Posted on 02/26/2012 11:46:29 AM PST by SeekAndFind
“You said it with facts. Great job. See my 2 post above.”
But don’t get me wrong. We’re adding a trillion dollars plus to our debt every year - at some point (sooner, rather than later), we MUST crash. Just like any person, city, state, or company doing the same.
My point is that it won’t be gradual decay. In fact a gradual decay is what should have been allowed to happen, starting in 2000. Instead we printed money to delay the day of reckoning (and make it far, far, worse). No, instead, the crash will be sudden, as in minutes and hours. One day we will wake up and find ourselves having a bank holiday, which means you cannot cash checks, you cannot use ATM cards, you cannot use debit or credit cards. It’s anyone’s guess how long the holiday lasts. For a short time, cash will be the only thing of value. For a very short time, those that have cash will be able to buy gasoline, food, and other supplies. Others will be out of luck. Then cash will quickly lose its value once people realize that the root cause of our collapse is that the dollar is worthless. At that point everyone is frozen in with what they have on hand (or maybe what they can barter for, but that’s more fantasy than reality). Eventually, we adjust to our much, much, poorer country, just as happened in Argentina.
Sorry to be so depressing, but this country is nowhere near ready to address our structural deficit. Even half of the old people on this site will not give up a penny of their Social Security. One can only imagine the luck we’ll have trying to get the more liberal 90% of the country to do the same.
I didn’t know you were a fellow central Texan. Nice to “meet” you.
We are not yet totally depraved, there are more than just pockets of order and decency. Some areas will fare far better than others as a result.
The first statement does not prove the second. What is the current teen abortion rate?
I think there is more acceptance of drugs than there used to be....i.e. look, you too can be just as screwed up as a Hollywood superstar....or as screwed up as your next door neighbor.
I remember when being a druggie was a huge stigma. And I can’t defend the mafia, of course, and not that I was there, but seems to me those times were not as horrendous as what we’re dealing with now.
Plus just the federal government has 17 trillion in debt: thanks for nothing Obama.
120 trillion in unfunded liabilities.
Obama borrows trillions from china so Americans can buy China products and Americans and local governments borrow more in credit cards etc. Gas will be $5 soon . yeah nothing is wrong (sarcasm).
We have massive unsustainable debt so that the dollars we borrow are basically paper IOUS and that's all we are producing damn IOUS.
You ‘d think you'd be better off is someone kept lending you 100,000 $ every year too . Yeah you'd live off that debt and buy many china gadgets with that debt. That's what the U.S. is doing living off debt . that will lead to collapse because we don't produce even the things we use only IOUs.
“10. We don’t need more banking government regulations but less.”
In a perfect world, yes. In the real world, no. Bankers are simply UNABLE to control themselves when it comes to lending other people’s money. It’s sad but true, and goes back to biblical times. I’m all for a free economy, except when it concerns bankers.
The crap that led up to 2008 was no different than the crap that led up to 1929. In both cases bankers lent money that they knew full-well would not get paid back unless property value increases continued to double the rate of inflation, FOREVER. And no, there were no regulations to speak of on bankers in the 1929. In 2008, yes, they were being pushed to lend money to deadbeats, but did they complain about it and speak up. Hell no!!! They just rolled in the dough, knowing that it would all collapse.
Mebbe - but here’s a slightly different take on bankers. Bankers operate on a spread, and the spread is usually related to risk. I don’t think bankers like to lose money, and, like most people, they will jump at the opportunity to make easy money, provided the risk is minimal.
I still believe that the sub-prime market was created by the CRA and dramatically increased when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lowered their loan purchasing standard. I seem to recall they used to require 20% minimum down on a mortgage before they would buy it; after 1999, that number went down, at least to 3%, and they started buying no-documentation loans, also.
“Privatize the gain, socialize the loss” - bankers had every incentive to write larger and larger loans, knowing that Uncle Sam would buy the loan and take the default risk off the banks’ books.
I do think the bankers and the real estate industry made the problem exponentially worse by collateralizing the loans as they broke the tie that existed between the mortgage and the mortgagee into numerous parts and sold them off, making it nearly impossible to establish clear title when it comes time to sell the house...
YMMV
I don’t believe Oakland has laid off half of its police dept. Will try to find out.
““Privatize the gain, socialize the loss” - bankers had every incentive to write larger and larger loans, knowing that Uncle Sam would buy the loan and take the default risk off the banks’ books.
I do think the bankers and the real estate industry made the problem exponentially worse by collateralizing the loans as they broke the tie that existed between the mortgage and the mortgagee into numerous parts and sold them off, making it nearly impossible to establish clear title when it comes time to sell the house...”
Yea, we’re pretty much in synch. The bankers still have their bonuses and mansions (and are not in jail, where they belong) - they didn’t have any skin in the game thanks to government insurance, and then a bunch of TOTAL IDIOTS that were willing to take over their worthless loans.
“I don’t believe Oakland has laid off half of its police dept. Will try to find out.”
They probably have laid off a good chunk. A dirty little secret about Oakland is that they have hills and some VERY nice houses up there. Those houses pay real taxes (i.e., support the rest of the city). But their values crashed, so the city is definitely in the tank.
But regardless, I don’t know how useful their police is when they have a crackpot mayor who won’t let them do their jobs. So if half are gone, it probably won’t make crime much worse.
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