Bits Bucket For September 7, 2009
Post off-topic ideas, links and Craigslist finds here. Please visit the HBB Forum.
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
Post off-topic ideas, links and Craigslist finds here. Please visit the HBB Forum.
Happy Labor Day, everyone.
- A card carrying union member
Happy Labor Day to you too polly, and everyone else!
I also carry a union card! Unhappy Labor Day to all!
Unhappy Labor Day
By Harold Meyerson
Monday, September 7, 2009
Labor Day 2009 is a terrible time to be an American worker.
I was a union member when I worked in the public sector, at least in theory.
The unions had a deal with the elected officials — the incumbent politicians would take money out of workers paychecks, whether they liked it or not, and give it to the unions, and the unions would give some of it to the incumbent politicians.
The unions would then ask for, and the politicians would agree with, legislation to increase the pension benefits of members with seniority, though not to the level of those fat cats working for the unions themselves. This would be paid for with contracts featuring diminished pay and benefits for younger workers, who nonetheless were forced to pay dues to their “representatives.”
The unions would represent younger workers by claiming that since they were underpaid, no public employee should be required to do a good job.
And just to keep people in line, elections were rigged.
That’s funny, did you work the same place I did?
My first job in high school requred me to join a union. They took 1/6 of my hourly pay and I only made minimum wage at the time. I don’t have fond memories of that.
It gets better: my younger brother was required to join a union when working his first job in high school. They took part of his pay, BUT he couldn’t get any benefits from the union until a year had passed… and it was a summer job. Gee, what a nice scam!
It’s crud like that which has led folks to hate unions.
Happy Labor day back atcha! My Union card is red.
Anybody heard of the Neighborhood Restabilization Program?
Big article in my local paper (waterbury, CT) concerning the first qualified participant. Luv to hear the gangs thoughts.
Basically the program GRANTS 40% of the acquisititon and remodeling cost.
REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
WATERBURY — There are holes in walls and the kitchen ceiling. The windows don’t work properly. The yard needs an overhaul and new fencing in stalled.
Most folks would run from “fixer-uppers” like this three bedroom house on Frost Road.
The new owner, though, couldn’t be happier.
Kristie Kelley, 24, paid only 60 percent of the asking price for the house, and the best part is she won’t have to swing a hammer for the next 10 years while upgrading it to her liking. The renovations are being done for her — and it won’t cost her a dime — thanks to the fed eral government’s attempt to save neighborhoods threatened by foreclosures. Kelley is the first person in Waterbury to buy a home to live in through the federal Neigh borhood Stabilization Program. Waterbury was one of seven cities in Connecticut to get the federal funding that is part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. Last November, city officials learned Waterbury would get $3.57 million to help people buy homes and to reduce banks’ housing stock.
“We started looking for homes in January,” Kelley said. “I had no idea what I could af ford on my own and was finding out there was not much out there I was able to afford on my own that was livable.”
Kelley will live in the home with her fiancé, Todd Cyr, 29. They wanted their own home, See HOME , Page 4B
HOME: City takes care of remodeling
Continued from Page One
they said, but began to worry they would not meet their goal of sharing one for a couple years. That is, until they heard about the Neighborhood Stabi lization Program.
The intent of NSP is just as the name implies — to stabilize neighborhoods affected by foreclosures. The idea is to help wannabe owners buy bank owned homes before more homes are vacated and the neighborhood slides down the slippery slope toward abandon ment.
The Waterbury Development Corp. is overseeing the pro gram. Geoffrey M. Green, a program specialist for WDC’s Neighborhood Reinvestment Group, told Kelley, his friend, about its benefits.
Kelley couldn’t believe her ears.
“He overheard us talking about looking to purchase a house and said we couldn’t pass the program up,” she said. “We asked 3 million questions and it still did not seem real.”
The program offers potential owner-occupied buyers 40 per cent of the purchase price, known as gap financing, as well as down payment assistance and rehabilitation money.
It’s up to the potential buyer to find a home that is bank-owned. Then the house has to be on one of the 799 streets where there may be bank-owned homes.
Green said the best option is for the buyer or investor, who cannot owe back taxes, to work with a real estate agent. The house has to be appraised and the bank notified of the ap praised value. The sales price has to be 1 percent lower than the appraised “as-is” value.
WDC partnered with Web ster Bank to offer mortgages to owner-occupied buyers.
In Kelley’s case, the Colonial style house, built in 1926, was listed for $63,000. She had to pre-qualify for a mortgage for 60 percent of the purchase price.
Besides the 40 percent gap fi nancing, the program provides up to $7,500 in down-payment assistance. Kelley received $1,300 in down-payment assis tance in addition to funding to rehabilitate the house from top to bottom.
The remodeling will include removing all lead hazards; in stalling a new roof, siding, gut ters and windows; new sheet-rock inside; updating ex isting bathrooms and adding two half-baths; updating the kitchen and purchasing new energy star appliances; replacing all mold ing; insulating the attic; hard wiring smoke detectors; redoing the plumbing and wiring; in stalling new exterior doors, storm doors and interior doors; rebuilding both front and back porches; removing a tree infect ed with lead; re-seeding the lawn; and installing new fencing. She is also getting a new shed, compliments of the North west Regional Workforce In vestment Board.
Kelley’s investment was $37,800. If she had to come up with the total purchase price and pay for the rehab, she’d be faced with a bill of more than $160,000.
All renovation projects will be put out to bid through the city’s Purchasing Department, and contractors submitting suc cessful bids will have 180 days from the closing date to com plete the work.
“And this is done as a grant,” Green added.
That means NSP funds do not have to be paid back as long as the owner lives in the home for a set number of years, depend ing on the amount of money re ceived. Investors have to keep rents affordable.
If the owner sells the home before the affordability period is up, he or she will have to re pay the money and sell the house to an income-qualified buyer.
For example, if less than $15,000 per unit is received, the owner must stay in the home for five years; 10 years for funding between $15,000 and $40,000; and 15 years for more than $40,000 per unit.
Investors must offer afford able rents for five years if they get $15,000 per unit; 10 years for $15,000-$40,000; 15 years for more than $40,000, or 20 years for new construction.
So far, eight investors who qualified for rehab money will receive rehabilitate eight hous es that will provide a total of 67 affordable apartments.
Among the investors is Michaud Properties LLC, which purchased 1011 South Main St. for $35,000. The limit ed liability company did not re ceive gap financing, but will receive $250,000 to rehabilitate three apartments.
Gilberte Michaud, president of Michaud Properties, is moth er of Andre “Andy” Michaud Jr., the agent listed for the com pany. Andre Michaud, who once ran for mayor, owes $114,452 in real estate taxes to Waterbury, the majority of which was included in his bank ruptcy filing.
Hey JD:
I lived on 87 hillside ave, corner of central ave and worked for the old Watr Wtxx20 my first job in tv/ radio. that was some hill to park on…or climb up
That used to be a great area to live in…I remember how they never seemed to plow the streets, and many times i had to drive at 5 am to get to the ch 20 towers or the baldwin ave place to sign on the station,
Do you know anything about the Yeshiva K’Tana of Waterbury across the street on Buckingham? I thought it was a satellite of Uconn at one time
I would buy a house in a neighborhood “coming” back for that kind of deal. Using a place like that as a primary residence would be just fine. Most people have other relatives or apartments to go to and have “roommates” which pay the mortgage in deals like this. It’s a good investment for them.
I seen the quality of the work contractors did in similar program in Fairfax Co. VA. Not good work at all.
JD, based on how well the auto dealers have gotten reimbursed from the gov’t, I would proceed w/ caution on any freebie program. In fact I hope these programs get buried in red tape and people lose big. It might discourage the next potential freeloader.
What qualifies as a “neighborhoods affected by foreclosures”? It would be nice if I could get a $1M foreclosure for $600K and have the govt pay for any renovations over the next 10 years.
“The program offers potential owner-occupied buyers 40 per cent of the purchase price, known as gap financing, as well as down payment assistance and rehabilitation money.”
Wow, that “gap financing” sounds like another massive hand-out for the banksters! If 40% of the purchase price is Free Money, the buyer is much less likely to offer 40% below asking—which is probably the right price to be offering.
Hey guys…..
A little sick today…
Being here in south afghanistan, the country has a more NATO presence, hence multi nations (france, england, dutch, etc). So the food takes on an international flavor, which to me SUCKS. The food is awful. My stomach hurts after eating this god awful stuff and the american DFAC is too far away…Supreme is the contractor and you can tell a difference from KBR. Yea, KBR costs more, but the food is ten times better.
Life sucks right now…
Oh yea, HAPPY LABOR DAY!![:)](http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
I hope you feel better Step. You are a real man, and a hero to me.![:)](http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
Bad food does suck, especially since you guys can’t exactly order in a pizza. I’d think the French food would be good. Dutch and English- not so much. You guys ever eat local food ?
Anyway, Happy Labor Day to you and everyone else ‘over there’.
Well Stpn2me….Maybe we can get you home pretty soon if conservative columnists like George Will continue to roll over…Then you can have some good American food like, lets say; Church’s Chicken![:)](http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
I’ll take this as a good entry point to make an observation about the political protesters in the downtown area right by me…
When I first moved here, before BHO became President, their signs were strictly anti-war, “Bring them home now”, “jobs not war”, etc.
So, yesterday as I was driving through the intersection I thought about how I hadn’t seen them lately…and was actually curious to talk to them since clearly we’re still involved in Iraq and Afghanistan. The protesters were out yesterday, but this time I saw a sign that said something to the effect of “Out of Iraq - help Obama do it”.
So, what help exactly does the Commander in Chief need to pull our troops? You know, since he alone controls them, being CiC and all?
Hopefully they’ll be out there next weekend so I can talk to them and try to understand the apparent hypocrisy.
what help exactly does the Commander in Chief need to pull our troops ??
Just because you can does not mean you should, unlike, Dubya…
Everyone, including the neocons, now see (even though they are still in denial phase) what a colossus failure Iraq and now Aphganistan has been (just like Vietnam)….Until the commanders in the field give the political cover to the neo’s (Lindsey Graham) to say bring the troops home, it ain’t gonna happen…The neo’s would like nothing better than to hang the “coller” of “quitter & surrender” around the neck of the independents & Dem’s…Without that, its their “coller”…
I’ll give credit to that moonbat Cindy Sheehan. She is as moonbatish now as she was during Bush’s terms. I respect the consistency. The protesters you’re dealing with are given a sign and instructions by ACORN or ANSWER or other such groups as to where and when to shout the slogans of the day.
The protesters you’re dealing with are given a sign and instructions by ACORN or ANSWER or other such groups as to where and when to shout the slogans of the day.
Uh huh.
ACORN: perhaps the most powerful group of wild-eyed activists on the planet today! Their tentacles are everywhere!
“Hopefully they’ll be out there next weekend so I can talk to them and try to understand the apparent hypocrisy.”
Where’s the hypocrisy? I don’t see it from the information you’ve provided in your post.
Wait til the Diversity Tzar, Mark Lloyd gets ahold of the HBB. He’ll have Emanuel knee cap Ben and get the lists of all subscribers to fill up the concentration camps that the Mesiah is planning.
Where’s the hypocrisy? I don’t see it from the information you’ve provided in your post.
Sorry, Grizzly, was out and about yesterday.
The hypocrisy is that they were staunchly anti-bush and “pull them out now” previously. Their tone is much softer “help obama do it” now that bush isn’t in office, even though the situation is exactly the same.
If Obama needs help, presumably it’s from congress. Why were they dissing Bush rather than suggesting people help get the troops home by encouraging congress? You know, the 2006 democratic congress that promised to bring the troops home?
It’s hypocritical because their message is different, even with exactly the same situation regarding our troops, simply because another person is in power. Perhaps thats not the right word..it’s inconsistent, and really sad that they change their message rather than rally hard to bring our troops home regardless of who’s in the oval office.
He is not a hero to the Afghan people he is killing, maiming, and otherwise destroying. Shame.
He is not a hero to the Afghan people he is killing, maiming, and otherwise destroying. Shame.
Oh, do you know him? You watch his evil movements with your Binoculars of Justice and Rectitude?
Yes–I really do want to know. So talk up, or shut up.
So, ‘who’/whocares’, you’re living in Afghanistan and you’re Afghani, right? Right?
Come on, don’t be shy. Tell us about how you’re a genuine Afghani, and how you know about ground-conditions there.
So, ‘who’/whocares’, you’re living in Afghanistan and you’re Afghani, right? Right?
Come on, don’t be shy. Tell us about how you’re a genuine Afghani, and how you know about ground-conditions there.
Oh, look… still no answer…? at 8:08 PNW ?
(That would be Pacific Northwest time.)
One would almost conclude that you aren’t actually Afghani? And therefore don’t even know what you are talking about?
Man, yer a flakey d*rk. Yer a even worse flak*ey dork than a rabid bat. Right now there’s about 7 bats all over in my backyard, flitting through the dark trees here by the sea, and ever one of them is less flakey than you are, you less than rabid d*rky bat.
He is not a hero to the Afghan people he is killing, maiming, and otherwise destroying.
This is almost not worth responding to, but I will…
You act like we are killing civilians at will. THAT is smear. And I know you know better. The true freedom loving afghan people love us and they show us everytime we run out the taliban or some drug lord. Are you defending the taliban? It sure seems like it. Did you know the taliban is cutting off fingers of those afghans who voted? Do you like that? Keep your stupid comments to the political boards. The only ones who we are destroying, are muslim extremists and the taliban, who by the way continue to set IED’s and bombs…..I notice you arent speaking of that…
Happy Labor Day HBB’ers!
May our labors enable our hopes and dreams.
May our success add to happiness in life.
This cannot be an American moderated board as there is absolutely no expression of dissent regarding the American federal military invading and attacking countries the world over. Not one single dissenter! Only kind words toward the military and their ilk are allowed. Shame on the moderator for trading in his free pen for one that writes in red only.
“If tyranny and oppression comes to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.” James Madison
This cannot be an American moderated board as there is absolutely no expression of dissent regarding the American federal military invading and attacking countries the world over. Not one single dissenter! Only kind words toward the military and their ilk are allowed. Shame on the moderator for trading in his free pen for one that writes in red only.
Haven’t read much here, have you?
I completely support every member of our military and ethical intelligence community engaged in this war. What I totally do not support is the war itself. Don’t make assumptions about everyone whom you do not know.
Support the troopsnot the war.
“It was a very stressful time for me, the war. I’ll tell you why - I was in the unenviable position of being for the war, but against the troops. And ah… Not the most popular stance I’ve ever taken on an issue. ”
-Bill Hicks
(Sadly, few contemporary comedians would have the stones to make a joke like that nowadays…)
See, your post is allowed. Welcome.
All you who support soldiers that continue to occupy and invade foreign nations ostencibly do not support the only check on war we the people poses…participation in war. The federal soldiers are doing the murdering, raping, and pilaging of these countries and there is simply no way to spin it otherwise. It is what it is. It is a fact that without willing troops the politicians have nothing with which to extract the treasures and lives of the target nations. It is ultimately up to the soldiers to stop all war or even one by refusing to participate. Many have and are refusing to “serve” the criminal US government. THESE ARE THE REAL HEROS! It takes courage to refuse that order to deploy, murder, rape, and pillage when all your buddies and CO are pushing you hard to do otherwise.
To all war resisters, deserters, and non-participants thank you for doing the right thing.
Will be most interesting to see if the moderator will let this through ion the land of the free and brave(except when it comes to war).
Like duh, whocares, believing that the U.S. military as a whole is murdering, raping and pillaging as a whole is just plain stupid. Yes, there have been bad incidents, but the perpetrators on the whole have been prosecuted, disgraced, and given harsh prison sentences. Most of our military are ethical, self-controlled people who do their duty as they’re ordered to. A lot of the military personnel overseas right now signed up for the Reserves during peacetime 10 or 15 years ago and weren’t exactly counting on being re-upped 3 or 4 times. You don’t seem to be very interested in real estate, by the way.
I guess I was using “whole” a whole lot of times. That comes of posting when I’m pissed off. But my point can be taken “wholy” or in part. I’m sure that Whocares will miss the gist of it, though.
Good job Silver.
Think you got the wrong chip on your shoulder. Try ” The mod only lets through BAD housing news!”
I guess I was using “whole” a whole lot of times. That comes of posting when I’m pissed off. But my point can be taken “wholy” or in part. I’m sure that Whocares will miss the gist of it, though.
Naw, naw, relax, my darling….
*waves hand in a tolerant and gorilla-loving fashion *
That’s just because of your good heart. I, too, became exercised when I first read who/whocares/etceteretera’s post. I responded with grouchiness right away, and then I was like: ‘yeah, yeah. Whatever. Whoever wrote that post is NOT Afghani, I would bet my opposable thumbs on it’.
(yawn)
We all want Stepn2me to be safe and well, surely? I know I do. I know he’s not doing bad stuff. We allknow that.
Who is this who/whocares freak?
Bit*e me, ya non-Afghan.
Wow whocares. I don’t agree with tresho at all. However this time tresho is right. You really need to do your research before you make blanket statements.
Haven’t read much here, have you ?
Obviously has not…
YO who cares:
We dont have the GUTS as Americans to fight a religious Jihad
so we puzzyfoot around the world killing our own troops, instead of blowing up their mosques.
Which is at the center of their evil.
The federal soldiers are doing the murdering, raping, and pilaging of these countries and there is simply no way to spin it otherwise.
It’s not like we invaded france. The previous admin of afghanistan helped plot the attacks on our nation. Plus, they rape and demean their women, cut off arms and legs in the name of religion. Are you actually defending the taliban?
It is ultimately up to the soldiers to stop all war or even one by refusing to participate.
Soldiers dont have the right to refuse. War isnt wishy washy as most uber liberals like yourself. I wouldnt want a soldier who has to question every order, every move that is told for him to do. Unlike you, I have faith in what I am being told to do is just, and in our case, it is…
You sir, disgust me…
Support Our Troops!
Testify! For forever and ever.
Hey guys…..
Just got back off mission and what do I see???? A troll has infiltrated the HBB….OK…
To be honest, the idiot can have his opinion. What is missing from his posts, that for his very voice, the taliban would kill him. I will not. He can be against the war, but why be against someone who is giving their life for him. Soldiers do not make policy. Maybe in the troll’s world, you can just quit your obligations anytime you want. I cant. If I quit, most of the women in afghanistan wouldnt be able to participate in society. If I and others like me quit, men will have to grow beards and worship a god they dont know or like.
I wont call this guy a liberal, as most liberals are americans just like me. We are on the same side, although different viewpoints. He is not a liberal. I would die for them just the same.
There are those on this blog who have expressed dissent toward the military establishment and govt as a whole to me and others. It was always done with respect and cordial courtesy. It’s what I expect from other americans. You can always tell when an “outsider” from the HBB comes in from their tone of voice and candor. So it’s obvious this person isnt from this community.
I am a member of several blogs, but my main ones are the drudge retort, where I post as Boaz, and here. I must say you people on this blog are some of the most intelligent people I have ever had the pleasure to talk to. And I am not saying that to blow smoke up your A**, it’s the truth. I thank those who defended me and those who defended the great soldiers I work with. As the longtime posters on drudge.com will tell you (most know me personally), I am a real soldier.
I dont want to take too much from this housing blog, we can debate military matters on drudge. But I say again…
Thanks..
Guess that makes me a troll, Stepin. Might want to tone it down a tad?
“Only kind words toward the military and their ilk are allowed. Shame on the moderator for trading in his free pen for one that writes in red only.”
You’ve obviously not read this blog for long. There has been plenty of expression of disapproval for the war. But, most people are smart enough to realize that it’s not the soldiers who formulate policy. They merely follow orders. Furthermore, they are the ones who will protect us in times of grave danger. While I am vehemently against the war in Iraq, I don’t blame or disparage the soldiers because of it.
Exactly Griz.
TROLLFIGHT!!!
Thank you for your courage, who. It is true that the troops ARE the war, for without their participation, war could not be waged. It is also true that a lot of folks on this blog hold those who go to foreign countries and kill people there in higher regard than you do– so you might want to temper your opinions a bit if you’re going to post them hereupon? Or not.
Fortunately, this blog is willing to consider ALL arguments from all comers, provided they are civil and reasoned. Welcome.
Happy Labor Day Everyone.
What you posted cobalt was beautiful.
Polly, I’m not sure I’d call a bar card a “union card”.
I got one too. The CA bar spends its member’s dues hassling members of the bar, not agitating for better conditions and pay.
However I do have an “honorable withdrawl” card from the Newspaper Guild. I worked cleaning the presses at the SJ Merc summers in college.
Naw. I have an actual union card. Believe me, no one was more surprised than me when the orientation people told me on my first day that I was supposed to stay for the bargaining unit presentation.
I don’t have to pay the dues to have my job or to be subject to our contract, but I do. These folks negotiate my pay raises and the terms of my benefits. Someone has to pay for that. Beyond that, I think I get access to a special rate for a warehouse store (too far away to bother) and there is a holiday party I have never attended. There are additional benefits if I wanted to file a grievance, but I never have.
If only 57.5% of the state’s adults are working, what’s the adult unemployment rate: 42.5% or so?
VenturaCountyStar
Jobless rate 4th highest in U.S.
57.5% of state’s adults working, report says
By Timm Herdt (Contact)
Sunday, September 6, 2009
SACRAMENTO — On Labor Day 2009, what Californians need most is a lot more labor.
In its annual report on the state of working Californians, released today, the nonpartisan California Budget Project reports the job losses suffered during what is being called the “Great Recession” wiped out all the gains of the previous recovery and that the total number of jobs in the state is now roughly what it was nine years ago when there were 3.3 million fewer working-age adults.
“The current recession stands apart from prior downturns for both the depth and breadth of destruction in the job market,” the report says. “California has lost more jobs at a faster rate in the past two years than during any prior recession for which data are available, and employment has fallen in nearly every major sector of the economy.”
…
U.S. loss of jobs slows but the jobless rate jumps to 9.7%
September 4th, 2009, 6:49 am · 7 Comments · posted by Mary Ann Milbourn
Employers nationwide cut 216,000 jobs, a big improvement over previous months, but the unemployment rate rose to 9.7%, reported the Bureau of Labor Statistics today.
…
August unemployment numbers for California and Orange County won’t be released until Sept. 18. In July, California unemployment stood at 11.9% and Orange County’s was 9.5%.
…
How can we have a
“jobs slows” but we have a
“jobless rate Jump” ing?
Sort of like a field event where the guy/gal, runs runs runs, then slows at the lift off point before jumping?
see it doesn’t work, you have to keep running full speed to get momentum on your bodies side. That is why the rate is Jumping.
Pretty funny headline, PB!
Have I mentioned most financial writers are idiots?
Actually, this is their best attempt at
spinlipstick on a pig. Which should tell you just how bad it really is.See this poll from earlier this year.
http://webcenter.polls.aol.com/modular.jsp?resType=7&view=162569&popup=yes&template=1381&channel=aol_us_news&pollId=162851
Would be a destruction of the engineering field if we were forced to go union. I see so many non-performers and slackers that I’d hate to have them ride my back to get ahead.
I’ve seen unions in inaction. Long cigarrette or coffee breaks, fat bellies, sedentary slugs.
Happy Productive Sovereign Individual Day.
I see supervisors, middle management, upper management who do nothing as well. Float in sometime during the morning, have extra long lunches, wknds off, holidays off, evenings off, and when you ask them a ? about anything at all, simple Or hard about this field, they give you a “I don’t know, not my department”.
So Bill you Have to say the same about mgmnt or non union.
It is still the 80/20 rule. Anywhere, anytime.
management who do nothing as well
What? Belittling “the girls” who do everything isn’t doing something?
Oh, I too, see lower and middle management as useless dolts who have the sheriff badge and are mean just to try to threaten people to perform. Yup, they exist too. But note those people are employees as well as the do-nothing engineers.
The implication is that “working person” is not college educated, not a manager, not a white collar type. “Working man” is a socialist meme. The rock group Rush mocked the phrase in its song of the same title.
So are you bashing the working man which is you and me, or ?
Do we work, therefore we are working men and women?
*****************
“But note those people are employees as well as the do-nothing engineers.
The implication is that “working person” is not college educated, not a manager, not a white collar type. “Working man” is a socialist meme. The rock group Rush mocked the phrase in its song of the same title.”
No! I’m bashing the meme “working man,” that only refers to blue collar types. And in my post above I do have a disclaimer that some managers are useless. The implication, once again, put forth by socialists, is that college educated tech types do not work.
I do hum “Hardworking People” by Joan Baez sometimes. But she was speaking of manual laborers. Not educated professionals who put an honest day and a half work in.
ahhhhhhhh, I see, said the blind man as he picked up his hammer and saw.
;>
I had Musicians Union card years ago..we had some awesome strikes in Las Vegas back in the day. I remember all the hotel lights on the Strip being off for a week. That was a sympathy strike with Culinary.
Mortgage Market Bound by Major U.S. Role
Classes of Borrowers Cannot Find Loans as Publicly Backed Debt Mounts
Washington Post
Monday, September 7, 2009
In the go-go years of the U.S. housing boom, virtually anybody could get a few hundred thousand dollars to buy a home, and private lenders flooded the market, aggressively pursuing borrowers no matter their means or financial history.
Now the pendulum has swung to the other extreme. Only one lender of consequence remains: the federal government, which undertook one of its earliest and most dramatic rescues of the financial crisis by seizing control a year ago of the two largest mortgage finance companies in the world, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
While this made it possible for many borrowers to keep getting loans and helped protect the housing market from further damage, the government’s newly dominant role — nearly 90 percent of all new home loans are funded or guaranteed by taxpayers — has far-reaching consequences for prospective home buyers and taxpayers.
The government has the power to decide who is qualified for a loan and who is not. As a result, many borrowers among both poor and rich are frozen out of the market.
Nearly one-third of those who obtained home loans during the boom years of 2005 and 2006 couldn’t get one today, according to mortgage industry analysts. Many of these borrowers were never really able to afford their homes and should not have gotten loans. But many others could, and borrowers like them are now running into tougher government standards.
At the same time, taxpayers are on the hook for most of the loans that are still being made if they go bad. And they are also on the line for any losses in the massive portfolios of old loans at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which own or back more than $5 trillion in mortgages.
There is growing evidence that many loans being guaranteed by the government have a significant risk of defaulting. Delinquencies are spiking. And the Federal Housing Administration, another source of government support for home loans, is quickly eating through its financial cushion as losses mount.
The outlay has already reached about $1 trillion over the past year and is rising. During that time, the government has pumped more money into the mortgage market than has been spent on Medicare or Social Security or the defense budget, more even than Washington has paid to bail out banks and other struggling companies.
Doesn’t make you feel like starting your own taxpaying business?
The next leg down will be a doozie.
Nearly one-third of those who obtained home loans during the boom years of 2005 and 2006 couldn’t get one today … Many of these borrowers were never really able to afford their homes and should not have gotten loans.
It’s so nice to hear this coming from the MSM.
Only a third?
The only reason that it’s only a third is that the federal government is doing a fine job of keeping standards artificially low. The private sector has reacted to the market change and massively-increased risk, and changed lending standards to adapt. But the federal government has not
So like water, which naturally finds the lowest point, all lending has moved to the point of lowest standards, which is currently the FHA program.
It’s only two-thirds because FHA still allows for essentially zero-down (technically 3.5%, but the feds will pay it for you with the tax credit).
Finally. Hope to hear more, or was this just a holiday-no one but us reads- aberration?
I posted an Austin article about developers’ deeply discounting long-unsold condos yesterday.
I thought perhaps the timing of that article was related to the holiday weekend - everyone is at the lake / coast / river / barbecue / pool / park / campground, etc - rather than reading the paper or online news.
Hip:
Its like a TV station putting on a local town meeting about education or crime or the candidates for mayor against a Mike Tyson fight.
Yup i worked for tv stations that did that!
“Politicians often find scapegoats for America’s economic woes. It is rare – if ever – that they point the finger at themselves. Yet, the basic cause of the current severe economic problem lies in the machinations of government”.
“It is clear to even a casual observer that Congress has abused its power to tax and spend. It has taxed success to subsidize failure. It has purchased votes by enacting an unending stream of entitlement programs, financed by taxation, foreign debt and a progressive degradation of the U.S. paper dollar”.
John Browne
This article includes a graph which provides an instant visual of how much worse the current recession is compared to others since 1980 in terms of its employment impact.
Recession sting a lasting ache for job market
Long-term effects seen on economy
By Dean Calbreath
Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. September 7, 2009
As the nation embarks on its 127th celebration of Labor Day, there are increasing signs that the worst is over for the recession-battered job market – though that does not mean that the best has begun.
The once-dizzying pace of layoffs is slowing. The number of hours being worked each week has fallen sharply because of furloughs and job cuts, but the rate of decline seems to be hitting bottom. There’s even been a local pickup in hiring in the construction industry, which has been at the epicenter of the economic crisis.
Nevertheless, nearly 10 percent of Americans remain jobless, and there are growing indications that the recession may have some long-term effects on the way most Americans work. Many Americans who have been lucky enough to keep their jobs are working harder, putting in longer hours and getting paid less than they were before the recession began, especially after adjusting for inflation.
…
Yeah…I we are entering the seasonal pick-up in hiring of fall & winter…
When the “once-dizzying pace of layoffs” actually stops, get back to me, spin doctor Dean.
Just because I’m bleeding slower than I was doesn’t mean I’m getting better.![:roll:](http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)
+1000
I just realize that almost word for word, that article could have been written during the recessions of the 70s, the 80s and the 90s.
Just change out the cause of the recession and it’s the same.
Check out my “Modest Proposal” for fixing the too-big-to-fail problem towards the end of yesterday’s bits bucket…
OK, so I went and checked it out and I agree.
Clicked the link to the Jonathan Swift article, too. Hmm…could we apply that to banksters? Of course, they might be a tad gamey for my tastes. But, food’s food when you don’t have any.
“Of course, they might be a tad gamey for my tastes.”
Too much fat.
I think they’d taste like veal. And you wouldn’t feel guilty while you ate it.
You’d have to clean it really well since they are so full of $hit.
Good point, NYCB. And if they’re anything like chitterlings, you’ll never get that $h!t taste out. (I’ve always said chitterlings should really be called $h!tterlings.)
And if they’re anything like chitterlings, I’ve never had the nerve to try them.
In a southern Arabian wadi I visit now and then, the butchers in the market wash out the goat intestines, then make tight little braids about 3 inches long. They are cooked and served among chunks of roasted meat, along with a big tray of white and yellow rice.
The little braids are very pretty, very delicious, with no taste at all of $h!t.
Gross. ewwwwwwwww
Whaaaat ya never hoid of chitlins????????
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitterlings
Hey hip- Next time you’re there, ask them their trick. I’ll pass it on to those who offer me their ‘aromatic’ chitlins here. (It’s the only food I cannot put in my mouth. Every instinct says ‘no’. But I have eaten kidneys, despite their urine undertones.)
If that grossed you out, get a load of this (or don’t):
A couple years ago, I was having lunch at a local restaurant in the Old City of Sana’a with a British friend.
We both like well-prepared offal (what Texans refer to as ‘parts’). Our conversation went from talking about the little intestine braids in that wadi to stories about eating “tubes” (about an inch or two long) while traveling in places they don’t braid intestines, and laughing about very occasionally among the tubes having seen a little puckered @nu$.
My friend coined a term for those bits using a classical Arabic diminutive that would translate something like “little f@rter.”
Grossness aside, it would have been a shame to those people to waste the protein and fat of the head, heart, stomach, lung, intestines, kidney. There was probably never quite enough food to go around in their communities, and often hunger or even famine was within memory.
When my Volga German forebears slaughtered, they made “head cheese” and used the offal in fatty sausage, which is why they talk about using “every part of the pig but the squeal.” Given the earthiness of their language, they probably had some graphic low German term like “little f@rter” for that bit. (If they didn’t, I bet Bavarians do.)
“every part of the pig but the squeal.”
That is still very true today. Cheap hot dogs, sausage, etc. all have the “left overs” thrown in.
alpha,
As to the trick:
1) The goats are fattened on alfalfa. Even goats that graze on desert vegetation are penned to be fattened on alfalfa before slaughter. (Don’t know, but that might make intestinal contents “fresher” than those of corn-fattened commercial pigs.)
2) They wash out intestinal contents and I think turn the intestines inside out for further washing and maybe even a short soak in a bucket.
skroodle,
When I was writing about my forebears, I was thinking about how as a kid I would turn my nose up at the head cheese and fatty sausage the older folks liked, but happily eat cheap hot dogs, bologna, braunschweiger.
Chitlins with the occasional puckered @nus reminds me of calimari- mostly tentacles with the occasional little ’spider’ body (my favorite). I like tongue, brains, feet, even ‘lamb fries’. I’ll eat anything *except* chitlins, but I’d try them if I found some non-aromatic ones. Guess I’ll have to go to Arabia. (Maybe they use cumin to cover the whiff. Are they stink free or so heavily spiced that it covers any other smell?)
Ah! Alfa-alfa–is there nothing it can’t do? Reminds me of the european practice of letting escargot feed on rosemary or parsley for a few days before they’re eaten. Flavor them inside and get rid of the funk they were feeding on.
I loved braunschweiger but with this
littany, I think I might hurl.
Dang. Don’t tell me what it is. And IF
I have been starving, still don’t tell me.
Kill it cut it cook it and flavor with lots of
herbs and then shut up!
Oooh, I love braunschweiger. I also like chitlins, although I’ve only had them once or twice, and head cheese and snails and tacos de lengua and tacos de ojos. That’s good eatin’.
When I get to Heaven I hope it’s nothing but a big long buffet, and I never, ever have to stop eating or run out of plates.
The only things I’ve ever encountered that I won’t eat again are blood-sausage, ’cause that’s just a big scab in a skin, and pickled jellyfish. Oh, yeah, and Aunt Marla’s marshmallow yams. How does someone torment yams so offensively, I wonder.
PS. I’d like to know the Arabic for ‘little f*arter”. That can be my big little brother’s new nickname. That, and ‘Mr. Fingerless McScabby’.
Ah! Alfa-alfa–is there nothing it can’t do? Reminds me of the european practice of letting escargot feed on rosemary or parsley for a few days before they’re eaten. Flavor them inside and get rid of the funk they were feeding on.
Goodness, I just BARELY read an article on MSN about parasites, and snails were listed as great hosts! Good-bye, cognitive abilities! But I didn’t care.
(Maybe ’cause I’ve eaten snails, and now cannot make good decisions.)
When I lived in California for 2 months, when I was about 12, I got all excited about eating snails and went out and captured a couple dozen of them, which were supposedly escaped edible snails. I fed them cornmeal, which was the locally recommended purgative, but then when I looked in the bucket with a greedy eye I felt bad for the little guys and threw them over the neighbors fence* and then lied about someone leaving the lid off. I just didn’t have the spirit to eat them. I can only eat them when they have butter on them, and I haven’t met them before.
*And then the neighbor wondered why his yard was a barren wasteland of striped soil. But even at that young age I had learned the value of discretion.
If you’re a great host, expect parasites. Especially if you have a pool table and a fridge full of good beer.
It is hard to eat those we know. A good chianti helps.
It is hard to eat those we know. A good chianti helps.
Anyone can eat a census taker. I do it all the time. The invitation to do so is practically on the name-tag, and might even be on the job-application.
But you know, fava-beans get mushy so easily, and that is a real failing with fava-beans.
Hmmm. I forget my point, except that I don’t like mushy fava-beans. Also census-takers look less healthy lately. I only like to eat people who look robust.
Happy Labor Day Ol’ Buddy Palmy! You guys are 1/4 thru September! Good Luck!
A book I once read had an interview with a head-hunting cannibal. He didn’t like the taste of white people, claiming they were “too salty”.![:lol:](http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
Well, nice to know we aren’t too bland.![:-)](http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
A book I once read had an interview with a head-hunting cannibal. He didn’t like the taste of white people, claiming they were “too salty”.
…Ah, long-pig…
I’m trying to remember what book that was, because I read it too.
It seems to me that I recall that this gourmand claimed that young women tasted best, and that young Asian women were simply to die for. I thought when I read, ‘Wow, how did you find that out? Is there like a yearly ‘Cannibal Tour’ or something?
flesh of the month club? (Oooh! April’s Eskimo!)
flesh of the month club? (Oooh! April’s Eskimo!)
They don’t call that particular free-range comestible as “Eskimo’ anymore. Nowadays it’s termed as ‘Innuit’*.
Man, get some Political Correctness on you.
*But I still bet it tastes good.
PB, the problem with calling that a Modest Proposal is that it is far too reasonable a proposal. You need to be more shocking if you’re going to try to walk in Swift’s footsteps!
Judging from palmetto’s post, I think I got my point across…
…Hey, you know what, PB? Someone is ringing on your doorbell right about now…
You’re a grumpy ursine-being, but I bet you still got some sweet and spicy pockets, available to the average free-range census-taker…
The comments yesterday were highly intelligent and informative. Some real quality people here, for sure. I know when to stay out of it.
alph your Siamese Twins/pay taxes comment made me laugh so hard, tears were running down my face. Good job, I was in a bad mood.
(-: ǝbɐbʇɹoɯ uʍop ǝpısdn uɐ oʇ ǝnp pooɯ pɐq ɐ uı ʇ,uǝɹǝʍ noʎ ǝdoɥ I
Now, you’re going to make me think what THAT (-: ǝbɐbʇɹoɯ means all day, right?
Wrong.
Plus, how do u do the upside down gig?
I guess it is a modified word for mortgage, but I know it it could be something else, with Prof. B.
I think you need to have an upside-down font installed on your computer..
OR live in Australia. other side of the world and all.
http://www.en.fliptext.net/
Somebody has too much free time.
ɯoɯ ʍoʍ
upside down palindrome
(؛ ʇı pǝʇɹɐʇs ǝıɹɹɐɔ ˙ǝıɹɹɐɔ ǝɯɐlq
,,؛lʞʞɾɾɾɥƃƃɟ how cool is that, now I know what to do when anxiety it getting the best of me, escape to the world of flip letters were the world makes sense again…..
amanaplanacanalpanama.
backwards:
amanaplanacanalpanama
Somebody has too much free time.
¿ʎlʞɔınb ʎɹǝʌ sıɥʇ pıp puɐ ‘puıɯ ǝlıʇɹǝɟ ɐ ǝʌɐɥ ʇsnɾ ʎǝɥʇ sdɐɥɹǝd
amanaplanacanalpanama.
backwards:
amanaplanacanalpanama
Sideways, it looks like this: |
ʇɹʎ ndsıpǝ poʍu ɐup qɐɔʞʍɹɐps¡
PB,
I got try ______ down and backwards. What the heck is the second word?
upside
Thanks PB.
(-: ʇsod uʍop ǝpısdn ʎɯ pɐǝɹ oʇ pɐǝɥ ɹnoʎ uo puɐʇs oʇ noʎ ʞsɐ oʇ ǝʌɐɥ llıʍ ı ‘ǝɯıʇ ʇxǝN
I’m in this line of work and this is the first time I’m seeing this kind of stuff. Thanks a lot folks, now I can justify surfing while at work.
Check out http://news.cnet.com/8301-13580_3-9753531-39.html
We HBBers aim to please![:)](http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
NOW STOP THAT you guys.
That upside down is really, why I oughta…gna gna gna woop woop woop boing boing.
That is my version of 3 stooges reaction.
Cut it out, PB. Unless you are willing to tell me your secret coding of upside downing.
gna gna gna woop woop woop boing boing.
Is that anything like Rama lama ding dong?????
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W54ehlomu48
I never got any answers on my siamese-twins legal/tax questions. An overlooked legal specialty? ATE, this could be your golden opportunity. And you could run 2-for-1 specials.
Open office tomorrow with a shingle alph! Thanks! We’ll split the profits.
Cool! I’ll give half to alpha, and half to sloth. (That half is still asleep.)
I’d say that as long as two birth certificates were issued, they each file as individuals. And parents of of conjoined twins would get two deductions as long as two birth certificates are issued. Please note that as of somewhat recently, you have to have a tax id number (though not necessarily a social security number) to file taxes or be listed as a dependent on someone else’s taxes. I’m guessing that the Social Security Administration decides who gets issued a number based on submission of a birth certificate, not counting legs or arms or other bits that might be shared by conjoined twins.
Since conjoined twins are, by necessity, siblings, I do not believe there is any state that would allow them to marry, so no filing jointly.
If you think about it carefully, there are many places in the tax code that essentially defer to state or local law. The definition of spouses is one of those places, though the Defense of Marriage Act has limited that deference somewhat.
What about the incarceration issue? You know, one half commits a crime, the other wasn’t involved. How would that play out?
What about the incarceration issue? You know, one half commits a crime, the other wasn’t involved. How would that play out?
Are you posting this from prison, slothy? I bet you are! What did you do? Did you fall out of a tree onto someone who was innocently eating an ice-cream cone and then run away, very slowly, with their cone?
Oh, but that reminds me of one late-night teevee crime show where a chick was being interviewed in prison. She was grouchy that she was in jail for a crime (robbery) that her ‘alternate personality’ had committed. She didn’t feel she deserved to be in prison for something ’someone else’ had done. I thought that was funny and laughed rudely, probably because I’m a bad person. (There’s just one of me in here, and unfortunately I’m snarky and insensitive. If I ever get another personality I hope it’s a kinder, sweeter one.)
So why stick with just people who are stuck together? Why not demand asseveration from your naughty extra personalities?
You know, one half commits a crime, the other wasn’t involved.
Plus I have to believe there’s an accessory issue in such a case. You couldn’t convincingly claim: ‘I was there by accident, Mr. Prosecutor.’
Loitering with intent–and I was acquitted! (I always loiter, but I’m too lazy for intent.)
What if one half is asleep? You can commit crimes from a chair in this brave new world.
Wow. How about siamese twins with multiple personalities? I think I see a sitcom plot.
You can commit crimes from a chair in this brave new world.
It is so true. Such are the marvels of technology when combined with a semi-wicked spirit!
Just speaking for myself.
I’d get a lot more done if I was more wicked and industrious, and had a more comfortable chair to sit in.
You know, I’ve always thought that the predictors of an oppressive ‘Big Brother State’ have wayyyyy overestimated the energy of your average evil person. There’s only so much you can do nowadays, with Twitter and Facebook and paperwork and so on.
In my opinion laziness and distraction have been the saving of us semi-bald semi-evolved humans. I can’t imagine what else has done it.
It’s like a fail-safe mechanism that kicks in when the opposable thumbs get out of hand.
“In my opinion laziness and distraction have been the saving of us semi-bald semi-evolved humans.”
Oooh, baby! You’re talking my lingo! Busy-ness is the most over-rated thing in the world. Leisure is the point of civilization. And I like to think I’m highly civilized. [burps and scratches belly]
And I like to think I’m highly civilized. [burps and scratches belly]
“The point of being evolved is to have nothing to do except boss eager and barely-legal-aged adorable minions.”
OlyGal
I graciously give you that motto, for free.
And I’d be there along with you, burping and scratching my hairy mossy tummy. Except I have ADD, unlike you.
Gosh, it totally sucks, and never have I been more conscious of the fact than now, when I look at my motto, and I have to fidget at the same time.
I don’t even have any pretty green moss on my anymore. It’s been too dry. It’s been too dry for a long time here. I should hang upside down in trees more, then I’d be good, I guess.
If there was an Innuit hanging in the next tree.
Oh, yeah, and a fake Afghani.
October’s Afghani! (hot, slight curry flavor, we recommend a riesling or gewurztraminer)
I have ADD too, but mine’s sort of a lazy, random kind. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. (16 is legal in KY. Bring on the minions!)
polly, you are so cool.
Financial crisis has deep roots in academia
Exotic mathematical models were devised by those who had no practical knowledge of the markets yet decided they knew better than the traders how markets operated, author Pablo Triana writes.
By Morgen Witzel September 7, 2009
Should the Nobel Prize for economics be abolished? That is one of the suggestions in Pablo Triana’s provocative book “Lecturing Birds on Flying: Can Mathematical Theories Destroy the Markets?”
Triana, formerly a derivatives trader and academic at the University of Madrid, makes a simple assertion. Financial models, such as value at risk and the famous Black-Scholes-Merton model, which won its founders a Nobel, have done more harm than good.
“Make no mistake, quantitative finance had a very large hand in what could well be the worst financial crisis in the history of mankind,” he writes.
Triana’s book is a critique bordering on an assault on mathematical, or quantitative, finance.
From the opening chapter, “Playing God,” Triana maintains that the fundamental assumptions on which mathematical finance theory are based are wrong. Yet the theory continues to hold sway.
And the biggest villain of the piece is the financial academic establishment. Much of its work, he says, has been unnecessary. Before mathematical finance, traders had working models for things such as option pricing. By and large, these models were effective and accurate.
Then came the Black-Scholes-Merton model, which Triana says does not work and was also largely responsible for the 1987 stock market crash. What is more, he maintains, most traders know it does not work and only pretend to use it because finance theory is fashionable and criticizing the model is a heresy.
This is not the only case. The Gaussian copula model, which was intended to measure default probability, failed to identify toxic structured securities and led to massive errors in valuation and credit ratings, Triana says. Likewise, the value at risk model “failed to measure risks even half-accurately and, worse, decisively encouraged and sanctioned the wild risk-taking that brought Wall Street (and consequently the world) down.”
Old-fashioned common-sense methods were replaced by theoretical models based on math, developed by people who had no practical knowledge of markets yet decided they knew better than the traders how markets operated.
b-b-but I thought math was the golden science…the ultimate college major…the language of Atlas…
Turns out a little liberal arts (like HISTORY, which we seem to be repeating) might have its uses too.
Oh-so-true, Alpha. Hope the Sloth part has woken up.
I don’t have the time or will to find the syphilis thread from the last couple of days, but with reference to the mercury being the only cure for hundreds of years, as a history buff, I can happily report that in the 18th century, the harsh cure for syphilis/gonorrhea ( they were undifferentiated as two different diseases at that time ) was referred to as ” two hours with venus, two years with mercury ” by the British bon ton, who did have a certain turn with words.
I was channeling conjecture by the makers of the movie Amadeus about the cause of Mozart’s early death at age 35. Many of the great Western classical composers struggled with sensory deprivation due to syphilitic infections (Schumann, Beethoven, Smetana and Delius to name a few). How they managed to produce what they did despite the challenges they faced in life is a supreme testament to the human spirit’s ability to triumph over adversity.
On that note, I am off in a valiant attempt to make productive use of the remainder of this Labor Day…
“How they managed to produce what they did despite the challenges they faced in life is a supreme testament to the human spirit’s ability to triumph over adversity.”
I’ve wondered the opposite, PB: perhaps the amazing things they produced were BECAUSE of the challenges, not in spite of them.
What better motivation to construct and hear amazing music in your head than the knowledge that you are slowly losing your senses and will soon hear nothing beautiful at all?
Yup, it would have the power to focus one a little more.
You guys raise an interesting point, and it’s one which has often crossed my mind. Would Itzhak Perlman have practiced as much if he had been able to go outside and play baseball?
My Modest Proposal–cripple the smart/talented. For posterity. (What if Stephen Hawking had become a break-dancer?)
My Modest Proposal–cripple the smart/talented. For posterity. (What if Stephen Hawking had become a break-dancer?)
That’s a good idea.
*makes a note to self *
I remember reading in Marco Polo’s more-or-less anecdotal journal of his travels in China. It seems that musically talented people were deliberately blinded early in life, so that they could ‘focus better’.
Well! I know that if IIII were blinded early I’d teach everybody a lesson by singing the most terribly discordant music I could come up with.
Hmmm. Alas, it would sound just like what I produce anyhow, with perfect eye-sight.
*lifts up voice in a loud, joyous, but not very pretty noise unto the Lord*
yo-de-lay-dee-hoo!
I bet you’d sing as good as you could if the alternative were being an unemployed blind chick in olde China. Or you’d find some other art/skill to master.![:wink:](http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
Good point alph.
+1
Sounds good but I think this is an attempt to put too much credit to the thinking behind decision makers who gave birth to this pyramid scheme; it is what it is a scam and no matter how we turn around and try to figure it out it is still gonna be nothing more and nothing less; Sh#t with a red dress.
My master’s is in applied mathematics, and I have forgotten more about operations research/math modeling than many folks know. I am constantly frustrated by the naive trust so many people have in the predictive ability of over-simplified math models of complicated systems. I call it “physics envy” and it’s all over the social sciences. I even have my doubts about climate modeling.
Many decades ago I had an Operations Research/Game Theory class. The professor always told his new students that one student applied the math to winning at Craps in LV. I forgot the amount of money won. This was back in the late 1970s. I think it was $2,000, which was a lot of money back then.
I think it was $2,000, which was a lot of money back then.
That’s a lot of money now. You know how much chittlin’s and blood-sausage I could refuse to buy with 2 thousand bucks?
Blaming the crisis on the inventors of financial models absolves the managers of Megabank, Inc who thought it would be a good idea to use these models for gambling purposes.
“Blaming the crisis on the inventors of financial models absolves the managers of Megabank, Inc”
BINGO.
Blaming academia for this is one of the most moronic things I’ve read here.
well I think there was a smartypants element in this. But the academic is not responsible, which is the problem. Positing some theory in a thesis is one thing, applying it is another.
Yeah, but the article points out that a lot of these guys descended from their Ivory Towers and became Wall Street heroes, who threw out the already-proven old models and replaced them with the new-and-improved models that created and justified this whole mess.
They were the Rasputins. And highly paid ones.
The academics were merely convenient excuses and justifications for not gambling, but what was in reality, outright fraud and theft.
The math merely provided a “cloak of legitimacy” as it were.
Never forget, they KNEW exactly what they were doing. They knew.
“They knew.”
Right down to the government-sponsored panic to convince the Congress to act fast to pass the TARP, lest the entire planet blow up in a burst of fire…
Regular Monday for me, none of this Labor Day nonsense. Working 8-10 hours as usual. I work for myself so holidays and weekends are vague concepts. Maybe in the spirit of solidarity with unions, I will bill my clients at 150% of my hourly rate today and take 4 or 5 paid coffee breaks.
+ 1 Eddie…I with ya…
Barack Obama is committing the same mistakes made by policymakers during the Great Depression, according to a new study endorsed by Nobel laureate James Buchanan.
By Edmund Conway- U.K. BST 06 Sep 2009
History repeating itself? President Obama has been accused by some economists of making the same mistakes policymakers in the US made in the Great Depression, which followed the Wall Street crash of 1929, pictured Photo: AP
His policies even have the potential to consign the US to a similar fate as Argentina, which suffered a painful and humiliating slide from first to Third World status last century, the paper says.
There are “troubling similarities” between the US President’s actions since taking office and those which in the 1930s sent the US and much of the world spiralling into the worst economic collapse in recorded history, says the new pamphlet, published by the Institute of Economic Affairs.
In particular, the authors, economists Charles Rowley of George Mason University and Nathanael Smith of the Locke Institute, claim that the White House’s plans to pour hundreds of billions of dollars of cash into the economy will undermine it in the long run. They say that by employing deficit spending and increased state intervention President Obama will ultimately hamper the long-term growth potential of the US economy and may risk delaying full economic recovery by several years.
The study represents a challenge to the widely held view that Keynesian fiscal policies helped the US recover from the Depression which started in the early 1930s. The authors say: “[Franklin D Roosevelt's] interventionist policies and draconian tax increases delayed full economic recovery by several years by exacerbating a climate of pessimistic expectations that drove down private capital formation and household consumption to unprecedented lows.”
Rowley says: “It is also not impossible that the US will experience the kind of economic collapse from first to Third World status experienced by Argentina under the national-socialist governance of Juan Peron.”
In fairness to Obama, he is not an economist. Give his Economic Dream Team advisers some credit for the advice they offer.
What is it???
In fairness to Obama, he does not control domestic policy. His buddies in the Congress do.
do remember that you have republicans, you have democrats, and you have 40-60 of those democrats who always vote republican agenda. So any and all of those would be ignorant of anything but themselves. Nor care to do one single thing FOR the ppl that voted them in. Oh yea, they forgot. So far, those “friends” of President Obama’s in congress, never were, and probably still aren’t…friends.
Neither are his advisers, I condemn the whole lot.
McCain would have done the same thing Barrys doing, pump and waste billions/trillions of dollars. When you are a country of, for and by big gubmint, that’s what you get, and you get it good and hard. Americans credit based lifestyles are in for a much needed adjustment.
McCain would have done the same thing Barrys doing, pump and waste billions/trillions of dollars. McCain wouldn’t have appointed anyone remotely like Van Jones, but I agree McCain would be pumping money into supporting inflated housing prices.
During the final debate he said he would use $300B to buy up people’s mortgages. I don’t think he would have squandered $800B on a so-called stimulus though.
I don’t think he would have squandered $800B on a so-called stimulus though. I think he would have squandered about the same amount on a stimulus painted over with another name, unless he had a ‘come to Jesus’ moment. But at least a Pres. McCain would have been more likely to have such a moment LOL.
Macho McCain would have attacked Iran by now and put his cross hairs on North Korea next…
McCain wouldn’t have appointed anyone remotely like Van Jones…
The same McCain who chose Palin as VP?
Oh please,
McCain the wise one? The one who chose Palin for his VP. Excuse me while I go have a good laugh.
McCain wouldn’t have appointed anyone remotely like Van Jones…
The same McCain who chose Palin as VP?
– If you think Palin is remotely like Van Jones, I wonder what species you are.
Oh please,
McCain the wise one? The one who chose Palin for his VP. Excuse me while I go have a good laugh.
— Better find another strawman. I never said he was wise, but I thought (and think) he would be more likely to change his approach to the national crisis than Obama is, or ever will be.
Can you imagine a moronic VP who said FDR went on TV in 1929, or who told a man in a wheelchair to stand up and take a bow, or who said J-O-B-S is a 3 letter word. Phew we dodged that bullet.
Oh wait, Biden was the one who said all that.
McCain was a Republican running as a Republican.
Obama was a Marxist running as a Democrat.
It is the Marxists who run the Administration now, and the Democrats who control Congress. The Republicans are a has-been sideshow. Independent thinkers, candidates, and voters might be part of a solution.
Expect several years of Saul Alinsky-type attempts to obscure the intentions and agenda of the Administration as it marginalizes, ridicules and demonizes opponents.
Expect much more disastrous failure economically in this country. It’s part of the agenda.
For anyone on the right to accuse this administration of marginalizing and demonizing its opponents is so richly ironic that just reading it gave me gout. Were you asleep during Bush & co’s ‘you’re with us torturing these people or you’re a terrorist yourself’ eight years of rule?
And now *gasp*, Obama wants to talk to the schoolkids! No political leader in US history has ever talked to schoolkids before! What if junior finds out Obama doesn’t have a Kenyan accent? To the barricades! Bring your assault rifles! (Before they take them away and institute one-world rule through the UN! With death boards to kill grandma.)
Yeah. Obama’s a real ‘demonizer’.
There you go again cobalt. I see you forgot to swallow that bitter pill.
Alpha,
So you subscribe to the two wrongs make a right theory I see.
When does the left stop this “yeah but Bush did….” in response to any criticism? It’s getting quite tiresome.
he would be more likely to change his approach to the national crisis than
Bull sh. There is no way in hell that he would have changed his or any approach. Bull. you really know how to lay it on thick.
“McCain was a Republican running as a Republican. Obama was a Marxist running as a Democrat.”
Correction: McCain is a statist apologist beholden to fascist interests. Obama adheres to a strong domestic policy demanded by 53% of the electorate.
Look it up if you’re confused on the fascism factoid.
Yeah, Eddie. The right’s ‘demonizing’ has really stopped. Oh, BTW. Did you hear that Obama’s really a Kenyan-born Marxist Muslim who wants to kill your grandmother and confiscate your guns? ‘Cause everyone else has heard it. Again and again.
Didn’t answer my question.
Because your question was idiotic? I said the Right were the master practitioners of demonization of their opponents. I’ve offered several recent post-Bush examples of it. I’m not using their low tactics to justify the same being done by the Obama admin, because they AREN’T employing them in even remotely the same degree. Every pol criticizes his opposition. Not everyone accuses their opponents of treason and shows up at protests carrying assault rifles. If you can’t see the difference, Eddie, I can’t remove your blinders.
For 8 years the left demonized everything, and I mean everything Bush did. Did you miss that somehow? Have you never been do Daily Kos? Have you never watched Olbermann? Have you not read an editorial in the NY Times?
And now that the left is in control, any criticism is met with
a) accusations of racism
or
b) the “yeah but Bush did…..” response
I don’t recall the left carrying assault rifles to rallies and protests. And I don’t recall hysterical accusations of ‘foreigness’ and ’secretly another religion’. And I don’t recall parents refusing to let their kids hear the president speak to them. But I guess it’s all ‘relative’. (Except I thought you guys hated moral relativism.)
I’m really happy you’re here, Eddie. I was getting bored.![;)](http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
Olygal,
Too funny. Yes we need the pot stirred once in awhile.
Is Eddie the same Eddie that was exposed as a realtard a few weeks back?
Back on the shortbus with you eddy. Don’t forget to put on your headgear.
now you are on the right page,wmbz. They are owned.
Yup. McCain would have been just as destructive to our economy as my buddy Obama. McCain has no principles, other than to be elected.
I see that the Institute of Economic Affairs is the UK’s premier libertarian economic think-tank, which may provide some perspective and insight into their views.
All the different economic philosophies work well on paper, but not always in application.
While some people are not at all hesitant to claim their way is the better way, I’d be cautious about jumping headlong into applying a theory that’s never been tested in the real world.
“I’d be cautious about jumping headlong into applying a theory that’s never been tested in the real world.”
Better to follow BB’s approach and play it safe, then?
So far so good?
So far, but the answer to the question of whether things turn out better this time than during the 1930s will only come to light over time.
i just don’t think it best to try something new right now. This is no time to get fancy. When in unfamiliar territory, play it slow.. go with what you know.
Failure or success will prove the method used was wrong or right, but it won’t confirm some other method would have worked or not worked..
I really do hope libertarians have a chance to prove themselves someday soon. It’s the best untested system I know of.
“i just don’t think it best to try something new right now.”
So you are saying you think BB’s potpourri of untested approaches to crisis management was a big mistake? Or is this another one of your baffling non sequiturs?
On the contrary, free market principles are applied in all nations at all times. It’s called the underground economy and unintended consequences, when markets react to big government.
Capitalism is not dead anywhere. It’s just distorted by the failures of big government, which gets bigger by misblaming capitalism as a failure.
The gullible Acornheads believe all the b.s. of socialism.
A truly free economy would allow me to buy politicians..
… who would be powerless to make any laws not specifically approved by a referendum.
Nothing like tenure to make you brave enough to watch everyone else lose their jobs.
+1 Alpha…
“Barack Obama is committing the same mistakes made by policymakers during the Great Depression, according to a new study endorsed by Nobel laureate James Buchanan.”
Well, you’ve heard that refrain here on the HBB,( best blog on the planet) since around Inauguration day. We may not sport Nobel laureates but we can isolate, identify, and illuminate economic trends. Don’t touch that dial!
We’ve heard all points of view here on the HBB. Not everyone on the HBB is of one mind about anything, or in alignment with any one particular viewpoint, which I am very happy about. I don’t know what I would do if this site turned into Fox News II.
I don’t know what I would do if this site turned into Fox News II.
Bravo, innocentbystander.
“I don’t know what I would do if this site turned into Fox News II.”
Well there is one thing for certain… Here I have to ferret out nuggets of truth, but I can turn on Fox “News” and wager that none of the broadcast is in anyway, news, journalism or factual.
ditto that.
Good thing we have msnbc to provide us with unparalleled journalistic integrity.
but I can turn on Fox “News” and wager that none of the broadcast is in anyway, news, journalism or factual.
In olden times I used to turn on Fox News so I could enjoy a good and loud and violently outraged shout, because I love to get outraged every now and then. It stimulates the circulatory system, for one thing.
But for at least a year and a half now I can’t gussy up a scream. It’s just too dumb. I only giggle for a few minutes and then switch to the Wrestling Channel, because that one has more honesty and factual reporting.
Are you kidding, when Obama took office the ship was already 3/4 down. There is nothing he can do because while he broke some established boundaries he can not break the establishment.
I searched it, aǝbɐbʇɹoɯt least now I know how to do the ya da da, upside down stuff. However, the vowels, consonants, and symbols remain incomprehensible to me.
You’d eventually get used to it.
they’ve done lots of experiments with human eyesight..
One i remember reading about was they put upside down glasses on a test subject. The whole world looks upside down.
The weird thing is that after about 2 or 3 weeks, the world “looks” normal again. The brain adjusts to the glasses.
btw.. the image that comes into the eye, like a camera’s image, hits the back surface of the eye as an upside down image..
That is cool joey. You are a smart guy.
Hi guys checking in before heading out again. I posted on the end of Friday’s bits when Saturday’s wasn’t up yet. The site for turning your type upside down is face.me.
I had a lot of updates in that post. I’ll move it all forward when I get more time.
Till then, Happy Labor Day.
I think it has something to do with ZOSO. (IV)
Review: The US couple behind the housing crisis Check out the cool mural.
Good link! Love the mural.
I’m going to bug out on HBB for a while, to listen to the linked radio drama, “The Day Lehman Died.”
Thanks tresho. A little BBC is just the right addition to this wonderful weekend.
(-: uʍop ǝpısdn ʇıq ɐ sʞool ǝɥs
Michael Moore’s new movie “Capitalism: A Love Story” is an all out attack on the capitalist system. His main point is it benefits the rich and condemns millions to poverty.
“Capitalism is an evil,” says the corpulent film maker, “and you cannot regulate evil.”
His main thesis is wrong, of course. People should be able to accumulate wealth (capital) if they are able and willing. If someone saves up money and buys a street cart dispensing hot dogs they should benefit from profits, if any. If the enterprise catches on and investors are willing to put money into the business so it can expand into a franchise operation, they should be free to take the risk and reap some gain. That’s capitalism. It’s not evil, and it works more efficiently for the greater good than communism.
BUT - Moore makes some valid points! The bad guys in Moore’s mind are big banks and hedge funds which gambled investors’ money in complex derivatives that few, if any, really understood and which belonged in a casino. He seems to instinctively understand there is something rotten going on in the financial world, but mistakenly blames the capitalist system instead of homing in on the fundamental cause of our woes - - the failed money unit and the paper games invented and played by Wall Street.
Mr. Moore, himself a successful capitalist, would do us a huge favor if he would apply his talent to creating a film exposé of the debauched money system in the United States and offer a solution - namely, a return to honest money. From the founding of the nation until 1913 the dollar gained some eleven percent in purchasing power. From 1914 until the present the dollar has LOST more than ninety-five percent of its purchasing power. Merely explaining WHY, it seems to us, would make an interesting film.
- J.Wrisley 9-7-09
It’s a pretty lazy mentality that blames all of capitalism for the actions and negligence of individuals, corporate boards and politicians. Makes *his* storytelling (and moral world) easy, but could mislead people into overly drastic solutions.
but could mislead people into overly drastic solutions
Montana, Doubt that for sure. Have you seen anyone at all in ws or elsewhere doing anything drastic? Maybe stuffing their valeses extra fast with more money.
puleeeeze.
Status Quo is just what it says.
WS etc is Status quo and it aint going to change unless the masses rise up and demand a change by voting the ignorami/selfish bastids out of office in congress.
ignorami is plural for ignoramus
bastid is ny slang for bastard.
The “masses”…lol. Right outta 1935.
As for drastic, I’d say buying up all the ammo is a start. Haven’t been able to buy 9mm in months.
Don’t need 9mm, get some 00 buck, take out the plug in the old pump ( now 6 shots). Shipping from Cabelas in less than 7 days! Plus you don’t have to be that good a shot. Just point it in the direction !
Well at least now we’ve finally taken the cloak off micheal moore and can see him for what he really thinks. What newfound utopia does he suggest as an alternative, communism? Socialism? no thanks, I’ve seen THAT movie already.
Moore is the ultimate capitalist. He just knows a good thing when he sees one. These movies that apply specifically to the far leftist agenda are pure gold. He practically invented the genre.
This income source is secure only so long as a capitalist “establishment” enemy exists.
+100
This must be the capitalist at all costs corner.
Capitalism gone awry.
Capitalism gone beyond what it was meant to.
Capitalism gone very very off track by virtue
of the ..oh lets say many enrons,quest, adelphia, to many to name and aig, lehman, bearstearns, Madoff examples.
what the heck is wrong with Someone pointing this out?
I believe he is pointing out the really big examples of
misappropriations of capitalism. Not people in the middle
striving to make successful lives.
most people around here think that true capitalism has NOT been and is NOT being applied..
A person can look at our economy and see whatever it is they might want to see.. and be correct.
most people around here think that true capitalism has NOT been and is NOT being applied..
Very true…I think most people would not like true capitalism.
Pretty much every movie Michael Moore has ever made has been an all-out attack on something or the other…
He does seem to jump on the Whatever-Is-The-Hot-Button-Subject-of-the-Moment bandwagon with both feet and cameras a’rollin’ , doesn’t he.
And we don’t?
he’s pretty much a pseudo-populist. There was an interesting documentary by a young Canadian woman who was trying to interview him and he just blew her off the same way Dick Clark blew him off….
Just to clarify, owning your own business and trading in goods and services is mercantilism. Trading (and loaning) in funny paper with mark-to-fantasy value is capitalism.
You see, you’ve been duped yet again. We’ve been trained to think of the two as one and the same. They are not.
As for Micheal Moore, he’s over the top. I can’t take the guy seriously.
(yes, I know that’s a bit simplistic… but I meant it to be more tongue in cheek than an academic definition)
Study: 2 out of 5 working-age Californians jobless
The Associated Press • September 6, 2009
SACRAMENTO — On this Labor Day weekend, many Californians find themselves more in need of work than a holiday.
Advertisement
A report to be released publicly today found that two of five working-age Californians do not have a job, underscoring the challenges in one of the toughest job markets in decades. The last time employment levels among this group were this low was February 1977, according to a study by the California Budget Project, a Sacramento-based nonprofit research group that advocates for lower- and middle-income families.
“The recession has been so severe that California now has approximately the same number of jobs as it did nine years ago, when the state was home to 3.3 million fewer working-age individuals,” the report said.
In just two years, the recession has wiped out job gains from the previous four years, the report said. State employment data from July shows California had 952,800 fewer nonfarm jobs than in July 2007. That’s more than the 854,600 nonfarm jobs gained between July 2003 and July 2007.
Jean Ross, executive director of the California Budget Project, recommended Congress adopt a second extension of unemployment insurance benefits.
Those checks, which pay between $200 and $1,800 a month depending on a worker’s previous earnings, are “the best way to keep dollars flowing to the local community,” she said.
““The recession has been so severe that California now has approximately the same number of jobs as it did nine years ago, when the state was home to 3.3 million fewer working-age individuals,” the report said.”
And how many of those 3.3 million additional working age individuals are illegal aliens?
Let’s see:
- Same number of jobs as in 2000
- Lower average pay
- Lots more houses than in 2000
- Lots more unemployed folks without the means to pay their mortgages
I guess fundamentally speaking, California real estate prices should be a lot higher now than back in 2000, right?
So who got the CRV?? -![:)](http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
Eddie, lots of them returned.
That is very true at least in Texas. Lots have returned and many were never counted in the work force to begin with.
Currently, Texas has an 7.9% unemployment rate (July). With construction at a many decade low, the powers that be have announced an increase of 3,000 new construction jobs for July.
Those numbers make absolutely no sense at all.
Which for Texas is the worst since the early 80s during the oil price collapse.
3.4 million hahahahahaha
“Study: 2 out of 5 working-age Californians jobless”
1) How many Californians are of working age?
2) How many of these folks have a mortgage they can no longer repay?
OK now I’m confused. Are they saying 40% of Californians are unemployed?
Oh, no — the glass is well over half full here! What they are saying is that 57.5% of working age Californians are employed.
Once again the headlines tells 1/2 the story. 40% of working age Californians are not working. What the headlines fails to say is that the % of working age Americans who work has fluctuated between 62% and 67% for the past 30 years. So what this really is saying is that instead of 33-38% of people not working, as has been the case over the past 3 decades, right now in California, that number is up all the way to 40%.
With 25% of them getting welfare or other socialistic pay from the gov. Why go there ? We’re in the Obamanation, get use to it. So solly GI.
Washington Post has a nice review today on the amount of housing debt currently backed by US taxpayers. The reader comments are interesting.
‘”Absent government intervention, there would be no lending,” said Nicolas P. Retsinas, director of Harvard University’s center for housing studies.’
Correction: Absent government intervention to support home prices on a permanently high plateau, market values would drop to levels where private lenders would be happy to once again make loans.
‘”Having the government this heavily into the mortgage market is inherently a dangerous thing for taxpayers,” said Anthony Sanders, a finance professor at George Mason University. “We’ve already gone through one big bubble and burst, and right now the taxpayers are on the hook for a substantial amount of money.”‘
It sounds like Megabank, Inc’s ‘heads-we-win, tails-you-lose’ financial engineering plan is working brilliantly.
Rio asked for affirmation over the weekend for Brazilian housing prices. I found his comments quite interesting.
I largely remember Brazil as the country with the amazing four digit inflation rate and no way to pay the national debt. It is interesting to note that after decades of hyperinflation, everyone owned their house free and clear, and that banks would not lend for house purchases. A mortgage is great hyperinflation insurance, and you want to go all in before the party gets going, if hyperinflation is what is coming.
I know the last decade has been remarkably better in Brazil, new currency, better budget control, mostly single digit inflation and a booming export trade. Aside from internal reforms, what has benefited Brazil is Globalization, Commodities Bubble, inflows of hot money (worldwide credit binge) and Uncle China.
People everywhere celebrate the rising tide as an independent personal accomplishment which cannot be removed.
… independent personal accomplishment which cannot be removed.
Time and again we encounter arrogant and cocky persons who think they have it all figured out and wonder why others aren’t successful like them, when the only qualification they had was being at the right place at the right time. I guess delusion runs at levels beyond an individual too.
(Just to be clear, not a knock on Brazil - I don’t know enough to comment on that great country. I just found Blue’s words to resonate with my observations.)
I was just told yesterday that the area’s outside the major metro of Brazil are like third world countries…Don’t know for sure…I have never been there…
It is true. Drive through from airport to town is really poverty stricken, like nothing we see.
Hi All, Some Brazil or Brasil observations:
I was born in the USA and I live in Brazil now. I think Brazil is like 2 countries at the same time. It is a third world and a first world country sharing the same space. In Rio I can walk (if I wanted to) from a Mac Store frequented by the rich, and in 15 min be up the side of a mountain slum where people live in poverty. I recently took a bus ride through slums and emerged in a rich resort area complete with a nuclear power plant. Last week I saw a field full of houses made of tin, rags and cardboard but had my shoulder examined in Copacabana by a multi-million dollar GE MRI machine. (I might add only 3 days after I saw my insurance plan doctor)
For a price you can find everything here that you can find in the USA. (except good Mexican food, sour cream and buttermilk LOL) The minimum wage here is about $250 per month but the average condo fee in Ipanema is $400 per month. Water and electricity are more expensive than in the USA. I have a fast internet connection and live on a safe street but 4 months ago I could hear cops shooting automatic weapons from helicopters battling drug gangs in a hill side slum.
Mortgages are new here but are becoming more available as Brazil gets its act together. House prices in Rio have followed the average yearly 7% inflation rate the past decade. Inflation this year is running 4-5% I think. The current government has done a pretty good job battling abject poverty but I read Brazil has the greatest wealth disparity of any major country in the world but USA’s is pretty bad too.
Corruption is bad especially to me as an American used to no corruption at all. (sarcasm off)
The language is tough and its hard to make money. They are a proud people, protective of their sovereignty but still long for many foreign brands and images as well. A lot of the people are beautiful inside and out but you have to watch your back too as with any country including my own. I like it here so far but I do miss the USA as well.
Thats great info Rio…Thanks…
Thanks for posting that.
And what I have noticed is that Chile and Brasil have a major
population of Japanese.
Speaking portuguese and seeing the person of Japanese heritage saying those words is a mind bender. Really have to concentrate.
Paraguay had a president named Fjumore for 10 years. Lots of Japanese in S. America.
“Speaking portuguese and seeing the person of Japanese heritage saying those words is a mind bender.”
Ever “see/hear” someone from Vietnam speaking German?
Hyperinflation–It pays the bills! (The old ones at least.)
alpha-sloth
I lean towards being an inflationist myself, but the one deflationist I truly respect is Robert Pretcher, CEO of Elliot Wave Int’l fame. He’s really a smart guy and frames his argument well.
Mercury Marine: OK plant to close
AP CDT, September 6, 2009
STILLWATER, Okla. - Now that Mercury Marine has reached a pact with union workers at a plant in Wisconsin, the company says it expects to lay off its 380 workers in Stillwater within two years and close its plant.
The company announced Friday it expects the layoff to take 18 to 24 months at the boat manufacturing plant. Union workers in Fond du Lac, Wis., agreed to wage and benefit concessions after Mercury Marine announced plans to consolidate the facility there with the Stillwater plant.
The Fond du Lac plant has 840 workers. Mercury Marine had indicated those jobs could move to Stillwater without a union contract that included significant givebacks. With the contract in Wisconsin, Mercury Marine spokesman Steve Fleming says the Stillwater factory will be closed.
My sister and brother-in-law’s extremely nice, almost new, and expensive Mercury motor caught fire a year ago because the o-rings that separate the motor itself from the gastank, and have something to do with gas fumes being kept out ( you can see I’m highly mechanical ) are made of plastic now instead of rubber, and melted. Luckily, their boat did not explode.
I find this interesting..
The quoted line is taken from an article from a couple of weeks ago when negotiations were still underway..
..”Oklahoma officials have offered to cover Mercury’s moving expenses in return for the jobs and tax revenue brought to their state.”
www dot jsonline.com/business/54762687.html
How much might it cost to move manufacturing facilities like those of Mercury Marine? I bet it costs a lot.. and it goes to show that some states really appreciate business and jobs.
The Stillwater facility is non-union, btw.
As of the early 21st century, the Brunswick Corporation (nyse BC) still manufactures sporting and fitness equipment (Life Fitness, Hammer Strength, Parabody) in addition to boats (Sea Ray, Bayliner, Maxum, etc) and marine engines under the Mercury Marine brand name.
wikipedia..
Sea Ray? Bayliner too? I didn’t know that..
Brunswick is a roughly $5.5 billion dollar company. Mercury Marine represents about 2.3 billion, or over 40% of that. Merc also employs around 6,200 people.
——
Considering labor is it’s primary cost of doing business, and that the unions are certainly a heavy burden which must be dealt with in their struggle to survive, if someday soon Brunswick moves their boat/engine manufacturing facilities offshore, who or what shall we blame? … that every-ready scapegoat known as Globalism?
Joey, how do you support a 75% consumer based economy if your consumers don’t have any money?
I’d really like to know.
Eco:
People have lots of money just not enough to support a 75% level anymore… maybe 72 71 or 70%….that is the problem.
just a 3-5% loss coupled with tight margins(high overhead) and POOF we are sunk.
Most people I know are just getting by. Most people I know are making 33% less than they were 15 years ago. Most people I know have small to no pensions and small to no 401ks. Most people I know haven’t been able to stay with one company more than 10 years. Most people I know DON’T have a lot money.
And I know a lot of people.
ecofeco..
Business offers some type of product or service to the community. If for any reason, providing that product or service becomes unprofitable, the business may take whatever action it deems necessary to restore profit, or it may just shut it’s doors.
If my business is manufacturing and my suppliers cannot supply raw materials at an affordable price, I will look elsewhere, perhaps overseas. My suppliers might object, but that’s their problem. My purpose is to manufacture a product, not to keep local suppliers in business.
If government puts restraints on my manufacturing something and thus increases my costs, I may pull up stakes and find some less costly manufacturing environment.
I’m trying to provide a product. Satisfying government at my expense is not my goal.
The costs of raw materials and govt regulation are no different than the cost of labor. All are regarded as nothing more than costs of doing business. None of the costs enjoy any special status. Money is money.
——
Labor has a hard time seeing things from that point of view. Many of us think businesses should care about people.. about workers.. about the effects of low wages or unemployment on people’s lives or on the economy.
But business is just a mechanism, and has no emotion. It doesn’t have the capacity to care anymore than your car, when running out of gas would rightly “care” about leaving you stranded, and should feel obligated to keep moving even when the fuel gauge reads empty.
Flew from SFO to Cinci yesterday. From 37K starting in Colorado all the way to Cinci noticed new and strange looking scar with stitches formations everywhere. It was all the new bubble housing which looks quite different from pre-bubble housing from the air. The streets (which make up the scar part) and the driveways (stitches part) are very uniform and wider than pre bubble housing, the homes are larger but very uniform placement on the street and there are no trees. Hard to explain, but next time you fly on a clear day, look down and you will see.
Hard to explain, but next time you fly on a clear day, look down and you will see. Haven’t flown in years, but I have noticed exactly those differences you just described while driving around the country. Then there’s Rio Rancho, NM. I don’t know how old the developments there are, but many remind me of barracks for soldiers during WWII, but packed much closer together.
It takes quite a few years for trees to mature in a “new neighborhood”.
The streets (which make up the scar part) and the driveways (stitches part) are very uniform and wider than pre bubble housing, the homes are larger but very uniform placement on the street and there are no trees.
The lack of mature trees and other “grown-in” landscaping accounts for at least some of your observation — plenty of older development was very uniform, too, but time and nature have a way of blurring the edges.
When Did Your County’s Jobs Disappear?
An interactive map of vanishing employment across the country, updated with the latest figures.
From Slate
www dot slate dot com/id/2216238/?ad=ins
(requires flash)
Great visual…I have seen this before…I hope this is with up-dated data…
- It would be instructive to see that graph on the basis of percentage decline in jobs. The problem is that it is size biased against major urban centers.
- Generally speaking, all major urban areas in West Coast states and any state east of the Mississippi are bathed in red.
- The east-west longitudinal band from the Mississippi River to the bottom of Texas is a transition zone with a mixture of blue (counties with job gains) and red (counties with job losses) from June 2008-June 2009.
- The longitudinal band from west of the southernmost tip of Texas out to the West Coast states appears to have held up the best, with the exceptions of counties surrounding major urban centers (Santa Fe, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Denver, the Wasatch Front and Boise).
The Sad Story Behind Labor Day
by Claudine Zap
Sep 4, 2009
For most of us, Labor Day means backyard barbecues, weekend sales, and a last carefree day before school starts. But the laid-back holiday has some seriously sad history, including chaos, riots, and even death. Let us explain.
A tragic tale
Back in the days of the Industrial Revolution, workers were expected to put in 12-hour days, seven days a week (yes, including kids). Already sounds awful, right? It gets worse. In Pullman, Illinois, a company town that employed and housed workers to build posh railway cars, times had gotten tough. In response, George Pullman cut jobs and wages. It was 1893. Thousands of workers walked off their jobs in protest, demanding higher salaries and lower rents. Other unions joined, refusing to work the Pullman cars, turning the small-town fracas into a national fury.
With mail cars backing up, and riots worrying train execs, President Grover Cleveland stepped in. He declared the strike illegal and sent 12,000 troops to break the strike. Cue brutal protests and bloodshed. The strike was broken, but so was the spirit of the workers. To reach out to the labor movement, Congress rushed the national holiday into law. The bad resulted in Cleveland losing re-election. But the day off for hot dogs endures.
When is it?
Labor Day falls on the first Monday of September. This year, that would be Monday, September 7. According to the Department of Labor, Congress passed an act in 1894 making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday.
So, working stiffs everywhere, say it now, with feeling: Happy Labor Day.
Labor Day.. May Day.. What’s the difference?
May Day occurs on May 1 and refers to several public holidays.[1] In many countries, May Day is synonymous with International Workers’ Day, or Labour Day, a day of political demonstrations and celebrations organised by the unions and socialist groups.
from wikipedia: May Day
———
…Due to its status as a celebration of the efforts of workers and the socialist movement, May Day is an important official holiday in Communist countries such as the People’s Republic of China, Cuba, and the former Soviet Union. May Day celebrations typically feature elaborate popular and military parades in these countries.
In countries other than the United States and Canada, resident working classes sought to make May Day an official holiday and their efforts largely succeeded. For this reason, in most of the world today, May Day is marked by massive street rallies led by workers, their trade unions, anarchists and various communist and socialist parties.
In the United States, however, the official Federal holiday for the “working man” is Labor Day in September. This day was promoted by the Central Labor Union and the Knights of Labor organized the first parade in New York City. The first Labor Day celebration was held on September 5, 1882, and was organized by the Knights of Labor. The Knights began holding it every year and called for it to be a national holiday, but this was opposed by other labor unions who wanted it held on May Day (as it is everywhere else in the world). After the Haymarket Square riot in May, 1886, President Cleveland feared that commemorating Labor Day on May 1 could become an opportunity to commemorate the riots. Thus he moved in 1887 to support the Labor Day that the Knights supported.
from wikipedia: International Workers’ Day
Interesting Wash Post article on what people earn. Some of the highest are government and non profit.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/salaries/
I AM THE PEOPLE, THE MOB
I AM the people–the mob–the crowd–the mass.
Do you know that all the great work of the world is
done through me?
I am the workingman, the inventor, the maker of the
world’s food and clothes.
I am the audience that witnesses history. The Napoleons
come from me and the Lincolns. They die. And
then I send forth more Napoleons and Lincolns.
I am the seed ground. I am a prairie that will stand
for much plowing. Terrible storms pass over me.
I forget. The best of me is sucked out and wasted.
I forget. Everything but Death comes to me and
makes me work and give up what I have. And I
forget.
Sometimes I growl, shake myself and spatter a few red
drops for history to remember. Then–I forget.
When I, the People, learn to remember, when I, the
People, use the lessons of yesterday and no longer
forget who robbed me last year, who played me for
a fool–then there will be no speaker in all the world
say the name: “The People,” with any fleck of a
sneer in his voice or any far-off smile of derision.
The mob–the crowd–the mass–will arrive then.
Carl Sandburg
Thank you for recalling some timeless wisdom.
Very good, zip, and something to ponder about on this day. I think that another “readjustment of history” via the common man is imminent.
great post, hip
That was a great post hip.
I went to Carl Sandburg Elementary School in San Bruno, CA.
“The district’s final elementary school was Carl Sandburg, built in the Rollingwood district. At the official dedication of the school in December 1961, the famous poet and historian came for the ceremonies. As a San Bruno Herald reporter observed, Sandburg looked around at the school’s children, smiled, and audibly marveled at their young faces.”
“Falling school enrollments in San Bruno in the 1970s and 1980s forced the school district to begin closing some of the schools. Eventually, North Brae Elementary School, Carl Sandburg Elementary School, and Engvall Intermediate School were closed. The buildings were later demolished and the land sold to developers.”
San Bruno Park Elementary School District
From Wikipedia
Carl Sandburg Elementary School closed … buildings later demolished, land sold to developers
And nary a Carl Sandburg Lane in the Bruno Heights Estates?
Rereading the poem made me think of Eva Peron. She knew the truth of these words. Have you ever watched footage of her political speeches and the effect they had on the mobs listening to her ? When she would raise her right forefinger and shake it to make a point, you can almost see a shiver run through the crowds of thousands. She realized what the power of the masses was when it was awoken and channelled. Without her, Peron would have been just another discontented Argentine Army colonel. She was also one of the most corrupt leaders in the world at that time. That doesn’t take away from the mystique and power she had to sway the common people.
I was up in Idaho Falls for the weekend participating in a sweat equity project fro my sister. (my sweat, her equity)
We drove Thursday evening going north through Las Vegas and there was no holiday traffic whatsoever. Even the construction downhill toward state line didn’t slow things down.
My touchstone of blank freeway billboards between stateline and Vegas was at 2 over the July 4th weekend. I commented on it here because I’d never recalled seeing a blank one. This weekend there were 6. Winston would say that the existing billboards are getting more done with less.
Happy L’bor day all.
“Winston would say that the existing billboards are getting more done with less.”
Maybe. Or perhaps it is not worth the cost of maintaining billboard ads when there are no potential customers?
Happy LIBOR day! Hope your ARM rates don’t go up.![:lol:](http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
You are one lucky person who gets along with sis.
Not everyone has someone who means alot to them,
who is skilled and will drive to help.
I bet she loved you so much for your help/Sweat.
You are such a nice sibling.
Thanks, I try. Lord knows I put her through plenty of misery in my juvenile delinquent years!
BTW, it’s so good to be home. (just got in)
‘Congressman and convict’ Jim Traficant says, “I plan to get right back in it!” to 1,200 cheering supporters yesterday. His hairpiece had nothing to say.
I’d say he is now perfectly qualified.
Unfortunately.
UPDATE 2-China backs state firms on oil options losses
Mon Sep 7, 2009 5:14am EDT
BEIJING, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Beijing has publicly put its weight behind some state-owned firms struggling with oil derivatives losses, saying it will back them in any legal action against the foreign banks that sold the products.
In a statement on Monday, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission said that some state-owned enterprises had sent letters to their trading partners about oil structured options trades, confirming a report in Caijing magazine last week that had sent shudders through the banking community.
“(SASAC) will support companies to minimise losses and protect rights through negotiations and holdings management. We also reserve the right to launch legal suits,” the agency said.
The move is the latest by SASAC to curb the over-the-counter derivatives business after a series of corporate commodity and forex hedging deals went spectacularly bad over the past 10 months, costing Chinese state firms billions of dollars.
Bankers were unhappy with the latest developments.
“If they declare bankruptcy, it is different. But if these companies are still in business, it is not acceptable for them to just walk away from the losses,” said a Singapore-based banker, who like others declined to be named due to the sensitive nature of the matter.
The agency did not specify the names of state firms and their trading partners involved in the issue.
A Singapore-based bank source told Reuters last week that Air China 60111.SS(0753.HK), China Eastern (600115.SS) and shipping giant COSCO (1919.HK) had issued almost identical notices to their foreign investment banks.
Major global providers of commodity risk management such as Goldman Sachs (GS.N), UBS (UBSN.VX), Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and JPMorgan (JPM.N) were not immediately available for comment.
This is an extremely important story that isn’t getting much attention in the press. If China allows these companies to refuse to make good their losses, the whole derivatives market may implode. Not to mention the precedent China will be setting regarding their belief in contract law. I’m not sure the ‘final decision’ has been made by the Chinese gov yet.
The enforceability of derivatives contracts across the international financial landscape is a big question mark hanging over the global financial system at the moment…
+/- $128 TRILLION. (128,000,000,000,000)
Uh oh.
I found this last week and waited for somethinh to happen or at least a blurb on Marketwatch, but NADA. What goes?
The LA Times has an interesting summary of the problems the hotel/casinos in Las Vegas are facing. It has a lot of information about the dollar value of various investors’ losses.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-vegas-strip7-2009sep07,0,7804731,full.story
Boyd acquired and imploded the storied Stardust hotel. By the time of Echelon’s groundbreaking in June 2007, the project had expanded into a complex of four hotels totaling 5,300 rooms, a convention center, two theaters and a luxury retail mall. Its new price tag of $4.8 billion made it the second-costliest project on the Strip, behind only the $8.4-billion CityCenter.
One year later, after investing $700 million in the project, Boyd shut it down. …
“We continue to look at the project, and we don’t see a natural restarting point,” Boyd Chief Executive Keith Smith said in an interview. “We’re taking the rest of 2009 to analyze our options.”
Peter Schiff is supposed to be announcing today whether or not he will be running for the US Senate in the state of Connecticut. Watch out for that.. it could be the beginning of a sea change in US politics if he runs and wins. His biggest challenge will be to defeat his fellow Republican candidates to get the nomination.
I see that the contributions have slowed down, although not stopped. They total above $961,000 and his goal is $1,000,000. Got $39,000 to give to Peter?
Nope. He’s very very wealthy, is he not ? He can do it himself.
When referencing Saul Alinsky above, note who Alinsky himself paid homage to below:
Saul Alinsky died in 1972. He was a Marxist grassroots organizer who spent much of his life organizing rent strikes and protesting conditions of the poor in Chicago in the 1930s. However, unlike Christian socialist and activist for the poor Dorothy Day, Alinsky’s real claim to fame was as strategist for anti-establishment ’60s radicals and revolutionaries.
Indeed, Alinsky wrote the rule book for ’60s radicals like Bill and Hillary Clinton, George Miller and Nancy Pelosi. He considered Hillary Rodham to be one of his better students and asked her to join him in his efforts as an organizer of radical leftist causes. But Hillary had other fish to fry on her climb to national prominence.
Alinsky had a true genius for formulating tactical battle plans for the radical left. He wrote two books outlining his organizational principles and strategies: “Reveille for Radicals” (1946) and “Rules for Radicals” (1971).
“Rules for Radicals” begins with an unusual tribute: “From all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins – or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom – Lucifer.”
There are a bunch of “dark” people at the little motel up the street from the (Aransas Bay) waterfront house where I am hanging out this weekend.
Let’s see, they could be:
a) families having a good time on a holiday - grilling burgers, having a few beers, fishing, kids playing in the pool
b) ACORN (& LULAC) operatives, plotting to confiscate my house and ridicule my conservative neighbors
c) demons
d) both b & c
Looks to me like a
Looks to me like a)
Sigh. Some people are soooooooooo naive …
Looks to me like
There are a bunch of “dark” people at the little motel up the street from the (Aransas Bay) waterfront house where I am hanging out this weekend.
b) ACORN (& LULAC) operatives, plotting to confiscate my house and ridicule my conservative neighbors
c) demons
d) both b & c
See, I don’t get this kind of bigoted thought. Never have.
Paranoid, misinformed and stuck to those misinformed ideas like glue. Bigotry, racism and dislike for women who are powerful. Anybody who is white like me, eh honky?
I don’t get it. Is Hillary a communist or a satanist?
Both.
She is also a socialist, a fascist, an anarchist, a corporatist, a globalist, and an unrepentant pant-suit wearer.
you forgot lesbian and murderer … and former headband-wearer
Plus, she supposedly hates homebaked cookies, which certainly sent the stay-at-home moms/wives of America into a tizz back on March 26, 1992. They’ve stayed tizzed, along with others such as Rush and his ilk, ever since. Just goes to show you the power of the cookie.
I heard Hillary C. is a muslim/terrorist appeaser but then Fox News “determined” she is a muslim and a terrorist.
Thank God for Fox Tripe.
And a dang mother humper and father raper!
“You can get anything you want…”
You sure like to cherry pick.
Why don’t you tell the rest of the story about Saul Alinsky.
The Sad Story Behind Labor Day
by Claudine Zap
Sep 4, 2009
For most of us, Labor Day means backyard barbecues, weekend sales, and a last carefree day before school starts. But the laid-back holiday has some seriously sad history, including chaos, riots, and even death. Let us explain.
A tragic tale
Back in the days of the Industrial Revolution, workers were expected to put in 12-hour days, seven days a week (yes, including kids). Already sounds awful, right? It gets worse. In Pullman, Illinois, a company town that employed and housed workers to build posh railway cars, times had gotten tough. In response, George Pullman cut jobs and wages. It was 1893. Thousands of workers walked off their jobs in protest, demanding higher salaries and lower rents. Other unions joined, refusing to work the Pullman cars, turning the small-town fracas into a national fury.
With mail cars backing up, and riots worrying train execs, President Grover Cleveland stepped in. He declared the strike illegal and sent 12,000 troops to break the strike. Cue brutal protests and bloodshed. The strike was broken, but so was the spirit of the workers. To reach out to the labor movement, Congress rushed the national holiday into law. The bad will resulted in Cleveland losing re-election. But the day off for hot dogs endures.
When is it?
Labor Day falls on the first Monday of September. This year, that would be Monday, September 7. According to the Department of Labor, Congress passed an act in 1894 making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday.
So, working stiffs everywhere, say it now, with feeling: Happy Labor Day.
It was 1893.
…
In 1893 a financial panic in the New York stock market and the American banking community precipitated a devastating national depression. Before the year’s end 491 American banks and over 15,000 business firms, including several of the larger railroad corporations, failed or went into bankruptcy. Declining markets, falling prices and shrinking profits resulted in widespread wage reductions, layoffs of workers and the total shutdown of industrial plants for varying periods of time in all parts of this nation.
…
How could there possibly be a ‘panic’ (aka depression) when we were on the Gold Standard and there was no Fed? I thought it was all wine and roses back then.
Got me![:-)](http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
Of course there were panics, alpha. We’ve been over this. But firms were allowed to fail back then, so people were able to get rid of the incompetent managers, reorganize, and start over.
Oh, the panic of 1893? It’s often called the ‘Long Depression”. Since it really started in 1873. Caused by massive overbuilding (of railroads in this case), a run on the nation’s gold supply, and widespread bank failures. All that stuff that’s supposed to magically never happen when you’re on the gold standard, there’s no Fed, and the gov never intervenes in the markets.
So how do you explain a decades long depression caused by overbuilding and exaccerbated by mutiple bank failures? Back in the good old days?
The massive overbuilding of railroads was spurred by equally massive government intervention and backroom dealings in favor of politically connected cartels. Please read “Gangs of America”, Chapter 6. Entire sessions of the Pennsylvania legislature were devoted to kowtowing to one railroad lobbyist.
As for widespread bank failures, again, this is a good thing because otherwise you just have to wait for incompetent execs to retire or die, and the readjustment takes much longer. And back then, people knew not to put too much in any one bank.
Well, then we can agree that the gold standard coupled the unfettered free market model has *never* existed and is thus far just a hypothetical. I’m fine with that. I just seem to find that a lot of people here seem to think that at some point in history it has actually worked and worked well. I still want to know ‘when?’.
It’s thus far just an unrealized ideal. Like a Candy-Crapping Unicorn(TM).
“As for widespread bank failures, again, this is a good thing…”
Unless you had money in them. No FDIC back in the ‘good ole days’. But I guess important economic lessons were taught.
“The massive overbuilding of railroads was spurred by equally massive government intervention and backroom dealings in favor of politically connected cartels.”
Now that sounds more like it!
Back in the days of the early 21st Century, workers were expected to work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. The work conditions were dismal. That sounds bad but it gets worse. Both parents working those long hours was the norm, and had various detrimental effects on families and society. Children especially suffered.
Many workers joined something called “unions” … an organized labor force who’s main purpose was to forever raise their wages and benefits regardless of economic conditions, and to opposed their own employers. These unions often actually went on strikes involving thousands of workers, who simply walked off their jobs. Businesses often sought out less expensive and more stable labor forces overseas in order to survive.
Often times the unions became so wealthy they could buy political power and enjoyed huge government support. Unfortunately for them, as business suffered so did labor and so did the economy, and opposing business was a lose-lose proposition, but back in those days most laborers didn’t comprehend this obvious fact.
Their situation may sound awful us, who’s current day workers labor a maximum of 30 minutes a day, three days a week, and well understand their symbiotic relationship with business, but back then it was the norm.
Happy Labor Day, Sept. 2123
Good job joey. One sided, but funny. I liked it.
In their day, big red hats may have been the equivalent of granite counter-top and Sub-Zero appliances on Easter Island:
Mystery of the giant headgear on the Easter Island statues has been solved by a team of British archaeologists, By Jonathan Brown
Monday, 7 September 2009 (U.K. Independent)
“It is one of the great mysteries that has baffled explorers, archaeologists and anthropologists alike – what was the meaning of the giant Easter Island statues and what role did they play in the demise of this once-complex civilisation? But since the first non-islanders arrived in the remote archipelago half a millennium ago, another equally profound question has niggled away at the backs of their minds: where did they get those hats?
Now British experts, the first to work on the island since the legendary Edwardian archaeologist Katherine Routledge, believe they are a step closer to resolving the puzzle of the huge red boulders which sit astride the massive monolithic heads in the world’s most remote inhabited place.
Dr Colin Richards from the University of Manchester and Dr Sue Hamilton from University College London have discovered the existence of a road used to transport the outcrops of volcanic rock leading to a previously unstudied “sacred” quarry where the material was mined. They have also found an axe believed to have been left at the quarry as an offering confirming the site’s quasi-religious meaning to the ancient Polynesians. Dr Hamilton believes the “hats” may have represented a plait or top knot worn by the elite chieftains, who were engaged in a bitter struggle for prestige and power, which was symbolised by the building of ever-taller statues known as moai created in memory of their ancestors.
But while more than 1,000 statues have been found on the island only 70-75 hats have been discovered, suggesting the headgear was an added symbol of power – and perhaps even an early example of Pacific “bling”.
As well as weighing several tons the “hats” are carved from a crater full of red scoria, a volcanic pumice whose colour symbolises high birth and status. They may have been later additions to existing statues to boost them beyond their rivals.
“Chieftain society was highly competitive and it has been suggested that they were competing so much that they over-ran their resources,” said Dr Hamilton.
It is believed these elite leaders mobilised vast teams of workers to harvest the rock, which was then transported several miles on rolling tree trunks to the three-storey high statues, which were placed on special platforms to enhance their position of grandeur. Dr Hamilton said: ‘The quarry is in a secret place which is invisible from other parts of the island and the noise of production would have been contained by the crater. These people lived in a successful and well-organised society – the Easter Island of 500 years ago was a managed living environment.”
The academics, who will spend a month each year for the next five years investigating their findings, which include an obsidian adze – a seven-inch axe-like tool which was used for squaring up logs or hollowing out timber – believe the first “hats” appeared between 1200 and 1300. This coincided with a dramatic increase in the size of the statues across the island.
Situated some 2,500 miles off the coast of Chile, Easter Island, known to its indigenous people as Rapa Nui, has long been a magnet for adventurers. Katherine Routledge arrived in 1914 with her husband William as part of a pioneering British expedition to map the famous statues. With the help of a local man they excavated 30 figures and recorded the island’s unique legends and oral histories. The exact cause of the dramatic decline of Easter Island, named by a Dutch explorer in 1722, is hotly debated but is agreed that it was brought on by a dramatic crisis possibly as a result of resource depletion, war or disease.
It was annexed by Chile in 1888 and in the 1960s was pressed into service by NASA as an emergency landing site for its space shuttles. Today Easter Island is a magnet for 20,000 eco tourists who are in danger of swamping the 3,500 native Rapanuins. But scientists working there are battling to keep the indigenous traditions alive. Each major excavation by the British team has been accompanied by a traditional “umu” ceremony with locals dressing up in white feathers and building ovens out of hot stones to offer cooked offerings to placate the island’s spirits.
“We are excavating a living culture so we have to be very careful. There are very strict rules about what we can and cannot do and we have to respect them,” said Dr Hamilton.
Dr Richards added: “It is clear that the quarry had a sacred context as well as an industrial one. The Polynesians saw the landscape as a living thing and after they carved the rock the spirits entered the statues.”
Now British experts, the first to work on the island since the legendary Edwardian archaeologist Katherine Routledge
Huh? What about Thor Heyerdahl in the 1950’s? Some of his stuff hasn’t held up, but by hanging out with the locals he was able to bribe them into setting up one of the fallen idols, and later to put the red topknots on, both times using methods of oral traditions on the islands.
Heyerdahl’s conclusion was that the red “hats” were instead red hair of the dominant culture. He viewed this as evidence supporting his theory that Easter Island’s bigwigs came over from South America.
Eau de Humanite’:
Proposal to ban smelly people from buses causes a stink
US civil rights group believes the 14th amendment of the constitution may protect the smelly.
By Emma Hartley
9:28AM BST 07 Sep 2009 (UK Telegraph)
Honolulu city council has gone back to the drawing board after a proposal to ban smelly people from its buses proved unworkable.
The Hawaiian council had considered making it illegal to have “odors that unreasonably disturb others or interfere with their use of the transit system”.
Had it passed into law, anyone convicted of being smelly could have been fined up to $500 and given a six-month jail term.
But lawyers from the city and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said it was vaguely worded, would result in subjective judgments being made and may even have been unconstitutional.
Professor Robert McKeever, head of department at London Metropolitan University’s department of law, governance and international relations, said that it was the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment that the lawyers were considering.
“It was passed in the 1860s and its purpose was to give freed slaves equal treatment under the law. Since then it’s been extended to cover gender and gay equality.
“The idea is that the law may not favour one group over another, so presumably the lawyers are thinking that you can’t give preference to nice-smelling people over foul-smelling people. It sounds ludicrous but in the US anything is possible.
“Of course some people have a medical condition that involves bad body odour and if they were not allowed on the bus because the driver thought they were smelly they could bring a civil action against the bus company and possibly even local government, if the company were municipally owned.
“It’s the most litigious society imaginable and there’s bound to be someone in Honolulu who smells and would like to vindicate their right to travel on public transport.”
They have to eat alfalfa for 2 days before they can ride the bus.
Rosemary, sage, or, preferably mint?
Unlike the US stock market, it sounds like the Chinese market is directly manipulated by government intervention.
* SEPTEMBER 7, 2009, 7:28 A.M. ET
Asian Stocks Extend Rally On Market Support By Beijing
By Matthew Allen and V. Phani Kumar
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Chinese shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai extended their rally Monday as investors rushed to buy property and metals stocks on improved sentiment over Beijing’s recent efforts to support the market.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index ended 1.5% higher at 20629.31, taking gains into a third-straight session, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index stretched its rally into a fifth successive session, rising 0.7% to 2881.12.
“With the help of a slew of market-boosting measures in the past days, investor confidence is being restored,” said Zhou Liu, analyst at Huatai Securities. Still, “it’s too early to say the stock market has reversed a downward trend, as liquidity worries remain,” he added.
…
At least they admit it!
Just when they thought it was safe… ‘Jaws’ shark sightings force beach closure on busiest weekend of U.S. summer.
07 September 2009 (UK Mail)
It was the film that scared many people out of the water for good.
Now officials are preventing life from imitating art by closing down several Cape Cod beaches after up to five great white sharks were spotted swimming near by.
Three of the sharks were spotted in the area just 75 yards from the shore by a spotter plane patrolling the area near the town of Chatham. All three appeared about 10 feet long and weighing half a tonne.
Steven Spielberg’s 1975 hit ‘Jaws’ was set on the fictional Amity Island off Cape Cod, and tracks the terror that ensues when beaches are left open over the Labour Day weekend - despite evidence of a great white shark.
The shark featured in the films was a monstrous killer. Fortunately, the sharks spotted off Cape Cod this weekend so far do not appear to be giants with a taste for human flesh.
Senior biologist Gregory Skomal and his crew were able to tag two of the three with electronic tracking devices. He claimed the sharks were eight and ten feet long.
The monstrous shark in the original Jaws film was meant to be about 25 feet long, weighing five tons.
State officials are also warning other swimmers in the area to be on the lookout for sharks this weekend.
‘The tags, which use satellite-based technology to record where a shark travels, allow scientists to better understand migratory patterns,’ the division statement said.
The tags will record their location, and information on ambient light and water temperature, every ten minutes until January 15. The tags will then drop off and upload their findings to a passing satellite.
Great white sharks are relatively rare in New England, the division statement said, but have been seen feeding near seal colonies.
One such 7,000-strong grey seal population can be found on Monomoy Island, near to Chatham.
Massachusetts, the New England state that is home to Cape Cod, has recorded only four shark attacks since 1670, two of which were fatal. The last fatal shark attack in Massachusetts happened in 1936.
Despite the relative rarity of attacks, sharks - the great white in particular - has a hold over the public’s imagination, a fear that Spielberg tapped in to with the films that made his career.
State officials are also warning other swimmers in the area to be on the lookout for sharks this weekend.
dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun….
Fascinating article about the self-storage industry. I NEVER want to accumulate so much stuff that I need to rent long term storage. Our house rule is: new thing in, old thing out.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/magazine/06self-storage-t.html?pagewanted=1&em
That’s a really interesting article.
About a year ago it was the conventional wisdom that it was smart to invest in those self-storage places. The reason: people being foreclosed would need someplace to store their stuff.
Times have changed. People in foreclosure now just squat in their houses.
There’s a self-storage place near me in Meridian ID. It appears to be a converted chicken farm since the unpainted galvanized rows of units sure look like that. Going by there’s often a sign announcing yet another auction, presumably of effects abandoned in one of the units.
The article is full of great vignettes, but this one really got me.
“I also have some old cassette tapes that I produced.”
![:lol:](http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
The cassettes are like audiobooks, he explained — tutorials on how to get into the storage industry and succeed. He made them before the storage-facility building boom ended a couple of years ago. “They didn’t sell,” Litton said, “so they’re all in storage now.”
Would you rather be poor and have use long term storage? Because the things you had in your house won’t fit into your new apt, or the stuff you had in your apt. won’t fit into the room you’re renting, or the stuff you had in your rented room won’t fit in the van your living in, or the stuff you had in your van isn’t accepted at the homeless shelter?
(not picking on anybody. just a reminder)
It seemed like one of the larger points of this article is that many people are storing a lot of junk that would be better donated to GoodWill. One guy had bags of recycylables (aluminum cans & plastic bottles) in his storage unit! Also, that the boom in storage facilities mirrors the rising amount of stuff that we accumulate, for example, people have been purchasing something like 25% more furniture than a decade or two ago…
UN Says New Currency Is Needed to Fix Broken ‘Confidence Game’
Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) — The dollar’s role in international trade should be reduced by establishing a new currency to protect emerging markets from the “confidence game” of financial speculation, the United Nations said.
UN countries should agree on the creation of a global reserve bank to issue the currency and to monitor the national exchange rates of its members, the Geneva-based UN Conference on Trade and Development said today in a report.
China, India, Brazil and Russia this year called for a replacement to the dollar as the main reserve currency after the financial crisis sparked by the collapse of the U.S. mortgage market led to the worst global recession since World War II. China, the world’s largest holder of dollar reserves, said a supranational currency such as the International Monetary Fund’s special drawing rights, or SDRs, may add stability.
“There’s a much better chance of achieving a stable pattern of exchange rates in a multilaterally-agreed framework for exchange-rate management,” Heiner Flassbeck, co-author of the report and a UNCTAD director, said in an interview from Geneva. “An initiative equivalent to Bretton Woods or the European Monetary System is needed.”
The 1944 Bretton Woods agreement created the modern global economic system and institutions including the IMF and World Bank.
Enhanced SDRs
While it would be desirable to strengthen SDRs, a unit of account based on a basket of currencies, it wouldn’t be enough to aid emerging markets most in need of liquidity, said Flassbeck, a former German deputy finance minister who worked in 1997-1998 with then U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers to contain the Asian financial crisis.
Emerging-market countries are underrepresented at the IMF, hindering the effectiveness of enhanced SDR allocations, the UN said. An organization should be created to manage real exchange rates between countries measured by purchasing power and adjusted to inflation differentials and development levels, it said.
“The most important lesson of the global crisis is that financial markets don’t get prices right,” Flassbeck said. “Governments are being tempted by the resulting confidence game catering to financial-market participants who have shown they’re inept at assessing risk.”
The 45-year-old UN group, run by former World Trade Organization chief Supachai Panitchpakdi, “promotes integration of developing countries in the world economy,” according to its Web site. Emerging-market nations should consider restricting capital mobility until a new system is in place, the group said.
The world body began issuing warnings in 2006 about financial imbalances leading to a global recession.
China needs a stable currency to artificially peg the yuan to.
“China, India, Brazil and Russia this year called for a replacement to the dollar as the main reserve currency after the financial crisis sparked by the collapse of the U.S. mortgage market led to the worst global recession since World War II.”
Who’d have thunk that 75 years worth of terribly misguided housing policy would culminate in the usurpation of the dollar’s reserve currency status? That is a rather exorbitant rental rate the REIC has charged the rest of America.
Customer Beaten to Death by Wal-Mart Employees
At Wal-Mart, theft is not tolerated. At least not at the Wal-Mart in Jingdezhen, China, where a customer died at the hands of Wal-Mart employees who suspected her of stealing.
walmart china 600×393 Customer Beaten to Death by Wal Mart Employees picture
It started out when one of the Wal-Mart employees suspected a female customer of theft. The customer was then under surveillance for a few minutes before being approached by the staff.
The Wal-mart employee requested to search the customer’s bag and the female customer refused to hand it over, stating that it was a violation of her privacy.
receipt snatch Customer Beaten to Death by Wal Mart Employees picture
Next thing she knew, more Wal-Mart employees gathered around her and started beating her up.
The customer managed to send an alert to her family through her cellphone and when her mother and sister showed up at the store, the staff members were still pummeling her. They begged and pleaded for them to stop but to no avail.
Finally, the police showed up and put a stop to the incident and the victim was then rushed to the hospital.
Unfortunately, she died of wounds shortly afterwards.
So far, Wal-Mart has not commented on the incident and it is unknown if any of the employees were arrested.
There have been many complaints about “American culture” conquering the world, including McDonalds and Walmarts everywhere. But that might be nothing compared to the dawn of the China Century.
When civilizations collapse and new empires rise, culture changes accordingly. We might all be in for quite a culture shock when that happens.
Obama will urge kids to go to private school
By: Scott Ott
Examiner Columnist
September 4, 2009
News fairly unbalanced. We report. You decipher.
A draft copy of President Barack Obama’s planned September 8 address to America’s public school children, tells students that “If you want to grow up to be like me, you should beg your parents to put you in private school, right now.”
Although Obama attended public school in Indonesia early in life, he soon switched to a private Catholic school, and from fifth grade through graduation went to a private college-prep school in Hawaii. His own daughters now attend a private school in Washington D.C..
“Do you think you’re going to get into Harvard University with your one-size-fits-all public school diploma?” the president will reportedly say. “Come on! Don’t make me laugh. You’ll be lucky to survive through graduation. Seriously, you gotta get out of this mediocrity machine. Go ahead! Get up right now. Run for the door. What are you waiting for?”
While the White House would not confirm the content of the leaked speech draft, a spokesman acknowledged that “You don’t get to be as smart and cool as Barack Obama by sitting in P.S. 152, listening to some union lackey droning on, and then eating government surplus in the cafeteria.”
On Tuesday, the president will bypass parents, taking his message directly to kids in the classroom “in hopes that you’ll pester Mom until she gets a second job to pay private-school tuition so you can escape the swirling vortex of ignorance and despair that is our government-run school system.”
“The only thing standing between you and success,” the president will allegedly say, “is the mentality that the government will take care of you. Once you shake that, there’s no limit to your achievement. Pay any price. Bear any burden. Just get your fanny out of that fiberglass chair, go buy yourself an Oxford shirt, a pair of slacks and a clip-on tie, and go to a place that faces constant economic pressure to improve.”
I went to Long Island this lovely weekend. Nice day of swimming on Saturday, then it turned too cold…
On my way back, I stopped in Garden City, and made a wrong turn into one of the strip malls off of Old Country Road. The entire HUGE parking lot was empty. All stores except three - Toys-R-Us, Panera Breads, and one other - were empty of tenants and available for rent.
Doesn’t look like recovery. Looks rather like the beginning of the Depression. (Although, other sites were as busy as ever, so maybe it’s just this one unfortunate location?)
“Do you think you’re going to get into Harvard University with your one-size-fits-all public school diploma?”
Plenty of kids did, and didn’t have to pay for Harvard either. Sadly, it’s not how much you pay that will determine how well they teach you.
So is anyone around the SF Bay area seeing home price drops like the ones discussed in the recent Forbes “40 most stressful cities” series? Six out of the top twenty “most stressful” cities identified were in CA. Here are the year-on-year median home price declines (Q1 2008 through Q1 2009) for these cities in rank order:
San Francisco -42.7%
San Jose -42.3%
Riverside -39.9%
Sacramento -34.5%
Los Angeles -34.1%
San Diego -28%
In Depth: America’s Most Stressful Cities
To find the most stressful cities, we examined quality of life factors in the country’s 40 largest metropolitan statistical areas, or metros–geographic entities defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for use by federal agencies in collecting, tabulating and publishing federal statistics. We looked at June 2009 unemployment figures provided by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics and cost of living figures from the Council for Community and Economic Research. We examined median home-price drops from Q1 2008 to Q1 2009 that were provided by the National Association of Realtors. Population density based on 2008 data from the U.S. Census Bureau and ESRI also factored. Last, we examined the number of sunny and partly sunny days per year, based on 2007 data from the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, as well as air quality figures, based on 2007 data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
© Sheldon Kralstein/iStockphoto
To find the most stressful cities, we examined quality of life factors in the country’s 40 largest metropolitan statistical areas, or metros–geographic entities defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for use by federal agencies in collecting, tabulating and publishing federal statistics. We looked at June 2009 unemployment figures provided by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics and cost of living figures from the Council for Community and Economic Research. We examined median home-price drops from Q1 2008 to Q1 2009 that were provided by the National Association of Realtors. Population density based on 2008 data from the U.S. Census Bureau and ESRI also factored. Last, we examined the number of sunny and partly sunny days per year, based on 2007 data from the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, as well as air quality figures, based on 2007 data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
…
16. San Diego, Calif.
This coastal metro posted a 28% year-over-year median home price drop. The cost of living doesn’t make things easier: it ranks as the sixth highest in cost of living among the 40 metro areas we examined.
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15. Sacramento, Calif.
With a June unemployment rate of 11.6% and a year-over-year median home price drop of 34.5%, it’s a good thing the number of sunny and partly sunny days in the Sacramento metropolitan areas is high, measured at 265 days in 2007.
…
12. Riverside, Calif.
The unemployment rate in the Riverside metropolitan statistical area in June was the second worst in the country at 13.7%. Its year-over-year median home price drop ranks as the fourth worst at 39.9%. Its air quality ranks as the third worst, giving residents many reasons to stress.
…
10. San Jose, Calif.
San Jose’s year-over-year median home price drop was 42.3%, making it the second most stressful city in this category after San Francisco. Unemployment is also high, at 11.8% in June, not making for a good match with its high cost of living–ranked third.
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6. San Francisco, Calif.
The Golden Gate city takes the No. 1 spot for its 42.7% year-over-year median home price drop. It holds the No. 2 spot for high cost of living. Its sunny weather and good air quality, however, lower its rank on the stressful cities list.
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2. Los Angeles, Calif.
Despite its warm weather, Los Angeles proves to be the second most stressful city due to its population density of 2,732 people per square mile and its fourth- highest cost of living. It ranks eight in year-over-year median home-price drop, at 34.1%.
Yup.
In San Mateo County, you can find houses under $400,000.00 now. You didn’t see this price a year ago.
This does not look much like a green shoot, does it?
Anyway, looking on the bright side, the stock market is certain to have a very good day tomorrow!
Sep 8, 2009, 12:01 a.m. EST
Job outlook hits worst-ever level
Employers’ hiring plans at lowest point in Manpower survey’s history
By Andrea Coombes, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Employers’ hiring plans for the upcoming fourth quarter dropped to their lowest level in the history of Manpower’s Employment Outlook Survey, which started in 1962.
A net -3% of employers said they’ll hire in the fourth quarter, down from -2% in the third quarter, on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the Milwaukee-based firm’s survey of more than 28,000 employers. Before this year, the survey’s previous low point was a net 1% hiring outlook for the third quarter of 1982.
A year ago, a seasonally adjusted net 9% of firms said they would hire in the fourth quarter. The Manpower survey measures the percentage of firms planning to hire minus those intending layoffs. Manpower doesn’t measure the number of jobs. The survey’s margin of error is +/- 0.49%.
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This is just so silly. The US stock market has proven its ability to rally again and again on either no news whatever or even terrible news. What could possibly stop this from continuing indefinitely?
Time to Reassess if Stocks Can Gain More
After a Big Run, Market Appears Vulnerable; Despite Happy News, Consumer Spending Lags Behind
BY E.S. BROWNING
As investors return from the Labor Day weekend, they are preoccupied with one big worry: whether the enormous stock rally of the past six months can continue.
The days after Labor Day historically are a time to reassess and evaluate. The bottom line is that after a series of positive surprises in economic and corporate reports has pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 44% since March 9, the stock market remains on precarious footing.
As long as the happy news keeps coming, the gains can continue. But the more good news investors get, the harder it is to surprise …
i don’t agree there was an unwarranted 40% gain..
The DJIA dropped like a rock from above 14,000 to below 7,000. That’s a 50% loss. There had to be some overshoot. Since everyone was in a panic and running for cover, I estimate it at about maybe 10 or 15%.. or lets say 1,000 points.
If you accept that amount of overshoot, the true low was about 8,000.
The rise from 8000 to 9500 is only.. only.. about 18%? i need a calculator or the assistance of a mathematician.
“There had to be some overshoot.”
I’ll grant you that.
This sounds like a dreadful malaise. Can one die from it?
* SEPTEMBER 8, 2009
Bonus Fever Continues Among U.K. Bankers
BY ADAM BRADBERY
LONDON — Most bankers based in the U.K. expect their bonuses to be larger in 2009 than in 2008 and haven’t experienced a change to their pay structures, according to a survey from eFinancialCareers.com, a financial jobs Web site.
The findings suggest that bonus season will show U.K. banks once again at odds with regulators and politicians, who are converging on changes to the way finance workers are paid.
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