San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

I never wore a tinfoil hat. After reading this article, I am now. Unbelievable. I'm scared shitless.

What a strange place to find such a concise and insightful analysis of this whole mess. Thanks for linking it.

Here is another tinfoil hat link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=110KVwpBN...

"I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men." -Woodrow Wilson, after signing the Federal Reserve into existence

Control of money supply and control of interest rates. Are you out there Partypup? What say you?

One of the best articles I've seen on this mess.....

Long reading, but excellent.
For starters, hang Cassano by the balls in a town square. Then beat him like a pinata. Then maybe set him on fire. I would not even pee on him to put the fire out.

Next think of something equally as pleasant for Sen. Phil Gramm. (wonder how much he got from Cassano)

Back to finish reading it.

Edit - They keep Cassano on and pay him a million a month?!! Hiding out in his lavish town house near Harrods in London. (maybe he's heard rumors about my plan)

Sidenote - sdr is right. There are people out there w/money - albeit our money.

"A short time later, it came out that AIG was planning to pay some $90 million in deferred compensation to former executives, and to accelerate the payout of $277 million in bonuses to others — a move the company insisted was necessary to "retain key employees." When Congress balked, AIG canceled the $90 million in payments.

Then, in January 2009, the company did it again. After all those years letting Cassano run wild, and after already getting caught paying out insane bonuses while on the public till, AIG decided to pay out another $450 million in bonuses. And to whom? To the 400 or so employees in Cassano's old unit, AIGFP, which is due to go out of business shortly! Yes, that's right, an average of $1.1 million in taxpayer-backed money apiece, to the very people who spent the past decade or so punching a hole in the fabric of the universe!"

Man. If this were a movie, you'd think it was the worst Hollywood film ever made. Just so incredible, you can't make the stuff up.

Gosh. I don't want to even read it, yet I can't stop.

"The bonuses are a nice comic touch highlighting one of the more outrageous tangents of the bailout age, namely the fact that, even with the planet in flames, some members of the Wall Street class can't even get used to the tragedy of having to fly coach. "These people need their trips to Baja, their spa treatments, their hand jobs," says an official involved in the AIG bailout, a serious look on his face, apparently not even half-kidding. "They don't function well without them."

I'd like to give them a hand-job Lorena Bobbitt style.

"Gramm alone — then the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee — collected $2.6 million in only five years."

Scum.

Edit - Ok. Finished reading it and I just felt like I was kicked in the gut.

Jp: Now for the real fun. Page through the comments following the article and find the one about Obama accepting $3.3MM in campaign contributions from all of the large players named in the article, including AIG.

That ought to add to that wonderful feeling in your midsection.

How ironic! A magazine that's primary business is entertainment news, runs a gutsy article laying out the insanity of the situation. Meanwhile, CBS's 60 Minutes which is supposed to be a hard hitting, award winning news show runs a Federal Reserve infomercial with soft ball questions for Bernanke.

Next thing you know late night comedians will be running insightful rants about how CNBC has made so many blatantly wrong bullish calls over the last year.

Journalism in this country is joke. No wonder so many people don't have a clue what's going on.

XBoxBoy

What a surprise. Ya mean there really is no Santa??! This is as old as mankind. The norm.

I strongly suggest you read today’s Jim Jubak’s column on msn money. He’s usually a calm, cerebral guy, who has occasionally been annoyed at the way the system works, but today he’s really angry about the roots of the whole financial crisis, and understandably so.

He makes explicit the link between Wall Street greedy insiders and their jesters in congress: he names names and quotes exact dollar contributions going from the former to the latter.

Our great country.
Wow.

Here's the rest of it:

Goldman Sachs: $955,473

Citigroup: $653,468

JP Morgan Chase & Co.: $646,058

Morgan Stanley: $485,823

Three other banks that were significant contributors to Obama received money through AIG:

Bank of America: $274,493

Wachovia: $214,151

Disappointing, to say the least. I was cautiously hopeful, but now it's discouraging and disenchanting.

Jp: I understand discouraged and disenchanted, but can we limit mention of stringing guys up by their balls and the whole Lorena Bobbitt thing?

Please?

LOL - Well, when they were talking about how those big wigs need their hand job, all I kept thinking of is how we're getting screwed up the ass and I wanted to do something to return the pleasure. ;)

Jp: Ow! You're doing it again! And stay away from that screwed in the ass stuff, too, okay? I went to Catholic school!

On a serious note, were you aware of how Benito Mussolini met his end? He tried to make his escape and was caught on the road with his mistress. The rest is pretty gruesome, but it gives you an idea of what happens when the citizens of a country become that outraged. Same thing happened in Romania following the collapse of the communist government to the Ceausescus.

I think this is my favorite, Cassano speaking:

"it is hard for us, without being flippant, to even see a scenario within any kind of realm of reason that would see us losing $1 in any of those transactions." As he spoke, his CDS portfolio was racking up $352 million in losses

From the RS article:

"They [Wall Street investment bankers] then convinced ratings agencies like Moody's and S&P to give that top tranche the highest AAA rating — meaning it has close to zero credit risk."

I think convinced is too lenient a word to use. IMO there was something criminal or near criminal in granting AAA rating to subprime mortgage-backed securities. There's no way someone can "convince" me that a pool of junk mortgages can have AAA associated with it, no matter how you dice it, or how much you polish it.

The big issue here is that it was Wall Street paying the three rating agencies for their rating. Conflict of interest! Or, as humans learned thousands of years ago, you don't put the fox in charge of the henhouse.

The clowns at S&P, Moody's, and Fitch, should be personally prosecuted in civil and criminal courts. They were the crucial chain link in the whole scheme.

They better be scared!! AIG executives are nervous and scared for safety.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090320...

I bet those cops wouldn't patrol the area if they knew what these scum bags have done to the world economy. BURN THE HOUSES DOWN WITH THEM IN IT!

I like my idea better. Some kind of linching.

Jp: Yeah, but no you-know-what with the Lorena Bobbitt thing.

Allan - some kind of punishment to fit the crime is in order.

Jp: Don't you find it strange that Bernie Madoff did not go to trial, but, rather, took the full weight (150 year sentence) and went straight to prison?

What do you want to bet that, for almost all of these guys (like Allen Stanford, of Stanford Financial), there won't be a trial at all?

I think if the US government opens up that particular door, there will be a huge backlash with potentially lethal consequences for a lot of those folks involved in the fiasco.

There were AIG employees afraid to go to work because of the potential for violence. There were death threats left on voice mail and email and people actually out in front of the office.

This is going to get ugly, especially as the situation worsens.

Allan - I did find it strange and Madoff fell on his sword, so to speak. But I think it was b/c he didn't want to take down his sons in the process. And I'm certain there's still way more of his money out there that he doesn't want tracked. Also Fed Pen is like a country club compared to other prisons anyway. But still, quite a lifestyle change for him. He knew the gig was up and just took the dive. There's more to that story for sure.

You're right. If doors were open, there would be a huge backlash. Riots in the street. We may get there yet. Another Tea Pary - taxation w/out representation. We sure are not being represented as we should be.

This is like Enron, but a much grander scale. The whole U.S. is involved and at stake.

Jp: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Inv...

I don't know if you've read the Jim Jubak article in MSN Money yet, but, like the Rolling Stone article, this is well researched and it will make you just as heartsick and angry.

I think the real investigations are about to begin, and I think that the truly hard questions haven't been asked yet. I think Obama is in a tough spot, any way you cut it. He can attempt to soothe us with comforting words and bring this thing down gently, or he can do what he needs to do, which is bring this entire house of cards down. I'm pretty sure which direction he'll go.

I skimmed through the article. I just keep thinking whoever tries to fix this will be the equivalent of trying to pull a tablecloth from under a fine china dinning set. Good luck. They've already made the money disappear. It's all one big magician's act.

That was a fantastic article by Taibbi which proceeds uninterrupted as they continue to ransack the country. Who really thinks this will work it self out in a less than disastrous way? Really?

AIG is now become the feeding trough of taxpayer money for people who should be in gamblers anonymous. Then they threw some low level accountants to the peasantry that were promised millions for paying out bets that went bad to the real criminals. HAHAHA

Anybody got tabs on Paulson? Bet ya he's on the other end of the AIG money.

For more insight into circus fantasticus check out this one the Bear Stearns collapse. Seems like some more insider trading the SEC turned a blind eye to. Somebody knew it was coming down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUKSU1qah...

Pitchforks and torches....

IMHO, the focus on short-sellers is misguided. I had been short Bear Stearns (along with many other stocks that ended up going to zero) for a long time because it was pretty well known that they were going to have problems (also Lehman, WAMU, etc.). BTW, my timing was quite a bit early, and I tend to get out early too, so while I made money, I did not get the BIG dollars. :)

Short-sellers had been trying to warn the PTB about problems in the credit markets for many, many years. The PTB refused to listen, and you can't blame the shorts for taking the short side of that bet.

You can short a stock all you want -- though I do NOT agree with naked short selling -- and you will lose your a$$ if the company is sound. Short traders were short these companies for many years, and for good reason. They were/are not the problem. The problems were evident for a while, and there were plenty of rumors going around about BS long before they actually imploded.

"It's not even on the page of rational behavious, unless you know something"

Ah! This is what I said on the other thread on Who's getting really good prices

"The only way to play and win is if you're part of the system, have inside information funneled on where the rules are headed so you know what move to make, which game to play. "

Who makes that kind of bet? Insider trading. Unbelievable. Phantom shares. WOW! That's better than fixing a boxing fight. Totally manipulated! It was all rigged!

Man. Every day it's just one incredible story after another. Return of 8000%.

WTF did the money go? Who did the short-sellinig?

What a non answer at the committe hearing. They must have all been lawyers in a previous life.

We need to revamp the SEC! Fire or put them all in jail.

I am so outraged right now.

Can't believe they pulled that shit twice, w/Bear Stearns and Lehman.

Question: Anyone think al-Qaeda is involved? Who does this? It's taking our country down.

There's been more damage done to our economy now than 9/11. We are a laughing stock.

How can the SEC not disclose who is behind who is naked short selling?

Jim Chanos manages the hedge fund, but the money in the hedge fund comes from somewhere. Man. Next time I go practice w/some rounds, I may have to put their photo up. I bet I would improve considerably.

Edit - this wasn't just ordinary short selling or naked short selling. They placed their "bet" to the day (10 days?)