no one called me on it (here or PBS) .. last night was thinking how that comment relates to me and my business .. with BRs post on NDAs .. well mia-culpa time

for some reason me thinking that because we are talking about $550T* in “off the record behind closed doors” transactions (* I’ve heard that / but how could we know) that $550T is to big to reasonably police that Brooksley should tell folks who signed contracts “your on your own” or somehow imply by not dealing with the issue at all that the USG would not address the issue (sort of like the Supreme Court can do) … But all the contracts in my file cabinet are behind closed doors .. not run thru some market – in the open mechanism .. and I would hope that if I get stiffed .. that I could have the option of going to court

So .. I’m sorry Ms. Brooksley Born for calling you unfairly for doing your job in an area I should stay out of because its not mine .. sorry. Please accept my apology .. please.

* coda – there is a bit of difference between a wedding photos contract and insurance hedges (I guess .. maybe .. )

GOOD POINT BARRY. We may have to reevaluate the program if the evil gubmint decides to haphazardly increase the scale by 400000%.

In his defense Straw Man accuses you of an illegal headbutt.

yes, I agree. and, yes, Ag subsidies are a whole ‘nother kettle of fish.

I may be wrong, but I’ve long thought that if someone like Liz Claman, over the course of an hour, walked the American People through the major twists, and turns, caused, in our Economy, by Ag subsidies, alone, the Incumbent survival rate would invert come the next November..

So because the casino was rigged for 8 years, your solution is to keep it rigged? For how long? When does this end?

Read sharkbait’s post. The people who bought between 2001-2008 had a choice. I don’t have a choice in subsidizing Ms. Tejada.

I think we’re in general agreement =) The state interferes with nearly every transaction in this country, whether implicitly or explicitly. I was thinking maybe food shopping was a free market, but then I thought about sugar tariffs, corn subsidies, cattle ranching on Federal lands, food pyramid propaganda, and other ways that the “invisible hand” of government affect something as mundane as figuring out what’s for dinner.

HCF

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-story-of-21-year-old-with-the-underwater-fha-loan-is-even-worse-than-you-think-2009-10

A few days ago we told the story of Denise Tejada, the 21 year old California woman who bought a house with an FHA backed loan with almost no money down.

Readers were outraged.

And rightfully so. It’s our money on the line and it is simply outrageous that our government is still encouraging these kind of loans to be made. Even if Tejada pays off her loan in full, it was an insane gamble on our behalf to have the government back her loan.

But as it turns out, the gamble was even more insane that we originally reported.

Scott Jagow, who writes the Scratch Pad blog for American Public Radio’s Market Place, explains:

Denise got an FHA loan to buy her home for $155,000. She took out a second loan (called a 203-K loan) to refurbish the place. The total loan amount is about $183,000. She says, “In total, I gave the bank $5,087 + $1,500 which were all deposit and closing costs.”

So her “down payment” was no more than 4% of the value of the home when she bought it. She will get all of that back and then some with the first-time home buyer tax credit.

In other words, thanks to the various government tax breaks, Denise put absolutely no money down on her home. If she has to default on her mortgage, she’ll lose nothing except her credit rating. Of course, since she’s only 21 years old, there’s plenty of time to recover from that.

How is the FHA still engaged in promoting this kind of lending? Barney Frank has explained that expanding home ownership is the policy of the United States. Now, more than ever, the government wants to promote home buying to prop up the great American home ownership scheme. If people like Tejada can’t buy a home with no money down, then the recession wins.

Don’t you feel awesome for helping Tejada achieve the American dream?

I am a fairly free-market oriented person, but I DON’T believe that the free market is correct. It’s very, very often wrong, but I would argue that is is less often wrong than policymakers, government agencies, or anything else you can come up with (short of omnipresent, omnipotent, and benevolent power). The fact that the free market fails is a reflection on the fact that PEOPLE fail. We get greedy, we get scared, we get exuberant. All that is reflected in market psychology. We live in a world of precious, finite resources. How we allocate those resources should not be primarily up to a few elite people in charge… You should be free to make your choices, and free to receive the windfall or suffer the consequences.

>The housing bubble happened because the rules were removed and the police were incompetent.

I must refute the statement you made above… The housing bubble happened because the rules WERE NOT ENFORCED and the police WILLFULLY ENCOURAGED IT. That’s the problem with centralized systems such as the Fed or the Federal Government. They tend to propagate someone else’s interests and not those of the people at large!

HCF

I hear you, was just pointing out that (to your, original, point “What IS a free market in this country?”) not even, seemingly, ‘free’ markets, like CE, are anywhere near being unmolested by our State..