Bits Bucket For July 3, 2009
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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No fireworks on the East River this year,,,geez new Joisey gets to see all the fun
It’s bout darn time.
“Chaplin and other real estate professionals advise that it’s important for buyers, sellers and renters to ‘rely on a Realtor’ for all of their market needs. Realtors are familiar with the local market as well as the many special programs and incentives currently available, and are upheld to a strict code of ethics implemented by the NAR.”
Well, that’s a big laugh, isn’t it?
BTW, so glad I didn’t pull the trigger last summer. I’d've been stuck with a home next to a barking dog with an old boat and a car on the lawn and unable to sell at this point. Thanks HBB!
So I guess we’re finally seeing the crash now? Interesting, because I recall the predictions here on the blog that summer of ‘09 would be the real “Oh, crap!” moment.
Too bad we had to have all these delaying tactics. LOL, how’s that TARP, stimulus, etc. working out?
Yah, some of the indestructible fortresses in the BA are starting to crumble, that’s for sure. Before it was stuff not selling. Now people are starting to undercut each other and REOs are coming on the market at 10-20% off peak.
It’s a long way down still, but it’s something.
I’m in the “duboce triangle” area and prices are down about %19 from peak.
Is that close to the “Sunni triangle”?
Hey Palmy, thanks for the Concrete Shack/condo rental info near the beach. Appreciate it very much. Happy 4th!
ATE
In yesterday’s Bits Bucket many were talking about the need for two incomes. Saying this changed sometime after the 1970’s. Well that is correct. This did change in the 1980’s when Reagan dramatically cut taxes. With more disposable income prices rose for all sorts of goods and services. Now this was ok if you were making lots of money, however studies show that poverty has increased greatly since 1980.
By the way this also caused the housing bubble. When taxes were lowered risk went away. For instance why would I take a risk to make $1 million when I would lose 87% to income tax? If I had to put up $100,000 and then get back only $130,000 that is way to risky of an investment. Now if my top tax rate was only 35% instead of 87% I take home $650,000. So I will take this risk (CDS) because the reward is so much greater.
IIRC, the big contributors to inflation during the seventies were the move away from the Gold Standard, the Oil Crisis, and the costs of the Great Society programs and the Vietnam War. Don’t flame me though, as I’m just getting started on my first cup of tea this morning.
So, this time we had a minor oil crisis, are trying to add socialized health care, and need to pay for 2 botched wars. This says that going forward we should see inflation. If we could just get this debt unwound fast enough, maybe we’d see it!
(I agree with your assessment of what caused inflation, in case that wasn’t obvious.)
This is my second attempt to post a reply.
I HATE Microsoft “shortcut keys” that disrupt you input when you accidentally hit one.
Anyway, i blame WOMEN”S LIB MOVEMENT.
With the end of WWII and the return to normalcy, most women until the late 60’s and early 70’s were home-makers, content with raising children.
The country was propagandized by University and Press shills to start up the “oppression of women” and include the need for zero population growth.
this cuminated in the “liberation” of women by having them get jobs in the working world.
They most often still got married and had 1.3 children, but the “extra” income made the family unit feel flush.
I witnessed this when i was watching house buying habits.
With 2 incomes, when the owner was trying to push the high end of the price level, it was not resisted. a 30k house could easily sell for 35k to the married couple, when a single income family could not afford it.
AS many more “families” became 2-income units, then the prices rose consistently until the 2-income unit became the basis of the sales prices.
Single people and one income families got priced out of the market.
NOW, you need 2 incomes to afford the single house.
So much for “liberation”. All they got was slavery, but at least we can’t “oppress” them anymore.
I knew it was Oly’s fault!!!
Hmmm.
Having growed up in about the most fundamentalist, XX chromosome-unfriendly, and generally all-around bizarro environment to be found anywhere within English speaking lands (and of course I refer to red-rocks southern Utarr, here.)
….I really have no response to this at this time.
While I think of a response I believe I’ll go fondle my pay-stubs and then go look into my fridge full of food and my bookshelves full of stuff I can read and just generally rejoice and stuff like that.
In your scenario 2 incomes would justify a 60K house. Not a whole lot of houses in the 60K range these days. Guess we’ll have to go back to blaming the FED.
Poor diogenes. Blame it all on the women. Some one beat you up in your life?
He’s blaming the women’s lib movement, not women.
Anyway, i blame WOMEN”S LIB MOVEMENT.
With the end of WWII and the return to normalcy, most women until the late 60’s and early 70’s were home-makers, content with raising children.
(Bull pucky. That’s why women had a “movement” in the first place.)
The country was propagandized by University and Press shills to start up the “oppression of women” and include the need for zero population growth.
(And educated -and profoundly PO’ed, women were at the forefront of this social upheaval.)
this cuminated in the “liberation” of women by having them get jobs in the working world.
(No. Jobs were NECESSARY for women of that era. It’s just that none were available. (I couldn’t even apply to Yale or CalTech the year I graduated from high school as they didn’t accept women. Hence the “women’s movement” of the late 60’s early 70’s. Housing was unaffordable (see: “communes,”) and jobs scarcer still… see: “How many word a minute can you type” for female grad students seeking employment.
They most often still got married and had 1.3 children, but the “extra” income made the family unit feel flush.
(No again.) The extra income helped pay (maybe) a third of the rent.
I witnessed this when i was watching house buying habits.
With 2 incomes, when the owner was trying to push the high end of the price level, it was not resisted. a 30k house could easily sell for 35k to the married couple, when a single income family could not afford it.
(Nor the double or triple family income in the late 60’s.)
AS many more “families” became 2-income units, then the prices rose consistently until the 2-income unit became the basis of the sales prices.
(Wrong. Cause pushing effect.)
Single people and one income families got priced out of the market.
(We already WERE priced out. That is why we doubled and tripled up in communes.)
Nice try.
NOW, you need 2 incomes to afford the single house.
So much for “liberation”.
(Yep. You rest my case.)
Good reply Ms. Ahansen! Don’t you think there may be some truth to both sides, especially what I said earlier, that, Oly caused it??
Also, how is your recovery going from that incident A.?
My mom started working because she HAD to, to make ends meet, not because it made here feel liberated…..and no, we didn’t have a big house, expensive cars, boats, etc.. By the early 70’s, wage stagnation for high-school-only educated males was well underway.
It was only after she started contributing half of the household income that she got all “liberated”, and started demanding an equal say in how the family income was spent.
My mother started working when I was in high school. Good thing she did, because both incomes were needed to pay for my college education. (My parents didn’t believe in taking out loans for such a thing. Their salaries and what they’d saved up paid my way through.)
Less than a year after I graduated, my father quit his job and became a consultant. The two of them lived off of my mother’s teaching salary for years.
Again, consider demographics. Continual lack of recognition of simple demographics - especially population numbers - always amazes me.
By the early 1970s, there were tens of millions of fresh-scrubbed faces entering the work force (i.e., people born from 1946-1954).
In face of that, high school educated males were not as much in demand.
By demographic reasoning, 18-24 year olds should be in making bank, because there are a whole bunch of jobs that only they can do, and the talent pool is shrinking.
Strangely, the only jobs 16 and 19 year old can find locally are fast-food jobs.
Even stranger, that’s pretty much the only people who are hiring 50 year old baby boomers, too.
Yes.
You think it’s bad for today’s 18-24 year olds? Fast food jobs are what 16-19
Wait until you see what happens to the 12-18 year olds!
What happened to my post?! That was weird….
Anyway - fast food jobs are what 16-19 year olds SHOULD be doing. That and bagging groceries. Cutting lawns. Changing oil at Jiffy Lube.
To say that today’s 18-24 year-olds have skills that no one else older than they has is bunk. So they can text on cell phones and use twitter quicker than anyone else. Since when are those skills?
“Again, consider demographics. Continual lack of recognition of simple demographics - especially population numbers - always amazes me.”
yep very inflationary back in the day with all the young folks entering the work force and starting households etc, now the old inflationary train is over for awhile and many just don’t understand
my theory is first world banks will push debt on younger third world populations again
“Now this was ok if you were making lots of money, however studies show that poverty has increased greatly since 1980.”
Do such studies include the 30 million or so illegal aliens now in the USA? And the 20 million that Reagan gave amnesty to in 1986?
Just wondering.
Also wondering, the percentage of business profit attributed to the use of an illegal work force since the 1980s. If there weren’t such economic self-interest in maintaining the status quo our immigration policy and enforcement problems would have been resolved decades ago. Small businesses, like restaurants, always complain that they can’t afford to pay living wages. Yet during the construction boom most contractors could easily have paid normal wages yet eagerly turned to illegal workers to enhance their profits.
Here in Southern Arizona, illegal construction labor was pretty much the norm. And, sorry to say, a lot of the work will not stand the test of time. Those illegals were fast, but they were also sloppy. The years ahead will be very good for construction defect attorneys.
As long as there is someone around to sue.
My personal observation is that these guys file Chapter 7 the second they go under water or get a big judgement against them, then go back to business as usual on Monday, under a new name.
Umm…The 1986 amnesty number was about 3 million.
Except credit default swaps weren’t invented until the mid 90’s.
That whole DINK thing really wrecked my lifestyle in San Jose. I didn’t get married out of college, and all those “silicon valley” jobs I had meant long hours, working weekends, and lots of business travel. Hence no girlfriend ever, and hence no spouse, and hence no “dual income”. I spent my entire working life trying to get by on a single income in a dual income community. That dual income thing really kicked off the housing bubble in the 1970s. E.g. my parents bought a condo in Los Gatos for $55K in 1984 and sold it in 1989 for $185K. Prices never really came down from those levels.
Depending on which sources you consult, 35-40% of the adult population today is single.
That’s an awful lot of individuals who lack the needed income to purchase/qualify real estate - or anything else.
Two-income households have created many problems for this country, and the problems are getting worse. The distortions it has brought into everything from health insurance, transportation, productivity, retail - even to politics - are many.
I’ve been saying so on this board since I arrived more than 2 years ago. That, and my ongoing demographics blather.
Correction of dates:
E.g. my parents bought a condo in Los Gatos for $55K in 1974 and sold it in 1979 for $185K.
Don’t forget, for those people earning $1 million tax shelters came into vogue in the 1970s. Accelerated depreciation and other niceties kept money away from the IRS.
Families facing eviction from or loss of their homes can receive up to $400
By KATHLEEN CHAPMAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Families at risk of losing their homes or being evicted can apply for a one-time payment of up to $400 beginning Monday.
The money is available only to those who have a child under age 18 living with them and need help to pay overdue rent or mortgage payments. Families can also qualify for money distributed by the Department of Children and Families to help pay a security deposit if they are homeless, being evicted or have lost their homes due to fire or a natural disaster.
The federal grants, designed to prevent homelessness, are distributed each year. This year’s program totals $1.6 million, the same as last. DCF helps eligible families in the order they apply, and last year, the money was gone by September.
Applications are available online in English, Spanish and Creole at http://www.dcf.state.fl.us/homelessness or by calling (877) 891-6445. Anyone with questions can call the same number. Applications received before 8:30 a.m. Monday will be denied.
Yeah, that’ll do the trick. Come on - it’s time to quit this nonsense and stop throwing away money like this. A one-time payment of $400 isn’t going to keep any of these people in a home they can’t afford; one which they never could have realistically afforded but for all the exotic lending out there.
It’s just enough to feed a meth/crack addiction, isn’t it?
Eud: I was going to say the exact same thing. It was in my mind as I took a bite of bachelor food, looked up to see your post, and about pooped an Oly Frog!
it’s just enough to pay part of my health insurance bill for the next three months.
I agree, this is stupid. When are we going to stop filling in the gaps in individuals incomes?
I’m waiting for them to restart the government cheese program!
Why not? At least then the government is giving out stuff, and not money. There’s only so much cheese you can sell for cash on the black market.
I have no problems with the government cheese program. Or at least I didn’t. That is, until I tried the cheese.
I’m waiting for the government “beer” program.
I’m waiting for the government “beer” program.
Yar! There speaks wisdom!
Beer me!
Except it would probably taste like that generic crap they were trying to sell in the late 70′/early 80s.
(To educate the young’uns: They used to sell “generic beer” A plain white can with “BEER” in black letters on the front. As I recall, the local stuff was made by Falstaff (are they still around?)
Stuff tasted like panther pi$$. But my buddy showed me the trick to drinking cheap beer………
Drink a 6-pack of the good stuff, preferably fast. THEN drink the cheap stuff. Your taste buds will be half-lit too, and they won’t know the difference. Sorta like the way “beer goggles” work.
Ahhhh, memories. Anyone remember the Coors cans that had the two holes in the top (one was a vent)? You could slam a 12 oz can in about 3 seconds.
Beer me up Scotty!!
How DARE you malign Falstaff!
I spent many a days drinking that underage/of age at White Sox games. Harry Carey, fried chicken, Falstaff and showers in the center field bleachers! Bill Veeck, too.
Those were the days! Before Carry defected to the North Side and turned Wrigley Field into an outdoor, urine-soaked saloon.
Gotta drink those blues away, eh Cub fans?
Yo, with milk selling for $2.10 a gallon (yes, a loss leader, but still) and feed companies refusing to sell to teetering dairies unless COD, highly unlikely there will be any surplus cheese. The next giveway program if people are hungry enough is likely to be dry milk powder, IMHO.
I remember that cheese! My mother used to buy it for cheap.
GEEZ what morons….what about guaranteeing a renters total security deposit back when the home is in foreclosure?
That wont cost much and it would be the right thing to do, provide receipts and get a voucher to be used on your next apartment before the sheriff tosses your stuff to the street….renters only
“Creole”? What the heck is “creole”? I thought that was an ethnic background. How did it become an “official” language in Florida? Are voting ballots printed in Creole there?
Click on my handle zydeco music came from the creoles
Click that link, people. You’ll be glad you did. (I’m listening to the DJ’s zydeco mix right now.)
“Creole” as it is spoken in Florida, is one ugly West Indian bastardization of the French language. It is harsh and guttural to my ear. “Plabbez boo en fookez vous”.
Not yet, but they might as well be, since the morons down south can’t figure out how to use the ballots, anyhow.
“Creole”? What the heck is “creole”?
Oh, it’s a fake language. Full of fanciful terms and the willful brutalization of good ol’ regular English.
…Hmmm. Come to think of it, it’s much like the language IIIII speak, Olympiagalese’, except that, of course, MY language deserves pamphlets written in it.
In it or about it?
You!!
I’m makin’ a note of that!
*makes a note of that! *
It’s what the Haitians speak. When we lived in south FLA all school paperwork was sent home in English, Spanish and creole.
$400? That wouldn’t pay one month’s rent in the ghetto part of my city.
Reminds me of that stimulus money last year. I got the $600, but let’s get real. $6000 is what it really takes these days.
G’morning, all. Am I first to post?
US Home Prices Seen Falling 40% Overall: Analyst
U.S. housing prices will fall by a double-digit percentage from already beaten-down levels, resulting in an overall 40 percent plunge by the time foreclosures peak in the second half of 2010, Barclays Capital economist Michelle Meyer said.
Link: http://www.cnbc.com/id/31713614
“While the early signs of improvement are in place for housing, the market will likely remain out of balance for some time, given the flood of foreclosures,” Meyer wrote.
It’s just crazy how some of the experts do not consider this unheard of amount of foreclosures and short sales that are still in the pipeline, not to mention new foreclosures because of unemployment rising .
During the last three years of the boom the industry took future buyers and got them to purchase at peak prices because of faulty lending and
the REIC used up a lot of buyers who would of bought at a later time had it not been for the myth of ,”Buy now or be priced out forever .”
Remember how we use to talk about how the industry was not going to be able to find enough solid buyers to buy up the demand once the crash hit .The industry ran out of greater fools and flippers and the crash hit .
The brains of the housing recovery should try to determine how many people could be buyers for the next 5 years ,considering being able to qualify ,than they would have a idea of just how many vacant
housing units that will be on the supply side . Also, people just don’t buy houses when they are worried about losing their job .
The Real Estate industry is too ignorant to realize that high housing prices hurts their industry and business in the long run.. those are high school level concepts, which are a bit beyond their elementary thinking..
Until wages and employment stabilize at whatever “bottom” they are going to be, housing prices aren’t going to stabilize.
The government knows that 80% of the population is screwed; they are just thowing out these token plans to make it look like they are “doing something”.
Want to paint an ugly picture? Imagine what house prices will be (using traditional formulas for affordability) when:
-The unemployment rate (the REAL rate, not the government lipstick-on-a-pig rate) is a semi-permanant 10% (for the next 5 years or so).
-Household income stagnates at a number 20% below current, during the same time period.
My SWAG: Housing bottom at the end of 2011. Just in time for the Democrats to declare victory in 2012.
TIME FOR COFFEE! Good morning everyone and happy Independence day!
Rancher, you sure love your coffee.
Three cups every morning…a life long habit that
I truly appreciate. One of the finer things in life.
How’s the weather today? I’m looking to make a trip out to your area later in the month. You probably don’t get the real foggy mornings I’m used to farther west.
Yesterday we reached 100 degrees…dry heat. Expect the same today but a cooling
trend will start on Monday according to the forecasts. River temps are at 60+.
Let me know when you’re coming and I’ll chill a few extra brews.
vagabond at surfpower dot net.
Rancher…I will be headed through your area in the next couple of weeks also…”Kite Festival” in Brookings…
Only 100 degrees, rancher?
Shoot, where I am, on the cement at 2 p.m. you can sometimes peg the meter out at 135 deg….
Gotta love the desert..
The last legal high Rancher.
I love my cuppas also. By the way good morning.
Morning Lass. I miss the cool summer days
crossing the Gate. I do not miss Marin or the
politics. Enjoy the weekend.
Three cups? Three cups is nothing.
Piker.
Sounds right ??? If CA and FL fall 50%, do the midling states fall about 35%?
http://www.cnbc.com/id/31713614
….
U.S. housing prices will fall by a double-digit percentage from already beaten-down levels, resulting in an overall 40 percent plunge by the time foreclosures peak in the second half of 2010, Barclays Capital economist Michelle Meyer said.
AP
…
“Home prices are likely to continue to fall, albeit at a slowing pace, even after the economy technically emerges from the recession.” Home prices have fallen 32.6 percent from their peak three years ago, S&P/Case-Shiller said.
On that basis, they would need to fall another 11 percent for an overall 40 percent peak-to-trough decline. Further declines could imperil metropolitan areas that have yet to experience the worst of the nation’s housing slump.
“Sounds right ??? If CA and FL fall 50%, do the midling states fall about 35%?”
I’d still be ahead despite a 35% loss.
Oly! Where are you? Still in bed? Get up girl, there’s
things to do today…let’s go out and buy houses….
Hey come on, Olygal gotta have her beauty sleep. She didn’t get to look the way she does without some *hard work*, you know.
“Hey come on, Olygal gotta have her beauty sleep. She didn’t get to look the way she does without some *hard work*, you know.”
Hold it, Hold it, Hold It !! I must be missing something here.
Who has ever really seen Olygal “in the flesh” ?…even in a HBB Certified and Date Stamped party picture. Not Me .
You horndogs are ON the internet and appear to be madly in cyber-love with a some known unknown, digital entity on the other side of your puter screens.
Our legendary pixie angel of the PNW could be a weird 13 yr old girl with a warped sense of humor or an inmate at Walla Walla Jail with computer time on the warden’s laptop.
I want a little conformation HERE before I start singing …
“My blood runs cold
My memory has just been sold
My angel is the centerfold
Angel is the centerfold”
>Our legendary pixie angel of the PNW could be a weird 13 yr old girl with a warped sense of humor or an inmate at Walla Walla Jail with computer time on the warden’s laptop.
It could be worse… it could be a old hairy dude!!!
Even though I know the jest part, (on my part, not sure about yours :), mikey, I can see your point. Horndogs…all of us.
Pssst, you horny guys. Oly is actually Aladindrag. Take a few slow deep breaths.
you horny guys
I think just saying “you guys” would be sufficient. “Horny” is implied whenever referring to a guy
(or does it wear off when you get out of your 30s…?)
Somehow, when I picture Oly, (and I am going purely on how she comments, at least the ones I have read)
I think of an all pink room, a twin sized bed with pink sheets, and a pink comforter. Pink carpet with a poster of unicorns and elephants on the wall.
In the bed is this caucasion(sp?) woman with a ballerina costume on (pink of course) and a tiara or crown on in the bed with a HUGE smile on her face. She is dreaming by the way and I, like most of us, cant wait to hear what the dream was about.
You may need MORE fluid with electrolyes, 3 Slim Jim’s, shade and a less vivid imagination.
Hell..take 2 salt tablets, keep the vivid imagination and drive on…safely
LOL,
Yea, Oly is a colorful personallity alright. This world needs to be less serious…
Maybe housing prices would get back to earth..
I think a blogger did meet Oly and made some statements that implied that she is a real women with a lot of charm .
Oly’s fun, entertaining and very smart. I tease but I’m sure she’s a very nice, if not a somewhat, unusual woman.
One things for certain, I’d hate to try to cross wits with her in any Creativity and Imagination Contest without an adequete supply of psychedelic drugs and plenty of alcohol.
Seriously, and I think some will agree, I rarely think about what Oly looks like. She is a pretty, classy lady to me regardless of looks. Mental, yes, but aren’t ALL women?
WELLLL! I initially opened my mouth to scream in indignation, but then while I was still inhaling mine eyes scanned the rest of the posts and I settled down.
Settled down somewhat.
As it HAPPENS, Mr. Man, I did in fact meet our own dear sleepless_near_seattle, so there.
This was shortly before Christmas last year, in downtown Olympia, on a nice gray rainy day, and I noted with approval his very pretty dark brown eyes, the exact color of Scharfenberger bitter-sweet chocolate.* Earlier that morning I had skipped down to the shore and stole a bag of nice plump oysters for him, which I presented all drippily, with a flourish.
Oh, hahaha! Nostalgia…. this is the funny part, in celebration of the season I made a little red Santa hat using felt and the fluffy cotton out of a vitamin bottle and I glued it to an oyster, and I told him I found it that way on the beach, surrounded by adoring oysters.
I guess he ate them later, along with the hat.
…Say, where IS sleepless? SLEEPLESS! Where are you?! You haven’t posted in 3 whole weeks at least!
*Although sleepless DID refuse to share my tater-tots, and don’t think I’ve forgotten that, either, because only aliens don’t like tater-tots.
Oly, while I can only speak for myself, I would bet we all love you.
P.S. I hate tater tots, but think I would love a geo-duck (sigh)…
P.S. I hate tater tots,
Wha…? ALIEN! Yer an ALIEN!
P.S. I hate tater tots, but think I would love a geo-duck (sigh)…
Then you should have said so in time. I dug up not one, but TWO very comical-looking clams for you that could have been mailed. The first one you weren’t handy to reply to, so I ate it. And the second time, you said you didn’t want it ‘no mas’—and I quote you on this. So I ate that one, too.
(Boy, they were delicious! Just so you know. I had both with rice, pickled ginger, and wasabi. )
And now? Well! Nowwwwwww the tides are probably too high and I can’t reach them anymore.
I’m a good swimmer, but I ain’t that good a swimmer.
In short, I must conclude:
Yer either an alien, or else yer a Gemini*, but in either case yer gonna have to wait awhile for a giant funny-looking clam.
*Say, is there a difference, there?
Haha!
sleepless visits Oly + sleepless is missing = Oly ATE him with tater tots.
I’m no fool !
Ha Ha !!!
Hey Oly, I’ll wait for my third available geo-duck, cause all good things are worth waiting for.
BTW,
Those of you with your minds in the gutter, my description WASNT meant that way!!
stpn2me
Whatever’s said on the internet, stays on the internet all around the WORLD….FOREVER n’ ever
“Somehow, when I picture Oly, (and I am going purely on how she comments, at least the ones I have read)
I think of an all pink room, a twin sized bed with pink sheets, and a pink comforter. Pink carpet with a poster of unicorns and elephants on the wall.”
Oly is Michael Jackson??? (And his death was faked?)
I’m going to rest up my strength for a few minutes now, because this sort of “Triple-Scream of Indignation” takes some focus.
…Now, you’re in San Diego? (I wisely deduce this from your name.)
Okay, then, the sound-wave oughtta hit you in just a bit….
July 2, 2009
POLITICO: Washington Post sells access, $25,000+
For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to “those powerful few” — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper’s own reporters and editors. The astonishing offer is detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he feels it’s a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff.”
The offer — which essentially turns a news organization into a facilitator for private lobbyist-official encounters — is a new sign of the lengths to which news organizations will go to find revenue at a time when most newspapers are struggling for survival.
And it’s a turn of the times that a lobbyist is scolding The Washington Post for its ethical practices.
How morally bankrupt to you have to be to get a lobbyist to say “Hang on, that’s not ethical!”
Is this a great country or what?!
Hello everyone…Good Morning!
Have you found bin laden yet?Where do you think he is?
Hell, for all I know, he is in the afghan security service
We have a joke here about a six foot 7 afghan (as most afghan’s are 5′8 or shorter). Who could miss a bearded man over 6 foot here? I believe he is in pakistan. The mountains are VAST. Alot of places to hide….
He is probably stashed away in a cave somewhere reading about the housing collapse.
Look for tall caves.
You know….I’ve never heard from Olygal at the same time I’ve heard from Osama bin Laden. I wonder…..
Adopting a cyper-persona to confuse and demoralize the American public? Making fun of Christian sects in Utarr? No respect for the authority of the financial types in NYC? Keeping firearms at the ready to pop pesky varmits? Hmmmm….
Okay, NOW I’m gonna scream in indignation.
*screams mightily *
Did you hear that? Yer only in Idaho, so I bet you heard that.
Heck, I bet Stpn2me heard that one.
Seems like a slow day today. Bloomberg to the rescue.
July 3 (Bloomberg) — Britons paid down mortgage debt at a record pace in the first three months of the year as the recession encouraged people to curb borrowing.
Individuals added to their housing equity for a fourth quarter, paying in a net 8.1 billion pounds ($13.2 billion)…
“Homeowners are clearly and sensibly taking matters into their own hands, rather than just sitting around waiting for the market to eventually pick up,” said Colin Ellis..
It seems that Brits are cutting their consumer spending and focusing on the mortgage. They are also building equity simply because they are unable to take out Helocs.
Where’s combo. The appropriate perspective is that their white elephants continue to bleed them dry.
While the renters are building “equity” simply by not participating in the bubble!
I definitely feel much richer this year than last, because of falling house prices in Silicon Valley (my nest egg will buy a larger fraction of a house than last year) and falling rents: indeed, I am in the process of moving into a 4-bedroom rental house that is more than twice the size of my current apartment, and the rent is slightly LESS.
Preach it, jbunniii (dang you have a lot of i’s)!
My wife and I had a ’stretch’ down-payment that is now an ‘easily comfortable’ down-payment by sitting out for 2 years. And the houses we wanted to buy have lost at least 100k if not more, and are promising to lose much more. Life is sweet!
Congratulations on finding a better rental situation in Silicon Valley. And, thanks for the report, from your perspective, that rents are falling.
Thanks for that! I resemble that remark!
I thought Segway failed because riding on it looked silly.
Dumbest Moments in Business 2009…midyear
GM took time out from its turnaround efforts to unveil the PUMA, a two-seat vehicle being developed with Segway that looked more like a rickshaw than a car.
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/fortune/0906/gallery.dumbest_moments_midyear2009.fortune/index.html
I don’t know why anyone bothered with Segways or PUMAs. Just get a bike and a golf-cart and call it a day.
Isn’t the maximum exercise that most golfers are going to get the walking?
When I think of golfers I don’t think of Tiger Woods or Annika Sorenstam. I picture some fat white dude with a prostate problem.
Strength training and conditioning is part of high-end golf. For every John Daly you have three Sergio Garcias, an Annika, a Natalie Gulbis (anyone who appreciates a beautiful woman should google), and a Tiger.
You might be right about most golfers, but you could say the same thing about any sport since most players are amateurs or weekend warriors rather than the professionals.
Jim Rome once said that it is not a “sport” if you can play it while you are sucking on a tank of oxygen.
(meaning medical oxygen, not scuba diver tanks).
Etiology of the prostate problem is bouncing in the golf carts because the suspension can’t stand the weight. Boing!
You see a fair amount of tourist groups here on rented Segways. Great way to see things more quickly / save walking. Last time I checked ago years ago the tour was $90 for about 3 - 4 hrs. There are about 3 people up here on Capitol Hill who use for commuting downtown.
Looks like a seat on a roller coaster to me.
There’s a Segway rental shop about a mile away from here. I often see groups of Segway-ers in and around Downtown Tucson. I like to kick my bike speed up just a hair to show them that it’s not hard to ride faster than they are.
Quick Story,
Noticed a foreclosure in my area on the MLS, (really hasnt been many ) I call the realtor to get some info. Apparently this house has been vacant for 2 years and is just now coming on the market. A broker is handling the foreclosure for Fannie Mae.
WTF, its taking 2 years for houses to come on the market after the owner abandons them. This house eventually had a burst pipe, which created a mold problem and cost FNM 30k to abate the entire place. Now they have the audacity to list it for 159k and it needs a total rehab.
I still cant get over it, 2 years its been sitting there.
Isn’t it your moral duty to have squatted for 2 years, then?
They are trying to outlast the downturn or at the very least control the slide in prices by building “shadow inventory.”
They will fail. Badly.
“What really angers me is how many people in our society make horrible life choices with these safety nets factored in as an entitlement. It’s completely grotesque.”
“Your anger is misplaced. Wall Street has stolen more money from this country than all the welfare cheats combined, yet still most of the anger is directed at those lower in the social order.”
I saw these comments late last night (posted yesterday) and thought I’d comment today.
Whenever I see people finger point on said issue, I always remember Rodney King – in which case, black welfare street thugs burned down their own neighborhoods and robbed local businesses AND what happened in Chicago after the Bulls/Michael Jordan won their first championship. There, well-to-do white thugs from wealthy north shore – few older than their mid-twenties – flipped about 75 cars, threw bricks through storefront windows, etc.
The reason for the behaviors is simple; the offenders are very similar in a key way. Both sets of street thugs have no concept of money. They’ve never earned any…or, if they did, the amounts were miniscule compared to the bling and services they often received.
What’s that saying about ill-gotten gains?
Speaking of “ill-gotten gains,” anyone catch an item in the news about Ruth Madoff, sobbing, on her knees, clinging to a US Marshall’s ankles, begging him, please, to leave her a fur coat? I would have paid dearly to see that. “Noooooo. . . .Not the mink. Noooo.”
I really have to wonder about some women. Which is more embarassing, having to wear a wool coat, or being caught on camera sobbing and begging at the foot of a US Marshall?
I ran into Ruth the other night at the White Castle on 36th St. and 8th Ave. She was working the counter. What a moron she is.
Hey, a Boy can dream. Can’t he?
The wool coat, of course.
Please, that’s “Republican cloth coat”: something Pat would wear.
Pat … Nixon?
I’ve met a few US Marshalls in my time. To a man and woman, they are very professional, but also no-nonsense in their demeanor. I imagine that Mrs. Madoff’s display of emotion was just another day on the job for them. They’ve seen much worse.
I flew down to Georgia a couple of years ago to attend the Ranger Hall of fame Inductions. A bunch of us old friends were downing beer and telling war stories with the current active duty Rangers.
One of my friends had his family there. He had a knockout young daughter. She was a little beauty and looked about 18-20 yrs old.. Dark brown hair, slim, trim and about 5′8″ 120? lbs. I knew her, we had been talking and she hung by his old friends when Dad wasn’t around.
It was fun to see the young hot blooded Rangers angling, drinking and moving in on this innocent little southern jewel.
Finally, one of the bold young Rangers made his move and asked her.
“…and what are you going to be when you grow up little girl?”
“Well, my Dad raised me with this bunch of drunk Paratroopers, Rangers and Special Forces guys but I was just accepted by the US Marshall Service”
The young Ranger’s jaws dropped, his eyes rolled and the entire hotel roared with laughter. Her Dad just grinned like a cat on hearing the story when he returned.
I don’t think it’s an embarassment wearing wool just a a grasping at something of your old life. Until proven otherwise I think Ruth gets the benefit of the doubt that she could be innocent. She is about 70 years old. A lot of women of that generation still have not clue as to how much money they (read their husband) have. I have a sister in law also Jewish but only 50ish. No idea about money / business or what my brother has or does not have. Ruth’s working in the office could have been as simple as working as receptionist. Bernie might have been put her there to make her feel important / wanted. Or as in the case of a friend, his wife became his receptionist because she was afraid of him cheating - AGAIN. THAT SAID anyone who thinks she and the sons and others are not under 24 hr. surveillance now and will be for years to come are smoking something. If there are funds hidden. This is how they’ll be found. Remember they got Al Capone for income tax. And remember in the Godfather book one of the characters was complaining he and wife could have a nice house / cars / clothes ’cause the IRS guys.
The other two dozen having been U-Hauled into storage last month. You believe this stuff?
“The fish rots from the head.”
When the leaders or aristocracy of your country are corrupt, so will be the body of citizens.
We’re in deep trouble.
As someone once put it, “When everyone around you is on the “make”, your biggest fear is of being “taken in.”
2 July 2009: 1922 Model T totaled in I-80 wreck: A truck slammed into the vehicle on Interstate 80, Lt. Daria Hooper of the Rawlins Police Department said. The truck was traveling about 50 mph when it hit the Model T, which was traveling about 35 mph, Hooper said, adding that the state of Wyoming doesn’t impose minimum speed limits on interstates. The truck driver was cited for careless driving. Neither driver nor passenger of the Model T suffered serious injuries.
I watched those vehicles pass through my town. They were traveling in a convoy. There was a picture on the front page of the local paper. You know, I wondered how safe it was to drive one of those on the freeway.
Dude who had his model-t on I-80 should have been cited for reckless endangerment at the very least. At 50, you know the truck was on the brakes to get down from 75. At 35, the T might as well have been parked in the lane.
I bet he was in the left hand too. Probably running side by side with another one doing 35mph too.
I hope the trucker asks for a jury trial, I would never vote to convict.
I hope the truck driver takes her to civil court for damages to his truck, too.
I wondered how safe it was to drive one of those on the freeway. Apparently, 1922 Model T’s are pretty safe when rear-ended by trucks.
Dude who had his model-t on I-80 should have been cited for reckless endangerment at the very least.
Nope, not at all. There are many places in rural USA, e.g., WY & NM, where an interstate highway is the only road across large areas of the country. That would be one reason why WY has no minimum interstate speed. One way to identify this kind of interstate is when you see a “bicycle” warning symbol, meaning bikes are present — because they have nowhere else to go. Various blogs on the Ocean to Ocean memorial run this summer have mentioned the lack of alternatives to interstate travel. If I were crazy enough to try something this, I would have had either a chase car with massive reflectors, signs and flashing lights, or had them on the Model T.
I bet he was in the left hand too. Various blogs about the O2O have mentioned the Model T was in the right hand lane and was rear ended by a truck passing another truck (illegally) on the right. There are very few valid excuses for rear-ending anyone on an interstate.
There are very, very FEW excuses for rear ending someone.
I think maybe 2.
I know one of them!
#1 Texting your hot date and she sent back a nekkid picture and you forgot you were driving a SUV….
————————————————————-
There are very, very FEW excuses for rear ending someone.
I think maybe 2.
Well at a minimum, cars like that should have a slow vehicle triangle on the back.
Look, keep the damn things off the road in this day and age, or have cops in front /behind them.
Wow. I can’t believe you people. The truck REAR ENDS someone, WHILE ILLEGALLY PASSING ON THE RIGHT, and you blame the victim?
Seriously?
And you wonder why this country is in trouble?
+1
I see both your points Losty and eco, but there is assumption of the risk and ignoring reality. I LOVE old cars like that, but you’re putting to much on the truck driver in todays world.
Sorry, and not trying to be smart, but I raced prof. bikes. It is the PACE. Today does not equal 1960 when this could have happily been done for all to enjoy. I mean Hazus, the interstate?
Just my thoughts. Don’t beg to differ with friends.
to =too
today = today’s
BAC = .03 ( less than mikey’s and Oly Gal’s I bet…)
Somehow this reminds me of the beginning of Ben Casey…
Ah, yes! Infinity.
Maybe the U.S. should build and maintain luxury villas for North Korea government and military leaders and their families in Hawaii and Alaska. Asians love Hawaii. They wouldn’t bomb their own homes, would they?
I don’t know, Bill. The North Korean leadership has no problem starving its own people. The Chinese fire on their own students. The Japanese have a history of offing themselves for honor. Bombing houses seems rather mild in comparison.
Four dead in O-hi-o.
Bingo llcarlos.
Kent State anyone?
Waco?
Wilco?
Roger roger!
Over over.
What’s the vector victor?
Don’t give our current administration any ideas, Bill.
Next, you’ll pro-offer that they support wanna-be dictators of Honduras or some other backyard place.
Both world wars were mostly white on white violence.
Just in case anyone didn’t notice, the largest # of bank closings in 2009 in one day occurred Thur, the day before the long July 4th weekend. No coincidence here, right? Gov’t don’t manipulate things……
F.D.I.C. Closes Seven More Banks
WASHINGTON (AP) — Six Illinois banks and one bank in Texas were closed by federal regulators on Thursday.
Regulators shut down the John Warner Bank of Clinton, Ill.; the First State Bank of Winchester in Winchester, Ill.; the Rock River Bank of Oregon, Ill.; the Elizabeth State Bank of Elizabeth, Ill.; the First National Bank of Danville in Danville, Ill.; the Founders Bank of Worth, Ill.; and Millennium State Bank of Texas, based in Dallas.
The closings brought the number of bank failures this year to 52, more than double the 25 that failed in all of 2008 and far more than the three closed in 2007.
No Georgia banks??
The rash of Illinois failures are interlinked: All six banks were controlled by one family and followed a similar business model that “created concentrated exposure in each institution,” according to the FDIC.
Wonder how much money that family took from the bank in various ways…
Hawaii senator helps bank he founded get aid
Central Pacific Financial did not meet criteria, holds bulk of Inouye’s wealth.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31675539/ns/politics-washington_post/
Not to hit the panic alarm or anything but this is very interesting….
Jul 2nd, 2009 | By Contrarian Profits
A large “mystery” bank is scrambling for late night cash. At the close of the quarter, an unnamed bank paid 7% for overnight money from the Fed. The mainstream and the Fed claim this to be normal behavior at the end of the quarter, but don’t believe it for a second.
Here’s Karl Denniger at the Market Ticker on why you should be concerned:
Let’s put this in plain language: The discount window is open for any bank that has good collateral at less than 1/10th of that interest rate.
Therefore there is absolutely no reason for any institution to go into the Fed Funds market for overnight money at 7% unless they have no good collateral to post against it and thus cannot go to the window.
So which bank was it? That remains unknown.
But there’s absolutely no reason a well capitalized bank would borrow at 7% when they could do it at 1/10 of the price. And the last time this fishy late night borrowing went down was right before the massive wave of bank failures of Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, and Wachovia.
7% is a HUGE red flag.
Happy holiday every one. We are off to Florida for a few days. I was surprised the hotel prices are down significantly. I got reservations at the Tampa Hilton for $65 a night. Intercontinental was $95 a night. 4 star hotels in Orlando are around $89 per night. Can we say deflation? Yes we can. I like deflation so far
Yes, I second the holiday thing. Lots of people are travelling, etc. I want to say thanks to Hwy 50 and fam (even tho they are camping east of Flagstaff and probably won’t see this) for taking me out for pizza last night. We had some good laughs and got to catch up since Vegas. Have fun on the adventure and try to sneak in Momument Valley on the way to CO.
Yikes, Ben. You guys are practically in my back yard. Are you still around? I’ll come out with my tent and bring you some G&T (and fresh limes!)
We did our holiday making the past two weekends to avoid the crowds. I’m curious to hear what everyone else encounters this weekend. My girlfriend drove up I-95 last night and said there was little traffic. Very surprising.
Hey bink,
That would make a good holiday observations thread. I’ll put that together, along with a mid-year predictions thing. We should have some guest blogger posts this weekend as well.
It’s clear travel and spending have dropped here in N AZ. Now it is openly acknowledged we are in a recession, even by Washington DC. This reminds me of the old troll argument that the Fed would simply cut rates and save the housing bubble. And we used to counter that if the Fed was cutting rates it meant we were in dire economic times and that would be a bad time to buy a house.
Where are those foolish trolls?
Where are those foolish trolls?
Licking their wounds.
Or p*ee*ing their pants.
Or, hey, why not? Multi-task and do both at once!
My LL joyfully just informed me that he bought a used “Yellowstone Park” Ranger Barn type McMansion on 20 acres in the country with the help of a close relative that was his RE agent. He’s in commercial construction and of the opnion that HE’S a bigshot essential to the Company and can’t be possibly be layed off. He offered me his lower nicely up-dated unit with double garage, nice yard and firepalce when he leaves at a hefty rental increase. I told him “No Thanks” and to please continue to show up with his little trusty snowblower at 6:30 am on cold snowy mornings as I didn’t want to miss his little frozen body in the Christmas lights as I looked out of my cozy window over coffee.
Now he’s frantically scrambling around for $70k plus for the down payment. He recently refi’d and equity stripped this place and a 4 plex with a flatline for a cashflow that owns him down the street. My friend is a sportsman that has every gut toy known to man since the invention of fire, the tread, the fishook and the wheel. I merely smiled thinking I could have bought this glorified boys club deer hunting lodge for cash and still had plenty of chump change for the strippers, booze party and food.
His RE relative lost NO time in encouraging him into a bidding war with the Phantom bidders and he said he didn’t tell his fiance before he signed the papers because this is a total guy deerhead/fish place. He also said that he didn’t tell me because he knew I’d GO BONKERS on this RE deal.
We’re still really good friends dispite the fact that he still loves Carton Sheets, Ted Nuggent and he always pays his yearly NRA dues on time. Besides storage for his toys, he has to have a place to hang his deer heads, boar heads, turkey feathers and swordfish. It’s a guy thing.
I know enough of the details to imagine him broke, bankrupt, unemployed, in foreclosure and divorced with a kid on the way but I’ll hold my final judgement until I see the place and his family and fiance at our 4th of July party. I know his fiance well and asked him what she thought of his purchase. ” She is with me or without me on this..THIS is MY Dream House” hee hee hee
Sheesh…I don’t mind another expensive wedding present because between our construction, medical, hunting, cop and old college buddies…well these guys really KNOW how to throw a mean and memorable bachelor party.
Normally, I would laugh about this except we went to the same undergrad university, although at different times. Neither of us, in reality, ever finished with the Summa Cum Laude cliche at old Whiskey Tech, although a few strategically placed bribe bottles of Johnny Walker or Jack Daniel’s, did somehow manage to keep both my blood alcohol level and grades close to a repectfulable 3.5.
In any event, this should really end well and meanwhile I’m keeping my eyes open for a cardboard box that can handle some windows and a door just to be on the safe side.
Details to follow.
Mikey, did u make a typo? You meant 3.5GPA and .35 BAC, didn’t you?
Oooh, I LOVE a good story like this one.
I look forward to the report on the 4th of July party, mikey.
…Well, assuming I’m not drowned or passed out on tomorrow.
If I am, save it for me, wouldja? Then I can read it when I get back up.
Thanks.
Hey Olygal…will do.
Stay in touch. There’s a remote chance that I may have to fly out your way on personal business for a day or two and you could have the chance to tip a quick beer and punch my lights out for me always teasing you.
If it happens, I will be traveling light, quick n’ dirty on short notice in jeans and grubby’s as I might be driving back with someone. I can pack a decent shirt, jacket and tie if you want to hunt up some prime rib or something better in the surf n’ turf line.
This is up in the air with nothing definite and it’s no biggie as my friend might want to drive themself or just not come back to flyover country with their car.
I’ll let you know.
Sheesh ATE-UP…lighten up.
Proof of Service by Certified Mail is acceptable if you want to try to sue me for having fun with numbers.
I’m not a lawyer, nor do I play one on Ben’s HBB but I do have an old University of Marquette Law Library Card laying around here somewhere from my slumming days.
OK Mikey!!
I might add, I hope to he** you are not implying I would “make up” belong in this thankless profession.
Just having fun ATE-UP. Relax, I’m sure everyone sure here enjoys legal minds and I never doubted your word.
I believe that we have a few other attorneys here on HBB and I might have poked them for a smile too.
Of course, Ben is the only one that gets any real respect around this zoo because he’s the guy with the big hammer.
Oh…my kid called this evening. He’s clean across the country and his bank failed. ” IT just FAILED Dad !!” He is out in the woods somewhere in the PNW.
He says it’s getting REAL personal now and he’s keeping the EE Savings Bonds I bought him as a little kid …close to his now believing little heart.
“Founders Bank, of Worth, Illinois, was the largest of the financial institutions seized. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said Founders had $962.5 million in assets and approximately $848.9 million in deposits.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE56165S20090703
Where are those foolish trolls?
They have crawled back under the bridges they leave beneath.
Traffic on I-70 down. (Did anyone get Friday as a paid day off?). Local gas stations started going DOWN in price on Tuesday…….price down 15 cents/gallon as of noon today vs. Monday
For some reason, July 4 seems to have snuck up on everyone this year. June seemed like it was only 3 weeks long.
Traffic at local fireworks stands WAY down.
Time to start the “Black Cat Index”
Black Crowes Index. My ex-girl friend, went up to the Black Crowes in London, at a ritzy hotel, and said, “You guys are OK, bout 1/3 of the time” spent all evening with them. True story. I always loved her taste in certain things.
Accommodations around Yellowstone are pretty much booked out and prices at a premium.
Comments from Cody: “Cody will not feel a downturn, or maybe later, but not much. People from areas where there is a downturn should stop whining, and change their attitude.”
West Yellowstone store owner: “Business is up compared to last 2 years.” “We get more Canadians.”
Yellowstone is one of the greatest places to visit on earth, plus it is quite remote. I last visited in July 2006, camping out everywhere, and was very surprised that I was able to secure a campsite in Grant Village at 4 pm on a summer afternoon that time of year. The campgrounds within YNP still filled up every night, but not until late in the afternoon, rather than before noon. I left Grants campground one morning when it was 37, drove to Billings, MT, where it was 100 at 5 pm. Ouch!
Thrown pig causes riot!
Do you think it was because they forgot the lipstick?
By MarketWatch
Why those who can pay walk away from mortgages
New research found that more than 25% of mortgage loan defaults are strategic — that is, a quarter of homeowners who default on their mortgages are walking away from their homes even if they can afford to make their payments.
Homeowners are especially motivated to walk away when home values have fallen by more than 15%, according to a new paper, “Moral and Social Restraints to Strategic Default on Mortgages,” by researchers at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the European University Institute.
“Housing policy under the current administration has focused on reducing households’ cash flow problems in response to the housing crisis, but no one has addressed the negative equity issue as part of public policy regarding housing,” said Paola Sapienza, a co-author of the paper, in a news release. “We’re in a completely different economic environment today, where for the first time since the Great Depression millions of Americans have mortgage loans that exceed the value of their home.”
And nobody SHOULD address that. Because walking away and buying a new cheaper house will address it quite naturally.
Amen!
Hey, DinOR - I didn’t get a chance to follow up yesterday on the “vice” vs. “versus” conversation (I was out all day).
Thanks for answering…I was just curious because the only other person I’ve heard do/say that was my ex-g/f. The reason I asked if you were ex-Navy is because she’s a naval officer, thought maybe it was something prevalent in that organization or some such. Could just be a random thing that some people say differently, though.
Wasn’t trying to poke at you in any way.
Palm Beach Gardens will lose employees, endure longer waits for city services under budget proposal
By BILL DIPAOLO
Palm Beach post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 02, 2009
PALM BEACH GARDENS — Ten city employees will be fired. Longer waits for a building permit. Dirtier public restrooms. Longer grass at parks. Less maintenance for fire trucks and police vehicles. Longer waits for public records.
“People cannot afford higher taxes. They want government to shrink,” said Mayor Joe Russo after listening to residents’ comments Wednesday on the city’s proposed $109 million budget for next year, about $10 million less than the current year. Officials are designing a budget while facing a reduction of about 10 percent in property values.
The proposed budget would keep the current 5.25 rate for each $1,000 in taxable property value. The city’s tentative tax rate will be set at a public meeting on July 16. The rate must be finalized by Oct. 1.
The owner of a $250,000 home with the $50,000 homestead exemption last year paid $1,078. Under the current proposal, the tax bill would remain the same. That total does not include Palm Beach County School Board, Health Care District and other taxes.
The only city employees who would get raises are union police officers, scheduled for a 6 percent increase, and firefighters, scheduled for a 3 percent increase.
“That’s way too high. I know they have a tough job. But if everyone else can cut back, they can too,” said Don Palladino, a Palm Beach Gardens resident.
Some residents told council members they are willing to pay higher taxes to keep city services.
“I’m willing to pay a little more to keep my property values from going down,” said Marilyn Lew-Jacobs, a Ballen Isles resident.
“I’m willing to pay a little more to keep my property values from going down,” said Marilyn Lew-Jacobs, a Ballen Isles resident.
Hey lady, save your money for that lobotomy you so badly need.
“If you raise my taxes my property value will go up.” The CityBoy just threw up in his mouth.
To be fair, a massive crime wave does lower property values. However, it appears that the cops and firefighters will get theirs come hell or high water.
“Ten city employees will be fired. Longer waits for a building permit. Dirtier public restrooms. Longer grass at parks. Less maintenance for fire trucks and police vehicles. Longer waits for public records.”
Those 10 people are multi-talented! Mow the lawn, clean the bathroom, rebuild a transmission, pass out a permit, then break for lunch. I hope they wash their hands between the time they clean the public restrooms and hand out public records.
I’m not saying these people are being rational thinking they can hold up property values by raising taxes. I’m just saying if you cut off enough services, you do turn from a town into a blight.
“if you cut off enough services, you do turn from a town into a blight.”
Can you give an example of this ever happening? I would highly question the cause-and-effect relationship you’re implying here. The private sector is capable of stepping in to provide most, if not all, municipal services.
Isn’t that the truth. Although I am changing to lean toward the police as a whole deserve it.
Good morning from the central valley of California,
I’m making my rounds through the housing bubble blogs and decided to stop by and comment.
I’ve been looking to move from my older, 2 story home into a newer, single level for nearly a year. To date, still have not found anything that is priced right. Luckily I’m in a good situation (purchased my home in 1985) and have savings, good job, etc).
Getting beyond frustrated with sellers who will not budge on prices that are clearly not in line with the market (and what would be considered “reasonable and fair”). People here are still in a delusional state and believe the housing market will reverse course and go bubbly again
It’s getting almost pathetic.
I check on my late parents’ house in Fresno often, which I sold in 2000. Its zillow value is still priced in the 2004 range. It is about 20% too high for its location in the 93703 zip, which is industrial and near section 8 housing.
I cant believe this article. What do you guys think about Toll Brothers?
http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2009/07/02/optimistically-toll-brings-mcmansions-to-texas/
Hey, stpn2me! Hope you’re staying safe in Afghanistan.
As for Toll Brothers, they’ve done quite a bit of building in the Philadelphia area. My parents, being longtime opponents of thoughtless development, are quite familiar with Toll and the lack of care that they put into their home construction.
I can imagine my mother, sitting at the breakfast table with my father, seeing the WSJ article about Toll in Texas and saying, “Pardon me while I barf.”
But as for sloppy construction, they’ll fit in just fine.
Isn’t Toll largely an East Coast outfit? There is NO WAY that they would change their building practicies to account for the Texas summers. Watch out for the AC bill and the termites.
I live in Texas. They aren’t going to do so well.
While Texas is not feeling as much pain as the rest of country, all trends are still down.
Secondly, Texas is traditionally cheaper per sq ft no matter the income level than the rest of country.
They’re in for a surprise.
Protesters demand banks address foreclosures
Friday, July 03, 2009
By Liyun Jin, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In a gathering Downtown this morning, protesters demanded that three major banks take action to address the foreclosure crisis.
About 15 members of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) protested against Goldman Sachs’ Litton, Barclay’s HomEq, and American Home Mortgage for not participating in President Obama’s foreclosure prevention program.
“It’s downright wrong that these corporate giants, including some of the largest recipients of taxpayer bailouts, have refused to take this simple step to prevent foreclosures and fix the economy,” said a flier handed out by the protesters. “We need the Federal Reserve to hold these home wreckers accountable.”
The protest began at 10 a.m. outside the Federal Reserve Building on Grant Street and lasted about 20 minutes.
ACORN, a national organization that advocates for low- and moderate-income families, held similar protests nationwide today.
ACORN vs. Goldman Sachs
Who the hell do you possibly root for in that one?
LOL…..That line has got to be my pick of the month .
Even more to the point: who the heck could Barry O back in such a dispute?
Ahhhh, a Pittsburgh protest. Always nice to see my hometown getting into the action. Because when we get hot and bothered about something, we do it right.
Remember back in late 1982 when Ronald Reagan came to Pittsburgh? That was the trip that included a stop at a retraining program for the unemployed. Guy came up to Reagan and gave the President his resume.
That was what you saw in the MSM. What you didn’t see was the near riot that broke out Downtown. Seems that a group of unemployed people weren’t too happy to see Reagan’s motorcade.
So they pelted it with tomatoes and started pressing forward. A friend was there, and she feared for her life. The crowd surge was that strong — she thought she was going to get trampled.
The President was driven away from that crowd in a big hurry. And, for the rest of the time that he was President, Reagan did not go back to Pittsburgh.
Yep, that was when Pittsburgh was being gutted by offshore steel because they hadn’t updated their plants in what, 50 years?
Not to pick on Pittsburgh though, because the same thing happened all over the country. In Houston we lost major shipyards and steel, big time in the 80s plus the oil industry collapsed. There were geologists and engineers with years of experience waiting tables.
No one seemed to be complaining when appraisers where pushing house prices higher.
New appraisal rules under fire
Critics charge that a new system is fostering the use of appraisers willing to work for low fees and who are willing to conduct home appraisals far outside their typical areas of activity, leading to low-ball appraisals that can hurt builders, real estate agents, consumers and lenders.
WASHINGTON — It’s by far the hottest controversy in real estate this summer and it could directly affect the value of your house — probably negatively — by tens of thousands of dollars. The issue concerns lowballed valuations and the new rules guiding appraisers in both price-depressed and rebounding markets. Consider these snapshots:
• In San Diego, Steve Doyle, division president for Brookfield Homes, is trying to close out the final 20 houses of a 120-unit single-family subdivision. Prices range from $340,000 to $350,000.
But recently there’s been a major hitch: Appraisers assigned by banks are coming in with valuations $60,000 or more below Doyle’s selling prices. The appraisers, who Doyle says are unfamiliar with local market trends, inexperienced or both, are using foreclosures and short sales of existing houses as their “comparables.”
• In the suburbs near Cleveland, Enzo Perfetto, manager of Enzoco Homes, builds custom houses on clients’ lots. He said banks have begun assigning appraisers from far outside the area to value lots as part of mortgage packages on new homes. Some of the comparables they use are foreclosures, and that depresses land valuations.
“I think the pendulum is swinging way too far in the wrong direction on appraisals,” said Perfetto. Bank-assigned appraisers often “don’t know the local market and they’re going for low numbers to be ’safe.’ ” Complaints about lowballed appraisals — from builders, realty agents, consumers and lenders — have erupted since May 1, when government-sponsored Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac put their new appraisal rules into effect nationwide.
Critics charge the new system is fostering the use of appraisers willing to work for low fees — sometimes 50 percent below previous standards — and who are willing to conduct home appraisals far outside their typical areas of activity.
Since these rules only apply to Fannie and Freddie guaranteed loans, these builders are free to find non-taxpayer guaranteed loans for their buyers using any appraiser they wish. What’s that? No one else would be crazy enough to loan someone the money to buy your overpriced shack, under any circumstances?
“The appraisers, who Doyle says are unfamiliar with local market trends, inexperienced or both, are using foreclosures and short sales of existing houses as their “comparables.”
They ought to assign a royal appraisal czar to avoid this unholy market trend.
A appraisal is to protect the bank and the buyer and it shouldn’t be about what deal a real estate agent was able to swing . In a declining market with foreclosures would you want to lend top market value so you could be looking at a foreclosure in the near future if you were a bank? Enough with the REIC and the BS .
From Time magazine online analysis: fallout from the Rolling Stone piece comparing the Goldman firm to a sucking squid that crushes humanity in its zeal for dollars.
The firm is notoriously press-shy, and doesn’t usually respond to articles. But it is firing back at Taibbi, the son of veteran NBC television reporter Mike Taibbi. A Goldman spokesperson told one reporter, “Taibbi’s article is a compilation of just about every conspiracy theory ever dreamed up about Goldman Sachs, but what real substance is there to support the theories?”
And Goldman is not alone in criticizing the article. Heidi Moore, a former reporter at the Wall Street Journal who used to cover Goldman and other investment banks for the paper, wrote in response to another journalist’s question about the piece, “For the record, I don’t think any article that contains the line ‘vampire squid sucking the face of humanity’ [Taibbi's opening description of Goldman] is real journalism.”
Moore is right that the rock mag’s piece contains a bit of exaggerating and a whole lot of hyperbole. But to call it not real journalism or lacking substance is wrong. There are plenty of facts to back up the case that Goldman generates large profits by taking advantage of others
Moore is right that the rock mag’s piece contains a bit of exaggerating and a whole lot of hyperbole. But to call it not real journalism or lacking substance is wrong.
She also falls prey to the old, tired trope of American journalism — that journalism can and should be neutral and objective. It’s not true, nor has it ever been true. Why do we keep pretending otherwise?
I’d rather have my reporting delivered in a factually accurate and transparently opinionated fashion (from any/all sides of the spectrum) than clad in a phony veneer of objective distance, propped up by PR flacks and other agenda-setters, or simply riddled with inaccuracies, which seem to be the main options available from the Old Guard Media today.
You said ‘trope’!
*makes note in Word-watching journal with a satisfied flourish *
Oh, yeah; nice post, too.
Well put, ET. I hope this doesn’t ruin your day, but since at least the 80’s, conservatives have been saying exactly this about the MSM– and pining for the old days when a newspaper’s political affiliation was obvious from its name.
Lehigh, I agree with those conservatives on this particular issue — let’s put our respective biases out front-and-center in journalism — as long as the reportage and commentary are cogent and the facts accurate, the “slant” is a good thing.
Heidi Moore was right to point out the hysterical hyperbole of the article, which may sell copies but does little to educate its audience.
It’s neither hysterical nor hyperbole, but fact.
But you have to do your own research to realize this.
From The American Conservative (no, I am not a subscriber). And I am not trying to get the gold bugs excited (though I have GLD on a watch list that seems to call my name on my handheld.)
The financial media and government officials are looking for a recovery in the housing market to “restart the economy.” The entire world—or at least every exporter from Shanghai to Bonn who is desperately dependent on the free-spending American consumer—is hoping that housing is about to re-ascend to its glorious bubble-era heights. But that is not going to happen—not this year, not even in ten years, for several fundamental reasons.
1. Bubbles do not re-inflate in the asset class that just popped. Tulip-bulb valuations did not rise again to stratospheric heights after the Tulip Craze went bust, nor did the NASDAQ dot-com bubble re-inflate, for the very good reason that bubbles are never based on rational valuations. They are the result of a psychological state of mania that cannot be reinstated once lost.
Consider tech stock Cisco Systems, a well-managed “real company” that continues to make profits providing goods and services. Having replaced the bankrupt General Motors in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Cisco currently trades at around $17 a share, down from its dot-com bubble valuation of about $81 per share.
To recover its bubble-era valuation, Cisco would have to rise fivefold. That’s highly unlikely. Now that the hysteria has dissipated, Cisco is valued on more rational metrics like earnings, profits, and cash flow.
Mania always moves on to a new asset class. After the dot-com bubble, speculators turned to housing. Once the housing bubble collapsed, the mania shifted to the bond market. Now that the bond bubble is bursting—that spike to nosebleed territory in December 2008 was the dead giveaway—the only asset class that hasn’t already been blown into a bubble is precious metals and gold.
Got a very good college friend who’s a computer geek. During the 1990s, he and three friends formed a company that they later sold to Cisco Systems for $25 million.
Unfortunately, the deal included an obligation to work for Cisco for three years. And, during that time, oops! the Internet bubble burst and their stock options went south.
My friend and his buddies responded to this situation by creating a real-time Cisco stock price monitoring application that they called Sharp Stick. As in, checking it felt like sharp stick in the eye.
Our company was bought out by another one in late 2007. We were given the choice to either roll our PTO hours into the new company, or get paid for them.
My and my humble assistant/pi$$boy took the money and ran.
Our boss, wanting to demonstrate that he was a member of the new team, rolled his……
Fast forward to April 2009……company goes Chapter 7. Kiss all accrued PTO goodbye, including the hours rolled into the new company.
Moral of the story: 50% of something is better than 100% of nothing. When given the opportunity to grab cash free and clear, run with it.
These photo are awesome, and the text, well, let’s just say that the HBB has covered all these stories of woe, and then some:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/07/05/magazine/20090705-gilded-slideshow_index.html
“….107 spec homes…..listed from $800,000 to $18.6 million…..”.
Had to get out the calculator……adding the 800K and 18.6 million, then assuming that ALL of the other spec homes were listed at the minimum figure of $800,000, Greenwich has……….
A little over a BILLION DOLLARS in unsold, spec inventory on the “high end”…….in ONE FREAKING TOWN !!!!.
Ten grand is still a lot of money to me. When I see numbers like this, I don’t know whether to be stunned or pi$$ed.
Ten grand is still a lot of money to me. When I see numbers like this, I don’t know whether to be stunned or pi$$ed.
I tune out news like that the way I tune out Michael Jackson coverage.
“Vegas…….3 million feet of retail space vacant…..”
Picture an abandoned Wal Mart Supercenter, 3,000 feet long, and 1000 feet wide……
Great photo essay in the New York Times … “Ruins of the Second Gilded Age.”
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/07/05/magazine/20090705-gilded-slideshow_index.html
Nice to see that scenes of the housing bubble will be preserved for future generations.
Really beautiful photography.
You know, we really need a good term to describe our times. I mean we have the Gilded Age, Jazz Age, The Great Depression, WW I, WW II, The Age of Rock and Roll, The 60s. All fine and well.
What of the 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s? No real names for those times that I am aware of. The Second Gilded Age? Hmm, maybe. I’d like something more descriptive and original. Of course, we have so very little that slashes and strikes through to true awareness over time. Maybe these times don’t get to be called the Jazz Age, the Gilded Age, or The Great Depression. Maybe we should retrace 100 years in the past to “rehab” an name from a place where the 20th century started from the 19th or a time that is bookended by two horrific, global, Armageddons. The Second Gilded Age, The Second Great Depression (or GD II,etc.), are what we get. The Computer Age? Does that really describe the times? or just frame them?
It’s no less nor more than we deserve, perhaps.
Roidy
ACH: Really good thought in my opinion, but I don’t know what you would name it. Has decadence already been taken?
Man, you guys are slippin’…………..
“The Granite and Stucco Age”
“The HELOC Age”
“The Debt Decade”
Just where the hell did they think they were’ going to find customers in a nation where everyone but the top 1% where earning less in real money decade after decade?
+1
Palin steps down as Governor of Alaska. May run for WhiteHouse. Obama just doubled his chances of winning in 2012.
The leftist’s personal destruction strike force dispatched to Alaska upon her being picked for VP emerges victorious. I hope they feel good about themselves, nice work guys and gals!
I think she will chill out for a while and come back on the scene just to boil the blood of anti-American progressive Marxists. Will be fun to watch.
Obama is going to be a one term president. He will be so disliked that David Duke could run against him and win.
Ummm, last I checked, Obama’s approval rating was still around 60%.
State board dismisses 13th Palin ethics complaint
NO MERIT: Counsel had asked that no more amendments be added.
By MARY PEMBERTON
The Associated Press
Published: May 27th, 2009 09:37 PM
Last Modified: May 28th, 2009 08:22 AM
The State Personnel Board has dismissed an ethics complaint filed against Gov. Sarah Palin.
It was the 13th ethics complaint filed against the governor or her staff that has been resolved with no finding of a violation of the state ethics law, the governor’s office said Wednesday.
“We’re grateful that the personnel board and its investigators have taken a rational approach to these matters, finding that the vast majority of the complaints did not even warrant the collection of evidence because they failed to assert any violation of law,” Bill McAllister, the governor’s spokesman, said in a statement.
She’s boiling the blood of a bunch of longtime Red-State Republicans, too.
They need to be looking to guys like Ron Paul (at least when it comes to fiscal policy). Instead, they are going to spend the next three years pimping the Alaska Soccer Mom.
The Republicans keep talking about going back to their “base”. Which is fine, unless your “base” is retarded. Instead of viewing Obama’s win as a wakeup call, and a clear signal that they/we need to re-evaluate Republican priorities and candidates, they want to sit around and bi#ch about what the Dems are doing, and can’t wait for 2012, to try to vote for the return of the status-quo, 2008.
Both parties are too fooked to fix. It’s time for a third party, conservative in fiscal and defence policy, that needs to stop micromanaging people’s decisions by massaging taxes and regulations to play favorites.
Palin knows nothing about economics. She’s a neo conservative, which means lip service to tax cuts and spending cuts but crack down on atheists, abortionists, people living out of wedlock, and cram the idiotic creationist so-called science down the thrats of every school kid.
She’s part of what drove people to vote for Barack Obama. I remember her equal, George H Bush, who said atheists should not be considered citizens or patriots. America is not any longer a social conservative nation. People really want tax cuts and spending cuts. But they do not want their social liberties taken away. The Republican Party mainstream is in denial about it and will keep losing unless they listen to Ron Paul who focuses on economics and only gives lip service to the abortion issue.
People really want tax cuts and spending cuts. Nobody, but nobody, wants spending cuts that affect themselves. Free lunches for all!
Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals
Some of these rules are ruthless, but they work. Here are the rules to be aware of:
RULE 3: “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.” Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty. (This happens all the time. Watch how many organizations under attack are blind-sided by seemingly irrelevant arguments that they are then forced to address.)
RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions. (Pretty crude, rude and mean, huh? They want to create anger and fear.)
RULE 8: “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new. (Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, regroup, recover and re-strategize.)
RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)
Gee jeff, that stuff sounds mean, like a bully or sumpin…
It’s right out of the Carl Rove playbook.
I think she will chill out for a while and come back on the scene just to boil the blood of anti-American progressive Marxists.
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Any more prognostications for us, Kreskin?
She can try……
She is a younger version of Elizabeth Dole. Doesn’t get anywhere on her merits, but by her ability to parrot the lines given to her by the “Republican Brain Trust”.
(Yeah, I know…….”Republican Brain Trust” is an oxymoron, at least at this point in time.)
I prefer Nastradamus. Anyway, I like the way she makes the hard core lefties just completely lose their minds. I think its funny.
Nothing funnier than an angry “progressive”.
Sarah Palin represents the distant past culture of America that won’t come back: The Lawrence Welk types who still assume most Americans over age 21 are heterosexuals, Christians, will get married, listen to fire and brimstone at church, wear hairshirts (well maybe not), have children and never ever divorce.
Fantasy. She’s younger than me but reminds me of my parents.
This is why Sarah Palin will be unsuccessful. The reality is that even though divorces are more expensive than marriage, people still go through them and are better off being divorced. It’s said that marriage is slavery for the women and divorce is slavery for the men. More and more men are choosing to not marry, hearing older men at work talk about all the settlements they have to pay their ex’s.
If she got rid of those glasses, let her hair down and dyed it bleach blonde, and spent one month in the gym more than she does, (with a good trainer) I would think she is hot. Therefore, I would vote for her to the president of the United States!
P.S. Might as well have something to look at while we’re going down….
Saw a bumper sticker on the way to Home Depot today. This is not my opinion or writing, don`t want to get attacked on the 3rd of July, it`s just a bumper sticker I saw.
One Big Ass Mistake America
It was much easier to read the on the bumper sticker, the capital letters were much bigger than the small letters.
One Big Ass Mistake America
One must question which mistake they’re referring to? Any insight?
“One must question which mistake they’re referring to? Any insight?”
From four car lengths back it reads O B A M A when you get close enough it reads One Big Ass Mistake America. And there is no question what they’re referring to.
From four car lengths back it reads O B A M A
ahh, i missed the acronym there. that’s clever
I never saw her as a bible thumper, she just lives life her way and makes no appologies, what is so wrong with that.
My comments did not say that I agree with her 100% politically, I’m a Ron Paul guy, my comments were in regards to her being the victim of a political hit machine the likes of which we have never seen.
appologies/apologies
“to her being the victim of a political hit machine the likes of which we have never seen.”
–that’s a little dramatic and overboard of a statement. I think lots of political people in the news have seen MUCH worse. Dang, look what John Kerry had to go through.
“Fantasy. She’s younger than me but reminds me of my parents.”
Palin is a generation younger than you, Bill, and you don’t understand her. She can run a sub 4 hour marathon and that is after giving birth to 5 kids. Obama spends his weekends on the golf course where CNN reported he chain smokes cigs. He is from my now deceased uncles’ generation.
Bill, I haven’t darkened the door of a chuch in many years but have never had any problem being harassed by reliious people. I keep trying to figure out where you must frequent that you keep getting challenged by Christians.I think you are tilting at windmills.
I have three kids in their early twenties and they are much more liberal than I. But I am seeing them lean more and more toward a conservative way of thinking that working people often evolve into. They are now very skeptical of the Obama plans currenly being discussed and worry about future tax burdens. I think you will be surprised at how the next generation votes in the future.
everyone is in their own bubble. The world is changing. I don’t agree that the younger generation is becoming more conservative or that Palin’s views represent where the US is going. If you can’t figure out where the religious right is challenging citizens and their rights, then you are purposely oblivious.
First, Tell me what your kids are going through. Are they waiting for those infrastructure jobs or are they moving forward with their lives?
I don’t have to wait for them. I get them. And the $$$$ is SCHWEEET!
I don’t have to wait for them. I get them. Good for you.
Jeff,
Please keep cheerleading the phony victimhood for flakes like Palin. It really works….. honestly.
Exeter, Palin’s husband is blue collar, that must really creep you out.
What Palin represents is an anachronism that if prevails will lead to our further decline.
if prevails will lead to our further decline. Further decline is inevitable, no matter what anyone does. The devil will be in the details of it.
She can run a sub 4 hour marathon and that is after giving birth to 5 kids. Obama spends his weekends on the golf course where CNN reported he chain smokes cigs.
O could spot her 5 pts and still win a game of 1on1.
But she doesn’t have the brains or depth to run a state no less an entire country.
She can run a sub 4 hour marathon and that is after giving birth to 5 kids.
I call “bull” on this. Can anyone substantiate this, or are you just attributing heroic attributes to your “heroine”?
July 4 (Bloomberg) — Suresh Tendulkar, an economic adviser to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said he is urging the government to diversify its $264.6 billion foreign-exchange reserves and hold fewer dollars.
“The major part of Indian reserves are in dollars — that is something that’s a problem for us,” Tendulkar, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, said in an interview yesterday in Aix-en-Provence, France, where he was attending an economic conference.
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