If Americans want to get ahead, they are going to have to work harder.  Apparently we worked all of 2008 just to pay for the bailouts: [Hat tip Freedom's Phoenix!] March 31 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. government and the Federal Reserve have spent, lent or guaranteed $12.8 trillion, an amount that approaches the value of everything produced in the country last year, to stem the longest recession since the 1930s. New pledges from the Fed, the Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. include $1 trillion for the Public-Private Investment Program, designed to help investors buy distressed loans and…
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Wow!  it was more than a year ago on Explosion Day that Housing Doom explored some weird impact that Rhonda Byrne’s "The Secret" was having on a group of stressed-out  AZ Realtors.  Well, yesterday a fresh spring dandelion called Prosperity Radio abused YouTube’s notification system to send a couple of e-mails right past Doom Admin’s ordinarily rock solid anti-spam system.  Gonna be a long day at YouTube tech support … This is classic Americana.  The New Thought Movement came out of Emerson, the early days of the Unitarian Church and a whole lot of other stuff generally rooted in that…
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Looking for a unique property with plenty of room and nice views in the San Francisco area? For $2 Billion, this 432 acre property could be yours: Embedded video from CNN Video

Put all of the authority in one institution, under one person–the Fed Chairman–and let the Federal Reserve sort out the regulatory pieces over banks, thrifts, insurance companies. investment banks, holding companies, hedge funds. The Fed can have “managing directors” and oversight units for those each industries all reporting to the Board of Governors or a Board governor for each of them, with his/her own jurisdiction. But, all financial services actions get coordinated by that Board. Egad! he’s serious … . . (Disclaimer: After working on the Hill for 11 years, I joined the Carter Administration, in 1980, as Director of…
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For those of you unfamiliar with Broker Outpost, it’s a forum for mortgage brokers.  They often post unusual situations that they are trying to help their clients finance. I’ve seen some really unusual situations posted before, but I have to tell you, I was really shocked when M sent me this one: [Edited slightly for spelling and grammar.  See original post here.] Hello Everyone: I am looking for a $300K USD loan. LTV will be 30% or less. It’s a commercial property in Tijuana, plus a junkyard, preschool and apartments. The borrower is the landlord to my brother who leases…
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Reality is stranger than parody today.  In my browsing around this morning, I ran across this video called "We’re the Government, and You’re Not" on Living the Scientific Life.  It’s a parody of the old "citizenship" films that many of us saw when we were young.  It encourages Americans to "Get Out And Spend".  I thought it was kind of funny, and posted it as a comment on our Crack of Doom this morning. [FYI- I am not in agreement with all the politics here.]   A little more browsing this morning however, brought me to this video from CNN….
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"It’s not about rabbits out of hats. This is about trying to tackle an exceptional economic crisis – far beyond the financial system – and set in place measures … that really do make a difference over the short term and the long term." [1] Doomers please contain your enthusiasm, the "leadership" of our world obviously doesn’t have a sweet clue. More likely getting out of this mess is going to take all 195 more-or-less independent, more-or-less countries on the planet, not to mention a whole lot of stateless, exiled or displaced folk we are sharing the place with. Brad…
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… mmmmmm Seafood!  Marcy and the gang at Versus Plus have a new comedy lyric that really nails the Zeitgeist. UPDATE: Doomers who want to here more new classic hits from The Great Recession (including another of Marcy’s) can check out this front page story from the Feb 6th WSJ.[1] AND NOW, A WORD FROM THE ECONOMY HERSELF

… Heads turned as the alarmed captain looked on in stunned disbelief. Bent on vengeance, the two lobsters scuttled swiftly after Madoff. They reached his table in an instant, and Silverman went for his ankle. Moscowitz, summoning the strength of a madman, leaped from the floor and with one giant pincer took firm hold of Madoff’s nose. Screaming with pain, the gray-haired con artist hopped from the chair as Silverman strangled his instep with both claws. Patrons could not believe their eyes as they recognized Madoff, and began to cheer the lobsters. [1] Somebody’d better tell Woody before it’s too…
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At first it looked like TARP was easy money for lenders.  Now many want to give the money back, but are finding that it’s not so easy: Embedded video from CNNMoney.com Video

It looks like City Center, the $11 billion, largest privately funded project in the United States, is on the verge of bankruptcy: City Center, an $8 billion Las Vegas project owned by MGM Mirage and Dubai World, has hired counsel to advise on a possible bankruptcy filing, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.   The casino operator, controlled by billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, and its joint venture partner Dubai World are likely to struggle to pay $220 million due Friday on CityCenter, the newspaper said. When contacted by Reuters, a spokeswoman for MGM Mirage…
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  It’s Friday, and we need to give a big hat tip to tla2001 for forwarding this great video. This is Daniel Hannan, Conservative MEP for the Southeast of England taking Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of Britain to task for how he is managing the financial crisis.  His eloquent condemnation of massive borrowing by government couldl be directed to several American politicians. [I'm not pointing fingers, but members of both parties are guilty and we know who they are.] This is really worth a listen.

The comments by People’s Bank of China Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan are setting a framework for talks on how to resolve the huge trade imbalances between China and the U.S., analysts said. [1] That same MarketWatch report asserted that China’s and Japan’s central banks would be maintaining their Treasury Debt holdings.[1] Setser has a long analysis [2] and HuffyPo is seeing an "Anti-Dollar Contagion" [3] taking shape. There’s intense interest in this issue as the G20 approaches. Later, after Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s famous visit to the CFR, Brad (who’s based there) posted a fresh assessment of the situation where he…
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Remember last summer we were told that Bush’s "Hope for Homeowners" program could help up to 400,000 homeowners who were facing foreclosure?  So how many homeowners have been helped since then, care to take a guess? Here’s a hint- move the decimal place five spaces to the left, and you’re still 400% too high: NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — If HOPE for Homeowners, the foreclosure-prevention plan passed last summer, was a soft drink, it would be New Coke. If it was an automobile, it would be an Edsel. A movie? Howard the Duck. In the five months since it has been…
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