1. AFSCME | End Dimon Double Duty – “Jamie Dimon has gone from the ‘Last Man Standing’ to ‘the Most Dangerous Man in America
2. Jamie Dimon: To Fix Housing, Everyone Should Get in a Room and Decide to Do My Bidding
3. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon: Stop Bashing the Rich “Acting like everyone who’s been successful is bad and that everyone who is rich is bad – I just don’t get it”

War on women.

According to Dave Weigel, the guy who recorded it and uploaded it is a progressive. This is something he and the local union brain trust actually wanted people to see. On the other hand, none of the Democrats present referred to her this time as “Sikh Jesus.” Thank heaven for small favors. Scramble: “Do you [...]

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This might be bad

Voters this year will be treated to a pair of mutually exclusive pictures when it comes to the economy. What’s going to happen in the short term? What is coming our way further down the road? Obama will tell you that Bush wrecked the economy, but we are slowly but surely climbing back out of [...]

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Nuance.

Via the Examiner, this is actually a fairly deft, politic response to a realllly bad outcome. He can’t say “voters are stupid” or, as his party believes, “voters are racist,” so instead he absolves them and lays the whole thing implicitly on — who else? — George W. Bush. But since no one takes Biden [...]

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"I think I’m a different kind of a, quote, 'liberal' in that I think people should be true to themselves."

Cheer up, Jon. If they weren’t calling you a Nazi for that, they’d be calling you a Nazi for appearing on Fox. After multiple Lovitz posts, the first half of this segment will be familiar to you, but at least watch the second half for when Kelly plays devil’s advocate by giving him the Elizabeth [...]

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"I think I’m a different kind of a, quote, 'liberal' in that I think people should be true to themselves."

Cheer up, Jon. If they weren’t calling you a Nazi for that, they’d be calling you a Nazi for appearing on Fox. After multiple Lovitz posts, the first half of this segment will be familiar to you, but at least watch the second half for when Kelly plays devil’s advocate by giving him the Elizabeth [...]

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Dueling statistics.

As people often say, there are lies, damned lies, and … statistics.  We deal with jobs-related data on a regular basis, but the collation and promulgation of the final numbers are sometimes a mystery to people.  The Current Employment Survey, for instance, is basically a poll with a fairly large sample, and from that we [...]

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Favorability now virtually even.

USA Today leads the analysis of its joint poll with Gallup on the news that people have become more optimistic on the economy, and that’s good news for Barack Obama.  More people think Obama will win re-election as well, although at least so far, USAT doesn’t say whether Obama actually leads in the poll.  But [...]

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Credibility.

It was perhaps the most well-funded start to an aspirational “third party” in the last few decades, and it had plenty of higher-profile support.  Americans Elect has already qualified for the general election ballot in 27 states.  The organization asked people to pick its nominees in a big on-line effort, which produced … no contenders: [...]

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BRIAN!  Dude… My good friend… Mi amigo de la Hipoteca clase… My favorite lender defender from whom laughs do engender… please don’t take me an offender… but as the message’s sender… a response to you I’ll tender… and my views I’ll therefore render…

Okay, I give in… that TBWS Daily was hysterical.  I mean, people say I’m funny, but I can’t hold a candle.

Overall, I loved the show, but, if I may… there were just a couple things…  

Just to make sure I understand what you said there… the problem is that there aren’t enough homes for people to buy?  We’re having a shortage of houses for sale, are we?  Wow… you know, I was sleeping and woke up to today’s video and for a minute there, I thought I must have dozed off for a decade or more.

But seriously… I had no idea that was the problem.  Well, alrighty then… I guess I’m going back to work… Mandelman doesn’t matter anymore… our economic problems have been solved.  And, thank heavens for that, because I was getting darn tired of writing about… um… well… I guess you could refer to it as… oh, I don’t know… how about… “the truth?”

Get more houses on the market?  Seriously?  More houses is what we need?  Am I on Candid Camera, or is there a rabbit hole around here somewhere that I can’t see?

So, I guess what you’re telling me is that at this point, the banks are actually hoarding them… holding them back for their own heads?  Foreclosing on more and more of them every day because they have a plan to corner the deteriorating home market?  Or are they just trying to pay us back for bailing them out by offering to pay most of the property taxes in this country going forward?  Or, maybe they just have a handyman fetish, so the more vacant homes the better?  Nothing turns them on like monitoring property preservation companies?

Why would they be hoarding empty houses?  Correct me if I’m wrong, but I was always under the impression that empty homes COST money as a result of their tendency to… what do they call it?  Oh yeah… decompose.

Aren’t banks the ones that are always trying to MAKE money?  Or have that backwards and banks are the ones that want to have the highest possible costs?  I can never keep that one straight… like eating eggs for breakfast… are they good for me or bad for me?  I can never remember… so I eat granola.

But, I digress…

Why do you suppose it might be that banks aren’t putting more homes on the market… or in the parlance of the economist… why are they limiting supply… making sure that it remains lower than demand?

Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Bueller?

Well, it can’t be because they don’t like money, right?  Right.  Okay, good.  I was pretty sure we’d have no argument there.

Could it be that they’re just so busy foreclosing and proprietarily trading credit derivatives for fun and losses, that they just haven’t realized that there are throngs of Californians and Arizonans clamoring to buy the homes they’re holding onto?  Again, I’d have to guess that… no, that can’t be it either.

Okay, let’s try this… What happens when the demand for a good exceeds its supply?  Oh, now lets not always see the same hands…

Brian?  Is that you I see in the back of the room doodling?  What’s that a picture of?  That’s you sitting at a table refinancing a four-plex for a dentist?  Yes, that’s very nice, but we’re trying to hold a class here, so if you wouldn’t mind…

So, what happens when the demand for a good exceeds its supply? Right, Brian!  Prices go up… or actually, in this particular case, they don’t go down as quickly.

And just what do you suppose would happen if the banks decided to make a bunch of homes available for sale, as you suggested is the thing to do in today’s TBWS Daily?  Do you think prices would tend to go up or down?  I’ll give you a hint… the answer is the opposite of “up.”

And, if home prices were to go down even faster than they are as a result of all of the other factors that haven’t changed a lick, except to worsen… you know… like, unemployment, long-term unemployment, foreclosures, average incomes… GDP… the state’s $16 billion budget deficit that’s about to constrict the state’s economy even further as we cut services and raise taxes on the wealthy… those kind of things?

Well, if home prices fell further and faster I’d have to venture a guess that more people would find themselves underwater and/or further underwater… and that would mean what do you suppose?  If you guessed further reductions in consumer spending, higher unemployment and more foreclosures… well, you’d be right once again!

And then what about all the people who, having been duped into believing that housing had bottomed, bought homes recently?  Would they be gaining equity or losing it?  Losing it, right!  And assuming an FHA/new-sub-prime loan was involved many would be underwater by Christmas… and you know what that would mean, right?

Even more foreclosures!  Maybe that’s why FHA is reporting almost 20 percent defaults on loans made SINCE 2009.  It’s kind of funny if you think about it… we’re actually creating foreclosures over at FHA even faster than we can foreclose down the street at Fannie and Freddie.  It’s very “Dr. Strangelove – Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb,” don’t you think?

And I did hear you say that the shortage was “at the low end of the market,” right?  I’m sure that’s correct, because that’s the end of the market that’s not only less expensive, but also less experienced.  Those are the folks easiest to convince to buy a home because it’s never going to be this cheap or the rates this low again… so, better hurry and get your offer in today… isn’t that about right, Brian?

Of course, I wouldn’t want to leave out my favorite flavor of scumbag, the vulture investors who envision this as a once in a lifetime opportunity to become full fledged slum lords, gouging the unfortunate and credit impaired with top tier rents for at least a decade while they put the absolute minimums into maintenance and scheme to hold onto security deposits in all cases.

No, I wouldn’t want to forget them.

See, it’s not that there aren’t enough homes on the market really, right Brian?  It’s that there aren’t enough homes that can be purchased below market value that’s the problem.  Realtors don’t really want more inventory… they want more inventory that can be purchased at distressed prices.  I’ll be happy to put my home on the market tomorrow, just not at a price at which it would sell any time soon.

Don’t get me wrong… I do understand that the banks dumping homes on the market at distressed prices would make summer fun for Realtors and mortgage brokers… and Lord knows I do like seeing you guys having a good time… after all, you’re always a fun lot to have at a party.

But, since the banks doing what you suggest under today’s circumstances would only push us further into a recession, with housing prices falling even faster than they will otherwise, thus creating even more foreclosures… thus further destroying the housing and credit markets once the fun ends… well, I’d like to humbly suggest that IT’S A TERRIBLE IDEA.

So, if you put it all together… the worsening employment and overall economic conditions (except in the media where it’s an election year), combined with the tightening of the already tight credit markets… and with the unabated flood of foreclosures on the horizon (forecasted to exceed the number of homes lost to-date, by the way)… and the permanently broken private securitization market… CA’s $16 billion and growing state budget deficit… and the need for Washington D.C. to reduce spending going forward…

… to say nothing of the EU’s high wire act, sans net, that’s destined to see one or two countries fall to their deaths sooner than we think, thus causing us to nationalize or bailout several or more of our TBTF banks once again… and then factor in the possibility of Mitt Romney and the GOP actually winning in November… OMG, OMG, OMG… consider all that…

… And you’ll want to eat a gun.

But… STOP!  Don’t do that.  That is NOT the answer, Brian.

Just like it’s NOT the answer to… “put more homes on the market.”

From your good friend who loves you… and as always I remain…

Most sincerely yours…

Martin

xoxoxoxoxo…

Martin Andelman

Mandelman Matters

P.S. If I’m in town, I think I’m going to come to Anaheim to see you guys… I figure you’re just dying to buy me a beer.  And tell Frank to be careful on that bike.

Mandelman out.

Hey, to subscribe to TBWS… CLICK HERE!

Values.

A few hours before President Obama offered his historic endorsement of same-sex marriage on Wednesday, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. apologized to the president in the Oval Office for forcing Mr. Obama’s hand by airing his own views three days earlier, several people briefed on the exchange said on Thursday… People who know both [...]

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"If there’s ever an event that separates the press from the people it’s supposed to serve, symbolically, it’s that one."

Via Mediaite, I’m second to none in my contempt for this freak show but it’s bugging me that Brokaw’s indictment has been so well received. Does anyone really believe that the vast majority of the public even knows what the WHCD is, let alone has some strong ethical objection to it? In a way, his [...]

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1. Abigail Field | Bank of America’s $500 Million Back-door TARP
2. FORTUNE: Abigail Field Bombshell | At Bank of America, more incomplete mortgage docs raise more questions
3. Abigail Field | Schneiderman Sues BNY; Homeowners Validated; Will Deutsche Bank Be Next?

1. Elect Lisa Epstein for Clerk of Court Palm Beach County 2012
2. Tonight LiveStream or Live! Lisa Epstein, Campaign Kick Off – Clerk of Circuit Court, Palm Beach County, Florida
3. Foreclosure Fraud Activist Lisa Epstein Runs for Clerk of Courts in Palm Beach County

1. Angry Homeowners Arrested at Wells Fargo Shareholders Meeting
2. Judge Slaps Wells Fargo in Foreclosure | KENG HEE PAIK, Plaintiff, v. WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A.
3. Cease and Desist Order In the Matter of: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY and WELLS FARGO FINANCIAL, INC.

1. Officer of the Homeowner Advocate Amendment – Help Stop the LIES
2. LIES | Bank of America Kept AIG Legal Threat Under Wraps
3. Bank of America LIES | Foreclosed Home Sold While Owner On Phone With Bank

Plus, "people coming out of the woodwork" to donate to Romney.

Remember the kerfuffles over book editions and “vulture capitalism”?  Water under the bridge.  Rick Perry announced his endorsement of Mitt Romney last night, after confirming with Newt Gingrich that his campaign will roll to a stop next Tuesday: Texas Gov. Rick Perry endorsed likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Wednesday after campaign aides to [...]

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"Reign of terror"?

“I think people will judge him [Barack Obama] on the totality,” David Axelrod tells CNN’s Candy Crowley about the rash of scandals in the Obama administration, “not these transient stories.”  Crowley, however, doesn’t let Axelrod off the hook: CROWLEY: So if this were happening in a Republican administration, would you be one of the first [...]

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Democrats distance themselves from the president's signature accomplishment.

Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren is one of the last people you’d expect to write an op-ed that advocates for a partial repeal of Obamacare — but she’s done just that. As The Heritage Foundation’s Mike Brownfield reports, Warren opposes the medical device tax embedded in Obamacare on the basis that it will cripple medical [...]

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Class.

Maybe this explains why he used to eat dogs. Eating horses was reserved for rich kids. If this campaign ends up being as nasty as everyone expects, by September he’ll be referring to Romney as “Moneybags.” For the record: Romney is sensitive to perceptions that he grew up wealthy, so Obama’s “silver spoon” remark could [...]

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1. Foreclosure Fee Lawsuit | “Kahane Associates’ Tactics Violate the Florida Consumer Protection and Unfair Collection Laws, Firm Continues to Use False Representations to Collect Money”
2. Food Stamps – JP Morgan Chase Makes More Money When People are Forced to use Them
3. Rep. Deutch Urges Attorney General Pam Bondi to Use Mortgage Settlement Money on Helping Struggling Homeowners

Women's work.

“‘It’s a ridiculous argument. Ridiculous. It’s been largely debunked this week by the people who have looked at it,’ said Geithner. ‘It’s a ridiculous way to look at the problem. And this is a political moment and you’re going to be seeing — just to borrow a line from Mario Cuomo — ‘you’re going to [...]

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“I despise these people”

Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has been under a lot of pressure from his own right flank this cycle, facing a serious primary challenge from people who think he’s too “moderate” for today’s Republican Party. FreedomWorks has dropped more than a half million dollars in attack ads trying to knock him out of the running, hoping [...]

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1. F* The Banks | March 15th 2012 – Occupiers Set Up Living Room in Bank of America Lobby (VIDEO)
2. Must See Video | Paralyzed Oregon Man, Living on $22,000 a Month and Able to Pay, Fights Bank of America Foreclosure
3. Bank of America, Taylor Bean & Whitaker | Mortgage Fraud Creates Headache For Wagoner Couple

Who's with him?

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie followed George W. Bush on the stage at the Bush Institute Conference on Taxes and Economic Growth in New York today. Bush introduced Christie with apt words, complimenting the governor’s “enormous personality” and “belief in the individual.” Bush’s comments were more than justified by the content of Christie’s speech. With [...]

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1. We the People | A Story of an American Citizen Facing Fraudclosure on Home that was Already Sold
2. The Great American Foreclosure Song (VIDEO)
3. FHFA Statement on Freddie Mac “Refinance” Story RE Betting Against American Homeowners

"In Christianity, it's the Pope and Tebow right now."

I was curious to see him in action in the pulpit and, after 400+ comments in Headlines on this, figured you would be too. Here’s all 24 minutes of his Q&A yesterday at the “Easter on the Hill” service in Texas together with a snippet from his answer on “Tebowing” for people who can’t spare [...]

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"In many cases these are people who are at war with themselves and they are turning this internal conflict outward."

Interesting, but follow the link and read the fine print and you’ll see that it’s really more a study of the effect of authoritarian parenting on sexuality than some sort of unified field theory about “homophobia.” In fact, it’s not fully clear to me from the news summary what would qualify as “homophobia” for purposes [...]

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"I'll never be under OIG investigation."

Four days, 300 people, $823,000 in taxpayer money down the chute (including $146,000 in catered food and drink, i.e. $486 per person for eats), which means the agency “followed neither federal procurement laws nor its own policy on conference spending.” The bad news: According to Darrell Issa, the White House knew about this 11 months [...]

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1. The Top Twelve Reasons Why You Should Hate the Mortgage Settlement
2. Are The Banks Ripping People Off? How Chase Ruined Lives of People Who Paid Off Their Mortgages
3. JOE NOCERA | To Fix Housing, See the Data