Loading ...Great video, the guy could be a tenter. He talks about everything we discuss..And the Thomas Jefferson quote about not allowing banks to control the currency or the children will end up being homeless seems to be coming home to roost at least in this LA area.. Tent cities from the subprime fallout :
by Stephen Leeb, Im reading that book right now. Only part way through due to distractions. Seem to me whith China Indias growing ecomomy, the need for oil energy, prices on the rise, people demanding more pay or needing it, housing crises, jobs being lost, how can inflation be curbed by the Feds without depressing the economy. I guess the Feds did raise intrest rates before to slow a ecomony that appeared to be growing too fast for them and inflation. Hurt people then, and don’t think they had subprime problem, but people couldn’t sell and the prices were stagnent or went down. If any of you think inflation is over don’t be fooled, it’s only just beginning. This thing isn’t going to play itself out over night. JMHO
Fully, just one (AEM) of many we can plug into chart for comparison sake, including most if not all of those in the PIGS Index. Yep, one for the ages. And at our TENT, we were on the right side!
JBI
HOMEOWNERS NEED HELP, NOT WALL STREET
CONSUMER GROUPS DECRY BEAR STEARNS BAILOUT WHILE FORECLOSURES SOAR
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Bailing out Bear Stearns Cos. won’t address the falling home prices and tide of foreclosures that will continue to plague the economy, some observers said Monday.
Consumers remain in an environment where nothing substantial has been done to prevent foreclosures, said Jim Carr, chief operating officer of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. The Bear Stearns deal highlights the need for faster action on legislation to enable the widespread modification of bad loans, consumer advocates say, and the importance of improving related asset quality.
The Federal Reserve is backing J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.’s bargain-basement buy of Bear, which was the second-largest underwriter of mortgage-backed securities — a move that some say is “bailing out” Bear.
Kurt Eggert, a law professor at Chapman University’s School of Law in Orange, Calif., and a former member of the Fed’s consumer advisory council, said the Bear deal shows the “growing disconnect between the Bush administration’s willingness to help Wall Street and its willingness to aid the homeowners facing foreclosure.”
A plan to reduce foreclosures should be the top priority, he said, as defaults and foreclosures have been at the root of the subprime crisis.
“Of all the investment houses, Bear Stearns was the one most deserving of going under because of the subprime crisis, both for its ownership of a subprime lender and its work packaging those loans,” Eggert said. “However, the Feds are doing more to help Bear Stearns than the borrowers facing foreclosure because of Bear Stearns actions.”
Addressing one financial institution at a time is not a solution to the economy’s woes, and there needs to be more focus on addressing the quality of assets that institutions are holding, NCRC’s Carr said.
“There has to be a plan that addresses the loans that are increasingly upside down,” Carr said. “Every day that we wait more and more people’s home loans become upside down because housing prices continue to fall.”
Home prices fell 8.9% in 2007, the largest decline in the Case-Shiller home price index in at least 20 years, according to a recent reading of the index. Foreclosure filings were up 60% in February from the prior year, but down 4% from January, according to online marketplace RealtyTrac, which forecast increasing foreclosure activity.
Danilo Pelletiere, research director at the National Low Income Housing Coalition, said there has not been enough attention and action on helping low-income homeowners in trouble.
“The folks that are very likely to need to be bailed out are those that were brought into homeownership and invested all their wealth,” Pelletiere said. “There’s a strong push not to have the bailout focus on those people.”
Far-reaching proposals needed
Some homeowner assistance programs are already in action, such as FHASecure, which is limited by eligibility requirements, and Hope Now, a voluntary alliance. But those programs have had a limited impact, and far-reaching legislation is needed to prevent the “foreclosure epidemic” underway, said Allen Fishbein, director of credit and housing policy with the Consumer Federation of America.
He supports foreclosure prevention legislation that is under consideration in Congress, including a proposal that would enable bankruptcy judges to revise mortgage contracts, helping homeowners make their payments.
“Bankruptcy reform is direct and does not involve any bailout at all,” Fishbein said. “There are some lawmakers who think that normal market forces are going to correct this problem. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their homes while Congress has fiddled deciding whether to enact a government solution.”
Some say those who have made their mortgage payments shouldn’t end up subsidizing those who haven’t.
“Under the circumstances, the most appropriate federal response would be to propose policies aimed at restoring personal responsibility and financial independence,” according to a Heritage Foundation statement.
In his Saturday radio address, President Bush said the government can help “responsible homeowners weather this rough patch,” but that some actions could have unintended consequences and hurt some homeowners.
“For example, one proposal would give bankruptcy courts the authority to reduce mortgage debts by judicial decree,” Bush said. “This would make it harder to afford a home in the future, because banks would charge higher interest rates to cover this risk.”
The president also opposes proposals that would “artificially prop up home prices,” reasoning that delaying a correction would prolong problems.
“We are focused on helping a targeted group of homeowners — those who have made responsible buying decisions and could avoid foreclosure with a little help,” Bush said.
Borrowers at risk
Looking to “stem the significant rise in mortgage foreclosures,” Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., has offered a plan to enable the Federal Housing Administration to insure and guarantee refinanced mortgages that have been significantly written down by mortgage holders and lenders. That plan would help refinance 1 million to 2 million loans for at-risk borrowers, according to Frank.
A plan from NCRC calls for a three-year program called “HELP Now” that would see the Treasury Department buying loans, including those held in securitized pools, at a steep discount. Loan pools purchased by the federal government would be sold back to the private market after being discounted and modified with lower principals and interest rates.
Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said a number of proposals that are geared toward helping homeowners facing foreclosure will actually benefit banks and other holders of bad mortgage debt — institutions that could “earn tens of billions of dollars at taxpayer expense.” He added that owning can be much more expensive than renting.
“It’s really infuriating for me that we pushed low- and moderate-income people to buy overpriced houses with really bad mortgages,” he said. “And even now, after it’s proven so disastrous, you have politicians that still can’t take two minutes and think for a second that maybe it’s not a good idea for everyone to be homeowner regardless of what price they’re buying at.”
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Too mad, too angry, too sick.
Best I make no comment.
JBI
Thanks for posting that.
So Goldman put the “Ape Woman” out to pasture. I wonder who’ll be able to B.S. as good as she did?
By now, everyone following the markets knows the major news of the day (and yesterday):
JP Morgan Closes Deal on Bear Stearns
Associated Press
Sunday, March 16, 2008
NEW YORK — JPMorgan Chase said Sunday it will acquire rival Bear Stearns in a deal valued at $236.2 million, a stunning collapse for one of the world’s largest and most venerable investment banks.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. said the $2 a share, all-stock deal has received the required approvals from the federal government and the Federal Reserve. Bear Stearns shares closed Friday at $30 a share.
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080316/ap_on_bi_ge/jpmorgan_bear_stearns
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In my last Midas I opined that Bear CEO Alan Schwartz was a liar re the true condition of his firm. Bear closed Friday around $30. He lied in an attempt to shore up confidence, the name of the game on Wall Street, as his firm and net worth was imploding:
*Schwarz owned 1,026,680 of Bear shares as of 21-Dec-07
*But managed to sell enough shares last quarter to rake in the following…
21-Dec-07 SCHWARTZ ALAN D
Officer 161,662 Direct Option Exercise at $0 per share. N/A 21-Dec-07
Officer 67,900 Direct Sale at $89.01 per share. $6,043,779
Midas has made much over the years how JP Morgan is the Fed’s bank and was instrumental in The Gold Cartel’s implementation of the gold price suppression scheme. That closeness was revealed in the Bear deal, which is evident to me for two specific reasons:
*The $30 billion backstop by the Fed of the mortgage paper purchased by Morgan.
*Morgan’s share price was up $2 this morning. How many times have you ever seen the share price of an acquirer go UP around 10% on an announcement like this? … Not too many.
Surprisingly, there was a fair amount of comment yesterday and today about the “Moral Hazard” created by these constant bailouts. Naturally, the importance of such was trivialized in this case, as it is in all the other specific cases. This Moral Hazard concept has caught a good deal of traction, but only as a GENERAL concept. Meanwhile, little has changed … once again the powers in New York and Washington have sacrificed the future to save their own bacon.
Financial markets were in chaos this morning. All the Asian stock markets were lower, with the Nikkei off 454 to 11,787. During the Asian trading hours gold roared to $1032 and silver soared to $21.34. However, par for the course, as we came in to the New York trading hours, the markets began to miraculously stabilize… that is if you believe in the Tooth Fairy. Commodities such as gold, silver, oil, cotton, and copper were trashed … the dollar began to rally … and the DOW quickly erased early losses to go positive. Well, what do you know … “Everything is fine” again in Stepfordville.
None of this predictable market action was a surprise to most of us who live on Planet GATA. It was all telegraphed in advance…
Bush to meet with U.S. financial policymakers
Sat Mar 15, 2008 2:01pm EDT
President George W. Bush plans to meet on Monday with top U.S. financial policymakers, the White House said, at a time of increased strains in credit markets and fears of a recession.
The White House said on Saturday Bush will meet members of the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, and a spokeswoman said Bush will get a status report on the markets….
The working group is led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and also includes Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as well as the heads of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed1/idUSN1545788520080315?sp=true
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Can ANYONE tell me what the head of the SEC and CFTC can do to calm markets, or give them “confidence?” The only thing I can think of is that the SEC and CFTC make sure the PPT and Gold Cartel are able to operate with impunity.
Paulson Says He’ll `Do What It Takes’ to Calm Markets
March 16 (Bloomberg) — Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the U.S. will “do what it takes’ to maintain confidence in financial markets and defended the bailout of Bear Stearns Cos. as “the right decision.’
“There’s always a decision to be made to say what’s best for the stability of the marketplace, the orderliness of the marketplace,’ Paulson said in an interview in Washington on the “Fox News Sunday’ television program.
“I think we made the right decision.’
www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aFBRN.LrEcMA&refer=home
-END-
Operative phrase from General “Mr. Market Manipulation” Paulson: “Do what it takes.”
Something has been bugging me for a long time … and it has to do with a nagging feeling I have come across Hank Paulson, the US Secretary of the Treasury, some place in my past. I let it go until last night when I did a Google on him…
What a hoot … Hank Paulson was born on March 28, 1946, two days later than me, which makes us both Aries. We both went to Ivy League schools … myself at Cornell, Paulson to Dartmouth. We both played college football … myself as a wide receiver, Paulson as a lineman … and against each other for 3 years. We both were All Ivy, All East and Honorable mention All American.
That is where the comparison stops. Paulson was Phi Beta Kappa. I made peanut brittle at the School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration. He is Secretary of the Treasury and I am Chairman of GATA, which is challenging his nefarious market rigging drills.
The Cornell/Dartmouth connection/game was always a big deal for me since I was a youngster, as my Dad caught the famous 5th Down pass for Cornell against Dartmouth in 1939, when they were ranked as the number 1 or 2 team in the nation. As many vet Café members know, my dad caught a TD pass to give Cornell the win on the last play of the game. However, the films showed Cornell was given an unwarranted 5th down by Referee Red Friesel. In the only time in collegiate history, Cornell awarded the game to Dartmouth on the following Monday. It had to do with sportsmanship.
Back to Bear Stearns for a bit and something that I intend to touch on in GATA’s Washington conference … and it takes us back to this Moral Hazard investment issue. While my analysis is simplistic, I believe the gold price suppression scheme was THE lynchpin for the financial market, mortgage related excesses and nightmare economic problems of the day. Had gold been allowed to trade freely the past decade, the price would be double what it is today (this would only have put it at its inflation adjusted all-time high price, like so many other commodities). Based on a historical relationship between gold and US interest rates, our interest rates would have been much higher than they were and have been. These higher rates, or more expensive money, would have slowed down the deluge into the mortgage related arena … much of the surge based on the low cost of money in the US. A rising, freely traded gold price (a barometer of US financial health well being) would have sent warning signals that something was amiss … something which needed to be addressed by more prudent investment behavior. Instead, that barometer was disabled, until recently.
Fascism is capitalism in decay” … Vladimir Lenin
Not a very happy St. Pat’s Day…huh.
It seems that we as a culture and society are caught in a downward spiral…nothing works anymore!
The simplest things become difficult and more frustrating as time passes.
Other than that…can’t complain..someone might be listening.
I am not off the air yet. In regards to the 321 post ..Our own Govt. has waged war against us so what the heck is the difference if it goes ahead and starts one with Iran.
Just another staw on my back. The so called logistics expert that was responsible for getting my oversea container here on time was a fool. Now to correct it I pay 2,000 more than anticipated ,and the total job of an entire house and extra appliances is squeezed into 7 hours tomorrow. Nobody anywhere can perform as they say. The tent shines as a star in the sky against a backdrop of mediocrity…spit..spit
TOKYO, March 18 (Reuters - 8:09 PM) - Japanese stocks rose on Tuesday, a day after falling nearly 4 percent, with battered financials such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group crawling higher. The dollar was holding above its lowest level against the yen in nearly 13 years, but remained vulnerable to more declines on worries about the U.S. financial system, with stock investors keeping a close eye on its moves. At 0004 GMT the benchmark Nikkei .N225 was up 0.9 percent at 11,896.99 and the broader TOPIX was up 0.4 percent at 1,154.36.
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HONG KONG (MarketWatch -8:58 PM) — Asian markets were mostly higher Tuesday, with Japanese shares lifted by bargain buying in beaten-down financial sector stocks such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. Australian shares were unsettled as gains in banks were countered by declines in resource stocks such as BHP Billiton.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 Average gained 1.6% at 11,976.56, after sinking 3.7% in the previous session. The broader Topix index added 0.9% at 1,159.77.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 inched up 0.2% to 5,097.20, after dropping to a low of 5,059.40 earlier in the session. South Korea’s Kospi advanced 0.7% to 1,586.10 and New Zealand’s NZX 50 index slipped 0.2% to 3,424.33.
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ASIA/PACIFIC REGION……..tiny bounces
finance.yahoo.com/intlindices?e=asia
THE AMERICAS…………Brazil’s Bovespa Index leads the region, DOWN 3.19%
finance.yahoo.com/intlindices?e=americas
EUROPE……3% to 5% declines accross the board
finance.yahoo.com/intlindices?e=europe
AFRICA/MIDDLE EAST…..
finance.yahoo.com/intlindices?e=africa
DOW JONES WORLD STOCK INDEX
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AUSSIE GOLD STOCKS……..
THE PRECIOUS METALS…….taking a breather!
www.gold-eagle.com/intra-daykit.html
www.netdania.com/QuoteList.asp
….GOLD’s 300 DMA now at $742.40, RSI over 70 and rising, new target for Spot GOLD now > > > > $1,107.36
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And the US $$$$$$…………
5 DAY, 15 minute BAR chart
tinyurl.com/2voq5s
and
3 YEAR DAILY
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Good evening, EVERYONE.
JBI
17,406,187 . . . . . . . . . . 
I see that the manipulateurs are working on the price of gold tonight as expected…in anticipation of the rise to 1050 after the rate cut announcement. So predictable.
Well IF he wasn’t long Friday just when did Dennis buy the Gold he supposedly sold today? I think the guy is full of it the more I hear him. He was long grains Friday. Must have been some day for him. LOL.
