OpEdNews » Bush's Booming Economy -- For The Rich

Support OEN
With Your
Tax-Deductible Donation

Tags for This Article:

Populum Tag Cloud Control Panel
	Fine tune your search to access content

Articles	Links
Diaries	Products
Events	All

All time
Last 6 mos
Last month
Last week
Last 24 hrs

From:
Month Day Year

To:
Month Day Year

Alphabet Popularity	Count ON Count OFF
This Level	Sub-levels

Tag(s): Bush Congress Showdown; Economy-Economics- US; Economy-Economics- World
Add to My Group

August 13, 2007 at 12:06:39

Bush's Booming Economy -- For The Rich

by Sheila Samples Page 1 of 2 page(s)

www.opednews.com

SAVE FAVORITES

VIEW FAVORITES

View Ratings | Rate It

By Sheila Samples

Sometimes I'm amazed at how much I know about the financial markets and the economy. I don't understand any of it, but I know a lot of stuff, thanks to my friend and mentor, Richard Walrath, who's been to the market more than once. He says when George Bush brags that the economy is booming, he's probably right. The economy is exploding with a big boom, and Walrath says now we are engaged in a great battle to see how long this country can endure.

According to Walrath, the Fed has been manipulating the market for years, especially during the Bush years. "There was great fear the United States was going to follow Japan into a period of deflation and recession -- maybe even a depression. Interest rates were cut close to zero while hundreds of billions of dollars were added to the National Debt through tax-cuts for the rich and 'Big Bidness.' And it gets worse just at the time the National Debt limit has to be raised again," he said.

With things as bad as they are, Walrath says it's going to be interesting to see how this will be handled. Congress may have to return early to pass legislation to raise the National Debt. But it makes more sense to me -- since the bulk of our lawmakers were so eager to get out of school for recess, Bush could decide to handle the whole thing like he does everything else to avoid partisan jawboning -- via Executive Order.

But the National Debt is just one of many problems battering our economy. Walrath points out a major problem is "all those margin accounts out there with people getting calls to come up with some real money because their stock is down. As you might expect, this led to speculation in housing -- let's flip it -- and millions of people who couldn't afford to pay their rent bought houses."

Wait a minute...Let's flip it? What does that mean? Nothing comes to mind -- okay one thing does -- but Walrath never takes such a cavalier attitude about economics. Let's flip it, Walrath says is when "--you buy the house with no intention of ever living in it. You add a kitchen, spruce up a bathroom, and "flip" it, or put it back on the market, hoping to make a profit.

This goes on all the time, Walrath says, but there were more flippers than buyers this time around because "it cost almost nothing to own a house while you were waiting to sell it. That's sub-prime credit. You could buy a house with no money down, no income, no job, no assets."

Of course! Now I understand. If you buy a house with no money down, you have little or nothing invested. Just walk away. Let the banks worry about selling them. But to whom will banks sell them? What are the banks going to do? "That's why houses for sale are now piling up all over the country," Walrath said. "It's a terrible situation."

Donald Trump begs to differ. When you're in a hole, keep digging as hard and as fast as you can. Trump's advice, according to Walrath is to "just go back and make another deal with whoever holds the mortgage. Trump says you'll get a better deal this time than the one you had before. Don't walk away from it -- go make another deal. The last thing the bank wants is your house. What are they going to do with it? They can't find anybody to buy it."

So, who's flipping whom in this credit seizure?

According to an unsigned editorial in Saturday's Wall Street Journal, the root cause of this credit correction was the Federal Reserve's willingness to keep money too easy for too long. An "emergency rate cut, as some in the market seem to be anticipating or hoping for -- carries the risk of introducing even greater moral hazard into the financial system," the Journal warns.

We can't have immorality in our financial system, now can we? Oh, the horror!

While chiding Democrats such as Senator Hillary Clinton for proposing a $1 billion federal bailout fund for homeowners at risk of default and foreclosure, the Journal goes on to channel Barbara Bush's flash of morality when speaking of homeless Katrina victims -- "No one wants to see someone lose his home to foreclosure. But many of those most at risk bought their homes with little or no money down, and so have very little at stake economically. Bringing in the feds to bail them out would send precisely the wrong message -- that risky or overly aggressive borrowing will be rewarded by the government rather than punished in the marketplace. To the extent that bad loans were made, the market needs to clear, not be propped up by federal-aid programs."

Unfortunately, despite what the Journal and the endlessly bleating "Money Heads" on TV would have you believe, millions of Americans are in deep trouble. CNBC's Jim Cramer "flipped out" last week in a torrent of truth about the current economic situation.

Walrath agrees, and says if we continue in the direction we're headed, Bush's "boom" will make the Savings and Loan bail-out look like a Girl Scout Cookie Sale.

According to Walrath, there are four sets of losers in this housing meltdown...

1 | 2

Sheila Samples is an Oklahoma writer and a former civilian US Army Public Information Officer. She is a regular contributor for a variety of Internet sites.

	Contact Author
	Contact Editor
	View Other Articles by Author

Bookmark this page: (what's this?)

(More...)

3 comments

.
TomK .

Wall Street insiders at work, again

Great article.

While there is enough blame to spread around, the biggest responsibility lies with those who repackages junk subprime mortgages as superior bonds and sell them to the 'unsuspecting' pension funds and such. These repackagers are the key enabler of the subprime bubble. And they knew it - they knew they are selling poison candy but the commission is too sweet. This is your standard out-of-control Wall Street greed at work.

Now we know Wall Street played a similar unscrupulus role in the .com bubble, the telecom bubble, the housing bubble, now the subprime bubble. Protected by Bush and the Fed, Wall Street excesses continues.

by TomK (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 217 comments) on Monday, August 13, 2007 at 1:37:31 PM

Sheila Samples is an Oklahoma writer and a former civilian US Army Public Information Officer. She is a regular contributor for a variety of Internet sites.
Sheila SamplesSheila Samples is an Oklahoma writer and a former civilian US Army Public Information Officer. She is a regular contributor for a variety of Internet sites.

I agree...

The Wall Street Journal's dismissive attitude is stunning. So what if people lose their houses they bought in good faith and have to live on the streets or in their cars. After all, they didn't have that much iinvested -- and we all know that "investment" is what makes the (our) world go 'round...

Sickening...

by Sheila Samples (51 articles, 3867 quicklinks, 42 diaries, 403 comments) on Monday, August 13, 2007 at 6:02:57 PM

.
TomK .

The bail out

As the subprime mortgage bust evolvs into a full scale credit crisis all we need to do is to watch the bail out to figure out the real agenda of the powerful people in charge.

Opportunistic politicians will propose bail out of those who face foreclosure of their houses. But this will not happen and all the talk is just playing election games.

The Senate will make noise calling for hearings on the mortage companies. 'Why did you sell such craps to low income low education people? Have you no decency?" The show will make the senators look good, look responsible and caring. Then nothng will happen.

The House will play dumb about the whole thing. They have been totally bought out by the mortgage and housing industries.

Bush will express condolences to the millions who lost their houses, just as he did to New Orleans. Such events are Acts of God, and since he was also elected by the will of God, he is not going to change the course of destiny. Besides, Bush is a true beliver of the magic of capitalism, and the wonderful housing economy is part of that magic. The market always regulate itself, especially when Wall Street and Big Business are winning.

The investors who bought all those CDOs and who now find them almost worthless are blaming the Fed's easy money policy for creating the housing bubble. And for that they will not be bailed out.

What about some Wall Street houses, those who repackaged junk subprime mortgages to magically become grade A bonds with amazing yields, then leverage their values 10 times and sell them to investors for wonderful commissions. It appears some are hurting because of credit sqeeze due to these same bunch of houses screwing each other in the rush to cover their asses. Well, we cannot let the poor guys take a hit! YES, the Fed will pump money and do other such mysterious things to ensure the survival of the capitalists of capitalism. Wall Steet have always known this. Know what? The Fed public role is, well, bullshit. The real role is to work for Wall Street.

by TomK (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 217 comments) on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 at 2:13:56 AM