Bits Bucket For June 25, 2010
Post off-topic ideas, links and Craigslist finds here. The Florida/DC meetup link at the forum is here. Click here for the shadow inventory thread.
Please consider signing the Shadow Inventory petition.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
To donate by mail, or to otherwise contact this blogger, please send emails to: thehousingbubble@gmail.com
PayPal is a secure online payment method which accepts ALL major credit cards.
Links
-
June 2025 M T W T F S S « Sep 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Photo Submission: hbbphotos@gmail.com
View the HBB Photo Gallery *updated 4/13/2008
Congress Fails to Pass an Extension of Jobless Aid.
WASHINGTON — Legislation to extend unemployment subsidies for hundreds of thousands of Americans who have exhausted their jobless benefits teetered on the edge of collapse on Thursday, as Senate Democrats and Republicans traded bitter accusations about who was to blame for an eight-week impasse.
The latest on President Obama, his administration and other news from Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion.
Senate Republicans and a lone Democrat, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, joined forces to filibuster the bill in a procedural vote on Thursday. Visibly frustrated, the majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, said he would move on to other business next week because he saw little chance of winning over any Republican votes.
The vote was 57 to 41, with the Democrats falling three short of the 60 votes needed to advance the measure.
“You’ll hear a lot of excuses,” Mr. Reid said at a news conference. “The bottom line is the minority just said no.”
And people say that we have a socialist/communist government?
As far as I can tell its business as usual, no different than the previous admin. Plenty of money for wars and banks, but not so much for the “little people”.
Socialist when it comes to bailing out the most appalling failures this country has to offer. That goes from the failed home buyer that refinanced X-times all the way to the big banks. Capitalist when it comes to helping out the people that actually work or used to work for a living. Punish the productive part of the economy and reward the leeches, speculators and criminals. This can’t end well as it creates perverse incentives to game the system. People that live by the “rules” are fools and they are slowly waking up to that fact.
We fools have no debt and at least can use the bailout and stimulus to buy us more time to build up more gold bullion and treasuries - good hedges against each other.
Bill, assume that you were 35, barely established — and then your job was outsourced or lost for some other reason. You have no job and have had no time to build a cushion of buillion of treasuries. Would you still be so flippant?
There are a lot of people just starting out who will be swept away though no fault of their own.
Seriously, barely established at 35. I mean if you take 8 years to figure things out after high school then you’ve probably been working for 10 years.
Heck you are halfway to a GM retirement party.
I know outsourcing is a bit&h but hell dude.
BiLA may have some admirable qualities, but sympathy for his fellow man ain’t one of them.
Yes because 35 years old is young enough that you should be primarily in stocks, at least 80% of your net worth. You can live in a studio apartment cheap in many places and work minimum wage. It’s a 35 year old’s choice to take on obligations - marriage and kids. At 35 I knew I could not afford either. If I got stuck economically, it would be my fault. No one put a gun against anyone’s head and said you have to take on obligations and burdens.
Tough beans. I was from a lower middle class background and rode my bicycle to college - did not even own a car until 1985 at age 26. The house I lived in was not insulated. Very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter. If I can live below my means, so can others. You have to work for your values (and valuables).
Hey Bill, do you live near El Segundo? I’d really like to hit a dive bar I know there and toss one back with ya. Seriously…
“…did not even own a car until 1985 at age 26″
I got laid in the 70’s… age 16… in my ‘55 Studebaker pickup. That “Hot August Night” started the events that turned a simple silly boy…into a fearless man!
LOL. I’d have to say you pretty much ended up with nothing. JMO.
I know outsourcing is a bit&h but hell dude.
Yeah..I was feeling all good “Wow, 35 is just starting out? I’m 31 and have amassed a pretty good war chest. I’m *way* ahead of the game”…
But I don’t think that 35 is just starting out. One should be well-established in their career, likely married, and most likely already starting a family…
I agree, Bill. 20 years ago I barely made minimum wage and my wife and I mostly lived like kings in our minds. We stayed in a cheap, but ok/safe mega apartment complex. I rode the bus everywhere with an unlimited $30 bucks a month “anywhere” pass. We could walk to get groceries. Lived cheap, cooked our own food and ate well. And we had no trouble saving money. Hand-me-down furniture. We’ve kept track of every penny we’ve made or spent since then using Quicken. Back then we were saving nearly half of what I made. It’s all about spending less than you make and being satisfied/happy while you’re doing it.
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.”
Hwy50, yes I rent an apartment in the South Bay and work in the South Bay. I’m not familiar with pubs in El Segundo, but I have gone to Cozymel’s on Rosecrans several times. But yeah it would be fun to go to a pub where you are and discuss these things.
I will revisit this thread this evening.
Hwy50, yes I rent an apartment in the South Bay and work in the South Bay.
Hwy and BiLA (and anyone else, actually).
I am in the progress of planning this year’s annual pilgrimage to SoCal to ride bikes on the beach strand (Torrance Cliffs to El Segundo and back) later this summer.
It’d be great to have a beer with any of you folks at Hermosa or somewhere.
I’ll post when I have a date, if you’re interested.
“It’d be great to have a beer with any of you folks at Hermosa or somewhere.”
Cool lavi d, we had a really cool HBB bash in Redondo Beach a couple of years ago… I need to get down to San Pedro to see if Walker’s Cafe is still alive, Mr. Cole can take in Ports-a-Call for a day, maybe squeeze in a flick at the Grand Warner…awesome!
Bill, I’ll see if Mr. Ben can forward you my email…
I guess “establish” was the wrong word.
Look, living below one’s means is a great idea. I did it myself, making the equiv of minimum wage until I was 29, living cheap while I paid off my college loans, not buying a car until I was 37. But just saving is not enough. Duration Duration Duration applies to savings too. You need TIME to accumulate a nest egg, especially in this age of the war on savers. Some people like Bill are lucky and can do it by 50. Some people need to work until 65.
But a 35-year-old is highly unlikely to have accumulated enough, even if he did everything right.
I like Bill’s point that “no debt” is the prerequisite to wealth. I also agree with oxide that it takes time to build up assets, and that it’s harder than it used to be. I don’t agree with Bill about stocks, treasury bonds, and gold being the most desirable asset classes, even if they somewhat “hedge” each other. NONE of them produces enough income to get you ahead.
Lavi_D and Hwy,
Hermosa Beach is far more familiar to me, as I’ve been to the pubs many times on the pier. So HB would be cool! The bars are usually packed and noisy on the pier, but there are some places along PCH that the locals go to get away from the crowds.
I look forward to that!
az_lender,
For stocks I am into 401ks and IRAs. I can safely guess that 99.9999% of my fellow engineers who do w2’s are into 401ks and IRAs, and I can guess that most of them are into stock funds. Most companies have 401ks. I’m surprised that people think stock funds are a bad investment. Maybe you are old enough to have a pension. Pensions were going the way of the Do Do bird when I started working, so the alternative was 401ks and IRAs.
It does take time to build up assets. If you were lucky to have $50,000 in August of 1976 and put it into the brand new Vanguard fund called the 500 index fund, and not a penny more, you would have over $1.4 million now.
I don’t want to own my own business. I don’t want to work 14 hours per day. I prefer consulting, which is semi-independent anyway, and my hours vary from 40 hours on up per week. I never assumed I would get well-off overnight. However I reached a big financial goal I set over ten years ago - where I wanted to be by age 51, my current age. I’m not a full time investor either. Stock mutual funds and dollar cost averaging are the best investments for people like me.
Blue Skye,
How do you know what I have? Please tell us! Your statement is even more ridiculous than anything Eco wrote!
LOL. I’d have to say you pretty much ended up with nothing. JMO.
I don’t agree with Bill about stocks, treasury bonds, and gold being the most desirable asset classes, even if they somewhat “hedge” each other. NONE of them produces enough income to get you ahead.
Gold produces no income, but it has gone up 400% in the past 10 years, and is taxed at a maximum rate of 28% for long-term gains. What other investment class has had that return?
I’m surprised that people think stock funds are a bad investment.
Yes, I can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to invest in something that has a negative return over the last 10 years. Especially when the future looks so bright for company profits, given the impending bankruptcy of states and governments, which will DEFINITELY not raise taxes to try to stay afloat!
“Plenty of money for wars and banks, but not so much for the “little people”.”
Well it seems to me with the housing fiasco that a lot of your “little people” got quite a windfall of money and are still getting it with government handouts and free rent in housing they couldn’t afford. Now it’s time some of them went out looking for work without salary constraints and job preference. I’m tired of hearing the cry-babies out there.
“Now it’s time some of them went out looking for work without salary constraints and job preference.”
We have near-depression levels of unemployment with millions unemployed or underemployed. The jobs aren’t there.
And if you don’t already have job, many companies won’t hire you:
http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/16/news/economy/unemployed_need_not_apply/index.htm
And if you don’t already have job, many companies won’t hire you
While this has been common knowledge for some time, I was surprised that the MSM reported this.
The “handouts” have been minimal, most people don’t qualify for them. When I was unemployed last year I asked for “help” with my mortgage and I was told to go pound sand.
Now it’s time some of them went out looking for work without salary constraints and job preference.
I know plenty of people who have been trying their hardest to find a job, any job, and can’t find one. Not surprising, as there are 5-6 jobseekers for every available job.
I have to call BS: They couldn’t get the type of job they were looking for. There are plenty of jobs anywher anytime for under ten dollars an hour which require pain and suffering of the physical variety. Most won’t even consider such jobs. Then, there is always McDonalds…
Call BS all you want. I don’t see any “Now Hiring” signs anywhere, unlike just 2 years ago. My college age daughter has a P/T job in retail and they’ve reduced everyone to 10 hours a week. And we supposedly only have an 7% UE rate in my neck of the woods. The Sunday job classifieds in local rag, which used to be 3-4 pages of menial type work is now less than half a page. Plenty of “$10/hr jobs” my azz.
An Embassy Suites opened here last year, and they held a job fair for mostly $10/hr P/T jobs (they had about 80 openings).
TWO THOUSAND PEOPLE showed up to apply for those crappy jobs.
I disagree I know plenty of people looking for minimum wage jobs in San Diego who aren’t having any luck. These are people who are seriously looking.
Well, the ‘help wanted’ classifieds are full of ads here:
Secret shoppers wanted
Postal jobs available
Be-your-own-boss MLM gimmicks abound
all kidding aside, I live in a hard-hit area unemployment-wise and I am surprised by all of the ‘help wanted’ signs I see at local businesses. They are crappy jobs, but still they cannot find anyone to do them.
“I agree, Bill. 20 years ago I barely made minimum wage and my wife and I mostly lived like kings in our minds. We stayed in a cheap, but ok/safe mega apartment complex.”
San Diego was a high cost area to live in even in the 70’s but minimum wage would still cover half the rent. Now it would take three quarters to your entire month’s gross paycheck to cover rent. In 70’s and 80’s construction day labor paid about the same as it does now. You can thank cheap illegal mexican labor for that. Paying for your own schooling and living on one’s own was a lot more do-able then. Most of the young people I know with jobs are under employed.
Yep, Wickedheart, so if one wants to live in SD one has to live with other people. Living “on one’s own” is a luxury that young people should forego in favor of saving.
Sub $10hr does NOT pay the bills.
Bingo. I almost always lived in shared housing pre-marriage. Even working as an engineer and making good money in the Bay Area, rents were so high I just couldn’t see the point in “throwing away money on rent” by getting my own apartment.
One of the skills needed is a good grasp of the English language, sadly a lot of those born in America don’t have those skills and can’t get hired at these places.
———————–
I live in a hard-hit area unemployment-wise and I am surprised by all of the ‘help wanted’ signs I see at local businesses. They are crappy jobs, but still they cannot find anyone to do them.
A study out today (no link sorry heard on KPBS radio) said in San Diego you need to make roughly $18/hr each and have dual income to live a modest life, 2 kids, no cable tv, no vacations, and no saving for retirement. Equal to about $77,000 a year. That is BARE BONES surviving. Minimum wage isn’t going to cut it.
San Diego is an AWFUL place to live if you are trying to make it on your own. Its good if you make $150,000 a year, or have owned your own home for decades (prop 13+appreciation), or are a dual-income no kid couple with good jobs and low overhead.
I live here and am 31 and make $70k a yr, basic cable, no cell phone, cheap 12 year old Honda civic, pay $1500 a month rent for 635 sq ft 1 bd room, invest 15% of my income, since I’ve been in the stock market from 2001 when I entered the workforce my Vanguard account says my lifetime earnings on top of my contributions is negative $20,000. This is using textbook asset allocations for my 20’s, 90% stock and all mutual funds and ETFs diversified across small cap, mid cap, growth, value, and international.
Defense contractor I work for who supplies most of the good jobs in San Diego (second only to Qualcomm) is struggling and on-going layoffs will be accelerating next month. In my 10 year high tech career I’ve already been though two layoffs, both times operations moved to lower cost areas of the world.
So I can easily see how someone at 35 even if they did all the right things, had to deal with globalization, outsourcing, stagnant wages, mushroom clouds for their investments through two awful recessions since entering the workforce, and housing prices doubling.
Yea I’m there too, the sad thing is everyone I know my age is in the same boat. These are all college educated, engineers, sales people, and project managers, not some waiters, construction workers, or farmers.
Tell me again how first time homebuyers even exist in this city? I am frugal, save, and invest and I’m struggling in this city. When I was growing up here it was possible to own a home on a realistic income, just a little over 10 years ago in fact…. now the answer is easy, move.
“These are all college educated, engineers, sales people, and project managers, not some waiters, construction workers, or farmers.”
I think the world could use a few more farmers and a few less salesman. As for engineers, do you know why they wear ties?
That’s to hold the 4skin down.
Your point is taken though.
The 635 sqft apartment above is renting at almost 5 times the $/sqft I’m paying for my house in Houston. San Diego is worth a premium, just not sure it is worth a 375% fee.
When the layoffs here near NASA/JSC get rolling the premium will go up even more. If my job gets axed, maybe I can drain the pool and get a Californian to move into my “510 sqft basement studio”
I live here and am 31 and make $70k a yr, basic cable, no cell phone, cheap 12 year old Honda civic, pay $1500 a month rent for 635 sq ft 1 bd room, invest 15% of my income, since I’ve been in the stock market from 2001 when I entered the workforce my Vanguard account says my lifetime earnings on top of my contributions is negative $20,000. This is using textbook asset allocations for my 20’s, 90% stock and all mutual funds and ETFs diversified across small cap, mid cap, growth, value, and international.
Whatever you do, don’t listen to those weirdos who tell you to put your money into the “barbarous relic”. After all, it’s definitely in a bubble, as you can tell from all the people talking about their tremendous gains around the water cooler. You have to stay in the stock market!
big meanies!
“The rejected bill would also have provided $16 billion in new aid to states, preserving the jobs of thousands of state and local government workers and providing what White House officials called an insurance policy against a double-dip recession.”
“preserving the jobs of thousands of UNIONIZED state and local government workers…”
There, I fixed it for you.
Bill, what’s your opinion of the Greenville area? I know you said something about it when I asked about the Western North Carolina area, but I’m curious about the winters there.
Palmy, this past winter was the coldest in many years according to long-time residents. But so was Florida, as we found out when we went to Sarasota in January.
Winter here will normally see about 7 nights when the temp gets below freezing, and maybe one or two days when it doesn’t hit at least 40 for the high. Our daffodils break through the mulch in early January and are blooming by late January to early February. Snow (once or twice a winter) normally doesn’t stick to the streets, and melts in other areas by late morning.
We’re near a large lake, which moderates the temps in both winter and summer. In Greenville itself, the average January high is 50.2 degrees and the average low is 31.4 degrees.
Nearby NC is in the mountains and they get a lot more cold and snow. There are even a couple of ski resorts less than two hours from Greenville.
“Nothin’ could be finer…”
Thanks, Bill. Mainly I’m concerned about icy rain, but it sounds like it doesn’t last long. I would imagine it’s a real adventure driving in the mountains during the winter. Greenville seems to be more Piedmont. Looks like you’ve got a couple of large lakes in your area: Keowee, Hartwell. Can you swim in those or do they have gators? Looking at the map, it seems like those lakes are part of the Savannah river chain.
Bailouts are bailouts. It is good to say “NO” to more spending for once at least.
They can get away with spending on wars because “provide for the common defense” is in the constitution. They have a tougher time justifying picking the pocket of Peter to pay Paul because “promote the general welfare” does not mean “provide the general welfare.”
The authors of the constitution used “provide” in one phrase and “promote” in a nearby phrase as a reminder for future generations that there are distinct meanings. But apparantly future generations were ignorant. Hence Johnson’s “War on Poverty, etc.”
They can get away with spending on wars because “provide for the common defense”
When did Afghanistan or Iraq declare war on us? If we have a problem with terrorists, then seal the damn borders!
Yes it’s a slippery slope. This is why I want the U.S. to pull out from being the world’s policeman.
I just don’t buy any argument that since we must rob Peter to be the world’s policeman, we also must rob Peter to pay welfare for Paul.
Across the board spending cuts are going to have to happen in the U.S. sooner or later. The sooner, the less painful.
Needless to say, those wars keep a lot of people employed. Got an ex-Marine back at home now because they wouldn’t let him re-up, and he’s looking for work in a dismal market.
Got an ex-Marine back at home now because they wouldn’t let him re-up, and he’s looking for work in a dismal market.
It says a lot about how dismal the economy is when there are two wars being fought and the military can be picky about who wears the uniform.
Across the board spending cuts are going to have to happen in the U.S. sooner or later.
I agree.
“Got an ex-marine at home now because they wouldn’t let him re-up and he’s looking for work in a dismal market. ”
First of all there’s no such thing as an ex-marine. I kind of got to think something’s up with that. I know the Air Force has been down-sizing but the Marines, there has to be a reason they aren’t interested in keeping him.
First of all there’s no such thing as an ex-marine.
Once a Marine, always a Marine.
You are either too young or suffering from “Old Timers”. Johnson initiated the War on Poverty because our cities were burning. And they were burning because people were so poor they had nothing to lose.
Don’t feel bad, Marie Antoinette couldn’t see the connection either.
And as I recall, the French government spent money on lavish BS like it was going out of style. Good thing we don’t have that here in the U.S.
Exactly.
As I understand it, the debate isn’t so much as to whether its a good thing to extend UE bennies. The Republicans want to fund the extension through cuts in other areas of the big bloated government, and the Dems want to borrow to pay for most of it.
Hey Kim,
At what point are the UE “too big to fail?”
Hmmm, the Dems have 60 Senators do they not? Then they should be able to pass whatever they want.
Harry Reid is upset becasue he can see that the good people of NV are going to throw him out, just like yesterdays trash.
59 if you include LIEberman and Sanders. Regardless, a simple majority should be sufficient to pass such legislation. Why not force the obstructionists to actually filibuster rather than block action through threats to do so?
When is the last time Sanders voted with the Republicans? I suspect never.
The Dems control the House, the Senate and they have the POTUS. They own the recovery or the lack thereof whether they think its fair or not.
The filibuster is an incredibly powerful tool. You need 60 senators to pass a vote. Democrats have used reconciliation only for health care. They would use it for unemployment benefits if they were convinced that the majority of Americans were for extending them. But the tide has turned on stimulus.
The Dems do NOT control the Senate because of the filibuster rules.
AND a few “blue-dog” Dems have seen that their constituents are fed up with Big Gov, at least the idea of it.
“a simple majority should be sufficient to pass such legislation. Why not force the obstructionists to actually filibuster rather than block action through threats to do so?”
They want to be able to drag it out in Nov. and say the bad repubs are keeping you from your “free stuff”.
“Harry Reid is upset becasue he can see that the good people of NV are going to throw him out, just like yesterdays trash.”
You’re hallucinating. Harry Reid is virtually a shoe-in for re-election. His opponent, Sharon Angle, is running on a platform of phasing out Social Security and Medicare. That’s not going to fly with voters. Even right wingers like Bill in Carolina shudder at the thought. They like “their entitlements” as much as anyone, and don’t you ever forget it.
Grizzly,
The sad thing is some of those people don’t understand Social Security is an entitlement. So I’m sure Bill in Carolina would probably vote to eliminate social security.
Umm, so an “entitlement” is something I pay for with my own money then? I’d be more than happy to fork over what I’ve been forced to pay in over the past 20 years in exchange for not having to pay over the next 20.
Grizzly you’re wrong. I would be delighted to see a phase-out of both Soc Sec and Medicare, including my own, just not 100% all at one time (too much chaos).
No, I’m not, and the votes will show that. Open up your eyes, az_lender, not everybody is swimming in cash like you. You’re the top 1%.
Kicking old people to the curb is not the sort of country to be proud of.
“Kicking old people to the curb is not the sort of country to be proud of.”
Typical progressive scare tactic. Attempting to make these programs sustainable or phasing them out over a substantial period of time is something we can all be proud of. The alternative is bankruptcy.
They could have asked the unemployed to work for their benefits, rather than cutting them off entirely, if they were worried about people being unwilling to work.
Now that the wealth of the wealthy has been preserved by shifting the associated debts to the public sector and the next generation, it seems, the time for government action on behalf of anyone else is over.
They could have asked the unemployed to work for their benefits,
Then you have to make up all sorts of dumb jobs, or put them in jobs others get paid for now. I just don’t see how that works. I’m not sure our workforce has the will or stamina to do CCC type work.
They should learn. Then we would get something useful for the tax dollars spent, hydro projects and a real “workforce”.
They should learn. Then we would get something useful for the tax dollars spent, hydro projects and a real “workforce”.
I agree. Stamina is something that can be developed. It’s called learning how to work the job.
we would get something useful for the tax dollars spent, hydro projects and a real “workforce”
Yeah, you just can’t help feeling the first stimulus was totally squandered. Can anyone identify a single useful thing that came out of it? (And please don’t tell me teachers and firefighters got to keep their overpriced jobs/pensions).
“Yeah, you just can’t help feeling the first stimulus was totally squandered. Can anyone identify a single useful thing that came out of it? (And please don’t tell me teachers and firefighters got to keep their overpriced jobs/pensions).”
Why is it that the public thinks it’s the rank and file that’s ripping off the public with their ridiculous salaries? When administrators negociate their salaries there isn’t a peep about it in the local fishwrap. The superintendent position in the SDUSD pays twice what it di 10 years ago.
I don’t think you’d last a day in my husband’s job and if you did you have a new appreciation for what he does. Most likely you’d think he wasn’t paid enough.
No kidding Wickedheart. Blame J6P while the Bankstas get trillions. But at least you know who the sock puppets are around here.
This is the attitude that got into this mess and why we’ll never fix it. It’s also we’re doomed.
My local government installation got hurricae repairs out of it. Hope they get done blasting the mold off the walls before the next one blows through.
No kidding Wickedheart. Blame J6P while the Bankstas get trillions.
Hey, I include the bankstas in the category of squandered stimulus, but the unfunded pensions of the public sector is ridiculous. Work 20 or 30 years and be taken care of for the rest of your life (probably another 20 to 30 years) not to mention healthcare etc. The amount they contribute to their pensions is no where near enough to cover this. I didn’t say “please don’t tell me the bankstas got trillions to maintain their life style” as I figured this was a given.
I’m not sure our workforce has the will or stamina to do CCC type work
Exactly the point. If they want unemployment benefits, they do CCC type work. If they don’t do the work, no benefits. I imagine that might make people decide to take different work. I personally know 4 people who were or are chronically unemployed.
Person 1: Spend a long time touring Europe staying in hostels and the like. Perfectly able-bodied. Bragged about how he could go online and connect to get his unemployment check auto-deposited. This person spent a lot of time in Europe at tax payer expense. Working CCC type work to get his money would have prevented this ridiculousness.
Person 2: Sits at home all day watching TV. Does not try for a job. Does not want a job. Pleased as punch every time benefits are extended. Brags about being a genius (unrelated to milking benefits. Seriously thinks she’s got a super-genius IQ). The most work she does is figure out how to scam unemployment. Perfectly able-bodied. CCC would fix this person’s wagon.
Person 3: Sits at home all day watching TV. 4 weeks after being laid off was offered his old job back. No sir. Would not take it back. Sitting on the couch and getting free unemployment is better (too bad employers didn’t say something so his benefits would be cut off). Not trying to get a job. CCC would fix this guy’s wagon.
Person 4: Truly feel bad about this guy. As far as I can tell he’s really trying to find a job. Apparently unwilling to lower his standards, but he’s capable and it seems he should be able to find something for what he does, but he cannot.
75% of these people are what I’ve been raised to call deadbeats. If the ratio were 25% deadbeats, maybe I’d feel differently. As it is, make them work for their money. Soup kitchens, road maintenance, whatever. Letting them sit on the couch all day watching TV is bogus.
Oh, for pete’s sake. A lady who’s a someone I’ve hired just asked me if I’d like to work for her as a painter.
I sure as hell would! Even though I’m 53 and would have to develop a bit of that stamina I’ve been typin’ about.
Why? Because I’ve worked with her on handy-projects here at the Arizona Slim Ranch, and she’s a blast to work with.
Plus, I’m always looking for opportunities to learn new things. Even if those opportunities come dressed in old painting clothes and look like hard work.
Michael see my response below…Your idea wont work in today’s world. Once you get past the high school dropouts needing a GED ,or entry level /older displaced people with no computer skills…
Your idea would be punishment to people (like me)who would need a real job to put on their resume to compete in the marketplace…… And I object!
Can define “real job” for me. I suspect instead of “real” you mean “ideal” or “perfect” or “paid as much as I think I’m worth”. Growing up I spent a lot of time in fields picking berries, garlic and things like that. At the time I actually considered that to be a real job. Even now I consider it to have been a real job. I did real work and I received real money. I didn’t like doing it but I liked having money a lot better than the alternative.
I don’t know much of anything about you other than what you write here but I believe if I were you I’d have a job. It would not be the “ideal” or “perfect” job, but it would be one that paid the bills. I’d be frugal as I could and I’d most likely have roommates. I’d be advertising my DJ skills on telephone poles and around schools and wherever else and using word-of-mouth to try to get gigs. I would not be asking Uncle Sam to put credit onto my credit card so I could spend money and stimulate the economy.
I don’t know much of anything about you other than what you write here but I believe if I were you I’d have a job. It would not be the “ideal” or “perfect” job, but it would be one that paid the bills. I’d be frugal as I could and I’d most likely have roommates. I’d be advertising my DJ skills on telephone poles and around schools and wherever else and using word-of-mouth to try to get gigs.
I volunteer at a community radio station here in Tucson. Most of our deejays are volunteers, and some of them have been with KXCI for decades.
I know for a fact that several of them deejay outside of KXCI. Don’t know exactly how they parlay their KXCI airtime into paying gigs elsewhere, but they’re doing it.
You folks do know that a STRICT requirement for UEI is a required number of job applications each week, right? And each extension raises that number, right?
And they DO spot check your applications. And they DO cut you off if you don’t meet their requirements, because believe me, they will do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING to kick you off UEI.
So your anecdotes are just that, anecdotes.
Well Michael I did too…….But if you really wanted to get welfare and unemployed people back to work…you have to really lose that punishment attitude, it’s 2010…
Employers want you to work in your field even if its for less then minimum wage as an “intern”…and guvment welfare programs is not geared to thinking like this….
You ideas were good 20 years ago….
As far as dj’ing goes my bread and butter business High school reunions 40th 50 birthday anniversaries etc have dried up…people cant afford to go to the HS reunion and everyone thinks they can be a dj with an ipod..
I am receiving some interest in future jobs because i am still working for less then min wage as an intern at a internet radio station….
so yes a little stimulus money would greatly be appreciated..since a FT job FT pay is not happening this week.
—————————–
I did real work and I received real money.
WT:
All those Back to work welfare unemployment programs are useless a waste of taxpayers money and just provide work for union workers or here in NYC outsourced companies….the money would be far better spend just giving the money to the welfare/ unemployed recipients and laying off the “do gooders”.
The biggest problem is like Montana says,,,If you could be matched with a job in your field so it looks like you were still working ….that would be Ideal.
But that requires guv workers to be smart. What good will it do if a paralegal is working in the parks dept picking up trash, to a prospective employer?
Even what is considered entry level, low paying jobs want experience these days.
“Oh, I see you’ve never been a janitor/dishwasher/waiter/porter/gofer/cashier before. Sorry, we only want experienced people.”
Eco:
trust me..i was turned down from a job 3 blocks away a self storage facility I had no recent front counter experience.
Yet the last 3 people they fired was for not showing up on time and having customers wait at the locked gate.
We all started somewhere. I was a busboy for awhile. I cooked pizzas after that. Before any of that I had a morning paper route. I have even changed tires. You want to talk about a thankless job. But I tried to be the best g-damn tire buster there.
I know it’s tough out there. I can also guarantee I wouldn’t lie around waiting for someone to recognize my true hidden genius.
“You’ll hear a lot of excuses,” Mr. Reid said at a news conference. “The bottom line is the minority just said no.”
“TrueDoNothing™ / “TrueObstructionists™ / TrueGridLokers™”
Funny how the “TrueBeliever’s™ / “TrueDeceiver’s™” “TrueHypocrite™” / “TruePurit’s” keep teachin’ the Democrapts how to use political tools of frustration, their current behavior might have some “right-back-at-ya” application, …a lil’ further on down the road & around the bend…
One should define that word “minority”. If the “majority” said yes, the thing would have passed.
The majority in the Senate said yes. Unfortunately you need 60 to vote against a filibuster.
Please don’t confuse our politically naive around here with facts.
Greece puts its islands up for sale to save economy.
Desperate attempt to repay debts also driven by inability to find funds to develop infrastructure on islands ~ guardian.co.uk 24 June 2010
Mykonos Greece is raising cash by selling off an area of state-owned land on Mykonos for luxury tourism.
There’s little that shouts “seriously rich” as much as a little island in the sun to call your own. For Sir Richard Branson it is Neckar in the Caribbean, the billionaire Barclay brothers prefer Brecqhou in the Channel Islands, while Aristotle Onassis married Jackie Kennedy on Skorpios, his Greek hideway.
Now Greece is making it easier for the rich and famous to fulfill their dreams by preparing to sell, or offering long-term leases on, some of its 6,000 sunkissed islands in a desperate attempt to repay its mountainous debts.
The Guardian has learned that an area in Mykonos, one of Greece’s top tourist destinations, is one of the sites for sale. The area is one-third owned by the government, which is looking for a buyer willing to inject capital and develop a luxury tourism complex, according to a source close to the negotiations.
“The area is one-third owned by the government, which is looking for a buyer willing to inject capital and develop a luxury tourism complex, according to a source close to the negotiations.”
This makes good sense for Greece. Getting the bucks for selling the island is a one-time hit, but getting tax revenue as a return of private investment capital will be a continuous revenue flow for Greece in the coming years.
The benifit of selling islands is the buyer can’t take the island with him. This isn’t true of other things, such as artworks, Greece may want/need to sell to in order to raise much-needed cash.
They are not making any more Greek islands. There has never been a better time to buy.
Wonder how much we could get for the Hawaiian Islands?
“Wonder how much we could get for the Hawaiian Islands?”
The advantage of the Greek islands is they’re a lot closer to a lot more people. It’s going to get a lot more expensive to reach Hawaii in the coming years as fuel prices rise.
However, Hawaii would make a nice base for China and they’ve got lots of cash - maybe not such a good idea.
Japan would be a more likely purchaser.
GREEK-A-THON!
France just raised there’s to 62, and the bed-wetters are going on strike.
Pension age: Ministers to speed up rise to 66.
Thursday, 24 June 2010 UK
The government is to speed up plans to raise the state pension age for men to 66, possibly by as early as 2016.
Ministers will also raise the option of extending it further, perhaps to 70 and beyond in the following decades.
The default retirement age of 65 - at which workers can be legally axed by employers - is also set to be axed.
The French are upset because they have to work and Americans are upset because they can’t find work.
I doubt jobs are plentiful in France. So the French are going to be upset X2.
Obvious solution: Deport unemployed Americans to France.
Parlez-vous français?
Fannie Mae wants to ban homeowners who do walk away from their mortgages from getting new loans for seven years.
Those bastards! Its just unconstitutional. Home-ownership is a right.
Walking away from your mortgage is a God-given right.
But then, so is a lender’s discretion to disqualify a debtbeat’s loan application.
It’s true.
http://www.fanniemae.com/newsreleases/2010/5071.jhtml
I don’t think it’s good for our cause though.
Hard to say how supply side effect (fewer walkaway homes coming back on to the market) and the demand side effect (fewer qualified buyers over the next seven years) will balance out, but my guess is that the direct impact of this policy change on the lending market will favor those with good credit scores, as the easy-money-fueled investor class, whose members gladly walk away from their obligations at the drop of a hat, will be sidelined for the foreseeable future.
I applaud “flatten-the-flipper” policies, regardless of the source.
be like the banks and treat your house as an off balance sheet asset.
Wow the first good news I heard from that organization. I hope they get their way.
Fannie Mae Increases Penalties for Borrowers Who Walk Away
Seven-Year Lockout Policy for Strategic Defaulters
WASHINGTON, DC — Fannie Mae (FNM/NYSE) announced today policy changes designed to encourage borrowers to work with their servicers and pursue alternatives to foreclosure. Defaulting borrowers who walk-away and had the capacity to pay or did not complete a workout alternative in good faith will be ineligible for a new Fannie Mae-backed mortgage loan for a period of seven years from the date of foreclosure. Borrowers who have extenuating circumstances may be eligible for new loan in a shorter timeframe.
“We’re taking these steps to highlight the importance of working with your servicer,” said Terence Edwards, executive vice president for credit portfolio management. “Walking away from a mortgage is bad for borrowers and bad for communities and our approach is meant to deter the disturbing trend toward strategic defaulting. On the flip side, borrowers facing hardship who make a good faith effort to resolve their situation with their servicer will preserve the option to be considered for a future Fannie Mae loan in a shorter period of time.”
It’ll be the best thing that ever happened to the borrowers. They should be forced to attend Flippers Anonymous meetings as well to help them keep off the hooch.
BS, but when the tsunami of foreclosed homes hits them they’re going to change their mind. There is no way to avoid that millions of former FBs will be the only people able to buy their foreclosures.
What will be the future of Fannie and Freddie? They are now delisted from the stock exchange, stocks worth only pennies. Will they be phased out or turned into the full government entities that they have lately become? If I were in charge I’d phase them out by slowly liquidating their “assets” and in future let banks keep their mortgages or sell them to each other. Since banks surely don’t want that to happen, it will probably be at least five years before the government can phase out the GSEs.
I not a banker, can’t fathom the mindset…help me out here:
1. banks own loans
2. banks own loans & homes
3. banks own loans & claims homes is in limbo
4. banks own loans & homes & limbo
What is the preferred Sit-U-Ation???????????
My thoughts as well.
Those are my expectations too, Lip.
Mine, too Lip. They are saber rattling.
There is going to be such a rush for the exits come Back2School that banks will be forced to do something they don’t want to. Pour foreclosures into the marketplace. City gov moves slow, but when they realize they can fill their coffers by passing ordinances that force banks to upkeep these turds, or pay a stiff DAILY penalty (each day is a fresh NEW offence), banks will first cry, then they will ignore (where we are now), and then they will do everything in their power to off these things. When it comes down to a city clouding a title so banks can’t sell at all until they pay those fines, air pushers will get smelly. A few cities are trailblazing this effort right now- when other cities see just how easy they can do it too, look out.
I remember at the end of the S&L disaster, you could literally talk a bank into occupying property just on the promise of upkeep.
I did.
Well, F&F CAN’T “ban” deadbeat homeowners from getting new loans. Because private lenders WILL step in! ha hahahahahha! as I am doing right now.
So true, go get em AZ Lender.
Families on the brink of ‘insolvency crisis’ after decade-long credit card binge. dailymail.co.uk
Debt stress: Thousands of families are spiralling into insolvency
Families are drowning in debt after a decade-long binge on credit cards.
The Bank of England today warns lenders are writing off record quantities of credit card borrowings as thousands of individuals spiral into insolvency.
Lenders are responding by pushing up interest rates even higher, putting more families in financial trouble, the Bank said in its Financial Stability Report.
However, families are saving more money than they are borrowing for the first time in more than 20 years, according to a Bank of England report.
“The consumer” as a whole, is just too big to fail. Give ‘em all more credit because they represent systemic risk. Isn’t that about where we are at?
Yes.
What are personal BK laws like in the UK?
“…after decade-long credit card binge…”
Why now, after so many decades of binging?
What is so special about now?
“What’s so special about now?”
There’s no money now.
Why can’t they just print more money as needed, given the existence of a printing press technology?
Wow! What a great idea! Than everyone can be made rich!
C’mon, everyone knows that the Brits are marathon bingers!
They should just borrow that lady who helps the Canadians on TV. Seems that cutting a few trips to the mall, rolling cat food expenses into your miscellaneous budget category and picking up a few hour of overtime is enough to pay off 6 or 7 years of overspending by $1000 a month or more in 18 months.
“Til Debt Do Us Part” is the name of the show.
picking up a few hour of overtime
What’s that? The only people I know who work overtime are salaried folks, and they don’t get paid for it.
Too funny…rolling cat food expenses
I haven’t run up my credit cards. I own my home. I’m a saver. Heck, I even have my kids college paid-for twice over.
I want to be known as a FS. How does that sound or is there another, better term?
Roidy
P.S. Hmm, instead of Roidy maybe I should go by the name Complete Idiot? Opnions?
I wouldn’t brag too much if I were you. The government might decide you’ve done something wrong and decide to audit you.
Remember, the government and the corporations just “allow” you use that money. You don’t really think it’s yours, do you?
Note: It is widely believed the recession has ended, although the recovery is weak. Notice that the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) has not said the recession is over, and it is the official arbiter of beginnings and endings of economic cycles.
It seems like the end of this recession is going worse than expected.
For instance, is the stock market tanking by ten percent (as it did this spring — first in one day(!), then more gradually and quasi-permanently) a normal harbinger of green shoots?
When are they going to do a recovery for the recovery? Its like deja-vu all over again.
“What if they gave a recovery and nobody came?” -John Lennon
Widely believed by exactly whom?
Perhaps anyone whose paycheck depends on the corpo-media?
It ended for Wall St. months ago.
Main St.? What recovery?
House, Senate leaders finalize details of sweeping financial overhaul.
Washington Post ~ June 25, 2010
Key House and Senate lawmakers agreed on far-reaching new financial rules early Friday after weeks of division, delay and frantic last-minute deal making. The dawn compromise set up a potential vote in both houses of Congress next week that could send the landmark legislation to President Obama by July 4.
Lawmakers pulled an all-nighter, wrapping up their work at 5:39 a.m. — more than 20 messy, mind-numbing, exhaustive hours after they began Thursday morning.
“It’s a great moment. I’m proud to have been here,” said a teary-eyed Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), who as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee led the effort in the Senate. “No one will know until this is actually in place how it works. But we believe we’ve done something that has been needed for a long time. It took a crisis to bring us to the point where we could actually get this job done.”
Both the House and Senate must approve the compromise legislation before it can go to Obama for his signature.
Despite myriad changes in recent days, Democrats appear poised to deliver a final bill that largely reflects the administration’s original blueprint unveiled almost precisely a year ago. While it would not fundamentally alter the shape of Wall Street or break up the nation’s largest firms, the legislation would establish broad new oversight of the financial system.
A new consumer protection bureau housed in the Federal Reserve would have independent funding, an independent leader and near-total autonomy to write and enforce rules. The government would have broad new powers to seize and wind down large, failing financial firms and to oversee the $600-trillion derivatives market. In addition, a council of regulators, headed by the Treasury secretary, would monitor the financial landscape for potential systemic risks.
“The finish line is in sight. The bill that has emerged from conference is strong,” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said in a statement early Friday. “It will offer families the protections they deserve, help safeguard their financial security and give the businesses of American access to the credit they need to expand and innovate.”
“No one will know until this is actually in place how it works.”
Now that’s comforting.
Well just remember, Crissy was crying at the time, so he was a little befuddled.
“The government would have broad new powers to seize and wind down large, failing financial firms and to oversee the $600-trillion derivatives market.”
This is actually a reinstatement of powers. What ever happened to our membership in ISDA? Does anyone know how the OTC market got disconnected from ISDA oversight?
“In addition, a council of regulators, headed by the Treasury secretary, would monitor the financial landscape for potential systemic risks.”
Again, this is a reinstatement of powers. The repeals put us here. They are puffing the so called “fix,” of something they were part of dismantling.
this is a reinstatement of powers. The repeals put us here
This makes no sense. How can the government grant or deny itself powers via legislation. Such a change would require a constitutional amendment, no?
But actually, the governments (state and federal) have always had the power to dissolve failing firms. They issue corporate charters, and they have the right to revoke them at any time, for any reason.
I think that citizens should be able to revoke corporate charters at any time by a plurality of votes in a referendum. Furthermore, this power should be exercised frequently and capriciously, to underline the point that the people are ultimately in charge. For example, we think your new corporate logo is ugly, so poof, you’re outta here.
From Wiki -
ISDA was initially created in 1985[2] as the International Swap Dealers Association and subsequently changed its name switching swap dealers to Swaps and Derivatives. This change was made to focus more attention on their efforts to improve the more broad derivatives markets and away from strictly interest rate swap contracts.
Mark C. Brickell was the President of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association from 1988-1992. He helped defeat US Congressional efforts to regulate derivatives in 1994 and again in 1998.
In 2009 a New York Times article mentioned that in 2005 the ISDA allowed rule changes to CDO payouts (Pay as You Go) that would benefit those who bet against (shorted) mortgage-backed securities, like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and others.[3]
California welfare cards can be used in many casino ATMs
“Times review finds that in more than half of the state’s casinos and gaming rooms, welfare recipients can get cash from state-issued EBT cards. Officials say they’re moving to block such transactions”.
CA is so screwed.
The head of their state Senate was on TV last night and the reporter was asking him what the State of CA was doing to stop illegal immigration, because you know they’re going to boycott AZ. He didn’t have an answer, not even a slick lie.
I’m gonna be buying things from that state to try to counteract that boycott. Wish I could go there and spend for a week.
Wish I could go there and spend for a week.
And if you and other HBB-ers came to Tucson, we’d have one heckuva meetup!
I walked by a Planet Pizza and it had a sign “we accept EBT cards.”
May i say, WTF IS UP WITH THIS!
I am all for food stamps and some form or welfare. But never, NEVER give them money. Give them StuFF. I’m talking subsidized project housing and an EBT card that works ONLY at the food-bank or other government-run store. You want pizza? oK, here’s flour, tomatoes, government cheese, and cheap pepperoni. You have time; make your own damn pizza.
I saw this at an El Pollo Loco restaurant in Los Angeles. The sign said that it does require that you be elderly, disabled, or homeless. But still. I might be able to get behind prepared food at the supermarket, but full retail restaurant?
Almost all states have switched to debit cards for welfare and UEI, which are managed by certain banks.
But instead of wondering why BANKS ARE GETTTING A CUT OF WELFARE/UEI, people are still complaining about welfare queens in da hood.
Really, we’re doomed.
How about we blame the d0#@hebags in the state government who thought this was a good idea.
OH JESUS!!! I honestly thought the parties would focus on the economy to try to get voters motivated, but they are going back to their old tricks…
—————-
Texas GOP platform: criminalize gay marriage and ban sodomy, outlaw strip clubs and pornography
The GOP there has voted on a platform that would ban oral and anal sex. It also would give jail sentences to anyone who issues a marriage license to a same-sex couple (even though such licenses are already invalid in the state).
The Lone Star state initially passed a law barring sodomy in 1860. Violators faced anywhere from five to 15 years in prison. The ban was overturned in 2003.
In addition, the platform says that homosexuality “tears at the fabric of society, contributes to the breakdown of the family unit and leads to the spread of dangerous communicable diseases.”
The 25-page proposal, presented last week as a guide for the state GOP over the next two years, includes other measures including outlawing “sexually oriented businesses” like strip clubs and banning “all pornography.”
It’s easier to do this and then later say that activist judges and the Dems blocked our efforts. Promise two chickens in every pot and you might be held responsible if you don’t deliver.
They’ll probably try that too…
Why can’t politicians stay out from my god damn life?
If I wanna buy porn, I have the right to do it
Agreed. More reason to stay away from Texas.
Don’t worry, Brett. You’re not that important. I doubt the jack-booted thugs are going to be breaking down your door any time soon.
LMAO! The GOP is doing this, crazy they want to out law “sexually oriented businesses” like strip clubs and banning “all pornography.”
Where they hell will they hang out? I guess they’ll have to hire in home service.
LOL.
I don’t want to come off as partisan because they’re all bums and hypocrites, but I would bet all of my (shrinking) capital that at least one of the authors of that paper has had a c*ck in his mouth. At least one.
I gay-run-tee,
MrBubble
PS: I’m totally gay-friendly. Just hypocrite unfriendly. I’m with Dante on where the hypocrites belong.
No more handjobs… sad day! lol
How can they enforce that?
THANK YOU MR. BUBBLE!
“…but I would bet all of my (shrinking) capital that at least one of the authors of that paper has had a c*ck in his mouth”
I’m going out to my storage shed….I got a 6 pack of Billy Beer buried in there somewhere, I’m going to put one in my hand and just rub it for a while, with a smile…”
Tankxs Mr. Bubble!
Personally, I think that will lose a whole lot GOP votes there. They like their strip clubs in Texas.
I recently received a telephone call from a conservative group asking my opinion on critical issues facing us, i.e., abortion, gay marriage, gun rights, teenage sex, etc., nothing about the economy.
Wow, that is stupid. One thing to use those issues when trying to deflect criticism from W’s economic mistakes, but now - ? Insanity.
They think they’re separating out the social con independents, but all they’re doing is pissing most people off.
“They think they’re separating out the social con independents, but all they’re doing is pissing most people off.”
BINGO….
And I hope they keep putting the non-issues out front so the public can see just how silly and hypocritical the conservatives are in reality.
i.e., abortion, gay marriage, gun rights, teenage sex, etc.,
I’m in favor of all of ‘em!
How many in AZ do ya think are in favor of FREE Gov’t abortion for illegals?
Quite a few!
Hmmm no Anchor babies quick give them $1000 and the free abortion.
Actually, one of our state Reps is working on a bill to strip the anchor babies of their status as citizens.
Turns out the practice of illegal alien babies becoming citizens is a rarely held law “around the world” and the practice in Az might be changed in the near future.
That’s timely, check out this interview between Karly Rove & AP reporter Father Time:
Father Time: “Hey Karly we need some clarification, could you spare just a moment away from you’re “TrueProvoker ™” Faux News interview with “Sarah the Barracuda”?”
Rove: “Sure,…”
Father Time: “Is the GOP the party of “TruePurity™”
Rove: “That’s correct”
Father Time: “Are Democrapts 100% un-patriotic & Anti American?”
Rove: “Why yes, well to be honest there are a few decent ones, a few”
Father Time: “What is you thoughts on “Dickey Boys” Cheney’s daughter Mary Cheney’s POV for the GOP party?”:
(Mary Cheney joined the Republican gay-straight alliance Republican Unity Coalition and said that sexual orientation should be “a non-issue for the Republican Party,” with a goal of “equality for all gay and lesbian Americans.”)
Rove: “eh, would you like to see my latest dance moves?”
Father Time: “Do you think Dicky Boy Cheney would give “apaddelin” to anyone who would try to arrest his daughter over her sexual orientation & leave his grandson to be raised by a single gay woman?”
Rove: “Oh, look there’s Republican activist and Christian Coalition leader Beverly Russell, gotta go…Hey Beverly, what uppppppppp…”
Drive south on I-35 from Oklahoma into Texas. The very first business you see on the Texas side of the border is a porn store. Big one, too, I guess everything’s bigger in Texas.
I’m tryin’ somethin’ new today, Simply raspberry lemonade with a lil’ gin…Cheers to Ben & all @ our beautiful Nations Nat’l headquarters!
To Molly & Oly…
“I dearly love the state of Texas, but I consider that a harmless perversion on my part, and discuss it only with consenting adults.”
Molly Ivins
Here’s lookin’ at ya kids!
LOL. These guys sure do spend a lot of time thinking about this stuff. If I were in Texas I would show up at a local GOP meeting and demand that the platform cover all the bases: you know, setting different penalties for reach-arounds, salad-tossing, tea-bagging, snowballing… and of course you would have to describe each offense in clear legalise… but the members would likely get so aroused they would explode into one gay supernova orgy…
As a freedom loving communism hating person, I have nobody to vote for. So tired of these issues being front and center on the so called conservative platform. I am a man without a party.
Government Lowers Growth Estimate for 1st Quarter, Up 2.7%- AP
The government lowered its estimate of how much the economy grew in the first quarter of the year, noting that consumers spent less than it previously thought.
Government Estimator Panel Agenda:
9am: Estimating begins - shake magic 8-ball vigorously
Items to be estimated today:
GDP
Obama approval rating
Oil spill recovery volume
Oil spill time frame
Housing recovery?
9:10am: Break for coffee
10:30am-11:am: Spin data and disrtibute to media outlets
11am-5pm: Lunch/Optional Golf
+1
“The government lowered its estimate of how much the economy grew in the first quarter of the year, noting that consumers spent less than it previously thought.”
Do they have a “birth-death” model for that too - assume people that have new jobs that really don’t are spending money they really aren’t? With a variety of means to measure consumer activity, why is that the reason they’re off on the GDP estimate?
Dull. . .dull. . . dull, but immensely important - - the meeting in Toronto of the so-called Group of Twenty. Their main objective? How to deal with the nerve-wracking monetary problems that are bugging most nations, great and small.
“The three days of talks are starting at a lakeside resort north of Toronto where the Group of Eight countries — the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia — will discuss proposals to increase support for maternal and child health care in poor nations and hold an outreach meeting with leaders of seven African nations”.
“President Barack Obama, who was arriving after two months dealing with the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, was not getting a lot of support for his cautionary warnings that countries should not pull back their stimulus efforts too quickly”.
Germany’s Angela Merkel and other European leaders think it’s imperative to save the day by cutting spending. President Obama is not of the same mind. He, and a majority of Congress, believe that if the federal government borrows enough money and puts it in the pockets of
Americans the economy will somehow right itself. They believe consumer spending will pick up, cash registers will ring, and the good times will roll once more.
It’s true that consumers are programmed to spend money they don’t have on things they don’t need, but at the moment a large number of them have been stung by the slowdown and are eager to pay down their debt load, not take on more. Paying off debt extinguishes money. That contributes to the deflationary effect that’s annoying a great many economists.
“Paying off debt extinguishes money.”
So does writing off debt. And the write-offs are swamping the pay-offs.
“And the write-offs are swamping the pay-offs”
Emotionally speaking, how does it make one feel being on the receiving end of those two examples listed above?
Run Hwy, …RUN!
why do you keep running?
Goes way back,…It’s all my big sisters fault, especially when I’d make a comment about who one of my sisters “last weeks” boy friend was dating “this week”…
“Paying off debt extinguishes money.”
So does writing off debt
I know we’ve covered this before, but I really don’t see how these two are the same thing?
paying off debt takes it out of circulation, and due to fractional reserve lending, does seem to result in the “death” of that money..until it’s re-lent.
Writing off debt? Nope, the amount of money in circulation stays the same.
Ok, once more around the corral…
If I borrow $100 from you, I have $100, and you have an IOU for $100. Both the cash that I have and the IOU that you have are considered “money”. So the existence of the loan has increased the total money supply by $100.
If I pay you back, the cash still exists, but the IOU doesn’t. If I default, same result. Either way, the original $100 created by the loan has gone poof.
Lehigh: False. If I borrow $100 from you, only $100 still exists. The $100 iou is not money. For instance, you can’t take that $100 IOU and go buy groceries with it. Further, if you are a bank and you loan $100 you have to have $10 additional in reserve to maintain your reserve level. The IOU is an expectation of future payment, not “money”. Money is a medium of exchange. Further still, the $100 IOU of future payment is offset by future money paid. If you want to use the created/destroyed analogy, $100 of future “money” created is offset by $100 of future “money” destroyed. The net is $0. If you like, you can consider the IOU “money”, but then you would have to consider the $100 debt “anti-money”.
It’s true the $100 IOU is not money - a medium of exchange - but it does have value. Before there was $100 “value” in the world. After the exchange there is somehow >$100 “value” (it’s not $200 because of the risk of repayment, etc.) in the world. Collections agencies exist just for this reason? I’m pretty sure if you go to the right areas and contact the right people, you can sell the IOU for $25 to a guy named Vinnie who will try to get the $100 back - so there is some value in the IOU. In some sense it’s like finding a nugget of gold in your back yard. New value has just been created. I can take it somewhere and sell it. More cash hasn’t been printed, but there is now more “value” in the system.
Mathguy, you know nothing about economics. Read up on measures of the money supply and you will see that IOUs such as bank deposits and commercial paper are included in virtually every one of them. Some economists even include unused credit lines. Watch the movie “Money is Debt” (available online). Learn something, then come back.
Oh. My. God.
Default on the debt and the money is gone. Pay off the debt and the lender can circulated the money again.
But this system can only exist with constant and unlimited growth. Something that just isn’t reality.
Default on the debt and the money is gone.
No, the money is still in circulation. You borrowed it, then presumably spent it = gave it to someone else.
How is it “gone”?
How is it still being in circulation different than you paying it off, then the lender re-lending the money?
Collection companies buy old paper for pennies on the dollar ( 1 to 5 percent of the loan amount); some of this stuff goes back 15+ years but they still work it. Check out Asset Acceptance Corp….. a Leader” in the field of ancient debtery.
drumminj - gotta disagree here. Think about what “writing off debt” means. It’s not just a cross-out on some form - the company/bank that writes off the debt has to actually take money from somewhere else in order to write off the debt; at least as my understanding.
E.g. say a bank has $200 cash, and loans $80 at 10% reserve - “creating” $72 and setting aside $8, with $192 left over cash. Then the borrower defaults. My understanding is the bank can’t just say “oh well” on the $80 they lost - they actually have to subtract it from their remaining reserves - $8 of it from that that was set aside, and $72 from the rest - the $192. So now the bank is left over with $120, when they originally had $80. So yes there is now $80 out there in circulation, but there’s also $80 less assets on the banks’ books.
That’s why the banks started crapping their pants when the default rates started to skyrocket in 2006/2007. At least the ones that didn’t have the right political connections and/or got caught with their pants down (too-risky loans and not enough reserves).
Read between the lines, they’re freaking out. Not a one of them ever confronted anything like this before, they’re just extrapolating revisionist history from GD I. The great social engineers wonder why they can’t engineer mass behavior just a little bit longer.
History is a race between education and catastrophe. - H. G. Wells
I would like to point out that the European countries have a much higher “natural” level of stimulus than the US does during an economic downturn because of their stronger social safety net. They have more generous welfare programs and healthcare under either a socialized medical delivery system or a socialized insurance system. This argument is just the flip side of the one that happened closer to the start of the US process when the Europeans told us that since their regular spending on things like food, low level consumer goods and health care was less dependent on jobs, they did not feel the need to have the government create or save jobs through spending on “shovel ready” projects. It wasn’t that many months ago. Why are people acting like it is something new?
I’ve had x2 cups of joe & still can’t get that much “clarity” tankxs polly
Economic Stimulus Can’t Stop De-Leveraging. ~ Bill Bonner
You say yes, I say no
You say stop and I say go, go, go
Oh, no - The Beatles.
We keep saying the same thing here at The Daily Reckoning. Not because we lack imagination… It’s because things are still the same.
“Outlook for home prices grows darker,” says The Wall Street Journal.
Well, yes. Much darker. Bloomberg:
Sales of US New Houses Plunge to Record Low as Credit Ends
June 23 (Bloomberg) - Purchases of US new homes fell in May to the lowest level on record after a tax credit expired, showing the market remains dependent on government support.
Sales collapsed an unprecedented 33 percent from April to an annual pace of 300,000, less than the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News and the fewest in data going back to 1963, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. Demand in prior months was revised down.
Exceeds Drop Projected
Sales were projected to drop 19 percent to a 410,000 annual pace, according to the median estimate of 76 economists surveyed. Forecasts ranged from 300,000 to 530,000. The government revised April’s purchase rate down to 446,000 from a previously reported 504,000.
Hey, what happened to that $12 trillion worth of stimulus spending, guarantees and bailouts? We said it wouldn’t work from the get-go. They said ‘yes, it will.’ We said ‘no, it won’t.’ Can we have our money back?
Last week’s report showed that used or existing houses were not selling. Now we find that new houses are selling even worse. The tax credit doesn’t really expire until the end of this month. But you can’t build a new house in 4 weeks, so the May new house data reflects the end of the credit.
You’ve heard the expression, ‘bad money after good’? Well, stimulus money was bad money from the beginning. It headed down the drain the minute it left the bank. Trillions of dollars wasted. And for what?
That’s the interesting thing. The feds couldn’t really stop the process of de-leveraging. They could make-believe…with federal spending projects that looked a little like real work…and handouts that looked like real income.
Stock market futures are up, so Wall Street must be fond of this reform legislation package!
Wall St. reformation
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, center, and Sen. Jack Reed, right, talk during a recess as congressional negotiators worked through Thursday night and well into Friday morning.
• Checklist: How oversight will change (WSJ.com)
• Bill’s anything but comprehensive (24/7 Wall St.)
House and Senate negotiators strike a deal on far-reaching legislation to reform the oversight of banks and much of financial services. Key provisions include:
• Creation of new consumer protection entity
• Adoption of ‘Volcker Rule’ limits on trading
• Audits of the Federal Reserve’s lending plans
• ‘Bank tax’ to cover future bailouts
• Forced divestiture of derivatives units
What reform?
GOP Shoots Down Business Tax Breaks, Jobless Aid. (AP)
A Democratic plan to provide additional aid to jobless workers, businesses and cash-strapped states failed in the U.S. Senate on Thursday in the face of solid Republican opposition.
The bill, which would have extended a set of popular business tax breaks and raised taxes on investment fund managers, fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance in the 100-member Senate.
Democrats had hoped the package, which would have provided additional jobless aid for hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers, would help boost fragile economic growth. But Republicans argued it would have added too much red ink to the $1.4 trillion budget deficit.
Eff the Republicrat and Demublican parties. Eff ‘em with a stick.
“Eff ‘em with a stick.”
Eff them with a ballot box, they’ll feel more pain.
Old MacDonald is your friend, just remember EIEIO.
Every Incumbent, Every Incumbent, Out.
“But Republicans argued it would have added too much red ink to the $1.4 trillion budget deficit.”
Shrub: “Dang it Dick, we just can’t spend anymore taxpayer’s money lookin’ for WMD’s in Iraq… where the heck do ya think the b@stard hid ‘em anywho?”
Next month’s headlines will be interesting!
“Unemployment drops by 1.4 million, UNEXPECTEDLY!”
It will be interesting to see how they spin things once the Census workers are done, which is alread happening. 1 million+ will hit the unemployment line. I’m sure they’ll find a way to keep U3 at under 10%.
When I worked at Census 2000, people were let go in groups of about 10 to 20 percent as things wound down after June 1st; By August 15th (my lay off date) there were only a few supervisory staff left.
California welfare recipients withdraw cash at casino ATMs.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/la-me-welfare-casinos-20100625,0,1615510.story?track=rss
Republican lawmakers are now calling on the administration to track down the people who withdrew cash at gaming centers and recover the money.
“I’d say that $227,000 per month is an astounding waste of taxpayer dollars,” said Seth Unger, spokesman for Assembly Republican Leader Martin Garrick of Solana Beach. “To me it is absolutely clear that the department failed in its duty to provide oversight. We should explore all options to get the money back.”
There’s gonna be some schadenfreude happening!
“Republican lawmakers are now calling on the administration to track down the people who withdrew cash at gaming centers and recover the money.”
Hey, that’s a great idea for government jobs! Hire someone to find all the money the gubmint wasted! Kinda like the old army joke about digging a hole and filling it back in to keep the soldiers busy.
TTT Sez…
Geithner says US can ‘no longer drive global growth’
Friday, 25 June 2010 UK
Timothy Geithner says the world “cannot depend as much on the US as it has in the past”
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has told the BBC that the world “cannot depend as much on the US as it did in the past”.
He said that other major economies would have to grow more for the global economy to prosper.
He also played down any differences in policy between the US and Europe regarding deficit reduction.
Mr Geithner was speaking in Washington ahead of G8 and G20 meetings this weekend in Toronto.
He said all members of the group were “focused on the challenge of [building] growth and confidence”, and would be working to this end at the meetings.
It’s chilling when that man uses the word “confidence”.
Simplifing TTT’s statement
The middle class in the USA is dead!
Mission accomplished!
BP spills coffee:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AAa0gd7ClM
Awesome clip, pressboard.
pressboard, you’re here in Florida, right? If so, what part? Jax?
New Smyrna Beach 32168
Nice area, or used to be. Used to like to boogie board off the beaches there.
BWAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! (fpss™)
So, when was Big Oil going to stop?…4,500…5,500…6,500…7,500
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gulf_Coast_Platforms.jpg
Dont,…Stop!….Don’t,…Stop!….Don’t,…Stop!….Don’t,…Stop!
On conservative Stuart Varney’s Fox News show this morning Steve Meister, a Real Estate businessman is predicting a double dip recession in real estate, leading to a double dip recession on main street. He’s predicting a 10 to 25% additional drop in real estate prices from the current level.
I’ve got news for Steve Meister: The recession never ended on Main St.
True. Maybe I misheard and he meant for Wall Street a double dip.
At least some of Main Street believes it’s doing just fine. Last summer not much moved over $250k in residential home prices. In the last month the $300 - $450ks have seem some one and two weeks DOM, a $600k moved in the same time frame a few weeks earlier. If they’re clean, they’re gone. I think financially many see themselves as doing just fine.
Acquaintances of ours that just upgraded to a much larger home w/bigger tax burden are now shopping for a $35k vehicle. He’s in commercial real estate (architect). Private school for 4 too.
Got my car serviced the other day. Almost every car alongside mine looked brand spanking new so I asked the service rep. She said sales have been brisk of late. The gov’s shill work is working its magic on those that missed the blade of layoffs.
Last summer not much moved over $250k in residential home prices. In the last month the $300 - $450ks have seem some one and two weeks DOM
Not out here, the sweet spot is around 200K. 300K+ just languishes.
Got my car serviced the other day. Almost every car alongside mine looked brand spanking new so I asked the service rep. She said sales have been brisk of late.
I took my car in for a free oil change at the dealer on a Saturday. The place was a ghost town, which didn’t surprise me as new cars with the ubiquitous temporary paper tags are a rare sight out here these days.
We bought a MINI Cooper 2 years ago. BAck then the dealer had ZERO Inventory and the place was packed with people placing orders (us included). Fast forward to today: Tons of new MINIs on the lot with incentives.
Same here in 85310 and 85383, If they’re clean, owned by a bank, they’re gone. If they’re a short sale, they languish on the market with the banks trying to get other offers.
we can only hope
Praise God for inventing level-headed Kansans!
Bair: Ending ‘too big to fail’
June 25, 2010
FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair talks to WSJ economics editor David Wessel about the financial-regulatory legislation pending in Congress, the current health of the banking business and what it’s like to be the sole woman among a band of powerful men.
Mortgage rates are down again, as are other rates.
Aside from those under water, this means there is yet another opportunity for people and others to get out of those variable rate debt and lock in cheap money, at the cost of paying a little more per month than they already are.
Will there be many takers?
Don’t forget that low mortgage rates and unaffordable home prices go hand in hand.
Sheila Baer says that under financial reform, they have a “nuclear bomb that they hope they will never have to use” which could be used to break up failing Megabanks. I like the sounds of this!
Wessel: “Why aren’t banks lending more?”
CIBT: Would you loan out your money for a return near zero in a market where the risk of losing money is inordinately high? Where is the upside?
What if Uncle Timmay’s got your back?
I saw an article by Greg Mankiw the other day suggesting that the FED lend to banks with a negative interest rate.
Loan out a dollar only ask for 99 cents in return.
I guess treasuries aren’t earning enough for the banks with zero percent loans??
Don’t cha wonder how much top economists like Mankiw pocket from Wall Street types who are looking for academics willing to float ideas that will increase banking profitability at the expense of others?
She gets the problems with outsized subsidies for home owners versus renters.
Missing from the discussion: THIS IS REVERSE ROBIN HOOD SUBSIDIZATION.
- If you want to subsidize the lower income class, then hand out a rental subsidy, not a home ownership subsidy, as home owners are disproportionately wealthy.
- If you want a level playing field, DON’T SUBSIDIZE HOUSING.
She (= Sheila Bair) claims bank failures are going above 140 failures this year…
Happy FDIC Friday to all! We are now on track for more than 170 bank failures this year (2*86 = 172, and the year is just half over).
WSJ
* BUSINESS
* JUNE 25, 2010, 8:09 P.M. ET
FDIC Closes Banks in Florida, Georgia and New Mexico
By MATTHIAS RIEKER
Regulators closed Peninsula Bank of Englewood, Fla., First National Bank of Savannah, Ga., and High Desert State Bank of Albuquerque, N.M, bringing the total number of bank failures this year to 86.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., as receiver for the three banks, entered into purchase and assumption agreements with Premier American Bank of Miami for Peninsula Bank and Savannah Bank for First National Bank. First American Bank of Artesia, N.M., bought High Desert State Bank.
Florida and Georgia are among the hardest-hit states from the financial crisis, which has caused 251 banks to fail. The FDIC was able to sell most of those failed banks.
…
I am very interested to see how all this plays out in the Gulf states, especially Florida. Things were bad enuf here before, but I’ll be curious to see how much the Gulf spill devalues housing here, on top of the already depressed market. I’d love to know if the market has locked up already. I can just hear the realtors lying through their teeth, first about how the spill won’t reach the Tampa Bay area and points south, then when it does, what they’ll say. “Oh, it’ll be cleaned up, it’s bio-degradable. Now’s a great time to buy, you can get a real bargain.”
Any sucker who falls for that, deserves what he gets.
Poppycock I say!
(Hwy thinks that word might be misconstrued in Afghanistan)
Pakistan watches Google, other sites for blasphemy:
By ASIF SHAHZAD, Associated Press Writer Asif Shahzad, Associated Press Writer
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan will start monitoring seven major websites, including Google, Yahoo and Amazon, for sacrilegious content, while blocking 17 other, lesser-known sites it deems offensive to Muslims, an official said Friday.
An example of one of the 17 sites being blocked include islamexposed blogspot com, Mehran said, adding that the authority had just begun the process of barring the sites
* JUNE 25, 2010, 10:28 A.M. ET
UPDATE: Shares of KB Home Tumble As Orders Plunge 23%
(Adds analyst quotes, background, updates stock price.)
By Dawn Wotapka and Nathan Becker Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–KB Home (KBH) said Friday that its second-quarter orders tumbled 23%, knocking more than 7% off the stock price and providing further proof of a softening U.S. housing market that no longer offers a home-buyer tax credit.
KB Home has revamped its product line, dramatically shaving its square footage and prices, letting it compete with foreclosed houses and to focus on first-time buyers tapping the credit. But the offer expired on April 30, leading to a slowdown in that segment.
“We like this business model and generally its execution during four of the last six quarters; unfortunately, this quarter’s results should send a big wake-up call,” Stephen East, an analyst with Ticonderoga Securities, wrote in a client note. He expected orders to rise 19%.
This order drop comes as the home-building sector struggles to recover from its worst downturn in generations. Confidence has tumbled as buyer traffic grows sparse. The U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday said new-home sales plunged in May to a record low, dragged down by a lackluster job market and the foreclosure crisis that has shaved values nationwide.
KB Home worked to assure investors. “While our net orders were down for the quarter compared to a year ago due to fewer active communities, general economic weakness, and the expiration of the federal home buyer tax credit, our net orders were up sequentially from this year’s first quarter and were solid on a per community basis,” Chief Executive Jeffrey Mezger noted in the release. “This bodes well for our ability to generate future revenue growth as we expand our community count.”
Before the market opened, KB Home, one of the nation’s largest builders, said it lost $30.7 million, or 40 cents a share, narrowed from a loss of $78.4 million, or $1.03 a share, a year earlier.
Revenue for the quarter ended May 31 declined 2.7% to $374.1 million.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had most recently forecast a loss of 30 cents on $373 million in revenue.
The company reported an 1.2% increase in deliveries–fueled by the tax credit–its first growth in 14 quarters. The average home selling price fell 3.8%.
“Results were disappointing,” wrote Carl Reichardt, a home-builder analyst with Wells Fargo Securities. “We believe the company will have a more difficult time [reconstructing] profitability than will some peers.”
Shares of KB Home down 7.9% at $11.26, making it by far the sector’s biggest decliner.
Just a hunch, but I get the feeling that capitulation is underway for the hope builder share prices.
I can’t help but wonder whether their investors will have to move into their moms’ basements?
Pathetic, the officer should have tazed him and kicked him in the nuts.
Cop Fired for Putting Paper Bag on Perp’s Head.
Fort Lauderdale reserve officer let go for incident with spitting trespasser.
A Fort Lauderdale cop is out of a job after he put a paper bag over the head of a spitting mad perp.
Part-time reserve Officer John Wezkiewicz had been with the force 20 years before he was sent home last month, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
The incident that got him fired happened Nov. 1, when a man, Gerald Feldhaus, was arrested outside Yolo Restaurant on Las Olas for trespassing and resisting arrest.
“He was spitting and screaming as he would look and yell at other people,” Wezkiewicz told investigators.
Rather than use a department-issued hood designed specifically for prisoner control, Wezkiewicz used a brown paper bag.
“Poor judgment prevailed concerning his decision to utilize a brown paper bag,” Capt. Rick Maglione wrote in a report on the incident.
Claiming Wezkiewicz “shed a negative light” on the department, the report said using the hood instead would not “be falsely perceived as an attempt to humiliate an individual.”
He should have used a plastic bag.
Maybe they just used the Casino ATM while on their way to the Mega-Mart?
Its possible
States of Crisis for 46 Governments Facing Greek-Style Deficits.
June 25 (Bloomberg) — Californians don’t see much evidence that the worst economic contraction since the Great Depression is coming to an end.
Unemployment was 12.4 percent in May, 2.7 percentage points higher than the national rate. Lawmakers gridlocked over how to close a $19 billion budget gap are weighing the termination of the main welfare program for 1.3 million poor families or borrowing more than $9 billion in the bond market. California, tied with Illinois for the lowest credit rating of any state, is diverting a rising portion of tax revenue to service debt, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its August issue.
Far from rebounding, the Golden State, with a $1.8 trillion economy that’s larger than Russia’s, is sinking deeper into its financial funk. And it’s not alone.
Even as the U.S. appears to be on the mend — gross domestic product has climbed three straight quarters — finances in Arizona, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and other states show few signs of improvement. Forty-six states face budget shortfalls that add up to $112 billion for the fiscal year ending next June, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington research institution. State spending is 12 percent of U.S. GDP.
“States are going to have to cut back spending and raise taxes the same way Greece and Spain are,” says Dean Baker, co- director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. “That runs counter to stimulating the economy and will put a big damper on the recovery in the latter half of this year.”
Forty-six states face budget shortfalls that add up to $112 billion for the fiscal year ending next June
And its going to get worse once the federal sugar runs out. Colorado has a “mere” 100 million deficit to deal with this next year, but it will mushroom to 1 billion the following year when the Federal money runs out. Our local lawmakers are already wringing their hands over this.
“Our local lawmakers are already wringing their hands over this”.
And all they can do on a state&local level to raise money is to increase tax’s, fee’s, penalties etc… The other side of the coin is to cut spending, and that is a truly foreign concept to most “lawmakers” who traditionally will fight tooth and nail to keep the money train running.
Raising taxes in Colorado is tricky because of TABOR. A super majority vote is required, so they are going to have to cut, cut, cut, which is why they are in a panic.
“Raising taxes in Colorado is tricky because of TABOR. A super majority vote is required”
Good for Colorado!
Manhattan $10 Million Housing Market Has No Bargains.
(Bloomberg) — It took Stephane Melloul three days to learn he’d need about $50 million for the New York home of his dreams: four bedrooms, a terrace and Central Park views.
Melloul, president of London-based credit rating company Notalia, started this week expecting to spend as little as $20 million. He raised his target after seeing just five Manhattan properties that met his criteria.
“I thought when I came here that the prices would be more compelling and more attractive, and actually they weren’t,” Melloul said, speaking in French in a telephone interview. Real estate broker Charlie Attias, a senior vice president of New York-based Corcoran Group, interpreted.
Manhattan’s super-luxury apartments, those sold for $10 million or more, outperformed the rest of the city’s housing market in the first quarter. The median price of the most expensive cooperatives and condominiums climbed 6.4 percent from a year earlier, compared with an 11 percent drop across all price ranges, according to an analysis of data provided to Bloomberg News by New York-based appraiser Miller Samuel Inc.
Poor baby.
Just another indicator of the concentration of wealth at the top.
We have tons of “high end” houses sitting here in central S.C. but that doesn’t stop the retards from building more.
High-end housing developments could be a hard sell.
Business ~ Jun. 25, 2010
High end homes have been the hardest hit during the long lasting real estate downturn.
“Finding qualified, motivated buyers that don’t have anything to sell that want to buy something at $400,000 and up, that’s a rare creature,” said longtime Northeast Richland real estate agent Doug Bridges. “Right now, it’s just all about price.”
But developers of these high-end projects, including ones planned for the tony Woodcreek Farms neighborhood, point to some positive signs, such as a new think-tank report that ranked Columbia among the nation’s top 21 major metropolitan areas recovering from the recession.
“I understand everybody’s apprehension about the market,” said Earl Loftis, a Columbia optometrist who developed a four-story condo building in the Vista. “I don’t think we’re going to die. I think we’re coming back.”
The Midlands real estate market tanked in 2008, as a national economic crisis took hold.
Home sales, particularly among first-time buyers, have started a slow rebound as the economy begins to show improvement and the federal government has offered tax credits of up to $8,000 to home buyers.
I guess that there is some sanity in my neck of the woods. Residential construction has come to a screeching halt here and has been that way for over two years now. Probably because the corporate builders all pulled out their stakes and left town and the mom-n-pop builders can’t get financing.
A quick calculation shows that on a $250,000 mortgage, the savings over the life of the mortgage between last month’s mortgage rates and this month’s exceed the $8,000 “savings” from the first-time homebuyer’s exemption.
That means most anyone who waited is better off.
As stated above
Greg Mankiw and others are propossing negative interest rates for lending money to banks, not sure if this will translate to deposits in banks, I doubt it.
We could see mortgage rates continue to fall. One in the article suggested they could get as low as 2-3%.
+1,000,000 Reuven!
Its too bad people won’t see that stat reported in the MSM.
“That means most anyone who waited is better off.”
And that is before you reflect the fact that without the $8K tax credit demand in the game, prices will probably also drop by more than $8K in any market where homes are more expensive than they are in Detroit.
SUCKAS!
Guy at work facing a layoff threat wasn’t aware that his “no brainer” refi just made his new loan recourse for the next 30 years. As long as people listen to Aunt Jane and the used house salesmen for information on major purchases, a new generation of suckas is born every minute.
I’m sure he got a good deal, but to my mind, real “no brainers” don’t require 50 signatures.
What is he the Janitor with no computer skills?…dumb
————————-
Guy at work facing a layoff threat
“Harry Reid’s Son Drops Last Name in Campaign Ad”
To funny, this little puke is running as “Rory” I hope the folks in Nevada vote for the drunk homeless guy behind the dumpster, that would be a much better choice.
No “Southern Comfort” yet this ‘mornin’?
Is the word “puke” commonplace in South Carolina vernacular?
Liar liar pants on fire…
From 2008
“To me, this is one of the greatest times to buy a home in my 33 years in the business. In most markets, inventory is up giving buyers choices. Combined with interest rates being at near historic low levels and home prices leveling off after the 1995-2005 bull run, this should help buyers ‘get off the fence.
Mortgage rates fall to historic lows
But lingering recession keeping potential homebuyers away
The Post and Courier June 25, 2010
The cheapest money in nearly 40 years is now available, but few are taking advantage of it.
Call it the credit conundrum.
The pipeline of eligible mortgage borrowers, locally and nationally, is showing signs of drying up.
“Conceivably, there are a lot of good buying opportunities right now, but there’s uncertainty and risk and a lot of reasons why people aren’t jumping in,” said College of Charleston,S.C. economist Frank Hefner, who called the current interest rates “a lifetime opportunity.”
Mortgage rates slipped to historic lows this week, nudging potential home buyers to lock in at rock-bottom rates and giving homeowners who haven’t refinanced yet another shot at cutting their monthly payments.
The average national rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 4.69 percent, the lowest point since financing giant Freddie Mac began tracking the figure in 1971. Local mortgage offices were offering rates that range from 4.375 percent to 4.625 for a 30-year fixed conventional mortgage.
Hefner said the fallout from the recession is partly to blame for the lackluster response to the cheap money. He said some would-be homebuyers who are worried about losing their jobs are hesitant about jumping into the housing market right now.
Also, Hefner added, home-owners who owe more than their properties are worth don’t qualify for refinancing.
Also, Hefner added, home-owners who owe more than their properties are worth don’t qualify for refinancing.
Y’know, this is kind of a crazy thought, but with so many properties underwater here in the US of A, I’d like to propose a 50% off sale on mortgages.
I mean, if everyone’s principal was written down by 50%, just think of all the money that would be freed up. Yes, some of it would be blown away on those silly spending sprees that so many of us disparage here.
But some of it might also be used to start businesses, fund trips back to school for needed and practical training, or replace worn-out cars and appliances. Or, perhaps, to put solar panels on roofs or other energy efficiency type things.
Some of the money might even end up being saved. In banks. Which, wonder of wonders and I’m really crossing my fingers on this one, might be lent back out on worthwhile projects. Like growing businesses that have found it hard to borrow due to the tightness of credit. Or for investments in new technologies.
Yeah, I know, I’ve got the dreamer’s disease.
“Call it the credit conundrum.”
Call it ‘positive supply with zero demand drives the price of credit (aka interest rate) towards zero.’
“The pipeline of eligible mortgage borrowers, locally and nationally, is showing signs of drying up.”
The $8K home buyer credit dried up whatever demand was left in the pipeline.
Now there is no more demand.
“Now there is no more demand.”
Tell that to the d-bags who are still wishing 650K for their paid-for crapshacks here in 92128.
You are just across I-15 from us (92127). It is worse on this side. But always remember when you are looking at the list prices on the MLS that you are viewing the prices of homes that HAVE NOT SOLD. Many will never sell at anywhere near the wishing prices these fools assume they will somehow, someday get.
That’s true, but . . . I’m still surprised at the places that DO sell in 92127 and 92128 for ridiculous amounts. At least it’s comforting on my Redfin updates that lately, for my search criteria, there’s about 25 new listings a day for every 10-12 sales. That’s quite a pile-up of inventory.
Unless rates fall to like 2% on FHA loans this is useless - In my case I have a 5.75% 80% LTV conventional mortgage. Since the damn house lost 20% of its value in the last two years I spec a FHA loan since I no longer have 80% LTV - I was quoted 4.5%, however once the FHA MI premium is added along with closing costs my payment will actually be HIGHER then before.
I winder how many people take the bait of these underwater FHA re-fi offers only to have their payment INCREASE…
Talked with my brother in DFW this morning.
Seems that there are several city/county programs down there giving out free money for down payments and closing costs, if the purchaser agrees to stay in the house four years.
Too bad he can’t find a job that pays over $10-12/hour.
I read the other day that the DFW metro area grew like crazy this past decade, something like 30-40%.
The impression I got the last time I was in DFW (visiting relatives) was that the place has a very 3rd world feel to it, much like LA. Islands of prosperity in an ocean of decrepitude and poverty. One thing that stuck in my mind was that at the local WalMart there was an army of recept and bag checkers at the exits (they don’t do that where I live).
Dallas was kinda cool back in the 80s
Now it just feels run down and undercapitalized. Good luck trying to get around on the “public” roads. If you have to get anywhere in a hurry, you have to use the Toll roads, which are, as I understand it, some kind of public/private deal.
All I know is that I have to carry a big bag of quarters with me every time I visit Dallas, and stop to pay a toll every five miles.
If you want to see the future, visit Dallas. Intermittent enclaves of the rich, surrounded by seas of the great unwashed.
People talk about Dallas as if the streets were paved with gold. All I saw was decrepitude. Plus it was hot as hell.
“All I saw was decrepitude….”
And a $hitload of illegals in clapped out pickup trucks.
Another little tidbit……seems that all of the property managers in DFW are now requiring that their “independent contractors” have $1 million in liability insurance.
Yeah, I can kinda understand. But the way he explained it, they are stiffing their existing contractors for WORK ALREADY PERFORMED, by saying that their on site managers violated corporate policy by hiring them without confirming their insurance. If the contractors don’t like it, then they can try to sue them.
The typical scenario:
Air conditioning goes out in a unit. On-site manager tries to find someone to come in and fix it ASAP. Contractor fixes the problem, and sends them the invoice. Management company says “pound sand”, our rep wasn’t authorized to hire you.
My brother’s new job is to call the contractors, and explain the policy to them. You can imagine how most of those phone calls go……..
You do NOT screw with your contractors.
Those folks are going to court and they are going to lose to the tune of TRIPLE payment.
This is a legal slam dunk and the plaintiffs may not even have to pay lawyers up front.
Texas isn’t real good to the average employee, but it has VERY strong contractor laws.
>> My brother’s new job is to call the contractors, and explain the policy to them. You can imagine how most of those phone calls go……..
You do understand that I have an army of back hoes…?CLICK.
All I know is that I have to carry a big bag of quarters with me every time I visit Dallas, and stop to pay a toll every five miles.
You can’t pay cash on most of the toll roads here anymore. They will send you a bill… but how does that work if you have an out-of-state license plate? I don’t know.
I travel to Dallas quite a bit and it does have that feel to it - what I notice the most is all the dead commercial real estate. Dead malls, car dealership buildings, strip retail centers all over Dallas/Arlington/Grand Prairie, etc
If you have to live there I would suggest Fort Worth - it just seems classier and more up-scale.
Which is funny (and true) as FW was the seedy side of town in the past.
But DFW, like most Texas cities, is more suburban oriented. The city cores are skyscrapers surrounded by ghettos, but the ‘burbs are all “greenspace” and shopping centers.
The po folk say no more cuts…
Texas poor say “No more!”
DALLAS — Local activists with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Dallas Peace Center and others called a “Poor People’s Rally” outside City Hall here, June 23. About 100 people were able to get downtown at the noon rally in 100-degree heat. It was a scorcher.
Faced with city, state and national campaigns to get people to accept more cuts in our living standards, the crowd was ready to dig in their heels.
Here in Dallas, a $130 million budget shortfall has brought proposals of closing more libraries and swimming pools while laying-off hundreds of skilled city workers. But, it hasn’t stopped city-subsidized construction on a new “designer” bridge across the Trinity River. The city does plan to convert the old bridge into a park. Another big park is under construction in the arts district, near the new symphony hall.
The Dallas newspaper encouraged people to attend, but also revealed that the Chamber of Commerce, one of working peoples’ worst enemies, was helping organize the event!
Something similar just happened here in Tucson. Same kind of weather too. Story:
Workers flock to back TCC hotel construction
Key grafs from story:
City Hall critic and vocal opponent John Kromko said the same arguments being made for the hotel were made when the TCC and Tucson Electric Park were built and neither projects met their revenue projections. Both became a drain on taxpayers, he said.
Councilman Steve Kozachik spoke to the board and said he wasn’t totally against the hotel but said many questions need to be answered. He again urged the council and the Rio Nuevo board to have a joint meeting to talk about the issues. Other speakers backed this point as well.
Bwahaha. The NEW bridge was originally a PARK. Now they have money for everything but the park parts.
http://www.snl.com/interactivex/article.aspx?CDID=A-11371151-13622
Anyone care to guess how high the next EmptyPockets/TireKicker Tax Credit will be?
I can imagine that the NAR lobbyist are lobbying 24-7, for a new bigger better tax credit. You can bet the pressure is on, but a whole lot of politicians are hoping to get re-elected and a larger number of the thinking population have had enough of the so called stimulus/bailouts.
“Anyone care to guess how high the next EmptyPockets/TireKicker Tax Credit will be”?
“The tax credits just add noise. The tax credits don’t create more households, they don’t create more people, they don’t create more families,” Widner said. “They just give people incentives to buy houses sooner rather than later. And at the end of the day, there’s no substitute [for fundamentals]. It’s a long, slow trudge through 10 years of overbuilding.”
The article is spot on isn’t it?
I think the DC decision makers will succumb to the Housing Crime Syndicate pressure and come up with another scam to keep prices inflated. *Everything* they’ve done so far has done precisely that and there is no evidence to suggest they’ll deviate from that failed policy.
“The article is spot on isn’t it”?
Yes it is, and I do think the D.C. folks will cook up something to get home sales “going” again. Only to create an even worse situation down the road.
This cracks me up
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/la-me-welfare-casinos-20100625,0,1615510.story?track=rss
Schwarzenegger could save a lot more taxpayer money by collecting state income tax on forgiven mortgage debt, and by making sure that all Home Equity Mortgage Interest deductions on state returns were legit.
But it’s more politically popular to go after “welfare queens” than “middle class victims”–even though the case against the middle-class “victims” is clear cut, not some hazy agreement on where they can spend their money
Wow… that’s getting tough, making them “promise”.
“California welfare recipients withdrew $1.8 million at casino ATMs over eight months”
“Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issues an executive order requiring recipients to promise they will use cash benefits only to meet basic subsistence needs. GOP legislators call for the cash to be returned”.
Rule number one of ruling: you can always kick the poor because after all, what can they do?
They will NEVER change the law or regulation to make welfare/UEI recipients spend only on necessities because our consumer driven economy RELIES ON IMPULSE BUYING BASED ON POOR DECISIONS.
48% See Government Today As A Threat to Individual Rights.
Nearly half of American Adults see the government today as a threat to individual rights rather than a protector of those rights.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Adults see the government today as a threat to rights. Thirty-seven percent (37%) hold the opposite view. Fifteen percent (15%) are undecided.
Most Republicans (74%) and unaffiliateds (51%) consider the government to be a threat to individual rights. Most Democrats (64%) regard the government as a protector of rights.
Additionally, most Americans (52%) say it is more important for the government to protect individual rights than to promote economic growth. Just 31% say promoting economic growth is more important. But again a sizable number (17%) of Adults aren’t sure which is more important.
Which just shows how stupid the populace is.
Corporations are the biggest and most active threat to individual rights
Corporations are the biggest and most active threat to individual rights
Absolutely! Corporations can imprison you, or even execute you without any fear of reprisal, unlike government, which always respects your rights to counsel, habeas corpus, and all the other rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
I’m amazed people don’t know that!
Entire New Zealand Village for Sale for $708,000.
Ever wanted to own your own town? Somewhere scenic with its own pub and railway station? Then New Zealand has a bargain for you, The Press reported Friday.
The tiny West Coast town of Otira in the Southern Alps on the Pacific nation’s South Island is up for sale.
Current owners Bill and Christine Hennah bought the town in 1998 after passing through and “feeling sorry for it.”
They paid $54,700 for the hotel, school, fire station, town hall and 18 houses, but now the couple, aged in their 60s, says they don’t have the energy to run the hotel while maintaining the rest of the town.
So they’re asking for $248,000 for the hotel or $708,000 — $1 million New Zealand — for the lot.
Along with the asking price other positives include the 40 residents that live in Otira, the history — the Otira Hotel was originally a coach stop and has been on the same site since the 1860s — and spectacular scenery.
On the downside, there is a risk of flooding and earthquakes, the township is a little run down and Otira is in the alps more than 100 miles from the South Island’s largest city, Christchurch.
Here let me show you how addiction works:
Hwy: “Hmmmmm, interesting…if there’s a railroad station, is there still a railroad?”
One could have their very own “Titfield Thunderbolt”, eh?
Ha, have you seen this? Tankxs for posting…
Current owners Bill and Christine Hennah bought the town in 1998 after passing through and “feeling sorry for it.”
They paid $54,700 for the hotel, school, fire station, town hall and 18 houses, but now the couple, aged in their 60s, says they don’t have the energy to run the hotel while maintaining the rest of the town.
So they’re asking for $248,000 for the hotel or $708,000 — $1 million New Zealand — for the lot.
So they want only 15 times their original investment after 12 years? Sounds like a bargain to me. After all, they’re not making any more remote New Zealand towns!
“We can guarantee cash benefits as far out and at whatever size you like, but we cannot guarantee their purchasing power.”
-Alan Greenspan
A fitting commentary on the state of FL real estate. (Ben, did you see anything like this in your travels?)
From Tucson:
“In a stunningly ignorant rant about Arizona’s Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act (SB1070), Peggy West(D) a county supervisor from Milwaukee WI, states in part ” If this were Texas a state that borders Mexico I would have to look twice at this, but it’s Arizona, a state that is removed from the border…” What adds insult to the injury of her stupidity is that she had listed one of her interests as Mexican history on her FaceBook page”. The interest has since been removed.
Now that’s one ignorant democrap.
Ummm, ’scuse me, Peggy, but here’s Slim with a little update:
Tucson is the seat of Pima County, Arizona. And you know what much of Pima County’s southern border touches? Mexico. That’s right, Mexico.
I’d invite you down to see for yourself, but it’s kind of hot here right now. Today’s forecast high is 105-110 degrees.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to make lunch. Time to go outside and fry an egg on the driveway.
At least she didn’t express her worries about the Raft of Guam tipping over into the Pacific due to too many people and equipment piling on.
I forget, which moron said that?
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) is raising some eyebrows with a comment he made about the U.S. territory of Guam during a House Armed Services Committee hearing last Thursday.
In a discussion regarding a planned military buildup on the Pacific island, Johnson expressed some concerns about the plans to Adm. Robert Willard, head of the U.S. Pacific fleet.
“My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize,” Johnson said. Willard paused and replied, “We don’t anticipate that.”
“…a county supervisor from Milwaukee WI”
Maybe she ought to move to Wasilla, Alaska, …might get picked to run as Vice President of the US.
Or, maybe a senator to one of those unnamed 57 states.
Consumer sentiment highest since Jan 2008 ~ June 25, 2010
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Consumer sentiment rose in June to its highest since January 2008 while reports of job losses were down sharply from a year ago, a survey showed on Friday.
A gauge of current economic conditions also rose to its highest since January 2008, according to the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers.
The final June reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment rose to 76 from 73.6 in May. The figure was above the median forecast of 75.5 among economists polled by Reuters, which was also the reading in early June.
Reports of job losses fell by half since last June, from 65 percent of respondents to 29 percent, the survey showed.
“The June 2010 survey recorded the most favorable news heard by consumers about jobs in five years,” Richard Curtin, director of the surveys, said in a statement.
“Unfortunately consumers do not anticipate significant declines in unemployment during the year ahead.”
The surveys’ barometer of current economic conditions was at 85.6, its highest since January 2008, and also above the 82.9 reading in early June. This compared with 81.0 in May and economist expectations of 82.9.
Of course there is no way this number could be “fixed”.
2.4 points?
IT’S THE SECOND COMING!
whoop. dee. doo.
The wimp Reid will claim he did this out of his deep concern for the citizens of Nevada. The punk is just trying to get re-elected.
Nevada homeowners could get help from federal funding.
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
“Now it’s up to banks and credit unions to step up to the plate so that this $100 million will have the maximum benefit for homeowners.”
Sen. Harry Reid D-Nev.
Underwater and delinquent Nevada homeowners could see financial relief from the government’s so-called “hardest-hit fund” by mid-August, a state housing division official said Wednesday.
The target launch date for nearly $103 million coming to Nevada was delayed by three weeks because contracts with the U.S. Treasury were not in place by June 1 as originally anticipated, said Lon DeWeese, chief financial officer of the Nevada Housing Division.
The Obama administration approved plans Wednesday for housing finance agencies in Nevada, California, Arizona, Florida and Michigan to begin using $1.5 billion in foreclosure prevention funding.
The money will help struggling homeowners by subsidizing mortgages for the unemployed, reducing principal balances on homes with negative equity, settling second liens, and facilitating short sales and deeds in lieu of foreclosure.
Nevada will create a mortgage modification program using a combination of forgiveness and forbearance with the goal of reducing principal to less than 115 percent of loan-to-value and lowering payments to 31 percent of debt-to-income.
Realtors are liars.
No way!
Pinellas County Fl. plans to eliminate 230 positions.
Struggling to deal with plummeting revenue, Pinellas County plans on eliminating 230 positions by Oct. 1, County Administrator Robert S. LaSala said Thursday.
One hundred and fifty-five Pinellas County employees have been told the county’s recommended budget calls for their positions to be eliminated. The county also is opting not to fill 75 additional positions that are currently vacant.
The numbers could change if certain employees retire, or if vacancies come up some other way, LaSala said. None of the cuts will be official until the budget is approved by the Pinellas County Commission.
The 155 positions run the gamut, LaSala said. Twelve percent are management; others are clerical positions, still others are field personnel, he said.
A large number are in utilities, environmental management, highway and public works, and culture, education and leisure, because those departments are the largest that fall under the purview of the county administrator.
N Korea seeks $75 trillion in compensation.
Jun 25, 2010 (Reuters/KCNA)
Cash-strapped North Korea has demanded the United States pay almost $US65 trillion ($75 trillion) in compensation for six decades of hostility.
The official North Korean news agency, KCNA, says the cost of the damage done by the US since the peninsula was divided in 1945 is estimated at $US64.96 trillion.
The compensation call comes on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the start of the 1950-1953 Korean War.
KCNA said the figure includes $US26.1 trillion arising from US “atrocities” which left more than 5 million North Koreans dead, wounded, kidnapped or missing.
The agency also claims 60 years of US sanctions have caused a loss of $US13.7 trillion by 2005, while property losses were estimated at $US16.7 trillion.
The agency said North Koreans have “the justifiable right” to receive the compensation for their blood.
USA to NK: Buzz off. And, BTW, your soccer team sucks.
London air pollution ‘worst in Europe’
Britain faces court cases and unlimited fines after dangerous levels of minute particles breach EU levels.
Air pollution in London London has been found to be one of the most polluted places in Europe. Photograph: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
The City of London has been found to be one of the most polluted places in Europe after monitoring equipment recorded dangerous levels of minute particles for the 36th time this year. Under EU rules, Britain is allowed no more than 35 “bad air” days in the whole year, and now faces court cases and unlimited fines by Europe.
The breaching of the EU levels after just six months will embarrass the government, which was sent a final warning only three weeks ago from the European commission to improve air quality. Many other places in central London are close to the limit and can be expected to break the law within weeks.
Ewww.
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Kellogg and Procter & Gamble, two of the nation’s biggest consumer-products companies, scrambled Friday to pull well-known brands from supermarket shelves.
Kellogg Co. issued a voluntary recall on 28 million boxes of cereal, citing “uncharacteristic off-flavor and smell” that it blamed on package liners.
The recalled brands are Corn Pops, Honey Smacks, Froot Loops and Apple Jacks and were sold nationwide. Affected boxes have the letters “KN” printed before expiration dates, which range from March 26, 2011 through June 22, 2011.
Potential for serious health problems is low, Kellogg said, but some consumers could be sensitive to the affected product’s smell and flavor. A Kellogg spokesman said a few customers have experienced nausea and diarrhea.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/kellogg-recalls-stinky-cereal-pg-recalls-scope-2010-06-25?reflink=MW_news_stmp
All the more reason to skip cereals like these. They’re full of stuff that your body doesn’t need.
I wonder where they sourced the material for the package liners?
From Chinese plasterboard factories.
Is this a trick question?
The special kids prize in the box is diabetes. Eat up kids I have long term investments in all blood glucose monitor suppliers.
Ambrose writes of a worried Bernanke:
Fed watchers say Mr Bernanke and his close allies at the Board in Washington are worried by signs that the US recovery is running out of steam. The ECRI leading indicator published by the Economic Cycle Research Institute has collapsed to a 45-week low of -5.7 in the most precipitous slide for half a century. Such a reading typically portends contraction within three months or so.
Key members of the five-man Board are quietly mulling a fresh burst of asset purchases, if necessary by pushing the Fed’s balance sheet from $2.4 trillion (£1.6 trillion) to uncharted levels of $5 trillion. But they are certain to face intense scepticism from regional hardliners. The dispute has echoes of the early 1930s when the Chicago Fed stymied rescue efforts.
“We’re heading towards a double-dip recession,” said Chris Whalen, a former Fed official and now head of Institutional Risk Analystics. “The party is over from fiscal support. These hard-money men are fighting the last war: they don’t recognise that money velocity has slowed and we are going into deflation. The only default option left is to crank up the printing presses again.”
Mr Bernanke is so worried about the chemistry of the Fed’s voting body – the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) – that he has persuaded vice-chairman Don Kohn to delay retirement until Janet Yellen has been confirmed by the Senate to take over his post. Mr Kohn has been a key architect of the Fed’s emergency policies. He was due to step down this week after 40 years at the institution, depriving Mr Bernanke of a formidable ally in policy circles.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/7852945/Ben-Bernanke-needs-fresh-monetary-blitz-as-US-recovery-falters.html
Hey Pbear, do you ever get tired of being wrong about the precious?
Looking forward to seeing it go down by ‘more than expected’ when Bernanke’s panic subsides.
Well, up or down, its gonna make or lose quite a sum of money for this new owner in one simple SINGLE TRANSACTION!
World’s biggest gold coin fetches over 3 million euros:
By Alexandra Zawadil, Reuters
VIENNA (Reuters Life!) – A Spanish precious metals trading company bought the world’s largest gold coin for 3.27 million euros ($4.02 million), its exact material worth, from the estate of an insolvent investment firm at a rare auction in Vienna on Friday.
The 100 kg (220.5 lb) piece, one of only five Canadian $1,000,000 Maple Leaf coins the Royal Canadian Mint has ever produced, was snapped up immediately in a written bid from ORO direct, a gold trading company based in Madrid.
There were no counter offers in an auction room packed with more journalists than potential buyers. It sold for the catalog sum, the coin’s pure gold value based on Friday’s market price. This was four times its face value.
The auction was ordered by the administrator of Austrian investment group AvW Invest, which filed for insolvency in May after its owner and chief executive was arrested on suspicion of fraud, breach of trust and other charges.
With all the meltage going on, thanks to the late night commercials, I am guessing supply is going to soon turn out ‘larger than expected.’
Looking forward to seeing it [gold] go down by ‘more than expected’ when Bernanke’s panic subsides.
I’m sure that will happen… right after Ron Paul is inaugurated as the President of These United States.
“Fed watchers say Mr Bernanke and his close allies at the Board in Washington are worried by signs that the US recovery is running out of steam…Key members of the five-man Board are quietly mulling a fresh burst of asset purchases, if necessary by pushing the Fed’s balance sheet from $2.4 trillion (£1.6 trillion) to uncharted levels of $5 trillion.”
Fire Bernanke, NOW!!
From KB Homes
“While our net orders were down for the quarter compared to a year ago due to fewer active communities, general economic weakness, and the expiration of the federal home buyer tax credit, our net orders were up sequentially from this year’s first quarter and were solid on a per community basis,” Chief Executive Jeffrey Mezger said in the company’s release.
Lipstick on a pig? Silver lining? What to attribute the veiled positive comments?
For me, it is telling, regardless of order numbers (sequentially, or per community), economic weakness, etc., that KB has fewer active communities this year than last.
The number of active communities will continue to go down until prices recover somewhat.
That’s some world class weaseling there, folks!
Dont know for sure. Around here you can buy a new home while its near impossible to buy a short sale. Short sales are about 95% of the MLS listings.
This sounds about right; except they don’t mention how the public gets charged for gambling losses on said Wall Street risk-taking.
So far as I am concerned, Megabank, Inc can throw all its money away on stoopid gambles so long as I don’t get stuck with a piece of the losses when they lose everything.
Federal regs set to restrain Wall Street risk
By JIM KUHNHENN and ALAN FRAM (AP) – 18 minutes ago
WASHINGTON — The toughest financial regulations since the Great Depression, covering everything from debit card swipes at Starbucks to the most complex securities, are headed for final votes in Congress next week in an election-year salve for public anger over Wall Street risk-taking.
…
I look at this current bill as Reform 1.0. Meaning that there will be more. Plenty more.
After all, the 1800s Gilded Age excesses weren’t fixed overnight.
Gotcha. Several bailouts and a couple of decades down the road from now, maybe Reform 4.0 will get it right.
All I can say about this is “Wow!”
Jim Cramer - “Why Obama is Bad for Stocks!”
http://tinyurl.com/2etlc4q
Then sell the US stocks short across the board, Jim.