Bits Bucket For June 12, 2009
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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.
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Seniors Drawn to Mortgages That Give Back…
by Nick Timiraos
Friday, June 12, 2009provided by WSJ
Here’s one segment of the mortgage market that’s still hot: federally insured reverse mortgages, which enable senior citizens to take money out of their homes.
In March and April, the number of reverse mortgages backed by the government jumped nearly 20% from the same period last year. In April alone, the government insured 11,660 reverse mortgages, the highest monthly total since the government-backed program began in 1990. By contrast, the number of new home-equity loans, which similarly allow homeowners to tap the equity in their homes, fell around 70% in the first quarter from the prior-year period, according to Inside Mortgage Finance.
More seniors are turning to reverse mortgages to supplement their retirement savings, which in some cases have been decimated by stock-market losses. At the same time, more seniors now qualify for a reverse mortgage since Congress in February raised the maximum home value that seniors can borrow against to $625,500 from $417,000. The bill also capped reverse-mortgage origination fees at 2% on the first $200,000 and 1% on any amount over that, with fees not to exceed $6,000. Other upfront costs include an insurance premium and closing costs.
In a reverse mortgage, the bank makes payments to the homeowner instead of the homeowner making payments to a bank. To qualify for such a mortgage, a senior must be at least 62 years old and have a lot of equity in the home.
The way it works is this: Say a senior owns a house worth $500,000 that has a $50,000 mortgage. The senior might get a $250,000 reverse mortgage to pay off the existing loan and then have $200,000 left over. The homeowner could get that as a lump sum or a line of credit, and wouldn’t have to pay it back until he moved or died and the house was sold. The bank is repaid, including interest, from proceeds of the sale.
How does America finance a $1.8 trillion deficit?
The most that overseas investors ever have invested in the US in a year is $400 billion, and it is unlikely that foreign governments will purchase this quantity of Treasury debt under present conditions. Assuming (optimistically) that foreigners buy $300 billion worth of Treasuries, that leaves $1.5 trillion to finance. For the American private sector to finance $1.5 trillion worth of Treasury debt, or about 11% of GDP, presumes a savings rate of 11% of GDP, something America has not seen since the early 1980s. The present recession has pushed the personal savings rate up to 6%, with painful economic consequences.”
~David P. Goldman
“How does America finance a $1.8 trillion deficit?”
It doesn’t. Much of this debt will be repudiated. To even speculate about paying it back is ridiculous. The board will be swept at some point.
LOL, forget the housing bubble. The DEBT bubble is the one to watch. Should be an endless amount of fun.
Wasn’t the credit/debt bubble always the one to watch?
Anyone would be a fool to even think about financing this based on the “full faith and credit of the U.S.A.” What a complete farce.
Unfortunately, the sweeping of the board will also include sweeping our savings and dying economy into the trashcan.
The only people getting out of this in one piece I suspect are the crooks who started it and the smarter debt-scammers who are counting on a reset/hyperinflation to get them out of their self-created mess.
You forgot the much-maligned “gold bugs”.
So you mean we’re going to be “that guy” at the Monopoly game who suddenly swears loudly, jumps out of his seat, and “accidentally” knocks over the table?
How does America finance a $1.8 trillion deficit?
Wait. Let me check my wallet.
Hm… Nope.
Check your junk closet. You may have either a monopoly game you can pillage or maybe you will manage to dig up one of those fake million-dollar bills. New currency could always be printed - trillion dollar denominations with obama’s face on them…
“How does America finance a $1.8 trillion deficit?”
Monetize it, debase the currency and leave our children with nothing.
*(^^*)^)*&! Baby boomers.
*(^^*)^)*&! Baby boomers.
mxm2@pilar[08:26:00]~ >*(^^*)^)*&! Baby boomers.
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `^^*’
mxm2@pilar[08:26:00]~ >
Hm…
Sure are some nerdy folks on this board
Yeah, we sure are!
And let’s just call this baby boomer talk 403 Forbidden for now.
Yes. Me-ism and greed spans across ALL generations.
Oh golly gee, darthrealtor. Those rotten, horrible stinkin’ baby boomers were at it again. Yep. No one under the age of 50 contributed to this mess. Absolutely no one. You’re entirely right, of course. Entirely.
It wasn’t just the Baby Boomer, true, but it also wasn’t “everyone.”
I didn’t buy into this mess. I didn’t encourage others to buy. I didn’t spend beyond my means, lie on mortgage applications, or otherwise live a life based on overconsumption and greed. And now I get stuck with plenty of others footing the bill; we all have a right to be angry!
My question is how are you suffering at this moment in your personal life? I see potential suffering down the line, but right now not much has changed for me. I didn’t get involved in the whole debt/housing/investments-ownership society/aspirational lifestyle debacle and therefore, nothing much has changed in my day to day life. Worrying is suffering in advance and I have personally found much joy in learning not to worry about things I have no control over or are only possibilities. I’ve also stopped trying to figure out why people are as they are or trying to help them get right. Eliminated most of my daily frustration. I come up with a vague plan b in case the worst happens, and then let it go and enjoy the day.
“Worrying is suffering in advance and I have personally found much joy in learning not to worry about things I have no control over or are only possibilities.”
+ + +
Your plan B should be more than vague at this point, unless your plan B is to eat nettle, dandelions, and roadkill.
(Confessions of a generational sniper) All, ahem, cultural differences aside, there are two problems as I see it:
1. There aren’t enough people to meet boomers
2. Boomer “prices” are out of reach for everyone younger than them
That’s a serious one-two punch there.
Don’t trust anyone over sixty!
*hides beneath desk
Muggsbee -
Or anyone over thirty…oops!
Tooooooooooooooo Funny!
Leigh
The Baby Boomer generation is the most embarrassing generation the country has ever had…and then the Gen X crowd came along.
I can’t wait to see what shape this country is in 20 years from now. On second thoughts, I can wait.
How would anyone know what the deficit really is? There is no accountability that I know of, or would believe.
“How does America finance a $1.8 trillion deficit?”
Perhaps at the barrel of a gun or the tip of a cruise missile? Buy our debt or else? Geopolitics is setting up to be very interesting for the forseeable future.
Physical weapons aren’t needed. Either they buy our debt, or we go down the economic drain, taking everyone with us.
Its good to be the king.
Mutual Assured Destruction is a two way street.
Don’t doubt for one minute that the rest of the world may be tired of our crap and decide it’s worth it.
But the answer the original question: WW3 because that other $50+ TRILLION in funny money obligations will never be paid back.
China et al know the U.S. is too big to fail. They will keep
buying our Treasuries.
Ain’t it grand living in the internet / Google age?
Rupee Times
NEWS & ADVICE : HOME LOANS
Home loans defaults in PSBs swell
By Joseph Samson
Jun 12, 2009
Public sector banks including State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank, have been witnessing a surge in the number of home loans defaulters.
The rate of defaults has increased by a 4 percent, in past six months for the banks in Chandigarh region. The banks have also been witnessing rise in the default cases in other regions - quoting, a SBI official, loan department, “In Haryana region, in Ambala, default has soared to 7% and in J&K, the figure is 15%. Though we have stopped giving personal loans to the non-salaried, we are working on making scrutiny of home loan applicants more stringent.”
Swine is contained! Uh,oh, oops…
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-swineflu12-2009jun12,0,1232742.story
Funny how when there were 200 cases worldwide it was time to duct-tape, visqueen, and fumigate the house, but now their pandemic declaration seems to be met with a collective YAWN…
People are sooooo ADD.
I think it’s that the death rate is generally understood to be not much higher than normal flu. Before, that was not known (the worst was feared).
Now, what this little bug mutates into is a different story…
That being said, and there not being that many cases, those with it can end up on the Inf. Disease floor of hospitals like the one that I work for, basically dying. Sad to see. One minute they’re going to work, hoisting up the kids for a hug, and daily life going on, and a few days later, unconscious, sedated, on paralytics to keep them from thrashing around, on oscillators ( vents ). Dying. Type A flu = H1N1. Horrible.
If that’s the case, why are they declaring a pandemic? Are they assuming its likely that deaths increase by more than 25x the current number of people that are carrying it?
I’ll admit I had no idea that 250k-500k people die globally from “normal” flu.
Pandemic - : occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population (m-w.com)
The use of the word pandemic apparently has nothing to do with the mortality rate of a disease.
My understanding is that this flu is significantly less deadly than the normal flu.
But, you know, panic as you see fit! Flu is more comforting to me than the economy, that’s for sure.
.2% mortality in the US thus far? I’m pretty sure that 1 in 500 doesn’t die from flu each year.
Wait until it makes the rounds during traditional flu season among the elderly.
So Who’s Head Is In The Guillotine?
(From K. Denninger)
The Congressional hearing yesterday with Ken Lewis was amusing.
You know my belief and viewpoint, and it has remained constant since “Bailout Nation” began:
Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson orchestrated the worst part of the collapse last fall for two purposes: To cover up their own malfeasance and misfeasance in how we got here in the first place, and to benefit their cronies in the banking business.
I further maintain that these two individual’s actions constitute official misconduct at best, with the worst possibly reaching racketeering in the form of the conspiracy to commit securities fraud (with various other actors in the private sector.)
Now we get to see if Congress has a pair of ‘nads between its legs.
We have had Dick Durbin in the Senate (who I personally despise, but heh, when you’re right you’re right) state that “The Bankers own the US Congress”.
We have had both Paulson and Bernanke make statements for the last two years that have sugar-coated our economic issues, belying either intentional deception or rank incompetence.
We have had a decade-long litany of malfeasance and fraud within Fannie and Freddie - for the second time - but just like the last time, the worst outcome has been some executive terminations. Oh, and $5 trillion of securitized debt sitting around like a ticking nuclear weapon, looking for a good time and place to blow up. The bad news is that the US Government foolishly took that trojan horse partially inside the walls, leading to the real possibility that the detonation will blow us to bits, instead of the executives and buyers of their garbage. The firms that stuffed Fannie and Freddie with shoddily-underwritten (or simply NOT underwritten) paper, and their executives, remain free to fly around in their Gulfstreams (cough-Mozilo-cough!) with the worst “fate” for any of them being civil securities litigation.
Now we get to see if Congress has a pair of ‘nads between its legs.
Leave Pelosi out of this, please.
Yes, and Hillary is no longer in Congress.
Yes, and that self-proclaimed “pit bull” who was the VP candidate last year. Remember her? But you guys won’t mention her “cajones.”
…with the worst “fate” for any of them being civil securities litigation.
I really appreciate this writeup. Your anger is well seasoned.
The only people who will pay for this will be us - especially those of us who didn’t “get on the debt train.” When the hyperinflation hits, our savings and income will be rendered worthless. The crooks who caused this mess will not suffer a bit. I fully expect them to be in charge of whatever new banks, entities, and other semi-legal, quasi-government owned organizations come out of this mess.
I’m scared of hyperinflation
I guess I should buy a house before it hits, though.
Aladinsane would tell the story of a man who bought an entire block of Berlin for one gold coin during the Wiemar hyperinflation.
When bread is $500/loaf and everyone spends their whole check within hours of being paid will that make it easier or harder to buy a house?
Im covered; Ive got a full mortgage on a big house, and thanks to Alad, my PM account is almost full up. Go ahead boys, do your best. Ive had little luck listening to financial gurus over the years, so, covering both ends of the candle is my way of riding this monster out. Im sleeping better every two weeks. Trying to guess which way the chaos will fall is doomsday for 50% of the population. Like the RE bubble, the question isnt if, its when.
And isn’t this exactly what I said at the time?
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/senators-held-stock-in-bailed-out-banks-2009-06-12.html
The bailouts were not save us, they were to save the politicians invested in the crookedness (note that Bernanke bought a house at the top of the bubble; so did Obama, with a sweetheard Countrywide loan). these scumbags should be in prison, paying off their enormous debts to society.
Friday 12 June 2009
When Individual Debt Causes a Global Financial Crisis
11/06/2009
By Lahem al Nasser
Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat-
Whilst flicking through my magazine archive I stumbled across the August 2001 issue of Newsweek. The magazine’s front page grabbed my attention as it contained the headline “Filled to the Brim? American Consumers Drowning in Debt.” I began thumbing through the pages looking for the featured article as I felt sure that this had some connection with the global financial crisis. However after reading it I was surprised to discover that it contained information that actually predicted the current global financial crisis. Here is an excerpt from the article, keep in mind that this was written in 2001.
This guy was alert to what Americans were doing in 2001. He’s beat Ben!
This is good reminder that the mainstream media did give the heads up to those who wanted to hear.
“Prohibit remortgaging of real estate so that real estates cannot be used as piggy banks to finance consumer spending”
I realize he’s talking about Saudi, but I’m at a loss to remember how things used to be back before HELOC came along. You could get 2nd mortgages, but what were the limitations?
I have a “magazine archive” as well, but I only get there for a few minutes at a time. Sitting down, if you know what I’m saying. lol
IRS eyes taxing your work mobile phone
by Larry Dignan
Is that work issued BlackBerry really a taxable “fringe benefit?” The IRS seems to think so and is looking for ways to improve compliance of a tax that has been on the books for two decades.
Get ready for a potential bookkeeping nightmare.
The Wall Street Journal on Friday highlighted an IRS notice (Notice 2009–46, pages 13-15) June 8 detailing plans to tax company issued mobile phones. The Journal calculates:
The Internal Revenue Service proposed employers assign 25% of an employee’s annual phone expenses as a taxable benefit. Under that scenario, a worker in the 28% tax bracket, whose wireless device costs the company $1,500 a year, could see $105 in additional federal income tax.
Can you say “Desperation”? Sheesh, just abolish the IRS already.
“Can you say “Desperation”? Sheesh, just abolish the IRS already.”
‘Penny wise pound foolish comes to mind’
I agree, but get ready to bombarded with all sorts of taxes/fees over the next few years. The FED can print money, states can not so we will get hit up every way possible. Gotta love gubmint!
” we will get hit up every way possible”
I don’t know where you are at but here in CA law enforcement is out in force writing tickets for any thing they can. Gotta love the one for no front license plate, out-of-staters get a pass. My daughter living in LA got 5 tickets in a two week span for no front plate that was stolen. The tickets were issued for her car parked in the driveway between 12pm and 3pm. She hasn’t paid and is protesting. The reissued plates cost her $19.
Make sure you are wearing your selt belt and not talking on your phone.These are huge cash cows for ca.I like it when they call you asking for money.Got my registration yesterday, went from 125 to 157.Now the so called smog fee is 20 bucks.
Ron,
Sorry to hear that. I hope she reported it stolen ASAP. But of course if you can’t get anyone in LE to actually -take- the report they’re now free to assume you removed it yourself or sold it or… threw it in a dumpster?
Why would anyone do any of those?
I drove by our fire department this morning. There was a sign outside that read “half off unpaid tickets” and a web site to visit for more info.
I’ve also noticed some public areas and median strips haven’t been mowed as often as in the past.
Clearly the municipality is hungry for funds. I’m just not sure making the folks who DID pay their fines and tickets on time feel like chumps is the way to go about it.
I’m in S.Carolina, and a neighbor found out last month about what it costs if you do not come to a complete stop at a stop sign. $200.00, I had no idea what the traffic violation fines were, turns out that almost all have been increased in the past 12 months.
I drove a large chunk of the Jersey Turnpike on Tuesday (south from Elizabeth to the boarder) and they had the state police out in force and writing tickets. Most were regular side of the road traps, but one car was driving along in the left lane on the cars and trucks (outer) section and when a car passed it in the cars only (inner) section, it quickly switched sides, turned on its lights and went after the speeder. It pulled the quick switch right in front of me which was a little unnerving.
Any and every type of “fee” that can be imposed without a vote by the taxpayers or politicians WILL be going up.
Parked in a load zone in San Francisco — had no idea it was a loading zone, given that the street had blocks and blocks of meters (just for loading evidently!).
Cost me $244 for the tow, $70 for the ticket and $11 for the cab to get to the tow yard. Tow trucks must have cruised that area, since there was still 20 minutes on the meter.
Most expensive recruiter interview I’d ever had. No desire to go to SF any time soon.
Wonder how much the tow company kicks back to the city?
The State of Florida’s Republican controlled government recently passed tax increases on cigarettes, auto registration renewals, traffic violations, hunting & fishing licenses & court costs.
Of course these are called “fees” not “taxes” so they tell their blockhead supporters that they have remained faithful to their no new taxes pledge.
Virginia had upped some of the traffic violation fines to somewhere around $4000, but it was repealed.
$409 smackers for a camera enforced red light ticket. Didn’t make a complete stop at a right turn. In CA we’re allowed to turn right on red, but most of us are lax about the complete stop part. Not anymore. Adding the cost of traffic school, that rolling 5mph right turn cost me $450.
I wasn’t very happy about being issued a Blackberry at work. For me, it wasn’t a benefit but a means to extend the work day into my personal time. I viewed it as an electronic leash.
The IRS plan is just plain wrong.
My husband’s company has stopped issuing cellphones to new hires. Are company issued laptops next?
OH MAN YES…….Wolfgirl
You should see all the ads on CL lately….just to intern as a video editor you need the latest mac airbook plus a LEGAL copy of final cut pro to work for no pay…
And PR jobs in music…they all expect you to pay your own way for an interns job….not even lunch or a metrocard and these are companies on the NYSE!
So if you are getting paid..you have no excuse not to spend it on a laptop…
What? You can’t have pirated software on your laptop? Egads!
NOPE if you work for FREE for Clear Channel…..yup the big CC 1000 radio stations.
And there are more….
Internships without pay are nothing more than theft and how it is exempt from fair labor regulations and why we let it continue is beyond me.
I refused the company issued BlackTurd nor will I pay for a BlackTurd or any other colored turd or cell phone for that matter. And the company can keep their cellphone if they’re going to tax me on it. Let them pick up the tab on the tax….. they have plenty of $$$ anyways.
Cell phones help fill up empty lives.
edgewaterjohn,
As I’ve long contended. Ahem, I’m available by land line from Monday at 6:30am until Friday at 5:00pm. I have 2 different email addresses and respond to ALL calls within 5 minutes.
I think that’s “wired” enough. I have to attend a 4 mo. long school for the guard and will have to operate from a laptop and cell phone during that period. Is it possible to “lease” a laptop? I certainly won’t want it after I complete school. People, I’m open!
“Cell phones help fill up empty lives.”
Perfect quote. Says it all.
Cell phones help fill up empty lives.
What if one has no land line and only a single mobile phone (btw…this saves me about $250/year)?
Come on rob, that’s not what I meant and you know it.
Yes, people need phones - no, they do not have use them incessantly - while driving, biking, in restaurants, stores, on the bus, the train, on the toilet, etc.
hehe……ok ewjohn.
You are spot on ewj. Most mobile use in public is not necessary. If one DOES need to take a call why not excuse yourself. Other’s don’t want to hear your private conversations.
Well, ordinarily. But once on a bus from Oxford to London or vice versa, I quite enjoyed overhearing the young woman behind me articulating loudly and clearly (and for an extended period of time) on her cell phone, as she ended a relationship. The gist of it was that they didn’t ever go anywhere or do anything together. When he felt like it, he just dropped by her place every now and then to have sex and then left. She had finally decided that she deserved more than that.
She was very well spoken, and clearly had thought about the matter at great length. I found it interesting.
She was very well spoken, and clearly had thought about the matter at great length. I found it interesting.
After she hung up, did you hit on her?
hip Z = voyeur
I think after she hung up, I went back to reading my magazine or book.
But I can imagine some scenarios if I had tried to hit her up: “Men, such cads, what nerve, while you (or you and I) …” I see lots of comedic potential, actually.
Overhearing her highly audible side of the conversation was interesting as a window into a private side of someone’s world. As voyeurism, it would have been better back in the day when she still had hope for the “relationship.”
The fact that they stayed on the line so long while she was forcefully denouncing the nature of their “relationship” may indicate that she was or they both were stuck in a pattern that could play out for a long time.
Well are you getting paid a good amount of money? If not shut it off and have some quiet time.
I would venture a guess Polly should know…..that unless you are getting paid (per your contract) to have it on during your personal time, then i suppose it will violate labor laws if you cant add the time on your time card when you are using it for business.
I’m not an employment law attorney, but certain employees are considered “exempt” meaning that there are no restrictions on their hours. They don’t get overtime for over 8 hours a day or over 40 hours a week. You probably have to make sure that they get at least minimum wage for the hours they actually work, so, assuming it is impossible to work more than 20 hours a day for an entire year, you are completely protected if they make more than 20×365xthe minimum wage and less if they are working less than the 20×365 hours per year. Short version, a lot of employees don’t get paid more even if they actually work so you don’t have to pay them to leave their blackberry on and be available.
As for taxing the mobile phone thing? As you saw, the rule has been on the books for ages, they just hadn’t figured out how to implement it. I bet the first thing they proposed was the employer had to figure out what percent of the calls/texts/etc. were personal and tax that percentage of the cost of the plan and the employers howled their protests to the moon. This was likely the compromise. And if I had to bet again, a company could get around the rule if they had policies and procedures in place to make sure that employees didn’t use their work phones/blackberries for personal use. So, if they have periodic audits in which the employee has to prove all the calls were work related or at least made to other employees or customers not friends and family, then they wouldn’t have to include the 25%.
If the employee is using the office’s wireless device for personal use and thereby relieving themselves of the need to buy a personal phone and plan, then $105 bucks a year seems like a pretty good deal. I pay $100 a year for a pay as you go plan that gives me $110 of service at $1 for using it once in a given day and $0.10 a minute after that. Paying $105 in taxes to get to use an employer provided phone (probably unlimited since many employer plans are unlimited) sounds like a pretty good deal - except for the employer being able to review all your calls.
You omitted overtime laws.
Overtime laws do not apply to exempt employees.
True story — if the Execs. at my last company sent an email or two from their BB, they did not put in for their PTO!
Incredible, costs the companies a lot of money. Only people realizing what’s going on is payroll, because no hours ever get deducted even when everyone knows they are on vacation.
Yep, I’ve worked for several execs in public and private sectors that asked me to schedule conference calls while they are on vacation each day or send emails so they can respond about items that don’t really need attention, all so they can claim those were not vacation days. It worked particularly well for them if combined with some sort of unnecessary conference in an exotic location that was free to them - just add a few days to the hotel (made up for by being paid to party) and voila - nice paid vacation.
That’s how the game is played.
Beside, “…only the little people pay taxes.” (Leona Helmsley)
Businesses will just offload this cost onto their employees
I just wrote up our new cell phone policy. One of the options will be to require employees who need one to purchase their own and we will give them a $25 - $40/mo. stipend. Refuse to carry one? Cool, find another job.
Your welcome.
Why should they required to carry a cell phone ? Just wondering.
I work for local government. Medical techs have to be available, IT techs have to be available, public works folks have to available to clean up after storms, etc…
Yep, by furloughing 1000s and then saying, After they gave themselves bonuses, “we don’t have enough money to pay for an ‘earlyout’”
Call it like it is, Union Busting, or another more exact phrase, elimination of the middle class.
We had our cell phones taken away due to this IRS ruling. So now people who are working in the field and HAVE to use a cell phone end up using a personal phone, then carefully documenting each business call for reimbursement. What a HUGE pain, and in the end we eat most of the expense.
My understand is that they’re ALREADY taxable. It’s just that most companies ignore this fact.
I found the item that the article is about. It is an announcement from the IRS *requesting comments* on several proposals of how to implement the rule. You can find it in this PDF file:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-irbs/irb09-23.pdf
Go to page 13 to read the relevevant item. The 25% personal use is a “safe harbor” proposal if the employer doesn’t want to use other methods like actually figuring out how much personal use there is directly, figure it out using statistical sampling or setting policies requiring personal use to be minimal. And it is still in proposed form.
Yawn.
Let’s get this straight
If you own a company and buy a car or a computer you can depretiate it. If you buy a hummer you can deduct the car maintenance and gas. But if you work for this company and they require you to have a blackberry that’s a taxable benefit.
Measton… same thing with structures (READ: HOUSES)
Business can depreciate their buildings every single year but wage slaves can’t….
Maybe because housing always goes up and never depreciates?
WRONG, if it’s a rental property, which is a business, you are allowed to write off depreciation and also capital improvements. Why should you be able to write off depreciation on your home?
Correction: RIGHT
If you’re a landlord, you’re running a BUSINESS. Why should you be able to write off depreciation on your rentals?
Well, it used… to be THAT WAY!
But no…., we were foaming at the mouth for all ‘dat cap. free gains! And look at how well it’s worked out!
I see no problem taxing those corporate benefits.
Our new CEO of GM Ed Whitacre receives from AT&T as retirement benefits(according to Wikipedia):
* Automobile benefits (estimated at $24,000 annually)
* Access to AT&T’s corporate aircraft, up to 10 hours of usage per month (estimated incremental monthly cost of $20,000)
* Use of AT&T office facilities and support staff
* Home security (estimated at $6,500 annually)
* Club memberships (estimated at $25,000 annually)
How many of his fringe benefits should be taxed?
Skip,
Additionally, we have to do away w/ “gross ups”. If you’re not familiar, exec’s whine that their bonuses/benefits etc. are taxed so they talk the board into upping the amounts so that they recieve the full amount ( pre-tax ) they so richly deserve.
The gross up thing gotta’ go.
That is true. When I worked for the largest company on the planet, bonus for those of us who were fortunate to get them were NET bonuses. They would pay the taxes for you.
So what, the government still taxed it and got paid on the “gross up” in fact more then they would have otherwise. I don’t see the harm in that. The government got their share and you got what you thought you would, after taxes. No harm, no foul in my book.
No doubt Skeptic.
As long as the benefits and the gross up are all disclosed to the people who need to know abot them - SEC in some cases, Board of Directors or at least the compensation committee in some cases, IRS in all cases, etc.
However, there is something inherently scummy about people who get huge salaries wanting to get those huge salaries in addition to having large swaths of their personal “taken care of” and no tax consequences to them. If you make a gazillion dollars a year and you have your company provide with a driver for personal use, then pay the tax on the value of the driver for personal use. Where do you think the rest of us go to pay for personal transportation? Our salaries.
When you think about this carefully, you can interpret it this way: the executives want the benefit, they don’t think it is worth what it costs to provide it or they would be willing to pay for it, and they don’t think it is worth 35% of what it costs to provide it or they would be willing to at least pay the taxes on it. In reallity, it is just a cultural thing among the execs. They want it and they don’t want to pay anything for it. They should all be kicked out on their butts, ut the Board are all stacked with their golfing buddies, so good luck with that.
polly, you’ve left out the best parts! Shady deductions. Personal incorporation. Family “employees.” “Entertainment” expenses.
Oh, the list is long. Which is why I laugh and then get very angry every time I hear millionaires complain about paying taxes.
“What taxes, you lying SOB?”
And even more angry at less-than-millionaires (middle class) who can’t take these advantages, but defend them any way.
All this nickel and diming and we did not ask for any of these bailouts.
Instead of complaining Fight back! Get a tax accountant or look at http://www.irs.gov for publications that will save you from overpaying.
My tax rate is way down and I use a legal tax avoidance scheme approved by my company’s accountants for most of this decade.
This is the direct approach, rather than trying to persuade 100 million people to vote for a libertarian. Because once you persuade someone to vote for a tax cutter, he will vote for an a Howard Dean four years later.
OK Bill, taking your post seriously, I went to irs dot gov and put these phrases into their internal search gizmo: “tax savings” and “avoid overpaying” . It got me nothing in the nature of a publication that would help me think of ways to pay less. So what are you talking about?
I’m a little irritable today since I just wrote out five figures (not counting the cents) of checks for June 15 estimated tax.
Isn’t that a good thing? That means you’re making lots of money, right?
I get to do that for the first time here..assuming I figure out how this weekend. I’ll be 1099′ed for everything the first half of this year..guess i should send in a payment to keep the tax hounds off my back.
LOL - Mr. Lender, it’s of course, not that simple. Otherwise there would be no need for tax accountants at my company or for anyone else. It’s not impossible for some layman with the desire to pay little taxes to find the forms and publications to help him legally avoid significantly more taxes though!
My company requires me to go through the bill once a month and identify my personal calls. They have a multiplier they use in calculating my tax liability. It looks like it might be around 25% of their cost. Since I carry a second cell phone of my own, my last months liability was a dollar or two, I don’t remember the exact amount. In order to accomplish this, the admin. assist. copies bills for each employee. The employee identifies each call and multiplies using the magic multiplier. The bill then goes to the supervisor for a signature. Supervisor sends to the AA. AA sends to dept. head for signature. Dept. head sends back to AA. AA enters numbers into payroll software. Paperwork is held for x number of years in case of an audit.
Instead of coming up with innovative new products and services, we’re meticulously tracking the cell phone bills. Sounds like a highly productive use of the company time, doesn’t it?
You’ve just described our entire society.
The grand visions are gone.
Don’t worry, big government will have big ideas for big change.
We had all our managers carry Blackberrys and they all had flat rate monthly plans, so unless they went over their minutes (never happened), there was no cost difference that required breaking out personal/business usage. Turned out to be a real cost savings because the plans were cheaper and eliminated all the paperwork, accounting, and analysis required previously. Don’t know how the personal taxing changes the picture.
Why don’t you just use your company phone only for business?
wow, what a ridiculous waste of time.
amazing what corps will do, and irs as well, instead of making businesses work, our lives easier. Flat tax? And Death Tax.
Flat tax would not eliminat this issue. Flat tax applies to your income. You still have to figure out what your income is to apply the flat rate. This is a “how much is your income?” question.
What would you rather pay? Income tax or a closer-to-constitutional impost, or excise tax? Probably a rhetorical question here.
Ever read “Nickel and Dimed in America”?
“I have investors from all over the country and the world,” said Jeremy Burgess, co-founder of Urban Detroit Wholesalers… Most of the local investors are out of money,” added Mike Shannon, who specializes in Detroit foreclosures and has clients from New Zealand, Australia, England and other places.”
http://money.cnn.com/2009/06/11/real_estate/investing_in_Detroit/index.htm
Jeez why don’t these guys load up on FAS/FAZ or something? When I lived in Buffalo, we considered our landlord to be absentee because he lived on the other side of the city.
Anyhoo, if Detroit is “the only game” we’re getting close to wringing out the speculators.
good article.
Except for the use of that nails-on-chalkboard phrase “snapping up”.
I think Detroit is the last gasp for investors. Why aren’t there articles like this for Buffalo, Dayton, and all of the other “undervalued” cities.
I was chatting up a prospective client yesterday. “We need to fix housing” was a major theme of his lament. This is a small biz owner. Yep, “housing” is the problem to everyday folks. Great. Problems not correctly identified, can never be fixed. If your tire is flat and you fix the windshield wiper (over and over), you’re not going anywhere.
If your tire is flat and you fix the windshield wiper (over and over), you’re not going anywhere.
Maybe if you could get those wipers going fast enough, act like wings?
lol
I have an idea. Let’s fix housing by allowing people to buy houses with Monopoly money.
LOL,
You know they already are!!!
The Fed is essentially buying monopoly money at face value when they buy billions of dollars of MBS (and other assorted junk). I plan on paying my income taxes with monopoly money this year.
He’s right. We need to fix housing. But the solution is not one that he has in mind.
Well one fix would be to let prices fall enough that people could afford it. Oh NOW you say that it is FINANCING that you want to fix, not HOUSING. Why didn’t you say so.
Daily Exchange
Posted June 12, 2009
____________________
Study
A National Accounts perspective on recent financial events
Statscan - In recent months, Canada has been affected by the fallout from the severe decline in international trade and commodity prices. However, its avoidance of excessive reliance on debt has stood both its financial institutions and overall economy in good stead.
In the United States, the growing reliance on low cost debt after 2001 led to changes in investment and savings patterns that ultimately proved unsound for both their financial and economic systems. By contrast, Canada avoided many of these changes in behaviour.
The most visible feature of the global credit crisis in the autumn of 2008 was the drying-up of critical debt markets in the United States, notably for inter-bank lending and commercial paper. The commercial paper market in the United States shrank by 10% (or $15 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2008. Household credit also contracted in the fourth quarter, partly due to an outright drop in lending by US-based commercial banks.
In Canada, the stability of the financial system ensured that credit continued to flow for most borrowers, although often at much higher prices. Despite the global credit crunch, total household borrowing grew by 12.1% between the third quarter of 2007 and the fourth quarter of 2008. Meanwhile, household borrowing in the United States stopped growing.
Looking for green shoots in Detroit:
http://www.detnews.com/article/20090612/BIZ01/906120361/1001/Unsold-home-glut-thins
Like many other stories on this topic, there is no in-depth analysis of why the glut is thinning. I suspect that it’s because a lot of the unsold houses have gone into the rental market (because they didn’t sell) or they’re just sitting there empty.
As I mentioned a week or so ago, the first 3 houses to the east of me are vacant/abandoned, and 5 more going west for 2 miles into town. Only 2 have realtor signs in front, and both have been for sale a year or more. The others just sit.
Economic Downturn Accelerates Collapse of Ponzi Schemes
By Del Quentin Wilber
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 12, 2009
The great recession has decimated many industries; home builders, automakers and bankers are obvious casualties.
Now, add Ponzi schemers to the list.
Ravaged by the same fiscal turbulence pounding the nation’s legitimate businesses, Ponzi operations have been collapsing at a record clip, exposing prolific, rampant and colossal frauds that have bilked investors of billions of dollars.
The FBI, which is handling about 20 such cases in the Washington region, has almost 500 open Ponzi investigations nationwide — up from about 300 in 2006, bureau officials said. Law enforcement officials with other agencies have noticed similar trends, and authorities said they expect to turn up many more cases in coming months.
“We have more open Ponzi scheme cases than at any time in FBI history,” said Special Agent David G. Nanz, chief of the FBI’s economic crimes unit. “We anticipated a spike, but the numbers we are seeing are even greater than expected. . . . There is an old saying, though: ‘When the tide goes out, you can see who isn’t wearing a bathing suit.’ And that definitely applies to Ponzi” operators.
Don’t forget us DJ’s your kids are broke so they are not throwing you surprise parties to celebrate your age, years of marriage or retirements …let alone i had 2 class unions cancel in the last month $1000 lost….($500@)
———————————————–
The great recession has decimated many industries; home builders, automakers and bankers are obvious casualties.
I live across the street from a framer (picture frames). He’s been in business for 12 years. He said he’s never been able to turn a frame around in less than 20 days, due to volume. (with the exception of quick turn around situations)
Since the beginning of ‘09, if you bring in a picture, he can have it done by the end of the day.
BTW, there are no new framers in the area.
I don’t have a single framed photo hanging on my walls.
Back when my husband was in radio he made more playing parties than he did on the air. The equipment was a little expensive but paid for itself quickly.
Did Uncle Sam wear a one piece or a two piece? We’ll have to check for the tan lines I guess.
It would be laughable if I didn’t actually LIVE here. The US has effectively become Nigeria. Our #1 product is scams.
It did too, and I worked for one of them. The second people started getting nervous, they wanted their money back.
KABOOOM!
Jun 12, 2009, 11:58 a.m. EST
Fraudsters eye huge stimulus pie, consultant says
Companies will face extra requirements to prevent problems
By Greg Morcroft, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Swindlers, con men, and thieves could siphon off as much as $50 billion of the government’s planned stimulus package as the money begins flooding the economy in coming months, according to David Williams, who runs Deloitte Financial Services Advisory and counsels clients on fraud prevention.
Williams predicted that about $500 million of the total $787 billion stimulus would be channeled into the traditional procurement network for government contracts, while the rest will be spent directly by the government or outside the corporate network.
“The rule of thumb typically is that of the about $500 billion worth of money that’s going to run through the procurement process, somewhere between 5% and 10% of that usually finds it way into potential problems,” Williams said. “That’s sort of the benchmark that I use.”
Why focus on housing? Maybe we need to fix the Ponzi-scheme market first to begin a recovery. I think congress should propose using recycled-tarp funds to bail out failed Ponzi-schemes. I mean, whatever it takes to stimulate the economy and address systemic-risk. We are that big of whores to our corrupt system, of that I am sure.
Absolutely! Since Ponzi schemes are by far our leading industry, they should have priority!
Fraud. America’s Greatest Industry.©®™
We are officially in hurricane season once again and that got me to wondering about the property insurance situation in Florida. There’s beeb nothing in the national news about it that I’m aware of, and even a Google News search didn’t find much.
Is insurance once again available from competing private companies? How about for homes on or very close to the coasts? With no hurricanes the last two years, has the state-run Citizens entity built up adequate reserves? What’s the situation for condo insurance?
And what’s the current insurance situation for coastal areas in other Atlantic states? Last year or maybe two years ago I heard that Allstate and perhaps others weren’t writing new policies in coastal areas. Still true?
Crist quietly signs bill allowing 10-percent rate hikes for Citizens property insurance customers
By MICHAEL C. BENDER
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 28, 2009
TALLAHASSEE — Insurance companies applauded Gov. Charlie Crist today for approving a bill that opens the door to annual 10-percent premium hikes for Florida property owners.
The bill, which Crist quietly signed Wednesday night, lifts a three-year rate freeze on customers of the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp.
It also dismantles many of the changes Crist pushed through the legislature in 2007, which means Floridians with private insurance policies could also see a 10 percent jump.
“The approval of this bill is a necessary first step to stabilizing the property insurance market in Florida,” Associated Industries of Florida CEO Barney Bishop said. He said the measure “will help to bring national insurance companies back to the Florida market.”
Bishop said a stable market would bring lower premiums. But most Floridians can expect an increase in their next renewal.
For Citizens customers, those hikes, which need to be approved by the state Office of Insurance Regulation, would come after Jan. 1. The 10 percent increase could occur each year until rates were deemed “actuarially sound,” or the amount customers should pay to recoup future losses.
Windstorm-only policies from Citizens rates are, on average, 55 percent below that measure, according to the state-run insurer. Multi-line policies are an average 40 percent lower than what a private company would likely charge.
“In all likelihood, customers will indeed see a rate increase of up to the 10 percent cap,” said state Office of Insurance Regulation spokesman Edward Domansky.
The bill (HB 1495) also gradually reduces the size of the state’s $28 billion Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, which private insurance companies use to reinsure their windstorm policies.
In 2007, lawmakers increased size of the fund from $16 billion and offered deeply discounted rates to private companies. Those companies were required to pass along any savings to their policy holders.
By reducing the fund - by $2 billion per year for six years - private companies will be forced back to the private re-insurance market, where rates are higher.
“This bill seeks to better manage, in a fiscally responsible manner, how we pay for losses that are inevitable here in the most hurricane-prone place on the planet,” said Florida Insurance Council Vice President Gary Landry.
The change in 2007 helped reduce skyrocketing rates, which had become a central issue in the 2006 gubernatorial election. But the state’s dismal tax collections and the global finance crisis raised questions about whether Florida could cover its obligations if a major storm made landfall.
U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, has introduced a measure in Congress to create a national hurricane catastrophe fund that could suppress rates. Known as the Homeowners Defense Act, a similar measure passed the House last year but died in the Senate.
Crist is a typical gop hypocrite. Give lip service to “lower taxes” and then jams it to you with….. more taxes.
I was wondering if you were faking us out by stopping the gratuitous partisan hackery for a while. Of course no Democrat has ever done a reversal on taxes.
What you fail to admit is that the gop’s main campaign trickery is the low tax lie. And Crists bait switch is precisely that. A lie.
They don’t talk about that, it’s for you own good when Libs do it!
See Oregon, New York and Maryland and watch more of the exodus.
“U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, has introduced a measure in Congress to create a national hurricane catastrophe fund that could suppress rates. Known as the Homeowners Defense Act, a similar measure passed the House last year but died in the Senate.”
This will be great for us Floridians! Now we can have people from North Dakota subsidize our homeowner (hurricane) insurance.
My brother’s house in Florida is uninsured. The house is worth maybe 5% of my brother’s overall assets, and the insurance rates rose to a point where his house would’ve had to be completely destroyed pretty often, to make the ins worthwhile. To heck with that. Of course he owns the house and there is no mortgagee to tell him he must insure it. I applaud him.
Going “naked”, anyone?
Bill,
The insurance market is still completely toast in Florida. There are a lot of new insurance companies in the market, but most still won’t write a policy for homes close to the beach. That market is left to Citizens. Citizens, since it is a government agency, isn’t actuarily sound. So Crist actually showed some cojones by doing the right thing here.
I have friends on Cocoa Beach that pay $4K/ year for homeowner’s. That’s with a 10% deductible. So if they have a $300K house on a canal, they get to pay $30K for damages before insurance steps in. Ouch!
I pay $1700/yr 12 miles from the shore. It was $550/year in 2001. That’s with zero claims, ever.
The state just passed legislation to allow some of the big insurance carriers go completely unregulated to keep them in the market. State Farm’s legislators pushed it through. State Farm has already begun dropping all of their policies in the state.
I’m guessing prices will start rising. The insurance companies must have lost a huge bundle in the market over the last couple of years and are going to need to make it up somehow.
I’m in the process of paying my house off as quickly as I can so that I get this monkey off my back.
Generation Y advised to wean selves off parents’ cash
Fri Jun 12, 2009 8:13am EDT
By Belinda Goldsmith
CANBERRA (Reuters Life!) - Generation Y-ers expecting parents to foot their bills could be in for a rude awakening since the economic crisis hit, according to a poll.
A survey for Australia’s St George Bank found almost two-thirds of Generation Y-ers — people born from the mid 1980s to early 1990s — are expecting their parents to help them out with their rent, their wedding and when buying a home.
However, the poll found many parents were no longer in a position to fund their children, with 70 percent of “baby boomers,” or people in their 50s and 60s, suffering financially as a result of the global financial crisis.
“Clearly, most parents want to help their grown-up children but circumstances have changed for many and it’s understandable that parents are now having to focus on their own needs and financial health,” said bank spokesman Andrew Moore.
“As a result when it comes to paying for things like weddings, first home deposits, overseas travel and childcare, many Gen Ys must now stand on their own two feet … the fall in parental financial support will no doubt be a significant blow to Gen Y who have grown accustomed to receiving parental help.”
The survey of 1,000 Australians, conducted by Galaxy Research, found a growing disconnect between the expectations of Generation Y-ers, many of whom had a pampered youth, and what their parents can provide.
The poll found that 65 percent of Generation Y-ers had no knowledge of their parents’ financial situation, yet 44 percent expected their parents to pay for all or part of their wedding, 40 percent expected help buying a house and 34 percent expected financial support for their education.
These expectations left more than 50 percent of parents feeling guilty when their children asked for help or support.
Four in five parents of adult children wished their children planned for their future better and spent less on non-essential items, saved more and become more financially independent.
Moore said the survey found that many Generation Y-ers just did not know how to budget or save.
“Four in five parents of adult children wished their children planned for their future better and spent less on non-essential items, saved more and become more financially independent.”
Yeah, that’s kinda the downside to “do as I say, not as I do” parenting.
The ultimate parent, the nanny state, ought to take notice.
The reason why the nanny state has taken hold is that too many people are completely devoid of self-discipline. So that feeds, rather than starves, the beast of too much government.
Growing Up in a Recession: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_23/b4134056778151.htm
I think he’s being tough on himself. The cost of an education has skyrocketed compared with salaries since he went to college. His kids should transfer to a state school. If he declared them as exemptions on this year’s taxes, they are ineligible for favorable student loans with deferred 6.8% interest, and are only eligible for private “PLUS” loans with usurious 9.8% interest rates that cannot be deferred.
The fixing is coming. It’s just taking a little longer than we thought.
“fixing” ?
we are talking about the same thing of course.
price = monthly rent * 120
I think he means “train”. His train is coming, but it’s running late.
Oh I’m running late, but I guarantee I’m not swerving when I get there!
My kitties have been “fixed”.
The “fixing” is in.
$12,000 houses…too bad it’s in detroit. Real Estate is local, but I wouldnt mind some of those prices in N.C.
Temporary as it always is, thankfully there’s still one extremely pleasant distraction amongst all the economic and financial downers:
http://www.detnews.com/article/20090612/METRO/906120371/Wings-lift-our-spirits-in-turbulent-economic-times
Yay! Olympia and Tiger stadium were a treat when I was a kid. Detroit fans are great.
I’m heading up to Grand Rapids tomorrow. Unfortunately the weather is supposed to suck.
How’s the family member and the house thing going there??
Good luck, Detroit fans!
The Wings deserve it.
Gotta love those Senators pass cig legislation to PROTECT LIVES AND REDUCE MEDICAL COSTS. I don’t think so, the meat is in the following statement: “one of the most dramatic anti-smoking initiatives since the surgeon general’s report, would give the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate the content, marketing and advertising of cigarettes and other tobacco products.”
Just more government officials trying to run a business. Maybe they see it as a way to get kickbacks without the lobbyists.
Implementing anti-smoking efforts is a good thing.
Encouraging, perhaps. Imposing, no.
Which legal activity is next???
Food, of course. With nationalized healthcare nearly here, gov’t will be telling us what we can and what we cannot eat.
That would make sense. I see everywhere people commenting on not thinking they should pay taxes to support Fill In The Blank. Seems logical that next they will be saying why should I pay for your health care because you choose to stuff crap in your piehole and refuse to exercise. I have never understood the extrapolation of data on smoking. How do they know that smoking was the specific cause of death for those 400K people each year? They know that everything else in their entire lives was perfect? They got all proper nutrition, exercise, sleep, not exposed to toxins, bad water or air or any of the other myriad causes of disease. I’m certainly not saying smoking isn’t bad for you, but I sometimes feel like I’m listening to Reefer Madness for Cigs.
The default state should have always been non-smoking.
Smoking on planes? WTF?
How about the government implementing an anti-”whatever exeter likes” campaign?
You cant pick and chose freedom. We are either free or we are not.
I don’t smoke and can’t stand the smell of cigs, but this legislation is about controlling the industry plain and simple. Under the guise of medically related costs.
It’s and old argument, but if we really wanted to cut back on a major cause of death we would require that all vehicles be fitted with four point safety harnesses, roll cages, flame suppressors and all passengers would wear flame retardant suits along with cash helmets. Millions of lives could be saved.
‘It’s and old argument, but if we really wanted to cut back on a major cause of death we would require that all vehicles be fitted with four point safety harnesses, roll cages, flame suppressors and all passengers would wear flame retardant suits along with cash helmets. Millions of lives could be saved.’
That would be cool to get out of your Vega all decked out in logo’ed Nascar type gear and waltz into the Safeway. Maybe texting as you drive would not be so easy then, too.
Reducing the speed limits to 30 mph would save tens of thousands of lives and reduce gasoline use.
A win-win!
Move to Montgomery County, Md, right outside DC. We’re almost there! Major four-lane commuter routes have posted 30 mph speed limits, complete w speed cameras ($40 a pop).
Maryland is closer to the New Future than most states!
Are you talking about Rockville Pike? I drive on it all the time and faster than 30 mph and I’ve never gotten a ticket. Or is this the Chevy Chase portion? I’ve heard people complain about that I think…
What a lame strawman. Transportation is a necessity, smoking is a bad habit.
How is transportation a necessity? How come the postal service worked faster before the advent of interstate highways?
Seriously? Do you have some statistics? That would be interesting. Could you please post if you have them?
So why not outlaw ALL bad habits, of which I’m sure you have none! LOL! What a joke.
Maybe they will tax chocolate.
It might give me pause… then again!
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/FASTATS/lcod.htm
It’s probably the doctor in me talking, but accidental deaths are far less common than heart disease deaths. I spend my days seeing patients: a lifelong smoker at 60 looks like a sick 80-year-old and almost always regrets their addiction.
I’m 47 and quit smoking 2 years ago. I know I have lasting lung damage. I started smoking when I was 16. Quit for 8 years in my ’30’s.
Quitting is absolutely the best thing I ever did in my life, other than my kids. I am opposed to outlawing cigarettes (or marijuana or any drug). But I have no problem with taxing them and using the proceeds to provide nicotine patches and such to the addicted.
Instead of which, nicotine patches are actually more expensive than Indian-reservation cigarettes (for the same amount of nicotine).
The way to cut back on traffic death is to issue fewer driver’s licenses. Make it competitive. Flunk a fixed percentage - say 15%. Almost all accidents are caused by a handful of idiots.
Caught driving without a license? Heavy prison term - maybe 10 years.
People need licensees to get to work so they can pay taxes,
The ease of the criminally negligent is not my concern.
Yeah, but what’s the correlation between people who flunk their driver’s test and people who cause accidents? I’m guessing, but I don’t see any reason why it’d necessarily be that high.
You could have perfectly safe drivers fail the test, and you could have unsafe drivers pass. And I’m pretty sure the test doesn’t take into account proclivities for intoxication, etc. which could be highly contributory factors in accidents.
The correlation between people without or having suspended driver’s license and accidents is nearly 1:1.
Not quite, but extremely close. It’s only a small percentage that are young and inexperienced or just plain bad luck.
you probably need to read more about the bill before making such comments. how about reducing/controlling the toxins in those cigarettes. not much different from reducing/eliminating nasty crap from your food and medicines.
The criminals in Washington never do anything these days (since circa 1900) unless there is a payoff around the corner, under the table, or in the bag. Most Americans are so dumbed down and brainwashed they can’t/won’t see the racketeering that has been happening for their entire lifetime. Mostly you have lawyer legislators making and breaking laws they wrote for their own benefit; if some sheeple approve, great, if not, shear them all anyway, until they cough up the bribe money.
cobaltblue,
I’ll respectfully disagree. In terms of being “dumbed down” I think that’s a broad generalization. It’s all about stages of life. Why should anyone that’s not even eligible to vote get all worked up over politics?
Scratch the 0-18 y.o crowd.
You’re in college/the service and having the time of your life.
( ‘Nuff said )
Mid to late 20’s. Starting family, awash in college loans/debt.
30-45 Age Group. Your prime earning/career years.
45-60 Politically active/aware
60+ crowd vote simply on aging issues.
So they really only have a small segment of the pop. to actively deal with/appease at any given time. At ‘that’ an ever-changing cast of characters?
True, we should ALL be more actively engaged but when you’re bailing w/ one hand and rowing w/ the other?
DinoR, I don’t agree with this aspect, except for under 18’s.
In the generation before us, they were paying attention, don’ t you think? I think the average american is definitely apathetic and doesn’t know one single thing about who is running for office, why it will affect them, and whether they will have to pay more taxes soon or not.
Every age HAS to know what is going on. The draft could come back, so 18-30yr olds Should pay attention. It may not come back but what if?
The list goes on…
My objection to this comment is that I don’t believe every single person the runs for office is only in it for the money and is for sure corrupt. How far back to you want to go with that one? Were the founding fathers rip off artists, also? And does that include elected officials at every level?
Rauchen verboten! What else will be next in the New Reich? Just don’t put a sin tax on schradenfreude mein Bruder.
It’s always a good time for good syntax.
Bill Hicks.
This government is beyond meddlesome. I’m a non-smoker and a militant one at that, but as long as smokers don’t pollute my lungs or those of other non-smokers, they have a right to destroy their lungs if they want.
Nanny state, get out of the way!
Cigarettes DO cause massive medical expenses.
I’m fine with people choosing to kill themselves unimpeded with cigarettes; I’m not fine with having to pick up the tab when the live long enough to get on medicare.
How about we implement a smoking license, a requirement of which is that you sign a legal contract acknowledging the risks and agreeing not to accept any public moneys for smoking-related medical expenses.
Dying slowly from emphysema is quite expensive.
I’m not fine with having to pick up the tab when the live long enough to get on medicare.
While I generally agree with you, this can be said of so many things, right? It’s a slippery slope, and where do you draw the line? The same can be true of eating greasy, red-meat (at least that’s what the science says today)…as well as simply engaging in risky behavior - being sexually promiscuous, rock climbing, driving a car a large # of miles, etc.
I’m not sure where the line is, but it’s easy to make such a statement about smoking..but where do you stop? In the end, one of the above comments was spot-on: It’s a legal activity, yet people who engage in it are (in my opinion) being unfairly penalized for partaking in it via ridiculously high taxation.
Prime,
Good point. I ( mistakenly ) thought when I went back into the Guard that as a member over 50, I’d basically be able to “walk across the finish line”. Not happening.
If you finish the mile and half (1) second over 16:54, it’s a numeric impossibility to pass the PT. Message? Stop freaking smoking! Everyone that smokes ( it turns out ) is also in the “remedial” PT program. From there, you’re given about a year to get up to snuff or they will start processing you for discharge. See? It all works out!
“Cigarettes DO cause massive medical expenses”.
Right you are, and so does alcohol abuse, drug abuse, poor eating habits, etc. So should all industries be run by a direct government entity?
We have thousands of laws and rules, will thousands more ‘fix’ it? All of humanities woes can not be over come by more government control. People have always done stupid things and no amount of regulation will change that, If it could, then it would be a ‘perfect’ world already.
Being fat also causes massive medical expenses. I think we should start fining people based on their BMI.
Gotta love being behind all the albino mannatees in the checkout line with their carts full of Hot Pockets, doughnuts and cases of Coke. Tax THAT!!
As long as were doing the Nanny State Dance for everyone else: how about a Pregnancy License/Tax?
Gadfly!
Is that YOU!? I think I recall you from Patrick.net a few years back. Have we all been pecking away at this bubble ‘that’ long?
Hope you are well.
“Being fat also causes massive medical expenses. I think we should start fining people based on their BMI.”
One of the options we are looking at for reducing our health care costs is jacking up monthly fees for employees for being overweight, smoking, high blood pressure and other results of poor lifestyle.
I like the idea. You are free to choose whatever lifestyle you want. You just have to be willing to pay for it.
“You are free to choose whatever lifestyle you want. You just have to be willing to pay for it”.
BINGO!!!
Of course the bleeding hearts don’t want to hear that. A large majority of lower income and minorities fall into the choosing a poor lifestyle category.
“Of course the bleeding hearts don’t want to hear that. A large majority of lower income and minorities fall into the choosing a poor lifestyle category.”
Choosing? Have you been to the grocery store lately? Check out the price of fresh fruits and vegetables versus the price of Ramen Noodles and Mac n’ Cheese. It takes a lot of money to eat well.
Check out the price of fresh fruits and vegetables versus the price of Ramen Noodles and Mac n’ Cheese. It takes a lot of money to eat well.
Perhaps if the gov’t didn’t subsidize the price of certain grains and whatnot, it’d be a more level playing field. Corn is highly subsidized..it’s no wonder HFCS is in everything rather than real sugar.
Eating “healthy” doesn’t have to be expensive. It just takes a bit more time. Yes, ramen is cheap (cardboard is cheap too - why not just eat that!). But one can make healthy, cheap meals too.
I like the idea. You are free to choose whatever lifestyle you want. You just have to be willing to pay for it.
I like it, too. In fact, I LOVE it.
Which is it Oly? Ramen or cardboard? Oh that’s the same thing nevermind…
There seems to be widespread on this one. Do what you want, but don’t ask the rest of us to pay for it. Maybe there’s a little common ground here?
Hey– How about extreme sports and all those hipsters who either suffer spinal injuries or call for Mommy (and the Rescue Squad) on their cells when they’re stranded on the side of the mountain? Ban extreme, off-trail sports? I doubt the hipsters and all the wannabes would stand for it.
healthy people should pay more into retirement funds and social security cuz they will live longer…
Ouch!! good one Dave. You’ll receive no replies to that one.
heh-heh, i know. just trying to keep it real, slippery slopes and all…
The comments in this piece really get to the heart of the cargo cult mentality fostered by government bailouts and promises of bailouts.
Option ARMs Threaten Housing Rebound as Resets Peak (Update2)
By Brian Louis
June 11 (Bloomberg) — Shirley Breitmaier’s mortgage payment started out at $98 when she refinanced her three-bedroom home in Galt, California, in 2007. The 73-year-old widow may see it jump to $3,500 a month in two years.
Breitmaier took out a payment-option adjustable rate mortgage, a loan popular during the housing boom for its low minimum payments before resetting at higher costs later.
About 1 million option ARMs are estimated to reset higher in the next four years, according to real estate data firm First American CoreLogic of Santa Ana, California. About three quarters of those loans will adjust next year and in 2011, with the peak coming in August 2011 when about 54,000 loans recast, the data show.
…
$750 Billion Problem
More than $750 billion of option ARMs were originated in the U.S. between 2004 and 2008, according to data from First American and Inside Mortgage Finance of Bethesda, Maryland. California accounted for 58 percent of option ARMs, according to a report by T2 Partners LLC, citing data from Amherst Securities and Loan Performance.
…
Breitmaier, who has been in the home for 45 years and lives with her daughter, now fears she will lose the off-white stucco house that’s a hub for her family.
“I wish the government would bail us out like the banks and the car businesses,” she said. “I’d like to go from here to the grave next to my husband.”
Paul Financial LLC originated the loan and it was sold to GMAC, Pannabecker said.
“This loan is a perfect example front to back, bottom to top, of everything that has gone wrong over the last five to seven years,” Pannabecker said. “The consumer had a product pushed on them that they had no hope of understanding.”
…
Inexpensive Payments
Peter Paul of Paul Financial, based in San Rafael, California, said he wasn’t familiar with Breitmaier’s loan agreement but disagreed with Pannabecker’s characterization.
“The problem is, real estate values went down,” Paul said. Paul said he’s winding down the company and hasn’t made any loans since the fall of 2007.
…
Pannabecker said. “The consumer had a product pushed on them that they had no hope of understanding.”
More victim-talk. Yawn.
I actually think his statement is true. Most consumers probably don’t even understand how a fully-amortizing fixed-rate mortgage is computed.
Overly-complex mortgage products should probably be regulated out of existence, due to the inherent systemic risk.
I agree. There were a lot of people who got suckered into things they didn’t understand, and, sorry to say, now we’re (meaning society as a whole) are paying the price.
Yes, a good chunk of the population can’t handle those products and they should be eliminated. But aside from that I can’t agree with you two.
If one is not sure of what they sign, then that implies that one put their trust in some party or some instrument other than themselves and the facts.
Besides, mortgage calculators are all over the web - set it up for a 30 yr. and get a ballpark figure for what the monthly payment ought to be.
For Pete’s sake - her payment started at $98 per month? And that didn’t set off any alarm bells?
Good for you Edgewater. I’d like to see that chunk of the population eliminated as well. How should we go about doing it?
To eliminate them, one need only eliminate all public benefits of every kind. But someone will cry “inhumane!”
But why? Why did she refinance? Why does no one ever ask this question, as if refinancing were the most rational course of action in the world.
It’s been pointed out here before, but if you took equity out of your house you’ve essentially already sold it and made your money. I truly, truly do not understand people who “refied” their lifestyles. These were loans that would have to be paid back.
But I guess this mentality is what has kept me a debt-free renter all these years. Debt is scary.
http://www.truthout.org/060409R
i’m not sure about this blog but this is a good article.
Asset Backed Alert
06/05/2009
Banks Get Jump on Possible TALF Expansion
Mortgage lenders have started approaching rating agencies with securitization pools that they think might qualify for an expanded version of the Federal Reserve’s Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility.
The prospective issuers include many of the nation’s largest banks, such as Bank of America, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo. It’s unclear exactly what the institutions want from the rating agencies at this point, however, as the Fed has yet to approve proposals that would make mortgage bonds eligible for TALF financing.
…
After slowing considerably in the early days of the credit crisis, the flow of private-label home-loan bonds completely shut off about a year ago. Excluding so-called re-Remics conducted largely for balance-sheet purposes, the last issuer to complete such a deal was Lehman Brothers, with a $147 million issue last August.
Looking forward, the loans most suited for securitizations would probably be jumbo mortgages, which are prime-quality credits that exceed the $417,000 buying limits of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. While the supply of those loans has fallen amid the credit crisis, their volume has held up better than other types of mortgages, including alternative-A, option-adjustable rate and home-equity loans. “The big four U.S. banks all do a substantial amount of jumbo prime,” an analyst at an investment bank said. “I don’t think there’s any question that people would like to securitize jumbo prime.”
Get that Bubble rolling again!
Can’t let housing be affordable - then, where would the bankers be?
Permanently underwater.
Lawmaker Accused of Fannie Mae Conflict of Interest
Friday , October 03, 2008
By Bill Sammon
WASHINGTON —
Unqualified home buyers were not the only ones who benefitted from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s.
So did Frank’s partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency’s push to relax lending restrictions.
Now that Fannie Mae is at the epicenter of a financial meltdown that threatens the U.S. economy, some are raising new questions about Frank’s relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannie’s assistant director for product initiatives. Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie.
Both Frank and Moses assured the Wall Street Journal in 1992 that they took pains to avoid any conflicts of interest. Critics, however, remain skeptical.
“It’s absolutely a conflict,” said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Business & Media Institute. “He was voting on Fannie Mae at a time when he was involved with a Fannie Mae executive. How is that not germane?
“If this had been his ex-wife and he was Republican, I would bet every penny I have - or at least what’s not in the stock market - that this would be considered germane,” added Gainor, a T. Boone Pickens Fellow. “But everybody wants to avoid it because he’s gay. It’s the quintessential double standard.”
A top GOP House aide agreed.
“C’mon, he writes housing and banking laws and his boyfriend is a top exec at a firm that stands to gain from those laws?” the aide told FOX News. “No media ever takes note? Imagine what would happen if Frank’s political affiliation was R instead of D? Imagine what the media would say if [GOP former] Chairman [Mike] Oxley’s wife or [GOP presidential nominee John] McCain’s wife was a top exec at Fannie for a decade while they wrote the nation’s housing and banking laws.”
Media Mum on Barney Frank’s Fannie Mae Love Connection
Democratic House Financial Services Committee Chair promoted GSEs while former ’spouse’ was Fannie Mae executive.
By Jeff Poor
Business & Media Institute
9/24/2008 4:00:57 PM
Are journalists playing favorites with some of the key political figures involved with regulatory oversight of U.S. financial markets?
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews launched several vitriolic attacks on the Republican Party on his Sept. 17, 2008, show, suggesting blame for Wall Street problems should be focused in a partisan way. However, he and other media have failed to thoroughly examine the Democratic side of the blame game.
Prominent Democrats ran Fannie Mae, the same government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) that donated campaign cash to top Democrats. And one of Fannie Mae’s main defenders in the House – Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., a recipient of more than $40,000 in campaign donations from Fannie since 1989 – was once romantically involved with a Fannie Mae executive.
The media coverage of Frank’s coziness with Fannie Mae and his pro-Fannie Mae stances has been lacking. Of the eight appearances Frank made on the three broadcasts networks between Jan. 1, 2008, and Sept. 21, 2008, none of his comments dealt with the potential conflicts of interest. Only six of the appearances dealt with the economy in general and two of those appearances, including an April 6, 2008 appearance on CBS’s “60 Minutes” were about his opposition to a manned mission to Mars.
Frank has argued that family life “should be fair game for campaign discussion,” wrote the Associated Press on Sept. 2. The comment was in reference to GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and her pregnant daughter. “They’re the ones that made an issue of her family,” the Massachusetts Democrat said to the AP.
The news media have covered the relationship in the past, but there have been no mentions since 2005, according to Nexis and despite the collapse of Fannie Mae. The July 3, 1998, Reliable Source column in The Washington Post reported Frank, who is openly gay, had a relationship with Herb Moses, an executive for the now-government controlled Fannie Mae. The column revealed the two had split up at the time but also said Frank was referring to Moses as his “spouse.” Another Washington Post report said Frank called Moses his “lover” and that the two were “still friends” after the breakup.
Frank was and remains a stalwart defender of Fannie Mae, which is now under FBI investigation along with its sister organization Freddie Mac, American International Group Inc. (NYSE:AIG) and Lehman Brothers (NYSE:LEH) – all recently participants in government bailouts. But Frank has derailed efforts to regulate the institution, as well as denying it posed any financial risk. Frank’s office has been unresponsive to efforts by the Business & Media Institute to comment on these potential conflicts of interest.
“Ol Slobbering Barney walked off during an interview with MSNBC yesterday. He does not like to be called on anything, so he blew a few snot bubbles pulled out his ear piece and walked off. LOL!
Was he wearing his “lobster bib” ?
LOL!
No damn it, but I would think one of his constituents in Mass. could be thoughtful enough to send him one. Or perhaps spray shields for the interviewers.
I would pay $100 to hear Barney say “Suffering Succotash.”
True story, Jeff. About twelve or 13 years ago, Barney Frank was on one of the three network Sunday morning gabfests yakking on. I was picking up ’round the house or something, heard Frank babble on, and started tossing off nasty comments at the screen. My oldest son, who was seven or eight at the time, heard me raving at the TV and asked me, “Daddy, why are you yelling at that man who talks like Tweety Bird?”
How could I make up a story like that?
Have a youtube link?
…his pro-Fannie Mae stances
Must. Not. Make. Terrible. Joke.
the aide told —->FOX News<—-
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
You’re right, if it isn’t spoon fed to you from the NY Obot Times or the Daily Kostic, it just couldn’t be true.
Barney is an idiot, and Mark Haines ( “I” think ) is a pretty fair guy, but I’m not sure Gays have the same ties and loyalties hetero-couples have?
If a guy was insulting to my wife in a restaurant, it’ll be over before the guy finished saying what he was t-r-y-i-n-g to utter. I wonder if Gays wouldn’t think, “Hey, you’re a GUY, handle it yourSELF!”
I just wonder if we’re not assigning values to them ( NOT that there’s anything wroooong with that? ) where they simply don’t exist?
“…some are raising new questions about Frank’s relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannie’s assistant director for product initiatives.”
Holy Moses! How do they keep this stuff out of the MSM?
nothing will happen.
But they got Feinstein, oh that`s right nothing will happen.
EXCLUSIVE: Senator’s husband’s firm cashes in on crisis
Feinstein sought $25 billion for agency that awarded contract to spouse
By Chuck Neubauer Tuesday, April 21, 2009
BuzzEXCLUSIVE:
On the day the new Congress convened this year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation to route $25 billion in taxpayer money to a government agency that had just awarded her husband’s real estate firm a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms.
Mrs. Feinstein’s intervention on behalf of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was unusual: the California Democrat isn’t a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs with jurisdiction over FDIC; and the agency is supposed to operate from money it raises from bank-paid insurance payments - not direct federal dollars.
Documents reviewed by The Washington Times show Mrs. Feinstein first offered Oct. 30 to help the FDIC secure money for its effort to stem the rise of home foreclosures. Her letter was sent just days before the agency determined that CB Richard Ellis Group (CBRE) - the commercial real estate firm that her husband Richard Blum heads as board chairman - had won the competitive bidding for a contract to sell foreclosed properties that FDIC had inherited from failed banks.
About the same time of the contract award, Mr. Blum’s private investment firm reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it and related affiliates had purchased more than 10 million new shares in CBRE. The shares were purchased for the going price of $3.77; CBRE’s stock closed Monday at $5.14.
Spokesmen for the FDIC, Mrs. Feinstein and Mr. Blum’s firm told The Times that there was no connection between the legislation and the contract signed Nov. 13, and that the couple didn’t even know about CBRE’s business with FDIC until after it was awarded.
Nice gain!
“purchased more than 10 million new shares ”
“The shares were purchased for the going price of $3.77; CBRE’s stock closed Monday at $5.14.”
today
CB Richard Ellis Group Inc (CBG) CustomizeCBG quote (NYSE Exchange)9.38 +0.33 +3.65%
“How do they keep this stuff out of the MSM?”
‘Cause you’re talking about Democrats.
Blano.Did you forget the past 8 yrs? Selective memory.
Blano.
the past 8 yrs?
Selective memory.
They’re so magical and powerful!!!
‘“C’mon, he writes housing and banking laws and his boyfriend is a top exec at a firm that stands to gain from those laws?” the aide told FOX News. “No media ever takes note?”‘
Don’t ask, don’t tell.
Don’t ask, don’t tell.
Kinda like former Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX) and his wife Wendy, who was on Enron’s Board of Directors during their Era Of Shameless Scams?
The Wall Street Journal once called her “the Margaret Thatcher of financial regulation” (is that a compliment?), but apparently didn’t see a conflict of interest between her position and the see-no-evil deregulation her then-Senator husband was pushing at every opportunity.
Don’t forget that Sen Kay Baily Hutchins husband was also employed by Enron via the law firm of Vinson & Elkins.
How about Barney Franks? His husband (ha) was a mucky muck at Freddie/Fannie and sucked millions but not as bad as Raines and the other Dem crooks.
“Both Frank and Moses assured the Wall Street Journal in 1992 that they took pains to avoid any conflicts of interest”
That`s more than I want to know.
It’s called “double standard.”
Democrats can do no wrong and are the high priest elites, especially after 8 years of idiot GWB.
According to Newsweek’s Evan Thomas, Prez. Barry is “above America, above the world, he is sort of God like”
What a twisted fool.
This pol worship was wrong on May 1, 2003 and it is still wrong today.
“This pol worship was wrong on May 1, 2003 and it is still wrong today’.
Yep, but I have never heard of any other president being referred to as a “sort of God”
Poor Evan must have very little or nothing to look up to.
Nevada has switched to silk-screen printed license plates.
I hate this. I like my plates to be stamped out of metal.
Preferably by an ex-mortgage broker doing hard time in the state pen.
Here in Illinois our former governors make our license plates.
I’ve lurked here for several years, rarely posting, but just had to share this. Here’s a UHS who’s either completely unethical or just plain stupid. This listing is in Fairfax County, VA, which is really expensive, but still has a few trailer parks. The listing is for a TRAILER (no land) for $179K. At the height of the bubble, these things were selling for $50K tops, because you have to pay land rent on top of it. What is this realtor thinking?
http://www.homesdatabase.com/home-listings-MEADOWS+OF+CHANTILLY-CHANTILLY-VA-MRIS-FX7056001
But, but…it’s a double wide!
Actually, it is a nice trailer. I was looking at one in a local park, not as nice, asking price: $17,000.
az_lender, are you out there?
I’m thinking it would be a good place to escape. Nobody would know to come looking for me there.
(No cracks from the peanut gallery, please.)
Yup, I’m here. I never lend money on a trailer without getting a note on the underlying land. If I make a loan on a parcel in an RV park or MH park, I will add something to my calculation of the value of the parcel, to take account of the value of the MH. Because my notes amortize in 15 years. By the time the MH or RV falls apart, the note has been paid down pretty far.
He’s thinking it’s still less than most houses. I used to work in construction. The siding job on the trailer / house is bad. Some of the nails were driven in too far not allowing the siding to expand and contract with the weather. Result the siding buckles.
Even in this time of excessive zeroes, I had to read this twice. That’s 134 BILLION in US Treasury Bonds. WTF? That’s a lot of money to be carrying about in a suitcase!
Two Japanese nationals were detained by Italian financial police last week after trying to enter Switzerland with $134 billion worth of undeclared U.S. bonds, mostly Treasury bonds, an Italian daily said Wednesday.
http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/2-japanese-carrying-134-bil-worth-of-us-bonds-detained-in-italy
ahansen,
Hope you’re doing well btw!
None too sure about ‘this’ one? Aren’t most bonds today issued in “book entry” only? In fact, I haven’t heard of a “bearer bond” for a long time. Weren’t those mostly phased out by the 70’s?
Good for the Italians but it just sounds bogus all the way around.
Bearer bonds were discontinued in the 1920’s IIRC. Seems the IRS couldn’t keep track of the interest payments, forcing everyone to register all bonds.
I guess I was half asleep reading “Bonds for Dummies” the other evening.
. . . in 1982 it became illegal for any corporation or municipality to issue [bearer bonds].
DennisN,
I wasn’t exactly sure, it’s been a long time since I’ve taken the exam. In fact, if you’re like me whenever you see a movie where a “major heist” is involved, they take pains to script in “bearer bonds” to imply something that can be physically “heisted”.
I think I saw some in Die Hard…
Oops. Sorry Ben, I sent the wrong URL
TINFOIL HAT ALERT:
Japan Today is reporting that two Japanese nationals were detained by Italian financial police last week after trying to enter Switzerland with $134 billion worth of undeclared U.S. bonds, mostly Treasury bonds, an Italian daily said Wednesday.
That’s 134 BILLION in US Treasury Bonds. WTF? That’s a lot of money to be carrying about in a suitcase!
I’d love a link on this. This is the second blog to report on it, but nothing yet from the MSM. This is going to be a huge story.
That tops the million dollars (shekels??) stuffed in the thrown out mattress story for sure.
Financial police? I didn’t know that they existed.
When you have pieces of paper with ever increasing amounts of zeroes on it, it’s not so much paper, really. Now with electronic zeroes, you can just zap your zillions needed in an instant!
Thats an awefull lot of scratch. Even if it’s Japanese Yakuza trying to sneak it into an opaque bank account it’s a rather mind boggeling sum.
Sleepr Cell,
Right, last time I heard a story similar to this it took place on the docks in Manila just after 9/11. Rumor had it that customs officials and the CIA found $1bil. in counterfeit U.S bills on the wharf. Then… they “mysteriously” disappeared?
Just trying to understand here - what could they do with $134B in bonds hidden in Switzerland ? The bonds will still be subject to all of the ups and downs of the market. Is it possible that they moved a bunch of criminally-obtained $$ into the bonds to lauder it ? Why the Japanese ? Usually they don’t seem like the type to be sneaking into a well-protected country with a bunch of money ( so to speak ) in suitcases. What did they have the bonds in ? Interesting.
Good morning Eastern U.S…. from the ski lifts in Stowe, Vt., to the Tallahassee, Fla., happy hours; from the ruins of Cairo, Ill., to the Pennsylvania Turnpike toll booths; from Camel’s Hump to the loud music in Athens, Ga.; from Lookout Mountain to the Pinellas County shuffleboard courts; from Hot Lanta to the Maryland shore; from Fifth Avenue to the yard sales of Hazard, Ky.; from the Upper Peninsula summer camps to Rehobeth Beach; from the rattlesnake filled roads near Cape Canaveral to the Delta Queen plying the Mississippi River; from the JFK lounges to the Poconos; from the mist at Block Island, R.I. to all the roadside attractions selling fireworks south of the Mason Dixon line, and from anywhere along U.S. Highway 50 between Greater Appalachia to the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
Good morning from California.
And good day to you as well.
I enjoyed your evocative description of points east of the Mississippi.
What takes you to Cali…house hunting?
Phillygal…
The winds of change brought me West nine years ago to central California. I’m fortunate/blessed to be able to still travel widely.
Today is the last day of my daughter’s school, so maybe that was why I was waxing sentimental earlier today.
Fwiw, the 1704 House west of Philadelphia is where an ancestor, one of the Brinton clan, got his start.
milkcrate, A convex polygon formed by connecting all those points pairwise does not take in the coast of Maine. But the sun was well west of our meridian when you wrote your message, so maybe the omission was intentional. Good p.m. to you, anyway.
Bar Harbor lobster breeze, to add another fondly recalled Spirograph point.
So most of those posting here understand that future generations of Americans face a falling standard of living, rising taxes, and diminished public services and benefits.
As a result of multiple decades of living beyond our means in the public and private sectors, with $billion taken off the top while everyone was fat and happy, by top executives in outsized pay while claiming to “enhance shareholder value” (check that 401K) and public employee pensioners as part of enhancements that cost nothing based on assumptions provided by actuaries they hired.
My question is, since the winners and Generation Greed control everything, to whom will they attempt to channel the anger as the bills come due and the ignorant face the future? Assume the actual beneficiaries will not be named, and no one will look in the mirror.
In the early 1990s, they claimed all the money was going to minorities, immigrants, those living in older central cities, and welfare (it wasn’t). Hitler blame the Jews.
Any suggestions? Are there Republican, Democratic alternatives? Or are facist vs. communist more like it five years from now.
Here’s one option: blame America’s creditors for not lending us more money!
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=atucH58_sh8s
“Are there Republican, Democratic alternatives?”
Ron Paul is our only tangible hope at the moment. Beyond that, we have to look for cultural change and attitude change. And we have to pray that some leaders emerge who are dedicated to freedom and Austrian economic principles, and who will propose far-reaching legal and constitutional reforms.
“Are there Republican, Democratic alternatives?”
Sadly no, not that can win an election, and for those of us in the super small minority about all I know to do is hold my course and work and hope that at some point more than 2% of the voting population start to realize they have been duped and have slowly given up one of the greatest gifts of all…Liberty.
All the next generation will need to do is cut taxes. That will solve whatever ails them.
“to whom will they attempt to channel the anger as the bills come due and the ignorant face the future”
old people on Social security
Huge voter turn out in Iran, had to extend the voting hours. The mullahs may getting ready to replace Amibouttojamawad.
There’s nothing in the streets
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Are now parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight
I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again
Don’t get fooled again
No, no!
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss
Just some general commentary from down under….
While things continue in North America much as predicted here (at least as far back as late ‘05), Uruguay continues to be an enigma.
While recent price increases in nicer homes have pushed the rent/own calculation way beyond reason, and price/incomes is insane, the prices continue to levitate.
I’ll grant you, things didn’t explode like cali or florida (yet) — it was coming off the back of an utter collapse (related to neighboring argentina in 2002).
that, coupled with the fact that it’s all cash for most purchases (so no crazy debt financing) and perhaps the biggest reason — people fleeing with any cash that’s not nailed down from bigger argentina and determining that uruguayan property is a “safe bet” keeps things going.
I thought that cash out refi’s from spain and the eu were driving the expat market here, but apparently argentina and brasil have taken over where they left off.
we’ll see how long numbers can continue to befuddle.
Wow! Thanks for a South American perspective.
I was thinking if things got bad here in the USA and I had to run that I might go to Costa Rica in Central America. No standing army and stable economy.
What’s your opinion on South America as a place to run to?
Be prepared. Very prepared. All is not as it seems in S.A.
I think you should stick to Northern CA. Unless you’re the right color to blend in in Costa Rica. Which I bet you aren’t—in fact, I bet you’re freakin’ translucent, being as you live in Northern CA. I say this boldy, because I just sunburned myself all pretty and red, and therefore now I cannot see all my internal organs through my skin anymore.
Good grief there’s no where to hide. Double whammy. Born in the USA and CA. No one will take me if I try to immigrate
Were you digging clams again when you got a sunburn?
In my old coastal hometown you could go to the beach on an overcast day and get a fog burn. Just as bad as direct sunlight.
Siver - Thanks for bursting my “it’s better down there” bubble.
Oly - You are close. I definitely look like the white man, but there’s enough Italian, Spaniard, and indigenous Californian in me that the skin turns a nice brown in the sun. Kinda like a Turkey in the oven on Thanksgiving, only not a juicy.
trying to paint all of south america with one brush is pretty futile…. “all is not as it seems” is a bit cryptic….how does it seem?
i’ve lived here for 3 years….from a RE perspective the cash market has made alot of the deflation in credit a non-event.
uruguay is a heck of a lot whiter than northern cali — or north america for that matter….lots of agriculture and relatively safe/stable….way moreso than costa rica.
biggest drawback to uruguay is that it’s boring. seriously. although buenos aires is 30 minute plane (or 4 hour boat ride) away.
Another St. Lucie project bites the foreclosure dust
June 12th, 2009 by TCPalm.com
ST. LUCIE COUNTY — More than a year after developers of the planned Cloud Grove had the county put the controversial 12,000-home project “on hold,” their creditor has added it to the Treasure Coast’s ranks of foreclosed properties.
“I imagine this pretty much closes any opportunities for that project,” St. Lucie County Commission Chairwoman Paula Lewis said this week.
MLIC Asset Holdings LLC, of Morristown, N.J., an affiliate of the lender, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., filed the foreclosure suit in Circuit Court on Nov. 26, accusing the developers of failing to pay on a $48 million mortgage.
MLIC is scheduled to auction the Cloud Grove land to the “highest and best bidder” at 11 a.m. June 24 in the St. Lucie County Courthouse.
Officials from Lennar Homes, who were managing the project in a partnership with Centex Homes, could not be reached for comment.
The partnership, Florida Conservancy and Development Group, had planned to build about 12,000 homes on a 6,000-acre former grove south of the St. Lucie/Indian River county line.
It was billed as part of the state’s Rural Land Stewardship Program, a way to preserve the 16,466-acre Adams Ranch from residential growth.
Its development rights were to be transferred to Cloud Grove, allowing that new town’s density.
Adams Ranch officials declined to comment on the foreclosure.
I love how the Florida “Conservancy” and Development Group were going to “build about 12,000 homes on a 6,000-acre former grove” as a part of the “state’s Rural Land Stewardship Program” in order to “preserve the 16,466-acre Adams Ranch from residential growth”.
Lol! Only in Florida.
I like reading the LA Times but sometimes these people go over the top. Take this story. Evidently a major food processing plant had hired a bunch of illegal aliens over the years, and they found out 25% had bogus SSN’s. So they fired them. Sounds great to me, since these people are basically CRIMINALS. Sorry, they broke the law coming here. Criminals. But the story is another one of those “poor immigrant” sob stories. This was my favorite line…
“My Social Security number was good all these years, why is it suddenly no good now?” asked Eva Macias, a 19-year veteran of Overhill Farms. “We left our youth in that plant.”
Eva, I have news for you. Your SSN was never good, and you knew it. I’m actually glad you lost your youth. Now get your ass back on the bus and GO HOME. Next time, try something LEGAL.
This is probably the best part of this crash. Illegals going home. Don’t let the door…
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-desktop-raid12-2009jun12,0,783064.story
There was nothing in that article that suggests that the illegals were going home. Rather, they will languish and take up more social services and clog the emergency rooms for their healthcare, where the taxpayer has to dole out free care to those who can’t pay.
Oh I hear you, but it is stories like this that might make future illegals think twice about coming here. And based on recent studies, this is already happening. A lot of them are going home, and a lot less are coming.
Silver lining to this debacle.
banana,
And I “left my youth” in the US Navy ( like a couple million other guys ), what’s her point?
For me though, it’s not so much personal, rather that as a nation we’ve tried to absorb everyone else’s products and castaways for entirely too long. If you were wondering where the breaking point is… I think we’ve found it?
I agree DinOR. Well past the breaking point. These people knew they were doing something illegal. It just blew up in their faces.
I should feel bad? NOT!
These stories make periodic appearances in the southern Arizona media. And the people in them don’t present as the types that the rest of us sympathize with.
Exactly Slim. Why should I feel sorry for these law breakers? They built their lives on a lie. Not my fault.
Don’t let the door…
Bannana, I am speechless!
I love it when people use some sort of zeal for “the LAW” as a way to hide their obvious xenophobia. Ever break the speed limit? Smoke pot? Pay ALL of your taxes (gotta make sure you pay that sales tax on those internet purchases, ya know)? And I’m sure you never complain about our state legislature, you know, the SOURCE of all those glorious LAWS that you love so much.
In a true free market economy, citizenship would not be a barrier to entry in the labor market. Persecution of immigrants is just another way to screw the working man out of some wages. You have more in common with those factory workers than you do with the bastards on Wall St. and you hatred of those immigrants serves their purposes nicely.
An “immigrant” doesnt break the law and comes into the nation legally. An “immigrant” also takes on his host nation and is loyal to it.
The illegals are only opportunists who will use all the while owing no alligence to the country that has put them in a better position than their native country could ever do…
I say to them, Get out of my country and come in through the front door…
Though I am as much a fan of highlighting the ongoing financial stupidity as anyone on this blog please allow me to inject a little whimsical levity by sharing something I found on the AIA blog just now.
Enjoy!
http://blog.aia.org/aiarchitect/2009/05/build_your_own_frank_lloyd_wri.html
Oh, and I want the Falling Water one BAD!
I want that one too. Let the bidding war (and the Lego bubble) begin!
A few more green shoots…
Cessna Aircraft announces 1,300 more layoffs, longer furloughs
Roxana Hegeman, Associated Press Writer
On Friday June 12, 2009, 12:22 pm EDT
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Cessna Aircraft Co., the nation’s largest builder of corporate jets, said Friday it is laying off another 1,300 workers, raising the number of jobs eliminated to half of its work force since November as the recession has depressed demand for its planes.
Cessna said the cutbacks will affect all its facilities.
“The fact is this is a cyclical industry and right now we are in the worst part of the cycle. Our industry continues to struggle,” said company spokesman Robert Stangarone.
“There are signs of an economic recovery and the recession may have reached the bottom, but it will still be some time before we see the kind of growth in the economy that will drive new airplane sales,” he said.
The aircraft industry lags the general economy by about eight quarters, he said.
Cessna told workers that the first 800 60-day layoff notices, affecting mostly production workers, will go out by June 19. The company then will mostly shut down for a previously scheduled furlough period from June 22 to July 17. The remaining 500 affected workers will get their notices after they return, but no later than Aug. 14.
The company, a unit of Textron Inc. of Providence, R.I., also announced Friday an additional three-week furlough companywide on top of those moves.
“We are still seeing orders being canceled. We still see lots of customers waiting to see if the recovery in the economy comes to fruition,” Stangarone said. “We see the average daily (airplane) utilization, that continues to decline. And aircraft financing remains difficult for our customers.”
Sorry if this has already been posted, but I havent had time to read the bucket today.
When the neighbors, not the bank, foreclose on your house
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/06/12/when_the_neighbors_not_the_bank_foreclose_on_your_house/
Another reason there to avoid HOAs…
Seniors Drawn to Mortgages That Give Back.
by Nick Timiraos
Friday, June 12, 2009provided byWSJ
Here’s one segment of the mortgage market that’s still hot: federally insured reverse mortgages, which enable senior citizens to take money out of their homes.
In March and April, the number of reverse mortgages backed by the government jumped nearly 20% from the same period last year. In April alone, the government insured 11,660 reverse mortgages, the highest monthly total since the government-backed program began in 1990. By contrast, the number of new home-equity loans, which similarly allow homeowners to tap the equity in their homes, fell around 70% in the first quarter from the prior-year period, according to Inside Mortgage Finance.
More seniors are turning to reverse mortgages to supplement their retirement savings, which in some cases have been decimated by stock-market losses. At the same time, more seniors now qualify for a reverse mortgage since Congress in February raised the maximum home value that seniors can borrow against to $625,500 from $417,000. The bill also capped reverse-mortgage origination fees at 2% on the first $200,000 and 1% on any amount over that, with fees not to exceed $6,000. Other upfront costs include an insurance premium and closing costs.
In a reverse mortgage, the bank makes payments to the homeowner instead of the homeowner making payments to a bank. To qualify for such a mortgage, a senior must be at least 62 years old and have a lot of equity in the home.
The way it works is this: Say a senior owns a house worth $500,000 that has a $50,000 mortgage. The senior might get a $250,000 reverse mortgage to pay off the existing loan and then have $200,000 left over. The homeowner could get that as a lump sum or a line of credit, and wouldn’t have to pay it back until he moved or died and the house was sold. The bank is repaid, including interest, from proceeds of the sale.
For lenders, the risk is that when it is time to sell the home, it will be worth less than the amount lent. As housing prices have plummeted, concern has grown that losses from these loans have mounted. Nearly all private offerings of reverse mortgages have disappeared, leaving the Federal Housing Administration as the only game in town. The FHA doesn’t make any loans, but it insures lenders against any losses on federally-insured loans, called Home Equity Conversion Mortgages.
Congress’s decision to raise the loan limits allowed Suzanne Huntington, 64, to get a $285,000 reverse mortgage on her $480,000 home in Laguna Nigel, Calif., last month. She used the proceeds to pay off the existing mortgages on the house, which totaled $282,000. Now she no longer has to make monthly payments.
“Congress’s decision to raise the loan limits allowed Suzanne Huntington, 64, to get a $285,000 reverse mortgage on her $480,000 home in Laguna Nigel, Calif., last month. She used the proceeds to pay off the existing mortgages on the house, which totaled $282,000.”
Age 64 with that kind of mortgage. What insanity.
Unfortunately, this won’t end well. Case in point from two blocks away:
1. An elderly lady took out a reverse mortgage on her property.
2. She proceeded to go on a truly baffling spending spree, confirming neighborly suspicions that she wasn’t of sound mind.
3. Just before Christmas 2007, she falls and breaks her leg in two places. Paramedics have to break into the house to get her out.
4. After a stay in a rehab center, where it is determined that she can no longer live alone, she moves in with a son and daughter in law. They live 200 miles away.
5. House gets the cosmetic fixup treatment (new tile, kitchen cabinets, bathroom, etc.) and is listed for sale in June 2008.
6. It sits and sits and sits on the market.
7. “For Sale” sign comes down in Febuary 2009.
8. In late May 2009, Slim hears (via the neighborhood grapevine) that the house has been foreclosed on.
Oh, well.
The reverse mortgage company made some money and the neighbor made some out-of-character purchases. (Most memorable: A coffee bean of the month club, which included a fancy grinder. But the lady didn’t drink coffee.)
But now there’s an empty house, and the vandals are going to work. Mailbox has already been smashed.
The lady in the article isn’t going to be able to go on much of a spending spree with just $3000. She used the rest to pay off her previous mortgage.
I think Krugman is stealing my material. His article today is on hate groups, and how right-wing media talk shows are leading to violence. It reminds me of the stuff I read about in Rwanda. The radio played a huge part in that genocide, basically turning people against each other. People like Rush, Hannity, O’Reilly and the other jerks on the right say things that get people to kill fellow Americans. Krugman is right about this.
Stop the hate, right wingers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/opinion/12krugman.html?_r=1
Does The New York Times qualify as a hate group?
No, but I don’t see them spreading hate either. Please provide a link to a story that you believe the NYT published that incited violence.
I’m waiting…
Of course not that’s where the gubmint worshipers get their life instructions. Poor things are incapable of thinking for themselves.
Something tells me he’s less concerned about talk shows leading to violence, than about them leading to people voting for Republicans.
This reminds me of when Bill “Kiss it” Clinton tried to blame Rush Limbaugh for the Oklahoma City bombings. The head of the most powerful nation on earth, who has the media hanging on his every word, couldn’t deal with the fact that some guy on the radio had 3 hours every weekday to present opposing views. So he seized on one offhand comment (out of about 100,000 hours of air time) that Rush made about people being up in arms about taxes, and tried to say that that led to a terrorist attack.
Philadelphia has led the nation’s cities in killings over the past few years. In the neighborhoods in which most of the violence occurred, I doubt anyone would even know how to locate Limbaugh’s program on the radio.
I wonder which talk show hosts are influencing Philly’s killers?
So, where is that link?
Simply do some googling. Things like “environmental terrorism.” How about “peace marches turn to riots.” Or maybe “Recruiter murder” for a look at extremes on both sides.
Stop the hate, right wingers.
I was wondering about this the other day. Is there “liberal bias” violence?
What is the moonbat equivalent of gay-bashing, abortion-doctor-killing and holocaust-museum-guard-shooting?
And where are the atheist terrorist bombers? Moslems, Catholics, Protestants, Hindus - they all got their bomb-boys.
Are atheists/liberals just a bunch of wimps?
If this were Facebook I’d “like” this comment.
Well hey, if your looking for them, here’s another “green shoot”:
“WICHITA, Kansas (AP) — Cessna Aircraft Co., the nation’s largest builder of corporate jets, said Friday it is laying off another 1,300 workers, raising the number of jobs eliminated to half of its work force since November as the recession has depressed demand for its planes.
Cessna said the cutbacks will affect all its facilities.
“The fact is this is a cyclical industry and right now we are in the worst part of the cycle. Our industry continues to struggle,” said company spokesman Robert Stangarone.
“There are signs of an economic recovery and the recession may have reached the bottom, but it will still be some time before we see the kind of growth in the economy that will drive new airplane sales,” he said.
The aircraft industry lags the general economy by about eight quarters, he said.”
And of course, Mr. Robert Strange-one may also find out that Cessna goes bankrupt and becomes O’Bama Aviation before the “recession” ever ends.
The aircraft industry lags the general economy by about eight quarters, he said.”
I thought it was more like 10 to 12 quarters… There are quite a few used business jets where their owners haven’t yet accepted its time to sell for whatever the market will bear.
This is sad. Whichita is very hard hit in this downturn.
Not to mention new competition on the horizon. The Hondajet intregues me (competes more with Lear though… Its not really a direct Cessna competitor). The Embraer line is growing.
It also looks like Lear is moving some production to Mexico (Learjet 85 fusalage construction).
Got Popcorn?
Neil
Nah, Cessna isn’t too big to fail. They aren’t Boeing.
Anyone here feeling uneasy about the latest ‘really-big, spectacular, monumental’ financial news about Blackrock now owning the ‘largest hedge-fund in the world’? Maybe I am just being paranoid but is it not unwise to create a behemoth, too-big-to-fail financial time bomb at this time?
Up date from Phoenix. I played golf last night and one of the girls I played with works for a company that does executive management relocations. Part of the service is selling the employees house. Typically the company will pay the difference if the house does not sell for what the executive paid for it. Now for the kicker - She moved to Arizona in 2007 and bought a house in Greyhawk. Paid 520K for it and said it is now worth 375K to 400K. She said that at some point she will just give it back to the bank. Ironically her husband is a mortgage broker! How she did not see this coming is beyond me. She makes a six figure income and can afford to make the payments and is willing to “let it go back to the bank”
In my story about the elderly neighbor who took out the reverse mortgage, I think I missed a step.
Between Steps 7 and 8, I should have said that the family realized that the house wouldn’t sell for anything near what they were asking (or wishing), so they let it go back to the bank.
Yes, this is purely conjecture on my part, but…
She makes a six figure income and can afford to make the payments and is willing to “let it go back to the bank”
how nice a guy I used to work with is doing the same thing
They learned this from Donald Trump maybe ?
Just when I thought I’d heard everything…
Republicans today are now claiming that President Obama is ultimately responsible, and should be accountable for everything that goes wrong from here on out. Their strategy is to be able to blame him for all the problems, even though President Obama inherited all of them. AND, their party created most of them too.
Nothing surprises me about the right anymore.
Let me get this straight. When the economy was kicking ass during the Clinton Admin, all we heard from these losers was that Clinton inherited the good times from the Bush/Reagan Admins. Then when things turned bad in the Bush Admin, Chimp shouldn’t be blamed because he inherited Clinton’s recession. And now that Obama is 4 months in office, basically he should be responsible for everything that happened before he took office. And they say this all with a straight face.
This is what these liars are pushing. And the only reason they are pushing this crap is to try to defeat Obama in 4 years. Do you think these people for one second think about what might be good for the nation? Do we really need to be attacking the guy that is trying to get us out of this mess? Criticize, yes. That is healthy. But attack just because you want to get back in power? The GOP is just sad. Sad and pathetic.
I can’t respect the GOP because they are not a serious party. They would (and have) sold this country down the river for political gain too often. It’s a party of haters. A party consumed with power, controlled by big business, and one that could give a rat’s ass about America.
This country needs a serious 2nd political party, because having just the Dems isn’t good either. The GOP isn’t it.
“This country needs a serious 2nd political party, because having just the Dems isn’t good either. The GOP isn’t it.”
This is my main concern. The republican party has become an extremist joke, leaving no one to effectively push back against the Dems. One party rule is always a disaster, regardless of the party.
Not to worry. The’ve painted themselves into a corner and then set the house on fire. Demographically they will never win another national election as long as they beat the drum for God, Guns, Gays and Dead Babies. They cant win just on Texas, the apalachian states and the aging white wacko vote alone.
People vote with their pocket books.
If Gietner has to raise interest rates to 20% to combat inflation in three years, it will be Jimmy Carter all over again.
So much so that pocketbook concerns even trump terrorism fears.
When people feel rich and strong they are often ready and willing to go to war. When they are poor and scared, they are far more likely to turn the other cheek.
I fthe GOP wasn’t so eager to sell the middle class down the river they might stand a chance.
“They cant win just on Texas”
Well ‘that’ is for damn sure. More so than any other state there was a profound “bluing” of nearly every county in TX during the last election cycle. Seems CA’s gravitate there for the “business friendly environment” and then import their liberal politics with them.
See “partisan harpie” for all the details. Or don’t.
To me the shame is that the masses kneel at the feet of any political party. The idea of freedom and liberty has been set aside and narrow/small minds throw stones back and forth at one another.
For pols it’s exactly what they want. So keep it up, be good little followers.
That’s the thing though, I’m not kneeling at the feet of anyone. I just happen to agree with Dems on more things than I do with Republicans. I’m critical of the Democratic Party often, but i have no choice but to vote Democrat. Am I really going to align myself with a party containing…
Sarah Palin
Rush Limbaugh
George W. Bush
Dick Cheney
Richard Nixon
Dan Quayle
Miss America
Ann Coulter
Sean Hannity
Bill O’Reilly
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Tom DeLay
Newt Gingrich
Timothy McVeigh
The Unibomber
Etc. etc. etc.
You guys are leaving us no choice but to vote Democrat! What happened to the party of Barry Goldwater?
We have no choice right now. And it looks like the GOP is turning everything over to the crazies now. Rush has even more power.
It’s crazy. But…it beats another Bush.
Sorry, meant Miss California.
Sean the “sausage” Handjob is a list all by himself. Don’t forget the PNAC crowd too like Wolfowitz, Rove, Rummy and company…
Since it is apparent you like to waste a great deal of your time chasing these kind of losing arguments.
Please add Air America and the red headed turd named Schultz to your list of those who spread “hate” Harry invites people to his cocktail parties so he can piss on them, only repubs of course.
Great guy, but I am sure you know that, funny how you don’t mention the perma-pissed.
P.S. Air America was a giant failure, know why? Because they do not understand the business and of course look for gubmint to “level” the playing field!
It’s okay to be a liberal, wear it proudly, I have no problem saying who I am. I’m against big government! Period!
I’m with you banana. I’m a lifelong Republican but have voted party line democrat in the last 2 elections. More of a protest vote against what the Repubs have become than a pro dem vote.
T. Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Goldwater were the last Republicans. The party is now controlled by an insane assemblage of Libertarians and rapture seeking Christians. Not my bag of tea (so to speak).
“So keep it up, be good little followers”
I actually find BOTH parties to be profoundly repugnant but for profoundly different reasons but I never “follow” anyone untill I’m damm sure I’ve thought the issue through.
In my opinion NEITHER party in their present forms would do anything but lead us to our slaughter.
“I can’t respect the GOP because they are not a serious party.”
I’m with you. Of course, I don’t respect the Dems either, particuarly because I’m from New York.
The Dems are a disaster in NY!
Will the Limbaughs and Palins of the world give even minor credit, even selectively, if and when any of Obama’s bold actions actually work?
Doubtful.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The rapid rise in bond yields will force the Federal Reserve to “engage again” in the purchases of U.S. Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities, Mohamed El-Erian, the chief executive of bond giant Pacific Investment Management Co., said Friday.
The surge in Treasury yields is lifting mortgage rates, threatening to dampen home demand and kill off the refinancing boom that is bolstering the health of some households.
“What mistake can the U.S. economy afford to make? If you look at it that way, I suspect that we will see the Fed engage again in these markets,” El-Erian told Reuters Financial Television.
Debate is brewing within the Federal Reserve over whether it should ramp up its purchases of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities to keep a lid on interest rates, or scale them back to avoid an outbreak of inflation.
Massive buying of securities by the U.S. central bank has doubled the size of its balance sheet to around $2 trillion as it flooded the economy with money to prevent a severe recession getting worse.
Fed chairman Ben Bernanke recently commented on the rise in U.S. long-term interest rates, remarking that it appeared to reflect “concerns about large federal deficits but also other causes.”
El-Erian argues that the Fed will have to keep a lid on bond yields as the United States still faces major headwinds including a fragile labor market. He expects the unemployment rate could reach between 10 percent and 10 1/2 percent.
“Job losses are declining, but we are still getting job losses which is another factor why the Fed is unlikely to raise rates,” he added.
“Debate is brewing within the Federal Reserve over whether it should ramp up its purchases of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities to keep a lid on interest rates, or scale them back to avoid an outbreak of inflation.”
Plan A: Don’t keep a lid on interest rates, and higher rates worsen the housing crash.
Plan B: Keep a lid on interest rates, inflate housing prices, but price out prospective buyers, as the labor market divvies the pain between job loss and pay cuts.
Either way, home prices stay unaffordable until they drop like a rock — check mate!
Here’s a ship that hit a rock when the tide went out — and article on a new Nordstroms in NJ.
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/homepage/20090322_Holding_out_for_a_retail_renaissance.html
“The Seattle retailer is opening this store, one of four nationwide this year and only its second in the area, during a downturn that has deflated the spending power of the very shoppers who helped fuel the growth of luxury retail in recent years.”
“It has suddenly lost the middle-class consumers who were spending the spoils of overflowing home equity on what retailers call ‘affordable luxury’ - indulgences once reserved only for the rich.”
“They had a tremendous amount of what I call false wealth,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst for NPD Group Inc. “We had over a million people a year buying or selling a house, and they were injected with, on average, $60,000 in discretionary income.”
“You had people who had never had money in their lives, and now all of a sudden it was, ‘Keep up with the Joneses and reward yourself,’ ” he said.”
Now they are asking MSNBC if they can spend the kid’s college fund.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31268009/ns/business-personal_finance/
Oh, there is my purse.
Nordies was supposed to open in 2007, and now 2010, but I see no building happening/retrofitting etc. in the desert.
What I see, and heard on the news, is that several chains have decided not to open their doors until a later date. There is a new F art and Smile, I mean Smart and Final built, but the doors are closed.
TJMaxx is newly opened and is doing okay here in Palm Springs, but still, one other Major retailer is not opening till unknown date.
Across from Lowes they finally opened the new Home Depot.
Bad timing. Sheesh. Each one is hopeless empty.
“Now they are asking MSNBC if they can spend the kid’s college fund.”
A new low… nice. I wonder why those parents “saved for college” in a UGMA anyway… unless they deep-down “just in case” thought they might want it back someday - without the penalty that comes with robbing a Coverdell or a 529 (which are more advantagous vehicles for college savings).
Is it desk clearing time yet?
Change you can really believe in! LOL! The morons have tax evader Rangel in charge. Wow, the leader of the brain trust!
House Health-Care Bill to Include $600 Billion in Tax Increases
By Laura Litvan
June 12 (Bloomberg) — Health-care overhaul legislation being drafted by House Democrats will include $600 billion in tax increases and $400 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel said.
Democrats will work on the bill’s details next week as they struggle through “what kind of heartburn” it will cause to agree on how to pay for revamping the health-care system, Rangel, a New York Democrat, said today. He also said the measure’s cost will reach beyond the $634 billion President Barack Obama proposed in his budget request to Congress as a down payment for the policy changes.
Asked whether the cost of a health-care overhaul would be more than $1 trillion, Rangel said, “the answer is yes.”
House Democrats plan to release their legislation next week. Obama has made a health-care overhaul a top domestic priority and is working with Congress to get legislation to his desk by October.
Democrats in the House and Senate are working on legislation that would require all Americans to have health insurance, prohibit insurers from refusing to cover pre-existing conditions and place other restrictions on the industry.
The legislation would establish online exchanges for individuals to purchase insurance and would require employers to provide health benefits to workers or pay a penalty. Some Democrats also are backing creation of a government-run program to expand coverage to the uninsured. The issue is the subject of bipartisan negotiations with Republican opponents.
Barry and Congress can expect American citizens to push back hard against more than a half-trillion dollars in new taxes, I would hope. We eagerly await details!
The tax increases that are heading our way will part your hair, and if anyone is FOOL enough to think it just the “evil” rich that will pay, then all I can say watch and learn.
I know so many hard working people who have no health insurance.
I don’t know how it will get done, but seriously folks, we really desperately need a single payer health insurance for those Americans who pay taxes but work for businesses- lots of em- who pay no health insurance.
I don’t know how, but obviously if the gop has its way, and the AMA and the pharma, there will be No health insurance.
OFfer some good suggestions. Not the ornery ones.
Sometimes you tire me out with your smartness, desertdweller, but today I am only refreshed, just like as if I was recently squirted all over with a garden hose or else just quaffed a chilly mint-julep, or else did both at once.*
Thanks!
*I DID just do both at once. Why else do you think I’m so perky?
We’re either all in it together or we are not.
If you are against federal financing for health insurance for 25 year olds, 35 year olds, 45 year olds, and 55 year olds, fine. Just agree to repeal Medicare.
Once the generation that is getting it gets through with us, we won’t be getting it anyway.
And I’ll gladly pay taxes if it means health insurance is separated from place of employment.
And I’ll gladly pay taxes if it means health insurance is separated from place of employment.
Why do you have to pay taxes for that to happen? Why not just get private insurance? Tell your employer you no longer wish to be covered by their policy, and ask for a commensurate raise based on the premiums you were paying.
There’s nothing forcing the two to be joined. Sure, corps get tax incentives, but you can ‘opt out’ if you choose.
…ask for a commensurate raise based on the premiums
youthey were paying.drummin, I respectfully disagree on this one. The national health care system covers everybody, regardless of employment status. There are a lot of good people who have been thrown under the bus, permanently, because of this structural disclocation. If you are 50 and you are canned from a corporate mcjob anywhere in this country, you will likely never work again. COBRA will cost you around $1600 bucks a month for family coverage, and expire after eighteen months (say) when you are 52. This does not count the 40% Obama subsidy, which can be revoked as quickly as it was enacted.
After your COBRA expires, good luck finding health insurance if you are overweight (50% of Americans), have lousy credit (really), have ever taken hypertensive meds, antidepressants, insulin, chemo, heart attack-y or stroke-y types of drugs. Anything you buy using medical insurance is stored in your central medical file, sort of like a medical FICO. News - any of these prior conditions, among others, will make your premium in the open health insurer market skyrocket to $3K, $4K or $5K per month.
While you have COBRA, a circumstance dictated by the fact of EMPLOYMENT at a place where the employer offers health insurance, you can “contain” your costs to $1600 per month plus deductibles. After your COBRA runs out, and you are still out of a job, what are you going to do? Cough up $5K per month? Puh-leeze!
I do not know residency or immigration law. Or much of any law, for that matter, other than to avoid traffic violations. BUT the prospect of waiting thirteen years for Medicare if I have a heart condition or etc. would prompt me to investigate moving to Thailand if I could do so legally. They have good, accessible medical care. At least, until I qualified for Medicare and SS at 80 or whenever the new cutoff age will be. I do not know if Thailand has express prohibitions against this strategem, however.
Point is - even if you opt out of health insurance and take the difference in cash today, you are up the creek because it will disappear once you are RIF’d. Your only resort is the free market system, for which you pay a hefty premium. In effect, the companies’ negotiated rates are subsidized by the the RIF’s person’s $5K per month premium.
The bigger picture: the vig extorted by the insurance structure is huge and lacks accountability. The companies justify rate increases by hiring more oversight and administrative hacks. Overall, 40% of the costs summoned up to justify the increase goes to the bottom line. Legally. Overhead and benefits. The new hires do not qualify for the benefits, and ‘overhead’ is an imaginary construct since desks and lighting already exist and do not drive incremental spending.
So, drummin, I respectfully ask you to rethink your position.
I think all of us ought to take a deep breath on this national health insurance thing. We are in the midst of structural destruction that has nothing to do with our productivity, our health, or our other human characteristics. We are all dogmeat, regardless of age. This is something on which we should all hang together. National health insurance is, imho, the only way to avoid suicide as an attractive option once you get RIF’d at 50.
Before the next riposte - please consider that for the next 20 years, any 50 year old who gets canned leaves a permanent hole in salaried employment stats. That 50 year old is not going to get backfilled by a salaried 30-something. If there is any actual work that can’t be absorbed by the survivors, it will be contracted out. Contractors are also at the mercy of the free market insurance industry, and they, too, are replaced by cheaper contractors.
I forget who coined the phrase, but it rings true. “We are all sub-prime now”.
I’m with you 100%. Our insurance system is grossly inefficient.
1) standardize plans. My wife works in health care and has to hire a full time assistant just to handle the insurance billing for her one-person private practice.
2) offer government plan as an option (medicare is actually FAR more efficient that private insurance), and force private insurers to compete
3) require everyone to have insurance one way or another. This business of treating the huge fraction of uninsured in emergency rooms is hugely inefficient.
The link below has some great current charts comparing this recession with the Great Depression and more.
BTW, is Packman still on vacation? I miss reading his posts!
Quarterly Update: The Recession in Historical Context (Warning PDF)
http://www.cfr.org/content/publications/attachments/2009OutlookFinal_Long.pdf
In my little town of Greer, SS, they just closed a very nice hospital because the local hosital system just build a new 1 billion dollar hospital a mile or so away. I couldn not figure why they did that until I realized the new hsopital is surrounded by undeveloped real estate. The Chairm of the Board is the largest realtor in the upstate of South Carolina. The housing bubble has wider effects that we can imagine. Health prices go up because of these hospitals and they are not needed. They are build because they bring other development and the hospitals can raise prices to pay for it.
Ask yourself if the local hospital system has opened new hopsitals out on undeveloped land. Why?
And what are the chances some of the hospital’s doctors own that undeveloped land?
And what are the chances some of the hospital’s doctors own that undeveloped land?
What is this; ‘Doctors are Jerks Day’? First they be stealing Anasazi relics, then they be aligning themselves with Realtors!
What’s next? Jeeze. They’ll be all going around probing us with tubes and examining our internal organs and injecting us with dead germs and c*r*ap!
Outta here!
*flings self grandly out of house in a healthy and robust fashion *
And what are the chances some of the hospital’s doctors own that undeveloped land?
Actually, I not disagreeing with you. I bet you most of them do. Doctors are clannish. They’re almost worst than cops, and that’s saying something.
Hi, neighbor. All four of my children were born at Allen Bennet. My sil lives less than a mile from the new hospital.
Hi, neighbor. All four of my children were born at Allen Bennet.
Serious? Are they all wolves? Or only half wolves?
Two cats, a pup, and a bear (actually a carebear). Husband is a Tygger.
I’ve lost track—did Greer end up owning the old hospital?
That should be Greer, SC .
That should be Greer, SC .
Shoot. I thought you lived in the “Super State”
I was gonna ask where it was…
Howdy, oh my droogies!
Today’s my third wholllllle day I took off work, and I’m maximizing the joy and focusing on sybaritic excess. Tomorrow’s the weekend, and being sybaritic on a Saturday will not be as enjoyable since that’s just regular time away from work. Unless it’s stolen time it just doesn’t count. Surely you all understand?
See, I’ve gotta be lounging about indolently and deliberately squandering the precious daylight hours with drinking prodigious amounts of wine from a sale at the Grocery Outlet and writing bad poetry and fiddling with wood scraps while others labor industriously. This makes my activities vaguely illicit and therefore much more satisfying.
I’m on vacation too! Which is why I’m posting now. Drinking a nice glass of bourbon & coke. Spent 1/2 the day fighting office brass about my budget, but that’s normal for vacation. I’m taking my boat out tomorrow morning to watch the space shuttle launch from the river (will be drinking beer by 7:30 am). Life is good.
Poetry isn’t my thing, but if I could write as joyously as you, I’d give it a try.
Poetry isn’t my thing, but if I could write as joyously as you, I’d give it a try.
Thank you, Jon. I mean that.
But you know what I must confess to you now? Is that poetry isn’t MY thing either. Alas.
About 20 spiral-bound notebooks of scribbley evidence ought to attest to this fact and convince me, but it hasn’t. Much, much accumulated proof has not stopped me from tormenting poetry in the most base and shameful way. I’m like some sort of iambic m*olester.
Sigh…
I just can’t help it. You see, I’ve rarely met anything I couldn’t conquer before, so it makes me persistent and earnest in my poetry efforts. I have this terrible, terrible, completely stubborn and unreasonable conviction that if I keep trying to write poetry, that one day the end results of my efforts won’t make other persons giggle until they barf*.
So far, unfortunately, I’ve been wrong, but you know—that was before I got a new notebook!
*Jerks! They just don’t know great art when they hear it.
*falls right off chair from all the laughing *
I scored a couple of packages of Aidells Cajun Andouille sausages for half-price at Fred Meyer today (use or freeze date is next MOnday). So I’m going to pull some shrimp out of the freezer and make Jambalaya.
Is it OK to put okra in Jambalaya, or will the Cajun Gestapo track me down?
Is it OK to put okra in Jambalaya, or will the Cajun Gestapo track me down?
No, I think that’s super good. And the threat of Cajun Gestapo bustin’ out your door frame should only enhance the flavor experience.
Do it, man! Go, Dennis!
Afternoon and OT. Out here in SE Utah, we have a big mess.
The Feds just finished a two-year investigation and busted 24 people in Blanding, Utah, for grave digging and collecting Anasazi artifacts and selling them. Some prominent locals, including a doctor who also just killed himself. Another was an inductee into Utah’s Tourism Hall of Fame (didn’t know there was such a thing). The town of Blanding had an informant, and everyone knew the Feds were there, but they thought they were trying to solve a local murder. The doctor and his wife have been arrested before for this.
The Salt Lake Tribune has articles about it. It’s creating a maelstrom of hatred against the Feds and also against the looters. This investigation was started under Bush, but Obama’s getting blamed for being a Nazi by some, others are glad.
As a part-time (and unemployed) anarchy-ologist, I’m glad they did the bust. As a 4th generation Westerner, I don’t trust the Feds.
I think I need a drink but I don’t drink, maybe that will be my New Year’s resolution early, to start drinking. Guess I’ll go see if the State Liquor Store will sell me something.
Just checking in from the hinterlands and keeping all you savvy financial folks up to date on NOT investing in Anasazi goods (whoops, Ancestral Puebloan). I’d short the market, if I were you.
Lostie
Really?! Nohow!
Thanks for telling us, Losty. I’m gonna go call up everyone and demand details!
Well, IIIII’m solid glad they did the bust. Distrust of the Feds aside—and I think my people been out there as long as yours have, maybe, although of course myyyyy people was righteous and devout and only following Jeebus, and yourrrrr people was probably naughty and wicked and stuff—hahhah—but distrust aside, who else is there to stop this stuff? Is there anyone?
But anyway, my point is, digging up and p*imping off the history of a departed people is entirely and plainly wrong and deserves serious penalties. I hope whoever participated in this loses everything they got, plus some, is my hope.
but I don’t drink…
Wha…?! And here I been thinking you was so reasonable and wise, and prepared to confront the vicissitudes of fate!
“Including a doctor who also just killed himself”
No, no, no. You’re a writer, yes? It’s hisself. When someone commits suicide or accidentally shoot their person, it’s hisself. And make it as short as possible: Including a doctor that kill’d hisself.
And make it as short as possible: Including a doctor that kill’d hisself.
“Olygallification”
Haha! HAHAHAH!
Muggy, you’ve said many of my favorite things. One of my most favorite things that you ever said was a robust outburst when you shouted; ‘…they got they nails done did…
Remember that? Man, I loved that.
But I have to disagree in this instance, although it’s a respectful disagreement. Firstly, I totally agree with the ‘hisself’ part, as being completely and obviously right,but you know how you say, “Including a doctor that kill’d hisself”?
I believe it would be vastly better if it were to be ‘kilt’.
As in: ‘Including a doctor that kilt hisself.’
But that’s me. We can argue about semantics later. Right now I have to go find my mint juleps and then hose myself off again, because I’m getting all dried out and sober again, I notice, and that displeases me.
You guys are making me rethink the drinking thing - who need likker when I have you two???
This whole story sounds like a novel by Tony Hillerman. He would have a field day with these Feds.
“In the Four Corners area, pre-Columbian ruins, potsherds, arrowheads and other relics dot the landscape by the thousands.”
“Court papers say that in September 2007, Jeanne Redd (wife of the deceased physician) possessed … a black and white ceramic mug, … a gourd necklace and an effigy bird pendant. Each of the artifacts was valued at $ 1000.”
“She also was accused of swapping two stone pendants for two other stone pendants valued at more than $500.”
“Federal agents recruited a confidential informant (and) spent two years building the case: trafficking of more than 250 items, many of them sacred.”
“The federal investigation involved special agents from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the FBI, and is ongoing.”
“The Redds were among the 21 defendants freed Wednesday after initial appearances before U.S. Magistrate.”
“By Thursday evening, though, the people of Blanding were mourning James Redd. Redd had been “heroic” in responding when a tour bus overturned near Mexican Hat last year. Nine of the 53 people aboard were killed and the rest were injured….A lot of the time, he was the only one around who could do a surgery or deliver a baby.”
Blanding has 3200 inhabitants. The first thing one sees is the Mormon temple, when entering the town. When large quantities of land were moved for mining, just to the north of it, I doubt that this was done gingerly, and with respect for Indian burial sites.
Lost,
I take it that you don’t love the BLM?
US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic “shrink to survive” proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline.
The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature.
Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area.
The radical experiment is the brainchild of Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, which includes Flint.
Having outlined his strategy to Barack Obama during the election campaign, Mr Kildee has now been approached by the US government and a group of charities who want him to apply what he has learnt to the rest of the country.
Mr Kildee said he will concentrate on 50 cities, identified in a recent study by the Brookings Institution, an influential Washington think-tank, as potentially needing to shrink substantially to cope with their declining fortunes.
Most are former industrial cities in the “rust belt” of America’s Mid-West and North East. They include Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Memphis.
In Detroit, shattered by the woes of the US car industry, there are already plans to split it into a collection of small urban centres separated from each other by countryside.
“Shrink to survive”.
Maybe he should start with Washington DC.
This is so cool - of course I’m a guy who contributes to the Nature Conservancy…
I guess eminent domain is about to roll out in ways we could have never imagined. All of those “investors” that “snapped up” hundreds of Detroit homes will look like jeenyusses and be millionaires when this is all over.
This needs to be reposted tomorrow so we can hypothesize/ruminate HBB-style. This is serious.
Oh the humanity.
Who hunts frogs, anyways?
Frog is tasty.
I don’t really want to hunt, gut, and skin my own froggers, but if I was raised that way, *shrug*.
Frog is tasty.
Ahhhhhhhh! NooOOOooooOOOO!!
*runs around and around in another soggy circle, shedding even more mint leaves in horror *
Ahhhhhhhh! Nooooo!!
*runs around and around in a soggy circle, shedding mint leaves in horror *
Super bummer day for Earthy/OlyGal types:
SARASOTA COUNTY (Bay News 9) — Mote Marine Laboratory says poachers took four clutches of sea turtle eggs from Sarasota County beaches this month.
The eggs were laid by loggerhead sea turtles, a threatened species protected by federal and state laws as well as county ordinances.
“Oh, the humanity!”
Oh, the huge manatee!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ulrichp/1362599/
(a little whimsy to close the evening)
Sad.
Perhaps it’ll clear my name a little after confessing to likin’ frog vittles, but in my 20s (among many other strange/interesting jobs), I was a field assistant for scientists studying marine turtles.
Anybody get the census questionaire yet?
I heard if you refuse it’s a 5k fine.
So, let’s see…..no I don’t have a toilet and I don’t buy groceries.
My car is on blocks and so is my brain.
My car is on blocks and so is my brain.
You need a mint julep right away. And then you need to be squirted off with a garden hose. That’ll clear your mind and help you re-focus on priorities that really matter.
i’d need a little flirt like you to calm my flippin’ nerves.
It’s quite likely. Cute little flirts usually enhance most events and/or festivities. And luckily for you, I exist only to serve my fellow-man, as I have previously noted on many, many occasions.
*leaps up and briskly tugs on the ears of the Zombie-Banks-face and then grabs pitcher of delicious chilly mint-juleps and runs away into the woods with it *
Actually i’m a chick but you’re still a pretty little flirt.
Zombie — You’re joking, right? You post like a man…
No desk clearing. Either Ben is busy, or this housing bust is getting to be a bit boring and predictable…
Boring? I’m freaked out not bored!
I’ll one worse ya: I’m freaked out and bored. And thinking I am probably priced out of housing forever, even though prices are still crashing hard, but not caring much, as it is cheaper and less hassle to rent.
I agree. everytime I moan about the absymal lawn I pay to water I remember I could be paying HOA’s and property insurance. I could be getting ready for a reset or be stuck living next to unruly neighbors.
This census sounds intrusive. I’m scared they’ll find out I’m lazy and selfish.
Subsidy, subsidy, where’d they hide the subsidy?
US moves to spur bank buy-outs
By Henny Sender and Francesco Guerrera in New York
Published: June 12 2009 23:30 | Last updated: June 12 2009 23:30
US financial regulators are drawing up new rules to facilitate private equity acquisitions of troubled banks in an effort to unlock tens of billions of dollars that could be deployed to recapitalise ailing lenders.
People close to the situation said the plan, which has yet to be finalised and could still change, might require private equity companies to inject substantial capital into troubled lenders and agree not to sell them for at least two years.
Buy-out funds wanting to buy a troubled bank would have to reveal their performance measures and marketing materials to allay fears that they might use the banks to subsidise other companies in their portfolio.
Regulators are looking for “a long-term financial commitment to banks and not just a quick flip”, said a person familiar with the thinking in Washington.
MarketWatch First Take
Jun 12, 2009, 2:07 p.m. EST
What Madoff lost in 20 years, the Feds will lose in weeks
Commentary: ‘Stimulus’ package comes with a steep cost
LONDON (MarketWatch) — Bernie Madoff should have tried government work.
The $50 billion that the disgraced money manager — who pled guilty to federal charges in March and who’s currently scheduled to be sentenced around the end of June — stole from his clients over a couple of decades could disappear in a matter of weeks as the U.S. government ramps up its “stimulus” spending programs
That’s one way of thinking about the projection made by Deloitte Financial Services Advisory accounting types that as much as $1 in $10 of federal spending will end up compromised in some way or other by thieves, grafters and scam artists. See related story.
True, $50 billion wouldn’t even cover the bailout of a failed automaker, mortgage lender or insurance company these days. Still, it does seem a pity not to put it to a more productive use than lining the pockets of crooked contractors, Internet scammers and political cronies.
Here’s a link for today’s Friday wrapup.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/business/story/799987.html
Wall Street Journal
* JUNE 13, 2009
Summers Calls Obama Defender of Free Markets
By JONATHAN WEISMAN
President Barack Obama’s chief economist on Friday defended White House economic policies against criticism that they amounted to “a kind of back-door socialism.”
In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers said Mr. Obama’s interventions “will go with, rather than against, the grain of the market system.”
National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers speaking at the Economic Club of Washington in April. On Friday, he defended President Barack Obama’s policies against charges that they amounted to back-door socialism, and laid out goals for financial-market re-regulation.
National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers speaking at the Economic Club of Washington in April. On Friday, he defended President Barack Obama’s policies against charges that they amounted to back-door socialism, and laid out goals for financial-market re-regulation.
National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers speaking at the Economic Club of Washington in April. On Friday, he defended President Barack Obama’s policies against charges that they amounted to back-door socialism, and laid out goals for financial-market re-regulation.
Mr. Summers’s remarks come as mainstream critics of Mr. Obama’s use of government mechanisms to revamp big segments of the economy are increasingly finding their voice. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce this week announced that it would launch a national advocacy campaign to defend free enterprise against “anti-business activists,” referring to administration initiatives.
Mr. Summers also laid out an ambitious goal ahead of Mr. Obama’s Wednesday speech on the re-regulation of financial markets: ending a decades-long barrage of financial crises.
“If we can reform our financial system, we will minimize the recurrence of the situation we all find ourselves in today,” he said, reciting a litany of crises from the savings-and-loan collapse in the late 1980s to last year’s housing-market bust.
“Summers Calls Obama Defender of Free Markets”
ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The word defender should be replaced with dictator!