Saturday, July 26, 2008

signs of the times-


This post is not as much fun as dirty dishes or guinea fowl; but it's another one where I just can't help gritting my teeth and shaking my head.

Big news?  Front page, NYT?  Golly, the industry based on pandering to the Wall Street Grand Casino staff, is set to tank; there may be $18 Billion less in "bonuses" this year for them to spend on - you, stuff.  There's a cool graph of bonuses- damnedest thing, right after the neo-cons got in, the bonuses started to skyrocket.

Tiny news?  So little you can't find it?  Suicides- caused by foreclosures.  In the "Health" section of ABC news.  Way down there.

One suicide.  Would you wanna get there are hundreds more, that have already happened?  And how many "investigative journalists" are there digging out that story?  ?  It's nice to know, the mortgage company said they were "devastated".

There are times when I don't like the news writers much.

oh, yeah, and the news in the middle- visible, but barely - 2 more national banks were seized; on Friday; just a bit after the Grand Casino closed for the weekend.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The suicide was front page news here in MA. But we're a small state, so I suppose we don't rate as much coverage as other places :P

I'm not sure I understand your comment on the mortgage company saying they were "devastated". I expect the company as a whole wasn't, but surely the people who received the fax, called the police as soon as they received it, and then found out the woman had killed herself, were in fact quite upset.

One thing I found amazing was that apparently the family was behind on payments by 42 months. Huh? I didn't know you could be that far behind and still be living in the house.

There are some strange things going on with that particular family, most of which I expect won't make it into the news soon.

btw, I know it's run by Microsoft, but you might want to add MSNBC.com to your sites to check -- this was front page news for them yesterday. Also, the FDIC takeover of the two banks is still on their front page, under the heading Business. Don't know if it was a headliner on the top half of the page or not, as I haven't been online a lot yesterday/today.

Regardless, I agree that the Balderrama family's plight is probably not a unique event, sadly.

Anonymous said...

Bought or mortgaged any real estate? Trust that the appraiser told the truth about the value of the property?

http://appraisersforum.com/showthread.php?t=141764

This is the kind of story that ought to make it a lot easier for banks to write off -- per the housing bailout bill -- part of the book value of property for people who can't pay their inflated mortgages on property worth less than they owe. Maybe.

Anonymous said...

One quote from that:

"... One of the craziest violations of OTS regulations was underwriting loans based on appraised values well above purchase prices. ... the rationale being that this developer added value to the property just by buying it. This does not satisfy the USPAP and federally accepted definition of market value, however."

That's from the "Doesn't real estate always go up?" years

Lee said...

You know, somehow I still don't feel too much sympathy. When I read the article you linked to, and how some people's half a million dollar bonuses might be cut by as much as thirty percent, my heart really didn't bleed a whole lot.

Sorry. Maybe I'm just a nasty bugger.

I might start feeling sympathetic when the high flyers trade in their Rolexes for fake ones.

It's me said...

We're a relatively small city (70k ish) and in the last two weeks have had two real-estate related suicides.

One was a man involved with "The Shire" - a subdivision based on Lord of the Rings, and the other just a businessman who was said to be losing everything due to bad mortgage deals.

I don't see it ending anytime soon. Our area was the #1 most increased real estate values, and then a couple of quarters later, the (something like) #3 most over-valued RE market.

Scary times ahead.

Jennlala said...

I have never commented but I do want you to know that I have read your blog for quite awhile and do check it everyday. It is very interesting and enlightening and entertaining and educational and so true. And so sad at times. I really enjoy your blog.

Thank You!

Anonymous said...

Yes, I read those other stories in the press, somewhere on line. Now, please report, you started with how many guineas and you have how many now? Photos? Thanks, Greenpa. That's the news I need to get at this site.
Happiness to you and screw Wall Street.