sdr no doubt about it…. I was such a wimp… Very much easy pickens like you said. Instead I stuck to the safe play of being an engineering chump… I was a boob…
You are thus counted as a non boob…
PW (sorry I said PR earlier)
Did the scale of the financial crisis surprise me? Well ….. looking back in 05 and 06 I would definitely say that I was much much less aware of the complexities of the secondary market, MBS’s, CDO’s and that whole ball of wax. I knew of thier existence for sure and I knew that there would be hell to pay. What I definitely was not attuned to was the level of investment of these vehicles by the basic fabric of our society. I did not realize that basically every pension, every state fund, county fund, had investment exposure to these vehicles.
One thing that I am curious about… and once more I find myself repeating myself again. Find me a post in my entire history here where I disagreed with those posts. Not only did I never poo poo any of them, all I did, and continue to do, is say beware what you wish for. To wish for these events with arrogance and omnipotence is foolhearty. To say I can’t wait for the system to crash so that I can buy a home because not only am I prepared, but I will never be affected is self centered and shows little consolance (if that is a word) for friends/relatives who are not so lucky.
The only post I know of where I villified anyone regarding calls about conditions or markets was the Kramer call of 4500 in 3 days after the run down we had a few weeks back.
I can recall saying two years ago, (and I was the one poo pood) that I had great fears about the level of tax money that would be used to bail things out. I never said it would be successful, I just said dont ever ever underestimate the forces who want to simply halt or slowdown the foreclosure avalanche.
So in conclusion I was not blind to anything. I agreed with all the predictions (even though I didn’t cheerlead to bring it on) and I invite you to dig up any posts I made to the contrary. Of course I have taken as many measures as I can to fortify my own family. Believe me I want an affordable home in a nice place just as much as anyone else. I just don’t want to cheerlead for the downfall while others will suffer. I would prefer to be happy for myself in silence.
