The idea that we’re even in a business cycle is whistling in the dark. To think of the economy being in a cycle is to imply an automatic recovery is in store. This free-market idea was developed at the National Bureau of Economic Research by opponents of government regulatory policy. The fantasy is that the economy oscillates in a fairly smooth and regular sine curve. But this always has been a fiction. 19th-century writers didn’t speak of economic cycles, but rather of periodic financial crises. There is a slow buildup, and a sudden plunge, so the shape is ratchet-shaped. Today’s plunging real estate and stock market prices are not a self-correcting ebb and flow in which downturns set in motion automatic stabilizers that produce recovery. Each U.S. recovery since World War II has started out from a higher level of debt. The result is like driving a car with the brakes pressed more and more tightly. Alan Greenspan at the Federal Reserve flooded the banking system with enough credit to enable debts to be carried by borrowing against the rising price of homes and office buildings, corporate stocks and bonds. In effect, the interest charge was simply added onto the debt balance. But now prices are falling, leaving families, companies and many Wall Street firms with negative equity. Asset-price inflation fueled by the Federal Reserve is giving way to debt deflation. Today, the prospects are dim for paying off debts out of further price gains for homes and real estate. Speculators have pulled out of the market and as late as 2006 they accounted for about a sixth of new purchases. The United States and other countries have reached the point where interest and amortization payments are absorbing the entire economic surplus of so many individuals, so many companies and so many government bodies that new construction, investment and employment are grinding to a halt. Families, real estate investors and companies are obliged to use their disposable income to pay their creditors. This leaves them without enough money to sustain the living standards of recent years and they no longer can wipe out their debts by declaring bankruptcy as in times past, because Congress has passed the harsh bankruptcy law that credit-card and bank lobbies paid them to pass. This means that there won’t be a rebound, and it will take longer than 2009 to recover.

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/06/the-game-is-over-there-wont-be-a-rebound/

You have to have a SS#
How did they pay them?
Will realstate be seized to pay Income Taxes? What is the address of the aliens? Coming soon!

When jobs were cut and wages reduced the financial companies, developers, and realstate refused to take an equal reduction in earnings. Now they are getting their cut handed to them by something called Math. We get less you get less real simple.

jc: How do you think I feel? People pay me to lay it on the line for them, and then I have to tell it like it is. Ain’t pretty….even worse when one spouse is hiding stuff from the other………….

The story is set in Australia in the near future, depicting a poorly-funded police unit called the Main Force Patrol (MFP), which struggles to protect the Outback’s few remaining townspeople from violent motorcycle gangs. The film depicts the future Australia as a bleak, dystopian and impoverished society that is facing a breakdown of civil order, the causes of which are not detailed in this film but which Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior explains as being caused by widespread oil shortages and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome explains resulted in a nuclear war following the shortages. The film introduces a young MFP police officer, Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson), who is considered to be the MFP’s “top pursuit man”.

PGC – Congrats on the anticipated new addition. I hear 3 is a very joyful handful.

Clot – My boss is my age, many others much younger and apparantly squeeky clean. I think the Vault was both before their time and out of their league.

Patient –

“Every day I expect them to march into my office and say “we’ve discovered that you’re really a musician. Get OUT!””

Yeah right, you high powered workaholic lawyer you.

Sounds like this property has gone from a short sale to REO. No hard-and-fast rules or percentages on REO…it really depends on the lender and how fast they want to get this house off their books (some banks are just as delusional as individual sellers these days!).

A decent rule of thumb is that an individual bank will accept around 80% of their most recent PBO, but that is a very “ballpark” number.

Good luck.

How much room does a bank typically leave themselves on a short sale? (If there is such as thing as typical for a short sale).

The house I’m looking at was purchased in 2005 for $487k. I was foreclosed on in January. The bank listed it and accepted a $390k bid. It fell through (buyer couldn’t get financing). The bank now has listed at $380k and has said they prefer a July close.

I want to bid $355k, no contingencies, as-is, prequalified & with a 20% cash DP, prepared for immediate close.

If it’s even possible to handicap, what are the chances of the bank hitting my $355 bid? Do banks typically counter offer or is it normally a “yes or no to the bid?

the disaster i am waiting to see unfold is large scale defaulting on credit cards. given current bankruptcy laws, these are secured debts. the question is will the congress step in and provide an out, similar to the debt forgiveness loophole they recently handed home loan defaulters.
Heck, if that happens i might go on a quick buying spree then default. regardless. any such scenario would break what ever is remaining of the US economy.
This scenario cannot be avoided. credit card debt is growing at record rates and is at record levels. it is 2 maybe 4 years at the most before begin to see the cascade of credit card default. that is when i batten the hatches

You’re drunk!