Comments on: Real Homes of Genius: 751 Square Foot Home in Norwalk Half Off and Still Over Priced. And the Worst Housing Idea Yet.

By: Al

Al — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:04:18 +0000

Dr. Comrade Housing Bubble. Thanks for the real home of genius. It was just what I needed. Spasibo.

By: DAve

DAve — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:26:42 +0000

I BELIEVE that the most important idea behind Mc Cain’s refi program is that it makes these loans (most of which are not right now) into RECOURSE loans… which therefore would tend to stabilize the housing market as people wouldn’t be so highly motivated to walk away, an action which now we keep hearing over and over just makes “business sense” but puts all the rest of us in utter peril.
I know I choked when I heard him introduce this idea too but now I’m seeing that there could be important advantages that aren’t readily apparent.
As I’ve heard it said before just ‘cuz someone starts a fire in his room you don’t let the whole house burn down to teach him a lesson.
Even if we HAVE paid all of our bills on time and live within our means we can’t use that as an excuse when we’ve allowed our spouse to run up hundreds of thousands of dollars of debts through gambling and reckless spending just because we were too busy to monitor and regulate THEIR behavior as well as our own. That’s just an obligation of being in a situation TOGETHER.
If we had been more vigilant about what our government and our neighbors were doing we wouldn’t be in this mess.
And you probably don’t like hearing it anymore than I like writing it-

By: blutown

blutown — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:34:59 +0000

Dear Comrades,
~
I must apologize for something I said in a recent post that turned out to be tragically wrong. In making the case against the Paulson Plan, I stated that it would keep the mother of all bubbles inflated a little bit longer while making future generations the bagholders. As it turned out, the bubble self destructed within 5 seconds of doing the deal as if it was some kind of device from Mission Impossible. Who knew? At least I had the second part right (sorry kids).
~
Above all else, this is a crisis of faith. From a financial perspective, when there is no faith, there is no means for setting a rational fair market value. This can be seen is the huge volatility in the market. One thing being under reported is the interday swing from high to low. Today was a great example. The Dow had a trading range of nearly 900 points! As things trade lower, the lack of faith is reinforced and the downward feedback loop keeps going until something signals the bottom and faith in the value is restored.
~
From a leadership perspective, nobody believes anything that comes out of Washington or Wall Street. And why should they? We were warned of grave consequences if the Paulson Plan did not pass. Would those consequences have looked any different than what we are facing now? All shred of faith has been crushed. I heard someone on CNBC say tonight that faith could not be restored until someone goes to jail for this mess. I’ve been arguing that we need to get past the blame game and get on to the solutions. What I hadn’t considered is that the blame game (i.e. accountability) IS the solution. After all, market forces in a capitalistic society will take their course despite all the shock and awe rhetoric.
~
It will be painful. It’s suppose to be painful. But those who created this disaster should feel the most pain instead of walking away with their pockets lined with other people’s money. At the end of the day, we need to believe that good will overcome evil and that leaders will act in good faith.

By: PrevenTragedy

PrevenTragedy — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:18:24 +0000

Sean should cite his source rather than just (what appears to be) reprint copyrighted material. FYI, anything written is copyrighted–with or without the (c) notice. Other than that, great blog comments by the Dr. and overall good dialogue.

By: erin

erin — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 01:39:23 +0000

sorry, but the repukes own this mess.
They ruled the world and Congress for 12 of the past 14 years, the White House for 8, everything they stand for has been proven to be a sham. EVERYTHING.
So for 2 years the dems have a 51-49 majority? And one of them is Lieberman. Sorry Repukes, but you are failures, you’re good at sliming the opposition and winning elections, but retarded as hell when it comes to governing!