Facebook is located in Menlo Park south of San Francisco. Many financial analysts attribute the booming economy in the region to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and 1000s of start ups.

However, there are an increasing number of empty storefronts appearing around the city and it looks like the bubble is getting ready to pop big time. When Facebook bites the dust and you have invested in it, you can be pleased that you helped Mark Zuckerberg buy a mansion, a Hawaiian estate, expensive cars, and lots of dining out at expensive restaurants.

 

On the subject of so called social media, Twitter is now starting to circle the drain:

http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/28/technology/twitter-earnings-jack-dorsey/

Twitter is based in San Francisco and it has caused a lot of animosity by receiving tax breaks while its employees live in luxury. Yelp is another profitless social media site that's losing value big time.

 

Based on Friday's and today's stock market falls, my prediction of another economic collapse might actually be right on.

My talent for making accurate premonitions is pretty scary so I will keep my thoughts quiet about when the next earthquake will hit California!!!

 

Based on Friday's and today's stock market falls, my prediction of another economic collapse might actually be right on.

My talent for making accurate premonitions is pretty scary so I will keep my thoughts quiet about when the next earthquake will hit California!!!

Except that the stock market and the real economy may not be as closely coupled as you think. I even made a little bit of money today.
#whosthebiggerfool

 

I personally didn't lose any $$$ in the 2008 collapse, however when the government has to bail out the big financial institutions to the tune of a $Trillion, everyone will wind up getting bitten in one way or another.

 

I personally didn't lose any $$$ in the 2008 collapse, however when the government has to bail out the big financial institutions to the tune of a $Trillion, everyone will wind up getting bitten in one way or another.

Any fool can stick his money in a mattress and not lose it. I'd be more impressed if you could make money in a down market, or any market for that matter.

They did let Lehman Brothers go down, and they also bailed out the automobile companies, with the exception of Ford, and even made a profit doing it. I do wish that certain bankers and the derivatives traders at AIG had been made to do the perp walk and done jail time. I hope you're not suggesting that they should have let everything collapse -- are you?

 

If your Average Joe citizen would have pulled off any of the fraudulent schemes that led to the 2008 collapse, he would have been sent to a federal slammer so fast he'd have to wait for the light waves to arrive at his cell block.

 

If your Average Joe citizen would have pulled off any of the fraudulent schemes that led to the 2008 collapse, he would have been sent to a federal slammer so fast he'd have to wait for the light waves to arrive at his cell block.

I guess your Average Joe Citizen is just too stupid to succeed at anything involving personal finance. That's why they always get slaughtered.

 

... however when the government has to bail out the big financial institutions to the tune of a $Trillion, everyone will wind up getting bitten in one way or another.

Check to see the root cause of that fallout. Primarily Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae granting loans to anyone and everyone. Congress only "covered up" their earlier error.

On edit:

Back to facebook. There are enough people receiving advertising on their facebook page, even with a low click through rate, to justify their estimation of the value. Some people make a living on the money from "advertising" on their website. EEVBlog and the youtube videos are examples of money making ventures that Dave Jones does full time.

 

Based on Friday's and today's stock market falls, my prediction of another economic collapse might actually be right on.

My talent for making accurate premonitions is pretty scary so I will keep my thoughts quiet about when the next earthquake will hit California!!!

To answer the title of this Thread, Facebook is where you are supposed to post this kind of Thread.
I so desperately desire to know and track everyone who claims the sky is falling, and how many years it takes for them to get one right, that I'm all about Facebook...not.

 

At least on this forum you can call BS when folks opine on things they know nothing about -- with due respect and civility of course.

 

Check to see the root cause of that fallout. Primarily Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae granting loans to anyone and everyone. Congress only "covered up" their earlier error.

Freddie/Fannie are secondary mortgage markets, and as such, do not loan directly to home buyers. They purchased bad loans made by banks, who were writing bad loans and knew it.

 

At least on this forum you can call BS when folks opine on things they know nothing about -- with due respect and civility of course.

Nobody can call B.S. on Facebook? I did not know that. (It's a good thing that nobody ever lies on the Internet.)
Probably because I've never visited a Facebook site...or a Tumbler, or a Linkedin, or a Yelp, etc.
I do look at U-Tube videos and my favorite author tweets, but I have never posted on any of those sites.

Hey guys, had a great B.M. this morning. By the stars of Karnac I predict another one tomorrow. Don'cha love that we have a place to post important things like this?

 

Hey guys, had a great B.M. this morning. By the stars of Karnac I predict another one tomorrow. Don'cha love that we have a place to post important things like this?

That's what Facebook is for.

 

Freddie/Fannie are secondary mortgage markets, and as such, do not loan directly to home buyers. They purchased bad loans made by banks, who were writing bad loans and knew it.

Robert Reich speaks of the impending failure of the Government Sponsored Enterprises ... Fannie and Freddie
https://www.guernicamag.com/daily/robert_reich_fannie_and_freddi/

Chip Hanlon on the True Scope of the Housing Bust
http://www.safehaven.com/article/12386/the-true-scope-of-the-housing-bust

Julie Borowski speaks of the "critters" involvement
https://julieborowski.wordpress.com/tag/dodd-frank/

Those three links might change your mind that Fannie/Freddie were more active they you believe.

 

I didn't say they weren't active. I said they don't lend money directly to home buyers. The loans were made by banks, like Countrywide, which between 2004 and 2007 increased the amount of pay-option ARMs on its balance sheets form $4.7billion to $32.7billion.

http://fortune.com/2010/12/23/how-the-roof-fell-in-on-countrywide/

On Freddy and Fanny:

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy mortgages from lenders and either hold these mortgages in their portfolios or package the loans into mortgage-backed securities (MBS) that may be sold. Lenders use the cash raised by selling mortgages to the Enterprises to engage in further lending. The Enterprises’ purchases help ensure that individuals and families that buy homes and investors that purchase apartment buildings and other multifamily dwellings have a continuous, stable supply of mortgage money

http://www.fhfa.gov/SupervisionRegu...Mac/Pages/About-Fannie-Mae---Freddie-Mac.aspx

 

The "leaders" at Freddie/fannie also got "bonuses" when they "backed" those suspect loans. That satisfied the political agenda and HUD's mandates on those two GSEs. When those GSEs were discovered in 2003, two powerful politico's kept saying there was nothing wrong with the GSEs. Both were proven wrong. All had their part in the disaster, the GSEs, the politicos, and the bureaucrats.

Freddie/Fannie had standards that were loosened, under the direction of government overseers. You must ask, why did Fannie/Freddie back so many bad loans. They had no fear because they had the full resources of the U.S. Government backing and as long as they illustrated they were within their charter, their regulators and political supporters were happy.

 

They don't "back" loans. They purchase loans on the open market.

 

Why ... because they were backed by Fannie/Freddie under their revised guidelines.

from http://buuea.com/the-us-housing-bubble/
Political momentum, activist groups, and government policies played a role in the easing of mortgage underwriting practices that allowed for subprime and adjustable rate mortgages to exist. In 1992, “at least 42 percent of all mortgages traded by Fannie and Freddie had to go to households with ‘low and moderate income’.”[31] This target was increased to 50 percent in 1999. Freddie and Fannie exceeded those targets. To do so they provided mortgages to shaky borrowers – undocumented income, no down payment, and no credit scores. “Those who bought the mortgages from Fannie and Freddie risked nothing because the two government-sponsored enterprises guaranteed them, and Fannie and Freddie themselves also took little risk because the federal government guaranteed their operations.”[32]

Even the Federal Reserve provided an aiding hand in easing lending practices. The Boston Fed wrote a “27-page manual in 1993 aimed to explain what banks should do to avoid discrimination in mortgage lending. The key sentence of that manual instructs that, to attract minority customers, lenders must refrain from ‘unreasonable measures of creditworthiness’ and instead use procedures that are ‘appropriate to economic culture of urban, lower-income, and nontraditional consumers’.”[33] [34] Banks were eager to accept the new easier lending practices; not only could they increase their fees from selling mortgages to Fannie and Freddie, but they also avoided being sued for discrimination from activist groups. This encouraged and drove banks into making unsound loans.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac effectively created the secondary market for mortgages. “Fannie and Freddie did not themselves lend money to homebuyers, but when a bank had done so, Fannie and Freddie would buy the loan from the bank, so that the bank got its money back and could lend even more to other prospect homebuyers.”[35] Once sold to Fannie and Freddie, mortgage interest and principal will be guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie. The process of taking securities off the balance sheets of mortgage lenders had a perverse effect on the quality of the mortgages. By keeping them off their balance sheets, mortgage originators were less concerned with the quality of the mortgaged and more incentivized to create mortgages that would be sold to Fannie and Freddie for a fee.

Being government-sponsored enterprises provided Freddie and Fannie an implicit government guarantee. “Thanks to the federal guarantee, they have been able to lend at lower interest rates than others (almost as low as the rate of the federal government pays on its own debt), and they have used the money that they have borrowed to buy mortgages for which they have been paid at market rates.”[36]

 

It doesn't matter how many articles you quote or link, Freddy and Fanny does not give loans to homeowners, nor to they back loans to homeowners. They are a secondary market which purchases debt on the open market. You may or may not think that's a good idea, but it is what it is. They don't make any loans.

Your own article says it here:

In 1970, the government introduced an additional government sponsored enterprise, Freddie Mac, to buy mortgages from mortgage originators, securitize those mortgages, and sell them as mortgage-backed securities to investors. Through combined efforts, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac effectively created the secondary market for mortgage backed securities.