Political Cartoon on Crisis in Financial Markets & Bailouts
Posted by Jay Seville on Thursday, September 18th, 2008 at 8:13am.I'm thinking about starting a category on cartoons related to RE (real estate) in any way that would of course include juicy political cartoons regardless of whether they lean left or right.
Here's a start for example.
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Do you have any cartoons to submit to me on the financial markets or real estate in general?
I must say the bullshI** credit rating systems and corruption in the markets makes me angry. I also hate that the gov is making it happen by affirming to Wall Street there will be no serious consequences if they can't manage themselves. Free markets don't work with gov bailouts so it's the worst of both worlds with no hardline financial accountability such as being wiped out off the face of the earth. It's messed up and sickening! I speak out of NOT being erudite on the complex issues involved and I know it. However I do have a great "smell test" I use when showing property to my clients and this bailout does not pass the smell test.
Article from another RE blogger
Alex, I’ll Take “Irony” for $600
By: Sean Purcell, MysteryHouseBlog.com, Post Archive, RSS FeedPosted: Wednesday, September 17th, 2008, 9:29 am MST
Category: Investment, Lending
The government is now in the mortgage business and the insurance business. I am sure others will expound on the AIG debacle and all of its implications in due course. I just wanted to point out the something that should make me laugh so hard it brings a tear to me eye… instead it just brings the tear.
Just before each financial giant goes down, there is a final blow. One last lynchpin pulled that leads to the immediate cessation of breath for a company: the ratings agencies lower the company’s credit rating. Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, etc. take a look at the mortgage based assets the company is carrying, look at the write downs still to come and make an assessment on the credit worthiness of that company. Once their rating drops they cannot borrow money at a cost that allows them to remain solvent and “a-begging they will go.”
Now that is the job of the ratings agencies and I do not begrudge them their responsibility. Here’s the funny part though. The failing, mortgage-based assets that are crushing these financial companies (and now an insurance company) were originally purchased, to a large degree, based on the credit worthiness assigned them by… wait for it… wait for it… these self-same ratings agencies! Imagine the hubris of being so, so wrong in their primary mission of evaluating the creditworthiness of an investment vehicle, then lowering their evaluation of the creditworthiness of those companies that purchased the very investment vehicles they failed to correctly evaluate! Talk about having your bread buttered on both sides. I know there is a great joke in there somewhere. I am just too terrified to find it.
Welcome to the other side of the looking glass.
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