THE LAW OF LARGE NUMBERS - PEOPLE DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW LARGE SOME NUMBERS ARE
Hey, I'm the reader. You're the blogger. You tell me. [pic-link]We have the holders of said mortgages willing to take multi-billion dollar declines in value.
What's $1 billion more?
Here's the math
$ 1 billion = about 18,000 new "loan counselors" at $55,000, for 1st-year salary and for the recruiting fees to hire them (the people brokers get their cut, as do the 'temp' agencies).
Assuming 1.2 million loans next year, that would be about 66 loans for each person to cover, or about 1.3 per week. Seems manageable.
THE MAGICAL 'ECONOMY' OF OUTSOURCING
If you are like some, you believe that companies should just hire such people in giant call service centers in places like Bangalore, India. One could probably cut salaries in such cases by ... who knows? one-fifth? NO! According to some reports, four fifths!
Outsourcing legal work to India costs up to 80 per cent less than the cost of using the services of American law firms.
While some economists have turned a blind eye to the implications for many of the cheap labor phenomenon in trading services, the number of positions goes well beyond Microsoft's efforts, to include media services, as well.
[update: apparently, Greenpoint has a call center in ... India. Surprise! (see first comment)]
