A boatload of sobering economic analysis — bubbles, bankruptcy and oil

MSN has boatload of half-year sobering news. Liz Pulliam Weston on consumer bankruptcy tells us how lenders who caused the problems are abusing the “reforms,” including with attempted foreclosures. And, one judge is forcibly keeping one mortgage broker on the hook:

A bankruptcy judge has opened a window for borrowers. In a little-noticed decision, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Leslie J. Tchaikovsky let a California couple off the hook for debt they owed their home-equity lender because the incomes they had listed on their applications were obvious "red flags" that the lender had ignored.

The couple had jobs as a delivery driver and for an auto-parts distributor but claimed on one loan application that they earned a combined $146,000 a year and, on another, filed six months later, that they made $191,000.

Amen.

Then, Bill Fleckenstein gives Alan Greenspan a hard smackdown, while saying we have plenty of bottom still to be found in the current economic situation. He notes that George Soros says we are near the end of a 25-year superbubble.

Gee, that would coincide with a 25-year mix of Republican and DLC Democrat leadership.

Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency is doing a worldwide audit of oil fields. It’s only partway through, but gives Alan Greenspan a hard smackdown it says … hold your breath … it shows a significant reduction in estimated reserves. (So far, OPEC countries aren’t cooperating.)