Just Blame It On The Subprime Blues
from the otherwise,-everything's-just-fine dept
Although the effects on the tech industry have been muted, we’ve been following the impact of the mortgage/credit mess that’s been roiling financial markets for the past few weeks. While many folks (particularly bankers and regulators) would like to claim that the situation is contained, every day brings more evidence that it’s not. Michelle Leder has been tracking the number of times companies are using the word “subprime” in their SEC filings and she’s found, not surprisingly, a spike in the word’s use. What is a bit surprising are the companies that have invoked the situation to explain their performance. It’s not just financial firms, as you’d expect, but companies as diverse as restaurant chains and wireless operators. The question, then, is whether this is simply an excuse for bad performance (like how retailers always claim they were hurt by the weather), or whether this issue has really started to creep up on companies in some way or another. At this point, it’s probably a mix of both, although it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a lot more companies affected by the situation than people currently expect.
Filed Under: credit crunch, subprime
Comments on “Just Blame It On The Subprime Blues”
Weasel Words...
“Subprime” is just a nice way of saying “shitty,” no matter what the context happens to be. You’ve got bad credit because you weren’t able to control yourself? Hey, it’s not BAD credit, it’s just “subprime,” so you can still feel good about yourself while you’re paying 14.99% interest on your home loan.
By this logic, Bush isn’t a bad President; he’s just subprime.
I’d write more, but I’m too tired to get pissed off enough.
Nobody is talking about the underlying cause of the subprime mortgage “mess”.
Greedy mortgage lenders knowingly made loans to unqualified borrowers.
These mortgages got packaged, repackaged, sold and resold.
Now that some defaults started showing up, there’s a lot of fear because nobody even knows where all the bad loans are stashed – they’re hiding in those packages along with good loans.
It will take a long time to settle out. Meanwhile, fear and uncertainty is drying up the availability of credit. Every business needs credit, regardless of the industry.
It’s going to be ugly for a long time.
Re: Nobody's talking
addendum I forgot to say in #2.
This shows, yet again, that although market forces are marvelous, they’re not the answer to all problems. Unregulated, they actually cause many serious problems.
Re: Re: Nobody's talking
I agree with you about industry(s) not being regulated causing potential volatile markets, but I think this problem you so well defined is not from having no regulation(s), but due to business(s) (Bank of America) not being forced to follow the rules already in place by the regulation(s) set forth by US Federal and State Law. They have been allowed to solicit and issue credit to non-legal and or legal but not credit worthy people.
Any time one loans money to a person(s) not capable to repay the loan on their own ability without wishing the market will go straight up to cover their future obligation(s) is underwriting a very risky business transaction.
With higher risk there should be charged higher interset rate(s) and fees to that specific loan transaction to cover that risk and not transfer that risk onto the rest of the market that has a low risk level due to their proven income and disposable cash flow.
What America did was to let the the high risk market have access to and probably hurt the rest of the normal market.
I wonder what the average house median would be in these “high risk” markets if the 1% NO DOCUMENT loans were not legally allowed or available and not available to single family address(s) with two or more families in that house with a 1% payment just to make the required cash flow work for low income participants.
Equal Rights For All is not for ALL. This market is in it’s situation primarily due to greed. Greed of the large corporate lending entities that saw not a loop hole in the existing regualtion law(s), but saw the government and legal system backing groups of people by not ENFORCING the laws already on the books of the United States of America.
As long as the non logical and economically illiterate minority keep setting new laws or being allowed to break the existing laws, we will have this type of problem in the “Land of the Free”.
I thought nothing in this world is free, everything has a price…most of the time one must work for it, or fight for it. The non-American(s) here in the USA think everything in the USA is free, especially to them…and then they send it back to “their” “homeland”.
Did you know that the number #1 source of dollars into Mexico as an example, is US dollars transfered into Mexico from the USA. Work revenues, unemployment and welfare dollars probably also. Pretty nice “WE” sponsor and take care of Mexico rather than our own US Americans here in the States.
Remember when Bank Of America was thought to be in potential threat of going bankrupt in the 1980’s because of all the bad debt it had loaned the country of Mexico, and Mexico was in multiple defaults to the Bank of America at that time. The USA had to step in and underwrite the defaulted payments that the MEXICAN GOVERNMENT could not (or WOULD NOT) make.
Always follow the money, and not on the surface. You will discove the truth. It may not fit your personal or political liking(s), but if you are honest with yourself, you will see the light.
Re: Re: Re: Nobody's talking
Yeah, it’s that $30 Billion the government just gave to Israel today…follow that money..and the deaths of American soldiers for a country of people who should be told…move to Alaska and you won’t have no more trouble with the terrorists
Not all subprime loans went to people with bad credit. Quite a few of the subprime loans went to investors who were looking to flip property or builders who looked at the market and hoped for a quick profit in the real estate boom.
Americanpride, you talk of the non logical and economically illiterate minority, but hold on a second. Don’t the banks that gave those folks the loans face responsibility? They sure knew the risk. They knew that if the RE market tanked, they would face these problems. They chose to ignore those risks. I really hope the govt. doesn’t bail them out of this one.
Random Thoughts said
With all respect to you, Random Thoughts, you were much too tactful.
Mr/Ms Americanpride is just spouting ridiculous, racist crap, and the same goes for the remarks of Mr/Ms Angel.
Blaming Israel for the death of American soldiers is too much. If memory serves me, it was the President of the United States of America who lied us into the unnecessary disaster of Iraq. And for what? Oil.
Enough with the racist crap!
Re: Random Thoughts said
Actually, you a$$-hat, the Israelites (Jews) are PART of the reason America is in so much financial and political turmoil these days. Notice I said part. So Random Thoughts is right. Research your facts, you ignorant tool.
WE, the American people should never have gotten involved with Israel. If they want to live in their promised land, I have no problem with that , but it sounds like their job, NOT OURS. Why did WE air-lift last minute supplies to Israel during the 1973 war and thereby save them from their impending defeat? Haven’t you read your history? Did you not pay attention in economics class? Did you seriously not know that Saudi Arabia’s decision to cut crude production, BECAUSE OF THAT, was one of the chief causes of the 1973 recession? Saudi Arabia, until that time, had been our only supporter in the Middle East. Gee, now let’s think here a minute. What country did the 9/11 terrorists come from? Well, by God if it ain’t old Saudi Arabia!
Why did we allow Israel to settle the West Bank after they promised not to at the Camp David Accords and President Begin promised us as well, then just 2 MONTHS after that, in the Knesset, totally did an about-face and said that “Israeli settlements would not be dismantled as part of any peace negotiations, and that Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank should be established once the interim arrangements called for in the Camp David Accords had run their course.”
Why did President Truman recognize Israel just 6 hours after Israel declared itself a state in 1948. Why do we recognize the Balfour Declaration that Britain, NOT WE, made to establish Israel in the Palestinian territory?
Anyone who cares to look at the facts has to admit that the American gov’t has been crapping on Arabs for a very long time now, and this is why our oil prices will continue to rise and wars on terror will continue to proliferate.And the reason we continue crapping on Arabs is all for the sake of Israel, i.e. Jews. Random Thoughts sounds like he knows a tad bit more than you, you would be wise to listen and not start spouting the word racism like a boy crying wolf. Nobody listens anymore to the racism card. It’s been cried too many times falsely. It doesn’t have the effect it once had.
Give some facts or shut up with your racism nonsense. Racism is just a tool that idiots like you, who have no facts, use to shut off debate when anyone says something that threatens your distorted perception of the world. How about doing some research before you throw your hat into the ring next time, Gracho?
deja vu
so wait, if you put tons of money into risky propositions, you will probably end up losing tons of money? wow. i’m shocked.
i wonder why people say “never gamble more that you can afford to lose”. it’s as if they think that high risks mean a high probability of loss. i’ll bet that’s why they call it “risk”.
that sounds a lot like the people who invested in dotcoms in 2000-2002. when things were going bad then, they blamed 9/11.
looks like “sub prime” is the new 9/11.
if you read between the lines, it’s white people blaming their investment blunders on dark skinned people… again.
Repackaging - Mortgage backed securities - etc.
The problem here that everyone is missing (with the exception of #2) is that the lenders making the risky loans do not hold on to the loans. They immediately ‘repackage’ the loans and sell them to various investment groups, and other banks and financial institutions. This means they have no real incentive to make sure the loan will be paid off long-term, as they will be paid on the short-term sale of the loan. Thus, the banks, investors, and financial institutions taking the hit not (i.e.: holding the bag) are not the lenders who made the bad loans. These ‘purchasing parties’ often had no knowledge of the outright lies the lender used meet the underwriting guidelines to acquire the loans. They asked does loan meet requirements X,Y,Z. Fraudulent lender manipulates paperwork to meet requirements X,Y,Z – sells the loan – moves to Aruba, and miscellaneous banks and investors take the fall.