So You Want to Renegotiate? Banks Hands May Be Tied.

There is a very clever hidden problem with trying to get banks and other financial agencies to renegotiate the debts for homes, businesses, and other borrowers. Behind the mortgage contracts, behind the lines of credit, and behind a lot of other debts there are contracts that are seldom revealed.

Why? Simple. The contract holders hidden behind these are BETTING on mortgages going into default, lines of credit and other loans also going into default, even the banks are being bet on to fail. Sound crazy? Crazy like a fox in the henhouse!

Take for example a simple mortgage on a house worth, say $200,000 and that mortgage is under water. Then the bank has separated itself from the mortgage by a contract to someone else, and that entity has use Credit Default Swaps to ensure they get something. The contract between the entity and the bank binds up any change in the mortgage, because the entity holding the contract WANT to see you lose, want to see the bank lose! That is where the entity makes more money from the default.

This same process is done with lines of credit for business, using the material wealth of the company for collateral.

Unless and until the entities who have these Credit Default Swaps are either put behind bars, investigated for forcing you and the banks to maintain a very unhealthy situation so the entity makes money, or the CDS contracts themselves are judged to be a hindrance to both you and the banks in renegotiations by the courts, you and the banks are going to stay in trouble.

Perhaps the smartest move here is to hire a lawyer, and take this to a court, using warrants to find out who holds the banks hostage to contracts like this. Unless and until the banks can get themselves out of these contracts by either using law or by the Federal Government outlawing Credit Default Swaps entirely, the economy cannot reasonably regain any stability.

When anyone bets on failure, and makes millions from the economic failure of banks, ordinary families, and businesses, then the whole of society has a huge problem.

The time has come to uncover these entities, reveal just how much damage has been created, and publish the terms of these very nasty contracts. The time is long overdue to find the roots of the problem and investigate just how much power some of the entities have over everyday lives.

So, if anyone is wondering why the banks are sweating and making things tough for renegotiation, then perhaps look behind the banks to the contracts betting on YOU going under, along with your banker, and the entity will be taking the money to another bank or hiding it for future abuse of others.

Credit Default Swaps took down Merrill Lynch, put many banks into such a mess they will take years, if they even survive, to get back on solid ground. My belief here is that, even now, someone is putting out Credit Default Swaps on the banks that do exist, the businesses, and even some of the major corporations like General Motors, Chrysler, and the casinos owned by Donald Trump.

Outlaw the damn things, now!

Credit Default Swaps are Insurance without Regulation, click here for fuller information

Obama, Slam Those Salaries, Now!

I knew at least two months ago that the CEO’s and other fat cat exec’s would find a way to circumvent the ceiling on their bonuses, their income, and get the money.  Quelle Surprise!

They made over 100 of the upper echelon in one company “partners” to get around this,in others,  they just thumbed their noses at the taxpayer, the government and took the money anyway.

I have yet to see anything to get those damned Credit Default Swaps under control, and with the serious lack of legal recourse, the fat cats are eating out on the taxpayers of the entire world. Remember, most of the banks do have international branches or connections.

President Obama, put those ceilings into law, harsh penalties if they violate, and make damn sure they do give you full disclosure on every damn cent of taxpayer monies they are spending. No excuses, no hiding, nadda.

If necessary, put a full investigation using every federal agency, including the IRS, the FBI, and the Wall Street agencies. Stop this abuse of trust now.

As for our own government here, there is an equally apalling lack of investigation, oversight, accounting, so I can gather the same is happening in Japan, Korea, the U.K., Belgium, Germany, and virtually every country tied to this disastrous mess.

Here is where diplomacy comes in, there MUST be an international cooperation, an international accounting, and definitely an international effort to kick these guys where, obviously, they need it, in the wallet.

Damn this is a mess!

Ohio Uses State Monies to Deal with Mortgage Fraudsters and Foreclosures.

I had posted earlier that a lot of the mortgages were turned into Credit Default Swaps, which meant that the mortgages themselves were not held by financial companies, but split over and over into some very ugly, shady deals.

My earlier post on this issue, click here.

The State of Ohio has found grounds to agree with me, and they are actually going ahead with a plan to deal with the greedy jerks who perpetrated some pretty nasty frauds.

How significant is the foreclosure problem in Ohio?
It’s immense. One in 58 households [is] facing foreclosure. That’s one per neighborhood.

Why did you decide to address the mortgage problem by creating this team of lawyers?
The first thing we talked about was whether we could create mediation programs in the courts by asking the judges to encourage or force the servicers to at least sit down and talk to borrowers about an arrangement. But what we concluded was that there is a real inequality, because to file a mortgage foreclosure you have to be a lawyer. And homeowners—particularly those that are in default on their mortgage note—don’t have lawyers. They are at a real disadvantage in negotiating. So it was not good enough just to have mediation, but both parties in the mediation need to be represented by lawyers.

What will the lawyers do?
The lawyers will work with the borrowers to see if there are defenses to the actual foreclosure, whether there was fraud or unsuitability in the creation of the mortgage to begin with, and then to assist in two other ways: either to help litigate the case or to help structure a settlement.

What legal footing might you have to mount defenses against foreclosures?
With these complex mortgage products—the adjustable rates, the no-document loans that were out there—there are all types of things in the generation of loans that give rise to defenses. And with the fact that these loans then started to become sold seven, eight, nine, 10 times in the process, there are even legitimate legal issues as to whether or not the person filing the foreclosure has the legal right to file a foreclosure because they don’t have ownership of the mortgage note.

In Ohio, documents related to real estate have to be in writing; it’s called the statute of fraud. We just convinced a court of appeals—the 10th District Court of Appeals in Franklin County, Ohio—to find that you can’t bring a foreclosure action if you don’t have paper that proves that you own the house.

What percentage of struggling Ohio homeowners could mount a credible defense against foreclosure?
I think in probably 25 percent to 50 percent of the cases. If you look at the foreclosures, I use the following rules of thumb. About half of them are related to some form of financial catastrophe—a medical problem, loss of a job. Of the remaining half, about 25 percent are mortgages that involved outright fraud, where the buyer, the seller, the appraiser—everybody was cut in. So it’s that last 25 percent where people got in over their heads through buying a house that they simply couldn’t afford, or they got loans that they didn’t understand the terms of.

What percentage of home foreclosures do you think you might be able to prevent?
I think the vast majority of them. It would be in the best interest of the servicer and the borrower to try to find some accommodation.

But these contracts are between the borrower and the lender. Why should the government of Ohio be legally challenging them?
The fact is that the evidence is mounting that these wholesalers—and mortgage brokers who supplied them—targeted working-class, middle-class, unsophisticated consumers for generating these loans. So the fact is that there was a conscious effort to find people who wouldn’t be able to negotiate the contract at arm’s length. If a mortgage professional says, “Look, your payment is $500. I know this says it goes up in a year—don’t worry, we’ll come back and refinance you,” I think it’s very reasonable to think that it is not entirely the homeowner’s fault that the mortgage goes into default.

Yep. This is what my own point is, that some people got “snookered” by some people who made money off the backs of people who trusted in financial services, brokers and others.

Frankly, I would love to see these fraudsters charged, fined, lose their own property as “assets gained through illegal actions”. Yes, even the heads of banks, brokerages, real estate companies, developers should be dealt severely by the law.

For those living in Ohio, you need to be very glad you, at least, have someone willing to step up and do something effective.

President-Elect Obama Has A Job I Sure Would Not Want

Where, indeed, to begin, literally?

People often think of the President as a powerful post, and sometimes they are right. Barack Obama is taking on a daunting task here, and for once, I seriously would not want to be the president. It seems that there is a huge lineup at the door, all beggars, seeking monetary aid, bailouts, and all screaming over the other.

Barack Obama got it right in his campaign, putting the emphasis on the people. Without people, the government is an empty place. Government NEEDS people, people don’t NEED government.

Paulson finally woke up! All the toxic debts and CDS banks “invented” to circumvent laws are now going to stay with the banks, investment houses, and those who abused the financial system are just going to have to deal with the mess of their own making! Finally some common sense. Unfortunately, those banks “played” consumers, taking what should have been a simple contract called a mortgage and turning that into a splintered, then shattered, mess. Like I said previously, it would be worth a few hundred dollars to find out if banks et al breached those mortgage contracts. Re-selling and manipulating the housing markets by allowing “invisible” parties to endanger the entire world economy, personal mortgages, and then asking for the Fed to bail them out is ludicrous!

Obama has to deal with issues that are so complicated it takes at least 20 different people just to make the map, nevermind navigate it! Balancing the interests is tricky, at best. The two wars need to be mapped, understood, and navigated so that Iraq and Afghanistan both come out at least with some semblance of stability, otherwise the world may well end up going back in to restore them again. Not my idea of fun, trying to figure this out!

The banks and investment houses created a mess so large it has foundered the world economies! You can bet that anger is definitely NOT limited to the US, as most of the world is so very angry at those “fat cat” jackasses who tried to pull these scams off. Personally I would love to put on my steel-toed boots and give at least 20 of them a very well aimed kick in the ass! Then see all those “perks” they took taken back, liquidated, and the proceeds put into welfare programs, to enable families tossed about like “collateral damage” the lifeline of some food, clothing and, wow, even shelter! I have no problem with putting every bloody “fat cat” behind bars, say in Guantanamo Bay, for a while. Maybe then they would truly appreciate being alive and find a far more human set of priorities. This should start with the woman in Merrill Lynch who designed the base for CDS etc.

Obama has to figure out how to get a far “greener” path started, which means weaning the US off of wasteful behaviour. There are kits and instructions on the net for making wind turbines, solar panels, and lighting that is LED. Time for the common person to get busy saving things, remaking what used to be discarded into products again. Recycling soda cans, glass bottles, plastics, and using cloth bags, all would be a good start. This is where Obama may be able to lead by example. Install solar panels on the White House, use low wattage bulbs, and get a composting program going for the gardens.

Obama can lead his country well, if some of the petty, stupid games quit. I am amazed at how unbelievably childish some of the “adults” in Congress and the Senate are. Wow! “Gimme!” “I Want!” “No, you can’t play with my toys!” ” You cannot change things, because ‘that is the way things have always been'” Phooey! Grow UP! This is a new world here, things have changed, and get your head out of the bloody sand! In short, Obama can do a lot, but it DOES take us to help him out, not put childish, self-serving blocks in the way, “just because”.

The auto industry may have BEEN a major industrial engine, but the technology they use is from the last century, not pertinent now. Obama can tell car makers to get with the change. Take a look at the Tesla automobile! It is totally electric, can go like greased lightening, and has a range for driving that is as good as most people will ever need. Get rid of the hydro-carbon, gas guzzling technology and devise other choices.

President-Elect Obama, if you want to see a banking system that is the best in the world, I strongly suggest you check out the Canadian system. None of the banks there are even close to being in trouble, lending is going on, and they got hit in a very minor way with any of the CDS or other “funny-money” ways the US banks did. Look at the regulations! Those banks are NOT government owned, but they are regulated in ways that have allowed them to continue to work effectively! Amazing!

Health care, it needs to be changed. No question. People are dying, kids are getting sick and dying because the costs are far too high, the paperwork is eating up a huge chunk of the cost of doing business. What the hell? Paperwork accounts for a huge part of the costs? If anyone gets into an accident, it can mean death from untreated injury, or bankruptcy if the injury is treated. Talk about living between a rock and a hard place. I agree with Obama, get the costs down.  But it can be done by those who are not sick working to demand answers, demand better service, and certainly demand the FDA get off it’s butt and realize that most of the generic drugs coming from developed countries ARE made to high standards. Help the president by joining in, not making his job harder. It means demanding generic equivalents be prescribed by the doctors, hospitals, so all of the people get a better deal. Remember the “name brand” companies make huge, fantastic profits, and they have a vested interest in YOU buying them.

Jobs, and more jobs, the necessity for people to have meaningful work, we all need them. President-Elect Obama has the correct focus, here, but there is no way in hell he can do THIS ONE ALONE! This is where the recycling and reusing all those discarded materials could make work. It takes imagination, thinking, and yes, even work to find new uses for all those discarded things once used. For example, take plastic soda bottles and turn them into automated watering devices. It is as simple as filling the bottles with water, then turning the bottle upside down and pushing them into the soil around plants.  Start making solar panels, then put them on every house in town! Wind turbines work with even small breezes if they are made with a governor on them. There are some that can be made at home, and if at least 10% of the houses have them, the power grid is boosted! There are literally millions of ways to turn garbage going to landfills into useful things again, from braided rag rugs to vehicles. Help your president and your environment all in one! If nothing else, set up a recycling depot for local things.

International relationships need attention too. Wow, this list is getting long, but with help via the internet, it can be achieved! Talk to people around the world, listen and discuss issues with them. President-Elect Obama got that one right! He did go to the internet to talk and listen. Give the US the help in returning to a better international status by being a little more concerned about others, listening to other ideas. Why? Because maybe someone elsewhere in the world has the answer you need to solve your own problems, or you have the answer they are looking for!

Yep, the President-Elect has his work cut out, but with help from all of those in the world, maybe, just maybe, we all can lighten his load just a little bit.

Fading Out

Up until a week ago, I had not seen much effect from all the turmoil here.  There were few signs of anything really changed.

This week the news here was broadcasting an item about a series of condominium towers that are now in receivership because the developer from Korea had used Lehman Brothers for financing. The owner has now been put in the position of declaring bankruptcy with the sub-company building two of four towers.

The developer had created a company just for those buildings, so the permits, etc. could all be done with local authorities and laws.

Housing prices are still very high, and there have been few here even close to foreclosure, yet. I do know other cities around have seen a slight rise in foreclosure, but those numbers are still in the hundreds, not the thousands.

Linens and Things is the other company that has disappeared here.  They were based in the US, so I gather the finance and company structure was weakened, then went under.  Another sign that some companies went over the capacity for expansion and put themselves into a bad financial position.

I am still confounded by some of the business practices in the US. Take WalMart for example. They tried and almost succeeded to bust unionization here. There was one store they opened, which after the employees did get unionized, WalMart promptly closed. I know of some of the business practices that Wal Mart use, and here they are against the laws. Discrimination against women, refusing to pay for holiday pay, firing with no reason, all kinds of very bad business practices.

Personally I will NEVER spend a dime there. I have no use for any company that will deliberately abuse the public, the courts, the laws, and especially their employees.

Some of the companies that wanted to expand to this country found themselves in lawsuits both from their former employees and from the federal and provincial laws. Most who ran afoul of the laws closed their businesses instead of trying to live up to our standards.  Minimum wages, tax, health care payments are all paid by every business here. I guess those who closed up shop did not realize that we are more “social” here, and our idea of the common well-being is much deeper.

With the disastrous down-turn in the US economy, I am still trying to figure out how on earth someone who is a parent, who has a child with a long-term medical condition like diabetes, can possibly deal with the cost of health insurance. It certainly gives me a stronger appreciation for the one man who started our “socialized” health care system. It may not be perfect, but from watching what others have gone through, even going without seeing any medical services because they cannot afford them, I shudder to think how this is going to work out.

Each person does have choices, every moment, to either get into the quicksand with those in trouble, or to stand on solid ground and put out a hand to help others get out of the quicksand. Mentally that means being strong, being able to maintain a healthy perspective, being someone who recognizes that we must take care of ourselves, otherwise we are basically useless to anyone else.  Jumping into the misery, diving into the quicksand, is no help, and those who are in the quicksand will definitely NOT thank us for doing it. Strength comes from within our own beliefs, and support is something everyone will need at one time or another. If I have strength to spare, then I guess I “socialize” myself enough to help someone out.

If you see a theme here, yes, there is one. Socialization is something every society does, and I am confounded that some would see banking regulation, knowing what is going on in the financial world, as a bad or unwelcome thing known as socialization. Sorry, but I believe that all of us have to depend on honesty, and if greed is going to wipe out integrity and honesty in business, then regulation, socialization, is necessary.

This is the End of an Era

The Government is NOT doing what is necessary, there is a better way.

Well, after watching a huge number of news broadcasts, reading until I feel like putting every written word into a huge pixel black hole, I have come to see that the way things have been working for the last 25-30 years is over, done like our Thanksgiving turkey this weekend.

People have had the expectation that they could borrow up to 6% over their income and still keep going. That is bizarre to me. Spending 106% of your income and expecting to keep things going is expecting yourself to become more than you can ever be!

Housing prices have risen so fast that the costs have ballooned way over the true price, the real value, of those same houses. Speculators, agents who took fees to sell off the bundled mortgages managed to make the whole market balloon to the point where things went BANG!

Make no mistake, just like Milken, et al , the agents had no compunction about taking the fees, and putting ordinary mortgages into a highly risky place, leaving those who were the original lenders and the house purchasers in a position where it became impossible. There became a distance between the lender, the mortgage and the purchaser. The agents did not care, do not care, and will not care who the purchaser is or was, and furthermore the agents have their money and can walk away without even blinking.

The Paulson idea of taking out the toxic sludge is never going to work. Why? Because it is impossible to put a value on paper that is basically completely impossible to unwind again.

The markets should go down again this week. Why? Because the toxic sludge from the collapse of Lehman Brothers is going to be due. Those who were tied into that sludge are going to have to take some huge losses again.

There has to be a complete understanding from main street here. No longer can we use credit to solve problems, no longer can anyone expect to have a charge card without realizing they are literally borrowing money at exhorbitant interest without that interest being a huge balloon that also goes BANG! The worst thing that older people can do right now, in my opinion, is to take out a reverse mortgage. Why? Because they may end up with a home that is never going to be worth what they are borrowing against, and end up being forced to repay instead.

Whether this all ends up being a very long, very harsh road, or a bumpy ride that is shorter depends on how banks deal with the mortgages that are not in default, yet, and the people who have taken those mortgages out rewriting the mortgages to reflect the true price of the houses in THIS current market.It also truly depends on how the various administrations in the US, Europe, Britain, Hong Kong, Australia and others deal with this. They can either make it a hell of a lot worse or shorten the drop. My gut feeling is that, unfortunately, the advice that most of the governments, administrations and other are getting is wrong, totally wrong.

Unfortunately I have been watching this all happen and, some years ago, realized the way things were going would end up dropping like a huge boulder on house at the bottom of the hill. In other words, although this seems surreal, I am not all that surprised. The idea that capitalism is self-regulating is just flat silly. Greed cannot be regulated, only controlled, using laws and regulations. Yes, there are flaws to what humans do, but at least we all SHOULD be learning WHAT NOT TO DO!

This could get very, very ugly.

Too Simple Solution to Mortgage Credit Freeze?

Someone is usually correct when they say to keep things simple, tackle a large problem in smaller pieces.

So, here is one idea, maybe a solution for those banks with homes about to foreclose. Talk to the Fed, or some agency with some money to allow, then take that money and put it equally against the principle on the mortgages. Why? It cuts the amount of debt and thereby cuts the payments, even reduces the overall interest payable.

Small steps, but if Paulson could manage to get into the books at Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac, then apply federal funding to mortgages that way instead of risking banks reintroducing those toxic debt items back, the overall economy would likely benefit better.

The way I see this is simple too. Any naturally growing thing needs to have the roots, the inner basics strengthened before any plant or animal can produce healthy growth. Like making the roots of a tree strong will keep the entire tree in better shape.

Actually the same principle can be applied to most things. Take care of the solid ground, feed the basic inner system and the rest will weather storms.

Example: Bank of Snow has 30 mortgages on it’s books, with at least 20 heading toward or in default. Fed or state funds are provided to the bank to be divided amongst the entire set. ($300,000) Bank of Snow writes down each mortgage by $10,000 meaning each mortgage is now in a much healthier position.

Example 2: Family of 6 has two adults, 4 children. Going out less, perhaps working part-time for babysitting or other services, the family is able to collect $2000. Then the two adults approach their bank and seek a penalty free payment on the principle. (Principle is the actually purchase price)

Not huge ideas, but with the way things are going, maybe one of the simplest ways to get more people staying in homes, cutting down debts and providing the banks with some room to move again.

There are a lot here that are using skills they have brushed off to make money on the side. Making furniture, sewing and mending clothes, working on cars, painting, babysitting, even gathering pop bottles (they are refundable here for recycling) and working in gardens, using their cars for neighbours to run errands.

Strangely enough, tough times are often when people become the most creative in finding solutions, and when things get tough, breaking down tasks to simple, relatively easy bits, often gets the job done.

Toxic Debt, Banking, Greed and Stocks

Well it seems the banks who currently have toxic debts on their books want to keep them. Why?  Apparently the upper echelon want to make sure they keep their fat pay cheques, their bonus structure, and their ability to use “golden parachutes”. If the Secretary puts up a reverse auction (bidding starts high, then goes down) that would allow the government to be involved with the banks and cut the income, collapse the “golden parachutes” and put a limit on the bonuses or pay cheques.

What happens when the banks keep the toxic debts? The depositors have their money in an unhealthy bank, the stability of the bank is undermined. All in the name of greed, apparently.

Last night the candidates were asked what they would do first when they got into office. Personally, my agenda would be to find those very upper echelon people, investigate them using these refusals, and if possible persue charges. The other thing I would do is go into the books of Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac for some of the information on shady trading that is documented there and follow that up. Names of companies, traders, etc should be there, so find them, follow the paper trail and do what is necessary to take those same greedy, self-centered, narcissistic people out of the system, if only by taking away any licenses etc they may have.

Second on my agenda is those damn lobbyists. Kick them off the fat-cat train, get them out of the halls of the House of Representatives, the Senate, and off capital hill.  If necessary, create a law that makes lobbying highly limited. Yes, there are some lobbyist for education, schools, social issues, and they need to have a voice somewhere, but there are some lobbyists that want to promote greed, capitalism and money interests and those must be dealt with severely.

The entire world has now been sucked into this whirlwind. I can bet that a lot of people around the world are looking at the very shady business practices and cursing out loud. This is one mess that must be cleaned up, starting with those who pushed for the change in regulation in congress, in the banks, in the investment houses, and put those people out of power. That will include Paulson, because as an executive in Goldman Sachs he pushed for the opening of the door to creating some of these same toxic financial papers now choking the entire world banking system.

I can bet a lot of the people who played this pyramid scheme, ponzi game, whatever you want to call it, are now becoming aware of just how much damage they could cause. I can also bet that the impulse to find those people is growing. Let the law, the FBI, do that job.

I have read so much financial information in the last two weeks I almost feel like a banker myself. Good grief! Maybe this will, pardon the pun, pay off later. What I have found out is that putting trust in the stock market, the investment companies, is often betrayed. That betrayal is fast turning to anger, outrage, and frustration.

Obama needs to alleviate some of the frustration as quickly as possible. Find the players who played with lives, played with jobs, played with the stock markets by selling empty, toxic papers bundles, and abusing the trust of not only the American people, but the banks and people over the entire world. This will not be easy, mostly because the banks will demand privacy. Phooey! When you wreck an economy, cause people to loose homes, put self-centered greed and interest ahead of anything else, you have become a public figure, in my opinion.

Economists have no clear idea where this is going, mostly because this is unique. Yes, banks caused some recessions, Savings and Loan fiasco caused some serious losses, but this has become unique because it involves the world now. It started in the US, it started with the CEO’s and upper echelon, but it is going to finish off a huge number of jobs, good companies, and maybe a far longer list of decent neighbourhoods too.

Hang in there, this is going to be going where no man or woman has ever gone before, without the spaceship. We all live on one small planet, so maybe this is the time to truly become neighbours.

Bailout Bill Revised, but Maybe Not enough

missouri second bill opinion

They may have added some sweeteners to the second version of the bill, but opinion is still more against passing it than approving it.

There is still a huge amount of taxpayer money involved, and although the new bill bumps up the FDIC limit on deposits, that bump is only good for 12 months, not a permanent change.

Even the Congress leaders are not sure if they have the support, and there are some in the congress that have hardened their refusal, mostly because of the huge amount of money involved and the added taxes added abover the original amount.

Personally I was surprised when the bill was not passed, because I expected the party whips and pressure to make the members of the congress roll over.

Not sure, even now, if the second version is actually one cent better than the first, mostly because of the toxic papers still floating around.

Time will tell.

But the changes are not substantial enough to change public attitudes – although they may influence some Republicans in the House, which is set to vote on the package later in the week.

The key is whether the public believes that the financial crisis is both serious and urgent – and whether they think the bail-out is part of the solution.

In fact, the public is even more pessimistic than politicians about the state of the economy, but still much more sceptical about the value of a bail-out. ”

This is not going to even get close to solving the huge numbers of home foreclosures, or the ways some of the banks manipulated the markets and managed to get themselves into deep water.

Ordinary people may be tiring of the whole thing, but that is no excuse to let it slide. Remember this is one headache that babies born this year may end up paying for. Take the time to make your mind up, then speak up, for or against the bill.

Recession, Depression, Whatever You Call It

John Kenneth Galbraith has authored a number of books, “The Crash of 1929” and others on political economics. He has been an ambassador, a writer of books and he has a solid take on the ways American influence has affected the world, good and bad. Ironically, he is a Canadian. If you want to read some enlightening books on economics and the world, find his books. They may have been written years ago, but they are certainly relevant now. If you want to cut to the relevant part here, go to around the 43 minute mark on this video. You will be astounded at how much things are almost duplicated then, and now! Bloody scary, bloody ridiculous!

There is an impression that if left alone, the government to stay out of the market that the financial markets, by some God given power, will solve the problem.

This is from the years just before the  Great Depression Do these words sound like some of the current Congressional leaders? The Senators? Even the President himself? Take a look at how Eisenhower, Roosevelt managed to deal with economics, the withdrawal of the US in unpopular war (Korea) and realize how much history has to teach the current administration and any administration to come!

Even if they manage to pass the bill facing the US right now, the economies of the world are NOT going to be in any kind of rosy state for quite a while. This bill, in whatever form it takes, will NOT solve the problems, it is just a start. Period.

The massive consumption of goods is not going to continue. I figure that this will affect all of us for at least 5 years, maybe more, so if any of us figure that we can resume spending, borrowing using credit cards and other lines of credit, we are WRONG.

There are going to be jobs lost in Asia, China, the US, and Europe, but what this bill may do is to keep those losses to a lower level, not stop them. Business will not resume as it did before the banks and  the toxic waste they devised became known. What is really mind boggling is that most of the very banking “experts”, the economists, and the ordinary people don’t even understand this. Most of us, including the banking and economics experts find this far too complicated, far too extensive, far too large in scope to figure out.

Regardless of how this comes down, I am going to see property prices drop more, although here the property prices are still way over the true level in value anyway. The foreclosures in the US will continue, they will rise and so will bank failures.

Get the idea? This bill is NOT a cure, not a way to solve the problem, just a small beginning, with pain still to come. The international news knows this, why on earth do the Americans in the administration, including Paulson and Bernanke not know it, nor the President?