Letters to the Editor
aveutter
Published Letters: 198 Editor's Choice: 32
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no skin in the game
[Read the article: The great homeowner equity depression]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]most of these people who are underwater didn't make a downpayment in the first place. on the other hand if you have been in your home for more than say ten years, and you are half way through a 20 year mortgage, your percentage of equity is actually rising.
there is a tangible difference between people who are simply riding the wave of rising home values, and those who have some skin in the game. rising home values provide no benefit to homeowners, in fact falling home values actually help the long term homeowner. why? their percent of ownership actually increases. i have paid 100k on a 200k house and the value falls to 150K, i am now closer to paying off my mortgage.
put that in your pipe alan greenspan.
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A sub-prime crisis in private equity?
[Read the article: The best subprime headline ever]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The subprime mortgage crisis isn't the cause of our problems, but for the time being take note. Probably the most interesting thing I read today was an article about Jefferson County, Ala., which is facing bankruptcy over a sewer revenue bond that went bad. The size and scope eclipses the former Orange County, CA. bankruptcy, and the governor has said there is no legal basis on which the state can intervene.
Also note that Citigroup will cut down on it's mortgage and equity line business, and any loans it cannot sell. I thought that was how we got into this mess?
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23449569-details/Stand+by+for+new+subprime+crisis/article.do
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Carol Lam Redux?
[Read the article: The tragic fall of Eliot Spitzer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This has some chilling parallels to former AG Carol Lam's case against the San Diego City Councilmen who reportedly took bribes from a strip club owner. The FBI wiretapped Zucchett for several years, built a case, (one of the council members died before he went to trial), and the jury returned a guilty verdict. Then the judge threw out the case, calling the evidence prejudicial. Carol Lam promised to to retry the two, but then she was gone, and Zucchett won a counter suit. The case was never brought up again. While a city council member is generally considered small fish, Zucchett was deputy mayor, and the sitting mayor was under a cloud, and eventually resigned. Zucchett was replaced with a pro-business candidate. The mayors race turned in favor of the Republicans, after a local favorite actually won the election as a write in candidate but was disqualilfied on a technicality. The head of a local school district became state party chairman, (close friend of Grover Norquist).
What was the FBI doing wiretapping a guy for two years, gathering flimsy evidence that wouldn't hold up in court? Some think the strip club owners were turning tricks as part of a plea bargain, but that was never substantiated. There was no way to be sure if Lam was pursuing the council members on behalf of the FBI, or the other way around. Meanwhile Duke Cunningham was doing his thing. If this pattern holds don't be surprised if all these allegations turn out to be baseless, or at the very least useless in a court of law, but then perhaps exacting political change is the real motive here?
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The perfect segueway to self absorption
[Read the article: My San Francisco buzz]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Nicely done Garrison. The Midwestern shut in, self absorbed by necessity, joins the West Coast children of the movement. Lattes over laptops? Chestnuts roasting? In measuring the generation gap you get the feeling that the older generation is doing all the work, perhaps because we are always locked in that winter of our minds. Honestly, belonging to this group joined at the collective hip doesn't work for everything. I was at the racetrack, and saw a flock of these young people. I made contact and we tried to talk horses, but the horse player is an iron-assed loner, which is a suitable description of a lot of occupations, which used to be important, especially writer. Perhaps this is why so much of the stuff that fills the small presses and magazines is written in the first person. There's a showdown coming in the arts, (all the arts) when the artists of this generation bump up against the limits of a self pandering love affair with the merely repetitive. (I was too self absorbed to write another self absorbed piece). Then like many generations, the 30's comes to mind, art will become counterpoint to life. We all know how the 30's turned out, and art and life (for reasons independent economists understand) will become mutually antagonistic to themselves and each other.
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Pay For Your Pizza, rich f__ker!!
[Read the article: Economists surprised consumers aren't superhuman]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Rich f__kers aren't paying for their pizzas!? I find that way too far out to believe. These are economically savvy people. You put that pizza on the credit card, when the credit card is full you pull a refi and consolidate. One of the nicest homes in my neighborhood (middle to lower middle class, SoCa semirural) went into foreclosure, the owners bailed, and last night a bill collector called us to see if we knew anything about their whereabouts. hmmm.
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Don't change horses, period
[Read the article: The Twittering of Ben Bernanke]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It may seem presumptious, but I predict that Bernanke will serve a long term as Fed chairman, only because the desire to turn over leadership is at a low. There is an article today calling McCain the third term of Bush. Hell, let Bush run and I guarantee you he will get more votes.
What is the point? Once you get there, no one wants to get rid of you? The only decent replacements are your children or your spouse? Being born is half the battle?
What is with this new aristocracy? As long as Bernanke isnt' client 1 through 8 he will serve a long time, just about as long as you have to stand in a soup line when the economy crashes. If today's world was in place in the 1930's Hoover would have served three terms. Mistakes? Who cares, don't change horses, period.
I know you're thinking, what about Obama? Well, he ain't in the White House yet, and the worse things get, the more his change message will send the voters into apoplexy.