Posted on Thursday, December 20, 2007, 12:00AM http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/yourlife/57690;_ylt=A0WTUSFfzHNHA2IB3hVAt9IF
"It's all relative." You've probably heard this before, and it's true of everything except right and wrong.
But it's especially true of economics, and it's doubly true of all the recent scare-talk about the economy.
Simply put, the media and the short-sellers on Wall Street are trying to scare us into having a recession. Since the nice people who read this have some interest in facts and figures, here are a few reasons why things aren't so bad.
Heavy Labor
First, the housing correction.
Now, it's true that we're having a very large housing correction. It may be the sharpest fall-off in housing starts as a percentage of the prior peak that there's ever been in the postwar era.
But housing is only about 5 percent of the economy at most. If it falls by half or a third, that's a big drop. In an economy like ours, though, where there was a severe labor shortage before the housing correction, the labor shortfall can be readily absorbed by other sectors, and it is.
Real unemployment has barely budged since the housing correction began more than a year ago. It will probably rise, but exports are shooting up so fast because of the weak dollar that overall unemployment may not rise by much at all. (It's currently at 4.7 percent of all workers, but barely 2 percent of full-time breadwinners.)
House of Cards
Second, there's the subprime "meltdown," as the papers like to call it.
This is a genuine problem. Unwary buyers were sold mortgages they couldn't pay for, and are now in trouble despite the president's new mortgage-rate-increase moratorium. And extremely unscrupulous people sold immense bundles of precarious mortgages to institutional buyers who didn't know what they were buying. In some sad cases, the investment banks that sold the mortgage bundles were selling similar instruments short even as they sold the bundles to the innocent.
That's a major moral problem, and the magnitude of loss because of defaults on the mortgages seems immense. There may have been roughly $80 billion in losses so far (before liquidation of the collateral, which will greatly reduce the losses). There may be another $150 billion of losses out there, and maybe even another $200 billion.
Those numbers seem immense, and to you and me they are. But in the context of the U.S. economy, they're not large enough to do major damage unless the Federal Reserve Board makes serious mistakes. The total bank credit in this country as of October 2007 was about $9 trillion. That doesn't count credit from other sources such as bond issuance or foreign investment, which could easily bring the total to $30 trillion or more.
A loss of $50 billion, while immense to you or me or even Bill Gates, is barely one-half of 1 percent of bank credit in the United States. It's hardly more than one-tenth of 1 percent of total available credit. Even if the loss rose to $250 billion, it wouldn't even be 1 percent of available credit. And, again, this number will be greatly reduced upon sale of the collateral and recovery by the lenders.
Crude Speculation
Next, there's the price of oil, and how it'll drive us all into an early grave.
It's true that the price of oil has risen stupendously in the last six years, and especially in the last two. But the cost of oil is less than 3 percent of the average family's budget. Even if it rises by 30 percent from its already lofty levels, the cost to the average family would be painful -- but not lethal. (And, of course, in Texas, Oklahoma, and Alaska, it's a bonanza.)
Plus, the surge in wealth of the oil-exporting sheikdoms is largely recycled into investments here. This offsets the effects of the losses from subprime and other risky investments.
Currency Events
Finally, there's the fear of the falling dollar and what it will do to us.
Frankly, aside from the rising cost of oil (the other side of the equation of the falling dollar), the typical family buys little from abroad. Most of what we buy are services, such as government, medical, utilities, and amusements, and then food, and these are almost all produced domestically (unless you're a champagne or other wine snob).
The stock market isn't affected because American corporations' earnings are denominated in dollars, so it really doesn't matter how many dollars it takes to buy a Euro. Moreover, perhaps 40 percent of U.S. large-cap earnings come from overseas operations. These come in as Euros, pounds, or yen, and add up to far more dollars for U.S. corporations as the dollar falls.
A Sadder, Wiser Future
I don't want to be Pollyanna here. There are real problems with our economy, primarily inequality and a looming retirement crisis for baby boomers. But facts are facts, and life is about "how many" as well as "how."
The truth is that we passed through a far worse crisis in the tech collapse of 2000-2002, when roughly one-sixth of the nation's wealth was erased. Now, with the mortgage crisis and other problems, we're not even talking about a loss of one-tenth of 1 percent.
There's a lot to ruin in a nation. We'll get through this just fine. The road may be bumpy for a year or two, but we'll come up roses in a short time and will be ready to smile -- sadder but wiser.
Yeah, little mama you lookin' good I see you wanna play with a player from the hood Come holla at me, you got it like that Big, Snoop Dogg with the lead Pussycat I show you how it go down, yeah, I wanna go down Me and you, one on one, treat it like a showdown You look at me and I look at you I'm reachin' for your shirt what you want me to do
(Pussycat dolls) I'm tellin' you to loosen up my buttons babe (Uh huh) But you keep frontin' (Uh) Sayin' what you gon' do to me (Uh huh) But I aint see nothin' (Uh)
I'm tellin' you to loosen up my buttons babe (Uh huh) But you keep frontin' me (Uh) Sayin' what you gon' do to me (Uh huh) But I aint see nothin' (Uh)
Typical Hardly the type, I fall for I like when the physical Don't leave me askin' for more I'm a sexy mama (Mama) Who knows just how to get what I wanna (Wanna) What I wanna do is spring this on ya (On ya) Back up all of the things that I told ya (Told ya told ya told ya) You've been sayin' all the right things all night long But I can't seem to get you over here to help take this off Baby, can't you see? How these clothes are fittin' on me And the heat comin' from this beat I'm about to blow I don't think you know
I'm tellin' you to loosen up my buttons babe (Uh huh) But you keep frontin' me (Uh) Sayin' what you gon' do to me (Uh huh) But I aint see nothin' (Uh)
I'm tellin' you to loosen up my buttons babe (Uh huh) But you keep frontin' (Uh) Sayin' what you gon' do to me (Uh huh) But I aint see nothin' (Uh)
You say you're a big boy But I can't agree 'Cause the love you said you had Ain't been put on me I wonder (wonder) If I'm just too much for you Wonder If my kiss don't make you just wonder (wonder) What I got next for you What you wanna do? (Do)
Take a chance To recognize that this could be yours I can see, just like most guys that your game don't please
Baby, can't you see? How these clothes are fittin' on me And the heat comin' from this beat I'm about to blow I don't think you know
I'm tellin' you to loosen up my buttons babe (Oh ohhhhhh ohh) But you keep frontin' (Uh) Sayin' what you gon' do to me (Oh ohhhhhh ohh) But I aint see nothin' (Uh)
I'm tellin' you to loosen up my buttons babe (Uh huh) But you keep frontin' (Uh) Sayin' what you gon' do to me (Uh huh) But I aint see nothin' (Uh)
[Snoop Dogg] Now you can get what you want But I need what I need And let me tell you whats cracklacking before i proceed I'ma show you where to put it that PCD told me, yeah, I thought I saw a puddy cat You roll with your big dog y'all sexy y'all on me Now tell me how ya feel babydoll Ashley, Nicole Carmiet, Jessica, Kimberly, Melody You tellin' me
[The Pussycat Dolls] loosen up my buttons babe loosen up my buttons babe yeah baby, won't you loosen up my buttons babe loosen uppppp myyyy butttttttons baaaaaaabe yeah baby, won't you loosen up my buttons babe loosen up my buttons babe loosen up my buttons babe yeah baby, won't you loosen up my buttons babe loosen uppppp myyyy butttttttons baaaaaaabe
I'm tellin' you to loosen up my buttons babe (Uh huh) But you keep frontin' (Uh) Sayin' what you gon' do to me (Uh huh) But I see nothin' (Uh)
I'm tellin' you to loosen up my buttons babe (Uh huh) But you keep frontin' (Uh) Sayin' what you gon' do to me (Uh huh) But I aint see nothin' (oh ohhhhhh ohh)
I'm tellin' you to loosen up my buttons babe (Uh huh) But you keep frontin' (oh ohhhhhh ohh) Sayin' what you gon' do to me (Uh huh) But I aint see nothin' (Uh)
I'm tellin' you to loosen up my buttons babe (ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh) But you keep frontin' (Uh) Sayin' what you gon' do to me (Uh huh) But I aint see nothin'
No clouds in my storms Let it rain I hydroplane into fame (Eh eh) Come'n down with the Dow Jones When the clouds come we gone We Rocafella (Eh eh) She fly higher than weather And she rocks it better You know me An anticipation for precipitation stacks chips for the rainy day (Eh eh) Jay, rain man is back with lil Ms. Sunshine Rihanna where you at?
[VERSE 1] You had my heart and we'll never be world apart Maybe in magazines but you'll still be my star Baby cause in the Dark You can see shiny Cars And that's when you need me there With you I'll always share Because
[CHORUS] When the sun shines We’ll shine together Told you I'll be here forever Said I'll always be your friend Took an oath I'mma stick it out 'till the end Now that it's raining more than ever Know that we still have each other You can stand under my Umbrella You can stand under my Umbrella (Ella ella eh eh eh) Under my umbrella (ella ella eh eh eh) Under my umbrella (ella ella eh eh eh) Under my umbrella (ella ella eh eh eh eh eh eh)
[VERSE 2] These fancy things, will never come in between You're part of my entity Here for Infinity When the war has took it's part When the world has dealt it's cards If the hand is hard
Together we'll mend your heart Because ...
[CHORUS] When the sun shines We'll shine together Told you I'll be here forever Said I'll always be your friend Took an oath I'mma stick it out 'till the end [Umbrella lyrics on http://www.metrolyrics.com]
Now that it's raining more than ever Know that we still have each other You can stand under my Umbrella You can stand under my Umbrella (Ella ella eh eh eh) Under my umbrella (ella ella eh eh eh) Under my umbrella (ella ella eh eh eh) Under my umbrella (ella ella eh eh eh eh eh eh)
[BRIDGE] You can run into my Arms It's okay don't be alarmed (Come into Me) (There's no distance in between our love) So Gonna let the rain pour I'll be all you need and more Yeah Read let's go look.... Because ...
Jay Read:
Yo my umbrella's up when the world is too much We still ride for each other like Starsky & Hutch The new school Jayson & Lyric and nothing comes near it We close to Lorenze and Nia and its nothing really to it We got Love Jones we could never be seperated We always find our way home and never be decimated I'm speaking from the heart we been the shyt from start An we gone grind to the end to our life re-starts Come back in another life An see you in a different light An if I'm Superman babygirl you know you kryptonite My only weakness its hard to defeat this An even when I'm losing it feels so goooood I can't complain you everything I aint An compliment each other from the root to the base Sitting on the top is where we always wanna stay It a take a meotor to break us and that'll be tha day
[CHORUS] When the sun shines We'll shine Together Told you I'll be here forever Said I'll always be your friend Took an oath I'mma stick it out 'till the end Now that it's raining more than ever Know that we still have each other You can stand under my Umbrella You can stand under my Umbrella (Ella ella eh eh eh) Under my umbrella (ella ella eh eh eh) Under my umbrella (ella ella eh eh eh) Under my umbrella (ella ella eh eh eh eh eh eh)
It's raining (raining) Ooo baby it's raining baby come into me Come into me It's raining (raining) Ooo baby it's raining You can always come into me Come into me ^O^
Warren Buffett Nebraska's internationally respected investment expert speaks on gambling --exerpts taken from a thirty minute interview with Nebraska's Gambling with the Good Life
www.gamblingwiththegoodlife.com on September 15, 2004.
"Addictions produce crime. If you have a large group of people who are addicted to drugs, you'll have more crime. If you have a large group of people who are addicted to gambling, you'll have more crime. People get into impossible situations when they get addicted to something like that. And some people will opt for crime, some will opt for bankruptcy, some may commit suicide."
"I think for the state of Nebraska particularly, the state I love--my family's been here since the 1860s--I think for the state to essentially prey upon its citizens, create more of these addictions: I just think it's wrong."
"Omaha is prospering. The argument is made that all these people are going to Iowa. I would say this. If you had a house with a nice lawn and you had a neighbor and they had a chihuahua and that dog occasionally strayed over to your lawn and fouled the lawn, your reaction would not be to go out and buy a Saint Bernard. You don't need more of it!"
"There are people in Nebraska--I get letters from them--that become addicted to gambling by going across the river. But I guarantee you that if you open up the flood gates to casinos and various concentrations of slot machines across the state you will have multiples of the number. You will have the Saint Bernards of addicts as opposed to the Chihuahua's of addicts that presently exist."
"I get the greatest kick out of this "Keep the Money in Nebraska" name attached to people who want to bring casinos here because [there are] two propositions out there and the greatest amounts of funds for each of them is coming from institutions in Nevada."
"Assume that Nebraskans had this and our Nebraska citizens overall lost $100 million . . . . Some of the money will go to the state. That's like a tax. It comes right out of the citizenry and it doesn't do any development at all. Some of the money will go for operations. And the rest of the money will go for profits. Sponsors of both of these [casino proposals] are out-of-state corporations, so you're not talking about development for Nebraska when you talk about transferring money to Nevada and the state."
"I think it's cynical on the part of the state to raise money from people who basically can't afford it by promising them a dream that is not going to come true for any but the tiniest tiniest fraction of the people who participate, and that causes people to get into the kind of trouble I hear about every day."
"If Nebraskans lose, pick a figure, $100 million, if casinos come in--the number would undoubtedly be larger than that, based on Iowa--but if they lose $100 million, that's $100 million they don't have to spend on food and toys for their children and movies and everything else. Those are the letters I get. These are people who have been tapped out. It's all gone. In many cases they've run up balances on their credit cards and, frankly, when I write these people back I often advise them, 'Just take bankruptcy.' They don't really have an alternative they're in so deep. The position of the state of Nebraska should not be to create a whole lot more people who are in that position."
"For every lucky person there are hundreds of thousands who just keep feeding the kitty and, net, it's a big loser for the citizenry."
"It's certainly clear that a given percentage of people will become addicted and use money they've got no business using, and that percentage is not a small percentage."
"You're teaching your citizenry all the time by the actions you take as legislators and as administrators of a state like this. Essentially to teach you that the state is on the other side of the transaction from you--they're trying to get you to do something dumb--I just think the state ought to be doing things for its citizens, not do something to its citizens."
"I do not think that the state ought to be in the position of selling the needles. We're going to have drug addicts in this country, but I don't think the state ought to get in the business where it hopes there's more drug addicts and starts selling needles. And we're going to have gambling addicts in this country but I don't think that the state ought to become the sponsor of spreading that addiction."
"The kids come home and say . . . "Everybody else does it." But everybody else isn't doing it. A lot of people are. A lot of states are. But you don't have to do it. In the end the state of Nebraska can be on the side of its citizenry instead of figuring out ways of taking advantage of them. I think that's fundamental to government."
"We're not going to stop gambling. We're not going to stop people from going over to Iowa. I'm sympathetic to them because most people--an overwhelming number of them--are going to be losers . . . . Those casinos cost a lot of money to operate and it's coming out of the pockets of Nebraskans. But there would be far more coming out of the pockets of Nebraskans if we opened up throughout the state."
"If you take a million people and fifty or thirty or some number are going to change their circumstances dramatically for the better, but you're going to have the other 999,000 plus who are going to lose the ability to take their families to a movie, to buy a toy for their kid, or worse yet, become an addict and lose everything they have including their self-respect and break up their family. I just think that's a terrible trade off."
"All three of my kids learned at an early age, pulling the handle of a slot machine might have been good exercise, but it was bad economics."
"The people that I hear from every day, the people who are broke, they don't have a dime to put into this campaign. It's the people who are not going to keep the money in Nebraska but are going to take money out of Nebraska who are coming in. They're not writing checks on Omaha banks or Lincoln banks. They're writing checks, in this case, on Nevada banks."
"Having it inaccessible is a real plus when you're dealing with something that's addictive. It should not be easily accessible."
"If I were governor of this state and I had the power to have something like this take place or not . . . If I put in something that took the money particularly from low income situations, cause many of them to become addicted, cause many of them to go broke, cause many of them to have families break up: I would just say, 'We don't need it.' If somebody wants to do that in some other state, fine. But that's really not what I think Nebraska is all about."
"What we're talking about in Nebraska is increasing the supply. And the demand will grow to that and the demand is from losers."
"Every Nebraskan will have a chance to say what kind of a state they want to craft for their children. That's what the ballot is doing. And in the process they're teaching their children about the kind of state they want to have. They're teaching about what government should be about. And that's what we have a democracy for."
"There's no way that the citizens of Nebraska won't be losers if you have casinos here." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nevada casinos are backing a deceptive multi-million dollar advertising blitz to change Nebraska's constitution. Their proposals would put at least six casinos in Nebraska. Six or more new casinos would far more than double Nebraska's gambling losses, the number of Nebraska gambling addicts, and the amounts of money leaving Nebraska's economy. Six or more casinos would create huge new taxpayer costs due to additional addictions, bankruptcies, crime and corruption.
Nebraska leaders opposed to the Nevada-backed casino proposals include: Warren Buffet Tom and Nancy Osborne Governor Mike Johanns Attorney General Jon Bruning Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey Former Omaha Mayor Hal Daub Gallup Chairman James Clifton Over 20 state senators including Jim Jensen, David Landis, Roger Wehrbein and Ernie Chambers The Nebraska Veterans Council The Kearney Area Chamber of Commerce The Omaha Old Market Association The Omaha World Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, Grand Island Independent, Kearney Hub, Fremont Tribune, Norfolk Daily News, Scottsbluff Star-Herald, Aurora News-Register and other Nebraska newspapers
Please Vote NO on all casino proposals on the ballot. ^O^
From Tan Kin Lian's Blog http://tankinlian.blogspot.com/
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Big writeoffs for sub-prime losses
Mr Tan,
Why are there so much writeoff for bad loans by the big American banks and brokers?
I thought that they package the products to sell to other investors. It seems that they are stuck with a lot of these products in their own funds. Surely, they know the risk and the defaults with the sub-prime mortgages?
REPLY
In a large institution, there are many layers of people:
1. the managers who create and handle the loans 2. the top managers and CEO 3. the board of directors 4. the shareholders.
Under the profit sharing system, the managers and directors received big bonuses and share options during good times by "creating shareholder value". The sub-prime mortgages did contribute to a lot of profit during the past years, which is why the business has grown to be so big.
I do not know at what level the managers should know what is going on. It is difficult to say, when the institution is so big and complex.
When the "crunch" comes, these institutions have to write off several billion dollars of losses. Some of the key managers have to leave their jobs for "destroying shareholder value". But they are not required to pay back the big bonuses that they earn during the good years. The shareholders have to shoulder the losses.
This is not fair, but it is the system of the free market.