The Housing Bubble

The Brits/Germans can get to Spain via surface transit (e.g. train through the Chunnel). Not so for Cyprus.

Not so for Cyprus.

There are ferries all over the Med.

Maybe I’m old fashioned but I was led to believe being successful was a good thing. Or is that no longer the case in Barrack Obama’s Amerika?

Who programs u?

Let’s see Exxon paid zero dollars in tax and made a lot more than BP.
My guess is BP didn’t pay much more than this.

abcnews.go.com/Business/Tax/ge-exxon-paid-us-income-taxes-09/story?id=10300167

Oh gawd. It wasn’t accident now? So BP intentionally did this? Was this before or after they sent in the black helicopters to blow up the WTC?

Right……accident. I’d suggest waiting for the results of the inquiry before making that call.

Did they cut corners, vs. the industry’s standard practices? Did they install all the appropriate safety/blowout prevention gear, and was it maintained and checked?

Blowouts like this are a well known hazard, and procedures and equipment have been developed to prevent/mitigate collateral damage.

It wasn’t an accident. Preliminary inquiries have already been conducted (didn’t see that in the news, did you?) and it turns out some BP bigwig contradicted and then overrode the more experienced engineer for capping the new well.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/sex-lies-and-oil-spills_b_564163.html

“First, BP failed to install a deep hole shut off valve — another fail-safe that might have averted the spill. And second, BP’s reported willingness to violate the law by drilling to depths of 22,000-25,000 feet instead of the 18,000 feet maximum depth allowed by its permit may have contributed to this catastrophe.”

“The blow out occurred shortly after Halliburton completed an operation to reinforce drilling hole casing with concrete slurry. This is a sensitive process that, according to government experts, can trigger catastrophic blowouts if not performed attentively. According to the Minerals Management Service, 18 of 39 blowouts in the Gulf of Mexico since 1996 were attributed to poor workmanship injecting cement around the metal pipe.”

Poor Eddy. Sounds like your green shoots BP stock purchase didn’t work out. I wasn’t even intentionally boycotting BP (up to now). Boycotting was a non issue as I’d have to drive pass at least six other gas stations to even get to the nearest BP.

EddieTard….. Thank you for posting. You’ve completely established what little you know about nearly everything.

I work for one of the top civil design firms in the country. It’s a PC…. the real McCoy. Now given your proven inability to grasp the most basic understanding of professional services, I don’t expect you to know what a PC is but I’ll explain.

We’re a professional corporation, bonded, insured and registered with each states Department of Law(yeah EddieTard…. there is such a thing….. even in Frogballs, Georgia). We design dams, pipelines big enough to fit a locomotive, and yes…. we co-design structural elements for oil platforms. And when our design FAILS like the mechanical elements of BP’s platform, it’s no accident. It’s called professional misconduct and typically results in jail time for my colleagues in the event deaths occur. Given the magnitude of the damage caused by this misconduct, you should thank your lucky stars you weren’t involved in this design disaster in any way.

So you go on peddling your retail/end user junk and keep telling yourself how much you know. It’s most entertaining.

Ziiiing!

One can only hope that one day the population in general will get it, but I have little to no faith in the brain dead voters. Time and time again they fall for the pablum that lying paid off con artist politicians feed them.

I’m not holding my breath. You have to live in the Gulf region to really understand how surreal the whole event is. Florida had plenty of time to mobilize and get out ahead of things a little bit. But no, Good Time Charlie Crist (governor) was too busy shaking down BP for 25 million for a freakin’ ad campaign, instead of getting booms and skimmers and crews in place.

What’s really surreal about the whole situation is the spectator aspect of it, as opposed to the response aspect. Everyone wants to get out in boats or up in planes and LOOK at it and TALK about it, and show close-ups of sticks poking turds of oil on the beach. You’ve got the scientific boats out there taking their measurements and the news crews floating around and the tankers and what have you, it really is mass confusion. Then you’ve got the politicians conducting “therapy sessions” for concerned citizens who want to vent. Meanwhile the crap just washes up on the shore.

Contrast this with Philippe Cousteau, grandson of Jacques, who is in St. Petersburg. At least he did something, got a bunch of folks organized to start picking up trash along the beaches and waterways, because that stuff would have made the whole thing worse had the oil hit it. Maybe it looks feeble, but at least it is a response.

Until the food runs out. Then all rules are out.

When times are easy voters become distracted by issues that don’t matter a whit, but their focus changes when times get tough.

Patience, our nation is undergoing a generational sea-change in values.

“It’s brutally unfair. It’s wrong,” Obama said in the address, recorded a day earlier in Grand Isle, Louisiana. “And what I told these men and women — and what I have said since the beginning of this disaster — is that I’m going to stand with the people of the Gulf Coast until they are made whole.”

It appeared that BP was making progress after capping the breached wellhead, Obama said, but he said that the federal government was “prepared for the worst.” He cited a series of statistics that illustrated the “largest response to an environmental disaster of this kind in the history of our country.”

• 17,500 National Guard troops authorized for deployment;

• 20,000 people currently working to protect waters and coastlines;

• 1,900 vessels in the Gulf assisting in the cleanup;

• 4.3 million feet of boom deployed with another 2.9 million feet of boom available, enough to stretch over 1,300 miles;

• 17 staging areas across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida to rapidly defend sensitive shorelines.”

Who ya gonna believe? Bammy, or yer lyin’ eyes? Oh, and those National Guard troops? Phantom inventory.

Jeepers, it hits you like a lead sock when you realize this administration is even LESS capable than the prior one. Completely and utterly incapable. Wow. Just. Wow.

“Patience, our nation is undergoing a generational sea-change in values.”

Didn’t we just do that by electing the Big O? What’s to say the next elected official hasn’t already made a Faustian bargain in some smoked filled room for the privilege to serve or not serve the people under a Democrat, Republican, fill-in-the-blank flag?

Who in this room doesn’t believe Dodd is actually a lobbyist for the financial industry posing as a Senator of and for the people? His best friend is Tangello for cripesake!

Don’t be sheep, man. It’s blah, blah, blasphemy to my ear.

Dodd will soon be gone. So will a lot of others who are entrenched. Voters are pissed.

Give it a few months, until November.

I really want to believe what you say, but I’ve learned never to argue with the market, with properly collected data, and facts.

Dodd will be gone after he writes, and lobbies from the inside, the financial industry’s bill to its liking but before the FCIC report is written.

The politicians are doing the only thing they’re good at - jerking off the public.

Plenty of time to have Paul McCartney over to the WH for a private show ??

But it was cautious optimism, optimism that would ultimately fade as we got news, not just from New Orleans, but from Gulfport and points east as well.

George W. Bush chose to deal with this serious situation by goofing around, getting a free guitar, and giving John McCain a birthday cake — actions no man who actually cared about the people he led could have taken.Of course, Bush never really gave a damn about the people he led. And no day more perfectly illustrated the contempt in which he holds you, me, and 1800 dead Louisianans than August 29, 2005

“W” was a friggin’ idiot. He seemed so far detached from reality it was frightening. The worst president, imo, of my lifetime.

Bammy is making him look better with each passing day.

Time for a hard-reboot for this country.

Sounds like youve lost that hope n change lovin’ feeling. So hard to go on when you learn your hero is a fraud eh? Well tough. You roke it you own it. Enjoy the next 3 years. This clown is only getting warmed up. If you think this is a cluster wait until a 9/11 type of event happens. God help us all

God help us all ??

God did help us all E-Dee….Mac & Palin lost..

Democrats Vote Down 5 Percent Rule

In a bid to stem taxpayer losses for bad loans guaranteed by federal housing agencies Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac, Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn) proposed that borrowers be required to make a 5% down payment in order to qualify.

His proposal was rejected 57-42 on a party-line vote because, as Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn) explained:

“…passage of such a requirement would restrict home ownership to only those who can afford it.”

“His proposal was rejected 57-42 on a party-line vote because, as Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn) explained: ”

Since when are there 42 Republicans in the Senate?

Don’t split hairs, Eddie. Kit Bond and Charles Grassley were the only Republicans who voted no. Democrats Conrad, Bayh and Warner voted yes on Corker’s 5% downpayment amendment.

Chris “Countrywide” Dodd standing in the way of fiscal responsibility? Inconceivable!

That 5% requirement is going to take care of itself once the banks get burned bad enough. I’ll be surprised if 20% becomes standard again.

A spill of this magnitude and the chemical damage it causes is an irreversible process. The sea floor will be a graveyard for a few generations. I suggest getting to the 5th stage of The Kübler-Ross model.

Sorry

Tell us again what resources the US gov has to contain an oil spill.

Tell us what resources are sitting idle????

The failure was in not regulaiting the oil industry.
In not mandatitg that if they are going to drill that they have a contingency plan to control an event like this.

The current system seems to be working. It seem sto me that they should have been required to have a proven system reeady before they atarted to drill.

Dodge,

I guess your mother never taught you the “two wrongs don’t make a right” argument huh?

And besides you, as always, are telling only 1/2 the story.

Oblablah’s deficit for last year and this year is in the trillions. That’s a deficit, not debt. He is the first president to have that dishonor. The same hysterical liberals who were crying about BOOOOSH’s deficits, now cheer when Oblablah’s deficit are 3 or 4 times the size.

You are a hypocrite among hypocrites.

Wow Eddie,

You really need to take a good look in the mirror yourself. From my vantage point you seem to be a big hypocrite yourself.

So the the guy who the mess for the next guy isn’t to blame huh?

How long have you and kettle been good friends?

Dammit we need an edit function

“So the the guy who MADE the mess”

In 1962, Rachael Carson wrote “Silent Spring” expressing concerns with pesticides and pollution of the environment.

Regardless what you think or where you stand on business, environmental and ecological issues, this nightmare is gonna be the Mother of All Messes and will haunt and poison us for decades to come.

God help the innocents, the poor critters, the gulf and the people down there because, we as a nation, were surely warned many times before this incident.

It’s all very sad and sickening and like everyone else, I’m praying that the men that caused it, will someway find a way to solve it and fast

…just sayin’

Brazil and Norway both require the use of an acoustical regulator - an extra valve that can be operated remotely in an event such as what happened to BP. This adds an additional cost of $500,000 to the well. The oil industry successfully lobbied Bush and Cheney to eliminate the requirement of this regulator, which might have prevented this catastrophe. So you’re right, Jon, you can’t blame Obama, except to the extent that BO has had over a year in office and control of congress needed to reinstate this safety measure (and others), but did not. This kind of accident has happened many times before, so the situation cannot be labeled “unexpected”. Clearly neither party has been looking out for the best interests of the American people and the environment in which they live.

I’m actually of the mind that unless and until we can get alternative energy viable on a mass scale, this country is (unfortunately) going to need to do deepwater drilling. It should be done in the most careful, responsible, and conservative manner possible: no cutting corners - ever, and no overriding the experienced engineers. If existing oil companies won’t agree to those terms, I am sure the market will create or find one that will.

“I am not going to trash somebody for something they have no control over. ”

Bush was 100% to blame for Katrina.
Obama is an innocent bystander with the oil spill.

The liberal mind is a fascinating one.

“If existing oil companies won’t agree to those terms, I am sure the market will create or find one that will.”

I think you have far too much confidence in the market. I’m sure an American car company will step up and produce cars that are of high quality and get good mileage too… Any minute now.

Eddie:

““I am not going to trash somebody for something they have no control over. ”

Bush was 100% to blame for Katrina.
Obama is an innocent bystander with the oil spill.

The liberal mind is a fascinating one.”

I don’t blame Bush for Katrina. Nor do I blame Obama for the Gulf oil disaster. I understand that one of our political parties (the Republicans) has you bent over their pillow, administering some hard love and you like it. Squeal baby squeal! Real America will fight you trolls, on both the left & right and we will win.

“Real America” is fat, stupid, complacent, and can’t be bothered to get up from their TV.

As far as our political duopoly, both parties have but one purpose: to provide top cover for TBTF banks and facilitate the continued looting of the real, physical economy by their Wall Street puppet-masters.

Hey, Sammy- Tell us how St. Ron Paul would have plugged the spill by now. It’s getting late, and I need a bed-time story. With a happy ending.

(”And the complete lack of regulations on all corporations, made everything work out fine. Just like it never has before. The End.”)

Again the difference between Katrina and this.

1. FEMA is perfectly designed to deal with a Katrina.
2. There is no entity in gov to deal with an oil spill.

If we are going to blame soimeone in gov blame the people who rolled back regulations and didn’t enforce the ones that were left in place.

Someone noted that BP was learning how to deal with this spill. WTF, they should have been required to test these systems after the very first deep water well.

Hey, Sammy- Tell us how St. Ron Paul would have plugged the spill by now. It’s getting late, and I need a bed-time story. With a happy ending.

In a more libertarian/smaller federal government situation, it isn’t that the spill necessarily would have been plugged by now….assuming this was the first disaster of this size..

However, the entities involved would be subject to all kinds of civil suits. There wouldn’t be a limit on the liability of the company. With some luck, the idea of corporate personhood wouldn’t exist at all, and the execs/employees might even be personally liable.

As a result, other execs, corporations, and employees would realize there are consequences to careless actions - the execs would be bankrupted, as would the company, and perhaps the employees involved, and such a disaster would be far less likely. The execs wouldn’t be so cavalier in trading safety for profit. The employees involved likely would speak up if they thought things were unsafe, and be more personally invested in the safety of the rig…

It’s about making people personally responsible for their actions, rather than having gov’t guarantees, or limits on liability.

and will pass inspection

Hrm..could that be due to……REGULATION?!?!?!

</Church Lady>

No, it was due to people (and used car dealers) who were too stupid to keep their cars repaired and therefore safe that they to had make basic inspections mandatory.

(BTW, I remember the church lady. That was some funny stuff!)

No, it was due to people (and used car dealers) who were too stupid to keep their cars repaired and therefore safe that they to had make basic inspections mandatory.

mandatory inspections = regulation = raise the cost of owning a car…

Rihanna has a song called “Disturbia!”

James Howard Kunstler. Interesting fellow. I think some of what he says is going to happen. Then in a couple of generations the nuclear fusion cells will power cars and once again will be middle class and upper class people fleeing to the suburbs. But looks as though in the short run, the inner city is the place to be. The rural areas will be for farmers. That’s about the only good paying option for rural types.

For an old geezer its cool you know about Rhianna…LOL

Students enrolled in science and engineering classes have to have the correct answers to pass the course. That’s not necessairly so with the liberal arts majors.

A student in a liberal arts class merely needs to listen to the instructor and then feed back what he/she heard. The instructor then thinks the student is a wiz because he/she agrees with whatever position the instructor holds on a particular subject.

A science major needs to learn the science. A liberal arts major needs to learn the art of the smooze.

(Okay, bring on the flames.)

The reason for the lack of eng degrees is the public school system.

Kids are not taught the basics. Instead the spent countless days/weeks learning about gay studies, the environment, sex ed and hundreds of other social engineering pet projects thought up by the NEA.

And if at the end of the school year there’s some time left, they may learn how to add fractions.

After 12 years of social engineering indoctrination without learning the 3 Rs, it’s no wonder everyone majors in psychology or women’s studies or other such nonsensical majors and eschews anything scientific.

Besides, what’s the point of getting a grueling degree, getting a good job and making a lot of money, when Obama and Co. will penalize you for daring to make money? Much easier to get a $20K a year job and get “free” health care, “free” mortgage assistance and free everything else, all paid for by the saps who dare to make $100K+.

Kids aren’t as dumb as you think they are these days.

Back in the early 80s, my generation of college students/graduates had dollar signs in their brains. In fact, I taped a dollar sign on my mortar board and sat in the hot sun with the other Math and Computer Science majors. I’ve been working in Computer Science for twenty five years and am still going strong. The pay for me is very good.

It’s nice to get well-rounded with liberal arts and I think humanities courses can sharpen your critical thinking skills. You can get enough humanities and social sciences in general education for your technical degree. But a twenty-something year old should hit the ground running in engineering and sciences, be very enthusiastic and energetic in the work place and be a genuine “do-er” at the same time, and keep that pace for at least ten years. Throw a lot of money into Roth 401ks and Roth IRAs.

Then by age 40 one should reassess the situation and see if he can take his career to a higher level.

I’m amazed that many American students are turned off from the very subjects that could give them solid stable work for a lifetime! One guy on the project I’m working on must be about 80 years old. He’s an example of filling in the slack when young people don’t seem to want to take his place. A lot of people are voluntarily not going for the big income and I guess I don’t understand why they are that way.

Not everyone has an aptitude for the sciences, just like not everyone has an aptitude for the arts or language. Engineers are notorious for having poor writing skills. In the past we often could rely on someone else to write the users manuals, but the latest trend is that we have to write them now. I see a lot of guys sweating bullets over this.

I was one of the two fat boys in elementary school who would always be in the spelling bee with the girls. I was on the high school newspaper. Later I took extra literature and writing classes in college. I loved to read and even tried writing at one point. So as an “engineer” - just a label, when I encounter those engineers who cannot write, I keep wondering how they got through college at all. The old time engineers who are now retired, wrote much better. The state of the public schools is miserable these days.

You guys have it all wrong.

There’s no money to be made in science and engineering, especially if you are starting out, and aren’t interested in being “management”.

The pukes with the business degrees decide where the money is spent….including on themselves.

As far as Eddie’s “talking points”……..I’ve had one daughter graduate and another going into her senior year. Other than a semester carrying around a plastic baby, they haven’t been mandated or have the option of taking any of the courses/subjects you describe. And yes, I’ve read their textbooks.

We attended the Southern Oregon University
graduation ceremony yesterday. Page after
page of liberal arts students, in total, a little
over 1,100 grads.

Eleven math and seven physics grads. Half of then were Summa cum laude and one physics grad did it in three years.

Care to take a guess who will get jobs?

Besides, what’s the point of getting a grueling degree, getting a good job and making a lot of money, when Obama and Co. will penalize you for daring to make money? Much easier to get a $20K a year job and get “free” health care, “free” mortgage assistance and free everything else, all paid for by the saps who dare to make $100K+.

This makes no sense. Don’t you say you work hard to make a lot of money? Are you lazy because of your taxes? Weren’t taxes for the rich way higher under Nixon and Eisenhower than they are now? And we graduated more engineers per capita back then?

If someone really loves to have money won’t they work hard no matter what their tax bracket is? Are your points out of a play book?

Colorado,

I have both great writing skills and great physics/math skills. You need both to become a successful patent attorney: it’s as though we have cross-wired brains. But I agree that many great engineers have poor English writing skills. Some of this is because there are great engineers now coming to the US from developing countries…..

A true story. I majored in physics in college because I hated writing term papers (back in the pre-PC no-word-processing days). I “tested out” of college English comp. classes and never took a single English class after high school. At the age of 40 I undertook going to law school. A 1L class in “legal writing and research” is standard fare in law school, and is taught pass/NC. Our instructor gave out some “advisory” grades on homework assignments, and I went in to see her after receiving only a B+ on one brief. To my astonishment she told me I shouldn’t worry and that mine was the highest grade in the class she had given. Here I was, a guy who never took a single English class after HS, performing better on a writing assignment than a class full of recent graduates with English and other liberal arts majors.

Hey, we’re trying to destroy America here. Stop bringing up reality.

The income taxes were low for most middle class people in the 1970s because incomes were low. In 1985 my first year of work, my income was $22,500 per year. Ten years earlier someone starting out of college was earning typically $10,000 per year.

What person in their right mind gets a degree in an industry that has been, and is continuing to be, sent overseas?

“This makes no sense. Don’t you say you work hard to make a lot of money? Are you lazy because of your taxes? Weren’t taxes for the rich way higher under Nixon and Eisenhower than they are now? And we graduated more engineers per capita back then?

If someone really loves to have money won’t they work hard no matter what their tax bracket is? Are your points out of a play book?”

Ryo,

You’re a trip man. You really are.

Let’s try again:

I am a 20 year old, I have 2 options:

1. Bust my ass for 4 years getting an engineering degree. Make $100K, keep $50K after tax, get $0 in govt aid since I am “rich”.

2. Do nothing for 4 years, get BA in basket weaving, make $20K a year, pay $0 tax, get $30K in govt aid.

Both options lead to $50K a year. One option is easy, one is hard. Guess which one most people choose? The numbers speak for themselves.

You’re a trip man. You really are.

Getting your clock cleaned on a regular basis is kind of trippy huh?

“What person in their right mind gets a degree in an industry that has been, and is continuing to be, sent overseas?”

Bingo!

I have been at a loss as to what field to recommend to my children.

Manufacturing - outsourced
Tech - outsourced
Lawyer - outsourcing in progress
Engineering - H1B, outsourcing in progress
Nursing - trends indicate insourcing in progress
Doctor - medical tourism
Trades - Insourcing
Journalism - dying
Arts - doesn’t everyone want to be an artist or musician?

Wow. I must be getting virtual dollars then - “there’s no money to be made in science and engineering.”

Well I will know if you are right if they fire me this week, but you are the first, X-GSfixr, who let me know.

I first heard of the demise of software engineering in the US around fifteen years ago. That is what got me out of obligations - marriage, home ownership, and so on. I’ve been renting ever since

But being footloose has been to my advantage, as I can move about the USA pretty quick to get the next contract engineering gig.

For Eddie - It’s very hard to get rich being an engineer. I think that’s how X-GSfixr will get away by that quote “no money to be made in science and engineering”.

There are exceptions. I know of two multi-millionaires in the client firm I consult to. One had a good stock advisor over the years. The other invested in the company stock for over fifteen years.

Since you are starting out young, don’t let the older ones on this board get to you. Here’s a tip: In many blogs, a lot of people take sides and if they really hate one of the things you write, they will hate ALL the things you write. So if they really disagree with you on one thing, they will extrapolate that to everything you say.

In other words, I think there is still money to be made in the USA in science and engineering. I think if you find the write tech company to work in, you can get stock options and become a multi millionaire while you are still young. It happened to a guy I attended high school with. He worked for Apple Computer in the 1980s and had a million bucks of stock when he was in his mid twenties.

find the write tech company to work in…

lol- techies don’t always right write

oops

Turns out the regulations for Fannie Mae conforming loans were relaxed during W’s administration

Are these not controlled by congress? If so, then what matters is not who’s administration, but rather who was in congress at the time…

When were the regs relaxed? Who controlled congress?

The regs were relaxed in 2004, under Bush, with a Republican majority in the Senate (51 to 48) and in the House (229 to 205).

The regs were relaxed in 2004, under Bush, with a Republican majority in the Senate (51 to 48) and in the House (229 to 205).

If that’s the case then we should be criticizing the republican congress, not the president at the time.