Quote:

---

Originally posted by SignyM:
SOx? The only SOx I know of is "oxides of sulfur".

Anyway, I don't exactly have great faith in a centralized economy either. I just think it's a dodge to throw up your hands and say "People will be people" especially since we just had a savings and loan meltdown not more than 30 years ago for many of the same reasons. It's not as if the people at top are so disengaged that they haven't heard of reverse amortization or exploding loans and "no money down" and "no income verification". And if I could see where this all was heading why couldn't they? It could have easily been nipped by requiring a certain percent money down and income verification. (I can't believe I'm saying this... it's like an exact replay of the last housing bubble.)

So, why didn't they do anything?

---

Quote:

---

Greenspan said that as Fed chief he knew about questionable lending practices that were leaving subprime borrowers with adjustable rate loans vulnerable to harm from rising interest rates, but did not recognize those loans would trigger broader problems until fairly recently, CBS said.

"While I was aware a lot of these practices were going on, I had no notion of how significant they had become until very late," Greenspan said. "I really didn't get it until very late in 2005 and 2006."

---

Quote:

---

BUFFETT IS WAY WRONG AT HOME
By SUZANNE MCGEE
November 5, 2006 -- Even Warren Buffett gets it wrong sometimes.

The Oracle of Omaha's take on a real estate deal, for example, was 100 percent wrong, said the buyer of the property, because the billionaire forgot one of his core rules: Invest only in what you understand.

The buyer, Richard Manchester, was ridiculed by Buffett after the billionaire sold Manchester his oceanfront Laguna Beach house last year for $3.5 million.

Buffett, reducing the sale to an absurd term - $60 million an acre - told a Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting that Manchester was foolish to pay such a high price, especially since Buffettt had paid just $1 million for it nine years earlier.

Buffett told the 20,000 shareholders at the meeting that the house, in the exclusive Emerald Bay neighborhood, had a replacement value of $500,000, and that the purchase price reflected a real estate market that has gotten out of whack.

Manchester fell in love with the house and put in a bid even before the "For Sale" sign went up. He invested a "few hundred thousand dollars" to improve the kitchen, bathroom and other areas. Then he sold it nine months later for $5.45 million.


"The fact that he is Warren Buffett doesn't mean he's going to be dead right on everything," said Manchester, speaking expansively about the deal for the first time.

Manchester is a tax lawyer and financial planner who oversees about $50 million in assets.

---