All Posts Tagged With: "US housing crisis"

Fed Bailouts Could Cost Taxpayers $2.5 Trillion

Dom Rich says the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)’s estimates of the taxpayer losses from the bailout of Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) are implausibly conservative.

The real estate bubble of this decade was the biggest of any asset class in history. Rather than the CBO’s $25 billion figure, Dom says the real cost is at least $1.3 trillion, and could be as high as $2.5 trillion.

And this doesn’t even account for the inflationary consequences of rescuing Wall Street. The Fed is on a money printing binge session, and anyone holding dollars will be picking up the tab…

Why There’s Real Value Now in US Debt, Real Estate and Stocks

The dollar rally is still making headlines. Yesterday, the greenback hit its highest level against the euro since January. It also hit record a 3-year high against the British pound. The question is: Will it last?

Eric Roseman doesn’t think so. “You can’t really make a long-term bullish case for the buck right now,” says Eric in The Sovereign Society.

However, as the eurozone and Japanese currencies weaken on slowing growth, Eric says now is a great time to buy into distressed US debt, real estate and stocks

Peter Schiff Says US House Prices Have Further to Fall

Last week, analysts got all excited about a possible “bottom” in the US housing.

This was thanks, believe it or not, to last Tuesday’s Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller report. Despite showing that home prices dropped a record 15.4% during the second quarter, it revealed that the rate of single-family home price declines slowed from May to June.

“Once again, real estate market watchers have pounced on a shred of seemingly positive news to proclaim that the long sought ‘bottom’ is in sight,” says Peter Schiff. “The routine is becoming extremely stale, but somehow the media never seems to tire of it.”

Why Positive Data Doesn’t Mean Economic Recovery

Several data releases last week - including new home sales, durable goods orders and GDP growth - signaled an improvement in the U.S. economy. But Rick Pendergraft in Investor’s Daily Edge says it is important to distinguish between stabilization and reversing course. A huge backlog of unsold houses and ongoing job losses will keep the economy on shaky ground for the time being…

Naked Greed Behind this Housing Crisis

Andrew Gordon at Investor’s Daily Edge responds to his readers’ comments about the U.S. housing crisis and the fate of Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) and Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM). Banks, mortgage financers, lawyers, speculative buyers, no comes out looking good in this mess. How could such widescale deceit be allowed to happen? Naked greed, says Andrew…

The Truth Behind U.S. Housing Market Headlines

The latest round of U.S. housing market data is prompting another round of claims that “the worst is over.” Howver, The Daily Reckoning’s Chuck Butler says the nuances in the latest data paint an altogether more gloomy picture.

Profit from Stocks’ Slide with These 3 Put Options

The dominoes are falling, says Adam Lass in Taipan Daily.

The housing market is still a shambles, nine U.S. banks have failed so far this year, and Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) are all but nationalized. What’s more, the world’s central bankers can’t agree on what caused this mess, let along how to fix it.

But amid the gloom and doom, Adam says put options on MetLife (NYSE:MET), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and Capital One (NYSE:COF) can still yield triple-digit gains…

Ian Davis Says Homebuilders Are Not a ‘Slam Dunk’ Yet

Yesterday’s existing-home sales news was mixed.

Existing-home sales were up 3.1% in July. But the sales rate was still 13.2% below a year ago. Meanwhile, inventories spiked 3.9% from last month to a record 4.67 million homes for sale at the end of July - 11.2 months of supply at the current prices.

The sector’s drubbing could be a great opportunity for value investors. But Ian Davis in The Growth Stock Wire advises investors to hold off on bottom fishing for homebuilders

What the U.S. Must Learn From This Housing Crisis

The New York Times says the recovery from the U.S. housing crisis will be “painful and protracted”. The Daily Reckoning editor Bill Bonner says this is a good thing for the nation. It might prevent the same mistakes being made again. The last few decades have been built around consumption, which went way beyond income thanks to the irresponsible lending from banks.

The Inflationary Costs of Nationalizing Fannie and Freddie

The grim tale of Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) appears to be building towards a climactic finale this week. Stocks of both have plunged since Monday, as investors bet that time is running out for these GSE twins.

The Daily Reckoning Australia’s Dan Denning says the market has called the Fed’s bluff, and knows that neither firm will survive without direct nationalization.

But this won’t guarantee any greater stability in the housing market, and will inflict more damage on the dollar.

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