I have an old Zenth AA5 on the bench right now, needed some old radio repairs. After I got it back up, I just scanned the dial and hit one of the local talking heads stations.
They were going on about the housing crash of 2008, and how no one saw it coming - not even the banks. Excuse me, what? There were several sites that were pointing out the proliferation of NINJA loans, and how those bad loans were being laid up in tranches and called high-quality investment grade material. These sites were all pointing out that the loans were coming due in 2008, and it was going to be a bloodbath. It was, as you probably remember.
The banks "didn't see it coming" because they were trying to lift an elephant out of a septic tank with nothing but a smile. My favorite was Bob Doll at Blackrock. My employer at the time posted his newsletters. Late 2008, it's obvious that things have failed. Bear-Stearns failed. Countrywide failed. Lehman Brothers fell. Right after Lehman failed, Doll was going on about how they understand this is the bottom and that they see things moving up from there. Merril-Lynch failed. National City Bank failed. Even the local that my employer dealt with failed...then Blackrock was the owner of record of the largest corporate mortgage default (up to that time) in history.
Crazy times, but everyone that had any amount of vision on the housing market could see something was going to go boom, and boom it did.
I have an old Zenth AA5 on the bench right now, needed some old radio repairs. After I got it back up, I just scanned the dial and hit one of the local talking heads stations.
They were going on about the housing crash of 2008, and how no one saw it coming - not even the banks. Excuse me, what? There were several sites that were pointing out the proliferation of NINJA loans, and how those bad loans were being laid up in tranches and called high-quality investment grade material. These sites were all pointing out that the loans were coming due in 2008, and it was going to be a bloodbath. It was, as you probably remember.
The banks "didn't see it coming" because they were trying to lift an elephant out of a septic tank with nothing but a smile. My favorite was Bob Doll at Blackrock. My employer at the time posted his newsletters. Late 2008, it's obvious that things have failed. Bear-Stearns failed. Countrywide failed. Lehman Brothers fell. Right after Lehman failed, Doll was going on about how they understand this is the bottom and that they see things moving up from there. Merril-Lynch failed. National City Bank failed. Even the local that my employer dealt with failed...then Blackrock was the owner of record of the largest corporate mortgage default (up to that time) in history.
Crazy times, but everyone that had any amount of vision on the housing market could see something was going to go boom, and boom it did.
