Can Confidence in the System be Based on, Well, Confidence?

Sorry for the lack of a post last night. I had some Internet connectivity issues. I hate wireless Internet connections. They suck. I prefer real telephones (no cells), a real stereo (no ipod) and a real hard wire that brings in the Internet (no wireless). Anyways, one does what one can.

Homebuilders Get First of Many Helpful Hands
One of my major issues with this whole FED mediated activity to prop up , sorry "guarantee stability", prices and markets is that the bailout mentality has now been fully embraced. Moral hazard is so last month! Case in point, a provision that was vehemently opposed when the Stimulus Bill was passed a little while back has now been pushed through quickly without problems:
Homebuilders get breaks from Congress
By ALAN ZIBEL, AP Business Writer Thu Apr 3, 11:32 AM ET
WASHINGTON - Homebuilders and the mortgage industry are emerging as big victors in a bipartisan agreement reached by Senate leaders on legislation designed to limit the housing crisis.
The $15 billion Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008, expected to be debated Thursday afternoon on the Senate floor, is drawing fire from critics who say it would do little to actually prevent foreclosures. The bill contains a $6 billion emergency tax break that would let companies use losses from 2008 and 2009 to offset profits earned over the previous four years, instead of the usual two-year time frame.
That's good news for big homebuilders such as KB Home and Pulte Homes Inc., which have been saddled with massive losses over the past year.
Jerry Howard, chief executive of the National Association of Home Builders, said in an interview that the tax break is "very important to the building community." It will keep many small homebuilders out of bankruptcy, he said, and will prevent large builders from having to liquidate assets.
Other big beneficiaries would be Wall Street banks such as Citigroup Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and Morgan Stanley. In fact, any company now struggling after years of healthy profits that pumped up their tax bills could benefit.
"This is a focused, modest package that will get tremendous bang for the buck in terms of improving the housing crisis," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. said in a statement Wednesday. "For sure, there is more to be done. But given the constraints of reaching a bipartisan agreement, this is a worthwhile step."

What a sweet deal! The same fools that brought us overbuilding, acted as middlemen for bad loan policies, and pumped the housing bubble for record profits can now use their well deserved losses to get tax breaks! Seriously, things are reaching a point that almost anything that sounds like a sick joke turns out to be a fact.

So how long until Ford and GM are deemed "too important to fail" and massive taxpayer money is committed to fund their money losing operations? The floodgates are open now for bailouts. Even Diana Olick who writes the good CNBC Realty Check series has been infected with bail out mania. Here is a part of her post today on why she is in favor of the homebuilder tax breaks:
There are a slew of top-brass government types on the Hill today defending their bailout of Bear one of the big investment houses that fuelled the subprime craze by eating up all kinds of horrid mortgage products that were doomed to fail.
Bear got greedy and Bear got the bailout. And everyone and their brother, from the Treasury Secretary to FHA to Fannie to Freddie are jumping over each other to bail out troubled borrowers, many of whom frankly should have known better than to get into mortgages that were WAY over their heads. They were greedy, and they’re getting the bailout.
So why not the builders? They’re no more to blame than anyone else in this mess, and therefore they should get some help as well.
These are the companies that build everyone’s biggest investment, and I think we need to invest a bit in them, even if they did get on the boom-bandwagon like everyone else. Unless of course you’d rather see your new three-bedroom three-bath colonial shipped over in pieces from China.

Hard to argue with her logic. If everyone else is getting a bail out, then why not the homies? Why not indeed! For the record Diana, China can never build our homes because lead paint has been illegal here for use in homes for some time! HAHAHA! Vote in the new poll on who else should get bailed out.

Can Confidence in the System be Based on, Well, Confidence?
There was so much to go over with Bernanke's testimony over the past couple of days. There are plenty of transcripts and plenty of blog coverage of many pertinent comments. I want to share a few thoughts on a general feeling I got from Bennie's answers and what that means going forward.

What has jumped out at me after review of testimony is that the FED is morbidly obsessed with stock markets. There can no longer be argument about whether the FED considers stock and other asset prices when forming policy. They do. The big rush to push through the BSC calamity was to preempt a horrible stock market result in the Asian markets. This possibility was the driving force behind the deal. A horrid start in Asia would likely have been mirrored in the US markets. Was this the "systemic crisis" the FED wanted to avoid? A perhaps 1000 point down day for the DOW? Would the world have ended? We will never know.

Another major theme that Bernanke continued to hammer at was that confidence in the system was a paramount necessity. The FED head never made a quantitative assessment of housing, derivatives, or mortgage backed securities. Bernanke made it clear that the system is basically based on fictional values assigned to various investment vehicles, and the "value" of it all is rooted not in a realistic actual price. As long as NOBODY TAKES MONEY OUT, everything is fine. This is a momentous admission.

Bernanke made it clear (at least to me) that only accelerating debt and credit can keep the financial system running. Any attempt to do a "run on a bank" to get hold of actual payouts and assets will cause the instant insolvency of most banks, and hence a cascade of problems. Pretty scary stuff, and yet I have not seen it picked up anywhere else. It seems that confidence in the system is based solely on confidence in the system! Round about logic.

One last observation is that the FED is operating right now very reactively. They were unable to see any of this beforehand, and are making policy on the run here. The rushed BSC deal stinks to high heaven, and Bernanke was unable to answer questions concerning the collateral used by BSC that the FED has. troubling indeed.

Important Reading Material
While I know my blog is the only source of information you will ever need, I would like to highly recommend two articles that stand out as truly stellar works that command your attention. No excuse not to read these two articles;
Mish has a killer post, and it is a must read:
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/04/fed-uncertainty-principle.html
Easily the most original thinking I have seen in a long time. Great work.

Mr. Practical at Minyanville is always on fire and his last two are standouts:
http://www.minyanville.com/articles/C-LEH-banks-dollars-economy-debt/index/a/16528

http://www.minyanville.com/articles/db-jpm-LEH-BSC-UBS-futures/index/a/16547
Wonderful observations.

Leave Friday rock and/or movie blogging ideas in the comment section.

Have a good night.

The Audacity of Hope Swallows Bad News Whole

Pretty nice day here in Massachusetts. It all ends tonight as the cold moves back in, and snow is expected for Friday. Loving it. Maybe I can Hope the snow away!

The Audacity of Hope Swallows Bad News Whole
I am borrowing an Obama campaign phrase that seemed to infect Wall Street today. Here are the financial headlines for the day;

• UBS writes down 19 Billion in losses; Dilutes itself 30% in a 15 Billion stock issue
• Lehman Brothers raises 4 Billion through a stock offering it does not need
• Deutsche Bank writes down 4 Billion in losses
• US auto sales drop in March; Ford -14%, GM -19%, Chrysler -19%, Toyota -10%, Nissan -4%, and Honda -3%.
• ISM index at 48.6, still showing contraction
• Construction spending down 0.3% in March, 5th straight month of lower spending

Oh yeah, the markets were all up big time on this news with all indices up over 3% today alone.

I knew things were going to be weird after I caught a little bit of CNBC when I woke up this morning. At around 5:15am I put on CNBC and they had a banking sector analyst on discussing the LEH and UBS news. This guy was a riot. The host asked him why the shares of LEH were up big premarket, and why UBS after the huge writedown was soaring premarket. The guy was fighting a smile and actually gasped out a laugh when he answered that this could be the last of the writedowns. He was on the verge of cracking up. I mean, when you cannot even pretend to be serious things are bad!

Today was based on the "Hope" that the first quarter writedowns are the last time, scouts honor. Some might recall a similar rally in the 3rd quarter on "Hope" as well as the "kitchen sink of writedowns" 4th quarter rally. That is a bunch of rallies based on a "Hope" that so far has been elusive.

Hope seems to be the only commodity that Wall Street likes! Is there a futures market for Hope?

It was April Fools day, and I do not know if that had anything to do with things going nuts. Just a absurd day in total.

I found a great quote that perhaps can be the fountain of hope for the banking side of things, check this one out from a CNBC story:

Simon Maughan, analyst at MF Global, told Reuters;
"For a long time we've been worried about moral hazard ... we're now past that point, what we're trying to do now is save the banking system, and the price that banks will pay is tougher regulation going forward."

Wow! I guess they were worried a thing like moral hazard may impede the move to bailout the fools in trouble. They should not have worried, no moral hazard issues with our FED and Treasury.

Short post tonight, but I am confused by today's action on many levels. Maybe tomorrow I can put it all together.

Have a good night.

Do You Want the Good News or Bad News First?

It may reach 60 degrees tomorrow. I am looking forward to that possibility. The last vestiges of winter need to go away and give me some peace. Fishing still seems so far away.


New Regulatory Plan Song and Dance
I have actually read through most of the Treasury plan for more (maybe?) regulation of big bad Wall Street. Pretty useless as a whole, it basically amounts to reshuffling some organizational charts and, well that's about it. All that build up and all those announcements and this was all they had to say? Pretty weak. Add to that Mr. Paulson himself says none of this is going to happen before years end! Waste my time why don't you! This kind of baloney move fits perfectly with the theme I have discussed over the past few weeks of delusion and appearance dressing. There is nothing that will change anything in this plan. There is nothing that would have stopped the mortgage issues we are seeing from happening if these new ideas were in place. Just by going through the motions, the markets are soothed I guess. Whatever.

What IS interesting is that Hank Paulson, between giving speeches and interviews, has been on the news an awful lot. The poor guys voice is about gone at this point. I wonder if it just all the speaking, or if he has been screaming at all these secret meetings and all night planning sessions? Oh to be a fly on the wall!

Do You Want the Good News or Bad News First?
Lehman Brothers (LEH) came out after the close with an announcement about raising some capital. They are looking to raise 3 Billion dollars through a Convertible Preferred share deal. The final details are a bit hazy at this time, so I will wait to see the exact specifics.

LEH, who stated this week that they have all the capital they need (here we go again) apparently wanted to show everyone that they can get even more if needed. In fact, the cash raising is just for instilling confidence! How about that? From Bloomberg story is this quote:

"Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ... is selling at least $3 billion of new shares to U.S. institutions to reassure investors it has ample access to capital."

So to prove LEH has capital access, it is going to issue a boat load of new shares, pay out dividends on those shares, and attach a convertible premium to those shares, all to reassure investors? OK. I would be reassured.

What is interesting here is if you like conspiracy theories, I have two of them:

1. The FED is buying the offering - The FED has arranged to buy the offering on the same day of the Treasury Departments big revamp. This timing has the effect of projecting a new found market confidence. Remember one of the new departments for the FED is going to be a "stability team" or some crap. Maybe they got started early? A nice and smooth 3 billion dollar cash infusion to an investment bank as troubled as LEH could be just the confidence booster the FED wants to get out there.
2. LEH is Going Bankrupt, but FED Promised Bailout Makes Preferred Shares Guaranteed Money - LEH is going to go bust and the necessary FED bailout (you know to avoid a "world ending credit event") is easy money for the buyers as the FED will pay some crazy amount to make the bond holders and preferred shares whole.

I am not even sure either of those 2 theories are that insane. A few years ago, yes, but not now.

I think that LEH should have to disclose just WHO is buying this offering. I would love to know if it is indeed the FED. If not the FED, I want to know who I can make fun of for buying into LEH. What about more transparency? I say we start right now with the LEH deal! Vote in the new poll on the LEH deal.

This presents another funny Street angle. The CNBC folks were all happy about the deal. Their logic was that LEH is able to raise capital, at poor terms of course, and this is bullish for the financials. This is of course silly logic. LEH is in big trouble and has to offer heavy terms to attract financing, but they are able to find some crazies to buy the offering? Good news or bad news first? If you just found out the bad news that your wife was a hooker, would it be good news that she is a high priced one making big bucks?

Have a good night.

Cooked Books Now Standard Procedure

Cold and windy today. Stopped at the Home Depot to buy some trash barrels and bought a bunch of seeds to plant. Turnips, cucumbers, and the wife wanted sunflowers. This garden idea is taking on a life of its own. If the weather ever improves, I am actually going to have to do some real work! Wonderful.

Case Closed on The FED as a Market Manipulator
Over the years I have followed finance, there has been a debate on whether the FED has been complicit in market manipulation or not. Some observers argued that the FED was independent. They said the FED was concerned with monetary issues and not the markets in general. They stated the FED had no interest in the day to day market gyrations.

All those folks can now be silenced forever. The FED and the Treasury have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that their basic mission is to act as a market prop. There can no longer be any real argument about this. The myriad of FED auctions, the forced Bear Stearns buyout, the surprise rate cuts on option expiration days, and a host of other actions have finally elucidated the facts.

The FED has become a market pumper, not unlike any other pumper on CNBC. A new mandate to in effect make rising markets occur is clearly a priority. What does this mean? While most astute players have known this for some time, a general acceptance of this prop will now take hold. Take a look at this quote from a Citi analyst in regards to troubled Lehmen Bothers and their liquidity position:
"With $34 billion in liquidity at the parent company, the ability to get access to over $200 billion in liquidity from the Fed's primary dealer credit facility, and its ability to tap the term auction facility, access to liquidity is a non-issue," Bhatia wrote in a note to clients."
As you can see free and total access to unlimited amounts of cash has now become a "market expectation" that buy recommendations are based upon. And you know how the FED loves to make sure expectations are met, yes?

New Expanded Role for Federal Reserve
From our "Stupid Government Ideas" news desk we get a report that a new and expanded role is planned for the Federal Reserve. As if destroying the dollar, failing to curb inflation, and printing enough money to bailout the universe were good things that we needed more of. At least with more direct control over things the FED can engineer a Depression that much quicker. I am a fan of expedience!

The list of new powers is long, and mainly regulatory in nature. The puzzling thing is that the FED will now be able to look into the books of ANY firm that "threatens to destabilize" the system. What the criteria for destabilization is I have no idea. I would wonder how wise it is for the FED to be opening their balance sheet to banks and entities if they have no current idea of the books for those firms? The best roundup I have found was from the Prudent Bear site, and I recommend it as a glimpse into the future regulation likely to come from this:
http://www.prudentbear.com/index.php/RandomWalkHome

The market hates "uncertainty" and I do not see how more oversight from the FED is going to be a good thing for the financial sector going forward.

Cooked Books Now Standard Procedure
For the past few years the readings on inflation have been very low, even in the face of rapidly escalating prices. The data was sliced, diced, and massaged to "make the numbers" sort of speak with regards to the inflation reports. Fannie Mae practiced creative booking of revenues in order to smooth out their earnings reports. Mortgage applicants opted to use "stated income" paths to inflate their earnings. The list goes on and on. It seems that while the USA does not actually produce anything useful, it does lead the world in the production of cooked books.

Floyd Norris at the NY Times has a good piece up about how cooking the books is now encouraged and will be standard procedure. I ask you to read the entire piece here:
http://norris.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/28/if-market-prices-are-too-low-ignore-them/

Key section;
But one part of the letter stood out to me, providing an excuse for companies to ignore a market value if they don’t like it (italics added):
“Under SFAS 157, it is appropriate for you to consider actual market prices, or observable inputs, even when the market is less liquid than historical market volumes, unless those prices are the result of a forced liquidation or distress sale. Only when actual market prices, or relevant observable inputs, are not available is it appropriate for you to use unobservable inputs which reflect your assumptions of what market participants would use in pricing the asset or liability.”
There it is. Ignore prices that are deemed too low, and magically everything is wonderful once again.

This makes sense, and is the logical extension of our entire financial system. There is simply too much bad debt, impaired assets, non payable insurance, and lack of hard capital to backstop all the paper written on it to EVER HAVE A REALISTIC PRICING applied to them. All the delay tactics being practiced right now (FED auctions, treasury swaps, etc) must be viewed through the lens of perpetuation of fantasy.

It has long been a central belief here at Economic Disconnect that the US is able to play these types of games because the foreign holders of our debt have no choice but to play along. The Chinese, Japanese, and the like hold so many dollars that they are in no position to call bullshit on our practices. This clear and obvious creative accounting should be the final straw which effectively finishes our credibility, yet it is just another story in another paper that gets little notice.

So here we are. The FED is poised to take over banking as it exists here in the US. Banking speculation that resulted in astounding losses will be spread out over the taxpayers. The same firms that have caused all the damage will be backstopped by you and me so they can continue to pay out their bonus plans to their employees. The foreign holders of US debt will stay quiet and buy more. This is truly a unique time in history indeed!

I would love to end with a statement that none of the plans will help, that things are going to crack, and that reality will descend upon us. But I do not think it is going to happen. The silliness has become so apparent and so blatant with no repercussions that I am forced to accept that this dance could continue forever. I can still complain though!

Have a good night.

Friday Blowoff

Had a bit of icy snow overnight and this morning. It is amazing to live in New England and see what happens after a late snow storm. No less than 4 major car accidents on the way to work this morning ended up with an cool hour and a half commute! Massachusetts residents are so arrogant and think they are so smart, but a total inability to operate a motor vehicle in light snow surely disagrees with that mindset.

Friday Blowoff
Had dinner with he wife and mom in law, so very short on time. There is a TON of material out there, and I will have a full post tomorrow. If you need a fix, Mish and Minyanville have been especially good the last 2 days, so stop over there.

I for one am going to have a Friday Blow off, and try and provide quality entertainment for my readers on a Friday night.

First up, score major points with the wife by showing her this picture:

see more crazy cat pics
You are welcome!

A while back I mentioned a scene from the awesome film "Lone Wolf McQuade" where Chuck Norris blasts out of the ground with his supercharged Dodge Ram truck. Impossible? Yes. Absurd? Uh huh. Totally awesome? Absolutely! I love that he douses himself with a beer first!:


Rock Blogging anyone?

"Summer of 69" from Bryan Adams:


If you have ever seen Ozzy live, you know he takes a full pipe organ with him just for the song "Mr Crowley". here is the live version with the immortal Randy Rhoads on guitar:


I love Metallica's cover of "Whiskey in the Jar". Excellent tune (warning video is a little over the top):


Obscure song time! I like theme metal, and Manowar was a great band for just that. Check out the song "Defender" with an intro from Orsen Wells!:


Last tune for the night. Try a little Tommy Tutone with the always memorable "867-5309":

"I got you numer on the wall" classic!

Have a good night!

Credit Crunch - Call It What it is: A Debt Crisis

Okay, it is going to be wet snow here tonight. As it will not accumulate, I guess i can let it go. Enough already with this stuff!

Wall Street Knows All, or So They Say
One of my favorite things about the markets and market participants is how they always come up smelling like roses. Take homebuilder Lennar (LEN) and their earnings report today. from Yahoo Finance:
"Lennar reported a loss of $88.2 million, or 56 cents per share, in the three months ended Feb. 29 compared with profit of $68.6 million, or 43 cents per share, in the year ago quarter.
The results included a 38 cent-per-share charge related to valuation adjustments and write-offs of option deposits and pre-acquisition costs. After those adjustments, Lennar's loss was 18 cents per share.
The adjusted results were better than estimates on Wall Street, where the mean estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Financial was for a loss of $1.07 per share. Some analysts include write-down estimates in their predictions, while others do not.
Sales fell 62 percent to $1.06 billion from $2.79 billion in the year-ago period. The average selling price fell 8 percent.
Deliveries of new homes were down 60 percent to 3,596 homes. New home orders were down 57 percent to 3,045, with a cancellation rate of 26 percent.
Now forget about LEN as a stock, it is dead money for 4-5 years so the movements make ZERO difference in the scheme of things. What is funny is Wall Street was "estimating" a loss on the order of $1.07 a share for LEN. Now look at these numbers for a second:

• LEN lost 56 cents a share this quarter
• Deliveries were down 60 PERCENT!
• Orders were down 57 PERCENT!

So in order to have lost $1.07 a share as the minds on the street estimated, their sales and orders would have had to have been ZERO. That's right absolutely ZERO. So was this upside "surprise" really a surprise? It depends. If you believe that the street thought LEN would not have sold even 1 home last quarter than yes, this was a huge upside surprise. If not, it is just more play math and moving the goalposts. (Note: I understand write-offs can account for a huge earnings difference. I purposely left that out to highlight a common practice by the CNBC crowd. As for write-offs, with such small write downs, I would watch LEN the next few quarters, there may be a downside surprise!)

There has been a bit of conjecture along the lines that estimates and expectations are so low that anything better than expected will be huge. That would be fine if the stock markets reflected RIGHT NOW any of the dour forecasts. Looking at the markets, they are priced as if Goldilocks is alive and well, the financials have bottomed, and the economy is accelerating. All points that are incorrect. And this is the point I am trying to make (I do have one!): The stock pumpers would love to rally on anything from these levels on the excuse that things are not as bad as expected. All fine and good. The problem is that the markets are priced as if things were never that bad to begin with. As they say on Minyanville, risk is high should these contrasting realities ever reconcile.

Credit Crunch - Call It What it is: A Debt Crisis
I am a huge fan of misdirection and the use of phrasing to convey particular emotions. An excellent example is the current issues which are affectionately called "The Credit Crunch". from Wiki;
"A credit crunch is a sudden reduction in the availability of loans (or "credit") or a sudden increase in the cost of obtaining a loan from the banks."
The media, the government, and especially the financial folks would love for you to think of the current state of things as a simple lack of access to cash, ie liquidity, which is of course nothing to get too excited about. A simple "liquidity injection" or other such maneuvers would in this case solve the underlying problems. Seems both simple and harmless.

So what's all the fuss? The problem is that the problems faced by the banks and the economy are not due top a lack of available cash (credit), but a massive over accumulation of DEBT. Now take a good look at the Wiki definition for Debt;
"Debt is that which is owed; usually referencing assets owed, but the term can cover other obligations. In the case of assets, debt is a means of using future purchasing power in the present before a summation (monies) has been earned. Some companies and corporations use debt as a part of their overall corporate finance strategy.
A debt is created when a creditor agrees to lend a sum of assets to a debtor. In modern society, debt is usually granted with expected repayment; in many cases, plus interest. Historically, debt was responsible for the creation of indentured servants."
Read the definition again. Then email it to all your friends. It is a stark and clear definition of debt for what it really is.

Debt is a means of using future purchasing power in the present before the actual money has been made. Mortgage borrowers took out a massive amount of loans predicated on ever rising prices. Banks happily and heartily extended the loans. Now this has all gone to hell, and all that is left is the debt incurred. Not credit. Debt.

There is no credit crunch. There are no liquidity issues. There is only a debt crisis. The name should fit the situation. So should a headline read something like this:
Credit Crunch Hits Banks - Banks struggle to find liquidity in the current mortgage mess
Or should the headline be:
Debt Crisis Hits Banks - Money lent out not to be repaid due to mortgage mess
Which do you think is more applicable to the current situation? Vote in the new poll and let me know!

You see, credit is good, and debt is bad. Hence we have a credit problem, but not a debt problem. Compare the headlines about the debt, sorry, credit crunch with this alternate analogy:
Heroin Crunch Hits Dealers - After overdosing a record number of customers that are now dead or vegetables, dealers face hard times as things dry up.

Too much debt, and a slowly changing recognition of that fact is core of the problem. Liquidity is not the issue. Let us at least be honest.

Have a good night.

Entitlement Society - You Get What You Deserve

About 50 degress here in Massachusetts today, and if the wind was not so strong, it would have been a grand day. Still, I am not complaining. The potatoes I bought last week (to get buds for a new planting) still have not sprouted any buds! They had better get going soon. I had to do a presentation at work today, and even though I have spoken many times in front of fairly big groups, I still get nervous. What is it about public speaking that gets most of us nervous?

Happy Birthday and Sign the Petition
The highly recommended blog, The Mess That Greenspan Made, turns three years old today! Congratulations to Tim Iacono for his excellent work. The Mess That Greenspan Made was one of the blogs that inspired me to start my own in an attempt to wake some people up about the situation at hand. I thank Tim for all his great content over the years.

Always trying to actually make a difference, Karl Denninger over at Market Ticker has a new petition up that you would do well to check out. It is worded a bit strongly, but the facts are strong. Please take a look and see if the petition works for you. I have signed on, and I can guarantee that your information is safe and you will not be contacted by any outside party. Check it out!
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/2008/03/not-durable-durable-goods-and-more-bear.html


Entitlement Society - You Get What You Deserve
When I read various pieces concerning the housing bubble, employment, social security, and the like I am sometime overwhelmed by the overarching sense of entitlement that pervades our American society. Here is a short list of the most common things the average American is expecting is "due" him/her:

• A "good paying" job
• Said job cannot be taken away
• A Home
• Health Insurance
• Social Security
• Funding for higher education
• Credit on demand
• Cheap Gas
• Cheap Food
• Appreciating stocks and Real Estate
• Freedom from responsibility
• Protection from ones own foolishness

Now certainly NOT ALL of the above apply to EVERY SINGLE American out there, but it is a fair compilation. Use the comments section to suggest others.

When I read news stories I always run across the familiar theme: "I am in trouble with my (BLANK) and so (Blank) must do something about it." or " I deserve (BLANK) and so (BLANK) must provide it." Really? You mean to say something did not go as you thought and now someone else has to fix it? Why so? Since when? Who says? You deserve things do you? Again, says who?

This mindset is manifested most clearly in the current housing mess. You have seen plenty of examples. I wonder when this entitlement consciousness became so strong? At this point the US is a country filled with whiny crybabies that cannot endure any hardship or setback. If things continue to deteriorate in the financial sphere and banks are faced with any more major trouble (likely) we are going to see if down deep this country still has the stuff that our grandparents were made of. I hope we will be up to the task.

Have a good night.