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REMINDER: All investment, economics, and finance related material now appears at the new IaconoResearch.com. For the time being at least, this has become a personal blog covering a variety of mostly unrelated topics.
From The Return of the Great Depression blog comes this image that seems to capture the sentiment of many about how we arrived at our current condition (hat tip SH).
More important at this point, I suppose, is where exactly we are now headed and just how long it might take to get there. Like the two gentlemen above, we are seemingly in no hurry.
I’ll have more to say about this either later today or tomorrow, but, after four months and one day, our effort to buy a short sale property has officially come to an end as of about ten minutes ago when our realtor was informed that we’re coming to pick up our earnest money deposit and withdrawal the offer that we made back in May.
What a clusterf#@k!
For those of you new to the story or in need of a refresher, here’s the sordid history that we’ll try to put behind us as quickly as we can:
May 12th – Would You Buy a Short Sale?
Jun 12th – Our Short Sale Offer – One Month Later
Jul 12th – Our Short Sale Offer – Two Months In
Aug 12th – Our Short Sale Offer – Three Months In
In short, the last developments were that the bank finally responded to our offer on Friday with a counter-offer, providing a 72-hour deadline for a response (that, in this case, does include weekends) and, if no response was forthcoming by said deadline, they would promptly “close the file”.
This particular counter-offer was actually higher than the aborted counter-offer the bank made last month and, even if we were interested in accepting it, there would appear to be only two chances of the paperwork being put together and submitted before the 11:00 AM deadline – slim and none with slim having just left town.
We had contemplated making a counter-offer to theirs (which, by the way, we never did see in writing) but, at this point, it all seems like an exercise in futility and about the only thing to feel good about at this point is that we already decided to walk away from the deal earlier today, hours before we found out that it couldn’t get done even if we wanted it to.
Some advice for anyone who happens to come across an attractively priced home fore sale where “short sale” is listed as a special condition – RUN THE OTHER WAY!
Equity markets in general and financial stocks in particular are moving higher after details of the new Basil III banking rules were announced, investors apparently taking kindly to the idea that banks will have nearly a decade to comply with the new rules, during which time they’ll probably find new ways to imperil the global financial system.
Above, Alpesh Patel of Praefinium Partners appears on CNBC to talk about how the new bank rules are “irrelevant”, noting that they are unlikely to prevent the next crisis because “crashes tend not to repeat themselves in the same manor, so we’re fighting the last battle”.
MUST READS
Global regulators agree on new bank rules – Reuters
Housing Doesn’t Need a Crash. It Needs Bold Ideas. – NY Times
Bank Stocks Climb as Basel Gives Firms Eight Years to Comply – Bloomberg
Deflation vs Hyperinflation Debate On Steroids, Mish vs Gonzalo Lira – Zero Hedge
Pennsylvania Bolsters Its Capital to Avert Harrisburg Default – Bloomberg
Economic Docs Find Remedy Amid Bubble Rubble – Baum, Bloomberg
9/11 – A Fourth Turning Perspective – The Burning Platform
Geithner Warns of Risk Of Washington Inertia – WSJ
How the mortgage market has tightened – SF Gate
Bubble Thesis Update – Noland, Prudent Bear
MARKETS/INVESTING
Oil up above $77 on US crude pipeline leak – AP
Gold Prices Flat on Investor Disinterest – The Street
Basel bank rules, China economic data pressure dollar – MarketWatch
Citi: Investors Are Already Fleeing Out Of China – Business Insider
Martin Murenbeeld’s nine reasons to invest in gold – Mineweb
Non-OPEC Crude Oil Update: First Half 2010 – Gregor
Mutual Funds are “All In” – Pragmatic Capitalist
The Power of Momentum – EconomPicData
Impulse Response – Hussman Funds
ECONOMY/WORLD/HOUSING/BANKING
Geithner Urges Action on Economy – WSJ
Consumers still hold key to recovery – MarketWatch
Three signs it’s truly a jobless recovery – Fortune
EU Lifts Europe Growth Forecast, Sees Moderate Second Half – Bloomberg
GSE foreclosures and short sales rising, despite loss mit efforts – REO Insider
Want to solve the housing slump? Let it be. – Christian Science Monitor
Banks’ Plans for Foreclosed Homes Will Drive Market – WSJ
Should the Fed try to depress long-term yields further? – EconBrowser
Fed Actions Seen, But Not Endorsed – WSJ
By Tim Iacono, Since 2005
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