Bits Bucket For June 13, 2010
Post off-topic ideas, links and Craigslist finds here. The Texas/Florida/DC meetup link at the forum is here. Click here for the shadow inventory thread.
Please consider signing the Shadow Inventory petition.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
To donate by mail, or to otherwise contact this blogger, please send emails to: thehousingbubble@gmail.com
PayPal is a secure online payment method which accepts ALL major credit cards.
Links
-
November 2024 M T W T F S S « Sep 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Photo Submission: hbbphotos@gmail.com
View the HBB Photo Gallery *updated 4/13/2008
It’s race day! Swimming, biking, and running my first triathlon (short sprint distance). I am glad I have other things on which to focus. Shelter may be a major theme, but life isn’t all about houses. Stay sane, all!
Good luck! Sounds like great fun…
That wasn’t you riding your bicycle down Bleecker Street naked last night? Was it? I’m not making that up. We were at a bar on Bleecker Street and about 100 people riding bikes naked passed by. Let me tell you, it was not a pretty sight. Why is it that the unattractive ones want to show what they’ve got? I guess it is like the FBs all thinking that what they have is better than it really is.
Hmm, I guess if you buy a used bike from a nudist, you should get a new seat for it.
Were they semi-nude European rugby players wearing Pampers and party hats? They were all over Philly last night around 3 am.
I wasn’t in Philly but I would have to say “no”. This was a different crowd. It was men and women. I saw no party hats and no Pampers.
How was the race? Hope it was fun.
Awesome. Mine’s later this summer. Enjoy and hope you do well.
I am on vacation at Apalachicola, Fl. Beautiful weather but really hot! When we got here a week ago, we could smell the burning oil. The prevailing wind was from the S.West. It smelled nasty. The wind changed the next day and the burning oil smell went away.
No oil on beaches that we could see. Booms are being deployed in the Sound. Patrols are constant along the beach. They have found no tar or goo.
Let’s hope it stays that way. We leave today.
Roidy
P.S. No Germans or Brits at the beach this year. Unusual. Plenty of military on leave. We need to end those wars.
That sounds like a great place to do some drinking. If you let one rip you can just say, “I wish they would do something about that oil”.
I knew a guy who said that was the only good thing about working at a paper mill- you never had to hold one in.
Now I know why the mill in Tacoma smelled so bad. There was some help from mother nature.
yeah? well you’re mom’s so fat she pulled out a wedgie and a bicycle seat fell out…aaaaarrrrgh!
“No oil on beaches that we could see.”
I hope it stays that way, but I doubt it will.
As I discovered while I was in Tallahassee for two years around 1990, if one wanted beautiful, unspoiled beach, it’s hard to do much better than St. George Island.
For any of you who insist on calling soccer, football, because soccer is one of those ugly American words and you’re afraid a Frenchman will be insulted;
_______________________________________________________
October 26th 1863, the day that several soccer clubs all around England gathered up in London and formed The Football Association, the first soccer organization up to that date.
The Football Association organized the game into a sportive “constitution” called the Laws of Football. The term “soccer” appeared shortly after, being an abbreviation from “Football Association” (from assoc.) and although not as heavily used as soccer, it was a short, light form to describe the phenomenon.
Reportedly, the man who stands at the origin of the word soccer is Charles Wreford Brown, an Oxford student who always preferred shortened versions of words, such as brekkers for breakfast, or rugger for rugby.
Soccer gained popularity in the United States later than in the rest of Europe and since the Americans already had a use for the world “football” in understanding the sport of American Football, a middle option was tried between 1945 and 1975, when the organization that controlled soccer in the USA was called the “United States Soccer Football Association”.
Besides being long, the name was still confusing so after 1974 it simply adopted the name of “United States Soccer Federation” and the word “soccer” would define the sport in the US area ever since.
I was surprised. I think every bar in NYC with a TV set was packed yesterday for the game. The bar owners must have loved it. We couldn’t get in to any of the places we wanted to go so we watched it at home. We went out later and still saw remnants of the besotted English. We watched that blistering 1 - 1 game at home. I played soccer throughout my younger years. I loved the sport. But international soccer can have its dull spells.
I don’t think Americans can understand letting a game end in a tie. Even the NHL figured out how much fans hate that. The NFL has a game end in a tie about every 10 years. Even that is too many. Every game should have a winner and a loser, regardless of what that does to anyone’s self-esteem.
“But international soccer can have its dull spells.”
In between the mob riots and burnings, I guess. All eyes on South Africa, rumor has it they’re behaving themselves for the World Cup, after that, it’s “Apres Moi, le Deluge”.
LOL, the mayor of Tampa is bloviating all over the news about bringing the World Cup to Tampa.
I watched the game also. Not much else on at that hour. I also “coached” my kids’ soccer teams when they were little, sorta like the blind leading the blind.
My problem with soccer is that there’s no strategy involved. You can’t set up plays that might surprise your opponent. No Hail Mary or flea flicker, no screens or drive-and-dish, no suicide squeeze or hit-and-run. Soccer is just athleticism- foot speed, stamina, and the ability to control the ball with your feet.
In a word, soccer is “borrrr-ing.”
I have the Ghana and Serbia game on right now. Or is it a “match”? There have been more injuries than anything else. The amount of diving and whining has been excessive. I may turn it off and do something more exciting like clean the litter box.
“Soccer is just athleticism- foot speed, stamina, and the ability to control the ball with your feet.”
Football is just strength and the ability to run fast while holding on to something.
Eddie, are you in this country legally?
Heh.
I grew up in the South don’t much care about football, especially college football. Believe me, I’ve heard it all 1000 times.
“I grew up in the South”
No kidding Eddietard.
Excreter the union thug,
I pity you in some ways. So angry all the time, so bitter. Actually I don’t pity you, I pity anyone who has to be around you for an extended period of time.
You’re projecting your little life on me again EddieTard.
Nice try though.
I have always thought I might rather enjoy Exeter’s company. Bitter and angry can be fun at times, but one thing I can’t abide is the willful stupidity often found in cavernous minds the likes of Eddie and Joey.
All fun aside though, Exeter has never come off as bitter or angry to me. Seems like the type who would gleefully encourage it in others, but not really generate it on his own end.
“In a word, soccer is “borrrr-ing.”
Amen, brothah! Give me the NFL any day. But that’s just me.
My problem with soccer is that there’s no strategy involved.
Soccer is just athleticism- foot speed, stamina, and the ability to control the ball with your feet
You have clearly just demonstrated that you don’t understand the game.
“My problem with soccer is that there’s no strategy involved. You can’t set up plays that might surprise your opponent. No Hail Mary or flea flicker, no screens or drive-and-dish, no suicide squeeze or hit-and-run. Soccer is just athleticism- foot speed, stamina, and the ability to control the ball with your feet.’
So athleticism, foot speed, and stamina play no part in football, basketball, baseball, or hockey.
Soccer has set plays - corner kicks and free kicks.
I like soccer because it is the players’ game. During the game, the coach has less input than other sports. The players have to create their strategy on the fly. There are overlapping runs, back heels, wall passes, flicks, rainbows, saves off the line. Perhaps you just didn’t stick with the game long enough to learn the finer points.
Like any sport, you have great games and boring games. The boring games are the ones where both teams are focused on defense. The great ones are end to end action.
I think FIFA should do what the NHL did. Award a point for a tie. Then have a short overtime period where the winner gets 2 extra points (nhl gives one extra), but the loser still keeps the 1 point for the regular time tie. But no more than 15 mins. of extra time since that would greatly penalize the two teams who have to face their next opponent in 2-3 days which did not play the extra time.
Soccer’s popularity in the US is misunderstood. There are plenty of people who love the game. But nobody goes to or watches MLS games. So why the contradiction? I think it’s because the MLS is minor league caliber at best. It has become better over the past 5 years, but still compared to the Euro or SA or even Mexican leagues, the MLS is the equivalent of the Durham Bulls.
It’s a chicken and egg thing. Fans don’t watch the MLS, good players don’t want to play in the MLS. No good players = no fans = no good players. Maybe this will change over time and I hope it does.
Dude, soccer just blows compared to the warfare that is football.
If you played there is nothing better than crushing some fool off the edge running the ball. Or trucking some LB that didn’t have his head on a swivel.
Not to mention the strategy involved and coordination to make the offense or defense work. All sorts of physical battles speed and strength.
I like playing soccer but it’s just not that great of a sport to watch and way less intense.
They should shorten this like the Brits did, and call it “Federer”.
Sorry, tennis got there first.
Heck I’d repeat any word so long as a Frenchman would be insulted.
Lol. You are telling us to stay sane while you go out and run a triathlon?
(Just kidding.)
Huge bubble in triathlons…be careful!
Snapping them up in LA
Wealthy homeowners seeking privacy are increasingly buying adjacent properties
Compounds are the hottest commodity in L.A.’s high-end real estate market, brokers say.
By Lauren Beale, Los Angeles Times
In the Middle Ages, moats were the thing. More recently, the rich have taken refuge behind tall hedges, view-obscuring walls and guarded gates.
But today’s super-wealthy, seeking even greater privacy, are increasingly buying adjacent properties as a buffer zone around their mansions. And that’s made the compound the hottest commodity on L.A.’s high-end market, real estate brokers say.
“If you don’t have a neighbor anymore, you create more privacy,” said Kurt Rappaport, co-founder of Westside Estate Agency, with offices in Beverly Hills and Malibu.
Not that the “buffer” homes are vacant. Some house family, friends, guests or staff. But these aren’t mother-in-law cottages or little guesthouses like the one Kato Kaelin holed up in at O.J. Simpson’s old place in Brentwood: Think multimillion-dollar mansions — next door, behind or even a few doors down.
The adjoining properties may be used during major fundraisers or large-scale entertaining, Rappaport said, to create more parking or as a place to stage the catering during lavish events. Some buyers have been known to tear down well-known homes for more elbow room.
Property records don’t fully capture the trend. Owners typically want the flexibility of selling the parcels individually, and so they usually don’t apply for a lot merger to create a formal compound. Still, veteran real estate agents say high-end buyers are increasingly looking to snap up adjoining properties.
“We’ve never seen this much activity going on,” said Drew Mandile, who works as a team with Brooke Knapp at Sotheby’s International Realty, specializing in Bel-Air.
“Compounds are the hottest commodity in L.A.’s high-end real estate market, brokers say.”
Perfect! I was wondering when this was going to start happening. More evidence of the third-worldization of California, wealthy living in walled compounds. Those adjacent properties will house security personnel.
Hmmmm. Rio? Mexico City? Commuting by
helicopter is next.
More evidence of the ongoing “succession of the successful.” Something like three out of five new developments are gated communities, many with private security forces. It’s little wonder that the limousine liberals of California, who live in their own sell-guarded enclaves and separate realities, can wax sanctimonious about the joys of diversity and the welfare state while isolating themselves and their children from the consequences of same.
Amen, brothah!
People are merely a concept to the elites.
And not a nice one, either.
And those limousine socialists who are praising diversity can think good about themselves while they send their white (or tanned) offspring to expensive private schools of course.
The big money pushing immigration comes from
Business - Farming, construction, restaurant etc many owned and run by GOP voters.
You guys are so eager to bash liberals you forget to look in your own back yard. There is big money to be made driving down the cost of labor.
Rapid immigration is bad for the US.
You’re focusing on a couple of trees and missing the forest, Measton. As you libs are wont to do.
Democrats love illegal immigration because these Democrat-on-Arrival border-jumpers offer a vast new demographic for their entitlements-for-votes programs. The zombie entity known as the GOP, which has been hijacked by neo-cons, the military-industrial complex, and the corporate cartels, loves illegals because they make cheap maids and yard boys and can replace costlier American labor. In addition, since military service offers a fast track to citizenship, the neo-cons and their military-industrial allies needs and endless supply of cannon fodder to impose “democracy” on places manifestly unfit for it. Recruiting from among the “lower” classes of society allows America’s middle and upper classes to be kept insulated from the true costs of our “permanent wars for permanent peace.”
+1 on all your points Sammy. Meathead just does not want to know.
What’s with the name calling, Exeter and BILA. Come on people we’re much better than this.
Remember the scene from ‘Falling Down’ when dfens is on some golf course and mildly chew out the caretaker while the latter is enjoying a barbecue with his family? That is how I picture the way California is going.
Oh for Gwad sake,
If you think it’s only the limousine liberals of California that live in gated communities, I have a bridge I think you would buy.
I promise you the sprawling estates around these parts are not owned by the liberals.
Every single wealthy person I know votes Republican.
The big money pushing immigration comes from
Business - Farming, construction, restaurant etc many owned and run by GOP voters.
___________________
Dude your side owns government right now. Both houses of congress by huge majorities and the most liberal president ever. And yet amnesty is the fault of the GOP? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Here’s the reality…the biggest voices in SUPPORT of amnesty are unions. Yes, unions. Because they see 20 million new potential members, dues paying members of course. And those same 20 million dues paying members will be Democrat voters/contributors/volunteers.
But why let facts get in the way of a good theory?
I live in Houston (the 4th largest city), one of the biggest “sanctuary cities” in the nation. Also one of the most conservative.
But yeah, why let facts get in the way of a good theory?
See my post below, Eddie. The illegals didn’t rush in under the current administration. As a matter of fact, they are rushing out and being shoved along the way. And what amnesty are you talking about? Nothing like that has come (or will come) from the current PTB.
I believe it was Republican that gave amnesty to about 2 million mexicans. You know the God of the Republican party Reagan.
Look it up. It’s really simple. But why would you Eddie bother to look up facts.
RINO Senator John McCain and his lapdog Lindsey Grahm have led the charge for amnesty. He’s tacking right now in a cynical ploy to get re-elected against a more right-wing challenger, but he’s not fooling anybody.
Ummmm…. It was the Republican administration that decided to let in all the illegals, dude. They provide cheap labor, see. Look it up. There were FAR fewer deportations and fewer prosecutions of illegal employers under Georgie than under Clinton. Georgie’s prosecutions were like 10% of Clinton’s. Luckily, the George Bush recession is now incentivizing states to kick these people out themselves. Arizona will be the first of many, you’ll see. California will do it too.
At least some of the Democrats will tell it to you straight. They like immigration because they think they are all going to be Democratic voters.
It’s the Republican position that is the most cynical/two-faced if you ask me. Basically not enforcing the law, and opening the floodgates to supply their buddies in business cheap labor, while
telling they typical J6P that they are going to build a wall (built by their contractor buddies) to keep them out, and not using the simplest/cheapest solution, which would be throwing a few of their business buddies who hire illegals in jail.
I wish the ditto-heads would ignore what they say, and watch what they do, just once.
Wow - like a feudal society for California, what a lot of bloggers here have been predicting!
The so-called middle class - the backbone of California, will leave for Arizona, particularly now that SB1070 will make the sanctuary state of California more attractive for the illegals and make Arizona less attractive for them. Californians who cannot afford those compounds will simply head for places of less crime. And Arizona crime should go down when the illegals leave.
Been wondering when we will get forced out. I’m out of the south bay in a couple more weeks.
See how the new area and company does.
Right now, manufacturing is turning around and lots of the US is getting to be cheap. I could see Arizona, the midwest, deep south, Texas all recovering early while things drag on for another decade here. Probably will not come unglued till 2012-2013 in the SB for the “wealthy” areas.
Where are you headed, James? Arizona? It would be good to hear your impressions after you move.
“The so-called middle class - the backbone of California, will leave for Arizona, particularly now that SB1070 will make the sanctuary state of California more attractive for the illegals and make Arizona less attractive for them.”
I’m in no rush to leave for Arizona. But having escaped L.A. a dozen years ago might have something to do with that. Three or four vehicle break-ins a year in a decent neighborhood was a bit much.
“…will leave for Arizona..”
Or Montana.
That gives me an idea for buying the trailer next to mine.
…”trailers for sale or rent. Rooms to let fifty cents…”
No phone, no pool, no pets
I ain’t got no cigarettes.
going to buy up the whole park? Maybe so the caterers can use one, and the security team the other? Maybe save one for me when I visit?
The only problem is that you can’t rent them out here, they have an “owners only” policy. Actually a good thing, keeps the riff-raff level amazingly low. But it means I’d have to do the az_lender thing to make money.
Seeing this trend in my neighborhood just outside Boston. House up the street sells for $1.8 million couple months ago after undergoing a total rehab, about a week later a monster backhoe is tears it down. For the next month or so the road is clogged with construction workers laying sod and bricks. Turns out the abutting home owner bought the property to park his Maybach:
http://www.boston.com/cars/articles/2005/10/09/for_300000_youre_getting_more_than_a_car/?page=2
Guy’s a real charmer, created his own website to brag about his wealth….
Does that thing have a bidet too?
The Maybach probably has a bidet.
Eddie lives in Boston?
And how did he get all this money?
Why, by getting huge, unfair contracts with no competition from his friends in the US Government, of course. Ridiculous.
Our number of listing on Long Island are at the highest level this year. New properties are showing up everyday. Price cuts are rolling in, some significant. A broker friend has stated that attendance at open houses has dried up. It looks like all this artificial stimulus of demand has squeezed all the blood out of the turnip. A vacuum has been created in the market. The cheap financing and tax credits have soaked up the buying power, at current price levels. The only variable left, to keep houses selling, is lower prices. Incomes sure aren’t rising, so prices will have to come down to meet incomes.
Price collapse progress on LI looks hopeful. Check this report too. Compliments of CarrieAnn…
BTW, thank you CarrieAnn.
http://banking.state.ny.us/pff100610.pdf
Glad you saw it exeter!
Has word gotten around that it is not a buyer’s market nor a seller’s market, but rather a renter’s market?
Are you really that clueless? Prices on Long Island never go down. I have had many Long Islanders tell me that, so obviously you don’t know what you are talking about.
Now Westchester might be another story. We had a former co-worker that was trying to sell 2 years ago. Of course I told Miss Know-it-All that house prices were coming down and coming down a long ways. Of course I didn’t know what I was talking about. She listed at $775,000. She started chasing the market down. She refinanced and was screaming at a guy on the phone when he said that her house appraised at less than $700,000. We sill can’t figure if she has sold the palace or not. Zillow does not indicate a sale taking place. Zillow does now zestimate it at $569,000. The peak zestimate was about $800,000.
That is going to leave a mark.
LOL, TT Timmay couldn’t sell his Westchester house at the price he wanted. I guess he’s waiting for the market to come back. Wish in one hand, etc.
NYCB….. post the address and I can find out if and when it was sold…… and do it quickly.
I don’t know the actual address.
I don’t know many Lawn Guy Landers…
I am noticing the same thing in the cities I follow. Nothing is selling unless they cut the price 10s of thousands less than FMV as of the day the 8k tax credit expired, and this is prime selling Season. Many are still fighting the cuts, but will have to give in this Fall. I predict late Fall and early next year will be the best time to buy given inventory and low interest rates (unless you have a huge amount of cash, in which case you may do better if we can get interest rates rising). Of course this all assumes that government are able to hold everything together. Someone responded to my post yesterday that because I was against forcing the banks to dump shadow inventory and be taken over by the FDIC, and creating another major credit and liquidity crisis, that I must have supported all of TARP. There is no such thing as one way or no way to solve a problem of this nature. I analyze the facts of each situation, and try to determine what I believe the ultimate outcome would be from various courses of action and base my decisions accordingly. Yes, something had to be done. Is what was done the only thing or the best thing that could be done? Of course not. It is politics.
My co-worker is trying to sell his place in the Garden State. He has plenty of equity and can price it aggressively. He priced $15,000 below other comparable places. In the first several days he had no showings. I was surprised by that. I told him, “you should have listed it while the tax credit was being offered”. Hindsight is 20/20. He would have gotten thousands and thousands more because of the government’s free Limburger.
Are you saying the government cut the cheese?
Well, don’t look at me. It smelled like that when I got here.
it’s the burning oil
I remember traveling through Elizabeth, NJ via the Outerbridge Crossing bridge from Staten Island in the late 60’s and early 70’s. There were all sorts of heavy industies and refineries there (and they may still be there, for all I know). We had to close the car windows because of the sulphur smells.
Is your co-worker selling a place in Elizabeth?
Hey that is where I live … right near where Esso [at the time] exploded in 1969 or 70 .
Harry Reid introduced a bill to extend the credit for 90 days to Sept 30. And so it begins….
Luckily he only proposed extending the time for existing purchase contracts. Of course, that’s bad enough, but at least they’re not allowing new buyers.
I’m seeing more higher end, owner-occupied listings in Sacramento this summer. Lots of price reductions, too.
Check out some of the pictures Ben’s taking on his road trip. Abandoned McMansions and the like.
Great read from Rolling Stone on the background of the oil spill. I like the analogy that having BP “fix” the situation is like having a drunk driver in car wreck assist the police in the investigation. Salazar needs to go. Speaking of which, has anyone noticed he’s keeping a pretty low profile these days?
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/111965?RS_show_page=0
It’s like having the Fed fix the financial disaster.
More like having Wall St. fix the financial disaster.
Did you know BP turned down offers from the Dutch to help? And they couldn’t accept if they wanted bedcause of the Jones Act which states that “cabotage (i.e., coastal shipping) and requires that all goods transported by water between U.S. ports be carried in U.S.-flag ships, constructed in the United States, owned by U.S. citizens, and crewed by U.S. citizens and U.S. permanent residents.”
Rolling Stone’s journalists are a rare and ballsy bunch who still dare to speak truth to power, in sharp contrast to the neutered Orwellian truth-makers at the corporate-owned MSM.
Salazar, like his fellow Colorado Democrats Senators Udall and Bennet, is a Wall Street marionette who never met a bailout or stimulus he didn’t like. This unholy trio has been among the coterie protecting the Fed from Ron Paul and Alan Grayson’s attempts to force a real audit.
I don’t think we need to worry about it much longer, Obama says he is furious and intends do some azz kicking as soon as he gets a break from all the parties and sports.
Empty suit. He really is Johnny Bravo.
He will write a stern letter to somebody, followed by a groveling apology.
When The One was elected I thought, “Jimmy Carter II.”
It’s far worse.
Even former acolytes have turned against him. Maureen Dowd’s now famous quip about the oil spill response being how “Yes We Can has morphed into Will We Ever?”
I’m still trying to decide which was worse - Carter or Obama. I still don’t think Obama is “far worse” than Carter. Maybe not even worse than Carter.
I remember Inauguration Day in 1977, my high school French teacher was so much into the Democrap Party and Jimmy Carter that instead of teaching the class, he had a TV brought in and we watched “J.C.” walk down Pennsylvania Ave. It was a messianic hour for that teacher. I had no respect for him from that day on.
You know, if you had to decide based on a lot of metrics, one would think Carter would have been a smashing success.
“It was a messianic hour for that teacher. ”
I remember people still obsessively looking for the next JFK. Carter kinda had the hair, anyway.
When The One was elected I thought, “Jimmy Carter II.”
After watching the guy for a while I’ve pegged him as much slicker than Slick Willie. Makes ole Bill look like a piker.
Who was worse? Carter of Obama?
That’s an easy one: Bush Jr.
It’s interesting to read this Rolling Stone article and the Vanity Fair Article that Sammy posted and then you watch the whole Gulf disaster unfold in a completely different light. For example, Obama going to the Gulf and making constant incantations. I’m sure he’s very puzzled why his spells aren’t working. Somebody should tell him he forgot to add a little
“eye of newt”. Now, a word from our sponsor:
“I told the witch doctor
I was in love with you
I told the witch doctor
I was in love with you
And then the witch doctor
He told me what to do
He said that
Ooo eee,ooo ah ah ting tang
Walla walla, bing bang
Ooo eee ooo ah ah ting tang
Walla walla bing bang…
Ooo eee ,ooo ah ah ting tang
Walla walla ,bing bang
Ooo eee ooo ah ah ting tang
Walla walla bing bang
I told the witch doctor
You didn’t love me true
I told the witch doctor
You didn’t love me nice
And then the witch doctor
He game me this advice
He said that
Ooo eee,ooo ah ah ting tang
Walla walla, bing bang
Ooo eee ooo ah ah ting tang
Walla walla bing bang…
Ooo eee ,ooo ah ah ting tang
Walla walla ,bing bang
Ooo eee ooo ah ah ting tang
Walla walla bing bang
Etc., etc.”
My grandparents had a 45 of that song. We listened to it hundreds of times as kids. I still love that song.
Yes, but did they have a 45 of The Thing?
“Get Outta Here with that Boom-boom-boom and don’t come back no more”
I’ll never forget when I heard the subtle nuances of lyrics and music, the first time I heard “Surfin’ Bird” on digital media…….
Somebody should tell him he forgot to add a little
“eye of newt”.
Somehow I don’t think Obama keeps Gingerich in mind.
Did you know that Obama has had 27 concerts at the White House since taking office? Paul McCartney is hardly the only big-name musician who has recently played there.
Michelle Obama has 83 staffers on hand. She spends $1 million+ on hair and nails.
I recall vividly how Nancy Reagan was repeatedly reamed for spending $2500 on new china for the White House. (or was it $25K)? In any event, why is there not any vitriole being cast in the direction of the Obamas for living high on the hog?
Do you always make stuff up or is this tripe just more of the same?
No, it’s been reported in print. Look it up, Sherlock.
That you don’t like to be reminded of your liberal elistist tendancies is not my problem. How does that $100K+ annually spend, anyhow? I bet that one of the 9.7 percent unemployed nationwide would more than appreciate half of your income.
Why don’t you give it to them? You are for redistribution, right?!
It’s your job to provide evidence of wild claims not me. Now get to it.
PS- You sound like a typical low budget, low intellect conservative…. always worried and jealous about what someone else is earning.
Now get to work.
Here’s a partial list:
Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Foo Fighters, Jennifer Hudson, Wynton Marsalis, Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp, Natalie Cole, Faith Hill.
ALSO visiting the White House are:
Jaime Dimon (yes, THAT Jaime Dimon)
Cass Sunstein
Jessie Jackson
Al Sharpton
Tom Daschle
Newt Gingrich
Mayor Daley
Al Franken
Howard Dean
Oprah Winfrey
George Clooney
Denzel Washington
ALSO, these supposed “namesakes” also visited the White House, but supposedly aren’t the famous individuals:
Jeremiah Wright
William Ayers
Michael Moore
Michael Jordan
NOW I ASK YOU:
Here we are. Oil spill in the Gulf, and it took your Messiah 56 days to get the head of BP to the White House.
Also, let me remind you of the 9.7 unemployment rate.
Also, let me remind you of the bankers who are getting of scot-free.
Also, let me remind you of the housing bubble that is not going to be fixed.
Also, let me remind you that we still have troops in Iran and Afghanistan, getting killed.
How many more “remind you’s” would you like?
Some president. Partying down in the White House and forever speaking in platitudes.
Don’t run away now Cupcake.
You conveninetly forgot the $1million in nails and hair, 83 staffer and the rest of your petty rumours.
Your beloved Retard George Bush appointed to office in 2001 with a budget surplus, 4% unemployment rate and a world at peace. Little George enacted the Zero Downpayment Act, The American Dream Low Downpayment act, handed $750 Billion to your beloved poor bankers through TARP, left office with a $1.4 Trillion budget deficit, an unemployment rate up 100% to 8%, two failed wars and a global economy on the edge of collapse.
How many more facts would you like?
Actually, it’s not my job. It’s yours. You’re the accuser. I’m innocent until proven guilty.
So that running away means you don’t like the facts and don’t want to hear anymore.
ok……. till nexte time.
I had a really long answer to this, but I deleted it. Short version:
Would you like some cheese with your dittohead whine, or do you have something constructive to offer?
Not sure who you are addressing, but since i started the sub-thread, yes, as a matter of fact I do. Get rid of Tony Hayward, if he won’t go, arrest him. Get BP out of the frackin’ Gulf, period. The Rolling Stone article is full of constructive criticism and even solutions. Read it. BP was so useless in Alaska that Exxon had to take them off the job. Nothing resolved until BP was out of the way.
Hi Palmy, thank you for offering something real.
I just get very frustrated with the usual ditto-head pile-on.
I’m reading the Rolling Stone article. But a lot of it looks like 20/20 hindsight, inflammatory comparisons (ignoring MMS is like ignoring Al*Qai*da?), and it seems calibrated to tap into the public’s need for poutrage.
Much of the Admin’s response was based on faulty information from BP. Whom do you fault for that? You think Obama likes being lied to? I suspect BP will pay for that misinformation, heavily. Yes, the Justice Department took 40 days to “announce” it had started a probe into the 100 deaths, but please note the operative word “announce.” They probably started that probe far sooner. Also please note that the article doesn’t distinguish between shallow offshore drilling and deepwater offshore drilling. Even the six-month “pause” is sending the soulless lobbyists onto my TV screen, whining about their loss of profit.
The government scientist who put forth the “drunk driver” quote preferred to stay anonymous, gee I wonder why? He could be a conservative holdover trying to score points.
The cleanup of MMS is going to take a lot of time. It takes a long time to “get rid of” any government employee. Even a year would not be enough to clean out the corruption — and that doesn’t take into account institution rule changes or even enforcement of rules. Government just isn’t “nimble,” as corporations are so fond of saying.
I really think that the Admin is waiting until that well is capped, and then they’re going to unleash holy hell onto BP.
“I really think that the Admin is waiting until that well is capped, and then they’re going to unleash holy hell onto BP.”
I hope they’re faster than that considering this massive release could go on, uncapped, for years or a decade or longer by some estimates.
Oxide,
Your eternal optimism regarding this administration is in some ways admirable, but the simplist explanation is not that the admin is just coyly waiting to reveal latent genius, like it was a secret weapon. I am at a disadvantage, not having a TV on during this, but I found Obama’s comment about “whose azz to kick” quite telling. This is not a “presidential” strategy. I would very much like to have a cohesive and effectivly benevolent government in place, but I don’t see a shread of evidence in favor of that.
“public’s need for poutrage.”
Heh.
The clean up of MMS shouldn’t take that long. My boss has always warned me that there were a few things I could do that he could never help out with and violating executve branch ethics rules were one of several. If you accept valuable goods or services worth $20 or more at one time ($50 total for the year) from the same person or organization and the gift is motivated by your position and not a social or familial relationship, you are gone. The low amounts are supposed to cover coffee and snacks if you go to an organization’s offices for discussions that last several hours. They are so restrictive that we generally just make people come to our dingy conference rooms where we don’t even provide drinkable water. I was actually pulled aside early in tenure when someone was hosting a retirement cocktail party for one of our senior people. They had a manager bring in all the newbies to warn us that if we decided to attend that we should keep careful track of what we ate and drank as good alcohol could easily put us over the limit - the money limit - for a single event.
The problem, as near as I can tell is that there would barely be any one left to run the place at all. They have to hire people before they can actually fire everyone who needs firing.
Did Eude say we are at war in Iran??
That’s nuts. The federal government doesn’t have cutting edge deep sea oilfield equipment and engineers waiting around. It can’t do anything but take the blame for BP.
Either BP fixes it, or BP did something that cannot be fixed. There are no other choices.
“Either BP fixes it, or BP did something that cannot be fixed. There are no other choices.”
Holy Jeebus, WT, do you have any idea how much of the Fedgov is outsourced, how many contractors are hired for this or that project on behalf of the gov, to the tune of billions? You think the gov had all the construction resources to build that obscene embassy in Iraq? Hello? Trust me, if the gov wants to outsource the job to another energy company, or any company that can do the job, YES WE CAN!
My original reply to this post has not shown up as yet, so let me just say that I didn’t mean to bite your face off, WT, I’ve found you to be a thoughtful and analytical poster. But the proposition that either BP fixes it, or nothing can be done, is just not true. There are energy companies and other organizations whose representatives have been appearing on various news programs who have presented plans and solutions. The government outsources wars and other projects on a regular basis, when it doesn’t have to outright have the resources to deploy, it hires a contractor to get the job done, at BP’s expense. But that won’t happen until BP is gotten out of the way. BP CANNOT fix this, but others can.
The government can conscript the resources if it has to, it has done that before.
But the one function it DOES have the resources to do, and WON’T, is shut BP down and arrest its top personnel here in the US, including Tony Hayward at his “command post” in Houston. Screw England. That was a trumped up “controversy”. But if BP investors take a hit, so be it. Here, or across the pond. Get over it. I just can’t believe people are making the argument that BP is another company too big to fail. It’s a corporate criminal.
The reality is that the actually rig and operation was outsourced by BP.
Deep Ocean ROVs are contracted out months/years in advance, and are highly specialized in the tasks they can perform. All the government can do is sign a new contract with the same guys BP has currently on site.
I don’t doubt that the problem currently has BP’s undivided attention.
What I want to know is:
-Who did the risk assesment? Did they consider the risks of a possible blowout, and did they put the equipment/procedures in place to minimize the risk?
-Were these circumvented?, If so, by who?
I personally believe that this ain’t no “black swan”. Somebody fooked up, and needs to either pay up, or go to jail, or both.
Somebody did fook up. The BP exec who countermanded the on-site engineer’s procedures.
Remember, there were BP execs on board at the time to celebrate the rig’s, up to that money, safety record.
“…up to that moment…”
Fricking arthritis.
It wasn’t arthritis. You just subconsciously told the truth.
And just imagine if that oil slick winds up on Havana beaches…WWCD…what would Castro do???
——————————
or BP did something that cannot be fixed
Oh, wait’ll Mexico strikes up the band on this one. That’ll be some tah-rahdiddle.
That is not the point. The point is taking control of the clean-up efforts and cutting through the bs. The government has much more deadly arrows in its quiver than trying to come up with the engineering solution, but I think you already know that and are playing games. To feel it is out of the government hands to exert pressure when faced with one of the worst economic disasters in our history which is continuing to occur is silly and has no basis in reality.
Love the vagueries Natalie. “Take control” “cut through BS” “deadly arrows.” Not exactly a technical manual on how to plug a hole in the ocean floor. That said, we need people on the beaches cleaning this up, and I don’t see any.
If it’s any consolation, the Obama Admin, along with the Coast Guard, seems to have smoked out BP’s smoke and mirrors act and they are pissed. They delivered a Sternly Worded Letter, but I don’t know if they’ll follow up.
www DOT deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/posted/2931/Second_FOSC_letter_on_Redundancy_11_June_.653731.pdf
I don’t know how Stern this is, but the Washington Post seems to think it’s some kind of ultimatum. I dunno, maybe the admin is fed up.
I guess you didnt read what I wrote. It had nothing to do with having the administration “plug a hole.”
They’ve already forced BP to pay out 63 million.
Not fined, but paid.
WT is right. There are only other companies that have the technologies. Not the government and NOBODY really has deep sea blowout disaster technology.
The REAL question is why did the BOP fail?
It’s pretty clear that the government needs to do the cleanup and that they’re not doing the job.
But BP has to stop the leak. Nobody else can even go to the ocean floor, let alone do the necessary plumbing at that depth. Sadly, I think we’ll be waiting until the relief well is dug.
“Nobody else can even go to the ocean floor, let alone do the necessary plumbing at that depth”
OH FER CRYIN’ OUT LOUD, CRIPES ON A CRACKER, Rehobbyist. BP is NOT the only energy company on the planet!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s not the only company that does deepwater drilling!
BP doesn’t have to stop the leak and guess what? They’re NOT gonna! IF you think that the relief well is the solution, no way, as long as BP is in charge.
But there are others that CAN do the job, so BP must get out of the way and let others do it.
NOBODY has deepwater blowout disaster technology.
NOBODY.
Is a college degree still worth it?
LAtimes
After spending tens of thousands of dollars on higher education, often taking on huge debts along the way, many face a job market that doesn’t seem to need them.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that seven of the 10 employment sectors that will see the largest gains over the next decade won’t require much more than some on-the-job training. These include home healthcare aides, customer service representatives and food preparers and servers. Meanwhile, well-paying white-collar jobs such as computer programming have become vulnerable to outsourcing to foreign countries.
“People with bachelor’s degrees will increasingly get not very highly satisfactory jobs,” said W. Norton Grubb, a professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Education. “In that sense, people are getting more schooling than jobs are available.”
He noted that in 1970, 77% of workers with a bachelor’s degree were employed in professional and managerial occupations. By 2000, that had fallen to 60%.
Yes but Union/Civil service/Company Rules prevent you from hiring anyone without a 4 year degree……Change that and the education bubble will collaspe
———–
“In that sense, people are getting more schooling than jobs are available.”
And this is in part a reaction to the crusade against employers using things like IQ tests to screen applicants. Hard to argue with the simple possession of a college degree, whereas there’s always some guy who claims that IQ tests are “unfair” to some protected group.
I have seen more people with college degrees that wouldn’t know which end of a toilet brush to use. They come out as bigger morons than when they went in. It is really sad.
I never get this anti-college mentality here.
In my dealings with 10s of companies over the years I have met the good, the bad and the ugly. Obviously there are exceptions. But in general what I have found is people with degrees are smarter and better to work with than those without. And people who went to a top tier college are better than those who went to Podunk State U.
And yes I know all about Bill Gates.
I think the degree program has a lot to do with it.
I’ve spent 9 years in college, earning 3 degrees. And I did look around at many of my fellow students while there, so I have a firm foundation upon which to ridicule much of what passes for higher education these days.
Many students nowadays think that “Oh yeah - so’s your old man” is argument or rhetoric. They cannot form a logical argument from premise to conclusion. Many find jobs in journalism or government.
“I never get this anti-college mentality here. ”
I am surrounded by MBAs and CPAs and none of them saw, nor understood, the housing bubble.
Armies of highly “educated” people still can’t get that low interest rates don’t mean it is a great time to buy a house.
College graduates throughout the nation still can’t understand a rent vs. own equation, spewing nonsense such as, “I don’t want to throw money away on rent”.
George Bush has a degree from Yale. He has an MBA from Harvard.
Ben Bernanke and Paul Krugman are considered two of the premier academics in the nation. Both of them are highly educated and true believers in the power of bad debt to fix a problem of bad debts.
The President of the United States has a law degree from Harvard but doesn’t believe in enforcing the immigration laws of the United States.
A girl I graduated high school with was going to school for a degree in political science. She told me she thought Orwell was commenting on animal rights when he wrote Animal Farm.
I bet I can find more common sense coming from the mouths of farmers than I can coming from the mouths of PHDs.
The last president of the U.S. to not graduate college was Harry Truman.
The business schools, in particular, have become bastions of groupthink.
Arizona’s governor Jan Brewer has been given flack (by those who love illegal aliens) for not being a college graduate. While I don’t like all of J. Brewer’s policies, I am 100% in agreement with her on SB1070.
“Shrub has a degree from Yale. He has an MBA from Harvard.”
And a bag of Pretzel’s from Piggly-Wiggly!
BWAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! (fpss™)
A girl I graduated high school with was going to school for a degree in political science. She told me she thought Orwell was commenting on animal rights when he wrote Animal Farm.
That’s unforgivable.
College degrees do have worth, but as said above, it depends on major. I’m a scientist and I had quote a bit of liberal arts, which I think is valuable in understanding the world today. However, as a whole major, I think of a liberal arts degree as four years of growing up.
It’s all nice to talk about “common sense” from farmers and mechanics, but those are — generally — jobs where the tasks are mostly figured out and they just need somebody to do them. (for that end, I’d get someone with miliary experience. That’s probably the best mix of theory and on-the-job training.) But if you want INNOVATION, yes, you need the technical background, sometimes years and years of it. Common sense isn’t going to cure cancer, or invent new solar panels, or increase the mileage in cars.
I think the issue though is that there are so many jobs out there that just state, “must have 4 year degree”. It doesn’t even matter what the degree is in. It could be psychology, liberal arts, biology or underwater basket weaving. I think that is what causes so many people to scratch their head. It does play right into the hand of the Education Conglomerates.
Being a nuclear physicist probably requires a lot of education. Some other jobs, not so much.
College gives some the chance to prove character, industry and intelligence. Having spent some time in college does not however prove the above. You have it or you don’t. College doesn’t provide it.
“…..tasks are mostly figured out…….”
You mean all I do is what the engineers tell me?
You need to get out more often. Maintenance Manuals are written by the product liability lawyers. Their primary purpose is to CYA if something gets fooked up.
If I had to do my job strictly by the maintenance manual, airplane flights would be about as common as space shuttle launches. I know of several “approved maintenance manual procedures” that are IMPOSSIBLE to do, per the manual.
But don’t feel alone. There are thousands of MBA types running businesses in the USA that think they can replace all their experienced, skilled technical people with $10/hr new-hires, armed with an approved maintenance manual and an “Expert system”.
“I bet I can find more common sense coming from the mouths of farmers than I can coming from the mouths of PHDs.”
Most successful farmers have college degrees. Ag schools are the backbone of most major mid-western universities and the degree programs aren’t easy. Agronomy, animal science, genetics, or something else hard-science based are often the backbone of the degree, combined with general business and accounting. If you think farmers are some aw shucks simpletons you are about 200 years behind the times. Hardly an argument against higher education.
Thanks Bub. You beat me to it.
And yes, common sense is EXACTLY what will cure cancer, create practical energy alternatives and increase the mileage in cars, as well provide a stable and prosperous society. Because science without common sense is just useless posturing and most breakthroughs have turned out to be “elegant” solutions.
Most of the farmers and ranchers that I’ve known over the years have had a much better education than most college grads. Not
only are they better read, understand practical math, are creative artists when
crafting a solution to an unusual problem, but also have a far better understanding of our
political world. And yes, I did go to college.
Four years of pre-med which really helps on
a ranch.
Eddie:
Its not anti-college as much as in my experiences you are always “interview” by a young little chicky-poo who has orders to follow, never mind you have lots of relevant experience,no her orders is to make sure you have a 4 year degree in something…
————-
I never get this anti-college mentality here.
I worked for a company who had a whole bunch of wrench-turners in Customer and Field Service…….some of these guys had been working on this type of aircraft for 30 years.
Company gets bought out. New owner mandates that and “Customer/Field Service Engineer” has to have either an EE, ME, or AE degree, or get the boot out of Field Service……we’re talking guys who are in their late 40s, early 50s.
Needless to say, all the old hands got “early retirements/lateral transfers”. So now, Field Service is full of 20 something college grads, who haven’t turned a wrench on anything in their lives.
Nine times out of ten, they would get a call, have no idea how to answer it, and would have to hike down to the shop floor to ask either me, or my crew chiefs, for the answer to the customer’s question.
I’ve seen the future. It sucks.
Yep X-GSfixr. A bunch of 20 or 30somethings who don’t know squat but were hired because they had a degree…
…and were cheaper than the older, more experienced people.
Idiocracy is now.
I remember teaching teens to use a hammer. Couldn’t drive a nail. They’d obviously never used a hammer in their entire life. And it’s not like I’m a carpenter, I do computer work.
Depends on what the degree is in.
At “Podunk State U,” which I attended (LOL) we used the same text books that were used at the Ivy league schools. I wrote this before here but guess you did not read it. Somehow the math problems in those text books were solved by us, so we did just as good as the “Hah-Vahd” types.
The kicker is that my degree cost me little. My Master of Science degree cost me only books and time, as I was a DOD employee and they paid my way through the MS program.
And my annual income since 2000 has been above $100,000. Three years ago it was around $230,000 because of overtime. This year it’s about $190,000. Not bad for a graduate of “Podunk State U,” Eddie! Obama and “Kalifornia” love people like me because I’m paying a lot of taxes. No biggie as long as I can save like I am now.
I really think state colleges are a good deal. I can’t get worked up about people who are so obsessed with status that they went 100k into debt to attend NYU or Brown or something. TS.
Ivy League still has caché and connections. Yes you can get a good degree from a state school, but what distinguishes you from thousands of other kids who also have a good degree from a state school? That’s when it’s useful to be on the crew team with some CEO’s precious little boy, or know somebody through somebody’s roommate. It’s not a meritocracy out there.
I think that’s more important back east than in the midwest or the west. My friends on the east coast absolutely must have their children attend an Ivy League school. Period. Duke, Michigan, or Berkeley aren’t good enough. The connections of which Oxide speaks must be very valuable.
Are those people who “must have their children attend an Ivy League school” the same people who “must own a house?”
I read a lot of posts about young people who say they “must own a house” because they have children. Or they “must not rent an apartment” because they have chidren or big dogs.
Personally, I never met a Harvard grad that could reason his way out of a paper bag.
My cheap (really cheap) state school degree had me running with the big dogs from Cal Tech and the like. That said, I’m not sure any degree is worth the cost any more.
I think some of us worry about the quality of education and direction of study…
Way too many Political Science, Law, History, Education, Management, Business majors…
Not enough engineering, science, physics, chemistry, computer science majors.
Because Poli-Sci, Law, Management and Business is where the money is.
Engineering and all those other jobs can be farmed or contracted out.
Look at the pay structure of about every big company in the USA. Most of the top spots are held by non-engineering types.
Engineering is for those sclubs with the pocket protectors, loafers and white socks.
I tell my kids and nieces and nephews that grades are most important, not the major. You can go to medical school with an English major (as long as you take organic chem, physics and biology), as long as your grades are top notch. And an engineer with a B average won’t get in to Harvard law.
Old joke:
Q: What do you call a med student that graduates with a “D” average?
A: Doctor
The speaker at an ivy league graduation ceremony this morning was an ambassador to the UN and a major player in rolling out Aids treatment in Africa. And he told the graduates that he had never managed to finish an undergraduate degree.
People with connections and the right background always have had chances to make their way in the world. Most of them also had college degrees. People saw this and assumed that it was the college degree that got them the opportunities, and to some extent, especially in technical fields that were not condusive to learning on the job, that was true. But it isn’t the whole story.
Exactly. Most of your “Horatio Alger” stories conveniently leave the “lucky connections” part.
“Most of THE…”
Not “your” specifically. Wrong figure of speech.
“…leave out…”
*sigh*
I notice they never analyse the majors of the students involved.
For that matter, even the concept of “liberal arts” has devolved over the centuries. During the middle ages, mathematics, geometry, and astronomy (which back then included what we would today call physics) were the backbone of “liberal arts”.
These seven arts were divided into the two familiar categories: the trivium, consisting of the verbal arts of logic, grammar, and rhetoric; and the quadrivium, consisting of the numerical arts of mathematics, geometry, music, and astronomy. These disciplines came to constitute the liberal arts, which “provided the basic content and form of intellectual life [in Europe] for several centuries.” The liberal arts were, in effect, regarded as “the seven pillars of wisdom.”
“Trivium?” Is that where the word “trivial” comes from?
“Trivia” comes from tri-via, which literally means “three roads.” I believe that trivia was the small talk that people exchanged when they met at a crossroads. But don’t quote me on that.
Trivium is probably a variant of “three paths,” in a metaphorical sense. But I’m just guessing. Same for “quadravarium.”
Dennis: You’ll be happy to know there is a college that truly teaches the liberal arts. My daughter just graduated from St. John’s College, known as the great books school - no textbooks. They start at freshman year learning latin & greek and work from there. No transfers in - it’s a full 4 year program and there’s no sliding by. The students are amazing people and give me hope for the future. BTW, her degree is all seven majors in the LAs. Can go to any grad school she wants. Most importantly, I’m awed by how she has learned to think, problem solve, plan and interact. She’s taking a gap year and then on to work. Not for everyone, but we still need some thinkers.
I went back to Michigan for my nephew’s high school graduation a few weeks ago. His sister just finished her first year at Michigan, and told me about how much she enjoyed it. Can this aunt brag a little? Second semester grades: chemistry and chem lab A, advanced calculus B+, Spanish A, literature A (this was her favorite class - an entire semester devoted to Dante’s Inferno, which auntie has never even read.) She also played violin in an intramural orchestra and washed dishes in the dorm cafeteria. For this girl, education is salvation, preparation and a good time. I can’t think of anything better for her. Brother will study engineering at Michigan State this fall. I am so proud.
You can brag.
Congratulations, auntie or uncle.
Should younger generations bother to work at all, given what they are being handed? That is the question.
It’s hard to follow the elephant around at the circus doing clean up while higher paid coworkers ride around on the elephant doing little of apparent value. It’s a very bad time to be entering the work force for the first time.
My 17 year old daughter works part time at a fast food place.
She makes $7-8/hour. Of which, half is burned by paying for (with subsidization by the Bank of Mom/Dad) the cost of transportation to/from work.
So she could work an eight hour shift, and net $32 bucks (if she doesn’t have lunch). Hardly seems worth working to me.
I understand your point X-GS, but being 17 and working a minimum wage job will teach her a lot about life. I’m sure that you’d rather have her working and making a little bit of money, as opposed to sitting at home in front of the TV. When I worked at the corner drugstore for $1.35/hour in the 60’s after school, when my shift ended at 9 p.m. I was too tired to go out and make trouble.
Kids don’t sit in front of the TV anymore. They are texting/tweeting/Skype-ing.
Poor old Rehobbyist…….I’ll be phrases like “whippersnapper”, “get off my lawn” and “Where are you driving in such a rush?” have crept into your phrasebook.
Unless it’s a job or business she wants to be in….Nothing wrong with working for min wage if you intend to be the next manager….but subsistence jobs are almost always not worth it…unless again she can walk to the job and bring lunch.
—————————————
Hardly seems worth working to me
Younger generations can’t find jobs. The baby boomers either outsourced them, gave them to illegal immigrants, or decided to overpay themselves, so there’s no room for young Americans in the work place any more.
“…people are getting more schooling than jobs are available.”
I’ve said it before I’ll say it again.
There aren’t enough jobs. Period.
There would be if Illegals were forced to go back home….
1st order of business NO more anchor babies …You are not an American citizen if your parents are here illegally……then offer a carrot…..you can become an American citizen when you turn 18 and have no criminal/mental record in your home country.
Absolutely YES!
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/10/hitchens200810?utm_source=Ideas+in+Action&utm_campaign=fd4fd71bd1-Ideas_in_Action_06_11_2010&utm_medium=email
“America the Banana Republic.” First penned by Christopher Hitchens after the first Wall Street bailout in 2008, it has never been more timely reading, nor have the comparisons to kleptocracies like Zimbabwe seemed more apt.
From Christopher Hitchen’s “America the Banana Republic” (Vanity Fair, 2008):
“In a statement on the huge state-sponsored salvage of private bankruptcy that was first proposed last September, a group of Republican lawmakers, employing one of the very rudest words in their party’s thesaurus, described the proposed rescue of the busted finance and discredited credit sectors as “socialistic.” There was a sort of half-truth to what they said. But they would have been very much nearer the mark—and rather more ironic and revealing at their own expense—if they had completed the sentence and described the actual situation as what it is: ’socialism for the rich and free enterprise for the rest.’
“I have heard arguments about whether it was Milton Friedman or Gore Vidal who first came up with this apt summary of a collusion between the overweening state and certain favored monopolistic concerns, whereby the profits can be privatized and the debts conveniently socialized, but another term for the same system would be ‘banana republic.’
“What are the main principles of a banana republic? A very salient one might be that it has a paper currency which is an international laughingstock: a definition that would immediately qualify today’s United States of America. We may snicker at the thriller from Wasilla, who got her first passport only last year, yet millions of once well-traveled Americans are now forced to ask if they can afford even the simplest overseas trip when their folding money is apparently issued by the Boardwalk press of Atlantic City. But still, the chief principle of banana-ism is that of kleptocracy, whereby those in positions of influence use their time in office to maximize their own gains, always ensuring that any shortfall is made up by those unfortunates whose daily life involves earning money rather than making it. At all costs, therefore, the one principle that must not operate is the principle of accountability.”
Exactly. Fast forward two years: DD, SOS. (Different Day, Same Old Sh*t)
Sammy, each day brings more realization that the US is descending into third world status. You know you’re a third world country when an oil company like BP can pollute with impunity, when the British multinational can get its home country to blame you for its own disaster. You know you’re a third world coutry when the wealthy start building compounds in infested cities like LA.
Palmetto, I wish I had you as a neighbor.
Sammy, I wish there was a place where those of us of like mind could go. I have always loved this country, it’s been like a friend to me and I’m watching my friend die and I’m powerless to stop it.
But a friend of mine pointed out to me the other evening that I need to unhook from all the insanity and figure out how I can prosper in spite of it all, find people of like mind to work together to survive.
The US is mainly an idea, that arose first in Greece, then Rome, then Britain (Magna Carta), then here. That idea will rise again elsewhere, it can be suppressed, but never destroyed. But it would appear that the idea is no longer compatible with the land mass on which it has manifested, and the majority of its inhabitants.
Galt’s Gulch!
I agree with you on this one Palmetto.
The late Harry Browne showed why it is more healthy (in all ways) to not worry about external events you have no control over and worry about those you do have control over. Your finances, getting out of debt, getting exercise, etc.
I find myself watching less and less television because most of it is bad news for one thing. For another thing my own culture is not represented (single childless boomers still in great health), so I cannot relate to most shows. I’m better off as a result, because I have control over my own disposition.
Palmetto and Bill,
I’d like your thoughts on this essay by Chris Hedges of “Adbusters.” While he’s a lefty and vaguely anarchic [which I most emphatically am not] his comments on the need to build networks and self-sustaining communities to more or less “carry the fire” of age-old values and traditions against the soulless onslaught of the corporate oligarchs struck a chord with me.
https://www.adbusters.org/magazine/88/chris-hedges.html
Chris Hedges seems to be the type of guy who you would want to drink beer with. It would take weeks of conversation to really grasp what he’s into.
Yes, he may be a leftist anarchist, but he’s very interesting and one you’d want to share a beer with. He’s right on about the pretense of the leftist movements who use politics in the name of being for the people but end up as the same corporatist elites as the predecessors. Good lines about Obama.
His essay points out the problems but does not talk much about the cure. Only hints about it: Start small, and so on.
I assume by networks, Hedges is referring to establishing barter systems so you can trade for all your necessities and many of your wants. Self-sustaining communities make use of such networks, but have the addition of shared values and trust.
I have a personal interest in the definition of ?networks,” as I move around quite often. For example, I rented in this Los Angeles apartment complex for a total of nearly five years but I know people in Maryland and Phoenix much better than I know any of my neighbors here. And I worked in those two areas about thirteen or more months.
So my concept of “network” is my linkedin social media membership. I have several dozen connections who are mostly talented people with good business ethics. But two of my connections are from my bosses who I don’t think have any talent or ethics. But they are my bosses, so I could not turn them down.
I think to make best of what Hedges is proposing you must be a long time member of a community (physical, not virtual) with no intention, not even a thought, of leaving. With more and more people becoming transient in this recession, I am not sure if this “neighborliness” can thrive. I certainly cannot be a participant in that type of network, particularly since I am always a week away from having to work 1500 miles or 3,000 miles away for a year long period.
Pardon the unnecessary repetition of the “beer” analogy. I have my mind set on some brew later on.
Those “external events” now directly affect everyone’s life.
If the economy is tanked, finding ways to “prosper” is about like trying to find water in the desert. Futile and yet deadly serious.
“You know you’re a third world country when an oil company like BP can pollute with impunity, when the British multinational can get its home country to blame you for its own disaster.”
The UK is less capable of controlling BP than is the U.S. We still could, but have chosen not to do so, at least not yet. That we could doesn’t much matter if corporations own the government.
Exactly. The UK has been a “corptacracy” since the East India Co. days.
It was one of the main reasons for the American Revolution.
*snicker* Good thing a certain poster takes the weekends off. (Maybe I’ll repost this Monday.)
From the article:
“And am I the only one who finds it distinctly weird to reflect that the last head of the Federal Reserve and the current head of the Treasury, Alan Greenspan and Hank “The Hammer” Paulson, should be respectively the votaries of the cults of Ayn Rand and Mary Baker Eddy, two of the battiest females ever to have infested the American scene?”
Good old Hitch. Gotta love him.
Well I worked from 3:00 pm to 1:30 am and woke up at 7 this morning. So not sure if you are referring to me.
Ayn Rand had a lot of weaknesses, too many to explain here. But her objectivist philosophy is brilliant. It all starts with the objectivist metaphysics - the primacy of existence over consciousness. This “primacy of existence” is not something new by Ayn Rand. She took that idea from the philosophers of ancient Greece.
You don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. If you don’t like Ayn Rand, don’t take it out on the ancient Greek philosophers.
wmbz?
No, I wasn’t referring to you, Bill, though it doesn’t surprise me you’re a fan of Ayn’s ‘philosophy’- which, is basically a mishmash of poorly understood Aristotle and Nietzsche, taken seriously by few, and taught almost nowhere (outside of 20th century pop lit classes). Your attempt to equate mocking her with mocking the ancient Greek philosophers she tried to copy is amusing.
She was a romance writer, really, and her romances reveal a fascistic idolization of ‘great men’ (I think she had some ‘daddy’ issues). Her merciless view of the parasitism of pretty much everyone else is eerily reminiscent of the nazi’s views on jews, but much more broad-ranging.
The kind of books you’re often impressed by when you first encounter them as a teenager, but when you return to them as an adult, you think ‘what the hell was I seeing in this?’ But some remain forever entranced by her adolescent hero-worship, and the happy idea that they are one of the special few. Greenspan was one.
Her “objectivist” philosophy is bankrupt, juvenile fantasy tripe.
Funny, I never thought of Ayn Rand as a romance writer. I considered her a sci-fi writer.
“battiest females”, thereby implying that the males have been comparitavely battier?
Nope. Why would you think that?
No more like bat sh*t
Because, if the males are “just as batty”, then these female writers would just be “the battiest writers”. There would be no need to place them in an ubercategory.
For example, a man who plays great football might be the “greatest football player in the world”. A woman who plays great football, on the other hand, would be simply the “greatest female football player in the world”. This is because women can’t compete with men in football.
He seems to be saying that women cannot even compete with male battiness!
Pacoima residents want city to fight blight
LAtimes
One in 10 homes in the area is in some stage of foreclosure. A city ordinance taking effect July 8 will fine banks $1,000 a day if they don’t maintain the houses.
Guillermo Zamora is living a nightmare any homeowner can identify with. The house next door to his, in Pacoima, is an abandoned eyesore after a foreclosure.
Weeds have taken over the yard. Gangs have tagged the walls. An abandoned car sits out back. Electrical wires dangle precariously from the house. The back windows are full of what appear to be bullet holes, and the house is infested with armies of bugs.
Zamora, a forklift operator who was washing his car in a spotless yard when I approached, said he wishes someone would build a big wooden fence around the whole thing.
“The banks own it,” he said. “They have money.”
But there will be fireworks, for sure. The city wants the bank to start maintaining a house or face a fine as soon as a default notice is filed. But Beth Mills, of the California Banking Assn,. argued that banks aren’t the legal owners until the process is done.
“In some cases, that can take over a year,” Mills said.
Attorney Tania Cardoso, who represents several banks, argued against the ordinance, which was adopted last month in a unanimous City Council vote. I asked her if there will be lawsuits when the city tries to impose fines.
“There absolutely will be,” she said.
On the other side, deputy L.A. City Atty. Suzanne Spillane had this to say about the ordinance:
“We’re fully prepared to enforce it and defend it.”
Let the battle begin.
Why don’t they just sell em?
To whom?
I don’t know about this specific market, but in most where foreclosures are prevalent, they are the majority of houses sold. I understand that they are trying to get top dollar by not putting them up for sale, but almost all of them took government money, and it isn’t right to then hoard houses in order to squeeze more money out of the consumers.
1 in 10 houses, and the city is worried about the grass! What about the many thousands that buyers are overpaying? What about families that want to get on with their lives?
I believe El Presidente made a declaration during his State of the Union address that he was going to get people’s home values up. Good luck getting these idiots to understand lower housing prices being good for the nation. Even the tool in charge doesn’t believe in affordable housing.
The banks have gone into survival mode. The way it is now the houses aren’t in default until the banks declare them to be in default. The banks don’t own the houses until they say they own the houses. But if the banks own the houses and declare them to be in default then the banks have to take big hits against their balance sheets.
Taking big balance sheet hits will officially push the banks into insolvency and the bankers will lose their jobs.
So, there it is, as I see it. Extend & Pretend.
“What about families that want to get on with their lives?”
I am raising my hand.
Jamie Dimon says, “go ______ yourself”.
How much does a used politician go for nowadays?
Depends on whether you can find enough volunteers to scrub the oil off.
At K Street, we specialize is pre-owned politicians and thanks to our 34 point inspection system, we can guarantee our pre-owned politicians to out-perform better and last longer than your average pre-owned politician.
We’re so sure of this, we’re prepared to offer a full one term, money back deal if not satisfied, (but off the record) contract.
So what are you waiting for? Get yours… ’cause we got ours!
Well why don’t you buy a couple of foggers and toss them in the house…
——————————————
and the house is infested with armies of bugs.
Thanks for posting! I hope ordinances like this go viral nationwide. It’s the best way for municipalities to force banks and absentee “investors” to either step up and maintain their vacant properties, or to give them a powerful incentive to stop playing the Pretend & Extend game. Once fines or liens exceed $60K, municipalities should be able to initiate forfeiture action and sell the houses at public auction, but ONLY to people with roots in the community who will use them as their primary residence and pledge to clean up/rehab the blighted properties.
I think I hear Jamie Dimon laughing somewhere off in the distance.
Cities start imposing fines for trashed properties.
-Some wiseguy in the city accounting office decides to count unpaid fines as “revenue” (never mind that this may mean that the bank will never complete the foreclosure process, because the property will be worth less than the tax liability and fines.)
-City accounting shows that, by pretending that these fines are actual money, they have magically balanced the books and don’t have a budget shortfall.
-City can’t/won’t impose paycuts/layoffs/tax increases/user fees, because the “budget is in surplus”.
“… banks aren’t the legal owners until the process is done.”
. .. and the banks are the ones that control the process.
How clever.
Skip a few car payments they quickly come and take the car. They should do the same for houses.
“Skip a few car payments they quickly come and take the car.”
But but but but but…. I owe more on the car than it is worth.
I have a friend who is a lawyer and a slumlord in Pacoima. That’s a real bad district. I’m amazed at the lack of quality in much of the construction there. I’ve been told there’s nothing between the outside air and the sheetrock but a thin sheet of plywood siding, which warps in the heat of Pacoima.
Pacoima?
Ha, you’d think they would install better protection in an community where bullets can out of nowhere…relying on the “Property protected by Brinks” front yard signs might not count for much…
” … which warps in the heat of Pacoima.”
The LA basin has a climate that is dependent of the buffer effect of the trade winds that blow in each day from the Pacific Ocean. The closer one lives to the ocean the stronger the buffer effect.
The ocean moderates the temperature. It is a heat sink. It absorbs heat in the daytime, releases it at night. Absorbs heat in the summer, releases it in the winter. The land heats up in the summer, causes the air to rise and draws air in off the Pacific Ocean to fill in the where the rising air used to be, hence the trade winds.
Pacoima is at the wrong end of the basin to get much of this trade wind climate moderation. It’s closer to the enclosing mountains than it is to the ocean. But it is affected by the trade winds in that the smog that is generated in the LA basin gets blown toward Pacoima along with the heat that is generated.
That’s part of the reason why it sucks living in Pacoima and in the Inland Empire in general.
Good explanation. I do miss the balmy nights down there.
I find this fascinating. Thanks combo. I love reading and hearing about what makes the weather react the way it does.
SPECIAL REPORT: WHAT WENT WRONG
FAILURE OF DESIGN AND DISCIPLINE
JEFF LEEN, STEPHEN K. DOIG and LISA GETTER Herald Staff Writers
Section: SPECIAL SECTION
Edition: FINAL
Page: 2SR
Like a latent fingerprint found at a crime scene, a clear pattern has appeared in the vast sprawl of destruction left by Hurricane Andrew.
The storm’s deadly imprint emerged from a three-month Miami Herald investigation that used computers to analyze 60,000 damage inspection reports.
A computer created a color-coded map showing how 420 neighborhoods weathered the storm. When a map of estimated wind zones was superimposed over the damage, the pattern became unmistakable:
Many of the worst-hit neighborhoods were far from the worst winds.
The damage wasn’t consistent — some ravaged neighborhoods sat next to others with much less destruction.
The analysis turned up another startling fact: Newer houses did worse than older ones.
A lot worse, in fact. Houses built since 1980 were 68 percent more likely to be uninhabitable after the hurricane than homes built earlier.
The age pattern settles a debate that erupted after Andrew’s winds died: What was responsible for most of the damage? Only the wind? Or shoddy construction, faulty design and flimsy materials?
For most newer homes, how they were built was more important than where they were located — and thus how they were affected by the wind — in determining the extent of destruction. In other words, man is to blame for a considerable part of the damage.
“We’re talking about $100,000 to $150,000 losses which should have been $25,000 to $50,000 losses,” said Dean Flesner, a State Farm vice president.
“We’re talking about families whose lives have been totally destroyed because their home is uninhabitable, versus families who probably could have remained in the home while repairs were made.”
Why did houses built since 1980 do so poorly in the storm? To find out, The Herald investigated scores of building and design failures, as well as the county’s system for preventing them.
There was ample evidence of breakdowns in the construction and inspection safeguards meant to protect the public from exactly the sort of devastation dealt out by Andrew.
* A close examination of eight storm-damaged subdivisions built by some of Dade’s largest developers revealed houses shot through with so many construction and design flaws they became easy targets for the hurricane.
“…said Dean Flesner, a State Farm vice president.”
Anyone want to guess what the “Insurance Industry” might be able to do with a “report” like this?
Most of the damage done in the area I live in by Cat 2-3 storms Jean, Frances and Wilma in the last number of years, was the result of roofs that needed to be replaced years before the storms hit. I know of many, but the one that sticks out the most was a cedar shake roof that the owner prayed for a storm years before the first one hit because when she bought the house it needed a new roof. Salt in the wound they hosed the kitchen cabinets down before the insurance adjuster got there. They remodeled the entire house with their $200,00.00 setlement.
One of the reasons I signed the Shadow Inventory petition. Neither the asking price or the wording of this listing has changed in 939 days. Although what MARK MADDEN paid or borrowed in 2006, $555,000 has remained the same.
Message from Diane Corbin A NATIVE FLORIDIAN REALTOR
This home is SOOO very inviting!
15183 N 84Th Av Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33418
$270,000
4 Bed, 2 Bath | 4,061 Sq Ft on 1.17 Acres | MLS #R2872040 | Refreshed 8 minutes ago
Added on Nov 16, 2007 (939 days ago)
Last sale
Jun-2006 20589/1234 $555,000 WARRANTY DEED MADDEN MARK
I was talking to a couple of census workers yesterday. They were asking to confirm that the vacents next door were indeed vacent as of April 1. I wonder when the Census Bureau will release data on the number of vacent housing units. That should be an interesting snapshot on the ammount of excess housing that was constructed during the bubble.
What is with the new census form anyhow? I had to fill it out and they basically just asked for my name and address. No interesting demographic questions. I don’t really see how this information is helpful since they contacted me through the mail.
Where they asked for my name on the form, I filled in “John Q. Public”. I also said my phone number is unlisted. It’s none of their d@mn business.
I guess you don’t care about the Constitution, then?
You guessed wrong.
Since the census is mandated by the U.S. Constitution, how else do you explain your failure to participate?
I see that all the time Bub. Conservative Constitutionalists… when it suits them.
As for the Census, there are several forms. Some basic, others more detailed. Why would they use “one size fits all?”
I filled out the Census form. My phone number is indeed unlisted, and they don’t need to know my name.
You got the short form. They only send the long form to a statistical sample of the households.
Actually, they got rid of the long form this time.
A friend is working as a census temp. He says block-by-block information, including names of occupants, isn’t available until 70 years have passed. Detailed info from the 1940 census was just made available.
Oooooo… I can’t wait for THAT data to come out. Should be fun.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/business/13gret.html
Well looky here. Bank of America has been slapped with a $108 million fine on behalf of 200,000 former Countrywide “victims” who were hit with predatory fees by the late and unlamented mortgage giant. Now if only the lawyers would go after Senator Chris “Countrywide” Dodd, who received massive campaign contributions for his role in perpetuating the housing bubble and unsound lending practices.
I like how Countrywide stuck BO India, er, I mean “America” with its mess.
But don’t think Angelo Mozilo is getting away with anything. He’s up on fraud charges.
Who says they aren’t going after the perps?
Seen On the Marquee: “Free showing of Blazing Saddles movie at next “TrueAnger™” PeeParty tea toadlers picinic, video appearance by Sarah the Barracuda!”
“Now, …now we are ANGRY!”
Membership in $100,000-plus pension club leaps by 50 percent:
April 22nd, 2010, by Teri Sforza, OC Register staff writer
Last fall, when California Pension Reform wrested the database of state retirees earning more than $100,000 a year from the California Public Employees Retirement System, there were 6,133 people on the list.
And now – just shy of one year after the first database was released – an update shows that the new total of people in the $100,000-plus public pension club is 9,111 - a staggering 49 percent increase.
“The majority of new $100K Club members are public safety workers,” wrote Marcia Fritz, president of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility, on her web page. “City budgets are being strained to keep more cops on the street — easy street.”
(Next thing you know, “The OC” City Gov’t’s will vote to pay School District Superintendents more than $250,000 per year + Benefits! …Oh, wait)
The updated list now includes 330 retired state prison guards, 300 retired CHP officers, 175 retired state firefighters, and 90 retired Department of Justice agents, she said.
But the pension “King” of California, has yet to be de-throned!:
“Here is the new list of Top 10 club members, who rake in the biggest pensions. No. 1 remains Huntington Beach resident Bruce Malkenhorst Sr. (right)- whose pension rose from $499,674 to $509,665 - even while Los Angeles County prosecutors indicted him on charges of embezzling $60,000 for massages and other personal expenses.
For three decades Malkenhorst was Vernon’s city manager, finance director, redevelopment director, city clerk, city treasurer and head of the municipal light and power operation– all at the same time. At $600,000 a year, he was the highest paid municipal worker in the state”
If this is what their contract stipulated, then anger against these recipients is misplaced.
It’s just like my approach to taxes. We do all sorts of 100% legal strategies, backed by my rather conservative CPA and tax attorney, to minimize our tax burden. No questionable shelters, etc, just proper accounting. IMHO, the fact that these gymnastics work are shameful, and I’d be much happier if everyone simply paid 25% in personal taxes with NO deductions, and corporate taxes were straightforward 10% of revenue - expenses.
These people worked the system to get inflated pensions, through OT tricks, etc. However, it was allowed. We need to fix the pension system, and NOT blame the people (at least too much!) who took advantage of it.
However, there is some reprehensible behavior on the part of these pensioners. Many people (for example schoolteachers) took a lower paying job because they knew there’s a pension later. Then they go and lobby for higher pay claiming they’re low-paid. You shouldn’t be able to burn your candle at both ends. Either get higher pay and a lower pension or deal with your low pay in exchange for a pension. I have little sympathy for schoolteachers, policeman, etc, who gripe about wages.
“If this is what their contract stipulated, then anger against these recipients is misplaced.”
I couldn’t disagree more. Public unions taint the political process in their favor from beginning to end. They are active in politics, spending huge sums of money, to get their candidates into office. This means they are hand picking the people with whom they will negotiate their contracts. Try doing that in the private world.
Just because these are indeed contracts does not mean these are clean contracts.
Try doing that in the private world?
You mean like K Street? Or the Fortune 500?
So what’s good for the goose isn’t good for the gander?
Also, there isn’t one damn civil servant out there worth $500,000 a year.
That’s just insane.
Folks,
I will be going back to AZ within the next year and have started looking at homes down there. I can move at anytime, so I have plenty of time to look. My wife, who has been very patient up til now, is getting tired of renting after 4 years and I am tired of the horrible, horrible housing here in the west Portland, Washington County area here. Sure is pretty here when the sun is shining though.
The best part of this blog is the brutally honest feedback and advice given here. I am growing a bit impatient and will be looking to buy in Arizona if the right deal can be found.
I still have not come to complete terms that the housing market is not coming back. My mind is clear that it isn’t coming back, but the vain side of me still thinks that I can come out ok on a house. Here is an example of a house I could consider:
http://tinyurl.com/3ylqdlf
At the peak this was a $1,500,000 house. Now it is being offered at $640,000. If I could get it for 600K and put down ~$350,000, would the value be there in 10-12 years? What are your thoughts on purchasing a house that was “appraised” over $1.5M in bubble money for 500 - 600K these days vs buying a home that was 700K and now can be bought for 300k? I can very comfortably afford the mortgage and will have a year of expenses in the bank. Does a person gamble a bit and buy a high end home for cheap or play it safe and buy something as cheap as possible?
I know, I know, I need to have Suzanne research it for me, but for some unkown reason, I don’t think she has my best interests in mind.
Thanks for your input,
AZtoORtoCOtoOR - soon to have toAZ added at the end.
How many in your family?
Really, I cannot fathom the amount of “energy” required to keep 6,179 sf indoors maintained…but then again, my elder siblings seem to “manage it”.
Beautiful place…oh, what is this ?: “…backyard boasts one of only 3 ”Lazy River” pools in Arizona!”
Viewed the slide show, the home theater with the McDonald’s logo on the big screen with the words: “I’m lovin’ it!” was a nice touch. Kudo’s for the flooring in the billards room, disagreements & arguments always seem to result in spilled drinks @ my brother house. In fact, they NEVER give Ol’ Hwy stemware… EVER!
It does seem like a nice looking house….but watch for:
1. Undeveloped large parcels nearby. (You never know what will go up there. You have to assume that if it becomes low-income housing, will it be close enough to affect you)
2. What are the HOA dues?
You would really want to live there? I must have been the only one that watched the virtual tour and actually wanted to cry. We really have gone crazy as a nation. I guess it’s nice in a gawdy, brothel-esque sort of way. It was just so over the top and impersonal that I pity anybody that would have to live there day in and day out.
I am sorry to say that it just is not my thing. Dolphins spitting water and columns in the basement would not make me feel like I’m at home.
I hate faux columns and gawdy fixtures, but some of the it actually looks legit. Thus, if that is the case, it is not as offensive. It does look sterile rather than comfy though.
Ye Gods! I thought nycityboy was exaggerating, but then I clicked on the link and if anything he was too subdued in his comments.
This house makes Tony Montana’s pad in “Scarface” look tasteful and understated by comparison. All that money spent, and so little taste. I can’t help but notice the huge home theater but the lack of a library.
The thought of living in such an abomination, or the kind of people who would choose to do so, horrifies and disgusts me. Blech.
This is exactly why the rich are dangerous. Without wisdom to go with their wealth, they are nothing but loose cannons.
And the worst are always the ones with bad taste. (and no “taste” is NOT subjective. You don’t fart in elevator or wear a man thing at the beach)
I could picture myself fighting off the zombies from that island in the pool. Though, if you’re going to have a painted dome ceiling, go all the way and paint it like the Sistine Chapel.
That kitchen looks incredibly uninviting.
I am more of a hardwoods and silver rather than marble and brass/gold girl, but you couldn’t touch something like that in the suburbs around here for less than $2m, and it would have been at least 1k pre-bubble. I would guess that is close to if not below cost. Thus, they are not likely to ever build competing homes for less than that. I do not know that particular market to judge price stability at those levels, but wish I could find housing priced like that. For 600k around in my ‘hood you get 1200 sq foot with a view into other units. If you are willing to move further out you might get a modest 1600 sq ft 70’s ranch.
1k = 1m
fatfinger!
44years old and 4 kids - the oldest will be a Senior in high school this upcoming school year. I will have a 1st grader and a Senior next year. The other two kids are in the middle.
That kind of house does feel more like a hotel than a house. Really, my main motivation is to hopefully buy something at a discount and be able to sell it in a few years for a decent profit. Just hard to know what’s a discount these days. By sitting on my hands, it just keeps getting better housing wise.
In reality, I doubt I would really purchase this place in that it would be over an hour commute each way. I don’t care how nice the house is, once you have it, the game is over and you are ready to move on. A few of the folks on the blog know most of my story. I had a 5400 sq. ft. home in Chandler and made out pretty good on it when I sold in 2006. I would really like to repeat that, but I am trying to be realistic in things.
Having lived in AZ during the bubble and its peak, it is incredible for me to see these million dollar homes listed for these kinds of prices. Hard not to get a bit excited about things after looking at housing here in Oregon. I keep reminding myself, we are seeing these kinds of prices with interest rates at all time lows. What will the price be if the interest rate went up a couple of points?
It seems to me, AZtoetc that you could find something very nice for $500,000 and take less risk. I would also not recommend something built in 2004 - shoddy workmanship was common at the top of the bubble. How wonderful to have a $150,000 10-year mortgage at your young age! Then everyone would be happy.
Arizona is not a climatically attractive state, and the employment opportunities here are not very good. If you want something that will hold it’s value, then you should go for a nice SFH, but not luxurious. The “rich” retirees would rather retire in California.
What it was worth at the top of the mania is irrelevant. It is a manic house. You will loose on this one way or the other, because it isn’t sane.
You and your children will not have proper friends if you live in this house. Just sayin.
I wonder how much it would cost just to clean that place - “five bathrooms!”
Don’t forget the illegals will be leaving, so if you hire people to clean your place, the rates will go up. I think there must be “Molly Maids” in the area.
Arizona has been looking better and better for me. I don’t need anything bigger than 1600 square feet and I have been seeing some nice houses in my Phoenix neighborhood (backyards adjacent to open areas and “greenbelts”) in the $200s.
I’m thinking if I buy a place there in Phoenix, I will be up in Flagstaff at some hotel cooling off every summer weekend. I’m not interested in buying more than one house.
AZtoORtoCOtoOR,
Buying in Cave Creek is about as safe as you can get in this RE climate. People with $$ will always pay a premium to live in this area.
Now if you’re willing to look in areas that are cheaper, I would suggest 85086, where you can get a similar home for about $150k less. Anthem has many community programs for their kids, the country club has an excellent golf professional that has programs for the kids, and the freeway that serves the area just got doubled in size which makes the area much more accessible to the masses.
why not just buy a house for 350k and forget the bank loan. 350k house in arizona is a very nice place. I have a place worth maybe 140k and love it! no payment to any bank(the real owner) is wonderful. I paid cash!
John,
The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. I have been so cooped up here in Oregon, that I am not in a good state of mind.
It is insane what people will pay for 1800 sq. ft. homes here with a very small 2 car garage. All I really need is 3000 sq. ft and a very generous 3 car garage.
Whether I get an Italian-themed McMansion or live in an apartment down there, I will be sleeping the same bed that I am now. It all looks the same when I close my eyes at night.
I do sleep much better without a mortgage, but it is hard to keep my wandering eye off of the nicer stuff.
Since you mention our brutally honest feedback, I’d say this place, especially the entry, is nouveau stucco FUGLY. But to each his own.
Yikes, just looked at the video. Kill this “house” before it multiplies.
Had to comment.
A beautiful house ! Maybe you should go for it.
I bought a 4000 sq foot house 30 years ago.(When that was
considered big.) Everybody said it must be a lot of maintenance.
Actually, it wasn’t that much trouble, and it had carpets everywhere. Tile may be a lot easier.
Had a bidet , too. Didn’t figure out how they worked until years later.
Sunday’s NYTimes on Gold:
“gold bugs, often dismissed as crackpots who hoard gold bars in the basement, are finally having their day. ”
…though with J6P buying gold, I think it’s time to move from “buy” (which I’ve been doing, slowly, for 15 years!) to “hold”
I keep hearing about Johnny Lunch Bucket buying gold but where is this actually happening? I know of not one co-worker that is buying gold or silver. None of my friends are buying. Where are all of these average Americans that are buying metals? I bet it is still less than 2% of the population that is buying gold and silver. Brass and steel is another matter altogether.
“Where are all of these average Americans that are buying metals? I bet it is still less than 2% of the population that is buying gold and silver.”
Ebay. Believe it. I just sold a bunch of scrap gold three days ago. About 5 seconds after I posted the listing, someone “snapped it up”. It didn’t even have time to get into the general search engine. There are guys sitting at their computers just poised to snipe. I didn’t bother using the auction function, I went with an immediate sale at best offer.
Buying precious metals sight unseen (eBay) is way far more risky than buying from a long time reputable coin dealer - walking in with green paper and walking out with gold metal. I would never buy or sell precious metals from or two anyone I cannot see.
“two” = “to”
I have bought scrap gold at a discount on ebay many times, at a discount, to sell later to a refinery when the price per ounce went up, but at this point we don’t bother anymore because people bid it up so high. We had a side business going for about a year or so which made us a little money, but now everyone “believes” so they just go nuts on gold and silver scrap. When the bottom falls out of the gold market, which it eventually will, then we’ll go in again. We sold everything (well, nearly everything ) about 2 months ago.
One dichotomy I’ve noticed is that for years, an ounce of gold was approximately 1/2 the price of an ounce of platinum. A week ago Friday, when I last checked the spot prices, gold was standing at $ 1215 and platinum was at $ 1520 or so, so there is a gold mania which has pushed up gold’s price disproportionately. Best to sit back.
Me neither. I don’t know anyone personally who is buying gold. I talk investing regularly with people at the gym and during lunch with colleagues. None of them buy gold. About three years ago when gold was $600 per ounce two colleagues asked me about how to buy, but they chickened out of buying gold. The last ounce I bought was more than a year ago.
Borrowers beware: Firms profit off defaults
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 9:19 p.m. Saturday, June 12, 2010
Joshua Rand is the muscle. Not in a busting-skulls, Tony Soprano kind of way.
But he does seek to collect, and sometimes even buys, the debt left by delinquent homeowners who walk away from their mortgages - the same borrowers who often assume that a foreclosure or short sale wipes out their loan balance, ending their liability.
A principal in the New York-based Deficiency Judgment Recovery Network, Rand said he has “hundreds, maybe thousands” of home loans gone sour in Florida that his company, formed in late 2009, is working to collect balances from.
Rand either is hired by lenders to collect the deficiencies for them or his company buys the debt in pools for pennies on the dollar, profiting on the back end by making a borrower pay up.
“People are under the assumption that the banks are so busy modifying home loans that they don’t have the bandwidth or stomach to go after those who are walking away. That’s a bad assumption,” said Rand, whose company motto is “We turn shortfalls into windfalls.”
A deficiency judgment, or claim, is basically the remainder owed on a home loan when a borrower goes into foreclosure or completes a short sale.
Before the real estate crash, there were relatively few foreclosures and even fewer short sales, so deficiencies were rare.
Now, tens of thousands of defaulted home loans are on bank records. But mired in busted properties, banks still have been unlikely to pursue claims, attorneys say.
That’s where the Deficiency Judgment Recovery Network comes in.
In fact, some predict a cottage industry of entrepreneurs will start buying up the delinquencies to pursue the balances on their own.
“These lawyer firms are salivating. They can’t wait because they see huge opportunities to collect money,” said Mark Greene, owner and president of Short Sale Operations LLC in North Palm Beach.
“It’s going to be a blood bath.”
The idea is similar to companies that buy credit card debt and attempt to collect, except homeowners are more attractive targets than credit card holders, said Orlando attorney Jonathan Alper, who specializes in foreclosure and bankruptcy law.
“At some point, the homeowner probably had money, whereas with a credit card claim, they may never have had money,” Alper said.
In 2009, Florida courts handled 398,825 foreclosures, about 30,300 of which were in Palm Beach County. An unknown number of short sales has upped the ante for banks even more.
By the end of this year, the Irvine, Calif.-based company Realty Trac predicts 3.5 million more foreclosures nationwide.
“I’m not surprised someone figured out how to make money off it,” said Chris McCarty, director of survey research at the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research. “There had to be some kind of push back.”
States differ on how long lenders have to pursue a deficiency, ranging from a few months to several years.
In Florida, a claim must be filed within five years, but the lender has up to 20 years to collect.
So even if a borrower has no money today, he or she may rebound within the collection time frame.
“People are broke right now, but they won’t be broke forever,” Greene said.
Rand said his company isn’t going after people who lost their homes because of unemployment, illness or other hardships.
Loans receive careful review. Only people who can afford to pay but have decided to stop are pursued, Rand said.
Walkaways, also called strategic defaults, are believed to be on the rise as property values remain low and borrowers continue to owe more on the loan than the home is worth.
“The fact of the matter is we have to find some way out of this and those who need help should get it, but there are those who are gaming the system,” Rand said. “There has to be some level of accountability. It just can’t be a free-for-all.”
Another reason to avoid owning a house for the next 10-20 years.
Just because this particular outfit doesn’t go after “hardship” types doesn’t mean that there aren’t other people out there that won’t. This business is going to end up following people to their graves, and afterwards.
Too bad these guys don’t deal with people a little farther up the food chain.
No FB dollar shall be allowed to escape.
The dollars the bill collectors fail to get will be left for the tax man.
File this under:
No free lunch.
You think you got away with walking away from a mortgage and ALL that debt? If you have a job or other assets (including later marriages to someone with credit) you are going to get hounded.
And how much energy will the bill collectors expend to collect what FBs owe? They already expend a lot of energy going after hundreds or maybe a thou or two owed by credit card deadbeats, how much energy would they be willing to expend in order to go after the many thousands a FB probably owes?
It all boils down to ROI, does it not?
Hey guys,
Ben will be in Austin the 15th-17th of July. I am interested in showing him around some of the high-development areas in Central Austin (78701, 78703, 78702, 78704).
I know there are a couple of folks from Austin. You should email Ben if you are interested in meeting while he’s in town!
I would also would like to know if you any ideas of where to go.
“…I would also would like to know if you any ideas of where to go.”
Never been to Austin, but if I had to hanker a guess, I’d start at this place:
http://www.beerlandtexas.com/
Ha! Don’t let the name fool ya, there’s no extensive selection of premium microbrews there. More like Pabst, Lone Star, and Schlitz for two bucks. Not sayin’ that to knock the place, I love it. It is totally a dive bar. Bands every night. Of course there is quite the variation in quality with that many bands, some night the shows are great and some nights not so much. Mostly punk and trashy rock n’ roll combos. But it is a dirty and totally unpretentious place, and they have a reputation for treating the bands really well.
I wouldn’t know… I don’t do beerI
I live a block west of Congress, near the Children’s Museum, and there are plenty of cool bars/restaurants to go in that area
“Sooner or later, the U.S. economy needs to function without a government crutch. So get used to it: You’re on your own.”
~U.S.News & World Report.
Even the TBTFs?
Yeah, that’ll be the day.
CreepwellBankers new national ad campaign that desperately seeks to herd buyers into contracts with their “$8000 Buyers Credit” is Used House Crime Syndicates latest gimmick. I sent them a comment…
————————————
“$8000 Buyer Bonus”?
When will you glorified used car salesmen find some integrity and stop with these gimmicks that do nothing but over-inflate the price of housing? Sales will go up when prices go down but that fact eludes used car salesmen.
———————————–
Send these scumbags your thoughts.
http://coldwellbanker.com/home/contact/contact_form.jsp
They don’t care what we think. They only care about what lemmings with money think.
Exactly.
I thought it was amusing that this burglar got beaned on Fontanelle Street.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/theblotter/2012105850_stool.html
This was unexpected I betcha:
http://www DOT nytimes DOT com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals.html
We went looking at sfh’s today, and they are still overpriced. I hope this is a seasonal micro bubble.