Hey, Congress

How about passing a law making it illegal for any organization, including the government, to spy on US citizens?

I know, makes too much sense.

Stupid is, and stupid does

He just continues to amaze:

WASHINGTON — President Bush, looking for ways to respond to the subprime-mortgage crisis, will outline a series of policy changes and recommendations today to help borrowers avoid default, senior administration officials said.

Among the moves will be an administrative change to allow the Federal Housing Administration, which insures mortgages for low- and middle-income borrowers, to guarantee loans for delinquent borrowers. The change is intended to help borrowers who are at least 90 days behind in payments but still living in their homes avoid foreclosure; the guarantees help homeowners by allowing them to refinance at more favorable rates.

WTF? Why should the rest of us pay for every other idiot’s excesses?

I suppose in order to get enough people on his side for the planned assault on Iran, he has to throw them a bone.

But a little advice for anyone who accepts any kind of bailout: read the fine print this time! No telling what your government has up their sleeve.

Another pervy Republican

With a history of (allegedly) page fucking:

Me thinketh he doth protetht too much.

UPDATE
This guy has taken a photo of the actual airport restroom.

Fredo, we hardly knew ye

Yet the closer we got, the more repellant you became.

Still, credit where credit is due. His *spectacular* rise to the level of his incompetence is only surpassed in the annals of history by one man: his boss.

Give the man a medal. And a Burgie!

Good riddance to bad rubbish!

Laid off, and they’re already starting to squeal like the rat bastids they are

Alas, all good scams must come to end. If you don’t take care of your cohorts, Tangelo, remember they have short memories. They long ago spent their bonuses and when they stuck their hand hand out for more, you pink slip ‘em, well, don’t expect your former employees will be kind to your “organization.”

And, as this wide-ranging exposé illustrates (NYT, free registration), those Cunts at Cuntrywide(tm) weren’t above making the very same sort of pitch as those bastids one post below:

On its way to becoming the nation’s largest mortgage lender, the Countrywide Financial Corporation encouraged its sales force to court customers over the telephone with a seductive pitch that seldom varied. “I want to be sure you are getting the best loan possible,” the sales representatives would say.

But providing “the best loan possible” to customers wasn’t always the bank’s main goal, say some former employees.

And, finally, someone in the MSM points out Tangelo Orangzillo’s prolific stock dumping during the preceding twelve months.

Plus, insight into what perhaps motivated those Cunts at Cuntrywide(tm) to crank out subprime loans at such an alarming rate. How much would you wager it had to do with the profit margin on these loans vs. prime loans? Add into this witches brew of usury the “incentives” (i.e. sales commish) for the Cunts droids to push risky loans when the borrower qualified for something less risky, then well, it’s deck stacked against anyone who misplaces their trust in Cunts at Cuntrywide(tm) and the entire home mortgage system:

Persuading someone to add a home equity line of credit to a loan carried extra commissions of 0.25 percent, according to a former sales representative.

Hey, wasn’t usury outlawed at some point in the history of ths country? No? Just in the bobble? Nevahmind.

[tip o' the hat to Bakersfield Bubble]

Inside with the sub-prime slime:

Thanks be to HP for the tip!

Betting on the economy, or a betting economy?

Good primer [Salon, requires a "day pass"] on the credit implosion and why our “betting economy” (cos that’s what it is, really) is losing. Big time.

And it’s just just getting started!

The ratings agencies (Moody’s, Fitch, S&P) do the bidding of Wall St. without the benefit of any oversight from our “SEC.” The “investors” do a fine job of kibbutzing, looking over the poor rating clerks shoulder (IOW, not at arm’s length, perzackely) and helping to guide his dominant hand.

Of course, this is instead of allowing the market to weigh the value of any particular asset or security.

This might be construed as collusion by an objective observer of the process since the rating, and therefore any particular derivative’s value, is a total fiction.

Is it criminal to collude? If it isn’t, it IS deliberately scamming honest citizens of this nation.

Then perhaps it’s also legalized theft.

Gambling with (mine, yours, ours) pensions and retirement, and getting corpulent off fees – regardless of whether the particular investments they “manage” for you win or lose.

BTW, I pulled all of my money out of the cd’s I had had at IndyMac over a month ago. If you have anything there, or”invested” with those fine Cunts at Cuntrywide(tm) bank, you might mant to consider doing the same.

I’d also suggest keeping a few grand (ahem) in greenbacks “around” just in case.

Wall St is truly to blame here, and if there is a bailout of any kind, it’ll be these “risk takers” who will benefit (remember it’ll be our tax dollars – and how’s that for a double whammy?).

Which, when you ponder it, is really annoying.

These putzes don’t ever lose- we, citiizens of this country called the UNited States of America, do. They’ve taken the risk out of the system allright- the risk to them! If investments go bad- or worse, belly up- that’s not their money- it’s yours and mine! They’ve already collected their “fees!”

When LTCM failed, did anyone go to jail? No! They just turned around and started another hedgie!

Let’s not forget these Wall St. turd lickers are the same assholes who cry foul about welfare, unions, transparency, and would be dead set against any bailing out of p*wned homeowners (who shouldn’t be, but that’s beside my point).

One blog compared our nations economy to the Enron “busines model” and DAMN if it wasn’t spot on!

The Salon column uses a sports-betting analogy that really goes a long way to explaining this mess to most of us laymen.

And the conclusion I draw from it is, there are not nearly enough referees, let alone honest ones brimming with integrity, to keep this shell game, this ginormous Ponzi scheme, this adult version of Monopoly, game under control.

iPhone is an iPain in the ass

AT&T has been sending 300 page full documented bills to their iPhone subscribers- or a small phone book, if you will.

Gee, some people waited in line for two days for this? Irrational exuberance IYAM.

Hey, I have an idea, how about utilizing that wonderful thing called the in- ter- net. Go and tell it to Steve, he might understand (maybe). Bring lots of cashola.

The Same Guy?

Ballad of David Vitter

OMFG

Nouveau Riche U. (yes, someone actually named their pyramid scheme “university” that) has big plans:

Despite these risky deals, Nouveau Riche’s enrollment keeps booming and Piccolo’s pockets keep filling, which lets him plan big for the future. The company bought 24 acres on top of a black-lava mountain north of Phoenix. In 2008, Piccolo intends to break ground on a new campus with modern steel and glass classrooms and four luxury dorms, each with its own pool and barbecue pit. The pools will be linked by a man-made river; students will be able to float from dorm to dorm, riding the river on inner tubes. “It’ll be very theme-y,” he says. “We’re going to build a Disneyworld for investors and entrepreneurs.”

Who’s Next?

New Century- dead. American Home Mortgage- dying on the vine. Novastar- on life support.

Seems like some of our old our frienemies are facing their day of reckoning.

We here at FYA aren’t religious in the least, but even we know that what goes up, must come down, and if it’s been inflated, it can deflate.

So that being said, what portends for the market lenders? These clowns cut out the time-consuming due diligence and oversight and passed on “risk” guilessly, ignoring fundamentals, and it is looking more and more like the people of this nation are starting to realize there was a party they weren’t invited to, and now it’s over.

And how just how did we get stuck with the hangover?

Anyone placing bets on the failure of:

• Countrywide- the biggest might take the longest to expire
• IndyMac- on death’s door?
• Bear Stearns- recently downgraded to shit
• Beazer Homes- what’s that light at the end of the tunnel? It’s a train!
• Accredited Home Lenders- ditto

Favorite quote du jour from that last article:

Meanwhile, Securities and Exchange Commission chief Chris Cox said the SEC is coming up with new, more flexible accounting rule interpretations that companies and others could use to avoid declaring their mortgage securities in default.

Did Cocks just say what we need to combat this “liquidity crisis” is less transparency, not more?

Then of course nothing beats turd-taster Jim Cramer whinging like a little girl that very soon his investor-friends from banking and the hedgies might be unemployed.

Greed is good. Sure.

For those that took that as their call to arms, maybe you should have looked a little deeper into that statement. First off, it was from a movie fer chrissakes. The movie was a latter dale morality tale, with a twist- the chief antagonist, in the tradition of movies with anti-heroes- gets away with it.

That wasn’t exactly and endorsement. (Wall Street might be the most misunderstood movie ever).

Some people might say “it’s only a movie, a diversion, and yes, typical of the times in which we are living. tsk tsk.”

Others might say that “y’know, greed really isn’t good, and isn’t it clever how the film-makers used that twist to show how absolutley upside-down our country has become. We should really get back to the basics.”

Still others said “Yes! Finally someone understands me and the way I see the world! It’s winners v. losers- con-men v. suckers- young v. old. I can’t wait to fleece some old codger out of his retirement savings. Bring it on!”

Maybe that’s how we got here.

A service economy? That sucking sound really was Mexico (and China, et al) taking not just jobs, but skill sets, pride, and craftsmanship from an entire class of people.

From one American to another- we were given the finger.

This class war was brought to you by the banks.

Shed no tears for them, my friend. This ”trust fund” class will be back- that is, if they’re not shot, should this depression get really bad.

Maybe the executive orders passed by the adminstration giving them full control in the event of a “national emergency” had more to do with this sort of scenario playing out than an “attack” from some invisible terrorist organization?

They do protect their own. BTW, if you are not in the upper 0.50%, you ARE NOT one of them.

Don’t kid yourself.

Someone Got in Over Their Head

An excerpt from a Craigslist posting, because it might go invisible soon:

SEEKING A CHAPTER 11 ATTORNEY / ASAP
Reply to: jafiniti@aol.com
Date: 2007-07-29, 4:34PM EDT

I need a Attorney that specializes in Chapter 11 Cases. I’m in Real Estate and i’m in financial trouble we own over 30 Properties in own names and in Corp names. Really need a Sharp Attorney. Homes located in baltimore.

Sounded at first like it might be our own Crispy critters in Bakersfield, but alas this is in Baltimore.

Thanks be to Patrick for pointing this out.