Adjusting To New Economic Realities
It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “After George Zito’s mother passed away, he put her East Haven home on the market. That was 6-months ago. And, still, there are no prospective buyers. The four bedroom was originally listed at $187,000. ‘We just lowered the price by over $40,000,’ Zito said.”
“Zito says he is going to do whatever it takes to make a sale. ‘I’m going to do what it takes to sell the property. I have to. And I pray to god it does go.’”
“After 20 years of living in the Baldwin Township home, the three-bedroom, ranch-style brick home Randy and Cindy Balzer bought in 1988 for $50,000 is now valued at $80,000 by the Allegheny County tax collector, but the Balzers now owe $112,000 to their mortgage lender after refinancing the house several times.”
“Wells Fargo Bank is foreclosing on the couple’s house because they have made no payments on the mortgage since it adjusted to the higher rate of 15.9 percent in March 2007.”
“‘We didn’t stop making payments,’ Randy Balzer said. ‘We kept sending them the $810. They kept sending it back to us saying that’s not the mortgage rate. I kept saying yes it is. If somebody keeps sending you $810 back and you’ve got other bills you can pay off, what are you going to do?’”
“In a sleepy, winding street in the town of Brewster, realtor Marietta Nilson is walking through a vacation home she’s listed. WBUR’s Curt Nickisch: These days, the house has been too quiet for the sellers. They first put it on the market at $636,000.”
“Nilson: In November. And we didn’t have any interest. No one was interested in the house. “Nickisch: So after a few months, they lowered the price. Five ninety five. Still no interest. Nilson: And then 550 I guess. So…”
“Nickisch: Down almost a hundred thousand dollars? “Nilson: Yeah. But, it wasn’t that the value came down, the value was never there. It was never worth $636,000.”
“Nickisch: But the owners felt it was worth a shot.”
“In Frederick County, damage to foreclosed properties is a growing problem as foreclosure listings rise, real estate agents said. When broker Diane Miller Marsden came to tour a foreclosed property recently, she found the interior of the once immaculate home turned to chaos.”
“The master bathroom was cleared out — toilet, sink and shower stall, gone. ‘The only thing left was the drain in the corner,’ she said.”
“The situation can make for angry ex-homeowners. ‘They feel like they weren’t treated fairly by the bank, and if they can’t have the home, no one can,’ said Terry Fox, a real estate agent in Frederick.o’Everyone reacts differently. Some people know they got in over their head and move on, while others are bitter.’”
“On a recent Tuesday morning, St. Croix County Sheriff Dennis Hillstead stood in the courthouse hallway and began to speak. No one was there to listen. ‘Going once, going twice, three times… sold,’ Hillstead says. ‘Hearing no bids, the bidding is closed.’”
“‘A few years ago people were buying properties at foreclosures and flipping them after fixing them up,’ Hillstead said, ‘but not now.’”
“Prospective buyers need to make sure there aren’t second or third mortgages on the property, and they need to find out what condition the home is in, Hillstead warned. There was a foreclosed property, Hillstead recalled, where the people moved out and turned off the heat, but left the water running.”
“‘A neighbor saw water coming out of a second floor bathroom window,’ Hillstead said.”
“Myrtle Beach-based custom home builder Seacoast Communities Inc. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the latest builder to be caught in the throes of the real estate downturn. The company has been struggling to pay its bills since investors pulled out of deals on seven upscale homes, said Seacoast Communities President Guy Collins.”
“‘They just walked away from the deposits rather than close on them because of the market slowdown,’ Collins said. ‘The houses were 100 percent complete, and we were ready to go to closing, and they said they weren’t willing to close on the properties.’”
“This year, more than ever, it appears Cheyenne residents facing foreclosure are choosing to abandon their homes instead of negotiating payment options. What’s troubling to Jim Ward, a former real-estate agent who now offers foreclosure advice, is that many people are overreacting. A lot are losing their homes unnecessarily.”
“‘Most people aren’t in as bad a shape as they think,’ he said.”
“Susan Mosco has watched her neighbors in Tomball lose their homes and disappear. ‘They’re foreclosing on all these houses. Honey, I’ve been here for six months. I’ve seen 12 people move from this subdivision,’ Mosco said.”
“Foreclosures are hurting not only the families being forced out, but the homeowners left behind. ‘I put a pretty good-sized down payment down on it when I bought it. I don’t think I could sell it right now,’ Matt Travis said of his home. ‘I paid just over $120,000 for it, and I’m just guessing, I probably wouldn’t get $94,000 if I tried to sell it.’”
“It’s taking a few more days for those additional ‘For Sale” signs popping up around town to draw in a buyer. ‘That’s still a pretty hot economy no doubt about it,’ said Amarillo economist Karr Ingham. ‘I don’t know about slowing down necessarily, but maybe at least cooling off in terms of the really dramatic growth that has resulted.’”
“For Midlanders, Realtors said, the increased inventory has caused some frustration for sellers who are used to seeing homes sell within hours of hitting the market and can’t understand why they may have to cut their price a little to find a buyer.”
“‘We’ve seen more price reductions than we’ve seen in probably the last six months,’ said Chris Beckett at Pine & Beckett Realtors. However, Beckett said, while that’s hard for homeowners to reconcile with, it doesn’t mean the offers they’re getting aren’t consistent with the increase in home prices from last year.”
“‘It’s a great market in Midland. It’s just they’re not getting these incredibly high prices,’ Beckett said of buyers. ‘They’re getting really good prices. You can’t always have incredible.’”
“King County housing sales have dropped 12.2 percent in the second quarter of 2008, a trend experienced every quarter going back through 2007. The second quarter drop represents a 36.4 percent decrease over the same quarter in 2007. The new figures also note that the county’s median resale price of $450,000 - second highest in the state behind only San Juan County - has fallen some 4.3 percent.”
“The picture Harry Oestreich, Snoqualmie’s finance director, drew was not pretty. ‘Our economy is driven by one industry - the home construction industry,’ Oestreich said. ‘We are in a housing crisis, and everybody is agreeing there is no bottom yet.’”
“‘This is the slowest July I have ever seen in real estate,’ said Jim Brennan, a real estate broker who has worked in Central Oregon for several decades. ‘We had some prices that were going up 30 percent, 40 percent in one year, in certain price ranges.’”
“‘There’s a lot of land that was sold in Bend for very high prices,’ Brennan said. ‘And now, if you can find a buyer, it would go for half the price. Every block you go in town, there’s probably four out of 10 houses that are for sale, in one form or another. Where I may have shown seven or eight houses before, now I’ll show 30 houses before anybody makes a decision - if they make a decision.’”
“Jill Armstrong and her husband bought two acres of land in Redmond and got city and zoning approval, creating 16 town home lots. ‘We got it through on time and under budget, thought we were doing great - until there were no buyers,’ Armstrong said.”
“With so many properties on the market, the Armstrongs didn’t sell, and the bank took it back. ‘We went through a million dollar foreclosure, we lost a rental house, we lost a lot of money we had into it,’ she said. ‘We still have things that we could lose. So it’s a matter of fighting the fight every morning when you get up.’”
“There’s no such thing as liar loans in Hawaii, said Stephen Higa, a mortgage broker who has worked in Hawaii’s mortgage industry for more than 20 years. ‘The industry stopped that six or seven months ago,’ he said, but added that for some the damage has already been done. ‘Most of the people that we see who are in trouble in Hawaii had liar loans.’”
“‘We hardly did any of these loans and the ones that we did were mostly reserved for foreign investors or more sophisticated borrowers,’ said Zoebel Dela Cruz, principal broker of Team Mortgage Hawaii.”
“They were also commonly paired with ‘interest only” features. Even riskier were “pick-a-payment” or option ARM loans - adjustable-rate mortgages that gave borrowers the choice to defer some of their interest payments and add them to the principal.”
“Many Hawaii real estate agents and brokers, who were self-employed, used these loans to finance their own purchases, Dela Cruz said. Now that business has turned, some real estate agents and mortgage brokers are having a harder time making their payments, Dela Cruz said.”
“‘It’s really sad,’ she said. ‘This is a very tough time in the industry.’”
“Casting blame has been easy during this year’s great and ongoing epidemic of home mortgage foreclosures. Greedy bankers sought out suckers and foisted adjustable rate mortgages on them, with little emphasis on the fact that initial low monthly payments would rise within a few years to levels the borrowers probably could never pay.”
“Greedy homeowners and buyers sought out new loans because they figured the astronomical real estate price increases of the boom years early in this decade would continue forever.”
“For many in the past year, house payments became the easiest thing to scrap. Especially when many middle class families found declining real estate prices evaporated all their equity, with home loan balances emerging as higher than home values. At the same time, these families often see comparable homes available for rent at prices far lower than their newly bumped-up loan payments.”
“The result has been a mass tendency to say, ‘To heck with our credit rating, let’s get out of here.’”
“So while it’s easy to blame defaulting homeowners and their bankers, a lot of the problem is simply a sign of people adjusting to new economic realities.”
My thanks to those who support this blog and the forum. Please check back this weekend!
Young man, you get back here and clear your desk!
Do you guys know if someone can block their zestimate on zillow? I was checking on a house and it had no zestimate.It is a condo and others nearby have on.
Here is the address:
913 Marvin Gardens Way, rocklin ca 95765
It was put on the market for 299k 4 days ago.I feel like the owner has blocked people from looking at the zestimate.
Wasn’t Marvin Gardens an address on the Monopoly board? hehehehehehe
Wasn’t Marvin Gardens a street on the Monopoly game? hehehehehehe
Ahhh Ben:
My old work place WTNH Tv 8 New Haven, and Ann Nyberg is still there
http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=27126&nav=menu29_2_9_1
They were a union shop and i worked there in 92/93 summer relief which is 16-26 weeks of filling in all over the station ( video master control news vans) when people go on vacation maternity leave etc.. (after 26 weeks you are automatically in the union) Well i was going to start in late june of 94, and OJ get arrested and everybody canceled their vacations so i hardly got any work, thats when i applied at Court tv and got hired.
“‘The master bathroom was cleared out - toilet, sink and shower stall gone. The only thing left was the drain in the corner’, she said.”
At what point does the forclosed buyer still have rights to looting the home? If the bank holds the title to the home, doesn’t the bank own the home?
IMHO a lot of people should be going to jail.
Coming up next: The jail-building bubble.
That bubble has already hit here. It’s downright sudsy!
It creates lots of local economic stimulus — kinda like breaking a window to stimulate the glassmaker’s business, and the bank where the glassmaker deposits his paycheck, and the butcher where the banker buys his meat, and the farmer where the butcher buys his livestock, etc etc etc
Agreed. You couldn’t take a carton of eggs, so eloquently referenced in a post last week, from the market without getting hauled downtown.
Maybe the difference is the bank can’t prove the fixtures were there. (Gather the irreplacable and valuable, albeit soiled, wax ring was lifted as well.)
Anyway, now that Google has nearly digitized the whole world, it may launch a new image service: Google Bankrupt Home Inventory Beta.
Up until the time the back takes back the house, all they have is a lien on it. While the lien may consume the total value of the house, the “homeowner” still has the title. As such, they have wide latitude regarding what they can do with and to the house, within some reason of course.
Removing fixtures is questionable. Removing plumbing isn’t. Trashing the house is, oddly, a grey area. In all of those cases, you have to consider that the bank barely has the person-power to liquidate the house on the real estate market. Persuing FBs who have no resources to claim is totall beyond them.
The losers who trash these houses are just scum of the earth.If you get foreclosed on take it like a man and leave it the way you found it.
It is not the banks fault it is their lack of responsibility in life.They can be seen wearing those t-shirts that say;
“He who dies with the most toys wins”.These are the kind of low lifes that trash houses.
They should be thrown in jail and letta bubba show them a few tricks.
It is what I mentioned a month or so ago, and that is that
when flippers demo’d a property, they bashed the hell out of the decent cabinets toilets sinks etc that would be a good donation to Habitat etc. But, oh no, this is fun, bash the hell out of something of value and …well, I hope those who trashed their properties get what they deserve and then some. More importantly, I hope the hedgies etc all roast in hades and soon.
Maybe they can put out all the upsprouts of fires with all their bonuses they got. And they can take W/Cheney with em.
You’ve just hit on something which is a real hot spot with me; the destruction of good used building materials. In the past when I have watched flipping shows, it seems they’d always put on the goggles and break out the sledgehammer in the old kitchen. It’s despicable. These jackasses could actually sell the stuff, or donate it, but no, they’d rather spend 10 minutes thinking they’re the sh!t. Losers.
Along the same lines, some “investors” just flipped an old farmhouse on acreage right up the road from me. I talked to a few of the guys working on it (they weren’t the investors). The house had all of the original stained solid fir doors and trim throughout, all in excellent shape. One of the older idiots said “yeah, let’s get rid of all of this crap and put in some white hollow core’s and some new moulding”, to which one of the carpenters said, “what, are you out of your mind?” I told them to give me a call immediately if they were going to do such a thing. They left it intact.
I’m betting that if they went to the neighbors, they would get an earful about how the house was trashed before they left. After all, a trashed house screws up the neighborhood for the people still stuck there.
If someone was smart, they would start a company to investigate this stuff for the banks, for a percentage of the judgement. Locate the perp, then do a quick investigation to find out if the chump has enough assets to go after.
Or…..put an ad in the paper, asking for people to come in and give their “I trashed my foreclosed home” stories for a new TV show. Make sure the recording machines are running. Works all the time for the cops. People in this country don’t know when to shut up.
You don’t have to beat up everyone. Just find the 10% of the worst offenders and hammer them like dog crap. Make sure there is media coverage. The word will get around, then offer an “amnesty” program.
Photo documentation + sworn testimony/affidavdts from the former neighbors = Judgement in Civil Court
Is there enough jails for those people?
Not even close.
I’m beginning to think that disclosure is the ultimate medicine for all of what went on during this bubble. Punish people for their fraud? Just make sure it is disclosed and easy find and read the records. Appraisers just hitting the numbers for bad lenders? Record all of their appraisals for later review by whoever might care. Their records will stand on their own or lead them to some other occupation with less power over others. If this were so, then there would be no need for jailing the large percentage of the population that participated. Clever regulation schemes such as those that were supposed to govern appraisals and lending are not working out. Bad lenders would stand out from the crowd based on their practices and holdings. Disclosing everything that is going on could help reveal bubbles from their earliest moments of frothyness. Just a thought, and probably not realistic until later when people are really hurting.
I think the bigger problem is the mindset of these people that are essentially raging against the machine, in destroying property in such a reckless manner.
The fact that they are all getting away with it, emboldens more people in the same precarious position, to follow their lead…
A race to the bottom~
I believe in these cases, these losers can be charged with vandalism and grand theft. Lets hope we see a few high profile cases where they are. This is just making it all more expensive for the rest of us who did not risk all in this ponzi scheme. I agree usury laws need to make a comeback, and 16% is very high right now for a credit card account, much less a mortgage, but this is not the answer.
Close relative just sold her second home in the last 6 months. The first in San Jose was an un-updated 3/2 brick ranch built in the 60’s: 450K. The most recent, closed yesterday, a Sparks NV frame 3/1 ranch, older than God, 150K. Priced both to be near the lowest priced in their class; both sold within 10 days of listing. Had to bring a 35K check to escrow on the last sale. Ensconced in her just built new home (beat down the builder, severely), she is the happiest relative of the whole west coast bunch. Her Realtor(TM) told her that she has kept him from going bankrupt this year. He doubts, though, that he’ll make it to 2009. When I hear that RE markets are dead, I know the truth: prices are dead. Buyers are out there even in this economy. We’ve got a way to go before we match 1931/1932’s financial gridlock. If we’re not careful, it might happen. Financial, political and foreign relations all bear an eerie similarity to the 1930’s. Maybe a good subject for a topic some day.
How can people say that the RE market is frozen when sales are up? It’s the price.
“‘We didn’t stop making payments,’ Randy Balzer said. ‘We kept sending them the $810. They kept sending it back to us saying that’s not the mortgage rate. I kept saying yes it is. If somebody keeps sending you $810 back and you’ve got other bills you can pay off, what are you going to do?’”
$112,000 @ 15.9% will run you about $1,600 a month. Let’s see…buy in ‘88 for 50K, should have paid off say 60% - so they cashed out some 80 or 90K and had no clue what the future risk was. No calls, no e-mails, just spend the returned payment until the knock comes on the door.
I really can’t believe how brainless the average person is.
15.9% interest is pretty steep for a home isn’t it? They must have gotten really screwed by someone.So much for usury laws.
TV had a show with a guy who was the ex Mortgage brkr and he was spilling the beans on all the tricks they did, nationwide.
How they did bait/switch with rates etc.
That guy you just wanted to dig a hole somewhere out here in the Mojave desert and put honey all around his head sticking out.
And leave him for just one day.
Note “evil laughter’ in background.
Halloween is a’comin
15.9% is NOT too much when you consider the RISK.
They are borrowing way over the value of the house.
What’s the risk of default.
I’d say very, very high. In fact, the interest rate was nowhere near high enough due to the fact they have defaulted and there is not sufficient equity to recover the capital expenditure.
Sorry, can’t agree here. If the LTV was 70%, then a 7% loan, may be in order, but they may not be a good risk even if the LTV was good.
How is 15.9% usury? How many loans today shouldn’t be 15.9%? The fact is that while 15.9% on a mortgage is not usury, 6.4% on almost any mortgage is just plain insanity.
Then these loans should not have been made. The notion that higher risk loans can be countered with high interest is a total fallacy. All the higher interest rates do is to ensure the loan defaults. It is like banks raising peoples credit card interest to 30% if they miss a payment. They are all but guaranteed to default after this happens. better not loan the money to begin with, given the risk.
Risk and Rate go hand in hand.
Perhaps the lender should not have made the loan, but that is not for me to say. Perhaps the BORROWER should have refused the terms, but that is also between the borrower and the lender.
If it’s MY money, and I’m lending it, I want high returns when the chances of default increase.
You would feel the same.
I don’t sympathize, at all, with serial refinancer’s who borrrowed more than they can repay.
Let the forclosures continue! Let the bank liquidate!
Bring sanity back into finance.
I don’t think that it’s the rate that’s bad so much as the percentage of income.
For example, let’s imagine that the couple had great credit and made $60k a year. Ignoring taxes and insurance, and putting a cap of 28% of their income on the loan, at 6.5% they could borrow $220k for 30-yr fixed. If their credit is crap, and their interest rates were 15%, then they could only borrow around $110k. Note that in both instances, their monthly payment would be roughly $1,400 or 28% of their income.
True, I never charged more than ten and a half.
Whats important is that we probably have a huge amount of inventory coming on the market from these sorts of refinacings and HELOC’s.
I still don’t feel like anybody has a good handle on how much inventory this is. I think that 1:10 of the houses sold in the last 50 years may not be off the mark. That may sound high but I’m not convinced that the numbers we see in the paper about how many homes have equity are correct. I just don’t see them getting the number of refinancings and HELOC’s right.
I bet the number of homes that have 50% or more equity in the US at normal prices i.e 3x income is more like 20-30% these days.
That one really jumped out at me, too! I guess the guy decided his payment was $810 no matter what the bank said. And then because they send it back, that makes it ok to spend it on other stuff. That house should have been nearly paid off - that’s double the pleasure, double the fun, double stupid on a stick.
I don’t see how anyone can vote for McCane. His new veep is weird. He says that the economy is not his strong point! I am mad.
Don’t be mad Big V. Be happy for her big V.
Im sure economic guru Obama has researched giving everyone thousands to be paid for by more taxes will be a sure way to win our hearts. Like presidents can eliminate economic disasters by passing out money or WIN buttons.
McOld is worse, worse, worse. Obama wants to give us back our jobs, Mr. Cisco. McSame wants to use tax money to bail out banks instead of people. I wish there were no bailouts, but if I have to choose between someone who wants to bail out people and give them their JOBS back, and someone who wants to bail out companies and give them an endless pool of essentially FREE LABOR, then I’m picking the former.
Big V, get over it! The Berlin wall is down and Vladimir Illyich Lenin is dead. Sorry but your boy NoBama is an empty suit. BTW, Sarah Palin will get this vote and my wifes. …Obama, who has spent two years preventing a woman from being president, will spend two months preventing one from becoming vice president – and hopes to do so with women votes. This gal will go McCain-Palin.
Shame on any women that votes for McCain just because he picked a women for VP. I’m totally insulted by McCain’s pick, it’s just pure pandering. Palin is NOT qualified, McCain certainly could have choosen more wisely. His pick was totally reckless and was all about shock value. WHAT A FOOL. I truely think something is wrong with McCain. He’s not thinking rationally.
If you vote for McCain based solely on his VP pick then I’m sorry to say your a complete fool and you’ve just been had. Palin is just a heart beat away from being President, and she’s NOT qualified for that position. Good grief we’ve just seen what 8 years of total incompetence has gotten us. Like they say “You can’t fix stupid”.
Palin for VP is a complete joke. McCain’s pandering to women is shameful. Anyone who thinks Palin, who is just a heart beat away from the most powerful position in the world, is qualified is delusional.
I’m insulted by McCain’s pick of Palin, as ALL women should be. She’s NO WAY, NO HOW, qualified for such an important position. She herself stated in a recent interview she had NO idea what a VP does.
If your supporting McCain solely on the fact that he chose a women as VP then SHAME ON YOU.
LOL…thank you for proving it’s simply not possible to underestimate the intelligence of a McCain supporter. You sound about as bright as the Hillary supporter who declared on national television that she switched to McCain because he was “pro-choice”!
These so-called Palin Democrats don’t care about the issues. Their strident complaining makes them sound like either stealth female racists, or goose-stepping militants labeling a man as anti-feminist for having the brazen temerity to oppose any given female candidate.
So, let me get this straight. Americans don’t want the same politicians over and over. They don’t want Beltway veterans that have spent years and years in “the machine”. They want new voices and fresh faces. They want “change”. And then when somebody does nominate somebody that is different and a fresh face, the electorate shouts “that’s an insult”. Is that what I am seeing?
The American electorate is a bunch of f—ing idiots. The comments I’m seeing on this subject are idiotic. I’m not voting for either candidate. I’m disgusted at the candidates and the stupidity of those that get to vote.
Like they say “You can’t fix stupid”.
Your posts appear to be proof of that.
You joking, right?
Obama is trying to become president, and has LESS qualifications than Palin.
Let’s see, an EEOC Harvard student.
Get’s job as teacher after school and then as a Street Organizer in Chicago, to become part of the political machine.
Get’s elected to the Senate where he has spent 2 years, mostly voting “present”, and when not present, then all communist/socialist agenda.
NOW, with NO executive experience AT ALL, is the best hope for America?
You must deluded. Obama has no more experience, and you are knocking the VP pick?
You need to look more deeply into the qualifications of your Manchurian Candidate.
But he gave such a great speech….Amazing that you can sell a presidential candidate on the “Apple” - its different pitch…
GH, you are correct, the mode is a little different today, but this reminds me eerily of the 1980’s film, “Being There”, with Peter Sellers as Chance the Gardener.
It co-stars Shirley McClain, where she introduces a simple gardener to political mucky-mucks and he is acclaimed as a genius. He says little and knows little, but every word is weighed as having significant meaning.
Chance gives a speech were he says something to the effect, “in every garden the winter comes and turns things dead and brown, but New Growth comes in the Spring.” The pundits proclaim it as a vision that the current economic malaise will end in the spring and the economy will again start growing.
You need to watch the film.
If I could paint Sellers black, then perhaps the parallels would be far too spooky.
Unfortunately for me, my Brother and SIL are big mucky-mucks in politics in Denver. They are supporters of Obama. My niece worked in Washington for John Kerry, and just recently left Washington to return to Denver. We don’t talk much.
I supported Ron Paul. The current batch of shills is just killing me, and my own family is lost in some time-warped myopia where all things moral become blurred and incomprehensible. I can’t take much more.
Give women more credit. Believe it or not we can think and vote who we think will be the best for our nation.
What McCain did was solidify his conservative base with nominating Palin. He was not going after the women who voted for Clinton. He needs the conservative base. She is a conservative. I think it was a brilliant move on McCain’s part. I won’t vote for the ticket.
Let’s see, an EEOC Harvard student.
Get’s job as teacher after school and then as a Street Organizer in Chicago, to become part of the political machine.
Get’s elected to the Senate where he has spent 2 years, mostly voting “present”, and when not present, then all communist/socialist agenda.
Geez, twist the truth much? You seem to think every black man who attended an Ivy League was an underqualified EEOC admission. Only a retard would make such a grand assumption based on…nothing.
Oh, by the way: Bush Jr. got into Yale and out of Vietnam based on daddy’s connections. McCain graduated at the bottom of his class, but his career took off when he left his wife to marry a millionare cheerleader heiress. But we don’t talk about those things, since they’re one of “us”.
“You need to look more deeply into the qualifications of your Manchurian Candidate.”
Have you even seen the film? It’s about a prisoner of war who is brainwashed to kill the president. Tell me, now, which of the two candidates was a POW?
Looks like I struck a nerve with my Palin post.
McCain is pandering to both Hillary’s supporters (which I’m not) and the religous right.
My vote isn’t for sale. Is yours?
My vote is certainly for sale. I sell it to whoever is going to steal less of my money. That would be McCain. I’m truly underwhelmed by Sarah Palin’s BS in journalism from U Idaho and by her opposition to embryonic stem cell research, but my first three sentences stand.
“My vote is certainly for sale. I sell it to whoever is going to steal less of my money” . That is the sadest statement I’ve seen posted on this blog. That statement just shows how broken America has become. Everthing and everyone is for sale at the right price in America. And to think someone actually believes that McShame, war mongor, is going to STEAL less of their money. Good Grief, God save American from itself.
Ask yourself az_lender, are you better off today then you were 8 years ago?????? McBush has spend nearly $1 trillion on an illegal, unnecessary war, and the deficit has skyrocketed. Yeah, McShame is the way to go!!!!!!
BIG V, Obama wants to give us our jobs back how? By increasing corporate taxes? How will this improve the job situation?
Wasn’t the $600 per person “stimulus (aka more debt down the road) package” the Republican Administration’s idea? Seems like its the GOP braintrust which can take credit for this foolishness.
How about we just send out another 1000.00 stimulous check? The economy needs help.Times are tough for people. Where is all this money coming from?
It’s coming from me and the rest of my cohorts in the top 10% who are carrying the rest of you on our shoulders.
I don’t see why you think there’s really any difference between the two.
one wears pants and other one doesn’t.
Difference between O and M, or between M and P?
The first and I think both parties are a huge disappointment.
Disclosure:
I am a lifelong Democrat. I recently registered Republican to vote for Ron Paul.
Wicked,
I did exactly the same thing.
I’m writing in RP on my ballot.
Mike
There is NO WAY that I’m voting for that weird McSame and his Alaskan Soap Opera Queen VP elect.
If THEY got THAT legendary “3 a.m. Phone Call”, she’d probably be out in her jogging suit Hunting down her ex-her brother-in-law State trooper with her snub-nosed 357 cal. and McSame would be dozing and drooling in the GOP Batmobile Getaway car while they MISSED the Call.
The McSame exploits baffled and mystified US aviation experts and his fellow Navy Officers for only one reason. It wasn’t the fact that he was 5th from the bottom of his Annapolis Academy Class, his partying or his POW experience either.
It WAS this uncanny ability to find their ship when they intentionaly maintained radio silence, turned off all their lights, sailed away and HID FROM HIM.
My theory is that he had a PR photographer, a bimbo and an unauthorized DC lobbyist with a radio-directional transmitter hidden in his ship wall locker:)
Sheesh Karl and uncle Phil…Thanks..but NO NO NO Thanks !!!
There is a huge difference between the two candidates.
They are both the best candidates seen in 40+ years.
A vote for McCain is a vote to gut the 4th Amendment
A vote for Obama is a vote to gut the 2nd Amendment.
Your choice, but that is what rides on the election. Personally, I will vote Sen. Obama. But I happen to like Sen. McCain and think he is well qualified to be president.
Hoz, there is almost no difference between the candidates - one is a relatively conservative Democrat and the other is a relatively liberal Republican. Like choosing between Coke and Pepsi, really.
Add to that the fact that both parties’ platforms are weak, inconsistent and incoherent and you have the recipe for another election snoozefest. Ron Paul was the only soul of the bunch who had something different and important to say, although he was a terrible candidate in many ways.
Julius
The 4th amendment “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” the 2nd amendment, “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” (as passed by the states)
So Sen McCain, in the name of anti terrorist activities, will eliminate the few remaining rights left against search and seizure and Sen. Obama will gut the right to bear arms.
There are 220 years of US History about to be undone. That is what this election is about. Huge differences.
McCain a liberal Republican!?! WTF
You obviously have no idea of his policies or voting record.
Iraq War, check.
Tax cuts for the rich, check.
Overturn Roe v Wade, check
defund education and the environment, check.
Privatize Soc Sec, check.
Real liberal, LOL
Sounds pretty liberal to me.
Somebody wake Ben up.
hoz:
Being a libertarian, I assure you that I am well aware of the wording of the first ten amendments to the US constitution - which is why I’m not fond of either major candidate in this election. Look closer at their overall platforms, political philosophies, and voting records. You’ll find they aren’t all that dissimilar.
edhopper:
An evaluation of McCain’s voting record reveals that he is hard to categorize politically. He has certainly supported liberal polices at times - in the late 90s, for instance, he promoted anti-tobacco legislation intended to raise cigarette taxes for anti-smoking campaigns. He has also supported amnesty for illegal immigrants and promoted campaign finance reform, both of which are hardly classic conservative platform goals. Perhaps you should check your facts before you run your mouth.
I think I will do the same hoz.
I like McCain in some ways really. But his veep choice is a bit wacko. Soccer moms are great, but not my first choice to go cage fighting with Mr Putin.
I suppose that I also want to send a msg to the republican party so that they never ever let someone like Mr Bush near a public office again.
‘Soccer moms are great, but not my first choice to go cage fighting with Mr Putin.’
That was nicely put. Anyhow, I’m going to have to agree with you and Hoz.
And did you notice the a$$-kicking Bu$h took in the cage match? Is he a soccer mom? I know a lot of soccer moms that are a heck of a lot tougher than these tough guys like Bu$h and Cheney.
I agree with hoz. I also am looking at what will happen to the Supreme Court.
Hoz, I just want to say that I love your posts. Wisdom these days is in short supply, thanks for sharing.
On a different note, writing in the candidate you wish for (even if not on the ticket) is an act of citizenship. Proudly refusing to vote is pointless: the enemy of a good [candidate] is a perfect [candidate]. Apologies to Napolean.
What’s frightening is to think of the very real chance, given McCain’s age, that she could be running this country were he elected. Nuh-uh, not gonna vote for that ticket, no way no how. Bad, bad ticket.
Aw, come on, she looks like Barbie, and likes to shoot things. I’m sure she could face down Russia, and Iran. Not. I’m all for having a woman in the WHite House, but this cynical choice is offensive. The GOPs are rebranding Alaska as some kind of complicated foreign country to spin her wafer thin qualifications. Let’s see, Alaska is the 48th most populous state, with 653 thousand people. That’s like the size of Austin or Memphis. Big deal.
These arguments that population is a reason to oppose her as a legitimate national politician are stupid. By that rationale, Bush was more qualified to govern than Clinton because Texas has more people than Arkansas. There are a lot of reasons to knock Sarah Palin, but the size of Alaska’s population is not one of them.
The population question is very legitimate. Large population states have much more complicated problems and issues to deal with.
“Large population states have more complicated problems and issues to deal with”
Is that why California elected a has-been weightlifter and actor with no legislative experience to run the 8th largest economy in the world? Brilliant.
Comments like this make me think Sarah Palin is actually overqualified to be president, based on the losers who have run larger and more “complicated” states.
You mean losers like Reagan? And who ever said Bush had any experience governing from Texas, which is mostly run by the legislature. We know how that worked out…. Alaska is a curious place. No state income tax, the state doles out oil subsidies to its citizens. Smaller population, and a limited industry base (not much besides oil) does equate to smaller infrastructure and complexity. Would she be qualified to run a large international corporation? I don’t think so. If you want a Hocky Mom as potential president, that’s a curious choice for terror/fear crazy GOPs.
Some people take size very seriously.
the question was around experience, not intrinsic leadership qualities– a big state provides more experience. but i would expect such nonsensical logic from NoSingle, given your usual posts.
Right on Bronco!!! Nonsensical logic is why this country is in such a mess. Still can believe that W got elected once but twice. It’s W’s supporters that are backing McCain on his insane pick of Palin for VP. Like I said “You can’t fix stupid”. Yeah, that’s what we need Soccer Mom Palin for President. OMG!!!!
But McFame said tonight, right on the news: “She has executive experience ! She was a mayor and on the city council ! ” How cool is that ? Just whom I want staring eyeball to eyeball with Azerbaijani if the need should ever arise ( like McFame keeling over at his first cabinet meeting ). An ex-city-councilwoman. Wow. Also, I heard McCain state to the world, in response to his initial faux pas of not knowing how many houses he owns ( I think it turned out to be 7 ), ” Let me say this in response to your question. I was in a prison for five-and-a-half years, and I didn’t even have a kitchen table. ” Now that’s pretty deep, too. Wow. Definitely qualified to be prez. Definitely. Can SOMEBODY please call John Glenn and see if he wants to be drafted at the now-nonexistant Republican convention ? They’re about the same age, and I think Glenn’s mentation is way better. Makes ya miss Barry Goldwater. And I’m a liberal Demmycrat. Wow. And he didn’t have a kitchen table. No sh-t, Sherlock.
DId you see how McCain horn-dogged Palin during her introduction as his VP candidate? He coudn’t stop looking her up and down, and twisting his wedding ring. It totally creeped me out. McGeezer & the MILF. What a total crock him thinking he’ll get the Hillary vote. It makes me furious that we have to return to the evangelical fundamentalist crap she brings to the table.
Picking here was a stroke of genius. Ya don’t need a Weatherman to know which way the wind blows now..
“Picking here was a stroke of genius”
And if McSame “Old Oak” has a stroke…Sarah Barracuda gets to send in the F-22’s to Pakistan & Iran…After…. she gets a appointment for a Demi Moore G.I. Jane hairdo.
There ya go! Perfect example. That was a real doozy.
McCain would appoint you as Obama’s press secretary in a heartbeat.
MEDIAN INCOME dropped about 0.6 percent between 2000 and 2007 – apparently a small decline. But, as reported in The New York Times, households with the principal money earners under age 65, had an average income of $56,545, or 3.4 percent below the 2000 level. This group contains the largest number of active consumers. Adjusted for inflation and higher expenditures for health, fuel, and other essentials, this group clearly can’t afford to buy as much now as they did in 2000. As for those without health insurance, the total number between 2006 and 2007 decreased by 1.3 million to 45.7 million. The larger number of insured, however, is due almost completely to additions to Medicare. Yet changes in Medicare regulations have restricted the amount and kinds of prescription medicines that are covered even partially by Medicare, thereby increasing out of pocket costs for those insured under this program. Since 2000, the number of people below the poverty line increased by 5.7 million, equal to 12.5 percent of the total population. Because the definition of poverty makes no allowance for extra living costs in urban areas (an anomaly that New York City’s mayor wants corrected), poverty levels are probably understated significantly.
Expect the Democrats to make major political hay out of these stats.
I’d expect Americans to make major political hay out of those stats. The bottom line is that tax breaks for the elite, bale outs for the elite, wars for the elite are all being paid for on the backs of the poor, middle and upper middle class. They’ve taxed us all with inflation.
Americans are chumps. My employer is on track to make yet another year of record profits, which means another year of no pay raises. Yet my coworkers meekly accept it, like they bend over and meekly accept everything else that is done to them. They don’t even get angry. They are grateful to be screwed.
The talent has the marketable skills and can get the raises because they can always threaten to take their skills over to another company that will pay more. The rest of you with “commodity skills” better just be glad you’re not laid off and getting COLA increase.
define “commodity skills”
I know that our skills aren’t “commodity” because it is hard to find people to hire. We have reqs that go unfilled for a year or more.
But because we are so specialized we can’t just find work across the street either. And when we do find it, its the same story: record profits and no raises.
Boohoo, people were in soup lines 70 years ago. Appreciate what ya have young feller…
What’s sticking in your craw, Crusader?
Bank #10 fails
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/integrity-bank-closed-10th-failure/story.aspx?guid=%7BAE7ED3A9%2D3D75%2D4E2B%2D8081%2DB053ED922541%7D
“We kept sending them the $810. They kept sending it back to us saying that’s not the mortgage rate. I kept saying yes it is. ”
Saying “yes it is” doesn’t make it so, Dumb**s.
DOC
That line just plain pissed me off. It’s the arrogance of ignorance. Just floors me. The dummer they are the more hostile and stubborn they act.
When you back an animal into a corner, it attacks you.
Even a sheep?
Our economy was without any warning, attacked by a flock of sheep.
Film @ 11
As an aside on this situation: I think it should be illegal for the bank to return the $800, why not apply it toward the loan?
Too funny! That would be dumber. As in dumber than dirt.
In the “accidental truth” department, did anyone notice the timeframe of the “slowdown” in Snoqualmie?
Because of the city’s reliance on new home sales, predominantly in the Snoqualmie Ridge developments, certain projections - such as when a “build out” would be achieved - must now be reworked, he said.
The slowdown, Oestreich said, extends the build out from what was once assumed to be 2012 “to as much as 2116 to 2119, depending on the economy.”
The idea that tiny flood-prone towns on the side of mountains depend on new construction to underpin their budget is just… sad.
Still, one of the world’s pretty places:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Snoqualmie_Falls_in_June_2008.JPG
i THINK THE dEMOCRATS WERE stunned.
You can just feel those slippery things millions strong lining up upon beauty queen supermom Mayor, and Governor.
She is, after all all, the only non-lawyer.
She is, after all, the only one with executive experience.
She is after all, a former beauty queen who SUCCESSFULLY FOUGHT AND PROSECUTED FRAUD WASTE AND ABUSE, CORRUPTION, and EXTORTION.
The elephants realize they somehow have nearly 30% of the country hoodwinked into believing that ’ssshrubery is doing a good job, and that 30% is probably mostly evangs, and Palin is an evang’s wet dream, a breeding factory with a gun fetish…
gotta love it..
In order to attack McCain/Palin, the Left is now forced to demean the family in general, particulars of the Bill of Rights.. small town moms.. women who’ve worked hard and made something of themselves.. pretty women.
I warn you.. it’s a frickin minefield and no matter how carefuly you step, you’ll still get blowed up real good..
This is a riot, and it’ll only get better.
“In order to attack McCain/Palin, the Left is now forced to demean the family in general, ”
??
or they could talk about money. or defense. or foreign policy. and I think they are..
Democrats will have a harder time building their hunting/basketball/beauty pageant platform. hee.
The Left could talk about (redistributing) money, or (cutting) defense, or their (defeatist) foreign policy, but we already know all that, and they won’t score any points.
Attacking McCain? The guy survived being bent over and having his shoulder blades dislocated every couple of days. What can the Dems do to him? Anyway, he’s pretty much an open book and there’s nothing new here..
So, they will instead attack Palin. A pretty (airhead?)Christian (as is about 80% of the US population) mother of 5 (”a breeding factory”). Married high school sweetheart (actually a cheerleader slut!)
Hey.. good luck with that. Lots of GOP women will be jealous of her and you’ll make lots of converts.
Obama/Biden .. stick a fork in it.
JoeyinCalif your soooo right with your comments “the Left is now forced to demean the family in general, particulars of the Bill of Rights.. small town moms.. women who’ve worked hard and made something of themselves.. pretty women”
The family is everything. A good Mom has made something of herself, for being a Mom is the hardest, most rewarding job on the planet. Moms are the heart of the family. That’s why I’m so shocked that Govenor Palin would accept the VP position, you’d think she’d want to be closer to her family in Alaska. Especially when you consider that she’s a recent Mom of a beautiful, special needs child. This child NEEDS his mother more than we need her as VP. Family values are far MORE important.
hmm.. Bestwidhes, lets examine that..
Accepting a job means a mother cares more about work than she does about her family? Working mothers are ipso facto bad mothers?
It must follow that as governor she is already a bad mother..
Well, i see a couple potential negatives.. The Feminists don’t amount to much these days, but they won’t like it one bit.
Hillary “”wasn’t some little woman ’standing by my man’ like Tammy Wynette.”
Do you expect other female Congresscritters et al already in high positions in business and govt to mount this attack? Why aren’t they home caring for their families?
I’d hold off on this one. Use it in the event that all else fails.
It’s a pleasure to watch a propagandist backed into a corner and hoisted onto their own petard…
Considering the dementia that is getting harder and harder to hide, Palin will definitely be the brains on that ticket. Can’t wait for ol’ Johnny to keel over so she can be leader of the Free World. Go Alaska!
JoeyinCalif, it’s very obvious that you’ve either misunderstood my post or just want to find fault with it. I NEVER said that a working women cares more about their job then their family or that they are bad mothers. Millions of loving moms have to work outside the home not by choice but by neccessity. I don’t think many would say that taking on the role of VP is job, its a huge committment, much, much more than a job. Palin is just a heatbeat away from the Presidency. That my friend is more than a just a job.
I don’t get your Feminist line??? It’s the feminist movement that supports SuperMom’s. Women can have it all and do it, bullsh*t line. I believe that being a mom is the most important JOB their is. Please don’t belittle millions of HARDWORKING stay at home Mom’s. IMHO, Palin belongs home with her recent newborn. That child needs his Mother more than we need her as VP. As for Hillary and the women Congresscritters, they’re children are GROWN. They don’t have NEWBORNS at home that NEED their mom.
Oh please. She was for The Bridge to Nowhere, before she was against The Bridge to Nowhere. Executive experience, eh? You hire her as CEO of a Fortune 500 corporation, talking point man.
The Dems are Stunned!!! 36 minutes ago THE dEMOCRATS WERE stunned.
You can have empathy for those less fortunate.
Democrats are always lacking for anything to inspire those hundred million wet ones.
Re: Palin as VP. Just goes to show you what a sham the highest offices in the land are. I have to wonder what the puppet masters are thinking… I think they’re happy because no matter who is elected, they can be easily controlled. The New World Order triumphs again.
What are you talking about?!! You sound unhinged.
I like Obama, I don’t like his politics. I despise everything about that phony Biden ( It doesn’t surprise me that his Father was a used car salesman). I don’t really like Mc Cain except his voting record is better than Obama’s. I like almost everything about Palin. I went from not voting to voting for McCain/Palin.
That’s interesting Kirisdad. You just proved me wrong, as I just announced to my husband that nobody really cares about VPs anyway (except in extreme cases). Glad you found a deciding factor that worked.
I find McCain a little creepy these days. Cannot bear to listen to him. He used to seem really engaging, even if I didn’t agree with a lot of what he said. I don’t know if I changed, he changed, or the media coverage of him changed but…(shiver).
You know, there’s always Barr/Root, which I’ll be voting for.
Why this one party system that voters flip over and back, year after year, like the PRI?
The Libertarians seem to be the only ones walking the walk. Is the demonstrated adherence to principle too stark and frightening?
Nobody ever claimed she was 100% clean “Mr. Smith goes to Washington” type. However compared to the Tony-Rezko associating Obummer, she’s a miracle.
Why can’t I post?
Did Booyah Jimmie the Jackass have Ben kidnapped, in order to strengthen the impact of his housing market bottom call?
http://www.safehaven.com/article-11106.htm
The Coming Bank Credit Crunch
Banks in the US are going to need to roll over almost $800 billion dollars in medium-term debt in the next 16 months. Banks borrowed heavily in 2006, a lot of it in 2-3 year floating-rate notes, and now they must refinance those notes. Say a bank borrowed at LIBOR plus 50bps. In today’s environment, many banks are not going to be able to borrow at such low rates. Remember the two Ohio banks mentioned earlier? These regional banks will have to pay spreads of 7-9%, based on the price of their debt today. If you have to pay 12% to borrow money when prime is at 5% and you are lending at 6-8%, you clearly cannot make a profit. That means they will have to sell assets or raise very expensive equity capital.
There are a lot of small and regional banks that are in trouble. The FDIC has a list of 117. Out of (I think) 8500 banks that does not sound bad. But remember, Indy Mac, which failed a few months ago, was not on that list. Banks can get into trouble rather quickly if they cannot raise capital, sell assets, or borrow money due to perceived distress.
The problem is that these banks will have less money to lend and will be calling loans from otherwise good customers, which of course makes the economic situation even worse. It is a vicious cycle.
Even many mainstream economists are now suggesting we will be in a recession by the 4th quarter, if we are not in one now. (The 2nd quarter revised GDP was 3.3%. This is an anomaly, and is highly unlikely to be repeated.) The recovery, when it comes, will be tepid until credit spreads signal an end to the credit crisis. It is going to be Muddle Through for 2009. This is NOT going to be good for the stock market. When will it be safe to get back into the water? Pay attention to credit spreads.
One other thing to watch. When the Fed feels it is no longer necessary to offer “temporary” Term Auction Facilities (loans) to commercial and investment banks, that will be a significant event. Notice that these were to be temporary. These auctions will last well into 2009 and maybe longer.
Hussein Obamma will have some thing to whine about if we go into a recession. Zogby has McCain ahead.
LOL - I am a Zogby poller…I rarely answer the same way twice!
Sorry, Gallup Poll has Obama ahead by 6 points. We’re already in a recession, by the way…
http://www.gallup.com/poll/109903/Gallup-Daily-ObamaBiden-Ticket-Leads-Points.aspx
Ben, what’s up? And why don’t you hire a surrogate? I hope you are well.