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Wednesday, December 16, 2009

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

Calculated Risk reported this gem, from the Time Magazine Person of the Year extended interview with Ben Bernanke, which I couldn't read because I wasn't drunk from drinking the Kool-Aid:

"What's your interest rate?
That I'm earning?
No, on your house. Do you have a mortgage?
Oh, yes, we refinanced.
Oh, perfect. When?
About 5%. A couple of months ago.
Good time.
Yes.
We had to do it because we had an adjustable rate mortgage and it exploded, so we had to."

ummm.... silence...cricket... cricket...   Let me recap:

"We had to do it because we had an adjustable rate mortgage and it exploded, so we had to."

That's from Time Magazine Person of The Year Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve, who has bought roughly a TRILLION dollars worth of mortgage backed securities to keep mortgage rates artificially low, and has kept short term interest rates at zero in an effort to continue to stimulate the economy and the housing markets.  

WTF is going to happen when these subsidies stop???   To the bomb shelter!!!! The ARMs are exploding!!!

Interesting times indeed...

-KD

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just sprayed beer on my computer screen after reading that. Thanks.

But What do I Know? said...

Why did his ARM explode? Aren't they based on LIBOR or prime?

Mike K said...

Put aside the general incompetence of the nation's top guy on interest rates having an ARM. Senators can now vote no on Bernanke because he violated conflict of interest laws. He lowers interst rates and then cashes in himself. If he were an actual Federal government employee, he'd be arrested.

Anonymous said...

yes it doesn't make sense that his ARM would explode... unless he had an option arm and his teaser rate period was over??? boggles the mind.

Kid Dynamite said...

more here:

http://effectivedemand.blogspot.com/2009/12/so-i-pulled-bernankes-mortgage.html

Kid Dynamite said...

bernanke mortgage details put to rest here:

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/12/bernanke-arm-ok-head-explodes.html

his ARM didn't exactly "explode" at all.