This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
In Honor Of "The Big Short", Here Is Michael Burry's Historic Commencement Speech
On the day after one of America's greatest for over-consumption, a few moments of quiet reflection on the state of our world seemed appropriate. With the launch of "The Big Short" movie (assuredly infuriating many Americans with its "dangerous for the establishment" expose of the greed, stupidity, hubris, and arrogance of Wall Street bankers gone wild), Dr. Michael Burry's infamous UCLA commencement speech has much to offer .
Infamous for his correct predictions of the great recession, Europe's demise, and the collapse of the US financial system (as well as profiting handsomely from being right), the painful 'truthiness' of this brief speech stunningly summarizes the ominous truth facing most of the developed (and much of the emerging) world today:
"In this age of infinite distraction... when the entitled elect themselves, the party accelerates, and the brutal hangover is inevitable."
A quarter-of-an-hour well spent from a self-described 'chicken-little' who was "just trying to figure it all out".
»
- 1325 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
......
If the movie's half as good as the book, it'll be the balls!
We infuriated some folks...
How did this guy get to speak at any public university, let alone one in California? You would think this guy would be branded as a pariah on both sides of the aisle by now.
About 5 minutes in Dean Cool Shades looks like he wants to tackle him off the stage but decides "Ah, fuck it, I got tenure, who gives a shit?"
He made a ton of money for himself and his investors.. that speaks volumes to the schlubs who think they know everything.
What most folks don’t understand is that Burry played his hand against the objections of many of his investors because he understood that market forces were in play. And they were in 2008 and mostly afterward until October 2011.
A logical technical and fundamental trend down was happening in August /September 2011.
What many of us did not understand is that as of October 2011 the Fed and it’s owners decided that free market forces could not be allowed to remain in effect if the totalitarian privately owned banking system was to survive.
The ECB LRO 1, LTRO 2, the $.5T Fed swaps that backed it all up and a host of subsequent additional “whatever it takes” bazooka fraud destroyed any semblance of a market and valid price discovery. Add all of the QE 3, LIBOR fraud, FOREX interest rate rigging, bullion bank rigging/fixes, COMEX paper fraud, ETF fraud, stock market buys by Central Banks, ZIRP to enable bogus stock buy-backs and other crap, particularly the tipped off - "got your back" programmed HFT, front-running and spoof thievery and here we are. Now the the half quadrillion in notional derivatives is still hanging in on its thread.
There must be ferocious blowback…
There will be ferocious blowback.
Exactly.
Hmmm, wonder if there is some investment out there right now, that the investment community thinks is dog shit and the whole investment community thinks could never happen? Maybe being actively supported or suppressed by the bankers, in order to hide something? But has an inevitability that will steam roll everything.
I've thought about this a lot since I saw the movie and can't come up with anything.
War. The great distraction. Used to focus the masses. Channel the rage. And if a few make a buck or two? What's wrong with that? Everything. Too bad there is always a new generation to fall for it.
Need some help with this movie. Seems like the movie created the idea that the system as a whole is corrupt and put most of the blame on the rating agencies, and totally bypasses the US government and Federal Reserve, with only a scant mention in the credits that Burry tried to contact the White House and tell them how he figured it out ultimately leading to him being audited four times and being visted by the FBI.
The main scene that seems to dump the most blame came with Baum and his numbers guy pushing the old lady at Standards and Poor's into saying "if we don't give the banks the rating they want they go down the street to moodys". The movie makes alot of top people look like bafoons who didn't know what was going on like the Bear Sterns guy on stage with Baum as the stock is plumitting saying he would "buy moar".
All three groups that the movie follows who made a bunch of money on the "big short" are all shown as doing so because of Burry who they portrayed as an idiot savant type who can single handidly digest unlimited numbers while everyone else (Government, Federal Reserve, Freddie Mae, Banks, Investment firms, hedge funds, regulators, etc) are asleep at the wheel. I'm sorry something seems amiss here!!
Consider me totally ignorant about the finer details of banking, finance, housing, etc, but it seems almost comical that the Federal Reserve Bank whose primary function is setting the feds fund rate did not have a complete model of the impact that rate would have on mortgages in the US? A central theme in the movie is the cascadding effect of the default of sub prime mortgages.
The collapse happens in the last year of Bush's presidency with the most unpopular bill TARP being signed as he is leaving office with no hope of re-election. The bailout is presented only very briefly as Baum speaks in low key amazement that they are going to bail out the banks. Just lucky timing I guess that the largest financial bailout in history and the financial collapse happended a few months before a very unpopular president leaves office and is going to hand over the reigns to the first black president.
Sure there is the revolving door between SEC and financial firms referenced in the film with the red head in vegas who is trying to bed goldman guys, but her cluelessness is tied to the SEC not being funded when she is asked why they are not paying attention to the ratings of MBS.
Seems like the point of this movie is to leave most watching it (the massess) with the impression that the system is just a mess and made up of greedy people. This just reinforces what I think most people already think. If there is a bigger story in regards to the timing of the collapse coming at the end of the Bush presidency, with the political capital of Obama to over see the coming QEs and the overall takeover of the economy that was provided by the TARP and related legislation, that story is burried in this story of Burry the savant. (I'm not attacking Burry, don't know a thing about him other than this movie)
Hollywoods story is that one idiot savant single handely figured out some corruption in the ratings of securities and made a big bet and won a billion or so as millions lost. Seems like this story, while significant and outrageous and interesting, is designed to hide a bigger story.
Interesting coment, no one will read it because its too long and not sarcastically witty.
Friend, I understand your sentiments all too well. I don't watch movies, nor do I have the time to read the books they are based on, but I do get my truths from ZH, among other places online, and they do represent the truthful extent of the corruption and malice that goes on in this world. Perhaps one man has spoken out publicly against this accepted and malicious behavior, and his thoughts have been loosely converted into a cinematic format for public 'consumption,' but that is what it all is - 'consumption.'
If a million people really gave a shit enough, things would change overnight. Really - they would. Strength in numbers, educated and aware, amigo. That is our only hope left.
As Dr. Burry stands on a stage, and delivers a speech to the unwitting recipients of the single largest fraud currently perpetrated against the Ametican people.
Higher education and the absolute lack of standards applied to any and all who wish to apply. Both for the loan required and admissions.
How do we short this racket?
This level of "fraud" can be committed because there are just too many rules (which gives everyone a false sense of safety) and that generates too many loopholes.
Eliminate all the rules.
Tell people their assets are at risk.
Do not use taxpayer money to bail out anyone.
Allow insider trading, which must be released immediately to the public. If they are selling, let me know innedieately, and to what degree,
Eliminate all one time charges. All expenses one time or may times are the cost of doing business.
In other words, quit keeping the rest of us in the dark until it's way too late, and then making things "right" with my tax dollars.
Try again ejmoosa...
As your solution to market complexity that hides risks, first you say, "Eliminate all the rules." This would seemingly inclusively imply Reporting, by firms, securities analysts, regulatory agencies, etc.
But then you impose your transperancy rule, to fix the otherwise most assured chaos that would emerge from the lack of rules, "Allow insider trading, which must be released immediately to the public. If they are selling, let me know innedieately, and to what degree,"
Either there are good cops on the beat, ready, willing and able, to enforce ALL the rules without concern for a future career amidst the shysters, criminals, fraudsters, and racketeers, or there is the "free market".
I don't know if you've ever played No Limit Texas Hold 'Em. But the Big Chip Stack dominates the table. Small stacks get smaller.
Further the supposition that players are honest, have integrity, wouldn't cheat or risk their reputations or their firms, is what Alan Greenspan admits he got wrong about his theory of "free markets" constraining risk taking and in effect creating self regulating markets.
duplicate
Look at what Burry is doing now. He is into farmland (with water) and PMs.
The picture becomes very simple for the long investor when the fraudster banks and sellout globalist politicians continue their monotonous doubling down in the face of obvious consequences and pain for the hoi polloi.
Interesting coment, no one will read it because its too long and not sarcastically witty.
You give too much credit to risk managers. Their job(the majority) is to take money and leverage bet in a single direction no matter the construction of the risk model ala. LTCM. Those that figure out the issues with risk baskets that are incorrectly bundled together can win. They (every regulator and governing body) are still asleep at the wheel, as nothing has changed. QE infinity does stop at one point, especially when there is a cost of borrowing money with the Fed funds rate above nothing. Why is this concept difficult to understand? I thought we have all been joking for years about the audacity of it all, just waiting for opportunity. Guess the populous has changed around these parts.
Main Point:
You appear to be looking to make this party political which at this stage - unless you're very young - makes you an idiot. The donors own ALL of them and party politics is just a punch and Judy show to distract the public.
On your specific points
Yes it is. Given enough time the banking mafia will corrupt everything. There will be some honest individuals on the inside but too few.
They were the mechanism used but that begs the question
who corrupted the ratings agencies?
If the rating agencies felt they were being pressured by the banks they would have gone to the Fed and/or other authorities - who told them to fuck off.
The blame belongs to the banking mafia: the banks and the Fed, both directly and indirectly by corrupting all the checks and balances - but if a country lets the banking mafia create their money then the banking mafia will always have an unlimited capacity to corrupt - all they need then is time.
All of you do yourselves a favor and either read The Creature from Jekyll Island or get an audible version to listen to. It will explain how we got here and where we're going...unless more people read the book and internalize the evil that is private banking. The Creature from Jekyll Island should be required reading for every ZHer.
BC I understand where you are coming from and where you are going... You're right - just think in terms of 09/11, the false flaggery of terrorism, and unending wars to fund the MIC and push the police state agenda and translate that thought into the financial world - they did it for money and, more importantly, control over the financial system while eradicating the last pieces of the free market to prepare for the USD meltdown and associated, upcoming sheeple panic. If you have a 401k, get rid of it.. buy physical bullion, food, supplies etc and or farmland and hunker down
Thanks for the thoughtful review, TBC. I've heard three extended, intensive interviews of the writers, producers and actors plus a review from a very surprised critic (they don't expect great things from movies that cover any complicated finance topics in any kind of detail whatsoever.) The critics consider it a miracle that the movie educates on arcane technical material while maintaining the level of consuming human interest necessary to bring audiences into the theater--something that is absolutely required for a movie to be widely watched and, of course, to make the money it has to make.
Sounds like they found a movie-making approach that was able to do both to a breathtaking degree . . . for novices.
I'm going to break my rule of never going to another movie theater to be a$$ raped only to suffer the crowds, noise and inability to rewind when you need to or pause to get a beer or visit the loo. If you have a proper home theater system, the entire theatre system is barbaric. I haven't compromised for at least 10 years. I can wait before seeing a movie when it's finally released on bluray.
This one I don't want to wait for.
Thanks for your criticism that will additionally inform my viewing perspective.
Great comment. And you are right, the financial crisis was an engineered coup that made many people billionaires. They all knew what was happening, but, some just thought they were smarter and would get out in time.
The one thing that I never hear being mentioned is the CHANGE IN HOW ONE COULD SHORT WITHOUT THE UPTICK RULE. The rule went to effect in 1938 and was CONVENIENTLY removed in 2007. They knew what would happen and they made it possible to short with impunity.
Lest we forget, the government pushed people pushed banks into making these loans. According to our government it is a right to own a home in the United States. Don't forget that very simple thought. One they pushed banks, and two it is your right to own a home in the United States. Simply ridiculous.
Lest we forget, the government pushed people pushed banks into making these loans. According to our government it is a right to own a home in the United States. Don't forget that very simple thought. One they pushed banks, and two it is your right to own a home in the United States. Simply ridiculous.
Without the insistence of government, this would have not had the chance to occur.
And I cannot forgive them for they knew exactly what they were doing.
nonsense. the banks control govt. policy through political donations.
My memory from reading the book and have not seen the movie. They repckaged the worst of the worst tranches into new ports and got them rated AAA and sold. No way the trash could have been sold if accurately rated; and yet, we have the same agencies in business today. No way that happens in a legit system. You can say it is/was just an opinion, but that is bullshit.
One of the book's takeaways is that the buyers were idjits... almost so clueless to be unreal... these genius mofos did not understand what they were investing billion in.
Burry is not an idot savante. Listen to the speech... he was trying to figure it out... He is a smart tenacious guy like a dog wrestling with a bone.
Read the book. It is a quick easy read.
Ok, here is the long and the short of it. Burry and Co. saw behind the curtain of smoke. They were willing to look at the rotten foundations of the financial bubbles that were being spawned to seduce the Banks and day-traders into greed-driven blindness. The Gubmint and Wall St-ers are not all stupid, (though many are). Often times the people we perceive as the top are often not the "deciders". They are just greedy, charismatic yes-men. They are the faces on the system organs, if you will. The people they answer to are INTENTIONALLY crashing the system. It is not ignorance; it is intentional. They cannot leave any power or wealth in the hands of the thinking, working producer, so that they can usher in a globalist Utopia as the panacea for the evil failed system that hurt so many of the little people (*sniff*). This is why after the 2008 debacle these folks spent the next few years capturing major capital markets and have major direct levers of control over the rest. Because they own the media and much of the entertainment industries, the truth is hidden from the average person, buried beneath a layer of econ jargon, contrived statistics and a whole lot of hopium. We are all but passengers on their Crazy Train for now...
Trump - "...until we find out what the hell is going on!"
Let's remember that it was Clinton's former OMB Raines that helped juice it up:
https://romanticpoet.wordpress.com/2010/05/09/in-2002-who-was-regulating...
Probably thought it was safe because he was a doctor with some disabilities. Whoops!
"How did this guy get to speak at any public university."
He paid to be heard?
Maybe he indulged and bought a chair in the business dept.
Surprisingly, it is as good
Highest recommendation
Literally just watched this movie with my wife and sons. Not going to waste energy being angry. Greed wasn't that hard to figure out. And it's time for Darwin to start weeding out the stupid in society.
In the future if someone talkes something that affects my family's ability to survive they will be shot.
Sir: you don't want to post things like that on the internet.
PF-9, Sir: you don't want to post things like that on the internet.
How about this one: Redefining what is about to happen.
Utopia Of The Masters.
One classic moment was at the origins of neoliberal doctrine in the early nineteenth century, with the certainty of Newton’s laws, that we only harm the poor by trying to help them.
The best gift we can offer the suffering masses is to free them from the delusion that they have a right to live.
The new science (neoliberal/free markets) proved that people had no rights beyond what they can obtain in the unregulated labor market.
But an unanticipated problem arose. The stupid masses began to draw the conclusions that if we have not right to live, then you have no right to rule.
http://redefineschool.com/noam-chomsky/
noam chomsky can solve all the worlds problems. all we have to do is put the government in charge of everything, and everything will be great. its not like the government is to blame for any of the worlds problems, right? If we had gone to a more centralised form of government sooner, these things wouldnt have ever happened.
I don't usually say things like this to people on here, because personal attacks are mostly counter productive, but you are a fucking idiot, and so is noam chomsky.
greenskeeper carl, you are the idiot here. Let me prove it to you.
Chomsky is a Libertarian Socialist. State Socialists and State Capitalist are the ones that love government. That can’t survive without it.
Libertarian socialism … rejects socialism as centralized state ownership and control of the economy, as well as the state itself. It criticizes wage labour relationships within the workplace, instead emphasizing workers' self-management of the workplace and decentralized structures of political organization, asserting that a society based on freedom and equality can be achieved through abolishing authoritarian institutions that control certain means of production and subordinate the majority to an owning class or political and economic elite.
Libertarian socialists generally place their hopes in decentralized means of direct democracy and federal or confederal associations such as libertarian municipalism, citizens' assemblies, trade unions, and workers' councils.
All of this is generally done within a general call for libertarian and voluntary human relationships through the identification, criticism, and practical dismantling of illegitimate authority in all aspects of human life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_socialism
no, you are the idiot. there is no such thing as a "libertarian socialist". One is either libertarian or authoritarian. that is all. chonmky is an authoritarian, and so are you, every time you defend him. He, and you, seek nearly total control over peoples lives. I don't want you, or him, making my decisions for me. central planning is what you advocate, taking away the ability of the individual to make his own choices. We live in a world where the failures of central planning manifest themselves each and every day, yet you push for more of the same.
You are a fucking idiot, and so is noam chomsky
You’re an American neocon so your biases, and many here, if a may add, cannot grasp the word Socialism. And even less what it means.
In libertarian socialism there wouldn’t being an economic divergence. There wouldn’t be an structure power. Americans libertarians are a superficial view of libertarianism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq9irdLcZmU
Norm Chomsky is fooling you.
http://mileswmathis.com/chom.pdf
It's Noam
I tried reading that link, couldn't do it. The author lost me when he claimed that "the spooks" were reading his paper as he was writting it and then the spooks changed chomskys wikipedia entry because the author found another reference to the number '33' on chamskys page because there were 33 footnotes. The author claimed that once he found that conection and wrote it, "the spooks" went and removed one so there were only 32. This happened because "the spooks" were so concerned about what this guy was writing about chomsky that they hacked his computer and read his paper as he was typing it...
I love reading about a good conspiracy as much as the next guy, but come on....
Im a neocon becuase I think you and chomsky are fucking idiots? Nice false equivellency. I couldn't be further from a neocon. If you have ever read any of my comments you would know I condemn all this bloodshed.
"In libertarian socialism there wouldn’t being an economic divergence"
How the fuck is that going to occur without a government FORCING people to give up their property? Socialism is government force, at gun point, to achieve the desired outcome. Its hard to picture a more UNlibertarian idea than socialism. Libertarianism is adherence to the non-aggression principle. As usual, it is you who doesn't understand libertarianism. WHat you are essentially arguing for is "equality" enforced by govt at gunpoint. So even though central planning has gotten us to this point, you and chomsky want more of it. Still can't figure out why I waste time arguing with a troll and an idiot like you.
You really are dumb as a bag of rocks.
There is no middle ground in socialism. Once you agree the government or some other authority has the right to decide how much of your money you have to give to them to support the poor (and many other examples), there is no means of stopping them from taking more and more until you are poor as well.
"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have." –attributed to Thomas Jefferson
And that always reminds me of the book title "A Farewell to Alms" (still on my to-read list).
It took even me more than a decade to grasp that is actually neither a statement, nor a promise, but a veiled threat: you will not decide anymore how much you give for alms, others will do it for you.
You EI however will likely never grasp it.
Whoops, moron anarcho-capitalists are attacking an anarcho-socialist.
There is no middle ground in socialism because these morons say so, but you can have an anarchistic capitalism because idiots like Von Mises say so.
Simply priceless.
Chomsky is not a moron. Chomsky is also a mathematician that most people are unaware.
Anyway, you have a valid point there. Chomsky approach comes from him to be a better human being that I could possibly be. Chomsky emphasizes the good about humanity. I personally don’t think he believes that. But, he fights for that —for equality. So kudos to him.
I am a Classical Liberal but I don’t believe it can be implemented, either.
Classical Liberalism Oversimplified: Limited forms of dissent and incremental change possible. The liberal class posits itself as the conscience of the nation. It permits us, through its appeal to public virtues and the public good, to define ourselves as a good and noble people.
http://www.amazon.com/Death-Liberal-Class-Chris-Hedges/dp/1568586795
Seems you could really give a contribution to the ZH forum, if you wouldn't write the vast majority of your posts in troll-mode.
This "classic" liberal moment was to somehow lend victimhood to a time-tested common sense concept. How have we robbed an able-bodied person of their "right to life" when we require them to earn their living by going to work in some fashion? Especially during the time when they had a free market in which to make their own way if they chose.
Quite the dose of civil poison that the writers of liberal academia is handing out to our children, eh?
but yourself and noam, and all of your friends get to decide what 'legitimate authority' is, correct?
Flippin' leftist. With over 100 million dead last century, how can any leftist make moral statements about anything?
Test
No one has the right to steal
Anyone who has the power to steal and get away with it has the right.
I believe PF-9 was referring to your last sentence and actually trying to be helpful to you, given the attention that threats of violence can attract.
I have to offer you compliments on the many fine and logical posts of yours on this forum.
Chomsky needs to just stick with the math, and stay out of what he has no aptitude for in reality.
"In the future if someone talkes something that affects my family's ability to survive they will be shot."
Would that also include MonSatan?
If I had a white son, he'd look like Michael Burry.
your white son is racist. #blacklivesmatter
edit: Do I really need a sarc tag here? come on people...
It gets very interesting right after 14:30ish. Fuck...
Great movie, Christian Bale was stellar in that role.
Michael Burry, smart man, and humble. A good combination.
Pity he chose eCONomics, filthy lucre, instead of making something of use which would serve the USA, and the world.
His father was right: bricks, effort. Make. Don't just take.
Did you read the book? He started out as a Doctor. Finance was what he did on the side...
Could the schlub in the black robe with his salary and pension til he dies look just a bit more disinterested? I thought he would remove his shoes and start picking his toes next. These Ivory Tower mush heads. I am shocked they allowed him to speak , truly . Good on him .
Horrible robes. My daughter's college costs $54K per year. My father's two engineering degrees cost less than that. But the USA financialisation and banksters do want their tenured pound of flesh and high tenured salaries.
Bernanke’s son, who is in Weill Cornell Medical College in New York may rack up as much as $400,000 by the time he completes his degree.
http://www.valuewalk.com/2013/04/even-ben-bernankes-son-gets-into-debt-for-medical-college/
V-for, I hear you - paying out of my ass for my daughter's master degree. It is the administrators with their half million salaries who syphon off most of the money. Little trickles down to faculty. Worse, most of the teaching is being done by untenured, even part-time, lecturers (our empirical observations).
I noticed that asshole. Embarrassing fucker probably hates being there. Can't wait to get his nose in some powder
I am not sure that everyone knows he has Aspergers (which often is an advantage). He also lost one eye as a child with cancer. He is an amazing guy and is very smart.
He is a good person. I have no doubt about that.
Have a colleague that was diagnosed as such. Very good at spotting incongruities and asymmetries.
Video was well worth the 20 mins spent watching. He's in gold and farmland (productive, with water on site) now.
Just saw the movie. +100
Very seldom these days do i venture out to a party. As the hostess, a lawyer, had visited my home on numerous occasions over the last couple of years , i relented against my better judgement ( coerced is probably more apt ) and took the plunge.
I wasn't disappointed (sarc) , ending up at one point with the only 2 other males present who just happened to work for Commerzbank.
Longer story short i came away with
1) The Financial Regulatory Authority is making life overly difficult in making a crust and 2) Putin is a Warmonger.
Only the guillotine will end this.
The movie got the go ahead after the 5 year statute of limitations expired. The justice department under the fast and furious mastermind, Eric Holder, also ran the same clock out on the mortgage frauds too.
Yes, and all the bad people weren't Jews.
The overly moral person, however..was a Jew,
The banking mafia are a collection of mostly Jewish families in a similar way the Sicilian mafia were/are a collection of Sicilian families.
Outstanding
I would love to know what Michael thinks of today's economic dramas.
This is not coming out in N.Z. to end of January,sounds from the comments like people got a lot out of it. Can't say I cared for The Wolf of Wall Street,hope it is better than that.
I hate plugging stuff but if you've read my ramblings over the last four years you'll notice that too many times I have plugged "Liars Poker" and "The Big Short (Inside The Doomsday Machine)", both by Michael Lewis. I wish the whole world would read those two books. I feel like some kind of twisted JW ("Knock, knock. Read Liars Poker and The Big Short.") I just hope the movie is as good. Want to know why no-one can afford to buy a house? Read those two books. Fun to read but very informative. I went through a stage where everytime I passed a bookshop I'd end up $200 lighter and 6 books heavier. I read a lot. But Liars Poker and The Big Short still stand out way above the rest. To me.
I watched the price of housing go through the roof and I couldn't understand two things:
1. How is this possible?
2. Why doesn't anyone else seem to notice?
Those two books answered my first question and were the first inkling I received that someone else had actually noticed.
I will have to go to the library and get these out.
Actually, the housing bubble was spotted way earlier by the likes of Peter Schiff and Bill Bonner in 2003 2004
Bonner's Financial Reckoning Day was so good that once i finished it I started right back in again
I personally saw it in 2003.
My wife and I bought a tiny little starter house in 1996 for $49,500, on an FHA first-time homebuyer program with a floating interest rate that started at 6%.
In 2003, we decided to refinance the house to lock in a 5% rate, and pay off an old debt. We wanted a $60,000 mortgage. Our appraisal came back at $135,000. Our conservative little credit union wanted to lend us the entire $135,000. They looked at us like we were idiots for only taking the $60,000 refinance. We closed on that in September, 2003.
We realized that in the 7 years since we had bought the house for $49,500, we hadn't done anything to improve it, other than usual maintenance (new roof, re-sanded hardwood floors, new paint, etc.). Our income hadn't multiplied by 270%. Our little house still only had 875 square feet finished, with an 875 square foot unfinished basement, 2 little bedrooms and one small bathroom. It was still only of interest to a young couple starting out or empty-nesters downsizing and getting rid of all their belongings.
So how could our house possibly be worth 2.7 x what we had paid for it 7 years before?
Easy answer; it wasn't. Of course, we sold it in 2009 for $139,000. And ran down the street to dump all our capital gains into buying equity in the next house. The thing with funny-money is, you have to spend it quickly.
I have a different opinion. Buy 2-4 units, live in one and use the rents to pay it off early. A part of the CF is offset by depreciation and repairs can be written off. I see a minimalist trend with people avoiding debt. Sit down and figure out where $150k salary goes and how much is utilized to just live happily. Stop trading up, stop taking on debt and live below your means.
OCare really just locks people into the matrix. My largest expense in the aggregate is insurance with medical the largest part. I could live on what I pay for insurance. Going offshore today and starting to look. That will be a big trend in the next 20 years. Retirees bugging out.
You can apply the same lessons to the student loan program as well. Government has become the centerpiece of corruption.
Easy money breeds corruption. Visit most college campuses today and you feel like you are at a high end resort. Got nothing to do with learning, all about money
In most cases I view a college degree as a membership card a tatto that allows you the opportunity to fill out an application. After my oldest son took 7 years to get a degree only to end up a welder and loving it, I decided college is a life lesson in how to deal with a sociopathic narcissistic propaganda spewing bureaucracy. My younger kids went out of state, paid cash only no debt, worked, and finished in four years or less so they could find full time work. Since they weren't living on "free" money they weren't deluded into thinking being a college student meant you were valuable and hanging around at the feet of tenured professors was not an option. They are now out trying to eek out a living which is tougher then university life ever was, but they are not in my basement. The only good that may come from a reset is people may have to learn to take care of themselves. When fear turns to anger we shall see.
The United States of America is the most corrupt nation on Planet Earth:
• the bribery infested American political system, House of Representatives and Senate are the most corrupt;
• the American government is the most corrupt;
• the American judicial system, and the Supreme Court for sale to the highest bidder, are the most corrupt;
• the American law enforcement [No Laws ever apply to the rich or powerful.] system is the most corrupt;
• the American Main Stream Media are the most corrupt;
• the American financial and banking systems are the most corrupt;
• American Corporations and Corporate Executives are the most corrupt;
Yes, America is Exceptional. Exceptional in world-leading corruption!
Well I would rather live there than, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Israel, all countries in Africa, India, hmm list could get long. It is fair to say that the U.S. is not the most corrupt country but it has lost it's way over the last fifty years.
The US is far from the most corrupt country, though it has certainly become much more corrupt than it was.
This matters because the US is still the world's most important country economically and militarily (though sliding on both) and has been an exemplar for the world for at least a century. It also had probably the most brilliant and succinct constitution protecting its people from the rapacity of government but that has been progressively eroded by vested interests, in many cases to facilitate corruption or extend power that begets corruption.
Anyone who doesnt think at this point we have the most corrupt P.O.S. Government is a fucking idiot... give it a few more weeks, youll see. Most other governments dont have an economy like ours they can send straight into the ground... ITS TIME for people to WAKE THE FUCK UP... The only thing left in the US gov. is SCUM.
Lets put the people in even more in debt and throw another war on the barbie? Lets see how many areas of the world we can create chaos in. We are the menace! DUH DUH DUH. This government is the worse group of SHIT! ever assembled. That is reality. Criminal scum! They deserve what they get especially the apathetic! If you remember anything, remember there is no good left in our gov. The good people that are left in our gov.. have turned coward, which lets evil stand alone unchecked. VERY DANGEROUS TO THE PEOPLE. TRAITOR SCUM is all we have left.
- This doesnt resemble anything like America anymore? Colleges tell you what is acceptable on your fucking Xmas tree? WTF?
- Here is more of their productivity:
http://beforeitsnews.com/economy/2015/12/absolute-red-alert-house-democrats-introduce-bill-to-ban-all-guns-in-america-except-single-shot-2784680.html H.R. 4269
Just making sure we can protect ourselves against all the terrorists they insist on giving free passage to. You people are being had. The LIST is HUGE at this point. A nice piece from the LarouchePac https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khQD0-o3_SQ according to LarouchePAC as of Jan 1st. "if your bank collapses, your life savings can be stolen to save the bank. It can and will happen here" America?
They have a plan that continues to erode the foundation of the country we once called America. Our leaders W/O question are all Scum or Coward at this point. There is no good left.
Hey down vote: YOUR FUCKING IDIOTS, YOU are the PROBLEM. Apathetic P.O.S! You never knew what America was, therefore you have no fucking clue what it should be. Go get your fucking pacifier you fucking baby.
I have never been more for a Revolution/Civil War! EVER! Its the people's only option. The people are just too stupid to realize it. Sign me up! Apathy towards human nature will be our end, our leaders are simply human and have major character defects.
One of the main reasons the US became so powerful was because it used to be relatively honest.
It has been gradually corrupted by the banking mafia to the point where (like the UK for the same reason) it has fallen from very near the top to around the 20th mark.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index
This is probably partly because only the federal govt has been fully corrupted so far.
I spent 12 years living abroad as an expat. I lived in the 3rd world as well as western europe. One of the things I most often heard was people admired America because of the rule of law. Unfortunately that is no longer true. Our gov, from president on down has become completely lawless. Eventually the citizens all become lawless as well because they follow .gov's lead.
I have lost hope for our country without a collapse and weeding out, probably bloody.
We have let power consolidate into the hands of individuals and we need the people to take "their" power back. Individuals can never have as much power as those in our government have at this point. This is solely because of human nature and its NOT GOOD. The power needs to be spread among the people so its not so concentrated. We need to have humility as human beings and know our limits. We don’t have a fucking clue.
Concentrated power in the hands of an individual human is one of the most dangerous things we experience on this planet.
Yes just around the time only 45% support banning assault weapons http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/now-oppose-assault-weapons-ban-doubts-stopping-lone/story?id=35778846 we get H.R. 4269 because our politicians are so in touch with the pulse of America. Its more like they are getting scared shit of America and America seems to be getting less patient.
Every single cosponsor of that bill is a Democrat.
The democrats are fucking idiots on this issue. They really aren’t "democrat" they are the sons of a democrat, as Plato would say the worst form of man. I don’t see how it could get far, but still stranger things have happened and the way things get "traded" off these days? anything that makes it to words like this shows just how far off the tracks we are. One thing is for sure, if you deny people the ability to protect themselves.. THEY CANT. There is no way the government will do it for you. The bad guys will get all the semi-automatics, the good guys get nothing.
These laws give our government tremendous power over us. NOT GOOD. Guns allow power to be spread = GOOD.
Good luck taking all the semi autos back is all I can say. Its a fucking pipe dream if Ive ever heard of one.
All this being said there really are no parties any more. The idea a two party system still exists is a mirage just like everything else.
Most countries are more corrupt than the US however the gap has been narrowing and that's the critical factor.
The thing about the US is it *used to be* much less corrupt than it is now but the banking mafia have gradually made it much, much worse than it used to be.
America's relative prosperity was partly built on being much less corrupt hence why closing the gap is causing such problems - countries which have always been corrupt have always been operating at say c. 20% below their peak. The US is currently in the process of losing that extra 20%.
(20% is a random guess to illustrate the point)
He sums up quite eloquently, what happens to one who goes against the grain these days. The sheer fact that he has survived Wall St., the FBI, and the Feds, goes to show one can still have integrity, ethics, morals and staying true to your beliefs.
He gives me courage to keep the strong backbone and spine I have had in the past, to endeavor to keep trying and perservere in bringing some light, into the dark recesses of gloom and despair we are all experiencing these days...
You also need $1,000,000 for attorneys, which in this case was a done deal!
so, you know.
i saw the movie and associated interviews with
the author, screenwriter and cast. none of them
even gets the plot. amazing. you get it by now.
no?
The film is a brilliant re-telling of some seriously complicated shit. It has a great ending-- tragic but predictable: what goes up must come down.
I'm calling BS on this "retailing" of this story. You can see my comments above. I think if this story stands as the telling of the tail of the 2008 financial collapse then I think that is a tragedy. No real revelation of any expert networks transcending government and private institutions. No real revelations of "intent" transcending presidential administations. There are a few nuggets thrown in to satisfy those who are paying attention (like reference to Clinton's Community Reinvestment Act) but to the massess these mean nothing. Think about this film from a position of ignorance, like you havnt spent a bunch of time to try and understand things. It ends up being like the movie Wall Street with Sheen and Douglas circa 2015, total crap, sending fustration and energy for the masses flying off in different directions, away from anything like a fascistic integration of government and business and foreign interests seeking to consolidate wealth and control over the economy sending everyone into a feudalistic dark age as they create their new world order. This movie is crap I tell you!
Comments above? Why not comments below?
Us normal people set their comment viewing options to "Date- newest first".
Normal should be in parenthesis
TBC: "Clinton"s" Community Reinvestment Act? I think you'd better refresh your memory. CRA was passed during the Carter Administration. It was not part of the dismantling of banking regulations, at the bankers' lifelong insistence, that Clinton carried out with enthusiastic Republican support during his second term (1997-2001).
Also, nobody associated the Community Reinvestment Act with the housing swindle until about 2008, when the collapse was already well in progress, but still officially denied and anyone who mentioned it was called out as an America-hater with Bush Derangement Syndrome who was jealous of succesful people. Thomas DiLorenzo, a neo-conservative, neo-Confederate degreed think-tank hack cooked up the CRA angle as an excuse for the banksters, and a way to blame low-income and black homebuyers for the collapse the Finance Sector knew was coming but was still denying at the time. DiLorenzo is a real treat. He regularly comes up with ways to prove slavery is a better state for black people than freedom. Just the sort of guy to make excuses for banksters.
I was working an internal meeting for Royal Bank of Canada at the time. In a very eye-opening session some of their bond investment guys and mortgage guys were talking about how RBC was getting out of their mortgage-backed positions. One guy in the audience brought up CRA and how banks were being forced to lend to broke-ass black people. The other 200 people in the room laughed at him. These were all people who were insiders to how the whole thing worked.
A minor quibble.
The rest of your analysis makes a hell of a lot of sense and goes well with lots of things I've seen and thought over the years.
And I'm sure any film in wide release is going to pull punches short of indicting the system that fosters this kind of shit every few years, if it isn't controlled and prevented from doing so.
Not just broke ass people. Getting Community Redevelopment Credit for doing low-income deals which are the biggest clusterfuck in the world.
Peace on Earth to all ZH'ers.
Exscuse my off post spam but
I was over at RumoorMillNews and someone recomended a video he had seen mentioned in a post at ZH.
Well now i'm here to say thanks to the original poster fro suggesting
The UnMaskingi don't normally promote media but this is an exception.
I've got time to watch them all today.
Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjnHw3pJ_7Y
Enjoy.
As they say say, the only way to win is not play the game. I live in a 35 year old double wide I paid $35,000 for new. I have put on a new roof, hardwood floors, and replaced half the siding doing all the work myself. I watched the sun come up across the 50 acre field that is beyond my front yard this morning. Life is good.
the nice thing is he can make a sequel in a few years.
Saw the Movie "The Big Short".
Good news- Explains the 07- 08 Housing "Crisis" (should be "Fraud").
Bad news? The Statute of Limitations has run and no Bank or Banker can be sued civilly or charged criminally. This fraud is, after all, 10 yrs old. The Banks have moved on to other fun & games, completely unchecked. Banks own .gov, especially regulatory agencies.
Bottom Line: Hollywood is Too Little, Too Late, and dutifully serving Wall St with what amounts to a distraction.
For the unaware: This is a distraction from what is currently going on, which allows the unaware to get impotently angry years after the horse has gotten out of the barn.
Ya know what everyone seems to forget is that "Free" Trade is what sent the jobs overseas in the first place, if you understand the impact of "Free" Trade you understand it took 10 to 20 years to really kick in and when it finally did many of the jobs that were sent over seas where used on loan applications, so banks really had an expectation of income based on jobs that "Free" Trade allowed to be shipped out of the country? THINK ABOUT THAT.
People forget most of them lost their jobs before they defaulted.. Now Im not saying there was not excess and the banks weren’t bad, but our government changed the structure of our entire wealth distribution system, they are and always were fully involved. Anyone who doesn’t understand how "Free" Trade impacted 2008 does not understand economics. Ship enough jobs out of the country and people will default, the government likes to deflect the blame on their end to someone else. Then they got to sue BofAs innocent share holders for another 16 billion, For the most part the majority of BofA shareholders had nothing to do with any of this. It just meant there was no one left UNSCREWED. They are all crooks ALL OF THEM! Our Government is included. ITs all theatre
When you sign up for a loan at the bank and list your job and income on the application and then law is passed that allows your employer to ship your job overseas? What good is an application? DUH! The banks suck and dont get me wrong, but dont look over the obvious. This is a very unpopular opinion that is true, in my opinion.
The real problem was and always will be the loss of income and wages. Defaults come after the loss of income and wages, not before. Thats why it took so long, for some time people could replace their jobs. To this day we haven’t replaced all the jobs "Free" Trade shipped out. "Free" trade was the real HSSL because it allowed companies to ship jobs overseas and pocket the difference in wages. It was the GIANT SUCKING SOUND. No one to this day will recognize this issue. 5% unemployment? Im getting some bridges ready to sell. The politicians make the bankers look really bad, which they are. What people dont realize is our politicians are worse. The gov I believe conspires with the banks.
Now think about it, they bail them out and let them do it again and they will just blame them again? THINK ABOUT IT!!! They are doing it again!!!!! HOLY SHIT PEOPLE!!! The government and the banks are on the same team and we are not on it. "Free" Trade caused most of the problems we face because it destroyed Americans Income. You need jobs to pay loans, we need to get back to the basics. If we had good paying jobs we would be fine, also if we had let the banks fail and let people stay in their homes we would not be in the place we are right now... What a waste.
They bailed BofA out with our money and then sued them? Makes sense? Sounds like a conflict of interest to me, which it was in my opinion. They used FIRREA to circumvent bailout laws. In other words it wasnt legal to sue companies you bail out for obvious reasons and they just went around the law.. Our gov is a disgrace. Our gov. is SCUM. It was all planned. Why would you sue a bank you had bailed out? They really stink.
This is exactly how it all started: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkgx1C_S6ls
Just a note the vast majority of BofA shares where held mostly in public IRA funds meaning basically the public’s IRAs got raided, it was one of the most widely held stocks before the crisis, then there was the time they didnt pass the "stress test" which by itself sent share to 5 bucks for no other reason than the FED said so.
Wait until you see what will happen this time. Instead of fixing the issues the banks took the free money given to them and more than doubled down on commodities.
As you can see, they are down in every single commodity category by at least 50%. They are all bankrupt and about 1/2 of them will disappear overnight. They are able to hide their massive leveraged losses because of the mark to fantasy accounting rules.
Soon they will no longer be able to hide the losses. If you don't want to short anything at least sell your home and rent, and get all your money out of the banks and put it in treasury direct or under your mattress but under your direct control. Any money in a bank or retirement account stands a good chance of disappearing.
If all you do is get your money out of the casino and banks it will appreciate in value where that $500K house will sell for 1/2 or even 1/10th its original price.
I agree with you for the most part. I suspect, however, that when the collapse comes the only thing the Elites can possibly do is devalue the currency to paper over the losses. That $500k house will still sell for $500k. Just a loaf of bread will cost $20 is all.
I was explaining this to a friend the other day. She said she was worried SS might stop. I told her she'd probably get a check, it just won't be worth anything. That's how fiat printing works. You'll get your $1500 a month from uncle sugar, you just won't be able to buy dinner with it
Does anyone have a link to a current blog or newletter that Michael Burry currently writes?
Having just finished the Christmas Celebration it was scary the reaction of relatives when I braught up how corrupt our government is and their refusial to acknowledge it
Why would you discuss the government with relatives at Christmas time? That is fucking retarded. Let the band play on and just worry about securing your own spot on the lifeboat. Women and children below deck cannot be saved.
My brothert saw the movie yesterday...said he felt sick to his stomach after watching it
Read the book and saw the movie. Most people in the US are more into Star Wars than greed, fraud and corruption. I believe the movie provides an adequate basis for those that are Star Wars washed to understand how the system was collapsed by greed, fraud and corruption but they will not know what to do about it. IMO a Glass Steagall like act needs to be enacted and a deeper criminal investigation started. Won't happen with the current candidates except for maybe Rand Paul, Bernie Sanders, or Jim Webb. Roman fell because of corruption, so will the US.
Most people wuddnt sell out from 2004-2007 as I did. Many people back in the day saw it coming including many on ZH and places like Capital Stool, although it took a lot longer than I thought. I have no proof beyond frecent observations, however, I think the leverage is higher this time on the knock-on bubble. I neve thought that people would sit for what the FED and International Banking Cartel did... I mean - who knew that deposits would be stolen, rates drive BELOW zero, etc. People and investors continue to lever-up in a belief that the beanstalk will grow to the sky and that the FED will fix whatever goes wrong. Alan Greasepan is responsible for much of this shit and he and The Bernank and heroes of the world and allowed to try and rewrite history.
Halfway through the book. Findally understand the diff between a CDO and CDS
Take so far: greed, fraud, stupidity and no govt oversight. Perfect storm of the Greenspan Recession
And not so far in the book: Obama let them off scot free so they can do it again
Is that Dr Odd Ball catching some rays behind him?
The Anunnaki Deadbeat Plan
1. Charge everything on credit card but Mortgage; esp. Utilities
2. Easier to track expenses that way than paying with cash
3. Never use an ATM - less likely to spend green on frivolous and impulse buys
3. Religiously/obsessively Pay those cards to zero each month, bank card points for consumer goods of my choosing: Amazon, Best Buy, Barnes and noble
4. Finance a mortgage for the tax writeoff
5. Bank at my old hometown Montana bank. Let's see them try and charge cheapskate farmers and ranchers NIRP. If I ever have a problem, i literally call Connie the customer service rep whose daughter I used to date
6. I used to sling weed to pay off my Student Loans. From those days, I keep about $5k in 20s and 50s around my house and office in case of an imposed bank holiday
7. Local savings account in my employer's credit union in case my Montana bank runs into trouble
The credit card imdustry has a name for people like me: Deadbeat
FICO score: 850
I suggest Umberto Eco's "Inventing the Enemy" for compulsory reading in High School civics.
Also,J.K. Galbraith for economics.
The Germans had to be milked after WW1,to pay the French,who needed to pay the Brits,who needed to
pay the J.P.Morgan war loans.This circle of debt led to German currency hyper-inflation,and political
instability.
Kredit-Anstalt....
Great Shout Out in the movie to the always intellectually stimulating and relevant publication "Jim Grant's Interest Rate Observer" and its primers about the incredible CDO machine... Always worth its weight in Gold is the Observer (smile).