What would you do-Oo-Oo, for a Klondike Condo??

Some person might indeed be willing to brave blistering winds and scorching, uncontrollable, wildfires for an opportunity to own and occupy this beautiful 3 bedroom, 3 bath condo in the Trabuco Canyon (Lake Forest) area.

I remember fondly back to a time in early 2005 when I first moved to Orange County and started renting, when a local Realtor, after listening to my confusion about local single family home prices here, proceeded to admonish me about my expectations. He said that I needed to set my "sights a little lower" than a single-family home, and "consider buying a small condo instead". "Work you're way up" the rungs of the home ownership ladder to achieve your dream of Orange County single family home ownership!

In other words, "Ride that bubble, dude!...Don't worry, everybody's doin' it!".

This lovely condo was purchased back in November 2004 at a perfect, Hubba Bubba Bubble Gum price of $435,000!

Today's 2009 Asking Price: $350,000 (a pre-approved, packaged short sale)

Address: 28496 Klondike, Trabuco Canyon, CA 92679

A Trillion Dollars Looks Something Like This

If you enjoy a good fright, then you'll love this.

By the way, the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States is printing up about $1.2 trillion more US dollars this week. Thanks Ben!

The United States federal budget deficit is estimated to be $1.845 Trillion!.

Not to be outdone, President Barrack Obama's multi-year federal budget proposal is $3.6 trillion!

My fellow Americans, prepare for the spending power of whatever few dollars you do earn and have saved to be utterly and completely destroyed by rampant inflation. The tools to stop it are broken.

Thank you, incompetent and greedy homedebtors and real estate investors everywhere. Thank you mortgage brokers. Thank you realtors. Hope it was all worth it.

Schiff hits it out of the park. Again.

Peter Schiff is the greatest.

A Little Condo Price Battle

There may be a friendly neighborhood price battle brewing for 2 similar condos on Calle de Paseo in Lake Forest, CA.

21093 Calle de Paseo
3 bedroom, 3 bath Condo, 1606 sq feet, purchased just over 4 years ago for $480,000.
Asking Price: $399,000 ($248/sq foot)
Days on Redfin: 304

21143 Calle de Paseo
Another 3 bedroom, 3 bath condo, 1623 sq feet, purchased March 2007 only a few months from OC market peak at a breathtaking $530,000.
Asking Price: $379,000 ($234/sq foot)
Days on Redfin: 8

According to Redfin, both are short sales.

There remains yet a third condo for sale on the same street:

21123 Calle de Paseo
2 bed, 3 bath, 1441 sq feet priced quite differently.
Asking price: $429,900 ($298)
Days on Redfin: 491

21143 must have seen the writing on the wall and gone for the jugular with the $20K under comp (21093) asking price.

Even if a potential buyer were to come on the scene for any of these condos located in the same lovely area, short sales can take an awful long time to shake out.

Down on the Corner

A lovely 4 bedroom, 3 bath, single family home purchased on a hot August day in 2006 for $715,000. 2,000 square feet and a 5,984 sq ft lot.

Fast forward almost three years later and this corner abode is one of the lowest priced short sale single family homes in all of Lake Forest, California.

$715,000, which is almost 7 times the median income here in Lake Forest (approx $99K per anum), must have seemed like the "price is right" back in 2006. Nevermind the home's location being nestled almost equidistant from both the Amtrak train line and the 5 Freeway.

Asking Price: $399,999

Address: 24191 Hurst, Lake Forest, CA 92630

Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Down on the Corner"

This can't be happening

So you buy a beautiful home in 2006 for $975,000. I mean, why not? Jacuzzi, swimming pool, massive backyard, lovely Saddleback mountain area.
You've got the means. You've got the financing. Home prices appreciating everywhere you look by double-digits. Now's the time. Get in, or be priced out forever.

A few years later things go pear-shaped financially. Foreclosure. Short sale. And suddenly all the granite in the world no longer justifies the scenario where the asking price means double-digit appreciation over the previous buy price.

Asking Price: $749,900

Address: 8 Puerto Nuevo, Foothill Ranch (Lake Forest),CA 92610

Using Fear to Earn Real Estate Commissions: "Housing Prices Going UP in Orange County!"

I am searching for a home to buy in Lake Forest, California and surrounding communities. I wanted to share with you a recent real estate flyer I received via e-mail from a rather well-respected, highly experienced realtor in the area. I've removed the names to protect the shameless (except for those quoted in the flyer).

Read it. What do you think?

Housing Prices Going UP in Orange County! So Consider Buying NOW.
In case you forgot, you first contacted me through my web site at www.xxxxxxxxxxxxx.com and started searching there for homes. You have been getting your requested emailed updates from me since then.

If you are waiting for housing prices to hit rock bottom before you buy a home to live in or rent out, wait no longer.

Orange County home prices last month ACTUALLY ROSE for the first time since June, according to DataQuick.

The median selling price was $375,000 — up $5,000 from January but still down 27.9% from a year ago.

For calendar month February 2009, Orange County saw:

$375,000 median selling price that is 42% below June 2007’s peak of $645,000.
Single family homes sell for 41% less than their peak pricing (June ‘07) while condos sell 46% below their peak in March 2006. Builder prices for new homes are 42% below their February ‘05 top.

Home prices usually rise in February vs. January. Last time they fell in this period? 1999!

January was the 7th straight month of sales gains vs. the year-ago period. That follows 33 consecutive months where sales failed to beat the previous year’s pace

Delores Conway, a real estate economist at the University of Southern California, says home prices have come down 40 % in Los Angeles and Orange County since the mid decade peak.

She notes that those prices, coupled with record low interest rates, mean today’s buyers can secure the same monthly payments home buyers enjoyed six years ago."

This is marketing from a Realtor. This person is trying to earn my trust.

Look, I understand as well as the next person that even Orange County California Realtors have to earn to eat.

What I don't agree with is cherry picking recent 2 month MLS and DataQuick numbers, throwing down a fear hypothesis (prices going up) in an e-mail piece with zero supportive evidence, all in order to cajole people to buy a home and promote a self-serving, commission-paying agenda.

We've all seen this film before. And it sucks.

If I'm of just average intelligence and I read the above Realtor pamphlet with the stated 41% drop in single family home prices, I'd be asking myself "why did that happen?". "What factors could cause such a major drop?", and then determine whether this drop might continue down to 50% or 60% or more?

50%! You're crazy!! NO! NEVER! That can't happen. This is Orange County, California!

No, you've got to BUY NOW or....*yawn* you'll be priced out of the market forever you no-buying-fence-sitting-wastes-of-space!!!!!

I'm just an idiot renter here. But do we really need this? I mean, given all that's happened over the last 2 years in Orange County residential real estate, at what point do we conclude: "Hey, we should really stop ourselves with all the shameless bullshit!"?

Here's a message to Realtors from a prospective buyer: Drop the fear tactics, and do what you can to start instilling some confidence instead.

Renting in Orange County. No Ball and Chain.

I'm still renting a single family house here in Lake Forest, California, paying way less than it would otherwise costs me to go into debt to live in a similarly-sized home per month here including mortgage, insurance, taxes and upkeep, particularly when one considers the economic situation and unemployment risks in this state. I mean, if I lose my job in the coming months, I have flexibility to pick up and go elsewhere. Look Mom! No strings!

I've said all along that this is wrong. It should be a privilege to rent and have this kind of freedom to get up and freaking leave. I should be charged a freaking premium to live this way and have no real obligations other than the monthly rent and utilities, especially right now.

But Orange County, California, and I presume many parts of the United States of America, have had it wrong all along. Instead, homeownership (homedebtorship) has been marketed at the premium, partly due to narcotic-like liar loan products since 2002, the resulting run up in single family home prices, and the incessant industry lies about "home appreciation" that everyone and their dog was suppose to "take to the bank". Come on. Who doesn't remember the famous Orange County, California adage: "15% is in the bag!". Jesus, who in their right mind isn't for 15% appreciation on their money?

But I've been renting. And I've been saving.

Like a mad dog.

I can't say I'm way, way ahead. Indeed, I've even lost money on investments over the last 12 to 18 months. But I have no ball and chain to me. I'm still throwing money into savings accounts and retirement accounts. I've cut my expenditures where I can. I started to grow a garden in my back yard, and I'm not eating out as much. Driving my car less and my motorcycle way more.

That all said, I would love to "own" (or actually go into debt for a home) here. I have been looking too. Carefully so. Homedebtorship definitely makes sense under certain circumstances. But not under all circumstances, and certainly not at any price.

We are now witnessing record home sales in Orange County the last few months.
And local realtors have claimed that these transactions have occurred either at or above the asking price! So these buyers either have a lot of down payment cash available, or their willing to continue borrow large amounts of money to live in a house. That's their choice. They must have awesome job security and a dependable income too, or maybe they won the lottery and inherited some serious dough.
More power to them.

Single family home prices are coming down now and mortgage rates too. Maybe the time is now to buy, or at least may be quickly approaching?

Not in my view. Not yet because home sales prices are still not congruent with local incomes in Orange County. Not yet because renting is cheaper, and it shouldn't be. Landlords can't rake renters over the coals. They certainly want to, and there time will soon come. Also, as I have stated numerous times on this blog, I do believe more housing trouble is on the way in the form of the shamefully under-reported Alt-A prime loans.
Sunny times are not necessarily guaranteed, nor is it "full-steam ahead" for California housing market.

2009 Realtors Say: "Fence-sitters, Your Wait May Be Over!"

Realtors have no shame. They are completely out of touch with reality.

"It's a great time to buy a house!"

Yeah, but not because it's right for me or a good future investment. It's always as great time to buy a home (even as prices fall like a rock) because that's when you get your 6% commission check.

"They said we should wait."

Millions of Americans were convinced to buy a home in order to "get in now while you still can", "there not making any more land", "buy now, you can always refinance". Realtors continued to find greater and greater fools as the Ponzi scheme built itself up higher and higher. They cashed their commission checks and still managed to face themselves in the mirror every morning.

"I want one, Mom!".

Jesus Christ! Trillions of dollars of paper wealth have been destroyed forever in either home values, or 401Ks in just 18 short months. One might think that the National Association of Realtors could propose something a little less along the lines of "childish greed" in their television commercials.

We have enough overgrown children already who have proven incapable of reading their own signed mortgage contracts, thanks very much all the same.

No, the NAR wants you to get off that fence and buy, buy, buy?

Why? For future investment wealth?

No. Because they want their 6%.

The sooner the investigations begin, the better off we will all be.

Lake Forest California in Home Price Nose Dive

Well, this is interesting:



That must be the sound of Lake Forest home debtors saying something to the effect of:

"AARRRRRRrrghhhhhhh, Oh MY GOD! Oh my GOD! My House Is Worth What???? WhoaaaaaAAARRRRIGGHHHHHH!"

Then there is the sound of crickets.

Or maybe it's just fence-sitters who don't trust realtors, or prospective buyers who just can't find the $100,000 down payment required to secure the $650,000 worth of mortgage financing:



And then there's the bone-crushing Alt-A Prime mortgage recasts ready to come on the scene in May and June 2009!



Are we hitting bottom in Lake Forest, California home prices?

(Graph pics from Altos Research website)

You're A Fly On The Wall: Mortgage Broker Sales Meeting

Get out there and sell! Always Be Closing!!!

Another South OC School Bites the Dust

Well, this sucks.

Another outstanding Orange County elementary school scheduled to be shut down thanks to California's embarrassing budget crisis. Saddleback Valley School District itself faces a massive $10 million budget shortfall.

Back in January I posted about the end of La Tierra Elementary Elementary in Lake Forest, California. Got a great school? Into the trash can with it!

This month it's O'Neill Elementary in Mission Viejo, California just to the south of Lake Forest. A very good elementary school. And parents are right to be pissed off. 400 O'Neill students will be reassigned to other schools, engorging classroom sizes even further.

Let me remind readers that California's national rank in elementary education is a bona fide national disgrace. I don't know how Schwarzeneggar and Villagairosa sleep at night, but when your state's elementary school system is ranked just above Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and New Mexico, you should step down from office. I'm being completely serious. You either make it happen yourself, or you step aside and let somebody else come in and make it happen.

Orange County has been historically regarded as a "special case" where the schools are some of the finest in the state. This remains to be the case. But these cuts are devastating and will impact the state and the nation dramatically in years to come.

This is what happens when voting constituents choose to live their lives as if it were a freaking movie.

Everyone wants to live here in OC. And the schools? - Why, they're all so fantastic!

Not anymore.

OC Realtor Commissions Down 50% from 2005 Peak

Jeff Collins posted an excellent piece on the Lanser On Real Estate Blog today that realtor commissions nationally fell by 34% since market peak in 2005. Orange County realtors, it would appear, are really getting the shaft on commission earnings as estimates indicate a 50% drop since the 2005 peak.

Realtors across the nation no doubt earned well as the home buying market soared to stratospheric heights. But let's not forget that they earn well on the way down as well, particularly in Orange County where single family home prices have fallen dramatically over the last 18 months, but in my view still remain hopelessly out of alignment with real take home incomes here and the reality of current financing opportunities.

I mean, we are still observing idiots being advised by local realtors to put their 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath P.O.S homes up for sale at borderline $650,000.
When will these people finally get a clue that their house is not worth this much money anymore? I completely understand why realtors around these parts do what they do. Their payday is dependent upon the home sales price, so let's do all we can to make the transaction attractive, and get paid our 6%.

My view is that realtors in the United States of America, if paid at all, should be paid a flat fee for their services. Those services may have value for people who want to buy or sell real estate, but don't want to deal with all of the hassles themselves. I will admit that there might be some value there that consumers would be willing to pay for. But regardless of a realtor's efforts, overhead costs, etc. they are performing the same sales services regardless of the value of the home. I mean, realtors cannot demonstrate that they do more work or incur more costs when selling a $640,000 piece of crap house than they would selling a $900,000 piece of crap house. So why should I as a seller (or buyer) pay a fee that is a relational function of the transaction value? That kind of arrangement makes no f&%king sense!

Everytime I complain about this real estate commission ridiculousness, do you know what the response is from realtors?

Don't blame us. The brokerage house makes us do it.

Yeah, whatever.

Just explain to me like I'm 4 years old, what on earth should convince me that what Realtors do is worth 6% of a Lake Forest, California single family home price?

I didn't think so either.

Karatz Dangling And The Countdown to Clockwork Orangeman

Now that the country's financial system has been officially laid waste by greedy banks, mortgage brokers, realtors, greased palms in Washington, and most importantly by financially inept homebuyers, one thing left to observe with interest will be the plethoa perp walks.

That's right. While 80% of Americans are too stupid to be outraged and realize just what happened to their 401K's and home values, the remaining 20% are grabbing their torches and pitchforks.

And the SEC and new administration needs to at least look like their doing something, right?

Let's start with Mr. Karatz, ex-CEO of KB Homes, one of America's largest home builders. Mr. Karatz has been accused of stock option fraud. We'll soon see how this one ends. An arrest or two perhaps?

Then there's the Countdown to a Clockwork Orange: The Investigation of Angelo Mozilo, former CEO of Countrywide. Mr. Mozilo, perhaps the greatest poster boy of the epic housing crash. Mr. Mozilo is no doubt a hero for all Realtors across the country, for without Angelo, there would never have been so many ridiculous home purchases the last 7 years and never so many ill-earned commissions that have jeopardize the very foundation and future of the American nation. Some people believe there might even be an arrest of Mr. Mozilo. Well, you have to first collect some evidence that the guy knew what he was doing. That shouldn't be too hard, but then again, it's not illegal to be a greedy bastard. Just look at the enrollment of the National Association of Realtors and their stance on issues like the housing bailout, the extension of jumbo loans to prop up pie-in-the-freaking-sky home prices, and demands that new tax policies not in any way discourage "homedebtorship".

Personally, I don't believe Mr. Mozilo will be arrested, nor any of his colleagues.
Besides, it's too late anyway.

Mortgage Loan Resets to Explode in April and May. And Just In Time For Summer Home Selling Season!

I simply can't wait for the April and May spring flowers to bloom.

And for the next wave of ARM mortgage resets to go KABOOM!!!

Sweet mother of god, look at April and May 2009 for mortgage loan resets!

Weeeee, this is going to be an the "funnest" summer ever!

Agents of Change And The Foreshadowing of Divorce

Irvine Renter Takes Us To School: "Why Did Home Prices Fall?"

Awesome.

And as for "writing in anger", I'm so there with you dude.

Enjoy!

You are a homedebtor, not a homeowner!

Stop arguing! If you live in a $750,000 home and you owe $750,000 or less in a mortgage loan for that same home, then you don't own that home, ok?

You are homedebtor, not a homeowner.

If you live in a $750,000 home and you owe nothing (i.e. it's bought and paid for through either blood, sweat and years, a massive inheritance or through ill-gotten gains), then you are a homeowner.

See the difference?

Don't let these SUV-driving, cell-phone toting, reserve trademarked Realtors in the area tell you any differently.

You owe. You do NOT own.

We need to change the conversation in this country about real estate on so many levels, because people who purchase homes in this country using leverage do not technically own the home until the mortgage is paid off.

The same is true when I buy a car via an auto loan. Sure, I'll drive the car off the lot and all around the town. I'll fill it up with gas, and spill some Diet Coke on the floor. I might even unknowingly drive right into a demolition derby contest at the Orange County Fair and obtain a few "minor scratches" in the process. But unless I paid for that vehicle in full from the start, it's not freaking mine! I may even possess the title for the car in a neat little folder in a desk drawer where I live, but the car is not paid for. It's not my car!!!!

So can the American public, the American media, and our elected officials in Washington pretty please with freaking sugar on it, STOP CALLING PEOPLE "HOMEOWNERS", UNLESS THE OWN THE HOME OUTRIGHT AND HAVE NO DEBT AGAINST IT?!!!

In otherwords, let's be a litte more specific going forward before we bailout the patheticly stupid, greedy and illiterate, shall we? I mean, that's not asking too much, is it?

People who are upside down on their freaking mortgages right now, in the state of California, are NOT HOMEOWNERS!!!! They are mistaken HOMEDEBTORS that, under normal lending standards and rational financial principles and without Realtor malfeasance, would otherwise be, and actually SHOULD BE RENTING a home, or condo, or apartment to live in.

But no.

The American media would prefer for us to all stop what were doing and hold a candlelight vigil to save the precious so-called "underwater" and irresponsible debt-freaks and use the term "Homeowner" to best describe their emotional plight!

I don't doubt that these people are in anguish over their circumstances. I don't doubt that families with young kids are under stress as a result of this. But America, and California in particular is, today chock full of imbecilic, overgrown children who have the attention span of a gnat, and cannot read a freaking mortgage contract, let alone hire an attorney to have it read to them. The responsibility is theirs to carry. They need to foreclose. They need to move to an apartment or condo, pay off their outstanding debts or get them forgiven and start over.

Since when are we obligated to pay for the misfortunes of others?

I get all that Judeo-Christian B.S. about the "Good Samaritan". I understand the "come on, help a brother out" speak.

My parents just lost half of their savings in their 401k.

They are over the retirement age. They both worked and saved since they were 18.

Who is going to bail them out?

Nobody.

My point is, you can't force people to be "good samaritans". My parents started saving late and put money in risky investments in their 401K plan. They've paid the price.

What we are doing, what President Barrack Obama is doing, what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is doing, is perpetuating the problem of irresponsibility, financial illiteracy and not allowing individuals to pay or benefit from the consequences of their actions.

We are praising a nation of spoiled, overgrown, childish debtfiles, while their children are watching.

You are homedebtors, not homeowners!

Making It Crystal Clear For The Real Estate Consumer

Clarity.

Do you believe real estate consumers are being served optimally? Do we have all we need to make informed decisions? Are we being told the truth?

When we reflect on just the last 24 months of real estate market news, obviously many Americans did not use good judgement. Many Americans listened to the wrong people. Many listened to individuals who were in reality more preoccupied with protecting themselves and lacing their own pocketbooks than in ensuring that the biggest financial outlay of their customer's lives would work, and make sense longer term.

I really like both of Crystal Cox's blogs The Real Estate Industry Whistleblower and Savvybroker.com. If you've enjoyed The Rancid Truth over the past few years, then I think you might enjoy both of hers.

Crystal has posted numerous, informative vlogs on her website about the current state of the American real estate industry. Most importantly she does so in the context of what is important to the real estate consumer. She's identified several key areas of concern that most prospective consumers either don't know about at all, or tend to dismiss entirely.

According to Crystal, a former realtor and broker owner, the American real estate "system" is broken. And seriously so.

I really like, for example, the way Crystal highlights some of the common pitfalls within the real estate transaction process itself, including agency, home inspections, appraisals, "E and O insurance" (in other words, "Ethics and Omissions insurance" for real estate transactions, which mainly protect Realtors to the full extent of the law, but too often leave real estate consumers holding the bag when things go wrong, and then wondering just what the hell happened to them). She touches upon other interesting topics too, such as selling without a realtor, "the emotions associated with real estate", and even thee oxymoronic subject of "realtor ethics".

And as you might expect, Realtors around the country are apparently either pissed or completely shocked.

I'm sure there are some good intentioned realtors out there working really hard to make a living these days. But every realtor in America has to admit on some level (even secretly to themselves) that, following arguably the most spectular collapse of the housing market in modern history, and the global economic repercussions of irrational exhuberance over home value, WHICH REALTORS FREAKING CHAMPIONED UNAPOLOGETICALLY FOR 8 YEARS, might a little intellectual honesty be in order when it comes to the Realtor profession?

I believe so.

This Just In: Housing Prices Actually Linked to Income, Jobs and Mortgage Rates

Holy cow! I mean, if you had been listending to a Realtor the last 8 years, you might never have suspected this 2x4 of obviousness across the face. But it's true.

Wait a minute, you mean, income, jobs and mortgage rates determine..... Yep, there's this complicated thing called "fundamentals".

This is a fantastic article by Susanne Trimbath which restates the critical success factors for prospective homebuyers.

1.) Do I have enough income (take home after expenses and debts) to purchase a home at the market prices?

2.) Will I have a job in 6 months?

3.) How do current and future mortgage rates coincide with local home prices and my monthly take home budget?

This is the part where our hall monitor Realtor friends step in and remind us, in that I-never-sold-anyone-into-foreclosure-ever condescending manner, "real estate is local".

True.

But so too are jobs and incomes.

And last Friday, California and Orange County got some interesting news:

California, the worlds' 9th largest economy according to GDP numbers, has an unemployment rate of 10.1%.

Orange County California's unemployment has reached an all-time high since 1993 of 6.5%

So why is it that a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, single family home in Lake Forest, CA is priced at $650,000, or 6 times the median income here of approximately $100,000 per family?

If you were to go to Redfin, Trulia, RealtyTrac, or Zeus forbid, Realtor.com, you'd be surprised as to the homes available for sale in Lake Forest.

And you would be far from impressed.

In a word, almost all single-family homes in Lake Forest, California are over-priced pieces of crap. I'm dead serious here. Most of the homes for sale right now in February 2009 in Lake Forest are foreclosures, or trashed out short sale properties. Nobody who doesn't have to sell is trying to sell their home right now. The availability of quality homes for families with children, for example, to consider purchasing are few and far between. Most fence-sitters must not only cope with still unbelievable home prices (between $450,000 and $750,000), but also the reality that the home they might buy will be riddled with defects and necessary repairs. It's just a fact. And this I'm reporting AFTER the housing crash has supposedly occurred.



Paseo Verdura, Lake Forest, California, 350 days later, still $650,000.
Bank get's an A for stubborness, and an F for creativity.

I submit that parts of Orange County are still living in a dream world in terms of their asking prices.

Why?

Well, because the local real estate market is screwed up. Yes, Orange County is a nice place to live. A beautiful place. Perfect weather, oceans nearby, mountains nearby. I mean OC living has its' merits, and those should be priced at a premium of some measure. But single-family homes remain overpriced.

Earned incomes in OC are higher than the rest of the country. However, I suspect that job market uncertainty combined with ridiculous home prices that bear no relation to incomes will keep many on the sidelines through a difficult 2009.

Get it? Got It? Good.

Mr. Jonathan Jarvis, great job! Excellent work!

I just wished you would have come on the scene and delivered this dumbed-down, 6th-grade-reading-comprehension-leveled, ILM-esque, eye-candied, explanation to the horrifically inept American public 7 years ago. Well, now that I think about it, even then you probably would have never saved 90% of us from ourselves - or from Connie de Groot, or from rockstar and SoulGlo connoisseur Tom Adkins, or from "What-artifical-lending-standards-are-you-talking-about?" Mike Norman.

Awesome explanation. Detailed. And disturbing on so many levels.

My only critique: You forgot to include the vital role played by Realtors(R). They provided a sense of false security and false legitimacy to the run up in home values. This cannot be overstated.

Mr. Jarvis, take us to school:


The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo

The very idea that American tax payers dollars - money that should otherwise be used to build schools, improve national infrastructure, educate our next generation of taxpayers, and regulate corporate malfeasance - is being used to bail out these greed-driven Gordon Geckos and commission-paid sales people is a travesty. This is a national disgrace.

There have always been market charlatans. Carpetbaggers. Salespersons of magical elixirs, and today realtors. The greatest irony may very be that millions of Joe Sixpack American homedebtors played out their role in the disgusting performance perfectly.

I will close to say only this: We cannot fathom what these developments are going to mean to this country. You are probably hoping that this will all blow over in 6 to 12 months. But I think it wise to consider the alternative and prepare accordingly. The United States of America is no longer a nation of law and order, nor of justice.

Until you start to witness indictments and arrests on all major networks, we should all be afraid.

I hope realtors, mortgage lenders and brokers are satisfied and proud that they played such a prominent role in the destruction of our country as we knew it.