I observed a point today on FBN briefly from Mr. Sullivan that perhaps people are not buying cars because of their concern for job future, security, etc.

I had not considered this but I think that is a significant factor in all of this.

Lately I’ve been thinking that people borrowed when their homes gained magically in value, it was as if the home was a barrel of oil, just going from 90 to 100 to 120 to 135 – then you have people all of a sudden who are 135 experts going “Oh yeah, it’s going to stay at 135 for 2 years” ? ? Anyway… I think people have borrowed against their homes when they ’seemed’ to go up in value and I think the money owed on those HELOC’s are working against them.

Because their home is worth less now.

I just saw today – 18% drop from last yaer on US homes.

Now, I know that varies from California to Florida on down the list.

I still think the HELOC loss though is killing people.

Say you had a 300k home, then ? after everyone artificially inflated home prices like oil recently ? (yikes, oil is rebounding in proportion to how insanely high it went in my book, I wonder if housing will slide below actual value like oil is now in 2009 ? ) say you house is now at $380k.

So, you and your wife borrow 50k off it HELOC.

Perhaps this is that Mark to Market concept that comes in and says, if the smiths refi now, they refi at TODAY’s house value of ? say – 300k. They STILL owe 50k! with pot. no job !

This seems to be the viable solution.

Pass out a short introduction to Enron, Ken Laye, and maybe or maybe not ask why was Laye the #2 user of the Bush campaign jet in 2000 ? But let the UAW look over the Enron story.

Then make an offer for buyout or bust.

Here, 65% or 35% loss to you, here is your pension in one lump sum payout.

Or whatever ‘needs’ to be.

I think the pensions must be removed from the equation, they are muddling up the process of using these loan funds for other purposes. Or is that it, GM and Ford needs to sell these, then again, heh, sure wouldn’t want to see just what GM and Ford ARE invested into…

Sure hope it wasn’t long on oil.

What a strange dilemma that would be, a car company taken down by bad hedges on the base to make the fuel FOR the car.

Hard to say, I still say no transparency seems evident with TARP, or any of this.

Is it the Treasury can’t or won’t ? give up the information ?

That’s what I’d ask.

Because branch one leads to more creative FIA legal work, branch two more aggressive legal work to Treasury.

I just caught news today – said banks for the first time in 40 years ? something like that, maybe 20, are posting losses, apparently bad loans from 2003 + are still finding their way to smaller banks ?

Losses on TOP of injection money.

AND ? I read people are running to the Euro for safety over the dollar this week.

Where is the audit team ?

TARP was done faster than Katrina support, and they KNEW that storm was coming.

AIG was saved faster then Katrina support.

I think front agencies like CountryWide were used to send out these ghost loans- get credit for them, and get out, or get bought.

I think Paulson and Bush KNEW of the fallout coming and have taken opportunity to carve up the community roast beast in private.

It seems if people care about TARP funds ?

Why don’t they fish upstream a bit and ask – how is it we allowed the be bullied by fear tactics to allow it ?

Last time Iraq War was fear, Iraq’s gonna git america, must remove it.

Iran keeps cropping up on the Ollie North diatribe on Fox News

Now it’s fear that if AIG goes down – we all go down.

Or Fear that if Lehman goes down ? oh wait – Lehman DID go down.

You know what I think ? as to WHY Lehman was allowed to fail ?

a failed corporation is a corporation that won’t be investigated by the SEC.

Lehman came down because saving it would have invited too many eyes onto it’s magical leverage models. And of course, we wouldn’t want to deregulate society with no laws right ?

I mean, imagine no regulation, no laws !

Yeah, that’s what THIS admin helped along following the prior admin.

They said let’s just all use our media outlets to say regulation is a bad thing, we’ll never point out this is the same as going lawless.

The only question I have is – WHAT SEC ?

So the auto makers must honor those pensions.

If the auto makers can not- then there are no pensions short of anything acquired in a civil suit to follow likely class action by the UAW – but good luck getting money out of a dying company.

I have no idea why people have problems with UAW pensions. That was all signed by both parties. No everyone has pensions, most people don’t – so whether GM and Ford’s privatized retirement attempt to better Social Securit worked there or not, no clue, but by contract, these workers are owed what’s been promised.

If the car corporations can not find the money to pay out these pensions ? I’d say that’s unfortunate and like Enron- everyone loses.

What’s missing here is a piece I find missing elsewhere. Transparency on TARP funds.

The problem is – we don’t know if GM, GMAC, or Ford will take federal loans to pay off the pensions (I REALLY REALLY doubt it). Some people might have issue with that, but why would GM borrow just to take that money and give it to cover pensions and having no money left, driving the company into the ground. So, they WON’T be giving it to cover pensions, plus – I don’t think they care. Save the company first, then the pensions ? Is that the issue ?

The lack of transparency though on TARP funds, I mean, who is to say the TARP money would be used to cover pensions FIRST, and Chapter 7 or 11 ? I don’t think GM or Ford would put the pensions of