February 16, 2018

The Drum Is Starting To Beat For Investors In Denial

It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “There are signs that the long slide in North Texas home mortgage defaults may be over. ‘Dallas was one of the markets where we saw an uptick in foreclosure starts in late 2017,’ said Daren Blomquist, chief economist for Attom Data Solutions. ‘This surprised us. We saw it in Dallas, Denver, Nashville and Austin — great markets that are on fire.’”

“Blomquist said most of the home loan default increases he’s seen in the Dallas area came from low-down-payment mortgages made in 2014 — about the same time lenders started to ease some of their underwriting standards. ‘We have in the last few years seen a gradual loosening of credit,’ Blomquist said. ‘Some of those loans originated a few years ago are failing at a slightly higher rate than we had previously seen.’”

“Lee County’s housing market experienced a mixed year in 2017. Brett Ellis of Keller Williams Realty Fort Myers & The Islands, who has worked in residential real estate locally for 30 years, said it’s important to remember that the stats cover the entire year, so they’re not necessarily reflective of what’s happening now. ‘One thing that’s not in those numbers is that listing inventory is up 25 percent since October,’ he said. ‘That puts pressure on pricing, so I think you’ll notice in 2017 we had some upward pricing, but that started to fall off at the end of the year.’”

“‘The market got a little ahead of itself and people forward priced ahead of the market and the market said, ‘We’re not doing that right now,’ he said. ‘Interest rates are rising and wages have not gone up that much. The sellers have outpaced the buyers.’”

“Baton Rouge real estate has been in a yearslong seller’s market streak, which was thrust into overdrive after the August 2016 flood. Real estate agents say activity began slowing by the end of 2017, signaling a cooling off period, and this year inventory is expected to rise. Jerry Del Rio, a veteran agent of high-end homes says her phone has been ringing a lot less in early 2018 because the market for upscale homes has been inactive. ‘Right now the market is so dead that I’m concerned,’ Del Rio said. ‘I don’t know if it’s the holidays or the cold weather. In the past few years, we had such a good market that we saw no slowdown.’”

“After an almost Wild West-like atmosphere in the housing market last year, Dennis Roberts believes things are beginning to get back to normal. The Durham Region Association of Realtors reported the average selling price in January was $578,645, down $30,000, or roughly four per cent, from the previous year. According to Roberts, president of the DRAR, there is currently a much larger inventory of homes available for potential buyers. On Jan. 1, new mortgage eligibility laws, referred to as ‘stress test’ rules by Roberts, came into effect in Ontario. ‘There will be a number of buyers getting out of the pool, although in Durham Region it’s more of an ocean,’ he quipped.”

“Fresh data showed annual UK house prices fell for the first time in six years at the start of 2018 amid a slump in demand. The study revealed London suffered a sharp 4.3% fall in the fourth quarter of 2017, its worst performance since the depths of the financial crisis in 2009. Mortgage approvals dived to the lowest in three years in December despite efforts by the government to help first-time buyers. Acadata chairman Peter Williams said: ‘This is the eighth consecutive month in which the annual rate of increase has been declining, and now the dial is in the red zone.’”

“Property prices have plummeted in Sweden in the past year, according to fresh figures. The downturn began in earnest in August, after years of climbing house and apartment prices, according to Svensk Mäklarstatistik. In central Stockholm the price for an apartment (bostadsrätt) fell by 8 percent this winter compared to the same period last year. The average price in January was 86,553 kronor ($10,800) per square metre. ‘The general trend continues downwards,’ Per-Arne Sandegren, analyst at Svensk Mäklarstatistik, told the TT news agency.”

“Despite the prevailing oversupply of certain properties, real estate developers are unable to reduce home prices in Malaysia due to high construction and development costs, according to Rahim & Co International. ‘One of the ways to solve this problem is to reduce the cost of development. This will simultaneously reduce the overall asking and selling house prices,’ said the property consultancy’s director for its Petaling Jaya office, Choy Yue Kwong.”

“He said this amidst complaints that home prices have become so unaffordable for many Malaysians. Choy thinks that the authorities can further bring down development cost if they release more land for affordable homes and slash building-related expenses like legal and compliance fees. ‘If all of these measures are granted by the government, I am sure developers would be more inclined to push their products at a lower selling price.’”

“Regarding the faster growth of home prices compared to income, he reckons that it will be hard to substantially increase the take home pay of Malaysians as this requires boosting productivity and this could take a long time to accomplish. Rahim & Co’s Research Director Sulaiman Akhmady Mohd Saheh noted that housing affordability improved thanks to higher household income from 2014 and 2017. ‘“But ever since, income levels are growing at a slower pace compared to the growth in house prices.’”

“Meanwhile, its Executive Chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Abdul Rahman highlighted that luxury home prices in Kuala Lumpur’s heart have declined significantly. ‘These units have seen prices dropping from RM2,000 psf to between RM1,500 psf and RM1,700 psf. I do not think pricing points of RM2,000 to RM2,500 psf bracket, which took centre stage three years ago would happen again, especially in the current climate.’”

“The distressed sale of a $2.5 million luxury townhouse with sweeping views of Melbourne’s bay and skyline should be a wake-up call for financially-stressed property buyers, say estate agents. Realtor Andrew Fawell has valued four distressed – or mortgagee – sales in the past two weeks for houses and apartments valued between $1 million and $2.5 million located around Melbourne’s coveted, prestigious and expensive inner south-east fringe.”

“‘The drum is starting to beat,’ says Fawell about home buyers and investors who might be feeling pressure from rising repayments, static incomes and stagnant rents. ‘I expect to be doing it a lot more often over coming months,’ he says. ‘But lots of property buyers and investors are in denial about their precarious situation.’”

“For the first time since 2012 when the global financial crisis hit local property markets, valuers are being routinely asked by lenders to do kerbside assessments of what properties might sell for at a mortgagee’s auction. ‘This is not happening on ‘Struggle Street’,’ says Fawell, whose Beller Real Estate buys and sell properties in many of Melbourne’s most coveted suburbs within a 10 kilometre radius of the central business district. ‘These are expensive properties in top suburbs that are being put under the liquidator’s hammer.’”

“Lenders liquidating a property typically avoid the term ‘mortgagee sale’ because they fear it will attract sassy bargain hunters looking to lowball their bids because they know the property has to be sold. Houses and apartments purchased for millions of dollars are being put under the hammer because owners can no longer afford their mortgage payments. Analysts warn some property owners and investors are under growing pressure because of static (or falling) prices and higher costs.”




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70 Comments »

Comment by Ben Jones
2018-02-16 07:58:23

‘Despite the prevailing oversupply of certain properties, real estate developers are unable to reduce home prices in Malaysia due to high construction and development costs’

See, this is the crow watch theory of supply and demand. And then:

‘Executive Chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Abdul Rahman highlighted that luxury home prices in Kuala Lumpur’s heart have declined significantly.’

You guys are swimming in a couple decades of oversupply. After the creditors strip the clothes off your back and you are pulling a rickshaw for a living, there will be plenty of cheap, crappy airboxes in Kuala Lumpur.

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2018-02-16 08:00:04

Dallas was one of the markets where we saw an uptick in foreclosure starts in late 2017…This surprised us. We saw it in Dallas, Denver, Nashville and Austin — great markets that are on fire.’

Shack markets should never be “on fire.” And if this has been going on for while, it shouldn’t be a surprise.

Comment by Professor 🐻
2018-02-16 08:49:51

Bitcoin was “on fire” last year…just before the precipitous 60%+ crash.

Comment by BlackSwandive
2018-02-16 17:11:41

It’s “on fire” again, up over 55% since the crash 10 days ago. That’s a perfectly normal situation, you know?

Comment by Apartment 401
2018-02-16 18:51:19

Realtors are liars.

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Comment by Mafia Blocks
2018-02-16 19:09:10

….and every closing a crime scene.

 
 
Comment by Professor 🐻
2018-02-16 23:26:58

Pretty interesting how all the volatility got sucked out of stocks in short order, while Bitcoin continues to bounce like a yo-yo….

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Comment by Carl Morris
2018-02-18 00:13:42

Sounds to me like the 14B that “unexpectedly” got added to the Fed’s balance sheet very recently was not used to buy Bitcoin.

 
 
 
 
Comment by In Colorado
2018-02-16 21:42:44

Shack markets should never be “on fire.”

Rising interest rates should put those fires out.

Comment by BlackSwandive
2018-02-17 09:59:03

I’ll believe that when I see it.

 
 
 
Comment by 2banana
2018-02-16 08:19:09

So much in these two little paragraphs.

1. “Struggle Street!”

2. The alligator will eat you alive

3. So if they “fool and deceive” the sassy bargain hunters to not show up does that mean no one will show up to bid at the auction? After all, the sassy bidders would be easily outbid by unsassy bidders if there was a DEMAND for the real estate.

++++

‘This is not happening on ‘Struggle Street’,’ says Fawell, whose Beller Real Estate buys and sell properties in many of Melbourne’s most coveted suburbs within a 10 kilometre radius of the central business district. ‘These are expensive properties in top suburbs that are being put under the liquidator’s hammer.’”

“Lenders liquidating a property typically avoid the term ‘mortgagee sale’ because they fear it will attract sassy bargain hunters looking to lowball their bids because they know the property has to be sold. Houses and apartments purchased for millions of dollars are being put under the hammer because owners can no longer afford their mortgage payments. Analysts warn some property owners and investors are under growing pressure because of static (or falling) prices and higher costs.”

Comment by rms
2018-02-16 15:36:32

“2. The alligator will eat you alive”

Hehe… they like to hold their prey underwater until the struggling stops.

 
 
Comment by Senior Housing Analyst
2018-02-16 08:28:16

Rowlett, TX Housing Prices Crater 8% YOY On Expanding Dallas Area Housing Correction

https://www.movoto.com/rowlett-tx/market-trends/

 
Comment by Professor 🐻
2018-02-16 08:46:42

“Blomquist said most of the home loan default increases he’s seen in the Dallas area came from low-down-payment mortgages made in 2014 — about the same time lenders started to ease some of their underwriting standards.”

So much for the often repeated prevarication regarding the disappearance of subprime lending after the 2007-2009 financial crisis…

“‘We have in the last few years seen a gradual loosening of credit,’ Blomquist said. ‘Some of those loans originated a few years ago are failing at a slightly higher rate than we had previously seen.’”

Given that the loosening of credit continued to play out against the backdrop of ever rising prices, a lot more home loan defaults may already be wending their way through the pipeline.

Comment by Mafia Blocks
2018-02-16 08:54:15

“Blomquist said most of the home loan default increases he’s seen in the Dallas area came from low-down-payment mortgages made in 2014 — about the same time lenders started to ease some of their underwriting standards.”

Low-downpayment mortgages, better known as subprime mortgages make up 90%+ of all mortgages and have since 2009.

Comment by Mr. Banker
2018-02-16 09:29:52

“Blomquist said most of the home loan default increases he’s seen in the Dallas area came from low-down-payment mortgages made in 2014 — about the same time lenders started to ease some of their underwriting standards.”

Let me see if I understand this correctly: Lending standards were higher when prices were lower, but then as prices began to rise lending standards were loosened.

However common sense suggests that the higher go the prices the closer to the top these prices get, and the closer to the top prices get the greater is the risk to the lender, which means lending standards should be TIGHTENED as prices rise, not loosened.

But, alas, if lending standards were tightened as prices rose then the borrowing needed to finance higher prices would fall off which would put a damper on the price rise and thus it would put a damper on the creation of equity which would stifle the creation of wealth - something that could be cashed out and spent. And thus the economy would suffer.

Soooooo to keep the economy from suffering lending standards need to be loosened as the risk to the lender increases.

Time for a healthy dollop of Jack Daniels. (Jack Daniels = Breakfast of Champions 😁)

Comment by oxide
2018-02-16 11:40:29

There is no “risk to the lender.” The risk is to the American taxpayer via Fannie Mae.

You of all people should know that.

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Comment by Mafia Blocks
2018-02-16 11:53:49

Donk,

When there is risk there is also benefit. Falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels benefits everyone as this housing correction game speed.

 
Comment by Mr. Banker
2018-02-16 12:01:48

I do know that but I enjoy claiming victim status.

In today’s society victimization rules, hence bailouts for bankers.

 
Comment by Mr. Banker
2018-02-16 12:21:26

The bailouts to bankers activity was dressed up in drag and was then presented to taxpayers as a bailout for homeowners.

The vast multitudes of totally dumbed-down taxpayers never knew the difference. They won’t know the difference this next time either.

Vast and blantant burning stupidity: The gift that keeps on giving.

Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

 
Comment by CHE
2018-02-16 13:12:10

“Dressed in drag” LOL

 
 
 
Comment by Mwr
2018-02-16 12:10:30

I just ran the LTVs on our mortgage clients from last year.
57.6% put 20% Or more down
So No 90% are not subprime
Data my friend data. we stem guys believe in data.

Comment by Mafia Blocks
2018-02-16 13:04:51

Hello my good friend.

Highland Beach, FL Housing Prices Crater 10% YOY On Rising Mortgage Defaults

https://www.movoto.com/highland-beach-fl/market-trends/

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Comment by BlackSwandive
2018-02-16 19:52:23

“I just ran the LTVs on our mortgage clients from last year.”

You don’t sound STEM to me.

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Comment by davidd
2018-02-16 20:12:06

Mafia Bollocks, another non fact you pulled out of your butt

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Comment by Mafia Blocks
2018-02-16 20:32:04

San Diego, CA 92129 Housing Prices Crater 13% YOY As Poverty Rate Accelerates

https://www.zillow.com/san-diego-ca-92129/home-values/

https://snag.gy/m5EzRB.jpg

 
 
Comment by Professor 🐻
2018-02-16 08:55:17

“‘Right now the market is so dead that I’m concerned,’ Del Rio said. ‘I don’t know if it’s the holidays or the cold weather. In the past few years, we had such a good market that we saw no slowdown.’”

Realtors are going to wax nostalgic for decades to come over the red hot market during the Housing Bubble 2.0 episode which Ben Bernanke’s QE3 sent into orbit.

 
Comment by scdave
2018-02-16 08:59:04
Comment by 2banana
2018-02-16 09:14:55

Is that a bad thing?

******

The loss and bailout is not so much a black eye for Fannie as it is for Congress and policy makers who for more than nine years have failed to determine the futures of Fannie and Freddie Mac.

Federal regulators took over the two companies during the 2008 financial crisis, eventually injecting them with $187.5 billion in bailout money.

 
 
Comment by BlackSwandive
2018-02-16 09:46:01

Can the DOW erase all of the losses from its recent swan dive? Can Sh!tcoin, which has rallied to over $10,000 from a low of $5,900, continue its parabolic rise?

These Yellenbucks have some staying power.

Comment by Mike
2018-02-16 10:59:44

speculative fever is raging again but speculators have peered into the abyss. It is a sight that, once seen, can never be forgotten.
When the fog clears and the abyss is visible again, let’s see what happens…

Comment by BlackSwandive
2018-02-16 11:31:29

I see far bigger real estate bubbles than last time in many of my areas. The DOW is the most bloated stock market bubble we’ve ever seen. Absurd valuations.

This Sh!tcoin stuff is more ridiculous than words can describe.
“New fork!!” good for a 50% run. It’s based upon hype and greater fool theory, nothing more, yet they try to attach fundamentals. If every Craptocurrency is fundamental, why do they all trade in lockstep with Sh!tcoin? It’s because they’re all a mania. Tulips had more intrinsic value than Sh!tcoin.

 
 
Comment by oxide
2018-02-16 12:37:54

The DOW will definitely erase last week’s losses, the only question is when. My guess is it will take 2-3 months. No biggie. I should probably think of shifting more equities into the guaranteed account to re-balance.

Comment by Puggs
2018-02-16 15:59:31

That’s what I’m doing as soon as it approaches 26K (again).

Rinse and repeat, this is an awesome sellers market. Sell high!!

 
 
Comment by Mafia Blocks
2018-02-16 15:25:12

Housing my good friend.

Mountain View, CA Housing Prices Crater 6%YOY

https://www.movoto.com/mountain-view-ca/market-trends/

 
 
Comment by Senior Housing Analyst
2018-02-16 10:14:31

Centennial, CO Housing Prices Crater 8% YOY

https://www.movoto.com/englewood-co/market-trends/

 
Comment by 2banana
2018-02-16 11:24:04

What could go wrong…

+++++

Half of Puerto Rico’s housing was built illegally. Then came Hurricane Maria.
Miami Herald - Andres Viglucci - February 14, 2018 07:00 AM

Her builders were guys from the neighborhood. Her son salvaged a rusty steel stair from an abandoned building nearby and affixed it to the front of the tiny house so she could get from the kitchen to her second-story bedroom suite, which requires going outside. To hook up to electrical power, she took out a $2,000 bank loan.

Like virtually all her neighbors in Las Monjas, one of eight adjacent communities in the larger Caño Martín Peña enclave that’s home to 26,000 people, Peña had no blueprint for her house. No permits. No inspections. No insurance. Not even title to the land underneath it.

“This was all done without an architect,” Peña, now retired at 71 and a volunteer leader in her community organization, said. “The one who designed it was me.”

When Hurricane Maria came, Peña’s home of 22 years was battered. The zinc roof blew off and wind-driven rain poured into the interior for hours, soaking her belongings, her clothes, her bed. It flowed downstairs to her kitchen, where the water ruined her pressed-wood cabinets and the new stove and oven on which she cooked big meals to supplement her retirement income. Then came the flooding, because the community was built on former wetlands bordering a mangrove canal where water no longer flows because of heavy sedimentation and the accumulation of years of illegally dumped trash.

But as much as half the housing on the island was built without permits, Puerto Rico government officials say. No one knows precisely how much of that there is, but the government’s housing secretary says it could be as much as the roughly one million legal dwellings on the island.

It’s that informal construction that bore the brunt of Maria’s fury, said housing secretary Fernando Gil. There’s no full tally yet, but the numbers so far are hair-raising: 250,000 homes with major damage, 70,000 of those destroyed. By the time inspections are concluded, Gil estimates, as many as 300,000 dwellings will be determined to have suffered some degree of significant damage. So far, 1.1 million households have applied for FEMA disaster aid.

To rebuild the island’s housing stock will cost $31 billion, the administration of Gov. Ricardo Rosselló estimates, or nearly twice the amount needed to rebuild its devastated electrical grid. Because the commonwealth government is broke and owners of informal housing are typically poor and have neither insurance nor money to rebuild, virtually every penny would have to come from the U.S. government. FEMA expects that the Maria recovery effort will be the largest ever undertaken by the agency, a spokesman said.

Comment by tresho
2018-02-16 12:03:52

Executive summary: Abject poverty and dysfunction of Puerto Rico made even worse by Hurricane Maria.
If they need federal money so bad, maybe it would be more reasonable to evacuate the island to mainland USA where the infrastructure still operates and there are many vacant but decent housing units.

Comment by 2banana
2018-02-16 12:13:29

No - you got that wrong.

Illegally built shacks on land they don’t own. No permits. No inspections. No insurance.

But PR wants $31 billion from the US Federal Government (the same Federal Government that they pay NO TAXES) to “rebuild” - cause it is their home. And it is only fair.

Oh, and yeah - it is Trump’s fault.

Comment by Mr. Banker
2018-02-16 12:34:59

Because I have a soft heart I offer up to all a possible solution to Puerto Rico’s homeless situation as suggested by this travel video …

https://youtu.be/EQemqkpnEAw

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Comment by tresho
2018-02-16 12:44:58

No - you got that wrong.
Since the money will be spent anyway, I was trying to come up with a cheaper alternative.

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Comment by oxide
2018-02-16 13:04:49

So it sounds like “Trump’s gonna buy them a house” for free.

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Comment by Overbanked
2018-02-16 13:38:41

“maybe it would be more reasonable to evacuate the island to mainland USA”

I’ve oftened wondered if this is a good idea for Haiti. The land is useless with all those starving people bumping into each other. Get them off the island, develop the land as feasible, get some money.

I know Dominican Republic shares the island, but as I understand it there’s a mountain range that isn’t easily traversed. I don’t know.

There are so many poor places in the world you just can’t improve. Islands are difficult to get to.

Comment by BlueSkye
2018-02-16 19:29:34

more reasonable to evacuate the island to mainland USA…

Hey all you Central Planner wannabees, they are free to come to the big island if they want to.

Most of humanity, and probably most US Presidents have been born in houses that never had a building permit and Architect.

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Comment by sod
2018-02-16 19:46:04

This middle finger brought to you by BlueSkye.

 
Comment by BlueSkye
2018-02-16 21:13:13

Good for you saving that for so long.

So, If you were Queen for a Day, would you solve these people’s problems by forcing them to move to the mainland? Many who wanted to themselves have done so. What about the ones who don’t want to move. What would your decree be?

 
Comment by tresho
2018-02-17 08:04:41

What about the ones who don’t want to move. What would your decree be?
It’s a free country. If they want to remain stuck on stupid, so be it. Puerto Rico was suffering from entrenched inefficiency and corruption long before Maria. Those who don’t want to move can remain where they are, rebuild their shacks, redo their grid, without any bail-out whatsoever.
Recall that after Katrina the USA evacuated a large number of people from NOLA to places like Houston. NOLA was so utterly wrecked that (surprisingly) there was no great demand to quickly restore / replace the damage done. I haven’t read any further stories about how many of those evacuees ever returned to NOLA.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by ibbots
2018-02-16 11:41:43

‘Nationwide prices for starter homes have risen by 44.4 percent since 2012, according to Zillow, and rose 8.5 percent in the last year.

Values of the most expensive U.S. homes grew by only 3.6 percent in 2017.’

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-estate/2018/02/16/bad-news-first-time-d-fw-buyers-prices-affordable-homes-rising-fastest

Comment by BlackSwandive
2018-02-16 14:25:57

A Yellenbucks orgy.

 
 
Comment by Senior Housing Analyst
2018-02-16 12:11:13

Flagler Beach, FL Housing Prices Crater 22% YOY

https://www.movoto.com/flagler-beach-fl/market-trends/

 
Comment by ironknee
2018-02-16 14:35:12

When is Mueller going to indict Ben Jones for not licking Hillarys boots after the election? No way he’ll be able to extradite some russian trolls, so Mueller will need some sacrificial lambs and I cant think of a better place to find them then on the HBB! Only scdave will be left to argue with himself, something he will no doubt take great pleasure and pain in.

Trolling, trolling, trolling, russkies keep on trolling, raw hide!

Comment by Obama Goons
2018-02-16 15:56:00

God bless President Donald Trump and God bless America.

 
Comment by Overbanked
2018-02-16 16:08:48

Witch hunt.

 
Comment by BlueSkye
2018-02-16 19:33:25

It is an interesting irony that the crucial hunt for Russian meddling would point to some Russians. Is that how they put this absurdity to bed?

Comment by Oxide
2018-02-17 06:06:47

What in the hell is “meddling,” anyway? Is there some law that defines meddling? From what I can tell , these folks bought ads on Facebook. The indictments are pretty rich, coming from the Americans who are famous for assassinating and bombing elected world leaders and installing preferred lackeys. Obama himself got on international TV told the British how to vote in Brexit. And the snowflakes can’t handle a Facebook ad.

Comment by Ben Jones
2018-02-17 07:17:51
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Comment by Neuromance
2018-02-16 17:31:29

Learning about the Fed is always interesting, as it is the single most powerful and influential economic entity on the planet.

Here’s How New Fed Chief Powell Is Changing Things Up
By Christopher Condon
February 15, 2018
Bloomberg

Jerome Powell is the first Federal Reserve chairman in more than a decade to have any background in the private sector. That could explain changes he’s implemented in his first weeks on the job.

Powell has made it clear within the institution he wants more direct interaction with the Fed’s army of Ph.D. economists, and on a faster and more informal basis than sought by his predecessors, according to two Fed insiders familiar with the moves and who asked not to be identified.

Spur-of-the-moment exchanges between the chair and junior staffers would have been largely unthinkable at the Fed a generation ago.

With these steps, Powell is taking aim at the last vestiges of the Fed’s ancien régime, a system that once gave enormous influence to the directors of the three key economic research divisions — monetary affairs, research and statistics, and international finance. Even today, though it’s uttered in jest as often as in fear, those directors bear a famous nickname: the barons.

The barons’ power stemmed mainly from their role as unchallenged gatekeepers, overseeing the flow of information between the decision makers on the Board of Governors, including the chair, and the staff.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-15/powell-seeks-to-bury-era-of-fed-barons-in-tapping-wider-staff

 
Comment by TIC TOK
2018-02-16 18:36:03

2 years and millions of dollars to indict 13 internet trolls. Meanwhile the FL shooter was handed to the fbi on a silver platter and they did nothing.

And people wonder why Trump won, still.

Here’s your sign people….

Comment by BlueSkye
2018-02-16 19:41:34

There is nothing illegal about being batshit crazy until you hurt someone.

The media is disgusting in this story. I spent the day bedside in the hospital and of course the TV was on. They showed a clip over and over of the kid plinking with a BB gun in the back yard. Recorded by a neighbor. The “reporter” was hysterical that somebody didn’t do something abut this kid shooting a gun. Over and over. It was a BB gun. Also exclaimed; “look, he isn’t even wearing a shirt!”

A rational conversation isn’t even possible.

Comment by OneAgainstMany
2018-02-16 20:40:03

Shooting BB guns is one thing, but the link between violence towards animals and violence towards humans is well established. Some of the social media posts I saw of what this kid did to animals belies a deeply disturbed individual.

Comment by BlueSkye
2018-02-16 20:57:36

What I saw as crazy, but you’ve researched this more than my casual and accidental view. Violence to animals? I’ve butchered animals I raised for food and hunted for food. I never tortured an animal other than an insect. I don’t think I’m a danger to humanity. I could be wrong.

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Comment by OneAgainstMany
2018-02-17 10:25:20

Sorry BS, I should have made the distinction. There is a difference between hunting and killing animals for food and torturing and abusing them for pleasure. This guy seems to fall into the category of the later. When I see peds patients who are doing really scary things to animals, we immediately suspect that they have been abused themselves and may, at some point, act out their abuse in the future.

 
 
Comment by alphonso bedoya
2018-02-16 21:50:58

Okay OAM.

Are we dealing here with a preventable crime?
How do you monitor his behavior seven days a week?

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Comment by OneAgainstMany
2018-02-17 10:28:25

I honestly don’t know if this particular crime was preventable. Monitoring probably wouldn’t be sufficient. We probably need to ensure that this type of a person can’t get a firearm. It seems like we could prevent some gun violence crimes with looking at some gun control reforms. It’s pretty clear that an increase in guns leads to more violence.

 
 
 
Comment by Taxpayers
2018-02-17 08:42:19

Scouts use guns,it’s animal killing walkers that need registration,branding

 
 
 
Comment by Professor 🐻
2018-02-16 23:54:46

Do you drink before checking your credit card statement?

Comment by Professor 🐻
2018-02-17 00:00:35

Paying off credit cards, upping 401(k) contributions: These people found the secret to financial success is a few strong drinks
By Kari Paul
Published: Feb 16, 2018 4:35 p.m. ET
Some Reddit users find alcohol loosens their inhibitions enough to finally check their online accounts

Could a beer (or two) be good for finances?

Need an extra push to move your investments around? Try a shot of liquid courage.

Some Reddit users shared their tendency to make drunk financial choices that were actually positive. User sealclubber281 wrote that he checked his bank account and was shocked to see that his tax refund had disappeared — until he remembered that while drunk the night before he used it all to pay off his credit cards.

“After six beers, I start beefing up my savings and paying off credit cards like a mad man,” he said. “Wise move, drunk me. Because I probably would have gone shopping otherwise.”

Other Reddit users have dealt with similar “problems” in the past: Last month one person said they drunkenly upped their 401(k) contribution, and another said he started shaving down his budget after a few drinks. “I honestly think the reason is we’re too afraid to look at our financial situation sober,” the user said. “While drunk you feel more distanced from it and are able to focus on the whole picture, and decide to do things differently that we are habituated to.”

Comment by Mr. Banker
2018-02-17 07:06:14

“While drunk you feel more distanced from it and are able to focus on the whole picture, and decide to do things differently that we are habituated to.”

These people are incredibly stupid.

Comment by Mr. Banker
2018-02-17 07:11:19

Bahahahaha …perhaps I should be offering free shots of Jack Daniel’s (with free refills) instead of free coffee to my marks, er, clients.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
 
 
Comment by Taxpayers
2018-02-17 07:03:37

Add 1/5 % mortgage rate w a 5% tax bump and
=ouch 2018 cost go up bigly

 
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