Sunday, September 7, 2008

"End of an Era", the demise of Freddie & Fannie

As predicted here many times, Fannie & Freddie, those great experiments in socialism, have failed and are now property of the people - like it or not.  How far behind is Lehman, or even Merrill?  Stay tuned.

The funny thing is that the markets might actually LIKE this.  I suspected that in any event on friday, with the market's mid session turn around.  Not that I went long except a little silver, because it is better to wait and see the trend before the trend comes and leaves foot prints up the front of you...

Remember that jerk from the National Association of Realtors?  Dr. David Lareah?  As Chief of the "independently minded" NAR, those good people who ALWAYS have your best interests at heart, Lereah penned a couple of books about the never ending housing love story.  He should share a prime spot with U.K. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain  as utterer of  "most famous of last words".

No amount of government seizure money is going to do much for the U.S. housing market.  Time and lower prices will work it all out, not the National Socialists.  I am curious as to when the SS shows up at homeowner's doorsteps: "Zvee have ways of making you PAY".

See, that is the problem with big government, or government programs of any kind.  Someone with a gun and a badge has to enforce the program.  Increase taxes on the rich!  (And if they don't pay, goons with guns and police batons will come and do violence to them - jails and prisons are merely societal organized violence.  If you think not, just skip paying your taxes for a few years, see what happens to you.  On second thought, don't do anything so stupid and just trust me.)

Every time I hear some jag off popping off about regulating the banks, brokers, shoemakers, bakers, and candlestick makers... I hear the sound of jack boots goose stepping down the strazza.  Clearly the folks advocating said regulation have never been regulated before.   Regulation sounds great, and in areas of food, water, and public health, it is an absolute necessity.  In business?  Well folks, we have not got what we paid for, and we paid dearly for what we did not get.  It would have been cheaper to have just GIVEN everybody a house, a la the  Soviet Union, than what we have paid for the patchwork of FAILED regulators, services, and the final bailout.  But this is government, and these guys wouldn't know a cost/benefit analysis from a digital rectal exam.

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I don't have a dog in the hunt in this presidential election, but it is hysterical (to me) to watch the MTVization of American politics get turned on the folks that unleashed it (the Obama campaign) in the first place.  McCain may or may not win, but you gotta hand it to him re the Palin selection.  No matter how many women's focus groups, or how they are constituted and presented, that the Dems trot out to tarnish her appeal, the pitch backfires in the amusing glare of a "cat fight". This will NEVER work.  If I were an operative for the Dems, I might have a woman standing with her FAMILY saying that Palin's views/stances/positions/whatever would harm her and her family.... you MIGHT get her negatives up a little with something like that (and then again you might not.  It is very hard to lay a hand on a woman in politics, even by another woman), but having a group of well groomed, prep and pearls professional women who APPEAR to have had every advantage come out swinging against Mom and Apple Pie?  Not too smart.  The Dems better go find James Carville - and fast.

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I just read an excellent book by another brilliant, testosterone challenged, ivory towered socialist,  - "Plan C" by Pat Murphy.  I highly recommend the book, even though it is inconceivable that any of his suggestions would be put into practice.  And not because his ideas are great and we are just too dumb, but because we are talking about PEOPLE here.

One line in the book really got me - "this process will have to be carefully managed and controlled", I assume by benevolent socialists/communists with armies of thugs with guns and badges.  Count me out.  I would prefer Plan D, free people competing with one another for the continuation of their genes to Mr. Murphy's Plan C.

Wanna know why?  Because plan C is f^%$ing fools errand.  Allow me to explain human nature:

Scenario #1:

4 people have been marooned on a desert island with no hope of getting off.  The 4 are composed of 3 young men, and 1 young, nubile woman.

Net result:  After 1 year, 1 of the men has killed the 2 other men.

Scenario #2:

4 people have been marooned on a desert island with no hope of getting off.  The 4 are composed of 3 young, nubile women, and one young man.

Net result:  After 1 year, all 3 women are pregnant.

If you missed something here, email me and I will explain the birds and the bees much more fully than that conversation you had with your dad when you were 8.


Yours for a better world,

Mentatt (at) yahoo (dot) com



9 comments:

Anonymous said...

It definitely is. No doubt about it. Now that is a succinct blog. I like it when you don't mince any words. This is IT! I assume you are referring to the takeover of Fannie and Freddie by the US govt. If that is so I definitely agree with "it".

You are so Zen.

Best regards,
Chuck H.

Andrew said...

Btw, markets in Australia up 4% today so far, financials up 7%. Might be a sign of things to come in the US tomorrow...

Anonymous said...

Chinese, Russian and Arabic might be the better language to express the totalitarian metaphors. The facists are so yesterday.
Oh, and the big market still works.
The sovereign funds aren't gonna take any more hits from the cheesey little market vendors on Wall Street.
That's the way monopoly works, right.
Rockefellow and Carnegie knew how to do business.

Anonymous said...

You might add US English to the list of languages. Check out HTTP://dsausa.org. Many of these folks are high in the Democratic party. Read what they hope to achieve. (The "Where we stand page.")

1. Control of all industry.
2. Control of all natural resources (including the dirt under your feet, I assume)
3. Control of all credit.
4. The US subservient to a worldwide socialist government.

Specifically, look at the list of members of Congress in the Progressive Caucus. http://cpc.lee.house.gov/

Up until the Dems got control of Congress, the Progressive Caucus and the DSA had links to each others web sites and proudly declared that you had to be in the DSA to be in the Progressive Caucus. Now there is not a single name that is mentioned in both websites. But they're the same filks

You don't need the Chinese or Russians or Arabs. Just give the Dem leadership in Congress a chance. They'll be glad to give you a full dose of socialism.

Bureaucrat said...

If I may put on my commie pinko hat on for a moment .... the Federal government -- Bush, the Congress and all the little employees like me -- are doing EXACTLY what you told us to do. You want spending and you don't want to pay for it -- fine! Done. You don't want regulation -- fine -- but next time the non-30-year-fixed-mortgages blow up again cause you all ALLOWED ARMS to exist at all, be prepared to pay for it. I have a cash register, and I only take cash. Jeffers, your hated for us reads like the dimwitted WSJ editorial page -- lots of bluster signifying nothing. Either you allow the HUD-1 form to protect people, or you have The Jungle, circa 1908, with a whole LOT of people then getting ripped off. Just say "thank you" and continue to help up find a way to make some money on this mess.

A Quaker in a Strange Land said...

Bureaucrat:

Please! I bear no hatred for you or your kind!

I bear a distinct suspician of all things government.

And I don't doubt that SOMEONE asked for these services - but it was not me nor my kind.

The world is not fair, and their is too much expectation that it should or could be. Kuntsler spells this out in his "wish upon a star" and his "something for nothing" diatribes.

Anonymous said...

George Bush and the Republicans seems adequately SovietSocialist to me after this weekend. That's Crony Socialism with a minimal regard for the common good.
Read 'The Tragedy of the Commons' again to understand why laissez faire economic policies don't work.
We went thru all this crap 100 years ago but it seems everyone's forgotten. As bureaucrat sez, the govt gave the cronies exactly what they wanted.

A Quaker in a Strange Land said...

Anon@2:04:

You mean I must continue my indoctrination till it sticks? Big fan of the "Tragedy".

Still, I am a HARDCORE libertarian. There are a lot of us, and we are armed. What if we don't want to join your socialist workers paradise?

ALL governments rule by FORCE, which is why "the government that governs least governs best".

Do you really want to hire that many thugs with guns and badges? How long before they are running everything?

Anonymous said...

Greg: Every household in Iraq had an AK-47 and ammo...residuals from the Iran=Iraq War. Didn't stop Saddam, didn't stop us.
The gun in the house just makes it a little more adrenaline rush for the SWAT team when they kick in the door.
As far as guns and badges. We probably have more than Russia and China combined.
Government is collectively what we make it and yes, we aren't doing so well.
And libertarians can be just as religious about it as socialists. You know, true believers.
I'd just like to see some hard core pragmatists in charge.