The Aspirin Report For The Week Of August 17th
by NYCityBoy
In this first ever installment of The Aspirin Report we take a look at the headlines of the week, from our good buddies in the financial press. The headlines are often so simplistic, confusing and delusional that they will give you a whopper of a headache. That headache will require excessive amounts of aspirin to provide any relief. I can’t help with the headache. I’m just here to provide the headlines and make a few well placed comments.
The stock market had a week that has looked so familiar the past 6 months. On Monday the world looked like it was coming to an end and markets across the globe were down hard. By Tuesday all of the world’s problems had been solved and stocks started back up for the rest of the week. Lazarus couldn’t have hoped for better rise from the dead. The comeback was miraculous, to say the least. Who would have guessed that such a week could take place on an options expiration week? Surely, not me.
It was good to see AIG doing so well. I love when strong, well run, independent companies perform well. The madman, I mean CEO, now at the helm sure had some interesting comments this week. He made sure to chastise the very government that paid $185 billion to bail this monstrosity out and launder money to its counter-parties throughout the world. It was nice to see such a high level of gratitude for the suicidal tendencies of another madman by the name of Paulson. I think it’s more of a homicide since these guys are still busy trying to strangle the life out of The United States of America. Nothing is too good for the psychotics running the financial machine. Thank god we flushed all that money over to them or “they system would have crashed”. Thank you, Mr. Bernanke for saving us. I am forever in your debt. Literally!
I was especially happy to see the price of oil rise. This did great things for the stock market as oil recovered above $74 per barrel. That is a high for the year, by the way. My motto is, “there is nothing better for an economy than high energy and high housing costs”. The more people are forced to spend on the basic needs of energy and housing the better off the economy is. I was hoping we would see some confirmation that food prices were also shooting through the roof. Then the stock market could have really soared. If I see a $32 cantaloupe at the grocery store I will know that it is time to buy all of the world’s stock indexes. If the price of ground beef reaches $12 per pound I will certainly go “all in”. Let the good times roll. Let’s all do the Charleston. The roaring 20s are back. Or is it the go-go 80s? I forget. All hail the “strong dollar” policy of Little Timmy.
I hope you enjoy looking at this sampling of headlines. You might need to pour yourself a stiff drink before you take it all in. You will definitely want to have a large bottle of those Bayer aspirin handy when you read through the events of the week. I have a headache just thinking about it.
Monday, August 17, 2009 (The stock market fell 2%)
-Obama’s latest move satisfies neither side on health care; liberals want ‘government option’
-With banks limiting the availability of auto, student and other consumer loans, the Federal Reserve said Monday it would extend a program intended to help spur more lending at low rates.
-American International Group Inc.’s new CEO will be paid a yearly salary worth $7 million and could earn millions more in performance-based incentives, the bailed-out insurance giant said Monday.
-No. 2 home-improvement retailer Lowe’s Cos. on Monday said second-quarter earnings fell 19 percent on weaker-than-expected sales, adding fresh fuel to doubts about the ability and willingness of consumers to lead the U.S. economy out of recession.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009 (The stock market rose 1%)
- Construction of new U.S. homes dipped slightly last month, missing expectations, in a sign that the building industry’s recovery from the housing bust is likely to be bumpy and gradual.
-Home Depot 2Q profit beats expectations — Home Depot Inc. said Tuesday that its fiscal second-quarter profit fell 7 percent, as the nation’s biggest home-improvement retailer shuttered its Expo business and continued to be pinched by the recession.
- Target says its second-quarter profit fell 6.3 percent, but results surpassed Wall Street forecasts amid cost-cutting initiatives and improvements in its credit-card business.
- Wholesale prices dropped sharply in July, and over the past 12 months fell by the largest amount in more than six decades of record-keeping.
- General Motors Co. will announce increased hours at several factories due to rising sales from the government’s Cash for Clunkers program.
-Construction of single-family U.S. homes rose 1.7 percent in July, the fifth-straight monthly increase as builders poured foundations at the fastest pace since last October, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009 (The stock market rose .7%)
-Pessimism about the economy reasserted itself in financial markets Wednesday, with U.S. stocks looking to fall at the opening. Treasury prices rose as investors looked for a safe place for their money.
-Farm equipment maker Deere & Co. says its fiscal third-quarter profit fell 27 percent as the global recession continued to depress sales of its products. But the results easily beat Wall Street expectations.
-Hewlett-Packard Co.’s 19 percent drop in quarterly profit shows that the company still relies heavily on printer ink and the troubled personal computer market
-The SEC Moves Closer to Limiting Shorts
-BJ’s Wholesale Club 2nd-quarter profit slips but beats estimates; sales fall with gas prices
-U.S. mortgage applications rose last week, largely reflecting a jump in demand for home refinancing loans as interest rates slid to a five-week low
-Even though the Fed suggested last week that the economy had bottomed out and is poised to start growing again, the central bank has yet to lay out details of its so-called “exit strategy”
-The stock market shook off early losses Wednesday and turned higher, led by a surge in energy stocks amid signs that demand for oil may be rising.
Thursday, August 20, 2009 (The stock market rose .75%)
-Sears Holding Corp (NasdaqGS:SHLD - News) reported a quarterly loss on Thursday as the retailer continues to suffer from the crash of the U.S. housing market.
-The White House plans to announce the federal deficit will be about $262 billion less than officials predicted earlier this year, but it still will total a massive $1.58 trillion and pose a tremendous obstacle for a president seeking policy overhauls in health care and the environment.
-Oil prices spiked Wednesday after the government reported a huge draw of crude oil from U.S. stockpiles.
-The Obama administration is looking hard at pushing through a health-care reform bill without Republican backing, top Democrats close to the White House have told CNN.
-The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly rose last week, a government report showed on Thursday, fanning worries of an anemic recovery from the worst recession in 70 years
-The Obama administration is developing plans to wind down the popular Cash for Clunkers program and could announce by Friday when the incentives will no longer be available
-Bernanke, a Hero to His Own, Can’t Shake Critics
-More than 13 percent of American homeowners with a mortgage are either behind on their payments or in foreclosure as the recession throws more people out of work, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday
-An index of economic indicators rose in July for a fourth straight month, in another sign that the recession is bottoming, said a report released Thursday
Friday, August 21, 2009 (The stock market rose 1.7%)
- Penny-pinching Americans are getting cold feet at the checkout — thinking twice about spending and ditching items before they’re rung up
-J.M. Smucker Co., maker of jams, jellies and Jif peanut butter, said Friday its fiscal first-quarter profit more than doubled, mostly on increased sales from last year’s Folgers acquisition
-Oil touched a high for this year above $73 a barrel on Friday ahead of further pointers on the economic health of the United States and as the dollar flagged against a stronger euro
-U.S. sales of existing homes likely rose to their highest level in 10 months in July, according to a Reuters poll, as buyers rushed to take advantage of a tax credit for first-time homeowners
-”Totally Absurd”: AIG Shares Soar on New CEO’s Bold Claims
-European stock markets and Wall Street futures rose Friday after another advance in China and ahead of key comments from U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke
-Sales of previously owned U.S. homes in July notched their fastest pace in nearly two years, an industry survey showed Friday, the strongest sign yet that housing was pulling out of a three-year slump.
-Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke declared Friday that the U.S. economy is on the verge of a long-awaited recovery after enduring a brutal recession and the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression
It was great to see the week end on such a high note. The stock markets around the world soared. The Dow, NASDAQ and S&P were on fire. The financials continue to kick some serious rump. That should really help out the little guy that either never had any stock or has cashed out his 401k. I am sure it wasn’t just meant to allow more theft by our economic masters. That would be too cynical. It could not be so.
My favorite little apparatchik Bernanke came out and said the recession is over. Whew! That is such a relief. I was thinking of this great news when I went out at lunchtime to get my Reuben sandwich. All of those empty storefronts, and businesses that have no customers, should be relieved to know that it is all done. The Federal Reserve (a privately owned bank) has fixed all of the problems. You know the problems to which I refer. They are the problems that The Fed (a private bank) created in the first place. That should bring great joys to hurting business owners, their employees, their customers and their landlords.
Everything is good now that we have thrown trillions of dollars at the problems. All of those $8,000 tax breaks were just what we needed to get the low-end of the housing market going. I hear it got the high-end of the housing market going, too. That sure is good to know.
The Bay Area and The Hamptons should have strengthening housing markets, too. Their little bailout is much more than $8,000 per house. In this trickle down world of ours the wolves at the top get the real quality cuts of meat. They get the filet mignon. I love when the super-rich get bailed out. Bailouts shouldn’t just be for the little guy. It makes me think of the joyous goal of “equality” that those French revolutionaries were fighting for. My mind also drifts back to my visit last year to the Place de la Concorde and the events of a couple hundred years ago that took place in that space. Somehow the thoughts of that place make me nostalgic. I don’t know why that is.
Farewell to Cash for Clunkers. I am certain we will meet again. Our government loves to steal from future generations to fund current over-consumption.
Monday begins a new week. I can’t wait to see all of the bubbly headlines and the continuation of the stock market rally. The tales of a booming housing market will warm my heart. I won’t worry at all about the trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars of debt that our economy is saddled with. That is just negative thinking and I am no longer going to be the “negative” guy. I’m going to join all of the rest of the mindless drones and just repeat every lie that I hear from those media fellows and our government officials. I have learned to love the bomb (and the bombers). Oh, god, how I need an aspirin.
Have a great weekend!
NYCityBoy
Well, here’s a sign of what’s going on. I am at a major motel chain here in Kingman, and the guy I pass on the stairs this morning says, “they say they aren’t serving coffee anymore.” I tell him, jeebus, this country is going to hell.
LOL
How ’bout this sign: A credit union I called last week told me they are no longer offering 30 year fixed rate mortgages, only 10’s, 15’s and 20’s.
She also told me most of what’s kept her busy this summer is refi’s.
CA<
It’s not like it was great coffee anyway, and they only let you get those little foam cups. How much could that cost? Meanwhile, the pool sat there and not a single person got in it that I saw, and now its all full of leaves.
At least it sounds like the pool is not full of green algae and West Nile virus mosquito larvae
There’s an Ap for Pools, so why bother with the real thing? (just kidding, but I wouldn’t be surprised if iPhones actually have one…..)
I’ve yet to figure out why any “homeowner” would ever want a 30yr mortgage.
With 30yr mortgages, the average amount of prinicpal paid in over the avarage length of time that one stays in a home, is rougly equivalent to the real estate commissions and closing costs when one moves. You’re not investing in anything, just paying rent, of a different makeup.
CarrieAnn, while not questioning at all what you observed, I’ll still file your anecdote under “too good to be true.”
Thank you for trying to be polite but you did just imply I was stupid or confused. How bout you e-mail me and I’ll give you the contact info and you can check it out for yourself.
MissGredenko@hotmail.com
Exeter once told me I must be wrong when I was reporting stats on my own home. I didn’t clarify because hey if people think you’re that stupid, why bother.
I don’t recall that. My apologies for expressing or implying you were BSing.
Perhaps it was the heat of the moment.
Your apology has released me from my pathetic wound licking! So its much appreciated.
Please someone e-mail me so someone more believeable can confirm my above claim re 30 year mortgages.
You missed my dry humor, Carrie. I wasn’t questioning you at all.
It was comment on how as a nation we have been completely hooked by the real estate industry on 30yr. mortgages, when they are nothing but a financial treadmill. Our parents, most of whom lived through the Great Depression, knew better. My guess is that any lending concern that has to be 100% viable on its own, without government backstopping of any sort, would not offer them except in special cases.
I’d love to see 30yr mortgages completely abandoned as the unsafe investment that they are. But considering how the FHA 3% down loans with downpayer assistance are still thriving, it’s just a dream of mine. Hence, what you observed is probably an anomaly, sadly.
“I’d love to see 30yr mortgages completely abandoned as the unsafe investment that they are.”
I was so looking for the excitement to hear there was movement on that front! I was pretty stunned to see it this early especially in the “it’s different here” land which just goes to show it’s not it’s different here land, is it?
Please excuse my pouting as I did completely miss the dry humor. I think it just goes to prove, Carrie’s in need of a margherita now…..honeeeeeeeey!!!!
hey SOMEONE get Carrie a margharita STAT!
And make it a pitcher, cause I want some too.
Boy, NYC really put in alot of head ACHE headlines.
Those headlines are sort of like watching the movie
‘the alamo’. Halfway through the film you know the dialogue is over and the rest is just guns/fighting. Sort of like our econ.
Wish we could just turn it off for awhile until the
‘greenshoots’ start coming up for real.
I believe there two sides to this 30 year debate. If you get a 30 yr. loan now let say for $1000 per month in about 5-10 years once inflation has hit hard that $1000 a month will feel like $500 per month and rent will be $2000 per month. Dats what I think anyway.
Lane
That is the thinking. That is how “homeownership” is sold by the REICsters. That is supposed to be how one builds wealth by owning.
Does anybody see a few details that get skimmed over in this analysis?
When we owned a house we paid more on the mortgage than we would have for rent. The number was substantial. Add in the blood and treasure that went into maintaining the yard and the house and the dollar figures get even more out of whack. That was money that we could have been saving that was going to the likes of Countrywide Financial, Lowes and Home Depot.
We sold the house when we moved to New York City. We broke free of the house shackles. That helped us make more money in a new town. Our rent, in comparison with our incomes, was much lower than our cost of ownership. We were able to save more money than when we owned.
We thought about buying in NYC. Thank god we pulled back from that abyss. We would most likely have bought in one of the “up and coming” neighborhoods in Brooklyn or Harlem or Queens. Our commutes would have been much longer. We would be spending more money on transportation. Even with moving to an outlying neighborhood our housing costs would have been much higher than they are now. Money we are saving now would not have been available. It would have gone to the alligator.
By not buying we have saved more money and maintained one of the most valuable assets in uncertain times. That is the asset of freedom of mobility. Jobs won’t come to people. People need to be free to go to the jobs. We have that freedom. All of the people locked into their housing don’t have that freedom as they can’t afford to sell. They don’t have money put away because they have been overpaying for housing. During a time of high inflation, and economic upheaval, I want the flexibility of a gymnast.
I would love to see a comprehensive study on the true benefits of ownership. It would have to factor in mortgage costs, property taxes, maintenance costs, lost income on savings and opportunity costs. I think most people would no longer think that owning is the path to great wealth. I stopped believing in that about 3 years ago. Once that belief has been purged from your mind there is no bringing it back.
Yes, high inflation is what induces ppl to borrow money at interest. That’s why the Federal Reserve is so in love with inflation. Too bad we’re in a deflationary spiral now.
Lane,
You’re absolutely right. Which is why no lender in their right mind would offer them without the assumption of full government backstopping. It’s a sure path to going out of business as a lender or note holder, in the longer term when the money printing eventually catches up with us.
I still lean deflationary in the short term but have no doubt whatsoever that big inflation is in our future on a 30 yr. horizon.
Just because something is a Ponzi scheme doesn’t mean that some shrewd and savvy regular people can’t benefit as well.
Rent to own calculators show us still $100k ahead over 30 years when looking at any property we might be interested in now vs the rental home we’re now in. I plug in maintenance as we experienced it on our last home which is substantially more than the calculator’s default. Obviously there’d be a break even point the longer we lived after a new mortgage pay off. I do wish analysis would take these years into consideration.
My great gram lived to 97 but she had her husband by her side till the end. My widowed gram lived to 90. They paid only taxes and insurance from the point of mortgage pay off, not the full load. They did stay in the one house they owned their whole lives till less than a year before the end. There were some pretty steep stairs in gram’s home but we come from stubborn stock. Maybe its the American Indian in there.
Analysis over 30 years does not show the full picture. My gosh if I lived as long as great gram even if we did a 30 now I’d still have 19 years of mortgage free to calculate in. One’s personal longevity is also obviously a fudge factor (sez the girl who has to be looked at every 3 months for rogue cells.)
It’s not necessary to calculate the benefits of renting vs owning over 30 years. Presumably, prices will bottom out in just 1-3 more years, and that’s when you would buy. However, if you believe that prices will continue to decline for the next 30 years, then such a long-term calculation might help.
I’m not arguing for 30s here. We’re with the crowd looking at 10s and 15s or maybe we’ll wait so long we’ll just pay cash. I did read something a while back that mortgages were skewing that way as people realized they wouldn’t be selling a home to fund retirement. So it sounds like in general people get it.
“Yes, high inflation is what induces ppl to borrow money at interest. That’s why the Federal Reserve is so in love with inflation. Too bad we’re in a deflationary spiral now.”
Why does that matter, so long as the Fed is willing and able to ‘print money’ in order to masquerade as bond market investor of last resort?
“the average amount of prinicpal paid in over the avarage length of time that one stays in a home, is rougly equivalent to the real estate commissions and closing costs when one moves.”
No person thinks they are “average.” Either they think they will never leave the house or they think it is a “starter” place they will leave very soon but while it magically increases in value so they get a huge chunk of equity to use to buy their “dream home.” And who is supposed to tell them that they probably aren’t going to be the ones for whom that magic, perfect outcome will happen? Their Realtor?
Yep, that’s the whole thing in a nutshell, Polly.
What has puzzled me for my entire life is this idea the homeowners moving up will benefit from their starter home “increasing in value”. Relative to what? They think the price of that “dream home” just sat still while their home appreciated massively? And all the while, they haven’t accrued any significant principal on their 30-yr note while, after the 6-percenters and the rest of the lending and government parasites take their chunk.
People will change brokerage accounts to save $10 on their typical $50K equity trades, but think that an RE investment that costs them 2-3% per year in taxes, insurance, and maintenance, and roughy 10% per transaction, is somehow different.
If everything works perfectly, it makes sense as long as you mostly care about getting a big enough down payment to be able to afford the larger house.
It is that famous leverage thing. Lets assume 20% down for both purchases for nostalgia’s sake and eliminate transaction costs and payment of principal. Your starter house doubles in price as does your dream home. Starter goes from $100K to $200K. Dream goes from $200K to $400K. You managed to save the $20K to for starter’s downpayment and can manage the $80K mortgage, but could not swing the $40K for the dream home (never mind the $160 mortgage). After the doubling, you sell starter for $200K and pay off $80K mortgage so you have $120K which is a 30% downpayment on Dream’s now $400K price. Oh, and you have to figure out a way to swing a $280K mortgage when you used to have only $80K, but it is your DREAM home, so that is fine, right?
What people have really forgotten, I think, is that the way you get wealthy from owning a house is by largely fixing your housing expenses while you make more money, not because of inflation but because your career progresses. If you keep moving to more expensive houses, you completely lose that element of thrift. My parents couldn’t really afford our house when they bought it, but by the time I started college 16 years later it was pretty affordable.
Thanks Polly. That was a clear approach to owning a house.
That is where I got into a bit of ‘house poor’ troubles when I sold my starter house, and because it had become a rental, I had to 1031 exchange it for what I sold it for, which put me into a home that was out of my income range. I did want to lease it out, but in 97 the economy still was not charging so it took quite a while to find a good tenant, which left after 2 months without notice.
I should have kept the house in LA with history of good tenants.
Damn.
I’ve yet to figure out why any “homeowner” would ever want a 30yr mortgage.
I can tell you why I’d choose a 30 over a 15 (or rather why I decided not to re-fi into a 15 from a 30)…
Lower monthly payment that I’m obligated to make. At the same point in time, I can pay addt’l principle and turn it into a 15 year mtg if I so choose. I likely am paying a slightly higher rate for this flexibility, but it gives me more liquidity each month if I need it.
Now, is the average person capable of doing this? Likely not. But it served me well. And if I had kept my house after getting laid off, my monthly nut would have been lower and I could’ve lasted longer on my savings if need be, without selling the house. With a 15 year mtg, given the amount of money I had to put down, the payment would’ve been a few hundred $$$ more a month.
(yes, I was only able to buy because of bubble lending policies. I realize that. I went with an 80-15-5 to keep cash on hand for remodeling (about $20k over the course of 3 years)).
We’ve considered that too and I think it might make sense to be fliexible if you’re relying on wages to be paying that mortgage in this environment. In reality everyone’s got their own little qualifications on the calculations. General industry wide job security, potential of future wage deflation in your industry, amount in reserves after purchase, how many people are you responsible for during that mortgage span, inheritance that might save your *ss if you were stupid, whether you’ve got an educated, experienced spouse to send back into the work force in an industry that might still need them. I think the real elephant in the room is how long will boomers and x-ers really be able to work before they make room for the cheaper, healthier new graduates hungry to be put to the test. The healthcare bill really plays into that IMHO.
Hmmm. Our last home was almost paid off. Maybe we should just hang until we can purchase in the same situation.
My post about choosing a 30-year mortgage over a 15-year mortgage was eaten by the “Blog Gods” but it was making essentially the same points as Drumminj made. We have a 30-year mortgage because of the rule in life that ” things can always go wrong.” A 15-year mortgage on this house would take two incomes to support given the high percentage of my salary that I put into my employer’s 403b. My husband lost his job and is now on S.S. disability. We want the lowest possible nut to meet every month. We make extra principle payments which turns it into a 15-year mortgage, but can scale back if necessary. Having a lower monthly payment also allows us more freedom to do other things with our money, such as save more, invest more, and give ourselves more pleasure. At our ages, pleasure means a lot. I like to have spare cash free to take a trip or buy a used book if we so choose. We’re going to be getting rid of this house or renting it out in 6 years or so anyway, so why pay more to “use” the house ? Also, if it is to be rented, a lower mortgage payment makes it possible for us to set the rent lower in a down market. Once the house is turned into a rental, then of course, all expenses plus the interest are deductible. The renters, who come and go, pay it off for us. Obviously, since we’ve had the house for 8 years and it’s presently our primary residence, this is not a flip job. It is a house that’s convenient for us now due to my job (my husband bought it before we were married ), and will be inconvenient for us after I retire. But, we’ll deal with it then.
I paid off my 30 year mortgages in 24 years on that San Jose house, and there was a new re-fi to a new 30 year mortgage at the 11 year mark (9% interest down to 6.25% interest no-brainer). The cushion of the 30 year mortgage lets you get creative in paying it off early, so I guess I agree with drumminj.
In global competition, and except for perhaps the field of law and medicine, careers no longer last 30 years. Anyone taking out a 30 year mortgage anymore is taking a huge gamble.
The U.S. trend is to Europeanize itself. That will mean unemployment rates always above 10%.
The trend will be for young people to postpone starting families until their late 30s and just save up money for fifteen to eighteen years to be able to afford to get a ten year mortgage on a starter home. The advantage of it will be that they will be closer to financial independence by their late 30s if they delay “making babies” and be mobile to catch the best paying jobs anwhere they can speak the language.
Well, in theory that is a good idea. In practice, a woman’s fertility begins to decline in her late 20s. By the late 30s-early 40s, you are looking at good odds of all that hard worked for cash being wasted away on IVF because the natural way doesn’t work so hot anymore. Let’s not even go into the vastly increased odds of having a special needs child. Adoption is also very expensive, so not really an out of this either. I think at some point, in your 20s and early 30s, you have to make a decision about how important having kids really is to you if you are a woman of that age or are in a serious relationship with one. Biology is not fair or modern. Nothing wrong with having no children at all either. Bob knows, the world has enough spoiled, resource sucking Western brats.
“Coffee is for closers.”
Ben, if you were a bit closer, I’d pour you a cup of a great brew. Morning all!
Morning Rancher.
I finished my first cup about 7:00. Heading for my second cup of coffee.
I suppose that means the free breakfasts will be going away too. No more plexiglass dispensers full of dry cereal, bags of English muffins, tubs of fake butter, and those cheezy toasters that pop up before the muffin is even lukewarm. At least the local restaurants should benefit somewhat.
Instead of BS like “free” coffee and free this or that…. how about just lowering the damn price? It’s no different than the free car enticements attached to buying a house. Just lower the fawkin price and be competitive.
Most of them will, signficantly, that much more so for regular business customers. We’ve learned that you really have to shop around and dicker hard, but it works.
Doesn’t work as much during heady economic times, but remember that “an empty room gathers no rent”. The hotel chains understand that fact much better than their longer-term leasing counterparts.
“you really have to shop around and dicker hard, but it works”
Whoa! I thought this was a family blog.
Mind out of the gutter and above the belt NYCityBoy
LOL! Interesting choice of words, that.
Words can be funny sometimes.
“you really have to shop around and dicker hard, but it works”
Sort of like IF we/hbb owned a home, we could dicker around.
never mind.
-Obama’s latest move satisfies neither side on health care; liberals want ‘government option’
This is one of the HBIC’s biggest problems. The wacko-moonbat far left is pissed big time. They are not getting what they want, and are dropping F-bombs all over the internet. The Queen of the moonbats multi-millionaire G-5 Polosi says “no public option”, no sickness care plan.
Mean while HBIC is vactioning in a rich white Repub’s house at the Vineyard.
The kook, the wacko’s love, Cindy Sheehan, is protesting and Charlie Gibson(abc) is telling her to give it a rest! When they couldn’t get enough of her when she was protesting Bush.
I do love watching this crowd disintegrate, from an entertainment point of view, but the cost to our country is not funny.
I will say I did not expect the dims to eat their own so fast.
You’re projecting the catastrophic failure of the GnOP on anything and everything but the GnOP.
Wow,
Did you lose anyone in the Iraq war? Cindy Sheehan did. At least she is protesting without a semi automatic strapped to her side. I als find it interesting you would quote Charlie Gibson, I mean isn’t he part of the nasty liberal media that you seem to be against?
Who cares about Sheehan? Her issue is over, we are leaving Iraq, and none too soon. In the meantime we are becoming enmeshed in Afghanistan when we ought to be cutting the whole Muslim world loose. We should be bailing out of Germany and Japan and Korea and Columbia and just be done hand holding the world.
Well obviously wmbz.
Her issue is not over. We are still in Iraq. I hope you’re right about leaving soon.
Let’s also get out of ‘Clinton’s War’, Bosnia (since ‘95).
Real professional, wmbz. Way to go.
“Real professional, wmbz. Way to go.”
He’s a real pro………. prophylactic that is.
Real mature Ex, way to go.
And the victim whines.
vactioning
If you want to be angry about the wrong things, spell it right.
As for the vacation spot, how do you know it is a White republican owned spot?
Here tell there is a large african american resort for many many many yrs there.
I don’t hear any more f bombs than we hear from those irrational r’s.
That would be “hear tell”. Pot, kettle….
Check yo’ gramma
Thank god we flushed all that money over to them or “they system would have crashed”.
I thought I had proof read it and gotten it all right. It looks like some of the formatting got messed up, too. I’m sorry about that.
And somehow we found it totally enjoyable anyway.
Agreed, Carrie.
NYC, your post and its intent was admirable.
If you want me to proof future posts before you submit them, get my e-mail from Ben and I will…
I used to be a professional proof-reader in NYC…. if you’d like me to preview your entries I’d be happy to help. I wouldn’t want you to get to this stage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YersIyzsOpc&feature=related
Please lol don’t ever let it get this bad.
lol.
poor kid. lol
That video was Ate-Up.
Friday also had this bank failure…..
The bank failure, the 10th largest in U.S. history, is expected to cost the deposit insurance fund an estimated $3 billion.
The FDIC seized Austin-based Guaranty Bank, . . . and on Friday sold all of its deposits and $12 billion of its assets to BBVA Compass, the U.S. division of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, Spain’s second-largest bank. In addition, the FDIC agreed to share losses with BBVA on about $11 billion of Guaranty Bank’s loans and other assets.
Second-largest bank? Shades of Casablanca. “Maybe if you told him [Rick] I ran the second-largest bank in Amsterdam….” “And his father is the bellboy.”
I thought Spain’s economy tanked too. How can they get the money together to buy Guaranty Bank?
Linky linky.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Large-Texas-bank-shut-down-by-apf-2967884031.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=2&asset=&ccode=
It looks like the sky is the limit on this bull.
New economic data set to test Wall Street bull run
(AFP) – 7 hours ago
NEW YORK — New US economic data in the coming week will test the resilience of Wall Street as US shares scaled fresh highs for the year on upbeat remarks by Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke and buoyant housing data.
All three major market indexes were resting at new 2009 peaks at the end of trading Friday, buoyed by a record jump in existing-home sales in July and Bernanke’s comments that recovery prospects “appear good” in the near term for the United States and the rest of the world after the worst slump in six decades.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 184.56 points or 1.9 percent for the week to finish at 9,505.96 on Friday. The blue-chip index had not finished above 9,500 since early November and has now climbed about 45 percent from its March low.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite leapt 35.38 points (1.7 percent) to 2,020.90 and the broad-market Standard & Poor’s 500 index advanced 22.04 points (2.1 percent) to 1,026.13 — the third consecutive weekly close atop the millennium level.
…
In a further sign that the recession in the world’s largest economy was easing, the National Association of Realtors reported Friday that US existing-home sales surged 7.2 percent in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.24 million units.
“This was the fourth consecutive rise in demand, the first time we have seen that in five years,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist of Naroff Economic Advisors. “The housing market has lifted off.”
…
Is that like saying.. Looking for Green shoots in all the wrong places?
My green shoots tell me that i can still make $100K a year with a fortune 500 company, and i still get 30 of those offers a week…
———————
recovery prospects “appear good”
Lookin’ For Green Shoots
I’ve spent a lifetime looking for you
Lower stock market and bad time news, never true
Playing a fools game, hoping to win
Telling those sweet lies and losing again.
I was looking for green shoots in all the wrong places
Looking for green shoots in too many places
Searching Bernanke, TARP TALF, C4C etc, looking for traces
Of what.. I’m dreaming of…
Hopin’ to find the 14,000 level and more
God bless the day I discover
Another program, lookin’ for green shoots
When I was alone then, no green shoots in sight
And the government did everything it could to get me through the recession
Don’t know where it started or where it might end
I turn to Bernanke, just like a friend
I was looking for green shoots in all the wrong places
Looking for green shoots in too many faces
Searching Bernanke, TARP TALF, C4C etc, looking for traces
Of what.. I’m dreaming of…
Hopin’ to find the 14,000 level and more
God bless the day I discover
Another program, lookin’ for green shoots
You came a’knocking at my heart’s door..
You’re everything I’ve been looking for….
No more looking for green shots in all the wrong places
Looking for green shoots in too many faces
Searching Bernanke, TARP TALF, C4C etc, looking for traces
Of what.. I’m dreaming of…
Now that I found green shoots and a Bernanke
God bless the day I discover
Another program, oh program, lookin’ for green shoots
BRavo BRAVO.
Thank you desert
“This was the fourth consecutive rise in demand, the first time we have seen that in five years,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist of Naroff Economic Advisors. “The housing market has lifted off.”
Will this lift off end like the last one for the Challenger? How long will this “lift off” continue with wages broadly deflating?
I’ve noticed for years our MSM press reporting the highest local foreclosure numbers in history but because it was always “much worse” other places, it “could be worse” here.
Strange logic to make a case for good times.
But this is how the national MSM press and those gnomes on CNBC see it also… they seem to believe their own propaganda. This propaganda takes place in their own bubble, I don’t think the (70% of economy) public is buying it.
“My motto is, “there is nothing better for an economy than high energy and high housing costs”. The more people are forced to spend on the basic needs of energy and housing the better off the economy is.”
I really love your anger this morning. But there is an odd logic to it when you think about it. Americans have finally woken up to the situtation they are in (not Wall Street, them). They are spending less on stuff they don’t need and if they have been keeping up with the Jones’ recently, they have enough junk at home to not need much of anything for years, except food, gas, heating oil, electricity and the occassional pair of sneakers for kids with growing feet. So, how can we maintain continuous increases in comsumer spending? Well, just shift the costs to necessities and away from the fun stuff. It won’t do much for the consumer confidence numbers, but as long as they have to shell out every penny for the basics, who cares?
I don’t normally wear a tin foil hat, like this, but I’m just about out of happy these days. I just got off the phone after yelling at some poor kid at USAA about the bone-headed way they handled the latest update to their online user agreement. They just extracted the right to consider a request to receive papers by mail (not electronically) as a request to terminate the service. So they can consider a request to received insurance papers or bank statements on paper as a request to terminate my insurance or close out my bank accounts? Really? You might say that there are consumer protection laws in place that would prevent it, but I’m thinking a private agreement can trump those and that Texas doesn’t have that much in the way of consumer protection laws anyway. I think it is time for an angry letter.
Maybe spending a large portion of next week chucking food to the swans on the river will help. They are almost as nasty tempered as I feel right now. This vacation (I’m leaving Monday) is coming at just the right time….
“Maybe spending a large portion of next week chucking food to the swans on the river will help.”
Sounds like an awesome plan! We should all think up similar diversions to take our minds off the frustrating political-economic picture…
What happened at Zillow? I can’t navigate street by street on their site anymore. Bing?
Bi ng = Mic rosoft.
nuf said.
30 year loans seem to be long duration. but, the older you get the shorter the time seems to be!
Bought my house 45 years ago, paid it off 15 years ago, now paying taxes and insurance of about $1,800 per year or $150 per month!
So, easy to live, and save money in my declining years!
Trouble with renting less expensively is that excess money is spendable, and usually not saveable as desires always exceed needs.
I could handle renting today, but prefer not as rentals never have enough space for toys.
Ben did you throw us some fresh meat?
“Trouble with renting less expensively is that excess money is spendable, and usually not saveable as desires always exceed needs.”
Guess you haven’t been reading the HBB to closely have you?
whats the big deal with that..
Renting might be lots cheaper than owning, but if your intention is to buy someday, you need money for a d/payment, and you gotta have the discipline to save it. Saving is difficult.
If you fail, you’ll never have a d/payment, and will pay relatively high rent until you die.
And if you’ve already got your down payment together, spending it is very tempting. If it’s invested in the markets, it invites risk of losing it.
Screw up either way, and you’ll never be in a position to do what JAckO is doing .. i.e. paying $150 mo.
—
Another things is the sooner you start that 30 years, the sooner you’ll be living virtually for free.
Setting things up so you’re suffering the fewest number of old-person years paying off a mortgage is not a bad plan.
So, easy to live, and save money in my declining years!
I’m happy for you..
Jacko wrote:
“Trouble with renting less expensively is that excess money is spendable, and usually not saveable as desires exceed needs.”
Who there! Are you Wacko Jacko? MJ staged his death? Just wondering.
Most if not all of us at HBB have control over our desires. You must be a troll or a newbie. So it’s better to throw our money away on an overly-inflated priced house than to leave maintenance for the owners and live on the town? 45 years eh? I guess you are hoping to pump and dump so that you can live cheaply in a rental. Toys? You cannot take them with you. Why don’t you take vacations instead? Hawaii, Florida, Arizona in the winter and Alaska and Canada in the summer?
In the 90s I went from paying $450 per month on a two bedroom rental in a triplex unit to paying $966 per month PITI on a 3 bedroom house. Instantly I could not afford the fun things in life, such as travel, dining out with friends, and skiing.
So, wacko, it’s better to spend your time alone echoing to yourself in a large McMansion with not even furnishings because 70% of your paycheck goes to mortgages?
LOL
Housing has been and continues to be a huge bubble, but still, historically it seems to me to be the best way to build wealth for most people. Where else can an average worker bee get that kind of leverage? And yes, I understand that leverage on the way down can really hurt… But, if you buy a house for $300,000.00 with a 30 year 6% mortgage, over 30 years you will end up paying an extra $300,000.00 in interest - although not quite w/ tax breaks. However, w/ inflation, you should double your money every 10 years - on average. Will that house really be 2.4 million in 3 years? Probably not unless we have rampant inflation. But still, say it even triples in 30 years - that is $900,000.00, or profit of over $300,000.00. How many people today can really save $10,000.00 a year every year for 30 years? And yes, the stock market would double every 10 years as well allegedly, but we are back to leverage. You do not really have $300,000.00 to invest in the stock market, so it is not an apples to apples comparison.
I hate housing now, but it is part of my long term goal for wealth creation. Can’t figure another way to get there by just saving and investing money out of a paycheck, no matter how many raises I get… And not into starting a business w/ a young family to support. If someone here smarter that me can explain a better way over the long term, I would love to hear it.
i’m no smarter than anyone.. but why did you mention starting a business? You probably have some ideas..
Salaries and wages are very limiting. Business is not. I’m not saying the business will succeed, or that it will pay as much, or that the pay will be steady, but since you’re young I would definitely pursue the idea (if not the reality) of your own business.
Youth has advantages. One is the time to recover after failure. Don’t wait too long.
I mentioned it because it is another well worn path to wealth creation. However, I have seen first hand far too often that it is also a well worn path to bankruptcy if not done with the proper plan, backing, etc. Plus, where I live, in the Northeast, not the best business environment. But I definately agree overall with your statement concerning wages being limiting and business not…
The recovery will cry out for new businesses to take the place of those failed in the downturn. Recovery may be a few years away but that’s a good thing.. it allows entrepreneurs time to perfect skills, gain knowledge and most importantly to concoct business plans. As for start-up money, investors don’t mind being approached with workable plans.
I know two engineer employees who are multi-millionaires, but not because they are in real estate. They made their millions in company stock. They are still working because they like the socializing with other people. A third engineer made his millions in a cologne or fragrance business and was bored, so he turned to engineering.
So you have a 30 year mortgage on a house originally costing $300,000 but you end up with a $900,000 house and pay a total of $600,000 in insurance, taxes, and interest and mayby another $100,000 in maintenance.
At the end of 30 years you spent $700,000 to make $900,000.
In 1976 if you put $50,000 in the Vanguard 500 index fund and not another penny more, by 2006 you would have $1.2 million. Expenses per $10,000 invested over ten years are $230 on VFINX. So let’s say $1100 for $50,000 invested in ten years. Much lower than real estate expenses.
After 3% annual average inflation, the VFINX would return about 6.8% but a typical house would return about 1%, if at all.
I have better things to spend my money on than to sit in a quiet boring house and hope the neighborhood does not deteriorate. If the neighborhood where I rent deteriorates, I move elsewhere. You are captive as a home owner or mortgage payer though.
Actually, that is my point. My example was probably worse case scenario over 30 years. But taking your 1976 example, the house would probably be $50,000.00 total and payments no more or less than rent. Again, the point is, for the average person, they didn’t have a choice of putting $50,000.00 into the stock market or buying the house outright. If they did, yes, the stock market may well have been a better choice. But they probably scraped together a $10,000.00 down payment from family or working overtime at the factory/office and were able to use leverage to control a $50,000.00 house. As time went on, the payments became less of an issue as their income went up, and they were able also invest extra money into in the stock market.
And I agree, it gives you much less flexibility, and freedom to move, etc.. But it always bothers me when I hear the comparison between buying a house and investing like people really have the amount of the house to invest. The real comparison is extra money that is going to a house and what that could do in the stock market over time…
so, NYCboy, how do you think the housing market will go in nyc in the next year or two? the outer boroughs too. be as specific as you dare. what’s a good game plan? short sales realistic? can a buyer bring it up as an option on a property?
Wait four years.
NYCboy
what do you think will happen in nyc in next year or two? what do you think is a good strategy?
The city budget is a mess. The state budget is a mess. Individual budgets are a mess. Taxes are going to squeeze the heck out of us. This is not an environment that makes me want to buy. I will continue to rent and hope I make it through this in one piece. Prices are still ridiculous here. I wouldn’t touch them with a 39 1/2 foot pole.
Agreed. NYC prices are ridiculous, and taxes are going up.
With all my reluctance to consider a longer commute, I’m starting to consider CT as maybe a better option for buying. Commute is a killer, though.
“-American International Group Inc.’s new CEO will be paid a yearly salary worth $7 million and could earn millions more in performance-based incentives, the bailed-out insurance giant said Monday.”
Effectively tied to the absolute value of the performance, i.e. big profits or big losses equal big bonuses? Oh what a glorious alternate universe in which these executives reside.
“-With banks limiting the availability of auto, student and other consumer loans, the Federal Reserve said Monday it would extend a program intended to help spur more lending at low rates.”
When private investors see a return on loanable funds of approximately zero percent, they tend to make zero loans. This turns the lender of last resort into the decider of last resort. So far the decider of last resort has decided to give hundreds of billions to friends on Wall Street, and (by-and-large, to throw Main Street under the bus. And as a reward, he expects reappointment for a job well done.