Casey Serin is Still a Popular Guy

Wow. I didn't realize Casey Serin was still such a popular guy in 2009. I think it's been close to 2 years since his story unraveled and his original blog was sold/shutdown. I made a little post called " Casey Serin for Congress " awhile back. I am a litle surprised how many visitors came to my site looking for Casey Serin, including many World Famous Haterz. I guess it's just a trainwreck that keeps on going for some reason. People want to know whatever happened to Casey Serin.

For what it's worth, the Casey Serin plan is not really what I have in mind when I talk about "Frugal Capitalism." I've never had a $34 Jamba Juice or defaulted on a loan. My point was: When even a looser like Casey gets something sorta right and appears more rational than most members of Congress, that's not a good sign. And despite all the passionate calls for people like Casey to be punished, I sense that many ( of the same?) people really don't have a problem with far worse criminals running our country.

Casey Serin for Congress

Seriously. Well, maybe not.

However, it seems Casey has more common sense than Congress. At least on this one issue. Don't get me wrong. Casey Serin is not a likeable guy. He does not make a sympathetic character. This is a kid who bought eight houses without a job, and his timing was terrible. He made very bad deals, buying houses in multiple states far from home. His renovations were lousy and overpriced. He took on over $2 million in mortgage debt and owed a lot more than the houses were actually worth. He became the posterchild for everything wrong with real estate speculation and no money down stated income loans.

Declan McCullah from CNET recently wrote an article on Homeowner bailouts and talked to Casey Serin. You can read that article here: Homeowner Bailout Rewards Irresponsibility.

The Casey Serin highlights:
"I personally don't believe in bailouts," Serin said in an interview this week. "If you don't get hurt, what's going to stop you from taking on the risk next time? You're interfering with the natural order of things."

and

"Pain is one of the best ways to make change happen," said Serin, the speculator-turned-tell-all-blogger. "If you were just completely reckless about it, you deserve to fall flat on your face. I was reckless. But I don't know what I deserve."

Casey made a lot of bad decisions. He doesn't deserve any sympathy and certainly doesn't deserve a bailout. I understand the outrage and views of his "Haterz." I personally think he has a lot of problems and repugnant views. He is lazy and doesn't learn from his mistakes. He is uneducated and unwilling to change his destructive behavior. There are a lot of people who would like to see Casey Serin in prison. I don't know how much money he ended up stealing. I assume the banks recouped something from the foreclosures and short sales. Maybe he still owes half, or around $ 1 million. That's pretty bad. You could say Casey Serin stole a million bucks.

But this uneducated failed real estate speculator, a "looser", could teach the political class a thing or two. Unfortunately, the government never learns anything either. Their first reaction to any "crisis" is to "do something" and "doing something" usually means taking an irrational action that is almost guaranteed to produce the opposite results.

The government produces absolutely nothing of value. They don't create anything. Just like Casey Serin. They don't do any type of work that can't be better performed by private individuals. What they do is confiscate money and dole it out to their friends. They make and repay favors. The State steals money and redistributes it to people and organizations that deserve to fail. And they do this to the tune of billions or trillions of dollars. I would bet that each and every U.S. Congressmen is personally responsible for the theft of more than a couple million bucks.

I'm not saying that Casey Serin doesn't deserve scorn and punishment, but he should have plenty of cell mates. And you can start with the Congress and many others who steal from taxpayers.