Bits Bucket For April 22, 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.
April 22, 2010
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I am sitting in the hotel lobby trying to keep tabs on the world. I feel like I am on another planet. It is so far from my little apartment. We are hoping to get out on Sunday. There are a lot of things that can still go wrong.
It looks like the Greece mess is getting worse and worse. At what point do the Greece just pull the plug. It looks like the rank and file are rioting, or planning to riot. It is amazing how people that have been getting a free ride get violent when the free ride is taken away. They never seem grateful for those years of free ride. It reminds me of the home-owe-ners that do not pay for two or three years, after putting no money down, and then bust up the place because they are victims.
There are so many victim stories and so few victims.
The headlines on CNN are about the financial reform. What a piece of rotten theatre. If Wall Street is so wretched there should be a full Justice Department investigation into their dealings. Arrest the people that committed crimes and strip them of their ill-gotten gains. One analyst said the new reforms that were sought would just institutionalize TBTF. Call me cynical but I would bet that they will do more harm than good. We have all the laws on the books that we need.
Any reform that does not begin with The Fed, and their major players such as JPM and Goddamn Sacks, will not go very far.
It is nice to think that Goldman is sweating. I do not believe it. When you can walk on water you do not fear mortals.
I love seeing the tales of the China, Canada and Australia bubbles. Keep it up guys. I am sure it will last until the rapture. We Americans had our bubble burst only because we were dumb. I am sure you are much smarter. If commodities tank you can kiss the Canucks and citizens of New South Wales goodbye.
There is just so much to digest, these 5,000 miles from home. The morning seems so serene. But for some reason I am thinking that everything is resembling a volcano that has been dormant these past 12 months. I do not know why.
Maybe it is because none of the underlying problems have been fixed. At some point in life you begin to recognize that a problem not fixed will rise up and bite you.
Greek 2-year bonds shot up deeper into record territory again - now at 9.75%! (Previous record was around 8%).
Looks like they’re screwed.
Next up: Portugal.
I believe Santelli said they hit 11% this morning…
Any word on the other PIIGS?
There has never been a better time to buy Greek bonds.
They are not making any more Greek bonds.
I hear David Lereah is reccomending Greek bonds.
Is that because their yields always go up?
That’s really quite cheap. It seems we have become so used to getting no return on our money that a fair rate seems expensive.
It isn’t.
Remember 16% CD’s here in the US of A in the 1980’s?
What was our problem other than High inflation? The FED pushed the limit. Now, it’s less than 1 percent returns. It’s a bad joke.
“It is amazing how people that have been getting a free ride get violent when the free ride is taken away.”
Can you imagine what would happen here in the USA? New Orleans post Katrina was a tiny example. Thus, ammo sales contiue to rise…
Sounds like you have a clear view in your head from your vantage point so far away. Get home safely, then…?
I am hoping that we’ll get rid of complex derivatives. It’s clear that the only ones who could benefit from those are a few banksters.
On another note, I heard this on CNBC this morning: “The Grecians need to find a new formula.”
There is just so much to digest, these 5,000 miles from home.
Nice bit of writing. Thanks for that.
There are so many victim stories and so few victims.
Nicely struck, sir!! actually your whole post is excellent. I saved it to my computer for future repeat reading and enjoyment.
I didn’t follow the financial reform bill so I can’t speak to the debate in detail. But from what I heard on the NewsHour, banks were doing low-risk work to show off for the regulators, but placing their high-risk bets where the regulators were not allowed to tread. The financial reform bill forces a bank to work work in either regulated/transparent space or non-regulated/non-transparent space, but not both. If i understand it correctly, that reform alone is long overdue. I guess it will be like the health care law. Not perfect, but at least curbs the worst of the practices.
The other day I heard that the Justice was slow on prosecutions because their funding had been cut. So I’m expecting quite a delay in any proceedings. [partisanship] I’ll insert here that I hope we keep our current Admin through 2016, if only to have a solid 8 years of time for Justice to turn their grinding wheels. I wonder how much time/money is wasted when a new Admin came in and destroyed years of work on ongoing “uncomfortable” cases? [/partisanship]
I see the lack of prosecutions as willful negligence on the part of regulators, politicians, and the justice department. The fraud and collusion committed between ratings agencies like Moody’s and their master Goldman Saks alone is enough to have a field day on. It’s not as if this stuff is top secret. The cat has been out of the bag for years, and the PTB chose to do nothing. I had high expectations for Obama. I’m extremely disappointed in his hollow course of action. There was an opportunity to nail the pigmen to the wall, and it was lost. Not only should they have been prosecuted and incarcerated, but all of their wealth stripped. And I mean ALL of it. What these traitors did to this country is unforgivable. They destroyed lives, millions of lives.
I had high expectations for Obama. I’m extremely disappointed in his hollow course of action.
You’re not the only one, GrizzlyBear. And I like your moniker. Reminds me of one of my favorite songs of ‘09.
How long before California goes Greek?
My wife attended a PUSD budget information meeting last night and the news was grim. She said many of the teachers in the room appeared on the verge of crying. Programs that seemed richly staffed and well funded five years ago have been cut to the bone (e.g. nursing staff on hand in the school, professional art instructors, music programs, etc). There is not enough money to continue the current austerity level of programs. Good teachers are taking early retirement, while young, talented, energetic new entrants face an omnipresent, soul-crushing threat of termination. Class sizes are swelling, particularly in the early grades.
One of the last few remaining productive public school districts in the state of California is in the process of slowly getting destroyed. Heckuva job, Terminator! Maybe if we are lucky, our next governor can be a former Gollum director: Out of the frying pan, and into the pit of hell.
I’d also say heck of a job
Wall street, FED and Washington.
700 billion of TARP and other Wall STreet supports could have been used to create/save jobs , improve education and infrastructure, and reduce our oil addiction.
Instead it went for billion dollar Wall Street Bonus pools.
Dude, Armageddon? Remember? Hello?…
“…and reduce our oil addiction.”
TARP had the added “benefit” of extraordinarily high fuel prices for hard working Americans, as greedy pigmen poured their new found liquidity into black gold, amongst other commodities, blowing themselves a nice little bubble in the process. Pigmen love bubbles.
Instead it went for billion dollar Wall Street Bonus pools…….
Well, if you’re trying to get back to “NORMAL”, then you can say:
“Mission Accomplished”.
This was the plan, all along. When people in Washington believe a certain group of people should be granted special privileges, this is what you get. We are on the road to recovery. Ha!~
700 billion of TARP and other Wall STreet supports could have been used to create/save jobs , improve education and infrastructure, and reduce our oil addiction.
Man. We really did lose a great opportunity to re-build our country.
I also thought we’d do something like this a couple days before I was told to “go shopping”.
What have we become…
Public education in the US is a complete farce. Needs to go by the boards, anyway. It’s a shame, too, but what can you do with a system that essentially has become a language education, baby sitting, indoctrination and wealth transfer system. And I’m not talking about teachers being on the receiving end of that wealth, either, although some are. In Florida, it’s the administrators, contractors, etc.
An end to the public education system would accomplish two things: lowering taxes, increasing personal responsibility.
“Needs to go by the boards, anyway.”
Right. Since we have already nearly scrapped our public education system, we may as well throw in the towel by killing whatever remaining bits are still working. The march towards third world status must continue…
Indeed, it will continue - think of the profits!
Sadly true… in NJ, they are “shocked” that the people voted against massive tax increases to fund the school’s pipe dreams in the middle of the Great Recession. NJ has been ruled by the teacher’s unions for years, so they never saw this coming. How confusing it all is - why can’t we just keep raising taxes and printing money to paper over all the problems? Argh!
Most district budgets in this area pass w/o incident. The only exceptions were the artificial turf fields they were trying to install with “free” money from the state. That brought the retirees out in force especially since the towns would have been paying for their fields long after the fields’ expected life.
This year is noticably different. Now the schools are trying to cut their budgets back and the people are sometimes near revolt. Don’t close my building…I went there. I want my kids there. Don’t cut my program, my kid needs those and I have no intention of taking them down to the local sports center or art studio and paying from my own pocket.
That’s what we’ve seen happening around us. Apparently we’ve got another year before the nastiness begins. Our district’s financial officer was at a recent meeting. I’ll never forget his face as long as I live. It was deep concern that almost seemed to border on fear. The superintendent was there. The message was we’ve got to encourage people to agree to tax increases. Ha! In a town where $8-10k tax bills are for the smaller 40 year old sometimes neglected homes and the newer shinier versions go for $12k-$15k. McMansions are $20k to $30k.
I know some of their constituents will want the tax increases but I’m hearing more and more comments along the lines of “enough is enough”. It is a fine district. Parents love their teachers and overwhelmingly support them (all districts should have teachers this professional). They’re just wondering who’s worrying about the taxpayers’ retirement.
“Apparently we’ve got another year before the nastiness begins.”
Yes, the federal CRA funds go Poof! at the end of the 2010-2011 academic year. This is why my district has eliminated my current position. The county needed to cut funds, so they are doing it now. Next year, they will need to cut more because of the loss of federal funds.
BTW, I have a position for next year, but I will go through this exact same process again one year from now. It started last year (2009-2010 academic year) and it appears it will continue until the Boomer teachers retire. Of course, none of them want to do that since they lost a ton of money in the past few years.
We either pay for public education with our tax money or we pay for prisons with our tax money.
A well-educated person with critical thinking skills will contribute to society. An illiterate, ignorant person will more often than not end up a burden on the community/state.
At this point, in CA, we spend more money per prisoner than we do per student.
It’s a major boon to the privatized prison system.
The military has more desperate kids to recruit.
Yeah, let’s privatize education. Democracies don’t really need educated people, right?
Sorry, but public “education” does not teach critical thinking. It teaches obedience to authority. It is not the solution to our problems, but one of our main problems in itself.
technovelist, I don’t understand comments like yours. Almost every teacher I know encourages critical thinking. Are you speaking from your middle school/Pink Floyd days or from your ground-level experiences today, right now?
I’m not sure what you mean by ‘obedience’ and ‘authority’ either. If you mean, “follow the law and treat others reasonably,” than yes, you are correct. We teach that in K12 public.
For example, let’s say you’re a kid on probation, bashing a kid’s face in with your fist, and I show up and ask you to stop, and then one of your friends levels me… yes, I expect students to learn to obey my orders to stop bashing people’s faces in. Authority is important. Maybe you think those kids need more ‘freedom.’
Or, let’s say you call everybody ‘n’ and I explain to you that that is not a good word to use. You think this is bad? I’d like to hear your specific examples of guys like me training kids to be obedient.
Your line of thinking always ends in places like Waco or Ruby Ridge. I suspect you don’t have many friends in law enforcement, law, or education.
At this point, in CA, we spend more money per prisoner than we do per student……….
your problems in CA are from illegal aliens who end up in your prisons in droves and clog up your courts and schools. you simply cannot import crime and poverty from another country and not expect severe consequences. the day has arrived.
When bricks in the wall revolt, the wall comes crashing down.
I doubt the striking teachers have any idea what they are starting. God bless Texas.
“An end to the public education system would accomplish two things: lowering taxes, increasing personal responsibility.”
You forgot some other potential ‘accomplishments’:
1) Drive a larger wedge between the quality of education for rich and poor.
2) Continue the wanton destruction of America’s middle class, which was the bedrock of mid-twentieth century financial stability and prosperity.
3) Lead to some combination of lower quality education and higher cost of educating our children, as the public good benefit of public school education is lost.
Not to mention creating a class of uneducated kids who have a 100% chance of becoming the inmates and welfare queens everyone so loves to hate. If I weren’t at work I’d look up some good Horace Mann passages.
“Not to mention creating a class of uneducated kids who have a 100% chance of becoming the inmates and welfare queens everyone so loves to hate.”
It’s all good! These future inmates will provide the needed jobs for a future generation of prison guards. The corrections sector will see a boom.
Not to mention creating a class of uneducated kids who have a 100% chance of becoming the inmates and welfare queens everyone so loves to hate.
Soylent Green! It’s uneducated children!
Bawhahahahaha!
Palmetto, a long time ago I would have gotten riled up by this sort of statement. But I read a book by a couple scholars that’s made me much more mellow regarding people and their ill feelings toward K-12. Anyone who is interested in a history of public education and why Americans *feel* like their system sucks but *in actuality* do fairly well should check out “Tinkering Toward Utopia” by David Tyack and Larry Cuban.
Sorry I don’t think we should end public schools, but instead bring back tough love & personal responsibility standards by making everyone, even ghetto kids learn to read, write and speak English, and summer school if they can’t pass into the next grade.
We have tried everything else and wasted tons of money, yet 90% of people in jail and probably just as high a number on welfare,do not speak English, but ghetto….
————————————-
An end to the public education system would accomplish two things: lowering taxes, increasing personal responsibility.
In another time, I would agree with you anycdj. The US is now a polyglot of disparate cultures, ethnic and special interest groups, arguing over ESOL programs, holidays, discrimination, school lunches, ADHD, etc. In Florida, we seem to have a problem with female teachers looking to hook up with their students, kids being bullied and set on fire, etc. Is our children learning? No? What’s the point, then?
If it could be fixed, I’d be all for it. It can’t. Scrap it and start over.
Palmy:
We have a new show on our station Shane who deals with autistic and special needs children, and yes i banter back with her since i know nothing about this subject:
http://nytalkradio.net/wordpress/podcasts/category/your-beautiful-child/
Palmy
Just playin’ devils advocate here: it sounds like you’re asking school administrators to solve America’s cultural weaknesses. I’m not sure how they could possibly do that. How does one deal w/a child that sets another on fire? The child has giant holes in his emotional response to life. How can a teacher fill the void created by:
fetal alcohol or drug issues
abusive and/or neglected home life
a circle of role models who haven’t themselves figured out how to steer through life in a healthy manner
a constant environment of anger at home
poor nutrition (just being dehydrated can make you short tempered)
I could go on but I’m sure you get my drift. The fabric of our society has been fraying for a long time. Not sure what the answer is but just looking the other way…..I don’t think it’s working out so well.
By the end of 9th grade they should divide the kids into college prep and trade school.
“By the end of 9th grade they should divide the kids into college prep and trade school.”
This would have killed me.
Schools in America began their long decline with “desegregation”, court-ordered busing, and “anti-discrimination” rulings that changed the cultural/racial makeup of the classrooms. Bad behaviour could not be punished. Poor performing students could not be failed, since this was often split on racial lines, and “fairness” meant reducing the standards previously set so that the poor performers could pass, too. I would start by resegregating schools along neighborhood lines.
I have been touring areas where low priced houses are being posted. The neighborhoods are primarily “minority”, which shows that unless forced by a police state, free people tend to segregate themselves along racial lines. How is it possible to have racial segregated neighborhoods when everyone is soooo “sensitive”? It’s all a lie.
Schools have become a socialization program for multi-culturalism, and little else, except that they also provide 2 meals a day and a place for miscreants to hang out for a good part of the day.
It would be a real good idea to also revisit the 1964 INS changes that favored white europeans who speak english becoming the new immigrants in favor a racial, national and cultural “diversity”. It was a bad plan and we are now seeing the results. BALKANIZATION is the new Era.
It’s like Rome, near the end.
Schools in America began their long decline with “desegregation”, court-ordered busing, and “anti-discrimination” rulings that changed the cultural/racial makeup of the classrooms.
I don’t think it’s race as much as it is class, (rich and poor) and structure of our schools.
I know it’s not PC to say but I’ve seen poor minority kids behave just as badly as poor white kids.
Rich or poor, kids need discipline. It will change lives. These kids need structure and consequences. Voluntary public magnet military day schools maybe. Parents sign a waver.
I know. I went to a Military school once, one of the best. Yea, I got paddled a few times. Waahaaa. Too bad it costs 30K a year now.
There has to be discipline brought back to our public schools. Somehow.
With homestead/save our homes and no income tax, what taxes do you pay? BTW, your teachers are among the lowest paid in the country.
But that plays right into the plan, IMHO: Kill the beast. Suck the life out of education and then say that it needs to go because it’s not performing. Education is getting more intense, as it should, again IMHO, because to prepare kids for the future, there’s more & more to learn. They have (for some of us) 50 more years of history & knowledge to learn than we did to start and those are action packed years. All the technology & the expectations to know and use it. And, on top of that all the social skills, work habits, etc. I also think parents are doing less parenting & more demanding. Even the best teacher, regardless of pay, can’t teach dysfunctional kids that don’t want to learn. Bottom line for me is it’s in the best interests of society to have an educated public. Just like it’s in everyone’s best interest to have a healthy society. Doesn’t do us a whole lot of good to have hoards of sick, ignorant people running around, particularly when they can vote and procreate.
+1 (and I am a teacher).
If you have 1 or 2 dysfunctional kids that don’t want to learn, there is possibly some chance of turning them around. But when you have a class of 30 students and half of them are not even remotely engaged in learning, well…as a teacher…you are fooked.
You need not worry. I heard there is a $23 billion Jobs Stimulus for Education bill headed for Congress. Barry spends that much before breakfast. It is in the bag. -(to Quote Gary Watts).
“One of the last few remaining productive public school districts in the state of California is in the process of slowly getting destroyed. Heckuva job, Terminator!”
Schools consume about half of the property taxes collected, and tax collections are falling lock-step with property values. Lotto tickets and soda-pop proceeds aren’t enough to offset the shortfall, so what’s it going to be? Repeal prop-13, a new food tax, or maybe fuel taxes like Europe? Anyway, just curious PB.
Arnold did not bring California to this bankrupt place; the process has been going on for a long time with many players including the voters.
Maybe some of the retired teachers could come back to work since they’re collecting paychecks from the taxpayers. That would cut down on classroom sizes.
Or here’s a better idea. Quit paying people to not work. Instead, pay the young new teachers.
Public Unions have certainly helped wreak havoc in California’s budget. I won’t cry tears over them suffering some of the consequences.
Don’t put that all on Arnold’s back. Remember the state was in a position to get pimped before he got near it.
It’s also a big fight with the union contracts.
Of course we will have our teacher riots too.
While I understand the backlash against the teacher’s unions (and I am a dues-paying member), some of you make it seem like we are truly getting a free lunch.
Just keep in mind:
-we do not pay into social security (at all)
- teachers DO pay into their pensions (about $500 month goes into my pension every month)
- we are grossly underpaid for a job that requires a professional education (teacher’s credential is pretty much the equivalent of a master’s degree)
-it is a really challenging job, no matter how you slice it
- we are grossly underpaid for a job that requires a professional education …………Oh, pleazse.
While i was working on my engineering degree i took a part time job at a community college to pay for my tuition. Because most of the students were in “pilot programs”, an education code for taking failing minority students and trying to move them up to grade level, i took a couple of education courses my employer had recommended. EASY A’s. Very easy. Try a real professional degree and see what hard work is all about.
Teacher Certification is just a scam to hold people who could easily qualify from getting placed. It’s like a private fraternity that you need to get membership to get into the clubhouse.
I do agree that the job is TOUGH. It is much worse because there is no discipline in the classrooms and the standards are lax. I originally wanted to teach before the schools became wastelands. Kids should be segregated based on abilities and those that disrupt should be removed. That would solve most of the problems.
While i was working on my engineering degree i took a part time job at a community college to pay for my tuition.
Engineering degrees are hard but can be limiting in their breadth of teaching understanding and potential influence. Not counting a specific job, a liberal arts degree can be more valuable for an average college level graduate to understand and/or make a positive impact on their surroundings.
Math is cool but sometimes it’s got too many numbers that crowd out some important stuff.
Hmmm - I notice not one peep about actually cutting where the bloat is - salaries, benefits and pensions.
Heckova job California voters, for installing profligate spenders and electing so many liberal democratic politicos who encouraged and abetted parasitism and uncontrolled immigration. You reap what you sow.
Let’s discuss another waste. California Prisons. Run by the Dept.of Corrections, whose union is so powerful, no-one actually attempts to buck them. The overtime the officers can collect puts them in the $100k plus bracket. They lobby ‘tough on crime’ politicians so they can continue to overfill the prison system, which means more hires, which means more money for the union.
Get this though. 50% of prison inmates are parolees who have been violated (not necessarly for anything really serious) and sent back by their parole officers. And to go in front of the parole board to get released — that decision is made my parole officers. Yet Parole officers are part of the Dept. of Corrections!! Self serving, no?
No-one dares buck them either, they are that powerful. Its disgusting that the state of CA. has as many inmates as the Feds!!
A great deal of prisoners are victimless criminals. It is against the interest of the prison industry, prosecutors, lawmakers, and law enforcement unions to decriminalize drugs, gambling, and prostitution.
And they hire fancy lobbyists to use scare tactics to get the vote of senior citizens and conservatives. Those groups are duped BIG TIME! But the biggest victims are the public who get victimized by hardened criminals who went into prison as victimless criminals.
America has one of the worst prison systems and some of the worst laws against civil liberties.
It is against the interest of the prison industry, prosecutors, lawmakers, and law enforcement unions to decriminalize drugs, gambling, and prostitution.
America has one of the worst prison systems and some of the worst laws against civil liberties.
OK that does it. You know what?!
Nothing…
You’re right.
I am also amazed that we found something we agreed on. And I wrote from my mind, not from my heart. From an atheist voluntaryist, that should count for a lot.
We aren’t so bad after all.
If this
train’splane is running rightI’ll be home Saturday night
I’m 5000 miles away from home
Away from home, away from home, away from home, away from home
I’m 5000 miles away from home
500 miles…Peter Paul & Mary: (youtube link: The Hooters)
If you miss the train I’m on, you will know that I am gone
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles,
a hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles,
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.
Lord I’m one, Lord I’m two, Lord I’m three, Lord I’m four,
Lord I’m 500 miles from my home.
500 miles, 500 miles, 500 miles, 500 miles
Lord I’m five hundred miles from my home.
Not a shirt on my back, not a penny to my name
Lord I can’t go a-home this a-way
This a-away, this a-way, this a-way, this a-way,
Lord I can’t go a-home this a-way.
If you miss the train I’m on you will know that I am gone
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfK5pxaRoQA&feature=related
Nice rendition by Ms. Baez:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS5S3YH-B08&feature=related
What are the possibilities of booking passage on a ship across the Atlantic? You could go up to the bow and stand there with your arms spread and shout “I’m King of the World!”
I’m king of the world, on a boat like Leo, if you’re on the shore than you’re sure not me oh
lol
Never thought I’d be on a boat
It’s like a big blue watery road….
Well arguably the point of financial reform is to MAKE the sort of financial shenanigans that got us into this mess illegal if they aren’t already. So a lack of perp-walks today is an indication that reform is NEEDED, not that it is irrelevant. Of course it’s an open question whether Congress can pass needed laws or whether the appointees and bureaucrats can enforce said laws if they ARE passed. But in principle figuring out:
1.) what went wrong, and
2.) how to prevent it from happening again by making it illegal,
is not a bad idea at al.
“It is amazing how people that have been getting a free ride get violent when the free ride is taken away. They never seem grateful for those years of free ride.”
People have forgotten what “dignity” really is. It’s not something the government gives you.
The Banksters are untouchable by now. Even if “something” was done, they’d just charge the bank for their crimes, which would in turn pass the fines on to the taxpayers and customers.
The only way this ends is with personal accountability: crooks going to jail, being stripped of their loot, etc. Nothing else will make any difference to The Masters of the Universe and their Too Big To Fail scams.
‘The Banksters are untouchable by now. Even if “something” was done, they’d just charge the bank for their crimes, which would in turn pass the fines on to the taxpayers and customers.’
You know, that phrase ‘pushing on a string’ really clicks in my head after reading the above. Nothing gets corrected. The system counts on a government backstopped Ponzi scheme and its largesse.
Like all socialist systems, it is much harder to undo than to do something. People get locked in.
“There is just so much to digest, these 5,000 miles from home. The morning seems so serene”
Ha…I could have told you not to wonder far from the NYCity cave but Oh, No! you just had to go exploring over there in Neanderthal land in these uncertain times.
I’m betting that you didn’t take out any volcano, major meteor and black swan pterodactyls life insurance on your butt before you left either.
…and the cat, who is feeding the Saber Tooth Tiger ?
Damned kids, they never listen.
NYCityBoy,
Hope you fly out soon before the window of opportunity closes. Your comments are cogent, as usual.
How ironic that you are stranded in Europe by a volcano. Katla is an apt metaphor for the next phase of the global financial crisis. It is the sister of the unpronounceable, unspellable Icelandic volcano that just erupted, but it has the potential to erupt with ten times the fury, according to scientists. And this sleeping giant may have been stirred by the eruption of its sister volcano.
If only we could offer up the entire top leadership of Goldman Sachs as a sacrifice to appease the volcano gods. If Katla blows, it will crash economies and change history. Something tells me the next shoe is about to drop.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7611663/Volcano-ash-Threat-of-second-volcano-Katla-10-times-the-strength.html
The Zestimate on Zillow is now only 500 dollars above where we sold our house in 2005. At one point it was more than 70,000 dollars above where we sold it. When it breaks even we should have a big party. I am thinking Jack Daniels and hamburgers. Of course if I do not get out of here it might be goulash and Pilsner. Either one is good. We can all wave goodbye to the bubble.
What was it in 1980?
An open field.
That was hillarious!
You still there, NYC? Book a transatlantic ship passage.
Well Zestimates are worth what you pay for ‘em. The house two doors down from me sold at auction for $162,750 in Feb. It Zillows for $282,500. While it may be reasonable to an estimate to be somewhat higher than that actual price reached in auction due to different conditions of sale, there’s no good reason for the price to be 73% higher. ESPECIALLY considering the number of vacants on my block. Lots of shadow and not so shadow inventory here, so it’s not likely that the degree of “distress” that characterized the auction is going to be atypical. ISTR that this house got a high bid of $155,000 in May of last year, but the bank declined to accept the bid. So in exchange for 8.5 months of holding costs and a small amount of fixing up they got $7.750.
Which is why you have to look at the yellow icons on zillow. Those are prices of sold houses. That is the real value of Zillow and makes it all worthwhile to check it out.
JD and burgers works for me.
You can come home now NYCityBoy.
In the buy vs rent calculator posted yesterday, when you increase the “Annual home price change” meter to 10%+, it’s pretty easy to see visually how people could believe all they had to do was hang around a few years (and how ugly it gets when you apply negative price changes).
Interesting that they don’t let you go below -10% change…hmmm
Does anyone seriously think we won’t get zapped with VAT?
Obama suggests value-added tax may be an option
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama suggested Wednesday that a new value-added tax on Americans is still on the table, seeming to show more openness to the idea than his aides have expressed in recent days.
Before deciding what revenue options are best for dealing with the deficit and the economy, Obama said in an interview with CNBC, “I want to get a better picture of what our options are.”
After Obama adviser Paul Volcker recently raised the prospect of a value-added tax, or VAT, the Senate voted 85-13 last week for a nonbinding “sense of the Senate” resolution that calls the such a tax “a massive tax increase that will cripple families on fixed income and only further push back America’s economic recovery.”
For days, White House spokesmen have said the president has not proposed and is not considering a VAT.
“I think I directly answered this the other day by saying that it wasn’t something that the president had under consideration,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters shortly before Obama spoke with CNBC.
Watch only what he does. He handed over the keys of the kingdom to his buddies Lloyd and Jamie. Now he is talking tough. Yeah right. He has Volcker calling for a VAT and here we are. Taxes will save us.
As much as I want to trust Obama I cannot get past feeling that he is very dangerous. He gave away trillions in stimulus and bailouts. Now he wants to give us a VAT to pay for his buying of votes and soothing of the victims. You dont need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
Watch only what he does. He handed over the keys of the kingdom to his buddies Lloyd and Jamie.
You got that right. What a low comedy. Charade doesn’t even cover it. Chris Dodd leading “banking reform”? He should be sharing a prison bunk with Barney Frank. I am incredulous that people are still naive enough to think Obama has any intention in acting in the public interest or supporting the common man over Wall Street.
Hey, all his advisers work(ed) for Goldman Sachs. Crooks. All.
You can bet on it….
You can take that to the bank…
I remember this line from an older steven siegal movie with that actress / model (british?) that did the hair shampoo commercial:”don’t hate me because I am beautiful”.
Character that spoke this line was a corrupt politician involved in illegal shenanigans and murder / coverup.
Oh, wait was that a movie or just the daily news…
I believe you are referring to Steven’s ex-wife, Kelly LeBrock, starlet from “Weird Science”
http://upload.moldova.org/movie/actors/k/kelly_lebrock/kelly_lebrock.jpg
Incidently ex cuz Siegal was reportedly into smacking her around a bit
smacking her around a bit ??
Just brushing up on the Twi-King-Do before the movie shoot…
I’m wondering if initially this will stimulate spending, as soon as they announce VAT people will load up on goods to get ahead of it. If they bleed it in say 1% a year for 5 -10 years won’t that visually be the same thing as inflation for J6pk.
I just love it
Bail outs and tax breaks for the elite
Inflation, service cuts, and VAT for the masses.
Good thing I buy my toys from Craigslist and eBay.
It won’t take long for the cost of used goods to increase. They will retain their same relative cost to similar new goods. Maybe a 2 or 3 year lag, not much more.
But that does bring up an interesting thought. If I own a pre-vat home, worth say $200K, and a new home of similar size and amenities is built, post VAT, and the VAT totals 20%, how long does it take my home to increase by a substantial fraction of the new home VAT? I’m thinking windfall here.
I’m thinking windfall here.
Well, since it’s only worth what someone can+will pay for it, it seems more likely to me that the tax will come out of the profit on the new one. And if there isn’t that much profit on a new one, then it won’t get built.
then it won’t get built ??
Exactly…We have that problem now…
Replacement costs already exceed the market value of homes in most area’s…Adding a VAT will just intensify it…
Good thing I buy my toys from Craigslist and eBay ??
They won’t let them get away without the VAT…Garage sales and flea markets will be the only refuge…
I would assess a one cent tax for every text or cell phone call. The collective awareness and IQ of American teenagers would go up perceptibly as they reduced incessant and inane communications.
4 real?
I think you forgot the ‘z’ at the end.
…and remember kiddies, the name is Sammy Schadenfreude
and for a small HBB donation, I’m sure that Ben can make his home address, email and phone number available to any number of you.
Feel free to call and chat with Sammy…anytime.
Taxes I would support
Take away loopholes that allow CEO’s and hedge fund managers to have a 16% effective tax rate (that is probably much lower than that when you factor in perks). If you get paid in stock and options those gains are taxed at income tax rates at the time you recieve the stock and options. Same goes for perks.
Another tax bracket for those making over a million a year.
Why is it that I pay a higher rate than someone making half as much as me but people making 10 x more than me don’t pay a higher rate? People making 1000x what I make pay a lower effective tax as noted above.
Windfall profits tax on all financial bonus payments in 2009. Say 50%.
Well, how about reducing corporate income taxes to attract jobs that have been outsourced.
Increases in taxs might be deflationary and slow velocity of money. Make it harder to pay the contracts.
Then have the government renegotiate rates on millitary contracts, medicare. Cut benefits for all civil service employees a bit and share the pain.
Did we get out of Iraq yet? Scale down the war efforts.
Things would be a lot easier if we didn’t have a declining tax base.
Remember everyone, we just experienced and economic shock with the collapse of the bubble. Things are recovering so don’t get too crazy with SS/Medicare and all that. Revenues are off doesn’t mean we should run out and tax the snot out of everything. Often counter productive.
How much money would we not have to spend if we get people off foodstamps and off welfare/unemployment?
I am worried about our competativeness. We have to look at federal taxes from an international standpoint and similar with state taxes.
Further we really have to look at those defined benefit plans for state/federal/municipal workers. Need to be culled down a bit.
“Well, how about reducing corporate income taxes to attract jobs that have been outsourced.”
Why would they give up their offshore savings? Even if the tax cuts were tied to keeping jobs here I don’t see how it will bring the jobs back from the 3rd world sweatshops where workers are paid 1/10 or less than American workers.
“Did we get out of Iraq yet? Scale down the war efforts.”
That I agree with, and if we don’t do, eventually Mr. Market will force our hand. We can’t keep print money forever to pay for this.
“How much money would we not have to spend if we get people off foodstamps and off welfare/unemployment?”
If there are actually jobs for all these people, then fine. Otherwise expect food riots.
Corporations don’t want to pay for health care, OSHA regs have gone way past the point of diminishing returns, and EPA regs have made many industrial processes economically unviable in the US.
Until the regulatory and economic disparities equalize, the voting with their feet will continue. Boeing is transforming itself from an airplane builder into a systems integrator: farming out all the low/semi-skilled labor to South Carolina, and other Third World countries, then having a minimal number of highly skilled people assemble, functionally test, and deliver the finish product.
farming out all the low/semi-skilled labor to South Carolina, and other Third World countries
Don’t know if you understood what I was saying. There aren’t many people that want to be on food stamps.
My counter to Measton’s tax more was to take a look at things from an international perspective on taxes. What can we do to increase jobs? What can we do to get more productive activity going.
Again, cutting tax burden might help and actually make some of the social programs he/she is so fond of more affordable.
More people working means less people needing foodstamps…
How effective can we be with making outsourcing less of a problem? Not really sure. I do agree with Mish/and CR about the corporate taxes. The little companies don’t have the big avoidance measures that megacorps can do.
How effective can we be with making outsourcing less of a problem? Not really sure.
Me neither, however Brazil is very protective of their market. They are much more self-sufficient than the USA but they pay for it with expensive goods.
I think the USA should have policies to promote USA manufacturing and if we pay a higher price for stuff so be it.
White collar jobs too.
Jobs would return. It is not too late. It is never too late.
“Why is it that I pay a higher rate”?
Someone making $75K with a 25% tax rate pays $18,750 tax.
Someone making $7.5M with a 16% tax rate pays $1.2M tax.
The guy paying a lower tax rate pays 64 times more in tax.
Does that answer your question?
The guy paying a lower tax rate pays 64 times more in tax.
Does that answer your question?
Is the Pope Jewish?
Nope, but the guy he prays to is.
Why stop there Kiki? Why not have the millionaire pay $18751 in tax. By your logic he’s carrying a bigger burden.
Uh, Ki, let me spell it out for you. The people who fear going hungry in their retirement years are wondering why the guy making $7.5mil acts like he’s going to struggle with a take home of $6.3mil.
The top 3% are the only group that have received an increase in income after adjusting for inflation in the past 15-20 years. The tax break changes were a big reason why. It seems to me this group is hanging onto its tax breaks w/the same vigor the welfare crowd hangs onto their largesse. Which is why I can’t pick a party or get behind a particular group. Most everyone is just rooting for themselves not the good of the nation as a whole.
So even when someone pays 6400% more tax than a regular Joe, it’s still not enough for some people.
Kiki, by dropping that HUGE number if you’re complaining that we think 1.2M is not enough for him to pay in taxes, then you won’t mind us complaining that you think 3M is not enough for him to keep.
Let me put it another way. You think it’s ok because he pays 64x as much as Joe. Some of us think it’s not ok because he keeps 110x as much as Joe. According to you his 64x in taxes should not be increased. But what you are also saying is that his 110x in take home should not be lowered.
So you are apparently ok with him keeping 11000% more than Joe. See what happens when you try to intimidate people with your prowess with large numbers? You get hoist on your own petard.
Next you’ll be telling us that the work he does is 11000% more valuable to the country than what Joe does. Or that he has 11000% more brain power, or works 110x as hard.
Comment by Ki
2010-04-22 13:01:49
So even when someone pays 6400% more tax than a regular Joe, it’s still not enough for some people.
Maybe the people’s gone bonkers.
Or found some historical tax tables or something because those super rich paying just 16% now paid 70% just in 1973.
And check this thing out. That means that once upon a time, the rich paid more taxes as a percentage of their income than the middle class! Seriously, it’s in books and stuff.
But wait, now people are starting to talk about this happening again!
I know, it’s wild!
Not really, but then are you in support of a flat-tax?
Ignore Kiki. His family’s taxable income (not overall, just the taxable part) is at least $375,000 (based on his claim that he pays between 27% and 28% overall tax rate and is married). He is a wealthy whiner. And that income level is only if all the income is ordinary. If any of it is long term cap gains, his income is even higher.
Ignore Kiki.
Could Kiki be Eddie in a new hat?
Could Kiki be Eddie in a new hat?
HEY!?
Whoh, strong words from Polly.
Another option on the table. This is SOP for Obama. Doesn’t mean it will happen.
That sense of the Senate sounds like the usual all-or-nothing blah blah we’ve come to expect. As if there isn’t a middle ground. News Flash: Obama is ALL about looking for middle ground.
Appointing Geithner and Summers was all about middle ground.
The stimulus was middle ground. Taking over GM was middle ground. Saying that Blankfein and Dimon earned their bonuses was middle ground. Having Eric Holder go after nobody on Wall Street was middle ground.
Perhaps you need a new dictionary.
“Appointing Geithner and Summers was all about middle ground.”
You need to watch “The Warning” on PBS Frontline online. Rubin, Geithner, Greenspin, and Summers, are all well situated self serving p.o.s.
So, what country are you stranded in, and how’s your better half doing?
NYCityBoy-
My apology for not picking up on your sarcasm. It’s one of those mornings.
Taking over GM was middle ground. Your extremes were
a) let GM go Chapter 7 liq and throw millions out of factory workers and ALL of the dealerships out of work overnight.
b) nationalize GM a la Hugo Chavez.
The gov threaded the needle. Yes the taxpayer owns a lot of stock and they changed the CEO, but GM wasn’t sucked into a government agency.
Blankfien and Dimon “earning” their bonuses under their contracts is a middle ground. (the contracts were ate-up to avoid taxes etc, but that’s another debate) Your extremes were
a) take away the bonuses entirely by taxing the heck out of them (admittedly, Congress tried this, but not Obama. Did it ever go through?)
b) Allow bonuses willy-nilly.
Instead, Obama appointed a government “pay czar” who knocked the salaries/bonuses of TARP execs by 50% (a middle ground if I ever saw one) until TARP was paid back, and it worked.
It’s hard to label Geithner and Summers as middle ground or not. I guess your extremes would be
a) re-appointing Hanky Panky Paulson who would have brought us down entirely.
b) appointing ME.
And c’mon, if Eric Holder was in the process of going after somebody, do you honestly think he’d report it?
Wouldn’t a tax on value added tend to reduce value added? Just sayin’…
Make no mistake about it - VAT is for taxing imports without the appearance of protectionism. A customs duty or countervailing duties can only trigger a trade war. Making the playing field “level” with a VAT penalizes both sides (foreign and local manufacturers, if there are any in the latter category). If it gets its act together, the government can use VAT proceeds to fund a half-decent health care system thereby making the local labour more cost competitive.
VAT will increase costs and allow for more money to be funneled into vote buying scams. So, it is a certainty. Of course, the effects of VAT upon a consumer based, job-lacking economy won’t be good, but nobody in charge really cares about us anyway.
I’m not worried about the VAT. I was assured by Obama and the MSM that only people making $250K+ would pay more in tax. So I am sure the VAT will be structured such that only those making $250K+ are affected. After all Obama wouldn’t lie would he?
After all Obama wouldn’t lie would he?
Then why did you vote for him?? Do you vote for any Democrat they nominate every time?
What was the alternative? Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the presidency?
RioBrazil,
Are you for real?
RioBrazil, Are you for real?
Do you mean the Brazilian real? The currency?
IDK because when the real goes up the dollar goes down so I’m hedged. It’s complicated.
Home sales expected to rise 5.2 percent in March in first increase since November.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Home sales are expected to rise 5.2 percent in March, reversing three months of declines, as government incentives juiced the housing market and kicked off what’s expected to be a strong spring selling season.
Economists polled by Thomson Reuters forecast the National Association of Realtors will say sales of previously occupied homes rose last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.28 million, up from 5.02 million in February. That was the weakest month since last July.
“The spring selling season will be a success and probably the most active we’re seen in years,” said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group.
Yeah I heard the whisper number late last nite and based on my observations (very recent), I’m surprised it’s not much higher.
My observations? Disturbing. The newer REO listings(less than 3 months old), most of which are nicer, newer have gone to contract in the past 72-120 hrs. Yes….. it’s disturbing to me.
I talked to my contacts in Lower Slower Delaware last night. He indicated that they’re breaking ground on more new developments there. Keep in mind there was a huge residential construction bubble there. Still huge inventory there yet they’re digging again? Anyways me and Mrs were heading down there this weekend to look at 7 REO’s. The realtor still hasn’t gotten back to me so we’re going to abort it for now. Given the very recent changes based on my own observations, we’re pulling back until we see some evidence of additional capitulation.
Yeah…. we’re stepping back. It’s too vague, too cloudy.
“The Realtors group is not pushing for an another extension of the tax credit”.
Wonder what backdoor-deal was made with the corrupster-geniuses who make up the rules on this one?
Hahaha - we all knew this was coming!
One way or another, the meddling of government to keep housing prices high is now just an accepted part of the process. The tax credit will never really end, IMHO.
Why aren’t mortgage rates going up? They spiked up like .2% after the end of the fed buying spree, then just as quickly dropped back down. What’s going on there?
“The spring buying season will be an utter failure, dooming many families to permanent indentured servitude, and probably the most damaging to the economy that we’re seen in years,” said Bad Chile, one of many resident grumps at The Housing Bubble Blog.
Fixed.
Home run BC. Home run.
How does one define success or failure? Personally, I think that seller capitulation leading to market clearing prices can be counted as a success. It’s buyer/seller standoff that represent market failures. I certainly hope that the idea that success=higher prices is a meme that will die. I would prefer a quick death instead of the slow, painful one we’ll probably see but so be it.
So I would say that “The RE market will see some successes as REOs and short sale asking prices come down in the late Summer and early Fall resulting in some clearing of a stalled market.”
nd kicked off what’s expected to be a strong spring selling season.
Boy, there’s a setup if we ever saw one!
I cannot believe that house sales would have slowed during wintertime. There is nothing I can think of that would have caused that. People love to move in the snow and ice. This must be the first year when house sales pick up in the springtime. I will be drinking some green shoots later tonight.
I’m seeing high asking prices and multiple offers this spring for lower-end houses. Foreclosures are priced high, too. There will definitely be a jump in prices and houses sold compared to 2009. But it won’t last.
We may see a correction in a few weeks: “march home sales unexpectedly weaker than previously forecast…”
There’s that word again…
They’re not comparing raw March to raw January. They’re comparing seasonally adjusted March to seasonally adjusted January. So if historically Jan = 100 and March = 200 and March was 215 while Jan was 90, then March sales increased over Jan. But if March were 190 and Jan were 110, even though the raw number is higher for March than Jan - as it always is - it would in fact be a decline.
Let’s review for minute. Wal-mart, arguably the most skokum marketing force on the planet sees the need to drop prices on at least 10,000 SKU’s and send $5.00 gift cards to half the households in the US to stimulate sales, and simultaniously, home prices are going to rise 5.4% in a month.
Doesn’t compute/.
The only things I can think of are:
- Nobody is really paying for the houses: they just sign on the line at whatever the price is, get their tax fraud incentive kickback, and then stop paying the mortgage. So, prices can go up if nobody actually has to pay for anything.
- The numbers are just made up completely, much like “mark to fantasy” abandoned houses that are in ruins yet still “worth” what they were in 2005.
You and I have a very similar perspective.
No buyer cares what the price is. HOWMUCHAMONTH?
I’m thinking a combo platter of both.
What’s your city’s pension situation like?
http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/2187696,CST-NWS-pension22.article
Note the suggested increase in property tax levies in this article. I’m tellin’ ya - house prices need to take this kind of stuff into account. In other words, prices will need to overshoot on the downside to offset increasing local taxes.
Americans demand higher taxes: (300 busloads - so it really does take a village!)
SPRINGFIELD (IL) Chicago Sun Times — In one of the largest Statehouse rallies ever, thousands of unionized government workers and social-service advocates rallied for an income-tax hike that could avert billions of dollars in crippling budget cuts.
Three hundred busloads of people, mostly from AFSCME Council 31, SEIU, the Illinois Education Association and the Illinois Federation of Teachers, converged outside the Capitol while lawmakers were in session.
On several occasions during the late-morning rally, protesters turned away from the stage across from the Capitol to face the ornate seat of state government and chant, “Raise our taxes!” and “Save Our state!”
Of course, they wanted to raise the taxes on “other people”, right? I’m sure nobody was suggesting that Uncle Sam raise taxes by eliminated the mortgage interest deduction, or the child dependent deduction….
SOP for that crowd seems to be argue for higher taxes for everyone, but then negotiate raises that outpace those tax increases for themselves.
They think they are clever because it has worked for half a century.
Since when is “Uncle Sam” the same as the state of Illinois?
Ummmmmm, “Save our Pensions” is more like it.
Goldmas Sachs?
T. Rex of Leeches Has Enormous Teeth
A new T. rex of the leech world has been named - one with ferociously large teeth, but only a tiny body and just one jaw.
This new leech species, Tyrannobdella rex, which means “tyrant leech king,” was first discovered three years ago in the nostril of a 9-year-old girl by Peruvian physician Renzo Arauco-Brown. The child frequently bathed in lakes, rivers and streams in the Amazonian part of Peru and had felt a sliding sensation in the back of her nose.
Two earlier cases from 1997 were re-discovered from different clinics in the western Amazon.
Eight teeth line this bloodsucker’s jaw.
“We named it Tyrannobdella rex because of its enormous teeth,” said researcher Mark Siddall, curator in the division of invertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
New Legal Push For Foreclosure Victims
Tenants have a message for the bank that holds mortgages on 10 Bronx buildings that have gone into foreclosure and disrepair: You own it, you fix it.
Tenants at 3018 Heath Avenue and nine other buildings in the The Bronx have had enough. After living for years with roaches, rats, sagging ceilings, broken plumbing and long stretches without heat or hot water, they are demanding the bank that owns their buildings make repairs. The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development lists 756 immediately hazardous C violations against the 10 buildings.
“When you live in a place with no heat or hot water, with bugs, with ceilings falling down, with mold, that’s called a hole. People should live in a home,” said Yorman Nunez, a board member of the NorthWest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, which helped organize the tenants. “Wells Fargo is just letting this happen.”
Wells Fargo, and its special servicer LNR Partners Inc., control the trust that holds the mortgage on the buildings. 3018 Heath Ave. and nine other buildings, formerly owned by private equity backed investor Milbank Real Estate, went into foreclosure in March 2009. Since then, tenants have been unable to get repairs, and uncertain who is in charge. So on Wednesday Legal Services NYC filed a motion in the ongoing foreclosure proceeding, begging the judge to make the bank take care of the building and its tenants while the foreclosure process continues.
The tenants position was neatly summed up in a hand-lettered sign that read: “You lend it, you mend it.”
Elected officials underscored the point.
“The lender is now the owner. They have a responsibility to maintain these buildings,” said Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. “If Milbank couldn’t pay their mortgage, the lender, which is now the landlord, has to step up to the plate.”
In addition to Diaz, tenants were joined by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, City Councilmember Fernando Cabrera and representatives from U.S. Rep. Jose Serrano’s office.
Stepping into a foreclosure case to seek relief for tenants is a new legal strategy, said Ed Josephson, housing coordinator for Legal Services NYC. He is one of the attorney’s working on the case. The idea is to go straight to the bank that gave the mortgage–or bought it via a mortgage-backed security–to push for repairs.
“We know what will happen when we get into court,” he said. “Everybody is going to say that they don’t have any responsibility. They structure things on purpose to avoid liability. But the point is there will be a lot of pressure on all these banks to fork of the money because they created this disaster.”
The Milbank properties are only a handful of the hundreds of rental buildings in the five boroughs that housing experts say are teetering near fiscal collapse. Bought in the heady days of the real estate boom for far more than their rents could support, and leveraged with sky-high mortgages, the buildings are going into foreclosure. Tenants, meanwhile, are left in a lurch. The Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, which has been working on issues of over-leveraged buildings since 2006, released a seven-page list of buildings it said are at risk of default.
Quinn said she knows the Milbank buildings are not isolated disasters. “We are working closely through the distressed property taskforce and we will look at other buildings where this type of lawsuit makes sense,” she said.
A hearing on the motion is scheduled for May 10 in Bronx Supreme Court.
In the legal limbo, exactly to whom do the tenants write their rent checks? ‘Cause if you’re cashing those rent checks, you should probably be maintaining the building.
Not in new Amerika! Now, you take the loot and run!
I bet Wells Fargo still has this building valued at its 2005 price, too! Whatever… I wish the poor folks there good luck. Seems nobody is accountable for anything these days. It’s all “I’ve got mine, so f you!”
I am not an accoutant, but if they haven’t forclosed yet, then the BUILDING isn’t ON their books, the LOANS are. So what are these non-performing loans worth? Of course if the loans aren’t performing, the most that they can yield would be the liquidation value of the securing asset, so I guess that’s a distinction without a difference. But it does add another level of obfuscation about WFs ability to liquidate assets if needed to pay THEIR creditors.
Posting this just in case “Green Squirts” missed it.
Geithner says parts of U.S. economy “very strong”
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says some parts of the U.S. economy are “very strong” and that the United States was rebounding from recession more quickly than most other major economies.
Geithner, in an interview airing on Thursday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” described the U.S. economy as “stronger” and showing normal signs of recovery.
“Absolutely stronger. Again, encouraging signs of, really, across the economy, of things in the better,” Geithner said. “Parts of the economy are really very strong — technology. Manufacturing is getting better.”
Don’t miss out on the chance to buy a home at record low prices before this recovery gains steam!
======================================================
(FED) Speech by Vice Chairman Kohn on the economic outlook
Federal Reserve (FED), Federal Reserve (FED)
Published 04/13/2010 - 10:01 p.m. EST
The United States has been through a severe recession–a consequence of the correction of excesses that had accumulated in the economy and financial markets. Today, I would like to take stock of where we are in that correction by discussing the outlook for the economy. To summarize in a sentence: We have worked through a lot of the problems that initiated and deepened the downturn, but not all of them, and thus the pace of the recovery is likely to be restrained.
…
Recent Developments
After declining for a year and a half, economic activity bottomed out in the middle of last year and subsequently turned up. A number of factors have fostered the recovery. The steps taken in the United States and abroad to stabilize financial markets and end the panic so evident in late 2008 and early 2009 helped steady the economy. In addition, extraordinary monetary and fiscal stimulus, both here and around the world, have supported the upturn. These actions helped the financial markets to turn around, and they set the stage for recovery in combination with reductions in the inventory overhangs of houses and a broad range of other goods. Real gross domestic product (GDP) expanded at an annual rate of about 4 percent in the second half of last year. The gain was especially large in the last quarter of 2009, although a sizable chunk of that increase reflected a marked slowing in the pace of inventory liquidation. The most recent data on spending and production from the first few months of this year have been encouraging and suggest that the recovery remains on track. I expect the expansion to be sustained by continued increases in private final demand, even as the temporary boost from inventories passes and the contribution of fiscal stimulus to growth likely wanes later this year.
On the positive side, consumer spending has been expanding at a solid pace, supported by low interest rates, improving household wealth, recovering confidence, and fiscal stimulus. Business outlays for equipment and software appear to be rebounding appreciably, consistent with improved financial conditions and business sentiment.
Exports are another bright spot. International trade tends to be highly sensitive to the business cycle, and foreign demand for U.S. products fell sharply during the global slump. But with economic conditions improving abroad, export volumes have rebounded since the middle of last year. At the same time, however, a sizable increase in imports has accompanied the upturn in our economy, and the effect of exports and imports on GDP growth has been roughly offsetting.
Stronger? Well yes, coughing up blood IS an improvement over being in cardiac arrest. But anybody who doesn’t have cheerleader as part of their job duties who describes the economy as “strong,” is an idiot.
When I see that overnite rate at 5%, THEN you can tell me the economy is improving.
Bingo.
Add to that - federal deficit spending somewhere below 12% of GDP.
Things we wonder:
1) What economy is Geithner talking about? The US? Or one which still has manufacturing? Or, the fantasy-land world of Wall Street, which is definitely having a great year?
2) Did Geithner pay his taxes this year?
Just curious…
It all depends on what deck you’re on.
“President Obama told CNBC Wednesday that there was no connection between the White House’s push for financial reform on Wall Street and the civil fraud charges filed against Goldman Sachs on Friday. “We are not Johnny-come-latelies to this issue,” said Obama. He said he has been pushing for financial reform for the past three years.”
Just in case anyone still thought that Obama wasn’t a lying piece of . . .
I voted for the bill before I voted against the bill that I voted for even though I was against being for it against the being of before or against.
Even from here I can hear Wall Street laughing.
I don’t think that Wall Street is laughing. I think they’re pooping their pants. But I’m not sure how much regulation can be accomplished by a party who depends on Goldman Sachs for its survival.
I have never seen a reptile poop its pants. I wonder what that looks like.
Great vampire squids poop right into the ocean; they don’t wear any pants so far as I am aware.
If only the tide would go out far enough to where we can see them swim naked. (Figuratively only! — I really don’t need to see how “God’s work” looks on Lloyd Blankfein.
)
Don’t squids eat and excrete out of the same opening?
“Don’t squids eat and excrete out of the same opening?”
I certainly hope so.
Goldman has strong holds on the power players in government, up to the white house (see the nearly million dollars Obama got from GS).
What I foresee with financial reform is that now everyone will say they are for it, but per usual, the lobbyists will be writing the bill.
The current crop of politicians has suffered “regulatory capture.” It’s time to clean this group out and get new people in.
voted for the bill before I voted against the bill that I voted for even though I was against being for it against the being of before or against.
Or,
“I took the money for the bridge before going on record as being against it”
- First-time claims for jobless benefits fell sharply last week, evidence that employers are laying off fewer workers as the economy recovers.
Green shoots for everybody. They are laying off fewer people. All we had to do was spend trillions of deficit dollars and layoffs are decreasing. It was worth every indebted penny.
PartyTime! Can we have a huge nationwide party and charge it on America’s card? Can we please? We DESERVE a party - we have all worked so hard.
NYS is doing its part. I know of several companies that have gone to four day weeks in cooperation with the NY Unemployment Insurance Agency. Everybody gets a day of UI benefits per week and nobody gets the layoff.
This is a good plan for reducing unemployment. Cut the workweek to 4 days and support job sharing. I’m surprised the gov hasn’t promoted this more.
They don’t want to sound like France.
They can call it the “Freedom workweek”.
..would you like “freedom fries” to go with that?
We have that program in Washington State, my company is on it. When setting the program up, I talked to the administrator of the program at WA. ESD. She told me that in the year she had been involved with the program, 3000 companies and 50,000 employees had been added to the program. It seems to work pretty well.
The Washington program assumes a 40 hour base week, and pays benefits based on 40 - hours worked, not to exceed 20.
Interestingly, many of the workerbees here averaged 35 to 37 hours/week prior to work share, but thier base is still 40.
Link?
Since NYS unemployment benefits aware calculated on a 4 day week. (i.e. if you work one day you lose 25% of benefit, 2 x - 50% etc.) how can they be collecting benefits?
There is no link, it is something I see on the street. The state is actively recruiting companies to participate in the program. My son’s company is also involved in this four day week slowdown and he decided to decline the UI benefit. He expects it is better kept in the bank and thinks it would trash his budding credit rating.
– Wholesale prices rose more than expected last month as food prices surged by the most in 26 years.
I am lucky. I gave up eating for Lent. Since then I have decided I did not really need to eat so it is all good.
I bet this is hurting the Wall Street dons as they are having to pay higher prices for caviar and aged beef. The rest of you can eat cake.
Who needs food and fuel, eh?
Channeling Bubbles Ben Bernanke:
I believe the inflation substitution factor cancels all this out. You know, if beef gets too costly, people eat Spam. When Spam gets too costly, they eat dirt. So, as one can see, there is clearly no inflation since there’s still plenty of dirt.
Same idea with energy: people give up heating their houses, driving, etc. And, with our new, lower employment rate, people don’t have to drive as much, so again, there’s clearly no inflation.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a printing press to run!! Hahahaha!
Greek 2-year just breeched 10%. Ruh roh.
Hope the chute opens when they pull the eject handle. Bailout Steve Austin, we can rebuild you!
(Opening scene from the thirty-billion-dollar-man)
“I can’t hold it! Its breaking up!”
That must mean that now is a good time to buy stocks and that the recovery is on the mend. We are just fortunate that the eoncomies of the world are not attached to each other in any sort of way. Thank god Geithner and Summers made it their first task to clean up the derivatives mess when they entered their new positions. That could have been a close call. Luckily, I do not even know how to pronounce counter-party risk.
You have to love how this Greek thing just keeps simmering, despite the global PTB’s best efforts to get everyone to “move on”.
Yeah. At this point though it’s beyond simmering - into full-blown boil-over-onto-the-stove-and-make-a-huge-mess mode. The only question is will we have to get out the fire extinguisher if flames erupt.
Just remember, a closely watched pot never boils over.
And this;
Big business pow wow in D/C this weekend…#1 issue…The sad state of affairs with business…No green shoots here…Santelli just announced that food is at a 26 year high….
I think we may have stagflation my friends….
May? I’ve been seeing higher prices at the store for years.
Me too. And, for some strange reason, the containers of many items are shrinking while the prices remain the same.
Yeah, the MSM assured us they were rescued and the Eurozone crisis was contained. Not so much.
Yeah but notice how the stock market tanked at first (because Greece is not in fact ok, gotta pay some homage to that) but quietly made it all up and then some later on the back of Spring being warmer than Winter or something like that.
What happened in balance? Although we have a higher market, we have flipped the Greece situation to again “not ok”. In other words, the market has not regurgitated the gains it made when it was last announced that Greece was going to be saved.
And the brilliant thing is that now, when it is announced in a day or two that Greece will, in fact, be saved, for sure, the markets can soar again in relief - from a higher starting point!
I’m sure this strategy can be used several more times until they think of a new strategy to recycle. I can think of a candidate right now: interest rates. They will start to raise them, market will tank in sympathy, then quietly regain ground soon after as everybody “gets used to it”. Then a surprise rate cut with the new “ammunition” will be seen as great news for stocks and propel them higher. Lather, rinse and repeat. A few of those moves and we’ll be at Dow 15,000 or higher in no time.
This, my friends, is part of Financial Innovation : what makes America Great.
Meanwhile, the Black Swans prepare to take flight.
Reminds me of the joke about a man (think 70s American jokes) who drops a penny in the urinal. After a while he digs in his pocket, grabs a bunch more change and bills and purposely throws it in the urinal. Then he reaches in and pulls it all out. The man at the urinal next to him says “What’d you do that for??” and the man responds “You didn’t think I was going to reach in there for just a penny, did you?”
Same deal here. Gotta get that percentage high enough to be sure they’re gonna need a bigger
boatbailout.There may have never been a better time to invest in Greek bonds. Remember they are part of the European Currency Union, which limits how much the nominal value of the debt can decline. And the prospect of a bailout limits default risk. Stop being so pessimistic, and buy yourselves some Greek bonds while they are still on sale!
I’m all in, going to strike it rich.
Sell when everyone is buying; buy when everyone is selling.
Everyone is selling now; don’t let your pessimism stand in the way of exploiting this great investing opportunity, folks!
======================================================
* The Wall Street Journal
* EUROPE BUSINESS NEWS
* APRIL 22, 2010
Investors Desert Greek Bond Market
Lack of Liquidity Drives Spreads to New Highs; Selloff an ‘Overreaction Magnified by Thin Volumes’
By TOM LAURICELLA And NICK SKREKAS
Greek bond yields surged to new crisis highs on Wednesday, on the surface reflecting ever-increasing alarm over Greece’s debt plight.
Greece began talks Wednesday with the IMF and the EU over conditions for a rescue package. Above, a banner which reads “IMF go home,” outside the headquarters of the Greek Finance Ministry in Athens on Monday.
But the sharp moves have coincided with a slump in trading volume, suggesting that the sell-off may not have been as dramatic as it seems.
Markets participants say trading in Greek debt on a local electronic trading platform has dropped to around €200 million ($268 million) a day from as much as €2 billion a day in recent months. And, according to Tradeweb, average daily trading volume in Greek debt is running 11% lower over the last seven days than in the first quarter.
The sliding activity has magnified the deterioration in Greek bonds and left traders wondering about how to interpret the sharp moves.
Typically, rising yields would reflect growing alarm over Greece’s deteriorating debt position, and suggest that investors are bailing out of the debt. (Yields rise as prices fall.) But with only a handful of bonds changing hands, the meaning of the bond move isn’t so clear. Other markets such as the euro also have shown little sign of growing worries in the past few days.
“Liquidity is very poor,” says Laura Sarlo, a senior sovereign debt analyst at Loomis Sayles & Co.
Wednesday, the gap between the yield on Greek 10-year bonds and comparable German bonds briefly set a crisis high of 5.2 percentage points before ending the day around 4.8 percentage points. That marks the third consecutive session in which this widely watched indicator of sentiment on Greek debt has deteriorated to new highs. On April 1 that spread stood at 3.5%.
Everyone is selling now; don’t let your pessimism stand in the way of exploiting this great investing opportunity, folks!
Yeah, that really worked for all those people who bought tulip bulbs when that bubble popped. I guess they were afraid of “being priced out forever” so they “snapped up some sweet deals”.
Definitely going to listen to a guy on an anonymous blog who goes by the moniker “Green Shoots” over the actual owners of the securities.
Are you suggesting the ownership class always knows better than anonymous bloggers? If so, what went wrong with all those fools who bought U.S. housing at the peak of the bubble? Those who are currently shunning Greek debt in favor of a flight to quality into dollars are most likely making a similar error.
…And the prospect of a bailout limits default risk…
Letting Greece go under would be like flicking a lit match into dry brush.
It’d be wise to map out an escape route first..
What if the Germans decide to leave the Euro?
That risk is already priced into the Greek bonds; why do you think the yield is so attractive at the moment? They aren’t just going to give away those returns…
And there’s a good chance they won’t give them at all.
10 percent is attractive like the goat at the end of the bar is attractive at last call..
Looks like someone has been smoking some green shoots.
Valley faces long recovery
Report: Recession will continue to dog the area for many years to come
By Marijke Rowland
mrowland@modbee.com
While the state’s recession is over, the Central Valley economy continues to lag behind and faces a long, slow road back.
The University of the Pacific’s Business Forecasting Center released its quarterly forecast Wednesday. It shows that while the state’s two-year recession ended last fall, the valley has only now just bottomed out.
“We’ve learned the hole is a little bit deeper than we originally thought, since the 2009 downturn was exceptionally severe. That means the path out is a little bit longer,” said Jeff Michael, director of the Business Forecasting Center.
For most of Northern California, that path out will take four to five years to return to normal, pre-recession conditions. Areas such as San Francisco are expected to join the already rebounding San Jose in posting stronger second half of the year comebacks.
The forecast predicts that the state’s unemployment rate, which hit 12.6 percent last month, will stay at or above 12 percent through the end of the year.
Michael said the closure of the 4,700-worker New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant in Fremont at the end of last month should be the final significant marker of the downturn.
“We can look for improvement going forward,” he said. “But I think this region is definitely moving sideways right now. I don’t think we’ll see any kind of real pickup until later on this year.”
The unemployment rate in Stanislaus County, at 19.2 percent for March, is expected to stay about 18 percent through the end of the year. By 2011, it is forecast to reach 15.8 percent and by 2012 is predicted to drop to 13.7 percent.
Construction continues to be the worst-hit sector through the recession, with more than 400,000 jobs lost statewide and another 12 percent decline predicted by midyear.
Going forward, the report says, state and local governments — including public schools — will see the most job losses and continued cuts.
Other key statewide findings:
• Since peaking at 15.2 million jobs in summer 2007, the state has lost 1.4 million jobs.
• It will take more than four years to recover from this 9 percent decline.
• The state’s gross product (total goods and services adjusted for inflation) will average a modest 3 percent growth over the next four years.
• Manufacturing is leading the early stages of the recovery and could be the first segment of the economy to show year-over-year job growth in 2011.
• Retail jobs have bottomed out after a more than 10 percent decline, but will remain flat over the next year.
• Retail sales will not recover their 2007 level until 2011.
• Housing starts are not expected to be back to pre-2007 levels until 2013.
Keep focusing on bad news and ignoring the good, if it makes you
feel better.
=======================================================
State’s home default cases plunge
A 40.2% drop in the first quarter suggests that the foreclosure crisis is easing.
April 21, 2010|Alejandro Lazo
The California foreclosure crisis appears to be abating, new data show, as the federal government and big lenders step up efforts to keep troubled borrowers in their homes.
Mortgage default notices — the first step toward foreclosure — plunged 40.2% statewide in the first three months of the year compared with the same period in 2009, according to San Diego research firm MDA DataQuick.
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/21/business/la-fi-foreclosures-20100421
Lol. Who controls the rate of foreclosures, is it the FB or is it the bank? If the FB stops paying on the mortgage then the next move is up to the bank.
If the bank feels it is better off having a non-paying FB living in the house than having the house become vacant then it just may decide not to foreclose.
16.6% of homes 90 days delinquent or more in my county in CA. Hmmm
Foreclosures plummet in Modesto, valley
Region still has highest mortgage default rate in all of Golden State
By J.N. Sbranti
jnsbranti@modbee.com
April 21, 2010
The worst of the foreclosure mess appears over for the Northern San Joaquin Valley, but the region remains marred by widespread mortgage default.
Looking on the bright side, there were significantly fewer foreclosure filings this January, February and March compared with the same months last year.
Notices of default — the first step of the foreclosure process — dropped 41.6 percent in Stanislaus County, 46 percent in Merced County and 43.4 percent in San Joaquin County.
The number of homes lost to foreclosure plunged 9.7 percent in Stanislaus, 33 percent in Merced and 7.3 percent in San Joaquin, according to statistics released Monday by MDA DataQuick.
But don’t start celebrating yet.
The three-county region continues to have the highest percentage of defaulted mortgages in California.
Since 2007 when the region’s housing crisis began, nearly 52,500 Stanislaus, Merced and San Joaquin county homes have been lost to foreclosure. That includes about 12.7 percent of all houses and condos in Stanislaus, 15.5 percent in Merced and 13.9 percent in San Joaquin.
“We are seeing signs that the worst may be over in the hard-hit entry- level markets, while problems are slowly spreading to more expensive neighborhoods,” said John Walsh, DataQuick’s president.
In San Francisco, for example, foreclosures soared 91.1 percent in the first quarter this year compared with last year. But foreclosures remain rare in San Francisco: Only 193 homes were foreclosed during the quarter, or 1 in 579 of the city’s homes.
In Stanislaus County, 1,234 homes were lost to foreclosure during the first quarter, or 1 in 113 of the county’s homes.
Although the notices of default have declined dramatically in Stanislaus, many homeowners here simply have stopped paying their mortgages. Nearly 16.6 percent of Stanislaus homeowners with mortgages were 90 days or more delinquent on payments this winter, according to First American CoreLogic.
Lenders often wait about three months before serving delinquent homeowners with notices of default. DataQuick calculated it takes an average of 7½ months from that notice to the time a home is foreclosed.
That gives homeowners lots of time to take action to avoid foreclosure.
A free foreclosure prevention workshop will be offered Saturday in Ceres to help homeowners in trouble.
The Alliance for Stabilizing Our Communities “Home Rescue Fair” is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Central Valley High School, 4033 Central Ave., Ceres.
Loan specialists, housing counselors, attorneys and translators will provide homeowners counseling, advice and options in multiple languages.
The fair is being organized by El Concilio, with funding from Bank of America. For more information, call El Concilio at 523-2860.
Be honest. If the report had said 40% increase would you have the same attitude? Of course not. You’d be saying this is more evidence of the crash. Can’t have it both ways.
Keep focusing on bad news and ignoring the good, if it makes you feel better.
I’ll feel better when real jobs appear. Until then its all smoke and mirrors.
What is a “real job”? I hope you don’t mean manufacturing jobs. Because if you’re waiting for those jobs to appear in the USA before you buy a house, you’re going to die a renter.
For the life of me I can’t understand why people think a job that requires no skill and no education and is physically demanding is valued more than a job that requires skills/education and lets you sit in an office all day.
For the life of me I can’t understand why people think a job that requires no skill and no education and is physically demanding is valued more than a job that requires skills/education and lets you sit in an office all day.
I don’t think anybody here does. But not everyone can or should work in front of a computer all day. All that would be needed for mfg jobs to reappear here would be for US and Chinese currency to freely float in value. Are you saying that will never happen in our lifetimes?
“What is a “real job”?”
One that pays a living wage, as opposed to a P/T job at WalMart.
And FWIW, a lot of jobs that “requires skills/education and lets you sit in an office all day” are the easiest to offshore.
For the life of me I can’t understand why people think a job that requires no skill and no education and is physically demanding is valued more than a job that requires skills/education and lets you sit in an office all day.
I know, life’s confusing sometimes. It’s crazy!
But all jobs should be valued right? Oh yea, and people too. Should we not protect and value the jobs of all classes of our citizens? Or just the “smart” people who sit in offices?
I mean we can’t all sit in an office right? Do we even have enough desks?
Do societies work like that? Has there ever been one that did? I can’t think of one. I mean division of labor and stuff as it applies to countries, cultures, aptitudes and intelligence levels.
In what textbook or class have you seen this model work or what country do you admire that has this model?
Actually, the best jobs are those which don’t even require you to sit in an office. They just mail you a check once a week. You then use this money to buy all the food and goods you need from Asia. That’s the kind of job that is really valuable.
RioBrazil,
Seriously, are you a real person or a bot that just takes random Workers of the World Unite talking points and posts them in a semi-coherent manner?
“All that would be needed for mfg jobs to reappear here would be for US and Chinese currency to freely float in value. Are you saying that will never happen in our lifetimes?”
The yuan could float tomorrow and it wouldn’t make a difference. China has hundreds of millions of people willing to work for $1 an hour. They will always win on price regardless of the exchange rate.
Do I think this will last forever? Of course not. But I do think it will take multiple decades for Chinese workers to get to parity with US workers.
I bet China also has millions of educated people willing and able to do your desk job for $10/hour. Why would the “knowledge based economy” be immune from outsourcing?
Seriously, are you a real person or a bot that just takes random Workers of the World Unite talking points and posts them in a semi-coherent manner?
Say what? You don’t agree with my post?
What part don’t you agree with? What point below should not be understood and respected by Republicans and Democrats alike? Let’s see where the heck you are coming from. Where?
What do you disagree with and why?
1. The part of all jobs should be valued?
2. Oh yea, and people too.
3. Should we not protect and value the jobs of all classes of our citizens? Or just the “smart” people who sit in offices?
4.I mean we can’t all sit in an office right?
5. Do societies work like that?
6. Has there ever been one that did?
7. I can’t think of one.
8. In what textbook or class have you seen this model work or what country do you admire that has this model?
Kiki is very likely Eddie in a new avatar. The tactics and tone are similar.
“For the life of me I can’t understand why people think a job that requires no skill and no education and is physically demanding is valued more than a job that requires skills/education and lets you sit in an office all day.”
See? That’s strawman Eddie all over. Nobody said that. What *I* have said in the past is something to the effect that the job of a CEO making 100 million is NOT 2000x as valuable as that of a janitor making 50k (for example).
Nowhere did I claim that manufacturing jobs should be valued more than desk jobs. However at the rate the standard of education is deteriorating in this country that may soon be true.
When everyone has a degree, there will be no value in having one.
We need farmers and assemblers as much as we need salesmen and managers.
When did I say a) everyone should have a degree or b)we don’t need farmers?
The point here should be we also need to produce things that folks in the U.S. and other countries want to buy. Obviously the knowledge and service based economy, easy credit and selling houses to each other isn’t working out for us.
When did I say a) everyone should have a degree or b)we don’t need farmers? Ki
Kiki is very likely Eddie in a new avatar. The tactics and tone are similar. Lesser Fool
I have to agree, Eddie would have said something just like the top quote in tone and tactic.
Ignore the 4-year-old Zelman chart at your own risk.
PBS News hour report on strategic defaults 4/20/2010
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/jan-june10/mortgage_04-20.html
Just watched it…A “squatter” and proud of it… Strategic default I have no heartburn with… Strategic default while you still occupy the house and live for free while someone else picks up the tab is “criminal” as far as I am concerned…I would like to slap this little punk…
ScDave:
Well its the bank which has to evict the tenant and when a Judge orders the tenant out, and the sheriff locks the door, after that it becomes criminal B&E.
So yes its the banks fault for letting them get away with this. Or not paying them to leave permanently.
Yeah I guess your right…I just didn’t like the little pr..ks attitude about it…He was kind of smirking…
The word in NYC is that preventing the financial firms from raping and pillaging the country, and preventing the traders and executives from raping and pillaging the financial firms, will hurt New York’s economy.
If NYC’s financial firms continue to do as they have done, NYC will not have a financial industry as soon as an alternatives develop elsewhere. It is a situation directly analagous to the Big Three oligopoly in Detroit that was overwhelmed by eight-plus Japanese firms used to competing hard and innovating in a smaller market.
But Mayor Bloomberg says that we need these guys and their bonuses. They must be allowed to use those terminals that carry the name of the mayor to choke the living sh-t out of the economies of the world. It is for our own good and I am sure Mayor Bloomberg is looking out for us.
Maybe we could take a sacrifice to Wall Street to prevent the raping and pillaging of everyone else.
Maybe the Wall Street Gods would be happy with a virgin sacrifice. Any volunteers?
How about Mayor Bloomberg
In defense of the mayor, his company does give away $100+ million a year, and will donate his business to a trust so NY’ers will benefit for decades after he passes..
But Mayor Bloomberg says that we need these guys and their bonuses.
Isn’t that “bonii”?
“…preventing the traders and executives from raping and pillaging the financial firms, will hurt New York’s economy.”
Well d’oh…
Preventing pirates from raiding ships near Somalia will hurt Somalian economy. We must not threaten the pirates.
Piracy and Wall Street banksters have it right: So long as they are making money, who cares who gets robbed? The end always justifies the means when it comes to raping, pillaging and looting.
And remember how incensed the Somalis were when we actually took a ship back from the pirates and saved the crew by shooting the pirates? We see the same thing from the titans of Wall Street.
Jim A.
NPR had a segment on the Samolian ransom pirates, and it’s a business model. The negotiators are usually Attorneys. Many educated in the U.S.
Mark my words, the Somali pirates will evolve into a government. They will hire PR consultants, and start giving a portion of their loot to fund orphanages and build roads. Then people will talk about all the essential services they provide, and wonder how we ever got along without them.
And somewhere, somehow, Goldman Sachs will assist them in their efforts to build a new tyranny.
Well what kind of rates to piracy bonds get?
“Well what kind of rates to piracy bonds get?”
I’m not sure how to figure out the rates on private offerings.
“Mark my words, the Somali pirates will evolve into a government. They will hire PR consultants, and start giving a portion of their loot to fund orphanages and build roads. Then people will talk about all the essential services they provide, and wonder how we ever got along without them.”
OMG — please don’t convince me this is how governments normally are born. I honestly would not require much convincing, given what I see occurring right at the moment in the good ole U.S.A.
Along similar lines, I am imagining that a downright respectable religion might also spring up over the next couple hundred years out of the ashes of Waco, Texas.
Hint to California voters: AVOID ANY CANDIDATES TAINTED BY ASSOCIATIONS WITH GOLLUM LIKE THE PLAGUE.
Whitman feels heat as Goldman’s image tarnishes
Carla Marinucci,Lance Williams, Chronicle Staff Writer California Watch
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman faces challenges from both parties over her Goldman Sachs’ ties.
(04-21) 18:33 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — With a new poll showing most Americans suspect investment banking firm Goldman Sachs committed fraud, Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, a former director of the company, faces challenges from Democrats and Republicans for her ties to the firm.
Seventy-three percent of Americans believe it is at least “somewhat likely” that Goldman committed fraud in the home mortgage market after learning about the Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit against the firm last week, according to a Rasmussen Poll released Wednesday.
More than a month before the June 8 primary, Republican gubernatorial candidate and state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and Democratic candidate Jerry Brown have aggressively focused on underscoring links between Whitman, Goldman and Wall Street interests.
The latest public opinion surveys on Goldman could spell trouble for Whitman, the former eBay CEO, who was paid an estimated $475,000 as a member of the Goldman Sachs board of directors for little more than a year beginning in 2001.
Whitman received $110,500 in contributions last year from her contacts at Goldman - including from two Goldman executives who are members of Whitman’s campaign finance committee, according to her Web site. Investment adviser Brad DeFoor, a Goldman Sachs managing director in San Francisco, gave her campaign $24,900 and Gene Sykes, who co-chairs Goldman’s global mergers and acquisitions group in Los Angeles, donated $25,900.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/22/MN6C1D2B0H.DTL#ixzz0lpylNdx7
Retiring members of Congress are ignoring a call to promise they won’t become lobbyists when their terms end.
Public Citizen, a Washington-based watchdog nonprofit, asked the 47 short-timers in the House and Senate on Monday if they would sign a pledge not to take a job with a lobbying firm (20 of the retiring members are running for another office).
“We have not received any pledges and we have not received any inquiries for more information about the pledge from any retiring members,” said Public Citizen’s Angela Canterbury.
Members of Congress earn $174,000 year. That’s cat-food money on K Street. According to Ivan Adler, a headhunter for the McCormick Group, a retiring member fetches at least $500,000 as a lobbyist. A retiring senator is worth more.
How many of those lobbyists are just getting paid kickbacks for prior legislation they whored through congress?
ie You pass this bill or vote this way and we have a job where you work 8 hours a month and pull in 500k a year for 5 years.
Hard to say, but that DOES imply a fair amount of loyalty by the Wall Street crowd.
SEOUL, South Korea – Military intelligence officers warned earlier this year that North Korea was preparing a suicide submarine attack on a South Korean vessel in retaliation for an earlier defeat in a sea battle, a newspaper said Thursday.
There has been growing speculation that North Korea was behind the March 26 explosion that split the 1,200-ton Cheonan in two and sank it, killing at least 39 people and leaving seven missing.
Seoul has not directly blamed Pyongyang for the blast, and the North has denied involvement, but suspicion remains given the country’s history of provocation and attacks on the South.
Investigators believe blast was external to the ship.
Can’t wait to find out how this story ends.
One of the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition was: “War is good for business!”
Ahhh the Ferengi. My favorite big ear alien. I’ve always had a soft spot for Quark.
Obama will send a sternly worded note, and that’ll be the end of it.
Yesterday Bob Pisani (CBSNBC) said the recovery is in full swing, but “some people just don’t get it.”
Does this really happen with every recession that there is this sort of “disconnect” between anecdotal experiences (i.e. my world) and national statistics.?
When people start acknowledging, i even sent a resume, let alone actually respond, then i will see a green shoot…
So we can pencil you in as one of the people who “doesn’t get it”?
And when I stop hearing these requests for sharing of my photos from organizations that can well afford to pay me for them, I’ll see a green shoot too.
I hear ya Slim:
I have been getting lots of spendthrift brides who pay for things $3000 flowers, $1500 ice sculptures, $1000 for godiva chocolate fountain and favors yet will nickle and dime the help….
Tip: These marriages don’t last, you have to value and pay people for their time and skills.
Well, a bit of good news is upon my horizon. A few weeks ago, I was asked to be the official photographer for an upcoming music festival.
What really sweetened this offer (in my mind, at least) is that I can sell my photos to the performers. And several of them have already made inquiries. I’ve informed them of my fee structure, and the responses have been of the “Thank you! Looking forward to seeing you at the festival!” nature. No nickel-diming at all.
Slim they gotta have money for new toys (the ipad) even though great pics is what will get them noticed and produce income….oh well you tried.
Take some horrible shots and sell them to the public, catch them pickin their nose/butt type…LOL
“Tip: These marriages don’t last, you have to value and pay people for their time and skills.”
My friend who was married at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and served everyone lobster and filet, had an iPod hooked up to a home speaker system (and it was the best selection of music I’ve heard at a wedding) got along fine.
Is pushing start/stop the kind of skill you’re referring to?
Is pushing start/stop the kind of skill you’re referring to?
We’re talking about the sort of skill that the NYC DJ provides. I’m a bit biased on this point — I know more than a few deejays — but selecting music, programming smooth transitions from song to song, etc. — may look easy, but, believe me, it’s not.
Thanks Slim……..Muggy it may have worked for that wedding, but you mentioned above your job is being eliminated…i guess you were told you are not that important to the school system, just like the i-pod was more important then a real dj…..muggy it works both ways …..ok guy…..we still friends???
I think when there is a real recovery no one will be talking about it. I remember the late 90s recovery, and after years and years of media hammering no the economy, they just got all quiet about it. No one wanted to stick his neck out and look foolish by saying things were good.
But that just all ran up into a tech bubble too, so who knows.
The first sign of the recovery will be in the knife-sharpening industry when the guillotine blade is dulled by crooked wall street necks.
A real recovery will be like pornography. We’ll all know it when we see it.
That’s just some dude earning his paycheck is all. A ditch digger digs, a cook cooks, and a shill shills.
If something besides money motivates those people, it’s news to me.
There is always a disconnect, because for a while, even during a real recovery, you are very near the bottom. Also, employment is a lagging indicator. Heck, in the last recession I didn’t even get laid off until it was already over for a few months and I was out of work for a long time.
However, I won’t see a real recovery in this recession until we have improving economic indicators combined with sustainable private mortgage lending at rates near the historical norm taking over from federally subsidized mortgage lending at rates that do not reflect any risk premium. And I just don’t see that while state and local governments are about to go into a massive round of layoffs and/or pay and benefit cuts. If anyone else sees it, please point it out.
However, I won’t see a real recovery in this recession until we have improving economic indicators combined with sustainable private mortgage lending at rates near the historical norm taking over from federally subsidized mortgage lending at rates that do not reflect any risk premium.
Say that fast five times.
A long time from now…A long time from now…A long time from now…A long time from now…A long time from now…
There. Did it.
Spot on Polly…
“Heck, in the last recession I didn’t even get laid off until it was already over for a few months and I was out of work for a long time.”
Sounds like my plight in the early 1990s; survived the war, only to be cut down after it ended.
Sometimes when I watch CNBC I get a sense of how the average Russian citizen must’ve felt as he saw right through all the Soviet-era lies and propaganda spewing from his radio and television.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – One after another, shortly after a diagnosis of breast cancer, each of the women learned that her health insurance had been canceled. First there was Yenny Hsu, who lived and worked in Los Angeles. Later, Robin Beaton, a registered nurse from Texas. And then, most recently, there was Patricia Relling, a successful art gallery owner and interior designer from Louisville, Kentucky.
None of the women knew about the others. But besides their similar narratives, they had something else in common: Their health insurance carriers were subsidiaries of WellPoint, which has 33.7 million policyholders — more than any other health insurance company in the United States.
The women all paid their premiums on time. Before they fell ill, none had any problems with their insurance. Initially, they believed their policies had been canceled by mistake.
They had no idea that WellPoint was using a computer algorithm that automatically targeted them and every other policyholder recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The software triggered an immediate fraud investigation, as the company searched for some pretext to drop their policies, according to government regulators and investigators.
Once the women were singled out, they say, the insurer then canceled their policies based on either erroneous or flimsy information. WellPoint declined to comment on the women’s specific cases without a signed waiver from them, citing privacy laws.
That tens of thousands of Americans lost their health insurance shortly after being diagnosed with life-threatening, expensive medical conditions has been well documented by law enforcement agencies, state regulators and a congressional committee. Insurance companies have used the practice, known as “rescission,” for years. And a congressional committee last year said WellPoint was one of the worst offenders.
Regulation we don’t need no stinkin regulation.
Years ago, I consulted a physician for a knee problem. During that visit, I also gave the doctor my medical history.
Several years later, when a different insurance company than the one covering me while I had the knee trouble reviewed my records, they spotted something in my history and canned my policy. Their reason: I was consulting the doctor for something in my medical history AND the knee problem.
That wasn’t true. The doctor said so. I said so.
However, I had no right of appeal, other than getting a lawyer to write letters to the Arizona Department of Insurance. And all the DOI did was act as a mail forwarder between my attorney and the insurance company.
Since the appeal process was a sham, I gave up.
I would never do an kind of diagnostic work in this country.
Go to Canada, mexico, europe or asia for all the diagnostics.
Why do you think they’re pushing so hard for digital records? ZERO privacy for patients.
And not having to count on an unconcious accident victim to tell people he is allergic to [fill in the blank].
That tens of thousands of Americans lost their health insurance shortly after being diagnosed with life-threatening, expensive medical conditions has been well documented by law enforcement agencies,
Watts rong with yu idiots Americaa?!!!!! You have NrthKorea no standards? Why du you accept crap thieve companies ruining your lives? Who do your politians work for???! For BankBlueCross Sacss??
You acept helth insurance companys canceling if you get sick? Ur dumb no??
Is your hole country criminall?? get more jails! Are yu all liers cheats and scams who run your nation? Bigger army the next 150 countries puttogether butt you can nott take care of sick people who pay thier bills???!!
What a bunch off FART heads stupids and liers!!
yours is all fakers and have no sense of out rage and youu put up with this crap because u might get to be a millionare some day?
Ha Ha HO HE!!bigger joke is on yu!!! yu ar suckers and stupid!!!!
(Oh wait, I’m an American too……never mind…)
Hey!!! Why should I pay for some slacker’s health care?! I werked hard, they can too. they can afford it thyeir just choosing not to pay. I swim 50 laps a day and eat healthy, so I didn’t get sick like they did…
Oh wait. They DID work hard and pay for their own health insurance. And eating healthy isn’t going to help significantly…
A Frontline documentary “Sick in America” noted that Wellpoint had a department of 100 people dedicated to nothing but finding obscure reasons to cancel policies of individuals who had been diagnosed with serious, expensive illnesses. Substantial bonuses were paid to the employees that were the most creative in finding reasons for recission.
“…….department of 100 people dedicated to nothing but finding obscure reasons to cancel policies……..”
If there is such a thing as karma, these people will allcome down with terminal, inoperable, painful cancer.
Or erectile dysfunction.
Spokaneman
I assume “Sick In America” is a follow up documentary to “Sick Around The World”?
Thanks for the tip. Treadmill viewing tonight.
So there were reasons for the policy cancellations. Here’s the #1 reason….people lied on their application.
people lied on their application.
Some people make mistakes, like did you say you were a credible blogger on your job application?
So they were paying for individual health insurance? The problem is, we need to be clear on what the insurance actually covers. Do they pay premiums for a policy year/quarter/whatever, and the insurance covers only treatments actually performed for that period? Or is it supposed to also cover future treatments for conditions that develop during that time? If it’s only the first, then the insurance isn’t much good for chronic conditions. This kind of thing really should be discussed in advance with the agent when taking out the policy.
This kind of thing really should be discussed in advance with the agent when taking out the policy.
The trouble with discussing things with agents is that they’re so eager to make the sale (read: get a nice commission from said sale) that they’ll assure the potential customer that nothing could possibly a problem.
So, the sale goes through, sales-liar gets commission, then the customer starts having insurance problems. If they go back to the agent for help, and, yes, people do that since the agent was such a *nice* guy or gal, they’re outta luck.
…and our government is forcing all of us to sign contracts with these companies.
Thanks, BO.. and all the people who voted for him.
“Money had more to do with the [fall] of the Roman Empire than the Huns or Vandals.”
~Antoninus Augustus
This time its different. Besides, they didn’t have a strong, prudent government.
~ Since it’s been deemed by some in the EU that vacations should be a right, why not set up a subsidized bar for unemployed drunks.
Keeping Drunks Off the Streets
Germany’s First Drinking Room for Alcoholics.
The Sofa bar in the northern city of Kiel caters to a very particular clientele — unemployed alcoholics. The experiment has been such a success that other cities are now hoping to follow suit.
It’s 10:30 a.m., and things are hopping at the Sofa bar in the northern German city of Kiel. The men sitting at the table on the left, in the front of the room, have already had their first four rounds of beer, the radio is blasting loud guitar riffs, and a young girl hops onto a patron’s lap and asks him for a sip. A glass bottle is rolling back and forth on the floor, and the air is thick with cigarette smoke. Atze and Dirk sit at the bar, coughing, rolling unfiltered cigarettes and asking if anyone wants a drink.
The bar is the latest addition to Germany’s social welfare state. And it’s an establishment that has captured the attention of many other cities around the country.
The Sofa looks like any Eckkneipe, the small corner pubs with a working-class clientele that dot German cities, and about the same amount of alcohol is consumed here. It has roughly 70 regulars, aged from 18 to 70, football pennants hang on the walls, and a TV set above the bar, on the left side, is always on — but usually with the sound turned down. However, there is one critical difference between the Sofa and other bars.
In this bar, some of the costs are covered by taxpayer money from the city treasury. The Sofa is Germany’s first drinking room, a sort of crash smoking room for alcoholics. Most of the people who frequent the place are serious alcoholics and are allowed to bring their own cheap beer and sangria. The bar itself only serves soft drinks and strong coffee. “It’s great,” says Dirk, twisting his tattooed face into a smile, “isn’t it?”
Even the Onion has no hope of keeping up with the spiral into madness.
We may as well go along with it: I saw free homes for people who have been “priced out forever!” Why not? It makes about as much sense - maybe more so - since those folks would stimulate the economy by buying stuff for their free houses.
That should have read “I say free homes” not I “saw free homes.” The one thing we’ll never see is anything given to the responsible people, so it’s only a pipedream.
“Most of the people who frequent the place are serious alcoholics and are allowed to bring their own cheap beer and sangria. ”
So they bring their own booze to the bar, what’s wrong with that? Not everybody can pay $5 a beer which is what bars in Miami charge.
I think it’s a great idea. Wish I had one of those within walking distance.
Me too
So, is this just a place for them to go rather than hanging around in public parks? What is the “success” that the article refers to? Is it keeping them from driving?
Actually, this plan has some merit. It’s got to be cheaper than all the money spent on enforcement/police calls/court costs/attorney fees/all the damage and injury caused by drunks
-Pick a housing development way out in the desert somewhere, 50 miles outside of town. Make sure there is only one road in or out.
-Build a few liquor stores. Have the state pay for inventory and operations. (Better yet, make the booze manufacturers donate the inventory, as part of their tax liability).
-Announce far and wide that there is “Free Booze for Everyone”!!! Charter buses to haul them out. Anyone driving in gets screened for weapons.
-Let drunks knock themselves out (literally). If they try to leave, they have to go thru the checkpoint.
-Offer rehab if anyone decides they want it.
Its got to work better than what we’re doing now.
The bar itself only serves soft drinks and strong coffee.
I was ready to emigrate until I got to that part.
Confessions of a Former Mortgage Broker: What We Did Was Criminal:
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/confessions-of-a-former-mortgage-broker-what-we-did-was-criminal-471979.html?tickers=xhb,BAC,KBH,WFC,JPM,TOL,LEN&sec=topStories&pos=3&asset=b4cae40bf9d059f18c61914f7f28c968&ccode=mp
Fraud lying and greed green shoots:
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/confessions-of-a-former-mortgage-broker-what-we-did-was-criminal-471979.html
IMF and Bundesbank fear contagion from Greece as bond spreads soar to fresh records.
The International Monetary Fund has warned that Greece’s debt crisis risks spinning out of control, threatening to spill over across the region unless action is taken soon to restore confidence.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor
“In the near term, the main risk is that – if left unchecked – market concerns about sovereign liquidity and solvency in Greece could turn into a full-blown and contagious sovereign debt crisis,” said the Fund in its World Economic Outlook.
Bundesbank chief Axel Weber echoed the concerns, saying the financial system was still very fragile and subject to a “significant risk of contagion effects. A possible default by Greece would most likely be a severe economic blow for other countries in monetary union”.
Confessions of a Former Mortgage Broker: What We Did Was Criminal
The Busines Insider, April 22, 2010:
(This is a guest post by Michael White, editor of newobservations.net and a mortgage broker.)
You can steal and burn money many different ways. Leaders of financial firms use a conservative bias with money they lend to protect society’s most precious asset: Savings accumulated through blood, sweat, tears — sacrifice.
Unless you live in interesting times. What was sacred is profane. We have and do live in interesting times. The basic rules of lending were banned in the credit bubble. Sacrifice was a joke. Money was easy. Now we have the aftermath of the crisis. It is only beginning.
The most notorious method for stealing burning squandering money in our real-estate-and-mortgage bubble was something called stated-income loans. The popular term now is liar loans. What does that mean?
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/confessions-of-a-former-mortgage-broker-what-we-did-was-criminal-471979.html?tickers=xhb,BAC,KBH,WFC,JPM,TOL,LEN&sec=topStories&pos=4&asset=&ccode=
Interesting post by someone on Yahoo
The Great Bank Robbery Conspiracy Paulson Bernanke Geithner Goldman Sachs Bankers Steal Your Money! How did the United States Government and Wall Street defraud the taxpayer of trillions of dollars under the guise of a financial and banking crisis? What are the ultimate goals of the US Government and how did the financial crisis set the stage for an upcoming repeat stock market crash and deflation followed by a stock market bubble and ultimately strong inflation? A simple brief summary of the financial and banking crisis explained for the lay person: 1. US Government encourages an unprecedented build up of private sector debt by promoting asset price bubbles in residential and commercial real estate thru artificially low interest rates and reduced Capital Requirements. US Government underwrites loans by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. 2. Banking Industry creates complicated security bond investments (CDO) to spread the risk of default on the loans to multiple parties. Essentially the US Government, thru the Wall Street Banks, provided the credit for the loans and then packaged the loans into Bonds to be sold to other institutions sold worldwide such as Hedge Funds, Pension Plans, Governments, and other large Financial Institutions. 3. Banks then created Insurance to protect against a drop in value of these bonds called Credit Default Swaps (CDS). These unregulated Insurance Policies were bought by varies institutions that held the bonds to protect them in case the bonds dropped in value. 4. SEC ignores risks building in system. 5. Ben Bernanke is named Federal Reserve Chairman in October 2005. 6. Hank Paulson resigns from Goldman Sachs and is named US Treasury Secretary in July 2006. 7. New York Fed President Tim Geithner works to lower the capital requirements for banks in 2007. 8. When the eventual drop in prices for residential and commercial real estate occurred the Banks were not exclusively holding the debt associated with the assets. The CDO’s were held by numerous banks, hedge funds, governments and pension funds throughout the financial system. 9. When these bond prices dropped and the holders of the Insurance Policies came to collect on the CDS contracts the losses were so large that the institutions that wrote the CDS insurance policies could not make good on the policy. A primary issuer of this insurance was AIG. 10. This made it possible for the United States Government, thru the Federal Reserve and United States Treasury Department, to step in and pay the parties who would otherwise have lost money. Those parties are major worldwide financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, UBS AG and Deutsche Bank AG. US taxpayers are now burdened by this debt. The reasons for this crisis will become clear in the years ahead and are listed below: 1. Concentrate power to the few by eliminating many Wall Street Firms. Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers fail. Goldman Sachs gains further control over finance and government. 2. Engineer a second stock market selloff in order to create a further sense of fear and insecurity for the general public with associated dependency on government. 3. This event will encourage the $3.6 Trillion in privately held 401k and IRA accounts to be shifted into government US Treasuries. In doing so the public will be double funding the US debt thru taxes as well as personal savings. This will serve to keep interest rates fairly low for a time. 4. The $3.6 Trillion will be funneled back to the financial elite on Wall Street, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley. A new bubble will emerge in commodities, alternative energy as well as carbon credits exchanges. Wall Street will profit. Key players and beneficiaries in this banking scheme seem to be Ben Bernanke, Hank Paulson, Tim Geithner, Lloyd Blankfein, Robert Rubin, Chris Dodd.
The Yahoo poster needs to get hip to the concept of paragraphs.
Sounds like an episode of the “A-Team”. Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together! Cigars for everybody!
“Key players and beneficiaries in this banking scheme seem to be Ben Bernanke, Hank Paulson, Tim Geithner, Lloyd Blankfein, Robert Rubin, Chris Dodd.”
In other words, pretty much everyone in a position of power in the private financial services industry and those who govern them.
Like I said the other day, Main Street America faces a similar plight to that of the Date Night movie couple, Claire and Phil Foster, upon discovering the hoodlums who want to kill them work for the NYCPD.
Survey: Which is least popular at present?
A) Megabank Fraudster
B) Random Terrorist
C) Any politician
D) Too Close to Call
For me.
A
C
B
Good thing few people count food and gas as an expense…
Wholesale prices rise in March as food costs jump, but core inflation remains all but flat.
April 22, 2010
WASHINGTON (AP) — Wholesale prices rose more than expected last month as food prices surged by the most in 26 years. But excluding food and energy, prices were nearly flat.
The Labor Department said the Producer Price Index rose by 0.7 percent in March, compared to analysts’ forecasts of a 0.4 percent rise. A rise in gas prices also helped push up the index.
I’m sure consumers will be thrilled that the prices of jet skis, quads, motorcycles, boats, plasma TVs and other toys they have no intention of buying because they are broke remain flat.
Ahh religion
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Satirical animated TV show “South Park” beeped out the words Prophet Muhammad and plastered its Wednesday episode with the word “CENSORED” after being issued a grim warning by a U.S. Muslim group.
The irreverent comedy show on Comedy Central also substituted a controversial image seen last week of the Prophet Muhammad in a bear outfit with one of Santa Claus in the same costume.
It was not immediately clear if the move was a bid to tread carefully following the warning against the “South Park” creators, or if they were poking fun at the fuss.
The little-known group RevolutionMuslim.com posted a message on its website earlier this week warning creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker “that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show.”
Ahh
religionIslamFTFY
(I’m not aware of any Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, etc. who make it a policy to threaten those who poke fun at them with their lives, and occasionally follow through with those threats.)
“I’m not aware of any Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, etc. who make it a policy to threaten those who poke fun at them with their lives, and occasionally follow through with those threats.”
Most major world religions left such policies behind circa 1500. Islam is just a bit slow to catch on…
Yeah - apparently they missed the memo that all the killing is now done in the name of anti-religion (excuse me - “ethnic cleansing”).
Awesome!
Pubies should play a hardball on this one. Give them Green Cards but not Voting rights for 20 yrs. Then we will see how hard Dems pursue this matter.
Immigration Legislation Gains Traction
onlinewsjcom/article/SB10001424052748704448304575196874231355164.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond
What the Dems don’t seem to realize that there are many members of their party who oppose any efforts to legalize illegal immigrants. Lots of flaming liberal, environmentalist types in southern Arizona, for example. They’re appalled by how our state’s borderlands have been trashed by the illegals entering this country. We’re talking major trash heaps, polluted watering holes, and worse.
This is yet another example of our corporatist gov. Corporations want a flooded labor market to drive costs down. Thus our representatives vote against our wishes.
The true conservative (protectionist) and liberal (environmental) slivers inside of me both hate this with a passion. One can only hope the opposition from both constituencies to this wins out as it did last time. I’ll be making phone calls aplenty on this one.
Punish corporations who hire illegal aliens. If we want troops in the mountains/desert, bring them home and put them in our mountain/desert along the border. And stop this nonsense of children of illegal immigrants being citizens. It makes zero sense. Treat them with dignity (there’s my lefty again) but get ‘em out (and there’s my righty).
Punish corporations who hire illegal aliens.
IMHO, the hiring of said illegal aliens is the root of the problem. Tighten up the sanctions on employers, and, lo and behold, hiring Americans will suddenly become very attractive.
The ‘Pubs will roll over on this one. Amnesty will get 70 votes in the senate by June. And of the 20 million new citizens, 19.8M will be Democrats.
It makes absolutely no sense. And yet it will happen.
And of the 20 million new citizens, 19.8M will be Democrats.
All the more reason to remain as a registered Independent. And, here in AZ, our ranks are growing.
IT makes perfect sense. Our gov works for corporate America and corporate America wants to keep labor costs low and destroy the middle class so that the elite can have even more control.
Yeah that’s exactly what corporate America wants. After all what better way to make people buy more of your stuff than destroying their ability to buy your stuff?
Yeah that’s exactly what corporate America wants. After all what better way to make people buy more of your stuff than destroying their ability to buy your stuff?
Travel much?
A multinational corporation (MNC) or transnational corporation (TNC), also called multinational enterprise (MNE)[1], is a corporation or an enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country wiki
Tell them your French though.
market pulse
April 22, 2010, 10:00 a.m. EDT
U.S. existing-home sales rise 6.8% in March
By Rex Nutting
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Boosted by a federal subsidy to buyers, resales of U.S. homes and condos rose 6.8% in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.35 million, a real estate trade group reported Thursday. Sales were up 16.1% compared with March 2009. Existing-home sales rose in all four regions of the country in March. “The tax credit has done its work,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, said in releasing the data. Median home prices rose 0.4% in the past year to $170,700, the NAR said.
Inventories of unsold homes increased 1.5% in March to 3.58 million, an 8-month supply at the current sales pace.Effin’ hypocrites!
Global warming for thee, but not for me…….
obama-and-biden-to-celebrate-earth-day-by-flying-separate-carbon-belching-jets-to-the-same-city
nycaviationcom/2010/04/21/obama-and-biden-to-celebrate-earth-day-by-flying-separate-carbon-belching-jets-to-the-same-city/
Channeling Grandfather Angus, a New Yorker through and through, Slim asks, “Wassa matta with those guys? Can’t they get the idea-r to fly on the same jet?”
There are many governments/corporations that limit the number of executives flying on the same airplane.
If the airplane crashed, that would make Nancy Pelosi president.
IMO, this is money well spent.
LOL…
If the airplane crashed, that would make Nancy Pelosi president.
IMO, this is money well spent.
chuckle
Maybe they will try to “high five” before they land and both jets will go down. Tiny hope for change.
As much as I’d like to see neither one of them go, I think Poland just illustrated the value of burning the extra jet fuel to send them on separate planes.
Goldman Sachs & Paulson must be guilty. Paulson yesterday announced to end to housing decline. But he didn’t say if he is currently betting for or against subprime.
Sounds like he is betting on continued success with Uncle Sam’s housing price support program. Smart man, that Paulson is!
Paulson is obviously noticing something the pessimists are missing about the strength of the housing recovery.
————————————————————————–
Home sales rise more than expected
By ALAN ZIBEL (AP) – 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON — Home sales rose more than expected in March, reversing three months of declines, as government incentives drew in buyers and kicked off what’s expected to be a strong spring selling season.
Sales of previously occupied homes rose 6.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.35 million last month, the highest level since December, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. February’s sales figures were revised downward slightly to 5.01 million.
“The spring selling season will be a success and probably the most active we’re seen in years,” said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group.
Sales are likely to keep growing through the first half of the year as tax credits for first-time buyers and low mortgage rates fuel purchases. The average interest rate this week was 5.07 percent for a traditional 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, Freddie Mac said Thursday.
But doubts remain about whether the momentum will be sustained in the second half of the year when federal support is gone.
“This is a temporary surge that won’t be sustained” said Paul Dales, US economist with Capital Economics. “It won’t be very pretty.”
Sales are now up 18 percent from their low in early 2009, but are still down 26 percent from their peak in fall 2005. March’s results had been expected to rise about 5 percent to 5.28 million, according to economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters.
The results show the housing market is stabilizing after a devastating bust. But the true test will be whether the market can stand on its own after federal tax credits expire at the end of this month.
Sales rose in every region, surging more than 7 percent in the Midwest and South, 6.6 percent in the West and 6 percent in the Northeast.
“It’s a very broad-based recovery,” said Lawrence Yun, the Realtors’ chief economist.
The median sales price was $170,700, up almost 4 percent from $164,600 a month earlier and nearly unchanged from $170,000 in March 2009.
Larry Yun wasn’t the only one not paying attention to forecasts of around 10 million foreclosures yet to join the massive inventory already accumulated..
Why worry about the mythical shadow inventory? If it were not contained, wouldn’t we already be seeing it on the market?
As long as it’s not my money being flushed down the toilet, I’m not worried.
Green Shoots, here is more hard proof “some” areas are recovering.
Homebuilder stock were up strong today. Several hit 52 week highs (HOV, LEN). I noticed a story about builders scrambling for lots in the DFW area:
“With home starts in North Texas up by more than 50 percent so far this year, builders and developers are jumping to buy land and lots.
Several purchases have been announced this week.
Toll Brothers, a Pennsylvania-based luxury homebuilder, said Wednesday that it has bought 171 home sites in Colleyville, one of its largest land purchases here in 15 years. ”
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-builders_22bus.ART0.State.Edition1.3dacc42.html
Toll Brothers is absolutely going to thrive with the recovery, as luxury housing demand rebounds with the rest of the economy.
Good one :-).
From Flips to Flops (from American Banker)
During the boom years, fraudulent property-flipping schemes bedeviled the mortgage industry. As the housing market recovers, the scourge du jour is called flopping.
In his quarterly report to Congress Tuesday, Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, urged that the Treasury Department stiffen appraisal requirements for the administration’s Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives program.
Recent revisions to the program, which encourages short sales (liquidation of the home for less than is owed on the mortgage, with the lender’s consent), could give rise to flopping schemes, he warned. In flopping, home values are fraudulently deflated for the purpose of decreasing the cost of a short sale to a straw purchaser.
The property is then quickly resold for its true market value, “leaving the difference in the crook’s pocket,” the inspector general said in the report. (Conversely, when a property is flipped, a house is sold at an inflated price, sometimes to an unwitting buyer but more often to an insider.)
The inspector general came down on the side of the Appraisal Institute, a trade group for appraisers, which sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner in March urging “independence in the valuation process” and the use of full appraisals. Barofsky recommended that Treasury adopt a uniform appraisal process similar to that of the Federal Housing Administration for all the department’s loan modification and foreclosure alternative programs.
As it stands now, servicers are allowed to use broker price opinions rather than a full property appraisal, making the program vulnerable to such schemes, the inspector general said. BPOs are cheaper at about $40 per property, compared with the $350 to $500 for the cost a full appraisal.
The Appraisal Institute said in its letter that real estate agents and brokers are not trained in property valuation and have “an inherent bias towards quick results and actions which produces a fee for themselves irrespective of whether the lender, servicer, investor, property owner or borrower gets a fair return on the short sale.”
The inspector general warned that the recent doubling of the incentive fee to $3,000 for borrowers who complete a short sale (meant to cover moving costs) without adding antifraud protections “increases the incentives for those participating in criminal short sale scams.”
Got sort of a funny/sad story to relate:
I went to one of those neighborhood activist meetings yesterday evening. Yeah, I know. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result.
The topic of the meeting was getting local businesses involved in neighborhood associations. Much talk about how to get the owners/managers of said businesses to come to neighborhood meetings.
One of the speakers, who’s the owner of two businesses and is active in a couple of business organizations, pointed out that her life is already filled to the brim with work. And meetings.
That didn’t seem to register with the neighborhood activists.
I chimed in with the notion that business people would be more interested to participate in the affairs of surrounding neighborhoods if the residents of those nabes patronized those businesses. I mean, come on people, we’re not out to rip you off. More than a few of us are sincerely interested in selling goods and services at a fair rate. And we actually care about our community.
There also seemed to be an expectation that if businesses are to participate in neighborhood affairs, they’re supposed to come with freebies. Well, folks, that’s a real sore subject with me. I work in the creative field, and we’re often asked to provide free photography, graphic design, paintings, sculptures, etc., and the return we get will be some sort of exposure.
A few months ago, the organizer of a local event asked me to share some of the photos I’d taken with a quasi-governmental group that has a very nice office in Downtown Tucson. I told her that I’d be happy to work out a licensing arrangement with the group. Her reply: They have no budget for that sort of thing. Wasn’t too long after that when I heard that the quasi-gov group’s annual budget is in the $1.5 million range.
The neighborhood activists were a bit taken aback by my rather snarly recounting of the quasi-gov free photos story. But that’s okay. Means I’ll be safe from any free photography or design requests from them.
Offer the free photography as long as you get to go and sleep on their couches for an afternoon siesta. With beverage service. Then tell them one day’s photography = 8 1-hour siestas with beverages. At the houses of your choice.
This is a great time to buy the dip.
=============================================================
US STOCKS-Wall St dips on Greece debt issues, results
Thu Apr 22, 2010 1:27pm EDT
Related News
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1:08pm EDT
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12:39pm EDT
* US STOCKS-Wall St falls on Greece’s debt woes, results weigh
10:53am EDT
* GLOBAL MARKETS-Greek debt revision hits world stocks, euro
10:36am EDT
By Angela Moon
NEW YORK, April 22 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks edged lower on Thursday as concerns grew about the deteriorating financial health of Greece and big telecommunications equipment companies reported weak results.
The cost of insuring Greek debt hit a record high after the European Union said Greece had larger budget deficits last year than anticipated. For details see [ID:nLDE63L12B] and [ID:nLDE63L1AL]. Moody’s downgraded Greece’s sovereign ratings, fanning investors’ fears that European national debt problems could derail the economic recovery.
Shares of the world’s top cellphone maker Nokia (NOK1V.HE) (NOK.N) tumbled more than 12 percent to $13.08 after the company cut its profit outlook and delayed the launch of models to compete with the iPhone and Blackberry.
“Today is a classic case of using plenty of excuses out there to sell. The reality is that the market stretched out and it’s more than overdue for a pause or a short-term set back,” said Scott Marcouiller, senior equity strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors in St. Louis.
ACA Management, the main investor in a failed mortgage-securities deal that prompted securities fraud charges against Goldman Sachs, appears to have caused at least some of the $1 billion loss itself, CNBC has learned.
ACA, which selected the mortgage portolio along with hedge fund Paulson & Co, suggested securities that ended up lowering the quality of the deal. While ACA apparently thought the securities would improve the portfolio, experts contacted by CNBC say it had the opposite effect.
As a prosecutor I’d be looking for kickback arrangements with ACA.
kickbacks? You give these guys waaaay too much credit.
At the time it was new territory to everybody.. GS had a hard time trying to figure out how to structure it but finally figured it out. Nobody involved had the slightest notion wtf they were doing at first..
Paulson was the only one who knew what he wanted.. a swap that insured the very worst of the MBS. All other parties were so drunk on koolaid and so long on RE they thought he was completely nuts.
read one of the books about this deal..
kickbacks? You give these guys waaaay too much credit….Nobody involved had the slightest notion wtf they were doing at first..
Not just that but nobody at GS or any of the parties could have seen this or anything coming. How could they? Did you?
As time goes on we’ll learn how downright corn pone these Wall Street lunch-pailers really are. They are just like us. Paulson and Rubin couldn’t even see this stuff coming for heck’s sake. They told us under oath.
These people are just a buncha good ol’boys making a little foldin’ money by doin’ god’s work and helping promote the American way of life… shucks, cut them some slack.
Home Sales Surge in Southern Cities
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 22, 2010
Filed at 2:31 p.m. ET
MIAMI (AP) — March home sales climbed nearly 19 percent in the South as buyers scrambled to claim federal tax credits and take advantage of affordable prices.
There were 160,000 sales of previously occupied homes last month in the South, which also saw prices increase more than 5 percent to $154,800, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. The last time prices rose in the South on a year-over-year basis was June 2008.
Nationally, sales of previously occupied homes rose nearly 20 percent from March last year to a non-seasonally adjusted mark of 427,000. The median home price was flat at $170,700.
Low interest rates and the looming expiration of two tax credits at the end of April attracted more house hunters. First-time buyers are eligible for a tax credit of up to $8,000, and current homeowners who choose to buy and relocate can get up to $6,500.
When the government incentives end some experts think the housing market’s recovery will stumble. But others argue that there are enough potential buyers to keep the market active.
Foreclosure sales, high unemployment and tight lending standards remain obstacles to a steady recovery. Foreclosures continued to stream into some Southern markets.
”Foreclosures are selling quickly, especially in the lower price ranges that are attractive to first-time home buyers,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors’ group.
In the South, sales increased in 18 of 19 Southern metro areas covered by the Associated Press-Re/Max Monthly Housing Report, also released Thursday. Sales were nearly flat in New Orleans, which is still feeling the effects of Hurricane Katrina.
Median sales prices rose in 8 of the 19 Southern cities covered by the AP-Re/Max report, which analyzes sales transactions in the metropolitan statistical areas recorded by all real estate agents, regardless of company affiliation.
The Texas metro areas of Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, two markets which didn’t see much of a pricing bubble during the housing boom, had the largest median sales price increases of the Southern cities covered by the AP-Re/Max report.
Prices rose nearly 6 percent in Dallas-Fort Worth to $148,00, and existing home sales climbed 6 percent compared with last March. In Houston, March sales increased 10 percent, and prices increased 4 percent to $153,000.
Real estate agent Mike Bowman said the tax credits, low mortgage rates and prices that remain affordable are creating a sales environment in Dallas-Fort Worth that’s ”as good as you are going to get.”
”When people are optimistic about everything, then they are going to spend money, and that can only help the economy,” said Bowman, president of Century 21 Mike Bowman Inc. in Grapevine, Texas.
Why does this scenario sound so hauntingly familiar?
Hedge Funds
April 21, 2010, 7:42 p.m. EDT
Moore Capital warns of euro-zone ‘breakdown’
Hedge-fund firm criticizes Greek bailout, looks for ’sticky’ investors
By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Moore Capital, a leading global macro hedge-fund firm run by Louis Moore Bacon, warned of a “potential breakdown” of the European Monetary Union and criticized plans to bail out Greece, according to a recent investor letter obtained by MarketWatch on Wednesday.
“Perhaps the most interesting area for the foreseeable future is in the potential breakdown of the European Monetary Union,” Bacon wrote in the letter, dated April 16.
“Instead of punishing the Greeks for their free-rider and fraudulent gaming of the Maastricht rules — either by ejecting Greece from the Union to propel them to reform and come back at a competitive exchange rate or by forcing them to restructure their debt within the confines of monetary union, either of which would have eventually strengthened and solidified the euro — the European leaders have decided to reward the prodigal Greeks with a bailout, socializing their ills and taxing once again the prodigious Northern European workers,” he said.
The bailout could have “disastrous consequences” for the European Union and Europe, Bacon warned.
Sovereign-wealth funds have bought trillions of euros to diversify away from U.S. dollars. That’s supported the euro and allowed European investors to “flee their debauched currency,” he wrote.
…
Oh yeah!
…the
EuropeanU.S. leaders have decided to reward the prodigalGreeksWall Street banks with a bailout, socializing their ills and taxing once again the prodigiousNorthern EuropeanMain Street American workers…Why are they making such a big thing out of it?
It’s not as though the countries in the EU couldn’t imagine the Union having to weather the occasional storm or two..
just bail out Greece and get on with it.. jeeze.. all this gnashing of teeth over something about which they have NO CHOICE.
It could be that ‘they’ are trying to set up stellar investing opportunities for those who follow the ‘blood in the streets’ buy signal.
=========================================================
Greek workers strike, warn of social explosion
Renee Maltezou and Ingrid Melander
ATHENS
Thu Apr 22, 2010 4:06pm EDT
ATHENS (Reuters) - Thousands of striking Greek civil servants marched Thursday to protest against austerity measures, warning of a social explosion if the government agreed further cuts in aid talks with the EU and IMF.
More than 10,000 civil servants and students marched to parliament, calling for cutbacks to be scrapped, beating drums and chanting: “No more illusions, war against the rich.”
Nurses, teachers, tax officials and dockers stopped work during the 24-hour strike, which paralyzed public services, while EU and IMF officials met in Athens for talks that could lead to a financial bailout for Greece.
Workers are protesting against public wage cuts, a pensions freeze and tax hikes imposed by the government to try to pull Greece out of a fiscal crisis that has shaken markets worldwide and driven Greece’s borrowing costs to a 12-year high.
Participation in the march was not larger than previous times but unions, workers, and analysts said anger was building up and warned of the risk of social unrest.
The public wants to see corrupt politicians and tax evaders behind bars and says more measures would mean their sacrifices so far are in vain.
“People are asking for blood,” said ALCO pollster Costas Panagopoulos. “They need someone to be punished for what is happening. They want the government to put all those who did not pay their taxes in prison.”
Related News
* Greek workers strike, challenge EU/IMF talks
9:05am EDT
* Greek debt costs soar at start of EU/IMF talks
Wed, Apr 21 2010
* Greek debt hammered as EU/IMF aid talks get under way
Wed, Apr 21 2010
* Greek debt woes erase jobs, stoke social discontent
Wed, Apr 21 2010
* Greece starts talks on potential aid with EU, IMF
Wed, Apr 21 201
When Rothschild said the best time to buy is when there’s “blood in the streets”, he wasn’t talking about real blood.
Or was he?
Maybe he did mean real blood..
Gaze out the window and notice a mob is torching your house, and what would you do? Any investor worth his salt rings his broker and tell him to buy kerosene futures, pronto.
Only the most cowardly bear would call an airline and book the first flight out.
Blood in the streets is only temporary; you could even consider it to be a harbinger of green shoots of prosperity.
Drill sergeant always did say blood makes the grass grow.
IRS Agent Didn’t Report $41,842 in EBay Sales
Bloomberg
An Internal Revenue Service agent was found liable for back taxes and penalties for not reporting income on nearly 2,000 transactions on EBay Inc., the online auction site, according to the U.S. Tax Court.
Andrea Fabiana Orellana failed to report $41,842 in income in 2004 and 2005 from sales of designer clothing, shoes and other items, according to a Tax Court summary opinion. Orellana is liable for $12,428 in unpaid taxes and $2,486 in penalties.
Orellana, who represented herself, sold items under several names, including “BlackTheRipper,” the court document said. She could not be reached for comment.
“Petitioner’s attitude toward the preparation of her tax returns appeared to be cavalier,” the U.S. Tax Court opinion said.
The IRS asked for proof of costs and expenses. Orellana, who worked as an IRS revenue officer and resided in California at the time of the IRS examination, testified that she never kept receipts, according to the court. “That would be ridiculous, unheard of. Unless there was some really bizarre reason why I kept a receipt, there were no receipts,” she said according to the court documents.
..she represented herself..
“Receipts? Judge, you must be joking! It was all stolen property! How the hell was I supposed to get receipts?”
Banks May Not Be Lending, But They Are Buying Treasurys
CNBC April 22, 2010, 2:16 pm EDT
Though banks continue to be hesitant to lend to consumers, they have stepped into the market for Treasurys that help finance the government’s burgeoning debt.
With credit conditions still tight and Congress likely to clamp down on risk in the financial industry, banks are turning toward the safety of government debt, helping keep interest rates low but still not providing credit to consumers.
“Not only has lending been tight but demand for loans has been pretty small,” says Kim Rupert, managing director of global fixed income analysis at Action Economics in San Francisco. “The Treasury market offers banks an attractive alternative.”
Surprisingly strong Treasury auctions in March had help from banks, which normally stay away from such events.
Mattress money will come in handy when the real fire sales begin.
Given that our gov is of by and for bankers the next leg of this is another stock market collapse. That way the banks can exit their long term bond holdings with even more cash, cover their bad debt and have cash ready to lend on housing that after another 20% fall in prices may be a relatively safe investment.
The Financial Times
Challenges to Goldman are still kept to a whisper
By Gillian Tett
Published: April 22 2010 18:17 | Last updated: April 22 2010 18:17
Deep inside some law firms and consultancy groups in London and New York, some highly sensitive private conversations are under way. The issue at stake is Goldman Sachs. More accurately, whether it makes commercial sense for lawyers and consultants to offer their services to Goldman in the months ahead.
After all, in the week since the Securities and Exchange Commission launched its broadside against Goldman, a host of juicy details about the bank’s dealings in the collateralised debt obligation world have tumbled out.
Thus far – as my colleague John Gapper pointed out earlier this week – it remains unclear whether all these colourful titbits will ever produce a tangible, successful prosecution in court. The strength of the case against Goldman is uncertain.
But while the legal questions – and political issues – swirl, what is crystal clear is that the SEC action is encouraging other parties to contemplate law suits. Groups such AIG and IKB, for example, are debating this. Others will undoubtedly follow suit.
Thus the fascinating question which confronts some lawyers – or any consultant that might conceivably act as an expert witness in any trial – is what to do next? Should they dance with one of the companies that might be pitted against Goldman, and thus risk incurring the wrath of the so-called Giant Vampire Squid? Or should they presume that Goldman will continue to dominate any future financial world – irrespective of what that might look like – and thus try to avoid alienating the group?
…
I’d tell them to keep their distance. The charges are politically motivated and essentially bogus, and GS will skate.
I think major damage has already been done to GS. There are even countries who will now chose to do business elsewhere. Goldman’s reputation has only just now entered the gutter.
I have a feeling there is another shoe to drop. There is blood in the water now.
And it’s just a squid.
What color is squid blood?
What color is squid blood?
But a regular one or a giant vampire squid from hell kind?
Goldman’s clients care about one thing…making money.
“…and GS will skate.”
Are you talking about in the U.S. justice system, or abroad? I would guess it would be easier for Gollum to navigate and buy their way out of trouble at home than abroad…
While laws and judicial systems in the various countries run the gamut, all societies share the same species of politician:
Bribeus-electimus.
American Express Profit Climbs as Consumer Spending Rebounds
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April 22 (Bloomberg) — American Express Co., the biggest U.S. credit-card issuer by purchases, said first-quarter profit doubled as consumers boosted spending.
Income from continuing operations climbed to $885 million, or 73 cents a share, from $443 million, or 32 cents, in the same period in 2009, New York-based AmEx said today in a statement. The average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was 63 cents.
Chief Executive Officer Kenneth I. Chenault, 58, kept AmEx profitable during the recession, and the surge in credit-card spending adds to evidence that the industry may be mending. Last week, Bank of America Corp. posted its first profit from card services in almost two years and JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported a $303 million loss, less than a third of its own forecast.
BlackRock Uses ETF Weapon to Expand in 401(k) Market (Update1)
April 22 (Bloomberg) — BlackRock Inc. is seeking to grab a larger slice of the $2.7 trillion 401(k) retirement market by using its position as the world’s biggest manager of exchange- traded funds to win over small companies.
BlackRock’s iShares unit is going after retirement plans with $50 million or less that have been largely ignored by big providers such as Fidelity Investments and Vanguard Group Inc. Investors in 401(k) plans have bought more than $2 billion of iShares ETFs since the New York-based company began its push last year, Darek Wojnar, head of iShares strategy and research, said in a telephone interview.
“Because iShares is so big, they’re a bellwether of where things are headed,” said Teresa Epperson, a partner at Mercatus, a Boston-based financial consultant. “I think it’s inevitable.”
Wouldn’t one expect a Gollum client to gobble up all the small companies it can cram down its craw?
WRAPUP 3-Goldman urges clients to stay, CEO at Obama speech
Thu Apr 22, 2010 3:01pm EDT
Related News
* Goldman exec Cohn to attend Obama speech-source
8:54am EDT
* BayernLB says felt compelled to cut ties to Goldman
8:17am EDT
* German bank severs Goldman ties, France eyes probe
Wed, Apr 21 2010
* WRAPUP 4-German bank severs Goldman ties, France eyes probe
Wed, Apr 21 2010
* With Goldman charged, rivals smell blood
By Steve Eder and Alexander Huebner
NEW YORK/FRANKFURT, April 22 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) intensified its public relations counteroffensive over fraud charges on Thursday as the company’s chief executive watched U.S. President Barack Obama urge Wall Street to back regulatory reforms.
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who will testify before a U.S. Senate subcommittee next week, looked on as Obama scolded Wall Street for “furious efforts” to block reforms.
Goldman is trying to contain the fallout from charges by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over the way it structured and marketed a product tied to subprime mortgages.
Current and former Goldman officials will appear before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations next Tuesday to testify about the role of investment banks in the subprime mortgage disaster.
Fabrice Tourre, the Goldman employee who was charged by the SEC, is also scheduled to testify, along with Goldman Chief Financial Officer David Viniar and Managing Director Michael Swenson.
In his speech, Obama urged Congress to press ahead with an overhaul of Wall Street regulations and warned of the risks of another financial crisis should safeguards not be in place.
Blankfein’s appearance at the event, accompanied by Gary Cohn, Goldman’s president and chief operating officer, came as Goldman urged clients to stay after German bank BayernLB [BAYB.UL] cut its ties to the New York bank.
One high-profile client, Blackstone Group LP (BX.N) CEO Stephen Schwarzman, said the private equity firm would stick with Goldman.
Goldman shares were up 0.57 percent at $159.83 in afternoon trading after falling earlier in the day.
Blankfeind testifying before congress is going to make for the best Kabuki theater in ages. He’ll be scolded and accused of all kinds of wrong-doing by a bunch of equally corrupt congress types–all staged outrage, of course. But the thing is…where else can you get this level of entertainment for free?
It may just be a phony wrestling match, but I’m so looking forward to the show.
The Sun as you’ve never seen it: Nasa reveals stunning footage from new satellite ~ 22nd April 2010
Forget Iceland’s volcano. If you want to see a really big eruption, you need to head to the Sun.
This astonishing image - captured by a new Nasa space telescope - shows a ferocious solar flare looping out the Sun with the power of 100 hydrogen bombs. The ring of fire, heated to tens of millions of degrees, stretches out tens of thousands of miles - and is so big it could contain more than 100 Earths.
It is just one of the spectacular images from a new satellite which it says could give fresh insight into how the Sun works.
The pictures were taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which is the most advanced spacecraft ever designed to study the Sun.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1267943/Nasa-Solar-Dynamics-Observatory-shows-Sun-youve-seen-it.html#ixzz0lre8vfEH
It’s a good thing that we’re 93 million miles away from the sun.
Awesome. Thaks
Isn’t that just a screen shot from the beginning scenes of 2012?
So long as the Fed’s printing press technology remains intact, the U.S. should have no problem dealing with a large hangover of sovereign debt.
* BRUSSELS BEAT
* APRIL 23, 2010
Debt Crises’ New Victims: Rich Developed Economies
* By STEPHEN FIDLER
With financial markets hyperventilating about the prospect of a debt default by the Greek government, the International Monetary Fund fretted aloud this week about the prospects for a sovereign debt crisis—centered on Europe.
Since Mexico announced it couldn’t pay its bank debts in 1982, poor emerging economies have been the origin and main victims of most big financial crises. This time, it’s the governments of developed economies and their bloated debt burdens that are the focus of concern.
Greek bond yields have now risen to levels that suggest investors believe even a joint IMF-euro zone bailout won’t be enough to avoid a debt restructuring for Greece. In a report this week, the IMF said Portugal, and to a lesser extent Spain and Italy, would be the most likely to suffer from contagion if Greece goes over the edge.
Surges of government debt follow financial crises—not because of the direct costs of bank bailouts but mainly because tax revenues fall and government spending rises in the resulting economic slowdown. Following an exhaustive historical study, economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff have calculated that central-government debt increases in real terms by 86% on average during the three years following a crisis.
That increase is well under way in major economies, which is why sovereign-debt worries are growing. By 2014, according to a private forecast commissioned from Oxford Economics by the accountancy firm Ernst & Young and published last week, euro-zone governments’ debt will exceed 88% of annual gross domestic product.
Under fairly benign economic assumptions, including no Greek default, the forecast sees Italy’s debt-to-GDP ratio growing to 126% of GDP, the highest in the euro zone, followed by Greece, 116%, Belgium, 109%, Portugal 102%, France, 100%, Ireland, 89% and Spain, 81%.
Germany’s would be 74% of GDP. Other projections suggest the debt of the UK. and the U.S. will touch 100%, though a quarter of the U.S. debt is held by other government bodies, such as the Social Security Trust Fund, not the public.
…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/7621289/Escalating-Greek-default-fears-rock-Europes-debt-markets.html
What you WON’T read from the Wall Street cheerleaders of the MSM - the Greek debt contagion is spreading all across southern Europe as the “crisis contained” mantra rings hollow.
Don’t worry, this will never happen in the U.S.A.
Black swan event? The one that is (finally) immune to someone waving their hand and saying “This is not the black swan event you’re looking for”?
‘Goldman Sachs said it is expecting Greece to offer some sort of “voluntary debt-restructuring” to creditors over coming months. Erik Nielsen, the bank’s Europe economist, said the rescue formula may evolve into a mixture of loans and debt forgiveness in order to give Greece “a much longer breathing space”. ‘
How peculiar it is to see Gollum Sachs mixed up in this Greek debt crisis!
The Gollum meme is out there, folks.
“Precious”…
Wow.
“Mayor Robert Duffy says the city has concerns firefighters might be selling their overtime opportunities to more senior members, allowing those nearing retirement to inflate their pensions.”
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20100422/NEWS01/100422055/Duffy-to-Cuomo–Firefighters-may-be-selling-overtime-opportunities&referrer=NEWSFRONTCAROUSEL
“Mayor Robert Duffy says the city has concerns firefighters might be selling their overtime opportunities to more senior members, allowing those nearing retirement to inflate their pensions.”
Well now I’m impressed. The pinko union boys are finally learnin’ a little free-market capitalism.
..He then notes a work rule prohibiting payment for work substitution…
..meaning the pinko union boys are compounding their problematic nature with illegal activities.
Why are financial reporters in such a dither over the Greek crisis? Can’t they see it is all contained?
* The Wall Street Journal
* ASIA MARKETS
* APRIL 22, 2010, 10:29 P.M. ET
Asia Mixed on Greece Concern
By COLIN NG
SINGAPORE — Asian stock markets were mixed Friday with Greece’s fiscal troubles hitting Australian miners and Japanese exporters.
The performance of global equities Thursday was “far from pretty,” despite moderate gains on Wall Street, said David Taylor, analyst at CMC Markets. “The fly in the ointment was Greece.”
News that Greece’s fiscal deficit was larger than previously reported and a sovereign ratings downgrade sent Greek bonds “into a bit of a tailspin…and it flowed through to commodities” prices, Taylor said. With resources stocks hurting the Sydney market, “the appetite for risk just isn’t there at present.”
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.4%, Japan’s Nikkei 225 was flat, South Korea’s Kospi Composite rose 0.2% and New Zealand’s NZX-50 was 0.4% higher.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down one point in screen trade.
In Sydney, CSL was the biggest drag on the S&P/ASX 200 index, losing 8.5% after key global plasma products rival Baxter International Inc. slashed its full year outlook and said it had over-estimated strength in the market. “It’s a pretty big worry for CSL,” said Ben Potter of IG Markets. He noted that chief executive Brian McNamee was “regarded very highly in Australia and I’d be surprised if they’ve seen this sort of thing that they haven’t already flagged it.”
Mining giants BHP Billiton was down 0.6% and Rio Tinto lost 0.8% while Woodside Petroleum shed 1.1%.
The Greek troubles were also weighing on the Tokyo stock market, by way of the euro’s weakness against the yen. The stronger yen meant an erosion of revenues for Japanese firms exporting to the eurozone and pulled TDK down 0.6% and Kyocera down 0.4%.
“Stocks have been bought (recently), pricing in expectations for brisk earnings for the last fiscal year for most manufacturers, but we need more cues to chase the market higher,” said Yoshinori Nagano, senior strategist at Daiwa Asset Management.
The Seoul stock market was kept in the black by gains for selected technology and auto stocks, buoyed by their strong first-quarter results and positive earnings outlooks. LG Display was up 3.1% and Hyundai Motor rose 2.8%.
Though the New Zealand market was a little higher, trading volumes were very light, which Forsyth Barr broker David Price said “speaks volumes about what is actually happening.”
“At the moment, the market has reached a point where it needs to take a bit of a breather. It has had a fairly good run but is waiting for the next driver. It could be something out of the budget, it could be the next results round,” said Price.
…
Do you expect Greece to default on its debt?
The Main Street / Wall Street dichotomy meme has really caught on!
* The Wall Street Journal
* BUSINESS
* APRIL 22, 2010
Climax Looms for Finance Bill
By JONATHAN WEISMAN And DAMIAN PALETTA
Obama delivers remarks on Wall Street reform at Cooper Union in New York City.
President Barack Obama used a Manhattan speech to urge top banking executives to back his sweeping overhaul of financial-market rules, while in Washington the bill gained steam as cracks in the Republican opposition improved its prospects in Congress.
Two years after a campaign speech at Cooper Union that spelled out his vision for Wall Street, Mr. Obama pressed his case to an audience that included wary finance executives. The president’s call for their cooperation lacked the sharpness of his recent barbs and references to “fat cat bankers.” Instead, he suggested the “titans of industry” join a legislative push that is in its final stages.
“Ultimately, there is no dividing line between Main Street and Wall Street. We will rise or we will fall together as one nation,” Mr. Obama told the audience.
…
“titans of industry”
Sounds like the campaign contributions must be flowing like a river in spring flood.
Titanics, seems more appropriate.
WSJ Blogs
Developments
Real estate news and analysis from The Wall Street Journal
* April 22, 2010, 1:55 PM ET
Tax Credit Extension? Don’t Bet the House On It
By Nick Timiraos
The National Association of Realtors touted Thursday’s report that existing home sales rose by 6.8% in March as proof that the home buyer tax credit has been a “resounding success.” Indeed, home resales, which came in at a 5.35 million annual rate, exceeded analysts’ consensus expectations of a 5.25 million annual sales rate.
But there was another message embedded in Thursday’s report: Don’t count on any further extension of the home buyer tax credit, which expires at the end of April.
Congress initially passed a $7,500 tax credit for first-time home buyers two years ago. That credit had to be repaid over 15 years, and last spring, Congress extended the credit, expanded it to $8,000 and waived the repayment provisions. The extended credit had been set to expire in December 2009, and Congress extended it once more last fall. Also, a separate $6,500 tax credit was created for home buyers who already own a home.
To secure last fall’s extension, Sen. Johnny Isakson (R., Ga.), the godfather of the tax credit, nearly signed his name in blood to swear that Congress wouldn’t try to extend the credit again. Still, some industry folks had held out hope that in an election year, the tax credit might enjoy one last revival (Indeed, California’s legislature has created a separate $10,000 state tax credit).
But industry groups now say that the tax credit has run its course. “It’s time for the housing market to stand on its own two feet,” says a spokesman for the National Association of Realtors. A spokesman for the National Association of Home Builders says the group isn’t “actively asking for an extension at this time.”
“It’s time for the housing market to stand on its own two feet,” says a spokesman for the National Association of Realtors.
It’s time to close the casket.
Perhaps it is a Lazarus housing market? Debt men walking…
..According to Eastern tradition, Lazarus died for the second (and last) time on Cyprus. In 890, a tomb was found in Larnaca bearing the inscription “Lazarus the friend of Christ”.
wiki..
My estimated market value standard is what a home will sell for in an arms-length transactions. What these people are talking about eludes me.
WSJ Blogs
Developments
Real estate news and analysis from The Wall Street Journal
* April 21, 2010, 12:41 PM ET
Cookie Queen’s Wolf Creek Mansion Up For Auction
By Dawn Wotapka
Someone is poised to get a sweet deal on cookie-giant Mrs. Fields’ former Wolf Creek Ranch mansion: It’s up for auction online, an event that will conclude with a live auction in tony Park City, Utah, May 1.
Don’t worry, Debbi Fields, who built the house, isn’t in dire straits. The cookie queen sold the home several years ago and the current owner was foreclosed on. But her moniker is so well known, it’s being played up to draw attention to the nine-bedroom, 12-bathroom mansion on 51 acres.
The online bidding for the 25,000-square-foot home started April 1, and though the price has climbed to $1.6 million — that’s still well below the $3.8-million estimated market value.
The River Ranch Way address is quite lavish, says Kevin Gallagher, who is handling the auction for United Country US Auctions & Realty. It features custom woodwork galore, two kitchens, six fireplaces, a large wine cellar, a hidden safe room and “views to die for,” Mr. Gallagher says. “They spared no expense in building this home.”
The surrounding area isn’t too shabby, either: Wolf Creek Ranch is 14,000-acre development divided into 84 lots of 160 acres a piece–about 10 times larger than most gated resort communities. It positions itself as a “private national park”—a compromise between traditional luxury developments with all the amenities and mega sized stand-alone ranches. In a story earlier this year the WSJ dubbed it a “CEO Playground.”
Mrs. Fields’ former mansion is one several Park City showpieces up for grabs. As we’ve written, multi-million-dollar homes are increasingly being swept into the foreclosure crisis. That’s the way the cookie crumbles, we suppose.
One reason to break up Megabanks: Consumers will have more alternative choices if their current bank turns out to be a poor choice.
* The Wall Street Journal
* BUSINESS
* APRIL 23, 2010
In Germany, a Backlash
Officials, companies speak out against Goldman Sachs’s approach
By MARCUS WALKER
BERLIN—Goldman Sachs Group Inc. brought investment banking to Germany 20 years ago. Now, many here say it is giving the business a bad name.
Goldman’s approach to winning business is coming under fire from German officials, companies and banks. The firm’s latest headache: A dispute with the city of Berlin, which has accused Goldman of trying to intimidate it with legal threats in order to make more profit from a housing sale. Goldman denies the accusation.
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The Wall Street bank has built up a powerful franchise in Germany since it opened its Frankfurt office in 1990, cultivating contacts in Germany’s boardrooms and ministries that are the envy of its rivals. In 2009, Goldman was the top foreign investment bank in Germany by revenue and finished second overall behind Deutsche Bank AG, the country’s largest bank, according to data provider Dealogic.
Germany is the world’s fourth-biggest economy and home to many of Europe’s largest companies, making it a crucial battleground for Goldman’s global ambitions. But Goldman’s tactics in pursuit of gain have been a source of friction in a country that values consensus and compromise over confrontation.
Now, in the wake of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s civil-fraud charges against Goldman, quiet grumbling is turning into a vocal battering. The SEC has charged that Goldman withheld important information from investors on a derivatives deal whose victims included German bank IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG, which needed a state-backed bailout totaling about €10 billion ($13.4 billion) in 2007. Goldman has denied wrongdoing and is fighting the suit.
“I would not deal with this bank again unless I couldn’t avoid it,” said Ulrich Nussbaum, the city of Berlin’s finance chief, after months of negotiations over Goldman’s wish to take public a company that owns municipal housing in Berlin.
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Isn’t this somewhat akin to having sex with yourself?
I’m wondering if the same sort of strategy might work with respect to printing dollars (a form of U.S. debt) and using them to buy Treasurys (another form of U.S. debt). Any thoughts on this?
P.S. It is hard to see conflicts of interest in a business model whose sole purpose is to make money by whatever means are available.
April 22, 2010, 8:48 p.m. EDT
Goldman role in Lloyds deal questioned: report
By MarketWatch
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS 158.80, -0.25, -0.16%) both underwrote and was an investor in Lloyds Banking Group’s (LYG 4.11, -0.07, -1.68%) refinancing deal last year, the Financial Times reported on its Web site Friday, citing four unnamed people involved in the capital raising as saying, highlighting potential conflicts of interest at the heart of its business model.
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You place a $100 bet (costs you $110) on the Chargers to win some Sunday and the bookie, not being inclined to lose any money on a football game, hedges by betting your $100 on the other team… and pockets the $10 vig.
If Gollum thinks it is so unfair to be prosecuted for a single charge, I am wondering whether it might be possible for the SEC to launch a wide scale investigation to uncover other possible instances of fraud by Wall Street’s biggest banks? After all, it is rare for a single cockroach to live in isolation.
Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Should Cut Losses in SEC Standoff, Lawyers Say
April 23, 2010, 12:18 AM EDT
By Joshua Gallu and David Scheer
April 23 (Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc. may be better off cutting its losses instead of fighting what it terms “unfounded” fraud claims, say professors of securities law who have examined the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit against the bank.
The most profitable firm in Wall Street history will probably lose what is typically the first hurdle in court, a motion to throw out the April 16 suit because it lacks legal merit, the professors said in interviews this week. After that, Goldman Sachs’s risks will mount and its negotiating position will weaken, they said.
“There’s a very low probability that Goldman could get the case dismissed,” said Thomas Hazen of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, whose books include a two-volume treatise on broker-dealer law. “Every pretrial motion the SEC wins, Goldman gets one step closer to losing.”
Goldman Sachs is the first major Wall Street firm accused by regulators of fraud connected to the collapse of the subprime mortgage market. The SEC’s allegation that Goldman Sachs defrauded investors sparked a 13 percent, one-day decline in its shares. The New York-based firm, led by Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein, 55, said it will vigorously contest the claims. It must weigh the risks of a drawn-out legal battle against the benefits of a more immediate resolution.
“We are disappointed that the SEC would bring this action related to a single transaction in the face of an extensive record which establishes that the accusations are unfounded in law and fact,” the bank said after the complaint was filed. Lucas van Praag, a Goldman Sachs spokesman, declined to comment yesterday on the likelihood of getting the case dismissed.
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A five-year Greek debt default watch time horizon will extend the financial crisis until 2015, at least…
Greece worries hammer euro, stocks drift
Elaine Lies
TOKYO
Fri Apr 23, 2010 12:46am EDT
TOKYO (Reuters) - Stop-loss selling hammered the euro to a one-year low on Friday on growing speculation that debt-laden Greece could default on its sovereign debt.
Asia stocks mostly drifted lower, but were supported by strong earnings predictions as most companies globally have met or exceeded expectations so far in the first-quarter earnings season.
Korean stocks briefly touched a 22-month high after forecast-beating results from several major firms, including Hyundai Motor, before slipping lower.
The euro dropped as far as $1.3201 on trading platform EBS, its lowest level since April 30 last year, after the European Union said Greece’s budget deficit was worse than feared at 13.6 percent of GDP and Moody’s Investors Service cut its rating of Greek government debt.
“The euro is getting clobbered as worries about Greece are intensifying and fears of a contagion are rising,” said David Scutt, a forex trader at Arab Bank Australia in Sydney.
“There were quite a few stops taken on its way down this morning and we have to see if $1.32 gives way later in the day when flows get better.”
Moody’s downgraded Greece’s sovereign debt rating by a notch to A3 and placed the rating on review for a further possible downgrade, citing the risk that Greece may end up paying a lot more for its borrowing than initially thought.
A Reuters poll of around 50 economists gave a median 80 percent chance that Greece would turn to its euro zone partners in the next two months and activate its aid package.
They gave a roughly one-in-four chance that Greece would default on its debt in the next five years.
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