Comments on: Links 7/3/09

By: Todd Wood

Todd Wood — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:33:20 +0000

No, Michael Jackson, at 50, is not on amphetamines during his last rehearsal. He just drank a lot of coffee.

By: BigBadBank

BigBadBank — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:40:15 +0000

'The Decession'.

By: MaxH707

MaxH707 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:06:13 +0000

Prof. Liebowitz's point focuses too much on loan originations as the source of mortgage default. Of course negative equity is a culprit, but his analysis of the Mortgage Bankers' numbers don't really tell us why FMVs have dropped, nor why real wages have dropped relative to debt service and housing costs generally. It's a wasted article.

By: lambert_strether_openid

lambert_strether_openid — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:21:15 +0000

Yves --

Thanks very much for the link. However, a note on copy editing:

I prefer "The Big FAIL" to "The Big Fail" because, well, the FAIL is just so BIG.

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:48:17 +0000

Awww…. one of the best Antidotes du jour … These really are a nice breath of fresh air from the continual barrage of awful and/or absurd news we've been pounded with for quite some time. Thank you.

By: Oregon Guy

Oregon Guy — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:42:02 +0000

It is not just the banks that resist principal reduction. We the People would prefer to roast squirrels over an open fire from our tin shacks than see others, even our neighbors, get a break on their mortgage principal.

By: Erick

Erick — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:18:24 +0000

Banks have zero incentive to work out a principal reduction with homeowners as long as government will ensure them from loss.

By: Brick

Brick — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:42:05 +0000

The Stan Liebowitz article was interesting as I would maintain the best judge of whether a mortgage is affordable is the borrower. If the borrower has his own money on the line then they are more likely to make sure the affordability is in line with their worst expectations of the economy.