Picking Ourselves Up By The Bootstraps, And Focusing On The Future! We Have Been Here Before! I was watching television the other day, when a story came on that inspired me to want to write about the current situation that most Americans currently find themselves in. Month-long quarantine with business activity spotty at best. Those […]
During the 2018 World Cub the perennial soccer giant Argentina sat on the ‘brink of elimination, desperately needing both a Plan A AND a Plan B! Speaking to the strategy being employed by Argentina’s coach Jorge Sampaoli, an article in The New York Times had the following to say, ‘…There was no plan B, to be used […]
Some old adages for investing go that ‘nothing goes up in a straight-line’, that ‘you don’t want to be the last one standing when the music stops’ and that ‘bulls and bears make money but pigs get slaughtered’! Investors in real estate and mortgages learned this lesson the hard way heading into, and then following, the […]
Is the Wells Fargo bogus bank account fiasco a one-off problem or symptom of a systemic problem with the way in which the bank is being run? Well the truth is that whether the problem at Wells Fargo is an ongoing and systemic one or simply a matter of a bank with business interests so […]
With the US housing market having recouped most of its pre-financial crisis price levels (exceeded in some markets) in conjunction with the Federal Reserve having engaged in ZIRP (zero interest rate policy) for an extended period of time, is the market once again facing a moral hazard? First, how would one define moral hazard vis a vis the real […]
Summary: Did you know about… The state of the housing market post-financial crisis, subprime lending making a comeback, the Top 10 luxury hotel suites from around the world or why the opinions of real estate appraisers seem so often to vary widely from the opinion of value that’s in the mind of the property owner. This […]
Summary: In the game of musical chairs no one wants to be the last one standing when the music stops! That said, at what point of the song is this real estate cycle at? Billy Joel: ‘Cause the good ole days weren’t always good and tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems!’ In the early […]
Summary: With easy money coming back into the market, borrowers who should not be borrowing getting loans and the economy at a tipping point is the history of the financial crisis about to repeat itself? Will the return to ‘easier’ lending practices in markets spanning mortgages, student loans and used cars pose a problem? Problem for the […]
Summary: Like in the ‘good old days’ of the housing market when for some borrowers to qualify for a loan they needed to show a pulse…Has the same thing occurred in the student loan market? After examining used car leasing, mortgage markets and the potentially poor lending practices that could lead to a meltdown… The student […]
‘Are ‘Almost’ Subprime Mortgages And Used Car Loans A Canary In The Coal Mine?’ Having lived through the lending environment that led to ‘The Big Short’, one has to wonder whether we are heading back in the same direction! George Santayana (circa early 1900’s): ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.‘ […]
