Bits Bucket For May 3, 2010
Post off-topic ideas, links and Craigslist finds here. The DC meetup link at the forum is here. Click here for the shadow inventory thread.
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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Just got back from Panama. Wow, it seems like economic insanity is everywhere. Panama City seemed like a shorter version of New York City, with 30-40 story buildings sprouting up like weeds. It’s apparently a city of 2 million in a country with a population of 3 million. We were invited to come down with some doctor friends who are “fast tracking” their Panamanian citizenship by investing in Teak farming. Every day I’m surprised how many intelligent and hard working friends and neighbors are convinced that everything we look around and see is a lie perpetrated by overborrowing and too loose credit. It seems the only people who now don’t have that opinion are those living on credit cards and HELOC’s.
Anyway, you all might be surprised to hear this, but I think the HBB has actually kept me from thinking things are *too* bad! Sure, the economy is tough right now, and sure we could rapidly have a very bad monetary situation; but just hearing how many of you out there are grounded and ready to find a way to make things work even in tougher times gives me some peace of mind. Just the fact that Ben still has this blog running “speaking truth to power” settles my soul a bit. Censorship nazi’s haven’t started controlling our free discourse, even if they do try to troll and misdirect. It will be the day that Ben’s blog gets taken down for “economic security” reasons that I will really start to worry.
Anyway, in case you all can’t tell, it sure feels good to be back on the soil of the good ole US of A. Not that Panama was bad or dirty, just feels go to have you old coon hounds in the same neighborhood is all. My one new world traveller’s tip being back from Panama; find Ron Abuelo rum. Drink it. Enjoy the sweet bourbony flavor as it slips down your gullet, and the complete lack of a hangover the next day, no matter how many Cuba Libres you partake in
“Panama City seemed like a shorter version of New York City, with 30-40 story buildings sprouting up like weeds”
Build it and the foreigners will come, right? Everyone in the US is a millionaire, so no worries!
Your friends are fleeing the US for the safety of…Panama? Hmm, I’m not sure about that one. (Thanks for the rum tip, though. I’ll have to find some and give it a try.)
“Censorship nazi’s haven’t started controlling our free discourse, even if they do try to troll and misdirect.”
BTW, where has Joey been the past couple of days?
Gift horse.
They’ve been trying to misdirect us, all right, all the way right down the gutter.
That’s exactly what I was getting at… No detail goes unnoticed on the HBB. Funding must have dried up for good ole Eddie’s troll posts also.
“Every day I’m surprised how many intelligent and hard working friends and neighbors are convinced that everything we look around and see is a lie perpetrated by overborrowing and too loose credit. It seems the only people who now don’t have that opinion are those living on credit cards and HELOC’s.”
Need to be flexible like Jim Rockford in these times. When your current identity is fully hoc’d, simply reach for the new id press sitting in the back seat, and create a new consumer you!
We do kind of piss in the soup, as the saying goes.
southerners say “pissed in your whiskey”.
At 17% UE (U6 chart) the economy IS that bad. Be glad you’re not one of them.
How much of the boom is due to drug money laundering?
Neon lights blazing the night sky…all glass and steel…
a Moat yes you have to cross a bridge to enter the building, and the huge sink in the bathroom but a tiny one in the kitchen…but wait…check out that bathtub….
http://www.condo-living-west.com/nyblog/2009/11/introducing-murano-long-island-city.html
dj, it looks very “other world” to me.
Destined to become the Harvest Gold and Shag Rug awful of the 2010s.
When you start out with a vision that includes a bathtub not designed to comfortably hold the human body, awkardly placed in the shower so that you can truly enjoy neither one, and a master sink that has a uselessly large drainage bowl but not enough counter space to hold a bar of soap (they actually have it precariously hanging off the side in the “dream” photo), you know the reality must really suck. I am actually a huge fan of modern, but when “cutting edge” means form over function, its time to fire the architect.
It wasn’t built to be functional; it was built to be marketable.
Then they shouldn’t have built it in Long Island City.
By the way, I recognize how mean the previous statement is, but gentrified or not, that sort of over the top modern is not what I think of when I think of Queens. Now, I did move over 5 years ago, but still….
It reminds me one of my biggest pet peeves - placing actual glass or stainless steel bowls on top of a bathroom sink, sometimes also made of glass. When the Realtor asks me what I think about the remodeled bath in such a home, my first response is it’s a total gut job that appears to have been done by some moron that watches HGTV - could they not comprehend that someone has to actually live there after the initial photos are taken. Then again, I have many design pet peeves, anything faux or antiqued makes we want to vomit. Those new distressed kitchen cabinets, especially the white ones intentionally created to appear dirty and neglected are deal killers. I think the industry tries to create horrible fads so that it is always time to renovate.
The bowls are called “Philippe Starck Design”. It’s a design that has spread all over the world, like other manias. Designed by someone who never cleaned a bathroom in his life. Adds 40 percent to the price of a condo.
not price…value…it adds 40% to the value.
My pet peeve is 2 sinks next to each other in the Master. I like my space and privacy. I can see the his/her bath idea being appealing or put the sinks back to back so that I don’t have to see what you’re doing.
Could be worse - our house originally had a “Hollywood” bathroom. Door, toilet, vanity, bath (which divided the space), vanity, toilet, door. I called it the Palindrome Bathroom, and I claim it was built that way so the occupants could encourage each other.
I fixed it.
Growing up we had something similar, but with doors between the bath and the and the vanity/toilet rooms. By sharing the tub between two bathrooms you get most of the utility of 2 bathrooms with only 1.5 bathrooms. My father almost became appoplectic when some idiot tax appraiser tried to say that we had 2.5 bathrooms. Dad won that fight.
Wow…the only places I’ve seen bathrooms like these are college dorms. Crazy.
Natalie-
Thank you. I just saw some flips this weekend that truly were ridiculous. The open house uhs thought I didn’t have an unexpressed thought, and I did. I’m a lady after all. My husband gave me that “look”.
Attn: uhs Stop trying to “mirror” me. It’s transparent as h*ll. Oh, and I agree about the distressed looked. It boggles my mind in apparel too. Why spend top dollar to look like a slob. People are idiots.
I agree. As one who has always cleaned her own house, when I look at a square sink I think of needing to take a toothbrush to the corners every day to prevent mold. The only thing dumber than that sink is the bowl-shaped sink that has no counter and allows the water to run down your elbows and onto the floor.
I recently convinced a young couple to buy a house last updated in the early 70’s. They initially wouldn’t consider it, even though it was priced 25% less than smaller houses in the same neighborhood. There are beautiful wood floors under the avocado green and orange shag carpets. After the floors are refinished and the walls are painted they will enjoy their $850/month mortgage and $2000/year property taxes. That house sat on the market for 8 months because people couldn’t see past the decor.
I am a fan of the 1970’s California contemporaries, especially those that come with hardwood floors, a big mature wooded lot, large windows and skylights, slate and/or brick floors, huge rock fireplaces, soaring ceilings with wood beams, etc.
Doesn’t ANYONE realize that it’s impossible to prepare food properly in a kitchen without stainless steel appliances, a large island covered with granite, eco-friendly sustainable bamboo flooring, and an in-counter pasta warmer ? Any floor that has ever, ever been touched by an avacado carpet, even if updated, should not be considered. I think I must have grown up in a hovel, even though stainless steel appliances for residential use hadn’t been invented yet.
What is an “in counter pasta warmer”?
I must not get out enough.
I work in one of those kitchens - dual drawer dishwashers, plus a full size one. Subzero monster fridge/freezer. Huge 6 burner plus grill stove, oven, convection oven, warming oven, baking oven and ginormous granite counter with biga** sink, plus the little extra instant hot/cold spigots. All stainless, but I prefer white. I could care less about how it looks (whole house has that OC model home faux Med look). I have to admit that is fun to work in. Having a housekeeper 3 times a week, really makes it a blast. It matters how much you cook and how. I have been a clean food person for over 30 years - as little processed, packaged or prepared foods as possible.
An in-counter pasta warmer is a nice little gadget I have only seen once, altho I don’t get out to the McMansion models anymore. The contraption is a stainless steel well (about 2 ft deep or a little less ) big enough to hold one of those pasta pots ( the tall ones ) with a built-in burner at the bottom. In it is a nested, removable pasta pot, with a nested strainer, with a nested lid to complete the job, surmounted by a tall faucet set-up. The idea is that you are able to have your pasta pot all ready to go, so that you don’t have to go through the rigorous process of taking your pasta pot out of the cupboard, filling it up with water, putting it on your stainless steel restaurant-grade stove with the 8 burners, heat up the water, throw in your pasta, then remove it when the pasta is fully cooked, take it to your sink, and drain the pasta. This labor-saving option cost $ 1250 at the time ( 2002 ), not including the installation. (Consider the hole that had to be cut into your 2″ thick custom granite countertop, and estimate from there). To me, it seemed like adding an extra tail onto show sow already dressed in a tutu and tiara. It was funny. The salesman didn’t get why we were laughing at it so hard.
if i was italian and had a huge ass family i cooked for all the damn time…i’d go for it.
Was this the couple you were talking about a week or two ago? If so, good for you. It’s nice to know there are a FEW agents out there who care about more than the size of their commission check.
Yes, sf. I outed myself. But you guys know that it’s my hobby!
My plan is to do it fulltime after I retire from my real job in a couple of years. It really is fun.
hmm…. looks like a Japanese style “steep” tub. I don’t see it as likely to catch on in this country.
That sink design reminds me of the giant sinks in some of the big-box stores around here (e.g. WalMart). They are about 20 foot long and have a single drainage area albeit multiple faucets.
When I first saw one I had to figure out whether it was a communal sink or a communal urinal. Fortunatly I made the right determination.
Funny, Dennis, funny. Good sarcasm energizes me far better than any cup of coffee.
Unfortunately for anybody who you tell the story too, however. The first option would have made for a more entertaining visual.
My understanding is that it can used for both!
I’m a guy and when it comes to bathrooms design, I’m EZ.
Plenty of hot water, a bar of soap and a pretty girl to shower with.
Round it out with a couple of monster bath towels and terry cloth bath robes …and you’re almost done !!
The bathroom sink is bigger than the bathtub.
Okay, I’m from Michigan where the bathtubs are large and roomy, but I honestly thought that that was an oversized wastebasket that was somehow out of proportion to the rest of the room when I first looked at the picture. I did not realize it was supposed to accomodate one’s buttocks in a sitting position.
Nothing says ‘time to relax’ like crouching in the fetal position in a bathing bucket.
Maybe it’s a “green design” to minimize the use of hot water.
I thought it was one of those walk-in tubs for elderly & disabled, but small looking because of camera angle. Would be weird to put a tub like that in a new luxury apt.
Personally I kind of like the tub. One of my pet peeves - and the main reason I never use a tub - is how square the “standard” tub is. It makes it quite uncomfortable to lay in. Assuming that one has enough shoulder room (looks iffy actually), and assuming that there’s some kind of seat built in (can’t tell from the pic - but as stated it would be pretty useless otherwise) it does seem like it’d be fairly comfortable and probably more water-efficient - having less wasted space on the sides.
Definitely not something for kids though of course.
Also it does needs some kind of table / side panel for all the implements.
As for the sink - yuck - as stated very non-functional. At least it’s better than a pedestal sink - but you wouldn’t put one of those in your master bath anyhow.
Clawfoot tubs are the best for taking baths. Ideally an old, cast iron and porcelain one- not some lightweight modern replicate.
Why bother with a bathtub at all? Would look nicer with just a shower.
That’s pretty cool! I dig it.
$6 million budgeted to hire extra judges for foreclosure cases
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s courts would get some help in moving hundreds of thousands of foreclosures through the system with $6 million for hiring additional senior judges and case managers included in a state budget being debated by lawmakers this evening.
The clerks of courts also would be give a $3.6 million allocation in the state budget to deal with the foreclosure bottleneck. Lisa Goodner, state courts administrator, said.
The one-time allocation for the judges, which is included in the state’s 2010-2011 budget, is less than the $9.6 million that judges requested through the Florida Courts Administration earlier this year.
“Still, it’s $6 million more than we had before,” said Peter Blanc, chief judge of Palm Beach County’s 15th Judicial Circuit. “It will give us a chance to address the backlog.”
Statewide, the courts administration estimates there are about 500,000 foreclosures.
Blanc said earlier this year that Palm Beach County had 55,000 cases backlogged, but believes that may be a few thousand fewer today. Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Meenu Sasser, who oversees the foreclosure division, could not be reached Friday.
Court leaders are expected to meet next week to discuss how the money will be divided among the circuits. It could be used to hire senior judges, case managers and magistrates.
Foreclosures in Palm Beach County are taking up to two years or more to move through the courts.
They should allocate some of that money to buy stocks and pillory posts for realtors, appraisers, mortgage lenders and of course FBs.
They announce the Greek bailout and still the Europeon exchanges fall.
What if they gave a Greek bailout and nobody came? -John Lennon
It is shocking when gloomsters sell their stocks despite good news on the bailout front.
i wonder if spain, portugal and britain will get bailouts.
Portugal might, as it’s relatively “small”. Spain and Britain are much larger and will require running the printing presses during overtime.
require running the printing presses ??
I don’t think they have one…May they can borrow BB’s for a bit…
The Germans will all have to work 16-hour days 7 days a week, until they drop dead in their 70s and 80s, in order to support the hordes of Greeks, Portugese, Italians, Spanish, and Irish who will all retire at 53.
Just like most Americans will have to do in order to support govt workers who retire in the 50s.
Or 40’s
…
That was a couple years before Detroit agreed to let auto workers retire with full pension and benefits after 30 years on the job, regardless of their age. In practice, that meant a worker could start at age 18, retire at 48, and spend more years collecting a pension and free health care than he or she actually spent working.
…
(though supposedly these aren’t going to be government workers before long, after GM “repays” the TARP)
my wife has an uncle that is in his late seventies. he retired from the suffolk county, ny police department. he’s just been hanging out for the last 25 years.
Mike,
Part of extend and pretend is to make fresh loans of ever increasing size to pay bills and service the old loans.
Japan did it for decades, why can’t we?
The definition of a Ponzi scheme.
yeppers…stealing that one…and gonna put in on FB status (if that’s ok with you).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/rogerbootle/7669697/Greek-crisis-exposes-default-lines-running-through-the-eurozone.html
Gee, can’t imagine why the Euro would fall.
“Thousands Decry Arizona Imigration Law”
While the untold story is?
Millions Support Arizona Imigration Law
only racists support enforcement of the nation’s laws. come on, get with the msm program already.
+1 (Sarcasm understood)
Apparently Arizona already has a law that penalizes employers of illegals. Surprise, surprise- it’s not enforced. I’m all for ending illegal immigration, but we should go after their employers- that’s who really create the whole problem. Until and unless we go after the employers, it’s not hard to portray the whole anti-illegal alien thing as political theater with elements of racism.
Arizona, State of Fear
The state doesn’t even enforce the immigration laws it already has.
By Mark Gimein
Posted Thursday, April 29, 2010 - 2:17pm
Slate Magazine
Last month… local authorities shut down a Subway franchise in Phoenix for two days for employing an illegal worker. The shutdown, as Phoenix’s New Times newspaper reports, was the very first time that Arizona authorities had used the power of Arizona’s last major anti-immigration law—passed back in 2007—to sanction a business in the state.
In that amazing fact—one fast-food outlet penalized in more than two years under a law that was ostensibly supposed to stop businesses from employing illegals—is encapsulated all the bad faith of the anti-immigrant movement.
The main concern publicly voiced by the anti-immigration lobby is that illegal migrants take jobs away from legal residents. Ostensibly, Arizona’s 2007 law addressed this directly by penalizing employers who hire illegals. Billed as a solution to the demand side of the illegal immigration equation—discouraging folks from crossing the border by stopping businesses from hiring them—that law has, in practice, been meaningless.
Described sometimes as “loosely enforced,” the Arizona law providing sanctions for employers is, as the New Times brilliantly demonstrates, simply not enforced at all.
If you hire them, they will come. Part of the political difficulty here is that this sets different arms of the Republican party against each other. Many of the business interests like the cheap labor that illegal immigrants provide, but to a large degree, it is the populist anti-Washington wing of the party that is in competition with them for those jobs. Arguably, the tea-party movement is a sign that the populists have tired of being pandered to but getting no action.
There is no “populist anti-Washington wing” of the Republican Party. There is only the sleazy, corrupt Establishment wing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wall Street, the neo-cons, and the military-industrial complex. Then there is a much smaller faction of anti-Establishment Republicans around Ron Paul. The tea party are a manipulated rabble co-opted by K Street whores like Freedomworks. The fact that they adore Sarah Palin, who is playing them for fools and making good money at it, tells you what a clueless bunch most of them are.
If you want to go after the employers, why not take it to the next step and go after the customers that buy the strawberries and other fruits and vegetables and the meat and the houses the non-unionized cheap labor produces or harvests?
I’m just wondering if Americans really want those fruit picking
jobs and are Americans being honest ,because it seems like there was a acceptance of the shit jobs going to illegals to keep food prices lower and other prices lower ,or maybe there was acceptance because it allowed for the employer to make more money . Have you ever seen those documentaries of the working conditions that the illegals are working under in some of those industries ? OK ,what to do with about 20 million illegals who have anchor babies born in the United States also
while the whole situation is burdening the Welfare State ,while the crime element is increasing .
I am beginning to see a big pattern of the Governments welfare to Big Business by lack of enforcement of the laws in more areas than just illegal immigration . Is anybody getting the feeling that welfare has been going to the fat cats and the general population is left to fight over the
crumbs that are left while Main Street pays for the supplementations to BIg Business ? Look at who all the lobbyist are ? Who in the hell thought making laws favorable to
outsourcing and outsourcing manufacturing was going to be a benefit to Main Streets job base ?
I guess I’m getting a little sick of the argument that we are so fortunate to have cheap WalMart crap and other cheaper products because of illegals or outsourcing or manufacturing going outside of America . I just think that more money is going into the Industrial complex pockets . And now a bunch of these Corporations want to put the burden of the Pension promises on the government bail out Pension fund , yet they also want to keep padding the pockets of the Health Insurance and provider pockets and now mandate the public has to buy a policy . This really wasn’t my idea of Health reform ,and the financial reform package is equally insulting .
I’m just wondering if Americans really want those fruit picking jobs
Want? Not really. There was acceptance of “them” taking the jobs back when there were REIC jobs to be had, and the house was bringing in a good 3rd income. Most of that’s dried up, but there’s still UI. When that’s gone and Americans have to do whatever it takes to survive, they’ll do what they have to, and won’t be friendly to any competition that’s not supposed to be there.
From what I have read automation could make these jobs a lot less nasty, but what incentive do growers have to automate when cheap labor is readily available?
Like someone once told me, why buy a backhoe in 3rd world countries when you can hire an army of guys with shovels for far less money?
I’d just like to note that a lot of the migrant fruit pickers have work papaers and are here legally.
Hey, if you pay enough, even ‘mericans will start doing some hard work. Just about everything has a market price, including hard, physical labor. But like tract homes in the Inland Empire, people might not be happy with it. The difficulties are:
1.) If picking paid well enough to get legal residents to do it, the prices would be high enough that American farmers could no longer compete with foreign ones. For crops that aren’t well suited to automation, the labor of picking them can be a pretty big input. At some level, we’re competing against central american labor, whether they’re working here or in Mexico makes little difference.
2.) If prices got that high, people would consume less of these labor intensive crops.
“I’d just like to note that a lot of the migrant fruit pickers have work papaers and are here legally.”
Exactly james.
If you want to go after the employers, why not take it to the next step and go after the customers
The customers have no way of knowing how the product got to them. The employers can easily know if they want to.
“why not take it to the next step and go after the customers that buy the strawberries and other fruits and vegetables and the meat and the houses the non-unionized cheap labor produces or harvests”
Perhaps because that’s all these customers may be able to afford since the employers shipped the jobs overseas to pad the fur-lined pockets of their shareholders and themselves? And it’s perhaps because it’s harder to know what you’re buying than who your hiring?
MrBubble
Labor costs have very little to with your food price.
The middle man (the buyer and distributor who then sells to the grocery stores) are where the real costs are.
Number 2349 in the continuing “Real Life Disinformation Explained” series.
I’ve been doing more and more of my own growing and more direct from the farm purchasing for that fact. Just found a source for lamb. Now if I can just get that boar hunt going…
“Until and unless we go after the employers, it’s not hard to portray the whole anti-illegal alien thing as political theater with elements of racism.”
_________
And when we go after employers, we get sob stories like this from the Washington Post:
NEW BEDFORD, Mass — During her two years working in a garment factory alongside hundreds of other immigrants, there were few assurances in Marta Escoto’s uncertain life. One of them was the promise she made to her children — I will always take care of you.
It was a promise she was unable to keep this month. Escoto and at least 360 other illegal immigrants were taken into custody here March 6 after a raid by federal agents on the Michael Bianco Inc. factory — a military contractor 60 miles south of Boston.
A single mother, she was separated from her two young children, who were born in the United States and are U.S. citizens. Daniel, 2, asked for her constantly, while relatives worried about the care of frail 4-year-old Jessie — who cannot walk and suffers from an illness that prevents her from absorbing enough nutrition.
Who’s fault/responsability is it that she didn’t see far enough in the future?
There was a law passed about 5 years ago hear in AZ. It said that basically that if you were not a citizen of AZ you had to pay out of state tuition.
There soon followed an interview on NPR. There was this girl, an admitted illegal, complaining about here rise in tuition. Said she worked at the local KFC. All of this on NPR.
I tried to contact ICE. Try as I might there was no one to call or email. Good job guys.
She’s made a public record, and there’s no one to call. I give up. Probably wont be me, but someone is going start to resort to some rough justice. I at least will attest to the fact that “they fell down the stairs”
A couple of days ago, it was cold, windy and snowing, a young (Mexican) woman stood at the bus stop, clad in a nothing but T-shirt and light cotton jacket. She said, in broken English, the bus is not coming and whether I have a cell phone. I said, “go into the hotel, and ask them to make your phone call”. She shook her head, looking scared. Moments later a huge SUV pulls up and she gets in. Probably the lady she cleans for picked her up, but was late.
I dunno Alpha. It’s kind of like leaving temptation available for the employers too.
Take the temptation away.
Plus unless there are really huge penalties, companies just factor that kind of thing into the business model.
Then hit ‘em with some huge penalties- that increase with every infraction. The beauty of employer sanctions is it doesn’t have to result in news coverage of hispanic workers getting dragged off their jobs and loaded on buses. In fact, they should just let the illegals walk out and leave, then arrest the employers. The rest of the businesses would cease employing IEs, and most of them, I suspect, would then self-deport. It’s a relatively easy way to solve a good bit of the problem. No jobs= no reason to be here for many of them. They’re not all looking for citizenship. Some just want some cash to take back home.
I doubt that there are many mainstream businesses avoiding the Arizona requirement that an E-Verify check be done on new hires. Whether that check is comprehensive enough can be debated.
Other, more loosely run, non-corporate operations that often do not even apply for business licenses or other basic hurdles are probably the only sources of illegal hiring in AZ at this point. What I think the 2007 law did was largely end the wink and nod employment practices of food outlets and some aspects of the construction trade.
The owners of many of the McDonald’s and Carl’s Jr franchises in AZ, plus some house builders, were the financial backers of 2008’s Arizona Prop 202, the “Stop Illegal Hiring Act,” which would have actually weakened the 2007 requirements, removing the E-Verify requirement. I was very pleased when voters rejected that measure, which had heavy advertising,etc in favor of it versus little to none against it. Apparently, more people actually follow these issues with greater attention to detail than I had believed.
Meanwhile at the Santa Cruz illegal alien rally….
“A large group of protesters demonstrating at a May Day rally for worker’s and immigrant rights downtown broke off into a riot vandalizing about a dozen businesses around 10:30 p.m. Saturday, police said. Many in the group were carrying makeshift torches as they marched, breaking storefront windows and writing “anarchist graffiti” on buildings, according to Capt. Steve Clark. Many businesses sustained multiple broken windows including very large storefront windows at Urban Outfitters and The Rittenhouse building. Police believe at least 15 businesses suffered damage.”
Maybe we could bus some to DC for the next rally.
They come to perform the riots Americans won’t do.
LOL… Pricessless, InCO.
Colorado ,that’s the best joke all month .
Thanks, every once in a while I get it right.
POTD!
What do you call Los Angeles, circa 1992?
Anyone will riot - the common denominator is not race. Rather, the common denominator is not understanding the value of money and the work required to earn it.
People on the public dole (including those elitists eating sugar from Mummy & Dada’s silver spoon) have no concept of money.
It is they who riot. Those used to getting something for nothing.
It was a joke, eudemon. A play on the meme that illegals do jobs Americans don’t want to (not true of course) but also a jab at the fact that Americans hardly showed any real reaction to the bailing out of the banks with their tax money while being laided off and kicked to the curb themselves.
Hired thugs are so unreliable.
The only person arrested in connection to the downtown destruction was Jimi Haynes, a 24-year-old transient from Fresno County. Police said Haynes was seen breaking two large display windows at Dell Williams Jewelers, a longtime family-owned local business. He was booked into County Jail on suspicion of felony vandalism and a parole hold.
Police said Haynes told them he learned about the May Day rally from a flier posted at the Santa Cruz anarchist cafe, Sub Rosa, which is at Spruce Street and Pacific Avenue. Several fliers had circulated around town and on the Internet advertising a May Day street party in Santa Cruz. The fliers didn’t contain names or groups responsible for the event.
“Take back this day. Kick it with us for a truly sick night of mayhem,” a flier said.
Another flier billed the event as a chance to “celebrate, eat, drink, dance and take over,” while another predicted a “massive” street party.
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_15002029?source=most_viewed
—–
“..take over”.. “..a truly sick night of mayhem..”
No need to hire thugs. They will do it for free if you invite them.
nothing a 12 gauge and some bird shot wont fix.
If I were a store owner I’d be standing in the door with one clearly displayed. Be sure to smile and properly greet your customers.
The cafe seem like it’s only one grenade from being a solved problem.
Course, if we wanted to have fun, we could sell them a couple grendades with the secondary fuse taken out.
LOL at the wording - did they really write the words “anarchist graffiti” on the buildings? Seems a little… generic.
The story was quoting Capt. Clark.
Yeah I know. It just looked funny the first time I read it. Throw me a bone here.
Some of the video from the Atlanta “protest” was truly scary. Left no doubt about what many of these “activists” wish to accomplish. Che and Workers of the World Unite! Interesting to note that Cuban and Venezuela have had to turn to China to subsidize both these “Workers’ Paradises”. Bwahahahaha! Wouldn’t surprise me if China was pouring money into these “activist” groups. Wonder how “brave” these activists would be in the face of Chinese military.
I can think of another, much larger country to the north of Venezuela and Cuba that has also turned to China for a huge subsidy.
+1. Exactly.
Riots and misbehavior at a pro-immigration rally? Down the memory hole with that story.
Check out the plunge protection action on Goldman Sachs stock today in the face of another ratings downgrade. Very impressive! I would take that as a buy signal. This stock is resilient.
=============================================================market pulse
May 3, 2010, 8:25 a.m. EDT
KBW downgrades Goldman on regulatory headwinds
By John Spence
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — Keefe, Bruyette & Woods on Monday downgraded Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS 148.01, +2.81, +1.94%) shares to market perform from outperform. “As long as [the] SEC’s civil lawsuit and a possible criminal probe remain underway, and Goldman Sachs remains the lightening rod for populist and congressional anger against Wall Street, it will be difficult for the stock to come close to recognizing its inherent value,” KBW analyst Robert Lee said in a note. Goldman shares were up 2% in premarket trade Monday
lightening… present participle of lighten…to make lighter.
lightning.. an atmospheric, electrical discharge.
lightening = the effect of multiple ratings downgrades on Gollum’s market capitalization
If anyone out there in blog land reading this post believes the activity described below does not constitute bank fraud, I am interested in hearing their explanation. To put a finer point on it, I would like to know why the managers at Goldman Sachs and their brethren in the Megabank, Inc banking cartel are not facing more serious and broad based legal scrutiny for their seminal role in laying the groundwork for the financial crisis. Have we reached a point in the development of our financial system where it is no longer reasonable to expect the enforcement of a rule of law on banking activities conducted by the largest and most powerful firms on Wall Street?
* LAW
* MAY 2, 2010
Senate’s Goldman Probe Shows Toxic Magnification
Wall Street Banks Repackaged Same Risky Bonds into Numerous Securities, Spreading the Pain Across Multiple CDOs
By CARRICK MOLLENKAMP And SERENA NG
Even at its peak, subprime lending accounted for a relatively small portion of overall mortgage lending. Yet losses from these mortgages caused deep damage to the financial system.
Now, documents released by Senate investigators last week provide clues in understanding why the losses were so severe. The documents show how Wall Street banks packaged and repackaged the same risky bonds into securities that ultimately helped magnify the impact of defaulting subprime mortgages on the financial system.
In one case, a $38 million subprime-mortgage bond created in June 2006 ended up in more than 30 debt pools and ultimately caused roughly $280 million in losses to investors by the time the bond’s principal was wiped out in 2008, according to data reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
This was a central finding of the Senate investigative panel probing Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s actions in the mortgage market. In a memo last week, panel Chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) said Goldman’s work “magnified the impact of toxic mortgages” by replicating mortgage securities in debt pools known as collateralized debt obligations as well as CDO derivatives, and also in an index that tracks subprime bonds.
…
You need to read wmbz’s post below, “Confessions of a Wall Street Nihilist”. That will answer your question. You won’t like the answer.
After reading the post, if you are ever in a position of proximity to one of DaBoyz, or their supporters, and they happen to be getting mugged, raped, gang-banged, or whatever, run in the other direction. Don’t help them. These turds are truly soulless maggots. Given the depth of mental depravity, I shudder to think what they do to their children.
If CDOs are fraudulent, then so are options.. and every other form of derivative.
I bet my brother $5 he can’t make 3 free throws in a row. The guys standing around want in on the action, and eventually place bets among themselves amounting to five thousand dollars..
He tosses an air-ball, and loses the $5 bet… but the total losses due to his miss are a thousand times that.
Fraud.. yeah.. right.
And if your brother is smart, before he throws he takes bids on whether he’s even going to try. Never bet more on somebody than THEY have riding on the outcome. True in sports and true on Wall Street.
If he doesn’t even try, all bets are off. His taking bids on “whether he’s even going to try” would be a totally different wager.
—-
Point is that side-bets which “derive their value” from our bet (derivatives like CDOs) are not fraudulent in and of themselves.
If my brother had a secret bet, and missed on purpose to win money, then it’s obviously fraud.
Did anyone contact the FB -J6Packs in the mortgage pool and bribe or somehow coerce them to miss their mortgage payments? Not that I’ve heard.
Thanks for letting us know that you have no clue what the difference is between GAMBLING and INVESTING and neither does Wall St..
As long as it was disclosed that the “investments” were synthetic (just a bet on where the pool of loans would go, not an actual ownership interest in the pool on the long side), it isn’t fraud because they haven’t lied to the investors. And it isn’t “fraud” in the sense you seem to mean because the bank has no responsibility to the economy as a whole so doing something that is bad for the economy (but complies with all the other fairly limited rules) has never been made illegal. Greenspan and the “markets always self regulate” gurus thought that the banks wouldn’t kill the economy because it would be bad for the firm long term. They just forgot that long term doesn’t matter when you can make $40 million in bonus money in a year. It doesn’t take too many years to make the long term irrelevant.
The company is just a logical structure. The only actual, physical actors are the individuals. The people at the top (and beyond certainly) see the logical structure as a vessel for their own enrichment. Eminently reasonable, but that’s the reality. With a “financial engineering” firm, there is not even another raison d’être (widgets, healthcare, beans, bullets) other than being a vessel by which to enrich the participants.
Greenspan’s naivete continues to astonish me.
California voters, beware of politicians who are in league with Gollum.
From the Spin Room: Whitman defends Goldman “distressed” investments, Poiz strikes back
San Jose — Even after last night’s hour-long televised debate between former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner concluded, the punches and counterpunches were still being thrown in the “spin room” — on issues like Whitman’s investments into Goldman “distressed” funds…
In the post-debate press conference, Whitman sharply defended herself Sunday against charges made in a new attack ad called “Vulture” from the Poizner campaign; Poizner has charged that in her Goldman investments, Whitman profited off the home mortgage market collapse and the misfortunes of others.
Whitman said “that could not be farther from the truth.”
She argued she and many other well-known Americans, including Warren Buffett, have put their money in so-called “distressed” funds — which she characterized as investments that actually help rebuild and provide capital to America’s failing businesses and thereby put people back to work. “The people who believed most deeply in this country were people who bought those assets,” she said.
…
Here’s Shaky Hand Productions’ (and this one especially shaky, sorry) look at Poizner’s press conference response to Whitman’s defense of her investments into Goldman’s “distressed” funds:
…
I can’t wait for the election to be over, for I am exhausted at seeing the ads. Jerry Brown has the fewest.
Blow up yer TV. Throw away yer paper.
Problem solved. We just left ours three rentals ago. Bu.. Bu.. But how will I know what to buy (next)??
Whitman or Brown.
Big dose of FUBAR coming to California very soon.
Is there such a word as “FUBARer”?
(EMFUBAR?)
Focus on Goldman backer Buffett
By Janet Whitman , Financial Post
April 30, 2010
NEW YORK — Investors are eagerly awaiting Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s annual meeting this weekend to hear what “Oracle of Omaha” Warren Buffett thinks lies ahead for besieged Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Some investors wonder whether Mr. Buffett, who made a US$5-billion investment in Goldman at the height of the financial crisis in September 2008, may admit he regrets the bet now that Goldman is embroiled in a securities fraud scandal.
“The real question is would he take that position today, and I think the answer would be ‘no’, ” Ron Carson, Omaha’s second-largest money manager and an investor in Berkshire Hathaway, told CNBC. “The brand has been tarnished. The criminal investigation, whether they have a case or not, is going to hang over the stock.”
Some other industry observers think Mr. Buffett, who believes a good reputation and strong character are paramount, will stand by Goldman.
The Wall Street titan has long been regarded as the best brand-name in investment banking, but that standing has been ravaged over the past two weeks and 20% of its market value wiped out.
…
Top executives at Goldman, including its chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, have denied any wrongdoing and have vowed to vigorously defend the company in court.
Charlie Munger, Mr. Buffett’s right-hand man, told The Wall Street Journal in an interview after the SEC charges were filed that he believes Goldman did nothing illegal, but may have engaged in “socially undesirable” activities.
“They were very competitive in maximizing profits in a competitive industry that was permitted to operate like a gambling casino,” Mr. Munger said. “The whole damn industry lost its moral moorings.”
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Focus+Goldman+backer+Buffett/2972869/story.html#ixzz0msLYdJVL
Buffet invested for some reason. Remember, this is the guy that INVENTED the phrase “financial weapons of mass destruction”
He knew something and as usual, he isn’t telling.
I’ll wager none of Buffet’s investors that made money, gave it back on moral grounds.
And you would WIN!
Maybe they need a new slogan: “Our clients realize that getting screwed can actually be quite enjoyable.”
Bloomberg
Blankfein Meets Shareholders Suffering Goldman Integrity Crisis
May 03, 2010, 4:32 AM EDT
By Christine Harper
May 3 (Bloomberg) — Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s chief executive officer, faces another test of his leadership this week when he addresses the firm’s annual shareholder meeting 10 days after a showdown with U.S. senators.
Investors are eager to hear how Blankfein plans to repair the New York-based firm’s reputation, tarnished by a fraud lawsuit filed last month by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, federal prosecutors’ scrutiny of the firm’s mortgage business and the release of e-mails that show Goldman Sachs employees disparaging securities they were offering to clients.
“Their reputation is suffering,” said Julie Tanner, assistant director of socially responsible investing at Christian Brothers Investment Services Inc. in New York, which manages $3.8 billion and has owned Goldman Sachs stock since 2000. “They need to take some significant steps to stem the tide of what is happening right now and try to reposition themselves.”
…
In 1789 during the French Revolution wasn’t there a little old lady sitting off to the side of the guillotine doing her knitting who would say “Off with his head”? I hope she shows up the Goldman’s annual meeting.
“…(a) socially responsible investing at Christian Brothers Investment Services Inc. in New York, which manages $3.8 billion and has owned Goldman Sachs stock since 2000.”
Isn’t this an oxymoron?
Movie Gallery to close all U.S. stores: report
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Movie Gallery Inc., which filed for bankruptcy in February with plans to close hundreds of stores, will now shut down the balance of its 2,415 stores, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the Journal said that the company, which operates the Hollywood Video chain, will liquidate all of its stores over the next couple of months.
The company employed about 19,100 people when it filed for bankruptcy. According to the online edition of the newspaper, Movie Gallery notified employees on Friday of the added closures.
It is the second largest movie rental chain behind Blockbuster. This is the second bankruptcy filing for the company.
Movie Gallery was not available for comment.
Movie Gallery actually OWNED all of those stores? I would have thought they’d be franchises.
Another example of creative destruction. The Netflix model superseded video stores, and now Netflix has to change and become a direct download business. That’s risky, as there’s nothing to prevent the cable companies from growing their own download library from the current hundred or so pay-per-view titles to a much larger number.
Not to worry as the internet providers will eventually extract their pound of flesh from the direct download business.
I remember when our local Blockbuster would be mobbed on Friday and Saturday nights. We haven’t been in there for ages (we get our stuff from the library). There is a pizza place next to it that we frequent for carry out. Whenever I swing by for a pizza the place (Blockbuster) looks like a ghost town, even on Fridays and Saturdays. Netflix nailed their coffin shut.
Blockbuster: good riddance to bad rubbish
Exactly. Blockbuster had a bad habit of screwing their customers with late fees (1 hour? too bad) and getting exclusive first rights to new releases and charging triple for the rental.
That’s why I started my one man boycott. I’d love to think that I brought ‘em down, but I’ve given McDonalds and Subway the same treatment and they don’t seem to miss me!
All I watch anymore is Netflix instant stuff. If only I didn’t need phone or cable for broadband!
Hang on to that old Blockbuster’s Card, it could become a memorabillia collector’s item someday.
I’ll have to pay attention to our local closings, and maybe get some used DVDs cheap.
Pawnshops have tons of CD’s for cheap.
Horse buggies.
Travel Agents.
Black and White TV Repairman.
Video Stores.
Hispanic TV Repairmen.
Non-corrupt politicians.
Newspapers.
Home phones.
Common sense.
thin children.
Cash.
Quality.
I meant black and white as in the color of the TV, not the color of the repairman.
How about TV repairmen in general? Most TVs are already disposable.
Not the higher end ones. You don’t just throw away a $2500 plasma. At least I wouldn’t.
Remember those tube testers they used to have at the electronics stores? Despite the labeling, there really WERE user serviceable parts inside. Of course the flip side is that solid state electronics don’t go bad nearly as quickly.
Those “no user serviceable parts inside” labels are so fake….
A piece of stereo gear I owned had such a label. When it stopped working, I opened it up and found a blown fuse soldered onto the motherboard. I got a cheap fuseholder and soldered it in place, and put in the appropriate cartridge fuse. Worked fine ever since.
“Not the higher end ones. You don’t just throw away a $2500 plasma. At least I wouldn’t.”
I said most, not all. And even then I wonder how “repairable” a Plasma TV really is. Is suppose that the tuner or power suupply could be replaced but if the screen itself conked out I’m guessing that it might cheaper to replace the whole set.
High end Plasma /LCD is one of the few electronic items where it’s worth getting the extended warranty. $200 or so for 3 years warranty on a $2-3K product…good insurance.
They already started going out of business a while ago around here.
The internet has killed so many business models it’s not funny. Heh.
Blockbuster is going down as well.
20 most stressed ~~ The Associated Press
Here are the 20 most economically stressed counties with populations of at least 25,000 and their March 2010 Stress scores, according to The Associated Press Economic Stress Index:
1. Imperial County, Calif., 31.27
2. Merced County, Calif., 28.29
3. Lyon County, Nev., 27.96
4. San Benito County, Calif., 27.26
5. Sutter County, Calif., 26.41
6. Yuba County, Calif., 25.8
7. Stanislaus County, Calif., 25.46
8. Iosco County, Mich., 24.89
9. San Joaquin County, Calif., 24.78
10. Nye County, Nevada., 24.19
11. Lapeer County, Mich., 24.03
12. Cheboygan County, Mich., 23.89
13. Luna County, N.M., 23.82
14. Lake County, Calif., 23.78
15. Kern County, Calif., 23.62
16. Tulare County, Calif., 23.17
17. Madera County, Calif., 23.04
18. Fresno County, Calif., 22.72
19. Clark County, Nevada, 22.65
20. Boone County, Ill., 22.59
Being that it’s every bit as ground zero for the housing bubble crash as CA and NV, and certainly moreso than Mich and Illinois, IMO it’s very interesting that there are no Florida counties on that list.
I’m surprised Dauphin County, PA isn’t on the list. Harrisburg (capital of PA) is getting ready to declare bankruptcy, due primarily to the total failure of a huge incinerator project. They’ve been defaulting on their bonds for about 4 months now. Perhaps that’s a city-only problem though and not a county problem.
The AP’s index found the average county’s Stress score in March was 11.5. That was down from February’s average score of 11.8 and January’s 11.9. The January average was the highest since the AP began publishing the stress index a year ago.
The index calculates a score from 1 to 100 based on unemployment, foreclosure and bankruptcy rates. A higher score indicates more stress. Under a rough rule of thumb, a county is considered stressed when its score exceeds 11.
Just over half the counties were deemed stressed in March. That compares with nearly 55 percent in February.
Here are the tallies of the top twenty “most economically stressed counties” by state:
CA 12
NV 3
MI 3
NM 1
IL 1
We’re number 1! Without bothering to do the calculation, I bet we also would top the chart in terms of average March 2010 Stress Score.
If the home “owner” has been living rent free for the past 18 months, and collecting the 99 weeks of unemployment, I don’t think he’s all that stressed.
I wouldn’t be so sure. The uncertainty of not knowing when you will be kicked out and not knowing if your benefits will be extended has to take its toll. The people I know who are collecting UI certainly aren’t partying like its 1999. They worried sick about not ever finding a replacement to the job they lost. Not everyone on UI is a deadbeat.
The only people who think folks collecting UE are deadbeats are very sheltered, naive, condescending, and insufferably arrogant.
See? Not one bad word!
Sure thing.
__________________________
Michael Van Gorkom was laid off by Yahoo in late April. He didn’t panic. He didn’t rush off to a therapist. Instead, the 33-year-old Santa Monica resident discovered that being jobless “kind of settled nicely.”
Buoyed by severance, savings, unemployment checks or their parents, the funemployed do not spend their days poring over job listings. They travel on the cheap for weeks. They head back to school or volunteer at the neighborhood soup kitchen. And at least till the bank account dries up, they’re content living for today.
“I feel like I’ve been given a gift of time and clarity,” said Aubrey Howell, 29, of Franklin, Tenn., who was laid off from her job as a tea shop manager in April. After sleeping in late and visiting family in Florida, she recently mused on Twitter: “Unemployment or funemployment?”
It may not have entered our daily lexicon yet, but a small army of social media junkies with a sudden overabundance of time is busy Tweeting: “Funemployment road trip to Portland.” “Funemployment is great for catching up on reading!” “Averaging 3 rounds of golf a week plus hockey and bball. who needs work?”
As frivolous as it sounds, funemployment is a statement about American society. Experts say it’s both a reflection of the country’s cultural narcissism — and attitudes of entitlement and self-centeredness — and a backlash against corporate America and its “Dilbert”-like work environment.
“Recession gives people permission to be unemployed,” said David Logan, a professor at USC’s Marshall School of Business. “Why not make use of the time and go do something fun?”
What? No citation of source?
FAIL
Oh, and thanks for proving my point.
(You don’t even know how, do you?)
link
Thanks for the link.
So… it’s anecdotal. Well that just proves everything!
Confessions Of A Wall St. Nihilist: Forget About Goldman Sachs, Our Entire Economy Is Built On Fraud
This article first appeared in The New York Press.
There was a strange moment last week during President Obama’s speech at Cooper Union. There he was, groveling before a cast of Wall Street villains including Goldman Sachs chief Lloyd Blankfein, begging them to “Look into your heart!” like John Turturro’s character in Miller’s Crossing…when out of the blue, the POTUS dropped this bombshell: “The only people who ought to fear the kind of oversight and transparency that we’re proposing are those whose conduct will fail this scrutiny.”
The Big Secret, of course, is that every living creature within a 100-mile radius of Cooper Union would fail “this scrutiny”—or that scrutiny, or any scrutiny, period. Not just in a 100-mile radius, but wherever there are still signs of economic life beating in these 50 United States, the mere whiff of scrutiny would work like nerve gas on what’s left of the economy. Because in the 21st century, fraud is as American as baseball, apple pie and Chevrolet Volts—fraud’s all we got left, Doc. Scare off the fraud with Obama’s “scrutiny,” and the entire pyramid scheme collapses in a heap of smoldering savings accounts.
That’s how an acquaintance of mine, a partner in a private equity firm, put it: “Whoever pops this fraud bubble is going to have to escape on the next flight out, faster than the Bin Laden Bunch fled Kentucky in their chartered jets after 9/11.”
And that’s why this SEC suit accusing Goldman Sachs of fraud is really just a negotiating bluff to give Obama’s people some leverage—or it’s supposed to be, anyway—according to the PE guy. He dismissed all the speculation that the fraud investigations would turn on other obvious villains like Deutsche, Merrill, Paulson & Co., the Rahm Emmanuel-linked Magnetar and so on.
http://exiledonline.com/confessions-of-a-wall-st-nihilist-forget-about-goldman-sachs-our-entire-economy-is-built-on-fraud/
AHA! Beat me to it, wmbz. That article is a must-read.
“Our Entire Economy Is Built On Fraud”
Is this supposed to be some kind of revelation, or has it pretty much always been like this?
Always. I think it started the first decade we were a nation.
Google “greenbacks” and “continentals.” Then “robber barons.” “Boos Tweed.” etc., etc.
The list is very long.
It’s especially great reading the comment section that follows the
article . I agree with the comment number 57 by a poster named
Chris ,but a lot of the comments were great .
The power of boycott seems to be very powerful if anyone has the guts to do it . It’s a question of letting them ,the culprits ,that are a small percentage, to continue to take the money with their fraud games ,or
get the system back to one that isn’t designed to give scraps to the unconnected ,or pawns not chosen while they steal the rest . I see these blackmailers as the biggest scum on earth . Rather than giving them the money let them fall and we can give real relief to the truly innocent and we can take their wealth and give it to the victims . Of course FDIC can pay off on the loss ,and the other loss will have to be figured once we get the loot back from them ,the culprits ,the ones that lie about holding up the economy so that’s why they had to be bailed out . We don’t need their unproductive paper shuffle world of casino games where we pay them when their casino games fail .
Everybody has already loss a bunch anyway so who cares about their blackmail that unless we pay them we will lose .
ECB to accept junk. I guess they have printing presses across the pond, after all.
May 3 (Bloomberg) — The European Central Bank joined the international rescue of Greece, saying it would indefinitely accept the country’s debt as collateral regardless of its country’s credit rating, underpinning gains in the bond market.
Cool. Spend away!
BTW - anyone seen a firm tally of who’s on the hook for what? I’ve seen statements that Germany’s on the hook for the most, though have only seen very tentative numbers. The U.S. is of course committed-by-proxy for a fair amount as well, via the IMF.
There are some professors in Germany who were prepared to file a lawsuit as soon as any bailout is implemented. Seems they think it is illegal under EMU law. I heard about this a few weeks ago. Not sure if they have been appeased or if the suit is going forward.
“The choice is between collapse or salvation. The choice is between fleshing out a very ambitious and difficult 3-year program of fiscal consolidation, a program of structural reforms … or the country reaching an absolute dead-end.”
~Greece’s Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou
If by “salvation” he means “kicking the can down the road”, then yeah he’s right.
Eventually socialism fails as a means to share the wealth and, instead, poverty and misery are equally distributed.
Thank god capitalism is so good about sharing the wealth. Especially when comes to bailing out the rich.
U.S. Role in Mortgage Market Grows Even Larger
The U.S. government’s massive share of the nation’s mortgage market grew even larger during the first quarter.
Government-related entities backed 96.5% of all home loans during the first quarter, up from 90% in 2009, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. The increase was driven by a jump in the share of loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-owned housing-finance giants.
By providing a steady source of liquidity to the mortgage market, the government has helped housing markets to stabilize. However, “Fannie and Freddie have to get smaller and less relevant in order to revamp them, and instead, every day they’re getting bigger and bigger and bigger,” said Paul Bossidy, chief executive of Clayton Holdings LLC, a mortgage analytics firm.
The collapse of the mortgage market in 2007 steered more business to the Federal Housing Administration, which insures loans, and Fannie and Freddie, which were taken over by the government in 2008 as rising losses wiped out thin capital reserves. Congress also increased the limits on the size of loans that Fannie, Freddie and the FHA can guarantee, raising the ceiling to as high as $729,750 in high-cost housing markets such as New York and California.
96.5%
Just to revisit these entities’ original mandate (from Wikipedia):
“Fannie Mae was established in 1938 [8] as a mechanism to make mortgages more available to low-income families.”
So the question is:
a) Have we now reached the point where 96.5% of our families are low-income? Or,
b) Have these entities overstepped their mandate?
Mission creep.
a) The goal is to make about 96.5% of the population “low income” so this makes sense in a sick sort of way.
b) Yes, they overstepped their mandates, but nothing will be done about it.
There is no crowding out. Plus, inflation is contained.
May 3 (Bloomberg) — Banks are increasing purchases of U.S. government securities to pump up profits while lending to businesses languishes near the lowest levels since credit markets started to freeze almost three years ago.
Holdings of Treasuries and agency debt rose each of the past five weeks, an increase of $63.2 billion to $1.5 trillion, according to Federal Reserve data. At the same time, commercial and industrial loans climbed less than 1 percent to $1.27 trillion and are down 23 percent from the record high level in October 2008.
Hmmm, I hope they’re relatively short-term maturities. If interest rates go up, I presume the banks have to write down the value of lower-interest bonds they purchased in the past.
Oh, wait. Accounting rules don’t apply to TBTF banks. Silly me.
People used to advise buying what China buys,
Should we also consider buying what banks buy?
Everything our gov does is for the banks.
Has everybody wiki-ed the 1st and 2nd Bank of the United States, yet? (separately. It was 2 different banks)
I thought the homeowner insurance problems in Florida would be nearing an end, what with no hurricanes hitting the state in the last couple of years. Then I saw this in the Sarasota paper this morning.
“Under questioning by his boss, Florida’s top insurance regulator revealed his office is using new and risky strategies to keep property insurance rates low and troubled companies in business.
“Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty, for the first time, publicly described these strategies, which include allowing a nearly bankrupt insurer to continue writing policies without warning homeowners.”
www dot heraldtribune dot com/article/20100503/ARTICLE/5031052/2416/NEWS?Title=Florida-rolling-dice-on-insurers
“Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty, for the first time, publicly described these strategies, which include allowing a nearly bankrupt insurer to continue writing policies without warning homeowners.”
Good catch, Bill. Interesting to note that this revelation sort of comes on the heels of Charlie Crist’s announcement of an independent run for Senate, and just prior to the start of hurricane season. A wonderful illustration of wmbz’s post above, too.
Well, at least people aren’t trying to hide it anymore. A little sunshine is the best disinfectant.
I was re-reading All The President’s Men the other day, and was struck by this passage….
The futuristic complex [Watergate building], with its serpent’s-teeth concrete balustrades and equally manacing prices ($100,000 for many of its two-bedroom cooperative apartments) ….
Odd how $100K for a 2 bedroom coop in downtown Georgetown seems to be so “menacing” not that many years ago.
100,000 in 1970s dollars is $398,650 today.
Asking prices for 1 bedrooms in my new nabe (nice, but not Georgetown) in buildings of the same era are in the $360K range.
Typical. Higher prices AND smaller packaging.
lol..I thought Watergate was near the bottom Foggy Bottom ?
GMAC again profitable! Another great American success story!
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/GMAC-posts-1Q-profit-plans-to-apf-2755674366.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=3&asset=1cdf2a96bbb5b298de4f165b878203a6&ccode=rd
You know the numbers are real!
The UAW fought like hell to elect Obama.
They got ownership of the compnay at the expense of shareholders and bond holders. They have a never ending stream of money from Obama filtered though GM. They suffered no layoffs. They still pay workers $73 an hour and retirement after 30 years of “work”.
They got Obama’s henchmen to go after Toyota on some bogus accelerator issue, cutting Toyota’s sales for years to come.
And as an added bonus, they now have the MSM telling people GM is profitable.
Best millions of dollars ever spent on the part of the UAW.
GM officially states average line worker pay at $34hr (includes all benefits)
New hires start at $12hr.
GMAC is not part of GM. As of June 2009, approximately 40.1% of GMAC was owned by Cerberus Capital Management and related investors, 35.4% by the United States Treasury, 9.9% by General Motors, and the remaining in a blind trust.
Seriously, turn off the neocon hate radio. You’re not looking real credible.
$12 an hour? Maybe in 1927.
From GM’s annual financial statement:
“The total of both cash compensation and benefits provided to GM hourly workers in 2006 amounted to approximately $73.26 per active hour worked.”
How about turning off msnbc and learning something?
You do understand the difference between “pay”, and “total of both cash compensation and benefits”, right?
Hang on… post coming
Ki, several Google sources say you’re either a liar or misinformed.
He said 2006. Things have changed a lot for autoworkers since then.
Yep. For the worse.
New Sales Taxes - Seem to hit labor and jobs, we all know that keeping tax cuts for the elite while taxing services that the middle class uses will create jobs??
In an attempt to balance their budgets, states like Michigan and Nebraska are considering making you take a haircut, by extending the
state sales tax to include personal grooming services.
A bill proposing a 5% state tax on a slew of things, including comedians, clowns, jugglers, ventriloquists, petting zoos, paintball and even haunted hay rides will be voted on this summer and would go into effect in January 2011.
While you fly high, your bank balance may deflate with a new tax on already-pricy hot air balloon rides. At least in Kentucky.
The southern state is looking to raise $350 to $400 million a year by taxing high-end services such as limousine and hot air balloon rides, golf green fees, private landscaping, armored car services and professional laundry services.
“High income folks are not paying their fair share,” said Representative Jim Wayne, who helped to introduce the bill. “We’re looking to expand the sales tax onto services primarily being used by the wealthy –
Jim Wayne this is laughable, I would guess the vast majority of limo rentals are middle class and upper middle class. The elite own their limo. Hot air balloons and golf??? If you want to tax the wealthy try an income tax Jim.
In Michigan
Plumbing, fur storage, beauty parlors, funeral services, diaper services, massages, bowling, coin-operated video games, meat slaughtering, movie tickets, zoos and pest control are also on the state’s hit list.
Nebraska
Earlier this year, Nebraska was considering a tax on about 60 services not currently subject to the state’s sales tax, hoping to raise more than $44 billion by 2011.
In addition to a tax on the use of dating services, a whole slew of other odd services were in the running, including scooter and motorcycle repairs, shoe shines, reflexology, massages, tree trimming, taxidermy, fur storage, detective services, garment alterations, dance studios and armored car services. Getting your gun or camera repaired would have also cost you an extra few bucks
Our gov hates the middle class there is no other conclusion that can be drawn.
Nebraska
Earlier this year, Nebraska was considering a tax on about 60 services not currently subject to the state’s sales tax, hoping to raise more than $44 billion by 2011.
WTF! Nebraska has less than half of Colorado’s population and out state budget is $18B. What could Nebraska possibly need $44B in extra taxes for?
This has to be a typo. Maybe they are talking of $44 million in additional sales tax revenue. 44B would be about $27K per capita.
The gov doesn’t hate the middle class, the rich do.
A strong middle class tends to keep the rich honest. Something the rich think they don’t have to be.
+1000
What’s fun to watch is the huge number of people who think they are elite falling down to reality. Middle management, Doctors, Lawyers, small business owners, high end sales people, entertainers, etc etc the target is squarely on you.
Yep. The courtier wannabes. With attitudes to match.
PI NewsWire dot net
Goldman Sachs’ Piracy
Posted on April 18, 2010 by Staff
Shaking Wall Street to its core, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil suit against Goldman Sachs & Co., accusing the 130-year-old upscale investment bank of defrauding investors by creating risky derivatives or collateralized debt obligations [CDOs] for its short-selling client Paulson & Co., no relation to former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. Goldman’s client, John Paulson, Chariman and CEO of Paulson & Co., shorted the market, betting against Goldman’s derivatives, earning his hedge fund $1 billion. Ranked 45th on Forbes Magazine billionaires list, Paulson has a net worth of around $12 billion. While there’s nothing wrong with hedge funds selling short or betting against the market there’s something fishy when the deal was orchestrated by a Goldman Sachs’ executive, making oodles of cash short-selling mortgage backed securities
When the tech-rich Nasdaq crashed in 2000, losing nearly 80% of its value, plummeting from 5,000 to a low of 1,130 by Nov. 2002, hedge funds, like Paulston & Co., shorted tech stocks, crashing the market. Had Paulson been connected with insiders at the Nasdaq surely the SEC would have cried foul. Hedge funds bet against derivatives in 2007, eventually tanking the real estate market, causing defaults, bankruptcies and the run-on-the-bank, eventually seizing up credit at Wall Street’s biggest banks, investment houses and institutions. Hedge fund short-sellers like Paulson contributed to the financial collapse prompting Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, President Barack Obama, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and certain key members of Congress to demand radical changes to the country’s banking system, including reinstating the depression-era Glass-Steagall Act.
Important parts of Glass Steagall were relaxed in 1999 under former President Bill Clinton, when Congress passed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, permitting bank holding companies to engage in risky stock market investing. When Goldman Sachs encouraged Paulson to short CDOs in 2007, the stock and real estate markets collapsed, causing the cash crisis at major financial institutions. Calling derivatives “exotic trades,” Goldman executive Fabrice Tourre boasted about creating “without necessarily understanding all of the implications of those monstrosities,” which Paulson shorted in 2007-08. Paulson paid Goldman Sachs $15 million to devise investments designed to fail, selecting bands of subprime mortgages [loans for unqualified borrowers] and creating collateralized debt obligations. Several domestic and European banks lost billions on these risky investments.
..
What about that article that was posted yesterday that somehow they duplicated securities and than shorted them and that created duplicated losses on the other side of that trade ? If I was reading the article right , the junk securities were manufactured over and over by some form of fake clone of the original security (CDO),that could be shorted . I have heard of leverage ,but this is creating ghost securities (based on the original CDO’s ,and creating duplicated Credit Default Swaps on the other side of the trade .
. In this unregulated world of the casino games they really came up with nothing more than bizarre fake securities and insurance schemes . And we bailed this crap out .
Think about it ,wasn’t it kind of shocking that AIG needed 160 billion to pay off their bets . Doesn’t it sound a little weird that late in the housing bubble that One Company and one Jerk in one department was able to bet 160 billion in credit default insurance bets .Now think about it from the standpoint of it being duplicate Insurance bets on the same junk securities that allowed for more money to be made if you were on the right side of the trade .
I hope I’m wrong about the way I read that article ,but I don’t think
so .
Important parts of Glass Steagall were relaxed in 1999
Ah, I see. So the parts that created the FDIC were unimportant.
permitting bank holding companies to engage in risky stock market investing. When Goldman Sachs encouraged Paulson to short CDOs in 2007, the stock and real estate markets collapsed,
Was Paulson & Co. a bank holding company? And what does “risky stock market investing” have to do with shorting CDOs? This is a complete non sequitur.
I was going to say the same. The cluelessness just astounds me.
For all the blame the Glass-Steagal “repeal” gets for supposedly causing the housing bubble - most people don’t even realize that it didn’t even apply to Goldman Sachs - who didn’t even become a bank holding company until Sep 2008 - long after the crash began! (let alone the bubble itself)
That’s part of the reason why I think the whole Goldman Sachs fiasco is a huge red herring - taking attention away from the real perpetrators - primarily JPM and Citi.
Who - BTW - were the two entities largely responsible for the creation of the Federal Reserve. Which is noteworthy given the proposed increase of the Fed’s powers; IMO such power increase would not be feasible if Citi and JPM were under the heat of spotlights right now the way GS is.
No , Goldman Sachs wasn’t allowed to be a lender until the repeal of Glass -Steagall ,or I should say a middleman for selling CDO’s lending securities . Also the repeal allowed for the regulated banks to go into investments that usually were the onces that Investment Banks made .
Exactly.
And yes, I’m astounded by the cluelessness as well.
You don’t even have to get that far into the article to catch the cluelessness. Elite investment banks aren’t called “upscale.” Save upscale for organic grocery stores and expensive day spas. They are called “white shoe.” Used to be that firms that hired Jews couldn’t be included, but that requirement was relaxed a long time ago.
The bid war frenzies stirred up by housing tax credits and holding shadow inventory off the market make it more challenging for prospective buyers to exercise due diligence in making a high risk decision to buy (or not to buy) a home. Under the chaotic market conditions fostered by Uncle Sam’s hair-of-the-dog housing market stimulus measures, gamblers, fools and fraudsters have a relative advantage over financially prudent individuals who foolishly attempt to play by the rules.
May 3, 2010, 12:01 a.m. EDT
Don’t fall victim to a lying home seller
Don’t let a disclosure form fool you — know what you’re buying
By Amy Hoak, MarketWatch
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Buyers beware: In a tough real estate market, it’s tempting for sellers to stretch the truth or lie by omission on their disclosures, and cover up minor — but material — problems with a home in order to close the deal.
That makes it even more essential for buyers to do their due diligence before closing, including having a professional home inspection and even chatting up the neighbors to make sure they discover all essential facts about a place before buying it.
New York House of the Day: Quarry views
One homeowner in Westchester County’s Bedford community snapped up a unique property over a quarry as soon as it came on the market. He spent two years renovating the space, which is now on the market for $6.5 million.
“When times are tough, people get tougher,” said Mike Crowley, broker of Spokane Home Buyers in Spokane, Wash. “Verify that they’re telling the truth.”
…
As Gulf Oil Spill Spreads, Local Seafood Industry Hangs in the Balance
Time.com
They call this city the End of the World, and for many shrimpers whose entire lives have been spent here in Louisiana’s southernmost outpost, it suddenly feels like it. As officials continue to struggle to stem nearly 200,000 gallons of crude oil that has surged from the base of the Gulf of Mexico in what may be the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, Mississippi River delta residents are trying to make a buck as long as their fragile business survives. (See pictures of the oil spill.)
Early Saturday morning, 48-year-old Billy De La Cruz moved buckets of plump white shrimp - “the size of golf balls” - from the barrel of his boat onto the back of a pickup truck. He’d just returned from days pulling shrimp three miles off the coast of Louisiana. Next stop: New Orleans, a 90-minute’s drive to the north, where he hopes to get $10 a pound for shrimp that would normally cost $3.50. Grocers and restaurants there and across the Gulf Coast fear that the oil spill will diminish a regional dietary staple. “It’s going to be unreal,” he says of the anticipated demand.
I heard a report stating that this ‘leak’ is bigger than has been reported, and that there is no way to be sure that drilling trying to stem the flow or capping, may take a number of months.
All in all this is one major problem, one hell of a mess.
No Jo ey said it was no problem
Oil leaks into the ocean all the time and he said it was no problem.
It seems like the oil companies should have been required to have shut off valves, but that would have been regulation, and we don’t like regulation.
The as-yet-untold story: the impact of this on the U.S. budget deficit.
It will come.
Not to diminish the hardship of the gulf residents - I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes. But make no mistake - this will cost the U.S. government big - possibly quite a bit more than the $60+ Billion for Katrina relief.
130 more jobs cut at BAE Systems as layoffs spike above 600
May 3, 2010
WEST CHESTER TWP. — More than 600 people have lost their jobs at BAE Systems since March as the company said it will lay off an additional 130 workers over the next several months.
“As a company, BAE Systems works very hard to secure new business and maintain steady rates of employment. Unfortunately, as we move closer to completing some key, long-standing defense contracts which are coming to an end, we likewise must continue to adjust and align our Butler County workforce with existing customer needs and production requirements,” said Jennifer Robinson, spokeswoman for BAE Systems.
The latest round of cuts comes just a few weeks after the armoring company announced it cut 180 full-time employees. In March, BAE slashed 300 contractor jobs, which brings the local layoff total to 610 employees.
There are some BAE shops in Norfolk (acquisitions.) Someone on the local paper comments was going on about how these American companies are vital. I got to lay the smack down with, “Uh, BAE = British Aerospace Engineering.” Pure pwn.
Could use some expert help.
My father passed away unexpectedly 4/24. My mother is living with us temporarily. They are FBs, in that they bought a rural place in 2005 for $150k. I estimate it is not worth more than $100-$125k today and they owe about $142k (yes, they did a 2nd for $$). So, they are underwater. I spoke to her about a strategic default and becoming a renter. She is very excited about this.
Their house is 80 miles north of the metro area in the boonies. She needs to be closer in and we have found literally hundreds of rental places that are within 10-15 minutes of us.
So, couple of questions:
This is in MN (non-recourse state I believe), can she simply “walk-away” and send Wachovia the keys?
Would she qualify for that new(er) program for $3k of relocation expenses? If so, what documentation would she need to complete?
I normally would not advocate this, but there are a number of extenuating circumstances at work here.
Anyone who needs more info can contact me directly mark dot sampica at fs dot utc dot com.
Your help is very much appreciated.
I have a similar question for North Carolina. Is NC a recourse or non-recourse state?
NC is recourse, as is pretty much every state east of the Mississippi river.
“My father passed away unexpectedly 4/24.”
No life insurance policy?
Not much…
two term policies, very small (i.e. under 20k)
Had not-so-good health (diabetes, high chlorestoral) which made insurance pricey. Wish he would have had a nice size policy now…
Tgun,
Sorry to hear about your father. Minnesota, however, is a recourse state, so the lender can persue a deficiency judgement against your mother (but may decide not to). A $20,000 judgement isn’t the end of the world (its actually among the smaller losses we’ve heard of on these boards), but if its simply too much for your mother, she may be able to erase the judgement by declaring bankruptcy.
You should consult an attorney. The sooner the better, because for the rest of this year that debt won’t be considered taxable income on her federal tax returns (individual states laws vary; she may have to pay tax on the amount of the deficiency on the state level.) Mom needs to contact her lender to look into a short sale because those take many months.
Its my understanding that she will not qualify for the $3,000 of relocation assistance unless she short sells the property (she will need the bank’s cooperation and find a buyer). If she walks away/mails in the keys, she gets nothing.
Get an attorney to help you through this.
You might want to check about the 2nd mortgage - if you are in a non-recourse state, I am not sure whether that covers your 2nd mortgage as well as the first, or just the first one only. The holders of the 2nd mortgage may come after you.
If you get what I mean.
Does anyone know definitely?
As long as YOUR name or your sibling names are not associated with the debt, then you have no responsibility to cover your moms butt.
Of course that doesn’t mean the bill collectors can stop calling your home since she is now living there………….get the point.
hint put your answering machine on 5 rings most debt collectors auto dialers default at 4 rings……and always use caller ID.
Buffett: Value Added Tax a Good Thing
FOXBusiness
A value added tax is likely a foregone conclusion in the United States, three of the leading lights of American business told FOX Business on Monday.
Berkshire Hathaway Chief Executive Warren Buffett, Vice Chairman Charlie Munger and board member and Microsoft (MSFT: 30.98, 0.445, 1.46%) Chairman Bill Gates said that for the U.S. to continue to compete on the world stage, revenue must increase - and the VAT is the best option to ensure that.
“In the end we are not taxing enough, unfortunately, or we’re spending too much, probably some of each,” Buffett told FOX Business’ Liz Claman. “We’ve got a gap of 10 percentage points between what we’re raising in taxes and what we’re spending. One way or another we are going to have to close that gap in a major way, so if some of those taxes fall on me, or some fall on Berkshire, that’s probably the way it should be.”
for the U.S. to continue to compete on the world stage, revenue must increase - and the VAT is the best option to ensure that.
Hmm - since we’re talking about U.S. government revenue - we’re saying that the U.S. government “competes” on the world stage? I didn’t realize that. I though the mandate of the U.S. government was to try to provide services for Americans - I didn’t realize our government sold such services to other countries, competing with them for the opportunity to do so.
Am I missing something?
(scratches head)
“Buffett: Value Added Tax a Good Thing”
What is the economic principle involved with this purported ‘good thing’? Don’t first principles suggest that if you tax value, you will get less value?
lol…fall on him.
out of the goodness of his multi billion dollar heart…he is just gonna eat the tax himself…and not pass it to one single consumer.
i’m not sure buffet understands exactly what a VAT is.
I’ve heard this for almost 20 years. Wake me when it happens.
They want to tax labor rather than wealth and income.
VAT should do wonders
It will drive yet another nail into the coffin of the middle class.
The elite spend a much smaller percentage of their money on goods. Thus this is a tax directed at the middle class.
Again, the name of the game is to destroy the middle class.
Of course the middle is doing a damn fine job of helping destroy themsleves.
How’s that “unions bad, outsourcing good” working out for you all?
Working out pretty well for me actually - I have have a quite a bit higher standard of living because of it.
Obviously there’s a lot more to it than that - but that’s the side that always seems to go untold.
So, they won’t have to get all hypocritical and levy taxes on Roth IRA accruals. They’ll hit you with a sales tax instead. What happens when we reach the Idiocracy state?
The side where millions get shafted while you’re doing alright?
Yeah, ef you, I got mine.
4.5% unemployment when outsourcing was at its zenith recently say you don’t know what you’re talking about.
And it’s not just me - hundreds of millions of other U.S. people - pretty much everybody, reaped the same benefits of outsourcing that I did - that being lower costs for everything we buy.
MTA Lays Off 500 Station Agents
As part of its cuts, the MTA recently mailed out nearly 500 layoff letters to station agents across the city, calling for agents to turn in their badges and uniforms and to attend an “exit session” before the layoffs become official. The layoffs will go into effect on Friday, causing about 70 station booths to close but it will save the MTA $21 million a year. Booth clerk Jhesky Vega, who worked his last shift on Wednesday, told the Daily News, “I’m feeling lost and dazed. I’m walking around like a zombie.”
The layoffs came at a particularly bad time for Vega, who is planning his wedding in October. It came as a shock to him and many other workers, who believed their jobs would provide them life-long job security. Vega said, “The older clerks said, ‘It’s never going to happen.’ … And it actually did.” MTA officials say that at least one station agent will still be present in every station at all times. TWU Local 100 boss John Samuelsen has expressed anger over the cuts, accusing MTA CEO Jay Walder of using stimulus funds for big, money-draining projects instead of for keeping jobs. He said, “These layoffs are destroying hundreds of families. I hope he sleeps well tonight.”
NYC Police Question SUV Owner on Times Square Bomb, Mayor Says
May 3 (Bloomberg) — New York City Police interviewed the owner of a bomb-carrying sport-utility vehicle discovered in Times Square, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. He pledged to add scores of video cameras to bolster security in the most populous U.S. city.
The 1993 Nissan Pathfinder’s owner was tracked through the car’s vehicle identification number, which was stripped from the dashboard, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. The owner isn’t considered a suspect, police spokesman Paul Browne said, according to the Associated Press.
The city will spend $110 million to add scores of video cameras in Midtown Manhattan between 30th and 60th Streets, from the Hudson River to the East River, to expand a security network centered on Wall Street downtown, Bloomberg said today.
“I commit to you we will spend whatever is necessary in either federal or, if need be, city funds, to complete this project and to protect New York,” Bloomberg, 68, told reporters at a press conference in the Bronx.
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer will seek federal funding for a system using security cameras and license-plate readers to record and track “every vehicle moving between 34th and 59th Streets,” the New York Democrat said in a press release.
An awful lot of cars of that vintage and later have the VIN placed on most body panels too, in an effort to defend against “chop shops”. I guess these guys didn’t know that.
security cameras and license-plate readers to record and track “every vehicle ..
How will cameras prevent or deter some nut in a stolen car or Ryder truck from…
Conspiracy theorists.. I’d like to point out the obvious. This is a scam. Big Brother’s excuse to monitor innocent people’s activities.
That’s the basics. I leave it to you to flesh it out..
How will cameras prevent or deter some nut in a stolen car or Ryder truck from…
Simple - anyone who attempts a bombing knows that they’ll be caught and punished.
Unless of course they wanted to commit suicide. But who in their right mind would do such a thing?
Well all those cameras didn’t stop the London bombings a couple of years ago.
Ahhhh. Catcha twenty-two. Nice one.
I’m afraid joey has a point. A stolen vehicle plus stolen plates = useless camera.
It was like when the eighth graders all got/had to go into assembly hall and have their prints taken “just in case we got abducted so that they could find us”. Even at 13, that smelled bull fecal to me. I was pissed at my parents for not backing me and getting me out of there.
Cue the timely, “But if you don’t do anything wrong, what do you have to fear” argument.
“What happens when ‘wrong’ changes?” is my stock reply.
You always have plenty to fear from men who will do evil. And the most evil is usually done by those in power.
“What happens when ‘wrong’ changes?” is my stock reply.
+1
excellent response.
I always like to say “So - you wouldn’t mind them putting a video camera in your house then - right? You don’t do anything wrong do you?”
If the truck was parked next to Goldman Sachs, would it be considered anti-terrorism terrorism? A hero?
Debate on the other debt crisis Our view: Ugly truth about state pensions begins to emerge. ~ USA Today
Even the most casual observers know the federal government has a serious debt problem that’s propelling the USA toward the same cliff as Greece. Less well known is that certain states and localities are even worse off. Or at least their problems are coming to a head sooner, as they have fewer options for kicking the proverbial can down the road.
States can’t print money, and they have limits on borrowing. Much of their shortfall, moreover, is the result of pension obligations that are binding contracts, not just political promises. The looming shortfalls were hidden in recent years through a combination of outright deceit and overly rosy projections for annual investment returns. But the truth is now emerging.
Last month, a panel from Stanford University concluded that California’s public employee pensions were underfunded by $500 billion. That’s about $35,700 per California household. Nationally, the American Enterprise Institute estimates that state pension funds are more than $3 trillion short.
The problem is twofold. Many states have lavish programs that allow workers to retire in their 50s with ample pensions — and health insurance to cover them until Medicare kicks in. Second, regardless of how generous their benefits, some states have simply failed to put away adequate funds to cover them.
“That’s about $35,700 per California household.”
How does that stack up against the average CA household’s net worth?
How does that stack up against the average CA household’s net worth?
No problem as long as real estate always goes up.
I vote we levy a 500 billion dollar surtax on all government employees past and present to pay for the pensions. Those pensions are supposed to be ’self supported’, i.e. paid for by the workers. So let them pay for it.
What NEEDS to be done is the wholesale liquidation of the the pensions, with each person allowed to roll their share into a 401(k) or take it as a one time taxable lump sum (if taxes aren’t paid on pension contributions) or a taxfree sum if they were taxed on their contributions. (Not sure how it works or if it works the same at state/federal levels.)
Also, no free health insurance. They can pay the premiums like the rest of us.
There just isn’t enough bail to go around any more. Life was so much more pleasant back in August 2007, when subprime was going to be contained to $200 bn.
* EUROPE NEWS
* MAY 3, 2010, 2:46 P.M. ET
Greece’s Costs Exceed Bailout
By CHARLES FORELLE
BRUSSELS—The €110 billion ($147 billion), three-year bailout offered to Greece by euro-zone countries and the International Monetary Fund won’t be enough to cover Greece’s costs, an examination of Greek financial figures shows, setting Europe up for more tough choices if private markets don’t start lending again.
The bailout announced here over the weekend will solve one pressing problem: Greece will have enough cash to repay an €8.5 billion bond that comes due in two weeks. But the bailout package is based on assumptions that by the end of 2011 Greece will be able to borrow again from capital markets. That may be optimistic, say some bond-market specialists.
“Investors are going to look at [a fresh debt issue] with a lot of trepidation,” says Brian Yelvington, an analyst at Knight Capital in Greenwich, Conn. “It will come down to how Greece performs.”
…
Consumer Spending in U.S. Rose by Most in Five Months (Update3)
May 3 (Bloomberg) — Consumer spending in the U.S. rose in March by the most in five months, pointing to a recovery that may accelerate when the economy creates more jobs.
The 0.6 percent increase in purchases matched the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News and followed a 0.5 percent gain in February, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. Incomes climbed for the first time this year.
Growing demand at retailers such as Macy’s Inc. and Starbucks Corp. boost the odds hiring will accelerate, leading to a sustainable economic rebound. Household spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy, may contribute more to the expansion in coming months as incomes rise. “Consumers are resilient and they’re going to do what they’ve continued to do over many business cycles,” said Ward McCarthy, chief financial economist at Jefferies & Co. Inc. in New York. “As soon as they have the means, they will spend it. Consumer spending will support economic activity.”
0.6! Whoo hoo!
POINT (POINT!) 6!
We is rich! Honey git out yer good flip flops! We’re goin’ ta Wal Mart!
“As soon as they have the means, they will spend it. Consumer spending will support economic activity.”
They will continue to push the button to receive the food pellets irrespective of the shocks delivered. This is how they think of us. And perhaps they are right.
If the electric shocks are wage increases and job formation, the yes, they are correct. If the electric shocks are loaning banks money at 0% so they can loan it to our government at 3%, then no, it won’t work.
Hong Kong Air Pollution Has Two Worst Quarters Ever (Update1)
May 3 (Bloomberg) — Hong Kong’s air pollution was the worst on record during the past two quarters, sparking regular government health warnings and growing discontent among the city’s 7 million people.
Roadside pollution was either “very high” or “severe” 13.6 percent of the time from January to March and 23.8 percent of the time in the October-December period last year, compared with a previous high of 13.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, Environmental Protection Department data show. The oldest quarterly air pollution index figures showed it breaching “very high” levels 1.9 percent of the time in the third quarter of 1999.
Then-Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa declared in his 1999 policy address that fighting pollution would be a priority. Eleven years later, it has gotten worse, at times forcing schools to cancel sporting events and stirring concerns it could harm companies’ efforts to recruit overseas workers to the city.
“There aren’t too many other financial hubs where you have to check the pollution index before deciding whether to run outside or on the treadmill,” said Ben Hoad, a sales trader from Australia who’s lived in Hong Kong for five years.
Hong Kong’s Air Pollution Index reached a “very high” 102 today in Causeway Bay, a congested shopping area east of the main business district.
One of the downsides of scoring high on the Heritage Foundation’s Economic Freedom Index.
:rofl: I think I just hurt myself laughing.
How much of Hong Kong’s air pollution problems are due to manufacturing in Hong Kong? Not much, I venture. See world map, for indication of what country surrounds Hong Kong, and google various articles on pollution problems in recent Olympics.
Then ask yourself - how could a country whose economy is so highly regulated have such high pollution?
Then rinse and repeat for India, eastern-European countries, etc. etc.
How much of Hong Kong’s air pollution problems are due to manufacturing in Hong Kong? Not much, I venture.
You will find your venture to be wrong, as usual, mr. roll-eyes.
from wikipedia:
“Whilst the Government has in the past maintained that the Mainland was an important source of airborne pollutants, experts have estimated that most of Hong Kong’s acid rain comes from its own industry and transport: Most of Hong Kong’s power is generated by burning coal. Electricity generation produces half of Hong Kong’s total emissions of nitrogen oxide and particulates, and 92 per cent of its total sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions. Most local power stations do not yet have flue gas desulphurisation…
In terms of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the city’s Castle Peak power plant, run by China Light and Power, was named the third most polluting electricity generator in the world by Washington-based group Carbon Monitoring for Action (CARMA)…
Hong Kong’s roads are also some of the most crowded in the world, with almost 280 vehicles for every kilometre of road.[2] The city’s commercial vehicle fleet is dominated by heavily polluting, aging goods vehicles…”
Next misconception? Oh, that’s right, your claim that they are a highly regulated economy. Did you not notice my pointing out that they’d scored in the top ten of the Heritage Foundation’s ‘Economic Freedom’ list? Hard to do with a highly regulated economy, eh?
Perhaps you should do a little research (like you showed me with the google thing) before you roll your eyes and put your foot in your mouth.
Hong Kong has a population density over 16,000 people per square mile - the highest in the world, aside from a few places that are much smaller (Monaco, Macao) and Singapore which is about 2/3 the size. Of course it’s going to have a high pollution value in nominal terms, and of course it’s going to have some of the most crowded roads.
Castle Peak is a huge power plant, generating 4.1MW - about 2/3 of HK’s power. Being that it’s coal - yes it’s going to generate a fair amount of pollution.
Not many people consider electricity and auto traffic “manufacturing”. I was speaking more of China w/regards to its high pollution - e.g. having to shut down many of their manufacturing plants in order to have acceptable pollution levels for the 2008 olympics. Pollution levels in general in the most restrictive economies tend to be way worse than those in the freer economies - particularly for instance the U.S.
(I notice you left out the following paragraph from Wikipedia:
Mainland Chinese industry
Factories in the Mainland is a significant cause of air pollution in Hong Kong. Before the rapid industrialization of Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta region in the 1980s and 90s, smog or haze across Victoria Harbor was rare. The appearance and continue deterioration of this phenomenon may possibly be explained by the rapid increase in the number of factories across the border, as the population and therefore domestic pollution in Hong Kong has been relatively stable over the last decade.
A study in 2007, using data from 2006, found that regional sources were “the primary influence on Hong Kong’s air” for just 36% of the time (132 days a year) whilst local sources were responsible 56% of the time.[6])
Well then that makes it alright!
Rex: School job cuts next year could top 3,000
May 03, 2010 ~ The State
State School Superintendent Jim Rex said in a news release issued Monday, that state budget cuts will cause local school districts to eliminate between 2,100 and 3,800 positions next school year, including 1,400 to 2,500 classroom teaching jobs.
Rex said those cuts come on top of more than 2,200 positions that were eliminated this year, including 1,400 teaching jobs. Rex said that while some job cuts would be made through attrition, some would have to be accomplished through layoffs over the summer.
The survey shows that districts are continuing to eliminate administrative positions in far greater proportions than teaching positions. “Right now South Carolina is at the 11th hour,” Rex said. “And next year is midnight. If our General Assembly doesn’t find the courage to address our dysfunctional taxation and school funding systems, political malpractice won’t be too strong a term for what happens.”
Poor Jimbo:
He is so clueless about the real problem in SouthKatohlienaH
The Students can’t read,write or speak English. When that becomes the major focal point of public education again, then SC will progress into the 21th century
Come on Jimbo: factory jobs are not coming back for the 8th grade dropouts….being #48 or even #47 in education is not acceptable going forward.
Do banking interests pay the journalists who write for Reuters? And I notice the columnist writing is Greek; does that taint his perspective?
I personally think more open debate is warranted on the relative merits of breaking up the too-big-to-fail banks rather than planting the seeds for bigger, badder Megabank, Inc bailouts down the road. Now that the crisis is over and the economy has recovered, what is the rush?
BREAKINGVIEWS-
Is Obama losing control of U.S. financial reform?
Reuters | May 3rd, 2010 at 2:34 pm
– The authors is a Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are his own –
By James Pethokoukis
WASHINGTON, May 3 (Reuters Breakingviews) – Is President Barack Obama losing control of financial reform? It is starting to seem that way. With the bill nearing its finale in the U.S Senate, Democratic legislators — and even some Republicans — seem to be scrambling to out-regulate each other while the White House keeps mum. The Obama administration defied its liberal base on nationalizing the banks last year and breaking them up this year. But as controversial amendments, such as those on derivatives, continue to emerge, it may be time to pipe up.
Of course, Team Obama would understandably prefer to lie low. It doesn’t want to backtrack entirely from the populist, get-tough-on-the-banks line. Arguing forcefully on behalf of letting banks keep their derivatives businesses, in particular, would risk message mismatch. That’s especially true after the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Goldman Sachs over its involvement in a derivatives deal.
Such a hands-off political strategy might have worked if Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee had agreed to a bipartisan bill capable of quick passage. But they didn’t, leaving room for the impaired legislation to drift and pick up lots of ill-considered amendments now that it is before the full chamber.
Obama needs to prevent this from happening. Lucky for him, he’s been given some political cover by Sheila Bair, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. There may be no financial official respected more on both sides of the aisle in Congress, than Bair.
In a three-page letter to Democrats Chris Dodd, chair of the Senate Banking Committee, and Blanche Lincoln, chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Bair outlined why it would be wrong-headed to require more derivatives activities to be conducted outside of banks and bank holding companies. Such a move, she argued, would hide the risky activities from federal regulatory oversight. A provision doing just that is currently in the bill and the subject of at least one possible amendment.
Obama should follow Bair’s lead. But he needn’t stop there. Efforts to break up the banks or severely shrink them may be gaining momentum. While Lawrence Summers, a top Obama economic adviser, has dismissed those ideas, nothing beats hearing it clearly from the president himself. The goal of financial reform should be to fashion a safer, sturdier financial system — not foment a free-for-all to punish the banks for past transgressions.
…
It’s an editorial.
And yes, the FIRE sector is pulling out all the stops.
Reno’s Wild West Electronics closes doors after 32 years
Wild West Electronics has closed after 32 years on the Reno audio and home entertainment front.
Brad Bolotin, CEO, said this morning the downturn in the economy and custom-home building forced Wild West’s investors to close the store.
“There will be no (bankruptcy) filing. All bills will be paid and customers will be delivered all their products,” Bolotin said in an e-mail to the Reno Gazette-Journal.
“The investor group that bought into Wild West in 2005 decided it was time for them to move on,” he said. “I don’t really have any doubt that if there was any indication that the building business was going to rebound anytime soon, the investors would not have made this decision.”
It was unclear how many employees are affected by Wild West’s closing. Bolotin said that is his biggest regret, adding, “Some of which have been with the company for over 20 years.”
What’s a $27M fine to a $114 bn corporation? This is about as important a story as the news that your dog just scratched the flea that bit its rump.
To quantify this, the toxic waste fine as a percent of revenue is
100*27,000,000/114,000,000,000 = 0.0236842105 percent.
Not a story…
Monday, May 3, 2010, 12:30pm PDT
Wal-Mart Stores will pay $27M in California toxic waste case
San Francisco Business Times - by Steven E.F. Brown
Retail colossus Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will pay $27 million to settle a suit over how it disposed of fertilizer and other toxic chemicals at sites all over California.
The Bentonville, Ark., business made the deal to end a suit involving some 20 prosecutors, including California Attorney General Jerry Brown. For five years, investigators looked into how bleach, pesticides, paint and other dangerous chemicals were thrown away at Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) stores all over the state. In the end, they found violations of disposal laws at 236 stores and warehouses in California. Sites in 42 out of 58 state counties had violations.
San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis announced the settlement on Monday.
Read more: Wal-Mart Stores will pay $27M in California toxic waste case - San Francisco Business Times:
great.. now every time some customer drops a bottle of bleach, they have to evacuate the store and call the HAZMAT team to clean it up… for which customers, mostly poor folk, must foot the bill by way of higher prices, which means less sales or lower profits.
i’ve been seriously considering dumping WMT.. but what to buy in it’s place? What company would fare any better when pitted against the likes of Jerry Brown and the trial lawyers?
Yeah I can see how one customer dropping a bottle of bleach = violations of disposal laws at 236 stores and warehouses in California. Sites in 42 out of 58 state counties had violations.
Makes perfect sense to me… in some bizarro world.
This story was about Walmart keeping tons of fertilizer concentrated outside of their stores, not bleach. Run-off was causing high levels of chemicals to leach into the water table and run-off. Not so good for the average folks in living those towns (underlings), but just fine for the higher ups and shareholders.
How much are they paying you to shill for them?
Don’t confront Joey with facts, it only makes him drink more.
well, it’s only a matter of time before Jerry Brown walks into the garden dept of some Home Depot and sees tons of fertilizer stored out of doors..
I guess I won’t be swapping WMT for HD.
Come to think of it, every nursery in the country is inundated with fertilizers outside their doors.. in thousands of pots.. around hundreds of trees in the ground.. as well as mountains of un-bagged fertilizers of all sorts, all concentrated in a small area and replenished on a regular basis..
Can you say toxic leaching and runoff into the ground water supply?
people have told me i woulda made a great trial lawyer.. I realize now they were right, but it’s too late..
Will Hollywood Go the Way of Enron? Derivatives Come to the Movies
As if attacks from paparazzi and star-crazed fans weren’t enough, Hollywood stars may soon have a literal price put on their heads by investors in the Cantor Exchange, a real-money trading platform where people can bet on the gross profits of upcoming movies. Sales of The Dark Knight skyrocketed after Heath Ledger died unexpectedly, and so did sales after the deaths of Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe. Will greed-driven investors now be laying in wait for the stars of movies they have bet on?
The Cantor Exchange (CE) is based on a virtual trading platform called the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX), a web-based, multiplayer simulation in which players buy and sell “shares” of actors, directors, upcoming films, and film-related options. The difference is that where the HSX uses virtual money, CE will turn the game into a real casino using real dollars.
On April 21, Cantor Exchange reported that it had just received regulatory approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which oversees futures exchanges. “This is a significant step forward in achieving our ultimate goal,” it said in a letter, “which is to launch a market in Domestic Box Office Receipt Contracts.”
“Will Hollywood Go the Way of Enron?”
We can only hope!
ecofeco.. I defer to your expertise in the matter..
Are movie derivatives an example of gambling or of speculation, and why do you conclude so?
Ever heard of “Hollywood accounting?” (of course you haven’t or you wouldn’t have asked such a stupid question)
* The Wall Street Journal
* BUSINESS
* MAY 3, 2010, 4:30 P.M. ET
Banks Keep Lending Standards Tight
By SUDEEP REDDY
The credit crunch isn’t over for small businesses and consumers.
Most U.S. banks kept credit tight in the first three months of the year, and some tightened lending terms further, according to the Federal Reserve’s latest senior loan officer survey.
Some categories showed improvement after years of lending cutbacks. Banks reported easing terms on commercial and industrial loans to large and medium-size firms. While the easing took place only at large banks, it marked the first time since 2006 that banks reported easing standards in two straight quarters.
Some consumer loans, such as home-equity lines of credit, also showed easing in standards. But key areas, such as residential mortgages and commercial real estate, saw continued tightening in terms.
The Fed found that a third of banks tightened terms and conditions on new credit-card accounts for small businesses, while more than a quarter of banks did so for existing accounts. More than 40% of banks said they raised minimum required credit scores. Almost a third said they widened spreads—interest rates over the bank’s cost of funds—on outstanding balances, and 15% reported charging higher annual fees. More than two-thirds of loan officers said their current level of standards and terms is tighter than their longer-run average.
Finding a Lender
Search for banks with branches near you and review how their lending practices changed in the fourth quarter, in a Wall Street Journal database.
Many small business customers, meanwhile, are cutting back on borrowing in part because of the weak economy. Noelle Tarabulski, who used credit cards to finance her Lakewood, Colo., consulting firm before the recession, relied on credit lines of up to $150,000 before her interest rates shot up to as much as 38% after the financial crisis. That came just as her revenue plummeted from $1 million in 2007 to about $200,000 last year.
“I’m just never putting myself in a position where a bank can do that to me again,” said Ms. Tarabulski, whose firm, Builder Consulting Group Inc., works on best practices for homebuilders. She expects about $600,000 in revenue this year but is cutting her debt as much as possible. “At this point my approach to credit is 100% different,” she said. “I have no interest in being leveraged at the level that I was. For me I think there’s a healing period going on.”
…
Sounds like that healing period might require a doughnut for her to sit on. 38%? YIKES!
Love this head line, sounds about right. Earn less or lose your job go out and buy stuff.
Consumers spend more as income drops
Sacramento Business Journal -
Consumers are spending again — and saving less.
Consumer spending increased 0.6 percent in March, the largest gain in five months. But personal income climbed only 0.3 percent in March, compared to a month earlier and raising new worries that consumer spending could become sluggish, a major concern since consumers account for about 70 percent of the gross domestic product.
So, how are consumers able to spend more? They are saving less, according to the federal report.
Consumers’ after-tax savings rate dipped to 2.7 percent, the lowest level since September 2008, considered the peak of the recession with bank failures and the credit crunch dominating the news.
Before the recession — and months prior to the dramatic decline of the housing market — the after-tax savings rate dipped to 1.7 percent in 2007, as many consumers felt comfortable with the value of their homes. When the economy tanked, consumers started saving, reaching 4.3 percent in 2009, the highest level in a decade.
Now, some analysts and economists are concerned that consumers who are earning less will become more frugal, greatly hurting the still-struggling economy — and could put the brakes on the recovery.
No Guarantees at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
Pension Protection Agency Cited for Audit Failure, Misleading Congress
May 03, 2010
Last November, the federal corporation charged with protecting Americans’ retirement funds issued an ominous public warning: the amount of pensions at risk inside failing companies had more than tripled during the recession.
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s announcement signaled it might need tens of billions of new dollars to rescue traditional pensions paid by U.S. firms whose economic collapse left them unable to meet their retirement obligations to workers.
At the same time, however, the federally chartered corporation was receiving some bad news of its own: for the first time it was going to flunk an independent audit of the way it manages its finances.
On Nov. 12, 2009, PBGC’s outside audit firm and the corporation’s own internal watchdog jointly informed the federal body it was being cited for a “material weakness” in its internal financial controls, the accounting equivalent of an F grade.
Beazer Homes records $5.3M net income
Atlanta Business Chronicle
New house orders and higher revenue continued to keep Beazer Homes USA Inc. in the black in the second quarter.
The Atlanta-based house builder posted net income of $5.3 million and earnings of 9 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $114.9 million and a loss per share of $2.97 in the second quarter of 2009.
The results for the second quarter of 2010 included $10.2 million in non-cash pre-tax charges for inventory impairments and an $8.8 million impairment of its investment in an unconsolidated joint venture
Second-quarter revenue jumped 6.2 percent to $198.2 million.
House closings were up 5.6 percent to 852 houses, while new orders spiked 48.8 percent to 1,673 houses.
Layoffs Notice Given to Fresno City Employees
Layoffs notices are going out at Fresno City Hall as the Mayor prepares to present the new city budget.
40 park maintenance workers were given layoff or reassignment notices Monday morning at the Ted C. Wills Community Center. The notices are affective June 30th.
The notices could be just the beginning round as the city battles to close a $30 million budget deficit.
One City Council Member said as many as 400 jobs could be cut.
Councilman Lee Brand said, “There’s some very difficult, heady decisions we’re going to have to make in the coming weeks. We’re going to have to be a balanced budget by June 30th – that’s the bottom line. We can’t print money like the federal government — we can’t bury our head in the sand like state government…”
Councilman Brand also said the city will draw from its reserve to preserve police and fire jobs.
Fiats! Get your fiats! Step right up.
May 4 (Bloomberg) — European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet, who capitulated on a January pledge not to relax lending rules for the sake of one country, may have to sacrifice more principles to prevent Greece from bringing down the euro.
Trichet yesterday diluted rules for the second time in a month to guarantee the ECB will keep taking Greek government bonds as collateral for loans. The central bank may have to extend that to other nations, renew a program of lending unlimited cash to banks for a year, and even start buying government debt if the 110 billion-euro ($146 billion) bailout plan for Greece fails to stem the euro’s slide, economists said.