My buddy Dave, in a fit of melancholy at discovering Stephanie isn't available, suggested a special -NO HATERZ- suggerstion box. So here it is. Real, workable suggestions for Casey. No snarky, I will delete snarky. you wanna get in your shots, there are dozens of other posts where you can leave your fishy smelling comments. No, this is just to see if there are any workable possibilities as the walls close in. Of course if you just can't help yourself then I won't be able to check every message for accrosstics and capitalizations and such...
61 comments:
:(
Man, I love Ren and Stimpy. "Happy happy, joy joy..."
1.) Sell VDubs and lawyer up.
2.) Get a job
3.) Get another job.
4.) Drop the blog.
where are the clowns?
I think homey's post should be a seperate topic....
Send Galina™ eastward to the Sagebrush Ranch near Carson City, and... well, you figure out the rest. :-p
-No more lying
-Get a job
-Look for a better job while you are working the first
-Galina gets a job
-Kill the blog
-Hire a BK Attorney
-File for BK
-Have one secured Credit Card
-Spend no more than you earn each month
-Pay back any personal loans
-Stop mooching off of friends and relatives
-Galina goes to night school
-Get a part time job on the weekend
-Pray for forgiveness and that you don't get prosecuted.
-Do all that for 7-10yrs
-Then and only then, apply what you have learned and being honest to making "sweet" deals.
I don't see any way forward (much less out) until Bubbles does three things:
1. Kill the blog. Just stop. Every day that this fiasco goes on, Bubbles just reinforces his psychological rut. The "haterz" thing just makes it worse.. nothing reinforces a rut better than a good persecution complex, and he's got that in spades. He's not going to be able to accomplish a damned thing as long as IAFF is running.
2. Completely level with the wife. I agree that she knows a lot more (and was involved in a lot more) than Bubbles admits. But he needs humility, real humility, and he needs to start with G - doubtless, she still doesn't know the full story. If she actually does file on him (which she's likely to do if he keeps dancing like this), he'll have a gun in his mouth a week later.
3. Lawyer up and then shut up. Get a good one, and do whatever he/she says. Lawyer says get a job, get a job. Lawyer says do naked backflips in Jello, do it. Outsource decisions to someone who knows what they're doing. He's already demonstrated admirably that his own judgment sucks - he shouldn't be allowed to use it anymore.
Aside from those, the only thing that comes to mind is a reverse intervention. Get all his family, friends, G, into the same room and then get humble. I doubt they've seen that side of him before. It might amuse them.
All the bases have pretty much been covered already in his blog:
His family or Galina needs to get him a psychiatric evaluation. He shows a lot of signs of suffering from bipolar disorder. Mental illnesses on the bipolar/schizophrenic spectrum are really damned serious, often treatable with medication, and not just a nice way of saying he has a broken personality. I'm not making a diagnosis here, I'm just doing the equivalent of telling someone who complains of pain radiating from their chest to their arms to call 911. He needs a diagnosis and he almost certainly won't go by himself. If necessary, Galina might have to have him declared incompetent and possibly committed/medicated involuntarily.
I am told that "interventions" don't work well with the mentally ill, incidentally.
Then, crazy or no, he needs to get lawyered up, and to obey his lawyer(s).
Then he needs to figure out how to pay his laywer(s), which will probably involve a three-letter word he hates to hear.
That's about all I can think of.
I had a friend from Canada many years ago who was in similar situation (caused by bad divorce and no fiscal skills). He handed in all the keys to his properties and cars, begged a ticket off his dad, flew to meet a contact in London and went offshore on oil rigs in Vietnam a week later (1992). He's never paid off the debt that I know off but has simply gone off the radar. Saying that he can't:
1. Get a credit card (yes - the banks do have GLOBAL databases).
2. Rent a car / book a hotel / shop on the internet - they ALL need credit cards now.
3. Go back to Canada to visit his very old dad. He's concerned there are arreset warrants out now.
4. Renew his Canadian drivers licence, pilots licence etc...
5. Buy anything (car, house etc) unless it's with cold hard cash (no such things as bank loans in VN!).
So how does he survive? He works for tax free dollars offshore (still possible in my part of the world - SE Asia) - lives in a flop house in Vung Tau - drinks his days away ... He is all but in a prison of his own making and he worries that Canada will stop renewing his passport one day... and what happens when he can't work offshore if he has bad medical one day?
It's not a bad existence but not a great one either. HOWEVER - he has marketable skills (mud logging - an offshore oil/gas skill) - Snowcake doesn't.
PMSPMS
The psychiatric care is a good point, not only because he might be having issues now, but because of things he will encounter later on.
Even the strongest of personalities would have a tough time climbing out of the hole he is in. Far less a first class Snowflake. On top of everything else, he could pull in a big bank at a good job for the next 10yrs, and still have to live like student on financial aid the entire time. He's got one hell of a IRS bill to settle. All that is enough to make someone go Postal.
He is so F'ed
He should declare bankruptcy immediately, and take whatever criminal prosecution comes his way. Turn himself in if necessary. I second the psychiatric evaluation - there really might be something seriously wrong with him and he might be able to use it in his defense and get leniency from the court.
If he goes to prison, he should learn some technical skills like web development, so when he gets out he can get a real job.
I'm seeing some similarities in these posts which leads me to the conclusion that we all have it right. Also interesting is the lack of hate in these posts. Just sobering truth for Casey. He'll probably choose to ignore it but anyway here's my 2 cents as things stand now:
1) Sit down with Galina and air it all out. Beg her forgiveness and tell her that you fucked up and bad. Tell her you really wanted things to work out, but that you just learned one of life's hardest lessons: there is no free lunch. Tell her, and mean it, that you will do everything in your power to fix it honestly and that you hope she will support you.
2) Get job.
3) take one last loan from your family: Retainer. Secure two lawyers, one for BK, one for criminal charges. Surrender and make sure your lawyer makes it clear that you'll turn on every shady SOB you've encountered in the past three years in exchange for immunity.
4) Pay cashcall off as soon as you can.
5) Declare BK, and choose a career which suits your abilities. Obviosuly you have the skill to keep a captive audience, you just haven't got the skills to sell them real estate. This is not coincidental.
6) and almost the single most important one:
KILL IAFF. KILL IT and your critics die with it. Sure we'll catch your story on the back end, but it won't have the same sparkel as it does while you publicly flounder.
Don't forget, guys.. a lot of the (even good) dig-out-of-debt advice that Bubbles has been getting has been based - more or less - on the assumption that we're still going to have a working economy in six months to a year. I'm not so sure that's a sound assumption. If we drop into recession this fall, he's going to be dead as dogmeat.
I don't mind telling you, what's happening right now in subprimes and private equity scares the hell out of me. When all the other Caseys out there implode too, even financially solid folks could have a hard time getting along.. we're heading towards a reckoning of biblical proportions.
I don't think Bubbles has a snowball's chance in hell of escaping his debt. His main concern right now should be avoiding criminal charges.
Why should Casey pay off Cashcall if he's going to file BR?
I can't add to the above. You got it covered. Betcha Casey allows stuff to snowball from further neglect and his problems get resolved for him, with unpleasant results.
The answer is evident - get a job, have G get a job.
My main man Dave Ramsey says it best: "There's a place to go when you're broke - it's called work."
There is no way that his creditors are going to get paid back in full. Zero possibility. This isn't Mr. Serin's concern right now. Presently, Casey needs to worry about eating, about keeping the lights on, about having a pillow to lay his head on that's not in the local Y. Yes, right now he is mooching off his inlaws and friends and such, but that gravy train will end one day if he doesn't get his act together and show some modicum of responsibility. And soon.
Now, what is the likelihood young Casey will do any of these things? I give it slim to none odds. From reading his blog and from e-mails we've exchanged, I doubt that this feller has the integrity to do what's right. And there's one way to smack such irresponsibility and selfishness out of a person, and that's called "rock bottom." He's still got a ways to go before he reaches that. He still honestly thinks he has many SWEET DEALS cooking. Sad, really.
Anyone remember that Seinfeld episode where a doctor tells Frank Costanza to say "Serenity Now" to let out his frustrations...?
Casey: "Serinity Now!!! Serin Now!!! HOOCHIE MAMA!!"
whoops, that 2nd "Serin" should've also read Serinity... heh :-\
Oh.. and burn the guru books. Seriously, all of them. Every signed RK book and every Tony Robbins and every God knows what else - books, tapes, any demon-spawn sitting around the house that tempts him back into that "something for nothing" positive thinking nonsense. Stack em high, douse em with gas, light em up.
He needs to be free of those demons, once and for all.
Hey Guys,
Rob BBB here
What should Casey do?
Really?
He should do exactly what he is doing.
Why should he do any different?
Things are going to end the same way anyway.
It doesn't matter what he does.
Just follow the path of least resistance.
All the other advice on here is pointless because he could never do it.
Bankrupcty? why? Get a job? Why the money would be taken anyway?
Legal advice? Does it matter? They are either going to prosecute him or they aren't. Anything at this point is so small as not to make a difference.
Look at the forest through the trees.
I just sent Casey's sister-in-law the following e-mail:
Please kick your brother-in-law out of your house. He is the world's biggest moocher. He has his own article on Wikipedia nowadays, I think it would make interesting reading for you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_Serin
An entire blog exists that is singularly devoted to Mr. Serin's stupidity and financial irresponsibility:
http://exurbannation.blogspot.com/
Many people online think that he needs psychiatric help. He needs to hit rock bottom before he turns his life around, and freeloading off your generosity isn't going to help him in the long run. Readers of the above blog would be intrigued if you commented on Casey and his entire situation. Thanks...
He does have a whole closet full of those books and tapes.
You do have to consider how damaged Casey must be though. All that money, I mean, I think I may have mentioned some stock message boards I used to frequent while I held a spec. biotech stock (which ultimately bit the bullet) and it was mystifying to see how people blindly cheered.
There was always the basher though. And this time it turned out the bashers were right (and at least one of the cheerleaders was keeping heavy invested people's money parked right where it was). In the end it was a sucker's game. Luckily I got out early, but I watched the endgame and also watched one of my friends throw his entire life savings, through constant attempts to "average down" down the toilet. But all the while, he knew "good things were coming". He had a lead from the inside that things were gonna break to the upside. It was all a lie and frankly a pitiful form of denial.
In any case, I've seen this play out before and I'll watch it again. It's a great spectator sport for the initiated. For the uninitiated it's a painful lesson, one our hero is going to learn badly.
When I watching Pulte homes Yahoo! board about 18 months ago, there was thins guy who posted daily, and his posts always read "HOME PRICE KEEP GOING UP!! EVERYONE WANT TO LIVE IN CALIFORNIA, GREAT OPPORTUNITY! HOORAY FOR GREAT HOUSING MARKET!"
I always thought it was a goof but in retrospect I think it was the same guy I know who believed good things were coming, and another guy I know who thinks the same.
For a little insight into how accurate our friend in California was, check out PHM's chart, particularly in the past month.
Rob BBB,
Thank you for your useless bit of insight.
Your "what's the point of doing anything" attitude and dodgy logic leads me to the possible conclusion that you are Casey himself.
@ Casey Fannnnn:
Why should Casey pay off Cashcall if he's going to file BR?
It might seem like putting good money after bad, but it isn't. If Casey makes an effort to pay back his debts, it'll look much better to the bankruptcy judge and increase the chance that the debts will be discharged. The Cash Call loan is the biggest albatross around his neck at this point, so getting it discharged is a high priority.
Other than that, I have nothing to add.
I'm gonna reiterate a couple points on the mental illness thing.
If he is in fact mentally ill, it's not the same as addiction or moral weakness or a broken personality. He doesn't need to "hit rock bottom". He doesn't need to "get into recovery". An orchestrated group or family intervention, like one might do for an alcoholic or drug addict, would be grossly inappropriate. Galina and the family should be talking to a medical doctor, not a "counselor", and possibly to the local NAMI chapter about how to get Casey in to see a doctor.
If he is in fact seriously mentally ill, his family and Galina are in for a long hard road for reasons completely unrelated to his financial disaster. On that, they have my complete sympathy.
I agree. Seek help for your addictive behaviours.
Address your most pressing problems instead of ignoring them until they're worse.
Stop relying on people who don't really know what they're talking about.
Learn to live without little luxuries and save every dirty penny you can.
Number one, is Casey needs to stop being a coward. That's not a hater comment - he is. He runs away from his responsibility, hard work, and accountability.
Casey has not made the emotional adjustment to a teen age maturity, let alone an adult man. He acts like a 12 year old, having to be constantly reminded to do what he has to (and sees nothing wrong with it), is more interested in playing and wearing costumes and indulging in his whims, then he is doing what is necessary. From the little I know of this kind of thing, I would suspect something happened to him in his early teens that stopped his maturity and mental growth - could be an alcoholic father, abuse, culture shock...anything.
He also needs to renounce and walk away from a life of larceny. This is what concerns me, as he has a "shurg, so what?" attitude about being a potential mutiple-felon. This is NOT healthy behavior for anyone of any age, even a kid, it points to psychotic and sociopathic behavior. Serious, hardcore criminals tend to be the mentally ill, who cannot recognize the difference between right and wrong, and don't care, and have no concience.
I have doubts he could survive a normal job and normal life - could you imagine if kids entered the picture? No, even if jailed, Casey will come out with a better eductation on how to be a criminal. It's his nature, and doubt he can change it. He may be facing a lifetime of looking over his shoulder, and possibily spending large stretches of his adult life behind bars or on probation.
IF he hits rock bottom, he may be able to face his demons and accept and admit who is is and what he's done, and move on from that. He might bounce off it for a while. Rock bottom defines you in ways you cannot imagine, and it defines you in how you climb back up...or don't.
I think what Casey will find is weak, so threadbare, so lacking in anything admirable, like honesty, integrity, courage, duty, that he'll either hide that person deep inside a fake personality, or lose it entirely.
It's not going to be pretty.
In a sense, that's what his blog is - it's his alter ego. We have no idea if the person who lives in his sister in law's house is the same one we comment on. In real life, he could be a foul mouthed snotty brat who calls G every name in the book if she as much as scowls at him. (I tend to think he's a weak fish who crumples if she scowls). We know the online persona, with glimpses into the possible "real" Casey, because he and his ego and self esteem are so tied up in that blog now, that he slips, especially when he's angry at the haters.
We're his audience, and in a wierd way his peers and extended family. He's manipulated us all into getting his gratification fixes, getting free Daddy's to help him, and all the ego boost he can take. I officially considered him a Netkook a while ago, and I'm thinking of getting him nominated for Kook of the Year. A common thing with Netkooks, and there are some NASTY ones out there, is that they actaully grow attached to the group they attack or begrudge or rail against. Casey thinks its all one big happy coffee klastch where the pardodies posted here are made in good fun, and it's juts something to laugh about until the next installment of Caseyworld™
We've all fallen for his manipulation, or we would'nt be here. The question isn't what HE does next, it's what WE do. Do we continue to be unwitting partners in hisdysfunctional behavior, or do we go tough love and walk away, pulling the prop of his blog out from under him?
Without that blog, he has nothing, even if he won't admit it. Without it, he has to deal with his family, Galina, his creditors, the authorities, and ultimately, his god.
Can you do it?
Not yet. I want to watch the train wreck thank you very much/ I've wasted too much of my short life.
I'd be very surprised if CashCall doesn't have some kind of clause in the loan agreement about the debt not being able to be discharged in BK.
@Dinah Might
If creditors could add clauses the single out their debt and save them from BK discharge, every creditor would do it. With few exceptions in the BK law, the BK court decides what is dischargable.
Ah, Rob BBB. You've gone to the dark side. Just a few weeks ago Rob BBB was posting that Casey was going to be able to pull this out. That we were all boneheads. Now we hear that the outcome can't be changed.
Why the change of heart?
(P.S. As has been posted here before, Rob BBB is a troll.)
4. Publish book on harrowing tale back from debt.
This is a great thought. Who cares how 'flake got into trouble. Any idiot can run up massive debt and get caught. The real interesting saga would be how he returns to a normal life without debt.
But 'flake could never pull that off, much less write anything meaningful about it.
I think I may have mentioned some stock message boards I used to frequent while I held a spec. biotech stock (which ultimately bit the bullet) and it was mystifying to see how people blindly cheered.
There was always the basher though.
I had a brilliant "basher" in a firm I used to work for, and she was an invaluable part of the team. She'd do next to no work in the early stages of setting projects up and would drive colleagues up the wall in the process to the point where they'd complain to me that she was a waste of space - and I'd say "just wait."
And, sure enough, when we started producing something concrete, she'd start a forensic demolition of what we were doing - but painful though it was, it was also hugely constructive, and she could identify problems that we'd simply failed to notice because we were so busy working on the fine details. And the final result would be ten times better for her intervention, even though we spent most of the final stages fantasizing about how best to kill her.
Casey badly needs someone like that in his life. I thought he might have found one with Duane, but that fizzled out almost immediately. Sadly, Galina doesn't seem to be up to the job, and I'm not getting a sense that any of his other relatives are either. But he needs someone whom he absolutely trusts, whose opinion he respects, but who is nonetheless utterly ruthless in highlighting what's wrong with his current course of (in)action and spelling out the likely consequences.
Look at Casey's timeline post on IAFF and imagine what life was like for him a year ago. He was rockin' baby, on a massive high, sweet dealin', jetting around the southwest, openning biz bank accounts and collecting credit cards galore. He had approx $90k cash at his highest point. Incredible good times, baby. Think about how it must have been. How totally, absolutely, positively wonderful!! Think about all those sweet perks of a wallet full of good credit cards and the dignity of biz lines of credit.
There's no whey he's giving that up (in his mind). Things will turn, it's all just one sweet deal away from turning around and he'll be rockin' again!!! He'll never get over this ride, never forget it or reject it -- it's coming again only this time bigger and better, you'll see, you'll all see!
And the real tragedy is that he thinks he's already hit rock bottom, despite having a roof over his head, a wife, regular meals and even the occasional trip to Jamba Juice. Hell, he even had his tires replaced - and has a car. (Remember when he said "I'm suffering enough - why should I go to jail?")
He has no idea how far he still has to fall.
But I think a psychiatrist is best placed to say whether a short sharp shock or a full medical evaluation would be best for him - certainly, a vast amount of his behavior is so irrational and illogical as to suggest that something's very badly wrong upstairs.
Has anyone here had personal experience with a seriously bipolar person in one's life? My older sister has been on a manic rollercoaster for nearly as long as I can remember. She's been to many hospitals, psychiatrists, etc. and taken more drugs than I can name of - yet she is still out to lunch. Very frustrating.
Like Casey, my sister is too scattered and narcissistic to hold a job, has ongoing delusions of grandeur and is a general pain in the ass to the rest of the family. Why harass KC’s sister in law? She must already feel miserable.
@Miguel,
Casey is above reproach. So having somebody like that on his "team" wouldn't work. His wife should be the critic if he won't have a professional involved.
I don't think Casey has real mental disorder aside from his inability to let go of the good times. He was supposed to be rich now. This wasn't supposed to go down this way. So he's more like a gambler really.
Crock Pot.
Start it a 4 in the morning, just before going out to work. Casey will have a delicious hot meal ready when he gets in from the first job, & Galina gets a quick meal between her jobs (or night school), too.
The veggies to make one juice will half-fill the pot.
Cheap cuts of meat become incredibly tender. Or don't use any meat at all.
Cheers - Dave
CraigsList.
As of right now there are dozens of web-development opportunities listed.
Gigs/Computer:
Contract pieces, set your own time, Do the work, get the pay. Be a RE mogul in your own time.
Jobs/Computer:
Get past the J-word, lots of webbie script stuff.
PS
Contract work can be found all around the country, It's the Internet, you know.
Your's helpfully, Dave.
Having been there and done that I must honestly disagree that Casey is mentally ill. That does not mean he is not delusional but that itself is just a general adjective to describe his thoughts not a clinical term in this case. When I daytraded in the 1990's I lost everything but I had hopes of pulling everything out of the fire gradually right up until the end. There are differences, I only took myself to 0 I never went 2.2 million in debt.
Of course Casey needs to get a job and declare bankruptcy. That is commonsense. The most important essential step though is that someone really close to him needs to tell him the jig is up. That is what will get him on the long hard road to recovery. He needs to accept help and more importantly to be meek about it. The acceptance of help is by far the easy part but the slap on the face telling him wake up it's over will be 1000X more difficult.
The problem is the illusion of wealth that Casey created. Yes spending additional debt incurred in cash back deals is NOT wealth but ordinary people treat their acquaintences with wealth or poverty different from others. I imagine Snowflake's friends and family ooh'ed and aah'ed with his tales of business acumen and uncanny ability to be oh so correct in his judgment. Of course the exact details were probably left out of Casey's description of events. That treatment by people whom Snowflake holds in high esteem was more potent than the most powerful cocaine rock imaginable. Now that he is scraping bottom I imagine those who know any details are probably doing a 180 in their thinking and doing it right to his face as well.
So the problem is psychological IMHO rather than psychiatric. Casey does not want to ruin the image that most of his family and acquaintences have of him. He'll show the haters and get back on top. What's more he will not share his good fortune. Revenge motivates wonderfully. Thus he will not admit defeat and attempt to salvage what is left of his life.
Has anyone heard from Dolph or Honey DA Clown lately? Homey disappears sometimes but I wonder where Dolph is.
Sort of OFF topic here but it does tie in, insofar as the mainstream media plays a big role in this monster. And by this monster I mean the loaded economic gun we're staring down the barrel of.
I just saw Maria Bartiromo on the Today Show. Let me pull some choice quotes (thank you Tivo)
Lester Holt: Is this the early signs of a recession or is this what Wall Streeters call a correction?
Maria Bartiromo: Well I don't think it's the early signs of a recession...Alan Greenspans's comments were taken out of commentd and by the end of last week he actually backed away from those comments. Yes we are seeing a slowdown in the economy...it seems the utterance of Recession, people were calling in the "R" word, just unnerved people.
LH: What's a correction?
MB: Well a correction is 10% to the downside, could be over a month, could be a couple of weeks, we've only gone down 532 points.
LH: what should we be looking for tomorrow to know whether this is a correction or not?
MB: Well I don't think this is a correction, it doesn't feel that way, certainly we will see choppy markets. But at the end of the day you have to remember fundamentals. Hank Paulson the treasury secretary came out on Friday, tried to calm investors down and what he said was number one, we have a vibrant economy, even though we are seeing a slowdon. We've got an unemplyment rate of 4.6% that's virtually full employment. Employment is looking good, you've got the corporate sector, very vibrant, earnings right now you're talking about profit growth year over year of about 12%. It's very strong.
LH: So that person right now getting ready to dial the phone to their broker, your advice would be take a deep breath?
MB: Take a deep breath, I don't think you're gonna want to have a knee jerk reaction here...because we're looking at a strong fundamental backdrop to the stock market and I think you just want to wait this out. We're still seeing interest rates relatively low, in terms of housing even if we are seeing a slowdown, it doesn't look like a collapse by anyone's standards in the housing market.
LH: There's a silver lining, Thanks Maria.
Thanks for all those tough questions Lester. "Everything's fine, don't do anything, don't sell anything. Hold perfectly still."
Next time put on a cheerleader outfit Maria.
Reminds me of the dotcom meltdown, all over again. Maria B was a shameless cheerleader throughout that debacle as well.
1. Get a real job (so you get a "gasp!" 401k)
2. Do contract work on the side for extra money.
3. Make Galina get at least a part time job.
4.THROW OUT ALL OF THE GURU EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL, NO MORE SEMINARS! Get some counseling (real counseling not guru MLM stuff).
5.File BK and hope the court has mercy on your cash back fraud ass. If you don't do steps 1-4 then don't bother with step 5 or you will probably end up in jail.
Lather, Rinse and Repeat until you grow up.
I just don't see that many good options for Casey anymore. With 2 foreclosures already and the last three foreclosures scheduled, he has very little room to maneuver anymore. He's chosen to try to short sell the remaining properties instead of going for deed-in-lieus; I'm not qualified to say whether that was the right call or not. And who knows what's happening with Utah.
If he had taken some of the advice given him last fall, moved into one of the properties, rented out some of the others, and declared BK, he might well have been able to hang onto a couple of the houses. But instead, he did nothing, and here we are. I don't have much to add that hasn't already been said, but I'll 2nd:
-BK (inevitable, given the huge pile of unsecured CC debt he and Galina have)
-job
-psychiatric evaluation
-burn all the guru materials (or sell them on eBay for a little sweet cash)
and I'll add: marital counseling. From a professional, not some guru or untrained church staffer. Casey and Galina don't seem to have a clue what a real marriage is or how to have a healthy relationship.
For a long time now, I've had a theory that what happens to you from age ~16-22 is critical in the kind of adult you become. Many times, I've seen kids that have had too much success too soon flame out and/or become insufferable jerks in the process. I honestly think that you NEED to get kicked in the butt by life a few times when you're on the cusp of adulthood so that you learn how to handle challenge and adversity.
The fact that Casey managed to do one successful flip, and managed to become very financially flush (albeit on borrowed cash) early on set up a pattern in his head that success is the default mode. As we've seen, that's a dangerous thing.
Casey's update today qualifies as one of the Worst Ever. Even the haters don't care any longer. Another foreclosure on the horizon? Bankruptcy looming? Creditors all over you? Penniless and unemployed? None of these are reality in CaseyLand™. There is only one reality in his world: More sweet deals™ need to be massaged and juiced™.
Oh, and why anybody would interview Maria on finances is beyond me. She has a degree from NYU with a minor in economics. Pfffttt..
two words:
METH LABS
FED SAYS: NO MORE NON-TRADITIONAL MORTGAGES EFFECTIVE TODAY
Quote
Well, the party IS OVER and will get worse, 20% of potential borrowers will no longer be able to get loans, and house price depreciation will excellerate....
No More Interest Only, 2/28, no-doc, 100%LTV, 3-2-1 and 1-0 buydowns, GPMs etc...
------------
[link to users2.wsj.com]
Subprime Troubles Grow
Wall Street Journal
3/3/07
By JAMES R. HAGERTY, DAMIAN PALETTA and LINGLING WEI
March 3, 2007; Page A3
"Federal bank regulators announced a crackdown on loose lending standards on subprime home mortgages as two major lenders struggled to cope with losses and regulatory problems"
New Century Financial Corp., one of the nation's largest subprime lenders, announced that it has been informed of a federal criminal inquiry into its accounting and trading in its securities. New Century also said that a failure to obtain waivers from lenders or find new funding sources could prompt its auditors to warn of "substantial doubt" over its ability to remain in business.
Another big lender, Fremont General Corp., said it plans to stop making subprime residential loans and is in talks with various parties aimed at selling that business. Subprime loans are those for people with weak credit records or high debt in relation to income.
A proposed policy statement released Friday by regulators comes after rising defaults already have rattled investors and forced subprime lenders to be more cautious in extending credit. "There seems to be a growing realization that not everybody can buy a house today," said Scott Stern, chief executive of Lenders One, a St. Louis-based cooperative for mortgage-banking firms. Lenders will have to tell some borrowers to save for a down payment, he said...
Advice? The same advice that I (and pretty much everyone else) has been posting since September: shut down the blog, get the best lawyer possible, declare BK, vigorously prepare to defend himself against criminal charges. His priority should be saving his marriage and staying out of jail. Reducing his debt should have been a secondary objective, not a primary focus.
About a month ago I came to the conclusion that Casey was beyond help. For a brief time in late January, it finally seemed like he was waking up to reality. Then he pissed the partnership with Duane away and became even more delusional than ever.
My one criticism of the advice that has been posted here is that Casey most certainly should not burn or shitcan his collection of guru material. If he were to sell them on eBay, he could quite possibly liquidate them for several hundred dollars, maybe even a few thousand. Obviously not enough to save him, but it could produce a month's worth of living expenses.
Also, I agree that there's no much point in harassing Yulia or any other member of his family. His creditors are most likely doing plenty of that anyway. My guess is that they know exactly what type of useless sack of crap Casey is and have only put up with him this long because they care about Galina so much. My best guess is that as the foreclosures pile up, the marriage will be over sometime around mid-year.
If he's lucky, his parents will let him move back in with them. If not, he very well could be living on the street by the end of the year (the Jetta will be repossessed in the next few months). Or he could be in jail.
I'm getting bored with him and his story. He's beyond help because he's unwilling to recognize the true reason for his problems. There is virtually no chance that he emerges from this mess financially successful, and I seriously doubt that he will EVER be a productive member of society.
Part of me hopes that he disappears to some oil rig in SE Asia and never sets foot in the US again. I don't want to see my tax dollars go to prosecute and incarcerate Casey simply because I fail to see the point. No matter what happens to him, Casey will almost certainly always be the same deluded charlatan that he is right now. I don't care about him getting punished anymore; I just want that clueless sack of crap out of the country.
-walt526
Rob Dawg,
Allot of these comments are negative. Are you going to delete them or what?
BC
Allot of these comments are negative. Are you going to delete them or what?
I thought about deleting "METH LABS" but decided to keep it. You see, while I don't condone anything that massively destructive to society or individual self worth for Casey it could be a constructive idea. If it looks like prison anyway there's a train of thought that "renting" out as a meth lab could get him tens of thousands under the table to at least pay back his friends/family and squirrel away some G money and make the criminal and BK retainers.
@walt526
I feel much the same as you in many respects about Casey. I don't think he'll ever be a productive member of society. He's just too far gone. The issue is how do you save society from Casey. I too wish you could punt him to some far away oil rig platform or crab boat in Alaska, but his "me-me-me" attitude would probably get someone killed.
That's why I'd like to see him prosecuted and fined up to the hilt. Put him back out in society as severely hobbled as possible and living with relatives. I'm like you I want as little tax dollars as possible spent on the Snowflake.
What would be nice is for a judge to restrict his internet access completely. Don't they do that for pedophiles? A year of house arrest with a anklet, and a year probation. Both years with no NET access. That would sting! Maybe bring him back to earth.
I think that none of the above suggestions, good, bad, or healthy will do any good unless Casey Serin learns humility. And unfortunately that is something that is learned best when forced upon us. He will not listen to anyone because he ONLY values his opinion and the opinions of those he deems worthy. He can not listen because his own views on his self-worth are in the way. He has listened only to the mantras "believe in yourself", "you're worth it", and believes that if he puts what HE views as positive energy into the world it will come back to him.
He has no self-awareness and therefore can not be humble.
All of our efforts and comments are in vain until the switch goes off and Casey allows himself to be viewed in the light of the truth.
He probably tells himself "God Loves me just as I am". And while that may be true Jesus said "give to Caesar what is Caesar’s" - God did not discharge us of our debts to each other in society - and there are plenty of examples of God punishing those who are deliberately disobedient. Casey, if you're reading this - you are deliberately disobeying the God you claim to serve. If you ask Him for anything don’t ask for money or even your fading marriage to be saved...ask God to show you the crushing weight of humility. and be prepared to open yourself to receive it.
otherwise you'll perpetually stumble blindly
in all seriousness,
P
So the problem is psychological IMHO rather than psychiatric. Casey does not want to ruin the image that most of his family and acquaintences have of him.
I think I posted this on IAFF already, but it's months ago so bears repeating.
Nick Leeson is a perfect parallel here. Although he started losing money almost as soon as he began trading at Barings Bank, he did once strike it lucky enough to wipe out all his (or rather the bank's) debts. Had he stopped there, he'd have been fine...
...apart from having to admit that he'd been living a lie for a year or two, while his oblivious bosses on the other side of the world had been bigging him up as their in-house trading genius.
And because he couldn't admit this to anyone other than himself, he couldn't stop - so his hard-won balance of zero started falling again, and by the time it hit minus 850 million pounds (over a billion dollars even at more US-friendly mid-1990s exchange rates) the game was up.
And not only did his bosses still discover his shortcomings, but their 200-year-old business had gone under as well, together with their jobs.
So I suspect that with the benefit of hindsight, Leeson would have swallowed his pride, 'fessed up, and at least saved the bank. But since Casey, like Leeson, seems incapable of projecting more than five minutes into the future (the current CashCall shenanigans being entirely predictable from the moment he cancelled the autotransfer by shutting down his Wells Fargo account), he's pretty much doomed.
To be honest, I don't have anything to suggest that hasn't already been suggested fifty million times, read and ignored.
I think that in the long run Casey needs to go into marketing. That's clearly where his talents lie. What's more, with his childlike looks and happy-go-lucky personality, he'd be the perfect pitch man for Log.
Ogg: Ugh. Hell no. I work in marketing. We're not all scum-sucking liars, you know.
Let Sales have him.
UGH -
He's on a "manic" side of his mental illness again.
Trip to Utah
Posting late at night
We'll know he's on the "down" side when he announces his partnership didn't work out and is once again wondering where his rent, gas and other money is coming from.
Just posted this over at IAFF site....
What are your thoughts dear readers?
Late night eh?
I'm asking again the following - and unless you answer, many of us will believe you are up to your previous "shady" habits - only this time, instead of using a bank you are using a "money" partner - which means "what" exactly?
First, you've had more than a poor track record in actually making money (meaning revenue) in real estate. So, what is it you are bringing to the table? What are your tangible skills?
Next: what kind of a “partnership” agreement has been written and signed? You've signed many agreements over the past few months without the benefit of an attorney. Of course, after signing, you've found you've made a mistake. So what gives here? What makes this different?
Once again, we pose the following questions:
Who is/are the partner(s)?
What, if anything is the nature of the partnership agreement?
What, if anything, have you signed?
Did you have an attorney represent your interests?
What are your responsibilities and duties as a “partner”?
What are the responsibilities and duties of your partner(s)?
What is the nature of this partnership venture? (i.e. business plan)
How does this partnership venture intend to generate REVENUE?
How much of the REVENUE will your partner(s) see? (Afterall, you say this is the "money" partner.)
How much of the REVENUE will you see?
When will you start seeing the REVENUE results of your partnership?
Will the REVENUE results of the partnership allow you to:
* make your living expenses every month (i.e., rent, utilities, food, gas, insurance, etc.)
* make payments on G's credit cards?
* make payments on your credit cards?
* make payments to cash call?
* meet the deadline for your "personal" loans of $5,000 and $22,000 that are coming due in the next couple of months?
This post and yesterday's offer any real "educational" vale to the readers and followers of your blog. Answering the above questions are helpful and valuable to your readers.
Let's see the answers.
Anybody see that "don't be a d!ck" troll that KC posted on IAFF today? Holy Cr@p! I figure the probablities of the utah trip being (from highest prob to lowest)
1) Advance fee loan scam. I.e pay $5000 for $50000 in credit.
2) Pyramid scam. KC will be the last sucker in before it collapses, of course.
3) UT buyer luring KC out with the intent to beat his ass.
4) Law enforcement luring KC out with the intent to arrest his ass. Remember the beginning of the movie "Sea of Love"?
@anon 12:27: bravo, bravo, bravo. mejustme's comment was also excellent.
It's possible that Casey does not himself know the answers to any of these questions -- he's not good at critical thinking or due diligence, and he may simply be going along blindly because "it's all good".
i appreciate the occasional serious post. the joking ones aren't that funny to me. i advocate a reality t.v. program of Casey. i'm dead serious.
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