"I'm GGG and I approve this message."

[bling trade]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
Rudy will be the next VP.

No, Obama or Hilary will win, and both need a southern white mail as a running mate.

[bling trade]

People talk about Bernanke trying to prop up the stock market. But that isn't so. He is trying to prevent mortgage rates from reseting. Last summer, they were projected to increase by an average by 3%. That is why he has cut the fed funds rate by 2.25% since last summer. He'll have to cut a lot more than another 0.75% though. As you can see from the graphs below, mortgage rates aren't dropping as much as the fed funds rate because credit spreads have been increasing.

This will slow down the adjustment in housing. However, it won't stop it. Even before mortages started reseting, many homeowners were starting to fall behind on payments. Even at teaser rates, they could barely afford their homes. Way too many bought with the idea they could sell quickly at a profit, or refinance at lower rates. Keeping rates constant won't help these people

fed funds graph


mortgage rates graph

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by bling trade
No, Obama or Hilary will win, and both need a southern white mail as a running mate.

anyone else notice how people talk but don't take the bets?

[Secret_Agent_Man]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
anyone else notice how people talk but don't take the bets?

"Am I on ignore?"

S_A_M

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by bling trade
People talk about Bernanke trying to prop up the stock market. But that isn't so. He is trying to prevent mortgage rates from reseting. Last summer, they were projected to increase by an average by 3%. That is why he has cut the fed funds rate by 2.25% since last summer. He'll have to cut a lot more than another 0.75% though. As you can see from the graphs below, mortgage rates aren't dropping as much as the fed funds rate because credit spreads have been increasing.

This will slow down the adjustment in housing. However, it won't stop it. Even before mortages started reseting, many homeowners were starting to fall behind on payments. Even at teaser rates, they could barely afford their homes. Way too many bought with the idea they could sell quickly at a profit, or refinance at lower rates. Keeping rates constant won't help these people

fed funds graph


mortgage rates graph

We should just convert them all to 40 year mortgages.

I'm half kidding, but I have heard of 40 year mortgages, and why not?

[LessinSF]

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
Dissent. He didnt run in the early contests. As a result, any media attention focused on him went out the door.

dissent. He ran and put big money into N.H.

LessinKohPhiPhi, Thailand

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
He didnt run in the early contests.

Actually, he spent a lot of time and money in New Hampshire, but then pulled out when his numbers started to tank.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Hillary as Pres, Obama as VP, and Edwards as AG?

Would Edwards really want to be AG? A lot of that job is prosecuting, and that doesn't seem like his thing.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Would Edwards really want to be AG? A lot of that job is prosecuting, and that doesn't seem like his thing.

I've heard Secretary of Labor or HUD being thrown around for Edwards, which seems more appropriate than AG.

[Diane_Keaton]

Video: Insists Clinton is just as tough on foreign policy as McCain and she will vote for Clinton if McCain is the R candidate and she isn't being sarcastic about it. Funny: "Clinton is smarter than McCain; McCain doesn't even KNOW when he's been caught in a lie."

[Cletus Miller]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
We should just convert them all to 40 year mortgages.

I'm half kidding, but I have heard of 40 year mortgages, and why not?

There have been 50-year mortgages available in CA for almost two years.

A significant part of the problem is speculators (and outright fraudsters) who purchased homes with 100% financing and no intent to occupy the houses. These folks aren't looking to re-fi their homes--they're just dumping the houses on the banks.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Would Edwards really want to be AG? A lot of that job is prosecuting, and that doesn't seem like his thing.

He's absolutely a prosecutor. He wants to claw into big, bad business for "the little guy." The frequent delusions of many prosecutors and personal injury lawyers - that they are always on the side of good vs. evil - are almost identical.

Sure, Edwards might be one of those cynical sorts who looked at PI law as nothing more than a way to make fast, huge cash. But I don't think so. I think he was one of those guys who actually deluded himself to the belief he was helping society by shucking and jiving juries.

There are a lot of lawyers out there who have to create myths to get around the mercenary reality of what we do. Edwards scares me becuase from everything he says, he's clearly drunk so much of that Kool Aid and is so fucking certain he's right, and that things are black and white as opposed to the grey they truly are that he would use the AG position as a pulpit for his own preposterous crusades against the engines of our economy.

Business is quite flawed, but it never claims to be altruistic (save the silly commercials about how it's donating a dollar to the United Way for every widget bought). People like Edwards think they have a monopoly on morality, and that what they do is a divine charge. He scares me like nothing else because if you've seen his kind up close, you realize just how damaged and twisted and sick those minds are.

The replacement for right wing, mentally ill sorts like the Neocons is not their left wing counterparts. An Edwards cabinet position of any sort would be the beginning of the longest recession we've ever seen.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
He's absolutely a prosecutor. He wants to claw into big, bad business for "the little guy." The frequent delusions of many prosecutors and personal injury lawyers - that they are always on the side of good vs. evil - are almost identical.

Sure, Edwards might be one of those cynical sorts who looked at PI law as nothing more than a way to make fast, huge cash. But I don't think so. I think he was one of those guys who actually deluded himself to the belief he was helping society by shucking and jiving juries.

There are a lot of lawyers out there who have to create myths to get around the mercenary reality of what we do. Edwards scares me becuase from everything he says, he's clearly drunk so much of that Kool Aid and is so fucking certain he's right, and that things are black and white as opposed to the grey they truly are that he would use the AG position as a pulpit for his own preposterous crusades against the engines of our economy.

Business is quite flawed, but it never claims to be altruistic (save the silly commercials about how it's donating a dollar to the United Way for every widget bought). People like Edwards think they have a monopoly on morality, and that what they do is a divine charge. He scares me like nothing else because if you've seen his kind up close, you realize just how damaged and twisted and sick those minds are.

The replacement for right wing, mentally ill sorts like the Neocons is not their left wing counterparts. An Edwards cabinet position of any sort would be the beginning of the longest recession we've ever seen.

Do you see Edwards as any different from Elliot Spitzer? What you describe seems to be on par with what Spitzer did in the AG's office in New York, and Cuomo seems to be following that model. I don't live in New York, and AGs in Texas aren't all that notorious for getting off their butts, so I don't know what the impact of that sort of AG would be in real terms. It seems, though, that the people of New York liked Spitzer enough to elevate him to Governor.

[Cletus Miller]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
the people of New York liked Spitzer enough to elevate him to Governor.

Who ran against him? I suspect that a trained chimp could have beaten whoever it was.

And Spitzer spent the past half decade pandering to the average voter making scape goats out of a handful of Wall Streeters while letting off the vast majority of folks (who were doing much the same things) with relative slaps on the wrist. He's great at headlines, and Cuomo is showing the same skill, but it isn't effecting real, meaningful change.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
Do you see Edwards as any different from Elliot Spitzer? What you describe seems to be on par with what Spitzer did in the AG's office in New York, and Cuomo seems to be following that model. I don't live in New York, and AGs in Texas aren't all that notorious for getting off their butts, so I don't know what the impact of that sort of AG would be in real terms. It seems, though, that the people of New York liked Spitzer enough to elevate him to Governor.

I'm not saying enough voters - particularly the angry sort who feel dienfranchised by "powerful corporate interests" and view courthouses as places where big business gets its rightful comeuppance - wouldn't support Edwards. Many of these same people supported Spitzer's loathsome attacks on decent people, most notably his appalling, over-reaching lawsuit against Ken Langone, which is thankfully going nowhere.

Yes, many people who feel they have no power love the populist themes of these types. But that doesn't mean these are decent men who deserve to run our govt, or that their positioning themsleves as saviors of the little guy isn't disgusting PR, deliberate or not.

Look up the ties between Cuomo and his old law firm (can't recall name right now), partners in which were drawn into an FBI investigation involving the defrauding of a huge insurance company and business dealings with organized crime. He's filthy, and Spitzer's family is not without blemishes. Nobody reaches that level of wealth in the hardball world of NY real estate without resorting to tactics best described as ethically troubling. And as to Edwards, his bullshit's so well known it barely necessitates repeating. That speech where he claimed - based on phony science - that a child born with a lifelong disability was "speaking through him" in his closing argument shows either an amazing game of self delusion or a truly loathsome lack of character.

That he helped a family and "screwed a rich doctor" and insurance company doesn't make it right.

As Less noted days ago, however, anybody running is flawed by nature, even McCain and Obama. And I can't say the GOP's excesses aren't just as bad. What I can say, however, is the GOP has never held itself out as some "saint" doing the bidding of the common man. That's truly repulsive.

We need a "loser pays' system in our courts, from both sides. When you make a silly claim or raise a ludicrous defense, you should be taxed the other side's costs. And prosecutors should be held personally liable when they over-reach. And if you're found to have prosecuted for sheer political gain as Nifong did, you should be subject to loss of license and considerable jail time.