Valentine's Day Links

Housing

Mortgage problems? Turn your house into a billboard – Yahoo

Polar Bears, the Housing Crisis and Forbidden Truths – HuffPo

I agree that density is likely to support all these good things. To a certain extent, however, I’m inclined to argue that these benefits are somewhat beside the point. Our first question should be: is there some very compelling reason not to allow private actors to engage in mutually beneficial transactions?

Stuff Ex-Homeowners Can Buy for $2,000 – Mandelman Matters

ITEM #4: 50 Bottles of Patron Silver Tequila… and some limes.

Mortgage Settlement

Mortgage settlement lets banks off the hook, again – CNN

Mortgage deal to provide FHA with $1 billion in cash – Reuters

For California, Attorney General Insisted on Better Terms in Foreclosure Deal – NYT

Europe

The First Dominoes: Greece, Reality, and Cascading Default – Charles Hugh Smith (hat-tip Patrick)

Cracks in Agreement in Greece, Finland, Germany, France; Of Duct Tape, Glue, Rubber Bands - Mish

Austerity Tourism: Greek Travel Deals – Smart Money

Misc.

The Materialist Fallacy – NYT

In the half-century between 1962 and the present, America has become more prosperous, peaceful and fair, but the social fabric has deteriorated. Social trust has plummeted. Society has segmented. The share of Americans born out of wedlock is now at 40 percent and rising.

Armageddon at the Strip Mall - NRO

But commercial real estate is different from residential in one important way: Your standard residential mortgage goes 20 to 30 years. Your standard commercial loan goes for five years, at the end of which you either make a big balloon payment (what it is that balloons remind me of?) or you refinance, the idea being that five years is long enough to get your project built or developed, to secure tenants and leases, get your cash flow flowing, etc. Five years: Seems like it was only yesterday. By my always-suspect English-major math, that means that a whole bunch of commercial mortgages written at that poisonous sweet spot when prices were highest but lending standards were lowest are coming due . . . oh, any minute now.

My Application: Head of Public Relations, Goldman Sachs - Barry Ritholtz

Chart Of The Day - Andrew Sullivan

Occupy’s amazing Volcker Rule letter – Felix Salmon

One of the saddest aspects of the financialization of the US economy is the way in which America’s best and brightest found themselves working on Wall Street, rather than in jobs which improved the state of the world. Proof of this comes from the absolutely astonishing 325-page comment letter on the Volcker Rule which has been put together by Occupy the SEC; it’s pretty clear, from reading the letter, that the people who wrote it are whip-smart and extremely talented.
Here is the PDF of the Full Letter

Valentine’s Day Fun

What To Do When She Leaves You – Altucher Confidential

THE WAR AGAINST ROSES - Get Kempt

We don’t hate the rose itself, but like so much of Valentine’s Day, it’s become more kitschy than romantic. It’s easy, expected. After so many movie posters, romance novels and greeting cards, it no longer means anything. You just do it because you’ve seen people do it on television. It’s what everyone does.
So don’t do it. Pick something with a little more significance behind it.

Man, I Need a Good Cuddle – NYT

If more people are living alone, in the United States and around the world, I would argue that our humanity is being chipped away by the lack of cuddle. People can do what they want, of course. And I don’t doubt that I am a particularly needy and sometimes neurotic man of a certain ilk. So maybe the cuddle is more important to me than it is to some independent-minded woman.
But then again, I also thought that guys were supposed to be the ones afraid of nesting. Well I, for one, am not. And all the social media and connectivity in the modern world won’t change that.