Bits Bucket For February 26, 2010
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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“forcing lenders”…going to get interestinger.
US Treasury mulls all areas to avert foreclosures.
Feb 25, 2010
WASHINGTON, Feb 25 (Reuters) - The Obama administration is open to changing its $75 billion program to help struggling homeowners, including the possibility of forcing lenders to make principal reductions, a top Treasury official said on Thursday.
Asked about the possibility of using principal reductions on mortgages to stem the tide of foreclosures, Phyllis Caldwell, chief of the Treasury’s Homeownership Preservation Office, said the department was open to the idea.
“Our office has been aggressively considering proposals on all areas that we can do to address the foreclosure crisis in this country …,” Caldwell told lawmakers on the House Oversight and Government Reform Domestic Policy Subcommittee.
Great. If they do this, then I will buy a house the next day, then stop making payments until they reduce the principal to what I’m really willing to pay. There’s no doubt every other irresponsible and responsible borrower out there will default on their mortgages in order to get the principal reduction. Why not, if the govt is encouraging fraud and gambling?
We’ve tried to do things the right way, but if the govt moves ahead with this, we will join ranks with the fraudsters, as the govt will have left us no other choice.
No need for the sellers to lower the price if the lenders will do the job later.
Bring. It. On.
“Bring. It. On.”
Bring on the lawsuits.
You would undoubtedly get slaughtered.
Anything like this is intended to keep the debt slaves indentured. Lighten the chain just enough to keep them turning the grist mill. Forcing the banks to make principle reductions will require shoving cash up their posteriors, not yours.
You are absolutely correct.
It’s all about keeping FBs paying instead of walking. It’s about keeping hope alive. It’s about saving the banks thus saving the system.
Yep. It’s not about “helping the homeowners” at all.
“Forcing the banks to make principle reductions will require shoving cash up their posteriors, not yours.”
But wait — wouldn’t the principle reduction be tied to lower (’affordable’ — but just barely) monthly payments? The idea here is to tie FB’s to a lifetime of debt slavery which does not kill off the parasites’ hosts. Ergo the qualified group should be those debt slaves who are clearly on the financial death watch list; other FBs who were sufficiently lucky or financially savvy to avoid financially hanging themselves can lump it.
If you put the whole banking rescue plan into the larger context of handing over all American wealth to Megabank, Inc, giving them carte blanche to use printing press money to steal the value of any potential surplus labor that remains at the American household level as they see fit, it all makes far more sense.
“….which does not kill off the parasites’ hosts.”
Like a couple of wood ticks on a fat Kentucky hog.
Honestly, if they can do it at all, there are so many pitfalls, I don’t even know where to start.
Do you reduce principle based on the current FMV of the house given its area? If so, does it become an imputed sale at the new price, thus killling the comps and lowering the value of other houses in the nabe, possibly putting more people hopelessly underwater causing them to demand a reduction or they will walk away? Do you do it based on the income of the FB? What if the income of the household has been reduced by 50% since they bought the house? What if they have no income at all right now? What if you find that they lied on the original mortgage application? What if they claim they were coerced into signing a blank form that the broker then filled out with the false information?
There is one possible up side to this. If there is a serious push to constrain the rights of the banks, they will hire people (possibly skilled people) to prove that the person requesting the modification is not qualified for the change. I imagine that most of the reasons for disqualification will be fraud on the original application. So the amount of fraud will eventually become transparent as the stats on the program are made public.
All this is if they can get the program past the legal hurdles. The temporary moritoria on foreclosures are generally too short to get to court before they are moot. If this is written as long term restriction, it will get to court. Oh boy, will this get to court.
The problem, to me, is that principal reductions are tax free income. Nobody deserves to get tens of thousands–if not hundreds of thousands–of dollars in tax-free income from the government for being irresponsible!
This will amount to a TRILLION DOLLAR middle-class handout–while these same middle-class folks will march to the polls and vote for soak-the-rich initiatives. It’s just going to speed the decline of the US as brains and businesses are forced to flee.
“tax-free income”
They got it when they repealed the Capital Gains tax on home sales, on the way up. No reason not to give everyone a credit from make believe “appreciation” on the way down.
Like a bug stuck in a sticky trap, the more the government struggles with “promoting” home ownership, the more stuck-er they get.
They got it when they repealed the Capital Gains tax on home sales, on the way up. No reason not to give everyone a credit from make believe “appreciation” on the way down.
That’s a good point that I had not heard before.
I guarantee the banks will get hande da bunch of cash thus this is about taxing those who save to bail out banks. They will throw a carrot at the poor slobs who overpaid for there house but these are not the people who benefited. They will receive a modification that will keep them in their house until the next leg down.
1997 Taxpayer Relief Act.
Not coincidentally - exactly when housing prices started to go up faster than inflation.
Not coincidentally - exactly when housing prices started to go up faster than inflation.
I smell the smoke from the smoking gun.
I smell the smoke from the smoking gun.
One of about 15, by my reckoning (yes I do have a list).
Individually, any one or two of these events wouldn’t have meant much.
Like other disasters, there is usually a chain of events that come together that create the catastrophe.
One of about 15, by my reckoning (yes I do have a list).
It’s more of a firing squad than a gun…
A “circular” firing squad.
“Like other disasters, there is usually a chain of events that come together that create the catastrophe.”
Would you say it was more of a chain of dominoes knocking each other down, an infestation of termites, or an earthquake that triggered a tsunami?
I like the “chain of dominoes” analogy myself; I actually used that phrase with a friend back in late 2006 while trying to explain my concerns to him. It sure seemed apropos.
” Forcing the banks to make principle reductions will require shoving cash up their posteriors, not yours.”
Well, the enema bag has been in place since 2007… it’s not out of the question.
“will require shoving cash up their posteriors”
Is that like having money out the wazoo?
“Is that like having money out the wazoo?”
More like having a Joshua tree branch up the wazoo…
I am looking forward to hearing about how this goes in case you follow through on your plan
I’ll let you know how it goes. Maybe we’ll “snap up” a nice estate in RSF for your family, too!
Hey, some of us are feeling left out!
You, too, SD RE Bear!
Would you like a castle or a nice chateau?
There’s even more Obama interference in the free markets that is revealed here:
“The Obama administration may expand efforts to ease the housing crisis by banning all foreclosures on home loans unless they have been screened and rejected by the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program.
The proposal, reviewed by lenders last week on a White House conference call, “prohibits referral to foreclosure until borrower is evaluated and found ineligible for HAMP or reasonable contact efforts have failed,” according to a Treasury Department document outlining the plan. ”
That from another article I read this morning. The little megalomanic thinks he should control every aspect of everyone’s lives to benefit “his” people. Screw the rest of us who are financially responsible.
Come on Dio,
Getting people to take political sides like that just perpetuates the division that will distract us from the fact that both parties are just concerned with “their” people.
The housing bubble and its in-just “clean up” are bi-partisan fiascoes.
The two political parties are rapidly evolving into the “Marxists” and the “Non-Marxists.”
The idea of helping people “stay in their homes” that they supposedly purchased but could never afford, is all about simply providing “government aide” to specific groups of people. It is a REDISTRIBUTION program by any other name.
You can’t “afford” it. Get out and get something you can afford.
However, Obama is all about Redistribution. He and his party are all about “fairness”, that’s a code word for redistribution.
So, if you are Poor and think you deserved to live in a great big mansion, and got some stupid lender to do a 1% loan and you moved into the “home of your dreams”, then I, a taxpayer, should help make those payments so the “poor” and “disadvantaged” can have a nice house. Wrong. Foreclose. Move them out. Get them a nice 800 s.f. flat or a trailer.
This whole “crises” can be over in a flash when we just foreclose and REPRICE all the McMansions.
is all about simply providing “government aide” to specific groups of people. It is a REDISTRIBUTION program by any other name.
That is correct to a great extent but that’s a buzzword concept that doesn’t really mean that much in the sense that one political party does it and one doesn’t.
For example the political parties sent in place government policies the past thirty years that have made the top one percent many times richer than 30 years ago while the middle class has shrunk greatly in wealth and power.
In a real way, that is redistribution too by definition. It was way more covert, slow and indirect however serious redistribution nonetheless. How about the redistribution of the middle-class jobs to China? Or the redistribution of higher paid jobs to contract labor, pension funds to 401K’s, union labor to illegals? Both parties are guilty of the same thing in different ways.
That is why it’s odd to hear buzzword cries like redistribution against one party when we’ve been experiencing redistribution for the entire history of this country and never more so unfairly for the poor and middle class than in the past 30 years IMO.
One party cannot be evil and the other a saint. It just ain’t working that way now.
This whole “crises” can be over in a flash when we just foreclose and REPRICE all the McMansions.
But I do agree with this point and others of yours too. My above comment was a general point about BOTH parties are culpable for most of America’s problems and sometimes a re-balancing will happen.
The delicate balance between the Employer profits and the Employee share and cost of living requiring regulation of capitalism redistributed
more wealth to the middle class ..no question . Otherwise under pure capitalism you would just have a rich class and a poor
class ,monopolies would result and everything that has been proven in history . Regulation of capitalism is a attempt to level out the playing field and prevent inhumane exploitation of the powerless ,or who would be slaves to the Company Store who would always have more power . They got the balance pretty good for a number of years in America ,otherwise the middle class would not of grown the way it did . Most likely a larger middle class allowed for more money going into the tax coffers overall for what should be social good . it just seems to me that this is the most effective use
of money to benefit the most amount of people ,while it still allowed for incentive and reward to create greater productivity .
The fact that the World seems to be revolving around Wall Street now,instead of investment in Wall Street just being a by product of a productive Society is the faulty premise in the new takeover of the systems including the gaming of Globalism . If the Corporations can’t exploit American workers let them exploit other Countries slave labor markets.
Allow imports without proper tariffs to the point where it crushes all ability to compete and manufacture in America ,whereby more monopolies are formed ,not less .
Nothing good can come from the new redistribution of wealth to the greed power players that will destroy the middle and upper middle class in the long run .Is the world going to be a better place if America’s middle class is destroyed ?
I agree with your analysis, with the exception of “The delicate balance between the Employer profits and the Employee share and cost of living”.
It’s not just the “Employee share”, it’s also the “Small Business share” of the pie that is shrinking rapidly.
Some regulation of capitalism (especially monopolies) is necessary not just to limit exploitation of the powerless, but more importantly to promote competition and to level the playing field for smaller entrants.
Right NYCHK ,small business has been getting hammered for a long time ,and many small business owners have had to close down because they couldn’t compete . Does Wal Mart buy its
products from American manufactures ?No ,Wal Mart buys its
products from Foreign cheap wage manufacturing and than they force American manufacturing to compete or not get in their stores . This is a monopoly that has destroy level playing field competition .
Great posts by both of you, Wiz and Rio.
There’s even more Obama interference in the free markets that is revealed here:
The free markets? Wrong. In a free market greed, stupidity, and recklessness results in a Darwinian culling of the herd. In a rigged market, profit is privatized and risk is socialized.
Guess which one we have?
Regulated capitalism is the only thing that works IMHO ,but
to much government interference is another matter that changes the whole equation, especially when profit is privatized and risk is socialized as you say Sammy .
Had the lending industry been regulated proper ,instead of Bankers and Borrowers gone mania greed mad in a highly unregulated lending market , riddled with fraud ,you wouldn’t have a issue of a need for a global financial rescue . You can see that unbridled greed ends up destroying any system under pure capitalism and the money just ends up in a few elite hands .
This Country had to come up with a lot of laws or regulations
for orderly business and good faith in business dealings ,also to keep the systems from getting rigged .
Joseph Kennedy in the 20 ’s use the play the Stock market and he said in essence that he wanted to take advantage before the Government might take away the opportunities and regulate it .He ended up helping to make the regulations
in that casino .
I admit that some protection of the public is necessary ,as it is in the meat packing industry ,or any other industry .
While I’m Libertarian-minded, a reasonable degree of regulation is absolutely warranted. Especially when you have predatory capital that can do enormous economic damage when given the unfettered opportunity to engage in reckless and deceptive behavior in the name of “shareholder value” and profits - just look at Toyota. Or Wall Street. We need a system of checks and balances that looks out for the general welfare. Big Business has proven it is incapable of policing itself.
Regulated capitalism is the problem not the solution. As long as the government defines the winners and loser through regulation (supporting their friends and lobbyists) we will never progress and lasting growth. If the Fed and other ilks that create something for nothing stop interfering at the top levels of business then we could have true capitalism … until this happens we unfortunately need regulation and will have bailouts and the associated moral hazards to teach our children that theft is the best way to win!
You forgot - After I live in it for free for 2-3 years…
This is a VERY bad idea. Banks rejected cram-down before, but now that they are threatened with the even more dire prospect of mass walkouts, they may be more amenable now.
However, I imagine that the only way the Obama Admin can “force” banks to cram down is to use the printing press to make up any shortfall. Banks are made whole, FB’s are made whole, renters and responsible people get the Joshua tree. And I’m sure there’s a way for the banks to use the opportunity to take Main Street hostage, again.
To be fair to Obama, please note that Obama&Co. always say that they are “open to all possibilities” and so forth, just to appear accomodating to all parties. In the end, it’s important to see what they actually DO. They were “open” to the $15K tax credit and it never happened. They were “open” to helping homeowners, but they very quietly means tested and found that very few qualified. We just need to wait. I predict that this new cramdown craze will fizzle as the last one did.
[and before reponds "O, but oxide, don't you favor cramdown," my answer is, yes, I do. But only a draconian version. In my version, each cramdown would be on a case-by-case basis. Each FB would have to go through bankruptcy court, and face down a stern judge. The FB would have to work for it, and really want it -- you can't just fill out a government form and wait for a damn check. The cram-down would be recorded as a comp. I was anticipating a slow turnover, giving lots of time for house prices to drop even more. I also anticipate a low success rate -- after all, our strawberry picker does NOT belong in a McMansion, no matter how socialist the gov. In other words, just enough cramdowns to pop the bubble for good, teach banks and FBs a lesson, and change the psychology, but monetarily not enough to made a material dent in the economy.]
‘The Obama administration is… open to …including the possibility’
Yeah, and they were going to reform health care too.
Just read that Michigan Messenger article from yesterdays post and consider who is being delusional and who has the law on their side on this stuff.
My initial response to this was shear anger. I doubt it will come to pass, and even if it does, the effect will be short-lived, largely ineffectual, and just like every other government (taxpayer funded and supported) effort to keep home prices perpetually high. In short, the worst that can happen from this program is that the status quo remains: home prices are flat, idiots continue to overpay for houses they can’t afford, and mega-bank incorporated and the pension funds capture one more $1500 payment from Joe Six-Pack so Joe Six-Pack can continue to receive his $500 pension.
Hope and change is a great idea, but $0.99 doesn’t even buy you a cup of coffee anymore.
If that isn’t proof of Newspeak from 1984 taking root, I don’t know what is….
Fannie n Freddie: “Making too expensive too affordable since 1984!…”
My initial response to this was shear anger.
OK, not to be a grammar Nazi, but shear anger is what you feel when you get a bad haircut (the literal kind). Sheer anger is what you feel when you read the morning paper and see how your Republicrat “representative” is squandering your tax dollars and transferring crippling debts onto your children’s generation.
“…shear anger is what you feel when you get a bad haircut…”
… on a falling knife real estate investment.
Yes. That usage is also acceptable.
‘The Obama administration is… open to …including the possibility’
“Yeah, and they were going to reform health care too.”
Their mouths sure do open a lot nowadays.
You know what I love about this?
The unintended consequence of the “Home Affordable Mortgage Program” will be to maintain home prices at unaffordable levels.
If that isn’t proof of Newspeak from 1984 taking root, I don’t know what is….
Bad Chile –
Posters here have often noted the broader irony of the tendency of Uncle Sam’s ‘Affordable Housing’ policy to drive home prices through the roof. Do you think anyone involved in cooking up these crazy schemes even passed a college microeconomics course?
I don’t think for a moment that cram downs could or would work, never have. I’ve just said ‘they’ may be willing to try. The PTB are obviously throwing darts all over the board.
What it does cause is uncertainty, which in turn causes people to pull back and wait and see what happens. That’s one of those unintended consequences.
So, expect more unexpected!
Chile, Newspeak names for legislation existed far before the Obama Admin. Actually, Newspeak names for legislation probably existed far before Newspeak did.
Ben, the jury is still out on health care legislation. Whether or not it is “reform” is a debate for another day.
I agree that the politician in Michigan is an idiot. He’s promising something which is currently illegal, in the name of giveaways to voters who are greater idiots. (semi-lib that I am, direct giveaways are a no-no.)
“The PTB are obviously throwing darts all over the board.”
If a dart misses the board, there is always the printing press technology to provide more bail to any financiers whose gambling kitty goes underwater as a result.
Geez you guys, I haven’t even had my first cup of joe…
1st entry: wmbz = post-a-rumor …vs…it-ain’t-gonna-happen
Are you detecting a pattern here?
Yeah…back to Contract Law.
Sheesh, even your simple checking or credit union saving account is in essence a contract loan for the banks to use your deposits in return for interest, as meager as it may be.
Without the implied full faith and credit of the United States Government and it’s protection by FDIC or NCUA, nobody would trust even everyday simple financial contracts.
You start talking cram-downs, mortgage modifications on principal or interfering with the foreclosure processes and you’re going pucker the butts of lenders so tight that a penny wouldn’t past through the banking system even with a heavy dose of caster oil.
“…you’re going pucker the butts of lenders so tight that a penny wouldn’t past through the banking system even with a heavy dose of caster oil.”
That’s where Subprime Sam’s FHA lending program comes into play… nothing like getting poor folks to catch themselves falling knives, then pretending forever more the government had nothing to do with it.
Hey, what’s wrong with the DeLusions?
We had them over for dinner last week at the Coeur d’Alene Unicorn Ranch for a tasty meal of chocolate butterfly wings and marinated Tinkerbelles. We all agreed that Washington DC is filled with caring and helpful people who deserve our unabated trust. We’re filled with Hope that they will Change things for the better.
Lalalalalalalala.
Treasury’s Homeownership Preservation Office
Just think about how perverted the very existence of such an office is.
We have no mortgage. We will obtain a mortgage, make no payments, get a principal reduction, and then pay off the new lower balance. Free money!
Be sure you buy the biggest house you can ‘afford.’
In the meantime AIG lost 8,9 billion and may need more money from the gov.,if you want to get mad about more money going to bail out the gambling games .
If the Banks pay for the cram down themselves thats one thing ,but I think they are suggesting that the Government pays for these cram downs . The moral hazard would trigger the effect that the above posters stated ,creating more foreclosures .It doesn’t make sense to cram down when the real estate prices are in a constant state of flux ,and as the market goes down more the borrower will need repeated new cram downs in order to stay if equity is the only thing holding them there .
Look,its just human nature that people will create the situation to get the free stuff . If you look at what % of the foreclosed properties were speculation purchases anyway ,why do we care if the property goes back to the Bank in that the loan contract was a joke to begin with . The original concept of loan modifications was that they would take these people out of toxic loans that were to high on the adjusted rates that they never should of been put into to begin with and replace it with a more affordable loan . That wasn’t good enough and the high default rate on the loan modifications proved that it wasn’t enough ,and often times having equity was the only thing that would hold a borrower to a house . How much is it going to take to get gamblers ,I mean borrowers ,to want to keep their house and pay their bills. If the motive of borrowers was to get easy money ,the Government will give the borrowers this easy money at the expense of the rest of needs of this Society . Ben posted a case the other day where the borrowers spend over 300k of equity ,or it might be sitting in a bank somewhere ,and they still want to be rescued on their mortgage . Pay my mortgage for me ,while I still get to keep the money I pulled out …come on .
With foreclosure supply constantly building up ,the Government can’t really create a upbeat real estate market . It would be
like trying to raise stock market prices when everyone wants to sell and there wasn’t buyers . By 2006 the industry borrowed into the future by selling real estate to every Tom ,Dick, and Harry they could get their hands on .
This was a bad idea to mess with loan contracts to begin with
because they were simply the result of a Ponzi scheme over-inflated market . This market tampering on this needed correction is a bunch of BS . It’s reached the point where the Banks have us blackmailed and the borrowers want to do the same thing in the attitude I will walk unless you give me money .I say walk sucker ,and go BK Banks .
“Treasury’s Homeownership Preservation Office”
That’s an actual office???? Wha????
How about… the Treasury having:
a “Treasury Preservation Offfice”… or better yet
a “Dollar Valuation Preservation Office”
Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!
On a lighter note…. remember this one?
“Department of Redundancy Department”
I suggest a “Department of Megabank, Inc Bonus Preservation.”
That existed, but was outsourced years ago to a new entity.
“Department of Megabank, Inc Bonus Preservation” was kind of awkward though, so they called it the “Federal Reserve”.
How about a Department of Joshua Tree Deinsertion?
Firesign Theater, “Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers”:
“Your insecurity will be assured by the Department of Redundancy Department, and the Natural Guard.”
What do I win?
Maybe they should call it Treasury’s Homeownership Preservation Orifice.
I can see the heavily subsidized GSEs going along with this plan. After all, the GSEs are buying up all the old maid cards. In addition, doesn’t the fed have 1.5 trillion shazams worth of MBSs on its balance sheet?
Yeah, they’ll “aggressively consider” all proposals. Then do what Goldman Sachs orders them to do.
Having lived through the Savings & Loan debacle, I can tell you what will happen:
They will either modify the mortgages or they will eat it and go under.
The equivalent was the RTC (Resolution Trust Company) which took over the properties from the failed institutions back then for a hefty discount.
Banker sees U.S. failed bank tally hitting 1,000
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - About 1,000 U.S. banks could fail as a result of the recent banking crisis that saddled financial institutions with large portfolios of bad loans, a leading investment banking executive said on Thursday.
James Dunne, senior managing principal of Sandler O’Neill, said 300 to 400 banks could be seized this year, especially as institutions start to deal with deteriorating commercial real estate loans.
“This is going to be a very slow recovery,” Dunne said in an interview with Reuters.
“This is going to be a very slow recovery,”
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
“This is going to be a very slow recovery,”
Based on the latest examples of what represents “slow recovery”, it merely seems to mean we’re not in free fall. Which, I suppose, maybe makes if possible to slowly recover after impact some day way down the line. Most likely that recovery won’t be to any recently known state.
At least they didn’t use “unexpectedly” again.
They only use that word after something which was obviously going to happen happens, not before.
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
LOL.
You fell victim to one of the classic blunders - The most famous of which is “never get involved in a land war in Asia” - but only slightly less well-known is this: “Never go against the Fed when money is on the line”!
“Never go against the Fed when money is on the line”
Speaking thereof, how about that Euro?
When the Euro was introduced, I wonder if the English betting establishments took wagers on how long the Euro currency would last. According to wiki, the Euro was introduced on January 1, 1999.
Did the bookies set the over/under line for the Euro’s demise at 12 years?
The zeuro ™…
And of course the Americans did both.
Good morning fellow frogs. Does the water feel hot to you too?
You get used to it, like a hot tub. Hop on in.
*bud* *weiiis* *err*
LOL. Two great zingers, including a blast from the past.
The regulars are in fine form today!
At first I thought you were talking about French people and baths (or showers). Then I realized the obvious error on my part.
If you’re vacationing in France and you want to secure your valuables, hide them under the soap.
Sammy that reminds me of an old joke.
How do you starve a (fill in your favorite group) ?
Hide his welfare check under his work boots.
“Slow recovery?”
How “no recovery.” At least, not for the rich.
“…How about…”
My eyes are burning today and I’m really PO’d at a deadbeat customer.
Update from the Cram-a-Thon
Hundreds of desperate homeowners line up for help at PBC Convention Center this morning
Allen Eyestone/Palm Beach Post
Enlarge Photo Barbara Gayle (left) and Suzette Lee (hidden), both of Port St. Lucie, give Joseph Desire a hug after Desire was able to reduce his monthly mortgage by over $1800.00. Desire was able to modify his 8.7 percent variable interest rate to a 3 percent fixed rate on his home in New York.
By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 8:23 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010
WEST PALM BEACH — The extent of the nation’s housing crisis was tangible Thursday morning. It stretched the length of one side of Palm Beach County’s Convention Center as hundreds of homeowners, wrapped in blankets and travel-weary after flying from as far away as California, waited for the salvation of a mortgage modification.
Welcome to the “Save-a-Thon” — five days of around-the-clock loan woe turnarounds sponsored by the Boston-based Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, or NACA.
And while the event seemed at times like a church revival as homeowners with success stories were brought to a microphone to testify, there were sincere solutions occurring on the convention center floor.
Teresa Holston, a registered nurse who traveled from Los Angeles for the event, started crying when she spoke of her new 2 percent interest rate, a reduction from 9 percent.
“It’s like a new lease on life,” said Holton, who got in trouble when she refinanced her home and broke up with a boyfriend who was paying part of the mortgage. “I am just so grateful.”
Thursday’s event began with pep rally-style cheers from NACA counselors.
“We are NACA,” a man screamed into a microphone.
“We are NACA,” more than 200 counselors echoed.
” Mighty, mighty NACA.”
“Mighty, mighty NACA.”
“travel-weary after flying from as far away as California, waited for the salvation of a mortgage modification.”
WAIT A MINUTE here…
You mean.. these people have money to fly across the country… stay in hotels.. rent a car… eat out at restaurants..
B-B-B-B-B-BUT….
…. they don’t have enough money to PAY THEIR MORTGAGE???
Am I missing something here?? Do the loan-mod nazis even ask these questions??
“…You mean.. these people have money to fly across the country… stay in hotels.. rent a car… eat out at restaurants..
B-B-B-B-B-BUT….
…. they don’t have enough money to PAY THEIR MORTGAGE???…”
I don’t get it either.
Desire was able to modify his 8.7 percent variable interest rate to a 3 percent fixed rate on his home
So, the bank now gets 3% for 30 years vs 8.7+% …and of course, Mr. banker has to go into his vault every 5 years with a sad demeanor and knock the dust of the deed right?
Was reading a post past on some of the mortgage modifications. Some of them have very long forbearance on the principle. So the loan goes for 15 years at some low rate BUT then you have a kicker of x principle that still needs to be payed.
It is like… uh… so maybe in time for the next bubble?
Desire was able to modify his 8.7 percent variable interest rate
A dude named Desire? An unemployed cast member from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, I’m guessing.
Same story at the Sun Sentinel. Make sure to check out picture 9 in the photogallery:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/fl-loan-modification-seminar-pg,0,1698719.photogallery
Nice to see that lady in there requesting a modification wearing a thousand dollar jacket and a 400 dollar scarf. And, living in FL, it certainly makes sense to spend that kind of money (when you can’t pay your MTG) on winter clothes; lord knows we use them all the time.
Worse yet, she`s from Los Angeles. Besides the cost of the flight, she probably paid extra for luggage. Although I am sure she is being instructed by the NACA to write off the cost of the trip and the clothes as a business expense.
As they hand her an ACORN registration form.
Hey, if it’s good enough for the rich…
Good for the goose, good for the gander.
I see a lot of computers in the photos, but not a whole lot of printers. So when these FBs were told they’d get their paperwork in the mail next week, will it instead be a letter that they didn’t qualify for a modification after all? And for all the people in line, only a handful are carrying folders or bags large enough to contain tax returns, pay stubs and other evidence proving they need a modification. I doubt the unprepared among the crowd are going to leave happy.
Cynical, I know, but we’ve been reading news stories on this blog for at least a year now telling how extremely difficult it is to get a loan mod. If mods were as easy as showing up somewhere with a computer hook-up, more folks would have had them by now.
I made a comment (hasn’t shown up yet) about why there aren’t more printers (in ratio to all the computers set up to do mods) in the photographs. Ignore it. I realized that most of these FBs probably didn’t read their original mortgage documents so why bother killing the trees for the modification?
Rates haven’t been 8.7% for a long time. When did Desire buy his home? 1991? He probably has enough equity to qualify for a mod at any corner bank, without the help of NACA.
Enough of the anecdotal sap. Show me some hard data. How many showed up total, how many got refinances, what type of loan, how much, when did they buy the house…
Don’t get too worked up. So many of these are extend and pretend loans. Those houses will just grind those people to dust and keep price suppression going for a long long time.
Save and invest in other stuff and you will be fine. Plenty of other markets will recover while this stuff rots for twenty years.
“It’s like a new lease on life,” said Holton, who got in trouble when she refinanced her home and broke up with a boyfriend who was paying part of the mortgage. “I am just so grateful.”
Give most of these people about two years, and they’ll once again have landed themselves in some financial jam.
‘Living wage,’ employee benefits could factor into awarding of government contracts ~ February 26, 2010
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is looking at a new policy that would give an advantage in bidding on government contracts to companies that offer generous benefits and good pay.
But business groups opposing the idea maintain it would shut out smaller businesses from competing for more than $500 billion a year in federal contracts and increase government procurement costs.
The policy is known as “high road” contracting and could draw the Obama administration into a larger debate over whether the government should use public purse strings to strengthen the middle class and promote higher labor standards.
Advocates of the plan include unions. They say too many jobs financed by government contracts come with low wages and limited benefits and support companies that violate employment laws.
The Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, estimates that nearly 20 percent of the 2 million federal contract workers in the U.S. earn less than the poverty threshold wage of $9.91 per hour. As many as 22 million workers are employed by federal contractors.
The problem is, those who don’t benefit from those provisions will be taxed to pay for them.
Perhaps the Democrats have learned from the Republicans that redistributing income up is the way to win elections.
“Perhaps the Democrats have learned from the Republicans that redistributing income up is the way to win elections.”
Ever hear of LBJ?
Yeah…Long Binh Jail — Vietnam.
That’s where my colonel threatened to send me if ever got drunk and tried to steal another USAF C-130 and fly home by myself.
There was a big difference between “LBJ” and “the LBJ”.
Ever hear of “Both parties suck”?
omg, more feelgood paperwork for GSA conyracts,,,,
er, contracts..
So now govt contracts go to the HIGHEST bidder. Wonderful!
Isn’t privatizing government functions wonderful?
What happened to wanting to strengthen small businesses?
BTW, I understand, and share, a moral uneasiness with obtaining goods and services from a source that abuses or exploits. (Hence the uneasiness many here have expressed with certain mega-marts, imports from less-than-free countries, etc.) If you don’t want sweatshop type items, that should extend to your fellow countrymen as well.
I also keep coming back to the idea that Henry Ford was smart enough to realize that if workers had some money they would be able to buy cars. I want to live decently and with dignity and wish that for my country as well.
Not sure how to most of our problems, but the race to the bottom for the cheapest frightens me. When you see an unemployed friend finally find an new job at a very significant pay cut, it makes you stop and think “there but for the grace of god”.
correction: Not sure how to SOLVE most of our problems
(need more coffee)
My father once told me that it’s easier to ask interesting questions than to provide convincing answers. ‘Course he was talking about how movies, books, plays etc. often begin well and have disappointing endings.
It’s hard to write a good story, let’s face it. Most everything in the movies is just entertainment on-the-way-to some stupid ending.
There are no longer any great American industrialists. The current crop of our wealthiest citizens are all software developers, retailers (aka the Waltons) or financiers.
I have two friends who own and run small businesses that actually make things. One produces medical devices, the other strobe lights. They were both fortunate to be born into families that already owned these businesses and were able to buy out/take over these businesses. The amount of education, time and dedication my friends have poured into their work is impressive. Between them, they employ over a hundred skilled workers as well as office staff. It’s true that they each had a head start by not having to begin from nothing. But I often wonder why there aren’t more people like them.
Because many people like them have taken the name/goodwill of the company built up by their families, outsourced the factory work to Mexico and China and now have only a small sales and marketing staff in the US?
Those people have taken the easy way to profit. I guess the responsibility of having employees and nuts-n-bolts factories is just too much of a burden for a lot of second or third or fourth generation business owners.
It’s no longer a matter of being responsible, or being nice.
If you don’t don’t cut corners or outsource, then you have high expenses. You either raise prices to where nobody will buy your product, or you cut profits to where nobody will buy your stock. It doesn’t matter which you choose, because eventually Wal-Mart will find your product and have no compunction about reverse engineering it in China, putting you out of business anyway.
Welcome to the race to the bottom, where the standard of living for 300 million people is being spread over about 1.5 billion people. Soon we’ll all live in mud huts and live on one bowl of rice a day.
It’s a race to the bottom on a rocket sled.
There are many reasons small businesses struggle. Bad management. Antagonistic local government. Toxic customers. Lack of innovation.
But the biggest problem is that big corporations hate small businesses and they have the power to play dirty.
Because about 1980 or so, the financial types figured out that there was more money to be made by leveraged buyouts, hostile takeovers, and parting out companies, because the pieces were worth more than the company as a whole. All the way, making a commission off the turmoil.
While at the same time, thru various regulatory requirements, raising the cost of doing business for people that actually MAKE STUFF. No cost-benefit analysis whatsoever. Usually, just some kind of knee-jerk reaction to some high profile event.
Originally, outsourcing was done to get away from environmental regulations (certain industrial processes became basically impossible to do in this country). Only after those jobs were exported were the labor cost savings discovered. Then the transportation system morphed into something that took advantage of the labor costs.
Damn, those unintended consequences……..
I wondering what industrial process became impossible to do
without outsourcing the manufacturing . When you look at China they are one polluted Country now .
In spite of it costing more money for products ,I think most Americans were happy about more restraints on manufacturing
being able to pollute . This was the next progression in the clear manufacturing campaign . I don’t know what is actually financially unrealistic in wanting “clean “manufacturing ,but I’m sure that it cost a lot more . Was it unrealistic to think that this was possible to do ?
Those who’s jobs went to countries without environmental costs which were then allowed to export to the USA weren’t happy. Mainly office type/government workers were OK with closing down manufacturing; enjoy your trout and walleyes.
But is it even possible to compete with China when it refuses to
clean up their pollution in manufacturing ,along with the fact that the average wage is 75 cents a hour ?
Mainly office type/government workers were OK with closing down manufacturing; enjoy your trout and walleyes.
——————–
I’ve never known any govt workers or office workers who thought outsourcing was a good thing.
Outsourcing benefitted financiers and corporate types, as well as shareholders. Workers of any stripe did not benefit from outsourcing.
I hope you all know that this is an idea straight out of the Land of Stinkin’. Seriously, that’s part of state contract langauge here.
The Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, estimates that nearly 20 percent of the 2 million federal contract workers in the U.S. earn less than the poverty threshold wage of $9.91 per hour. As many as 22 million workers are employed by federal contractors.
This is why average wages for gov workers appear higher. The gov outsourced all of these jobs that don’t get counted. A contractor pays them nothing and pockets the difference.
We have a winner.
Strong growth in fourth quarter likely to slow throughout 2010 as recovery weakens.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Don’t count on the economic growth spurt at the end of 2009 to carry into this year.
The economy grew at a blistering 5.7 percent pace in the final quarter of last year, according to a preliminary government estimate. And an updated estimate due out Friday is expected to produce the same figure, according to Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters.
Roughly two-thirds of last quarter’s growth came from a burst of manufacturing — but not because consumer demand was especially strong.
Rather, factories were churning out goods for businesses that had let their stockpiles dwindle to save cash. If consumer spending remains lackluster as expected, that burst of manufacturing — and its contribution to economic activity — will fade.
Reading between the lines, that means the real GDP is about 2.0 percent. More snake oil.
Still, that argues that there is MORE actual consumer demand than there appeared to be ~1 year ago, because shrinking inventories mean that production was less than consumption. So we’re bouncing around, trying to find the level of production that will support current demand. The real worry is that we still haven’t determined whether the current level of demand is supportable over the long term.
Posted this the other day in response to Muggy’s fears about inflation and why he feels it might be a good time to buy right now:
—————-
Sorry to hear about your conflict, Muggy. We are experiencing the same doubts here for the very same reasons — bad areas declined, but the govt bailouts were rolled out just in time to save the more desirable neighborhoods. Quite frankly, a lot of homes are selling for **above** their “peak” prices.
It’s not only wage inflation that can push up prices. If the dollar depreciates enough, plenty of foreign money can come in and buy up a tremendous amount of our inventory — and it’s happening already. I’m hearing from multiple sources about Chinese money buying up massive amounts of land and houses.
We are also seeing plenty of Europeans, but the Asians are all over the place. Of course, this is San Diego, so we might be more attractive to foreigners, but they are lining up to buy overpriced condos…just like during the bubble.
We’ve made multiple offers on houses at prices we thought were reasonable (below current “market” prices, even though they weren’t “pre-bubble” prices), and have been outbid every single time.
I am feeling poorer now than a few years ago. Once upon a time, $100,000 was a lot of money. I get the feeling that it means much less than it used to.
Once upon a time, $100,000 was a lot of money.
It still is in flyover country. You need to get out of California.
No kidding.
Heard a guy talking about his new salary the other day (won’t say who, but had reason to believe him)…….said even though he was making “$100,000″ less a year than he was making in California, his standard of living was higher, because of lower taxes, and a lower cost of living.
Flyover Country was the first place jobs were “outsourced”.
Both Coasts enjoyed boom times shipping in stuff from importers; they laughed at the rust belt’s manufacturing outsourcing troubles. And now, it’s your turn in the frying pan. The Obomunist wont be welcome here in Ohio since his foreclosure $$ plan doesnt include us. But, he’s sure to help you out in keeping those prices up for a few more years. Enjoy!
Um, I’ve never supported outsourcing, and have always supported unions and workers’ rights.
Never liked importing more than we exported, either.
Believe it or not, most real (read: native) Californians have more in common with the “flyover state” folks than one would imagine. It’s usually the imports from other states and countries who try to **act** like they’re from California and take on the obnoxious personalities they find in Hollywood movies and TV shows.
“We are also seeing plenty of Europeans, but the Asians are all over the place. Of course, this is San Diego, so we might be more attractive to foreigners, but they are lining up to buy overpriced condos…just like during the bubble.”
Sounds highly reminiscent of the influx of Japanese real estate investors to what they thought was oversold U.S. commercial RE circa 1990. Turns out these greater fools caught themselves falling knives.
The average investor apparently has great difficulty with timing asset price crashes which play out over years rather than days. Just ask any Japanese investor who thought their stock market would come back within a few years of 1990, and is still waiting.
On a geological scale it has been just a blink of the eye. Perhaps they are taking a really really long term view.
Course you might want to start buying real estate under the ocean because we are running out of land.
I was thinking that thanks to global warming, now might be a great time to invest in frozen underwater Greenland real estate? I suppose a smart financier could set up an arbitrage play by shorting coastal Florida and California housing which will soon be underwater thanks to the catastrophically rising sea levels in the next few years as the polar ice caps melt away and the polar regions turn into tropical paradises while the Earth’s temperate zones turn into vast deserts?
I’m thinking the same thing.
Buy oceanfront property in West Virginia.
Personally I’m short “global warming” . . . .
Ice Age. Coming to a continent near you.
Put that in the circular file with “Peak Oil”.
“But not everybody’s in a hurry to change things. Tim Geithner, who testified yesterday before the House Budget Committee, said the Administration doesn’t plan to roll out an overhaul plan for Fannie and Freddie until next year.
“We want to make sure that we are proposing these changes at a time when we have a little bit more distance from the worst housing crisis in generations,” Geithner said, according to the Associated Press”
From Planet Money, NPR
Didn’t Fannie and Freddie already get overhauled in Fall 2008?
Its not a housing crisis Mr Treasury . Its a faulty lending correction
after a false Mania that Wall Street Money Changers created with their faulty loan contracts ,that was the direct result from misrepresentation
of risk in real estate backed securities .
Tankxs HWiz…another fine summation!
Reposted from late in the day yesterday:
Lots of important data contained in this release from Elizabeth Warren regarding bank’s exposure to commercial real estate. I think a few of you will really enjoy it:
http://www.thedailymiddle.com/2010/02/25/elizabeth-warren-2988-banks-are-currently-classified-as-having-a-risky-concentration-of-commercial-real-estate-loans.html
Elizabeth Warren, “2,988 Banks Are Currently Classified as Having a Risky Concentration of Commercial Real Estate Loans.”
From the link:
The largest loan losses are projected for 2011 and beyond. But the stress test conducted on big Wall Street banks last year examine their stability only through 2010. Even more significantly, Community Banks tend to hold much greater concentrations of commercial Real Estate than big Wall Street banks. But Community Banks never underwent any stress tests at all.”
——————–
Thank you for posting that, CarrieAnn. Looks like more damage in 2011 and beyond (what many of us had thought).
BTW, my husband had some training to do in a commercial building the other week. Said it was bigger than a football field, and three stories high. The entire thing was empty, but there were no “for sale” or “for lease” signs outside. San Diego County
Headline: Housing Recovery Is Looking A Lot Shakier Than Expected cnbc 2/26/10
The recent slump in housing is making some analysts uneasy about a recovery that many thought sustainable just a couple months ago and comes at a time when the Federal Reserve is nearing the end of a critical, year-long program to support the mortgage market.
“Housing is at a pivotal, ambiguous point,” says Ted Gayer, co-director of Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution…“The data is telling us that it is weaker than we’ve been anticipating,” says Pat Newport, a housing analyst at Global Insight. “What the housing market has needed all along is a better economy.”
…the government’s mortgage modification program meant to avert foreclosures “is doing nothing more than prolonging the housing recovery. It is doing more harm than good.”
The recent slump in housing is making some analysts uneasy about a recovery that many thought sustainable just a couple months ago and comes at a time when the Federal Reserve is nearing the end of a critical, year-long program to support the mortgage market.
—————–
Gee, imagine that. The numbers are “weaker than expected” just as the Fed is supposed to wind down some of their ridiculous housing props. Guess that’ll keep ‘em from raising interest rates or taking away any housing giveaways!
What happened to all the green shoots they were talking about this past year?
“What happened to all the green shoots they were talking about this past year?”
All the favored groups that got the “stimulus” money have gone out and “consumed” all that they could. But, now, all the money has been spent and they can’t consume anymore.
We need a SECOND STIMULUS, right away, to divert a complete collapse of the financial system. $900 Billion just wasn’t enough.
We need to think in terms of a couple TRILLION.
I’ve got it!! Let’s force people into a 2 Trillion dollar Health Care Program, which forces them to pay the government more taxes to divert to more of Obama’s “consumers”. Yea. That will fix it!
So the shakiness was “unexpected?”
is making some analysts uneasy about a recovery that many thought sustainable just a couple months ago
“Sustainable”? On what planet? Did J6P’s debt vanish or did his wages suddenly increase?
Right Colorado . It all comes back to jobs and income and you can’t
inflate a fake housing bubble after it crashes . Recovery to the peak prices will take years ,unless they pull more absurd interventions .
“jobs and income”
That’s the elephant under the rug that Washington and Wall Street want to avoid discussing. How they have created a hostile business environment for people that make stuff, in favor of a business environment that promotes money shuffling.
+1
“…A Lot
ShakierWorse Than Expected”Why not use the same qualification of “unexpected” that the rest of the planet uses?
PB: Seems that the “U” word reared its ugly head in the reuters piece regarding the 7.2% drop in used home sales.
I am confused, i would say the housing RECOVERY is going quite well. Just not as fast as I’d like. Why do they want values to stop falling and stall the recovery?
Exactly. Let housing prices fall to where they are truly affordable (taking up no more than 30% of take-home income), and the market will be miraculously healed!
Is this really not painfully obvious to the PTB?
Greenspan Says Crisis ‘By Far’ Worst, Recovery Uneven
bloomberg.com
The financial crisis was caused by a “fundamental misjudgment in the marketplace,” Greenspan said. Greenspan defended markets, because other forms of economic organization are worse.
Greenspan said he wants the subprime mortgage market to return. “I hope we can find a way of resurrecting the subprime market,” because it was working well until those mortgages were widely securitized, he said.
That World War II thing was working out great till people started dying all over the place.
Greenspan said he wants the subprime mortgage market to return. “I hope we can find a way of resurrecting the subprime market,” because it was working well until those mortgages were widely securitized, he said.
The old man’s now gone completely batty.
Yeah it “worked well” as long as housing prices were rising, as fed by… subprime lending.
Every Ponzi scheme works well until those damn investors get wise and stop investing it in.
And he acts like securitization started in 2005 or something. Got news for you Greenie - securitization of subprime lending started in 1997, a full 10 years before things went bad. So no - securitization didn’t cause the crash - it caused the bubble itself, fool.
‘“I hope we can find a way of resurrecting the subprime market,” because it was working well until those mortgages were widely securitized, he said.’
– The Hindenberg Dirigible worked well, right up until the point when it exploded.
– The Titanic worked well, right up until when it sunk.
We need more Hindenberg- and Titanic-style financial innovations to resurrect the housing bubble!
On a slightly less flippant note, perhaps the way to go is to bring back subprime loans, but without Megabank, Inc’s subprime mortgage lending securitization sump pump, and under a new name. I suggest ‘Affordable Housing Loans.’
Greenspan is starting to come off like the drunkard in the bar. If he’d just keep his mouth shut no one would know he’s an idiot.
“Greenspan is starting to come off like the drunkard in the bar.”
That’s where too many hair-of-the-dog hangover cures will get ya…
You know if the PRICES are low enough, the loans will be affordable. But lower prices are an “affordability product,” that the powers that be are trying very hard to prevent.
‘But lower prices are an “affordability product,” that the powers that be are trying very hard to prevent.’
Get with the program. Making homes more affordable by lowering their prices is not an acceptable alternative, as anyone in the U.S. with a modicum of wealth or power is a home owner, and many of the wealthier and more powerful are real estate investors or otherwise own assets whose prices are highly and positively correlated with the market values of American housing. The burden of home affordability policy must be shouldered by those with the least wealth and the softest political voices.
True story from the Slim family file:
My aunt saw the Hindenburg flying over her grade school during its final flight. The father of one of her classmates arranged for this overflight. He worked for the company over in Lakehurst, NJ.
Wasn’t until Jean got home from school that she heard about what happened in Lakehurst.
Years ago, an acquaintance was showing me a family ablum that had a bunch of photos of one of the US Navy zeppelins (I don’t recall which one) in the air. Big, but in the end far to fragile to be reliable. As the power/weight ratio of engines became better and better, heavier than air craft got much more capable, but hydrogen and helium didn’t get any lighter.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ulrichp/1362599/
There was another, lesser-known air tragedy on that very same day in Florida. But since no human life was lost, no one cared.
“We need more Hindenberg- and Titanic-style financial innovations to resurrect the housing bubble!”
What we need is more cowbell!
Oh, no. Another “More cowbell!” person on the HBB. (That’s one of my favorite expressions.)
Just for you slim:
Christopher Walken 2007: “I was eating in a restaurant in Singapore, and an Asian couple was at the next table, and the guy turned to me and he said, ‘Chris, you know what this salad needs?’ I said, ‘What?’ He said, ‘More cowbell.’ Recently a guy asked me if I would say ‘More cowbell’ on his answering machine. And I did.”
Too funny. A friend just showed me that clip on YouTube the other day.
“So no - securitization didn’t cause the crash - it caused the bubble itself, fool.”
Now packman, let’s not get all wrapped up in cause and effect type considerations.
I mean, it’s not like the Fed pushing down interest rates caused a spike in demand, that was met with a spike in supply because of fraudently rated bundled mortgage securities.
People like to discuss the “chicken vs. egg” thing with regards to these, but my view is that it’s multigenerational - it’s not a single chicken vs. egg, but rather a proliferation of both of millions of chickens and millions of eggs over the course of many generations. Low rates bred higher prices. Higher rices bred securitization due to low default rates. Securitization bred low rates and increased lending due to low (read: misread) risk factors. Increased lending bred even higher prices. Etc. etc. - a positive feedback loop that just grew and grew. What actually started the loop is somewhat irrelevant; in actuality the loop has existed all along as a part of the normal economy. The key is that additional things were added (high protein chicken feed, in the form of lower Fed rates, deregulation, GSE quotas, etc.) to boost the feedback loop out of its normal benign state.
The real estate secondary loan market was pretty stable for many many years . Usually foreclosures could be traced to a
plant closing down ,or a divorce ,or a medical BK ,or something like that . Down payments allowed for the Banks to resell the asset and cure the defaulting loan . This crash followed a epic fake increase in value , with faulty lending riddled with fraud and unsustainable leverage (after de-regulation ).
Loan risk was misrepresented to the secondary market that provided the funds to begin with during the boom .I won’t even get into the excess supply of money that was out there that contributed to the fake appreciation and easy money.
I don’t want anybody to think that this crash is your common ordinary market correction that has occurred from time to time in the last 50 years . This RE crash is off the charts insanity ,and we are seeing nothing but crazy policies
trying to respond to it . We are also seeing a ongoing attempt to change who wins and who will lose with this government interference ,which is clearly a obstruction of justice and a cover up ,and there is nothing but a bunch of gaming in the aftermath of this crash .All faulty systems still in place .
I’m pretty much in agreement with Housing Wizard here. Pervious market corrections were, for the most part caused BY recessions, not the cause OF recessions. This boom/bust cycle is off the charts huge.* There’s really no painless, or even moderately painful way out of this mess. Huge amounts of wealth are disappearing, and Goldman Sachs is making sure that a minimum of it is comming from them.
*at least if your chart begins ~1955 or so.
That saddest part of having to listen to Greenspan, is having to listen to Greenspan. I wish the media wasn’t so controlled by social managers delivering daily propaganda to the masses.
It’s the same crowd of voices constantly parroted through the networks that we are forced to digest and try to ignore or re-evaluate. Greenspan, Sharpton, Jesse Jackson(not lately), Snaith,
Krugman, Snaith, ACLU lawyers, “informed sources”, “someone close to the administration”, Fishkind, Donna Shalala, and a holy host of other “voices” telling us how the world really is……..or should be.
Biden to Unveil New Rules on US Retirement Savings
Friday, 26 Feb 2010 ~ Reuters
Vice President Joe Biden will unveil Friday rules to help protect workers’ retirement savings accounts as he delivers an annual report of his middle-class task force, a White House official said.
With President Barack Obama’s popularity ratings down in a congressional election year, his administration has sought to focus more on middle-class voters’ concerns about high unemployment, the ailing economy and their families’ troubled finances.
Biden, who heads a year-old panel assigned to improve middle-class living standards, will hold a ceremony at 10 a.m. to announce new Labor Department regulations on workers’ retirement savings.
“These new safeguards will protect workers from conflicts of interest when it comes to financial advisers and their 401(k)s and IRAs,” the White House official said, referring to widely used retirement savings plans.
I’m quite sure these new regulations will only increase the cost of 401(k) accounts to the worker, and do nothing to avoid conflicts of interest. In fact, I dare say, these new regulations are a conflict of interest for the average white-shirt worker.
Let me guess. We’ll be given the opportunity to buy Treasuries to protect our portfolios from unwieldy markets.
And by “opportunity” it is meant “you will buy Treasuries…”
Gotta get the last dollars in the system!
Someone - I don’t remember who - comment a few months ago that the Japanese actually do force their citizens to invest some portion of their retirement in treasuries. I’m curious though if this is really the case, and if so can someone provide a link / information.
AIG posts $9 billion loss ~ February 26, 2010
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — AIG reported a substantial fourth-quarter loss Friday, largely due to costs associated with selling off large stakes in its insurance businesses to reduce the debt it owes to taxpayers.
The New York-based insurance company said it lost $8.9 billion, or $65.51 per share, during the three-month period ended Dec. 31. A year earlier, AIG lost $61.7 billion, the largest quarterly loss in history.
Let’s see: Market rallies on optimism that “the worst” is now behind us and happy days are just around the corner. Dow closes above 10500.
CPS Announces Job Cuts, Paints Dire Budget Outlook
February 25, 2010
Chicago Public Schools is announcing today it’s cutting 500 employees. And district officials warned CPS will not be able to avoid “devastating consequences” without concessions from unions.
The layoffs will begin in mid-March, and will affect central office staff and citywide workers. Budget officials say the district faces a $700 million shortfall next year, but that could hit $1 billion.
HUBERMAN: We’re in the midst of 500 layoffs now. It is our sincere desire to avoid further layoffs, but it’s not up to us. It’s up to Springfield, and it’s up to our unions partnering with us. And we certainly hope they’ll do that.
The FY11 IL budget is going to hit education hard and it’s crunch time here. Next to the word “Black Hole” in the dictionary should be the CPS logo, and tax revenue is still pointing down. This ought to do wonders for the housing market here because when you look at the pie chart of a Cook Co. property tax bill you only really see one slice of significance - CPS.
Man is it getting interesting here, I’m actually on the edge of my seat. Man I wish Pops could have seen this, he warned me and he was right. So glad I listened to my parents instead of tee vee, politicians, and even friends and neighbors = “Buy the biggest house you can afford” - my azz!
“Man I wish Pops could have seen this, he warned me and he was right”
My father is still living,and warned me long ago also,(common sense is a wonderful thing). He sent me an e-mail last year and signed off with…
” I came in during a depression(B.1928)and it looks like I’ll go out in one”
I am convinced that the most effective way to prevent plummeting home values is to enforce the tax code on forgiven debt and repeal the releif that the gov’t is offering. Will this stop values from falling - no but, it will keep them from dropping in a mad panic . In addition, the banks HAVE to go after people doing strategic defaults that still have assetts. It will help the rest of us by removing them from the buying pool while at the same time insulating the banks from further losses. I am not pro bank as much as i am pro-my own 401k.
enforce the tax code on forgiven debt
Seems like a good idea. Problem is - there’s only so much capacity our prisons can handle.
Seriously. How else would this be enforced? Personal bankruptcies are already on a big rise; this would just make it worse, such that the only way to really prevent people from walking would be to put them in jail if they can’t pay off their debts.
While I personally am a fan of debtor’s prison, it’s not fair to implement it post-facto after the greatest credit pinata burst in history. You can’t throw the kids in jail for eating too much candy after they’ve broken into the elephant-sized one you provided.
I think they should let BK play out for those that cant pay but, for those that can- should. If they HELOC’d out for fun and junk, they should pay if they still have remaining assetts. For those of us that showed discretion, we can buy thier toys for pennies on the dollar and be rewarded for not participating. I have no problem with people walking away due to divorce or job loss AND no money to pay. Its the strategic defaults that chap my ass. This behaivior will be priced in to the interest rate of any future loans to the rest of us.
“For those of us that showed discretion, we can buy thier toys for pennies on the dollar and be rewarded for not participating.”
Get with the program, dude. Rewarding the prudent and punishing the profligate is not part of the plan. The whole financial engineering exercise is about qualifying enough plankton for the whales of Megabank, Inc to feast and fatten themselves without limit. Smart consumers make poor whale food.
‘ The whole financial engineering exercise is about qualifying enough plankton for the whales of Megabank, Inc to feast and fatten themselves without limit. Smart consumers make poor whale food.’
Sham-wow!
Too bad for American consumers that the whales who populate the offices of Megabank, Inc are highly-trained orcas.
Sidebar-
For years I have been lamenting to my wife the exorcise in consumerism that all holidays have become especially, X-mas. I dont need or want anymore junk or trinkets. For the last couple of years i have been taking back nearly everything that i am given and have the cash returned to her account. She cant help her-self though. This year i got the Sham-WOW….am slowly trying to convince her we dont need paper towels anymore as she is a papertowl junky. Does anyone else get annoyed by their spouse using a fresh papertowel for each minor wipe?
“Sham-wow!”
Two words, at least four references. Amazing!
I reuse paper towels all the time. Not if they are actually dirty, but I put a paper towel in with the baby carrots to absorb some of the excess water they pack them in. When that towel is soaked, I just hang it over the faucet to air dry and use it for the next bag of carrots. Same thing for a few other “just wet, not dirty” uses.
Don’t even get me started on plastic bags. I can barely remember the last time I bought a box of those. I mean, it was a pretty large box, but reusing plastic bags just makes sense. Fortunately, the recycling trend has made my cheapness look precient.
Instead of paper towels I use what my mother calls a “dish rag” (small waffle-weave cotton towels about 12 x 12, not terrycloth wash cloths for the bath). More absorbent, washable and a pack of 10 or 12 lasts for years.
Also adopted mom’s depression era habit of the “rag bag”, a stash of clothing too damaged to give to charity, cut up into squares for dirty jobs. (Mostly works best with high cotton content though.)
Oh damn — I really did not mean for a picture of BB to pop up when readers click on “orcas” in my post above. I was trying to link a SeaWorld story…many apologies! Chalk it up to Murphy’s Law.
Also adopted mom’s depression era habit of the “rag bag”, a stash of clothing too damaged to give to charity, cut up into squares for dirty jobs. (Mostly works best with high cotton content though.)
Were your mom and my mom separated at birth? Heck, I do the rag bag thing too.
Matter of fact, I’m about to add some more “too crummy to wear” clothes to it. Got some bike tuneup and caulking projects coming up, and those burn through rags like crazy.
“I reuse paper towels all the time.”
I used to work at a small business — thirty employees plus the owner living under one roof as one big happy, if dysfunctional, family. The owner had two managers, each responsible for a major client and the group of employees who worked on the respective accounts.
Manager one (my boss) was very environmental-minded; whenever he washed his hands after using the loo, he would leave behind his wet (but presumably clean) paper towel for subsequent visitors to the john to reuse. By the end of the day, we had used but a small fraction of a tree in the form of one fairly damp paper towel sitting by the bathroom sink.
One day, quite out of the blue, my seemingly-fit boss keeled over and died while working out at Thick Fanny. The next week, while we were all trying to recover from the shock, an irate-looking note scrawled in manager two’s handwriting suddenly appeared in the men’s room:
“Throw soiled paper towels into the trash can.”
No wet paper towels ever again remained at sink side, and many more trees were lost.
OlyGal — that story is for you, babe!
“he would leave behind his wet (but presumably clean) paper towel for subsequent visitors to the john to reuse”
Germs thrive in damp.
I think you might be giving him a lot of credit to think that was ecological consciousness, not laziness. Did he re-use towels others had left behind?
If he’d been ecologically minded he’d have installed a hot air hand dryer and eliminated all paper towels.
“…Does anyone else get annoyed by their spouse using a fresh papertowel for each minor wipe?”
Well………………….. here’s HWy’s POV as xplained to Mr. Cole:
Mr. Cole: “Dad why do lay down a paper towel when you butter the toast or cut up an apple or…”
Hwy: “Well, what do your cats do with their paws in the litter boxs?”
Mr Cole: “Huh?”
Hwy: “Well, when you’re asleep at 3:45am I figure you must have trained your cats not to roam about the kitchen surfaces on their paws, right?
From Mr. Bear’s orca link:
“Another potential issue is whether banks and hedge funds, by taking big bets that Greece would default, are creating a self-fulfilling downward spiral…
Naw, heck no, sheez,…that would be “inconceivable”!
There’s a gym called “Thick Fanny?”
“Another potential issue is whether banks and hedge funds, by taking big bets that Greece would default, are creating a self-fulfilling downward spiral…”
I think they are somehow mixing up legitimate banking activities with the activities of those evil short sellers.
If it get’s to the point where I have to re-use toilet paper, sorry, those trees are just gonna have to pay the price.
Unless someone can explain the “three seashells” to me.
‘There’s a gym called “Thick Fanny?”’
Sorry — my bad case of humor dyslexia is acting up today. I should more properly have said Vic Tanny.
Mortgage “refinance” was the business model of the prior decade, circa 1997-2007. Remember all the bank commercials? Get a HELOC and take that vacation! Lot of folks did. Some used the money to “invest” in more real estate to get more “APPRECIATION (Copyright NAR)”
I personally know someone that took out $450,000 in loans from their waterfront house, previously purchased for $120,000 and used to money to buy 2 duplexes. They kept the duplexes as income property, quit making house payments when the values collapsed and the the house went under a short-sale for about $300,000. The total loan was around $450,000, because it was a re-fi, but the “value” at the time was around $600,000 and climbing to the stratosphere.
While crying about “losing the house”, they still got the better end of the deal. They put the money in other properties.
I see a lot of cases like your described Diogenes .So many of the potential defaulting loans are from houses that were purchase pre-boom but got the equity pulled out later during the boom .
Of course these people got huge sums of money and are
defaulting and coming out way ahead of the game . Ben posted a case the other day where the borrowers pocketed at least 300k and had been living in their house for 2 years without making a payment ,and were screaming they were victims .
Well the MOST effective (and easiest) way of preventing plumeting home values is to prevent the runup in house prices in the first place. It’s like the old joke: How do you get down off the back of an elephant? You don’t, you get off the back of a duck.
“Well the MOST effective (and easiest) way of preventing plumeting home values ”
Are you sure you’re on the right blog?
” In addition, the banks HAVE to go after people doing strategic defaults that still have assetts.”
If you’re talking in recourse states, sure why not. If it’s non-recourse, then the banks have no footing to do so. Contract law has taken enough of a beating during this fiasco.
Even non-recourse states dont protect you when you cashout refi. It becomes fair game as it should. (I think they should pass a Federal law that overrides the state law and make them all recourse)
INvestment homes arent protected either no matter if its recourse or not…i think.
And think about how many cash out re-finances were done during the boom . I don’t think a lot of people want to bail out a borrower who bought a bunch of junk from the cash out equity loan in spite of the fact that the bank was to liberal in giving the loan to begin with .
I’ve been trying to figure out how a couple of neighbors, who both work as janitors, have been able to afford all of the shiny new vehicles that have graced their property in recent years.
Methinks it was done through housing ATM magic, but I can’t find the smoking gun in the Pima County Assessor or County Treasurer records. I think I’ll just have to trek down to the County Recorder’s office, as I believe they keep track of refi activity.
The County Recorder also offers subscriptions to their data, and, even though I’m a frugal little Slim, I may just pony up the money. There are plenty of other properties around here that, shall we say, I’m curious about.
I’ve never understood the idea of increasing a mortgage on the same house. I’m well on the way to paying mine off, and that’s the way I want it.
That was the whole idea Al .Buy a house with low down ,and
refinance and pull out the appreciation gains and buy junk or buy another house , repeat again . Everybody makes money as long as real estate goes up ,and people get to up their life style by making their house work for them . Than default when the market crashed or demand a bail out from the taxpayers when you can’t really make the mortgage payments long term .
This was a big selling point during the boom ,use leverage to
make your dreams come true by this easy money by using RE
appreciation . Never mind that its debt that you can’t afford let appreciation take care of that to .Than sell to a greater fool and than retire to the islands ,after all you don’t have to pay capital gains every two years up to 500k .Builders build tracks so flippers can sell to flippers who can sell to flippers and keep driving up those prices as long as the lenders provide the money to finance the scam or Ponzi scheme .
Can’t wait until people actually buy houses to live in for shelter .
Typically non-recourse runs only to purchase money loans which re-fi’s and Heloc’s are not. The bank may well end up owning the rental units too.
These should be flying off the show room floors…
Tesla offers $1,658/month leasing plan
Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal
Tesla is now offering a $1,658 per month lease for its electric Roadsters.
Tesla Motors Inc. is trying a long-established practice in the auto industry to try to jump start sales of its $111,000 electric Roadsters: leasing.
The Palo Alto company is now offering a three year, 30,000- mile leasing option at $1,658-per-month.
Customers have the option of buying or giving up the car at the end of the three years, as is the custom with leases. There is a $350 disposition fee and fees for wear and tear, plus 25 cents per mile over the 30,000-mile limit
The up-front costs of $12,453 due at signing include a $9,900 down payment and $895 acquisition fee but there will also be taxes, title, license, registration, and other “locally applied” fees. .
Thanks, but no thanks. My bicycles are all paid for.
As of last night, I joined you in the ranks of the multi-bike households. Upon reviewing my 2009 mileage it finally occurred to me that having a spare bike might be a good idea as I depend on mine to the tune of about 450~500 miles a month.
Bike #2 will be my “doomsday bike” - bare bones - coaster brake, single speed. No cables, no nothing and it’s a folder.
I have two backup bikes. One’s in need of parts that I can cannibalize off the other backup.
“…The up-front costs of $12,453 due at signing include a $9,900 down payment and $895 acquisition fee but there will also be taxes, title, license, registration, and other “locally applied” fees. .”
TGIF = Tankxs goodness it’s a FOURTH DAY!
BWAHAHAHicHAHAHicHAHAHAHAHicHAHAHic* (DennisN™)
“Underwater” on your mortgage?
“The people who insisted, for years, that there was no housing bubble, no debt dilemma, and no recession on the horizon are the same people who are now telling us that everything is fixed, the recession is over, and therefore we should go back to our old habits – buy more stuff we don’t need, take out more loans, and buy houses and cars. The government has subsidized the purchase of both cars and houses, in spite of the fact that an abundance of Americans are still saddled with debt and holding underwater mortgages.”
Karen DeCoster takes to her keyboard to say that the goal of the elites in power is to keep up the appearance of prosperity and keep folks in debt to the big banks. But some 21 million U.S. households will be underwater on their mortgages by the end of this year. Should they hang on, or hand over the keys to the actual owner….the mortgage company?
“…everything is
fixedcontained…”Gotta be careful to accurately quote your propaganda terminology…
When you use debt to borrow demand from the future, eventually the future arrives.
The one item that has not been used to explain the plunge in new and used home sales from December to January.
Come the Greeks bearing bad news.
Greece’s Prime Minister George Papandreou vows to ignore the political costs and take drastic measures to pull Greece out of a debt crisis threatening the stability of the euro zone. He says Greece does not want other countries to pay for its debts but expects solidarity from its European peers.
“Unfortunately, history has fully confirmed our worst fears,” he said. “Our duty today is to forget about political costs and only think about the survival of our country … Past policies make it necessary to proceed to brutal changes.
“There is only one dilemma: Will we let the country go bankrupt or will we react? Will we let the speculators strangle us, or will we take our fate in our own hands? We must do whatever we can now to address the immediate dangers today. Tomorrow it will be too late, and the consequences will be much more dire.”
Europe is between the proverbial rock and hard place on Greece’s self-induced misfortunes. And they have Spain, Portugal and Italy to worry about, too. It’s somewhat like waiting for the second shoe to drop.
I thunk short selling was evil and hence illegal. Does renaming a short selling strategy a ‘Career Trade’ make it all good?
The Wall Street Journal
* FEBRUARY 26, 2010, 6:25 A.M. ET
Hedge Funds Try ‘Career Trade’ Against Euro
By SUSAN PULLIAM, KATE KELLYand CARRICK MOLLENKAMP
Some heavyweight hedge funds have launched large bearish bets against the euro in moves that are reminiscent of the trading action at the height of the U.S. financial crisis.
The big bets are emerging amid gatherings such as an exclusive “idea dinner” earlier this month that included hedge-fund titans SAC Capital Advisors LP and Soros Fund Management LLC. During the dinner, hosted by a boutique investment bank at a private townhouse in Manhattan, a small group of all-star hedge-fund managers argued that the euro is likely to fall to “parity”—or equal on an exchange basis—with the dollar, people close to the situation say.
George Soros, head of the $27-billion asset fund manager, warned publicly last weekend that if the European Union doesn’t fix its finances, “the euro may fall apart.”
The currency wagers signal that big financial players spot a rare trading opening driven by broader market gyrations. The euro, which traded at $1.51 in December, now trades around $1.35. With traders using leverage—often borrowing 20 times the size of their bet, accentuating gains and losses—a euro move to $1 could represent a career trade. If investors put up $5 million to make a $100 million trade, a 5% price move in the right direction doubles their initial investment.
“This is an opportunity…to make a lot of money,” says Hans Hufschmid, a former senior Salomon Brothers executive who now runs GlobeOp Financial Services SA, a hedge-fund administrator in London and New York.
…
“…With traders using leverage—often borrowing 20 times the size of their bet, accentuating gains and losses—a euro move to $1 could represent a career trade. If investors put up $5 million to make a $100 million trade, a 5% price move in the right direction doubles their initial investment.”
Wait, I have that “financial market observation” that Bugsy gave me 35+ years ago…
let’s see…nope, this it…nope, …is this it?, nope…wait.. yes, here it is:
“Consequences, Schmonsequences, as long as I’m rich.” Daffy Duck
There was an article in today’s Washington Post about how Goldman Sachs aided and abetted the Greek government in hiding its hight debt levels. (sorry no link)
Expected outcomes of this probe:
1) Megabank, Inc gets a stern scolding from BB in the MSM.
2) Fed gets consolidated financial regulatory authority as a reward for sternly scolding Megabank, Inc in the MSM.
Probe:
Did big U.S. banks contribute to the financial crisis in Greece?
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010, before the Senate Banking hearing on the Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
By Neil Irwin and Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 26, 2010
The financial tumult now unsettling Europe came to Washington on Thursday, as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said that the federal government is looking into the role U.S. banks may have played in the Greek fiscal crisis.
The Federal Reserve and Securities and Exchange Commission are seeking information about whether Goldman Sachs and other U.S. firms helped set up financial transactions over the past decade that effectively hid the amount of debt Greece was taking on. Another potential issue is whether banks and hedge funds, by taking big bets that Greece would default, are creating a self-fulfilling downward spiral for the Mediterranean nation.
“We are looking into a number of questions related to Goldman Sachs and other companies and their derivatives arrangements with Greece,” Bernanke said, testifying before the Senate banking committee.
Addressing concerns that financial firms have been engaging in trades to bet on a Greek default, Bernanke said that “using these instruments in a way that intentionally destabilizes a company or a country is counterproductive, and I’m sure the SEC will be looking into that.”
…
I sure do hope Fed regulators are much better at noticing problems with Greek derivatives schemes than they are at spotting bubbles.
The Financial Times
Goldman role in Greek crisis probed
By Alan Rappeport and Tom Braithwaite in Washington and David Oakley in London
Published: February 25 2010 15:35 | Last updated: February 26 2010 00:28
The US central bank is looking into Goldman Sachs’s role in arranging contentious derivatives trades for Greece, which helped the country to massage its public finances, Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, revealed on Thursday.
“We are looking into a number of questions relating to Goldman Sachs and other companies and their derivatives arrangements with Greece,” Mr Bernanke said, apparently referring to Greek currency transactions structured by Goldman.
…
Yeah, they’re “looking into it.” Administration-speak for yet another whitewash of their GS puppet-masters.
A regulator should be skeptical of banks, not in bed with them. This criterion would disqualify the Fed.
Unemployment benefits will expire Sunday. No vote this week since the Senate is out until Tuesday.
http://www.detnews.com/article/20100226/UPDATE/2260411/1361/Bunning-s-stand-in-Senate-jeopardizes-unemployment-benefits
Oh they’ll fix that in a hurry, the checks or IOU’s will go out!
OMG. I saw that the illustrious Senator Bunning (R-KY) blocked a vote on this last night. I did NOT know that this means the benefits extension is kaput. Hoped the Senate would pull things out today or tomorrow.
My own baby sister is caught up in this mess. Lost her job last April and has had only one nibble that didn’t come through. She is terrified, despite having family to fall back on.
Then let her fall back on her family, not the taxpayers. That’s the purpose of a family, to share the good times and help each other out during the not-so-good times.
What if you don’t have a family? Lets bail out banks, but let individual unemployed sink? How Republican of them…
I’m guessing they’ll fix it sometime next week. But you never know. They were supposed to have it fixed this week. My wife has been on unemployment for well over a year. She spent the first year looking for a job then gave up. She has now switched gears and is in her second semester of nursing school. We’re hoping she’ll have better luck jobwise. Seems nurses are still in demand.
Depends on where you live. I am in my last semester of retraining for an allied health job and was told anecdotally that [in the O.C.]“…a lot of new nurses can’t find jobs.”
Maybe Goldman will be made accountable for knocking down the first Europeon domino.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bernanke-starts-second-day-of-testimony-2010-02-25
oops, European.
No, “peon” might actually be appropriate here.
Europeon sounds more apt.
Euro-peon
It’s hyphenated.
Your a peon.
‘Goldman held accountable’? Step away from the crack pipe, REhobbyist. There’s a reason for their arrogance: they know they’re literally above the law.
Sammy, how did you know that I have a crackpipe?
Don’t worry, folks — Used Home Sales are sure to come back after the Souper Bowl. I can’t wait for the Red Hot Spring Sales Season!
Economic Report
Feb. 26, 2010, 10:01 a.m. EST
Existing-home sales fall 7.2% to 7-month low
By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Resales of U.S. homes and condos fell 7.2% in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.05 million, the lowest in seven months, the National Association of Realtors reported Friday.
Sales of existing homes have fallen two consecutive months after rising steadily through the fall on the back of a federal subsidy for first-time home buyers. The 16.2% decline in December was the largest on record, January’s decline is the second largest since 1999, when the NAR began tracking consolidated sales.
“It’s not good news,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the real estate industry lobbying group. “There is rising concern about the strength of the housing recovery.”
Yun said he still hoped for a surge of sales in the spring in reaction to the renewed and expanded tax credit for buyers. “Let’s see what happens in the spring.”
…
I left behind a couple of additional salient comments on the MarketWatch site, in case anyone is interested…
My guess is sooner or later the govt will allow 401k money to be withdrawn penalty free to buy a house.
I wonder when they get around to that?
I’m in when that happens…
My guess is sooner or later the govt will allow 401k money to be withdrawn penalty free to buy a house.
Already exists.
Even without those conditions - 10% isn’t a huge penalty to pay, when you consider the wild 40+% swings the stock market (and people’s 401k’s) have been taking.
Yes, my BIL confirmed this past weekend that his crazy sister did exactly this last fall! Get this, a 58 y.o. woman obliterated her 401k to get in on Uncle Sugar’s $8,000! She bought a condo!
Man-o-live! As Leighsong used to say - you really can’t make this stuff up.
“But to discourage these early hardship withdrawals, in most all cases the IRS imposes a hefty financial penalty including a 10 percent early withdrawal penalty if you are younger than 59 1/2.”
Better idea for anyone old enough to be nearing retirement and with dead money locked up in a 401(K): Find a smart enough lender to make the following deal.
- Loan me enough money now to buy a home.
- We finance part of it out of my future earnings.
- The other part is financed as a balloon payment out of my 401(K) due upon the day I turn 59 1/2.
Here’s that “unexpectedly” word again:
Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) — Sales of previously owned U.S. homes unexpectedly declined in January for a second month, signaling the government’s extension of a tax credit is being limited by a lack of job growth.
I’m expecting another “unexpected” decline in February home sales, thanks to the weather.
But but, we’re in the early stages of the Spring selling season and the sales numbers simply cannot possibly be showing a decline. Somebody do something or I might harm myself.
Sorry, the Souper Bowl rule is overriden by the Winter Olympic Rule. Give it another couple weeks.
I’m waiting for the next Alice-In-Wonderland-esque solution.
The government is driven by its contributors. Low churn in the housing market makes those contributors (NAR, etc) get less money. Perhaps those contributors will finally accept that the policy of trying to keep housing unaffordable is not the wisest policy, and perhaps tell the government to let housing return to its market-clearing price levels.
I wonder what low sales volume means to the real estate and financial industries. Do lower prices and higher volume mean more money for them? I know of course, they want high price and high volume, as was the norm for the past decade. High price and low volume might be untenable for them. Just wondering.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - American International Group Inc (AIG - News) reported a quarterly loss of $8.9 billion on Friday, hurt by charges related to U.S. loan payback, asset divestments and higher loss reserves.
AIG, in a regulatory filing, warned that it may need additional U.S. government support, as it did last fall. But it also said it will have adequate liquidity to “finance and operate AIG’s businesses and continue as a going concern for at least the next twelve months.”
Does this multi-billion dollar loss qualify AIG for more bail?
“When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes… Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain.”
~Napoleon Bonaparte, 1815
I wonder if old Napoleon realized he was prophesying about 21st Century America when he made those remarks?
He was also prophesying about late 19th century.
I see green shoots of liquidity providing plunge protection to the stock market this morning. Buy stocks now, or get priced out forever!
Damned global warming…
Feb. 26, 2010, 9:54 a.m. EST
‘Wicked nor’easter’ slams Northeast
Flights and classes are cancelled and thousands are reported without power
By Christopher Hinton, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The Northeast got clobbered for a third time this month by a severe snowstorm disrupting air traffic and morning commutes across the region.
…
To which my mother would say, “It snows here in the winter. So what else is new?”
“So what else is new?”
More snow than expected, given incipient global warming?
Ummm, I think the last time my mother used the word “unexpected” was during the second week of November 1957.
Seems that she and Dad went out to the movies. “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” was playing at the local Bijou, but Mom felt, shall we say, a bit uncomfortable. Happens during the late stages of a pregnancy.
But I wasn’t due for another three weeks, so Mom brushed the whole thing off. This is typical of her, she’s not one to give in to a little discomfort.
Well, Dad, being the worrywart that he’s always been, got concerned. He suggested a trip to the hospital. Since he was driving, Mom had to go along.
I was born the next morning.
O…. K…..
Well, seems like for the the movie & your folks:
“All’s well that ends well!”
Geez what a cast!
“Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is a 1957 movie starring Burt Lancaster as Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas as Doc Holliday about the famous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory. The movie was based on a real event which took place on October 26, 1881. It was directed by John Sturges and featuring a screenplay written by novelist Leon Uris, the movie has an outstanding supporting cast including Rhonda Fleming, John Ireland, Jo Van Fleet, Martin Milner, Dennis Hopper, Jack Elam, Lee Van Cleef, DeForest Kelley, Earl Holliman and Charles Herbert.”
I’ve reserved the DVD of this movie at the library. I need to watch it to figure out what I found so offensive back in ‘57.
Was it the noise from all that shooting that drove me to exit that nice, warm home at Mom’s? The plot? Or the acting?
DeForest Kelley …a trekie!
Weather: Hottest January ever say climate experts
UK NEWS ~ February 26,2010
CLIMATE scientists yesterday stunned Britons suffering the coldest winter for 30 years by claiming last month was the hottest January the world has ever seen.
The remarkable claim, based on global satellite data, follows Arctic temperatures that brought snow, ice and travel chaos to millions in the UK.
At the height of the big freeze, the entire country was blanketed in snow. But Australian weather expert Professor Neville Nicholls, of Monash University in Melbourne, said yesterday: “January, according to satellite data, was the hottest January we’ve ever seen.
Not as much land mass or population in the Southern Hemi.
If the summer is hot but there’s no people around to complain, is it still hot?
Check out the size of these icebergs that just broke off Antarctica.
The first iceberg was blamed on climate change but the second wasn’t. It’s just collateral damage.
blogs.nature . com/news/thegreatbeyond/2010/02/_giant_iceberg_of_death.html
The interesting thing is this stuff takes many years to play out. There might be a die off of southern ocean bio-life but the more important thing might be the impact on global ocean currents.
No mater what happens we are powerless to change our human nature so we must adapt…. until we can’t.
“AccuWeather is predicting March will be just as snowy, thanks to high amounts of moist air from the Pacific Ocean colliding with cold Arctic air that is pushing further south this year due to greater stratospheric pressure. ”
“High volcanic activity in the northern hemisphere, AccuWeather said, helped warm up the stratosphere this winter with more greenhouse gases, increasing the pressure. ”
See, its global warming all right (but it might be caused by something other than humans)
Some data came out yesterday on WS bonuses.
Anyone else notice a correlation between this and this?
Pure coincidence, I’m sure…
Interestingly, the lowest levels for WS during the “greatest recession since the great depression” were similar to bonuses paid during the height of the stock market bubble in 2000-ish. Fascinating, no?
I thought bearish commentary was on the verge of being outlawed? I guess it is different if a top banker is doing the talking?
My interpretation of the comments: “We are accumulating a large war chest of mattress money borrowed from the Fed at zero-percent interest rates in order to enable us to snatch assets away from weak hands at fire sale prices.”
Feb. 26, 2010, 1:12 a.m. EST
J.P. Morgan’s Dimon: Still chance of double-dip
By Matthias Rieker
(Adds comments from CEO Dimon)
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. /quotes/comstock/13*!jpm/quotes/nls/jpm (JPM 41.56, +0.92, +2.26%) Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said he remained cautious about the economic outlook, and that a double dip in the economy is still possible.
Dimon, speaking Thursday during the bank’s annual investor day, also said that trading revenue from investment banking “so far have been good this quarter,” but “we don’t know” how J.P. Morgan will reserve for credit losses going forward. “We are cautious.”
…
Freddie Mac to stop buying interest-only mortgages
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — Freddie Mac the mortgage-finance giant in government conservatorship, said Friday that it will stop buying and securitzing interest-only mortgages on or around Sept. 1, 2010. The loans, which have come under fire in the wake of the housing bust, allow borrowers to only pay interest for a set amount of time without principal payments.
Yeah, lets tell everyone that’s got one that they need to refinance ASAP. Ugh
More Real Estate price drops on the way (CNN/Money)
http://tinyurl.com/yfbc8nz
Sample:
Phoenix/Mesa - down 22% By Sept 30 2010 and another 2.7% by September 30 2011
Los Angeles/Long Beach - down 13.3% by 09/30/2010 and up 5.8% from then to 09/30/2011
San Diego down 13.3% by 09/30/2010 and up 8.8% from 09/30/2010 to 09/30/2011
SF Bay Area down 12.9% through 09/30/2010 then from there to 09/30/2011 up 9.3%
LV Nevada down 15.3% through 09/30/2010. Then down another 4.8% to 09/30/2011
Miami, FL area down 29.2% through 09/30/2010 and down another 4.8% through 09/30/2011 - Muggy do not buy for a couple years!
San Diego down 13.3% by 09/30/2010 and up 8.8% from 09/30/2010 to 09/30/2011
I’d love to see the forecasting methodology that produced those predictions. Frankly, it looks to me like they pulled those numbers right out of their asses.
Yeah, the three California markets I posted above. I don’t see how they could predict a turn-around in 2011 for them, based on peak resets occurring in 2011.
I think the Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Miami predictions are too great of a magnitude, but I think they certainly will have drops in prices the next three years.
Principle numero uno of modern finance: Any predictable change in future asset prices will be fully exploited before it can occur. I.e., if investors believed San Diego home prices were going to drop by X percent by this September, then rise by Y percent in the following twelve months, they would all sell today at a price which is X-Y percent lower than today’s price (assuming that Y is smaller in magnitude than X).
Come next September and the following September, the anticipated price changes would not materialize because they were already fully exploited as of February 26, 2010. Hence the only future price changes that could occur would be the unforecastable ones…
I agree. Very reasonable, PB.
AZ real estate could drop that much, but right now some segments are experiencing quick sells.
I know someone that’s looking and they were hoping to offer on something like this. It was under contract, came out, and got a new contract in two days. Don’t know other specifics, but this house here was listed for $860,000 two years ago and now it’s listed for $337,000. That’s 60% off the wishing price in 2008.
Another 20% means that a house like this could go for $172,000, which would be a huge deal IMO.
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/2249-W-Twain-Drive_Anthem_AZ_85086_1116286228?gate=msn&source=a2mszh1t042
Wow five bedrooms, over 3,500 square feet. It must cost a laptop computer per month from April to October just to cool that McMansion.
from bbc website yesterday: Huge shark-filled aquarium in Dubai cracks open
The aquarium boasts 30,000 species of underwater creature
An aquarium and a shopping centre in Dubai have been evacuated after water leaked from a massive tank holding hundreds of sharks.
Safety officials said the “small crack” appeared in the tank which holds 10 million litres of water and more than 33,000 underwater creatures.
The aquarium, opened in 2008, was promoted as being an “indoor ocean”.
The mall owners said the leak appeared in a panel joint in the tank and was immediately fixed by engineers.
Teams carrying lifejackets were seen entering the mall.
BTW, Dubai mall is a project of Emaar, developers of Burj
DubaiKhalifa“Huge shark-filled aquarium”
Sounds like someplace else I know…….
Wall Street?
After watching housing bubble apocalypse for the last 6 years, I don’t understand why anyone would want to jump into the housing gristmill.
The Fed and their pals in Washington and Wall Street can bite me.
“Momma always told me, stoopid is as stoopid does.”
– Forrest Gump –
US sustains itself by selling and buying homes. This now failing industry is (was) 25% of GDP including the upstream/downstream industries that feed from and to housing. Consider 1/4 of US GDP dead in the water. Now consider the additional drop in consumption for non-housing related products due lack of home equity spending. Now factor in 4 in 10 unemployed or underemployed.
Easiest and biggest bang for our buck is to target revitalization of housing revenue streams. The other alternatives are way more difficult. Where gov is targeting makes perfect sense.
Easiest and biggest bang for our buck is to target revitalization of housing revenue streams.
But will it work?
25% total? I read housing was 10% of our economy. Do you think up and downstream housing industries added another 15%
here is a start for developing a swag:
http://www.bea.gov/industry/gpotables/gpo_action.cfm?anon=450758&table_id=24753&format_type=0
There’s that “40%” number again……..
23,000 now expected to lose jobs after shuttle retirement.
FLORIDA TODAY • February 26, 2010
VIERA — The local economic forecast tied to President Barack Obama’s proposed NASA budget keeps growing bleaker.
Revised projections now show that about 23,000 workers at and around Kennedy Space Center will lose their jobs because of the shuttles’ retirement and the new proposal to cancel the development of new rockets and spacecraft.
That sum includes 9,000 “direct” space jobs and — conservatively speaking — 14,000 “indirect” jobs at hotels, restaurants, retail stores and others that depend on activity at the space center, said Lisa Rice, Brevard Workforce president.
That’s part of the plan. Gotta make everyone unemployed… unemployed people are thankful for the scraps from Megabank’s table, and they make good debt serfs.
The O man loves spending money on government jobs and here is a program already employing 23,000 people and he wants to cancel it? Why? His budget for NASA for the next 5 years is higher than if he had not canceled it? The rational here is perplexing at best.
Well most of those jobs are engineering jobs. Most government-employed engineers vote Republican. Although in a non-defense area, that means they are on welfare.
They’re smart, they can learn Chinese…they’re hiring.
(Hwy notes: That lil’ commie Gov’t has to figure out a way of “landing” a craft, rather than just crash, bang, boom in a planet’s surface…maybe we have talented “people” that can help?)
Sunday, 1 March 2009:
“A Chinese lunar probe has crashed into the moon in what Beijing has called a controlled collision.
The Chang’e 1 lunar satellite hit the moon’s surface at 1613 local time (0813 GMT) at the end of a 16-month moon-mapping mission.
China launched the spacecraft in late October 2007 on a mission to survey the entire surface of the moon.
China’s ever-more ambitious space programme includes plans for a space station and landing a man on the moon.”
Maybe the Chinese will grab our rocket scientists, like we grabbed the German rocket scientists.
Brilliant Idea #1 = Start making the Chinese believe that all the best “rocket scientists” work at GS, JPM, and in private equity/hedge funds.
lol
Clipped from the Lenox Financial Home Mortgage web site. I like the way Jon Shibley lays out how mortgage loans work…
Not Everyone Qualifies:
“Sometimes people call and accuse us of false advertising, declaring ‘I couldn’t get a no closing cost mortgage.’ Well, you know what? Someone who doesn’t have a driver’s license isn’t allowed to drive either. Simple common sense dictates that you have to qualify for a no closing costs mortgage. You have to make a certain amount of money. You have to have a certain amount of credit. You have to have a certain level of assets. Otherwise it’s impossible to get these deals done. This is simply the bottom line! You can’t expect to get a mortgage if you don’t qualify or if you are not a candidate. You can’t have a bankruptcy and tax liens all over the place and expect to get a mortgage with no closing costs or any mortgage for that matter. So quite simply, not everyone can qualify for every mortgage, and a lot of people don’t qualify for any type of mortgage at all”.
Awesome!
Meanies.
“…So quite simply, not everyone can qualify for every mortgage, and a lot of people don’t qualify for any type of mortgage at all””
MegaBank Inc.(Booming voice from Manhattan): “Jon Shibley is a Heretic & a False Profit!”
“So quite simply, not everyone can qualify for every mortgage, and a lot of people don’t qualify for any type of mortgage at all”.
Jon Shibley forgot to add: “We’re not in 2006 anymore.”
This dude was king of the re-fiers a few years back and spent tons advertising that he could get anybody approved . . . surprised he still is writing loans.
Going to look at two over priced houses this afternoon. One in foreclosure, one empty with an out of state owner. Both on the same street, in fact across from one another.
I do like the real-a-tor though he knows for certain if we do make an offer on something it will be LOW ball!
Just remember: A closely-watched pot never boils over.
I’m thinking that this episode in financial history warrants developing a new moniker for the process by which large banks plant the seeds of financial destruction during boom times, only to reap a bounteous financial bailout harvest when the seeds of systemic risk they planted later bear fruit. Thoughts?
Feb. 26, 2010, 11:01 a.m. EST
The U.S. in 1933: A blueprint for how euro rift could heal
Historical crisis holds lessons for why avoiding a collapse is paramount
By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) — From debt-racked Greece to economic powerhouse Germany, leaders across the euro zone insist that the monetary union that now encompasses 16 nations is here to stay — even as strains over some countries’ finances in Southern Europe send bond prices plummeting and propel the dollar higher.
But what if the euro did collapse?
The near-collapse of the dollar in 1933, and its subsequent recovery, can offer a blueprint for recovery should it happen that the euro breaks up, according to a research note from UBS. See related story on the euro.
Oil Volatile But Floating Storage Disappearing
It’s been a choppy, uncertain week for crude and, while there’s still ample supply of physical oil globally, stocks are starting to draw down. North Sea Forties floating storage has dropped to zero.
Paul Donovan, a London-based economist, reiterated the house belief that the euro won’t break up. The reason, in his view: the costs of breaking up far exceed the benefits.
But Donovan pointed to the dollar’s woes in the early 1930s as well as to the Czech-Slovak monetary union collapse as offering parallels with the current crisis in Europe.
The dollar never actually formally ceased to function back in the 1930s. But states began declaring dollar holidays, and companies began transferring deposits from local banks to New York lenders.
Indeed, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago had even refused to lend to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
‘What the U.S experience demonstrates is that a monetary union can effectively fracture, and then come back together, if policy makers are committed enough to creating a viable, cohesive monetary policy.’
“Depositors were effectively signaling that a dollar in New York was worth more than a dollar in Michigan,” Donovan said. This happened even as the New York Fed lowered its bill purchase rate to 0.5%.
…
“…the process by which large banks plant the seeds of financial destruction during boom times, only to reap a bounteous financial bailout harvest when the seeds of systemic risk they planted later bear fruit. Thoughts?”
Hey Mr. Bear, March 21st is still a few weeks away…
1. FED inc. manure SPRINGS forth implements of Perwinkwinkle Profits
2. MegaBank inc. bloodfish 666 fertilzer sprouts Organic bonus Fruit
Well, I’ll try to come up with some others out in the garden, getting some hothouse Tomatoes ready for May consumption (hopefully) …
Found info on a in my neighborhood that just sold. It is a very well maintained SF. Built in 1968, 2100sf, $5300 tax, 4/2 with two car garage, on a good lot.
It was a straight up sale. There have been very few sales in my neighborhood. Anyway it sold and closed for $271k. At the height it would have sold for $425k. This is in Prince Georges county, just NE and E of DC. If this house had been it Montgomery Co (just NW and W of DC), or in the close suburbs of VA, it would have sold for $150k more.
Woman in my office bought in NoVa about 5 miles from downtown DC during the bubble. It was a sale by the adult children after the death of the elderly owner. She did a lot of work on it (like putting in air conditioning for the first time). Financed by a budensome, but not ridiculous loan and her inheritance from the death of a parent. I asked her about the house yesterday over the sinks in the ladies room. She said it was falling apart. I guess maintenance had been neglected, as well as not being updated. I told her about my huge new apartment in the new neighborhood (one of her favorites) with the $9 a month rent increase and whined a little about moving being expensive.
Bad, Polly. Mean, Polly. Stop it. Gloating is not an attractive quality.
Aw, come on, Polly. Gloating is fun. What would the HBB be without it?
“…and her inheritance from the death of a parent”
Gives another meaning to: “Reverse Mortgage”
People in general are not doing well - not thinking rationally. Stuck in “what could have been”. All sense of reason is out the window. My manicurist broke into tears about a heloc’d home they could no longer afford the loan payments for and are 4 months behind on payments. They are not underwater - home loan is 500K, home would sell for about 1 million. In same breath she talked about buying a new lexus for her newly graduated son. It was not the time to begin talking reason to her as I like her, and was feeling her pain. But this concept of living within our means is just is not something people can do. They want and they must have. It is a sickness in many lives. How will these people end I wonder? The ugly free for all spend of the last 15 years for those who owned homes, got easy credit and home equity loans - I don’t think they will have an easy time adjusting to the new reality.
Hey everyone deserves to be bad once in a while
Honestly Polly, this lady was probably not the best target.
But to be fair, I was Bad Girl myself a few weeks ago. I was coming back from lunch with some co-workers, and one of them (a fairly Pretty Young Thing) was talking about his condo. I asked, “When did you buy it?” And he answered, “2006, which was the worst time in history to buy…”
I didn’t exactly berate his decision, but I did go into my story: I spent years watching Pretty Young Things buy condos, wondered where the down payments came from, went online for info, found HBB (yay), found out about I/O Neg-Am etc, said to myself, This Is Bogus, and continued to rent. I hope he didn’t feel too badly…
Why do the dumbsh!ts at MarketWatch get excited about five point movements in the DJIA?
MarketWatch
12:16p
BREAKING
U.S. stocks turn lower; Dow average off 5 points
Old news. It’s up 3.6 now. They need to get with the program.
your comment reminded me of people and email. These guys are treating routine nomimal market changes like email. An email comes in. It’s a BIG deal, and must be attended to immediately. All part of our Now society - preoccupied with on-demand everything - whether it is significant or not.
Uncle Buck doesn’t like it when Germans bear Greeks gifts. On this list of Western currencies, only the GBP likes it less…
CURRENCY VALUE CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
EUR-USD 1.3618 0.0069 0.5100% 12:23
GBP-USD 1.5208 -0.0058 -0.3786% 12:23
USD-CHF 1.0746 -0.0055 -0.5108% 12:23
USD-SEK 7.1291 -0.0570 -0.7929% 12:23
USD-DKK 5.4658 -0.0275 -0.5002% 12:23
USD-NOK 5.9208 -0.0160 -0.2702% 12:23
USD-CZK 19.0540 -0.1008 -0.5265% 12:24
USD-SKK 22.1270 -0.1082 -0.4866% 12:24
USD-PLN 2.9001 -0.0326 -1.1105% 12:24
USD-HUF 198.0900 -1.7400 -0.8707% 12:24
USD-RUB 29.9370 -0.1038 -0.3454% 12:23
USD-TRY 1.5445 -0.0027 -0.1745% 12:23
USD-ILS 3.7862 -0.0024 -0.0620% 12:14
USD-KES 76.5370 -0.3625 -0.4714% 09:09
USD-ZAR 7.6680 -0.0920 -1.1856% 12:23
USD-MAD 8.2351 -0.0342 -0.4136% 12:23
Think this one out. Yields on US Bonds are down - and - at the same time the dollar falls against all other currencies. The dollar is worth less and pays even less interest. Oil up, Precious metals up. ??
HOA heck HELP
Owner vs. Tenant in another unit(tenant of another owner) who put up one heck of a Christmas display in common area adjacent to her home but stretching well away from her home and up many trees.
We pay(to the office’s great surprise as so many are not) $250/month for our strict HOA policy. These are townhomes, so owners own the footprint of townhome and all other land is common area owned by the resort and maintained by our HOAs and are intended for everyone’s enjoyment.
We asked on Dec 20 for our nasty neighbor to kindly take her elaborate light display down from the common area. Owner services agreed she was not allowed to have her own light display and cords strewn to and fro and 20 feet up many trees. We were informed that they would be taken down within 48 hours.
The tenants response was to burn those lights for 60 more days. Non stop whether attended or not. Regardless of the owners attempts and the resort’s feeble enforcement effort, the light display continued past Valentine’s day. I made a couple calls, couldn’t get anyone to help, lost my temper, went into the common area and unplugged her lights for her and delivered a couple strands of lights to her balcony/deck.
Calls to the owner had affirmed that they were paying electric and they were not too happy as they would get the fines, bills or whatever. We also considered the cords to be unsightly, a fire hazard, a tripping hazard etc.
We have a history with this lady I would be happy to bore you with(she is disabled, with service animals, and plays the part like an Oscar winning actress), but needless to say she is not a popular figure at the resort or as our ex-tenant. (she hacked into our cable account to upgrade service, stole things from us, etc). But we are not court types so we were just happy to get her out. But we gave her a reference and much to our chagrin, she moved three doors down!
We are peripheral on the resort and guest services seldom get our to our area. We called them and had them dispatched several times before giving up.
on around Feb 15, I unplugged the lights myself and had a hostile coversation(likely taped by her caregiver pointing a cell phone in my direction), I lost my temper to say the least. I returned some of her strands to her balcony. She told me to leave but I insisted I was on common area and would leave when I felt like it. I asked her to call the police if she wanted me to leave, then left.
An hour later the police were at my door and I get to go to court for criminal trespass(I was in the common area but did set the light strands on her balcony, undamaged). I considered them a nuisance and a fire hazard, BTW. AND criminal mistchief(alright, I really should have gotten out of her face when she asked).
Owner services is sending me a letter regarding the fact that she was told to remove the lights on Dec 20 and that it would be done within 48 hours. This lady is scary, she accuses us of spying in her window, has had loud domestic disputes, is disabled and plays it well. She is also litigious. I am scared because I have never been a alleged criminal, or been to court.
Since she accuses us of spying on her if we walk behind her unit, and the police informed me if I have any contact with her the charges could become felonious, I am scared in my own home.
The owners of the unit are on my side, they are afraid that they will need the sheriff to get her out. The police said I may have to take the HOA to court regarding their dropping of the ball in order to sopoena(sp) records, but wrote me up anyway.
Anyone have any free advice or any idea what I am up against for these alleged misdemeaners? court date is March 11.
“…and the police informed me if I have any contact with her the charges could become felonious”
Bugs: “Eh, I don’t think so Doc”
Of course, you might have been issued a legal “restraining order”…otherwise, as a CITIZEN in the America that I live in… it’s kinda like this:
(Hwy singing…)
Born Free…as free as the wind blows, as free as the grass grows…in the town-home common ways…Live Free, as free as Bernanke, as free as Spanky, as free as a lip-o-suction surgeon… Live Free to follow the FED…”
Get a lawyer and consider this a very, very, very expensive lesson. Make the head of the HOA and the professional manager of the property (if any) come to court with you to testify that you weren’t on her property because she doesn’t have any. Make them bring big charts showing that you weren’t on her land - courts like charts. Remember that if she put her stuff on land owned by the community, that is sort of like littering or at least like abandoning property, so it hard to call you picking it up criminal trespass. And to call you returning her property to her by putting it on the deck criminal trespass is also difficult, though I think this might be the stronger claim.
When she didn’t take down the lights after 48 hours, the HOA should have hired people to do it for her and sent her the bill. Or sent the bill to her landlord (you said she was a tennant, right?) Next time, don’t do it yourself. Do it through channels. You would have been completely within your rights to demand that the HOA hire someone to take down the lights. At least you would unless your HOA has really weird and badly written covenants.
But nobody’s asking the most important question…..
How did she (and her service dog) get 20 feet up the trees?
Sounds to me like whatever entity writing her disability checks needs to get an anonymous call.
Payback is a bi#ch.
Are you in California, Massachusetts, or any other bleeding heart-bastions?
If you are in Flyover country, ask for a jury trial. Believe me, all the jurors will have dealt with a-holes like this.
Just offering a few “creative solutions”……
Polly, thank you
We did go thru proper channels, i jumped the shark after looking at them for 2 extra months. If things are not looking good can I request a jury trial and then lawyer up?
I was planning on saying all these things in my own defense; and could prepare them myself. Police told me all I was facing was court fees and maybe pay for some lights.
Maybe a few $100, tops IF the judge finds me guilty.
I have a letter from the head of owner services saying they dropped the ball when we tried the proper channels. I have character references, notes from the landlord.
I could possibly take the HOA to civil claims court if I lose??
How did she get em strung up? UP fido UP!
Mike,
Perhaps you might have offered — in a most kind and considerate way — to help her take the decorations down rather than engaging in an antagonistic showdown that ended with two losers instead of two friends.
Just saying…
Our town has ordinances (backed up by fines) against holiday displays being up after 30 days past said holiday. This doesn’t help you, unfortunately. However, I often wondered while driving around town this past month (and observing many, many tired looking Christmas decorations still on display), how the town - in these lean times - managed to overlook such an easy source of revenue.
“…she is disabled, with service animals, and plays the part like an Oscar winning actress…”
Nothing like a professional victim. Parasite!
Chances are, if she has a service dog, that she reallly IS disabled. A bit rough calling her a parasite, no?
There, but for the grace of God…
I have 2 general questions that I am struggling with. Most of us think home prices should fall to about 3 times income. In many parts of the country they have but not in the “fortress” areas.
Many people are against cram-downs, forgiven debt and walk-aways with no repercussions.
Question 1. Why would one be against the above when the above would assumedly help drive down housing prices?
And IF the answer is because of fairness or justice I understand that totally but I mostly agree with such sentiments IF this situation were a vacuum but it is not. What makes it not a vacuum is that the banks, Wall Street and CEO’s were bailed out of their bad decisions. It’s not right but it’s the reality in which I’m asking these questions.
Question 2: Why should the home borrowers be the ones to pay the only price for the madness when the banks and Wall Street get a pass and bonuses?
I think part of the concept of justice is not totally pure but involves fairness that can transcend some aspects of absolute right and wrong. For examples in a sporting event after a bad call, a ref will make it up by calling the other team for a violation that might have been overlooked. Is it right, maybe no but is it fair?
So we are in a situation where banks were bailed out, criminal CEO’s get a walk so why shouldn’t Joe FB get a walk too? It might not be right but is it fair?
We’re in “Do-over Nation”
Cram downs might not do much to help lower housing prices unless deeds and leins are rerecorded and can become a new comp. The PTB don’t want that to happen because it would result in more jingle mail and more cram downs.
Yes, what Kim said.
Also, by allowing the FBs to remain in these homes at the new, lower prices, we would have to sacrifice those who’ve been waiting in rentals for many years.
I’m all for walking away, and have spoken out (written, called, faxed, etc.) against any kind of lender bailouts.
The lenders AND the borrowers need to take a hit. In the meantime, what they’re doing is only leaving one group of victims: those who were trying to be responsible by not bidding up prices and getting into debt that could never be repaid.
While I primarily fault the lenders, politicians, and the Federal Reserve; the FBs are not innocent by any means.
Two wrongs don’t make a right, and the message that would be sent if they reward gamblers and thieves while punishing the prudent would have ramifications that would end up causing even greater “systemic risk” in the future.
US Consumer’s Mood Sours Amid Frustration Over Jobs
Friday, 26 Feb 2010 ~ Reuters
U.S. consumer sentiment was weaker in February, as Americans grew more impatient with the government’s gridlock over efforts to stimulate jobs, a survey released Friday showed.
While not fearful of another spike in layoffs, consumers have turned more gloomy about their job and income prospects, according to the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers.
“Consumers have been getting more impatient with the slow progress of the stimulus program, and confidence in the Obama administration’s economic policies has begun to wane,” Richard Curtin, director of the surveys, said in a statement.
“While not fearful of another spike in layoffs…”
This quote confuses me. I take it as evdience that D’Nile is still flowing quite freely.
Gov. Paterson to terminate campaign
Business First of Buffalo
Amid a brewing scandal within his administration and mounting pressure from political operatives, Gov. David Paterson will give up his campaign to seek a full, four-year term this fall, multiple media outlets reported Friday.
An official announcement from Paterson is expected shortly.
The decision follows the Thursday resignation of Denise O’Donnell as the state’s deputy director of public safety. The Western New York native abruptly quit her $165,000-a-year post following word the State Police became involved in a legal matter against a top Paterson aide.
The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported shortly before noon that former state Comptroller Carl McCall, a close Paterson ally, confirmed Paterson’s decision.
“The governor has done what he’s always done, he has put the interests of the state ahead of his own,” McCall said.
Watch Andrew Cuomo throw his hat into the ring.
Single-family home sales drop 27% in North Texas
Dallas Business Journal - 2-26-10
Existing single-family home sales in North Texas dropped 27 percent in the month of January.
However, this trend is expected to reverse itself with the recent extension of the first-time homebuyer tax credit, said Rich Thomas, chief executive officer of the MetroTex Association of Realtors.
Thomas said January was actually the first month North Texas home sales slowed more than the national average. Just three months ago, existing single-family home sales in North Texas grew 31 percent.
Existing single-family home sales in North Texas dropped 27 percent
Does Dalhart, “The Xit City” Texas still exist?
Yes, they do! They have jobs too! Goodbye North Dakota,… helllllllllllooo Texas!
Known Job listings-The Dalhart Chamber does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.
Ruan Transportation (posted 1/04/10)
Diesel Mechanic based in Dalhart, TX
11 am - 7 pm Sun through Thrusday
Great Pay, Industry Leading Benefits
Must have Certification from diesel mechanic trade school or 2 years related experience. Please Contact Brian White at 806-384-2208 or ruanhr@ruan.com, dedicated to diversity, EOE
Insurance & Financial Service Professionals (posted 9/22/09)
Join our elite group of Farmers entrepreneurs who are empowered to help our customers insure and grow their assets. You’ll build your own office while helping individuals, families and small businesses build a better financial future. For more information contact Jeff Ivy at 806-350-7950
Automotive Technician
Rock & Rho Repair is looking for an experienced Automotive Technician for their busy repair shop. Must have own transportation and tools. Contact Rick at Rock & Rho Repair, 1212 Highway 87 North in Dalhart (806) 244-6622.
2010 Census Positions Available
The U.S. Census Bureau is seeking individuals to fill a variety of full and part-time jobs to help meet the goal of every resident in our nation being counted in 2010. Jobs throughout Texas will pay $8.00 - $19.25 per hour. Must be a U.S. Citizen, 18 yrs of age or older. Bilingual speakers are encouraged to apply. Besides good pay you will have flexible hours, paid training and the chance to work in your own community.
Call 1-866-861-2010 to Schedule the Field Employee Selection Aid Test
Testing will take place in Dalhart on Tuesday December 16th at 2:00 pm and 6:00 pm at the Dalhart Chamber of Commerce office, 102 E. 7th. Sample tests can be picked up at the Dalhart Chamber office.
For additional information call 806-757-2271 or 806-626-9018 or visit the Dallas Regional Office website for current and future employment
Cargill Cattle Feeders in Dalhart
Click here for Information or visit
Applications available at the Dalhart Chamber of Commerce office
Lucas Auto Parts
Counter Help needed, willing to train
Call 806-244-4563
Allegiance Communications
Installer Tech
Guymon, OK and Perryton, TX
Call for application at 806-249-4820 or stop by 1619 Tennessee in Dalhart
Subway Sandwiches
Needs counter help, call 806-249-5822 or stop by Highway 87 & 54 for application
United Supermarket
Full Time and Part Time Team Members.
Premium Standard Farms:
Various Positions available. Applications available at the Dalhart Chamber office or call 806-377-6289
Texas Department of Criminal Justice:
Various Positions available. Applications available at the Dalhart Chamber office
Dalhart Independent School District:
Various Positions available: call 806-244-7810
Hilmar Cheese Company
Various Positions Available: View job postings at Panhandle Worksource call 806-244-1834.
XIT Communications:
Various Positions Available: Contact Shawna at 806-384-3311
Dallam/Hartley Counties Hospital District:
Various Positions Available. call Dee Dawn at 806-244-4571
U.S. Economy: Sales of Previously Owned Homes Unexpectedly Fall
Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) — Sales of previously owned U.S. homes unexpectedly dropped 7.2 percent in January to a seven-month low, indicating a lack of job growth is undermining government incentives to bolster the housing market.
Everything is trending down…the only “grab-me-by-my-ankles-and-pull-’cause-I-won’t-go-lower” “holdout” seems to be…prices!
There has never been a better time to refinance a mortgage!
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* Fixed-rate loan options below 5%
* Adjustable-rate loan options below 4%
* Low rates on FHA loans
Ee-gads.
Frank
A few bits buckets back I commented on the comfort zone of an individual holding a 10% note in Florida, but I think you thought I was questioning if that was too high an amount for the buyers to put down.
What I was trying to say is if I was holding the note, I’d prefer 20% and maybe more depending on the industry and location of the asset. We were talking Florida weren’t we?
Has Arizona Lender stopped by lately? Arizona Lender, any thoughts?
I have a modest proposal to the next Republican candidate for the White House:
1) Strip the Fed of 90 percent or more of its power, restoring its function from running a global hedge fund to that of maintaining a stable currency.
2) Fire most of the Goldman Sachs alumni club at the Treasury and replace financial engineers with principled leaders who put a higher value on maintaining a level playing field than endlessly rewarding the richest and/or most foolish Americans.
3) Bust Wall Street’s Megabank, Inc cartel down to non-systemically risky size.
The economic boom that would follow the restoration of basic American principles of fairness and equal opportunity would astonish all of humanity!
The economic boom that would follow the restoration of basic American principles of fairness and equal opportunity would astonish all of humanity!
It would indeed, but would probably require 15-20 years to do so. Politicians however operate on a 4-6-year time horizon.
That’s the catch-22 we have. On the one hand we want to limit terms in order to kick out the career politicians. On the other hand though short terms means the politicians don’t give a rats patootie about what happens a couple of decades down the road.
“4-6 year time horizon”?
Try 4-6 month.
Republican or Democrat doesn’t mater. You have to purge the government of all the financial puppet masters. Next, and this is really important, you pack the Supreme Court with consumer friendly judges. Now when you elect a politician the odds are he might actually do something positive.
Why is your “advice scope” limited to one party?
I didn’t mean to be exclusive; just realistically reflecting my expectation that a Republican outsider is the most likely winner in the next election.
lol…remind me again how Lincoln became president?
Too bad manufacturing is only 10% of our economy now. Japan about 21% Germany about 25%
[Manufacturing sectors continue to blossom, while housing sector slumps unexpectedly ] 2/26/10 ecpulse dot com
The manufacturing sector in the United States continue to support economic growth in the country where the Chicago PMI rose above market expectations, a sign that the economy will continue to benefit from the rise in manufacturing activities as it was reported in the second GDP reading for the fourth quarter of this year.
The Chicago PMI index rose to 62.6 in the month of February, beating the previous reported estimate of 61.5 while coming conversely from market expectations of 59.7, meanwhile sub indices in the report showed that prices paid by manufacturers rose to 67.7 in February from 66.2, while production declined slightly to 65.2 from the previous 66.6.
USA 6 Finland 0 !!!!!!! 1st period
Housing is very expensive in Vancouver too.
“What’s the number one rule in a depression?,” asks Bill Bonner. ” Conserve cash. In a depression, cash goes up. Everything else goes down.”
“Almost everyone loses in a depression. All assets go down. Against what? Against money…cash. So, the thing to do is obvious. Get rid of your investments. Cut your expenses. Sit tight. Do nothing. When you’re given an investment opportunity, just say no. Wait until the depression has run its course.
“If Japan is any indication, this could go on for another 10 to 20 years – with generally sinking prices for just about everything, but particularly for stocks and real estate.”
I don’t believe the BOJ had the same Will to Print our Fed has.
Forgot the link:
The Will to Print
I have a better link for you. Look at this graph and weep:
http://www.pcasd.com/us_not_going_down_japans_road
Well, the sun is setting on yet another day when the banker men need our money more than we need the banker men’s houses. Maybe that will change, and maybe it won’t - but I’ll take what I can get.
They haven’t for the most part. Despite that - Japan still hasn’t had the massive “deflation” that everyone claims. Their CPI has been exactly flat for 17 years now.
Japan did have pretty massive “stimulus” spending packages pretty much on an every-year or every-other-year basis. I would consider that to be a “will to print”.
packman, though their CPI has actually been flat, that is in spite of stimulus spending and long-term ZIRP. In other words, they have been fighting deflation tooth-and-nail and barely staying even.
More layoffs of state workers proposed in budget.
BATON ROUGE, La.
Layoffs are a growing share of cuts to Louisiana’s government work force, as agency chiefs are finding that shedding jobs through early retirements, attrition and hiring freezes don’t always balance the books when the state shrinks spending.
Prison guards, health workers, attorneys, pilots, nuisance animal trappers, pharmacists, clerical staff and midlevel bureaucrats have gotten pink slips since budget cuts deepened over the last year and a half. More jobs will be lost in the upcoming budget year that begins July 1.
Gov. Bobby Jindal proposes eliminating 2,976 positions from the state’s work force in the 2010-11 budget year.
Let me finish the story……
-The workers disappear, so the jobs don’t get done.
-Taxpayers complain about the wait/lack of services
-Being a good dogmatic Republican, Jindal will “privatize” these positions
-Government workers are replaced by contract employees with minimal pay and no benefits. Or quietly outsourced to India.
-Companies with good lobbyists and/or ties to the party in power, will get sweetheart deals, and the politicians will get campaign funds/bribes/kickbacks.
-Some crisis (be it a hurricane, people getting murdered due to early prison releases, issues caused by the lack of code enforcement, you name it) highlights the problem with this approach.
-Various government investigations ensue. Nobody gets fired/goes to jail.
Not saying that this is good or bad. It just “is what it is”.
Cheney-Shrub Shadow Legacy Effect #8: “We delivered the worst US Economy in 80 years, see ya”
I suspect that soon Megabank, Inc may be the only financial player with carte blanche to go short.
Short-selling rules
Shackling the scapegoats
American regulators approve long-awaited restrictions on short-selling
Feb 25th 2010 | NEW YORK | From The Economist print edition
THE main cause of the financial crisis may have been reckless optimism, but the pessimists are hardly being hailed as heroes. When stockmarkets tumbled in 2008, short-sellers—those who borrow shares and sell them in the hope of buying them back later at a lower price, thereby profiting from a fall in their value—were cast as villains. Politicians have wanted to clip their wings ever since. On February 24th, after a year-long debate, America’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) responded with fresh curbs on shorting.
The restrictions will be triggered when a stock has fallen by 10% or more in one day. At that point, short-selling would be allowed only if the sale price is above the best available “bid” in the market. This provision could affect a fair number of shares—4% of the market on an average day, and much more in turbulent times, the commission calculates.
The rule falls short of a full reintroduction of the “uptick” rule that some had called for. That restriction, which was repealed in 2007 (just before the crisis erupted), covered all stocks, not just those under severe pressure, and allowed shorting of a share only when its last price move had been upward.
…
Awkward compromises are the order of the day in financial reform, however. A bigger example is the mega-bill that is currently grinding its way through the Senate. Having already seen its cherished consumer financial-protection agency come under fire, the White House now reportedly faces the prospect that its proposed ban on proprietary trading (the “Volcker rule”) will be watered down, too. Short-sellers are not the only ones who are getting squeezed.
Gold Breaks the Rules
February 26, 2010 ~ MarketWatch
Precious metal and U.S. dollar start to trade in tandem, but for how long?
Gold’s been quite the rebel lately — and investors are giving it much more than a passing glance.
The precious metal recently broke from its usual inverse relationship with the U.S. dollar to move more in sync with the climb in the greenback, showing off its prowess as a resilient world favorite.
“Gold moving up with the dollar is a sign of tremendous strength in gold,” said Sam Kirtley, chief executive officer of SK Options Trading.
Gold futures prices are up nearly 5% from this month’s low of $1,050 an ounce in New York. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the U.S. unit against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, has also climbed, gaining more than 2% from its low in February.
“Both gold and the dollar have been trending upward since early this month,” said Brien Lundin, editor of Gold Newsletter. “If gold and the dollar can decouple, [that would] hold important implications for the metal going forward.”
BRICs are snapping up bricks, is why.
The financial crisis examined
Bearers of bad news
Feb 18th 2010 | From The Economist print edition
Don’t Blame the Shorts: Why Short Sellers are Always Blamed for Market Crashes and How History is Repeating Itself. By Robert Sloan. McGraw-Hill; 247 pages; $27.95. Buy from Amazon dot com
…the shorts’ role in driving crashes is overstated. They comprised around 5% of market volume between 1929 and 1932, the deepest bear market in American history. Indeed, eventually, short-sellers help markets recover since they must buy back the stocks they have sold. Banning their activities simply reduces market liquidity.
Shorts are also a useful dissenting voice. Chief executives have an interest in puffing up the value of their shares, as do the investment banks which act for them. During the dotcom bubble, brokers rated 49 stocks as buys for every one they rated a sell. It is the shorts who comb through balance-sheets to look for companies with dodgy finances. It was a short whom Jeffrey Skilling, then chief executive of Enron, addressed as “asshole” for questioning the company’s accounts in a conference call shortly before its collapse.
Someone has to point out when the emperor has no clothes. The shorts were among the biggest sceptics of the subprime-mortgage boom and of the banks that financed it. And when they were proved right, their activities were banned. Gratitude, huh?
Amen.
SoMa housing site on block
San Francisco Business Times - 2-26-10
Portland Pacific has put a San Francisco development site on the market while the builder continues to work with neighbors and public officials to win entitlements for the 113-unit apartment complex.
The two separate South of Market parcels totaling 18,906 square feet of land at 430 Main St. and 429 Beale St. are listed at $4.75 million, according to Colliers International, which is marketing the property. The property currently has two interconnecting warehouse buildings with 35,622 square feet of space. At $4.75 million the asking price works out to $133 a square foot.
The possible sale of the property comes after Portland Pacific has struggled to win support for the proposed housing development from abutting neighbors and the Board of Supervisors. The Planning Commission approved the development, but the decision was appealed to the Board of Supervisors, which ruled that Portland Pacific must start its entitlement process anew with a full Environmental Impact Report. A full EIR takes at least 18 months.
“We are hoping that City Hall and the neighbors will come to an agreement but we are trying to hedge our bets by offering the property (for sale),” said Sam Singer, a spokesman for the developer. “There has been some interest in the marketplace for that piece of property.”
Jobless benefits start ending on Sunday ~ February 26, 2010
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Depending on extended unemployment benefits to see you through the Great Recession?
You’d better not: The Senate failed to push back the Feb. 28 deadline to apply for this safety net.
Starting Monday, the jobless will no longer be able to apply for federal unemployment benefits or the COBRA health insurance subsidy.
Federal unemployment benefits kick in after the basic state-funded 26 weeks of coverage expire. During the downturn, Congress has approved up to an additional 73 weeks, which it funds.
These federal benefit weeks are divided into tiers, and the jobless must apply each time they move into a new tier.
Because the Senate did not act, the jobless will now stop getting checks once they run out of their state benefits or current tier of federal benefits.
That could be devastating to the unemployed who were counting on that income. In total, more than one million people could stop getting checks next month, with nearly 5 million running out of benefits by June, according to the National Unemployment Law Project.
“Because the Senate did not act…”
Please elaborate wmbz, …while I’m drinking my Maker’s Mark KENTUCKY Bourbon
Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) , who is retiring from the Senate this year…
“TrueGridLok™” / “TrueDoNothing™” / GOPOFC&CC = “The Grand Old Pimp of Fiscal Conservatives & Compassionate Conservatives” = 1
Cheney-Shrub Legacy effect # 3 unemployed American workers = 0
Is the Stock Correction Over? Market May Seesaw for Months
CNBC ~ February 26, 2010, 4:17 pm
The correction that investors thought had finally arrived is beginning to fade as the stock market settles into a pattern likely to continue for months.
For nearly a year now, investors have been waiting for a big earthquake of a correction, but so far have been hit by a series of tremors.
And that may well be the case for most of 2010 as the Federal Reserve seems intent on keeping interest rates near zero. That leaves investors with few other options but to wait for stock market dips to put their money to work.
A true correction-generally defined as a 10 percent stocks drop-remains elusive.
“What will trigger (a true correction) is interest rates increasing. As long as we get cheap money it will be very difficult to hammer this market down,” says Matthew Tuttle, president of Tuttle Wealth Management in Stamford, Conn. “Unless something really blows up on us, it will be tough to have a meaningful correction.”
“Unless something really blows up on us…”
Man, that article is like a berry and honey cocktail!
My head-a-splode
We scheduled 4 showings today. 2 had offers before we got off work, the other one went sale pending while we were there, and the 4th had about 5 cars in the driveway when we pulled in. I am going to have a heart attack this is so maddening.
Shades of 2004!
Don’t let it get to you, buying a home is not a competition although it morphed into that over the past years. If I pulled into a driveway with 5 cars already there I would put it in reverse and go have a beer.
Ha, I’d get out, pull out a folding seat, plop my arse down, beer in my left hand, put my cell phone to my right ear and YELL: “What, the stock market is CRASHING! OMG!…OMG!…OMG! …as loud as I could…then wait for the parade to start…
Got… Neil’s all natural Popcorn?
BWAHAHAHicHAHAHicHAHAHAHAHicHAHAHic* (DennisN™)
Just tryin’ to help ya bro…:
Hwy: “Dang really? Well, guess that’ll help ‘em, because I’m down the road…
PD Eastman: “Go Dog! …Go!”
Dog1: Do you like the price of my house?
Dog2: No, no I do not like the price of your house!
Dog 1: Good-bye!
Dog 2: Good-bye…again!
Lol, the good news is that I have been playing hardball with an owner of a true 3/2 in a *really* nice neighborhood and it looks like they might take $1k/mo. ifI do a 24 mo. lease.
The kiddos
i864.photobucket.com/albums/ab205/muggyflo/kiddos.jpg
With apologies to Dr. Seuss:
“I do not like your housing scams,
I do not like them, Uncle Sam.”
“I do not like your sliced & diced beets,
I do not like them, Wall Street.”
“We scheduled 4 showings today. 2 had offers before we got off work, the other one went sale pending while we were there, and the 4th had about 5 cars in the driveway when we pulled in. I am going to have a heart attack this is so maddening.”
If you have to line up to buy something you’re getting screwed.
Must be damn desperate! Won’t work.
The fate of health reform has been a focus of debate in living rooms and offices, on TV and online — and on talk radio. And since millions of folks turn to talk radio as a trusted source of news and opinions, we need to make sure OFA supporters are calling in with a pro-reform message.
http://radio.barackobama.com/
I have to say I have never seen so much pyschobabble when one human being murdered another one. I guess orcas are some how extra special? Tilikum doesn’t sound much different to me from many male humans — especially when you consider he has sired seventeen calves!
Marine mammal’s motive?
Frohoff suggested that Tilikum, the orca who was involved in the death of trainer Dawn Brancheau at the SeaWorld aquarium in Orlando, Fla., may have been suffering from the cetacean equivalent of anxiety disorder.
“We know that post-traumatic stress syndrome has been identified in other species, by [animal specialist] Temple Grandin and others,” Frohoff said. “PTSD is very possibly related to his action. The act of capture alone, let alone the sustained and chronic stress that he is subjected to, could easily be responsible for that. … He’s been trying to communicate, and nobody’s been listening.”
Researchers generally say that confinement in a holding pen for long periods of a time is stressful for marine mammals, which typically swim 75 to 100 miles a day in the wild.
Tilikum was a special case for several reasons: He’s the largest orca in captivity, weighing in at more than 6 tons. In confinement, he’d feel especially pinched by his goldfish-bowl surroundings. He was separated from his Icelandic family pod at the age of 2. That would be particularly stressful for a species so tied to family life that each pod has its own dialect of calls. And because he was involved in two earlier human deaths, in 1991 and 1999, Tilikum was even more isolated than the typical captive orca.
Some might wonder why Tilikum was still at SeaWorld after those earlier deaths. “Because of the previous incidents, he has been kept in isolation most of the time - except for breeding,” Susan Berta, co-founder of the Orca Network in Washington state, told me. “That’s why he was kept on. He’s sired 17 calves.”
…
“He isn’t a bad seed or a serial killer,” Marino told me in an e-mail. “He is an intelligent sensitive animal taken from his family when he was 2 years old and forced to lead a highly artificial and confined life. This tragedy is just one example of what happens when we continue to use animals in this way. It is also critical to note that there has not been a single documented case of an orca injuring a person in the wild. People do swim with them or get among them in very small inflatables and boats, and there has yet to be an incident. All of these terrible events occur in captivity.”
…
“He’s been trying to communicate, and nobody’s been listening.”
14+% mortgage interest rates!
RUN Hwy,…RUN!
“He’s been trying to communicate, …”
What is orca for ‘Nice pony tail’?
He’s not a bad Orca……he’s really a good Orca that made some bad choices, and is misunderstood.
I’ll bet some court-mandated counseling would help.
Clipped from the Daily Reckoning…
FICO, the outfit that computes your vaunted “credit score,” has just noticed that consumers with high scores are more likely to default on their mortgages than their credit cards.
Last year, the firm says, folks with FICO scores of 760 or higher defaulted on real estate loans at three times the pace they defaulted on plastic.
This shouldn’t be any surprise to FICO. We noticed a few days ago that the number of consumers current on their cards but delinquent on their mortgages exploded by 50% in the year after Lehman went belly up. FICO has access to this data in real time.
But it appears flabbergasted by this development, marveling in the first paragraph of a press release that “most credit cards are unsecured credit and mortgages are secured by real estate.”
Earth to FICO: If you’re in an underwater home, why wouldn’t you commit strategic default and use the difference between a mortgage payment and rent on a similar home to pay down those cards? You might not even have to move if your mortgage lender doesn’t want to follow through on foreclosure and book the loss!
Still, FICO’s CEO told Bloomberg TV he’s stunned the phenomenon isn’t limited to subprime: “Now we’re starting to see at the high end of the marketplace people with good FICO scores having serious delinquency problems.”
There’s a hint of panic in the man’s words, as if he senses his entire business model is going down the toilet. Good riddance. Millions of mortgages were issued in the last decade on the basis of nothing more than the “score” issued by this company, which reveals exactly nothing about a borrower’s income, or how his debt load compares to his income. FICO wasn’t the cause of the housing bubble, just a trifling enabler.
“Consequences, Schmonsequences, as long as I’m rich.” Daffy Duck
Hey they use…predictive analytics, I guess he can’t claim: “We didn’t see this coming!”
“Now we’re starting to see at the high end of the marketplace people with good FICO scores having serious delinquency problems.”
About US:
FICO™ (NYSE:FICO) is the leader in Decision Management, transforming business by making every decision count. We use predictive analytics to help businesses automate, improve and connect decisions across organizational silos and customer lifecycles.
Clients in 80 countries work with FICO to increase customer loyalty and profitability, cut fraud losses, manage credit risk, meet regulatory and competitive demands, and rapidly build market share. Most leading banks and credit card issuers rely on FICO solutions, as do insurers, retailers, healthcare organizations and other companies. Through the Web site, consumers use the company’s FICO® scores, the standard measure of credit risk, to manage their financial health.
We have pioneered the development and application of critical technologies behind advanced Decision Management. These include predictive analytics, business rules management and optimization. We use these technologies to help businesses improve the precision, consistency and agility of their complex, high-volume decisions.
Earth to FICO, don’t fence me in! I love it that humans don’t abide by their HAL-ish business model. FICO rhymes with…..
What about the Volcker Rule and a little trust-bustin’ to end TBTF bailout insurance for systemically risky firms? Are they in the financial reform package?
The Fed
Feb. 26, 2010, 7:03 p.m. EST
Some Fed officials worried about new powers
Telling banks to quit profitable lending won’t be easy, they say
Financial conditions may be recovery drag: study
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - While recent reports suggest that the Federal Reserve may be winning the political turf-battle to become the primary regulator of the country’s largest financial firms, the pressure on the central bank by the industry would substantially increase if it happens, according to officials at a Fed conference Friday.
Though the financial industry has grown comfortable with the Fed’s monetary policy reputation of “taking the punch bowl” away from a strong economy by raising interest rates to slow things down, no such comfort currently exists with the idea that the central bank will be able to turn bank lending on and off, they claim.
The Fed already faces criticism on interest rates, but the level of protest would be much greater on lending, especially because banks could lobby members of Congress to protest each time the Fed tried to change lending rules, they claim.
Federal Reserve Board Governor Daniel Tarullo, a key negotiator with Congress on the financial reform package, reported to the Fed policy conference sponsored by the University of Chicago on Friday that the Obama administration, members of Congress and regulators have reached a “fair degree of consensus” on elements of financial reform legislation.
Included in the consensus are better capital requirements, a horizontal approach to supervising the largest financial institutions and a sophisticated increased bank and bank holding company supervision to help ensure financial stability, Tarullo said.
…
To see what I am up against, search (I use Floridamoves dot com) 3/2 between 150-200k in Seminole, Pinellas County, FL. About half of the returns are sale pending. Honestly, it’s mind-boggling.
Muggy, that data-point alone should be enough to convince you that you should not be out there bidding. When bidding against fools, only the biggest fool wins.
Take the 24-mo lease you mentioned above; that’s probably about the right timeframe for thinking about putting a toe back in the water anyway.
He speaketh the Prime Truth Muggy…listen well…
“When bidding against fools, only the biggest fool wins.”
If that doesn`t sum up the real estate market for the last seven years, I don`t know what does.
“About half of the returns are sale pending.”
Who are the buyers? Highly leveraged gamblers with no skin in the game, or cash/significant downpayment buyers?