Bits Bucket For May 4, 2010
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Is everybody still asleep? Could everybody go on Middle East time so I could enjoy the blog again?
Aren’t you in Cyprus? How’s the Greek drama playing out there?
It’s not that big a deal here but over in Crete (where I was last week) when we got off the plane we were met by a large demonstration! The police had to escort our car through the crowd. Not the best thing to see when you arrive for a vacation.
Most banks are seeing weaker demand for loans from both consumers and businesses, one of the forces restraining the vigor of the economic recovery. (AP)
The information, contained in a quarterly survey released by the Federal Reserve on Monday, suggests that Americans don’t have much of an appetite to take on new debt as they try to repair their finances after suffering through the worst recession since the 1930s.
The survey says demand over the last three months slipped further for home loans geared to the most creditworthy borrowers, for home equity loans and for business loans.
In addition, most banks say they have tightened standards and terms on credit cards used by small businesses. That’s another restrain on the recovery.
“The survey says demand over the last three months slipped further for home loans geared to the most creditworthy borrowers, for home equity loans and for business loans.”
So I ink a mortgage, go into debt and service debt; how is that going to help the economy?
Just got back from a jaunt up into Oregon. Spent time with a friend on the way up who lives in Cresent City, CA. He is retired and bought a house up there for 90K. His total payments are now taxes, insurance and utilities and he can live out the rest of his life on a simple pension. Who says you can’t find something along the coast?
Too funny Salinasron,
I was just looking at an 1100 sq footer that hadn’t been updated in decades that was lakefront. Owners seemed to think they deserved $450k for it because it was on water. It’s not that impressive of a lake.
That would be Anthony?
That’s Crescent City–which has always been much cheaper than Eureka. You can find a 900 square foot, 1940’s shack that hasn’t been remodeled here for about $225-250K, but there are no sub $100K houses anywhere around here. What I would consider “middle class” homes are still going for $325K+. Remember, this county has had far fewer foreclosures than the rest of the state due to “old money” speculation and, of course, the presence of drug sales to bail people out of their financial mistakes.
“Americans don’t have much of an appetite to take on new debt”
What is wrong with you people? Spend dammit! What are you waiting for?
The ones who love being in debt are already over their heads in debt and can’t borrow any more.
The most creditworthy are those who fear debt, or at least have a healthy respect for debt, and hence they aren’t carrying much debt - that’s the reason why they are creditworthy.
So, who is left to borrow?
Many of my peers are focused on college debt as their kids move toward that point in their lives. If you’ve got a smart kid, or several, saving for the schools they aspire to can sure suck the spending dollars out of the rest of your budget.
Carrie Ann: I have one graduating on the 16th. I’m proud to say she will graduate with neither of us having any loans & @ $40K/yr, that was a feat. She worked hard all through school and ended up getting $30K/yr in scholarships. What has really changed in this generation, IMHO, is that people now have to run their day to day lives, save for retirement & save for kids’ college all at the same time. Oh for the good old days where you could put in 20 years and be taken care of for life + college was way cheaper.
“Saving for the schools they aspire to” —–
This sounds like a recipe for trouble over the long haul. In our case, I think State U will have to do. I knew that was going to be the score when I was in HS myself, and I accepted the reality of it.
Anybody contemplating sacrificing their lives in dramatic ways for the sake of their children’s “happiness” (with all the baggage that is sure to pile up on both sides of the equation) should maybe take a look at the comments that go with this story. Fascinating reading, in an awful way!
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/when-the-ties-that-bind-unravel/?src=me&ref=homepage
Some of these parents over indulged their children, and brought up self important brats. Narcisissism isn’t a pretty thing, and either is Dorothy in anything backless. (take off of Golden Girl joke)
There is nothing wrong with a “State U” education. I used the same text books in my mathematics and computer science courses as the students in such places as MIT.
If you can solve the same math problems as those MIT people, from those books, you are at least as good. But you are smarter because you saved money by going to a “State U.”
I had a girlfriend in high school who’s parents took out a second mortgage on their house to pay for her tuition at USC. She flunked out and ended up finishing up at community/state college on her own dime. Over the years, I have learned that you are doing a disservice to do for others what they can do for themselves. I’m not paying for my childrens’ college education or buying them cars or paying for driving lessons either. If they want an advanced degree or a license to operate a 3000 pound death machine, they can pay for it themselves. It teaches them a very simple lesson: No one rides for free.
“No one rides for free”
Remember that, when your daughter(s) end up knocked-up…..
Ha! That’s already happened. Very early on in the pregnancy, my husband and I sat down with her and her tattooed “prince charming” and told them that if they were planning on keeping the baby, that she and the baby would become his responsibility, and that they needed to get married and be the grown ups that their behavior clearly demonstrated they were. They’ve asked for loans over the years, to which the answer is always the same. (I bet you can guess what that is). They’ve got three kids now and are living in a terrible little house that used to belong to his folks. Not my babies, not my problem.
I think one of the roles of parenting is to create a self-reliant person . I gave a lot of financial assistance to my kids but there reaches a point that they have to make their own choices and pay for their own mistakes . They have the right to their life and trying to hold on to them like they were possessions is wrong I think . I would like to give them as much of a inheritance as possible ,but who knows what that will end up being because I’m entitled to the fruits of my labor also .My kids don’t live very near me and 2 are in different States . I just can’t imagine putting the burden on them in my older age and I’m more inclined to pay a stranger to do it ,but I don’t even like that idea either . I know some families have no other choice but to live with adult children ,but it seems like a forced by economics type thing .
So, who is left to borrow?
Apparently a new baby boom is needed.
I guess that’s why we’re importing one. Americans are too lazy to have their own baby boom, so we had to bring in illegals to do it for us.
Yes - good point.
Though - how much debt do illegals actually have? I know we have anecdotes of things like strawberry pickers with big mortgages, but my impression is that in general they don’t have much debt at all. Most illegals I believe send a portion of their meager earnings back home, and don’t have debt here; at least from what I’ve seen (in some cases firsthand).
The illegals anchor baby boom is subsidized: housing, food, medical care and (crappy) education.
Just remember kids, the ideal debt slaves are those that stick around and actually try to pay off their debts. Our friends from south of the border are smarter than that, when the debt gets too much - they just get going.
The ideal debt slaves are Upper Midwestern “germanic” mutts. They actually still believe in “the dream”. Southerners and those from the left coast are too unreliable as well. Yankees are pretty wily too.
Those from the left coasts don’t go into debt? I guess everyone in San Diego buying $500K 2 bedroom condos are paying with cash?
I wasn’t saying they don’t take on debt. My argument is that they are less likely than Upper Midwesterners to hang around an actually pay it off.
Debt slaves that resort to jingle keys too soon are no fun for the bankers. To make good debt slaves one needs the right mix of culture, religion, and economics. Of all the U.S. regions those factors combine most favorably in the Upper Midwest.
To make good debt slaves one needs the right mix of culture, religion, and economics.
Edgewater
That must be why there are a lot of not only RE ads but actual talk shows about RE on Christian radio stations on the west coast; they seem to have really targeted this demo (”the flock”…to be fleeced??)
Ok edgwatwer, I mistook your point.
Yeah I suppose you’re right, the mid westerners are foolish enough to keep paying their debts while the coastals walk.
Actually when I was in lending years ago ,the Spanish people were great loan risks and they paid their debt and had low default rates . I don’t know if it change when the easy money situation went into full gear ,but someone posted a article the other day about the banks trying to tap the illegal immigrant
business in terms of lending on real estate and credit . Apparently a lot of illegal workers do own homes ,I just don’t know how many . A painter that gave me a bid on painting than I ended up not hiring was a illegal and he owned 2 homes .
We’ve been working on that. I told one of my sons yesterday that by three decades from now, all the open space nearby where we live will be filled with houses.
They’d better start building desalination plants in San Diego, I don’t know where you guys are going to get your tap water from in the future.
I’m happy that we had a great Sierra snowpack this winter and the reservoirs are nearly full. At least this year the fishermen, environmentalists and farmers will get along.
So, who is left to borrow?”
Uncle Sam and guess who has to pay that back ?
“So, who is left to borrow?”
I’ll be glad to borrow and buy—just as soon as the Fed has stopped manipulating the markets and they have been allowed to find their own equilibrium.
Until then, I’m on strike.
I’ve had two offers for Chase’s Sapphire card in as many days. I actually kind of like the idea of a card where they promise a human being to answer the phone, but I call my credit card company so rarely it hardly seems to matter. Then again, it seems unwise to accept a product that has had that expensive an advertising campaign. They are getting their money somewhere. Into the shredder they go.
Can anyone recommend an on-line bank for the sole purpose of holding a chunk of change at a less insulting interest rate? USAA savings accounts used to have OK rates, but they don’t anymore. Does anyone have experience with Ally? I’ll keep USAA for salary deposit, on line bill pay, and my basic emergency savings, but I’d like to find something else for the largest chunk of liquid savings.
Isn’t Ally the reorganized GMAC?
Also, on the daily Move Your Money streams I get, I’ve read an awful lot of Chase horror stories. I believe they’re the number one organization rallied against on that particular site.
People used to recommend ING in the early blogging HBB days.
If you can stomach it, and if you happen to think the US$ will get weaker over time - i.e. you think you can bet a better interest rate by holding other currencies - Everbank’s got a good setup for world currencies. The mechanisms to transfer funds are are a bit clumsy and slow, but they work and can be done online.
I keep wanting to invest in the one hard currency - gold, but the spot price keeps going too high so that my asset allocation is still above 10%. So I buy opposite investments for awhile: Short term treasuries and AAZAX.
I’d hesitate choosing an alternative currency to hold in, packman. It isn’t that I don’t think there are serious issues with our own economy, but everything I read says that many, many others are worse off, particularly the euro and the pound, and the CA$ still has to survive the CA housing bubble popping (whenever that happens). I’m just hoping to trade a few hours of my time for a couple of hundred bucks a year. Oh, and to punish USAA for not maintaining a reasonable interest rate. They are acting more and more like a regular bank, and I don’t appreciate it. I expect better from them. If you look at the star ratings on the accounts, many other people agree with me. They are at 4.8 out of 5 for their checking account and on-line bill paying service and 3.8 out of 5 for all their savings accounts.
Yeah I know what you mean. It’s a conundrum trying to decide what’ll happen to the various currencies.
There really isn’t a good safe place to put cash that’ll generate significant interest now. It’s just the nature of having such low rates. Yeah you might get 1.8% instead of 1.2% - but how much difference does that really make?
I’ve thought about switching to USAA for banking (use them now for insurance). Downside was ATMs but I think they just put in a program to allow use of any ATM fee-free didn’t they?
The reimbursement program for other bank’s ATM fees has been in place for years, possibly a decade or more, though the terms have changed. I think now it is up to $15 a month and no limit on the amount per transaction. I just got reimbursed $3 this month and that was for one transaction. Very early in the program I think it was up to $1.50 per transaction for a max of 5 transactions a month, but that was a long time ago.
I really like their bill pay service and their checking account and I have my salary deposited into a savings account directly. I have no problem with leaving that system in place. I just don’t see any reason to leave the money that was supposedly in the “high yield” account there when the yield is well below 1%. If I can find an FDIC bank that will pay 1.3 or 1.5%, I’ll do it. I’d just like to know that they have reasonable customer service, keep their computers running and won’t hassle me too much with stuff I don’t need.
Everbank has a 1.5% Money Market (that they list under “savings” accounts).
I have a few of their currency CDs and, other than getting some emails (that I elected to receive) and alerts that the CDs are expiring, they don’t hassle me. Don’t know if they have phones 24hours (they don’t for the CDs), but I’ve found them to be accessible when I’ve needed them.
Have you looked into local credit unions?
Bankrate.com lists the highest FDIC rates for banks all over the country. None of them are the least bit inspiring though.
Less than two years ago I was gettin 3.65% on a money market account at California First National Bank. Now, barely over 1%. The war on savers continues.
Or maybe deflation abounds? Remember the mass of credit outweighs the amount of cash by an order or magnitude or more.
So, we are at the bottom of a rate reducing cycle with no where to go. The Fed is trying to print but from the rest of the articles sounds like people are not taking on new debt.
Hence, may not seem like it, but the savers are winning.
No way savers are winning earning 1% to 3% on fixed income investments. By driving interest rates to zero to bail out the banks, investment firms and house buyers, the Fed and the Treasury has decimated the finances of retirees and retiree wannabe’s. Savers are forced to either erode their capital base or chase yields in the equity market (Today is showing the fallacy of that strategy).
A retiree with a $1million savings account can live pretty well earning 4.5% interest, and eats cat food at 1.5%.
You could have purchased long term treasuries at 4.5% a month ago.
Or you could have purchased other bonds to get 5-7%.
Or you could look at a couple months of happy little gains evaporate into dust.
Spokaneman
You can always absorb some risk and get some bonds.
30 yr treasuries are at 4.1% ish.
I think if you had held tresuries/bonds at some point in the last couple of years you would have made a killing.
I did.
Savings accounts not so much though. Still treasuries are an option.
Mid 2007 I opened up a new acct paid 5.65% for balances over $75,000. Same account today is 1%.
After dad passed away in mid-2007, my mom took the IRA and put it in a 5-year CD at 5%. She gets her distribution every year and has a great time spending it on decorating and improving her house. Not bad for an 80-year-old immigrant lady. I’m very proud of her.
“I’ve had two offers for Chase’s Sapphire card in as many days… Into the shredder they go.”
Good job, Polly! Just say NO to Megabank, Inc. like Polly did, people! Screw these greedy SOB’s!
Just say NO to Megabank, Inc. like Polly did, people! Screw these greedy SOB’s!
I was thinking about this yesterday as I am enrolling in benefits at my new job. When signing up for an FSA, you can get a debit card to handle the disbursements directly, rather than having to submit receipts. It sounds nice, but the result (I imagine) is that some bank is getting a % of each transaction, at the cost of the merchant.
As much as it will be more of a pain for me, I’ve opted not to use the card, and will just submit receipts manually. Unfortunatley, MegaBank, Inc, does provide a service - that is convenience - but it comes at a much greater cost than one might think.
Is this a medical FSA? I am able to sign up for the following service: Doc’s office sends info to insurance company as expected. Insurance company pays its share. Co-pay’s and other allowed charges get sent on to the FSA administrator at the same time as the doc’s office gets notified of what I will owe them after insurance pays them. FSA administrator deposits amount directly into my checking account. Sometimes I get reimbursed before I even get the bill from the service provider. Office visit copays get reimbursed within a week or two.
Very easy. No profit to Mastercard or Visa.
You might find out if your HR could set up the same system. Say you are offended at having to carry around the cash card whenever you might have to make a medical purchase. It could be lost or stolen, or you might not have it with you when you need to make such a purchase. Worth a try, anyway.
I’ve found the card nothing to be trouble, and don’t bother any more. Easier to just submit the receipt all the time.
I discontinued my health savings account this year. We changed vendors and I had trouble getting reimbursed for eye glasses. As a result I had to make a big Costco trip to buy a bunch of over-the-counter medications to spend the rest of the account. I’ve decided that it’s not worth the trouble, as up to now I’ve been healthy.
“The information, contained in a quarterly survey released by the Federal Reserve on Monday, suggests that Americans don’t have much of an appetite to take on new debt as they try to repair their finances after suffering through the worst recession since the 1930s.”
…except for maybe credit card debt:
“Lifted by resilient consumer spending, credit-card giant MasterCard (MA: 253.44, 3.05, 1.22%) said Tuesday it grew its first-quarter net income by 24%, exceeding Wall Street’s expectations.
MasterCard said it earned $455 million, or $3.46 a share, last quarter, compared with a profit of $367 million, or $2.80 a share, in the year-earlier period.
Revenue rose 13% to $1.31 billion.”
…”Rival card giant Visa (V: 89.723, 0.463, 0.52%) reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results last week.”
http://albany.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/2010/05/03/daily6.html
Car shoppers take a wait-and-see approach in April
April car sales ease from March as shoppers take wait-and-see approach, hope for summer deals
DETROIT (AP) — U.S. car shoppers took a wait-and-see approach in April. They eased up on purchases as the lure of big incentives faded and hoped summer would bring a new flurry of deals.
Automakers will have to match incentives from Toyota Motor Corp. at least through Memorial Day. Toyota said Monday it will continue to offer zero-percent financing and two years of free maintenance on the Camry, Corolla and other vehicles through June 1. It’s also offering unprecedented deals on its Lexus luxury brand, including special lease offers, a $1,000 loyalty award for previous owners and a six-month waiver on payments.
I will be shopping on craigslist for my next new car.
Craigslist is a good way to go, although I’ve been stood up a couple of times by Craigslist car sellers. I assumed that they must have had stolen cars. I also found a nice dealer in the Bay Area who sells repossessed cars. I had a good time negotiating with him and got a nice car.
Sit and spin GM!
I hope the carmakers realize that 9-10 million new cars a year is the new normal. And that there will be a permanant shift from 40K truck/SUV sales to 20K sedan sales.
You have to look at the fleet turn over rate. The old rate was something like 25+ years. Most cars don’t last that long.
I think the was a 5-7 million… maybe that is the proper rate then… works out to around 15 years. Pretty reasonable turn over rate.
That’s where I’m at. My Volvo “Vixen” is 15 now. I think a used car, oh I’m sorry, I’ll use the euphemism “pre-owned”, will be my next purchase. I’ll let someone else take the depreciation hit.
When my current car goes away, I might just go for an iphone and a zip car account. I think the cost of the two would be about the same as garaging, insuring, gassing and maintaining the very old car. Plus, the iphone would make reserving the zip car very easy. Oh, and I’d have an iphone.
Not sure yet, but the idea appeals in many ways and buying a car really doesn’t.
Car sharing rocks! It’s met my needs for well over a year now. There have been so many increases to the fees and fines in my city that were I to need a car again, I would also have to move altogether to avoid the slow bleed.
A portion of my savings from not having a car has been shifted to my grocery budget, and I’ve never eaten better. The rest goes to savings and a little to bike parts. But the bottom line is I get to keep more of what I make and that alone worth doing it, if it is possible for you.
Argh!
We need another stimulus package! People are not buying a new car every year?! The horror, the horror…
Goodhart Says Greek Deal May Collapse as Crisis Tests Euro.
May 4 (Bloomberg) — Greece’s bailout “might collapse” and the nation’s debt crisis makes it “hard to see” how the euro will survive in its current form, former Bank of England policy maker Charles Goodhart said.
“If this financing deal should collapse, and it might for one reason or another, then there would be a question of what the Greeks could possibly do,” Goodhart said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in London today. “Default would be totally disastrous for them and leaving the euro would equally be disastrous.”
Euro-region ministers on May 2 agreed to a 110 billion-euro ($145 billion) bailout with the International Monetary Fund to prevent a Greek default, after investor concern sparked a rout in Portuguese and Spanish bonds last week and sent stock markets tumbling. The Greek crisis shows the need for more integration within the euro as a common currency, Goodhart said.
“It’s very hard to see how this is going survive this particular test,” he said. “The euro system has either got to have much more integration or parts of it will fall by the wayside.”
Wow. Seems like it would be a really big deal for such a widely watched and anticipated deal to collapse after it’s announced.
Greek 2-year bonds have jumped back above 13% this morning though, after having gone below 10%. I had chalked it up to thoughts that the deal just wouldn’t be big enough - hadn’t heard there was talk it might actually fall through.
Stock market down below 11k again on Greek fears - seems some feel they just don’t have the stomach for the austerity measures necessary. 2-year bonds just went up to 14.3%.
Maybe they decided to invest in Greek bonds rather than U.S. assets?
Opposite actually - increase in bond yields indicates decrease in demand. U.S. treasury yields are down.
And now the focus shifts to Spain.
U.S. treasury yields are down.’
and prices up in a flight to safety!! thats kinda funny
Read Maulidn’s latest speil on debt and the path to Greece for many countries including the USA and Britian
Democracies fail because the people vote themselves much more than they can afford to pay back. I think we are going to see this first hand
Yep. Britain is the next black swan waiting to happen.
Then comes the U.S. - the Black Unicorn.
(since black swan events seem so much more… commonplace… these days)
Packman,
I think the author of the Black Swan also has come to hate the term. So overused.
We create a marginally stable system and act surprised when it goes unstable.
Then comes the U.S. - the Black Unicorn.
Is this one of them thar candy-crappin unicorns?
Is this one of them thar candy-crappin unicorns?
LOL - yeah I thought of that when I wrote that.
Licorice, perhaps?
Hmmm… what is Goldman doing? Who are they betting against? The only real way to make money here is to figure out where Goldman really stands, which is probably the opposite of whatever they are telling their clients and the rest of the world!
I am living in the shadows.
Sold my place in 05, it got foreclosed. Moved to a rental house and made every payment, it got foreclosed. Moved to another rental house 2 months ago March 2010, gave them first, security, a $250.00 pet deposit, April and May rent for a total of $7050.00 and last night a rep. from Wells Fargo came by with a bunch of papers saying they had a trial payment plan but they hadn`t made the first payment from January 2010. All three places have one thing in common, they never showed up on any foreclosure site. Well sap that I am, I am off to work so I can pay my bills and taxes. It`s going to be a long day because I will have to stop by my lawyers office and have him look at all this shi, stuff.
Why do you have to get a lawyer, Jeff? Why don’t you just stop paying rent for two months and move to a new place?
“Sold my place in 05, it got foreclosed.”
Please clarify. You were foreclosed on, so you had to sell it? Or were forced into a short sale? Or what?
I interpretted this statement as he sold his place and then his buyer was foreclosed on later.
I think it means he sold it and then the next owner foreclosed.
Please clarify.
I sold it for $192,500.00
The people I sold it to got foreclosed on.
Sale price $55,300.00
I’m so sorry you are going through this. It is the fear that I expressed the most concern about to my husband before we started renting. One thing I would suggest (and you may have already thought about this for next time) was to not only check the foreclosure websites, but to also check the property appraiser’s website in that county. See what they paid for the house and if they are up-to-date on their property taxes. Then also do a check through the county clerk of the courts to see what mortgages are outstanding. If they are upside down on their mortgage(s) - or close - it’s probably wise not to rent it.
I am living in the shadows.”
yep every renters potential problem I look at Zillow and see what the house sold for of course it doesn’t show equity withdrawals
I’ll be in Thousand Oaks area this weekend looking around for rentals God knows what mischeif I’ll find
Already Zillow has shown one upside down townhome that wants a substantial security deposit, and it already rented !!
crazy times
cactus-
Drive down Thousand Oaks Blvd, between Moorpark Rd and Erbes. You’ll notice all the Latino stores. If you go into the shopping center (just w of Erbes) where the Donut shop and Kim’s 99c, you’ll notice all the stores are Hispanic. It’s V.N. west around these parts.
Oh, and go to The Oaks and see who shops there and listen to the Spanish. Amazing times, indeed. (They even did a Spanish theme with the remodel). It’s also a “lifestyle” ctr now.
T.O. isn’t the upscale community of long ago.
Lots of sec 8 now in T.O., with the illegals renting. 7 people lived above us in a 2+2. That’s why there are no rentals.
Lots of sec 8 now in T.O., ”
old Poway where I live off Community has them too.
These areas Poway, TO you are rich or you are poor
middle class like me just about done………
“These areas Poway, TO you are rich or you are poor”
In other words, nobody left to pay the general expenses.
“T.O. isn’t the upscale community of long ago.”
That can be said of most of “Los Angeles, Mexico” (As a Spanish language TV station billboard once proclaimed).
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43973
I’ve expanded my search to Moorpark, I used to live near the College. A bit cheaper than TO.
Thousand Oaks is very expensive and unless its off Lynn I really don’t like it that much, not for the money. Old TO near were you talked about was always crappy IMO. near the 101 freeway and Hampshire, yucko. Need to go North on erbs to get to nicer areas. Or east to Westlake. Or on the rim off Lynn rd, sunset hills is nice, wildwood is nice, near redwood is nice but getting close to Moorpark Rd not nice. I think erbs goes to Arbloes Now ? I think it did when I was there as well. Expensive new apartments on the hills there.
Newbury Park is very nice but expensive!! I don’t want to be near the 101 either.
just a very expensive place to live. Why ? I don’t know.
“just a very expensive place to live. Why ? I don’t know.”
Because the government is in the mortgage business.
“All three places have one thing in common, they never showed up on any foreclosure site.”
That sounds like a PITA, jeff, and I feel for you—but you are ignoring the obvious explanation: you are picking the wrong landlords.
Rather than focus on just the right house, right location, etc, you should focus on the right landlord.
I’ve been picking only LL’s who have owned since the mid-80’s, with no debt on the properties. So far (knock on wood), I have moved only when I found a place I liked better and decided to do so.
“I’ve been picking only LL’s who have owned since the mid-80’s, with no debt on the properties.”
That seems like a sound strategy, but I am sure it greatly limits your options.
Our landlord wasn’t underwater when we moved in almost two years ago, but he is now. We follow SouthFL’s suggestion and routinely check the assessors web site to see if property taxes have been paid and the recorder’s site to make sure no lis pendens have been filed. Renters in these parts have recently been given seemingly decent rights in the event of foreclosure, but the more time to plan ahead, the better.
Rental Strategy:
If you are on CL, look at the listings with no pictures! At first, I thought, “What kind of lazy ass wouldn’t put a picture up there?” Then, when I met our current LL’s, I figured it out. They are in their 80s and have just barely figured out CL!
Enos built the place in 1970 and this is their income. Does it have a mustard color electric stove? Yes. Do we care? Just about the non-gas part.
After spending a month looking at crapoy pix online, we went to a place sight unseen and it’s great.
Good luck in your search.
MrBubble
Better yet, drive around the neighborhood you want to live in and look for “For Rent” signs. A lot of these old school landlords don’t use the internet at all…
Even better/smarter.
By the end, we had a very wide net and spent many hours doing what you suggest. Got lucky with this place. View of Mt. Tamalpais, almost on the water, 7 minutes to the ferry by bike, walkable playground for my nieces. Brilliant outcome, but the search was terrible. All of these accidental LLs trying to make their monthly nut. YER BAD!
I thought renters were given a certain time to stay in the house, as long as they had a rental contract? Or does that depend on which state?
Hey, I am wondering if the places didn’t show up on the sites because they happened a long time ago.
Might be the bank is just finally getting around to kicking the people out?
That stinks my friend. Very disturbing. And I’m going to be moving this summer.
Update from the illegal immigrant home improvement front: found out from my landlord (a great old gent, hope I’m half as active at his age), who was chatting up some of the retired ladies who live here, that whoever was running the painting crew left the workers here without a ride home the other evening. So they slept on the sidewalk at the little motel across the way from the complex. Plus no one was giving these guys any water and they were working out in the heat, so one of the ladies brought some bottled water for all of them. They paid her back by tossing the empty bottles all over the back driveways, which all have garbage cans right were anyone can them. Either they don’t know what a garbage can is for, or they were showing contempt.
And then it dawned on me: the people exploiting the illegals are mainly their own. I mean, it was one of their own running the crew and he can’t be bothered to pick them up and given them a ride home? Can’t even give them some water? Apparently so. But, who do you think gets the blame? The gringos. The resentment is focused on us, for what their own are doing to them.
Its only GRINGOS who are against illegal immigration… RIGHT!
The racism from the other side.
Wow. Interesting story from several angles.
The most important lesson to be learned from this is how they responded to attempts to treat them well.
People need to keep that in mind when considering allow millions of them to flood our lands.
I’d like to hear all the people who champion these illegal aliens answer to your story. Is this fair and just treatment of people who are “doing jobs Americans won’t do”? Of course not. They’re not doing jobs Americans won’t do, they’re doing jobs Americans would do, in a way no American would do them.
I’ve seen the same thing here in Texas, palmetto.
Round-Up resistant weeds invading farmland. Oh yeah, you can believe whatever Monsanto says, right? Like the one guy in the article says, we’re back to where we were 20 years ago.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/business/energy-environment/04weed.html?src=busln
Hydro-harvest farms are where it’s at. A very beneficial technology, one acre of land can produce six acres of food. But will they use it? Naw. Wouldn’t be any fun, making a profit without screwing things up.
Palmy, what corporation isn’t always trying to maximize its profits? There’s an economic reason hydro farming hasn’t caught on in a big way.
I f***ing HATE Monsanto, and Roundup ready crops. This kind of agriculture isn’t healthy for humans, it’s poisonous.
“Now, Roundup-resistant weeds like horseweed and giant ragweed are forcing farmers to go back to more expensive techniques that they had long ago abandoned.
Mr. Anderson, the farmer, is wrestling with a particularly tenacious species of glyphosate-resistant pest called Palmer amaranth, or pigweed, whose resistant form began seriously infesting farms in western Tennessee only last year.
Pigweed can grow three inches a day and reach seven feet or more, choking out crops; it is so sturdy that it can damage harvesting equipment. In an attempt to kill the pest before it becomes that big, Mr. Anderson and his neighbors are plowing their fields and mixing herbicides into the soil.”
“Mr. Anderson and his neighbors are plowing their fields and mixing herbicides into the soil”
Which will kill beneficial flora, thus fauna, and require the addition of more fossil fuel based fertilizer and round and round we go.
Pigweed is a pain though.
I suspect that the pesticides and herbicides are killing a lot more than just bugs and weeds. A lot of older Wisconsin farmers have got unusal cancers and died before their time.
These farm people used to ignor it but now they’re
talking about it. Most of them were drinking bottled water before the small towns folk had any idea that anything was wrong. I know several farm kids that are very fussy when offered a glass of milk…if it comes from certain city supermarket brands
Steam and well water in many of those areas isn’t fit or safe to drink for man or beast. Yikes, we’re producing milk, cheese and food stuff…
There are required pre-sale water quality tests now but the RE agents just laugh and say that it isn’t a problem that a reverse osmosis filter system can’t FIX. Buyer and little Red Roosters -Beware !
Hell, Radon in wells to the East and Atrazine in the wells to the West. Old rivertown paper mills, the toxic old Badger Ammunitions Plant and God only knows what, is spread in between.
Got clean, safe drinking W-A-T-E-R Wisconsin ?
(and a slightly panicked)
“Moo..moo !!…Oink..oink!!”
(everywhere)
Hey mikey,
Have you heard from Leighsong, haven’t seen her posting for quite sometime. I know she bought a house in Wisconsin.
No I haven’t BayAreaGal…sorry. The last I heard, she and her hubby had bought a nice house with some acreage nearby and they were real happy.
I tease a lot about Wisconsin being the Center of the Known Universe to some these local folks, maybe she’s hiding, with others, quietly plotting their revenge ?
“Pigweed is a pain though.”
It couldn’t be worse than Russian Thistle, which can thrive in the most arid conditions.
Check out this recent Oregonian story regarding MonSATAN’s Roundup, the effects on an alfalfa producer in several states, and a Supreme Court case now pending between them:
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2010/04/oregon_farmers_caught_up_in_mo.html
Isn’t life wonderful. Took like no time at all for a bunch of resistive plants to crop up.
Seems like a good thing so we don’t kill the planet with some kind of screw up.
Oh, don’t worry: when the time comes, the Earth will cast us off to save itself.
Raises Creep Back Onto Salary Scene
In another sign that the economy may be improving faster than some CEOs expected, companies in recent weeks have started to get more aggressive about spending money to retain employees.
Chemical-maker BASF Corp., the North American unit of Germany’s BASF SE, distributed raises to its 16,000 employees in April, a month earlier than planned. Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP will end a pay freeze for its 26,000 U.S. employees in July, two months ahead of plan. In April, aviation electronics firm Rockwell Collins Inc. added $2 million to its “instant compensation plan” to reward employees for fiscal 2010, bringing the total budget to $5 million.
Last year, many CEOs fretted that lean staffing during the recession would burn out employees and spark turnover once the job market improved, but they put very little money behind retention efforts. Instead, they cut or froze pay and made managers rely on no-cost rewards like thank-you notes. By January, employers had started to restore pay cuts and lift pay freezes.
Now, some firms are going a step further by accelerating the distribution of raises and awarding special bonuses to certain employees, say consultants and executives.
…
Earlier, some companies chose to reward only certain groups with accelerated raises. AT&T Inc. CEO Randall Stephenson unfroze the salaries of 100,000 managers and gave them “significant” raises in November 2009 instead of March 2010. The freeze for the rest of employees lifted in March, as planned.
Earlier, some companies chose to reward only certain groups with accelerated raises.
From what I have been seeing, this is the new normal. Only managers and “walk on water” individual contributors get raises.
You are almost always going to see some raises in industries with steep learning curves to to learn the internal operations of a firm or some other reason to not want to train new employees. If you have an industry with no raises but where the hiring freezes are not absolute (meaning you can hire for demonstrated needs) certain people with needed skills will be able to move to a new job to get more money. Allowing raises means that raises are the cheapest way to keep staffing at the current level by avoiding “churn.” It is not necessarily followed by a hiring boom. That is an entirely different beast.
Also, there is a limit to how long the bosses can give themselves ever more money for meeting their job goals of firing lots of people and making every one else pick up the extra work and not share the increased profits with the rank and file. My first year at a law firm, we were given a “special” bonus of $3000 right after the firm announced its best financial results ever. It wasn’t 5 minutes before every associate had figured out how much our bonuses had cost the partners in comparison to the increase in their partner profits from the previous year. It was a tiny percentage, but we generally agreed that something was better than nothing. And it quite possibly kept a few people from calling head hunters to get the heck out of there.
My wife just got an email last night saying the University was freezing professor salaries for a 2nd year in a row.
Were they also freezing administrator salaries? If the email didn’t discuss administrator salaries, you know they’ll be going up.
My local newspaper just ran front page business section article on pay freezes and it’s affect on economic recovery.
so many typos so little time
Coffee?
Hmmm - here’s an article showing how lots of folks are projecting lower-than-expected federal budget deficits in the next year or two. This I could see actually, given the stock market’s remarkable run (the two are very closely tied, due to cap gains tax receipts). However I don’t get the “Size of Treasury Auctions is Likely to Shrink..” comment. Being the the debt is constantly being turned over - wouldn’t the prerequisite for reducing the size of auctions be for us to actually need an annual budget surplus? If the debt’s still growing, even at a slower-than-expected rate, then the auction sizes will continue to increase, seems to me.
Hopes Rise as Deficit Forecasts Fall
Hopes Rise as Deficit Forecasts Fall
Size of Treasury Auctions Is Likely to Shrink as Economy Improves, Keeping Yields in Check
Several major banks have scaled back their forecasts for this year’s U.S. federal budget deficit as the improved economic outlook leads to higher tax receipts, and as many banks and companies that received taxpayer bailouts repay their debts early.
That is good news for the government and the Treasury market, where worries surface regularly that demand for U.S. government debt could flag, which would drive yields higher and raise the cost of borrowing for consumers and companies. The improved fiscal outlook means the Treasury can start scaling back record-size auctions, perhaps this month.
IMO yet another example of MSM cluelessness (or perhaps misrepresentation; I’d prefer the former).
Why the shock? Spending is about the same as a year ago. A lot of people are running out of unemployment. So, you are looking at reduction in spending there.
My guess is revenue recovered a good bit as well plus taxes are higher.
Exports are up and imports are down, particularly oil hasn’t peaked as high as a couple years ago.
And the “best” part is as all the folks fall off unemployment benefits, they disappear from the unemployment numbers, which will then look “better than expected!” even as more people join the ranks of the permanently unemployed.
Yep, the economy is NEVER going to improve, not even by one tiny increment.
They are going to get some sort of goose in revenue from Roth conversions. Of course, that means the money won’t be coming in later, but we can all thank people like Bill in LA who plans to take his tax hit now (during his peak earning years) for at least some level of tax revenues that wouldn’t be there otherwise.
I doubt that the impact will be all that large, but there will be some sort of impact.
Also, exact amount of bond auctions in a given year would be impacted to some extent by how much is maturing that year, not just how much is outstanding. I don’t know how much they tinker with the mix based on the yield curve and other considerations, but the mix may change.
The Roth revenue pull-forward I’m sure of - but I would imagine that the bulk of that’s already happened. Not many people are willing or able to shell out the tax $$ for it in these times - most would have done it in the mid-00’s.
Regarding the mix - I know there’s places that information can be gotten, though not sure how granular though, including e.g. a maturity schedule. In general the majority are in mid-term notes. I see one report that shows March’s interest expense at just over $18 Billion - of that $10.4 was notes (2-10 years), $4.0 bonds (30 years). So there’s still actually a good chunk in long-term bonds - I wonder actually if there’s a bunch that were bought back in the early 80’s, when rates were through the roof, that are now about to mature.
FWIW - the average interest rate is now down to 3.23%! That to me indicates a pretty heaving weighting towards short-term, and thus a high turnover rate. I’ve seen articles that mention this is the case especially with foreign investors - they’re shifting ever more towards short-term treasuries.
(for historical reference - the average interest rate paid was 6.5% in 2000, and 8.3% in 1990. My how times have changed.)
The MSM hasn’t even begun to think about what happens to the deficit when short term rates rise 50 or 100 basis points and the Treasury’s interest bill on the massive Federal Debt doubles, or worse. 100% marginal tax rates won’t be enough to balance the budget.
Dang pessimists! If we all just collectively believed the stock market would keep going up, it would keep going up.
P.S. DJIA = 11K or bust.
May 4, 2010, 12:21 a.m. EDT
Asian Shares Mostly Down; China Hit By Tightening Concerns
By Shri Navaratnam
(Adds information, quotes, updates/adds market levels)
SINGAPORE (MarketWatch) — Asian stock markets were mostly lower Tuesday, shrugging off Wall Street’s solid rise Monday as shares in China were hurt by the weekend news of further tightening measures from Beijing, while resources plays remained a drag on Australia’s market.
“Sentiment is shifting with the markets choosing to focus on the bad news rather than good news (such as exceptional earnings) like (they had) in the weeks before,” said Phillip Securities analyst Phua Ming-Weii in Singapore. “This hints of a shift back toward risk aversion.”
…
Related stories
* Shanghai resumes fall, as Hong Kong, Sydney slide (6:06a)
* Australia’s tax plan riles resource majors (May 3)
* Hong Kong rises as banks, resource stocks rebound (May 3)
* Hong Kong, Sydney lead Asian shares lower (May 3)
Shadow Inventory
In the 85310 area in Phoenix, short sales are running about 90% of the MLS listing, if not more. Since these can take 6 months or more to close, buying one of these is a test of your patience. (I have none).
Anyway, if you consider what the banks are withholding from the MLS and add the short sales, there are a ton of homes that you cannot buy.
The Result? There are so few properties readily available that people are entering bidding wars over by those that are ready to buy.
How soon until the banks have to start unloading their inventory or foreclosing on the short sales?
This is part of the banks strategy to get ptrices rising again.they are limiting supply bigtime.People are sitting in homes with free rent for a year or two before the bank boots them out.
Short sales are a joke.
Exactly.
I fully expect to see perfectly good houses destroyed before they’ll be released at a reasonable price to real buyers (people like the ones on this board.) Then, in some backroom scam-deal, the banks will be made whole on their “investments” (given 2005 prices as a reward for their crimes) since they destroyed the houses to reduce “blight” in the neighborhood.
The last thing The Powers That Be want is people to be able to live debt-free.
“The Result? There are so few properties readily available that people are entering bidding wars over by those that are ready to buy.”
Are these bidding wars driving prices up, even by a little bit? If so, then aren’t the banks (who can do anything they want with these properties) pursuing a strategy that’s in their best interests?
No, because the backlog of inventory is growing faster than houses are being sold. An ever-increasing shadow inventory is working against their interest of higher prices. They’ve got to pay the piper sometime, and when the day of reckoning comes, it’s curtains.
Bill in Carolina,
IMO, No, they are not pursuing a strategy that’s in their best interests. I don’t see them fixing up the properties in an effort to get the most money. Many of the buildings have had simple housekeeping done and minimal amounts of landscaping, but most need new carpeting, new paint, new light fixtures, etc.
I don’t think the numbers contribute much to the increase in the average prices since there are so few that are ready to buy. But when you find a good property that’s ready to get moved into, it gets multiple offerings. Examples?
1. I sold my house in one week and had two offers in that time
2. I offered to buy a beautiful house that was back on the MLS for one day. There were 4 good offers and the winning bid was “over” the asking price. Note that this was a great deal.
3. Another property that the fetching Ms. Lip wanted had two sets of buyers in the process of bidding up the property. My realtor said we could bump the asking price and nudge our way in. I said I’ll wait.
Conclusion, for the first time in 20 years I’ll be a renter. Not sure how long I can hold out but at least I’ll get the chance to see the market crash.
Lip “the Renter”
Oh, the humanity! How long before the rest of Europe shuts down?
May 4 (Bloomberg) — Greek government workers shut down schools and hospitals and disrupted flights as demonstrators occupied the Acropolis in an escalation of protests against 30 billion euros ($40 billion) of additional wage cuts and tax increases unveiled this week.
The ADEDY union federation, which represents more than 500,000 civil servants having their pensions and pay slashed under measures announced May 2 by Prime Minister George Papandreou, will hold a rally at midday joined by striking teachers. A general strike, the third this year, is planned for tomorrow, with private-sector workers due to participate.
And to think, this was the cradle of democracy.
The real funny thing is that they might (emphasis on might) be OK if their tax fraud wasn’t so high. The NY Times article implied their tax receipts are nearly trivial compared to what their laws would bring in if enforced. It was very short on numbers, but the implication is there. I’d be interested in seeing a real analysis with data. Seems to me that Spain is probably in more serious trouble since their housing bubble (British fueled) was so enormous.
Of course, saying that all they have to do is eliminate fraud is a little like saying you can balance the US budget on eliminating waste - nice in theory, but good luck pulling it off and even then it probably isn’t enough to fix things unless you completely change the definition of waste.
Something about “making your bed” comes to mind…
(as we busily work on ours)
just when I think CA is wacko with government spending I read about Greece……..
Let them say no to the bankers, like they did in Iceland! And no to the euro, too! The fallout from that will be interesting. Shouldn’t mean higher house prices, anyway. Right?
Spain and Portugal may be worse than Greece. I read somewhere that pensions in Spain are 100% of salary, at age 62. Portugal is 80%, but the age is lower.
Don’t forget California’s public employee pensions. They’re right up there with Portugal and Spain.
I think Kirisdad is referring to their equivalent of Social Security.
No, the article was pensions (which I assumed to mean gov’t pensions) Spain-retirement age 62 100%. As opposed to NYS, which is capped at 74% of your avg. salary., regardless of age. BTW, Greece gov’t workers make up a third of the entire workforce.
Is it time? “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsO4u46wIlk
A blueprint for California, Arizona, Florida etc. public employees when the various legistatures finally wake up and realize that they cannot deliver the pension benefits they promised.
market pulse
May 4, 2010, 10:00 a.m. EDT
U.S. pending home sales rise 5.3% in March
By Ruth Mantell
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Supported by a tax credit, the pending home sales index rose a seasonally adjusted 5.3% in March, and was up 21.1% compared with a year earlier, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. In February, the index rose 8.3%, compared with an earlier estimate of an 8.2% gain. For March sales contracts rose 12.7% in the South, 1.9% in the West and 1.2% in the Midwest. Contracts declined 3.3% in the Northeast.
Okay, how do you keep all of your aliases straight PB, I mean Green Shoots, dang I mean Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb-thrower.
You left out “Ki”.
huh?
And going back a ways you left out “GetStucco.”
The Professor has gone mad.
The Professor has gone mad.’
Because home prices in N San Diego are 10x median income and are rigged to stay high….. forever
The dancing bear of the HBB.
I think its funny what the Professor is doing . Maybe it’s about time I change my name ,I’m not a Housing Wizard that’s for sure . It’s hard to change a name ,it would be like a death . Maybe I will think of something .
http://www.realestatechannel.com/us-markets/residential-real-estate-1/real-estate-news-home-buyer-tax-credit-program-deadline-national-association-of-realtors-irs-fannie-mae-freddie-mac-the-new-york-times-reuters-the-time-2455.php
Through February, the government approved a total $12.6 billion in tax credits.
Most of that amount was collected by buyers “who would have bought homes anyway or who, in some cases, were not even eligible,” reports The New York Times.
For every homebuyer who really needed the credit to decide on a purchase, real estate agents tell The Times there are at least three others who collected the credit even though they would have bought without it.
“It’s true that a lot of people who got the credit might have bought without it, but they might have bought in 2012 or 2013,” said Senator Johnny Isakson, a Republican from Georgia, who worked for 30 years as a real estate agent.
“This got them to buy in 2009 and 2010, when we needed to shore things up.”
For each new buyer who was truly lured into the market by the credit, the federal government paid more than $30,000, according to the newspaper.
In addition to legitimate buyers, tens of thousands of people who collected the credit were not qualified.
An audit by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration released last year found hundreds of millions of dollars in credits went to people who had not yet bought homes or who were not first-time home buyers, as the program initially required.
Hundreds of others who received the credit were not old enough to sign a binding contract, the audit found, with some as young as 4 years old, The Times reports.
“This got them to buy in 2009 and 2010, when we needed to shore things up.”
Does this quote leave any doubt as to the fact that those buyers were cannon fodder?
There were local stories that people not planning on buying a home did get caught up in the mania. Not wanting to lose out on the government give away I guess some were calling realtors w/weeks to go on a mission to get into something.
Imagine making what for most is the largest purchase in their lives, doing absolutely no research on areas, going prices, value/sq ft, mortgages, just buying from the inventory that’s available in a competition w/ other like minded individuals? The mob mentality / feeding frenzy is frightening to watch.
Everyday it is becoming more obvious that in order to see the back broken on this real estate mania, we will first have to watch as successive waves of knifecatchers are beaten into submission…one at a time.
So yeah, this is going to take an awfully long time as our host and others have pointed out. Now that it’s here it is indeed both frightening and fascinating to watch.
A Big Number Problem YouTube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWt8hTayupE&feature=player_embedded
This needs MSM exposure.
Well done. I vote for this guy.
Man seals self inside foreclosed residence
Householder pleads for help from bank
STONY RIDGE, Ohio - Through a golf ball-sized hole drilled into a front window, Keith Sadler has a message for banks foreclosing on people like him who fall behind on their mortgage payments.
He wants a little help, a little understanding, and a big demand: an end to foreclosures and evictions. In the meantime, the 53-year-old said he’s not leaving the house that he owned for 12 years and lived in for 20.
“Even though on paper and legally it’s no longer my house, I still consider this my home and I refuse to be kicked out by a greedy bank that is only interested in its bottom line,” Mr. Sadler said in a phone interview.
Through an agreement with the Wood County Sheriff’s Office, he was to have been out of the house on U.S. 20 in Stony Ridge by midnight yesterday, but instead, members of the Toledo Foreclosure Defense League, an organization he co-founded, helped seal him inside. A cell phone - and the hole in the front window - are his only means of communication.
“I hate touting the Obama plan, but it’s a plan based on a percentage of income you make and the bank has to work out an interest rate that allows you to make payments,” Mr. Sadler said. “I’m not looking for a free ride. I’m not looking for the bank to just let me have the house, but to work with me.”
It’d be interesting to know the details on this guy. Why is he getting foreclosed on if he really owned the house for 12 years? It’s not like we’re anywhere close to back down to 1998 nominal pricing.
1998 HPI: 90
2010 HPI: 150
Not to mention the equity he should have paid down by now.
Could it be he let the black HELOCopter get him? If so - does he really have a right to call the bank greedy?
“Why is he getting foreclosed on if he really owned the house for 12 years?”
Heck, if he’d paid on a 15-yr amortization schedule, he’d almost own it by now.
“the black HELOCopter”
Ha! I love it!
Another HELOC Harry? In that case, pack yer $hit and get out before someone pitches yer dumb A$$ out the door.
Wow. That’s commitment. You gotta’ give him credit for that… and being bat sh!t crazy.
This is NOT going to end well.
Nail up the doors and windows, leaving a large hole in the front window? Sounds like a perfect place for the cops to inject tear gas.
Kind of like the ATF down in Waco. Its a good idea to have an escape route planned.
This entitlement mentality has become a pervasive disease of the mind in our country. He wants “his” house, but doesn’t want to pay for it…
My guess is that in his mind his dad paid for it decades ago, and the fact that somebody loaned him some money a few years ago and made him sign some papers has nothing to do with it.
It would appear the Greeks have to many gubmint workers.
ATHENS — Greece reacted with a mix of resignation and outrage on Monday to a painful new austerity package from the government that newspaper editorials said would force a long-delayed “violent modernisation” on the country.
“The time to pay the bill has come, the time of responsibility for all of us tackling this crisis must become the big opportunity to modernise our public life, even if we have to bleed,” said financial daily Kerdos.
Prime Minister George Papandreou’s government unveiled the plan to overhaul Greece’s debt-ridden economy on Sunday after talks with officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Union (EU).
It foresees a massive fiscal adjustment driven primarily by cuts in the country’s bloated public sector, which makes up roughly a third of the workforce.
A public sector pay freeze was extended until 2014 and treasured holiday bonuses will be scrapped for many employees. Pensions will also be cut.
Read more: http://www.financialpost.com/news-sectors/story.html?id=2979918#ixzz0myOSRZeY
Kerdos…is that related to the US voice of reason, the Daily Kos?
It’s the public sector first and then the dominoes start.
But everyone knows smaller government is bad, right? We are doing the right thing, right? Change we can believe in is more government hiring/programs, right? We don’t even like souvlaki with sadziki sauce, do we?
News that Greece has appointed debt restructuring specialists Lazard to provide “general financial advice” fueled speculation that some form of orderly rescheduling or payment moratorium may be likely, despite vehement official denials.
Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou told Reuters after news of the Lazard hire: “Any form of debt restructuring is out of the question.”
Lazard recently advised countries like Argentina, Ecuador and Ivory Coast on sovereign debt restructurings.
They should have chatted with Goldman Sachs - we know how upstanding those fine crooks are, doing “God’s work” and all that…
Dubai, foreclosure, plot for a terrorist attack…it’s all there…
Hey, he became a LEGAL citizen 1 year ago!
By Tina Susman Los Angeles Times May 4, 2010
Reporting from New York
“Investigators on Tuesday were combing through the Connecticut apartment recently occupied by a Pakistani-born man accused of driving an SUV rigged to explode into the heart of Times Square and arrested as he tried to flee the country overnight.
The man, Faisal Shahzad, 30, was due in court Tuesday, but it was not clear what charges he would face. Shahzad was arrested about midnight EDT as he tried to leave the United States on a flight bound for Dubai.”
“…In the working-class neighborhood of Shelton, Conn., north of New York City, where Shahzad had lived for several years, neighbor Brenda Thurman said Shahzad had a wife and two children and stayed to himself. “He didn’t like to come out during the day,” Thurman told The Associated Press. She said Shahzad told her husband he had a job on Wall Street, but that the Shahzad family left the home a few months ago after it fell into foreclosure.”
“the Shahzad family left the home a few months ago after it fell into foreclosure.”
-Great. Another reason for the government to stop foreclosures.
Thank God he wasn’t one of those “illegals”. Those people are nothin’ but trouble. :-]
Is SPX sporting a tiny head and shoulder?
Check the pattern on the Nasdaq. It looks ominous.
Yeah, that’s the “off a cliff” pattern, isn’t it?
It looks like an ilandish H & S reversal with good volume symmetry. Helmet required.
Over what period of time? Day? Week? Month? 5 years?
Mortgage lending dives 83% as housing recovery runs out of steam
Daily Mail ~ UK
Losing steam: The housing market fell to £318m in March
Mortgage lending was down 83 per cent during March, fuelling speculation that the housing market recovery has stalled.
Net lending, which strips out redemptions and repayments, fell to just £318 million during the month.
That was down from £1.85 billion in February and the lowest level since July last year - when it was negative - according to the Bank of England.
The low figure is likely to partially reflect the distortions to the market caused by the Government’s stamp duty holiday, which led to people rushing through transactions on lower-value properties before the end of last year.
It can also partly be explained by the severe winter weather the country suffered at the beginning of the year, which dented housing market activity, as well as the uncertainty caused by the General Election.
But economists have warned that these factors alone cannot explain the fall in activity seen since the beginning of the year.
Anyone know the history on UK’s housing stimulus? Did they have one? If so, when did it (or will it) expire?
“…which led to people rushing through transactions on lower-value properties before the end…”
Hmmm, where have we heard this before - people rushing to buy to get in on a tax break? Help me, I just can’t recall - something about $8,000…maybe that will help?
LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!
The Times Square bomber was a FB’er!!!!!!
Details! We want details!
I didn’t see any FB info on a bunch of news sites. Got a link?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36934331/ns/us_news-security/?GT1=43001
Please, please tell me he was an illegal immigrant with a liar loan, too?
“Please, please tell me he was an illegal immigrant with a liar loan, too?”
Do you really have to ask?
No - a U.S. citizen actually. Not sure about the loan thing.
One tidbit from pressboardbox’s link -
Chase Home Finance LLC sued Shahzad, 30, in September to force the foreclosure. The case is pending in Milford Superior Court.
So the foreclosure’s been in the works now for 8 months, still pending in court. And that’s after they hadn’t paid the mortgage for several months, so probably well over a year total between first delinquency and actual foreclosure. Just gives some idea of lag time we’re looking at w/regards to shadow inventory.
He had lots of extra money available to buy fertilizer and alarm clocks.
Out of unemployment benefits ~ Selling everything ~ CNN
Kevin Huffer, who lives in a rural area with his wife, Heather, and their three children, sold his car to pay for rent.
Name: Kevin Huffer, 36
Location: Ghent, N.Y.
Unemployed since: January 2008
Benefits ended: March 2010
With three young children, Kevin Huffer is desperate to find a way to support his family now that he no longer gets his $430 weekly unemployment check.
The former car salesman and his wife, Heather, have sold his treasured coin collection, their wedding rings and a sterling silver hair brush set that was her great grandmother’s. That’s what helped save them during his two-plus years of unemployment.
He’s applied for jobs ranging from working construction to serving as a WalMart greeter, but he hasn’t received so much as a call back. Lately, he has picked up scrap metal on the side of the road and raked leaves at cut-rate prices to support his family.
The couple just sold their car to be able to pay the rent on a new place after their landlord sold their previous home. However, the only house they could afford is deep in the woods, meaning they’ll have to rely on friends and family to drive them to pick up groceries and appointments.
“We’re at the point now that we don’t have anything left to sell,” he said.
The former car salesman and his wife, Heather, have sold his treasured coin collection, their wedding rings and a sterling silver hair brush set that was her great grandmother’s. That’s what helped save them during his two-plus years of unemployment.
The couple just sold their car to be able to pay the rent on a new place after their landlord sold their previous home.
Now I suspect the price of coin collectables, wedding rings, sterling silver hair brush sets and used cars to fall if this trend continues.
“We’re at the point now that we don’t have anything left to sell,” he said.
Seems like they need some cash.
Thar doin it wrong!
Don’t these people know about “funemployment!?”
Ghent in Columbia County NY, commutable to Albany. Too bad for the family but I contend this couple is not the exception but the rule for upstate NY. Setting aside all the happy talk BS of “it’s going to be great, our golden sailed ship has just ported” talk, this is whats on the menu.
Are you listening upstaters? This is whats on the menu and you know it. The bubble years are gone forever. They’re not coming back and we’re going back to the early 1990’s. And early 1990’s housing prices.
Out of unemployment benefits
The first wave of the long-term jobless are now exhausting their benefits. CNNMoney.com looks at how seven people are getting by without this safety net.
1 of 7
Keeping us alive
Rebecca Miranda is trying to start her own business to be able to care for her 2-year-old daughter.
Name: Rebecca Miranda, 32
Location: Beaumont, Calif.
Unemployed since: April 2008
Benefits ended: April 2010
Since Rebecca Miranda received her last unemployment check on April 1, the single mother sold her car and applied for food stamps in order to provide for her 2-year-old daughter.
An employment recruiter, Miranda has not been able to find work since losing her job two years ago. Everywhere she applies tells her she’s overqualified or underqualified.
The $752 she received every other week in unemployment benefits paid for her share of a house she rents with her sister, food and clothing for Katelynn.
“Everything went to keeping us alive,” said Miranda, whose longest previous stretch of unemployment was three months.
Now that she’s exhausted her benefits, Miranda is looking to start her own business making candy. She borrowed the money to get her license from her boyfriend. Until the confectionary gets up and running, she can get by with the $2,000 she received from selling her car. After that, it will take a miracle, she said.
“Once June comes, that’s it,” Miranda said. “I’m done.”
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/autos/1004/gallery.longterm_unemployed_benefits/index.html
That’s very sad. None of us are indispensable, it turns out… As they say in the program, “There but for the grace of God go I. “
Which again is argument #1 against the debt culture. Hopefully more people will see that and rebel against the debt pushers.
After hearing all the stories about down and out in America from Americans, I can’t help to wonder why the illegals are working under the table, getting entitlements for anchor babies, sec 8 housing, and driving SUV’s? Not to mention free medical care when Americans are lining up at convention center free clinics needing care. Something is terribly wrong in this country.
Ya think?
It’s Americans who are perpetuating the illegal alien problem. I lost all respect for my own sister who uses illegal alien housekeepers. I told her as much, but that didn’t change her mind. She’s someone who can easily afford legal help, but feeds at the cheap labor trough. It’s disgusting. Needless to say, I don’t visit her anymore.
Good for you,GrizzlyBear. Although I blame the issue on govt and corporations, more so than the house painter or housekeeper employers.
I once tried a housekeeper. The legs on our conservatory grand player piano looked like they went through the Vietnam war, and she cleaned the mircowave with a bathroom cleaner. The fumes nearly killed us when we turned it on.
Lesson learned- You’re not above scubbing the john, princess.
I read the Mexican media and there is a HUGE sense of entitlement down regarding illegals and how we should treat them.
Sometimes I wonder what percentage of metro LA’s population are illegals.
And let me tell you, its not just those who do menial labor. I have an aunt in the Bay Area who has a pyschology degree. She earns a handsome salary as a school counselor.
She’s been in the country illegally for over 20 years.
In Colorado,
Oh you betcha. Did she come in on a student or work visa?
Living in the L A area, our biggest entitlement “hoovers” are the so of the border variety illegals.
When life’s vicissitudes get me down, I can always rely on this hbb family to perk me or, or get me to seriously contemplate suicide:)
Pot Offically Calls Kettle “Black”:
Congress Members Bet on Fall in Stocks
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/article/109442/congress-members-bet-on-fall-in-stocks?sec=topStories&pos=3&asset=03213b77b7c7547874dc0b750c36f5e8&ccode=mp
I rarely listen to talk radio, but just listened to Dave Ramsey for a few minutes. He was telling a women who was thinking of trying to selling her house, to hang in there.
“The real estate market will be much netter in two years” so how does this expert know? He did not elaborate, one of his sponsors must be tied to the NAR.
netter=better
Translation: let the banks and agents dump their inventory first.
John has it correct.
Dave Ramsey is an RE bull. I talked to him myself about housing in early 2006. Armed with facts (Thank you HBB’ers and BJ), I laid out a very coherent scenario for Dave and his audience. Dave’s response was very muted and peppered with “do you think?”
DR is good for many things and I like what he does but he’s dead wrong on housing and has been since I became a champion of his in early 2005.
PS- Note that DR built his small fortune buying “distressed” housing.
“PS- Note that DR built his small fortune buying “distressed” housing”.
Then the die is cast in his mind.
The two times I’ve listened to him, he was giving common sense prudent advice money wise, IMO. He is most definitely an RE bull in the ‘rebound soon’ camp. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, I just wanted him to give some solid reasons he thinks this, no dice.
Just says… It has to.
Then the die is cast in his mind.
Totally OT, and interesting only to us pedants: When Caesar said ‘the die is cast’ (alea iacta est), he was referring to the game of ‘dice’, ie ‘the dice are thrown’, roughly meaning ‘we have taken our chance, there’s no turning back’. The phrase ‘to cross the Rubicon’ means essentially the same thing, and of course he was crossing the Rubicon river (the northern boundary of Italy) into Italy proper, at the head of an army, which was expressly against the law, at the time he said the phrase ‘alea iacta est’. The dice had been thrown, if he was unsuccessful, he would die.
In English, and only in English, the translation has another possible meaning- the ”die’ (a template, or form) has been ‘cast’ ie made, by an action having occurred (in this case, a Roman general leading an army against Rome). And this did happen- Caesar was the first, but by no means the last, Roman general to lead an army against Rome. The ‘template’ he set, followed by others, led to the destruction of the Roman Republic.
I’ve always found it interesting that the English translation offers two equally valid meanings, but the original does not. (Of course, I’m controlled by Pedantic Man.)
I’ve always used “the die is cast” like “Les jeux sont fait” in roulette (I.e things are in motion ,let the chips fall where they may, etc.) And “crossing the Rubicon” to denote doing something which one cannot undo. Reasonable?
On a plus note, the empire lasted another couple centuries after Ceasar pulled his little stunt.
Ah! Fellow pedants!
Mr. Bubble- ‘Les joux sont fait’ has almost the exact same meaning as ‘alea iact est’- the bets are made, the dice are thrown, if you’re in now, you’re in. But that’s really what crossing the rubicon means too. It sounds a little more ominous, but it really means you’ve made your bet, thrown your dice, there’s no backing out now.
James- Roman Empire, yes. I was speaking of the Roman Republic. Relatively soon after Caesar’s (and his copycats’) stunt, the Republic fell.
$12 Cup Of Coffee Comes To New York
MYFOXNY.COM - How much are you willing to pay for a cup of joe?
A gourmet coffee chain is betting you’ll pay up to $12 for a fine brew.
Cafe Grumpy has Brooklyn locations in Greenpoint and Park Slope. It also has a Manhattan location in Chelsea.
It is part of a small, but growing, movement of coffee shops roasting their own beans.
The company defends the steep prices, saying they are higher end coffees and take much longer to develop and process.
The cafes offer a changing selection of coffees. One current offering is called Nekisse. It is described as a “very clean, sweet, complex cup with tropical fruit notes of pineapple, kiwi and key lime.”
Cafe Grumpy also offers specialty teas.
Well I think they are early, but I might head on down and get myself a cup just to get a feel of what hyperinflation will feel like when and if the FED ever gets it going. I’ll use a 20 dollar bill as my napkin.
I used to go to a coffee shop that roasted their own beans, and they didn’t charge $12 for a cup of coffee. It was closer to $2. What a joke.
Personally, I don’t even go to coffee shops anymore unless I’m out with someone. I make my own latte every morning. It’s delicious, and much cheaper.
We always see the stories like this coming out of NYC and LA.
Which is why people in Flyover Country wonders if everyone in SoCal and NYC is bat-$hit crazy.
A $12 cup of coffee at NY’s Grumpy Cafe’.
Wow…I’ve heard stories from old sailor’s that visited some Far East whorehouses for a mere fraction of that… and got a better screwing !
We have to bail out the people going through foreclosure! Otherwise there will be terrorist unrest in the street!
“Bomb suspect lost Conn. home to foreclosure
Chase sued him in September after he defaulted on $200,000 loan
msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 5 minutes ago
The suspect in the Times Square bombing attempt defaulted on a $200,000 mortgage on a Connecticut home and the Shelton property is now in foreclosure, according to court records.
The foreclosure records show that Faisal Shahzad took out the mortgage in 2004 and that he co-owned the home with a woman named Huma Mian.
Chase Home Finance LLC sued Shahzad, 30, in September to force the foreclosure. The case is pending in Milford Superior Court.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36934331/ns/us_news-security/?GT1=43001
if i was gonna blow up time square…my monthly mortgage payment would be last on my list of concerns.
implying that it was his financial woes that set him off is putting the cart before the horse i think.
I was thinking, wouldn’t it be AWESOME if he had financed this “terrorist plot” with a HELOC?
He probably did finance his SUV, M-80’s, fertilizer etc… with a HELCO.
I haven’t read if he spent the night before out strip clubbing. Like his crowd likes to do before they head off to hang out with the 72 virgins.
Michael - it was obviously his financial woes that put him into a desperate situation and forced him to turn to acts of (attempted) violence. This is a terrifying situation and the government must act now to avoid another similar crime.
It is obvious that underwater homeowners are a growing threat to the safety and stability of the American way of life. Therefore the government should pay off a big chuck of each mortgage so that the homeowner can keep their home and not have to resort to violence. I’m not saying pay off the whole thing of course, that would be ridiculous, but maybe 80% of each loan so the homeowner has a fighting chance.
For the people who have already lost their homes in foreclosure it makes perfect economic sense to give each of them a payoff of between $75,000 and $400,000, depending on where they live, so that they can buy a another home with very little financing.
We can prevent the terrorists from winning by keeping them from turning into terrorists in the first place! The safety of our country is at stake and for God’s sake, think of the children!
Huma Main… sounds like Human!
It’s a joke name sir, like Biggus Dickuss or Legionis Maximus.
We’ve had some real good names in the stories over the years.
Zettabytes overtake petabytes as largest unit of digital measurement
The size of the “digital universe” will swell so rapidly this year that a new unit - the zettabyte - has been invented to measure it.
Telegraph UK ~ BST 04 May 2010
The world’s total digital output is the equivalent of all the information that could be stored on 75bn Apple iPads
Humanity’s total digital output currently stands at 8,000,000 petabytes - which each represent a million gigabytes - but is expected to pass 1.2 zettabytes this year.
One zettabyte is equal to one million petabytes, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 individual bytes.
The current size of the world’s digital content is equivalent to all the information that could be stored on 75bn Apple iPads, or the amount that would be generated by everyone in the world posting messages on the microblogging site Twitter constantly for a century.
The rapid growth of the “digital universe” has been caused by the explosion of social networking, online video, digital photography and mobile phones.
Around 70 per cent of the world’s digital content is generated by individuals, but it is stored by companies on content-sharing websites such as Flickr and YouTube.
If anyone is interested, google “map of the Internet”
Notice anything… familiar… about it?
Humanity’s total digital output currently stands at 8,000,000 petabytes - which each represent a million gigabytes - but is expected to pass 1.2 zettabytes this year.
So the total is expected to “increase” from 8.0 to 1.2 zettabytes? Must be that special media math. Also, the prefix “zetta” is not something new that was just invented. I learned about it years ago.
“Humanity’s total digital output currently stands at 8,000,000 petabytes - which each represent a million gigabytes - but is expected to pass 1.2 zettabytes this year.”
…out of which, the human relevant material part, could perhaps be placed upon 3 Apple IIe era floppy disks …leaving plenty of room to spare and time for an idiot game of “Space Invaders”.
They say that an infinite number of monkeys typing on an infinite number of keyboards will eventually compose the Gettysburg Address. Thanks to the internet we now know that’s not true.
100 to lose jobs following IAC production cuts
Sheboygan Press • May 4, 2010
International Automotive Components announced Monday that it will cease all but a limited amount of production work at its Sheboygan manufacturing plant by the end of the year in a move that will cost more than 100 workers their jobs.
Company officials cited the downturn in the U.S. auto industry in their decision, saying the company continues to “suffer from excess capacity” and must reduce its manufacturing footprint to match a smaller and more competitive environment.
International Automotive Components, which is based in Dearborn, Mich., will consolidate most of its Sheboygan manufacturing operations at other facilities by the end of the year. All but two dozen or so employees are expected to lose their jobs.
“This difficult decision was not based on plant performance or quality issues, but rather was driven by industry and economic factors beyond the plant or company’s control,” company spokesman Dave Ladd said in a news release.
The factory — which was owned by Lear Corp. until 2007 — has been in operation for more than three decades and produces a variety of interior parts for the auto industry, including products used by GM, Chrysler and Ford.
Threats Of Civil War
Karl Denninger ~ Market Ticker~ May 4, 2010
Just reported: Greece will not cut public salaries or there will be civil war.
There’s the gauntlet folks. It means that no “assistance” can actually succeed, because it is not possible to get the fiscal situation under control without significant cuts in public spending.
This, incidentally, is the same problem we have in the US, and why attempts to deal with our fiscal situation at both state and federal levels is going to end up in the same place eventually. The majority of our budget is comprised of handouts of one form or another, whether they be Social Security, Medicare, or public-sector salaries.
The “unified opposition” by public-sector employee unions (just look at what Florida teachers ran when their pension handouts and tenure were threatened) says everything you need to know.
Greece has to be cut loose. The best way to do it is for Germany to walk away from the Euro and return to the Mark for its currency, leaving the rest of Europe to twist in the wind.
I see no other solution. Threats of civil war, which are effectively what the public sector unions here in the US have also threatened repeatedly since 2008 (and to which we have responded by refusing to cut their salaries and benefits) mean that we have the irresistible force meeting the immovable object.
All such governments who refuse to take on these bullies and meet that threat with immediate charges of inciting overthrow of the government by force (in the US this charge is known as seditious conspiracy) will fail.
We have refused to make clear that such threats will result in charges of this sort - and so have other nations such as Greece. Yet unless this is made crystal clear and this sort of approach by these unions is put down immediately all nations beset by this sort of action will fail both politically and economically.
Simply put the artificial support proffered to the financial sector should have never been put forward, but having done so, the public must now bear the cost, here, today, and immediately.
Those are the only choices folks. Greece, and indeed the entire European Union, will ultimately disintegrate (as will America) if this is not done.
That’s why it’s always easier to print. How else could we fight 2 wars, cut taxes, save every too big to fail firm, and expand healthcare? No, Mr 6Pack. The printing records are off limits.
Got precious?
“Threats of civil war, which are effectively what the public sector unions here in the US have also threatened repeatedly since 2008. ”
That’s a big statment with nothing to back it up. Which union actually declared war on the US???
Yet unless this is made crystal clear and this sort of approach by these unions is put down immediately all nations beset by this sort of action will fail both politically and economically.
Simply put the artificial support proffered to the financial sector should have never been put forward, but having done so, the public must now bear the cost, here, today, and immediately.
Those are the only choices folks. Greece, and indeed the entire European Union, will ultimately disintegrate (as will America) if this is not done
What a waste of print
So it is the working man who has stolen all the wealth that has created this mess. The problem is that the elite have taken all there is to eat and now when the formerly middle class rises up in anger they want to put them down with force? Sounds a lot like he wants a totalitarian facist gov that jails and shoots those who dissent when Wall Street takes all their money.
It’s going to be an interesting show.
Let them eat cake.
I just love how the propaganda has worked in this country.
Facts speak lowder than words
The money has flowed to the top not to the workers.
The elite have gotten richer, the upper middle, middle and poor are headed for a new reality.
The union members are part of the elite, as far as I’m concerned. They’re every bit as greedy as GS, and they are destroying this country. Unions are the reason that so much manufacturing has been outsourced. It’s time to bust the unions. Fire the workers and imprison their leaders. There are plenty of unemployed people who will be happy to do those jobs at a more reasonable wage.
Fire the workers and imprison their leaders. There are plenty of unemployed people who will be happy to do those jobs at a more reasonable wage.
Sounds like a reasonable plan. And if they protest getting fired, we’ll firehose ‘em and release the dogs. And if their replacement workers demand better pay or conditions, we’ll fire them and imprison their leaders too. For America.
Would that be those same elite unions members who had to take pay cuts, furloughs and reduced retirement over the last 15 years?
The same elite union members who had to get a trillion dollars in bailouts?
The same elite union members that the vast majority of Americans were told they didn’t need as their jobs were being offshored?
The same elite union members who have to take concession after concession over the last 20 years?
The same elite union member who, at one time, could afford to put their kids through college?
Damn those *@!x# elite union members!
We are not Greece. American workers haven’t acted like that since the first half of this century. We have been steadily cutting benefits and pay for the past ten years, and people are retiring later. Even government workers in California are being furloughed and are pension contributions are being deducted from their checks. Except for the prison guards, police, firemen, and legislators’ staffs. When their retirements are cut we’ll know that we’re on the right track. The silver lining of this recession is that it will force us to live within our means.
Seriously Chriss
Show me a comparison of how much the richest union member is vs the average Wall Street Exec. Unions have their problems (as do all power structures), but to say that they have been the cause of this mess is just ignorant.
I think you’ll find that union presidents earn hundreds of thousands, while Wall Street executives earn 100’s of millions.
A small difference.
Some unions have become too big and corrupt, not to mention many of the unions have gone off the reservation with their communist propaganda. Have the unions always been influenced by communist revolutionaries or have they just been infiltrated over the years? What happened to American unions just simply looking out for their American workers? It seems to me that taking pay cuts rather than job cuts would be beneficial to union rank and file when times are tough. What happened to common sense?
“I just love how the propaganda has worked in this country”.
Propaganda goes on 24-7 world wide as fast as someone can type and click, as far as I can tell.
You show us every day.
I never did understand why a country like Germany (3rd? largest economy in the world, would consent to be tied to countries like Greece and Portugal. And since the war, Germany has been a model of fiscal conservatism.
Can’t post from work anymore. They now have surveilance…sucks.
“Simply put the artificial support proffered to the financial sector should have never been put forward, but having done so, the public must now bear the cost, here, today, and immediately.”
Why MUST the public bear the cost? The Greece bailout amounts to nothing else than another bailout of banks (mostly French, German and Swiss) that were lending to the subprime borrower Greece. The people should riot and overthrow the elites that stole their money. Throw in a lynch mob for good measure. France 1789, that’s how it is done!
The same that’s happening in Greece will sooner or later happen in almost all western democracies including the US, Japan and Germany. Greece is just the weakest link. As we go on the crisis will come with increasing frequency. Think Obama will bail out Clownifornia, Illinois or Florida? How about LA? Who bail bail out the US federal gubernmint when the time comes?
Use remote desktop.
I’m back from my two week school in DFW.
Drove down Sunday (seven hours plus)……..go in to register yesterday. Seems that the class we were sold was run out of the DFW school, but was actually being done off site………IN BRAZIL !!!
Seems there was a communication problem somewhere
Brazil is one of those countries I’d like to visit one of these days, but I’m not driving down there.
Good thing I’m still a contract employee.
As I told my co-worker yesterday, this story would have been a whole lot funnier, if it had happened to someone else.
14 hours of driving, hotel, eating out, bad bed (assumed). So sorry you had to go through that X-GS.
What a waste of time and resources. Are they offering to make any amends? Did they refund the money? Can we help you jump the sales guy in some dark alley? 
Wasn’t a total waste.
Had dinner with my daughter and son-in law, and my one month old granddaughter. Saw my little niece and nephew in DFW. The wildflowers are really going crazy on I-35 between DFW and OKC.
Met a nice Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper. Did you know they have ticket printers in their patrol cars now? Found out my speedometer is accurate…….checked by laser measurement, no less…..
So we add a day of traffic school, a ridiculous “court fine” and a few hours of prayer that the court/paper pushers don’t screw up and your insurance company finds out? Lovely.
Alley offer is still open.
I bought a fairly speedy used car a few weeks ago. My buddy, who is a detective sgt. in my local police gang noticed it and did a quick walk-a-round, then said with a grin.
“Nice, would you like for me to enter it into the FBI National Crime Information Center(NCIC) now, or would you prefer to have a total stranger with the Wisconsin Highway Patrol do it for you at a later date?”, to which he added…
“Oh, that’s right, you’re are no stranger to the local county mounties and our friends in the highway patrol, are you mikey?”
These cops won’t quit until everybody is stone sober, insane and being herded onto low-speed shuttle buses for weekly trips between Walgreens and the freakin’ nursing homes !!
A school that can’t communicate. That says about everything you need to know right there.
I’d be saying adios, don’t call me, I’ll call you.
As much as I’d like to, the reality is there are only two companies that do maintenance training for GA type airplanes, so the probability is that we’ll have to use them again.
Apparantly, from what I gathered yesterday, the fact that this school was off-site was communicated to the sales guy……..but, knowing sales guys, all he probably heard was “There is a class starting May 3……..”
Kind of ironic driving seven hours to an airplane school. Tell your company they need to fly you to Brazil in one of their planes. (Or are you afraid to fly? That’d be unsettling.)
China / “TrueBambooLie™” …+… US / “TrueReducedDemand™” = Got Oil?
BWAHAHAHicHAHAHicHAHAHAHAHicHAHAHic* (DennisN™)
China May ‘Crash’ in Next 9 to 12 Months, Faber Says (Update3) :
By Shiyin Chen and Haslinda Amin May 3 (Bloomberg)
“The market is telling you that something is not quite right,” Faber, the publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report, said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Hong Kong today. “The Chinese economy is going to slow down regardless. It is more likely that we will even have a crash sometime in the next nine to 12 months.”
“China is “on a treadmill to hell” because it’s hooked on property development for driving growth, Chanos said in an interview last month. As much as 60 percent of the country’s gross domestic product relies on construction, he said. Rogoff said in February a debt-fueled bubble in China may trigger a regional recession within a decade.
The government has banned loans for third homes and raised mortgage rates and down-payment requirements for second-home purchases.
A ‘treadmill to hell’ would never get there, no? I still don’t understand that phrase. Sounds like a good deal really. Do all the fun naughty stuff that sends you on your way to hell, but you never really get there.
Looks like this fired “Entry level Cost-Benefit Analyst” will have to update the data numbers (+ Pending Lawsuits):
Previously:
“$500,000 ounce of prevention… verses… $2.5 BILLION+ pound of cure…”
Currently: $32 Billion+…. day 14…
BWAHAHAHicHAHAHicHAHAHAHAHicHAHAHic* (DennisN™)
“KiKi Dee = eddie haskell’s girlfriend…but, but, but”
On the one hand, it would appear that the pummeling the stock has taken is an overreaction. Various estimates for how much it could cost to clean up the spill range from $3 billion to more than $12 billion. But BP has lost about $32 billion in market value in the past few weeks.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/04/markets/thebuzz/index.htm
If fishing and tourism are destroyed in the region for a long I can see the bill being more than 12 billion. Then there is the cost of making sure this doesn’t happen again.
I believe they mean a 1% tax increase.
City Council Passes One Cent Sales Tax Increase
The Mobile City Council passed a one-cent sales tax increase by a 5-2 vote. The increase takes effect June 1. Alabama Mobile
WKRG.com
MOBILE, Alabama - The Mobile City Council has passed a one-cent sales tax increase.
As of June 1, sales tax in Mobile will be 10%. Restaurants are exempt. The increase expires September 30, 2011.
The city says the increase sales tax will “stop the bleeding,” but it will not address Mobile’s long term budget crisis. When the sales tax expires, city officials are projecting a $11 million deficit.
“We’ve reached a compromise that is in the best interest of our city,” Jones said. “We realize there are no perfect solutions to this unprecedented economic crisis in our country, state and city. Now is the time for us to look at what we can afford and what we cannot. This compromise represents us moving on so our city can recover without immediate layoffs and without shutting down important services that citizens expect.”
Councilwoman Gina Gregory says the sales tax will give city officials a chance to look inwardly at its operations, make more cuts and “do what citizens have asked us to do - be more accountable.”
The sales tax will not expire. They will vote to extend it.
You know it, and so does city council.
I believe they mean a 1% tax increase.
You mean an 11% tax increase (9% -> 10%)
A percent of a percent seems less clear to me. Since taxes are expressed as a percentage of whatever is being taxed, an increase could also be expressed in the same terms. An 11% increase on a 9% tax could easily be interpreted as 20%. I guess either way, it’s not totally obvious what is meant by a “X% increase”. That’s probably why the original article called it a “1 cent” increase. A 1 cent per dollar increase is unambiguous.
Americans Seeking Reward Money Inform IRS on Others (Update2)
May 4 (Bloomberg) — Americans seeking reward money are turning in neighbors, clients and employers they suspect of cheating on taxes to the IRS at a rate of nearly eight per day, the director of the agency’s whistleblower program said.
Steve Whitlock, the director, told an audience of about 200 lawyers, investigators and government officials at a Miami Beach conference on offshore banking that his office receives 40 to 50 tips per month alleging tax liability in excess of $2 million. Americans submit another 200 per month alleging smaller violations, he said.
Whitlock said submissions have surged since the enactment in 2006 of a law that requires the Internal Revenue Service to pay awards of between 15 percent and 30 percent in cases where more than $2 million is collected. Prior to the law, both the decision on whether to make an award and the amount of payment were discretionary.
“Right after we got the new law” containing the minimum award, “the fax machine was running the next day,” Whitlock told the Offshore Alert Financial Due Diligence Conference.
I tried to snitch off our college president to the IRS. Couldn’t even get any one to call me back. I had good solid documentation.
What did I learn? Since there was no enforcement,I might as well join them. Fly under the radar, but run with the big dogs. How’s that for a bad mixed metaphore?
“I tried to snitch off our college president to the IRS. Couldn’t even get any one to call me back. I had good solid documentation.”
A college president is most likely a neo-con cabal member.
Take a tour: Candy Spelling’s $150 million dollar “haven”
Could your home finally be a haven if you had endless funds to make it so? Maybe you’re a buyer for this mansion, which offers a flower cutting room and a gift wrapping room along with the more predictable theater and bowling alley. In fact, the Spelling mansion is the largest house in Los Angeles– which surely is an accomplishment– and is on the market now for $150 million. That price tag makes it also the most expensive home in America.
The late Aaron Spelling, who brought us such important works as Melrose Place and Dynasty, left behind his wife, Candy, who now perhaps finds this palatial estate a touch large for her needs. And as part of Yahoo! and Walmart’s latest “Make Your Home a Haven” campaign, Candy Spelling turns blogger, doling out advice we’d love to follow– if only we had an obscenely rich dead husband– on how to make your home a haven. (Hint: cash and way too much of it!)
Oh, but sour grapes aside, this mansion, which the widow calls “the manor” is quite impressive, and you can tour it here, glimpsing rooms and opulence never before made public.
If you are in the market for such splendor, don’t let yourself be overwhelmed by the “Gone with the Wind” staircase. Important questions have to be asked: Who gets the doll collection? Who will work in the beauty parlor? And are the candy and roses that match the bedrooms included with the sale?
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ontheblock/detail?blogid=58&entry_id=62652&tsp=1#ixzz0mzvRm4Zf
The “prince” of the race pimps will be leading the march. Were is Jesse the “king”? Must be busy working on some extortion else where.
Sharpton to lead protest of immigration law in Phoenix
Phoenix Business Journal
In the wake of local protests by Colombian pop star Shakira and Tucson rock ’n’ roller Linda Ronstadt against Arizona’s new immigration law, a high-profile African-American activist will visit Phoenix to lead a protest march.
The Rev. Al Sharpton will gather members of the community May 5 at Pilgrim Rest Church, 1401 E. Jefferson St. in Phoenix, for an ecumenical service followed by a candlelight procession to the Arizona Capitol.
Sharpton is expected to be joined by Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, Vice Mayor Michael Nowakowski, City Councilman Michael Johnson, Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox and others.
The marchers will seek to ask President Barack Obama to intervene in the state immigration issue.
I think Obama should intervene.
He can lead the illegals right on out of the state.
Viva!
My Great Big Fat Greek Bailout
* The Wall Street Journal
* EUROPE NEWS
* MAY 5, 2010
Who’s on the Hook for the IMF’s Greek Bailout?
By BOB DAVIS
WASHINGTON—Some lawmakers and other commentators are arguing that the U.S. will be handed a big bill to rescue Greece from default because the U.S. is the International Monetary Fund’s largest shareholder.
But as with much concerning the IMF, an international financial institution based in Washington D.C., it isn’t that clear-cut.
“It is simply unfair—as a matter of principle—to force American taxpayers to use their hard-earned money to prop up failed policies in relatively wealthy nations,” wrote Rep. Tom Tiahrt, a Kansas Republican, opposing any U.S. participation in a Greek bailout.
But the U.S. participation in the €110 billion ($145 billion) loan to Greece is relatively modest compared with the huge commitment by Greece’s fellow euro-zone governments, and their taxpayers. Those 15 nations are in various stages of approving a total of $106 billion, divided according to their stake in the European Central Bank. Germany would loan $29 billion, followed by France with $22 billion.
The U.S. role comes from its obligations to the IMF, which is lending an additional $39 billion as part of the Greek package. The U.S. pays roughly in proportion to its stake in the IMF, as do other countries, if the IMF’s board votes to approve the package on Sunday, as expected.
The IMF is akin to a global credit union. Members kick in money. The institution’s board lends it out.
Each member has a “quota”—that is, a financial stake in the IMF, expressed as a percentage—and contributes accordingly. The U.S. quota is 17.09%, followed by Japan at 6.12%, Germany at 5.98% and France and Britain at 4.94% each.
Does that mean that the U.S. is responsible for 17% of the IMF’s portion of the Greek package? Not exactly.
First, though all countries are theoretically responsible for investing in the IMF’s lending pool, not all of them have currencies that potential borrowers can use. (Think of Zimbawean dollars or Venezuelan pesos.)
The IMF doesn’t say that outright. Instead, it uses the concept of “usable resources,” meaning it uses money from countries that are considered financially sound. About 21% of the quota contributions to the IMF were “non-usable,” according to the IMF, as of January 2010.
Because the U.S., Japan and big European countries are in the “usable” camp, they finance a larger percentage of IMF funding than their quota would suggest.
…
“…it uses money from countries that are considered financially sound.”
“…the U.S., Japan and big European countries are in the “usable” camp…”
Thanks for the belly laugh IMF!
“The foreclosure crisis catches up with a wealthy, exclusive community in Arizona that once considered itself immune.”
http://realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=23875607&Gt1=35006