A run on countrywide is occurring

[mikeb]

http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stories/2007/08/17/countrywidebank0817.html

Here's a picture of the countrywide emergency board meeting ;)

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/images/it'sawonderfullifeboardmeetng.jpg

[kangol]

In west Los Angeles, a Countrywide supervisor brought in from another office served coffee to more than 25 people waiting calmly for their turn with the one clerk who could help them.

I hope it was decaf, caffeine only multiplies jitters (including teh sub-prime jitters).

[ayzo]

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2007-08/31920951.jpg

Looks like its back to stuffing the mattress.

[TOMMY]

My wife works for CountryWide...all this shit is making her go crazy. So I told her to get a resume together and start looking for another job..

[AL P]

It amuses me that people know so little about money.

[kangol]

It amuses me that people know so little about money.

They sure know how to spend what they have, and in many cases, more than what they have.

Kind of depressing.

[slow99]

They sure know how to spend what they have, and in many cases, more than what they have.

Kind of depressing.

Sweet, I just got a raise...how much more money can I blow keeping up with the Joneses?!

[kangol]

Must...have...white picket fence.

Man I'm glad you didn't take me up on the double or nothing bet today, although it was offered in jest I still would have had to pay(pal) up.

[slow99]

Must...have...white picket fence.

Man I'm glad you didn't take me up on the double or nothing bet today, although it was offered in jest I still would have had to pay(pal) up.

Well, if I remember correctly, you offered before the big upswing yesterday. That probably changed both our thinking on today. I think we found our intermediate bottom yesterday. (Crosses fingers)

[AL P]

I like the way today ended. I sold my shit that I bought yesterday and rolled it right into something that went up 6% today.

I might be able to get my baby's crib back from the pawn shop now!!

[slow99]

I like the way today ended. I sold my shit that I bought yesterday and rolled it right into something that went up 6% today.

I might be able to get my baby's crib back from the pawn shop now!!

Screw that, the Mustang needs some bling.

[AL P]

Screw that, the Mustang needs some bling.

You know dats right, if the damn baby needs something he can get a J-O-B!!

[TexasDevilDog]

They sure know how to spend what they have, and in many cases, more than what they have.

Kind of depressing.

Americans have the best standard of living they can borrow.

[talisman]

I got a refinance offer in the mail from them yesterday. lol

[jyro]

They sure know how to spend what they have, and in many cases, more than what they have. Kind of depressing.

I wished I didn't have to use credit for anything, I'm glad you don't.

[kangol]

I wished I didn't have to use credit for anything, I'm glad you don't.

It's not that bad!

But living out of the back of my 1982 Subaru Brat does get old sometimes. :(

[jyro]

It's not that bad!

But living out of the back of my 1982 Subaru Brat does get old sometimes. :(

free inet from Starbucks parking lot

[DORAN]

Americans have the best standard of living they can borrow.

That is the best way of saying it. I was a loan officer in subprime and people are used to refinancing every two years to pay off the debt they just rang up. The problem now is their ARM mortgagesare going up and their credit is now to low to help

[jakesford]

yeah, its sad... Who would have thought, "lets get this house that we can barely afford. Oh look, interest rates are at an all time low, so this adjustable rate morgage will be good idea, interest rates will never go back up..." :rolleyes:

Seriously though, I kinda feel bad for the ones that truely didn't know what they were getting into, and lenders were approving people that should have never been approved. :(

[Muffrazr]

yeah, its sad... Who would have thought, "lets get this house that we can barely afford. Oh look, interest rates are at an all time low, so this adjustable rate morgage will be good idea, interest rates will never go back up..." :rolleyes:

Seriously though, I kinda feel bad for the ones that truely didn't know what they were getting into, and lenders were approving people that should have never been approved. :(



I would figure that lending agencies would've seen the problems coming beforehand. They are supposed to be smarter than the average consumer, right? If you approve people for a variable rate loan that shouldn't get approved for shit as it is, and you know that there is a good chance that one day the rate will go up, wouldn't you also know that they will default as soon as the rate does in fact go up? This would conceivably cause a problem, right? I am not investment savvy as I am a cash in hand kind of purchaser, but am I close?

[TexasDevilDog]

I would figure that lending agencies would've seen the problems coming beforehand. They are supposed to be smarter than the average consumer, right? If you approve people for a variable rate loan that shouldn't get approved for shit as it is, and you know that there is a good chance that one day the rate will go up, wouldn't you also know that they will default as soon as the rate does in fact go up? This would conceivably cause a problem, right? I am not investment savvy as I am a cash in hand kind of purchaser, but am I close?

Most mortgage companies sell off the mortgage after they fund it. They sell the note for more than the value making the interest rate to the buyer less. They make money on the spread. They don't care if they sell something that is going to be worthless in a couple years.

[ayzo]

I would figure that lending agencies would've seen the problems coming beforehand. They are supposed to be smarter than the average consumer, right? If you approve people for a variable rate loan that shouldn't get approved for shit as it is, and you know that there is a good chance that one day the rate will go up, wouldn't you also know that they will default as soon as the rate does in fact go up? This would conceivably cause a problem, right? I am not investment savvy as I am a cash in hand kind of purchaser, but am I close?

jakesford is right, this is all about greed and it happend on every level. From the home builders, real estate agents, loan officers, the banks and even the home owners. Everybody drilled the idea into their head that their area like much of the nation was "hot" and they needed to either build the houses, lend the money, or flip the properties as investments. Everybody knew subprime would be a big mess but people kept covering their ears.

As for the lenders it wasn't really much of a problem for them because all they were doing is repackaging those subprime loans and selling them off to foreign investors. That is probably the most dangerous part of all this mess, the American people and the American government live way beyond their means and are constantly borrowing money either through mortgages, car loans, cash advances, or credit cards. That wouldn't be so bad if there was something there to back up the dollar such as gold, silver, oil, or agriculture. The problem is that the only thing that backs up the USD is confidence in the United States by foreign investors who buy up all of our treasury notes. If they start to lose confidence in the us consumer being able to pay the money owned on those packaged "investments/debt" then they'll stop buying it and credit will be much more harder to obtain. That can be good or bad depending on which way you spin it, the banks will make less money because they aren't collecting interests off of loans or credit cards and financial related stocks will fall. On the plus side maybe people will realize they can't live off of plastic and will only buy what they have the cash on hand for. And maybe, just maybe, our government will realize they can't afford to depend on foreigners to subsidize our consumption.

[ayzo]

Somebody knows something we don't :confused:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/op?s=SPY

http://ragingbull.quote.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=AFFAIR&read=241437


BILLIONS IN PUT OPTIONS PURCHASED BETTING THAT THE MARKET WILL CRASH BY 9-21

Posted By: RayelansMailbag
Date: Friday, 24 August 2007, 6:34 p.m.

You can see why banks are running scared...they know the bottom can fall out at any moment. I'd suggest keeping minimal deposits in banks and holding on to cash.

ANOTHER HUGE SALE OF OPTION CONTRACTS

Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2007 19:43:25 GMT

Good Morning Everyone,

OTHER THAN THE EXPECTED FINANCIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS, ANYBODY HAVE A CLUE
AS TO WHAT THESE 'INVESTORS' ARE EXPECTING?

************************************************** **************

THEY DID IT AGAIN. . . . ANOTHER HUGE SALE OF OPTION CONTRACTS ON $4.5
BILLION WORTH OF STOCKS BETTING THE MARKET WILL LOSE 30%-50% OF ITS
VALUE IN FOUR WEEKS!

THIS SALE ON THE SPY.X AND THE ONE FROM YESTERDAY ON THE SPY.Y
(MENTIONED TWO STORIES BELOW) ARE BEING REFERRED-TO BY FOLKS IN THE
MARKET AS "BIN LADEN TRADES" BECAUSE ONLY AN ACT OF TERRORISM AKIN TO
9-11 (WITHIN THE NEXT FOUR WEEKS) COULD MAKE THESE OPTIONS VALUABLE.

There are 65,000 contracts @ $750.00 for the SPX 700 calls for open
interest. That controls 6.5 million shares at $750 = $4.5 Billion. Not a
single trade. But quite a bit of $$ on a contract that is 700 points
away from current value. No one would buy that deep "in the money"
calls. No reason to. So if they were sold looks like someone betting on
massive dislocation. Lots of very strange option activity that I haven't
seen before.

The entity or individual offering these sales can only make money if the
market drops 30%-50% within the next four weeks. If the market does not
drop, the entity or individual involved stands to lose over $1 billion
just for engaging in these contracts!

Clearly, someone knows something big is going to happen BEFORE the options expire on Sept. 21.

THEORIES:
The following theories are being discussed widely within the stock and
options markets today regarding the enormous and very unusual activity
reported above and two stories below. Those theories are:

1) A massive terrorist attack is going to take place before Sept. 21 to
tank the markets, OR;
2) China, reeling over losing $10 Billion in bad loans to the sub-prime
mortgage collapse presently taking place, is going to dump US currency
and tank all of Capitalism with a Communist financial revolution.

Either scenario is bad and the clock is ticking. The drop-dead date of
these contracts is September 21. Whatever is going to happen MUST take
place between now and then or the folks involved in these contracts will
lose over $1 billion for having engaged in this activity.

-------------

"$1.78 Billion Bet that Stock Markets will crash by third week in September
Anonymous Stock Trader Sells 10K Contracts on EVERY S&P/Y "Strike"
Shorts Stocks "in the money" effectively selling all his SPY holdings
for cash up front without pressuring the market downward
This is an enormous and dangerous stock option activity. If it goes
right, the guy makes about $2 Billion. If he's wrong, his out of pocket
costs for buying these options will exceed $700 Million!!!

The entity who sold these contracts can only make money if the stock
market totally crashes by the third week in September.

Bear in mind that the last time anyone conducted such large and unusual
stock option trades (like this one) was in the weeks before the attacks
of September 11.

Back then, they bought huge numbers of PUTS on airline stocks in the
same airlines whose planes were involved in the September 11 attacks.
Despite knowing who made these trades, the Securities and Exchange
Commission NEVER revealed who made the unusual trades and no one was
ever publicly identified as being responsible for the trades which made
upwards of $50 million when the attacks happened.

The fact that this latest activity by a single entity gambles on a
complete collapse of the entire market by the third week in September,
seems to indicate someone knows something really huge is in the works
and they intend to profit almost $2 Billion within the next four weeks
from whatever happens! This is really worrisome."

[mikeb]

Uh oh..... :(