NYT article: Housing Woes Bring a New Cry: Let the Market Fall

[CA renter]

Guess “nobody could have seen this coming” either. It was **always** about saving the nation’s wealthiest; it was never about saving Joe Sixpack’s house. Once again, Americans have been duped, IMHO.

[quote=CA renter]Part of my prediction for 2010 on the HBB:

The GSEs will become the ultra-super-SIV, and principal reductions will become the norm on GSE loans. IMHO, one of the reasons inventory has been kept off the market is because the PTB wanted housing prices high enough that borrowers can refi into GSE loans. I believe a good portion of the toxic loans now belongs to the GSEs, and they can now do what they’ve wanted to do, without the complications of multiple layers of investors in the private, securitized market.

http://www.thehousingbubbleblog.com/?p=5808#comment-1725591
——————

IMHO, the PTB are not stupid. They know we cannot prop up the housing market forever; and forcing U.S. workers to continually overpay for housing will prevent us from competing with other countries with lower wages.

We need to allow for lower wages, and we cannot do that until we let housing prices fall to afordable levels (at these reduced wages).

IMHO, all the moratoriums, govt programs, inventory suppression, etc. were required to get as many private bank loans refinanced into publicly guaranteed or held loans (FHA or GSEs). They had to keep prices artificially inflated for political reasons — the prices had to drop AFTER the risks were already transferred, or the public would have been up in arms about making Goldman Sachs (or the public pensions) whole on the taxpayers’ dime. They needed to refi a $500K loan (from the private lenders) into a $500K (or $450K) loan (to the public lender), or else there would have been a public outcry.

Once they’ve done everything they can to save the banks, they will allow the housing market to fall again, IMHO. They’ve had over two years to work on this, and I believe they are near the end of their “risk-transfer” program.

This was never about saving Joe Sixpack. It was always about saving the banks.

Not sure why anyone would have ever questioned the existence of the “shadow inventory.” Where there’s smoke, there’s fire; and there was plenty of smoke.[/quote]

[Arraya]

[quote=TexasLine]
Well, duh…hasn’t every conservative voice in America been saying his for the last, well let me see…I guess since Obama started “propping” up the industry?
.[/quote]

Except the conservative NAR, MBA, and home builders that beg for a fix like a 2 dollar crack whore as well as all of the conservative politicians that slurped up stimulus money like it was going out of style while campaigning against it. Or the free market bankers that sold a over a trillion dollars of worthless crap to the Fed and transfered all the downside risk to the public. I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning.

[Arraya]

[quote=TexasLine]
Well, duh…hasn’t every conservative voice in America been saying his for the last, well let me see…I guess since Obama started “propping” up the industry?
.[/quote]

Except the conservative NAR, MBA, and home builders that beg for a fix like a 2 dollar crack whore as well as all of the conservative politicians that slurped up stimulus money like it was going out of style while campaigning against it. Or the free market bankers that sold a over a trillion dollars of worthless crap to the Fed and transfered all the downside risk to the public. I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning.

[Arraya]

[quote=TexasLine]
Well, duh…hasn’t every conservative voice in America been saying his for the last, well let me see…I guess since Obama started “propping” up the industry?
.[/quote]

Except the conservative NAR, MBA, and home builders that beg for a fix like a 2 dollar crack whore as well as all of the conservative politicians that slurped up stimulus money like it was going out of style while campaigning against it. Or the free market bankers that sold a over a trillion dollars of worthless crap to the Fed and transfered all the downside risk to the public. I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning.

[Arraya]

[quote=TexasLine]
Well, duh…hasn’t every conservative voice in America been saying his for the last, well let me see…I guess since Obama started “propping” up the industry?
.[/quote]

Except the conservative NAR, MBA, and home builders that beg for a fix like a 2 dollar crack whore as well as all of the conservative politicians that slurped up stimulus money like it was going out of style while campaigning against it. Or the free market bankers that sold a over a trillion dollars of worthless crap to the Fed and transfered all the downside risk to the public. I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning.

[Arraya]

[quote=TexasLine]
Well, duh…hasn’t every conservative voice in America been saying his for the last, well let me see…I guess since Obama started “propping” up the industry?
.[/quote]

Except the conservative NAR, MBA, and home builders that beg for a fix like a 2 dollar crack whore as well as all of the conservative politicians that slurped up stimulus money like it was going out of style while campaigning against it. Or the free market bankers that sold a over a trillion dollars of worthless crap to the Fed and transfered all the downside risk to the public. I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning.

[TexasLine]

[quote=Arraya][quote=TexasLine]
Well, duh…hasn’t every conservative voice in America been saying his for the last, well let me see…I guess since Obama started “propping” up the industry?
.[/quote]

Except the conservative NAR, MBA, and home builders that beg for a fix like a 2 dollar crack whore as well as all of the conservative politicians that slurped up stimulus money like it was going out of style while campaigning against it. Or the free market bankers that sold a over a trillion dollars of worthless crap to the Fed and transfered all the downside risk to the public. I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning.[/quote]

well yea! read what I said. I was trying to make “lite” of the fact that they were ALL lapin’ it up.

[TexasLine]

[quote=Arraya][quote=TexasLine]
Well, duh…hasn’t every conservative voice in America been saying his for the last, well let me see…I guess since Obama started “propping” up the industry?
.[/quote]

Except the conservative NAR, MBA, and home builders that beg for a fix like a 2 dollar crack whore as well as all of the conservative politicians that slurped up stimulus money like it was going out of style while campaigning against it. Or the free market bankers that sold a over a trillion dollars of worthless crap to the Fed and transfered all the downside risk to the public. I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning.[/quote]

well yea! read what I said. I was trying to make “lite” of the fact that they were ALL lapin’ it up.

[TexasLine]

[quote=Arraya][quote=TexasLine]
Well, duh…hasn’t every conservative voice in America been saying his for the last, well let me see…I guess since Obama started “propping” up the industry?
.[/quote]

Except the conservative NAR, MBA, and home builders that beg for a fix like a 2 dollar crack whore as well as all of the conservative politicians that slurped up stimulus money like it was going out of style while campaigning against it. Or the free market bankers that sold a over a trillion dollars of worthless crap to the Fed and transfered all the downside risk to the public. I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning.[/quote]

well yea! read what I said. I was trying to make “lite” of the fact that they were ALL lapin’ it up.

[TexasLine]

[quote=Arraya][quote=TexasLine]
Well, duh…hasn’t every conservative voice in America been saying his for the last, well let me see…I guess since Obama started “propping” up the industry?
.[/quote]

Except the conservative NAR, MBA, and home builders that beg for a fix like a 2 dollar crack whore as well as all of the conservative politicians that slurped up stimulus money like it was going out of style while campaigning against it. Or the free market bankers that sold a over a trillion dollars of worthless crap to the Fed and transfered all the downside risk to the public. I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning.[/quote]

well yea! read what I said. I was trying to make “lite” of the fact that they were ALL lapin’ it up.

[TexasLine]

[quote=Arraya][quote=TexasLine]
Well, duh…hasn’t every conservative voice in America been saying his for the last, well let me see…I guess since Obama started “propping” up the industry?
.[/quote]

Except the conservative NAR, MBA, and home builders that beg for a fix like a 2 dollar crack whore as well as all of the conservative politicians that slurped up stimulus money like it was going out of style while campaigning against it. Or the free market bankers that sold a over a trillion dollars of worthless crap to the Fed and transfered all the downside risk to the public. I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning.[/quote]

well yea! read what I said. I was trying to make “lite” of the fact that they were ALL lapin’ it up.

[Rich Toscano]

The idea may be getting some scattered play among economists, but I am skeptical that those in power would just let the market play out without intervention. I think that people are not sick of stimulus per se, they are sick of stimulus that isn’t helping them individually. So I could see the approach changing but it’s hard to envision them just backing off entirely.

This goes double if we start to get another leg down. It’s one thing to talk about austerity when things look like they are recovering; it’s another to do it in the midst of a panic or big downleg. (Think of the TARP, all it took was a market decline to get that passed on the second go).

I do agree that if the people who are talking austerity get elected, they will have to do something to appear austere. But I don’t think it will last, especially if we get another serious downleg in the housing market or economy.

[Rich Toscano]

The idea may be getting some scattered play among economists, but I am skeptical that those in power would just let the market play out without intervention. I think that people are not sick of stimulus per se, they are sick of stimulus that isn’t helping them individually. So I could see the approach changing but it’s hard to envision them just backing off entirely.

This goes double if we start to get another leg down. It’s one thing to talk about austerity when things look like they are recovering; it’s another to do it in the midst of a panic or big downleg. (Think of the TARP, all it took was a market decline to get that passed on the second go).

I do agree that if the people who are talking austerity get elected, they will have to do something to appear austere. But I don’t think it will last, especially if we get another serious downleg in the housing market or economy.

[Rich Toscano]

The idea may be getting some scattered play among economists, but I am skeptical that those in power would just let the market play out without intervention. I think that people are not sick of stimulus per se, they are sick of stimulus that isn’t helping them individually. So I could see the approach changing but it’s hard to envision them just backing off entirely.

This goes double if we start to get another leg down. It’s one thing to talk about austerity when things look like they are recovering; it’s another to do it in the midst of a panic or big downleg. (Think of the TARP, all it took was a market decline to get that passed on the second go).

I do agree that if the people who are talking austerity get elected, they will have to do something to appear austere. But I don’t think it will last, especially if we get another serious downleg in the housing market or economy.

[Rich Toscano]

The idea may be getting some scattered play among economists, but I am skeptical that those in power would just let the market play out without intervention. I think that people are not sick of stimulus per se, they are sick of stimulus that isn’t helping them individually. So I could see the approach changing but it’s hard to envision them just backing off entirely.

This goes double if we start to get another leg down. It’s one thing to talk about austerity when things look like they are recovering; it’s another to do it in the midst of a panic or big downleg. (Think of the TARP, all it took was a market decline to get that passed on the second go).

I do agree that if the people who are talking austerity get elected, they will have to do something to appear austere. But I don’t think it will last, especially if we get another serious downleg in the housing market or economy.

[Author]

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