Stimulus, bailout, securities, regulations, foreclosure, collapse, inflation.....the rhetoric is toxic these days never mind the assets.

The one thing strikes me as almost tragically futile herein is the complete and utter lack of real understanding as to why we are where we are and how to get out of where we are and this is a really, really bad time to do the trial and error thing.

Again and again we see the powers that be ignoring the viral foundation of the overpriced real estate market as if it was completely irrelevant to the economy. Again we see elected officials and high flying financiers moving in the predictable patterns of greed and self enrichment by pretending that the problem is something else...like credit or corporate greed ( though that does bear some of the brunt ) or the relative strength/weakness of the currency baskets affecting our trade policies but no mention of the disconnect between real estate valuation and the two trillion dollar asset ghost fostered by that false premise that has now taken down entire national economies in the wake of its descending vortex and I just continue to marvel at the blindness of the whole process.

Am I missing something here? Did the national association of realtors get hold of Harry Potter's apothecary scroll and fix up a polyjuice potion to make them all drunk with distraction.....the legislators and the bankers that is???

The single most effective suggestion in all of this was the offer to allow BR judges to write down mortgages but even that is a piss poor shot in the dark since no one has, as of yet, offered any criteria for how to value the properties in this process or whether or not the judges will use the median income levels of the area instead of the actual income of the distressed property owner to determine his/her future financial obligations. It could turn out to be a bailout of the noose instead of a mortgage bailout if it is not done right. It might also have the effect of artificially propping up the inflated values continuing the unhealthy cycle that started all of this in the first place, it's hard to say. In this case it might be best just to let the market forces find their own level because no one can attach moral denigration to a nameless process

to rush through a stimulus bill when no one understands the economy, let alone how to fix it. Of course they could have heald some hearings to let a variety of government, professional, and business leaders offer proposals and suggestions in order to determine the most efficacious spending and tax stimulus ideas. But that would have required them to pospone their pork luau.

the DOW jumped 200 points yesterday on nothing more than a rumor of a 50 billion dollar commitment to housing refinance. That tells you point blank what I've been writing for two years: they haven't done a damn thing for housing. They are finally beginning to talk about it.

idiots