The Affordable Mortgage Depression: Recent Comments

Comment on CBO Projections Show Little Improvement in Unemployment Rate Through 2013; Stimulus Spending Ineffective

sbourg — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 01:52:55 GMT

Whitney: You probably know better than we do, what a farcical joke the CBO is -- Weathermen tell jokes about CBO economists!
Back in '01, CBO predicted no deficit for 2010. Last month during the important debt-ceiling debate, CBO predicted current $3.7T spending/year would translate to $46T spending over 10 years but the deficit would vastly improve because receipts would explode 2013 when tax rates shoot up! Yea, that'll really make the economy start humming in 2013 -- when tax rates explode and receipts explode! Riiiiiggggghhhhht. Those fools at the CBO would be overpaid at minimum wage!!!

Comment on Crack in Sidewalk, Thought to Be from Earthquake, Gives Obama Another Excuse for Missing Economic Recovery

steve-oh — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:35:42 GMT

Great posting Whitney, particularly the reasons the Obamao economy is a disaster. Here's a scary number I've figured out (no one else has 'announced' it) -- our federal annual deficit is $1.5T -- and it's money (printed & borrowed) going to people -- it's enough to give $30k/year to 50million people. Kind of makes one realize HOW SUNK we are -- when that federal deficit is the only thing (dangerous and unsustainable as it obviously is) keeping our economy even appearing to be chugging along with no GDP loss ! That's 12% FAKE GDP that really shouldn't be happening; our future wkg years and childrens' wkg years certainly can't afford to pay it back!!

Comment on It Only Took $107 Billion of Federal Reserve Loans to Save Morgan Stanley

steve bourg — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 02:28:54 GMT

Wow Whitney: VERY prescient ! And who knew QE1 and QE2 would jack-up the stock market? Which will probably make the 'fall' even more drastic. And who knew fed currency debasement would make gold DOUBLE in 33 months!
Hey, I don't feel comfortable living in 'interesting times' to this extent!!!!

Comment on It Took Two Centuries for the United States to Earn Its "Risk Free" Credit Rating. It Took the Obama Administration Two and a Half Years to Destroy That Rating.

Mac — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 16:07:11 GMT

actually, the modern robber baron oligarchs have been on a tear in screwing the working class since the 70's- so, no wage growth > no mass consumer > no real economic growth

Comment on Case Shiller Index Analysis - January 2011

John Northup — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 13:31:42 GMT

Good to see you back, Whit. Hope this morning's WSJ article is gratifying. They're now saying what you've been posting on here for years ...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303745304576359582086611822.html

Comment on Case Shiller Index Analysis - January 2011

sbourg — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 23:33:55 GMT

Whitney: On-target and succinct! Love the term 'Ancient Rome' for DC. I live in the Balt-Wash corridor and the 'govt payroll' is egregiously large. Hideous use of our private sector tax dollars to them. And they (the ees and contractors) spend like there's no tomorrow and have NO respect for us in the private sector who pay for EVERYTHING they have. NO RESPECT. Quite disgusting, and just one more facet/manifestation of a country with too many clueless ppl.

Comment on Housing Armageddon Arrives Just in Time for the Holidays

steve bourg — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 01:30:04 GMT

And it'll most likely get much worse before much better. See patrick.net for articles showing the disaster around the country, except hopefully not in the Baltimore-Washington corridor for awhile. And could anyone with more than 1/2 a brain imagine how much worse it'd be (and will be) when the federal govt has to ramp down its unsustainable $1.5T deficit-spending? The chickens are coming home to roost for all the do-gooder Democrats with power over the last 80 years -- FDR, LBJ and Clinton's 7/1/95 CRA regulations that REQUIRED banks & S&Ls to make huge fractions of loans to poor people, thus destroying lending prudence and with a good economy, guaranteeing a ticking time-bomb of a housing boom and bust.

Comment on Origin of the Housing Bubble: “The National Homeownership Strategy”

GTH — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 18:44:35 GMT

Thnx, I found your blog helpful, but I also found it a little biased. While Clinton's policies did raise the overall ownership rate, it did not significantly raise the minority/poor rate of ownership. It was 26.8% below the white rate when Clinton initiated his plans. The gap only closed by 1.5% in 2001 according to Hud. A lot of the problems with the housing bubble were related to sub prime products. The sub prime mess was not propagated by Clinton's housing policies, like it was with the next administration.

I found the Bush housing polices to be far more damaging and responsible for the housing crisis. He concentrated on minorities and the poor with his home ownership challenge. He had many initiatives like low down, zero down, and ARMS designed to help them and too boost the housing sector which propped up a anemic economy, something Clinton did not have to worry about.

Any comprehensive analysis of the housing bubble should also include all of Bush's housing initiatives.

Comment on The Housing Bubble: A Modern Greek Tragedy

Mark — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 01:43:16 GMT

Hi Whitney, I really enjoy your website and forward it on to all my friends as a source for good historical data.
I also quote your title of the Affordable Mortgage Depression in as many financial and/or political Blogs as I can.
I've requested this before, but could you please do an article on the Gramm Leach Bliley act of 1998, and how that affected the mortgage situation? or respond in a good blog-back?
The other would be a 1994-2008 HUD article.
I was also interested in that Wikipedia does not have the term National Homeownship Strategy in their search database, kinda creepy, (or expected)
And thanks very much for doing all this informational breakdown of the facts. Regards, Mark

Comment on When Will the Housing Recession End? A Graphical Illustration Why the Downturn Will Persist Through 2013

Mike — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 17:06:31 GMT

My neighbors are giving back their houses to the banks. Housing prices are still over priced & many people do not have a job or money to buy them.