Was Not a Rush Job
1. Home sale exclusion rule was modified
“Under the new rule, the owner only gets a percentage of the exclusion based on a ratio of how long the property is their primary residence divided by how long they owned the property. This prevents people from moving into vacation homes or rental units for two years and then obtaining the entire exclusion.” [Calculated Risk]
2. Fed Loans to Failed Banks Made Easier by Fannie-Freddie Rescue
“In the rescue signed into law by President George Wanker. Bush yesterday, the Fed will no longer have to pay penalties on loans it makes to institutions taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.” [Bloomberg]
Hidden in the housing legislation, down in the small print, is a provision that removes penalties on the Fed for loans it makes to FDIC dependent banks. In sum, it gives the Fed latitude to prop up the US banking system with its balance sheet. This would be scarier if the Fed’s balance sheet hadn’t already been riddled with toxic waste from Wall Street. [Some Assembly Required]
Anticipating another big bang are you, Mr. Bukkake?
See also Commentary at Market-Ticker Forum
3. All credit card transactions are to be recorded by the IRS
Nothing like a bit of surveillence to brighten your day - Forever and ever and ever and ever and ever.
4. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, will be given unlimited access to the U.S. Treasury without requiring any further approval from Congreff.
An unlimited line of credit? Isn’t that the same as a blank checkbook? You don’t suppose they’ll ever use it to the same extent the people supposedly being bailed out did, do you? Huh?
5. Number of households targeted to be saved by this legislation: 400,000. Number of households likely in trouble: 3,000,000.
You know what they say, he who panics first gets his money.
6. The U.S. national debt ceiling will be raised by $800 billion, which suggests that the bailout is expected to cost a lot more than the country was being told or the media was reporting. Oh, so there is a theoretical limit as to how much Congreff can spend. Until they need to raise it. Duh.
7. As Sen. Jim DeMint (R- SC) points out (here, above), FNM and FRE will not be retstrained from lobbying Congress for favors, etc. (”campaign contributions”).
Which is partly what got us into this mess in the first place.
For a deeper look into the baiout bill’s entrails, see Dr. Housing Bubble. Be sure to check out the income disparity chart (Gini Coefficient) at the end of the post- quite an eye-opener.
*UPDATE*
This bailout bill won’t help homeowners much, according to Lou Barnes [hat tip]. When a homedebtor’s APR is resetting, the “new payment under the federal program (a 30-year fixed with mandatory FHA insurance) would be … (b)etter than the reset, but still a big increase. (Peter Viles)”
Who does the bill help? Ask MER, JPM, GS, WB, BAC, WM, IMB, et al, who will be able to take advantage of this bill’s new conforming cap of $600k to “sell” all the fucked CDO’s (a.k.a. “toilet paper”) on their books to US bagholders (a.k.a. “raping the taxpayer”, i.e. you and me).
Will add as found… check back often!
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The repugnant bailout nation - Commentary
It’s at times like these that makes me wonder: What does Fleckie think?
“The Fed’s money-printing apparatus has been checkmated by roaring inflation. None of Paulson’s cockamamie schemes, from super SIVs to bailing out Fannie and Freddie (after Bennie and the boys at the Fed bailed out Bear Stearns), will help the economy. Yet we must continually endure the cheering by stock market operators every time this country, the supposed bastion of free enterprise, “successfully” takes another step in its move to nationalize all losses that are inconvenient to those in power.
“That brings me to an absolutely brilliant — though nauseating, for what it revealed about our government — article written by Paul Gigot in July 23’s Wall Street Journal: “The Fannie Mae gang.” This ought to be mandatory reading for everyone in America. It detailed the hardball thuggery, arm-twisting and insidious interlocking relationships among, for example, former Fannie Mae Chairman Franklin Raines, former Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank that have helped create the monsters called Fannie and Freddie” [Bill Fleckenstein]
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Plaudits for Hanky Panky?
It was pointed out to me yesterday by someone with cable that on CNBS yesterday Hank Pankyulson was called, and I believe this to be correct, a “Capitalist Hero.”
Okay, I’m back, I suddenly had to vomit, but I’m okay.
From the always relevant Market-Ticker [Forum], let’s put this little exercise in mutually beneficial cock-sucking into the proper perspective, shall we?
His leadership of Goldman Sucks qualifies him as one of the creators of the entire housing market slash debt debacle. That they are patting him on the back for fixing this mess he had a hand in creating is all the more absurd.
“CNBS lauding Hank Paulson as the savior of our economy.
They seem to forget that he ran the firm that created the majority of the worthless crap which has now been foisted on the American Taxpayer.
Hank was the guy who called the problem “CONAINTED” AT $50 Billion. Hell, Merrill alone has written off more than $50 billion.
Who amongst us couldn’t solve the ills of the world if they had an open checkbook to the American Taxpayer?
And finally, lest we forget, that shit that Hank and his buddies foisted off on the Fed is, if you use Merrill’s pricing, worth about $.20 on the dollar…or about $320 Billion less than what they are telling the people it is worth.
And that is before we spend another trillion dollars to bail our Freddie and Fannie.
Or deal with the shit from Bear Stearns.
Yup.
Great job Hank.
You truly are a notorious American.”
-TBear
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When Dr. Doom speaks, we should listen [Globe and Mail]
“The government doesn’t have the balls to raise taxes. It’s going to print the money. It’s going to destroy the currency,” he says.
During the Depression of the 1930s, at least people who held cash made out okay. Because prices were falling, their money actually bought more. But if Mr. Schiff is right and the U.S. is heading into a period of hyperinflation, then even the most prudent savers will see their wealth eviscerated.
Well, he has been right so far…
Didn’t Ben Bukkake say something about helicopters dropping dollars (”Federal Reserve, Inc. Notes”) into the economy to fight deflation?
Banana, meet Republic…
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“Thankfully, in a fiat money system, the lender of last resort doesn’t have to worry about running out of money to lend. Do they?” -Tim Iacono
“Regulators had long classified a private Swiss energy conglomerate called Vitol as a trader that primarily helped industrial firms that needed oil to run their businesses.
Posted by Paco Bell
I have met our dinner, and it is us
