Bits Bucket For November 14, 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.
November 14, 2009
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Fed May Cause Next Crisis, Hong Kong’s Tsang Suggests (Update2)
Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve’s policy of keeping interest rates near zero is fueling a wave of speculative capital that may cause the next global crisis, Hong Kong’s leader said.
“I’m scared and leaders should look out,” said Donald Tsang, chief executive of the city, said in Singapore today. “America is doing exactly what Japan did last time,” he said, adding that Japan’s zero interest rate policy contributed to the 1997 Asian financial crisis and U.S. mortgage meltdown.
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, a scholar of the Great Depression, has overseen a record injection of liquidity into the world’s largest economy, pledging not to make the mistake of the 1930s, when officials tightened policy. Tsang’s warning contrasts with pledges by the Group of 20 nations that represent the world’s biggest economies to keep stimulus measures in place.
“We have a U.S. dollar carry trade at the moment,” Tsang, 65, said in a speech where leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum are gathering for a weekend summit. The carry trade is where investors borrow cheaply in one currency and use the funds to invest in other currencies.
“Where is the money going — it’s where the problem’s going to be: Asia,” Tsang said. “You can see asset prices going up, not only in Korea, in Taiwan, in Singapore and in Hong Kong, going up to levels that are incompatible or inconsistent with the economic fundamentals.”
“Where is the money going -.”
Not much of it seems to be going to Main Street.
“Where is the money going — it’s where the problem’s going to be: Asia,” Tsang said. “You can see asset prices going up, not only in Korea, in Taiwan, in Singapore and in Hong Kong, going up to levels that are incompatible or inconsistent with the economic fundamentals.”
This is a really good point. The Fed is causing asset bubbles in other countries. And their policy is intentional.
Even if WE don’t muzzle our own rabid dog, other countries may realize that the dog needs to be put down.
“You can see asset prices going up, not only in Korea, in Taiwan, in Singapore and in Hong Kong, going up to levels that are incompatible or inconsistent with the economic fundamentals.”
Is the stage getting reset for a replay of the 1997 Asian financial crisis? No matter what happens from here, rest assured that ‘noone could have seen it coming.’
Well, now that water has been discovered on the moon, opening the door to colonization, when will the developers will be lining up for permits to build?
“Crater Lakes…If you were here you’d be home by now”.
If by chance you’ve read Einstein’s Dreams, one of the topics is selling houses built high upon tressels that race against the rotation allowing you to “have more distance (and therefore time (not really))” in a 24 hour day.
I’m surprised Bob Toll hasn’t built one of these yet.
“If by chance you’ve read Einstein’s Dreams”
That is one great book!
one of the topics is selling houses built high upon tressels
Tressels?
Are they like tesseracts?
Assuming there are hydrogen an oxygen compounds on the moon - a good assumption since these are abundant elements throughout the universe - then one can make all the water on the moon that he needs.
Maybe not all the water he’d WANT, but all that he would need.
“Tressels?”
Whoops, I meant “trestles.” The idea being that they would be houses on train tracks…
“Maybe not all the water he’d WANT, but all that he would need.”
What about all that he deserves? Being that we now live in a deservocracy.
As long as they do not put government up there, it would be a great place to live and work. See Heinlein’s “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.”
I’ll help you pack.
Thank you. And after you wave goodby you can then continue to dream with the rest of the looters that there were enough producers to provide you a job. But you looters are chasing them away.
Wow. So in your book anyone who isn’t an entrepreneur and merely does an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay is a looter?
It’s all the hard work of the “worker bees” that allow entremanures to sit on their asses!!
When I was young, I always wanted to live with the people portrayed in “The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.” It seemed to make so much sense as a way to live. As he got older, and his bones began to ache, he was going to bring out a sequal called ” The Moon Is A Harsh Mattress”. Well, actually, that part isn’t true, but it struck my funny bone so hard that now it’s aching.
I don’t know. Life on the moon in that story sounded pretty harsh.
Speaking of moons and real estate, has anyone here besides me mooned a realtor lately?
Tonight.
A little morning comedy…
Obama wants domestic spending cuts in next budget
Shifting gears, Obama eyes domestic spending freeze, cuts to 5 percent in deficit-cutting bid.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration, mindful of public anxiety over the government’s mushrooming debt, is shifting emphasis from big-spending policies to deficit reduction. Domestic agencies have been told to brace for a spending freeze or cuts of up to 5 percent as part of a midterm election-year push to rein in record budget shortfalls.
Yet with the economy still in distress and unemployment pushing past 10 percent, prospects for making a dent in a trillion-dollar-plus annual deficit seem slight. And since the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs would likely be shielded from such cuts, overtures toward trimming the deficit may hold more symbolic value than substance.
Will this be the “Have cake and eat it too” phase? I saw that he proposes using the rest of the bailout money to pay down the deficit. Isn’t that like using a HELOC to pay down your mortgage?
In other news, now there’s a push on for yet another amnesty bill. Because, you know, Janet Napolitano has done such a great job securing the border. According to her, anyway.
Whew, these folks are even more delusional than I thought.
Maybe, it’s time we took a lesson from the Canadian’s, people with money and assets go to the top of the immigration list.
Oh, no, that would be un-American. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to gang-rape the daylights out of any young girl unfortunate enough to have had too much to drink.
That’s unfair. Plenty of gang rapers born here too.
This is the kind of thing that drives me nuts. The illegal aline lobby has only one argument: anyone opposed to amnesty is racist.
Comments like yours just perpetuate that myth. Stick to economic arguments and leave the “all Mexicans are rapists/drug dealers” out of the equation.
Whether you personally like Mexicans and other Latinos or not, Palmy, many, many poor Hispanics have come to this country, worked hard, raised good families, and have been successful citizens. Many, many did it legally. Try not to be THAT jingoistic.
I can only hope that other countries such as Canada and Australia also endorse reasonable immigration laws as I don’t think I am the only American who is a little concerned Rome may be falling and it is never too early to have a backup plan.
“That’s unfair. Plenty of gang rapers born here too.”
And that’s the kind of argument that drives me nuts, too. Yah, DUH, we have gang rapers, mother rapers, father rapers (Hat tip to Arlo Guthrie) born here, too. So, what the hey, why not import a whole bunch more from other countries, just to make it nice and multi-cultural.
Now, let’s examine the next two bloviations:
1) “all Mexicans are rapists/drug dealers”
2) “Whether you personally like Mexicans and other Latinos or not, Palmy, many, many poor Hispanics have come to this country, worked hard, raised good families, and have been successful citizens.”
Gee, looking back at my post, I don’t believe I even mentioned Mexicans or Latinos. You guys were the ones who made the linkage, how unfortunate. As our fearless leader Obama has said, let’s not jump to conclusions. It’s the PRE-traumatic stress disorder, the hardships of immigrating illegally that makes people act badly when they come here. Let’s coddle them.
Yes, lets not, unless they’re there in plain, conclusion-drawing sight. But that’s okay, I like you too.
Along with money and assets (and by corollary, education) come pesky demands like minimum wage and safe working conditions and workman’s comp and health care.
Big business wants illegal immigrants to do dirty work for cheap. Democrats want the kids to grow up to be Democratic voters.
But neither can say it for fear of torches and pitchforks. Hence the status quo.
“But neither can say it for fear of torches and pitchforks”
Oh, phooey, CONgress isn’t afraid of torches and pitchforks. They’ve got the POlice to protect them. Us peasants don’t have a chance. According to polly, anyway.
Amnesty’s Huge Retirement Costs
Mass amnesty legislation could top $3 trillion. The boomer generation can not afford to add this cost and suffer the consequences but I will not be surprised to see the Politicians do dumb things for votes.
http://www.numbersusa.com/content/learn/illegal-immigration/the-cost-amnesty.html
First, it should be recognized that Social Security and Medicare are structured like giant Ponzi or pyramid schemes where today’s workers support today’s retirees. These are “pay-as-you-go” programs.
According to a 2005 Cato Institute report titled “Social Security: Follow the Math,” in 1950 there were 16 workers paying taxes into the Social Security and Medicare systems for every retiree. The same report indicated that the ratio in 2005 was three workers for every retiree. Instead of correcting the pyramid scheme nature of Social Security and Medicare, proponents of illegal aliens as a cure are hoping we will buy into the plan to just “kick the can” down the road. Ultimately the plan will fail for the same reason all pyramid schemes run out of gas (think Madoff!). It is mathematically impossible for enough workers to enter the system to support the retirees in the system.
In truth, the only way to permanently fix both Social Security and Medicare is to emphasize programs which would reduce the population of the United States and encourage higher skill levels of United States citizens. This would generate higher incomes through the dynamics of supply and demand. Programs could then be put in place to encourage additional savings to supplement lower payments under Social Security.
http://blog.oregonlive.com/myoregon/2009/07/illegal_immigrants_wont_fix_th.html
VMAXER, that is a sensible approach. I think Australia has such a policy to make sure that any immigrant has a nest egg of wealth to be able to support himself and his family for many years if he cannot find employment.
I like the idea of allowing federal taxpayers the ability to choose four out of nine federal spending programs to finance with tax money. After all, most federal spending is unsconsitutional. It’s bad enough to be taxed on income and capital gains. It’s worse to see your taxpayer money spent on programs you disagree with. My pet peeve is money spent on welfare of any sort.
To me it’s just a pragmatic way of bringing capital into the country.
New Zealand has something similar.
BTW , PB et al I posted at bottom a really neat Geek Worthy Mapping tool ya’ll might like.
let me know!
looks good and has potential (the geek maps) because I’m a map geek. It seems I wasn’t alone in my nerdiness!
When I was a high school ski bum I used to draw fantasy sno ski runs of slopes that did not exist!
ski
bumBunny I used todraw fantasy snoski runs of slopes that did not exist!Then I developed kneesles. Scuba became easier.
And this one will pass with flying colors. You weren’t silly enough to believe Nancy and Harry and THE O wouldn’t give amnesty to illegals were you?
But you made history when you voted for him. Good luck with history when 30 million new citizens who don’t speak English, have no education and no skills start demanding “rights”. I hope your history can pay for all that.
Relax, Eddie, and go get yourself a cup of coffee. Life’s short.
Already had 3. Might be the problem.
Amnesty is a done deal with Obama, Harry and Nancy at the helm. I do find it comical that the same people crying about low wages for workers are the same ones who want to import millions of people who will work for even lower wages.
But these are the same people who think spending $2T on a public option saves money.
Not gonna happen but not for lack of trying.
1. Guantanamo
2. Stimulus
3. Cap and Trade
4. Health Care
Just look at the track record of this admin’s success. Nobody will be believe them unless we see job growth. Health care bill by early next year and another stimulus by Spring and this congress is done.
If a health care bill is signed, the country is done.
You’re missing the big picture. They will gladly sacrifice control of congress for a couple of years to implement full blown socialism. Once implemented socialized health care is here to stay no matter what happens in 2010 or 2012. And another $1T stimulus will put the country that much further down the path of no return.
Amnesty is the way for them to get power back. Amnesty in 2010 = 20-30 million new citizens ready to vote in 2012. And guess who they will vote for then?
From a political standpoint Nancy/Harry and THE ONE are playing this brilliantly.
I am against this bill, not because we do not need health reform, but because this complex, shifts costs to the middle class in a big way, contains massive middle class taxes in the form of fines for coverage we have no idea how expensive it will be - this bill is not it.
That said, I do not see many seniors demanding the END to socialized medicine. They seem to like their Medicare, so I think we need to eliminate the double standard. Either we do away with Medicare thus getting Government out of our medical business or we embrace it.
I am self employed and cannot buy health coverage worth paying for unless I used to get a W2 job with a big corp from time to time so I stayed on COBRA until costs went north of $1200 a month at which point I made the decision to self ensure. Of course there are events I could not pay for, but as an EU citizen there is always flight …
I know most cannot do this, but at current and projected rates it will not be long before costs exceed most incomes. That said, I believe health insurers fear people like me the very most, and believe me most hospitals will give you a bed if you cut them a check for $5000 then and there …(4 months premiums for coverage which in all likelihood would not help much in the most serious cases anyway)
Eddie:
What good is socialized medicine if we are a service nation and need to have good teeth in order to get and keep a job in the new America?
It’s ok to have missing or chipped teeth if you are a forklift driver, but in sales or dealing with customers, or heck being a DJ. and getting the same pay per gig I was making 15 years ago.
People may excuse being fat but not bad teeth..and i see nothing in OHbaHmas pan to address this issue.
Medicare is not socialized health care. Medicare pays for private health services with govt money. What this bill will do is over time change it to a system where the govt will pay AND deliver the health care. Private health insurance will be gone and everyone will essentially be on Medicare.
Medicare works fine now because the doctors/hospitals that treat people on Medicare also treat people using private insurance. Once everyone is on Medicare, the govt will set the rules, including deciding who gets what treatment.
One of the arguments for ObamaCare is that private insurers deny payment for service. Does anyone here really think when the govt is the insurer for all, it won’t deny service? Do you really think the govt will write a blank check and cover every procedure under the sun?
The difference will be that now, if my insurance company doesn’t cover something, I can pay for it myself. When the govt controls the entire industry that will not be an option.
…If a health care bill is signed, the country is done…
to implement full blown socialism…
…Amnesty is the way for them to get power back…
…What this bill will do is over time is…
Ya know, if you’re going to plagiarize Rush verbatim, you ought to give credit.
And quit it already with the conspiracy theories; you sound like the bad guys in fantasy novels. Do you seriously think the Democrats — you know, the I-don’t-belong-to-an-organized-political-party,-I’m-a-Democrat” Democrats — are capable of arranging ANY sort of plan like this?
Why stop at teeth? If a company won’t hire a woman for any public-interfacing job unless she is attractive, shouldn’t the govt pay for any kind of nip/tuck that will enhance her appearance? Same for guys. Bald spots, turkey necks, skin blemishes, etc. should be repaired at govt expense.
Right?
Test.
Amnesty for illegals has always been about getting 20 to 30 million Democrat voters for life. You must be very naive to think otherwise.
Bill:
Hey aren’t those expenses job related? We have to make a choice pay SSI welfare food stamps medicaid…or pay for the surgery and become a taxpaying Amerikin
Every country that has government funded “free” health care is socialist to one extent or another. Only a fool thinks the US can have “free” health care run by the govt and not go down the same path.
It’s impossible to have the govt assume control of another 16% of GDP and not go down that path. This of course on top of govt ownership of banks, GM, etc.
If you want govt control of every aspect of your life, say so. But don’t play this ridiculous game of pretending like govt run health care won’t change anything.
Every country that has government funded “free” health care is socialist to one extent or another. Only a fool thinks the US can have “free” health care run by the govt and not go down the same path.
Do you rage against medicare like this? Or the prescription drug plan Bush introduced? I guess it’s taken us several decades for medicare to send us spiraling to the depths of socialism.
So, how do you solve the problem of the private health care monopoly breaking the backs of not only employers ,but your average Joe/Jane on the street . Your making a mistake if you don’t see how certain so-called private industries aren’t controlling your life beyond what pure capitalism would create .
If you examine the favorable treatment that certain industries have gotten from the Politicians via Lobbying ,it’s no different than a Government controlled situation ,except private industry demands higher profits with their monopolies .
The fact that health care is tied to the employer is a form of a monopoly . To be charged 2x’s the amount if your not employed
or to be charged more if you employer is a smaller Company is another example of a system that is not based on capitalism . The idea is that Insurance Companies need pools of people that are healthy to pay for the claims they get from the unhealthy . Under a pure capitalism system a healthy person or a younger person wouldn’t even buy
overpriced insurance ,or families would pick and choose according to their specific needs . Under pure capitalism a employee could choose to take the money from their employer rather than take the health care benefit . So Eddie ,don’t act like the private health care system is anything but a monopoly that is breaking the backs of the majority of the population .
The advantage of “Medicare for everyone ” would be that
the Government would simply just be the entity that collects the money from the pools of people at hopefully the objective of not having a profit motive that would raise the costs . It’s all a rigged system anyway ,so why not create a system that would lower the costs so people have more money to spend on other needs . It’s debatable how the money will be collected in a Government program . Currently with Medicare they just take the money right out of the Social Security checks .
So,when your great capitalistic government creates laws that forces your to be held hostage to a Health Care system that isn’t based on anything but forced coverage through the employer ,while at the same time those same Insurance Company reserve the right to cancel you if they think your high risk for a claim ,don’t get on the soap box about Government controlling your life .
“If a health care bill is signed, the country is done.”
That’s what the critics said about the Great Society Act. Look around, poverty has been wiped out. The poor took advantage of the various programs, and collectively made the country a better place. With the health care bill signed into law disease and sickness will be wiped out too. The average age here will increase twenty years. Think of the added gains from working another twenty years? The Dow at 20 or 30k! Don’t know about you, but I’m so excited I think I’ll buy another house, online maybe, definitely where it’s sunny, sight unseen since the NAR has only trustworthy professionals in their membership.
Already had 3. Might be the problem.
That might be the only problem.
Posting way down the bucket, but you know who you are.
If a health care bill is signed, the country is done.
So where are you planning on fleeing to Eddie? Every other modern nation has a national healthcare system.
Oh Gawd, is Eddie a Rush Limpbro ditto head? It figures…
I seem to recall that the previous admin was just as eager to give amnesty.
The new boss and the old boss are pretty much the same in this regard.
Exactly right. The Democrats are salivating over the prospects of millions of Democrat-on-arrival immigrants comprising a vast new entitlement class that they can pander to, using “redisributed” wealth and borrowed money, to gain a permanent stranglehold on the levers of power. The Republican Establishment, whores of the corporate cartels and their K-street check-writers, want dirt-cheap labor - if slavery was legal they’d go that route instead, though their private prison enterprises blur the line. The media, the propaganda arm of the corporate oligarchs who own them, will continue to throw their full weight behind open borders and immigration-on-demand.
I’m not reading very regularly, so sorry if this has already been posted. Funny song on from The Daily Bail “Should I Stay With Buy and Hold”
http://dailybail.com/home/should-i-stay-with-buy-and-hold-song.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5EFEQ9aY6o
One funny song deserves another. This is “Bohemian Bankruptcy” by Drag Queen - a parady of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” that satirizes the collapse of the housing bubble in Britain. UK-centric, but hilarious and well done.
More from The Daily Bail
How The Federal Reserve Bought The Economics Profession:
http://dailybail.com/home/how-the-federal-reserve-bought-the-economics-profession.html
Is that why economists all over keep saying almost every data release is “worse than expected” these days? The MSM-favored economics experts these days couldn’t accurately forecast what time the sun will rise tomorrow morning.
Would someone please explain to me Eric Holder’s thinking in bringing the 9/11 crew to NY for imprisonment and trial? Does this seem like a really bad idea to anyone else besides me?
Or, is he trying to send a message to Wall Street?
Sheesh, if I were a resident of the Big Apple, I’d be racing for the exits, pronto.
The same brilliant thinking that made him decide not to pursue criminal charges against the black panthers for intimidating voters. But he’s like totally the first black AG working for the first 1/2 black prez so like I’m totally supporting him because I don’t I’ll be called like a racist or something. OMG, LOL.
If you enjoy the race card, just wait until Hillbilly gets elected and starts playing the gender card. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet…
Like I’m ROTFLMAO!
Leigh
Ideology, pure and simple.
Meet the new boss same as the old boss………
Ideology of what….moron? Liberal or conservative, this is just a bad idea all the way around. It will be a security nightmare for the duration of the trial, cost millions in extra security and piss off pretty much everyone in NYC.
So these guys are supervillans that will melt the jail bars with their laser vision and go on a Godzilla like rampage?
Grow a pair, Eddie.
lmao.
Oh right I forgot. Terrorists don’t exist, never have, never will. They’re just misunderstood disadvantaged youths.
Oh and it is completely inconceivable that a muslim Army Major would ever open fire on people too. Which means that it is also impossible for oh I dunno a NYC cop to do the same in a courtroom or an FBI agent or just a plain old Al Qaeda homeboy living in Queens to open fire into a crowd outside the courtroom…..yeah that’s just crazy talk and would never, ever happen in a million years.
All that work at a failed strawman and still didn’t address Russes fundamental point.
I’ve seen better ducking and weaving from you EddieTard.
The One’s primary purpose for moving the trial to NYC is to give KSM the biggest possible spotlight as they attempt to put “evil America” on trial.
That is more important than the safety of a couple of million people.
Run EddieBillie Run!
As usual the union member Exy shines through with incoherent babbling. Lucky for you, union thugs aren’t hired for their analytical skills.
Apparently The One wasn’t consulted in this decision.
KSM is given a jury trial because the Supreme Court decisions granted the inmates constitutional right.
Isn’t it required(?) to hold the trial in the same district as the crime? That means New York, Southern Pennsylvania, and Eastern Virginia. And NY is most equipped for security.
I’m pretty surprised that this will evidently be a public trial. They must have thought of the soapbox angle.
The NewsHour covered this thoroughly last night.
Terrorism only works against cowards, Eddie.
See EddieBilly run!
Oh give me a break. What a bunch of cry babies some of you are. You do realize capitals all over the world has held trials of high level terrorist suspects using their normal justice system. For some reason they didn’t let fear or cowardice drive them to build island-prisons or create special commissions to depart from their rules of justice.
Any of you remember the 2004 train bombings in Madrid Spain? The Spanish people held an open trial in Madrid. The British put those accused of the London subway bombings on trial right in their normal courthouse in London. Indonesia gave public trials using standard court procedures to the individuals who bombed a nightclub in Bali. India used a Mumbai courtroom to try the sole surviving terrorist who participated in the 2008 massacre of hundreds of residents. In Argentina, the Israelis captured Adolf Eichmann, one of the most notorious Nazi war criminals, and brought him to Jerusalem to stand trial for his crimes.
You do remember the terrorists that were tried in NYC for the attack on the WTC in 1993. There was a certain mayor Giuliani himself celebrated the plotters’ conviction in criminal court back in 1994, saying the verdict “demonstrates that New Yorkers won’t meet violence with violence, but with a far greater weapon — the law.”
We have tried Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, Richard Reid, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, Jose Padilla, Ali Saleh al-Marri, John Walker Lindh, and Masoud Khan. The U.S. justice system has tried, convicted, and imprisoned hundreds of terrorists. Not one has ever escaped; not one has ever tried to escape.
When each was subjected to the criminal justice system, in an American city Republicans and their allies never complained. When they were sent to supermax facilities on American soil, no one whined about it or tried to scare the public.
So why are you belly aching about this now?
It takes a bigger man to not use violence against violence. Society has not been well served with the “might makes right” mentality, especially in the arena with men and boys, and the burgeoning problem of domestic violence.
Peace, begins at home.
So why are you belly aching about this now?
Thanks SFObaygal.
Seems the guys have very short, ahem, uh, memories.
Especially the cross dressing mafia adulterous Giuliani.
Why Obama’s Economy is Failing, and Why It Will Only Get Worse - A Blast From the Past:
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class.
That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.
The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.
As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.
The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.
The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.
All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.
Could not be any simpler than that.
What a profound short little paragraph that says it all:
“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for,that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”
~ Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931
neat story. Did it really happen?
No one knows…
www dot snopes dot com/college/exam/socialism.asp
Soviet Russia? Where people got paid whether they worked or not?
Not so. The USSR had laws against “parasitism” and could send those charged with this offense to hard labor camps. That’s the difference between their version of socialism and ours - here, parasitism is encouraged and rewarded, so long as you vote for whoever the Democratic Party machine apparatchiks and their ACORN hacks tell you to.
sammy wake up and read some facts. Or change the channel.
The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.
Sounds like the current state of the RepubliCrat congress.
Resist socialism!
Don’t worry Bill, you will never benefit from socialism. You’re not some giant corporation that’s “to big to fail.”
“All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.”
I hope the central planners in the Washington, DC housing Politburo are reading this, as their social engineering schemes to reward some groups with cheap housing while driving prices through the ceiling for the rest potentially have tremendously destructive effects on the productivity of the middle class labor force in the US. By contrast, if the housing market were allowed to reach market equilibrium where end user incomes aligned well with housing purchase prices, American workers would feel a connection between a job well done and the ability to purchase a home within reach of their incomes. At the moment, the market is still hugely tilted in favor of FHA-enabled subprime buyers willing to buy homes they cannot afford in the full expectation that they will go into default so the lender can be made whole by their gubmint guarantee of the principle.
Thank god we have good old fashioned capitalism here where large corporations don’t have the socialeest stigma of being bailed out with taxpayer money if they fail.
Furthermore it’s a show trial. He already knows that KMS will be convicted, so the mockery of judiciary system. And keep the goons in your party happy and score some political points.
He also “knew” Chicago was a shoe-in for the Olympics, and unemployment wouldn’t go higher than 8%.
Guantanamo Bay looks bad and I am for closing it all.
But In a twist, don’t you think American prison systems will be much tougher for these guys? Many of them are innocents who happened to be in wrong place when US Soldiers captured them, and they will have to suffer the cold brutality of US prison system.
Again it was a good intention to close the GB, but the end result is not going to be so good for many of detainees. That was the intended goal I believe. Like some wise man/woman said before, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
Good weather on a Caribbean island, Korans available left right and center, H1N1 flu shots before most Americans get them. What more could an Al Qaeda soldier ask for?
You’d have to be crazy to want a transfer to Levenworth.
I might opt for Levenworth over ADX Florence, Colorado Fed prison.
But hey, no prison for a very nice lady - shivers.
Leigh
But you get free healthcare, a roof over your head, and 3 sqares a day!
Too funny.
Free healthcare - retired military (almost free)
Roof over head - check
Three sqares - check
Leigh
NYC cannot still be afraid of people living in caves with boxcutters can they? Try them convict them, hang them, simple and easy. Maximum security is pretty hard to escape from without inside help. Wait a minute forget I said that, run for the exits.
This is an inauspicious beginning to a day of the HBB. I think I’ll go to work now . . .
Woohooo!
Three more bank failures on friday, bringing the total to 123 for the year. This is down from the previous two weeks (nine and seven, IIRC), but is still par for the course for 2009.
California and Florida got hit this week. Wonder if Georgia feels left out of the dance?
“Three more bank failures on Friday …”
Which means more money has disappeared.
“A bank a week is all we ask.”
May all who died at Fort Hood this week rest in peace. We lost a lot of good people that day. May their ultimate sacrifice not go unheeded. May the punishment of their murderer be just and swift. May some measure of peace be granted to their families and friends.
I hope the military courts are swift and get him in front of a firing squad real soon.
NAH never happen…it will be 15 years before he is executed got to have every appeal right in the world, and free lawyers to keep him off death row.
dj,
I humbly disagree, military prosecutors will fry his…um…assassin’s hatred towards his brothers and sisters of Arm’s.
13 murdered and 20(?) injured - and the living are required to testify (as if they would opt out) - no defense around the UCMJ that I’m aware of - IIRC the defendant has the burden of proof mental incapacitation.
Leigh
Not going to happen. Life.
Otherwise, it would be martyring them.
Too much fuel for the fire.
And he won’t get a firing squad, just an injection of some sleepy juices.
I read that he’s paralized from the waist down. I would prefer that he’d be quadriplegic. Let him suffer for the duration of his trial. Then douse him with pig blood and pig tissue and then death by firing squad.
Drawn and quartered would be better.
I like your anger (as NYC’boy would say).
Leigh
is the little spring price pop over in your area ?
dc had a little boost w the welfare society coming in- after that falt
In Atlanta:
“The median price rose nearly 7 percent to $129,400 over the third quarter, from July 1 to Sept. 30, from $121,400 in the three months that ended June 30, according to figures released Tuesday by the association. ”
I’d say the pop is still popping.
Sounds suspiciously like an 8k tax credit plus realtor commision.
You know I sarcastically (well sort of) said it’s differnt here in WI (I think it was Edge that agreed) a few months ago.
Homes that I’ve kept my eye on over a period of time have gone UP in price here - oy vey.
Soon they make just have Koolaide shooting out their collective noses. Har.
Leigh
There you are! I’ve missed you bootay!
incoherent haikus are back!
Oh, stop it! I enjoy taxme.
Ditto. But that was funny, bink! As I’ve said before I think I get booty more than I understood hoz and voz/clue.
Speaking of hoz and voz, what happened to them? I was gone for a month or so awhile back and when I returned they were gone.
Why do Hollywood stars think they know anything useful about real estate investing?
Nicolas Cage loses 2 homes in foreclosure auction
* By Hibah Yousuf, CNNMoney.com staff reporter
* On 4:47 pm EST, Friday November 13, 2009
Even Academy Award winners are suffering from financial woes this recession. Actor Nicolas Cage lost two homes in New Orleans worth a total of $6.8 million in a foreclosure auction Thursday.
Birmingham, Ala.-based Regions Bank purchased Cage’s 1140 Royal Street property in the French Quarter appraised at $3.5 million for $2.3 million. The bank, which has about 1,900 branches throughout the South, Midwest and Texas, paid $2.2 million for Cage’s 2523 Pataniya Street property appraised at $3.3 million in the Garden District.
New Orleans’s civil Sheriff Paul Valteau said no other bids were made on the houses.
Cage owed $5.5 million in mortgage payments and $151,730 to the City of New Orleans in real estate taxes, according to Valteau.
Hancock Park Real Estate Co., a corporation through which Cage purchased both homes, is listed as the official property owner. Valteau said attorneys representing Samuel Levin, Cage’s former business manager, set up the corporation so that Cage’s name would not appear on the mortgage documents — a common strategy among celebrities.
Levin also was listed on the mortgage document as the agent for service of process, Valteau added. That agent is the officer appointed by a corporation to receive legal notices.
Last month, Cage filed a lawsuit against Levin in California claiming that Levin duped the Hollywood actor out of more than $20 million since 2001 when he was hired.
The suit said Levin “lined his pockets with several million dollars in business management fees while sending Cage down a path toward financial ruin.”
The suit went on to say Cage has “discovered that he is now forced to sell major assets and investments at a significant loss and is faced with huge tax liabilities because of Levin’s incompetence, misrepresentations and recklessness. Rather than attaining financial security, Cage has been forced to dispose of significant assets in order to pay for Levin’s gross misconduct.”
A reporter’s calls to Levin’s office for comment were not immediately returned.
CNN reported that Cage owes more than $6 million in back taxes and his properties in California and Las Vegas have also been foreclosed on and are designated for auction later this month.
The actor, who’s known for his roles in Leaving Las Vegas and National Treasure, has 5 projects slated for 2010, according to the Internet Movie Database.
Cage’s publicist Annett Wolf said she had “no information and can’t help” when reached for comment.
Poor nick.He might have to make another movie to pay some bills.Not sure how you get to 6 million in back taxes.Must be a rough life.
It seems fitting for a no talent actor that only got where he’s at because of Uncle Frankie. Nothing I hate more than people who get where they’re at because of family connections and then act like they’ve earned it. Cage winning an Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas was right up there with Al Gore’s Peace Prize.
Anyone remember when Pia Zadora won a Golden Globe for her movie “Butterfly” just after her then billionaire husband wined-and-dined the judges ?
Who is/was Pia Zadora?
“Who is/was Pia Zadoa?”
The reason this question was asked is because she and her husband divorced, consequently her husband stopped pouring millions of dollars into her career.
She then went from “Hot” to “Not Hot” to “Who?”
Was just having this conversation with my kid who told that when Pia zaroda was doing a stage version of “Diary of Anne Frank, at the part where the Nazis come into the house searching for hidden jews, someone in the audience is so incensed by her “performance” that he cries out, “She in the Attack!”
Urban legend? Who knows, but on the mark re; her acting “talents.”
NYCB-You must have seen a different Leaving Las Vegas than I did. Cage was incredible and is very talented..although not with his finances.
Clearly, you haven’t seen Wicker Man.
“Bees!”
Cage was incredible and is very talented
I will make a note to never accept an invitation to “Movie Night” at the home of SD renter.
OMG NYC!
I’ve got to get you and the hubby together and Mr. Jack is invited.
Chuckles,
Leigh
Nothing I hate more than people who get where they’re at because of family connections and then act like they’ve earned it.
bushed.
The suit said Levin “lined his pockets with several million dollars in business management fees while sending Cage down a path toward financial ruin.”
In “Matchstick Men” Nicolas Cage played a flim-flam man who swindled greedy, stupid, people - especially the wealthy ones. Maybe he should have given the script a deeper reading.
It would have been great if this titan of Wall Street could have aired his views back when the TARP decision was in play in the fall of 2008, and Main Street American voters’ loud cries of disapproval were unheard by tin-eared Congressmen. Perhaps Mr Dimon’s voice could have made a difference back then?
As for Sheila Bair, I am glad she continues to find her voice on the folly of the bank bailout.
The Washington Post
US-BUSINESS Summary
…
JPMorgan’s Dimon says end “too big to fail”
NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Jamie Dimon called the idea that any bank is too big to fail “ethically bankrupt” and said regulators should have the power to wind down even the largest lenders. “If some unforeseen circumstance should put this firm at risk of collapse, I believe we should be allowed to fail,” Dimon wrote on Friday in The Washington Post. “Global economic growth requires the services of big financial firms. It also requires that big financial firms be allowed to fail.”
Bair calls U.S. bank bailout “not a good thing”
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Leading U.S. bank regulator Sheila Bair said on Friday that the government’s capital injections into the largest banks was “probably not a good thing.” Bair, the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, said the billions of dollars of capital infusions last year had a terrible impact on public perception of the financial industry and government regulators.
…
Don’t worry, Prof. At least they are closing down the little banks so the big banks can get bigger. That should fix everything.
Too big to fail is antithetical to freedom, democracy, and free market capitalism. Anyone aiding and abetting too big to fail is an enemy of the American people.
If you disagree, explain how a too big to fail firm like citi can forcefully take money from American taxpayers then turn around and charge them 30 pct on their credit cards. Explain how a firm like Goldman can forcefully take money and ‘guarantees’ from American taxpayers then pay itself multibillion dollar bonuses for the privilege.
TBTF is tyranny not democracy. TBTF is cronyism not capitalism. Freedom means freedom to fail. TBTF is taxation without representation. If these firms are not free to fail, they might as well be given the ability to collect direct taxes from the American people.
If these firms are not free to fail, they might as well be given the ability to collect direct taxes from the American people.
They already are.
Proponents of TBTF are repeating the same mistakes John Law made in France. If you don’t know how that ended, look it up. If we don’t immediately end the doctrine of TBTF, we might as well kiss our freedoms, democracy, and free market society goodbye.
Law was an economist and quite a gambler and a scoundrel to boot. He would have made a fine central banker in today’s world.
From Wikipedia:
Mississippi Company
View of the camp of John Law at Biloxi, December 1720
In May 1716 the Banque Générale Privée (”General Private Bank”), which developed the use of paper money, was set up by Law. It was a private bank, but three quarters of the capital consisted of government bills and government accepted notes. In August 1717, he bought the Mississippi Company, to help the French colony in Louisiana. In 1717 he also brokered the sale of Thomas Pitt’s diamond to the regent, Philippe d’Orléans. In the same year Law floated the Mississippi Company as a joint stock trading company called the Compagnie d’Occident (of which Law was named as Chief Director) which was granted a trade monopoly of the West Indies and North America. The bank became the Banque Royale (Royal Bank) in 1718, meaning the notes were guaranteed by the king. The Company absorbed the Compagnie des Indes Orientales, Compagnie de Chine, and other rival trading companies and became the Compagnie Perpetuelle des Indes on 23 May 1719 with a monopoly of commerce on all the seas. The system however encouraged speculation in shares in ‘The Company of the Indies’ (the shares becoming a sort of paper currency) and inflation. The system was based on Law trading shares in the Mississippi Company in return for government debt. The Banque Royale was created by default as a result of Law attaining the majority of the government issued notes (debt). It effectively became the Central bank of France. In 1720 the bank and company were united and Law was appointed Controller General of Finances to attract capital. Law’s pioneering note-issuing bank was extremely successful until it collapsed and caused an economic crisis in France and across Europe. The collapse was staved off by a constant trading off between national debt and shares of the Mississippi company. New shares were issued to dilute the value of each share, and the new capital was used to purchase more government notes. The speculation continued to build, and the company’s two branches, the trading arm and the bank arm, collapsed simultaneously.
Law exaggerated the wealth of Louisiana with an effective marketing scheme, which led to wild speculation on the shares of the company in 1719. In February 1720 it was valued for a very high future cash flow at 10,000 livres. Shares rose from 500 livres in 1719 to as much as 18,000 livres in the first half of 1720, but by the summer of 1720, there was a sudden decline in confidence, leading to a 97 per cent decline in market capitalization by 1721. Predictably, the ‘bubble’ burst at the end of 1720, when opponents of the financier attempted en masse to convert their notes into specie. By the end of 1720 Orleans dismissed Law, who then fled from France.
Later Years
Law initially moved to Brussels in impoverished circumstances. He spent the next few years gambling in Rome, Copenhagen and Venice but never regained his former prosperity. Law realised he would never return to France when Orleans died suddenly in 1723 and was granted permission to return to London having received a pardon in 1719. He lived in London for four years and then moved to Venice where he contracted pneumonia and died a poor man in 1729.
The doctrine of TBTF brought us the Latin American crisis, the LTCM crisis, the dot com crash, the housing bubble, the subprime crisis, the stock market crash of 2008, high unemployment, the foreclosure crisis, and unwieldy budget deficits.
Although many of us dodged the housing bubble, we shouldn’t passively tolerate the doctrine of TBTF. TBTF is a threat to our nation’s finances; it’s a threat to our freedom; it’s a threat to our way of life; it’s a threat to our democracy.
Lol. Can you be a little more specific as to how you feel about TBTF?
Seems clear to me, and I agree with Market.
” …and I agree with Market.”
So do I, in case my sarcasm wasn’t apparant.
Just a dull glaze over the eyes due to a lack
of enough caffeine to kick-start a cold and
chilly day….
That’s what $4 million dollars in donations from the financial services sector to the Obama election campaign buys you. GS was Obama’s second-largest donor.
Remind us again who initiated TARP and finalized it?
Remind us again who initiated TARP and finalized it?
um, GWB ? Aug 2008?
“If these firms are not free to fail, they might as well be given the ability to collect direct taxes from the American people.”
How do you think the American tax system works in the post-Raygun era, given that Ronnie forever demonized any proposal to honestly raise taxes? What we have left is the Fed’s ailing money tree (aka the seigniorage printing press), the stochastic too-big-to-fail bailout tax (e.g. $700 bn TARP lump sum tax extraction) which can be levied every time too-big-to-fail firms get into crisis mode, and the too-big-to-fail firm’s ongoing lower cost of raising capital, thanks to the implicit subsidy in the government’s “free” (taxpayer-funded) too-big-to-fail insurance program, which enables Megabank, Inc to levy a stealth tax on unsuspecting Main Street Americans to fund outsized Wall Street bonus payments come rain or shine, plus political campaign contributions.
These CEO’s of Banks are so full of it . I never got proof that it wouldn’t of turned out better had we let these entities fail when the meltdown started ,at least in terms of where the bail-out money would of gone in the final analysis . It would of served Wall Street right to have that whole unregulated world of Casino bets just blow up ,(and that world is still operative today ).
The bail outs didn’t change the fact that the government ended up needing to insure all the loan action anyway after the crash .
I still don’t get exactly how the Insurance Companies were able to insure
Casino bets without the reserves to back those bets . But the fact remains that the bogus system still exists ,or these entities violated laws and they are being protected .
I have been under the misleading impression the bubble was winding down. Reading articles like this make me realize that many inside the REIC have not yet even left the denial phase of the housing bubble stages of grief. Further, the idea that higher (=less affordable) home prices are some how good for consumers is still in vogue.
The housing bubble has popped. Long live the housing bubble!!!
Realtors: home prices to rise 4 percent in 2010
By ALEX VEIGA, AP Real Estate Writer
Friday, November 13, 2009 at 10:48 a.m.
SAN DIEGO — Home prices are expected to grow modestly next year and sales will keep rising as the housing market continues to recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression, the National Association of Realtors said Friday.
Home resales are projected to total 5.7 million next year, up from an estimated 5 million this year. Prices will climb about 4 percent after a projected decline of 13 percent this year, according to Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the trade association.
“Going into 2010, I anticipate that prices will also begin stabilizing or begin to modestly improve,” Yun told the audience at the association’s annual conference and expo in San Diego.
That should help ease buyers’ anxiety. “I don’t think the fear factor will be at play in 2010,” Yun said.
…
I remember the NAR’s incessant denial of impending house price declines in 2006 and 2007. The degree to which they purposely lied to serve their industry was my aha moment that I was stupid to believe anything I read in MSM. Thanks to the NAR, I get my info from other sources now except things like the weather and what’s showing at the Bijou. So from that perspective, I owe the NAR a thanks.
After relative silence the past 1.5 years the NAR and associated groups appear to be crawling out from under their rocks to play on a few well-published MSM reports regarding a recovery and a March 2010 RE bottom.
“I owe the NAR a thanks.”
We should all feel this way. The NAR is spending their own money (bless their hearts) trying to convince people the pump their hard-earned money into houses and hence help save the banks - and we taxpayers - from the cost of foreclosures.
I love the NAR.
P Bear, I did see that in today’s SD rag. I wanted to throw up.
There are 20,000 cheerleaders in downtown San Diego today listening to every word of Yun.
Perhaps he will have an “it’s in the bag” statement like we had before? Who was his infamous predecessor again?
I’m thinking Larry Yun’s career may go the way of his predecessor’s before this bubble is finally only visible through the lens of the rear view mirror. At what point did economics morph from being a “science” into a branch of cheerleading?
It is hard to comprehensively explain what is wrong with Yun’s analysis, as the number of flaws is almost exhaustively long, but I will do my best:
‘The housing market’s rebound has been aided by an aggressive federal intervention to lower mortgage rates and bring more buyers into the market. Home resales rose in September to the highest level in more than two years, something Yun said shows buyers are eager to get back into the market.’
The sheep-like response of naive buyers to market-distorting government intervention should not be confused with eagerness to get back into the market.
‘A federal tax credit of up to $8,000 for first-time homebuyers has helped stoke sales this year. The incentive was set to expire at the end of this month, but the NAR and other housing groups successfully lobbied to get the credit extended.’
We most likely will soon learn that the extension had little additional effect on prices and home sales, as all the fencesitters who were lured into catching falling knives for the sake of capturing the $8K credit have already been sucked in.
‘Now buyers can claim the credit if they sign a contract by April 30 and close the deal by the end of June. Lawmakers also expanded the program to include a $6,500 credit for existing homeowners who have lived in their current residence for at least five years.’
How many homeowners who are underwater to the tune of $100,000+ will be lured into the move-up market by the prospect of capturing a $6,500 credit? Only the most marginal of move-up buyers will potentially be affected, and in many of these cases, the move-up buyer claiming the credit would have moved anyway for other reasons. But it is all good, because the free-money stimulus will help support the Bead Shop / New Age Massage / Pedicure economy.
“First-time buyers accounted for a record 47 percent of home sales this year, up from 41 percent last year, the trade group said.”
I can’t wait to hear the angry complaints from the “financially-savvy under-30″ set when they realize they have been duped into overpaying for money pits that show little return on investment over the next several decades. My parents were similarly set up when they were young and naive to catch falling knife stock market investments circa 1966, just before the onset of a 16 year bear market (1966-1982) during which stock prices generally trended south (see Robert Shiller’s ‘Irrational Exuberance’ for the hard statistical evidence).
‘That surge helped drive traffic for real estate agents like Jan McGill of Omaha, Neb., and the extension makes her more optimistic about business next year.
“I’ve got to be positive,” McGill said.’
Just remember that ‘all real estate is local.’ Just because Used Home Seller Jan in Omaha is optimistic doesn’t mean the bubble is done deflating.
‘Yun estimated around 2 million people took advantage of the tax credit this year and projects it will continue to lift the market.’
He didn’t bother mentioning how many of those 2 million would have bought a house anyway, or how much those buyers overpaid for the pleasure of capturing the credit. In many cases, the credit primarily served to inflate home prices and to transfer money into the pockets of Used Home Sellers, which I guess was the point.
‘However, some housing analysts said the NAR’s forecast was overly optimistic, as it was during the housing bubble.’
Well D’OH!!! It wouldn’t be like the NAR to offer the slightest hint of circumspection in their forecast, would it?
- REAL ESTATE ALWAYS GOES UP!
- BUY NOW, OR GET PRICED OUT FOREVER.
- DON’T THROW MONEY AWAY ON RENT!
- EVERYONE WANTS TO LIVE HERE!
‘Economists like Patrick Newport argue the tax credit has already enticed many buyers who otherwise would have waited until next year.’
“It induced first-time homebuyers who were going to buy a home in 2010 to buy in 2009 because they thought it wasn’t going to be extended,” said Newport, an economist at IHS Global Insight.
Newport is projecting home prices will fall between 3 percent and 5 percent next year and sales of existing homes will be flat, at best.‘
Gloomster! Doesn’t Patrick know that real estate always goes up?
‘”I don’t think that second tax credit is going to create a lot of new homebuyers,” he said.’
Pessimist!!!
‘But Yun supports his case by pointing to data from 2000, prior to the housing boom, when 11 million renters had the income necessary to buy a median-priced home. This year, he said, there are 16 million renters in that position.’
Lots of these renters had their credit destroyed by acting on the NAR’s advice to buy at the all-time market top in 2005-2007, only to get foreclosed and disqualified for a loan over the next few years. However, maybe Subprime Sam’s FHA lending program can figure out a way to get the recently foreclosed back into unaffordable housing before the echo bubble pushes prices out of their reach.
‘”This clearly shows that there’s potential pent-up demand that could be tapped,” he said.’
Yeah, Larry — there’s tons of pent-up demand right now, especially since national US unemployment has rocketed up from under 5 percent to over 10 percent over then past year — the most rapid 5 point increase in unemployment at least since the Great Depression.
Have NAR economists heard of the unemployment rate statistic? Do they think the prospect of near-term job loss might have anything to do with demand for housing?
‘His forecast calls for sales of newly built homes to surge by about 38 percent from 2009 levels. That translates to about 549,000 homes, still well below historical trends.’
CLICK!
‘Yun also sees the average interest rate on a 30-year, fixed mortgage creeping up to 5.8 percent by the end of 2010 from about 5 percent today.’
Higher interest rates portend lower equilibrium home prices. Did Yun take that into consideration in his forecast? Or is he assuming that the Fed will successfully engineer sufficient wage inflation to counter the deflationary effect of higher interest rates on home prices?
‘Foreclosures, meanwhile, should peak in the first half of the year, he said.’
My reading of the Ivy Zelman reset chart is that prime and Alt-A resets will continue at tsunami tide levels through 2013. In a high priced market like San Diego (not to mention other bubble zones like all of coastal California), this will keep the lid on the high end of the market, and smash down the prices of everything of lesser quality. You are not going to find homes in Rancho Bernardo or Poway suddenly selling for more than homes in La Jolla or Rancho Santa Fe.
Keep on whistling past the graveyard, Larry, right up until the music stops for you the way it did for David Lereah before you!
Great analysis P Bear. I enjoyed it.
And thanks for pointing out the shills known as Gary Watts and D. Pinnochio lereah.
One more.. “they aren’t making anymore land”.
DD:
THAT was the biggest fallacy of this whole boom…They were making more land everywhere cutting down forests, orange groves, plowing cotton fields all to create more land to build on.
——————————————
One more.. “they aren’t making anymore land”.
They didn’t make any more land in Japan between 1989-2009, either, but they sure did make lower real estate prices!!!
Like an idiot full of sound and fury, Gary Watts of The OC said “It’s in the bag,” and then was heard no more once subprime and home prices imploded.
David Lereah (author of “All Real Estate is Local”, and “The Boom Will Not Bust and Why Property Values Will Continue to Climb Through the End of the Decade - And How to Profit From Them”) was Lawrence Yun’s predecessor at the NAR.
You know, they should do what they do on Nightly Business Report. Each Friday NBR gets some guest to do some stock picks. And then six months later, they bring back the same guest, and show the charts for the stock picks to see how they did.
show the charts for the stock picks to see how they did.
That would be good.
The only way home prices will “rise modestly” is if you take into account the dollar’s continuing crash on its way to Zimbabwe-style funny-money status.
Frustrated Elizabeth Warren wants change. Where is the change?
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/546/index.html
she has the right idea Goldman should be tarred and feathered for paying huge bonuses. as long as they have a multi billion dollar us taxpayer funded backstop.
No backstop…then pay the bonus, and maybe next time you screw up you will wind up like Lehman.
No…the brain-dead sheeple who elected the Republicrat whores who turned a blind eye while Goldman Sachs and their ilk perpetrated the most massive financial swindle in this nation’s history - with impunity - deserve to be tarred and feathered. Let’s put the blame where it rightfully belongs.
Saw that last night and worth watching again and again. Congress is in the process of enacting reforms but many say lots of ink will be spilled, but real reform will escape us. I think back to Brooksley Born’s comment that we will likely see these types of crashes and subsequent taxpayer bailouts again and again to ultimately spur reform years from now.
I have surrendered and am planning my life assuming Born is correct: the Boom, Bust, Bailout will continue in the near term (10 - 20 years) until we learn our lesson. From a personal planning perspective, I say that’s fine, I saw one so now I should be able to figure out what to do to live more comfortably with the next ones. I know there will be massive inflation, massive tax increases and tight to declining incomes and labor markets punctuated with temporary growth spurts.
I saw one so now I should be able to figure out what to do to live more comfortably with the next ones.
Unless you were born yesterday, you have seen more than one, but this one will for us both, us all, surely will be the one that makes us plan better. Good luck to us all. And will Bill start his own investment ( along with workout blog) blog? Citizens want to know!
The most dishonest, corrupt, incompetent and unethical retail level trade assocation in world history says housing sales and prices will rise in 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/ygdd7fb
Lawrence Yun….. you and Lereah have something to fear.
Too funny. Perhaps this announcement might have a little something to do with NAR trying to spread cheer in order to convince all the increasingly discouraged agents living on half their 2005 salary to keep sending in their dues to the organization.
Your messiah is spending $40K per house sold. I know you’re just a lowly union man with no formal education to speak of. But even you must understand that will increase the price of houses.
For all you Obama Kool-Aid drinkers (Exy I mean you buddy) how’s that working out for you vis a vis waiting to buy an affordable house?
“In fact, 47% of all Americans who purchased homes this year had not owned one during the previous three years, according to a press release Friday from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). That was up from 41% of sales in 2008 and 36% in 2006.
The tax credit boosted markets by giving first-time buyers a credit of up to $8,000 they could deduct from their income taxes. The credit is fully refundable: Even a buyer who pays less than $8,000 in income tax gets the full amount of the credit back.
Since all first-timers get the credit, whether it persuaded them to buy or not, that would mean about $40,000 was spent by the government for every extra sale.”
===========
I’ll give Obammy his credit here. He did bring about change. The housing market was in free fall. He decided to throw $40K at each home purchase to stop the free fall…WITH YOU TAX DOLLARS. And all this before the credit was expanded to include existing home owners too.
But given that you are a bona fide kool aid drinking union man, you’ll vote for more of the same Hope N Change in 2012.
Aladinsane voted for Bammy. For an ulterior motive as per the Ayn Rand approach: To vote for the worse of two evils to hasten the economic collapse - to get it all over with, so that the Capitalist Phoenix would rise from the ashes sooner than later.
I don’t buy that approach. I like Harry Browne’s approach: To just operate as if there is no government. “Don’t marry” means don’t file a marriage license and means no partnership between government, you, or your spouse at divorce time. Contract out your work to “independent contractors” instead of “employees” and avoid some of the payroll taxes and a lot of filings with the government. Spend one hour a day studying tax law and finding more ways to save taxes and bring down your adjusted gross income even more.
The occupants of federal offices in Washington and in every state are worse than bands of thugs. They are not beings of any higher intelligence than us. They have a mean streak only, and it’s all about trying to intimidate/scare/cajole us to give them more of what belongs to us. Don’t be awestruck by them.
I’m not awestruck by them. I am repulsed by people who vote them in, like our good friend Exy The Union Man I Love All Things Democrat.
Repulsed by others, yet oblivious to the odor exuded by your own excrement.
Idiocracy is now.
Repulsed by others, yet oblivious to the odor exuded by your own excrement.
Youch!
“Judge not, that ye be not judged”
Mathew – 7:1
“Judge not, that ye be not judged”
Mathew – 7:1
I think I prefer “Judge and be prepared to be judged.”
Ehud Olmert arrived in Washington DC for secret talks, and McCain was right there in the greeting party. Wonder what American resource he is signing away this time?
I’m not awestruck by them. I am repulsed by people who vote them in, like our good friend Exy The Union Man I Love All Things Democrat.
Amen to that. And that goes for BOTH parties.
Aladinsane stockpiled gold. I think Eddie stockpiles tinfoil.
Uhh yea that’s right. Cuz I’m the one droning on and on about PTBs, and PPTs and whatever Ron Paul’s daily conspiracy theory is.
Corruption starts at the local level. By the time
a politician has graduated to the state or federal
level, they have compromised themselves so much
that any evidence of a moral or ethical core has
vanished. The first and only law for them is to
get re-elected.
No, no, no, good sir, I can prove that assumption wrong. Chicago has the most corrupt Democratic party machine in the nation - John Wayne Gacy was one of their most active and energetic local organizers when he wasn’t engaged in raping and murdering young men and burying them in his basement. But Obama came to us pure and untainted, promising change (cue angelic voices) and with his moral integity intact and shining forth…so your basic premise is flawed.
Or maybe not.
Wow — I had no idea Chicago Democratic politics was anything like this. Isn’t this where The Messiah™ was annointed? And Hillbilly?
From Wikipedia:
Gacy became active in the local Democratic Party, first volunteering to clean the party offices.[35] In 1975 and 1976, he served on the Norwood Park Township street lighting committee.[36] He eventually earned the title of precinct captain.[5] In this capacity, he met and was photographed with First Lady Rosalynn Carter, who was in town for the annual Polish Constitution Day Parade, held on May 6, 1978.[37] Gacy was directing the parade that year, for the third year in a row. Carter posed for pictures with Gacy and autographed the photo “To John Gacy. Best Wishes. Rosalynn Carter”. In the picture, Gacy is wearing an “S” pin, indicating a person who has received special clearance by the United States Secret Service.[38] During the search of Gacy’s house after his arrest, this photo caused a major embarrassment to the Secret Service.[39]
Murders
On January 3, 1972, Gacy, engaged to marry his second wife, picked up a youth named Timothy McCoy from the Greyhound bus station in Chicago and drove him to his home where, the following morning, the youth was stabbed to death and buried in Gacy’s crawlspace.[40] According to Gacy, this killing was unintentional, committed in the mistaken belief the youth intended to attack him with a knife from his kitchen.[41]
Three years later, in July 1975, one of Gacy’s employees, John Butkovich, disappeared. Butkovich had recently left Gacy’s employment after an argument over back pay. Gacy later admitted to luring Butkowitch to his home while his wife and stepchildren were visiting his sister in Arkansas.[42] Gacy conned the youth into cuffing his wrists behind his back, then strangled him to death and buried his body under the concrete floor of his garage. Butkovich’s parents urged police to check out Gacy, but nothing came of it and the young man’s disappearance went unsolved.[43]
Gacy’s second wife divorced him eight months later, and Gacy began to kill in earnest. Between April and October of 1976, Gacy killed a minimum of eight youths, all buried in his crawlspace. In December 1976, another Gacy employee, Gregory Godzik, disappeared. As with Butkovitch, Godzik’s parents asked police to investigate Gacy, one of the last people known to have spoken to the boy. In neither case did the police pursue Gacy, nor did they discover his criminal record.[44] In January 1977, John Szyc, an acquaintance of Butkovich, Godzik and Gacy, disappeared. Gacy later sold Szyc’s Plymouth Satellite to another of his employees.[45] During 1977, Gacy killed a further eight young men, including the son of a Chicago Police Sergeant.
…
The Washington Independent
Steve King:
The New White House Counsel Is Connected to ACORN!
By David Weigel 11/13/09 2:34 PM
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who seems to have made a second career in this sort of thing, is accusing the White House of promoting Democratic power lawyer Bob Bauer in order to cover up an ACORN scandal.
Bob Bauer has a public record of defending Barack Obama’s relationship with ACORN. Bauer’s hiring appears to be a tactical maneuver to strategically defend the White House exactly one week after Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell raided ACORN’s national headquarters in New Orleans and seized paper records and computer hard drives that may lead to the White House.
The actual story, as Tony Romm points out, is that Bauer, in his service as the general counsel for the Obama-Biden campaign, criticized Republicans for the last-minute lawsuits against ACORN in swing states. As the story roiled–and it’s entirely possible the negative attention helped win Missouri for the McCain-Palin ticket–he asked the attorney general to investigate any involvement between the Bush Justice Department and the GOP’s campaign. Read the letter–he doesn’t really defend ACORN at all. King’s attack here is almost surprisingly irresponsible. Almost.
it’s entirely possible the negative attention helped win Missouri for the McCain-Palin ticket–he asked the attorney general to investigate any involvement between the Bush Justice Department and the GOP’s campaign.
Steve King rips Obama’s “gangster government”
November 11, 6:54 PM
Des Moines Conservative Examiner
Kevin Hall
Iowa 5th District Rep. Steve King
AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari
Iowa 5th District Congressman Steve King is an extremely rare politician. He tells you exactly what he thinks and how he feels, consequences be damned. Today, King made it very clear how he feels about the Obama administration.
During an interview with the Washington News Observer, King slammed President Obama and two of his closest advisers, Valerie Jarrett and Rahm Emanuel. All three emerged from the Chicago political system, which has a long and notorious history as the most corrupt city in the U.S.
“The Chicago Machine, we know what it is,” King said. “Someone called it gangster government. In Chicago, you have gangster government and Valerie Jarrett’s been in the middle of that. She’s been brokering power for a long time. And the link she has with William Ayers, and other nefarious characters in Chicago tells us what we’ve got in the White House itself. I mean she’s there. There are a number of links directly to Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, Valerie Jarrett, and they go back to Chicago.”
…
Eddie, your priceless. Glad you joined the group.
“…how’s that working out for you vis a vis waiting to buy an affordable house?”
Just great! We just renewed our lease at the same rental rate we paid for the past two years, and our landlord is throwing in new toilets. Moreover, despite an unprecedented level of government intervention by all of Obama’s horses and all of Obama’s men to try to reflate bubble prices, they have barely stayed flat in San Diego at $200/sq ft. Given that unemployment just rocketed up by five percentage points over the past four years, I am looking forward to maybe 1/2 decade of increasingly affordable home prices, and no rent increases in the meanwhile.
four yearsone year period (never post when hyperstimulated by caffeineI know I’ve mentioned my brother a couple of times here on the blog—the one who has been unemployed for the past year in spite of good work experience, good education, and consistent work history. He’s never had an issue finding a new job over the past two decades when he decided it was time to make a change.
Well, he called me Friday and told me that he had gotten a verbal offer. It’s a federal job, a civilian position on a nearby navy base.
He’s looking forward to the benefits of a government job, a large one of which is the expectation of safe, continued employment. He also believes it will be much less of a 24/7 expectation—at his last job, he felt like no matter how hard he worked, he just got more put on his plate.
His pay? Approximately 50% of his last gig. And he’s glad to have it.
I wouldn’t call him “underemployed” by any means, since even a 50% paycut will certainly be a livable wage for his family. But the numerical reality will certainly affect his spending for many years to come.
If there are many people out there making similar decisions, even if employment “improves” the consumer-driven economy could still be facing some serious challenges.
I’m relieved…
I think there was a discussion of this the other day, with a few folks taking the side that you don’t want to devalue yourself (don’t take less salary).
I have an employed friend who is looking for a job that is a “better fit.” She has gotten lots of interviews and one thing seems clear to me. Well-trained people are taking jobs they are “overqualified” for less salary.
She has been asking for more money than she currently makes and interest from the employers falls off quickly after she delivers her requirements. Otherwise she claims the process is very positive and employers like her.
I’m convinced (and my advice was) that they are hiring people at her skill level at lower salary or higher skilled folks are willing to take these jobs at her current salary. IOW, she needs to lower her salary expectations.
My brother is hunting for a replacement for his current job. From what he tells me it would involve a 20-30% pay cut.
We are in fact getting close to an economic bottom, at least for now. Second, the 3.5% number is a preliminary estimate. A study by Goldman Sachs suggests that the number will be revised down by at least 0.5% and maybe as much as 1%.
Why? The estimate does not really take into account how poorly small businesses are performing. If you look at small-business indexes and compare them to historical GDP numbers, you get the smaller number mentioned above. And since at least 2% of the GDP was from the stimulus package (Cash for Clunkers, houses, tax cuts), the economy on its own was flat. That begs the question, what happens when the stimulus runs out?
And the answer is that we won’t know for some time, as the stimulus is just getting ramped up. “According to CBO estimates, only 21% of [the stimulus] spending will occur in 2009; another 38% will come in 2010, and 22% in 2011. After that, its effect will dissipate quickly.” (The Liscio Report)
But David Rosenberg notes that what the federal government is giving, the states are taking away. The Pew Study shows that at least nine other states are in appalling shape, so it is no wonder that David writes:
Stimulus, What Stimulus?
“Fully nine states are in fiscal distress and only two have balanced budgets. States like Michigan are planning 20% budget cuts for the coming year. Indiana is planning a 10% spending cut in light of a 7.4% YoY revenue decline. How can the economy really be out of recession if government revenues are still deflating?
“The states are filling around 40% of their fiscal gaps with the federal stimulus (so much for spending on “shovel ready” infrastructure projects). Even after the fiscal help from Washington, the state governments will still face a projected deficit of $142 billion for 2011 (versus $113 billion in 2010). All in, the restraint in the state and local government sector is estimated to drain a full percentage point from U.S. GDP growth in 2010 and more than fully offset the stimulative efforts from Washington. The U.S. economy is more likely to post growth of little more than 2% next year, rather than the 5% currently being discounted by the equity market.”
MAULDIN.
I always say to listen to the voice in the back of our head.
A mind is a terrible thing to change.
Gary Klein, a psychologist at Applied Research Associates, of Albuquerque, N.M., recommends imagining that you have looked into a crystal ball and have seen that your investment has gone bust. Next, come up with the most compelling explanations you can find for the failure. This exercise, which Christopher Davis of the Davis funds has integrated into the research process at his value-investing firm, can help you realize that your beliefs mightn’t be as solid as you thought.
Try estimating the odds that your analysis is wrong. Let us say that you reckon there is a 20% chance of an adverse outcome; that is like saying you will be proven wrong one in every five times. This way, if the investment does go awry, you will be less likely to dig in your analytical heels and desperately try to prove that you are still right. This procedure, says Michael Mauboussin, chief investment strategist at Legg Mason Capital Management, provides “psychological cover for admitting that you’re wrong.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703811604574533680037778184.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories
I wondered who wrote this book for Palin and I would also like to know who read it to her?
She is one clueless Foock.
Palin’s Book Tour Builds on Effective Web Strategy
Sarah Palin will launch her national book tour next week, one part of a carefully crafted strategy that has allowed the former vice-presidential candidate to leapfrog traditional media outlets and appeal directly to her dedicated and vocal fan base.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125813907900447449.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop
I’ve been seeing her banners on sites frequented by people that love to mock her. I think their definition of “Effective Web Strategy” needs to be clarified.
Something must be ‘working’ cause I am getting more vile emails again from former childhood ‘friends’ spewing forth the same hooey and misinformation mixed with venom.
It’s a reflection of the drooling imbecility of much of the Republican base that Sarah Palin hasn’t disappeared into well-deserved oblivion. God help us if someone this unqualified ends up as “leader of the free world.”
Too late. We just went through 8 years of same.
China’s Role as U.S. Lender Alters Dynamics for Obama
visits China for the first time on Sunday, he will, in many ways, be assuming the role of profligate spender coming to pay his respects to his banker.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/world/asia/15china.html?_r=1&hp
“he will, in many ways, be assuming the role of profligate spender coming to pay his respects to his banker”
Maybe he should fly commercial and leave Air Force 1 at home.
China is holding one TRILLION dollars in US dollar-denominated financial obligations and holdings. They don’t want to end up holding the bag if/when the dollar crashes. How ironic would it be if this “Communist” power joined Ron Paul in demanding a sound-money policy for the US.
Too late — the dollar has already crashed.
27 Oct 2000: 1 Euro = $0.8324
10 Nov 2009: 1 Euro = $1.4966
Nine year loss of value of the dollar relative to the Euro =
(0.8324/1.4966-1)*100 = -44.4 percent, with the trend against the dollar continuing.
Los Angeles South Bay meetup November 21?
Starbucks in Torrance near Hawthorne and Torrance Blvd across from Little Company of Mary Hospital at 8:30 am Saturday November 21.
Anyone game? If not, I will still go there and hang out at least 30 minutes.
at 8:30 am
Won’t you still be dripping wet?
“Won’t you still be dripping wet?”
And this is bad how?
(If you guys meet up please take pics and give us a run down! The meetups are a lot of fun and when you meet face to face even people you completely disagree with are a lot of fun (and nice) to talk to. Hope it works out.)
And this is bad how?
Meant it as a teasing!
My wife has an 8:00 flight out of LAX that Saturday so I’ll probably be able to make it.
So, do we do secret handshakes or something to recognize each other?
You just need to wear your cash is king crown combo.
I don’t have it anymore; I melted it down for the gold and sold it off for cash when the price hit a thousand.
The gold fillings in my teeth are going next.
You knew I was stalking you with the pliers?
Oh that was you? My mistake.
My company recently changed its dental plan and I thought you were part of the change.
Sorry about all the gunfire.
Got a few gold fillings myself. Got them years ago when gold was going up in the late 70’s early 80s.
As I posted earlier this week, I am in the market for a new car. I was doing some research to see what models have been selling well vs. what isn’t selling to gauge what kind of discounts I could expect. Sadly looks like I will be paying up.
Infiniti QX56 up 67%. Nissan Armada are up 97%. Lexus RX up 55%. Cadillac Escalade up 37%. VW Toureg up 31%
So much for the end of the SUV. And so much for the notion that everyone is broke. Unless broke is now defined as buying $50K new SUVs.
Eddie, the wealthy still have all their wealth.
Middle class
not so much.
Well damn Eddie, what are you waiting for. Go for it man. Buy that SUV, buy that house. Put your money where your mouth is.
Hey SFAGal, haven’t seen you for a while. Where you been?
Just hanging around cougar. Trying to stay out of trouble.
Hope you’re doing well.
“Well damn Eddie, what are you waiting for. Go for it man. Buy that SUV, buy that house. Put your money where your mouth is.”
Keyboard cowboys can’t.
We all BOW to the power of Eddie.
Eddie!!! Eddie!!! Eddie!!! Eddie!!!
Iron Maiden rules.
Map geeks, unite! Flowing Data has a step-by-step tutorial on how to create county-specific colored maps with any metric you can think of, all through using free, open-source tools. Your statistical diaries will never be the same.
http://flowingdata.com/2009/11/12/how-to-make-a-us-county-thematic-map-using-free-tools/
Map Geeks,
If you think that’s cool, check out this site wwwdotgeoselectordotcom - You can draw on a map - down to the street or neighborhood and run instant demographic reports. They have a tool that lets you select a ton of demographic info. Unreal - this is free and amazing…and a little scary based on you can choose lending information, house values etc.. They are trying to sell mailing lists but you can get all this info before you have to buy.
How cool.
Aren’t we a fun, diverse group!
Game over.
______________
David Weyrich facing foreclosure on Villa Toscana, York Mountain and Martin and Weyrich wineries and his home
Melanie Cleveland
David Weyrich – one of the most prominent businessmen in the county – is facing foreclosure of several gems of his enterprises, including the Paso Robles winery bearing his name and the luxury inn Villa Toscana.
If he cannot produce about $20 million by next week, his creditors will hold a public auction on the San Luis Obispo courthouse steps Nov. 20 of all entities under his Martin and Weyrich Winery LLC.
This includes Martin and Weyrich Winery and more than 250 acres of vineyards; Villa Toscana, the luxury bed-and-breakfast inn nestled in the Martin and Weyrich vineyards on Paso Robles’ eastside; two tasting rooms; the York Mountain Winery and vineyards in Templeton; and the Jack Ranch Vineyard in Edna Valley, according to notices of trustee’s sales filed with San Luis Obispo County.
Weyrich also owes another $6 million to creditors. A notice of default has been filed on his 7,700-square-foot home and 278 acres, including vineyards, in Paso Robles to recoup that debt as well, according to the filings. Weyrich currently has the property for sale for $9.5 million, according to a realty Web site listing.
The $26 million makes for a total of more than $48 million worth of cash or collateral that Weyrich is being forced to pay his creditors within the year.
Can’t we leave a bag of groceries on his porch or something?
Can’t we leave a bag of groceries on his porch or something?
Isn’t it almost ‘donate a can of food for post office pick up day’?
We can leave those at his house.
I suggest cans of beans.
Cans of beans.
With so many too-clever-by-half folks buying gold, can a crash in the making be far off?
The Financial Times
Super-rich buy gold and sell hedge funds
By Steve Lodge
Published: November 13 2009 10:42 | Last updated: November 13 2009 10:42
The investment preferences of the world’s wealthiest families have shifted significantly in favour of gold and other commodities and away from hedge funds in the wake of the financial crisis, according to a survey of family offices and advisers of the super-rich.
Two-thirds of the 100 respondents to a survey by the Family Office Channel, a new website, said that super-rich families are now more likely to invest in gold and other commodities. They are also more interested in bond investments and in holding higher amounts of cash as part of an “instinctive retreat to ultra-safe asset classes”.
By contrast, two-thirds of respondents said the wealthiest families are less likely to invest in hedge funds and structured products – investments offering capital protection - with one in three reporting “greatly reduced” interest in these holdings.
Private equity and commercial property are also much less popular asset classes, while attitudes to residential property investment remain largely unchanged.
The findings confirm reports of a flight to safer asset classes, says the survey. Wealthy families’ risk appetites have suffered from frauds uncovered in the financial crisis as well as the poor performance of investments. More than nine out of 10 respondents said the level of trust in financial institutions and investment advisers has been hit by the Madoff and Stanford frauds.
…
Wealthy families’ risk appetites have suffered from frauds uncovered in the financial crisis as well as the poor performance of investments. More than nine out of 10 respondents said the level of trust in financial institutions and investment advisers has been hit by the Madoff and Stanford frauds.
I’d say it’s not just the wealthy families that are doing this. This is the direct results of a system with no effective rules and regulation, and no effective enforcement. People just take their monopoly money and go home. You look at third world countries and people with any wealth try to off shore it, or they build compounds and convert their cash to stuff because they know markets and cash are not to be trusted.
“There is a very amusing site that bills itself as ‘entertainment shopping’ called Swoopo. After a brief investigation, I have concluded that:
1. You would have to be a complete idiot to spend money on this site.
2. I am a complete idiot for not thinking of it first.”
Warning: html.
http://badmoneyadvice.com/2009/06/swoopo-entertaining-yes-shopping-no.html
1 oz gold $4200 no thats $42.00 42 dollars
http://www.swoopo.com/auction/1-ounce-gold-bar-31-10g-/248255.html
A Graphic of Unemployment Spreading Like Cancer Across the USA the Last Few Years:
http://tinyurl.com/yjvndyk
Cheap Saturday night entertainment!
Remember, you saw it here first on the HBB!
That is down right depressing cobalt.
The New York Times
Legal
Bank Breakup Plan, Still Unseen, Draws Wall St. Ire
November 12, 2009, 6:21 pm
A legislative amendment set to be proposed by Representative Paul E. Kanjorski, Democrat of Pennsylvania, is creating quite a stir on Wall Street, even though a completed version has yet to be seen.
But advocates for the big banks are not taking any chances and are firing a pre-emptive shot at Mr. Kanjorski’s amendment, which would give the government “pre-emptive breakup authority” over financial institutions that it believes are too big or interconnected to fail.
In addition to a slew of Washington lobbyists, the New York’s Congressional delegation heard Thursday from the Partnership for New York City, an organization made up of 200 chief executives who advocate on behalf of the city.
“Enacting such a provision would give foreign competitors the opportunity to capture market share among the world’s largest corporate and investor clients — those that demand the huge capacity and global reach that only our biggest U.S. banks have,” the partnership said in a letter to the lawmakers.
That problem is easily solved: Multilateral measures must be taken to break up Megabanks wherever they exist in the global economy. Perhaps the Fed could coordinate that the next time they hold an international banking cartel meeting in Jackson Hole. The bond market, where risk can be priced into yields, should be completely sufficient for funding large projects.
“We cannot afford for proposals like this to make it into the financial reform package, and we hope every member of the delegation will make it their business to oppose them,” the group wrote.
If the banksters’ lobbyists oppose this, there is a good chance it would have the desirable effect of shutting down their systematic “bank robbery by bailouts” scheme.
…
Don’t You Think It’s Time to Reinstate the Laws That Would Have Prevented the Financial Crash?
By Nomi Prins, AlterNet. Posted November 14, 2009.
It’s been 10 years since Washington repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, the moment we got royally screwed by the banking system — and we’re still paying the price.
…
We need to specifically reinstate section 16 of the Glass-Steagall Act that had restricted national commercial banks from engaging in most investment banking activities, up to a certain small percentage, coming from client directives, not their own proprietary trading. And, on the flip side, we need to reinstate section 21 that restricted investment banks from engaging in any commercial banking up to a certain percentage limit.
Doing these two things, would reduce the more systemically risky competitive desires between these two types of banks that spurs them to merge into institutions that are too big to exist without our help, or take the kinds of leveraged risks that drive short-term profits and bonuses, at the expense of long term financial system stability.
…
HuffingtonPost dot com
George Goehl
Executive Director, National People’s Action
Posted: November 13, 2009 01:35 PM
Who Will Hold Goldman Accountable? - Might Just be Everyday People
What’s Your Reaction?
- Inspiring
- Greedy
- Typical
- Scary
- Outrageous
- Amazing
- Innovative
- Infuriating
- WHERE IS MY PITCHFORK???
Whether it is Goldman Sachs’ central role in the subprime crisis, handing out hundreds of millions in bonuses soon after receiving a $10 billion taxpayer bailout, or CEO Lloyd Blankfein claiming that his company does “God’s work,” this Wall Street giant has rightfully earned the leading role in the story of “All That is Wrong with Wall Street.”
Ten years ago neighborhood residents from 20 states came to Washington, DC to try and block the repeal of Glass-Steagall, the Depression era banking act that provided a firewall between commercial banks and investment firms.
Led by longtime community leader, Gale Cincotta, hundreds of Americans went to the home of Phil Gramm, the champion of this deregulatory effort, to challenge the then Texas Senator to reverse course.
He didn’t, and the American people have paid the price for it. There is no question that the repeal of Glass-Steagall resulted in the massive growth of a number of financial institutions, making them less accountable and more dangerous. It is also clear that tearing down critical financial firewalls paved the way for the casino-like behavior that drove the subprime crisis. As you list the monstrosities that grew out of the repeal of Glass-Steagall you won’t read long before naming Goldman Sachs.
One of the people who made the trek to see Gramm in 1999 was Des Moines resident Brenda LaBlanc. Three weeks ago the 81-year old Iowan led 1,000 people to the America Bankers Association Convention in Chicago. With the Administration and Congress being slow to hold banks accountable, she and other Americans deputized themselves, calling for a Showdown in Chicago.
After visiting the Bankers’ Convention, LaBlanc was also among those who paid a visit to the Chicago Headquarters of Goldman Sachs.
Now, LaBlanc and delegates from the Showdown are heading to Washington on November 16. Among the stops will be the DC headquarters of Goldman Sachs.
The message is simple: Banks, like Goldman, that have been deemed “too big to fail” are too big to exist. The American people cannot be expected to continue to prop up the same institutions that created the crisis we all face today. Until federal officials decide to hold the big banks accountable and break up the biggest banks, the American people will have to sign up for duty and do it ourselves.
…
One thing is clear. The public is ready for banks like Goldman to be held accountable. And if Congress and the Administration don’t have the stomach to take them on, the rest of us should join fearless Americans like Brenda LaBlanc and do it ourselves.
Politics | Media
MEDIAlternative: Berlin, bailouts and bullshit
by Kevin Howley
November 15, 2009
…
Consider Wall Street’s gambling addiction. The casino capitalism that left our economy in shambles last year is returning with renewed vigor at the end of 2009. And why not? Like the Bush administration before it, the Obama White House supports Wall Street’s gambling habit — with our tax dollars.
In the meantime, firms that were “too big to fail” at this time last year have only gotten bigger. What’s more, amid media hype — or corporate propaganda, take your pick — about the end of the recession, the same greed and corporate excess that put the economy in the toilet continues unabated. So-called financial “experts” continue to rake in enormous bonuses while the unemployment rate tops 10 percent.
…
FHA: Housing’s Safety Net Begins to Fray
By Barbara Kiviat Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009
A for sale sign is displayed outside a home in Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle / Getty
If you bought or refinanced a house within the past year, there’s a 1 in 4 chance you have the Federal Housing Administration to thank. The Depression-era agency, once the last resort of folks who were less-than-perfect credit risks, was practically forgotten during the real estate boom — anyone with a pulse qualified for a mortgage. Now the FHA has resumed its old role by propping up the housing market, since private lenders began shunning all but the least-risky loans. The FHA doesn’t lend directly but rather entices lenders do so by agreeing to cover any losses. The FHA stood behind fewer than 3% of new mortgages in 2006. In 2009, just three years later, the FHA insured nearly 30% of home purchases and 20% of refinances.
That hasn’t come without cost. As the FHA filled the void left by the private sector, it has assumed the risks of those loans. And now that a growing number of people have stopped paying their mortgages, the FHA has had to pay out more in claims that it forecast. The agency has just $3.6 billion on hand to cover any unexpected losses in its $685 billion portfolio. That paltry level of reserve funding, less than is mandated by the government, has left some members of Congress in a twitchy mood and some onlookers to wonder if the FHA will eventually need a massive infusion of cash.
…
* I want my FHA! (My FHA annual actuarial study, that is)
* Home Buying After Fannie and Freddie
* The Next Bailout: Helping Homeowners in Distress
…
If it won’t sell, the markdowns are obviously not steep enough yet.
High-End Homes That Won’t Sell
Despite steep markdowns, these expensive homes from across the country just won’t sell
Money & Main St
Arizona: Where Developers Developed and Developed and…
By KRISTI OLOFFSON Tuesday, Jun. 30, 2009
Scottsdale — 28626 N. 108th Way
Original price: $2.4 million
Current listing: $1.5 million
==============================================================
Florida: Where Price Cuts No Longer Matter
West Palm Beach — 200 Murray Road
Original price: $3.4 million
Current listing: $1.9 million
=============================================================
Maryland: Land of Crabs… and Big-Box Houses
Ellicott City — 11631 Whitetail Lane
Original price: $1.1 million
Current listing: $975,000
=============================================================
California: A Glut of Unique Houses Near the Beach
La Jolla — 1353 West Muirlands Drive
Original price: $2.95 million
Current listing: $1.9 million–$2.3 million
=============================================================
Connecticut: Wall Street’s Bedroom, on Sale
Westport — 2 Brooklawn Drive
Original price: $2,495,000
Current listing: $1,999,000
In House, Many Spoke With One Voice: Lobbyists’
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/us/politics/15health.html?_r=1
Genentech, a subsidiary of the Swiss drug giant Roche, estimates that 42 House members picked up some of its talking points — 22 Republicans and 20 Democrats, an unusual bipartisan coup for lobbyists.
In an interview, Representative Bill Pascrell Jr., Democrat of New Jersey, said: “I regret that the language was the same. I did not know it was.” He said he got his statement from his staff and “did not know where they got the information from.”
Members of Congress submit statements for publication in the Congressional Record all the time, often with a decorous request to “revise and extend my remarks.” It is unusual for so many revisions and extensions to match up word for word. It is even more unusual to find clear evidence that the statements originated with lobbyists.
The e-mail messages and their attached documents indicate that the statements were based on information supplied by Genentech employees to one of its lobbyists, Matthew L. Berzok, a lawyer at Ryan, MacKinnon, Vasapoli & Berzok who is identified as the “author” of the documents. The statements were disseminated by lobbyists at a big law firm, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal.
In an e-mail message to fellow lobbyists on Nov. 5, two days before the House vote, Todd M. Weiss, senior managing director of Sonnenschein, said, “We are trying to secure as many House R’s and D’s to offer this/these statements for the record as humanly possible.”
He told the lobbyists to “conduct aggressive outreach to your contacts on the Hill to see if their bosses would offer the attached statements (or an edited version) for the record.”