Bits Bucket And Craigslist Finds For May 8, 2008
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NY Times says gas prices are too low. Of course, none of them drive cars.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/opinion/08thu2.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin
Snip from article:
…These ideas share a common purpose: appearing to be doing something to ease hard-pressed voters’ pain at the pump. Not only are they costly, but they will not do that. Suspending the federal tax would cost $9 billion. In New York, the suspension would blow a $500 million hole in state finances. Consumers in some states could benefit from lower state gas taxes because wholesalers could import gas from other states. Still, with refineries producing almost at full capacity, the tax break would prompt a jump in demand that would push up prices…
Pandering. Budgets are tight. How is this a good idea?
Leigh
Thankfully the estimated savings per family over a summer of suspended gas taxes, however, should be just enough to buy a copy of the new Grand Theft Auto.
That can help give the kiddies the skills that will help keep their families mobile if gas hits $5.
LOL…and this is why I avert eyes before tipping java to face!
Leigh
Leigh,
Good to see you posting again. Missed ya.
Weren’t you looking at a farm a few months back?
Still looking @@
These folks are out of their ever loving minds here in WI.
Good to be back! Thanks!
Leigh
A week from today I will be in Cheeseland. I will get to see the madness firsthand.
barbluvsong at yahoo dot com
Hubby and I will buy ya a beer if you have time!
Leigh
“These folks are out of their ever loving minds here in WI.”
being from WI, I “resemble” that remark
jct
Humbird Cheese, Tomah Wi. Try the 3 and 5 year aged cheddar - WOW! I think they have 8 year too. MMMMmmm good!
Send me some, I can’t get anything good out here - no cows. Well, no dairy cows, that is.
Refineries are running at about 80% capacity. This article is BS.
Initially I was opposed to a gas tax holiday. After thinking about it though, I’d like to see them suspend it for a few months and then try to put it back in place. There might be a revolution. Yes gov budgets are tight, but I work in gov and I can tell you big cuts are very much possible.
When you look at our crumbling roads and infrastructure, who in their right mind can justify a “gas tax holiday” - especially when you know full well they’ll just levy some other tax to replace it. At least one in three vehicles you see on the road here in Colorado is a monster pick-up or SUV, with 90% driven by some suit on his way to the office or some cell-phone gabbing soccer mom who seems blindly oblivious to smaller cars and motorcycles. Their howls of pain at the pump are music to my ears.
I beg to differ my wife drives 40 miles to work everyday and many others have cars in the Manhattan. I expect the outer burbs percentage car ownership is significantly higher.
I do support a graduated increased carbon tax over the next few years to discourage excessive consumption of gas. I’m tired of seeing American dollars sent to dictatorships. Everytime I see a 7,000 lb SUV going by in NYC, I think “Another idiot financing a dictatorship that wants to cut our throat”
and the most fair carbon tax is simply an increase of the gas price at the pump: use more, pay more. Now if only some part of this price increase was used to develop real alternatives or fight the greenhouse effect problems …
But it won’t be. And the carbon tax will go up and up, while being used by Wall Street crooks to trade “carbon credits” back and forth… sorta like mortgage backed securities, except there is no real collateral behind the credits, yet they’ll get rich trading them anyway.
Global warming may be real, but most of the “solution” proposed thus far are scams designed to make more money at the expense of the lower and middle classes.
yes, I agree thse taxes are all scams; just hoping that some day that could change …
“Another idiot financing a dictatorship that wants to cut our throat”
Another idiot in a SUV absolutly, but this money actualy comes back to US in the form of debt, we pay higher prices for gas which sends more dollars to UAE and saudi’s who then lend that money back to the US GOV to finance useless war in iraq, or bail out citi bank
I do support a graduated increased carbon tax over the next few years to discourage excessive consumption of gas. I’m tired of seeing American dollars sent to dictatorships.
I’m no NYC liberal and am no fan of taxation, but completely agree with you NYCliberal. People that have a legitimate need for large vehicles - farmers, some contractors, people with large families, etc. should be exempted, but the typical dweeb who drives a monster truck to compensate for his, um, inadequacies, should pay dearly for the added wear and tear on the roads, depletion of natural resources, and contribution to the US trade deficit and flow of petrodollars to, for example, Saudi Arabia, the country that gave us something like fifteen out of the nineteen September 11 hijackers.
http://www.fuh2.com/submissions.php?query=&page=0&limit=10
FUH2 site (warning: if you’re offended by one-finger salutes to Hummers and the morons who drive them, don’t view this site).
They don’t drive cars, but subway fare is $4 round trip. That’s enough to pay for a week’s worth of commuter gas for me. That’s the dirty secret of public transport — it costs twice as much, takes twice as long, and you can carry half as much.
Admittedly, that’s factoring in only fuel, not parking, or the cost of owning a car. You could do without a car altogether (I have), but that’s pretty limiting. And it doesn’t work well if you have kids.
“Admittedly, that’s factoring in only fuel, not parking, or the cost of owning a car.”
Or the stress of bumper to bumper traffic with SUV driving, cell phone talking, text messaging, putting on their makeup driving d!ckheads and tw*ts.
“Or the stress of bumper to bumper traffic with SUV driving, cell phone talking, text messaging, putting on their makeup driving d!ckheads and tw*ts. ”
Ca will soon ban using the cell phone use in cars while driving unless u use a hands- free device. I think the law goes into effect this summer
CA passes a lot of stupid useless feel good quasi- sociaist legislation but this one i like as i am sick of seeing SUV driving moroms with one hand on the wheel while distractingly holding a cell phone with other yabbing non stop while driving down a busy LA street or fwy. I have had SUV cell phone holding idiots make turns right into my path not even seein me out of corner of their eyes due to cell phone use.
I hope the the CA traffic courts make a ton of money off this S***it. They’ve made a ton off me already and CA/local gov’t can extract much needed revenue thru extraction of fees from drivers wallets thru traffic fees.
Not sure just making it hands free will make any difference. The problem is that the person on the phone is concentrating on the phone call, and not on their driving.
They passed that law in chicago when I lived there and now in New Mexico and it did zero to change people’s behavior.
They passed that law in NY State when I lived there 7 years ago, and the effect on the flow of traffic was surprisingly good (removing a lot of the distractions mentioned above, improved people’s driving).
Ohio consisdered that law after a number of children were killed in the same month by cell-phone using drivers. Unfortunatley, the State Legislature decided against it.
In Florida, law enforcement doesn’t take time to ticket extreme red light runners even when the offense occurs directly in view of them. This is another feel good law that will have little effect.
Ca will soon ban using the cell phone use in cars while driving unless u use a hands- free device. I think the law goes into effect this summer
Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Yeah we’ve got one of them in NY too. It doesn’t work when everyone knows there’s few cops on the road that will pull you over for that. I did have one friend pulled over and had to pay $100. It doesn’t seem to stop most “soccer Moms” though. I seem them blindly yakking everywhere.
It is a good law improves traffic flow greatly, I swear 90 percent of the traffic in the DC metro area was being caused by idiots on there phone, and absolutly soccor moms in mini vans and suburbans are the biggest offenders
i like as i am sick of seeing SUV driving moroms with one hand on the wheel while distractingly holding a cell phone with other yabbing non stop while driving down a busy LA street or fwy.
Got nearly run over by some asshat, Empty parking lot, I looked before stepping out into parking lot, out of nowhere, speeding, the asshat sideswipes me. I had stopped to let him go by, but he still sideswiped me.
Talking all the while so he could run into a drycleaners.
He musta been from LA. dicks.
My SUV doesn’t smell like urine and I don’t have to worry about that drunk bum sitting down next to me.
We call that “atmosphere”.
If I had to choose my commute I have now or going back to rush hour gridlock, there is no question what I would choose. I hardly ever have a near death experience on my way to work. Because of idiotic drivers I used to have them on a regular basis.
I’m also partial to public transit — and a drive to work is actually pretty easy for me. With parking costs, a daily drive would cost me more than double the cost of mass transit.
The ability to walk a little, catch up on my reading, and not stress myself out in rush-hour traffic is more than worth the occasional train delay or pee-soaked bum hogging two seats.
If you work in Manhattan the subway is not only cheaper, but faster. On the (rare) occasions i drive to work from Queens it takes 2 to 3 times as long and costs 5X more that the subway (gas and parking, not counting insurance etc.)
I can’t think of a better commute than my 10 minute bike ride. It’s free and I get some exercise. Not for everyone, of course, because not everyone can live close to work.
Avoiding eye contact on public transport, is sort of like being in an elevator on wheels…
Ahhhhhh, the joy of living in Flyover Land…..
Seven miles, door to door, less than ten minutes. Most of it in the country. Get to see deer, wild turkeys, red foxes frequently (especially early in the a.m.). No rush hour traffic (there ain’t no “rush hour” out here). Two traffic lights. No parking problems at either end of the trip.
Then I walk in the door at work……..goes downhill from there……..:)
“If I had to choose my commute I have now or going back to rush hour gridlock, there is no question what I would choose. I hardly ever have a near death experience on my way to work. Because of idiotic drivers I used to have them on a regular basis”
There is a big diffrence btwen NY subway commuting and LA metro commuting. Lots of discussion in LA times blogsites on possiblity folks using LA metro more and more or moving back into or near LA dwtn to avoid costly car commutes from way off exurbs. Problem of taking an LA metro system is this : u have to deal with such things as having to commute thru 3 rd world graffittied barrios and sharing that metro cab with assorted homies and gangstas, many of which might be armed with knives and even small concealable guns and may be out and out vicious predators. Not to mention waiting at metro stops in some really gang infested 3rd world dumps such as lynwood , compton or inglewood.
No matter if u are taking metro from Pasadena, San gabe valley, IE, Southeast or southwest LA, long beach, southbay, SFV ,basically from every corner of la county into dwtm the same problem emerges : having to go thru 3rd world gang- infested ghettos and metro stops. That is why Angelinos are loath to give up their vehicles especially well- heeled business office exes and workers who just cannot abide having to share a cab with assorted third world ghetto nasties.
Same here, 2.5 mi one way so I can ride home for lunch too. Saves on gas, wear and tear, and gets my blood flowing too.
If you like being beaten by criminals, take the public transit in the Baltimore region: we’ve had all sorts of fun go on in that regard. And we also have the crazy drunks and homeless on the public transit as well. No thanks!
Jenna Bush - Dubya’s daughter - is moving to South Baltimore!
http://wbal.com/stories/templates/news.aspx?articleid=6002&zoneid=2
I don’t know what to make of it. I’m sure she’ll have a presidential security package.
I agree that gas prices are way too low. No one whom I know car pools and I still see roughly same number of cars on road and only slightly more pedestrians and bike riders. Gas prices will keep going up until Americans, with 5% of world population and 25% of energy consumption, change their way of living. China and India absolutely will increase their per capita energy use from one barrel per person per year to roughly 15-17 barrels per person per year, same as Japan and Korea. The only way that will happen is we will use less. The only way we will use less is if we have to pay more.
The danger is not the price of gas going up and we can’t ride in 6000 pound SUVs; the danger is we won’t be able to feed ourselves.
BTW, the American way of life IS negotiable. Mother nature is a very tough negotiator.
Gas should already be around $5.00 a gallon with the oil prices lately. Refineries have been sucking up the cost to keep market share. If they’ve managed to keep prices down this long, imagine what their margin was. I’m expecting sharply higher prices by June. It’s $3.51 a gallon here in Middle of Nowhere, by the end of June, regular will be $3.90 - $4.00. Considering the poverty of the area, it’s really going to dent peoples driving habits.
There are three 4 cyl. cars in my household. I would love to see the end of this SUV fad. I’m also a bit of a tree hugger. However, we need to be more energy independent. That means more wind farms, the mojave desert solar project and MORE domestic drilling and MORE nuclear plants. I’m also a realist. Alternative energy sources are not the only answer for our current problems. This is where the Dems fall short and it will hurt them in the general election. I believe it will be a major campaign issue that Mc Cain will use effectively. Most Americans will vote for faster energy relief and strictly alternative energy ideas from the Dems will fall on deaf ears.
the best answer to the energy problem is simply using less, and Americans (being by far the number one consumer and polluter) are in the best position to start with that. With all the technological innovation that is going on, it is a shame that energy consumption in the West is not dropping at least a few % every year. I am sure it is technically possible, the problem is that no one in charge wants it (US or Europe, all the same). When consumption is decreased by 50-75% (back to sixties consumption level maybe?) alternative energy can provide almost everything that is needed in most of the developed nations.
Its too expensive for emerging nations to use alternative energy. Again, this is why reducing US consumption and only relying on alternative energy are not the ONLY answers. Building more refineries and opening areas in the US to drilling are also needed. I’m not making a political statement, just common sense economic realities.
I think that its starting to sink in. Saw an article yesterday (I think it might have been posted/linked here) about how people are growing weary of feeding their trucks and SUVs and are trying (unsuccessfully) to unload them and replace them with higher mpg cars,
Problem of taking an LA metro system is this : u have to deal with such things as having to commute thru 3 rd world graffittied barrios and sharing that metro cab with assorted homies and gangstas, many of which might be armed with knives and even small concealable guns and may be out and out vicious predators. Not to mention waiting at metro stops in some really gang infested 3rd world dumps such as lynwood , compton or inglewood.
So go ahead and go broke gassing up your hummer if you’re so “scared.” **shrug**
nhz, your data is flawed.
We’re not “by far” anything. China is right behind us (and if you count greenspace as a co2 negative, far ahead of us). Per-capita we’re about #10. For a more useful statistic, we’re #107 on the GDP per emission list. Cleaner energy will always be welcome.. unless it crosses paths with the NIMBY’s, which everything does. (Like the Cape Wind Project that was killed because Sen. Kennedy didn’t want his nantucket view “ruined” by windmills)
But, I guess America needs to remain the world’s scapegoat for everything.
Kirisdad:
yes, most alternatives (not all of them) are still too expensive for emerging nations. However, if you include the required infrastructure in the cost I think many alternatives are viable already. Governments simply make the wrong calculations by blindly following in the tracks of the developed nations.
Developed nations have the money and the technology to improve alternative technologies so they can be cheaper alternatives in ten years time, when emerging nations need more energy (even without any innovations, if oil/natgas keeps going up at the current rate).
Oh yes, China is just behind in some aspects, but aren’t they a little bit bigger in citizen numbers than the US? That makes such a comparison meaningless.
and on top of that, I guess that at least 50% of pollution and energy consumption in China directly relates to gadget manufacturing for the insatiable US consumer (a large part even by US companies that manufacture their products in China, so it doesn’t count as US pollution - talking about flawed data …).
Like the Repukes are any better. Instead of party loyalty, be an objective American. Both parties stink.
BTW,McCain wants to unwind employer based healthcare, with some BS plan.
Indian Wells just announced that reverting to Solar on its new properties, 1 sr citizen fixed income property etc will be completed in one year.
Just saw the guys doing surveying, and already “digging”.
And all appliances will be replaced with energy efficient machines. Hoooyaaaaaaaaaaa!
Good for my sr friends. They are all on low low fixed incomes and could use the extra help.
What I notice with IW and most likely other wealthy is that they get and give themselves huge huge tax incentives, discounts, and freebies. The ones who need it least, get the most.
I’m also a bit of a tree hugger. However, we need to be more energy independent. That means more wind farms, the mojave desert solar project and MORE domestic drilling and MORE nuclear plants. I’m also a realist. Alternative energy sources are not the only answer for our current problems.
Kirisdad,
In Canada, we waste as much and sometimes more energy than Americans. That’s why whenever the subject comes up, I always insist that before any new energy supplies are brought online, wasting what we have now must stop because , by stopping waste, we are creating new energy.
Anecdote: One room in the building I work in is lit up 24/7.
Out of the 168 hours in a week, people are actually present/
working there about 8 hours. I calculated that the light fixtures use up 5 KWhrs. That’s 160 x 5= 800 KWhrs per week
utterly wasted in completely unneeded lighting.
That building is an ordinary one that you’ll find in an average industrial park in any North American city. It just illustrates that energy efficiency is probably the single bigges source of future energy.
By the by, I’ve brought this to management’s attention and have been asked to pinpoint areas where energy can be saved. We’ll see what happens to the report.
Not to say there isn’t laziness involved but last time people car pooled a greater proportion of workers could commit to be available at a certain time at the end of the day. Neither my industry or my husbands allows for that type of commitment. Heck I could have called him at 4:30 and told him I’d be home on time and at 5:05 would call back and tell him I’d be at work a few more hours. The birth of on-call, ever ready employment has changed things. Hence the need for one’s own vehicle.
Are there any 9-5 jobs anymore?
In NYC the companies pay for car services to take their employees home after hours. I don’t know any other city where companies do that. DC maybe?
About 5 years ago I was at the RPV, Ca. post office waiting in a long line and got talking to the guy ahead of me, in line.
He was a lawyer and he got to talking about how the combo of cell phones & e-mail made him available to his clients 24/7, whether he wanted it like that or not.
Goodbye 9-5 job & hello, Ball & Chain
I sold my business in Fla in the early nineties and moved north. Hucked my beeper (on call 24×7) and swore never again. People ride me endlessly as to “how can you live without a cell”. I have one but it works only one way (outbound) and I only carry it with me when traveling.
This is one of the driving reasons for me changing careers. Life in IT sucks. Employers expect you just hand over your life 24×7 and they just chalk it up to “on-call”. F*** that, “on-call” is when you might get paged for something going unexpectedly wrong. When it’s expected you will be working during that week at night or on the weekends, it’s not “on-call”, it’s just “working nights/weekend”.
I hope I can find a career where they don’t expect to own me. Maybe I can eventually have a nice accounting office in a small town somewhere. Taking care of the local business people, farmers, moonshine runners, stuff like that.
That is the very reason why i chose to stay in the family business after graduating college. M-F, 9-5 mostly and time off at will does wonders for your quality of life.
yep, I’m in the same boat. I rationalize the sucky IT job I have by looking at what I’ve been able to buy with the paychecks, but I won’t be able to buy back all those weekends I’ve worked (at my place, the only maint window is Saturday 8pm to Sunday 8am, so that’s when stuff gets done).
I’d look for another career, one where barriers to entry are low and the hours are good… but I hear mortgage work is kinda down at the moment
for perspective:
I have mentioned before that gas prices in Netherlands are far higher, $10 is a sure bet over here before end of the month (and diesel is not far behind because of just another diesel tax ‘for the environment’).
Until recently it seemed as if drivers would not change their habits, and experts predicted that until the gas price reached about $15-20/gallon nothing would change. People were angry with every price increase at the pump, but they didn’t drive a mile less for it (or switch to public transport, which is a competitive option in some parts of Netherlands).
But lately sales of small cars and hybrids are surging: the budget for gas+car is maxed out. It is either drive less, or buy a smaller (cheaper or more fuel efficient) car. When prices keep rising they will be forced to make more changes, like working closer to home or switching to using a bike or public transport.
Americans will get there too some day, I think this is just the start of a major transition. In a few years oil might increase another 100% and then there will be very little people left who can still afford to use the big gas guzzlers. And we are not even talking about homes yet, where the transition will be even bigger. According to sources I have read in the US homes (including associated activities like transport of building materials, building/demolition etc) represent about 60% of total energy consumption.
Do you realize what will happen if gas prices hit 5-10 dollars a gallon? Most airlines, most transport/shipping/delivery companies, most interstate trucking companies, will come to a halt. The food you eat, what little you will be able to get, will cost two or more times what it does now; postage will go through the roof, and tens of thousands of companies will fail, costing millions of jobs.
This idea of punishing Americans into not driving is insane. The U.S. is not a socialist country, yet, with little self-righteous groups of self-proclaimed do-gooders maing feel-good policies by whim, but if gas hits a high enough mark, it will become a third world slum.
Next, someone will want to raise the price of laundry detergent and other cleaning products, so Americans will stop using them, supposedly saving the environment from related chemicals. And why stop there? Already, we have cities in California attempting to outlaw smoking in ones own home (unless, of course, one is smoking pot, which is apparently perfectly okay, though twenty times as potentially carcinogenic).
If I wanted to live in the old Soviet Union, I would have moved there. Americans who want to do things the way they’re done (or perceived to be done) in Norway, Sweden, or England can easily do the same, without dragging everyone else into their dreamscape.
gas is close to $10 already in parts of Europe and the world has not come to an end. People are starting to think and considering their option. And some of them have started to make minor changes to their lifestiles. I don’t think people are being fired or falling dead on the streat just because of higher gas prices …
of course many Americans prefer to continue living in their fantasy world of cheap-oil-forever, but that world will come to and end within a few years. Better start thinking before it is too late.
Somehow we made do without oil ruling our lives, as recently as a few hundred years ago…
Can the world adjust back to this lifestyle, gradually?
It has 50-75 years to prepare.
I agree, we just have to change the way we do things. For instance, instead of relying so much on trucks for interstate shipping we should increasingly use the much more energy efficient railroads. Of course this switch won’t happen overnight, but if I were on the management team of UPS or FedEx I would be seriously looking into this. If they don’t, someone else will. Hasn’t Warren Buffet been investing heavily into railroads?
Also, wind power is ramping up here in Colorado. It costs about the same as coal derived electricity. Cheap, non carbon electricity plus plug in hybrids could be viable in the long term, at least in my neck of the woods.
Most European countries are not major producers of food or other essential products requiring long-distance shipping. America produces much of the world’s food, and other necessities of life, and being able to transport it cheaply is vital to keeping this going. What does Holland produce that the rest of the world can’t live without?
The U.S. is a huge country, not a tiny spot on a map, and we cannot ride bikes from town-to-town. And no, we’re never going back to horses and buggies, and family farms. PETA would have a fit.
Our entire economy is based on easy, inexpensive transportation. Take that away, and you will see massive starvation, riots, proverty, and misery on a scale never before seen in an industrialized nation, and the rest of the World will be dragged down, too. Do you think Europe would be thriving today if it weren’t for the U.S.? I guess wooden computers would eventually have been invented.
I note with interest that tens of millions of Americans aren’t trying to immigrate to Holland, France, Germany, Ireland, or the UK. If these countries are so superior, why would this be? I also note with interest that as soon as massive credit became available in Northern and Western Europe, the locals, who previously bragged about their lower consumption, immediately began comsuming in exactly the same way they faulted us for. So was it moral superiority, or a lack of credit, that controlled their previous behavior? Pretending to be “environmentally conscious,” when one cannot afford to be otherwise, is pretty lame.
I am not at all ashamed of my country, the world’s breadbasket, and do not sit around praying for its collapse so nobody will have more than I. If my neighbor wants to drive an SUV and pay a fortune for fuel, that’s his business.
What is your minimum wage? Many European countries are laid out better, and are more friendly to alternative modes of transit.
“If my neighbor wants to drive an SUV and pay a fortune for fuel, that’s his business.”
And when my neighbors actions result in spiraling costs for me, its MY business.
I gotta laugh at the babbling bufoons of the bygone era who insist they have a “right” to everything and anything, to hell with the consequences for others. Well all that is rapidly changing and the babbling bufoons are going to be disappointed.
And I cringe at the pontificating geeks of the present era who think that rights should be determined by committees, not the Constitution, and that reviving the principles of communism of a bygone era is progressive.
Must be nice to know better than everyone else what’s good or bad for society at large, and to be able to ridicule everyone who doesn’t share your unearthly degree of enlightenment.
When the lies fail to achieve the desired effect (robbery and theft), the only alternative is to wheel out the boogeymen. And that one doesn’t work anymore either.
Exeter, get your tin foil hat out and your Loose Change DVD, and have a great weekend pretending to be evolved.
Incredulous you are not alone and not everyone is eat up with the globalist mindset or the mind that we “can’t do anything about it”. Although it is amazing how many “free thinkers” will go along with everything that comes down the pike that our “leaders” push onto us. Carbon Tax? How about no tax. Global poverty tax? How about no tax. How about our government learns to do with much less and starts working for us and not big business hellbent on making the globe their playpen and treating America as it is just another cog in the wheel to be manged and controlled. Liberty ain’t that dead yet even if buried in a mountain of ignorance.
This is a fake letter, right, written by exeter or of his political tastes? I don’t know a single person who speaks or writes this way, except for liberals posing as conservatives (as they did during the youtube debates), or rubes hand-picked by the media, to make this or that side of a political issue look bad. I wonder if Ben can check the IP address. Does Ernest exist? The stereotyped “hick” name doesn’t wash.
“Exeter, get your tin foil hat out and your Loose Change DVD, and have a great weekend pretending to be evolved.”
Case in point all over again.
When the lies don’t seem to work anymore, attack the truth.
Hows that working out for you?
What truth?
Can the world adjust back to this lifestyle, gradually?It has 50-75 years to prepare The world has largely wasted the last 34 years.
For instance, instead of relying so much on trucks for interstate shipping we should increasingly use the much more energy efficient railroads. CSX railroad, I think it was, has recently proposed investing ~$400 million in increasing its capacity to haul semi truck trailers, but it needs to have many highway overpasses re-done to accommodate the taller rail cars it wants to use. It has asked the federal gov’t to spend ~$500 million to revise the overpasses. If this happens, it won’t happen any time soon. If it did happen soon, the efficient of truck & rail traffic could increase a good deal.
wind power is ramping up here in Colorado. Wind power is most unlikely to provide more than a small fraction of the current electric load of the state. Nuclear power is the only alternative that could replace a substantial fraction of the current electric load within the next 10-20 years, but this will not happen due to legal obstacles, such as NIMBYism.
The U.S. is a huge country…Our entire economy is based on easy, inexpensive transportation.
BINGO! And it is done as little as it possible could have since 1973 to reconcile these facts with its over-reliance on cheap petroleum.
Must be nice to know better than everyone else what’s good or bad for society at large, and to be able to ridicule everyone who doesn’t share your unearthly degree of enlightenment. These words read like the pot is calling the kettle black.
You must be one of them big brained city slickers. I bow to your arrogance. I mean academic prowess.
Hi guys, good to hear from all of you. Just to chime in, I was in Paris the day before yesterday, the last day of a 6-day stopover on my way to Madagascar (I’ll be here for five months).
Unleaded gas in the Paris area is about 1.45 Euro/liter, or $8.77 per gallon. The vast majority of cars are very small, such as the Peugot 203 or 303, and the Smart car is becoming ubiquitous. You could park that thing in your bathroom. However, of the few dozen people I spoke to, only one bitched about gas prices, and he had two Mercedes and a BMW.
A note about housing by the way, you cannot get an apartment in Paris for less than 250,000 Euro (about $400K) and I’d say the average I saw is about 550,000 Euro (about $850K). Having said that, Paris is a beautiful city- it is much cleaner, upscale and diverse than I ever remember it. Even the “banlieus” look great. The transportation is excellent. The train can take you anywhere and you never have to wait more than 5 minutes. A five day pass to commute from the suburbs (and unlimited bus and metro) cost me 47 Euro ($75).
Nuff said
DP
nhz -
Are you being serious? Rising oil is going to spill over to everything we export. The countries that you’re propping up as energy Utopias are benefiting HANDSOMELY from the fact we can run the economy on much cheaper gas. And while we’re at it, let’s take a look at the cost of exporting our grain commodities to nations that share in our bounty.
Wishing higher fuel prices on America is wishing hardship on the rest of the world. I can’t even begin to express how misguided the notion is that America deserves punishment for having cheap gasoline. We feed the friggin’ WORLD. Watch what happens to already-impoverished nations when the rug gets pulled out.
Chris:
I think the rug is going to get pulled out soon for the ‘cheap’ oil that the US has been stealing for at least a generation from other countries, costing the lives of countless innocent citizens (like those in Iraq, and many other countries). If the US does not adapt very quickly they will go the way of the dinosaur (and of course some countries will go down with them). But I guess before they consider that option they will first try to steal what oil is left in the world, e.g. from Iran (instead of simply paying the price like others have to).
For instance, instead of relying so much on trucks for interstate shipping we should increasingly use the much more energy efficient railroads. CSX railroad, I think it was, has recently proposed investing ~$400 million in increasing its capacity to haul semi truck trailers,
–
(but are too high for bridges.)
Why not ship containers and put containers on the trucks. Ships do this. How to they get the wheeled trailers off of the rail cars anyway? I’m sure it is more convenient somehow, if someone else pays for higher bridges.
I don’t think we can do much about it in the end run. 5-8 buck a gallon gas in our future. The only thing the government could do is subsidize fuel for the consumers. Joe and Jill 6P will scream bloody murder, but he’ll/she’ll adapt. The prices in Europe are at that price already and I don’t see any decrease in traffic on the A Bahn.
Americans will just have to learn to do what the rest of the world already does. Consume less and accept higher prices for everything. Of course this will bring on a new round of socialization and higher taxes etc. It’s an ever-upward spiralling reality. We’ll just have to get used to it (full disclosure - I own a V8 and love it).
I that Joe and Jill 6 Pack should come to terms with not having a personal vehicle in the future. Between stagnant wages, inflationary pressures on food, energy, etc. and the lack of affordable vehicles they had best learn to love the bus. This will be hard on redneck culture where your pickup truck is your pride and joy.
The problems with $5-6/gallon gas will start when people working minimum wage jobs start figuring out that they are making $3/hour, after paying for the gas to get to work.
I have a daughter who is working part time, but she is almost at the point where she would be money ahead by staying home. Places that employ part-time high school kids are going to have a tough time hiring help, in the not too distant future
I know plenty of executives, lawyers and doctors whose big SUVs and extenda-cab pickups are THEIR pride and joy too. They’re important, you know.
Bus? What bus? I live in a city of 300,000. There is no bus. Where’s the money for a bus system going to come from?
Of course, we will soon have the newest NFL stadium. Perhaps in 20 years when the city finishes paying for it there will be some money available for mass transit.
I know plenty of executives, lawyers and doctors whose big SUVs and extenda-cab pickups are THEIR pride and joy too. They’re important, you know.
And they will be the only people who can afford to feed one. Still, the stereotype for those folks is to have a German Luxury car. And I have never heard a doctor or lawyer sing about his pickup truck.
There will be buses. It will be the only way that J6P will be able to get around.
“Bus? What bus? I live in a city of 300,000. There is no bus. Where’s the money for a bus system going to come from?”
Not a problem: sorry but true. All it takesis that entrepreneurial spirit.
Few own cars in our neighborhood in the Philippines. When we go to the store, we walk a block to the main road and hail a cab. Sub-sub-sub compacts, choose between with and without a/c. Costs about 1 USD for a couple miles, the longest I’ve waited is about 2 minutes. More usually, you have to cross the street dodging 5 speeding cabs before getting to the other side.
OR we could take the “Jeepney”, which solves your bus problem. A military truck with seats in the back. Gee, how many of those are available for civil-ization? This costs 12 cents per ride (oops, 14 cents with the current exchange rate), or about 0.28 USD for the ride to the mall. The downtown streets are wall to wall jeepneys. (We even used to own one. Good for carrying remodeling supplies as long as someone doesn’t steal your batteries.) A jeepney is a small private bus running a scheduled route with a license.
OR we could take a tricycle. Our neighborhoods main street is served down where it meets the downtown area by a tricycle stop where about 50 of them park along the streets waiting for fares. These are either pedal driven (side streets) or are frames built around motorcycles. Cheaper than jeepneys to ride.
Once few people care to own a car, options open up. Particularly for otherwise starving entrepreneurs. Be a good business for U.S. real estate refugees… they already know where all the malls and WiFi coffee shops are.
And I have never heard a doctor or lawyer sing about his pickup truck. SINGING You just have. I own 2 of them, one a diesel I have owned for 25 years.
“I have never heard a doctor or lawyer sing about his pickup truck.”
We have different stereotypes for professionals here in MT. Bankers, sales VP’s, trial lawyers etc still want to be True Montanans, so that means a beeeg Silverado 4×4, 1/2 ton pickup with AT,AS,A/C. Not a lot of luxury cars around here. Everyone’s got some sort of *rig* here, rare to see an actual ordinary sedan or hatchback.
“This idea of punishing Americans into not driving is insane. The U.S. is not a socialist country, yet, with little self-righteous groups of self-proclaimed do-gooders maing feel-good policies by whim, but if gas hits a high enough mark, it will become a third world slum.”
I don’t get it. Price controls on gasoline isn’t socialism? Bad news: the market is sending powerful signals that the old way doesn’t work any more. Listen or not, adapt or not - your choice. Gasoline addicts, credit addicts - they want a free ride. Insulate your house, dress for the weather, stop wasting electricity, find a way to move around without carrying a ton of steel, and get used to seasonal local food. You’ll survive. Quit complaining.
Carpooling would work if people actually lived anywhere near each other: I work in office where I am surrounded by people who commute up to 50 miles each way in all different directions. But hey - they had to get that “affordable’ $600,000+ 4,000 square foot house somehow, right?
We were better of in the day where we all lived close to our jobs in affordable housing. Outsourcing and the Housing Bubble have managed to destroy that model, and who knows if we’ll be able to rebuild it before oil prices get totally out of control.
as long a taxpayers pay for their “peoples trans” transportation
tax payers are paying for oil
War in Iraq
Security for Saudi Arabia
Tax breaks for oil companies earning 10’s of billions of dollars each quarter
Highways subsidized with state and federal income tax revenue
why not public transportation which would actually be good for the country.
If we had followed Europes lead and taxed gas to 5-10 bucks a gallon over the last 10 years and returned that money to the tax payer by reducing income tax ect. This country would be in a lot better shape and Saudi Arabia Iran ect. would have a lot less money for terrorism.
Wasn’t that the center peice of John Anderson’s Presidential campaign in 1980?
I’m an American living in Holland right now, and I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. Americans like to point to European ’socialism’ as an incredible waste of energy, but don’t consider that their own country’s warmongering for oil is just as much of a waste of money.
Gas here is $10/gallon, and to the best of my knowledge, nobody really cares. Their lives are great - but we don’t confuse a good quality of life with being seen in a Hummer or a jackass vanity car.
I wonder how much it costs tax payers to fill up government limos and jets—used only for official business of course.
If they did drive cars, they’d be happy that after gas prices rose from $1.50 to $4.00 per gallon over the past eight years, the government is willing to reduce younger generation’s future standard of living by giving back 18.4 cents.
Particularly since in response to low gas prices, like dogs responding to a ringing bell Americans have bought vehicles and moved to places that force them to use every more gas regardless of the price.
My view — go ahead, make my day — as long as federal transportation spending is eliminated too. All of it.
“NY Times says gas prices are too low.”
So what is your suggestion?
Let me get this straight, Hillary is against the US become more and more beholden to Middle-East oil but she likes the idea of a gas tax holiday for the summer which would increase consumption… and this extra gas would come from where?
Anyine else here tired of co-workers needing time off to move and handle other business because they lost here houses?
Yep. Me too. Need to move. I have not been able to park in my own space three times this week. I come home after midnight. There are apt. complex rules. Yet today four kids are skateboarding on the enclosed tennis courts. In their defense, where are they going to go and what can they do? It’s OK for now, but, six months from now, what’s it really going to be like? Time to move forward.
What a few of my co-workers are talking incessantly about these days is how they’re going to buy homes in Florida now that it’s “so cheap!” Their grand plan is buy now, rent out for a few years, and then retire there.
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Cheap my patootie. Wait’ll the taxes, insurance and other fees eat them alive. Well, I wish them the joy of it.
I hear ya’. Believe it or not, I use great self-control and stay off my soapbox. I realize it’s just not my job in life to keep others from making uninformed, quite possibly stupid decisions (unless said others are my parents).
Well, ec, in some of my earlier posts on this blog, I have mentioned that Florida has always had an inferiority complex about wanting to be like Cali. And by God, we’re becoming more and more like Cali every day, minus the decent jobs, weather and topography.
‘What a few of my co-workers are talking incessantly about these days is how they’re going to buy homes in Florida now that it’s “so cheap!” ‘
More evidence that we have not reached bottom yet. Once people everywhere swear that buying a house is a lousy idea and dead money vs. renting and having freed up funds (-ie- no 20% down payment tied up in house purchase requirement), you will have the basis of a bottom.
That is really cold. The housing mess is going to cause a lot of people to lose their homes. And while I don’t see a way to avoid that while things normalize, I think we should at least show some sympathy. Whatever their mistakes, losing a home is pretty traumatic, and taking a day or two off work to relocate is not a unreasonable thing.
It’s one thing not to want the Government to bail these folks out. It’s another to not have any heart.
Is it really cold? I guess you have to take it on a case by case basis, if the person is driving around in a navigator they heloc’d there house to buy among other toys, I have no pitty for them let them live in there oversized death mobile, actually the only people I might feel bad for are if the lost there house becuase of extended unemployment / major medical problems, of course with the proper planning early on one can be prepared for these events as well…
Visited new coin shop in town yesterday. Along the way, all stations, all brands, @ $3.799/gal.for reg. Three big pickups FSBO popped up on lawns along w/ dandylions.
Coinshop owner, young guy, late 20’s, knows his stuff (dad has a shop for years in nearby, smaller town), buys and sells, says activity is very high; people are hurting and selling their Au/Ag treasures like mad. Refuses to hold his purchases, says to call just prior to his shipping out days for what I’m looking for. He got burned holding inventory too long when Au spiked ( “I go TOO greedy”). Told some stories about appraisal firm he left a few years ago; chilling, no wonder we have 1 dollar houses around here.
Can confirm- Saw a new sign pop up yesterday at private residence, “We buy Gold”.
And directly beneath that sign was another sign that read, “Insured by Smith and Wesson”.
Nothing like drawing attention!
insured by bull dog
There it is. People are in desperate need of cash.
Those with cash call the shots.
Cash: The Ultimate Financial Solution.
Yes, those people selling grannys silver tea set are real financial shot callers. Now can I get a Seal Beach tanker update?
Seal Beach Tanker Update: Four empty tankers are anchored offshore.
When I was a kid I used to fishing on the barge off of Seal Beach. They took us out there on a small boat call the Alaska. It was orange with a deep V hull.
“Seal Beach Tanker Update: Four empty tankers are anchored offshore.”
Seal beach update #2
Just past Seal beach as U go over the long bridge U get into sunsetbeach, which is my starting point for doing my twice-thrice weekly bicycle ride all way down to Newport beach and back, passing thru Bolsa chica, huntington beach and occasionally diiping into that HB surf.
there are still a few good things left in SCcal, and cycling along the HB bikepath on a sunny 75-80% clear balmy day is one of them .
They sell their gold to keep their gas-guzzlin SUV’s. Talk about not getting it!
A “We Buy Gold” storefront recently opened up in a strip mall near my work.
I actually have some gold that I could easily part with. What’s the best way of selling? To a place like this? Or to a jeweler? Or other?
Give it to your neices.
Squeeze the weak hands. You can burn the furniture to heat your house, but only once.
Told some stories about appraisal firm he left a few years ago;
C’mon, c’mon! Out with them! Let’s hear it!
Briefly, new coin shop owner, worked in dad’s shop, then, because he like appraising stuff, got to be a full fledged RE appraiser for a local firm. Said made $ like crazy; shop had 30+ appraisals a day. Then mtg guys started dictating prices they needed to make the deal and, if they couldnt deliver it, no business. He refused and was eventually shown the door. He said his friends that stayed are now telling him that one appraisal a day is normal, and, most likely, because of ongoing investigations, their next address will soon be the graybar hotel.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008 - 2:14 PM EDT
Study: Expect home sales improvement soon
Why oh why, other than wishful thinking do they print this…er…stuff?
http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2008/05/05/daily22.html
“”A new National Association of Realtors study shows existing-home sales remained soft in March, but the organization is forecasting sales will begin to improve over the summer.
The association’s Pending Home Sales Index, a key measure of contract activity, dropped 1 percent to 83 in March from the month before and was 20 percent lower than the index level a year ago. The Midwest saw the strongest index decline among all four regions of the U.S., the score slipping 10 percent from February to 74.1, down more than 22 percent from the pace a year ago.”" …(cont’d)
Give me a break!
Leigh
It is taking some commentators a very long time to get past the denial stage of the housing bubble stages of grief.
Why read past,
“”A new National Association of Realtors study shows”?
For the comedy value. I mean, heckfire, I just laugh my bum off lately, every single thing the realtors, local or national, come out with nowadays is so glaringly false and so stinking of fear and desperation…ah, like sweet perfume. Sweet perfume that makes me laugh.
For Laughs, read the June edition of Palm Springs Life Real Estate edition.
I swear, reading some of that stuff, is just cut/copy/paste. repeat.
Amazing.
Koolaid.
I am seeing more sold signs, but waiting for signs to disappear or be replaced with relisted.
For the comedy value. How many times can you hear the same joke before it stops being funny & becomes merely irritating? The NAR guff has long since passed that point for me.
Wave of Lawsuits Over Losses Could Hit a Wall
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/business/08legal.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin
By JONATHAN D. GLATER
Published: May 8, 2008
Finding someone to sue over losses in the mortgage market and the credit crisis is easy. Winning in court, lawyers say, will be hard.
“The wave of litigation that we’ve seen, and certainly the current momentum, is going to eclipse what we saw out of the savings and loan crisis” of the early 1990s, said Jeff Nielsen, managing director at Navigant Consulting. “Some of those cases are still ongoing.”
Been saying that this started. These are sophisticated “accredited” investors.
My favorite sophisticated accredited investor story is the guy brought in to bridge cashflow for something like $50k. Instead, he looked around, and got a hired gun to handle buying up the companies bank line of credit for $600k and foreclosing on it crashing the company for the securing I.P. Heard a couple years later, however, he was suing his very “Christian” hired gun for wrongfully appropriating several millions or some such.
Like the general population, some are vindictive and enjoy legal wrangling. The difference between them and the general population is they have the resources to hound their targets.
Who also have the resouces to fight back. Which ends up as always with the attorneys on both sides being the big winners.
As the saying goes, “In a town with one lawyer, the attorney will starve. In a town with two lawyers, both will make a handsome living.”
I see lawyers’ business models as that of stockbrokers - it doesn’t matter which way the market (or case) goes - just that people are buying and selling (or litigating).
My moher said if I wanted to live a happy, healthy life then I should stay away from doctors, lawyers and money-lenders. [I believe she borrowed that advice from Thomas Jefferson].
they have the resources to hound their targets.
Like Monsanto at the farmers of our US.
Note food supply. Prices.
Debt Jumps… How can this be?
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aSN4AbFYIoCc&refer=worldwide
Snip from article:
“Consumers are strapped as incomes are not keeping up with inflation and this is leading them to rely increasingly on credit to see them through the worst housing downturn since the Great Depression,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in New York. “The days of extracting cash from one’s home to spend on goods and services are long gone.”
Ooooooh…the “D” word! Meme is popping up in the MSM more frequently.
Leigh
Seventy percent of our economy is based on consumer spending, but consumers are running out of places to get money to finance this spending.
We are so screwed.
“We are so screwed.”
Not if you’re a prudent saver.
If you have cash, Price Deflation = Discounted Prices.
True. But if you have a job that is dependent on consumer spending then you’d better have a large stockpile of cash available to weather your pending bout of unemployment.
Trust me, there is no way they will let the prudent savers win this: hyperinflation is just the answer since it destroys everyone, including those who did not participate in the nonsense and corruption.
“hyperinflation is just the answer since it destroys everyone”
Not those those holding Gold/Silver…..
“Debt Jumps… How can this be? ”
The credit Card junkies will be screwed very soon. Banks are cutting off or reducing credit card borrowing margins like mad. House Atm borrowing dissppearing fast. I bet that chapter 7 BKs will go thru the roof this year and next several years as this will be the latest scam: run up & max out CC credit, file BK, wipe out your unsecured debt, and screw the banks and creditors .
After two years rebuild your Credit and get new lines by piggingbacking onto another CC ID holders acct, the old co-signing scam.
Not that easy anymore. I have family members who have gone through BK and I guarantee you, it’s not an easy road back now that the new laws have fallen in place.
“While lower-income people can still declare Chapter 7, which takes away your assets but then discharges your debts, most middle- and higher-income people now have to declare Chapter 13. That means they have to pay their creditors monthly for five years before they’re free.”
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2008/04/07/080407ta_talk_surowiecki
Ahhh… that’s what I was talking about.
there are ways around that too but it ain’t fun
“While lower-income people can still declare Chapter 7, which takes away your assets but then discharges your debts, most middle- and higher-income people now have to declare Chapter 13. That means they have to pay their creditors monthly for five years before they’re free.”
I went thru chapter 13 a long long time ago. basically U go before a BK judge/court and have your debts reorganized and work out a payment plan . This is a very simplified synopsis of a really painstaking life- altering event . U just have to be able to make those reorganized pmts and i guess report to the court each month or something like that.
I wish we could get our hands on some numbers like the change in the dollar amounts charged at grocery stores, utilities, things like that. Now those numbers would let us know how bad things really are!
I’d like to know if people are still buying indiscriminately (just heard Abercrombie and other teen retail numbers are up) or if this is survival charging (food and heat). Probably both but if someone has any analysis I’d much appreciate the effort.
I sold tons on eBay from 1998 to 2006 (perhaps 50,000 individual transactions) and i’d guestimate that once PayPal got going, 85% of my sales were via creditcard.
What’s with all the cheap Mercedes wagons on EBay - 70 something - Most late model, one owner 3.2 and 3.5L, many 4Matics. mid range highway miles. Some still have warranty. Are these Wifeypoo’s cars from strapped families - many seem to be in NY, OH, and FL. The deals are pretty good. Fully loaded 04-05 E320T for 18-24K. I’m rethinking the Mustang, I’ve always been partial to Euro Wagons.
Really? I like those! Will have to take a look.
Check it out Chick
I miss the (fully owned) S430 we left in Mpls (100 miles to a dealership and no indies in the area). I’ve always liked Benz’s from my days of pounding down the A Bahn in an old 450SEL.
Even though the QC has dropped like a rock when they bought Chrysler.
Was told by a friend who has a wholesale auto license that for some reason Florida and Texas consistently have the highest numbers of luxury cars for resale available. Florida, I understand, but not sure why Texas is the top two. Regardless, another friend of mine just picked up a 2006 BMW 325i with 16k miles for just under 21k. Too bad I’m not in the market for another car.
Texas cars..recheck Hail damage.???
Who in their right mind is going to spend money for a friggin S/W to haul 2X4s, kids and garbage?
The MB S/W has to be the funniest vehicle sold in the US former 1st had to be the Pontiac Aztec.
desertdweller
you don’t like the hammered metal look?
Do check out the E320 wagons.
I bought ours on eBay last year. ‘98 with 20k miles from Dallas wholesaler. Shipped here to Seattle. Great wifey car and built like a tank to protect kidlings. 3rd row seat is 4 yr. old’s favorite.
Drives like a dream. Hoping to run to 200k miles with (albeit expensive) regular maintenance.
At checkout at bargain/discount grocery chain (Aldi’s), woman ahead says she didnt have cash, thinking they took personal checks or credit cards (they take neither, only cash or debit cards). Said all she had was her bank ATM card, not a debit card. Clerk said it would work as a debit card; it did, she walked out with her groceries saying it was her first time shopping here. Welcome to the lower class.
Amid Talk of the End and Boos From the Crowd, Clinton Carries On
By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: May 8, 2008
SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s greatest gift may be her ability to remain upright and smiling as chaos and chagrin surround her.
You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run.
You never count your money when youre sittin at the table.
Therell be time enough for countin when the dealins done.
I am wondering how the contrast between Romney’s gracious exit before the Republican nomination was even certain versus Hillbury’s long and graceless swan song might play into future election prospects?
Being a former Arkansas resident, I don’t count out the Clintos EVER. They’re the slipperiest dynamic duo that ever existed. I would not be surprised if she emerges from the scrum with the prize.
Clinton needs to realize she is doomed in either scenario. Even is she were to win the nomination (unlikely), the price she would pay includes destroying the Democrats momentum and losing the general election. Hillary, fold ‘em and move on.
Hell, even if she wins, she still loses. She inherits the economy the Republicans left.
“I would not be surprised if she emerges from the scrum with the prize.”
Neither would I.
It is “her turn” in the White House, though she ran most of the show the first times Slick Willy and the Nag were in office. She’ll find a way, either by buying off the party bosses (”super-delegates”) or by making people “disappear” in mysterious deaths. Don’t ever cross paths with the Clintons - they make the mob look decent and respectable!
One of the ideas is that because there has been a long fight, it has made every state a player and encouraged many who would just sit it out, to become active, hence the 7 vote difference in Guam(yes its small, but 7 votes). I too thought it was whacky sometimes, but now in retrospect, with both parties staying till the end, every state and citizen has been energized to participate, not everyone, but alot.Alot more than before when you knew exactly who was being the nominee upfront, or who would be Picked/elected and then WHY vote. But now, it seems, for one tiny second, that votes might count. Notice the word, might.
But she said she hoped that Mr. Obama would offer Mrs. Clinton the vice-presidential nomination and that she would accept it.
Sure, the woman whose address was 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for 8 years is going to settle for sloppy seconds. Of the three candidates, she is unique in having already experienced the perks of the Presidency, and you better know she is hungry for more.
I don’t know about the perks, other than what I read, however who want want the job in this environment. You age 20 years in 8, you got to be getting ulcers it you know whats going on (No problem with Regan, just provide him with the script) and you rely on others advice while you take the blame for the screw-up!
Anyone that takes this job is insane! imho
Damn, that means McCain is gonna be 100 years old by the time he gets out of office. Maybe thats what he meant when he said a “100 years in Iraq”.
“Those who crave power the most are to be least trusted with it.” - some philosopher
She settled for sloppy seconds (and thirds, and fourths, etc.) with her hubby if it helped her reach her goals; I wouldn’t count it out if she saw it as her only path to the presidency.
There is a second way, through the NY governorship. Pad her resume and wait 4 years. Imho, the next president will be impeached, have a heart attack to shot at because of our economic malaise.
I always use to say that when I was worth a million dollars, then dollars would not be worth anything. This appears to hold true for the two candidates running for president. How can the three weakest candidate be the leading contenders from their respective parties. I say the fix is in. Neither party is serious about being responsible for cleaning up this financial disaster.
imho, each party is hoping that the other party wins this upcoming election!!!
I wouldn’t count it out if she saw it as her only path to the presidency.
except she thinks BO is unelectable. So she has to go for broke.
phillygal,
If O wins, he will be the “fall guy”. Hillary is screwing the game plan up by statIng so. I am afraid to say that the message will be that “blacks can not win”. He is the Dem”s sacrificial lamb as a means to pay back past support in a time that Dems do not want the responsibility for cleaning up 28 years of economic mess. imho
he is unelectable. She’s right.
I’m a closet Colbert fan. He did a remarkable repertoire on electability a few days ago. I laughed so hard, I cried!
http://www.indecision2008.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=167412
Enjoy!
Leigh
“he is unelectable”
I am of the mind that if W can win - TWICE - then ANYBODY can be president, qualifications and electability be damned.
‘I’m a closet Colbert fan. He did a remarkable repertoire on electability a few days ago. I laughed so hard, I cried!’
I saw that one, Leigh! It was terribly funny.
If Hillary truly thought BO was unelectable, she would drop out and than start planning for 2012.
McCain would be 76 by then and might not be able to run for a second term.
Anyone wonder why the Republicans from Karl Rove to Rush Limbaugh are promoting Clinton’s candidacy, if Obama is so “unelectable”?
The loons are falling all over themselves and crashing into each other trying to backpedal from George, embrace H to save them from the tsunami called Barak.
There is no reason for Obama offer Clinton the VP spot. After this acid primary season, Obama supporters would be livid. They’d still vote, but they’d withold the $$.
And, NOTHING would fire up the Repbulican base more than the chance to vote against Clinton, in any capacity.
Apparently JFK and Lyndon Johnson despised each other, but the Democratic party leaders convinced them to run on the same ticket (heard this tidbit on either WTOP or 1500 AM, it’s sister station, the other day).
If I were President Obama I would be scared to death having Hillary as VP.
‘If I were President Obama I would be scared to death having Hillary as VP.’
He’d have to staple his eyelids open and never, ever sleep. Ever. Never.
This is no joke. It seems in the years since Bill first took office, an awful lot of their “business” acqaintances seem to die mysterious deaths occasionally.
Less than a year ago, a friend of mine (also a workmate) missed a couple days of work. The reason: a friend of hers just had her dad die, so she missed work to spend time with her friend.
Apparently he committed suicide. This was in Pine Bluff, one of the most corrupt places in the state of Arkansas. Anyway, apparently there were some strange things surrounding his death one of which was the fact that he was embalmed within a couple hours of his death. The family found this out when they requested an autopsy and I guess after being embalmed you can’t really do an autopsy.
Come to find out, this guy was also involved in the whitewater land deals. I found it…interesting his death occured just as the primaries were ramping up. I’m convinced that the death rate among close associates of the clintons probably exceeds the average.
Obama will look for a white southerner or hispanic vp. No way will Hillary get VP nod. Someone like Jim Webb, or Bill Richardson, would be good choices
Blueprint your story has more holes in it than the guy Dick Cheney shot in the face.
A Hostile prosecutor with 50 million tax payer dollars and a hostile congress investigated this and there was no prosecution just right wing rumor mongering. Let’s do the same for GW and Cheney and see what we find.
Bluprint, puleeze. do some research before you come back with that tired old sht from the repukes/
www snopes dot com
Don’t lump me into your right wing/left wing categorization, thanks. I don’t have any part in any of that. I don’t trust most politicians but we happened to be talking about Hillary. I realize that’s your group but don’t assume anyone who opposes “your group” must be in the “other group.”
A Hostile prosecutor with 50 million tax payer dollars and a hostile congress investigated this and there was no prosecution just right wing rumor mongering.
The incident I’m talking about was a few months ago, the guy died in his house in Pine Bluff. I think you must be confused. I don’t know about any 50 million dollars and hostile prosecutor.
Obama owes Hillary bupkis, and the path is clear for the presidency in a re-make of 1952, the intellectual vs. the war hero.
McCain is no Eisenhower though, and Obama wins going away…
Willing to add you to the bet I have with someone else here on that one.
The usual wager, Winthrope?
“One crisp Dollar Mortimer”
Let me re-remind you that you wagered that Grandpa Proxy would get elected President and I wager against it.
On another note, you think Obama is popular now? Wait until he announces his VP.
Obama an intellectual?
I don’t think “great public speaker” = intellectual.
didn’t you know . . . he was president of the Harvard Law Review. I feel so cheated. My husband was only on the Texas law review. It’s all so bogus.
Nahh…. Those Harvard post grads are all dumb working class schmucks bagging groceries at Kroger. Intellectual? Never.
Puleez.
I’m basically Republican, but between the lightweights (other than Ron Paul) that ran for the nomination, and McCain actually getting it……I’m convinced that the GOP needs a life-threatening enema in the worst way.
I’ve gotten to the point to where I’m asking myself “How could Obama possibly be worse?” I’m at least open-minded to what he will have to say.
As for Billary……the PTB in the Democratic Party have never figured out that there is a high percentage of people in this country that have a gut-level hatred of these two, and will vote against them no matter what.
A vote for Hillary, is a vote for a third term for Bill Clinton…….I really don’t see him doing the traditional “First Spouse” job. I see him as being Hillary’s unelected, unconfirmed “hatchet man”.
If you think we need a fresh start in Washington, vote for Obama……if you think that what we need is another 4-8 years of Washington fiddling, while the rest of the country burns, vote for Billary.
” If you think we need a fresh start in Washington, vote for Obama”
You’re kidding right?? Rev.Wright,and Rev Sharpton as his spiritual leaders,and advisors ..and Jess Jackson as the bag man ,and they will shake this country upside down til’ every last cent has been skimmed. I find it incomprehensible people actually fall for this guys hype of change.
Kinda like Grandpa McCain’s spiritual “leader” Reverend John Hagee who calls catholics idiots and the Catholic Church a whore. And Grandpas economic voodoo priest bosses on Wall Street and the boardroom are somehow shining examples of honor and integrity huh?
Get a grip.
Well, people are sick and tired of the status quo. Is McCain going to change us from the status quo?
When you’re in a hole, the first task is to stop digging.
“Rev.Wright,and Rev Sharpton as his [Obama's] spiritual leaders,and advisors ..and Jess Jackson as the bag man ,and they will shake this country upside down til’ every last cent has been skimmed.”
What does this sentence tell us about the author? Anyone?
That he/she is willing to tell the truth, political correctness be damned?
If she’s vice president, Obama will be found floating face down in a rivers somewhere. It is “her turn” to rule - how DARE the people get in her way! How DARE they!!
I’d just like to say anyone with any serious criticisms of Obama wouldn’t need to keep bringing up Rev. Wright.
Manufactured issue. Pathetic headline making. Get some new material. There are plenty of things to criticize about Obama. His stupid-ass preacher is irrelevant.
Dodd Defends Housing Plan, Blasts Bush
Wall Street Journal Blogs, NY - 16 hours ago
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.) defended his plan to create legislation that would expand the Federal Housing Administration and insure up to $400 billion in refinanced mortgages, during an interview taped for C-SPAN’s Newsmakers program. He also blasted the White House and questioned President Bush’s leadership for threatening to veto similar legislation in the House of Representatives.
Bush bashing sounds like a fitting prelude to a veto.
Frank’s FHA Follies
Housing Crisis: Feeling our pain, some in Congress are pushing a $300 billion government bailout of troubled homeowners. Good idea? Not when taxpayers are left on the hook for the bad decisions of others.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=295051589223264
Here’s how it works: A bank lender sells a troubled home loan on its books to the Federal Housing Administration for 85% of its assessed value, taking a loss. The same lender turns around and refinances the loan at 90% of its value.
In exchange, the lender gets a 100% guarantee for the loan from the FHA. So any default is covered by taxpayers — not the bank that made the bad loan or the person who took out the mortgage.
By the way, as a result of the “refinancing,” the borrower — who may be a speculator or house “flipper” or just plain irresponsible — ends up with a 5% equity gift from the deal. Not bad for a default.
Again you, the taxpayer, pay for it.
President Bush has said he’ll veto the whole mess. Good idea.
Every time I want to hate the Republicans more than the Democrats the Dodds, Franks and Schumers of this world step forth and do something brilliant like this. All politicians suck. Some just suck more than others.
unless you’re Mark Foley.
Or Larry Craig!
Or Kay “Aunt Mildred” Hutchinson.
“All politicians suck. Some just suck more than others.”
Some renaming is in order:
House of Representatives=House of Panderers
Senate=Panderate
This bill is so awful, I’m not even an American citizen, have never paid a dollar of taxes in the United States and I’m STILL outraged.
I believe he will veto this Really. Bad. Idea.
Go W, ya ’schrub!
Leigh
110th = worst. congress. ever.
Amen, bro.
Last night the news hour had snips of the debate on the House Floor. Some congressguy was arguing for the bill, on the virtue of it being a bail - IN, as opposed to a bailout.
Bail-IN…get it?
He must have been a realtor before election to congress.
They rode to victory in 11/2006 on talk of ending the war, but like ADD yuppie spawn they flit and float to just about every other issue but that. They, more than anyone else, are responsible for perpetuating the cult of the decider -because it gets them off the hook for actually doing anything.
The war is costing us $5,000 per second, almost as much as some ballplayers get.
Eedgewater, the current congress is just one vote more.
And when the one person got seriously ill, that left him out, and then well, it just wasn’t enough votes yet to seriously change things.
I believe change will happen this next round.
Hopefully.
“a” troubled home loan
The devil is in the details. Exactly WHICH troubled home loans is the FHA going to buy? All of them? That should be vetoed before the ink dries.
I am STILL waiting for some economic think tank to tell me how many of those troubled home loans are first-time buyers who can prove that they bought the house with a legitimate job with verifiable income. That will weed out every single refinance, flip, liar loan, trade-up, second home, speculator, illegal alien, assorted cash-back-at-closing fraud, and whatever else I forgot.
Then limit the max house price for aid, because no first-time buyer belongs in a $500K house, unless daddy is Bill Gates or Warren Buffet. And then, limit the “aid” to a set time frame, say, one year. If you still can’t afford your payment after that, then you’re just too poor for that house, and it’s BK time for the FB.
Somebody show me how much that’s going to cost the taxpayers, and THEN I’ll think about it.
If he vetoes the bill, and it sticks, I will definitely remember this come November.
This is why Democrats scare me slightly more than Republicans. They talk a great game, being for the little guy and all, but when push comes to shove, they are just as corporatist as Republicans - and have even less regard for spending taxpayer money than Republicans (and Republicans don’t have much regard).
As far as starting wars and such, which is the big knock on Republicans, it reminds me of a joke: “When I was 18, they told me if I voted for Goldwater, I’d get sent to Vietnam. Well, I voted for Goldwater anyway and sure enough, I got sent to Vietnam!”
Don’t get me wrong, they’re all politicians, most are feckless and venal, smart and motivated used car salesmen, and about as trustworthy, IMHO. So all must be approached with caution.
On the republican tab
1 trillion and counting for Iraq war
Anyone want to quantify the loss inflation has inflicted on the average American, Dick Cheney says deficits don’t matter.
Prescription drug benefit tailored to drug companies, costs hidden from congress.
Bail out of BS and taking garbage from banks in return for treasuries should cost us about I’m guessing several hundred billion at least.
I don’t like the democratic bill or the rest of the bail out both parties are handing out wellfare for gamblers, GW has limited his wellfare checks to banks and investors.
WSJ 8-May-08, p. A3
Hope Arises for Housing-Bill Deal
After Veto Threat, White House Pushes for Middle Ground
BY JOHN D. MCKINNON
DAMIAN PALETTA
AND HENRY J. PULIZZI
Don’t you love how the news of the veto threat grabs all the internet news headlines, but the real deal is relegated to the inner bowels of the WSJ?
Yay! The more they *talk* the less they’ll *do*.
Keeping fingers crossed,
Leigh
“The Pauma Indian band has scaled back plans for its $300 million resort hotel, cutting its tower from 23 stories to 19, trimming the size of the gambling floor, and eliminating an outdoor amphitheater.”
http://tinyurl.com/6hwndd
“The tribe says the changes are in response to community concerns voiced last year after it announced details of the proposed resort it is building north of Valley Center with help of a tribe in Connecticut that operates Foxwoods, the largest casino in the country.”
“The faltering economy, which has caused income to drop at casinos coast to coast, was not behind the changes, Devers said.”
Oh, sure it’s not. How viable is that business if/once gas goes to $5 or $6 per gallon? I still don’t understand the rationale for build a high rise hotel casino in the San Diego County back country. As gas prices rise and the economy falters, I think these Indian casinos are going to take a major hit.
You see the giant buses that are parked at casinos. If not in front, then somewhere close by.
The gamblers come from all over, junkets.
If you think that will be bad at casinos, what about Outlet Malls?
Well, again, it will probably be supported by giant junkets with buses as transport.
May 7, 2008, 1:33 pm
Wealthy See Recession as Optimism Flags
Nearly 80% of affluent Americans believe a recession has already hit the U.S., and optimism about the U.S. is at a record low among the well-to-do, according to the Annual Survey of Affluence and Wealth in America by American Express Publishing Corp. and Harrison Group.
“Results demonstrate that America’s ‘leadership cadre’ and successful households believe strongly that we are in a recession. Moreover, confidence in themselves and America’s prospects have fallen six or seven percentage points since December and over 30 points in the past three years,” said Jim Taylor, vice chairman of Harrison Group, a market research and strategy firm in Waterbury, Conn.
Four in five polled in the survey, which examined the opinions of 638 households representing the wealthiest 10% of the U.S., said this perceived recession resulted from the “free and easy” availability of debt, with Wall Street and Washington equally to blame.
Yesterday, coin shop owner told me his very wealthy (?) customers have recently been buying gold at the rate, in his estimation, of about 25 percent of their income. I believe the wealthy see more than just a recession.
I am seeing this as well. It puts to rest the argument of “If gold gets too expensive nobody will buy it”. J6P won’t buy it, but the wealthy will. They only have to liquidate a tiny fraction of their stock portfolios to buy a lot of gold.
Maybe he just said that because he has excess he needs to move….
“Maybe he just said that because he has excess he has to move….”
Ya think?
Maybe it has something to do with the thousands of people trading in their gold bling for cold cash.
Nah, not even related.
On a similar note: My barber says all his wealthy customers come in to see him once a day to get clipped, and he suggests I do the same.
I was heavy into coins in the late ’70s and remember the fevered psychology of the precious metals rush - take all the hype with a grain of salt. Conspiracy theories, insider gossip and hot tips run rampant. I was smart and sold the last of my junk silver the day it peaked - around $50 an ounce if I recall correctly. I was so smart that I bought it back at $35 a few weeks later. Keeping a little silver and gold on hand to smooth out the edges of an emergency is a good and prudent thing. But remember you can’t eat it and it won’t keep you warm. In a true worst-case scenario, too much makes you a target.
Evidence that the housing bubble stages of grief have not yet moved past the denial stage:
HOUSING
Investment interest rises in foreclosed homes
Survey says more than half of U.S. adults would consider buying a foreclosed home, while many also feel there are negative aspects.
“”Foreclosure homes aren’t for the most part well taken care of,” says Ron Chicaferro, a mortgage consultant in Arizona, who says a home might need general repairs after purchase.
In some areas, officials are concerned about health risks. On Tuesday, officials in Santa Clara County, Calif., expressed concern that the high number of foreclosed homes with swimming pools that were not being maintained could provide a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes that might carry the West Nile virus.”
Perhaps some foreclosure infestors will come down with well-deserved cases of West Nile virus.
Keep the foreclosure investors out. It’s better if the homes stay vacant.
/sarcasm off
2008 VOTE: PRESIDENT
Cash-strapped Clinton vows she’ll fight on
Senator is pumping funds into campaign
By Beth Fouhy and Jim Kuhnhenn
ASSOCIATED PRESS
You’re here, there’s nothing I fear,
And I know that my heart will go on
We’ll stay forever this way
You are safe in my heart
And my heart will go on and on
Direct link
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZDQ1ZjY3ZTBhNTk0N2VkOGEyZDUxZWE0MTI5MmE5NzY=
“But her legacy — well, that’s something different. Forget Whitewater, forget her near-indictment by a grand jury. Forget the levitating ashtrays and the jet-propelled lamps, the missing White House furniture, the scorched-earth policy against Bill’s, um, lady friends. Forget the imaginary Bosnian snipers, forget the opportunistic Yankee caps. Forget the cattle futures and the sailor’s vocabulary. Forget the Wal-Mart board that she apparently slept on for years without noticing the company was a bona fide Enemy of the People. Forget the Rose law firm billing records. Forget the Barrett Report. None of that matters any more.”
I need a tissue. That brings a tear to my eye. Regardless of what her supporters (David Cee) say she is the most corrupt human on the planet. Let Barack run and have an honest election with McCain. I think it would be the best thing for this little place we call America. I don’t know who wins but at least the world’s biggest phony (not named Trump) wouldn’t have a shot.
You don’t need a Weatherman to tell which way the wind is blowing ;). As long as you have the Wright stuff.
Wright or wrong… it’s just has to come from Tayhos.
For you youngster’s…”new twit” Grinch was a “republican hero” at this time…Gave Limbaugh a tight feeling in shorts before viagra!
“The incident itself was controversial and was a part of the increasing partisan infighting that has plagued the Congress ever since. The original charges were filed by Newt Gingrich in 1988 and their effect propelled Gingrich’s own career advancement to Minority Whip and, seven years later, to the Speaker’s chair itself.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Wright
Hagee
Lets talk about Hagee and Mc Cain.
Neither are desirable or I suspect successful. Max one term president at best.
I am still waiting for a third choice-an independent candidate otherwise I do not intend to vote and I am a Dem.
that is sort of childish.
Our ancestors went through alot to get us the right to vote. You don’t have to be wealthy to vote, nor just a man, or a landholder. Lots of wars were fought to have a say in our taxation. So why wouldn’t you, Lostcontrol, vote anyway. Just to say you did at least.
Otherwise, guess you should just give your entire pay and holdings to george or your congress person now. Just give up.
I understand the frustration, but geez. Your grandparents would be horrified. And all the soldiers you say you support would be horrified, the ones fron WWI and WWII etc and Korean war vets etc.
desertweller,
I have voted in each election since I was 18 years old. Lets see, thats 11 elections? You know, not one of my choices have been elected to office, well maybe one or two, but I would be embarrassed to mention which.
But to get to your point about voting. What is the difference between only one candidate running for office vs. two candidates bought and paid for running for office. If you really want a representative democracy, limit business/and wealthy individual funding of campaign. In the current election cycle, Heddies and IB banks seem to be the biggest contributors to O and H.
“She is not going to quit because she has nowhere else to go, and nothing else to do. She lives for this, and without it, she has no life. In fact, without it, she doesn’t exist at all.”
Bingo.
She needs administrative experience. I could see her cut a deal for Dem support for running for NY governor. If she is serious about the presidency, she would do herself a great deal of success or harm by going this route.
Only other choice is to stay in the Senate. This could be a dead end for her, but it would keep her in some position of power.
Question is, double or nothing!
Senatorial, Governorship and spousal experience. She could be the triple threat in 2012, and 2016,and 2020, and 2024, and…
The major problem with the senator is that she was in charge of the President’s Task Force on Health Care Reform from 1993. Not one person involved with the Task Force (all appointed Democrats) has one nice thing to say about her managerial abilities. Many economists regard her as incompetent as a result of the Task Force Fiasco.
The System
Washington reporters Haynes Johnson and David Broder’s account of the catastrophic collapse of the Clinton Administration health care reform effort
She is not a threat and would be great as President because nothing could happen!
Vote for incompetence!
“She lives for this, and without it, she has no life. In fact, without it, she doesn’t exist at all.”
Classic narcissism. Their entire persona is contrived and exists only in the mirror of others’ esteem and in the ability to manipulate and control. Total lack of empathy. They hate solitude because then they have nobody but their false self, which they hate.
“They hate solitude because then they have nobody but their false self, which they hate.”
Excellent, simply excellent.
Google Sam Vaknin.
No, stay away from him, he’s a total loser. He gives really bad advice. If you really want to learn about narcissists, go to http://narcissists-suck.blogspot.com/
Disclaimer - my cousin’s a shrink and this is one of her favorite topics - she says about 10% of the population are narcissists. Very destructive people.
“Classic narcissism. Their entire persona is contrived and exists only in the mirror of others’ esteem and in the ability to manipulate and control. Total lack of empathy. They hate solitude because then they have nobody but their false self, which they hate.”
(Shudder) I know that personality type all too well. Used to live where they travelled in packs.
No life is ever a complete failure; it can always serve as a bad example.
I’ve actually seen Sam Vaknin post here.
He’s written quite a bit about the housing bubble, believe it or not.
I drove to the store yesterday, during which Rush Limbaugh’s impersonation of a bitter Bill Clinton forced to stand behind a “loser” wife and wanting sympathy was priceless. (If almost painfully vitriolic
)
I have that sound bite. It was a riot. But I don’t think it’s postable.
Did you here the one where he dissed liberal men to women? That was even funnier.
HE MUST HAVE GOTTEN SOME GOOD OXY BEFORE HE HIT THE AIRWAVES
he is the biggest d-bag in radio
I love his show and have listened to it daily since 1991. It is very funny.
“he is the biggest d-bag in radio”
Also a fat draft-dodger, who beat going to war because he had a pimple on his butt. And a drug addict.
But republicans love guys like this…he speaks to their core values…hypocrisy, bogus patriotism, and the pleasure of just being flat-out ugly. Looting the country is a bonus.
Republicans? You’ve just denounced tens of millions and lumped them all together. If you said this about a racial group, you’d be tarred and feathered. At what are the opposition’s core values? Unlimited free drugs, pedophilia, free-abortion, partial-birth abortion, welfare, anti-patriotism, and the pleasure of just being flat-out-bonkers?
To hate an entire political party’s membership because you belong to a different party is egomania. Are you a paragon? Are most in YOUR political party examples of human virtue?
I don’t like Rush Limbaugh because he’s a know-it-all windbag, but he can be funny, and that was the point. He’s an entertainer, not a spokesperson for a political party. I don’t know anyone who takes him seriously.
And no, I’m not a Republican.
I’m a pretty liberal person who has never voted republican and even I can admit that guy is sometimes pretty funny. There are plenty of musicians I enjoy who are complete jerks in their personal life.
“I don’t know anyone who takes him seriously.”
You must not get out much. Can’t count how many times I’ve heard some mouth-breather quote his BS like it was gospel.
yep, he may be an “entertainer” but he is believed by many and that is scary, means they can’t think for themselves.
If no one took him seriously, Faux news wouldn’t be so successful and have that other dbag/s, hannity,oliely, and those idiot “pretty faces” just spewing the vitriol as if they know something and you don’t.
What do you call all these people dirtbags? And what vitriol are they spewing? Except for Limbaugh’s cracks about Clinton, I haven’t heard any; the only people I’ve ever heard treating Limbaugh seriously are those who call-in trying for their fifteen seconds of obsequious fame, and liberals spinning on their heads in eternal righteous indignation.
Why do you call people who cite him “mouth breathers?” Does that make those who cite Amy Goodman ass breathers?
Have you bothered listening to any of the people you describe as idiot pretty faces?
There are a lot of people who take CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, CNBC, etc. seriously, and you aren’t faulting them.
Maybe the reason the conservative shows are so successful is because they offer an alternative to the often blatant liberal propaganda of their competitors. I watch CNN and FOX news; I think CNN is better, but FOX is often funnier, and both networks clearly slant this way or that.
What is propaganda only bad when it comes from the side you’re not standing on?
Since you slam everyone on the “other side” with some sort of invective, clearly the vitriol being spewed here is your own.
Guess I’d call anyone a mouth breather that formulates their opinions based on one single point of view, no matter which one. Says to me they can’t think on their own.
I think you’ve described 80% of the population.
Recently “scientists” announced a discovery suggesting that being liberal or conservative was, for most people, hardwired, sort of like being lef-handed or right-handed. I’ve thought this all along. If true, it would mean that Nature designed people this way, and one side can never be better than the other. They are compliments. The problem is, they cannot perceive each other as anything but opponents, enemies, antagonists, and etc. Each, of course, believes itself right and superior. It gets really tiresome.
I mostly stand back in the middle and observe, playing devil’s advocate and p-ssing both sides off in an attempt to get them to recognize what they’re doing, but it hardly ever works. My right-wing brother thinks I’m a socialist, and my best female friend, a socialist, thinks I’m a Republican. I think they should marry each other.
Yes it’s well known (isn’t it?) that people who like Rush don’t read anything or listen to anyone else..
As bad as she, you have to admire her kohones. At her fund raising dinner last night, a protester jumped up on a table and was then carted off by security. Her response: “Well, I certainly hope he didn’t step on any of the cookies.”
I was never a fan of HRC, but I do admire her determination and pluck.
Hillary would be Richard Nixon II. Obama would be Jimmy Carter II. Take your choice.
Wait, I want to change my post:
I was never a fan of HRC, but I do admire her
determination and pluckpathology.Nixon got us out of Vietnam.
Hillary would be Richard Nixon II. Obama would be Jimmy Carter II. Take your choice.
That very thought has crossed my mind. An McCain would be Herbert Hoover II.
Oh…. you mean Jimmy Carter, the genuine Christian who appointed Paul Volcker to break the back of inflation? The Jimmy Carter who negotiated lasting peace between 2000 year enemies Israel and Eygpt? You mean THAT Jimm Carter?
I thought so.
McCain will be Herbert Hoover.
who gave us gas lines, stagflation and Iran hostages?
OPEC, Federal Reserve and Ayatollah Khomeini.
Who gave us an “energy policy”, spiraling inflation and Iraq debacle?
“Comment by txchick57
2008-05-08 09:50:56
who gave us gas lines, stagflation and Iran hostages?”
I think much of that was part of the business cycle. Back then we allowed for business cycles. In hindsight, I think it was better to go through a little pain then than what we have today…extending it forever and ever.
The Soviets invaded Afghanistan, because they didn’t think Carter would do anything about it. And he didn’t.
One could make the point that there would be no Taliban or Al Queda, if it were not for Jimmy Carter.
Unless you lived during that period, you had no idea how bad a President can be.
Jimmy Carter. Maybe not “The Worst President Ever” But you could probably count him among the top five.
Hey, I worked in the REIC during the boom, and I can state unequivocally and without reservation that Jimmy Carter would have made a fantastic REaltor.
Osama’s motivation was the US in Saudi Arabia and western culture. You want to blame Carter for Al Quida your crazy.
I’ll say that those who supported the Shah are responsible for the Iranian revolution and thus the high price of oil during that period of time.
The gas lines were primarily caused by people’s stupidity. Just like the damn thing with the rice now. People would wait in lines to top off gas tanks that were 1/2 to 3/4 full.
Stagflation is what we have now, If we had listened to Carter and cut our oil consumption our country would be in much better shape. The problems in Iran that he had to deal with started well before he came to office. Blaming him for the price of oil then is like blaming the next president for the collapse of America that we all know started w GWB.
I agree, MEaston.
And Carter actually had integrity and seemed to really want to improve the lives of Americans and people around the world.
I think he just got in during a bad time.
nice work stucco, thread of the day.
Doin one for HELL-AS-IOU’s from thoughts on a limb, june 2007.
Hail To The Chief
The United States is most definitely a Republic. It’s leaders are elected by the people, from the people and for the people. Hereditary succession is in no way practised here.
Or is it?
Bush I (VP 1981-85)
Bush I (VP 1985-89)
Bush I (President 1989-1993)
Bill Clinton (President 1993-1997)
Bill Clinton (President 1997-2001)
Bush II (President 2001-2005)
Bush II (President 2005-2009)
__________________________________
Hillary Clinton (President 2009-2013)
Hillary Clinton (President 2013-2017)
If (B)illary gets elected and stays for both terms, then the same two families will have run the show for 36 years. In a row.
I think you are stretching it past the snapping point to include 1981-1989 where Bush was “running the show”. What did he get there as VP? At least Gore got space
though the linkage may seem weak on face as to the 81-89 stretch, yet Mr. Bush senior was #2 in command.
the point is salient in itself as to the charge of the kool-aid drinkers. who have gulped down debt in quantities that are far beyond the consumption of my own, and as of yet unliving, grand-children.
Wake up before November, “Its the Election, stupid.”
additionally I would add that the election year of 1980 witnessed 30% off lows prior to the second ladle of the double dip recession in 81.
Including 81..89 as Bush Running the Show is kind of stretching it past the snapping point. What did Bush as VP get to do? At least Gore got space
Analysts inching toward ‘R’ word
Economic trends in county seen as recipe for recession
By Dean Calbreath
STAFF WRITER
Job losses, rising gas prices and continuing weakness in the real estate market will plague San Diego County’s economy for months to come, according to a forecast released today by the Anderson Forecast of the University of California Los Angeles. The economists at the Forecast – a pre-eminent economic think tank – refrained from saying that the local economy is in a recession. But they got close.
Direct link
–
“The economists at the Forecast – a pre-eminent economic think tank – refrained from saying that the local economy is in a recession.”
Their is actual record of forecasting CA economy is simply horrible, but no one in the media is willing to do a due diligence.
Jas
SEC to require banks to disclose liquidity
Terms market can ‘readily understand’ - 23:53
“You want answers?”
“I want the truth.”
“You can’t handle the truth.”
I’ve been across to the other side
I’ve shown you everything, I got nothing to hide
And still you ask me do I love you, what it is, what it is
All I can tell you is it’s all show biz
All I can tell you is it’s all show biz
Never happen.
23:53 is that scripture?
“the Gospel of John states that Jesus said to Pilate that he is a king and “came into the world … to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of truth listen to my voice”, to which Pilate famously replied, “What is truth?” (John 18:38)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontius_Pilate
Refineries are producing more diesel at the expense of gas - higher margins on diesel of course - soooo, what does that do to gas prices?
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/diesel-prices-full-throttle-push/story.aspx?guid=%7BA9A6465F%2DF30F%2D4466%2D91C7%2DABFD1FCB57DE%7D
I probably spend more due to price increases than due to direct gas costs. Save The Truckers!
$4.19 a gallon for diesel here in the Middle of Nowhere. Funny though, the log trucks and indie’s around here seem to be INCREASING speeds on our rural highways. The corporate truckers seem to be slowing down. You’d think the indies would slow down too.
Corporates are installing lower speed governors.
The independents are going faster to make more money before they run out of fuel.
Refineries are producing more diesel at the expense of gas - higher margins
As I would HOPE they do! That’s how business works. Once gasoline prices (actually price margins) go up enough in comparison, then production will shift back.
Keep in mind that there’s only a bit of flexibility there. They can’t turn a plant completely to diesel from gasoline, but you can shift the proportions a bit. The numbers quoted indicate about a 2.5% shift so far.
What’s interesting is that gasoline margins are perceived by analysts as being historically low, and so that means we can most probably expect even higher prices as margins adjust upwards.
Right now, a barrel of gas is worth less than a barrel of oil after you strip out refining costs. It’s like selling cookies for $0.50 a piece when it costs $0.45 in materials and $0.07 in labor. It’s killing the refiners.
It is important to note that the price of oil has nothing do to with supply and demand at this point. It’s all bubble heads bidding prices into the sky. Just like houses.
Combine low elasticity of demand with an oligopoly and you have the ideal situation for speculators. Somewhat different than most other products. For example, houses have essentially unlimited supply and precious metals have fickle demand.
The Federal Reserve lays out new rules for credit cards
“”The Bush administration has been notoriously regulation-averse, preferring to let “the market” work its will, but the sub-prime-mortgage crisis seems to have taught the administration that it can’t sit on the sidelines while unhealthy business practices grow out of control.
Thus, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke has proposed new regulations for the credit-card industry that “are intended to establish a new baseline for fairness in how credit-card plans operate.”
Credit-card companies have had a generally free hand in how they operate, but in a sense they’ve become victims of their own success.”"
http://www.caller.com/news/2008/may/08/the-federal-reserve-lays-out-new-rules-for-cards/
Is it me, or is W actually working these last few months?
Leigh
I think Bush is finally waking up. I think his trust with Cheney/Paulson and the rest of the crooks is broken. Of course its too late.
Shrub = Pinocchio
“…he was created as a wooden puppet, but dreamt of becoming a real boy.” …”and being educated at Yale”
Speaking of people using Yale/Harvard etc as perfect models of business and medical etc. They are just schools that teach the same thing that other schools do, they just have the connections. It is sort of like, they put their “pants on one leg at a time” as well as the next school.
So, what am I getting at?
Friend has H who has recurring prostate c, and their MD who is from “Yale/Harvard” doesn’t want his patients to use vitamins or supplements. And patients just blindly follow those instructions. WHY? Why put your faith in a diploma.
The MDs and businessmen/women are just people who are trying a technique, but whether it proves out or not, is like going to Vegas and betting it all.
I just don’t get it.
If it were me, I would be doing everything in my power to support my body while doing the chemo(that would be my last resort though)
So, in politics, we look at W and see his “yale” showing and expect this underachiever making a mockery of our US and constitution. And yet we still hang onto that ridiculous
pedigree of “yale/harvard”.
You can look out into the past and current and see many more who made huge impacts,changes, for good that didn’t have that phony pedigree. All it gets you is connections.
And then you better produce. Well, maybe not, maybe those who have those “pedigrees” don’t need to produce.
Some of then can just float.
Heck, no. That man doesn’t work.
What’s happening is the generally intelligent career policy people who exist in any administration have been given the ability to, you know, use some of their expertise to help the country. They are finally able to do their jobs.
The Decider deserves absolutely no credit.
Thank god the Fed is here to save us. Now we can all go back to sleep and know that things are going to be ok.
Hmm anyone think that the sale of VISA prior to this may have been insider trading???? I’d like to see the fine print before popping the bottle.
Wall Street guilty of insider trading? Who coodadnode?
VISA makes money by processing charges, not from the charges interest rate.
At some point soon, VISA will be a great short as the credit companies start mass cancellation of credit cardds for default.
And max out their CCs and just flat-out can’t use them anymore.
Thursday’s Events: ECB, BOE Rates; Cdn Housing Starts, U.S. Jobless Claims
06:50 05/08 (CEP News) –
“”The European Central Bank and Bank of England rate decisions will top the early morning’s economic events, followed by the release of Canadian housing starts and comments from Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. South of the border, markets will receive U.S. jobless claims and wholesale inventories.”"…(cont’d).
http://tinyurl.com/44sy4v
Will the markets have a happy day?
LOL,
Leigh
Anecdotally, we moved in January from San Diego to Marbella (Spain) - frying pan to fire …I know, still we’re renting and telecommunting, and not getting paid in USD.
However we shipped our house on Jan 15th and are still waiting to get it back. Company we used were paid in full but have not paid the company that received our stuff in Europe, so they’re holding it.
Co. here won’t deal with us, our contract is with US company. If anyone has any suggestions as to what we can do, would love to hear them.
So anyone thinking of moving not just overseas, watch out who you use.
Oh my, you have a major mess. I’ve had similar but smaller scale problems, which we fortunately resolved, but not before paying the destination company out of our own pocket. (In our case, the unloading and associated waiting charges had not been paid.)
You might end up, after pursuing the usual means to encourage the originator to pay up, having to pay the destination firm yourself. Then in theory you could sue the originator for that cost, but being that you are in Spain and they are in San Diego, they probably know you can’t. (If you do manage to get in front of court, you’d probably win, but what if the firm is broke, which might be the case?)
On the better side of it, it might well be that the packing, loading, and transport were already paid for (or done) by the originator. That would leave only customs clearance, delivery, and unloading on your end. These aren’t insignificant costs, but they ought to be a fraction of the total. Have you talked to the destination firm to somehow cajole them into telling you what they are owed? If they think you might pay them, maybe they’ll deal with you. (Oh, and we ended up doing some of our own unloading in our problematic case, before storage costs started eating us alive.)
Lulah
If you are an American citizen, you might try contacting your US Congressperson’s office. They’re pretty good about cutting through this sort of nonsense…or at least giving you a clue as to how to proceed.
But now Lulah resides in Spain and *has* no US congressman! Doh! Taxation without representation?
Thanks Guys! I have tried pleading with the destination co. for a solution, and have offered to pay ‘my’ outstanding charges. Problem is they are determined not to do this as they will lose their leverage. They claim they are owed $100,000!
I am a US citizen, and have contacted every organization that the shipper belongs to, but no joy so far.
I guess with less people moving removal companies are suffering, and passing it along to us the customers!
It is one of the few industries where you are obliged to pay in full, and give them your stuff and then hope for the best.
Seems like they too aren’t hampered by regulation.
Is it just me or does this piss anyone else off? Only in California
Want my vote? Just $20 million, please
May 7, 3:45 PM (ET)
LOS ANGELES (AP) - What will it take for a Democratic presidential candidate to win the support of California superdelegate Steven Ybarra?
Say, $20 million.
The Democratic National Committee member doesn’t parse his words when it comes to what he wants from Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton - an ironclad promise to spend that heady amount to register Mexican-American voters and get them to the polls in November.
In a telephone interview Wednesday, he said he plans to remain undecided in the tight contest until “someone shows me the money.”
When will he settle on a candidate?
“Nobody showed me any money yet,” he said.
He’s not kidding. To Ybarra, a Sacramento lawyer, the stakes are no less than winning the presidency in November.
He predicted that as many as 1.3 million Mexican-Americans could be added to voter rolls in New Mexico, Colorado, Florida and other swing states, a potentially decisive edge for the eventual Democratic nominee.
With that investment of funds, Mexican-Americans would realize Democratic leaders “care about us,” Ybarra said, referring to Mexican-Americans.
Is $20 million a lot to ask?
In 2004, “they spent a billion to lose,” he said.
Why are you surprised??
“In a telephone interview Wednesday, he said he plans to remain undecided in the tight contest until “someone shows me the money.”
Bwahahahaha! Now that’s what I call completely brazen, demanding a bribe outright. Well, at least he’s stripped away any pretense of what’s really going on and what his constituency is like.
Actually, I gotta hand it to this guy overall, he’s actually showing how massively corrupt the system is and there’s now no pretense that votes or politicians are bought and sold. It’s completely in the open now. Maybe the Mexicans were just the first to stand up and point it out and I got to respect them for that.
‘Maybe the Mexicans were just the first to stand up and point it out and I got to respect them for that.’
What?! Respect them? NO, you DON’T got to respect them for that. This sucks, is all it does.
Those who can’t figure out how to get registered seem to be highly sought after voters. Perhaps they vote for who they are told to?
“Only in California”
Bugs: “eh, I don’t think so texas chiclett”
See the post above about “Wright” …also, they left out Tayhos…oh, silly me those are all legal Mexican American you all have down there wright?
“He predicted that as many as 1.3 million Mexican-Americans could be added to voter rolls in New Mexico, Colorado, Florida and other swing states, a potentially decisive edge for the eventual Democratic nominee.”
No argument here. I was at my WAMU this a.m. and did not hear a word of English spoken the entire time I was in there.
And the teller machine now offers me Chinese and Russian as possible languages.
And the teller machine now offers me Chinese and Russian as possible languages.
Cool.
I’ve never seen an ATM in Chicago that offers Russian — and we have one of the highest Russian / Ukrainian / Polish / Serb / Lithuanian immigrant populations in the world. You can conduct your person-to-person bank transactions in one of those languages at many branches around town, though.
It doesn’t piss me off, it’s kind of refreshing actually. At least he’s being upfront about it.
I recall reading of a guy standing on the side of the road (a story being related by someone else…maybe on this blog), one of those people holding a sign begging for money. His sign didn’t say “disabled vet” or “will work for food” or any of that stuff. It said something like “I’m going to spend the money on alcohol, but hey at least I’m honest”.
Not much pisses me off more than someone trying to BS me. I don’t like the fact that our modern politics is all about buying votes, but being open about it doesn’t affect that one way or the other.
People with ’signs’ have gotten me before, I have walked into deli and bought them food, only to walk out and find ….bueller,bueller, anyone?
Me holding bag of hot soup and sandwiches.
I was in NYC last Feb. for my grandfather’s 100′th b-day. While we were there, it was cold as sh#t and the wind was blowing like crazy. My wife and I walked into a small shop to buy something (I think maybe a bottle of water or something) and while in there some homeless looking dude was trying to buy a cup of coffee. He had a little bit of change but it wasn’t enough and the guy in the place basically ran him out. I can understand the guy’s point, I suppose if he gave out free coffee even that might put him out of business. But man it was bitter cold…I can understand the guy trying to get a little bit of warmth inside.
I gave him a couple 20’s on the way out. I don’t know what he did with it but he walked right back in the same store, I assume to get another cup of coffee. I like to think he was really frugal with the rest of it.
I always wonder about people like that. I know a lot of times they might be vets and such with mental/social problems left over from that experience. Seems like there aughta be a better way…
I also saw a documentary about homeless people in the last couple years, it was mainly in NYC. People living underground like in the subways and stuff. I think I rented it from netflix. Anyway it was really interesting. Most of those people have or had a drug or alcohol problem, but surprisingly some of them either didn’t have a problem or were recovered from such. Those were the most interesting. They maybe didn’t function too well in normal society, but had found a way to make it and even be part of a different sub-culture. I got the impression most of them wanted to be back to normal but were so removed I think they just mostly didn’t know how to make the leap from homeless to holding down a normal job and being a regular part of society.
On the other hand, TV news followed some in Seattle once. Back to their packing lots where they parked their Mercedes.
Will he take the 20 million in rice?
Some do it this way, and some have a direct line to the God called Diebold. Does that rile you equally?
Well I guess Latinos are learning how to play the political system. Unfortunately they have not fine tuned it yet. Like the National Builders Association, these trade offs are done quietly and in private. imho
Typical “Pancho Villa” approach to politics, comes out with “guns a blazing”. I have got the “quid”, do you have the “quo”? Sorry if this is screwed up. I didn’t take Latin. Its funny anyway!
rice price:
The cost of rice rose by 3.5% to $22.35 per 100lb in early Thursday electronic trading on the Chicago Board of Trade, adding to similar rises in recent days.
Cyclone Nargis hit Burma on 3 May, killing tens of thousands of people and hitting the main rice-producing areas.
Rice prices were already at peak levels after bad harvests and higher demand.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7389499.stm
LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England kept its key interest rate unchanged at 5.0 percent on Thursday, shying away from a second consecutive cut despite slowing economic growth.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080508/britain_interest_rates.html?.v=1
ban the market:
May 8 (Bloomberg) — India, the world’s second-largest buyer of vegetable oils, banned futures trading in soybean oil, rubber, chickpeas and potatoes as the government seeks to rein in the fastest inflation since 2005.
“Halting futures trading will probably have little impact on Indian inflation,” Anne Frick, a senior oilseed analyst for Prudential Financial in New York, said in an e-mail. “World soy- oil prices are up due to fundamental factors, not speculation.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=a_h.jzhW1bwc&refer=india
If India were to let their currency appreciate, inflation would be under control. Ditto Saudi Arabia (inflation 15%), China, Malaysia etc. Since Dubai unpegged their currency, inflation has dropped by 50%.
Must be some advantage for India, China & Saudi Arabia to peg their currencies to the $.
Exports to the US and Euro nations for China and India (these countries must keep creating jobs). Saudi Arabia, who knows?
international oil transactions are settled in US dollars.
May 8 (Bloomberg) — The European Central Bank kept interest rates at a six-year high today to fight inflation, even as the euro’s appreciation and fallout from the U.S. housing slump curb economic growth.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a92BH6plfvas&refer=worldwide
Claims for unemployment benefits fell last week by bigger-than-expected amount
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080508/economy.html
The Labor Department reported Thursday that applications for unemployment benefits fell to 365,000, a decline of 18,000 from the previous week. Economists had been looking for a much smaller decrease of around 5,000.
These are the positive numbers that seem so out of step with the rest of the economy, So why do these numbers stay so strong in the face of all the other bad news? Could this be the weak dollar/more exports policy?
I would like to again publicly state my gratitude for President Bush’s vow to veto the Housing Bailout bills. If the President’s word remains good on this… to answer txchick57, yes, I will be voting Republican in November.
There is one other thing I would like to add.
Historically, we all know what often happens when a President dares to go up against the Banks. It’s called ‘Assassination’.
I would like to inform the Banks, and Wall Street, that if you dare attempt any treasonous action such as this the ENTIRE BLOGGING WORLD will rise up to bring you down.
If you don’t think we can do it, you are very misinformed.
Mr. President, some of us may have disagreed with you in the past on various issues, but on this issue, which is of the highest national security, you have our support.
Blogging is the new Democracy. The true American patriots can be found right here on Ben’s blog.
So, once again, dear Banks, Bankers, and Wall Street:
Lay one finger on our President over this veto, and we will end you. Do not underestimate the power of us Bloggers.
I hope that makes things clear.
Mr. President, we got your back, sir.
Stand firm.
And once again, I’d like to say a big THANK YOU to all those Bloggers here and across the Blogging community that made this veto possible. You folks truly deserve a pat on the back. You stood up to tyranny, and you honestly made the difference. Congratulations.
“Historically, we all know what often happens when a President dares to go up against the Banks. It’s called ‘Assassination’.”
Link?
yes, I will be voting Republican in November.
Your guy isn’t running again, unless you have a link for that.
Bernanke now taking on role of Big Brother, claiming the right to determine the interests of every U.S. citizen, including you:
“Doing what we can to avoid preventable foreclosures is not just in the interest of lenders and borrowers. It’s in everybody’s interest.”
In Fedspeak, “everybody” means “the banks.”
Just like in Fedspeak when they speak about “the economy” you should mentally substitute the words “the banks.”
There might be some vague connection between banks and the daily life of the average person.. the availability of food in the stores.. gasoline at the pumps.. having a job to go to.
How about we have a full-reserve bank?
It seems clear that the banks run this country & quite possibly, the world.
Depositors need to be made whole (as best as possible), but we do not need to keep the banking community in its current state.
Preventable foreclosures? WTF is that? All foreclosures are preventable, the borrower makes the payments or the lender ignores the delinquency. The babble that comes out of the mouths of government officials and corporate executives is truly absurd.
Thursday, May 8, 2008; Page D01
“The FBI has withdrawn a secret administrative order seeking the name, address and online activity of a patron of the Internet Archive after the San Francisco-based digital library filed suit to block the action.
It is one of only three known instances in which the FBI has backed off from such a data demand, known as a “national security letter,” or NSL, which is not subject to judicial approval and whose recipient is barred from disclosing the order’s existence. …”
Washington Post
About time some internet firm tried to stop the government from this BS. I wish the Patriot Act had never been passed.
” I wish the Patriot Act had never been passed.”
Agree 150%
They probably already got the info another way.
yeah.. getting information of any sort is a simple matter. Getting it in a way that makes it admissible as evidence in a court is another story.
Letters to the editor
Washington Post
“Speculation and the Surge In Commodity Prices
As evidenced by statistics quoted in Steven Pearlstein’s April 30 Business column, “Now, a Commodities Conundrum,” we are in uncharted territory in the commodities industry. As noted, economists at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have said there is no single speculative group responsible for affecting prices. There remains, however, a concern about possible harm from speculative activity, and we take that concern very seriously. What has become clear is that no single “smoking gun” provides an explanation for skyrocketing commodity prices, and that is where Mr. Pearlstein’s analysis fell short: It is not enough simply to point to speculation as the culprit in these markets.
We need to review numerous factors — including the devalued dollar and the subprime credit crisis — that may affect the markets. Do we need to review the role of speculative activity in commodities markets? Absolutely, but our analysis cannot simply start and end there.
BART CHILTON
Commissioner
Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Washington
Since the silver fiasco of the Hunt brothers (and that crisis was to the Hunt brothers) there has not been a crisis in commodities. I trust Mr. Bart Chilton will continue to defend the commodity markets from The Pearlsteins of the world, but speculators do make a good whipping boy for the politicians. Speculators are always a “they” no names, no identities, no facts needed.
it is soo telling that politicians and other burocrats are worried about commodity speculation and not about speculation in let’s say housing (another necessity of life for many) or financial stocks (a necessity of life for the US Economy).
Considering your money market account is being thrashed by inflation, isn’t just about any investment speculation these days?
We’re all speculators, a lot of people just don’t know it yet.
yes, and I think that is what the FEDs are trying to combat; they want J6P to be defenseless against their moneyprinting activities, so they have total control.
Consumers turn to discounters and wholesale retailers, still show reluctance to spend freely
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080508/retail_sales.html
Interesting way to present a headline, “reluctance to spend freely.” Do these clowns expect everyone to just spend without any regard to current conditions?
What did you do last night? Oh, we just went out and spent freely like drunken college kids at spring break! We don’t care about anything but spending more and more and saving less and less!
On the other hand, why all these better-than-expected numbers? A blip up in the eventual trend down?
http://www.gazette.com/articles/haddad_36081___article.html/home_police.html
Used house saleswoman in Colorado Springs conspires with four 13-year-old boys to vandalize the home of clients who dumped her. Probably the most inept revenge plot ever.
“The boys said Haddad started crying while recounting her business dealings with the Thomases, a family from the neighborhood who spent eight months house-hunting with her help before switching to another real estate agent in 2005.
Haddad would have earned $27,000 in commission on the home the family planned to purchase, Greg Thomas said. He said he broke off the deal because he didn’t trust her.”
Didn’t trust her for good reason. And what idiot would trust a bunch of 13 year old boys to keep their mouths shut.
More conclusive evidence regarding the general lack of intelligence in this human substrata.
About par for your average realtor. She’s probably in deep financial doo doo from all the boob jobs, botox, and spa treatments. Not to mention the BMW and several 2 week vacations a year. Then there’s the credit card debt and…
‘Probably the most inept revenge plot ever.’
I would have to agree with you there, Schadey.
(from the article)
Police obtained a receipt from Wal-Mart detailing the purchase, about 9 p.m. on March 25, of four cans of spray paint and two 48-ounce bottles of vegetable oil.
Haddad paid the $9.40 bill with a personal check and used her driver’s license to verify her identity, police said. One boy accompanied her and the others waited in the car.’
This poor REtard buys the stuff with a personal CHECK?! That’s so stupid it’s painful. And note the amount–9 bucks. I wonder if the check will bounce. She must reallllly have wanted that commission.
My good friend got a scathing letter from a realtor she’d used several times before. It seems the realtor felt “screwed over” because when my friend’s parents moved to town they chose another realtor. It made my friend feel bad because she ran into her often at the born again Christian mega church.
I swear some of these realtors require medication.
My former realtor has her name involved in another problem. It appears a couple made an offer on a home she represented and she neglected to tell them the price had been lowered since they’d looked at the property. Not sure who’s responsibility that is but from afar it looks like she might lose her clients their buyers.
Another “christian” Re was massively addicted to coke.
And not the one with Santa or the Polar bear.
But as with others, made big deal out of church she/he belonged to. Snifffffffffffffffffffff
OT - the holy, sacred fire:
“A Chinese mountaineering team took the Olympic flame to the top of the world Thursday, a spectacular feat dreamed up to underscore China’s ambitions for the Beijing games. The Mount Everest climbers could be heard struggling for breath in a live television broadcast as five torchbearers each shuffled a few feet before passing on the flame to the next person. A colorful Tibetan prayer flag lined the path and fluttered in the wind. (Yahoo news)”
I recall when the flame came through Utah for the winter Olympics. All I could think was, what a marketing scheme!
It used to be the Olympic flame was lit in Greece, and then carried or propagated around the world, symbolizing the universality and eternality of the one flame as originally lit at the site of the ancient games, etc etc.
These guys on the mountain just struck up a flame and lit the torch there. This is no more an ‘olympic flame’ than Mike Hammer firing up a Camel.
Although their torch might be an Official Supplier To the Olympics Torch.
Yeah, NPR was talking about this yesterday, first they talked about how “the olympic flame…” was going up the mountain. Then they said this isn’t the only olympic flame or the same one that was carried around the world.
So I was thinking, why then would they call it “the olympic flame”? Why wouldn’t they call it “one of the flames”? I realize it’s a propaganda thing for the Chinese govt, but why would NPR and other reporters be so complicit in just reporting in the manner most favorable to the chinese propoganda machine? People are odd.
The Tibetan prayer flag was a nice touch.
I have decided to not watch the games this summer. The only exception is for the US Soccer team.
The olympics has been a corporate-fueled snoozarama for many a year, this torch-er leading up to the event, notwithstanding.
Yeah, if you recall, Utah really excelled in the corporate greed/scam arena, got several golds and a silver or two.
Quite a few layoffs and closings in Utah this week!
Cephalon is closing down and laying off 31 workers at 4745 Wiley Post Way in Salt Lake City.
First Franklin Financial is closing down and laying off 36 workers at 6440 S. Wasatch in Salt Lake City.
Harris Interactive is closing down and laying off 86 workers at 1998 S. Columbia Lane in Orem.
Kimberly-Clark Ballard Medical is closing down and laying off 117 remaining workers at 12050 Lone Peak Pkwy in Draper.
Macy’s Department Store is closing down and laying off 107 workers at Crossroads Mall in Riverdale.
Marriott International Inc. is closing down and laying off 162 workers at its Reservation Sales & Customer Care Center in Salt Lake City.
Qwest is closing down and laying off 54 workers its Network Load and Resource Allocation Center at 778 N. 300 West in Salt Lake City.
Sento Corp. is laying off 77 workers (51 in Utah, 26 are home based workers in other states) at 600 E. Timpanogos Circle, Building H in Orem.
St. John Cos. is closing down and laying off 30 workers at 7918 S. 1530 West in West Jordan.
We actually have some leverage, forced the union and company to renegotiate the contract. (2 years left on a 5 year contract)
Thanks as always for the info Hoz.
‘Yeah, if you recall, Utah really excelled in the corporate greed/scam arena, got several golds and a silver or two.’
Hahaha! You’re funny!
Ahhh, that was a fun time for me, when the bribery news broke. I was still in Utarrr then and I had several amusing monologues I happily performed for those friends and family that were Mormons. Or even complete strangers in the supermarket. Anyone who exhibited what I judged to be an aura of irritating smug piety and/or sanctimonious righteousness was an audience, whether they wanted to be or not. I’d know I was done when they’d start to cry. (I’m not naturally cruel, I just hate hypocrisy. Oh, and developers, and yams unless they have marshmallows on them. But that’s it.)
Hey, Oly, you ever read a book called “Leaving the Saints”?
and yams unless they have marshmallows
Yams or sweet potatos? What are commonly called yams today are usually sweet potatos. True yams are supposedly bitter.
And have you tried fried sweet potatos? Yummy.
Hoz,where did you get this info?
would appreciate for research reasons.
Thanks.
hooray, my zip code just got ‘declining market designation’.
Just in time for spring house hunting hehe.
http://nmindependent.mypublicsquare.com/view/a-label-that-hurts
I thought I was the only one noticing.
Does that mean Rio Rancho is IN or OUT this week?
We really need to know…
Excellent. Get Santa Fe, Placitas, Taos on there too.
It will take another year or so, but it will happen.
Never, Santa Fe has limited growth and huge demand from boomer’s. SF is soon to have Aspen prices for the elite.
I hope that was said in sarcasm. Aspen is slowing down.
” Never, Santa Fe has limited growth and huge demand from boomer’s ”
This must be in jest, but may I add, “It’s Gods’ country, We are running on a totally different economic paradigm”, Money retirees,Tourists, and foreigners….What did I forget? ” Oh yeh, buy now or be priced out forever”
Buffett Real Estate CEO Sees Housing Comeback
As for how things shape up going forward, Peltier said market has returned to its pre-boom times, with home sales tracking at about 5 million annually.
“I think that’s a normalized market and I think that’s a sustainable level,” he said.
But he divides the market into two parts: the primary market of discretionary sellers, and the distressed market, which includes some of the areas that saw the meteoric rise and now are suffering the consequences of excess.
“Housing prices are still within 8 to 10 percent of all-time highs,” Peltier said. “The markets that have fallen off the most are actually the markets that were the most overheated.”
Speculators hurt those markets, with 25 percent of all sales from 2001 to 2006 going to those betting on making quick profits rather than buying homes in which they planned to live for an extended period.
http://biz.yahoo.com/cnbc/080508/24518179.html?.v=1
the spin doctors are working hard this week!!!
Yahoo-CNBC
Buffett Real Estate CEO Sees Housing Comeback
“The battered housing market has steadied and is ready to bounce back off an inevitable pullback from its boom times in the earlier part of the decade, said Ron Peltier, the CEO at Warren Buffett’s Homeservices of America real estate company.
“I think the real truth is the market has been in a phase of correction,” Peltier said on CNBC this morning. “We are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel.”
…
So…the house price downturn is just a ‘health restoring correction’, price declines really really aren’t about affordability, and even though wages have actually declined in inflation adjusted terms, housing prices are leveling off soon at these still-to-high prices…?
And what about lending standards tightening…to the ‘normal’ levels of requiring a down payment and income documents?
Why do these financial wizards still have jobs?
If they told the truth they would’nt, I for one don’t buy anything I see, read, or hear on any main stream media outlets, it’s all pretty much corporate/Gov propaganda…
Were the brainless girls of CNBC fauning over Mr. Buffett?
It might mean something if Mr. Buffett was not so heavily involved in real estate.
Maybe those floozies are hustling to be the next/last Mrs Buffet.
Did you see preening?Fluttering of eyelashes!!!
I’d offer about $50K.
http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2008/05/08/20080508biz-auction0508-ON.html
“When the company began selling the condos in 2006, all 171 units sold out within eight months. But 35 sales fell through for various reasons, such as inability to get financing or buyers backing out,”
“The 32 two-bedroom units start at $195,000 and range from about 1,439 to 1,716 square feet. Prices for the three three-bedroom units will start at $265,000.
Previous asking prices have been up to $485,321 for two-bedroom units and $552,520 for the three-bedroom units.”
Not selling for 60% off… so they are doing a true closeout, no reserve, no approval, binding auction to jsut get WHATEVER theny can.
My guess is they want to liquidate before the tsunami of foreclosures!
Sigh, yet another NAR abuse of the term “market value” in this Denver Post article. Buyers are getting such a deal since the homes are listed for “less that market value”. Bleh…
Metro home prices down by 10%
In an attempt to create bidding wars, banks are giving real-estate agents permission to list foreclosed homes at less than market value.
That’s among the reasons the median price of a single-family home in metro Denver declined 10 percent from $248,000 in April 2007 to $222,550 last month, according to statistics released Wednesday.
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_9189071
Subprime In Sheep’s Clothing
http://www.forbes.com/2008/05/08/alt-a-mortgage-markets-bonds-cx_md_0506markets32.html?partner=yahootix
Two ex-principals at NY mortgage broker indicted
NEW YORK, May 8 (Reuters) - Two former principals of a New York-based mortgage lender surrendered to the FBI on Thursday after being indicted on charges of conspiracy and fraud involving Fannie Mae (FNM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Credit Suisse First Boston (CSGN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research), a federal prosecutor said.
Lieb Pinter, 64, is charged with fraud in connection to the theft of $44 million of payoff proceeds for refinanced mortgage loans financed by Fannie Mae and serviced by Olympia, a now-defunct Brooklyn, New York-based mortgage lender.
Barry Goldstein, 59, is charged with fraud in connection with Olympia’s sale of a portfolio of mortgage loans to Credit Suisse using falsified loan histories.
“Investigating and prosecuting mortgage-related fraud is a priority of the (U.S.) Department of Justice and this office,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Benton Campbell said in a statement.
Pinter is charged with conspiracy and wire fraud. Goldstein is charged with conspiracy and bank fraud. If convicted, each faces up to 30 years in prison.
The pair are expected to be arraigned later on Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joan Azrack.
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINN0836099020080508?rpc=44
Kind of wonder why it is a priority (not that I’m complaining).
I mean, don’t they have to return the recaptured money to the banks? They could be out confiscating drug cars and helping the national debt
Kind of like farmers switching from rice to wine grapes to follow the most profitable crop.
“Where home prices are headed next”
http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/06/real_estate/100_forecast.moneymag/index.htm?postversion=2008050810#TOP
Takes a few seconds for the chart to load at the bottom.Several articles there about the housing market.
Best Case Scenario, methinks!
AUCTION SITING
As I left jury duty yesterday (Santa Ana, Orange County, CA), I noticed a small group of people surrounding a man with a clip board. I guessed he was soliciting contractors or some such but as I walked past I realized he was reading off addresses so I stopped to listen. This was apparently the fabled ‘auction’ when houses are foreclosed upon and publicly announced on the courthouse steps.
No steps here, only about 10 ‘bidders’ in a semi-circle around the auctioneer and no takers. I listened for a minute or two and observed no action other the auctioneer calling out an address and a dollar amount (outstanding loan amount, I’m guessing), getting no response, and then turning the page on his clipboard.
One ‘bidder’ stepped back and commented that nobody ever bids so I’m guessing this is where the mortgage holder is ‘buying’ back the house for their outstanding loan value.
So I imagine this all looked pretty funny to the many jurors/lawyers/witnesses/perps as they streamed past: one speaker, back against the wall, semi-circle of 10-12 lookers (all silent), and one grinning doofus hanging around the outside (that would be me).
Sidebar: I helped my fellow jurors convict a loser of dui & pot possession. He openned his car door and emptied out his clay pipe in a parking lot with plain clothes police viewing everything. The best quote came from his buddy when he explained why the pipe was out in the open while the pot was in his pants: “You want to keep the bowl from the bud.”
Re: The worst is behind us…and Credit Suisse ARM reset schedule
May 2008 is the month of the last big spike in ARM resets. In most respects, resets seem to taper off until early to mid 2009. (Your mileage may vary, as the graph was based on data available in late 2006).
My take is that the Bush administration and the housing bulls are looking at that “fact” to say the worst is behind us. Foreclosures due to ARM resets will continue to grow for 3-6 months, but then start downward.
The housing bulls are looking for that bit of evidence to “save the market”, while Bush is hoping to get out of office while things are “getting better”.
The problem is that this was always an affordability issue, and not a foreclosure issue. House prices started coming down long before foreclosures shot up. And they will keep coming down until they are in line with incomes and lending guidelines.
Also, there is that little problem of the wave of Option-ARM/Prime ARM resets starting in mid 2009…
“Also, there is that little problem of the wave of Option-ARM/Prime ARM resets starting in mid 2009… ”
heres a blog article that mentions all that in detail.Not sure if it was posted here .So much for a “bottom” anytime soon.
“Update: Mortgage Resets: The Fun has Just Begun
11:17:34 PM April 16th, 2008
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/greenberg/2008/04/mortgage-resets-the-fun-has-just-begun/?mod=MWBlog
How will the tapering off of ARM resets stop the downward housing/credit spiral we are now in? What may have started with ARM resets is now fed by many other things: credit tightness, underwater loans, inflation, etc.
The ARMs are not a one reset and done, they adjust every year or so. So the ones that survived this go around will have to survive next year etc. Since most ARMS are tied to LIBOR rates and the LIBOR has been kept artificially low, expect a worse situation in the future as rates go to normal (?) or the Pound and Dollar crash.
LIBOR is artificially low? Compared with other similar instruments that it usually tracks closely, it’s been rather high and spikey in the last year. LIBOR is lower than it was but still way above the rate of treasuries, as anyone with an ARM indexed off the latter will tell you with a smile.
Way OT:
Cindy McCain says she’ll never release her tax returns
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080508/ap_on_el_pr/cindy_mccain_taxes
“You know, my husband and I have been married 28 years and we have filed separate tax returns for 28 years. This is a privacy issue. My husband is the candidate,” Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting John McCain, said in an interview aired on NBC’s “Today” on Thursday.
I just thought this was funny, since the Dems were beaten with MSM sticks to release all their returns. I can only imagine if Michelle Obama said the same thing as Cindy McCain. I doubt that MSM even asks McCain why they won’t get released.
I doubt that MSM even asks McCain why they won’t get released.
Seems like she made it pretty clear.
They file separately. There is no reason for her to release them. I wouldn’t either in her shoes.
I probably wouldn’t either, especially considering her financial situation. If she were a typical w2 employee I would think it wouldn’t matter much and be worth releasing just to appease the wolves.
At the least, it’s an interesting situation and one I never considered.
IF she doesn’t file than we can’t see how money was funneled to her account for the work that McCAin did for certain clients.
Interesting report from the DFW area.
I was checking my Bank of America accounts online yesterday and noticed the credit limit on my HELOC had been slashed in half without any advance notification - I don’t even know when they did that - it’s been a couple months since I even glanced at it.
Good thing I am not using it anymore (used it for prepping the house for sale), and converted it to fixed.
And ..my house goes on the market this Sunday at less than the 2003 purchase price. It will be interesting to see how it goes.
Good Luck!
I mean it.
I’m more worried about the impending divorce and my children, followed by health issues than I am about the house. Priorities. We didn’t need anything that huge anyway.
Fortunately all non-house debt = $0.00, House debt (mtg + heloc) = 72% of 2003 purchase price (a steal), and only 2.1x income. Got enough headaches without money troubles adding to my woes.
If I were getting divorced, I wouldn’t have credit cards.
Too many potential problems. My sister’s husband went loony from an undignosed brain tumor (at least that’s why he died shortly after.) The local country bankers kept loaning him farming money during and after the divorce. The banks still want their money. She works two jobs at a bakery and as a school lunch lady. Good luck with that Mr. banker.
So sorry to hear about the divorce.
I’m sure you’ve heard this more than you care, but maybe you can still work it out? No doubt, you’ve already tried.
I wish you the best of luck in all these things!
Realtor or listing number?
I have seen several similar comments from people and the common denominator here seems to be (drum roll please….)
BANK OF AMERICA!
Either they have some severe liquidity issues, or they’ve suddenly (in the last 3 months) gotten religion on sound lending practices…
Leading economic indicator….
The McDonalds I frequent in WA state recently raised the price of a double cheeseburger from a buck to $1.29 - the dollar menu is shrinking!
Just sent this email to the White House:
Dear President Bush:
I read that you were considering a veto of a proposed Congress bailout for sub-prime mortgages.
My wife and I didn’t buy a home in the last 3 years due to the housing bubble and refused to take a sub-prime suicide loan in order to get a home. We couldn’t afford a traditional 30 year mortgage due to high housing prices in California even with a 20% down payment.
A bailout of homeowners and lenders punishes prudent buyers like myself and would be a signal to all homeowners, lenders and speculators that the government is there to bail out all bad investment decisions. Please remember that the current tax law allows homeowners $250,000 (single owner) and $500,000 (husband and wife) tax free income on gains over 2 years. So it becomes a tax free win if you sell your house at a profit and a tax payer bailout if you lose. I am sure you see the ridiculousness in this type of bailout.
Thanks you and please veto any Congress housing bailout.
AIG just reported a huge loss on Credit Default Swaps a.k.a derivatives. And who said the worst of the credit crunch was behind us?
Death of a salesman in San Ramon:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/08/BAKV10IUBF.DTL&feed=rss.crime
Another “family values” GOP congressman gets taken down for drunken adultery.
Hypocrites.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24522883/?GT1=43001