Tuesday, October 7, 2008

To Panic or Not...The Current Financial Crisis....etc

No one is buying my stuff on ebay. I think this financial crisis is getting to everyone. It was so quiet on my street today, even the birds were not chirping. The traffic up and down the street was little or none. Not even people walking around the neighborhood chatting.

I have to admit, at this point my stomach is Queasy and I am not in the mood to cook dinner or go anywhere and pretend my life is hunky doory. I am worried, but for different reasons than most. I know when the dust clears, it is the little guy that will be hurt by all of this. I am one of them. Did I have time to consider whether the banker's were doing right by me, the mortgage brokers, the government, the oil companies.

Nope, I have just been waking up and trying to Dee-Clutter what was left of my divorce war torn life. Trying to get a job, trying to make money to support myself, trying to pay my bills any which way I could. I am a displaced housewife, without a career to support myself. I got rooked by my ex- hubbie, the court system, the mortgage company....and I am trying to keep my head above water one day at a time.

I did not get much out of my divorce, my ex was great at hiding money and lying to the court system. He was smarter than me or the idiot lawyers I could only afford to defend myself. I spent 4 years in divorce court, for every trumped up charge he could make up. I watched as his lies were far superior to my truth. I learned and what I learned, I am watching happening in the greater scheme of my world. Here is my two cents if anyone might be interested.

How did that happen? I should have gotten 4 years alimony and a greater split of the assets. I was the good wife, who ran around for everyone...supported my husband in every aspect of his life. I got stuck holding the bag. Expensive lesson in life, never the less a lesson. Doing the right thing is not something that is popular today. My mistake, was not lying, cheating and hiding assets...and finding a replacement spouse before the separation....like he did. What I have learned since,
this is what most people do, foolish me. I thought honor was something to strive for in life....that was honored and respected by others. Not in today's world, not in divorce court or in this global financial crisis.

There are new rules, GREED. This is what people honor and respect. This is who we help out. This is not where this problem started, WALL STREET. It started at hiked up interest rates, by bankers who were only paying the depositors 1% for borrowing their money, while they were collecting interest on credit paper in the double digits, that was after they plied you with 0% loans, and then jacked up the interest rates to 21.99%...and at the same time hit the merchants for a big fat fee for taking your card.

I figure the real estimate is they got about 30% on every dollar that was spent in this nation on credit cards...oh and then there are the ridiculous fees they get if someone sends you a bad check, you pay....late fees that are sky high...and holding the money you deposit for 7 days when they get it in 3....and depositing over night for 4 days with the interest going to them. Why wasn't that vig enough to cover their bad mortgage paper? I think that vig is real close to what lone sharks make...and they are not crying poor.

Then ridiculous housing prices, funded by that bogus mortgage paper. But who financed those builders that built those big houses, that required 100% mortgages. Look to those that profited from the rising housing prices.... and who bought those expensive houses that were financed 100%. I don't know about you, but I can't afford a penthouse in miami beach on the ocean even if they gave me a 100% mortgage.
People with that kind of money don't care about credit reports or credit card loans, they have cash.

They just woke up and packed up their things and gave the bank the penthouse when the value went lower and stopped paying their mortgages. It was cheaper than rent...and tax deductible. These people are judgement proof, their money is in trusts and businesses that can't be sued.

Sounds like Mr. Potter from Bedford falls....to me. Where were the government regulations then. What happened to the limits on interest rates, that used to exit
in my state and yours. Who removed them?

It was compounded by tripled energy prices, when salaries did not increase in a manner commensurate.

Why is it the government is not buying my paper, that was used to pay the high housing cost, high interest rates and high energy costs....If they wrote me a big fat check....and all the rest of us little guys, we would go about living and spending like we usually do....and trust me the economy would be stimulated....
and FAST. Jobs would be had....perhaps not in the banking center...but, since when
is this government in business supporting legalized loan sharking?

Personally, I think the heads of all those financial institutions should be prosecuted for their sheer greed... Who removed those limits? And where has doing business in good faith gone and making a fair and respectable profit gone? Last I heard loan sharking was illegal business activity?

and while they were charging that high interest they were only paying depositors 1%
interest on the their money they were lending? That is a big profit margin....where
did it go? It went somewhere....other than covering all these defaulting mortgages.

I smell a big old rat,or two.... somewhere in this story. I doubt I am alone.

And everyone selling their stocks at such low prices, remember someone is buying
that stock from you at a very, very low price. Ask yourself who?

I traded stocks for awhile, and inside those trading chat rooms they always talked about getting stock out of the weak hands, people that panic. You never put a stop loss on a nasdaq stock, or those market makers will swoop down and get it at the price you, the unsuspecting investor sets. The nasdaq is run differently than the NYSE. Different rules. Why didn't your broker tell you?

GREED. They make a profit on that trade when you sell, it is called a brokerage fee. All this panic, is making THEM, that caused this mess, richer!!! You who are panicking,are unwittingly, making those that caused the panic....richer. This is a circuitous problem and panic is not the answer.

Cramer tells you to sell, what is Cramer doing? I'll bet he is buying.

Wall street, are the institutions that caused this big mess.........and are raking in the dough as the sales of securities come pouring in, and they are the people that will buy your securities at the deeply marked down prices....and will sell them back to you when you buy them back at a higher price, in a few months when the media calms down and there is another story....that is bigger. So while they are crying whoa is me....they are raking in the dough from your panic.

Personally, I think the staggering gasoline price situation, for that matter sky high commodities prices for raw materials, has caused more severe damage to this economy, than this bad mortgage paper. I did not see the government or Wall Street step up to the plate to subsidize that economic problem....I wonder why?

Why can't these people pay their mortgages, could it be their energy costs have tripled and their wages have not....their stock accounts have not? I did not see a tax deduction for people who suddenly one day could not afford their rents or mortgages, because they had to pay three times as much to go to work and do their errands. Why?

Is the housing market caving because people do not have disposable income to save to buy new homes, because of the high energy prices? If the fed is dropping its rates to help this problem, why aren't the mortgage companies and banks passing this savings down to us the consumer? We might all have more spendable income to get this economy going. What was it jimmy stewart said to Mr. Potter?

It is these working people who do all the spending and living in this town.

The banks would not have had to finance people's personal shortfall, if the energy prices did not triple in the last few years, with wages not increasing. Think about it. People take credit to buy things that they can not afford on their earnings. What caused us the consumer to run short????? It was suddenly going from paying $25 to fill my gas tank to $65! That is $40 more every time I fill my tank. HELLO????

Instead of panicking.....start thinking it out rationally. This is a game of Greed and it is running rampant in this country. What happened to honor? What happened to reasonable profits? And why should that require government intervention?

Maybe it is just me but, I SMELL BIG RATS in this picture, BIG GREEDY RATS and a cover up.....that we all will be reading about, in a few years.

and Media, please give us the facts....not BUZZ words. What happened to the real reporters, who hit the street and brought truth to the newspapers and tv news rooms?

I personally think the best thing we can all do, it sit down, dee-clutter our homes and lives, while the government and wall street clean up the mess they made. And if we are real smart, we will not sell out our country and all the good companies on wall street that are well run, that we have invested in. That is not smart. The BIG RATS are counting on you, to PANIC....so DON'T.

off soap box....someone had to say it....I am no financial expert....just thoughts
from a frazzled ex-wife of one of those fat cats. I know how they think....that is how I got screwed in my divorce.... They already have their money in their mattresses, before they ever, ever are going to drop some kind of hint that you put yours there. THINK ABOUT IT!

These people have no honor, STOP BELIEVING they are looking out for you!!!

In the meantime, if you have cash, statistics show the best place to put your cash is in collectibles. They have shown a continuous rise in value even when the financial markets fell. Kovels.com has a big article on this subject. If you google it you will find more articles. So hit Ebay and hit craigs list and look for collectibles that historically have increased in value.

Wishing you a great day,
Yours Truly,
Dee Cluttering

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