"You are Going to Guarantee a Depression.

Ron Paul speaks truth to the corrupt United States Government.

"YOU ARE GOING TO GUARANTEE A DEPRESSION"

Why doesn't the Media talk about what the Housing Bailout will do to the Dollar?

Was I the only one who noticed that when the bailout failed to pass through congress something remarkable happened.

The Dollar strengthened.... Oil prices came crashing back down to earth, and food prices (wheat, corn, soybeans) etc all became much more affordable.

The reason of course is because printing 700 billion dollars of more money and creating all that new debt would have destroyed the currency even further then it already has been the past decade. The media, however, only focuses on the stock market and how it will have an adverse effect on 401k and retirements.

The truth is that if the dollar becomes worthless there will be no retirement for anyone and we will have chaos.

The greatest threat facing the American middle class is not the stock market crashing, its the standard of living becoming wiped out because of a weak dollar. History has proven that when you inflate or destroy a currency the middle class always gets wiped out.

The bailout is not the answer to saving the American economy... the answer is having a strong dollar.

If a 29 year old blogger could figure this out, why can't Bernanke?

I'm Mad as Hell.

Are you?

Ron Paul: My Hero

Too alarming now to talk about
Take your pictures down and shake it out
Truth or consequence, say it aloud
Use that evidence, race it around

There goes my hero
Watch him as he goes
There goes my hero
He’s ordinary

Don’t the best of them bleed it out
While the rest of them peter out
Truth or consequence, say it aloud
Use that evidence, race it around

There goes my hero
Watch him as he goes
There goes my hero
He’s ordinary

Kudos my hero leaving all the best
You know my hero, the one that’s on

There goes my hero
Watch him as he goes
There goes my hero
He’s ordinary

There goes my hero
Watch him as he goes
There goes my hero
He's ordinary

Ron Pauls comments on the "Bail Out" on the house floor

Dr. Paul’s House floor remarks on the bailout

Dr. Paul gave a quick speech on the House floor this morning concerning the bailout. Due to the nature of the debate today, he didn’t have time to read his full remarks, which were put into the congressional record and are featured below:

The process of this bailout reminds me of a panic-stricken swimmer thrashing in the water only making his situation worse. Even a “bipartisan deal”—whatever that is supposed to mean— will not stop the Congress from thrashing about.

The beneficiaries of the corrupt monetary system of the last three decades are now desperately looking for victims to stick with the bill after they have reaped decades of profit and privilege.

The difficulties in our economy will continue because the Legislative and the Executive branches have not yet begun to address the real problems. The housing bubble’s collapse, as was the Dot Com bubble’s collapse, was predictable and is merely a symptom of the monetary system that brought us to this point.

Indeed, we do face a major crisis but it is much bigger than the freezing up of Wall Street and dealing with worthless assets on the books of major banks. The true crisis is the pending collapse of the fiat dollar system that emerged after the breakdown of the Bretton Woods agreement in 1971.

For 37 years the world built a financial system based on the dollar as the reserve currency of the world in an attempt to make the dollar serve as the new standard of value. However since 1971, the dollar has had no intrinsic value, as it is not tied to gold. The dollar is simply a fiat currency, which has fluctuated in value on a daily, if not hourly, bias. This worked to some degree until the market realized that too much debt and malinvestment existed and a correction was required.

Because of our economic and military strength, compared to other countries, trust in America’s currency lasted longer than deserved. This resulted in the biggest worldwide economic distortion in all of history. The problem is much bigger than the fears of a temporary decline on Wall Street if the bailout is not agreed to.

Money’s most important function is to serve as a means of exchange—a measurement of value. If this crucial yardstick is not stable, it becomes impossible for investors, entrepreneurs, savers, and consumers to make correct decisions; these mistakes create the bubble that must eventually be corrected.

Just imagine the results if a construction company was forced to use a yardstick whose measures changed daily to construct a skyscraper. The result would be a very unstable and dangerous building. No doubt the construction company would try to cover up their fundamental problem with patchwork repairs, but no amount of patchwork can fix a building with an unstable inner structure. Eventually, the skyscraper will collapse, forcing the construction company to rebuild—hopefully this time with a stable yardstick. This 700 billion package is more patchwork repair and will prove to be money down a rat hole and will only make the dollar crisis that much worse.

But what politicians are willing to say that the financial “skyscraper”—the global financial and monetary system-is a house of cards. It is not going to happen at this juncture. They’re not even talking about this. They talk only of bailouts, more monetary inflation, more special interest spending, more debt, and more regulations. There is almost no talk of the relationship of the Community Reinvestment Act, HUD, and government assisted loans to the housing bubble. And there is no talk of the oversight that is desperately needed for the Federal Reserve, the Exchange Stabilization Fund, and all the activities of the President’s Working Group on financial markets. When these actions are taken we will at last know that Congress is serious about the reforms that are really needed.

In conclusion, there are three good reasons why Congress should reject this legislation:

a. It is immoral—Dumping bad debt on the innocent taxpayers is an act of theft and is wrong.

b. It is unconstitutional—There is no constitutional authority to use government power to serve special interests.

c. It is bad economic policy—By refusing to address the monetary system while continuing to place the burdens of the bailout on the dollar, we can be certain that in time, we will be faced with another, more severe crisis when the market figures out that there is no magic government bailout or regulation that can make a fraudulent monetary system work.

Monetary reform will eventually come, but, unfortunately, Congress’ actions this week make it more likely the reform will come under dire circumstances, such as the midst of a worldwide collapse of the dollar. The question then will be how much of our liberties will be sacrificed in the process. Just remember what we lost in the aftermath of 9-11.

The best result we can hope for is that the economic necessity of getting our fiscal house in order will, at last, force us to give up our world empire. Without the empire we can then concentrate on rebuilding the Republic.

Thought to Ponder...

It won't take many more failures before the FDIC itself runs out of money. The agency had $45.2 billion in its coffers as of June 30, far short of the $200 billion Whalen says it will need to pay claims by the end of next year. The U.S. Treasury will almost certainly come to the rescue by lending money to the FDIC.
Source

Where is all this money going to come from?

WAMU COLLAPSES

What
A shotty
Mortgage
Underwriter

A few months ago I was at a friends house and scribbled on their dry erase board that WaMu would be the next bank to fail. Although it feels good to be right, I think that this is going to be the first stage of the collapse of the US banking system. WaMu was different then IndyMac... This was a big bank...and people, once they realize what this actually means, are going to start to go through a media-induced panic and will begin pulling their money out of their banks.

I have to admit it is a lot less fun to write blog posts now that the mainstream media is stealing all my thunder...I have been prediciting this since October of last year while the media was still pumping how great the stock market was.

My advice is to stock up on food, ammo, and gold. The only way the government can solve this is to print money, and they are going to try and control debt with massive inflation.

The dollar is going to get much weaker... so plan ahead.

HousingFEAR Quote of the day

"It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from his government." -Thomas Paine


Are you prepared?

Inflation always wins.

What will the socialist bail out being proposed by Congress really mean?

two words... hyper inflation...

Check out the most sensible man in Washington break it down.

The American Crisis

Something is in the air now... Fear is starting to take hold as news of failures of major financial institutions are filling the airwaves. Major banks have already failed and rumor that up to 200 more will do so this year is causing a panic reminiscent of the run up to the Great Depression, people are hiding money under mattresses and the nations leaders are clueless of what to do.

Internationally, the Russian stock market has lost 50% of its value since May. Trading has been halted for the past two days because it crashed an astonishing 11%. House prices are still crashing through most of Europe and the Asian markets are not doing well either.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing of all is how the government, which was nowhere to be found regulating the rampant mal-investment, poor underwriting, unchecked greed, and speculation when times were good are now bailing out the gamblers and criminals who got us into this mess in the first place.

Words from a book that was written over 225 years ago, when this nation was still in its infancy and facing another disaster, is starting to ring true once again...

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. -Thomas Paine

As I read the book The American Crisis by Thomas Paine it is hard to not think how this country has once again come full circle. Liberty and Freedom was the key to unshackling men from their servitude to a government that had lost touch with them and no longer has their best interest at stake. Once again the American people face the same crisis. A government that has lost touch and no longer has their best interest at stake... but this time it is not an ocean away, it is in Washington D.C.

As the panic grows deeper and more Americans begin to turn off American Idol and wake up to whats going on around them, I urge you to share the following line of wisdom with them...

'Tis surprising to see how rapidly a panic will sometimes run through a country. All nations and ages have been subject to them.... Yet panics, in some cases, have their uses; they produce as much good as hurt. Their duration is always short; the mind soon grows through them, and acquires a firmer habit than before. But their peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstones of sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, which might otherwise have lain forever undiscovered. In fact, they have the same effect on secret traitors, which an imaginary apparition would have upon a private murderer. They sift out the hidden thoughts of man, and hold them up in public to the world.

Do not think about the coming second great depression as a bad thing... It will be a time that bad habits are broken and lessons are learned. Perhaps... Just perhaps... Americans will care more about what is going on in Washington then who was voted off the television show last night...

...Or so I can Dream :)

Rally for the Republic

The revolution will not be televised but it will continue...

It is the fight alone that pleases us... Not the victory.

2008 Election Results Accidently get Released.

Welcome... To the FeW-CHAA!!!!

This ad brings tears to my eyes... It gives me a renewed sense of hope.

I believe that the Chevy Volt will be the car that revives the American auto industry, GM, and the dying economy of the place where I live (the suburbs of Detroit, Mi). I also feel that this is the beginning of the end of the big oil companys and our dependence on foreign oil.

Watch at the end how the gas station disappears and the land returns to how it once was... Welcome to the future my friends... Welcome to the FEW-CHA!!!

I am Getting Married Today

It seems like every time I really enjoy writing, and the blog is starting to grow something major in my life changes and I have to put it on the back burner.

I am getting married today to a very beautiful and wonderful w0man so needless to say I am going to have to take a temporary break from the blog.

I will be gone on my honeymoon for 2 weeks, however, I promise I will be back and bringing you my latest Housing FEAR articles once I return.

In the meantime please check out HousingPanic, Housing Doom, Irvine Housing Bubble or one of the many other great links in my sidebar to keep you informed and entertained while I am gone.

Thanks for being a reader :)

Looks like OPTION ARMS have done Wachovia in.

I knew Wachovia would be in trouble when I was still seeing their commercials for "Pick a Payment" Option arms as recently as this spring. You had to know that the ad wizards in charge of this company were not very bright when they continued to offer toxic mortgages well into 2008.

Check out this great article that explains it better than I can...

Almost a year ago I noted that you would be able to determine the banks that would recover the fastest from the mortgage crisis by identifying the ones that are ending their exotic loan programs, because it would indicate which banks actually learned their lesson around offering toxic mortgages. I.e. the banks that are still offering exotic loans haven't learned a thing, and are just going to get into more trouble in the future.

This brings me to today's news that Wachovia has "just" decided to stop offering option ARMs , despite the fact that mortgage crisis is well over a year old and we're coming upon the one year anniversary of the credit crunch.

(From the WSJ) "In a reversal, Wachovia Corp. said Monday it would stop making option adjustable-rate mortgages, which were why the bank bought Golden West Financial Corp. but is now stuck with more than $120 billion of the rapidly souring loans.

Wachovia also said it will let option-ARM borrowers escape prepayment penalties, but loan balances likely have swelled too big for many of these borrowers to refinance.

The changes effectively mean the dismantling of the core product of Golden West, the Oakland, Calif., thrift Wachovia bought for $25 billion two years ago. Option ARMs give customers multiple payment choices, including a minimum payment that may not be enough to cover the interest due. Borrowers who elect the minimum payment on a regular basis can see their loan balance grow.

For months, Wachovia had been dramatically curtailing its origination of option-ARM loans, so the moves weren't entirely unexpected. But the changes were still a blow at Wachovia, based in Charlotte, N.C., which has seen its shares fall 70% in the past year.

For years, the "Pick-a-Payment" option ARM was the core offering of Golden West's World Savings unit. But the company saw its market share slip as competitors such as Countrywide Financial Corp. and Washington Mutual Inc. aggressively marketed these loans to a wide variety of borrowers. In 2006, Golden West was the third-largest originator of option ARMs, with $31 billion of these loans, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. At the end of the first quarter, the company held $121 billion of Pick-a-Payment loans on its books.

But option-ARM originations have dwindled as the number of problem loans has climbed. Option ARMs accounted for just $4 billion of mortgage originations, or less than 1% of total loan volume, in the first quarter, says Inside Mortgage Finance. In 2006, their peak year, originations totaled $255 billion."

IF that doesn't spell: "Uh, we don't know why our mortgage investments went south and are bloody clueless" I don't know what does. Merely curtailing a toxic mortgage doesn't solve problem it just lessens the impact, and Wachovia should've been focused on a complete evisceration of the problem. Wachovia should've admitted that their Golden West Financial investment was a bust last year and ended its option ARM originations then, instead of continuing the practice and making things worse.

Finally the key metric on option ARMs to focus on this: "More than 18% of the option ARMs originated in 2005 and 2006 are already at least 60 days past due, says Barclays Capital, which looked at loans that were packaged into securities. The vast majority of these borrowers have yet to see their monthly payments recast so they begin making payments of principal and full interest, at which point payments can increase by 60% or more."

In other words the problem is about to get markedly worse because most option borrowers haven't hit the point where they won't be able to make their payments, and due to the nature of an option ARM very few of these borrowers are going to be able to refinance without a severe capital infusion or principle forgiveness.

Sources:

The Wall St. Journal: "Wachovia to Discontinue Option-ARMs" -- Valerie Bauerlein and Ruth Simon, July 1, 2008

It is still hard to believe the greed and stupidity that so many of these banks had offering these products in the first place. Even during the housing boom when no one thought the good times would ever end, these loans did not make good business sense. How a bank can continue doing it for a year after the mortgage meltdown occurred is simply mind boggling...But in case you have been living in a cave and could not comprehend how Wachovia was able to post a 9 billion dollar loss today... Now you know :)

Reflections of the Second Great Depression

Scared yet?

You should be.

The Real Irony of the CondoFiasco story.

Most of you who read this blog know the story of Condofiasco.com
In case you don't there is a guy named Zack Preble who put down a deposit of $75,000 on a pre construction one bedroom condo in Miami back in 2005 at the peak of the boom. He hoped to flip the 375K unit to someone else before he even had to close on it. If sucessful he would have made a huge profit for basically doing nothing more than signing a contract.

The real estate market turned on Zack, and the closing date approached quicker and quicker while his condo dropped in value. He was facing a choice of either walking away from his life savings of 75,000 dollars or closing on a condo he could not afford (and was now worth only a fraction of what he agreed to pay)

It was kind of like Alien vs Predator... No matter who wins, he would lose.

Zack came up with a plan to sell shares of his condo for approx $35.00 to people who visited his website. He hoped that the investors buying the shares would allow him to hold on to the condo for a few years until the market turned around. Unfortunately the plan failed because he was only able to sell about 1,000 dollars worth of shares.

As the closing date approached (In January of 2008) Zack disappeared from his blog for a few months and no one knew what happened to him. Zack miraculously appeared in May with news that the closing date was now May 26th and that he now had a new scheme. He would try a reverse auction to sell his condo.

Watch the video here...
http://cbs4.com/video/?id=56004@wfor.dayport.com

Read the full article here.
Click here for the article


Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Preble. He seems like a guy who just got a little carried away by greed and made a bad investment during the housing bubble like a lot of us did.

However, The Irony of this story is just getting started...

It turns out that Zack Preble is one of the founders of Foreclosure.com



I just find it ironic that a guy who makes a living off people losing their homes, ended up losing his own condo before he even moved in. ;)

I guess sometimes life really bites you in the balls.

I just can't get enough of this video.