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Your tax dollars at work (or not)
Reuters took this photo of a deserted Oklahoma City Mall that is now owned by you, the humble taxpayer.
Actually, the Fed owns it, thanks to the $29 billion loan it made to JP Morgan when the bank bought Bear Stearns.
That money was secured by a portfolio of Bear assets. Crossroads Mall is the only bricks and mortar acquired through bailout. The remaining billions are tied up in invisible securities spread across hundreds, if not thousands, of properties.
Anyone wanna buy a deserted shopping center? Anyone?
This is just the beginning. The FED will be buying lots and lots of real estate over the next 3-4 years, paid for with money fresh from Ben Bernanke's printing presses. Money backed by nothing but the promise of the US Government to repay it ... someday ... and you know the US Government always repays its debts, right? Excuse me, but I'm laughing too hard to continue typing.
Wait a minute. I sell building supplies. If the government starts paying builders not to build, I demand it pay me not to sell water heaters & toilets. Will I still have to buy supplies if I'm being paid not to sell them? I'm afraid I'll run out of storage space, can I get a no pay lease on a government owned warehouse?
The City of Columbus Ohio is using stimulus money to tear down a massive 3-story deserted high-end shopping mall downtown. I walk by it every day and it's getting smaller and smaller. It's weird looking through the wreckage and seeing what's left of New Orlean's Pralines, and Cinnabon.
The developers overbuilt retail and residential in an economy without a sufficient commerical/industrial base to support occupancy. Now they want help buying up the excess so they can start more.
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y without a sufficient commercial/industrial base to support occupancy. Now they want help buying up the excess so they can start more.
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Tomorrow in Egypt subsidized pyramid demolition will be creating pyramid shortage to justify subsidized pyramid construction that will keep politicians and lobbyists busy for the next 6,000 years. But what scams after that?
"And every day the paper boy brings more."
~~Pink Floyd~
