Bits Bucket For November 8, 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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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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The Statesman has an article up today about how developer’s plans for the little burg of Kuna have come a cropper over a sewage treatment plant built with a worst-case scenario about demand for housing - demand that now just isn’t there.
Kuna spent $27 million on the plant which in hindsight wasn’t needed. Someone is going to get stuck paying the bill.
The improvement district was envisioned as a win-win for everybody. The city had reached its limit for sewer hookups and couldn’t grow further. Real estate developers eager to build housing in the area suggested the city create the district to fund a new wastewater treatment plant that would increase the city’s supply of sewer connections and allow more development, Dowdy said.
Under the Idaho statute that applies to local improvement districts, landowners pledged more than 2,700 acres throughout Kuna as collateral so the city could obtain a $15 million loan to build a treatment plant with a capacity of 8,500 hookups.
That number grew to 10,000 hookups when the city’s consultants pointed out that 8,500 hookups would cover the improvement district but would not provide a reserve for future growth. The number grew to 13,000 hookups when Osprey Ridge Development offered $1.5 million as a down payment for 3,000 sewer connections for its residential project.
Here’s the link.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/newsupdates/story/965468.html
On a positive note for the environment, a waste water plant running way below capacity will give a higher quality effluent. Also, although I cannot even remember the name of the town about 80 miles north of Fresno, a similar thing has happened. They doubled the size the the waste water plant at city’s cost, developer pays for higher capacity sewer line across town, and then real estate tanks.
By the way, Eau Claire, Wisconsin is a much nicer place to live than Fresno. Really glad we moved even considering the below zero weather that is coming. The people here are so friendly. A dozen neighbors came by to welcome us. They have a very nice senior center and I have been helping out some with computer classes. My wife talked me into jazzercise which I find as much an intellectual challenge as physical trying to keep track of all those steps, and all those women who have been doing it for years just run me into the ground.
A good friend from high school now lives in Menomonie. I can tell you that she is the type of person that always makes an area kinder and more pleasant to live. You are even stealing the good Minnesotans to live in that area. Maybe I will move out there and balance out my old high school friend.
My niece, her hubby and two little boys call Chippewa falls home although they work in Eau Claire and love the area. She’s a happy MN girl raised near the BWCA and loves both places.
She’s a deer hunting widow this weekend, as my brother and nephew have kidnapped her husband to hunt at my mom’s property this weekend.
I intend to call home at 6:00 pm to call in all my markers for deer chops.
Hey, it’s a MN and WI thing and we have our priorities.
Yeaaaaaaaaah!
We just received a care package with three pounds of fresh homemade deer venison. OMG!
BIL sent from Little Falls.
Life is good!
Leigh
My father was doing that 2 days a week until he was almost 80 and got sick
———————————–
They have a very nice senior center and I have been helping out some with computer classes.
“They have a very nice senior center and I have been helping out some with computer classes.”
Good for you NYCDJ.
I believe that nothing in the universe goes unpunished or unrewarded.
“On a positive note for the environment, a waste water plant running way below capacity will give a higher quality effluent.”
Unless actual influent flows are a fraction of minimum design flows.
With low loadings, nitrification can occur throwing the pH acidic if the waste water does not have enough hardness for buffering. However, keeping the sludge age low prevents this as the bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrate are slow growers. So, it just depends on how good the operator is.
Jeeez. Isn’t nitrification a SPDES requirement where ever you are? Many new builds in the northeast include de-nite. No doubt alkalinity uptake by nitrosonomas and nitrobacter is high.
Good and operator don’t belong in the same sentence.
I am actually Impressed learning about the different technological aspects of treating influent and effluent.
Fannie Mae’s Sale of Tax Credits Is A Bad Deal, Treasury Says.
Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) — Fannie Mae’s request to sell $2.6 billion in low-income housing tax credits would be a bad deal for taxpayers and won’t be allowed, the U.S. Treasury said.
The government decided the deal would cost taxpayers more than Fannie Mae would gain from the sale, according to a letter sent to the Washington-based company yesterday. The Treasury was considering whether to let Goldman Sachs Group Inc. buy credits, which could be used to lower the firm’s tax bill.
The prospect of record year-end bonus payments at Goldman Sachs had sparked criticism from lawmakers even after the securities firm repaid $10 billion from the Treasury last year plus dividends. New York-based Goldman has also benefited from Federal Reserve support and government backing on about $30 billion of debt, and was one of the largest recipients of funds from the U.S. bailout of American International Group Inc.
“Every politician on Capitol Hill right now hates Goldman,” said Paul Miller, a bank analyst with FBR Capital Markets in Arlington, Virginia. “Politically, this would look really bad.”
Goldman said last month it has set aside $16.7 billion for compensation so far this year, up 46 percent from the same period in 2008.
Fannie Mae, which is operating under government conservatorship, has said it may not be able to use the tax credits because it hasn’t reported a profit in nine quarters. The company entered an agreement before Sept. 30 to sell the credits at a premium, partly to avoid potential writedowns, according to a Nov. 5 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Is it just me, or this ‘bank analyst” (lobbyist?) lying through his teeth? I — and I think of lot of America — would welcome the chance for to put Golden Sacks on the hook for once. Yes GS would pay less in taxes, but it’s worth it if it is the fat cats who bail us out for once.
Btw, I’ve never heard of selling tax credits. Financial cap-and-trade?
I believe the proper term for what is going on is “treason”. What do you think?
I believe they are referring to ‘Low Income Housing Tax Credits’.
These are generally put together by investment funds that own several large apt. complexes and marketed through a securities firm. I’m sure there is a world of info on them if googled.
Hello everyone!
BIG sandstorm here in kandahar, very windy….
Listening to “Oh Shelia” by Ready for the World..
Damn Step….those are the fun songs to play at parties
those are the fun songs to play at parties
I have a whole library of them, as I surmise you do as well DJ..
Yup I’m still a little old school with 2000+ cd’s and about the same amount of records. I don’t use a computer at gigs…I sit and stare at this screen long enough..
But I do make MP3 cd’s for gigs I have almost 150 motown songs on 1 cd, so i make a copy and can back to back play for hours…same with everything else…so i go with less then 100 cd’s but 7000 songs
So you are experiencing an excess of hot air blowing this morning? Tell Eddie that everybody at HBB says, “hello”.
Do they have trees there? Every photo I see of the area shows barren land, rocky or sandy or hilly but with no vegetation.
Do they have trees there?
Yes they do. The trees are very hardy here. There is water deep below, we dig wells all the time. Whenever you are in a helo, you can tell where the water is, because you will see vegetation. But mostly it’s rocks, rocks and more rocks. The rainy season is coming up and there will be mud everywhere. It rains non stop in Dec and some of Jan. Then the snow will come.
Can you believe that monstrosity of a “health care” bill passed the House? May a thousand gnats infest Nancy Pelosi’s nether regions.
Wow maybe Hillary’s 1994 plan was way ahead of her time?????????
I guess that’s why they’re building all those so-called “Fema Camps” or prison facilities. Gotta house all those miscreants who can’t afford an insurance policy. “What’re you in for?” “Murder, what’re you in for?” “I don’t have an insurance policy.”
Maybe a Housing Blog for Prisoners?
The legislation would require most Americans to carry insurance and provide federal subsidies to those who otherwise could not afford it. Large companies would have to offer coverage to their employees. Both consumers and companies would be slapped with penalties if they defied the government’s mandates.
I was wondering how I was going to like prison, along with all the Amish Christians who do not believe in insurance as it is lack of faith in God considering that Democrats just made freedom illegal in the United States of America.
I do not believe in federal subsidies, nor do I believe the government has any power to tell a corporation or citizen how to spend money it earns.
I also do not believe Americans can be fined for defying any government mandate as nowhere in the Constitution nor Bill of Rights do the Citizens of these United States give power to Congress, the President or the Judiciary to inflict penalties, except in executing criminals of heinous crimes.
The Constitution affords Congress very limited use in taxes, declaring war and passing those laws which do not infringe on any Americans right to life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness.
Nowhere does it state that the government holds any power in confiscating funds from Citizens for health care or for community toilet paper drives. The original Constitution which still exists also does not afford the government any access to what a person earns in that amount as it is private. The fact is Democrats just tripped the income tax wire, along with all the other infringements they have been grabbing power from the people.
As of the current date, there are 300 million Americans. 56% were opposed to ObamaCrypt Care. That means that Democrats just have created 160 million criminals in these United States.
Maybe over 90 million are so opposed to this that these Citizens will go to prison.
“Great job, Pelosi!”
Liberal Democrat or collectivist wolf? You decide.
How about “sick b*tch”? Works for me.
This insane excuse for a human being has just spent months of time, energy and money figuring out how to circumvent the Constitution. No wonder she said of Bush “Impeachment is off the table”.
I’ve said for a long time that the dems did nothing about Bush because they secretly admired his actions, wondering how they could get in on the action.
cobalt blue
you ever take a mortgage interest deduction? ever ride a city bus or local transit train?
Those are all federal subsidies.
Have you ever gotten a speeding ticket? That’s a fine for defying a gov’t mandate.
Have you ever been forced by the the federal government to buy anything before? Well that’s changing. This abomination of a bill says if you don’t buy health insurance you may go to jail.
Put aside your political views for a second and think about that. The federal government of the US will have the ability to throw citizens in jail for not PURCHASING a product.
So what’s next? I have to buy insurance. Do I have to buy a car? A house? A boat? Do I have to buy life insurance too? After all, think of the economic stimulus we could get if everyone had to buy a new car every 3 years or face jail time? It’s an extreme example of course, but once the precendent is set, there’s no going back.
“Have you ever gotten a speeding ticket? That’s a fine for defying a gov’t mandate.”
“Are you serious? Are you serious?” (Nancy Pelosi’s response to a question on the Constitutionality of the Bill)
Wow, what a conflation!
The federal government is mandating we purchase a private good or service. Why not makes laws that would force everyone to buy a house? That’d solve the housing crisis and the homeless problem, right?
The Constitution affords Congress very limited use in taxes, declaring war and passing those laws which do not infringe on any Americans right to life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness.
The Constitution is a dead letter. The American sheeple yawned at its passing and continued to elect Republicrat politicians who have presided over the massive expansion of Nanny State powers and intrusion into ordinary people’s lives each year - exactly what Thomas Jefferson and other founding fathers warned of. Now these same sheeple will reap what they sow. I have no sympathy.
states require driver’s to have liability insurance on their cars, employers have to have worker’s comp insurance……there are many instances where one is compelled to buy something by gov’t code.
a. Those are state mandates.
b. See a.
“This abomination of a bill says if you don’t buy health insurance you may go to jail.
Put aside your political views for a second and think about that.”
Congratulations, Eddie — you have found a point on which we agree! The notion that all Americans should be forced to purchase health insurance (or any other good or service, for that matter) is a further step in the direction of socialism. Is that where we want to go?
Yes I to really hate that govt is trying to force you to buy health insurance.Stupidist thing I have ever heard of.
How do you guys think they will enforce this if it passes?
Yes, Eddie is right about that one. Compulsory purchase for all does not seem, in a sense, “American” to me.
“states require driver’s to have liability insurance on their cars, employers have to have worker’s comp insurance……there are many instances where one is compelled to buy something by gov’t code.”
I do not have auto insurance. I have not had it for almost five years. Since I do not drive I do not need it. Anybody that breathes will need health insurance or face jail. That’s a little different. I know that everybody should have insurance but to make it compulsory is another issue altogether.
Of course those that can afford health insurance but refuse to have themselves covered should pay for their own care.
When it gets right down to it the health system is really screwed up. There are no easy answers. Unfortunately I feel that our Congress will always find the worst possible solution to all problems. That is really the foundation of my thinking on this issue, whether it be right or wrong.
Here is how employers will PAY for it….its really simple you get 1 week of vacation…no matter how long you work there, No more personal days and sick days only with a doctors note.
All other time off bennies will be eliminated , So you might as well make your appointments and surgery on the weekends, or on your vacation days.
——————————————
Both consumers and companies would be slapped with penalties if they defied the government’s mandates.
Eddie:
Due to our lack of investment is mass transit most people NEED to have 1 working car, I can live without one here but not where my mom lives 50 miles away.
Do I have to buy a car?
The health care bill has yet to pass the Senate. That will be a tougher fight. Then my favorite socialist President, the Messiah, will gladly sign in that job killer. Once done, welcome to permanent double digit official unemployment rates. And much more inflation. Cut costs? Ha! Does the U.S. Post Office cut the price of stamps or increase service?
Gold to more than $3,000 per ounce next decade.
socialist President, the Messiah,
Wow.. Buzz words….
How about “Goldman Sachs water boy”? Are those buzzwords?
‘How about “Goldman Sachs water boy”? ‘
How about BUST THE MEGABANK TRUSTS!!! Are those buzz words?
How about BUST THE MEGABANK TRUSTS!!! Are those buzz words?
Funny you should bring up anti-trust enforcement; insurance companies are largely exempt from anti-trust law. Maybe you should add certain high-margin insurance companies to your Bust List?
why they’re building all those so-called “Fema Camps” or prison facilities
I thought those were being built to imprison Alex Jones and his listeners.
ha-ha-ha, that’s so funny I forgot to laugh.
How chic, how very hip. So amusing. Tickety-boo.
You’d be pretty way out there, too, if you had to confront some of the evil Alex Jones has had the guts to confront.
BTW, a little tip fer ya: Psy-ops organizations such as the CIA, etc. know that one way to hide things is to make them so incredible, no one would believe it. Which is how they’ve gotten away with steaming piles of crap for years.
Oh, no, they’d NEVER do a thing like that.
Would they?
I agree with the general feeling here as regards compulsory health insurance with threat of jail for non-compliance. but….
We already have such a thing for retirement “insurance”. It’s called Social Security and it’s been around for 80 years or so. Try not paying for that and see what happens.
Advocating for abolishment of SS comes across as radical libertarian or right wing, but I don’t see how SS and government health care are really any different. It’s just that we’ve long since been conditioned to the one, and we’re not yet ready to accept the other.
palmetto, I listen to Alex Jones some. But no, I’m not particularly passionate or serious about it, as you appear to be.
Shoot, even cobalt jokes about tin foil hats.
Yep, hip, that “tin-foil hat” business is deliberate, meant to make people ashamed to even consider that the incredible is being done, daily.
In the not too distant past, it would be thought incredible that we would find ourselves “doing business” with the Chinese, and their ownership of our debt. Invaded by illegals from everywhere, and nothing done about it. Jobs shipped overseas by our own companies. H1Bs insourced to replace Americans. In our own country. Nawwww, take off the tin foil hat.
it would be thought incredible, etc
I agree with you about that. I’m angry and frustrated too. (And I won’t even get started on foreign policy matters that I feel strongly about after 35+ years of study and work in a certain area.)
Anyhow, why don’t you take a youtube break and listen to something that might make you smile. (the late great Blossom Dearie, 1966)
after the w-s: youtube.com/watch?v=SPzt3A4Se_U
In the not too distant past, it would be thought incredible that …
In the not-too-distant past, it would be thought incredible that we would allow our healthcare system to become the most expensive and least effective in the world.
In the not-too-distant past, trust-busting was a noble cause, not one to be shirked from.
In the not-too-distant past, America observed the rule of law …
See? We could go on all day.
“We could go on all day.”
My point exactly. It’s coming apart at a mad rate, the center cannot hold.
Why not split into two or more countries? I like the idea. I’d prefer to live with people of like mind. Right to associate or not associate is a fundamental human right.
The USSR did not recognize that right. You weren’t allowed to leave, etc.
PS for those of you who say I can leave any time, stfu. I’m going down with the ship, because there’s nowhere else to go at my age.
PS for those of you who say I can leave any time, stfu.
Well, isn’t that the line that the hawks and ol’ timers used on the hippies and other radicals? Only one side of the political equation is invited to leave?
at least you’ll have health care
I’ll say it again. If the government can’t restrain Medicare costs to ensure those younger will have something, and offer something to those younger right now, then the right thing to do is repeal Medicare, or at least cut it back to whatever is funded by the dedicated tax.
We’re either all in it together or we’re not. I’ve had enough of all for some, paid for by others, who are often worse off.
We’re not. Just ask Goldman.
Nothing will work but a total one payee system regarding health care . You can’t have the private Insurance Companies gaming the system ,which would result in even more profits for those greedy pigs .
I agree with the prior posters that the Politicians came up with a piece of
s%%t Health Reform Bill . This is what happens when Politicians try to serve to many Masters . The Politicians of today are totally incapable of doing what is right for America . If the Politicians wanted to take away rights ,why didn’t they just impose sanctions on Private Insurance Companies that dropped customers or raised
costs . Take away the rights of the Private Insurance Companies
to gouge customers and cancel parties that have claims .
Its clear that they need to raise the cost to Seniors of Medicare by about 50%
and impose more deductible to stop the abuses in Medicare . Oh ,
so what if Seniors have to pay 50 bucks more a month for Medicare. The real costs to Seniors comes in when they need long term care that Medicare doesn’t pay for anyway . I know a lot of Seniors that are making Doctors wealthy by getting ongoing repeat check ups yearly that are not necessary . This BS where the Insurance Companies only give a prescription for 30 days at a time increases the costs of health care also . The whole system is just corrupt and all screwed up .
We’re either all in it together or we’re not. I’ve had enough of all for some, paid for by others, who are often worse off.
So true and me too…
This morning, libs are angry that the bill isn’t liberal enough.
It’s not liberal at all. It’s fascist. The notion of the US government telling me I have to buy health insurance or else go to jail is not a liberal idea.
I have asked this question of many libs and none can answer. If the goal is to provide health insurance to the 10% of Americans who lack it, why does that require 2000 pages of legislation? Wouldn’t it be easier and take up about 3 pages to just say if you make under $X a year, we’ll buy health insurance for you? Yes that’s simplistic, but why not? Did it take 2000 pages to enact food stamps? Did it take 2000 pages ot enact EITC?
The bible is 1300 pages. The health care bill is 2000 pages. That should put it into some kind of context.
It’s not liberal at all. It’s fascist. The notion of the US government telling me I have to buy health insurance or else go to jail is not a liberal idea.
If I don’t pay my income tax I go to jail.
If they reinstated the draft and I dodged it I would go to jail.
You don’t have to pay income tax. If you have no income, you have no tax.
Everyone will have to buy insurance under this bill.
See the difference?
You can’t spin out of this.
You don’t have to pay income tax. If you have no income, you have no tax.
That’s akin to saying that the dead need not worry about hospital bills.
And no, not “everyone” will have to buy insurance. Many will be exempted: those in miltary, retirees on medicare, the poor (who will get it for free), etc.
“Everyone will have to buy insurance under this bill.”
Joey, what you probably meant to say was more like “Everyone will have to buy insurance under this bill, or it will be bought for them”, with the implied hint that people will want to opt-out of having healthcare coverage in the same way they might want to opt-out of having police/fire/ambulance services, public schools, postal delivery, electricity, and paved/maintained roads.
See the difference? You can’t spin out of this.
All U.S. citizens over 65 have to use Medicare as their medical insurance. Have to. Almost all of them love it. Almost all doctors love it. It’s socialist, yes. Fascist, no.
The terms “liberal” and “conservative” have been bastardized to such an extent that they no longer have meaning. I believe a classic liberal is somebody that believes strongly in personal freedom. I see nothing in Dodd, Frank, Schumer, Clinton, Pelosi, Gore and other “liberals” of our day that make me think they believe in personal freedom.
True that, those terms are dead, useless. What we are seeing here, plain and simple, is the PTB trying to maintain power.
Reminds me of when FDR threw Upton Sinclair and E.P.I.C. under the bus in GD 1. The most dangerous ideas to Washington aren’t from the “left” or the “right” side of the aisle - they are the ideas from outside Washington.
Sounds like DC is swelling in size now - that too is a telltale sign of the decline of the republic. The capitol grows and becomes even further detached from the rest of the empir….er, country.
If the goal is to provide health insurance to the 10% of Americans who lack it, why does that require 2000 pages of legislation?
You could provide health insurance to everybody with half a page, like this: Health insurance is free for everybody, paid for by the gov. To pay for it, here’s a new progressive tax on income at x%… etc. It’s called Single Payer.
The complexity arises when you try to cover those people without an outright tax hike, and when you work with an already complex system of private insurers and existing government entities like Medicare and the VA. Those 2000 pages are there to preserve the capitalist private insurance, when it would much easier to just wipe it out.
So a system that works fine 90% of the time should be dismantled and replaced to fix the 10% error rate? So in your world if my bathroom sink has a leak, the solution is to bulldoze the house and build a new house.
Wouldn’t it be simpler to just call a plumber and fix the leak, for about 1/1000 the cost?
So a system that works fine 90% of the time should be dismantled and replaced to fix the 10% error rate?
Eddie, are you really as dense as you come off, or is your mission to generate posts (in which case, it’s Mission Accomplished)?
The House bill is a bad piece of legislation, plain and simple. But Oxide answered the question you claim “none can answer” quite easily and concisely.
We have the worst healthcare system in the industrialized world, and it’s also the most expensive. It’s not just about the uninsured and underinsured, it’s about the quality of insurance everyone receives at current prices, it’s about faceless private bureaucrats denying coverage to sick citizens who played by the rules, it’s about the number of insured Americans driven to the poorhouse by medical bills.
You can bloviate all you want, but that hasn’t changed. (The House bill won’t change much of that either, unfortunately.)
“…why does that require 2000 pages of legislation?”
I would think a super-long bill would be quite useful for hiding myriad quid-pro-quo bacon for future Congressional campaign contributors. But perhaps I am just being unfairly cynical?
It wouldn’t surprise me if all the complexities of health insurance filled 20,000 pages. So yes, a 2000 page bill would fix the 10% that’s wrong.
I like your bathroom analogy, but you’re inaccurate. The sink and bathtub would be the doctors and hospitals. Health insurance and payment is the PIPING. And yes, if the pipe is bad, it affects everything. You could spend 2000 pages (and a lot of money) looking for and repairing all the leaks in 80-year-old pipe, or you could spend half a page and much less money just ripping it out.
One problem with the present system is that hospitals are required to “fix” all comers, whether they can pay for their care ( being insuranceless ) or not. That includes everything except optional services such as having an artificial knee installed. But MRI’s, radiation and chemo for cancers, burst appendixes, etc., all have to be treated. If one place refuses, most uninsured just go down the road to another one. Eventually, a social worker employed by the hospital ( to protect itself ) figures out how to qualify the patient for Medicaid, and then we get paid a generous $ .11 on the dollar. But, Medicaid won’t go back and pay for the thousands of dollars of treatments prior to the entitlement date, so we’re stuck with those. Most people that are that poor don’t care if they rack up tens of thousands of dollars in bills. They know how to game the system. That’s why so many people are surprised when inner-city hospitals close. My goodness, don’t they get Medicaid patients ?
“…The bible is 1300 pages. The health care bill is 2000 pages. That should put it into some kind of context.”
Hey eddie, do you pay taxes? You might have missed a deduction, here let’s look at the US tax code to make sure your not paying more than your entitled not to.
Ahhh the old standby 2 wrongs make a right argument. So we have a bloated tax code and in order to make health care more affordable we’ll create an even more bloated health insurance code.
Brilliant idea. You must work for the government.
Just because the Insurance Companies got the Politicians to mandate car insurance ,doesn’t mean it will work with health care . I haven’t read the new Health Reform Bill ,but it appears that it doesn’t solve any of the real problems with Health Care ,especially the costs and the bad faith of private Insurance Companies .
They need to get away from Health Care being tied to your employer .
Housing Wizard, that’s what the Public Option is for. Don’t like private insurance? Get the government plan. Too expensive? Try the government plan which would be non-profit. Lost your job? Gov will cover you. It’s a death-kneel to private insurance, and they know it.
I’m trying to imagine Hwy50 as a government employee. . . Nope, I just can’t get there.
That made me laugh.
I am wondering what the money streams are in all of this. I can’t believe the pols are for anything that doesn’t line the pockets of the elite.
I am guessing that this is a big push towards more underground economy.
A lot of freedom fighters are already in the underground economy to some extent. I applaud them. Our so-called representatives know they voted against their constituents. With such disregard of our wishes and of their rulebook, the constitution, shouldn’t you also ask yourself why you still foolishly overpay taxes and still hold your breath for tax cuts?
A lot of freedom fighters are already in the underground economy to some extent.
Is the term “freedom fighter” a euphemism for “dope peddler”?
For people who oppose freedom, maybe. For patriots, not necessarily.
Lots of underground economic activity exists that has nothing to do with drug dealing. And it will only increase as govt control and taxes increase.
Is it too early to talk about repealing this 2000 page monstrosity? It sounds like it is DOA.
* The Wall Street Journal
* REVIEW & OUTLOOK
* NOVEMBER 9, 2009
The Lords of Entitlement
Every medical insurance decision will be subject to rationing by politics.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi defied policy logic and public opinion late Saturday night, ramming through the House a nearly 2,000-page health-care leviathan that counts as the biggest expansion of the federal government since the New Deal. As President Obama likes to say, this was a “teachable moment” about our current government.
The vote was 220 to 215, with 39 House Democrats joining all but one Republican in opposition. Mrs. Pelosi had to cajole and bribe her way to the magic 218, and the list of her promises must be stacked to the ceiling.
The lone Republican, Joseph Cao, represents a Democratic-leaning Louisiana district and extracted a promise that Mr. Obama would increase Medicaid payments to his state, and even then he only voted after Democrats had already hit 218. Let no one suggest this was the “bipartisan” health reform that Mr. Obama has long promised.
The bill is instead a breathtaking display of illiberal ambition, intended to make the middle class more dependent on government through the umbilical cord of “universal health care.” It creates a vast new entitlement, financed by European levels of taxation on business and individuals. The 20% corner of Medicare open to private competition is slashed, while fiscally strapped states are saddled with new Medicaid burdens. The insurance industry will have to vet every policy with Washington, which will regulate who it must cover, what it can offer, and how much it can charge.
…
The bill is instead a breathtaking display of illiberal ambition, intended to make the middle class more dependent on government through the umbilical cord of “universal health care.” It creates a vast new entitlement, financed by European levels of taxation on business and individuals.
———————-
Hmmm, yes, I suppose it’s much better to be dependent on private, **for-profit** insurance companies instead of the govt.
A couple of decades ago we were visiting family in Europe and a discussion about taxes came up. It seemed at the time that we were effectively paying about the same in total taxes, but were receiving far less in return.
Quite frankly, I don’t mind paying a 50% tax rate if we get some quality healthcare and infrastructure out of it.
Absurd article: recession forces young NY men to cut back on swank batchelor pads.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/realestate/08cov.html?hpw
“With only themselves to support, they could flash their cash and trick out their apartments in such a way that James Bond himself would feel at home shaking himself a martini in their ultra-cool, chick-magnet pads.”
“A year ago, apartments like this one might have gone to a single person; now, ‘bachelors are doubling up and saving their money.’”
In reality, as a result of soaring housing prices, most young men (and women) I know not only have roommates in their apartments, which I did living the Bronx in my early 20s. They have roommates living in their rooms.
If anything, the recession might give them a break — a cheaper rent so they can live better if they are employed, or an excuse to go back home. Because life here has been very tough.
I can’t even find an excerpt, that article is so good…
A young guy and his partner building 6×8 “pods” to act as separate chick magnet bedrooms.
The guy who lives in a room with has no heat but constantly rains plaster.
But the funniest is the guy who pays $1600 a month to live in a studio with no room for a table. He lives off the royalties from a former music career. WTF? is New York so special? For the price of rent, he could live — very well — almost anywhere in the country except New York. It’s not as if he has to commute.
‘If you see this pod rocking, don’t come a-knocking.’
You’d know it was a good night by how far your pod got moved from its original spot.
‘You’d know it was a good night by how far your pod got moved from its original spot.’
LOL
Moron…..he could live here just 3 miles from manhattan for that and have a backyard…there is a rental up the street legal 1bdrm
with doors to a yard.
—————————————
But the funniest is the guy who pays $1600 a month to live in a studio with no room for a table.
that article is a gem!
“two walls were devoted to shelves showcasing his vast sneaker collection.’
oh my heart bleeds..
NYC is crazy special. I live on Long Island on the North Shore and have a
lot f friends whose kids have just graduated. All my friends are affluent and live in 5000Sq ft plus homes but everyone’s kids boys and girls are living in NYC. They could live at home get good food, mom to cook and do the laundry etc and be 40 mins from NYC but there is this obsession of living in NYC. A couple of them got laid off or could not find a job and they are the only ones living at home. Friday/ Saturday nights guess where they are NYC. The city is crazy ! It draws u in. Even the ones in the city come home on Sunday to have Mom do the laundry and cook them next weeks food. We are an Indian community so I guess the kids want their supply of Curry and Spices.
You can’t get laid with a different one each weekend if you live at your mom’s place.
After all, the chance to do the “walk of shame” only comes early in life.
Jes’ sayin’ so you get some perspective on how kids think.
a cheaper rent so they can live better if they are employed, or an excuse to go back home.
When I first moved to Fantasyland I wondered how all of these kids managed to afford living in Manhattan. The amount of 22 year old girls playing “Sex in the City” was astounding. Their clothes were expensive. Their cell phone was top of the line. Their hair was always done up. The look on their face was always pissy. It didn’t take long to figure that “First National Bank of Mommy and Daddy” was paying for a lot of this.
Something happened in 2008. First National Bank of Mommy and Daddy, not being a “megabank”, was knocked on its a$$. There were no TARP funds coming to the rescue. Their ATMs were taken out by the firestorm. Brittany and Kyle were knocked off their Manhattan perches.
I just look at my own building. Our rent dropped by 15% this year. I mainly see only two floors on our building. One apartment is sitting empty. Another was abandoned and then had an eviction note placed on the door (a formality). That is out of 16 apartments.
Times have changed. Rents are dropping. Contrary to HBB’s lead economist Eddie, this is not a run of the mill recession. Plus none of the bad debt has been worked off and we are down this far. Keep your safety belts on and your hands and feet in the car. This ride will be wild.
Actually, the ride will be controlled in its descent. Whatever your beef with the Fed, they have successfully pulled a Japan. The downdraft will be relatively orderly.
Of course, for the average man on the street, it may be “wild”.
“…they have successfully pulled a Japan.”
Was that really their objective? Because Japan has just survived roughly two decades of more-or-less ongoing asset price deflation. I thunk deflation was Bernanke’s kryptonite?
If that is indeed the case then we could still be experiencing waves of deflation two decades from now.* That’s 2029 for all those FBs waiting for prices to “bounce back”.
*IIRC, Japan experienced a sharp spike in deflation earlier this year - 2Q 2009 I think.
Japan was the world’s largest creditor. It went to being the world’s second-largest debtor in that time.
The US does not have that luxury.
“The US does not have that luxury.”
Didn’t we already enjoy that once-in-a-lifetime luxury over the past two decades?
Well, DUH, Professor-issimo! Hence, it won’t take two decades.
What is this? Rocket surgery?!?
mmm…so does that mean money in the bank earning zero interest is actually appreciating somehow? Help me with this.
For some reason I’m thinking “Can I have your stereo?”
Uhhhh huhhhh..
Let’s see what a nice 3 bedroom apartment in Manhattan costs….survey says…a hell of a lot.
http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/nfb/1456482562.html
Yes indeed they’re giving the stuff away for free these days. Just like to 90% off peak houses I keep hearing about in Flordia.
The amount of 22 year old girls playing “Sex in the City” was astounding. Their clothes were expensive. Their cell phone was top of the line. Their hair was always done up. The look on their face was always pissy.
By the end of 2010 I’m guessing a lot of these deflated princesses are going to be entering into “understandings” with fiftysomething dudes with comb-overs, paunches and halitosis, in exchange for food, shelter, and a modest stipend to cover essentials.
I see these snobby gold digger types and just laugh.all they want is a sugar daddy to pay the bills.Good luck to them.I like women I can repsect.
Forget the snobby part but an Anthro professor told me that some gold digging girls are a natural result of millions of years of evolutionary pressure to procreate. Men of means can provide well for children and in the past, “older” meant “good genes”.
Older men can be attracted to younger women also because of the species need to procreate as younger women are more fertile.
And I didn’t just make this stuff up.
R-E-P-S-E-C-T
Find out what it means to me…
“…are a natural result of millions of years of evolutionary pressure”
Boy, let me ya!
opps,…
“…are a natural result of millions of years of evolutionary pressure”
Boy, let me tell ya!
(Hwy shakes his left hand)
Older men can be attracted to younger women also because of the species need to procreate as younger women are more fertile.
Perky funbags may also have something to do with it. Just saying.
So we’re looking at a twenty year deflationary economy that will drive young women into the arms of older men? Sounds good to me! Thank you Golden Sacks, you’ve earned your bonuses.
all they want is a sugar daddy to pay the bills.Good luck to them.
Check out craigslist W4M section. You’ll see lots of these. It disgusts me that not only do these women not have scorn heaped upon them, but I imagine some of them are actually successful. Ugh.
I have yet to find my sugar momma. Heck, I’d be happy to find a woman who simply wasn’t living life on the edge financially. (well, she has to be willing to put up with me, too).
Sigh. Another dreary Sunday morning….
“…that will drive young women into the arms of older men?”
Oh boy … polygamy, here we come.
Sigh. Another dreary Sunday morning….
Why? Have a Bloody Mary or three!
Nothing dreary about it all. Plus, what’s so dreary with woman putting their knees behind their ears? Isn’t that like the quintessential (straight) male fantasy?
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/281605
Nature has some interesting variations on this theme - so those those who study Fiddler crabs.
Plus, what’s so dreary with woman putting their knees behind their ears? Isn’t that like the quintessential (straight) male fantasy?
It’s only the fantasy if her friend is also involved.
It’s only the fantasy if her friend is also involved.
Sister, darling, sister.
It’s always about the twins (or the triplets.)
Also, the mom and grandmom but that’s graduate school not undergraduate 101.
what’s so dreary with woman putting their knees behind their ears? Isn’t that like the quintessential (straight) male fantasy?
Eh, it pains me to say it, but not EVERY guy is looking for that. Wish I could be that guy, but I’m just not.
Well, let me clarify. I’m ALL for that, assuming everything else is good - that is, someone intelligent, independent, self-sufficient, emotionally well-adjusted, etc. Once all that is met, then I’d love for her to put her knees behind her ears. But it takes time to establish all those things are in place…
Stupid, perverse, needy, manic sex is worth a try once in a while.
You people really think women attracted to rich men is a new phenomenon? It’s been around forever. The Caveman with the biggest uhm, club got the hottest cave woman.
I had this discussion with my wife. I asked her if the fact I earned a decent amount of coin when we met a factor when she decided to go out with me. She said it wasn’t **the** reason. But she also said that if I had been the exact same person, looks, personality, sense of humor, etc but I worked at McDonald’s she wouldn’t have given me the time of day.
And I can appreciate that. I wouldn’t want to be with a woman who would want to be with a man who worked at McDonald’s.
What about the Mc Donalds regonal manager?
I asked her if the fact I earned a decent amount of coin when we met a factor when she decided to go out with me. She said it wasn’t **the** reason.
Trust me, Eddie, it sure wasn’t your personality that won her over.
was it his big club? or his sparkling conversation? …
Heh, I guess I set myself up for that.
NYCityBoy: very pleased that you got a rent cut!
You HBBers are my entertainment for the next few hours. I’m stuck in O’Hare. Thank heaven for the internets.
I’m worried about Olygal. Anyone know if she’s OK?
Had a nice time in Polly’s city. The weather was great. Saw Steve Nash and Grant Hill going to breakfast this morning. I wanted to get their autographs, but was too embarrassed.
Grant Hill probably tore his ACL walking through the line at the breakfast buffet.
People are looking at me as if I’m weird because I’m laughing at NYCityBoy. Maybe I’ll play solitaire now.
“The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed a massive overhaul of the American health care system Saturday night by a vote of 220 to 215. One Republican, Rep. Joseph Cao of Louisiana, crossed the aisle, while 39 Democrats joined the Republicans in opposing the measure. ”
www dot politicsdaily dot com
The Dred Scott decision, Pearl Harbor and 09-11 were “historic” moments too.
It was so close as many dems were given permission to vote no by Pelosi to help with their re-election. She passed it with only as few votes as were needed to help the re-election chances of dems in red districts. Don’t be fooled by Washington political maneuvering.
After the American people see what was passed and what it will do for their quality of life, will it will finally get people to act because they will see their quality of life plummet???
“given permission to vote no by Pelosi”
Thanks for the enlightenment. Real eye-opener.
After the American people see what was passed and what it will do for their quality of life, will it will finally get people to act because they will see their quality of life plummet???
I don’t understand HOW quality of life will plummet and I base my ignorance on this:
Right now, people like their health insurance unless they have to use it or if they have preexisting conditions. But once they get sick or hurt, their quality of life already plummets because they’re sick or hurt and their insurance company denies, weasels, sticks it to them and drives the sick and hurt to the poorhouse or to an early grave because of rationed health care based on financial decisions.
So cheer up! Things won’t get any worse and maybe they might get just a little better…
“Things won’t get any worse”
To quote Pelosi when questioned about the Constitutionality of the bill: “Are you serious? Are you serious?”
“Are you serious?” in an incredulous tone is going to be a stock answer whenever some serf has the gall to refer to that dead parchment, the Constitution, in responding to arbitrary governmental demands.
Since the sheeple have shown their utter indifference to the loss of their liberties and continue to perpetuate the misrule of Pelosi and her Republicrat ilk, legitimate questions and concerns from the thinking one percent of the populace are going to be brushed aside like annoying gnats. Fines and prison time are in store for dissidents as the Nanny State wields its ever-increasing coercive powers.
“the Nanny State”
From here on out, I’m gonna call it “The Nancy State”.
Except that no one person is driving this. The real culprit is the ignorant, mindless voting public who keep Pelosi and her ilk in office.
You know, Sammy, you have hit the nail on the head. I do go on about Washington and Wall Street, but at the end of the day, I have to look in the mirror.
I suppose part of it is cowardice in that I am unwilling to confront my friends and neighbors, although I do speak up among them for my own views. And have lost a couple of “friends” that way, but maybe they weren’t friends to begin with.
Betcha I voted Libertarian Party more than any HBB’er, including those older than me (50). So no mea culpa for me.
The Docile American…
http://dissidentvoice.org/Feb07/Zingh13.htm
Better to do it alone and quietly, so as not to be identified. Irwin Schiff’s loyal followers were hammered because they were organized.
Harry Browne put the wheels in motion for me in “How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World.” I have been successfully applying his ideas and have become more aware of opportunities to increase my freedom even though our government has become larger and larger.
It’s a waste of time trying to persuade people to become individualists. If they are dumb fux, they will always be that way. Better to take the direct approach and safeguard your own liberty.
Many people break laws every day, including the two or three cheerleaders for big government on this board. They are unaware of it. The laws may be just (speed limit laws, which really are for public safety). Some people knowingly break victimless crime laws. No witnesses, no victims, so who cares and get along with enjoying life without the nanny state involved. Then there are folks who do not report some of their tips. There are some who do not report some of their profits.
The current congress must be well aware of Lysander Spooner’s essay “No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority” (http://lysanderspooner.org/node/44) because they obviously do not recognize the Constitution’s authority over their powers.
Why should you? Why don’t you become like a Congressman and assume no paper has authority over our individual freedom?
I keep hearing my long passed-away father admonishing me to not take life too seriously. Maybe he would be in agreement with Harry Browne. Not sure.
H.C. Bill is expected to be DOA at the Senate, so the doom is not sure. Don’t go out and buy $100,000 worth of gold on Monday. Wait until the Senate considers the bill.
Bill
When questioned about the legality of one of his actions, Nixon said that since he was President anything he did was automatically legal. Sounds like Pelosi is going down the same path.
Things won’t get any worse and maybe they might get just a little better…
It’s not the healthcare that bother’s me, it’s that my tax dollars have to go to pay for someone elses.
If this thing passes the senate, we have lost alot of freedom’s…
The govt shouldnt be forcing me to do ANYTHING…
The govt shouldnt be forcing me to do ANYTHING…
They force me to pay income tax to fund our wars in the middle east.
“They force me to pay income tax to fund our wars in the middle east.”
The “income tax” has always been a war tax, a perpetual war tax. It is also unconstitutional. It is enforced at the point of a gun.
“The govt shouldnt be forcing me to do ANYTHING”
Cool…try packing your AWOL bag, borrowing a spare C-130 and flying back to DC and telling the Boyz in the nearby Pentagon THAT !
Cool…try packing your AWOL bag, borrowing a spare C-130 and flying back to DC and telling the Boyz in the nearby Pentagon THAT !
Yea, two different things…..
Why can’t you accept that may be that’s a choice he made?
What?! You object to paying the health costs of lard-asses who choose disgustingly unhealthy lifestyles and diets? You insensitive, selfish man!
http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/
Why oh why did I go to that website…:shock:
You are confusing access to health care with paying for health care.
Right now in some situations, people get health services and insurance refuses to pay. Not an ideal situation. But the sick get the care they need and have to deal with paying for it.
When ObamaCare is implemented, health care will be rationed, but paid for. So the siatuation will be inversed where you’ll have no medicla bills, but also no medical services. Or you’ll get the services but after waiting months if not years like in Canada or England.
Persoanlly I’d rather have to worry about paying for my operation than not having the operation at all.
Health care is already self-rationed. Rich people just don’t see it because it’s only the plebes who self-ration. You needn’t worry your pretty head about them, Eddie; they are beneath you.
I see it where I work. Most coworkers opt for the junky, high deductible plans, which means they don’t get preventive care. Self rationing in action.
I’m also seeing self rationing at my doctor’s office. It used to be hard to get in on short notice (sometimes the wait was over 2 weeks).
Not anymore, as the unwashed are increasingly “doing without” as their insurance plans are being downgraded into high deductible, indemnity only plans, which means they have to pay for office visitis out of pocket until they meet their $1000-2000 deductible. At $100+ a pop most are “doing without”. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind a Canadian style system.
How many of those people forgoing $100 visits to the doctor pay $100+ a month on
- cable
- cell phone
- $100 dinners
I saw a friend this weekend employed by Henry Ford Hospital. I asked her whether her practice has slowed down with the recession. She answered that she is just as busy, but the proportion of uninsured to whom she is providing free care has risen.
Eddie, probably very few.
I see it where I work. Most coworkers opt for the junky, high deductible plans, which means they don’t get preventive care. Self rationing in action.
Where I work, the only choice we have are high deductible plans with high premiums and high everything else that costs any money.
Oxide,
Are you kidding me? Who do you think is buying the $400 phones? Hint: 19 year old fools who make $12 an hour and have no insurance.
You are confusing access to health care with paying for health care.
HI Eddie!
But I don’t think I really am that much because they are related and always will be.
But the sick get the care they need and have to deal with paying for it.
The uninsured do not receive proper health care. And the under-insured do not either. (Uh oh..I said under-insured) Is that like under-employed??
I’d rather have to worry about paying for my operation than not having the operation at all.
Then just have some money and there is no problemo. Go to India or maybe Brazil. Here you can have major surgery for 10-25K! If you have some dough who cares?
Also I’m sure that the wealthy will be able to buy supplemental “cadillac” health insurance riders to compliment the common-folks plans.
Don’t worry about all this stuff Eddie! The USA takes care of the wealthy and always will.
P.S. The Canadians and the Brits, and the Aussies I meet in Rio laugh at our American health system. But at least they don’t scoff in my face about it like the French.
Hey rio I’m looking for a hotel on copa beach
does not to be a 5 star but a very nice 3 star..
Wi/fi, a/c, and close to the action.., coming
12/26… Thank you in advance… Also any
place to watch American football on tv?
Beachhunter
Xexéu Restaurante e Bar - Ph. 2548-7353
Rua Aires Saldanha, 21, Copacabana
This Bar has American Football and great solo live Rock on Sunday nights before the game. 2 Games Sunday Day, Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football. The Brazilian owner speaks English. The games start late because of the time differences.
Hotels are tough to advise as I’ve never stayed in any on Copa Beach. The Othon palace is central but gets very mixed reviews. The Marriot and Copacabana Palace are 5 star. Copacabana beach near Leme Beach is by the red light district and a bit sketchy.
I’ll ask around and post Wednesday if I know more. You will be here in high season. There will be one million people wearing white on Copacabana beach on New Years. It’s gonna rock.
I have to apologize for not having time to read a 1000 page bill (perhaps Polly could shed light?) but my guess is that Eddie is right — a likely consequence of the government forcing increased medical access to those who cannot afford it themselves is to reduce access to medical care for those who can afford it. Either you increase the number of docs and nurses, or else giving a bigger slice of the medical pie to the indigent takes some of the access pie away from the wealthy.
Have I oversimplified this? I am always open to corrections when I miss the point…
“…or else giving a bigger slice of the medical pie to the indigent”
Hey now, I always thought: “a pound of prevention was worth an ouch of cure” ?…or something like that.
I think life offers some simple lessons to us. Here are a few that I’ve learned.
1) Bills that are 1,990 pages are a disaster for the country
2) Wars that haven’t been won in the first 7 years can’t be won
3) You can’t solve a problem of excessive debt with more debt
Those lessons just don’t seem too hard to grasp.
Is it cheaper to care for someone to have a mole removed found during an affordable routine screening, or pay to treat them for skin cancer? (I guess cheapest would be to let them die. Maybe in a better world?)
“Bills that are 1,990 pages are a disaster for the country”
So are bills that are only two pages. TARP.
“So are bills that are only two pages.”
Some two-pagers are quite attractive.
“Is it cheaper to care for someone to have a mole removed found during an affordable routine screening, or pay to treat them for skin cancer?”
The point of your example is taken. The chances the 2K-page bill will adequately filter out wasteful, unnecessary uses of government-subsidized medical services from cost-effective ones like your example seems quite remote. But it’s all good for the indigent and the members of the medical-industrial-complex; both groups will benefit from the wealth transfer embodied in mandatory household-financed health care stimulus.
Obama talks endlessly about reducing waste and fraud in Medicare with PelosiObamaCare bills.
Why do you need a 2000 page bill to do this? Why not start reducing this waste and fraud tomorrow. If here is all this waste and fraud that can be magically eradicated, do it now.
It is beyond imagination to think that 2000 pages of new bureaucratic jargon will make anything more efficient and reduce waste/fraud. Soon enough we’ll have the health care version of the $300 hammer except it will be the $300 syringe which will be the cost after the process required to buy a syringe will be 17 pages long and involve 12 agencies.
Things will get worse when they put me in jail for not buying health insurance.
I’m sure it will be deemed affordable for me but it would force me to walk away from my house after owning it for decades.
Yup, you will come home to find the IRS has locked you out like a common tax cheat.
So, I says to Bubba, my cellmate, I’m not lying, I didn’t do it, I didn’t buy health insurance. Bubba being the lifer he is, just can’t undestand the influx of prisoners. There was a time when prison was for criminals, not novices.
Ol Bubba’s in prison? We better send him some barbecue with a file in it.
Pretty much every ‘western’ nation spends less per capita on health care, has longer avg life expectancies, and higher rates of satisfaction with their health care systems than we do. Doesn’t seem so terrifying to me.
I swear if one more person compares the situation in the United States to the situation in Scandinavia I might just lose it. “Mister apple meet Mister Bowling Ball.”
I know you’re not doing that here but that gets done all the time. It reminds me of the time 15 years ago that my leftist buddy tried to tell me that Cuba was a role model for leftist living.
Have you ever compared the healthcare in the US to Scandinavia?
Have you ever compared the complexity of the United States to that of Scandinavian nations?
It was a joke, grumpy! I know the answer.
Oh, screw it! Just have another JD for brunch, grumptastic!
How about Australia or Canada? They’re ‘new world’ countries made up of immigrants, sort of like us.
And since when does Europe have more flexibility to try new things than we do? I thought we were the innovators, and they were stuck in their old ways.
It was a joke, grumpy! I know the answer.
Oh, screw it! Just have another JD for brunch, grumptastic!
Sarcasm only works when you are not known as a grouchy ba$tard, putty-tat.
(How do I do one of those winking thingies?)
So, speaking of which, I understand you think that the healthcare in US could be bettered by the Scandinavian example?
Australia started out with a bunch of crooks, giving them a head-start over the US.
DennisN, the first slaves in the American Colonies were white criminals from England.
The indentured were the lucky ones. They at least had a shot at freedom.
This is the main reason they could find plenty of Minute Men.
Did you really think the founders preached “freedom” out of the goodness of their heart?
And since when does Europe have more flexibility to try new things than we do?
Oh since about WWII, for England and France anyway. It’s easier when catastrophe wipes the slate clean.
Then Iraq should be the next economic miracle.
“…that my leftist buddy tried to tell me that Cuba was a role model for leftist living.”
Now there are trade-offs to living like a “hippie”, but hey…look at that 35 year old VW bus they found in a container being shipped to Sweden: estimated value… $53,000!
And besides, really which is worse? a Nation addicted to MBS or medical “Whackey Tabbackey”?
They spend less per capita because they get less health care. They also spend less for everything else. Poorer countries spend less than richer countries on everything. No great mystery there.
Life expectancy is one of those red herrings that doesn’t mean much. We have a lower life expectancy for 2 main reasons:
1. Lots of murders that Euro countries don’t have.
2. Bad eating habits that lead to all sorts of diseases and early death.
The Pelos bill will change neither 1 or 2.
And sure life expectancy is higher. But what about quality of life. If I need a hip replacement and don’t get it, I won’t die. But my quality of life will suffer.
Ah, the old ‘America is somehow uniquely unable to do what the rest of the developed world can do’ argument. It’s our food choices and murder rate, eh?
Why do those nations have higher satisfaction with their systems than we do? They enjoy getting ‘less’ care?
I think most of those western nations to which you refer have per capita costa about equal to the MEDICARE/MEDICAID portion of the US costs. Grasp the fact that the Fed already spends as much as those other nations and now they are going to expand the bloated bureaucracy to save more money. Give a big ole break!
Google and learn. I’ve posted the links here many times.
I’ll break you off a little piece, so you don’t choke.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_spe_per_per-health-spending-per-person
Let’s see, so we spend the most, do we live the longesty? Nope! We’re 50th in life expectancies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy
Here’s data from Fox! So you know it’s fair and balanced.
Fox has found that other countries prefer their health care systems.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,136990,00.html
From the Fox(!) story:
The U.S. is the only industrialized country that does not offer government-sponsored health coverage for all citizens. Proponents of market-driven health care often point to long wait times for services in other countries when warning of the dangers of a government-run system.
Sixty percent of patients in New Zealand told researchers that they were able to get a same-day appointment with a doctor when sick, nearly double the 33 percent of Americans who got such speedy care. Only Canada scored lower, with 27 percent saying they could get same-day attention. Americans were also the most likely to have difficulty getting care on nights, weekends, or holidays without going to an emergency room.
Four in 10 U.S. adults told researchers that they had gone without needed care because of the cost, including skipping prescriptions, avoiding going to the doctor, or skipping a recommended test or treatment.
Meanwhile, 26 percent of Americans surveyed said that they had faced more than $1,000 in out-of-pocket health care costs in the last year, compared with 14 percent of Australians, and 4 percent of Britons.
“The U.S. stands out as the patients the most exposed to medical bills,” Schoen says
I like to refer our friends to the CIA World Factbook for data on mortality, life expectancy, etc. After all, the patriots at the CIA wouldn’t lie, would they?
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
“Google and learn. I’ve posted the links here many times”
Try this then
The National Coalition on Health Care (http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml)
“In just three years, the Medicare and Medicaid programs will account for 50 percent of all national health spending.”
This is the dollars the Fed is spending before Pelosi-care. That leaves 50% for everybody else in the private sector, and the 50% for Medicare/Medicaid mentioned does not account for the fact that it is a huge net loser with a gigantic underfunded mandate right now for it’s coverage.
Wow. A large chunk of our health care dollars go to caring for the elderly. Who would have guessed?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5EFEQ9aY6o&feature=player_embedded#
“Bohemian Bankruptcy” by Drag Queen - a hilarious and surprisingly talented take-off on Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” about the pain of losing your house and pension. UK-centric and not for the children, but clever. I was rolling.
I like that one. The dude should have been hugging a bottle of “Two buck Chuck” at the end.
That was very well done! Thanks for sharing, Sammy.
Don’t mess with Texas. The new retirement mecca.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-texas7-2009nov07,0,652942.story
Like I said, retirees and illegals. What a combo!
Not a bad combo actually.
Retirees are in bed by 8pm, so no loud parties from your neighbors.
And illegals keep the lawns looking good at a cheap price.
And if you can put up with the hell that is July and August, the rest of the year is pretty nice weather.
Might start looking into San Antonio real estate now that you mention it.
“Not a bad combo actually.”
Unless you have to share the roads with them. LMAO!
The seniors or the illegals, or both?
both!
Both. Many of the retirees shouldn’t be behind the wheel of a car, especially when they’re on eight or ten kinds of medication. I could tell you stories, but one of my faves was seeing one of those Lincolns with a retiree behind the wheel, a freaked out look on his face, as he sat at a light waiting to turn onto the main highway. Except he was on the wrong side of the median.
Illegals frequently don’t understand the road signs, signals, etc. Many wouldn’t understand even if they were in Spanish. Not to mention the drinking and driving situation.
One thing illegals and retirees often have in common, is that when I’m behind a car occupied by one or the other, it looks as if it is driving itself.
Having lived in San Antonio once, I can assure you that the “hellish weather” is around for more than 2 months.
I also visited San Antonio a few years ago on business. Like most Texan cities, outside of the touristy zones, the place is an armpit.
In the years I’ve been selling stuff on the internet, my best customers were from Texas. Polite, gracious, communicative, paid on time.
Second best customers were from Michigan.
I’ve spent some time in S.A, Houston and Austin throughout the months. To me July/Aug was pretty bad. The rest was OK. Winter in Austin was perfect.
S.A. has some nice areas, but you’re right as a whole it’s quite awful. But it’s cheap.
And illegals keep the lawns looking good at a cheap price.
I’ll mention that to my friend whose wife was severely and permanently injured after a drunken illegal crashed his pickup into her Subaru at a red light.
Oh for crying out loud, like American citizens NEVER drink and drive. Right? And I’m sure nobody here has ever had a couple too many and still drove home. Right?
“…And illegals keep the lawns looking good at a cheap price.”
Who wants to go through the hassle of hiring a new “landscraper” every 10 days? You must have good memory to remember all those names. Besides, are you always home when the “new guys” are bagging leaves in your backyard, out of sight? Does the car you leave at home have a catalytic converter?
“…Might start looking into San Antonio real estate now that you mention it.”
Foghorn Leghorn: “I’s tell ya, that eddie, he sure knows how to make the hens lay eggs, go get’em son, there ain’t nothin’ like Taexas soil for “chicken scratch”
Eddie, seriously, you and Texas were made for each other. Just don’t go to Austin.
I love Austin. It’s not really as liberal as people make it out to be by the way. More libertarian that liberal, in the leave me the f**k alone to smoke my pot and play my music kind of way. A position I fully support.
I was recruited by Dell out of college and almost ended up moving there. Didn’t accept the offer but I’ve been there many times over the years, for work and fun. A few of my friends moved there over the years, they all love it, and I love visiting. Never know, might end up moving there some day too.
Oh, I’m sure you can find some fellow blowhard know-it-alls, it’s a big town. I’m just saying you’ll find a much higher percentage of them elsewhere in the state.
And you’re right, it is a nice place. State capital, home of the state’s flagship public university. All that socialism (or is it liberalism? it’s not libertarianism) makes for a pleasant place to live, no?
And property taxes, don’t forget that!
If you’re a senior, you should go to places with income taxes not property taxes. Isn’t this like a big DUH?
Many states give a big break on property taxes to seniors.
And besides withdrawing from a 401k is taxable income as is SS payments. Of course income tax matters.
Aah, I didn’t know the tax-break part.
The youngun’s could always hope for a plague that wipes out the old!
Bless you, for your fingers type faster than your thinking
It gets better in CA with Prop 13, which caps property tax at 2% annual increase. By the time we moved to CA (mid-90s), the tax on our modest condo in Richmond (aka r@pe capital of the USA) exceeded what some old timers owning million dollar view homes in the Berkeley hills were paying.
You must be old.
Koochy-koochy-koo, do you want to change your Depends now? Who’s the big ol’ grumpy now?
I’m always amazed how CA retirees move to OR. OR has no sales tax so they make up for it by gouging on property tax.
As mentioned before, ID has enacted what CA Prop 13 should have been: a narrowly-tailored property tax exemption for seniors who make less than a threshold amount of income. Well-off senior? Pay your share.
And don’t forget the high crime rate!
When I visited my sister in the Metro Dallas area I was surprised that they check your bags vs. your receipt when you leave WalMart. I guess shoplifting must be a big problem there.
Texas is constantly rocked by scandals of nursing home abuse and failure of state regulation of nursing home standards.
Exactly. You do NOT want to be a poor retiree in Texas.
And remember, one major illness, and you will BE poor.
Yet again the myth of the illegal crime rears its ugly head. Sigh.
Dallas has a violent crime rate of 1069 per 100K residents.
Compare that to all those safe cities with few illegals like Memhis(1951), Philadelphia(1475), Baltimore (1631), Detroit(2289) and Indianapolis(1234).
The rates for Texas cities with all those supposed violent illegals:
Dallas 1069
Houston 1132
El Paso 418 (about 80% Hispanic)
San Antonio 556 (about 60% Hispanic)
Austin 540
Ft Worth 667
But why let facts get in the way. Let’s stick to the lie that Mexican = criminal it makes a better story.
What does this mean? Under normal conditions I would say this is a real “green shoot” but with all the loose money on Wall St. it could be just a dead cat bounce. I mean really… with 10.2% unemployment and millions of Alt-A loans still to reset, how can this BBB grade stuff now be worth 300%-600% more than it was 6 months ago?
MBS/ABS/CDO/CP/Money Fund and Derivatives Watch:
November 5 - Bloomberg (Pierre Paulden): “Rising prices of collateralized loan obligations may signal higher fees for managers of the securities such as Highland Capital Management LP, Aladdin Capital Holdings LLC and KKR & Co. and spur loan sales, according to strategists. The lowest-rated pieces of CLOs, which pool high-yield, high-risk loans and slice them into securities of varying risk, have climbed to 30 cents to 40 cents on the dollar from less than 10 cents seven months ago, according to Morgan Stanley. Those ranked BBB have risen to 59 cents from 6 cents on the dollar in the past six months.”
“…how can this BBB grade stuff now be worth 300%-600% more than it was 6 months ago?”
Dough-4-Dumps and Treasury-guaranteed mortgages = real estate always going up again. Think of the BBB grade stuff as leveraged bets on the underlying (real estate) and I think you have the rough story…
AIG returned a profit. If they can do it (no matter how), then all that toxic crap out there MUST be worth something, right?
You see Mr. Ben, this is why old Hwy is America’s biggest “cheer-leader” for 14+ % mortgage interest rates…you just can’t KILL these “Estate Beast B@stards!”
Owner of bankrupt O.C. project buys Vegas land: November 7th, 2009
The Irvine-based owner of the bankrupt Marblehead development and 21 other projects in Chapter 11 has managed to buy bargain property from another bankrupt developer.
SunCal Cos. paid nearly $20.1 million to buy just under 1,100 lots in 11 developments in Las Vegas and Henderson, Nev. The land was formerly owned by Illinois-based Kimball Hill Homes, which filed for Chapter 11 in 2008. Highlights of the deal include:
• SunCal purchased 639 finished lots.
• SunCal purchased 433 partially finished lots.
• The purchase was an all-cash deal financed through D.E. Shaw Group.
• D.E. Shaw is acting as both a lender and partner in the deal, a SunCal spokesman said.
• The transaction closed escrow on Oct. 21, with SunCal acting through a subsidiary called Vegas Valley KHI Acquisition.
All 22 developments in bankruptcy are independent entities, and SunCal is not in bankruptcy itself. In fact, the company is actively looking for new land-buying opportunities while the bargains last, said company spokesman David Soyka. “We’re always pursuing good opportunities nationwide,” he said. “We’re looking at raw land and finished lots. We’re adding to our portfolio.”
Let’s see what they were up to…13 months ago:
O.C. developer $300 million in the hole: October 23rd, 2008
“…On Sept. 10, creditors forced partnerships in three SunCal developments into involuntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The developments are in Kern and Riverside Counties. This week, a separate SunCal subsidiary halted development of Marblehead in San Clemente.”
“There is no cash here with which to operate,” said Andrew Troop, attorney for Lehman Commercial Paper Inc., which is owed $235 million as a first lien holder on the SunCal properties. “There’s not a real estate market here.”
“California properties being developed by Irvine-based SunCal Companies are more than $300 million under water on projects with $441 million in debt, attorneys said in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana.”
http://lansner.freedomblogging.com/
Looking at some recent HBB related stuff… doc housing bubble…
There seems to be 660,000,000,000 Alt A loans out there still….
There are 460,000,000,000 Sub prime loans floating around…
WF is offering to convert these Alt A to a new speculative I/O loan!
FRN/FRE are asking for people to become renters… similar to above
A quick run through the numbers shows probably 1.5 million distressed homes in California… that being on top of what ever the mass unemployment generates.
There were some discussions on unemployment vs underemployment yesterday. Probably should note that underemployment is only defined as working part time while seeking a full time position. Also long term unemployment also drops out of the U3 number as well.
Again, data is pretty noisy and the govt has a model that generates jobs, so there are continual revisions. That is they assume job creation that may or may not have happened. Generally they overshoot on creation in a recession or undershoot during growth. This is supposed to be a mechanism for keeping the data current, probably not a sinister plan. I often look at the revised number, like looking at cancellations in housing purchases.
Not a big area of study for me but there seem to be a bunch of measures of unemployment. U1-U7 or something like that. U6 is the wider number and is at 22% for California. The U3 number is at 10%+. The U6 number indicates a depression. Would guess that California, Michigan, Florida and a few other states are in a depression right now.
Anyhow, the recovery is probably occurring little by little. However we are still on the way to the bottom. That is a second derivative has turned. I’m expecting more deflation and Eddie the troll points out some examples of it even though he doesn’t mean to. Business are fleeing high wages. Well, declining wages are a hallmark of deflation too.
Anyhow, the damage has been done and we are still waiting for all of the fall out. I expect an unprecedented amount volatility in markets as random bailouts and priorities shift, the bag holders are illuminated and slow rolling of defaults continues to drag on real estate.
In the background I expect massive government printing to make up for shortfalls. However, it will pale before the amount of credit destruction and only result in some amount of carry trade. We being on the bad end of it.
Such is life.
Briefing
America’s public debt
Tomorrow’s burden
Oct 22nd 2009 | WASHINGTON, DC
From The Economist print edition
America’s debt crisis will be chronic, not acute
Illustration by Belle Mellor
AS AMERICA’S financial crisis recedes, the rumblings of its next crisis can be heard. The federal government has wrapped its guarantees around banks and the housing market. It has borrowed hundreds of billions of dollars to stimulate the enfeebled economy, while tax revenues crumble. And in the years to come the cost of retirees’ benefits will explode. “There is every reason to worry that the banking crisis has simply morphed into a long-term government-debt crisis,” says Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University.
But what kind would it be: acute or chronic? If it were an emerging market, America would probably have hit trouble already: foreigners would have recoiled from financing its gaping budget deficits; default or a bail-out would have followed. The past two years have shown that rich countries are not immune to acute crises. Iceland’s case has been the most severe: the IMF had to save the country from collapse. Others have displayed milder symptoms: credit markets have discounted meaningful odds that Greece, Ireland or Italy would default. But although an acute crisis cannot be ruled out, America’s is far more likely to be chronic. Its expansion is likely to be sluggish and deflationary, which make it economically and politically hard to reduce debt.
…
link?
:rofl:
+1
Caution: The web site linked here has the most annoying automatic switch to an insurance company advertisement that I have ever encountered.
If you can figure out how to read Sheila Bair’s entire article without interruption, please share your secret.
End of Too Big to Fail
We must end the policy of too big to fail. To do so, we must find ways to impose greater market discipline on systemically important institutions and ensure that no firm is too big or too interconnected to fail.
After all, in a properly functioning market economy there will be winners and losers. And when firms—through their own mismanagement and excessive risk taking—are no longer viable, they ought to fail.
OK, the link doesn’t work. Sorry about that. You can find the article directly in Google by entering “bair too big to fail orange county” on the search line.
Sheila Bair is finding her voice on the too-big-to-fail problem. She may ultimately emerge as a champion of American freedoms in this battle of Megabank, Inc versus the Planet.
U.S. FDIC’s Bair angered by banks fighting reforms
Mon Nov 2, 2009 12:38pm EST
WASHINGTON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - A top U.S. bank regulator struck out against the portions of the financial industry that are fighting reforms, saying they are using fear tactics.
Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, said on Monday that some in the financial services sector are trying to argue that regulatory reform would stifle innovation and impede economic growth.
“That makes me angry,” Bair said in a text of remarks prepared for a lecture at Kansas State University.
Bair said the extreme market interventions that have occurred during the recent financial crisis have been difficult for her as a life-long Republican and market advocate.
But she said they were necessary and that government needs even more tools to discourage financial firms from getting so large that taxpayers are forced to provide assistance if the firms become unstable.
“The government has been going into places where we don’t want to be,” Bair said, but she added: “We simply cannot afford to maintain the status quo.”
…
Bust up the too-big-to-fail trusts, and this whole problem could be contained.
RPT-WRAPUP 3-Obama ‘too big to fail’ plan blasted in Congress
Thu Oct 29, 2009 4:49pm EDT
* Geithner defends proposal in congressional hearing
* Bair argues for advance funding for interventions
* Both Democrats and Republicans criticize plan (Adds Gardner, Sherman comments)
By Kevin Drawbaugh
WASHINGTON, Oct 29 (Reuters) - The Obama administration’s new proposal for tackling financial risk in the U.S. economy, unveiled just two days ago, came under attack on Thursday from Congress and regulators, with questions raised about its funding and scope.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner scrambled in a congressional hearing to defend the plan against critics who said it would give too much power to regulators and enshrine government bailouts for troubled financial firms in law.
Released by the Treasury Department and Democratic Representative Barney Frank on Tuesday, the plan is an bold attempt to make sure the Bush administration’s confused handling of last year’s financial crisis doesn’t happen again.
That episode saw some firms, such as AIG (AIG.N) and Citigroup (C.N), get multibillion-dollar bailouts. Others, such as Lehman Brothers, were allowed to go into bankruptcy, while still others were forced into government-engineered mergers.
The 253-page Obama plan tries to strike a balance between bailouts and bankruptcy, while insisting that large financial firms, not taxpayers, foot the bill for future interventions.
“Without the ability for the government to step in and manage the failure of a large firm and contain the risk of the fire spreading, we will be consigned to repeat the experience of last fall. It’s a really stark, simple thing,” Geithner said at a hearing of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, chaired by Frank and packed with bank lobbyists.
…
Where does the FOMC stand on Sheila Bair’s assertion that we should “let the markets work”?
The FDIC’s Sheila Bair: “There Will Be Losses”
Posted by: Jane Sasseen on October 29
By our colleague Chris Palmeri
FDIC Chief Sheila Bair spoke at the Town Hall Los Angeles this morning, sharing her thoughts on financial markets and some of the policy issues she faces as one of the nation’s top banking authorities. Formerly a professor of regulatory affairs at the University of Massachusetts, Bair speaks in a rapid fire style. So I’ll put her comments in bullet points.
On the economy as a whole
Bair said the Administration was winding down some of the emergency programs introduced in the wake of the crisis such as the TARP funding. “Things are getting better,” she said. “It’s time for government to get out and let the markets work.”
…
The future of banking
When asked if the FDIC was slow in allowing new banks to be insured, she conceded it was. “The old model of brokered deposits funding commercial real estate, we have a lot of problems with that.” She also said she hoped federally insured institutions will have learned something from the crisis and avoid exotic financial instruments and focus instead on the basics. “We’re going to get away from models and math and make loans based on getting to the know the borrower. It’s not who comes up with the best financial engineered product or who made the most fees anymore.”
Wishful thinking, but let’s hope she’s right.
They want to tax 5.4% for everyone making over a million dollars and I have to now offer 200 health insurance. I cannot pass that cost to the consumer . guess what LayOFFs are coming up. That is the only . way for me to survive. Consolidate and live to fight another day. I have to protect
my seed capital. Maybe I should go into outsourcing like my other friends who are all buying Lamborghinis and Ferraris. This bill should increase the incentive for mid size companies to outsource. Face it guys our goverment has sold us off to big corporations who are greedily eyeing the markets in Asia and China. They are outsourcing to build their future customer base of 3 billion people who are currently getting our jobs so they can grow their buying power and hence consume our corporations products.
What do 300 million Americans count for to these corporations with 80 million of them coming to retirement and needing to cut consumption. Follow the money. Buy companies that bring in more revenue from overseas. Coke , Pepsi, Catterpillar Intel, microsoft, apple and the likes.
Like my indian friends say it is time to invest outside America and live in America. Or invest in American companies that are global.
More money has been lost on the promise of “emerging markets” than their emergence.
The US can lay a mile of road a day. How long did the “Golden Quadrilateral” take? Twenty years?
The “emerging” markets are still that. Backwards.
You still can’t get water 24×7 in any Indian city minus Bombay.
You can get a license to open a company in MA (presumably the worst state, right?) in less than a week. How many people do you need to bribe in China or India to get one?
Get a clue!
“…I have to protect my seed capital. Maybe I should go into outsourcing like my other friends who are all buying Lamborghinis and Ferraris.”
“…Like my indian friends say it is time to invest outside America and live in America”
Anyone serving “over-seas in the US military care to respond?
Oh, and you forgot mention “investing” in companies that make “war toys” for “geo-political” consumption…
Meahwhile his “seed” is banging its collective @ss out in the East Village (read above)
It’s bloody laughworthy. I hope his son has his knees curled around his ears in some Chelsea bar. It’s pretty likely actually. The immigrants are the last people who figure out that their kids are American and horny and rational.
American and horny I agree. Probably getting banged I agree. Rational?
Foreclosure-killing spree link noted. Got anger?
Florida shooting suspect had money problems
Jason Rodriguez, accused of killing one and injuring five, ‘is a compilation of the front page of the entire year — unemployment, foreclosure, bankruptcy, divorce,’ his lawyer says.
By Amy L. Edwards and Anika Myers Palm
November 8, 2009
Remember the good old days when single women were buying condos left and right? Does anyone know what is happening to this demographic these days? The reason I ask is that: women at the workplace in marginal positions fall quick prey downsizing. I wonder what the HAMP does to these folks?
- shendi
Now they have their knees behind their ears to pay for afore-mentioned condos.
The mental image is awesome.
What can I say? I aim to please.
OK, that was a little crude.
I do not see sob stories of what happened to these women’s dreams of controlling their own financial destiny. If what you said is true then they could have cut out the ‘owning a condo’ part while at it!
“…women at the workplace in marginal positions…”
Marginal indeed.
Do central banks know how to do anything besides blow bubbles?
From The Sunday Times
November 8, 2009
Are the central banks blowing new bubbles?
David Smith: Economic Outlook
link
Socialized medicine passed. I so look forward to paying the health costs of slobs who won’t lift a finger to ensure their own health and wellness and whose lifestyles make them net drains on the system.
http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/
“…whose lifestyles make them net drains on the system.”
Are smokers and morbidly obese people celebrating in the streets today?
Sunday Times (UK) long profile of Goldman Sachs:
w-s then: timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6907681.ece
I like the “opening” ;-)…however, I don’t understand the relationship about the between excess wealth and the need to remain silent & “private”. You would think that “they” would want everyone to emulate their intelligence & “right living”
“Number 85 Broad Street, a dull, rust-coloured office block in lower Manhattan, doesn’t look like a place to stop and stare, and that’s just the way the people who work there like it. The men and women who arrive in the watery dawn sunshine, dressed in Wall Street black, clutching black briefcases and BlackBerrys, are very, very private. They walk quickly from their black Lincoln town cars to the lobby, past, well, nothing, really. There’s no name plate on the building, no sign on the front desk and the armed policeman stationed outside isn’t saying who works there. There’s a good reason for the secrecy. Number 85 Broad Street, New York, NY 10004, is where the money is. All of it.”
“It’s the site of the best cash-making machine that global capitalism has ever produced, and, some say, a political force more powerful than governments.”
I’m sure Faux News is setting up a “tea-baggers” video shoot at this address as I type…
We rent, pay our bills, avoid old geezers and get ready for marshall law. whooo hoo.
Is the US still suffering from a housing shortage? How can one reconcile such nonsensical claims with the stubborn reality of asupply of vacant homes in the neighborhood of 19 million?
U.S. Home Vacancies Rise to 18.8 Million on Defaults (Update1)
By Kathleen M. Howley
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) — About 18.8 million homes stood empty in the U.S. during the third quarter as banks seized properties from delinquent borrowers and new home sales fell in September.
The number of vacant properties, including foreclosures, residences for sale and vacation homes, rose from 18.4 million a year earlier and 18.7 million in the second quarter, the U.S. Census Bureau said in a report today. The record high was in the first quarter, when 18.95 million homes were vacant. The homeownership rate, meaning households that own their own residence, stood at 67.6 percent.
The worst U.S. housing crash since the Great Depression has led to a record number of foreclosures and shaved almost a third off property values. The S&P/Case-Shiller Index of 20 cities in August was 29 percent below its 2006 high, after rising for four consecutive months.
“We are bumping along the bottom of the housing market,” said James Lockhart, vice chairman of WL Ross & Co. and the former director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. “There is the potential for another swing down.”
…
Here is a creative use of vacant homes: Psychopaths may be using them as burial grounds…
No bond for rap-ist who had 10 bodies at Ohio home
(AP) – 4 days ago
…
Investigators worked late into the evening Tuesday searching the Sowell property, squeezed between a sausage store and another house in an inner-city neighborhood of aging homes, some boarded up and abandoned.
Police searched vacant homes within a quarter-mile Tuesday, looking for more bodies. Police Chief Michael McGrath ordered the search expanded another quarter mile and said firefighters also will search in the walls and floors of Sowell’s home on Wednesday.
“It appears that this man had an insatiable appetite that he had to fill,” McGrath said.
…
Yet another creative use of urban property that The Wire hath foretold …
Next to a sausage store? The mind trembles.
Did you ever see Eating Raoul?
Other variations on that theme:
- Soylent Green
- Sweeney Todd
LOL. And the neighbors thought the death stench was coming from the sausage store.
The French film Delicatessen?
Hey, I’ve actually seen that movie.
…and the others as well, but Delicatessen was a very obscure art house movie.
Delicatessen is one of the great movies. Jeunet has a great visual style and that is one of his best achievements.
The b__lshit-meter in that movie is one of the best ideas ever.
When the salesmen tries to pitch it, the buyer tests it out with “life is good” and the meter starts spinning and buzzing.
“The b__lshit-meter in that movie is one of the best ideas ever.”
Any chance of developing a real-life version that works on Used Home Sellers?
You wish, daah-link, you wish!
That film feels as though it were made by the French version of Terry Gilliam.
(IOW, +10!)
President Obama fails to go after those responsible for the financial meltdown
By James Lieber
Published on October 27, 2009 at 10:29am
Will the Fed have to open an REO department?
NY Fed says bought $2.714 bln of U.S. agency debt
Fri Nov 6, 2009 11:12am EST
NEW YORK, Nov 6 (Reuters) - The New York Federal Reserve said on Friday it bought $2.714 billion of U.S. agency debt with maturities ranging from November 2013 to April 2016.
Dealers submitted $6.389 billion of agency debt for consideration in the purchase.
…
Fed’s balance sheet expands in latest week
Thu Nov 5, 2009 5:32pm EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve’s balance sheet grew slightly in the latest week on increased holdings of government and mortgage agency debt, Fed data showed on Thursday.
The Fed’s balance sheet liabilities — a broad gauge of its lending to the financial system — rose to $2.147 trillion on Wednesday from $2.144 trillion a week ago.
The Fed’s holding of Treasuries rose to $776.51 billion on Wednesday from $774.56 billion a week ago. The increase occurred despite the U.S. central bank’s completion last week of a program to purchase Treasuries.
The Fed’s ownership of agency securities, or debt issued mainly by Fannie Mae (FNM.N), Freddie Mac (FRE.N) and the Federal Home Loan Bank System, climbed to $146.96 billion on Wednesday from $141.60 billion a week earlier.
On Wednesday, the Fed said it pared the amount of agency debt it plans to purchase to $175 billion from the initial $200 billion due to limited supply.
…
Is there any reason on the horizon anyone can think of why the Fed could not keep rates low indefinitely?
No, and they will.
The value of the dollar is another question.
It seems as though they have clearly made a choice to suppress the financial return on holding dollars (T-bond yields at all durations of the curve) and let dollar exchange rates take the adjustment.
Which is fine. The other countries are printing something even more fierce.
It’s relative.
Plus, I don’t think I need to explain the difference between real return and nominal return to you of all people.
I think most people will make a solid real return holding cash on any “reasonable” part of the yield curve but I’ve held that position as long as I’ve been on this blog (and mocked for it, I may add.)
After last night’s vote, I can see no reason for the current gang of thieves to want to raise rates. It is no coincidence that where they have socialized health care, most of those countries had double digit percentage unemployment for decades and slower growth than the U.S.
But I foresee gridlock starting if not in 2011, in 2013.
They will stop this only if the Yuan decouples, one or both of these events happening: (a) China stops buying treasuries, (b) USD / RMB exchange rate is floated and moves closer to the 4-5 range. Till then, the Fed can pay whatever pathetic interest rate they decide to pay and there will be a ready market lapping it up.
Dumb question of the day: Have banking systems traditionally relied upon officially-sanctioned lies and deception to pull of their scam operations, or is there something different about the current episode?
The Financial Times
How we can restore trust in financial institutions
By Gordon Brown
Published: November 8 2009 19:30 | Last updated: November 8 2009 19:30
There has always been an implicit economic and social contract between our financial institutions and the society they serve.
Over centuries the guarantee of responsible stewardship of people’s money has been the foundation of the most precious asset a financial institution can ever have – trust.
Two years into the financial crisis, it is clear that the old contract has to be rethought and now made explicit for new times.
In recent years, our global financial system has achieved extraordinary successes; creating jobs, funding businesses, driving down costs and lifting people out of poverty.
But the scale of the failings in recent months cannot be disguised.
The new contract must recognise the two new characteristics of modern financial institutions – their global scope and their interconnectedness.
…
pull off (arghhhhh!)
How about Senator Sanders’ proposal to break up the too-big-to-fail banks? Is that on the G-20 table?
The Financial Times
UK change of heart on banking tax plan
By Jean Eaglesham and Chris Giles in London
Published: November 8 2009 19:20 | Last updated: November 8 2009 19:20
Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, rapidly backpedalled from his proposal for a financial transactions tax on Sunday after a chorus of criticism of his plan set out in a speech on Saturday to a meeting of global finance ministers.
The US led a backlash against the “Tobin tax” on financial transactions after Mr Brown took a Group of 20 finance ministers’ meeting by surprise with his proposal at the gathering in St Andrews, Scotland.
In private briefings, UK officials had initially suggested the transactions tax was the prime minister’s preferred mechanism out of the four options he had raised, which included insurance levies and funds to finance future bail-outs.
But London’s emphasis switched after the idea of a tax came under fire from the US, Canada, Russia, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank, in effect killing a proposal that Mr Brown said needed global support to be effective.
Tim Geithner, US Treasury secretary, said: “A day-by-day financial transactions tax is not something we are prepared to support.”
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, IMF head, repeated his long-held position that a Tobin tax is “a very old idea that is not really possible today”.
The prime minister’s handling of the issue provoked renewed tensions with the Treasury. Alistair Darling, chancellor, is understood to support the main thrust of Mr Brown’s argument but to be frustrated by the prime minister’s promotion of a proposal he knew the US would have no choice but publicly to oppose.
Christine Lagarde, France’s finance minister, welcomed Mr Brown’s comments, a reflection of Paris’ long-held opinion of a transactions tax. French officials said they were not confident the UK would press the issue with a general election looming.
Mr Strauss-Kahn, in comments to Reuters, said: “We’re working on a tax on the financial sector which, in line with what Gordon Brown said, would solicit an insurance premium from a business activity that is riskier than others.”
…
The short answer? Yes.
Ex: The American Revolution was fought because the East India Co. had laws, rules and sanctions created by the English government that would have economically destroyed the current investors in the Amercian Colonies and was using the English military to enforce those regulations.
Then there were the Medici from the 14th century…
“…
East India Co.Wall Street banksters had laws, rules and sanctions created by theEnglishUS federal government that would have economically destroyed the current investors in the AmericanColoniesMain Street economy…”Sounds vaguely familiar…
* The Wall Street Journal
* MANAGEMENT
* NOVEMBER 9, 2009
USA Inc.
With Feds, BofA’s Lewis Met His Match
BY CARRICK MOLLENKAMP AND DAN FITZPATRICK
Kenneth D. Lewis never imagined his eight-year run as chief executive of Bank of America Corp. would end this way.
He had faced a year of headaches big and small. His mother nudged him about paying back the $45 billion of aid his bank got from the federal government. As he pondered his future during a Colorado vacation in August, a bear rummaged through the refrigerator in his mountain home. But what drove the banker out the door was his inability to get along with Uncle Sam.
…
His mother nudged him about paying back the $45 billion of aid his bank got from the federal government
MOM! Get off my back, will ya? A damn bear is in my Cheez Whiz, and you won’t get off my back about the $45 billion! Give me a break!
Reading those lines, it looks like WSJ met its match in the Onion.
Or maybe Banker should first be dunked in Kerosene before meeting their match.
WSJ met its match in the Onion
stranger things have happened
Nov. 8, 2009, 4:46 p.m. EST
China’s Wen urges U.S. to keep deficit at ‘appropriate size’
By Laura Mandaro, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday exhorted the U.S. to keep its deficit in control to stabilize the U.S. dollar exchange-rate, according to media reports.
“I hope that as the largest economy in the world and an issuing country of a major reserve currency the United States will effectively discharge its responsibilities,” Wen said at a news conference in Egypt, according to wire reports.
China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasurys.
Earlier this year, Chinese officials expressed concern about the continued value of those holdings as the U.S. pumps trillions of dollars into the financial system to pull the economy out of a severe recession. The U.S. Treasury has been issuing record amounts of debt to close the country’s budget gap.
“Most importantly, we hope the U.S. will keep its deficit at an appropriate size so that there will be basic stability in the exchange rate and that is conducive to the stability and recovery of the world economy,” he said.
Since early March, the U.S. dollar index (DXY 75.57, -0.09, -0.12%) , which tracks the dollar’s value against a basket of major rivals, has fallen about 15%, in part due to the Federal Reserve’s loose monetary policy.
What if more people are unemployed and more people are walking away from homes they cannot afford, thanks in part to unaffordable mortgage resets like this woman is facing? Wouldn’t it be better for her to unload the falling knife now than wait until it falls a little farther by next fall? I just don’t get where June Fletcher is coming from on this one; is it that she is stuck in the denial phase of the housing bubble stages of grief? I know it is different here, because this is America and all, but I note that Japanese home prices continued falling for two straight decades beginning around 1989; so far as I know, they may still have farther to fall, at least in currency-adjusted terms. (Yen debauchery will not make the real value of Japanese housing prices go up.)
And by the way, American Core Logic was not among those who correctly predicted housing prices would collapse (though the posters on this blog generally predicted it). Maybe they have some better predictors on their team, now that they have had lots of practice backcasting falling home prices through the lens of the rear view mirror?
* The Wall Street Journal
* HOUSE TALK
* NOVEMBER 6, 2009, 3:10 P.M. ET
Sell at a Loss or Hang On?
By JUNE FLETCHER
Q: In 2005, I bought my first home in Lowell, Mass. for $400,000. I borrowed $360,000 at 4.75% 5/1 ARM and did a down payment of remaining $40,000. I now owe the bank $328,000, but the value of my property has fallen down to $350,000, wiping out most of my equity.
I have moved to an apartment in Connecticut, and am renting out my Massachusetts house. The rent covers 80% of my monthly mortgage payment. I have an excellent credit rating and can easily afford the current payments. But I am concerned that my 5/1 ARM will reset in October of 2010 and my payments will increase. Does it make sense for me continue to own this property or should I sell it, take a loss and end the monthly mortgage payments?
—Shelton, Conn.
A: I can understand your nervousness, since most economists expect that the current low-interest rate climate won’t last forever. On the other hand, neither will home price declines, especially now that it’s likely that Congress has extended the first-time home buyer’s $8,000 tax credit, and added a $6,500 credit for existing buyers, for homes that are purchased by April 30, 2010 and closed by June 30. So I would advise that you stay the course until prices are on the upswing.
Even before the extended and expanded credit passed, First American CoreLogic was predicting that home prices nationwide would bottom out in the spring and then begin to bounce back. In Massachusetts, the mortgage database company projects that by August 2010, prices of single-family homes (not including foreclosures and short-sales) will have risen 3.97% from a year earlier. If they’re correct, that means your home will be worth $363,895. That won’t recoup your lost equity, but it will be much less painful bite than you’d take right now.
…
Wells Fargo is gambling on wage inflation to bail out toxic MBS. I guess if the Fed keeps interest rates at zero percent long enough, “higher than expected” wage inflation is in the bag?
Of course, if their bet turns out badly, there is no reason they cannot get more bail from the Fed and the Treasury. Heads they win, tails Main Street taxpayers lose.
* The Wall Street Journal
* REAL ESTATE
* NOVEMBER 5, 2009
Wells Fargo Takes Chance With a Loan Exchange
Option ARMs Are Shifted to Interest-Only in a Recovery Bet
By MARSHALL ECKBLAD
Wells Fargo & Co.’s strategy for modifying troubled Pick-A-Pay mortgages looks like a game of kick-the-can-down-the-road.
The fourth-largest U.S. bank by assets holds about $107 billion in debt tied to option adjustable-rate mortgages, a relic of the U.S. housing boom that allowed borrowers to make small monthly payments in return for increasing their mortgage balance. Many such borrowers now own homes worth far less than they owe in mortgage debt, and most can’t afford a full monthly payment that pays down the loan’s principal.
To solve that conundrum, Wells Fargo is taking a gamble: The San Francisco company is issuing thousands of interest-only loans that will defer borrowers’ balances for as long as six to 10 years.
Wells Fargo’s interest-only loans will defer balances for up to six to 10 years. Here, a Wells Fargo Home Mortgage location in Springfield, Ill.
Wells Fargo is wagering that an eventual rise in housing prices in the worst-hit regions of the U.S. and a rise in consumer income, will eventually cover the bank’s underwater Pick-A-Pay debt. “We’re banking on the fact the economy will improve and recover over time,” Michael Heid, co-president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, said in an interview.
…
Interest only for as long as 10 years! Unbelievable.
http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20603037&sid=att2nsux_fFo
“U.S. foreclosure filings climbed to 937,840 in the third quarter, a 23 percent increase from a year earlier, Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac Inc said Oct. 15. Zillow estimated that the median value of single-family houses, condominiums and cooperative apartments declined 6.9 percent in the same period.
The rate of decline slowed, as home values dropped 0.4 percent from the second quarter to a median of $190,400, Zillow said.
Bank sales of foreclosed properties accounted for 21 percent of all U.S. home sales in September, Zillow said. Such transactions made up 74 percent of sales in Merced, California; 69 percent in Stockton, California; and 68 percent in the Las Vegas area. ”
This article also states housing will bottom March 2010.