The Coming Collapse of the Real Estate Market
by ilene - October 16th, 2010 12:54 am
Here’s another great article on the frauds at the heart of the mortgage and banking sectors. – Ilene
The Coming Collapse of the Real Estate Market
Courtesy of Charles Hugh Smith, Of Two Minds
The system for financing mortgages and regulating that financing has failed, completely and utterly. The mortgage and real estate markets are now in collapse.
Yesterday I wrote about how positive feedback loops lead to collapse. Welcome to the U.S. housing and mortgage markets. As I have documented here numerous times, the entire U.S. mortgage market has already been socialized: 99% of all mortgages are backed by the three FFFs--Fannie, Freddie and FHA--and the Federal Reserve has purchased a staggering $1.2 trillion in mortgage-backed assets in the past year or so to maintain the illusion that there is a market for mortgage-backed securities.
There is, but only because the mortgages are backed by the Federal Government and propped up by the Federal Reserve.
The mortgage market is completely dependent on government guarantees and quasi-Government purchases of securitized mortgages. If the mortgage market were truly socialized, then the Central State would own the banks which originate, service and own the mortgages.
But then the private owners and managers of the "too big to fail" banks would not be reaping hundreds of billions in profits and bonuses. And since the banking industry has effectively captured the processes of governance (that is, Congress and the various regulatory agencies), then what we have is a system of private ownership of the revenue and profits generated by the mortgage industry and public absorption of the risks and losses.
Could anything be sweeter for the big banks? No.
The incestuous nature of the system is breathtaking. The Fed creates the credit which enables the mortgages, the Treasury guarantees the mortgages via Fannie, Freddie and FHA, the Fed buys the mortgages ($1.3 trillion in mortgages are on their balance sheet) and the private banks collect the fees and profits.
One of the core tenets of the Survival+ critique is the State/Financial Plutocracy partnership. There are many examples of this partnership (crony capitalism in which the State is the "enforcer" which collects the national income and distributes it to its private-sector cronies), but perhaps none so blatant and pure as the mortgage/banking sector.
But now the entire legal basis for that privatized-profits, socialized losses system has dissolved. The foreclosure scandal…
 Email This Post
|
 Twitter
|
LinkedIn
|
 del.icio.us
|
Google+ |
Non-Farm Payrolls: US Economy Doing a Great Imitation of a Developing Double Dip
by ilene - October 9th, 2010 1:43 am
Non-Farm Payrolls: US Economy Doing a Great Imitation of a Developing Double Dip
Courtesy of JESSE’S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
The September Non-Farm Payrolls report was not good news.
This is a remarkably unnatural US economic recovery, with gold, silver, and other key commodities soaring in price, the near end of the Treasury curve hitting record low interest rates, and stocks steadily rallying as employment slumps and the median wage continues to decline.
The US is a Potemkin Village economy with the appearance of prosperity hiding the rot of fraud, oligarchy, and political corruption.
As monetary power and wealth is increasingly concentrated in fewer hands, the robust organic nature of the economy and the middle class continues to deteriorate.
This is what is happening, and monetary policy cannot affect it. The change must come from the source, which is in political and financial reform. And the powerful status quo is dead set against it.
The long term trend of employment has not yet turned lower which would make the second dip ‘official’ from our point of view. But the prognosis does not look good.
| Email This Post
|
Twitter
|
LinkedIn
|
del.icio.us
|
Google+ |
Bought and Paid For
by ilene - October 10th, 2009 9:04 pm
Bought and Paid For
Courtesy of Washington’s Blog
Lobbyists from the financial industry have paid hundreds of millions to Congress and the Obama administration. They have bought virtually all of the key congress members and senators on committees overseeing finances and banking.
This is easy to confirm in black-and-white. See for yourself: here, here, here, here, here and here.
Manhattan Institute senior fellow Nicole Gelinas says:
The too-big-to-fail financial industry has been good to elected officials and former elected officials of both parties over its 25-year life span
And economic historian Niall Ferguson says:
Guess which institutions are among the biggest lobbyists and campaign-finance contributors? Surprise! None other than the TBTFs [too big to fails].
No wonder two powerful congressmen said that banks run Congress.
No wonder two leading IMF officials, the former Vice President of the Dallas Federal Reserve, and the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City have all said that the United States is controlled by an oligarchy.
With the exception of a handful couple of Congress members who have the American people’s interest in mind, Congress is bought and paid for.
Note: A friend on the Hill made an important point to me by email.
The story isn’t just that a lot of members are bought and paid for, it’s that some aren’t.
| Email This Post
|
Twitter
|
LinkedIn
|
del.icio.us
|
Google+ |
German
Spanish
French
Italian
Portuguese
Japanese
Korean
Russian
Chinese
Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the Favorites backup site
(
