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Post by Southall on Sept 16, 2008 23:15:41 GMT -8
Goodness me. Troubling times. I've spent the last two days at work staring at stock market tickers on the internet, wondering what the hell's going to happen next. Feel sorry for our poor policyholders who are going to be hit by this. Got to draft a press release today explaining why we've cut payouts. And they reckon there's at least a year of things getting worse before a recovery.
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Post by Jon Broxton on Sept 16, 2008 23:23:22 GMT -8
It really is awful. I'm much closer to the financial sector in my job here at Countrywide Bank than ever before, and the news just keeps getting stranger and stranger. We were bought out by Bank of America, who in turn just bought Merrill Lynch, the investment bankers. I keep hearing that JP Morgan Chase are interested in buying Washington Mutual. Barclays are supposed to be in talks to take over parts of Lehman. The financial and mortgage banking world is in deep crisis.
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Post by Jens Dietrich on Sept 17, 2008 5:12:59 GMT -8
I'm scared to even look at my 401k right now...
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Post by Southall on Sept 17, 2008 12:24:13 GMT -8
All sorts of rumours today about HBOS in the UK (won't mean anything to most of you, I know, but still - big news here) and the Prime Minister had to intervene to sweeten a deal for it to be taken over to avoid going under. When the country's leading mortgage lender is in that state, you know there's serious, serious trouble.
What a state our governments have allowed us to get into through encouraging reckless lending. Of course they're bailing out the companies who followed the reckless policies - and it's the poor ordinary people who will suffer. The most predictable financial crisis of all time is here, with the only question being just how bad is it going to get?
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Post by Jon Broxton on Sept 17, 2008 12:55:40 GMT -8
I think what worries me most about this is that it is now apparent that the whole sub-prime mortgage industry was about as solid as a house of cards. Even though I work for what was America's largest mortgage lender, Countrywide, I was never actually involved in selling mortgages in any way - my job is in dealing with the back end, post-foreclosure, or when mortgage fraud is detected... so, really, I started seeing at the same time as everyone else did.
What's amazing to me is that people never took a step back to see that their product was inherently flawed: when you require no proof of income, and basically no additional information against which to secure the loan, it's obvious what's going to happen: people are going to lie about how much they earn in order to get the loan because they aren't required to prove otherwise, and the brokers aren't going to question it because they're working on commission and want to to seal the deal. So what happens? You end up lending a whole load of money to people who were never able to afford the repayments, they go into default, the home is foreclosed upon, and it all fall apart. It STAGGERS me that no-one foresaw this.
This is essentially what brought Countrywide down. They had a total lack of liquidity, so Bank of America had to step in and mop up the remains. IndyMac bank here in California had the same issue, and was taken over by the Fed. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - the same. Now Washington Mutual is floundering, and Chase is hovering over the bones.
The same thing happened with Northern Rock in Britain - and now HBOS. It's just terrible how the mortgage lenders' total lack of foresight, coupled with sickening governmental indifference, has allowed this to happen.
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Post by Chris Tilton on Sept 17, 2008 13:57:03 GMT -8
It's equally staggering to me that people would lie about their income to get a loan, and then blame the government when the bank forecloses on their home.
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Post by Hook on Sept 22, 2008 16:57:27 GMT -8
It's equally staggering to me that people would lie about their income to get a loan, and then blame the government when the bank forecloses on their home. I don't want to stir the pot, but what is everyone's position on this whole bailout business? What's more staggering? The government bailing out the businesses or not bailing them out? I don't think people are blaming the banks so much as they are angry at them. They helped them get into debt, but they're ok, big government's going to take care of'em all.
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Post by Carlton the Barbarian on Sept 22, 2008 19:03:49 GMT -8
I don't want to stir the pot, but what is everyone's position on this whole bailout business? What's more staggering? The government bailing out the businesses or not bailing them out? I don't think people are blaming the banks so much as they are angry at them. They helped them get into debt, but they're ok, big government's going to take care of'em all. Hook, of course you want to stir the pot. It makes the food taste better. ;D I haven't really been following the whole "bail-out" business. Have folks really been blaming the government for housing foreclosures? Anyway, it seems like there is something, a looming crisis, brewing underneath some big pot, but, for some reason, it just hasn't been gotten a lot of attention. There hasn't been a nationalized presidentail press conference or any major economic interviews with the two presidential candidates, Obama and Mc Cain... Or maybe I just missed these things because I don't have a TV. So what's more staggering, the government bailing out businesses or not bailing them out? It seems like both cases could have some major consequences but I think it's more staggering that the government, and a conservative Republican president, are advocating (pursuing) government intervention. This is quite staggering. My intial poistion would be to oppose government bail-outs. It seems like a reward for making a bad decision, but what would have happened if the goverment hadn't bailed out Fannie Mae and AIG, or what would have happened if the government hadn't allowed JPMorgan Chase to access credit from the Federal Reserve to buy the Bear Sterns investment bank. If the government doesn't intervene what will happen to other investment banks like Morgan Stanley. Yes, Bank of America brought Merrill Lynch but what would have happened to investments if the government stayed idle throughgout this whole mess? -CG
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Post by Hook on Sept 22, 2008 19:23:00 GMT -8
Well, Ron Paul (I know, I know) on Fox News (I know! I know!!!): I like the CNN interview better (it has a wolf in it!): You have to give him credit (and who doesn't these days, amirrite?) for being the only consistent politician and being right about all this mess. From his site: edit: no more spamming, I swear
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Post by natedogg23 on Sept 22, 2008 20:36:46 GMT -8
I HATE the bailouts! I think it is a horrible idea and am totally against it. I can go into more detail if interested, but I'm guessing it might get a bit boring LOL
Privatizing profits and Socializing losses is not the way to go....
Hook, nice post of Ron Paul videos. The only politician that seems to have a clue about the economy and isn't afraid to talk about it. Too bad that the guy that made the most since was ignored until the economic crisis really hit. Now he is on shows all the time.
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Post by Hook on Sept 23, 2008 20:58:55 GMT -8
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Post by Carlton the Barbarian on Sept 24, 2008 1:50:12 GMT -8
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Post by Jangles on Sept 27, 2008 21:19:38 GMT -8
Hook is probably one of the people on Digg burying me when I say something that doesn't praise Obama or doesn't condone the government and financial institutions as evil overlords.
BTW, I buried that Martial Law video as being completely fucking stupid.
And Southall - is the situation in Great Britain as bad as the US? I thought you guys were doing alright, but that is based mostly on the fact of the strong euro. I don't hear much in the news about the British economy.
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Post by Hook on Sept 27, 2008 21:40:39 GMT -8
I'm not part of the bury brigade. I don't get the relation since I'm posting Ron Paul in a non-ironic way, if anything, that'd make me a paulbot, not an obamabot.
No, what I'd really like is for Digg to institute "report user for being stupid" functionality.
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cheno
Conductor
Posts: 1,012
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Post by cheno on Sept 28, 2008 1:02:12 GMT -8
So it's starting to look like the dollar will be destroyed tomorrow. Good job, Democrats. Good luck getting re-elected.
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