If you didn't see 60 minutes tonight, you missed a good one.

[riverdeep]

Besides Barney Frank, the second news story was fascinating and disturbing. We are not out of the economic mess yet. In fact, it's probably going to get worse and last longer than predicted by Frank (who said he expects the worst of it to be over in about a year).

The trouble now is that the insanity didn't end with sub-primes. There were two other kinds of exotic mortgages that became popular, called "Alt-A" and "option ARM." The option ARMs, in particular, lured borrowers in with low initial interest rates - so-called teaser rates - sometimes as low as one percent. But after two, three or five years those rates "reset." They went up. And so did the monthly payment. A mortgage of $800 dollars a month could easily jump to $1,500.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/12/12/60minutes/main4666112.shtml

They showed a graph that said it all. While the regular subprime loans are finally starting to work it's way out of the market, these other loans are just beginning their life cycle.

What that means for the White House is that the entirety of Obama's first term will be under a terrible economic cloud. If the public at large feels that he is responsible or what he's doing isn't showing effects, he won't have a second.

All in all, it was the 60 minutes of old, hard hitting and informative.

[FrenchieCat]

1. Which is why those saying that this economic downturn will only last another 6 months to a year,

are setting up the Obama administration. Like the sudden..."Recession started a year ago" bullshit that we heard. That was for those counting how long a recession normally takes.

The fact is that we are in a depression and it started on September 15th. Depression take years to get out of......unlike a mild recession.

So remember when someone says it's nearly over, let them know that it has just begun.

[4 t 4]

2. Helen Thomas states it's a Depression

I believe her she is what 82 or 83? She calls it like it is, I trust her opion.

[K Gardner]

4. Exactly.. hopefully this 60 Mins Feature will force the MSM to start telling the truth.

[riverdeep]

5. The report said something like another eight million people at least are going to lose their homes.

That's just brutal. People losing their homes, unemployment at its highest in eighty years, and we have no safety net in place for all these people.

In the back of my mind, McCain would do things that made me wonder 'is he trying to lose? I'd brush it off as a crazy thought, but now...

[K Gardner]

3. I just watched that and it took my breath ! I'd heard 'whispers' about the second cycle, but that's

the first time I'd seen it detailed on TV. No wonder.. its worse than scary.

[SammyWinstonJack]

6. K&R!

[Trajan]

7. It is an income issue as well as a loan issue ....

IF workers had been receiving decent and reasonable wage increases over these last 3 decades, instead of a kick in the ass as they have under conservative rule, they would HAVE enough money to pay the mortgage resets ....

They would have enough money to buy cars and go on vacations and buy goods and services and all the other things that middle class families do when they get paid decent wages ...

Squeeze the middle class ? ... They squeeze you right back ...

The problem is NOT workers making too much money, it is workers making too little money ....

The problem is NOT the UAW workers making too much money, it is the rest of the workforce NOT making UAW wages .... (or something reasonably akin to decent wages ...)

Pay workers what they are due, and they will spend it .... even on mortgage resets ...

[LuckyLib]

8. This was really sobering. We know it's bad, but we haven't seen the worst yet.

The housing, commercial real estate, and credit card markets will be in a shambles. And now that we're all tightening our belts everywhere in our lives, the ripple effect is putting businesses under and even more folks losing their jobs.

[riverdeep]

10. One thing one of the guys interviewed said was surpirsing,

he said that he's actually bullish on the stock market. He says that a lot of assets and 'value' is now going to be bought off at firesale prices. It was towards the end of the piece. Yet another reflection of how financial news really needs to stop focusing exclusively on Wall Street. Wall Street and Main Street are NOT always related.

[Raschel]

12. It's a crime that our P.E. has to tell us it's going to get worse, and we hear nothing from our Pres

[Swamp Rat]

9. yep

[TreasonousBastard]

11. What it didn't say is that...

many of those loans could be salvaged by fiat just by legislating, or possibly even with an administrative order, putting a lid on mortgage interest rates.

Right now, even if the banks are agreeable to reducing interest rates they are subject to massive lawsuits from "investors" holding the paper. That problem can be legislated away.

There are still plenty of people with negative equity, and probably more who bought more house than they could afford under any circumstances, but you can't save everyone. And I doubt anyone cares that much about RE speculators or people who bought summer homes.

(And still no one is saying a word about those lucky fuckers who SOLD their homes at vast multiples of sane market values-- and often paid no taxes on the profits.)

[SnoopDog]

13. I had a big problem with the Stahl reporter...

And with the Frank interview in general. She was out to get him and Democrats in general. They made it sound like Dems were to be blamed for the the housing crisis.

And what really pissed me off was when Ms. Stahl referred to 'libera'ism as being 'crazy". Can I say this - fuck her and her story.

[closeupready]

19. She probably makes buckets of money - why wouldn't she bash liberalism?

No media pundit like her is going to let an opportunity to bash liberals pass unused - anything to keep their taxes low.

[BrklynLiberal]

14. It was very scary....one of the interviewees said it will be closer to 5 years before things get

better.

He mentioned what he called "NINJA" loans...No Income No Job No Assets. Amazing..absolutely amazing.

[LuckyLib]

20. A sister-in-law in real estate told me about NINJAs a few years ago. WTF?

I asked her how in the hell folks could get a damned multi-hundred-thousand dollar loan with no income, no job, no assets? If hubby and I had tried that with our house in the mid 80's we would have been laughed out of the bank!!! This was a house of cards waiting to happen and I told her so then!

[Mira]

15. Without reading other replies - because I'm tired and it's midnight

let me urge you to note this for when the repube garbage commentary shit hits the fan.

The ones who, goaded by Limbaugh et al, call it the Obama recession / and depression to be.

It's critical for us to have the ammo in place.

The most wonderful, and important, and critical changes in place since Clinton took office and they immediately started to slime him are:

US - us - we have evolved and found a voice and our ranks have swelled

DU - I've told the story of how I found "us" twice and won't again unless I"m asked

Air America Radio

Olberman

Rachel

Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz/Rice/Powell...........

[BigBearJohn]

16. Watch it here

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4668112n

[Laelth]

17. It's amazing how having a Democratic President affects the media.

They immediately turn into fierce guardians of the public trust after having been obsequious lap dogs to the previous administration.

Forgive me if I'm a little bitter at the double standard. Liberal media, indeed!

The United States is a LIBERAL Country.

:dem:

-Laelth

[BadGimp]

18. Here is a great graph that illustrates the point of the piece