Dave Zx3 asks:

“How much do I get to earn before you line me up for extermination?  Just thought I would ask so I can be ready.  Do you kill my wife and kids also, or just me?

I guess being a poor murderer is much more satisfying than being a rich but arrogant, hypocrite.  I always thought murder was a worse crime than arrogance and hypocrisy. But we all know that being poor is so, so righteous, so we should teach in school how everyone should aspire to be as poor as possible.  Whatever you do, don’t earn any money, or the death squads come looking for you.”

Fair enough.

When I talk about the criminal rich, I mean the extremely rich. That probably doesn’t mean you. Are you worth 50 billion dollars or more? Are you a very powerful rich man? With a few exceptions, most people worth that kind of money consider themselves at war with humanity. Most people don’t know that. They need to.

It’s not about murder. It’s about justice. Bringing justice down on the rich clowns who have used, murdered in unnecessary wars, degraded and exploited their fellow man. Throughout history, they have fought every effort at social justice. They are self-serving thugs who think they are superior to everyone else.

You don’t have to be rich to be evil, but the rich have fewer excuses for their behavior. You might say none. If you’ve every been around extremely rich people (I have), you’d find out that they have total contempt for the average man.

The ugly truth is that money is the root of most evil.

Well, just remember, property is theft, so you cant hold it against investors. Its in their nature.

Latest Housing Numbers Inflated by “Bulk Purchases”
Reggie Middleton on 11/24/2009 05:51 -0500
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/latest-housing-numbers

(Also read the front page article from the NYT on Sunday on Wall Street housing arbitrage profiteering from bulk purchases which shift all the liability to the FHA and, you guessed it, the taxpayers)

I read Diana Olick’s Realty Check blog on CNBC.com on occasion. I must admit that she is considerably more credible and serious than the vast majority of personalities to be found over there. In her latest piece she questions the validity of the sales bump seen in the last three existing home sales reports. She queries Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. He volunteered,

  “We have seen some bulk purchases by investors, but we are not picking up that data through the Multiple Listing Service or through our release data, but we do know that there is some bulk purchases by investors who plan on releasing those properties within a year’s time, when they see a better market condition.”

I don’t believe “better” market conditions are coming any time soon. We are just coming off of the best market conditions anyone will see in their lifetime. Those market conditions were predicated upon unsustainable conditions, hence they came crashing down. They are crashing down, not crashed - as in past tense. I believe we have some ways to go. That is why I am not buying real estate, and I believe that those that are jumping in now are jumping in prematurely.

Personally, I don’t consider Mr. Yun to be a credible source, either. He may be smart and capable, but the extreme bias of his employer (the ultimate real property perma-bull) and the incredibly biased reports of his predecessor color his opinions by default. He is not nearly as bad as David Lereah (who was literally sensationalist-style perma-bullish) was, but he is still not objective. See The Reggie Middleton Real Estate IQ Test - Who believes the NAR?

This statistic is deceptive, and before anyone gets too excited, the selling prices of these homes should also be released. We have been trying to sell our moderately priced home for the last two years, and have lowered the price four (!) times. If we have to lower it much more, we will owe more than we can get for it, a good incentive to walk away.

I hate to bust up any hopeful optimism, but read a story from earlier this year, “FHA Loans are the new NINJA loans”. The article pointed out that the FHA loans to buy homes had been taken over by many of the same crooks who made loans to the people with No Income, No Jobs (NINJA). The Inspector General of the HHS Department stated that they didn’t have enough enforcement officers to catch the crooks that were issuing loans to unqualified people. Members of Congress have allowed the FHA to loosen thir lending rules to try to re-inflate the houseing market. At present 17% of the hundreds of thousands of FHA backed loans are behind in their mortgage payments. Some analysts are already forcasting an impending economic train wreck equal to the sub-prime melt down.