Bits Bucket For February 3, 2010
Post off-topic ideas, links and Craigslist finds here. Please visit the HBB Forum.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
To donate by mail, or to otherwise contact this blogger, please send emails to: thehousingbubble@gmail.com
PayPal is a secure online payment method which accepts ALL major credit cards.
Links
-
May 2024 M T W T F S S « Sep 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Photo Submission: hbbphotos@gmail.com
View the HBB Photo Gallery *updated 4/13/2008
Just wanted to share something that’s been on my mind the past week.
We all like to complain and many of us like to write letters, e-mails, faxes, and make phone calls when our legislators do something we don’t like (like the TARP), but most of us probably don’t let them know when they’re doing something right.
I’m going to write/call as many legislators as possible to let them know we appreciate it when they do the right thing:
-like Rep. Issa’s trying to uncover the relationship between Geithner and the AIG bailout:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-darrell-issa/geithners-time-to-give-an_b_415476.html
-or Bernie Sanders’ attempt to find out what’s going on at the Fed, supporting the breaking up of megabanks, in addition to standing up for the working class over the “capitalists” on Wall Street, etc.
I’m thinking it would be nice if a significant number of us let them know we appreciate their efforts. If you like something your legislator (or Obama, or a regulator, etc.) is doing, perhaps you could e-mail them a note of support or appreciation. Better yet, call, fax, or send them a letter…even a “thank you” card. I’m thinking about the “Volcker Rule,” specifically. IMHO, this is one of the best things they could do to help solve the “financial crisis.” We need to remove any hint of a govt backstop when institutions want to trade for their own benefit, or engage in unusually risky and/or leveraged bets.
Here’s how to find them (zip code search in center of page):
http://www.congress.org/
Thanks, everyone!
“I’m going to write/call as many legislators as possible to let them know we appreciate it when they do the right thing:
-like Rep. Issa’s trying to uncover the relationship between Geithner and the AIG bailout: ”
Excellent suggestion, and I have a couple of follow ons:
1) When you call to let them know how much you appreciate what a good job they are doing, don’t forget to ask how you can offer your financial support to their efforts. I know we Lilliputians don’t individually have much spare cash to offer compared to bankers who receive hundreds of millions in bonus payments, but perhaps the signal of millions and millions and millions of grass roots contributions to legislators who serve the interests of the American electorate instead of narrow interests on Wall Street would send a valuable message.
2) Anyone who has too much spare time or energy on their hands might think about how to set up a political action blog to channel grass roots funding to legislators who are making a determined effort to clean up the U.S. financial system.
Totally agree with both points, PB.
——————-
BTW, anyone here want to host a blog that would support a single-issue movement?
The “Tea Party” crowd turned what was originally a good idea, and turned it into some kind of republican movement involving healthcare, etc.
I want to see something that deals ONLY with housing, banks, and the mortgage market. Basically, keeping the govt out of the housing market (with some reasonable exceptions like the VA, perhaps), which would finally accomplish the long-stated goal of encouraging “affordable housing.”
This is, in fact, an excellent suggestion. If you can do it as a hard copy letter sent by snail mail, that is even better. I know. It shouldn’t matter. But it does. Maybe they think snail mail users are more likely to vote or maybe, because they keep all paper that goes through the office no matter what (for “history”), in DC it is generally accepted that hard copy mail gets more attention from staffers.
PS - I think I saw Elizabeth Warren on the corner of Pennsylvania Ave and 17th street this morning. DC geek celebrity siting.
siting = sighting. Sigh. And I don’t even drink coffee.
Technically, “siting” is correct too.
One time driving downtown with a friend at 11 am, we saw Tim Russert near the Capitol.
Did you APA style while you were citing her Polly?
Smirk. Giggle. Good one.
Obviously you need to drink more coffee, Polly
Typed, on your professional letterhead, double-spaced, not more than two pages, no profanity or exclamation points=100 phone calls=500 emails=1000 e-petition signatures.
Make your opinions count!
And please consider signing this petition calling for more televised “Question Time” debates with the President. Best political entertainment since the Watergate hearings.
demandquestiontime dot com.
I’d love to see an American version of The Prime Minister’s Questions.
Anyone watched those lately? Seeing Gordon Brown get shellacked in the House of Commons is classic. Better than Monty Python, in fact.
PS - I think I saw Elizabeth Warren on the corner of Pennsylvania Ave and 17th street this morning. DC geek celebrity siting.
—————–
Maybe I’m a geek, but I would be so much more excited to see Elizabeth Warren than Brad Pitt. She’s one of my greatest heros!
I think I’d go all fan-geek on her. Which means that I’d stand there, stammering and mumbling. And Elizabeth would quickly find better things to do than trying to understand what this skinny Arizona geek was saying.
I think I saw Suzanne working a few street corners down.
Was she researching that?
Polly,
Just an FYI: After the anthrax scare of 2001 and the hoax white powder mailings sense, my understanding is that most representatives would prefer that you e-mail their offices.
I’d love to. Unfortunately, I live in the nation’s capitol, and I lack representation.
It’s a great idea. I wonder what difference it makes to them to hear from someone out of district/state versus one of their own constituents..You can also write to a newspaper in their state/district.
I’ve read that those letters influence legislators more thatn the national , evening news. Again, in district authors would seem to be better, but positive feedback is positive feedback!
In district is by far the most important. If you want to write to someone who is out of district, CC your legislator so they can see what sort of behavior you admire and why.
I wrote to Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida (out of state) after he called that K Street whore what she was: a K Street whore. He’s the rarest of the rare: an old-school liberal with principles who sticks up for the common man. His office does not reply to out-of-state mail, but I hope he got a lot of nation-wide support.
While all of you gung-ho guys and gals are writing and calling your representatives and senators, maybe you should DEMAND some questions amd answers about this information that was presented on the House floor.
Who, When and Why, WAS Somebody THREATENING to impose Martial Law upon the members of the US Congress, People of the United States of America ?
“U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman of California said to Congress, captured on C-Span and viewable on YouTube, that individual members of the House were threatened with martial law within a week if they did not pass the bailout bill:
“The only way they can pass this bill is by creating and sustaining a panic atmosphere. … Many of us were told in private conversations that if we voted against this bill on Monday that the sky would fall, the market would drop two or three thousand points the first day and a couple of thousand on the second day, and a few members were even told that there would be martial law in America if we voted no.”
Silly old Patriotic mikey….just wondering and askin’
http://tinyurl.com/3pa2nq
“…and a few members were even told that there would be martial law in America if we voted no…”
“That’s what I call Fear Mongering…!”
October 02, 2008
Just before lil’ Opie, “The Non-Hawaiian” …could start his true hidden agenda: “To Destroy America!”
(Hwy’s currently listening to the “TrueAnger™” PeeParty tea toaddlers leaders on the Radio)
So the truth comes out.
Some of you here correctly called it. They really were threatened with Armageddon.
omg
It isn’t like some of these guys could have , you know, perhaps been a bit skeptical about the claims.
Perhaps the big ball of derrivative products went off.
No wait, that was the AIG bailout. Where the NY Fed president, a Mr Geitner, decided that the law didn’t apply to the big insurance firm and they could in fact pull money from the life insurance side of the business, to pay the derivative side of the business. Even though those contracts were not technically legal for AIG to use that money.
Thank god they didn’t tell them it would cause global warming and melt the planet. Could have caused them to really panic.
You know, yer right on all points.
I didn’t mean to imply they were blameless. Just damn interesting that the extortion was nothing less than Armageddon. And they bought it!
Geithner’s gotta go. It’s a question of when, not whether.
The Buzz
Time for Tim Geithner to go
Geithner has spent a lot of time defending his role in the AIG bailout to Congress. That may make him a liability to the Obama administration.
By Paul R. La Monica, editor at large January 28, 2010: 4:42 PM ET
The Buzz is now on Twitter! Follow me @LaMonicaBuzz
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The shelf life for a Treasury secretary is often pretty short. Timothy Geithner may be nearing his expiration date.
Geithner, who appeared to be the perfect man for the job when President Obama tapped him for the position in November 2008, has failed to live up to expectations.
Of course, in trying to resurrect the nation’s economy following the Great Recession, Geithner was dealt a difficult hand. But as the president explained in the State of the Union, the economy still has a way to go before it returns to health.
People are angry about that fact, and that probably means someone needs to be the fall guy. With Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke now looking like he will get reconfirmed by the Senate, Geithner’s head looms large on the chopping block.
To be blunt, Geithner is becoming an embarrassment for the Obama administration.
It’s getting harder to watch Geithner on Capitol Hill these days. You can hardly blame him for looking so weary. Who wouldn’t grow tired of all the constant attacks from blowhard politicians? It’s almost as if every time he sits down in front of Congress, someone loads up a shotgun and shouts, “Pull!”
Still, it’s become obvious that his part in helping to bail out AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) in September 2008 at the peak of the financial crisis will forever haunt him.
Geithner once again claimed on Wednesday that he had no role in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s decision to tell AIG to withhold information about so-called counterparty payments to big banks such as Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500), Deutsche Bank (DB) and the now Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500)-owned Merrill Lynch. But his repeated denials don’t pass the proverbial smell test.
…
probably some banker through a few lobbyist. and stupid congress persons reacted as expected.
Right on, CA renter. It’s too easy to castigate our elected officials for doing wrong and not give them credit for doing the right thing. I don’t agree with my particular congressman (a Republican) on a lot of things, but did send him a letter of thanks and a modest donation for his re-election campaign because he voted against the bailouts and for Ron Paul’s Audit the Fed bill.
most of us probably don’t let them know when they’re doing something right.
I’m going to write/call as many legislators as possible to let them know we appreciate it when they do the right thing:
A great idea.
Those mentioned fighting for justice need our support. I will write them with my appreciation too.
Geithner Says U.S. Deficits Pose ‘Corrosive Threat’
Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said long-term budget deficits endanger the U.S. economy and must be curbed once the country recovers from the worst recession since the Great Depression.
“Every American knows that the path of our deficits is too high and that if they persist long after this recession ends, they will pose a corrosive threat to our economic future,” Geithner said in prepared testimony for the Senate Finance Committee. Left unchecked, deficits would drain investment and drive up interest rates, making it harder for households and businesses to get loans, he said.
Breaking news: Long-term budget deficits endanger the U.S. economy.
Which is the chicken and which is the egg here?
Geitner wants to wait for recovery before fixing the budget, yet can the US recover while diving deeper into debt?
We have to spend our way out of debt, right?
Geithner thinks we can cheat our way out of this one.
Is debt like taxes — i.e., it’s OK to underpay?
“Is debt like taxes - i.e., it;s OK to underpay?”
Hey, how about Option Taxes, similar to Option ARMS.
Instead of paying taxes this year just roll what is owed over to next year. The guvmnt can charge interest on what is owed which will help lower the deficit.
Meanwhile the taxpayer gets to waste his money buying worthless goods instead of sending it to the govenmt to be wasted.
Oooooohhh, you guys are smart! You should run for Treasury Secretary yourselves!
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said long-term budget deficits endanger the U.S. economy and must be curbed once the country recovers from the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Blah blah blah blah.
Talk to your frickin’ boss, Timmy.
Making statements to the American people doesn’t do a damn bit of good if your boss doesn’t care what Americans think.
P.S. regarding the “once the country recovers” - talk to your buddy Ben about that one. According to him (his words at least, not his actions) we’re already there.
I was driving up I-95 in the Carolinas yesterday and entered the “Bernanke Interchange”. Naturally, I assumed there was no speed limit and floored it all the way to Virginia.
Do you have a Toyota Prius self-flooring model?
I love bink.
Left unchecked, deficits would drain investment and drive up interest rates, making it harder for households and businesses to get loans, he said.
———————
I’m not as convinced as he is that higher interest rates are such a bad thing. Perhaps it might create an incentive for people to save (and stay out of debt!!!!), and it might also encourage lenders/investors to be more dilligent when lending/investing money because money will be perceived to be more valuable.
No Help in Sight, More Homeowners Walk Away ~ NYT ~ 1-3-10
In 2006, Benjamin Koellmann bought a condominium in Miami Beach. By his calculation, it will be about the year 2025 before he can sell his modest home for what he paid. Or maybe 2040.
Benjamin Koellmann paid $215,000 for his apartment in Miami Beach in 2006, but now units are selling in foreclosure for $90,000. “There is no financial sense in staying,” he said.
New research suggests that when a home’s value falls below 75 percent of the amount owed on the mortgage, the owner starts to think hard about reneging on a home loan.
“People like me are beginning to feel like suckers,” Mr. Koellmann said. “Why not let it go in default and rent a better place for less?”
After three years of plunging real estate values, after the bailouts of the bankers and the revival of their million-dollar bonuses, after the Obama administration’s loan modification plan raised the expectations of many but satisfied only a few, a large group of distressed homeowners is wondering the same thing.
Of course it would be better to keep the Homeownahz in their homes…so let them pay market rent to the bank, and sign over the property. The bank isn’t going to sell his condoze anytime soon.
It seems like the only real fix at this point.
That make sense in reality, but not in accounting.
It would force the special servicer to realize its loss. That would mean losses for the bond pool, and sometimes Fannie and Freddie which, since they have no money, would charge the taxpayer.
Or should I say the next generation.
Thank WT…I learn a lot from this board.
“Or should I say the next generation.”
I’ve had discussions with friends who fear for their children’s economic future. I’ll agree that right now it looks pretty bleak. But I don’t worry about their long term future at all. I firmly believe it will be my generation (I’m 47) that takes it Barney Frank style. We are the ones fully invested in the current scheme with very few, if any, exit mechanisms in place. I believe that the house of cards will crumble within the next 10 years. This will be the great reset.
“The kids are alright”
I’m 48, and that is an optimistic scenario. I’d rather die sick in the snow at 64 then pass on the legacy that’s being generated.
WT,
I agree it would be a terrible legacy for sure. I just don’t feel like I am guilty of anything. I save a large percentage of my income, am debt free, have some assets, blah, blah, blah. All the while paying taxes galore to perpetuate the scheme. As I would assume you have. I have been a productive member of society my entire adult life.
We didn’t cause this problem!
My $0.02. The Boomers had a real good time if you ignore Vietnam. I don’t just mean the Woodstock Gen, either. I was in the 70’s and had a blast, and that was Boomers, also.
So ok, the Boomers had fun. Now, no one is going to have fun when they are young. The Boomers ruined it.
Roidy
Our economic future was trashed 30 years ago when they began offshoring the jobs and the remaining employment wages were not keeping up with real inflation.
When Tricky Dick took us off the gold standard that was the beginning of the end. Although according to my right-of-center uncle, Ted Kennedy’s 1964 immigration reform bill that opened the floodgates was what really killed the American dream.
I agree with you, SV guy. Today’s 20 year-olds may very well be in the cat-bird seat 20-30 years from now. Much of the Ponzi scheme hubris generated during the past 40-60 years will have been forced out of the system by then. There will be no solution other than to trash 2/3 of the entire apparatus.
I’m 45. I strongly agree that our generation (those born from 1958 to 1980 or so) has been and will continue to get reamed. Permanently. For the rest of our existence.
We’ll be the ones stuck having to clean up the mess. All the while dealing with an ongoing decline in living standards. Nothing new there. (Today’s 20-year-olds will be able to capitalize on that decline. We won’t - we’ll be too old. It’s old-fashioned nursing homes for us, folks).
Some comments here from Cactus prompted me to finally pick up a copy of “Fourth Turning”. More than a dozen people have recommended it to me over the years. No wonder. I could’ve wrote the thing. The author and I are pretty much in sync across the board. Nice to see that there are others who actually “get it”.
Bingo, eco.
Bring on the strategic defaults. I see no real harm, Megabank is booking record profits so they can easily afford everyone’s bubble-priced turd.
What if these walkaways had been bought by Fannie and Freddie and/or Le Fed? It’s the taxpayer that’s taking the hit, not Megabank….which is WHY Megabank is booking record profits. Privatize the profit, socialize the risk…Mission Accomplished.
———-
btw, does anyone think anything will come of Fannie and Freddie’s forensics on their toxic assets — where they are poring over their assets and forcing Megabank buy back any loan which was made with even a hint of fraud? There are a LOT of losses hidden on those faked income on no-doc applications.
I was overjoyed at this news last week, but since then it’s fallen off the radar. Is it still going on? How much can F&F claw back? Will it make a noticable difference? Will the media do a follow up?
Rising loan defaults challenge FHA
Mortgage disarray
About 9.1 percent of FHA borrowers had missed at least three payments as of December, up from 6.5 percent a year ago, the agency’s figures show.
Although the FHA’s default rate has been climbing for months and eating into the agency’s cash, the latest figures show that the FHA’s woes are getting worse even as the housing market shows signs of improvement. The problems are rooted in FHA mortgages made in 2007 and 2008. Those loans are now maturing into their worst years because failures most often occur two to three years after a mortgage is made.
If the trend continues and the FHA’s cash reserves are exhausted, the federal government would automatically use taxpayer money to cover the losses — a first for the agency, which has always used the fees it charges borrowers to pay for its losses.
And FHA continues to make those stupid 3% down loans. I know someone who closed on a house last week with an FHA loan. They make $90K per year but are incapable of saving. They paid a lot in closing costs and got a bad interest rate. It’s nuts.
Yep. Bring back 20%+ downpayments, and I’d bet the defaults would almost disappear (on those loans with high down payments).
It’s funny how they claim they want to arrest the “financial crisis” but are doing everything in their power to make it worse (low rates, no down payment, govt financing and tax credits, etc.).
Either they are stupid, or they are liars. It’s one or the other.
When the Fed goes after the bank, the bank will go after the FB. Eventually, some of these former upstanding FBs will be stooped over with multi $100K judgements that will follow them from one under the table job to the next, like a bad case of child support. Maybe then the media will pick up on the story.
That’s why FBs are declaring bankruptcy in droves. Bankruptcy erases those pesky mortgage deficiency judgements.
Erases it for them. Not for the taxpayers.
does anyone think anything will come of Fannie and Freddie’s forensics on their toxic assets
Yes, I think there will be some highly publicized prosecutions of little criminals while the big criminals run free.
Oh, I don’t mean criminal prosecutions or grandstanding at some committee hearing. I mean banks suddenly having to buy back their own junk, thereby offloading it from the taxpayer. Bah, it’ll probably show up as a rounding error on a budget spreadsheet somewhere.
I wish, but I don’t think anything will come of anything at this point. The corruption will continue until the whole house/nation burns down; there’s no will in place at the top to change it, and even the voters just want a return to the “good ol’ days” of the Bubble, when they could get easy toxic loans and lie on their mortgage documents. Nobody, aside from the small percentage of the population on this forum and other similar ones, actually wants a return to sanity and honesty.
Nobody, aside from the small percentage of the population on this forum and other similar ones, actually wants a return to sanity and honesty.
Unfortunately - yep.
The problem is that such a return to sanity will not come without a lot of pain. So all I get (and probably others on the HBB) when suggesting such a path is a response of “But, but… it’ll wreck the economy!!”.
My response to that would be this - look, basically right now we’re in a car barreling down a hill with no brakes, and the doors locked shut and broken. We’re headed towards a 5,000-ft cliff - one that goes down not up. We shouldn’t have gotten ourselves in this predicament in the first place, but we can’t change the past. We’re here and we have to to take drastic measures to deal with the situation we’re in. At any rate - at this point our best option is to head for the nearest tree and yes - purposefully wreck. Otherwise - off the cliff we go, to certain death.
It appears to me that right now we have a very panicked firm grip on the steering wheel, with no intent of veering towards any trees.
“It appears to me that right now we have a very panicked firm grip on the steering wheel, with no intent of veering towards any trees.”
You left out Bernanke’s foot smashing the gas pedal against the floor with Obama telling him its ok.
We’re working on a fix for the brake issue, we’ll definitely implement it after the next election. Just give us time, that’s all we ask.
Great analogy, packman.
If the securitized debt has been bought by Fannie/Freddie/ the Fed or insured by FHA then we sure as heck do need some of the walkaways to happen RIGHT NOW. If Fannie/Freddie/FHA don’t figure out how much garbage they have on their books, they won’t even put up a token resistance when informed that they have to keep buying and insuring more of it. If they know how bad the stuff is, they might at least leak their reluctance to the newspapers, send a quiet word to Congress, or something similar. If we don’t see some of the unrealized losses get forced onto someone’s books, they won’t be able to quantify what is going on and they won’t even try to put up token resistance.
Prof Bear has hypothesized that Fannie and Freddie are being set up to take over the Feds role in buying up the bonds filled with underwater loans. Despite all evidence to the contrary, these two organizations are at least quasi private (in structure if not in reality). Their leaders don’t want to lose money for the next decade. So lets get the fear of jingle mail in their souls. They need it.
Polly, would a spate of foreclosures RIGHT NOW be enough to wake up F&F? We’re just on the edge of that second peak on the Credit Suisse reset graph. This second peak is includes a lot of “Primes” who cashed-out into neg-ams (!) in order to buy toys.
Or do those walkouts needs to happen literally tomorrow…
I don’t know. Government agencies (and private companies) are constantly generating and reviewing reports about their results. The importance of the exact timing depends on the frequency, the immediacy and the general cycle time for those reports. I have no inside information on this. Nothing. But sooner is better than later. They need to see a trend.
I will remind everyone that I was firmly on the side of understanding the folks who are trying to slow down the crash to ultimate value and somewhat supportive of them conditional on the state and local governments making the hard decisions they need to make to survive in the world of the new normal. I am starting to see a few states acknowledge that they have to get tough on budgets. It is amazing. I don’t think I was really expecting it. I believe they are doing this because they are seeing real revenue drops. The information is there and because of their balanced budget requirements, they can’t ignore it. Amazing.
But I don’t believe in living in ignorance. The “mark to fanatasy” rules for the banks drives me crazy. They could have been allowed to use the mark to fantasy numbers for regulatory requirements but also been forced to make the real numbers public. And I think that Fannie and Freddie and FHA and the Fed need to see the real value of the stuff they are so blithely buying and holding. So even if we have to keep the crash crawling along, I want the people doing it to have their eyes firmly open. Open wide and knowing exactly what they are getting themselves in for.
Do we really even know the “real numbers” if we don’t force some sales to occur from the inventory pool?
“What if these walkaways had been bought by Fannie and Freddie and/or Le Fed? It’s the taxpayer that’s taking the hit, not Megabank….which is WHY Megabank is booking record profits. Privatize the profit, socialize the risk…Mission Accomplished. ”
Yep. The banks, while insolvent, won’t lose a dime, while we the taxpayers will be reamed. Such a system!
The main game is still hide the losses. Don’t send a NOD, don’t foreclose, pretend HAMP will work, hide stuff in the Fed Res, etc. Eventually the losses will have to be recognized and we’ll see just how honourable the thieves are.
It’s a game that can’t last.
He could have rented a better place for less when he bought it, too.
Now florida is a recourse state so you can really get stucco. Your underwater and the bank will obviously take the collateral and then go after your income. Nice.
What is the liability on HOA/maintinance in these situations. Might talk to mom about picking up a condo cash but want to understand the dangers.
An incentive to emigrate from the US?
Get that foreign passport while you can!
Ah, but who will take us?
Not Canada. I was there with my aunt this summer. We drove around and Jean refused to stop anywhere.
Seems that she’d gotten a heavy dose of Canadian Cold Shoulder on a previous trip. I’ll bet that her slight N’Yawk accent didn’t help matters.
I wonder what will be the first state or region in the US to start seriously talking about succession. For real, not like that jackass governor or whatever he is down in Texas.
Rather, it’s Absorption rather than Succession. California will be the first state to become non-existent for all practical purposes. They’ll be West Washington, D.C. Strike out on their own? That’d be the day.
Speaking of succession of old, I’d wager that one of the Dakotas would be the first to try it. A small population base and a ‘who gives a ****” attitude about the Dakotas by the rest of the nation might allow them to sneak out.
“What is the liability on HOA/maintinance in these situations.”
You and others with means will pay the f’d borrowers’ share of these costs.
El-Erian Says Retreat in Stocks Will Worsen as Economy Slumps.
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) — Mohamed A. El-Erian, whose firm runs the world’s biggest mutual fund, said the largest stock market decline in 11 months may worsen amid persistent U.S. joblessness and economic growth that trails analysts’ forecasts.
Investors have wrongly priced in an “orderly” withdrawal of stimulus measures, a rebound in bank lending and coordinated government policy to restore growth, the chief executive officer of Pacific Investment Management Co. wrote in a Bloomberg News column. That means Wall Street projections for gains in 2010 may prove incorrect and prices will slump, he said.
“Investors may well find that January’s global equity sell-off was just a precursor to a disappointing year for several asset classes,” El-Erian, 51, wrote. “The global financial crisis has undermined growth and job creation; it has clogged many of the pipes that allocate funds to productive uses; and it has rapidly taken public debt and the budget deficit to worrisome levels.”
“…it has clogged many of the pipes that allocate funds to productive uses”
Oh geez, pipes can be unclogged…it just takes time & equity, why in 10+ years or so, the HELOC consumer pipe will have at least enough liquidity to make possible at least x1 10 day Disney cruise & “outdoor” kitchen addition.
Does El-Erian have no knowlege of the PPT? He must be trying to sucker some shorts into the market so they can fuel the fire when the PPT jerks the market unexplicably higher.
Yes - it’s up up and away in the market.
I agree long term or Secular Bear Market
hardest thing to predict is what schemes the Government will impliment to restore Debt=wealth
President Obama Again Criticizes Trips to Las Vegas
Feb 02, 2010 ~ LasVegasnow.com
President Obama is catching heat from Nevada lawmakers and business leaders regarding his comments Tuesday criticizing trips to Las Vegas.
During the president’s town hall meeting in Nashua, New Hampshire, he discussed the need to curb spending during tough economic times. “When times are tough, you tighten your belts,” the president said. “You don’t go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage. You don’t blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.”
“…You don’t blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you’re trying to save…”(your startup company).”
Well actually, that worked for Fred Smith & FedEx right?
“…You don’t blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you’re trying to save…”(your startup company).”
Hwy,
I’m curious about this story. Could you elaborate?
They (Smith) were running out of cash for payroll, Fred took the management “team” to Vegas with their last $143,000 (apprx guess) wound up winning enough to make it through…the rest is FedEx HISstory. Think I saw this interview on 60 minutes years ago…
I’m agin’ here ya go:
“…Sparse initial volume wasn’t the only headache. Until the late ’70s, the postal monopoly stopped FedEx from delivering documents. Onerous airline regulations at first restricted it to flying tiny Falcon jets. By 1973, Smith was so desperate for cash that he flew to Las Vegas to play the blackjack tables. He wired the $27,000 he won back to FedEx.
Smith’s persistence paid off. By the late 1970s, America came to rely on FedEx’ ability to deliver goods overnight — be it spare parts, urgent business documents, or 11th-hour birthday gifts. Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER ) execs even discovered employees were using FedEx to deliver documents between floors of its Manhattan headquarters building because it was faster and more reliable than the interoffice mail.”
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_38/b3900031_mz072.htm
Thanks Hwy,
Kind of reminds of John DeLorean on some level. A desperate businessman trying to save his business.
Here is the roll call for the TARP: As you can see there was some bipartisan resistance here but most of these guys are bought and paid for or voting in their personal best interest.
Alabama: Sessions (R-AL), Nay Shelby (R-AL), Nay
Alaska: Murkowski (R-AK), Yea Stevens (R-AK), Yea
Arizona: Kyl (R-AZ), Yea McCain (R-AZ), Yea
Arkansas: Lincoln (D-AR), Yea Pryor (D-AR), Yea
California: Boxer (D-CA), Yea Feinstein (D-CA), Yea
Colorado: Allard (R-CO), Nay Salazar (D-CO), Yea
Connecticut: Dodd (D-CT), Yea Lieberman (ID-CT), Yea
Delaware: Biden (D-DE), Yea Carper (D-DE), Yea
Florida: Martinez (R-FL), Yea Nelson (D-FL), Nay
Georgia: Chambliss (R-GA), Yea Isakson (R-GA), Yea
Hawaii: Akaka (D-HI), Yea Inouye (D-HI), Yea
Idaho: Craig (R-ID), Yea Crapo (R-ID), Nay
Illinois: Durbin (D-IL), Yea Obama (D-IL), Yea
Indiana: Bayh (D-IN), Yea Lugar (R-IN), Yea distant relative here
Iowa: Grassley (R-IA), Yea Harkin (D-IA), Yea
Kansas: Brownback (R-KS), Nay Roberts (R-KS), Nay
Kentucky: Bunning (R-KY), Nay McConnell (R-KY), Yea
Louisiana: Landrieu (D-LA), Nay Vitter (R-LA), Nay
Maine: Collins (R-ME), Yea Snowe (R-ME), Yea
Maryland: Cardin (D-MD), Yea Mikulski (D-MD), Yea
Massachusetts: Kennedy (D-MA), Not Voting Kerry (D-MA), Yea
Michigan: Levin (D-MI), Yea Stabenow (D-MI), Nay
Minnesota: Coleman (R-MN), Yea Klobuchar (D-MN), Yea
Mississippi: Cochran (R-MS), Nay Wicker (R-MS), Nay
Missouri: Bond (R-MO), Yea McCaskill (D-MO), Yea
Montana: Baucus (D-MT), Yea Tester (D-MT), Nay
Nebraska: Hagel (R-NE), Yea Nelson (D-NE), Yea
Nevada: Ensign (R-NV), Yea Reid (D-NV), Yea
New Hampshire: Gregg (R-NH), Yea Sununu (R-NH), Yea
New Jersey: Lautenberg (D-NJ), Yea Menendez (D-NJ), Yea
New Mexico: Bingaman (D-NM), Yea Domenici (R-NM), Yea
New York: Clinton (D-NY), Yea Schumer (D-NY), Yea
North Carolina: Burr (R-NC), Yea Dole (R-NC), Nay
North Dakota: Conrad (D-ND), Yea Dorgan (D-ND), Nay
Ohio: Brown (D-OH), Yea Voinovich (R-OH), Yea
Oklahoma: Coburn (R-OK), Yea Inhofe (R-OK), Nay
Oregon: Smith (R-OR), Yea Wyden (D-OR), Nay
Pennsylvania: Casey (D-PA), Yea Specter (R-PA), Yea
Rhode Island: Reed (D-RI), Yea Whitehouse (D-RI), Yea
South Carolina: DeMint (R-SC), Nay Graham (R-SC), Yea
South Dakota: Johnson (D-SD), Nay Thune (R-SD), Yea
Tennessee: Alexander (R-TN), Yea Corker (R-TN), Yea
Texas: Cornyn (R-TX), Yea Hutchison (R-TX), Yea
Utah: Bennett (R-UT), Yea Hatch (R-UT), Yea
Vermont: Leahy (D-VT), Yea Sanders (I-VT), Nay
Virginia: Warner (R-VA), Yea Webb (D-VA), Yea
Washington: Cantwell (D-WA), Nay Murray (D-WA), Yea
West Virginia: Byrd (D-WV), Yea Rockefeller (D-WV), Yea
Wisconsin: Feingold (D-WI), Nay Kohl (D-WI), Yea
Wyoming: Barrasso (R-WY), Nay Enzi (R-WY), Nay
MY question about the TARP legislation still remains as noted above.
Was ANYONE in the US Congress THREATENED to vote for this bill or any other bill under THREAT and by WHO ?
This is some serious $hit …at least in my book.
That was answered at the top of today’s Bits Buckets.
Short answer: yes they were. With martial law.
Oh. By the bankers due to total economic collapse.
Honestly, if we let the banks fail and the FDIC bail out the depositors this could have all been over with by mid next year. Not saying we wouldn’t have gotten our hiar mussed. Maybe 20 or 30 billionares would lose everything tops!
Obama is telling the truth. Now, can he apply that wisdom to Washington.
Oh good god, do they not know what a “metaphor” is?
“You don’t blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.”
Whatever! This is so hollow. Everyone and every place from Vegas, to Toll Brothers, to Disney, to GM, to your state’s coffers is looking for the consumer’s cash. So, what use is it to bash the paragon of the hyper-consumer economy that BB and TTT and crew are trying so desperately to re-juice?
I do find it funny how they talk about “saving” on the one hand, and then go out and discourage savings and all honest, productive labor with low interest rates (and practically 0% on savings), easy-money loans, out-sourced jobs, price supports for housing and higher education, etc.
Why, it’s almost as if they want us to be in debt vs. saving! Such a “shock,” I tell yah!
Why, it’s almost as if they want us to be in debt vs. saving!
——————–
There’s no “almost” about it. It’s painfully obvious that they want us all in debt for the rest of our lives so that the asset holders (as opposed to worker bees) can become filthy rich, and so the financial wizards will have ready access to all kinds of cheap cash so they can gamble with what should be our savings.
“You don’t go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage.”
I beg your pardon! Buying a boat is a great alternative to paying a mortgage. Lay off the boaters, please. Geeze.
Are you still on your boating holiday, Skye?
Elanor,
No, getting ready for the next one. Pulled both engines from the boat to overhaul and am puttering at that now, waiting for the snow to melt. If business stays this slow, I’ll have all the time in the world to cruise.
Are Vegas lawmakers saying they want youngsters to lose their tuition money?
If he added “or real estate at prices above historic rent and salary ratios” I might start regaining some respect for him. I should add, with respect to the boat comment, that he supports loan modifications for those that took out mortgage loans for boats and other goodies, so he is being more than slightly dishonest, as this is in fact exactly the type of behavior his actions rather than words say is worth rewarding.
Hey he is right about ‘vegas’, although he should have said something like “Monte Carlo” to give his ‘people’ an excuse for being offended down in Nevada.
Fecaltime!
The truth is a lot of the stuff we do like vacations are unnecessary. Obama should be more aware than to attack a powerful business interest like Vegas.
At this point you want to promoting Vegas and helping them out. Hopefully by hyping it up as an attractive destination to foreign visitors.
Not sure how much hope there is of that.
He could always come to Anaheim and tell people not to blow their money on Disney too. That’s a complete waste.
Hell, going and staying in a hotel is a complete waste too. Why not just go camp out somewhere for 1/10 the cost?
MET.
A.
PHOR.
Obama is not LITERALLY talking about physically going to Vegas. He’s referring to speculation. Goodness, how many times have we at HBB said the bankers were “playing craps in Vegas.” It’s a MET. A. PHOR.
Like it’s some huge secret that *psst*whisper* people gamble and lose money in Vegas?
Actually, I’m not so sure that this is a metaphor. He is expressing a spending preference. People should stop buying boats and going on vacation if they have mortgage payments to make and kids to send to college. It works just fine as a literal remark. Now, I think Vegas and boats are being used as examples of frivolous spending in general. I’m sure there is a litarary term for using an example of a class of things rather than a description of the class. I don’t happen to know what it is, but I’m sure it is there.
Yes. Obama should be careful with his MET uh 4.
That was my point as well. Bringing the hammer today Oxide!
It would be like campaigning and saying ‘The US goverment can’t be like the goverment of California’, or Greece or something like that. Or saying we aren’t like the Russian’s.
It was a Bush like moment without the creepy back rub.
Obama to Vegas - “Drop dead!”
Here in the midlands of S.Carolina, ‘they’ say we’ve bottomed out.
Local home building at lowest in 18 years.
Builders: Market ‘bottomed out’ in 2009, may improve in ‘10
The State ~ 1-3-10
Home building in the Midlands hit an 18-year low in 2009 as a faltering economy slowed sales for the third straight year.
The 2,675 permits issued last year were down 22 percent from 2008 and off 57 percent from 2006’s peak.
But 2009 ended better as building spiked in its last three months - helped by a federal tax credit for first-time buyers that eliminated some excess inventory. December building permits rose 124 percent over the year earlier.
That’s giving builders some hope a turnaround is starting in 2010.
“The Columbia market has pretty much bottomed out, and we anticipate a slow improvement,” said Earl McLeod, chief executive of the Home Builders Association of Greater Columbia, which compiles the statistics.
Keeping hope alive keeps FBs from walking, a good thing for the rest of us.
Hope4Dopes ?
“Hope4Dopes?”
Lol, I love that.
Or how about Rope-a-Dope (courtesy of Muhammad Ali) whereby FBs are enticed to throw all their efforts into keeping up with house payments until they are financially exhausted.
Heh! Hope a Dope. I can hear Howard Cosell now: “And the Fed is curled up against the ropes, using its patented hope a dope style, as the exhausted FBs flail away, unaware they are only beating themselves…”
I was kinda hoping for a generalized hopelessness in the market that would bring an every-man-for-himself frenzy of price cutting.
“…that would bring an every-man-for-himself frenzy of price cutting”
“Patience Grasshopper…” …or…”Sometimes good things comes to those that…wait”
What a Coincidence, here too.
Research firm says new home construction in S. Florida has bottomed out
By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 6:08 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010
Construction of new homes in South Florida has bottomed out, according to a Metrostudy report that said inventory is so low that some developers are having to build a new house for each one sold.
The report, released by the housing research firm today, even predicts a shortage of vacant land in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties as developers start snatching up parcels to rebuild their supply.
“Builders are out shopping for lots right now and that’s only emerged in the past few months,” said Brad Hunter, chief economist with Metrostudy. “We will almost certainly experience lot shortages in much of South Florida in the next few years.”
Some of the sale activity in the fall is attributed to the first-time home buyer tax credit, which had people rushing to purchase homes before an original deadline of Nov. 30. The tax credit, which is now available to some current homeowners, has been extended to contracts signed through the end of April 30.
Hunter warned, however, that the pace of move-ins has been “sluggish.” People are still unsure about the economic recovery, may have trouble getting financing, and worry that home prices will continue to fall.
“We have those things gumming up the works,” he said.
3 COMMENTS
B.S. More lies from developers and real estate agents hoping to avoid bankruptcy. The amount of foreclosures are going to increase exponentially, and there is going to be a gluttony of excess houses on the market by the end of the year. You are going to be able to get a house for pennies on the dollar. Why in the world would any one want to buy something absurdly over priced from one of these greedy developers?
former broker
6:25 PM,
“but that the analysis overall is good news for South Florida’s economy, signaling an increase in job creation.”
What ?!?! Huh ?!?!?
Do these people have the right state ?
So a paid research firm took money to tell a client what they wanted to hear…..
Imagine that !
Heres to hoping the ever-worsening FL housing market takes out many, many, many more developers before its over.
Support your local ELF member.
6:58 PM,
“according to a Metrostudy report that said inventory is so low that some developers are having to build a new house for each one sold.”
umm…..you realize that’s the way it’s supposed to work right? The spec building we’ve seen over the past 10 years was fantasy that led to the financial system meltdown.
bob
5:59 AM,
“We will almost certainly experience lot shortages in much of South Florida in the next few years.”
Riiiight! That won’t be the problem in the next few years pal, but keep hope alive!
The only shortages will be in water, food, and ammo.
“Here in the midlands of S.Carolina, ‘they’ say we’ve bottomed out.”
The challenge the bottom callers face (at least around San Diego) is not so much the question of whether a bottom has reached; once you get close enough to zero activity and stay there for a while, the answer seems obvious. Rather the problem is the question of how long the market will stay on or bounce off the mat, only to soon return, before a real recovery ensues. I note that Japan has grappled with such issues for two decades now, with no clear evidence that the bottom has ended.
THe shape of our bubbles decline is almost identical to the shape of the Japanese bubble. Including the latest little bump.
It is kind of creepy. Japan is even in worse shape after decades of stimulis and borrowing. Now they are looking at monitization on a large enough scale to cause hyperinflation.
Just can’t wait till they Yen is toilet paper and the people can’t afford food/gas or companies to buy materials.
Now they are looking at monitization on a large enough scale to cause hyperinflation.
Got specifics on that? I believe there’s been talk of that for years, yet they continue with a flat CPI.
“THe shape of our bubbles decline is almost identical to the shape of the Japanese bubble. Including the latest little bump.”
It’s a dented hockey stick recovery…
Again, note that “improvement” = “housing prices will increase from overpriced to grossly overprices, which is where they need to be to keep ‘merika strong!”
Until we get past this defintion of improvement, there will be no real improvement!
Amen, Pondering!
Go Barry! Damn the torpedoes, anything to sink whispering Harry, I am all for!
President Obama Again Criticizes Trips to Las Vegas
Feb 02, 2010 Vegasnow.com
President Obama is catching heat from Nevada lawmakers and business leaders regarding his comments Tuesday criticizing trips to Las Vegas.
During the president’s town hall meeting in Nashua, New Hampshire, he discussed the need to curb spending during tough economic times. “When times are tough, you tighten your belts,” the president said. “You don’t go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage. You don’t blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.”
The president’s comments come nearly a year after he criticized companies that received federal money for taking corporate junkets to Las Vegas. “You can’t go take that trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on taxpayers’ dime,” he said at the time. Local business leaders say Nevada tourism suffered last year in part because companies canceled trips to Las Vegas in the wake of the president’s comments.
His statement Tuesday drew sharp criticism from Nevada lawmakers. “The President needs to lay off Las Vegas and stop making it the poster child for where people shouldn’t be spending their money,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat.
“Damn the torpedoes, anything to sink whispering (Stanford), I am all for!”
See how easy that is wmbz, Jib-Jab / ping-pong / Teeter-Totter
He could be talking to the middle class who still is paying $1300/year + for cable, still buying $1500 - $2500 bikes (just go online and check the dialogue), still taking their vacations on the coast, still buying themselves or their wives hundreds of dollars in expensive skin care products, (around here) still buying $25k to $50k vehicles new, still buying laptops for 10 year olds
…..but crying poor mouth and extending their hand to the government when their jobs disappear.
Perhaps he’s prepping us for that old fashioned concept of worrying about our own bad times.
Good grief! What 10-year-old needs a laptop?
How are they supposed to access their Facebook account?
With their iPad - duh.
My kids have them for school work. Laptops are as cheap as desktops anymore so fiscally no big decision.
“When times are tough, you tighten your belts,” the president said. “You don’t go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage. You don’t blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.”
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Nobody believes him. If he wants us to follow his words - he should practice what he preaches.
What saved the Obama family’s collective skin were Barack’s two books. Sold quite a few of ‘em, and that made the Obama family wealthy.
Nobody believes him
Speak for your self…next time.
You honestly believe he thinks “fiscal responsibility”, at the same time he’s putting out a budget with insane deficit projects - even while predicting unlikely rosy years ahead (4+GDP growth per year)?
If so - you’re right perhaps I should indeed change my wording to be “nobody sensible believes him”.
America’s popular news media don’t get high marks for economics understanding. Little has been said about the World Economic Forum in Davos - - Germany’s Der Speigel update:
“Many countries have started to see a rebound from last year’s economic recession. But will it last? Economists at the World Economic Forum in Davos warn that paying down massive public debt will be “very, very painful.” Deep spending cuts and significant tax hikes may be unavoidable”.
“For those now in their 30s, Kenneth Rogoff has bad news. “It will be terrible for you,” the Harvard University economics professor told a young German at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “Germany’s debt is exploding, the population is aging,” he said. “And to be honest, I think your country is going to have average growth of just 1 percent in the coming years.”
Rogoff went on to say that, should Germany wish to begin making inroads into its mountain of debt, there is no way around strict savings measures and significant tax increases. “It will be very, very painful,” Rogoff said, adding that it will take at least a decade, and possibly many more, for Germany to pay down its debt.
The bottom line, here, not only for Germany but for the U.S. as well is - the brakes must be applied to borrowing and money creation and taxes raised sharply. Are we ready for that?
…and Germany is one of those places that is considered financially stable when compared to most other countries.
I guess that all means “retirement” age moves to at least 70, no more 3-4-5 weeks of mandatory “vacation” maybe every country will have to have a VAT tax to get at the underground tax dollars.
But the Germans may actually do some practical things to spread the pain around and get it over with. Here, we’ll probably just keep extending and pretending.
Well, you can’t expect the elite to take their lumps in the US. Why, they’ll just move to another country, right? Just like our top bankers will pack up and move to where they’ll make one-tenth as much income (ie the rest of the world).
‘“For those now in their 30s, Kenneth Rogoff has bad news. “It will be terrible for you,”’
Thank heavens we are not running out of dismal scientists!
“Germany’s debt is exploding, the population is aging,”
Is it soup yet?
“Rogoff said, adding that it will take at least a decade, and possibly many more, for Germany to pay down its debt.”
Replace ‘decade’ with ‘century’ for most of the Western world. If they can get ‘er done in a decade or two, they’ll rule the financial world.
All this economic news, if coming true, will accelerate the birth dearth. A decade or more of economic malaise in Germany, 40% unemployment in Spain.
As incomes and benefits drop, the young people struggling to stay in middle class in their 20s will realize that postponing families is more what they have to do to stay afloat.
Only the lucky ones who inherit wealth or the welfare class and government employees will start families at the rate things are going.
That shows a remarkable ignorance of European culture. In most countries having children who will take care of you when you are older, is the fall back position in hard times. If Europeans think their welfare states are going to collapse, they will increase the number of children they have. Especailly if they can do it while their contries are still paying people huge bonuses for having children and allowing parents to split as much as 2 or three years at nearly full pay for parental leave.
polly, do you know of any real examples of this occurring in an industrialized/westernized society during periods of economic hardship?
So let me get this straight. Birthrates are plummeting in Europe, so that means Europeans think their social welfare programs are sound so they won’t need many kids to support them in old age. And their collective judgment must be correct, so the government programs are actuarially sound. Is this your argument?
No, my argument is that Europeans have been having many fewer kids because they trust the government to take care of them in their old age. If they stop trusting that this will happen by seeing that their countries are going to be hopelessly broke in 20 to 30 years, they will take advantage of the programs that still exist and that make it pretty cheap to have kids to produce some progeny to take care of them in the future.
It is outrageously expensive to have a child in the US because you need health insurance, more space (by peer pressure if not by actual need), save for college, etc. And culturally, the middle class doesn’t expect junior to take in mom and dad when they get old, cranky, and sick. In Europe, the current cost of having a kid is low. And the cultural leaning to multigenerational households is much higher. So, kids are cheap and they might very well take care of you when you get old and sick.
Since it would raise the cost to the country of providing for the kids, this pattern might even accellerate a welfare state crisis. However, that is always a problem with tragedy of the commons economic situations. Not very surprising.
Well, I think Bill’s point was that the present needs of those Europeans of child-bearing age are going to take precedence over planning for when they get older. It makes sense to me. If you think otherwise, I’d like to know your fertility and population predictions, and whether you’re going to retract the “remarkable ignorance” comment if you’re wrong.
My experience during the 5 years I lived in Germany was that children were looked down upon. Adults with children in tow were met with frowns. The vibe I got from German adults in the Frankfurt area was that children are annoying, useless and should be avoided at all costs.
Granted, my memories are from when I was a teen and are 20 years old, but I suspect a lot of the culture polly is referencing has been lost. Certainly in the urban areas.
I have an accountant who’s from Frankfurt. She seems to have that demeanor as well.
MrsWeezer
you got that right. This was a main reason we left Germany (Stuttgart area= “Schwaben”) 15 years ago, never to return.
What I hear these days from there it hasn’t changed much.
All is this fine and dandy, everyone, provided that Europe’s population base remains largely Christian.
But what if it doesn’t? What then?
Concur with Mrs. Wheezer.
My family is from Austria, but they have a similar culture. They are not nearly as “child-friendly” as the U.S. Not by a long shot. Over there, children are expected to be seen, not heard; and they are expected to be assets (work, be responsible, pleasant, etc.), not liabilities (lazy, unable/unwilling to contribute to the household, etc.).
“In Europe, the current cost of having a kid is low.”
Are there any Muslims in Europe?
are you kidding me?
tons
Israel/sweeden davis cup match last year was played in a completely empty arena. Malsmo (sp?) couldn’t guaranteee security.
So, we’re going to have increased saving and increased taxes in a world with government supports on housing prices (and other prices) and vanishing jobs?
Yeah, that’ll work out great! Too bad for me that I’m in the target group of doom (30’s)… and this is in Germany, a nation that is probably sane financially compared to the US. Wonderful!
By that, I mean that the forecast of Doom is for Germany (a relatively conservative nation financially), not that I’m in Germany: I’m still in Maryland, land of the Eternal Housing Bubble.
And a projected $600 million state budget shortfall.
Is that the right number? They were talking about it on the radio this morning. Something about the Mongomery County executive warning that our great schools would be a thing of the past if the state tried to balance the books on the backs of the counties….
What percentage of total revenue is $600 million?
ADP Says U.S. Companies Cut Estimated 22,000 Jobs (Update3)
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) — Companies in the U.S. cut an estimated 22,000 jobs in January, in line with forecasts, according to data from a private report based on payrolls.
The drop was the smallest in two years and followed a revised 61,000 decrease the prior month, data from ADP Employer Services showed today. ADP figures overstated the Labor Department’s estimate of private payroll losses by 500,000 in the six months to December.
The fastest pace of growth in six years last quarter means the economy may be poised to add jobs as companies restock shelves to keep pace with rising demand. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News anticipate the government’s report Feb. 5 will show the U.S. created jobs in January for the second time in the past three months.
US planned job cuts rise to 5-mth high in January ~ Feb 3, 2010
NEW YORK, Feb 3 (Reuters) - The number of planned layoffs at U.S. companies rose to the highest level in five months in January, led by the retail and telecommunications sectors, a report on Wednesday showed.
Employers announced 71,482 planned job cuts last month, up 59 percent from December and the most monthly job cuts since August, according to the report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc, a global outplacement consultancy.
“The increase in January is not necessarily a sign of a recession relapse. It is not uncommon to see a surge in job-cut announcements to begin the year,” said John Challenger, chief executive of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, in a statement.
Challenger is expectationally challenged.
They* sure are running a tight formation lately.
*corpo-state mouthpieces
Famous last words: “Challenger, go with throttle-up”.
“Roger, go with throttle-up.”
The unemployment rate might just peak at 12% this time. That second derivative is still negative and could see the losses turn to gains by the fall.
Still with the slow rate of job creation and epoch number of people are going to fall into that discouraged category.
Indeed, just like the “jobless recoveries” that get weaker each time, I expect the number of people who have fallen off the official unemployment numbers will continue to grow larger with time even if the reported unemployment number peaks. The Powers That Be will crow about this victory while laughing at the many folks who will never really be able to work again thanks to the lack of jobs.
Oh goody! This is “fewer than expected”, right? Maybe we can have a party today - one with an Obama speech.
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg Multimedia) — The U.S. may lose 824,000 jobs when the government releases its annual revision to employment data on Feb. 5, showing the labor market was in worse shape during the recession than known at the time.
Just think how much better year over year comparisons will look after they slip this in.
I expect the annual revision will be a whopper.
..with cheese.
“Companies in the U.S. cut an estimated 22,000 jobs in January, in line with forecasts, according to data from a private report based on payrolls.”
[snip]
“Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News anticipate the government’s report Feb. 5 will show the U.S. created jobs in January for the second time in the past three months.”
Wait…huh?
< From a letter in the Wall St. Journal.
“Halting borrowing for current consumption would inflict economic pain, but who better to bear it than the spenders and borrowers who enjoyed the party? Who can defend the morality of passing on the pain which must eventually be borne by our children and grandchildren?
“It is possible to control borrowing, but this will only happen when politicians believe their re-election is threatened more by excessive borrowing than by excessive spending.”
~Thomas E. Slager - Edwardsburg, Mich.
~ Only when politicians think the people will throw them out of office if they continue to run the country into deeper debt will they stop the borrowing/spending spree.
Sadly, the signal we’re sending is - - “Screw posterity. Borrow ’til the cows come home if it will prevent me from having to suffer pain from the collapse of the economic bubble.”
So far, the kids and grandkids aren’t fully aware of what we’re doing to them.
I’ve given up on this collectively. But here is my concern: if I try to offset it for my own kids, in what do I hold the savings?
I’d get jumped on if I told you to hold the precious.
This might explain the strange emphasis on healthcare. Go after a major wedge issue to get everyone lined up and taking sides on that.
Motivate the left/right troops in core districts and distract people from the fact that all those incumbants really gave us some nasty AIDS (Aquired Income Deficiency Syndrome).
Some heads change but keeps us from any major shift in party philosophy.
Keep you from having to take sides against the big contributors who can buy big media.
I don’t know who to blame more for this. Loose money democrats or big money republicans.
Clipped from ~ NYT ~ 1-3-10
New research suggests that when a home’s value falls below 75 percent of the amount owed on the mortgage, the owner starts to think hard about walking away, even if he or she has the money to keep paying….
by the third quarter of 2009, an estimated 4.5 million homeowners had reached the critical threshold, with their home’s value dropping below 75 percent of the mortgage balance.
They are stretched, aggrieved and restless. With figures released last week showing that the real estate market was stalling again, their numbers are now projected to climb to a peak of 5.1 million by June — about 10 percent of all Americans with mortgages.
“They are stretched, aggrieved and restless.”
Duration, duration, duration.
Cue Louis Armstrong: “We’ve got all - the time - in the world”
“about 10 percent of all Americans with mortgages.”
-this number sounds conservative to me. With all of the HELOC, no-doc, refi-blitz, trade-up, and specuvesting that went on the number has got to be higher. I am guessing more like 40-50%, which is why this problem is much bigger than any other economic erosion story out there. The housing bubble collapse is the whole story - without it all of the other scams would still be intact from Madoff to AIG to Fannie to Mozillo. The housing bubble brought the whole world down. The housing bubble was the most dangerous, precarious, reckless finacial situation America (the World) had ever been put in. Our government knowingly allowed the housing bubble to happen. Ben noticed it, I noticed it, the blog grew like a small weed on an abandoned subdivision lot as people took notice (now a slightly larger random weed that is still hardly noticed). Denial still reigns, but at least we are on top of the REAL STORY. Good job, everybody.
Amen!
Thakxs Mr. Bear, Mr. Cole wanted to wear his HBB shirt to school tomorrow…now I have to reconsider…Oh, and even some “tumbleweeds” like Losty, saw the letters: POISON written on the bottle
“The housing bubble collapse is the whole story - without it all of the other scams would still be intact from Madoff to AIG to Fannie to Mozillo. The housing bubble brought the whole world down. The housing bubble was the most dangerous, precarious, reckless finacial situation America (the World) had ever been put in. Our government knowingly allowed the housing bubble to happen. Ben noticed it, I noticed it, the blog grew like a small weed on an abandoned subdivision lot as people took notice (now a slightly larger random weed that is still hardly noticed). Denial still reigns, but at least we are on top of the REAL STORY. Good job, everybody.”
Ben Jones:
Hip Hip Hooray!
(I love the way these “revelations” lead me to quench my thirst ’bout this time of day, oh Garçon…)
“…their numbers are now projected to climb to a peak of 5.1 million by June — about 10 percent of all Americans with mortgages.”
Does someone actually estimate numbers like this in a credible manner, or is the ‘projection’ merely a MSM fabrication? I would think the snowballing effect of millions of people with underwater mortgages comparing notes and considering whether they want to keep making crushingly-high
taxmortgage payments to support Wall Street’s executive bonus pool might make the timing and size of the peak a bit hard to predict. I am interested in any evidence someone could present that they did not pull that number out of their…ask me no more questions, I’ll tell no more lies…“They are stretched, aggrieved and restless”
Fodder Recruits for the “TrueAnger™” PeeParty tea toaddlers
Ross Perot is not dead! Ross Perot is not dead! Ross Perot is not dead!
How to spell out sucker with a few digits. This is for an Archie Bunker house about 7 or 8 blocks from me in Forest Hills, Queens, at Nansen and 71st Ave.
6/8/2007
$690,000
10/24/1997
$190,000
I hear ya joe 2 fam in Sunnyside went from under $350 in 99 to $749 i know a few who bought at over $700K
There is no way to pay the mortgage on these unless you have a 3rd Illegal apartment..and guess what? the local handyman was super busy the last 2 years just doing that.
Yeah, I’ve looked over your way, too, DJ. It’s nuts. But when the certainty seeps in that prices will be heading south for LONG time and that there will be no chance at turning a profit for, say, 15 years, we can hope some sanity returns. Last I read, NYC is leading the pack down as the decline slows in other places where the bubble popped first.
Not to mention the Lhaus and Hunters point right near the 7 train, LIRR Pulaski bridge and the entrance to the midtown tunnel
yup 70% sold yet no one lives there..i guess management keeps some lights on a timer in some of the apartments to make it “look” lived in.
http://www.lhauslic.com/
http://hunterspointcondos.com/home
And even worse they got a 10-15 year RE tax abatement..so what happens when it gets closer to the “ownerz” time to pay Full taxes???? Can you say severe price drop.
Have you seen all the stuff that’s been sprouting around the Queensboro Plaza subway stop?
Yea, I really want to walk home at midnight past a strip club and all the other attractive “night life” that congregates there. Haven’t checked lately, but they were asking $600,000 plus for apartments there.
Tax abatement expiration will be a real shock for these folks. But in the shorter term I’d be concerned about investors not paying their common charges. Think that will take these down sooner, as assessments raise costs and banks find the buildings less desirable to finance.
At least Vernon Blvd in Hunter’s Point has a bit of a feel of a neighborhood.
FINALLY…Real reporting!!!!!!!!!!
—————————————————
COURIC FACES PAY CUT; DEEP LAYOFFS HIT CBSNEWS
Wed Feb 03 2010 09:11:21 ET
CBSNEWS anchorwoman and 60 MINUTES contributor Katie Couric faces a dramatic pay cut at the network, insiders tell the DRUDGE REPORT.
CBS boss Les Moonves is determined to save money and trim expenses — from top to bottom — at the former crown jewel of broadcasting.
Couric, the highest paid TV news personality in history, commands over $14 million a year, plus bumps for non-EVENING NEWS appearances.
But her salary is now in the direct line of fire, network insiders explain, and a populist backlash against Couric’s cash is said to be forming inside the newsroom.
“She makes enough to pay 200 news reporters $75,000 a year!” demands a veteran producer. “It’s complete insanity.”
The angry source continues: “We report with great enthusiasm how much bankers are making, how it is out of step with reality during a recession. We’ll look at Katie!”
MORE
Couric’s $300,000 a week paycheck has become the obsession of disgruntled CBS staff, just as deep layoffs rock the fishbowl.
Dozens of employees — including staff members in D.C., San Francisco, Miami, London, Los Angeles and Moscow — are being let go, the NEW YORK OBSERVER reports.
Couric’s current CBS contract expires next year.
Developing…
It’s probably all my fault, for never watching teevee news.
“She makes enough to pay 200 news reporters $75,000 a year!” demands a veteran producer. “It’s complete insanity.”
Does CBS own a Major League Sports team with some “Star” athletes?
I wonder how long it will be before this spills over into sports and entertainment?
Specifically, I’m thinking of baseball, basketball, and football players.
Yes, time for the silly star system to crumble of its own weight. Whether it’s in media, sports or finance. I wonder how many reporters CBS does have at 75K. Where I work we have a slew of such people, and no stars at Katie’s level. These are the people who actually dig out the news you read. But there were twice as many foot soldiers a decade ago.
Hey joe click on my handle…I am working now at an internet radio station…pt but at least its fun
Cool site, good luck with that radio broadcast aNYCdj, love the music!
Glad you found a new gig, aNYCdj.
It’s great that you found something you enjoy.
Well, to be very fair, I bet it costs a heck of a lot more than just salary to keep an investigative reporter in the field, but this is a trend (deciding that one “star” is not, in reality, worth scores of other people who actually get a businesses work done) that needs to spread through out US culture.
We could employ a lot more people and get a lot more done with a little salary readjusting at the top of most organizations.
Sounds like “Moneyball” to me.
Not ever going to happen as long as the sheep, er, people pay to see their favorite cult of personality. That’s who is really keeping those paychecks so high.
They don’t just pull those paychecks out of thin air, ya know.
Lets hope not very long ….and then they are forced by disgruntled fans to lower ticket prices too.
Bubba,
I don’t watch much NBA action but the parts I have seen have shown many empty seats in the background. I was offered two lower bowl seats to watch the GS Warriors a few weeks ago, gratis. No thanks, not worth the effort to me (plus the Warriors absolutely suck).
Why pick on Katie? What about every bank or insurance CEO?
I like Katie…she’d didn’t spend 10 minutes asking lil’ Opie, the “Non-Hawaiian” …about why he doesn’t wear an American pin on his lapel.
Rush pulls down 5 time what Couric does but I hear very few complain about it. It helps that he is the spiritual leader of the republican party. He’s probably worth twice that.
Check some past threads. Plenty of folks complaining about it.
“She makes enough to pay 200 news reporters $75,000 a year!”
Didn’t I just comment on this the other day: Cut Katie, let the other 99 schmoes keep their jobs, ratings go up…
I was off by a hundred or so schmoes.
Katie doesn’t care about her coming network demotion, she’s angling for a career as a professional dancer.
Katie busts a move:
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/5228/katiietriestobustamove.jpg
Look for her on “Dancing With the Stars (and ex-anchors)”
Right on Katie!
Remind me again why she gets less than Rash Limpbaughs 400 million $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$? Oh, that’s right…he’s “you don’t have to think” because he’s right 99.8% of the time!
yeah well at least he won a a dance contest.
Katie looks like she taking a wee at a public lavatory.
not kewl at all.
OMG Somebody print another trillion quick!
Palm Beach School District considering layoffs due to budget woes; 1,600 jobs at risk
By Kevin D. Thompson
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 10:03 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010
Due to an expected dramatic reduction in stimulus money at the end of the next fiscal year, the Palm Beach County school district is giving “serious” consideration to employee layoffs.
The district said 1,600 non-instructional jobs are paid by stimulus money. In recent years, the state budget has declined by 11 percent and dropped from $73.6 billion for 2006-07 to 66.5 billion for 2009-10.
In a released issued Tuesday night, the district said, “there are a growing number of American citizens, via the Tea Party movement, who are committed to cutting government spending and taxes.”
“unexpected”
Sounds like the inevitable is about to be “un-delayed”.
Wait, its not just happening in FL,CA, and NV?
Ameica’s New Housing Crisis Capitals
http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/108741/americas-new-housing-crisis-capitals.html?mod=realestate-buy
Mmm. The disease is moving up the peninsula and headed twords the heart of the city.
I’d guess we are seeing the leading edge of the Alt A crisis.
Will get deeper and deeper near the coast.
This was a perfect short given the collapse of the construction work force…
Western Union Co. (WU) fourth-quarter earnings fell 6.6% as the company was pessimistic about business this year.
I noticed WU is moving away from the retail market and into international finance transfers.
TM stock has been a bummer. My automatic trade took place today and the stock has been continuing its drop. The post on unemployment looks bad above. But for me, I have lots of liquidity now.
I am considering buying some Toyota stock while the company is taking its lumps. We own 2 Toyotas and have previously owned 3 others. All very reliable cars that keep going and going. Despite the current debacle which was ignored for too long before management took action, I expect the company has learned its lesson and will someday return to its long-time high standards.
Have been hearing that Hyundai may take over Toyota’s top rating some day soon though.
FEAR RULES! …FEAR, RUN! …FEAR Is TRUTH!
Elanor, Hwy’s rule for buying stock when their is FEAR:
TOYOTA can’t die! TOYOTA can’t die! TOYOTA can’t die!
I haven’t found Toyotas to be anymore reliable than the Fords I have owned, and Fords were cheaper. That may be about to change- maybe you can get a Toyota for a song when they go back on the market. And maybe you should wait to buy the stock when it drops even further to $60/share, which it likely will.
Toyota’s reliability went down over the past decade while their prices have gone up.
Toyota stopped being worth buying when their prices went up in the 1990s and they started assembly here while paying crap wages.
Sorry all you necon Randians, you can’t blame this one on the unions.
“…and they started assembly here while paying crap wages.”
Three cheers for Shelby’s Corker McConnell!
Detroit is crap!
Detroit is crap!
Detroit is crap!
Hyundai/Honda/KIA/Nissan/Toyota = “Quaker Oats”
Believe it or not, Hyundai is about to kick everyone’s butt.
Total sales? Nope. Price to performance superiority? Yep.
“Believe it or not, Hyundai is about to kick everyone’s butt.”
Yeah, well in their first introduction of vehicles to America they “forgot” to use a stainless steel cotter pin on the brake pedal linkage…not that big a deal I guess.
I’d forgot about that!
Good call.
DinOr,
In yesterday’s bits, you mentioned having trouble loading SP3 and getting an “access denied” error. I had a similar problem, and it was due to one of the folders that the install program was trying to place a file into; the folder didn’t have enough access privileges. The install (attempt) should leave a log file at C:\Windows\svcpack.log. That should tell you at what point (or folder) access is being denied. You can then go in and change the privileges to allow access (right-click on the folder, then Properties, then click the Security tab, then assign full control for everyone to the folder). Once I did that, the install went without a hitch. Hope this helps, or at least gets you headed in the right direction.
Good advice, but the key problem was they were trying to do an unattended install.
You HAVE to babysit SP3. HAVE to. It requires a lot of manual acknowledgments. And you have to make sure your AV, screen saver and ALL other programs are shut down, or things can and will go weird.
Greetings, HBBers, from Western Colorado, where I’m renting an adobe style house on 35 acres next to Colorado National Monument with no neighbors except cool redrock and Harrier hawks and juniper trees.
5 miles in on dirt roads. The house has floor to ceiling windows framing some cool rock spires. Fairly new and really nice. I can hike to Rattlesnake Canyon, which has the most arches per square mile next to Arches National Park.
A house down the road in the same subdivision (which has 8 houses total) is on the market for 2 mil (good luck with that). I’m paying $1200 which includes everything but the electricity. Can have my dog pack. Six month lease, then I can move to Montana for the summer.
Now then, why again does renting suck? Anyone???
Where ’bouts in MT Losty?
Wherever the lounging around under shady trees by a creek is good. Maybe the Jefferson River, NE of Dillon.
Hey, is the Quack Quack Cafe still there?
Think so, but last time I flew thru didn’t have time to stop…
Furnished, too, even the dishes and a cool BBQ (one of them all stainless things that work just like the old round barrel types).
I was in that part of the country for a visit last spring. Mighty pretty scenery, and Grand Junction is nearby when you want a dose of “civilization”. It wouldn’t be a bad spot for year-round living.
It really is beautiful, Elanor, and the only reason I got so lucky was that the previous folks kept getting stuck in here cause of the heavy snows (really bad this year) and left. I have a 4X4, but for me, getting stuck is high adventure. But I’m easily entertained…
“…getting stuck is high adventure.”
Not to mention all the wonderful peoples you meet trying to get unstuck!
“…then I can move to Montana for the summer.”…and raise rabbits ?
Lost in Utah: Bunnies. The bunnies were screaming.
Hannibal Lecter: They were slaughtering the spring bunnies?
Lost in Utah: And they were screaming.
Run Losty, Run
Sheesh..I the love the old movies.
Mikey, I used to have a bunny. It chased my dogs around the yard and I ended up giving it to a junkyard. I go visit him once in awhile, he lives at Tom Tom’s Volkswagen Museum in Moab, but it’s really just a junkyard. Tom got his VW junkyard designated a museum so he could get around the zoning. The bunny’s name is Chrysanthylfax (sp?). Sounds all fancy, but he’s really just a junkyard bunny.
“Sounds all fancy, but he’s really just a junkyard bunny.”
Junkyard Bunny with TEETH, don’t forget they have TEETH!
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rebnrnGLKh0
And meaner than a junkyard dog, by the sound of it.
A game warden and I once saved a newborn fawn whose mom was killed by a car.
We took her to a state park near my mom’s home and we pawned her off our state park ranger buddies. I kinda helped raise her.
When she was good and entertained the tourists…she was the game warden’s and rangers wonderful pet deer.
When she was bad and ate the tourists cigarettes and other stuff…she was always known as mikey’s deer.
Mikey, that’s VERY cool. My g’pa was a game warden and I grew up with abandonded critters of all kinds. My fav was a little black bear - until it grew up. That little guy LOVED chocolate (which I hate) and we made a good pair (until he grew up, did I mention that?).
“…and we made a good pair (until he grew up, did I mention that?)”
How does that relate to your last date?
Run Hwy,…RUN!
It is good to hear from you LIU. Stay safe.
Yes, it’s good to hear that you’re doing fine, Lost.
Thanks,
Now then, why again does renting suck? Anyone???
———————-
LOL!
Sounds like you got another great deal, Losty. Congratulations!
Yesterday was primary election day in Illinois. The governor’s race as of this morning was still too close to call on both Dem and Repub sides. Incumbent Pat Quinn (Dem) is hanging on by his fingernails over challenger Dan Hynes, the state comptroller. A crowded Repub field has two candidates in the lead with around 20% of the vote apiece.
The widely reviled Todd Stroger (aka Urkel, he of the county tax hike making Chicago #1 nationwide in sales tax rate) came in dead last in the Democratic primary for Cook County Board president. Toni Preckwinkle won the Dem primary handily with 50% of the vote. I predict she will kick Repub. Roger Keats’ butt in the general election. I made myself get to the polls on a snowy evening despite my midwinter blahs/post-vacation jet lag/post-Olygal news malaise to vote for Preckwinkle. A very smart, articulate and classy lady with a fun name.
Surprisingly, it looks like the vast majority of local tax and bond referenda in various communities were passed by the voters. I figured that in the current economy, the last thing people wanted was a tax hike. It appears that when it comes to local infrastructure and schools, taxes are seen as necessary, despite the financial pain. Huh.
Maybe the losers can particpate in Trump’s reality show.
However, a proposal to spend $174 million renovating our local high school was defeated by a large margin. Perhaps it’s only the smaller spending proposals that voters like. It didn’t help that the high school’s former principal spoke out against the plan either.
It didn’t help that the high school’s former principal spoke out against the plan either
I like that ex-principal’s honesty.
The widely reviled Todd Stroger (aka Urkel, he of the county tax hike making Chicago #1 nationwide in sales tax rate) came in dead last in the Democratic primary for Cook County Board president.
Hurrah!
Stroger is the worst ever. Now if we could only get rid of his buddy Da Mayor, too …
Be careful what you wish for. I shudder to think who in Chicago politics might replace him.
Some of those communities got lucky. The Mokena school district didn’t pass their bond, and as a result, will be cutting basically all of their extra-curriculars.
Haven’t upped the taxes since ‘76, and unwilling to save the district after the state unexpectedly cut half their funding (from 3.8M to 1.9M). Nice!
Toni Preckwinkle won the Dem primary handily with 50% of the vote.
In real life, I have a funny last name like Toni’s. Which means that I’d have to vote for her too.
Who said anything about funny names? “Fun” is what I wrote and what I meant. Just try saying “Preckwinkle” out loud. Now, don’t you feel better already? I sure do!
So Slim, is your last name really similar to Preckwinkle?
No, but someone else with the same last name told me that, while he was in Marines boot camp, the drill instructor called him Rattlesnake.
I voted too! Asked for the Dem’s ballot so I could do my part to “kick the bums out”. We had no spending referendums on our ballots, however.
On China, Obama says US must address currency rates.
Feb 3, 2010
WASHINGTON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Wednesday China and Asia would be a huge market for U.S. exports going forward but it would be important to address currency rates to ensure American goods were not facing a disadvantage.
“One of the challenges that we’ve got to address internationally is currency rates and how they match up to make sure that our … goods are not artificially inflated in price and their goods are artificially deflated in price,” Obama told senators from his Democratic party.
“That puts us at a huge competitive disadvantage.”
Did anyone mention to Obama that all our goods are made in China? We will be selling American brands that are manufactured in China back to the Chinese. How dumb does the president think everyone else is?
“How dumb does the president think everyone else is?”
Dumb enough for American’s to keep licking the feet of the lil’ commie leaders feet!
For example:
Peter Navarro: China’s cold war on our economy:
By PETER NAVARRO
UC Irvine business professor, author of “The Coming China Wars.”
“…Make no mistake about this: The clear target of China’s cyberattacks was any type of corporate intellectual property that might give Chinese enterprises yet another competitive edge over their American counterparts – from new designs and technologies to client lists, marketing strategies, industrial processes and trade secrets. Indeed, some of the most valuable assets of American businesses reside precisely in the intellectual property created by the inspiration, perspiration, and significant research and development expenditures these businesses have made.”
This is despite repeated warnings from the U.S.-China Commission that China runs the biggest and most aggressive spy operation in the world against the U.S. military.
“…Chinese industrial espionage is hardly new, either. A shadow network of Chinese-American citizens, Chinese nationals on work visas, Chinese students and tourists and visiting executives, diplomats, and dignitaries regularly troll for information and for anything that can be copied or reverse-engineered at venues ranging from trade fairs and university labs to corporate offices.”
“…However, as with other forms of counterfeiting, piracy, and industrial espionage that run rampant both in China and from China, Beijing chooses not to crack down because these activities benefit China’s economy.
Given that the Chinese government is unlikely to unilaterally stop its cyberattacks, the U.S. government should take the lead in declaring such attacks to be what they are: acts of war. The obvious official policy response should be to deny any country access to U.S. markets that engages in such warfare.
Not only are our goods made in, China, but they are also artificially inflated when sold to us.
How’s that for some BOHICA?
Gee, it’s almost as if China doesn’t like us? Who could have knowed?
Well would you have any respect for a sucker? Me neither.
“it would be important to address currency rates to ensure American goods were not facing a disadvantage.”
I don’t think Obama really needs worry about this. The next ten years of planned deficits and borrowing to accomplish them should bring the greenback in line with the yuan.
US Government appears to be all over the Toyota recall issue - far more vocal than they’ve ever been for the countless US car mfg problems that killed lots more drivers than Toyota to-date. I have to believe GM, Ford et al are ultimately behind this campaign.
Owners Shouldn’t Drive Recalled Toyotas, LaHood Says
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) –Owners of vehicles that Toyota Motor Corp. has recalled for accelerator-pedal defects should “stop driving” them and bring them to a Toyota dealer for repair, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said.
“We need to fix the problem so people don’t have to worry about disengaging the engine or slamming the brakes on or put it in neutral,” LaHood said today at a House Appropriations panel hearing in response to questions from a lawmaker. “If anybody owns of these vehicles, stop driving it and take it to a Toyota dealer.”
Toyota spokesman Ed Lewis couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Greiling Keane in Washington at agreilingkea@bloomberg.net
___________________
Oldsters might remember Johnny Carson had a prop on his desk - a Pinto cigarette lighter, with flame coming from the gas tank when you lit it.
Just another example of the rapidly-growing pace of protectionism. It’s a natural byproduct of economic distress - at all levels - personal, community, and national.
IMO there’s a very good chance we’ll end up in full-scale economy-driven war within about 15 years. It’s happened before many times.
LOL, Don’tKnow. We had a Pinto when I was in highschool. My dad, who worked for Ford in Detroit, traded in our perfectly wonderful Maverick for a Pinto. The only lemon I’ve ever driven. Lasted less than a year. Truly awful car.
“Maverick for a Pinto”
I would seriously consider a Yugo if the options were:
Edsel / Maverick / Pinto
Naw, just kidding …even Fords Crap was better then communist made!
The 1970s were truly the low point for US cars.
Pinto. Vega. Monza. Mustang II. Thunderbird.
It was as if they were deliberately making ugly cars that were mechanical crap as well.
Vega, production version, yes…however, I had a couple of “innovative” American young classmates that put a Chevy 350 ci in the Vega…Oh, MY!
The 1970’s were the nadir - or is that the Nader - of car design.
Maverick - great car.
“Oldsters might remember Johnny Carson had a prop on his desk - a Pinto cigarette lighter, with flame coming from the gas tank when you lit it.”
Humor must have been lost on Johnny later in life, considering his son’s death by automobile.
$2 Trillion in Tax Hikes Is Good for the Economy?
3 Feb 2010 CNBC
How in the world can Team Obama say that they’re focused laser-like on jobs and economic growth, and at the same time, propose $2 trillion worth of tax hikes for successful investors, entrepreneurs, businesses, banks, and almost anything else that moves?
Why in the world would you jack up the top rate for the one percent of small business owners who actually create 45% of small business incomes? I don’t get it. And then, turn around and use $30 billion dollars of TARP money to give them loans? Huh? Tax them and then lend to them? Again, I just don’t get it.
Besides the anti-incentive effect of taxing the most successful, the Obama budget reduces their deductions, and then limits those even available for deductions all the way down to the 28% bracket. It comes to about $700 billion out of private pockets and straight into an already bloated government over the next decade.
Why can’t we keep our own money?
Ok, here’s the thing, wmbz. Populist “tax the rich” proposals are not totally devoid of reason, because there are probably a fair number of people in the top 1% who became wealthy by non-productive (or counter-productive) means– bailouts, lobbying, political connections, etc.
The problem is that tax policy is a crude weapon, and a very poor way to try to “punish” the rich. For one thing, it lumps a lot of people together unfairly, and for another, it simply doesn’t work, because the rich will always find loopholes. By definition, the rich invariably have more means and motivation to keep their money than the populist zealots have to take it.
“…because the rich will always find loopholes”
Ding! Ding! Ding! …We have a winner!
(Hwy notes that INDEMNIFIED CORPORATIONS would have also been accepted)
Hwy,
I have a feeling that if we met up for a beer, a number of armed drones will be circling you. Be prepared to order a round of brews and then …”Duck !”
….or you’ll be talking to yourself.
Hey Mikey,
No worries mate, I’ve eaten enough of Monsanto’s cloned food, I’m doomed anyhow…that and let’s not make it a “toss back” at a duck hunting convention in Wyoming with Cheney as the guest “Friend-Liberal-skeet-shooting” demonstration marksman.
In 2006, Benjamin Koellmann bought a condominium in Miami Beach. By his calculation, it will be about the year 2025 before he can sell his modest home for what he paid. Or maybe 2040.
“People like me are beginning to feel like suckers,” Mr. Koellmann said. “Why not let it go in default and rent a better place for less?”
New research suggests that when a home’s value falls below 75 percent of the amount owed on the mortgage, the owner starts to think hard about walking away, even if he or she has the money to keep paying.
Suggestions that people would be wise to renege on their home loans are at least a couple of years old, but they are turning into a full-throated barrage. Bloggers were quick to note recently that landlords of an 11,000-unit residential complex in Manhattan showed no hesitation, or shame, in walking away from their deeply underwater investment.
“Since the beginning of December, I’ve advised 60 people to walk away,” said Steve Walsh, a mortgage broker in Scottsdale, Ariz. “Everyone has lost hope. They don’t qualify for modifications, and being on the hamster wheel of paying for a property that is not worth it gets so old.”
Mr. Walsh is taking his own advice, recently defaulting on a rental property he owns. “The sun will come up tomorrow,” he said.
It would cost about $745 billion, slightly more than the size of the original 2008 bank bailout, to restore all underwater borrowers to the point where they were breaking even, according to First American.
Using government money to do that would be seen as unfair by many taxpayers, Mr. Barr said. On the other hand, doing nothing about underwater mortgages could encourage more walk-aways, dealing another blow to a fragile economy.
An executive with Wachovia, one of the country’s biggest and most aggressive lenders, said during a conference call in January 2008 that the bank was bewildered by customers who had “the capacity to pay, but have basically just decided not to.” (Wachovia failed nine months later and was bought by Wells Fargo.
“Since the beginning of December, I’ve advised 60 people to walk away,” said Steve Walsh, a mortgage broker in Scottsdale, Ariz. “Everyone has lost hope. They don’t qualify for modifications, and being on the hamster wheel of paying for a property that is not worth it gets so old.”
They would have to quote a mortgage guy from Arizona.
A followup from yesterday’s college costs discussion:
“Even CC’s are too expensive.”
What do they cost in Colorado? It’s $17 per unit in California, which is practically free (to the student at least). Books and even parking permits can easily cost more than the tuition.
Its much more expensive here. $150 per credit.
Supreme Court Ruling Spurs Corporation Run for Congress
First Test of “Corporate Personhood” In Politics
http://www.murrayhillweb.com/pr-012510.html
Great post WHYoung
seems to be the logical extension of the idea.
“…Murray Hill Inc. agrees. “The strength of America,” Murray Hill Inc. says, “is in the boardrooms, country clubs and Lear jets of America’s great corporations. We’re saying to Wal-Mart, AIG and Pfizer, if not you, who? If not now, when?”
Monsanto! MUrDock’s News Corp! = People
Fill in the REQUIRED DISCLAIMER:
That means that when corporations place a political ad on television or radio within 30 days of a primary or 60 days of a general election, it must include the disclaimer:
“_________________ is responsible for the content of this advertising.”
Way COOL!
Previously the Supreme Court’s WISE OLD MEN ruled on this:
Negroes = Not US Citizens
Chief Justice John Roberts…like…Chief Justice Roger B. Taney
= Wrong side of History
Decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott Case
The Ordinance of 1787 and the Missouri Compromise Declared Unconstitutional:
Washington, Friday, March 6 - The opinion of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott Case was delivered by Chief Justice Taney. It was a full and elaborate statement of the views of the Court. They have decided the following important points:
First - Negroes, whether slaves or free, that is, men of the African race, are not citizens of the United States by the Constitution.
Babies can be murdered for any reason, any time up to 1 sec before birth…
Lord forbid a “pioneer” woman should ever have to ride horseback while pregnant in the “old west” circa 1840…she might have been committing murder, and thus she should be tried for: Murder in the 1st degree.
Isn’t using birth control just the actions of a “stealth” murder?
Lord forbid a “pioneer” woman should ever have to ride horseback while pregnant in the “old west” circa 1840…she might have been committing murder, and thus she should be tried for: Murder in the 1st degree.
You are equating riding a horse to a Supreme Court decision allowing a “doctor” to birth a full term baby up to the head, cutting open the brain with scissors, sucking out the brains with a vacuum all the while the babies arms and legs are flailing as a Constitution Right equal to that of Freedom of Speech?
Isn’t using birth control just the actions of a “stealth” murder?
To jump into the fray here: personally my view is very much no, no, and no - a very emphatic no. The difference being simply DNA/genetics. Before conception one could (and I do) make a very strong case that a “new life” doesn’t exist yet, because there’s no determination of genetic characteristics. However after conception there is that determination, thus a new life does exist at that point. It’s quite a solid and easy line to draw.
The “dependency” line is what people tend to focus on, with the current line IMO arbitrarily drawn at birth. But that’s a red herring. Even a 6-month-old baby is dependent on someone for its existence. Conversely a 3-month-old fetus can exist outside the womb if given such help. So the line of “birth” is simply a matter of location, not dependency. As such, I don’t think the definition of “life”, and therefore by extension human rights, should be based on your location.
Before conception … a “new life” doesn’t exist yet
I agree.
Brazil handles it in its usual complicated manner. It’s almost Carnaval. Tonight I saw a TV commercial promoting protection with happy, samba dancing condoms, however birth control pills are unavailable.
“You are equating riding a horse to a Supreme Court decision allowing a “doctor” to birth a full term baby up to the head, cutting open the brain with scissors, sucking out the brains with a vacuum all the while the babies arms and legs are flailing as a Constitution Right equal to that of Freedom of Speech?”
You didn’t answer the hypothetical…you used a plea to “morality”, given how many “innocents” have been lost to “morality” of many “stripes” over the last 2 million years of “Intelligent Design”…I think you seem to know your “creators” “grand plan” for DNA
But that’s a red herring.
Being convicted of Murder is funny way of looking at the concept of a “red herring” …seems kinda “Intellectual”. Being locked in a cell for 50+ years as a Murderer …seems somewhat less “Intellectual”
Not that “anyone” would ever convict a raped 13 year old “woman” who uses next day “birth control” to terminate a “criminally forced” pregnancy as a “Murderer” right? In fact, the perpetrator of such a crime, legally, could actually be released to “strike again” …while the real “criminal” …the 13 year old “woman” watches his release on Faux News! Sounds like “good law” to me…
“…The difference being simply DNA/genetics.”
Geez, you really cut to the chase, just as I hoped…
Now define “Life” based on genetics, and include anything that is dependent on the replication of DNA, that also includes somehow that humans are “special” animals, and that “Murder” is to be a moral requirement only to be applied to women.
I’m always interested in “others” definition of “Life” as it applies to DNA
In Britain, mothers cannot be convicted of murder of their child less than one year of age. I pressme they have to get some sort of psychiatric treatment if they deliberately cause the death of their child.
I can’t imagine how the state could coerce an unwilling pregnant woman to carry her child to term.
Like I said, You have problem with Corporate Communist Capitalism©®™, comrade?
‘First Test of “Corporate Personhood” In Politics’
Goldman Sachs for King of the United States of America!!!
Found this, I believe from OlyGal (please correct me if wrong). I just thought I would share it. I don’t know why, just seems like something else to remember her by.
http://www.plentyoffish.com/member9401424.htm
Don’t think that’s her, wrong age and wrong looks. Plus, I can’t picture our Oly being a devout Baptist, she was more of a panthiest.
I miss her a lot. Sigh. She was always encouraging me when I wanted to blow things up and stuff like that, and now I’m pretty much on my own there.
Olygal encouraged you to blow things up?
Not to worry, it was just stuff that needed blowing up, you know, developer type stuff and all.
“Happiness is a box of redhead matches and a “project” or two.” Cactus Rat
I’ll always remember her cheer, “Developers go down! Trees stay up!”
That Oly was one of a kind.
For sure Slim
Comment by mikey
2009-10-11 21:00:04
“More feathery”
Olygal…You CAN’T be named Gabriel after an Angel !?!
…and I’ve been wrong before.
Ya, I really don’t see her wanting to meet your pastor on the first date. Plus, wasn’t she married?
…nixes a beer meet-up with Losty as well as with Hwy.
Those pesky armed drones are going to be circling all of my HBB librul friends.
Where’s your sense of adventure, pard?
Says Tonto mikey while carefully LQQKING at the skies and checking which way the wind is blowing…
“Gee, I dunno all A-Lone Ranger Losty !?!”
I encourage you to blow things up whenever you feel it is necessary LIU.
Thanks Dude, I’ll tell them you said it was OK.
We can take up an HBB collection to bail Lost out of jail.
Baptist, Age 48? nix
Oly was Age 40 and painted Blue
…because blue is best.
Age is different, and agree that the Baptist thing really sticks out…
but it does sorta look like her. Check out the smaller pics where she has blond hair. I just did a side-by-side, and it **could** be her. Odd about the age thing, though. Why would a woman lie and ADD 10 years to her age on a dating site???
Cute, but wrong religion, hair color, etc.
“depriving” the gubmint of revenue. I love it! Go Spain…
Spain’s Tax-Cheat Landlords Add to Rising State Debt (Update1)
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) — More than half of Spain’s landlords are dodging taxes as the rental market expands, depriving the financially strapped government of more revenue each year.
Owners are asking for payment in cash from tenants to avoid tax on 2.5 billion euros ($3.5 billion) of earnings annually, the Gestha union of tax inspectors estimates. An increase in rental properties nationwide hasn’t generated any more tax revenue.
The Spanish government, seeking to pull the country out of its deepest recession in 60 years, needs all the money it can get right now.
On both of my recent trips to the EU the apartment owner asked for the deposit by paypal and the rent in cash. One of them openly observed that it would save him tax money to do it that way. I guess he felt safe upon seeing me and hearing my accent that I was obviously not a tax inspector.
I know I’m going to get called a troll here but I thought I’d share some personally positive housing news with all of you.
Own a house that is approximately worth 30% more than 2004 purchase price. Cost of P/M/I is approximately 75% of comparable rental costs.
Investment condo with an ARM at 3.25% with $350/mo positive cash flow and worth 25% more than 2002 purchase price.
Investment house with 15 yr. fixed at 5.25% with $200/mo positive cash flow worth approximately same as 2006 purchase price.
I have over $350K in equity on these properties currently and will be able to own them outright in approximately 10 years. I will have over $900K in real estate while never making more than $100K in annual salary (wife makes about 25K/yr).
All and all, things have not worked out too bad for this Chicago suburban homeowner/investor. Just thought I’d share my personal experience with all of you and illustrate that not everyone has been devastated by this housing debacle.
Thanks.
Own a house that is approximately worth 30% more than 2004 purchase price.
Just curious - how exactly did you go about making this here calculation?
“worth approximately same as 2006 purchase price”
Granted, Chicagoland hasn’t fallen as far as some places. However, no housing around here is worth what it was in 2006… we’re currently closer to 2002/2003 - and have a ways to go. Just check the Credit Suisse mortgage reset chart, keeping in mind that 40%+ mortgages in Chicagoland are non-conforming (per Businessweek).
You are doing OK!!! Some questions:
What does our ARM reset to? When? Can you afford?
Housing will keep going down (IMHO) to 1999 prices. How will that affect you?
How safe is your job? How long could you go without income?
Have you taken out any equity? If not, great!
Great job if you can pay off everything in 10 years.
No one here says real estate is a bad investment per se.. They just say that there has been a bubble, and in general, it is a bad investment *at today’s prices*. If you purchased during a time of non-bubble pricing, and at a price you could afford, then you are *generally* outside the scope of the ridicule HBBers laud upon today’s FBs .
In this world tho, I don’t give applause for simply *not* being (and excuse my perjorative) a retard.
Ummm…you said the “R” word!
At least he didn’t say a fornicating retard.
How long before we see country X replaced with US bonds? It’s only a matter of time. Like FBs debt junkies never stop on their own.
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) — Portuguese bonds slid, pushing the yield on the 10-year note up by the most in 11 months, as the country’s borrowing costs soared at a sale of bills on concern the government will fail to curb its budget deficit.
The decline sent the yield on the security to the highest since March, increasing the premium investors demand to hold the debt instead of benchmark German bunds to 147 basis points as of 4:17 p.m. in London, a 10-month high. Credit-default swaps on the bonds rose 29 basis points to a record 196 basis points, according to CMA DataVision, meaning it costs $196,000 a year to insure against losses on the debt for five years.
Treasury expects to reach government’s $12.4 trillion debt limit by end of February. ~ February 3, 2010
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department said Wednesday it expects to hit the government’s debt ceiling by the end of February, putting pressure on Congress to raise the limit from its current level of $12.4 trillion.
Treasury said it is working closely with Congress to raise the ceiling. The Senate has approved legislation to increase it by $1.9 trillion to $14.3 trillion. A ceiling that high would equal about $45,000 for every American. The House is expected to vote on the increase Thursday.
Congress approved a smaller increase of $290 billion in late December, allowing the government to borrow for about two more months.
Matthew Rutherford, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Federal Finance, said a $1.9 trillion rise would enable the government to continue borrowing into 2011.
The Treasury’s announcement comes after the Obama administration on Monday released a budget that projects this year’s deficit will reach $1.56 trillion, an all-time high. That’s equivalent to 10.6 percent of the economy, the highest proportion since World War II.
??? (scratches head) - they just raised it the other day - to $14.3 Trillion. What am I missing?
$12.4 trillion limit. No, $14.3 trillion limit. What the hell, the sky is the limit
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department said Wednesday it expects to hit the government’s debt ceiling by the end of February, putting pressure on Congress to raise the limit from its current level of $12.4 trillion.
Treasury said it is working closely with Congress to raise the ceiling. The Senate has approved legislation to increase it by $1.9 trillion to $14.3 trillion. A ceiling that high would equal about $45,000 for every American. The House is expected to vote on the increase Thursday
S.Carolina, like many states has been trying through tax bribes to ‘grow’ it’s economy for years. Taint woriking…
South Carolina is limping. We keep shooting ourselves in the foot. We keep forking over tons of tax dollars to private industry to bribe them to locate here, and it doesn’t pay off as advertised.
The S.C. Policy Council’s Ashley Landess explains, “Economists ]have] concluded that heavy-handed government planning has not created wealth and jobs in South Carolina. In 1994, the state invested around $32 million in incentives, but by 2007 that number jumped to $250 million. The result? In the 1980s, South Carolina’s economic growth was the 15th fastest in the nation. By the 2000s, it was the 12th slowest.
“Despite billions in targeted incentives and government-driven economic development plans, South Carolina has the fourth-highest unemployment rate in the nation and the 46th lowest per capita income.”
South Carolina is limping. We keep shooting ourselves in the foot. We keep forking over tons of tax dollars to private industry to bribe them to locate here, and it doesn’t pay off as advertised.
Sounds a lot like Tucson, Arizona.
The companies we lure here keep leaving. But, as they’re walking out the door, they tell us that we can still be friends.
Denver lost a Frontier Airlines maintenance facility to Wisconsin recently. In order to have saved it would have required subsidies equivalent ro about 30% of the lost job’s salaries.
Just think of all those South Carolina taxpayer provided “Non-Hawaiian-Punch” “mint juleps” that were served to Boeing Executives and Standford & Company Inc. “brethren” to transfer high paying ‘Non-Union” jobs from Washington State. What is the “TrueCost™”?
“We keep forking over tons of tax dollars to private industry to bribe them to locate here, and it doesn’t pay off as advertised.”
Oh it pays off as advertised alright. You just have to learn to read between the lines.
The infernal revenuers are adding a little to their arsenal. Picky buggers when it come to shotguns. Clipped from: http://www.fbo.gov
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) intends to purchase sixty Remington Model 870 Police RAMAC #24587 12 gauge pump-action shotguns for the Criminal Investigation Division. The Remington parkerized shotguns, with fourteen inch barrel, modified choke, Wilson Combat Ghost Ring rear sight and XS4 Contour Bead front sight, Knoxx Reduced Recoil Adjustable Stock, and Speedfeed ribbed black forend, are designated as the only shotguns authorized for IRS duty based on compatibility with IRS existing shotgun inventory, certified armorer and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts.
Submit quotes including 11% Firearms and Ammunition Excise Tax (FAET) and shipping to Washington DC.
Ha ha ha…IRS,
I filed my Taxes today…just now, honest.
Your check is in the mail…don’t pelletize me bro!
Sounds like just the gun to own when a zombie infestation reaches your neck of the woods.
Or when Bigfoot comes around.
Which brings up a new HBB question: WWOD? (What Would Oly Do?)
You don’t suppose Bigfoot and Oly….nah, let’s not go there.
The Marines use Mossberg 500 shotguns. They are cheaper but sure get the job done.
—- The Best Smart Ass Answers of 2009!
SMART
ASS ANSWER #6
It was mealtime during
an airline flight. ‘Would you like dinner?’,
the flight attendant asked John, seated in front.
‘What are my choices?’ John asked.
‘Yes or no,’ she replied.
SMART
ASS ANSWER #5
A flight attendant was
stationed at the departure gate to check tickets. As
a man approached, she extended her hand for the ticket and
he opened his trench coat and flashed her.
Without missing a beat, she said, ‘Sir, I need to see your ticket,
not your stub.’
SMART
ASS ANSWER #4
A lady was picking
through the frozen turkeys at the grocery store but she
couldn’t find one big enough for her family. She asked a
stock boy, ‘ Do these turkeys get any bigger?’
The stock boy replied, ‘No ma’am, they’re
dead…’
SMART
ASS ANSWER #3
The police officer got
out of his car as the kid who was stopped for speeding
rolled down his window. ‘I’ve been waiting for you all
day,’ the officer said.
The kid replied, Yeah, well I got here as fast as I
could.’ When the cop finally stopped laughing, he sent the kid on his
way without a ticket.
SMART
ASS ANSWER #2
A truck driver was
driving along on the freeway and noticed a sign that read:
Low Bridge Ahead. Before he knows it, the bridge is right
in front of him and his truck gets wedged under it. Cars
are backed up for miles.
Finally a police car comes up. The cop gets out of his car and
walks to the truck driver, puts his hands on his hips and
says, ‘Got stuck, huh?’
The truck driver says, ‘No, I was delivering this bridge and I
ran out of gas.’
SMART
ASS ANSWER
OF THE YEAR 2009!!
A college teacher reminds her class of tomorrow’s final
exam. ‘Now class, I won’t tolerate any excuses for you not
being here tomorrow. I might consider a nuclear attack or
a serious personal injury, illness, or a death in your
immediate family, but that’s it, no other excuses
whatsoever!’
A smart-ass student in the back of the room raised his hand
and asked, ‘What would you say if tomorrow I said I was
suffering from complete and utter sexual exhaustion?’
The entire class is reduced to laughter and snickering.
When silence was restored, the teacher smiled
knowingly at the student, shook her head and sweetly said,
‘Well, I guess you’d have to write the exam with your
other hand.’
A
BONUS EXTRA
A woman is standing nude looking in the bedroom mirror. She
is not happy with what she sees and says to her husband,
‘I feel horrible; I look old, fat and ugly… I really
need you to pay me a compliment.’ The
husband replies, ‘Your eyesight’s damn near perfect.
When silence was restored, the teacher smiled
knowingly at the student, shook her head and sweetly said,
‘Well, I guess you’d have to write the exam with your
other hand.’
Sounds like what my mother used to tell her high school students.
Seems that, during the 1970s and 1980s, there was a fashion trend among the male students. They’d get the lavatory pass, go to the restroom, then come back to class with their belts unbuckled.
Mom would be waiting at the classroom door, eager to make a fashion statement of her own. She’d hand the lavatory pass right back to the them and say, “Finish getting dressed.”
This got quite a reaction from the rest of the class.
‘Your eyesight’s damn near perfect.
That is too funny!
I own 3 Fords and one Toyota, I have a laundry list of problems with the Fords and not one problem with the Toyota but….
Obama administration steps up pressure on Toyota February 3, 2010 4:36 PM ET
All Thomson Reuters news WASHINGTON/DETROIT - The Obama administration stepped up the pressure on Toyota Motor Corp on Wednesday to address a range of safety issues as investors bolted at signs of a deepening crisis for the world’s largest automaker.
“Our … people will hold Toyota’s feet to the fire to make sure they are going to do everything they said they were going to do to make the vehicles safe,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said at an appearance in Washington.
LaHood says he misspoke on advice to Toyota owners
By KEN THOMAS
The Associated Press
Posted: 4:50 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010
WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood now says he misspoke when telling owners of recalled Toyotas to stop driving then.
Instead, LaHood says take them to dealerships to get them repaired.
LaHood told reporters it was “obviously a misstatement” when he told a House panel earlier Wednesday that he would advise owners not to drive recalled vehicles. The remark came during testimony to the Appropriations subcommittee on transportation.
Toyota’s most recent recall in the United States affects 2.3 million vehicles with the potential for sticking gas pedals.
Steve Wozniac said his Toyota Prius experienced sudden uncontrolled accelerations of up to 97 mph. Happily, most of the people I know that drive Priuses are flaming liberals.
Geez, you guys know how many “critical” management meetings started & ended with…Yelling / Screaming / finger pointing …this way back in 1982 with… MINI-Computer development:
“Nix, Nix, Nix!…Hardware Problem!
No,NO, NO,!…Software Problem!
“Nix, Nix, Nix!…Hardware Problem!
No,NO, NO,!…Software Problem!
“Nix, Nix, Nix!…Hardware Problem!
No,NO, NO,!…Software Problem!
Glad I bought a JEEP!
Crash and Burn:
GM Adding Fuel to Fires
The formula for fire is at hand whenever a motor vehicle crashes: leaking gas, oxygen, and a spark to ignite them. Once ignited, fires in vehicles are particularly deadly, because most passenger compartments are constructed and lined with fast-burning plastics that emit toxic smoke. Auto engineers have probably known about the problem of crash-ignited fires ever since the invention of the internal combustion engine. And for decades they have known how to solve it.
Instead of solving the problem, General Motors has spent the past 27 years concealing what it knew from regulators, the courts and the public. That quarter century of deception and secrecy is now coming to an end. Courtroom disclosures that have chipped away at GM’s wall of secrecy have slowly revealed not only what auto engineers have long known, but also how auto manufacturers weigh the costs of implementing safety designs and the lengths to which they will go to avoid accountability for their safety design decisions. Angered by these revelations, juries are giving mega-awards to the victims of crash fires, including the largest ever in American jurisprudence, $4.9 billion.
It’s estimated 20,600 passenger cars catch fire in crashes each year, killing 1,100 persons and injuring 3,200 seriously. GM estimates that between 300 and 500 people a year are killed in fires that erupt in its vehicles when they crash. That estimate dates from 1973, when it was the first assumption in the now-infamous “Ivey Memo.”
History of a Secret
Edward C. Ivey, a mechanical engineer in GM’s Oldsmobile division in 1973, prepared his two-page memo to help managers “figure out how much Olds could spend on fuel systems” safety. Ivey assigned a “value” of $200,000 to each of the up to 500 people who burned to death annually in GM cars, concluding that the deaths cost $2.40 per car on the road. The callous reasoning: if GM could install a safer fuel tank for $2.40 per car or less, it stood to save money; anything more meant it was cheaper to pay for the deaths than to save lives. GM calculated it would cost $8.59 per car to protect fuel tanks in crashes – a net safety “cost” of $6.19 per car to save lives.
Ivey’s report was distributed to senior management. Internal crash test reports showed 16 failures or near failures even after GM told the federal government that its car met the fuel tank standard (see below). Meanwhile, GM fuel tanks continued to rupture in roadway crashes and turn vehicles into infernos. In 1980, for example, two children were killed and one severely burned when a new Chevrolet Malibu was rear-ended and exploded in flame. GM settled out of court and destroyed the car.
Ivey was questioned by a GM defense attorney in 1981 about his memo and its use by GM managers. The attorney later wrote: “Obviously Ivey is a not an individual whom we would ever, in any situation, want to be identified to (plaintiffs)…and the documents he generated are undoubtedly some of the potentially most harmful and most damaging were they ever to be produced.”
That became bedrock GM policy. GM managed to hide the lawyer’s interview memo until 1998 when a Florida state judge ordered it into evidence. That case involved two children burned to death in 1991 when a small utility trailer ran into a 1983 Oldsmobile station wagon at low speed and punctured its fuel tank. Together, the GM documents revealed that Ivey had lied in previous trials about GM’s knowledge of fuel tank hazards and the corporation’s use of his 1973 cost analysis. In ordering GM to produce the evidence, the judge wrote: “This Court advised General Motors that it is not ‘big enough to thumb its nose at the court,’ and that it is not ‘big enough to interfere with the orderly administration of justice,’ and that it is not ‘big enough to obstruct justice or conceal evidence.’” The jury awarded the family $33 million.
GM had repeatedly tried–and continues–to quash motions requesting the evidence and to seek protective orders based on claims that the documents are protected by attorney-client privilege.
GM’s behavior was judged again in 1999 when the same GM documents, now public, were introduced in a California lawsuit over a Christmas Eve 1993 crash in Los Angeles, when a 1979 Malibu was rear-ended and six victims were severely burned, including an 11-year old girl whose hand was burned off and her face, legs and arms scarred for life. Analysis showed that had the car not burst into flame, injuries would have been limited to two broken legs. In addition to $107 million in actual damages, the jury hit GM with $4.8 billion in punitive damages, the largest personal injury verdict in history. (The trial judge subsequently reduced the punitive award to $1.09 billion.)
I like to refer to the Prius as The Car of Virtue.
Doesn’t anyone find it fishy that this administration is so intimately involved with this? When all those Explorers were flipping from blow outs, did a transportation secretary urge owners not to drive them?
IMHO, a statement is being made, let’s see what the response will be.
Agree this is strange. As mentioned above, it shows a level of desperation on part of US Gov and big three. I think it also shows a degree of deep-seated anger at Toyota for cleaning our clocks when it comes to building quality cars and destroying the US car biz. On the other hand, plenty of Toyota plants and employment emerging in the US, so we best play nice.
New Zealand Teen Auctions Virginity To Pay Tuition
by The Associated Press
February 3, 2010
A New Zealand teenager who says she auctioned her virginity online for $32,000 to raise tuition money did not break any laws but it might be risky for her to follow through on the deal, police warned Wednesday.
The anonymous 19-year-old student offered her virginity to the highest bidder on the Web site http://www.ineed.co.nz under the name “Unigirl,” saying she would use the money to pay for her tuition. She said in a post that more than 30,000 people had viewed her ad and more than 1,200 had made bids before she accepted an offer of more than $32,000.
Unlike similar New Zealand Web sites, bidding and correspondence between buyers and sellers on the ineed site is private so it is not known what bids Unigirl’s offer received.
Web site owner Ross McKenzie said the site’s policy was that as long as an ad was legal and did not offend the general standards of society, “it was OK.” He confirmed Unigirl was a member on the site.
Prostitution is legal in New Zealand under laws considered more liberal than in many countries. Prostitution among consenting adults is allowed in brothels and on the streets, and offering sexual services in print ads and online is also legal.
National police spokesman Jon Neilson said no law appeared to have been breached.
“…Prostitution is legal in New Zealand under laws considered more liberal than in many countries.”
Damn, aladinsane seems to ALWAYS be aHead of the curve!
Gold & Prostitution, what can possibly go wrong?
Gold & Prostitution, what can possibly go wrong?
—————–
Your lovely wife reading this and bonking you on the head with a frying pan?
Shades of “Eating Raoul”.
A new free market economics business model is born. Where is Eddie when you need him to make approving comments?
I’m seeing a lot of people are talking about the banks and what is going to happen with the losses.
While I suspect the banks still have a lot of loans on the books at PAR and don’t want to recognize the losses; it might be they are nearly completely divested of residential MBS stuff. Might be holding some that is still performing on the books.
I have a feeling that a lot of stuff is in the hands of pension funds, tax payers via HAMP, exc. The banks haven’t been originating stuff for a couple years now, at least stuff that wasn’t sold to FHA right away. So, their exposure might not be that bad.
Anyhow, could see a lot of securities going bad and the banks swooping in with the free capital to buy up bargins.
Not sure what the CRE exposure looks like either.
I think a lot of the stuff was refi’d into GSE and FHA-insured loans. Agree that the banks might not be in nearly as bad a shape as they were in 2008-ish.
IMHO, they delayed everything so the losses could be transferred from the banks/private lenders to the taxpayers.
And they can now “earn” huge bonuses to boot! What a great country!
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) — Jobs, jobs, jobs. Meet the new mantra, same as the old mantra.
No longer will President Barack Obama be content to cite specious numbers about “jobs saved or created” as a result of last year’s $787 billion fiscal stimulus. Now he’s proposing $100 billion of new spending to “jumpstart job creation,” It’s part of a $3.8 trillion budget for fiscal 2011, unveiled Monday, that projects a $1.3 trillion deficit next year, following a $1.6 trillion deficit this year.
In Chapter 10, Section VI of “The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money,” John Maynard Keynes advocated building pyramids as a cure for unemployment.
Incentive to Cheat
The budget’s job-creation initiatives include funds for infrastructure investment; loan guarantees and tax credits for small businesses to spur hiring; cash assistance to states; and an extension in unemployment benefits, which is a disincentive for job seekers.
While the nation can always use better roads and bridges, a tax cut for new hires, which is popular with both parties, is more problematic and hard to implement, according to Greg Mankiw, professor of economics at Harvard University and former economic adviser to President George W. Bush. How do you differentiate between employment churning — firing Peter to hire Paul — and a new hire? How do you treat new firms?
* Why do you think both parties like it. Because their friends know they can game the system so much of the benefit ends up in a small # of hands.
In an October blog post, Mankiw proposed a cut in the payroll tax, something simple and universal rather than complex and targeted. Any attempt to apply more favorable tax treatment to marginal jobs than existing ones “creates a range of unintended consequences,” he said, not to mention an incentive to game the system.
* This is a good idea, lower the cost of employing people AND put more cash in the hands of people who will spend it. Mankiw is one of the few on the right (not many on the mainstream left either) to advocate for a fuel tax, but with all procedes going toward cutting the payroll tax. This is a brilliant idea.
Agree. If we’re going to be spending money/cutting taxes, at least cut payroll taxes across the board. A lot of companies have been doing the right thing and trying to hang on to their existing employees. It would be nice to do something that benefits them as well.
HELOC’s ARE BACK!
I was watching Nightly Business Report for 2/3/2010. HELOCs are back and, get this, the Happy Talk Bubble Head says to qualify for a HELOC BEFORE you loose your job. You may not qualify after are you unemployed.
Happy Days are Here Again!
Roidy
“The HELOC you say!” (In Montana™)
Are you suggesting the home equity ATM machine is up and running again? And why do I suspect the uncorked GSEs have something to do with its operation? (Just a hunch, folks…)
“TrueBeliever’s™ / TrueDeceiver’s ™” take note:
The “Flag”? Ben, doesn’t anyone just go camping anymore?
Motivational speaker charged in sweat lodge deaths:
By FELICIA FONSECA, Associated Press Writer Felicia Fonseca,
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz
“The Oct. 8 sweat lodge ceremony was intended to be the highlight of Ray’s five-day “Spiritual Warrior” event at a retreat he rented just outside Sedona. He told participants, who paid more than $9,000 each to attend, that it would be one of the most intense experiences of their lives.
The self-help superstar who teaches people about financial and spiritual wealth uses free seminars to recruit followers to more expensive events. His company, James Ray International, is based in Carlsbad, Ca.”
Sounds like he might be overmotivating his clientele. Does he take out life insurance policies on his customers? At any rate, who is to argue with the assertion that death is one of life’s most intense experiences?