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Guest Post: The Good Ol US of A Turning "Classy"
Submitted by Bo Peng
The Good Ol US of A Turning "Classy"
Banks and other types of corporations have been divided into two classes
since the onset of the crisis: the TBTFs that taxpayers are volunteered
to bail out, and the rest that are not worthy of government help.
Financial
markets have also devolved into a class society designed by government:
those that Fed will buy and pop up, and those left dying a slow death
on their own. There's now a new industry trying to frontrun the Fed,
buying up the Nobles and abandoning the Untouchables.
But the
transformation would not be complete without private citizens going
"classy." And so our government has been hard at work. Here is where we
stand now -- don't be disappointed by the limited success, bear in mind
this is only the beginning.
1. The Religious Class, aka Sacred Cows.
These
are the noble ones who had tirelessly supported the economy by maxing
out the home equity loan before crisis and spending it on vital things
like iPhones, $20k barbecue grills and temperature-humidity controlled
cigar rooms even though they don't smoke cigar. They flipped houses all
over the country, even the world. They owned a plural of condos and
houses. Now that their plurals of condos and houses are under water,
after selflessly sacrificing their own financial wellbeing for the
greater good, the government has no choice but to do the right thing and
bail them out -- principal reduction, mortgage mod, costless refi, etc
etc. Of course, these are peanuts compared to their monumental
contribution to the society, and even more monumental losses. They are
unhappy, and they spoke. And the government gave them $50K no-interest,
non-resource, subordinated loan. In other words, free money paid for by
the lower classes.
If you're a Sacred Cow and, surely you're not satisfied by such pathetic tokens of worship, no worries. There'll be more.
2. The Warrior Class, aka I'm Not Paying So Whacha Gonna Do About It.
These
are the principled, morally righteous, brave souls whose McMansions may
or may not be under water, and they have enough wealth to go on cash
for 7 years until the credit records get wiped clean so that they can
continue making great contributions to the society again, and decide
just stop paying back their debt as a matter of principle and justice
against the banksters who forced them at gun point to take out loans.
But the government will make sure their moral righteousness and bravery
will be amply rewarded. In this lawful society of arbitrary laws, their
debt will be forgiven and they'll get to stay in their McMansions and
get new platinum credit cards so as to support the housing market and
stimulate economy.
3. The Worthless Class, aka The Stupid Honest Peeps.
These
are the commoners. Their singular sin is the fact they stubbornly
insist on saving money in face of mounting logic as well as empirical
evidence against such obscure stupidity. By saving money, they destroy
the economy and take everyone down with them. Even further beyond the
realm of rationality, they keep paying their debt, for no discernible
reason whatsoever. These people are hopelessly beyond reason and
persuasion. The only logical thing to do is for the government to punish
them. For every pitiful dollar they have tried so hard to save, Fed
will print $10, $100, whatever it takes to get them to stop saving.
But not before their savings are used to pay for the rewards for the two higher classes.
A
second sin is that these people obviously have no faith in the
government. They cannot take the leap of faith that, when you spend all
the money, the government will step in and help them out. Faithless
pigs, they deserve to be crushed and slaughtered.
Have no
despair, though, even if you're in the Worthless Class. The one good
thing about this class society is that there's still mobility. All it
takes is for you to abandon the irrational, stupid habit of saving money
and balancing your checkbook, stop paying debt and start spending like
there's no tomorrow.
Because there won't be one.
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Off topic but... Peter Schiff flipped out bigtime on Steven Loab on CNN the other day.
What a match, a panzy assed Keynesian gummer vs the Austrian titan himself, Peter Schiff.
http://www.europac.net/media/tv_interviews/peter_schiff_august_14_2010_c...
steven loab - douchelusional.
nope, thats far too good for him, only the quaint old English expression is good enough for this tool, he's a prime 100% cunt.
nope, thats far too good for him, only the quaint old English expression is good enough for this tool, he's a prime 100% cunt.
I'll go with that.
that is funny.
I'm getting really tired of the "shouting heads" segments on these news shows.
That is a minority opinion because the shout matches are good for ratings.
I am sure the producer of the show was laughing when he decided to pair them up. Schiff in general is good for ratings, that is the only reason he goes on fast money. Now that his campaign is over, he might get a weekly spot on fast money.
This Leeb guy can't even spell his name right much less understand the housing crisis.
+10
OK, I want the 50G, but I also want the govt to get out of the housing market. In short, I want my cake and I want to eat it too. So how can we push through the 50G ( everyone gets a check, everyone, even my Dog (how many? 8?) my 8 dogs too) and pull all supports for housing prices not the least of which is to bring back mark-to-market thereby pushing the TBTFs into a involuntary 7 where they belonged in the first place and allow us to use our now 450G to bid on 1 house of our choice at 5 cents on the dollar. Flipitusa.com should be the sole source site where all transactions are handled at $50 each. It should have a immediate equity grant by the govt of 500 billion and a IPO, with one guy running it, me.
Under the circumstances, I think this would be the fairest and most equitable solution. Oh yeah, free IPads and Free IPhones for everyone with unlimited use and and free connections that can be passed on to heirs tax free for eternity. Can we get it done next week?
I don't see why the gubmint doesn't just buy a bunch of crap FOR each citizen and have it shipped to every door. And of course bill us. Just not COD, dear God!
Then we could just leave it on the stoop while wandering the neighborhood, picking over the crap on their stoops for anything we might want to be amused by before throwing it onto the BACK stoop. Every evening we could wander the back stoops, then the front stoops in the morning.
And so would pass our lives, and the world that once was.....
Looks like I've been outed for the faithless pig that I am. I'm so ashamed. My free spending neighbors have shunned me and some kids from that family down the street that's been living in their McMansion going on 22 months now without making a single mortgage or tax payment stole my American flag right off of my porch and taunted me for days.
Shoot me now and kick the remains back into my fully paid off rat hole of a house. I don't desire to occupy the same crumbling street as the 60% who are freeloading while I pay. Woe is me.
Yeah when I do buy a house in the next couple of years for 1/3 of its peak price, I am going to ask for one of those fancy no interest government housing loans.
Oh wait - I won't qualify for one of those until I default on at least one other mortgage first.
+100
Be sure to ask about the free toaster...or you can choose a free Flag for your front porch!
stay classy san diego
OK, we're still blaming the end purchasers. Nothing about broker-led mortgage fraud, or derivatives that 100xed the problem. Don't forget that unemployment/depression thingy. Yeah, there are people totally gaming the system that you can see--but there are many more (Angelo and friends) who did it, kept the money, and aren't worried about a perp-walk.
"OK, we're still blaming the end purchasers. Nothing about broker-led mortgage fraud, or derivatives that 100xed the problem. Don't forget that unemployment/depression thingy. Yeah, there are people totally gaming the system that you can see--but there are many more (Angelo and friends) who did it, kept the money, and aren't worried about a perp-walk."
Sorry to direct attention towards the "end purchaser" but MANY were blinded by greed as well. And this is NOT the first time home buyers and serial refinancers have been down this road. There are casualties in every cycle, period. Caveat Emptor!
The true disgrace at this point is that no one, top to bottom, wants to let the falcon rise from the ashes. Let the circus roll on.
We have the "Lucifer Effect" in full play here. A bad system has corrupted everyone within it to be evil. If you want to make real progress, the system must be modified. Blaming the end user is not an effective treatment. Though the mortgages and derivatives traders are also problems, they are nothing more than Nazi guards. It might feel good to kill them (it even makes for a nice movie), but nothing is going to change until the Nazi party is dismantled.
+10
Call it Moral Hazard Economics which is probably what the perma-bulls were calling green shoots.
great point, i agree with you completely except for that part about the falcon. I think you mean 'phoenix'
No, falcon.
Hear you in that the financial institutions were scumbags and did magnify the problem a thousand fold...but I really don't have a ton of sympathy for most of the end purchasers. Here's a CNBC story that says that about 50% of the people that applied for government mortgage help have to drop out because they are liars. They lied to get in the home and they lied trying to get help to stay in the home.
All parties to this gigantic fraud deserve a big kick in the nuts.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/38787588
Agreed. For the record: fry the worthless lot of them from Mozilo and Raines to the liars and deadbeats on Main Street. Fry. Them. All.
Where did the article blame the end purchasers?
It clearly states "...the banksters who forced them at gun point to take out loans."
It's only the fault of a few bankers!
<irony off>
I think that they should let the whole housing market crash, I mean whats the sense in bernanke trying to play atlas and hold it up....If I was in a house with negative equity and had the option to foreclose and then go and rent one for 1/16 the payment,fuck yeah, or go get a new mortgage for only 10 years instead of this 30 year BS, because the housing values would fall drastically. when it does tank (which it will adventually) they need to tax corporations and foreigners who get residential housing so the whole world doesn't jump on the dirt cheap prices.....oh and the banks fuck em bankrupt the bitchez..mark to market everything and restart..
+Oink!
Class warfare isn't classy.
AIM.com is selling Golden Tiger 7.62x39 for $179.00 per thousand rounds. No tax, delivered to your door. Shipping costs vary by state.
Remember when when it got to as low as $69/1000? If only .308 would come down a little further.
Good news! You bought a Chinese product that does not contain lead. Oh, wait...
What about the Elite Class?
You know the "leaders" of America. Grin-fuckers.
AIM.com
+ 7.62x39 mm!
+ 5.56 + .38 + .357 + 9mm + .22 +.45
fun times!
I cannot express how enthused I am to see Bo Peng here at ZH. For those of y'all who are not familiar with his work please read up on some of his past articles. His insights are not only clear, concise and entertaining...but they really do add value for those who make a living pondering the markets.
http://seekingalpha.com/author/bo-peng/articles
And just cause y'all know this is how i do on friday...my link :)
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=DBB6891B8CA31A85
Instead of a perp-walk, we get a peep-walk.
Bo Ping, +10
But there may yet be a payback. Eventually the "Warrior Class" will progressively be "hoist on their own petard". If not due to missteps from their own avarice, then due to a general social rebellion against certain kinds of behavior. Certainly, during the WWII/Korean war period, people who spent themselves in the common good tended to come out very well.
Adult habits are hard to change. My experience (Age 75) is that those that are optimistic and keep trying to get it right, eventually come out OK. A now famous example is Sam Walton. I bought my model airplane kits in his very first store and know his story well. He had a hard time at first.
Also, the political direction does appear to be changing as election time gets closer.
Good luck!
"The one good thing about this class society is that there's still mobility.
Mobility = Mob
We just need to find the mind control tower and destroy it before the evil overloards will be able to roll out their plans.
But before we can do that, we'll have to go through the swamp of rotted smelly things and cross the wavy sea with the tentacle monsters.
WHO'S WITH ME!
this guy is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsmybQKpmTw
I'm with Raging-Gif-Thing. Although this could be attributable to some sort of mesmeric effect... Who cares, it's better than the 'leaders' we currently have! Sir-Yes-Sir! Raging-Gif-Thing Sir!
(squelch)
I'm in if I can bring my bong as well as my AK47.
As long as the sun shines, I'll be making hay. Let the fiddlers fiddle. I won't hold it against them but I won't reward them either.
That sounds really great.
It's OK to throw the working class under the bus, but when you throw the small businessmen under the bus you threaten civil unrest.
I just love to print these out and repost them to The Bathroom Blog.
It seems to be waking people who have much on their minds to unload.
I heard a few times in the past few years that people who don't maintain cc balances are known as Deadbeats.
I have been telling friends and family to circle the wagons since 2005; and probably alienated a few of them.
It is time now to start thinking in terms of how to best weather the inevitable; based on the pessimistic theory that government and social means of restoring health are past their due date and there will be no avoiding what's to come, for the general American populace.
I have always felt The Condition here in the U.S. is a moral failing; anyone else feel that way? Take care of your own b/c the thing has degenerated and I for one will not expend another angstrom of angst towards trying to fix it or especially Hoping Someone Will FIx It..
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
"To defeat evil it is necessary for productive men to do as little as possible" - John Galt paraphrased
Saxxon,
In our house, we have run that risk for many years. But my wife probably saved us by making an occasional late payment.
But it seems that very recently there has been a change. We are getting socilitations for credit accounts lately. I try to make sure things like checks are cut up before they go into the waste basket.
Love the mention of "$20k barbecue grills"!
-A guy from the Worthless Class
The author is trying to be sarcastic but there is more truth in that than he realizes...
There are certainly a lot of details like that to take into consideration.I read and understand the entire article and I really enjoyed it to be honest.
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