Bits Bucket For July 7, 2010
Post off-topic ideas, links and Craigslist finds here.
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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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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huffingtonpost.com
The average beneficiary of the Obama administration’s flagship homeowner-assistance program owes their mortgage lender more than $1.50 for every dollar their home is worth, which means they fall into the stratum of homeowners most likely to simply walk away from their mortgages, recent government data show.
This little-noticed statistic was disclosed in a June 24 report by the Government Accountability Office. Citing government data collected through mid-April, the report found that even homeowners who receive lower monthly payments through the administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program are still struggling “under water,” meaning they owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.
A recent study by Federal Reserve economists shows that underwater homeowners are, not surprisingly, much more likely to default on their mortgages. Moreover, borrowers who are deeply underwater — like those in HAMP, who average negative 50 percent home equity — are far more likely to default willingly; that is, to give up on trying to overcome their growing mountains of debt, and just stop paying at all.
“The average beneficiary of the Obama administration’s flagship homeowner-assistance program owes their mortgage lender more than $1.50 for every dollar their home is worth, which means they fall into the stratum of homeowners most likely to simply walk away from their mortgages, recent government data show.”
Great! Sounds like Obama’s programs to provide FBs with disincentives to walk away from their mortgages were well targeted, then.
I wonder what the average level of indebtedness is that people typically declare bankruptcy at? This may well be a reasonably predictive metric of how likely people are to engage in “ruthless default.”
I read somewhere that the average HAMP beneficiary has a total monthly debt to income ratio of around 75%. I think when I bought my house the maximum the bank would allow was 33%. So they have 25% of their pay left to pay taxes, car insurance and repair, gas, electricity, cable, phone, medical, clothing, and what do you call that stuff, that you need to live? Oh yeah, food. It’s impossible, why would the government try something that futile?
Because they just want to help us !
[and garner votes in the next election]
They want to help those poor illegals in az too.
I think his point is that it isn’t helping them.
These programs are for the banks just like everything else our gov has done during this mess.
These programs are for the banks just like everything else our gov has done during this mess.
Thwack! (A nail just got hit on the head.)
It’s just such a blatent screwing by the Feds, I’m surprised no civil liberties types are complaining about it. These people have virtually zero chance that the money they pay will do them any long-term good.
I think it is also for the states and municipalities, many of whom rely heavily on property taxes. Propping up prices drags out the pain there.
I know many on this blog favor quick resolution, but I think that in many cases slower gives people and communities more time to adapt, mentally and physically.
A disease process that proceeds over a course of hours may be impossible to stop and quickly fatal. One that takes days could be reversible. If that disease is also highly contagious, it can cause a catastrophic drop in the population.
I don’t expect to survive a Mad Max scenario. And most of my loved ones would not either. Darfur is a terrible place for everyone.
Wow. Mad Max? Darfur???? I am afraid you are missing your calling, my friend. Have you ever considered going into motivational speaking? The only thing that could have possibly enhanced your post is if The Partridge Family’s “C’mon Get Happy” was playing in the background.
Hahahahaha!
I think we are a long way from both yet, but a disastrous collapse of the economic system could lead to panic and rioting in the short term. Much like a natural disaster, you could see loss of power and interruption of food supplies.
I think the US is more likely to end up in a North Korea than a Darfur. We are more likely to see a totalitarian state than anarchy.
My point was simply that a slow slide is preferable to a fall off a cliff. And that state and local governments are dependent on property taxes. So saying that the programs are designed to prop up the banks is only part of the picture.
And the interim state probably looks like Baghdad, with power available part of the day, spot food shortages partially mitigated by people growing some of their own food, and insurgency groups adding to the havoc.
Several years ago, we had a tree fall on our roof. It took 24 hours to do it and the damage was very minor. If it had taken 10 minutes, it would have taken out about half of the house. I’ll take the slow fall over the dramatic crash any day.
Happy2bHeard wrote:
The problem is that during this period of “adjustment”/propping-up-the-housing-bubble, there is more and more malinvestment being encouraged. More money being sucked out of the taxpayer for building, sucking in more FBs to default on loans, more bad bets being made because of the governmental backstop.
A better analogy is that we had a society on cocaine (runaway debt) that was making it feel really good. Until it crashed. Now, the government is trying to give it more cocaine to make it feel better. What will be best for it will be to put it in detox, quickly, to stop the continuing systemic damage, and then slowly get it on the path towards true health, without cocaine.
The current approach just invites another crash.
Cold turkey withdrawl from some drugs, including alcohol and xanax, can be fatal.
My contention is that a sudden, drastic economic crash can be fatal for a society.
But I hear you. There has been malinvestment. There is continued malinvestment. What are the right investments and how do we encourage them? Hands off the market can lead to a race to the bottom.
I think there are no easy answers.
“I wonder what the average level of indebtedness is that people typically declare bankruptcy at?”
I don’t know about the total level of indebtedness, but I posted a link sometime in the last two weeks that talked about how far underwater homeowners got before they walked away. It was a lot deeper underwater than I would have expected. IIRC, the big tipping point was when the house lost 60% of value - as if they could recover from a 50%, 40%, or even 30% drop.
Of course many FBs think that a house can and will recover from 30%-40% declines. But even rational owners have to think about the very high transacion costs in RE and what their credit rating is worth to them. Which is largely WHY historicly the modestly underwater have a propensity to keep right on paying.
Be it Obama or the previous admin., I think the big mistake was made in the very early going? 80% of the problem resides in 20 Zip Codes.
What needed to be done was to somehow “quarantine” these dead zones and treat them totally seperately from mainstream/flyover America. IMHO, it’s still not too late to do that.
Just nuke Chicago and be done with it. The Cubbies’ll never win the series anyhow.
packman,
LOL, what was it Mike Royko once said? “A team that treats *failure* like an annuity!”?
Seriously though, Ben once ran an article that said ( at the time ) that something like 80% of the “pain” was concentrated in just handful of areas. Primarily Flipper Friendly confines like FL, PHX, LV, SAC etc.
Why weren’t these cordoned off and dealt with in a focused effort? We’re being told “We can’t FIND the noteholder blah blah!” but they could certainly make the ‘haystack’ a lot smaller to begin with?
Problem is it’s got nothing to do with the location of where the houses are. The problem is the bad loans. Those are generally located in one of only two places - New York City, and Washington DC.
So those are the cities we should nuke.
Being a Red Sox fan that’d be fine with me.
packman,
Not necessarily. Why did we make for such an “open ended” arrangement in the first place! Gotta’ a bad loan ( we’ll eat it! )
I appreciate your humor on this ( and I can’t think of (2) more ‘deserving’ towns? ) but the truth is, the -investors- that hold those notes are scattered around the globe.
Virtually any other biz agreement would have included only the worst of the worst where any type of warranty was written ( or implied ) Even the crappiest sports team can’t “get rid’a da’ bums” all in (1) season?
When you have an “adjustment” on a defective tire ( they don’t just give you another complete set ) Maybe we should have kept our damned mouths shut but the way this has been handled from inception has been under the total assumption that ALL loans would go bad!
If your team was in the cellar and you were provided the window to get a total personnel makeover, where would be the incentive to bother salvaging -any- of your players?
They can think what they want. They should just be sure to remember that while they are waiting they are still paying interest and carry costs - the latter of which are going up with a bullet in many locales.
Holding a pig of a stock is one thing, holding a pig of a house is a whole other matter. Meanwhile, if you’re not in that position you can get ahead of those folks by simply doing nothing. BTW, doing nothing is exactly what the PTB doesn’t want you to do.
“Holding a pig of a stock is one thing”
Right ( like that’s never happened to any of us before? ) Too bad FB’s can’t just parcel off their garage and capture the loss huh?
Therein lies the answer, I’m perfectly willing to allow for writing off the losses ( as long as we ditch the cap gains exemption )
It’s also harder to open the paper and read that your house is now worth $213,538.34 (-0.34% from yesterday’s close)
I think it takes a surprisingly deep hole to cause MASS walk-aways because it takes a deep hole to cause the homeowners to get an appraiser/realtor/etc out to evaluate the home and give them a number. And since those REIC groups tend to blow rainbows and sunshine up your ass, assume at least a 10% inflation from ‘actual’ value to what they’d claim the house is worth.
That means you need to be down 20% before somebody thinks “Hey, I’m down more than 10%!”
If the hole is deep enough and obvious enough, say where they are watching enough sales in their neighborhood to convince them they are down 40+% (like brand new divisions going down the tubes, where you can’t pretend it’s not an apple-to-apple comparison) then they are likely to walk.
“It’s also harder to open the paper and read that your house is now worth $213,538.34 (-0.34% from yesterday’s close)”
Haha. Back in 2002 when I bought my house, I was glad I couldn’t see that kind of value change for it daily, then wondered if an equity could be created that did something like that…CDO’s actually come kind of close don’t they?
45% of S. Florida’s May home sales are for a loss
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 5:27 a.m. Wednesday, July 7, 2010
About 45 percent of South Florida homes that sold in May did so at a loss, according to data released this morning by real estate analysis firm Zillow.
The sales information for Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties was not greatly improved over April, when 46 percent of homes were purchased for less than the previous sale price.
In Palm Beach County, 42 percent of homes sold in May did so at a loss. In Broward and Miami-Dade counties, 47 percent and 48 percent of homes, respectively, sold at a loss.
In Martin County, 42 percent of May home sales were for a loss and, in St. Lucie County, it was 45 percent.
In comparison, during real estate’s heyday in 2006, no more than 3 percent of South Florida homes sold at a loss, according to Zillow.
Today’s monthly real estate market report from the Seattle-based company also includes May’s Zillow Home Value Index, which shows a median value of $152,300 in South Florida. That’s a 1.6 percent decrease from April and a 50 percent drop from the peak of the market in June 2006.
“Sorry. Or congratulations if you’re not yet in the housing market, as affordability just got better for you,” wrote Zillow’s chief economist Stan Humphries in a blog post about the report. “Given a current home ownership rate of 67.1 percent, there are likely more sorries to go around than congratulations.”
The report also looked at June price reductions on listed homes. Nationally, about 26 percent of homes had at least one price reduction in June. In South Florida, 18 percent of listed homes reduced their asking prices last month. The median price cut in South Florida was 9 percent.
Check it out: For the price of a San Diego ocean view mansion, you could purchase a Utah ski resort! Brian Head is located in the mountains to the east of Cedar City, 84 miles north of St. George.
Brian Head Ski Resort listed for sale again at reduced price
Associated Press
Published: Monday, July 5, 2010 1:56 p.m. MDT
PAROWAN — Brokers have reduced the sale price for a southern Utah ski resort by nearly $6 million.
The original asking price for Brian Head Ski Resort was $34.75 million, but was reduced to $29 million three weeks ago.
A broker for the firm CB Richard Ellis Inc. says the price came down because of a slow market in resort real estate.
The resort near Parowan is currently running its regular summer activities, including mountain biking and ski lift rides.
General manager Henry Hornberger says if the resort does not sell before the winter season begins, he expects it to be business as usual at the resort.
Brian Head Resort includes two mountains, nine lifts and 640 skiable acres on 53 runs.
…
Prechter says Dow could fall to 1,000.
(Reuters) - Longtime technical analyst Robert Prechter said on Tuesday he expects that as the U.S. economy sinks into a deflationary depression stocks will plunge.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI stock index could fall to between about 1,000 and 3,000 points over the next five to seven years, he said in a telephone interview. The Dow was trading at 9,754 in early afternoon on Tuesday.
“It is very clear there is substantial stock market risk,” said Prechter, who urges investors to put their money in cash proxies such as safe-haven U.S. Treasury bills instead.
Prechter is known for his very bearish views on the economy and also for forecasting a big bull market in stocks in 1982 and for getting out before the 1987 market crash.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6653XM20100706
This was in the comics section, right?
“Prechter says Dow could fall to 1,000.”
He is too pessimistic. Unless the Fed’s printing press somehow breaks, this ain’t gonna happen.
U.S. Second-Quarter Shopping Center Vacancies Approach Record, Reis Says ~ Jul 7, 2010
Vacancies at U.S. neighborhood and community shopping centers moved closer to the highest on record in the second quarter amid signs the economic recovery is losing steam and consumer confidence remains subdued, Reis Inc. said.
The vacancy rate at shopping centers rose to 10.9 percent from 10 percent a year earlier and 10.8 percent in the first quarter, the New York-based real estate research firm said in a report today. It was the highest since 1991’s 11 percent. The record for shopping center vacancies since Reis began tracking the data 30 years ago was 11.1 percent in 1990.
“There are really very few reasons to believe that performance deterioration won’t continue for another 18 to 24 months for retail properties, although there are some signs that the pace of decline is moderating,” Victor Calanog, director of research, said in the report.
Wmbz
In our little enclave, I have seen some renovations going on 2 new Bank of Americas opened, 4 one story commercial warehouse factory type buildings empty for a long time getting a second floor..( maybe a zoning change?)…looking almost finished, so lets see if they rent.
a Key Foods taking over the corner which used to be a WaMu bank empty for what 3 years..
a Rite Aid took over the Eckerds store next door and combined them
Nothing really earth shattering but movement
I went to monterey this weekend and cannery row is a ghost town.About 75% of the businesses are gone.It is depressing walking through there.Van heusen, reebok, bass shoes and a candy store are about the last stores standing.Couple mom and pops and a restaurant are still kicking barely.
I went over to the mall around the corner a little ways and most stores still open.There is an old mervyns building that is still vacant.
Lots of people working in the fields as we drove around.they had small armies out picking stuff.Not sure where they all live because it is very expensive to buy around there.
Those are the seasonal pickers that come up from Mexico (and have papers - before anyone starts the immigration arguments again). They do not typically own houses here, rather the farms provide housing for them.
I have heard that those workers don’t even have to be paid minimum wage.
“About 75% of the businesses are gone.”
Whoa!
A number of dept. stores owed by Mervyns and Lucky’s in SF Bay Area which have been closed in the last few years are still empty. Considering, they are the anchor stores in most small strip malls smaller retailers must be getting bruised.
near me, ground was broken recently on a new Tire Discounter store, and half a mile away, a new Honda car dealership. These are new construction on land previously farmed or vacant.
Nothing earth-shattering, but some smaller construction still kicking off in my area.
Mixed here in Houston. Some new retail construction and Class A office space, but a lot of strip centers built in the last 3 years are still more than 50% vacant, with older, neglected (or ugly) centers suffering the worst.
Quote from a discussion article:
“I am a federal employee. My compensation is performance based. We do have fantastic benefits. For years the private sector had higher salaries. Now the reverse is true and it is due primarily to the ‘boom and bust’ cycle to which your private sector people subscribe. You guys live a California Gold Rush lifestyle. During good times we don’t here you b_tching, so shut the h_ll up. You made you bed. Time to lie in it!
I will retire soon at 54 with 24.5 years of service, and only a 2% penalty on my pension annuity. I won’t need to tap my 401k or IRA savings. I paid off a 30 mortgage in 19 years because we don’t live an extravagant life style. This is the culmination of many years of planning. Enjoy the rat race!
I honestly think the government must do something to control employee retirement plans. Guaranteed paycheck for life with only 25 years of service? Guaranteed healthcare?
In what world are we living in? This person is going to live 20+ years, and I am almost 100% what he’ll take in benefits is way more than what he contributed over his career to his pension.
“I honestly think the government must do something to control employee retirement plans.”
Coming to a neighborhood near you, a solution to rein in government pension plans, and other pension plans as well.
It’s called the Lack-of-Money Plan, offered to everyone by Universal Reality Check - a truly global enterprise.
It’s called the Lack-of-Money Plan
Yep. Followed by the Create-A-Bunch-Money Plan.
Retirement plans are rapidly becoming the focal point (or flashpoint perhaps is a better term) of economic problems. It seems perhaps there’s a downside to continued record-low interest rates. Retirement plans and other trust funds (be it private savings, pensions, SS trust fund, Medicare, etc.) that count on 7-8% per year based of safe investments are currently issuing a massive simultaneous “ruh roh” as they get 3-4% instead.
IMO the U.S. government will not allow these funds - including states themselves - to go bankrupt. They will bail them out, and the bailouts will by necessity involve more QE; there’s only so much water in the equities well that can be tapped. It’s only a matter of time.
IMO the U.S. government will not allow these funds - including states themselves - to go bankrupt. They will bail them out, and the bailouts will by necessity involve more QE; there’s only so much water in the equities well that can be tapped. It’s only a matter of time.
Agree 100%
States are starting to lay people off.
If the goal is to pump money into the economy they will do this.
The problem of couse is most repubs and a growing list of Dems may not support it.
FED could loan money to the states directly but can’t make Congress spend.
I suppose they could loan at negative interest rates as propossed by Greg Mankew. J6pk might be more supportive of this then the FED lending to GS w negative interest rates.
meatson:
I’m still holding out for a $2000-4000 reduction in outstanding credit cards bills.
It would pump money asap by saving people up to $65 a month on high interest cards ($4000x 20% is $800 yr)…and also I honestly believe most people will not blow this gift on lap dances like they did after Katrina
People will spend most of it on deferred items, like maybe a new suit, shoes, a cheap laptop/netbook maybe a blackberry or Iphone to become more flexible and mobile.
Or to finally get new tires or fix the check engine light….practical stuff
One year of retirement for each year worked is not a pension. It’s being a slave owner.
“I am almost 100% what he’ll take in benefits is way more than what he contributed over his career to his pension.”
That’s a near certainty here in IL where the pension is often based on the person’s top earning years, not the average of all of them. Plus, one can “retire” after X years, start collecting pension, and then take another job (preferably another cushy gov’t job) without any ding to the pension checks.
I believe they’ve put a stop to that for new hires.
Overpaid Federal Workers
http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/overpaid-federal-workers
My compensation is performance based.
I’m a federal employee and even I don’t believe this. By “perfomance-based” they mean “dont f up and you get promoted.” btw, the pension system isn’t nearly as good for newer employees as it is for old-timers.
Maybe he works for MMS, and gets a commission for every illegal oil-drilling procedure he approves.
SFC,
LOL, just might be? No, I think the focus isn’t entirely inappropriate. He’s right, we HAVE become almost entirely dependent on Boom/Bust Cycles and I’ve said many times, during the era of dot.com milli’s, whoTF cared about some dude toiling away for the state etc?
In the end though, combo’s “Lack-of-Money Plan” (TM) will rule the day. Check the smugness pal, and what’s that they say about counting your chickens?
I am ALSO a federal employee and notwitstanding the fact that THEORETICALLY I’m covered by a “pay for performance” plan, the reality is that there is no such thing. What you have is a pay for performance rating</b plan. And to ease conflict and avoid arbitration etc, most of the supervisors jigger the abtusely complex rating system so that everybody gets something. It just ends up being alot of extra work on those supervisors to get to the same, not particularly motivating place in the end: you’ll never get rich, but it is very difficult to get fired for mere incompetence or laziness.
but it is very difficult to get fired for mere incompetence or laziness.
It was with the city rather than FedGov, but I saw this with my gf. She had a hell of a time firing an employee who was continually late, wouldn’t call when she was out, and had overall poor job performance. Ultimately it took her just not showing up for four days (without calling/notice) to get her out the door.
My compensation is performance based
The way my gf explained this (she’s a city worker), is that due to their salaries being public info, there’s a much greater concern of discrimination suits (employees can see someone else is making more/less, and think it’s due to discrimination). As such, the raise+promotion mechanism is much more experience/seniority-based rather than actual performance-based.
As such, she’s going to have to FIGHT to stop a few of her employees from getting an automatic raise even though they’ve been messing up at their jobs quite a bit in the past year.
Ugh.
“btw, the pension system isn’t nearly as good for newer employees as it is for old-timers.”
Tell me about it. SS if it’s still there and a 401k equivalent with limited options. But as a shift worker, the worst aspect may be the difference in retirement age. For a desk jockey, 55 should be too early to be able to retire. But doing shift work, who knows if I’ll make it to 67 to 70 to be able to retire.
But that supposed story from a federal worker looks like a plant. Benefits for federal workers aren’t all that exceptional, but do look better these days in the context of the current economic disaster.
“My compensation is performance based.”
Sounds like someone is trying to start an urban legend here…
My girlfriend tells me my allowance is performance based.
I have friends who are federal employees living off of appropriated dollars from congress, and they have 401k plans and lousy medical with no dental or vision. Now states like California have the nice retirement plans, but now they look like they won’t be able to deliver.
Anyway, why complain? Join ‘em if you have the required skills!
Now I’m confused. Isn’t Federal the same across the board pretty much - I can maybe understand a lower salary in a less expensive state, but surely the benefits are the same?
The early federal employees were part of CSRS whereas the late boomers and others are on FERS. Google each of them for the details, but realize that CSRS is a defined benefit plan, and FERS is a 401k plan requiring contributions, which makes future planning tougher on lower skilled employees earning less.
Its the rat race which pays the government employees pay ans benefits. The problem with the rat race has become the rat race is between rats in America, China and India. If the amount of cheese the American rat can garner everyone in the American food pyramid suffers. Lets see first city, then state lastly federal employees will feel the pinch.
BTW good luck holding onto your benfits over the long haul.
Excessive Debt May Sink Global Stocks to Crisis Lows, Says First State.
July 7 (Bloomberg)
The stimulus-driven global economic recovery is threatened by excessive corporate and government debt that may push global stocks to below their post-credit- crisis lows, said Alistair Thompson of First State Investments.
That suggests a drop of more than 34 percent for the MSCI World Index from yesterday’s 1,051.60 closing level. This could occur within the next 18 months, according to Thompson, who co- manages First State’s Asia Pacific (ex-Japan)/Global Emerging Markets fund. First State managed about $126 billion as of December 31, according to its website. The fund is skewed toward “defensive” stocks, he said.
“We’re anticipating much slower economic growth in the coming period,” said Thompson, who is based in Singapore. “There’s a distinct possibility global markets could return to, or fall below, their bear-market lows. The big problem at the moment is government leverage, bank leverage, and in some places, consumer leverage.”
“The big problem at the moment is government leverage, bank leverage, and in some places, consumer leverage,”
Translation: The big problem at the moment - and for the foreseeable future - is governments don’t have enough money, banks don’t have enough money, and consumers don’t have enough money.
Other than that everything’s fine.
If money is so scarce, why can’t the Fed simply use its virtual printing press to create more?
Good idea. I think billions more should be printed and all of it given to me.
I promise I will do my best to spend it.
I promise I will do my best to spend it.
That’s a bovine bowel movement, combo. You’ll hoard it.
Inflation. If everyone had twice as much money, everything would cost twice as much and you’d gain nothing. What’s scarce is the ability to pay money back through the creation of valuable products and services.
Yes, we should be spending on investment in areas most likely to increase job creation.
“If everyone had twice as much money, everything would cost twice as much and you’d gain nothing.”
But the cost of fixed debts (and public employee pensions) would fall by half. It’s a back door mass default/debt reorganization.
That really is the way out. Although I doubt that the increase in wages would match the increase in prices. The standard of living is going down somehow someway.
“If everyone had twice as much money, everything would cost twice as much and you’d gain nothing.”
You would gain less than nothing. Chronic spenders would have more money to spend and their selective spending - favoring spending in some areas and not in others - would furthur distort an already distorted economy.
Well if all government debt was financed for the long term at fixed rates that WOULD work as a way to ease paying down that debt. But even if we suddenly started electing politicians who balanced the budget and stopped adding net new debt, much of the existing debt must be refinanced on a regular basis. And governments that have a history trying to inflate their way out of their debts pay MUCH higher interest rates. You quickly end up with Weimar or Zimbabwe type hyperinflation.
I think most public-employee pensions are indexed to inflation. So in your example they’d be in even better shape than before, doubling their pay while reducing their debt load 50%. And since most private-sector retirement benefits wouldn’t double, instead of having retirement benefits 3 times better than the rest of us, it would be 6 times.
“… reducing their debt load 50%.’
One person’s debt is another person’s money. Paying debt back in 50% cheaper dollars screws the debt receipiant by 50%.
Wrong, most public pensions are not indexed to inflation. Very few are, NYS has a cost of living increase of up to 3% but, only on the first $18,000 and only after five years in retirement. California OTOH, nothing would surprise me.
“If everyone had twice as much money, everything would cost twice as much and you’d gain nothing.”
The government is currently conducting this exact experiment and the results are clear. The program is called “food stamps” and can be directly blamed for food prices being ridiculously high at the grocery store.
“Cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for the Civil Service Retirement System
(CSRS) and the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) are based on the rate of
inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical
Workers (CPI-W). COLAs for both CSRS and FERS are determined by the average
monthly CPI-W during the third quarter (July to September) of the current calendar year
and the third quarter of the previous year. The “effective date” for COLAs is December,
but they first appear in the benefit checks issued during the following January.
All CSRS retirees and survivors receive COLAs.
If money is so scarce, why can’t the Fed simply use its virtual printing press to create more?
They just have to find people willing to lend and borrow it or find a gov willing to spend it. Banks aren’t lending, people aren’t / can’t borrow, and Gov are rolling back.
They just have to find people willing to lend and borrow it or find a gov willing to spend it. Banks aren’t lending, people aren’t / can’t borrow, and Gov are rolling back.
LOL.
Raises hand - how about me?
They just have to find people willing to lend and borrow it or find a gov willing to spend it. Banks aren’t lending, people aren’t / can’t borrow, and Gov are rolling back.”
if they print enough money people will spend it because it will be worth less with each passing day
if they print enough money people will spend it because it will be worth less with each passing day
Only if it ends up in the hands of people who spend it. If banks sit on cash reserves or a small # of elite stuff their bank accounts with it, the cash will not drive up the dollar amount of consumption. People will shift total spending, less on cars more on food etc.
Creating inflation with printed dollars only works to increase the GDP if.
1. People can increase wages via bargaining, working more hours, or sending spouse off to work. Spouse is already working there aren’t enough jobs and wages are spiraling down due to technology and third world labor. Insurance costs and local taxes are on the rise. Fewer services and more fees will hit wallets as well.
2. People have savings they can use to increase spending. Nope. Average American is in debt up to his eyeballs.
3. There is a rich country outside the system that will buy up your goods. Nope as far as I see it it’s competetive devaluation of currency. Chinese will not be buying cars made in America just won’t happen. As many have pointed out companies are still outsourcing jobs.
Nope until that money lands in the laps of a middle class that will spend it it won’t increase GDP. They might be able to increase the amount we spend on fuel and food, but manufactured good consumption will take a hit.
“The big problem at the moment is government leverage, bank leverage, and in some places, consumer leverage,”
Consumer leverage, % of GDP:
1980: 48%
1985: 50%
1990: 60%
1995: 64%
2000: 68%
2005: 90%
2009: 97% (peak)
2010: 93% (current)
I’d say we’ve got a ways to go to get back to “sane”. In other words - there won’t be any consumer-led recovery in our immediate future.
How many foreclosures would it take to get that number much lower?
Rough order of magnitude:
- Need to lower by 30% of GDP to get back to 63%
- 30% of GDP = $5 Trillion
- Say each foreclosure results in $300k debt reduction
- $5 Trillion / $300k = 16.7 million foreclosures.
Noting that we’re currently running at about 3 million foreclosures per year.
(P.S. disclaimer - I pulled the number in that third bullet out of my @ss. If anyone has a good real number, please post.)
Well now, that blow-off top is easy to spot!
The significance of this story is very unclear to me, but I take it that Megabank of America will soon be adding to its REO inventory in Utah.
Injunction lifted against Bank of America, ReconTrust
Published: Friday, June 11, 2010 10:25 p.m. MDT
SALT LAKE CITY — U.S. District Court Judge Craig Waddoups has dissolved a preliminary injunction against Bank of America and its subsidiary ReconTrust, thereby allowing the national banks to continue foreclosure proceedings with hundreds of delinquent mortgage holders in the state.
…
The Bank of America announced that the company is pleased with the court’s ruling.
“It is Bank of America and its related affiliates’ policy to handle foreclosures in compliance with applicable laws, and by its ruling today, the court has recognized that fact,” the statement reads.
…
Industry Cuts Back as Steel Prices Fall ~ WSJ
Steel prices in the U.S. are declining after holding firm for months, potentially a bad omen for the nation’s economy as manufacturing activity slows and consumers grow more cautious about big-ticket purchases, such as cars and appliances.
Steel prices tumbled in June, and U.S. steel mills are responding by cutting production. Earlier this year they were ramping up capacity to meet the growth in demand they hoped would emerge from the economic recovery. Instead, demand has been spotty.
A shame we can’t sell that steel to China for the thousands of miles of ongoing expansion of the their high speed rail network.
Why isn’t the federal government spending as mug energy fiddling solutions to control illegal immigration? Instead, the go after a state government that tries to find a solution. You may agree or disagree with the Arizona law, but I wish the government spent its energy and resources doing something to help its citizens.
——
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Arizona, charging that the state’s new immigration law is unconstitutional and requesting a preliminary injunction to stop the legislation from taking effect.
The lawsuit says the law illegally intrudes on federal prerogatives, invoking as its main argument the legal doctrine of “preemption,” which is based on the Constitution’s supremacy clause and says that federal law trumps state statutes. The Justice Department argues that enforcing immigration laws is a federal responsibility and says an injunction is needed to prevent “irreparable harm” to the United States.
The filing also asserts that the Arizona law would harm people’s civil rights, leading to police harassment of U.S. citizens and foreigners. President Barack Obama has warned that the law could violate citizens’ civil rights, and Attorney General Eric Holder has expressed concern that it could drive a wedge between police and immigrant communities.
I’m sorry for the spelling errors. Typing fast on the phone isn’t always easy. Lol
spending as mug energy fiddling solutions
huh?
He’s referring to the Obama administration’s secret program to get the U.S. off oil, “Mug Energy”. To be unveiled before the November elections.
LOL. I seriously didn’t know.
I am sorry.. I typed this on the phone while I was running around the lake, which isn’t the best thing. What I meant to say is:
“Why isn’t the federal government spending as much energy finding solutions to control illegal immigration? “
Because one party’s illegal immigrant problem is another party’s future voting bloc.
It’s all politics, Chicago style, but its going to fail just like everything else this Administration has tried.
Since the illegal immigrants can easily live in almost any other state, why bother hanging around AZ? In fact many have already left AZ.
My take on the situation, which is based on what I’ve seen and heard during my 23 years as a resident of southern Arizona:
On the Republican side, ignoring the illegal immigration problem is done because the illegals provide a steady stream of cheap, exploitable labor for industries that are run by heavy donors to the party. By industries, I’m referring to agriculture, construction, hotel and restaurant, landscaping, and janitorial.
On the Democratic side, it’s a source of new voters. After all, many of the Democratically-leaning voter blocs (organized labor, women, and minorities) have started to see through the rhetoric and look at the reality. And this has been going on for awhile — remember the Reagan Democrats of the 1980s?
One more thing to keep in mind: America’s fastest-growing party affiliation is no party affiliation. And, as the current occupant of the White House learned a couple of years ago, you can’t win elections without appealing to independent voters. He did that. Whether he can do it again remains to be seen.
i think the explanation is the same for both parties…your first one.
it’s always about the money.
ALWAYS about the money.
Even the Romans knew this.
Food for thought –assuming that 12 million illegals WERE kicked out of the country - then how many houses would be empty then? Who would be left to buy their homes? How badly would neighborhoods deteriorate?
And don’t pretend they didn’t buy during the boom, they did.
Thwack
“The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Arizona, charging that the state’s new immigration law is unconstitutional and requesting a preliminary injunction to stop the legislation from taking effect.”
Bwahahahhaha! Obama’s entire administration is one of unconstitutional dereliction of duty, not to mention his unconstitutional health care law. And his presidency is unconsitutional as well, seeing as how he’s not a natural born US citizen (has nothing to do with where he was born, his father was not a US citizen, but everyone conveniently ignores that little detail).
You go, Eric Holder! Destroying everything that the Civil War was fought to hold together, and from which you have benefited, rising far beyond your capabilities.
has nothing to do with where he was born, his father was not a US citizen, but everyone conveniently ignores that little detail.
Wait.
Babies born on American soil to illegal Mexican immigrants are citizens. Since NEITHER parent is a citizen, then the baby’s citizenship has everything to do with where he was born.
And there are people who want to REVOKE that citizenship, which means they must acknowledge the legitimacy of borth location.
By the same reasoning, the same should be true of Hawaiian-born Barack Obama, even if neither of Obama’s parents were non-citizens.
you can’t have it both ways, palmetto.
you can’t have it both ways, palmetto.
I think Palmetto’s point is the Constitution doesn’t say the President has to be just a citizen, but a certain kind:
No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
Natural-born means American Soil. Obama’s parents could have been Martians (some probably think they are) and Obama could still run for President.
Besides, hasn’t this birther controversey been put to bed yet? If there were any there there, then Fox and the Republicans would have smoked it out over the two years before the election.
The Justice Department argues that enforcing immigration laws is a federal responsibility.
That’s pretty funny. Last I checked, the federals were SHIRKING that very responsibility — on the employer side, at the very least.
Justice is in a lose-lose situation. If Justice loses, other border states will have precedent to enforce their borders as they see fit, by Wild West methods if necessary. If Justice wins, then the Supreme Court can effectively hoist Justice its own petard by ruling: “Yeah, we agree enforcement is your responsiblity, so WHY AREN’T YOU DOING IT!!!”
Why aren’t the doing it? Largely because those that employ the illegals don’t want them to.
nb. I was surprised that when I got a new voter registration card in the mail (change in school council district) it was in both English and Spanish. Now a fairly good argument can be made that for many local government services, there are a number of legal residents who don’t speak English and besides, the government may even want to provide services irrespective of legal status. But VOTING is the very defining action of citizenship, and speaking English is a requirement of naturalization. Certainly in MD I think that vast majority of native born citizens have a working grasp of English, in a way that may not be true in border states.
Jim Kunstler said it eloquently. To pharaphase, “undocumented” makes it sound like a bureaucratic glitch, instead of a transgression of the law.
The best part is when they call them “Undocumented Americans” getting rid of the whole alien or immigrant nomenclature.
Nothing like trying to define the terms of the argument in such a way that makes it impossible for you to lose.
Wasn’t the old derogatory term WOP a 3 letter acronym; WithOut Papers?
The test is probably not very difficult. The cooking lady at work became a US citizen last year, and her English is very poor
My wife is in the process of becoming a naturalized citizen and she was worried about the English test, which I assured her, since her English is better than many native born citizens, that she would have no trouble passing. The questions are on a “See Dick and Jane run” level.
But VOTING is the very defining action of citizenship, and speaking English is a requirement of naturalization. Certainly in MD I think that vast majority of native born citizens have a working grasp of English, in a way that may not be true in border states.
Anyone seen the new citizenship and naturalization test study guide? I got a pocket-sized version from the brochure rack at the public library.
Yes, you do need to speak and understand English. And, trust me, the civics questions aren’t a walk in the park.
Instead, the go after a state government that tries to find a solution. You may agree or disagree with the Arizona law, but I wish the government spent its energy and resources doing something to help its citizens.
Many Arizonans agree with you.
But what about the Undocumented Arizonians? Or should we call them Citizenship Impaired Arizonians?
As usual, whatever happens earlier in the rest of the country happens later in Utah, including real estate busts.
Utah housing boomed in 2008-09 — before recession
By Lee Davidson
Deseret News
Published: Wednesday, June 16, 2010 10:52 p.m. MDT
New census data show that in the good old days — as in two years ago, between 2008 and 2009 — several of Utah’s 29 counties were near the top in the nation for new housing units built.
Since then, “it’s cooled off,” said Matt Cazier, Uintah County’s planning director. “There’s been a lot of foreclosures, like everywhere else.”
…
The new census data also show how strong Utah housing construction had been earlier in the decade — before the recession hit — when Utah had high immigration rates because of people drawn here by a good economy and jobs.
Utah ranked No. 3 among the states for new housing built between 2000 and 2009 (and No. 6 for housing added between 2008-09). During the decade, Utah added an estimated 188,227 housing units — an increase of 24 percent in that time (twice the national average). Almost all of that came before the recession.
…
“…During the decade, Utah added an estimated 188,227 housing units — an increase of 24 percent”
The thing I wanna know, did this result in Mormon dilution or Mormon expansion?
What happens in Utah, delays in Utah.
* JULY 6, 2010, 8:59 P.M. ET
2nd UPDATE: Fannie, Freddie Derail White House-Backed Green Financing Program
(Updates comment from Renewable Funding)
By Cassandra Sweet and Melissa Korn
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)–An innovative green-energy financing program hailed by the White House as a way to cut greenhouse-gas emissions while creating jobs is in trouble after U.S. mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) vetoed the program.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency on Tuesday endorsed the mortgage giants’ negative view of the program, called “property assessed clean energy,” or PACE, and appeared to reject arguments by state and federal officials that loans made through the program are safe, even though repayment takes priority over mortgage loans. State officials, particularly in California, vowed to fight to keep the program alive. California officials have estimated that the PACE program could help drive up to $1 billion in new projects and create up to 20,600 jobs in the construction industry, which has been hit hard by the economic downturn.
“We’re going to keep trying to persuade the FHFA to change their position…and understand that California has gone to great lengths to ensure that the risks of the program are minimized and that the programs are sound,” said California Special Assistant Attorney General Cliff Rechtschaffen.
Through the program, cities issue municipal bonds, then make loans to property owners to replace windows, doors and other materials to cut their energy and water use as well as install renewable energy systems like rooftop solar panels. The loans are paid back through a senior lien placed on the property and have priority over mortgage loans.
In April, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation to create a state cash reserve to back PACE lending programs in the state. California’s 2006 climate law calls for the state’s greenhouse-gas emissions to be cut to 1990 levels by 2020. Many of those emissions cuts are expected to come from reduced energy use resulting from efficiency retrofits, like those financed through PACE loans.
But the FHFA said Tuesday that PACE loans “pose unusual and difficult risk management challenges for lenders, servicers and mortgage investors.” The regulator directed local governments to suspend the programs, and Fannie, Freddie and the Federal Home Loan Banks to take action to “protect” their operations. The agency said such actions could include adjusting loan-to-value ratios for PACE participants, tightening debt-to-income requirements and reviewing collateral policies.
…
If PACE agrees to a reasonable debt/income/LTV set of guidelines, it shouldn’t be an issue. Say, you have to have a max 60% LTV and the total of mortgage + pace payments can’t exceed the 25%/33% levels of standard underwriting?
* The Wall Street Journal
* BUSINESS
* JULY 7, 2010
Industry Cuts Back As Steel Prices Fall
BY ROBERT GUY MATTHEWS
Steel prices in the U.S. are declining after holding firm for months, potentially a bad omen for the nation’s economy as manufacturing activity slows and consumers grow more cautious about big-ticket purchases, such as cars and appliances.
Steel prices tumbled in June, and U.S. steel mills are responding by cutting production. Earlier this year they were ramping up capacity to meet the growth in demand they hoped would emerge from the economic recovery. Instead, demand has been spotty.
…
Contrarian Chronicles7/2/2010 5:00 PM ET
The housing bubble hangover, part 2
A booming ’shadow inventory’ in the housing market is almost certain to bring another wave of falling prices and another round of Federal Reserve stimulus.
By Bill Fleckenstein
MSN Money
Economic and financial problems are now garnering more attention as the “Goldilocks” viewpoint that prevailed earlier this year has disappeared — which isn’t surprising, as that view was only a mirage anyway.
Much of the blame for upcoming weakness can be laid at the feet of housing, although there are going to be additional culprits. As folks know, government incentives have mostly run out (though the time to close on a home and get a tax break was extended), and supply is building and liable to swamp demand. That should lead to lower prices, which will likely also impact psychology.
Scared of its own shadow
Recently mortgage banker Mark Hanson nicely laid out a handful of reasons for housing’s excess supply, or “shadow inventory.” Readers may recall from the real-estate bubble days that I used to refer to Mark as “Mr. Mortgage,” before he revealed his identity. He understands the housing and mortgage markets better than anyone else I know, so I thought I would share some of the causes for pent-up supply mentioned in his recent report:
The 8 million loans in some stage of delinquency.
The 100,000 to 125,000 new notices of default being given out monthly.
Short sales, which are surging and are now government-endorsed through the Treasury Department’s Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program, and may be the ultimate form of shadow inventory due to the fact the borrower does not have to be delinquent and the property never has to be listed on the Multiple Listing Service. With almost 30% of the 57 million homeowners who have mortgages owing 95% or more on their property, the pool of more than 15 million homes that are short-sale eligible is a mega-threat.
Modification re-defaults, which, according to Standard & Poor’s, will occur at a 70% rate. Based on the national loan modification surge that began in earnest only in the third quarter of 2009, and the ultimate bubble we are experiencing now, we are seeing just the positive effects of modifications and not the negative re-default effects. But the leading edge of the re-default wave is upon us now, and before long it will produce a new and substantial channel of mortgage loan defaults and foreclosures that few are modeling at this time.
Good to have Fleck in our camp!
“…and may be the ultimate form of shadow inventory due to the fact the borrower does not have to be delinquent and the property never has to be listed on the Multiple Listing Service.”
The flip side of this shadow of short sales will be homes that sit on the MLS and never sell, as demand for comparable homes is destroyed by heavily discounted short sales.
* The Wall Street Journal
* ROI
* JULY 7, 2010
What Deflation Means for Your Wallet
* By BRETT ARENDS
When you were shopping for last weekend’s cookout, there’s one thing you may have missed: higher prices.
Your chicken drumsticks may even have cost you less than they did the previous Fourth of July. The U.S. Department of Labor says chicken prices are actually flat or down from a year ago. So are other food items like potatoes, bread and peanut butter. And it’s not just food. So far this year, items from clothing to housekeeping supplies are cheaper. Strip out medical care, says the government, and consumer prices have barely changed in the past six months.
For those used to generations of year-over-year inflation, this is a new turn of events. We’re used to new electronics from PCs to smartphones getting cheaper every year. But now prices are falling across the board. The economy is teetering on the edge of deflation.
This is what has bedeviled Japan since the mid-1990s. The last time the U.S. suffered a prolonged period of deflation was during the Great Depression.
…
Is it me - or does the combination of all the new talk about deflation, combined with a crashing-again stock market, point to a new round of QE to be announced any day now?
If one were a gold speculator, one couldn’t help but hear the “BUY ME NOW” screaming in one’s ear.
Isnt’ that how TARP was rammed down our throat.
It was the ultimate market manipulation. Control the timing of the collapse to right before GW leaves office, create a collapse that scares the crap out of Congress and get them to hand over their wallets.
“create a collapse that scares the crap out of Congress and get them to hand over their wallets”
You mean OUR wallets?
Where is this mythical deflation happening, because it sure as HELL isn’t in my neighborhood, the 4th largest city in the nation.
Prices just went up ANOTHER 20% at my local grocery store. Gasoline hasn’t dropped significantly in years and utilities went up another 7%.
My anecdote is similar. I simply do not see this deflation. I see higher prices in medical care, housing (flat at best, slightly rising in some areas), rent (6% increase this year), energy, food (higher prices for smaller portions). I went shoe shopping recently at a local mall, expecting to see deals. Not a one, shoes as expensive as they’ve ever been. Pants and shirts - ditto.
My experience is an anecdote, but I really wish I could see some of this deflation/flat prices about which the talking heads are constantly shaking their scary voodoo rattles at us.
Not to mention it seems like my effin’ cable bill sprouts up another 3 or 4 dollars every month.
* The Wall Street Journal
* HEARD ON THE STREET
* JUNE 29, 2010, 5:58 P.M. ET
Housing’s Fragile States
By JOHN JANNARONE
Some of America’s hardest-hit housing markets still have legs.
Or so it appeared Tuesday, when an S&P/Case-Shiller report for April showed healthy price increases in some states where valuations had fallen the most. Thanks to a government tax credit, the 20-city index enjoyed a 4% increase year-on-year. But San Diego and San Francisco fared far better, with prices up 12% and 18%, respectively. Even Phoenix beat the national average with a 5% rise.
The performance will be tough to sustain. First, states that indulged in cheap credit during the boom can expect foreclosures to provide plenty of supply for some time. Some 38% of subprime mortgages in California are in foreclosure or more than 90 days delinquent, says the New York Federal Reserve. In Texas, where home prices have barely declined, the rate is only 19%.
And while homes have become more affordable overall, that isn’t enough to support price increases statewide, let alone nationwide.
Much of California’s housing boom was driven by people migrating to distant suburbs for lower prices. But with prices in San Francisco 36% off their peaks, such areas have less appeal.
Of course, sharp declines attract buyers eventually. But for Americans to have the confidence to buy, local economies and labor markets need to improve. California’s unemployment rate stood at 12.4% in May, compared with 9.7% nationwide.
Finally, states such as California and Arizona that extended the most subprime mortgages may have pulled demand forward. That means large numbers of younger people have already purchased homes. With much still to overcome, the worst-hit states are unlikely to be first in line for a sustainable recovery.
Here is some useful advice on dealing with debtbeat landlords:
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
What can tenants do if their landlord is facing foreclosure?
By Jennifer Davies, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Monday, July 5, 2010 at 8:21 p.m.
Unlike homeowners who can plan and prepare for a foreclosure, tenants can be caught unaware. Still, renters do have rights.
You’ve been paying your rent dutifully month after month and even started a little garden in the backyard. Now, there’s a notice on the front door saying your place is in foreclosure. Even though you’re a renter, you’ve now been unwittingly pulled into the housing crisis.
It’s hardly a unique scenario.
In 2009, around 37 percent of all foreclosures in California were rental properties affecting more than 200,000 people, according to Tenants Together, a renters’ rights group.
In San Diego, 40 percent of the 16,000 foreclosed residential properties last year were rental units, which included single-family homes and apartments.
Unlike homeowners who can plan and prepare for a foreclosure, tenants can be caught unaware. Often the first sign is anything wrong is a notice of trustee’s sale on their front door, which means a foreclosure sale can happen in as soon as 20 days.
Still, renters do have rights. Here are answers to some commonly asked questions about what foreclosure can mean for renters:
…
Thanks for posting, PB. I may need that one day in the next year or so, depending on where I rent soon.
The Mire Next Time: Florida, Bureacracy, and the Oil Spill. Wow, what an insight into the Obama administration’s “Unified Command”, not to mention Florida state government. Charlie Crist, you suck. And so does your buddy, Obammie. WTF is “Unified Command”, anyway? Thad Allen, Ken Salazar, Janet Napolitano, etc.? This is actually a very scary article. Apparently this is the way the Obama admin responds to any crisis, just like crisis at the border. Tie the hands of the locals and go after them if they try to protect themselves.
http://www.newswek.com/2010/07/01/the-mire-next-time.html?from=rss
God bless anyone from Louisiana on this board, but that is one of the most effed up states I’ve ever had the displeasure to visit.
I can’t blame the feds one bit for making them coordinate because if they didn’t, I can “gaaaraantee” the locals would make an even bigger mess and then overcharge for it as well.
God bless anyone from Louisiana on this board, but that is one of the most effed up states I’ve ever had the displeasure to visit.
I agree.
Bicycled through there. Oh, gawd, was I happy to leave that state and go back into Mississippi.
Say what you want about MS, but it was a paragon of civilization compared to LA.
Well they did build Public housing on the lowest point below sea level in Noo Horleans…..excellent planning
No way, that was Bush’s fault.
1 headline and 1 comment
Jobless benefits running out for 147,000 Floridians this week
By Jim Stratton
Posted: 8:37 a.m. Wednesday, July 7, 2010
More than 147,000 Floridians will run out of unemployment benefits this week because the U.S. Senate, before leaving on a weeklong summer vacation, was unable to reach an agreement on how to keep payments flowing.
By the end of next week, the number will rise to 175,000 unless lawmakers reauthorize the federal legislation that has provided emergency payments to the long-term unemployed.
COMMENTS
“The trouble with the reaction to a slowing economy is that Americans have lost their perspective. We Depression babies do not fear the current “pain.” There were mostly no bailouts for us. Our generation had to “make do” with what was available, and neighbor helped neighbor and the gains, though slow, were solid.
This bailout bulge simply pushes everybody lower and lower, and there is no end to it. When Congress put EVERYBODY in his own home, it spawned disaster; it needs to stop somewhere”
Biill Neubauer
9:09 AM, 7/7/2010
Big difference this time. Your neighbor is saying “Eff you, I got mine,” and the dirty jobs you would usually do in tough times are being done by illegals.
Far, FAR too many people are living in the past.
Many deckhands lack documentation for spill claim
By KEVIN McGILL The Associated Press
Posted: 3:39 a.m. Wednesday, July 7, 2010
HOPEDALE, La. — In the fallout from the BP oil disaster, they’re almost invisible: deck hands and other day laborers who get paid in cash, don’t receive W2 forms, may not file tax returns and have little or no way of proving they are losing income because of the spill.
“We run into them on a daily basis. They’re stuck in limbo,” Tuan Nguyen, deputy director of the Mary Queen of Vietnam Community Development Corp. in eastern New Orleans, said in a recent interview.
Nguyen said he has encountered hundreds of workers, mostly deck hands, who lack the documentation BP needs from claimants seeking a piece of the $20 billion of the oil giant’s aid fund.
“It’s a very cash-involved industry,” said Nguyen, whose organization formed after Hurricane Katrina to help the Vietnamese community recover from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. “Some of the boat captains or boat owners, they sell fish on the side of the road or directly to families. They don’t have records of that.”
Stuart Smith, an attorney handling oil-spill lawsuits, said seeking aid can be intimidating, and some cash workers fear that they’ll face penalties or prosecution for not paying taxes if they come forward.
“some cash workers fear that they’ll face penalties or prosecution for not paying taxes if they come forward”.
The IRS wants their fair share from everyone.
some cash workers fear that they’ll face penalties or prosecution for not paying taxes
As well they should.
They should face penalties. You spent years reaping the rewards of not paying taxes while using all the taxpayer funded services. Not only should they get reamed for tax evasion, BP shouldn’t have to pay them a dime.
Agreed. They gambled and they lost. Too bad for them.
This is the NUMBER ONE reason why the feds moved in and told the locals to either coordinate with them on the clean up or cease and desist.
Outside the Box
July 7, 2010, 12:47 a.m. EDT
Liquidate, liquidate, liquidate
Commentary: Some inconvenient facts about fiscal austerity
By David Stockman
GREENWICH, Conn. (MarketWatch) — Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said that policy advocates are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts.
A possible corollary in the context of the present rip-roaring debate about the macroeconomic impact of our dawning age of fiscal consolidation and austerity is that Nobel Laureates, especially, aren’t allowed to make up their own history.
So Professor Joseph Stiglitz please get out your copy of “Historical Statistics of the United States” and, after perusal of the GNP and government finance tables, consider retracting your preposterous statement on CNBC last week that federal spending cutbacks caused the Great Depression. Perhaps you might copy Professor Krugman while you’re at it.
…
“Liquidate, liquidate, liquidate”
Sometimes the liquidated return the favor.
Wanted to respond to this from yesterday (it’s OT, but I’m sure others will chime in):
Comment by Mark
2010-07-06 18:49:20
Drumminj,
You may be loosing [sic] out on more wonderful relationships. I would never have agreed to have children but it happened without my consent.
Thank God, because having children was literally the greatest thing that has ever happened to me in my life.
For what it’s worth.
While that may have been true for you, and certainly is a possibility, could you really willingly go into to that decision feeling how you do, on the OFF chance that it might end up being something you love? That it clicks when you first hold the child in your arms?
Right now I have no reason to believe I’ll get anything out of the situation (having a child). As such, it seems like a bad idea. I’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching, though, as everything else is perfect with this woman and I could see us being happy spending the rest of our lives with each other. It’s a tough situation.
Back on the topic of the thread from yesterday, I also have no desire to give up my monetary freedom, and my ability to live a pretty comfortable life while also saving for the future and life’s unknowns. That ability brings a lot of happiness to my life.
As someone with a kid and another on the way… I fully support you making the decision you want to make. It bugs me when my other kid having friends go on and on about how awesome having kids is. It reminds me of how homeowners go on and on about how awesome not renting is.
Everybody needs to do what they feel is right for themselves, and when they feel they can afford to do it.
I’d WOULD like to add that as somebody who was never really that into kids, I gotta say, they’re not half bad when they’re yours.
I gotta say, they’re not half bad when they’re yours.
That seems to be the general consensus, but at the same time, that doesn’t sound like a ringing endorsement either….
It’s not a ringing endorsement.
I also have another 20+ years of ‘not half bad’ to live through before I can give a more complete review, anyway, so my opinions should be taken with a bag of salt. (A grain just won’t do!)
“I also have no desire to give up my monetary freedom, and my ability to live a pretty comfortable life while also saving for the future and life’s unknowns. That ability brings a lot of happiness to my life.”
FWIW, we have one child and we’re still able to save money for the future and for the “unknowns”. Of course having a baby will change your life (and you won’t even mind), but fiscally speaking, one child is managable.
OTOH, I can’t see 3+ children as anything but a fiscal disaster. I can’t speak from personal experience, though. It just seems, based on general conversations, I’ve yet to find a 3+ children family with any college savings of which to speak.
When I was in my early 30s I worked with my best friend who, with his wife, was a DINK. And still they are DINKs - double income, no kids. They are in their mid 50s. Very happy people.
Now in my early 50s I have people telling me that I will worry about who I leave my wealth to when I kick the bucket. It would be nice to leave my wealth to responsible stewards. But there are no guarantees of how people turn out - even your own kids.
Here’s one example. My dad knew this wealthy couple. They must have been orange growers in California. The couple was getting an income of $30,000 per month in the 1970s from their investments in municipal bonds. They were very frugal - drove an old Ford pickup truck and loved to hang out with other seniors at a senior citizen center. After they died my dad told me an update. Their son, in his 40s, inherited all their wealth. He met a floozie and she expertly and quickly separated him from the money. I’m not sure how. But I think it’s very possible. The “boy” must have become like a rock star - or even a better analogy, a lottery winner. Burned fast like a meteorite.
Sometimes I regret not having a kid. But years have gone by too fast and before I knew it, it’s too late.
The grass is always greener on the other side. But you can make the best out of any situation and enjoy it. This is what I am working on. For me, I would be poorer, less secure, but with family. Or I would be like now and concealing my wealth from my relatives. I know they would be knocking on my door for economic outpatient care if they knew my net worth. Having a 7 year old economy car and renting goes very far into masking what I have.
Calexico City Council declares state of fiscal.
Calexico, CA — Calexico’s city council has officially declared a state of fiscal emergency for the city. The decision was made on Friday, just days after the city had initially tabled the resolution.
The declaration will allow the council to make cuts from various city divisions in order to try and balance a 5.5-million-dollar budget deficit. The cuts could include a hiring freeze, furlough days and layoffs, as well as a possible 10-percent in furloughs from agencies including police and fire.
Join the other hundreds of cities, counties and states that cant balance the books.Do they teah accounting in school anymore?
Yes they still do; It’s considered a creative art.
I think the problem is
Fixed costs with rapidly declining tax revenue due to bursting credit bubble.
It sounds to me like the accountants are being told to be realistic and their telling the gov they better start cutting fast.
“…as well as a possible 10-percent in furloughs from agencies including police and fire.”
This will never happen in “The O.C.”, they have a 100 million dollar $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ tax collected fund that is sort of “resting” in full public view.
27,000 Abandoned Gulf Oil Wells May Be Leaking
AP Investigation Reveals Feds’ Lax Monitoring of Old Wells, Thousands of Which Only Have Temporary Plugs. ~ NEW ORLEANS, July 7, 2010
(AP) More than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells lurk in the hard rock beneath the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental minefield that has been ignored for decades. No one - not industry, not government - is checking to see if they are leaking, an Associated Press investigation shows.
The oldest of these wells were abandoned in the late 1940s, raising the prospect that many deteriorating sealing jobs are already failing.
The AP investigation uncovered particular concern with 3,500 of the neglected wells - those characterized in federal government records as “temporarily abandoned.”
Regulations for temporarily abandoned wells require oil companies to present plans to reuse or permanently plug such wells within a year, but the AP found that the rule is routinely circumvented, and that more than 1,000 wells have lingered in that unfinished condition for more than a decade. About three-quarters of temporarily abandoned wells have been left in that status for more than a year, and many since the 1950s and 1960s - even though sealing procedures for temporary abandonment are not as stringent as those for permanent closures.
Gee, what a surprise. Who would have thunk regulations and best practiced would be ignored if they weren’t enforced?
Good find wmbz.
Does anyone know if there is a “normal” ratio between houses/condos for sale vs. for rent?
In the areas I search on Realtor.com there are 3,822 3bed 2bath houses/condos for sale.
There are 532 3bed 2bath houses/condos for rent.
I doubt it, but is this normal?
We’re experiencing the check mate phenomenon where no matter what direction we go in there will be pain. The organized (unions) may be in a better position to rally for their guys and truth be told if we lay off a huge number of public workers, eventually the private sector will feel the ricochet.
Let’s face it; all the fat in the system is still spending and is still fueling growth. All of us cheerleading public cuts will probably find that in a year or two the loss of their incomes = cuts in our industry’s jobs/profit/pay scale/all of the above.
The problem, as we’ve discussed before at the hbb, is the malinvestments caused by the distortions of our economy’s structures. Unwinding these distortions is going to take a lot of time and a lot of pain.
“The trouble with the reaction to a slowing economy is that Americans have lost their perspective. We Depression babies do not fear the current “pain.” There were mostly no bailouts for us. Our generation had to “make do” with what was available, and neighbor helped neighbor and the gains, though slow, were solid.
This bailout bulge simply pushes everybody lower and lower, and there is no end to it. When Congress put EVERYBODY in his own home, it spawned disaster; it needs to stop somewhere”
Biill Neubauer
9:09 AM, 7/7/2010
We Depression babies do not fear the current “pain.” There were mostly no bailouts for us. Our generation had to “make do” with what was available, and neighbor helped neighbor and the gains, though slow, were solid.
The Germans, Japanese, and Italians didn’t respond to the Depression with the same degree of stoicism and neighborliness.
True for the Germans perhaps - not so much for the Japanese. Their imperialistic and brutal expansion began much earlier than the GD - e.g. see the history of the Kwantung Army.
Not sure about the Italians.
Nevertheless - being that the U.S. experienced the brunt of the GD pain and didn’t go ape about it shows that austerity doesn’t necessarily bring about chaos. It can, but usually only if it’s accompanied by some extra political motivation as well - e.g. extreme corruption; talking much worse than what exists in America - e.g. say on Czarist Russia or Batista’s Cuba.
Not to mention hyper-inflation such as what existed during Weimar-era Germany.
Some interesting tidbits about Japan and Germany during GD1. Note the success of Keynesian economics in Japan- pulling them out of the Depression years ahead of almost everyone else.
from Wikipedia:
“Germany’s Weimar Republic was hit hard by the depression, as American loans to help rebuild the German economy now stopped.[52] Unemployment soared, especially in larger cities, and the political system veered toward extremism.[53] The unemployment rate reached nearly 30% in 1932.[54] Repayment of the war reparations due by Germany were suspended in 1932 following the Lausanne Conference of 1932. By that time Germany had repaid 1/8th of the reparations. Hitler’s Nazi Party came to power in January 1933.
Japan
The Great Depression did not strongly affect Japan. The Japanese economy shrank by 8% during 1929–31. However, Japan’s Finance Minister Takahashi Korekiyo was the first to implement what have come to be identified as Keynesian economic policies: first, by large fiscal stimulus involving deficit spending; and second, by devaluing the currency. Takahashi used the Bank of Japan to sterilize the deficit spending and minimize resulting inflationary pressures. Econometric studies have identified the fiscal stimulus as especially effective.[55]
The devaluation of the currency had an immediate effect. Japanese textiles began to displace British textiles in export markets. The deficit spending, however proved to be most profound. The deficit spending went into the purchase of munitions for the armed forces. By 1933, Japan was already out of the depression. By 1934 Takahashi realized that the economy was in danger of overheating, and to avoid inflation, moved to reduce the deficit spending that went towards armaments and munitions. This resulted in a strong and swift negative reaction from nationalists, especially those in the Army, culminating in his assassination in the course of the February 26 Incident. This had a chilling effect on all civilian bureaucrats in the Japanese government. From 1934, the military’s dominance of the government continued to grow. Instead of reducing deficit spending, the government introduced price controls and rationing schemes that reduced, but did not eliminate inflation, which would remain a problem until the end of World War II.
The deficit spending had a transformative effect on Japan. Japan’s industrial production doubled during the 1930s.”
packman, you are incorrect. We almost had two coup de tat’s and perhaps you’ve forgotten about the organizationed crime gangs? Al Capone ring any bells?
Or how about the Bonus Marchers? Hobos? Grifters? Union strikes and riots? There was plenty of chaos.
Many people hate FDR, but it was his iron grip that held this country together and nothing less would have worked.
Or how about the Bonus Marchers? Hobos? Grifters? Union strikes and riots? There was plenty of chaos.
Slim’s maternal grandfather was a railroad detective during the Great Depression. Tossing hobos off the trains kept him plenty-busy, as my mother recalls.
Note the success of Keynesian economics in Japan- pulling them out of the Depression years ahead of almost everyone else.
Traded one problem for another and pushed the marble around on the plate. How would all of that inflation, price controls and rationing worked out if they hadn’t gotten involved in WWII? Seems like they changed one problem for another and topped it off with a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
I guess we should take a page from their playbook and spend wildly on purchasing munitions and armaments and then we should start WWIII with a sneak attack on Russia? At the very least maybe would could look forward to some price controls and rationing.
The reality is that this article is just someone’s post hoc ergo propter hoc conclusion that Keynesian economics kept them out of the depression. I don’t think one can draw that conclusion. It’s clear that one can create money and give it all around and create the illusion of prosperity, but there is literally a price to be paid - and the piper must be paid. In Japan’s case, had they won the war, their deficit spending may well have been a great gamble. The war didn’t turn out very well for them, though, did it?
The belief that America just got wholesome, and sat on the front porch and played monopoly throughout the Depression, is only held by those that get their history from the Waltons. There were riots, marches on the capitol, lynchings, and more. People were scared, and many felt that democratic capitalism had failed. Communism and fascism were seen as reasonable alternatives.
FDR’s reforms weren’t conjured out of thin air. They were designed to smooth the rough edges of capitalism, and by so doing, save capitalism from its own self-destruction- such as occurred in Germany, Italy, Japan, China, Viet Nam, etc.
Smart capitalists should laud FDR. He’s the reason they’re still here.
Hmm…If you reread the article, Michael, you’ll see that the Keynesian stimulus worked very well, but was -replaced- by rationing and price controls, when the army effectively took over (because they opposed the -Keynesian- reduction of deficit spending to control inflation).
If only we could find a single example of Austrian school economics working well….there must be one somewhere…sometime….(crickets)
I read it pretty well. Did you notice how it says all the spending was for munitions? Who uses munitions? Wait, we don’t have to guess. The article says The deficit spending went into the purchase of munitions for the armed forces. And can you guess what they did? They got into a war. I could easily draw a conclusion that the army was essentially already in control and that’s why they were deficit spending for munitions.
Let me ask you this question: What did you think of Reagan’s deficit spending on the military, Star Wars, etc.? Sounds Keynesian and right in line with what Japan apparently did. Hopefully you’ll say it was excellent Keynesian economics and helped the Greed of the 80s and its economy. Be careful, I’d hate for you to give yourself a case of cognitive dissonance.
Reagan’s deficit spending is yet another example of Keynesian-style stimulus working. The fact that he, and Japan, chose to spend on armaments doesn’t disprove anything, nor cause me any cognitive dissonance, although I agree there are often better things to invest in.
Keynesian methods generally do work… in the short run.
packman, you are incorrect. We almost had two coup de tat’s and perhaps you’ve forgotten about the organizationed (sic) crime gangs? Al Capone ring any bells?
You mean the guy who had his heyday before the Great Depression, who was sentenced the pen in 1931?
And I don’t recall any organized crime gangs actually overthrowing the U.S. government - or even coming close to it. You are being extremely hyperbolic.
I’m not trying to propose that it was all sun and roses during the depression. I am saying that austerity measures - if implemented by choice and not too late - are much better than the alternative of austerity measures implemented by force and too late; very often brought about exactly by Keynesian principles.
See plenty of banana republics for examples.
Re: Reagan - say what? Fed expenditures during his term went from 21.4% of GDP in 1981 to… exactly 21.4% of GDP in 1989; only very briefly in 1982 even going above 24%; generally it remained below 22%. Bush and Obama however almost instantly took us from 20.6% in 2007 to 24.9% in 2009; way more Keynesian. Reagan’s deficits generally weren’t due to large increases in spending, they were more due to his tax cuts. I’m not a big fan of those either actually - I think the size of our debt today is largely due to them. We were well on a path towards possibly completely paying off our debt until Ronnie came along; instead his policies took us from 31% of GDP in 1981 to 66% in 1995. Hardly something to crow about.
Thank you for countering the perrenial big government fan Alpha Sloth.
Every dollar of a public person’s salary is either borrowed on the tax payers’ behalf or taken directly out of their pockets. Either way it’s a drag on taxpayer spending now or in the future. The fallacy of public jobs creating wealth has long abounded, because CERTAIN public jobs FACILITATE wealth creation. The Hoover Dam, the interstate, large bridges, railroads. In other words, infastructure that facilitates manufacturing and commerce. Police and fire, by reducing crime and property loss facilitate wealth creation. Public schools produce a better educated workforce capable of more job flexibility than working the family business or apprenticeship (not without the cost of losing some of the artistic excellence/etc that dedicated education CAN but doesn’t always produce) Even the military can be said to help foster wealth creation as a deterrent against international aggression, much like police act as a crime deterrent.
Taxmen and bureaucrats only redeeming feature is in providing the useful public jobs with funds supplied in as equitable fashion as possible from the taxpayers.
Unfortunately, the bureaucracies are bloated and out of control, taxation has become labyrinthine and riddled with special interests, compensation for the useful jobs disconnected with funds available, and any sense of priority long flung out the window by elected officials.
I wouldn’t say public jobs create wealth for a country.
I would say that 20-40% of a population with no work and no food is a prescription for crime, and social unrest.
A nice article yesterday about this
PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria – Masked armed men
guard Nigeria’s elite in this volatile oil-rich region, but the country’s middle class can only lock their doors and pray each time their children leave home.
Kidnappers who once targeted foreign oil workers are now
abducting children — including one as young as 8 months old — for whatever ransom they can get.
The abduction crisis has forced the price of
German shepherds to skyrocket, as only the wealthiest can afford private security in a country where most people earn less than a $1 a day.
Those who think the gov should allow a collapse and provide no support delude themselves into thinking that just because they have a house and a job and a gun that they will be OK.
Those who think the gov should allow a collapse and provide no support delude themselves into thinking that just because they have a house and a job and a gun that they will be OK.
A college friend went into newspaper journalism and spent three years in Africa during the early 1990s.
The conditions he described were exactly as measton just described them. Very scary time for my friend.
Some friends of mine work in Nigeria and it’s still that way.
And measton is right. People are deluded if they think the desperate and starving will just meekly go off and die.
Ever heard of CAFRs? Every government in this country, from the local small town to the state are invested in the markets… to the tune of trillions.
The unions can’t do squat. Most unions have been giving up concession after concession (pay cuts, benefits, no raises, less pensions) for the last 20 years while membership continually dwindles.
For some reason, J6P was convinced the corporate elite would take of him.
Here in Chicago, the road construction workers are striking in the middle of construction season, to maximize the pain for J6P. Don’t F with the unions! They’ll put you in your place. Not much different than racketeering, really. They demand a 15% raise over 3 years. Pay your protection money, taxpayer losers! Or they’ll keep those lanes closed through winter!
Vancouver home sales drop sharply.
Vancouver’s housing market slowed considerably in June, with 30 per cent fewer sales than a year ago.
Still, the 2,972 sales made it the second-busiest June on record for the West Coast city. The sharp drop is further evidence that the real estate market is beginning to cool after its sharp post-recession runup after a similar drop in May.
Observers have been projecting a slower market, though not one that will come crashing down, in the face of higher mortgage rates and tighter mortgage rules.
“Observers have been projecting a slower market, though not one that will come crashing down…”
Ah, rekindling fond memories of the “soft landing” days.
Yes - the discussion the last couple of days about Canada’s housing market has brought about quite a sense of deja vu, hasn’t it?
Fire Department OT wipes out furlough savings.
chicagotribune.com
Soaring overtime pay to dozens of high-level Chicago Fire Department employees wiped out the savings Mayor Richard Daley sought when he made them take unpaid days off, the city’s top watchdog reported Tuesday.
Last year, 50 fire workers not covered by the union contract collected $311,180 in overtime — nearly 17 times as much as they got in 2008, Inspector General Joseph Ferguson found.
And if the pace for this year continues, those employees would be paid $765,175 in overtime, the report concluded.
“The city appears to be hemorrhaging funds due to the liberal and comparatively standardless award of this … overtime pay,” the report stated. “Moreover, there is a direct correlation between the 2009 spike in payment of overtime and the imposition of increased furlough days.”
ROFLMAO!
How can so many people with so much “education” still not understand how ‘da machine works!? I pity anyone who is surprised by this.
That is so out of control it’s beyond… ridiculous. At an avg. of $6,223.60 ea. ( and I’m sure there was a pecking order there at the feed trough ) they’ll openly wonder why “everyone is making such a ’stink’ about it?”
Like, doesn’t ‘everyone’ ( in the worst “recession” since the Great Depression ) get OT? I’d love to debate this further with you fellows but my Porsche is double-parked and I’m late getting to my beach house!
This is just an simple accident, as most retirement salary is based on the “last year” of wages.
(In “The O.C.”, the young firemen acquiesce over-time to their elders, Hwy wonders why?)
Russia becoming major oil supplier to U.S. - WSJ
Russia is becoming a key oil supplier for the United States, the Wall Street Journal said Tuesday.
“Imports have gone from zero to an estimated 100,000 barrels a day in a matter of months since a pipeline bringing crude from deep inside Eastern Siberia came online,” the newspaper wrote.
The paper said the increase in oil supplies is thanks to the Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline system, which is designed to export Russian crude to the Asia-Pacific markets.
Amrita Sen, a commodities analyst for British investment bank Barclays Capital in London, said the United States is diversifying its oil sources because OPEC members, who “historically have been key suppliers to the U.S., are sending more of their oil to Asia.”
She said production from other U.S. suppliers, like Mexico, is declining at “hefty” rates, and added that “Russian crude will be important.”
Research FAIL. In 2009 we imported from Russia at a rate of 232,000 barrels a day. It’s been above 100k for seven years now.
A bit sloppy of the WSJ.
It’s amazing how much news reported in this country… really isn’t.
Good catch packman.
Retailers’ Sales Rise Most in 4 Years, Overcoming Job Concerns
By Cotten Timberlake - Jul 7, 2010
U.S. retailers’ sales are growing at the fastest pace in four years, a sign consumers may be overcoming concern about unemployment and depressed home values.
Sales probably expanded at an average monthly rate of 4 percent in the first five months of the retail fiscal year that began Jan. 31, the biggest gain since 2006, the International Council of Shopping Centers trade group said in advance of its June report tomorrow. Nordstrom Inc. and Kohl’s Corp. are among chains that will report June sales increases at stores open at least a year, according to analysts’ estimates.
Retailers may have bucked last month’s drop in consumer confidence that threatens to temper the rebound. The year-to- date growth in sales shows that spending, a key driver of the U.S. economy, is faring better than many investors are betting, said Michael Niemira, the New York-based ICSC’s chief economist.
Ummm, further up the thread you posted how shopping center vacancy rates are approaching record levels. Now, how does that square with this story?
Here’s a hint, there are now ~10% fewer stores in operation, what does that mean for the survivors?
Because “shopping centers” are where you walk from the Chinese nail salon to the Chinese restaurant, stopping at the pirate store on the way. Nordstrom and Kohls have their own branding and live in the mall.
Supply and demand would dictate that rents in small shopping centers would go down as vacancy goes up, but if the CRE builder has to recoup the cost of his own loan, well…looks like businesses are playing jingle mail too.
small business competition for Kohls WM Target and other large retailers is out of business or going out of business.
What a poorly written article. The title and 1st paragraph state sales are going up as fact, but then 2nd and 3rd admit that the report isn’t even out yet. And who names their kid Cotten?
Parents of future realtards.
Mortgage scammers are fools, but not mentally incompetent, and get 20 years:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/06/BA1V1EAD5T.DTL&tsp=1
Y’all freaking out about how much government employees make (pitting the little folks against each other while Halliburton et al laugh all the way to the bank)) and everyone is hand-wringing about the gov’t debt, but I have yet to hear anything meaningful that questions the amount of our money spent tp support our military habit.
If you don’t like the chart I am linking to, find me another…..
http://www.warresisters.org/pages/piechart.htm
I’m not surprised, not one bit. Remember when the hook to volunteer for the military was that you would learn skills that would transfer to the private sector? Now it’s being plugged as a carreer. And small wonder the kids are signing up in droves. What else are they supposed to do? Try to get by on a couple of minimum wage P/T jobs? I’m sure the recruiting sargeants are quick to show off their shiny new Camaros and Challengers and to the young and impressionable.
Well much of it is salaries, and if we aren’t going to fight in any wars we don’t need most of the military people. Let’s say we lay off 90% - what jobs are we going to find for all of them with U6 unemployment currently at 20%? What about the employees of the defense contractors? Civilian defense employees? If all those folks could be used to produce “civilian” products and services we’d be better off, but is that possible?
We’d simply have to do something else. I would welcome a real defense - defending purely the U.S. and its territories, rather than meddling in any foreign nation.
My research interest is cognitive science, and it has a lot of non-defense applications. I’ll gladly switch. For now, my field pays very well.
“…but I have yet to hear anything meaningful that questions the amount of our money spent to support our military habit.”
Hey would you like to drop by on Thanksgiving Weekend? Sibling conversations get real “fluid” when I mention this and how Cheney-Shrub were the only administration to start x2 foreign Wars while lowering taxes for the wealthy. This year they’ll likely focus on how AZ illegal workers are holding back the AZ revenue intakes and that most of the drugs being “imported” are used by “non-citizens”.
My guess is that none of the “TrueBeliever’s™ / “TrueDeceiver’s™” “TrueHypocrite™” / “TruePurity™” siblings will have any “TrueData™” on the total $$$$$$$$$$$ dollar loss due to real estate “mal-investment” spread across the entire AZ landscape so that we can do a back of the envelope comparison about were they should focus their “TrueAnger™”.
Of course, they hold the “violence” trump card…that’ll just about clinch it for ‘em.
I have yet to hear anything meaningful that questions the amount of our money spent tp support our military habit
Plenty of people talk about it on here. Plenty of us voiced our concern against it, and have voted for candidates (cough Ron Paul cough) who said they would bring our troops home.
Just because the troops haven’t been brought home (broken promises by the Dem congress voted in in 2006 and our current sitting president) doesn’t mean we can’t talk about over spending elsewhere…
“…Just because the troops haven’t been brought home (broken promises by the Dem congress voted in in 2006 and our current sitting president)”
McSame + (100 years in Iraq)… or… lil’ Opie
(those were the National x2 party choices in 2008)
From165,000 to 50,000 = (-115,000 soldiers)
“The withdrawal, which will reduce the number of American troops to 50,000 — from 112,000 earlier this year and close to 165,000 at the height of the surge”
War in Iraq Defies U.S. Timetable for End of Combat
NYT ,By TIM ARANGO Published: July 2, 2010
What the heck, I might just as well even toss this in too:
Cheney-Shrub Legacy Effect #3: “We left y’all with the worst economy in 80 years…see ya!”
Isn’t it funny how there have been no MSM-glorified war protesters in America since “The One” took office? He promised to get our troops home. Our soldiers are still booked in Iraq and Afghanistan. And our troops are still in combat, more killed weekly. And for some reason I see very few cars with Obama/Biden bumperstickers these days.
Obama - my hero.
War subtraction / reduction does not happen like “Creation” say within 7 days…
How are the numbers below different from Cheney-Shrub orientation?
“From165,000 to 50,000 = (-115,000 soldiers)”
This is one of the reasons I am not a tea partier. Obama’s spending is bad, but not a single word on wars and empire building. They just pretend that it doesn’t cost at all to fight two wars simultaneously. As for me, I think we should at least half the military budget.
Just in from “The O.C.”
Now worries, Karl “I can Dance” Rove is tirelessly advising the GOPOFC&CC = “The Grand Old Pimp of Fiscal Conservatives & Compassionate Conservatives” on how they can “use” the “TrueAnger™” PeeParty tea toadlers to keep America safe from Un-Patriotic anti-American Democrapts.
Are Tea Party and GOP one and the same?
July 7th, 2010, by Dena Bunis, Washington Bureau Chief
“A new Gallup poll seems to verify what many political experts have been saying: that most people who identify with the Tea Party movement are much more likely to be aligned with the Republican party than the Democrats.”
http://totalbuzz.ocregister.com/2010/07/07/are-tea-party-and-gop-one-in-the-same/37635/
You DO NOT tell arms dealers “no”.
Little known fact: Princess Diana was a leading heavy and vociferous lobbyist against land mines. Land mines are one of the most highest profit margin munitions made.
No, I’m not implying any correlation. None whatsoever.
Opinions Needed
Just got done talking to a friend and she told me the story about her divorce. Apparently she is listed as the primary on her house, her ex husband has refinanced 2 times without her knowledge since the divorce and now he has gotten a $150,000 approval to reduce the principle of the loan.
How can she report this guy without taking him to court? We know that this is illegal but don’t know where to turn. She works at Starbucks and simply cannot afford to hire an attorney.
Thanks all,
Lip
Lip,
Firstly, whadda’ scumbag! ( Had to get that off my chest )
I would simply call the Dept. of Finance & Corporate Securities and provide them w/ all the pert. ppw. Their knowing the clown got a mod ( which no one ELSE seems to getting btw ) after… his MEW-extractions ’should’ be enough to touch off an investigation!
Sit back and enjoy the fireworks. We Lifetime White Sox fans know how to “bide” our time now don’t we?
DinOR,
I knew I liked you for some reason but I didn’t know why. I am starting to get that feeling about this year’s team. And yes, we can bide our time since we finally got our penant in ‘05
Thanks for the lead. I will forward to my friend immediately.
Lip
Lip,
Oh yeah ( I’m gettin’ that old time feeling too ) Really just a matter of hanging around in the standings until it actually counts. If Ozzie ain’t freakin’ out, well them neither am ‘I’!
Am I missing something here? The ex got her loan reduced by $150,000 and she wants to report him? For what, helping her out?
SFC,
If I’m reading correctly, her ex skimmed the equity cream off the top and is now getting forgiveness on the loan. She didn’t rec. any economic benefit ‘from’ that but she’ll have her credit drug thru the wringer as if she ‘did’.
He got the gold mine and she got the shaft.
This kind of stuff is like dangling “candy” in front of regulators. Everyone loves a lay-up!
I’m a bit confused. The ex refinanced without her knowing. In order to do so, the original loan with her name on it would have had to been paid off at the refi closing.
So now her name is on the deed, but not on the mortgage documents, correct?
Sounds like an underwriter somewhere screwed up big time.
The good news is that the house can’t be sold in foreclosure auction because the title is now clouded. The bad news is that there is no way around getting the help of an attorney on this one. Its not a fight she should take on by herself.
She should look into legal aid societies and such. They’ll help for low or no cost. She should bring all paperwork pertaining to the divorce.
There is something wrong with this story and the first thing that comes to mind is her lawyer.
Second, you call the DA and the bank and report him for falsifying financial documents. Big Romper Room No-No. This is big time in the the big house. Then you get the lawyer to tell the bank to kiss off.
New Yorkers’ consumer confidence hits 14-month low.
The Business Review (Albany)
New Yorkers consumer confidence dropped to its lowest point in more than a year, according to the latest Siena Research Institute poll.
Consumer confidence in New York fell 4.6 points in June to 63.4, while the nation’s consumer confidence rose 2.4 points to 76.0. The national figure is compiled by the University of Michigan. In June 2009, consumer confidence stood at 64.3; in June 2008 it was 52.6.
The latest consumer confidence breaks a two-month streak of consumer confidence improvements. The current figure is the lowest since April 2009, when it hit 62.1.
Total Yearly Compensation of city managers in Orange County, CA. One person, not the whole department:
City Total compensation
Laguna Hills $460,809
Irvine $337,897
Santa Ana $327,075
Anaheim $318,051
Newport Beach (Numbers Estimated) $315,000
Huntington Beach $311,601
Laguna Niguel $311,164
Orange ($ 1st Provided) $306,891
Dana Point $303,320
Fountain Valley $302,695
Lake Forest $300,934
Orange ($ Later Provided) $296,460
Cypress $295,777
Newport Beach ($ Later Provided) $290,005
Garden Grove $289,483
Laguna Beach $287,833
Tustin $287,692
Buena Park $287,378
Brea $278,073
Seal Beach ($ Estimated) $270,400
Westminster $264,891
Costa Mesa $264,753
Mission Viejo $260,123
Fullerton $259,304
San Clemente $249,327
Aliso Viejo $249,173
Rancho Santa Margarita $248,753
Nice work if you can get it.
Orange County, CA
Who’d ever thunk that the Orange County voters would have let this sort of thing take place in their own “fiscal conservative backyard”?
“The O.C.”
“Fort GOP” for the“TrueBeliever’s™”,…for what 70+ years, home town birthplace of “TruePurrity™” hero “Dickey Boy” Nixon.
BWAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! (fpss™)
HBB “Long-Term” economics quiz of the day:
1.) Can you name the ONLY American County Government to declare Bankruptcy circa the early 1990’s?
2.) This County ALWAYS votes overwhelmingly for which political party?
Bonus: (if you can name either the Bond solicitors or the County Assessor involved.)
Orange County, CA, and the county manager/administrator/treasurer/whatever was Robert Citron.
Total Yearly Compensation of city managers in Orange County, CA. One person, not the whole department:
Dang! I gots to get me one o’ dem City Mangler’s jobs!
UK Unions Face Budget Cuts, Pay Cuts, Massively Reduced Severance Benefits.
Generous “golden goodbye” payments to civil servants are to be cut drastically to make it cheaper for ministers to lay off thousands of public sector staff, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.
The changes, which will provoke a major confrontation with the unions, come as government departments are drawing up plans for budget cuts of up to 40 per cent.
With hundreds of thousands of state employees facing the sack, Civil Service managers have been told that tough new restrictions on redundancy payments will be in place within weeks.
Under existing Whitehall rules, some civil servants are entitled to severance payouts worth as much as six years’ salary. Ministers want to shrink those packages to bring them in line with the private sector, where workers who are made redundant typically receive the equivalent of a few months’ or even weeks’ pay.
Treasury figures suggest that more than 600,000 jobs will be lost in the public sector over the next five years as almost £100 billion is cut from public spending.
Federal government asks appeals court to overturn ruling that blocked drilling moratorium. ~ July 7, 2010
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Federal authorities have asked an appeals court to reinstate a moratorium on deepwater drilling declared after BP’s oil well blew out in the Gulf of Mexico.
In a filing late Tuesday in the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, the government challenged a federal judge’s finding the Interior Department did not offer clear reasons for the six-month moratorium.
A lawsuit against the moratorium was filed by Hornbeck Offshore, an oil field service company that claims it would have severe economic consequences.
Government lawyers said in their filing that the company, and others that later joined the suit, had not shown they would suffer permanent damage. They argued the moratorium should be reinstated while the government appeals the lower court’s ruling.
American Dream Is Elusive for New Generation
The New York Times
GRAFTON, Mass. — After breakfast, his parents left for their jobs, and Scott Nicholson, alone in the house in this comfortable suburb west of Boston, went to his laptop in the living room. He had placed it on a small table that his mother had used for a vase of flowers until her unemployed son found himself reluctantly stuck at home.
The daily routine seldom varied. Mr. Nicholson, 24, a graduate of Colgate University, winner of a dean’s award for academic excellence, spent his mornings searching corporate Web sites for suitable job openings. When he found one, he mailed off a résumé and cover letter — four or five a week, week after week.
Over the last five months, only one job materialized. After several interviews, the Hanover Insurance Group in nearby Worcester offered to hire him as an associate claims adjuster, at $40,000 a year. But even before the formal offer, Mr. Nicholson had decided not to take the job.
Rather than waste early years in dead-end work, he reasoned, he would hold out for a corporate position that would draw on his college training and put him, as he sees it, on the bottom rungs of a career ladder.
“The conversation I’m going to have with my parents now that I’ve turned down this job is more of a concern to me than turning down the job,” he said.
WOW, talk about being entitled. His parents should throw him out.
I couldn’t agree more.
“a graduate of Colgate University, winner of a dean’s award for academic excellence”
Hard to believe.
Can you say, idiot? You don’t have to stop looking for your “dream job” even if you are a claims adjuster. It might actually give you a certain perspective about work life. Most corporate jobs suck big time. There’s no dream job in corporate world unless the CEO or somebody in higher level is your Dad or Uncle. Get out of the parents’ basement, make some money, pay your loans, help your parents out and explore life on your own. Come on, is it that hard?
One word, Scott: plastics.
“…Plastics”
Yep, especially the one’s used in the “Medical Industry” that or,… settle for a low wage job as a “Crane Operator” for the Hospital Industry”
“Elusive?” “ELUSIVE?!”
Try “non-effing-existent” for 10s of millions of Americans FOR THEIR ENTIRE LIVES.
The easiest time to get a job is when you have a job.
The same rules apply to dating.
Unemployment Is No Longer A Lagging Indicator: El-Erian
July 7, 2010
Unemployment has shifted from a lagging indicator to a leading one and is warning government policymakers to confront problems in an economy mired in slow growth, Pimco co-CEO Mohamed El-Erian told CNBC.
The consideration of unemployment as a lagging indicator is a favorite mantra among economists who believe the rate primarily looks at the past rather than what is to come.
But the internal details of current trends paint a different picture: More than half the labor force out of work for more than 26 weeks, the average length of unemployment at greater than 35 weeks, and the unemployment rate of 25.7 percent for 16- to 19-year olds.
“These are structural aspects which cannot be solved overnight, cannot be solved with a cyclical mindset,” El-Erian said. “And they are worrisome because they make the unemployment rate not only a lagging indicator but also a leading indicator.”
Krugman: the U.S. faces several bad years.
http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601010&sid=ajsHBWT_hxvk
“The lack of jobs will curtail consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the world’s largest economy, and restrain sales at retailers including Barnes & Noble Inc. The rebound from the worst recession since the 1930s faces risks from the European debt crisis and slower growth in China at the same time that fiscal stimulus measures fade.”
“We are, I think, sliding into a situation where we’re likely to see several bad years ahead,” Krugman said. “Given what I see in the political process, the odds are against us avoiding a really prolonged bad period.”
I agree with the several bad years, but don’t agree the “political process” is to blame. Decades of selling out the future, publically and privately, through debt is to blame.
“It’s “extremely unlikely” the U.S. would ever default on its debt.”
Well, I guess that can be blamed on the political process.
Up until 2008 it was “extremely likely” that housing prices would fall.
Those damn black swans.
Decades of selling out the future, publically and privately, through debt is to blame.
Got that right WT. Got that right. And not just debt, but the pursuit of ever higher profits for the BODs while cutting wages and jobs for J6P and dividends for shareholders. Corporate raiding, slash and burn “Jack Welching.” Literally selling our technology to foreign countries.
And citizens who thought all this was a good idea ’cause anything else was just socialeest/commie thinkin’!
“We are, I think, sliding into a situation where we’re likely to see several bad years ahead,”
At the end of the day, I foresee affordable housing prices, for anyone left standing.
Well pick my jaw up off the floor! You mean they finally figured out that a 75% consumer driven economy needs consumers who have… money? And that money comes from… wait for it… jobs?! Jobs that pay a living?
And that most of us aren’t making fat bank from our “investments?”
That’s just damn socialeest/commie talk! Those analysts are SO fired!
Right now, I’m reading a book by a guy who did all the “right” things. Went to high school, did well there, then went to college and did well there too. He started working as an engineer, and while employed at the EPA, he realized he was bored out of his mind.
So he quit and got a job as an entry-level carpenter. Quite a change, to say the least, and it was one that didn’t exactly earn kudos from everyone in his inner circle.
But hammer and nail he did, and I’m looking forward to continuing my reading of this story.
With regards from your HBB Librarian…
he realized he was bored out of his mind
That’s because too many engineers do more paperwork than actual design work.
“…What a mistake it is that so many of us live professional lives chosen by a 17 year old.”
Many Tankxs Slim, sounds quite interesting.
Auto mechanics too!
:
Click & Clack,… the car guys:
Tom Magliozzi and Ray Magliozzi
The Magliozzis are long-time car mechanics. Ray Magliozzi has a bachelor of science degree in humanities and science from MIT, while Tom has a bachelor of science degree in economics from MIT and an MBA and DBA from the Boston University Graduate School of Management.
The Magliozzis operate the Good News Garage in Cambridge, Massachusetts, just a few blocks northwest of the MIT campus. The show’s offices are located nearby at the corner of JFK Street and Eliot Street in Harvard Square, marked as “Dewey, Cheetham & Howe”, the imaginary law firm to which they refer on-air. DC&H doubles as the business name of Tappet Brothers Associates, the corporation established to manage the business end of Car Talk. Initially a joke, the company was incorporated after the show expanded from a single station to national syndication.
Back during my bike shop days, “Car Talk” was a must-hear radio show. After all, it was by and about mechanics like us.
And, if you’ve ever been part of the Fellowship of the Greasy Handshake, you know that mechanics don’t get a lot of glory in this status-oriented, don’t get your hands dirty society.
So, a tip of the grease-stained hat to Tom and Ray. Thanks for all that you do.
One of my favorite shows was ’bout the gal that called in with a description of some car “problem”…after about 5 minutes trying to figure what it might be and being told that she keeps returning to the same mechanic…there’s a classic long radio silence, then Ray or Tom ask, “laurie, is it that you just like this particular mechanic, that’s why you keep taking it back?
Laurie: “well,…ya,………….I really do like him…(giggles)”
Tom & Ray: “BWAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! (fpss™) …OK , here’s what we’re going to have you do, we’ll give you so many things for him to figure out, you’ll be at his shop at least x4 times a week…”
Oh, man, did we have some customers like that in the bike shop. More than a few of them were, ahem, attracted by the charms of Bob the Boss. He did have a way with the ladies, after all.
There was one lady that my fellow mechanics and I called The Babe. She was middle aged, but still quite a head-turner. And oh did she know how to flaunt it.
We, the mechanics, took great joy in imitating the various poses that she struck while talking to Bob. The hands-down winner of this Babe Imitation Contest was a mechanic named Julian. He did the male equivalent of her poses, and, gawd, was that funny.
Deficit Hysteria Means The Middle Class Is About To Get Squeezed By New Taxes. Business Insider, July 7, 2010
If you’re in the camp that thinks the deficit is still a non-issue, and that the US can’t possibly default on its debt, then this will be maddening to you.
Fears over the deficit — almost certainly a medium-to-long-term issue — likely means that the middle class is going to get hit with rising taxes in the very, very short term.
CNN discusses the upcoming expiry of the Bush tax cuts. At one point, there was talk that the tax cuts would certainly be extended for the middle class, but that’s looking less and less certain.
Previously it had been assumed that only those making over $250K would get slapped:
The cost of doing so for everyone would top $3 trillion over 10 years. Making them permanent for families making less than $250,000 - which tracks with Obama’s promise - would cost less but not much less: an estimated $2.2 trillion.
Two prominent Senate Democrats recently told The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress, that the $250,000 threshold is not necessarily a done deal with Congress.
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who chairs the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, said he didn’t think there was “any magic” in $250,000. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., noted “you could go lower … why not $200,000? With the debt and deficit we have, you can’t make promises to people.”
It’s time for Eric Holder to announce suits against more states. This just in from the WaPo:
Okla., S.C., Utah could pass Ariz.-style anti-immigration laws
I can see a growing number of states saying, “Okay, so sue us!” to the feds. And I can also see at least one state passing a law that can withstand a federal challenge. That law will be used as the template for national legislation.
“I can see a growing number of states saying, “Okay, so sue us!” to the feds”.
You can bet more suits will be brought, and rightfully so. The more states that stand up the better. The time has long passed to challenge the federal government on this issue. Enforce the damn immigration laws period, across the board.
No kidding. Which part of the damn Constitution where it says “protect the borders” are they not getting?!
Lobbyist: Wall St. Firms Don’t Give `Rat’s Ass’ About Small Banks
Jul 7, 2010 (Bloomberg)
A lobbyist for community banks privately urged his industry not to oppose the U.S. regulatory overhaul, warning that smaller lenders are being used by Wall Street to derail the legislation.
In an e-mail sent in late June to state bank trade association executives, Camden Fine, head of the Independent Community Bankers of America, said his group wouldn’t publicly take a position on the bill. Still, he said small bankers would lose important exclusions they fought for and “are turning the gun on themselves” if they work to defeat the legislation ahead of a final Senate vote this month.
“Do you really think Wall Street mega firms give a rat’s ass about small banks? Hell no,” wrote Fine, who represents about 5,000 community lenders. “They only care about the credibility small banks can wield on Capitol Hill to get them out from under this rock.”
“Do you really think Wall Street mega firms give a rat’s ass about small banks? Hell no,” wrote Fine, who represents about 5,000 community lenders. “They only care about the credibility small banks can wield on Capitol Hill to get them out from under this rock.”
And do you think that the Wall Street mega firms give a rat’s patootie about any of us?
Right? Never forget that folks. Never. It was a hard lesson our grandparents had to learn and apparently we have to again.
Fisher Says Fed Has `Done Enough’ to Spur Growth ~ Jul 7, 2010
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher said that while the economy is slowing, there’s little risk it will sink back into a recession and policy makers have “done enough” to spur growth.
“I don’t think we’re going to go backwards,” Fisher said in an interview with CNBC today. “I think we’ve done enough,” Fisher said. “We ought to be very careful about not going too far. Interest rates are zero. It’s not the cost of money that’s the issue.”
Fisher said companies are holding back on investment because of uncertainty over government regulations in areas such as health care. He also said he expects the world’s largest economy to slow in the second half of the year as the contribution from business inventories wanes.
Oct 2003 - 22 months after Fed lowers rate below 2%, to 1%:
- Unemployment 6.0%. New claims 380k per week.
- GDP up 6% YoY
- Optimism abounds; stock market on its way up from below 8k to above 10k
July 2010 - 22 months after Fed lowers rate below 2%, to 0%:
- Unemployment 9.5%. New claims 450k+ per week.
- GDP up 3% YoY
- Fear of double-dip abounds; stock market on its way down from above 11k to ???
Seems like the Fed spurs don’t have the oomph they used to.
Europe to mark down Greek debt in bank tests ~ July 7, 2010
FRANKFURT/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Stress tests on European banks need to mark down the value of Greek government debt by about 16 percent, sources said, as regulators haggled over how much detail to reveal about the health checks.
The Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS), which is overseeing the tests on behalf of the European Central Bank (ECB), was expected on Wednesday to outline its methodology for a stress test that simulates the impact of a severe economic shock on about 100 banks in the euro zone and other countries.
But that could be delayed by discussions about the scope of the test and the detail to be released when the results are due around July 23, people involved in the process said. The statement could be delayed until Thursday.
The unusual move to disclose the test’s design ahead of the results would mimic the procedure of last year’s U.S. stress test, which was widely credited with reviving trust in banks.
Whether to apply a “haircut” on the value of debt in countries including Greece, Portugal and Spain is one of the key issues facing European regulators keen to show the tests are stringent and realistic.
In fewer than six months, Americans will face their biggest tax hikes in history. ~ Bob Bauman ~ Sovereign Society’s Offshore A-Letter
As of Jan. 1, 2011, no matter what your tax bracket, you can expect a hike. The lowest, 10% bracket will rise to 15%. On the high end 35% will rise to 39.6%. And everything in between…
The 25% bracket will rise to 28%.
The 28% bracket will rise to 31%.
The 33% bracket will rise to 36%.
If you’re married, expect to pay more.
That’s right — the “marriage penalty” is back.
Kids? The child tax credit is slashed from $1,000 to $500 per child. (Not that you could raise a kid on $1,000 a year anyway.)
I know that you’re not thinking about dying soon. But you may want to adjust your assets accordingly in the next six months…
… Because the Death Tax returns in 2011!
That’s right — if you die this year, no death tax. But 6 months from now, expect a whopping 55% (on estates over $1 million).
I foresee a spike in December deaths this year. Seems like we’ll have a stressful holiday season, or something.
“I foresee a spike in December deaths this year.”
How do you see retail “pillow” sales by certain children of seniors living in “seizure homes” over the next 5 months?
where is Dr . Kevorkian when people are really desperate to die quickly?
I demand more government services and benefits, for me not those other people, and lower taxes — today not after I’m dead and gone.
Been the mantra for 30 years.
ESPECIALLY from the top 1%.
Good thing only a few hand full have estates that total a million dollars, Huh.
Good thing none of them benefited from 8 years of Chenny-Shrub tax policies, Huh?
Less than 10% of the population falls into that category.
DOW 10,000 by days end, lot of happiness due to the American consumer is back at some heavy consuming. Go consumer!
Is the consumer really ready for another uphill run yet? Seems he’s still a bit tired.
Dow 10,000!
For the umpteeth time! Coming again soon!
That dead cat sure can wiggle!
Foreclosures, delinquency rising in ATL
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Foreclosure rates in metro Atlanta rose 1.03 points in May, according to CoreLogic.
The rate of foreclosures among outstanding mortgage loans in metro Atlanta was 3.18 percent in May, compared with 2.15 percent in May 2009.
Also in metro Atlanta, the mortgage delinquency rate jumped in May. According to CoreLogic data, 10.51 percent of mortgage loans were 90 days or more delinquent in May, compared with 7.42 percent for the same period last year.
In Georgia, the rate increased from 1.86 percent in May 2009 to 2.74 percent in May 2010, CoreLogic said.
“Foreclosures, delinquency rising in Atlanta”
“You Lie!”
GOP congressman from South Carolina,… Rep.Joe Wilson
goofed up,… meant to post:
“Foreclosures, delinquency rising in Atlanta”
“You Lie!”
Eddie “TrueHaskell™”
NASA chief Charles Bolden was born right here in my town, Columbia, SC., and spent his life making South Carolinians proud of his accomplishments. Now, under the influence of President Obama, he gives us cause to wonder why he’s willing to risk all that good will in order to “reach out to Muslims.”
Bolden recently told Al-Jazeera TV that President Obama charged him with three crucial missions: (1) “help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math”; (2) “expand our international relationships”; and (3) “perhaps foremost” Bolden explained, president Obama “wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world … to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science … and math and engineering.”
If only he had left “perhaps foremost” out and concentrated on the first two “crucial missions.”
By the way, the Arabic world has plenty of history of which to be proud. They gave us the Arabic numbering system we use every day…they made the finest steel in the world in Damascus…they invented chiffon…glass…even a system of higher education we ought to revive. But let them toot their own horn. Why should NASA spend taxpayer dollars doing it?
By the way, the Arabic world has plenty of history of which to be proud. They gave us the Arabic numbering system we use every day…they made the finest steel in the world in Damascus…they invented chiffon…glass…even a system of higher education we ought to revive. But let them toot their own horn. Why should NASA spend taxpayer dollars doing it?
Ummm, hate to break the news to you, but spending taxpayer dollars to toot the horns of those who’ve contributed to U.S. and world advancement is nothing new.
No kidding? Wow, I learn something new every day.
Was it done as a primary goal of an agency whose congressional mandate is completely unrelated?
Recent News Week article on Al Franken
Franken puts forward an amendment that forces those selling securities to use a credit rating agency selected from a rotating pool rather then hand picking and bribing the rating agencies.
He gets support from Roger Wicker and 11 other repulicans and it passes.
Dodd and Barney Frank decide the Franken amendment is too bold and propose 2 years to study the idea before implementation.
ie do nothing.
Dodd tells Franken “I think it could have unintended consequences”
Franken asks “Maybe you could tell me what one of them is”
No response from Dodd.
Franks spokesman said Frank was concerned the amendment might fail to solve the conflict of interest issue??
Really then why don’t you fix that Mr. Frank.
Franken ended up getting something that said his rule would go into effect if the SEC couldn’t come up with a better plan rather than waiting too years for a study. Not sure who determines what better is my guess is the SEC. Frank and Dodd neutered the amendment.
Frank and Dodd = Wall Street stooges.
“Frank and Dodd = Wall Street stooges”.
Yes and they are not going to let anyone get between them and their pay checks. Plenty in the cesspool should be wearing orange jump suits, but those two top my list!
this is why public financing of elections is mandatory for our survival.
every candidate gets the same amount of money in stages…no Pacs donations nothing…yes even the socialist and the commie party ….
All get $$$ then all get into one debate, then the top 5 go on to round 2 more debates and more $$ then the top 3 to the finals
We will never have less then 3 choices ever again.
don’t underestimate Al….he does have quite a few good ideas….
and this could become a great little Sat Nite skit….I came up with a modest proposal, and the Bosses wanted the same ole same ole kickbacks and corruption, whats a comedian to do?
Auto dealers, local banks avoid consumer oversight
How Washington works: Auto dealers, local banks use lobbying to win pass on financial bill. ~ July 7, 2010
WASHINGTON (AP) — The financial overhaul bill awaiting final action in the Senate includes a new regulator whose aim is to make sure mortgages, credit cards and other products from big banks don’t abuse or confuse you.
But if you want your auto dealer to arrange a car loan or get a community bank to extend you a credit line, be sure to read the fine print.
Thanks to their lobbying muscle in Washington, auto dealers and community banks managed to keep themselves outside the reach of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Consumer advocates say borrowers will remain vulnerable to the kind of unscrupulous peddling of financial services products that led to the financial crisis.
“You’re going to end up with regulatory gaps that can hurt consumers,” said Travis Plunkett, legislative director of the Consumer Federation of America.
But if you want your auto dealer to arrange a car loan or get a community bank to extend you a credit line, be sure to read the fine print.
The trouble with the fine print is that it’s hard to read. And that damn near killed me last night. I was using a root killer that the plumber left me, and the instructions printed on the container were too hard to make out.
And what I thought was the right way to do it turned out to be horribly wrong. My bathroom quickly turned into a science experiment gone bad. Had to do quite the cleanup in there.
Mind you, this root killer is very toxic stuff, and I’ve been running the cooler nonstop to get the fumes out of here.
BTW, I did go to the manufacturer’s website to see if it had an MSDS. Nope. But the usage instructions were quite readable. Makes me wonder what would happen to those who just relied on the container.
Oh, well. Live (thank God!) and learn.
“Can?!” Try “has, does and will again.”
So, car dealers decide that despite the fact that sales are down, screwing their customers is still the way to do business.
Ye… ah.
Don’t even get me started on banks.
So, car dealers decide that despite the fact that sales are down, screwing their customers is still the way to do business.
Which is why car dealers so need to have a Redfin or Zip Realty equivalent come in and slap ‘em down.
GoldenManSucks = “TrueSerialLiquiditistSquirrels™”
“These f@!king Squirrels!,” Jon Stewart.
“…The squirrels recache to deter theft, lest another squirrel spied the burial the first X times. Reporting in the journal Animal Behaviour, the Steele team showed that when squirrels are certain that they are being watched, they will actively seek to deceive the would-be thieves.”
(Hwy wonders why GoldenManSucks has been so, so,… quiet lately?)
“…Squirrels are also master kvetchers, modulating their utterances to convey the nature and severity of their complaint: a moaning “kuk” for mild discomfort, a buzzing sound for more pressing distress, and a short scream for extreme dismay”
Nut? What Nut? The Squirrel Outwits to Survive:
By NATALIE ANGIER, Published: July 5, 2010 NYT
“Hwy wonders why GoldenManSucks has been so, so,… quiet lately?”
Maybe they figured out that every media story about them results in renewed calls for tarring and feathering?
Iran:
Yes, No?… good place to make “financial investments”?
Iran must halt woman’s death by stoning:
By Arsalan Iftikhar, Special to CNN July 7, 2010
“…According to Amnesty International, the Iranian penal code specifies the procedures for death penalties and also specifies the types of rocks that should be used in stoning executions. Article 102 of the Iranian penal code states that “men will be buried up to their waists and women up to their breasts” for the purpose of execution by stoning.
Article 104 states, with reference to the penalty for adultery, that the stones used should “not be large enough to kill the person by one or two strikes; nor should they be so small that they could not be defined as stones.” This makes it abundantly clear that the purpose of stoning is to inflict maximum pain in a process leading to slow death, which would be tantamount to “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
Iran also has public hangings of political dissidents. They use construction cranes to hoist them off the ground.
“…They use construction cranes to hoist them off the ground”
Let me guess: Caterpillar?
…and this is where I lose respect for Muslims.
They got me at the head scarfs that hide women’s faces.
Filed under: “America gives Big Oil Billion Dollar tax exemptions, why?”
Old posts:
“So, when was Big Oil going to stop in the Gulf?…4,500…5,500…6,500…7,500…”
New update: July 2010:
Over 27,000 Abandoned Wells Go Unmonitored in the Gulf of Mexico
By Lea Yu on July 7, 2010 from: fairwarning (dot) org
“…Instead, after an oil company reports that it will permanently abandon a well, the U.S. Minerals Management Service relies on paperwork to know that the job is done. No agency actively looks for deep underwater leaks, which are hard to detect from the surface.
A 2001 study commissioned by the MMS reported concerns that “some abandoned oil wells in the Gulf may be leaking crude oil,” but nothing came of the warning. John Amos, the geologist who wrote the study, told the AP that the MMS withheld critical information at the time, and refused to tell him “how big and widespread a problem” they were dealing with in the Gulf.
Maurice Dusseault, a geologist at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, says U.S. regulators “assume that once a well is sealed, they’re safe — but that’s not always the case.”
For Big Oil Industry Corporate “arrogance” this is all ol’ Hwy has to say:
BWAHAHAHicHAHAHicHAHAHAHAHicHAHAHic* (DennisN™)
I sure hope a Republican presidential candidate takes a hint and comes out in favor of shutting down the failed GSEs. Otherwise, American voters will be offered no choice on this issue.
“Banks and builders by and large agree with representatives of home buyers…” LIES, DAMNED LIES, WITH NO STATISTICS.
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Debate Begins as Taxpayers’ Costs Mount
By Lorraine Woellert and Rich Miller - Jul 8, 2010
As the White House pushed for a Wall Street overhaul this year, Republicans hammered Democrats for ignoring two of the biggest problems in American finance: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The government-backed mortgage giants have cost taxpayers $145 billion and counting. Now, with work on the 2,300-page financial-regulation bill all but complete, the Obama administration will soon turn to revamping the pair of institutions that own more than half of the nation’s $11 trillion in residential mortgages, Bloomberg Businessweek reports in its July 12 issue. The political struggle could be long and bitter.
Some Republicans in Congress contend that killing Fannie and Freddie is the only wise course. President Barack Obama is expected to advocate something closer to the rough consensus for moderate reform that is emerging among Washington lobbyists representing banking, real estate and consumer groups.
Fannie and Freddie operated as shareholder-owned corporations that financed home loans with the tacit support of the federal government. When the housing market collapsed, so did Fannie and Freddie. They were formally seized by the Treasury Department in September 2008.
Setting aside their occasional animosity, industry and consumer advocates say they share certain core goals on mortgage finance. Banks and builders by and large agree with representatives of home buyers that it’s in all of their interests to have the government continue to promote residential lending by encouraging what Fannie and Freddie have done for decades: buy mortgages and bundle them into securities for sale to investors.
…
A bunch of Donald Trumps turned into Jacque Cousteau.
http://tinyurl.com/29uy486
Banks hold some $176 billion of souring commercial-real-estate loans, according to an estimate by research firm Foresight Analytics. About two-thirds of bank commercial real-estate loans maturing between now and 2014 are underwater