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Odds 'n Sods:
C.S.D. mentioned an interesting product with several survival application: Gloshade.
Note that these reflectors will also work with infrared
chemical light sticks.
o o o
More economic news and commentary, courtesy of SurvivalBlog's Economic Editor: Fannie & Freddie:
Buying Friends in D.C., Fannie & Freddie
Bailout Destined to Fail as US Debt Doubles, Mortgage
Giant Overstated Its Capital Base, Fannie
and Freddie: Just the Beginning of the Derivatives Deleveraging Bailout, Lehman
Bros. Worth a Big FAT Zero?, Fannie
Mae Faces Investor Lawsuit, Berkshire,
in Blow to Banks, Reins in its Deposit Insurer, Wall
Street Trading Gets Zero Value from Lehman, Merrill Owners, WaMu
Removes CEO, and Paulson's
Actions Herald the Financial Collapse of the US Economy.
o o o
The Rude
Awakening's Chris Mayer notes: "Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac,
and the Federal Home Loan Bank System (all government-sponsored enterprises,
or GSEs)
have become giants in the mortgage markets. The Big Three have grown at such
a rapid rate over recent years that at the end of 2000, they collectively held
$2.9 trillion of mortgage debt, which was equivalent to nearly 56 percent of
all US household mortgage debt." That is a mountain of debt, and
the American taxpayers are the inevitable surety for it. Most of it is good debt,
some of
it is so-so debt, and some of it absolute garbage debt held by NINJAs,
The mainstream press has tossed around the figure of $200 billion USD to bail
out
Fannie and
Freddie,
but the truth is that the final price tag is imponderable. It is impossible
to predict, since the credit market and the housing market are both still
in collapse, and we don't yet know where the "bottom" is. As I've
previously mentioned, these bailouts are just part of the collective Mother
of All Bailouts
(MOAB)
that has a good chance of bankrupting America.
