Bits Bucket For June 30, 2009
Post off-topic ideas, links and Craigslist finds here. Please visit the HBB Forum. And see the American Visionaries series from Schwarzfilm. <a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCEkP8XKuJk” target=”_blank”>Part One</a>, <a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wXMhdNIML4&feature=related” target=”_blank”>Part Two</a>, <a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slheh_E92tM&feature=related” target=”_blank”>Part Three</a>, <a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lIg3KoAIJ0&feature=related” target=”_blank”>Part Four</a>and <a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_GufVJfExE&feature=related” target=”_blank”>Part Five</a>.
Wow! Lookit me! I get to be first to post for tomorrow! And it’s not even tomorrow yet! It’s still today! At least, I’m pretty sure it’s still today. IS it today?
Hurry up and tell me someone, and then I’ve gotta quickly go to sleep so I can have a stupid dream and then tell you all about it, like I did the one and only other time I was first to post. It was about a duck and everyone made fun of me and I cried and cried and stuff.
But moving on: Oh, guess what? I’m back. I just returned from a quick accidental trip to Gray’s Harbor co, out west of me, and I gotta say, it is crashing hard. From looking around I believe it’ll eventually get to the point where I can buy the whoooole shebang. All of Gray’s Harbor county, I mean. For cheap, too.
So I’m glad I’ve saved up, because I’ve always wanted to buy a whole county to be my very own. Then I can drive around waving majestically, and make everyone have to wear funny hats each Tuesday, and other capricious and arbitrary acts. Hey, if it’s my county I can do what I want! And no one will ever make fun of my duck dream again! Anyone who does shall be executed.
Did you read thru the previous threads? Someone posted the Geoduck song for ya. You should read the lyrics and then go listen to it on Amazon.
Really?! This is the best blog ever. I’m gonna go find it right this minute and then I’m gonna bellow it loudly and prettily, so that everyone in a 5 block radius* in downtown Olympia may enjoy it along with me.
*Oh, heck, yes, 5 blocks, easy.
I’ve got extra-robust aveoli-packed lungs and a particularly penetrative singing voice. Like sonar, in reverse. You can feel your bones rattle and your sinuses clear after one little verse of ‘Row Your Boat’ issuing from the healthy pink Oly-lungs, so imagine what a rousing geo-duck song will do for the lucky, lucky local populace!
Okay, I caught up on all the threads I missed, and firstly, I am NOT Willie Mays, dadgummit! The idea!
*grumble *
(scratches heavy beard and shouts enthusiastically: ‘only 19.98 plus shipping!’ )
Hahahahaah!
And I am now going to go grub around for details on Gray’s Harbor co. Do we have any HBBers from Gray’s Harbor? ‘Cause I would love to hear from you on this.
I was just astounded, driving around. It’s never been a thriving sort of concern, full of little towns which depended mostly on timber and fishing, which haven’t been doing so well for quite some time now, but still!
I was out there maybe half a year ago and things looked shabby in all the towns then. Now? Well, it’s wayyyy worse. Stores shuttered, leaning ‘for sale, signs everywhere, general creeping decrepitude…
Saddening, because I love little towns.
I was just funnin’, Oly. Glad you’re back.
Okay, Dr. F, I forgive you.
…And, as a gesture of my forgiveness, you, and only you, for a very limited time, can buy a giant bucket of Oxy-clean for only $19.98 plus shipping! And if you act now, I will include a free bucket! Yes, that’s correct, a free bucket, at no extra charge!
I remember going fishing near Grays Harbor in the Chehalis Riv for sea run cutthroats in my youth. Remember South Bend with every other house for sale for 15k. First time I saw moss growing on the roof.
Tell me more! Por favor.
I love stories. That’s my middle name: it is ‘I Love Stories’.
Come on, don’t doubt me.
I want to hear.
Olygirl - Later that week I traveled to Quinalt and stayed at the lodge. Saw a Cubs game on their satellite. Remember on the beach south of the Quinalt River there were cars driving on the beach and people were digging razor clams. Didn’t see any Goeyducks because the beach was too sandy. Lots of grizzly bears up behind (toward Olympia) the lodge. Had to watch out if you were fishing for salmon.
NOW.
Didncha hear me? I want to hear.
I’m so sorry, p-clamy. I apologize for getting bossy and demanding. I just am in a very eager story-hearing mood, where I shall recall every detail for forever and ever, which is what good story-hearers do.
Say, how about if I pester you later for your details, if you feel like it at some other date?
Okay, then, good night p-clamy. I’m bustin’ out to the forest now.
Oh, so that’s what’s up with the “geoduck”…
Oh, they’s ‘up’ alright…
*snicker *
Just think, if you owned a county you could name yourself sheriff and get one of those light bars for the top of your car. And you could pass ordinances.
And you could have your own hospital and gas station.
And you could personally design all the military uniforms!
Do you think all the other countries would still respect you in the morning, if your Armed Forces wore assless chaps and pink epaulettes?
Soz, the heat seems to have fried my brain a little.
A friend from TX emailed me a moment ago and said that they’re just about to have a thunderstorm. I made little whimpering noises, as I know I won’t see rain for another 3 months or so…
Do you think all the other countries would still respect you in the morning, if your Armed Forces wore assless chaps and pink epaulettes?
HAHAHAHAHAAHAH! Oh, gosh, that was funny!
…and get one of those light bars for the top of your car….your own hospital and gas station…
Seriously. You guys are a bunch of geniouses. I’ll say it again—the best blog ever.
The sad part is that I passed up the chance to get an old police-car light bar at an interesting yard sale only last year. This was down south, near Rochester, a rather interesting sort of area, much like a mini-Gray’s Harbor all by itself.
The guy tried to persuade me to buy it by saying: ‘You could put it up on your bedroom wall above your bed head-board, and turn it on sometimes!’
I just looked at him in wonderment and my mouth came open, but—and this is an incredibly rare event—no sounds came out. There were so many possible responses that I had a verbal log-jam and was rendered temporarily mute.
Do you think all the other countries would still respect you in the morning, if your Armed Forces wore assless chaps and pink epaulettes?
What better way to strike fear into the hearts of red-blooded fightin’ men than to make them face troops so badassed (so to speak) that they can wear anything into battle and get away with it?
If you lost a battle to a division of men (and women?) dressed all-out for a Poison show circa 1987, you couldn’t get respect even from countries without a standing army.
What better way to strike fear into the hearts of red-blooded fightin’ men than to make them face troops so badassed (so to speak) that they can wear anything into battle and get away with it?
Verily, you are so correct that you are correctness cubed!
…Hey, you wanna be Vice-Emperor of a rural PNW county?
The benefits will probably be great. Plus, a nice safe and forested environment for the child…
ET,
When Italy invaded Greece during WWII, the Italians made jokes about the Greek Army uniform, which included a skirt.
But the outnumbered Greek Army kicked them in the ass and drove them back into Albania. Only after the GERMANS rushed several crack units into the fight could the Greeks be defeated.
Only after the GERMANS rushed several crack units
Oh, I like zee Tchermans.
*pats zee fluffy blonde head in a congratulatory fashion *
…Except that they aren’t very funny or enjoyable to hang out with, unless there’s a bunch of beer handy.
…unless there’s a bunch of beer handy.
But luckily there often is.
Why else do you think I home-brew?
So zee Tchermans can relax in zee forest.
DennisN - Have you read “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” by Louis de Bernieres?
Really good work of fiction about the Greeks during WWII - and yes, they were as tough as nails.
And, those poor Greek soldiers, even today, have to stand to attention in skirts and shoes with pompoms on.
Much like the Buzbys worn by the Coldstream Guards outside of Buckingham Palace, the ‘dress’ uniform is a tribute to a by-gone age.
Thanks for the historical perspective, Dennis.
I believe assless chaps (or skirts) would be particularly effective for a crack unit of paratroopers …
Same for me too. I get one of the first posts of tomorrow. And tomorrow is not even here yet. But I suppose that by the time I wake up tomorow will be today.
As for Oly’s duck dream I have no comment. I would not want to be executed in Olyland.
Me either (Oly how do you speel Ether)?
Hmmm. You speel it with at leat twow ieeeis.
*giggle *
“What you guys eatin’ down in Florida?”
Blackened grouper, chicken salteado, filet, mushrooms, PCP, General Tso’s Felis Catus, Karenia brevis. The basics.
Loved that comment from yesterday, Muggy. Oh! Hi Oly.
Ben’s at it again! He sent my OlyPost to Pluto.
Cancel my prescription ( Chill, Oly, it can be done more ways than once, including subscription ) to the resurrection. also, except for The End, didn’t like the Doors.
Oly, how do you spell Guuuge? Good to see you back OLY GAL.
OK. As I go to sleep, probably no one will acknowledge this, and yep, it is what it is.
I quit gambling in 1993. That is a story. However, I bet Oly Gal will respond to me some day. With humility, learned lessons, and sincerity, this person is betting only with my heart.
Hi ATE! How are you? Sorry to read about your jerky idjit boss. You should teach him a lesson by being happy and prancing around merrily, is what I say.
….Say, you’re a rather dramatic fellow, aren’t you. What, are you a Scorpio or something? Or just an ardent devotee of daytime television shows?
(Now, don’t be mad and come kill me for teasing you lightly, okay? I wouldn’t tease you if I thought you couldn’t handle it.)
Thank you Oly. It’s not as bad as it looks, Oly. Boss and I both played professional sports at various levels. A cat fight, see above re “Some Girls”.
Hey Oly, to make a point clear, and I hope you get it, I don’t give a crap about stuff, or my supposed athletic background.
I don’t even know what ‘Some Girls’ is. Is it a joke I missed while I was gone?
You guys excluded me!
Now I’m going to flounce away in a pouty fashion
*flounces away in a pouty fashion *
We love you no matter what.
Once? Beyonce, what is it Oly?
My Friends, I withdraw from what I said.; It is just nice to feel like you can fall in love again. Seriously, it is nice, and I am in such good company, I don’t know, maybe sometimes, how to act, sounds gay or something, huh?.
Oly, is it just me, or does this thread feel like the “Some Girls” album?
I already tole you I don’t know what they’s is!
If it’s a joke I was excluded from I’ll probably hit someone! Twice!
Jeeze!
*subsides into grumbles *
Whoah, I’m like, in the future, man. It’s still the 29th!
The future comes earlier and earlier these days doesn’t it?
Maybe Ben’s just tired of getting up in the middle of his night to accomodate the East coasters with the bits bucket for the day. He’s tired of them (us) standing on his doorstep in the middle of the Arizona night chanting “open, open, open”.
Yeah, but isn’t Ben cool?
That he is.
Yo. Ben rocks!
Ben rocks cubed.
The future comes earlier and earlier these days doesn’t it?
Show-off. Some people are too fancy for they own good.
(that’s you.)
Yep, time flies when you’re having fun! But fruit flies like a banana!
Insomnia……..it’s a beautiful thing……..
Or are these 9pm sunsets screwing up anybody else’s internal clock?
Nah, Ben’s just sleeping more normal hours. He’s not up at 4am to get the Bits Bucket going for those of us on the east coast.
Ben- is that anywhere near close to the truth?
The bits bucket has got to be an auto-generated post. Ben would have gone crazy long ago if he got up at 4 am to post an empty topic for the early morning nutjobs.
It’s not the 9 pm sunsets. It’s the 5:00 sunrises!
Just be glad you don’t live someplace that’s very far north, like Sweden or Iceland.
I hate the really late sunsets this time of year. I guess I’d make a terrible Alaskan. Fortunately, the sunset is on the way to getting earlier now we are past the solstice. Of course, the heat in the DC area doesn’t help much either, but that can be dealt with if you have enough electricity.
Oh, and my knee is still acting up a bit. Evidently I like to sleep with my legs bent quite a lot. The cut up one still doesn’t like to bend all the way. Seems mostly to effect falling BACK asleep. Woke up at 4:15 this morning and never got back at all. Finally got up at 6:00 and put ice on my knee for a while before getting ready for work. Sigh.
Polly, is sounds like you’re on your way to becoming one of those phenoms that can predict weather changes with body pain!
Oh, I hope not. Isn’t that arthritis? The doc said the inside of my knee was fine except for the one tear.
Sorry, Polly.
Get well soon!
Thanks, Pondering.
It is better. Much better. The scars are sort of cute (two little x’s/plus signs). A bunch of friends this weekend said they looked great. Well, not great, but not like they were barely a week old.
The problem is I don’t have great sitting posture. I like to sit cross legged even in my office chair. Can’t quite get there yet, so I am a little frustrated. And I had no idea I bent my legs so much while sleeping. Just wasn’t aware of it at all.
How tall are you? Women sit cross legged because it’s one way to get your feet to touch the floor. My feet dangled all the way through school, and I’m convinced it’s ruining my knees. Get a footstool for under your feet and you’ll be much more comfortable.
I’m pretty short. I have a box of old federal regulations under my desk to use as a foot stool (its about 8 inches high) and a real foot stool at home, but it doesn’t change the habit of a lifetime. I like sitting cross legged. Since the tear is the first issue I’ve had with my knees and the doc says it all looks good on th inside, I’ll assume that sitting this way isn’t very damaging. Not sure if dangling feet cause their own issues.
haha i think women sit with legs crossed to have pity on the male teachers/presenters/ people standing in the front of the room. It just develops as a habit from there…
I could only imagine (trying) teaching a class full of 18 year old women wearing skirts with legs uncrossed while staying focused on the topic at hand.
Umm…I don’t mean with one leg crossed over the other at the thigh and the other one on the floor. I mean with each foot under the thigh of the opposite leg. Like children sitting on the floor for storytime at the library. Old (politically incorrect) descriptor was “indian style.” Generally limited to times you are wearing slacks or voluminous peasanty skirts.
So…you saying young legs distract you from multivariable calculus? Or abstract algebra? Quick, what is purple and commutes?
I mean with each foot under the thigh of the opposite leg. Like children sitting on the floor for storytime at the library. Old (politically incorrect) descriptor was “indian style.” Generally limited to times you are wearing slacks or voluminous peasanty skirts.
Oww my knees hurt just thinking about it..
To yoga class with you, InMontana…
I know plenty of people who say the same thing.
“I have a box of old federal regulations under my desk to use as a foot stool (its about 8 inches high)”
LOL, polly. Only inside the Beltway.
Oh, and I wanted to respond to your comments about corp’s yesterday, but didn’t see them in time. Maybe we’ll take it off-line, or wait for it to come up again…
Whenever you like. Can’t promise my availability to repsond on any given day, but start talking in a bits bucket and I’ll try to answer.
“An abelian grape”
(honestly, I had to look that up)
Correct. I love that one. Maybe because when I hear it my brain goes right back to thinking that “commutes” refers to math, not riding on an over crowded metro train.
Ahh…the pretensions of youth….
I have a box of old federal regulations under my desk to use as a foot stool
Ah, Polly, you do know that CFR doesn’t stand for “comfortable foot rest”?
Evidently I like to sleep with my legs bent quite a lot.
What, like a freakin’ fruit bat? I was just watching a special in HD about those. Pretty amazing.
Truly, though, Polly, I have kept you in my thoughts ever since your surgery and recall, if you would, that I asked Baby Jeebus to make your new knee bionic.
…How’s that going, by the way?
Hey! Good Morning guys! Looks like I may be getting assigned to the FT Meade area next year. What I am getting is that prices are high and traffic sucks..Guess I will keep renting and get on post housing.
“getting assigned to the FT Meade area next year”
Sounds like a much safer location. Unless the local f’d borrowers start preparing personal balance sheets.
So how’s your pashto or dari? I’m guessing those guys need your language skills.
I have many mental gifts but foreign language skill isn’t one of them. I have a friend who works back there who speaks something stupid like 9 languages - I don’t know how he does it.
Yes, rent or live on base. Settlement costs to the buyer in Maryland are exorbitant, so there’s another reason not to buy.
Although the Ft. Meade area is not one of the nicer areas of Maryland, you will be just a short drive from a lot of great destinations: Ballimer’s Inner Harbor, Oriole Park at Camden Yard, the Annapolis historic district, numerous excellent crab and seafood restaurants, and of course all the museums and other attractions of “federal” D.C. Even the ocean beaches are only a few hours away.
Enjoy your tour there.
Well of course the immediate area aroung the post is surrounded by the same sorts of businesses that surround ALL large Army posts. Although probably a lower quotient of tittybars than around some posts. And the area is still quite expensive, so on post housing is definately the way to go, although I’m not sure what the supply of on post housing is like.
That’s one of these local areas that people are convinced is “different” thanks to BRAC and the expected tens of thousands of new jobs in the Ft Meade area. The few people I know who are still interested in RE investment these days talk up that area .
Yes, BRAC will “save us” from the horrors of affordable housing as millions of rich military people descend upon Maryland and bid up the prices on mediocre housing. Insanity, but that’s the driving force in this state.
Because an E-5s BAH of $1721 will support 450k house prices….NOT.
In fairness, I think the BRAC RE “it’s different” argument is centered more around additional contractors, not civil servants or active duty.
My sister lives in Fell’s Pt., not far from Inner Harbor. I’ll probably end up in the area in a few months. Maybe by February.
Yeah! Another DC area HBBer. We need more. The “it’s different here” quotient in this area is enormous. The only thing different about the area is that a small percentage of the jobs are unlikely to disappear. Not enough to sustain the prices we have.
You know, we should probably have another get DC HBBer get together. Maybe when the Metro’s functioning at full speed again.
Another? When was the first one? How’d I miss that yet make it all the way to Vegas?
Quite a while ago, bink. Before your time unless you lurked for ages before you started posting.
I’ve been here for years. I lurked for several before posting. In fact, I remember the days of 0 comments on many posts.
OK. Well, we did have one. I think Xenos was one of the organizers, wasn’t he? He definitely attended. Near Union Station one evening, as I recall.
I’m guessing 2006? 2007? At a bar located in the former main post office next to Union Station.
I was wrong, January of ‘08:
http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/?p=3978
We ought to start calling Washington, DC the Magic Kingdom with all the sleight of hand tricks coming out of that place.
Ooops, that must be Mickey and a SWAT Team of lawyers banging on my door?
If you wanted to rent off-post, the city of Columbia, Md. is not very far away, and is generally a bit nicer than most of that part of Maryland. I wouldn’t recommend buying anything in Md./Va. for a long time to come. Prices have been surprisingly sticky in all but the most outlying areas.
Trust me, I wont…
That would sum up most of central Maryland:
1) The housing prices are insane here and who knows if/when they will ever correct. We’re only down 10% to 15% total from the peak. Still pleny of staggeringly overpriced junk on the market, some of it sitting for years since “housing only goes up!” This state also has a frightening number of single professionals in their late 20’s to 30’s who have to have room-mates paying rent to “afford” their crud-shack in Baltimore, etc. Unreal…
2) Traffic is bad, yes.
3) Taxes are high and the state government is amazingly stupid.
About the only plus sides are: the climate is reasonable, the job market is decent (thanks to living near The Money Pit of DC), and Maryland has plenty of state parks everywhere.
Yes,
I am a network engineer and the jobs are aplenty (especially in the Army). About the only thing Obama has done right is create CYBERCOM. We were looking when we thought we were going to stay at Bragg, but two one year combat deployments in three years got me out of the mindset of the 82nd Airborne! But I retire in ‘13 and I dont plan on buying anything anywhere until that time. I think the housing market is going to level out lower and flatline for years to come except in markets like FT. Meade.
My sister is a technology recruiter in the Arlington Area. She has several advanced degrees and is making alot of money. But the cost of living eats it up. I always ask her why she doesnt come home(N.C.). She always cites the money she makes. I tried to tell her it always even out. But she wont listen…
Well except for the legal regime and taxes, NoVA is even worse than Maryland. Worse traffic, higher prices (unless you’re WAY far out)
I thought the USAF was already cornering the market on cyber-warfare.
That would actually be a cool computer game. Something like “Risk” updated to the 21st century.
Stepn2Me, if you can get into CYBERCOM stuff and information security after you retire in 2013, maybe go consulting, you’ll find goldmines in New Jersey and Maryland. Lotta money in that stuff. No recession in it either.
Speaking of consulting, my engineering contract was just extended through the end of December. I’m looking forward to another winter Solstice festivity in Los Angeles in December.
Traffic in the DC metro area is frickin unbelievable. Easily rivals anything that LA or NY has to offer. I like to call 495 “405 East” for those who get the joke. I grew up in Los Angeles. DC is like Orange County with trees. Same demographic, same f’ed up attitudes.
I slipped and made an offer today/yesterday. This time warp is confusing.
I enjoyed your choice of words, Dude. I’ve been trying to figure out if I’m weak to the powerful pull of seeing a nice home in my “how much a month” comfort zone mired in this “it’s different here” school district or am I sitting and watching the best opportunities pass me by before a “great inflation” begins.
But I believe you’re in Cali so perhaps congratulation are in order on nabbing a great deal your family can enjoy many happy years in. I look forward to hearing how things go.
Aw man, dude, shoulda come here first for an intervention.
Tell us about it.
I’m pretty close to slipping, too. I hope it turns out well for you!
I’ll be slipping after my summer vacation. Told my realtor to dust off the letter of intent forms because I’m going to start “fishing” soon and don’t feel like initialing page after page after page each time I’m submitting an offer that will probably be rejected anyway.
But I do believe, like in fishing, that if you cast the line out enough times, something will bite.
Have fun lobbing lowballs!
I hope you bean yourself a tasty fish! (How’s that for a terrible mixing of metaphors?)
We had offered 275 cash. The bank countered at 321, a 4K reduction from asking of 325. The seller’s agent suggested to ours ( a mensch) that her experience was that if we counter-countered half way between at 298 they’d probably go for it.
There’s a small problem though. Today I drove a round the area a bit more. Within 1/2 mile of the prop there is a fenced/gated lot with a big official looking public notice on it. It declares that property to be sovereign, and not subject to the governance of the state of California.
Ruby Ridge within rifle range? I think not!
Tribal lands. Very cool.
Uncertainty Clouds Recovery of U.S. Investment in GM
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
If a new General Motors emerges from bankruptcy as planned, U.S. financial aid for the company will expand to nearly $50 billion, but neither the government nor the company is forecasting how much of the public money will be repaid.
It’s sure to be a stretch. For the United States to fully recover its investment, the value of General Motors stock will have to reach levels it has never before attained.
“I’m not going to predict it — that’s not my job today,” GM chief executive Fritz Henderson said in a recent interview.
“I don’t know how much we’re going to recover,” a senior Obama administration official said as the company headed into bankruptcy last month.
This uncertainty stems from the difficulty in valuing the 60 percent GM stake that the United States will receive in exchange for the public investment. The government also gets preferred shares and other compensation.
The stake will be worth enough to fully cover the government’s direct investment only if GM’s stock rises above $68 billion. Even at its recent 2000 peak, GM’s stock was worth only $56 billion.
“If a new General Motors emerges from bankruptcy as planned, U.S. financial aid for the company will expand to nearly $50 billion,”
Throwing bad money after bad.
To save how many UAW jobs?
But my wife loves her new Toyota.
No kidding, but they can be counted on to work those phone banks - now more than ever.
I bought a brand new loaded Toyota Tacoma 4×4 back in ‘03. I ended up selling it in ‘05 because it was too small for me. My dog was too large to fit inside, and I couldn’t haul everything I needed to. But, I loved that truck. Never had so much as a problem, and I know it’s still running perfectly as I sold it to a friend (gave him a better deal than I probably should have being overly nice). But, I’m not so sentimental about it anymore.
I just read that the frames on all Tacoma’s from 95 until current are rusting out so badly that they’ve actually had to buy back or warranty millions of vehicles, and the numbers are growing. If it’s model year 95-00 for which they no longer produce the frame, they are paying owners high blue book + 50%, and if it’s 2001-2004, they are doing a full frame replacement as they still make that frame. Yes, replacing the frame. Talk about labor intensive. And, I’m not sure I’d want my entire vehicle dismantled and reassembled. At any rate, the pictures of what’s happening to those frames are frightening. They’re basically turning into swiss cheese, especially in the northern states where they salt their roads. Looks like the big 3 aren’t the only ones producing a sub standard product. Google Toyota Tacoma frame rust and click images. Unbelievable. Some trucks are actually breaking in half.
I just read that the frames on all Tacoma’s from 95 until current are rusting out so badly that they’ve actually had to buy back or warranty millions of vehicles, and the numbers are growing.
Interesting. I have a ‘99 4Runner, which I’m pretty sure is built on top of the Tacoma frame. Gonna have to look into that. Thanks for bringing this up.
It was ‘08 they started taking them in. My bro-in-law had a ‘98 Tacoma 4cyl 4×4 crew cab that needed a bunch of work, figured he’d get $3k for it when he sold it.
Instead he got $9,500, plus dealership gave him another $3,000 if he bought a new car from them.
Pretty sweet deal.
Wow! Somebody goofed.
C’mon, did anyone really believe we were ever going to get our money back from that black hole?
It’s gone, people. The only question is how many more of our tax dollars are going to disappear.
I save my disappearing-tax-dollar bile for AIG.
No kidding. Detroit is a failed industry. AIG is a massive crime.
Well their CDSs blew up faster than a Pinto.
So many perps… so few guillotines.
‘“I’m not going to predict it — that’s not my job today,” GM chief executive Fritz Henderson said in a recent interview.’
Quote of the week!!
He’s lucky to have a job at all. We’ll never get the money back, we’ll just get another 5 years of terrible cars before the towel is thrown in for good.
I felt so bad for GM and Chrysler that I went out yesterday and bought a Lexus. Sorry, but American cars are crap, except the Z06 Vette. They are built to fall apart. My last Lexus was trouble-free for 10 years. Why change?
Sorry Detroit. I’d like to help but…
I drove a Ford Escort for 125k miles (college/early career).
I am driving a 98 Jeep Cherokee (now my weekend rig) that just passed 250k miles. I’ve only replaced the radiator and an alternator along with regular maintenance. My goal is to keep it until 400k.
Like it or not, real people are getting real use out of American cars.
I owned a ford escort in college too. Biggest piece of crap I have ever owned. I never knew how to seal blocks, how transmissions worked, what gaskets were, why antifreeze shouldnt mix with oil, etc, etc, until I owned a ford. My dad bought a 86 toyota 4 runner which I still have today. He told me “this is a good truck”, and he was right. Today I own an 08 Tundra, and a Mercedes M-class. Both are the best cars I have ever owned. I will NEVER buy american again…
Regardless of what most people think, cars are a reflection of the individual. I just like nice cars…
Let GM die, another quality car maker will come along..
I owned a Ford Escort and it was the last American car I would ever buy. Gas pedal fell off, steering wheel caught fire, 3 gaskets blown, 3 alternators…….
Steering wheel caught fire? If it was any other make and model I probably wouldn’t believe you.
Regardless of what most people think, cars are a reflection of the individual. I just like nice cars…
I drive a Subaru Impreza wagon that cost me 10K cash out the door with only 17K on the odometer…..what does that say about me?
BTW….you can buy good cars built (partially) here in America. The Nissan Frontier I gave my dad was built in Tennessee. My moms Pontiac Vibe was assembled in California.
Before anyone say’s “yeah, but the parts are sourced elsewhere”……doesn’t every auto manuf. source parts from around the world including GM, Ford Chrysler?
“I will NEVER buy american again…”
All because you had one bad experience with the lowest class of American car?…was it built in the 80s?
I don’t really care who buys what since, as it was noted, most cars have parts from all over anyway. And it is true that a bad reputation is hard to shake. Personally, other than a few mid-size sedans, I would probably buy a “foreign” vehicle as well (small car or pickup).
But I’m over the “American cars are crap” line of reasoning.
Why is that every time I hear someone badmouth Big 3 cars, half the time:
-The car they owned was a bottom-feeder (Escort, Pinto, etc.)
-The story was from 15-20-25 years ago, and/or
-The car was a rental.
Other than a stint with Fords in the mid 80s to early 90s, I’ve been a Chrysler guy since about 1977. The worst thing that every happened was that an AC line blew off our 1996 Plymouth (retaining clip wasn’t seated all the way), which was fixed under warranty…….oh, and the head gasket started leaking oil @ 100K miles (changed myself in a leisurely day and a half. Ex-wife’s new hubby drives it now, still runs strong.
You still see a lot of US cars and trucks from the 70s and 80s on the road around here…..you might see an occasional old Mercedes or BMW. Audis, VWs, anything made in Japan? The German cars have broken something expensive, and the Japanese cars rusted away 10 years ago.
Almost all manufacturers significantly improved their quality in the mid to late 90s.
However, your average, affordable American car still has an inferior “fit and finish” and “ride quality” compared to its foreign counterpart and often offers less standard features.
Combine with the fact that most dealerships do their best to screw you hard and often, and it’s obvious Detroit shot itself in the foot… again.
All because you had one bad experience with the lowest class of American car?…
Well,
If american cars even at the lowest class was well made, maybe the public would have a better impression of them. Even the lowly Toyota Tercel has a better track record than the pinto, escort, taurus, chevette..etc,etc…
“…Regardless of what most people think, cars are a reflection of the individual….”
Yes.
“Sorry, but American cars are crap…”
Read my post above about Toyota frames snapping in half.
They are built to fall apart.
Just shows you how hard it is to change a bad impression.
That might have been true in the ’70’s-’80’s, but Detroit really has made some incredible gains.
The #1 and #2 cars in the recent JD Powers Relliability Study are Buick and Jaguar
(Ford), unseating Lexus.
From personal experience, I’ve had four Fords in the last 10 years with not even moderate problems with any of them. My ‘96 Explorer has 155k on it and runs like a top.
Currently own two Fords -
a 2001 ZX2 (escort) and a 2009 Mariner.
I was going to keep the Escort, but two friends are trying to buy it from me. I guess it’s the gas mileage that attracts them. Haven’t had any of the problems the other owners noted, only the timing belt went.
I bought the Mariner after a lot of research. Am very happy with the purchase and learned only after owning it for a month or so that it was a Consumer Report pick for 2009.
Who knew?
Jaguar(Tata, motors) not Ford any longer
Jaguar(Tata, motors) not Ford any longer
The Jaguar in the article was designed and built by Ford before the sale to Tata.
(Tata. I love that name)
You can’t build crap-ola for 30 years and then all-of-a-sudden build quality - then ask why no one is buying…
Exactly.
You can’t build crap-ola for 30 years and then all-of-a-sudden build quality - then ask why no one is buying…
Yes, but you can you build crap-ola for 30 years and then build decent cars for 15 and ask why people won’t give you a second chance.
It wasn’t “all-of-a-sudden”
Decent won’t cut it- sorry.
Question about those rankings. Are they for the latest model year? Because most cars aren’t going to fall apart for a few years. I’m looking for a vehicle that will last 10+ years. Lexus has the best track record dating back many years. It’s their body of work that I like, and I have personal experience with an LS 400. Still an incredible car 13 years later. But much like that purchase (bought a 1996 lease return in 1999 for almost 1/2 the price of new), the one I bought is also almost 1/2 off with about the same mileage (38k). These things cost you a lot less in the long run, and by buying a few years old, you get an amazing vehicle and avoid the initial depreciation hit.
Sorry resale on American cars are mostly crap. It’s sad but it is just one more thing Americans cannot do right.
It’s a long list unfortunately!
Lets start a pool as to when the new GM will go bankrupt.
I pick May 2010.
I pick “The sooner the better”
Never. They now have access to an endless supply of the tax payer’s money.
They now have access to an endless supply of the tax payer’s money. That money’s gone. GM does have access to an endless supply of Federal Reserve promises.
I’m amazed at the MJ mess. We were watching the news last night, and gathered that he left 3 kids with no one appointed as a guardian just in case of his death, no will, no trust, $500m in debt, and boy, what a pad he was renting for supposedly over $100K a month, with no real way of paying it. Boy, turn me into a renter ! The house was finished in 2002, cost $18m, and is owned by a “recording industry executive”. Now the kids are evidently sleeping in sleeping bags from Target at Grandma and Grandpa’s. Small countries don’t have that much debt.
In his case, money didn’t buy either happiness or contentment, apropos The Overdog’s comment yesterday.
Sadly, even gobs of money can’t do anything about the debilitating effects of mental health issues.
He could have saved so much more by renting away from the maddening crowds:
$12000 Magnificent Mansion (Baldwinsville, NY)
For rent, per month. The finest house in Central New York, an English Tudor, 27 room Mansion, with slate roof, Tiffany windows, Mercer / Moravian tile and 5/4 Cherry dowled, Stickley cabinets and woodwork. 7 fireplaces, 6 baths. A prestigious building for your executive offices, or living. Plenty of parking. A Ward Wellington Ward building,, like the Wellington House in Fayetteville. For more information call 315-635-3224, or e-mail RMW1@TWCNY.RR.COM
I suppose, for Mr.Jackson, security was always an issue so it was true he couldn’t be in just any home but for a man once considered a shrewd steward of his money the mental deterioration appears to have invaded every facet of his former abilities save the stage. Reminds me of my good friend whose father is a powerful judge in another state. Personal life deteriorating into madness yet he was able to keep his “performance” in the courtroom on track for years.
MJ would have done well on the Oil City plan. [i.e., buy $50-100K home outright in flyover boonie, semi-homestead garden/orchard, volunteer at church, work at Borders for cash money]. Actually I think a lot of these stars belong on the Oil City plan.
LOL, thanks for resurrecting Oil City!
Whose got that Ron Shuffeld quote while we’re at it?
The record execs prob allowed him to live for free in the mansion, and added it to his tab.
We have a winner.
+1
Like I said, poverty appeals only to the wealthy. In this case, MJ apparently loved being broke.
TEE HEE!!!!!!!!!
It’s unbelievable that he had no provision for a guardian. He probably thought he would live forever.
It was wildly irresponsible, IMHO…
It’s really surprising that he left no estate plan of any kind. Maybe he had lots of “hidden assets” that he didn’t want published in an estate plan.
An estate plan - even for his complicated holdings - would only be a week’s work for a lawyer.
I’ve got to sit down and draw up an updated will myself. I’ve already done the research in the ID state law library. ID has adopted the uniform probate code so it’s easy to write a will here - no stupid “need 3 witness signatures” outliers.
I updated my will last Christmas time*. In case I fall out of a tree onto a bonfire, or something else exciting like that. And I thought about my freshly updated will once or twice when I was driving to Christmas in Utarr, about 8,000 miles in 4-wheel drive, over nothing but ice. (Although I noticed that Idaho is a big believer in the lavish salting of highways. Soon as I got over the Snake River, I mean, the INSTANT I passed into Idaho, I could see pavement again.)
Luckily for me, prayers, screaming, loudly bellowed Christmas carols and exciting cussing in equal measures got me through the Gorge, through Idaho, and down the road to my mom’s, where I could climb on the snow-covered goat shed in bedroom slippers to throw snowballs, and drunkenly ride snowmobiles through nightime apple orchards in perfect safety and comfort.
*Rachel gets to be executor, and I bequeathed her all my books, too.
Hahahaaha! That’s one of them there ‘left-handed blessings’.
Oly,
They don’t use ANY salt (NACL) on the roads in Idaho.
They use a lot of sand and things like magnesium chloride instead.
See http://itd.idaho.gov/ida-road/WinterMaint-MgCl.htm .
MJ was mentally ill. I suspect that years of abuse by his father while he was growing up played a major role. In a lot of ways MJ was a victim.
Sad way to go. He was a rare talent. One of the greats.
He seemed to have regressed to a child-like mental state. If you saw that interview program that aired all over TV, it was odd. Kids were the only ones not out to take advantage of his money, so I guess he trusted them. Plus he never had a childhood being a star. It definitely messed his head up something good.
If he was just another pedophile living next door to you, you wouldn’t call him a great talent, nor would you call him rare. You would be calling the police and the screaming at the top of your lungs ” not in my neighborhood.”
I believe what hasn’t been proven yet is whether he did anything to those boys or whether his issues only made him an easy mark.
When one studies the mentally or learning disabled it doesn’t take long to discover that sometimes their issues lead them to “sins” and sometimes they’re just oh so easy to set up because they’re weird. The studies often outline this phenomenon.
Read the Newsweek Jacko article by Quincy Jones today. It seems he was over the top shy at 12 years old too. Quincy had to turn off the lights and not look at him while he practiced. Made me wonder if he suffered from an aspie/autie thing. One could easily imagine how a persecuted innocent who already struggled w/being understood could fall into a self medication/obliteration issue.
I don’t know. These are just random observations from flashes of media bites.
You’re right banana. at least I think so.
I head everything was left to his kids with his mom as caretaker. Note, his mom, not his parents.
I’d say it’s time to coin a new media moniker. Penniless Joe Jackson.
Do you honestly believe all the media crap surrounding Jackson? At this point in time, it is entirely unclear whether he was broke, or not. It will take months to sort through his assets and liabilities in order to draw the appropriate conclusions. Just say no to the sensationalism.
I’m guessing that when all is sorted out, Jackson will have left several hundred million to his kids. It’s been reported that the Sony music catalog, of which he owns 50%, is worth $2 billion alone. That $1 billion would more than satisfy the $500 million in liabilities being reported, and those liabilites may be exaggerated. Contrary to all of the hype, it’s very likely that Jackson was far from broke.
Seemingly his assets outweigh his debts by over $200M, so all is not lost.
And the winner is… Sir “Bubbles”.
Poll finds Alan Greenspan to blame for credit crisis…
LONDON (Reuters) - Greedy bankers are routinely blamed for the credit crisis but one British-based poll of — well, financiers — spreads the blame more widely.
Gary Jenkins, Head of Fixed Income Research at Evolution Securities, wanted a more specific scapegoat and ran a poll of about 200 mostly fund managers and investors asking them to pick their credit crisis culprit.
Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was the clear winner, picking up 35 percent of the votes. Once considered one of the world’s greatest central bankers, he has been widely criticized over the past year for low interest rate policies that helped fuel the credit boom.
Former U.S. president Bill Clinton figured quite prominently with about 10 percent of votes, and British prime minister Gordon Brown also got quite a few.
Some bankers were singled out, including Fred Goodwin, former chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland and Richard Fuld, the head of Lehman Brothers, the U.S. investment bank which filed for bankruptcy protection last September.
There were a few more unusual choices: Adam Smith, the 18th century economist, the legendary King Midas, who turned everything he touched into gold, Sarah Beeny, who hosts property TV shows in Britain and Robert Peston, the BBC’s business editor.
Once considered one of the world’s greatest central bankers, he has been widely criticized over the past year for low interest rate policies that helped fuel the credit boom.
We have low interest rates today and NO credit boom. What fueled the credit boom was rampant fraud which occurred at every level of the system. Stated income loans and excessive consumer credit at ANY interest rate.
What seemed completely lost was the notion that debts have to be repaid with real income at some point!
And yes Greenspan was very much the culprit either way, although I speculate the financial systems are very complex and had picked up a serious instability oscillation. He made the classic mistake of over-steering in a sense.
“What fueled the credit boom was rampant fraud which occurred at every level of the system.”
And unfortunately, the rampant fraud and criminality at the top in politics and business tends to percolate down. Indeed, it may be the ultimate in trickle-down economics. I’m seeing it at work right now. And guess what? Managers don’t seem to care. Seriously. I guess I can’t blame folks. If they’re being rewarded for padding sales figures, expense accounts, and other things of that nature, who can blame them for doing it? After all, it is what they see around them, banksters and politicos raking it in, illegals gaming the system, fraudsters getting fat on fraud.
“If they’re being rewarded for padding sales figures, expense accounts, and other things of that nature, who can blame them for doing it?”
I can.
Such “managers” ought to be fired immediately. Then fined.
Same thing should happen to their bosses. And then perhaps jailed.
We have low interest rates today and NO credit boom.
That’s kind of like saying that since you ran across the freeway without looking this morning and didn’t get hit, that it must be safe.
Not that I would propose that the current low rates are a good thing - just that you can’t possibly deny that Greenspan’s insanely-low rates weren’t a primary contributor to the bubble.
GH,
I’m inclined to agree. Ben also likes to point out that crazy neg./am loans didn’t arrive on the scene until the bubble was already in full swing. In fact, one could easily assert that those loan prdts. were the -response- to rampant price run-ups. Simply by making the ‘payment’ ( not the principle ) “affordable”.
Still, I can’t see how anyone would say that it trickled ‘down’. The ramp up of MBS-securitization distribution channel ( again ) came as a -response- to locally generated re-finance and purchase activity. If it trickled down, then why from May of ‘07 on were “broker originated” loans unmarketable?
Once considered one of the world’s greatest central bankers, he has been widely criticized over the past year for low interest rate policies that helped fuel the credit boom.
We have low interest rates today and NO credit boom. What fueled the credit boom was rampant fraud which occurred at every level of the system
I agree with GH, low interest rates were not the cause of this crisis, it was securitization fraud, and a pay structure for banks and investment houses that encourages short term thinking with other peoples money. If banks had been forced to hold onto these assets most of the crappy loans out there today would not have been made.
Low rates + Confidence creates lending and thus increases prices.
Low rates + Fear does not create lending and thus prices do not rise.
Increasing the money supply via debt creates artificial (unsustainable) demand and therefore price increases.
Cheap money, plus rising prices invites fraud because of lack of perceived risk! Fraud certainly accelerated the boom, but fraud is not easily perpetrated upon skeptical individuals in a “stable price” market. Show them a market growing at “10%” and claim it is completely sustainable and a sure thing, and of course you can get people to take risks they wouldn’t normally take. Committing fraud (false income stats, owner occupied stats, appraisals, etc) is a “calculated risk” based upon the assumption that if the price goes up it will never be found out. People would not commit these kinds of fraud unless the boom was already started via low interest rates!
Yep.
Well right, during the dot.com craze a LOT of people claimed to have the financials to trade on margin and when they got hit w/ MC’s, they couldn’t cover them and went “negative equity”. Good luck collecting on ‘that’.
But when we move “upstream” we find a wasteland of smaller banks that lent to builders on a grand scale. No doubt these “developers” had no qualms about fluffinf their credentials as well. So I’ll make it simple, take the Fraud out of the equation and how much of a bubble/bust do you have?
Are we so jaded that simply having lower int. rates creates a Whole New Class Of Criminal? Are you guys trying to tell us that we should be able to predict crime waves based solely on the avail. of cheap credit?
I agree w/ Dan, all of the above becomes just another CR, unless the tide pulls out. But why were SO MANY willing to risk being “found out”? Fraud.
Another .02 (after some more pondering some more more):
I don’t really view “fraud” as a cause of the bubble - more like a medium for its existence. Blaming the bubble on fraud is kind of like blaming the 2005 flooding of New Orleans on “water”. Well yeah - technically it was water, but there’s water everywhere in the world at any given point in time - the key thing (the blame part) is - what caused all of the sudden concentration of water at that place in time, in places where it shouldn’t have been.
In the case of New Orleans, there was a natural contributor - hurricane Katrina, combined with bad human policy - the lack of proper engineering of the levees and the fact that a city was built below sea level. Since nothing can be done about the natural contributor - improvements must be made in the “bad human policy” part. We need to build better levees and/or stop making cities below sea level.
In the case of the housing bubble the same principle applies. Fraud is a part of human nature, and exists virtually everywhere. The housing bubble brought about a concentration of it in this time and place - the important thing to study is what caused this concentration of fraud. I think like New Orleans there was a “natural” contributor - the general business cycles and the human nature of herd mentality, along with some specific bad human policies. Since again not much an be done about business cycles and human herd mentality, you have to look at the bad policy things and find what went wrong, and not repeat those mistakes. And IMO the poll is fairly correct in placing Sir Alan at the top of the list of bad policy offenders, not only in his insane interest rate policy, but also in his pushing of the use of ARMs for affordability (even when rates were very low!). There were lots of other contributors as well. FWIW I have my own list of 20 different causes.
packman,
Not that AG wasn’t a HUGE factor ( how long have we been saying ‘that’ ) but only to the degree that’s it’s easier to point the finger at a (single) individual than it is at say the citizens of the U.S or the U.K or whatever.
In the end, all of those NOLA insurance claims WILL read: Water Damage. And it’s true, unless you’re in NV, we’re pretty much surrounded by water. But how much empathy should we have had we learned the people of the 9th Ward were pilfering away at the levee to use it for doorsteps and headstones? Had that been the case ( and for ‘our’ purposes of discussion, it ‘was’ ), it’s a LOT harder to make the case that “the President doesn’t CARE about FB’s!”
No doubt there will be policy revisions going forward but to discount the impact of Fraud at this point is past silly. I’ve yet to see a major project unravel where Fraud *isn’t being alleged. Just b/c ‘both’ the borrower and the mortgage broker lied on the loan app. doesn’t mean they ‘both’ didn’t commit Fraud.
Dude, “I’ve” never quite figured out, how *you to decide “what” to emphasize in YOUR posts, but I love reading “them.”
Muggy,
LOL, and thanks. It really is just a natural extension of my speech pattern.
For me, blogging is a much social as it is educational so why not at least try to make it entertaining conversation? One thing I could never understand is back in the day, we’d have trolls and they’d come back w/ a new screen name and completely different writing style!
Seems to me most here, talk, the way they think, and they write the way they talk. Seamless. Integrated. Mature.
Well said, packman. The desire and willingness to commit fraud is _always_ out there in some segment of the population.
The condition that allowed them to express that more than they typically can was the zero-standard (can you fog a mirror?) underwriting.
Prime,
I’ll say the d-e-s-i-r-e is always there ( the ‘willingness’? ) not so much. Even today, most of us are still afraid of going to jail.
But The Boom said it was “o.k” to fluff appraisals, income and even having a job! It’s not ‘Fraud’ if everyone… is doing it, right?
Goldman Sachs, read Rolling Stone.
It don’t matter kiris, why fight it.
Exactly kirisdad. GS owns this nation.
For the full article, click on my moniker.
Was there anything about Gramm-Leach-Bliley*, the NAR, or Ayn Rand? Or what about popular whippin’-boys Community Reinvestment Act and ACORN?
————-
*”The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) allowed commercial banks, investment banks, securities firms and insurance companies to consolidate.” (wiki) Investment banks, mortgage banks and savings banks could merge their way into a vertical monopoly and thus become too-big-to-fail.
Actually nothing about acorn, CRA or Ayn Rand. Alot about GLBA and Goldmans’ involvement. The story is mostly about bubbles( including the HB) since the great depression. My interest was peeked by the brazen fraud involving last years oil bubble and how many people died worldwide because of subsequent food shortages. It’s a bi-partisan must read.
Ayn Rand as a contributor - WTF? Given that her heyday of influence was in the 1950’s, and she set no actual policy (e.g. unlike FDR) - I’d love to hear your explanation of that one.
Seems as credible as the King Midas vote up there.
She was Greenspan’s girlfriend.
The explanation for Ayn Rand is the same as the one for Adam Smith.
It’s interesting that there are so many “blame” articles coming out all of the sudden. That’s the third one I’ve seen this week. There was one on The Big Picture blog two days ago, and one on MSN last week.
You know what the Romans used to say,”Who benefits?”
(Cui bono “To whose benefit?”, literally “as a benefit to whom?”)
The modern saying is “Follow the money.”
They were all to blame. It was collusion and conspiracy on a scale never before seen in history. But it takes time to follow all the threads. That’s why the scam always works.
FICO Scores Show Flaws as U.S. Banks Cut Consumer Credit Lines.
June 30 (Bloomberg) — When Sharii Rey, a paralegal in Portland, Oregon, had her credit limit reduced by JPMorgan Chase & Co. earlier this month, she said it would hurt her 760 credit score. That’s not the bank’s problem, she was told. It’s FICO’s.
After Rey’s $42,500 credit line was cut to $12,000, her debt relative to available funds almost quadrupled. This so- called utilization rate is a large component of the FICO formula and a higher ratio can lower a score. Rey, 62, is concerned a new FICO score will squash her ability to borrow.
Congressman Luis Gutierrez, an Illinois Democrat, says the FICO formula, the most widely used by U.S. lenders, has flaws as banks decrease loans to consumers, regardless of individual risk profiles. At least 30 million Americans had their credit limits reduced arbitrarily during the second half of 2008, FICO estimates. In the first quarter, New York-based JPMorgan and Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. in Charlotte, North Carolina, slashed $320 billion from credit lines, according to a report by former Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Meredith Whitney.
“Reductions to a consumer’s line of credit based upon the lending institutions’ overall appetite for risk has little or no bearing on a consumer’s own risk of default,” said Gutierrez, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit.
An individual’s FICO score is based on factors that aren’t directly related to JPMorgan’s decision to lower a credit limit, said Paul Hartwick, a spokesman for the biggest U.S. bank by market value.
Scaled-Back Lending
Banks have scaled back lending during the deepest U.S. recession in five decades. The Federal Reserve’s quarterly survey of senior loan officers released May 4 showed about 65 percent of banks lowered credit limits on new or existing credit-card customers, compared with 45 percent in the January survey.
“Rey, 62, is concerned a new FICO score will squash her ability to borrow.”
Had she been concerned that a lower FICO score would cost her a job opportunity or increase her insurance premiums, I’d have more sympathy. Assuming she is not a CFO trying to finance her company’s expansion plans, if the ability to borrow at age 62 is of great concern, I suspect she is already toast.
“After Rey’s $42,500 credit line was cut to $12,000, her debt relative to available funds almost quadrupled.”
The best way to solve this is to pay the debt. If you can’t TODAY, then there is a huge risk for the banks. She may have borrowed 6-8k in that LOC and I think that is chump change to pay off considering she HAD $42K LOC.
“Ken Jett, a 42-year-old licensed mental-health counselor, keeps his 12 credit cards in his desk. He said he hasn’t used them since February because he’s concerned about his credit score that has already dropped to 683 from 720.”
He’s a credit risk. If he losses his job, then it’s trouble for the banks.
regardless of individual risk profiles
Well then maybe they should have been looking at individual risk profiles in the first place, instead of relying solely on FICO.
All a 760 FICO indicates is that you’re living within your means. The problem is that the value of “means” depends on income. An exec with a 760 can afford a $600K house. A minimum wage grad student with a 760 can afford a $50K house tops. Oh, but those wascally banks didn’t bother to look at income, did they. Hence the strawberry-picker stories.
oxide,
IIRC that invloved -several- couples “pooling” their income in order to qualify in what’s been exposed as nothing more than “affinity fraud”.
I’m in no way defending the bank’s actions but this was flawed on the FRONT end to begin with. Garbage in/Garbage out. How is it that NAR allowed this gal ( which hasn’t been seen since ) to act as these picker’s MB AND… RE Agent?
The FICO system is garbage.
Exactly.
It really is. Case in point. We moved a few years back and Old Navy kept sending our statements to the old address. We notified them, and put in a change of address. They still got it wrong. It went to collection. The whole $57. Our FICO score was impacted by this event exactly the same as if we had a $20,000 collection.
Who came up with this crap?
FICO supposedly changed their “secret formula” a couple of months ago to minimize the effect of the under $100 debts.
banana,
And that’s precisely why I quit taking it seriously a couple of decades ago. For years… when my wife and I were first married, if it meant eating mac & cheese 6 nights a week, we paid everyone on time!
Then one day after dropping me off for work on a Saturday, she totaled out the car in an accident. Turns out our “full coverage” didn’t cover the full amount and we wound up w/ a “deficiency balance”. We GAVE all of the cancelled warranty money, made payments and STILL wound up w/ f’d up credit. Well, less than pristine anyway.
How was -any- of this “our” fault? That was 1990 and I haven’t taken it seriously since.
Well the problem is that banks and other assorted powers-that-be do take FICO seriously, even if you don’t. It was just too damn convenient to distill the whole person down to a little 3-digit number. So easy to put it into a computer program and decide if you’re eligible a discount on auto insurance.
On a side note, I wonder about those car insurance companies running a FICO. Does your FICO relate to how well you can operate a car. It wouldn’t surprise me if this winds up in court.
oxide,
It’s a problem if you’re actually in the market to borrow money. I’m *not. Haven’t been for some time. Besides, “I” really don’t think the savings lenders and financial micro-guru’s claim you’ll garner are anywhere -near- what they profess?
It would only be as good as your next fender-bender or late library book anyway. My fico is quite good actually and any time I’ve gotten a mortgage it was more of a direct negotiation anyway.
Why would I care what an auto insurer thinks when I walk to work?
““Reductions to a consumer’s line of credit based upon the lending institutions’ overall appetite for risk has little or no bearing on a consumer’s own risk of default,” said Gutierrez, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit.”
I call BS. People whose liquidity is decreasing due to tightening lending standards ARE at higher risk of default than those not caught in a liquidity trap.
In a de-leveraging environment, those with higher leverage fail first. The higher the balances they are carrying, the higher their leverage as banks trim credit-lines.
FICO is most likely becoming a _better_ indicator of credit risk as this thing progresses; it is certainly better now than it was a couple of years ago. And it will be more accurate still a year or two from now.
Prime,
Yeah you could look at it that way. I tend to view a great many of the “enviable FICO scores” during the boom as evidence of “Re-fi’ing to New You!”
People ran up their plastic, re-fi’d, “paid” it all down, had great avail. credit limits and then up’d the stakes for a second/third round!
I think it’s one of the aspects that annoys bubble bloggers most about the Boom?
““Reductions to a consumer’s line of credit based upon the lending institutions’ overall appetite for risk has little or no bearing on a consumer’s own risk of default,” said Gutierrez, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit.”
Well yes, but it DOES represent a change in lender’s PERCEPTION of the chance of default. Keep in mind the the “utilization ratio” has two parts. A borrowers propensity to borrow all the money that they can, AND the willingness of lenders to extend them credit. And the second part of that is simply the mob logic of the “efficient” market: “If everybody ELSE thinks they’re good risks, then WE don’t have to figure out whether they’re good risks.” So when EVERY lender is less willing to extend credit, EVERY lender is less willing to extend credit. Circular but just as true on the way down as the way up.
My wife is currently in upstate with the littleman, about to finish up a visit with grammy. It’s 100% upstate NY. There is no way, according to my lady, that we’re staying in Florida. I respect that… as soon as I finish my degree, we’re going to move.
If we had bought a house, we would be in trouble, even without the boom/bust.
I have time to reason this over with the HBB braintrust, but we’re 95% sure of the area we will live in when we move back (Fairport), and we will be committing to it for at least 20 years (friends, family, schools, etc.)
I’ve convinced my wife to rent for at least one year when we move back. After that, I think I will depleted my wife’s bubble-sit cache.
Is Fairport a suburb of Rochester?
yes
Fairport is an old canal town, so it’s not entirely ‘burbish. My parents now live there and have a small place. We’re specifically targeting the village, which has older colonial homes and high taxes. I can’t do the city thing anymore, but I do not want tract/exurbs. The schools and public safety are fine.
The only small holdout is if my wife can wrap her head around getting some acres between Rochester and Syracuse. If it were up to me, I’d be in Blue’s territory off the grid, but alas, my wife desires civilization. She’s obviously never experienced the joy of putting deer slugs into milk jugs, filled with water, off your back porch.
I would love recommendations, Blue. East side of Rochester, or maybe something like Farmington. I would love to be up in the hills of the Finger Lakes, but it’s just not in the matrimonial cards.
The long-term job outlook in upstate NY is terrible, isn’t it? I’d be wary of moving there. Not that Florida is any picnic, these days.
“The long-term job outlook in upstate NY is terrible, isn’t it?”
Yes, but if all goes well, my wife and I will serve the State of Florida via internet and VOIP phones. My freelance music gig is already via email/internet. Actually, the production company I work for will most likely be closing shop in NYC, and consolidating in L.A., hence my Calabasas question in yesterday’s Cali thread. My boss does not like the ad outlook, while the company is simultaneously making headway in TV. There was brief discussion of my family relocating to the left coast, but I’m over all that. I’ve decided to put my family before my career. The joke among us is rock stars get groupies, composers get wives, kids, and a house in the ‘burbs. I am very lucky that my freelance boss and I went through a lot together, so he doesn’t push me, and I know my limits. I’ll never be big time, but I fill a small gap, in a boutique company. They are a very traditional music house, but when a client needs off-the-wall, dark, heavy, or absurdly happy, I get the call. Everyone is happy.
These tubes are allowing a lot of freedom of movement for my family. Tubes.
Tubes, I tell ya!
They are a very traditional music house, but when a client needs off-the-wall, dark, heavy, or absurdly happy, I get the call. Everyone is happy.
Sounds like an interesting niche. Ain’t great that the ‘tubes provide us with remote work opportunities?
“Sounds like an interesting niche.”
We all were spinning our wheels for a long time. We’d get a call for something straight forward, like some wispy, orchestral thing for an insurance ad featuring retirees walking a dog on the beach. I spend all day torturing myself to get something presentable, and suck out anyway. It just got to the point where it was obvious that I don’t have the width to do it full-time. BUT, when someone needs some crazy-ass 808 / noise guitar thing…
Muggy -
I used to be heavy into synthland, buying broken stuff off ebay and fixing it and reselling it, until prices got too volatile and I lost interest…so I got into guitars.
And let me tell you, guitars are a pain to fix. I have this American Telecaster I bought used that I like, except the neck pocket was routed poorly and the neck is offset b about 1/16″ and the angle is wrong. I’ve been messing with it for 8 months now and can’t get it right without permanent modifications, and the two guitar techs I took it to did nothing but take my money despite my desire to pay enough to get it fixed.
So the wifey took pity on me last night and told me to sell the guitar. Yippie! Not sure if I’ll even get a replacement Telecaster or not…but…
Just rambling….
Ah well, Chile, you can join me and ET’s imaginary bubbleblog/new dad band. We just need need a drummer. (insert drummer joke here)
Muggy:
I”m a little surprised that you dont consider zydeco music as the next big thing.
clik on my handle….its really great music for commercials tv shows ….we need just one big break like nirvanna…and all the record companies will sign the bands.
I don’t think Zydeco is the next big thing. It had a concurrent, medium-sized run with ska in the mid 90’s, which has ended.
I’m not really sold on one particular thing being big at the moment. If anything, I can see intergenerational, cross-genre bands getting some traction while the world tries to figure out what it is now that all the funny money is going into the vortex (sorta channeling Kunstler here).
I guess that’s more we have to arm wrestle over when you come to the beeg Apple.
Seriously the kids are making some great tunes incorporating old soul and old school hip hop, and smooth singing…Its much more then Buckwheat these days. Lots of guitar solos too…i think the “oldsters” who love classic rock would go for the saxes and guitars….and its just fascinating how people get down and funky with an accordion.
———————————————–
I don’t think Zydeco is the next big thing
ChrisO you’re correct, generally speaking for most of the populace.
Hey Ben, I dunno if it’s just me, but your video code up top is crunk.
Muggy, what is crunk?
Crazy Drunk
Crunk: prior to the ATL hip hop community co-opting the term, Conan O’Brien said it in leiu of f_ _ _.
I thought it had something to do with dancing clowns…..
“Hey Ben, I dunno if it’s just me, but your video code up top is crunk”
Olygal got in here 1st and she must have done it. Just be thankfully, she didn’t have her Crayons with her. That girl needs adult supervison at all times.
Yep. It is hosed.
Case/Shiller data just out for April. Showing a slowing in the rate of decline, at least for April. Values are seasonally adjusted:
10-city Jan 2008 - April 2009:
Index Change
197.33 -3.54
192.26 -5.07
187.92 -4.34
184.45 -3.47
181.77 -2.68
180.02 -1.75
177.64 -2.38
175.56 -2.08
172.00 -3.56
168.59 -3.41
165.38 -3.21
162.26 -3.12
158.97 -3.29
155.97 -3.00
152.84 -3.13
151.27 -1.57
20-city Jan 2008 - April 2009:
Index Change
181.96 -3.21
177.67 -4.29
173.87 -3.80
171.07 -2.80
168.94 -2.13
167.30 -1.64
165.27 -2.03
163.38 -1.89
160.24 -3.14
157.05 -3.19
153.95 -3.10
150.71 -3.24
147.38 -3.33
144.52 -2.86
141.36 -3.16
140.10 -1.26
I can’t wait to see how the Boston media spins the normal March to April MTM increase. Housing crash over!!!
Ignorning, of course, that the year-over-year decline for Boston is the second worse of the current price decline at -7.71%. But don’t let the facts get in the way, Boston Globe!!!
Normal seasonality. March to April usually increases in Boston. Tell the Globe to check the seasonally adjusted numbers. They’re still down.
Exactly. The graph shows it plainly, as well as the numbers. That won’t stop the Globe from spinning it positive, despite it being normal…
Yep.
Of the 20 cities, seasonally-adjusted numbers are down for 16 of them. Up slightly in Denver, DC, Cleveland, and Dallas; down for all the rest.
FWIW - I’ll reiterate what I’ve said for a couple of months now - we are in a definite period of “reduced rate of decline” - in large part due to the stimulus and housing, and also just naturally as we get closer to natural lows. Will it be a “dead cat pause”? (Can’t really call it a “dead cat bounce” since that implies actual upward movement).
That remains to be seen. IMO somewhat yes. Speaking generally about the economy - I think after this stimulus-hope-change-induced pause is over we’ll resume downward movement, though probably at a slower rate than the 2008 crash. There’s simply too much downward pressure out there remaining.
How about a “dead cat splat?”
If she ever wrote back, that is something OLY would say.
Remember, even if the indices change to nominally flat, that is still declining at the rate of inflation.
And even if the indices were flat, it would still take a few years for the slow-learners to capitulate–e.g. realize they lost big-time, it’s not coming back quickly, and they’re better off handing the keys to the bank.
So I’m not particularly concerned by the rate of decline slowing/flattening.
You make it sound as if Oly is the only poster here with a sense of humor, or worth reading. What about meeeeee….
Hey drummingj:
I was born after disco was dead (I think?) but I remember wimpy.
Incongruent in a way, isn’t it. Also, reminds me of the only good song Lynerd ( Oly, help again) Skinnerd ( Help +2 Oly) did. Tuesday’s Gone.
I think they created the FICO score for Wimpy. Wait, I`ll pay you tuesday for a hamburger today, payday loans subprime burgers! It`s all Wimpy`s fault!
jeff,
LOL! Exactly. While we’re dishing out the pecking order for blame, I suggest starting here. After all, what good is a high FICO score if you’re not leveraging it to the hilt?
The whole system is designed to allow consumers to attain the max. level of indebtedness ( yet still somehow have an “excellent credit score” ) Oh there’s tones of leaks to the general public telling them precisely how to that and for the most part, we eat it up!
How many times during this debacle did you hear a friend or co-worker say “I’ve got a 790 and I’m going to take FULL advantage of it!”? Well NOW lenders are seeing people w/ “great” scores send in jingle mail. Evidently having a great fico isn’t ‘that’ important after all. Not when you can’t automatically transfer that into ever greater wealth? And then wonder how we ended up w/ a Debt = Wealth mentality?
Credit scores are like SAT scores: they’re fundamentally flawed, not a reliable predictor of the future, and when you get down to it, it is really, really poor form to brag about your credit score in public.
Bad Chile,
So true. Very poor form, and NO I don’t want to see your p*cker either! I think the reason there’s a disconnect between myself and perhaps other posters is that ( at ‘my’ age ) I’ve given up on bottom feeding.
Any transaction I entered into would be “owner carry” anyway. When we were looking for a steep ( and happy ) correction in home prices ( but got a Global Meltdown instead ) w/ relatively small house price drops, what’s the point?
ATE, I think your obsession w/ Oly is bordering on unhealthy at this point. Do you have any friends who can stage an intervention?
Thanks to all who replied yesterday to my post about my FIL’s cold calls from Equi-Max. Bottom line: don’t deal with these people, ever. Here’s an update, and what I’ve found:
Fortunately, he followed our advice and didn’t go forward with the up-front payment. He was disappointed because “they virually guaranteed me that they had buyers”, but my reaction was so strong that he felt he had better let this go for now. Mrs. shoe had a chance to talk to him a bit more while we were driving, and of course, for an elderly person who has been targeted by an unscrupulous outfit, he was confused. First he thought the payment was for a listing, then the agent said it was for a title search. The title search was needed in advance because he had moved out of the state. (No, I’m not making this up.)
Equi-max describes themselves as a real estate marketing and advertising company, and emphatically states that they are not a real-estate broker, so “you don’t have to pay commissions.” Pardon me while I gag. They obviously can’t MLS list the property if they’re not a broker, right? He was called unsolicited, lied to multiple times, and then pressured to make a quick choice. I think it’s time to file a complaint with the BBB and hopefully start the process of wiping their “accreditation” off of their web site, because FIL was convinced they must be OK because of that.
Funny, with us living out here in the intermountain west I’ve never really felt much connection with the FL version of the HB debacle. I guess I do now. We’re going to step in and do some research to help figure out valuations, and maybe try a flat-fee MLS listing at some point to see if we can’t shake some offers loose on these land parcels. That is, of course, if he agrees to our suggested listing price, I’m guessing it will be a lot lower than what he was promised. The lots apparently are near Lake Okechobee, I’ll post more specifics in a couple weeks when we find out more.
If I had only been an HBB reader in 2004-5 and understood what was going on back then, we could have had some fun…
Glad your FIL listened to you guys. Is there any reason your FIL is looking to sell them other than a cold-call?
Oh, he’s wanted to sell them off and on over the years, but I’m not sure how salable the properties were, or even if the subdivisions were ever developed. Remember that Florida real estate land sale scams pre-date the housing bubble by at least a generation.
The parcels are not a big factor in his net worth, most of which is coming from a generous pension - he was an elementary school principal and worked in a single school system for about 30 years. He says he wants to sell the land, rather than leave it for us kids to deal with.
Finally done travelling for now. Posting here from a shady porch overlooking the Clearwater river in No. Idaho. Going on a raft trip down the Lochsa tomorrow. Then it’s on to the Palouse to hang out over the 4th. Life is good.
I’ve become very skeptical of the Better Business Bureau over the years. They have no regulatory power.
I was dealing with one merchant about a year and a half ago who prominently displayed the BBB logo in his advertising. In the course of meeting with this guy, it became clear that he’d say anything to write some business, and he even contradicted himself as the meeting wore on.
For me, the BBB logo in an advertisement warns me to keep my guard up and to finely calibrate my B.S. detector.
IIUC all the BBB logo means is that you joined the organization and PAID DUES. It has no QA function.
See for example http://www.thebluesmokeband.com/bbb.php
Yep. We’ve experienced much the same. They keep calling and trying to get us to join. At first I was as congenial and forthcoming as I could be when they called - I mean, who wants to P.O. the BBB, right? It’s now to the point that we’ve asked the BBB to place us on their do not call list, because their calls are telemarketing spam as far as I’m concerned.
I had more luck addressing a grievance through the BBB than through the company directly (Volkswagen of America). I had an ongoing issue that they never could diagnose, but I had taken the car in maybe 8 times over the course of two years (not a huge deal, but every once in a while it would hesitate/lag when you stomped on the accelerator. Generally not a big deal, but could be dangerous if you pulled out in traffic. It was a manual tranny, so not a slushbox issue).
The dealership supposedly found a problem, but refused to warranty it even though I’d been complaining of the issue (and had it documented) well back into warranty coverage. By complaining on both fronts, VWoA sent me a check based on my BBB complaint (without ever contacting me otherwise), and eventually I got the dealership to cover it under warranty (before I had received the check). Thanks to going through the BBB, they paid me to fix my car!
I have occasionally found the BBB’s web sites useful. However, I always keep in mind who is funding the BBB: the businesses.
$8,000 First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit Q&A
When do I need to purchase to qualify?
If you buy a home between Jan. 1 and Dec. 1 this year and close escrow during these dates, you will qualify for an $8,000 tax credit - as long as it is your primary residence and you meet the simple requirements.
How does the law define “first-time homebuyer”?
The law defines “first-time homebuyer” as a buyer who has not owned a principal residence during the three-year period prior to the purchase.
What are other requirements to qualify?
All U.S. citizens who file taxes are eligible to participate. An income limit of $75,000 a year for individuals and $150,000 a year for joint filers also applies.
How do I apply for the credit?
Taxpayers should use IRS Tax Form 5450 to claim the first-time homebuyer tax credit.
Does the credit have to be repaid?
No. Unlike a similar tax credit passed in 2008, this $8,000 tax credit does not have to be repaid to the IRS.
Can I use the tax credit toward a down payment or other closing costs?
Yes. An announcement made May 29 allows the tax credit to be used toward purchase costs of a home, including down payment in some cases. This can be done one of two ways. First, buyers using an FHA-approved lender can sell their anticipated tax credit to the lender and use the proceeds to immediately apply the tax credit to any down payment above the minimum down payment of 3.5 percent required with FHA-insured mortgages. Second, buyers who receive financing through state housing finance agencies and certain non-profits will be able to use the tax credit for their down payments via a tax credit advance loan that does not result in any cash back to the buyer.
GOVERNMENT FUNDED DPA. SOMETHING WE HAVE ALL TALKED ABOUT, SEEING IT LAID OUT LIKE THIS IS VERY INTERESTING THOUGH. I HATE THIS STUFF.
Duh! What if you don’t have 8k in Federal taxes due. What happens, when you don’t have a tax liability. No taxes due, no tax credit?
Stupid program…another welfare boost for those who don’t know how to save for a downpayment.
Treasuries Fall After Home-Price Report as Fed Readies Debt Buy.
June 30 (Bloomberg) — Treasuries fell, heading for their steepest first-half loss in three decades, after a report showed home prices in 20 U.S. cities fell in April at a slower pace than forecast.
Ten-year yields rose from the lowest levels in a month as the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index dropped 18.1 percent in April. U.S. debt handed investors a loss of 4.4 percent this year as of yesterday, according to Merrill Lynch & Co. indexes, the biggest first-half decline since Merrill began the index in 1978.
“I caution the bulls to look for a selling point, I think the market has run its course,” said Paul Horrmann, a strategist in Jersey City, New Jersey, at ICAP Plc, the world’s largest inter-dealer broker. “This is a chance to sell ahead of some stronger data that we expect will be coming down the road.”
The yield on the 10-year note rose six basis points, or 0.06 percentage point, to 3.54 percent at 9:16 a.m. in New York, according to BGCantor Market Data. The yield yesterday touched 3.45 percent, the lowest level since May 29. The 3.125 percent security maturing in May 2019 fell 15/32, or $4.69 per $1,000 face amount, to 96 18/32.
The April decrease in the S&P/Case-Shiller gauge followed an 18.7 percent drop in March. Economists forecast the index would drop 18.6 percent, according to the estimates of 33 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
The index of U.S. consumer confidence may have climbed to 55.3 this month, from 54.9 in May, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists before the New York-based Conference Board issues the figure today.
Fed Purchases
The Fed is scheduled to buy Treasuries due from May 2016 to May 2019 today and from August 2019 to February 2026 tomorrow, according to its Web site.
Thinking about moving back to Maine. I haven’t lived there since ‘04. I am looking at the Portland/Scarborough area. Anyone have any info for me? I am wondering where they are bubble-wise, do they have a ways to fall yet or is the area solid?
Thanks.
Unemployement in Maine is currently at 8.3% (seasonally adjusted), up from 5.1% in May of 2008. The price of home heating oil is rising (again). The commercial fishing fleet is taking the recession particularly hard as demand for lobster is much lower than previous years.
Draw your own conclusions.
I travel quite a bit for work, and southern Maine doesn’t seem to have been hit as hard as most of the country - or people are still living off of credit. The turnpike is still packed with tourists coming North on Fridays, still can’t get into a restaurant on weekends, the mall is still packed, can’t find a parking space in the Old Port, etc… Businesses that never made sense in the first place have closed up though, and the job market is tough. But houses priced well are still moving in the Portland area; 2006 prices are sitting… All in all, not great, but no sign of the next great depression…
Come to think, since we didn’t know the presence of OG for a while, and Lad is gone, where is Faster? He pops up now and then, but not like he used to… ( Shakes ugly ruminating head”).
PB is missing too, but you don’t see me pining away…..
Ya think ATE-UP ate ‘em?
It’s prime summer vacation time right now. The markets are sputtering along in the summer doldrums. Time to step away from the computer and live a little!
Is it too early for lowballs in the bay area yet?
I have a friend who bought his house back in ‘98 and the house right next door is for sale and has been steadily chasing the market down. It’s a double sized lot (about 15k sq feet) with no landscaping and a completely unupdated since the 70’s interior that a lady’s kids are trying to sell after she passed. It’s been on the market since Jan.
I know the neighborhood extremely well having hung out there for years with my friend. So I’m tempted. But is it still way too early?
sfbb,
Well better ‘there’ than a LOT of markets? I only wish the PDX market had seen those levels of correction? I think we’re only 18% off of peak. BFD!
On our local blog one nurse said they have people leaving in droves to go ‘back’ to SAC and Stockton as they can now “get a lot more home for the money than they ever could in Portland!”
Did you ever think you’d live long enough to hear ‘that’?
No I did not. I grew up in Montana, and we had Clownifornia equity locusts ourselves. Typically they’d be buying up stupid large ranches and turning them from real working ranches into play areas or if they were really industrious, ‘botique’ ranches. Or buying monstrously large houses that grew up like mushrooms wherever they landed.
I would say it is way too early to get a good price in the bay area.
But it’s never too early to make a 50%-off offer and start crushing the spirits of the FBs! (even if in this particular case, she was not an FB. But the heirs may still need to be disabused of their notions about RE prices…)
Wow you are mean and vicious… hallmark of a smart buyer!!!
I made an offer of 150k on a house listed for 650k that had been repo’d for 900k (serial refinancing). How’s that for crushing spirits? Of course, the house was red-tagged, so 150k might have been overpaying. Fortunately, they turned me down for a 400k offer.
Well at least you tried…
Let’s all parties involved know where the market is “going”. Hear that? It is a distinctive FLUSH sound eminating from sea to shining sea!
True enough. And the bank’s haircut was over 50% on that deal, not even counting realtard commissions.
Its really hard to get a good deal from heirs. Emotions and greed make for very difficult negotiations.
Yah, they stared the listing price at 2006-7 price level, so I know they’re greedy. But they’ve dropped the listing down to mid-late 2008 level over several price steps, so they’re actively looking for a buyer and not just hanging on until they get their wishing price.
sfbb,
“Greedy” would be one way of looking at it, but it’s been my experience ( they’ve -already- spent the money in anticipation of mom’s demise ) so now they NEED to get X or their little world falls apart.
I’d been hearing of stories cropping up like that all over the west, anywhere locusts descend. Thankfully OR is a “right to farm” state and they even have a pamphlet telling potential buyers their every whim will not be catered to!
That might be the impetus behind the price drops. They might be panicking about needing the money ‘right now’. The last drop was about a month ago, and we’re debating a 15-20% below their asking price.
The wife and I are debating between lowball now, or let them stew and lowball later.
sfbb,
I’m actually jealous of you guys. I ‘wish’ we were being shown ’some’ meaningful price corrections. As has been well advertised, Portland, OR was “late to the party” so we’re still in denial.
You’re right though, since most people pay bills on a monthly-basis, ‘that’ is what’s driving their decision making process now. I hate heirs.
The worst part I would imagine is if no ‘executor’ has been put in place and everybody gets to argue about how to divide up and dispose of the estate. My parents have wisely picked one of us to do the dirty work. It’s not me. I still think it was a good idea. (Mainly because it wasn’t my older brother!)
Unless you are dealing with my father. His parents died leaving him the executor of the estate. He listed the house and 5 acres for $60,000 (Dixon, MT) back in 1984. After a couple of weeks, no takers. He went to the guy who was renting the 2nd house on the property and asked the renter what could he afford to buy the property at. Renter said $28,000 and my dad said SOLD!!. Two people were very happy that day.
That’s how my parent’s bought their first house. They were renting it and when the lady who owned it passed on, her son asked my parents if they wanted to buy it on the cheap.
My GG (Great Gramdmother) died in her house. A lovely gal took care of her for years there. When she passed, the family gave her the house, free and clear. She was beside herself. We were all happy to do it.
Shizo,
Thanks for easing my cynicism for a little while. What an awesome thing to do.
Wow, Dixon’s a nice place & not too far away from the city.
Houses are still selling in SF proper for obscene (near peak) prices at least where I live. My neighborhood is decent (definitely not exclusive) & three to four BR houses are still selling for around $1.4M - $1.5M. These are older houses built back in the late 1920s - beautiful craft work but not always in tip top shape.
The further you move a way from the city centers the further prices have fallen but property is still grossly overpriced in the nicer more established areas. Still plenty of Kool-Aid drinkers around here.
Just got back from Florida, Plantation, Ft Lauderdale, Miami area. Here are my impressions:
Was there for a week, saw 5 beachfront-property cranes between South Beach, Ft Lauderdale Beach, and Hollywood Beach that never moved in the course of a week. It was a little rainy, not sure if construction was halted or everyone was on vacation.
Saw lots of dark beachfront towers at night. It was erie. Pulled onto a side street next to one to walk to the ocean at night. A cop shooed me away quickly.
South Beach was a huge let down, but still fun. It was pretty empty, the restaurants were average for food quality, but the drinks were slightly cheaper than equivelent places in Texas & California ($10 vs $12 for a mojito). I saw more attractive people in the Atlanta airport than in South Beach. It hurts that rappers have lied to me. Oh yes.
Plantation area of Ft Lauderdale was perhaps one of the most boring places I’ve ever been. Beaches were ok, restaurants were horrid, and everything was hidden behind palm trees with no overhead signage. I was told it was due to hurricane building costs rather than an aesthetic choice.
It seemed like the only local restaurant choices were pizza or sub sandwiches. Half the restaurants (non pizza or subs) that I’d type into my TomTom were closed.
I didn’t look at too many SFH areas, but anytime you’d miss a turn off the main streets in Plantation, you’d be one some side street with SFH housing, and there were no curbs separating yard from street. I couldn’t guess the age of the areas to see if that was a current or past building convention.
It hurts that rappers have lied to me. Oh yes.
Time heals all wounds, lol.
I haven’t been to South Beach since the European model shoot days - (long time ago). Sounds like it’s lost its allure, it’s cachet, it’s je ne sais quoi.
Massachusetts Govenor passes 25% sales tax increase
Governor Deval Patrick signed a budget yesterday that imposes more than $1 billion in additional taxes on Massachusetts residents and visitors, most of it through the first increase in the state sales tax in 33 years, even as he declined to rule out a future boost in the state gas tax.
Link here
Nothing like squeezing blood from a stone… state raising taxes while the private sector continues to cut pay, benefits, and jobs. My company decided yesterday to freeze salaries for the next 12 months. New Hampshire is starting to look better and better.
I’m headed to Taxachusetts this weekend to visit the family (anticipating yet another “you two are going to miss the housing bottom lecture”). Since clothing isn’t taxed there, I plan to pick up much needed jeans and a skirt. Zero tax on clothing sure beats the 10% I’d have to pay here.
BRUSSELS (AFP) – Inflation in the 16 countries using the euro turned negative in June for the first time on record, with prices falling 0.1 percent over 12 months, an official estimate showed on Tuesday.
Japan is in the same boat
Inflation in the 16 countries using the euro turned negative
What doublespeak! Say it! Deflation…
Japan is in really bad shape. They are exporting ex-consultants on a massive scale right now. Anything to bring costs in line with revenue yet nothing is enough.
Here in the USA I expect import inflation (weak dollar) yet domestic deflation (low demand) for years to come. The Fed is running out of rope to push…
Got Popcorn?
Neil
I guess at some point they (the Fed Reserve) could just FedEx boxes of money to masses if they are really worried about deflation.
Don’t be silly… that’s inefficient! They’ll fed ex even MORE boxes of money to the banks for them to LEND to the masses!
Bingo. The Fed’s very purpose is to enrich the banks - that purpose isn’t served by sending money directly to common folk. The bank’s got to take its cut.
And take another cut in interest on the loans!
I guess at some point they (the Fed Reserve) could just FedEx boxes of money to masses if they are really worried about deflation.
They could do this but
1. The rich have a lot of money they don’t want devalued and our gov works for the elites. They cashed out what they could then got bailed out as much as possible, now they are sitting on mountains of cash.
2. Our creditors would have something to say in response. 3. Interest rates would go through the roof and banks would immediately collapse.
Hi. There’s very good primary challenger to Sen. Dodd (aka Sen. Countrywide) His name is Merrick Alpert. I’ve sent him a small donation even though I don’t live in CT. Hope you all can help or at least spread the word on him.
what if someone creates a Dodd czar and we can’t get rid of him?
Dodd could be the czar of smug-ness.
Isn’t Peter Schiff thinking about running for that seat?
From the financial times
Reports of the death of deflation have been greatly exaggerated, says Stuart Thomson, economist at Ignis Asset Management.
“The number of mentions of deflation in the press has fallen to the lowest since the collapse of Lehman Brothers (NYSE:LEH),” he says. “But if creating inflation was as simple as the markets suggest, the Japanese authorities would have done it years ago.”
Mr Thomson says Japan failed to create inflation in the 1990s because inflationary expectations remained very low due to wage deflation caused by globalisation.
“Western economies, with the exception of Germany, largely escaped these pressures because heavy consumer BORROWING and asset price inflation maintained wage growth.”
However, Mr Thomson says rising unemployment in the major industrialised economies, together with deleveraging and widening output gaps, is expected to exert downward pressure on wage inflation over the next few years.
“We believe the cost of capital must fall so as to match lower labour costs and provide the necessary investment to create new industries that will absorb this surplus labour, close output gaps and cause wage rates and inflation to rise on a sustained basis.
“Disinflation over the past quarter century has driven the outperformance of government bonds. This is unlikely to be repeated over the next 25 years - but over the next 3 years, deflation is a greater risk than inflation.”
I like that quote “the number of mentions of deflation in the press has fallen to the lowest levels since…”
I didn’t hear much deflation talk in the 1970s, 1980s, or 1990s in the press and we had no deflation. Just because they decrease the mentionings of x does not mean we will get x.
I think his point was that people aren’t worried about it like they were 3-6mo ago, but he thinks they should be.
Went into San Jose yesterday with a friend looking to buy a new car. Most dealers just sat inside waiting for you to come to them and then didn’t want to deal; no one on lot.
Exception was the Ford dealership and the Toyota dealership. The Toyota dealership showed my friend a used (20K) corolla 2008 for 14K but said that someone offered 10.5K last weekend and the offer was accepted and then the deal fell through when they couldn’t fund the added tax and license fees. The salesman was 31yrs old and had been in the mortgage business, LV, NV. He said things were great when they could issue liar loans but now he’s out hustling car sales with a hugh haircut in salary.
I went car shopping over a month ago. Still get three calls a week from each dealership I visited.
I picked up a Pontiac G5 (Chevy Cobalt clone) two weeks ago for 11K plus tax. The MSRP was almost 19K.
The dealership was ghost town, and it was on a Saturday.
Wonder if you could get it for $9K if you said you could pay cash for the car, the taxes and the fees?
Naw. They make money off the financing. IF they can finance you, that is.
Protectionism comes knocking Financial Times
news.yahoo.com/s/ft/20090630/bs_ft/d09d0cc6658811de8e3400144feabdc0
Waxman Bill H.R. 2454: Forces Environmental Inspection to Sell Your Own Home…
Buried in the bowels of the 1201 page bill, is a a provision that home sellers and realturds probably don’t know about.
A seller will be required to have his/her home inspected by an ‘authorized’ environmental inspector. To determine it’s energy efficiency, if it’s not up to(whatever)number/code is set, then the cost to replace windows,doors, upgrade insulation,replace A/C etc. will need to be determined prior to a sales agreement.
The D.C.thug troupe is going to help hammer the real estate business, and the NAR is #2 (no sh!t) on the big list of political contributors. More paper work, more delays in sales, etc.
I’m going to run out and get an “environmental” inspection license once they are available, and give up the hard work.
Oh wait, you will probably have to be a gubmint employee.
wmbz,
With all due respect, this is something that’s been a long time coming. Along w/ lead paint, asbestos and smoke alarms. Personally I think had it been in place -prior- to Flipper Nation, we could have avoided a lot of issues.
But rather an endless supply of dollars was pumped into cedar decking and lawn ornaments when in fact the roof leaked and it still had aluminum frame windows from the 70’s. Looked great tough, lots of curb appeal.
You’ll have to join ACORN for the Inspection jobs.(or the SEIU)
Today, June 30, 2009… another financial reckoning day.
Midnight tonight marks the end of fiscal 2009 for 46 states in the U.S, and various state constitutions require 45 of ’em to have a final budget by tomorrow morning.
Thus, 10 states are facing a true blue crisis — California, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Delaware, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Mississippi and Arizona do not have budgets in hand on the eve of the new fiscal year.
Of those 10, California and Arizona are looking particularly dire. Arizona faces a $3 billion budget shortfall, or around 30% of its annual budget. California needs to fill a whopping $24 billion gap, roughly 26% of its annual tab. Gov. Schwarzenegger says without a budget, he’ll be forced to start writing IOUs tomorrow to the state’s creditors… scary stuff. Once one of the richest states, California now has the worst credit rating of them all.
Agora5
wmbz - are most of these states GOP governors? Just wondering?
I really don’t know and certainly don’t care, I leave party hacks to themselves.
The problems we face are much larger than the republocan’ts and democraps, but they will surely keep screwing things up. Been doing a great job of it for decades.
To me the problems — economic and fiscal — in North Carolina are the biggest surprise.
But states can’t default!
So, I’m looking at the C-S data and it appears stabilization is under way. We have been talking about this comming for a while but we are in a low point for resets for AltA porfolios. Everything ramps up for here over the next year.
The modifications/credits/mormatoriums are also having some effect as well. Not to mentions the delays will get worse and worse as banks die and can’t enforce contracts at all. Not to mention the recovery is even worse as people find leagal loopholes to make banks jump through.
Anyhow, don’t want a lot of people to buy into this lull in the housing decline. It will be accelrating again through the fall and into next spring.
If you are thinking your going to get a good deal now, just wait. Bigger tax credits, better neighboorhoods and better deals are around the corner in 2011-2012. Unless someone does something crazy with the dollar. Really crazy.
Just try to remember that credit suisse graph had two big humps and we are just begining up on to the second one.
This is like the part on the roller coaster where everybody stops screaming…. so they can gasp in enough air for the next scream.
My vote for quote of the day!
I just noticed that I keep responding to your posts- purely ko-ink-i-dink… too weird. Mybe I’m drawn to your writing style?
Do you want to come upstairs and check out my etchings? I get great FM reception!
sfbubblebuyer,
“Do you want to come upstairs and check out my etchings? I get great FM reception!”
Now that was the best quote of the day. Made me laugh out loud.
$29 billion in Alt-A resets this year(139,000 $200k houses).$65 billion in 2010. You do the math.
FAIRVIEW, N.J. – For five years, immigrant day laborer Leo Chamale wired money twice a month from New Jersey to his family in Guatemala. Recently, he stepped up to the money transfer window for a different purpose — to ask that his family send some of his savings back to him.
“I hadn’t worked for five months, and I was two months behind on rent, so I had them send $1,500,” the 21-year-old Chamale said in Spanish. “My mother said, `That’s a lot of money!’”
With the U.S. economy in a ditch, money transfer agencies have been reporting a decline in the wages immigrants are sending back to their home countries. Now, it appears some immigrants are going a step further — asking their relatives to wire them money back.
“We’ve never seen this before,” said Marlen Miranda, manager of Peerless Travel in Fairview, which runs a money transfer service. “I mean, one or two people might receive money for a special reason, but not this quantity of people.”
Miranda said she has seen her customer base dwindle from 200 people to 75 who regularly use her money transfer services each month. Of those 75, Miranda said, about 20 now come in to receive money instead of sending it home.
I wish they’d see the obvious solution here and head back down until ‘the economy improves’.
They are probably afraid that future re-entry will be difficult.
(Hwy wonders how many marketing meetings & millions $$$$$$$ were spent before they came up with their corporate motto?)
Bank of Opportunity!
“We were coached every day to push multiple checking accounts, credit cards and debit cards even when the customer didn’t understand how to use them,” said Ornelas, who lives in Landover Hills, Md., a town with a large immigrant population and a per-capita income of less than $19,000.
In one case, she described a Central American mother of three who came back to see her at the bank, distressed about $300 in overdraft fees incurred after Ornelas persuaded the woman to open a second checking account.
Bank of America is accused of exploiting Latino immigrant customers:
LA Times By Tom Hamburger
June 30, 2009
The dems rule it all now!
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9955MVG0&show_article=1
I don’t care which party it is, having a majority in both houses and the presidency is bad, but having a filibuster proof majority in the senate kicks the last chock out from behind the wheels of fiscal and political sanity. Let’s all watch as it rolls down the hill and into the river.
Not sure how much of this will show up - but being that there’s a lot of discussion this week about causes of the housing bubble, I figured I’d “formalize” the list I’ve been building for about a year now. Any feedback is appreciated.
My summary of Housing Bubble Causes
Includes my rough swag of impact in causing the bubble. 1=low, 10=high.
Many of these overlap of course.
Indirect / General Causes
————————–
Note that indirect causes may have large impact, but are more difficult to qualify/quantify. Indirect causes include:
A. General expectations of government risk management / bailouts
- Programs such as FDIC, FHA, etc.
- Bailout precedents - Chrysler, Penn Central, S&L / LTCM, NYC, etc.
B. Increased complexity of investments
- How many people actually know what specific entities the bulk of their retirement savings are going to?
C. Increased culture of greed - “keeping up with the Joneses”
- Facilitated by mass media growth, primarily in the 20th century
- Manifest in the large amount of fraud during the bubble (liar loans, ponzi schemes, etc)
Specific and Recent Federal Activities (chronological order)
————————————————————–
1. 1977 - Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) (impact = 2)
Very controversial as to whether this was a cause - reason given that CRA loans haven’t defaulted more than non-CRA loans. I don’t think it’s that simple though - CRA seems to have just set the table for risky loans. Despite some statements to the contrary, there were some fines and levies due to CRA.
2. 1986 - Removal of Credit Card Debt Deduction (impact = 1)
Via Tax Reform Act of 1986. This encouraged the movement of debt from credit cards towards home equity. Theory but no hard evidence.
3. 1990’s - Barney Frank’s relationship with Fannie Mae (impact = 4)
Partner Herb Moses hired by Fannie Mae 1991-1998. Frank pushed Fannie to loosen regulations on lending for 2-3 family homes. Frank resisted attempts at greater oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, e.g. insisting in 2003 that the institutions were financially sound.
4. 1992 - Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act (impact = 2)
Mandated that HUD set specific goals for Fannie and Freddie for subprime lending. Evidenced by Boston Federal Reserve push for looser lending standards - don’t consider lack of credit history as a negative factor, consider welfare and unemployment benefits as sources of income, etc.
5. 1993 - Clinton’s CRA Reform (impact = 6)
Established Community Development Banks. Pushed for more subprime lending, which increased by 39% from 1993-1998 while other lending increased 19%.
6. 1997 - Taxpayer Relief Act (impact = 3)
Created the $250k / $500k capital gains exemption for home equity.
7. 1990’s/2000’s - SEC forces banks to decrease their loan loss reserves (impact = 2)
E.g. in 1998 and again in 2004 the SEC forced SunTrust to lower its reserves during acquisitions.
8. 1999 - Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act (impact =
Repealed portion of Glass-Steagal, allowing commercial banks to offer investment services, and vice versa. Allowed for weaker supervision of big financial firms (e.g. AIG) under the Office of Thrift Supervision.
9. 1999 - Fannie Mae loosens lending further (impact = 4)
Pushed by Clinton Administration. $2 Billion of CRA loans purchased by Fannie in 2000.
10. 2000 - Commodity Futures Modernization Act (impact = 5)
Deregulated Credit Default Swaps (CDS), encouraging increased leverage on MBS.
11. 2001-2005 - Federal Reserve policy mistakes (impact = 10)
As an overreaction to the relatively weak 2001 recession the Federal Funds target rate was set far too low for far too long between 2001-2004 - in gross violation of the Taylor Rule. Additionally the Fed injected $110 Billion into the economy. Certainly this was the zenith of the housing bubble slingshot’s power. The bubble was written in stone by this action, primarily promoted by Alan Greenspan but also by other Federal Reserve members, including Ben Bernanke.
12. 2002-2004 - Bush’s Ownership Society Initiatives (impact = 5)
Primary amoung these is the American Dream Downpayment Initiative - paid up to $10k or 6% of purchase price; again targeting “affordable” (risky) housing. Funded up to $200 million annualy from 2004-2007. Addtionally included other tax cuts and stimuli. Included a large post-9/11 media “feel good” push.
13. 2004 - Alan Greenspan’s ARM push (impact = 4)
Actually pushed ARMs as a way to affordability. Off the cliff we go.
14. 2004 - SEC removal of investment bank margin restrictions (impact = 4)
Pushed by the five big investment banks, this was yet more acceleration off the cliff.
Other Recent and/or General Direct Causes
———————————————
15. Mortgage interest tax deduction (impact =
Generally amounts to a subsidy of the real estate industry. Previously all interest was tax deductible; each was removed until only mortgage interest was left.
16. Politicians being paid to deregulate (impact =
Politicians have taken billions of $$ each year in campaign contributions from the banks, in exchange for deregulation and/or favorable regulation
17. Rapid growth of credit derivatives, CDS (impact = 4)
CDS’s invented by JP Morgan in 1997; exploded during the bubble, providing a medium for the massive risk.
18. Ratings Agency corruption / conflict of interest (impact = 4)
A lot’s been written about this. I don’t blame the agencies for mis-using formulas - no formula can account for such a black swan; I do however blame them for lack of a “big picture” view, and allowing themselves to be influenced by the entities they rated.
19. Hiding of loans in QSPE’s (impact = 2)
Lots of loans were hidden off the banks’ balance sheets (i.e. not subject to reserve requirements) by putting them in QSPE’s, e.g. estimated $800B for Citibank.
20. TV shows that encouraged speculating, flipping, etc. (impact =
Extreme Makeover, Flip This House, etc. About 20 such shows existed in 2005.
Hey, it showed up! I see the “impact = 8″ got converted to shades smileys - LOL.
packman,
No actually that’s pretty good. Even a few things in there that we haven’t widely discussed/considered. It would have gotten contorted to list them by magnitude of impact and have the chronology all of out order. So I say it stands.
Normally I’d pull for a higher ranking on #6 but much of their impact can be debated at length some other time. Overall I like it.
You are missing the changes in reserve requirements and “sweeps” that allow banks to hold zero reserves on all accounts. Especially demand accounts like checking accounts.
Can you expound on that - maybe with a link? Sounds like something that should definitely be added - but I’m not familiar with any specifics info on it. I hadn’t heard that. To be honest - it sounds extraordinary, and I can’t believe such a thing wouldn’t be major news.
Good Job packman . I feel that the 250/500 k capital gains
tax break every two years is high on the scale because of the way the industry sold homes during the boom .
I would also add to your list that the global money supply that was coming into the United States was huge during the boom . So ,control of money supply to any given area would be necessary to
control bubbles and speculative investments ,(perhaps your # 17
covers this point ).
And finally the fact that pension plans were underfunded by
Companies ,which allowed for a pumping up of stock values ,added bubble fuel .
Hey that’s awesome packy!
I’ll review it over a camp fire north of Flagstaff, AZ this week
I’m addicted to venn diagrams…it sorts out better in my scrambled eggs grey matter
Hey now - don’t make me get all engineering on you. I haven’t done a Venn diagram in ages.
Mebbe…
Nah.
Florida man calls 911 to tell them he’s smoking weed. Then calls back to request a police helicopter to take him to Miami to meet rapper L’il Wayne.
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/strange/news-article.aspx?storyid=140682&catid=82
The IDIOT was home free with a “stern warning” after the first call! All he had to do was lay low. Instead he gets in his car and makes a SECOND call to 911 while driving down the interstate.
Ok, I’ve heard some talk on this blog about not putting non-violent offenders in jail for just smoking weed, but he has to go.
Apparently posted on WSJ but from another site
The California Association of Realtors expects to make sharp downward revisions in its recent monthly reports of soaring home sales in the San Diego area, Robert Kleinhenz, deputy chief economist of the trade group, said in an interview. Those revisions will mean modest downward revisions in statewide sales, he added.
The revisions are likely to be announced in late July, when the Realtor group reports home sales for June. The problem resulted from a glitch in data from a multiple-listing service in San Diego, Mr. Kleinhenz said. He said a change in computer systems used there resulted in incorrect data being sent to the Realtor association over the past year or so.
Thomas Lawler, an independent economist in Leesburg, Va., who tracks home sales nationwide, raised questions about the San Diego data in a report last week. Mr. Lawler noted that the numbers reported by the Realtors vastly exceeded those from MDA DataQuick, a research firm in La Jolla, Calif., and other sources.
The California Realtors have reported that San Diego sales in April were up about 63% from a year earlier. Mr. Kleinhenz said that is expected to be revised downward to a gain of about 20%. For May, the group reported an 89% increase in sales in San Diego; that will be slashed to about 6.5%, the economist said.
As a result, he said, the state-wide sales gain for May — reported last week as 35% — also will be revised down, though it probably will remain above 30%, Mr. Kleinhenz said.
LOL! A “glitch” that hasn’t been caught or corrected in over a year? Hmmm….
“He said a change in computer systems used there resulted in incorrect data being sent to the Realtor association over the past year or so.”
Milwaukee County man recycles old house using Craigslist.
“The contractor wanted $10,000 to demolish the place,” Al Emmons said. “I figured there must be a better way. Time to go green.” He sold $800 worth of windows but gave away everything else.
He posted pictures of the house on Craigslist. He offered to let people come and take what they wanted. People lined up, sometimes 16 deep, picking the place cleaner than a Thanksgiving turkey. The City of Franklin claimed the rubble for fill on N. Cape Road. Someone even dug up the onions in the backyard garden.
I wonder if that is doable or even legal in places like FL with Chinese drywall and black mold , mildew, rodent issues?….
‘People lined up, sometimes 16 deep, picking the place cleaner than a Thanksgiving turkey.’
Maybe they watched ‘Dream House’ starring John Schneider. Also, Ben Jones used to be on Dukes of Hazard. Hmmm, see how all this comes together?
Is this guy a complete POS or what?
Sanford, who also admitted meeting his lover more times than he had previously claimed, told The Associated Press in emotional interviews that he “crossed lines” with a handful of other women during 20 years of marriage.
But he said he never went as far as he did with Maria Belen Chapur, the woman at the center of the scandal that has derailed his once-promising political future.
Even with the latest revelations, Sanford maintains he is fit to govern and has no plans to resign. And he insisted his relationship with Chapur, whom he met at an open air dance spot in Uruguay eight years ago, was more than just sex.
“This was a whole lot more than a simple affair, this was a love story,” Sanford said. “A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day.”
What a complete POS. Does this idiot think for one second what his wife and kids must be thinking when hearing this? This guy didn’t deserve the family he had!
Loser!
So what percent of us aren’t evil egotists? Tell me I’m not the only sucker who isn’t out there, because I’m beginning to wonder!
Or is it just a job requirement for those at the top of every hierarchy?
Now you know where the attitude for “too big to fail” comes from.
LET THEM EAT CAKE!
How to Steal Jobs from Teenagers
“This is not the time to tell someone that you have a master’s degree in economics if you’re applying for a job in say, lifeguarding,”
http://www.mainstreet.com/article/career/employment/how-steal-job-teenagers
“Overqualified” really means We want to hire a MORON!!!!
U.S. home prices post 18.1 percent annual drop in April
By J.W. ELPHINSTONE
The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
NEW YORK — There is a clear trend home prices declines are moderating - another sign the beleaguered housing market is stabilizing, according to data released Tuesday.
While the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index of 20 major cities tumbled by 18.1 percent in April from the year before, it marked the third straight month the decline was not a record. And yearly losses in 13 metros improved compared to March.
“The stock market bottomed in March and measures of consumer confidence have turned upward. This report shows that these better spirits are also appearing in the housing market,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the S&P index committee.
But rising foreclosures fueled by layoffs could derail a meaningful turnaround. The number of homeowners at least two months behind or in foreclosure jumped in the first quarter from the previous quarter, a Treasury Department report said Tuesday.
Defaults from borrowers with good credit contributed to much of the increase in seriously delinquent loans, echoing data last month from the Mortgage Bankers Association. As the recession claims more jobs, borrowers in good standing are more likely to miss their mortgage payments.
Efforts to modify home loans have been slow and easily outpaced by the number of new delinquencies. In the first quarter, loan companies modified 185,156 mortgages, up 55 percent from the previous quarter. But the number of foreclosures in process increased to 844,389, up 22 percent.
And nearly one in four borrows who received a mortgage payment reduction fell behind again within six months, the report found.