P.T. Barnum, meet Lush Rimjob

Which wire do we snip – red or blue?

If I were a conspiracy nut, I’d look at all the news stories from around the world where governments, including our own (formerly “of the people” now “of the oligarchs”) are using the cover of a “bail-out” to “rescue” (i.e. buy up mortagages) at unprecedented lowball prices in a once in a millenia opportunity to take control of all real assets of all the nations of the world in the name of global socialism and then plant the knife squarely in the back of their serfs (formerly taxpayers, now landed poor) with the bill.

Pretty slick, but fortunately I’m no nut.

Applying Ocham’s razor reveals all for what it truly is: a screw up of unheard of scope and magnitude by the last three or four generations (go back as far as you need to lose the collective memory of the Panics of ‘67, ‘28, ‘07, 1872, etc.) “solved” (heh) as always by the very same people responsible (this time “Hank Paulson” and his merry band of “Krony Kapitalists” a.k.a. the Pigmen) who might take the opportunity to juice this in their favor.

That is IF the bomb doesn’t go off in their face.

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“What if the Fed., Inc. lowered the interest rate to zero, and nobody cared?” -Paco Bell

Tax liens a-go-go?

Tax liens are levied against houses for non-payment, and:

“property tax collectors stand in the first position of the pecking order of who gets their money when a homeowner falls behind in their payments.” [Fred Cederholm]

This investment has been touted by every RE guru-du-jour in the specuvestard seminars as the investment to get if you want a high return, since they paid such high rates of return (in the range of 8-18%).

Plus, if the homedebtor never makes good on it, you might wind up with the property instead- which you can then sell, perhaps for even more than you are owed on the debt (lien).

You might even consider moving in, but considering the state of most foreclosed properties, better to pass it on to a fliptard who thinks he’s found the way to real estate riches.

In an informerical, John Beck purports tax liens are a way to acquire fabulous homes at unbelievable low prices. Here’s a sample (I’m paraphrasing) of the script, repeated throught the mersh ad nauseum:

“You mean this house was purchased for only $65?!?”

“Yes that’s right, that house your holding (hostess is holding a pacard with a photo on it) was purchased for $65.”

“That’s sounds to good to be true!?!!”

“Yes, it does sound too good to be true!”

What brings this old warhorse up is the record number of foreclosures we are seeing. Have cash?

Many people who would ordinarily invest in tax liens found that the mad rush a few years back left no scraps at the auction table for the few that were available, during what was a unusual market occurence. Investors walked away, and parked their cash in T-bills or money market, or mutual funds, since not only were tax liens over-picked, but real estate prices had risen so high, that making income from rent was a no-go- apart from the appreciation, which, as we all know, is history.

Now in a down market, maybe it is time to revisit tax lien auctions again.

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“Inflation is by design a tax on the working class. The investment class gets to ride it like a pony.” -Paco Bell

Big Whoop

This blogger kind of sums up the entire dinosaurs-in-the-making events we are witnessing first-hand.

Remember when OS2 was the great next big thang and MS cunningly defenestrated IBM outa the ivory tower?

Or when the first functioning production version of Windows (3.1) GUI looked and functioned eerily like Apple and Xerox Parc OS’ and the lawsuits flew?

Or more recently when MS and excused Novell’s version of Linux (Suse) from any future legal tribulations, placing a dark cloud over the other distros, and a lot of folks scratching their penguin heads over what this particluar invocation of FUD is really all about? And that gift of $250 mil, what was that all about?

Well, the villain of these stories is beginning to look a bit leathery, slithery, and maybe bit too large to manage to tie its own shoes in the morning.