55 responses so far ↓

• Dedo

  Jun 26, 2009 at 10:50 am

  

  @Frances,…..thanks for the link, interesting.
• frances snoot

  Jun 26, 2009 at 11:01 am

  

  @Dedo:
  We studied Vico in a Very interesting class called Intro to Semiotics. Loved it for perspective widening…looks at codes in the world and in language.

  Spooky.How can US savings growth reduce dependence on China? The only possiblity is for .gov to steal the savings. They’re going to steal the money!!! (I do jump to conclusions, but…) here’s the story, what do you think?
  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aome1_t5Z5y8

  Why do I feel like I live in Argentina pre-2002?
• Dedo

  Jun 26, 2009 at 11:07 am

  

  I agree totally,….
• Brandon

  Jun 26, 2009 at 2:10 pm

  

  Americans are finally doing the right thing the with saving and the FED won’t let it happen. I only save my money in gold and silver because I fear the future.
• problemis

  Jun 26, 2009 at 3:53 pm

  

  I shall refer to the American middle class, as AMC denoting the similarity between sniveling attention deficit baby boomers and a defunct brand of odd US automobiles.

  Their biggest talent: Ignoring the reality around them.

  Watch: “Hey AMC, look at that new BMW SUV with surround sound and GPS navigation!”

  See, they took their eyes right off of Wall Street and the Fed ripping them off.

  I shall refer to Alan Greenspan as “Crazy Chester” courtesy of Robbie Robertson of The Band and the great parody video:

  “Take a Load Off Fannie”:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=712kRqri2No

  Will the American middle class snap?

  AMC has not eaten a big enough sh*t sandwich yet…

  1. Wait for the next big round of prime foreclosure thanks to U6 unemployment…

  Remember U3 discards those who run out of unemployment insurance as marginally attached then does not count them as unemployed by U3.

  Well bankers don’t discard your mortgage payment because you are marginally attached, they foreclose.

  From the brain at Calculated Risk:

  “Philly Fed State Coincident Indicators: Widespread Recession”

  http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/06/philly-fed-state-coincident-indicators.html

  2. Increasing home values for the middle class translated into consumption to make up for wages that peaked in relative terms in the early 1970s…

  In other words you middle class yups are paid in inflated “Crazy Chester” dollars and/or Helicopter Ben Bucks and have not been paying to attention to the decline in real wages as usual…

  From the brain at Calculated Risk again:

  “The Housing Wealth Effect?”

  http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/search?updated-max=2009-06-24T08%3A25%3A00-04%3A00

  ” Here we go again on this hotly debated topic: How much do changes in house prices impact consumption?”

  “[W]e estimate that the average homeowner extracts 25 to 30 cents for every dollar increase in home equity.”
  “[T]hese findings lend support to the view that home equity-based borrowing is used for consumption.”

  Falling home equity and underwater boomers makes for a continued collapse in consumer spending.

  3. The massive Alt-A resets starting 2010 that Turbo Timmie’s stress test period seemed to be designed to end before this wave wackes his banking pals on Wall Street:

  From the brain at Dr. Housing Bubble:

  ” The Truth about Option ARMs, Pick-a-Pay Mortgages, and Alt-A Loans:

  Looking at Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and JP Morgan. We are in the Eye of the $469 Billion Toxic Mortgage Hurricane and Silence is not Golden.”

  http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/the-truth-about-option-arms-pick-a-pay-mortgages-and-alt-a-loans-looking-at-wells-fargo-bank-of-america-and-jp-morgan-we-are-in-the-eye-of-the-469-billion-toxic-mortgage-hurricane-and-silence/

  Complete with charts for this wonderful foreclosure tsunami statistics.

  “Let me be abundantly clear. We still have a Pay Option ARM and Alt-A mortgage problem. This will hit in full force in 2010 and we are already seeing many mortgage holders having trouble with actual recasts brought on by negative amortization. Yet there is a crew of people saying that Alt-A mortgage products will not bring any trouble because of the low interest rate environment. ”

  So as our hero the AMC runs into more foreclosures, prime, alt-a and option arm in 2010, rising unemployment, no wage growth and increasing numbers with negative equity.

  The life style our baby boom heroes may finally wake up to a grim reality when their last sip of “Obama Kool-Aid” runs out.

  They will come to the grim realization that the only ones who got change they can believe in were Fat Larry Summers and Stevie “the Rat” Ratner and a host of Rubinites and Goldman worms on Wall Street.

  America’s smartest, most socially conscious generation, just ask them they will tell you (haven’t baby boomers been telling us this for the last 40 years?), may be staring face to face with the scorched earth this generation left behind them for so many others in this society and in fact in most of the world.

  In an ironic twist, it may have been their own greed and lack of regard for the collective good for society that pushed baby boomer’s self interest for their 401k values above all else financing Wall Street with the cheap capital for the looting of the US economy.

  They ignored Congress $3 trillion looting, whoops I mean borrowing of Social Security trust fund surpluses since the Alzheimer Puppet Reagan, they ignored massive health care deficiencies for the general public so long as the economy “grew” along with their 401k’s so the baby boomers and the AMC “got” theirs.

  In the most ironic twist of all, the generation that screamed protested, burned and bombed property all across the nation in the 60s when it was they who were being drafted for cannon fodder in Vietnam, sat silent and were oblivious as this current generation was sent off for empire’s war in Iraq.

  The AMC and in particular the baby boomers did not even notice war existed in Iraq as long as home prices and 401k’s were on the rise… why rock the boat. What was good for war profiteering corporations on Wall Street was good for the AMC and the baby boomers. The greatest protest generation of all time sold out the youngsters today for home equity.

  They turned blinded eyes toward Clinton’s gang of Rubinites, head Rube Robert “What Me Worry” Rubin, Fat Larry et al stripping regulation for self interest of the privileged.

  The privileged… of which until last September the baby boomers and the AMC thought they… wink, wink were a part.