Step right up and buy the cure for what ails you! "We have a very limited supply of this wonder drug that will cure all your ills from cancer, gout, impotence, diabetes and yes it will even cure AIDS! Do you want to know the cost to you to buy this priceless cure? Why it is only $700 Billion dollars! Don't crowd around, don't attract attention... the police are around the corner and would shut me down if they knew I could put the local pharmacist and hospital out of business! Hurry, hurry, hurry! Time's a wastin! Step right up and place your money down!"
It is amazing how many persons fall for worthless sales pitches years ago and still do today! Nowadays we refer to pundits of cure as ‘Con men!' These modern day snake oil sales men can be politicians, bankers, investment advisors, and even CEO's of major corporations! There are just a few ingredients needed to make a con work.
The first ingredient needed is fear. Sickness, pain and misery look for immediate relief at any cost. The next item needed is a gullible crowd that are too afraid to ask questions. Another item in the mix is a shill planted in the audience to ask leading questions to make it all sound legitmate. Lastly, all you need is a stupid buyer in the audience with cash to make it all work.
So, what is the difference between the snake oil salesmen years ago and today? Years ago the buyer of the phony tonic - walked away with a fake bottle medicine with a useless money back warranty! The other item is the price!
Key Ingredients to a Con Artist Sale: Urgency, address need based on fear, an emotional buyer with money to purchase, and a fast talking salesman!
PS Don't read the fine print!
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I can tell that this bailout issue is at the forefront of your mind as it is on mine. I simply cannot fathom the amount of money the bailout throws at the problem with no measured estimate of resposne...and how much will go to the institutions and turn into "pork" and not benefit the general public. There was a tremendous article in the San Francisco Chronicle today by some ACORN people with real statistics for the consumer level. I don't recall the exact numbers, but it was something like 10% want to walk anyway, 17% went stated income and couldn't qualify for much of anything in the real world, 17% couldn't managet the re-set price under loan modification, etc. etc.
Great blog Jim......I love it......ut do I have to be the "stupid buyer in the audience with cash to make it all work." I don't like that role!!!
Wonderful post and to the point, even if it was around it, you can still "read between the lines!"
The other thing that has made it all run amuck is that everyone bought into the get rich quick scheme. Flipping houses like pancakes is not a normal thing? Hello? Will we ever learn that get rich quick schemes lead to bigger problems down the road?
Hi Jim . . . Nice Post Indeed. Really on target. The politicians, bankers, investment advisors, and CEO's of major corporations are MAJOR ingredients in the con game. Their motivation is their own wealth. Not the benefit of the American economy. They were ignorant of the effects of their own avarice.
Aloha
James Pyxha (R)
Good Post - The numbers themselves are absolutely mind boggling. What does 700 BILLION dollars actually end up in the long run? I recall other off the mark prognostications. Scary thought...
They, Treasury, The Fed, the SEC, the tripartate of "experts" came to Congress with a number to cure that is so high that even a U.S. Senator can't get their head around it and then made it a fete comple'.
Easy work if you can get it.
Presenting something so massive to Congressmen is easy. They know it's this or . . . . . or what? That they don't know.
Fascinating to watch.
Vickie Nagy, Realtor, Specializing in San Ramon, Danville & the Tri-Valley! (Empire Realty Associates) What bothers me, is that when Enron failed it was tough luck for all the pensioners and employees that lost everything. So what is changing here? The bank afraid to lose money on bad loans? No bailout here for hte consumer or small regional banks.
A blank check to the powers that be!
Capital District Real Estate, Lewis Beynon (Keller Williams Realty, Capital District) The saying used to be..."More money than brains!" LOL!
Michael Klijanowicz - Relocation Specialist - Baltimore & Harford County (Baltimore & Harford County Maryland - Long and Foster ) We need some simple analogies to digest all the news they are trying to bombard us with to buy into this. I am not buying into it.
Audrey June-Forshey, GRI, Gaithersburg, MD (RE/MAX Realty Group) Common sense told us this was not normal!
James Pycha (R) - REMAX KAUAI Thanks James. We must not let them get away with it. We have a great country!
Get Us A Home Realty - Frank & Jodi Real Estate Brokers As recently as a few weeks ago they said only a slight chance of a recession! They have lied under oath to God and Congress, and now they want your money! Should we enable them? Or should we have a "cold turkey" crisis intervention?
Lenn Harley, Homefinders.com, MD & VA Real Estate I call them the "unholy trinity!"
Fantastic post! Thanks for clearing things up. This bailout will cost us a fortune and the real question is will it really do the trick? Who knows.
Betina
Hmmm, an intervention, that would be interesting. Where are the whistle blowers? At this point I would not mind if we had rewards for folks in these companies to be a snitch. Enron could have used one...
This issue is upmost in everyones mind. Today at the store the lady in the pharmacy was talking about it. The sleeping Giant is waking up and will hopefully pay attention!
I am so uncomfortable with the whole thing....I just don't beliieve a word they say! All major decisions in the past eight years have been made under the guise of urgency and then the failure explained away with an OPPS!!(what color would you rate this one?....red?)
Betina Foreman (Keller Williams Realty, Inc.) What about bailing out the airline industry? What about Detroit and the auto manufacturers? What about the insurance industry? What about local banks that are not covered under this bailout? It doesn't end!
Get Us A Home Realty - Frank & Jodi Real Estate Brokers I do not disagree with you. But why pay anyone when all the experts want you to bail them out? Do you think the average truck driver or middle manager in this country has more than $1000 dollars at risk as an investment with one of these firms?
Joan Mirantz- Concord New Hampshire Realtor (Keeler Family Realtors) This one stinks! It is a red flag warning!
The companies need to go bankrupt and we will move on from there. We will survive.
John Walters (Specialized Real Estate We survived Frankiln National Bank, 9/11/2001, Pearl Harbor, Enron, and many other companies, and issues. This what happens when guys that never did an honest days hard physical work in their life are told "NO!"
The average person in this country did not have a chance to go to Harvard, go for A PHD, inherit their family business, and we do not have millions stashed away in savings and own 5 homes. The answer is no!
Great post, Jim. I just wish we (the general public in America) actually had a choice/say in the matter. Or any matter lately. What is a Deomocracy? I forget...
Karen Hurst ~ Real Estate Broker ~ Warwick ~ Rhode Island (Storm Realty LLC) Well this is a Republic - we must go through our elected officials. This fix will support cronies, sweetheart deals, pork, and a loss to the citizenry. They say there will be oversight, but if we had oversight there shouldn't be any problems now!
Ok, this new bill does not address issues at local banks, foreclosures, commercial loans, auto industry, airlines etc...! So what will we be asked to give in 3 weeks from now? They keep balking at real costs.
I might trust a snake oil saleswoman, Jim ...well, maybe not.... :-)
Con man comes from "convincing". I am not sure they qualify for that moniker.
This is not turning out the way any of us want.
Bo
David Saks - Real Estate Broker (The Real Estate Mart of Tennessee, Inc.) I will not accept it. A thief is always a theif.
Bo Hussung/ Title services in all 50 states (Cogent Closing Associates) They have not convinced me.
Jim - They think they are David Copperfield. They are telling us $700 Billion when it will probably take about $2 Trillion before the smoke (and mirrors) clear.
David Slavin, ABR, SRES RE/MAX Grand, Katy, TX (RE/MAX Grand) I agree! Lies!
This is a 1 trillion Dollar Let's Get Past the Election Event!
CONGRESS WILL RECESS NEXT WEEK ANYWAY!
It mustn't be that important!
I'm with you Jim. I'm so galled I cannot even formulate a meaningful comment to your post. Bush is on TV tonight. I feel a migraine coming on...
Alyce Martin (Keller Williams Realty) Say no more! Anytime he speaks lately I get one!
With these idiots on the bailout wagon running amok I'd rather kiss a Rattlesnake than fall for buying their cure. At least the snake isn't going to lie to me and say it won't hurt.
Cameron Wilson: Murrieta/Temecula/ Menifee California Real Estate (Century 21 Tri Valley Realty) LOL! I love your analogy! Also, they'll only come back next week and ask for more money. They are incredible!
Jim,
I was talking today with someone at a book store (my addiction previous to AR). He told me the last time he was told something had to be done right now he was on a used car lot.
I still like the approach - asset for asset, a means for reworking struggling loans and getting them back into the banking system as performing assets.
I did not like the panic rush, and am not sure yet of the absolute need for $700 billion, control by one agency, the idea that assets might be purchased over market (absurd to me), and fundamentally that this is the only or best action.
Frankly, I am not sure yet that such action is needed, certainly not in an urgent panic. The President talk notwithstanding.
Richard
Richard Smith Mortgages Home Loans FHA TN GA AL (American Acceptance Mortgage, Inc) I could not agree more. I like you am in sales. When urgency to sign is presented it is a scam. No one is going to tell me from last weekend until this week that all of a sudden they came across new information. That is just plain BS!