Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Buy and Sell Signals, and Other Market Perspectives -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: not_prudent who wrote (3014)	4/27/2010 9:34:26 PM
From: sandeep	3 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 222204

Is the $30K school bus driver who obtained a loan by probably inflating his salary or some other means to get the $400k hacienda not to blame - mostly? What did he think - he could pay for it? I agree others facilitated this greed - but so what? Why should the facilitators be blamed that much? I see a show on WeTV about "platinum wedddings" (well, my wife watches it sometimes) - people who are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on weddings. I bet these shows spawn more people who want to spend similar amount of dough for 1 day! Who is financing this stuff? It is ridiculous! The fact is we like to consume - overly so. But when the bad effects of consumption become apparent, we like to blame the facilitators. Same thing about getting obese. Now we are trying to blame everybody but us...

To: not_prudent who wrote (3014)	4/27/2010 10:35:12 PM
From: GROUND ZERO™	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 222204

Open posting is fine with me, this board pertains to all market perspectives, this includes just about everything under the sun... GZ

To: not_prudent who wrote (3014)	4/28/2010 10:00:56 AM
From: Kirk ©	Respond to of 222204

"The original intent was to try to get people into homes that they could afford, not some $30k school bus driver into a $400k hacienda." I agree the blame is nearly everywhere so this is a nonpolitical reply. I spoke to someone last week is 2nd generation (born here) Hispanic (Mexican) who WAS in the Real Estate business in central California. He sold a few properties then got out and back into the family landscaping business after it started to collapse. He said the TOP Agents in his office that were Hispanic selling to their own Hispanic community were doing tricks like kicking back some of their loan and real estate fees to the buyer so the buyer could come up with the roughly 3% down it took to close a deal. He didn't do it and knew it was wrong and risky.... etc... but it sure makes sense. I've read that appraisers were also in on it where they'd jack up the appraisal a bit to get repeat business so they were selling out just like the big rating agencies. My housekeepers, who are legal and have a license and insurance, told me they were considering buying a home in 2005 or 2006 and I nearly lectured them on what to look out for and made them promise to let me read ALL their loan docs at no charge before they signed anything... as I saw much fraud and was advising friends to not buy any more RE back then... I can also tell a story of how a very highly paid person who came to me for potential advice as a consultant was tricked into paying $4,000 to view high end Las Vegas real estate. They used the pitch he was a brilliant investor (he was brilliant at building companies to sell to Lucent...) and deserved to be treated well... etc... He was given a discount to pay for the fee they charged him... so He bought ... I suggested he was duped and he should sell immediately... "smart" people don't like others to tell them they were duped so he stopped returning phone and emails... I'd have to check my notes, but this was near the very top when condos in buildings in Vegas that were not even built yet were selling on the "merit" that they were across the street from a PLANNED building owned by Trump's former wife! I'd love to see Congress haul Robert Rubin in to testify why he was duped into convincing Bill Clinton to remove Glass-Stegal and why he was duped into letting Citi crash on his watch by the housing bubble collapse he may have been partially responsible for. I'd love to see them find out who had his ear, how much they paid, etc.... It seems the only real "wrong" GS did was to see the RE collapse as it started to happen and figure out a way to unwind from it to not get demolished.