Realtytimes - Let's Put the Housing Blame Where it Really Belongs

Totally on point.

"Don’t give me that guff that they’re worth it. They use the same CEO playbook -- fire workers, cut service, cut quality, and ship any remaining jobs overseas.

The really creative ones take government contracts while refusing to pay taxes, and then set up world offices in Dubai.

And when things go wrong, they claim they didn’t know because they were too far up the food chain. It was those dastardly underlings who cooked the books.

But when stock prices rise, it’s because they’re geniuses."

I believe that many CEO's are openly pilfering the coffers of their companies. They are continually violating their fiduciary duties to their stockholders. The BOD's are violating this duty even more because they are the ones who sign off on the bloated compensation, stock option and "perk" packages. Why? Because they like their own inflated BOD salaries for very little time invested and very little oversight. It's the Ultimate Backscratcher's Club.

There seems to be absolutely no self-imposed limit to the greediness of the CEOs and their toady boards.

housing bubble that has pushed prices way too high. Higher than they would be in a normal market.

.... Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs, have their creditworthiness now at or near the level of junk, according to Bloomberg Reports.

Even though the interest rates in the bond market have been rapidly falling, due to investors rushing to the safety of government bonds, these banks are only able to sell their bonds by offering between 20 and 90 basis points above their cover yield.

The worst at this point is Bear Stearns. Their 10 year bonds are trading at a discount even to other banks national bonds where the ratings are between BBB and junk. So Bear Stearns offering 6.448% on a ten year note is yielding 5.55%.

These are the same companies that are desperate to fund $75 billion of loans for leveraged buyouts but can't find buyers.

Bottom line is that home buyers are getting the blame for taking sub-prime loans when it has been the high rick hedge funds and the banks which have been backing them have been gambling and speculating driving up the interest rates.

you said "high rick hedge funds and the banks which have been backing them have been gambling and speculating driving up the interest rates."

Are the hedge funds shorting the paper and thus pushing up rates? Because if they're buying the paper, that would tend to push rates down.

edit for spelling

:kick:

many many more must be poor. it's a fact of the profit system ... profits flow up and their cost flows down.

a few = Depression

is the true underlying story here.

They've shown NO compassion or empathy for poor folk, so maybe when they hit bottom, they'll get more human.