The Housing Bubble

I remember as a lad going to the blue chip stamps redemption center, which seemed as busy as the CBOT, to my 7 year old eyes…

You needed a gajillion stamps to get anything useful.

…or a house. 1500 for the toaster.

… and the capital gain tax rate will jump from 15% to 35%. Better take your gold profits prior to the inauguration.

I agree about what the effect would be, but unless Ron Paul wins, I do not believe those in power will withdraw the U.S. from Iraq. There will be a reason — there’s always a reason — it just won’t be the real reason.

The nazis weren’t leaving Stalingrad either, no sireee bob.

I talked to a military guy recently, who has done time in Iraq, about a comparison with Vietnam. His answer was discouraging: there are too few body bags daily to ramp up the level of public discontent we saw during ‘Nam. The military keeps upping the ante for guys to reenlist, so they take the bait. If I count correctly, we have been in this “foreign intervention” longer than we were engaged in WWII.

Not to mention Afghanistan. I think the only presence in that country ought to be goats, their boyfriends, meatpackers for goat exports once the boyfriends turn to younger goats, and lapis miners.

Yep! It will be nice when the U.S. tucks its tails between it’s hind legs and leaves Iraq. Let’s be more general, leaves the middle east. That way Iran will take over all of Iraq and then take over Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. What do you put in your gas tank? I’m sure you will enjoy waving the white flag when Iran establishes a mega Islamic theocracy controlling the energy supply of the world.

I will enjoy it myself. Gold will get to above $5000 per ounce. They will have us handcuffed. Nice of you to want to be a slave to rabid Islams.

Know what? You can actually count me out of wanting to turn my back to rabid Islamics.

“I’m sure you will enjoy waving the white flag when Iran establishes a mega Islamic theocracy controlling the energy supply of the world.”

Billy, you forgot the part where they ride our women like camels and scream “Praise to Allah! (PBUH)”. I have back issues of that comic book if you would like to buy some.

From a very simplified point of view, one of the things I like most about gold is that (provided it is proven/accepted as authentic) it can be exchanged for any currency and most things in an instant. Even alcohol and sex are not so easily convertible, provided you are willing to take what the spot market will pay.

In California about half the cost of gasoline is from the cost of crude, the rest is for the refinery, transport of gasoline, but not sure where taxes fix in to the cost

“In California about half the cost of gasoline is from the cost of crude, the rest is for the refinery, transport of gasoline, but not sure where taxes fix in to the cost ”

I don’t have exact stats but i believe that the state of Ca charges 18% tax rate for a gal of gas at the retail price. And the Fed gov’t also imposes a 18% tax fee. So total combined taxes for state/fed is 36% of the retail price, or close to this figure. If anyone has a different figure please correct me.

I do know that Gov’t tax revenues from gas taxes shoot up enormously when oil/gas prices go up thru the roof. That is why you do not get much complaints about price gauging evil oil companies from Gov’t officials except for a few politico’s making isolated cheap-shots against the ‘evil oil companies’ for easy political points and to assuage the restless sheeple.

The State of CA benefits from high pump prices though you won’t ever hear about it in the MSM.

The MSM will never admit that Most states make far more profit (taxes) off a gallon of gas then Exxon does……

Good. Anything it takes to send signals to consumers to reduce consumption & buy more fuel-efficient cars.

If anyone has a different figure please correct me.

Actually its 18 cpg (Federal) + 18cpg (State) + local sales tax cite.

Funny how people railing about the MSM attacking business and covering for the Gummint are the least-informed people on the planet.

“The State of CA benefits from high pump prices though you won’t ever hear about it in the MSM.”

The largest power user in CA is the Department of Water Resources, which has to transport water from the Shasta region 2,200-ft over the Tehachapi mountains to southern CA, and many of their water rates are fixed.

We need to get rid of “THE MORON GENERATION”

Speaking of which, the following lines were actually uttered on my favorite guilty pleasure, “Real Housewives of Orange County”, last night:

OC TEEN #1: We’re going to perform at the V.A. hospital…

OC TEEN #2: The what?

OC TEEN #1: The veterans hospital. Where the injured soldiers go. From Iraq and…and Vietnam.

OC TEEN #2: We’re going to Vietnam?

Does it surprise anyone that one of the Real Housewives left her career as a mortgage broker for Countrywide to becoming an aspiring pop star?

The moron generation isn’t all bad…

Anya Kamenetz, who wrote the book “Generation Debt” debates whether her husband and she should buy a house:

To Buy or Not to Buy, That Is the Question - http://tinyurl.com/259rnn

She concludes:

If there’s anything you and I can learn from the housing downturn, it’s that financial security doesn’t come automatically with four walls and a roof.

They cant fight back they we so dumbed down in school, ever talk to one.. when i was22 i had to prove to a 50 year old, i’d be responsible enough to get up at 430 am to sign on a tv transmitter at 530 to run PTL jim baker at 6 am everyday, I had the keys to the station.
————————————————-
Generation Debt: How Our Future Was Sold Out for Student Loans, Bad Jobs, NoBenefits, and Tax Cuts for Rich Geezers–And How to Fight Back (Paperback

“sources say this is to finance our war efforts for the Americans in Afghanistan.”

I call BS on that. Geez, you know that’s not the real reason.

yes, it very likely is - and that has to do with the arrangements for how the Dutch budget works (fixed ceilings for every department, unless there is a surprise in the national income stream). Ministry of defense is out of money, the only other legal option is selling a lot of naval ships and fighter jets and use that to continue the war (this second option is also under consideration, in which case the VAT increase may not happen).

“the Netherlands is increasing its VAT from 19 to 20% next year; sources say this is to finance our war efforts for the Americans in Afghanistan.”

Boy, that oughta go over real well with the Dutch J6P.

Or is the average Dutch just as unaware as the average American?? (just a question, no offense)

I think that the Dutch and US version of J6P are not much different. They don’t like what is going on but choose to ignore it for their own benefit (or peace of mind).

One product we make that isn’t adversely effected by the drop in the greenback, is our weaponry…

Most of it’s made, in-house.

I think that the Dutch and US version of J6P are not much different.

I’ll bet that the Dutch J6P drink better beer than their US cousins.

Before WW2, The “Oslo Group” (Holland, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland) got together and decided that they wanted no part of the war clouds brewing, by forming a group of nations, whose sole premise was to stick their heads in the sand and hope that by expressing their neutral-ness in such a fashion, fascists would leave them alone…

Sweden did ok,

The rest, not so much.

Much of the 1st world is living in a financial “Oslo Group” dreamscape lifestyle, soon to fade away…

and eat better far better chocolate!

Ever notice how most people prefer to believe that Joe 6-Pack is someone ELSE?

Welcome to the New World Order Blano. Where spending is saving, peace is war, anger is kindness and lies are truth.

Ben Jones discussed “new paradigms” relating to housing in his radio interview but the new paradigms are everywhere (as I stated above).

“What amazes me is that almost the only place I hear about this stuff is on here. Nary an intelligent discussion about these issues anywhere else”

There is nothing but spin and drivel spewing out of the TV cable news, and even on the internet MSM business sections such as cnn, business week , forbes,fox it is 95% economic/business ag-prop spin. Not at all surprizing as the business MSM outlets are driven purely by profit and appeasing their advertisers-thus really bad economic news and hard analysis is kept/swept under the rug.

Only place to get the real scoop is blogs such as Bens, Mish, Winter’s blog,, Maudlin,I tulip, ect.

We the thinkers make the news, with our seasoned opinions, without bias…

Only in search of the truth

A CSNBC talking head said today that the loss from Lenders is only going to be 50 billion tops (prior estimate 38 billion ). How is that for spin . The news cheerleaders are also trying to spin that the higher oil prices aren’t going to be that bad .
The cheerleaders think as long as they can get a rally going on stocks, or some stocks ,the world is good .I remember how real estate use to be sold in the same manner .Oh well ,only global markets counts ,never mind middle class America.

A CSNBC talking head said today that the loss from Lenders is only going to be 50 billion tops (prior estimate 38 billion ). How is that for spin .

Let’s get it straight here and now….. 5 million households at $200K a pop is $1 trillion. It won’t be a penny less. Message to the banks, hedge funds, etc… cough up the writedowns or we’ll do a cavity search!

I like the Chinese people I’ve met, the culture in general, and of course Chinese food! The Chinese government and all their 3rd world factories producing crap that should go directly into dumpsters, however, are welcome to rot in hell.

I’m more of a Japanese food fan, however, I do enjoy Chinese art and antiquities. When I say China, I am referring to their government and their mass produced products are crap, for sure.

Yeah, dump Chinese tea. I love it! We can do it in the SF Bay too.

No, no, send it to me. I will drink it. Someone around here has to fall on their sword. :^D

aint gonna happen, the US government is going to spend their last dimes to support the War Machine and Wall Street. They couldn’t care less about sustainable production etc.

and that’s why I make them fight like hell for every tax dollar from me. It ends up costing me more but I feel better about paying.

“aint gonna happen, the US government is going to spend their last dimes to support the War Machine and Wall Street.”

In the US, the people are the government. We’ve just forgotten it, but all that is going on will be a sharp reminder. WE really do NOT want an empire, you know.

WE really do NOT want an empire, you know.

Some of us.

I’d really love to see us become generally smarter, more sustainable and inward-looking, but i don’t see that happening in the short-term. It’d be a real sea change, even though I can see small incremental moves toward this ideal all over the place (in regional organic family farms, in small-scale DIY clothing shops, in the greening of buildings).

Vertical textile shops like American Apparel. I’m so glad to see them make it. If we could pull back on our exporting production, resulting in more enterprises like that, I’d be thrilled.

This was tried during the Great Depression. It only prolonged the misery. The global economy is too big to ignore.

Yes, well, Lou Dobbs might end up being Paul’s running mate, you never know, so maybe he can’t say much right now.

We don’t have unbridled, unregulated capitalism. We have a screwy form of “capitalism” regulated in favor of banks and corporations.

“making a few fine points about unbridled, unregulated capitalism.”

Whatever we’re living in sure isn’t capitalism. I’d say it’s more of a blend of robber baronism and communism. Except in our case the companies own the government, not the other way around. But either way the people get screwed.

“making a few fine points about unbridled, unregulated capitalism.”

Dobbs was excellent last night about how nobody in the Bush Administration cared a whit about the subprime meltdown when it hit the middle class, only when it adversely impacted the banks.

It will take one term of a guy like Paul to refocus on something besides fear mongering, reckless unplanned foriegn incursions, increasing profits of the wealthy elite, frantic obsession with gays and sexuality,etc… But make no mistake, some of Pauls ideas could be painful in the beginning. By no means am I a PaulTard but any reversal of the insane government of Wall Street/K Street by Wall Street/K Street is a step in the right direction.

Why not a co-Presidency?

The young genius of Obama, with the seasoned experience of Paul?

Works for me.

Aw, geez, chick, you got in ahead of me. Oh, well, great minds think alike.

But if it’s in your teeth, can the government still confiscate it?

Bingo Nova. When rappers pick up on something, you know it’s time to go the other way.

I wonder what “strong currency” China plans to dump $1.4 trillion into? The Yen? The Euro? Will the export based economies of those currency zones tolerate another 10, 20, or 30% “price hike” for their primary customer, the US? Will China let the yuan ride the dollar all the way down like Slim Pickens on the bomb?

Where in the rest of the world will the consumption equal to 40% of world production that currently goes into the US come from? Africa? Canada? Will every Pakistani ride around in a Lexus RX350 next year?

Sure, the dollar will keep dropping for a while, until every “store and restaraunt” in the international marketplace realizes that they’ve priced their best customer - the fat, hungry, gluttonous American out of their business. Euro exporters are already whimpering, and I’m sure Japan and even internal China are feeling it too.

Except for oil, there is not much that we really NEED from the rest of the world for a period of a year or two. Chinese toys? German cars? French cheese? Italian clothing? African diamonds? Let them all have a going out of business sale.

Oil hitting $150 or $200 will hurt, but maybe people will park the V10 SUV for a while and not run out every 5 minutes to pick up a video or go buy a bottle of Coke from the 7-11.

My friend tells me that the 500 Euro is symbolic of international drug trade. Easier to carry around a large value of currency in 500 Euro notes than 100 US notes.

another side of the euro note story: over 90% of 500 euro notes end up in Spain, where you can still pay cash for a home without anyone checking if you aquired the money legally. Some politicians have suggested abandoning the 200 and 500 euro notes because of the drug traffic use, but that will never happen - they come in handy for money laundering, and that’s a subject close to the heart of politicians and their big friends.

I forgot to mention that I paid $3.99/lb for rib-eye steak.

The lowest I have seen it is 5.99, and thats for the inferior ungraded cuts they sell at the supermarket.

For an Empire to survive, it’s is important to always underprice the circus, (communictions-distraction) making many think it’s a bargain, somehow.

Emperor Norton II, of the Inland Empire and protector of Mexico & adjacents

–
You must live in a wrong place. In SoCal, supermarkets are very competitive. Those who like fresh fruits and vegetables (my son, a vegetarian) can shop at Valley Produce at prices that to me looked extremely low (I buy them at regular supermarkets) and fresh every morning.

Last year as well as this year, a guy came to my doorsteps to sell me (I do live literally at the end of civilization, not kidding, and on a dirt road for 0.5 miles) a box of fabulous top grade frozen variety meats, all ready to defrost and put on the grill, at a price that is ridiculously low. He needed to meet his quota or something like that.

It is all a matter of choice as to where one lives and where one shops. When I do go to Costco, I usually pick up a large pizza (honestly large) with 6 toppings for $10.79 that easily feeds four. Was it any cheaper twenty years ago and if so buy how much? I have been able to buy 24-pack of water bottles for $2.99 several times this years. I can go on and on.

Jas

Jas, you have found the only spot in the western world that is experiencing food price deflation; don’t ever move.

I typed ‘food prices’ in Google news and this is what came up;

Polish central bank says food, fuel prices chief inflationary threats
Taiwan Inflation Probably Highest in 2 Years on Food, Oil Costs
Food price increase was the most dramatic in Hungary in all of Europe in the past 12 months
Philippine Inflation Rate Likely Held at 8-Month High
Tesco, the UK’s largest supermarket, has increased prices of common grocery items by 16 per cent over the last year
Russian pensioners protest against high food prices.

Jas, did he also happen to also have an extra pair of speakers to sell you from the back of his white van?

Dont buy door-to-door meat, you are gambling with the health of your family. The men working those jobs are often unemployable, and turn to operating white van scams due to criminal records. Since they have no interest in return customers your saftey is last on their list.

Snopes probably has more information on the topic.

I agree with watcher: normally newspapers in Europe don’t say much about inflation (except to state the official 1-2% CPI number), but there is no escaping it now, and all EU countries report the same problems (no, the euro exchange rate doesn’t help a bit). In the Netherlands, where foodprices slowly declined over the last 5 years or so (because of a Supermarket War, not because of deflation) in a few months the situation has changed completely.

I think wage inflation is in de cards as well but it depends strongly where you look - some sectors in my country (like homebuilding, higher level government workers) managed to get 4-5% yearly income gains (plus often a huge onetime bonus for the year) while official Dutch inflation is just 1.3%. I’m seeing similar stories from other EU countries, where groups that can exert pressure are demanding totally ridiculous wage increases (like 30% up) and sometimes they even get it.

“And I’m sure most of our foreign posters would agree.”

Palm, many our American posters would agree, too…

Drowning, Mole Man completely misunderstands me. I am a non-interventionist when it comes to other countries. Other countries are neighbors and we should be cautiously friendly and willing to iron out differences. However, it doesn’t mean that we should be forced to adopt their citizens, nor they ours. Cultures are fragile things and can and should be enjoyed and experienced in the context of one’s own country. I’ll be danged if I’m gonna approve of child marriage or labor in the US, just because some other culture does. People should be able to enjoy their own customs in groups where they have these things in common, not forcing themselves on each other. It’s like a ballroom dancing club being forced to accept bellydancers as members and being made to have bellydancing on their agenda, when all the original members wanted to do was a little foxtrot. The Middle East does not want “democracy”, nor does China.

Sorry Good luck=Good trading.

I don’t believe luck has anything to do with successful trading.

Working out well. Got a good entry.

Have heard of it, but never seen it. Will do.

It was just on TV last week. Make sure you watch the original.

The original is better, but both versions have their moments.

Meryl Streep is ultra-creepy in her reprisal of Angela Landsbury’s (also creepy) role as a power-mad power mom.

Whoda thunk Slim, after the first 2 games they’d actually have a shot a cracking the top ten??

The Spartans are still whining about Mike Hart’s comments, it’s pretty funny.

Since we haven’t played Ohio State yet, it’s hard to celebrate much. But it’s nice to beat MSU, even if barely.

Go Buckeyes!

My concern is how well OSU is playing, but that Michigan is due. I think history suggests that in that case, Michigan is favored.

manifestation of consumer lead recession through the lack of earnings of the “must have” tecno bull-sh*t, HD tv, super cell phone….not a promotion .