Bits Bucket For April 23, 2010
Post off-topic ideas, links and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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SEC staffers watched porn as economy crashed
“As the country was sinking into its worst financial crisis in more than 70 years, Security and Exchange Commission employees and contractors cruised porn sites and viewed sexually explicit pictures using government computers, an SEC investigation obtained by CNN showed.
More than half of the workers made between $99,000 – $223,000. All the cases took place over the past five years.
“It is nothing short of disturbing that high-ranking officials within the SEC were spending more time looking at pornography than taking action to help stave off the events that brought our nation’s economy to the brink of collapse,” said Rep. Darrell Issa.”"
Ohhhhh, so THAT’S what caused this mess. That must be a really boring job, or perhaps Blankfein hooked them up with free webcam access? Maybe it’s me, but watching Wall Street would be just like porn, maybe even better especially making that kind of coin. Sounds like some good job openings coming soon though!
They diddled while Rome burned.
POTD
When you start an Executive Branch job, you do online ethics training, including computer use. There’s a bit of gray area in online surfing or accepting meals/gifts, but downloading the nasty is specifically listed as black-and-white forbidden.
And pretty much everyplace in the private sector. Literally, a “Terminate immediately, until proven innocent” event.
A golden opportunity to “cull the herd”, IMO.
SEC: Goldman Spammed Us with Porn.
“…there was nothing we could do… rendering the SEC totally helpless.”
heterosexual males watched porn while…[insert whatever catastrophe you want here]
Eating cheetos?
Glad to see someone liked that joke….
Did you hear about the 13 year old that had to go to the hospital for overdosing on Grandpa’s Viagra?
Had Third degree burns on both hands.
This may also explain why Alan Greenspam was blinded.
As a network administrator and system administrator who has had privileges on a number of networks, let me tell you, gay people do too.
Former landlady was a system admin for the accounting office of a non-profit. I seem to recall her saying that one of the female employees was spending quite a bit of time at, shall we say, non-work-related sites.
We got f…ed while they dreamed about it?
From the pay range, many were SES’rs, Senior Executive Service, totally unacceptable. Nice leadership from Chris Cox. If you don’t want enforcement, hire people that don’t want to do that. This goes straight to the top, GWB, who appointed Chris Cox to head the SEC.
They will be given a stern talking to. That should solve the problem. Meanwhile, the SEC says it needs more people and a bigger budget to do its job. Riiiiight.
Well, it certainly caused _A_ mess. Or rather, many smaller messes.
Unfortunately for us, the excess liquidity that caused the housing bubble isn’t mopped up so easily.
Was Gollum involved with this SEC smear campaign? (Not condoning govt employees viewing porn on the job; just wondering about the timing.)
“As the country was sinking into its worst financial crisis in more than 70 years, Security and Exchange Commission employees and contractors cruised porn sites and viewed sexually explicit pictures using government computers, an SEC investigation obtained by CNN showed.
More than half of the workers made between $99,000 – $223,000. All the cases took place over the past five years.”
In my opinion, most computer positions with internet access result in a horrendous loss of productivity. I don’t know why companies, and the government, are not reigning these people in. We even see it here on this blog. I remember one government worker here a few years ago gloating, saying “you’re paying me to be here, deal with it” or something along those lines. It’s disgusting.
When I worked in purchasing for a tech company in 2000-2001, the slob next to me was visiting porn sites, leaving myself and another co-worker to carry his weight as we were all three responsible for the same project. He was eventually fired for something else, but that POS was annoying.
So is there any reason why their IT department couldn’t block x-rated sites? Any reason why they haven’t been terminated immediately?
Hell the company I used to work for did a pretty good job of blocking x-rated sites. BTW, any x-rated sites found on your computer was reason for immediate termination.
Whenever some Federal regulatory agency claims they need more people and more budgets to do their job, this kind of crap comes to mind. While only a tiny fraction of the SEC may surf porn sites, I’m guessing the real scandal lies in the fact that the regulators are a bunch of do-nothing clock watchers.
OMG — I just woke up from the worst nightmare. A great vampire squid was sucking on the face of all humanity. It had sparked financial crises in many different countries around the world, and had even taken over the U.S. government.
Oh wait…
The Financial Times
Goldman battles to save state links
By Sharlene Goff, Patrick Jenkins, Megan Murphy, Quentin Peel, Rachel Sanderson, Gerrit Wiesmann and James Wilson
Published: April 23 2010 03:00 | Last updated: April 23 2010 03:00
Goldman Sachs has taken the unusual step of writing to the European government affairs departments of rival banks, assuring them that the fraud charges filed against it last week by the US Securities Exchange Commission are “completely unfounded in both law and fact”.
Why precisely Goldman thought it necessary to “reach out” to other banks is unclear. But the letter is an indication of just how keen Goldman is to protect its government franchise across Europe.
UK
While Goldman’s links to the UK government are not as extensive as those in the US, there are still significant connections. Goldman’s former chief economist and senior partner, Gavyn Davies, is married to one of Gordon Brown’s most trusted senior advisers, Sue Nye.
…
Germany
Ever since Goldman helped privatise swathes of former East German assets in the 1990s, and even though Deutsche Bank may be the country’s standard-bearer as an adviser, the bank has been a partner for successive governments in Berlin.
…
Italy
In Italy, Goldman has one of its most powerful alumni in Europe. Bank of Italy governor Mario Draghi was a vice-president and managing director at Goldman Sachs in London from 2002-05. Mr Draghi is also head of the Financial Stability Board and a member of the European Central Bank governing council.
…
Greece
Goldman’s role in arranging credit swaps for Greece following its entry to the eurozone in January 2001 have been raked over in recent months as the country’s debt crisis has deepened.
…
Goldman proposed to help Greece with debt management by arranging a pri-vate placement of about €20bn-€25bn ($26bn-$33bn) with Chinese state investors, although the project fell through.
The government unofficially froze relations with Goldman after details of the China proposal and the credit swaps emerged.
Reporting by Megan Murphy, Rachel Sanderson, Sharlene Goff and Patrick Jenkins in London, and Gerrit Wiesmann, Quentin Peel and James Wilson in Frankfurt.
The Los Angeles Times
Firm urged hedge against state bonds it helped sell
November 11, 2008
Sharona Coutts, Marc Lifsher and Michael A. Hiltzik, Coutts, a writer with ProPublica, reported from New York. Lifsher, a Times staff writer, reported from Sacramento, and staff writer Hiltzik reported from Los Angeles.
Goldman, Sachs & Co. urged some of its big clients to place investment bets against California bonds this year despite having collected millions of dollars in fees to help the state sell some of those same bonds.
The giant investment firm did not inform the office of California Treasurer Bill Lockyer that it was proposing a way for investment clients to profit from California’s deepening financial misery. In Sacramento, officials said they were concerned that Goldman’s strategy could raise the interest rate the state would have to pay to borrow money, thus harming taxpayers.
The Los Angeles Times
CalPERS eyeing Goldman case
The pension giant, a shareholder in the bank, says it plans to question executives.
April 20, 2010|Marc Lifsher
SACRAMENTO — Officials at the country’s largest government pension fund on Monday said they were “disturbed” about a federal lawsuit contending that investment bank Goldman, Sachs & Co. defrauded investors with mortgage-backed securities that allegedly were set up to fail.
The lawsuit also pointed out the need for increased federal regulatory oversight of the securities industry, the officials said.
I love the smell of squid blood in the morning….the smell… you know that wounded mollusk smell…
I personally love the taste of fried calamari.
I wonder if Calpers besides buying GS stock purchased any of the CDO’s that are the subject of the lawsuit.
My guess is that ultimately GS has much more to fear from the Tort Lawyers and the AG’s of the states whose pension plans lost a ton of money in GS investments than they do the SEC.
Goldman has nothing to fear from the SEC or any other governmental entity.
* The Wall Street Journal
* NEW YORK
* APRIL 22, 2010
The Busted Homes Behind a Big Bet
By CARRICK MOLLENKAMP , MARK WHITEHOUSE And ANTON TROIANOVSKI
ABERDEEN TOWNSHIP, N.J.—The government’s civil-fraud allegation against Goldman Sachs Group Inc. centers on a deal the firm crafted so that hedge-fund king John Paulson could bet on a collapse in U.S. housing prices.
It was a dizzyingly complex transaction, involving 90 bonds and a 65-page deal sheet. But it all boiled down to whether people like Stella Onyeukwu, Gheorghe Bledea and Jack Booket could pay their mortgages.
…
More than half of the 500,000 mortgages from 48 states contained in the Goldman deal—known as Abacus 2007-AC1—are now in default or foreclosed.
…
Some of the people whose mortgages underpinned Mr. Paulson’s wager were themselves taking a gamble—that U.S. housing prices would continue to march upward, making it possible for them to eventually pay off loans they couldn’t afford.
The Wall Street Journal identified homeowners in the Abacus portfolio by taking the 90 bonds listed in a February 2007 Abacus pitchbook and matching them with court records, foreclosure listings, title records and loan servicing reports. The bonds contained nearly 500,000 mortgage loans.
One mortgage in the Abacus pool was held by Ms. Onyeukwu, a 43-year-old nursing-home assistant in Pittsburg, Calif. Ms. Onyeukwu already was under financial strain in 2006, when she applied to Fremont Investment & Loan for a new mortgage on her two-story, six-bedroom house in a subdivision called Highlands Ranch. With pre-tax income of about $9,000 a month from a child-care business, she says she was having a hard time making the $5,000 monthly payments on her existing $688,000 mortgage, which carried an initial interest rate of 9.05%.
Nonetheless, she took out an even bigger loan from Fremont, which lent her $786,250 at an initial interest rate of 7.55%—but that would begin to float as high as 13.55% two years later. She says the monthly payment on the new loan came to a bit more than $5,000.
She defaulted in early 2008 and was evicted from the house in early 2009.
Fremont didn’t respond to requests for comment.
…
Nonetheless, she took out an even bigger loan from Fremont, which lent her $786,250 at an initial interest rate of 7.55%—but that would begin to float as high as 13.55% two years later. She says the monthly payment on the new loan came to a bit more than $5,000.
That’s quite out there, even by bubble standards. The fact that any bank would make such a loan shows how perverted the system was. If her gross pay was $9k per month, that means almost her entire net pay went only towards the mortgage - and that was before the ARM adjustment!
P.S.:
Fremont didn’t respond to requests for comment.
I thought Fremont went belly up. Did they not? Assuming not - the fact that they’re still around hows just how perverted the system still is.
“Our clients always come first.”
Sounds like a fitting advertisement for a bordello.
Economic Agenda
Along with SEC, other investigators and suits may target Goldman Sachs
By Tomoeh Murakami Tse and Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 22, 2010
NEW YORK — As investigators in Massachusetts considered charging Wall Street firms for their role in the financial collapse, they focused on Goldman Sachs because it had bundled and sold the shoddiest of subprime mortgage loans, setting up the housing market for a greater fall by continuing to sell shaky securities even as other banks withdrew.
After discussions with the office of state Attorney General Martha Coakley (D), Goldman last year agreed to pay up to $60 million to end that investigation, the first major settlement involving Wall Street’s role in the subprime mortgage crisis.
“Goldman was particularly active with respect to facilitating the lending by two of the more notorious and unsound subprime lenders — Fremont and New Century,” Coakley said Wednesday. “Goldman was especially active with these companies in the latter stages of the subprime lending boom . . . when it should have been increasingly clear to any responsible person that the subprime loan pools underlying securitizations suffered serious problems.”
Even before the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Goldman last week, accusing it of creating a complex financial product designed to fail and selling it to unknowing investors, the firm had become a frequent target of investigators. In courts and in Congress, Goldman has been accused of a range of misdeeds, including manipulating oil prices and using taxpayer money for handsome bonuses.
The company has maintained that it did nothing improper in any of those cases. In the Massachusetts settlement, it admitted to no wrongdoing, and a spokesman said Goldman was never a leading issuer or underwriter of residential mortgage-backed securities. Yet, to many Goldman critics, the SEC lawsuit underscores their worst image of the firm as a cold bank that places its profit before anything else — client interests, customer needs and its obligation to society as a leading American corporation.
Although Goldman quickly agreed to settle the Massachusetts case, it is gearing up for a court battle with the SEC. The case, analysts said, challenges the heart of Goldman’s motto — “Our clients’ interests always come first” — and could set off a new wave of lawsuits against the firm.
“Anyone who’s ever done any investment through Goldman who’s lost a significant amount of money all the sudden starts to say, ‘Gee, I wonder if there was something else out there that they were doing, which they didn’t tell me about, which would have made me not want to invest?’ ” said Richard L. Scheff, chairman of the law firm Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads. “If I’m a person who’s lost money, why would I think it’s limited to this? You’re talking about someone’s duty to their clients. That’s the principle at issue here.”
Opening argument
The SEC case adds to a series of recent legal challenges. In 2008, Goldman agreed to pay tens of millions of dollars to settle allegations by the New York state attorney general, who argued that it misled investors about the safety of instruments known as auction-rate securities. Last year, several pension funds sued, charging the company’s directors with breach of duty in connection with outsize executive paydays; Goldman has said the suits lack merit.
Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin said Wednesday that he has been looking into whether weekly meetings held by Goldman’s traders and securities analysts — known within the firm as “huddles” — violated any laws. Federal authorities are also looking into the matter, first reported in the Wall Street Journal, which includes allegations that tips shared in the meeting then go to favored clients.
“The ultimate need of the company to show profit trumps the rights of customers,” Galvin said. “And that’s our problem. And that’s a recurring theme.” Goldman declined to comment.
In Washington, pressure is also growing. Reps. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) and Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.) urged the SEC this week to widen its investigation to include securities underwritten by Goldman and backed by American International Group, the insurer that received a massive federal bailout. “Should any of these transactions be found to include fraudulent conduct, any resulting contractual payments from AIG-issued credit-default swaps could be viewed as ill-gotten gains,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro.
…
Their cobweb site is still cached:
This is Google’s cache of http://www.fremontmortgage.net/. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on Apr 17, 2010 18:52:30 GMT. The current page could have changed in the meantime.
Our desire is to “pleasantly surprise” you with our lower rates and exceptional service. At FremontMortgage dot net when we say exceptional service we’re not just providing lip service, we’ll gladly stand by our commitment to you, our customer.
Our combined loan experience in our office exceeds 150 Years! We are approved with many wholesale mortgage lenders and banks throughout the country, many of whom you will be familiar with, offering lower rates on a wholesale basis to FremontMortgage.net than they would make available directly to you, the consumer. FremontMortgage dot net serves its mortgage customers by searching our database of lenders to provide them with the loan program best suited to meet their needs along with our most competitive interest rates.
By providing us with your information, FremontMortgage.net is able to search literally thousands of loan programs with a very large number of lenders to obtain you the lowest rate possible. Therefore, please take the time in completing our rate request form and our staff will contact you within 8 business hours. We look forward to communicating with you!
Click here to Apply Now or to Refinance
Home Page
About Refinancing
Application
Contact
=================================================
Here is the current page:
This account has been suspended.
Either the domain has been overused, or the reseller ran out of resources.
“Suspended domain” indeed:
http://www dot fremontmortgage dot net/
This account has been suspended.
Either the domain has been overused, or the reseller ran out of resources.
“…….reseller ran out of resources”
I like that one.
P.S. I used to regularly suggest (circa 2006) that Wall Street’s subprime mortgage lending kingpins were fueling money into the likes of Fremont, Ameriquest and New Century (this was back in 2006). An army of trolls showed up on this board to insist that there was no connection between Wall Street and the U.S. housing market, and that posters here were full of it.
Now it comes to light that Gollum was one of the key subprime mortgag lending kingpins. Who’d have thunk it?
Go ahead PB - name some names. We want names! OFF WITH THEIR EGOS!!!!
(Though I’m sure they’re gone from HBB by now. Trolls only seem to last so long before they give up.)
Interestingly enough, We’ve learned a lot about securitization since then. I seem to remember that Krugman didn’t understand the connection either and the so called shadow banking business.
I wonder how interconnected Freemont was to GS? Kind of thought Freemont was a shell corporation that was generating the bad loans with a one step deniability for GS.
Don’t think I’m letting the other investment banks off the hook either.
What? You mean it wasn’t the people who bought more house than they could afford?
But, but…
Well, I guess what I am suggesting is that Goldman Sachs, one of our nation’s largest and most powerful investment banks, was running a predatory lending scheme against our society’s most vulnerable, poor, poorly-educated and gullible individuals, then setting up sure-thing side bets to allow clients like John Paulson profit when these financially-engineered-to-fail lending schemes blew up. And this was all done under the understanding that former Goldman Sachs CEO turned Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson would bail out their bacon if the going got really rough.
This is merely a suggestion, not an accusation.
What? You mean it wasn’t the people who bought more house than they could afford?
Must it be either/or?
In this case, yes. As long as there are continuing accusations that the poor had any significant part in this mess, then yes.
Because the evidence has been showing time and time again it was engineered by Wall St. and the RE industry all along.
Who said anything about “the poor”?
I thought the statement was “people who bought more house than they could afford”. Or are my eyes deceiving me?
P.S. Personally - I find playing the “victim” card to be one of the most abhorrent things ever. People need to grow up and admit they made a mistake in buying into this crap. I’ve been there and done that, e.g. in the dot-com bubble. I generally don’t blame Webvan for me losing money, I blame myself for getting caught up in the hype.
I’m not trying to remove blame from Wall Street - they certainly are to blame as well. But so are greedy people who tried to make unearned money on real estate by leveraging to the hilt, flipping houses, etc.
“But so are greedy people who tried to make unearned money on real estate by leveraging to the hilt, flipping houses, etc.”
That’s quite a broad brush you’re painting with. While I abhor most “flippers”, some were indeed earning their money, putting a lot of hard labor as well as their own cash into dilapidated housing stock.
“Poor” or “bought more house than they can afford,” is the same accusation.
Yes, many folks made bad decisions and that’s their fault, but the CAUSE of all this was premeditation by Wall St. Period. The end.
THE BORROWERS DID NOT HOLD A GUN TO THE LOAN OFFICERS HEAD.
Does anybody still not get this? Anybody? Anybody? Bueller?
THE BORROWERS DID NOT HOLD A GUN TO THE LOAN OFFICERS HEAD.
LOL. No they didn’t. But in order to buy a house one has to actively seek one out, does one not? Last I checked there weren’t any door-to-door house salesmen, pushing their way into your front door if you opened it just a crack.
And DO NOT get me started on the “poor” = “bought more house than one can afford” crap. I live in Loudoun county, VA - the highest per capita county in the country. There are tons of foreclosures going on here, many that aren’t strategic walkways - I know of several that are involving people who make pretty darn good incomes - well above the national average.
I find it laughable that anyone would seriously believe placing bets against FB’s somehow affected their inability to pay back their loans, or caused the bubble to collapse.
To try to blame the bookie for the losses is almost sad..
Of course, if we begin with the premise that the game was fixed from the get-go, then ALL things are possible.
In fact, starting with that premise is an absolute requirement before any blame can be placed anywhere except on the borrowers themselves..
“To try to blame the bookie for the losses is almost sad.. ”
Joey is saying that Goldman Sachs is a bookie? Thanks for that analogy — it seems quite apt.
you’ve already got the blood sucking squid thing.. [ooohh shiver..]
Why would “bookie” interest you?
‘Why would “bookie” interest you?’
Because it is a strawman characterization which mistakenly labels as chance what is better explained as well planned and executed financial engineering by Big Hank.
An explanation which insists certain men must have god-like powers is no explanation.
An explanation which insists certain men must have god-like powers is no explanation.
But if one is doing God’s work does that not imply his power?
Well it’s nice to know that people didn’t lose their jobs when the bubble collapsed.
And that banks didn’t approve NINJA loans by the thousands.
Or that the many developers, often borrowing MILLIONS, didn’t have any problem repaying their loans from those 100sqft, $500,000 condos.
Oh wait…
ecofeco.. you mighta missed the point.
Suppose you knew a crazy drunk who you were sure would wrap his car around a tree sooner than later. And suppose an insurance company was willing to sell you a life insurance policy on that drunk for $1,000 a year. If he dies within a year, they pay you $1,000,000.
He does as you suspect.. swerves off some road, dies, and you get $1M.
—–
This guy Paulson bet money that the bubble would collapse.
He did it by buying, for a small amount, an insurance policy on MBS backed bonds. If the bonds “had an accident”– meaning FBs couldn’t pay the mortgage and the bonds fell in value — the insurance company paid Paulson for the “damages” (however much $$ the bonds lost in value).
People did default on their loans, the bonds fell in value and Pauslon was paid several $Billion.
Did you somehow cause the accident that killed the drunk? Did Paulson cause people to not pay their mortgages?
Neither one of you had a hand in what happened. All you did was place bets.
If Goldman and Paulson knew that clients were being lied to, being told that the products they were being sold were sound, that would probably constitute fraud.
neuromance.. What clients are you referring to?
Paulson had an independent hedge fund. His clients gave him their money to invest however he saw fit..
Hedge funds have lots of investment freedom because they are not bound by many regulations. Clients KNOW this and it’s why they invest that way. There are more opportunities to make money in a hedge fund than with highly regulated entities.
Paulson didn’t have to share information with clients about what he was doing with the money like a corporation does with it’s stock holders. Clients know the ropes before they invest. Either you trust the people running the fund or you don’t invest.
——
GS only brokered the deal. Paulson went to them and asked about structuring some credit default swaps. Goldman set things up between Paulson and companies like AIG (the insurer).
Goldman put a bundle of MBS-bonds together, and AIG figured out a reasonable premium payment to insure those bonds.
AIG believed the bonds were safe or they would never have agreed to insured them. They were not forced to insure them.
AIG did not think the housing bubble would collapse any time soon.. AIG believed property prices would rise forever, FBs could always refinance, and would never default on the mortgages.. and believed the value of the bonds would not decline.
—-
Paulson then paid that insurance premium (AIG made it’s money) and also paid GS a brokerage fee (GS made their money). That’s the extent of it. Who was lied to?
I don’t think anyone’s suggesting that the act of placing bets against the FBs affected their ability to pay the loans back. The informed dealmakers knew the loans were going to fail (hence the name “Liar loans”).
They just scammed people into believing that the loans would actually yield a positive cashflow, when they knew better.
Lenders separating themselves from repayment risk again at the core of this.
LOL
And Now People Are Saying Goldman Screwed Lloyds Banking Group In That Huge $30+ Billion Deal Last Year
Henry Blodget | Apr. 23, 2010, 7:08 AM
Warren Buffett Is Still Bullish On Goldman
Bankers in London are now bashing Goldman for screwing client Lloyds Banking Group in the world’s biggest financing last fall ($30+ billion).
Goldman was both an underwriter of the financing AND a buyer of the deal. And some folks are muttering that Goldman-the-buyer changed the terms at the last minute, thus hosing Goldman client Lloyds…
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-and-now-people-are-saying-goldman-screwed-client-lloyds-banking-group-in-that-huge-30-billion-deal-last-year-2010-4#ixzz0lvcVC3LP
Damn! Isn’t there some way to blame it on the liberals and poor people?!
Are you suggesting the loan officer put a gun to their heads when they signed the mortgage papers? If not, then what are you suggesting?
When you aren’t good at math (or are young/inexperienced and haven’t dealt with the sharks before, or both), having a “suit”/”expert”/”professional” sitting across a desk from you, and swearing on a stack of Bibles that “you can afford this, and you can sell it for $100-200K (tax free) more than what you paid in two years” can be pretty persuasive. Especially when house prices are skyrocketing, and your take-home income is stagnating or going down.
We used to regulate this stuff, understanding that typical J6P tends to fall under the hucksters spell and doesn’t understand math, markets or contract law. But that was before the new paradigm, letting crooks buy the government, under the banner of “deregulation”.
We try to “regulate” the behavior of child molesters. I don’t see why banksters should get a free pass.
Maybe the best regulation is to not actually reward the suit when J6P defaults on his loan, but instead allow him to take the financial hit that’s coming to him. If the suit is really so smart, he’ll then figure out that it’s not financially prudent to be making loans that people can’t afford.
To add to that - you can try and handcuff the suit all you want - he’ll always find a way to wriggle out, as long as there’s a big $ floating in front of him. Instead you have to take away the $, e.g. by not providing ultra-low interest rates, and bailouts if things go bad.
Green Shoots, are you saying the buyers put a gun to the loan officers head and forced them to approve the loans? You know, the folks who the LAST AND FINAL WORD on loan approvals?
Ye… ah.
The banks, Goldman Sachs, and other large financial entities merely offered some innovative products and services. They can’t possibly be to blame.
The best cons are always “innovative.”
* The Wall Street Journal
* BUSINESS
* APRIL 20, 2010
‘This Is Lloyd … Maintain Focus’
Blankfein Voicemail Looks to Bolster Morale; Putting the SEC’s Case ‘in Context’
…
The following is a transcript of Mr. Blankfein’s voicemail that was reviewed by Dow Jones Newswires:
“This is Lloyd on Sunday in New York.
…
I will repeat what you have heard me say many times in the past: Goldman Sachs has never condoned and would never condone inappropriate activity by any of our people. On the contrary, we would be the first to condemn it and take immediate and appropriate action. Our responsibility as a financial intermediary requires it and our commitment to integrity and the firm’s business principles demand it.
We will continue to keep you posted with information about this matter. Tonight we will be sending you a summary that you may share with your clients. In the meantime, be assured that our global team, including the Board of Directors and the Management Committee, is working diligently to address the complaint with the facts.
To that end, in the next few weeks, Goldman Sachs will have the opportunity to appear before Congress and discuss our role and participation in the mortgage market more broadly. We look forward to discussing our strong record of prudent risk management.
As you return to work on Monday morning, I ask that you maintain the level of focus on our clients that is at the heart of Goldman Sachs’ success over the past 140 years.
We have faced challenges before and our people have always responded through their skills, talent and focus on our clients. We will do that now, and in the process, re-affirm everything that defines Goldman Sachs.”
Apparently the Buffett coattail effect can work for you and it can work against you.
* The Wall Street Journal
* BUSINESS
* APRIL 23, 2010
Probe Turns to Buffett Deal
Government Suspects Goldman Director Told Galleon of Berkshire’s 2008 Investment
By SUSAN PULLIAM
A Goldman Sachs Group Inc. director tipped off a hedge-fund billionaire about a $5 billion investment in Goldman by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. before a public announcement of the deal at the height of the 2008 financial crisis, a person close to the situation says.
The revelation marks a significant turn in the government’s case against Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge-fund titan at the center of the largest insider-trading case in a generation. Mr. Buffett’s investment in Goldman in September 2008 was a watershed moment in the financial crisis. One of the world’s savviest investors, Mr. Buffett helped allay fears about the instability of the financial system by backing America’s leading investment bank.
The new disclosure stems from a government examination into whether the Goldman director, Rajat Gupta, gave inside information to Mr. Rajaratnam. In a court filing March 22, the government alleged that Mr. Rajaratnam or “co-conspirators” traded on non-public information about Goldman. In a filing last week, the government provided more details about the information it alleges Mr. Rajaratnam received, including advance notice about the Buffett transaction with Goldman.
…
Dumb question of the day:
How many tentacles do great vampire squids possess?
Twelve
Oh.
“In the United States, the Federal Reserve Districts also known as the Federal Reserve Banks are the twelve banking districts created by the Federal Reserve Act.”
So if Gollum goes down, will they take the Fed under as well?
So if Gollum goes down, will they take the Fed under as well?
I would say yes. However if that happens it’ll be as part of a complete restructuring of the U.S. financial and probably political systems. And most likely associated with a significant war of some kind. Not something we want to live through.
In other words - if Gollum was to truly “go down”, they’d take virtually the rest of the world with them.
Not that I’m saying they shouldn’t go down, just saying I think they won’t, short of complete breakdown. They (and a few of their cohorts) are the Roman Empire of our day. The Roman Empire eventually went down, but only over a long period, and not without a lot of pain, both within and without.
“However if that happens it’ll be as part of a complete restructuring of the U.S. financial and probably political systems. And most likely associated with a significant war of some kind. Not something we want to live through.”
On that optimistic note, let’s all keep a prayer in our hearts that Gollum can continue to maintain the peace by doing God’s work.
The Roman Empire eventually went down, but only over a long period, and not without a lot of pain, both within and without.
True but we have a sort of fake’n'fraud, ponzi based economy nowadays that is communicated electronically and instantly.
Could a collapse be overnight OR could the collapse ALWAYS be “contained” as it was in the fall of 08?
Could a collapse be overnight OR could the collapse ALWAYS be “contained” as it was in the fall of 08?
Good question, and one I don’t have the answer to. All I can say is that even though we have the mechanisms in place for almost-instantaneous collapse, we also apparently have mechanisms in place for almost-instantaneous collapse-prevention, e.g. via 11th-hour bailouts like TARP.
Problem is that’s kind of like an almost endless supply of new cards to prop up an about-to-fall house of cards. The fall is prevented, but not at the cost of just adding more and more weight to the house. We’re approaching infinite-falling-force vs. infinite-propping-force. The end result will be very unpredictable.
Having just gone through my 6th hurricane (Ike, 2008) I can tell you that most people have NO idea just how fragile our “superpower” really is.
It could EASILY happen overnight.
Easily.
I guess the question becomes, “What’s the minimum standard of living Americans will accept before they they become significantly disorderly?”
just enough, but not too many. A Goldilocks amount, if you will. Tentacles also regenerate quickly after SEC “slap-on-the-tentacle” during fake inquisitions.
Lee Press On Tentacles!
Ohhhh. Tentacles. N-T. Big Difference.
Wins the coffee on the screen and keyboard award for the week PB!
“Slap on the tentacle”…priceless.
Regional Banks Bemoan Lack of Lending
NEW YORK—For large regional banks, the bread-and-butter business of lending remains challenging.
The loan books at a string of regional banks reporting first-quarter results continued to shrink. The banks’ earnings from the lending business hardly fared any better.
Bankers continue to bemoan the lack of what they consider credit-worthy borrowers taking out loans that would lift lending income and brighten the revenue outlook for future quarters. Borrowers aren’t even doing much to tap their existing lines of credit.
The enervated condition of regional banks, and their resulting lackluster earnings, stand in contrast to the buoyant profits earned by big banks.
Gee, what a surprise.
That in a nutshell is what this is all about folks - elimination of the competition.
I wonder if I’ll live to see the day when there are just two single megabanks left in the world - locked in an epic battle. That’ll be interesting! Or perhaps they’ll just strike a deal to split the spoils of their victory.
Too bad, so sad. The banks are cutting off their noses to spite their faces. Loan interest income is the life-blood of blood-sucking banks. How ironic.
Gee, when you have a harder time passing the loan off to somebody else and you decide that you want to make sure that the borrower can actually repay the loan, you have a smaller pool of borrowers. Who knew?
Stop BeeMoaning and just up my CC limit a few thousand…I’m good for it…It’s getting to the point I really need a good laptop.
———————-
Bankers continue to bemoan the lack of what they consider credit-worthy borrowers taking out loans
Bankers continue to bemoan the lack of what they consider credit-worthy borrowers taking out loans
Maybe the credit-worthy people are paying cash. More than a few of them here on the HBB…
It wasn’t so long ago that I posted “watch the health of your regional banks”
I sometimes play the role of Doctor on HBB and I know these things.
Oops…Drats!!!.. killed another.
Can I have a new one and start over ?
Regional banks loan money to real companies to finance inventory, equipment and Accounts Receivable. With business levels off by 30 to 50% there is not much demand for bank loans.
Money Center banks on the other hand are making money hand over fist, borrowing from the fed (or taking in deposits) at <.5% interest and investing in Tbills at 3.75%, or pumping up the stock market every afternoon.
There used to be a standing joke about the bankers’ rule of 3’s. It went pay 3% interest, make loans with 3% spread, and be at the first tee by 3:00. That’s way too complicated for todays bankers. They can have the days business wrapped up in fifteen minutes or so, including programming the computers for the afternoon market save.
Sorry for the test post. Just got a new computer so I’m finding the bugs in Win7. Amazed I made XP last for a decade in my household.
LOL, I still have XP, just glad I never got sucked in by Vista. Anything we should know about 7, in your opinion?
When I got 7, the initial “updates” sometimes took 12 hours, so be prepared.
In my case, the Internet Explorer update failed and Explorer would crash, sometimes after 10 mintues, maybe after an hour. (I have broadband, so the connection itself was fine.) Very frustrating. During one session of Explorer, I managed to download Mozilla Firefox before Explorer crashed. Haven’t used Explorer since.
Other than that, 7 is a little nicer than XP. And the icons are kinda cartoony.
I always wait about 6 months before adopting a new OS to avoid all the bugs….
My Dell Inspiron 560 arrived yesterday. Whatever version of Win7 that Dell uses appears to contain quite a few patches over the initial build, as my initial update was only about 450 MB. At my connection that took about 15 minutes to download.
IMO, 7 is a great OS. Vista was a POS.
So far so good on Win7. I’ve even been able to install and run Eudora 7.1 on the machine! The trick is to use a different folder to install Eudora as the default directory is now data-write-protected by Win7 as a security measure.
It’s like the joke about the great odd-numbered Beethoven symphonies…..
Every other release of Windows “actually works”….Win 3.0, Win 98, Win XP, Win 7. The dogs are Win 2, Win 95, Win ME, and Win Vista.
The problem with adopting a 64 bit OS is that none of your older devices will work anymore because the device vendors refuse to write new drivers…..my 5 year old Cannon laserprinter is now a boat anchor.
Install VMWare workstation on your 64 bit machine. The you can install nested versions of Windows (say XP) to run your legacy stuff. XP runs inside a window on you desktop. If you have enough RAM you can run several Virtual Machines at the same time. Plust you can take snapshots of the machines state and restore them in seconds (beats the hell out of running ghost).
I highly recommend this tool.
Whats the advantage of Windows anymore for home use?
I mean why wouldn’t anyone get a Mac just for security and stability?
For 10 years now, I’ve never had a virus, spyware or whatever it is Windows gets.
Whats the advantage of Windows anymore for home use?
Main thing for me is that’s what’s used at work. It stinks to learn a complete additional OS, and the tools involved. E.g. I use Excel extensively, both at work and home. I’m not sure what the Mac equivalent is, but either way I’m not crazy about investing the time to learn both.
Colorado,
One problem is that I don’t have a Win XP license for my new machine so virtualization wouldn’t help me.
Rio,
Macs cost considerably more and tend to get “planned-obsolete” quicker. I made my old Dell 4300 last 10 years. Try getting 10 years out of a Mac.
Well if everyone started using Macs instead of Windows, Macs would just become the big target and you would start getting viruses, spyware, etc. The evil computer geniuses go after the biggest targets usually.
for me it’s been the far larger software variety available for windows.
It’s like the joke about the great odd-numbered Beethoven symphonies…..Every other release of Windows “actually works”….
Star Trek movies are the same. At least so I’m told. I gave up after Star Trek 2 Kaaaaaahn and Star Trek 4 Save the Whales.
i ran Win ME for years… It was a fully mature win95/98 with zero updates available. Granted it was a bit primitive.. and somewhat of a resource hog.. but it never gave me trouble.
Of course everyone else hated it and had no qualms about expounding on how bad ME was and how dumb I was for using it.
A lowly bubble-renter never caught as much flack…
Every other release of Windows “actually works”….Win 3.0, Win 98, Win XP, Win 7. The dogs are Win 2, Win 95, Win ME, and Win Vista.
I’m still running W2K on a Pentium 3, and it’s solid as a rock. Win98 was a horrible POS in comparison, so your rule doesn’t work. Laugh at me if you must, but I got sick and tired of the upgrade treadmill. This thing does what I need, and hasn’t cost me a dime in many years.
You can use Windows in addition to the Mac OS. Not at the same time, obviously. With Apple BootCamp software you select which OS you want during startup.
You need to buy Windows software to do this. Everything else needed is already there.
I spend 99.9% of my time on the Apple platform. I only use Windows when I need to use a Windows only software (AutoCad, etc.).
My HP 220C printer came down the mountain with Moses and it stays attached to my old XP desktop until I know that the new the people and that new Golden Calf thingy can behave themselves.
D-FW commercial foreclosures up 63%
Dallas Business Journal
Commercial property foreclosures in North Texas have climbed 63 percent so far this year, with land and apartment complexes among the hardest hit.
So far in 2010, 1,393 foreclosure postings were filed on commercial properties in Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton Counties. This compares to 857 for the same period last year, according to Addison-based Foreclosure Listing Service.
The number of postings for land jumped 73 percent to 311, and apartment postings jumped 44 percent to 191. Office building postings increased 21 percent to 116. Postings for miscellaneous commercial buildings — which include restaurants, hotels, auto dealerships and funeral homes — surged a whopping 139 percent, to 596.
Ouch. That’s going to leave a mark!
Dallas has always been a little too proud of their RE. As in, overpriced.
Hyperinflation Watch – April 20, 2010
Hyperinflation Looms – The Dollar Arrives at Its ‘Havenstein Moment’
April 20, 2010 – There is an interesting article in Canada’s Globe & Mail about the lack of growth in the US money supply. Ignoring for the moment that the quantity of dollars in circulation is significantly underreported, it observes:
“The money supply in the United States is doing something that almost never happens: it’s shrinking, after taking into account inflation. Similar episodes in the past have usually been scary times for investors. Declines in the amount of money in circulation have coincided with recessions, and some analysts looking at the current trend say it is a harbinger of trouble. Despite signs that the U.S. is in recovery, they worry that the money supply numbers indicate the economy remains vulnerable to the feared double-dip downturn, or is close to experiencing deflation.”
I agree with the first half of this proposition about a renewed economic downturn, but not the second. In fact, rather than deflation, the dollar is moving ever closer to hyperinflation.
How is deflation possible when crude oil prices have more than doubled since their post-Lehman crash low? Or more broadly, how can there be deflation when the price index of 19 commodities compiled by the Commodity Research Bureau rose 47% during this same period? It cannot of course, which means there is no deflation.
The ongoing decline in the purchasing power of the dollar has been masked by wealth destruction as over-priced assets like houses fall back to realistic levels. There is also the problem that the mainstream media broadcasts only the government calculated CPI, which is an inaccurate measure of the dollar’s eroding purchasing power.
As John Williams of http://www.shadowstats.com notes: “Over the decades, the BLS [Bureau of Labor Statistics] has altered the meaning of the CPI from being a measure of the cost of living needed to maintain a constant standard of living, to something that no longer reflects the constant-standard-of-living concept.” John reports that his “SGS-Alternate Consumer Inflation Measure, which reverses gimmicked changes to official CPI reporting methodologies back to 1980, rose to about 9.5%” in March from a year ago.
http://www.fgmr.com/hyperinflation-looms-dollar-arrives-at-its-havenstein-moment.html
“How is deflation possible when crude oil prices have more than doubled since their post-Lehman crash low? Or, more broadly, how can there be deflation when the price index of 19 commodities compiled by the Commodity Research Bureau rose 47% during this same period? It cannot of course, which means there is no deflation.”
Nor is there any money.
Prices can go where they like but if there is no money to buy then things won’t get sold.
There is money. Less of course, but there is. So much so at the connected banks that they have nothing better to do with it than play all night at the commodities casino. This makes food cost you and me more. It just serves to thin the herd.
Combo - you’re generally a fairly sensible person - please don’t go hyperbolic on us.
Crude oil consumption, for instance, is up over the past year - not down, despite prices going from $50 to $80+.
“U.S liquid fuels consumption declined by 810,000 bbl/d (4.2 percent) to 18.7 million bbl/d in 2009, the fourth consecutive annual decline.”
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/steo/pub/
That’s 2009 vs. 2008. I’m talking about current - 2010 vs. 2009.
E.g. refinery inputs (crude oil consumption) are up, from 14.516 bbl/day last year to 14.813 bbl/day now, as of last week.
P.S. This is all U.S. data. Prices of course are determined by world consumption, not U.S. consumption. I don’t know where a good and current source of world stats is, but from articles I believe world consumption is actually up even more than in the U.S.
From the same website: “Distillate fuel consumption declined by 310,000 bbl/d (8.0 percent) in 2009 …”
This year’s domestic fuel consumption is coming up from a depressed base, which explains the miniscule year-over-year increase. But overall domestic consumption is down as compared to previous years.
“P.S. This is all U.S. data. Prices are determined by world consumption, not U.S. consumption.”
World consumption is up, hence the price is up. But domestic consumption is down for the same reason - the price is up. Which goes back to the theme of my original post: There is no money - at least not in the U.S.
China’s consumption is WAY up, but they don’t have problems with getting the money to pay higher prices because over the years we smart Americans sent to them a trillion-or-so U.S. dollars.
Oh, I almost forgot, cash is king. Those who have the cash get to buy the oil. Those without the cash get to learn to do without.
It’s called stagflation. And it’s real.
“How is deflation possible when crude oil prices have more than doubled since their post-Lehman crash low? Or more broadly, how can there be deflation when the price index of 19 commodities compiled by the Commodity Research Bureau rose 47% during this same period? It cannot of course, which means there is no deflation.”
in the south we call it…”pissing on your leg and telling you it’s raining”.
Not necessarily disagreeing with this guy, but the article boils down to saying the Fed is going to continue printing money. No surprise there. What we need are predictions about the “Cantillon effects” of the coming inflation– how prices for various goods and services will increase at different rates.
Senate panel: Ratings agencies rolled over for Wall Street
WASHINGTON — A Senate panel investigating the causes of the nation’s financial crisis on Thursday unveiled evidence that credit-ratings agencies knowingly gave inflated ratings to complex deals backed by shaky U.S. mortgages in exchange for lucrative fees.
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will hold a detailed hearing on Friday, where its chairman, Sen. Carl Levin , D- Mich. , will introduce e-mail records in which executives from Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service acknowledge compromising the integrity of ratings to win business from big Wall Street firms.
“They did it for the big fees they got,” Levin told reporters on Thursday after outlining the broad strokes of what he’d pursue Friday when he puts current and former ratings agency officials on the hot seat.
The documents to be released Friday confirm what a McClatchy investigation revealed in October — that pressure from top ratings-agency executives to retain market share and the fees that it brought meant that ratings on complex deals were malleable. Some fees were as high as $1.4 million .
Investors trusted ratings to give them guides to the quality of financial products such as bonds, but many of the bonds rated as top-quality in the recent crisis turned out to be junk. The fallout was a housing collapse that triggered a global financial crisis.
“They did it for the big fees they got,”
Well I am shocked! Shocked, I tell you.
Seems like a new ratings agency model is needed. Isn’t it kind of a conflict of interest to be paid by the entity that you’re rating?
In My New World, I plan to ensure that ratings agencies are only paid by the entities that use them - i.e. the people actually buying the investments, not the ones selling them.
“Seems like a new ratings agency model is needed. Isn’t it kind of a conflict of interest to be paid by the entity that you’re rating?”
It’s called the competitive model. Three big ratings firms controlling the entire market is a recipe for collusion and financial catastrophe.
P.S. The problem you mention is further illustrated in the case of businesses paying accounting firms for tax auditing services. This is a variety of principle-agent problem where the agent (ratings agency, accounting firm, etc) which is hired to conduct an independent assessment faces a built in conflict of interest, as the principle who hired them can summarily dismiss the agent if they dislike the assessment.
Historical reference: Enron
Exactly - the “independent” accounting is also what I had in mind.
Shouldn’t the entity that’s actually a customer of the accounting or ratings results be the sole one paying for the audit?
In My New World, that’s how it’ll be.
If you’re not willing to pay for an audit - well then Caveat Emptor, and Vestri Culpa.
“In My New World, that’s how it’ll be.”
In My New World, managers of firms whose business model is to screw almost everybody for personal gain, including many of their “clients,” will enjoy a few years in prison.
ensure that ratings agencies are only paid by the entities that use them - i.e. the people actually buying the investments, not the ones selling them.
Seems like a better approach. Call me cynical — I could foresee a scenario where I as the buyer requests products that are AAA, however, Moody’s is running low on AAA and uses the Wall Street model to package junk into AAA.
In My New World, the customers who pay for Moody’s services would then stop using Moody’s. My New World also precludes a corrupt SEC that encourages ratings agencies oligarchies, and provides a false sense of security that said agencies are actually being sufficiently monitored.
(No pun intended)
“Hey!!!…we were on a Porn break here !”
“Investors trusted ratings to give them guides to the quality of financial products such as bonds, but many of the bonds rated as top-quality in the recent crisis turned out to be junk. The fallout was a housing collapse that triggered a global financial crisis.”
Why would anyone need to rely on an honest, professional, Judeo–Christian, financial analyst to size up a Strawberry Picker’s ability to service a $700k mortgage?
Investors trusted ratings
This whole thing was about how to get conservative investors pension funds and states/cities to part with their money.
Is this a case of implausible deniability?
The Wall Street Journal
* BUSINESS
* APRIL 23, 2010, 12:59 P.M. ET
Moody’s Analyst: Didn’t Know of Paulson Role in Abacus
By FAWN JOHNSON
WASHINGTON—Moody’s Corp. analysts weren’t aware that a financial product from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was in part created by a hedge fund that also was betting against it, a former analyst told a Senate panel.
Former Team Managing Director of Moody’s Structured Derivatives Products Group Eric Kolchinsky was running the division within Moody’s that rated Abacus, the mortgage-backed financial product at the center of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s complaint against Goldman.
Mr. Kolchinsky told the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that neither he nor his staff were aware that the hedge fund Paulson and Co., which helped create the Abacus, was betting against it.
“It’s something that I would have wanted to know,” Mr. Kolchinsky said. “It just changes the whole dynamic of the structure.”
Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D., Mich.) said credit-rating firms have been influenced by Wall Street firms in their analysis of securities, “and they did it for the money.”
Credit-rating firms are paid by Wall Street firms to rate their products, which impacts their judgment, said Sen. Levin. “It’s like one of the parties in court paying the judge’s salary,” he said at the hearing.
New documents from the committee’s inquiry shows the tense relationship between credit-ratings firms and companies like Goldman Sachs as they structured risky deals like the one featured in the SEC’s fraud allegations against the investment bank.
The committee will hold a hearing next week focusing solely on Goldman Sachs.
Hmmmmmm,
Maybe the phrase “I can’t recall” will become in vogue.
Palm Beach County home sales leap 23 percent
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 11:27 a.m. Thursday, April 22, 2010
Florida’s existing home sales soared in March with the beginning of the spring buying season and an expiring tax credit spurring a 24 percent increase in purchases compared to the same time last year.
March sales figures, which were released Thursday by the Florida Realtors, were expected to grow compared to a weak February market and because of the subsidy.
In Palm Beach County, single-family home re-sales grew 23 percent in March compared to the same time in 2009, and were up 51 percent compared to February.
Treasure Coast sales jumped 21 percent last month over March 2009, and increased 31 percent compared to February.
Unlike the first round of the tax credit, which buoyed fall sales as the initial Nov. 30 cut-off loomed, there’s no talk this time of an extension. An up to $6,500 tax credit is also available for some homeowners.
Palm Beach County’s median sales price has jumped around in the lower-to-mid $200,000 range all year, but increased 8 percent in March to $246,100, compared to March last year.
The median sales price in the Treasure Coast for March was $107,500, down 9 percent from last March but up 11 percent compared to February.
“The recovery has been fragile, but we’ve actually seen shortages of homes in certain price ranges in some areas,” said Walter Molony, spokesman for the National Association of Realtors.
Kaitlin Riceputo has been looking since February for a home in Palm Beach Gardens or Jupiter in $150,000 to $170,000 price range. She was hoping to earn the tax credit, but with one week left, she’s doubtful it will happen. While short sales are abundant, they aren’t likely to close by June 30, and other homes she’s seen in her price range are in poor condition.
“Unless something comes up and a miracle happens, it looks like we won’t make it,” said Riceputo, 21, whose sister and father are Realtors. “It’s just frustrating.”
Riceputo might be able to make up for the loss of the $8,000 by taking advantage of lower prices after it expires.
Some economists believe sales and prices will drop as those who hurried to earn the credit work through the system.
Brad Hunter, chief economist for consulting firm Metrostudy in Palm Beach Gardens, said he expects banks to unload more foreclosures onto the market in the coming year _ a move that will increase supply and drop prices.
“Any time there’s more supply, there’s a downward pressure on prices,” Hunter said. “I think we’ll see them come down a little bit further, but it will vary by area.”
“Hunter said. “I think we’ll see them come down a little bit further”
For sale
8746 Crater Ter West Palm Beach, FL 33403
$35,000 3 Bed, 2 Bath | 1,404 Sq Ft | MLS #R3070969
Last sale
Location Address: 8746 CRATER TER
Municipality: UNINCORPORATED
Parcel Control Number: 00-43-42-19-04-000-0251
Subdivision: PARKWAY VILLAGE
Official Records Book: 20305 Page: 2 Sale Date: May-2006
Owner InformationName: GAUDINO MAURIZIO &
Mailing Address: 301 CAMELLA ST
PALM BEACH GARDENS FL 33410 4812
Sales Information
Sales Date Book/Page Price Sale Type Owner
May-2006 $202,000 WARRANTY DEED GAUDINO MAURIZIO &
Sis and dad are realtors. Which means she has been told her entire life that renter = loser. No wonder she is itching to buy at 21.
Ha! That’s funny. I though the stupid one was the lady who sold my parents their new condo and got about $1,500 commission on it after about 9 months of work. I give her credit for being hard working, but if you add up all the time she spent working on the sale, I would think Chinese factory workers would make more an hour then she did.
Its that agent’s own fault for accepting the listing priced at wishing price.
From USA today “Consumers more optomistic”
“Cheryl Stewart got laid off a year ago, so she and
her husband slowed their spending. Recently, she
started buying clothes and redecorating her
daughter’s room, and is preparing to buy furniture.
She’s on a budget, but the Baltimore mother of two
says though she is still not working, she’s simply
tired of “denying myself for so long.”
And the game goes on, the game goes on!!
“she is still not working, she’s simply
tired of “denying myself for so long.”
Not surprising, “we” have been trained for decades to consume, no matter what.
I spoke with a fellow yesterday, who I know is all but tapped out. His 32 year old daughter needs/whats a new car, he is going out on a limb to get it for her. Said… I have to take advantage of all the good deals out there. Sad part is, he thinks he is sticking it to the car dealer with his “hard” bargaining.
Our system is 70+% consumer based and they/we have been well indoctrinated.
There will ALWAYS be people willing to borrow their way to the poor house. And from this, it looks like there are still people willing to lend them the money.
Billy Joel once sung that being 21 y.o. is too old for your mom to still make your bed, isn’t 32 y.o. too old for daddy to buy you a car?
Oh, that’s right - she’s considered a dependent until 26 now - so I guess it’s all relative.
Oh, that’s right - she’s considered a dependent until 26 now
Some time ago, I questioned how “socialist” programs come into existence: welfare, Social Security, Medicare. Was it the government leading the way to pander for votes, or was government responding to an already existing bad situation? Maybe we could use this as a test case since it just happened. Did millions of young adults suddenly become lazy and start begging for the right to live off of dad’s health care plan because they were too lazy to get a job? I don’t believe so. 30 years ago, these young adults would have had jobs with at least some form of catastrophic coverage themselves.
But what jobs are there now? All the unskilled and semi-skilled labor has been outsourced/insourced/automated, and any sort of knowledge job requires years more of training. (Somebody yesterday said that kids today have to learn 30-50 more years of history, and 30 years more of technology.*) Who’s going to support the youngsters through all that training? So yes, they pretty much ARE dependents until they can learn enough to employ or support themselves. I don’t think government is being a nanny — they are just trying to adjust to this new reality.
——–
*Clearly we need to do something about the school system. The smart kids can probably learn all the new material so that they are trained by the time they are, say, 22 instead of 26, but you have to identify them and start early. That’s not going to happen as long as you put all kids of different abilities in the same classrooms. It makes me wonder if we should bring back the old European model, where they test kids when they’re 8-12 and put them into tracks based on ability.
I’m definitely seeing this. Colleges are spewing out graduates, but few, even those with “hard” majors, are finding good jobs (there’s a reason why everyone is hopping onto the healthcare bandwagon). Many end up working in the retail and hospitality industry, and this has been going on for some time now. The days when big employers did wholesale hiring on campus are long over. They’re doing that offshore now.
“It makes me wonder if we should bring back the old European model, where they test kids when they’re 8-12 and put them into tracks based on ability.”
I’m not so sure that works well anymore. I have a friend in Germany who teaches in a recently created program for students who were put on the “blue collar” track and now are getting additional education so they can get a higher skilled job or perhaps some university.
From what she says, the apprenticeships and trade jobs they once would have gone into are scarce there now. They are also competing with immigrants from the eastern parts of the EU who will gladly do many jobs, such as truck driving, at significantly lower wages.
“*Clearly we need to do something about the school system. The smart kids can probably learn all the new material so that they are trained by the time they are, say, 22 instead of 26, but you have to identify them and start early. That’s not going to happen as long as you put all kids of different abilities in the same classrooms. It makes me wonder if we should bring back the old European model, where they test kids when they’re 8-12 and put them into tracks based on ability.”
this would mean accepting that not all are equal and some are smarter (more gifted at least in some areas) than others, which in turn means that some are STUPIDER (less gifted) than other which is politically incorrect therefore it will never happen
Part of the problem may be institutional. From what I understand, a student can’t declare himself independent (for financial aid purposes) until 24! So, you can’t take a year off, bum around a bit, work in a bar, get a license in another state and become your own person now? That’s nonsense.
I did that stuff … but by the time I went back to school, getting loans and Pell grants, I was already 24.
Never going to happen as long as teacher unions maintain the power they currently have.
If you want to see a good example of entrenched school union mentality, watch the Jamie Oliver show. It’s about a Brit chef who tries to change the school lunches in a W. VA town. Instead of feeding the kids frozen chicken nuggets and fries that have nothing but preservatives, he tries to get meals with fresh vegetables, pasta, lean meat, etc on the menu.
The people against? The unionized lunch ladies. The reason they’re against is because instead of taking out the frozen fries and nuggets, microwaving for 10 minutes, they now have to actually prepare meals from scratch. And that means actually working. And we can’t possibly have that.
And you may very well be right, Oxide. It might just be a case of adapting to a new reality versus the gov’t being a nanny. Either way, the extension of dependent status to 26 should be seen for what it is: a clear and unmistakable sign that the standard of living in America is on the skids.
There’s a fine line between coping with reality and complacency. How much further can this society fall back? How late can one enter the workforce and how early will they be forced to leave it? Can workers with a career life expectancy of 15 years support the consumption necessary to keep the ponzconomy alive?
Some time ago, I questioned how “socialist” programs come into existence: welfare, Social Security, Medicare. Was it the government leading the way to pander for votes, or was government responding to an already existing bad situation?…
30 years ago, these young adults would have had jobs with at least some form of catastrophic coverage themselves….But what jobs are there now?
This hits the nail on the head. BINGO. This is why a person like me, (an independent who has voted Republican and Democratic in my life, a business owner and an entrepreneur (and I can cook)) wants a single payer system that keeps doctors and hospitals private. (Something like Canada)
The right has NO ANSWERS for this issue. NONE. ZERO. NADA. I’ve provided health-care to workers. I had a private plan for 20 years. I’ve been there and I know of what I speak.
The current private, joke, lying, cheating, health-care system in the USA is a threat to entrepreneurial capitalism, the economy and job formation. It also sucks the life out of people.
Other than that, I don’t like it either.
“now have to actually prepare meals from scratch. And that means actually working. And we can’t possibly have that.”
I used to go with a trained cook who hated restaurant work because he said all they did was add water to mixes, heat up etc. Finally he ended up at a frat house where he could plan and cook his own meals & loved it.
I am also a fan of the european school model. I think we need to come to the realization that being PC has ultimately hurt the nation. Kids can’t fail anymore now there is only “deferred success”. Failing is also a learning experience. Oh well but I digress..
Funny thing happened to me though. When I was in middle school I took one of those apptitude tests. The test was supposed to let me know what job I would be best suited for. This would help me determine if I should go through regular high school or Vo-tech. Vo-tech was offered in New Jersey at the time (mid 90s). Anyways, I got told that the job for me was a truck driver. I didn’t take the Vo-tech option and went through high school and college etc. I wound up being a professional engineer and I love my job. I also found out that I get tunnel vision while driving through a company testing program. Soo to sum it up I would have been a horrible truck driver.
I am also a fan of the european school model.
In Europe - there is near universal school choice. One of the reason their students do better - poorly performing schools go out of business.
In America - poorly performing schools get more state money and union teachers demand fatter pensions…
Billy Joel once sung that being 21 y.o. is too old for your mom to still make your bed, isn’t 32 y.o. too old for daddy to buy you a car?
Unfortunately Daddy won’t have Jack to fall back on before long.
Edge, Wmbz
Buying and loaning are two different things…..i was almost 30 when an idiot driver was trying to pass on the right as i was making a right turn… I had no choice but to ask the bank of mom and dad for a loan…which i paid off in a little over a year. That is how our family operated….loaning instead of giving
Passing you on the right while you were making a right turn?
Where you turning from the left lane?
Gee Wiz……. denying yourself is just such a frickin’ sacrifice these days. Oh now I understand….. You’re entitled to weigh 300lbs, a Chevy SLOBurban, a 6 bedroom stucco-box POS, 4 big macs for breakfast while you’re fat heathen kids throw rocks at the passing cars.
Welcome to 2005.
His 32 year old daughter needs/whats a new car
Shouldn’t she be bugging her husband for that?
Socially and culturally speaking, we are very much in uncharted waters. Everything such people have experienced has taught them to expect a speedy return to good times.
Sometimes, however, experience can be one’s worst enemy. Time will tell. Obviously the depths of this event have not changed this one’s expectations, but the passage of time still might.
Duration, duration, duration.
Welcome to Costco I love you…
Welcome to Costco I love you…
Ha!
‘Generation Y’ faces some steep financial hurdles
They’re weighed down by debt, lack of savings
www [DOT] usatoday.com/printedition/news/20100423/1agenxx.art.htm
Nothing much new in this USA today piece but this quote is so good it needs to be shared:
“The real shock was on our wedding day, when we realized that we were $104,000 in debt,” Frank says.
Reminds me of a 26yo co-worker stuck on the howmuchamonth hampster wheel that eats takeout for breakfast and lunch every day, spends $80 a month on her phone, and wonders why she never has any money… the type who will spend 1000’s of hours planning for a “wedding” but zero hours planning for a “marriage”
And saves ZERO in the 401K, even if there is a great company match.
$80 is reasonable for a phone plan, assuming she’s got data.
Ok Eddie.
Eddie part deux’s comment adds nothing to the discourse.
The purpose of posting this quote is to ask what the F kind of relationship did these 2 have prior to their wedding that the realization of this $100K+ debt was such a shock?
I am just old enough now to start seeing the unraveling marriages of people my age, in many cases the loss of the “starter home” fueling the end of the “starter marriage”.
$1,000 a year is reasonable for a phone plan, assuming she’s got that much money to throw away on a squeaky little device that eats up most of her free time and shoots radio waves through her head.
LOL. The new Money mag (hubby subscribed) has an article for boomers on how not to seem like such an old fart at work. Advice: trade the flip phone for a smart phone, text more, join Twitter and Facebook, TIVO the latest TV shows etc so you’ll know the latest gag lines and running jokes…and never, ever use lines like “epic FAIL” because that’s so 1991 or something.
I’ve mentioned it before, but I have a coworker that is retiring in September that constantly complains about his lack of money, while still working 40+ a week and pulling S.S; all while going to Dunkin’ Donuts three times a day for coffee.
I’m moving in a couple weeks (home - to New Mexico) and was talking with him about NM. For those of you that have never been to Massachusetts, there are three Dunkin’ Donuts on every corner, selling subprime coffee to the masses. Anyway, the guy asks me if there are Dunkin’ Donuts in New Mexico, and all I can recall are a few - maybe half a dozen.
So he asks me, “Where do you get coffee then?”
I look at him and say, “where most people that don’t have $2,000 a year to spend on coffee - I make it at home.”
Of course, this is the same guy that bought a new Honda Civic a few weeks after C4C ended and he paid full sticker, saying he didn’t want to be confrontational.
So he asks me, “Where do you get coffee then?”
Too funny. Has he never heard of Starbucks? Or the many other coffee chains? Heck, even McDonalds has jumped onto the fru-fru coffee bandwagon.
Me? I don’t drink the stuff.
No kidding. I’ll hit Starbucks or Dunks or other places for coffee if need be, but personally, the free stuff at work (Kureg) is pretty good. Barring that, I’ve got Foldgers at home, that’s pretty good too…
I swear, his comment was almost like the inner-city, parent-less kids that can’t recognize home cooking, only recognizing Maccas.
So he asks me, “Where do you get coffee then?”
So funny. About 5 years ago the 20 year old gf of one of my employees was visiting the office. They were going out for coffee and they asked me if I wanted any brought back.
I pointed to my thermos cup thing and said I made mine at home.
The girl looked at me with a very surprised, perplexed smile and asked,
“You have a coffee maker”??!
This guy buys coffee from Dunkin Donuts and drives a Civic and you think he’s not frugal enough?
If he’s making good money, then I would suspect other “extracurricular” activities may be the cause.
A couple years after marriage my wife and I left graduate school with $107,000 in debt. The only things that have made that load manageable have been (1) we locked in 1.6-2.8% rates for the 20 year life of the loans and (2) we managed to get jobs in the fields for which we trained and have good incomes.
I sympathize with those coming out of school in today’s job market.
Weddings are a racket. The typical 3 hour event for 150 people costs thousands of dollars. And then it’s over. Just like that.
It is a racket…but like anything else as long as people throw money away I might as well get in on it. It worked for many years..Plus Brides seems to be a lot more clueless then ever…willing to overspend on things….and poor mouth the help (dj video photo)
You got that right. Wife used to be in the wedding photography business and some would pay thousands. Then with the advent of digital cameras, every bored housewife who likes “taking pictures” thought it would be a good idea to start doing it…at cut rate prices. Now many will take the photos and throw them all on a DVD for as low as $50. Quality be damned.
Divorces cost much, much more and it seems they are never over.
You know why divorces are expensive?
Because they’re worth it!
(I have never been divorced)
‘Generation Y’ faces some steep financial hurdles
They’re weighed down by debt, lack of savings
…and NO decent jobs.
$10 billion monthly stimulus. (from mybudget360 dot com)
The latest data tells us that over 14 percent of all U.S. mortgages are either 30+ days late or in some stage of foreclosure. In other words, 7.2 million people are not paying their mortgages. Yet banks are turning out record profits even though they are bleeding in their real estate cash-flow. Now let us run a hypothetical here. The median mortgage payment of those 51 million mortgages is $1,514. This is actual stimulus for people if you don’t pay that each month. If you aren’t paying your mortgage you just relieved yourself of your biggest monthly commitment. So let us run a rough number:
$1,514 x 7.2 million = $ 10,931,916,697
So this frees up some $10 billion each month (this is a rough number).
…
So once it modified late last year, they stopped paying. Yet they had the money to pay. They explained that the bank wouldn’t deal with them until they missed a few payments. Now, the bank is throwing itself like an obsessed lover to help them “modify” their loan. The terms now seem nice but they want to negotiate for more. You have the banking criminals using taxpayer money to negotiate with people that drive around in a leased Mercedes SUV and BMW. Does this sound like the poor grandma being kicked out of her humble home?
…you get the idea.
Obama throwing trillions around, to deadbeats & dickheads, to banking criminals and of course to his largest campaign contributor, the health care industry. Who gets stuck with the bill? You do!
Not saying the last guy was any better starting wars all over the place an creating his infamous “ownership society”. Let’s also not forget that the first installment of the bailout came from Paulson.
In short, we’re running out of time and money. If we don’t get a true fiscal conservative in charge of this country we will be in the same position Greece is in today. It is not a matter of if, just when. Who will bail US out?
April 23 (Bloomi-bergi) — 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…
…Even if top managers are certain they’re right on the merits of the case, Goldman Sachs should probably settle, said senior executives at three of the firm’s rivals. The executives, speaking anonymously because they wouldn’t comment publicly on a competitor, said Goldman Sachs would be better off by deciding to settle the suit, cut its losses, and focus on repairing the damage to the firm’s reputation…
The reputational stakes are so high that Goldman Sachs may feel pressure to keep fighting, said Onnig Dombalagian, a former attorney fellow at the SEC who teaches at Tulane University Law School in New Orleans. “For Goldman not to stand behind its deals would be problematic for the firm,” he said… Two of the executives said they also believe Goldman Sachs may have to change senior management to give the appearance that the firm is changing the way it does business.
…If Goldman Sachs settles or loses at trial, “people are going to ask, ‘Am I one of the clients who Goldman does deals for, or am I one of the clients Goldman does deals against?’” Dombalagian said. “There’s the saying that if you don’t know who the mark at the table is, you’re probably the mark.”
——–
“Am I one of the clients that Gollum decided to hose by placing a side bet in favor of my untimely demise?”
“If buyers and sellers can be found, we’ll create and trade almost anything, no matter how dubious.”
~Wall St. mindset
So how does everyone here feel about the censorship of South Park this week? So much for the edgy and brave Comedy Central. Jon Stewart and Colbert mock everything that moves and breathes (95% of which is conservative) and they’re heroes to the left. They’re brave too. Not sure why he’s brave. Must be all those crazy Tea Partiers threatening them with death. Wait no, that has never happened.
But get one email from a nut Muslim group threatening violence against the network and Comedy Central caves in and censors any reference to Mohammed. Not only did they bleep the name, they actually put a black box around the character’s mouth when saying it. On a cartoon no less.
Hypocrisy, thy name is MSM.
What does the “MSM” have to do with Comedy Central?
Comedy Central is both Mainstream and Media.
And it is also owned by Viacom which is about as MSM as it gets.
Comedy Central is owned by Viacom - the third largest media conglomerate in the world, behind Disney and NewsCorp.
Doesn’t get much more mainstream than that.
So we’re throwing “South Park” into the MSM pile now? It’s funny how the right always puts down the MSM … all the while watching Fox News … which is the very definition of mainstream with the highest rated cable news shows on TV.
Of course Hanna Montana and Spongebob routinely beat everything on Fox News and every other cable news channel around in the ratings…
You cannot offend those muslims. That time can be spent demonizing the Catholics. The Catholics deserve criticism and I believe that for the priest abuse. But let us quit acting like the muslims are just misunderstood. They have proven that they will harbor tyrants and murderers.
All religion is a waste of time. The sooner we get rid of it, the better.
Them sure is fightin’ words in Pat Robertson’s backyard, arent’t they? Last time I was in the ORF airport, there was a big (almost billoboard sized) image of his Raptureness welcoming me to Hampton Roads.
Yes. In other areas you see signs for tech companies (HDS, EMC, Sun, etc.) Here in ORF you get CBN/Pat Robertson and PeTA. Kind of funny, but also sad.)
Religion was replaced with consumerism & celebrities a long time ago. Big improvement eh.
All religion is a waste of time. The sooner we get rid of it, the better.
Not true. Some may not need it but mankind in general needs religion.
If not, why does every recognized culture in the world have and/or had a form of it? Because of a deep seated, ingrained human need.
It is the basis of most of the world’s laws and is most certainly the basis of the west’s laws morals and culture.
On the whole, even including religious conflicts and shortcomings, religion has been more of a positive and structuring aspect of human history than it has been a negative.
Religion was for people that were afraid of the dark.
The NRA gave them all guns.
Everybody is fine now.
Yeah - bring on the societies that ban religion - communism. Things are much better under communists.
How about let’s compromise - and say that the ideal situation is one in which religion is allowed, but not forced.
That’s one thing that’s been great about the U.S. As much as we fight about it - we have to realize that I think we have a pretty good thing going as far as religious middle ground goes. We have a pretty wide tolerance of almost all of the religious spectrum; there will always be extremes that are frowned upon, and extreme extremes that are simply disallowed, but IMO that’s appropriate, and overall I think we’re pretty darn good, compared with the vast majority of societies throughout history.
I thought that the (excessive use of the) box was the best insult … my 2c
Hypocrisy??? I think it’s outright, legitimate FEAR. Those people are insane and they actually kill people with some regularity.
But I thought those loonie tea partiers are the real threat. Or so I was led to believe by Obama and Bill Clinton over the past week. And didn’t Jon Stewart and Colbert allude to that as well?
This is exactly the hypocrisy I am talking about. They’ll go on and on about how the “right wing” is dangerous for daring to oppose Obama. They can do that all day because they know nobody in “the right wing” will blow up the Comedy Central building. And how many jokes at the expense of “those crazy Christians” have Stewart/Colbert made? They’re lauded as some kind of great commentators because they dare to expose Christianity. Sarah Silverman’s show had a comedy skit about the Holocaust.
They’re edgy and willing to piss people off in order to make a statement knowing fully well there are no repercussions for their actions. But the second they encounter an actual threat, they shut down and run home to mommy.
I usually disagree with you on many matters, but here I agree with you 100%.
And how many on FOX NEWS posted their own pictures of mohammed ??? Crickets.
How many did it after essetially being put on a hit list???
Crickets.
Note that South Park had a prior episode where they did post a picture, then the next one was a commentary on the response here and to the cartoons in Europe where they put mohamed in a bear suit. Once they got the actual death threat with their home address posted the game changes.
There are many tough talking internet posters that could easily show us how brave they are by painting some pictures of mohammed and march around in these neighborhoods. Crickets.
From the NYT
Comedy Central has previously given Mr. Stone and Mr. Parker a certain free rein with “South Park.” In a July 2001 episode, “Super Best Friends,” Muhammad was depicted alongside the founders of other religions, including Krishna and Lao Tzu.
But in 2006, when “South Park” wanted to weigh in on a controversy that erupted after Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper, published cartoons satirizing Muhammad, it was not given the same latitude: a character said to be Muhammad was concealed behind a large black box labeled “CENSORED.” The measure was taken by the “South Park” producers partly at the insistence of Comedy Central, and partly as a commentary on the network’s policy of not allowing them to show the character, which the episode equated with giving in to the demands of extremists.
In a new episode of “South Park” broadcast Wednesday on Comedy Central, Mr. Parker and Mr. Stone exercised a degree of self-censorship. In continuing the previous week’s story line about the Prophet Muhammad, that character was hidden underneath a “CENSORED” graphic, and an audio bleep was heard when his name was said.
But in a message that appeared Thursday morning on SouthParkStudios.com, the Web site of Mr. Stone and Mr. Parker’s company, the studio said that Comedy Central had imposed further changes to the show.
“After we delivered the show, and prior to broadcast, Comedy Central placed numerous additional audio bleeps throughout the episode,” the message said. It added that the network was not allowing the episode to be streamed on the Web site, where “South Park” shows generally appear after they are broadcast on Comedy Central.
A spokesman for Comedy Central confirmed on Thursday that the network had added more bleeps to the episode than were in the version delivered by South Park Studios, and that it was not permitting the episode to be shown on the studio’s Web site. Comedy Central did not broadcast a repeat of the new “South Park” episode at midnight as it usually does, and instead showed a previous episode from this season. The channel was scheduled to do the same Thursday night.
KeeKeeDee….
Thank you for visiting the housing blog. Now right this way —> http://www.americannaziparty.com/
But I thought those loonie tea partiers are the real threat. Or so I was led to believe by Obama and Bill Clinton over the past week……..They can do that all day because they know nobody in “the right wing” will blow up the Comedy Central building.
I know! Tell it!
Not like that Left-wing Loon who blew up the Oklahoma Federal building. And what’s with all the Coffee-Party nut-jobs bringing their AK-47s into Starbucks??! Read the sign: Pistols only please!
Now I hear one of the Coffee partiers called Sen. Mitch Mcconnell a “really mean person”. I haven’t heard that kind slur since the 60’s!
Or Dennis Kusinichh (or however he spells his russian name) putting Big bulls-eyes on Republican foes and telling supporters to “Reload?”
We never hear about that stuff!
You missed their show last night I guess. He spent 10 min. telling those who criticized Comedy Central to, and I quote: “Go F**k your self” and they showed a montage of Daily Show clips where they lampoon all religions.
Did he say that using his usual edgy mocking tone? It’s easy to tell everyone to go f**k themselves when he knows there is no threat in doing so.
What I’d like to see is him telling the Muslims who threatened Comedy Central with violence to go f**k themselves.
You know the “South Park” creators are huge liberals, right?
a. I think you mean libertarian not liberal
b. Relevance to Comedy Central censoring reference to Mohammed?
Not liberal? The makers of “Orgazmo”? What do think a Bible-thumping, social conservative call them? What would the Tea Party people call them. What would most main-stream Republicans call them. The had Jesus fight Santa Claus.
Comedy Central is just chicken shit. But they can do whatever they want cause it’s their channel.
alright Ki
Why don’t you parade outside this guys apartment with a picture of Mohammed and get back to us. I notice a lot of anti Islamic posts come from unknown internet posters.
Yes Hypocrisy is your middle name.
but…Islam is the one religion that is actually dangerous to mock.
and yet they can’t figure out why muslims are viewed in a bad light.
islam is the religion of peace and tolerance - and if you don’t believe it we will cut off your head…
You do realize it is the Muslims who actually threatened violence right? So now it seems even criticizing Muslism for threatening violence is anti-Muslim. The PC infections have spread far and wide.
I’m not accusing you of being anti-Muslim. I’m accusing you of being a hypocrit for saying that Matt and Trey caved, which on further reflection it looks like they were censored. You should note that John Stewart sang the Go F*** yourself now song to that group that threatened Matt and Trey and any others who threaten violence in the name of religion and politics.
Must be all those crazy Tea Partiers threatening them with death. Wait no, that has never happened.
Tea Partiers have been threatening our government officials with death. So I guess that makes them different.
Charles Alan Wilson of Selah, Wash., allegedly made phone calls threatening to kill Sen. Patty Murray because she supported the new healthcare reform law. He was arrested Tuesday.
This is anon starter.
Sometimes it is more effective to point out the censorship and embrace it to call even more attention to it.
And Ki, as for “This is exactly the hypocrisy I am talking about. They’ll go on and on about how the “right wing” is dangerous for daring to oppose Obama. They can do that all day because they know nobody in “the right wing” will blow up the Comedy Central building.
The extreme right wing, and I won’t name any Rush or Glenn or Bill names here, have actually called for thinly veiled, assassinations, which, in case you, or others, have a hard time distinguishing between right and wrong, is far, far beyond, “opposition.”
Bank of America wants to suspend mortgage payments for jobless
By STELLA M. HOPKINS - McClatchy Newspapers
4/22/2010
CHARLOTTE, N.C — CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Bank of America wants to give struggling mortgage customers who are collecting unemployment benefits up to nine months with no mortgage payment.
That’s right. Zero payment.
Customers would have to agree that, if they haven’t found a job within the nine months, they will sign over their house to the bank. The Charlotte bank would give them at least $2,000 to help with moving expenses.
The proposal needs regulatory approval, and the bank doesn’t know when, or if, that will happen.
Some experts say the plan could become an industry model and is the most substantial, creative approach yet to addressing the fallout from stubbornly high unemployment, which is driving mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures.
The plan also could provide families with faster relief, allow them to save money and provide a timetable for making decisions. The bank could avoid millions in collection and foreclosure expenses.
“It’s an innovative way for Bank of America to demonstrate it’s working with its customers,” said Mark Williams, a former Federal Reserve bank examiner. “Regulators should view this as a positive step as well.”
The $75 billion federal mortgage-aid program, announced in February 2009, has struggled to fulfill President Barack Obama’s estimate of helping millions. Through March, only 230,000 families had received final mortgage modifications under the Home Affordable Modification Program, called HAMP.
The program holds few options for the jobless, even as the U.S. unemployment rate hovers around 10 percent. The Charlotte area’s rate is near 13 percent. And more than 6.3 million people nationwide have been out of work longer than six months.
“It’s something I would have done,” said Bill Sagy, a Bank of America mortgage customer laid off last June from his management consultant position. “That would definitely have worked.”
Instead, he spent months working with the bank for reduced payments that he thought would become a long-term modification. But that didn’t happen, making him one of a growing group of homeowners who spent scarce resources that didn’t ultimately save their homes.
Sagy’s Huntersville, N.C., home, which he bought for $253,000 in 2006, has shed value and is unlikely to sell for what he owes. Without a modification, he’s behind on payments and says the bank wants to foreclose.
“It’s so frustrating,” said Sagy, who with his wife is considering relocating.
Mark Pearce, a leader in national foreclosure prevention efforts, called the plan a step forward.
“This seems like a new idea that offers a lot of positives for both the homeowners and the bank,” said Pearce, an N.C. deputy banking commissioner. “There’s a nice balance, giving people more breathing space but with a date certain for moving to the next step if things don’t work out.”
In addition to reducing worries, the program could, for example, mean families are able to keep current with a car payment and avoid repossession. Losing a car makes it harder to find or keep a job. Borrowers also might be better able to afford expenses such as child care, freeing them to attend job fairs and interviews.
Steve Obendorf, who works in the credit-counseling unit of Family Services, a Gastonia, N.C., nonprofit, likes the idea of giving people “a breather.” But the bank also needs to make sure people understand they’re agreeing to sign over their homes if they can’t get a job. Otherwise, he speculates, there could be a wave of homeowners begging for a reprieve.
Lose y our job get 99 weeks of unemployment and live free for 9 months.
Tell me again why being unemployed is a bad thing.
Why don’t ask your company to lay you off and find out for yourself just how wonderful unemployment is?
It does say that if they don’t find a job, then they have to turn over the keys. I’m guessing 9 months is about how long BoA’s foreclosure process takes.
a. if I voluntarily quit, I don’t get the government freebies
b. I am not a deadbeat scumbag and even if I were laid off I would be employed before my first welfare check arrived
b. I am not a deadbeat scumbag
Careful, nobody likes a braggart…
Ooops. Sorry, didn’t mean to offend you.
Well Ki I’m glad to hear you’re not a deadbeat scumbag and that you have total control over ever aspect of your life. I am impressed.
BTW, you might to want to look up a word: “hubris”
Just think if you moved in with family and rented your house out for the 9 months (probably could get away with it for more like 9 years) while you collected your 99mos pay. You could do lots of shopping with all of the time and money. You could live the dream…
But the bank also needs to make sure people understand they’re agreeing to sign over their homes if they can’t get a job.
Does this answer your question? You’re not living free, you’re living under the sword of Damacles.
Rule #1 is that banks are by nature predators.
Do you really believe anyone will hand over the keys after 9 months?
What will happen is at about month 7 the FB will call a lawyer, his congressman, his local “Action 5 News” channel. And he will tell them all how unfair it is that the bank wants to take away his house. And where will his kids sleep? On the street?
And when this happens all over the country, Obama will give a speech saying how awful it is that BofA is getting read to put millions of children on the street as the 9 month time frame approaches.
And BofA will say OK, take another 6 months because we certainly wouldn’t want all those kids to sleep in the gutters.
Rinse and repeat 6 months later.
Actually they will. Strategic defaults happen all the time. Last July it was estimated that 25% of all foreclosures are strategic in fact. This just gives them an easy out - they can do it with the bank’s blessing.
Ki, try not exaggerating so much. It really destroys your, uh, credibility.
Ever try to feed a family of 4 on $250 a week?
The fact that it’s considered hard to feed a family of 4 on $250 a week is IMO very sad.
I remember my mother in the early 80’s being shocked and dismayed when her monthly grocery bill went above $100.
Average unemployment check is $293 a week. So about $1250 a month. If mortgage is $2500 which is now covered courtesy of BofA, that’s the equivalent of earning $45K a year.
Even with housing covered, $293 a week doesn’t go far at all if you have a familiy.
Where I am it’s $250. You may be able to feed a family on that if you have no other expenses like, oh, rent and or mortgage, insurance, vehicle, various other essentials like diapers, TP, toothpaste, water, heating/cooling/electricity, phone, etc.
Living “free” on 20% of your old paycheck with no medical coverage? Yeah, sign me up!
The unemployed get 65% of cobra paid for courtesy of the govt.
Plus you are all assuming that the unemployed in question is the only income for the family. In reality the scenario is more like husband and wife both work. 1 gets laid off the other still works and provides health insurance for the entire family. So 50% of income is still coming in, plus 20% you mention, plus the free housing for 9 months, plus $1200-1500 a month in UI payments.
In some cases the lost income from the job can be lower than the value of 9 months of free rent + UI payments.
The unemployed get 65% of cobra paid for courtesy of the govt.
Coming up with the other $300-400 a month is nigh impossible when all you get is $300 a week.
300-400 a month on top of 65% means the total is $1000+ a month.
if that’s the case then it is a family plan. And if it’s a family plan, the other member of the family - ie other spouse - works and probably has insurance available as well.
Again you are missing the fact that this person is getting free rent. Add the value of the free rent to the income and it is substantially more than $300 a week.
“other spouse - works and probably has insurance available as well.”
In this day and age that’s a pretty big assumption (the insurance part).
About 80% of full time employees have insurance via employer. It’s not that big of an assumption.
Assuming you have a full time job.
Ki, so how does one actually go about turning that housing credit into spendable cash?
Does the bank actually, physically, GIVE them the mortgage payment?
Of course not. They still have ONLY the UI money and THAT’S ALL THEY HAVE.
Since you’ve never been a “deadbeat scumbag” and experienced the ease and luxury of unemployment, how do you come by such expertise?
For those of you cheerleading Obama’s war on banks…..this is the result of it. In order to get Obama off their backs,all banks will start doing this type of thing. 9 month free rent, credit card balances cut in half, student loan forgiveness, etc.
In the end the banks take a bit of a loss, get Obama off their backs, Obama gets to say he did something to help out the middle class and everyone is happy.
And the very same people who are doing the cheerleading will be outraged that “FBs” are being rewarded at the expense of renters/savers. Something very Karmic about this.
I loved his speech yesterday. He never mentioned the Fed as the root of all evil. He never mentioned Fannie and Freddie as the biggest monsters out there. He just kept yapping about people losing value in their homes. That ties in well with his notion of every one of his constituents being a victim of som external source. Never once did he say he was going to move the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute the mountains of wrongdoing that took place.
He still does not get it. I have no faith that he will rein anything in. That suit is stuffed from top to bottom.
“He still does not get it. I have no faith that he will rein anything in”.
He is not going to rein anything period, that is not his point, chest pounding, nothing more. He is a simple wind bag like the majority of politicians. Just reading what ever the word smiths believe the majority of the voters want to hear. Keep your eye on the ball, it moves quickly. How come no MSM ask Barry why the chief of GS has been hanging out with him at the WH a whole lot over the past few months? 4-or 5 known visit’s, I’m sure Barry was just scolding him, or just planing the on going charade.
“He still does not get it.”
He gets it.
This is part of the plan. Get as many people dependent on government as possible. Obama will give you a free house, free medical care and one day shiny new Chevy sraight from the Government Motors assembly plant. Look what they’re doing to Toyota…typical Chicago mob tactics of dealing with your enemies.
He won.
There is a newly discovered disease called victimitis and it infects about 280 million Americans.
“student loan forgiveness”
I’ve never heard of a bank forgiving student loans. Why should they? Student loans cannot be disharged in a bankruptcy.
And I never heard of the government taking over the student loan industry before last month. But they did. Just because something isn’t done now doesn’t mean it won’t be.
Debt is and will continue to be forgiven by lenders. Whether it’s debt to buy a house or debt to buy a degree doesn’t matter.
You were speaking in past tense.
And since as you mentioned they will now all be gov’t loans I would say that decreases the likelyhood they will be forgiven or discharged in bankruptcy.
I wrote “banks **will start** doing this type of thing. 9 month free rent, credit card balances cut in half, student loan forgiveness, etc.”
While Obama has nationalized future student loans, there are billions of existing students loans held by private lenders. They’re not taking those loans over (at least not yet).
I wrote “banks **will start** doing this type of thing. 9 month free rent, credit card balances cut in half, student loan forgiveness, etc.”
Banks will do this and the government will keep rates at 0% so banks can borrow money for free , its the deal government has made with banks.
to prevent deflation from taking hold even though out- sourcing jobs is highly deflationary.
Why would “agreeing” that you’ll give your house to the bank after 9 months of no payments make any difference? Do people have to be reminded that if they don’t pay their mortgage they can’t keep the house?
Nothing makes any sense to me anymore…
To me this is proof enough for any doubters that the banks are currently not doing anything to persue foreclosure against deadbeats. Free housing for all who chose to spend their money shopping instead!
BofA has to find some way to salvage the biggest cash cow(mortgage interest) in world history.
Do you really think they give a @#$%^ about anyone?
Here in NYC you are put on a fast track for eviction if the owner does not ask for money only possession. The tenants has far less defenses to stay, get a postponement or make a deal, if no money is involved. Maybe that is BoA plan.
Well when the news is full of stories of people not paying, but staying, I guess you do need to remind them.
“Bank of America wants to suspend mortgage payments for jobless”
It’s about propping up the value of REO by stemming the flood of foreclosure inventory which would ensue without forebearance. This only works due to the extraordinary and historically unprecedented degree of industry concentration into the hands of Megabank, Inc…
Amex begs me to sign up for free job loss insurance. Basically, it waives your credit card payments if you loose your job. In the fine print, they cut off access to the card as well. Easy way to make sure people don’t run up debt with no job. I don’t have balances so I ignore it.
..The bank could avoid millions in collection and foreclosure expenses.
“It’s an innovative way for Bank of America to demonstrate it’s working with its customers,…”
No.. you had it right the first time.
The bank could avoid millions in expenses.
GM announces earlier this week that they paid off their bailout money, makes a big deal out of it. Apparently all they did is take it from a different bailout fund and move it to another. I was feeling a tiny bit guilty about saying I’d never buy a GM, not any more. Play me for a fool, I don’t buy your stuff.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/22/grassley-slams-gm-administration-loans-repaid-bailout-money/
Financial History
April 22, 2010, 5:00PM EST
Defaults, Near-Defaults, and Other Financial Disasters
A crisis timeline
BW Magazine
April 26, 2010
1800-1815
Napoleonic wars. Austria, France, Russia, the German states all default under the cost of financing armies.
1826
Greece defaults for the first of five times. Its first king, Otto, spends his rule fruitlessly trying to stabilize finances.
1932
Germany, devastated by hyperinflation, war reparations, and Depression, repudiates debt owed U.S. investors.
1973-1989
Sixteen Latin American countries default on tens of billions of dollars, owed mostly to U.S. banks. Citibank almost goes under.
1994
Mexico suddenly devalues the peso, which had been under mounting pressure. The peso’s crash triggers a crisis that requires intervention form the U.S. Treasury.
1997-1998
Thailand, Indonesia, and South Korea prove unable to repay dollar-denominated debt as their currencies collapse. IMF boss Michel Camdessus imposes draconian budget cuts in return for aid.
2001-2002
Argentina, beset by budget woes, partly defaults on its foreign debt and abandons the peg to the dollar. Bondholders have still not settled.
2009-2010
Greece, Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary all face a sovereign debt crisis.
what about Iceland ? too small to list I guess ?
Next…
April 23, 2010, 9:01 a.m. EDT
Greece formally requests activation of rescue package
E.U.-IMF aid unlikely to dispel euro-zone default worries
By William L. Watts, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) — The Greek government surrendered to the credit markets Friday, formally requesting the activation of a joint European Union-International Monetary Fund rescue plan after soaring borrowing costs were seen making it virtually impossible for the debt-strapped nation to meet its funding needs on the open market.
“It is a national and pressing necessity for us to formally ask our partners for the activation of the support mechanism, which we jointly created in the European Union,” Papandreou said in a televised address from the Aegean island of Kastelorizo.
…
Am I just missing it, or did the Fed ultimately take it upon itself to serve as the toxic mortgage superfund SIV of last resort that Henry Paulson (otherwise) failed to create?
If I am correct, how was this legal? Did the TARP authorize them to do this?
More generally, is the Fed allowed to “expand its balance sheet” at will and use the electronically-printed proceeds to summarily prop up whatever asset class it wants to the benefit of whichever constituency it favors (e.g. wealthy investors, Wall Street investment banks, etc)?
I guess I just don’t understand the rules which circumscribe the conduct of Fed monetary policy operations.
market pulse
April 23, 2010, 8:14 a.m. EDT
Some Fed members favor asset sales, weigh on debt
By Deborah Levine
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Treasury prices are under pressure on Friday after media reports indicating that more members of the Federal Reserve want to begin selling some of the government and mortgage-related assets it bought during the credit crisis, though analysts indicate near-term sales are unlikely. At least six members of the policy-setting board favor selling assets to reduce the Fed’s bloated balance sheet, according to news reports citing CNBC. The “headlines are getting attention this morning and weighing on the Treasury market,” said strategists at CRT Capital Group.
They note that markets know that some Fed officials favor near-term asset sales, and have said so publicly. But Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke “and the balance of the voters are opposed to the concept, so we’re cautious of making too much from the CNBC chatter.” Yields on 10-year Treasury notes (UST10Y 3.81, +0.04, +0.93%) , which move inversely to prices, rose 2 basis points to 3.80%.
This is a monumental article. And yes, this is by the David Stockman who was Ronald Reagan’s budget director.
Did Washington Save the Economy? Part 5
By David Stockman
Apr 23, 2010 7:45 am
Bottom line: There is no “jobful” recovery in sight.
…the 550,000 job growth in the FIRE sector during the seven-year Boom was modest, amounting to a gain of just 1% per year. Even then, less than one-fourth (130,000) of this gain was attributable to commercial bank and thrift payrolls. Much of the balance of FIRE job growth, not surprisingly, was accounted for by on-the-ground boots of the housing boom in mortgage banking (90,000) and real estate brokerage (180,000).
Moreover, when the financial bust came in 2008 and 2009, the banks and thrifts took on the aspect of having been hit by a financial neutron bomb; that is, they wrote down or hid trillions in bad assets, but their buildings full of employees were largely left standing. In fact, the payroll of 1.75 million that they reported for March was only 75,000, or 4% smaller than it had been at the December 2007 cyclical peak.
Payrolls related to the housing complex, by contrast, took a bigger hit. The job decline at mortgage banks and other non-depositories was 144,000, or 15%. Likewise, real estate brokerage, rental, and leasing firms posted a March payroll of 1.95 million jobs — a figure 200,000, or 10% lower than the December 2007 level.
As to the balance of FIRE, which consists of insurance, securities brokerage, trusts, and asset management services, the picture is one of a slow bleed. The March payroll for these segments was 3.064 million — a figure that has gone nowhere for a decade, shrunk by about 7,000 per month during the two-year Slump, and has continued to decline at a 13,000 per month pace during the first-quarter Bounce.
Given these trends, there is no reason to expect anything jobful out of FIRE for at least three reasons. First, America is still massively over-banked, with thousands of surplus banks and tens-of-thousands of redundant branches. The deadweight cost of the related heat, lights, rents, and payrolls is still being absorbed by bloated net interest margins resulting from the Fed’s absurd policy of punishing depositors while propping up (through the end of March) the price of bank assets such as government and agency bonds.
But at the end of the day, the “no brainer” spread currently being gifted to the banks is really a dead-end monetary policy. Because the global currency market vigilantes won’t tolerate endless money printing by the Fed, it will eventually have to permit money market interest rates to normalize, and the yield curve to flatten.
…
David Stockman was elected to U.S. House of Representatives for the 95th Congress and was reelected in two subsequent elections, serving from January 1977 until his resignation January 1981. He then became Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, serving from 1981 until August 1985. He was the youngest cabinet member in the 20th century. After leaving government, Stockman joined Wall St. investment bank Salomon Bros. and later became a founding partner at New York-based private equity firm, The Blackstone Group. He left Blackstone in 1999 to start his own private equity fund, Heartland Industrial Partners, L.P., based in Greenwich, CT.
Did any readers here follow my suggestion yesterday to buy Greek bonds? Just curious…
Barron’s Blogs
April 23, 2010, 10:09 AM ET
Greece: Call to IMF Brings Down Sovereign Spreads
By Tiernan Ray
Apparently, all it took for Greece to catch a break was to throw itself to the International Monetary Fund.
Spreads on Greece’s credit default swaps have narrowed today by about 4% to 610 basis points after Greece’s prime minister George Papandreou yesterday announced the country will formally request a promised package of loans from the European Union and the IMF, confirming rumors earlier in the week Greece was closing to crying “uncle!”
…
Green Shoots = Professor Bear, in case anyone is wondering.
answers dot com
Why did Fritz Kreisler use pseudonym on his pieces?
In: Composers
From the Fritz Kreisler entry to the Concise Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians:
“He (Kreisler) … published a number of pieces in the classical vein, which he ascribed to various old composers (Vivaldi, Pugnani, Couperin, Padre Martini, Dittersdorf, Francoeur, Stamitz, and others). In 1935 he reluctantly admitted that these pieces were his own, with the exception of the first 8 bars from the “Couperin” Chanson Louis XIII taken from a traditional melody; he explained his motive in doing so by the necessity of building up well-rounded programs for his concerts that would contain virtuoso pieces by old composers, rather than a serious of compositions under his own, as yet unknown, name.”
“Green Shoots = Professor Bear, in case anyone is wondering.”
We kinda figured that out. A guess a pseudo troll will have to do!
I’m trying my best to fill in an evolutionary niche where an endangered species has gone extinct.
All this story needs is Bill Murray and a groundhog.
Did any readers here follow my suggestion yesterday to buy Greek bonds? Just curious…
Don’t look now - but after closing at 10.22 yesterday, even though 2-year bond yields dipped briefly to 9.26 earlier today - they’re now back up to 10.315.
I pity the fools that bought just four weeks ago at below 5%, or that bought back in early December at below 2%!
P.S. It appears this is a classic case of pushing on a string. IMO default now appears inevitable.
Coming soon to a country near you, BTW.
Did you follow your suggestion?
Actually I made them in jest…
Are you missing your home equity ATM machine? If so, why not just steal a real ATM machine to replace it?
ATM stolen from Carmel Valley 7-Eleven
By Karen Kucher, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Thursday, April 22, 2010 at 7:27 a.m.
SAN DIEGO — Several men ripped an ATM out of a 7-Eleven in Carmel Valley early Thursday morning but left at least part of it in the parking lot before driving off in a stolen SUV, police said.
Witnesses told police that four men pulled the machine out of the store on Torrey Del Mar Drive around 5:16 a.m., said San Diego police Officer Brad Ruff.
Police recovered a two-tone SUV on Clarkview Lane shortly before 6:30 a.m. that they believe was used in the burglary, Ruff said. The car had been reported stolen.
It was not known if the men made off with any money, Ruff said.
The robbers were described as Latino, wearing dark hooded sweatshirts and blue jeans.
There have been a string of ATM thefts reported around the county in the past several months.
“OK troops, we gotta great description here. I need you to go round up every Latino looking guy wearing blue jeans you see in San Diego”.
Think about the sheer amount of money sitting in ATM vending machines all around your neighborhood. $5000, $10000 each or more.
Yeah, but they’re full of worthless fiats - who wants those? The machines themselves, however, they might be worth
something.
…but left at least part of it in the parking lot before driving off..
no doubt drove off trailing some sheet metal and plastic parts and left the machine’s 400 pound safe behind.
I normally post negative real estate articles on the local newspaper (Southeastern VA) site. Last night I got switched to moderation, and my comments on the upcoming home show ($500K+ homes) aren’t approved. I’ve been censored by the man.
There’s A Rebellion Inside The Fed As Fears Grow Bernanke Will Spark High Inflation ~ The Business Insider, April 23, 2010:
Bernanke has kept U.S. interest rates ultra-low for years, and if he had his druthers, he’d probably keep them there forever. But dissent is building within the Fed.
The Economist says this makes an interest rate hike more likely to happen sooner rather than later.
The most vocal dissident is Thomas Hoenig, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and the Fed’s longest-serving policymaker, who has twice formally objected to the Fed’s “extended period” language. That commitment plus zero rates, he explained on April 7th, lead “banks and investors to search for yield… take on additional risk [and] increase leverage”. He argued the Fed should soon raise rates to 1% to “end the borrowing subsidy”.
The next day Narayana Kocherlakota, president of the Minneapolis Fed, voiced a different concern: that the excess bank reserves created by the Fed’s MBS purchases create the potential for high inflation. He advocated selling $15 billion-25 billion of MBS a month, which would clear the Fed’s inventory in five years instead of the 30 it would take for the bonds to mature.
What alternative to sparking high inflation does Bernanke have? Seems like a done deal to me, but then I don’t claim to be a monetary policy expert…
What alternative to sparking high inflation does Bernanke have?
One alternative - at least in the short and medium term - would be shadow buyers of U.S. treasuries, creating the image of confidence in the US$, for the purpose of keeping rates low. This is itself keeps the debt lower than it otherwise would be, lessening the need the need for inflation to relieve the debt.
These shadow buyers may actually be proxy for backroom printing presses, but could alleviate the need for front room printing of larger volume, which is not as politically expedient.
This could prevent a Greek/Argentinian/Weimar-style downward spiral of debt/inflation, at least until such time as we have a true economic recovery.
However if said true recovery never comes….
“These shadow buyers may actually be proxy for backroom printing presses,…”
I would assume, but how will that fail to fuel inflation when it eventually comes to light?
It won’t come to light, IMO. There was a brief flare up on the blogs about two months ago, and that was about it. I don’t believe there was any MSM attention given at all, and that was after north of $500B showed up - far more than the officially announced (additional) $300B that got tons of attention. I’m willing to bet that 100-200 billion could be added each quarter without any fuss at all being raised.
Not that I think that this won’t eventually cause significant inflation (say 5-8%). But it might be enough to stem what would otherwise probably be much higher inflation (say 10-20%) or even hyperinflation if things got out of hand.
P.S. I’m actually putting my money where my mouth is here. Three weeks ago I bought some 10-year treasuries (not TIPS), and I’m going to get some 7-year next week. It’s a small amount - part of my overall diversification strategy. Even though I feel that high inflation is on the horizon - I do still think there’s a good chance it’ll be put off for several years by the PTB. They simply can’t afford to allow interest rates to go up much any time in the near future without wrecking the economy, so I think we’re in for Japan-style stagnation for a while. I think prices may go up a fair amount, but that doesn’t help investments any - if the economy stays weak there may not be any way for savers to make money except via things like treasuries. Well, and gold probably - but there’s only so many eggs I’m willing to put in one basket, and gold’s already pretty darn high.
Like we don’t have high inflation now?
One of the nations leading economist…Maria Barcelona sez: “I really don’t see anything wrong with a boom-bust economy”
That vile woman probably takes advantage of the booms and avoids damage from the busts!! Doesn’t care about anyone but herself!
Boom-busts are great for the rich.
Especially when they can be engineered for predictability.
1st and 2nd Bank of the United States.
Wikipedia.
I’m familiar with them.
And…???
Maria has nice boom-booms, a.k.a. busts. Her sole redeeming quality.
What about a “boom-boom” economy where the bust part is manipulated out of existence?
Perpetual, extraordinary growth has to run contrary to some natural law.. just can’t think of it at the moment.
One of the nations leading economist…Maria Barcelona sez:
economist you’re kidding? shes a reporter right ?
Good for South Park, screw these miserable muslim punks threats.
‘South Park’ Muhammad episode airs despite uproar.
NEW YORK (AP) - Comedy Central’s “South Park” included a representation of the Prophet Muhammad as a character this week despite a radical Muslim group’s warning that its producers could be killed.
Muhammad appeared on Wednesday night’s episode of the cartoon with his face obscured by a black box, since Muslims consider a physical representation of their prophet to be blasphemous. Last week, the character was briefly disguised in a bear costume. When that same costume was removed this week, Santa Claus appeared.
The bear costume had angered the New York-based group Revolution Muslim, which posted a message on its website saying that producers Trey Parker and Matt Stone had insulted their prophet.
The message included a gruesome picture of Theo Van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker murdered by a Muslim extremist in 2004 after making a movie about a woman who rejected Muhammad’s teachings. The message said the “South Park” producers would “probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh” for airing the show.
The posting included Comedy Central’s New York address, as well as the address for Parker and Stone’s California production studio.
Parker and Stone are known for waiting until the last minute before turning in fresh episodes. This week’s episode contained no direct reference to the warning, although one inside joke could be interpreted as one.
During one scene, a mechanized Barbara Streisand robot is seen stomping through the town on a path of destruction. One voice is heard to say, “they’ve destroyed La Casa Bonita!”
“La Casa Bonita” is the name of Parker and Stone’s production facility.
Casa Bonita is also a really famous, really crappy (but entertaining) restaurant in Denver. I thought they might be making a reference to it.
Government Motors in work…
Using bailout money to pay bailout loans…..
A top Senate Republican on Thursday accused the Obama administration of misleading taxpayers about General Motors’ loan repayment, saying the struggling auto giant was only able to repay its bailout money by dipping into a separate pot of bailout money.
Sen. Chuck Grassley’s charge was backed up by the inspector general for the bailout — also known as the Trouble Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Watchdog Neil Barofsky told Fox News, as well as the Senate Finance Committee, that General Motors used bailout money to pay back the federal government.
“It appears to be nothing more than an elaborate TARP money shuffle,” Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a letter Thursday to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
GM announced Wednesday that it had paid back the $8.1 billion in loans it received from the U.S. and Canadian governments. Of that, $6.7 billion went to the U.S. treasury.
But Grassley said in his letter that a Securities and Exchange Commission form filed by GM showed that $6.7 billion of the tens of billions the company received was sitting in an escrow account and available to be used for repayment. He called on Geithner to provide more information about why the company was allowed to use bailout money to repay bailout money, and how much of the remaining escrow money GM would be allowed to keep.
“The bottom line seems to be that the TARP loans were ‘repaid’ with other TARP funds in a Treasury escrow account. The TARP loans were not repaid from money GM is earning selling cars, as GM and the administration have claimed in their speeches, press releases and television commercials,” he wrote.
Seems to me the bottom line was that GM could afford to part with $8.1 Billion in cash, no matter what account it came from.
“Say, Joey, I need you to loan me a hundred bucks.”
“Okay, here you go.”
“No wait, I don’t need it all at once. Just give me fifty now and then you can give me the other fifty later.”
“Okay, here’s your fifty.”
“Thanks. So let’s see; you gave me fifty of the hundred you promised me, which means you still owe me fifty, and I owe you fifty for the fifty you just handed over to me - so you owe me fifty and I owe you fifty … It looks as if we are even, don’t you think?”
Why not borrow $1,000,050?
I give you $50 now and I owe you $1,000,000.
Tomorrow, you pay me that $50 back but … we’re not even!
I owe you $1,000,000… right? I pay you your $1million and THEN we’re even.
Pretty clever of you, i must say..
Where was this reporting just few months ago?
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100423/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_care_law_costs
Report says health care will cover more, cost more
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law is getting a mixed verdict in the first comprehensive look by neutral experts: More Americans will be covered, but costs are also going up.
Economic experts at the Health and Human Services Department concluded in a report issued Thursday that the health care remake will achieve Obama’s aim of expanding health insurance — adding 34 million to the coverage rolls.
But the analysis also found that the law falls short of the president’s twin goal of controlling runaway costs, raising projected spending by about 1 percent over 10 years. That increase could get bigger, since Medicare cuts in the law may be unrealistic and unsustainable, the report warned.
It’s a worrisome assessment for Democrats.
In particular, concerns about Medicare could become a major political liability in the midterm elections. The report projected that Medicare cuts could drive about 15 percent of hospitals and other institutional providers into the red, “possibly jeopardizing access” to care for seniors.
Thank god cost weren’t already rising faster than inflation.
Oh wait…
“With the exception only of the period of the gold standard, practically all governments of history have used their exclusive power to issue money to defraud and plunder the people.”
-Friedrich August von Hayek
That makes no sense.. he compares apples to oranges.
Under the gold standard it’s not even possible to issue money. The money supply is set in stone.
Issuing new money may not be one of them, but there’s a whole lot of ways a government’s adherence to the gold standard can “plunder” a nation’s economic well being. It’s also easy to defraud foreign economies through it’s misuse..
joey,
It is really easy to issue money under the gold standard. It’s just a promise, ya know. Good until we can’t deliver.
There is a certain maximum amount of money a government can create under the gold standard. Once that limit is reached, that’s it.. end of story.
A limited money supply risks not having enough money to pay for things a nation MUST have, like the immense costs of fighting a war… and nobody’s gonna lend you money when you’re tapped out.
Or, as happened during the Depression, govt reached the money-limit, had to end further support to a failing economy, and were forced to allow many thousands of banks to fail.
Some 10 million of people’s bank accounts simply disappeared. If that’s not the gold standard “plundering the people”, i dunno what is.
There is a certain maximum amount of money a government can create under the gold standard. Once that limit is reached, that’s it.. end of story. ”
true its better if governments can create as much money as needed and give it to their friends in investment banking.
Under the gold standard it’s not even possible to issue money. The money supply is set in stone.
Issuing new money may not be one of them, but there’s a whole lot of ways a government’s adherence to the gold standard can “plunder” a nation’s economic well being. It’s also easy to defraud foreign economies through it’s misuse..
That’s Hayek’s whole point joey. Under a gold standard the government has to find other ways to plunder the people - it doesn’t have the tool of issuing money available.
Yes. Issuing money is just a tool that can be used, not used, misued or used properly.
It’s not a disease. Why treat it like one?
What’s Really Behind the Surge in New Home Sales.
CNBC
It’s big, no question. A 27 percent monthly bump up in sales of newly constructed homes.
To me this is real proof of the tax credit boost, because this data series is based on contracts signed, unlike the Existing Home Sales series we got yesterday from the Realtors, which is based on closings (so contracts signed in Jan/Feb).
The tax credit expires one week from today, so the March and April numbers should reflect that. That said, I thought it would be useful for you to hear what some of the analysts are saying:
Dan Oppenheim/Credit Suisse: The improving trend in sales is consistent with our expectations for rising activity through April based on the pull-forward in demand ahead of the tax credit expiration.
However, the tax credit does not appear to create incremental buyers, but just shifts the timing of purchases so that the stronger March and April are, the worse May and June will be.
We expect the focus to soon shift to the severity of the payback, which is likely to undermine builders’ quest for profitability especially when combined with rising materials costs.
Michael Rehaut/J.P. Morgan: We expect the builders to continue to show positive order growth during the spring selling season, as well as order growth in the second half of the year, as community counts stabilize and the builders gain share against a more stable housing backdrop.
As a result, we reiterate our positive sector stance based on our outlook for the builders to continue to demonstrate positive order growth, improving margins and less charges, which we believe should serve as positive catalysts for the group.
I just cannot fathom what would compel someone to sign up for one of these new cheap, shitty, ugly, crammed-together, still-overpriced pos houses that are being built in crappy new subdivisions today. Somebody just shoot me.
Let’s not forget too that mortgage rates are only barely above historic lows.
Another factor IMO - I think there actually has been a bit of “pent up demand” over the past 2-3 years while prices were falling, from people who actually are prudent and aware of the real housing market picture. We see this here on the HBB in fact - several people have mentioned buying houses recently now that prices have come down a lot. Yes most of us think that prices still have farther down to go - but if you believe that prices have fallen say 80% as far as they’re going to fall, then that may be enough to push you into buying now, depending on your situation.
I think that part of the recent surge (as such) in sales is due to this - some demand having been pushed back and bunched up. Once prices truly do bottom out, this pushed-back demand will eventually be gone.
Obviously there are tons of factors, but I think that’s one, that seems to go unmentioned.
P.S. wow - I actually wrote that before reading eastcoaster’s post below. Talk about serendipity.
Well, I did it. Bought a house. In final stages of agreement (trying to get seller to give me a little $$ towards repairs), but offer was accepted, inspection turned out well, and settlement will be May 14. It’s in an amazing neighborhood - one where I never expected to be able to buy. Price is at the top of my range (same offer as the last house I almost bought - but this one is way more worth it). It’s a 1450 sq. ft. ranch plus an additional 750 sq. ft. of finished basement. Most of the surrounding houses are 4BR colonials (not bad to be one of the smaller houses in a bigger development). My son will walk to middle school (think he’ll still be bussed for now even though elementary not too far). I’m thrilled - and nervous. But I’ve heard the nerves are perfectly normal.
So there ya’ go. Will keep you posted on falling value - if that happens. I did get it for under $20K from the Zillow estimate so that’s something (even though Zillow’s overpriced as we all know).
Congratulations. Sounds like you and yours will much enjoy it.
Whew! That was close. You almost got priced-out forever. No need to worry ever again.
How soon until you liberate the equity of your new puchase?
Not planning to - ever, hopefully. But it’s funny, I was telling someone that I was a little nervous and their reaction was, “Well you can just take a loan out on your house now if you need money.” Unreal.
Well EC, it was obviously inevitable. Hope you enjoy the dream house. You did better than most folks holding back for better prices.
I’m in my own place now too. It’s got six wheels and a Chevy 454 engine in it and it is mine. I’m done with the landlord thing for now. My neighborhood is very quiet, but that can change at a whim. The neighbors feather their nests as they please.
No rent, no taxes, no utility bills. I just realized that I will save $400/yr not having the big blue truck roll up every week to empty the trash can!
Will you still be close enough to Daddy Pop’s to join me for a burger sometime?
Definitely, Blue Skye! Love Daddy Pop’s!
Try not to vomit from the stress. That nearly happened to me when my wife and I were buying. My wife has a picture of us signing the documents with her beaming and me looking like I’d just sat on a Joshua Tree.
We bought knowing we weren’t getting the absolute bottom best deal, but we were getting a much, much better deal than we expected in a neighborhood we really liked. I’m sure you know the feeling.
The night terrors and cold sweats will eventually subside once you get used to the new reality. But it’s still a shocker.
Good luck and congrats, and I hope you got in pretty close to the bottom. (Closer than I did, at any rate!)
eastcoaster,
Congratulations. You did what was best for you and your son. Please keep posting and letting us know how you like or dislike being a homeowner.
As long as Suzanne researched the deal for you, you’ll be fine.
I have my own set of problems going on. The DW is getting a bit anxious to buy something, but all it takes is to let her go out looking and then she realizes there isn’t anything out there that she likes. I may be adding toAZ to my name if the valley of sun keeps dropping. Housing is way cheaper down there and you get streets wide enough to park cars on them.
Why the people of Washington county pay for the houses that are built here is beyond me. The liberal dream here seems to be to put everyone in an apartment with no kids and 2 dogs and ride the public transportation everywhere. Maybe it is for most here, just not for me.
AAAHHAHAHAHA!
“A Tampa appraiser unfamiliar with Woodlawn valued the property at $315,000 — $60,000 less than the amount the buyer and seller agreed was a fair price… Critics complain that the companies sometimes hire inexperienced appraisers who know little about an area.”
http://www.tampabay.com/news/article1089753.ece
You think the buyer would jump for joy and cut his offer for the place. Instead - he cries “please take more of my money”
Something doesn’t add up.
yeah.. what doesn’t add up is the amount of money the bank was supposed to lend him is no longer the correct percentage of the appraised value of the house.
If the seller drops his asking price to fit the lower appraisal, fine.. but if not, the buyer needs to cough up a bigger d/payment.
Is this good because Brazil is being responsible or bad because Brazil has to be more responsible?
Brazil Credit Growth Is ‘Not Sustainable,’ HSBC Says
April 23, 2010, Bloomberg
April 23 (Bloomberg) — Brazilian credit is growing at an unsustainable rate and will slow when the central bank begins to raise rates at next week’s meeting, said Emilson Alonso, chief of Latin America for HSBC Holdings Plc.
HSBC expects the central bank to raise the benchmark lending rate by 3.5 percentage points this year to 12.25 percent, Alonso said. Brazil’s credit as a percentage of the economy rose to 41 percent last year from 23 percent in 2004, he said.
“Brazil is booming and it’s not sustainable,” Alonso said in an interview in Acapulco during a bankers convention today. “Inflation is showing signs of some increase.
Brazil’s banking assets had been growing at 20 percent to 25 percent a year and may decelerate to 10 percent to 12 percent growth, Alonso said. HSBC has about 5 percent of Brazil’s banking market share and doesn’t see that changing.
“I think the government is going to start to curb a little bit this fever that is in Brazil,” he said.
Hi Ben,
I noticed on the front page of the housing blog the link to the HBB forum is missing.
I’m surprised that more HBBers didn’t call BS on the “greatest leap in house sales since 1963″ splattered all over the MSM today.
Small print: Signed contracts do not equal sales. Greatest rise “on a percentage basis.”
How many banks did the FDIC take over this week?
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/edmundconway/100005184/its-all-greek-to-me/
What you won’t hear from the MSM on the “contained” Greece debt crisis. And yes, it’s a DEEPENING and Eurozone wide crisis.
I have not corroborated this, but it is interesting.
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/computerized_front_running.php
Very interesting stuff.
(Though not new - this information came out about 9 months ago I think.)
There was some other article that showed how JPM and GS have an innate advantage in being the only tier 1 trading companies, that have the most direct access to the computerized trading core. That’s why these companies love high volume - the higher the volume the higher their profits, regardless of which way the market moves.
http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/onair/transcripts/home_buyers_vs_home_investors_100422/
ISSA VIAYRADA, POTENTIAL 1ST TIME HOME BUYER: In this area, it’s not so much about finding a house. It’s losing it to the highest bidder.
DHUE: The higher bidding is coming from investors, some who want to buy and rent the home and others who want to flip it. One thing they have in common, says realtor Mario Rubio, is cash.
MARIO RUBIO, BROKER, RUBIO REAL ESTATE: The sellers or banks own, they would prefer to make a deal with a cash offer, which makes sense at this time, because the banks have been (INAUDIBLE) for so long.
DHUE: Cash buyers now make up a quarter of the market. Ten percent is considered a normal level. In areas like DC, southern California and Florida, those investors are crowding out first time buyers. Some homes, like this one Viayrada is looking at, were sold only a few months ago and now are back on the market.
VIAYRADA: This last house that we saw was a good example. It doesn’t look like they did much to it and it’s back on the market for $75,000 more. It’s been said though that they’re going to fix it, maybe it’s too early to tell.
DHUE: During the boom, the FHA discouraged flipping, but it has recently relaxed rules to make it easier for investors to resell a home to an FHA buyer. Theodore Tozer heads up Ginnie Mae, which backs FHA loans. He says with so many homes for sale, it’s important to encourage all players to help stabilize neighborhoods.
VIAYRADA: This last house that we saw was a good example. It doesn’t look like they did much to it and it’s back on the market for $75,000 more. It’s been said though that they’re going to fix it, maybe it’s too early to tell. ”
ugh flippers are back
Time for “The Scarlet F”. A red upper case F affixed/painted/marked on the For Sale sign of any obvious “Flip” to warn the sheeple they are about to get “F”leeced on this property.
Not advocating that anyone here should ever deface such signage, but I understand how some of the fleeced public could do this kind of thing.
Any way I get some electrolytes this weekend?
On Bill Moyers this evening was William K. Black, former regulator and all-around accomplished fellow.
He made the statement that John Paulson knew the housing collapse was imminent and was in a major rush to get the Abacus deal done. The bag holder in this case is 27 year old Fabrice Tourre, a young buck who was a bit exuberant in email (I’m guessing he ignored the prudent communications training that most large corporations offer or he thought he was immune). Black went on to say that the Abacus deal was huge, and absolutely received the scrutiny of the top leaders of Goldman.
I’m waiting to see the MSM use the word “unexpected” in this story.
All of this silliness comes back around to the fact that lenders can separate themselves from repayment risk. Stop that, and you stop the debt-driven bubbles.
They’re not really even lenders at that point. It’s a great scam. Basically write any value of the product (debt egg - a loan), and sell it. They’re just debt packagers.
With the massive jump in home sales, and increase in prices, backstopped by the Fed’s printing presses (I chuckled at the new 100 dollar bill - if they want people to stop printing money, they should start with themselves), if this is the new economic model in this country, I’m thinking, if you can’t beat em, join em. If the government is willing to print until there is a currency crisis, and we can’t stop them, by golly, I should be willing to “package a loan” and get in on the action. Unfortunately, this kind of scam will probably be limited to the big political contributors.
Of course, they don’t want a currency crisis. Politicians want the bread and circuses to continue. So they’ll limit the scam to only the lawyered up big political contributors. That way, the wound can be a slow continuous hemorrhage, not an uncontrolled gusher.
“…..he ignored the prudent communications training…….”
Aka “……he went to “Tire College”, but I guess he was sick on “Lug Nut Day”….”
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