The reality of Cap & Trade

Trade Wars between China & US?

Definitely NOT a good thing when one debtor (the US) starts up a trade war with their enabler (China).

China lashed a U.S. decision to impose duties on Chinese-made tires, calling them flagrant
protectionism that sent the wrong signal before the next G20 summit and risked a "chain reaction" that could slow global recovery."China strongly condemns this grave act of trade protectionism by the U.S.," the spokesman for China's Ministry of Commerce, Yao Jian, said in a statement issued on the Ministry website on Saturday.

Random Musings & Clicks

6 Things I Think:

1) Gold is at an all time high (not inflation adjusted). Gold as a precious metal/hard asset is one of the 5 branches of investment everyone should own. However, now may not be the best time to buy into the market. I fear that if gold goes past 1040/ounce, you'll see the general public run into gold pushing it to 1200+, which means you should sell, as whenver the masses enter the market, the smart money leaves.

2) The tax credit for home purchases is running close to the end (November 30 is the closing date for those to qualify). There is a fear out there that this will either be extended & increased (causing buyers to not want to buy right now) or not renew (causing fools to overpay). It balances each other out. More concerning is the FHA running out of money to be at their reserve requirement.

3) Eviction patrols overloaded with foreclosures. Nuff said.

4) Wells Fargo Executive Parties in Foreclosed Home. Wow, another nuff said.

5) Russian leader demands curbs on alcohol purchases. Yeahhhh, sure. Telling Russians not to drink is like telling a stoner not to smoke it up.

6) Harvard & Yale the big losers in investing. Just goes to show you that an Ivy League education doesn't mean shit....all it gets you is connections & networking. With the advent of social networking, this may make Ivy's a little more obsolete.

Debtors Revolution & How Banks are shhhh QUIETLY Negotiating down debts

Gotta LOVE this...a debtors revolt is going to happen if this gets passed along!



The Washington Post reports on the quiet practice going on by banks of secretly negotiating with cardholders to let them lower their debt amount & interest.

What's going on in this country

It's been a while since I've been a guest poster on this blog. Thanks to my dear friend to keep it going. Things have been crazy lately. I am in the process of trying to close what was once a thriving prosperous business. I guess truly it wasn't all that thriving since it was all smoke and mirrors because of much money out there, due to the ridiculous loose lending practices of the recent boom. It is ironic that the ones who created this mess we are in are bailed out by the same corrupt government that encouraged it, and quite possibly forced it. All the while they are getting sweet mortgage deals from the orange man. If there is a hell, Chris Dodd, Pelosi and all the other "put money in my pocket" congressman will have to answer for their sins. Our government has put themselves before the people. They are public servants.

Wall Street's Next Bubble

Some think the next bubble will be in "green jobs/green economy", others think it will reoccur in real estate, some say in China stocks (which we called for a popping of that bubble here)

So inquiring minds want to know..what is Wall Street's next bubble? Here's a preview:

The bankers plan to buy “life settlements,” life insurance policies that ill and elderly people sell for cash — $400,000 for a $1 million policy, say, depending on the life expectancy of the insured person. Then they plan to “securitize” these policies, in Wall Street jargon, by packaging hundreds or thousands together into bonds. They will then resell those bonds to investors, like big pension funds, who will receive the payouts when people with the insurance die.

The earlier the policyholder dies, the bigger the return — though if people live longer than expected, investors could get poor returns or even lose money.

Either way, Wall Street would profit by pocketing sizable fees for creating the bonds, reselling them and subsequently trading them.

"Buns" Bernanke Can't Be Happy bout this...

No, I'm not talking about this picture...hat tip to Jrdeputyacct!

Bun, er, Ben Bernanke cannot be happy that the Chinese are gladly putting aside dollar/treasury/Fed note purchases and are finding that they can:
1) Buy gold
2) Buy IMF bonds (the first 50 billion issued)
3) Use their current dollar horde to buy assets around the world

Free For All Links to Interesting Articles

Top 6 Financial Articles of the Day:

1) Homeowners Becoming Reluctant Landlords

2) Goodbye Fannie/Freddie, hello McGee? Simply put, the MCGE buys mortgages from banks, pools them into securities, pays an insurance premium to a new government fund and then sells them to investors with government guarantees against the default of those securities. So the investors take the interest rate risk but they are not taking a credit risk.

3) Has the Obama administration failed already? Here are 10 things to do to restore their hope

4) An inventive way to clean up foreclosed homes with pools

5) Florida may invest in Florida real estate

6) Making the switch from being nice to banks to being tough on them

Improving your credit score based on New FICO method

The latest update to FICO's scoring model may result in a very good thing for many people...a higher score. Some changes include:

Under the updated scoring model, called FICO 08, small, missed payments lingering in collections with original amounts of $100 or less will no longer do damage to your credit score.

Consumers also are less likely to be penalized for any single delinquency if it occurred two or more years ago - and if their credit history is otherwise unblemished, says FICO, formerly Fair Isaac Corp., which developed the FICO scoring system.

As noted in this article here, even if you get a credit limit cut, it may not have that much of an impact on your scores.

Of course, if your scores are really bad, you can go into a career of making cover songs about the financial crisis, much like this Pink Floyd remake:

This video says it all...Yes, The Government Can!