Bits Bucket For June 29, 2010
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Good Morning!
Looks like I’m the first one today.
Stock futures are down by 120. Looks like double dip is coming this month. Austerity is going to rule in EU. Would US cut spending??
Martin
“Would US cut spending”??
According to the CBO our (U.S.) deficit will hit 19+ trillion by 2015.
Not 2019 as first projected. So I would say the answer is no.
P.S. I believe if we give it a little extra effort we can hit 20 trillion by 2015. We like to round up.
Yes we can! …hit 20 trillion by 2015.
Yep, I am sure team Barry can do it. Go team! Show’um how it’s done.
Barry Barry he’s our man, if he can’t ruin us, no one can!!
Feh. Barry’s just the MIB undertaker. Bush dealt the death blow.
I think if they do that I will be Barry Barry sorry.
Barry, Barry…. why ya’ buggin’?
(For the old school rap kids)
Actually it started with Reagan. That was the first cut.
San Fran Gal,
In defense of Reagan, we had the soviets to deal with AND plenty of opporitunities to step off this path.
A lot of people will point to Nixon and some to Johnson.
It started when we went to a fiat system.
Most economists say that the important measure to consider is the debt to GDP ratio. I saw a graph on a web site a few months ago that traced that ratio back to the Ford administration. It showed that that ratio increased under every Republican president during the period, Ford to Bush 2, and decreased under the two Democratic presidents.
It showed that that ratio increased under every Republican president during the period, Ford to Bush 2, and decreased under the two Democratic presidents.
I must be wrong, as I keep having to bring this up, but is it not Congress that controls the budget and expenditures?
Looking at who’s in the executive is not the key factor here. Looking at who’s in Congress *is*.
(and I have no clue how that would line up. I’m just sick of everyone forgetting that the legislative branch spends the money, not the executive)
It started with Johnson….no it started with FDR…wait it started with Lincoln and his greenbacks to fund the war…um….
It started when we came down out of the trees. Big mistake.
It started with the communist revolutionaries and continues…
It started with people who wanted something for nothing, voting for people who lied and offered something at someone else’s expense.
OPM is the key lie and the voters believed it for nearly 100 years. The voters’ get the bill in the end. The politicians discovered how to use the smoke and mirrors to pit taxpayer against next door neighbor taxpayer and have everyone thinking they are getting a good deal. It’s really a raw deal.
How about pay as you go for taxation for once?
How about pay as you go for taxation for once?
How about no taxation at all?
I fear the new world order has a few kinks which need to be ironed out. Winner of the World cup will be the new China. Be it Germany, Brazil, Spain or Argentina.
I say go Spain.
Anyone jumping on the Tesla IPO? I’m tempted IF they can design family sedans and not two seat $100,000 roadsters.
Even if they’re first to market with an all electric family car, Toyota will very quickly introduce something much better for the price. I don’t see how Tesla can compete long-term, even though I’m glad they’re pushing things along.
“Toyota will very quickly introduce something much better for the price.”
Complete with a turbo acceleration feature!
Complete with a turbo acceleration feature!
I wish :-). They haven’t made anything I wanted since they stopped making the Supra Turbo. Although I must say that if I wanted an efficient around-town car, the new Prius is impressive. I’d hate to be seen in one, though…I’d lose any remaining redneck credibility that I might have.
I always wanted to convert a H1 to electric. That’d be so funny!
I think with the fuel prices where they are, I gave up on the idea of getting an older armored money truck to convert into a SUV. 11 liter diesel would be expensive to roll around in.
Toyota has a $50 Million stake in Tesla, so they aren’t really competitors. Plus the words “Toyota” and “built better” shouldn’t belong in the same sentence.
You can always tell who the pioneers are. They’re the ones with the arrows in their backs.
Forget Tesla. The world soon will.
“Although I must say that if I wanted an efficient around-town car, the new Prius is impressive. I’d hate to be seen in one, though…I’d lose any remaining redneck credibility that I might have.”
…..sort of like fat girls and unicycles?
Yeah, and mopeds. I was thinking of that when I originally posted, but figured maybe I wouldn’t go there. Thanks for setting me straight :-).
“Toyota has a $50 million stake in Tesla”
$50 million bucks in the auto industry is a rounding error. Enough to get your foot into the engineering department, and see if they are developing/discovered anything your guys have missed. I’m betting not.
Tesla = Hungarian word for “toast”
People spend a lot more on cars that don’t have the acceleration of a Tesla. Even their sedan will trounce most gas powered cars 0-60. My partner drives a 600hp Cady that gets about 12mpg, he whines about it all the time. I’m trying to talk him into a Tesla.
Personally I chose a small conversion for 14k, 0-60 is more like 14 seconds.
Tesla may make money selling drive trains or technology to the larger manufacturers. I wouldn’t count them out. I’m not investing however.
“My partner drives a 600hp Cady that gets about 12mpg, he whines about it all the time.”
He better sell that white elephant before it’s exposed. A 600 hp, gas guzzling V8 ain’t what the doctor ordered for what’s coming down the pike.
Tesla makes sub a 100k sedan.
Toyota not only has a stake in them but is talking about reopening their closed California plant for large scale production for Tesla.
Tesla has a stated goal of a sub 50k car.
I am getting the Nissan LEAF unless someone comes out with something better pretty soon. http://www.nissanusa.com/leaf-electric-car
You’d think <a href=”http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/INDU”Mr Market would be celebrating, with the news that the financial reform legislation turned out “better than expected” plus the first increase in the Case-Shiller/S&P housing market index in half a year. But instead, the DJIA has breached 10K and is dropping like a rock tied to an anchor and dropped into the sea.
What gives? Are Main Street housing and Wall Street stocks decoupled now?
Trying that link again! (I was in a bigger hurry than usual early today…)
BTW, perhaps I was overly optimistic when I earlier suggested the market would come back up to DJIA = 10K by day’s end?
I’m optimistically considering this a chance for them to test the downside trading curbs on a massive, massive scale. It’d be interesting to see what happens when half the market loses 10+% of their stock value.
Mr Market appears to have stabilized at DJIA = 9.9K. A 1% dip below DJIA = 10K certainly is not going to result in stampeding the Wall Street bovine herd over the edge of the nearest cliff.
More’s the pity.
Maybe catch a few of the more passive lemmings?
William Anderson rebuts Krugman:
“There is a larger issue here, and it is this: Current spending by government does not create wealth, and it is the creation of wealth that will bring us out of the depression. Borrowing from future generations (or repudiating the debt through inflation) is nothing more than making a claim on future wealth. Furthermore, Krugman’s recommendations do nothing to address the current set of malinvestments which plague the economy, not to mention the huge added burden of government-imposed costs which make production of wealth more difficult.” “Keynesian “Miracle.” By William Anderson
~~ Paul Krugman has performed a valuable service with his latest column in the N.Y. Times. He has made it easier for his critics to show why his devotion to the ideas of the late John Maynard Keynes is wrong.
Average Americans, though, are still Keynesians at heart. It’s so damned attractive to believe that if you print enough money and get it into the hands of as many people as possible you create happiness and well-being for the masses.
The U.S. has been following Keynes’s formula for generations, only to find itself at the brink of monetary disaster.
‘… and it is the creation of wealth that will bring us out of the depression.”
Along with wealth creation comes wealth distribution. Goods and services that are produced do little good unless they are distributed.
This is why money flow is so important; Money flow settles up the financial end of a physical transaction. If there is no settling up money wise then there is no incentive for the transaction to occur.
No reason for a transaction - a transfer of wealth - results in no reason for wealth to be created in the first place. No wealth creation means:
1. No wealth producers, meaning no jobs.
2. No wealth consumers. If there is no wealth produced then there is no wealth to be consumed. People who would normally consume will have to do without.
What connects the creation of wealth with the distribution and consumption of wealth is the flow of money. Without the flow of money everything comes to a halt.
As I see it, part of the difficulty is that we have increased the concentration of wealth. Now the argument was that the wealthy tend to INVEST rather than SPEND their wealth, so more of that money would go into factories and other productivity and efficiency improvements. Unfortunately it looks like we gave more money to Wall Street et al than they could find productive uses for, so much of it simply increased the price of assets or was lent out at interest. At the same time, a greater percentage of government spending has been spend on transfer payments of various kinds. With global wage arbitrage, the less well off have had a harder time competing with foreign workers.
“Now the argument was that the wealthy tend to INVEST rather than SPEND their wealth, so more of that money would go into factories and other productivity and efficiency improvements.”
This argument is valid: Money did go into factories. The problem is these factories were located elsewhere.
Again, it all comes down to the flow of money. When money flows into an area (factory, town, city, state, country, etc.) then that area enjoys prosperty. When the money flows out of an area then the area suffers.
Ghost towns serve as a good example: When a mining town is doing well it is not the money taken out of the mine that creates the boom, it is the money flowing into the town that causes the boom. When the vein runs out then the money flow stops and all the town’s inhabitants pack up and go somewhere else.
The problem is these factories were located elsewhere.
That’s the key flaw in the trickle-down theory (or whatever they’re calling it these days). The money either gets invested elsewhere, is used to speculate on commodities, or is loaned to the little people to buy the resulting foreign-made goods and overpriced commodities.
yes, but I would argue that EVEN MORE money went into credit than factories. WHERE factories get built is a ballance of trade/exchange rate issue IMHO. A big fall in the dollar can fix that. It is an unpleasent fix, the kind that many FBs are becomming familiar, but a necessary one nonetheless. The Chicoms and the Banks are discovering that when you lend to the feckless, the gratefulness ends once you start wanting to get paid back. Instead you have sullen resentful debtors who want to blame you for their inability to live within their means.
Oh, I almost forgot. They also use the money to buy the government.
It seems all too obvious that the monies could have been used directly to build productive assets in the US. Any scheme to trickle the money through good ole boys is just a scheme to give money to the boys.
Again, it all comes down to the flow of money. When money flows into an area (factory, town, city, state, country, etc.) then that area enjoys prosperty. When the money flows out of an area then the area suffers.
Ghost towns serve as a good example: When a mining town is doing well it is not the money taken out of the mine that creates the boom, it is the money flowing into the town that causes the boom. When the vein runs out then the money flow stops and all the town’s inhabitants pack up and go somewhere else.
Having been in Shanghai in late 2008 - I can personally attest to this (from a vice versa perspective). That place has absolutely boomed the past 15 years.
“It seems all too obvious that the monies could have been used directly to build productive assets in the US. Any scheme to trickle the money through good ole boys is just a scheme to give money to the boys.”
Sounds like a “government takeover,” you socialist.
It seems all too obvious that the monies could have been used directly to build productive assets in the US. Any scheme to trickle the money through good ole boys is just a scheme to give money to the boys.
This is just it
Most of the money the gov has spent in this crisis has not gone to improving infrastructure or energy efficiency. It has gone to the casino. No wealth will be created by this only transferred. Improving transportation, communications, energy efficiency and independance would clearly improve the wealth of the nation even if it was with borrowed money.
A lot of wealthy people are putting their money into municipal bonds to escape taxes. Some are buying gold coins. Neither asset adds to wealth/job creation like stock investing does. And with the 2001/2003 tax cuts going away, the issue will be amplified next year. You’re going to see a lot less tax revenue coming from the well-to-do next year. They can move their assets quickly to tax avoidance schemes. Maybe the younger wealthy people will just go very long in growth stocks and anticipate cashing out in twenty years or so, at least when the political cycle in the USA turns from tax increases to tax decreases.
“They can move their assets quickly to tax avoidance schemes.”
i wouldn’t call investing in muni’s a tax avoidance “scheme”.
Bill in Los Angeles,
In truth, the “BAB’s” ( Build America Bonds ) actually ‘did’ go toward infrastructure projects ( in many cases much -needed- ) projects so that’s not 100% accurate.
In spite of their being taxable ( and yes, 35% of the coupon guar’d by the Fed ) they sold quite well and are developing an active secondary.
Just as there’s a distinction between “good” debt ( your house ) and bad debt ( running up a bar tab on your visa ) there’s good & bad gov. debt.
Neither asset adds to wealth/job creation like stock investing does.
I would argue that buying stocks second hand doesn’t contribute either.
Buying IPOs sure does. Anything beyond that, and the cash doesn’t go to the company, so how does that contribute to job creation?
Regarding “conservative” assets. Muni bonds possibly do “create” jobs…in the municipal government. And money kept in a bank is likely loaned out, possibly to small businesses that do in fact create wealth and jobs.
But that last paragraph is mainly speculation.
Municipal bonds create jobs in the private sector, too. If a city needs to build a bridge, they sell bonds to pay for it, and then they hire private sector companies to build it.
alpha-sloth,
Right, if it’s just a matter of filling potholes or whatever, then the city/county themselves jump in. But these larger projects involve the pvt. sector in a big way. Normally -several- firms are involved.
A lot of wealthy people are putting their money into municipal bonds to escape taxes.
They might also avoid getting their money back.
“Along with wealth creation comes wealth distribution. Goods and services that are produced do little good unless they are distributed.”
My Response? “DA, COMRADE”!!
Average Americans, though, are still Keynesians at heart.
Hogwash. Average Americans are Keynesian about their own benefits, and Austrian school about everybody else’s benefits.
“Average Americans”
WTF is an “average” American?
Well arguably part of the difficulty IS people looking at “average” rather than “median” Americans. After all, if Bill Gates is in a room with 1,000 homeless people, on average they’re all multi millionares, but the median is rather less.
Good Point.
+1 for Jim A.
Ditto….+1
Average Americans don’t know Keynesian theory, which isn’t what Krugman is preaching.
Average economists, average politicians, average Fed Chairmen, Presidents and such do not understand Keynesian theory much IMO. Something about paying off debts in good times and all that.
You don’t need to know squat about Keynesian theory to believe that a money tree grows in DC whose fruits are available for comestion by anyone who can figure out how to pick them.
Average Americans don’t know Keynesian theory,
I’ve been trying to point out for a while that flooding Wall Street with money was a monetarist, not a Keynesian, response to an economic crash. Keynes would counsel low interest rates, but the stimulus money would be spent on infrastructure development and the like, not lining Wall Street fatcats’ pockets.
When you think about it, monetarism is the ‘trickle-down’ version of Keynesian theory. Monetarism agrees government needs to spend during a depression, but it doesn’t trust/want the government to invest the money itself. Instead it calls for the gov to flood Wall Street and the credit system with money, and they can decide where best to invest it. The problem is the same problem with trickle-down economics that we discussed above- they just give it to themselves in bonuses, or use it to speculate on commodities and other assets. Precious little goes to American job creation.
Very true.
Exactly. They give to the very pinheads who created the mess.
They know how good the buzz feels, and hate how the hangover feels. So they relentlessly chase the buzz till the organism crashes.
Anderson likes to use the word “wealth” a lot. I’m pretty sure he’s NOT referring to a “wealth” of healthy and employed middle class families happily living a low-level lifestyle slightly below their means.
No, I think his connotation is similar to the “wealth creation” talk, where some planner would be happy to guide your investments so you can waterski behind six yachts instead of five. Last time I checked, corporations were creating wealth by raiding pockets of value from the middle class — job security, health benefits, layoffs from mergers, bilking the government, stock options, accounting tricks…all covered with a coat of debt to glue it together.
corporations were creating wealth by raiding pockets of value from the middle class
That’s not wealth creation.
It is in this country and has been since the offshoring, deregulation, corporate raiding, junk bond 80s.
That’s the Reverse Robin Hood Effect.
No, I think his connotation is similar to the “wealth creation” talk, where some planner would be happy to guide your investments so you can waterski behind six yachts instead of five. Last time I checked, corporations were creating wealth by raiding pockets of value from the middle class — job security, health benefits, layoffs from mergers, bilking the government, stock options, accounting tricks…all covered with a coat of debt to glue it together.
Thwack! (A nail just got hit on the head.)
I personally am Keynesian in my economics. It actually makes GREAT economic sense if executed properly. It’s the monstrosity of an abortion of Keynes’ policy that is currently being pushed. In real Keynesian economics, you save your money up during the good times. Then, when there are bad times, and everything is cheap, you go to town getting all that stuff you wanted for pennies on the dollar. How anyone can argue the soundness of Keynes theory is beyond me. How anyone can agree with the abortion of Keynes theory that Krugman asks us to buy into is even further beyond me.
The time to be Keynesian is not during the bad times, it’s during the good times. Then you never have to debate the merit of Keynes’ policy because you actually have money in the bank to spend while things are cheap. And how hard is it to argue the merits of running projects with cash on hand for reduced expenses while lots of people are out of work? Pretty easy actually.
“In real Keynesian economics, you save your money up during the good times. Then, when there are bad times, and everything is cheap, you go to town getting all that stuff you wanted for pennies on the dollar.”
That doesn’t sound much like the too-big-to-fail, heads-we-win in the boom, tails-you-lose in the bust flavor of New Era Keynesian economics with which I am familiar.
I was thinking exactly the same thing, but with less emphasis on the buying stuff during bad times and more emphasis on the having had savings to draw on when my income has gone down. If I hadn’t spent out of my savings when unemployed I would have been homeless and hungry. The savings gets you through the tough times until you get the next job and the cost is lost interest on the cash, not whatever a credit card company decides to charge.
Of course, if anything I want actually does get really cheap, I might buy it this time as the savings are fairly large now, but I’m still waiting on that…
This was my understanding. Not really fair how they are calling the present course Keynesian. Krugman is willfully insane; I saw that guy Galbraith from Univ. of TX on TV he is just as crazy.
Oh the problem with the theory is trying to practice the theory math guy.
The last few interventions by the Fed created multiple disasters. You had the tech bubble and the housing bubble. Not to mention that other bubble in flipping companies.
It’s not mathamtically clear what kind of stimulis is needed or how large. The other problem that isn’t clear is how to direct the money.
Hence you get massive malinvestments from interventions because someone missed. And here we are.
And some jerkasses on here will argue about balme but the fact is repubs, democrats all have been engaging in games to increase the money supply.
I got really angry with Clinton/Rubin who eliminated a lot of reserve requirements back in the 90s. However, Bush and Paulson did plenty of that as well.
Thing is… perhaps the times have not been good since the 60s. We’ve been on this inflationary debt binge for a long time while watching increasing decimation of the industrial base. It’s been somewhat cusioned by cheaper goods along the way and technology changes… plus market sizes have gotten bigger with globalization. Not to mention our own population. Every time the population goes up the debt per capita burden looks not so bad.
What is changing now? Oh we seem to be at an inflection point for population plus our competativeness in the world markets has hit some amazing low. Meanwhile our banking system is corrupted and our internal housing market borrowed demand from the future so it is not totally borked.
Eventually we will get through this.
So, Keynes theory are nice but the practical application sucks. Just like ever other government led socialist idea. Almost always will result in malinvestment. Occasionally you get lucky and its nolt a total waste. See the great wall of china. Now a tourist attraction.
Keynesian economics is an elaborate pseudo-intellectual rationale used by control freaks in the government to justify micro-managing productive citizens. It’s really that simple.
Thank god big corporations don’t do that.
Oh wait…
Dumb question of the day (and a day late, I might add):
What’s the difference between a large corporation and government?
What’s the difference between a large corporation and government?
a corporation can’t exist without the government, but the a government can exist without a corporation?
Usually we think of better of renters vs. FBs, but these Manhattan renters are a bunch of spoiled brats if you ask me:
Perks Are a Prerequisite for Some Tenants
NYT
By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY
Published: June 28, 2010
At 200 West 72nd Street, where rents for two bedrooms start at $8,000 a month, tenants can impress their guests on the common rooftop with views taking in Central Park, the Hudson River and the George Washington Bridge. They can send their children to burn off energy in the building’s high-tech playroom, and expend their own in its well-equipped gym.
That last perk might be the most essential one, because of this perk: Every morning, there is a free breakfast buffet.
At 7 a.m. one day last week Juliet Rotondo, 3, bounced into the third-floor common room to pick out a blueberry muffin as other residents snapped up juices and fruit. Her father, Joe Rotondo, grabbed a sesame bagel and strawberries, passing up yogurt parfaits and egg sandwiches. The Rotondo family eats on the landlord’s dime at least three times a week, a welcome benefit, since the family also includes a 9-month-old, Jonathan.
“Breakfast is a huge convenience,” his mother, Kim Rotondo, said. “It’s something I don’t think about.”
In the last few years, developers began trying to woo buyers and renters to their cookie-cutter properties with such amenities. But what started with gyms and concierges quickly sprouted into an amenities arms race, with developers offering full-blown hotel services like spas, breakfast and even room service to draw from the relatively small pool of high-paying apartment hunters.
Now New Yorkers who have moved into these buildings are learning which aspects of hotel living they actually find useful. Some have watched pounds melt away because they use their buildings’ lavish gyms, while others have had to work so hard to afford such add-ons that they can barely use them.
Is it just me this morning or does this Rotondo story make anyone else feel ill ??
Well this is not your local $1.50 deil bagel and creme cheese…
This is gourmet stuff..so ok she gets a $10 breakfast “Free” a couple of times a week.
I mean i could see a gym, pool, hot tubs….in the building’s basement to keep costs low……since it is a hassle to do these things in a lots of parts of nyc. And some fitness centers pay very high rents to be close to a subway stop.
They ought to name the kid “Juliet Rotundo.”
Every apartment I ever lived in had a workout room, so I don’t see the big deal.
———————
bounced into the third-floor common room to pick out a blueberry muffin as other residents snapped up juices and fruit. Her father, Joe Rotondo, grabbed a sesame bagel and strawberries, passing up yogurt parfaits and egg sandwiches.
——————–
This doesn’t strike me as an $8k a month super-special value in terms of a breakfast. Seems to be in-line with the free breakfast at an average motel. If a $40 a night motel can offer that, then a $8k a month should be able to no-problemo.
Good luck finding a $40 hotel in NYC… I was there during Easter, and I paid $270 a night to stay in Chelsea at a 3.5 star hotel (and that is a good deal)
Good luck finding a $40 hotel in NYC…
Maybe one with an hourly rate.
The theoretical $40 a night motel is not located in NYC, but it is everywhere else in the US.
BTW: I just loooked up on Priceline for some hotels and found a 3star for $149 a night and 4* Sheraton New York Hotel And Towers (Midtown West - Times Square)for less than $300.
Reading about these “amenities” reminds me of the granite countertops in McMansions. Builder puts in a $7K countertop, and adds $15K to the price of the house. Same here. $4 continental breakfast that they probably $25 a day onto the rent.
I’d rather have a $6K a month apartment and set up an account with the deli and spa down on the street level. And in a year I’d save enough money to buy my own high-tech gym, which I wouldn’t have to “share” with a soul.
Spoiled brats is right.
Double dip is in the bag:
Recession Warning
John P. Hussman
Based on evidence that has always and only been observed during or immediately prior to U.S. recessions, the U.S. economy appears headed into a second leg of an unusually challenging downturn.
A few weeks ago, I noted that our recession warning composite was on the brink of a signal that has always and only occurred during or immediately prior to U.S. recessions, the last signal being the warning I reported in the November 12, 2007 weekly comment Expecting A Recession. While the set of criteria I noted then would still require a decline in the ISM Purchasing Managers Index to 54 or less to complete a recession warning, what prompts my immediate concern is that the growth rate of the ECRI Weekly Leading Index has now declined to -6.9%. The WLI growth rate has historically demonstrated a strong correlation with the ISM Purchasing Managers Index, with the correlation being highest at a lead time of 13 weeks.
Taking the growth rate of the WLI as a single indicator, the only instance when a level of -6.9% was not associated with an actual recession was a single observation in 1988. But as I’ve long noted, recession evidence is best taken as a syndrome of multiple conditions, including the behavior of the yield curve, credit spreads, stock prices, and employment growth. Given that the WLI growth rate leads the PMI by about 13 weeks, I substituted the WLI growth rate for the PMI criterion in condition 4 of our recession warning composite. As you can see, the results are nearly identical, and not surprisingly, are slightly more timely than using the PMI. The blue line indicates recession warning signals from the composite of indicators, while the red blocks indicate official U.S. recessions as identified by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
I found the graph: http://www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc100628.htm
“Double dip is in the bag”
Once this episode in financial history is a fading bad memory only visible through the lens of the rear view mirror, it will be interesting to do a comparison between what played out this time versus during the 1980-1982 double-dip Raygun recession period.
If a double-dip is in the cards, it is better for Obama’s 2012 re-election prospects for it to start sooner rather than later, in order to safely arrive on the uphill side of the slope of hope by 2012 election season.
And here I thought I was the only one who was thinking that Obama’s first term’s been looking a lot like Reagan’s. Recall that in 1982, a lot of people were writing Reagan off. Saying he was too old, that he wasn’t up for the job, or that he was losing it.
Well, we now know that the March 1981 assassination attempt took a lot out of him, and that he was never quite the same afterward. As for the losing it, that became painfully obvious during his second term.
The above being said, the man did run a successful re-election campaign and won in a landslide in 1984.
Fast-forward to now, and we have a guy who’s already being written off as a one-term. But, like Reagan, he knows how to run a successful campaign. And I can’t help thinking that the Repubs are going to put up another Dole 1996 or McCain 2008 type of opponent.
In short, get ready for two full terms of Obama.
The key question for the 2012 election is who will the Republicans nominate? Palin is a non-starter. She can rally a significant portion of the Republican party, but not the general electorate.
I would recommend that the Republicans look for a sitting governor. They seem to do better in presidentail runs than senators. I think that is because senators have too much of a voting history that can be attacked.
Maybe Brewer can ride the illegal issue to the WH.
Maybe Brewer can ride the illegal issue to the WH.
Sorry. Won’t work. Jan’s a one-trick pony if there ever was one.
And, on the national stage, she’ll be exposed as the intellectual lightweight that she truly is.
Romney’s been awfully quiet lately. I suspect he pulled out early in 2008 to save his money and try again.
I suspect he pulled out early in 2008 to save his money and try again.
Double entendre opportunity!
It’s a long way out, but right now my money would be on Texas governor Rick Perry as the Republican candidate. He’s almost a Reagan impersonator, is quite popular with the knuckleheads, has a big state as a base, and clearly wants the job (although of course he denies it). Texas has managed to avoid the worst of the downturn, so he could take credit for that, and play it up vis-a-vis the national economy.
Maybe he can get the rest of the country to believe it, but only because they don’t know how powerLESS the governor is in this state.
It’s in the state constitution. The governor is almost nothing more than a figurehead.
eco- I agree the Tex gov is a weak position, but that didn’t stop W. You live there, what do you think about Rick? Has he got the teflon touch that Reagan had, or is he a wannabe? I’m observing from afar- through a glass darkly.
He’s a freaking nut case!
So only knuckleheads want small government. Alpha is a one track mind of big tired government. Never saw a government that he/she did not like.
Agree, because right now, the Republicans have no one to run against him. Everyone they’ve trotted out so far has missed the mark (by a long ways) in terms of intelligent policy, experience, and general likeablity.
“And here I thought I was the only one who was thinking that Obama’s first term’s been looking a lot like Reagan’s.”
Reagan was not a communist. Big Difference.
I’ve been thinking about that for a while, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Rahm & Co. structured and timed the stimulus packages to do exactly that. It’s the executive branch version of the notorious sausage-making fin the legislative branch.
IMO a lot of that money is sitting in a Swiss bank account owned by some Dem power brokers.
That’s too nutzoid even for Rush. Must be Glenn today.
It hasn’t been a “double dip” around here.
A bunch of people in the private sector got kicked to the curb in the last quarter of 2008, and thru the first three quarters of 2009, and all those people are still unemployed/underemployed. A bunch of business segments shrank 40% over about 6 months, and haven’t recovered.
It looks to me like the quarterly reports are coming in, and everbody is discovering that their “spring selling season” didn’t happen.
It seems to me that the only thing which could save Obama would be mass job creation, and sadly that just doesn’t look to be in the cards. The real problem we have is a continued outsourcing of our manufacturing base, and jobs period, the importation of cheap, illegal labor, and the destruction of wages. I have not heard so much as a whisper about this. Corporate America continues to drop the hammer, while CEO’s and shareholders delight in profits generated at the expense of jobs and the standard of living for the country as a whole. Apparently, the pain needs to get much worse to ignite the revolution which is needed to root out this disgusting display of greed.
And it’s never,ever enough…
NYS leads nation in education spending
Business First of Buffalo
New York spends more per pupil on education than any other state, according to a report issued Monday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
New York’s public elementary and secondary schools spent $17,173 per pupil in 2007-08, which was 67 percent higher than the national average of $10,259 per pupil.
New Jersey was second at $16,491 per pupil, followed by Alaska at $14,630, the District of Columbia at $14,594 and Vermont at $14,300
Three Western states spent the least: Utah ($5,765 per pupil), Idaho ($6,931) and Arizona ($7,608).
Not surprised by most of them on that list.. But Vermont? Isn’t Vermont a very low tax state? Or is that New Hampshire I’m thinking of?
Vermont has relatively high taxes; New Hampshire has relatively low taxes (and no sales tax).
For those interested:
New Hampshire: www taxfoundation org/research/topic/43.html
Vermont: www taxfoundation org/research/topic/62.html
The skeptic in me is wondering how much of the NYS spending per pupil is being paid to teachers who are no longer teaching, meaning retired teachers and administrators who are drawing pensions.
Most of it, and it’s going up, up, up.
In NYC administrative costs are low. But in the rest of the state, those are high too.
That’s $500K per teaching teacher. Teachers earn about 1/10th of that.
Teachers earn about 1/10th of that.
Yep. Gotta love administrative overhead.
Don’t forget the brother-in-law vending contracts.
High-end downtown San Diego hotel files for bankruptcy:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jun/28/high-end-downtown-san-diego-hotel-files-bankruptcy/
“Burdened by crushing debt, the owner of the high-end boutique hotel Sè San Diego has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.”
“The downtown hotel, which opened in December 2008, has struggled mightily in its short existence — a casualty of bad timing and a moribund market for luxury hotels. Cost overruns, lawsuits and construction delays all meant the project, which also includes 23 upscale — and unsold — condos, opened a year behind schedule and during one of the bleakest months of the spiraling economy.”
“Robert Rauch, a local hotel consultant, said the Sè’s troubles are hardly surprising. Not only was the hotel located far from the hub of the Gaslamp, but it also was an unknown quantity — making it a hard sell for many travelers. “It was a property that had an inferior location and no brand and a huge amount of debt in a terrible market,” he said.”
“While the hotel does have relatively strong revenue, Reay said it’s unclear what the Sè is worth as the unsold luxury condos confuse its evaluation. Looking at the amount Fifth Avenue Partners owes its main lender, he estimated that the hotel rooms alone cost about $364,000 per unit. The hotel market is seeing signs of life, Reay added, pointing to recent sales of high-end hotels in cities such as San Francisco where price ranges have ranged from $200,000 to $350,000 per room.”
Poor location with higher cost per room than San Francisco, that should turn out well.
I see a popular SD beach every day near where I work. Judging from the large amount of clearly visible vacant sand, I suspect this year’s tourism season is another bust — despite comforting reassurances a few years back by certain MSM-favored San Diego economists that tourism would buffer the local economy against the real estate bust.
We’re past Memorial Day now and the summertime traffic seems as light as last year if not a little lighter. People that don’t have money or jobs don’t vacation at all or take shorter vacations. Any part of an economy built on non-essentials is expendable during hard times.
Last summer, while I was visiting family in Vermont, I didn’t see a single “No Vacancy” sign outside of a hotel, motel, or bed and breakfast. And that was during a nine-day visit.
SDGreg,
Agreed, and I was saddened to see so many cities being forced to drop their fireworks displays altogether. They mentioned Jersey City and Glendale, AZ among them. These aren’t rinky dinky towns either.
But what can they do? How do you go to ppl that depend on services and say that having a 4th of July display took precedence over “meals on wheels” etc? I truly hate to see this. Growing up w/o this has to suck.
Back in July 2002, the city of Tucson canceled the fireworks display. The rationale was to respect the memory of those who died on September 11, 2001.
And, IIRC, there wasn’t a citizen revolt. We observed the day quietly.
“Agreed, and I was saddened to see so many cities being forced to drop their fireworks displays altogether.”
That doesn’t bother me yet. During the first several years of the past decade, fireworks displays were almost nightly in some places, sometimes to the point of being really annoying. What was once considered very infrequent and special became routine and somewhat annoying. Those displays are becoming less common and perhaps will be more special again some day.
That doesn’t bother me yet. During the first several years of the past decade, fireworks displays were almost nightly in some places
Like in Anaheim?
SDGreg,
When I was stationed there in the late 80’s we used to take the kids to Silver Wing Park and you could watch all the way up to La Jolla etc.
Actaully TJ had a much better display ( kind of ironic ) And I ‘do’ hear when ppl say a bit of peace & quiet isn’t totally unreasonable to request. Especially when ppl ’save’ a bit of their personal stash for the 5th… and the 6th…
I really ‘am’ trying not to go negative here, but in ways it just looks like yet another attempt on the part of local Gov’s to make a statement about the dire state of their financial affairs? ( We can’t disappoint the kiddies now ‘can’ we!? )
( Read Pony Up Sucker! )
We aren’t celebrating the 4th this year. It is our opinion, that we are all living in the “shell” of what once a great country. Our flags are generally “Made In China”
Our 4th decorations “Made In China”
Our clothing (generally) “Made In China”
Customer Service Phone Centers -India
Computer Tech Phone Centers -India
and so on… Truly, I know it could be worse, but America is DOA. Sad, but true.
I’ll raise a glass of wine to our brilliant Founding Fathers, but in all honesty, the dream is over. (I sound like Debbie Downer, don’t I!)
Fireworks are damn sure made in China, too. But I bet your wine isn’t, Debbie Downer, so drink a lot of that.
alpha-sloth -
LOL. I needed that.
You folks been following treasuries? Holy cow.
10-year went below 3% again this morning. The only other-time it has been below 3% was the fall 2008/spring 2009 crash. Similar with 30-year - it went below 4%.
2-year is at an all-time low yield.
There’s the new bubble. Problem is - what happens when it pops? Mother of all black swans?
Or what if this is Not a bubble but a slog through molasses that will last a long long time?
Could well be - e.g. see Japan.
However some slogs through molasses can be a little more dangerous than others. Who knew that molasses could travel at 35 mph - in the dead of winter in New England, no less? Seems it can be a bit more… unpredictable… than people realize.
At the time, molasses was the standard sweetener in the United States.
I dunno the more we use HFCS da fatta we get. maybe dem old folks knew something we won’t admit to.
I believe there was an old time saying (expression) in the South “Shit and Molasses” probably before electric fans
Along with that are mortgage rates - record low of 4.63% now on 30-year.
Seeing a lot of snippets in the MSM about this. “Home sales are down, even though interest rates are very low” etc. The MSM is far behind the times here. Interest rates are far less of an issue than they had been. If the bank looks at income and wants a down payment, and if even Joe-12-pack realizes that a low price is better than a low interest rate, then katie bar the door…no one’s gonna buy nuthin’ and no one’s gonna lend nuthin’, and at some point Obama will have to let another too-big-to-fail bank — probably Fannie Freddie — actually fail, because there’s just not enough money to fill the hole. Why not? The US government is deeper underwater than that oil leak. Another couple hundred feet isn’t going to make any difference.
I am quite curious what drives those mortgage rates down. Several possible factors could be simultaneously in play:
1) The Fed may not have wound down their MBS purchase program as much as advertised, which would have the effect of increasing supply of loanable funds to the mortgage market, and driving down rates.
2) The expiration of the $8K home buyer tax credit program likely resulted in a dearth of purchase demand, and by extension, demand for mortgages, driving down rates (aka the “price” of mortgage loans).
3) The sluggish economy most likely has resulted in generally slack demand for loanable funds, which spills over into lower mortgage rates through a substitution effect.
4) The large percentage of new mortgage with the FHA/FRE/FNM seals of approval also come with a federal guarantee, which looks to investors like an implicit subsidy; investors buying this debt to capture the value of the federal guarantee drives down mortgage rates.
I am sure there are other factors in play, but the above factors all seem likely explanations for unusually low mortgage rates at a time of unusually low demand for mortgage loans.
5) We’re going into broad deflation in which even low rates would yield a positive return assuming the payments are made?
ding!ding!ding!
Yeah, you knew the way it was moving it (10 yr.) was going to break three, it sure looked irressitible.
Now for all those newly minted FBs. They say there are 180,000 closings that won’t make tomorrow’s deadline. Now I ask, why the bleep would those 180,000 want the deadline extended knowing what we know now?
In the past two months there’s documented proof that prices are lower and so now are interest rates. Walk away you 180,000 - darn it - this is a gift! Take it and run away from the deal, it was a sucker’s bet to begin with!
Because they already spent the 8k and really need it to pay the bill?
Because they don’t want to throw their money away rent?
Note the T-bond yields dipped mightily just before the Fall 2008 stock market crash… (but don’t worry, it’s different this time, blah blah blah).
Was it before? I think it was more during - i.e. people were pulling their money out of stocks and putting it into treasuries.
In this case it appears people are pulling their money out of Euro treasuries and putting it into US treasuries.
This is why the $ index is going through the roof lately, BTW; since it’s largely denominated against the Euro.
Bear is right, they bottomed in DEC 2008 and then there was the MAR 2009 bottom.
Right now things are getting downright freaky. This global deleveraging thing comes in waves/spasms and in that it beautifully resembles many natural phonomenon - like our own blood circulation or ocean waves.
Or a good case of diarrhea- which is what it most resembles.
+1 Alpha…
“…they bottomed in DEC 2008 and then there was the MAR 2009 bottom.”
Thx for filling in the timeline for me.
Question: What happens when the 10 year yield gets down to 2%? Doesn’t anyone think 3%-yielding stocks at that point will be the better deal?
10 year = Fear Gauge…And if the big dogs are scared this little dog will just stay on the porch..
“…3%-yielding stocks at that point will be the better deal?”
As I am quite certain you are aware, the return on stocks consists of capital gains plus dividend yields. Clearly a large negative capital gain can easily wipe out a 3% yield in no time flat.
Good thing a trillion dollars is no big deal today.
Fannie-Freddie Bailout Could Cost Taxpayers $1 Trillion
Tuesday, 29 Jun 2010
For American taxpayers, now on the hook for some $145 billion in housing losses connected to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, that amount could be just the tip of the iceberg.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the losses could balloon to $400 billion. And if housing prices fall further, the cost to the taxpayer could hit as much as $1 trillion.
Two things are clear: Taxpayers don’t want to foot the bill, and Fannie and Freddie, taken over by the government in 2008 to stanch the financial bloodletting, need a major overhaul.
“Some of us who don’t even own homes are paying to support others and their home ownership, and they ask ‘why?’ said Robert J. Shiller, a Yale University economics professor and co-creator of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.
“Some of us who don’t even own homes are paying to support others and their home ownership, and they ask ‘why?’ said Robert J. Shiller, a Yale University economics professor and co-creator of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.
Shiller is most definitely the hero of the HBB, seems to me. That quote seems to sum up the consensus here.
P.S. I say this as a homeowner myself; I don’t like the supports either - it’s distortion of the markets.
I don’t like the supports either - it’s distortion of the markets ??
Hell, the whole tax code distorts markets…
A number of months ago, I shared a seat on a bus from NYC with a woman who was doing a stint at the World Bank, but was actually employed by China’s central bank. She mentioned that Fannie and Freddie debt was backed by the US government, wasn’t it. I said it certainly was now, but that politicians change and it might not always be so backed.
Then we talked about other things. I think she was surprised that I did not expect my parents to move in with me, having recently rented a larger (still one bedroom) apartment in a better location.
In reality, I don’t think we will let Fannie and Freddie bonds fail unless the alternative looks to be even worse. I’m not sure what circumstances would make Congress think that the complete collapse of mortgage lending in the US (for however long it would take for the private equity people aided by Goldman and friends to take over that securitization market) is better than the alternative, but there you have it.
Then we talked about other things. I think she was surprised that I did not expect my parents to move in with me, having recently rented a larger (still one bedroom) apartment in a better location.
Yeah, the whole “retire at 55 and take off in your Winnebago” was so unsustainable.
I’m fully expecting the youngun’s to stay with us, even after finishing college.
Is WAS sustainable.
Until Wall St. decided that our retirement money was actually THEIR money and that getting rid of pensions, neutralizing shareholders and giving more power and profits with less accountability to the BODs was a good idea.
HELLO?! It wasn’t Ma and Pa Kettle that broke the economy.
The society keeps voting for politicians that won’t change the rules.
Yes, they have a political rather than an explicit government guarantee. So it’s greater than the old implicit but still not a full faith and credit backing. And I think that high enough rates on treasury debt, or a steep decline in the dollar could pressure the government to withdraw support from fannie and freddie bondholders.
I notice when the PTB talk about the cost of bailouts, they have a tendency to narrowly focus the discussion on the TARP, without ever mentioning GSE/FED toxic MBS mop-up operation costs. This seems a bit myopic, no?
I would say more opaque than myopic. The PTB certainly see these things, they’re choosing to obscure them from the public. It’s the public that’s being myopic.
I’d say the PTB are trying to use Enron-style shell game accounting to hide the real liability picture from the public. That worked quite well for Enron — almost up until the very day they went bankrupt.
We have gone under contract to sell our home in NC. Something I have not seen before in a sales contract is the Option 2. This basically allows the buyer to walk away whenever he/she chooses before closing. Is this new only to NC? I am thinking it is a new form to encourage people to buy here but not sure ..
Any advice or info? I have been a lurker here since 2005.
thank you.
Option 2, buyer to walk away whenever he/she chooses before closing ??
Just sounds like a open-end contingency to me…Not much different than a option to purchase…Hard to judge not knowing all the particulars but generally speaking, tighten up the timelines for closing…
Not sure what this is about ‘exactly’, but any ‘thing’ clause or whatever gives the BUYER more power in the transaction/relationship.., hell, I’m all for it!
( After all, they -are- the only ones bringing anything to the party? )
I always put in a walkaway clause with no penalty, but rarely does it extend beyond two weeks. I wouldn’t allow it beyond that, ppl have to move on with their life, not wait until closing date and start over when no one shows up.
No conditions for reneging? Just, whatever? Helluva deal.
Advice: Keep your fingers crossed.
I do think its becoming more common.
The buyer could be putting it in if they’re making simultaneous offers and want to be sure they end up with only one house.
Its already common in short sale situations. The banks take months and months to get an answer back to the buyer, so buyers put the clause in so they can continue to look without being tied down for months on end.
Its also used if the buyer doesn’t trust the seller. For example, a seller may not disclose that the house will have to be a short sale. So they accept the buyer’s offer to lock them in to the contract, THEN approach their bank. The buyer is somewhat trapped. So a buyer may put that escape clause in the contract if they suspect they may need to get out of a mess in a hurry, rather than have to pay for costly inspections to find something wrong to kill the sale on a house they know won’t close anyway, or wait until the closing deadline when its proven the seller can’t close.
Kim,
Thanks for sharing that perspective. Seems only fair when a Seller can entertain multiple ( read Bidding War ) offers?
About time.
Oh, I guess my real question is does anyone know the risk to the seller in this type of contract?
The risk is simple Don’t count your payday until you see the check signed at the closing.
Don’t offer to buy another house … get all your junk together and have a garage sale or ebay……
Look for a possible short term rental and a storage place ……
Just don’t spend money
Our plan is exactly as you suggested! Thanks!
The risk is that you don’t have a sale and you continue to own the house. You could have countered to 1) either remove that clause altogether, 2) limit the length of time the buyer can walk, or 3) have the buyer forfeit the deposit as liquidated damages if he walks.
You DID consult a real estate attorney before you signed the contract, didn’t you? Tell us you didn’t depend on the realtwhore’s advice.
It’s very common to have an inspection period on a real estate contract. In Arizona, that period is traditionally 10 days, but it is certainly negotiable. During the inspection period, the buyer is responsible for doing his/her due diligence and can walk for basically any reason. Once the inspection period is up, if the buyer backs out of the transaction for any reason other than lack of financing (that is almost always explicitly stated in the purchase agreement), he/she forfeits the earnest money.
1 in 5 choosing to default on mortgages though they can pay
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 6:05 p.m. Monday, June 28, 2010
Nearly one in five delinquent mortgages through the first half of 2009 was owned by someone who could afford to pay, but decided defaulting was a smarter financial play.
The decision to walk away, called “strategic default,” was studied by crediting agency Experian and international consulting group Oliver Wyman.
Their results were released in a report today that found 19 percent of mortgage defaults nationwide in the beginning of 2009 were strategic. The absolute number, 355,000, was a 53 percent increase from the same period the previous year.
Florida real estate experts were surprised by the 19 percent figure - not because it was so high, but because it was so low.
“Personally, I’d be willing to say it’s higher here,” said Boca Raton real estate attorney Marlyn Wiener. “Frankly, the majority of the clients who come into my office are strategically defaulting.”
Today’s report defined strategic defaulters as borrowers who miss six consecutive mortgage payments without missing multiple payments on other debt, such as car or credit card payments.
The theory is it’s more financially savvy in the long run to walk away from a devalued home than continue to pay on the mortgage.
The report pointed to Florida and California as states where strategic defaults are concentrated. From 2005 to the first half of 2009, the number of strategic defaulters went up by 52.8 times in Florida, it said.
A May report from the Federal Reserve Board found that when home equity falls below 50 percent, half of mortgage defaults are driven entirely by the lowered value.
About 44.3 percent of homes in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties have loan balances that are higher than the home’s worth, according to a report last month by Zillow, a real estate analysis firm.
Today’s news on strategic defaults comes as some predict a looming backlash against people who can afford to pay but don’t.
Last week, government-sponsored mortgage purchaser Fannie Mae announced it was banning strategic defaulters from getting new loans for seven years.
Wiener said two of her clients recently received calls from collection agencies seeking to collect on a mortgage default.
“It’s not like you just send them the keys and it all goes away,” said Bill Hardin, director of real estate programs at Florida International University in Miami. “It can come back, and it can come back for a while.”
In Florida, lenders are allowed to seek a deficiency claim for five years and have up to 20 years to collect.
Strategic defaulters gamble that banks won’t come after them because they are too overwhelmed with foreclosures. But banks are now hiring collection agencies, or even selling the deficiency claims to companies whose profit margin is based on recovering the debt.
Shari Olefson, a Fort Lauderdale attorney and author of Foreclosure Nation, Mortgaging the American Dream, said she blames lawyers for advertising strategic default as an option without telling clients of the repercussions. Wiener said she always tells clients a lender could pursue a deficiency claim.
Olefson also said that strategic defaulters are not just hurting themselves, that entire neighborhoods suffer from depreciated values when a homeowner walks away from a mortgage.
“It’s taking advantage of a national crisis,” she said. “Some people legitimately are unemployed and can’t afford the mortgage and they’re not getting any sympathy because of the strategic defaulters.”
So their definition is simply those who don’t prioritize their mortgage over their other debts for payment. They don’t seem to be making ANY judgement as to whether the borrowers can, indeed pay ALL of their creditors. Considering the incredible debt service levels that the lenders were permitting during the boom, I’d guess that a large percentage of those classified as “strategic” or “ruthless” defaulters are merely choosing who to stiff, not whether to stiff one of their creditors.
For most people, stiffing the credit card company results in a drastic cash flow problem. The End of Life As We Know It stuff.
Seems to me one of the biggest drivers of strategic default when homeowners are underwater would also be the laws regarding deficiency balances in that state. All other things equal, a homeowner in California or Arizona that is protected by the anti-deficiency laws in those states is much more likely to strategically default than a homeowner in a state that allows the bank to pursue the deficiency balance. Granted the media has generally not brought these differences between states to light so maybe most homeowners aren’t aware of the dramatically different laws between states.
I think that just as lenders relied on borrowers pre-bubble tendency to pay the mortgage first when the poo hit the fan, borrower are relying on lenders pre-bubble tendency NOT to seed deficinecy judgements when they were possible. But of course a change in the first will tend to drive a change in the second. There is little reason to go to the trouble if you think the defaulter has no other assets to seize. But this sort of characterization of defaulters as ruthless seems to indicate that lenders seem to think that defaulters COULD be worth going after.
Looks like the third flash crash in less than two months was averted this morning.
Whew.
(and…. strange that.)
How do these trade cancellations work? If a stock drops by “more than expected,” can some kind of deus ex machina summarily invalidate the trades?
I believe so, yes.
However I wonder where that leaves dependent trades that might not fit the cancellation criteria.
E.g. say the criteria for cancellation is anything greater than a 20% change from the “recent” trades. So then a trade happens at 21% discount - seller A selling to buyer B. Now buyer B turns around and sells to buyer C at a markup, but still 15% discount from the “recent” trades.
Do both transactions get cancelled - even though only the first one met the criteria for cancellation? If so, then it seems like buyer C got screwed.
This is a very slippery slope.
Word to the wise: Though the first flash crash was neutralized and downplayed in the MSM, within a few weeks, markets had adjusted to the very level the flash crash reached on one prophetic trading day.
But don’t worry — EVERY TIME IS DIFFERENT.
Two indicted in alleged mortgage frauds involving homes in Wellington’s Versailles
By Pat Beall Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 5:59 p.m. Monday, June 28, 2010
WELLINGTON — Another Versailles homeowner has been arrested and charged with mortgage fraud, the second in eight days.
Ultha Danielle Accime, 39, was arrested Friday after she was indicted on two counts of making false statements on home loan applications. According to the indictment, she duped lenders out of at least $1.2 million in mortgages by claiming to earn $32,500 a month, have $747,000 in the bank and $346,242 in cash to close on a five-bedroom, four-bath property in Wellington’s tony Versailles community.
Accime’s other house was more modest: At the time she was buying the mansion, property records show she claimed a $129,000, 887-square-foot Boynton Beach condo as her home.
In a written statement, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida charged Accime was paid for the use of her name and credit to secure the loan money.
Juan Gallego was charged earlier this month with two counts of making false statements to a lender to secure more than $1.8 million in mortgage money on a five-bedroom, five-bath home in the gated community. Gallego told Washington Mutual Bank that he earned $45,000 a month as an international sales manager for a flooring company, owned a $95,000 BMW and had $630,000 in another bank. None were true, according to the indictment.
Gallego has pleaded not guilty; Accime is expected to enter a plea of not guilty, said her attorney.
Late last year, eight men and women, including a mortgage broker and a title agent, were indicted for their role in a Versailles home-flipping scheme in which buyers were recruited to take out hefty loans. Of those, three have been sentenced to between 30 and 66 months in prison and two are on probation. Cases are pending for the others.
And in 2008, a Haitian man unable to read or write well enough to pass a U.S. citizenship test was indicted after he pocketed $1.25 million in fees on home deals in Versailles. Ralph Michel was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
You have to ask: why the hell didn’t the lender check her references?
Seriously. Who’s the REAL crook here?
Did the $8,000 first time home buyers credit deadline extension bill get signed yet? (June 30th,2010 to Sept 30th, 2010)
Not to my knowledge, they were trying to attach it to a different bill last I read. They’ll come up with some last minute save the day BS. Or just try and renew it completely. No matter they won’t stop.
Thank you, wmbz. With all the mixed message soundbites, I wasn’t sure.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait, those 180,000 that might not close by tomorrow have been given a gift. We’ve seen proof that prices have fallen and so have mortgage rates since April 30th. Why would they still want to close now?! Walk away, let the deals collapse you 180,000 - count yourselves lucky!
Rarely does one get to see what might have happened if they did something differently. These 180,000 can now see their lunge for the $8,000 was folly.
edge,
Or any of the IL posters out there.., just trying to confirm a rumor ( without putting Ben at legal liability? )
Just got off the phone w/ a guy in the Western Sub’s and he said a… ‘certain’ bank in Kane Cty. is about to go under w/ over $200 m in Non-Performing loans.
Have you or anyone else got wind of that? Much TIA.
Nope. Haven’t heard anything.
What I did hear is that the Fin Reg bill was tinkered with to remove a gov’t audit of Shoreline Bank. You all may remember that Shoreline Bank was “bailed out” with some prodding by the WH. That south side bank was the vehicle for some social engineering efforts, and has close connections to our sitting president.
Of course the dispute on the new Fin Reg bills that I heard about was whether to exempt the auto dealsers from it’s provisions. For the last decade or so, a car has simply been the premium that you got with an abusive auto loan. You know, like how they used to give you a toaster when you opened a checking account.
Nope.
From WSJ this morning:
Congress Appears Unlikely to Extend Tax Credit Closing Deadline
By Nick Timiraos
An effort to extend the June 30 closing deadline for home buyers who signed purchase agreements by April 30 in order to receive a tax credit worth up to $8,000 appears unlikely to succeed.
In recent weeks, real-estate agents, loan brokers, lenders and title-insurance firms have voiced concerns that a backlog of deals might hamper closings, leaving some buyers in jeopardy of missing out on the tax credit.
The Senate acquiesced to those worries earlier this month when it approved a provision that would have given buyers who were under contract by the April 30 date until Sept. 30 to close on those sales. That measure was added to a bigger bill to extend unemployment benefits and close certain tax loopholes. But the larger package failed to pass two procedural votes last week.
That torpedoed the best shot at extending the tax-credit closing deadline. The measure still would have had to pass the House and be signed by the president. It’s hard to see that happening now by Wednesday.
…
A friend just got out from under her money pit on the far east side of Tucson. Quite a relief.
If the buyer took advantage of the tax credit, well, bully for him or her. The house needs a lot of work, and it was stuff that was well beyond my friend’s budget.
Friend plans to move to the California coast and rent for a while. To which I say, more power to her. The stress from dealing with that house — and the noses-in-the-air neighbors — really gnawed at her. She needs to heal her psyche and her finances.
It doesn’t matter if they pass it or not. If you can’t close in TWO FRIGGIN MONTHS, you can’t close period.
sfbubblebuyer
I agree 100%. As no loan contingency buyers, we’re hoping some of those tied up homes, come back on the So Ca resale market at reduced prices. To us, they were at the restaurant, not on the menu, at those $8,000 credit bubble prices.
The “story” goes, the banks were backlogged processing loans. It’s my belief, there were too many marginal buyers, which prolonged the closings.
It doesn’t matter if they pass it or not. If you can’t close in TWO FRIGGIN MONTHS, you can’t close period.
Not true - I know of several short sales that have taken more than two months to get approved. It can be a very long negotiating process.
Anybody who believed they would complete a short sale on any kind of a schedule was a fool. Those can take half a year to finally get through IF they go through. So I have no sympathy for them as well. If they like the house enough to go through a short sale process, more power to them, but no whining about it not closing ‘on time.’
IIRC, they changed the rules on short sales at the federal level. I recall it applying to approved short sales, but I am unclear about the “short sale” marketing gimmick sales. A lot of the short sales I’ve looked at were not approved by the bank, and the seller was trying to find a buyer’s offer, to take back to the bank as a plea bargin, so to speak.
Sadly some divorcing friends are trying to sell their old house. I really didn’t have the heart to tell them that since they weren’t under contract by the end of April, they were unlikely to sell this year unless they lowered their price ALOT, which they really can’t afford.
And here’s an odd little personal anecdote to go with the tax credit thread. I applied the credit to my 2009 return with all required supporting documentation (closed long before the deadline). Received an IRS letter in May re: you must send HUD1 settlement form to claim credit. Of course this material had been included on my return but I sent a duplicate via certified mail anyway. Guess what? Received *another* request for this same document today. Hmmmmm…. what do fellow HBBrs make of this “dog ate my homework” crap?
The IRS phone support wasn’t much help besides “this is happening a lot… send another copy…”
It’s a real PITA, and, no, I’m not an IRS agent.
But I suspect that, due to the high amount of fraud surrounding this tax credit, the Infernal Revenue Service is being extra careful to ask for the paperwork. And, like any big agency, the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.
But that’s just me. I’m just typin’ off the top of my head.
No, it didn’t pass, and the Senate has pretty much given up on the rest of that bill until after the break. It will be interesting to see how many of those closings taht did not make the deadline still go through.
This just in on yahoo:
“House votes to extend homebuyer credit 3 months”
“The bill passed 409-5. It now goes to the Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has sponsored a similar measure.”
Okay, you betting people: What ill-fated piece of legislation will it be attached to this time?
Ah, a poison pill you say?
Splendid.
“Housing cheapest in 40 years, but renting still beats buying”
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/housing-cheapest-in-40-years-but-renting-still-beats-buying-dan-alpert-says-511387.html?tickers=XHB,TOL,LEN,DHI,PHM,MAS,HD&sec=topStories&pos=9&asset=&ccode=
“Housing cheapest in 40 years if you use a big mortgage…”
Fixed that for them.
“Housing cheapest in 40 years”
What a load. Our old house in Escondido, CA wich we sold for 140K in 1995 would still fetch twice that amount today. Acoordin to zillow it peaked at at 600K during the bubble.
There’s plenty of room to slide down still.
10,000 hanging by a thread, gonna need a bigger pump.
Somebody just snipped the thread. Sigh. Looks like they’re trading the same 500 points up and down, over and over.
Like watching a yo-yo.
I didn’t know the President was giving an address.
(And for the record, it doesn’t matter which recent President.)
I’m expecting back up to 10K by the end of the day…
Probably, we’ll get some better than expected, or less worse than expected news very soon.
An excellent opportunity to buy the dip.
Unless this time it’s more than a dip. I’ve played volatility in the past, but I’m starting to lose my nerve. The bottom of the next dip might be 6000.
Al,
Join the club. How are we supposed to be able to differentiate between the summer d’s and the end of the world as we know it?
The lower the bottom of the dip, the better the buying opportunity for any strong hands who were not wiped out by the dipping motion.
The lower the yield on 10 year notes, the more attractive utility stocks are for buy, hold, and reinvest. Just my opinion.
The lower the yield on 10 year notes, the more attractive utility stocks are for buy, hold, and reinvest. Just my opinion.
Go right ahead, but make sure you get physical certificates. That way, you can use them in your fireplace.
An excellent opportunity to buy the dip.
I wonder if many Japanese thought the same back in the early 1990’s?
Are you guys taking me seriously on that “buy the dip” razz-ma-tazz? I thought you all knew me better than that.
Not that buying the dip doesn’t make sense occasionally, but I think we’ve got a much bigger dip in the offing.
Hey - one can match tongue-in-cheek with more tongue-in-cheek can’t one?
No, I know you’re not serious. Just thought I’d give a bit of history lesson for those that think it is a good time to buy the dip.
Buy the air-pocket.
I still haven’t pulled the trigger but my thumb’s on the safety.
I was one of the dupes who bought Japanese shares near the onset of their early-1990s crash. I threw in the towel a few years later — don’t think I lost much but I am certain I didn’t gain anything…
Home prices rise 0.8 pct. in April from March
Home prices edge up 0.8 percent from March to April as buyers rush to meet tax credit deadline.
NEW YORK (AP) — Home prices in April rose for the first time in seven months as government tax credits bolstered the housing market. But the rebound may be short-lived now that the incentives have expired.
The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index released Tuesday posted an 0.8 percent gain. It had fallen in each of the past six months.
Eighteen of 20 cities showed price increases in April from March. Washington, San Francisco and Dallas each posted gains of 2 percent or more. Eleven cities reversed their declines from the month before.
Only Miami and New York recorded price declines. New York hit a new low for the index.
Nationally, prices have risen 3.8 percent from their April 2009 bottom. But they remain 30 percent below their July 2006 peak
So then May’s numbers will look like….?
(Three guesses for everyone, and the last two don’t count)
Apparently, requiring a minimum credit score & downtown are not allowing ‘qualified’ people to get into home… this quote comes from a Real Estate Agen in Austin, TX
===============
Meanwhile, tighter lending rules, caused by government incompetence (like “accidentally” eliminating owner financing for non-owner occupants, and letting FEMA flood insurance expire such that no flood insurance can be written at all – stalling or killing the sales of homes for which flood insurance is required – including one of our listings), keep eliminating more and more quality buyers due to the over-correction of lending standards and stupid new rules. We have no investors to speak of because even quality borrowers are having trouble with the new ratio requirements. And many otherwise qualified buyers who would move up are instead stifled by these onerous new underwriting rules. Again, our government making things worse than it would be if it did nothing.
In addition, RE agents are still blinded by high prices; they are unwilling to accept prices are still too high. The ‘market’ price is what somebody is willing to pay for a house at a specific point in time, not what your little spreadsheet of comps tells ya. If the house doesn’t sell, it’s priced too high.. PERIOD
==============
Sylvia and I do receive gobs of “Huge Price Reduction” emails from other listing agents daily though. One yesterday dropped from the high $600Ks to below $500K. Curious, I ran a CMA on the property and, based on sold comps, the high $600Ks didn’t seem over-priced at all. So pricing has become very difficult for sellers and listing agents. The sold comps mean less than they normally do and we instead have to look at absorption rates and competing home prices.
==========================
Brett, can you let me know where you got this from? A friend of mine is an RE agent in Austin and her name is ‘Sylvia’. I’m curious
It comes from the Crossland Real Estate Blog in Austin. Google it and let us if this belongs to your friend. Lol
Google it and let us if this belongs to your friend. Lol
It’s not. *Phew!!*
“Again, our government making things worse than it would be if it did nothing.”
Brett, if you get a chance to talk with this RE Agent, point out that govt doing nothing would mean no Fannie, Freddie or FHA. And that doing nothing is what govt should be doing.
What?!
Freddie and Fannie are meant to give free money to ANYONE who wants to buy a house. How dare you suggest the government should stop handing out $$$$?
Housing will get us out of the recession!
FWIW, Fannie expects me to pay my mortgage back.
State Workers, Long Resistant, Accept Cuts in Pension Benefits.
WSJ
Some public-sector unions, trying to avoid furloughs and layoffs, are accepting less-generous pension benefits for current workers and retirees, often for the first time in years.
In California, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he wouldn’t sign a budget without a pension-fund overhaul, his office on Monday announced tentative contract agreements with two unions, following two years of wrangling over benefit cuts. Earlier this month, four unions agreed to similar tentative contracts. The agreements would potentially curtail benefits to 37,000 workers.
Unions and workers’ associations in states such as Vermont, Iowa, Minnesota, Colorado and Wyoming also have recently supported rollbacks.
More to come. Corporate pensions are next.
Not only pensions but health care promises.
Dividends will also be cut.
Public services and benefits will be gutted. Taxes will rise. Future generations will face poverty and suffering in old age.
But debts will be paid. So will pensions for the already retired. And executive pay will continue to increase. Unless there is something like a revolution (and apparently neither Obama nor the Tea Party qualify).
This is what we all should have been preparing for, not that I have all my ducks in a row by any means, but it sures offers some vindication for not spending too much on housing.
The wages of war.
Just thinking about the lack of involvement in the Gulf states on the part of the usual coterie of celebrities (with the exception of Kevin Kostner, etc.) high profile hand-wringers and disaster sympathizers. No one’s joining hands singing “We Are the Gulf” or anything like that. Sean Penn, Bill Gates and others are too busy in Haiti, Africa, etc.
Right you are!
Saved a lot the last ten years, but I don’t think I saved enough.
Thank you for posting that, Bill and edgewater. I may not be there now, but maybe in 10 years I will be, sorta like Bill.
It still stuns me the way people lived paycheck to paycheck as if nothing bad could happen to them or the economy around them. I don’t mean the working poor who scrimp to make ends meet; I mean people who actually had the money to put away and deliberately did not.
A former acquantance was a professional mooch, and bought sports equipment whenever he had two nickels to rub together. Getting him to put $500 in the bank was like pulling teeth. I told him that economies could go down any minute and it never hurt to have a little cash socked away. This was when the dot-com was still flying high.
It may be that if all our savings are devalued, we may regret having done it.
I’ve go a wife and kids, and am just hoping to get my kids through college. The house is paid off. I’m used to being comfortable living modestly. And I can get to work on a bicycle. Those are assets I can count on.
“We Are The Gulf” NLOL.
Sad, I read just this morning they have this “A Whale” that’s designed specifically for surface skimming ( which is what we seem to be best at? ) but it’s under certification.
I think this is one time where I’d forego that and just give them a maritime waiver. Hard for me to say cuzz’ I’m all about Safety.
Just thinking about the lack of involvement in the Gulf states on the part of the usual coterie of celebrities (with the exception of Kevin Kostner, etc.) high profile hand-wringers and disaster sympathizers. No one’s joining hands singing “We Are the Gulf” or anything like that. Sean Penn, Bill Gates and others are too busy in Haiti, Africa, etc.
And that’s a real shame. I’ve told everyone about my post-Katrina reconstruction experiences.
Although they were the most challenging jobs I’ve ever done, there’s something I’ve got to say. The people in that part of the country are truly among the finest I’ve ever met.
If you’re looking for some Southern Hospitality (capitalization done on purpose) with your disaster relief and reconstruction work, it’s the place to go.
“The house is paid off. I’m used to being comfortable living modestly”
The “Smart Money” says: “Whatup with that…yous just sit’in and choking the life out of ALL THAT EQUITY dude!”
Perhaps savings will be devalued, and perhaps they won’t. You’re right WT in placing value on those assets you mention - that’s a smart play indeed. All the same, if the behavior of those around me is any indication, Uncle Buck will remain an object of lust for some time to come.
I’m with you oxide. Heck, even the working poor should be able to save SOMETHING, but even if they do, they can still be swamped by an unanticipated car repair or just about any medical problem.
JIMMY BUFFET Assembles Gulf Coast Benefit Concert
MUSIC NEWS - Jimmy Buffett and some of his friends will be appearing at a Gulf Coast benefit concert on July 1. The special Gulf Shores, AL beach concert will aid Gulf Coast residents affected by the April Gulf of Mexico oil spill will feature Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band, Zac Brown Band, Kenny Chesney, Jesse Winchester, Sonny Landreth and Allen Toussaint. The show will air live on the CMT network from 8-9:30pm EDT.
I think it got postponed b/c of the storm to 7-11.
The “working poor” all called that for a reason. Mainly the “poor” part. And poor are by definition, unable to save money because, strange as it may seem, they don’t HAVE any money.
The “working poor” all called that for a reason. Mainly the “poor” part. And poor are by definition, unable to save money because, strange as it may seem, they don’t HAVE any money.
That’s odd, because I know a few people who could be categorized as “poor”, and all of them spend money on things that could not possibly be considered necessities of life. Maybe if they saved that money instead of spending it, they would have some savings?
“Corporate pensions are next.”
Private and public pension systems are expecting serious losses as the commercial real estate loans begin resetting in 2011-13. At some point the poor are going to realize cuts to services, e.g., pull that tooth — no free root canal and crown.
What do you mean “Corporate pensions NEXT?”
Where have you been the last 20 years?
More than 9,000 protesters marched through Athens today as Greek unions staged their fifth general strike of the year to challenge government plans to cut pension benefits and loosen labor laws.
The walkout halted state services including public transport and tax offices and disrupted some hospitals. The 24- hour stoppage hit ferry lines at Piraeus, Greece’s largest port, as the Panhellenic Union of Merchant Marine Engineers demanded changes to “anti-social measures.”
“We are faced with almost the total destruction of Greece’s social security and labor system,” Spyros Papaspyrou, chairman of ADEDY union for civil servants, said by telephone before the march. “We remain committed to this struggle.”
Greece is in the midst of its biggest upheaval since joining the euro nine years ago after being forced to take action to avoid a debt default. Reforms to pensions and the way workers are hired and fired are required by the European Union and International Monetary Fund in return for the 110 billion euros ($135 billion) of emergency loans agreed in May.
Greek 2-year bonds back up above 10%. Not looking so hot there (again).
msnbc.com
updated 3/27/2006 11:48:44 AM ET
Share Print Font: +-Maywood, California is a small community just south of Los Angeles. More than a third of Maywood’s population lives in the U.S. illegally.
When a local traffic division was accused of giving too many tickets to illegal aliens, the city council simply eliminated the traffic division. The same with drunk driving checkpoints and other law enforcement practices. As a result, some are calling Maywood a sanctuary city, a place where it’s not illegal to be illegal.
The city’s vice mayor, Felipe Aguirre, joined Tucker Carlson to explain what is going on in Maywood.
TUCKER CARLSON, HOST, “THE SITUATION”: It sounds very much like your city is allowing and condoning lawlessness. How can a city allow people to break the law? What’s the point of having a city, if you allow that?
FELIPE AGUIRRE, VICE MAYOR OF MAYWOOD: We’re not letting anybody break the law. And we’re asking the police officers to arrest people that do break the law. But there was an excessive impounding of vehicles and taking of people’s private property. That’s what the new city council is supposed to do. That’s why we stopped this practice that was happening in our city.
CARLSON: Well, according to the “Los Angeles Times”, the city of Maywood no longer conducts DUI stops, DUI road blocks? Is that true?
AGUIRRE: That’s not true. The Maywood Police Department will conduct any type of stop for legal and lawful reason. What was happening before in the city was that 90 cars were being stopped eachnight. People were taking away their vehicles.
CARLSON: Why were they having their vehicles taken away?
AGUIRRE: People were driving without a driver’s license.
California City Lays off All Employees, Outsources All Services
Friday, June 25, 2010
Maywood, a small working-class town in Los Angeles County that’s been no stranger to controversy, has outdone its stormy past. Facing a significant budget gap and loss of insurance, Maywood’s city council has decided to lay off all 100 of its employees and contract out all services for its 45,000 residents.
Accounting, street maintenance, parks, even public safety now will be handled by companies or other local governments, while Maywood becomes the first-ever “100%” contracted-out city in California. Well, almost 100%. The city council voted to keep itself on the payroll, along with the city manager and city attorney.
Maywood officials said declaring bankruptcy was not an option because the city had lost its general liability and workers’ compensation insurance due to high-risk issues.
With the police force eliminated, Maywood will rely on Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies to keep the peace, while the neighboring city of Bell will take charge of Maywood’s City Hall.
“AGUIRRE: That’s not true. The Maywood Police Department will conduct any type of stop for legal and lawful reason. What was happening before in the city was that 90 cars were being stopped eachnight. People were taking away their vehicles.
CARLSON: Why were they having their vehicles taken away?
AGUIRRE: People were driving without a driver’s license.”
And there you have it. Insanity to the max. Unfortunately there’s an entire burgeoning segment of the US population that thinks this way and they’re actually given a public forum and a say in policy making, because, you know, they have to “raise their voices”.
And don’t even try to fathom this sort of thing, except to acknowledge that it is nothing more or less than insanity and don’t try to address it with logical reasoning, any more than you would try to conduct a logical conversation with an inmate of an insane asylum.
I’ve seen smaller examples of this here on the ground in this area. One of the local charity stores whose workers are part of Aguirre’s clan have raised prices drastically. When asked why by long time patrons, the reason is “Because we’re helping more people, so we have to charge more”. That individual is a long time emigre from a Communist country, so I guess assimilation never really took place. Another worker said if their prices were lower, stuff would sell and the store would be empty. My hand to God.
“We’re not letting anybody break the law. And we’re asking the police officers to arrest people that do break the law.”
Is it unlawful in CA to drive without a license?
Yeah but no biggie.
Arnold drove without a license for a long time … if the governor drives without a license then why should the citizens have to get one?
It’s scary that the MAYOR seems to be asserting that driving without a license is NOT illegal. Admittedly, if the car is valuable enough seizure of it may indeed be a disproportionate punishment. But I’d be worried about driving in a town where so many people had neither licenses or insurance.
I’m reminded of the activist that was complaining that “undocumented” residents were being treated as “second-class citizens.” It seems to me that “second class” would be a higher class of treatment than that accorded to NON-citizens.
if the car is valuable enough seizure of it may indeed be a disproportionate punishment.
I think seizure at all is a disproportionate punishment, as far as the equal protection clause (I assume that’s what’d cover it). It doesn’t seem constitutional to have the penalty differ based on how much money you have/what kind of car you drive, rather than the nature of the infraction.
San Carlos a small town in San Mateo County has outsourced their Parks & Rec and now its Police Department. Expect more towns all over the U.S. to do the same.
Dow 10,000!
Just a hunch - we’re not stopping at 9,800 on this leg down. I think we break below 9,000 before this drop is through, sometime before the end of July.
Just a hunch.
Wow, thanks for the heads up, packman.
??
Not really providing any info - just my prediction.
Incidentally - this leg down since early spring is really no surprise at all. There has been no program announced to replace the two huge stimulus programs that are now coming to a close (as such) - the Fed MBS purchases and the $800B stimulus.
Being that those two largely drove the 2009 “recovery”, and there’s no replacement for them as yet announced, and the fundamentals (housing market, employment, prices, etc) haven’t improved a whit - doesn’t it make sense that we’d plummet once again back to pre-stimulus levels?
“…doesn’t it make sense…”
What exactly is this new measuring stick you’re trying to use here?
Interesting to see S&P 1050 broke, that was the June 7 closing low. Seems we’re headed further south alright.
Hmmm…my favorite bear analysts have been predicting moves UP!
Dow 10,000!
No worries, Eddie assured us a few months ago we’d be looking at Dow 12K by June. Oh wait, June’s almost over. Guess he didn’t say June of which year.
Eddie only seems to hang around when the market is going up.
Eddie only appears when joeyinCA disappears. Coincidence, maybe.
Kinda like Michael and LaToya Jackson, I always thought.
Oh, and come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve seen “her” since “his” death. Is she out and about? If so, maybe the “death” is a ruse to go back to being one person.
Eddietard shows up to confirm he’s in fact a tard and then leaves until his 20 year old peers convince him he’s a genius.
Union Bosses Rolling in Dough, But Still Seeking a Bailout?
By Gerri Willis
Published June 28, 2010
FOXBusiness
Some people always have their hand in the cookie jar.
The New York Daily News conducted an audit of union bosses in the tri-state area and the abuses being conducted would make Tony Soprano cringe.
At the top of the list sits: Hector Lopez. Lopez is the president of metal polishers local 8A-28A - which had a nearly $330,000 deficit in 2008.
But Lopez is doing just fine. His $148,000 salary - is $40,000 more than the union’s rules allow.
His brand new mansion is owned by a windows company that has a contract with Lopez’s union!
Finally His $20,000 Cadillac escalade was reportedly bought using funds preserved for strikes and the union’s American Express bill had Lopez charging $4,400 worth of unexplained purchases!
But we’re not just going to focus on mister Lopez. The paper goes on to highlight his brothers in arms!
Rocco Miranti - is the head of local 223 - for toy and novelty workers and last year, his 1,000+ member union was nearly a half a million dollars in debt - and it’s pension fund - almost non-existent!
But Miranti and his family raked in more than $400,000 last year alone!
Rocco only averaged eight hours a week - and just his paycheck rang up past $185,000
And this could be the most frustrating: union boss Bill Duffy - of operating engineers local 138 -less than 20% of this Long Island union is employed, but duffy, his brother, son, and nephew - are surviving on more than $679,000.
By the way - the nephew , according to the Daily News, is listed as a clerical worker - with a salary in the six figures!
Now, the irony is that union leadership is looking to score taxpayer help in propping up union pensions…really.
It’s hard to feel sympathy after learning the bosses are living like kings. And unfortunately as they prosper - it’s the working man that continues to fight just to take home a paycheck…
“toy and novelty workers”
Hmmm? Can always hide out w/ Fuld?
It’s nice to see that it’s not only Execs and Politicians that know how to abuse power.
A 20K Escalade?
I had to quit reading right there. A 20K Escalade is a 10yo used car. New ones run 60k+.
Dumb choice for a used car, but stupid buyers make this country run.
As for NYC corruption, this is news? Remind me again where Wall St. is? And once again, I have to remind everyone that NYC is NOT the center of the universe and NOT representative of the rest of this country. Not even remotely.
Oh, and those unions bosses need to go.
Consumer Confidence Index tumbles almost 10 points as worries about jobs, recovery flare.
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans, worried about jobs and the sluggish economic recovery, had another relapse in confidence, causing a widely watched barometer to tumble in June.
The Conference Board, a private research group based in New York, said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index dropped almost 10 points to 52.9, down from the revised 62.7 in May. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had been expecting the reading to dip slightly to 62.8.
June’s reading marked the biggest drop since February, when the index fell 10 points. The index had risen for three straight months since then.
Both components of the index — one that measures how consumers feel now about the economy, the other that assesses their outlook over the next six months — dropped. The Present Situation Index decreased to 25.5 in June from 29.8 in May. The Expectations Index declined to 71.2 from 84.6.
“Increasing uncertainty and apprehension about the future state of the economy and labor market, no doubt a result of the recent slowdown in job growth, are the primary reasons for the sharp reversal in confidence,” said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board Consumer Research Center, in a statement. “Until the pace of job growth picks up, consumer confidence is notly likely to pick up.”
Strikes hit Greece and Spain as ECB deadline looms
reuters
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Looks like this crowd ain’t into “austerity”
Protesters beat a riot policeman during a rally against government austerity measures in Athens June 29, 2010.
ATHENS/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Strikes in Greece and Spain highlighted resistance to Europe-wide austerity measures on Tuesday as the euro and shares tumbled ahead of a deadline for banks to repay a giant European Central Bank cash injection.
The fifth major strike this year by Greek unions disrupted tourism and public transport in protest at planned pension cuts and later retirement, while Spanish workers shut down Madrid’s metro system in anger at a 5 percent public sector pay cut.
The risk premium on southern European government bonds over benchmark German bunds widened and the cost of insuring their debt against default rose as investors adjusted to the wider repercussions of the Greek debt crisis on the financial system at the end of the quarter, a traditional stress point.
Boy, did I go for a walk yesterday evening. It was my weekly constitutional around Downtown Tucson, and I took a different route than my usual.
Started at the Tucson train station and headed south into the Armory Park neighborhood. And right through an infill development called Armory Park del Sol. Its big selling points were that it would be solar powered and a walkable community with front porches and sidewalks for facilitating social interaction.
Well, APDS was fairly bristling with “for sale” signs. I don’t recall seeing so many when I went past the place a few months ago.
As for the social interaction, fuggedaboutit. No one was out and about. I couldn’t help thinking that a lot of the people living there weren’t there. Their APDS houses were second homes and, well, a lot of them are for sale now.
South of 16th Street, the Armory Park nabe gets a bit sketchy. Run-down houses. Litter on the streets. Pit bulls in the yards. I walked as quickly as I could.
On to the barrios. Which, in recent years, have been romanticized much more than they should be. To put it mildly, they’re dumps. The people who look back fondly at them don’t live in them now. They got out and moved to other parts of Tucson, or they left town altogether. Success will do that to you.
At the northern edge of the barrios, just south of the Tucson Convention Center, there’s been some gentrification. And, whoa, what’s that? A renovated house that’s for sale and the sign has a “foreclosure” rider on it? Sheesh. There’s a story behind that one.
Back into Downtown, which is in a chronic state of revitalization. It may get there someday.
And that’s the story of my weekly constitutional around Downtown Tucson.
Did ya spot any “potential looking” illegal workers?
I did spot what appeared to be one of those “our tax dollars at work” scenes. A Hispanic teenaged mother with baby in car seat talking to what appeared to be the baby daddy.
My fellow walkers agreed with my “tax dollars at work” line.
Dang, Slimmie, ya didn’t take any of the Truebaiter’s Truebait.
As we headed back toward Downtown Tucson, my fellow walkers and I turned to the subject of Hispanics who’ve entered this country illegally. I pointed out that, of that crowd, Mexico’s best and brightest are not prominently represented.
Contrast them with, say, the Mexican students who matriculate at the University of Arizona. They’re coming here from places like Mexico City, and, oh, you better believe they’re paying out of state tuition.
To a man and woman, I’ve found them to be personable, classy individuals. If they go back to Mexico and lead that country, then Mexico is in very good hands.
“the Mexican students who matriculate at the University of Arizona. They’re coming here from places like Mexico City,”
Back when I wuz matriculating up in the Northeast during the 1970s (Palmy cues the BeeGees and KC and The Sunshine Band, grabs a Huk-A-Poo shirt and does a little dance underneath the disco ball), all the pre-med guys who couldn’t get into US med schools applied to Mexican med schools and got in. UG (Guadalajara) was a top choice. I think they paid out of state tuition, LOL.
12 years, imagine that, good thing nothing can/will change between now and then. What a sad joke.
Volcker Rule May Give Goldman, Citigroup Until 2022 to Comply
Jun 29, 2010
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. are among U.S. banks that may have as long as a dozen years to cut stakes in in-house hedge funds and private- equity units under a regulatory revamp agreed to last week.
Rules curbing banks’ investments in their own funds would take effect 15 months to two years after a law is passed, according to the bill. Banks would have two years to comply, with the potential for three one-year extensions after that. They could seek another five years for “illiquid” funds such as private equity or real estate, said Lawrence Kaplan, an attorney at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP in Washington.
You may not realize it, but you’ve just discovered the timing of the next bubble.
House Prices Could Drop 50% as the Great Recession Resumes
(no www) blogs forbes com/investor/2010/06/28/home-prices-could-drop-50-as-the-great-recession-resumes/
NOW we’re talking! I’ll keep saving , and when those overpriced houses finally come down to reality, pay cash and be done (except for property taxes).
I’m a dead-beat credit card user (never pay any fees) and hope to do the same on a house. I saw how my mom was just spinning her wheels on her home loan over time, never getting any traction. She owed as much as she originally had started off with, and this was 25 years later when the thing should have been close to paid off. Lesson learned.
Gimme my cheap house, I deserve it! (tongue in cheek).
We’re a one check house purchase couple, and we haven’t found “value”, yet. Housing is still in the semi-stratosphere here in So Ca. Nothing, and I mean nothing, can justify the still ridiculous prices. Somehow, deferred maintenace that is finally addressed is an “upgrade”. gmafb
“House Prices Could Drop 50% as the Great Recession Resumes”
This is crazy talk.
It recalls to mind what many considered crazy talk on the HBB before the real estate crash began circa 2006.
If they do, it puts me underwater. Maybe then I can get some of the sweet, sweet graft homeowners have been getting! Reduce my principal so I’m above water! If they do, I’ll throw my other 25% ‘backup’ on top and own it free and clear!
“Home prices will decline again with risk of another 50% down to get house prices back to levels of 1999 / 2000.”
That doesn’t seem like a stretch at all. The supply situation is far better than 1999/2000, wages are stagnant or falling, and unemployment is much, much worse. If anything, prices should be lower than 1999/2000 even accounting for the current lower interest rates.
It’ll be interesting to see the reaction of all of those arm chair investors that “snapped up” property they thought was cheap, but turns out to be expensive with few or no buyers or renters to help them out of their situation.
Yeah, and each layer of buyer will be progressively more difficult to pry away from their cash(future labor). We already found out who will jump for $8,000. Now what pols?
At the point those arm chair investors lose their investment property, their job, and their (formerly) primary residence, that should sink in pretty deeply. Any carrots won’t look too appetizing then.
Ah, remember last year when Opie pointed to those on again, off again layoffs at Caterpillar as green shoots? Well, ummmm…
June 28, 2010
(Reuters) — Caterpillar Inc. said on Monday that it had broken ground in Xuzhou, China, for a plant that would build large excavators and that it had opened a plant there to make small- and medium-sized excavators.
Everyday in the background, behind all the Wall St. hub bub, the slow leak continues.
cattlepillar in chinese.
What’s caterpillar in Portuguese?
(AP) — Caterpillar Inc., the world’s largest maker of construction and mining equipment, said Tuesday it plans to build a new manufacturing facility in Brazil to meet growing customer demand throughout Latin America.
American nameplate does not = American jobs. Those days are over.
American nameplate does not = American jobs. Those days are over.
LOL! I used to work at HP. The past two CEOs (Fiorina and Hurd) were more than blunt about this.
I’ve noticed the exec level of many an *American* company are looking pretty foreign to boot.
“…build a new manufacturing facility in Brazil to meet growing customer demand throughout Latin America”
This is good news for Mother…
I don’t know if its a slow leak, but it sure is a steady leak.
Must be that “trickle down”.
LOL. I’m sitting in an SBUX and three guys who I assume are portfolio purchasers or private equity guys or some such are screeching on about their strategies for getting in front of bank presidents for, I presume, an opportunity to buy some type of RE security. I’ll admit I don’t have much idea what they’re talking about…but they SOUND important. The key to that is to talk loudly and use every swear word in the book I guess. Everyone else in here has this “Who are these a-holes?” look on their faces.
I’ll admit I don’t have much idea what they’re talking about…but they SOUND important. The key to that is to talk loudly and use every swear word in the book I guess. Everyone else in here has this “Who are these a-holes?” look on their faces.
Has anyone made any snarky remarks about their behavior? Or is it being posted on several blogs in addition to this one?
No remarks, but 2 tables have gotten up and moved…to a location still within earshot. I guess they feel they got their point across.
I’m amazed the information people are willing to divulge in public. Last time I was here a woman meeting a recruiter was complaining that $90k that was being offered to her by some company was too little. She demanded $130k.
I think I can top that one.
A few years ago, I was ensconced in a carrel at the public library. I was happily reading something or the other when I heard some guy on his cell phone.
Mind you, it’s not considered cool to use the cell phone in the midst of one’s fellow library patrons, but some people are pretty dense.
Any-hoo, this guy was calling about some sort of order. And he proceeded to give out his credit card number. I heard every single digit of it. So did a lot of other people.
sleepless,
No offense, but better ‘you’ ( and whatever SBUX you happened to be in at the time ) than ME!
These guys are a dime-a-dozen. Since NO ONE will lend on their little Aq. pipedream they call guys like me to see if our clients will bank roll their lifestyle until the market ‘turns’.
They all have the same pitch and ‘talk’ 8 to 10% “dividends but have absolutely NO CRE experience whatsoever! Mostly swelled by the ranks of former mortgage peddlers etc. ( Which they take pains to play down for obvious reasons ) Big holes in their timeline that can’t be explained for. Just trolling for dumb money.
High Unemployment, Lower Stocks and Growing Worries. Is This 1930 All Over Again? Jun 29, 2010 ~ Henry Blodget
Yesterday, economist Paul Krugman said we’re headed for another Depression. The world’s new obsession with “austerity” will kill the global recovery, Krugman says, and plunge the economy into a double dip.
Could that really happen? Could we really be headed for a repeat of the 1930s?
Last year, Dan Alpert, managing principal with Westwood Capital, described the huge stock market rally that followed the March lows as the “greatest sucker’s rally in history.” He also produced a fascinating series of news clippings from early 1930, a few months after the historic market crash of 1929, that showed that market participants in those days had no idea of what was about to hit them.
Specifically, Dan assembled headlines and commentary from the New York Times, Wall Street, Journal and other papers that showed vigorous debate about how strong the recovery would be–with almost no suggestion that the market crash of the previous fall might only be the beginning. The market rallied strongly in the spring of 1930 amid booming optimism. Then it crashed to the horrific lows of early 1932.
Dan Alpert says we have not yet addressed the core problem with our economy, which is the massive debt mountain that we have built up over the past 30 years. Until we address that problem, and fix it, the economy will struggle.
And with unemployment still at 10%, global economic indicators turning downward, and the government’s stimulus efforts failing to turn things around, it is not a stretch to think that another Depression has already begun.
Are we to the point to where whatever policy decisions are made only affect the details of a depression, not whether or not there will be one?
That may be. And with our culture, I’d hate to think what those details may turn out to be.
“A car up on blocks in every yard and a shoe in every pot!”
The PR flacks will never allow the word “Depression” to be used. Too many “negative attitudes” would be generated.
Thus the proliferation of words like “unexpectedly” and “sub-optimal”
I would be unsurprised if it turns into a depression. I’m hoping we can keep at least one person employed all the time during it.
And with unemployment still at 10%, global economic indicators turning downward, and the government’s stimulus efforts failing to turn things around, it is not a stretch to think that another Depression has already begun.
Anyone remember during the Dot Com bubble how pundits were saying that recessions were a thing of the past?
“…..core problem with our economy, which is the massive debt mountain……”
Which isn’t going to be paid back, as long as 20% of the population is un/under employed, and another 20% or more are essentially unemployable.
Another 20% taking a “let those worthless bastards die, I’ve got mine” attitude, isn’t helping matters either.
That still leaves 40% outside the broke and “I’ve go mine jack” categories, which seems a little high. Care to go with 30%, 30% and 30%? Heck, the executives and public employees who are retired or soon will might give up 30% by themselves.
Public pensions of any kind/amount are unsustainable without a large enough private sector to support them.
It’s only a matter of time before some government entity (probably in California) declares bankruptcy, and the whole mess will be decided by some bankruptcy judge….the politicians don’t have enough sack to do what needs to be done, and the unions are too stupid to figure out the obvious, and get ahead of the problem by working out a new deal now.
Unions have been making concessions for the last 20 years. Serious and hard concessions. Cutbacks of all kinds. And yet corporations want more and the rest of the populace still thinks your average union worker is making fat bank and is causing high prices. Yet unions only comprise 24% of the entire workforce.
Maybe on the West Coast and NE Coast they are out of control, but in the rest of the country, this is simply not so.
Ask X-GSfixer about airline pilot pay. Ask the UPS workers in Texas. Ask the autoworkers. (don’t start. you’re out of date) Ask the grocery store employees.
Unionized teachers in a local Ohio school district AVERAGE $76,000.00/year. We wont discuss their anticipated pensions.
We can’t fix the “core problem” of our economy because we have the wrong analysis.
It’s not debt (although that’s a biggie) but employment. A 75% consumer driven economy has to have, well, consumers. I know. Crazy isn’t it? And in order for those consumer to consume, they have to have… money. No wait! I’m serious! And in order to have money, they have to have… jobs! No, I swear I’m not a socialeest/commie!
And 30 years of stagnate or falling wages couple with “unofficial” double digit inflation doesn’t really allow people to, now bear with me, “consume.” Whocouldaknowed?
And it’s that churn that is the REAL engine of this country. Not investing in investments that are invested in other investing investments. REAL prosperity is, was and always will be, tangible, physical security.
Market crashes are a result of collective fear. It is a “I need to get out moment.” The Great Depression did not get into full swing until a bank in Austria failed. It was a true domino effect. That bank failure came about because of the various gov’ts of the time ignoring the fact that there was too much debt.
Too much debt. Hmm, I know I’ve heard that somewhere before.
Roidy
Now I know where not to live in the city of Seattle.
“The Seattle Police Department launched a new online crime map Monday to give residents a quick, easy way to see the kinds of crimes committed in their neighborhoods.”
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012231129_crimemaps29m.html
These things are always fun. San Francisco has one, too, and there are a few neighborhoods I used to walk through that I might not have had I seen the site beforehand.
I remember the old joke that the best place to live in Seattle was Portland.
Exxon, Shell May Consider Possible Bid for BP, JPMorgan Says.
Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc may consider bidding for BP Plc after the London-based oil company lost more than half of its market value in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, JPMorgan Cazenove Ltd. said.
Exxon Mobil has the stronger balance sheet and proven ability to integrate a large transaction, according to Fred Lucas, a London-based analyst at JP Morgan. It could make a cash and share offer, valuing BP at 473 pence a share compared with yesterday’s close of 308.25 pence, and including a $50 billion spin-off of BP’s downstream assets, according to JPMorgan.
BP’s market value has collapsed by more than $100 billion since the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that killed 11 crew members and caused the leak. The company has set aside $20 billion to pay for Gulf restoration and compensation claims and said yesterday the cost of battling the spill had reached $2.65 billion.
Wouldn’t the issue be less about whether they could integrate such a large transaction and more about whether they could absorb huge and uncapped liabilities?
That’s the point of the 50 billion dollar downstream spin-off. They’d cut that part loose as a separate company to be devoured by lawsuits and U.S. sanctions.
SOP would be to run BP into the ground and then get gov’t guarantees on the liabilites for whichever suitor had the best lobbyists. All in the name of saving jobs of course.
You’ve seen this movie before, have you? It’s a classic.
Of course this is what Barry “has” to say to try and BS the masses into some sort of confidence in his administrations actions. Damn the icebergs full speed ahead.
Obama: US economy ’strengthening’ despite weak data.
WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama, with Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke at his side, insisted the US economy was “strengthening” Tuesday despite foreboding data and a fresh stock market slump.
Obama admitted there was “great concern” about the recovery, amid increasing anxiety over indicators which may point to a slowing of the rebound, and with expectations low for the latest unemployment figures due out Friday.
“The economy is strengthening, we are into recovery,” Obama said, shortly after new figures showed that consumer confidence, a key economic indicator, had tumbled in June, sending stock markets worldwide plummeting.
“The economy is strengthening, we are into recovery,” Obama said,”
Shades of the famous GW Bush soundbite: “The economy is getting stronger…”
Gee…..pretty much every economy depends on somebody buying or selling something to somebody else.
Whoduhthunk that having millions of people either out of work or going part-time, or taking paycuts, or being forced to swallow 10%/year increases in the cost of health insurance, would have an effect on their spending?
You could have knocked me over with a feather when i heard that.
“The economy is getting stronger…” Shrub
If fact, I’m the only US president to lower taxes & start x2 foreign Wars, successfully!
We’ve been heading for that iceberg for 30 years. Obama is just trying to kick that can a little farther.
Perhaps the problem isn’t President Obama or former President Bush (although he didn’t help) or any of those who came before. But rather the millions of other people in the country.
The ones who had no control on having their jobs sent overseas? Or forced paycuts and layoffs? Or raise that didn’t keep up with the real cost of living?
Surely you don’t mean the corporate raiding, junk bond selling, deregulating, Savings & Loan disaster, actors do you?
Wall Street Slumps as Economy Fears Resurface- Reuters
Stocks are tumbling after a sharp drop in consumer confidence and on fresh concerns over euro-zone fiscal problems ahead of massive bank repayments to the European Central Bank this week.
Some very smart people are suggesting this could be a decades (generational) long economic stagnation with all the fallout which that entails for business, government, and the consumer. We know Americans are characterized as optimists, but I wonder how half-full glass we’ll be when our real estate is devalued to 45-50 percent of price paid, rather than the 20-30% reductions we see in many regions of the country. Sadly, many Americans have the largess of their net worth in their homes, and with many pensions tied to frail underlying investments, this tandem of negative factors could mean less outings to the Olive Garden (c:
Some very smart people are suggesting this could be a decades (generational) long economic stagnation”
I think so too, and I’m not even smart. I think it has to do with a aging population more than anything else
I think so too, and I’m not even smart. I think it has to do with a aging population more than anything else
And it’s not just us graying Americans. Same thing’s happening in Europe and Asia.
For J6P, it’s already been 30 years long and counting.
I’ve never seen this feature before: Yahoo!Finance has a link to a Facebook page where the topic is “Do you think real estate is a good investment?” Maybe some of you have something to say.
http: //www .facebook .com/topic.php?topic=117&post=572&uid=128015890542670#!/topic.php?uid=128015890542670&topic=117
Yeah, there’s one idiot real estate cheerleader on there, Mike something, who thinks everyone should be a knife catching landlord, and yet isn’t aware of areas in the country where it is still cheaper to rent than to buy. What an ass wipe.
US auto sales seen slowing with recovery in doubt.
DETROIT (AP) — When it comes to car shopping, Americans are tapping the brakes.
Forecasters expect U.S. sales of cars and light trucks to slow in June after months of improvement. It’s another sign that people are beginning to doubt the economic recovery with unemployment still high.
“The two big issues with consumers right now are employment growth and income growth, and they’re not seeing much of either,” said George Pipas, Ford Motor Co.’s top sales analyst.
Three firms that track auto sales predict automakers will report a sales decline of anywhere from 9.5 to 12 percent from May to June when they turn in their figures on Thursday. A double-digit decline would be the biggest monthly drop since January.
There is good news for shoppers: If sales keep falling, automakers will be more tempted to try to lure car buyers in with low-interest financing, rebates and sweet lease deals.
At least GM payed back their loan, well except for $43 billion.
Seriously. 20K for a compact car? Naw, that can’t be the problem.
$20k is too much for any car.
Roidy
Much of that cost is mandated by the gov’t.
Time to get rid of junk on Ebay:
Seller Special
2 weeks only: June 29 - July 12
# Get free Insertion Fees for up to 100 Auction-style listings—regardless of start price
# List even big ticket items—start the bidding where you want
# Pay only if your item sells
I’ve heard through the grapevine that eBay’s recent (and not-so-recent) fee increases really drove people away.
Ebay & PayPal fees have gotten rather onerous. I for one miss the Ebay I knew in the late eighties/early nineties. Ebay’s ex-boss running for California governor and going on and on about her business acumen as if the success of Ebay was due to her management expertise. Hilarious. Ebay profit has fallen back because of the economy in general, not because someone in designer suits turns everything she touches to gold.
Ebay is a sh!t pot. Between the fee increases, the forced use of Paypal, the rampant criminal activity, and the feedback extortion against sellers, it’s completely lost its original charm, and Meg started its demise. She’s a smarmy piece of work. I still sell extremely desirable items on Ebay at Christmas and buy lots of stuff below retail, but I won’t give Paypal my new bank info and no one should. They ripped me off a couple of years ago and it happens all the time.
No one sells things at Auction anymore because there is not enough traffic to make it worth while. The sell through rate has dropped a good 20% across the board and yet supposedly, there are over a hundred million listings, up from around 50 million just over the last few months. What a joke. Thanks China.
“the forced use of Paypal”
I wouldn’t use pay-pal with a gun to my head.
Lots more use buy it now or best offer….which is a pin
Plus you have to know how to use their postage system to add weight and a handling fee to pay for your ebay fees…
“She’s a smarmy piece of work.”
Meg’s 1-800 #: Kiss-my-fat-A$$
Meg 2010…Beg 2011
I for one miss the Ebay I knew in the late eighties/early nineties
Late eighties? Really?
Wow, you really WERE an early adopter!
Pssst. There was no Internet in the 80s. Or the early 90s for that matter.
The groundwork for the modern-day Internet was laid during the late 1960s. And one of my good college friends helped develop technology that ran the ARPANet. That would have been during the early 1980s, IIRC.
Yep. It was also the DARPAnet for a while. Originally created to allow university research centers to communicate.
But it wasn’t available to the public until 1994 and it took TB Lee creating HTML to make it also usable to the rest of us.
I was on Usenet in ‘91. I also remember using email and a text based WWW browser in ‘90. I once sat by Marc Andreessen. He had a slick new 386 laptop. I didn’t figure out Mosaic ’til ‘93. But graphical web browsing was slow on a dial up line, and most of the discussion was on the text based Usenet.
Pssst. There was no Internet in the 80s. Or the early 90s for that matter.
There was an Internet in the 80s. There was no WWW until 1993 IIRC; is that what you meant?
I used to run up a long distance bill each month hanging out on several bulletin board servers (BBS) before the Internet.
This is a fun new game, gonna need lot’s more circuit breakers.
Citigroup Recoups Loss After Circuit Breaker Ends. 6-29-10
A 17 percent plunge in Citigroup Inc. today triggered a five-minute trading pause, making the bank the second company halted by the two-week-old circuit- breaker program created to prevent market panics.
The order that caused the slump, 8,820 shares of Citigroup that crossed for $3.3174 at 1:03:51 p.m. in New York, was canceled, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The stock changed hands for $3.80 when trading resumed, compared with yesterday’s close of $4, as U.S. stocks posted the biggest losses in three weeks.
This tells me that things are a lot worse than we’re being told.
Pooty-Poot sez…
Putin says U.S. police “out of control” in spy case
Reuters June 30, 2010, 12:48 am
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Moscow angrily rejected U.S. accusations Tuesday that Washington had cracked an undercover Russian spy ring, and said the Cold War-style cloak and dagger saga seemed timed to wreck a recent thaw in relations.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said U.S. police had gone “out of control” after 10 suspected spies were arrested in the United States in the biggest espionage case for years.
“I hope that all the positive gains that have been achieved in our relationship will not be damaged by the recent event,” he told visiting ex-U.S. President Bill Clinton.
Princeton as `Hedge Fund’ Foils Residents Seeking Relative Share of Taxes.
Princeton University, the fourth- richest institution of higher education in the U.S., paid more than $10 million last year to its prosperous New Jersey community. Municipal officials and residents say the college should do more.
The university would pay about $28 million in additional property taxes if all of its land were taxed, said Princeton Borough Councilman Kevin Wilkes. The college owns 43 percent of the borough’s assessed land value and 13 percent of adjoining Princeton Township’s, Wilkes said.
“The town budget is strapped and schools are looking at laying off teachers,” said Princeton Borough resident Peter Kann, former chairman and chief executive officer of Dow Jones & Co. and the co-chair of Princeton Future, a civic organization. “Then there is this enormously rich university. They give the appearance of being wonderful donors to the town, but compared with what they would be giving if they were paying property taxes it’s really trifling.”
It’s the latest round in the town-gown faceoff, as U.S. municipalities still reeling from the economic crisis turn to their local universities, whose land holdings are mostly tax- exempt, to close budget shortfalls. Those institutions say they aren’t in a position to help: They are also scrimping to save money through program and job cuts after record endowment declines. Princeton University’s investments lost 24 percent in the year ended June 30, 2009. The total value of the endowment fell 23 percent to $12.6 billion, from $16.3 billion the previous year.
Another unelected bureaucrat who thinks “other people’s money” is fair game. It’s easier to tax than actually manage the town’s budget into balance. What is hilarious is this guy works for a “civic organization” ie, a non-profit that doesn’t pay taxes on its donations and essentially enjoys the same tax status as Princeton. Tell ya what Mr. Kann, How’s about your organization pay its fair share of taxes to help with the budget problem?
Many, MANY muni’s are going to rue the day they cut those huge tax breaks for businesses. (and yes, a school is also a business)
The market seems so easily manipulated by a company with trading computers. Is this going to be the next black swan?
Some think that’s what the flash crashes are all about. I tend to agree.
What a shock!
U.S. House Extends Closing Deadline for Homebuyer Tax Credit
Jun 29, 2010
The U.S. House of Representatives voted to give homebuyers who qualified for a federal tax credit more time to settle on their pending purchases.
The House voted 409-5 to extend the deadline for closing home purchases to Sept. 30. The program initially required borrowers who signed contracts before April 30 to complete paperwork by July 1 to get a tax credit of as much as $8,000.
The House measure accommodates borrowers at risk of being disqualified for the tax credit because lenders and loan servicers aren’t processing mortgages quickly enough. The Senate is considering similar legislation.
Gee, I got my refinance processed in two weeks. I bet it’s because I was ACTUALLY a well qualified buyer, not somebody squeaking by the minimum standards for a FHA loan.
If these buyers were putting down 20% and the mortgage was less than 3 times their yearly income, I bet they’d have ZERO trouble closing in a month, let alone two.
I dunno. I refinanced into a 15 year fixed, and they took their sweet time. I have 30% equity, an 800 credit score, and the loan amount is less than 2x gross income. It still took them nearly 3 months to actually close. I am liking the faster amortization now, though.
Rep. Stark Mocks Border Security Advocates: Who Are You Going to Kill Today? June 29, 2010 Fox News
A California congressman known for edgy sarcasm mocked an opponent of illegal immigration during a town hall meeting last week, asking, “Who are you going to kill today?” before the constituent, a self-identified Minuteman, posed his question.
Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., no stranger to controversy, mocked the idea that the borders are not secure when asked about the federal government’s lack of activity on border security.
“We can’t get enough Minutemen armed. We’d like to get all the Minutemen armed so they can stop shooting people here,” Stark said.
Eventually, members of the audience urged Stark to offer a serious answer.
“If you knew anything about our borders, you would know that’s not the case. Our borders are quite secure, thank you,” Stark said, drawing jeers.
BNN just reported that US housing prices rose, except in NY city I think.
Friendly’s Grilled Cheese BurgerMelt Is a Whopping 1,160 Calories
June 29, 2010
We’ve all heard about the KFC Double Down, a bacon and cheese sandwich with fried chicken replacing the bun.
The newest over-the-top artery clogging sandwich comes from Friendly’s, who have introduced the Ultimate Grilled Cheese BurgerMelt—a Black Angus burger patty with lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise between two entire grilled cheese sandwiches.
Their website refers to the burger with the line, “Tasting is believing.”
The restaurant, started in Massachusetts in 1935, is famous for its ice cream treats. But customers might want to skip out on the sundae dessert after eating an Ultimate Grilled Cheese BurgerMelt. The sandwich weighs in at 1,160 calories, about half the daily recommended amount for adults.
The fat content in the BurgerMelt far exceeds the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s daily allowances, with 83 grams of total fat, 36 of those grams being saturated fat. It also has 80 percent of the recommended amount of sodium for a whole day.
Friendly’s told BostonHerald.com that sales for the BurgerMelt have exceeded their expectations.
That IS gross.
Roidy
P.S. Reminds me of Dick Cheney.
And this is important enough for you to post exactly why wmbz?
Google scrambles to save Internet license in China- AP
China is threatening to revoke Google’s business license over the company’s decision to redirect Chinese traffic to computers in Hong Kong that are not governed by the communist government’s censorship practices.
revoke business license = Un-American / communist ploy
“GE we bring good things to life” and jobs for other countries…
GE Energy to close Owensboro plant
Business First of Louisville
GE Energy plans to close its GE Energy Motors and Controls plant in Owensboro, Ky., according to a filing with the state of Kentucky.
The plant employs 88 people, including 71 represented by the United Steelworkers Union Local 00783-01.
Atlanta-based GE Energy is a unit of General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), which also is the parent company of Louisville-based GE Appliances & Lighting.
The Owensboro plant makes industrial alternating current three-phase induction motors, ranging from 30 horsepower to 500 horsepower, according to a letter the plant’s human resources manager, Kathey Pace, sent to the Kentucky Office of Employment and Training in Frankfort.
The plant is expected to close on or after Oct. 30, according to the letter.
The work now being performed in Owensboro is being moved to Monterrey, Mexico, Pace told Business First.
Wo ho! Somebody is getting a million dollar bonus this year, but it ain’t the employees!
Jack Welch & Shrub…no wonder it’s been all down hill lately.
If my employees tried to unionize, I’d consider moving to Mexico too. But instead, I treat them well, and most of them trust the unions as little as I do. So my company is more efficient, lacking that extra layer of bureaucracy and sabotage. I honestly don’t understand how anyone can defend unions in this day and age. They are destroying this country.
Nortel Networks to kill retiree benefits Aug. 31
Triangle Business Journal
Nortel Networks will cease paying health care premiums for retirees and will terminate other retiree benefits as of Aug. 31, the company confirmed Tuesday.
The move will affect about 4,000 former employees. Toronto-based Nortel (OTC:NRTLQ.PK), which employed about 9,000 people in Research Triangle Park at its peak in the late 1990s, has been selling off its business units since declaring bankruptcy in January 2009.
Does this mean they still afford to keep the extraordinary “Talent” of executives who preside over that little party of business acumen and foresight?
Redfin Field Agent -One of the people accused of being a Russian Spy. It was on their Corp Blog.
“A Boston-area Redfin field agent was arrested today by the FBI on charges of being a Russian spy. In her job application, she identified herself as Tracey Foley, but called herself Ann.”…
Wow!
Filed under: Spending…or…Stimulus? Let’s ask Rash Limpbaughs for his POV!
(The Non-Hawaiian spending those taxpayer dollars for someone that was fired, shame, shame)
Obama to guarantee McChrystal a 4-star pension:
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama will guarantee former Afghanistan commander General Stanley McChrystal a four-star pension despite firing him last week over comments disparaging civilian leaders.
quid pro quo…I’ll keep my mouth shut and you wont demote me…ok?
I think opening his mouth was the 1st problem…
As I’ve been home shopping on the internet, or at an Open House, if I see a filthy pool I am contacting Vector Control to check out the pool/area for a Nile Virus threat. It’s always a vacant home. I always include the name of the UHS and their Broker’s info., because they should be held accountable, along with the owner. I’m in So Ca. I figure, I am doing the right thing.
How much does x3 gallons of bleach cost @ the .99 cent store…be a real American, take the bull by the horns and do it yourself.
Hwy50ina49Dodge
OK, but only if I can charge $100 for the labor. If I broke a nail, it would be a whine alert, stage 5. (out of a possible 6). It’s the realtor’s and owners problem, not mine. (Bleach is a Carcinogen, btw.)
$3.00 & self-initiative = low expenditure of true America gumption, that or just spend your vital energy complaining about it to someone who truly cares and will act accordingly.
(Bleach is a Carcinogen, btw.) …diluted not so much , but I’m not representing the mosquitoes that vector West Nile Virus, I’m sure they have their own POV…
Hwy50ina49Dodge
I love you dearly, and I am usually pro-active, but it’s not my property, and the pool and surrounding areas are a health hazard. From what the Vector Control guy told me, they need to check the area. I’ve lived by a beehive, that should have been addressed, but nobody wanted to get the authorities involved until kids got stung. I’ll let the people paid to deal w/ the issue be pro-active. What the heck do I know. Trespassing is illegal, I’ll pass.
The Tortoise vs. the Hares
by Mark Hulbert
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Slow and steady wins the race.
And I mean really slow — and really steady.
That is the inescapable conclusion that emerges from the Hulbert Financial Digest’s three decades of tracking investment advisers’ performance. Believe it or not, the adviser at the top of the rankings over those 30 years has been largely in cash for more than a decade.
The adviser in question is Charles Allmon, whose advisory service is called Growth Stock Outlook. As of the close of trading on Wednesday of this week, the Hulbert Financial Digest will have tracked his performance — along with the industry in general — for exactly 30 years.
[...]
Which is nothing short of remarkable, since for more than 20 years Allmon has allocated the bulk of his model portfolio to cash. It currently owns just four stocks that collectively amount to 20% of total portfolio value, for example; the other 80% is parked in a money-market fund.
http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/109950/the-tortoise-vs-the-hares?mod=bb-budgeting&sec=topStories&pos=8&asset=&ccode=
The problem for money managers (but not for money advisors) is clients don’t need money managers in order to be in cash; Clients don’t need to pay hefty fees to others to do what they can easily do for themselves.
Soooo, money managers venture into the realm of risk in order to keep their clients happy and invested, and they think up explanations to keep them from walking when their track record lags behind cash holders.
Perhaps of interest regarding the question of illegal immigration is Mexico’s demographic future: Spain. If Mexico’s population growth slows down that should affect migration rates.
* REVIEW & OUTLOOK
* JUNE 30, 2010
The Bailout Tax
The latest reason to oppose Dodd-Frank.
A new tax on financial companies seemed like a good idea to Chris Dodd and Barney Frank at 3 a.m. last Friday, but now their $19 billion levy is threatening to blow up their 2,319-page financial bill. So they’re scrambling to replace that cash, but the bigger news here is that Barney and Chris need to impose a bailout tax for what they claim is a bill that will end bailouts.
This is the real reason that the tax came out of nowhere in the middle of the night after having been rejected earlier by the Senate. And on Monday the Congressional Budget Office made it official when it released its cost estimate for the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
CBO estimates that the bill’s vaunted “Orderly Liquidation Authority,” which is being sold as tough medicine for failing banks and their creditors, will cost taxpayers $20.3 billion between now and 2020. CBO estimated how likely it is that one or more big financial firms will fail, how many tax dollars the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation would likely pour into these losers to assist creditors, and how much taxpayers might recover as this “resolution process” proceeds.
Why $20.3 billion? CBO isn’t releasing its assumptions, but it hardly matters because the number can’t possibly be more than a guess. The failure of Citigroup alone could cost many times that, much as the failure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has already cost taxpayers $145 billion and counting. That $20.3 billion is best understood to be the potential cost discounted to what you might call the net present political value.
…
* OPINION
* JUNE 30, 2010
Why Obamanomics Has Failed
Uncertainty about future taxes and regulations is enemy No. 1 of economic growth.
By ALLAN H. MELTZER
The administration’s stimulus program has failed. Growth is slow and unemployment remains high. The president, his friends and advisers talk endlessly about the circumstances they inherited as a way of avoiding responsibility for the 18 months for which they are responsible.
But they want new stimulus measures—which is convincing evidence that they too recognize that the earlier measures failed. And so the U.S. was odd-man out at the G-20 meeting over the weekend, continuing to call for more government spending in the face of European resistance.
The contrast with President Reagan’s antirecession and pro-growth measures in 1981 is striking. Reagan reduced marginal and corporate tax rates and slowed the growth of nondefense spending. Recovery began about a year later. After 18 months, the economy grew more than 9% and it continued to expand above trend rates.
Two overarching reasons explain the failure of Obamanomics. First, administration economists and their outside supporters neglected the longer-term costs and consequences of their actions. Second, the administration and Congress have through their deeds and words heightened uncertainty about the economic future. High uncertainty is the enemy of investment and growth.
…
If the pols pushing financial reform legislation would just come clean on how it was political pressure from Congress that led lenders to scrap time-tested mortgage underwriting standards, rather than deregulation, then we would not have to go down this ill-conceived path of top-down federal regulation of community banks.
* OPINION
* JUNE 29, 2010
The End of Community Banking
Creditworthy borrowers will be denied loans as small banks devote more and more energy to regulatory compliance.
By SARAH WALLACE
The comprehensive financial reform agreed upon by the House and Senate on Friday, along with all the new regulations of the past year, could signal the end of community banking. The new reforms will give more power to the Federal Reserve to regulate how my bank and others like it do business.
What does all this mean for our customers? Less credit will be available, costs will increase, and we will be less able to make loans to regular people who were creditworthy in the past. This is the perfect storm for the small retail banking customer. We will start to see more small community bank failures and mergers because of voluminous regulation.
I have served as the president and now the chair of the board of directors of First Federal Savings and Loan Association in Newark, Ohio, since 1980. First Federal is a $200 million, federal mutual thrift. We were created to provide people a safe place to deposit their money, and loan that money back into the community in order to meet housing needs. Additionally, we utilize a significant portion of our profits to give (yes, I said give—not lend) to worthy community organizations and projects.
Our business model is narrow. We have 55 employees. We are mortgage lenders and providers of retail deposit services. We have always been a major housing lender for low and moderate income workers in our community. Our borrowers work in government, agriculture, manufacturing, education and the medical profession, like any small community in the United States. For 76 years, this business model has served us, and most importantly, the people in our community very well.
Here is the problem as I see it. First Federal lends to creditworthy folks who for decades have been well-served by bankers who understand their market and can think creatively to structure credit appropriately. It is what community bankers do. Going forward, we will no longer be able to evaluate loan applications based solely on the creditworthiness of the borrower. We will be making regulation compliance decisions instead of credit decisions. This is not in the best interest of the consumer.
…
Looks like another SOL day on Wall Street today…
It’s half-time on 2010, and at this point in the year, the economic situation may be summed up in three words: “Worse than expected.”
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Uptick
Futures Rise Ahead of ADP Report, Euro Gains
By Ken Sweet
FOXBusiness
There’s No Business Like FOX Business
Wall Street was poised to recover a small portion of yesterday’s losses as a banking report out of Europe showed signs of recovery while U.S. investors waited for a private-sector jobs report.
…
In the U.S, the group Macroeconomic Advisers will release its June private-sector employment report at 8:15 a.m. ET. Economists interviewed by Thomson Reuters expect the ADP report to show businesses hired 61,000 jobs in June, up from the 55,000 hired in May.
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THIS JUST IN!
market pulse
June 30, 2010, 8:22 a.m. EDT
U.S. stock futures fall as ADP report disappoints
By Kate Gibson
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures pared their gains to turn lower Wednesday after a report had private-sector payrolls expanding 13,000 in June, with the tally proving less than forecast. Up 40 points ahead of the report, futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were more recently off 2 points at 9,795.00. Those for the S&P 500 were down 1.10 points at 1,034.20. Nasdaq 100 futures slid 2 points to 1,761.50.