Anyone else's office freaking out?
 

Our office is in full on Black Monday mode after the announcement about the US bailout plan. Today is a depressing day to be at work, aside from the usual Monday stuff.

Holy crap. I've been so busy today, I haven't even had time to hear about the bailout failure....just looked on cnn.com.

OUCH.

As a Klingon would say: "It's a good day to buy"

I am so glad I have a fixed rate mortgage. The Finacial post says 5 year mortgage rates have hit just under 9%.

I wonder what everyone's game plans are for riding this out in the US and Europe?

We're just doing a fixed rate refinance and waiting to hear. I'm pulling a LOC from the CIBC as they are really extended into this US mess.

The people on the US forums I'm on seem mainly resigned. Very sad indeed.

Why the freak out???......everyone surely knew this was coming keep the debt down and ride it out.

Sadly some people just don't know, or weren't paying attention. It sucks, but its true. It has been quite the somber day here today. Hopefully this might motivate a few people to pay off their debts and get their financial house in order.

I remember...
 

I had a good friend in the States who worked for MLynch, and when the stocks plummeted after 9/11, they had people actually jumping out of windows. (One was a guy she worked with, but there were several others.)

How bad would it really have to be in order to warrant something like that?

no need to worry
 

I am in the industry and not many of my clients havent been calling...I've been sending out emails and phone calls like crazy and they've seen it before and all know things will get better...Mite be worse at first but we will prevail...

9% mortgage?? Not sure where you are getting that from...

http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/mortgages/numbers.jsp

All I see is 6.14% special with 7.20% posted rate no discount...Unless they are talking about tomorrow which seems like quite a big jump...When I was lending, I've never seen that big a jump...

I got that number from a Financial Post article this afternoon.

I personally have been waiting for this for a awhile. I saved and i am ready to reep the benefits of financial over extension.

I've worked in the financial industry for 14 years and have been a lender for the past 10 and have never seen a rate jump from current posted rates at approx 6.85% for a 5 yr fixed term up to 9% - also these are posted rates, negotiated rates are much lower then what the posted rates actually are. FYI for every 10 articles you read that claim rates are going up, you'll find another 10 claiming the rates to go down.

Truely is unfornunate whats happening in the states and with Merrill Lynch I think a few more banks and firms will probably go under as well when all of the dust sets.

If anyone has any questions regarding their mtg or anything along those lines I would be more then happy if you want to shoot me a PM and I will respond.

It can get worse my 1st house I bought I got 14% over 3 years and I thought I was doing good :mrgreen:..Houses were dime a dozen cause people got in when the interest was low when it went up they were so tapped they couldn't afford them anymore and was trying to sell them off. I'm waiting for it to happen again ...then I can become the slum lord of e-town :lol:

Lol Murray!

So...uh, what's this all mean anyway? I don't get it.

I don't watch tv, read news, or anything like that. I'm pretty out of the loop. In fact this is the first I've heard about this attempted bailout! :o

For people in my office who were set to retire it means they have to work for longer now. For some in means they've lost their nest eggs.

:lol: That doesn't clarify anything!! :lol: Are people losing their savings?

A lot of people had their savings tied into the stock market in some way. Tanking of stock prices means their funds have taken a nose dive too.

Ohhhhh...the stocks when down? Why can't I find any literature that explains all this?! Arg!

In the end Myka, it just means that we've all got too comfortable with debt being a big part of our lives...in the end, cash is king and a lot of people who borrowed to get their lifestyle are paying the price right now in the US. Canada will follow...when big brother sneezes...we all know who catches the cold.

I can just imagine what might happen if interest rates go up like they did in the 80s!! :eek:

That sums it all up right there :mrgreen:

and no matter what happens the rich get richer and the poor poorer

My best friend from school was of a well to do family. The father always did the guaranteed investments, never the market. She passed this info down to me.

Unfortunately, you have to have some money to invest either way....:lol:

Believe me, you dont wish to see that again. I remember when a freind locked in for 18.75% for 5 yrs. as it was a bargin. Tunred out not to be but thats what we all thought at the time.

Imagine that now, with the price houses are worth and the large mortgage people now have. The housing crisis in the states would be nothing compared with that senario.

FWIW, I dont see it ever going there again though. :smile:

Myka, the very short and simplified version is that us banks got extremely greedy in the housing market run up that the us had over the last 20 years and in order to maximize the good times, they started to give out mortgages like I give reefing advice; freely and with few references so that what the banks wound up with was hundreds of thousands of mortgages (read BILLIONS of dollars) given out to people who didn't even have a job or at least any job that could sustain the mortgage, especially in the event of lending rate hikes.

so these banks, seeing that these mortgages were going to be worth less than the paper they were printed on joined in one of the greatest games of pass the buck ever seen, they took this bad paper, packaged it up and sold it as AAA grade investment (as in the safest, least volatile possible investment) and sold it to the funds, institutions and other banks who normally buy the AAA stuff all the while knowing it was anything but.

now since people are defaulting on these mortgages left, right and center it's those who bought the AAA stuff thinking it was low risk holding the bag and wondering what happened to their savings or pensions that were supposed to be "safe" while the banks themselves are being handed their money back by this government bailout...


that's the super simple and somewhat incomplete explanation....

more to come if desired.

Thanks for that ^ explanation!! That's the best one I've read so far. :)