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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (146108)	10/1/2014 9:58:14 AM
From: RetiredNow	Respond to of 149317

I think if housing can stabilize and not crash, then that will be a great stabilizer for the economy in general. My biggest fear is that rising interest rates and the end of QE will cause a mini crash in housing, which combined with the other things ailing the economy will be a body blow. There are ton derivatives that are packaging housing loans. So that's why the health of housing is so critical. Anyway, let's cross our fingers and hope the Fed can thread the needle for the next 1 year. If nothing crashes by Sept/Oct 2015, then we can start to believe the economy has made it through the dangers ok. In the mean time, I'm 100% cash for safety. Not a bad place to be as the dollar is strengthening across all other currencies. It is an expensive insurance for me, though, since my portfolio makes me more money than my annual salary. But I figure it's worth it, if it helps me avoid a 30-50% dip like the last two since 2000. Oh and btw, many of my friends who have as much or more money than I do, have moved into very defensive postures as well. When the 1% make moves like that, it's well worth it to pay attention. BTW, another topic. Here's more on the LIBOR manipulation. Sheesh. These bankers are such unforgivable criminals. I'll never forgive Holder for not doing much in prosecuting them. It's a good part of the reason so many of the 1% are so skittish. They understand just how much of a casino and rigged game everything has become. The Fed is the only backstop to systemic failure now and the Fed is in bed with the bankers. Not much to put your faith in. I'd much rather put my faith in the Rule of Law, but that has been corrupted now too with Holder's lack of prosecutions and Congress' utter failure to fix the system. When risks are this systemic, it's best to get out of the way. Anything could be a catalyst for a sharp move downwards. ---------- Open Secret of Libor Manipulation by Barry Ritholtz - September 30th, 2014, 7:00pm Open Secret: The Global Banking Conspiracy That Swindled Investors Out of Billions is the new book written by Erin Arvedlund. The book goes behind the scenes of the elite firms that trafficked in LiBOR based products, including Barclays Capital, UBS, Rabobank, and Citigroup to show the negative impact they had on both ordinary investors and borrowers. Erin’s claim to fame was a column she wrote in Barron’s in the early 2000s outing Bernie Madoff as a fraud. It was a national bestseller titled Too Good to Be True. Here is Yahoo: “LIBOR, the London Interbank Offered Rate, is a global benchmark for interest rates. It’s tied to everything from mortgage rates and student loan rates to complex financial derivatives. And guess what? For a very long time it was rigged. Now, multiple lawsuits are pending, and that could mean some money back for some investors, traders and consumers. LIBOR is set each day by a group of bankers, based on estimates of rates at which banks would expect to borrow money from each other. It’s a system built on trust, not math. Regulators were tipped off back in 2007 that banks were fixing rates, and by the summer of 2012, an ugly scandal was revealed. An estimated $300 trillion in financial securities worldwide are based on LIBOR. Video from yahoo's interview of Erin Arvedlund can be found by clicking on the link at the top of this page.