A Baseline When Many People Overpaid Is Illogical
A report from Westworld on Colorado. “Thanks to Denver’s red-hot real estate market, more and more people trying to buy a home in the metro area are finding themselves in bidding wars, resulting in offers that frequently blow past the property’s listed price. The incredible demand, as well as the speed with which purchases are being made, explains why some real estate agents have started putting up ‘Coming Soon’ signs on houses before changing them to ‘For Sale.’ Scott Grossman, who chairs the board for the Denver Metro Association of Realtors, elaborates on this point. Local real estate agents have been seeing bids for properties from people who haven’t actually seen them ‘for a little while now — especially buyers who are coming in from out of state, who are somewhat at a disadvantage. There’s no luxury of being able to fly in and look at a house next week, because most likely it will be long gone by then. So they see a listing come on the market and put in the highest bid — but then, over the next week or two, something happens and they back out of the deal.’”
“‘Some of them have buyer’s remorse, thinking, ‘Maybe we’re paying a little too much for this. Let’s get out.’ Or maybe there’s an inspection issue that might cause them to second-guess. And there’s more risk of that happening from people who haven’t walked through it and actually seen it.’”
The Real Deal on New York. “In December 2015, with new development sales beginning to drag, Doug Yearley got poetic about condo sales – or the lack thereof. ‘There are certain units in certain locations within a building that are hot, and then there are other units that may be in a dark, cold corner that you have to incentivize a bit more,’ the CEO of national homebuilding giant Toll Brothers told investors during an earnings call at the time.”
“Since then, Toll Brothers has rolled out an aggressive array of incentives at its condo projects in New York, becoming one of the biggest players to acknowledge the slowdown and spell out its plans to tackle it. And in planning for the future, it’s shifted away from the top-tier luxury product that has saddled so many developers with unsold inventory. ‘They got a little aggressive on their pricing,’ said Stephen Kliegerman of Terra Holdings, and doesn’t work with Toll Brothers. ‘One of the negatives of doing your own in-house sales and marketing is you don’t have boots-on-the-ground brokers to say to decision-makers: ‘You’re going a little too far.’”
The New Journal in Florida. “Regina Marston slowly drove her SUV up and down the section of short, parallel roads that make up the heart of Volusia County’s northernmost beachfront community. One by one she pointed out the abandoned boats, cars, pickups and trailers improperly parked in front yards. Junked yards in plain view. Lawns not maintained. Work being done without proper permits or any concept of deadlines. Marston wearied of the exercise before she ran out of examples of the downturn her neighborhood in the older section of Ormond-by-the-Sea has taken.”
“‘It’s counter-intuitive to have mainland housing be worth more than beachfront housing,’ said Marston, 67, a former Realtor who owns two homes in the area and has pestered county officials for several years in an effort to break what she considers their ongoing indifference to the area.”
“Doug Daniels represented the area on the County Council from 2013 through 2016. He recalled knocking on doors during his campaign in 2012 and being astonished to see so many derelict homes on so many streets throughout the community. ‘You could tell that a lot of the prior owners of those properties were gone,’ he said. ‘They had been foreclosed out and someone else acquired their properties. … You look at some of those streets and it almost seems like blight by design.’”
“‘I am resentful. I admit it,’ said homeowner Janet Jester, 70. ‘I’m not going to picket in front of people’s houses or anything, but I don’t like it. It lowers the value of my property.’”
The Illinois News Network. “Illinois is one of the few states in the nation to still have home foreclosure rates higher than pre-recession levels. A real estate agent in one of the hardest-hit areas of the state says high property taxes send people away. Bob Nieman has been a Realtor in the Rockford area for decades. While the recession was years ago, he says there are still a high number of foreclosed homes there. In a city where the average home price is less than $110,000, he says people still tell him the monthly mortgage payments are too high.”
“‘On a $100,000 home, the taxes are going to be around $4,000. Normally, that’s an objection,’ he said. ‘It has a damper on whether they’re willing to buy it at all. The tax bill is high but the price per square foot, compared to other areas, is low.’”
The Greenwich Free Press in Connecticut. “Just a day after public relations firm Lou Hammond pitched its services to the First Selectman’s Economic Advisory Committee with a goal of making Greenwich more enticing to home buyers and businesses, Bloomberg published a feature reporting that the Greenwich market ‘jolted awake’ in the first quarter of 2017 in tandem with a rising stock market and house price reductions averaging 7.9 percent.”
“Commenting on the Bloomberg article, the director of the Greenwich Association of Realtors, Theresa Hatton was dismissive. ‘The contention about discounts is actually normal in any market and at any price range,’ she said. ‘Homes that are on the market longer sell for less than asking price, homes priced to sell are sold quickly and usually for at or above list price. It is universal across all real estate markets as cited by real estate author and trainer, David Knox.’”
“Some readers have been more sympathetic to the Bloomberg argument. After a March 8 GFP feature about the proposed re-branding campaign – Proposed Greenwich Re-Branding: A Pearls and Mercedes Town No More – GFP reader Marija said she was opposed to her tax money being spent on a PR campaign ‘to increase real estate prices.’ ‘Greenwich housing is already expensive – and a baseline of the height of the market in 2007 when many people overpaid is illogical,’ she argued. ‘Housing is impacted by economic cycles, and we are likely to face another downturn in the upcoming years. PR campaigns will be futile to prevent this.’”
“The reader went on to lament the tear down trend and construction of even larger ‘high end’ houses on speculation that she argued few people can afford. ‘Let those developers and agents pay for their own marketing.’”
“Commenting on GFP’s April 19 feature write-up on the Lou Hammond presentation, local journalist and author Sarah Darer Littman wrote, ‘Those of us who made prudent financial decisions when purchasing homes are being asked for our taxpayer dollars to bail out the bad decisions of people who took out too much debt to invest in McMansions in back country and now can’t unload them for what they paid for them. Never mind that these are many of the same folks who are ardent proponents of free market principles when it comes to those less well off than themselves on issues like healthcare and the carried interest loophole.’”
http://finance.yahoo.com/m/6d3bea9f-a7dd-3c71-8b96-89b4ade64f28/the-u.s.-restaurant-industry.html
restaurant bubble pop
to save bandwidth what isn’t a bubble?
grossly inflated asset prices will put the little people to work for the folks who own a lot of stocks and homes.
When your connected you get to sit in a recliner and watch the ticker go by on cnbc or fox business then watch the cash roll in to your etrade account at the click of a mouse.
Employment is still growing faster than the rest of the economy.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.png?g=dl3k
‘Manhattan’s retail availability grew 24.4% in the first three months of 2017′
‘Retailers are “confronting the consequences of over-expansion”: CBRE’
‘As storefronts across Manhattan continue to go dark, there was a nearly 25 percent increase in the number of available spaces at the end of March than there had been three months earlier.’
‘The increase in availability should continue to put further downward pressure on asking rents, which have been in decline since early 2014 following a period of unprecedented growth when prices nearly doubled in the span of just two years, according to CBRE’s first quarter market report.’
“Retailers are also confronting the consequences of over-expansion, often at historically high rents,” CBRE’s report read. “These phenomena are compounded in New York City by the negative impact of the rising dollar on spending by foreign tourists, a trend that has hit the luxury market especially hard.”
‘prices nearly doubled in the span of just two years’
Janet was all over this. Well maybe not.
I was reading about how broke people are in Miami the other day. It has one of the highest rents to income levels. But here’s the crazy thing, landlords are barely squeaking by if not losing money. Yes, I posted a long piece about how if they leverage up to the gills, and if there’s no recession and if rents don’t stop going up (or Jeebus forbid, go down!), they can get a good return on the tiny amount of cash they have in it. This at a time when there have never been more renters and rents have never been so high.
It’s all expensive and almost nobody makes money unless prices go up. And it’s choking the economy. Practically every week some report comes out saying the majority of people in the US can’t scratch together a couple thousand bucks in a pinch. Sure online retailers are taking over, but they lose money. Online taxis are taking over, but for every three bucks they take in they lose one. And they wonder why people don’t have the money to eat over-priced burritos.
“And it’s choking the economy.”
^
‘Twitter employee making $160,000 in San Francisco says he’s scraping by’
‘Engineers at prominent tech firms can expect to fork over 40 to 50 percent of their annual salaries to rent an apartment near work, according to one study cited by The Guardian.’
‘Things are even worse in San Francisco for those outside of the most lucrative sectors. Doctors can’t afford 58 percent of the homes in the city, according to a recent study by Trulia, and teachers can expect to put up to 77 percent of their income toward housing, Curbed San Francisco reports.’
‘Another woman who spoke to The Guardian says that although she and her partner make a combined salary of over $1 million, they can’t afford a house.’
But there’s no bubble.
The forecasted HPI visual is amazing. No flattening out, no correction - the official prediction is that housing prices are going straight to the moon for the next several years! Whoever made that visual needs to be kicked in the groin from behind, repeatedly.
HPI=Garbage
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/feb/27/silicon-aa-cost-of-living-crisis-has-americas-highest-paid-feeling-poor
““We make over $1m between us, but we can’t afford a house,” said a woman in her 50s who works in digital marketing for a major telecoms corporation, while her partner works as an engineer at a digital media company. “This is part of where the American dream is not working out here.”
The prospect of losing her job and not having health insurance is a particular concern, given that she had cancer a couple of years ago. “If Obamacare goes away and I lose my job I am deeply screwed,” she said.”
This doesn’t make sense. I think there’s more to this story.
“If something bad happened I’d be out of the house in a month.”
These are the people who gladly pay $12 for a glass of “freshly squeezed juice”.
I wonder why we never see a story about one of these code warriors living in an RV in the campus parking lot.
You can easily find a story about “code warriors living in an RV”. Sort of, there is a local news story about a NASA scientist who lives down the street from me in her RV in Mountain View, CA. She could afford an apartment but chooses not to so she can save money for a house some day. If you pay rent at market rates - it makes it difficult to save for the ever increasingly large down payment required. She has her “dream job” but does the RV thing to get a leg up on everyone else - parked outside million dollar condos. It’s disgusting. To see 40 RVs on my way home on a 6 mile stretch. 6 years ago, there was 1 RV of what I assumed was a foreigner whose family lived there to be near their condo. I don’t know. Just search Mountain View and RV.
Mountain View?
Mountain View, CA Rental Rates Crater 5% YoY
https://www.zillow.com/mountain-view-ca/home-values/
‘Twitter employee making $160,000 in San Francisco says he’s scraping by
He needs to move to midwest or to south. Chances are good that he can make 100k - 120k with his twitter “skillset”. With 100K in midwest, his quality of life would improve significantly and he can still afford at least 6 weekend gateways to SF.
There was a story a while back about a Google engineer who lived in his car on Google’s campus for a while (they get all the food they want, will do laundry, have showers, etc.).
He saved a massive amount of money.
Here it is: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/google-employee-box-truck-parking-lot-rent_us_5628e98ae4b0aac0b8fbc7a4
Employment is still growing faster than the rest of the economy.
They say that’s happening here in the Centennial state, yet in the past 10 years there has only been a single TABOR refund on April 15, and it was pittance by historical standards. What that tells me is that tax receipts have not been growing faster than population growth and inflation, which doesn’t sound like a hot economy at all.
It is very likely it has something to do with the fact housing demand in CO has plunged 24% YoY. Not exactly a recipe for a growing economy.
http://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public/State/State_Turnover_AllHomes.csv
Well, pay levels are an important factor. Jobs in bars and restaurants generally don’t pay well, so if employment in that industry is growing more than employment in other industries, that’s not a great development for the country’s working people.
It’s quite possible TABOR refunds don’t reflect the state of the state economy well.
Aren’t good pay levels a sign of a healthy economy? If an economy mostly generates menial jobs and a lower tax base, isn’t that a sign of a weak economy?
People here in the Centennial state have been saying that the economy is hot, as often use that to justify the bubble prices. But I remember the late 90’s. The TABOR refunds were over $1000. Then the 2000 crash hit and it’s never been the same again.
That’s what I meant. Continued growth in restaurant jobs can be consistent with a slowly growing economy.
I need to check if the guy in loveland can escape- 2 years into a SFH
How much did your friend pay? If it was in the low to mid 200’s he will get multiple offers in a single day and have a bidding war at his doorstep.
Stop saying the Centennial State and just say Colorado. No one wants to look that up.
FYI, “BTFD” means “buy the failed dip.” I had to look that up too.
What isn’t a bubble?
Whatever government does NOT try to control to make things fair and to buy votes.
‘On a $100,000 home, the taxes are going to be around $4,000. Normally, that’s an objection,’ he said.
taxes up 17% in chighetto= the teachers raise hmmmmmmmmmmmmm
IL will be the first to go BK
Now imagine if the bubble did its “magic” in that town and that 100K house became a $200K house. Hello $8000 tax bill!
And Illinois and Chicago can’t figure out why people and businesses are leaving…
Public union pensions will be paid.
No matter how high property taxes have to be raised.
At some point they will run out of other people’s money to spend.
Q: What is the first thing a public union goon does when he/she retires?
A: Sells his/her house and moves to a low tax and right to work state…
—-
Don’t count on that government pension
The Chicago Tribune | April 17, 2017 | Terry Savage
Millions of Americans are expecting to receive a pension from the city or state that employs them. Many will be in for a terrible surprise, according to the nonprofit organization Truth in Accounting.
Based on the size of its unfunded pension liabilities, Chicago is in the worst shape, with more than $62 billion worth of unfunded pension promises. Chicago has less than 33 cents set aside for every dollar promised.
The Chicago Municipal Employees plan is estimated to run out of assets in seven years, since it is only 20.3 percent funded. The police fund (funded at 25.4 percent) and the firefighter’s fund (funded at 21.7 percent) will not be far behind. The Public School Teachers’ Pension and Retirement Fund is in slightly better shape with 51.6 percent funding.
New York City is in second worst shape in terms of total dollars needed, with an unfunded pension liability of more than $61 billion, but at least it is 71 percent funded.
At another extreme, Portland, Ore., has set aside less than 1 percent of what it needs to pay its $2.9 billion of pension promises.
Many states, including Illinois, have constitutional provisions making it difficult to change pension formulas, such as cost-of-living increases. These laws have restricted attempts to substitute more appropriate defined-contribution plans, such as the 401(k) plans, used in most businesses.
If a corporation declares bankruptcy, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation will pick up promised pension payments, up to certain levels. There is no such guarantee for state and municipal pensions.
But it is easier for the federal government to get away with underfunding pensions — because it can always print the money. Cities and states don’t have that option. When their money runs out, a lot of retirees are going to be hurt. And that’s The Savage Truth.
I’m in the California teacher’s union and I have many thoughts on this issue. I’m eligible to retire in 37 days, but I want to continue working and socking money away in case the money dries up one day. I also think that when the states start forfeiting on their teacher pensions, this will only be a minor problem because it’s sure to bring public chaos. There is only so much any of us can do to prepare for the future. God has given me a good life so far, and constant worry about events I have no control over will only speed up my demise.
You should Google Houston and their public pension.
There will be no public chaos cutting them.
Don’t fool yourself.
“I’m eligible to retire in 37 days, but I want to continue working and socking money away in case the money dries up one day.”
If you’re debt free you should step aside and let someone else get their career started. There are many fresh college graduates trying to get their first teaching job out there.
Public non-union pensions will also be paid. Your focus on the unions is interesting.
You really don’t understand public unions, do you…?
Hint1 - they are the largest political contributors of all time.
Hint2 - they believe that violence to achieve their goals is justified and a constitutional right.
You missed my point about non-union government employees. Also, your statement about violence is BS and irrelevant. Once again, you employ irrelevant BS to convince non-rich people to support an agenda that only benefits the rich. The wealthy have to do that. They’d get nowhere if they stuck to relevant facts.
Mike, the other day 2banana said something about working in Erie(?) PA and watching the factory unions demand too much. The factories responded by moving first South and then overseas. Easy to hate the unions if you experience their arrogance first-hand like that.
10-4
Oxide is always correct
Even FDR democratic socialist hated gov unions and warned
Hey, go easy on Erie. The only way to get decent wages in the rust belt is union negotiation. Companies like GE and Hammermill left because they wanted dirt-cheap labor (Texas) - never mind devastating the community that built them and tolerated their pollution. Don’t demean a union wanting living wages. I’d like to see laws curbing tax-free come-ons that states and cities give to corporations to lure them away and cause them to fire all of their workers in order to relocate - denting an entire city because the rich corporations left to earn a few extra bucks.
News flash,housing prices are going up in Texas - that will likely put pressure on those cheap, cheap wages to rise too. I do not buy GE or Hammermill products where there is a comparable alternative.
mmmmm…. nope.
Houston, TX Housing Prices Crater 6% YoY
https://www.zillow.com/houston-tx/home-values/
Dirt cheap labor?
Guys were making $100,000 a year with OT about 20 years ago…IN ERIE, PA.
They were the 1%ers of Erie.
Nice houses. Nice cars and trucks. Nice vacations. Nice motorcycles. Excellent healthcare. Great pensions. And freaking amazing fishing boats. It was the thing - pimp my fishing boat.
All with a HS education.
And the would purposefully sabotage equipment and product. Take advantage of every way not to work. Threaten violence to management. Refuse to follow work instructions to make a quality product. Insult customers on tours. Etc.
Well, they showed management how tough they were. Now their jobs are in Texas.
Easy to hate the unions if you experience their arrogance first-hand like that.
I’ve been thinking about this lately. We’ve probably all had bad experiences with businesses quite a few times in our lives, whether as employees or customers. You rarely hear people come to the conclusion that they don’t businesses in general, that America would be better off without businesses. We’ve all been indoctrinated with a pro-business agenda, which is a pro-rich guy agenda.
News flash,housing prices are going up in Texas - that will likely put pressure on those cheap, cheap wages to rise too.
In which case GE and Hammermill will go to Mexico or China for even cheaper labor, which evidently the Dems have no problem with. Or if/when those companies ditch pesky Americans altogether to hire illegal labor, Dems had no problem with that either. And liberals still think Trump won because “hate,” you know.
I like a living wage too — which btw is about $12/hour full time. That’s enough to share an apartment with a roomie, take a bike/bus/beater to work, and live frugal. No fishing boat (
), but you’re not starving either. Not bad for a no-cost HS degree. Want kids or a better lifestyle? Get a better job.
Want kids or a better lifestyle? Get a better job.
or just negotiate for better pay and benefits at the current job
or just negotiate…
Only works as long as the company paying you can sell their product competitively.
Really MightyMike, that was a stupid reply.
I’m talking about living-wage type jobs with only a HS diploma. They are REPLACEABLE, almost immediately. You’re expecting some burger flipper to “negotiate” for better benefits? The boss would the would toss him out the window and get a new employee off the street within a day.
You don’t get to negotiate anything until you get that better job.
That’s why unions were invented. It’s called collective bargaining. All of the employees get together and negotiate and they achieve better results that negotiating as individuals.
And the public sector unions negotiate with the politicians whose campaigns they finance. It’s called “conflict of interest”.
In the private sector, it all works fine for the unions until there is an option for businesses that is cheaper than paying union wages. It might be automation. It might be outsourcing. And it might be that another company emerges who has cheaper cost of labor.
As OPEC is learning…it is devastating when your monopoly power is eroded. It was the high oil prices that they pushed that ultimately drove the technologies (fracking) that destroyed their revenue.
The same is happening in business with automation. The higher labor pushes their cost, the more automation is developed–decreasing the demand for, and value of, human labor.
The same is true for non-unionized workers. It’s not a good argument against collective bargaining. Though businesses would much prefer an atomized workforce. They prefer to deal with the employees as individuals, rather than negotiating with them as a unified group.
And the public sector unions negotiate with the politicians whose campaigns they finance
Plenty of businesses, such as defense contractors, contribute to political campaigns and then negotiate with politicians. The result is wasteful boondoggles like the F-35 fighter. President Eisenhower referred to this as the military industrial complex. It’s interesting that that sort of thing doesn’t bother you or the banana guy the way that a nice pension for teach or a cop bothers you. Once again, it’s the business agenda. Go after ordinary working people. Don’t worry about any waste that fattens the bottom lines of big corporations.
It is far easier to unwind typical private sector contracts (which are subject to appropriations and renewal) than union benefits (which are almost impossible to reduce).
That’s the reason you complain one thing and not the other? That’s hard to believe. The military industrial complex is still going string nearly seventy years after Eisenhower’s warning. It appears to be quite difficult to fight it.
Housing my good friends….. Housing.
San Mateo County, CA Housing Demand Craters 21% YoY
http://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public/County/County_Turnover_AllHomes.csv
Chicago and Illinois have insane property taxes.
They can’t figure out why people are leaving by the thousands.
Publuc union pensions will be paid.
No matter how high property taxes have to be raised.
$4000 on $100000… My taxes in commie MD are less than that, %-wise.
Oxide
My Dad died lat year and we sold his house for $50,000. Taxes about $3850 and he had a Sr. citizens discounted tax rate. (IN ILLinois)
Odessa, FL Housing Prices Crater 9% YoY On Plummeting Housing Demand
https://www.zillow.com/odessa-fl/home-values/
‘One of the negatives of doing your own in-house sales and marketing is you don’t have boots-on-the-ground brokers to say to decision-makers: ‘You’re going a little too far.’
When has a broker told a builder to stop building BEFORE prices start to go down?
they never say prices will go down. when they finally do they act like they never saw it coming and start blaming other people.
When you you ever heard a stock peddler say to sell?
“When you you ever heard a stock peddler say to sell?”
When they are short the issue. Everyone talks their book.
The incredible demand, as well as the speed with which purchases are being made, explains why some real estate agents have started putting up ‘Coming Soon’ signs on houses before changing them to ‘For Sale.’
I have seen these even on podunky Loveland.
The Free Sh!t Army scores a victory in Ontario:
http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/24/pf/canada-ontario-money-basic-income-program/index.html
And to think FDR caught major crap for the CCC and etc. At least we got National Park trails and mural art and Hoover Dam (all which which are still standing) for our taxpayer dollars. At least make the unemployed show up to a public field and grow some food, or something.
Yep. And stop forcing productive Middle Class workers to pay outrageous tax bills to cover the cost of free shit. At this point we need an extra part time job to cover our taxes.
trump is probably add a sh@tload of debt and u pukes will never be able to retire on your puny savings accounts getting nothing in interest. FACT
Somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.
No. Only your speculation.
Here are some real FACTS:
Obama added more to the debt than ALL other previous administration COMBINED and accounting for inflation.
Trump has proposed a budget that actually reduces government spending.
It’s funny how democrats rediscover the deficit when they are out of power…
I have a feeling that azdude doesn’t usually vote for Democrats.
Does this proposed budget reduce the deficit or the debt? I’d love to see where you’re getting your information. Link?
Trump’s $1.1 Trillion Budget Makes Dramatic Cuts to Federal Government
NBC News - POLITICS MAR 16 2017
The White House is putting its “America First” agenda front and center, unveiling a budget Thursday that pumps $54 billion more into the Pentagon and protecting the nation’s borders, while sharply slashing domestic and discretionary spending.
Thanks for that one. I had seen it a few weeks ago when folks were talking about the proposed budget. What I never could determine was whether it was truly saving money by reducing the deficit or the debt, or if it was just cutting programs to boost spendings elsewhere. I thought maybe since you mentioned that it reduced spendings that you’d seen a real number.
According to here: https://www.nationalpriorities.org/analysis/2016/presidents-2017-budget-in-pictures/
Obama’s 2017 discretionary was $1.15T.
According to here:
https://www.thebalance.com/current-us-discretionary-federal-budget-and-spending-3306308
Trump’s 2018 discretionary is $1.15T.
Seems the deficit won’t grow due to discretionary spending. I suspect that SS and Medicare will increase this year, so we’ll probably see a larger deficit. May we’ll get on track next year, I hope.
The increase in defense spending combined with the tax cuts will push up the deficit, just as in Reagan’s budgets.
For perspective, a couple of Fed co-workers have some experience with the civilian DoD. They tell me that the civilian DoD is so wasteful as to be obscene. Yes, other agencies have some waste — for example, I heard that the National Park Service spends a lot of money on international travel (why?) — but they pale in comparison to DoD. DoD doesn’t need a budget increase.
my kids a pilot and I agree, except the private sector cuts and the public sector has no motivation to cut -or perform.
We’ll see soon as those 20% of fed workers offering to quit(NOT) go to new jobs in the corp world.
There’s plenty of waste in the private sector, including a lot of unnecessary travel.
DoD doesn’t need a budget increase.
Absurd.
How can you going to make America great again without increasing the war machines?
There’s plenty of waste in the private sector, including a lot of unnecessary travel.
Yep. News today that bimbo from Yahoo is walking away with 160Mil. If that’s not a waste…..
unnecessary travel.
Explain what you consider “unnecessary”. Most people in business hate to travel, so they don’t do so unless they need to.
If you think that you can conduct just as much business by teleconference, you are wrong.
Business is built on trust, and as of yet, there is nothing that replaces an in-person meeting when it comes to building rapport and trust with other people.
Now, if you are talking about private jets, that’s a different story. Many times, that’s simply a luxury and I agree, a completely unnecessary expense above commercial. However, if you have tight timeframes, sometimes flying private is warranted.
I’ve flown for business well over 100 times in my career.
There is one time in my career where we made the decision to fly private due to scheduling challenges. The rest of the time…commercial.
There’s plenty of waste in the private sector, including a lot of unnecessary travel.
That’s a knee slapper. If you’re an “individual contributor” you will almost never travel.
It managers and executives who do most of the travelling. It’s silly to dismiss the argument if you haven’t personally been involved in business travel.
Mighty Mike, there is a difference.
If Joe-6-pack is willing to pay and extra 50 cents for a six-pack of Natty Light so that Natty Light executives can go on international travel, that’s Joe’s business. Joe isn’t obligated to buy Natty Light.
However, Joe is obligated to pay taxes, which means he is forced to pay for the National Park Service to go on international travel, or for the DoD to waste its money.
Sure, that’s a difference. Of course, corporate business travel is an expense that reduces corporate profits, thus reducing corporate taxes, forcing everyone else to pay more tax.
The point I was making is that people and organizations are all wasteful to a certain degree.
Democratic party = corrupt hypocrats
GOP = outright servant of the rich
Do we have anyone who fight the greedy interest groups that ruin the country? I almost voted for Joe Exotic.
i voted(wrote-in)for “Dale the Crossing Guard” for president.
took a cell phone pic of my ballot & sent out a few pics to people that have a good SOH
“trump is probably add a sh@tload of debt and u pukes will never be able to retire on your puny savings accounts getting nothing in interest.”
azdude
R U Beck?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgSPaXgAdzE
Beck got the idea for this song from his friend who always called him “Loser.” Beck decided to write it into a chorus of a song as a joke. He didn’t think anything would ever come of it.
Beck recorded this in 1993 after the owner of Bongload Records spotted him in Los Angeles and offered him some studio time. Beck was broke at the time and playing local coffeehouses to make a living.
Alternative and college radio stations in the Los Angeles area started playing this, which prompted Geffen Records to sign Beck. They rerecorded it in 1994 and released it as his first single on the label.
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1731
Scarsdale, NY Housing Prices Crater 14% YoY
https://www.zillow.com/scarsdale-ny/home-values/
Couldn’t find a link but thought this may qualify for a Public Service Announcement.
Teens Commandeer BART Train In Violent Takeover Robbery Of Passengers
April 24, 2017 11:06 AM
(CBS SF) — Passengers on a Bay Area Rapid Transit train were robbed, and in some cases beaten, when dozens of juveniles stormed aboard the train and forced them to give up their property, police said.
The incident happened at 9:30 p.m. Saturday at the Coliseum Station in Oakland aboard a Dublin/Pleasanton-bound train.
BART Police said witnesses reported 50 to 60 juveniles jumping the fare gates and going to the platform. After boarding the train the They boarded the train they “committed multiple strongarm robberies of bags and cell phones,” according to a police report.
At least two people were hurt and were treated by paramedics for facial and head injuries.
The teens all fled into the surrounding neighborhood near the Coliseum before any officers could arrive, police said.
Last week, BART announced the hiring of new Police Chief Carlos Rojas, who is looking to increase the number of police officers on trains and in stations.
The agency is also in the process of replacing decoy cameras on trains with real ones after a 19-year-old was shot and killed aboard a train at the West Oakland station with no video evidence.
One of the joys millennials will discover in their quest to live in long term democrat controlled cities over the suburbs.
But, but…walk home from the bars.
I checked youtube. No cell phone videos of the actual robberies… yet.
Whoh, just went back and tried to search for video again and all I got was some REALLY racist stuff. Suggest you stay away.
“The agency is also in the process of replacing decoy cameras on trains with real ones after a 19-year-old was shot and killed aboard a train at the West Oakland station with no video evidence.”
wtf? How many billions in tax dollars go to BART, and what do you get.
You get fake cameras, not even real cameras. That is a bummer. Well, good thing it sounds like they are doing something now.
Public union pensions will be paid….
civil war, haves vs have nots…
got popcorn?
Haha… just Polar Bear Hunting.
Thanks for posting, jeff, I saw that earlier today and was thinking this is exactly why light rail is doomed in many parts of the country. When I commuted from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami via the Tri-Rail system, there was one leg of the journey that went through a section of ‘hood, and I would tense up and wonder if today was the day there would be some Clockwork Orange action.
Fortunately, nothing ever happened. But I always felt it was just a matter of time. However, I always enjoyed the leg that was parallel to 1-95, moving along while watching the highway all jammed up.
This is the #1 reason why Bellevue Square Mall owner Kemper Freeman is opposed to the future light rail line from Seattle (which runs through the worst part of down where all of the gang-bangers live) through Bellevue. He doesn’t want hoodlums running through his mall and scaring all of the wealthy Chinese housewives away.
“teens” God I loathe the PC Euphemisms the media spews. Any time you see that sort of verbiage you know exactly what happened. Or didn’t happen, since you know dey was good boys who din do nuffins.
http://finance.yahoo.com/quote/ABX/key-statistics?p=ABX
Is this as good as it gets?
All depends when the bubbles pop. When the EU implodes. When the NORKs go off the reservation…etc.
Herndon, VA Housing Prices Crater 10% YoY
http://www.movoto.com/va/20170/market-trends/
I went wine shopping today. Stocked the wine cooler up.
8 years into the recovery and we still dont have lift off.
Is DrunkDialing another one of your favorite pastimes?
You do know that aging wine coolers doesn’t make them taste better, right?
Reminds me of an old joke:
Q: What are Bartles and Jaymes wine coolers called in Mexico?
A:Dos Okies
But we do have some quite decent affordable wines. There’s always a silver lining to every economic dark cloud.
For future reference:
https://moneyish.com/hoard/the-secret-to-buying-10-wine-that-doesnt-suck
actually I found a good 2013 cab from napa valley for 6.99.
https://www.lunavineyards.com/
“aging wine coolers”. Ha!
had to re-read that one a few times to grok it.
a blog w/in-depth armchair market analysis AND humour?
tempted to cancel my HuffPo but it makes such excellent canary cage liner in my own private idaho coal mine.
‘Another woman who spoke to The Guardian says that although she and her partner make a combined salary of over $1 million, they can’t afford a house.’
dummies
Even with Silicon Valley monopoly money that’s an insane statement. It sounds like they don’t make anywhere close to that amount or they have 9 children.
I completely agree.
If you make $1MM per year, your taxes are in the range of $420k per year, which leaves you with about $48k per month for living expenses/shelter/savings.
Max out your roth 401k (x2), and you now have $45k per month.
A $2MM mortgage at 4.5% is $10k per month.
Property taxes on a $2.5MM house are going to be about $2k per month.
So you have the paltry sum of $33k per month (after all taxes are paid) to pay for insurance, food, vacations, etc.
Yup…just scraping by I see.
“One by one she pointed out the abandoned boats, cars, pickups and trailers improperly parked in front yards. Junked yards in plain view. Lawns not maintained. Work being done without proper permits or any concept of deadlines. Marston wearied of the exercise before she ran out of examples of the downturn her neighborhood in the older section of Ormond-by-the-Sea has taken.”
Sounds like heaven. Regina should just pack her bags and move.
I understand where she’s coming from, but the flip side is living with a bunch of garbage can Nazis.
King County, WA Housing Demand Craters 17% YoY
http://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public/County/County_Turnover_AllHomes.csv
Try again, Race. Inventory levels are at record lows in King County.
Boots on the ground data my friend….. Boots on the ground data.
Kirkland, WA Housing Prices Crater 16% YoY
http://www.movoto.com/kirkland-wa/market-trends/
Dumb questions of the day:
1) Why does the Fed favor the financial interests of wealthy foreign landlords over those of poor American citizens who rent?
2) Do they have a legal mandate to play God by picking winners and losers in the market?
global central banks all have an interest in keeping the US stock market afloat. Its just not the FED you are fighting.
When there actually is a little sell off they wait for the short sellers to load up. Then they come in with some buying and it makes the shorts start buying too. It has happened over and over since the crisis. You can make money on this trade.
lol@DrunkDialer
1. To keep the ponzi going. Alternate is not pretty.
2. Since it’s more or less a gobmit entity, I say they have all the legal mandates. If not they will make some.
silver OXIDE
is paas worth owning, if not is there a silver co worth a sht ?
Annuity rates
Decrease from 7.50 to 7.25 percent for the June 30, 2016 actuarial blah blah
So u double your $ in ten years
Belive
Those who live in the Bay Area sometimes get to fully enjoy the wonders offered up by BART …
http://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/BART-takeover-robbery-50-to-60-teens-swarm-11094745.php
You’d probably prefer that everyone have their own car so that you could increase your auto loan portfolio. We know your angle, Mr. Banker.
which tribe attacked?
in VA every 5th rider would be armed
The images cannot be shared publicly, she said, because the attackers appear to be minors.
Why don’t they blur the faces of the minors to make them individually unidentifiable? Then they could release the video. They’ve done that before, for the toddler in the car with the OD addicts.
Panera to add 10,000 jobs by the end of 2017 as it expands delivery
•Panera to hire 10,000 employees as it expands its delivery service
•The company hopes to expand delivery to 35 percent to 40 percent of its locations
•Panera forecasts that delivery will add $250,000 per year to each store’s annual revenue
Panera Bread is going full-steam ahead to expand delivery services to more of its cafes.
The sandwich shop said it intends to hire 10,000 new employees by the end of the year to assist with this initiative. Some 75 percent of the new hires will be delivery drivers, while the remaining 25 percent will be in-cafe jobs, according to Blaine Hurst, president Panera.
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/21/panera-to-add-10000-jobs-by-the-end-of-2017-as-it-expands-delivery.html
I hope you get the job.
S A V A G E
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I like that
C R A T E R
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more like
D O P E Y
Housing my good friend…. Housing.
Thousand Oaks, CA Housing Prices Crater 15% YoY
http://www.movoto.com/thousand-oaks-ca/market-trends/
hire 10,000…
Bring your own car and work for tips?
new home sales up
J6P loves to catch a bull by the tail
meanwhile friends selling 2013 townhouse at a loss
2017 = 2007
https://twitter.com/lenkiefer/status/856874111305486336
ot racicis-crime index
salt lake city index 27
NOLA 66
as soon as they rip down statues its going to be sweet