No Shortage of Bubbles and Troubles, Jim Jubak, MSN

Prime Suspect, Alyssa Katz, Mother Jones

Casablanca is one of my favorite Bogart movies, and the quote as the title of today's 4Rs is one of my favorite lines from the movie. I have linked the movie so that our readers can re-jog their memories on this Bogart classic.

The Prime Suspect essay by Alyssa Katz linked above is a frightening expose of what the mortgage and realty appraisal business has become at the hands of monetary policy established by the Federal Re$erve in creating the biggest real estate debt-berg and markets bubble the economic world has ever seen. It is a fairly long article centered around one of the big foreclosure states -- the Buckeye State [Ohio for folks not up on their state nicknames]. The destructive forces of bundled loans made pretty and sold to investors unaware that they may be aiding and abetting a financial system wrought with criminal activity really doesn't matter in the world of two-tiered [teared?] structured finance. Make a derivative bet, and pass the risk around like passing the hat on the RMS Titanic that the boat isn't going to sink!  

Jim Jubak's little essay linked above is really short and sweet, but excellently crafted in our view. The image of Ben Bernanke walking the halls of the Federal Re$erve chanting "Out, out damn bubble!" caused me to laugh so hard I fell out of my chair slapping the floor and broke two ribs. This is what Mr. Jubak calls the "Lady Macbeth Economy." I can still remember Green Eggs and Ham saying that there could not be any real estate bubble as all real estate markets are "local". Anyone who believed that bit of Fed$peakease probably owns swampland in the Everglades destined for new condominium construction.