Nemo, leave Volkers new friends out of this

somehow the 2005 BK "reform" didn't work as intended.

If congress ever allows BK mortgage cram downs, the numbers we see today will be low.

O boy howdy! If any here have yet to get a spa pedicure, I can recommend it. The girls must have taken half a shoe size off. Started smelling like a horse being shod for awhile. Anyway, what's left I can live with.

And I don't mind the color either.

So now we move on to the costume, they said some zippo miners will be along later this afternoon and they want me ready for something they call the Line Up. Maybe that's what the bells have been about. Maybe some of their wives will come along with them.

OT but funny.
YouTube - The 12 Months Of Default (Christmas Song)

Given the number of lives that Capitol One has ruined with their predatory business strategy, I must weight my pleasure at watching their drawn-out suffering against the benefits of a more rapid collapse. Win-win situation here!

What's in your Serta?

Wait... so if I was levered up 10:1, and charged off 10% of 'assets', what would I be?

Humph, Crapital One is losing more money?

Gee, hoocoodanode?

After all, what was subprime is now a loss.

What's in your wallet? A loss for CapOne!!!

Someday this war's gonna end...

By the way, one of the sidebars of the health reform bill under consideration now in congress would allow those over 55 to buy into medicare coverage, which now begins at age 65. Just think for a few minutes what that will do for health care coverage. Even if the "public option" is discarded, this element , if included, would by default be the public option. Think about it. When does coverage get expensive? When you get older. And medicare doesn't care if you smoke, are 150 pounds overweight, etc.

If it is approved, it is hard for me to envision what health care coverage would look like 12 months after implementation, and I have been in this business for >30 years.

BinT

Well, if the asset were a $7 cup of coffee, for which the end user has already paid a $30 over the limit fee, and $10 in interest, I think you can afford the $0.70 writedown.

So the answer is...

Highly-rewarded Lord of Finance.

Bonuses, hookers and blow all round then.

Jonathan wrote:

if I was levered up 10:1, and charged off 10% of 'assets', what would I be?

What is 'bankrupt', Alex.

I'll take Regulatory Capital requirements for $200, please...

Jubilee is coming, one way or another. Either by some kind of new law or because bankruptcies will flood the courts like a tsunami.

While things are slow here, can somebody summarize what the hell Volker the Viking is doing today (new job?)

I know self-reported surveys aren't very trustworthy, but this can't be a good sign:

Gallup Economic Weekly: Spending Lacks Luster

Spending off 20% from 2008 Christmas season? Horrific if true.

Rob Dawg wrote:

What kind of business model is one where you expect 10% of sales to be uncollectable? Of course it isn't that bad.

How does this compare to Fed MBS purchases?

Bruce in Tennessee wrote:

And medicare doesn't care if you smoke, are 150 pounds overweight, etc.

Yet.

I'm not so sure it's a matter of "consumers under stress."

I'm thinking that Walking Away has caught on with a larger segment of society than the finance industry would like. I don't have any credit card balances, but if I was carrying some big ones and my card issuer jacked my rates up to make up for their own piss poor management, I'd be real tempted to start ignoring their bills.

As it is, you can talk about people getting hurt on their credit score, but as a co-worker put it a few months ago: "All I have to tell anyone was "It was 2009" and everyone will understand." The game has changed for a lot of people and good credit isn't holding the same priority as it has in the past.

Charles Kiting wrote:

And medicare doesn't care if you smoke, are 150 pounds overweight, etc.

Yet.

Neither will any public option. The plan is to cover everyone, right?

JiminPortland, (new job) !!!!!! Funny.

RockyR wrote:

LoserBeachBum wrote:
Jubilee is coming, one way or another. Either by some kind of new law or because bankruptcies will flood the courts like a tsunami.
awesome. can i haz free house, please?

Sure, as long as you don't mind property taxes that exceed your current PITI.

Bruce in Tennessee wrote:

Even if the "public option" is discarded, this element , if included, would by default be the public option. Think about it. When does coverage get expensive? When you get older. And medicare doesn't care if you smoke, are 150 pounds overweight, etc.

Sadly, this was discarded. I was hoping it was included as the only reason I bother "working" is for health-coverage. So, I could have quit and given my extremely difficult job to a youngster.

JimPortlandOR wrote:

While things are slow here, can somebody summarize what the hell Volker the Viking is doing today (new job?)

Utilizing his natural talents. You know, he was in advertising before,...

sdtfs wrote:

he was in advertising before,

still am

Cinco-X wrote:

The plan is to cover everyone, right?

Some are more equal than others.

per Ken Feinberg just now on NPR, some of the pay cap exemptions were requested by Treasury.......Boy, could we use a follow-up on that!

Kids' Swine flu shots recalled; not strong enough - Yahoo! News

I imagine charge-offs should decline in January and February. I don't know why, but everything else seems to be upside-down lately, so why not?

Speed wrote:

Christmas 2009 brought to you by Bankruptcy 2010.

Curse my spend-thrift ways! I'm trying to make it through '10 without BK, and yet, I'm probably missing out on Yet Another J6P Bailout!

Narm:

Sadly, this was discarded. I was hoping it was included as the only reason I bother "working" is for health-coverage. So, I could have quit and given my extremely difficult job to a youngster.

Throw my name in the hat when you leave. I a very good "worker" as well. Being self employed kind of makes slacking off at work on the internet bittersweet.

Mook wrote:

And people who are sacrificing careers, families, and health to keep their "number" high are going to look back in a decade and kick themselves.

Mook wrote:

And people who are sacrificing careers, families, and health to keep their "number" high are going to look back in a decade and kick themselves.

That's especially true if they did business with the Friends & Family Savings Bank. My girlfriend's ex-roommate liked to tell stories about how everyone back home treated her so poorly, like a Cinderella. It was only much later she mentioned that she'd borrowed money from just about all of them and hadn't paid them back. Based on her career prospects and finances, she wasn't likely to pay them back any time soon.

Points To Ponder

Here is another Bank "Thorn" to be concerned with:

http://www.occ.treas.gov/FTP/RELEASE/2009-34A.PDF

Rob Dawg wrote:

Done. With free snark.

Nice:

Principal Interest Taxes Insurance - The immutable costs of homeownership. One of those catch-all phrases for standardizing relative housing expenses. Alt.: Mr. Ts take on homeownership. "Mr. T PITIs da fool!"

Art Eclectic said: "I'm thinking that Walking Away has caught on with a larger segment of society than the finance industry would like. I don't have any credit card balances, but if I was carrying some big ones and my card issuer jacked my rates up to make up for their own piss poor management, I'd be real tempted to start ignoring their bills."

If walking away has "caught on", it's only in the same sense that losing your job has "caught on."

And if you were carrying big credit card balances, why is anyone who loaned you all that money obligated to keep your rates low when the risk to them is so high (because you've borrowed so much money)? By raising rates, they're incenting you to pay down the debts you legitimately incurred.

If you choose to renege on your obligations, that's not poor judgment on the part of the lender, unless you consider them stupid for trusting you.

Sebastian

dum luk wrote:

US Drought Monitor

This is a non-issue. As part of StimPak II there's going to be a cross-country water pipeline built. The Canadians on here should NOT be alarmed, as we have no plans at ALL to take ANY of their water and all the rumors that the pipeline is actually being built through Ontario is just a rumor. Really.

Selling and developing these credit score risk models, or just the service/result, was and is a hugely-profitable business that isn't going away that easily. The advantages of speed, accuracy and efficiency are very hard to beat, meaning transaction volume has to come down or hiring of experienced loan reps has to go way up, in the event that these models are abandoned. Using them without human supervision to qualify loan applicants for mortgages and other personal loans is/was the height of stupidity and bubbledom.

broward wrote:

Male stripper try-outs in a Nevada brothel.

For the record, it was JimPortlandOR that asked the question!

broward wrote:

Male stripper try-outs in a Nevada brothel.

eat yer heart out

Why is repaying TARP such a big deal? Owe $10 billion? Issue 426 million sharers at $25 - find buyers who always, always show up and sell. Stock ticks down a few blips for a few days and four weeks later all is forgotten and we're back. Doesn't seem very complicated or hard to do.

Sorry, yagij, I'm still used to the nested reply in Usenet news.

Deflation in dating land - I got an email for a Speed Dating event reduced from $35 to $20 (for men only, though).

I'd seen that before in 2008.
Men are the first to bail out on cost when it comes to dating.

With all this good news, I question why I paid of my CC bills when they could have been excused.

moved to vermont because wrote:

Why is repaying TARP such a big deal? Owe $10 billion? Issue 426 million sharers at $25 - find buyers who always, always show up and sell.

You left out the rest:

1. water down existing shares, many of which were once bonds
2. use proceeds to issue bonuses to lackeys who screwed up in the first place
3. go back to the well next year

noob goldberg wrote:

Isn't that just the three 'c's? Creditworthiness, Collateral, and Capacity?

(Re FICO scores) I would think it would be just the first, creditworthiness. There is no collateral on a credit card of course, and capacity nowadays is a measure of whether all the offers can fit in your mail box.

Bloomberg: The U.S. House is considering reinstituting the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act, which barred bank holding companies from owning other financial companies, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said today.

umop apisdn wrote:

(Re FICO scores) I would think it would be just the first, creditworthiness. There is no collateral on a credit card of course, and capacity nowadays is a measure of whether all the offers can fit in your mail box.

While I'm not necessarily promoting the concept, some banks do offer collateralized credit cards for new immigrants and other individuals with no credit history. What's wrong with pledging some collateral to support a credit card?

Speed wrote:

Bloomberg: The U.S. House is considering reinstituting the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act, which barred bank holding companies from owning other financial companies, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said today.

House Discussing Renewal of Glass-Steagall Act, Hoyer Says - Bloomberg.com

Now things have gotten a little more interesting...

I'd imagine a few finance lobbyists just left skidmarks in their pants...

I'm very very curious to see who lines up on which side for this fight.

Basel Too wrote:

somehow the 2005 BK "reform" didn't work as intended.

Sure it did - institutionalized the 'debt slaves' in perpetuity.

noob goldberg wrote:

Now things have gotten a little more interesting..

I had it on good authority that a number of house Democrats wanted to postpone the "populist" attack on the financial services industry until 2010. I think those CEO's missing the meeting with Obama (even if their excuses are justified) have focused the mind.

umop apisdn wrote:

Learn something new everyday!

That's how I started my credit record.

noob goldberg wrote:

I'd imagine a few finance lobbyists just left skidmarks in their pants...

IT departments too. You can't imagine how integrated the Zombie have become (internally). I'd bet that IF Glass-Steagall was in danger of being reinstated the IT argument would be used against it.

Oh, the IT costs would be huge, HUGE, I tell ya....

Not a credit card statement, but I'm pretty sure that short term bonds do get rolled over.

I just came back from a discovery meeting for a fraud case. I understand that officials in charge of keeping the wolves out of the pen can be bought. Large sums of money can be tempting I suppose. What is so freaking depressing is how cheap they can be had.

This isn't the first big fraud case I have ever done. I don't know if it is because I see this stuff that it taints how I see everything, or fraud and corruption is so rampant behind the scenes that it is everywhere. Maybe it has always been that way.

nova wrote:

Maybe it has always been that way.

Of course it has. The past wasn't pure. You just weren't there to see it, so it sounds pure.

Sebastian wrote:

Confessions of a Soft-Porn Employee

it's NOT porn, it's a legal legitimate recession proof industry and if they'll have me, well; it will be the sacrifice I make

within limits of course

some oars volker don't pull on

NOTaREALmerican wrote:

This is a non-issue. As part of StimPak II there's going to be a cross-country water pipeline built. The Canadians on here should NOT be alarmed, as we have no plans at ALL to take ANY of their water and all the rumors that the pipeline is actually being built through Ontario is just a rumor. Really. "

Recall that back in the 1950s when engineers could dream dreams and design earth changing projects there was a plan to pipe water from the MacKenzie river near great bear lake, up the rocky mountain trench to the Columbia, and then down the columbia to central oregon, and thence to Ca, as well as a plan to reverse rivers running into James Bay. (The Soviet engineers had grander plans). There was serious discussion about damning the straights of Gibraltar and taking the entire Mediterranean down 100 meters, then building a second set of dams accross the now smaller gap between Italy and Tunsia and taking the eastern Med down another 100 meters.
Back then the environment was not a concern just mega engineering projects. This is terraforming terra. Modern examples include the space mirror to limit global warming etc. We were going to use Abombs to dig another panama canal as well.

Or give big boys big toys and they will play with them. Recall the shows where someone gets to drive one of the big earthmovers and he describes the feeling of power.

dryfly wrote:

Sure it did - institutionalized the 'debt slaves' in perpetuity.

Well, the true purpose was to pop the stock until 2007.
It worked just fine.

umop apisdn wrote:

Learn something new everyday! "Secure credit cards" - not that I'm in the market, but good to know.

I think I used the word 'collateralized' incorrectly, but you get the idea. Some asset to back up the credit.

Cinco-X wrote:

And medicare doesn't care if you smoke, are 150 pounds overweight, etc.
Yet.

plenty of money to loan, but unless you don't need it, don't bother askin
plenty of private health insurance there.....unless you really need it....

notice the similarity, or is it too tough.....

Speed wrote:

Bloomberg: The U.S. House is considering reinstituting the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act, which barred bank holding companies from owning other financial companies, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said today.

It's about time.........it only took 2-years to start discussing it?........good thing they got such a "jump" on it!

Sebastian wrote:

And if you were carrying big credit card balances, why is anyone who loaned you all that money obligated to keep your rates low when the risk to them is so high (because you've borrowed so much money)? By raising rates, they're incenting you to pay down the debts you legitimately incurred.

Kind of like your friendly neighborhood (insert drug of choice) dealer. Hey - this one's on me. The next one maybe not so much.

Sebastian wrote:

Sebastian

Man, folks here are being nice to you today.....
Me, not so much....your comment on CC rates shows just how much socialize the losses and privatize the gains has become the dominant way of doing business...
I get my rates jacked up, even though it was the cc cos that skipped on any due diligence. Nice how that works....oh, and my taxes & my childrens' taxes helped you do this....

"What's in your Serta"
Best comment so far today.

Although if you have a large population essentially 2/3 of medical service users what are the providers going to do other than accept lower income.

OR, you will have fewer providers...