Countrywide to Cut Up to 12,000 Jobs

[RobertB]

Countrywide to Cut Up to 12,000 Jobs
Friday September 7, 6:38 pm ET
By Alex Veiga, AP Business Writer
Countrywide to Cut As Many As 12,000 Jobs Because Company Sees 2008 Loan Originations Dropping

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Struggling lender Countrywide Financial Corp. said Friday it will cut as many as 12,000 jobs as it struggles to deal with challenging conditions in the mortgage industry. The company said the cuts, amounting to as much as 20 percent of its work force, are needed because it expects new mortgages to fall about 25 percent in 2008 from this year's levels.

The job cuts are expected to center primarily on the company's production divisions and its general and administrative support areas, Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo said in a letter distributed to employees Friday.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070907/countrywide_job_cuts.html?.v=11

[Rondaben]

Everyone, here is how this will play out. You can see it clear as day. Everyone wants to believe that this economic implosion can still be contained by a fed interest rate cut...it won't. The problem is to big, too complex, and the genie is out of the bottle.

Look at the dollar. Today it closed below the 80 mark on the US dollar index. As corporate losses mount, unemployment gets much, much worse and people actually start losing their houses you will hear calls for bailouts. Washington has a big election next year and wants to look as a savior for the masses--they will securitize all of this debt, issuing treasuries at rates never before seen. As they do, watch the dollar fall. Treasuries will lose their value dramatically. China and Japan will begin to move away from the US as they have already started to do--driving the dollar down further. The government will print more and more and the cycle will continue.

This is the beginning of Weimar Germany. Those of you who don't know what that means, it is important that you learn now. Tangible wealth is the only thing that will matter--food, gold, silver, etc.

Yes, I know, you probably think I am wearing a tin-foil hat to protect me from the alien mind control rays, but that is ok.

Don't trust your politicians, your accountants, or your banks.

[Cameron]

I see this as a time of stabilization. Home prices could not continue to rise forever, and people who never should have had a mortgage, got one, with an inability to pay the piper if times got rough, or when ARMs reset.

There is a silver lining in all of this however. About this time next year, homes will probably be half priced as to what they are today. Thus young people leaving school and entering the workforce will be able to get a nice home at an affordable price. Also, if you have some extra cash, you can get a great deal, because eventually, prices will head back up. It may take a few years, but they will escalate again.

I fully expect a "govmint" program to emerge to offer assistance. Not a giveaway, but perhaps a restructuring of mortgage terms to allow people to keep their home. I think that would be a good thing.

[Bernardd]

Weimar Germany? I humbly disagree.

I don't recall the U.S. agreeing to a Guilt Clause or reparations payments or tariffs or ......

[RobertB]

There is a silver lining in all of this however. About this time next year, homes will probably be half priced as to what they are today. Thus young people leaving school and entering the workforce will be able to get a nice home at an affordable price.

The problem to your silver lining is that the young people leaving school, in many if not most cases, might be unemployed or underemployed. And they would/will be competing with many entrants into the work force who have been cut from other jobs as the financial morass begins to affect other areas.

I fully expect a "govmint" program to emerge to offer assistance. Not a giveaway,
Unfortunately, many/most government programs offering assistance turn out to be bureaucratic and in fact do turn out to be giveaways with little accountability.

[Rondaben]

Weimar Germany? I humbly disagree.

I don't recall the U.S. agreeing to a Guilt Clause or reparations payments or tariffs or ......

No, not the guilt clause but

50+ trillion in national debt including unfunded obligations to social security and medicaid/medicare

50 billion+ per month in trade deficit

4 trillion plus per year added to national debt

falling currency value

Federal reserve pumping tens of billions of new money into the money supply weekly

The base line is that we owe more than we can ever repay, that we have no intent in repaying the debt, and are mortgaged to the roof with our enemies holding the notes.

[Bernardd]

No, not the guilt clause but

50+ trillion in national debt including unfunded obligations to social security and medicaid/medicare

50 billion+ per month in trade deficit

4 trillion plus per year added to national debt

falling currency value

Federal reserve pumping tens of billions of new money into the money supply weekly

The base line is that we owe more than we can ever repay, that we have no intent in repaying the debt, and are mortgaged to the roof with our enemies holding the notes.

No, not the guilt clause or the reparations payments or the many other ridiculous stipulations placed upon Germany specified by the Versailles Treaty. Thus this situation couldn't be any more different.

As far as the trade deficit, how can this be cause for alarm when it's clear we're producing more than any other country. How much can we possibly produce in one year? Already our GDP is over $12 trillion (2006 etc) while China's is … maybe $3 trillion. Of course, we only have a fraction of China's population. Nevertheless, how much more do you think we should produce in this country?

4 trillion plus per year added to national debt

How are we adding $4 trillion to the National Debt each year when it's currently at $9 trillion? (How you come up with $50 trillion I'd like to know. Can you quote a reliable source? I have to assume you’re looking at Soc Sec for the next 100 years or something like that. Yet this says nothing about the extended lifespans people are living and the ability for older people to remain productive in the workforce at an older age. Despite what many may think, the "elderly" in this country are very productive and many of them continue to work because they want to, not because they need to.)

Of course the real question is: Who is owed all this money [National Debt]? According to you, our enemies are "holding the notes." (Sounds like a media sound-bite to me)

The base line is that we owe more than we can ever repay, that we have no intent in repaying the debt, and are mortgaged to the roof with our enemies holding the notes.

But since when do our "enemies" get Soc Sec and medi-caid? You might consider checking your facts on where all this money is owed because the truth is most of it is owed to Americans and the U.S. government. And as for forien nations, most of that debt is owed to our "enemy" Japan (~$700 billion; $~300 billion to China)

Falling currency value? Why is glass always half-empty? When the currency value is high, foriegn countries are less likely to purchase AMerican goods, which in turn creates unemployment for us. However, with the American dollar losing its value in respect to the Euro, American goods and services are less expensive in Europe, creating a higher demand for American goods. This creates jobs. There's certainly a benefit here, don't you think?

This is not to say that our economy is without faults; nothing could be further from the truth. I, too, don't like the fact that our National Debt is over $9 trillion, but as I said before most of the Debt is owed to Americans. And I would add that the U.S. government (for all its many MANY faults) has a good track record when it comes to honoring these debts.

It should also be considered that the National Debt, unlike a household debt, is a different entity completely that serves a completely different purpose. That being said, when compared to the national income, today's national debt is LESS than it was 10 years ago (that is, base on a percentage of income).

Consider the example: If you made $100,000 per year and owed $90,000, you'd be in bad shape. But if you made $1 Million per year, the $90,000 you owed would not be an issue.

--OR--

Let's say 10 years ago you made $100,000 per year and you owed $50,000 and every year afterward your income and debt increased by 10%. Ten years later you'd be in a much better financial situation despite that fact your debt grew from $50k/year to $129k per year. Yet your income went to $259k per year. Therefore, instead of having a net profit of $50k, you now have a net profit of $130k. Yet this is considered bad?

We clearly do not owe more than we can ever repay; the problem is we continue to spend more and more. All that needs to happen is for the government to stop spending frivolously. That's (in my opinion) the problem.

[Issachar]

There is a silver lining in all of this however. About this time next year, homes will probably be half priced as to what they are today. Thus young people leaving school and entering the workforce will be able to get a nice home at an affordable price. Also, if you have some extra cash, you can get a great deal, because eventually, prices will head back up. It may take a few years, but they will escalate again. Sir, you clearly must be one that believes the economy (and maybe other matters?) will remain approximately as they are up until the rapture. (I haven't read here long enough yet to know your stance on the rapture, milleniuum, etc. so I am making an assumption in that statement.) I believe we will get as far as a global economy that includes some sort of global currency, be it printed, coin or electronic or some combination, but not the "mark". These two view will always determine how we see what is going on currently. IF you view is what I stated above, or similar, then you will see what is currently going on in the economy of the US, the West and globally, as merely another (yawn) cycle. If one has the latter of the two views I mentioned, as do I, then what we see happening now is significant in that it may be the beginning of a currency collapse which could lead to that one world "currency".

Now, about your silver lining ..... The theory is sound because it comes right out of the "free enterprise handbook" which, up until about the 1930's, mostly functioned. Since then, the US has been on a course that ever so slightly deviated and now, 70 or 80 years later, the distance between where we were and where we are is great. Free enterprise is barely existant anymore. If the US went from where it was a century ago to where it is now, economically, in ... say, 1 year, there would have been a revolution. Much of the spending in the past 2 decades and especially in the past one, has been through cash out refi's. Without house equity (I don't like the term "home" equity because a "home" cannot be bought or sold; only houses can. Don't worry ... it's just me. :) ), the US economy would have been in the dumper long ago (and if your theory is correct, well on it's way to real recovery by now). Now however, with house prices dropping and loans harder to get, there will be a large number of folk losing their houses and an even larger number of "would have bought's" not buying. This translates into a lot less spending. That translates into a lot less manufacturing. That translates into less jobs and so it spirals. Because of unprecedented debt levels and loss of manufacturing jobs, there is a combination of events forming that make what's happening, not "just another cycle"; imho. Savings, as I've pointed out in other threads, was approximately 18-20 percent of incomes in the sixties where today, it is approximately a negative 2 percent in the US. Right now, China is about where we were in the sixties. I don't know how old you are, but I was a teenager in the sixties and remember much of it easily. Economically, times were much more stable.

Why is glass always half-empty? Don't count me in on that. I think it is between 2/3 and 3/4 empty. :)

Seriously, from a Christian perspective, this should not have anything to do with glasses half full or empty or being negative or postive or gloom and doom vs. all is well ..... These sorts of discussions are really about how it is and guessing about what it all could mean; how it may or may not fit into bible prophecy. As far as I'm concerned, if all is well, that is great. If all is not well, that's just fine too. My/our rest is in Christ. If the economy gets strong, very strong, and stays that way, we stand on the Rock. If it all falls apart and collapses and makes the thirties look like a picnic, we stand on the Rock. Joy is a part of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22), not a fruit of circumstances so really, circumstances can come and go or go up and go down but it affects not our joy because that is rooted in Christ. I know you know all that ... just reminding myself and anyone else that may have forgotten as these discussions can sometimes cause us to do.

Already our GDP is over $12 trillion (2006 etc) while China's is … maybe $3 trillion. In Dec. '91, the US switched from measuring it's economic output with GNP to GDP. I think that was to hide just how much foreign manufacturing goes on in the US. They claim it was to be onboard with the UN's mandates where all other countries use GDP rather than GNP. Of course, GDP was better for most countries 15 years and more ago. The US owned companies in foreign countries was huge and growing. GDP puts us in a much closer relationship with globalist thinking.

when compared to the national income, today's national debt is LESS than it was 10 years ago (that is, base on a percentage of income) Go down to the first graph here (http://mwhodges.home.att.net/nat-debt/debt-nat.htm).

Income growth vs. debt growth is nowhere near even let alone greater.

Issachar

[Issachar]

Also know that the national debt, from the founding of the US to 1980 grew to about one trillion dollars. Since 1980, it's grown to nine trillion dollars ... not counting all the promisary things that really make it about 50 trillion.

Issachar

[Bernardd]

Back in 2002-2003 I used to use the MW Hodges website as a "tool" for my students in economics. I no longer use the website since its analyses are incomplete. Furthermore, there are no sources for much of the data.

For instance, if you're going to include in the National Debt forward projections (such as Soc Sec, Med, etc.), shouldn't you also include forward projections in "income"? Furthermore, how can you lump personal debt in with Federal & State debt? But if you do that, shouldn't we then also include all household and business incomes with GDP?

Also, if you're going to include private debt, shouldn't you then consider who that debt is owed to and use that figure as income? Certainly there is an "accounts receivable" side to this equation as opposed to ONLY an "accounts payable."

You can manipulate the data to confess to just about anything. For instance, should we include Mortgage debt in the personal debt figure? Isn't a mortgage debt a little different from, let's say, credit card debt? And when we say that Americans are saving less and less than ever before, does this include "investments" in the stock market etc.? Shouldn't these investments be included in savings? For that matter, couldn't a monthly mortgage also be considered some type of savings or investment? In fact, why not just include our Social Security payments and medicare (that we don't really pay) as savings? Thus, all the money we owe to Soc. Sec. could just as easily be viewed as income. And who's to say that the current retirement age (and age of eligibility) for Soc Sec won't rise in the near future?

Also, if I begin collecting Soc Sec at age 65 and then I die at age 66, where does all the money go that I put in? Furthermore, what if I die at age 55, who gets all my Soc Sec benefits. The answer is no one. The govt got my money and never paid me a cent. Why is this simple fact never considered?

In Dec. '91, the US switched from measuring it's economic output with GNP to GDP.

Both figures are still used.