Bits Bucket For December 27, 2008
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
December 27, 2008
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As well they shouldn’t, I guess they’ll have to pray for a bailout.
Foreclosures Don’t Spare the House of God…
The price was high and the building plans ambitious, but Seabreeze secured a $5 million loan from a credit union that caters to evangelical churches and raised several million more. The congregation moved in last year, just as credit markets froze, and now the church finds itself struggling to pay its bills as weekly expenses outpace weekly giving.
“We were kind of like that young married couple that really stretched for their first home,” said Bevan Unrau, the church’s senior pastor. “But I don’t think we’re completely unique.”
The era of easy credit has begun taking its toll on even the most sacred of borrowers, religious institutions.
Many churches expanded during the real estate boom, as banks large and small lent money based on assumptions about growth in their donations.
The lenders were, in a sense, betting on the likelihood that a particular pastor could attract a large audience or, in some cases, on the popularity of one denomination over another. But, where those bets were wrong, or too optimistic, congregations found themselves knee-deep in debt and at risk of losing their houses of worship.
Hundreds of churches across the country have received foreclosure notices in recent months, and even more are behind on mortgage payments. An economic downturn tends to increase church attendance, but the amount each churchgoer donates tends to decrease. And newer members usually donate less than older ones. Churches can trim spending by cutting staff and social activities, but for many parishes, the biggest monthly expense is the mortgage.
The road to hell™ is paved with good intentions.
Who would have ever thought that among all these interlocking bubbles, we’d end up with a Bible Bubble.
Surprise, AZ is home to mega churches (built like mini-Vaticans size-wise, and retail malls design-wise) and mega foreclosures.
Some fun stuff thanks to Faster Pussycat and Prof Bear:
if you type in “Text+&+trade+;” take out the + signs and you get –> Text™
If you type in “Text+&+copy+;” take out the + signs and you get –> Text©
Is there one for (R)?
————
as banks large and small lent money based on assumptions about growth in their donations.
…just like people took out huge loans based on an assumption that they would get a raise, or businesses took out loans based on the assumption that revenue wold grow linearly, or GM thought that gas would cost 99 cents forever.
Yeah
Text+&+reg+; (remove the +) : Text®
Realtor®
Sorry but it will always be realtor for me. No R. No capitals. If a general reference to doctors isn’t capitalized (a profession I can actually respect) than the slime of the world aren’t getting it.
I don’t blame you, but please know that we use the ® as a snark.
You have just created a monster
forgot to add monster™
Used Home Seller®
The House of Dog is also hoping for a bailout.
That just irritates me. Infrastructure should be paid by the person wishing to use it- not paid for through govt subsidy. Don’t even get me started on tax increment financing (TIFs)… Talk about an odd form of eminent domain by stealing future customers from existing businesses all under the guise of “beautification of blight”. What a joke!
As long as Obama and Demoratic pals are offering to serve up another $1t or so in free monies, why not propose yourpet project for funding?
You missed that backup beeping sound.
It’s now $800B “over two years”. Further downgrades possible.
My, how the mighty Messiah has fallen in a few weeks.
Most Evangelical churchs these days do not preach a message of sacrifice or obedience to the will of God, which today’s congregations don’t want to hear. Rather, they preach a feel-good message of how God wants you to be happy and successful, rather than emphasizing more scriptural themes of living a virtuous, unpretentious life in accordance with divine principles and age-old truths. No wonder they attract the kind of congregants that love to sing and rock out and wave their hands around and talk about how awesome their God is, but when it comes to sacrifice - digging deep and giving an honest 10% or something even close - you see maybe ten percent of the churchgoers contributing about 90% of the financial support and volunteering, while carrying the feel-good crowd. No wonder so many churches are going under.
You just described nearly every volunteer, nonprofit, or social organization. Garden clubs, churches, bridge clubs, Scouting, kids’ athletics, whatever. 10% of the members do 90% of the work and carry the rest. The other 90% only joined to socialize or for appearance’s sake. And they’re always too busy or too broke to help out when help is needed.
That, in a nutshell, describes why libertarianism is a failed concept.
Where as socialism has been proven to work over and over again?
Where as socialism has been proven to work over and over again?
Worked pretty well for George 2 and his cronies….
Oh, and the Hellhole That is Sweden.
When did Sweden become socialist? They have a stock market exchange, and plenty of those evil corporations.
When did Sweden become socialist? They have private ownership of property and plenty of those evil corporations.
Socialism does not ban the ownership of property. That would be communism.
Exactly, Colorado.
For some reason, most Americans have been duped into thinking communism and socialism are the same thing. They are not.
For socialist countries, look up the leading countries in almost all indexes of well-being (including economic):
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_hum_dev_ind-economy-human-development-index
Libertarianism, which takes a moral stance against using force on others is a “failed” concept? Even if only 10% of the people in these organizations contribute, these organizations exist non-the-less.
There is nor moral justification for stealing from one group of individuals to “support” a “good cause” favored by another group of individuals.
Besides, if people did not have 50+% of their income taxed out from under them, perhaps they would give more to organizations. Instead the government “taxes” them to fund “good causes” and so the average joe says “hey, the government gave for me so I don’t need to”.
The failed concept is socialism, welfare, warfare, social security and “foreign aid”. Libertarianism has never been given a fair shake, and when our country was closer to the libertarian ideal we faired far better and were much more prosperous and free.
You get your water from your private well?
Support your own hospital?
Nurse your aged father yourself?
YOU invented and tested all his medicines?
Build and maintain all the freeways and airports you had built to serve you?
Control the TB outbreaks on your self-sustaining farm?
Police and care for all your agricultural employees? Teach their kids too?
Fight your fires yourself?
Wow. That’s damned impressive Mr. Galt!
Libertarianism works quite well in the fantasy 1720’s agrarian society of your mind. In an advanced technological era dependant on global cooperation for its survival? Eh, not so much….
“You get your water from your private well? ……”
Here we go again. The government creeps into every area of life, and then anyone who derives one iota of benefit from any government program– which is pretty much everyone– can be labeled a hypocrite for questioning the government’s role. How convenient.
By this reasoning, you cannot criticize any politician who has ever voted for any program or law that benefitted you in any way. Logically it should be the reverse: you should be praised for your selflessness in advocating the abolition of programs even though they help you. But then logic has never been the socialists’ strong suit.
“You get your water from your private well? ……”
Sorry, but I must try again to plumb this amazing comment… you seem to be saying that if VATechDan does not personally do all these things for himself, then the ONLY other entity capable of helping him is the government. Any of his other neighbors, friends, or anyone else would just have to stand helplessly by.
It’s a truly bizarre religion that socialists have. It’s really the socialists, not the libertarians, who have a balkanized, every-man-for-himself view of society, where the only salvation is to appeal to the government for help, and demonstrate and picket if you don’t get what you want.
‘Tis only a matter of degree, Guy. Where do you draw the line?
Thank you for your common sense post, ahansen.
I always challenge these anti-govt “libertarians” to show me **ONE** country that has no (as in zero): govt-provided or built infrastructure, hospitals, education, defence program, welfare, unemployment, retirement or healthcare benefits, etc. Then compare that country to others that provide a safety net for their citizens, and provides all these benefits…
Show me ONE government-free country that outperforms the socialist countries, and you will have me convinced. I’ve never seen a single example yet.
Here are a number of indexes of well-being per country. Have at it:
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_hum_dev_ind-economy-human-development-index
My Dad once told me that ten percent of americans actually ran everything and kept the system going. Same concept.
That, in a nutshell, describes why libertarianism is a failed concept.
Wrong. I hate it when people slander libertariansism when they don’t know what it means!
They know what it means, but they have to lie to slander it.
+1™
Church ain’t nuthin but a fashion show… Who was the rapper?
My wife and I have looked around for a church that does not have $4 coffee and/or allows the congregation to go into debt by accepting credit cards as payment. Finding one like that has been a chore in itself.
Speak the truth, bro!
Try a Roman Catholic church. There is no tithing requirement; priests take vows of poverty, and do not receive large salaries or country club memberships (as do many in the Episcopal church). There is also no shouting, clapping, fainting, speaking in tongues (except in rare, weird charismatic Catholic churches), or putting hands in the air to catch the radio beams from God. And there is no Gospel of Prosperity, or Once Saved Always Saved.
priests take vows of poverty
Actually, that is incorrect. Only those who belong to religious orders (i.e. Jesuits, Franciscans, etc.) take vows of poverty. Your run of the mill parish priest only takes vows of celibacy and obedience.
That said, most parish priests earn a pittance. However, if one were to inherit a bundle from his late Aunt Matilda he could keep it, whereas a member of a religious order would be expected to turn it over to the order.
Thanks for the clarification. I’ve never met a Catholic priest with money (they’ve all been pretty poor), but I’ll take your word for it. The point was that not all churches fleece their followers or preach happy feel-good gibberish, but since I am not a believer, I don’t find either approach particularly appealing.
Then you don’t get out often. Most are greedy pigmen just like bankers. Long ago as a child I questioned why the pigmen catholic priest were driving mercedes when most of the people that worshiped there lived in poverty. If it is about sacrafice, why the expensive cars and still passing out the collection plate? Why the disrespect of living the high life while their parishners suffered and they did not?
IF, and that is a big IF their is a god alot of church leaders are going to hell for their greed.
When I worked for the Church, priests in the northeast received about $36,000 annually, most of it in the form of various allowances, including their housing. The actual cash payments they got were under ten grand. This was in the past seven years or so.
Some of the seminarians I met had assets from their previous life in the secular world. Two that I met owned real estate (former primary residence, rented out). A couple of them were given cars by their parents, just like any wealthy college student would today.
One Franciscan drove a red Honda SUV and wore traditional garb, quite a sight.
“Most are greedy pigmen just like bankers. Long ago as a child I questioned why the pigmen catholic priest were driving mercedes when most of the people that worshiped there lived in poverty.”
I’m calling BS on this. Having been raised Catholic, I never once saw a display of wealth by any of the priests in the church. They were all very kind and giving, and our family was quite close to one in particular. I’m a recovering Catholic, so am in no way pushing the religion, but your comment is out of line.
I’ve only known one priest who had a cool set of wheels. Turns out he inherited some money from a relative. He was also quite generous with that money and helped put some kids through college with it.
That’s my experience, too: Roman Catholic priests I’ve known have always been poor by comparison to Protestant clergy. And members of the various orders even moreso. Remember, Mother Teresa lived with no electricity or hot running water, slept on the floor, and begged for her food till her dying day (because she insisted her nuns, monks, and priests lives like the poorest of the poor). Though I am not a Christian, if I were, I would definitely be a Roman or Anglican Catholic, despite the Church’s ghastly history, because sincere Catholics, and I’ve known many, put True Believers of most other sects and denominations to shame (and this includes Buddhists). However, the Church’s idiotic stance on animals (it claims they have temporal, rather than immortal, souls, and were put here for man’s use) makes any conversion on my part virtually impossible, even if I did believe that God had a kid He sent to Earth to be a scapegoat. What a dad!
Gee whiz, as a lapsed, formerly converted Catholic, I’m not the biggest fan of some of the policies of the Church, but even I can tell you that after working in a diocesan office and seeing some of the books, the run-of-the mill priest is very, very poor. A few drive nice cars DONATED by their parishioners. Some have cars they inherited. Some dealers donate the USE of a car to their parish church, but that doesn’t mean that the priest owns it. Don’t jump to conclusions without doing at least a little research first. You might even like to know that the communion cups that the priests use, I mean the ones that they come out of seminary with, although made of gold and have a diamond in them, the gold is donated by family members and friends, and the diamonds usually come from their mothers’ or grandmothers’ engagement or wedding ring, so there ya go. Priests have their share of problems like anyone else, but wealth ussually isn’t one of them.
If you’re looking for a true church, you might enjoy this short Christmas story…
facebakersfield.com/?p=2373
You’re looking for Ice Cube there. It’s from his song “When I get to heaven”
Thank you. I was going knutz trying to remember…
“Most Evangelical churchs these days do not preach a message of sacrifice or obedience to the will of God, which today’s congregations don’t want to hear.”
I totally understand where you’re coming from, but am gonna have to respectfully disagree with you, at least from my own experience. I think if you drill down, so to speak, to smaller evang congregations, what you refer to above is much less likely.
That’s why I can’t stand so many of the preachers on the church channels…..huge, mega churches and their “name it and claim it” mentality that makes us all look bad.
Blano,
I said MOST churches, not all. The smaller ones seem to be the better ones.
It really bugs me how sloppy folks who attend church these days are dressed. Maybe it’s a SoCal thing, but flip flops and board shorts? Sundays were such a big event for me as a kid, probably because we dressed up. Now it’s like going to McDonalds. You can argue that God doesn’t care what you wear, but to me it’s an issue of humility and respect.
The LDS church preaches frugality and responsible use of credit. Of course, these behaviors are pretty much a necessity if you wish to belong to a church which taxes a full ten percent off the top of your income as a condition to be a member in good standing.
Oddly enough, I know a many faithful Mormons who managed to mire themselves in debt, despite the many cautionary suggestions from their General Authorities. Perhaps this reflects a Mormon propensity to do as others do, instead of thinking independently?
Is that why Utarr, Land of the Righteous, ranks 5th in the nation in mortgage fraud?
Gimme a minute, I’ll find the link to that particular study.
(I’m in Utarr, at my mommys house right this minute, as it happens. The scent of virtue is purt’ nigh overwhelming. Or maybe that’s horse poo. I’d best check my boots.)
Olygal —
Since you grew up in The Church, could you possibly explain why Mormons never engage in two-way conversations about their religious beliefs? I have never had a conversation with any Mormon who showed the faintest degree of interest in what I thought about regarding religion. I guess since they have The Truth, they are overwhelmingly preoccupied with sharing it, instead of wasting their time on listening to anyone else’s potentially conflicting world views. Or maybe it is because I don’t have The Priesthood. I guess I am just a spiritual flunky in their eyes, as I don’t subscribe to their blindered view of life and reality.
‘I guess since they have The Truth, they are overwhelmingly preoccupied with sharing it, instead of wasting their time on listening to anyone else’s potentially conflicting world views…’
I sure don’t need to explain nuffink to you, PB–you just produced the most succinct and correct analysis of the Utarr Mormon viewpoint that I have ever heard.
Preach it, baybee.
Hahahahahaw!
Maybe because Utarr, like Nevada and Arizona, has been overrun by Clownifornians.
“could you possibly explain why Mormons never engage in two-way conversations about their religious beliefs?”
What am I, chopped liver?
BTW, some work I was doing for “No on 8″ included comparing the large donor lists (for Yes on
with recent foreclosures and bankruptcies. We found several dozen donors who gave $1000 or more, in Utah and the Inland Empire, who had either recently foreclosed, declared bankruptcy, or both.
I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about the moral propriety of donating money to political campaign in other states before handling your own debt.
Is the inland empire in another state?
Additionally, the reciprocity among states made prop 8 more than just a California issue. Would you care to show the amounts donated to “no on 8″ by New Yorkers?
Any so-called church which requires money from it’s members isn’t about spreading the gospel. Like Bono once said: “The God I believe in isn’t short of cash…”.
The LDS church is not short of cash, either, thanks to its very effective enforcement of the “Law of the Tithe” on its membership. Those marble-covered temples don’t come cheap, you know.
I find this church’s high degree of comfort with accumulated material prosperity to be philosophically at odds with Jesus’s command to “give up all you have and follow me.”
I guess since the leaders of the church have claimed to be the foremost representatives of Jesus Christ in these latter days, it is perfectly fine for them to tax their members at a ten percent rate, and use the tax-exempt proceeds to back all kinds of political mischief (e.g. Prop 8).
And Bono doesn’t do money raising???
“And Bono doesn’t do money raising???”
Last I checked, Bono wasn’t heading a church. Furthermore, there’s quite a difference between raising money, and mandating payment. If you don’t understand the distinction, the conversation is lost on you.
“I find this church’s high degree of comfort with accumulated material prosperity to be philosophically at odds with Jesus’s command to “give up all you have and follow me.”
Yep, heaven forbid that members of a church should have comfortable clean places to worship worldwide.
Jesus threw the money changers out of the temple, but the temple itself was commanded to be built and equipped using the finest materials available, because it represented a place worthy of a visit from God.
The leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints aren’t paid clergy. No individual is getting rich off of the tithes and offerings of the members, in fact, if someone if found to be pilfering or misusing church funds they are excommunicated.
How about we talk about the millions in charitable relief the church provides around the world every year? Oh sorry, that wouldn’t fit the “religion is bad” mantra, besides the church doesn’t blow it’s horn about it.
Dude — I appreciate your views, and sorry if I was venting and stereotyping. I did not mean to suggest you are of this ilk, but I have seriously never met a Mormon who had sufficient respect for my education (including a considerable amount of religious training) to show the slightest degree of interest in anything outside of their own 100 percent certainty that they had the truth and that it was their privilege and prerogative to share it with me. There is so much I could teach them about the blind spots in their own world view if only they opened their minds and ears.
I have to go now — my daughter has to write a church talk about the trials of Job, and the writing process is proving to be quite a trial of its own.
‘Oh sorry, that wouldn’t fit the “religion is bad” mantra, besides the church doesn’t blow it’s horn about it.’
I don’t recall saying “religion is bad”, but I can understand why a black-and-white Mormon thinker would take that impression from any statement that did not sound 100 percent in agreement. W is a black-and-white thinker — “You’re either with us, or your agin’ us.”
No need to apologize to me PB. I enjoy our conversations. The thing that gets me is some of the ignorant ranting based on popular misconceptions perpetuated here and on other forums.
I also certainly apologize if anything I’ve said has been hurtful to others recently. I probably have a healthy dose of self surety that can be overbearing at times.
Like spending $40 Million to end my marriage?
“faithful Mormons who managed to mire themselves in debt”
IMHO, this is due in part to inherent optimism in the faith. Sad, but true.
Absolutely true. I knew a Mormon who fell for every infomercial he saw on TV, including the knives, the juicer, the ionic air cleaner, and worst of all, the stock trading and multi-level marketing schemes. Meanwhile, he couldn’t answer my basic questions about time shares (could only parrot the sales pitch), and couldn’t make it through a remedial college algebra course.
His one goal in life is to find a marriageable woman with a steady income which he as the man, of course, can tap into. Mild gold-digging? Heck no. To him, it’s “God Will Provide.”
I got an auction notice here in Norfolk, VA about two churches that are going up for auction. I think they were in Maryland though. Hmm turn a church into a gothic nightclub like the limelight? I also thought maybe friends and myself could declare a religion about technology and use it to have massive writeoffs on a clubhouse full of toys.
Ever see the family guy episode where Peter starts a Fonzie based chruch?
Several year ago, when my dad was recovering from cancer surgery he started talking about the high-tech I.V. pole/monitoring stations being the basis for a new religion, and how it would make for a really good sci-fi story. He stopped talking about it after the morphine wore off.
The morphine wearing off is the end of a LOT of good ideas…
*pensive sigh. *
So true. I recently had surgery and was way smarter and creative until they turned off that morphine pump. I also found my family and the hospital workers to be fascinating and fabulous, too. My dad lost his glasses after heart bypass so he invented books printed in all sorts of prescriptions so you could read them without glasses. He also wrote tons of FU letters to everyone that had pissed him off his entire life.
He also wrote tons of FU letters to everyone that had pissed him off his entire life.
————————-
LOL!!!
One of the few benefits of getting old.
I believe Jesus didn’t like fancy temples. If you got a warm dry place to gather together that doesn’t have mold, asbestos or radon, then you’re doing ok.
He did honor the Temple in Jerusalem, and drove the money changers out of the Temple courtyard.
First, I am no Mormon. Second, let’s get some facts straight:
“He did honor the Temple in Jerusalem, and drove the money changers out of the Temple courtyard.”
To equate this situation with the present shows that one is unclear about what Jesus came to do. When he lived on earth, the Temple was the place that contained the manifest presence of God.
After the Resurrection and the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the presence of God now lives in the body of every believer (1 Corinthians 6:19). Notice, I didn’t say, “every church goer” or even “every church member.”
This is why churches committed to the gospel focus their resources on spreading the gospel and on doing good to fellow believers as well as to the world, rather than on lavish facilities.
As I have come to understand it- when any 3 people gather in his name those three have created a church. Do not forget the nature of this blog and faith in itself. A roof & walls to keep out inclement weather is all I need to worship (maybe a little light?). And when the weather is nice I don’t need a building at all.
I’m determined to find a church without debt to its eyeballs, the priests don’t rape children (and get away with it), or pretend to be poor (catholic church is the biggest land holder on EARTH and has more money than God). Have you seen the getup those guys wear? Aladinsane would be proud (or envious) of some of the things I’ve seen on that stage.
I can’t speak for/against morman religion because I have no knowledge of it. I just know I get the heebie jeebies when I see some of the aforementioned things. I’m FAR from perfect, but when I attend a church I like to hear why “we” as a collective are right, not why everyone else is wrong. A common theme I see is judging why others’ poop stinks. This is the first time I have engaged in conversation regarding what I am looking for in a church I feel kind of self righteous. I’m at odds with my self.
I would like to submit a book that some of you may find interesting.
“Pagan Christianity” by Frank Viola
Ponzi Schemes: The Haul Gets Bigger, but the Fraud Never Changes…
Article Tools Sponsored By
By EDUARDO PORTER
Published: December 26, 2008
One hears anguished commentary about how Bernard Madoff’s gargantuan fraud epitomizes the self-defeating excess of high-tech finance — his fall the embodiment of the fall of modern capitalism. But while $50 billion is a lot of money to defraud, there’s nothing particularly modern about Mr. Madoff’s ethics or technique.
Ponzi schemes are among the oldest in the books, long preceding the stamp arbitrage scam engineered in the 1920s by Charles Ponzi, who gave the fraud its name. They have been practiced by hundreds of scammers across the world. And they usually end badly.
The oldest documented case dates back to 1719, when John Law, a Scot, offered investors stock in a French company trading up the Mississippi River, promising returns of more than 40 percent a year.
More recently, from Romania to Russia, Ponzi schemes became de rigeur as former Communist countries embraced capitalism. In Albania, half the population invested an amount equivalent to the nation’s entire gross domestic product in an enormous Ponzi scheme before it collapsed.
In April last year, authorities in Wazirabad, Pakistan, arrested a former high school teacher who reportedly took nearly $1 billion from starry-eyed investors. And a few weeks ago, the Colombian government declared a state of emergency because of rioting over some closed Ponzi funds.
Some say that Mr. Madoff’s fraud is a harbinger of the downfall of the 21st-century’s frenetic variant of capitalism. I would suggest that it underscores how stable the strategies and the institutions of finance truly are. What changes are the scale and the technology. The ethical shortcomings remain.
And Mr. Madoff’s strategy doesn’t just recall that of snake-oil peddlers of yore. It is strikingly similar to that of the brokers and the financiers who built lucrative legal businesses convincing investors that something — Internet stocks, American homes, Dutch tulips — would appreciate forever for some superspecial reason.
“The oldest documented case dates back to 1719, when John Law, a Scot, offered investors stock in a French company trading up the Mississippi River, promising returns of more than 40 percent a year.”
One of the most recently documented cases dates back to 2008, when the U.S. stock market offered investors stock in American companies which delivered losses of more than 40 percent in one year.
I’m sure ponzi schemes has been around since the beginning of time. Just used different names.
We were having a discussion at work the other day. Does anyone know whether investors who lost their money can sue those who got their money out? To the extant that the money was simply stollen from later investors to pay off early investors, it would seem that they have a case.
I’m sure they’ll try; but I can’t imagine any court trying to unwind all of their transactions, except in the case of obvious insiders.
“The consolation for most of us, who don’t own lavish homes in Palm Beach or on Park Avenue is that the 40 per cent we’ve lost in the markets in the past year looks pretty good next to Mr. Madoff’s clients, many of whom have lost everything”.
http://business.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081226.wressaymckenna26/BNStory/Business/home
I often spend the last days of the year pre-figuring my income taxe for the year. This drives my wife crazy, as we almost always end up paying in April, she would prefer to wait and avoid my bad mood until then.
One of these days I hope to be wealthy enough to pay the alternative minimum tax. I plan to move to the coast, buy overpriced real estate and pay gargantuan real estate taxes and mortgage interest!
SLAP!
Oh, sorry dear. Got caught up in optimization fever…
“One of these days I hope to be wealthy enough to pay the alternative minimum tax.”
Actually AMT isn’t about how much you make but how much you try to deduct. AMT hits tax deductions (property and income taxes), unreimbursed employee expenses, medical expenses, investment costs, personal exemptions for yourself and your children, etc. So you can make $100 million but if you only take the standard deduction you will never hit AMT (although you will phase out of your persoanl exemption which is different from AMT.) But if you make $100,000 have 12 kids, are in a heavily income taxed state like CA or NY, and have a couple of very sick kids, AMT could wipe out a huge chunk of normally untaxed income. Nice huh?
If they ever stop doing an annual adjustment to the base AMT rate (which has not been adjusted for inflation since the 60’s except on an annual emergency basis) a huge number of American (60%?) would find themselves paying a lot of unexpected taxes. The abuses of the late 60’s are gone, it’s time for the AMT to disappear too!
I finally found a reason explained online for the charade of the annual emergency change. This procedure lets the congress keep making budget projections as if they would collect the AMT money at the permanent exemption level but they just never get around to it.
So the day they fix it permanently we will “officially” end up $1T more in debt. Maybe next year IS a good year to fix this permanently for the middle class, since perhaps another $1T budget shortfall over the next few years won’t be noticeable amongst all the others.
For many of those people, generations of wealth have been wiped out to NEVER return again. Along with a name recognition and a lifetime of access to the gold key of posh, excess, and exclusive entrance to places we commoners could never enter.
Those kind of people spend 100K a month like we spend $100 a month. Even if they end up after selling off their wears and McMansions(like who is buying those!) that 2 or 3 million won’t be enough to keep them in the Palm Beach Club or Society(say goodbye to your so called friends.) They are finished. Talk about an ajustment!
Makes me happy to be little ole me!
Every time I read about some Palm Beach socialite or hedge fund “investor” who got cleaned out by Madoff, I just have to choke back the laughter. Most of these people were walking epitomes of “pride goes before destruction; a haughty spirit goes before a fall.”
“Most of these people were walking epitomes of “pride goes before destruction; a haughty spirit goes before a fall.””
Well said.
How many of them became wealthy through minor frauds of their own?
See what happens when the greedy wealthy elite get greedier and more stingy? They lose it all. SCHWEEEEEEET! Yes, there really is a God but he’s quite different than the hateful, vocal minority who pretend to be religious portray him.
SCHWEEEEEEET is right. Most of those greedy and greedier folks were big lefties including Madoff himself.
Only the real God finds your schadenfraude just as detestable as their greed.
Yes, that eternal American optimist meme - compare your disaster to an even bigger one and then say how lucky you are.
I guess we’re all really lucky a meteorite didn’t slam into the earth. WOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Party on!
No wonder Jas goes on and on about the “born and bred dopes”.
I’m sorry, but I can’t join in the crowing about people who have lost billion-dollar fortunes. There has already been one suicide by Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, who lost his own fortune, his family’s fortune, as well as $ 1.4 billion of his clients’ money. I feel sorry for the evident hundreds and thousands of older people who will never recover from this. Supposedly, Madoff’s own sons, and their families, knew nothing of his fraud, and their families are ruined now, too. Two charities are wiped out. What’s so much fun about this ? At best, it’s a cautionary tale. Sad.
The idea that madoff’s family knew nothing of the fraud is very hard to believe. I don’t hear if amy of them complaining of new poverty…. I am sure a man smart enough to fool major banks and corporations was smart enough to prepare himself and his family for the demise of the scheme.
Second, I agree that I feel sorry for the non palm beach elite group and the not for profit. But I have lived among the wolves of the palm beach crowd. The are superficial, conceited, self absorbed, and back stabbing high schoolers who think of no one but their own greatness. Much like the “Let them eat cake,” of snobery….they have more than gotten what they have dished put to so many.
Yes, I am curious about the sons’ involvement, or lack thereof. I have never lived amongst the Palm Beachers, except for our next door neighbors who had a small house on Singer Island in the 1950’s and 60’s, but those were the days when having a mink stole ( not a full-length coat ) and a Cadillac and 2 small ranch houses made you a “millionaire”. They were well-off, but millionaires ? I kind of doubt it. And you’re probably right about them, Ann. Yuck.
I also find it hard to believe that these people lost “everything” and were totally “wiped out.” Surely they kept back a few hundred thousand $$ somewhere, even if only in a checking account in Switzerland or a gold bar or two. $300K would be enough to start over quite nicely almost anywhere in this country.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t join in the crowing about people who have lost billion-dollar fortunes.”
I sure as heck can. Screw ‘em all. Greed has a nasty little way of coming back to bit you in the @ss.
My sentiments exactly. And the charities that “invested” with Madoff should’ve known full well that his promised 10-13% returns smacked of a Ponzi scheme.
My sorrow is reserved for the young girl on welfare, who’s family can’t afford the braces for her deformed legs. And for the hard working family living in the slums of New Orleans, who lost everything they ever owned in a since forgotten hurricane. And for the family of the man who died of cancer, because he had no insurance, and had no money for screening or care. My heart does not weep for somebody who has to sell their house in Aspen, because they went all in on a Ponzi scheme. They’ve already enjoyed more luxury than most people ever will.
Excellent post BB!!! Well stated.
I second that. The Madoff investors, as far as I’m concerned, were dead souls long before his Ponzicide killed off their “wealth.” Their greed and materialism set them up for a fall, and now they have a chance to learn how ennobling poverty can be - or at least that’s what they said about their maids and landscapers.
BanteringBear
exeter
Sammy Schadenfreude
Love you guys anger.
It’s focused, directed, a delight to read.
But alas, Since you are all guys, I’ll fall in love with Ann’s post, just as nice.
And correct.
Love your post, Bantering!!!
Well, if I’m a billionaire, and lose all but 100 million of my fortune, I’m still quite a bit better off than mere mortals who had 100k and now have 10K. It’s hard to get choked up about these masters of the universe losing bragging rights at the private country club.
–
Americans suffer from the congenital disease that I have named optimitis. It is very difficult to cure except for prolonged misery.
Jas
It’s better than going through life with a disease called depression. You get an education, work hard, and hope that the future will be better. Otherwise, what’s the point in life?
Indians suffer from a condition I call odoritis. It is easily cured with showering, but this is most often ignored.
How do YOU like generalizations?
Sunday, Dec. 7, 2008
MEDIA MIX
Graduates’ security goes to pot
By PHILIP BRASOR
Last week, a 25-year-old University of Tokyo graduate was arrested for allegedly posting death threats on his blog. The police say that the man, who has been unemployed since graduating from Japan’s most prestigious university, had written that he would kill members of the education ministry for misleading him about “reality,” suggesting that he believed all his hard study had amounted to nothing.
…But what shocks most people when they hear the story is not the nature of the threats or their target, but rather the news that the young man who allegedly made them graduated from the University of Tokyo and remains unemployed. The reader wants to know more. Did he not receive any job offers, or did he refuse all the job offers he received? On the Internet there is some talk that the suspect studied law and failed to pass the bar examination. Still, the idea of a University of Tokyo graduate not advancing to some elite corporation or career-track government job contradicts everything the Japanese educational system stands for….”
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fd20081207pb.html
Maybe he should apply to graduate school in the US.
LOL
There is a certain percentage of people in the US who never complete their doctorates. I worked with one who seemed very stable and quiet, etc., yet ended up leaving without his Ph.D. after years of work due to personality differences with the school.
I suppose the driven genius types are rather more likely to fracture enough to totally crack in tough economic times. I wonder what the percentages are.
i had a girlfriend who finished her doctorate when we were together. She almost failed it. She flunked four out of 5 exams and I remember her crying about it. But she was allowed to try again. Why not? She did and she went on to complete her doctorate. I remember how proud I was of her and how I admired her tenacity.
Yes, I’m crazy for letting her go. She was a great catch.
I think that if one has perseverence, he will complete his doctorate. Never give up!
Bill has it exactly right—-the best predictor of finishing a doctorate is perseverence & tenacity, not some of the other characteristics you might expect.
“driven genius types are rather more likely to fracture enough to totally crack in tough economic times. ”
Matt, the people I knew in grad school who finished were nothing like “driven genius types”. Plenty smart, yes; geniuses, no.
On the flip side of this:
Should we give out PhDs because someone tries real hard?
What it boils down to is that if you are admitted to graduate school, as long as you keep trying, you’ll get a diploma, regardless if you actually are qualified to have it.
At lower levels, everyone deists this phenomena as social promotion.
I think it’s okay to fail and *not* persist, especially on something as relative unimportant as a certificate of learning. It’s the universe’s way of telling you to do something else.
I dropped out of a PhD program in physics after a year or so and went and got a job as a EE. Best thing that ever happened to me. All the guys who finished the program never really got jobs worth all the hassle - certainly after about the late 1970’s getting tenure at a university was a losing proposition.
Plus, that supercollider in TX.
NYC is littered with the carcasses of the physicists who came to the next big thing - finance.
I just spent part of Christmas Day with a Univ. of Mich. physicist. Oh my. He told us that they can’t run that big super-collider in Switzerland in the winter because they have electric heat, and it eats up enough electricity to power a city or two. I asked why they didn’t build it its own power plant to go along with it, since they had spent billions of euros on it, and his wife looked down her nose (somewhat bulbous) at me and said, ” Running it all the time ? That’s such an American idea. We want what everything all the time !” What she was implying was that I was a greedy, ignorant American slut-consumer. What I was implying was that it was damn stupid to lavish billions of euros on the thing and then not be able to run it for half of the year. ( This was pre-planned, not having anything to with it being broken down at present ). Well, duh. I don’t think it penetrated either of their minds. The good thing was that we did get to hear about the Nobel physics prize winners she had met. She could only remember one of their names, though. Her husband had to prompt her. Too funny.
I guess the location was euro-politics driven.
Here in the US we build such grand projects out in the middle of nowhere so they get cheap land, e.g. Los Alamos, Livermore, and Idaho Falls. Incidentally the last is the answer to the great trivia question, “which city has the highest percentage of people with PhDs in physics”?
I thought that thing was built deep underground. I can’t imagine the temp changes much in the winter and summer
All I know is that it was “explained” to us peons in the most farcical manner re: how the Swiss have electric heat, there’s not enough energy to go around in the winter, it takes so much energy to power it that it uses up the energy of a couple of cities, how “American” my silly ideas are ( well, I am an American, so it goes to show ya ), and Americans are greedo energy hogs for thinking it’s stupid to invest what - about $ 2B into this entergy waster, and then to think it’s a bad return on the money to not only have it break down after only 2 circuits, but not to be able to use it 6 months out of the year. Stupid, I know, but then the same Ph.D. gentleman was complaining of how when he’s in Japan, he stays at a hostel/dormitory that costs about $10 a day, eats noodles and broth to save money, and devotes the rest to his research program, since he’s in charge of the budget. The couple was scandalized when I said that I would have stayed at a better place. All for research, you know, deah. Yeah. He also complained ( he who is on speaking terms with Nobel laureates ) that the slippers provided in said Japanese dorms are about 2″ too short for his feet, and made of paper, and that on visit after visit, his feet are always cold. I was like ” why don’t you just pack a pair of your own slippers, brainiac ‘, but since his wife was already grimacing at everything I said, I kept shut up….also she was on her fifth glass of wine or so, so I didn’t want to provoke her any further. Lordy lordy.
I dropped out of a PhD program in Analytical Physical Chemistry during the research phase over the Dean of Chemistry’s objections because my research director was an ass and I didn’t want to play his games. Two years later he was fired.
I went on to Loma Linda Univ. and launched a career in Clinical and Forensic Chemistry which I loved.
He probably got the same 30 -40 job offers a week that i get.
90% are commission only MLM be your own boss the sky is the limit earn what you are worth
the others cant read at an 8th grade level, or type my zip code 11104 into Google, and offer me a job 25 miles away for $10 hour, no where near any public transportation, and i don’t have the $$$ to get the front struts replaced…
So that is the real job market, no responses no phone call no answers no human to talk to and make contact with. No retrurn receipts to see if they read the resume…nothing
Then i get yelled at like a retard for walking in and asking for a job in person, that is 4 blocks away from my apartment….yelled at
Overqualified really means we want to hire a moron for this dead end job.
—————————————————
Did he not receive any job offers, or did he refuse all the job offers he received?
I really fear for the future when I think of all the bright people out there who are going to end up bitterly disillusioned and frustrated when they look at their dim prospects in today’s economy. A lot of them are going to react very badly.
Sorry to say but these potential Grads didn’t learn the idea of “real life planning”. Things will never go as “planned”. Always have a back-up or be very flexible and have an open mind to things. This guy didn’t get his “ideal” job and he is whining. You know what, he may find another job that could be his “real” ideal job but he needs to go out there and be part of society to find it. He wants things handed to him like he was entitled to it. Again, there is that word. “Entitlement” We are not entitled to anything. You work hard for it. If you don’t get what you want in the end, then you should be happy of what you got.
The education system sends a clear message that if you do what they tell you, life is hunky dory after you graduate. I didn’t go crazy like this guy but I had a period of adjustment where I realized all my hard work didn’t really mean jack and I had to go really earn the privilege of getting a job.
One of the reasons we homeschool is to prevent our children from ever getting the idea the world owes you a living if you get an education.
One of the reasons we homeschool is to prevent our children from ever getting the idea the world owes you a living if you get an education.
——————————-
The whole “everyone needs to go to college” meme is downright dangerous, IMHO. It totally dilutes the value of a college degree, degrades blue collar work, and sets people up for disappointment. Plenty of people with degrees doing exactly what they’d be doing w/o one, but they wasted lots of time and money in the process.
Happy Boxing Week! Going to check out the shopping spirit in Ottowa today.
“Chamonix Ski Chalet Prices Plunge as Pound’s Drop Hurts Britons” (Bloomberg)
Dan Morgans cut the asking price for his ski chalet near Chamonix in the French Alps after the credit crunch and plunging pound ended a boom fueled by Britons.
The 35-year-old chef has dropped the price of the house, with an outdoor jacuzzi facing toward Mont Blanc, by 13 percent to 1.5 million euros ($2.1 million). He paid 750 000 euros for the chalet in 2001.
“It’s a bit stomach-churning,” says Morgans, who has spent seven years catering for guests at the chalet. “Nothing is moving in this market.”
“Our biggest problem is that nobody needs a chalet in the Alps…It’s the ultimate discretionary spend.”
The pound is going to get pounded.
Shorting that sucker is the closest thing to free money these days.
To summarize, he bought super over priced business real estate?
But it’s Chamonix, dude! Everyone wants to live in Chamonix and they’re not building any more land. Buy now before you get priced out forever.
BWAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
Hmm, bought for 750K in 2001, 7-8 years ago. Wants DOUBLE for it now. 1.5M euros. And that’s AFTER he’s cut his price. He could cut the price much more, and still sell with a modest “profit.”
At some point, it will start to dawn on people that the real long-term return for RE is not very much, quite modest in fact. About that of inflation. A ski chalet in the alps is super, but its a discretionary spend that you consume, not something that will turn you a profit.
Ass.
Sorry, if that last word was out of line for here….
You haven’t been reading here very long, have you?
My sentiments exactly.
Ass.
Try @$$ if it makes you feel better.
All an ass is is a little donkey. So, the buyers were mule-headed. Makes perfect sense to me.
My aunt in Palo Alto sold her tear-down condition stucco box in November 2007 for over $1.1 million. Google maps now show a vacant lot with a porta-potty&TM on it so the tearing down didn’t take long.
Geez she could have exchanged it for a chalet in the French Alps.
I’d be interested to know how a 28 year old chef got ~$1.3 million US dollars in credit to buy a ski chalet in 2001. What sort of income does a chef with 6-7 years experience in a ski resrot make?
I was thinking the EXACT same thing. Time to head off to culinary school?
Poor pitiful greedheads, having to cut back their wishing prices to only TWICE what they paid back in the early 2000s or late 1990s. Somebody hand me a hankie.
I had hoped to get back from Las Vegas yesterday in time for at least a desk clearing post, but got caught up in the snow. But I do have some observations from Nevada:
I had only been there once before, briefly, over 10 years ago. And this was the first time I drove in. Coming in from Kingman AZ and through Bullhead City then Searchlight. The thing that struck me is how isolated this part of the country is. So immediately, the story about why Vegas is out there and the movies about its beginnings came to mind. But that caused me to question exactly why do we have to got to the middle of nowhere to gamble and see shows?
Entering the city from the south, the first thing I noticed was houses; lots of new houses stuck right next to each other. There was a big DR Horton sign up in this area. I also saw a huge billboard that said ‘Land for sale’ which seemed odd.
People I know there said the casinos were not as busy as they should be this time of year. I don’t think that is any thing new, but to see row after row of empty seats in front of slot machines, etc, was a sight to remember. Hotel rooms were priced low as well.
Another impression; I never realized how labor intensive these casinos are. There are employees everywhere, and plenty more are bound to be behind the scenes. Having been in labor intensive businesses before, I know it’s a double edged sword. When business is good, lots of people are making money etc. But when things get slow, lots of people aren’t making money. I think LV is going to struggle with this. Are they just going to wait for the world to start gambling again? Will they try to reorganize themselves, and if so, into what?
the first mistake they made was turning every casino into a resort. The overhead has to be eating them alive. All this was due to the housing ATM withdraws we’ve seen over the past few years. How do they downsize now?
….made into ‘resorts’: They wanted to get the conventions, and they did.
Keep in mind that the indian casinos are killing their business.Lots of people who would go to reno or tahoe from the sacramento area are staying here to gamble.Red hawk casino just opened up last week.It is off hwy 50 near shingle springs.
When Jersey allowed gambling in Atlantic City, they sucked away the East Coast high rollers. Vegas had to turn into a show town to attract families.
When other states allowed slots gaming, that sucked away slots fans who could live without table gaming, which included most of the senior citizenry. You could satisfy your gaming jones in the same time it would take you to get through airport security.
Oh, and don’t forget the mega-million casinos in Singapore and Malaysia. They are sucking away the foreign whales. I mean, why go to Vegas at all now? Celine Dion?
I go about twice a year. I find those I run into to be about 50% wealthy foreigners. It is always the encounters with these ppl that are the most memorable part of the trip. I have tried a few indian casinos and poker rooms, and I feel bad playing with addicts that have no business being there in the first place, and whose stories are mostly depressing. It’s the mix of ppl, and that fact that most are on vacation and just there to have fun, rather than spending their family’s last dollar in the hopes of being able to buy food, that brings me back. Plus, I am a night owl, and there is always something going at a 4 am. You don’t get that many other places.
I agree with you Tim. My wife and I also go to Vegas 2 to 3 times per year for the same reasons. I will play poker at the indian casinos here in Phoenix but nothing else.
Hey– Live by the sword, die by the sword. Since roughly the 4th of July Atlantic City casinos’ profits have declined 10% to 15% each month over last year. Blame has been laid on everything from nearly total smoking ban to collapse of house ATMs to leagalization of casinos in nearby states. I think it’s a combo of the smoking ban and the hometown casinos without the smoking bans. Just as in the liquor and bar businesses, its an open secret that vast portion of gaming revenues come from stone-cold addicts. These addictive personalities cut across vices; the odds are pretty good that your compulsive gambler is also a nicotine fiend. So, why would your gamblaholic travel all the way to the shore to wager in a casino in which he cannot smoke when he can motor on over to the nearby racetrack/casino and indulge all his self-destructive tendencies? I have some self-detructive tendencies myself, so I’m certainly not judging. The tobacco prohibitionists should just ditch the cannard that smoking bans are actually good for the “gaming” industry.
“Lots of people who would go to reno or tahoe from the sacramento area are staying here to gamble.”
Downtown Reno is dying. Not much more to say.
Any $4.99 “all you can eat” egg/bacon/taters/biscuits & gravy…with coffee ?
I appreciate the incisive and informed commentary, Ben, as always.
And now! Tell us how much rum and egg-nog you drank, how much gingerbread you consumed, how many Christmas carols you sang while running around in the snow, whether or not you ate your Santa hat as an inebriated joke, and if you met any cute exotic dancers, and if they were named ‘Madisyn or else were named Hayden*! Huh huh huh?
Also, I’m very glad you made it through the snow–I had my own snow issues whilst driving to Utarr. I don’t even LIKE snow anymore. So I’m glad you had no major incidents, evidently. Say, do you have dice swinging from your rear-view mirror? How about a dashboard hula-girl? I’m eager to know more about Ben, the Mysterious Man of Mystery.
*All the strippers I know are named Madisyn or Hayden. Those’r the new ‘Amber’ and ‘Crystal’ of stripper name-dom. That’s why I ask, from scientific curiosity.
‘I’m eager to know more’
It was fun, mainly to get out of Flagstaff for xmas, as this town shuts down completely. I ended up spending most of my time in the Fremont area. Walking around with friends, taking in the people and the scene. Not a lot for vegetarians to eat, so mostly pizza at this little brewpub. Some video poker; just a few bucks. I did find this little tikki bar out in the boonies that is so classic I’m not going to reveal its location, so it won’t be discovered.
It seemed like half the people downtown were asian. And the first thing the city did xmas morning was take down the big tree and decorations on Fremont. Nothing sentimental; I kinda liked that. Mostly I gawked at the gambling. Watched the craps for a while; it was fascinating, but I still don’t know how it works. All in all, a very un-christmas, which part of the idea.
And the first thing the city did xmas morning was take down the big tree and decorations on Fremont.
Gotta love it. They take the decorations down ON Christmas. Of course when you think about it it makes no sense for them to celebrate Christmas at all.
Hey Ben,
I would bet that most of those asians you saw downtown were from Hawaii. Since there is no gambling here we fly 3 flights a day to Las Vegas. Each day every day. Most are package deals and most stay at the California, or the Fremont. Funny thing is while the ecomomy is going to hell here Hawaiian Air just added another daily flight to/from LV.
That said the weather here is junk. It is cold here too. 62 outside. BBBRRRR.
I was on a two segment flight Frday from LA to Vegas to Phoenix. On the flight from LA to Vegas, lots of Asians. On the flight from Vegas to Phoenix, lots of Hispanics. I think some of the Hispanics were moneyed, although they could not talk English very well. You see some of them come from Mexico into Tucson - the few wealthier ones, well dressed, well mannered.
On the flight out of Vegas to Phoenix I sat in first class in the aisle in row 1. Before they closed the door, there was a slug of a man standing at the doorway who quietly refused to go when they told him they overbooked. Several crewmembers came around and tried talking him out. They threatened to get the police. The captain finally came out of the cabin and coaxed the guy to leave after about 5 minutes of us wondering “what’s he going to do?” The guy was saying something that he waited 3 hours for the flight. I figure he must have waited those 3 hours in a bar. He was not belligerant, only a refusing slug most of the time. The airlines fault for letting him through the jetway. They were very busy and just wanted the flight out.
“So immediately, the story about why Vegas is out there and the movies about its beginnings came to mind.”
Truth is stranger than fiction, as Vegas was founded by Mormon missionaries. There is to this day a delicious tension between the strong LDS presence (including the temple located there) and the Sin City reputation.
Olygal probably could provide a better first hand account than I…
LDS…. LSD…. they’re all distortionists.
My favorite line from the 4th Star Trek film….
Spock is acting like Spock on a SF bus. Kirk explains “he was at Berkeley…he did a little too much LDS”.
“why do we have to got to the middle of nowhere to gamble and see shows?”
I’m thinking that is the point. Gambling, prostitutes, random sex, drunken brawls, etc. are not things you want down the street (although I just go for late night and early morning poker). For the true escape to work, most have to be able to distance it from their normal life. Hence Sin City and What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas. You don’t want them in your backyard 95% of the time, and they dont want you in their backyard 95% of the time. It only works with the single purpose. Fly in. Fly out.
I didnt know you were going to be there Ben. Things were really bad. I was staying at the Wynn with dead on private Strip views on floor 35 and paying $90 a night. I follow the strip condo sales, and you can get more than 40% off peak and declines are increasing. Its hard to get financing with less than 40% down and with respect to the Condo-Hotels I heard you pretty much have to pay cash. You look at the listings and you have 25 of the same unit for sale, with half being foreclosures. Talk about lack of negotiating power for the Seller. Interested buyers start with the lowest priced sale and offer 10% less. Why do anything different?
I moved to CA 12 years ago and stopped in Reno on the way, for one night. I remember I paid $29 to stay in one of the casinos, and how great of a deal I thought it was. Tomorrow, I return to Reno for a couple days of skiing, and guess how much I am paying to stay in a casino now? $24 per night. Amazing. Reno must be in a heap of trouble.
Commented above before I saw your post, but I will reiterate: downtown Reno is dying.
I just watched the movie “Casino.” All of the “eff” words were edited out. But it was fun to watch Don Rickles running around Robert de Niro’s ( Ace Rothstein )ostentatious house with a shotgun, like as arthritic as he was there was anything he was going to do. I used to frequent the real Frank Rosenthal’s website before he died this year. He had lots of good stories on it. I was sorry to see him go, and amazed that the Mafia let him live after all was said and done. There’s also a picture at the bottom of the website of his real-life wife Geri Rosenthal in a bikini. She was even more beautiful than Sharon Stone in some ways. Amazing. He always loved her to some degree at least, and never remarried. He had two children with her, not one, as in the movie. The part about the Spilotro brothers was true also. Ugh. There was some talk of the case of their murders being reopened, but I don’t believe anything ever became of it. Just a little bit of Las Vegas history.
Alright, I’m headed to our fair nation’s capital. I’ll try not to pelt the Treasury with tomatoes.
Back in a few days. Y’all behave yourselves now.
Say hello to my buddies! Ms. Sheila and Mr. Ben and Mr. Hank need cheering up. Don’t forget to go duck hunting with Mr. Dick. Have a great New Years.
Icelanders prefer throwing skyr, a popular local yogurt-like snack, at their government buildings (see article on p. 1 of today’s WSJ, also posted below).
I meant rotten tomatoes and rotten eggs but point taken.
I’d think you’d have to worry about, err, “premature detonation” if your car hit a pothole. And if they have anti-chemical attack sniffers they probably have them set for rotten eggs too
And keep your shoes on your feet!
Bye fasty, bye bye! And YOU be good! For a change.
(sorry if a double post, the last farewell didn’t make it.)
Goodbye, I hope you have a great time!
Bye fasty, bye bye! Be good, yourself! *laughs heartily at the complete implausibility of such an event *
Oh, and don’t kill anyone who doesn’t deserve it. You’ll be able to tell, smart guy like yourself.
“…Real disposable income increased 1.0 percent in November, compared with an increase of 0.7 percent in October. Real PCE increased 0.6 percent, in contrast to a decrease of 0.5 percent. The price index for PCE decreased 1.1 percent, compared with a decrease of 0.5 percent….”
BEA dot gov/newsreleases/national/pi/pinewsrelease.htm
12/24/2008
“…The real change in private inventories added 0.84 percentage point to the third-quarter change in real GDP, after subtracting 1.50 percentage points from the second-quarter change. Private businesses decreased inventories $29.6 billion in the third quarter, following a decrease of $50.6 billion in the second quarter and a decrease of $10.2 billion in the first….”
http://www.bea dot gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/gdpnewsrelease.htm
Interesting data that was ignored by most media along with a slew of useful data for analysis.
My wife is the lovliest person I’ve ever known, so I sometimes indulge her meth-like addiction to HGTV home shows. Yesterday she was watching one about buying vacation homes in foreign countries. If nothing else, this was great comedy. The Argentinian RE “expert” said that Buenos Aires real estate had doubled in the last few years and…. wait for it…. it is expected to triple in the next five years. [Rewind DVR] … triple in the next five years. I thought that’s what she said. So my very serious question is, is there any way to short Buenos Aires RE?
Um, were they including hyper-inflation expectations?
The Peso might devalue by 2/3rds over the next 5 yrs. lol President Cristina is easy on the eyes and fortunately it is Assada season, but when summer ends the economy had better pick up or the riots will start anew.
I’ve BEEN to Argentina, and a lovelier country and a nicer people you will never find. And a crazier economy you will find few of. ( Did that make sense ? ) Vacation there. Don’t buy there. Don’t believe the nice shows.
As someone who knows a few Argentineans, I beg to differ. I must have gotten a bum batch.
My other post never came thru….
Cristina is quite the hottie, for sure.
The anger stage of the housing bubble stages of grief rears its ugly head; Coming soon to a western country in your neighborhood?
Wall Street Journal
* DECEMBER 27, 2008
The Isle That Rattled the World
Tiny Iceland Created a Vast Bubble, Leaving Wreckage Everywhere When It Popped
By CHARLES FORELLE
REYKJAVIK, Iceland — A boy charged to the front of an angry crowd here recently and tossed a carton of skyr, a popular local yogurt-like snack, at the Parliament building. It splattered on the rough-hewn stone.
He and thousands of Icelanders were protesting one of the strangest economic failures of the global financial crisis. This past fall, every bank that matters in this tiny nation — that is, all three of them — failed. Iceland’s currency, the krona, became worthless beyond its shores. The country’s financial system stopped working.
“We are pissed off at the government,” said one young man, pausing between fusillades of eggs. A roll of toilet paper arced across the Nordic sky.
Yeah, Great Britain.
That would be a beautiful thing FPSS.
Well at least they are not hungry yet.
Maybe now we see why Jules Verne chose Iceland for the setting of his novel Journey to the Center of the Earth.
“We are pissed off at the government,” said one young man.
Riddle me this, Einstein: who ELECTED said government?!
YOU DID, dumb-a$$. Just like your counterparts in the US who mindlessly go on electing Republicrat politicos each year, then fail to understand why corrupt and incompetent politicians go on perpetuating the status quo.
Just like your counterparts in the US who mindlessly go on electing Republicrat politicos each year, then fail to understand why corrupt and incompetent politicians go on perpetuating the status quo.
And they will continue to do so in the future, the politicians lie and promise and the dumb-masses believe. The formula has been working for hundreds of years.
The party of Nixon.
The party of Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, and now Obama. It’s all the same party. Now in the “hangover” phase.
This formula has been working for thousands of years.
Referring to the U.S.A.
Just imagine how pissed all the FB’s here will be when they realize the new clown coming into office can’t do a damn thing to ‘bail’ them out. B.O. is fast back peddling, telling the believers that it will take a long time to straighten things out. LMAO.
Stimulus Package:
$1T “right away”
$1T “over the first year”
$800B “right away”
$800B “over two years”
If he backs up any further, he’s going to have to make that funny beeping sound.
So long as taxes go higher on the wealthy elite, all is well…… I can hear the squealin’ already.
Good Exeter! Maybe by taxing the “wealthy elite” they will decide they cannot afford to pay you and your job goes away too.
I cannot stand socialists.
“Good Exeter! Maybe by taxing the “wealthy elite” they will decide they cannot afford to pay you and your job goes away too. I cannot stand socialists.”
Looks like the squealin’s already started!
Take it easy BilaBong… you’re not the wealthy elite nor will you ever be.
I cannot stand Robber Barons.
Exactly. This is why we should give them more tax breaks, so they can afford to hire…
Oh wait, that isn’t working either.
“Take it easy BilaBong… you’re not the wealthy elite nor will you ever be.”
Thanks Exeter. I thrive off of idiots like you.
Should we tax the wealthy elite? Very few seem to understand that this question is actually meaningless. It is IMPOSSIBLE to tax the wealthy elite.
By definition, the wealthy have much more money than ordinary folk, and they have more means and motivation to protect their wealth than you have to take it. They will hire lawyers and lobbyists and find loopholes to make sure that they don’t wind up paying much (or any) more in taxes. The net result will be shifting jobs to lawyers/accountants/bureaucrats from whatever else they would have spent money on.
They will hire lawyers and lobbyists and find loopholes to make sure that they don’t wind up paying much (or any) more in taxes. The net result will be shifting jobs to lawyers/accountants/bureaucrats from whatever else they would have spent money on.
===================
Looks like what’s already happened here over the past few decades, no?
The F.I.R.E. economy and all the “trickle down” propaganda…just get a college degree, and you too can be wealthy!!! Yeah, right!
LOL, that beeping sound thing is quite the visual.
Just don’t short guns, ammo, and body bags in SA once this all settles in.
What is this ad banner from the Kingdom of Gilboa? Is it the same fellow with the Chedder? I’m curious as to what the Message From My King is, but I’m afraid to click on it.
Don’t worry, it’s just a link to an Obama web site.
I can tell you love the guy. I also think every God offer links to his site. I even saw a mass-produced Santaria candle with his picture on it (put there by the manufacturer), so there actual stupid people actually praying to him now.
Ooh Ooh! Maybe they got pix of him walking on water in Hawai’i. :-p
With his man-boobs, uh, I mean “glistening pectorals,” flapping in the wind, while the supposedly rising oceans receded, and the truly dying housing industry revived. Praise the Lord!
Funny how the Hawaiian island the Messiah is gracing with his presence had a blackout today. Maybe instead of bailing out Wall Street, non-competitive car-makers and FBs, he could invest in something we really need: physical infrastructure.
NBC alternate history show premiering in March, following a country formed from some of the U.S. as a monarchy. May sort of follow the David vs. Saul storyline from the Bible.
Imagine Ian McShane (played ‘Al Swearengen’ in Deadwood) as your king and potential future father-in-law. Eeek.
Good idea though. Now that the U.S. will be pulling togetther shoulder-to-shoulder in rationality, I guess executives thought we needed a new despot to rebel against.
Could be a fun show. Imagine the New England states forming a kingdom, with Teddy Kennedy playing the part of Edward VIII and Caroline playing Elizabeth.
…and Howard Dean can be the court jester.
Along with Ben, there are five or so key bloggers who consistently bring good articles/data to HBB everyday without fail and wanted to say a big thanks to those guys/gals. Really stand-up content and much appreciated.
Then there are others of us who bring festering cynicism and mockery. Yes, we know who we are.
And for me, at least, there is joy in both. Thanks all!
That’s all fine but I miss, Alad.
He was in what category again?
Wall Street’s $tns of freshly-printed rescue monies come at the expense of Granny 6Pac’s grocery budget.
Food cost bites wallets
Grocery customers pinching pennies as prices go ever higher
By Sue Stock, McClatchy Newspapers
2:00 a.m. December 27, 2008
Betty Dean comparison-shopped recently at a Harris Teeter grocery store in Raleigh, N.C. Dean, 67, a retired state employee, said higher food prices are eating up most of her $1,000 monthly Social Security income. (Shawn Rocco / MCT) - Shawn Rocco / MCT
RALEIGH, N.C. — Even in a recession, you have to eat. But with food prices up 7 percent this year and projected to go up at least 3.5 percent more next year, it’s not easy to fill the grocery cart.
Doris Jones has started eating just two meals a day. She drinks water and juice to stay full.
This is so eff-ing stupid it blows my mind. You can buy an ENORMOUS amount of rice, beans, potatoes, etc for $500/mo. That’s what I would do before cutting back to 2 meals/day.
It really makes me wonder what she is buying… Maybe frozen entrees?
No, even those are really cheap. You can get a Lean Cuisine for 2 bucks on sale.
Out of curiosity, I did some calculations a few weeks ago. You can live singly on about ~$120/month for food. It works out to ~1000 high quality calories (protein, fruit and vegetable) a day. More calories are easy to fill in with rice or beans or Wonder bread. For $150 you can pretty much buy what you want.
You’d have to do it on Wal-Mart prices, but it can be done.
How long before the big boyz on Wall Street follow suit?
Barratt files for Chapter 11 reorganization
BofA says builder owes $79 million
By Mike Freeman, staff writer
2:00 a.m. December 27, 2008
(City Square in Escondido, which has won awards from the National Association of Home Builders, is among the projects by Barratt American that has been taken back by Bank of America.)
Carlsbad home builder Barratt American has filed for bankruptcy reorganization, derailed by the housing bust and a dispute with its key lender, Bank of America.
Barratt American and three sister companies, including its mortgage lending arm, sought protection from creditors with a Chapter 11 filing on Christmas Eve. It has a long list of creditors, mostly trade contractors; its top 20 unsecured creditors are owed more than $21 million.
The company has drastically scaled back operations in the past several months, slashing staff from about 140 employees to about 15. Company President Michael “Mick” Pattinson has been talking openly for a month about the possibility of bankruptcy as the company’s troubles mounted.
Two days before Barratt sought protection, Bank of America foreclosed on seven of Barratt’s current subdivisions or condo projects, claiming it was owed nearly $79 million. The bank is taking back four other projects in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
Pattinson said Barratt will continue to build custom homes and replacement homes for victims of last year’s wildfires while in bankruptcy. The company hopes to reorganize with the aim of starting new home construction again in 2010.
It sounds like Barratt American was a victim of a typical banker’s ploy: First loan them enough to leverage them out the wazoo, then call in the loans at the first sign of trouble. A.P. Giannini is probably rolling over in his grave, as the bank he founded has turned into a parasitic monstrosity.
Barratt American began in 2004 when Pattinson and his management team bought the U.S. wing of British home builder Barratt Group for $165 million. The highly leveraged deal was financed by Bank of America and Guaranty Bank.
Barratt began its downhill slide in August 2007, when Bank of America refused to extend loans on two of Barratt’s subdivisions in North County – forcing it to stop construction while some homes were in escrow, Pattinson said.
The bank then froze its $125 million line of credit while it reappraised Barratt’s assets securing the loan. About $71 million of the line was drawn at the time, Pattinson said.
Over the next seven months, Barratt paid down the principal on the credit line by about $30 million, Pattinson said. But Bank of America never renewed the credit line. In March, Barratt stopped making interest payments, and the bank started foreclosure proceeding on 11 subdivisions or condo projects that secured the note.
Barratt projects taken back by Bank of America include Magnolia Estates in Carlsbad, Nantucket in Encinitas, Aragon in La Mesa and City Square in Escondido.
Pattinson and some other builders formed a lobbying group called Homebuilders Coalition for Economic Recovery to draw attention to what he calls the “bad behavior” of banks serving the home building industry. Now 154 builders nationwide have joined the group.
Nice to see in my vanguard accounts that my average costs have been coming down across the board. S&P 500 yield is 2.87. Some pundits expect the yield to reach 4% and won’t start buying until then. Maybe they are right. High yield long term corporate bond fund was a great deal for market timers a month or two ago (VWESX). Would have snagged a 7.5% yield at that time. Now the yield is only 6.9%.
I wouldn’t toot about corporates quite yet.
I’d wait to see the earnings carnage before calling a bottom on that beast.
I think carnage is the correct phrase but all of these are appropriate:
annihilation, blitz, blood, blood and guts, blood bath, bloodshed, butchering, butchery, crime, extermination, gore, havoc, hecatomb, holocaust, homicide, killing, liquidation, manslaughter, mass murder, murder, offing, rapine, search and destroy, shambles, slaughter, slaying, taking out, warfare, wasting
Hey Hoz!
A while back you were talking about investing in oil. I put up a forum topic on that and one person recommended OIL, OLO, or DXO. Is that what you use? It seemed to me you were somehow actually purchasing barrels and paying storing fees. How do you invest in oil?
Thanks in advance.
I would be curious about this, too, hoz!
You forgot Armageddon, bludgeoning, collapse, cremation, day of reckoning, day of infamy, extirpation, flagellation, fibrillation, grinding into dust, hemorrhage, incineration, Joshua tree suppository, karma, laceration, mangling, necrosis, obliteration, paralysis, quashing, retribution, suffocation, trashing, unraveling, vanquishing, walloping…
…xerosophized, yucca suppositoried, zapped.
“xerosophized”
uncle.
Give up.
xero = dry
and ____ = ? + dry = ??
“xerosophized”
OK, I had to make up my X word. What I had in mind there was something akin to dessicated, as in the monies dried up.
Aren’t dreadful earnings pretty much in the bag (as Gary Watts might put it)? Why does The Street struggle so mightily with pricing in predictable carnage?
We’re in Obamatopia™ now.
Oh right — I forgot the D-rats were going to make it all good again as soon as the R-cans leave the WH.
See, either the U.S. is going to have an about-face recovery and get Obama for 8 years or the U.S. economy is going to get much worse and not recover in time for the Democrats to keep control.
Either way, the American economy may win. Within 4 years or within 8 years.
Dec. 25 (Bloomberg) — Customer visits to U.S. retailers fell 24 percent last weekend compared with a year earlier, the biggest drop on record, as deepened discounts failed to attract consumers.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=auJbdfD2koc0&refer=home
Then again, if you don’t have any money to spend, because you don’t have a job, you probably don’t go shopping as much.
Last week, the number of people filing for unemployment benefits for the first time surged by 30,000, a higher-than-expected amount, to reach 586,000, a level not seen since 1982. The four-week moving average, a more reliable indicator of unemployment claims, rose to 558,000 from 544,250, also a 26-year high.
Our local mall was pretty busy yesterday. I went to get some Christmas dishes on sale (70% off). This is a mall that is usually pretty quiet. I had trouble finding a place to park.
You think people are pissed about losing their equity. Wait until they also lose their jobs and their spouses. It will be grim.
I never understood why ppl were so excited about housing prices rising. Maybe if you intended to move quickly to a low cost area I could understand, but for those wanting to move up in the same area that is the last thing you should want. Higher taxes and inevitable economic collapse never sounded that great to me.
+1
+2
So right. I’ve had this argument several times with the women that I work with. It usually starts something like this: I point out that I would never live in a place with a HOA. Why go through the risk and trouble of BUYING and STILL have a busybody tell you what color you can paint your front door? Trust me, I’m going to be pissing off my neighbors long before anything they do will piss me off. The response is that they prevent one of your neighbors doing something that might lower RE values. But since I have no intention of selling, why should I care what the RE values are? If I don’t want to sell, what conceivable reason should I have to care what somebody else thinks my house is worth?
Really the same is true of stocks IMHO. Just as every dollar that RE prices go up means that somebody has to pay another dollar to secure housing, every dollar that equities go up mean that people are paying more for future dividends.
“Just as every dollar that RE prices go up means that somebody has to pay another dollar to secure housing, every dollar that equities go up mean that people are paying more for future dividends.”
There are moments in history when technological innovation increases the real value of companies which can utilize it, but Mr Market has a tendency to overvalue efficiency gains, especially when a highly vocal Fed chairman is playing the cheerleader role in the background.
Because of course technological improvements usually improve the efficiency of potential competitors as well. So even though people consume much more air travel than they did 40 years ago, the airlines aren’t more profitable.
“I never understood why ppl were so excited about housing prices rising.”
If you happened to own a home and were a true believer in the doctrine of ‘real estate always goes up’, then rising home prices seemed like manna from heaven.
Today’s Arizona Republic online has a nice link about 5 year real estate trends per zip code in Maricopa County. It’s very interesting. Most of the big gains in the Phoenix area (based on a few zips I looked at) occurred in 2003. 37% to 45% that year. Yet the prices are somewhere in the 2004-2005 level in those zips.
I anticipate seeing the 2003 gains - the biggest gains in percentage - erased in the next few years.
“Higher taxes and inevitable economic collapse never sounded that great to me”
Absolutely, but socialists love to tax, because they like to live off of the effort of others, not at all complicated. Two types of people in the world, those that work and produce and those that live off of the producers. This simple fact really pisses them off also, that is why they run around looking constipated all the time.
Take a look at the members of Congress and Senate some damn ugly mugs in the line up!
“Higher taxes and inevitable economic collapse never sounded that great to me”
Absolutely, but socialists love to tax, because they like to live off of the effort of others, not at all complicated. Two types of people in the world, those that work and produce and those that live off of the producers. ”
It’s not the socialists that have been living off the efforts of others it’s the free market capitalists on Wall Street. Bernie Madoff, fuld,Greenberg, Mozillo, Oneil, ect ect ect.
Higher national debt, a collapsing dollar, rampant unemployment, riots, and the inevitable economic collapse don’t sound that good to me.
Agree!!!
Christopher Dodd, Barney Frank, Joe Biden - good for Malox commercials when they get rooted out of office.
Politics - Showbiz for the Ugly.
“…Sex in the deep sea is a difficult proposition. The problems already begin with the partner search: How do you find someone to mate with in the pitch-black depths of the ocean? And for any creature that does manage to have a rendezvous beneath the waves, failure is simply not an option.
“Seize the moment,” is how Dutch researcher Hendrik Jan Ties Hoving describes the most basic rule of undersea reproduction. “Chances are low of finding a partner a second time.”…
Hoving has an explanation for this strange avoidance of bodily contact: “Mating is probably quite risky for the male,” he says. “In most species they’re smaller, and could get eaten.”
He has a similar explanation for the males’ rough behavior: “More than anything, it’s about being fast.” It seems the males are quite literally under great pressure. A few years ago, Australian biologists discovered sperm packets under the skin of a freshly caught 15-meter (50-foot) female giant squid. Covered with a “gelatinous” substance, they had presumably been “injected” by a male, the researchers reported, “under hydraulic pressure,” with a penis “up to 92 centimeters (three feet) long.”
Small wonder that things sometimes go wrong. Hoving discovered sperm packets, among other places, in the eyes of animals he studied. And one giant squid found off the coast of Norway seems to be a not atypical case: a male, it also had spermatophores under its skin. The science journal Nature offered the interpretation that the squid may have “literally shot itself in the foot.”…
Spiegel
oops
a big thanks to you. Really stand-up content and much appreciated.
He’s just compensating for his lack of “horizontal jogging” opportunities.
LOLOL!!!!!!!!!
Unfortunately, I can relate.
Faster watch out or I’ll poke you in the eye.
Vertically challenged, horizontally challenged
The ‘bailout’ never was about building auto’s it’s all about the UAW. There are now over 700,000 pensions, yea that will turn out good…
The United Auto Workers may be out of the hole now that President Bush has approved a $17 billion bailout of the U.S. auto industry, but the union isn’t out of the bunker just yet.
Even as the industry struggles with massive losses, the UAW brass continue to own and operate a $33 million lakeside retreat in Michigan, complete with a $6.4 million designer golf course. And it’s costing them millions each year.
The UAW, known more for its strikes than its slices, hosts seminars and junkets at the Walter and May Reuther Family Education Center in Onaway, Mich., which is nestled on “1,000 heavily forested acres” on Michigan’s Black Lake, according to its Web site.
But the Black Lake club and retreat, which are among the union’s biggest fixed assets, have lost $23 million in the past five years alone, a heavy albatross around the union’s neck as it tries to manage a multibillion-dollar pension plan crisis.
Critics call it a resort for union leaders that wastes money from union dues.
Above from a Fox Noise link..
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,472304,00.html
Anyone surprised?
Who but a complete idiot would only look to one source for news or imformation? Grow up.
“Information”.
Give Fox credit for finding it out and exposing the clowns. I’ve only seen negative bailout reporting on Fox and CNN; all the other broadcast and cable news outlets seem to think we need more and more bailouts (possibly because their ad revenues are running out). I’m still waiting for someone to report where the money is coming from, or supposed to come from, or predicted to come from if hell freezes over. The vague “taxpayers” answer means nothing.
A little less handwringing over the 2% of TARP going to GM and pulling head from rectum to see that 98% of the $$$ goes to the money changers that keep fools enslaved would be too much to expect. yeah….
Exeter, you’re either nuts, or your act is a scam intended to elicit responses. Those union bosses do not deserve ANY bailout, the companies in question make horrible, crapy automobiles, and their workers are among the laziest, most overpaid, mostly uneducated white trash, slobs in American business. Also, the TARP money was designated for financial institutions, not car companies, though GM certainly wrecked itself with its mortgage schemes.
“Exeter, you’re either nuts, or your act is a scam intended to elicit responses.”
Maybe it’s c), all of the above, lol.
…and their workers are among the laziest, most overpaid, mostly uneducated white trash, slobs in American business.
————————-
You were referring to the a$$holes on Wall Street and in D.C.?
No Ca Renter. What are you talking about? The Wal Street moneychangers are upstanding, honest folks. We need them! Just repeat that everyday, tune into fox noise and you too will be a deluded believer!
This isn’t exactly the first time the UAW resort issue has popped up.
What if it had been in the NY Times??? Would you have a problem with the reporting then??
Amazing what a simpleton you are.
Don’t bother asking him to grow up. Every post is the same…..he’s the Pathetic Left version of ByeFL.
And I keep strung along every step of the way.
“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.”
-Charles Mackay
Insanity is the exception in individuals. In groups, parties, people, and times, it is the rule.
– Friedrich Nietzsche –
“Stupid is as stupid does”
- Forrest Gump
Insanity is the exception in individuals. In groups, parties, people, and times, it is the rule.
Hence the housing bubble, 2002 through 2007.
“We want people owning their home” –George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., April 18, 2008
“Senator Obama has no knowledge of her status but obviously believes that any and all appropriate laws be followed.”
“Don`t know much”
Sam Cooke
Where is Auntie Zucchini anyway?
“The things you own, end up owning you.” — Tyler Durden
Um, nothing is wrong with owning yur own home.
Owning 0.2% of your home loan, however, is a problem.
“Life’s tough……It’s even tougher if you’re stupid.”
-John Wayne
“it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.”
One of my favorite quotes.
One of our own is featured as a strong woman! (As if we didn’t know that from a woman who could wrestle a bear.)
The full article go to the third slide:
http://tinyurl.com/Allena
Allena you look gorgeous and it’s good to see all the heroes in the photo. You are such an inspiration to us all!
(Sorry if this has been posted before. Been sort of hit and miss for me over the holidays but I’m sure I’m not the only one and better to overpost it than to miss it.)
Allena will always be one of my real life heroes.
Why thank you, gentlemen!
I’d say it was my pleasure, but….
Nice photo of the hero dogs. I’d forgotten just how LARGE they are…or maybe how tiny I am in comparison.
ahansen,
What name do you write under for Open Salon? I’ve been a fan of Salon for years. I think it’s great Salon has created Open Salon. There is a lot of talented writers on Open Salon
Wow, didn’t know you’ve also suffered a broken back and burned-down house!
Love your attitude, Allena!!!
Just another example of how well run GM is, imagine needing parts for a car that is to launch Jan 12th. My question is, why doesn’t GM bailout Cadence? They have our money and it would help out a fellow parts supplier.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Motors Corp (GM.N) has filed a lawsuit against a bankrupt auto-parts supplier, saying it is holding necessary equipment “hostage” which could potentially interrupt the launch of its new Chevrolet Camaro car.
In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, General Motors asked the court to allow it access to facilities of the supplier, Cadence Innovation, so it could obtain necessary tooling and parts for its plants.
Cadence, which makes door trim, instrument panels and air bag covers, filed for bankruptcy protection in August, but this month abandoned plans to sell itself and is now liquidating, according to court papers.
GM said it needed immediate access to the tooling, because it does not have enough parts on hand, and its vehicle assembly operations could be interrupted.
“Even one day’s disruption in supply of certain Component Parts could cause a shutdown of GM assembly operations, disrupting not only GM’s business, but the operations of countless suppliers, dealers, customers, and other stakeholders,” GM said in the complaint.
GM said that such a shut down could cost millions of dollars per plant per day and it would need to have a successor supplier in place by January 12 for the launch of the new Chevrolet Camaro.
GM said it had an accommodation agreement with Cadence that requires the auto-parts supplier to continue to manufacture the parts and provide tooling and equipment.
A Cadence lawyer and spokesman were not immediately available.
No doubt the snake-oil salesman who sold these folks on Just-In-Time manufacturing is long gone.
GM’s been having problems getting parts for years. Over a year ago, the entire front differential of my 4×4 needed to be rebuilt (after a mere 40,000 miles), and it took almost two weeks for the ring gear because they were nowhere to be found. The company is in a shambles. Wish I would have known this before I purchased the lemon.
For the gambling comments above. I do some evaluations at the Indian casinos. They still seem to be ok. The ancillary businesses are down a bit. They are very labor intensive. And yes, there really is no major reason to go to Las Vegas just to gamble. About everywhere now has some casino close by and will fill that urge for some. Mostly those that can’t afford to lose. I one time asked why the bingo hall was so full. I was told because the patrons got their government checks. Most of those were senior citizens.
Just got back from 80th birthday party for woman whose family used to summer at big old beach house next to the one in which my parents raised me and my siblings, c. 1962 to c.1992. Good times; some people I hadn’t seen in 35 years. I sat at a table where the conversation inevitably turned to housing and stock markets; conversation was among guests aged 50 to 75. A consensus was reached about these markets among all but me at the table: “Awww, they’ll come back.” I didn’t utter a word; had to bite my tongue not to ask, “What makes you think so?” Yes, yes we do have quite a ways to go before we hit a bottom in either market.
Sounds like a fun time!
Yes, everyone I talk to seems to think a rebound is just around the corner. Who knows? Maybe they are right (but that’s not how I see it).
Debt Sweat
Printing Money – and its Price
By PETER S. GOODMAN
Published: December 27, 2008
…
Armed with credit cards and belief in a bountiful future, Americans brought home ceaseless volumes of iPods and cashmere sweaters, and never mind their declining incomes and winnowing savings. Banks lent staggering sums of money to homeowners with dubious credit, convinced that real estate prices could only go up. Government spent as it saw fit, secure that foreigners could always be counted on to finance American debt.
So it may seem perverse that in this new era of reckoning — with consumers finally tapped out, government coffers lean and banks paralyzed by fear — many economists have concluded that the appropriate medicine is a fresh dose of the very course that delivered the disarray: Spend without limit. Print money today, fret about the consequences tomorrow. Otherwise, invite a loss of jobs and business failures that could cripple the nation for years.
Such thinking carries the moment as President-elect Barack Obama puts together plans to spend more than $700 billion on projects like building roads and classrooms to put people back to work. It is the philosophy behind the Federal Reserve’s decision to drop interest rates near zero — meaning that banks can essentially borrow money for free — while lending directly to financial institutions. This is the mentality that has propelled the Treasury to promise up to $950 billion to aid Wall Street, Detroit and perhaps other recipients.
But where does all this money come from? And how can a country that got itself in peril by borrowing and spending without limit now borrow and spend its way back to safety?
Not all economists believe in Keynesian hair-of-the-dog cures to debt woes. From the NY Times piece I just posted:
“We got into this mess to a considerable extent by overborrowing,” said Martin N. Baily, a chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton and now a fellow at the Brookings Institution. “Now, we’re saying, ‘Well, O.K., let’s just borrow a bunch more, and that will help us get out of this mess.’ It’s like a drunk who says, ‘Give me a bottle of Scotch, and then I’ll be O.K. and I won’t have to drink anymore.’ Eventually, we have to get off this binge of borrowing.”
More from the NY Times piece on Debt Sweat:
“But most economists cast such thinking as recklessly extreme, akin to putting an obese person on a painful diet in the name of long-term health just as they are fighting off a potentially lethal infection. In the dominant view, now is no time for austerity — not with paychecks disappearing from the economy and gyrating markets wiping out retirement savings. Not with the financial system in virtual lockdown, and much of the world in a similar state of retrenchment, shrinking demand for American goods and services.”
I have known a few alcoholics during my short time on this planet. My uncle was one — pissed away a lucrative medical practice for the opportunity to enjoy his imbibement of choice, only to die of lung cancer the year after he finally licked his alcohol addiction (he never did manage to give up smoking). The neighbor lady who lived two houses up the street used to regularly drop by to plead with my dad to give her some whiskey for her chronic cough. A close friend’s husband lost his job due to drinking too much, then proceeded to drink himself to death in order to forget the pain of job loss. So far as I am aware, my sister who used to drink herself to the point of alcoholic blackout is now clean. A friend in college who used to be a fine violinist drank away his music career.
In none of these cases do I believe the hair-of-the-dog treatment would have worked very effectively. Giving an alcoholic a drink the morning after they went on a bender only whets their thirst for more of the demon rum. I don’t believe it works much differently with debtoholism — handing a debtoholic more credit is an invitation to help them dig themselves deeper into their personal financial hell hole. But I guess if it is for the good of the global economy, then it is all good?
In general, any plan to help people who have “money problems” by giving them money is doomed to fail. It’s as preposterous an idea as giving alcohol to alcoholics.
1. We admitted we were powerless over debt - that our lives had become unmanageable.
The first of the twelve steps.
You are on to something: Forget stimulus, we need a twelve-step program for debtoholics. Perhaps the Fed could spearhead the effort.
1. We admitted we were powerless over debt - that our lives had become unmanageable.
————————-
You’re onto something there, Jeff.
What I’ve noticed most of all during this “financial crisis” is everyone’s refusal to acknowledge and define what the actual problem is in the first place (too much debt). It’s amazing to hear all the theories out there about why we’re in the mess we’re in…but the least common reason stated is “debt saturation.”
This article explains the system pretty well:
http://www.galesburg.com/business/x16589191/Taking-Stock-Government-largesse-drives-capitalism
So if now is not the time to turn off the debt spigot because we need it, then when is the time? When and if financial times are good again the excuse then will be because we don’t need to. For our governments there is never a time that spending is less than income. The example set has not been lost on the citizenry.
http://www2.highlandstoday.com/content/2008/dec/25/la-pets-pouring-in-due-to-foreclosures/
The only truly innocent victims of foreclosure (besides children): pets. Hardly surprising that FBs are walking away from this responsibility, too.
Apparently the bank holding company thingy WASN’T in the bag, so now everybody’s holding their breath here again……
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081227/AUTO01/812270408
There’s a couple on CNBC who were Madoff victims. There’s also a guy on there from the SIPC who is trying to be as helpful as he can under the circumstances.
The woman keeps saying “Madoff and the US gov’t. ripped us off.” I’m sympathetic to their plight, but having a problem with their attitude. They want us to make them whole.
“…Diversification by strategy and manager is the first and unbreakable rule for any portfolio. The most I would ever put with any one manager would be 5%, no matter how good and if and only if after passing rigorous operational due diligence. If Munehisa Honma, the best hedge fund manager in world history, came back to life the most even he would get from me would be 5%. If Renaissance Technologies re-opened their Medallion Fund, the world’s best currently operating hedge fund (+90% YTD 2008 return, after fees), the most I would invest is 5%. It is simply prudent protection. Concentrated strategy or manager bets are for bolder investors than me….”
Mr. Veryan Allen
Personally, I might go 15% with Medallion, 30% annual rate of return for the last 23yrs. Munehisa Honma made the equivalent of $100B/yr trading rice futures.
As for Mr. Madoff’s victims, I have empathy, been there lost that, but no sympathy. Homework is due diligence. Lazy sods.
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Minnesota is deep in the hole financially, but the state still owns a premier golf resort, a sprawling amateur sports complex, a big airport, a major zoo and land holdings the size of the Central American country of Belize.
Valuables like these are in for a closer look as 44 states cope with deficits.
Like families pawning the silver to get through a tight spot, states such as Minnesota, New York, Massachusetts and Illinois are thinking of selling or leasing toll roads, parks, lotteries and other assets to raise desperately needed cash.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081227/ap_on_re_us/meltdown_selling_assets
Maybe we can sell Manhattan back to the Indians?
Question…
OK, in 1983, when Argentina was going through a monthly inflation rate of 100% / month, their internal debt was wiped out, but their external debt was held in US dollars and remained (if I understand this correctly). Same-ish in the Weimar Republic, I think.
Just as a theoretical for-instance, if the US went through hyperinflation, its external debt would also be held in US dollars, too, right? So, what would happen?
“So, what would happen?”
Well, for one thing, I would purchase foreign currency-denominated CDs.
Just as a theoretical for-instance, if the US went through hyperinflation, its external debt would also be held in US dollars, too, right? So, what would happen?
That’s why I’ve been wondering if hyperinflation is actually possible for the US dollar. Hyperinflation requires another currency to inflate against. (Gold or anything else that acts like a currency counts…)
The US dollar is still the world’s reserve currency and there’s no one to fill the vacuum (yet.) No currency is on the gold standard and as far as I can tell, everyone is printing at the same rate or faster than us. Oil is impractical as money and so is gold in the digital age. It seems like everyone debasing their currency together, at close same rate would have a “canceling” effect that would prevent major currencies from sinking into worthlessness.
I have no idea if the above is right but I like it and I’m stickin to it.
It also has to do with how much of the money your people have. If we were to print money and just hand it out, people “might” choose to spend it, taking goods off of shelves. Shortage of supply but high demand based on all the cash would make prices go up.
The problem is, we tried this and the people didn’t spend the money. They savedit or worse… used it to payoff debt. What was shown by the checks last spring/summer, is that if you hand people money, most won’t spend it.
So, how do we get inflation (or end deflation) when you can’t get people to spend because they are already too far in debt?
Without people spending, there is too much supply and not enough demand, and that means deflation.
Highly recommended cautionary tale from WSJ editors:
How Iceland Collapsed
12/26/2008
WSJ’s Andy Jordan examines how Iceland’s economic miracle came to an abrupt end and explains why the world should care about the collapse of the small country’s financial system.
By DAVE CARPENTER
The Associated Press
Sunday, December 28, 2008
CHICAGO — Diane Shackle found it gut-wrenching to walk away from a mortgage she took out in times that were better for both her and the U.S. economy.
But the reality was undeniable: While she was keeping up with the monthly payments, she said she could no longer afford to buy food for herself or even kitty litter for her two cats.
Walkaways highest in ‘non-recourse’ states
Mortgage law experts say the incentive to walk away from a home loan is highest in states that have anti-deficiency statutes, which prohibit lenders from suing borrowers for additional funds after foreclosure.
“These anti-deficiency laws make a huge impact on foreclosure rates because they are basically ‘get out of jail free’ cards,” said Todd Zywicki, a law professor at George Mason University and senior scholar with the Mercatus Center think tank who’s writing a book on consumer bankruptcy and consumer credit.
This handful of non-recourse mortgage states includes the high-foreclosure states of California and Arizona, which not coincidentally also are leaders in the numbers of mortgage walkaways.
The full list: Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, Texas, Utah and Washington.
Donald Lampe, a Charlotte, N.C.-based mortgage lending attorney with Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, said the statutes generally prohibit or limit a lender’s ability to go after the borrower’s assets to satisfy the unpaid mortgage debt.
“There are some folks suggesting that state anti-deficiency laws should be expanded around the country as a response to the “mortgage meltdown,” Lampe said. However, he noted, “It is difficult to see how these laws could be made to apply to loans already on the books.”
So the 44-year-old cocktail waitress walked away from her two-bedroom condo in Southern California last July, turning her back on a debt of nearly $200,000.
“It ripped me up to do it but I was tired of worrying and I had no food in the house,” said Shackle. “I decided, you know what, I’m not living like this. I’ve got to quit (get out) before I kill myself.”
Walking away from a mortgage has always been a homeowner’s last resort - it flies in the face of the American dream. And experts say it should remain a worst-case scenario.
But with the deepening economic crisis fast adding to the 12 million mortgages already “underwater” - the term for when a home’s debt exceeds its market value - it’s an option more are likely to consider as home prices continue to fall.