Bits Bucket For July 26, 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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There must be something seriously wrong with the San Diego condo market if buyers are not snapping up units priced north of $417,000. By contrast, I suppose the market was considered healthy when luxury units priced north of $417,000 were selling like hot cakes?
From the top down
Stale high-end condo sales affect the rest of the housing market
By Roger Showley
Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. July 26, 2009
…
Sales are running at a fraction of their boom-time levels, plans for dozens of new, shiny high-rises are on indefinite hold, and would-be buyers, who might yearn for the “lock and leave” lifestyle, are stuck in their empty-nester households waiting for the dark economy clouds to blow over.
How the top-end market behaves has some bearing on the course of the overall recovery in San Diego housing. If buyers aren’t selling and moving up, then would-be purchasers of those homes can’t move up either – disrupting the traditional ladder of real estate.
Similarly at the bottom of the market, analysts say, sellers of distressed properties aren’t buying and moving up – they’re occupying rentals – and their buyers are either first-timers or investors who rent out the units.
“I see a disconnect in the market today,” said Anthony Napoli, a Little Italy real estate agent. “I don’t see a lot of selling and buying.”
At the request of The San Diego Union-Tribune, MDA DataQuick analyzed resale condo transactions from 2002 through May of this year, priced at $417,000 or more – the traditional conforming-loan limit.
The company found that luxury resales dropped from an average of 93 per month to 43 in June. In the two most active high-end neighborhoods, downtown and La Jolla, the maximum sales rate has plummeted from 40 and 29 at the peak, respectively, to just a handful lately.
In downtown alone, HouseRebate.com counted 347 condos for sale earlier this month above the $417,000 figure. There are an additional 3,459 units in 19 proposed projects in the pipeline, construction start dates unknown, according to the Centre City Development Corp.
For the first half of the year, all condo resales totaled 5,448, 31.2 percent higher than 4,152 in the same period last year – an indication that low-priced condo sales increased even as high-priced condos stagnated.
“Unless you’re a have-to buyer and are simply a want-to buyer, and you can make the election to hang on, you more prudently hang on than sell and buy later,” said real estate consultant Gary London. “I hear from those buyers all the time, people I know, and they’re telling me they’re looking for big-time bargains.”
…
“I see a disconnect in the market today,” said Anthony Napoli, a Little Italy real estate agent. “I don’t see a lot of selling and buying.”
How is this a disconnect? It seems like a general agreement to me.
Roidu
The disconnect is his income level from what he deserves..
Oh, ok. Sorry, I can be a little slow about these things.
Roidy
Loan balloons coming, could trigger new foreclosure ‘tsunami’
By DUANE MARSTELLER - dmarsteller@bradenton.com
A coming wave of mortgage adjustments threatens to prolong, and possibly worsen, the foreclosure crisis, industry analysts warn.
An estimated 2.8 million option adjustable-rate mortgages are scheduled to reset in the coming years, with the peak in mid-2011. Those resets will cause those borrowers’ monthly payments to balloon, potentially triggering a third wave of foreclosures.
“We do believe there is another wave coming, and I personally believe it will be the tsunami,” said L.R. “Chip” Waterman of Hunt Real Estate ERA in Sarasota, who specializes in foreclosed and bank-owned properties. “There’s no way we’ve begun to see the end of this.”
Others question if such dire predictions are exaggerated — but acknowledge the crisis is nowhere close to ending.
“I think we’re past the absolute tsunami of foreclosures, but we still have many more to go through,” said Ken Chapman Jr., a Sarasota attorney and president of the Sarasota-Bradenton Attorneys Real Estate Council.
…
“I think we’re past the absolute tsunami of foreclosures, but we still have many more to go through,” said Ken Chapman Jr., a Sarasota attorney and president of the Sarasota-Bradenton Attorneys Real Estate Council.
He better hope not! He is wishing for less business which is UnAmerican.
“Did you say ‘UnAmerican’, Pilgrim?”
I gotta go watch a John Wayne movie now.
Roidy
“This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend. “
LOVE that movie—one of the few westerns where it takes a strong constitution not to get a little weepy at the end.
I agree. Great acting all the way around from John Wayne, James Stewart, Lee Marvin, Vera Miles Andy Devine, and John Carradine.
Dang now I can’t get the song out of my head.
The man who shot Liberty Valance, he shot Liberty Valance
He was the bravest of them all….
Yes, especially from Jimmy Stewart, who was a bit long in the tooth to play the young Rance Stoddard at the beginning of the film. But then, I’ve always regarded Stewart as one of the two or three greatest screen actors and would have gone to watch him read the phone book.
Jimmy Stewart was a real class act - on stage and off.
My favorite story about him is that when he was a pilot (bombers i think) during world war two, he continued to send his agent 10% of his earnings, just as if it was money from performing.
“The rating agency Fitch recently said it expects three of every four homes that the government’s “Making Home Affordable” program saves from foreclosure will end up there eventually, largely because the homeowners have too much debt beyond their mortgage.”
Just draggin’ out the inevitable.
And because the 30-whatever percent of GROSS income they use to do the fix is still too much money for most people to afford.
Unlike subprime, the Alt-A’s and Option ARMs were most utilized in the bubble zones. Looking at the NY Fed Reserve site which shows heat maps by town, even the high median price towns in the area only have a slightly elevated incidence of that breed of loans. And those towns actually happen to have higher rates of current mortgages than towns almost non-existant levels of Alt-As and Option ARMs.
So for us out in flyover land, where these creations were not so embraced, my interest is to determine what these simultaneous failures are going to do to credit liquidity. Combined w/the soon to surface CMBS failures and escalating state crises not to mention credit card write-offs, will we soon be looking at round 2 of last October?
Here’s a link to the heat map.
http://www.newyorkfed.org/mortgagemaps/
That color-coded map is awesome! Blue = ARMed and dangerous. This brings California’s classification as a blue state into an entirely different light (blue light special?).
I like the “median combined LTV (loan-to-value)” color scale (white = low, purple = high). Our zip code (92127 — Rancho Bernardo West) = deep purple…
“The high rests upon the low”
Lao Tzu
Consumers unable to lead economy forward
GDP may grow in third quarter, but it won’t be sustainable growth.
AMMAN, Jordan (MarketWatch) - The U.S. economy is poised to grow for the first time in more than a year during the current quarter, but it will still feel like a recession because unemployment and debt levels remain too high to support a sustainable recovery.
When the first estimates for the just-concluded second quarter are released next week, they’ll probably show that gross domestic product growth was negative for the fourth quarter in a row, the first time that’s happened since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
But in the third quarter (which began July 1), the GDP will probably turn positive. Some will take that news as a sign that the recession is over, that fiscal stimulus should be abandoned, that money growth should be reined in, and that the Federal Reserve should begin raising its interest rate target back to a normal level.
However, a wide range of economists - from Nouriel Roubini to Ben Bernanke - say the economy will remain weak for a year or longer.
“Job insecurity, together with declines in home values and tight credit, is likely to limit gains in consumer spending,” Fed Chairman Bernanke told Congress earlier this week “The possibility that the recent stabilization in household spending will prove transient is an important downside risk to the outlook.”
“The over-indebted U.S. consumer — whose deleveraging process yet has to start — will likely continue to put the brakes on consumption, while the savings rate continues to creep up,” said Roubini, head of RGE Monitor and one of the few economists credited with seeing this recession coming.
“one of the few economists credited with seeing this recession coming.”
Most eCONomists were nothing more than cheerleaders with a degree. I can’t believe they still interview Zandi, Snaith, etc. I get the dry heaves every time I hear a pronouncement from them.
Ahh yes, the US Consumer.
Question #1: Will long mortgage term interest rates be low enough to mitigate the 2nd wave of Alt-A and Prime mortgage resets? OR do they even matter? People without jobs cannot pay their bills. What is the magnitude as compared to the Subprime?
Question #2: Will the price of gasoline be low enough later this year (I’m starting to hear of $20 per barrel oil by Christmas.) so that the US Consumer can start running those credit cards up some more? OR is the price of oil and gas just representing the sum total of the decline in economic activity and may aid recovery but not initiate it?
Question #3: How high will the political and civil instability be? We are seeing it in: China, India, Pakistan (go figure), Iraq (We’re baaaaack!), Iran, and Mexico (Yikes! Juarez Drug War!). Will we see more? Sure! Does anyone have any idea how much more?
My views on this growing instability remain pessimistic. Let a newly poor father or relative see his or her children sicken and die with cholera, malaria, or this pig flu, while the obscenely rich get richer as a matter of policy, and you have the perfect recipe for civil unrest and terrorism.
I ask these questions for information and discussion to help me see reality. This requires input from more viewpoints than just mine. We cannot trust our leadership to do or say anything of importance or relevance.
Cheers!
Roidy
Thanks for pointing out the combustible possibilities of a world of plutocrats and extreme poverty (particularly the newly poor- historically the most revolutionary).
Laissez-faire apologists for the super-duper wealthy don’t understand that those of us who fret about them don’t want to loot them of their wealth to get it ourselves. We want a financial system that discourages ridiculous concentrations of wealth in the hands of the few.
Why? Because wealth is power and such concentrations of it in the hands of the few skews the whole system, with predictable results- fatcat bailouts, crony capitalism, monster corruption, etc. Everything we are seeing today.
And as you pointed out, the flaunting of such ridiculous amounts of wealth in the face of the newly (and angry about it) poor creates social and political stresses that threaten domocracy.
Both wealth extremes- very rich and very poor- stress a democratic system, and public policy should be to minimize the size of both groups. Through rational economic planning and regulation , not pitchforks and pogroms.
I agree with much of what you said Alpha…
“Through rational economic planning and regulation , not pitchforks and pogroms.”
But if we can’t get rational economic planning and regulation (and in an administration larded with Goldman Sucks alums, how likely is that?) I’ll take the pitchforks and pogroms.
Can we get HB-1 visas for those Chinese steelworkers who beat their manager to death in a protest? (just kidding!)
Great post alpha-sloth …great post
ditto
Alpha-sloth, brilliant post, but I disagree with the last paragraph:
public policy should be to minimize the size of both groups. Through rational economic planning and regulation
The very idea of “rational economic planning” ultimately leads to the gross disparities in wealth of which you complain. The idea that one man can “plan” and regulate the economic activities of another– based on nothing other than a temporary popularity contest– eventually allows a select few to amass grotesque amounts of wealth through purely political means.
Rational economic planning is exactly what the US had after WW2, when the GI Bills and other programs allowed a generation raised in depression and war to go to school, get good paying jobs, buy (small) houses, send their kids to college, and generally build the wealth that we have since squandered.
What we are seeing now is the result of economic planning done by (and for) wealthy insiders. To conclude all economic planning is therefore hopeless doesn’t follow logically, and serves to illustrate my point that overconcentration of wealth causes a loss of respect for democratic institutions (like rational planning).
Yes, very well put Alpha.
I want to restate that these problems are in our own back yard. Think about Mexico. The cross-border industries - construction, domestic, etc. - that have provided Mexicans with money to send home are more or less finished for a while. I should add that not all have.
With no money to send back, the people at home will be desperate along with their relatives in America - those who haven’t yet, or are, headed back to Mexico.
Now, how are they going to feed themselves and children once they gat back to Mexico or points further south? Hmm, drug smuggling? Meth labs, cocaine emporiums, and fake Quaaludes? Shooting each other and anyone else who gets in the way?
Naawww! They’ll open t-shirt and suntan oil shops for the tourists who are bound to come to Mexico for their vacations.
Yeah, right.
Roidy
P.S. While I look upon the drug trade with horror and revulsion, I must comment on their honesty. They at least will admit who and what they are unlike, say, Wall Street and our own government.
was the GI Bill really “planned” to accomplish all that, or was it really just payback for years of being stuck overseas and out of the job market?
GI Bills and other programs allowed a generation raised in depression and war to go to school, get good paying jobs, buy (small) houses, send their kids to college
And none of this would have happened without the “GI Bills and other programs”? It’s easy to say that such-and-such plan was a good one if it coincided with a period of prosperity. But we don’t know what would have happened in the absence of that plan, nor (per Hazlitt) what resources had to be siphoned off of the rest of society to realize that plan.
What we are seeing now is the result of economic planning done by (and for) wealthy insiders. To conclude all economic planning is therefore hopeless doesn’t follow logically, and serves to illustrate my point that overconcentration of wealth causes a loss of respect for democratic institutions (like rational planning).
I never heard that “rational planning” was a democratic institution. Individual freedom and limited, publicly accountable government are, though. Furthermore, as explained above, it’s the inevitable growth and metastasis of (initially) well-intentioned plans (e.g. the ownership society, etc.) that causes the overconcentration of wealth to begin with.
Finally, if you want to continue “economic planning” despite its obvious failure in many cases, how do you plan to insure that future plans are good plans and not bad ones?
“how do you plan to insure that future plans are good plans…?”
I can’t, obviously. But the more the plans are hashed out in public without special interests and back-room deals, the more likely they are to function well or be changed as needed.
You’re letting the impossibility of perfect planning make you conclude that good planning is therefore impossible.
You’re letting the impossibility of perfect planning make you conclude that good planning is therefore impossible.
That’s not it at all. My point is that in the context of government, “plan” is just a euphemism for “I’m going to take your money and tell you what to do.”
Anyone can plan. But how do you realize your plan– through persuasion or coercion? In a democracy, it’s a combination: you persuade the majority to agree with your plan, and then coerce the minority into going along. (Actually, it’s worse than that, as most plans are not put to a popular vote, and wouldn’t be approved if they were.) So there’s a substantial loss of freedom and resources siphoned from the free market, and that never factors into the economic calculation.
So by your logic, we should never plan for anything- it’s impossible and counter-productive.
I don’t understand how the GI Bill etc were undemocratic and unproductive. Were they not both desired and approved by the majority? Do you really think they played no small part in post war prosperity?
we should never plan for anything
“We” is a loaded word here– of course you and I plan for ourselves, and whoever in our circles of friends and family we can get to go along with our plans– but if by “we” you mean the gov’t, that’s a whole other kettle of fish, involving coercion as explained previously.
I don’t know specifics of the GI bill, but IMO the main reason for the postwar recovery was that we finally got rid of the corporate old guard, and allowed new enterprises to take their place.
So since any government action inherently involves some degree of coercion, government should do nothing at all, right?
That’s like the Bloom County strip where Opus the penguin becomes such a hard core vegetarian that he hangs himself from a tree with a mask on lest he step on a bug or breathe in a germ for his immune system to kill.
we finally got rid of the corporate old guard
I should add that a certain President-For-Life finally died, so people didn’t have to worry about him coming up with any more crazy-&$$ schemes to “save” the economy.
One can always claim that ‘unleashed ingenuity’, etc caused the post war boom. But giving everyone in the US a fair shake for a change sure didn’t hurt, did it?
There is no doubt that there was a direct cause and effect from the post WWII GI Bill.
Secondly, although it may not have been intended to bring about the incredible growth in personal prosperity that it did in the end, what it did accomplish was the original plan to keep 2 million battle hardened and victorious veterans from causing trouble due to lack of jobs and housing.
To argue what might have been is pointless. To argue that any program that helps people improve themselves is wrong, is just plain ludicrous.
government should do nothing at all, right?
I would say gov’t should do the minimum necessary to maintain civic order, and to prevent a more coercive gov’t from taking over. Which, most of the time, means nothing at all.
Would you at least agree that acts of Congress should have to be approved by a popular referendum before acquiring the force of law? Or at least be READ by Members voting aye?
ask our California posters how public referendums are working out
being read, I agree
“We want a financial system that discourages ridiculous concentrations of wealth in the hands of the few.”
Thank you. J. K. Galbraith could not have said it better. Even the super rich should be aware that history has not dealt kindly with the aftermath of periods when extreme wealth was concentrated in the hands of the few.
How high will the political and civil instability be? We are seeing it in: China, India, Pakistan (go figure), Iraq (We’re baaaaack!), Iran, and Mexico (Yikes! Juarez Drug War!).
Maybe some good can come out of the civic unrest. Is there any way to e-mail the protest leaders so we can swap ideas on what kinds of reforms we’d like to see?
Kind of sounds like the roaring 1920s which lead into the dead 1930s.
But in the third quarter (which began July 1), the GDP will probably turn positive. Some will take that news as a sign that the recession is over, that fiscal stimulus should be abandoned, that money growth should be reined in, and that the Federal Reserve should begin raising its interest rate target back to a normal level.
Why is the level of our journalism so low?
“Things will _probably_ happen in the next three months. (But they may not). And if the do, _some_ will think something (but others won’t)”.
And these guys get paid for writing stuff like that?
Amazing ain’t it?
I love the smell of REIC propaganda in the morning!
Home buyers have options in foreclosure-filled market
By The Community Conversation Staff • July 26, 2009
About 2,000 foreclosures a month have been filed in Lee County in recent months, giving Lee a consistent spot among the nation’s top five major metropolitan areas ranked by foreclosure rates.
But every time one homeowner experiences the disappointment of displacement, opportunity knocks for prospective owners in the market for a new home. And with the median price of existing single-family homes ($87,900 in June), substantially lower than it was a year ago ($172,400 in June 2008), there are plenty of deals — along with buyers eager to snare one.
Whether the government should be involved in the buying and selling of homes is debatable. Ideally, the market should be left to private entities.
However, the current economic conditions are anything but ideal. And since Lee has received $18.2 million in federal funds to enter the real estate business, officials should concentrate on making wise decisions in an efficient manner.
In addition to Lee County, Cape Coral ($7 million) and Fort Myers ($2 million) also have received funds through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, which seeks to mitigate the damage done by foreclosures. That’s a worthwhile goal, an effort to reduce blight and empty houses in hard-hit areas.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development oversees the program and is forcing quick action. All funds must be designated by July of 2010 and spent within four years.
Moving with such speed could lead to mistakes, especially since local government isn’t designed for the real estate business. But it’s important to remember that although the stabilization program, or NSP, should result in new homes for prospective buyers, that’s basically a side benefit.
“NSP is not a housing program,” said Gladys Schneider, a director with the Florida Housing Coalition. “It’s an economic stimulus program. The whole purpose is to inject liquidity into the financial market and local economy.”
…
“NSP is not a housing program,” said Gladys Schneider, a director with the Florida Housing Coalition. “It’s an economic stimulus program. The whole purpose is to inject liquidity into the financial market and local economy.”
…
In other words, get taxpayers tethered to a roof and four walls, fast. Now, I wonder how this works, tax-wise. Do the sheeple who buy these homes pay taxes based on inflated assessments in the neighborhood?
Also, question for the blog: when banks own a foreclosure, how are their taxes calculated?
It sounds like a program to give more money to the banks by buying their foreclosures at inflated prices. The banks are the only ones who will benefit as usual. Is anybody surprised?
LOL, pressboard, you nailed it.
“It sounds like a program to give more money to the banks by buying their foreclosures at inflated prices.”
Like PPIP.
“It sounds like a program to give more money to the banks by buying their foreclosures at inflated prices.”
Bingo! NSP is not a housing program; it’s another welfare program — FOR BANKERS!!!
“Whether the government should be involved in the buying and selling of homes is debatable.”
In my opinion there is no debate needed on this one. The government needs to get the hell out. All they do is taint the market and shovel money into the laps of their supporters. The destructiveness of their programs is fairly obvious. I hope Joeyincalifornia doesn’t consider me an anarchist for that view.
bbbbbbut NYCB…… The banks!!! The poor banks!!!! Don’t you know that we little people need the banks!!!! And rich people too!!
“The government needs to get the hell out.”
And take their mortgage interest deduction with it.
Yeah right. The MITD is the Holy Grail of the third rail.
Just suggest it to ANYONE outside this blog, regardless of political persuasion and you’ll get a violent reaction.
Very true.
What do you think would happen if you summarily eliminated the MID tomorrow ??
A plug in the revenue stream would be filled. Some people’s overall taxes would go up. In this case, I’m ok with that.
It would be a 30% + - tax increase on the amount of interest real estate taxes that people currently take….Change the rules in the middle of the game ?? A elimination of the MID would cause a wave of foreclosures across this country that would make the current mess look like a Sunday Picnic…IMO, there would not be a bank left standing…
I always thought Joey was a computer generated PR machine for the other side of any debate .You mean hes a real person …..(just kidding Joey ).
I don’t think it’s anarchy for wishing to get govt out of the situation.. but i do think it’s futile and the wish will never be granted..
Too much govt is like too much salt in the pot of soup. Once it’s in there’s no way to get it out.
Is there too much govt involvement in the housing market? Sure there is.. but there’s too much govt everywhere. The collective “we” put it there. Now we want some of it out.. Well, tough titties. Just eat your soup.
Too much govt is like too much salt in the pot of soup. Once it’s in there’s no way to get it out.
I heard that putting a potato in there will help…the starch in the potato will sop up the salt or something. Is that not the case?
It looks like you’re arguing that once we’ve headed down this path, the only way back is through revolution. I think that’s my outlook as well (sadly), but part of me doesn’t want to say it out loud…I’d rather believe we can take back the powers that others have granted the government.
We’ll get a “revolution” out of it without encouraging one.. it’s practically locked in.
New regulations will be in place.. new restraints on financial institutions.. more oversight on wall street’s machinations.. More attention paid to NAR’s and mortgage broker technique, to bank lending practices.. institutional investors will be more closely monitored and restrained, and so forth all the way down the line.
And we da peeple will feel the sting of borrowing and spending money we can’t repay for decades to come.
it’ll be revolutionary.. Almost everything people around here are screaming for to happen will happen.
now i’m outta here for a week.. got some business.. have fun.
Watch out, or Joey the McCarthyite will sick the authorities on you…
Those numbers don’t look very big. Seems that they could use up that much money cutting grass, emptying pools, cleaning out gutters, dealing with storm damage, etc. for 4 years.
Those numbers don’t look very big. Seems that they could use up that much money cutting grass, emptying pools, cleaning out gutters, dealing with storm damage, etc. for 4 years.
What are the chances that the local companies that provide said services are also campaign contributors to the local politicians? This is just more corruption and graft.
Very high. But it is still kinda minimal as a bank bailout.
Where is the payoff to banks in mowing lawns and otherwise beautifying the neighborhood?
Easier to sell a house that doesn’t look like a wreck and possibly fewer walk aways from people who decide their neighborhood isn’t worth the bother of paying on an upside down mortgage.
What’s this, Barry’s reneging on a campaign promise, what a surprise. No matter he won’t be called on it.
White House eases stimulus lobbyist restrictions.
07/25/09 01:25 PM [ET]
In a significant change, the Obama administration will now allow lobbyists to meet and have telephonic discussions with government officials regarding economic recovery projects.
The lifting of the ban comes after K Street has cried foul for months and has challenged the White House on its restrictions.
In March, President Obama announced that government officials would not be allowed to consider the views of lobbyists regarding specific stimulus projects unless the requests are put in writing. The materials also had to be posted on an agency’s website within three business days of receipt. Lobbyists have said that the policy was one more example of the administration’s disdain for their industry.
Now, the just-revised rules will allow government personnel to accept meetings and calls from federally registered lobbyists on the implementation of stimulus projects. The head of the Office of Management and Budget, Peter Orszag, issued a new guidance late Friday regarding the administration’s communications with registered lobbyists about economic recovery funds.
Lobbyists can make their cases — and agency officials can listen to them — at “widely attended gatherings.” Government officials have to ask whether the person they are talking to at such events is a federally registered lobbyist speaking on behalf of a client.
Feh, when it comes to the economy, Bammy has zilch credibility. His administration is larded with Goldman Sucks alums, I think he just made another appointment, this time to the State Department. What a joke.
And now, wmbz, I’m sure you’re not much of a fan of Moyers, but his show Friday night was awesome. It really exposed healthcare deform for what it really is, a gift crafted by and for the insurance industry. There’s not really much of a plan here, except that people will likely be forced to pay for stuff they don’t want.
Yep, change is a-comin’, but hope is being crushed out in the process.
I think it’s safe to say that Moyers was completely stunned by what was revealed about healthcare deform. I think a lot of Bamaphiles are in complete denial and their heads are about to explode trying to reconcile what they thought he was vs. what he really is, a second-string senator with light-weight credentials, waterboy for Wall Street.
second-string senator ??
Over his head a little ?? Maybe…At least he is honest…I will take him in a heart beat over the incompetent. condescending jackass Bush and his Nazi VP….
Difference in style, not substance, IMO.
Well said, Palmetto. It’s amusing watching Obama voters as all the Messianic attributes they assigned to him, in their illusions, are crumbling as they see him revealed as an ineffectual bon vivant and tool of the financial interests that installed him in office. His one redeeming virtue is that he was a change from the epic incompetence of the Bush Administration or the horrific Republicrat McCain.
Palmetto, I have nothing against Moyers, and recently he has been turning back more toward the honest roll of journalism.
We all have our biases, mine is with out doubt a strong mistrust of big government.
“Palmetto, I have nothing against Moyers, and recently he has been turning back more toward the honest roll of journalism.”
Agreed. The show exposed Bammy for the complete phony he is on the issue of healthcare reform.
You just need to remember Moyer’s background and take his reporting with a grain of salt. As I’ve mentioned before, younger people may not remember that Bill Moyers was Lyndon Johnson’s press secretary, in charge of selling “the great society” to the American public.
Of course, Moyers & the left is attacking the health care “reform” bill for being engineered by the insurance industry. They want insurance out, they want single payer, govt pays everything, no opt out for private coverage, Canadian style.
My senator Baucus is catching holy hell from Montana’s “progressives” for not considering single payer. Every time he holds a town hall they pack the room with single payer advocates.
But my guess is this bill is just a foot in the door that will be very unsatisfactory to everyone, necessitating years and years of more “reform” until we end up with all-govt single payer. Meanwhile the smarter providers will opt completely out of the system and go on a private retainer system for wealthier clients.
Apparently the American Medical Association has weighed in on the Medical reform proposal:
The Allergists voted to scratch it, but the Dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.
The Gastroenterologists had a sort of gut feeling about it, but the Neurologists felt the Administration had a lot of nerve.
The Obstetricians felt they were all laboring under a misconception while the Ophthalmologists considered the proposal shortsighted.
Pathologists yelled, “Over my dead body!” while the Pediatricians said, “Oh, grow up!”
The Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness while the Radiologists could see right through it.
Surgeons decided to wash their hands of the whole thing.
The Internists thought it was a bitter pill to swallow, and the Plastic Surgeons said, “This puts a whole new face on the matter.”
The Podiatrists called it a step forward, but the Urologists were pi$$ed off at the whole idea.
The Anesthesiologists thought the proposal was a gas, and the Cardiologists didn’t have the heart to say no.
In the end, the Proctologists won out leaving the entire decision up to the a$$holes in Washington.
Too funny rms.
Politicians live and die by polls, I don’t know how much they matter. I will say that the grumbling is growing, many of the gubmint dependent are not happy with their current savior.
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 29% of the nation’s voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -11. That’s the first time his ratings have reached double digits in negative territory
He really got there fast, didn’t he?
I remember during the shrub debacle, calling one of my Congresscritters and having a long discussion with a staffer about the power grab by shrub. I was majorly pissed. The staffer whined “it’s these Republicans, we just can’t do anything”. I was so disgusted I wanted to send a barf bag to the office. Really, you should have heard the craven whining.
Screw these two parties. They suck equally.
The beginning of wisdom, Palmetto. Both parties suck. The zombified voters who keep perpetuating their misrule have only themselves to blame.
OK. I have to chime in on this one. One of the small teams I work on had a meeting with someone from an industry group a short while ago. I don’t know if she was a registered lobbiest or not. My group is so low on the totem pole that we were never briefed on restrictions so it is likely they don’t apply to us. She started out doing her little schpiel. About 30 seconds in I interrupted for clarification. Once I broke that ice, the entire thing progressed with us peppering her with questions for about an hour. The lovely little presentation with all the very sypmpathetic examples was set aside - I still haven’t read it.
We are a moderately clever bunch and as soon as she and the other people who came to “vouch” for her left, we spent about 15 seconds in a hallway agreeing that all she wanted to do was save the jobs of the people represented by her professional association by preserving the current structure of their industry which some recent changes in the way things are reported might threaten. We decided we were unimpressed. A few days later I realized the change they wanted might allow an abuse we had been trying to avoid and sent an e-mail to the rest of my group pointing it out.
Result. My colleagues and I lost an hour of our lives and learned a bit more about an industry we really need to understand. They lost a heck of a lot more than an hour of their lives (must have been working on that presentation for days or even weeks) and can tell their members that they got the conversation. I sincerely doubt that we will do anything to accomodate them, but if we do, we will at least close the loophole that their particular proposal opens up.
No one tried to offer us any money or goodies or jobs. We made them come to our nasty conference room instead of going to their very nice one. We serve nothing to our visitors, not even high lead DC tap water. And as far as I am concerned, if I were gunning for a better paying job with these groups, the best thing I could do to get it is never give ‘em an inch. Would you hire a lawyer/strategist who allowed you to walk all over them? No, I wouldn’t either. And neither would the people who come in to talk to us.
So there is a place for talking to industry within the executive branch. But I think it is down in the trenches (some states don’t call that a “reimbursement,” they call it an “distribution,” if you don’t use both words a lot of people will be totally confused), not where the political appointees who were just brought in from industry are. If they don’t know what is going on enough to deal with broad policies, then why they heck do they have their jobs in the first place? I thought they were hired because they are already experts.
No one tried to offer us any money or goodies or jobs. We made them come to our nasty conference room instead of going to their very nice one. We serve nothing to our visitors, not even high lead DC tap water.
Did you give them parking permits that forced them to walk a long way across steaming asphalt too?
Naw. They probably took a cab. We don’t provide parking for employees, so no special spots for visitors. The garage next door will be delighted to lighten your wallet if they have any spaces available after the morning hoardes arrive.
By the way, talking to people is fairly traditional when you are attending industry conferences. It would be nearly impossible to only talk to other governement people at them. So this is mostly allowing something that is inevitable.
However, as inevitable as it is, it actually worries me more than meetings in the office, as these meetings are largely held during snack breaks and there are no attendee lists (FOIA-able unless you are energy executives meeting with Dick Cheney), no meeting notes, no minutes, no presentation materials passed out that can be fact checked, etc. Even if I get a phone call in my office and someone says something interesting, I send an e-mail to me and my boss to keep a record of the call. Can’t do that while fighting over the last diet coke.
I think they take polls to figure out how to PR a crummy bill (at least for Main Street ),and than they end up doing what they want
when they add the fine print and deals they cut . It all about marketing the unmarketable .
It was comical watching Paulson whisper “meltdown”,without proof ,that was leaked by the press . Oh ,lets just give him a blank check with immunity ,than he never does what he said he was going to do .
“In a significant change…” there will be no change, especially none that you can believe in! Hahahaha - no surprises here!
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
George Orwell – Animal Farm
The United States has gradually degenerated from a Republic based on individual liberties to a socialized oligarchy run by an exclusive few. The country was founded upon the platform of individual rights. We declared our independence from Great Britain because of excessive regulation and taxation. Americans fought for the right to live their lives free from the subjugation of an overbearing governmental body. The Founding Fathers declared our independence with these immortal words:
We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
There are 306 million Americans and we have defaulted on our responsibility for governing this nation to 535 corrupt politicians, 10 “too big to fail” banks, a secretive Central Bank, 17,000 corporate lobbyists, and thousands of government bureaucrats. Essentially 306 million citizens are managed by a few thousand elitist rulers. George Orwell’s classic novel Animal Farm was inspired by the a scene he witnessed:
“I saw a little boy, perhaps ten years old, driving a huge carthorse along a narrow path, whipping it whenever it tried to turn. It struck me that if only such animals became aware of their strength we should have no power over them, and that men exploit animals in much the same way as the rich exploit the proletariat.”
Theburningplatform.com
Brilliant.
“If the Fed could not remove the punch bowl during the years before the bust, how will they do so while the economy is far weaker?”
~Peter Schiff.
Is Ron Paul’s push to audit the Federal Reserve going to backfire and make the Fed even more powerful? Maybe.
“I think what [Congress will] do is they’ll give in to some of the transparency at the same time they’ll give them more power. We’re going to be bugging [the Fed] a lot more. We’re going to be keeping eyes on [the Fed]. That might be the way. But maybe inadvertently I’ll help them get more power at the Fed.”
R.Paul
And this is where Paul needs to ratchet it up from audit to abolish.
+10
You don’t bargain with crooks. I’d be amending that bill as fast as I could.
And then, if they’re not happy with abolishing the FED and start messing with that, escalate further with arrests, criminal charges, et al.
See, they’re going about it all wrong. When you’re dealing with an entity like the FED, you have to get more draconian each time they try to bargain, so that what you started out with begins to look pretty good.
There are no shortage of people offering Ron Paul advice or marching orders from the sidelines, who wouldn’t think of actually committing their time, money, and good name to the effort. Despite the truly appalling field of GOP Presidential hopefuls, RP got only 5% of the vote. Imagine how much more clout he would have today if he would’ve had the active support of at least twice that many people. The elites very successfully marginalized him, and once again conned the sheeple into yet another Tweedle Dum vs. Tweedle Dee puppet contest.
07:16 AM CDT on Friday, July 24, 2009
The Dallas Morning News
Austin-based Guaranty Financial Group Inc. probably can’t continue as a going concern, the company said Thursday.
Its subsidiary, Guaranty Bank, is “critically undercapitalized” after recent write-downs related to its mortgage-backed securities portfolio. Guaranty’s primary shareholders are unwilling to inject additional capital, the company said.
“In light of these developments, the company believes that it is probable that it will not be able to continue as a going concern,” Guaranty said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
GUARANTY BANK HAS AGREED TO BE TAKEN OVER BY FEDERAL BANKING REGULATORS, but a takeover has not yet occurred. Guaranty could end up as the largest U.S. bank failure of the year so far. Guaranty Bank’s board continues to operate, but the federal Office of Thrift Supervision “is exercising a significant degree of control over what had heretofore been the functions of the board,” Guaranty Financial said in the filing.”
GB has flat out said in it’s filings it has failed and it should be taken over and that it needs to be taken over and that they endorse being taken over, yet they haven’t taken over (yet)………why not???
Rather unusually, the American Statesman has a business article with content other than Babbitt-style boosterism.
http://www.statesman.com/search/content/business/stories/other/2009/07/25/0725guaranty.html
OK, I’m bummed. Last night was the finale of the show Kings, on NBC. An intelligent, literate, well-acted, nuanced, fascinating program. I guess they can replace it with a show about a bunch of cows messing themselves over a mouth-breathing bachelor.
Oooo! The cow show sounds fun! When is it coming on?
Isn’t that a Fox show?
Or maybe with some “intelligent, literate, nuanced, fascinating” commentary by yourself? That is, if you have any to offer . . .
———————
“I guess they can replace it with a show about a bunch of cows messing themselves over a mouth-breathing bachelor.”
Don’t be dissin’ our Palmy!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOL, Blano, I must’ve offended some land-whale who voted for Bammy.
IIIIIII voted for Bammy, also. And you know what? I’m glad of it. …But I still say you’re OUR grump.
Now go have a super-cold beer and think happy thoughts, ya big grump.
“IIIIIII voted for Bammy, also.”
But you’re not a land-whale, right?? RIGHT??? (please say right)
Nope. Ask sleepless_near_seattle. He’s met me. Oh, yeah, and he has pretty eyes! I remember that.
…And now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go drink some more beer. It’s freakin’ HOT here today. I’m all parched. My nictitating eyelids are gettin’ all scrapey and all the moss in my hair has died.
funny! ; ) land whale no, voted for Obama, yes sirree!
and . . . TREE HUGGER, yes!!!!!!!!!!
You still haven’t said anything literate, nuanced and fascinating, though . . . still waiting, cuz from your comments you actually do sound like someone who would LOVE the Bachelor . . . .
Yeah! He’s OUR grump!
Isn’t “The Cougar” high-brow enough for you?
I started off ticked when they changed the start date after months of viral marketing. I checked on the day before it was to air and found out it had aired the previous Sunday. Gosh, thanks for letting me watch the first episode online in a tiny box after you had already decided to can it.
I enjoyed the first set. Haven’t been bothered yet to watch the Tivo-ed new ones. The strategy of the gap escapes me. I hate the smell of managing and marketing failure. Someone better be promoted for this.
I think that a big part that is still causing buyers to hold is that Many are scared that home values are going to keep going down. I met with a buyer last week who asked me “why should I buy now is prices could fall even more next month” I agree that prices may fall, But dont you think that you will miss on a nice deal on a nice property? We need the banks to lend more and the media to stop posting bad things about the market!!
Who wants to do the honors here?
Here come the flames
How about a giving him a nice red-hot poker in the right place?
Gawd, I miss the troll-issimo’s. This is like a throwback to the good ol’ days.
We need the banks to lend more and the media to stop posting bad things about the market!!
No way, Jose. Either you are a troll or an idiot. I’m guessing a little of both.
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
– Mark Twain
Sigh.
I do miss the lovely trolls. But I don’t believe this Jose person is a troll. I think he’s just teasing us. Or IS one of us, pretending.
Heck, a month or so ago everyone seemed so bored and grouchy in bits that IIIII was going to graciously pretend to be a troll and get on the HBB blabbering trollishly away, just to please and delight everybody: ‘Look! Look! A troll! Hoorayyyyy!’
Like that.
But you know what? When I went to write the post exclaiming about how it’s never been a better time to buy, a terrible thing happened. My fingers retracted back into my hands. You know how like snails eye-stalks do, they suck right back into their heads when they get disturbed? Seems my fingers simply refuse to type such horrid nonsense.
Took me all afternoon to convince them to come back out.
Hey Oly, what is a troll anyway?
Have you ever seen a poster with the moniker “SuzyK”. She schooled me a couple posts back on my attitude towards kids and we never got a chance to debate.
Welcome Jose! I’m sure yours is about to get many posts, but I’d like to ask you, were you complaining when the media was pumping real estate like crazy just two years ago??
“Many are scared that home values are going to keep going down.”
Jose, this country is working its way through many problems right now, but on this board we don’t see declining home values as one of them.
Yes Jose, please go ahead and buy some property.
Also, I didn’t know the NAR worked on Sundays.
That’s when they host ‘open houses’. Jose must not have any listings.
O wow! He’s real! I clicked on his link. Sells condos in Miami! (he also apperars to be a ‘conjoined twin’)
They sure look like some high-powered players. Bwahahaha.
I’d pay hard-edged cash (as opposed to credit) to watch when this “man” p*mps out his son (or daughter - I’m equal oppurtunity that way!) to pay for his mortgage.
Apparently he’s working today, I think we should all call him up.
Don’t be hatin! He’s got mad skillz. It says so right there on the website:
“I am a trained professional with expert skills in marketing, presentation, negotiation and sales.”
His son be havin’ the same mad skillz when he be bendin’ over.
*gasp *
He’s real?! A troll? Wonderful!
Now look, everyone, we gotta be careful here! We must dole out the brutal numbers and even brutaller comments in measured amounts, because we simply can’t risk breaking the precious, precious troll.
They bein’ so scarce and all nowadays, since all the other trolls we used to get are now either crying in mom’s basement, medicated, or on their knees behind a dumpster in a grubby alley somewhere, trying to make their mortgage.
Au contraire, ma soeur!
We get one, we maximize our pleasure now because who knows if we may get one again, if ever?
It’s the precise opposite of “deflation”. It’s a “hyperinflationary” troll.
“I am a trained professional with expert skills in marketing, presentation, negotiation and sales.”
Translation:
I’m so full of $hit that even my eyes are brown.
“Spider’s caught another fly!”
Let’s keep him in the basement, and take him out when we feel like having some fun.
+1 1/2 NYCityboy
LOL. is that a Troll or a Gimp?
Banks should lend only what they are sure that people will be able to pay it back (or at least those are the only ones who should get low interest rates). Please do you analysis taking into account the reasonable assumptions that for the next few years high unemployment, reduced hours, mandatory unpaid leave, lower salaries and having to relocate quickly to preserve employment may be the norm. That means a lot less lending, not more.
Also, banks are responsible to their owners and shareholders to make them money. Who do you nominate to give up the money owed to them as owners of the banks in order to lend money to people who can’t pay it back? I’ll sign you up at the top of the list. Don’t expect to see my name on it.
“Banks should lend only what they are sure that people will be able to pay it back”
A bank could never lend under those circumstances because there are no sure things in life. Banking is all about managing risk. You make only loans that are reasonably certain to be paid back. Unfortunately, in the period between 9/11 and early 2006 the banks felt that risk had been removed from the system, mainly through the magic of securitization. As we now know they were entirely wrong.
Banks need to get back to managing risk. That is when they function the way banks should function. When they get back to managing risks Jose will be able to spend a lot of Sundays practicing his cookie baking skills at home.
“…But dont you think that you will miss on a nice deal on a nice property?”
Ya mean something like this? (staw bale to boot!)
129 Indian Hill Rd CO 81146
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=&mrt=realestate&vps=6&sll=33.61805,-118.182678&sspn=0.474592,0.87204&ie=UTF8&rq=1&mpnum=10&radius=25.08
Go ahead…pick a spot…any spot…I double dare ya!
(Hwy thinks there are lots of spots in the good old US of A!)
I pick the spot where the sun don’t shine.
Oh, you meant a good spot, did you now? Well, opinions differ on even that one.
Jose,
Some recent articles on this blog lead me to believe that the real real estate geniuses are snapping up homes sight unseen. Instead of snapping up one of the garage mahals for sale down the street from my little house, what should I snap up sight unseen?
How many properties have YOU bought Jose???????
Practice what you preach, dumba*s.
Practice what you preach, dumba*s.
Is it really necessary to attack this guy personally? If you have a problem with what he said, then dispute the words as many have done here.
It really is discouraging to see how little respect people here show towards someone with a different viewpoint.
+1
I think that a big part that is still causing buyers to hold is that Many are scared that home values are going to keep going down.
I don’t think scared is the word. It’s more like a quiet confidence.
Ben,
Is that you? You gave us some chum, so the sharks can attack. What a nice gift. At least for now we won’t be turning on each other.
Thank you kind sir.
Jose, my friend! You appear to be a recent arrival on our board, which cherishes all points of view. C’mon in and stay a spell. Please, oh please, spell out for us this novel and refreshing view of yours, that “you think that you will miss on a nice deal on a nice property? We need the banks to lend more and the media to stop posting bad things about the market!!”
Hey Sammy,
With such a statement as yours… I do believe…”I’ve never meet a person on Ben’s HBB blog I wouldn’t have a beer with…”
“I agree that prices may fall,
But dont you think that you will miss on a nice deal on a nice property?”
What’s nice about catching a falling knife?
I’m watching Meet the Press. Hillary needs to lay off the botox. Her forehead is made of marble.
“Her forehead is made of marble.”
A living monument to the Clinton era!
I mentioned recently 2 houses I was watching that were fixers were sold. One was a foreclosure and the other was a case of a woman being there 60 years who got dementia or some such and went to assisted living. They were finally recorded and in both cases the owners are not located in Portland.
Looks like the speculators are still around and willing to buy at lower than peak, but still too high, prices. Grr!
But what this also tells me is that in both cases there weren’t end-users willing or able to buy these houses even at the lower price. So now the new owners will try to flip to…who, exactly?
Thanks Ben for filtering me. I don’t want to get labeled as a radical anti-government type. Seriously, thanks.
I don’t want to get labeled as a radical anti-government type.
Too late.
Our local paper (Daytona Beach News Journal) publishes foreclosure sales schduled for each week. The numbers have really jumped in the past three weeks (probably double or triple previous weeks) but still represent a fraction of the abandoned homes I see while driving around. Here is a link if anybody wants to see a sample of what volusia county has going on (on the record):
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Business/RealEstate/bizCLOSE072609.htm
Lot of words with the letter “D” in “Pucker Lips” life these days…”Defamation”…”Deflation”…”Dog-gone-it”…”Debutante”… “Da-ROI”
“…Last month Trump took his $51 million Trump Park Avenue apartment off the market last month. Now it’s back on the market but at a price of $31 million — a discount of nearly 38% off the previous listing price.”
Donald Trump’s financial life gets a little worse:
http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2009/07/24/donald-trumps-financial-life-gets-a-little-worse/
I LOVE IT !!!! I would like nothing better than to see that arrogant a$$ in a soup line….How does that “Humble Pie” taste Donny ??
Ditto. Except I also want to see some grubby leper in the soup line behind him suddenly get the DT’s and try to beat his head, thinking it was some sort of squished wombat or something resting on there.
His bankers would never let that happen.
Deflation
Desperation
Disaster
Despair
The four pillars of the global economy.
That made me smile. Why did that make me smile? Hmmmmm.
Because we are not just soul-brothers but a**hole-brothers!
What are the chances that in a past lifetime we were a real estate duo down in Miami? I shudder at the thought.
you said it!
+1 FPSS
As Olygal would say, “Verily, I have a way with words”.
LOL
Verily, you do, although I have to say that ‘a**hole-brothers’ segment gave me a bit of a pause…
I have to say that ‘a**hole-brothers’ segment gave me a bit of a pause…
Yeah..makes me think of that scene at the end of Requiem for a Dream…. :shudder:
Har, Har,
My imagination just went wild on how the two of you would be dressed in your previous life.
My imagination just went wild on how the two of you would be dressed in your previous life.
Heck, my imagination goes wild just thinking of how they dress in this life.
I dress in black as befits a New Yorker. Verily, NYCityBoy is befitted in all pink as also befits a New Yorker.
And still I don’t stand out in my neighborhood. D’oh!
Heck, a month or so ago everyone seemed so bored and grouchy in bits that IIIII was going to graciously pretend to be a troll and get on the HBB blabbering trollishly away
You mean you’re not a troll? I thought you were. All those times when I couldn’t really understand what you were writing I thought you were giving us subliminal messages to “buy, buy, buy”. I thought “verily” was a code word for, “renting is throwing your money away”. I thought pink nail polish was a metaphor for “drink the Kool-Aid” and when you wrote about “Baby Jeebus” you meant “how I learned to love my real estate agent”. This blog is so damn confusing sometimes.
Thank you for the laugh. It’s good to see you back to your biting humor.
Agreed. That was a long, cold spell without NYCityboy. But it turns out he was off singing very prettily, and angrily, so it’s excusable.
NYCity! How about you post a link again?
Miss Gal, this is the last thing we put together. Pass it on if you like it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8-B5D49jEE
I liked it.
I like My Minnesota Home NYCityBoy. Do you do some of the singing or playing of instruments?
That’s the goal. Tell your friends and family. I think it’s okay for two guys sitting in a 200 square foot apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. We are somewhat limited in the production environment but we make the best of what we have.
I like My Minnesota Home NYCityBoy. Do you do some of the singing or playing of instruments?
I played guitar and harmonica on that. I did the, ahem, lead vocal. I never claim to be Frank Sinatra. We are working on another project now that is going to require HBB assistance. I will have more on that next week.
From the NYTimes - kick the can down the road. What a collection of crooks and losers we have in charge.
“This month, the Federal Housing Finance Agency unveiled a new version of its Home Affordable Refinance Program, whereby lenders can offer new mortgages to borrowers even if their home’s value exceeds the mortgage amount by as much as 25 percent — as long as the borrower hasn’t missed loan payments in the past year.
Under the initial plan announced in February, lenders could refinance a loan only if the borrower’s mortgage was no more than 5 percent greater than the home’s value. With property values in many areas down sharply from their peak levels, 5 percent wasn’t enough to help many borrowers.”
In other words, 5 percent wasn’t enough to help many gigantic financial institutions.
Okay, I’m getting ready to handle another record-breaking day of heat here in the woods:
Hammock? Set up.
Popsicles? Yes.
Lawn sprinkler? Surely
Beer? HELL yes!
Minimal clothes? You betcha.
Except you know what, I want to complain about something before heading out to turn on the sprinkler. I’m complaining now because I can SEE it so visibly right now.
About a month ago I was climbing on the bluff by Totten Inlet and I fell and ripped up my left leg pretty good, but I was still pleased as punch because I heard a crunchy crack when I landed and I thought I had busted some bones. So I was very relieved when I got up and I hadn’t. I don’t know what crunched. Probably a hidden pirate skull! I should go look for it again!
…Anyway, this next part is faintly gross, so don’t read it if faint grossness bothers you, ya wussy.
So I staggered home through the woods and up the back deck and washed it off and anointed myself and all that and as I sat there taping myself up a raccoon came up on the deck, it was following my leaking trail and was sniffing and licking at the droplets on the wood! Gross! Totally gross! So I slapped the sliding door aside and bellowed ‘You! That’s MY blood! I made it! SPIT THAT OUT RIGHT NOW!’
I was outraged! I was not able to identify precisely why I was so outraged, but I was. I still kinda am outraged. That reminds me, I planned to shoot that raccoon. And while I’m at it, I’m gonna shoot the bluff and the beach, too. Everyone’s gonna get it.
Oh, but my point is, there’s this big lump on my left thigh still. Everything else healed up quick as you please. It doesn’t hurt. It’s just there. Not huge, but not small, either. It mars the symmetry of my previously pretty leg. I’m disfigured! Boooo HOOOOOOO!
No, I don’t want to go to the doctor. He’d catch me and suck my blood out and then probe my bits, since I’m over-due for a blood-sucking and bits-probing, and I like to put that off. (I mean, from my doctor, at least, nyuk nyuk.)
So, am I gonna die? Tell me!
Oh, and the bump is not where all the blood came out. It was a seriously massive bruise, excitingly purple and green and yellow, but now the bruise is gone, and yet I’m bumped.
Come on, HBBers. You told me how to oil my wooden knife handles, didn’t you? And you were right.
Crochet patterns, nettle-soup recipes, stuff like that…surely you can all dispense valuable advice on whether I’m going to die or not.
Once a raccoon gets a taste for you, there’s really no stopping them. Much like the crocodile after Capt Hook. See if you can get him to eat a clock, and sleep with a shotgun.
Wow! Exactly the sort of advice I’ve come to expect on the HBB! Plumb full of wisdom thingies.
You know, I bet if I taped hot-dogs all around an alarm clock it would surely work. Although one thing I have always wondered is, how did the clock in the crocodile stay ticking? It was one of those old-tyme clocks that had to be wound up. It used to preoccupy me when I was a lass. Now that I’m a grown-up I’ve decided that the clock was probably hung up on a uvula or glottis flap or something that caused the clock to be an a position that the tag got wound up by natural internal crocodile peristalsis.
and sleep with a shotgun.
Oh, I already do that.
…Doesn’t everyone?
uvula…..teeheeheee…….glottis flap…
(response partially filtered to protect the ignorant)
Have you done a web search about your lump? Some sites offer live help from a physician. Some are free and some will charge you.
SInce it’s been a month, has the lump changed sizes? I know you don’t want to hear this, gal get yourself to a doctor and get that lump checked out.
No! I don’t wanna! He’ll probe me, SanFran! And I might have to get a shot or something!
I’d wayyyyy rather get good advice about crocodiles and sleeping with shotguns and so forth from people far, far away from me, who are not doctors, and who are probably drunk on a pretty summery Sunday!
and who are probably drunk on a pretty summery Sunday!
At least, I hope so. Otherwise, it’s a sad, sad waste of a pretty summery Sunday.
What if it’s tetanus? Then you’ll get lock jaw and you won’t be able to scream at people anymore. They had to give me a tetanus shot when I got my face smashed up because I can never remember how long it’s been since I’ve had one.
I don’t mean to sound cold but let’s refrain from getting into a lengthy thread about OlyGal’s lumps. Ate-Up might not go into cardiac arrest just thinking about it.
Commie!
Look, like I said—I’ve asked about stinging nettle soup, knife handles, if wool socks are best, if the Illuminati exists, and whether or not Baby Jeebus would win in a fight with Santa Claus, and I always get good advice. I don’t even bother with wiki anymore, I just go to bits on the HBB and ask all the brilliant souls. So why not ask you all if I’m gonna die right away or not? It’ll soothe my mind, as I drink beer all afternoon. Anyway, if I don’t like your advice, I won’t listen, same as always, and then my premature death will not be your fault.
PS. You probably love raccoons, too! Raccoon hugger.
You go gal.
Pontificate all you want about your lump.
I’ve thought of a compromise that keeps everyone happy! (I’m brilliant that way.) Have the raccoon chew your lump off! Next problem?
I’ve got one even better than a raccoon. How about leeches?
But then the raccoon’s mad, and we’re back to square one. An injured girl pursued by an obsessed raccoon.
Alpha,
Love your alias. Are there alpha sloths? Seems like your name is an oxymoron.
no one out-naps me, no one out-craps me
+1
I don’t mean to sound cold but let’s refrain from getting into a lengthy thread about OlyGal’s lumps.
Let’s compromise, and agree to only discuss OlyGal’s non-symmetrical lumps.
Yeah! I also pick that option.
Except I very much hope you meant ’symmetrical lumps’, because my regular lumps are quite symmetrical.
Well, symmetrical for doll house-teacups, anyway.
Sigh.
*falls off chair laughing *
…oh, dang! I just got another lump! And it’s not even matching. Shoots!
“….refrain from getting into a lengthy thread about OlyGals lumps…”
Why? You got something better to do? I want to hear about her lumps. (Doll house tea-cup size? I don’t believe you)
Oly:
My GF has rather large lumps and i am so happy to see them….
yeah somebody gimma a +1000
“yeah somebody gimma a +1000″
Only with pics of said GF’s lumps.
(Doll house tea-cup size? I don’t believe you)
Boom chicka waa waaa…
Don’t believe me?
Well, you too can find out for yourself! Yes! For the very special first time su*bscription offer of only $29.99 a month, USD…
(12 month su*bscription required. Credit cards subject to verification.)
…………………………………………
HAHAHAHAAH! Oh, gosh, I about inhaled my chin with laughing, there.
Say, how do you make the script get all little and smeary and furtive-looking? Is there a way? Because that would have made it even funnier for me, if I could have typed it that way.
“Boom chicka waa waa” is not the soundtrack of dollhouse teacups.
One thing that occurs to me is that you may have actually broken a bone– a compression fracture is still fully walkable, and would give you a lump. Especially if you are of ethereal build (I have runner’s legs, and thus would not be able to see something like that easily.)
OR you might have a bone bruise.
OR you might have a deep bruise with interior clotting, and the internal scab hasn’t cleared up yet. I managed to bang my ankle once in such a way that I had a slightly painful lump for several months, but it went away eventually.
IOW, there’s no way for us to know. Just make sure you keep an eye on it. We need our Olygal healthy.
If drunk.
Now see? SEE?! ‘Zactly what I’m talking about! I knew I’d get some smartness hereabouts.
To answer:
1. But it doesn’t hurt. And trust me, it’s been stress-tested since then. Wouldn’t a busted bone hurt?
2. Oh, no, I don’t have runner’s legs. I only ever run if there’s something scary behind me, or if I smell food in front of me. But when that happens, I bet I could outpace anyone.
b. Hmmm. Not ‘ethereal’, per se. Just more attenuated. I think of myself as descending from the lemur branch of the evolutionary tree, instead of the Great Ape branch. Not as good with tools, but better at hanging in trees.
And so far, so good. Tools and agriculture are just trouble, it seems to me.
3. And now I’m going to think about your thoughts, and prod my leg lightly.
Thanks very much! I’ll tell you how it goes, shall I?
I think it was 96 yesterday and only 35% humidity here in the Houston sweatbox. The sun went behind clouds just before I died toting 80 pound bags of cement mix around. (80×43 = 3440 pounds. I only shifted half of it, but most of it I moved twice.)
She-who-must-be-obeyed concerning-foundations-for-her-shed now has her flat spot. Thankfully, she also has helpful brothers, or she’d be The-widow-in-black.
Ah, the joys of home ownership.
Here’s a good article about a man who takes his job seriously as a watch dog for the taxpayers:
The war being waged on the TARP watchdog’s independence
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/07/26/barofsky/
“Most significant of all, and obviously due to Barofsky’s truly independent oversight efforts, the Obama administration is now attempting to induce the Justice Department to issue a ruling that Barofsky’s office is not independent at all — but rather, is subject to, and under the supervision of, the authority of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. By design, such a ruling would completely gut Barofsky’s ability to compel transparency and exercise real oversight over how Treasury is administering TARP, since it would make him subordinate to one of the very officials whose actions Congress wanted him to oversee: the Treasury Secretary’s”.
Yep, Barofsky’s days are numbered, for sure.
From a cousin of mine…
“Barofsky is discovering that everything Obama says is a lie. When he
promised transparency he really had in mind secrecy and opacity. No
wonder Obama’s ratings are plummeting. Even the liberals are catching
on to the fact that he’s an outrageous liar who is basically in the
back pockets of the elite bankers–just like George Bush”.
This was “obvious” from the first day when I labeled the First Dog™ as the Candy-Crappin’ Unicorn™.
PS :- That’s not a racial taunt. He’s basically the bankers’ b*tch!
“PS :- That’s not a racial taunt. He’s basically the bankers’ b*tch!”
What FPSS, no “volunteers” for that “position”?
Kuwait financier facing U.S. fraud suit found dead…
KUWAIT (Reuters) - A brash Kuwaiti financier facing a fraud suit by U.S. authorities was found dead on Sunday in an apparent suicide that sent shockwaves through the Gulf Arab financial sector.
A security source told Reuters that Hazem Al-Braikan appeared to have died from a single gunshot wound to the side of the head, while a policeman standing outside Braikan’s house said the well-connected financier, 37, had shot himself.
Braikan was the chief executive of Al Raya Investment, which is 10 percent owned by Citigroup Inc, and had been at the center of a financial scandal that erupted last week.
“It’s very sad news. This crisis has seen a lot of people in the Gulf and across the world fall from grace, and each person is different in terms of their ability to handle pressure,” said Mohammed Yasin, chief executive of Dubai-based investment bank Shuaa Securities.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against him and two other finance firms last week, saying they had improperly earned millions of dollars from trades in two U.S. firms, Harman International Industries Inc and Textron Inc.
A policeman at Braikan’s two-storey villa in the Kuwait City neighborhood of al-Rawda told Reuters that Braikan’s brother had called for help.
An employee at Al Raya said Braikan, who was single, had not come to work on Sunday, the start of the working week in the Gulf region.
“We are shocked. Everybody is shocked,” the employee said by telephone. “We called his brother, and he confirmed the news.
“He was here at the office yesterday until 7 or 8 at night. I don’t know why he decided to end it.”
LACK OF TRANSPARENCY
Braikan’s death comes on the heels of another financial scandal that has rocked the Gulf region, involving two Saudi conglomerates.
Regulators and bankers are grappling with the fallout from debt restructuring and fraud allegations at privately held Saad Group and Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Bros.
Algosaibi has sued the head of Saad Group in a New York court for fraud in a case involving allegations of $10 billion in loan irregularities.
Investors have been left largely in the dark on the case, the biggest blow to hit the Middle East since the financial crisis.
The SEC’s lawsuit, which also names a Bahrain bank and a state-linked Kuwaiti firm, will intensify focus on concerns about transparency and weak regulation in the Gulf region.
BWAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
(let’s not judge the pussycat, everyone grieves in his own way)
I’m not grieving at all. I’m celebrating the death of a worthless loser. I even wonder who’s porking his wife currently. Sometimes the speculation even extends to the youngest kid. I hope they are on the streets in a fishnet looking for “resources”.
All of that is just succintly summed up in my signature line, O Great Johnny-Come-Lately!
Coming lately is better that not coming at all! (I’ve been in Oil City PA!)
Seriously, I too feel the pain that you clearly feel for this fallen financial titan. I too wept a silent bwahahaha for him and his family. In fact I’m bwahahaha-ing as we speak. (on the inside, where it counts)
Oh, my!
Scre*w this stupid little housing/credit bubble c*rap. I no longer care to watch or anticipate or discuss the collapse of modern society or those tedious worldwide financial systems.
I only want to watch THIS match-up.
I only want to watch THIS match-up.
WAIT! Not yet, though.
I’d like to get more canned goods and recharge my phone first.
and recharge my phone first.
I want to say goodbye to my mom.
It’s like when Van Halen turned on David Lee Roth. No one slept well that night.
Hold on, that doesn’t sound right….lemme get another analogy….
I know! Godzilla vs. Mothra! (And in the end, Godzilla and Mothra are friends, and go on to fight Gigan and Monster X together. Lessons are learned!)
You guys made wine come out of my nose!
Hold on, that doesn’t sound right….lemme get another analogy….
Nope, that’s it. Don’t need another. Unless there’s a cookbook involved.*
* I always like to see a cookbook involved. It’s just one of my ways. Sorry.
“…that sent shockwaves through the Gulf Arab financial sector”
From the 1600 Pennsylvania Shadow Offices of “Shock&Awe” 2003
Cheney-Shrub Shadow Legacy Effect # 486
I think Roubini, Zuckerman, and Niall Ferguson are about to be on Fareed Zacharias GPS…(CNN..5pm EST)..right now
Sounds like they’ve been reading HBB. Good overview of the whole crisis. Has Zuckerman always been this bearish? If not, he sure seems scared now.
Great follow-up piece with Fareed skewering a Mitch McConnell (Republican Senator from KY-sorry everybody) lie that people in other western nations don’t like their health care systems, while in the US we do. Fareed pointed out that polls say just the opposite. Won’t matter. Mitch never lets a fact get in his way. And getting zinged by a weird foreign guy with a funny name will only make his followers like him more.
And getting zinged by a weird foreign guy with a funny name will only make his followers like him more.
Fareed is brilliant, well-informed, and insightful. It’s a sad day when the cretins and dupes who elect people like McConnel (or Obama, or McCain) can only see a “weird foreign guy with a funny name.”
I agree and his show GPS (not to sound like a shill) is the best thing on any news channel. He gets great guests and he interviews them excellently. I’m glad it’s on twice because I always miss the first one.
maybe he should change his name to Fred Zachary? pull a reverse ‘geraldo rivera’-(aka Jerry Rivers)
Has Zuckerman always been this bearish? If not, he sure seems scared now.
I have often respected Zuckerman and his opinion. And I don’t know if any of you know this but I have a tendency to be a little bit cynical. The problem with Zuckerman is he has a tendency to say 10 really intelligent things and then go completely off the reservation on the 11th. I still think he’s one of the better commentators out there. I will give Mort the NYCityBoy Seal of Approval.
Extra! Extra!
Billionaire real estate investor gets NYCityBoy’s Seal of Approval!
also- pig’s first solo flight across Atlantic; Hell has ‘coolest year yet’
It’s limited to his commentary. It does not cover his profession.
It’s limited to his commentary. It does not cover his profession.
What a Negative Nellie! Why can’t you just endorse the honest excitement here?
And as an aside, I TOTALLY approve of the name ‘Mort’. That’s a good name. If I ever name anyone, I’m going to name them ‘Mort’. Mort is a name that fits so many contexts. Or else ‘Bunny’. Because that’s another good name that fits so many contexts.
I just really can’t lose, either way.
So the two lumps are called Mort and Bunny, eh?
Bubbly and Jiggly are sooooooooooooooooooooo credit-bubblish. Passé, and we can’t have that now, can we now?
Ick!
No!
I said OTHER lumps would be called that!
Totally off-topic, but my little guy is finally sleeping through the night at the age of fourteen months. And what’s even more amazing is that this came about as a side effect of sleep training.
Getting his own room is the BEST thing that could have happened in terms of what we needed. Yay!
Why did you never ever tell us about your side effect?
Until right this very late minute? I already heard about your new house, with a big pine tree.
Well, he doesn’t look very sleepy, but that is a truly cute kid.
I especially like the laundry-basket shot. Who put him in there?
I can only wonder…
A banker is a fellow who is happy to loan you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.
- Mark Twain -
Wall Street Journal
BUSINESS JULY 27, 2009
Loans Shrink as Fear Lingers
By DAVID ENRICH and DAN FITZPATRICK
Lending continues to slow as bankers and borrowers refrain from taking risks, in a bearish sign for the economy.
The total amount of loans held by 15 large U.S. banks shrank by 2.8% in the second quarter, and more than half of the loan volume in April and May came from refinancing mortgages and renewing credit to businesses, not new loans, an analysis by The Wall Street Journal shows.
The numbers underscore two related trends weighing on the economy. Financial institutions are clamping down on lending to conserve capital as a cushion against mounting loan losses. And loan demand is falling as companies shelve expansion plans and consumers trim spending to ride out the recession.
That combination is making it harder for the U.S. economy to rebound, and some analysts predict that loan portfolios won’t start growing until the second half of 2010.
“I think it is good for banks if we continue to be prudent as an industry and not reach to get loan growth by reducing our underwriting,” Richard Davis, chief executive of U.S. Bancorp, said last week. The Minneapolis regional bank’s overall loan portfolio declined 1.2% to $182 billion from March to June, despite issuing $16 billion of mortgages. Most of the mortgages came from refinancing existing loans.
The loan figures reviewed by the Journal include giants such as J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc., as well as regional banks such as Fifth Third Bancorp, based in Cincinnati, and Regions Financial Corp., of Birmingham, Ala. The 15 banks hold 47% of federally insured deposits and got $182.5 billion in taxpayer-funded capital infusions through the Troubled Asset Relief Program. As of June 30, the banks had $4.2 trillion of loans on their balance sheets, down from $4.3 trillion as of March 31.
Banks Profit From U.S. Guarantee U.K. to Call on Banks to Improve Lending Loan portfolios shrank at 13 of the big banks, with the steepest decline at Comerica Inc., Dallas, where the loan total was down 4.3% to $46.6 billion in the latest quarter. Just $1.6 billion of the $10.2 billion in credit extended by Comerica in the second quarter came from new commitments. A bank spokesman said many borrowers “are being cautious.”
Bank of America, Charlotte, N.C., reported its loan portfolio slipped 3.6% to $942.2 billion in the second quarter. A spokesman for the largest U.S. bank by assets said the decrease reflects higher loan losses and lower loan demand as borrowers pay off outstanding debts. “There were fewer opportunities to make high-quality loans because of the recession,” he added.
…
Curiouser and curiouser…
I can relate to the challenge of working while holding one’s nose. One of my kids made the toilet overflow yesterday, and it was downright difficult to hold my nose while wielding a mop and walking barefoot in overflowing, fecal choloform-laced toilet water.
Forget Aloof, Bernanke Goes Barnstorming
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, left, appeared Sunday in a town hall-style forum hosted by Jim Lehrer of PBS’s “NewsHour” program in Kansas City, Mo.
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: July 26, 2009
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, is on a publicity campaign with a message: the central bank is here to help, and it is not as mysterious or menacing as people might think.
…
Like a political candidate on the campaign trail — indeed, his four-year term expires in January — Mr. Bernanke fielded questions from local residents and tried to rebuff charges that the Fed was either conspiring with big banks, stifling free-market capitalism or possibly doing both at the same time.
When a small-business owner asked Mr. Bernanke why the Fed helped rescue big banks while “short-changing” small companies, Mr. Bernanke answered that he had decided to “hold my nose” because he was afraid the entire financial system would collapse.
“I’m as disgusted by it as you are,” he told the audience of 190 people. “Nothing made me more angry than having to intervene, particularly in a few cases where companies took wild bets.”
…
The Fed has never wielded as much power as it does right now, but the very expansion of its mission has exposed it to more second-guessing and more challenges to its political independence than ever before.
“The Federal Reserve, in collaboration with the giant banks, has created the greatest financial crisis the world has ever seen,” Representative Ron Paul, Republican of Texas, said at a House hearing last week in which Mr. Bernanke testified about the state of the economy.
Republican lawmakers portray the Fed as the embodiment of heavy-handed big government, and have called for scaling back the central bank’s regulatory powers. But liberal Democrats, like Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio, have accused the Federal Reserve of caving in to demands by banks for huge bailouts, for failing to protect consumers against dangerous financial products and for being too secretive about its emergency rescue programs.
More than 250 lawmakers have signed a bill sponsored by Mr. Paul that would allow the Government Accountability Office to “audit” the Fed’s decisions on monetary policy — a move that Fed officials see as a direct threat to their political independence in carrying out their central mission of setting interest rates.
Even those sympathetic to the herculean challenges confronting Mr. Bernanke acknowledge that the Fed has lost some of its aura of infallibility.
…
Economic Report
Jul 24, 2009, 12:10 p.m. EST
Consumer sentiment drops in final July reading
But index up more than some economists expected
By Robert Schroeder, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — U.S. consumer sentiment fell in July, according to a survey released Friday by the University of Michigan and Reuters, dragged down by a big drop in expectations about the economy.
Sentiment rose to a revised 66.0 from a reading of 64.6 in early July, but was down from the June reading of 70.8.
Economists surveyed by MarketWatch were expecting consumer sentiment to rise slightly to 65.5.
Analysts said the report highlights depressed levels of confidence as well as likely slow growth ahead.
“The July drop-back in confidence at still-depressed levels highlights the anemic pace of growth that appears likely as we enter the early quarters of the recovery,” wrote Mike Englund of Action Economics in an email.
“While off the lows that were recorded when panic and paralysis were the order of the day, this measure of consumer sentiment nonetheless remains severely depressed,” wrote Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist of MFR, Inc., in an email.
…
A similar comment applies to the HMI (housing market index), the home builder’s sentiment index produced by the National Association of Home Builders. Levels of 50 are neutral. The recent level of 17 is much higher than last fall’s abysmal level of 9, but still severely depressed.