You Shopped At Wal-Mart Today And Weren't Even There

After discussing some data points and everything from Wal-Mart to Wall Street with folks from the conservative investor class over Thanksgiving, there's a case to be made that if you pay taxes and pay your bills on time, you shopped at Wal-Mart today, whether you realize it, or not.

Mindless, irresponsible consumerism killed a man and led to a miscarriage at Wal-Mart today. So how is it you might come to foot the bill for such behavior? Well, the chart below is a good place to start. If you think we're now seeing the worst of what's coming economically, or that the government is clearly communicating the trouble we're in, it was suggested to me with some anger that you'd be wrong.

You see what's set to happen in 2010 and beyond? We haven't even gotten into the heart of the sub-prime mess and that is what government is trying to forestall.

The anger focused around the government telling us that for now 29 banks are endanger but they won't tell us which ones. Of course, doing so would likely spell their doom. So there is a case to be made for the information to be withheld.

At least some folks are trying to figure it out by tracking financials.

Some say it will be a ripple, some say a total collapse.

Rick Chance, head of the special situations advisory group at investment bank KPMG Corporate Finance LLC, reckons recent developments are only the beginning of what he calls a "tsunami" of mortgage resets and defaults that will wash over the economy during the next few years.

So what might help to make it a "ripple" as opposed to a "collapse?" Bail-outs, of course. From un-payable credit card debt, to mortgages headed for default and business models which are arguably failed, the pigs are already lining up at the trough which gets filled by hard working taxpayers that play by the rules and a cash now printing press that can also do taxpayers serious harm.

While I am sure many Wal-Mart and other shoppers spend responsibly and pay their bills, in a crowd willing to crush a man and a fetus to get to their next great score, how many do you suppose are doing it on borrowed money they have on borrowed time that is fast running out?

Unfortunately, more than a few I suspect.

Attention Wal-Mart shoppers - pay your bills. Because when push comes to shove American taxpayers might decide not to. And then it will be your turn to ... collapse.

Comments

[jharp]

And just this summer ElRushbo was pontificating about how it was only a small percentage of sub prime mortgages that were the problem.

I wonder when the right wingers will pull their heads out of the sand and finally realize what republican economic policy leads to.

Complete utter disaster for the middle class.

[jharp]

Oh, and Fred. Don't worry everything is going to be peachy keen.

The great President Bush has delivered us into $1.79 per gallon gas.

Never mind that few can afford to buy and operate an car, or so many no longer need to drive as the have lost their jobs.

I think we need to implement a new stupidity tax. The pro war, pro deregulation republicans must pay a 50% penalty for being so friggin stupid and supporting this colossal failure we call Bush.

And the same stupid GOPers don't get to participate in our new cheaper health insurance reforms.

[hereinseattle]

This has to be one of the funniest posts I think I have ever read. It's accurate, but so so wrong to say. In short, I love it. But yes, in the end, we all pay for people who can't afford to be buying cheap things of little-to-no significance and are still living off of welfare stamps or are barely scraping by. The question again is, why are people who can barely afford to pay their mortgages (and living in houses that are much nicer than my apartment despite my higher income) buying cheap nothings at Walmart?

[Terry]

Your friends gave you some incomplete information. In the past week, mortgage interest rates declined to within approximately one quarter of one percentage point of the ALL TIME low. Policies just put in place are designed in part to prompt early adjustments of existing mortgages, thereby creating "resets" at lower rates than those currently embedded in outstanding ARMs. At least this particular "problem" identified by your friends should be greatly mitigated.

[Lala]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/28/national/main4637170.shtml

''the man filming the man on the ground dying is complaining about how the cops are administering CPR to the guy. "Nobody givin' him CPR, nobody givin' him mouf to mouf, nobody wanna put their mouf on him" and then you hear some stupid person doing "hmm hmmmmmmm".

Some people see racism everywhere they look.

[jharp]

Put me on the record that Wal Mart is going to be sued. And either settle or lose.

And I agree. It is ridiculous for them to purposely create an unsafe, near riot like situation and then throw out a George Bush "no one could have anticipated" excuse. You'd think they'd know better. But then again maybe they do and figure it's worth it. After all, they profit immensely from it.

[seekeronos]

This Christmas...

Buy guns... and (preferably unmarked) ammo.

And lots of dried food and water purification items.

You WILL need it.

[Eliza]

JHarp, do some more research. This current financial crisis was caused by Democratic policy that forced organizations like "Fannie" and "Freddie" to offer loans to minority households . . . many of whom couldn't afford those loans.

[Noelie]

Jharp: WAhhhhhAhhhhhhWahhh. That is all I hear from you. I can't afford a car, and so I sure don't have care loan for one. I take a bus, or walk.

Is that a concept to hard for a lefty like you to grasp?

[JRoger]

Uh. There is just a little fly in the ointment that blows your theory here.

We are supposed to be worried that adjustable interests rates are going to rocket off the charts.

A couple of months ago my CC company told me they were raising my rate by changing my account from fixed rate to adjustable.

The prime rate has been cut twice since then. So now my "higher adjustable" rate is lower than my previous fixed rate.

[Todd]

"You see what's set to happen in 2010 and beyond? We haven't even gotten into the heart of the sub-prime mess and that is what government is trying to forestall."
-----------------------
That's quite true and the scary part is that this is only one problem area of credit soon to be at risk of default. Factor in the looming defaults in Alt-A mortgages, commercial real estate loans, HELOC's, student loans, credit card debt....it's just a tsunami of potentially massive losses facing financial institutions, and the subprime debacle is just the tip of the iceberg.

Joe Nocera in his New York Times column in the business section has published 2 emails he received from a high level banking executive about the flawed business models of big commercial banks in extended credit, and those not extending credit with the bailout money. It won't make you feel encouraged about the near future.

http://executivesuite.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/the-worst-is-yet-to-come-anonymous-banker-weighs-in-on-the-coming-credit-card-debacle/

http://executivesuite.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/peeking-under-the-kimono-a-big-banker-speaks-out/

[Todd]

"Your friends gave you some incomplete information. In the past week, mortgage interest rates declined to within approximately one quarter of one percentage point of the ALL TIME low. Policies just put in place are designed in part to prompt early adjustments of existing mortgages, thereby creating "resets" at lower rates than those currently embedded in outstanding ARMs. At least this particular "problem" identified by your friends should be greatly mitigated.

Posted by: Terry | Friday, November 28, 2008 at 07:32 PM"
----------------------------------
That's going to be very small consolation to those people who get laid off. How are they going to pay their mortgages at whatever interest rate if they don't have a lot of savings to fall back on?

[Todd]

"JHarp, do some more research. This current financial crisis was caused by Democratic policy that forced organizations like "Fannie" and "Freddie" to offer loans to minority households . . . many of whom couldn't afford those loans.

Posted by: Eliza | Saturday, November 29, 2008 at 02:41 AM"
-----------------
Eliza, it's simply propaganda to blame everything on Fannie and Freddie. There are many bad players involved on both sides of the aisle and in the private sector. Do your research and read about it before believing that crap. And, to help you do some research all you have to do is comb through many of the blog entries of October in Barry Ritholtz's The Big Picture and you will have a much fuller understanding of who the bad players are. Fannie and Freddie are 2 cogs in a very big wheel of greed, corruption, ineptness, and mindless deregulation. I'll make it easy for you Eliza - just click here and spend an hour reading all of the pertinent entries, most of which are in early October but are scattered throughout the October archives:

http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/10/index.html

[Terry]

Todd says: "That's [record low mortgage interest rates] going to be very small consolation to those people who get laid off. How are they going to pay their mortgages at whatever interest rate if they don't have a lot of savings to fall back on?"

Sometimes life is tough, and you need to just pull up your socks and hitch up your pants and get moving. There's no free lunch here or any place else.

[Fred Beloit]

A Democraticic maelstrom of misbehavior.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/11302008/news/regionalnews/shady_island_house_party_141513.htm

[Philip McDaniel]

“Put me on the record that…”
LOL!
Thus starts another narcissistic jharp rant – as if we all stay glued to our computers looking to see what pontifical missals jharp can come up with next.

[jharp]

“Put me on the record that…”
LOL!
Thus starts another narcissistic jharp rant – as if we all stay glued to our computers looking to see what pontifical missals jharp can come up with next.

Posted by: Philip McDaniel | Sunday, November 30, 2008 at 01:25 PM

Also put on the record that Philip McDaniel is a jackass.

[Fred Beloit]

jharp: At noon the sky is red.
someone: Red, jharp? No it isn't it is blue.
jharp: You are a moron and the sky is red.
someone: No it isn't look, here is a link:
http://atomic-molecular-optical-physics.suite101.com/article.cfm/why_is_the_sky_blue
jharp: At noon anyone but a complete rat and liar can see the sky is red.
someone: Look, jharp, here is another link. In this composite photo a picture of the visible light spectrum is placed under a photo of the sky above Phoenix, Arizona, on November first of this year. It clearly shows the sky is blue. (Pretend Link)
jharp: The sky is red, your mama has a fat neck, I don't care about the past. I live in the now and what is to come. You are a moron.

Posted by: Fred Beloit | Saturday, November 29, 2008 at 10:21 AM

[Philip McDaniel]

LOL!
Good one, Fred.