Tuesday 23 December 2008

Marc Faber: 2009 to Be `Catastrophic' for Global Economy P1

Worse contraction since great depression. Faber.

Marc Faber: 2009 to Be `Catastrophic' for Global Economy P2

That the truth, 2009 will be the start of a great depression experience.

Wednesday 17 December 2008

Hedges on the Edge

Hedges on the Edge

Discussing how long can hedges cling onto investments before there's a major backlash, with Gregory Zuckerman, The Wall Street Journal and Henny Sender, Financial Times

Monday 15 December 2008

President Bush Attacked By Shoes

I wondered if any capacity for a pragmatic response and actual physical nimbleness still existed in the old fighter pilot as it was never apparent in his politics. He is still looking out for incoming political ordinance and flying shoes.

Thursday 11 December 2008

How the 'Experts' Missed the Crash: Philosophical Flaws, No Sense of History



Unfortunately, Galbraith doesn't hold much hope that this crisis will change much the outlook for economists, noting they don't study history and many are "still in denial" about what's transpired.

Riz Khan - Global meltdown - Nov 19 - Part 1

Riz Khan asks top economists what needs to be done in order to turn the global economy around.

Tuesday 9 December 2008

A digital library, free to the world

Mortgage fraud as art

Astounding:

Orson Benn, once a vice president at the nation’s largest subprime lender, spent three years during the height of the housing boom tutoring Florida mortgage brokers in the art of fraud.

From his office in New York, he taught them how to doctor credit reports, coached them to inflate income on loan applications, and helped them invent phantom jobs for borrowers.

While prosecutors looked at roughly $100 million in loans written by Benn and a cadre of co-workers, that represents just a portion of the loans they approved during his aggressive expansion into Florida.

The Miami Herald found that Benn’s network approved more than $550 million in home loans from Tampa to West Palm Beach to Miami, according to an analysis of court records. In Miami-Dade County alone, Benn’s office approved more than $349 million in loans on 1,913 homes — more than one in three have since fallen into foreclosure, the analysis shows.

Valdes brokered at least 100 of those loans worth $22 million — nearly all based on false and misleading financial information, the newspaper found

How did they doctor loan apps? Simple mortgage broker fraud: “non-existent employers, grossly inflated salaries and sudden, drastic increases in the borrower’s net worth.”

There apparently was an art to falsifying the documentation, and Benn taught his brokers precisely how, falsifying income and employment data:

He taught one of those brokers, Scott Almeida, a convicted cocaine trafficker, to prepare phony income statements and doctor credit reports. A few months later, Almeida introduced Benn to Tampa brokers David Tuggle and Eric Steinhauser. After Benn taught them to prepare phony documents, they began to write millions of dollars in loans.

The accompanying video is a must see, and the entire article definitely worth reading.

Nothing on predatory borrowers, though . .

video

Friday 5 December 2008

Krugman: $10 trillion available for economic rescue

We are about half done, I guess. that money would have bought a lot of work relief doing green jobs. We are going to spend it all buying time and nothing else.

Wednesday 3 December 2008

Monster Crash

satire!

Peter Schiff Was Right 2006 - 2007 (2nd Edition)

This is a set of clips of Peter Schiff from 2006 and 2007. Added labels and 2008 predictions to the first video.

Monday 1 December 2008

The REAL Maverick: Present Economy worse than Depression

Tabeb and Mandelbroit reprise...black swans, fractals, markets.
Dooms day.

Inside Look: A Dark Cloud Over Retailers

US retail is doomed, alas.

Jim Rogers On Power Lunch 11.26.08

Worth listening too always.