The Housing Bubble

I’m with you on that O’gal. I just bought a Mossberg 500 Security and will be loading up on the ammo and sandwich fixins.

Hey, this has probably already been posted here, but just in case …
Bloomberg: U.S. Charges 400 in National Mortgage Fraud Crackdown (Update1)

http://tinyurl.com/68ebzj

“Get information into the hands of the consumers (including information about your salesman’s incentives) and let them make their own decisions.”

The Truth in Lending Act supposedly did that, but it didn’t work.

If you need gov’t bailouts (especially because you are “too big to fail”), then you need gov’t regulation. End of story.

To my understanding, the Truth in Lending Act does not have the obligation for mortgage brokers to act in the best interest of their clients (to the level of being their fiduciary), nor does it require the brokers to disclose that fees they are to be paid for the various options they lay out to you.

I agree wholeheartedly about your comment that if you are “too big to fail” that you need government regulation. We can talk about whether Bear was a “bailout” or a government sponsored “crash landing”. I think that in an ideal world, they should be allowed to fail. The government should set a threshold, above which you are subject to significant regulation. If you are a $50B entity, no regulation, but if you get out over your skis, good luck to you. If you are above a certain size threshold, things like 30x leverage is a big “no-no”.

I’m open to new regulations. I hope though that they don’t go overboard as they did with SOX. As a sophisticated borrower, I would hate to have such regulations restrict my ability to take out an option ARM or other exotic loan product, if that’s what I chose to do (for whatever reason).

Regulations in reaction to a crisis that don’t go overboard? Er, when was the last time that happened?

Amen brother. Thanks to these class A a$$holes, prices were driven up to a point where, nevermind what I can afford, it would be sheer stupidity for me to buy in.

Thanks to them, a well behaved and very sweet five year old girl doesn’t have a backyard to play in, and instead has to live in a crappy two bedroom apartment.

Now they want the government to take my money and use it to bail their lying, gambling asses out on top of it all.

Does no one in our government have a sense of justice anymore? Are you reading this congresscritters? We’re TIRED of this crap.

I’m voting 3rd party from now on, unless there’s a REALLY good case for a particular individual. If nothing else, I will definitely vote against whomever is the incumbent.

I say throw the bums out of office next election. Either vote 3rd part, or for the other guy. A high turnover rate may be the ONLY thing they will listen to from the people….

If you would note in the entirety of my post I said that people wanted these loans for speculation purpose and they didn’t care what type of loans they went on .

If you have ever read a number of my posts you would know I give no slack to the borrowers because I believe they knew what they were doing and a good % of them lied on their loan applications . Still, many borrowers were lied to and didn’t fully understand what they were doing ,in spite of their motive being speculation .So, I’m just saying as long as a speculator knows what they are doing regarding taking out a loan, than it’s better.

How can you think that the mass brainwashing and cheer-leading didn’t influence people ?

I think before the lawmakers go changing all the laws ,a complete neutral investigation needs to be conducted to determine the causes of the housing crash . So much of the crash was because of widespread lending fraud .So,under those circumstances more regulations would be needed that prevented fraud ,as a example , a better system that would not put appraisers in a position of starving if they didn’t hit the mark on appraisals .

Adam,

So true, so many people even the media forget we are the government, the government is we the people.

“What conclusion…?”

They’re not looking at other alternatives. Allowing ourselves to think only within this false Dem/Rep dichotomy limits our ability to demand and achieve significant change.

–
“They’re not looking at other alternatives.”

Do you suppose that doping from birth onwards has something to do with it? BTW, all cultures do some or other form of doping to instill faith in the system in place. In our case, it is the two-party democratic system. It is very convenient and simplistic for people to follow, or cling to — blame the other party for most of the ills! Believe you me, I know some thoroughbred partisan dopes. There is one guy, in his seventies, who has been Republican all his life and is a staunch Bush supporter today. He juts wishes Bush could have a third term because McCain isn’t good enough.

It is all about beliefs and habits of the population, mostly a cultural heritage. Independent thinkers are rare in any place.

Jas

ditto

lol

That’s guy’s still around?? I thought after his drug bust he’d go away…

Free membership:

Rush Limpbaughs Motto: ” Dont bother thinking…I know everything”

“Even with it’s flaws, the GOP sure beats the party of cut and run cowards any day.”

Cut and Run is an old nautical term that means you cut the anchor rope, because something wicked weatherwise is coming your way, and there is no time to dilly dally…

When you cut and run you get pushed by the wind. Of course when you are running you are always slower than the wind and get caught by the storm everytime.

So, its a desperation move.

Normally you go close hauled or on a reach to side step the weather.

Hardest part of sailing is controling the boat going with the wind and waves. You lose rudder all the time and can jibe unexpectedly.

“The ‘cutting rope’ derivation was certainly accepted later in that century by David Steel, the author of the 1794 tome The Elements and Practice of Rigging and Seamanship:”

“To Cut and run, to cut the cable and make sail instantly, without waiting to weigh anchor.”

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/cut-and-run.html

The paralells between Stalingrad late 1942 and Iraq 2008 are eery…

250,000 Americans (G.I.’s/Blackwaters/Haliburton) is roughly the same amount of men that the Nazis had in Stalingrad.

When the Nazis made their initial push towards the city, it looked like they would have an easy time of it, but got bogged down in street to street fighting.

In the end a fierce winter and lack of fuel spelled their demise.

It will be a hellish summer and lack of fuel that does us in, unless we “cut and run” at some point.

I find it amusing that liberals cry paranoia anytime terrorism is mentioned. Yet you throw out comparisons to Stalingrad and lack of fuel without missing a beat.

This comparison isn’t even “apple and oranges”. More like ” apples and rocks”

It wasn’t the street fighting that caused the German defeat at Stalingrad. At the time that the Soviets attacked to cut off the salient, the German Army had captured something like 90% of the city. Most of the Germans who died because of Stalingrad didn’t die there, they died after being taken prisoner, thanks to Hitler’s “No retreat” orders.

I don’t see any multi-million man force anywhere in the Middle East that is capable of “another Stalingrad”, no President is ever going to issue “Stand or die” orders, and no General Officer in the US military would ever issue them.

The ‘terrorists’ of 1942 were called partisans, and they regularly attacked Nazi supply columns, causing much grief…

Are the similarities of our lost cause sinking in, yet?

It wasn’t the street fighting that caused the American defeat at Baghdad. At the time that the insurgents attacked to cut off the salient, the American Army had captured something like 90% of the city. Most of the Americans who died because of Baghdad didn’t die there, they died after being taken prisoner, thanks to ’ssshrubery’s “No retreat” orders.

It wasn’t the “partisans” who defeated the German Army.

It was the Soviet Army, Hitler’s “Stand or Die” orders, when a retreat to a better defensive line would have made more sense, and the spring-summer 1944 air campaign against the German transportation network and oil product facilities.

…..American defeat at Baghdad……”

So…….what point are you trying to make?

There isn’t going to be a victory or defeat in Iraq. The Shrub picked the wrong fight, at the wrong time, with lukewarm support at home, and ignored the guys that knew what they were talking about, when it came time for estimating what it would take to “secure” (for the lack of a better word).

He screwed up, and the US Army and Marine Corp. were left to try to salvage something from the situation.

It wasn’t the “terrorists” who defeated the American Army.

It was the financial army, ’ssshrubery’s “Stand or Die” orders, when a retreat to a better defensive line would have made more sense, and the spring-summer 2008 gas campaign against the American transportation network and oil product facilities.

Anything else to bolster my theory?

Keep serving up 8 mph softballs if you’d like…

There isn’t going to be a victory or defeat in Stalingrad. The fuhrer picked the wrong fight, at the wrong time, with lukewarm support at home, and ignored the guys that knew what they were talking about, when it came time for estimating what it would take to “secure” (for the lack of a better word).

He screwed up, and the wehrmacht & luftwaffe were left to try to salvage something from the situation.

I frankly have no idea what the hell you are talking about.

If you are going to use historical precendent, pick one that aligns a little better with the facts.

You seem to have the idea that everything the Shrub and Company do is some kind of huge conspiracy.

I, on the other hand, think these guys are too stupid, and run their mouths too much, to pull off said conspiracy.

We obviously have different world views.

All I did was take your words, and switched time, people & places…

I’m so tired of hitting homers, please throw me the hard heat now.

Yeah, and in 1940 German army took over Moscow, captured Stalin and formed a government. Yup… Seems like Iraq 2008.

The Nazis set up puppet governments all over the vast areas of Russia that they conquered, just like we’ve done in the middle east.

The Russians and the Germans also knew whom they were fighting against, as each side had identifiable uniforms, vs. our current debacle where we are the only ones so attired, and the bad guys all wear their clothing of their own choosing and look remarkably similar to non-combatants, of which we can’t distinguish one from the other, because we don’t speak their language.

p.s.

In 1940 Germany & Russia were allies, just like the USA and Iraq until 1990…

You are confused.

Hitler never took Moscow.
Hitler never setup goverments in Ukraine, Russia or Belorussia, Estonia, Latvia or Litva.
Hitler never captured Stalin.

If you think that the non-aggression pact between USSR and Germany was anything other than realpolitik you really need to re-read history books.

I guess this didn’t exist…

Reichskommissariat Ukraine

Reichskommissariat Ukraine excluded parts of present-day Ukraine. It extended, in the west, from the Volhynian region around Lutsk, to a line from Vinnytsia to Mykolaiv along the Southern Bug River in the south, to the areas surrounding Kiev, Poltava and Zaporizhia in the east, but excluded the Crimea, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and the Donbas/Donets Basin, which remained under German military jurisdiction. At its greatest extent, it included just under 340,000 square kilometers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichskommissariat_Ukraine

And the realpolitik between the Nazis and Soviets wasn’t a whole lot different than this…

http://justimage.org/blog/media/1/20061229-rumsfeld-hussein.jpg

hmmm… the ideologues never seem to give up lying and distorting, even when slapped silly with historical fact.

Well done Aladdin.

Wow. It was an elected government. Amazing. Go back to learning history.

I read it occasionally.

Some of the writers I like, some definitely are screechers or whiners. And the comment-posters at HuffPo tend to drive me nuts (regardless of political orientation).

–
“minimalist three-branch government.”

But like a hydra it grows and grows and even added a forth head (Federal Reserve). Like the Church and the monarchy in France, over time…

Jas

A glimmer of hope from the legislators in OK. I hope the rest of the states grow a pair.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=67229

I agree with you also Auger .I believe right now that it’s a real critical point in American History .

“…open secret detention prisons in undisclosed countries with unknown numbers of prisoners…”

Hello…McFly?! Did you not just see what having a specified number of prisoners on US-controlled soil, decidedly un-secretly, got us? Enemy combatants now get rights to trial in US courts just like citizens.

If the globalists, by enacting their “playbook,” happen to save us from ourselves, perhaps they deserve the power over us that some folks attribute to them.

Right on aladin. Nothing like making their problems our problems. I’ll never understand the rightwing asskissing of Israel.

All you need to understand is who actually the strongest toe-hold in the leadership of the Pentagon and Wall Street and it’s very clear why Israel is the 51st state.

It sure is. Israel’s enemies have deserved a good kick in the a$$ for decades.

Oh, and the previous comment is not anti-semitic. It’s anti-zionist. Christian zionists in America wield a mighty sword these days.

I’ll never understand the rightwing asskissing of Israel.

Some of it, at least, is rooted in the fundie idea that the Israelites and their “homeland” must play an essential role in the Rapture / Second Coming of That Charismatic Carpenter. Call it religious opportunism, maybe.

There are a handful of other reasons for that right wing support as well (some with merit, or at least debatable), but the fundamentalist angle is an important component.

“There are a handful of other reasons for that right wing support as well (some with merit, or at least debatable), but the fundamentalist angle is an important component.”

I tried to post the same thing but it didn’t go through. Christian Zionism plays a big part in American foreign policy. Herr Bush is one.

Representative Ron Paul says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi removed a section from a bill passed by Congress which would have barred the U.S. from going to war with Iran without a congressional vote, claiming she did so at the behest of the leadership of Israel and AIPAC.

Paul, a former Republican presidential contender who formally removed himself from the party’s nomination race last week, makes the allegation on C-SPAN during a recently held foreign policy conference in Virginia.

Paul says Pelosi’s first act as House Speaker in 2006 was to “deliberately” remove a portion of a legislative spending bill which said the United States “can’t go to war with Iran without getting approval from Congress.”

According to Paul, Pelosi and her allies in the chamber’s Democratic leadership initially accepted the bill designed to outline an Iraq exit strategy, but during a revision of the legislation excluded the statement regarding the need for congressional approval of any military assault on the neighboring country of Iran.

“She [Pelosi] removed it deliberately,” Paul says. “And then, the astounding thing is, when asked why, she said the leadership in Israel asked her to. That was in the newspaper, that was in ‘The Washington Post,’ that she was asked by AIPAC and others not to do that.”

http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/paul_pelosi_AIPAC/2008/06/18/105652.html

I imagine that Great Britain got hornswoggled into a similar defense treaty with Poland in the 1930’s, although few Britons had any ties to the country.

Sound familar?

Israel has plenty of nukes and Iran has none…

Now which country was the real threat?

It’s not our job to defend Israel. Certainly not worth starting WW3 over. Besides, Israel already has 25 nukes, I don’t believe Iran is a threat. This sounds awfully like the “massive stockpiles of WMD” we were supposed to find in Iraq. Iran is at least 10 years away from a nuclear weapon.

Really, so your solution is to take out Israel because it is a “threat”? Using your insane logic Iran should have nukes to “balance” Israel? How many prime ministers of Israel have threatened to wipe Iran off the map? Let’s say Iran decides to nuke Israel and creates the second holocaust would your conscience be clear? Mine won’t. Never again.

Iran. Period.

Really, so your solution is to take out Israel because it is a “threat”? Using your insane logic Iran should have nukes to “balance” Israel? How many prime ministers of Israel have threatened to wipe Iran off the map? Let’s say Iran decides to nuke Israel and creates the second holocaust would your conscience be clear? Mine won’t. Never again.

Israel has sub nukes, so it’s a lose-lose deal were Iran to hit them with one or 2.

We have no conventional armed forces left (all deployed in various sandboxes) to attack Iran conventionally, so we are between Iraq and a hard place.

Why should we get involved?

Iranian prime minister is not the “supreme leader”. The Ayatollah is. The fact that he’s the new boogeyman is simply more evidence that the neo-cons have no clue to what a real threat is. We’re being hood-winked AGAIN.

I’ve eluded to the fact here on this blog that the real war is an economic one between China and the US. The mid-east hooey is a mere diversion but it seems to pass over the head of some ideological types. hint hint.

Who’s Iran going to nuke? Israel?

1) If they nuke Israel, that means they nuke Palestine and the holy lands. Nevermind the fallout that will drift over Jordan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. That’s not going to go over well with the Arab muslim states.

2) Israel is grown up now. They have nukes and can retaliate.

3) Israel has done plenty of stuff, that to me, seems un-American. Also, our association with them makes us look bad on the world stage. Let Israel take care of itself.

4) The only benefit nukes provide Iran is defense (e.g. nuking a carrier group as we try to invade).

If the US takes care of Israel, then they don’t have to spend money on defense, and can build more housing in occupied territories, socialized medicine, etc.

It’s not that they can’t take care of themselves, they just won’t if they don’t have to.

“We have no conventional armed forces left (all deployed in various sandboxes) to attack Iran conventionally, so we are between Iraq and a hard place.”

Riddle me this, riddle me that…

What nation beginning with the letter “I” lies between the sandboxes known as Iraq and Afghanistan?

Hint… the president of the nation in question claims to have discussions with the Twelfth Imam who dwells at the bottom of a well, and the only way to get him to come out is the Islamification of the entire planet.

Are you around Pendleton? I spent my teens in San Clemente.

Humble words and increased preparations are signs that the enemy is about to advance — Sun Tzu, The Art of War.

Sounds like Cheney is ramping up for one last par-tay before the moving van pulls up on Kalorama Ave.

“When I hear the choppers going over in the middle of the night, that means more young men are shippin’ out.
No late night chopper flights yet.”

Hey, Ouro,
Can you imagine the official consternation should a group of dedicated bloggers coordinate on this?

I live in restricted airspace bordering a test flight area–one which is remarkably similar to Afghanistan/Mid Yeast in terrain and weather patterns. When we start getting the 10pm-2am over-flights, (shhhhhhhh, it’s nighttime and nobody can hear us…) it’s a sure sign something invasive is afoot and I invest accordingly. In fifteen years, hasn’t failed me once. Heartbreaking but remunerative.

What would you expect from an administration that has perfected the art of covering up a mess, by creating another one?

From today’s WSJ (page A12): “Highway Trust Revenue Expected to Have Shortfall”

Due to decreased gasoline consumption “Trust fund revenue is projected to run a shortfall of at least $3 billion next year …”
“We’re burning less fuel as energy costs change driving patterns, steer people toward more fuel-efficient vehicles and encourage more to use transit.”

Shortage of refineries translates in shortage of gasoline at a -specific- price. Anyone can see it every time he/she drives by a gas station. There is 0 gazoline that can be had at $3.25/gal, $3.26/gal, $3.27 etc…. There is gasoline to be had at $4.11/gal. When that runs out there is going to be gasoline at $4.12/gal, etc.

Refineries are NOT buying crude on a spot market. Neither they are buying crude at prices for Jul delivery today. They are consumers of oil. Futures for them is a hedge. We have not yet seen the price of gasoline to reflect oil price greater than $130.

I understood nothing from your post.

What I do understand is gas consumption in this country has fallen off. This means refiners don’t need to convert as much oil into gasoline as they once did, which means they need less oil.

Whether refiners they buy oil on the spot market, take deliveries on the futures market - or whatever - has no bearing on the fact that they need less oil because consumers are using less gas.

There is no such thing as “demand”. There is only demand at a specific price.

“There is no such thing as ‘demand’”.

Oh.

“There is only demand at a specific price.”

But… but…but you just said there is no such thing as demand.

Again, there is no such thing as a demand… there is only demand at a specific price.

Which accounts for … what exactly?

As the price for gas goes up the consumption goes down. Is that what you are saying?

If so, then you must also be saying that if the consumption for gas goes down then the need for refining oil into gas must go down as well.

Thus the need for more refineries to convert oil into gas must also go down.

Therefore the high oil prices must not be caused by a lack of refineries but for some other reason.

Agree?

Consumption is an f’(x) not f(x). f’(x) != f(x). In fact f’(x) has nothing in common with f(x). Using f(x) to describe f’(x) is stupid.

For -environmental reasons-.

LOL!

Good one.

exactly…we have re-urbanization instead.

“This inflation won’t bring higher wages.”

Then there is no inflation.

Sound like a supply siders paradise, ay??

Expansion of money supply is here.

The notion of inflation always corresponding with rising wages is rubbish. It comes from the time when the same product could be manufactured in two different locations two miles away from each other and because customers of one location did not know the customers of the other location, the prices between the two products were highly different.

Ok… Your next sentence is gold always goes up and we’re running out of oil.

Evil,

Isn’t that what companies do now? Some past news reports stated Amazon was charging different prices for a book in different parts of the country (only using Amazon as an example).

You are looking at a price descrimination. Different location in the country means different shipping costs not just for amazon but also for its competition. It makes sense that the -price- of item will be different. It makes no sense that identical goods will be sold right next to each other for different price.

Here is a practical example: There was a time when I needed to buy 8,000 sq. feet panels for raised floors. We found a place in KY where we could get it dirt cheap but we had to deal with shipment. We had a place in the next country that wanted us to pay 3x the price of buying in KY and shipping it for the priviledge of buying the same product from them. The funny part was… it ended up being the same manufacturer that did not figure out his dealer in KY was able to market to customers in PA.

“expansion of money supply is here”
what expansion? The 3 trillion in lost home equity or bear sterns going from 180 to 10 bucks or 1 trillion in bank writedowns?

The US subsidizes our oil industry. It saves you about $0.75 per gallon.

BFD. What a difference that makes.

I want the gubmint to subsidize gas sales directly so that I can buy regular for $2/gal. No more pussyfootin’ around.

While suburbs certainly existed pre-WWII, they were a far different beast than the post-1945 version. The suburbs as we generally conceive of them were first built for the about-to-be Boomers and their parents.

Then the Boomers managed to take poor planning, sprawl, shoddy construction and overdevelopment to a whole new level once they took the reins …

Yeah I have to admit, the suburb I was born in (Eagle Rock Ca) was built at the end of a streetcar line. They were streetcar suburbs back in the day. Then the streetcars went away. But that all went down when we boomers were toddlers.

Jwite I was talking to the PA and the doc the other day in the ER I take my clinicals in, they were saying there is a doctor shortage coming in the next 5-10 years. They also said that they are looking to grandfather PA’s, Nurse Practitioners, in to doctors. If true it would be the cheapest med school around. Myself I am finishing my RN then off to PA school. Good luck in community health that I hear is as boring as post pardum care.

Sounds very cool, Jwhite. Anecdotally, my dad was in the hospital for most of last year and *every* NP we dealt with went way above and beyond for him. (It was a big contrast to the nurses and doctors, who were much more a mixed bag.)

Thanks to both of you for your comments. I considered both PA and NP tracks. Since I get a major discount for the RN portion of it (courtesy my wife) I decided the NP route was the way to go.

I can also go for and advance NP certificate later which will bring me on par with an acute care PA. I’ve already received two employment offers for when I finish just the RN portion and a “if you don’t contact me when you finish your NP program, I’m gonna…” from a hospital administrator.

You can’t just sit around and wait for the future to come to you, I far prefer to go and find it. On my own terms.

Jwhite,

My mom’s general is a NP. She loves her NP. Wouldn’t have it any other way. She has had MDs and feels she has gotten better treatment from her NP (mom belongs to Kaiser). What impressed her the most about the NP was being able to directly contact the NP without having to go through the Kaiser call center.

beg to differ. I have fully embraced the slacker lifestyle and would never go back.

I’m enjoying every day of my retirement (3+ years now) even though I know how it ends. Carpe diem.

So true. If you have money, health, interests and friends, not having to work is a blessing.

“If work is so good for us, how come they have to pay us to do it?”

Anonymous New Zealander

Yeah chick, everytime you make money shorting,
I go shopping. Shop Lite shop often.

I’ve enjoyed my first 3 years of retirement as well. I’m leaving on my morning hike with 2 hounds in tow (or vis-versa) as we speak! I’ll be back!

I’m sure retirement with lots of money is fantastic!

But if someone doesn’t have enough to retire, and is willing to keep working . . .why would anyone have a problem with that? Or maybe some people actually need the structure of a job to stay involved and happy.

I am hoping to have tons of money saved up, but right now it looks like i should expect to work forever. I am not perfect like so many people on this blog. : )

I think working and staying connected, at least keeps you from losing touch with reality like those people Muggy is talking about.

txchick, i thought you worked for yourself, as a day trader . . .although i admit, i know nothing about you . . . so that was an assumption, but it sounds like your definition of slacker lifestyle might be different than some peoples . . .

but congrats on having a life so many would want, by creating your own income and not working for “the man”!

I guess you could say that. It doesn’t seem like work to me.

It doesn’t seem like work to me. Define ‘work’ as anything one does to bring in money, then, including signing checks & CC slips and clicking a mouse to move $ from one of your accounts to another. Babies, the comatose & royalty might be among the few considered unemployed/retired.

“I have fully embraced the slacker lifestyle and would never go back.”

txchick, you’re my hero.

Oh, I thought they were qualifying rounds for World Cup.

At any rate, the Italians must’ve been happy with the win over the Frenchies.

Thanks for the info.

now, you may want to pull head out of ass

He had a good re-run, while it lasted.

1. 15% is the number I hear

2. Yes, amazing isn’t it that we never hear any calls for windfall profits taxes on Tom Cruise or Barbara Streisand.

1. Forbes Magazine is usually publishing figures like 22%. Admittedly, they have an ax to grind. (But so do I.)

Sounds like what my aunt had to deal with when she worked at a resort in Vermont. When people showed up on time, ready to work, it was newsworthy.

Northern Arizona suffers from it, too. When I moved here in `99 every potential employer, when they found out I was from “back east”, was eager to hire me.

Shows up every day–on time–what a concept!

HUH!? How is that possible? Got any info/statistics to back this up?

(And if this is true, I wonder if illegal immigration has skewed these numbers any, since an illegal immigrant probably wouldn’t be reported as a “employee” anywhere, in which case we have a whole underground system of people working but not being reported to the government as such).

Not sure where rms got his numbers spacepest. Got these from the CA labor

Labor Market Information for California Data Archives Current Data
For the Month of April 2008
Civilian Labor Force (seasonally adjusted) 18,384,200
Employment (seasonally adjusted) 17,247,000
Unemployment (seasonally adjusted) 1,137,200
Unemployment Rate (seasonally adjusted) 6.2%
Total Nonfarm Industry Employment (seasonally adjusted) 15,162,300
Average Hourly Wage in 2007 - First Quarter $21.78

Here’s the link that provided the information:

http://www.edd.ca.gov/About_EDD/Quick_Statistics.htm

Here’s the link for CA population: http://www.dof.ca.gov/research/demographic/reports/estimates/e-4_2001-07/

When you click on the E-4 Population Estimates this will open into a spreadsheet.

i screwed up.. too many conversations going on at once..

It would be a full-recourse loan that would have to be repaid regardless of what happens to the borrower’s mortgage or home.

substitute full for non

This guys is a freaking idiot.

Consumers would have to be BRAIN-DEAD to substitute a recourse loan for a non-recourse loan.

He’s basically advocating that the govt bribe people into agreeing to be locked into their houses. That would only help the market freeze up and prolong the pain.

lost,

And I, at least, expect it. A little humanity never hurt anyone. There should be more human interest stories about what the bloggers are going through. The good and bad decisions (after the fact) as a result of the decisions based on their personal experiences.
Wish you and everyone the best. We will be/are shooting the curl. (I think I heard that somewhere on the beaches of So.CA.
lol

Have no idea……maybe tx and hoz can enlighten.

IMHO - and really mean my humble opinion - XM is a dead industry. There is better technology available that does more than XM/Sirius ever could do.

The premise of success in XM is the subscription of dollars/mo when many cities are going wireless internet and there are more available channels, music and news on the internet. The technology is available.

The same is true for over air radio/tv broadcasts. obsolete.

This does not mean they will not make money, it just has little growth prospects.

Yeah, I guess I can use xm as just another tax deduction.

Nickel and dimeing me…

–
Look, the real “revolution” in England, during 1600s, was the overthrow of the monarchy by the moneybags of London. Their tool was to make Parliament supreme and they knew that they would be able to control the elections with money. How little has changed!

The rise of the modern money power at large scale is very English in origin and we are the latest and the greatest of that process. Before that it was limited to city-states. In terms of progress, on per capita basis, city-states were far superior. America needs to be broken up into 1,000 small states, with a joint defense only treaty, for real efficiency and progress. What we is an empire and empires are not the best for the population at large (they are great for the powerful).

Jas

We’ve alreadyt tried separate states.. we’ve tried a union. If there’s a better way, it must be something different.

You can’t look back to the govt corruption which supported robber barons and corporations of the late 19th century and tell me things havent gotten any better.. things got a lot better.. things are changing, slowly but surely. They might even get good someday.

Whoever has wealth will always rule. Spread the wealth evenly to the peons and it’ll soon end up in the hands of a few, no matter what system of govt or economy. That’s the way life is.

So, we gotta be realistic, creative and have foresight if a blueprint for the next govt is to have the slightest chance of being better than the current one. It’s not as simple as throwing the bums out and installing new bums, or chopping large corruption into smaller pieces.

Thanks! It’s a public univ., not private.

I’m a consultant in projects usually having to do with oil/gas powerline/gasline type operations, which I hate. I mean, I love the work but hate the thought that they’re going to mess up everything after I give the go-ahead. I survey it, write up the report and tell them if there’s anything of significance. I also am cataloging rock art with a grant I got.

It’s kind of part-time, which gives me free time, which I like, so a full-time onit job will be culture shock for me, but I’m resourceful, I’ll figure out how to slack off, have done it successfully before.

Thanks for your insights, am meeting with the Director and will ask him some good Qs, based on your post, thanks again.

And yeah, I’ll probably take it, cause now that I’ve fulfilled one of my top-three goals* (being a squatter), I need to move forward.

*hopping a freight
*camping out in a dino museum, ghostbusting T-Rexes

But if you really, really, really want advice, I say “plastics”.
lol

Demand for oil is only constant until it isn’t constant anymore. You don’t suppose that a billion Chinese might curtail their demand slightly in response to a price increase, do you?

On a per capita basis, yes. But since 10,000,000 folks in China will be buying a new car (probably their first car) then its probably safe to assume that aggregate demand in China will continue to rise.

hoz, is it possible for a major oil producer, such as the Saudis, to utilize its huge profit margin to buy a market-significant amount of oil futures through shill buyers while never extracting that oil from the ground? Who keeps track; who is the “controling government authority”? Such a move would burn the supply-demand candle at both ends, as not only would demand appear greater but remaining supply would be under-estimated. I think producers are aware that gas prices have room to go much higher before reaching the point where demand falls off precipitously and profit levels off.

Where do Saudis put their wealth, and how will that change with their profits doubling? There’s not a whole lot of other safe places to invest those billions, yet holding the cash is a loosing proposition.

The OPEC member nations have not in the past bought futures in Oil. OIl was $17.77/bbl in 2001. For OPEC, that was a buying time.

I am not of any affiliation with any OPEC states. But if I were looking for max profit, it would be generated by keeping demand high and prices stable.

Demand is high, prices are not stable. Obviously OPEC has no oil to sell.

Huh? Even -France- gets tons of its power from nuclear energy. This 2008, not 1958.

Utah;
I hearby sentance you to one crappy portfolio for life!

so (looking at already crappy portfolio)…this is all YOUR fault, eh??

Hey Hwy, I don’t know if you saw my latest “video” but it has a shot of Ray’s. Go to youtube and search on Long Time Gone -Green River, Utah.

I drove by there at lunchtimn and 3 state troopers were coming out, man, I wished I had had my camera, it would’ve been classic.

Lost;
i really like this video clip you did earlier.

http://www.wfp.com/about/agentProf.asp?id=1408

Ouro, you lost me on that one, I’m Lost.

It was supposed to be this one:
Lost in Utah presents,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy7n2_xlh9I

Blame ben’s blog. It was supposed to be your video of the red rocks. “Ghost riders on the san rafael, utah.” The music is so evocative!

Thanks Ouro, you’re a gem!

I’ve had fun being silly today, I think I am going to be crabby tomorrow.

We’ll humor you, either way…

I am stupid and have in 40 years, not been around such a high powered crowd, but was that a repartee, I just witnessed.
lol

ps: I hate you all for making me to go to the dictionary to look up the spelling and the meaning of words that have not been said in my presence in 40 years.
lol