Credit Crisis

Panic is the New Black

By SplendidMarbles ⋅ October 24, 2008 ⋅ 4 comments

It’s time to panic again. The first headline I saw this morning screamed “Bloody Friday,” it was in giant, bold blue letters on Marketwatch’s home page. The NY Times ran “Global Shares Plummet on Gloomy Data.” Blood and gloom? That’s no way to start a Friday. I thought those depressing headlines were meant for [...]

The Lending Tree

By SplendidMarbles ⋅ October 22, 2008 ⋅ 3 comments

The Lending Tree grew from a mere sapling just after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 into a giant monster that blocked out the sun, eventually toppling under its own girth, crushing the borrowed possessions in the home that it shared a lawn with.
The reason I mention 9/11 is that Americatown went into a short and [...]

Prophetic Cartoon – Housing Crushes Economy

By SplendidMarbles ⋅ October 10, 2008 ⋅ 2 comments

I created this cartoon in 2006. The following year marked the top of the real estate market, and as it turns out, the end of excessive financial leverage. In early 2005 I began studying the effects that the explosion of exotic loan products and the deterioration of lending standards were having on home prices. I [...]

Credit Markets Still Frigid

By SplendidMarbles ⋅ September 30, 2008 ⋅ 2 comments

I breathed a big sigh of relief this morning as I drank my English
pint-sized iced coffee. Was it that the stock market was rallying
hard to wash away some of yesterday’s bone crushing loses? No.
The reason for my warm and fuzzy feeling was due to the fact
that a check I deposited in my bank account from [...]

Voters Enraged Over Bailout

By SplendidMarbles ⋅ September 25, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

I wonder if any of the voters who called to release the venom rotting away their innards have taken a gander in the mirror recently. Maybe they had something to do with the creation of the financial disaster of the century. How many callers have home equity loans, an SUV that can’t fit in a [...]

Banker Brigade

By SplendidMarbles ⋅ September 24, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

With legions of bankers armed with deadly debt securities, the U.S. will be able to vanquish all foes.

Republicans Had Better Weed

By SplendidMarbles ⋅ September 23, 2008 ⋅ One comment

Are these guys high? As the debate in Congress over the
$700 billion financial system bailout rages on, I’m seeing
the same ideological arguments playing out in Washington
that always surface as Democrats lock horns with Republicans.
This is not the run-up to the Iraq war; there’s no doubt that
serious damage is being done to the US. Yet, [...]