Friday, February 15, 2008

Subprime Primer

7 comments:

mohican said...

I nearly wet myself when I saw this the first time. Maybe its a financial planner thing.

Unknown said...

Nice one. I sent your link to my brother. He's an I-banker with Bank of America in New York. I wonder if he'll think it's funny?

tulip-Mania2 said...

mohican, congrats on your 200k.

Britain, just a few years ago, was in the midst of a huge housing bubble.Prices were rising by 10 and 20 per cent a year. Some properties doubled, then tripled in value. Everyone wanted a piece of the action. Safe as houses, it all seemed risk-free.

It was not.

Of course it can't happen here, we have no more land.

M- said...

That's awesome! I was thinking it was going to be some sort of CDOs for Ubernerds kind of CR/Tanta post, but that slideshow was great! Thanks

solipsist said...

That was pretty funny.

Unknown said...

Just got this email from the friend and i guess its worth laugh too:

"Understanding how the stock market works"

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the
villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each. The villagers seeing
that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and
started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply
started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort.

He further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the
efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon
the supply diminished even further and people started going back to
their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys
became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone
catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However,
since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would
now buy on behalf of him. In the absence of the man, the assistant told
the villagers: "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man
has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns
from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each." The villagers
rounded up with all their savings and bought all the monkeys.

Then they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere!
Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works.

freako said...

Mohican, I noticed that you tried to educate Rob about once again on opportunity cost. I have tried more times than you can imagine. I can only conclude that the man has selective ability to grasp basic financial concepts. In other words, he chooses not to understand. Save your breath and let him preach to his little flock.

I think so many in the RE industry think like him, and that is why the bubble got as big as it did. The industry lacks individuals with the competence and/or the incentive to understand what every finance major is taught. That is why most bubble critics are bloggers with a financial background.