What is Digg?102 Comments
- inactive, on 03/07/2008, -3/+313 CEOs made $460 million - House panel
'House oversight committee prepares to investigate why executives at companies battered by the mortgage crisis were awarded big payouts.' - edstate, on 03/07/2008, -3/+27The banks made it as bad as they possibly could on purpose, trying to ensure a bailout. As dodgy as it may get for the economy as a whole, I say don't give it to them. Insist that they, gasp!, don't get ***** bonuses this year.
- KangoSuz, on 03/07/2008, -0/+19Great overview of what's happening in the mortgage bubble. Although I don't think we've seen the end of it yet...
- eFiniTi, on 03/07/2008, -7/+24When we have to bail out major banks from bankruptcy to prevent hard working Americans from seeing their money vanish then something is terribly wrong with the system..
I don't want to use our horribly managed system of money anymore. Its time to allow other forms of money to be used. Decentralization of money ftw!
http://www.mises.org/story/1854 - inactive, on 03/07/2008, -1/+16Many buy-side firms are now playing the "distressed" market, where you may be able to pick up quality issues at bargain prices.
- bromac, on 03/07/2008, -6/+18Because most corporations are just pyramid schemes with a charter.
- spudlyo, on 03/07/2008, -1/+11I enjoy reading what armchair economists have to say, even though Diggers are by in large clueless crackpots. Reading their comments entertains me and helps shape my own uninformed crackpottery.
- GhostyBoy, on 03/07/2008, -5/+15I'm with eFiniTi. Let's just make our own money that these rejects don't have control over and can't screw up for everybody.
- brettg102, on 03/07/2008, -0/+7How about your parents don't buy a damn house that is 100-300K more than they can afford.
"Well hunny the bank will give us a loan for it!"..."Tehee! Oh you're right, my 50k a year corporate slave job can surely keep up with that 500k mortgage..."Well it's a 5 bedroom too...we better make some more kids!"..."Yeh, I can afford those too! Call Capital One...I need my limit bumped up!"
I feel ABSOLUTELY NO PITY. Buy within your means... - firesphotons, on 03/07/2008, -1/+8Meanwhile, Bush is dancing at the Whitehouse press conferences, Nancy Pelozzi is busy attacking Mc Cain and the congress continues to focus on baseball's use of HGH. Where is the outrage? What is it going to take to get our government active? I guess all you holy rollers are just relieved that nobody is betting blown as the WH allows the country to plunge into an abyss.
- evildemonic, on 03/07/2008, -0/+6If you haven't been mishandling your finances or acting like a sheep over the last few years, now is a REALLY good time to line up some good investments, and you would be in a good position to take advantage of the current and upcoming situation.
If the preceding run-on sentence doesn't make sense to you, then I can't help you. - inactive, on 03/07/2008, -0/+5I just bought a house with a 5.3% interest rate. I save about 40k for waiting two years to buy and I assume if I waited longer I could save more interest.
- roodammy44, on 03/07/2008, -0/+5You have to watch that the amount you would have been spending on rent would be less than the amount of value the house is losing + maintenance costs + property taxes + loan interest
If rent is less than those four conditions (which you'd expect it is now), renting is better, however if it's more then buying is better. - inactive, on 03/07/2008, -1/+6Yes, because when things get really bad, everyone is going to give a ***** about gold right?
If the economy really does collapse (not gonna happy, but lets play along), you do know that gold isnt going to be worth ***** right? You cant eat it. You cant live in it. You cant fuel a car with it. You cant heat a house with it. You cant even use it to kill other people and take their food.
If you really think things are going to fall apart, put your money where your mouth is and invest in ammo, gas, and canned food. - TomK88, on 03/07/2008, -0/+5Awesome. I'll buy groceries by bartering with goods and/or services.
- Jexie, on 03/07/2008, -3/+8Really you should be dugg up and edstate dugg down....proof or at least a logical argument is a pretty obvious requirement to make a statement like his.
But on the other hand I am so sick of being nickle and dimed to death by banks, I'm sick of being the recipient of their desperation to grow credit (I don't need 20 credit card applications a week and them phoning to tell me what a great idea it would be to take on another card). I'm sick of them acting like they are deserving of taxpayer funded bailouts & help when the attitude from them is '***** you pay me' when times are good for them but not the consumer market. Let em' all go bankrupt, society will just have to evolve with something different. - TomK88, on 03/07/2008, -1/+6Why?
Gold is a commodity at an all-time high. Generally, it makes sense to buy low, not buy high. But hey, maybe you know something the rest of us don't? - chuckDontSurf, on 03/07/2008, -0/+5Dream on, hippie.
- Ossuary, on 03/07/2008, -0/+4This whole mess just chaps me off. I "settled" on a house I could actually afford and went with a fixed rate loan. Now the economy in general is getting smacked around because a large number of reckless people purchased more house than they can afford.
If it was not for the larger effect it would have on the national economy I would say screw them and let them get what they deserve. I equate this to the McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit. You knew it was hot, so don't bitch. If you did not know it was hot, why were you drinking it? Sheeeesh. - PirateFSM, on 03/07/2008, -2/+6There's something fulfilling that comes from blocking someone.
- belovedkid, on 03/07/2008, -0/+4you better hope that rate is fixed, buddy
- TomK88, on 03/07/2008, -1/+5Because economists have so much political clout and complete control over what people and corporations do. The subprime crisis is a result of banks giving loans to people who shouldn't have gotten them, and those people buying houses out of their price range.
- omelette, on 03/07/2008, -0/+4The only way I'd reccommend buying a house in a market like this is if you plan on spending the rest of your life (or at least a decade or two) there. With prices looking like they will be level (if not falling) for the next few years, renting makes a lot more sense. Generally, the first few years of mortgage payments you really don't make any headway at all toward actual ownership of your home. Close to 100% of your payments are going toward interest. Even before the frightening possibility of prices dropping, with maintenace costs and property taxes you're likely to come out worse off than a renter. Now this is purely from an investment standpoint. I recently purchased a home despite my outlook because I need/want a home for my family for the foreseeable future. As I don't see myself ever cashing out, the investment angle of my purchase was not as important as it is to some.
- inactive, on 03/07/2008, -0/+4The only problem is that you assume that everyone have the finances to afford purchasing a house... a house doesn't cost you $1000 it cost several hundred thousand dollars and when you only have a few thousand dollars on your bank account and perhaps bad credit, rent is the only option that you can afford. I agree thousand dollars into a house is better than on rent, but you won't find any 1000 dollar houses for sale.
- InorganicMatter, on 03/07/2008, -0/+3This whole thing has been blown ridiculously out of proportions by crooked banks. What has essentially happened is they now have received billions in free money from government bailouts, and they also now own all the foreclosed houses again. They have essentially taken both the money and houses from the stupid population of America.
- paganmonkeyboy, on 03/07/2008, -5/+8Breed. Consume. Pollute. All is Well with the System.
- natgem, on 03/07/2008, -0/+3This is a great article. I've worked in the mortgage business for over 10 years, and this article clearly and concisely summed up everything that happened. Towards the end of my mortgage career, I was realizing that more and more loans were SISA and I knew that this would eventually lead to the fall in mortgages. I quickly got out of the mortgage business before the company I was working for had to downsize drastically due to Countrywide not buying any of our loans. Rightly so, I should add.
- bentman78, on 03/07/2008, -8/+11Yet another credit story and yet another crop of Digg armchair economists giving their opinions...
- h3smith, on 03/07/2008, -1/+4I'm not going to lie. If I could have, I would have made as much from it as I could have too.
- StaticThunder, on 03/07/2008, -0/+2Make sure you buy that gold on credit, since interest rates are at an all time low. Use leverage to magnify your earnings from the massive upswing that gold will see in the second quarter!
- rizla420, on 03/07/2008, -1/+3In your eyes, what is a solid investment? Gold? People telling others to buy gold now are playing into the same mindset that leads to bubbles. Its a false sense of scarcity. Gold will probably still go up some more, but it will eventually top out and then will start to creep back down. Its a musical chairs game where people who bought gold want more people to get into it becuase they already got in at a lower price so that once they sell they'll make the profit while the new comers are left holding the bag.. This is how it always works.
- inactive, on 03/07/2008, -0/+2simple equation .... add easy credit and idiots = disaster
- spudlyo, on 03/07/2008, -0/+2I just blocked you. I feel empty inside.
- pintomp3, on 03/07/2008, -2/+4http://www.thecorporation.com/index.cfm?page_id=2
- MilkDaddy, on 03/07/2008, -1/+3I recommend everyone read the entire series, parts 1 through 4, especially the conclusions in part 4. We can still avert a major disaster if no one panics, especially the banking sector.
- NelsonR, on 03/07/2008, -0/+2Now for the next act in the play. Bernanke like Greenspan will lower the prime rate again this month by one half to three quarters. Inflation to them means squat with stimulating a lost economy their primary goal. The dollar will weaken while investors now go to the commodities market which entails a ballooning in the inflation rate. Meanwhile the dollar declines to worthless paper and overseas investment dries up. Not an economist but it doesn't take a genius to see what is. The average Joe Blow gets screwed again from all sides. Our high paid, best perks, government elite at work.
- rizla420, on 03/07/2008, -0/+2Dont freak out, if your in a solid mortgage your pretty safe. The housing market will drop and your house value will drop, but if you wait it out you'll eventually end up on top. Prices will recover, but I hope for your sake your house wasnt overvalued when you bought it. If you think you got a fair shake then no worries. If you bought some expensive condo/house soley because you bought into the fear that everyone is gobbling houses so you better get in now otherwise you'll never get a house, you're gonna get screwed. If you live in a good neighborhood with good schools and close to a major city, your house will always have a good value. If you bought an expensive house in the boonies then maybe not. WHo know, i'm no real estate guru. Just looking at it logically.
- inactive, on 03/07/2008, -0/+2I got a rate of 5.5% (yes, its fixed) 4 years ago. It was even slighlty lower than that right before I bought.
- licoricewhip, on 03/07/2008, -0/+2Question, digg users... how many of your parents' homes are in this crisis?
- linagee, on 03/07/2008, -0/+2macwac, I'll sell you a $1000 house. It's made of cardboard though. And it has no permanent property that it resides at. Let's call it a "mobile box".
- sebicas, on 03/08/2008, -0/+1Yes... more of the same! And get ready because this is just the beginning!
- brettg102, on 03/07/2008, -0/+1No...gold isn't a good investment. Buy super-ultra high? No. While you see everyone running and panicking thinking the world is collapsing around them...quitely go and buy up those long term stocks (P&G, GE, Johnson&Johnson, Phillip Morris, Raytheon,M$,Disney,Siemens,etc,etc) while they are a bargain. Sit back...profit....cash out out 30 years.
- inactive, on 03/07/2008, -0/+1I can help you get out of debt, get thin, get a job, get a hot chick in 30 minutes,
please buy my new book
kthxbai - TomK88, on 03/07/2008, -1/+2If a corporation were a "pyramid scheme", who is at the top? Shareholders or executives?
- netant, on 03/07/2008, -0/+1The Fed is not dropping rates to stimulate the economy. They're doing it to cover the banker's asses.
Continued mortgage defaults makes the entire economic system even more precarious than it already it. By the Fed dropping interest rates (and pumping in cash) they keep the ARMs resetting to a higher rate, and triggering more defaults. The Fed also has to pump more cash in the system, because banks can't provide credit anymore (when bank's are leveraged, they can't keep loaning out money, the banks make money by loaning it, and the bank goes dead). If there is no credit, legitimate business can't get money to grow, and that hits the non-housing sector part of the GNP.
The real solution is somehow weather a housing bubble correction, while putting in regulations that will keep this kind of profligate lending to ever occur again, and legally crucify whomever can be put into prison for investor fraud. This also means compelling the banks to renegotiate as many "good" mortgage loans as possible into something fixed, so defaults don't keep destabilizing the industry. This isn't happening, because the banks lose money when they do this, and they prefer that you, the taxpayer, give them a free bailout. And the rich own the TV, radio, and newspapers who tell you what to think.
So what's going to happen is the Fed will keep printing money, the american citizen will keep losing money in subsidized bailout and currency depreciation, and the economy will go into stagflation. But you are in error if you actually believe the Fed thinks it can rescue economic growth. Everyone on top is trying to keep the taxpayer from realizing it needs to take back its government, and put up some guillotines for the financial industry. - CazMo, on 03/07/2008, -0/+1You can build equity while renting, hell.. my family is a perfect example.
- xXMiraXx, on 03/07/2008, -0/+1How far can you reall take outrage, though? Look, as a relatively new homeowner, I am personally facing the fear of a mortgage worth more than my property, so I understand why there is so much at stake here. Unfortunately, there aren't many options. Do you let the free market sort itself out while the government stimulates through *unilateral* tax cuts, or do you expect the government to get actively involved in sorting out each individual case? What I'm getting at here is that the BEST the government can hope to do is react. No amount of Congressional grandstanding is going to solve the problem the market is facing. Like the series suggests, this problem will best be solved without panic.
I am curious, though, how our preoccupation with the concept of "credit scoring" or "credit identity" will change in the aftermath of this bubble burst. - bromac, on 03/07/2008, -1/+2A little of both. The board of directors are the top shareholders, and the CEO usually is a large shareholder, or is given stock options. Either way, the consumer is at the bottom. Or the shareholders, in Enron's case. Or BreX. Or any other situation where a company takes the investors' money and runs.
- thedogfatherx, on 03/07/2008, -0/+1Where are you finding rates at 4%? The lowest I can find are 5.4% or 5.7%
- inactive, on 03/07/2008, -4/+5Reality disagrees with you.
-
Show 51 - 100 of 102 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is