Reposted from comment elsewhere

Why the housing-lending crisis alone isn't even halfway over, in three parts:

One: Key data points: I have been reading that 80% of option-ARMs have been being paid at or very near the minimum, not the recommended for payoff, level, and Alt-A is going south in the same bad ways that subprime did. Prime over the last few years is turnout often not to be so "prime," either. I don't have convenient links for this, and for that I apologise, but some of my previous economics post discuss it.

Two, from Credit Suisse, the original rate reset schedule across all adjustable-mortgage classes:



And three, the acceleration of the Option-ARM portion of that schedule by the data in part one (graph prepared by Mr. Mortgage):



As you can see, from a dollar value, we're less than halfway through this phenominon, and the lull we're entering is being filled in by advancing reset schedules. Sorry.

( Quizzies! )

Here, this is really pretty

Lightning strike, in super-slow motion. Worksafe.

Here, have a Politics of Stupid post

Stupid, stupid, stupid! It's a stupid festival!

So it's stupid enough of Dino Rossi's stupid operatives to drag somebody out of a police-endorsement Rossi press conference if they aren't doing anything disruptive, even if they work for the Democratic party; it's very stupid to then call in an on-duty uniformed officer to harass them further on the sidewalk. I feel sorry for the officer called in, he probably doesn't know anything about what's going on - he just ends up looking like a stupid dick. The Democrats have already made a point of letting it be known that they don't harass the "operative" Mr. Rossi has following their events.

Meanwhile, Stupid Focus on the Stupid Family was asking stupid people to pray for torrential rain during Senator Obama's acceptance speech, complete with street and small flood advisories. "It's not boyish humour, and you're a selfish hypocrite." Also? Stupid.

In related, and also stupid, political weather news, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (S-MN) says we don't have to worry about stupid global warming because Jesus already saved the stupid planet.

Coincidentally, over at the Tulsa World, where stupid state rep. Sally Kern (R-Stupid) has declared herself "a cultural warrior for Judeo-Christian Values, there's a big ol' ad for the Weather Channel. Stupid meets irony!

Finally, over at The Stupid Roundtable, stupid Cokie Roberts calls Senator Obama going on vacation in Hawai'i - where he's from and where his grandmother lives - a big mistake because it's too foreign. Please, please, please kick us out too, stupid people! Please!