More bad news out today on the banks with Morgan and Fifth Third the culprits, but as we all know, the news conforms to the tape and the tape says down. I caught an article on Wachovia this morning in which they are calling customers to warn them of the risks of loans.

Wachovia is contacting applicants through independent mortgage brokers to ensure ``the customer understands the key features of the Pick-A-Payment loan product,''

My question in all this is who is calling Wachovia and advising them on the perils and risks of buying the unrivaled market leading originator of toxic, never should have even existed if you had half a brain mortgages (pay-option neg am) at the top of the market.



As you well know you cannot make this up and YES I DO have a bone to pick with Wachovia as I was heavily short Golden West Finanical (GDW) and took a big loss on the trade. My mistake though was not transferring the short from GDW to Wachovia. Another valuable lesson learned. They never stop coming, those lessons !

I caught the back end of the real estate discussion this morning on the pom pom network. What can one say about the venerable financial reporting juggernaut of CNBC, more commonly know to market watchers as CNBS or to my readers as pompom TV.

Don't you find it a bit ironic that the people entrusted to report the financial news and claim ot be unbiased, continually and unabashedly cheer lead all manner of positives yet ridicule and deride negativity.



I am talking about facts here and just when I start to think I am being too hard on them and need to back off they just continue to out do themselves. This morning was another example of this with the guest appearance today of one Billy Maclowe. Who is Billy Macklowe you ask ? Well, he is the son of one Harry Maclowe the real estate magnet.



Back on April 2 I had an end of day post in which I mentioned the following tidbit regarding the Maclowe's ...

Harry Maclowe the famed real estate investor who recently had the GM building in NYC foreclosed on by lenders which was part of his empire, is a glowing example of this last issue, skin in the game. Everyone is complaining that strawberry pickers in California bought $750K homes and the like but why is no one complaining when Mssr. Maclowe amasses a $7.3 billion commercial real estate portfolio with 55 million down. For those without a calculator that's a down payment of 0.00753% or 7/10ths of 1%. Ahh yes the Fed is just what we need to ensure stability and employment.



No this is no joke or Saturday Night Live segment but real live serious financial TV. So given all the current issues in the market who do they bring on to their real estate insight segment, Yup, Billy Maclowe of the LSC. (lucky sperm club). The segment quickly devolved into a love fest about how they did such a good job refurbishing the GM building as it was sold and as they start from a smaller albeit much better capital base. Yup, less equity is a better base to start from.



My issue is there are plenty of people to choose from that can be brought on the show. You think they would bring on a Mike Morgan to talk about real estate. NO WAY, that involve getting some serious albeit no so pleasant answers. I would think that the people reporting the goings on in the markets would report them and not choose sides. One step further I would want people on the show that paint the truth, not some pipe dream of former glory.