This is going to be short. For the past few days my wireless connection has seriously degraded, disconnecting so many time that a blog post is taking me close to 2 and a half to 3 hours to complete because of how hard it is to have multiple windows open, etc. Very annoying. I am going to research my options. The wife bought a new laptop, and that thing works all over the house. I may just upgrade my entire computer. Who knows.
A New Way To Screw Yourself; Any Takers?
Came across this article today on CNBC:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/25246270
The key excerpt:
"But they didn't want to get into a costly reverse mortgage.
Instead, the Dollars signed up for a relatively new product called a Rex Agreement.
It gave them $117,000 in cash to spend however they wanted, and they owe no payments until they sell the house.
At that time, they'll owe Rex & Co. the $117,000 plus half of the appreciation in their home's worth between the time they signed the agreement and the time they sell the house.
If the house goes down in value, Rex & Co. will eat half of that loss as well.
Since they signed the agreement last October, prices in their neighborhood have dropped.
So far, it's been a good deal for the Dollars (yes, that's their real name.) Rex is the first of several new products on the market aimed at this shared equity or shared appreciation concept."
I did not mean the home owner here screwing themselves, I am talking about more dumb "innovation" from the financial community. Read over the whole thing and quickly you are going to see a system made to fail. Too funny.
With a Whimper, MBIA and Ambac Go Gentle Into That Good Night
I will not excerpt the AP story so I will not get sued, so here it is:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080619/moody_s_bond_insurers.html?.v=2
A while back we heard all the bla bla about how this downgrade would end the financial system. Well here it is and no reaction so far, though it has been only 30 minutes. We will see now just how all that insurance written by MBI and ABK will be revalued. Good stuff.
Still Not Getting It
I have CNBC on the TV behind me and I just heard one dummy on Kudlow and company say that the issue with housing is not that people do not want to buy, it is that the loans are not being made. He argues it is a liquidity issue. Sadly even now after all the evidence has been out there another commentator has zero idea on what is going on.
The only fools that want loans and cannot get them are the kind of loans that are defaulting en masse right now. That is a structural issue, not a liquidity issue. Some might argue that making bad loans will work so long as they never have to be paid back. Well, if everything went the way of a unicorn blessed fairy land, then yes we would have eternal rapture. Whatever.
I still am aiming for a Friday rock blog, so leave suggestions.
Have a good night.
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