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The city of Los Angeles spent an estimated $2-4 million for security at Michael Jackson’s memorial. They have asked for donations from the public to help pay for this. The same city gave away 17,500 FREE tickets to the memorial to an estimated 1.6 million applicants. Keep in mind the state of California recently declared a financial state of emergency. Maybe they should not have been free tickets. I wonder if they will accept donations in the form of IOU’s. DAD dropped this into the comment box on a previous post, but I think it is worth it’s own headline. Check out “America’s Most Troubled Luxury Neighborhoods” in this weeks Forbes magazine. The basic argument is that unsold inventory is rapidly growing in these neighborhoods, as expected, and thus the prices there are due to tumble.
I have argued previously that there is not one person to blame for this economic and financial fiasco. There may be some with more responsibility than others, from Alan Greenspan down to a shortlist of the greediest subprime mortgage broker CEO’s. However, I believe just as much that individuals are responsible for themselves and that purchasing a house that you cannot afford and not reading the details of the mortgage contract distribute the responsibility more broadly than most will argue. I have also argued previously that while Wall Street firms are not entirely to blame, I do continue to point my finger in the direction of AIG. Well, Michael Lewis helps explain the AIG fiasco even better this week by pointing the finger within AIG to the leader of the AIG FP unit, Joe Cassano. Reading the article, I couldn’t agree more. The blame is not entirely his, but considering his role within this unit, and the explained mentality he had for running it, I begin to place him up there with people such as Alan Greenspan. They may not have understood the trouble they were creating at the time, and thus I do not think of them as criminals, but that does not change the fact that the decisions made by them helped inflate the bubble. The article is quite a fascinating look into AIG’s history and there a few great lessons learned from it. One I found interesting is that as Elliot Spitzer was heralded for forcing executives such as Hank Greenberg out, he made no effort to replace or correct the problem afterward. I realize this is not his job, but there probably needs to be a clean-up crew following around Attorney Generals. Get this. My landlord wants to raise my rent. I realize she is a bit delusional, but she is in for a harsh awakening when I move out and she cannot find a bid for even 85% of what I am paying now. I have tried to explain this to her, but to no avail. She does not live nearby, nor does she understand the current housing situation.
All she knows is that she is losing even more money against her mortgage as they have raised her interest rates (I know she has some sort of ARM, not sure what exactly). I have encouraged her to have the tax assessor out to reduce her taxes. I hope she follows that advice. She should also try to get out of her ARM and into a fixed-rate mortgage, although I do not have the patience to try to explain to her the situation (she must be at least 70). Fortunately for me, I am seeing the exact same size place as mine, 1 or 2 blocks away, brand new or newly remodeled for 15% less than I am currently paying. Yup, still a renters market.
*image source: dilbert.com, nytimes.com |
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