American's don't care about homes, but wealth.

To all of those who talk about American homeownership being a right or some entitlement or something like that...to anyone who 'feels the pain' of homeowners being foreclosed upon, or is one of them, I have a message for you:

Americans don't care about being homeowners. They don't. They couldn't care less if they actually owned the house, the land, or anything else for that matter.

Americans want to be, strive to be and care about being wealthy. They will do, buy, or act in just about any fashion to cause this to happen. If they could be financially dependent, wealthy, etc. from buying and selling tulips, they would do this.

Americans look at homes, and treat them, as an investment. Period. Any investment has risk. Investors should know about risk and uncertainty. They should also know that sometimes they lose. And be prepared for it.

As for the rest of the world pointing at this mess starting in, and being caused by the US; poor lending, poor oversight, corruption, collusion, ratings agencies not doing their job the list goes on, I say to the rest of the world, "Take responsibility for your actions, too."

When they were buying MBS reportedly rated as AAA they didn't see those securities were based on US homes, mostly in CA that were increasing in value at astronomical rates by historical standards?

Come on. Take some responsibility.

J

JAllen Radio (light humor) “Sucker goin’ down, Part II”

JAllen: “We’ve got a breaking and special story for you today folks! JAllen radio is live on board the Big Bush Boat after being hit by a “torpedo-type-thingy” fired from this very boat! The boat is now taking on water as “the crew” try to deal with the impending sinking.

JAllen: “The Crew” include: Benni and Hanky, Roubini, Mr. Mortgage, and others.

JAllen: “Bennie, have you got this under control?”

Bennie: “You see this button? (winks) I can push this button and this here machine will churn out a bunch of rags…an infinite number of rags if I want. And Hanky will use those rags to mop up. Right, Hank?”

Hank: “I need more rags to mop with! This is not enough. I’m mopping, I’m bailing, I’m shimmering and shaking, but the water I toss overboard just comes right back in! Bennie! MORE RAGS!!”

JAllen: “Cap’n Bush, what do you have to say?”

Cap’n Bush: “Torpedo me once…shame…shame on…Bennie, you’re doin’ a heckuva job”

JAllen: “Roubini, what is being done and what do you need to do to stop this sucker goin’ down?”

Roubini: “First of all, I knew this was coming! I said this would happen! What this Hank and Bennie are doing…this mopping…will never work. There are twelve things we need to do…If you want to know how to fix it, first you need to register at info@rgemonitor.com.

JAllen: Hank, how is the mopping going?

...to be continued

from Mr. Mortgage: fedwatcher post

1. fedwatcher Said:
   October 1st, 2008 1:38 am

   We Cannot Handle The Truth

   What we have here is a failure to communicate.

   The facts are that the debt levels of the U.S.A., U.K., Ireland, Spain, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and many other European and ‘advanced’ economies are too large to be serviced by the income these economies generate.

   There are only two ways out of this:
   1.) Debt destruction through default leading to a severe recession or depression after which normal and stable growth can resume.
   2.) Postponing the problem by the creation of new debt with inflationary results and the eventual necessity of having the above occur latter.

   We must pass through debt destruction now or take on more debt and go through a much larger debt destruction latter.

   That is the choice. All the other posturing and spin is bull feces.

   Paulson and Bernanke and Cox and Bush and Wall Street and the House Leadership and the Senate Leadership, all hoped they could ‘contain’ the problem until after November 4th.

   The only rational solution is the Irish Solution, that is protect depositors and thus stop the bank runs, and let investors take a bath.

   Dow 8,000 will happen sooner or latter. It is better sooner than latter.

Slow Screw Part Two - becomes Fast Screw for You

In 10th grade I made a report on the great depression, and one of the passages I remember best was about a stockbroker, who, while watching the market tank and while losing everything he had invested, cried, "More Margin, more Margin!"

He needed more "margin," or "leverage." Credit.

The truth of the matter is that at the heart of the Great Depression was a credit bubble, much like we have today. And the truth is that only an enormous amount of financial pain for everyone will bring us back to reality. Sooner, the better, right? Dragging this out much longer through bailouts, stimulus packages, etc. only prolongs the pain and the problem. But this is the path we are choosing.

It's like having a sore tooth where the patient spends months eating on the other side of his mouth. But the tooth will not stop hurting until it falls out, or until the patient sees a dentist. The dentist causes some initial pain, but saves the tooth. I'm afraid we're in the process of losing some teeth.

Ben Bernanke knows this. He has prepared for it for decades. The irony is he's a student of the Depressionl. Why isn't he fixing it? Why is it getting worse? He's eating on the other side of his mouth.

Paulson wants to give his buddies (and himself) some Novocaine, cocaine and a get out of jail free card and splash some expensive moonshine on our collective, painful molars.

In my earlier Post, "Slow Screw", I talked about the unfortunate, declining standard of living over the past several generations. It would be sad, except for the fact that we're getting what we deserve. That makes it sad, but equitable.

J