The Next Big Bank Bailout is on the Way Prepare To Get Reamed!

Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Mar 17, 2010 - 04:41 AM

By: Mike_Whitney

Housing is on the rocks and prices are headed lower. That's not the consensus view, but it's a reasonably safe assumption. Master illusionist Ben Bernanke managed to engineer a modest 7-month uptick in sales, but the fairydust will wear off later this month when the Fed stops purchasing mortgage-backed securities and long-term interest rates begin to creep higher.

The objective of Bernanke's $1.25 trillion program, which is called quantitative easing, was to transfer the banks "unsellable" MBS onto the Fed's balance sheet. Having achieved that goal, Bernanke will now have to unload those same toxic assets onto Freddie and Fannie. (as soon as the public is no longer paying attention)

Bernanke's cash giveaway has helped to buoy stock prices and stabilize housing, but market fundamentals are still weak. There's just too much inventory and too few buyers. Now that the Fed is withdrawing its support, matters will only get worse.

Of course, that hasn't stopped the folks at Bloomberg from cheerleading the nascent housing turnaround. Here's a clip from Monday's column:

"The U.S. housing market is poised to withstand the removal of government and Federal Reserve stimulus programs and rebound later in the year, contributing to annual economic growth for the first time since 2006. Increases in jobs, credit and affordable homes will help offset the end of the Fed’s purchases of mortgage-backed securities this month and the expiration of a federal homebuyer tax credit in April. Sales will rise about 6 percent this year, and housing will account for 0.25 percentage point of the 3.6 percent growth, according to forecasts by Dean Maki, chief U.S. economist for Barclays Capital in New York...“The underlying trend is turning positive,â€