Mike Whitney, who writes for www.counterpunch.com has been warning about a housing meltdown since at least 2005 when it still hadn't peaked. He even admitted to being a lone wolf and received alot of criticism, but he was adamant and has been proven correct. There are others writing for counterpunch who have been right on, Paul Craig Roberts and Michael Hudson, for example.

Whitneys articles are the reason we still rent today, with a very low rent, while most friends and relatives who bought in the last few years are upside down, and hurting. I have mixed feelings about mortgage bailouts, but I think the banking and corporate bailout is, to quote Hudson, "the biggest transfer of wealth to the ruling elite since the Norman Conquest".

You're missing the point. It's not that they were wrong; it's that they were wrong, expect a bailout for themselves, but not for anyone who heeded their advice. They loudly condemn the irresponsibility of others, as ironically as it can get, from the floor of a trading center. That's the point.

That is what they would have you believe: That finance is not real, it is all subjective and mysterious. That way they can keep their jobs as financial advisors and broadcasters without knowing much of anything except how to parrot today's numbers and cherry-pick from hundreds of factors to provide an explanation. That way traders and investment bankers can collect their high salaries while patting us on the head and saying "Sonny, this is too hard for you to understand. I have it covered."

Meanwhile they ignore common sense. For instance: a whole lot of bad loans are actually just a whole lot of bad loans, not some magical derivative fairy dust.

I did not want to have to say this again, because it sounds like an obnoxious bragging parent, but my son, who graduated from law school a few years ago, started his first job in real estate and finance. He came to us soon after he started and described the bad mortgages and the way they were being bundled, discounted, sold and resold. He told me that it would all collapse. I said it was too bad the housing bubble would burst. He said no, he meant the entire financial sector would have a massive disastrous collapse. He told us to put our retirement in fixed income, which we did. We lost nothing.

At least one other poster on CD has cited similar early warnings from a relative working as a VP at a brokerage house. If these low level beginners and mid level executives could see it, why not those who pose as experts?

By the way - the partners in a brokerage do not buy and sell what they push on their clients. They have separate accounts with a whole different range of investments in that portfolio. They know exactly what they are doing.

Joe

I will take a look. Thank you.