Posted by Larry Doyle on April 20th, 2011 6:47 AM |
In the market for a car? There are few jobs in our country today with a lesser reputation than that of a car salesman. While there are certainly plenty of very reputable individuals within the auto industry, why do car salespeople have such horrendous reputations? Here’s why.
Although this hidden camera expose was produced by Dateline NBC back in 2003, a recent report by the Center for Public Integrity indicates that little has changed in the scams and cons practiced within the auto industry. (more…)
Posted by Larry Doyle on April 19th, 2011 8:51 AM |
Given the recent experience in housing is real estate an asset that should be abandoned? Obviously not but that mentality has grown dramatically within many segments of our nation.
Can you blame people for never wanting to venture back into the real estate market? No. It is understandable but it is not the real estate’s fault. The fact is very regrettably far too many people did not fully understand and appreciate the dynamics at work in the real estate market nor did they appreciate the risks involved in the mortgage finance space. I empathise. That said, real estate ownership should not be abandoned. (more…)
Posted by Larry Doyle on April 18th, 2011 9:22 AM |
Standard & Poor’s decision this morning to place the credit rating of the United States on negative watch is long overdue. While the impact of S&P’s announcement is immediately reflected by a decline in the equity markets of approximately 1.5%-2.0%, the real target of this release is Washington D.C..
In layman’s terms the S&P release is voicing a lack of confidence in the credibility of both parties in Washington to deal with our financial house. We should not be surprised.
While politicians from both parties may talk a good game—especially recently—while they feed at the trough of the large monied interests emanating from Wall Street and other corporate entities, the American taxpayer has suffered from the incompetence and intransigence of Washington to deal with our LONGSTANDING fiscal issues and indebtedness. Playing shell games may fool some of the people all of the time but that gamesmanship is no way to manage a nation’s finances. (more…)
Posted by Larry Doyle on April 18th, 2011 8:29 AM |
Is the need to repair the health of our financial system SO GREAT, that we should be willing to allow the basic rights of individuals and the laws of our land to be trampled and violated in the process? In my opinion, this very question is central to the rage that burns in so many hearts across our great land.
Bailing out banks may be anathema to those who love and cherish capitalism BUT not pursuing justice and real accountability for the transgressions of those individuals and those institutions central to our crisis is sickening. I believe it is inherently un-American to allow these transgressions to pass without proper prosecution. Which transgressions? (more…)
Posted by Larry Doyle on April 14th, 2011 5:48 PM |
New information would seem to implicate the Federal Reserve for violating the property rights of tens of thousands of investors holding auction-rate securities. Could this be true? Let’s navigate.
I have been writing about the nightmare known as auction-rate securities since mid-January 2009. I often pause to reflect on ARS holders whom I have ‘met’ here at Sense on Cents but whom I will never truly know. I think of how their lives have been forever changed and negatively impacted from having been entangled in this ARS web. The pain shared in so many stories is very real.
I have also often thought that somebody or some institution within our government sacrificed the welfare (cash, mental, physical, emotional) of so many tens of thousands of individual ARS holders in order to help our large financial institutions. I shared that opinion in the midst of an interview with PBS last week. (The PBS documentary addressing the ARS travesty should run this summer.)
Today we learn that the Federal Reserve intervened in the midst of an SEC investigation of the ARS scandal in mid-2008 and ‘slowed the horses.’ (more…)
Posted by Larry Doyle on April 14th, 2011 10:16 AM |
I have long believed and written extensively that I thought our nation experienced extensive fraud in the mortgage origination industry in the first decade of this century. That fraud was then conveyed throughout our markets and economy via the securitization process on Wall Street. Many people, divisions, departments and firms profited along the way while regulators were negligent, incompetent, or both.
While only a select few individuals in the mortgage origination industry have paid any type of price for engaging and promoting this fraud, our nation as a whole has paid a very heavy and steep price. I find this reality to be reprehensible and hold our nation’s banking regulators in contempt for allowing this gross injustice to transpire. Even to this day the banks and mortgage servicers involved in the initial fraud and having engaged in ongoing abusive business practices are poised to get a slap on the wrist and little more for their practices. (more…)
Posted by Larry Doyle on April 13th, 2011 5:30 AM |
Do words matter?
Of course they do. If we can not trust what somebody says and means, how can we engage them in an honest, open, forthright manner? We can’t. On this note and with the prospects of aggressive debate on raising the federal debt ceiling on the near term horizon, let’s review what a United States senator had to say on this topic back in March 2006, (more…)
Posted by Larry Doyle on April 12th, 2011 8:26 AM |
What does the future hold?
I believe the future of our nation, the world, and markets at large have NEVER been faced with the level of uncertainty as they currently face. Debt ceiling? Housing? Unemployment? Inflation? The health of our banking system? Integrity of our government reports? International civil strife? There is no rest for the weary.
Ben Bernanke and his minions at the Federal Reserve have masked the underlying destructive impact of the debts strangling our economy and the subsequent impact on our economy via the Fed’s quantitative easing programs. With QE2 scheduled to end in June, then what?
Our Sense on Cents Economic All-Star John Mauldin highlights an interview that David Galland, Casey Research partner and managing editor of The Casey Report, gave to the International Speculator, in which he provides immediate and long term projections resulting from the end of QE2. This interview is lengthy but riveting. For those interested in the markets, our economy, and our future, it is a MUST READ!! (more…)
Posted by Larry Doyle on April 11th, 2011 2:15 PM |
“LD, how are we going to be able to ‘navigate’ the economic landscape with gas prices headed to $5.00/gallon?”
Great question. Our economic navigating may be relegated to a bike. I will make a point of asking Ben Bernanke and Tim Geithner the next time I see them given that their policies to save the banking system have crushed the dollar and imposed these increasing costs for gasoline, food, and so much more on the American consumer. Congratulations, Ben!! Well done, Tim!!
In all seriousness, our economy will clearly slow given the hidden tax imposed upon it by these skyrocketing gasoline prices.
Posted by Larry Doyle on April 11th, 2011 8:20 AM |
While Uncle Sam in the persons of Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner et al may promote the fact that our capital markets currently are a reflection of a rebound in capitalism, they would be wrong.
Our markets and the Wall Street banks that dominate them no more embody the true tenets of capitalism than the incestuous nature of the Wall Street-Washington relationship truly represents the best interests of the American public. As The New York Times highlighted this weekend, Banks Are Off the Hook Again,
Americans know that banks have mistreated borrowers in many ways in foreclosure cases. Among other things, they habitually filed false court documents. There were investigations. We’ve been waiting for federal and state regulators to crack down. (more…)
RSS Feed
Twitter
Facebook
Email
Home
