Bits Bucket For September 11, 2009
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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May the souls lost this day many years ago rest in peace.
U.S. Economic Growth to Slow as Car Rebates End, Survey Shows.
Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. economy will pull out of the recession at a faster pace than previously forecast, before slowing as the end of the government’s auto-rebate program weighs on consumer spending, a survey of economists showed.
The economy will expand at a 2.9 percent annual rate in July through September, according to the median of 61 estimates in a monthly Bloomberg News survey, compared with a forecast of 2.2 percent the previous month. Growth is projected to slow to a 2.2 percent pace during the last three months of the year.
The new projections follow a record drop in borrowing by Americans and an unemployment rate that jumped last month to a 26-year high, suggesting that business and government spending rather than consumer purchases will determine the strength of recovery from the worst economic slump since the Great Depression.
“This is some of the payback from the cash for clunkers, the feeling that a lot of that activity was just pulled forward from future months,” said Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at Maria Fiorini Ramirez Inc., a New York forecasting firm. “We’re very cautious about the consumer. Household balance sheets are basically a wreck.”
Consumer spending likely rose 1.7 percent this quarter as buyers took advantage of discounts of as much as $4,500 to trade in older cars and trucks for new, more fuel-efficient vehicles. Spending growth will ease to a 1 percent pace in the fourth quarter, the survey showed. The rebates ended on Aug. 24.
Analysts in the survey put the odds of a double-dip recession in the next 12 months at 25 percent, up from 20 percent last month.
Holiday Shopping
The slowdown in consumer spending, which comprises about 70 percent of the economy, will coincide with the holiday shopping season, when many stores expect to reap half of their annual revenue. Macy’s Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Terry Lundgren said this week that the second-largest U.S. department store company plans to hire staff for the holiday season.
Americans are borrowing less as banks and credit-card companies tighten lending standards. Consumer credit fell by 10 percent at an annual rate in July to $2.5 trillion, according to a Federal Reserve report this week. The $21.6 billion drop was the sixth consecutive decrease, making it the longest series of declines since 1991.
“Consumer spending remained soft in most districts,” the Fed said two days ago in its Beige Book business survey, published two weeks before officials meet to set monetary policy. The central bank said 11 of its 12 regional banks reported signs of a stable or improving economy in July and August.
Hooray! Man that Obama’s good.
Isnt funny how the govt has to give money away for people to buy new cars.The cars are way overpriced that is the problem.there is nothing price wont fix.
C4C was a giveaway to dealers and nothing more. The $3500 rebate was added on to the price of the car. Lots of reports that cars were selling at or even above MSRP during the frenzy. So instead of getting a $30K car for $26,500 like you usually, do, you got it for $30K, less the $3500 from Uncle Barry. To the consumer it was a wash. But the dealer ended up with $3500 extra on every car.
“C4C was a giveaway to dealers and nothing more”
Your numbers don’t make sense. The topselling cars in c4c were small cars like Toyota Corolla and Ford Focus, which have MSRP well below $20,000 and for which negotiating room has always been tight. $3500 is a huge discount on a car like that. And if you improved your mpg by more than 10, you could get as much as $4500. That’s 30% on a $15k car.
I still saw cars advertised in the papers well below msrp. They have to, because only a fraction on buyers had “clunkers” to trade in. Jack prices up to msrp and the non clunker buyers would have stayed home.
Oh, you could make that arguement about a lot of things.
Cash for clunkers was another bailout, just like the 8K tax credit. You “get” the money if you spend it and spin the old debt wheel again.
Still wondering if the mortgage interest tax deduction is a remnant of a bank bailout past? Again its okay to lower your taxes as long as the money goes into the right peoples hands; the bankers.
All this debt pushing. Just watching the wealth distribution get worse and worse.
Dealers advertise cars for $5999 in the newspaper. Doesn’t mean you’ll actually get one for that price. This was simple supply and demand. A surge in demand over a 2-3 week period led to higher prices. But the consumer thought he was getting a great deal when in fact he was getting the same deal he would have got a month before without the govt subsidy. Even on a $20K MSRP Corolla there is plenty of room to deal down. Maybe now $4500 down, but at least $2500, $3000 especially with the cashbacks being given these days. And you don’t think those scrupulous car dealers forgot to mention the cashback to the consumers do you and kept it for themselves? Nahh, that could never happen.
And here’s the other aspect of it. Let’s say Joe Shmoe wanted to spend $20K on a car. Now with the $4500 he’s thinking, I’ll still spend $20K but I’ll get a car worth $24,500 since the govt is giving me $4500. So throw in the lowjack, throw in the extended warranty, throw in the spoiler, throw in the $1200 after market stereo. All the things that dealers mark up 200%.
Better hope those c4c buyers keep their jobs or the repo man will be paying a visit.
“This is some of the payback from the
cash for clunkershousing bubble, the feeling that a lot of that activity was just pulled forward from futuremonthsyears,” said Joshua Shapiro.Fixed that for ya Josh.
I wonder how much of that 10% credit contraction is defaulted on and written off vs. paid off debt?
Cautiously, Small Investors Edge Back Into Stocks
September 10, 2009 NYT
Like millions of ordinary investors, Cindy and Eric Canup are still recovering from Wall Street’s big downturn. Their portfolio is off by 25 percent. They are mindful of their spending. And their dreams of buying land in Northern California or Oregon have been delayed five to 10 years, until they can rebuild their retirement accounts.
Yet with no guarantee they will ever be made whole again, individual investors like the Canups, who live in Oakland, Calif., are sticking with the stock market. Recently, with help from their financial adviser, they nudged some of their cash into mutual funds and took on riskier investments. They have even stopped tossing unopened 401(k) statements into a filing cabinet.
“This time last year it was doom and gloom and dire,” said Ms. Canup, 48, who works for the health care provider Kaiser Permanente. “I’m kind of amazed that we’re able to get back in as quickly as we are.”
When the financial crisis hit, some of Wall Street’s prophets warned that individual investors would be lost for years. The gospel of building a diversified portfolio, buying regularly and holding on till retirement, appeared dead. But despite a rout that erased fortunes and upended retirement plans, few smaller investors have folded their portfolios or cashed out: While they are poorer today and still leery of the markets’ returns, many are still chasing the gilded promise of profits and wealth.
“It’s got a track record,” Linda Blay, a bookkeeper in Orange County, Calif., said of the stock market. While her portfolio is still off by 30 percent, she said that “it outperforms any investment. I think it’ll come back.”
“And their dreams of buying land in Northern California or Oregon have been delayed five to 10 years, until they can rebuild their retirement accounts.”
Either the land isn’t priced correctly or these to schleps don’t have two dimes to rub together.
Exactly. If you don’t own your personal residence outright then you’re not really an investor.
Sure you are! You are just investing OPM.
I’ll put $20 on (b).
Either the land isn’t priced correctly or these to schleps don’t have two dimes to rub together.
I don’t care which one it is that prevents them from coming up here, either way watch the tears NOT squirt sadly outta my girlish eyelids.
Are you rolling up the ladder behind you, Oly (previously from Utah)?
Good for you! If you are. Because I’ve always thought that California attracts tons of people from other places. Looking to make their fortune, party, be a degenerate, or whatever. The act as if it’s there god given right to immigrate here from other states. It would be great to roll up the ladder here in California.
I was born here and would like to start erecting barriers to keep the “lets go out west” crowd from invading. It’s not just illegal immigration from Mexico that causes problems. It’s the aliens from places like Idaho, Utah, Oregon, Texas, Oklahoma, NY….you name it.
Sad but true, the invaders from other states come out west so they can abandon all their good morals and values. So they can be promiscuous and take drugs. They have a wild party for a few years, then leave back to their home state and blame everything on the CA lifestyle instead of realizing they were the problem in the first place.
The act = They act
Land asking prices out west remain absolutely delusional for the most part.
Regarding land: I’m actually starting to see some hysterical things. Fixer homes on 5 acres asking tens of thousands of dollars less than a raw 5 acre parcel. Even giving zero value to the residence, which has value and can be rehabbed, the developed property should still carry a huge premium because of the well, septic system, and utilities. In WA, a well will set you back up to $10k, septic a minimum of $15k but up to $35k depending on the system and parcel, and at least a few thousand to bring in power.
These land sellers are out of their collective minds right now. Next to nobody has $250k or more lying around for the opportunity to develop a piece of raw land. I made a huge mistake back in 2001, passing on 5 acres near the Puget Sound priced at $35k which I thought to be very high. Those same parcels rocketed up to a peak of $350k. Unfortunately they’re no longer available, as builders bought them all up, cleared all 5 acre parcels of second growth fir, and built monstrous ‘million dollar’ homes which sit empty. Sick.
builders bought them all up, cleared all 5 acre parcels of second growth fir, and built monstrous ‘million dollar’ homes which sit empty
Back taxes?
…as builders bought them all up, cleared all 5 acre parcels of second growth fir, and built monstrous ‘million dollar’ homes which sit empty. Sick.
I drive by such parcels each and everyday. It is indeed utterly and completely sickening. You know, at one point I would never have thought I could sustain steady wrath for years and years, nor maintain a steady fascination with stormwater regulations and soil types because let’s face it, there’s lots funner things in the world to spend time on.
But looking at a lovely forest that clear-cut to the churned up mud? Boy, is it motivating!
“Cautiously, Small Investors Edge Back Into Stocks
September 10, 2009 NYT”
Quietly, Large Investors Slide Out of Stocks
September 24, 2009 NYT
Stocks Suddenly Plunge - No One Could Have Seen This Coming
October 9, 2009 NYT
“Stocks Suddenly Plunge - No One Could Have Seen This Coming”
Pastor barely escapes - No time to warn the flock
“This time last year it was doom and gloom and dire,” said Ms. Canup, 48, who works for the health care provider Kaiser Permanente. “I’m kind of amazed that we’re able to get back in as quickly as we are.”
“….holiday shopping season, when many stores expect to reap half of their annual revenue….
I will award any poster $64,000 if they can reconcile these two statements.
“I will award any poster $64,000 if they can reconcile these two statements.”
Not a problem. Fundamentals, such as profits, don’t matter.
Just make the cheque out to Al.
They are saying that many consumer product oriented businesses take in about half of their revenue during the holiday season. You are flush during Christmas and hanging by a string in June.
Take a look at how much money people spend during the year vs. during christmas. It used to be people had ‘christmas’ passbooks, where they’d save up. Now they spend the summer paying down their cards so they can rack them back up over christmas. But the results are roughly the same from a business point of view.
So these guys are saying “Hey, things are looking up, and just in time for the holidays, which is great because it’s our biggest sales season!”
It’s like hotels making most of their money in the ‘vacation’ months.
Stocks Suddenly Plunge - No One Could Have Seen This Coming
har!
It’s about time for Goldman to sell and fleece the suckers again. I’ll bet there is action in that company, as analysts bet how many times they can get away with it before the whole thing collapses.
Running the lawnmower over those green shoots again.
I’m a actually getting very skeptical about the stock market.It was amazing how fast the market can fall and ruin your retirement.To me it has become nothing more than a casino.You are buying into comapnies that squander money on pathetic ceo’s and then go bankrupt leaving you broke, gm for example.I’m beginning to think the game is rigged.I will invest into other assests.
If the dividends do not provide adequate incentive to pay for a stock than the price is based on speculation.
“I’m beginning to think the game is rigged.”
Read zerohedge(dot)com and remove all doubt.
“I’m beginning to think the game is rigged.”
In more ways than one. If it isn’t Government Sachs and their insider trading and pump and dump scams, it’s Uncle Sam juicing the market with TARP money. Either way, the whole thing’s fake.
JimA,
God have I been roasted over two things on here. Thing number uno was looking at dividends on stocks.
As I’ve been educated by some of the finest of trolls, dividends are for suckers.
So are you saying that investing Social Security in the stock market might have been a bad idea? That 401ks might not be so great?
No way dude!
Boeing workers oust union in South Carolina
Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle)
Workers at Boeing’s newly acquired Charleston, S.C., facility voted Thursday to decertify the Machinists union, in a move that some speculate could see Boeing Co. establishing a second 787 production line there.
According to a report in the local Charleston Post and Courier newspaper, the vote was 199 to decertify the union and 68 to keep it in place.
In late July, Boeing acquired the former Vought facility and at the same time, workers there filed the petition to vote out the union and become a non-union facility. Reports said that if workers ousted the union, there would be a better chance that Boeing would local a second 787 assembly line nearby.
Washington state leaders are fearful that Boeing would consider a non-Washington production facility to build its commercial planes.
In late May, Gov. Chris Gregoire created the Washington Council on Aerospace, in response to an upwelling of fear, especially in Snohomish County, that Boeing is likely to locate a next production line outside Washington,.
In June, another group was formed to support keeping Washington state’s aerospace industry from leaving the state. It’s called the Washington Aerospace Partnership and it’s composed of union leaders, business interests and local civic leaders.
It’s been interesting to watch this whole thing move forward. All sorts of task forces and study commissions have sprouted up here to figure out what can be done to keep Boeing from moving (another) assembly line out of state. Not gonna happen!
Love them or hate them, Boeing is the largest aerospace manufacturer left in the world. After watching what happened with Detroit, there is simply no way in hell they’re going to be held hostage by a couple of whiny, demanding labor unions in the Puget Sound.
Rest assured those gutsy, rugged individualist workers will get what they deserve. Without lube.
I am sooo first. Hello from Japan HBBers!
Hellooooo from Afghanistan!
You think housing sucks where you are…be glad you arent HERE!!!
Hiya Step! Last week there was a whole discussion on a *ahem* liberal blog about the most useful stuff to send to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. It turns out that they don’t need your famous Kool-aid packets in Iraq since the chow hall has it. They have enough boxes of unopened Crystal Light to recreate Stonehenge (last month they built a Great Pyramid, took pix and everything). Question is, can the soliders in Iraq send the Kool-aid to yous guys in Afgh, where it’s needed?
LOL,
I REPEAT myself….in my humble opinion, Crystal Light SUCKS! They can keep it in Iraq! We have stacks and stacks too…know why, no one drinks it…LOL…
But thanks anyway. Everynow and then we get care packages with Kool aide in them, they usually go pretty quick. My wife sends them to me as well, along with Black and Mild (Wine) cigars..Love that smell…
Ha! Thanks for the perspective, Step. You keep reminding us of that when we get out of line.
I don’t thank you soldiers often enough for the work you do over there.
Do you read Michael Yon’s blog? He’s been embedded with some Brits in Afghanistan for a while. Does not look like fun.
Stay safe, sir.
“I don’t thank you soldiers often enough for the work you do over there.”
You are a bad boy Step. Invading foreign countries for the feds, mass murdering their populations. Shame on you. You are 100% responsible for your decision to support and participate in that madness in Afghanistan.
How many have you killed in the last year ? How many have you helped to kill? Who would think that housing would suffer when you and your family could be summarily executed at any time?
You’re responsible, who. It’s your government, you elected it. Look in the mirror.
You’re responsible, who. It’s your government, you elected it. Look in the mirror.
Not true. I do not vote men into power so they can abuse it. In fact I refuse to participate in any government within the USA. Why encourage them?
I have not killed one man, woman, or child in any country. If a man asked me to kill a human being I would first refuse then ask them why they are not doing the deed themselves.
All it takes for these wars to continue is a fresh supply of unquestioning non-thinkers to murder on command those peoples that the politicians are unwilling to kill themselves.
In fact the American soldiers are the chief enabler of these wars. Said soldiers will come back to America and will execute Americans en mass on the orders of American politicians.
Be sure to thank them for your freedom to die right before they put you and yours down.
“In fact the American soldiers are the chief enabler of these wars. Said soldiers will come back to America and will execute Americans en mass on the orders of American politicians.”
Not that you had much credibility before, but now you’ve got none.
Be sure to thank somebody for your right to speek freely.
“Not that you had much credibility before, but now you’ve got none.”
Feds have a long history of murdering Americans in America:
Civil war of 1860…..mass murder of Americans.
Kent State…freedom to speak? More like freedom to die.
Waco..freedom of religion? More like freedom to kill then burn little girls, boys, and their parents.
Ruby Ridge…freedom to be left alone? Wrong again. Military snipers executed one 14 year old boy(shot him in the back), One woman holding a baby(head shot barely missed baby)
And numerous lesser known evils are suffered by Americans everyday by the American government.
US military has descended into Hun status by openly torturing.
Feel confident that the federal soldiers will not take you Americans out if so ordered?
“Feel confident that the federal soldiers will not take you Americans out if so ordered?”
“… take YOU Americans out….” hmmm
Good catch Al, considering many readers are perhaps not hanging eagerly on who’s every word. Then I noticed this below.
why never any mention of what American police/soldiers to their us here at home
Its rare on this board for me to want an ‘ignore’ button, but I’m thinking that just happened.
I don’t think who is an American citizen. If he is, he should leave immediately out of principle. If he doesn’t, he’s a hypocrite, reaping the rewards of the same policies he disparages.
“Not that you had much credibility before, but now you’ve got none.”
Sometimes I get ahead of myself, as I read that as:
Not that you had much credibility before, but now you’ve gone mad.
I think he has, quite frankly. Is who posting from a mental institution? I used to work for B of A years ago (I’m not proud of that, BTW), and we used to have a guy that would call in from the mental institution whenever he could get to a phone. Apparently he used to have accounts years prior, but was a customer no more. He’d call, start the conversation (albeit odd) in a somewhat normal tempo, then his rant would gain speed until he was completely incoherent and screaming, and shortly thereafter you would hear a scuffle as the staff at the institution would be taking the phone away from him to hang it up.
You’d just love me who.
I helped plan the whole fricking thing back in the 90s.
Just wait. I’ve got those douche bags in Iran up next too. If were lucky, they’ll use women and children as human shields again. Be less of the suckers to reproduce in the future.
Blah ha ha ha ha…. Sorry. Evil conservative laughter is hard to vocalize on the web.
“Civil war of 1860″
Another tell, I’m sure glad he distinguished which one he was talking about.
Hey “who”,
Maybe if we leave Afghanistan they’ll start beating the women for not wearing their burkhas again and maybe, just maybe they’ll dynamite the rest of those Bhuddist rock carvings. Hell, they’re old anyway so who needs em.
I hope the Taliban brings back the firing squads too as there are way too many freedom minded folks running around Afghanistan. Oh, oh, oh! They’ll probably stop educating the women again. Lord knows we can’t have too many women runnin’ around figurin’ out engineering problems and such. That just ain’t right.
But the end all to end all will be if we pull out, maybe they’ll train up a few thousand more suicide bombers and wild airplane drivers then I can only pray that one of them comes to YOUR house to take you to visit Allah!
I’m out here with the US Air Force’s 1st Expeditionary Reconaissance Squadron and you can kiss my ass as I have NO misgivings about what I do! You weasel!
(Sorry Ben)
Why are we supposed to the world’s policeman? We’re broke as it is.
“Maybe if we leave Afghanistan they’ll start beating the women for not wearing their burkhas again and maybe, just maybe they’ll dynamite the rest of those Bhuddist rock carvings. Hell, they’re old anyway so who needs em.”
You need to do a search on google and others for police brutality women. I believe that you will be quite shocked at how many American women are brutalized, raped, and destroyed by American policeman many of whom are war vets. If you have a problem with what brutality exists in other countries then why never any mention of what American police/soldiers to their us here at home?
Good question.
State police, good for speeding tickets and rerouting traffic.
If it’s war - a big if - fight.
Hey Muggy and Step:
Why can’t we respect their horrible, degenerate culture? heck we do it in America we respect the ghetto swearing N using cretins …or else Jesse and Al will throw a temper tantrum.
Why cant we step up to the plate and demand the same standards from our own people…instead of forcing on others?
Why are we supposed to the world’s policeman? We’re broke as it is.
If we werent, alot of france would be speaking a french-german hybrid speak. Frankly, there is no one else with the balls to stand up for people who cant stand up for themselves…
But that’s a common american sentiment, “I have my freedom, get yours anyway you can”.
Oh yea, and how did we get our freedom from England? We went to WAR…England wasnt listening to negotiations..Just like the Taliban….
Muggsy,
Let me know if you are coming to Kandahar, we can set something up….
“Why are we supposed to the world’s policeman? ” (sic)
I believe we signed treaties after WWII that made that responsibility ours. Outdated as those treaties may be, have they ever been challenged?
FWIW - we were broke in 1941 too. And in 1917. In fact we’ve been broke since 1836.
Said soldiers will come back to America and will execute Americans en mass on the orders of American politicians.”
OMG, I missed this nugget..LOL…
Who let you out of your padded room? I’m finished with you “who”…
Correct, and if we minded our own business instead of being a bunch of imperialists then maybe we wouldn’t have to worry about islamists trying to terrorize us.
In the end, its all about oil. If there was no oil in the middle east we wouldn’t be there. The Taliban would make their women wear burqas and we wouldn’t care at all.
Oh yea, and how did we get our freedom from England? We went to WAR…England wasnt listening to negotiations..Just like the Taliban….
Nothing wrong with fighting for our own freedom. But since when is it our duty to fight for other people’s “freedom”, especialy when they aren’t our friends.
Just saying that if there wasn’t oil in the picture we would not care about what happens in the middle east.
If there was no oil in the middle east we wouldn’t be there
Rightio
“If there was no oil in the middle east we wouldn’t be there.”
This doesn’t explain Afghanistan. No oil there.
It never ceases to amaze me that there are actually adults like who.
In his mind, 9/11 was our fault, WWII was our fault, and Lincoln should have let the South secede. Amazing.
“I believe that you will be quite shocked at how many American women are brutalized, raped, and destroyed by American policeman many of whom are war vets.”
Baseless rhetoric doesn’t fly here. Either provide links or shut up.
Al,
It’s about oil. And nukes.
We used to pay the Taliban to “protect” the oil pipeline route running from the vast Caspian Sea Reserves down through Afghanistan to the ports at Karachi.
Now we pay whatever the various warlords are calling themselves these days to blow each other up at our behest so Pakistan, India, and Russia don’t get into a serious kerfuffle. Please don’t forget that the Talib (and al Qu’aeda specifically,) was the creation of the US State Department in their attempt to tweak the Soviets in this very same dance…a dance that’s been going on there for thousands of years now.
I’d also like to thank “who” for putting into words what some of us often think, but dare not say ourselves lest the thought police jump down our throats. Not all Americans are war-mongers, and being against senseless, unjust wars doesn’t make you un-American. It just makes you human.
It’s funny how history changes perspective. During Vietnam it was very uncool to voice pro-war thoughts and opinions, and the “thought police” were there to step down on those who deigned to support the war. Today, 40 years later the shoe is on the other foot, and it has become popular and considered “patriotic” to support those who prosecute the Bush Wars. Ironic, huh?
“How many have you killed in the last year ? How many have you helped to kill? Who would think that housing would suffer when you and your family could be summarily executed at any time?”
Step declines to respond to this question? We know what you are doing over there step.
We know what you are doing over there step.
Yeah. Enjoying a steak and some Kool Aid.
“How many have you killed in the last year ? How many have you helped to kill?
Not nearly enough, although I often find myself daydreaming about the subject, especially when I’m reading about the Olympia Master Builder’s latest plans.
*lapses into a brief, happy, glorious daydream *
Wha…Where am I? And why am I holding a flower vase like a cleaver?
Oh, yeah, back to the subject…
Anyway, I’d like to say thanks, who, for using commas and other punctuation devices in today’s rant. I appreciate it.
and we thank them for it.
-evildoc
How many have you killed in the last year ? How many have you helped to kill?
Enough with the character assasination. Regardless whether or not Stpn2me is a stooge serving imperialists, you do not know his motivation for serving. To insinutate that he is a murderer is uncalled for.
“Enough with the character assasination.”
I think we need a little more character assasination. Who is Taliban. He’s frustrated that he can’t beat on women and children, so he’s projecting his own desire to do such things on the US military. I’m sure he’s Taliban because above he said “take you Americans out” instead of “us Americans out.” Who should go back to his cave and have an IED building related accident.
Nah, he’s N. Korean.
Who is Taliban.
Who’s on drugs.
“…Yeah. Enjoying a steak and some Kool Aid.”
Ohhh. Good one, lavi.
About 2.5 million Americans slipped below the poverty line as recession and layoffs hammered the economy last year, driving poverty to its highest level since 1998, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday.
The annual survey showed that more than one in eight U.S. residents - 13.2 percent - are living on less than $10,991 for an individual - slightly more than $200 a week - or $22,025 for a family of four.
Webmaster’s Commentary:
This is allowed to happen in our country, while its government continues to spend billions in these wars without end, and bails out its cronies in the financial community.
Angry yet?!?!?
Nope. What else you got?
Thank you for your service in defense of our Country, who.
Thank you for your service in defense of our Country, who.
Better one, hansen
Why the worry? They can just eat… cake.
Thank you for your service in defense of our Country, who.
Better one, hansen
Haha! Yeah.
…But now I wonder, we don’t even know what country this is. Whacktard-landia. Population: 1.
Is my guess. Is that it, ‘who’? And are you ‘Supreme Dictator for Life of Whacktard-landia? Is my next guess.
And I must now confess, Grizzly’s account of the looney who’d call up and get crazed and then get hauled off by attendants was very comical to me. I have a terrible character flaw where I enjoy provoking wrath in weenies. Except not this time—this is just dumb. It wouldn’t count.
And my LAST confession is: I’m actually not minding the posts of the Supreme Dictator for Life of Whacktard-landia, aka ‘Who’. In the absence of trolls, he/she is the best next thing.
Sigh.
And THAT’S pathetic!
Trolls! Bring me a troll! Please! Please! I don’t even care if it’s a little one!
…I have a terrible character flaw…
Also I’m lazy, gluttonous, stubborn, disrespectful, and enjoy watching cheesy SciFi movies with mutant spiders who eat researchers and careless back-packers, and also badly dubbed Korean martial-art movies.
But the good thing is, I think only two of those things are counted as mortal vices, so I’m probably more or less okay, right? Right.
Oh, yeah, and also prone to wrathfulness, as long as it doesn’t mean I have to get up.
Jeeze, I can’t imagine how I forgot to mention wrath at the top of the first list! I should make a note of this on a post-it, so I don’t forget next time.
Oh, I like the sci-fi D movies along the lines of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.
Oh, I like the sci-fi D movies along the lines of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.
Really? You’re not just teasing me?
Oh, I’m sooooo glad to hear it. That’s a serious vice.
How many have you killed in the last year ? How many have you helped to kill?
Sir, while you can have your opinion, this isnt worth a reply.
Stpn, just take of yourself. I’m sure you and your buddies are making a difference. And for the record, I was involved in the antiwar movement of the VietNam era. Like I said,old hippie. But I know the difference in supporting the troops and supporting the war. And I’m not convinced that we shouldn’t be over there. It’s just that history makes me wonder if we can win. But I’m hoping we can.
Well, yer super, wolfgirl.
Of course, we already knew that, but I may as well state the obvious.
How do we define “winning” in Afghanistan? Since it’s not a territorial war, do we do it on body count? seriously, what the f*ck are we doing there? Can anybody answer that question in measured terms (without something glib like “we’re keeping America safe so our wives and kids won’t have to wear burqa’s”). I’d really like to know what “winning” means. How many Taliban killed or wounded? When can we bring the troops home? How do we know when we’ve won?
“…How do we know when we’ve won?”
When we declare victory and leave.
Obvious troll. Ignore mode activated.
You know what, can you loan me that mode? I mean to ignore, but then I get sucked in and start shouting. It’s yet another character defect I have, even worse than laziness and a fondness for stupid SciFi movies, or sassing my mom.
I have but to witness stoopidness and I must shout and argue.
*sigh*
I always wake up the next morning wishing I hadn’t been so easy.
Think Tank: Taliban return to most of Afghanistan
Tags:
A London-based think tank says that nearly eight years after the U.S. drove the Taliban from power, the Islamist militia has returned to most of Afghanistan.
The International Council on Security and Development reports that the Taliban have a permanent presence in about 80 percent of the country.
Webmaster’s Commentary:
How can anyone in their right mind still say that “victory” is achievable by any measure in Afghanistan?
The only “winners” here are the defense contractors, the drug lords, and the soldiers receiving pay and benefits!
“Who”
It’s funny to see you post that the taliban control “80%” of afghanistan. Knowing what I know, the taliban “control” 20% of desert and rocks. Because that’s where they are hiding. The taliban arent out “controling” anything. Know why? The locals tell us, because they dont want to be oppressed, so we help them out. I’m not doing this for you, I’m doing it for my friend “Billy Bob” in my earlier story last month. Know what he did? He risked his life to go vote for who he wanted to. He showed me his ink stained finger. He actually hugged me. People such as yourself cannot see the bigger picture. You cannot see a people who would have no qualms cutting off your wife’s feet for being in flip flops or sandles. So you are saying the people of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan dont deserve to be able to vote? Because that’s exactly what the Taliban are trying to do, stop them from voting. I bet a guy like you touts democracy, dont you? After all, you can speak big and bad behind that keyboard. Right? Know what radical islam also doesnt like? That’s right, the internet. You see, knowledge and information is the killer of backward-assness, like the Taliban. War is a fact of life. Why you cant see that there are some ideologies that will not negotiate. Some that you have to fight in order to have your freedom, even if that evil is 3,000 miles away. Why do you think that evil is “over here”? Do you think that if they could, if they had the technology, they would come here, beat your tail annd impose their brand of life on you? They are doing it here, arent they? The only thing is, are you going to be on the winning side? I dont begrudge liberals, I just begrudge their lack of forsight…
I dont begrudge liberals, I just begrudge their lack of forsight…
Hey, don’t confuse this guy with a liberal. You can’t get much more conservative than the Westboro Baptist Church.
So how soon until you guys can come home? Will you still be there 10 years from now? 20?
And what happens when the American empire collapses under its debt? Who will be the gendarme then? China?
This gun-toting liberal is thankful for your service.
This gun-toting liberal is thankful for your service.
Touche..
To be honest, I would love to have a gun toting liberal in a foxhole with me!
Hey, don’t confuse this guy with a liberal.
Now THIS is the kind of liberal I can identify with!Where have you guys been? And why have you let ACORN start calling the shots?
I fear social conservatism more than I fear Barack Obama’s economic and foreign policies. Does not mean I voted for Obama. The better choice was Ron Paul, whom I wrote in for Pres. in November 2008. I’m greatly relieved that Bush is out. But this does not make me anti-defense, anti-gun, and pro-tax by any means.
Japan doesn’t count. Because you’re our tomorrow, or we’re your yesterday oar something……..
In fact I learned from the Doc it’s better not to alter the future and something about a flux capacitor.
Tomorrow, tomorrow I love you tomorrow, you’re always a trip over the international date line away….
Kid doesn’t have “Annie” play practice this fall.
Maybe she’ll learn how to play tune on the cello.
I had a room-mate one time in college who was a cellist. It was freakin’ FABULOUS. She was a brilliant player, and oh, I got to live many afternoons and evenings awash in glorious music…
You know, eating Ramen and cursing at text-books somehow seems so much more romantic and interesting when it’s set to the soundtrack of mournful, elegant live cello music.
My daughter is a pianist. When I am home, I love to sit and listen to her play whatever classical piece she has found on the internet. Funny, when it’s your kid, any mistake or off key still sounds like beautiful music to me…
I had a college roomate who was a Tuba player….Not the same thing.
Never kiss a french horn player….
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in its petty pace from day to day until the last syllabel of recorded time….
What’s a knockwurst doing in Japan, anyhow? Surely you ought to be named ‘ソーセージ’ or something?
Surely you ought to be named ‘ソーセージ’ or something?
Man, that’s gonna give the Comment Searcher fits.
Okay, so I had to do an experiment. I cut and past ソーセージ into google along with translate and english.
n. sausage, seasoned minced meat which is stuffed into a tubular casing and formed into links
Oly, you’re so cunning.
I just like sausage a lot. I can also request ‘ice-cream’ and ‘bacon’ and ‘beer’ and ‘Cheetos’ in at least 57 other languages.
What else do I need to say, after all?
Nothin’, that’s what.
“I am 100 percent sure that the U.S. will go into hyperinflation. The problem with government debt growing so much is that when the time will come and the Fed should increase interest rates, they will be very reluctant to do so and so inflation will start to accelerate.”
Mark Faber, quoted by Bloomberg, May 27, 2009
and I’m 100% sure that anyone who is 100% sure of anything is missing something..
+1 Joey.
Actually we have hyperinflation right now: in the DJIA.
That 9.5K is a bit unsettling.
My feeling is a DJIA cruising around 8 or 9K for the next year or so is sustainable, and I might sell a little and buy a CD if it goes much higher.
amazing how many investors.. and stock brokers, attorneys and professionals who offer financial advice are unaware of or lag behind developments in the housing market. You really gotta watch out for yourself.
8 years later…
Will Osama ever be brought to justice?
No, though he may be killed.
Today is really looking like the day the precious closes above 1000. Very important psychologically.
yeah.. they see 1000 and think .. “Wow.. we’re up pretty high. People and cars look like ants down there. I hope this rail is sturdy.”
“The Precious” has been mysteriously riding squarely on top of $1000/oz for several days running. How can you be 100% sure today is the day for the big move?
And why wouldn’t you assume the move would be down, as a stock market crash precipitates a flight-to-quality move back into the downtrodden dollar?
I confess it looks like the Fed’s foot has been stuck on the Wall Street liquidity accelerator pedal for many days running, but as Herbert Stein once famously said, “Anything which cannot go on forever will stop.”
“liquidity accelerator pedal”
I think they truly believe they can “break on through to the other side”.
As I was saying…
I made no assumptions, and no, it hasn’t been riding “on top of” $1000. My comment is just to share my viewpoint on an asset class that I have traded frequently and with which I am quite familiar.
The key is the CLOSE above $1000. If it again closes below that mark today then I was wrong in my prediction. If I’m right, I suggest those on the PM sidelines may wish to make some adjustments.
I’ll again reiterate, it is my belief that the move in the precious does not mean Gold is more valuable, it means the dollar is less so, the trade deficit numbers from yesterday also suggest this.
‘…it hasn’t been riding “on top of” $1000.’
OK, how about ’stuck on $1000 like iron filings to a magnet’ then?
Ok, but with gravity causing it to mostly to hover beneath.
Gold is looking a little frothy to me.Could go up from here but closer to the top than the bottom.
I am wondering how long the fed can keep printing money to buy treasuries keeping the price high and yield low?They are trying to keep mortgage rates low and revive the housing market but lets get real.At some point interest rates will rise and shit will hit the fan.Dont you want to buy treasuries when the yield is high.Then when yields fall your bond is worth more if you sell it before maturity.I have a feeling lots of people are going to lose money in the bond market.
Problem is, it’s an electromagnet. And when* the economy improves it will get turned off.
*not likely today, or tomorrow. But in a few years…
I’ll grant you “in a few years”, but what will be the currency then?
We are in deflatuation.
“I am wondering how long the fed can keep printing money to buy treasuries keeping the price high and yield low?”
Treasury prints currency, not the Fed. The corrected question is:
How long can the Fed continue to depress treasury bond rates by making open market purchases using electronic ledger entries that balance out?
I think a good question about the Fed purchase of treasuries is, does it do anything at all?
If the Fed gets money from the treasury to pay for treasuries but sits with them on its books… uhhhhh.
Does anyone ever see the money? So, I guess it slowly increases the Feds reserves by the amount interest on the treasuries, which is quite small. It seems like it is just an adjustment of how much money ends up actually in the auction. Which would be the same as if spending was decreased.
OK.
I don’t understand this at all?
I’ll give it one more try, and it is the essential reason why monetization of debt is both evil and brilliant.
The Treasury holds the auction, the Fed buys bonds to keep rates down and records a debit for the transaction in the spooky secret ledger. At that same moment they record the bonds they just bought as an asset worth the exact amount they paid. Presto chango! $10,000,000,000 more for the government to spend and the Fed’s balance sheet changes not a whit.
What’s that? What happens when rates go up and those treasuries on the books lose value? No problem, the Fed doesn’t show it’s books to ANYONE!
End game? Either new currency and Fed 2.0 at some point or a third world nation that was once the lone superpower, or both. Your guess is as good as mine.
The trading range has been narrowing for some time. I take this as an indication that something is going to break, just like last summer. You can feel it in the air. You can hear it in people’s voices.
Like that phantom ache in my gold tooth.
“The trading range has been narrowing for some time. I take this as an indication that something is going to break, just like last summer. You can feel it in the air. You can hear it in people’s voices.”
I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lord
Ive been waiting for this moment, all my life, oh lord
Can you feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lord, oh lord
Well, if you told me you were drowning
I would not lend a hand
Ive seen your face before my friend
But I dont know if you know who I am
Well, I was there and I saw what you did
I saw it with my own two eyes
So you can wipe off the grin, I know where youve been
Its all been a pack of lies
And I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lord
Ive been waiting for this moment for all my life, oh lord
I can feel it in the air tonight, oh lord, oh lord
And Ive been waiting for this moment all my life, oh lord, oh lord
Well I remember, I remember dont worry
How could I ever forget, its the first time, the last time we ever met
But I know the reason why you keep your silence up, no you dont fool me
The hurt doesnt show; but the pain still grows
Its no stranger to you or me
And I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lord…
-Phil Collins
I love the drums in this song.
Yes, there has been significant upside resistance. If it closes above 1K today my next tell will be if it stays above for a week.
Stpn2me - how are things today? Food getting better?
Anyway, there was this lovely little article in the Boston Glob [sic] yesterday about luxury condos that were built next to a suburban mall. Of course, no one is buying them, so to the block they go!
www [dot] boston.com/realestate/news/articles/2009/09/10/developer_resorts_to_auction_for_natick_luxury_condos/
I’m about ten miles from those suckers. The mall is rather cruddy. The traffic is absurd during rush hour and weekends. I remember watching them being built and saying who would ever want to live there.
A year or two ago there was an interview of one of the first buyers in the place. The guy basically said he knew he was wasting his money but wanted to live by the mall. At least he can walk to Stucky’s for breakfast.
Yeah, me and Ms. Chile head over to that area every now and then. I’ve wondered it myself. I wonder who the developer used for their market study, because that firm sure missed the mark.
I didn’t know they HAD Stuckey’s that far North.
I think you’re right…It may be a Friendly’s.
Hey Bad Chile….
Not really..although I am going to get a steak in a few minutes…(it’s friday)..
I have this RE agent that keeps sending me how the price of land is getting lower. But I think to build would just cost more than the house would be worth…But I soooo do want to rent from the bank for 15-30 yrs my own property!
Sorry the food hasn’t improved - is the steak ok, or is it more like boot leather with charcoal flavor added for taste?
Bummer about the RE agent, but I have my parents sending me stuff all the time. I just got a Priority Mail package with the printouts of four different places from back home.
Of course, it was all printed from the internet so they could have emailed me the link.
Hey Step! Don’t take a malaria pill with your juicy steak!
Actually,
When I eat is when I am supposed to that that damn thing. The U.S. cooked steak is awesome. And really, either I am hungry, or these are some of the most tender and good steaks I have ever eaten….
Are they still doing lobster with the steak?
The worst part about steak night was those rare occasions when the wind came around, such that the DFAC was down wind of the ‘emerald pond’. Certain smells are not meant to be combined.
LOL,
You have that right. I just walked past the Poo pond tonight. The smell comes into your room at night and just sits there. When you come to work in the morning, the whole place reeks until you turn on the Chigo’s….
Right now its fairly cheap to build. If you can go with panalized, or kit its much cheaper. The labor cost have come down significantly. Getting bids and checking licenses is very important though. Contractor are climbing over each other for work right now, so you can get a great deal on labor. The only problem to building is the permitting. Cities are loath to lower permit costs.$60000 in my town, that could be a California cost but I doubt it. That does not include school impact fees of $4 a square foot. If you have low permitting fees, and want to live there building is cheaper in my opinion. CHECK CANOPY
Steel sandwich panel systems are the cats a$$ but I’m pretty certain they’ll cost more and the fabricators won’t vend to the end user, hence a certified installer must erect as they need to be laid up and trimmed out correctly. I agree that the right panel systems are better, generally speaking. Wood framed systems are pretty common and don’t think they’re any better than on site construction unless they’re foam sandwiches.
Peter A, check Canopy WHAT??? I know there’s a knowledgeable, wise, durable building secret in there somewhere. I collect those kinds of secrets, for when I build, buy or scrounge my ultimate homey hangout, complete with chickens, garden, woodlot and mule. Thanks.
It’s also the first uber-luxury development in the suburbs to head to auction, offering amenities such as a sports club membership, rooftop garden, 24-hour concierge, and, of course, instant access to the mall.
Nothing says über-luxury like a mall. The concierge can bring you an Orange Julius and a funnel cake night or day.
Not that I want to live near a mall either but I lived in that area for 17 years.I was under the impression that there was some real old money real estate in Framingham not far from the mall. Were they trying to suggest buyers were buying into a part of that neighborhood?
I got to boston.com but the link didn’t go any further. My apologies if the answer was obvious w/info.
Dollar Index Falls for Longest Run Since March on China Growth
Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) — The Dollar Index fell for a sixth day, its longest losing streak since March, after reports showed China’s factory output and lending increased more than forecast, spurring demand for higher-yielding assets.
The euro rose to a nine-month high against the dollar as signs Europe’s recession is abating boosted demand for the region’s equities. The pound climbed to the strongest level in a month versus the dollar and headed for a weekly gain against the euro as a report showed producer prices increased for a sixth month. The yen strengthened for a second day against the euro amid speculation Japanese exporters are repatriating earnings.
“The data has been relatively good and the burden of proof in on the doomsayers,” said Paul Robson, a senior currency strategist in London at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Britain’s biggest state-owned bank. “With policy makers saying they are going to keep monetary policy low and accommodative for some time, that’s supporting risk and people are using the dollar as a funding currency.”
The Dollar Index retreated to 76.587 as of 6:50 a.m. in London, from 76.817 in New York yesterday. The gauge, which IntercontinentalExchange Inc. uses to track the currency against those of six major U.S. trading partners including the euro, yen and pound, declined earlier to the weakest level since Sept. 25, 2008. It hasn’t dropped for six consecutive days since March 19.
‘Further Weakness’
“We remain dollar bears,” Sophia Drossos, co-head of global foreign-exchange strategy at Morgan Stanley, and Yilin Nie wrote yesterday in a report from New York. “We anticipate that dollar weakness has further to extend this year, and expect an additional 6 percent decline in the dollar against its main trading partners through the end of 2010.”
“…after reports showed China’s factory output and lending increased more than forecast,”
Reports? Or do they mean dictates?
I’ll never get over how quickly, and without question, these stats coming from China are taken at face value. Where’s the healthy skepticism?
‘Cause all the production stats from the Great leap Forward were so accurate….
What happens when they
DO find an alternative to U.S. bonds?
by Mike Larson Money and Markets
Every time I talk about the risk of our foreign creditors selling off their U.S. Treasuries, I hear the same objection: These guys have no place else to put the money! They’ll ALWAYS buy our debt because our bond market is the most liquid, freest place to stash their money.
And you know what? In the immediate, short-term future, I agree. But the foundation for a LONGER-TERM trend change is being laid right now.
Washington doesn’t want to hear about it.
Our politicians are just sticking their heads in the sand and hoping the problem goes away.
But I urge you to chart a different course for a very important reason …
These changes won’t result in wholesale dumping of U.S. debt tomorrow. They won’t lead to a two or three percentage point overnight surge in 10-year Treasury Note yields. But over time, I’m convinced they WILL gradually lower demand for U.S. debt, pushing bond prices lower, and interest rates higher.
It really boils down to a few simple points:
First, the U.S. government has adopted an unofficial policy of U.S. dollar debasement or, at best, an official policy of not-so-benign neglect.
Second, despite a U.S. federal deficit that’s at least three times larger than the worst in history, there’s no plan to bring it under control.
Third, the U.S. Federal Reserve is monetizing the debt with printed money, a classic cause of rising gold, rising commodity prices, and a declining currency.
Concern is rising sharply in places like China, and for good reason. The country has a $2 trillion-plus hoard of reserves. Experts believe that portfolio is overly concentrated in dollar assets — to the tune of roughly 75 percent. The problem? If the dollar keeps tanking, the value of those Treasuries, corporate bonds, equities, and other holdings will decline.
Cheng Siwei, former chairman of China’s Standing Committee, warns about the dollar’s inevitable hard landing.
Cheng Siwei, the former vice chairman of China’s Standing Committee, warned in the London Telegraph newspaper that concern is rising, and rising fast. He said:
“If [the Fed] keeps printing money to buy bonds it will lead to inflation, and after a year or two the dollar will fall hard. Most of our foreign reserves are in U.S. bonds and this is very difficult to change, so we will diversify incremental reserves into euros, yen, and other currencies.”
No less an authority than the United Nations also said that dollar risk is on the rise. The UN’s Conference on Trade and Development said in a report this week that a new supra-national currency may be needed to reduce countries’ dependence on the slumping dollar.
Think this is all talk? Think again! China’s Ministry of Finance just announced that it would sell 6 billion yuan worth of government bonds in Hong Kong soon. That’s less than $900 million at current exchange rates, a pittance compared to the $100 billion-plus in U.S. Treasury debt that we’re selling every few weeks. But it’s noteworthy because this is the first issue of Chinese government debt targeted at global investors. The idea is to increase international confidence in China’s currency and China’s bond market.
These guys have no place else to put the money!
i been saying that for a while and read that whole article thinking i’d see an example of “somewhere better to put the money”.
but i either missed it or it’s not there, unless it’s other foreign currencies, which is kinda dumb, imo.
The Chinese reallocation is underway already, into:
- gold
- commodities
- internationally diversified basket of currencies
- newfangled IMF currency
- gold
—–Not nearly enough in existance to make much difference, I suspect.
- commodities
—–Yes, although we’re reluctant to sell them wells, mines, and the companies that own them.
- internationally diversified basket of currencies
—–Yes, although if there’s a great devaluation race that won’t make much difference
- newfangled IMF currency
—–Unlikely to happen, but the real problem is the above.
Yes, the Chicoms are seriously looking for somewhere else to put their future exchange surplus, but they don’t want to destroy their current huge reserves by converting them all at once. I think that they have underestimated the short sightedness of our, and other democratic governments. The politician will often destroy the future for marginal present benefit, becuase that’s what the electors WANT them to do.
Bear, my thoughts…
Who gives a snot what they do. Either they keep buying debt for their own stupid reasons and we get cheap goods OR they diversify out of $ and the trade imbalance equalizes out because the treasuries dumped on the market cause inflation of the money supply.
China wants to be a big loser on gold. Great. We have an order of magnitude more that we could ever use. Let them buy it up the we can sell off 10% of our inventory and crush the price. You ever look at the reserves numbers?
Commodities prices are highly unstable at this point. They want to store up oil. Good. We will cut use and they will pay through the nose then end up reselling at a loss. Will they drink all the oil on the planet? Maybe they could cause a temporary shortage based on production levels. That would drive oil to 10$ a gallon for a while. But the gulf states will not F*** us too much cause they know what’s good for them. Again, the 2T will be gone way faster than you think.
Diversified currencies with crackpot nations that are less stable than we are. OK. Good plan. Name some good currencies? Alright, cue sound of crickets. I believe that Tim Iaconno had the same though. He lost his ass.
Newfangled IMF currency? Great. Go for that. See how much fun there is with an even larger group of unstable boneheads printing their own money. Should help out the counterfitters. See how the Euro is showing signs of instability.
Anyhow, everything points to a very slow moving sell off, pay down of the debt with some inflation. Stagflation. China will not do anything fast because it doesn’t make sense.
Where am I wrong here? China has bad alternatives or worse alternatives. They are on the wrong side of a trade imbalance just like we were in the great depression. I think history shows we ended up worse off than our debtors in the great depression for that reason. We ended up with bad debt and massive unemployment. The trade balance started to equalize and it was painful. Enter tarrifs and what happened? Things got much much worse.
Lucid, thoughtful analysis, James. That was a pleasure to read. Thank you.
I hate having to remember what happened this day. Its my wife’s birthday, the day several of my acquaintances and my wife’s friends and colleagues died and the day we lost an unborn child. Its also the day I went down to ferry to greet my wife upon her return from lower Manhattan. People stumbled off the ferry, some where still covered with white dust others looked as if nothing had happened. I saw a man being led like a child to the parking lot by our local Hazmat teams. With his hands out stretched they cut his cloths off and began to wash and decontaminate him. He stood there in his nakedness staring ahead without expression. I was looking at him when I thought he noticed me, I awkwardly tried to acknowledge him with a nod as I waited, he seemed not to see me. People slowly made their way to their cars. Weeks later there were maybe 20 cars in the lot that were dirty and had not moved since that terrible day. There were high end Mercedes and practical Toyotas all sitting there waiting to be driven home.
There is a 911 tribute song that still chokes me up when I hear it. I will force my self to listen to it again. I probably have completely misinterpreted the lyrics but I can’t think of an expression that better suits that day.
Ramshackle day parade
We’re going on through
Ramshackle day parade
This is the Ramshackle day parade
Of all those lost, unborn and unmade
And whose heads got filled with neon lava
And remain buried under this road
I could go on but I have probably overindulged everybody with my selfish sorrow. Every 911 I get all verklempt and then join my own little ramshackle day parade. Today I’ll kiss my wife and I’ll hold my children’s hand and I’ll suck it up and get busy “going on through”.
Here comes the marching band - The band of the underhand
This is the Ramshackle day parade
Ramshackle day parade
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daTuIiZFbWA
grubner: I am so sorry to hear what you and your wife went through on this day. You must be very strong to write about it, and you and your lovely wife hold each other and your children on this day. I will be thinking about you and your family. God Bless you all.
Sincerely,
Greg
This is one day that I will never forget. I was lucky enough to not have anyone on any of the flights or in the Twin Towers. I feel for those who did.
I’m sorry for your losses grubner.
It is a tough day for all whether your losses were immediate and personal or the memories were remembering holding our collective breaths till we heard various friends and family were ok. Still others further away still lost that feeling that we were untouchable on US soil and felt a deep connection and sympathy with those more directly hurt. It’s a good day to remember and pay homage, IMHO.
The description of your experience was deeply moving. I hope people who lived the horror have found some comfort in their days since.
What CarrieAnn said.
Exactly what Carrie Ann said.
It’s a good day to remember and pay homage, IMHO.
Wow grubner…What a story .911 was a trauma to the whole Nation ,but I think people who were actually there that day and during the aftermath were in a war zone .Sorry for your losses .
I think about those fireman and other people who cleaned up the mess and now they are suffering from medical conditions because of it . I hope you and your wife get healed from this
horrible experience .
Be at peace Grubner,
Me and about 50,000 of my closest friends got your back. Sorry about your loss. God heals all. Trust in him whom I put my trust in everyday…
Hearing that story eats at me….Let me get back to work..
See you guys tomorrow…
Hearing that story eats at me….Let me get back to work..
Oh, my. Somebody’s gonna be sorry that Stepn2me read Grubner’s story…
Step,
I’m doing all I can to deal a dose of payback to my enemies. “Reach out and touch someone” has a different connotation when it’s being done from 70,000 feet
I’m doing all I can to deal a dose of payback to my enemies.
What was it X-gsfixer said yesterday? ‘Forgiveness is overrated’? Something like that…
While I was glued to the television on this day 8 years ago, I felt far removed from what was happening since I’m on the west coast- a world away. I’m very sorry for you, and all those who had to deal firsthand with the repercussions of such cowardly acts.
I was living in the remote wilds of Utarr on that terrible, terrible day, but I did not feel removed. Not one speck. I remember being woken up by a phone call and my sis’s hubby said ‘Go look at the news. A plane just flew into one of the world trade towers…’
I ran out there and turned on the television and sat there in my nightgown for the rest of the day, in disbelief, just watching and watching. I remember the guy on CNN tried to keep the wobble out of his voice when the second tower collapsed. I still recall the horror and the sense of violation and the absolute outrage I felt. I feel it now although time dulls these things, I suppose.
Forgiveness is overrated? Wow.
Vengeance feels so much better now I guess. I feel so much better now that we’ve spent eight years shooting and killing a bunch of people whose language and customs we don’t understand. Meanwhile we’ve killed and maimed 10,000 of our own in these senseless wars. And what have we gained from all this? About the only thing I can point to is a sense of vengeance. THAT’S IT. That’s what both of these ware have been all about. Satisfying the bloodlust of the electorate who apparently don’t have the capacity to forgive.
It’s ironic how our Republican-elected representatives profess a “pro-LIFE” agenda and can talk endlessly about the sanctity of life - then turn around and in the next hour vote affirmatively to send our men and women to war to take away those very lives that they claim are so very special to them. Pathetic.
Health insurers’ shares rise after Obama’s speech
Obama’s call for public plan not a ‘game-changer’ , By Brittany Levine, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Health-insurer shares advanced Thursday after President Barack Obama laid out his proposals for health-care reform in a speech that analysts said didn’t add any new dangers to managed care companies’ bottom lines.
Obama talked about slapping new fees on pricey insurance plans and creating a government-run insurance option in front of a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night. But his speech was not a game changer because the concepts were not new, health-care analysts said…
“We still expect benign signed reform legislation in 2009 and view such an outcome as good news for health-care investors,” Sullivan said.
Benign legislation, in that view, would be one without a public option, one that calls for insurance cooperatives, or one that only offers a public option if other health-care reform initiatives don’t drive down costs. [trigger]
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What really made those health care stocks go up was Obama’s support of a mandate, and weaker-than-expected support of a public option. With no government plan, those 30 million uninsured will be forced to buy junk plans from for-profit companies, much of paid for by the US Government. New Lear Jets for everybody!
IMO these analysts should refrain from smiking until the bill makes it out of conference committee.
Here’s the link to the full article:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/health-insurers-shares-rise-after-obamas-speech-2009-09-10
The rest of the article is just different analysts saying the same thing: not a game changer, weak tea, etc.
Gah, I meant “smirking.”
The blueberry smoothie didn’t kick in yet.
Great post, oxide. I’m urging everyone to read the Matt Taibbi article on health care in Rolling Stone. It can be found online, just google it. I’ll also post the link, but I wanted to get the word out there to people who care about the issue. This health care bill is a real farce, but not for the trumped up reasons shouted about at some town hall meetings.
People who don’t have health insurance will be forced to pay for junk policies like you say. Under threat of the IRS, no less.
That is exactly what is happening in Massachusetts. Under threat from the state (you need to file a certificate that you have health insurance when you submit your taxes). While the results on the surface are outstanding in terms of the percentage of population that is insured; what is glossed over is the vast majority of the previously uninsured picked up bargan basement policies with incredibly high deductibles and ER visits for the common cold are still as common as the common cold.
Not having health insurance: it’s funny until someone loses an eye.
..not for the trumped up reasons shouted about at some town hall meetings…
maybe, maybe not.
When govt has to pay for health care, you can bet they will do whatever they think is necessary to avoid paying more than they have to. Money spent on health care is money that cannot be spent on the fun stuff, like pet projects in their districts.
Would you put it past them to regulate a person’s diet and health habits? Why shouldn’t they be expected to coax (or force) people to live “healthier” lives? I certainly can foresee such a thing.
And what happens to those who simply disregard govt guidelines and get sick?
Will citizens who follow the rules have compassion and let it slide? Or will we decide to put them in jail where their diet and habits can be controlled..
Being condemned by a death panel might be preferable to living under certain circumstances..
Yeah, people all over Europe are being imprisoned for eating junk food and being fat. Why won’t that happen here?
The USA is the world’s leader. If it happens here, Europe will follow suit in a heartbeat.
Yeah, people all over Europe are being imprisoned for eating junk food and being fat. Why won’t that happen here?
First they’ll take our Bibles, guns, ammo, and remote controls, then they’ll come for our Cheetos and pork rinds!
I’m hoarding in anticipation of just such a scenario …
“Class, today’s assignment is for you to write a poem. The topic is “My daddy hides stuff.”
Twinkies as currrency…. discuss.
currrency?
If Twinkies are the bills, sugar frosted flakes are the coins.
lol!
Twinkies as currrency…. discuss.
If you thought police corruption was bad now…
First they’ll take our Bibles, guns, ammo, and remote controls, then they’ll come for our Cheetos and pork rinds!
NOOOOOOOOOOO!
You can have my bibles and remote controls, but you’ll have to pry my Cheetos from my cold, dead, garishly orange-stained fingers!
Twinkies might make very good currency, actually. Isn’t there some urban legend about a Ho-Ho that didn’t rot for 23 years? Heck, maybe Twinkies are sturdier than paper money. It could be the new “mellow-yellow.”
“You can have my bibles and remote controls, but you’ll have to pry my Cheetos from my cold, dead, garishly orange-stained fingers!”
Especially those twisty ones! (crunch, crunch)
Especially those twisty ones!
Yeah! I love those! (Crunch crunch crunch)
I just know there are 10’s of thousands of moonbats out there that sincerely believe their beloved leaders are going to stick it to the evil Ins. companies. Funny, who do they think lines the PTB pockets?
Pelosi’s ‘Immoral’ Insurers May Gain From 10 Million Customers
Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. health-care overhaul proposed in Congress will do more than impose greater controls on private insurers. It will also swell their profits.
New legislation may generate 10 million added customers for Amerigroup Corp.,UnitedHealth Group Inc. and other companies that administer Medicaid, the government plan that covers the poorest Americans, according to James Carlson, Amerigroup’s chief executive officer. Molina Healthcare Inc.’s Medicaid enrollment may jump by 43 percent, CEO J. Mario Molina said. WellPoint Inc., the largest U.S. insurer, may also gain.
While President Barack Obama has pitched his revamping of health care as a bid to “keep insurance companies honest,” expanding Medicaid is likely to offset any losses from new regulations and taxes, at least for insurers who specialize in the program, Carlson said.
“Most of what we’re reading would grow our business dramatically,” he said in an interview. “I don’t think you can say that about a lot of other participants in the health- care system.”
That means more revenue for an industry House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, of California, called “immoral” and the chief obstacle to covering the uninsured, in an Aug. 1 interview. Expanding the program for the poor has emerged as one of the least-controversial items on Obama’s health-care agenda, said Carl McDonald, an Oppenheimer & Co. insurance analyst in New York.
“Medicaid seems to be the only managed care sub-sector that seems to be politically protected, and the only group with potential for significant benefits from reform,” McDonald said in a telephone interview.
Political theater really gets the crowds going these days. Almost as good as professional wrestling or American Idol.
No brain needed, to stare at the events from a distance.
As if anybody in Washington DC had the interests of anyone except their corporate sponsors, powerful friends, and personal get rich quick schemes in mind.
“Oh, but these ones support the common man!”, the bleeding hearts and self-righteous indignants proclaim, “They’re our favorites, the good guys!”.
Uh huh. And we’re the richest country in the world. And there ought to be free lunch for everybody everyday. And you can trust what you read in the Times or see on TV. And the government is here to help. And real estate always goes up.
And there are tens of thousands more moonbats who believe that insurance companies are their friends….
The poor insurance companies!!!!!!!
I think that the insurance companies will not be affected, to the chagrin of progressives the world over.
Neither will the administrative and managerial sectors of the hospitals that seem to be despised.
The people that are going to get creamed are the Doctors, Nurses, and Dentists that are working in the trenches, trying to save lifes, and cure illness.
It is very naive to think that anybody but these people are the ones that are going to get shafted. Their jobs wherever will be outsourced to Chindia (some diagnosis, and X-Ray is already being done overseas).
As I said yesterday, I hope that you like your assigned chaman, because that is the quality of health care that you will get. Been there, done that.
“The people that are going to get creamed are the Doctors, Nurses, and Dentists that are working in the trenches, trying to save lifes, and cure illness.”
I suppose that explains why every single medical assocation is behind insurance reform……. gotcha….
But the poor insurance companies. So opressed…. so victimized. But we must defend them!!!
Last I checked the AMA was strongly opposed to messiahcare.
I will take their word over any politician. At least they have a professional oath not to do any harm.
No, the AMA was bought off this time just like it was for Medicare. Told the docs their fees wouldn’t be cut. Then stuck it to them later little by little.
The AMA doesn’t represent all doctors. About the like ABA and lawyers.
I agree health care prof will take the brunt of the hit.
The insurance companies will get a huge influx of new customers thanks to IRS threats. Middle class will pay for the plan. They initially thought of a direct tax on any health care provided by an employer. That didn’t fly. Now they are pushing a tax on insurance companies for each high quality plan they produce. The result will be that they will increase the price for those that get their insurance through an employer. The CEO’s will continue to strip wealth and live fat.
The drug companies will see an increase in sales given that more people will be insured. They will be able to stop their charity care which they due to suppress anger over their insanely expensive medications.
Nope, No defense of Ins. companies. I think just about everyone, at least anyone I talk with, believe the health care and or sickness care industry needs to be over hauled. The question is how to go about it? The president has stated that a system like Canada has will not work here.
So what we will get? If anyone thinks Insurance companies are going away, they are delusional. Not going to happen! Also to the people that think the super rich will be heavily taxed to pay for it, again delusional. We will all be taxed.
The old adage applies here… Watch what they do, not what they say!
Or keep pointing fingers, and see where that gets you.
I read on another blog a poster’s comment which rang pretty true to me- and I’ll paraphrase:
The corporations are pushing for socialized medicine because it is one of their biggest expenditures. They know in our economy there will not be a “V” shaped recovery… Thus, the only way they can show any profit over the next few (read: 10+) years is to off the cost onto the taxpayers.
I think we (as a group) have touched on this subject a bit but the way he/she typed it really made sense.
exeter,
I don’t know of anybody who thinks insurance companies are their friends, except politicians, and they have plenty of good reason$ to think that way.
If you truly think that the government stepping in with some huge bureacracy and micromanaging health care is going to do anything except raise the cost, decrease the quality, hurt the general population and make most politicians even more wealthy, you need to stop dreaming.
You’re a wishin’ and a hopin’ and feelin’ all great about all the wonderful things the GOVERNMENT is going to create for the little guy. Classic. The road to hell is paved ten miles deep, twenty miles wide, and a million miles long with all those good intentions, great expectations, and promises from politicians.
The actual results, however, are always famously miserable failures, spectacular in cost.
You’re a wishin’ and a hopin’ and feelin’ all great about all the wonderful things the GOVERNMENT is going to create for the little guy.
I’m kind of fond of that whole “interstate highway” thing.
If your goal is to prove that govt. doesn’t work, just do what the GOP does. Run an anti-govt platform, take power and then destroy govt.
Unfortunately that’s so true in the United States. And yet many other country’s governments can do a perfectly fine job. I think that speaks more about the quality of American voters than anything else.
“I’m kind of fond of that whole “interstate highway” thing.”
I dig on the internet thingy too…. and airports, potable water plants, flushing my toilet and giving a turd the swirly twirl, etc etc etc.
It speaks more about our campaign finance rules and the idea that money = free speech.
“I’m kind of fond of that whole “interstate highway” thing.”
I dig on the internet thingy too…. and airports, potable water plants, flushing my toilet and giving a turd the swirly twirl, etc etc etc.
Hahaha! Nice…
Uh. Only Al Gore thinks the government invented the internet. They did pay for studdies that helped it though. Basically that is what the government does. Directed spending. And blow stuff up. Stuff like interstates and what not is built and planned by independent contractors. For reasons not clear to me, the government labs that actually used to do stuff died in the 70s. Organizations that actually did building died before that. Given the WPA history, maybe it wasn’t a bad thing.
Don’t want to get dragged into this debate. The simple answer with healthcare is this: if more people have healthcare it will cost more. Pretty simple. Those of us that are payers will be covering the non-payers.
if there is some incentive to become a non-payer there will be a lot more of them.
Like most government programs I suspect it will start off OK and then the costs will walk away over time.
So. Its just a choice of what we want to do. Mr Market, which clearly needs regulatory overhaul or Mr Goberment trying to manage things in its big swipes.
Most government stuff works when they hand the money off to semi-independant organizations like the military or universities. Basically things are so big you can’t have a singular entitiy running stuff.
Organizations like the EPA got off with a bang but have disolved into corrupt nightmares.
I think reform is needed but I don’t think anyone should run through this legislation fast. It’s a big job and you’d want to do it right.
Nanny Pelosi, Arbiter of Morality.
Hold on. I’m confused again. Is Obama health care a socialist seizure of business from private hands? Or is it a backroom agreement that keeps the same big boyz fat and rich?
Some will say it’s both. But these same people will scream bloody murder if we have a truly nationalized, single-payer system. And yet everyone knows our healthcare system can’t continue on as it is.
So what should we do? Work with what we have? But that’s cronyism! Create a whole new system? That’s communism! Do nothing? (’As long as I get my medicare, I don’t see what’s wrong with our current free market system.’)
Why can’t are system continue the way it is?
What problem are we fixing here?
Wmbz,
Your point is a point that bothers me about this reform. It will benefit the health insurance companies who are at the root of the problem. Health insurance companies should be not-for-profit or eliminated totally. Much of the profit motive should be wrung from the health care system. For those who cry “that’s socialism”, get over it and realize our health statistics are a joke compared to other industrialized countries. Figures don’t lie but liars figure.
However an incremental change may be the only political possibility now. Right now we are dealing with the devil in order to pass crucial reforms like eliminating refusal to cover pre-existing conditions and canceling the policies of sick people. The Democrats are in the pocket of big business just like the Republicans but they currently control the legislature and the executive branch and still play lip service to being the party of the people. Pretty soon we’re going to get a pretty good idea if that is still true…
How about just a tax credit to give those who truly need insurance and cant afford it? Make it a food stamps kind of thing. Yeah there will be abuse and fraud, but it’s still better than spending another $1T we don’t have to overhaul the entire system to give insurance to 5% of the public that cant afford it.
lmao.
There’s gotta be 10 or 20 proposed small scale fixes to specific problems.. and experimental, pilot programs to test the waters on new ideas.
But for some reason (strike while the iron is hot), this administration pretends to be committed to offering all or nothing. Take it or leave it.
“Take it or leave it”, “All or nothing”, “You’re either with us or against us”
The populace has grown comfortable in dealing with extremes. This is dangerous, btw.
That is a bit extreme to say about a plan that lets you keep your current plan if you like it.
Seems like it’s the opponents who are ‘all or nothing’.
.. lets you keep your current plan if you like it…</i.
wrong.. if your plan is to not have an insurance plan, you are not allowed to keep it.
But for some reason (strike while the iron is hot), this administration pretends to be committed to offering all or nothing. Take it or leave it.
All or nothing?
The dang thing is compromise-ridden.
If it were all or nothing, the whole healthcare industrial complex would be in a blind panic right now, as their ability to loot and/or willfully ignore the populace for profit would be irrevocably revoked.
I think the health care industry and the government do plan on looting the populace… together.. as partners.
And i think Obamacare Version 1.0 allows it. And that’s why nobody’s in a panic.
The current bill’s better than the status quo — which is horrible — but it doesn’t go far enough. (This is where I start humming some Commie song like the Internationale.)
Comprehensive plans suck, but the “simplicity” of a master stroke bundle of reforms seems to appeal to the lazy. Taking on the problems one by one isn’t very glamorous or easy to sell.
Obama doesnt want to fix the system. He wants to run it. See banks, GM, Chrysler for further examples.
There’s only one thing worse than politicians deciding who does, and doesn’t, qualify for care, and that’s insurance companies making the decisions. Bring on socialized medicine.
People don’t need “insurance.” When you break your collarbone, you don’t drive to a State Farm office, you go to a doctor. So how’s about we just get the seventy-three layers of middlemen out from between our wallets and our physicians?
If the insurance industry has to eliminate selective underwriting, (accept people with “pre-existing” conditions,) it will just be a brokerage service anyway…nothing actuarial about it. I think it’s time we change the semantics.
I think it’s time we change the semantics.
Barring universal healthcare, that’s an excellent starting point.
Either way, the for-profit health insurance industry should be relegated to the scrap heap.
You people on this blog like to get value for the dollar ,yet many don’t see that your Private Insurance Company is just a bad faith ,dead weight parasite that is adding major costs to health care . Don’t confuse your Insurance Company with the actual people who give the care ,like the Doctors and nurses .When you say you like your private Insurance ,aren’t you really saying that you like your doctor,or you like the fact that your Company is paying for part of your health costs ?
The private insurance company wants to ration your health care for profit ,so why are you complaining about rationing
when its already being done . Or how about the fact that
you get cancelled ,or some form of prejudice from the insurance company ,or your might get hassled on needed procedures ,that they don’t consider standard .
So ,I propose that we go to non-profit for health insurance companies health care (single payer)
Your employer will be mandated to give back the money to you
in wages that they use to add in health care benefits .
Charges are set ,and if you want to go to a Doctor that charges more ,its you option to pay higher costs . Or ,maybe a option should be given for higher medical care than standard for people who want to pay for a higher level plan.
Let say ,the first 1 thousand of costs is paid by the citizen
and after that your totally covered . The government taxes accordingly to cover the health care costs .
Max the amount a party can collect for medical mal practice death in the neighborhood of 500k ,but if a Doctor has to many claims against them their fees go up .This would reduce the cost of mal-practice insurance .if a party was disabled by mal-practice ,than the income and health care they would of got is paid by the claim .Only 15% of the mal practice cases are won anyway by the patient ,and that is because they all protect each other anyway in that profession .
I’m borrowing from some other Countries plans that i have read about lately .
I’m just saying ,pick this apart as much as you like ,I’m not sold on anything ,but ,Im just saying health care should be non-profit (that doesn’t mean Doctors and nurses don’t get profit )
interesting post wiz. thanks
“The private insurance company wants to ration your health care for profit ”
Wrong.
Insurance companies DOT NOT DENY COVERAGE. They may in some cases, deny payment. But my insurance company has no say in whether or not I get treatment, only whether or not they pay. If my insurance company says no, I can pay for it myself and get the treatment. And then I cancel my policy and find a different insurance company. You know that whole capitalism thing of free enterprise and consumer choice.
In a govt run system the government decides whether or not I get the treatment. If they say no, I suffer or die.
I choose option A because to me the most important thing is having treatment. Payment comes in second.
… your Private Insurance Company is just a bad faith ,dead weight parasite that is adding major costs to health care. Don’t confuse your Insurance Company with the actual people who give the care ,like the Doctors and nurses .When you say you like your private Insurance ,aren’t you really saying that you like your doctor,or you like the fact that your Company is paying for part of your health costs ?
Was this directed at someone else?
— I don’t confuse the industry with the practitioners, although the practitioners themselves are sometimes swayed to the Dark Side (which can happen in any enterprise, admittedly). Nor did I ever say anything about doctors and nurses not getting decent wages.
— In case you haven’t been paying attention to my related posts, and despite being lucky enough to have excellent private insurance, I am for fully socialized healthcare. The Full Monty. Barring that, however, (and the chances do seem very remote), I think ahansen raises an interesting concept — one of many possibilities that would be preferable to our current state of affairs.
If my insurance company says no, I can pay for it myself and get the treatment. And then I cancel my policy and find a different insurance company.
Ha hah, good one, Eddie.
I can see you have a lot of real world experience with the healthcare industry’s approach to dealing with chronic illness and pre-existing conditions.
Insurance companies provide payment. They do not determine treatment nor provide treatment. You can claim otherwise, but it’s factually incorrect.
You are incorrect here, Eddie.
Doctors who accept Medicaid, for example, cannot charge fee-for-service prices to “private” patients and vice versa. And boutique practices, (of which I am a huge fan,) are only financially viable in select, highly affluent areas.
Insurance reimbursement sets the marketplace and that’s the truth…that’s how insurers make their profits. Likewise the industry directs and drives modalities and research, as well as treatment protocols. If you think otherwise, you have never faced a serious illness or injury.
Eddie, I’ve spent 20 years in the health ins business for hospitals and doctors, trying collecting payment from insurers for services already rendered by medical practitioners. You have no fuk’in idea of what you’re writing about. Yeah, insurance companies DO determine treatments. You can’t just send a bill to most insurance companies and expect a payment. There are contracts, discounts, participating providers, and CASE MANAGERS. There are loopholes and people who are dropped for no good reason and people who can’t afford their premiums because they’re suddenly doubled by their insurers. Yes, Eddie, insurance companies rule your life if you’re sick. You are very naive, I guess.
‘accept people with pre-existing conditions’
As someone who has had employer paid health ins. for 29 years, I never really knew about people being denied ins w/ existing conditions. When I realized this fact, I jumped on the single-payer bandwagon and I’m not getting off. The health/medical industry should not be for profit. Unfortunately, neither political party will do away with health ins co’s.. How many people do they employ? there’s your reason.
BTW, some people were pointing to life expectancy comparisons between countries. IMO, factor in/out automobile roadway deaths and the comparisons get skewed.
In Europe, men who are diagnosed with cancer have a 44% survival rate. In the US, it is 66%. This takes out things that can skew mortality rates like car accidents, crime, etc. This statistic is for all cancers and calculated as the % of men who once diagnosed with cancer, live longer than 5 years. This is what rationed care leads to.
From Lancet Oncology, 8/21/07:
“The age-adjusted 5-year survival rates for all cancers combined was 47.3% for men and 55.8% for women, which is significantly lower than the estimates of 66.3% for men and 62.9% for women from the US Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program ( P < .001)
The greatest differences were seen in the major cancer sites: colon and rectum (56.2% in Europe vs 65.5% in the United States), breast (79.0% vs 90.1%), and prostate cancer (77.5% vs 99.3%).
I scanned through the new Health Care Bill yesterday. As mentioned by others, it does state that only persons legally in the US can receive subsidization for health insurance. It doesn’t explicitly state that illegals can’t be on the government insurance plan, but then it shouldn’t have to. It didn’t address the fact that illegals already get access to care, nor would I expect it too. On the illegal front, the bill changes nothing.
The thing that really struck me was that the Bill refers to medicare, medicaid, state health care plans and private insurance. This bill is another layer on top of everything else. The US already has a complex health care system and now it’s getting more complicated. I’m skeptical that increased complexity will bring down costs.
they could clear all this up by specifically excluding all illegal aliens from any participation in Obamacare….then just grant the illegals citizenship. Or grant them citizenship first..
Obamanites run the government and could do it if they have the guts.. they don’t need the GOP’s permission, except as a scapegoat who would then deserve equal blame for going along with the stupid plan.
There are different fee schedules for the same procedures and services depending upon whether you’re with Medicaid, Medicare, HMO’s, union plans, ag workers, mine workers, the VA, private payers, Indian Affairs, off the street, admitted on Tuesday with green eyes, hospital staff, ad infinitum. Their codes make the IRS look like pikers.
It’s gotten to the point where I actually had to contract with a
“billing specialist” and pay her $150 just to bill my insurance company for ONE procedure…with no guarantee of any reimbursement.
A standard payer system would cut through this Gordian Knot and save everyone a bundle. Anyone who wanted elective care could pay for it out of pocket and direct to the provider. Alas the insurance industry is terrified of any attempt to de-obfuscate the status quo.
I know you are correct about the different fee schedules. Yet I could not tell you the number of low level hospital admins I have argued with that tell me this practice is not even legal. I wonder why they believe that?
Also, where do you find a “billing specialist”? I could use one of those.
They advertise on the web and hang around specialists who do “elective” or “experimental” procedures…especially breast centers and ophthalmologists; usually ex-front office or ex-hospital billing ladies who know all the codes for a given area’s myriad plans.
Perhaps the admins you’re arguing with are confusing “negotiated fees” (which differ from plan to plan and region to region, and procedure code to procedure code,) with something resembling the law.
If either of you have insurance billing problems or issues, or anybody else on this blog has a problem with their insurer, I will be happy to help you to the best of my ability, for FREE. Please email me at Oakash1011@aol.com. I will be glad to help you. The last person I helped was the formidable 75-year-old mother of a former lab assistant of my husband, who I was able to save $ 8000 ( the hospital had already billed her, the assholes ) because I figured out that they had not billed her insurance with the authorization number they had already obtained for the procedure they had performed on her. Dumb dumb dumb. Not the mother, the hospital. Please provide contact info, the insurer, details, etc. if you email me. Also put in a header such as “HBB medical insurance problem” so I’ll know it’s not Scam-mail. Thanks.
So?
If I book a hotel room at a major chain, like Hilton, there are hundreds or even thousands of different codes and rates based on group affiliation. When I book a room, I care about my own rate based on my group affiliation. If there are 10 or 10,000 other rates is irrelevant to me.
Same with medical care. If I have insurance through Aetna, I get the Aetna rate. The Union rate or the Medicare rate or the Medicaid rate or the BlueCross/BluseShield rate is irrelevant to me.
I honestly don’t see why you need to pay someone $150 to tell you what rate you qualify under.
Well, my thought on the billing specialist is to find out which bills are paid, which are not, and if I’m getting ripped off by the insurance company. I’ve got about 50 pages of medical bills, and thousands of unpaid expenses. I’d gladly pay $150 for a disinterested third party to look through the bills and the insurance statements.
The $150 was only for the billing on ONE procedure, Cassandra.
But for someone who knows the protocols, here is a great career opportunity, I should think.
The trick is to resubmit and resubmit, and protest to the Board of Medical Review, the State Department of Managed Healthcare (even if you’re a private payer,) and if necessary your State Assemblyman and Attorney General. Eventually, someone will get back to you and send you reams of paperwork to fill out. Then you can start the whole thing again with a different set of cubicle gerbils. Or you can scream bloody murder, post nasty screeds, and go on national talk shows to demand accountability.
Or you can just tell the hospital you’re an illegal alien and to go pound sand. After all, they can’t turn off your blood….
Eddie, it not the rates so much as the weaseling.
If you are quoted $225 a night for a room, then they throw in $30 in room tax, $45 “spa” fee (whether or not you use it,) $50 a night for parking, a $7 “housekeeping” surcharge, $15 for wi-fi in the lounge, an ice bucket retainer, “accidentally” bill you at mini-bar prices for your free continental breakfast, and charge you for an extra night because you checked out “late” at 11:05 am, you’re probably going to complain. Especially if the room had bedbugs.
I agree. But that’s a separate issue than charging patients different rates.
I went through something similar when my wife had our baby not too long ago. Got the bill from the hospital and it was $17,000 and change (c-section and 4 days in the hospital adds up), and 8 pages worth of line items. Insurance covered something like $15,000 and we were on the hook for $2000 something. I took some time went through the line items and marked off what I thought were BS charges. Went to the hospital accounting office the next week and got that $2000 reduced to $1200.
My favorite charge was $10.50 **PER CAPSULE** for plain old Tylenol. My second favorite was $25 per t-shirt for the baby of which we were charged 6 times. This is a t-shirt that I could probably buy at WalMart 3 for $5. Parking was $75 even though I was told parking was free if your parked in the blue lot and were admitted to maternity. So yes hospitals throw those weasel as you call them, charges at you. But that’s because most people don’t even bother to check. That’s because they don’t care since insurance pays most of the bill and also because they are intimidated by or too lazy to read an 8 page bill.
I spent 2 hours going over the bill and an hour at the hospital. 3 hours to save $800, well worth the effort.
I think some of the cross-talking in the debate on the illegal aliens situation is that the Dems point out that the bill says no benefits to illegals, whereas the Repubs point out that there are no enforcement provisions in the bill. There’s the rub. Without enforcement provisions the illegal aliens will try to game the system for benefits. That would be against the law: however, there simply being in this country is also against the law. Just having a law on the books doesn’t mean people won’t break it.
Yup.
Immigration reform in 1986 was supposed to penalize companies that employed illegals with false papers or none at all. U.S. Border Patrol and INS, under Congressional pressure, didn’t enforce it. Other than an occasional sweep of a construction site or a restaurant or two.
For you ultra-partisan guys and gals, the laws were ignored by Republican and Democratic majorities and administrations.
At least the amnesty portion was effective.
Did you read the part about requiring verification of citizenship? Probably not since it’s not there. You can write 1000 times that illegals won’t be covered. But without verification it is meaningless.
It’s like putting up a speed limit on a highway and then announcing to the public that there are no state troopers on the highway to enforce the limit.
You can deny that it’s not prohibited in the bill a 1000 times but it’s still part of the bills language.
“You can write 1000 times that illegals won’t be covered.”
Haven’t written it once. I said, “On the illegal front, the bill changes nothing.”
I didn’t mean you writing it 1000 times. Meant it can bet written 1000 times in the bill. Sorry I wasn’t clear about that.
It’s like putting up a speed limit on a highway and then announcing to the public that there are no state troopers on the highway to enforce the limit.
Are you asking for immigration enforcement to be a part of a health insurance bill?
How about demanding that the actual agency that handles immigration step up to the plate, rather than adding bloat to health insurance reform? (Heh. Health INSurance, get it? ‘Course, it’s not INS anymore.)
In other words, isn’t the whole immigrants-getting-care scare a bit of a red herring?
If we had competent enforcement of existing immigration policy, this concern about the bill would go away.
+1000
+1 lavi. Immigration is a separate issue here.
Well the Democrats just added enforcement to the senate bill today. What do you know, calling Obama a liar paid off…in more ways than one. Wilson had raised $1M since Wednesday night.
Here is how much enforcement will be needed:
Consumer: Hi I’d like to sign up for the govt plan please
Govt Clerk: Can I see proof of citizenship please, ether a passport or birth certificate.
Consumer: Here it is.
Govt Clerk: Thanks you’re all set.
That’s it. A one time verification when someone signs up for the govt run health plan. Even that is too much to ask for?
Ya know Eddie, your favorite boy Joe Wilson is one big liar and hypocrite
Let’s take a look at your wonder boy:
“Cut the man some slack. He’s passionate! I know this because he told me, in the sole message that blazes across his campaign Web site: JOE WILSON IS PASSIONATE ABOUT STOPPING GOVERNMENT RUN HEALTH CARE!
Except that he’s not─at least not when it comes to his, and his family’s, government-run health care. As a retired Army National Guard colonel, Wilson gets a lot of benefits (one of which, apparently, was not a full appreciation of the customs, traditions, and courtesies that mandate respect for one’s commander in chief). And with four sons in the armed services, the entire Wilson brood has enjoyed multiple generations of free military medical coverage, known as TRICARE.
Yes, it’s true. As politicos and town-hall criers debate the finer points of the public option, employer mandates, coverage for undocumented immigrants, and who’s more Hitler-like, they seem to miss a larger point: the United States has single-payer health care. It covers 9.5 million active-duty servicemen and women, military retirees, and their dependents─including almost a 10th of all Californians and Floridians, and nearly a quarter of a million residents of Wilson’s home state.
Military beneficiaries like Wilson─who, as a retiree, is eligible for lifetime coverage─never have to worry about an eye exam, a CT scan, a prolonged labor, or an open-heart surgery. They have access not only to the military’s 133,500 uniformed health professionals, but cooperating private doctors as well─whose fees are paid by the Department of Defense. It’s high-quality care, too: surveys from 2007 and 2008 list TRICARE among “the best health insurer(s) in the nation” by customer satisfaction. Yet Wilson insists government-run health care is a problem.
To be fair, Wilson has been consistent in his policymaking if not his personal life: according to his last congressional opponent, Wilson voted 11 times against health care for veterans in eight years, even as he voted “aye” for the Iraq War (during the debate on the war vote, he even called one Democrat “viscerally anti-American”─several times). He voted to cut veterans’ benefits─not his own─to make room for President George W. Bush’s tax cuts. He repeatedly voted for budgets that slashed funding to the Veterans Administration and TRICARE. And perhaps most bizarrely, he refused─repeatedly─to approve Democratic-led initiatives that would have extended TRICARE coverage to all reservists and National Guard members, even though a disproportionate number of them have served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan─and many lost access to their civilian work benefits when they did so.
There’s one other notable exception to Wilson’s tough-on-government record: In July, when the health-insurance debate just started heating up, he offered an amendment that would exempt TRICARE from any system of employer mandates in a health-care bill. It’s not clear whether this is necessary, since most such bills in Congress keep government benefits exempt from the rules as a matter of course. But Wilson took the opportunity to make his stand.
“As a 31-year Army Guard and Reserve veteran, I know the importance of TRICARE,” he said in a press release. “The number of individuals who choose to enroll in TRICARE continues to rise because TRICARE is a low cost, comprehensive health plan that is portable and available in some form world-wide.” He went on to call TRICARE “world class health care,” concluding on a personal note. “I am grateful to have four sons now serving in the military, and I know that their families appreciate the availability of TRICARE,” he said.
What does that mean? Nothing─except that Joe Wilson was against government-run health care before he was for it. And now he’s against it again. Just not when it comes to his own flesh and blood.”
Bet he makes you proud he called Obama a liar.
Brava, SFG!
“This bill is another layer on top of everything else.”
Yep. It’s like trying to grow the perfect onion. It might be a nice onion but it still stinks
I agree with the posts above stating that the insurance companies have become parasitic and I have seen this personally with friends and family. Single payer is the only thing that really makes sense to cut through all the BS but no. It’s never going to happen. Too many people have too much money at stake to allow that sort of radical change.
Oh we’ll get health care reform alright, just like we got financial deregulation and airline deregulation and credit card reform and the Patriot Act…
There will be NO health care care reform. We’re being distracted from the more important.. no, THE MOST important issue: why the hell are we giving money to people who failed in business and damn near destroyed our country yet have no compassion for the sick and injured?
My my my.
Did I forget to mention bankruptcy reform as well?
That’s the kind of reform we’ll get.
Not because that is what Obama is proposing (he’s not), but because it’s what Congress is proposing.
Money Talks, Gold Shouts
John Browne
Sep 11, 2009
In the second quarter of 2008, when it became clear that bankrupted financial institutions would be bailed out by the federal government, gold did a funny thing. In the wake of a financial crisis of that magnitude, one normally would have expected asset prices, including gold, to plummet. Most observers expected the metal to dip from the $800 level down to $600, or below. Instead, gold held up well during the teeth of the crisis, and has recently increased to just over $1,000.
The biggest change in the gold market has been the unwillingness of certain governments to sell their gold. Some powerful states, such as China, are beginning to hoard gold and to become net sellers of U.S. Treasury securities. In addition, private investors are buying so many gold coins that fabrication plants are months behind on physical deliveries. In short, individuals, institutions and governments are losing faith in paper currencies, particularly the U.S. dollar. Despite the opportunity cost associated with trading interest-bearing government securities for pay-to-store bullion, they are buying gold.
Throughout much of recorded history, gold has proved to be the ultimate form of money. Due to its inherent scarcity, it has been the bane of governments who wished to spend more that they had or could borrow. Certain governments even diluted the gold content of their coins in order to dupe buyers.
The United States entered into federation with a sole reliance on gold as its legal tender. It was not until the Civil War that the U.S. government issues its first paper currency. However, this was not fiat money. All currency issued was backed by gold, and later by silver. But over the years, the backing was withdrawn as government looked to expand the money supply. By 1933, every $20 note was backed by only one ounce of gold at the Federal Reserve. That year, the Fed refused President Roosevelt’s request to further dilute the gold backing of dollars. In response, Roosevelt confiscated gold from all Americans. The Fed acquiesced and printed more paper dollars.
http://www.321gold.com/editorials/browne/browne091109.html
The biggest change in the gold market has been the unwillingness of certain governments to sell their gold. Some powerful states, such as China, are beginning to hoard gold and to become net sellers of U.S. Treasury securities.
This fact for some reason escapes those that claim that gold has no inherent value. If it has no value except as a commodity (for electronics etc.), then why do so many governments hoard so much of it? Are these governments hoarding nickel, or aluminum, or benzene, or copper, etc - other generally more useful commodities? Not that I’m aware of. They are hoarding oil of course, though for strategic not monetary purposes.
Under what conditions does gold have maximum value?
In an apocalyptic scenario, gold might be practically worthless compared to food, water, fuel and ammunition (and booze), so that’s not it.
In a completely healthy fiat-money economy, gold is practically worthless in the monetary sense.
So the answer is gold is most valuable in a narrow range somewhere between social nirvana and total disaster.
People (and governments) who predict we will enter and stay in that range, and want to be prepared for it, place a high value on gold. Gold need not have any value at this time for them to cherish it. They are looking down the road.
In an apocalyptic scenario, gold might be practically worthless compared to food, water, fuel and ammunition (and booze), so that’s not it.
A true world-wide apocalyptic scenario would pretty much involve the death of almost all humans. I doubt we’ll ever get there. Short of that (e.g. Mad Max) a currency of some sort will always be in demand. Even in a Mad Max world most exchange of goods and services is not direct two-way barter - anything beyond that generally requires some kind of currency. Heck even the very early European colonies in North America - arguably about as primitive as you can get - used various forms of currency. Even before the colonists the Native Americans used beads for currency - primarily because of their use in ornamentation (sound familiar?). The Incas and the Mayans used gold dust.
In a completely healthy fiat-money economy, gold is practically worthless in the monetary sense.
If you call $1000 a ounce “worthless” - more power to you. Yeah I can’t spend a gold coin at most stores - but many stores also won’t accept a $100 bill - that doesn’t make it worthless. (More true for things like $10,000 bill - though those were outlawed in 1969).
So the answer is gold is most valuable in a narrow range somewhere between social nirvana and total disaster.
That’s a pretty big range, IMO. We’re in it.
does it need to be worldwide apocalypse?
How about in the california gold rush towns.. i’ve heard eggs sold for 2 eggs per oz., and them miners weren’t even hungry. Isolation.. lack of transportation.. That’s all it takes.
If something is in short supply, it’ll take more gold to buy it same as it’d take more cash to buy it. If I have just enough food for myself and family, all your gold is not enough to buy it..
So gold used as a currency suffers that form of inflation. It’s just another currency.
Holders of gold don’t set prices. They are just customers.. consumers. They HOPE someone will take their gold in exchange for something they need.
People who own things that gold can buy are in control.
—–
No store must take dollars as far as I’m aware. Only the govt must accept it as legal tender.
—-
My point was that it’s selling for $1,000 an oz was partially due to gold’s being seen as a valuable safety net, and it may not have that $$ value today.
in other words, at $1,000 it’s priced too high. Current market conditions and risks do not justify that price. Price is based on matters of opinion about where the economy is headed, not on fundamentals. I won’t yet call it a bubble out of respect for bubbles.
———
I said a “narrow” range because I was asking about maximum value. Gold’s value must peak somewhere. It cannot peak in a wide range, imo.
“Under what conditions does gold have maximum value?”
When I’m broke and its in my sock drawer?
2005: Buy real estate now or you’ll be priced out forever. They’re not making any more land you know. And look at all these foreign investors buying condos in Miami. They must know something.
2009: Buy gold or be priced out forever. They’re not making any more gold you know and China is hoarding it, they must know something.
In response, Roosevelt confiscated gold from all Americans.
Does anyone have a link to a short history of this? Was the gold paid for? Using what kind of payment? This would appear to be an issue under the 5th Amd.: “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”
//
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_confiscation_order
people got $20.67 an oz.
The problem with wikipedia is that it isn’t a primary source. The article you linked contains the following:
“The Gold Reserve Act of 1934 abrogated the gold clause of the U.S. constitution. . .”
Huh? Statutes cannot amend the US Constitution. I’m not even sure what the “gold clause” could be. The only time I see “gold” in the US Constitution is Art. I sec. 10 where it says the states can’t make their own paper money.
afaik, Acts of Congress and Executive orders can do just about anything..
This confiscation order was Executive Order 6102
Although there is no Constitutional provision or statute that explicitly permits executive orders, there is a vague grant of “executive power” given in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, and the statement “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed” in Article II, Section 3. Most executive orders are orders issued by the President to US executive officers to help direct their operation[citation needed], the consequence of failing to comply being removal from office.
another wiki reference, Executive Orders.. sorry..
We gotta believe there was some serious challenges to it, and yet somehow it was deemed “constitutional”.
——
wiki is a fine one-stop reference to just about everything under the sun, imo. I agree it’s not definitive by any means.
The Gold Reserve Act of 1934 abrogated the gold clause of the U.S. constitution The statement is a distortion. FDR’s 1933-4 actions in taking the USA off the Gold Standard included legislation that abrogated ‘gold clauses’ in contracts that were in effect at the time. A ‘gold clause’, in a contract specifying the future payment of cash, gave the creditor the option to receive payment in gold or gold equivalent of the cash value, which would be specified in the contract, a certain weight of gold per $ of value. Some legislation in the 1930’s, don’t know if it was the cited one, rendered such clauses null and void.
— Objections to this were taken to the US Supreme Court, which somehow reasoned / weaseled around the sanctity of contracts. Congress has since re-instated the validity of gold clauses in contracts. IMO there is no reason anyone should expect that future contractual ‘gold clauses’ will be valid and upheld as written, in view of the shenanigans of the 1930’s.
Probably lots of info you could find via Google. My understanding is:
- If you turned it in yes it was paid for, at or maybe slightly above face value ($20 per ounce).
- Though confiscation was allowed and threatened by the act - I don’t think any actual confiscation took place. Obviously though it put the kibosh on using it for currency.
FWIW - I heard of some people just throwing their gold coins into the trash after the act took effect. Not sure if that’s true or not.
Gold’s @ $1005 this AM. It’s my understanding, from what I have read on the technical side, That it will have to break $1033 resistance, before another leg up to the $1200 range. I have never really understood charts that well, but I do know that Au has always been a pretty good inflation indicator.
At noon eastern time gold at $1010.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank has officially agreed to hold hearings on HR 1207! The hearings are tentatively scheduled for Friday, September 25 at 9:00 am.
Two weeks from today….
Little may happen, but it’s a step in the right direction!
Awesome.
Hopefully at least some good will come out of this.
My fear is that, despite RP’s best intentions, it will end up passing but being all for show with very little substance - e.g. an “audit” may just look at the surface beans and not really behind the scenes, and then be used as an excuse to expand the Fed’s powers. As in - they’ve been audited now and thus proven to be 100% safe!
I agree.
If it gets to the audit stage you get bet the fed will want it to be completely internal, and if it were to be an outside audit how deep would they be ‘allowed’ to go?
The only good news is, if it goes forward at least the hands off can’t touch the fed, veil is some what pierced.
Maybe instead of calling it an audit, they should call it a ’stress test’. Audits have the connotation of being thorough and accurate.
They do? When did this happen?
They do? When did this happen?
Well, no—not recently, Mr. Nit-picky. But, like, you know—in theory.
:laugh:
Ok, well, it’s done.
If you’ve ever tried searching the HBB, you know that the search function only covers the posts.
I’ve written a data-scraper and a crude search page for comments.
It needs a lot more work, but it’s functional. For now, results are limited to 100, because it needs a paging mechanism.
If you are using the Joshua Tree Extension, you might want to disable it, because when you land on a search page, the JTE will take you to your first unread, instead of what you were searching for.
Ben, I have no interest in hosting/maintaining this thing, so as soon as it’s more complete, I’d love to give it to you. Sorry about the URL, it’s just one I had lying around - don’t ask.
HBB Comment Search
If you are using the Joshua Tree Extension, you might want to disable it, because when you land on a search page, the JTE will take you to your first unread, instead of what you were searching for.
The JTE won’t do anything by default…only if you click the “next” button (unless you have an OLD version of the JTE). If it is doing something funky, let me know.
Thanks for writing the search doohickey, btw.
The JTE won’t do anything by default…only if you click the “next” button (unless you have an OLD version of the JTE). If it is doing something funky, let me know.
You’re right. I just didn’t test thoroughly and I assumed the JTE re-write was a jump to unread.
I’m using FF 3.0.x on Linux and Solaris, BTW.
Also, thanks for the JTE - I love it.
I just didn’t test thoroughly and I assumed the JTE re-write was a jump to unread.
You mean where it’s jumping to an anchor on the page on load? Nah, that’s just to work around the re-layout of the page after adding the toolbar to the bottom. Shame I have to do that, but otherwise it messes up the scroll position.
Glad you find it useful.
He said OpenSolaris. High five fellow geek. Extra points if you’re running it on Sparc and not Intel.
He said OpenSolaris. High five fellow geek.
Man, I hate to disappoint.
At work I’ve got Solaris 10 on a SunBlade 1500 workstation.
I have Fedora and ubuntu at home.
No extra points for me, I guess…
Works great for me. Thanks lavi.
If Ben isn’t interested in hosting it and I can have CGI scripts (need to look at my TOS), I can probably host it.
Awesome!
It appears it’s case-sensitive. Can you put in an option for it to not be?
Thanks for the tool!
P.S. - “inksex”?
I was just thinking that I can integrate this into the JTE if people would find it useful (rather than a separate page). Assuming lavi wouldn’t mind if I make a call to his(?) script.
that would be very nice if lavi is willing
I was just thinking that I can integrate this into the JTE if people would find it useful (rather than a separate page). Assuming lavi wouldn’t mind if I make a call to his(?) script.
I was thinking it could be a toolbar, too. Is that what you’re thinking?
Go right ahead! I’m not much of a “layout” person, anyway. I’m going to put in more competent search functions this weekend, and then feel free to wrap it or call it or Ajax the crap out of it!
Also, the most logical thing is for Ben to host it, so that it has direct access to the database. I have a “scraper” that I have to use to update my database.
It appears it’s case-sensitive. Can you put in an option for it to not be?
The name search is supposedly not case sensitive and it should also do a partial match. If you put in “jones”, you should get “Ben Jones” as well as “Flipper Jones”, or “JonesinForJerky”
Case-insensitivity doesn’t appear to make much sense for date searching and seems problematic for full-text searching on the back end. But then, maybe I just haven’t thought it through.
I’m going to try to finish it this weekend. What I have in mind is:
-Results paging, if you get more than 100 results, there’ll be a button at the bottom to load the next 100.
-Results per page selection, granular in steps of 25.
-Fuzzy/Strict search selection on names - right now name search is default fuzzy.
-Cleaner layout (unless Drumminj beats me to it/or does a better job)
Any other suggestions?
(inksex was just a url I had. I didn’t want the Search Page to be a subdomain of any of my others)
inksex was just a url I had.
Suuuurrrrre it was…
But moving on from your no-doubt lurid habits:
Lavi! Thanks! This is gonna be very super! Many times I’ve wished I could re-read someone’s thought or facts and that’s just too bad—it’s gone forever, unless I want to spend an hour looking before I give up anyway. Or I cut and paste, and those documents can pile up as well.
Thank you!
This is gonna be very super!
Thanks Oly.
Keep in mind that results are currently limited to the first 100 matches. After I get paging to work, then you could see thousands of matches, depending on what you search for.
Keep in mind that results are currently limited to the first 100 matches.
That’s okay. My fruit-fly sized span of attention will probably be limited to the first 10 matches in any case, so 100 is still much more than enough.
I just think it’s gonna be a great tool. I can’t wait to spend even MORE time poring over Bens Blog.
Really cool lavi d…many thanks for your time & effort!
Thanks, Lavi. This is great.
Dang, lavi.
This is a national treasure (trove.) Thanks so much!
I like this one…
The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed down from generation to generation, says that when you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.
In the enlightened public service, however, a whole range of far more advanced strategies is often employed, such as:
1. Change riders.
2. Buy a stronger whip.
3. Do nothing: “This is the way we have always ridden dead horses”.
4. Visit other countries to see how they ride dead horses.
5. Perform a productivity study to see if lighter riders improve the dead horse’s performance.
6. Hire a contractor to ride the dead horse.
7. Harness several dead horses together in an attempt to increase the speed.
8. Provide additional funding and/or training to increase the dead horse’s performance.
9. Appoint a committee to study the horse and assess how dead it actually is.
10. Re-classify the dead horse as “living-impaired”.
11. Develop a Strategic Plan for the management of dead horses.
12. Rewrite the expected performance requirements for all horses.
13. Modify existing standards to include dead horses.
14. Declare that, as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overheads, and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line than many other horses.
15. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.
Plan B options:
Stimulate the dead horse through quantitative feeding.
Forgot # 16. Outsource riding of dead horse to Chindia.
Give the dead horse “The Best of Mr. Ed” DVD.
Have Oly give the dead horse “The Best of Shorty” DVD.
Plan C
Sell dead horse to the French for horsemeat. Get free wild horse from BLM wild horses program.
Sort of like what the Fed is doing to China with bond sales.
May I add “Shoot the living horses to level the playing field”?
Or you can sell the carcass to KalCan and use the proceeds to buy a bicycle.
Or you can sell the carcass to KalCan and use the proceeds to buy a bicycle.
Too sensible.
Appoint a “Horse Czar” and declare war on dead horses.
Slice the dead horse into billions of little pieces, stamp them “grade AAA” and sell them abroad. Wait till they are all poisoned then fill the last dead horse with crap and send it to the doorstep of China and light on fire.
Stimulate the dead horse through quantitative feeding.
Genius.
Turn dead horse over to the smart guys, who will form a special purposes vehicle to slice and dice the dead horse into tranches that will be rated as AAA asset-backed securities by the rating agencies, and then sell them to banks, pension funds, Iceland, and that Norwegian village.
Only the lower mezzanine investors will be in trouble unless, by some fluke, the entire horse carcass rots.
unless, by some fluke, the entire horse carcass rots
You can’t say that, can you? Surely no one can have foreseen that the carcass would rot.
Whocouldanode?
What a GREAT thread, guys. Excellent.
Paint it gold…sell it on eBay…buy gold, buy gold, buy gold!
Mark Hulbert
Sept. 11, 2009, 12:01 a.m. EDT
Let’s do the time warp again
Commentary: Few advisers a year ago anticipated what was about to happen
Sentiment may support higher prices in market
By Mark Hulbert, MarketWatch
ANNANDALE, Va. (MarketWatch) — I spent a depressing day earlier this week reading through what newsletter editors were saying exactly one year ago.
That was just before Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, of course. The stock market was about to go over a cliff, entering a free fall from which it would not stop for another six months.
Just around the corner, in other words, was one of the most eventful and traumatic periods that any of us would ever experience. And, yet, precious few of the advisers appeared to be even dimly aware of such a possibility.
…
Now all the gurus are telling you to buy cause the market is going up.the run up was started by short covering.when this happens prices rise fairly fast.the retail investor sees the opportunity to make a quick buck and jumps back in.I feel like they are going to lose to wall street once again.
Dumb question of the day:
To what extent is academic financial economic dogma (efficient market hypothesis, competitive market behavior, first and second welfare theorems, etc) a complete mischaracterization of a US economy long dominated by too-big-to-fail bailout policy, crony capitalism and disaster capitalism?
Sounds like a good essay question for some econ 101 students. But it might make their heads explode.
A lot of the economic theory doesn’t even require TBTF or crony capitalism to fail. All it takes is a good marketing campaign by a financial services company or house selling company to get people to behave irrationally and thus negate most economic theory.
Take “By now or get priced out forever!” as an example. There is the implication that housing prices will go up faster than income. We all know that is impossible in the long run. But apparently most of the public does not, and is either incapable of figuring that out or can’t be bothered to second guess advice being given by salespeople.
Professor Bear,
I think our “current academic financial economic” (CAFE) dogma appears to be grossly at odds with today’s “Too-big-to-fail-crony-capitalist-bailout-nation” (TBTFCCBN) economy.
However, in a Republic that has a campaign financing system that allows excessive corporate influence, and also has corporations manipulating both academics and politics, I see that a (TBTFCCBN) economy is a natural result of placing blind faith in certain theories of, and changing laws to conform to the portions of the CAFE dogma that benefit big business the most.
The wholehearted embracing of certain but many of the principals of efficient market hypothesis, competitive market behavior and the welfare theorems by both political parties, perversely enabled too-big-to-fail institutions and crony capitalism to emerge as it eliminated firewalls, regulations and protections that had prevented their formation before.
Incessant corporate promotion of the CAFE dogma fostered a political environment that gutted such protections as Glass-Steagall, and thus spawned too-big-to-fail institutions, which by definition are not required to follow capitalism’s basic rules of being subject to creative destruction or collapse due to bad decisions such as making bad mortgages. Not having to follow rules, many corporations and people didn’t which led to a financial bacchanal.
When something becomes too-big-to-fail it is exactly that, and when the crisis hit we changed from a crony/quasi capitalistic system into a disaster capitalism situation requiring bailouts that violate the principals of the CAFE dogma that spawned it.
Whether this happened by a conspiracy of the PTB or it happened because people are just dumb sometimes, I don’t know.
Sorry about the long sentences but my head hurts now…
To what extant?
Completely. “Efficient market” is just like “free market.” A complete fairy tale used to fleece the rubes.
Oh, ouch, Prof.
Would love to read YOUR answer!
Any attempt to quantify, predict, or manipulate mob behavior or human greed is a fool’s errand…chaos theory to the contrary. Too many outliers to form any sort of linear calculus.
There is not enough mob behavior or (individual) human greed driving markets any more, except through the destructive channels of concentrated political and economic might in the hands of a few central planners with overwhelming financial fire power.
Answer to my rhetorical question:
The toolkit of modern financial economics is a complete mischaracterization of rigged financial markets largely driven by manipulation through government (and quasi-government) interference.
What would it mean for the Fed to “face a shortfall,” given that they own exclusive rights to a technology called a printing press?
The Fed
Sept. 10, 2009, 11:20 p.m. EDT
Fed won’t lose independence, Kohn says
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The Federal Reserve is not in danger of losing its independence to set interest rates as a result of its unconventional monetary policy, Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn said Thursday.
Kohn said the Fed’s credit risk is “very small” and conservative. The central bank has subjected the assets that it purchased from financial firms to tough scrutiny and reduced the value where appropriate.
“We take this very seriously,” Kohn said.
A paper written by Ricardo Reis, an economics professor at Columbia University, had suggested the Fed might be vulnerable to political influence, especially if it faced a shortfall from its emergency response to the crisis.
…
Take Some Money off the Table
Bob Moriarty
Sep 11, 2009
This is an opinion. It is only an opinion. I am not a guru. I don’t believe in gurus.
The stock market is getting nuts. It’s been a wild ride higher and now everyone wants investors to believe all is right with the world. It’s not. Things are getting worse daily. If you are in the stock market, take some money off the table. There are more optimists now than there were at the market high in October of 2007.
The dollar is getting clobbered. Everyone hates the dollar. When everyone hates the dollar, it’s going to go higher.
Gold and silver are behaving well but they too, are overdone. You don’t have to be 100% invested all of the time. If you have some profits, take some money off the table. If you don’t have profits, you haven’t been reading me for the last nine months.
We probably are not at exactly a trading top but we are pretty close. Better to sell a day early than a day late.
This is only an opinion. It didn’t come down the mountain with Moses carved into pretty marble. But I’m going to the caution mode myself. It’s been too easy to make money for too long and that always makes me nervous.
Bob Moriarty
President: 321gold
I think this guy has it right.I am listening to all these money gurus telling us that the market is going higher.I think they are trying to suck the retail investor back in so they can sell to them.I dont trust a word the people on wall street say.They are in the business of taking money from the everyday american so they can live the high life.The stock market is looking way to optimistic for my blood.the retail invsetor seems to like to buy when the market is going up.You dont make money this way as far as I have learned.
There are usually at least two compelling reasons for the little guy buying in at the market top.
The MSM has been painting such a rosy picture for so long it seems safe.
The little guy’s results in other areas of life have been so poor that he feels jumping in now couldn’t make things much worse.
Wrong on both counts, he will next stubbornly hold on until values are cut by 1/2 to 2/3 and then bail, forming the capitulation bottom in the next cycle.
HBB readers may have fun applying the above to housing circa 2004 as well as Stock Market 2009.
Right on arizonadude ……So when the market goes down again the
players buy ,than they drive it up ,suck in the retail investor ,sell at high again ,repeat and repeat .
Actually ,I really don’t know what the long term trend will be ,can’t really get a feel anymore for anything ,makes investing very difficult .
Slight Economic Slowdown Dead Ahead. . ?
A survey of economists indicates the economy is expanding at a 2.9 percent annual rate at the moment, but will slow to a 2.2 percent pace during the last three months of the year.
The anticipated expansion won’t be enough to prevent the unemployment rate from reaching 10 percent by the end of this year. This will force the Federal Reserve to keep the present low Fed Funds basic interest rate low until the third quarter of 2010, according to the median projection of several mainstream economists.
Actual events could turn these guesstimates upside down.
Meanwhile, retired Professor of Finance Mike Rozeff thinks the USA is still heading into big trouble. Among other shortcomings, he notes that Federal Reserve strategy has been dysfunctional for Americans at large (while benefiting bankers) from the start. The currency has lost at least 95 percent of its worth. The FED has placed the country on a roller coaster of booms and busts. Lately it has fostered notable bubbles in the stock, real estate, and commodity markets. We are in the midst of the current bust. This and the last administration have supported the FED. They are working toward giving it greater regulatory powers. This shows that the government is not abandoning this failed strategy.
Poor CNN, They suck in the ratings, and now they piss-off the White House.
Gibbs bashes CNN
Says ‘checking would be good’
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs chastised CNN Friday morning for its reporting on a Coast Guard training exercise on …
… the Potomac River, which suggested a security incident was in progress in the nation’s capital.
“Before we report things like this, checking would be good,” Gibbs said.
Responding directly to a CNN reporter’s question about whether the public should have been notified about a training exercise, Gibbs was harshly sarcastic: “If anybody was unnecessarily alarmed based on erroneous reporting that denoted that shots had been fired, I think everybody is apologetic about that.”
When another journalist noted that the Coast Guard was holding a news conference to take questions on the morning’s events, Gibbs jabbed: “Hopefully CNN will go.”
The president’s spokesman also said the White House had not been notified in advance about any Coast Guard training exercise, but dismissed comparisons to the notoriously botched Air Force One flyover of Lower Manhattan earlier this year.
“I tend not to question law enforcement,” Gibbs said, explaining the scheduling of the exercise was “a decision that was made by the Coast Guard.”
This country has a long and proud history beginning with the original 13 colonies of news media creating news instead of reporting news.
Some of their best work created wars.
Gibbs is a sarcastic, pompous *sshole. I’m glad the white house news media is finally catching on.
Texas governor sends Rangers to Mexico border
Perry accuses federal government of failing to ‘adequately secure’ zone
Fri., Sept . 11, 2009 (AP)
HOUSTON - Special teams of Texas Rangers will be deployed to the Texas-Mexico border to deal with increasing violence because the federal government has failed to address growing problems there, Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday.
“It is an expansive effort with the Rangers playing a more high-profile role than they’ve ever played before,” Perry said of the Department of Public Safety’s elite investigative unit.
The forces, dubbed “Ranger recon” teams, are the latest effort “to fill the gap that’s been left by the federal government’s ongoing failure to adequately secure our international border with Mexico,” he said.
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The governor early this year asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for 1,000 National Guard troops and renewed his call last month in a letter to President Barack Obama. The request is bogged down over who will pay for the troops and how they will be deployed.
This is why I think the war on terror is bogus. This and previous administrations are/were more than happy to leave our southern border wide open. Gotta have that cheap labor.
Gov Rick Perry will be in a rough primary election fight soon….needs to pre wrap the flag around campaign issues.
Aw man, that’s gotta suck…
Condo owner finds out he’s been living and renovating in the wrong unit.
Denver
Condo owner finds out he’s been living and renovating in the wrong unit DENVER - He bought his first home, spent $30,000 fixing it up, and now, six months later, Jonathon Kyte has learned the home doesn’t belong to him.
According to the City and County of Denver, Jonathon owns the dump, next door. He found out about the mistake almost by accident when he received a map which showed the unit he’s living is actually unit No. 4.
“I froze. My wife and I were just speechless,” Kyte said.
Kyte owns the deed and title to unit No. 5.
Jonathon blames the Coldwell Banker listing agent for the mistake. She marketed the property and provided the key to the unit Jonathon and wife have been living in.
He called the listing agent again and again, but she wouldn’t return his calls. He also called the title company, “Colorado American Title,” and an employee promised to get back to him, but never did.
So Jonathon called FOX 31 News. We confronted the listing agent’s supervisor, but he would not comment on camera. He said their lawyers were looking into the situation.
Jonathon is now considered a squatter in unit No. 4, and the people who were so willing to sell it to him, are now unwilling to help.
I would blame the real estate agent also ,or maybe it was a Title Company mistake . A party who hires a real estate company /title company would have a reasonable expectation that the house shown and the key given was to the house that the real estate company was marketing .I wonder if the same seller owned both houses ,because I wonder how the agent got the key to the mistaken house .
The title company is likely not responsible for this. They insure that he has good title to Unit 4 which he absolutely does. Not their fault he picked the wrong unit to live in. The broker may have some liability here, but if there are plans and other stuff of record then maybe not….
My post should read Unit 4 not Unit 5, guess the Unit # mistake is an epidemic
Mr. Kyte has to refer back to the property identification number (or whatever its called in CO) that was on his original purchase contract, his HUD statement, the deed, and whatever other papers were used between offer and closing. The title company likely wouldn’t be at fault. I would have expected a good real estate attorney to double check that the property number matches the address, so there could be some liability there. I’d guess the error began somewhere between the buying agent and listing agent.
“According to the City and County of Denver, Jonathon owns the dump, next door”.
LOL! This was my favorite line in the story.
my favorite line
Me too. And the eccentric punctuation enhances it. It’s like poetry.
Jonathon is now considered a squatter in unit No. 4, and the people who were so willing to sell it to him, are now unwilling to help.
Isn’t this the responsibility of the title company? Isn’t that why we use title companies? To make sure the title is clear and the land is what/where it’s supposed to be?
Interesting story - thanks for posting it. If you find out what happens, please update.
Man….That’s rough…. I hate even working on MY OWN house.
Wells Fargo exec. throws parties in beach home surrendered to bank by Madoff-duped couple
By Michael Corkery
Wall Street has long worried that the hundreds of thousands of foreclosed houses in the U.S. are losing even more value as they become havens for vandals, vermin and drug dealers looking for a place to crash.
According to an LA times article this morning, a Wells executive, who is responsible for the bank’s foreclosed commercial properties, was seen throwing parties at a $12 million beach house in Malibu, California, which the previous owners had to surrender to Wells to satisfy debts. According to the article, Wells Fargo had refused to show the house to prospective buyers, perplexing local real estate agents.
Adding fuel to what must be a public-relations nightmare for the bank is the fact that the couple who lost the home in foreclosure had to give up the property because they were victims of Bernie Madoff’s ponzi scheme.
The Times interviewed neighbors who said they spotted the Wells executive, Cheronda Guyton, throwing lavish parties at the sleek, modern house with a patio overlooking the Pacific. At one party, guests arrived by yacht.
According to the Times, Guyton couldn’t be reached at her downtown Los Angeles office and Wells Fargo declined to discuss Guyton but said the bank will “conduct a thorough investigation of the allegations.”
It hasn’t been a great week for Wells, one of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders. Banks like Wells are taking heat for failing to modify troubled mortgages quickly enough as part of the Obama administration’s $75 billion foreclosure prevent plan. According to the Treasury, Wells Fargo has started trial mediations for 11% of its eligible borrowers who are at least 60 days overdue. That lags behind the average 12% rate of modifications among the nation’s lenders. Congressional leaders say lenders need to move faster to prevent another wave of foreclosures from stalling the housing recovery.
It appears that at least one Wells executive involved in this effort may have been a bit, well, distracted in recent months.
Congressional leaders say lenders need to move faster to prevent another wave of foreclosures from stalling the housing recovery.
Voted most nonsensical line.
Umm. aaahh. fired! Let’s see how long Wells Fargo will drag this out.
At least they were upscale “vandals, vermin and drug dealers looking for a place to crash.”
Yeah. Expensive shoes and handbags make all the difference, don’t they?
A light goes off…
R.Russell
http://www.321gold.com/editorials/russell/russell091109.html
I’m looking at R. Russells long term gold chart from the link.
I’m no technician but in 2003 I read and observed that from 1999-2003 gold was forming a very rare, symmetrical, long term teacup and handle formation and whenever you saw this in your life to back up the truck IF the chart rose above the handle portion of the formation. Well gold did and it was off to the races.
Gold broke out of another cup and handle in 2004-2005.5 and looks like its forming somewhat of another cup and handle from 2008 to today, but it looks strange. Does anyone know if this latest is another cup and handle formation?
I will add that there was even another cup and handle formation from 06-08 which broke above it’s handle. As you can see from the long term chart every time gold broke clearly above the “handle” of the cup, gold rose strongly. IF gold is in another cup and handle now, it looks like 1050 would break it above its current handle.
Disclaimer: Never listen to me for investment advice and this is not that but I’m wondering if there are any technicians out there with any comments.
“I will add that there was even another cup and handle formation from 06-08 which broke above it’s handle.”
And to that, I will add that the tea leaves in the bottom of my cup look downright peculiar today. A crash in gold prices cannot be far off into the future.
BTW, I’m no technician, either, so never listen to me for investment advice.
So you are expecting a strong dollar and deflation?
“So you are expecting a strong dollar and deflation?”
Just expressing my disdain for chart reading.
He does not seem to believe another leg down in the stock market might suddenly occur, hammering gold and driving up the dollar.
This is just silly. How could the DJIA collapse when the PPT has its back?
Dow Could Climb, then Collapse
9/11/2009
The Dow’s at a near-term top on its way to 10,800, according to Thomas Kee, president and CEO of Stock Traders Daily. But watch for a 40% to 50% correction starting in 2010. Stacey Delo reports.
He does not seem to believe another leg down in the stock market might suddenly occur, hammering gold and driving up the dollar.
Last big leg down in the stock market didn’t hammer gold so much.
But where would gold have gone if the stock market hadn’t crashed? My guess: Much higher than expected.
I’m no pro either, but it looks to me like this guy has his chart patterns bass ackwards.
The only time I’ve read where that upside down H & S pattern shown signals anything is at the end of a trend DOWN, not up.
That so-called H & S could also be construed as a double top, which is a sign of a change in the trend (to down, usually).
MALIBU, Calif. (AP) — A Wells Fargo & Co. executive who oversees foreclosed properties hosted parties and spent long summer weekends in a $12 million Malibu beach house, moving into the home just after it had been surrendered to Wells Fargo to satisfy debts, neighbors said.
The previous owners of the beachfront home in Malibu Colony — a densely built stretch of luxury homes that has been a favorite of celebrities over the years — were financially devastated in Bernard Madoff’s massive fraud scheme, real estate agent Irene Dazzan-Palmer said.
The couple signed the property over to Wells Fargo last spring, and the bank subsequently denied requests to show the house to prospective buyers, Dazzan-Palmer said.
Residents in the gated community told the Los Angeles Times that a woman they believe was Cheronda Guyton took up occupancy at the home in May. Residents said they obtained Guyton’s name from the community’s guards, who had issued her a homeowner’s parking pass.
I simply love that story. I will hopefully remember to repost another version of it tomorrow…
Article in WSJ yest
BAnks are taking more risk then in 2008,2007,and about twice the risk in 2005/6. They looked at potential daily trading losses.
Moral Hazard, what moral hazard.
So how many of you would encourage you representative or senator to introduce a new kind of bill — cutting off every member of Congress from the “public option” that protects them and their families?
Would you be for it? Let the legislature and their families fend for themselves like the rest of us.
It’s interesting to hear how certain members of our legislature are so against government run plans yet they don’t mind helping themselves out. Here’s just a few of these procedures that were performed at government run hospitals to perform.
1. Coronary artery bypass surgery, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
2. Potentially lethal melanoma removal, John McCain (R-AZ)
3. Hip replacement surgery, Senator Kit Bond (R-Mo.),
4. Implanting a pacemaker, Senator George Voinovich, (R-Ohio),
5 Kidney removal, and Prostate cancer, Rep. Roy Blunt, (R-Mo.)
cutting off every member of Congress from the “public option” that protects them and their families?
That is such an incredibly powerful point.
Government provided medical care is only socialist and/or inept when it’s the people getting it.
This should be a real eye-opener to anyone who holds up Amtrak or the Post Office as examples of poorly-run government programs - just say, “Bethesda”.
Ouch.
None of these good folk would get health insurance. They all have pre-existing conditions…expensive ones too.
SanFranciscoBayAreaGal,
Nice post…:-)
Rio you deserve some credit for this. I copied and pasted some of what you posted yesterday.
So how many of you would encourage you representative or senator to introduce a new kind of bill — cutting off every member of Congress from the “public option” that protects them and their families?
How about a requirement that all members of Congress have to live by the rules that they make for the rest of us? I’d be for that.
Actually pubies are talking about including congress and government employees pat of the new public plan. Just like the voucher issue, the dems don’t want that at all.
It’s interesting to hear how certain members of our legislature are so against government run plans yet they don’t mind helping themselves out.
These people work for the government, so they get health care through the government. Other people work for the private sector and get their health care privately. What’s the point?
What’s the point? Take it as a lesson in rhetoric.
So by SFGal’s logic, anyone who gets an operation through a private health program, but wants others to have government health insurance, is a hypocrite too?
You are really that dense LVG?
No SFBAG,
LVG has it right. You are the one cherry picking. The logic works in reverse too.
No blackwater. I’m not cherry picking. Try again.
LVGuy,
The point is that all Congressmen get to choose between like 60 private plans unlike us, AND they have to pay EXTRA to be part using Government facilities.
And the Republicans she listed are all very much against a public plan and say it will provide sub-par care. BUT they pay extra to use the Government/Public facilities to perform very serious procedures.
They are hypocrites.
So it is a good point….
Here’s the link: Link: http://tinyurl.com/lkl7ou
Thanks, LVG. I was going to make the same point. Their employer provides their insurance. Similar thing as happens in the private sector.
I do, however, agree that if the gov’t does get involved in healthcare, that gov’t employees and citizens should get the same kind of coverage. While I realize it’s principally inconsistent, I’m okay with the armed forces and vets getting a different level of care.
All I want is the OPTION to buy into their plan. At their rates.
Good point SFBAG. These clowns are bought off politicians who are fighting for the special interest groups and it will take a long time to actually get something that would actually be for the people and by the people .
What, pray tell, happened to the dollar after September 2008?
Currencies
Sept. 11, 2009, 2:26 p.m. EDT
Dollar dips on optimism, carry trades
By Deborah Levine, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The U.S. dollar slipped to new lows Friday, after strong data on U.S. confidence followed Chinese economic news and boosted investors’ appetite for riskier assets.
A growing chorus of analysts also speculated that investors may be resuming trades using the dollar as a funding currency to buy higher-yielding assets, known as carry trades.
With U.S. benchmark interest rates expected to remain low for some time, “individuals and institutions are still incentivized to use the dollar as a financing currency,” said Marc Chandler, head of global currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman. “Investors are also just selling dollars to buy what they anticipate will be better-returning assets.”
The dollar index (DXY 76.61, -0.20, -0.26%) , a measure of the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of currencies, stood lately at 76.652, down from 76.824 in New York trading Thursday afternoon.
“The U.S. dollar’s growing attraction as a funding vehicle should keep it under pressure across the board.” - strategists at Morgan Stanley.
Earlier, it tumbled to 76.457, its lowest level since September 2008. All told, the index fell around 2% for the week, according to FactSet Research.
…
“A growing chorus of analysts also speculated that investors may be resuming trades using the dollar as a funding currency to buy higher-yielding assets, known as carry trades.”
This seems to make good sense if you believe you can buy dollars at a lower price (exchange rate) down the road.
Not enough suckers have bought “The Precious™” yet to hammer it back down to earth again…
Countdown to the close: 0:38:20
Gold climbs to new heights
Yellow metal settles at $1,004 an ounce as dollar’s plunge deepens. Futures higher for fourth week.
If the green shooters were correct about incipient US economic recovery, wouldn’t the dollar be strengthening about now instead of tanking?
Economists are like chickens running around with their head’s cut off now. Remember back in 2006 when oil rising in price meant equities tanked? Now it’s the reverse.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Stocks slipped Friday, as falling oil prices dragged on the influential commodities sector and investors took a step back after pushing the major indexes to 11-month highs in the previous session.
Don’t question it, it just is!
As long as they never, ever admit how today’s data juxtaposed against yesterday’s bold prognostication makes them look like complete idiots.
Revised remark, thanks to late night posting after wine:
…idiots, where is the problem.
but what if the government is trying to tank the dollar as part of its “recovery” plan? Doesn’t that muddy the waters a bit?
Tanking the dollar means
1. higher interest rates, falling house prices.
2. It means more money for food and fuel and less for everything else.
3. It will eventually mean angry mobs
I’m thinking the plan will be to tank the dollar as long as possible before it becomes utterly essential to play the Volcker card one more time.
U.S. Concerned on Debt Demand, Treasury’s Dollar Says (Update3)
By Bloomberg News
Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. government is concerned about overall demand for Treasuries, not appetite from individual countries, said David Dollar, the U.S. Treasury Department’s economic and financial emissary to China.
“The interest rate on long-term treasury bonds is at a very low level by historical standards,” Dollar said today at the World Economic Forum meeting in Dalian, China. “That says that the market has confidence the U.S. will get the fiscal problem under control.”
…
What if it is not “the market” which is setting the bid?
From CNBC: Lehman Brothers knew in 2006 something was wrong when people started missing thier first mortgage payment.
“They” all knew when they started working on the bankruptcy “reform” laws.
My stimulus idea. Tax breaks (or ? incentives) for each corporation/company who:
Has $xxx revenue and hires xxx # of new US employees
Has $xx revenue and hires xx # of new US employees
Has $x revenue and hires x # of new US employees
You get the idea. What do you think?
Joke for the day.
What’s the different between voodoo priests and economists?
One is a collection of primitive superstitions practiced by a secretive cabal to the detriment of the population at large and the other is an island religion.
good one, eco
Not bad, but your grammar could use a realignment:
What’s the different between voodoo
priestsandeconomistseconomics?It’s Friday, that means its bank shutdown day:Brickwell Community Bank, Corus Bank, N.A. are the first two to go.
Will tonights count be the usual 4 or 5?
Just three so far — “fewer than expected”…
Corus shut down…..finally.
per CNBC’s breaking news banner
Another in the list of tonight’s flopped banks was Venture Bank, NA of Lacy WA. I was actually a depositor, have had an account for 3 days shy of a year.
Eight more bank failures to cross the century mark for 2009, and it should take about three more weekends to get there at the recent pace…
Big ouch! With all the renowned economists around Columbia, you would think they could get their endowment to perform better. Similarly for Yale (where Robert Shiller is on faculty) and Harvard (where Nicholas Retsinas and Lawrence Summers, among other housing and financial experts, work)…
* The Wall Street Journal
* BUSINESS
* SEPTEMBER 12, 2009
Columbia Endowment Falls 21%
By JOHN HECHINGER
Columbia University, reporting narrower investment losses than some of its Ivy League peers, said its endowment in the past year declined 21% in value to $5.7 billion.
More
* Harvard, Yale Are Big Investing Losers
For the year ended June 30, the New York school reported the endowment had an investment loss of 16% — less than the 18% drop reported in the median return for big endowments, according to Wilshire Associates, an investment-management consultant. The decline also marked an improvement over the negative-22% Columbia had reported for the first nine months of its fiscal year.
The overall size of the endowment, which fell by $1.5 billion during the year, reflects both spending and donations, as well as investment return. As of June 2008, when the Columbia endowment was valued at $7.2 billion, it was the nation’s ninth largest.
…
* The Wall Street Journal
* THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR
* SEPTEMBER 12, 2009
Should a Shrinking Dollar Worry You?
* By JASON ZWEIG
The dollar is falling. Is the sky falling, too?
As of this week, a dollar would buy only 0.68 euro, down from 0.80 in March and a peak of 1.21 in 2000. The greenback slid against other major currencies as well.
That may be a problem for investors. If most of your assets are in dollars but much of the goods and services you consume are priced in other currencies — say you like imported cars or regularly vacation abroad — your future spending needs have just gotten harder to fund.
Fortunately, it’s not that hard to protect against further erosion in the dollar. And not all investors need to take action. Hedging would be vital, quips Campbell Harvey, an economist at Duke University who edits the Journal of Finance, “if your mortgage is denominated in euros.”
…
But for prospective future home buyers, the price may effectively be denominated in euros. Buy now or get your downpayment savings devalued forever!