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Wow!!
Tragicomedy...
Lets hope no one gets hit by the RepoBus. It really can't get worse than that.
Repo-se in Peace?
It ought to be a fun day.
what does that mean, an UberNerd is coming?
Congratulations CR and Tanta! In print hat tip from Krugman in the New York Times!!!
So draw a circle 2 hours away from a metro center, prices implode inward.
Thats the best laugh I've had in days... does it play Beatles or perhaps something from the early 80's RE crash ?
Ray
Small business ingenuity at its best.
But I sure wouldn't want to insure that vehicle against vandalism.
Please, please forgive me Tanta for posting about an unrelated topic, but it's hard not to when there's some news item sending everybody into a frenzy, and there's no dedicated thread to comment on it:
...
Nobody should be at all surprised by the super hot inflation numbers the past couple of days. We knew it was coming:
Jan 2008 Crude
I agree this is inflation, as opposed to some more fundamental increase in the cost of oil. And Bernanke probably caused it by being too aggressive early on with the rate cuts.
BUT if you look at the huge number of long positions in oil futures, you have to consider that this rise in oil prices is due to speculators leveraging it higher in higher.
Leveraging means borrowing. Borrowing means credit expansion.
Inflation from excessive credit expansion has a tendency to suddenly reverse into a deflationary collapse.
Furthermore, rising oil prices in the absence of rising incomes creates deflationary pressures in other parts of the economy because consumers and businesses have less money to spend.
My theory right now is thatn in the absence of rising incomes, rising oil prices act like rising interest rates and suppress the creation of new money by making it harder to borrow. I haven't really thought this through that carefully however.
Feel free to attack the idea mercilessly.
OT but...
I look forward to the inevitable post about The Honorable Mr. Greenspan's interview on NPR. I don't have a link for the transcript, but I don't imagine it is far behind. Imagine waking up to your clock radio and hearing Allen waxing about how the housing bubble was all but unavoidable due to the economic fallout from the fall of the Soviet Union. Not lowering short term interest rates to 1% in HIS response to the deflating tech bubble... that pesky Soviet Union collapse! His proof? That other countries are experiencing the same housing bubble. You see, central banks became completely powerless to control long term rates that in turn control the housing market. The Fed's lowering of short term rates to 1% is apparently independent of worldwide lowering of long term rates. Very convenient.
Allen was apparently always aware of the fact that a housing bubble was inflating... he just couldn't do anything to stop it?
First he sends our economy into a black hole, then he gives us Ben to deal with it, and then he ruins my Friday morning wakeup. Until the gubmint gives me the right to sue and get my morning back, there is no justice.
Maybe at night the RepoBus can house some of those foreclosed owners. Does it have a bathroom?
what does that mean, an UberNerd is coming?
Sorry to disappoint you, but no one would be more surprised than I to see an UberNerd today. I'm so damned groggy it took almost a half hour to get this little bitty post done.
I simply think it ought to be a fun day. Whether it will do what it ought to do is anybody's guess. The only clear implication of this statement is that I have no intention of posting on bankruptcy today, so all the little "I'm against that! What are we talking about, again?" types can stay over at Townhall for the day.
Groggy and cranky. Time to fire up the French Press again. That first pot didn't seem to do much . . .
Necessity brings ingenuity and who among us (fools and cognoscenti) doubt that we'll see more RepoBuses...filled with couples who have teenage sons all currently living in a 1 bedroom apartment?
Is there a boom and bust for the Repobus fleet itself? Who will bid $500 for this mobile home with the fancy paint job? ingenious couples with extended families living in worse conditions will bid. They will.
These auctions I understand...unlike the TAF auctions, you?
Hilarious.
Maybe somebody can put together a Schadenfreude Stampede or something when forclosures start happening in the Hamptons.
any hopes on discussing the house of gs today?
Isn't the definition of Misery living in Stockton, CA?
Maybe somebody can put together a Schadenfreude Stampede or something when forclosures start happening in the Hamptons.
I assume the Hamptons will get the LossLimo.
NYSE moves to delist Big $hitpile insurer ACA Capital:
NYSE moves to delist ACA Capital Holdings
| Reuters
Like Tanta said, should be an interesting day...
The repo blogs are where the action is. The repo bus is merely a last gasp effort by the REIC to try and hold onto its stranglehold on the business.
It ought to be a fun day.
what does that mean, an UberNerd is coming?
bacon dreamz
Do you realize dreamz how pathetic our have become when we look forward to an UberNerd as fun?
Tanta,
I understand and agree there is getting to be a bit too many soapboxes in this corner of the park. There are only just so many clever ways of quoting 'Airplane!' "They bought their ticket, thet knew what they were getting into. I say let 'em crash." There it's said. Now we can all move on hopefully.
"Isn't the definition of Misery living in Stockton, CA?"
Try Bakersfield. Or better yet, don't.
I simply think it ought to be a fun day.
me too, however, the french press i keep on my desk is malfunctioning (the threads have worn out where the filter part screws onto the plunger stem, so it won't properly do the "press" part), so i have a large hurdle to overcome. yuck, breakroom coffee. sigh, i lead a hard life...
Bud: Credit is a sacred trust, it's what our free society is founded on. Do you think they give a damn about their bills in Russia? I said, do you think they give a damn about their bills in Russia?
Otto: They don't pay bills in Russia, it's all free.
Bud: All free? Free my ass. What are you, a fuckin' commie? Huh?
Otto: No, I ain't no commie.
Bud: Well, you better not be. I don't want no commies in my car. No Christians either.
-Repo Ma
Unfortunately I don't have time today to tackle the hundreds of comments on the last few posts.
Has anybody mentioned that the city of Phoenix recently announced a massive shortfall in sales taxes and a hiring freeze? The mayor is on the radio begging people to shop in real stores instead of on the internet.
Good thing we are guaranteed no recession in 2007.
Pete Ponce de Leon, a 50-year-old machinist, said he and his wife were barely keeping up with their monthly mortgage payments, which shot up from $1,700 a year ago to $2,500 now. He said he cashed in two IRAs, sold his tools, sold a truck and was bracing for another rate increase this month. Along the way, he lost his job, and his lender refused to cut him a break.
"Why don't they just screw us all at once instead of a little at a time?" said Ponce de Leon, who has found another job and hopes to renegotiate his mortgage.
Love it...Why don't THEY all screw us....not like 'ol Pete didn't screw himself...I'm sure the reports for the last 5 years of real estate bubble prices were mysteriously blocked from the media in the bubble capital of the US. As that seer from the past warned:
(sing with me)
Don't roll the dice if you can't pay the price....DON'T DOIT!
So I'll just hat tip everybody, the innocent as well as the guilty.
surely someone will claim this is a bailout for lazy non-link senders.
Vultures arriving in comfort and style. It's like riding a tour bus to Las Vegas, and stopping over once in a while at buffet restaurants along the way.
Funny, yet very sad.
GOOD MORNING TO YOU, TOO! I loved the PK NYT op-ed reference to CR. Stay healthy, I get an uncomfortably crumby remembrance when I do check in (rarely these days) early (even rarer)& find you not here.
they have done the same after katrina
yuck, breakroom coffee. sigh, i lead a hard life...
That is sad. You know, if 1400 CR readers each chipped in a penny, we could buy you a new press.
Whadja do, get one of those expensive ones?
Bailey, sweetie, I'm not in any serious trouble. I'm just a little sickly right now. I'm just not very bright when I'm a little sickly. And the internet is full of not very bright posts, so I don't feel like I have to contribute to that on my off days.
We're just not going to turn this into some finance version of Instapundit (link, followed by "Bummer.") So if I can't think of anything useful to say, I simply take my co-blogger for granted and exploit his willingness to do all the work for 24 hours. It's like being married, except there are no tax benefits and we like each other.
"Beware of falling knifes...and please don't feed the squatters."
Tanta, you won't be able to take these days off when you are President.
" Asked whether the higher payments took them by surprise, Ponce de Leon struck the same note as many other homeowners in trouble. "We just thought we'd be OK," he said, explaining that he and his wife had planned to use what they'd expected to be the rising equity in their home to refinance the adjustable loan at a lower rate. "
Sums it all-up wouldnt you say folks. And to add insult to injury most of these pnzi-victims drove 1-2 hours each way via I-580 or I-5 for shit-jobs. Gotta feel sorry for all those Stockton Billionaires like Alex Spanos that were knocked-off the Forbes list this year-GO CHARGERS!
I second the "GO CHARGERS" and as for the French Press, after my third one broke I went out and bought a coffee maker.
Some of our best Presidents hewed mighty close to the Jeffersonian ideal of "they who govern least, govern best."
Now that we here Countrywide may be informally allowing people to continue to occupy repos I violate that rule and suggest a new law. $1/yr rental property registration. The puprose being to track what appears to be an underground economy springing up. We need to know for tax purposes (removing homeowner exemptions for instance) and safety (fire evacuation of supposedly empty structures, etc.).
Soon homeownwers will be cutting out that nightly trip to the Outback Steakhouse take-out line to eat in their 100k remodeled kitchen and buying boxes of ramen at the Dollar Store.
Ramen bubble is on the way for 2008. Buy Ramen Futures NOW!!!
Every day I get in the queue (Too much, the Magic Bus)
To get on the bus that takes me to you (Too much, the Magic Bus)
I'm so nervous, I just sit and smile (Too much, the Magic Bus)
Your house is only another mile (Too much, the Magic Bus)
"rising oil prices act like rising interest rates and suppress the creation of new money by making it harder to borrow"
ac | 12.14.07 - 10:14 am
I like this a lot. No arguments here.
That is sad. You know, if 1400 CR readers each chipped in a penny, we could buy you a new press.
i tried to sit cross-legged in the aisle, unshaven and in a wrinkled shirt, with an empty paper cup beside me and a dirty cardboard sign that read: "pleeze help, french press broke, cant work without coffee, God bless", but my coworkers are apparently heartless animals and didn't help me out. jerks.
Actually I grew-up a 9er fan; thank goodness Joe Thomas outbid Alex for the Niners in the mid-seventies (28 vs. 26 Million dollars) how different history WOULD have BEEN!
What about "Will work for Coffee Beans"?
I mean, in my case, I am already so I might as well go for the good ones.
"Some of our best Presidents hewed mighty close to the Jeffersonian ideal of "they who govern least, govern best."
I can't think any of our best Presidents who governed least. Not even Thomas Q. Jefferson, who tore up the Constitution in order to buy the Louisiana Purchase.
Yeah, realtors sure have changed their tactics.
Did anyone happen to see this one on Leno the other night?
bacon, you'd fit right in here at my client's office on casual Fridays.
All you need is a couple of visible tatoos.
..some residents criticized it as a tasteless marketing gimmick...
I'll add this to the other hallowed obvious comments of "We didn't see this coming", "This couldn't have been predicted", etc...
There was a multi billion dollar industry devoted to convinving people that ARMS were completely rational investment decisions as you approach retirement and that property values were always going to go up. Blaming people for falling for the madison avenue ad line misses the point. If the cheap and easy credit hadn't been there many of these folks would have been secure in their more modest lifestyles.
"If the cheap and easy credit hadn't been there many of these folks would have been secure in their more modest lifestyles."
So UnAmerican!
Every day I get in the queue (Too much, the Repo Bus)
To get on the bus that takes me to you (Too much, the Repo Bus)
I'm so nervous, I just sit and smile (Too much, the Repo Bus)
Your house is only another mile (Too much, the Repo Bus)
Thank you, driver, for getting me here (Too much, the Repo Bus)
We'll need an inspector, have no fear (Too much, the Repo Bus)
I don't want to cause no fuss (Too much, the Repo Bus)
But can I buy your Repo Bus? (Too much, the Repo Bus)
Nooooooooo!
I don't care how much I pay (Too much, the Repo Bus)
I wanna drive down markets every day (Too much, the Repo Bus)
*[Repo Bus, Repo Bus, Repo Bus
Repo Bus, Repo Bus, Repo Bus
Give me a hundred (Repo Bus)
I won't take under (Repo Bus)
Goes like thunder (Repo Bus)
It's a bus-age wonder (Repo Bus)
Repo Bus, Repo Bus, Repo Bus, Repo Bus
I want it, I want it, I want it...(You can't have it!)
Think how much you'll save...(You can't have it!)]
I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it ... (You can't have it!)
Thruppence and sixpence every day
Just to drive down my market
Thruppence and sixpence each day
Please Mr Drive don't ever park it
Repo Bus, Repo Bus, Repo Bus, Repo Bus, Repo Bus...
I want the Repo Bus, I want the Repo Bus, I want the Repo Bus...
I said, now I've got my Repo Bus (Too much, the Repo Bus)
I said, now I've got my Repo Bus (Too much, the Repo Bus)
I drive my market every way (Too much, the Repo Bus)
Each time I go a different way (Too much, the Repo Bus)
I want it, i want it, I want it, I want it ...
Every day you'll see the dust (Too much, the Repo Bus)
As I drive down markets in my Repo Bus (Too much, the Repo Bus)
kurt,
You have way too much time on your hands... but well done all the same.
thank goodness Joe Thomas outbid Alex for the Niners --debt serfer
Yes, the spanos family makes some very poor decisions. Though they are not as bad as Al Davis!
oh, football...did the Yankers win this year?
Please don't feed the squatters
Hahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!
bdz - here's your ubernerd test for today
Solve: ∫ 1/cabin dcabi
"There was a multi billion dollar industry devoted to convinving people that ARMS were completely rational investment decisions as you approach retirement and that property values were always going to go up. Blaming people for falling for the madison avenue ad line misses the point. If the cheap and easy credit hadn't been there many of these folks would have been secure in their more modest lifestyles."
I keep making this argument, but people keep wanting to put 100 percent of the blame on the guy who accepted bad counsel from society.
If you blame the individual, you don't have to blame the system, or accept that society should do more to protect the individual than it does now. And since that point of view is practically a religion for many people, they really don't want to hear otherwise.
RacerX - It's too early in the morning for math jokes. Anyway, stay safe, don't drink and derive.
Does this mean they now are trying to sell these houses to people that don't have cars?
Or is it Mr Diaz's version of 4GW targeting for copper removal?
Not to early on the east cost
I wasn't deriving, I was trying to integratiate myself.
Your humor seems quite derivative.
ah math puns - you nerds are my kind of peeps!
What music would you play in the RepoBus?
Yellow submarine?
Great article.
""Why don't they just screw us all at once instead of a little at a time?" said Ponce de Leon"
And use a little KY. The guy is willing to take it, he just wants a little love.
"His three-hour tour rambled from stately, tree-shaded bungalows close to downtown to sprawling subdivisions on land that just a few years ago was growing corn and alfalfa. The group visited a sprinkling of new homes and eight foreclosures, ranging from a century-old fixer-upper (listed at $129,900) to a tri-level, five-bedroom tract home ($339,000).
Some in the group were investors. Others, including Dan Noel and his wife, Debbie, were checking out homes for themselves.
In fact, the Noels, who live in a one-bedroom apartment with two teenage sons, had already put money down on a home they discovered on a previous tour.
"We're so excited we can hardly contain ourselves," said Dan Noel, who said their full-price offer of $179,450 for the three-bedroom house beat seven others."
So now the Noel family, living in a one bedroom apartment with two teenage sons are getting a 3 bedroom for $179k. This is very positive. The Noel family may end up paying less then their rent.
The first wave of vultures in Florida are washed out, but there is a clearing price, and there is always someone waiting in the wings for a bargain.
I'm waiting for my dream luxury condo to go on sale at 60% off.
Capitalism is great.
CR is close to mainstream, and when it the blog title is changed to Conventional Wisdom, it will be time to go heavily long.
Looks like the "Foreclosure Reality Tour" just rolled into town.