Manly’s Blog

Things that pour out of my head when I’m not looking..

Archive for the 'Business' Category

An interesting read about the housing crisis.

18th December 2007

This article pretty much sums up my feelings on the topic. Now I don’t necessarily agree that we are headed for a complete meltdown but I do agree about the volume of misinformation being fed to the American public.

I also think that it is VERY dangerous to have the federal government arbitrarily impose changes and restrictions on existing mortgage contracts. This undermines confidence that you can carry out lawful business in this country without interference.

I have no sympathy for people who knew damn well they were buying too much house for their income. Same goes for all of the speculators that picked up houses and lots trying to make a quick easy buck. These people are going to get burned in the end. RIGHTLY SO.

I remember my parents telling me over and over again that if it sounds too good to be true, it generally is.

The thing that disgusts me most is that I will inevitably end up bailing all of these people out with my tax dollars.

Guess what. This situation will just repeat itself in 10-20 more years (just like the last time).

If people do not take their lumps then they are doomed to make the same mistake over and over.

The best quote from the article (quoting Ludwig Von Mises):


There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit (debt) expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit (debt) expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.
~ Ludwig Von Mises

And finally:

Executive summary:

  • A series of government bailouts attack the symptoms, utterly fail to address the root cause
  • The bailouts were for the big banks, not you
  • House prices need to decline in price by 30% to 50%, and they will.
  • Trillions of dollars of losses lurk…in ultra-safe pension bond funds, small Norwegian towns, as well as in some unlikely places.
  • Current crisis is one of solvency not liquidity
  • Manly

    Posted in Business, Current Affairs | No Comments »

    FINALLY

    28th September 2004

    It finally happened. Xformity (the company I helped found) has merged with XML Global and we are now called Xformity Technologies, Inc. We have been working on this for quite a while so it’s been a long, hard road for us. Today is a good day. Now we just have to continue to bring value to our customers. Our ticker symbol is XFMY if you are interested in following our progress.

    I definately wouldn’t recommend starting your own company for those individuals who are faint of heart. I call it the “eating beans” factor. If you think you can either:

    1) go without a paycheck for a long time
    or
    b) live with being grossly underpaid for an extended period

    then you could probably start your own business. Otherwise STAY AWAY. The .com boom is over. If you want to have more than .00001% of the pie you have to make some personal sacrifices.

    One thing I need to mention. I can’t give any information to anyone that would be considered outside the public domain. Everyone asks me all the time “should I buy your stock?”. You should go do some research about Xformity or e-mail our public contacts directly if you are trying to make this decision.

    More later…

    Manly

    Posted in Business | No Comments »