The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008

tejasmarcos says on Jul 29, 2008, 17:07:

it will only help about 1 in 8, but that is a start. these would be simple "re-casting" refinances if they were not all securitized. banking greed basically led to the mess to begin with. everybody wants to blame the brokers, but that simply is not true.

trying to walk a straight line on sour mash and cheap wine...

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tejasmarcos says on Jul 29, 2008, 17:31:

i'm not sure how the profit works when banks sell foreclosures since they are selling them in some cases for 40 cents on the dollar. the key would be to drop the rate to an affordable level and keep the loan performing (essentially what the plan does). they could even stretch the amortization to 40 years to make up for the front end loss. it would atleast allow the homeowner to stay in the house.

foreclosures hurt everybody...

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tejasmarcos says on Jul 29, 2008, 19:40:

i was talking about the post, but fannie/freddie secured most of the origination debt anyways.

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tejasmarcos says on Jul 30, 2008, 12:29:

loid - i see your point, but what is the end-game? when we hit double digit trillion dollar debt status, what then?

- also, the fannie/freddie bailout won't be the entire 5.3 trillion as the majority of those loans are performing. the real issue for those two entities is reserve fund requirements to cover losses.

LDW - the Dallas economy is not based on expensive oil, although Exxon/Mobile is based in Irving. if anything, we are a services based economy. in terms of the energy sector, natural gas is the big driver in and around the metroplex.

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tejasmarcos says on Jul 30, 2008, 13:57:

LDW - not exactly, but not worth arguing the point. from my personal point of view, construction and real estate has been the main driver for the past 10 years in Dallas, until the recent downturn. this fueled the ancillary services sector including food and retail.

* Houston benefits more from the energy sector than Dallas does. Either way, good debate.

http://www.dallasfed.org/research/pubs/fotexas/fotexas_intro.html

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tejasmarcos says on Jul 30, 2008, 14:32:

houston is slightly higher than dallas. i would say an average of 10-15%. i don't have a clue about calgary. is that where you are from? there is an amazing national park just due west and southwest of calgary, right?

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tejasmarcos says on Jul 31, 2008, 07:23:

texas did not hyper-appreciate like the rest of the country. my little neighborhood did well to squeak a 2-3% increase per year the last 5 years. *there were "pockets" that appreciated as much as 10% a year, but some of those areas are now falling back a little now.

loid - what happens to my greenback when the collapse occurs? should i think about moving $$ out of the bank into stocks, gold, land & hard assets?

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tejasmarcos says on Jul 31, 2008, 08:19:

morphus - home equity loans drove false appreciation. subprime ARM's is what sank the ship.

loid - sounds good, like a horror flic. see you 2nite at 7:30 p.m. if we get there any later, the place will be jam packed. everybody is now here for ColombiaMODA and beginning to arrive for the feria.

a story from today's WSJ regarding the EURO;

Euro-Zone Confidence Dropped Sharply in July
By PAUL HANNON
July 31, 2008; Page A12

LONDON -- Business and consumer confidence in the 15 countries that use the euro weakened sharply in July, adding to evidence of a worsening economic slowdown in Europe.

According to a European Commission survey published Wednesday, the overall measure of economic sentiment in the euro zone fell to 89.5, from 94.8 in June.

It was the largest monthly fall since October 2001, the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., and much larger than the drop to 93.0 that was forecast by economists. The measure now stands at its lowest level since March 2003, indicating that the economy will slow further in the months ahead.


"It was only the latest number in a string of very weak data that confirm that the economy is experiencing a severe downturn," said Aurelio Maccario, an economist at Unicredit in Milan. "It will be very hard to see the return to relatively healthy growth numbers the ECB currently envisages from Q4 onwards."

In a separate survey, GfK NOP found that consumer confidence in Britain was at its weakest since records began in 1974, as the headline measure fell to minus-39 from minus-34 in June. In July of last year, before the credit crunch took hold and when the U.K.'s economic prospects still looked good, the measure stood at minus-6.

"There seems to be little sign of any relief," said Donna Culverwell, a researcher at GfK.

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tejasmarcos says on Jul 31, 2008, 08:44:

i use it for news mainly, since i am not in the market as of yet. see you later on 2nite.

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tejasmarcos says on Jul 31, 2008, 10:46:

correction: cheap money (loans) combined with real estate speculation drove false (hyper) appreciation. home equity loans were the byproduct of that cycle. a large percentage of the home equity loans were used to consolidate higher interest rate credit card debt.

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tejasmarcos says on Jul 31, 2008, 13:45:

that does not sound good. wish i had a crystal ball.


Thomas Jefferson said:

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of our currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and the corporations that will grow up will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.

"The issuing of power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.�

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