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Moral: If you want to cheat people out of their money and get away with it, work for Goldman Sachs.
- Nemo
"You and I are getting stuck with these inflated loans, via Fannie and Freddie," [Real estate appraiser Todd Lackner] said.
Don't let China get wind of this.
Turd?
I doubt that the GSEs will even care. This is small potatoes, unless there are a lot more of these cases. Sad.
Obama allowing travel, money transfers to Cuba
reptillian (member) wrote on Mon, 04/13/2009 - 3:43pm.
I doubt that the GSEs will even care. This is small potatoes, unless there are a lot more of these cases. Sad.
What is that saying??? One bad apple spoils the whole mortgage backed security.
Speaking of GS:
"How Goldman Sachs was at the center of the oil trading fiasco that bankrupted pipeline giant Semgroup."
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0413/096-sachs-semgroup-goldman-goose-...
1 friend had 200k saved up.....he was almost gonna buy a house in torrance worth 600k, but actually got outbid (who in the right mind takes an overbid with low downpayment over a bit lower bid with higher payment...people these days), so he got lucky. and I've been showing him charts like this one:
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-housing-chart-thats-worth-1000-words-...
to discourage him.
another friend told me he put in an offer for a north hollywood house ($400k) right before yesterday....and he's still got his old house (low $200k)! He tells me his wife and him make enough to cover the mortgages for a year if they can't sell the old one. I asked him what happens if he or his wife gets fired (he just had a massive layoff in his internet company), he shrugs. Luckily, the house failed the foundation test for contractor, and I showed him charts
Another friend wants to buy a house near manhattan beach. I showed him the charts, and now he's gonna wait a year.
One more friend who doesn't know his $330 las vegas home is now $150k with comps. I told him to walk away, since he just got fired from his internet company. He's weighing the options
Re: Oregon (and squirrels, which as I understand it are always on-topic)
Spokane parks to detonate squirrels
- Nemo
It saddens me that outright fraud on this scale pales in comparison to the losses due to stupidity, bad underwriting, failing to enforce existing laws, and deliberately lax regulations.
Scrooge;
You seem to know at least two people who have been laid off from Internet companies recently. I'm wondering what sort of jobs they had and what the companies did. E.g sales vs engineering, and adservers vs. content vs. shopping vs. whatever. Thx.
Don't be mean to the squirrels, use this humane version of a Dyson. http://www.c00lstuff.com/334/Prairie_dogs_be_gone/
Then, take them somewhere that people or predatory birds might actually want them.
Nemo: They might wish they'd kept those rodents if the supply chain breaks.
Speaking of GM....
Why does a Yugo have a rear-window defroster?
To keep your hands warm while you push it.
"Spokane parks to detonate squirrels" - Nemo
Oh, good grief. How much trouble could the squirrels possibly be causing? It sounds like the parks employees have a bit too much time on their hands.
Besides, they may be destroying an important future food source.
as ac has said time and time again, its not the speculation that is the issue its the easy access to credit.... this story is the same...
sure; one friend works for shopzilla, and another friend works for expedia. they're both in engineering, although their sales department suffered heavy losses as well.
Although, Spokane is in Washington. The other Washington.
scone did you see the "Oregon Unemployment Rate Ties Record High in 60+ Years" post today...
Stress Tests: Who Will Take the Fall?
To view our impartial assessment, please visit:
Re: detonating squirrels
"The machine is called the Rodenator Pro. It pumps propane and oxygen into the tunnels of squirrels, then sends an electric spark that causes an explosion."
I saw a movie about something similar. The only benefit was that it helped Danny Noonan sink a putt and win the game.
"another friend works for expedia"
----------
The reported layoffs for Expedia were small.
http://www.fuckedstartups.com/2009/04/08/more-layoffs-coming-to-expediac...
What are the odds that you'd know one of the victims, versus the odds that the reported numbers are... misleading?
"Scrooge McDuck wrote on Mon, 04/13/2009 - 3:49pm.
1 friend had 200k saved up.....he was almost gonna buy a house in torrance worth 600k, but actually got outbid (who in the right mind takes an overbid with low downpayment over a bit lower bid with higher payment...people these days), so he got lucky. and I've been showing him charts like this one:"
I grew up in torrance. My parents still live there and there are a few foreclosures on their street now.
One of my idiot friends from middle school bought a house "because it was near his church" for 600k in december. I was telling him , just wait itll get cheaper, but he was like "but its the perfect house for us". Another idiot bought a 560k townhouse in santa clara that is 1200 sq feet in mid 2007. His reason "if i didn't buy now i'd never get a chance". Oddly both my idiot friends who keep buying houses even with other friends telling them not to are school teachers who think they are "safe" for life (of course their pension fund just blew up). I suppose thats in contrast to most of my other friends who still live at home in their late 20s.
Anyway, his mortgage broker was his friends mom. I'm wondering if they will be friends still when his house is 400k in a year.
Torrance oddly has gotten super expensive. My parents firsth ouse was a 2 bedroom place that they paid $325k for in 1989. Then there was a recession and it was worth $220k . I checked zillow last year on it and it was $800k (they had since upgraded though). Granted 2 bedrooms were added and its got an unusuall large plot of land, when they sold it with those 2 extra bedrooms in 2000 it was maybe 450k.
It was an ancient house too, did not even have 3 prong outlets.
The one thing you can tell about the state of Torrance in general is walking into the del amo mall. It used to be one of the largest malls in the country and probably still is. They are trying to convert it to an "outdoor" mall and about 1/4 of it has been turned into that with upscale places like lucky strikes. Inside though, you can see lots of "clearance" sales, and half the food court has closed (even places that had been there for 15-20 years).
HAving grown up there (and having visited in mid march) it is sad to see that place crumbling like that. The linens and things across the street is still unoccupied and the mall is starting to look very "dated" as the developers who own it are not really repainting it or anything.
I have never owned a house, but I would figure it would not be wise to buy when the stores around the area are closing and people are unemployed. Also just comparing socal to the bay area, socal seems much more depression like. My brother lost his job, and is working at subway part time . And his subway is about to close. People arent even buying $5 footlongs in torrance anymore.
I miss Tanta.
How is it humane to blow up squirrels?
Whoever said small potatoes, agreed. But you have to say it like Hyman Roth.
This is a sideshow distraction from the much greater fraud that is the U.S. economy.
indeed 
All I know is I am getting sick and tired of working and paying taxes so the fraud can be continued into perpetuity. I am an enabler, aiding the fraud by sending tax dollars.
Torrance prices isn't low enough yet. Hard working families should not have to pay 600k for a house that is just in a decent neighborhood. It's not like it has views of the ocean or mountain or anything; it's just 10 minute drives from the beach. And Torrance (for that matter, Beverly Hills) is only 10-15 minutes drive away from the bad neighborhoods. That's why I keep telling people that LA will be the last to fall....and man will it fall hard.
In other news, several of the people I know who got laid off late last year now have new jobs or job offers. I gave a stunned congratulations to someone who just got a high paying job at Citi. Luckily, he doesn't know that I blog regularly about Citi's problems.
I have a job offer too. This after spending a lot of effort getting my own consulting practice restarted. Lots of good things about it, but I am checking into whether I can buy and sell bonds on my own account without preapproval. I like looking at my pc, saying "who is this idiot?" and buying something immediately. The idiots who do discretionary sales at a panic price on a downgrade are already paying for my kids' college, and I don't have kids yet. I would also like to thank all of the institutional investors whose funds have rules requiring them to liquidate quickly when a bond drops below a certain rating.
You're lucky you grew up in Torrance (I lived in Hawthorne).
You're already skilled in dodging bullets.
That Forbes piece on the oil squeeze by GS, C, and Merril is interesting reading. Thanks for the link.
This entire fiasco has turned into an honor killing of the American middle class.
So Michael Morgan of goldmansachs666.com is now suing Goldman Sachs:
http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/04/david-v-goliath-round-0.html
Yes, thanks for the oil squeeze link.
some investor guy (member) wrote;
"I have a job offer too. This after spending a lot of effort getting my own consulting practice restarted. Lots of good things about it, but I am checking into whether I can buy and sell bonds on my own account without preapproval."
If you have your consulting practice restarted, a job would have to be pretty darned good to give it up. One nice thing about consulting is that your customers are unlikely to all go BK at once, while with a job...
From the GS oil trading link:
Goldman says only that any allegations of oil price manipulation are "without foundation."
If it was untrue, GS would have said so. "Without foundation" means someone can't prove it. Big difference.
George Orwell envisioned a future dominated by a government organization called the Ministry of Love that intrusively monitors the actions of its citizens, political nonsense that spews forth from massive TVs, and songs that are written by computers.
"Spokane parks to detonate squirrels" - Nemo
Bill Murray should sue for copyright infringement!
BTW: Anybody else having trouble re-logging in to the new comments?
JP
SM Landlord,
It's a difficult decision, but I think I will probably take the offer. In lieu of higher fees, I got equity shares from a couple of clients. Those might be worth a lot, or nothing.
I've been on my own before. I've had months where I earned six figures. I've had other months where I was either getting new clients or creating something new and earned nothing. There is a rather large potential client that I hadn't yet convinced to work with me.
The new company is pretty stable, doing decently well, especially in this economy.
test?
Is the game-plan for the powers that be to clamp down on the internet, once the last newspaper goes the way of the Dodo?
Tv & Radio are the perfect vehicles for a one-way state of affairs. as they employ just a few hundred people to slant the news how the majordomos see fit, to hundreds of millions of people.
A not so brave new world...
somewhat OT - so my vegan sister was visting...asked me why I tolerated the squirrels having their way on the bird feeders and I told her I was fattening them up for harvest...so I called my bro - in Louisiana - he me I should feed them apples as it makes their meat sweeter, YMMV
CR said: Ask Wall Street what happens when they push back loans to the small lenders - they just close up shop.
Wall Street clandestinely founded, ran, and abandoned many of the small originators. The chains of ownership was deliberately tenuous, but the data servers had direct connections to the NY mainframes to deposit the fees in real time. If an originator got bad press, no problem, it was cut off and cast out to die like one of Sauron's orcs -- there were plenty more to plunder the hapless villagers. The corruption, fraud, and protection were all precisely planned, and vertically integrated. Any who think this system can be reformed have no idea what the system is.
scone did you see the "Oregon Unemployment Rate Ties Record High in 60+ Years" post today... -nades
Thanks nades, I've been out and about. 12% is about what our local economists have been predicting, based on the boom and bust cycles we have seen in the past. But the doom is not evenly distributed-- the Bend and Jackson county areas are very bad indeed, while Portland and Salem are doing better. Basically the areas that got very bubbly are doing badly on unemployment, both construction, and manufacturing related to construction, e.g., Pozzi windows and doors. Also, our horticulture industry is hurting somewhat-- sod, grass seed, landscape plants, etc. are obviously related to construction. Other stuff, like paper manufacturing, are getting killed, but they were on the way out anyway, the handwriting on the wall and all that. This recession just pushed them over.
There are some bad parts of torrance. Its not even 10-15 minutes from bad areas though admittedly the city is pretty big. THe harbor gateway and carson and narbonne are right there.
The post office in north torrance has 2 inch thick bullet proof glass. The only place i've seen that regularly is in oakland, and fast food places.
And yeah like the other guy said, 600k for a house in torrance is still ridiculous. I am saving my money so maybe in 2-3 years I can buy up someones foreclosed place down there.....
Mike Morgan has sued Goldman. See goldmansachs666.com
Excellent sushi Bar 182St and Western next to the Japanese Bakery, its all good!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sen Nari Sushi Restaurant
Neighborhoods: Torrance, Harbor Gateway
18220 S Western Ave
Gardena, CA 90248
(310) 324-1970
"he corruption, fraud, and protection were all precisely planned"
----------------
Many of the subprime lenders were designed to be disposable and non-refundable, kind of like crash bumpers that fold up instantly when subjected to a little pressure.
Mike Morgan took on Lennar a few years ago, so he has earned his stripes. Way to go Mike Morgan.
Besides, they may be destroying an important future food source.
Just tenderizing and properly aging.
my favorite is actually lucille's BBQ in torrance 
for sushi, I usually go into West LA.
How is it that not one financial insider has spilled the beans about how cooked the books are?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123966400746315067.html#mod=testMod
President Barack Obama is expected to tap Fannie Mae Chief Executive Herb Allison to head the government's $700 billion financial-rescue program, people familiar with the matter say.
Allison is also a Merrill Lynch alum.
More on the Rodenator. I wonder if we can use them on banksters
Apparently, it is difficult to find someone who actually wants to handle the TARP program.
I've heard there are some hole in the wall sushi places in lomita near torrance that charge $400 a person or something. Never been to them but I've heard some people think its worth it. Of course you might just be eating off a woman, or it might be a brothel who knows.
Arbitrage Macht Frei writes:
How is it that not one financial insider has spilled the beans about how cooked the books are?
It is not all coercion and complicity, although those are important.
Part of it is compartmentalization. Very few, even at the firms we love to hate, have access to the real picture. I have a close friend who is head of a major IT branch at [either Fanny or Freddie]. He never had any idea what the criminal inner circle was up to. He always told us how pristine were their books, and how well hedged were their investments. He rolled up terrabytes of numbers, and had no idea.
An important part is tribal culture. If you look at the Israeli military in the 1960s, you find a shocking lack of formal classification guidance, need-to-know restrictions, etc. It was obvious to all in the tribe who else was in. They spoke freely to each other, and next to nothing leaked out.
Get used to not being among the Chosen People (not the Jews, the Harvard Ring bunch)!
"Apparently, it is difficult to find someone who actually wants to handle the TARP program."
The SBA loan program is also stalled, because the securitizers don't want to be subject to TARP restrictions.
This means Kash n Kari is on the job market.
As usual CR - You amaze me!!
"An important part is tribal culture"
------------
And probably exacerbated by the "free market" / "self-interest only" trends of the past couple of decades. You'd have to know a scheme existed, positive that it was detrimental (which probably most of the participants avoided in one way or another), and believe that exposing the scheme was possible and beneficial.
That's a tall order for population of "got mine, too bad on you" kiddies.
I suggested to Mike Morgan send GS a cease and desist letter giving them a deadline of April 17th to respond.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Learn the 7TH Amendment maggot! That's how you restrain the government.
Red Beckman - Fully Informed Jury
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7385583011526915030&hl=en
Singapore GDP figures
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aGXzG6.3V8vo
The Southeast Asian economy may shrink between 6 percent and 9 percent this year, more than a January forecast for a contraction of as much as 5 percent, the trade ministry said in a statement today. That's the third reduction in the government's forecast in the past four-and-a-half months.
Gross domestic product declined an annualized 19.7 percent last quarter from the previous three months, after shrinking 16.4 percent between October and December, the trade ministry said today. The contraction was more than double the 9.6 percent drop predicted by economists in a Bloomberg survey.
Kash n Kari - He now has a lifetime pension of 50M./year. Access means privelage and this means mullu!
Next time your are driving down 190th notice the large Toyota headquarters. Several sushi bars in the area cater to the Japanese business folks that are looking for great local sushi. No loud rock and roll music or drunk white folks acting stupid like most West LA hangouts but very authentic Japanese style sushi.
I honestly don't know that I've ever seen a serious/non-spoof economics chart with an almost vertical upwards slope.
So from an unemployment standpoint, it's going to look like an "r" shaped depression.
Wow.
homedad43
We should help him out. Give him some suggestions for his next job.
I'll have to try; the West LA sushi places I hit (Sasabune, Sushi Zo, urasawa) are usually quiet as well. It's all about the fish.
It;s going to blow... ; ~05/05 AIG will host a conference call releasing multibillion losses roughly equal to reported earnings for the several largest money centers (former IB.) The national outrage will beat another 60 year record. Due to tremendous negative opinions and demands, government will be forced to finally kill dinosaurs and life (economy) will go on.
How else could they make money while the credit quality for most types of loan portfolios deteriorated by huge % since February?
It's going to blow - DUCK & COVER.
What are there, about a dozen AIGs out there, danger UXB!
"West LA sushi places" : i recommend Tokyo Curry on Sawtelle & Olympic. (it's Japanese "corner", they have ~ 5 different places + store) Their beef cutlet & curry is out of this world (plus will set you back less < $15 including a beer. )
I only recently learned that Japanese kitchen has so many incredible dishes beyond sushi.
Ugh, HR would like to see first thing tomorrow morning. Another one bites the dust.
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I did my duty, today. I mailed in the 1st qtr 2009 estimated tax payment. I sent them one dollar, $1.00.
recommend the the monk fish liver..they make fresh!
Mr. McDuck, if you regularly hit up Urasawa, you are no scrooge, my friend.
I'm looking for the video of Rick Santelli vs. Steve Leisman fight today on CNBC. It was great live. Anybody know where I can find it?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Learn the 7TH Amendment maggot! That's how you restrain the government.
Red Beckman - Fully Informed Jury
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7385583011526915030&hl=en
RE: the Santelli v Liesman video Here you go:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1091458088&play=1
-K
You guys are a barrel of laughs...I always know where to go for late-night reading.
Hmm...could use an evening snack about now..."squirrel" sounds tasty. And affordable.
It's not easy to beat the bot.
- Nemo