Bits Bucket For September 13, 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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How many other banksters are living large in foreclosure homes, but have not yet been caught? I certainly hope there are many more such stories to come!
Wells Fargo exec used Malibu Colony home lost by Madoff-duped couple, neighbors say
A top bank executive was seen spending weekends and hosting parties in the $12-million beach house. The bank says it will ‘conduct a thorough investigation of the allegations’ by neighbors.
Residents identified the house’s occupant as Cheronda Guyton, a Wells Fargo senior vice president who is responsible for foreclosed commercial properties. (Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times)
106 Malibu Colony Road
By E. Scott Reckard and David Sarno
September 11, 2009
Bernard L. Madoff’s massive fraud stunned some of the wealthy denizens of Malibu Colony, especially when a couple devastated by the scheme surrendered their oceanfront home to Wells Fargo Bank.
But some neighbors say the real shocker came when they saw one of the bank’s top executives spending weekends in the $12-million beach house and hosting eye-catching parties there. What’s more, Wells Fargo spurned offers to show the property to prospective buyers, a real estate agent said.
“It’s outrageous to take over a property like that, not make it available and then put someone from the bank in it,” said Phillip Roman, an 18-year Colony resident who lives a few homes away from the property.
Residents identified the house’s occupant as Cheronda Guyton, a Wells Fargo senior vice president who is responsible for foreclosed commercial properties.
Guyton could not be reached at her downtown Los Angeles office. Wells Fargo declined to discuss Guyton, saying in a statement that representatives “don’t discuss specific team member situations/issues for privacy reasons.” But the bank said it would “conduct a thorough investigation of the allegations” by neighbors.
…
The only decent thing to do is send her a bill equal to the FMV of rental.
Or just send a 1099 to the IRS and the CA franchise tax board…..
According to a new story at the LA Times, the house is offered for lease as a vacation home for $60,000 per month.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-malibu-wells12-2009sep12,0,1526938.story
If Wells Fargo owns the property, isn’t this just an issue between the bank and the employee? Was there any crime committed?
That’s right… morals, decency, consideration, manners, modesty…. screw all that stuff!
As someone who works on foreclosed houses, there are a lot of things wrong here. It probably is a crime, like using company property for personal use. Plus, WF probably doesn’t own it outright; there could be owners of the MBSs that have an interest.
The biggest no-no is that the house likely isn’t insured for habitation. If someone were to get hurt, or if a fire got started, for example, then WF could be on the hook or get sued.
Unfortunately, no fires appear to have broken out while the premises were in use.
That’s a good point about the MBS’s. If nothing else, WF certainly isn’t looking out for it’s share holders by keeping it off the market. But since when are banks moral creatures? Just seems like business as usual to me. It seems unlikely there’s be any enforcement anyway. Laws that are not enforced might as well not even exist.
If they threw a party and the guests smoked doobies, couldn’t the DEA seize the house under assset forfeiture rules? That would be a major “bummer” for Wells Fargo.
Come on Ben, you know you throw wild parties in your preservation properties all the time.
Screw the share holders. Oh, you mean they have already done that ???
Its Wells property, they can do whatever they want with it.
Read Ben’s post above.
Besides, how do you know they didn’t use TARP or some other form of involuntary taxpayer largess to forestall having to sell this expensive piece of property?
“Its Wells property, they can do whatever they want with it.”
One more thing: Did Wells go private and the MSM missed the story? Last time I checked, it was a publicly held firm.
Hmmm. Maybe banks could pay their employees with foreclosed houses? Even just by letting them live there. Be a decent way to maintain them and/or get rid of them. Your Christmas bonus could be a house. (The modern-day frozen turkey.)
This is proof that the prior “owner” never owned the house in the first place. If you “own” a house, no one can come squat in it…
Nothing to see here, move along…
Ha pasado en espana. I can’t find an English translation of this, but I read it somewhere. Basically says a large Spanish bank is selling foreclosed properties to its employees at a discount.
http://www.expansion.com/2009/05/10/empresas/banca/1241951274.html
Heh! One of the comments points out that a 20 to 30% discount is still a rip-off. Sounds like there’s some housing bears in Spain, too.
Turkey indeed. From the outside that place has all the charm of a prison compound.
that place has all the charm of a prison compound ??
Well, if I gotta go to prison, thats how I want to go…
That’s a really nice house. The pictures are stunning.
The kids’ names on the wall were “Sydney” and “Cara”. Oh, god, how I hate these rich phonies that try to give their brats exotic names. You know you would want to punch the former owners the first time you met them.
It seems to me that you hate a lot of things and a lot of people. I’m going to pray that you have a good day today.
Don’t pray for me. I always have good days.
Too late
If they lost it all to Madhoff they are probably Jewish. Most of my Jewish friends name their chidlren after forebearers so I am guessing those are derivations of some very old names.
The style of the home and the interiors are very consistent.
I agree on the buffy and muffy syndrome.
Dude, my grandpa’s named was Sydney. What’s wrong with that?
The name Sydney was 23rd most popular name for babies born in the country between 2000 and 2002. So exotic indeed. Even less exotic than Jennifer which was #26 during that time.
She might have been prospecting for buyers. What better way than have parties and invite moneyed customers likely to buy? Maybe “senior vice president” is Wells Fargo speak for “insourced realtor”.
Great cover story, if nothing else. That place is a sweet spread even, I bet, by WF execs’ standards. I bet they’re taking turns ’showing it to prospective buyers’ every weekend during the season.
Who pays the PG&E bill on these foreclosures? I should imagine housing will still incur some sort of usage if fridge/freezers are left running, particularly the larger properties.
Does PG&E bill the bank?
On my travels around the Milwaukee area, I passed a 3 story brick commercial type building on a corner of a residentual area in Brookfield, Wi.
In bold large individual letters spelled out “REALTOR’S BUILDING” above the main floor and doors in great splendor.
In front of the building was a very large sign ” FOR LEASE”
My first though was that they ..couldn’t sell it ?
My second thought was ..who moved out ?
My third thought was the poem Ozymandias,
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.’
Anyhow, a picture is worth a thousand words and I forgot my camera but a picture of that would have been PRICELESS
My third thought was the poem Ozymandias,
Really? Man. Youse all thinky and stuff.
I like that poem a lot. I grew up in Utarr, though, which is probably why.
I was just thinking today how happy I am to be in a place where I can actually open my eyes when I’m outside and not just sort of grope my way along, like a parched frog.
As if none of us has even thrown a weekend party in an abandoned beach house…!
Hahaha, ahansen! True!
Except who needs a house? I just have parties on an abandoned beach.
The good thing is, is that that way the fires can be even bigger and I don’t care where anyone barfs.
Unless it’s near me and my cute little feeties, of course. That’s gonna make me mad, and that’s a COLD sea out there…
Parties on beaches is a good idea.
My favorite is getting together with the abalone divers at the end of the day for an all-you-can-eat abalone dinner. All you need is abalone, garlic bread, and champagne.
Helpful camping tip. If you are expecting abalone, bring two 2 foot squares of plywood and lots of waxed paper. Make a sandwitch of plywood/wax paper/abalone/wax paper/plywood, lay it down in the parking lot, and drive your car over it back and forth several times. Repeat as necessary. This will tenderize the abalone.
Now THAT is a great idea, Dennis! If I ever come across another abalone again, I’ll give it a try. Dang I miss those pinks….
LOL! What a riot Dennis. And me with hammer wasting all that time pounding slices of abalone over the years.
Growing up in Northern, CA we had abs, fresh salmon, and dungeness crab. Throw in venison if you got a buck that year. Oh yeah, and there was quail. I seldom remember our family buying meat.
Flash to today, I won’t eat meat thanks to the nasty factory farm produced beef, chicken, and pork.
I never did it that way myself but my grandparents swore by it….
My dad - like most dads of that era - told me “growing up in the Depression” stories. Like how chicken and hamburger were too expensive, so they had to eat abalone instead…..
Back then you could even get abalone inside the bay as far down as coyote point during low tide - just wade out and fill your basket. All you needed was a tire iron and a basket. There were no “fish & game” type regulations back then.
Like how chicken and hamburger were too expensive, so they had to eat abalone instead…..
Wow.
….I’ve never had abalone, I don’t think.
Awhile ago I kept fetching out moon-snails at minus tides with the thought that I would tenderize them and treat them like abalone, because I heard from several people that this works great, but it didn’t work great for ME.
Those things can be the size of my sun-hat, a solid pulsing mass of slimy muscle, for one thing, and for another thing they have little feeler eyestalk thingies that stick up from the mass and look horribly cute and tender and like a little mustache or something. I would just put them in the fridge and then they’d get out of the bag and wander around in there, sliming up everything worse than that one ghost in ‘Ghostbusters’. Then I’d get sad and pluck them forth from their gluey nests in my leftovers and laboriously haul them back out in my kayak and drop them overboard, where they could go back to eating young geoducks and other delicious clams.
Such is my life. A life of gluttony thwarted by dumbness and/or tenderheartedness.
sigh.
This is what I’m talking about.
Moon snail:
http://tinyurl.com/qduy98
DennisN - Now I think there’s only an abalone season north of Bodega Bay. You need a zodiac to find a decent spot. Same thing when I was a kid, you could go at ultra low tide in some places and get your limit just rock picking and wading. Oh well.
Oly - CRIKEY! That thing made me do a Steve Irwin, rest his soul. No wonder you threw it back (aside from having a kind heart). Hard to fathom eating that strange thing.
Is it GLOWING?
Hard Times for These Times
United States
The trouble with pornography
Hard times
Sep 10th 2009 | LOS ANGELES
From The Economist print edition
A big industry in northern Los Angeles is among the worst hit by the recession
…
If the Valley used to make 5,000-6,000 films a year, says Mr Kernes, it now makes perhaps 3,000-4,000. Some firms have shut down, others are consolidating or scraping by. For the 1,200 active performers in the Valley this means less action and more hardship. A young woman without Ms Hartley’s name-recognition might have charged $1,000 for a straight scene before the crisis, but gets $800 or less now. Men are worse hit. If they averaged $500 for a straight scene in 2007, they are now lucky to get $300. For every performer there are several people in support, from sound-tech to catering and (yes) wardrobe, says Ms Duke, so the overall effect on the Valley economy is large.
…
Is the porn industry exempt from gender discrimination in pay laws?
Times must be tough.800 for a scene is still decent money.How many hours of flipping burgers or greeting at walmart would it take to make that kind of money?A lot of people are getting their porn fix on the internet these days.
With all the free porn on the internet though, one would wonder why anyone would pay for it. Unless you like say a Heather Hunter or some big name, it isnt worth it..
Even the most recognised scenes become free viewing in short order.
There is the one blonde hot chick named Allysin Chaynes that ain’t free.
“Times must be tough.”
- Demand has gone limp.
- Shrinkage has afflicted the customer base.
- Sales are soft, thanks to free net porn.
net porn’s not exactly free.. btw, AT&T is one of the big telecommunication companies who are into porn production.
got broadband?
What’s your monthly tab joey?
I have broadband, but fortunately I lack any desire to while away my time watching other folks do it.
PB.. you’re not alone.. they’ve taken polls… surveyed millions. It turns out that nobody is interested in porn on the net.
exeter, you can pay anywhere from $20 to $50 for a decent broadband connection.. Sometimes it’s cheaper than dial-up which i assume you have.
If you plan on d/loading lots of porn you probably should talk to your provider about really high speed connections. I can’t advise you.
Danced around it…
Just what I expect from a moralizing hypocrite.
I guess I did not detect how Joey is a moralizing hypocrite.
LOL exeter re: the tab question.
Now how ’bout chillin’ out a little??
Didn’t detect how joey is a moralizing hypocrite? What are you, his brother or something? How could you possibly miss it?
Brother? Same person(?)
No way, exeter! Please tell me you’re not Joey!
+1 bear
Maybe if California didn’t let itself get taken over by illegal alien cheap labor for the rich, who overwhelm the school systems, etc. with their large birth rates and low tax payments, California would crack down on its Porn and Pot industries. What a joke of a place.
Way to nuance there, Charlie!
Men are worse hit. If they averaged $500 for a straight scene in 2007, they are now lucky to get $300.
Most guys would view this as something that should be volunteer work.
Rocco says it’s hard work, pun intended.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v1cnzW0eGU
I checked out Rocco, at least from the chest up ( ! ), and he must have special gifts, because to my eyes, he’s very unattractive. Yuck.
And I am sure they do. The $300-a-pop crew must have special gifts.
Well, for one thing, they’re in good shape. That puts them ahead of 95% of the population. Other than that, they seem pretty normal to me, eh?
I’ve been an underemployed sex worker all my adult life.
Haw!
ROTFLMAO
Are there gender discrimination pay laws? If so, they don’t seem to be generally enforced. I keep reading that women make 70 cents on the dollar compared to men for the same work.
UF expert sees state returning to growth
http://tinyurl.com/kp8cmw
“The growth that fueled Florida’s economy in the past will return as large numbers of baby boomers reach their 50s - an age when many people tend to buy second homes - and retirees move to the state, Denslow said.”
Looks like some in Florida are banking on the elusive retiring baby boomers again. Good luck with that.
Sigh. We’ve been reading articles like this since the bubble burst and it is frustrating the heck out of me. It also shows the deep denial and idiocracy entrenched in Florida. Oh, well. For once, I’d just like to see someone’s head explode trying to reconcile the fantasy with reality on the ground.
Florida is in for years of deep stagnation, period.
I wonder if the slow-down will help save the Everglades due to less ‘development’, or hasten their destruction, as any environmental rules are seen as boom-time luxuries.
I wonder if the slow-down will help save the Everglades due to less ‘development’, or hasten their destruction, as any environmental rules are seen as boom-time luxuries.
Environmental regs aren’t “boom-time luxuries” — flush times are exactly the time when developers and politicians try to sidestep such inconveniences in favor of Progress. It’s when the doldrums hit that we see attempts to remediate and redeem the errors of the past.
Look at Pittsburgh, for example. It’s become a much greener, more forward-thinking city now that Big Steel isn’t driving all their policy decisions.
I was being sarcastic with my ‘boom-time luxury’ comment. I was just surmising that might be how they’d be portrayed by the ever hungry developers. You know, ‘We can’t afford this wetland replacement requirement, we need jobs, jobs, jobs!’
Is it me, or is there some kind of innuendo with this whole thing about developers being hungry for sensitive wetlands? Just wondering.
I was being sarcastic with my ‘boom-time luxury’ comment.
Ah, I missed the sarcasm.
Now it all makes sense.
I was just surmising that might be how they’d be portrayed by the ever hungry developers. You know, ‘We can’t afford this wetland replacement requirement, we need jobs, jobs, jobs!’
Really, slothy? You really and truly did not know you were speaking the absolute truth? ‘Cause that’s exactly how it is. I hear it alllllll the time hereabouts, lately.
Also incessant bi*tch*ing about impact fees.
After all, we need to get builders back to work building McCrap Shacks! Jobs jobs jobs! Why on earth should growth pay for itself?
Goshamighty, how I hate them.
…is there some kind of innuendo with this whole thing about developers being hungry for sensitive wetlands?
What wetland? That’s not a wetland.
My hired who*re…er, I mean, my ‘well-paid consultant’…says these are definitely not wetlands. Those blue herons, cat-tails, lily-pads, and fishes are not indicators at all.
And hey, it’ll be even LESS of a wetland after there’s 50 truckloads of gravel and fill on top of it! Wheeeee!
But if they were building a Trader Joe’s, then it’d be OK?
(you realize I’m just yankin’ your chain …)
But if they were building a Trader Joe’s, then it’d be OK?
Sweet Baby Jeebus! You know, I actually paused for one whole second before I screeched ‘NO! It’s still NOT okay!’
I’m a hypocrite, and a sycophantic slave of Trader Joe…boooo hooooOOOOOOOOOOo
Why on earth should growth pay for itself?
“When is growth going to start paying for itself?”,
was my mantra back in the ’80’s in Tucson when developers were scraping clean every bit of Sonoran desert they could get their blades on, linking arms with the county board of supervisors and chanting, “growth is good, growth is good”
And every year those same sups would whine about how there was no money for infrastructure and services for all these new stucco canyons.
Feh.
No problem Oly. They can fit Trader Joes into all the abandoned Wal-Marts and languishing commercial real estate.
A certain segment of the population’s appetite for debt is insatiable. What held them in check in the past were lending standards. Removing regulations which held lenders and debtors in check for the past 70 years allowed the both of them to run hog-wild. The debtors could live well beyond their means and the lenders made massive amounts of money generating that giant black hole of debt.
Now, government determines that all of us will pay to fill that black hole with wealth. All I hope is that the pain is shared equally.
Keep hoping neuro. The war on savers will be like the 100 year war.Gawd! I hate being such a pessimist… or is it a realist? it’s such a fine line lately.
“The growth that fueled Florida’s economy in the past will return as large numbers of baby boomers reach their 50s”
In case you didn’t notice, they never provided any evidence that there is actually “a large number of boomers reaching 50″ in the pipeline.
Post war child bearing period 1945-1950 plus 50 years gets you to 1995 to 2000…….
My father was a WW2 vet. As the youngest of 10 children, not one of my older siblings are planning to buy a house. Not a single one.
Good catch exeter. How silly of them to write an article that can so easily be shot down by simple subtraction. Jimminy Cricket, the MSM is baaaaaaad.
The pathetic reality is that the folks who retire to Florida eventually need nursing homes & such which is paid for by Medicaid, not Medicare, which in Florida is funded primarily by Florida taxpayers.
So developers get the big $$$ for building & selling houses to these bozos and stick the tab on the rest of us. Of course that’s being pro-business, pro-property rights in Florida.
The post war baby bloom is 1945 - 1964.
I’m not disputing that. I’m saying the largest raft of boomers were born 5 years subsequent to the end of WW2. The article stated “large numbers of boomers will hit their 50’s” sometime in the future which is when the housing price collapse will reverse itself.
Most of us STILL aren’t moving our ahsses to Florida, no matter when we were born.
“The growth that fueled Florida’s economy in the past will return as large numbers of baby boomers reach their 50s”
Whatever the number of the next generation of retirees, they will have less money in retirement than more recent retirees. They will have less to spend on everything including housing, especially considering the ever rising cost of health care.
The may change houses to lower housing or other costs, but far fewer will be buying second houses. They cannot and will not bail out the Florida housing market.
Sarasota property flipper (fraudster) files for BK.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090912/ARTICLE/909121040/2055/NEWS?Title=Sarasota-property-flipper-is-filing-for-bankruptcy
From article:”Leis and seven other investors contacted by the Herald-Tribune said they were attracted to Seaborne because he promised them riches with little risk and no money down.”
This is why we are where we are at today. Lemmings in human form.
he directed them to lie? Yeah right. Here, let me twist your arm so you will sign on the dotted line then we can get you that loan for that house you wanted. Or how about I put a gun to your head instead?
A couple of people are trying to post entire articles again this AM. Ain’t gonna happen.
What’s up with that? A brief excerpt and a link is fine with me.
How about that gold?? LOL
GOOOOO BABY GO!!!
I dont think this gold bubble is going to last much longer. I am thinking of having the wife sell the platinum bullion I bought. But I am going to keep the gold and silver double eagles.
Are you ready for future bubbles?
This article outlines the next 10 big bubbles.
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/325783/Ten-Bubbles-in-the-Making
China/green/gold/FED/trashstock/education et al.
These aren’t “future” bubbles. They’ve already inflated and are starting to burst. There’s still too much cheap money in the system, and the destruction of it will take some time, but it’s time to pay the piper. This game’s over with. The lack of jobs is the lynch pin.
Don’t tell us now that the dollar has been falling since all the way back in 2000? Why didn’t the MSM warn us about this development?
I note that the increases in the price of gold have neatly (but not exactly) mirrored the weakening of the dollar over the past decade.
* 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 if you make your money in the U.S. and spend it in the U.S., a falling dollar isn’t the end of the world. Thus, the slide in the greenback need not prompt every investor into urgent action, but it is an ideal pretext for asking whether you are globally diversified.
Three cures are most commonly prescribed for investors worried about a weakening dollar: foreign currency, gold or a diversified basket of commodities.
Trading foreign currencies like Australian or Canadian dollars, both tied closely to commodity prices, sounds appealing. But foreign-exchange trading usually relies on high margin, or leverage, which is risky, and gains are taxed at hefty rates. So an individual investor has to be really right to rationalize doing it, says Mark Kritzman, who helps oversee more than $25 billion at Windham Capital Management in Cambridge, Mass.
Try EverBank to diversify into currencies without mortgaging the farm.
As for gold and other commodities, they have provided an average return of around 20% in the four quarters following the worst drops in the value of the dollar, according to Michele Gambera, chief economist at Ibbotson Associates.
Surprisingly, these glittering returns look tarnished next to those of stocks and foreign bonds. On average, based on more than 20 years of returns, Mr. Gambera found that in the four quarters following the steepest declines in the dollar, U.S. stocks go up 25%, various baskets of international bonds gain between 21% and 28%, and non-U.S. stocks go up more than 56%.
So, with many commodities near record highs, there may be no need to join the stampede into gold or most other hard assets.
…
Close your eyes and invest in something. It’ll be worth more in dollars soon. And your mortgage will be cheaper. And Wall Street will be even richer. It’s win, win, win.
(Unless ol’ Mr. Deflation crashes the party. He’s a dancer!)
(Unless ol’ Mr. Deflation crashes the party. He’s a dancer!)
I always picture Mr. Deflation as more of an Eeeyore kind of fellow.
Eeyore: “We can’t all, and some of us don’t. That’s all there is to it.”
Pooh: “Can’t all what?”
Eeyore: “Gaiety. Song-and-dance. Here we go round the mulberry bush.”
That’s a good one.
“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 dollar has declined by (0.68/1.21-1)*100 = -44 pct against the euro since 2000. I am wondering if at some point, the Treasury secretary will make good on his promise to pursue a strong dollar policy?
Is the dollar down against the Euro because the French and Italians are better businessmen than us?
In other currencies, it looks like the party is over for gold. The first wave of the financial shock stopped gold in its tracks. Good chance there is another wave of financial shock inbound. Nothing has been reparied except in fantasy land.
I’m sure my take is overly simplistic.
The first wave of a boat’s wake is a little guy, it’s the bow wake. It passes and you think that wasn’t so bad. Reality comes with the second wave, and the third, after the trough is the hammer.
Well if you think gold is at its peak, then sell. Or, sell half to lock in. So what if it goes up a little more. JP Morgan got rich by selling too soon.
Gold unfortunately got shorted by the big boyz on Friday when it hit $1010. If Geitner or Ben say take it down, the price will come down….short term.
I like the long term propects for gold & silver. China is telling it’s citizens to buy gold. The Chinese are sloooowly steering away from the POS greenback.
It frosts me to see the big banks speculating on commodities when we have poured a Gazillion $ into bailing them out.
I do love to read people yammer on about gold being in a bubble, if you don’t like something don’t buy it. Au is a pretty good barometer for inflation/deflation. If you think a strong dollar and deflation is in the offing, then gold will come down. If the breezes of inflation blow in, and the dollar remains weak, gold will rise. Nothing goes straight up, but Au will likely see $2000.00 before it sees $600.00. I don’t worry about it gold is an ins. policy as far as I’m concerned. It is a hoot watching the so called ’smart’ guys try and shoot it down…. They can’t. Please someone, tell me what the gubmint is doing to strengthen the dollar? LOL!
A fellow e-mailed me recently a rant against gold . “The government is going to call in the gold soon,” he asserted, “just like Franklin Roosevelt did in 1933. And then where will you be? Busted!”
No. The present monetary dilemma is not at all like 1933. Gold was money then. A dollar, by definition, was a measure of gold. It has no relation to today’s dollar. Moreover, FDR did not take people’s gold without compensation. Every eagle, double-eagle, and other denomination of gold was paid for with bank notes or silver at the rate of $20.67 per troy ounce. Do you think for a second Obama would “call in the gold” and pay more than $1,000.00 an ounce?
Good points. I’m not convinced gold will hit $2,000 before $600. I will be happy in either situation. I’ll sell half my gold at $2,000 and I will buy a lot more at $600.
Sheez..tie up the horses, put away the gun and forget the 9:15 a.m. eastbound Butch. The big boyz beat us again and the passengers are probably all carrying Ben’s paper dollars anyway.
Who ARE those guys ?
A good strategy is to develop an asset allocation strategy and rebalance yearly. That way you won’t buy any asset out of emotion. I like my precious metals assets to remain between 10 and 15 percent of my net worth. I wish gold would drop to $700 per ounce so I could allow myself to buy more, but I’m at 11%.
In the last few days some posters were saying gold has no intrinsic value, as if that is a disadvantage. Its rarity makes it a good value as an alternative currency. It is less a currency in rural areas than urban areas, of course. Not many people in the country are willing to take a gold coin for barter. I can drive up the freeway in 20 minutes and get cash for my coins right now. This is a good reason for living in the big city.
If you feel that your gold has no intrinsic value, then don’t worry, I’ll be happy to take that “junk” off of your hands. I also take Siamese cats, but that’s another story. I’ve been catless for about 2 years now, and I miss having a little meower around.
Amen. Kitties are worth their weight in gold thanks to the hours of free entertainment and companionship. Btw….the couple of Siamese my family members had were always smart. One was goofy in that he liked to be spun in the washer (he would come running when you opened the lid and jump in then just look up at you). You spin him once around and he would jump out happy and rub against your legs.
Thanks for the good story. Kitties are great.
(Not MY kitties. My kitties are feral, cunning savages who want to eat me. But in theory, kitties are great.)
No kidding. The last feline I had, Catbo, was borderline psychotic. Can tell you how many unprovoked ambush attacks that little fiend launched on me.
I love cats, but only with a side of potatoes.
Our cat Puddin went through a stage where she would tuck her head into her neck, move sidways, wrap her paws around my sister ankle and then run like hell. For some reason she only signalled out of my sisters. It was one of the funniest things to watch.
It’s probably going to spike higher from here.
My take is this:
If Obama does not get his socialized health care, a chain of events will ensue, along with the price of gold falling. If Obama scores a victory of making the U.S. even more of a nanny state, precious metals prices will go through the roof.
About time. Except 1/10th of 1% ain’t enuf.
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/56789-afl-cio-dems-push-new-wall-street-tax
more taxes.. hip hip hooray.
..but I’m not surprised. Bad economic times. Everyone is hurting and morals and principles get shifted to the back burner. Tax whoever might have some money.
the fact that people..consumers.. pay ALL taxes is easy to forget. All costs of doing business are taken out of our pockets.
401ks, IRAs, pension funds.. any of our money that is somehow invested in wall street or involved in stock trades will return less to us. Since we’ll never see that money, it’s a perfect hidden tax on us.
So taxes are amoral and unprincipled?
no.. people are amoral and unprincipled.
I would say certainly the income tax is amoral and unprincipled– a pure Robin Hood play. A per capita tax, at least, is arguably fair.
A per capita tax, at least, is arguably fair.
What’s a “per capita tax”? Is that a flat tax with a sexier name, or something else altogether?
(While we’re on the subject of taxes, I think it’s high time TaxMyBootay charged in with some of his cryptic haiku-speak.)
No, a flat tax is still a % of income. I maintain that it’s inappropriate for the gov’t to go snooping into everyone’s income.
A per capita tax means the same DOLLAR amount for everyone. I know people will howl that this is unfair. But it makes sense, when you realize that everyone is supposed to equal under the law, and be entitled to an equal share of gov’t services.
Government’s primary role is to safeguard assets and create opportunity for business. Therefore, those with the most assets and business owners should pay the most for government.
Those with the most assets have the most ability to pay for their own protection. And they usually don’t rely on the gov’t for it.
that is great. we also allocate services to everyone equally. like law enforcement, property rights, public property use (roads, whatever). i am not sure how to do it. like property rights is only good for the first 10000 dollar value of your total properties and assets (house, car, lots, whatever). or you’re only allowed to drive 5000 miles a year before getting additional bills. oh well.
really. how about protecting you’re multi million dollar properties with laws and law enforcement.
Wouldn’t an updated “wash sales” rule accomplish the same thing without taxing smaller investors?
I’m uneasy with this line: Only the biggest investment firms can afford to develop the technology, which delivers handsome profits at little risk.
So only big investment firms would be taxes. OK, what happens when that technology becomes cheaper and accessible to all? The tax will dig deeper into the smaller investors as surely as the AMT. There has to be a better way to extract taxes than this. Not bailing them out is a good start.
Just a lil’ Kim to go with your notorious big morning coffee and conspiracy theories:
The Double Dip Recession, or the “W” shaped recovery that a minority of economists, such as Joseph Stiglitz, is now stating as a strong possible outcome of this current rally, should not be discussed in the realm of economics but rather in the more apropos realm of financial fraud. The fact that the upleg of the “W” shaped recovery that is occurring now will inevitably crumble in spectacular fashion will not be a result of any free market principle, but rather the direct consequence of a fraudulent scheme executed by an elite global financial oligarchy, otherwise known as Central Banks. If the mission of this current manufactured leg-up in Western stock markets was to fool the world into believing that global economies are recovering, then clearly, up until this point, the mission has been a resounding success. For those unfamiliar with the term “blowback”, it’s a CIA term that was first used in March 1954 to describe the unintended consequences of US government international activities kept secret from the American people.
Though this term has primarily been used to describe the consequences of covert military operations, “blowback” is an appropriate term to use to describe the coming consequences of banking fraud because the US government, US Federal Reserve, Wall Street, the US Treasury, and the Exchange Stabilization Fund have all engaged in domestic and international financial and monetary transactions that have been kept secret from the world, and that will have severe and negative consequences in the not so distant future. In fact, I predict that the blowback of these activities will not only exceed, but far exceed, the fallout the world experienced in 2008 at the prior apex of this current crisis. Most people today can not even fathom how bad the situation will become primarily because of all the secrecy that the banksters have engaged in – in US Treasury markets, the gold markets, the US dollar markets, agriculture commodities, stock markets, and financial markets – in hiding reality from the people.
(From Seeking Alpha, J.S. Kim)
But if they were so good at hiding the truth and manipulating the markets as Mr Kim alleges, why would they not be able to indefinitely suspend the dreaded ‘blowback’ ? What is the mechanism which could lead to failure of this vast financial conspiracy he describes?
“But if they were so good at hiding the truth and manipulating the markets as Mr Kim alleges, why would they not be able to indefinitely suspend the dreaded ‘blowback’ ? What is the mechanism which could lead to failure of this vast financial conspiracy he describes?”
No smoking gun, nitrate residue on the perps paws or a delayed application of (GAAP)Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or Forensic Accounting…who knows ? Blowback usually blasts out or leaks out and all blowback isn’t visible and immediate.
Even George H Walker Bush made a little seen testimonial vidio touting ENRON was “Good as Gold” that virtually disappeared …after Enron and Arthur Anderson were caught screwing everyone.
Your term, dreaded ‘blowback’, initially came from the immediate dangerous gaseous recoil or actions from guns, rockets and recoiless rifles that could instantly kill or mame assistants or friendlies in the weapons back-blast area if they didn’t move prior to firing the missile or round. Intelligence organizations, military and corporations depend and expect a lot on delayed action ‘blowback’ ramifications if subject to being caught or identified after some misdeed or adventure. Like the Superfund Sites, Love Canal or Agent Orange, the origional perps can be long gone, the company sold 4 times or BK before the real damage is noticed or detected.
Special Forces, CIA and now corporations all loved the term delayed blowback, as long, as they could launch some crap, move out quickly, claim plausible deniabilty and innocently smile and claim it wasn’t us that launched that friggin’ $hit missile because…
“We WERE on a break!”…over THERE…when THAT awful thing…happened! Wasn’t US!”
‘Blowback’, immediate, delayed or even ‘dreaded’ is frequently the accepted cost and part of doing some dirty business. It’s also an art that bad business or Gov’t insiders refer to and practice in hushed tones as our “Management Risk Call”.
Something fairly rare occurred while I was reading that. I was inspired…
Here’s the idea: Manufacture perfectly normal looking baseball caps lined with tin foil. What do you think?
Instead of lining them, they should be covered in foil! Ben could sell them as the official HBB baseball cap. They’d be like our gold blazers. We could advertise and spot each other from afar. Get one rapper to start wearing one, and it’d be all over. Ben could retire.
uhh.. you probably don’t wanna be walking around in a tin foil hat.
Not that anyone will look and laugh at you!.. nor will the aliens among them try to rip it off your head! .. so don’t get all paranoid abut it. Feel free to wear foil anyway you like.
Part of the beauty of hiding the foil in the lining is it’ll function just like exposed tin foil but you’ve got the added advantage of “stealth’. Nobody will suspect you’re protected.
Fundamentals don’t support market technicals. It doesn’t have to be a conspiracy for blowback to occur.
“W-shaped recession?” Wasn’t it ongoing since the year 2000? A quick drop, a bottom around 2002, then a peak in 2007, a quick drop again in 2008 and now an upleg. End of w?
It makes perfect sense that running Fannie Mae would be good background experience for running a giant hedge fund:
* The Wall Street Journal
* PRIVATE PROPERTIES
* SEPTEMBER 11, 2009, 9:43 A.M. ET
Fannie Mae’s Former Chief, Mudd, Sells in Washington
By JULIET CHUNG
…
The son of TV newsman Roger Mudd, Daniel Mudd now centers his work life in Manhattan, as CEO of private-equity and hedge-fund firm Fortress Investment Group LLC, which manages about $31 billion in assets.
You’ve gotta love how these guys get around in D.C. and Wall Street, no?
U.S. to Impose Tariff on Tires From China
Washington Post
Saturday, September 12, 2009
In one of his first major decisions on trade policy, President Obama opted Friday to impose a tariff on tires from China, a move that fulfills his campaign promise to “crack down” on imports that unfairly undermine American workers but risks angering the nation’s second-largest trading partner.
The decision is intended to bolster the ailing U.S. tire industry, in which more than 5,000 jobs have been lost over the past five years as the volume of Chinese tires in the market has tripled.
It comes at a sensitive time, however. Leaders from the world’s largest economies are preparing to gather in Pittsburgh in less than two weeks to discuss more cooperation amid tensions over trade.
The tire tariff will amount to 35 percent the first year, 30 percent the second and 25 percent the third.
Although a federal trade panel had recommended higher levies — of 55, 45 and 35 percent, respectively — the decision is considered a victory for the United Steelworkers union, which filed the trade complaint.
“The president sent the message that we expect others to live by the rules, just as we do,” Leo W. Gerard, president of the union, said Friday night.
China’s government and its tire manufacturers, as well as tire importers and some U.S. tire makers with plants overseas, had strenuously objected to the measure.
“The President decided to remedy the clear disruption to the U.S. tire industry based on the facts and the law in this case,” the White House said in a statement released Friday night.
What? Tires aren’t expensive enough as it is?
Holy cow! I bought tires 3 years ago. Then I bought tires just a few months ago. Same class. Almost the same type, but they don’t make it anymore. $50 per, now $70 per.
3% inflation my a$$.
Team Barry have stepped in it big-time! WRONG country to pick a fight with, it’s like walking into your bank and peeing on the bankers head and then asking for a loan.
A trade war with China benefits nobody, and these kinds of skirmishes often lead to costly confrontations.
Oh, give me a break.
Chinese tires? Good lord. Tires are kind of important for car safety, no?
Chinese lack of quality is legendary. I never buy Chinese-made shoes for this very reason, they feel like devices designed to torture feet.
What’s very sad is almost all major brands now moved their production to China. It’s almost impossible to find a decent pair of shoes these days. And the cherry on top is that prices went way up, while the quality and lack of comfort is horrendous.
Nowdays you’d pay for Chinese-made crap what a nice expensive pair of designer Italian shoes or boots used to cost. My feet need quality and comfort, which means I have to search for those rare brands still made in the civilized world with long shoe-making tradition, which also means paying through the nose.
I really hate globalization. *sigh*
I have to search for those rare brands still made in the civilized world with long shoe-making tradition, which also means paying through the nose.
I really hate globalization. *sigh*
In a free economy, prices go up, then they come back down. Economic activity changes places, then it changes back. Trends continue for a while, then they reverse.
“Trends continue for a while”
Meanwhile, I can’t go barefoot. The current trend has been going on for a long while, and doesn’t seem to be reversing any time soon.
It’s probably taking a lot longer to reverse than it otherwise would, because of the massive boondoggles and bailouts in favor of the financial sector, at the expense of manufacturing.
As a foot note, I agree with the “need for quality”. Throw yourself into an Ortho issue early, if not.
Ebay. Seriously.
Senator Smoot, call your office. Representative Hawley, call your office.
See, I told you we would get change under Obama. I’ve been screaming for years that tariffs are exactly what we need to bring back in this country. All you globalists and China cheerleaders are just going to have to admit that Team Barry plays hardball.
Sorry, but we are getting change.
Unfortunately, I have to agree. People scream that tariffs=trade wars. It doesn’t. The rest of the world taxes our exports up the ying yang.
Turn about is fair play.
NYchk, I remember when they said offshoring would bring us cheaper products. What we didn’t know was that they meant quality, not price.
“I remember when they said offshoring would bring us cheaper products.”
I remember that too, I was in business school when the media promised great future and low prices ahead. They lied.
Although, in the beginning, prices for Chinese shoes were indeed very low.
I bought my first and only pair of Chinese-made pumps on sale for $10. They looked nice. I put them on, no walking, just sitting in them. I had to take them off a few hours later because my feet started to hurt something awful. The kicker was, even after I took the blasted things off, my feet were KILLING me for several hours afterwards. I literally had tears in my eyes, it felt so painful… I learned my lesson and never bought another pair. Whenever I try on a Chinese pair of shoes, it’s still the same story - torture device masquerading as shoes.
“Erosion of quality” through initially lower prices. That’s how they get sheeple to buy, driving down quality for everything, then jacking up the price to former level and higher. The quality is gone, the price is high, the sheeple are duped. Works like a charm.
Outsourcing did make products cheaper.
1. Mostly to the middle men who then continued sellling hte products at the going price.
2. FED gutted interest rates to increase demand for said products to keep deflation at bay.
I am in agreement with tariffs. But I think to institute them radically now is a bad time. Tariffs do equal trade war if they are done swiftly and when the world is in a recession. The time to implement tariffs was in the 1990s and in the middle part of the W-shaped recession, from 2003 to 2007.
Didn’t Bush put a tariff on steel around 2003?
The rest of the world taxes our exports up the ying yang.
Turn about is fair play.
They’re taxing themselves. If we “retaliate” by taxing ourselves, I wouldn’t call that turnabout, just lemming-like behavior.
I too agree with reasonable tariffs and I see the tradeoffs everyday down here. Brazil has very high tariffs on imported goods. Most of the consumer items sold here are still domestically produced.
The prices for these items are a lot higher than would be duty-free Chinese products but Brazil has chosen to protect its manufacturing jobs rather than promote cheap geegaw ability.
It is changing but Brazil is opening its market to imports much slower than the USA did.
“Team Barry plays hardball”.
Nah, just repaying union debts, and I am not a globalist or chicom cheerleader.
Jim Willie 9-11-09
SAUDI BANKS READY TO TOPPLE? Look for a SHTF event on Sept. 19th? No wonder CNBC is urging the ‘money on the sidelines’ to join the party. Insiders are dumping like mad.
A bank panic in the Persian Gulf could ensue very soon, a back door threat. It would clearly have origins in the United Arab Emirates, spread to the entire Persian Gulf like to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and elsewhere. From this global toehold, the bank panic could then spread to London, New York, and points in Europe.” Perhaps the origin of Persian Gulf bank shocks will be both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The construction project bust in Dubai, rescued by the Abu Dhabi bankers, will deliver massive shock waves soon. They own a boatload of USTreasurys and US bank stocks. The ugly geopolitical secret is that the reign of the Saudi regime might be in danger of an end. The Saudi people might then gather in what remains of the black gold!
i do not understand how this thing can happen if from what i know (i could be wrong), abu dhabi is holding a few hundred billion dollars of swf which they can use to take over dubai. no?
The Mogambo…..say no more
http://dailyreckoning.com/evicted-from-your-brand-new-clunker/
Istithmar Said to Halt Investment; Dubai Weighs Sale
Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) — Istithmar World, the Dubai sovereign wealth fund, is halting investments as part of a restructuring effort after spending more than $25 billion this decade on stakes ranging from a yacht marina to luxury retailer Barneys New York, according to people familiar with the plan.
The process may result in a sale of the fund or its assets, they said. Istithmar, run by David Jackson, said this week that co-chief investment officers John Amato and Felix Herlihy would leave the firm. Jackson’s job is under review, the people said.
A restructuring by Istithmar and its parent Dubai World may mark the most public reversal of fortune for a state-controlled investment firm since global credit markets seized up in 2007. Sovereign wealth funds, fueled in part by oil revenue, have become sources of capital around the world for companies, including Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley.
“They need to decide whether to keep Istithmar as a sovereign wealth fund or to clip its wings, roll it up and have it cease to exist independently,” said Victoria Barbary, a senior analyst at Monitor Group in London. “With Dubai World’s broader problems, it would not be surprising if Istithmar was rolled up.”
Istithmar and Dubai World have struggled this year on investments including Barneys, which may be facing a restructuring or bankruptcy, according to people familiar with the retailer, and CityCenter, an $11 billion project in Las Vegas. Abu Dhabi, the wealthiest member of the United Arab Emirates, provided a $10 billion bailout this year for Dubai as the emirate struggled to meet payments on $80 billion of debt used to finance real-estate projects.
Adviser: High unemployment for years.
The president’s chief economic adviser warned Friday that the nation’s unemployment rate could stay “unacceptably high” for years to come — a situation that would seriously complicate Barack Obama’s ability to convince Americans that he’s beating back the recession.
“The level of unemployment is unacceptably high,” National Economic Council Director Larry Summers said Friday. “And will, by all forecasts, remain unacceptably high for a number of years.”
Summers’ comments came in a briefing with reporters ahead of Obama’s speech in New York City on Monday, marking the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, an event widely regarded as having created a panic that caused the global economic meltdown.
Even with his gloomy forecast for unemployment, Summers said the economy is getting better and made the case that Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package and other fiscal rescue steps headed off even more economic pain.
“We are making a clear transition from rescue as a priority of public policy to sustained recovery,” Summers said. “We have moved back from the brink of financial catastrophe.”
“Today, the question is, when will the recession phase end?” Summers said. He said the forecast is “for economic growth at a significant rate during the second half of 2009.”
Wasn’t stimulus spending suppose to stop skyrocketing unemployment?
Is alcohol recession-proof? Some folks want their beer whether they have a job or not:
Man demands to drink beer before arrest
Sept. 10, 2009 01:23 PM Associated Press
BAYOU GEORGE, Fla - Authorities in the Florida Panhandle say they arrested a convenience store shoplifter who demanded to drink the 12-ounce beer he had stolen before being taken into custody.
The Bay County Sheriff’s office says the man told the deputy he had recently lost his job of 13 years and wanted to drink beer. The man became combative when the deputy wouldn’t let him finish it.
George R. Linthicum II was charged Wednesday with shoplifting, battery, possession of marijuana not more than 20 grams and smuggling contraband into a detention facility.
Bay County Jail officials said Thursday that Linthicum II was in jail and did not yet have an attorney.
If only poor George Linthicum II had learned to home-brew. Alas. Then he wouldn’t be in this sad pickle, sitting in jail AND sober. Poor man! I sympathize with him.
Oh, that reminds me, I should check the bubbler on my batch of oatmeal stout in the laundry room.
Olygal,
Do you get your supplies from a B&M or from an online supplier? If the latter, did you find a good one?
My cab grapes are about a week from harvest as far as I can tell….
I think that is police brutality. Call a lawyer!
I just published a new post.
I just cut my lawn.
Now I’m going to take a shower.
You are funny, Ol Bubba. I enjoy your comments. Did you enjoy your shower ? I’m sure your lawn looks nice. I also enjoy the Flying Miser’s posts.
Once upon a time, I didn’t get out of bed.
Yes, I enjoyed my shower. One of life’s great simple pleasures is taking a shower when you’re really sweaty and dirty, followed by putting on clean clothes.
I’m easily amused.
Morning from beautiful Montana, where a chill is in the air. Went to Yellowstone yesterday to look for wolves in LaMar Valley, no luck, though a coyote had drawn quote a crowd of folks who thought it was a wolf.
Reminds me of some people I know. Still quite a few here in Bozeman who want others to think they’re something they’re not (rich homeowners). Seems like every other place is for rent or sale.
As for me, I’m ready to head for warmer climes and empty roads, so will be going back to Utah soon. Have been trying to find a rental down there I can afford and am ready now to give up and just go camping until my new trailer arrives in late October. Think about it, camping has all the things one could want (except a shower): freedom, can move to a new and even more beautiful place when you’re tired of where you’re at, no neighbors, perfect quiet, can pee off the pretend porch, etc. Of course, I’m assuming you’re in a place where there’s lots of back country, like Utah or Western Colorado.
And all free.
Homeownership is not all it’s cracked up to be. People are downsizing like crazy. Vintage trailers are really catching on, check out my blog (click on my handle) if you want to see photos, it’s been a few days back that I posted them. Desertdweller, they’re for you.
Reading your post I had a vision of Wiley Coyote donning an “Acme” brand wolf suit and going begging from gullible eco-tourists….
Those old bumper tow rigs are hilariously funny, cool, wacked…. Nice photos. I’m sure they’re not all that functional anymore ad RV’s have come a long way since. Still like them though.
losty,
Nice blog. And I loved the post on trailers. I’m sending the link to friends.
Thanks, much appreciated. But as for Exeter’s comment above, the restored ones are good as new, so they say, anyway. Just don’t get too close behind them on the road, just in case something falls off…
Just don’t let them lock the gate behind you this time Jeremiah Johnson !
LOL!! I now own a nice pair of boltcutters, Mikey.
lol
Hi, Lost! Good to see you again.
I never did read about what happened to the rental in UT you had, and seemed to like???
Didn’t you say you rented it out to friends while you were away?
Anyway, hope you find what you want in Utah.
Good to see you again, Lostie!
Apropos your mention of vintage house trailers, my daughter’s (former) landlord who has to rent out the finished basement of his house to help with the mortgage (she has moved to cheaper digs), was given a really small turquoise and white ovoid house trailer by a friend of his who didn’t want it anymore. The landlord and his wife aired it out, cleaned it, and then promptly hitched it to his pickup and went to Florida for a few days to test it out. The pickup is about 3 ft. longer than this cute little trailer.
Hey Lost, my dad had a Low Liner when I was kid. We would tow it out to the job site in the summer and live in the Redwoods on the river for 3 months at a whack. I think it was to give my poor mother a break from the two of us. Good times.
Paging now works. It’s still ugly as hell, but I don’t have any more time to mess with it this morning.
Have a great weekend, all!
Email me if anything blows up in an interesting fashion.
Thank you so much, lavi!
I read a sports article Yahoo today by a guy I think is excellent. He said a lot of bad things about Michael Jordan’s induction speech. It is true, what he said.
I think it is a shame when a hero (and we need them), turns into a dissapointment. Not needed not now, anyway.
I’m surprised nobody noted this already (or at least I didn’t see it).
Dow closing price, 9/11/09: 9,605.41
Dow closing price, 9/11/01: 9,605.51
Wow…. That’s ugly….
Yeah, talk about a lost decade in stocks.
Yeah, and in 2001 that was at the end of a big drop that day. This time was after a big run up. ?!?!?!?!?!
One more lost decade to go. (Maybe two. This was a doozie.)
..that was just an inside joke among the people who engineered 9-11. Wait till you see what happens in 2014.
The PTB have total control. Never forget it.
btw.. did i mention I’ll soon have some tin foil-lined baseball caps available? Pick your favorite team.. baseball.. football.. whatever.
Peter Schiff will announce on September 17 (on MSNBC) whether he will run or not run for US Senate to take over Chris Dodd’s place. His website shows his contributions at $1,005,000 as of now.
Time for tea?
What happens when you raise that much money, then decide not to run?
He claims if he does not run everyone will get their donations back.
The 10K crowd whipped into a frenzy over the specter of an even larger, intrusive federal government have come out to hold signs and vocalize their objections to federal programs that are sapping our tax dollars and getting us into greater and greater debt.
OK, everyone of you good Americans for a smaller government form a single file line and sign-up to refuse to participate in federal spending programs that are exploding our nations debt, which means: no Medicare, Medicaid, VA health services, Social Security, FDIC protection, and so on. Sorry you won’t be able to use that Social Security check to help pay for your new Camero, but you’ll have your self-esteem and you won’t be a f-ing hypocrite.
okidoke. As long as I get paid out what I paid in.
I voted Libertarian for all but one election for one political office where there were libertarian candidates.
I do not sanction this mockery of the U.S. Constitution.
Let’s be frank. You are supporting your parents/older generation. You don’t get out what you put in. Why should you? I won’t, so why do you deserve it? Face reality and accept the fact that you are paying a tax to provide welfare for your retired elders, whether they need it or not.
“OK, everyone of you good Americans for a smaller government form a single file line and sign-up to refuse to participate in federal spending programs”
The cowards can’t and won’t do it. They don’t even know why they’re yapping about these petty beefs. Most of them are sucking off the national ti_t, can’t hold a job and have no skills to get a job.
Funny. I’m not sucking off the national tit, and I’d love the opportunity to do just this. But that means I get my money back and don’t pay any future taxes towards such programs, right?
Sign me up. I imagine I’m far from the only one on this board who would jump at the chance.
Ok you don’t have to pay in but all the sick people refused care at the hospital have to die on your street. And all the people who become homeless should live in your neighborhood. And all the criminals should know that you won’t be keeping your wealth in FDIC insured banks, ??Gold in teh back yard??. When communicable disease strikes you won’t have access to any meds developed with gov funds.
And all the criminals should know that you won’t be keeping your wealth in FDIC insured banks
I can keep my funds in banks. I just don’t get FDIC insurance.
When communicable disease strikes you won’t have access to any meds developed with gov funds.
No..I’ll just pay what any other non-taxpayer pays. Just because I don’t pay taxes doesn’t mean I don’t have acccess to the open market.
And the people who die and are homeless…sure, send the ones who were mooching off my money here. The others? Keep to yourself. I’m only responsible for the misery the lack of theft of my hard work causes, not everyone elses.
Ever been to the third-world drumminj? Look into the eyes of some hungry kids, and see if your easy answers work. I don’t like paying taxes either. But until you’ve looked in the ‘face’ of the consequences of a ‘live and let die’ economy, it’s all just bar-talk. And if living in a country where kids dig through garbage heaps for a living seems like a good trade-off for not paying taxes, then you hate paying taxes more than I do. And if you can’t recognize that public education and immunizations more than pay for themselves, then I don’t understand your economics. I’m a social libertarian myself, but anyone that thinks that ‘everyone for themself’ is a functional system needs to explain away all of human history.
When communicable disease strikes you won’t have access to any meds developed with gov funds.
No..I’ll just pay what any other non-taxpayer pays. Just because I don’t pay taxes doesn’t mean I don’t have acccess to the open market.
———————-
You’ll find very few useful drugs that didn’t have govt funding somewhere down the line. Good luck getting the “free market” to spend billions of dollars on 1,000 failed drugs just to get the one drug that works…15 years later.
alpha-sloth: you do a disservice to yourself by claiming the government must be in charge in order to provide help to the poor, especially children. In those countries with the brutally poor, I bet you will find that the system in place is a dictatorship 9 times out of 10. The government rapes and pillages its own people and drives them into poverty. The thing that has allowed the US to build such enormous wealth is keeping the stinking governments hands out of the pockets of private citizens in the first 200 years of this countrt’s existnece.
I hate it sooo much, when the do gooders jump to a one solution for everyone, and blindly pay your government and follow their rules.. How in the HECK do you guys ever come to these conclusions? What is wrong with letting the people of the most generous nation on earth choose their own charities to donate to? Is it just that you don’t have enough control of yourself to make these kinds of sacrifices, and you feel you need someone to force you? And you think everyone must be forced the same way you need to be forced? That is the only thing I can think of.
I hope you don’t take it as a personal attack. But really, please lead by example, and not by force. Tell us what programs you are donating to, and encourage us to send our money to those worthwhile causes. Just don’t point the barrel of a gun at us, in front of the long arm of the law.
We productive people don’t have time to wait in any line.
As for “sucking off a national t_it” - what do you mean? Oh, you mean working for defense? Oh, I guess you did not read the Constitution that I read. It says this government must provide for the defense. That means someone has to produce the weapons. I am not going to do it for free bubba!
Oh, you say you don’t need any defense? Tell that one to the Taliban for me next time you are over there with your pals Exeter.
I was a DOD employee for 11 years and now I’m in the private sector. One way or another someone’s going to be building better defensive weapons and they won’t do it for free.
joey…. billy…. it’s all the same.
Oh brother. Why does it have to be “all or nothing?” Either I have to support every frickin’ gov’t program that comes along or somehow I’m against the FDIC, child labor laws, and the like? Tell you what; I’m kind of sick of paying my rent and car payment; why not throw in a government program for me? Gimme a free house and car. After all, shelter and transportation are pretty essential too. While we’re at it, how about guaranteed government jobs for all?
My my you lefties sure are getting uptight lately. Thanks for the late night chuckle.
You don’t be responsible for my health care and I won’t be responsible for yours or anyone else’s….fair enough??
Blano, you’re dealing with the government-makes-the-sun-come-up crowd here. So many fallacious arguments, so little time…
I expect Exeter and Measton to at least double the amount of taxes they pay to their state governments and the federal government from the warm cockles of their hearts, which pine for the big nanny state.
Did you just look in the mirror when you posted your wise words?
As I expected, establishment GOP political hacks like Dick Armey are trying to co-opt the so-called Freedom Movement. Most of the mouth-breathers going to these contrived protests have their hearts in the right place, but spouting anti-tax or anti-government slogans, while being manipulated by the likes of Armey, is no substitute for informed, educated, and thoughtful analysis of what has gone wrong and what needs to happen to get this country back on track.
My two year old cheapo ($119) TV-tuner / DVD recorder went on the blink.. sort of. Audio is having troubles.
Evidently digital broadcasts use several frequencies. At least one is for video and at least two for audio. Some channels have gone completely silent, some only partially…
but it’s not all bad..
I’m watching the Atlanta St Louis game on Fox.. and i can hear the umps, the fans cheering and booing, and hear the ball hit catcher’s mitt or the bat but NO voice-over commentary. It must be from microphones on the field..
(i can use Closed Caption if i want to “see” what the commentators are saying)
It’s like being at the game in person but with closeups of everything.. it’s pretty cool. They should offer this as an option.
Huh? Are you watching over-the-air or cable?
Digital OTA requires a new ATSC-compliant tuner. Each channel assignment (frequency) can carry simultaneously several broadcasts, both audio and video. For example, the PBS channel in Boise simulcasts 3 standard-def and one high-def channels in the bandwidth formerly required for just one analog channel.
Some older ATSC tuners may have problems syncing the audio with the video.
Yup. Give em all what they paid-in from working wages with interest and let em get back to that proud, fiercely independent thang.
I’m betting most of em would blow their paid-in dough on plastic stuff from China and a down payment on a new vehicle, and then come whimpering back for guv’ment help.
no they won’t. they are proud americans!
Nice strawman. Assign actions/motivations to individuals based on your assumptions then attack them. Genius!
Doesn’t exactly pass for reasoned discourse, however.
Hi Gang. Just back from vacation. I just wanted to go ‘way off topic and describe Medicare Advantage. Two years ago when my dad passed, I was worried about my mom’s health care, because his company dropped secondary insurance and instead gave her an $1800/month health savings account to pay premiums, copays, etc. The first year I signed her up for Blue Cross secondary PPO, and she spent about $3000 out of pocket in 2008. Not bad, as she has some medical problems. Then in 2009 Blue Cross started a Medicare Advantage plan. I asked them what the premium would be. “Zero.” Not kidding. I asked what the deductible was. “Zero.” I kid you not. OK, so what would she pay for copays/prescriptions. $20, I kid you not. What’s the catch? For my mother, nothing. This year she will spend zero out of pocket, and can’t find enough expenses to drain her health spending account.
The problem turns out to be that the US taxpayer is on the hook for $177 billion in subsidies to insurers like Blue Cross for Medicare Advantage programs, this in addition to the 2.5% workers pay on every dollar they make to the Medicare program. This is not fair. Most seniors, like my mom, can afford to kick in something for medical care like the rest of us. Medicare Advantage, like Medicare Part D, in my opinion, is the creation of an administration that wants to bankrupt Medicare in order to do away with it.
We need reform. Now.
“..can’t find enough expenses to drain her health spending account….”
if that $1800 a month is not cumulative, and can’t be used next year, it might be a good idea to go shopping… new bed or mattresses for her “sore back”, bedding.. pillows.. whatever else might be prescribed.. Maybe a fancy little scooter for when the time comes. They are fun to ride around on even if you don’t need one.
Fine. Let’s look at some options:
Option 1: Single payer a la Canada
Option 2: Everyone pays out oftheir own pocket (in other words, how medical costs were paid before 1964)
Option 3: Status quo
Docs’ incomes would likely go down under scenarios (1) and (2), so the AMA will come out swinging against them. Justifiably so, I might add, since, well, its whole reason for existence is to look out for the members’ best interest.
The present system, as thoroughly f’ed as it is benefits far too many people to be changed in any signifacant way.
And that’s why nothing changed in ‘94 and nothing will change in ‘09.
AMA only represents 29% of doctors. They caved in to the Mesiah so he wouldn’t stop their income from their patents on medical billing systems. Probably gave them a tax break as well. Screw the AMA. Go Green, Recycle Congress and all other politicians as well.
Medicare Advantage is slated for elimination under the Obama proposal.
“Rep. Robert Inglis (R-S.C.) recently hosted a town-hall meeting, at which a man insisted, in all seriousness, “Keep your government hands off my Medicare.”
We can differ in our opinions on the roll gov should pay, but I hope that all of us realize that the absolute worst possible moddle is one where the gov teams up with private industry. In the same way that the GSE’s have allowed private interests to crap on the Amnerican tax payer insurance companies will strip wealth from gov and provide little in return. I’d rather have a program where medicare offers the basics (based on cost benefit analysis) and if you want the bells and whistles you buy a seperate supplement plan from private insurers.
Totally agree, and this (basics by govt, extras via private insurance) is what I favor as well.
Former Blagojevich Fundraiser Dies
Published: September 12, 2009Filed at 7:46 p.m. ET
CHICAGO (AP) — A former chief fundraiser for ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich died Saturday, just days before he was to report to prison to begin a three-year sentence for tax offenses that included using his company’s money to pay gambling debts and claiming it as a business expense.
Christopher Kelly, 51, also pleaded guilty earlier this week to an $8.5 million fraud involving hangar roofing contracts at O’Hare International Airport. He faced more than five years in prison at that sentencing, but was ordered to report next Friday to begin his three-year term.
Kelly was taken to Cook County’s Stroger hospital by ambulance at 5:15 a.m. Saturday and pronounced dead at 10:46 a.m., said spokesman Marcel Bright. Bright did not know whether Kelly was conscious when he arrived in the emergency room or where he was transported from.
He said the body remained at the hospital Saturday, but was to be taken to the morgue where an autopsy would be performed.
Kelly, a suburban roofing contractor and Blagojevich’s longtime fundraiser, was charged along with the former governor in an indictment alleging Blagojevich sought to sell or trade President Barack Obama’s former seat in the U.S. Senate.
Kelly pleaded not guilty to charges he plotted with Blagojevich to use the muscle of the governor’s office as a moneymaking machine to squeeze payments out of those seeking state business.
Although prosecutors clearly hoped Kelly would cooperate in their case against Blagojevich, he had steadfastly refused. Neither of his guilty pleas in the fraud cases called for his cooperation in the Blagojevich case.
”I rather doubt that it will have any impact on the government’s case at all,” said Allan A. Ackerman, who recently joined Blagojevich’s legal defense team. ”It’s a tragedy and very sad for his family.”
U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Randall Samborn would not comment on Kelly’s death. Kelly’s attorney, Michael Monico, did not return repeated messages left on his office phone Saturday by The Associated Press.
Blagojevich was in New York when he learned of Kelly’s death.
”I am deeply saddened to hear that Chris has died. My heart goes out to his wife Carmen, his three daughters Grace, Jacqueline and Claire and his entire family. They are in our prayers,” Blagojevich said in a statement.
On Tuesday, Kelly admitted he paid $450,000 in kickbacks to an unnamed consultant who allegedly inflated cost estimates for repairs to hangars operated by American Airlines and United Air Lines at O’Hare International Airport. Kelly admitted bids on the projects were rigged to make certain his BCI Commercial Roofing Inc. would land the contracts. In all, the contracts paid Kelly $8.5 million. His profit was $2.5 million, according to the plea agreement. He was to be sentenced to nearly five years in prison.
U.S. District Judge Charles R. Norgle set Nov. 18 for that sentencing but ordered Kelly to start his three-year term next Friday.
The new sentence would have been on top of those three years, handed to him in June for obstructing the Internal Revenue Service by paying gambling debts with his company’s money and illegally structured cash withdrawals to hide how much he was taking from the company.
Suicide or homicide?
Either way it’s good news.
SONIC WEAPONS USED IN IRAQ POSITIONED AT CONGRESSIONAL TOWNHALL MEETINGS IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY
Today the American government is now using weapons against American protesters that it used against Iraqi protesters. The war indeed is coming home.
Still love war and soldiers?
How ironic that this is occurring on Sept. 11!!!!
War against the American people has begun.
Soon freedom of speech will be done away with altogether.
link?
http://eastcountymagazine.org/?q=node/1874#comments
The link does not work. Is this from the same group that rambles on about black helicopters, huge detention camps, and stuff?
I worked as a federal employee for eleven years. It’s time for me to say this again: Most people working for the federals are family people: sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, sons, daughters. They are human. They laugh, they cry. They work, they play. they have humility in most cases. They are not out to get protesters. I know this type of people. Protesting is as American as apple pie and federal employees respect that. They are not conspiring against fellow citizens.
Nobody who’s waited in line at the post office while the guaranteed salary jokers buff their nails and chat amongst each other can believe this.
I bet there’s a real market for a movie in which government employees get beheaded zombie-style. Heck, they are already zombies. Might as well just behead them.
Wow. FPSS just made a threat on the blog. All postal service workers are alike I suppose. I worked in DOD. I produced. Most of the people I worked with produced too. They love the U.S.A. So a$$clowns such as you can go out generalizing and threatening to behead them. Beheading…Isn’t that what Al Quaeda did to the captives?
I hope you feel good and smart. That would be one person on this blog who thinks that way about you.
Defensive… What lowlifes do when called out on their BS.
I see you’re gettin real defensive the last few days.
A movie about a beheading isn’t the same as a beheading.
Buy a sense of humor with the taxpayer dollars that you are snorting!
I hope you feel good and smart. That would be one person on this blog who thinks that way about you.
IIII think he’s smart. And has good movie ideas, too!
But ‘good’? Hmmm….
(Now, just teasin’, fasty. I’m sure you’re good.
….Well, okay, maybe not. But anyway you have good movie ideas, and THAT’S the important thing here. )
“Our records search confirmed that the Sheriff’s Deparment purchased an LRAD 500-X and on-site training instruction for $37,500 on July 21, 2008 supplied by the Lorimar Group, which signed an LRAD reseller agreement with ATC in 2006. In responses to questions asking whether the deterrent sound feature has been deployed locally or whether any complaints of harm have been received, the Sheriff’s office responded that no such records are available.”
We need a new sheriff. Will this even be an issue during the next sheriff’s election?
I shot the sheriff
But I didnt shoot no deputy, oh no! oh!
Some stats from bend thanks to trulia 3400 single family, townhome, apt, or condo listings, of which 1200 are considered foreclosures (NOD, Notice of Trustee, or REO). I know that this information may be incorrect, but the cure rate for NOD’s is said to be about 6%.
This town is probably 75,000 in population, it was 35,000 in 1998. I would like to know how many foreclosures have occured to date, over the last two or so years. Several entire subdivisions are bank owned, vacant, weedy, and downright unattractive at this point, with builder gone belly up.
We took a lady home to her boyfriends’ house after football practice today. (ex-coworker of my wife at the supermarket) She was not too shy when telling us that her boyfriend was awaiting foreclosure, and that her home, that she had quit last year to run a daycare out of, was also in foreclosure. Discussions with the bank on her part had been fruitless, she offered, so she figures they can have the properties, to heck with trying to offer them what she can.
Just a little word on the street, not my story, just anecdotal evidence. Hell, the way we are thinking after a “come to the HBB moment”, we are 2011’s foreclosure “victims”, so we can feel morally superior to this degenerate woman and her boyfriend, neither of whom will sack up and give the bank any more money, and at least save maybe one of the two houses.
Actually, this was in Redmond, Or where there trulia also tells the average non-realtor serarcher that out of 1100 habitations for sale, more or less, 504 of them are in some state of foreclosure. Jenkies!
I had recently discovered that the government is buying most of the mortgages created in the US. Which leads to the question - why is it doing that? Why shouldn’t it let the private sector take care of that?
I know one component of the answer - paying back large political contributors - but is there any non-political, economic reason for doing this?
Save the economy from a deflationary death spiral?
I have news for you. The economy is already in a deflationary death spiral.
Too much debt in relation to too little current income will do that for you EVERY single time.
Where ya been FPSS? It’s good to have you back.
Low mortgage rates, of course…to get the housing market “back on track” because the housing market is “the key to getting our economy back on track.”
At least, that’s their excuse.
Nobody will dare admit that the problem with our economy is DEBT, and the inability of people to pay off those debts with their stagnant/declining wages.
Of course, they won’t. That would mean having to admit that they are wrong.
The non political reason is just to keep the banks open for business.
If nobody buys a bank’s loans (including mortgages) the bank will soon run out of money. A bank without money to lend is useless.
Businesses that need a steady, reliable source of large amounts of credit-money (virtually all businesses) are out of luck, and when they can’t pay for some necessity they either close or shrink. Jobs disappear.
So, since private investors (your “private sector”) are very afraid of buying mortgages these days, the FHA, Fannie and Freddie are buying a lot of the MBS created by banks.
From The Onion if not posted previously:
http : // http://www.theonion.com/content/news/thousands_of_abandoned_foreclosed?utm_source=b-section
Thousands Of Abandoned, Foreclosed Homes Threatened By Florida Hurricane
“In what forecasters are predicting will be the largest, most devastating disaster to hit Florida since the national economy collapsed, a Category 5 hurricane neared the Gulf coast this week, threatening thousands of repossessed and long deserted homes.”
“Those who haven’t already lost everything to the housing-market crash are urged to evacuate their homes immediately,” said Robert Menken, head meteorologist at the National Weather Bureau. “That should be about 10 or 12 of you. Everyone else, please stay where you are, probably on the couch of some in-law who lives near Atlanta.”
“In preparation for the hurricane’s landfall, the Emergency Broadcast System issued a number of safety warnings early Sunday. Due to expected high winds and torrential rain, citizens are advised to keep their windows and doors boarded up, as they pretty much have been through most of 2009.”
That’s one way to reduce inventory. Pity it’s only satire.
The value of your home: Million-dollar mansions lost a small percentage while working-class homes lost a big one
By ADAM PLAYFORD, JENNIFER SORENTRUE and CHRISTINE STAPLETON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
Saturday, September 12, 2009
For all but a tiny fraction of Palm Beach County homeowners, the question isn’t whether your home lost value last year. It’s how much it lost - what percentage burst with the housing bubble.
The answer, it turns out, often lies in one number: how much the home was worth to begin with.
Disagree with your property value?
The deadline is Monday for Palm Beach County residents to appeal preliminary values to the county’s Value Adjustment Board.
The clerk and comptroller’s office expects as many as 16,000 appeals this year.
View larger chart: The less they cost, the more they lost
Search home values: How did you, friends fare?
Million-dollar mansions lost a small percentage. Working-class homes lost a big one.
On average, homes worth less than $200,000 fell 2.5 times harder than those worth $1 million or more, according to a Palm Beach Post analysis of data from the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office.
Nowhere is that divide more apparent than in a short stretch along Alternate A1A in northern Palm Beach County.
First, just north of The Gardens Mall, there’s Cabana Colony, a 40-year-old neighborhood of 791 modest homes, speckled with overgrown yards and “For Rent” signs.
All but one of them lost value last year. The median drop: 29.9 percent.
Half a mile up Alternate A1A sits Frenchman’s Creek, a ritzy, gated community of million-dollar homes that touts its own golf course and a private beach club. There, more than half of the 602 homes’ values went up.
That’s right - up.
The discrepancy is a stark illustration of the housing bust’s uneven reach, according to John Thomas, director of residential appraisal services for the property appraiser’s office.
As property values soared, many working-class families and first-time home buyers got loans to buy homes they couldn’t afford. Now, many of those families face foreclosure. That has created an abundant supply of affordable homes with few people looking to buy, driving the home values ever lower.
Meanwhile, the county’s wealthier residents either paid cash or took out a safer mortgage - one without the ballooning payments now devastating the working class.
The steeper a home’s value climbed during the boom years, the farther it fell, Thomas said.
In Cabana Colony, one resident paid $345,000 at the height of the housing boom for a home that is now worth just $133,000.
That same year, someone else bought a house in Frenchman’s Creek for $690,000. That home is now worth almost $1 million.
Some in Cabana Colony have been left with no choice but to walk away or stop making mortgage payments, hoping the latter would give them leverage to renegotiate their loan’s terms.
“You will be paying forever and you will never see ownership of the house,” said one Cabana resident who purchased her home on Dolphin Drive for $325,000 in 2005.
She bought after the townhouse she was renting nearby was put up for sale. “It was the only property that was affordable,” said the woman, who asked that her name not be used.
Now, its market value is $155,000, and the single mother of three is working with an attorney to renegotiate her mortgage.
“Everybody was going crazy buying properties that they didn’t need, just to make money,” she said. “The people who really needed a primary home to live in were left with nothing to buy. You had to agree to any terms because those were the only terms that were available.”
In the last year, there have been 58 foreclosures in Cabana Colony. During that same time, there were just two in Frenchman’s Creek.
Mary Saxton, a Frenchman’s Creek resident and Realtor who sells homes in her community, said there is little on the market in the posh neighborhood, despite the economic turmoil. She credits the community’s concierge service and its lavish lifestyle.
“If they want into a community where there is low density and it is like a resort, they will pay,” she said.
But if their wealth has shielded them from a turbulent market, it might not for long.
“The top end of the market is going to see some problems,” Thomas forecast. “Many of those people that paid cash for their homes, they are going to have trouble with some of their commercial investments and they are going to be forced to start selling their homes.”
As for those at the lower end of the market, the bottom is not yet in sight. The property appraiser’s office is already warning that home values will fall again this year.
“The unemployment this year is going to really hurt those same poor areas where people lost their mortgages,” Thomas said.
I haven’t been here for quite some time but I had written about our neighbor moving away over a year ago. It turns out there there was a sheriff’s sale back in the spring but it appears that nobody showed up so a property clearance company came in this summer and cleaned out the junk left in the property. They left a sign for contact information. To my knowledge, nobody has looked at the place nor is it on MLS. It appears that it’s a “zombie” property. Just out there but not being marketed. Someone must be taking a bath on the property.
We had three sales in the neighborhood after about a year of nothing selling. The asking price on one was about 17% below the peak. I don’t know what the sales prices were but should find out in a month.
I haven’t been watching housing closely for a while but I don’t see it recovering given the jobs picture which continues to deteriorate.
It turns out there there was a sheriff’s sale back in the spring but it appears that nobody showed up so a property clearance company came in this summer and cleaned out the junk left in the property.
Where do those possessions often end up? Any obviously valuable or rare stuff is cherry-picked, but the rest of the viable stuff often ends up at flea markets. We see house- and storage-area clear-outs all the time at the flea market near us.
There was an article a while ago about how many of these “storage places” have “sight unseen” auctions. Effectively speculators are bidding only by looking at the front of the storage space on what wares they may find inside.
Apparently, it’s good business for those who know how to gauge the market value of stuff.
ET, Faster:
I see them on Craigslist…FREE take everything out of storage locker today
You are right they take the valuable stuff electronics cd’s dvd’s any antiques and leave most of the furniture clothes etc weight sets all the heavy stuff
Now why would they give all the stuff away after buying the locker? Its cost $160 a ton to rent a trash bin and have it hauled away..PLUS they have to move it to the trash container….that could clear out all the profits….so its far cheaper just to give 90% of it away and boy do people flock and sift through other people property if its Free.
That’s all junk. I do all the work to get total garbage?!?
I don’t think so.
But I’m not an acquisitive type (except for books and music) so I wouldn’t understand it.
My quite-fancy music system sits on a free table that I once acquired from a very nice woman in Chicago 15 years ago. It’s perfectly adequate. Quaint even.
It boggles my mind at some of the things the average person spends.
Not all junk Faster….we picked up some nice copper bottom pans some industrial baking trays, cookers deep fryer sometimes there is good stuff….you need chairs tables etc.
The last on had tons of kids clothes and boy were the women so happy…bags of clothes free..must have been 20 of them
I found a box of dvd’s they missed at one place, kept what i wanted and sold the rest about 100 for $300
The problem is always transportation..how do you get it home.
I like stuff. Pretty dishes, bright blankets, food gadgets, adorable shoes, pallets, paint…man, I love it.
The problem I have is that I now have enough stuff, and good stuff, to last me for years and years, so I stopped getting stuff.
Mostly.
One thing I love to get at estate sales hereabouts is books; man, I have gotten some fabulous books! Hundred year old leather bound bibles for 50 cents, a box full of art textbooks for a buck, crazy deals like that. But just yesterday I wanted to wash a load of laundry and I had to move three piles of books onto the floor, load up the machine, do the wash, take the wash out, shut the lid, and put the books back on, because there was no other place to put them. Then later people came over and one of them wanted to recline full length on the divan, so I had to move a pile of books off the end so they could stretch out. Then I opened the freezer door to fetch out some ice-cream I had made and a large leather bound encyclopedia fell off the top of the fridge and about brained me on the way down.
And at that time I thought inside my head words that I never thought would be inside my head, and those words were:
I may have too many books.
I don’t know what to do, though. Ain’t no way I’m parting with ANY OF THEM.
well Oly…that’s what shelving is for…dedicate one wall to books and fill it to the top.
We have a lot of stuff, but this is the longest we lived at one place…so damum it happens…
that’s what shelving is for……dedicate one wall to books and fill it to the top.
Oh my gosh! I never thought of that!
I once did a thorough clean up… went room by room, shelf by shelf, box by box, and dumped everything i hadn’t used or needed in years, aside from things that couldn’t be easily replaced. Took a week to fill a pickup truck with small stuff. About 90% of my book collection got tossed.
I’m not sorry for dumping any of it, and never missed any of it, except for one out of print paperback.. (searched and later found it on the net for free in text form)
Now I’m really careful about adopting books. They’re heavy, they bogart too much space and are difficult to give up.
Oly, do you have a vintage Hill’s manual? They’re not that expensive for 19th-century books; you can get leather-bound editions for under $100 in good condition.
It’s got all manner of wonderful pieces, including an essay as to why in this enlightened age women can be of independent means and need not marry for money, and a template for a letter rejecting the proposal of a man because he smokes. And… most of the better pieces are transcribed online, to give you a taste. It’s a great piece of Victoriana.
I’ve seen one (alas, not for sale) and I want one of my own– a real one, not one of the 1970s paperback reprints.
Oly, do you have a vintage Hill’s manual? They’re not that expensive for 19th-century books; you can get leather-bound editions for under $100 in good condition.
Why, I don’t believe I do. But I’ll keep an eye out for one for you, shall I?
*makes note of it. *
Who is the HBBer with the CD at Corus Bank? Looks like it just expired.
A quick google shows it’s cougar91. Cougar, let us know what happens. I’m honestly curious.
Nothing happens. I would just chill if I were the CD-holder.
Oh, and bank failures are deflationary.
The amount of money printed to make the savings accounts and CD holders whole is so miniscule as to not even count. It’s a bit like p*ssing in front of the Niagara Falls and claiming that yours is bigger.
It’s nice to see you back, FPSS. You were missed.
Nothing happens? You think cougar91 will be paid the interest owed and on time?
why doubt it? No FDIC account holder has lost a penny of insured money.. ever. that includes interest.
IIRC, Whatever bank buys the failed bank has the option of continuing to pay those CDs’ interest rates to the CD’s maturity, or to cash out those CDs (with interest prorated), and offer new ones at that new bank’s rates.
———–
Check the results of the scores of recent bank failures.. accounts have remained open, ATM cards work, checks clear, money is available for withdrawl.. people here have posted that a failure had no effect on their CDs.
There was one situation that had a delay of one day. I forget the particulars. I think it was IndyMac .. FDIC took it Friday, and it was closed for business on Saturday, but open again Monday.. but that was a big bank and the FDIC probably needed time to get it all together.
Heck I opened a 5% apy 13 month CD at WaMu the day that Chase took them over. Walked in with a $95K cashier’s check and said I’d like to open an account. Chase honored the interest rate, although IIUC by FDIC rules they could have cut the interest rate to “market rate” had they wished.
Damn the thing is coming due in October.
Did the same thing Dennis did at WAMU, and that’s one of my better-paying accounts.
We’ve had multiple CDs at banks that have been closed. On one, the (brokered) CD was called early, and on another (brokered) CD, the rate was lowered from ~5 or 6% to 4%, IIRC. Overall, not bad.
Hang on to your wallets, everyone, Gary Bradley’s a Christian!
He’s meeting privately with public officials about a pipeline project to provide water for development projects out on the new highways.
It must be interesting to be a consultant and have to hide who you work for because you’re such a pariah.
The reason for the interest in whether he makes any money:
from today’s Austin American Statesman, after the w’s: statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/2009/09/13/0913bradley.html
why are these comments showing up under the Sept 13 bits bucket? this is mostly yesterday’s.
Maybe Ben’s into recycling.
I’m seeing signs of the schism in the middle class. Friends who once shared spending patterns moving in different directions. Some of its denial among the still uber spenders, for sure, but I think some falls to the fact that some of us will move up and some of us will move down as this thing proceeeds.
The differences of comfort level for debt is the most interesting to watch. Only a handful are lean and mean in regards to debt/income and to tell you the truth that was their basic approach all along. They only tightened things up completely as they watched what was happening. I think the rest will deal w/that concept if and when wage based income changes.
On Marketwatch, I read someone’s friend bought a new home and then lost his job within the course of a week. Someone suggested he might have had an inkling that layoff might be coming before he went through with the sale. I heard another story about someone who lost their job in SC. (Friend of a friend) They told their MA based friend who was extending her sympathy: yeah but we’re so much better in SC. When we moved here, we went all cash. Our home is paid for. Imagine if we still lived outside of Boston w/a mortgage and lost our job? They felt pretty confident they could survive. They may be right.
Outstanding post, CarrieAnn.
Sorry if this is OT. The fellow who bought a house from us in 2006 paid $350,000. It was mortgaged. I was surprised to see it on the mls last week for $215,000. Found out it is a “short sale”. I found out that “offered” at $215,000 actually means the agent is looking for someone to make that offer, and the “price” is not an actual sales price that the bank would necessarily consider. They have a FB on the hook, who in this case owes $300,000+, and can keep him there for a good while longer, accruing fees all the while, while they hem and haw over these short sale offers. BofA lets short sales offer twist in the breeze for 180 days, our UHS agent tells us.
Even if it gets full priced offer, it has almost 0 chance of going thru because the guy owes 300,000, and this short sale business reeks. It’s just agents fishing for offers. this week the price on this home was lowered again to 205,000!
But why is the bank not consulted to make a fair sales price? Don’t short sales just gum up the system? 45% of the homes for sale in Redmond, Or. are short sales, or bank owned! Guess it is not a good time to ferret out a fair market value of a property. Asking prices, for the same exact units, in our development range from 205,000 to 375,000! What is a price per square foot formula that an appraiser could use?
When we used to “offer” a case of tomatoes for $20, we would sell it for $20, not let the person who offered $20 sit there for three months then tell them nothing, or, better yet, “we would rather take $30″, PSYCHE!
Short sales seem like that to me. Where is the integrity in the system, is it found in the agents’ actions? Or the banks’? Or is it just FBs who pay their mortgages until they are broke?
BendOer
Thanks, ATE-UP! : )
OT: Maybe I am biased b/c I saw the Beatles, but my opinion only is that Sir Paul McCartney is the greatest composer, entertainer, hit-maker, cool dude, stud, and “make people happy person”, in the history of music. It will be a shame when he retires this year from touring.
P.S. He means it, I know.
seen on bumper sticker:
Today’s mighty oak is just yesterday’s nut that held its ground.
Car dealers fight slow sales after end of Clunkers-
YPSILANTI TOWNSHIP, Mich. – As Gene Butman Ford opened its doors Saturday, salesmen outnumbered the shoppers looking at a depleted stock of cars and trucks, and it didn’t appear that many customers were ready to buy.
Like many dealers across the country, the dealership in Ypsilanti Township, Mich., west of Detroit, is suffering from a Cash for Clunkers hangover, and Sales Manager Paul Grahl isn’t sure when it will end.
“We’re getting some traffic, but my business is a long way from healthy,” said the longtime salesman. “We suspect it’s going to be 90 days before we get back to any kind of normalcy.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090913/ap_on_bi_ge/us_life_after_clunkers
Risk-taking is back for banks 1 year after crisis-
NEW YORK – A year after the financial system nearly collapsed, the nation’s biggest banks are bigger and regaining their appetite for risk.
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and others — which have received tens of billions of dollars in federal aid — are once more betting big on bonds, commodities and exotic financial products, trading that nearly stopped during the financial crisis.
That Wall Street is making money again in essentially the same ways that thrust the banking system into chaos last fall is reason for concern on several levels, financial analysts and government officials say.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_meltdown_same_old_wall_street
Lots of gems in this article:
“…in the second quarter, the five biggest banks’ average potential losses from a single day of trading topped $1 billion, up 76 percent from two years ago, according to regulatory filings.
The government hasn’t just watched banks resume their freewheeling ways and prosper. It has been an enabler in the process.”
The banks current risk taking is eclipsing bubble era levels. Real nice. This is an absolute disaster in the making, nothing more than the very criminals who caused this crisis sending a loud message of f*** you to society in general.
Hey Wmbz…a touching South Carolina Story:
20 percent of criminal justice recruits are ‘functionally illiterate’
By Glenn Smith
The Post and Courier
Sunday, September 13, 2009
COLUMBIA — Nearly 20 percent of the 843 prospective police officers, jailers and dispatchers who entered the state’s Criminal Justice Academy in the past year could not read at a 10th-grade level. Nearly 4 percent were below a sixth-grade reading level.
That is of great concern to academy Director Hubert Harrell. Police officers are called upon daily to know laws, write reports, take witness statements and fill out booking sheets. Their ability to do so can prove crucial to the successful investigation and prosecution of crimes.
Harrell said instructors have encountered a number of academy students who cannot read or comprehend the material presented to them. “They are functionally illiterate,” he said.
Harrell said many also would make solid officers if they can overcome their literacy issues. The goal is to catch these problems and get them help before they fail out of the academy and the investment that has been made in them is lost, Harrell said.
It costs the state about $5,000 to train one student for nine weeks at the academy. An academy study of failure rates found that 58 students who flunked academics or proficiency testing between November 2006 and October 2007 cost the state nearly $157,000 in lost revenue.
Most academic failures start at the third week, when students begin studying the law, said training operations manager Michael Lanier, who conducted the study. “The material is at a 10th-grade level,” he said. “If you’re not there, you’re not going to pass.”
Academy officials are encouraging law enforcement agencies to screen their recruits for reading comprehension. A number of larger agencies already do this, but smaller agencies with fewer resources often do not. Not surprisingly, the study found nearly 34 percent of the failing candidates came from departments with 50 or fewer officers.
At Harrell’s direction, the academy began testing new students for reading comprehension last year. Officials are reviewing those numbers and devising parameters to better catch reading problems early on so students can be referred to literacy programs or remedial help before they start classes, academy special operations manager Florence McCants said. “We don’t have the resources to teach reading here,” she said.
Here’s a Sunday night chuckle
Billionaires for Wealthcare thank teabaggers for their support:
http://tinyurl.com/ozlzjj
Good chuckle. Reminds me of the 70-s era “Ladies Against Women,” who protested wearing flowered dresses, hats, and white gloves - with chants and signs like “59¢ is TOOOO much!”
NEW YORK – President Barack Obama sternly warned Wall Street Monday against returning to the sort of reckless and unchecked behavior that threatened the nation with a second Great Depression.
Even as he noted the U.S. economy and financial system were pulling out of a downward spiral, Obama warned financial titans on the first anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse that they could not count on any more bailouts.
He credited his administration and the $787 billion stimulus package rammed through Congress in the first days of his taking office for pulling the country back from the brink.
“We can be confident that the storms of the past two years are beginning to break,” he said.
And even as the economy begins a “return to normalcy,” Obama said, “normalcy cannot lead to complacency.”
Nevertheless, Obama said, “Instead of learning the lessons of Lehman and the crisis from which we are still recovering, they are choosing to ignore them.”
That’s funny. The Obama administration finds it pretty easy to ignore 2 million people massed in D.C over the weekend protesting his National Socialist agenda. Wonder how complacent and complicit he is.