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[bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

James, though I'm not one of the people involved in your years-long 
conversation, concerning the housing mess; I could have , in a different way, 
been part of the conversation.
 
i was heavily focused on real estate, before, during , and, now, after the 
bubble.  
 
You are right, of course.  But, in hind sight, what should I have done 
differently?
I lost a great deal of personal treasure, at least as far as paper value.  
Real property is highly illiquid.  I did not leverage my assets, as some did; 
but, nonetheless,  I did sit down at the game.  I ask again; what should I 
have done different?.  I have bought and sold real estate for many years.  I 
have never lost money.  If I was forced to sell, today, I would be like the 
big banks, with no one able, or willing to buy my assets, but I have no 
government to bail me out.
It would be a personal "crash"
 
So, I invested, speculated, gambled; whatever you choose to call it, before 
the bubble and during the bubble.  I actually thought that real estate values 
were too high , here, so I bought in more than one state.  I knew prices 
could fall, maybe 20%, maybe even 40%, but I bought right.  So, I was looking 
at maybe (to me) the possibility of a 5% -- 20 % loss downside, with a huge 
upside.  It was , to me , at the time, a good bet.  But, you know the  
numbers of the cards and the name of the hand, that I was next dealt.  Number 
the cards, name the hand .......
 
There is a difference, though.  I will eat my losses; and they could be 
catastrophic.  Is it not okay for me to rail against the people who have 
created the credit crisis ?  Their losses, while large, still leaves them 
sound and whole.  And , I'm having to pay part of the bill to make them whole.
 
I should not make excuses for my own actions, so I won't.  But, that standard 
should also apply to politically connected Harvard MBA'd Investment 
bankers.....bobford



----- Original Message ----
From: "Clansgian AT wmconnect.com" <Clansgian AT wmconnect.com>
To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 8:13:51 AM
Subject: Re: [Homestead] Wrong admission



> >No, sir, outrage is pathetic; the right word is responsibility. You  
> have had access to vast economic information that you either ignored  
> or misread.
> 

This present is a credible example of what the Bush-bashers have been talking 
about.  Bernanke is a joke, a bad joke but at least he has a funny punch 
line.  He did his doctoral on the Great Depression and tauted himself as 
being an 
expert on it.  Turns out he is, an expert at creating another one!  And 
Paulson as Treasury Sec has produced just the results that people warned it 
would.

Paulson's outrage IS pathetic.  But the administration couild not have pulled 
off this debacle without two essential accomplices, one major and one minor 
1) [the minor one] The Dem controlled congress  2) [the major one] All the 
people in the real estate game who acted as agents and cheerleaders while 
they 
plotted to make money despite the clear logic and facts against the scheme.  

Here is what the uber-incompetent Bernanke had to say in March of 2007:

"The impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in 
the subprime markets seems likely to be contained"

As stupid as this seems in retrospect (although those relying on logic, 
figures, and history saw that it was stupid at the time) it pales in 
stupidity to 
what I heard from real estate cheerleaders at the time.

There are some six ongoing conversations face to face or else on blogs or 
mail lists that began four or five years ago when housing was booming.  
Bubble??  
(Said they) Don't make me laugh!    Why that's not even worth wasting time 
talking about!  Ho, hum, so boring.  I prefer to talk about cheery things 
rather 
than all this gloom and doom.

Like Bernanke and Paulson, these same six people (and countless others like 
them) are now looking around themselves and saying, "Wow, look at this mess, 
who coulda seen this coming!?" and they begin to point their fingers at Bush 
and 
his appointees.

A couple of years ago it was "Bubble?  Ho, hum, how boring..."  And now that 
bubble bids fair to change the course of history.

The outrage of these people is PATHETIC.  It was they who caused the bubble 
and the current state of affairs.  Bush and Congress were the occasion, not 
thecause.  It was they themselves who caused it.  </HTML>
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