L sent me the following image with the comment, “‘Nuff said.”  Once Mr. Twist and I quit laughing, I decided I needed to post this. My question is though, what happens to the folks at the pump who have no equity?

Junior Canadian cabinet minister Bev Oda (the US equivalent would be a Secretary of State dealing with international cooperation) has been under scrutiny for her testimony going back to late 2009 on a decision that it in due course turned out was documented on a robo-signed form with an undated alteration that reversed the sense of the decision. Bureaucracies live and die by the paper trail.  Last time Doom visited this story we made fun of the minister’s inscrutable handling of a staff recommendation.  An office just can’t go altering an official document after the fact.  That way lies madness,…
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Suppose you are underwater on your mortgage, and can’t afford to make your house payments. You don’t want to walk away, and you don’t have the $100K+ over and above what your house is worth to bring to closing. You’ll probably want to try a short sale then, where you can sell a property for less than you owe with lender approval. What do you do though if you can’t close a short sale? This is a big problem in California, where a recent survey of California realtors showed that short sales aren’t closing 43% of the time. Here’s what…
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The Las Vegas government has announced approval to build an amusement park along the strip. Not content with the usual garish, over-the-top theme prevalent throughout the rest of Sin City, the developer has decided to construct a 500-foot ferris wheel, making it the third-largest wheel of its kind in the world, and the largest one in the western hemisphere. In addition to the Ferris Wheel, it would include six additional rides, a 20,000+ square foot conference center and nearly 150,000 square feet of new retail space. Apparently, it’s not enough to be the gambling mecca of the Northern Hemisphere –…
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A half-finished office skyscraper dominates the skyline.  It was built during the construction boom, but was abandoned during the bust.  It sat empty for years before squatters decided to move in.  The location?  Caracas, Venezuela. The U.S. is also now dotted with partially completed construction projects. The partially completed Centerpoint Condominium project in downtown Tempe, AZ was home to squatters for several years, although there the construction has resumed.  While squatting is not currently common in the U.S. commercial buildings, it’s become very common in residential ones: [There are] units occupied by squatters who have long since stopped paying their…
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This morning’s chuckle comes to us via CNBC and L.  From CNBC comes this article Greenspan: Economy is picking up momentum. Note the reasons given for “optimism”: The economy is picking up momentum but faces a number of problems including budget issues and inflation, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told CNBC. Among the headwinds the economy faces are escalating oil prices and uncertainty about a budget deficit likely to hit $1.5 trillion this year. But overall, he said there is reason for optimism. “There is no question that the momentum of this economy, leaving out the oil price issue,…
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No mention of “dirty oil,” but an American questioned by CBC with reference to a proposed AB to TX pipeline expressed her preference for “domestic supply,” which was a bit unnerving. The amero gap blew out to -278 basis points by yesterday’s close. Doom will be keeping a close watch as it approaches the limits of its recent +/-300bp range. The Fed’s own holdings of MBS dropped a largish $9.269 billion while foreign central bank buying of US obligations were flat for a second straight week. This week’s Reuters report1 was, as usual, based on the weekly update from the…
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Hat tip to my brother on this one. The now-abandoned mining town of Pine Point, NWT is featured in a fascinating 2011 interactive documentary by Canada’s National Film Board (NFB). This northern community on the south shore of Great Slave Lake only existed for about a single generation, starting in the early 1950s. Could this also be the future for parts of California’s Inland Empire and other bubbly American towns and developments?

Treasury Secretary Geithner can’t envision the U.S. housing market without substantial government intervention, and he’s pushing to see that happen.  While Geithner declined yesterday in his testimony to the House Financial Services Committee to say what his favorite option was, he did express his concern about the plan with the most limited government role: Democrats and Republicans clashed over the workability of one long-term approach put out by Treasury, that would create a virtually privatized system in which the government’s role in the mortgage market would be significantly reduced. In this scenario, only the Federal Housing Administration would be allowed…
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Admin Edit: The link sidebar has been restored, and an RSS feed has been added. You can find new links going forward in the “Relevant Articles” sidebar. Housing News for Monday through Thursday, most recently added first. Feel free to contribute your own finds in the comments CTRY-STATE- Source (date): Title Article quote; and/or, [comment by Igor, Doom Castle's spam-eating pet dragon] CNBC (3/2): US Housing Recovery Hurt by Unrest in the Middle East Rates are one thing, but uncertainty weighs heavier on potential buyers, and rising oil prices may outweigh both. WSJ (3/2): SEC Votes for Bonus-Restriction Rules Mr….
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Angelo Mozilo, former CEO of Countrywide Financial and the “poster child” of what went wrong with mortgage lending was fined last year for mortgage fraud, but his fate was not shared by all the Countrywide execs.  Mozilo, as well as two others, were charged hefty fines: The deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission requires Mozilo, the highest-profile figure to be accused of wrongdoing in the mortgage meltdown, to personally pay a $22.5-million fine. The government said it would be the largest penalty ever paid by a senior executive of a public company in an SEC settlement. Mozilo, 71, also…
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Are you in The Loop?1 Available only in Canada. … By now the outline of the saga is widely known. In 2009, [Canadia's International Co-operation Minister Bev] Oda rejected a church-based aid group called Kairos for renewal of its long-standing Canadian International Development Agency grant. She called the rejection a “CIDA decision,” but it turned out top CIDA officials had signed a note recommending approval of Kairos’s funding. That memo was later altered when the word “not” was penned in before “approve.” / Oda told a House committee she didn’t know who inserted the “not,” only to admit later that…
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Guest blogger Bill Maloni returns with a partial re-post of his latest article.  Like us here at Doom, Bill saw the importance of securitization pioneer Lew Ranieri’s discussion from last week on emerging risks to the mortgage market. After he posted to his own blog yesterday he also happened to notice this interesting MSM hit, which he sent along to the Castle as a bonus: NASDAQ (2/28): UPDATE: White House Projects Fannie, Freddie Costs To Sink The White House, in its budget for the 2012 fiscal year starting in October, said keeping Fannie and Freddie afloat will cost a total…
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