defeatist rhetoric.