Remember how we had to prop up the lending industry before they suffered a devastating collapse?  Apparently one of the emergencies facing at least one lender was that their offices were suffering from an outdated decor: [Thanks L!] Citigroup, which took $45 billion from the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, also defended spending $10 million to renovate executive offices at its Park Avenue headquarters, saying the project will save more than it costs.

We received this statement this morning Patrick Lawler, chief economist of the FHFA on the president’s "Making Home Affordable" program.  Here’s the claim for how many homeowners can be helped: Through the Making Home Affordable program, up to 9 million American families may be eligible to refinance or modify their loans to a payment that is affordable now and into the future. Here’s a preliminary clue into how many people are actually being helped: Director Lockhart announced the Streamlined Modification Program in November. It was developed jointly with the U.S. Treasury, HUD, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and HOPE NOW’s members….
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Remember, don’t sweat the small stuff and take time to smell the roses; life is short and comes with no guarantees at all. Make the best of it. Doomers might think the above sounds a bit trite, but just read Doom friend Mike’s story.  Truisms can be true, and after all the recent financial sound and fury, this seems like a real good time to try to get grounded. . Life Changing Events by Mike Folkerth While many may not realize it quite yet, the current turn of events in these economic times will become a permanent life changing episode…
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The rush to move to the Sun Belt seems to be slowing: [Thanks L!] WASHINGTON – Strapped by the nation’s economic crisis, fewer Americans are migrating to Sun Belt hot spots in Nevada, Arizona and Florida, instead staying put for now in traditional big cities. Census data released Thursday highlight a U.S. population somewhat locked in place by the severe housing downturn and economic recession, even before the impact of rippling job layoffs after last September’s financial meltdown. The population figures as of July 2008 show growth slowdowns in once-booming metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Tampa,…
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Policy-makers, especially in Canada, need to be thinking longer-term and more “sensibly” about their recovery plans, [former Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge] said, rather than setting up spending plans that just paper over today’s problems or “piss money down a rat hole” in the hopes of a quick recovery. [1] I just about fell off the chair when I heard that quote on the CTV 11 O’clock news.  Big thank-you to Alice in Canada for picking up the link.[2] This sort of thing just doesn’t happen here.  However, Dodge has for a very long time been deep into the…
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CBC’s fluffy talking-heads show The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos has a [OOPS!] 4-parter [Thursday was the last one] with Peter Schiff titled "A Date with Dr. Doom."  Looks like a 20-minute interview in his office that they’ve cut up, surrounded with distracting graphics and audio.  Nevertheless, the first two episodes weren’t too awful, and perhaps will serve as a gentle introduction to the meltdown for a general Canadian (US, etc. …) audience.  The segments are scattered around the 46-minute "hours," but it’s possible to navigate directly to the Schiff segments, so I’ll provide the times. [later: all 4 sub-segments were…
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This needs to be repeated every time someone pleads, "Who could have known?" Plenty of people did see the disaster coming. Most of them were marginalized, however, laboring at out-of-the-way econ departments, blogs and B-list think tanks. They were excluded and even ridiculed because their larger understanding of the economy was not one that fit well with the sort of Wall Street worship preached by the likes of CNBC. [1] Here’s the response I sent along to Wall Street Journal Op-Ed contributor Thomas Frank. From: john@housingdoom.com To: Thomas@wsj.com Cc: twist@housingdoom.com Sent: Wed, 18 Mar 2009 10:23 am [that would have…
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 For the  protagonist Lucy in the movie "50 First Dates", every day is a whole new world.  Is the same true for the Fed and their economic plans.  I’m not sure which quote from this CNBC article is scarier.  This one: As they prepare to open a two-day meeting Tuesday, Federal Reserve policymakers are weighing whether to launch new programs or expand existing ones to spur lending, get Americans spending again and lift the country out of recession. Any decisions would come Wednesday. So they’ll consider new programs today and decide on Wednesday? What are they reaching these well thought…
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L sends us this song, "It ain’t your money to spend!" from Kathleen Stewart- you can listen here   2009, Words by Steve Jones, Music by Kathleen Stewart Don’t spend my grandson’s paycheck. He’s only two years old. With Obama in the White House, His future’s bought and sold. Stop this immoral spending spree. Stop assaulting our liberty. Let me help you comprehend: It ain’t your money to spend. Born and bred for freedom. Got me a lot of rights. They’re all but disappearing Before your fiscal appetites. You’re taking the fruit of my labor To give your next-door neighbor….
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… These statements had to be “true” in the sense that a great novel is “true”, even if the things related in it did not happen. To top it all off, there have been no charges of conspiracy against Mr Madoff. That means that, as far as prosecutors are concerned, and as far as we are permitted to speculate, this make-believe investment history was his own creation. He must have been one of the hardest-working men of his generation. [1] "How much of Bernie Madoff pleading guilty is so that there won’t be testimony under oath and we’ll never find…
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Thinking of buying a new home, but uncomfortable with the idea of having equity? [After all, nearly 20% of Americans are underwater- why should you be any different?]  The city of Avondale, AZ has a program for you! The Avondale City Council Monday night approved a contract providing homebuyer services for prospective homebuyers, according to a news release. The $1.7 million contract awarded to the non-profit Housing Our Communities Inc. will provide funding to help low to moderate middle income families buy foreclosed homes. The funding will also provide qualified homebuyers with homebuyer education, down payments and closing costs. The…
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For those of you who missed it last night, here’s Ben Bernanke’s interview on 60 Minutes: It’s late Sunday night as I’m posting this, so I haven’t yet seen it myself.  Mr. Twist’s opinion on it though: It’s a CNBC-type fluff piece with no hard-hitting questions. It’s interesting though, and worth watching.

Remember last summer when Scott Cole, president of Mortgage Ltd. committed suicide?  Problems surfaced at that time with a company called "Radical Bunny" which promised high rates of return to investors.  Radical Bunny funded many of Mortgage Ltd.’s projects.  The $190 million that Radical Bunny now owes it’s investors sounds like peanuts when compared with the likes of Bernie Madoff, but I’m sure it doesn’t feel like that to investors who have lost money with them:  [Thanks L!] A Phoenix investment firm embroiled in the bankruptcy of commercial lender Mortgages Ltd. raised up to $300 million from 900 investors despite…
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… A New banking paradigm arose the more you borrowed led to more loans led to increased share price led to lower cost of borrowing led to higher pound. And so the great “housing bubble” “debt bubble” was orchestrated and conceived simply around overnight borrowing and the Yen carry trade. Did I mention who was buying those shares in the new banks? Yes you got it the very same “investment banks” who were lending it money. The money was on a merry go round! The investment banks were printing bytes and paying themselves for that with the wealth of savings…
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In Cook County, Illinois, a new law starts on June 1.  After that date, not only will you be required to provide your fingerprints when you check into the county jail, but you will be required to provide your fingerprints to sell a home as well:  [Thanks L!] CHICAGO (CBS) ― Real estate certainly has its risks and fraud is a growing problem, but now there’s a new law that’s supposed to protect buyers. As CBS 2′s Mike Puccinelli reports the new law will also place an unusual burden on the seller. Fingerprinting is something we often associate with crime….
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