Monday Links: DOB on Notice Edition

Where is The What?

Today is his day.

What are his words for it? I believe they are "fuckity fucked."

Some Day This Depression's Gonna End

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 8:24 AM

any one still think nyc real estate is untouchable?

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 8:50 AM

you need to sell your house today? 20% haircut as from this weekend.

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 8:53 AM

special offer for today only. all bkln RE, i am buying at 50 cents on the dollar.

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 8:55 AM

relax. an investment bank has just folded. its stock has been sold for $2 a share. the wealth destruction has no implications. the job destruction is fine. plenty of people out there looking to buy million $ houses. they are from Paris, apparently. i have 7 lined up to buy my place for $1m more than i paid. now wheres that mortgage confirmation.......

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 9:04 AM

30% discount on all investment banks this morning. luckily is has not affected real estate prices though.

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 9:06 AM

Yes, because investment banks aren't global entities and play no role in the accumulation and development of foreign wealth. None whatsoever.

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 9:19 AM

right. ny real estate is shielded from all bad news in financials. and europe is "decoupled". at this point, europeans buying ny RE are only enacting a currency trade. they would be better off just going long the dollar in cash. at least then they won't have to absorb the underlying asset depreciation as well. the ones who bought at $1.45 are already underwater on the currency and even more on price declines. if you have 7 suckers now, better close quick. don't be greedy. if they bail, i will cover you at $0.40 next month.

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 9:19 AM

Why are you all such bitter renters?

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 9:41 AM

“It’s ridiculous, totally ridiculous”, Alan “Ace” Greenburg, Bear Stearns Mucky Muck responding to “rumors” on March 12, 2008

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 9:44 AM

“It’s ridiculous, totally ridiculous”, Alan “Ace” Greenburg, Bear Stearns Mucky Muck responding to “rumors” on March 12, 2008

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 9:45 AM

o god

now greedy yuppie asstards like me will get the reaming we deserve

o god my family my babies

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 9:50 AM

"Where is The What?"

I'm Here!

"Just wanna say that I bow before the wisdom of The What and unreservedly apologize for any comments I may have made that cast doubt upon his sanity. The only financial ray of sunshine I can envision in my future is if he were to use his predictive powers to pick some Megaball numbers for me. The Fed lending to brokerage houses? Things are getting real desperate."

Look at this quote: All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. - Arthur Schopenhauer

"How bad are things on Wall Street?"

This is just the beginning. You have no idea whats coming next. Look at this...

The Stock Market Crash of 1929

http://stockmarketcrash.atspace.com/

When the deal for Bear Sterns went down at 2 dollars a share I said "Oh Shit. Thats a massive haircut. The employees who own BS stocks their portfolio just got fucked!

I was thinking about housing. I bet all the mortgages in everyone pipeline has been frozen shut. Banks need to preserve capital and I don't see any loans being made.

I'm not happy, I'm jumping up and down saying " the war is over" I'm very afraid that The FED will use inflation to prevent a deflationary collapse. I think thing will get more expensive as the bullshit plays out. I hope you saved some money and are not in debt.

This is The What from the Eastern Front.

The What

Someday this war is gonna end...

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 10:00 AM

A third of Bear was employee-owned. How's that for destruction of wealth?

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 10:03 AM

nytimes fluff piece on the edge reeks of desperation.

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 10:07 AM

Now we know The What is a white guy, he's quoting Schopenhauer.

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 10:08 AM

"I'm very afraid that The FED will use inflation to prevent a deflationary collapse. I think thing will get more expensive as the bullshit plays out. I hope you saved some money and are not in debt."

I am similarly afraid, despite having saved lots of money and having no debt. After all, the community we live, the state we live, the transit system we ride and our country in general have lots of debt.

Thank God for NYC real estate. Bear Stearns sold for $240 million. The value of its building is $1.2 billion. The value of the rest of Bear Stearns? Hard to say given the Fed bailout, but it's a big negative number.

At least the value of the building will not drop to zero.

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 10:11 AM

Hope people see the JPMorgan payment for Bear for what it is, a token payment. $2/share essentially means that no one else on the street wanted to touch Bear with a 10ft pole.

As for Bear's RE holdings, the industry has been worried that commercial RE was the "other shoe". This jolt, if nothing else, will put this to test.

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 10:15 AM

As Harvard's Ken Rogoff put it (see page 42 of BusinessWeek), "we saw a once-in-a-hundred years runup in housing prices, and now we're seeing a once-in-a-hundred years collapse. It's very, very difficult to do much about it".

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 10:16 AM

What are the implications of the Fed's numerous interventions on Wall Street in the long run?

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 10:18 AM

the fed has been responsible for what has happened in the asset markets. now they are desperately trying to put the fires out. i think the respect of the fed is reflected in the dollars value. no one is buying their second rate act.

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 10:38 AM

I am someone who bought at the top of the market and doesn't have money saved and is in debt and I have a question for anyone out there who has some expertise in finance. Because the fed seems to taking such a reckless attitude towards inflation, and since it even seems that there may be bank collapses, isn't it maybe good to have put your savings in real estate (as long as you can afford your mortgage), since presumably in the long term you still have something real - a house - whereas if you have cash saved and the dollar's value collapses and stocks/bonds continue to plunge, you have nothing? Or is that completely faulty thinking?

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 11:12 AM

(Isn't it maybe good to have put your savings in real estate (as long as you can afford your mortgage), since presumably in the long term you still have something real - a house - whereas if you have cash saved and the dollar's value collapses and stocks/bonds continue to plunge, you have nothing?)

If you don't care that had you waited with your $ in T-bills, your standard of living could have been much, much higher (lower monthly nut), and you are happy where and how you live, then one could argue it doesn't matter what the future price is. You have locked in the "income" portion of your return -- being able to live in the house -- and the capital gain or loss doesn't matter until you sell.

There is, however, the risk that something will happen job or health wise and you will not be able to pay the mortgage, and will go broke. But at least you'll have company.

As for inflation, we had a decade or soaring asset price inflation without consumer price inflation. I think we could have a decade of soaring consumer price inflation without asset price inflation.

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 11:23 AM

Why does the city/DOB still issue 86,000+ permits per year to build/renovate if they clearly cannot adequately inspect all of the work? Yes, I know, money. At what point will they start to limit this until they can do their jobs well?

Maybe NOW?

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 11:32 AM

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/03/16/cngold116.xml

Goldman Sachs to reveal $3bn hit

By Mark Kleinman and Louise Armitstead
Last Updated: 12:07am GMT 16/03/2008

Goldman Sachs, Wall Street's most powerful investment bank, will this week announce asset writedowns worth about $3bn (£1.5bn), its biggest jolt to date from the crisis threatening to engulf the world's financial markets.

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 12:40 PM

Didn't Bloomberg supposedly clean up the DOB? I mean -- how bad was it before? Anyone know about this?

Lancaster should get the heave-ho. Her rolling-eyes remark about sometimes a high number of complaints just means the neighbors are opposed to the building is telling. You're entrusted with the public safety, lady. Who cares if it's a hassle? Each complaint should be responded to with utmost seriousness.

I hope someone sues the DOB over this latest travesty. Rich irony in the name of the demolished bar.

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 12:48 PM

Well well... The fucktards are putting down the crack pipes. Wall Street is in serious trouble! I said months ago that Citi, WAMU and Wacovia are insolvent! No no The What is a moron (true ; ^ P). The What is a bitter renter (not true). The What doesn't know anything (It's unfolding in real time).

I guess the Bear Sterns employees will put in offers for the ORO or Forte, NOT! LMMFAO! Ya'll are fucking finished and the asshole Brokers who pumped this shit up will get assraped!

Oh Brownstoner, You are a fucking Hypocrite! You take down the 6 months ago house sales when, It doesn't fit your agenda and I point out the discrepancies and lies in the post. And now you block my IP so I cant post on your site. I have multiple IP address stupid. The What knows he got you Brownie, Gabby and any other Brownnstoner assfuck. You are making me a martyr and showing everyone I was right!!!!!

Real Estate is fucking over!!!!! Real Estate is fucking over!!!!! Real Estate is fucking over!!!!! Real Estate is fucking over!!!!! Real Estate is fucking over!!!!! Real Estate is fucking over!!!!! Real Estate is fucking over!!!!!

People get this into your heads, it's about survival. If you are over your head in a house or condo, WALK AWAY!! Stop paying your mortgage!!! Stop being a debt slave, live your live debt free. That asset is worth shit now. Long live The What (Giving myself props)! I stood my ground and never wafted for one second!

RIP Mutant Real Estate Bubble. This is just the beginning!

The What (Reporting from the Eastern Front)

Someday this war is gonna end...

Brownie so help me GOD I will carpet bomb this site if you fuck with this post!!!!!!

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 12:49 PM

What - you are really crazy. There is really no reason to jump up and down so hysterically. And by the way, although i also have been expecting big real estate collapse since the fist glimmer of subprime crisis I stand by my first reaction to you that since MONEY ISN'T EVERYTHING you can stop ranting about the apocolypse. Let me know where there's a dirty bomb attack on this city and THEN your tone will be appropriate.

guest 11:23 - thanks for your reply. but I don't understand your last paragraph. could you explain?

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 1:25 PM

I love the casual, stupid racism of this board: because he quotes Schopenhauer, The What is a white guy? Is this Brooklyn, or Jo-burg? The last time I checked, blacks were allowed to read. In fact, it may come as a stunning surprise, but they even (gasp) own Brownstones. And not just in Bed-Stuy. Some of them (not just Obama) EVEN went to Ivy League schools. Kind of a lot, actually--you can look it up. And there, like their white brethren, they (we) read Schopenhauer, Heidegger, and even--C. Wright Mills, and Jane Jacobs. I mean, they do have the Booker T. Washington Fellowships in Brownstone Renovation and Nannying, but most of us--skip that...so...WHAT?

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 1:37 PM

1:37 - I'm with you. Was going to write an outraged post to that comment, but then just moved on since it seemed so racist I thought I might be missing something!

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 1:44 PM

Let's hope so. A gradual adjustment would be much less painful.

For the next year, any day a major financial institution doesn't fail/get bailed out is a good day. For junior Trumps, a year of good days will feel like the apocolypse.

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 2:27 PM

BrooklynLove rises to a new level of cluelessness.

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 5:31 PM

Isn't the What just amazing- a classic study of paranoid schizophrenia. One minute writing intelligible, intelligent posts and the next going off the rails. Take some zoloft! Get a few anger management classes under your belt pal. Try to communicate like a man who actually has an education. You do nothing for your cause, pal- just embarrassing yourself. I can't see how someone so not in control of himself can be a professional businessman like you claim to be. Personally I think you're posting from Ossining and you have an active fantasy life.

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 7:33 PM

"Isn't the What just amazing- a classic study of paranoid schizophrenia. One minute writing intelligible, intelligent posts and the next going off the rails. Take some zoloft! Get a few anger management classes under your belt pal. Try to communicate like a man who actually has an education. You do nothing for your cause, pal- just embarrassing yourself. I can't see how someone so not in control of himself can be a professional businessman like you claim to be. Personally I think you're posting from Ossining and you have an active fantasy life."

I'm a nut job??!!! The assfucks have ruined the country! We are in the greatest asset bubble of the history of mankind and I'm a nut job.

I need a education when Ivy League graduates fucked our finical system up??!!! I need zoloft when we are going to have a fucking depression??!! Her read this this!!!

Cognitive dissonance

Cognitive dissonance is a psychological state that describes the uncomfortable feeling between what one holds to be true and what one knows to be true <--- Read this over and over again!!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

Bear Sterns was the first nuclear bomb to go off. There more bombs in the system, primed and fused! Now the cats out of the bag, foreign investment will leave America. Interest rates are getting ready to go to the fucking moon, asshole.

You and other need to get you fucking head around this shit!!!!
RIP MREB

The What (Lodi NJ LMMFAO)

Someday this war is gonna end...

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 8:03 PM

Having actually gone to Harvard, and hung out with my SO at the time and her friends at the B-School--many of whom now run Hedge Funds, or are I-Bankers, corporate lawyers, etc.---I've been saying for years exactly what The What has been saying. He (I assume) is completely correct. Ivy League idiots led us into this mess--they're greedy, short-sighted goose-steppers who wouldn't know an original thought if it spat on them. And that goes double for everybody I know from the B-School. For feck's sake, DUBYA went to the B-School. The What may not be the sort of smooth yupster yuckster the rest of you are (although I doubt that actually)--but he's right most of the time, and hardly strikes me as crazy. In fact, quite the opposite. The What should have his own blog. Brownstoner does seem very suspiciously pro-real estate to me, and sort of mindlessly consumerist. Yes, I love Brownstones too, but--seriously--can't it be a little bit more nuanced and self-reflexive? Brownstoner dude is clearly very bright. I think that there should be more leftist critique along with all of this real estate fetishism, though. Couldn't the Brownstone community be a bit less navel-gazing? Can't believe how defensive and hostile and dumb so much of this is. "Renters" is an insult? Is this fourth grade?

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 8:40 PM

I'm not defending them- in fact I agree with you pretty much on that.But you go off on these hysterical rants and sound like an uneducated fool. No one wants to read this crap- what? the advice of a guy who can't spew more than two words without tossing in an obscenity or calling names? Puhleeze!We all know you are actually capable of intelligent posts so why don't you try writing them. Then you wouldn't be such a joke on this board. FYI- I do know what cognitive dissonance is - without going to Wikipedia. And I have to tell you, you are a classic example

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 8:54 PM

Yo assfuck 7:33 PM 8:54 PM Lookie here! Crammer tell someone not to take their money out of Bear Sterns.

Should I sell Bear Stearns? NO! NO! NO!

http://www.redlasso.com/ClipPlayer.aspx?id=ae47b67d-2523-4946-a2ad-aadc68176f67

Now, The What has been spot on all year and I'm a nut job!! People on TV lie to you all the fucking time but, I'm a nut job! You know what BLOW ME, Cock and balls!!!

The What (LIBOR almost locked up today)

Someday this war is gonna end...

Posted by: guest at March 17, 2008 10:59 PM

What, you're foaming - Hope your wife has you chained to a radiator or something, although i can't imagine a woman wanting to put up with having to walk the likes of you twice a day.

And thanks for the offer, but no thanks. I prefer relationships with people who can actually function in society and wash several times a week. People in your mental condition usually don't have great hygiene. Or great reasoning skills.

Posted by: guest at March 18, 2008 12:50 AM

Bear should not survive the run on it.

It deserves to fail.

Taxpayers should not be left holding the bag.

Again.

Posted by: guest at March 18, 2008 1:19 AM