Bits Bucket For June 22, 2010
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Battles in California Over Mortgages
A foreclosed home in Richmond, Calif., a state where property drove wealth.
As the housing market continues to sputter, the real estate industry is increasingly split on the responsibilities of overextended and foreclosed homeowners.
On one side are the bankers, who say borrowers should be liable for what they owe. On the other side are real estate agents, who say those who lost their houses should not be so burdened by debt that they cannot move on.
The differences have real financial consequences: bankers want to collect on billions of dollars in outstanding loans; real estate agents want as many people as possible to return to the housing market.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/business/22default.html?ref=business
“On the one side are the bankers … on the other side are the real estate agents.”
A good match up. Arm them both and pit them against each other.
The bankers are already winning.
“The bankers are already winning.”
Oh, then I suggest the NAR jack up its membership fees and raise its dues. And levy a special assessment.
They need to be encouraged to fight to the last man (or woman, or whatever).
They need to be thrown into a pit and fight the Rancor.
I used to live a block away from the SF Assoc of Realtwhores and that reference is perfect.
Just got home from the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. What’d I miss?
MrBubble
“Just got home from the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. What’d I miss?”
The usual. The housing crisis has been contained and prices will start rising 35%/year for the next 50 years. The oil leak in the Gulf was completely plugged with bubble gum, although it did take awhile to train the dolphins how to chew it. And unemployment fell to a negative 16% as cold fusion created massive job opportunities and 2-3 jobs per unemployed person.
And in other News…….
-Researchers in Patagonia have discovered a huge herd of candy-crapping unicorns, thought only to exist in fables and the Housing bubble Blog.
-Researchers at MIT have calculated that a Trillion dollars would buy almost 200 billion Las Vegas lap dances, or enough to permanantly put a $hit-eating grin on the face of every Hetro male in the USA.
Narfle the Garthok.
They both got big subsidies from the government. Tarp for the banks and a tax-credit and low rates for-an-extended-period to keep sales going for the gold-jacket boyz and girlz. Everybody wins!
“The bankers are already winning.”
Under this scenario, the bankers have to win, no? If the real estate agents “win” and people are “free to return to the housing market”, who exactly do they think will be lending these GFs the money to buy again?
The winners are the people who bought these houses with no money down, pulled out $$$ to buy toys, and then walked away with tax forgiveness worth 10s of thousands of dollars.
They even get to wear a nice “victim” badge!
Yes, and the programs are all about “saving their homes.”
No, Reuven, despite the fact that we are enraged by the FBs who walked away and were forgiven their debts, they are much worse off than any HBBer. The only thing they enjoyed was a few years of fancy cars and toys. All but the conscienceless are feeling bad about themselves. They have no credit and suffered months of stress waiting for the inevitable foreclosure. And worst of all, they had to acknowledge their own stupidity and have to live with themselves.
They remind me of an elderly patient of mine from years ago. She had some happy memories of a life of plenty that lasted for several years in the 1960s. Afterward she lived a life of penury, loneliness and misery. I pitied her.
I love how the realtors take the side of the buyers, so they can go out and buy again (giving the realtor another 3% in the process).
The realtors don’t care whose side they take, as long as it stimulates transactions.
Convicts vs. file clerks
“…a state where property drove away wealth…”
I love the photo they ran! I warned people several years ago about boarded up homes and people looked at me like I was nuts. In Central Florida, I’ve seen 3-year old homes, never occupied, boarded up. A few of them on a block, and property values quickly approach $0.
When will we see Negative value condozes? Please help me I’ll pay you $5000 to take this luxury airspace of my hands….BTW the HOA fee is $1200 a month due to 90% not paying…
Richmond, CA is my hood. Around here, even occupied houses are boarded up.
Are the Jehovah’s Witnesses that bad in Richmond?
More relevant question: Are the boards thick enough to stop bullets in flight?
Poll Finds Deep Concern About Energy and Economy
Times/CBS News poll
Overwhelmingly, Americans think the nation needs a fundamental overhaul of its energy policies, and most expect alternative forms to replace oil as a major source within 25 years.
Yet a majority are unwilling to pay higher gasoline prices to help develop new fuel sources.
“Yet a majority are unwilling to pay higher gasoline prices to help develop new fuel sources.”
Lol. Wait until gasoline prices go up and we’ll see just how “unwilling” this majority really is to pay them.
As the prices of gasoline rises consumers - willing or not - will pay to develop new fuel sources, one way or another.
What are these “new fuel sources” that you mention? Are any of them more than a perpetual motion scam? Any more than a wasteful tax and spend initiative?
The problem is not in willingness to spend more, the problem is in limits to spending and consumption. These limits are soft in a credit expansion and hard in a credit contraction. Focusing on how to keep the party going only delays the day of learning to live with less.
“What are these “new fuel sources” that you mention?”
Probably the word “new” should be replaced with “economically feasable”. As the price of oil goes up then alternative sources should become economiclly feasable.
Combo, I think this is an old falacy, the same one that drove the shale oil initiatives in the 70s. It only made sense if you drew a graph with the price of oil going up to infinity and the cost of producing something else staying flat to infinity. What FPSS used to call failure to do the “long math”. Like Solar, it’s based on using up the energy now, like sequestering cheap oil, and getting it back later.
I think Combo is spot on, especially when the initiatives are re-categorized as “economically feasible.”
There are large efficiencies ready to be gained in all sorts of places, from the power grid itself to (low tech) energy savings in buildings to the humble internal combustion engine itself. We’re not talking high-tech miracles here, we’re talking about designing better systems, or increasing the efficiency of existing ones. There are a lot of “known knowns” (to paraphrase Don Rumsfeld) in the efficiency game that simply aren’t implemented, mostly because there’s little incentive to do so when energy prices are low.
The price of the other item doesn’t have to stay flat. it simply has to rise less than oil, and then at some point, expectations about the product vis a vis oil shift, and (assuming some efficiencies) the price of the replacement falls more, and then as it becomes dominant, then the price of oil falls.
It also doesn’t have to be an all or nothing kind of thing.
Plenty of states are overdosing on sun right now. If it becomes relatively cost efficient to cool houses with power from that, why not do it?
Overdog, I agree completely. Conservation and efficiency have the best gains, and with existing technology. It frustrates me that the government seems to go all in on stupid stuff, like corn ethanol.
Joe Q. Public wants an overhaul of energy policy, but doesn’t want to pay for it.
Another example of the infantile worldview that many of their fellow citizen have. Like all this stuff just happens. Just let “George do it.”
Billions of dollars were wasted building the pile of crap on the way up, and billions more will be blown on the way to the bottom
The money pi$$ed away on baling out Wall Street, the GSEs, the homebuilding/real estate industry, underwater homeowners (the list goes on and on…) would have paid for a lot of infrastructure improvements and R & D…….
“Are any of them more than a perpetual motion scam?”
It’s not perpetual motion when there is an external energy source 93M miles away.
was watching a documentary last night on crude oil. in it they said that one barrel of oil is equivalent to 25,000 man hours of labor.
that’s alot of batteries and windmills.
“Yet a majority are unwilling to pay higher gasoline prices to help develop new fuel sources.”
Yeah right. Break that out by age. If generation greed felt that way, we’d have gotten out of this mess 30 years ago.
In our household, any car that gets less than 30 mpg combined driving is considered a guzzler.
You are ‘In Colorado’, and not ‘In Houston’. Is it that “Everything is bigger in Texas” Syndrome, but about every Texan drives a truck size SUV. Ben must know this, from when the parents of NAU students visit town. And just look at what drives around Santa Fe, it’s how you spot the Texans, including the old ladies who are on vacation, with Monster SUVs (so they can see better and feel safer).
I have to rub my eyes sometimes, like when not far from the oil spill, two flip flop & beach dress clad teenagers get up from the Starbucks table, gather their girly bags and iphones, and get into a black Chevy Tahoe, as if it’s the most normal thing in the world. In Europe, they’d get into a bus. And in Austin - oh, never mind. Exeter would have a field day, because it seems every 50 year old who works in tech “must have” a European sports car, such is the pressure to be hip.
Conservation and efficiency does not bring revenues and profits to any corporation or group, so there’s no opportunity for elected officials to get kickbacks err, campaign contributions. Ethanol on the other hand…
Follow the money.
Could that be because they are ALREADY paying higher gasoline prices?
There is only one future to replace the ICE: electric cars. And that becomes really feasible when plugged into your house’s solar/wind system.
Recharging times are dropping fast and range is increasing fast. The affordable, practical car could be available now if the car companies wanted to do it. Toyota, Honda and Nissan are making it happen.
My electric car costs $.50 per day to charge and it will go 50 miles on one charge. I’m a mom so I am just running kids back and forth to school/activities/errands - but when I ‘fill up’ the profits aren’t going to a Saudi Prince or Hugo Chavez.
But we are not paying higher gas prices. When I started driving a gallon of gas was three silver dimes.
This fellow won the Nobel prize in economics!
Paul Krugman writes; “Social Security is a government program funded by a dedicated tax. There are two ways to look at this. First, you can simply view the program as part of the general federal budget, with the the dedicated tax bit just a formality. And there’s a lot to be said for that point of view; if you take it, benefits are a federal cost, payroll taxes a source of revenue, and they don’t really have anything to do with each other.”
(Got that? Costs and revenues don’t really have anything to do with each other. Wish we could run our own household on terms like that.)
He continues, “Alternatively, you can look at Social Security on its own. And as a practical matter, this has considerable significance too; as long as Social Security still has funds in its trust fund, it doesn’t need new legislation to keep paying promised benefits.”
(Paul, Paul, Paul! Think for a second. Congress spent the money in the Social Security Trust Fund and replaced it with IOUs. You know that. EVERYBODY knows that! Of course those IOUs (bonds) can be cashed in and payouts continued, but you know as well as the next fellow that cashing in bonds means stepping up borrowing so the Treasury Department can roll them over. And you know better than most that we’re running out of borrowing capacity. The system is in trouble. Don’cha want to fix it?)
Two words: Means Testing.
You [mean] you didn’t contribute? Sorry!
Damn. I saved for retirement. Should have blown the money so I can get Social Security. I’ll be no better off anyway.
Two words: He’s wrong.
Yes, Palmy, future cuts will need to include means testing. It does kind of bum me out, since I’ve been paying the max for the past 20 years. And means testing will turn it into even more of a welfare program than it already is, which means that eventually they’ll get rid of it.
“… as long as Social Security still has funds in its trust fund, it doesn’t need new legislation to keep paying promised benifits.”
This is absolutely a true statement, I can find no fault with it.
But… the problem is that the way things are going there won’t always be funds in the Social Security trust fund.
An equally valid statement: As long as I can get enough to eat I will never go hungry.
As long as I have money I will never be broke.
I have a gold half sovereign dated 1904 that my great grandmother gave to my grandmother when she departed Scotland, with the saying “as long as you have this you will never be broke.” Nana did without a lot of things at times, but she was never “broke”.
Mileage may vary. Debt can change this equation, but it wasn’t a factor for Nana, ever.
But… the problem is that the way things are going there won’t always be funds in the Social Security trust fund.
And its going to get depleted a lot faster than originally projected as unemployed and underemployed seniors dip into it earlier than anticipated, meanwhile depressed wages for those contributing will knaw at the other end.
There is NO Social Security “trust fund”. All they have is a pile of IOU’s that can be cashed in only if the Treasury can find another sucker to lend them even more money.
“.. said for that point of view; if you take it, benefits are a federal cost, payroll taxes a source of revenue, and they don’t really have anything to do with each other.”
(Got that? Costs and revenues don’t really have anything to do with each other. Wish we could run our own household on terms like that.) ”
What he means is they are not linked like the FICA tax is.
Roidy
Spending Fight at G-20 ~ WSJ
U.S. to Push Policies to Stimulate Economy as Europe Embraces Austerity
The U.S. plans to press its economic partners at a summit to move cautiously with plans to tighten their fiscal policies while the global economic recovery remains uncertain, for fear of producing a “Hoover moment.”
President Barack Obama, worried the fragile world economy could slip back into recession—as it did in the 1930s during the Hoover administration— plans to urge his counterparts at this weekend’s Group of 20 meeting to continue some level of stimulative spending, among other policies, as a way of sustaining economic growth.
wmbz, did you catch a load of the Rolling Stone profile on General McChrystal and his aides and the flippant comments about the administration? I’m afraid they’ve topped your Plugs nickname for the Veep. They call him Vice President Bite-Me.
It’s their way of saying he’s a non-entity. LMAO!
I think he was picked so no one would dare try and assassinate the big OH.
From that article (ROE killing our troops):
There is a lot of uproar about Gen. Stanley’s McChrystal’s disrespectful comments about his civilian bosses in the Obama administration, and President Obama would be entirely justified in firing McChrystal for statements McChrystal and his subordinates made to Rolling Stone. Obama is a deeply flawed commander-in-chief who doesn’t want to be fighting a war on terror, but he is the commander-in-chief. He should have a general who will carry out his policies without public complaint until the voters can decide to change those policies.
But the bigger problem with McChrystal’s leadership has always been the general’s devotion to unreasonably restrictive rules of engagement that are resulting in the unnecessary deaths of American and coalition forces.
We have had many, many accounts of the rules endangering Americans, and the Rolling Stone article provides more evidence. In the story, a soldier at Combat Outpost JFM who had earlier met with McChrystal was killed in a house that American officers had asked permission to destroy. From the article:
“The night before the general is scheduled to visit Sgt. Arroyo’s platoon for the memorial, I arrive at Combat Outpost JFM to speak with the soldiers he had gone on patrol with. JFM is a small encampment, ringed by high blast walls and guard towers. Almost all of the soldiers here have been on repeated combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and have seen some of the worst fighting of both wars. But they are especially angered by Ingram’s death. His commanders had repeatedly requested permission to tear down the house where Ingram was killed, noting that it was often used as a combat position by the Taliban. But due to McChrystal’s new restrictions to avoid upsetting civilians, the request had been denied. “These were abandoned houses,” fumes Staff Sgt. Kennith Hicks. “Nobody was coming back to live in them.”
“One soldier shows me the list of new regulations the platoon was given. “Patrol only in areas that you are reasonably certain that you will not have to defend yourselves with lethal force,” the laminated card reads. For a soldier who has traveled halfway around the world to fight, that’s like telling a cop he should only patrol in areas where he knows he won’t have to make arrests. “Does that make any ****ing sense?” Pfc. Jared Pautsch. “We should just drop a ****ing bomb on this place. You sit and ask yourself: What are we doing here?”
“These were abandoned houses,” fumes Staff Sgt. Kennith Hicks. “Nobody was coming back to live in them.”
Umm…if there was a battle going on in your town, wouldn’t you get out of dodge? (or pick up and fight, depending…)
Once the fighting had stopped/moved on, wouldn’t you want to move back? Just because you left to avoid being collateral damage, doesn’t mean you give up your property rights or imply that you’re never going to return.
“For a soldier who has traveled halfway around the world to fight, that’s like telling a cop he should only patrol in areas where he knows he won’t have to make arrests. “Does that make any ****ing sense?” Pfc. Jared Pautsch. “We should just drop a ****ing bomb on this place. You sit and ask yourself: What are we doing here?”
Yes, but did those rules of engagement come from the WH via McChrystal or McChrystal himself? Was McChrystal just following orders and taking the heat for a policy not of his own making?
Pfc. Pautsch is right, though. If you’re going to fight a war, you can’t have it turned into sensitivity training. My pop used to go ballistic during the Vietnam War era every time he heard a news report. “These poor bastards are fighting a war they’re not allowed to win”, he’d bellow, turning red and even sometimes kicking the furniture.
Killing is inherently nasty business. It can be no other way.
It’s a long way from the mahogany-paneled airconditioned planning room down to the mud and heat and screaming madness where the body bags are filled.
Wars are for sustaining, not winning.
Follow the money.
Infantry guys almost always want to kill ‘em all and go home. That’s not the nature of counterinsurgency, though. He either needs to convince everyone why it’s worth taking extra risk, or give up and bring them all home. I think everyone who understands this stuff (not talking about myself) is pretty much in agreement that we can’t kill our way to the results we want.
Right now, I’m reading a book called Talking To Terrorists: Why America Must Engage with its Enemies. I just got through reading the part where author Mark Perry describes a meeting with groups that are widely regarded as terrorist groups in this country. However, as Perry points out, what are terrorist groups to us are nationalist groups in their own countries.
I vote that we bring all of the Grunts home, and send over all of our touchy-feely “It’s takes a village” types, load them up on a few C-17s, drop them on Afghanistan, and have them demonstrate how hugs , kisses, and understanding the Taliban’s/Al Queda’s point of view will make things all better.
Carpet bombing is under-rated.
“pretty much in agreement that we can’t kill our way to the results we want.”
Seemed to work in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
If we want to do things the Old Testament way, that’s certainly one way to end the fighting. Doesn’t seem to match what our goals were originally supposed to be, though. I guess we could just declare the entire population to be Al Qaeda…
“I vote that we bring all of the Grunts home, and send over all of our touchy-feely “It’s takes a village” types, load them up on a few C-17s, drop them on Afghanistan, and have them demonstrate how hugs , kisses, and understanding the Taliban’s/Al Queda’s point of view will make things all better.”
AMEN, BROTHAH!
And put those grunts on the border.
“send over all of our touchy-feely “It’s takes a village” types”
Seems a little cruel, like dumping toxic waste. I guess you have to start somewhere. My sister always advocating dumping used baby diapers. “Huggies for Hussein” was her motto. “A motto you can get behind”.
Grunts on the border, Amen. I think Arizona has some sort of motorized artillery unit that drilled down by Florence. Part of AZ National Guard. That might be handy.
Pfc. Jared Pautsch. “We should just drop a ****ing bomb on this place. You sit and ask yourself: What are we doing here?”
No, they should not drop a bomb. They should go home.
I know, that’s not “supporting the troops”. For some reason, “supporting” means wanting them to stay where they can be killed. I hope no one ever “supports” me that way.
I did not, but I know Barry called him to the W.H. ASAP. Gonna kick some “ass” I guess. Riiiight.
I’m sure McChrystal feels exactly the way he put it, it’s gotta be damn hard to work for a commander-in-chief that doesn’t like our military.
I think Gen. McChrystal just sealed his fate the way Gen. MacArthur did under Truman during the Korean War.
Slimmie, I’m not counting McChrystal out just yet. I think he’ll survive this, I’ve just been doing a little reading around on the ‘net. He may have to eat a little crow, but that’s about it. They need him in Afghanistan a lot more than they need the people he criticized.
If you read the aggregator news clips, like on google news, today’s a pretty rotten day for the big O. The McChrystal thing, the WH budget director (largely responsible for the finances of the health care law) resignation, the Federal judge ruling against the Gulf drilling ban, etc.
O’s gettin’ hit with the ugly stick from all sides.
I’m not worried about McChrystal. If he goes, it’s because he wants to and figures this was the only way he could do it.
I think that in a way he’s communicated that either the civilian leadership goes, or he goes. I think that Obama weakens his presidency if he doesn’t fire McChrystal, even if leaving him in place makes sense militarily. It could end up costing Obama a lot in two years if he doesn’t fire him.
“I think that Obama weakens his presidency if he doesn’t fire McChrystal, even if leaving him in place makes sense militarily.”
It’s a pretty weakened presidency as it is. Even in his own party, the long knives are out. Either way, it doesn’t survive the McChrystal dust-up.
Rock, meet hard place.
He loves our military. So does Congress. Just look at the budget. Where a man keeps his treasure, that’s where you’ll find his heart.
Indeed. There might not be any money to extend UE benefits or medicare, but if a pair of boots on the ground in the middle east costs close to 1 million a year: no problem!
It’s not the military they love; it’s what the military does that they love. The projection of raw power. Power is what politicians crave. The ability to punish your enemies, reward your friends and control your destiny. Money is the crack that keeps them in power.
While I do not think a military officer should ever, ever, critisize the Commander in Chief in public, and thus, McChrystal should be fired immediately, it speaks volumes to the ineptitude of this (not ready for prime time) administration that a milatary officer would be so frustrated that he would knowingly make comments that would surely end his career. Most of us have been fed up with our superiors at one time or another, some speak up, others suffer silently.
“a milatary officer would be so frustrated that he would knowingly make comments that would surely end his career.”
I don’t think his career is ended. More likely he’s holding some cards. But we’ll see.
Lots of generals have spoken up over the years - they all have been fired. Bush fired a bunch of them. They didn’t respect Bush, either. But the generals hate Obama more, because Democrats don’t take care of the military as well as Republicans do. Why would the generals like a party that cuts their budget?
“commander-in-chief”
What commander-in-chief? We’ve got a commander-in-chief? News to me.
Well what do you know Biden may have had the right idea after all to fight in Afghanistan.
This is in the section in the Uniform Code of Military Justice about insubordination:
Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Transportation, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Territory, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
If Obama doesn’t fire him (like Truman did to MacArthur in 1951), I think we can safely expect the announcement of McChrystal’s retirement in the next few days.
BTW, I know a lady (now almost 70 years old) who lived in the D.C. area when MacArthur came back to the States. She said that she and her classmates were given the day off from school. IIRC, there was some sort of parade for the general.
I’m sure McChrystal knows the code, and that these comments were released deliberately. To what end, we don’t know as yet.
I don’t care what country it is, never, EVER discount the military. This country is ripe for a military takeover and the only thing that prevents it from happening are the agreements of the members of the military to abide by certain laws and codes. Should they ever decide that the political class has drawn first blood, watch out.
Given the situation on the border and in the Gulf, there are many, many citizens who would welcome a military takeover, but it’s a real slippery slope.
“….we don’t know yet”. But we can guess.
McChrystal & Co don’t believe the civilian leadership know what the fook they are doing (I know, it’s hard to believe). Their attempts to work thru the chain of command have been dismissed/ignored/ridiculed.
So a decision has been made to bring it to the public’s attention. After all, the Executive branch and Congress don’t “own” the US Army.
The fact that the armed forces (at the boots on the ground level) are the only branch of the Federal government that seems to mostly know what they are doing is something that Obama needs to think about before a pi$$ing contest gets started. He’s got a lot more to lose than McChrystal does.
Totally agree, GS. My sentiments exactly and my money’s on McChrystal.
The one and only time I ever worked on a military base was here at MacDill AFB, in the facilities area. It is very interesting to observe the attitude of the military toward civilians. It is an attitude of complete polite deference and service. And yet, at the same time, there is no doubt left in your mind as to who is really in charge. None.
Awww come on guys. The military in the ole US of A take over?
No way.
I could get all technical but most of those guys are very serious about the constitution and government in a way joesixpack never even gets close to.
most of those guys are very serious about the constitution and government in a way joesixpack never even gets close to.
I wish I could believe that, but my impression is it’s rare for one in the armed forces to consider whether an order passed down the Chain of Command is constitutional…
Hey, I agree with you, james, that’s why I said:
“the only thing that prevents it from happening are the agreements of the members of the military to abide by certain laws and codes.”
Analogy: Everyone is sitting around a table at 2am and they are all wasted. Its a sunday night and work looms in a few hours. Guys are starting to talk about ordering coffee and going home for the night. Obama says: ” Come on, one more round… TTT is buying this one…aright, alright, if you don’t keep drinkin’ with us we are going to leave you with the whole tab. - make no mistake”
Wow, they’re really approaching this using the GD as a template aren’t they? Fighting the last war they are, today’s circumstances are markedly different.
Why relying on history can be bad…
Today just happens to be the anniversary of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Why did they embark on that disastourous campaign? Well, about two years earlier the Germans closely watched as the Finns held the Red Army at bay. From this smaller war they drew some very reasonable (or so they thought) conclusions about the Red Army’s ability to fight.
They were wrong.
They relied on the wrong example from history. They should have looked at Napoleon’s disastrous invasion of Russia, which theirs closely mimicked.
How would you say the current crisis differs from GD1?
First and foremost, globalization. Second, debt. Third, technology. That’s the big three.
The aggregate effect of these three forces is already demonstrating that applied stimulus is not having its intended effect. There’s just too many places for the money to go besides where it’s supposedly needed.
Millions… tens of millions have never had to work even one long hot hard day at a construction site.
Yet there was massive spending for shovel ready jobs, and nothing for people like us.
—————
How would you say the current crisis differs from GD1
First and foremost, globalization. Second, debt. Third, technology. That’s the big three.
Any one of those three factors would be enough to derail analogies to the Great Depression. Technology is the X factor here — it has a multiplier effect on the other forces you mention, and also speeds up events (positively and negatively) in ways not imaginable in the late ’20s / early ’30s.
Globalization was a major factor in GD1, with the infamous Smoot Hawley tariff often considered a major cause of the crisis.
Debt, particularly consumer debt, was a major problem leading to GD1.
Technology (airplanes, cars, household appliances) was developing wildly in the period leading up to GD1.
Same as it ever was.
Yet there was massive spending for shovel ready jobs, and nothing for people like us.
So learn to use a shovel.
I clicked on your profile.
It’s probably best for all of us if you don’t pick up a shovel. Don’t need to be calling 9-1-1 ten minutes after you picked up a shovel.
I made it through a long day of habitat for humanity. Will be more ready for the next one but don’t think I’m quite shovel ready either. Been a long time since I was.
I made it through a long day of habitat for humanity. Will be more ready for the next one but don’t think I’m quite shovel ready either. Been a long time since I was.
I’ve done the HFH thing many times. Not to mention other types of manual labor projects.
One of the key things to remember is how you’re using the equipment. Most important, don’t, and I mean DON’T bend your back.
There are ways to use things like shovels that don’t involve back bending, and you’d best learn them before you go out to the jobsite for the first time.
Another thing where people run into to trouble is with lifting heavy objects. It’s no sin to ask for help. Really, it isn’t.
Napoleon and Hitler, 50 years to the day.
Americans to Congress: Give Us Jobs, Not Deficit Dance
By: Jon Walker Tuesday June 22, 2010 9:45 am
Firedoglake
It is very impressive that the deficit fear-mongers, led by people like Peter Peterson, David Walker and Alan Simpson, have managed to get all of Washington worked into a self-destructive frenzy over the issue of the federal debt. The debt simply is not the issue regular Americans care about right now.
Americans overwhelmingly rank jobs and the economy as the most important challenge facing this country, according to a new CBS News/“New York Times” poll. The disconnect between the Washington elites, who have been swept up in deficit hysteria, and the rest of the country couldn’t be more stark.
CBS News/NYT Poll (PDF)
What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?
Economy/Jobs: 40
Oil Spill in Gulf: 13
Health Care: 5
Budget Deficit/Nat’l Debt: 5
War/Iraq/Afghanistan: 3
Immigration: 3
Moral Values/Family Values: 2
Misc. Foreign Affairs: 2
Misc. Government Issues: 2
Politicians/Government: 2
Other: 20
DK/NA: 3
The number for the economy and jobs dwarfs all others. The rise of the gulf explosion as a concern has led to a slight drop in the percentage of people ranking the economy as the top problem. Still, it’s a small reduction while we are in the middle of experiencing one of the greatest environmental disasters in the nation’s history.
On the other hand, the federal debt ties for third with just five percent, one in every twenty Americans. Even referring to it as tied for third makes it seem far more important to regular Americans than the poll indicates. All the other issues except the economy and the oil spill are in the single digits and separated only by the margin of error.
As Americans focus like lasers on jobs and turning around the economy, deficit hysteria has caused members of Congress to all but abandon legislation that could increase employment. This incredible disconnect between Washington and the rest of the country on our worst problem helps explain why only nine percent of Americans think most members of Congress deserve re-election.
The debt simply is not the issue regular Americans care about right now.
Americans overwhelmingly rank jobs and the economy as the most important challenge facing this country
And debt isn’t relevant to either of those things?
Man, perhaps we should enact a policy where one gets a photo/bio of the person who paid the taxes that one is receiving in benefits. Get rid of this faceless, miracle “government” object that prints money out of thin air…
“I don’t care if grams gets kicked out on the street because there’s no money to make SS payments. Gimme my 100th week of UI bennies!”
Ugh.
Hyperbole much?
The workforce comprises 156 million people. ~20 million are UE at this time. They are temporarily part of the ~50 million that are considered chronically poor.
In most states, companies pay for UE. It’s an incentive for them not lay people off on a whim.
Extended UE is coming from the Feds. THAT’S out taxes, but those taxes are from a variety of sources, not payroll and income.
Unless you want to see cities burn, (and maybe you’re too young to remember) or violent crime and theft and robbery rise, drastically you do NOT let millions of people starve.
Unemployed people don’t create jobs.
Crap. 2 misposts.
” …not JUST payroll and income…”
Other post should have posted to edgewaterjohn’s post.
All the “debt” can disappear tomorrow, and it will make zero difference to the unemployment rate.
Business looks at US employment as a “money-loser”. Wall Street, foreign government incentives, and US government foreign policy and domestic dis-incentives have worked together to transfer private sector employment out of the US for 20-30 years.
Various bubbles have camoflaged this transfer. Now we’re out of bubbles to blow up (they could have blown up a “green” bubble, except for the fact that the “greens” have over promised on the benefits and under estimated the costs for years, and Joe Q Public is becoming immune to the “wolf” cries)
We’ve painted ourselves in a corner, and the PTB don’t want people to know how badly things have been mucked up, because they don’t want to be on the unemployment line too.
That story’s title says a lot about what’s wrong.
Jobs aren’t “given”, they’re created when there’s a need. Sad to see so many waiting on the sea shore for the next bunch of crates to wash ashore.
I have seen more arrests in the last 6 months for mortgage fraud (including some big fish) than all off 2005-2009. Wonder if this means a change in local/state/fed attitudes about this fraud?
Mega-mortgage fraud charged
By KAJA WHITEHOUSE
As part of the national crackdown that ensnared Goldman Sachs, the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday charged a New York investment manager with running a multibillion-dollar mortgage-related fraud just as the housing market began its meltdown.
Thomas Priore, 41, a former quarterback at Harvard who went on to lead a Madison Avenue investment advisory firm, managed four mortgage portfolios starting in 2006 and falsely inflated the value of toxic mortgage bonds he placed in the portfolios, the SEC alleges.
The proceeds — derived from the difference between the actual value of the bonds and their jacked-up value — lined the pockets of Priore and certain clients of the firm, ICP Asset Management, resulting in losses worth tens of million for the mortgage investors, typically pension funds, the SEC said.
The case was brought as part of a sweep of examinations the SEC announced last year into mortgage securities known as collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs, that have been blamed for the collapse of the housing market.
FYI - this is in today’s New York Post
“Wonder if this means a change in local/state/fed attitudes about this fraud?”
Maybe they’re looking for a payoff out of this. I suppose there are still some $$$ to be squeezed from some of the fraudsters, and probably from some of the innocent dupes who get caught up in the dragnet and who will settle just to make things go away. I can’t imagine there’s any altruistic, protect-the-sheeple motive in it, but then again, I’m something of a cynic.
“payoff”
Just part of the recovery plan….
-government bails out the banksters
-Banksters use government money to unwind their bad bets, and make their books look good.
-government gets their money back, by either being paid back directly, or indirectly by paying fines/judgements to the government, with either government money, or what they skimmed.
A giant monetary circle jerk, where everybody gets to balance their books without actually doing any productive work.
I’ve stated before when everyone was complaining about lack of perp walks, there is a HUGE backlog.
It has nothing to with attitudes and everything to with resources.
Why is Wall Street so worried about the health of European banks or moves in the Chinese currency? I thought the global economy was decoupled at this point in history.
* TODAY’S MARKETS
* JUNE 22, 2010, 9:04 A.M. ET
Futures Fall on Europe Bank Worries
By STEVE GOLDSTEIN
U.S. stock futures declined , with worries over the health of the European banks at the forefront as the Federal Reserve begins its rate-setting meeting.
Less than an hour before the start of trading, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were 15 points lower at 10381. Standard & Poor’s 500-stock futures lost 2.4 points to 1108.2, and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 4.5 points to 1895. Changes in futures don’t always accurately predict early market moves after the opening bell.
On Monday, U.S. stocks couldn’t hold gains from much of the day, as optimism over China’s decision to let the yuan move against the dollar was checked by worries over Europe’s health when French bank BNP Paribas’ credit rating was downgraded. After rising as much as 140 points, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished with a decline of eight points.
“The hype triggered by the move by China… has already waned after Chinese state-owned banks heavily bought U.S. dollars, a move which convinces that this ‘flexibility’ will take some time to work its way through,” said Joshua Raymond at City Index.
…
“Futures Fall On Europe Bank Worries”
Lol. I love it how anything that is done by Mr. Market is so easily explained.
The financial media is mocking itself on a daily basis at this point.
Who’s going to be the one to tell them they’re fast becoming irrelevant?
The name of the game is: Suck them in and Shake them out, the Market and The Media working together.
Symboisis: The market uses the media to keep alive the emotions of greed and fear, the media uses the market to keep readers/viewers interested.
The same thing goes on with the media and major sports.
The name of the game is: Suck them in and Shake them out, the Market and The Media working together … The same thing goes on with the media and major sports.
You’re starting to sound a little like Noam Chomsky, Combo.
Having worked in and around both, he’s exactly right.
It’s all about fleecing the sheeple.
I’m looking forward to watching my loverly wife engaged in battle with the banksters over nickel-and-dime fees they will soon institute in the latest blitzkrieg in the War on Savers. My money is on the wife, as she reads the fine print and will walk the instant she realizes a greedy, sneaky bankster is trying to screw us through the back door.
But in light of news that the Fed will soon house a new Consumer Protection bureau, perhaps the banks won’t get carried away with a new wave of fees financially engineered to chip away at meager household savings balances.
* WEEKEND INVESTOR
* JUNE 19, 2010
The New Bank Fees: How to Fight Back
By ROBIN SIDEL
Bank on it: Higher fees, and more of them, are coming soon to a financial institution near you.
Banks are gearing up for a wave of new fees in an attempt to make up for lost revenue from new regulatory rules on credit cards and overdraft fees.
Regulators in the past year have pushed through a raft of changes designed to rein in banks’ most abusive practices, from excessive overdraft fees to the way lenders raise interest rates when a credit-card payment is late. The new rules are expected to slice billions from firms’ profits—and more if lawmakers move forward with a bill to limit how much financial institutions can charge merchants for debit-card transactions.
Banks, of course, aren’t giving up those revenues without a fight. Instead, industry leaders like Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., HSBC Holdings PLC’s HSBC North America, Fifth Third Bancorp and others are experimenting with new ways to nick their customers, from imposing maintenance fees on checking accounts to rolling out new charges for services like fraud alerts, debit cards and credit reports.
Making matters trickier, while the banks must disclose the new fees fully, they likely will do so only in the ordinary-looking correspondence that most consumers toss in the trash without reading. The result: Many people will learn of the new charges only after opening their monthly statements.
“You’ve got to read those annoying messages that you get because they will be the ones that will tell you what is happening, so you can be prepared to vote with your checkbook and take it somewhere else,” says Gail Hillebrand, a senior attorney at Consumers Union in San Francisco.
Consumer advocates worry that the new fees will unfairly whack consumers who keep low balances and manage their accounts responsibly to avoid any penalty fees.
“That’s the group that will be most penalized in this environment,” says Bill Handel, vice president of research and product development at Raddon Financial Group, which advises banks and is a unit of Open Solutions Inc.
The first and biggest casualty in the new fee assault: free checking. Most consumers haven’t paid for a checking account in years; banks have long given away their checking services to establish relationships with customers who might later take out a mortgage, invest in one of their mutual funds or otherwise give them more business. Such free accounts have often included other popular—and valuable—perks, such as free online bill payment, debit-card rewards and free check printing.
But, “that is going to change in the next six to 12 months, and there may be some surprises,” says Greg McBride, a senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com.
…
“I’m looking forward to watching my loverly wife engaged in battle with the banksters over nickel-and-dime fees they will soon institute in the latest blitzkrieg in the War on Savers.”
I don’t think your wife has anything to worry about — lots of savers on the HBB with five and six figure balances on their bank statements. The banks don’t want to see those kind of numbers flock out the door.
Kim, that would imply that banks are smart. They have already proven that they aren’t. My bank tried to sneak a $25 overdraft fee on my last statement. They apologized and removed it when I called. We have a lot of money in that stupid bank. Once more and we’re gone. Only problem is that all of the alternatives will be just as dishonest.
Now that’s a link!!
No — that’s a typo, without the ability to edit it.
I wish someone would come up with a tool to prevent that sort of thing…
It will be interesting to see what emerges out of the last minute banking lobbyist dash to weaken key provisions of banking reform legislation.
I still find the move to put consumer protection in the hands of the Fed quite astounding, given their dismal track record; for instance, it was Sir Alan Greenspan himself who encouraged the masses to use cash-out financing to tap into their home equity wealth. Somebody ought to do a survey of households who are underwater and drowning in mortgage debt to figure out how many acted on this consumer advice from the Fed of a few years back.
* POLITICS
* JUNE 22, 2010
Scramble to Finish Bank Rules This Week
By DAMIAN PALETTA
WASHINGTON—House and Senate Democrats are under pressure to complete their overhaul of financial regulations before President Barack Obama meets with world leaders this weekend, setting up a scramble to iron out differences on a range of complicated provisions.
…
Lawmakers on Monday neared a deal on a key part of the bill, people familiar with the matter said, which would limit the amount of capital a bank can place in risky investments.
This provision, known as the Volcker Rule, had originally proposed a strict ban on banks making bets with their own money, a practice known as proprietary trading. Lawmakers were in advanced talks to allow large banks to invest a small amount of their capital—perhaps 2%—into certain privately managed funds, several people familiar with the matter said.
The precise level is still being discussed and aides said the number could change. To appease critics of big banks, the agreement could remove part of the Senate bill that gave the Treasury secretary discretion to discard the limits on proprietary trading altogether.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, the idea’s originator, had expressed opposition toward allowing banks to invest even small amounts. President Obama and Mr. Volcker discussed the issue over the weekend, people familiar with the matter said.
“Mr. Volcker wants and expects a really strong bill,” said the former Fed chairman’s assistant, Tony Dowd. “He doesn’t want it to look like Swiss cheese.”
Lawmakers are also close to a deal that would place a new consumer-financial protection bureau within the Federal Reserve, scrapping an original White House proposal to create a standalone agency.
The change, which closely follows language adopted by the Senate in May, would likely not appease business groups, which oppose the creation of any new consumer-protection regulator with broad powers. Lawmakers are divided over whether it would have power over auto dealerships.
…
It is truly astounding.
After 9/11, they were able to significantly restructure the government. There have been no successful terror attacks on US soil since, which is quite an achievement.
After this financial crisis, there has been some political theater resulting in some crippled reform measures.
What’s the difference? Politicians’ access to money. War brings more money to DC. True financial reform would take money from DC by weakening the financial industry. Lobbyists are tirelessly spending money to make sure that doesn’t happen, and politicians are tirelessly taking “contributions” to ensure the same.
These “regulatory captured” politicians need to be swept out this November so that true reform becomes possible.
Is there really any mystery that with interest rates locked down to crushingly-low levels, private investors are not very interested in bringing forth loanable funds to make small business loans? With rates stuck near zero, only the government is willing to lend, with the tacit understanding that the lending activity need not return a profit.
The silver lining to the situation is that politicians and central bankers get to exercise discretion over who gets credit and who doesn’t.
* JUNE 21, 2010
A Credit Crunch That Lingers
Forget the improving economy. Entrepreneurs still find it hard to get loans. Here’s why we’re in this mess—and how we may get out of it.
By EMILY MALTBY
Where’s the money?
The economy is on the mend. The government has launched a boatload of programs to get small businesses financing. President Barack Obama has urged banks to give the companies a “third and fourth look” before rejecting them for loans.
Yet entrepreneurs are still struggling to land credit. Only half of small businesses that tried to borrow last year got all or most of what they needed, according to a survey by the National Federation of Independent Business. In the mid-2000s, 90% of businesses said they got the loans they needed.
…
“Yet entrepreneurs are still struggling to land credit.”
Forget this credit thing, just GIVE them the money.
That is pretty much the only option when the Fed is pushing on a string and interest rates are stuck near zero.
“Forget this credit thing, just GIVE them the money”.
Hell yes! I would say just tax the snot out of big&small businesses, corporations, wall street, banks etc… then just pass out the money to the deserving up starts. We will need a new passing out money czar to implement this new ‘free’ money program. We also need to come up with an acronym, can’t have a program without one, won’t fly.
gimme gimme gimme $50,000 i promise to hire a lot of dj’s…pretty please Mr OH i see a need….but lack funds
I will even hire minorities and train them to play DooWop music…( I know fat chance on that today)
Oh Please You had a dream well can I have that dream…….
My bank account number is 000-333- I’ll vote for you in ‘12
And now, for an important announcement from the Ministry of Truth:
June 22, 2010, 10:32 a.m. EDT
Credit no longer an obstacle to growth, Geithner says
By Greg Robb , MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Forceful government actions, including the $700 billion bank rescue fund, have created an environment where overall credit conditions are no longer an obstacle to the U.S. recovery, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wednesday.
“Credit conditions overall, which dragged our economy into a deep recession in 2007, no longer pose an obstacle to growth,” Geithner said in testimony prepared for the Congressional Oversight Panel for the bailout, chaired by Elizabeth Warren.
…
TT Timmy testifying in front of Elizabeth Warren! Now that’s a death match I would pay to see. My money is on Elizabeth Warren.
I dunno, maybe it’s because half of the business models presented to the banks AREN’T FREAKING VIABLE?!
Good point, edge.
And, if these businesses are thinking that the venture capital/angel funding route will be better for them, good luck with that. I’ve heard that the VC/angels only fund 1-2% of the plans that they receive.
Yea, tell me about. One former client sent me a BPlan that said “profits weren’t important” (this was a software company) and another client’s plan said their “products sold themselves.”
Nothing wrong with not being profitable yet. This is common in startup companies.
However, if you’re going to have people investing in your venture, it’s important to show a realistic pathway to profitability.
Small and start up businesses have for the most part always had to pledge collateral to get business loans. For the most part the largest source of collateral a start up business would have is the business owners home. Most SBA loans and a substantial portion of business business loans are collaterialized by the owner’s personal assets, of which his home has historically been the largest. With homes having lost substantial value and in danger of losing more, the ability of a fledgling entreprenuer to be able to collaterialize a loan is greatly diminished.
Banks won’t and for the most part never would loan money based solely on a great business plan.
Question for the bloggers: How likely is the methane explosion doomsday scenario for the Gulf? Is this just hype by some media figures peddling chaos? Or is it possible? If so, how possible?
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/06/21/could-gulf-oil-leak-lead-to-methane-bubble-tsunami-bp-responds/
OK, BP does admit that methane was what caused the explosion on the oil rig. And reports indicate that the amount of methane being released in the Gulf oil spill is about 40%, when the usual amount in a garden variety (is there such a thing?) spill is about 5%. Now, the extreme (or maybe not, given BP’s track record?) scenario is a gigantic explosion triggered by further BP blunders in drilling, releasing the methane in a huge pressurized pool beneath the floor of the Gulf at the site of Deepwater Horizon. Under such a scenario, everything in the area would be vaporized (all the boats, equipment and people) and the resulting tsunami would wipe out all of Florida and much of the rest of the Gulf Coast. Estimates compare it to the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. The loss of life would be in the millions.
OTOH, the warning signs of such a catastrophe supposedly are fissures opening up on the seabed around the drill site, and that is supposedly happening, as far as 20 miles away. But my other research indicates that there have been open fissures in the seabed long before drilling ever started in the Gulf and that in fact, certain forms of deep water sea life tend to congregate around these fissures and actually feed on methane and other material seeping from the fissures.
Just wondering if this thing could really explode to the magnitude of a Mt. St. Helens and do the kind of damage that media alarmists speculate.
“Just wondering if this thing could really explode to the magnitude of a Mt. St. Helens and do the kind of damage that media alarmists speculate”.
I don’t know, but I was listening to the former head of Shell yesterday, and he stated that if the relief wells do not work, and they may not. The only option left is to blow it and implode it, period. Not exactly sure how that would be done, but a number of people have suggested that is the best solution to this problem.
“I was listening to the former head of Shell yesterday, and he stated that if the relief wells do not work, and they may not. The only option left is to blow it and implode it, period.”
I’ve always felt that the relief wells aren’t going to work, and are nothing more than a ploy to “extend and pretend”, keeping faint hope alive until August.
To blow it and implode it, that’s the nuclear option that has been used in the former Soviet Union. It works, apparently, but they don’t want to try it in the Gulf. In case something goes wrong. I’ve got a feeling this supposed huge pool of methane gas may have something to do with that.
If this is the best solution, I wonder what the worst is.
“If this is the best solution, I wonder what the worst is”.
Let it run it’s course the best guesses are roughly 2 years, for it to stop, after several billion gallons.
Krakatoa east of Mexico.
Sounds like the scenario for a cool Hollywood disaster movie.
This is beyond Hollywood. We need Godzilla! (And maybe Mothra too.)
With a special guest appearance by King Ghidorah, with a “BP” patch stitched on his azz.
You need a mix of methane and oxygen to create a methane explosion. Once the methane reaches the surface it is no longer contained or under pressure. You can still have a fireball in that case, which could kill or injure crewmembers aboard a ship that’s close by.
But under water? No.
As a refinery engineer, I agree with Bill. The article is stupid.
But,
Real Estate only blows up. Oops!
The only personal knowledge I have about how methane acts underwater is what happens when you fart in a swimming pool. Bubbles do rise to the surface, but I’ve yet to see a fireball. Need more chipotle, I guess.
The biggest danger at this time is benzene and methane gas pockets moving ashore in either large or small concentrations. Not enough to burn, but enough to cause serious illness.
Some $1.2 billion in construction permits were pulled for the idled Fontainebleau casino resort on the Las Vegas Strip this month — but no one is saying if that means construction will actually resume anytime soon.
F’Blue Redux?
Though I agree with the writer that the government should stay out of the way and let the housing market find a fundamental bottom, the one-size-fits-all estimated 5% further decline may prove optimistic for locales like San Diego, where prices rose 127 percent from 2000 through 2005 (according to Thomas Sowell’s book The Housing Boom and Bust) and more if you extend the period out to the full decade of bubble price increases from 2007 through 2006 or so. Prices would need to fall by over 50 percent from the peak to get back to where they were, which implies much further correction from here than 5%.
Housing on the Rocks, Make It a Double?
* By KELLY EVANS
…
It is far from clear this marks the start of a “double-dip” for the housing market. The hardest-hit segment—new home sales—is a small part of the market, accounting for just 8% of homes sold in April even with the tax credit’s lift.
Plus, its weakness should dissuade further building activity—a positive as it should stop inventory of unsold houses swelling even further. And the hit to overall gross domestic product is likely to be small: Residential investment accounts for just 2.4% of GDP.
Meanwhile, the much larger market of existing-home sales should hold up better. For one, existing homes run about 15%-20% cheaper on average than newly built ones. Sales, while likely to slump this summer, should firm toward year-end if the labor market continues its gradual improvement.
And affordability continues to improve: falling prices and historically low mortgage rates have lowered typical monthly payments to about 15% of household income, down from 21% in 2007.
Home prices may well slide further as the market searches for a floor. But a 5% decline, say, over the next year or two isn’t exactly a double-dip, and should ultimately support a healthier recovery.
Policy makers shouldn’t get in the way.
May used home sales “worse than expected”…
As regards the “boost from a federal tax credit for home buyers,” I thought it expired at the end of April?
Economic Report
June 22, 2010, 10:00 a.m. EDT
Existing-home sales dip 2.2% in May
By Rex Nutting , MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Resales of U.S. homes and condos fell 2.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.66 million in May despite the boost from a federal tax credit for home buyers, according to data released Tuesday by the National Association of Realtors.
…
A huge portion of May closings result from April contracts.
April contracts bring May closings…
Doesn’t quite have that ring to it, does it?
Its got make them a little nervous to see prices drop 10k-40k between contract date and closing date. Also May appraisals not are coming in at or above contract price in many cases. I told you before, each time I brought a house I couldn’t sleep for days I was so scared, and that was pre-bubble. I never understood why most people are not nervous to pay several hundred thousand dollars for something, but will clip coupons and haggle over yard sale items. I am the exact opposite.
Natalie
My husband (an EE) is the same way. He gets insomnia too, and both times he suffered from Angina, which took at trip to ER just in case. When we buy no loan contigency this time, things should be interesting. Will he pass out writing the check? Stay tuned…
“…each time I brought a house I couldn’t sleep for days I was so scared, and that was pre-bubble.”
You have identified one of the hallmarks of the bubble, and one of the key pieces of evidence that the bubble lives on:
A LACK OF FEAR WHICH ENGENDERS FINANCIAL IMPRUDENCE REGARDING AMERICAN HOUSEHOLDS’ BIGGEST FINANCIAL DECISION.
Prudent prospective buyers will keep their powder dry until fearlessness fully transforms into hopelessness.
Fearlessness among the sheeple coupled with free money to help entice the clueless into hanging the albatross of an expensive mortgage payment around their necks is exactly what Megabank, Inc ordered in their efforts to reflate the housing bubble.
Unless it’s different this time, I don’t expect the attempt to work.
I got sick to my stomach even writing offers, let alone signing sales contracts. Ugh. I hate buying houses.
It’s common enough that realtors have a name for it: Buyer’s Remorse.
I wouldn’t call it Buyer”s Remorse. I think a prudent person should have some anxiety over the biggest money purchase of their life.
If you’ve done your homework before buying, and the deal makes financial sense both personally and in a macro sense, IMO your anxiety should be minimal. (I’ll never have anxiety about buying a $500K house, because there’s no way in hell I’m going to pay $500K for a house……)
That pain in the gut, or hair standing up on the back of your neck, is nature’s way of telling you that you are in imminent danger.
“I think a prudent person should have some anxiety over the biggest money purchase of their life.”
Perhaps there is no reason to worry if they always have the option to immediately walk away from their obligations if home equity gains are ’smaller than expected’?
In Marketing 101, they had another name for it: Post Purchase Dissonance and they taught us early 80s graduates it often appeared after any large purchase.
Post Purchase Dissonance
In the book ‘Stumbling on Happiness’ the author mentions studies that show the brain has an emotional coping mechanism that basically starts to make you ‘okay’ or ‘happy’ with any decision right after making it. That seems contrary to what they’re teaching in Marketing 101….
Page last updated at 15:17 GMT, Tuesday, 22 June 2010 16:17 UK
US housing Sales fell but were still considerably higher than a year earlier
Sales of previously-owned US homes fell unexpectedly in May despite tax credits designed to encourage homebuyers, figures suggest.
Sales fell 2.2% to 5.66 million after a surge in sales in April, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said. Analysts had expected sales to rise.
However, the NAR said sales were still strong and 19% higher than a year ago.
The group’s chief economist, Lawrence Yun, said tax credits would continue to boost sales next month.
“We are witnessing the ongoing effects of the home buyer tax credit, which we’ll also see in June real estate closings,” he said.
…
June 22, 2010, 12:01 a.m. EDT
Consumer agency will clarify financial products’ costs, terms
Economic crisis started ‘one lousy mortgage at a time,’ says Elizabeth Warren
By Ruth Mantell , MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — A new consumer financial protection agency aimed at protecting Americans on a wide range of personal-finance transactions seems to be a likely result of Congress’s current effort to overhaul the banking industry and prevent future economic crises — but will the agency succeed?
“Credit-card agreements, bank overdraft notices, and mortgages are all loaded with tricks and traps,” said Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard law professor and chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel, who has been an advocate for creating the agency.
Elizabeth Warren talks TARP, consumer protection
David Weidner interviews Elizabeth Warren, chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, about the financial-system bailout, TARP and the need for an independent consumer-protection agency.
“The agency can reverse that and give families a chance to take control over their money, but families will have to be smart,” Warren said. The Congressional Oversight Panel is tasked with monitoring the government’s regulatory reform efforts.
If it comes to pass, the consumer agency will write rules governing consumer financial services and products, including mortgages and credit cards, plus work to make loan terms and costs more transparent, among other duties.
Lawmakers agreed on Monday to place the new consumer agency within the Federal Reserve, a key Democratic concession to Republicans as provisions of the sweeping bank-reform bill get hammered out. Members of the House and Senate continue to meet this week to meld their two separate bills.
…
No, it started with one lousy, fraudulently rated CDO at a time.
The FIRE sector will ALWAYS find a way occlude and obfuscate. You can’t fleece the sheeple with transparency.
He sees things nobody else sees:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Geithner-sees-taxpayer-apf-1056970197.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=2&asset=&ccode=
Isn’t this a symptom of insanity diagnosis?
And here in Tucson, artists are feeling unloved.
The link goes to a Tucson Weekly story that quotes a gallery owner who recently closed his space. Quoth the now-former gallery owner:
“Still, Bjorklund reserves most of his blame for city government, which he believes has failed spectacularly at implementing downtown’s Rio Nuevo redevelopment project. He was hoping Rio Nuevo’s energy would spill over to his own business. Instead, he’s seen his hopes dashed.”
To which I say:
I pedaled past the now-closed gallery space last night. It’s about a quarter of a mile north of Downtown.
I know a guy who opened a different business just up the street, and, AFAIK, he’s doing just fine. The diff between my buddy and the now-former gallery owner is that my bud isn’t expecting the city to provide any sort of energy to spill over to his biz. He views that as his job.
Slim,
Have you been to the new Guadalajara Grill? I took a local there last night that had never heard of it. The salsa (custom made at your table, the fajitas and the Dos Equi were awesome.
Thanks for turning me on to that so many years ago.
Lip
Good place, but I haven’t been there in a while.
BTW, Guadalajara Grill is in a larger location that’s about half a mile west of its original location. I pedaled by there a week ago Wednesday during the 8 p.m. hour. The parking lot was jam-packed to the point that customers were using the vacant spaces in the 9-to-5 businesses’ lot next door.
Just goes to show you that if you’re good at what you do, you can make it. Even in (gasp!) This Economy.
The local PTB have designated a semi-blighted area north of downtown (currently the home of various auto repair/machine shops, low-end industrial suppliers, and not-for-profit groups supporting the local homeless/mentally unstable population) as the new “arts district”, where ” the synergies of the arts district will revitalize the area, and create many economic development opportunities.”
This, in a city packed full with blue collar $10-15/hr workers, and thousands of various government and railroad retirees…… Around here, “four dogs playing poker, painted on black velvet” and “backlit Jesus” paintings are considered “art”.
Yeah, gotta attract the “creative class”. By subsidizing artist’s space with taxpayer money. And while your at it, start various “economic development” panels (staffed with friends/relatives/girlfriends/simpleton little brothers) to “manage and develop” the area. Paid for, of course, with taxpayer money too.
Yes we have a buttload of those operators in Missoula.
I’m all for the arts, but running out folks with perfectly good J6P businesses to artificially create trendy Bohemia is insane.
It’s supposed to work the other way around. Blighted, abandoned area becomes populated with artists because it’s affordable and their wild ways don’t bother the neighbors. This causes an uptick in economic activity.
I agree.
And, speaking as an artist (photographer, actually) of many years standing, I can tell you that there are some of us who aren’t looking for government-subsidized work spaces in a trendy Bohemia. My work space is right here at home, and it suits me just fine. Doesn’t bother the neighbors either.
There ya go! As it should be.
Well the first thing I agreed with Eco. I feel wierd! Eco is in favor of self-sufficiency and not dependence on taxpayers? At least in arts I guess.
Government can’t create “trendy”. It just kinda happens, for exactly the reasons you list.
I could use some cheap living/garage/warehouse space right about now. Unfortunately, it’s trendy around here now, and the developers have jacked prices accordingly.
“Need a home? Now is the moment!” says Caja Madrid on it website, where it also advertises financing options and special offers, such as an apartment in the small city of Manresa, near Barcelona, for €247,000.
“Escape your old home!” says the site of Valencia-based savings bank Bancaja, which advertises no payments for as long as three years at the start of the mortgage.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703438604575314711264457870.html
” no payments for as long as three years at the start of the mortgage.”
Talk about kicking the can down the road. Will we ever see a normal housing market again?
Baltimore Council Backs 2-Cent Bottle Tax
BALTIMORE (AP) ― The Baltimore City Council has given preliminary backing to a 2-cent tax on bottled drinks.
The tariff, set to expire after three years, was a compromise between Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and the council, which last week rejected a proposed 4-cent bottle tax.
The tax is the centerpiece of the mayor’s proposal to help close a $121 million gap in the city’s $2.2 billion budget for fiscal year 2011, which the council passed Monday.
The mayor’s office says the bottle tax will generate about $5.7 million and prevent 47 layoffs. It is also expected to fund street cleaning, graffiti removal and the maintenance of trash-skimming nets in the Inner Harbor.
Wow - that is $121,000+ per job!
You’d think Baltimore was in California with that kind of crazy pay for graffiti scrubbers!
Oh wait, I forgot… the east coast INVENTED public union abuse. We Californians just put a tan on it.
For the typical government job, including the cost of the emplyoyee’s benefits, that’s about right.
Say half the money is used on the trash nets and street cleaning and now those jobs are $50K each. They are “saved” jobs, not new ones.
Next thing you’ll see in Baltimore is booze sold in cartons like mik cartons!
One data point re:the sorry state of local and municipal finances: the wife got a call today from Newton Falls, OH (we both had to look it up) regarding a speeding ticket she received in 2002. She doesn’t remember getting the ticket. They want her to pay immediately, of course.
I wonder how many other municipalities are digging through unresolved traffic tickets, back taxes, unpaid fines, improper inspections, etc., in search of budget-padding money …?
“I wonder how many other municipalities are digging through unresolved traffic tickets, back taxes, unpaid fines, improper inspections, etc., in search of budget-padding money” …?
I would wager damn near every single one. They’ll be looking in every direction, digging under every couch cushion. That plus a new array of fee’s, taxes & larger penalties on anything that’s paid a minute late.
You would win that bet.
You ought to pay it. I forgot to pay a ticket and got a warrant issued for my arrest. I didn’t even get a warning in the mail beforehand. Then when I went in with the money to pay it, I got booked into holding and sat around for a couple hours before the judge heard my case. He asked if I had the money to pay the fine, I said yes, and he said go pay it.
It was a huge waste of time and money all around. I’m sure they spent more booking me through than the ticket was for.
My neice, who lives in Newport Beach, let her tabs expire. The car was towed from its on street parking spot and impounded. After all was said and done it cost nearly $1000.00 to retrieve the car and pay the fines and register the vehicle. No grace period, period.
Told my daughter, who just moved to O.C., take that as a free lesson.
Or make sure she never parks it on a public street….they cant ticket or tow you in your driveway.
BP Oil Disaster Costs U.S. State Pensions $1.4 Billion in Value.
(Bloomberg) — The California Public Employees’ Retirement System lost $284.6 million in value as the largest oil spill in U.S. history erased more than $1.4 billion from BP Plc shares held by 42 state retirement accounts, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
BP, the biggest producer of oil and gas in the U.S., has lost 47 percent of its value since a Gulf of Mexico well blew out April 20, destroying the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, killing 11 of its crew and polluting beaches from Louisiana to Florida.
The declines come as public pension funds are struggling to recover from investment losses that averaged 21 percent last year, according to Wilshire Associates of Los Angeles. U.S. public pension systems held more than 300 million shares of London-based BP, according to Bloomberg data through May 1.
Calpers, the largest U.S. public pension at $210 billion, held 58.2 million shares of BP on April 20, more than any other state pension, and saw the value fall to $301 million from $585.7 million, according to Bloomberg data.
It just gets worse and worse. But, we all know that eventually, the states including thier pension plans will receive a federal bailout (TBTF). So, those of us who have seen our 401-K’s best case stagnate and the SS retirement age increase, will get stuck with the tab of State, Local and Federal employees who will not suffer one bit.
Interestingly though, I am seeing more and more reporting on the state pension fund problems being reported in the MSM, noting that the states are more and more facing the dilema of providing current services or funding lavish (by private sector standards) pension plans.
I wonder how many of those same public employees rallying against “big oil” know that they are basically funding it in their retirement pensions, and basically getting their retirement destroyed as they rail against BP… if the fund wasn’t gov’t gauranteed, I would almost chuckle…
You’re right. Most people have no idea how their pension fund is managed. But, nor do most people have any control over it.
Shoot! With all the diatribes on the HBB against corporations, I doubt if anyone here invests in 401ks or IRAs! They must be content with 0.1% interest on cash instead of possibly 10% annual gains in long term broad stock indices.
Shoot! With all the diatribes on the HBB against corporations, I doubt if anyone here invests in 401ks or IRAs! They must be content with 0.1% interest on cash instead of possibly 10% annual gains in long term broad stock indices.
How about -1% total return for the past 10 years in “broad stock indices”?
———
(from http://www.simplestockinvesting.com/SP500-historical-real-total-returns.htm)
Decade price divs compound annual return
2000’s -2.7% 1.8% -1.0%
———
or of course you could be a weirdo gold bug and get this result:
1/4/2000: 282.05
12/30/2009: 1087.50
for a compound annual return of (1087.5/282.05)^(1/10), which is: 14.44%
Hmm, which of those is better?
BUDGET 2010 LIVE: Bloody George wields the axe - Public spending and welfare slashed… and VAT rises to 20%. UK Times
* VAT to rise 2.5% to 20% from January 2011
* Deficit reduced 77% by spending cuts, 23% by tax rises
* Departments face cuts of 25% over the next five years
* Two-year pay freeze for public sector workers earning over £21,000
* Child benefit frozen for three years and tax credits cut
* Disability benefit claimants face new medical checks
* Corporation tax cut from 28% to 24% over four years
* Capital Gains Tax hiked to 28% for top-rate taxpayers
* Bank levy from 2011, raising £2bn a year
* Income tax threshold raised £1,000 to £7,495
* Pension link to earnings restored or 2.5% rise from next April
* Civil list frozen at £7.9m as Queen also feels the pinch
The good thing is nothing like this could ever happen here in the U.S. We have it all under control.
“contained”
Holy crap, I wish our government had the stones to do this… ever.
The VAT rising from 17.5% to 20% is a 14.2% increase, not a 2.5% increase.
14.2 percent increase in one fell swoop.
I think they meant to say that it was rsing 2.5 base points.
A 20% sales tax! Holy. Cow. No wonder when my Euro based relatives come here they go berzerk on shopping sprees!
When I worked at one of the General Aviation OEMs in Wichita, every airplane that was heading to Europe or South America was packed to the brim with shopping spree booty.
One airplane was packed to the ceiling aft of the door, the crew got in the cockpit, and more crap was packed in behind them. No way for them to get out until they got home to Brazil, and someone unloaded the airplane behind them.
After topping off the fuel tanks, they had to be WAY over gross wt. They took off on runway 1L at ICT (10-11K feet long). Used a lot of runway to get airborne. And this was in December. Good thing it wasn’t July or August.
-Guys from the UK packed their aircraft with aftermarket wheels.
-A guy from Venezuela bought a dirt bike, and had the dealer mechanic come out to the shop, disassemble the bike, and pack it into various nooks and crannies on the airplane.
Here in Tucson, the Mexican shopper is one of the best friends a retailer can have. For one thing, the folks coming up to shop here are generally not the types who are sneaking into this country under cover of darkness. They’re the middle and upper classes.
And they pay cash.
What you do is write them two receipts — one for their records which shows the true price and another to show to Mexican customs. That receipt has a much lower price.
Yours Truly speaks from experience. I dealt with many Mexican customers when I worked in the bike shop.
Corporation tax cut from 28% to 24% over four years
not too sure about this one. But I like the cap gains tax hike and 25% department hike. Although I don’t know what they are cutting by 25%. School admin, parks and rec, i hope.
Fla. construction employment falls in May.
South Florida Business Journal
Construction employment declined in 25 states between April and May, according to an analysis of federal data released by the Associated General Contractors of America.
“Construction workers will continue losing jobs until demand for new housing, office, retail and local public construction improves,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist, in a news release. “Although the stimulus is helping, it is very likely that construction employment has yet to hit bottom in most states.”
Florida lost 4,500 construction jobs, falling to 360,200 in May from 364,7000 in the previous month. Between May 2009 and May 2010, Florida lost 39,100 jobs.
U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) is pushing for a balanced budget amendment. In making his argument he reminds us of a comment by President John Adams: “Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”
Adds DeMint: “Our exceptional country has avoided this dire fate so far, but if there’s not a strong intervention by the American people in November—voting in new members ready to vote for a balanced-budget amendment—Adams could be right after all.”
And how come our favorite racist-in-a-closet never pushed for a balance budget pre-Obama?
You guys desperately need to re-write your play book.
Mexican Gangs Maintain Permanent Lookout Bases in Hills of Arizona.
Mexican drug cartels have set up shop on American soil, maintaining lookout bases in strategic locations in the hills of southern Arizona from which their scouts can monitor every move made by law enforcement officials, federal agents tell Fox News.
The scouts are supplied by drivers who bring them food, water, batteries for radios — all the items they need to stay in the wilderness for a long time.
“To say that this area is out of control is an understatement,” said an agent who patrols the area and asked not to be named. “We (federal border agents), as well as the Pima County Sheriff Office and the Bureau of Land Management, can attest to that.”
Two words:
Air Strike
Absolutely! The national guard hardly ever gets to bust out the big toys. I would have them use these bases as training exercises. Hit different ones with all the various heavy long rage weaponry. Tanks, artillery, aircraft, you name it.
It wouldn’t even have to be “intentional”
“Gee, we was just putting the final polish job on this 1000 lb. Daisy-Cutter, when the pilot took the airplane out for a spin, and one of those Chinese-made bomb shackles must have just broke……..”
If a 1000 lb-er goes off in the desert, and there are no survivors around to hear it, does it make a noise?
Yup - Send in the Predator drones!
and then mine the border, as james suggested. When one of those convoys goes up, everybody can stand around at a safe distance and inhale.
“I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”
Time to give the border a Military Operation Area (MOA) designation.
Or even better, Predator Drone.
The air base in Tucson, Davis Monthan AFB, is going to be a training facility for the drone attack aircraft.
This is also helping the commercial construction business experience a pick me up.
Or these two words:
Target practice
Our local alt-paper, the Tucson Weekly (which is as far to the left as Fox News is to the right) just reported the same thing.
As many politicians/managers have learned, if you are able to avoid publicly acknowledging there is a problem, then the problem doesn’t officially exist, and you don’t have to make decisions that may have the effect of pi$$ing off some of your constituents. Or take responsibility when the problem blows up in your face.
Then, when something really bad happens, have your PR people send out press releases saying stuff like “unanticipated”, “we didn’t know”, “black swan”, etc. It’s important to get this stuff out quickly, to beat the facts onto the airwaves.
You could put a lot of public relations people out of work, by making a Word template, and setting up an office with a desktop and Internet connection in Mumbai.
They already do.
YouTube - M134 Gatling Gun vs. M240
IRS May Tax Payments to Gulf Coast Victims
June 22, 2010 Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — Out-of-work Gulf Coast shrimper Todd Pellegal spent his first $2,500 check from BP quickly, paying off bills and buying groceries for his family.
He never even considered putting some of it away for taxes.
Now he’s among the people up and down the Gulf Coast reeling from the oil spill disaster who are surprised — and frustrated — to find out the Internal Revenue Service may take a chunk of the payments BP PLC is providing to help them stay afloat.
Many were already angry about how long the oil giant took to cut the checks. So when they got the money — generally about a few thousand dollars each so far — they spent it fast.
“If they’re going to pay you a lump sum, like for a year, then bam, take the taxes out of the check,” said Pellegal, of Boothville, La. “But a little bit at a time, they shouldn’t.”
But taxes ARE for the little people!
the Internal Revenue Service may take a chunk of the payments BP PLC is providing to help them stay afloat.
Makes sense. It’s a substitute for their income, which would have been taxed….
They should be thanking their lucky stars they aren’t paying gift taxes on them instead.
Todds response: “Taxes??…….I ain’t payin no stinking taxes!”
Get way behind on your bills and see which is more important. Food and shelter or taxes?
Also, money paid out over time in small amounts is essentially worthless. Which is worth more? 1 million lump sum or 1 million paid out 10 dollars a day?
Inflation???
http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/22/news/economy/cigarette_tax/index.htm
This type of tax hike is self defeating.
Where I live, they passed the “no smoking in bars” ordinance. Business dropped off 50%. This effectively hurt alcohol tax revenue as well.
And as for smoking, the second leading cause of lung cancer is Radon. An odorless, colorless RADIOACTIVE gas found in most buildings.
Here in AZ, the Smoke Free Arizona initiative has been very good for the bar and restaurant biz. Seems that a lot of non-smokers had been staying away, and now they can go out to eat and drink without having to breathe noxious fumes.
Count me as one of them. I like to come home and not smell like an ashtray.
Same story here in the NW, where I’d say smokers are in the minority.
This does seem to depend on location, however. When I was back visiting family in the Midwest recently, I made a mental note that there seemed to be A LOT more smokers there. A few days later while out at a bar, someone mentioned that the smoking ban had hurt business in the area.
Count me in as one who is grateful for not smelling of ash the next morning.
It does depend on region. I smoke, though pretty much only when drinking. Take away smoking and I can’t stand to drink. This means I’ll stay home or go to a friends house or I will become an instant member of the club that was allowed an exemption.
I also don’t like to smell like an ashtray, but this points out and is a DIRECT result of bad ventilation. I’ve been in a few places where ventilation was VERY good and I didn’t smell like an ashtray when I went home.
Bad ventilation is also why Radon is so dangerous. So you can take away the smoke and the smell, but you still have to contend with a colorless, odorless, radioactive gas because the root problem wasn’t fixed.
Agreed!
Unemployment insurance running out for millions
Latest News in Politics & Policy
Roughly 15 million Americans are out of work. One third of those people are currently receiving unemployment insurance. At the end of this month, if Congress does not change things, 1.2 million people will see their unemployment insurance expire — a number that will increase each subsequent month if no extension to benefits is granted.
“It’s a pretty grim picture for these people,” said Ross Eisenbrey of the Economic Policy Institute. “The states have done away with emergency assistance programs. They can still qualify for food stamps, but that’s a limited amount and only covers food. There are some rental assistance programs, but they are small with long waiting lists. Most of these people are just going to hit a wall.”
According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are currently five job seekers for every available job.
“According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are currently five job seekers for every available job.”
ecofeco has been saying this for quite some time.
There is not enough jobs.
Any chance we can change the feed of the Candy Crapping Unicorn so it will start crapping jobs instead?
There is not enough jobs.
No, there are too many people
Drummin, you are not far off. There ARE too many people — in China and India.
The latest scorecard:
-Unemployment and unemployment insurance: “You’re on your own”
-Retirement: Ditto
-Medical care and insurance: Ditto X 2
-Law enforcement/regulation of various predatory entities: Same as above
- Disaster relief: See line items 1-4………unless of course, you create your own disaster.
At some point, people are going to start wondering exactly who the government actually answers to.
At some point, people are going to start wondering exactly who the government actually answers to.
I think it’d be better to ask whether we really need the gov’t in it’s current form (note I”m not suggesting we don’t need ANY gov’t).
I don’t need the gov’t for UE, nor for medical insurance. Law enforcement? Sure. LE for revenue generation/shaking down taxpayers? Heck no!
We’ve built this gargantuan government to supposedly fill all these voids, yet 1) it’s not enough, and 2) it really isn’t even addressing those needs.
The best gov’t is a small gov’t.
“I don’t need the government for UE, nor for medical insurance……”
Consider yourself fortunate. Try working for a company that goes Chapter 11, and tells you on Friday a.m. that your last four weeks of paychecks are going to bounce, the six weeks of PTO you accrued is gone, and your contracturally guaranteed severance package has disappeared, God knows where.
And, as Arizona Slim and I have related repeatedly, the so-called “Health Care Industry” is only interested in providing Health Care to people who don’t actually need it.
“….to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the goverened
And, as Arizona Slim and I have related repeatedly, the so-called “Health Care Industry” is only interested in providing Health Care to people who don’t actually need it.
Yep, I resemble that remark!
And, interestingly enough, the most courteous care I’ve received has been in the public health system. Or at free/low income clinics.
The private-pay places don’t seem to be that interested in us non-upscale types who are on a budget. Even when the upscale people they’re catering to are just running up their credit cards or nuking their home equity.
Sorry, hit the wrong key…..
“….consent of the governed, That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying it’s foundations on such principles, and organizing it’s powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Nothing in there about “small government”.
“Small government” is a Republican party talking point. They have made a point of undermining the ability of government to enforce regulations, then turn around and say government “doesn’t work”.
The Health Care industry didn’t mind collecting premiums from me when I was in my 20-30s, and didn’t need much health care. They also didn’t mind sending me bill for premiums for my three kids. Now, I’m at an age where I might actually need to see a doctor, and suddenly, everyone over 50 is a liability.
The system as currently designed by the Health Care industry and Business is to extract premiums when you are young, then throw you under the bus when their numbers crunchers decide you have become a “liability”. All legal, of course.
The Health Care industry has lobbied government to keep things the way they are. They don’t operate in a vacuum. They’ve had years to come up with a fix to this problem on their own, and chose to keep the status quo, because it was more profitable. They choose not to insure me at any price, because their numbers crunchers have decided that they can’t make any money off me.
I have a hard time deciding who the bigger “vampire squid” is, Goldman Sachs, or the Health Care Industry, as currently configured.
This all affects my “Safety and Happiness”.
have a hard time deciding who the bigger “vampire squid” is, Goldman Sachs, or the Health Care Industry, as currently configured.
My vote is on the health care industry, which, IMHO is a misnomer at best. I haven’t noticed it doing a lot of caring about my health. Especially since I moved to the dark side, aka the north side of 50.
On paper, it’s Goldman
When you look at direct and indirect effects on the whole economy, it’s the HCI, hands down.
“I haven’t noticed it doing a lot of caring about my health. Especially since I moved to the dark side, aka the north side of 50.”
Considering the demographic shift coming, aren’t they missing the market?
And btw, I agree with your comments yesterday about the public option…
Crime has definitely gone up in my city.
Given that the TARP was supposed to eliminate the toxic mortgage debt, which ended up on the books of the Fed, Fan and Fred, how can the overall effect of the TARP be properly evaluated?
Geithner defends TARP
By Ben Rooney, staff reporter
June 22, 2010: 12:31 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner defended the government’s bailout of the financial system on Tuesday, saying it has been a “critical” part of the economic recovery and will ultimately cost less than expected.
Geithner is testifying before the Congressional Oversight Panel, the main watchdog for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. The government enacted TARP in 2008 at the height of the financial crisis. The program is due to expire in October.
While the economy remains challenged, Geithner said TARP and other “extraordinary actions” taken to combat the financial meltdown “have helped stabilize the financial system and restore economic growth.”
Geithner acknowledged that some of the government’s efforts were “unpopular.” The program, initially funded at $700 billion, was used to pour billions of tax dollars in to troubled Wall Street banks, insurance giant American International Group and the auto industry.
But he argued that such steps were “essential” to contain the crisis and that they have improved conditions for homeowners, consumers, businesses, and state and local governments.
Geithner said that the final cost of the program is expected to be significantly less than originally anticipated. In August 2009, the Treasury projected that TARP would increase federal deficits by $341 billion. As of Tuesday, the program is expected to cost $105 billion, Geithner said.
…
How can the overall effect of TARP be evaluated
I think there was an article today that said that the financial elite made money even through the housing crash. They can thank TARP and the FED.
I think there was an article today that said that the financial elite made money even through the housing crash.
Many here did as well. Arguably NOT due to TARP and the FED.
It helps to have govt agencies (e.g. the Fed) and GSEs available to eat toxic mortgage debt off bank balance sheets at the drop of a hat…
U.S. Deepwater Drilling Ban Lifted by Federal Judge
(Bloomberg) — A New Orleans federal judge lifted the six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling imposed by President Barack Obama following the largest oil spill in U.S. history. Shares of drilling services companies jumped on the news.
Obama temporarily halted all drilling in waters deeper than 500 feet on May 27 to give a presidential commission time to study improvements in the safety of offshore operations. More than a dozen Louisiana offshore service and supply companies sued U.S. regulators to lift the ban.
~ W.H. Will appeal.
I’m sure The One will be calling his buddy Hugo Chavez tonight for some suggestions.
Yes god forbid that after finding out that the regulatory agencies were infact sleeping with those they regulated, the president should propose a moratorium to evaluate what’s going on at the other well sites.
the president should propose a moratorium to evaluate what’s going on at the other well sites.
He can propose it - it’s just a question of whether it’s legal. No one said he can’t state his opinion
And, the administration can look into these issues even while drilling is continuing, if it so chooses (though, why didn’t it do it in the previous year and a half…?!)
Obama proposed deep water drilling 10 days before the explosion/spill. He really had no clue that such a disaster could occur. He has now changed his mind. I don’t have a problem with that. I’ve changed my mind, too. Problem is, a lot of people in the Gulf region want drilling to continue unimpeded. That amazes me. As a compromise, I would suggest that future wells have a relief well drilled. It would certainly create extra jobs, though it would be expensive.
It is stupid and dangerous to not closely inspect all the remaining operations in the Gulf considering the magnitude of of this disaster.
The moratorium gives the oil companies a chance to fix anything that needs to be fixed before they are inspected and penalized.
That’s about as good a compromise as anyone could ask for.
So unless the plaintiffs are willing to personally pay for another disaster, they need to STFU.
+1
Ecofeco,
Agreed, but I saw some statistics on the number of wells in the gulf and the number of blow outs. The estimate was above 99% blow out free operations.
So lets do the inspections quickly, as I am sure the petroleum companies themselves are doing right away. None of them want’s this because it costs them millions every day and none want Uncle Opie peeking up their anal canal.
The PAST statistics ARE good. In fact, absolutely phenomenal!
But…
All you need it one. And past performance is no guarantee of future performance. Especially when corners are continually cut because “well we’ve had great success so far, why are we paying for something we’re not using” rears is ugly head.
And can also guarantee you corners were being cut all over the Gulf. At least, that’s what my rig buddies tell me.
Drain BP for every dime they are liable for. Break their back if necessary.
Expose and prosecute any criminal behavior, preferably at the top.
Make direct consequences for reckless behavior.
Maywood to lay off all city employees, dismantle Police Department.
June 22, 2010
The city of Maywood will lay off all city employees and begin contracting police services with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department effective July 1, officials said.
In addition to contracting with the Sheriff’s Department, the Maywood City Council voted unanimously Monday night to lay off an estimated 100 employees and contract with neighboring Bell, which will handle other city services such as finance, records management, parks and recreation, street maintenance and others. Maywood will be billed about $50,833 monthly, which officials said will save $164,375 annually.
“We will become 100% a contracted city,” said Angela Spaccia, Maywood’s interim city manager.
Deputies from the East Los Angeles Sheriff’s Station will begin patrolling the 1.2-square-mile city by the end of the month, said Capt. Bruce Fogarty of the Sheriff’s Contract Law Enforcement Bureau. The annual cost of providing those services for the small city is estimated at $3.6 million, Fogarty said.
Man, that’s just asking to get annexed and taxed by the annexing city (LA?)
Maywood’s four of the council members: Felipe Aguirre, Edward Varela, Vice Mayor Veronica Guardado and Mayor Ana Rosa Rizo.
rumors are they will be relocating to their former country down south and starting a new city
Phew. Maywood and Cuddahy. Two cities that have already fallen to Mexico. In a way, it’s a good thing Maywood’s police department was dissolved.
A little glimpse into the future.
$75M mansion near Orlando selling ‘as is’.
Windermere, Fla. (AP)
Realtor Lorraine Barrett looks at a rendering of what the unfinished mansion nicknamed “Versailles” will look like when completed, in Windermere, Fla. The mansion is currently up for sale “as is” by owner and timeshare tycoon David Siegel.
The brochure promises a “monument to unparalleled success.”
The 90,000-square-foot home for sale outside Orlando has 23 bathrooms, 13 bedrooms, 10 kitchens and three pools. All that and more for $75 million “as is.”
The catch? It’s not finished.
Nicknamed “Versailles” by owner and timeshare tycoon David Siegel, the mansion hit the market recently as the largest home for sale in the United States. Construction was halted last year to save money in a recession that proved particularly hard on Siegel’s industry.
The home also has a 20-car garage, a bowling alley, an indoor-roller rink, a movie theater, a video arcade, a fitness center, a baseball field and two tennis courts.
But the mansion’s interior has no carpet, tile or interior walls.
“All that and more for $75 million “as is.”
L.M.A.O.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOTHING is worth 75 million in freakin’ Windermere, which is a faux lugzhurry Potemkin village carved out of the stinkin’ inland swamps of Florida. A complete and utter joke. Former home of that boyband impresario and convicted swindler, what’s ‘is name. It has a landlocked, hot, fetid climate. You can’t even breathe the air in the summer, you drown from the humidititty. It’s that bad.
The brochure promises a “monument to unparalleled success.”
Apparently not, the timeshare typhoon is trying to blow his failure off on a greater fool.
I think they meant a “monument to unparalleled excess.”
Either that or a “Giant Smelly Cowpat in a Swamp.”
Hello All,
Realize we are waiting things out here but got some interesting news. I am starting a new job in a few weeks. Will be doing some interesting electronics work.
Interviewed with another company and got some potentially excellent news. The tech industry over built fiber optic capacity during the dotcom boom. Sounds like they are looking at some new things and all the dark fiber capacity might be used up. Like houses going to rot, the fiber does slowly degrade with water slowly penetrating the cladding increasing losses. Not to mention all the streaming video and other applications taking up increasing larger amounts of bandwidth.
There seems to be a renewed interest in alternative forms of modulation of light sources. Instead of the OOK NRZ type formats, we are seeing interest in bandwidth efficient forms of modulation and less dispersion sensitive formats. I got to do some work on wireless laser links and the PSK seems like it might have some legs to it, especially with the advantages of new FEC (forward error correction) codes.
What does this mean… well I hope it means I’ve waited out the dark times in military aerospace and that new jobs will be available developing more information infrastructure. Get back to fun and exciting telecom type work.
From the dark days of the tech bubble building and then crashing, it is good to finally see the turnaround. Hope that we see a similar turn around in housing. Just takes a long long time. Been eight years since I’ve heard anything in telecom looking up.
My hope is that we can sell more telecom equipment in China/India/Africa and that will be a little bright spot in employment for everyone, and to me as well.
It’s going to be a while but there is hope everyone.
I can only hope that, with dark fiber coming online, the rates for broadband Internet access will finally be coming down in this country.
Thanks, James. The rumor here is that the whole Verizon FIOS (fiber optics) push is really stinking out the joint. People aren’t going for it, at least, not here in Florida. They spent all that money sinking all those lines and trying to get everyone to believe that fiber optic was going to be the only way to go. Didn’t work out that way.
I have personal knowledge of this, and it is interesting to see how frantic they’re getting trying to promote FIOS. More and louder ads, constant phone solicitation. All of this is greeted with a big yawn.
I find the idea of ClearWire to be quite intriguing. When/if it comes to Tucson, I’d be very tempted to drop my overpriced Cox cable Internet connection for it.
It’s coming. Next year for sure.
Methinks that, when they get to Tucson, Cox is going to lose a lot of customers. They’re the local cable monopoly.
Which means that, if you want fast Internet, they’re it. (And, sorry, Qwest, your DSL isn’t as fast as cable.)
Thanks, James. The rumor here is that the whole Verizon FIOS (fiber optics) push is really stinking out the joint. People aren’t going for it, at least, not here in Florida.
I have it up here in WA, and it works fine for me. Price was roughly competitive, but then again I won’t even CONSIDER going with Comcast due to their HORRIBLE HORRIBLE customer service…
I didn’t realize they were still pushing FIOS elsewhere.
Two months ago our area received this news:
As the total construction bill approaches $23 billion, Verizon has announced the end of its five-year project to build a high-speed fiber-optic network that allows it to compete head-to-head with cable TV companies.
Verizon will continue to string fiber in communities where it has already signed cable TV franchises, but because of the cost, the company will not expand its FiOS service into new areas.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/04/some_cny_communities_wont_get.html
LOL. Good timing. I just got one of their ads today in the mail. This while I’m considering migrating away from AT&T wireless.
James,
I was involved in building quite a few fiber optic fabs during the boom.
Sadly almost everyone went belly up.
Congratulations, James. I hope they pay you a buttload of money, too!
Handwringing over home sales and European banks takes its Toll:
Stocks slide on new concerns about housing, banks
By STEPHEN BERNARD and TIM PARADIS (AP) – 56 minutes ago
NEW YORK — Stocks slid Tuesday after home sales fell unexpectedly and the White House vowed to fight a ruling against the offshore drilling moratorium.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell about 120 points in late afternoon trading.
The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes fell 2.2 percent in May. The report surprised analysts who thought deals would get a lift from a homebuyer tax credit. Sales fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.66 million from a revised 5.79 million in April.
Homebuider (SIC) Toll Brothers Inc. slid 3.4 percent, while Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. fell 2.7 percent.
…
Brown’s tale of frugality omits $1.8 million home.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - When he takes to the campaign trail, Jerry Brown is fond of reminding voters that he shunned the governor’s mansion in Sacramento in favor of a rented apartment during his first tour in the executive office and lived in a downtown loft in Oakland while he was mayor of the crime-ridden city.
The stories are part of a campaign narrative of frugality. The Democratic nominee wants voters to remember that when they consider whether to send him back to the governor’s office as California faces a $19 billion budget deficit, an unemployment rate above 12 percent and a continuing foreclosure crisis.
What California voters do not hear is Brown boasting about his latest home.
He and his wife, former Gap executive Anne Gust, own a custom-designed, $1.8 million house in one of the San Francisco Bay area’s most prestigious neighborhoods—a Zen-inspired, five-level architectural gem perched high in the wooded Oakland Hills.
The three-bedroom home comes with bamboo floors, a spiral staircase, breathtaking views of the bay and roll-up family room windows that let the sea breeze wash in.
Amid crises, Obama declares war — on Arizona (AP)
The Obama administration has a lot of fights on its hands. Putting aside real wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, there’s the battle against leaking oil in the Gulf, the struggle against 9.7 percent unemployment across the country, and clashes over the president’s agenda on Capitol Hill. Despite all that, the White House has found time to issue a new declaration of war, this time against an unlikely enemy: the state of Arizona.
The Justice Department is preparing to sue Arizona over its new immigration law. The president has stiffed Gov. Jan Brewer’s call for meaningful assistance in efforts to secure the border. And the White House has accused Arizona’s junior senator, Republican Jon Kyl, of lying about an Oval Office discussion with the president over comprehensive immigration reform. Put them all together, and you have an ugly state of affairs that’s getting uglier by the day.
Well, come on down and invade us, sir. It will be 107 degrees here tomorrow. Probably be over 110 in the Phoenix area.
The Obama Administration is looking more and more like a circular firing squad every day.
If I hear some POS politician say “comprehensive immigration reform” one more time I’ll plunge an ice pick into my temple.
“immigration reform” == “amnesty” == higher wealth transfer from the productive to the non-productive.
From Yahoo Finance
Most of us know there is not enough money in the world to fully clean up the Gulf. The same is true with the $700 trillion derivatives market. If just 1% of the $700 trillion derivatives market goes bust, that is a $7 trillion disaster. The entire U.S. economy is only $14 trillion annually. A 10% failure, equating to $70 trillion, would probably bring down the world economy. As with the BP Gulf disaster, there is not enough money in the world to clean up the next disaster.
Could It Happen?
Could such a financial disaster happen? The answer is “Yes.” In fact, just as President Obama pressured BP into doing the “right thing,” so is he pressuring the financial markets to do the right thing. The president and our congressional leaders are pushing through financial reform legislation. My concern is that, if not handled delicately, it is this financial reform that will set off the derivative time bomb — the next BP.
Currently, derivatives are traded over-the-counter. This mean derivatives are uncontrolled, unregulated, and unsupervised. Proposed financial reform legislation is pushing to have derivatives traded through an exchange. This will bring in greater transparency and controls. My concern is, when this happens, the change to an exchange system will reveal fraud and failures we do not yet know about today. It will be like turning on the light and watching the cockroaches (bankers) run for cover.
While it is commendable that President Obama hold the rich and powerful accountable, I wonder what the price will be? And how many BPs can we afford
So, let me get this straight…….Wall Street has built the perfect capitalist/free market system. One that government dare not try to regulate.
It appears that this will be inflationary to a point, when the PTB try to paper over the problem…..then quickly deflationary, when everybody realizes all those zeros on their computer terminals aren’t backed by “real money”.
X-GS, it’s not a “free market” if there’s a “PTB” that’s going to “paper over” problems.
Depends on what your definition of “free market” is
‘If you went out and spent one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend a trillion dollars.” ~Factoid
Just a comment on the word “Factoid”
When the suffix “oid” is added to a word, it is done to imply that that the object is a false version of it.
Hence an “ovoid” is a false oval. It looks like an oval, but does not meet the geometric requirements to be a true oval.
Hence a “factoid” would be a false “fact”. Of course the word has acquired its own meaning in the vernacular, once which implies that its either trivia or a minor fact. A more appropriate word would be “factlet”, not that I’m holding my breath waiting for anyone to use that word.
Now we return to your regularly scheduled program
—When the suffix “oid” is added to a word, it is done to imply that that the object is a false version of it.—
Uhhh, that’s not correct
From Merriam-Webster:
“Main Entry: 1-oid
Function: noun suffix
: something resembling a (specified) object or having a (specified) quality ”
I suppose it depends on one’s definition of “resembling” in order to determine if it’s false.
That’s a LOT of time at the strip club….
Makin’ it rain at the “scrip club”……..
Yea and how many trillions are we responsible for?
With the debt and unfunded liabilities we are $13T in the hole, or in other words we’ve spent a dollar a second for 403,000 years.
http://zfacts.com/p/461.html
FLASH: According to an unnamed source ‘Gen. McChrystal has submitted his resignation’ - Joe Klein on Rick Sanchez, CNN… Developing…
So does he still have to go and meet up with Barry tomorrow, or he just head to a bar?
If he’s heading to a bar, perhaps the HBB-ers can have the D.C. meetup there.
I hope he makes out better than Rommel did.
After the Allies thumped the Germans in North Africa, Rommel tried to get a meeting with Hitler. Reason: He was convinced that the war was already lost and that it would be best to negotiate a truce with the Allies. He was blown off by Hitler’s staff.
It’s widely believed that this snub may have been connected with Rommel’s involvement in the bomb plot. However, a link between Rommel and the plotters has never been established.
On July 17, 1944, British aircraft strafed Rommel’s staff car, severely wounding the Field Marshall. He was taken to a hospital and then to his home in Germany to convalesce. Three days later, an assassin’s bomb nearly killed Hitler during a strategy meeting at his headquarters in East Prussia. In the gory reprisals that followed, some suspects implicated Rommel in the plot. Although he may not have been aware of the attempt on Hitler’s life, his “defeatist” attitude was enough to warrant Hitler’s wrath. The problem for Hitler was how to eliminate Germany’s most popular general without revealing to the German people that he had ordered his death. The solution was to force Rommel to commit suicide and announce that his death was due to his wounds.
I guess going to bar.
Don’t know who I like it better in this fight. It’s the war you fooking stupids. Not strategy, no the rule of engagements.
Also that’s the reason McCain lost in 08. By the summer of 08, more than 50% of this country have already made up their minds that they were not going to vote for another war monger.
I can’t believe Barry believed his own hot air and ended up doubling down in the “good” war. Now it means the war in Afghanistan is lost and Barry may pay a dear price for it.
Good night and good luck, Stanley McChrystal. Thanks for saying what needed to be said about a bunch of hacks and harridans. Good on ya, cobber.
And with that, the war in Afghanistan was over.
Now, Stanley, any chance you could do something about our border?
The latest is, McChrystal has submitted his resignation, but it hasn’t been accepted yet. Hmmm.
It’s looking more and more to me like McChrystal saw the handwriting on the wall, that Afghanistan was pretty much a dead loss as long as Bite-me and the merry band of bureaucrats kept messing with him, so he engineered a “strategic default”, so to speak.
He may end up singlehandedly bringing the war in Afghanistan to a close.
Barry is going to be very popular if this is true.
Senators Challenge Pres. Obama on Rumors of Executive Order Amnesty
Several Senators have learned of a possible plan by the Obama Administration that would provide a mass Amnesty for the nation’s 11-18 million illegal aliens. Led by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), eight Senators addressed a letter to the President asking for answers to questions about a plan that would allow DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano to provide an amnesty if they can’t secure enough votes for a bill in the Senate.
Heck, it’s been a tough day for the Bamster all around. First, McChrystal pokes him and his bureacrats in the eye, then his budget director resigns, then a judge smacks down the drilling moratorium, then it is revealed that Mexican drug cartels have set up permanent camp in Arizona. And that’s just for starters.
Who’d ‘ave thunk there might not be a quick and easy recovery from the worst financial crisis since the 1930s? Go figure…
Home sales down in May, dashing hopes of quick recovery
By Dina ElBoghdady
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 22, 2010; 4:47 PM
Sales of previously built homes dropped in May after huge gains the previous two months, a sign that the federal tax credit that helped energize sales at the start of the selling season has sputtered out sooner than expected.
The National Association of Realtors reported Tuesday that sales of existing single-family homes, townhouses, condominiums and cooperatives fell 2.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.66 million units in May from April, snapping hopes of a robust housing recovery any time soon. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had expected an increase of 6 percent.
Sales stalled or dropped in most parts of the country even though interest rates and home prices remain relatively low. In the Northeast, sales plunged 18.3 percent after surging in April. They stagnated in the Midwest and South. The only month-over-month gain was in the West, where sales rose 4.9 percent.
“It’s a market that’s stalling out,” said Michael Larson, a housing analyst at Weiss Research. “The extra kick we got this spring from the tax credit is clearly running out of steam.”
The housing market’s decline dragged down the economy, and its rebound is critical to getting the country back on solid economic footing. Sales figures have been closely watched for that reason, with intense focus on the month-to-month data for signs of the housing market’s trajectory.
…
The Keynesians looked at their monetary stimulus like a firefighter looks at a hose of water.
Politicians look at the possibility of spending money like a heroin addict looks at a syringeful of heroin.
The sad thing is that FDR Number 2 will mistakingly think that a good world war will bring Americans together and cure this depression. Well America in 2010 is not the mono culture America of 1941. Too many people at each others’ throats to unite.
It was unexpected, you know.
Meredith Whitney - Double Dip In Housing & Govt Job Cutting… Really interesting insight:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1526836676&play=1
A few years ago, the problem was affordable housing. Now it seems we have a hamburger affordability problem.
UPDATE 1-CKE Restaurants posts Q1 loss on charges, unemployment
Tue Jun 22, 2010 5:43pm EDT
* Q1 sales down 3 pct at $435.2 mln vs est $435.3 mln
* Restaurant margins down 320 basis points
June 22 (Reuters) - CKE Restaurants Inc (CKR.N), owner of the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. hamburger chains, posted a first-quarter loss, weighed down by one-time costs and stung by high unemployment in its core California market and among its main customers.
For the quarter ended May 17, the company which in April accepted a $694 million takeover offer from affiliates of Apollo Management, reported a net loss of $3.1 million, or 6 cents a share, compared with a profit of $14.4 million or 26 cents, last year.
…
VIENNA (Reuters) - Iceland’s government might not survive a second referendum defeat over deals to repay debts to the Netherlands and Great Britain, Business Affairs Minister Gylfi Magnusson was quoted as saying on Monday.
Icelandic voters in March overwhelmingly rejected an accord on paying more than $5 billion to the two governments, which they felt was harsh and unfair. Since then, little progress has been made in talks to reach a new deal.
“We hope to find an agreement once the Netherlands has a new government,” Magnusson told Austrian daily newspaper Der Standard in an interview.
“I hope there won’t be another referendum. If voters refused (a debt deal) again, this would be bad news for our economy. I don’t know if our government would survive that,” he added.
This seems to have fallen off the front page.
LOL, a friend of mine who has been following this is getting a big kick out of it. Icelanders are really sticking it to the man. It’s gone from the big swinging dick bankers (with Britain and the Netherlands as proxies) thinking they’re gonna dictate the terms and make permanent debt slaves out of Icelanders, to uh, well, what would you guys agree to?
Ahhh, the joys of being a newly minted “independent contractor”………
Seems that the client doesn’t like how many hours I’m billing. Fine, then don’t have me do all this peripheral nonsense that I’m doing because I’m typically the only guy in the hangar.
So now there’s talk about me going on “salary”. As an employee? Nope, as a contractor.
“Yeah, we want you to cut your hourly rate. But you can make it up on volume…”
So now there’s talk about me going on “salary”. As an employee? Nope, as a contractor.
That’s an IRS red flag if there ever was one.
Just say NO!
The bastadge client! Call their bluff! I threatened to walk out a couple of times the last seven years but the client backed down. The low level management that gave me hell were slapped on the wrists.
You have the power!
Nothing has been said officially yet.
And it all depends on what the “salary” is.
I’m just sitting back and listening to the chatter……..
There should be a new unit of sovereign debt, the “GDP”.
It’s like talking about nuclear weapons in terms of megatons. A 50 megaton missile, a 10 megaton missile.
With debt, Zimbabwe tops the chart at 3 GDPs. Japan is second at 2 GDPs. The US is at a paltry .5 GDPs, jockeying for position with Cyprus and Morocco.
Will there be a push to be number 1?