Where did it go?


Feb 7 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Monday will unveil the Obama administration's plans for using the remaining money in the $700 billion financial bailout program approved by Congress in October.

The Treasury said on Friday it has disbursed $295.02 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program but has made further pledges that would leave it with about $320 billion to tap.

Following is an outline of TARP funds spent or pledged so far:

-- $250 billion pledged for purchases of senior preferred shares and warrants in banks and thrifts under the Capital Purchase Program.

In the most recent report on TARP transactions through Jan. 30, the Treasury said it has completed equity purchases totaling $195.33 billion in 359 institutions.

-- $20 billion pledged for Bank of America (BAC) as part of a package in which the government agreed to share in losses on $118 billion of assets. The $20 billion is in addition to $25 billion for the bank disbursed under the $250 billion Capital Purchase Program.

-- $20 billion investment in Citigroup (C) as part of a package in which the government agreed to share in losses on $301 billion of assets. In addition to the $20 billion investment, the Treasury agreed to cover up to $5 billion in losses on the portfolio with TARP funds.

-- $40 billion investment in troubled insurer American International Group (AIG).



So they got duped into buying B of A stock when it was at 3 times the price a month ago. Translated. Means the 25 billion is now worth about 8. Real smart Sherlock.

Oh, and the infamous AIG. Not quite as bad. Its at about half what it was a month ago. Only a 20 billion loss in 30 days. Thank you Obama. Any more bad trades you want to make?

Is It not amazing, those in control of the lives of 300+ Million people.

Short Time Long Time


Bank stocks carried over a Friday rally Monday morning, rising ahead of details from the latest government plan to rescue the industry and inject capital to the financial system. Regional banks Fifth Third , Huntington Bancshares , and Regions Financial headed the list of gainers, each adding more than 10%. Among the larger money center banks, Citigroup rose 2% and Bank of America shares rose about 7%. Meanwhile, J.P. Morgan Chase shares slipped over 3%. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday Morning that the bank is not enamored of some of the bailout plan's details, particularly the section that reportedly encourages banks to sell their bad assets into a newly formed government/private partnership. The paper reports that Morgan believes it would be better to keep some of the assets with the expectation they will be profitable when the markets and economy improve. In the broader financial sector, the Financial Select Sector SPDR, an ETF that tracks the financial stocks in the S&P 500, slipped 0.4%



There is a time to sell and there is a time to buy. Friday and Today were the buy days. The banks will continue to rise for a few days. But keep your hand on the trigger for some quick draw action by the end of the week.


Amazing that JP isn't so willing to part with its assets. They have the audacity to think the valuations will rise at some point and don't want to short sell to Uncle Sam. We can't have this! This is tantamount to capitalism. They must be forced to sell to the government what ever it is it wants. C'mon bama. Come up with some more regulations that will force them into the socialist camp.

Your bank rated

Banks rated by a system called a texas ratio.

Simply put. The closer your bank is to the top of the list the worse off it is. The higher that number is in the far right column the more likely they are to drop dead.

Will there be a depression?

If so what will it be like?

When will it happen?

What do you suggest to prepare for it?

quote:

Originally posted by max-one:
Will there be a depression?

If so what will it be like?

When will it happen?

What do you suggest to prepare for it?

Tents, generators, Can foods, Board games, Protection! . Survival!!!

A depression isn't likely. A fear inspired sentiment towards socialism is gripping people. All under the banner of democratic redistribution. Its happening now with these bail outs. Tax money that belongs to the people is being used by government to secure ownership in private enterprise. That ownership will have the government's title on it.

Does anyone think the government will allow any institution to relieve themselves of governmental control and oversight when this is over? Has the government ever relinquished authority?

Government will take credit for the recovery and use it as justification for more intervention. More governmental influence and dominance in every facet. It will be said you are too stupid to take care of your own finances. Only the state knows how to avert disaster. You will work for the state for your own good.

People are hurting and its being exploited. Its very easy to convince a person to sell their freedom for a piece of bread when they are hungry.

The left is using class envy to demonize the true producers of wealth and justify the taking of it. The march towards a financially even playing field is well underway. To what end and purpose? To make us like the rest of the world. Wanting and in need. Dependent on the powers that be for everything. Welcome to the new world order being shuffled in.

quote:

Originally posted by davdah:
A depression isn't likely. A fear inspired sentiment towards socialism is gripping people. All under the banner of democratic redistribution. Its happening now with these bail outs. Tax money that belongs to the people is being used by government to secure ownership in private enterprise. That ownership will have the government's title on it.

Does anyone think the government will allow any institution to relieve themselves of governmental control and oversight when this is over? Has the government ever relinquished authority?

Government will take credit for the recovery and use it as justification for more intervention. More governmental influence and dominance in every facet. It will be said you are too stupid to take care of your own finances. Only the state knows how to avert disaster. You will work for the state for your own good.

People are hurting and its being exploited. Its very easy to convince a person to sell their freedom for a piece of bread when they are hungry.

The left is using class envy to demonize the true producers of wealth and justify the taking of it. The march towards a financially even playing field is well underway. To what end and purpose? To make us like the rest of the world. Wanting and in need. Dependent on the powers that be for everything. Welcome to the new world order being shuffled in.

Davdah buddy,

Is real! I gotta extra tent with porch, reserved for the good peeps. those in control Are scared! the fix is not within The package!
be Careful. this Is out of The norm. S H i *!!! You yourself knows the Package will not work!!! no worry, I got all the comforts of home READY! . NO, I AM NOT LUNATIC SURVIVALIST. I am outdoors and saved the most Important for last.

Popcorn and BABES!!! . LOL.

What the "Father of Reaganomics" thinks of what is going on.

Driving Over the Cliff

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

Is there intelligent life in Washington, DC? Not a speck of it.

The US economy is imploding, and Obama is being led by his government of neconservatives and Israeli agents into a quagmire in Afghanistan that will bring the US into confrontation with Russia, and possibly China, American’s largest creditor.

The January payroll job figures reveal that last month 20,000 Americans lost their jobs every day.

In addition, December’s job losses were revised up by 53,000 jobs from 524,000 to 577,000. The revision brings the two-month job loss to 1,175,000. If this keeps up, Obama’s promised three million new jobs will be wiped out by job losses.

Statistician John Williams (shadowstats.com) reports that this huge number is an understatement. Williams notes that built-in biases in seasonal adjustment factors caused a 118,000 understatement of January job losses, bringing the actual January job loss to 716,000 jobs.

The payroll survey counts the number of jobs, not the number of employed as some people have more than one job. The Household Survey counts the number of people who have jobs. The Household Survey shows that 832,000 people lost their jobs in January and 806,000 in December, for a two month reduction of Americans with jobs of 1,638,000.

The unemployment rate reported in the US media is a fabrication. Williams reports that in changes since 1980, particularly in the Clinton era, "‘discouraged workers’ those who had given up looking for a job because there were no jobs to be had--were redefined so as to be counted only if they had been ‘discouraged’ for less than a year. This time qualification defined away the bulk of the discouraged workers. Adding them back into the total unemployed, actual unemployment, [according to the unemployment rate methodology used in 1980] rose to 18% in January, from 17.5% in December.”

In other words, without all the manipulations of the data, the US unemployment rate is already at depression levels.

How could it be otherwise given the enormous job loss from offshored jobs. It is impossible for a country to create jobs when its corporations are moving production for the American consumer market offshore. When they move the production offshore, they shift US GDP to other countries. The US trade deficit over the past decade has reduced US GDP by $1.5 trillion dollars. That is a lot of jobs.

I have been reporting for years that university graduates have had to take jobs as waitresses and bartenders. As over-indebted consumers lose their jobs, they will visit restaurants and bars less frequently. Consequently, those with university degrees will not even have jobs waiting on tables and mixing drinks.

US policymakers have ignored the fact that consumer demand in the 21st century has been driven, not by increases in real income, but by increased consumer indebtedness. This fact makes it pointless to try to stimulate the economy by bailing out banks so that they can lend more to consumers. The American consumers have no more capacity to borrow.

With the decline in the values of their principal assets--their homes--with the destruction of half of their pension assets, and with joblessness facing them, Americans cannot and will not spend.

Why bail out GM and Citibank when the firms are moving as many operations offshore as they possibly can?

Much of US infrastructure is in poor shape and needs renewing. However, infrastructure jobs do not produce goods and services that can be sold abroad. The massive commitment to infrastructure does nothing to help the US reduce its huge trade deficit, the financing of which is becoming a major problem. Moreover, when the infrastructure projects are completed, so are the jobs.

At best, assuming Mexican immigrants do not get most of the construction jobs, all Obama’s stimulus program can do is to reduce the number of unemployed temporarily.

Unless US corporations can be required to use American labor to produce the goods and services that they sell in American markets, there is no hope for the US economy. No one in the Obama administration has the wits to address this problem. Thus, the economy will continue to implode.

Adding to the brewing disaster, Obama has been deceived by his military and neoconservative advisers into expanding the war in Afghanistan, a large, mountainous country. Obama intends to use the draw-down of US soldiers in Iraq to send 30,000 more American troops to Afghanistan. This would bring the US forces to 60,000 -- 600,000 fewer than US Marine Corps and US Army counterinsurgency guidelines define as the minimum number of soldiers necessary to bring success in Afghanistan--and less than half as many as the army that was unable to occupy Iraq.

The Iranians had to bail out the Bush regime by restraining its Shi’ite allies and encouraging them to use the ballot box to attain power and push out the Americans. In Iraq the US troops only had to fight a small Sunni insurgency drawn from a minority of the population. Even so, the US “prevailed” by putting the insurgents on the US payroll and paying them not to fight. The withdrawal agreement was dictated by the Shi’ites. It was not what the Bush regime wanted.

One would think that the experience with the “cakewalk” in Iraq would make the US hesitant to attempt to occupy Afghanistan, an undertaking that would require the US to occupy parts of Pakistan. The US was hard pressed to maintain 150,000 troops in Iraq. Where is Obama going to get another half million soldiers to add to the 150,000 to pacify Afghanistan?

One answer is the rapidly growing massive US unemployment. Americans will sign up to go kill abroad rather than be homeless and hungry at home.

But this solves only half of the problem. Where does the money come from to support an army in the field of 650,000, an army 4.3 times larger than US forces in Iraq, a war that has cost us $3 trillion in out-of-pocket and already incurred future costs. This money would have to be raised in addition to the $3 trillion US budget deficit that is the result of Bush’s financial sector bailout, Obama’s stimulus package, and the rapidly failing economy. When economies tank, as the American one is doing, tax revenues collapse. The millions of unemployed Americans are not paying Social Security, Medicare, and income taxes. The stores and businesses that are closing are not paying federal and state income taxes. Consumers with no money or credit to spend are not paying sales taxes.

The Washington Morons, and morons they are, have given no thought as to how they are going to finance a fiscal year 2009 budget deficit of some two to three trillion dollars.

The practically nonexistent US saving rate cannot finance it.

The trade surpluses of our trading partners, such as China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia, cannot finance it.

The US government really has only two possibilities for financing its budget deficit. One is a second collapse in the stock market, which would drive the surviving investors with what they have left into “safe” US Treasury bonds. The other is for the Federal Reserve to monetize the Treasury debt.

Monetizing the debt means that when no one is willing or able to purchase the Treasury’s bonds, the Federal Reserve buys them by creating bank deposits for the Treasury’s account.

In other words, the Fed “prints money” with which to buy the Treasury’s bonds.

Once this happens, the US dollar will cease to be the reserve currency.

In addition, China, Japan and Saudi Arabia, countries that hold enormous quantities of US Treasury debt in addition to other US dollar assets, will sell, hoping to get out before others.

The US dollar will become worthless, the currency of a banana republic.

The US will not be able to pay for its imports, a serious problem for a country dependent on imports for its energy, manufactured goods, and advanced technology products.

Obama’s Keynesian advisers have learned with a vengeance Milton Friedman’s lesson that the Great Depression resulted from the Federal Reserve permitting a contraction of the supply of money and credit. In the Great Depression good debts were destroyed by monetary contraction. Today bad debts are being preserved by the expansion of money and credit, and the US Treasury is jeopardizing its credit standing and the dollar’s reserve currency status with enormous quarterly bond auctions as far as the eye can see.

Meanwhile, the Russians, overflowing with energy and mineral resources, and not in debt, have learned that the US government is not to be trusted. Russia has watched Reagan’s successors attempt to turn former constituent parts of the Soviet Union into US puppet states with US military bases. The US is trying to ring Russia with missiles that neutralize Russia’s strategic deterrent.

Putin has caught on to “comrade wolf.” He has succeeded in having the president of Kyrgyzstan, a former part of the Soviet Union, evict the US from its military base. This base is essential to America’s ability to supply its soldiers in Afghanistan.

To stop America’s meddling in Russia’s sphere of influence, the Russian government has created a collective security treaty organization comprised of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Uzbekistan is a partial participant.

In other words, Russia has organized central Asia against US penetration.

To whose agenda is President Obama being hitched? Writing in the English language version of the Swiss newspaper, Zeit-Fragen, Stephen J. Sniegoski reports that leading figures of the neocon conspiracy--Richard Perle, Max Boot, David Brooks, and Mona Charen--are ecstatic over Obama’s appointments. They don’t see any difference between Obama and Bush/Cheney.

Not only are Obama’s appointments moving him into an expanded war in Afghanistan, but the powerful Israel Lobby is pushing Obama toward a war with Iran.

The unreality in which he US government operates is beyond belief. A bankrupt government that cannot pay its bills without printing money is rushing headlong into wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran. According to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analysis, the cost to the US taxpayers of sending a single soldier to fight in Afghanistan or Iraq is $775,000 per year!

Obama’s war in Afghanistan is the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. After seven years of conflict, there is still no defined mission or endgame scenario for US forces in Afghanistan. When asked about the mission, a US military official told NBC News, “Frankly, we don’t have one.” NBC reports: “they’re working on it.”

Speaking to House Democrats on February 5, President Obama admitted that the US government does not know what its mission is in Afghanistan and that to avoid “mission creep without clear parameters,” the US “needs a clear mission.”

How would you like to be sent to a war, the point of which no one knows, including the commander-in-chief who sent you to kill or be killed? How, fellow taxpayers, do you like paying the enormous cost of sending soldiers on an undefined mission while the economy collapses?

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com

welcome max,

Is a different World ILW!

You Name it, you Got it!!! .

No rules!!! yes but no, But Yes but no!!!

Different crowd, Real peeps. Fun!!! smart peeps Also. give respect.

This is no surprise . . .

http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/1...ng/index.htm?cnn=yes

GM cutting 10,000 jobs

Troubled automaker reducing worldwide salaried staff by 14%, with a third of layoffs coming in U.S.; remaining workers to have their pay cut for 2009.

Last Updated: February 10, 2009: 9:29 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors announced Tuesday it is cutting 10,000 workers, or 14% of its salaried jobs worldwide. A third of those job losses will be in the United States.

The troubled automaker also said it will cut the pay for its remaining U.S. salaried staff..

GM (GM, Fortune 500), which is preparing to present a long-term viability plan to the Treasury Department next week, said the cutbacks are part of the restructuring plan it submitted to Congress on Dec. 2 when it was first asking Washington for federal assistance.

GM received $9.4 billion in federal loans in order to allow it to stay out of bankruptcy, and expects to receive another $4 billion in federal loans after its Feb. 17 submission to the Treasury Department.

GM said worldwide salaried staff would be cut to 63,000 from 73,000, and that 3,400 of its 29,500 salaried staff in the United States will be affected. This job reduction will not include voluntary buyout offers, however.

The automaker made such offers to salaried and hourly workers last year and recently made another one to hourly staff that began this week.

Instead, the mostly white-collar workers affected by Tuesday's announcement will receive severance payments, benefit contributions and outplacement assistance.

The majority of the reductions are expected to take place by May 1, 2009. Staff who remain after May 1 will have their salaries reduced for the rest of the year, with executives having their base pay reduced by 10% and many other salaried employees having their pay cut between 3% and 7%.

Stimulate or Shrivel package?


NEW YORK (Marke****ch) -- Bank shares were slammed Tuesday, down almost 15% after a lack of details for a Treasury plan to restart stalled credit markets and rejuvenate the sector sent investors scrambling for the exits.

Investors had bid up bank stocks considerably over the past several days in anticipation of more details from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

Geithner produced his financial stability plan on Tuesday, saying the Treasury and other federal agencies will partner with private capital to create a fund for troubled bank assets that could produce up to $1 trillion in financing capacity.

Separately, the Federal Reserve will expand a program to support consumer lending to as much as $1 trillion, the Fed said.

As part of the plan, all major U.S. banks with at least $100 billion in assets will be required to undergo a rigorous stress test to determine if they can survive a more severe economic downturn. If they can, they'll be eligible for government capital.

According to the National Information Center, there were 17 banks as of Dec. 30, 2008, with at least $100 billion in assets.



The market dove 387 points lead by the banks. This steep downturn was more than many expected. Do in no small part to the expected lion than meowed stimulus package.

On the Plus Side

After hours trading is showing some signs of a pulse. Most stocks that took a severe battering are rebounding ever so slightly. No short term gains today.

Most stocks should be categorized as long positions. Provided obama and his clan of tax cheats quit meddling with things the market may end up correcting itself. In spite of the demoquacks. One can only hope.

No surprise here either. The ground side of FedEx is relatively expensive and not the main core of business:

FedEx Delivers 900 Job Cuts
FedEx, the second-largest US package-delivery company, is eliminating 900 jobs in its freight unit because of declining demand and “aggressive” pricing by competitors.

The cuts, equal to 2.6% of FedEx Freight’s 35,000 employees, are in addition to 540 jobs trimmed at the unit late last year and 650 at FedEx’s Office division.

Memphis, Tennessee-based FedEx is working to reduce costs by $1 billion, with steps including freezing hiring and cutting salaried employees’ pay.

In December, FedEx cut pay for Chief Executive Officer Fred Smith and US salaried employees representing about 12% of its workforce. It froze hiring and suspended contributions to retirement accounts.

employmentspectator.com

quote:

Originally posted by davdah:
On the Plus Side

After hours trading is showing some signs of a pulse. Most stocks that took a severe battering are rebounding ever so slightly. No short term gains today.

Most stocks should be categorized as long positions. Provided obama and his clan of tax cheats quit meddling with things the market may end up correcting itself. In spite of the demoquacks. One can only hope.

Say something positive, or better still, DO something positive Repubs instead of just saying "no"

I do attempt something positive. Its kind of hard when you're competing against the government.

When they buy millions of shares of preferred convertible stock it dilutes the value of the existing shares. Why do you think the bank stocks plunged today?

It's like this. If B of A has a market value of one billion and there are one billions shares outstanding each are worth a buck. If Obama comes in and says we are going to buy another billion shares those are added in as part of the market cap. Now each share is worth 50 cents. That is why the repubs voted no. His fixit is wrecking the retirement accounts for everyone.

Fed-Ex Update.


Newswire February 10, 2009. Fed_ex in a continuing effort to improve its position amongst carriers is going to deploy new ground delivery vehicles to replace their aging fleet of large trucks. By utilizing more of these environmentally correct transit devices in the their fleet. Fed_ex hopes to recapture lost market share.

quote:

Originally posted by Brit4064:

quote:

Originally posted by davdah:
On the Plus Side

After hours trading is showing some signs of a pulse. Most stocks that took a severe battering are rebounding ever so slightly. No short term gains today.

Most stocks should be categorized as long positions. Provided obama and his clan of tax cheats quit meddling with things the market may end up correcting itself. In spite of the demoquacks. One can only hope.

Say something positive, or better still, DO something positive Repubs instead of just saying "no"

I hear you buddy, but I think the problem is everyone is looking for a miracle right now and it ain't gonna happen, no matter who took the White House. Bad Times! And, to go back and forth and argue isn't the answer. It's time for all Americans to come together to solve the problem. I'm sure there are those who will come here and disagree, but I'm staying with my position that a nation united isn't divided.

Money

That's the problem with money -- it makes you do things you don't want to do." -- Hal Holbrook as "Lou Mannheim" in "Wall Street"



If you haven't seen the movie, you should. Now adays there are as many opinions as reporters telling us how we got into the financial mess we are in. And as expected. Just as many methods being pitched to get us out of the frey.


History and self realization are the best indicators.

What got us here is the same thing that landed the actors of that movie in jail. We got too greedy. Expecting our 401-k retirement accounts to double every year. Fund managers pushing the limits of leverage or perish. Brokers overselling a stock or being fired. And the consumer buying more junk than space to store it all. How many of your neighbors actually use their garage to park the car? Do you?

It all led to where we are now. Will we learn a lesson from it. No. We never do. We all want more than our paycheck affords. Expecting miracles from those shadowy figures controlling our retirement accounts. Our house to double in value every couple years.

This will subside. Either due to real economic recovery or numbness to news. Nothing will change. No matter how left or polically correct a person claims to be they will still shutter at the idea of downsizing their lifestyle.

Learn to accept what we are and that there are cycles to everything. We are down. But greed is still good. There is a little Gekko in all of us. That is what will pull us out.

Worst of all. It will probably happen while Obama is in office. Being a little GG himself he will take full credit even though he had nothing to do with it. The illusion will become real.

quote:

You must have gone to the Geitner school of accounting, lol. I understand the concept of a balance sheet. Gotta do one now fyi, its tax time, oh what fun! The deposit is listed as a liability due to it belonging to the account holder. But what about that offsetting item on the other side called cash? Where did that come from? And just what limits the amounts a bank can borrow from the fed? Ratios and things like that.

And you went to the Tom Delay School of Fuzzy Math LOL.

Banks do not have large amounts of cash Davdah. To them, that is inventory. They want the money to work for them. Cash in the bank are the required reserves and emergency funds for unexpected events. The banks want the money to work for them. Hence why interest rates on your savings, that an expense to the bank is always lower than the interest rate, generally, of a loan, that is an income to the bank.

Financial securities such as derivitives and CDC;s help defray the risk of any loan, good or bad. The question is whether it would have a negative value, which creates the imbalance on the balance sheet and the bank going into bank supervision,

quote:

If CDS and derivatives were as harmless as a puppy what drove Lehman Bros under? We'll save that for another day.

Lehman brothers were also cooking the books for three years. Their stock price was overvaluded given the true financial data. That is a reason why it was a surprise. You have to remember, these companies file quarterly and annual reports to the SEC and other regulatory agencies. The numbers should have been looked at three years prior. It was not the fault of the regulations, but the regulators. They were asleep at the whell, which is what 4now's article is about.

quote:

You mentioned the disparity of home value shifts within your area. That illustrates the point perfectly. If the market were correct there would be little change across a wide area in valuations as a percentage from one time to another. If your property went down by 2% then most of the property within a 10 mile radius should also have devalued by a similar amount. Didn't work that way.

The fact it didn't goes to show something is wrong. Here is what it is. Again, from first hand knowledge. The areas that were hit with numerous mortgage defaults caused the steep devaluation of values in all property in the surrounding area. The banks are not following past procedures when it comes to a foreclosure

Actually the area I am referring to is not even one square mile. It is within a specific zip code only. Home sales have fallen 7$, property values have remained constant at 0% for the last three years. The reason, not that many home sales in this area. That is what happens in an established neighborhood. Frisco is a different picture. Even though there are many foreclosures, home values are still going up. Weird isn't it.

Home prices differ from one year to the next. Property values is not the same as home values. Even if you bought a foreclosed home in the area at 30 cents for every dollar, your property tax would still be the same. That is how Texas law works here.

quote:

In the past it used to be the bank would sell it for the loan balance. Or at least start there and go up or down as market forces dictate. Currently they are not doing this. Instead, they are deeply discounting the property before it goes to market. Here in San Diego those discounts are typically in the range of 30% to 50% off the loan balance. This is having a cataclysmic affect in the immediate vicinity valuations. Which is what threw off the variations in value percentage wise between areas of higher defaults versus those with lower.

Davdah, you are referring to the repeal of the Glass-Stiegal Act, This was done in 1999 under a Republican Congress and a Democratic President. this link describes how home prices have risen beyond what the consumer was available of paying. This is what I am saying Davdah. Yes, people have refi every two or three years

quote:

Now, instead of the foreclosures causing a downturn of 10% or so its gone as high as 70% in the neighborhood. With so many equity loans and other atm like uses of real estate the problem just became compounded. The home isn't worth enough to cover the obligations. All buyers went running for cover and owners were looking to get out. This was totally unnecessary. Even with a glut of inventory the prices should have only dipped a few points not 50. Why the banks panicked and sold everything like a blue light special should draw suspicion.

Along comes tarp to save the day. New loans were promised but never materialized. The banks are still underfunded even with an increase in deposits and that other thing called cash. Where did it go. A slight of hand with money shifted to offset loan losses. Did the banks know beforehand the gov would step in and cover those losses? Seems kind of strange they sold everything with such reckless disregard of that thing called a balance sheet.

Agaion, this has to do with the average consumer. We went froom spending 88 cents for every dollar earned in the early 1990's to a buck twenty three spent for every dollar earned. We did it to ourselves. We, as Americans have the smallest savings percentage in the the world. Japan is at 20%, Europe on average is at 10%, China is at 30%. Korea is at 15%. Again, we did this to ourselves. It ranged from the get rich real esatate property schemes, to the don't bleive in this agency or that agency, etc. We went with the lets all drink and be happy attitude. And we got spoiled on it in the 1990's, those good times. In the 2000, the only industry that was keeping the economy afloat was the housing market, Now it burst and the same industries that were struggling in the late 1990's are still struggling now, even with inflation in check.