Bits Bucket For July 27, 2010
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Supply of Homes Set to Grow. ~ WSJ
Sales of new homes are near 47-year lows, yet the supply of new and existing homes is expected to grow in the months ahead as construction ramps up and a wave of foreclosed homes hits the market.
In June, new-home sales were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 330,000 units, the Commerce Department said Monday. While that was up 23.6% from the all-time low of 267,000 in May, the June figures were the second lowest on record.
“What we’re really seeing here is that new-home sales are at what I’d call rock bottom,” said Steve Blitz, an economist at Majestic Research in New York. “The last time we were running these kinds of numbers was the 1982-1983 recession, when we had 100 million less people.”
LPS Applied Analytics, a firm that tracks mortgage data, said Monday that there were 4.56 million loans in default or in some stage of foreclosure in June, down slightly from May. But the number of new foreclosures initiated on properties backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac increased sharply, rising 21% in June from May.
The rise in foreclosures on Fannie and Freddie properties reflects the failure of many troubled borrowers to receive permanent loan modifications plans, analysts said. Having exhausted all options to rescue their homes, many troubled borrowers may now be giving up.
Fire. Gasoline.
*sigh*
I don’t think I’d want one of those shoddily built houses from the bubble era even if the price was right. I bet many of those houses will be condemned within a generation.
Many of them are uninspiring and overpriced boxes stacked on boxes. OTOH, I lived in a very luxurious apartment complex in Tucson with everything I needed plus resort style swimming pool (not just a kidney-shaped pool) and a real workout room, a great location and only $600 per month. Now the apartments are much older but the rent is still in the $600 to $700 range per month.
Obama, Geitner, and the Dems are hoping for another 25 million illegal aliens to take over the vacant housing and vote like mindless little shills in 2012.
Yesterday we were having a good discussion as to who is at fault for this mortgage mess: the greedy banks who “overlent,” or the greedy FB’s who “overborrowed?” Even the language makes a difference.
On one side, nobody held a gun to the head of the FB, the FB should have done his research on such a big purchase and should have known what he was signing. Therefore full fault belongs to the FB.
On the other side, Banks and mortgage initiators broke a 60 year good-faith pattern of responsible lending (and responsible payments) and deceived the FB into signing high-fee NINJA loans, with the NAR cheeleading the whole sordid affair. Banks knew full well that they could sell risk up all the way up to the implied taxpayer support of Fannie and Freddie. Or, if banks held the risk, they structured the loan for an inevitable FB default so that they could flip the home themselves.
Or is it the fault of the government bailing out banks for their greedy actions? Let a few banks fail and everyone would think twice before breaking good faith again. However, they did allow Lehman to fail, but that created such an electronic run on all banks that they couldn’t allow the next heads (BoA, Mozillo&Co) to fail.
Or, is it the fault of the government for allowing those banks, over the past 10 years, to become too-big-to-fail in the first place, allowing them to hold millions of people hostage?
Like I said yesterday, idiots all the way down….
Because don’t forget bond purchasers who never read the prospectuses (prospecti?), and bond raters who failed to adjust their models when underwriting went to poo circa 2003.
People are smart. Only relative to other people - as a whole, we are beyond stupid given the amount of mistakes we make and the amount of problems we bring upon ourselves. Cats are smart.
Agreed, particularly the last three words.
The regulators were steam-rolled by the likes of Larry Summers. The bankers knew better; they should have been allowed to fail. Borrowing consumers are like the proverbial Beagle left home with the 40-lb sack of dog food. Regulations don’t hold us back — they hold us up.
Let me guess…. the day after you leave there is a 40 pound poop?
The blame game is only useful in doling out arbitrary punishment or justifying one’s self. It is more practical to look at the consequences of these risks. For the FB, little consequence unless they had real money on the table, walk away, life goes on. For the banks, they fail or get bailed. No big deal, other people’s money. For the government, no consequences. For the taxpayer, or the saver, awful consequences. The fool in this picture is the one who never intended to take a risk.
The blame starts with the FED.
As long as Barney and Chris are innocent. Those guys are my heros!
Don’t talk bad about the Maestro on this blog.
IMO a mix of all.
P.S. are you considering the federal reserve as banks, or as government? If neither - then that’s a glaring omission, being that they’re a very prime culprit.
IIUC, the Fed is part bank and part government. How wonderful.
I’m not really counting the FED. I was thinking of whatever regulations (or lack of) allowed so much securitization on little reserves.
So…. you don’t think interest rates were a primary cause of the bubble?
There existed NO regulation on this matter. None. You had to rely on the rating agencies like Moody’s to value the CDOs, etc.
Don’t forget the bond rating agencies who gave this F rated garbage a AAA rating!
This stuff should have X-rated, not F-rated—cause we all knew that eventually some investor was going to get eff’ed!
Exactly GH. And they were either strongarmed by the banks or angling for a piece of the action themselves.
And let’s not forget all the TV shows about flipping and remodeling houses as well. How many were there? Seemed like a new each month.
Talk about cheerleading!
The percentage of FBs with malice was noting compared to the percentage of lenders and flippers and an insatiable demand for CDOs.
Unregulated, by the way.
It was a culture of corruption initiated at the top and extended all the way to the retail borrower, now better known as FB’er. Nobody will ever convince me that what I refer to as The Great Housing Fraud occurred by happenstance. It was a planned, contrived event by those at the very top.
It takes two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen molecule to make water.
It takes a greedy debtor, a sleazy lender, and a feckless, venal politician to make a debt bubble.
All the components are necessary.
And I totally would not care if a sleazy lender, a greedy debtor and a venal politician get together and have a three-way. But, the despicable trick they’ve managed is to make me (and you) clean up after them.
Never Trust A Realtor
Somebody should come up with a bumper sticker that says “lose money now, ask me how” with a realtor(tm) symbol on it.
I want one!
Sheesh…everybody must be out buying houses.
Nah were up all night looking out my picture window at where the World Trade Center used to be…I had a nice view of them…and wondering why OHbahhmas stimulus money bypassed this house…
When I was kid, some of my buddies and an old GF took me to see the Empire State Building. We got in front of it, I looked up into the mist and wondered if this thing was steady.
In the elevators we went, queasy and I’m wondering how long this funky elevator cable had beeen working and straining.
We werent at the top yet and into yet another and more rattlely funky elevator. Ugh…a worse queasy feeling and it’s hard to tell if it’s this funky elevator or the stipid building swaying so much.
Cool, were at the top and get out on the obervation deck. I can see the sky and the horizon and the stupid Empire State Building still somewhat solid under my wobbly little and I alive with super bad feelings as my friends motion me to the observation decks edge to look down.
Holy $hit!!…I have a “Jaws Moment” and slowly and carefully back away with the realization that I’m teriffied of 1,200 feet and these sky thingies.
Four days later, I reported to Ft. Benning US Army Jump School and shortly afterwards I was leaping out of planes and choppers and dangling from ropes without a second though.
The Empire State Building and it’s elevators, hell, it would take 4 MP’s, 2 bottles of Jack Daniels and handcuffs to get me in that thing again.
And to think I worked on the 80th floor at tv station transmitter sight for one summer 3days there 2 days in the video tape dept. in another building only on the 36th floor.
I had that same feeling in the elevator and on the deck of the Stratosphere in Las Vegas…Never again.
It bypassed mine too. Probably for a different reason, though.
Nah, the moderator just hasn’t had his black raspberry smoothie yet.
Or some have just finished a good workout and healthy breakfast!
Life is great as a renter these days!
Got Caah?
Yes!
Caaaaaahhhnnn!
Nah, I pahkd the caah in Baastan.
I thought the caah was in Hahvahd Yahd!
Well, there should be a lot more houses for sale in Wisconsin again this year.
Nearly eveyone had a little lake front property…for a while. They report that 2 communities near Milwaukee had approx. 1000 homes with flood damage and that’s just the tip of the great Milwaukee sewer flood. This will add to the hidden inventory of nasty flood damaged houses from previous years.
Who in their right mind would even try to sell or buy a flood damaged shack?…hummm..Who ?
Between tornadoes, floods, Acts of God and the economy, Wisconsin has become a dangerous place to live. Hell, it isn’t even safe to joyride Cadillac Escalades on Milwaukee city streets any more. They disappear…into the earth.
Heck, my buddy and his family live in a small college town in SW Wisconsin and they had a freak hail storm last year. Monster size hail balls. Just about every single house in his entire town had to have the roofs replaced and there was extensive damage to exposed autos and trucks due to hail damage.
The insurance companies must have loved his town.
I’ll think that I’ll just rent and wait for the plague of frogs and locusts and to see if Lake Michigan starts to runs red.
Happy, dry but nervous in my little 3 bdr upstairs apartment.
‘Hey, was that lightning !?!”
In my neck of the woods the high end distressed houseowners are finally revealing themselves. Lots of executives trying to short sale their lovely houses bought in 2005-2006, now under water. Foreclosures being listed with greater frequency. I know some nice professionals who have been patiently renting and saving who would like to settle into an affordable house in a good neighborhood. I think they’ll be rewarded very soon.
I don’t think it’ll be very soon =(. I’ve got another 4 years minimum in LA, in my opinion.
house in a good neighborhood ??
And where would these “good neighborhoods” be in Sac. in your opinion ??
Where are you at Hobbyist?
She is in Sacramento California…
Ah yes it’s time for my favorite natural disaster map.
http://www.inscenter.com/info-center/disaster-planning/risk-profile
Wisconsin doesn’t look so bad on the map. South Carolina is scarey: hurricanes, tornados, and earthquakes. Memphis gets high dangers for earthquakes and tornados!
high dangers for earthquakes ??
And we are due big time…21 years since the last big one…
LOL:
There is an 86 percent chance of a catastrophic (magnitude 7 or stronger) earthquake occurring in California within 20 years, according to a January 1995 report by the scientists at the University of California.
The probability of a major earthquake occurring in the eastern United States before the year 2000 is better than 75 percent and nearly 100 percent before the year 2010, according to the National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research.
Given that we haven’t had a major quake since 1994 - before this was written - bummer on that 100% prediction! Guess it was a black swan non-event or something.
Mikey,
I’ll be up in Vilas County later this summer and really looking forward to hearing some local perspective on what’s happening with lakefront property. I predict another year before capitulation.
Or contemplating whether to get rid of the car or not. Just found out the compressor for the AC is shot. $1200 estimate to repair. I already pay $100 a month for garage space, about $500 a year for insurance and whatever gas and basic maintenance I need. I have only put a little over 2000 miles on the car this year. There are two zip cars within 2 blocks of my apartment. I am in a very walkable neighborhood and there is a free shuttle bus that picks up at the regular supermarket. Whole Paycheck is even closer. I don’t have a usable bicyle now, but I easily could. Three libraries are accessible by walking or public transportation combined with walking. The bus to NYC is one metro stop or a maximum $10 cab ride.
We are already half way through the hot season of the year. I’m thinking about using it only during early morning/evening hours though the rest of the hot season, keeping it through the fall winter and early spring and then dumping it on the local public radio station when we are about to hit next year’s hot season. Does anyone know whether running with a dead compressor is going to make my car explode? It drives just fine, but is a little noisy on start up. I really can’t justify buying a car for the amount of driving I do…..
Won’t hurt it a bit. If you really want to fix it frugally, look for a used compressor from a salvage yard and have a friend or personal mechanic install it for you. Or just drive with the windows open till the fall comes…
Arizona Slim here. You won’t be surprised to read what my answer will be:
Lose the car and all of the expenses and headaches that go with it. Gain the bicycle. The public transportation. And the walking shoes.
And, BTW, did you get the e-mail I sent last week? Haven’t heard back, so I’m thinking that the spam monsters ate it. They’re awfully hungry these days.
Sorry for no reply yet. I have to try to find the name of the person I spoke to. I’m not sure I still have it. She said she wasn’t really the right person to talk to. My recollection is that she said to get in touch with the NIH small business office. They will be delighted to have a competent business to refer things to, and since you have lots of examples of your work, it will be easy to demonstrate your competence. She also mentioned something about contracts that are so small they don’t even go through the small business office and the way you get those is by walking around the building and finding postings on bulletin boards. Maybe if you make friends in the office someone could do that for you? Or if I knew where to go and the boards were in public area of the building I could try to do a walkabout for you? I just don’t know how much of the building is open to the public on the weekend. I think they have a library that is available on Saturday, but I’ve never been there.
We had a violent rain storm for a very short time on Sunday. Trees are down all over the place. 200,000 customers have no power. Traffic lights are off and causing havoc. I have electricity but no cable, internet or telephone (except my cell) at home, so that is slowing me down too.
Thank you, polly.
And, for all of you HBB federal contractor wannabes in the small business realm, I found a couple of contact lists:
1. Offices of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization. This is a list of many federal agencies
2. Offices of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization within the Department of Health and Human Services (which includes NIH)
Hope this helps!
“Arizona Slim here. You won’t be surprised to read what my answer will be:
Lose the car and all of the expenses and headaches that go with it. Gain the bicycle. The public transportation. And the walking shoes.”
+1000
I haven’t owned a car in years. 95% of my trips are by bicycle. I use Zipcar ( member for 7 years now ), rentals, or Amtrak if I go out of town. My wife and I travel to Chile every year with the savings ( she’s Chilean ) or to various European countries her cousins fled to when Pinochet took over in 1973.
The automobile culture is a huge scam. I could do without owning a car if I were living in Tucson, AZ or similar climate. However I’m in eastern Washington where the winters are frozen and lengthy, so I’m a daily bicycle commuter about 5-months of the year; sporadic the rest of the year.
It won’t hurt the car, there is a cut off pressure switch that shuts off the A/C system when the pressure goes low. If you have a leak in the A/C system it could be anywhere the compressor, indoor coil , lines , condenser. so fixing it mite not be a compressor change. The system needs to put under pressure and soap bubble or dye all fittings and parts then maybe you’ll find the leak. Take it to a good A/C shop and have them check it out you’ll save money in the end .
Polly…I thought that you were in DC.
In any event, you don’t need a car or a compressor.
You need friends that have cars and feel sorry for you because you don’t.
I lived in DC without a car for 2 years. I had a whole hospital full of friends…and I had thing called a telephone.
I am in DC. Well, 3 blocks from the actual edge of the district. I mentioned the bus to NYC because I have family there.
The car is a ‘97. It is going to cross over to “not worth fixing” eventually, and I am sure that it isn’t worth it to buy another car. But keeping the car and living without the AC is a distinct possibility. At least until the spring…
If you’re near anywhere near GWU, Georgetown, the Law Schools or the hospitals, make friends. These people really know how to get around and the pro’s and con’s of running a car in DC.
I actually owned a car while I was living in DC. It was sitting out in Maryland under canvas in my friends garage for nearly 2 years. It was a little sports car with a floorshift and of little or no use with a large gang of friends and the stop n’ go DC traffic. It was insane to have it in the inner city with parking and those nearly endless rush hours.
I was close to work and driving and parking in my area was expensive and a royal pain in the butt. If my body was required to be somewhere special, I let the doctors, nurses and other friends do the driving and deposit me there.
Two things kill a car for good - rust and rotting electrical connectors and wires. It doesn’t sound like your car has either. I’m basing this judgement on its age - 13 years.
A car consists of several components - like, what 10-20? All have MTBFR (Mean time between failure rate). It’s cheaper to replace components than buy a new car.
ON THE OTHER HAND - 10 years of technology is a long time in the automotive world. A new small car - like a Cobalt 4 door, a Honda Fit or the like - would be fine in the city. Easy to park, new, low maintenance. Not fast, and I wouldn’t take them on interstate trips, but they’ll get you everywhere you need to go in the area.
Check out http://www.edmunds.com/ - great new car site.
AND - If you can wait till next year, do stop by the DC convention center this January to check out the DC car show. It’s big. You can take a few hours and sit in just about every make of car there is. Go on a Thursday or Friday afternoon and the crowds are light.
For right now… You’ll only need AC for another 6-8 weeks, then you’re good till next May.
YMMV
A former girlfriend used to say ‘if it has balls or wheels it’s gonna give yah trouble’.
All kidding aside - is it a Ford? If it’s a Ford $1,200 may not be nearly enough to fix the A/C. Some Fords contaminate every A/C component under the hood when their compressors fail. These entire A/C systems are sold as a complete ‘package’ by A/C parts whole-sellers to try and save the customer some money. Point is, it will still cost you thousands of dollars. I have heard of people who have spent more than their Ford is worth to fix the A/C - and the A/C is still not working.
Even if it’s not a Ford, I think you are better off ditching the car and renting a vehicle when you need one on any given weekend. We grew up without cars in the LES of NYC. Granted, NYC has superb public transportation, but you will be just fine in your location without a car. Try going without a car for a while - you can always buy another car in the future.
Earlier this summer I added a $10 12 oz can of freon R134a to my 9 year old car. First time anything has been done on the A/C system since I bought the car brand new. (It is normal for cars to leak minute amounts of freon every year.) A/C is now ice cold - but I don’t use the A/C so much in spite of record hot weather. (Some like it hot.) I’m not in school this summer so most of my driving is to or from sports activities, and I prefer to arrive hot and I don’t like the cold air when I am soaked in sweat after tennis or running.
Sometimes you thing you need something until you get it, and then you wonder why you thought you needed it.
I called my old mechanic in Jersey City. Love that guy. And the car is a Ford. Taurus.
He said that the new mechanic needs to take off the belt, make sure all the pulleys are OK and replace the belt. This is because the car is a little noisier than it used to be on start up so there may be an issue with the belt. This would be a problem because that one runs the water pump, power brakes, and a few other things. He said it might even be possible to get a belt that completely skips the AC. I do not want to drive the car and suddenly find myself without a water pump or other essential services. If it were safe to drive the 200 miles to Jersey, I’d bring the car to its regular doctor, but I’d rather not risk it. I’m not replacing the entire AC system on this car. No chance.
A lot of maintenance steps have been deleted from “recommended service” in new car owner’s manuals. That way the mfg. can claim “low maintenance” even though you still should do these steps. Two are: replace the power steering fluid and replace the brake fluid. Doesn’t need to be that often but if you are between 5 and 10 years without changing them you might consider it.
My problem giving advice is that I do all my own work on my cars. It’s easy to say “change these fluids” when the only cost is $3 for the fluid and you have a comfortable garage in which to work.
If your serpentine belt is 13 years old it definately is time for a change. I have one for my 2001 F-150 (70K miles) and will stick it on whenever I get in the mood.
$1200 what is it gold plated? I checked for my ford escort is $195.00 plus about an hour to hour and a half plus you will probably have to recharge the ac so EPA rules and costs are added on, but still maybe $400-500 tops
Are you close to New York C?
—————-
The bus to NYC is one metro stop or a maximum $10 cab ride.
I lived without a car for 7 years in very much the same situation as you did. It’s very easy to get around using the *cough* Public Option, especially if you eat out a lot and don’t need to buy much food.
I had a bike but really only used it to go food shopping, which you won’t need if there’s a shuttle A bike is almost as cumbersome as a car and more dangerous, plus there’s no good place to lock it up. Easier to walk. (Sorry Slim, DC is just not bike friendly.)
I like your plan. Drive the car into the ground and ditch it. Then go carless. Hey, if you hate it you can always go back to owning a car. I myself began to feel very limited after about 5 years and wanted to see more of the area. (Also helps that i live more in the burbs.)
Well, I would be able to store the bike in the “bike cage” in the underground parking garage of my building.
The one thing about the Dc area that is bike friendly is those “cow catcher” bike racks they have on all the busses. If you bike someplace that is slightly downhill, spend the day and are too tired to bike back, you can put the bike on the bus. Assuming that you can get home or close to it on the bus. Other than that, I’d say DC isn’t all that bike friendly. Not with the drivers as aggressive as all get out.
Not with the drivers as aggressive as all get out.
Right on. This is something that really struck me as I was bicycling up the East Coast in 1981. ‘Round about the Virginia line, I noticed that the driving was quite different.
Unlike the Deep South, where people would stop to ask if I was okay even when I was just checking the map or taking a snack break, these people drove like hellfire. I couldn’t understand it.
And the stores? Gawd, they were cold. Not a warm welcome to be found anywhere.
Since I was aiming for my parents’ house before Father’s Day, I stayed out of DC. The attitudes I encountered outside the city said, “Stay away.”
I just bought a rack and a set of saddlebag-type panniers for the back of my bike. The bike had been gathering dust in the garage for years until I had it ‘tuned up’ this spring. This week is my experiment in bicycling everywhere I realistically can. Yesterday and today I biked to work. Last night I did a bit of grocery and cat food shopping by bike. So far I’m enjoying it immensely. Places within a few miles of home are easily reached by bike. As long as you don’t have to wear a business suit and high heels to work, it’s nice to bicycle. Of course in Europe, one does see people in suits bicycling, but they have a more bike-friendly city center in most towns. So far my biggest challenge while shopping has been finding something to lock my bike to.
I do all of my shopping by bicycle. And that includes the heavy and bulky stuff. (For that, I use a trailer that can handle up to 50 pounds.)
As for wearing a business suit to work, hey, I’m in web development. No suits in this field.
And my alter ego, the photographer, reports a profound lack of business suits. Matter of fact, when I bicycle to shoots, I wear a pair of riding pants that are sturdy enough to withstand my crawling around on the ground, plopping down on my posterior, and everything else I have to do to get a good photo.
Be sure to have “bike sense.” I biked regularly to college back in the day and was aware you ride on the right side of the road with the traffic.
This morning a bit after 6:00 I was slowing to a red light and ready to make a right turn. A huge van was in the next lane over to the left, so I was coasting out a bit to be able to see traffic. Then some bozo who was riding a road bike on the sidewalk from my right side yelled at me and shouted expletives. Well I quickly looked to the left after he passed and the light was red “don’t walk.”
I could have smashed into him and it wouldn’t have been my fault. Unless they changed california traffic laws for cyclists from 30 years ago, you must always ride with the traffic. It was suicidal of that guy to even do what he did because there was a big building in his line of sight and he could not see cars coasting out until very late.
He is an a$$ and if he does not learn he will be a dead a$$.
buy a can of R-134a with stop leak at AutoZone/PepBoys, might have to keep refilling it every month, but might be able to squeeze a few months out of it.
BP’s tree fell on my lawn Chicago Sun Times 7/25/10
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/07/bps_tree_fell_on_my_lawn.html
Why does BP enjoy such a peculiar immunity after having apparently been culpable in the Gulf oil spill?
The oil rig explosion set in motion the greatest man-made environmental disaster in our history. It may have been only a matter of time until that happened. Safety procedures were ignored. A safety device was not used because it would have cost BP $500,000. A Congressional oversight committee went along with that. Persistent trouble signals were not acted on. An alarm system was not operational. Complaints and misgivings by workers on the rig were ignored. There was no proven method to contain a leak should one occur.
BP found widespread support in Congress, mostly but not entirely from Republicans. Measures against the company were opposed
Attacks on BP began to be characterized as attacks on capitalism itself. To oppose its corporate power was somehow anti-American
Fox News and its fellow travelers took issue with environmentalists and Greens. It fell in line with the overall neocon strategy of berating those who are alarmed by global warming, insecticides in the food chain, chemicals in drinking water, genetically altered foods, alternate energy sources, strip mining, factory farms and so on. In general, such causes are seen as a danger to corporate profits. Although the facts can be debated in specific cases, the overarching ideological strategy is: Profits are good and must be defended against those who question corporate methods and outcomes. I believe that’s a fair summary of the Fox ideology, which is not traditional conservatism but the new neo-conservatism.
Corporations know no patriotism. They are multi-national. They deal with all markets.
What I don’t understand is how corporations were granted their immunity. How it is axiomatically understood that their interests come before those of people or even their governments?
Your characterization of Fox News borders on the ridiculous if not the edge of paranoia.
I agree. Fox News is entertainment for profit. Same for MSNBC. Anyone who derives their understanding of the world from network news sources is a complete idiot.
Pretty much all information, from any source, is erroneous and/or slanted in some way. A smart person can derive knowledge from almost any information source, no matter how bad, as long as they’ve built a good discernment filter. If nothing else sometimes “what the idiots are thinking” is useful information.
(Jim Cramer being the exception - he actually can turn your brain to mush.
)
Damn shame most Americans are idiots.
Your characterization of Fox News borders on the ridiculous if not the edge of paranoia.
Does that mean you won’t like this one?
Why Fox News Channel Is An Industry Joke
http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/networks/foxnews/foxnews.html
The conservative agenda by itself is not terribly bad; however, the Fox News Channel has contorted the Republican Party views into something both strange and disturbing.
The Murdochian viewpoint is largely centered on obtaining money and power — which is the ideology for which the Fox News Channel stands. Those who control the news also determine the public discourse. In the United States, Murdoch has obviously tapped into the political and social agenda championed by the Republican Party. The views of News Corp. and Fox News, however, are not the ones of the mainstream Republican Party, but those who reside on the far right-wing of the political spectrum.
“All across America, there are offices that resemble newsrooms, and in those offices there are people who resemble journalists, but they are not engaged in journalism. It is not journalism because it does not regard the reader — or, in the case of broadcasting, the listener, or the viewer — as a master to be served,” said Los Angeles Times Editor John S. Carroll in a Lecture on Ethics delivered at The University of Oregon in May 2004.
“To the contrary,” he said, “it regards its audience with a cold cynicism. In this realm of pseudo-journalism, the audience is something to be manipulated. And when the audience is misled, no one in the pseudo-newsroom ever offers a peep of protest.”
The perversion of the Fox News Channel is that it is nothing more than a pulpit for the ultra-conservative wing of the Republican Party.
if Fox News were a factory situated, say, in Minneapolis, it would be trailing a plume of rotting fish all the way to New Orleans
Relying on the Fox News Channel as your only source of news is like using MAD Magazine as a legitimate source of news.
And Ron Kaufman is to be trusted and he’s perfectly honest and he’s a master journalist with no ulterior motives and he’s the best, with complete objectivity, right? His essay on Fox is a legit piece of journalism and whatever Fox does is crap, right?
The only reason you think Ron Kaufman knows what he’s talking about and that he’s a good journalist is because he agrees with your point of view. If he didn’t agree with your point of view, he wouldn’t know what he was talking about and you wouldn’t like him.
People are funny. Whoever agrees with a person is “right” and whoever disagrees with them is “wrong”. Whoever shares the same views is “unbiased” and whoever doesn’t is “biased”. Whoever has the same ideas “understands” the issues, whoever has different ideas “doesn’t understand” the issues. The Christians are right and all other religions are wrong. Or you’re a Muslim and all other religions are wrong. Or you’re a liberal democrat and all republicans suck - or vice-versa.
Your brand of journalist is no better than some other guy’s brand of journalist. The truth is out there, and everybody has the hubris to think their brand of truth is the *real* truth.
And Ron Kaufman is to be trusted and he’s perfectly honest and he’s a master journalist with no ulterior motives and he’s the best, with complete objectivity, right? His essay on Fox is a legit piece of journalism and whatever Fox does is crap, right?
Darn. Come on. Don’t write predictable Staw Man stuff like Eddie. Be your own man.
All ya got is ad hominem? Now I know you’ve got a strong argument. You win!
Now I know you’ve got a strong argument. You win!
Thank you.
Well duh. I’m thoughtful and discriminating. My positions are carefully considered and a result of wanting what is best for society.
Anyone who disagrees must be either a) stupid because they have not correctly , or b) evil.
It’s just human nature.
Well duh. I’m thoughtful and discriminating. My positions are carefully considered and a result of wanting what is best for society.
But let’s talk about you.
Just a site that parrots your ridiculous assertions.
Hey I just report, you decide.
Check out this from the UK. This writer from the Guardian must be a socialist. (Warning Fox lovers, The Brits use really big words and compound sentences.)
Murdoch’s hunger for power is a looming threat to democracy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/28/henry-porter-news-international-murdoch
News International’s dismissal of the parliamentary report on the News of the World phone scandal just shows their contempt for the law, MPs and other media
For as long as most of us can remember, this dynast posing as an anti-establishment newcomer, this patriotic Australian who became a citizen of the United States, this family-values diehard who went off with another woman, has been running things behind the scenes.
The accusation of persecution is typical – a gangster reflex made in the knowledge that the company can’t be touched by MPs, or the media
Murdoch’s agenda has never been more naked, and if the Conservatives win, News International will have a government that feels in its debt, as well as an important ally on the inside
Given what is known about the practices of Murdoch’s print journalists, most people would regard the extension of News International’s influence in TV as a very bad thing, which is precisely why the company acted to try to cover up the scandal.
Why are you so worried about Fox News? The Dems are in power now, aren’t they? Fox failed to get anyone elected in ‘08. Everything should be going great by now! Or maybe you’re just trying to distract attention away from team Barry for some reason?
Why are you so worried about Fox News?
Sorry. You do have a point.
But I guess Fox is kind of like jock-itch. You kinda worry about it even though you don’t get it.
After not watching Fox for 2 years being in Brazil and all I just can’t believe the totally piss-poor, biased reporting I’m seeing on that channel on my US visit. I can’t believe so many of you can’t see the lies. Maybe it’s like you’re frogs been boiled in water slowly and it seems natural to you now. You’ve been acclimated to the deceit.
Their coverage of the Sherrod saga was disgraceful.
Do “both sides” really do what Breitbart does?
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/07/do_both_sides_really_do_what_b.html
Do both sides really engage in Breitbart-style tactics? Is all “ideological media” created equal?
The discussion of the Sherrod saga has been marked by an inability to distinguish between the media techniques employed by ideologically motivated media on the left, and those used by Breitbart’s operation and sometimes Fox. What’s not being acknowledged is that the latter camp is far more willing to use tactics that are pretty much indistinguishable from political opposition research.
What’s more, sites like HuffPo and TPM, while perhaps ideologically and politically motivated in some ways, have teams of reporters who are devoted to determining what’s fair and accurate before sharing it with readers. These reporters would never run with a video like the one leaked to Breitbart without making a serious effort to contextualize it and determine its significance and accuracy. I challenge anyone to demonstrate that the Breitbart-Fox axis has any real equivalent on the left.
Do both sides do it? I say No, they don’t.
I challenge anyone to demonstrate that the Breitbart-Fox axis has any real equivalent on the left.
I think you might actually believe that.
Are you going to just babble or take the challenge?
“Are you going to just babble or take the challenge?”
I don’t agree with any of your assertions, but I will provide you with one name, a guy who is single handedly bankrolling every progressive kook organization in existence today…ready??
George Soros
If we can crank up The House Committee on Un-American Activities style hearings again, he should be the first one investigated and sent packing.
The piece was by Roger Ebert. I’m somewhat ashamed that he’s a fellow Illini.
The piece was by Roger Ebert. I’m somewhat ashamed that he’s a fellow Illini.
Ashamed? Ashamed of what? Ashamed that he writes FACTS? Which of his main points do you disagree with and why? Please.
1. The (BP) oil rig explosion set in motion the greatest man-made environmental disaster in our history.
2. A safety device was not used because it would have cost BP $500,000. A Congressional oversight committee went along with that.
4. BP found widespread support in Congress, mostly but not entirely from Republicans. Measures against the company were opposed
5.Attacks on BP began to be characterized as attacks on capitalism itself. To oppose its corporate power was somehow anti-American
6. Fox News and its fellow travelers took issue with environmentalists and Greens. It fell in line with the overall neocon strategy of berating those who are alarmed by global warming, insecticides in the food chain, chemicals in drinking water, genetically altered foods, alternate energy sources, strip mining, factory farms and so on. In general, such causes are seen as a danger to corporate profits.
7. Corporations know no patriotism. They are multi-national. They deal with all markets.
Go get-um Rio..
Your postulate is flawed.
Your postulate is flawed.
But my doctor said it felt normal.
lmao. Care to check his postulate?
Fox “news”? The word “news” implies there is journalism that supports the reporting. Fox “News” doesn’t have a single journalist on their cast(of idiots).
Sean Hannity- A seminary school dropout who frequented gay bath houses in Philly…. while at seminary school. His cause? Conservative Values.
Bill O’Reilly- A B movie drop-out/Flunkie and certified road rage nut who forced himself on a female staffer. His cause? Conservative Values.
When will the conservative family values believers finally understand that it is the hypocrisy of their champions that the public despises, not the values?
“What I don’t understand is how corporations were granted their immunity.’
Business License = Precedes: Bill of Rights
Corporations need people, people = profit $$$$$$…”all-together-now”:
What kinda people do Corporations really desire? :
People with assets that always go up…quickly, consistently, predictably!
Nope.
STUPID people with assets that always go up…quickly, consistently, predictably!
Fox News? Neocon propaganda. Just slightly left of Rush.
But don’t take it from me or my years of experience in the propaga.., er, news game.
I’m not fond of hard core lefty slant either.
Economists predict housing will continue to fall…
http://www.theledger.com/article/20100726/news/7265030&tc=yahoo?p=1&tc=pg
It took 4 years for RE to hit bottom during the S&L disaster and 2 years of stagnation after that.
Housing may continue to drop (sorry for repost if these both show up)
www theledger com/article/20100726/news/7265030&tc=yahoo?p=2&tc=pg
Knife Catchers Doubling Down on Housing
Some intrepid homeowners are intentionally taking a loss on their current house—and writing a big check to retire their old mortgage—in order to buy twice the home for not much more money. Others, eschewing conventional personal-finance advice, are even opting for “cash-in” refinancings, paying thousands of dollars out of pocket to settle old loans—and then taking out new mortgages with lower payments, shorter durations or both.
Katie Everett, a real-estate broker in Denver, says none of her clients kicked in cash when selling their homes last year. This year, “about half are willing to bring money to closing, anywhere from $5,000 to $45,000,” she says.
Are these people crazy to be tying up even more of their cash in their homes, in effect doubling down on what has been a losing bet thus far? After all, any number of variables, from the employment picture to the credit markets, could weigh on housing for years to come.
Yet economists say trading up to new homes or refinancing existing ones can be smart—even if it means plunking down more cash to get out of old mortgages. People living in less-desirable neighborhoods might be able to find better homes in tonier ones that offer better appreciation potential. And with mortgage rates so low, such buyers can keep their monthly payments manageable, even though the new homes are more expensive.
It’s all about the future, not the past. Certainly IF the market is near bottom, these actions might pay off in the long term. Part of the difficulty is that different market segments are dropping different ammounts and at different speeds. ISTM that in my (Washington DC) area at least, the lower end is much closer to bottom that the middle/upper middle market is. So moving up stands a good chance of being the worst possible move. You’re comming close to maximizing your losses on the old house and signing up for higher losses in your new home. OTOH if you like where you live and can afford it, refinancing at the current amazingly low rates makes good sense.
This is actually encouraging, to get a really good purge something very much like this has to happen. Too bad it’s taking so freaking long, but we were warned about that!
“People living in less-desirable neighborhoods might be able to find better homes in tonier ones that offer better appreciation potential. And with mortgage rates so low, such buyers can keep their monthly payments manageable, even though the new homes are more expensive.”
Aaarrgh! Yup. Housing always goes up! Who knew? Katie, you are one sharp Realtor. That’s some incisive reasoning, right there. Sounds like Katie’s building some wicked sand castles in her mind. Don’t worry, it’s just Commission Derangement Syndrome. A few quarters of poverty will clear the mind.
Maybe they are just gettin’ out of Dodge to a place where they have lined up a job. Or maybe they are just budding bubble sitters getting out while the gettings good, or at least better than it will be soon.
Ooops! I attributed the above remarks to Realtor Katie Everett, and it was some unnamed economist that came up with that drivel. Sorry Katie. Gotta work on my reading comprehension.
Economists say trading up can be smart…..Now that’s really funny! Was that you, Yun?
Funny that was posted here locally, a co-worker was just claiming that Miami was rebounding. I guess they stopped paying attention after the housing credit expired… I made sure to send her the link
Miami had almost a 1% gain from April to May as the Lemmings were rushing in to get the $8K bait. There were plenty of homes in my n’hood that sat empty for years that sold within the last few month. Most people didn’t care if they over pay by $25K or even $100K as long as they get their $8K tax bonus. Fools!
June might still show some increase over May but that’s about it until Congress comes up with a new scheme to manipulate housing prices. They have to inflate housing prices to avoid bank bailout 2.0, it’s really as simple as that. Nobody, except people trying to buy, is interested in adequatly priced housing. Therefore every conceivable resource will be wasted in order to extend and pretend. Uncle Sam can still borrow many more trillions to keep that game going for a few more years. The end usually comes very sudden, see Greece, Ireland or Iceland.
Floored
a documentary of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Sounds like the old traders blame the advent of the computer for “ruining” the business.
http://flooredthemovie.com/community/?p=308
http://flooredthemovie.com/community/
All the “computer” did was speed up the same old processes and eventually expose the “flaws” in the system
Oct 1987 was a good example.
I might pick up a copy and see what’s being said. I got the referral from a page on Rick Santelli.
Just got back from a family visit in New England. Boston didn’t seem to be suffering from any lack of freespending tourists, except a drive past Newbury Street was seemingly quieter than expected. I noticed an unusual number of lakefront houses for sale, mostly the older and smaller ones (folks trying to unload second homes?). I figure the boat dealers must be in pain as I didn’t notice any late model boats on the lake this year either.
I hope I didn’t miss too much around here…
GoldenmanSucks is still doing “…God’s work”
The Feral Reserve Corporation is still “Liquid”
The Federal Gov’t is keeping a close “eye” on both.
No worries, you ain’t missed much…
This ain’t changed much either:
National Family income: $51,086
It’s funny how the fed has basically flooded the market with cheap money and bernake is seen as some miracle worker.They have done absolutely nothing to fix the real problems in the economy.They have basically catered to wall street as usual.
I saw this show on dateline sunday night about the poverty in this country.I believe they shot the show in iowa somewhere.It is amazing how many poor people are in the country as wall street lives like pigs.People living in cars, travel trailers and dark basements.All they wanted was a job but complained they were shipped overseas.
Well, at least we still have “small farmers” feeding the Nation.
“Amber waves of grain” = Corn syrup
Fortunately, someone still knows how to farm the land.
The elitists on the coasts bleed everyone else dry. They have for decades.
“Fortunately, someone still knows how to farm the land.”
You mean the aging guys hanging at the feed-cap walled diner after they apply massive amounts of petrochemicals to the ConAgra seeds on ravaged and otherwise sterile land?
You can’t grow “lilacs out of the dead land”.
MrBubble
It is amazing how many poor people are in the country as wall street lives like pigs.People living in cars, travel trailers and dark basements.All they wanted was a job but complained they were shipped overseas.
Why shouldn’t our jobs go over seas where they can be done more cheaply?
That frees American workers to do what we can do cheaper here such as live like pigs in cars, travel trailers and dark basements.
- Stuccobearthrower has a new monicker or two
- The HBB political zealots are still filled with zeal
- The American public is still sheeplike
- Wall Street is still wolflike
- The Federal government is still out of control
- The nation is still insolvent
- House prices are still too high
- New York City is still too damn hot
I think that covers it. I hope you had fun.
This crisis is moving at a rather glacial pace.
Smooth landings are expensive.
The MSM is still clueless.
Obama is still using “make no mistake” catchphrase.
Bin Laden is still mocking the US from his cave.
People are still obsessed with high-tech gadgets
SUVs still block every lane of every road.
Humanity still swirls in a clockwise motion down the toilet.
People are still obsessed with high-tech gadgets
This one I don’t get. Do people really want to watch TV on their iPhones?
Well it’s hard to talk on a 60″ flat panel TV!
“Humanity still swirls in a clockwise motion down the toilet.”
North of the equator, yes.
Well it’s hard to talk on a 60″ flat panel TV!
Not to mention it won’t fit in your pocket.
The nation is still insolvent
What’s the Nation’s 234 year accumulated value as of today? Just ball-park it…+ / - a few hundred Trillion.
Option C: Go to the Federal Reserve Corporation and request a “Payday” bridge loan until the population demographics change.
“I hope you had fun.”
We did, thanks! Funny thing… I had people who I didn’t even know ask me how the house hunt was going. I guess it was easier for poor mom to make DH and I look extraordinarily picky than to get in the middle of a debate over when housing prices will bottom.
On the flipside, NYC:
- Moonlight on the water is still tremendous.
- Summer fruit and veggies still taste fantastic.
- Watching fields of prairie dogs remains fascinating.
- Good kisses are golden. So are foot massages.
And booze still tastes like the nectar of the gods. I love you, Jack Daniels.
Yeah, that too.
Beer.
It cracks me up to hear “tough” New Yorkers complain that 90 is hot.
That’s late spring and early fall here. 95+ is out summer norm with at least 4 weeks of 100. And don’t even start about the humidity. Try 80+ as well.
eco:
Its not the 90 degrees in the air that makes us wussies its the 120 degrees heat off the sidewalks that literally make your feet feel like fire.
Not to mention the 110 degrees in the NYC subway system with next to no fans anywhere to be felt.
True fact subways stations are 10-20 even 25 degrees hotter then they were 50 years ago….all because we air conditioned the subway cars and all that excess exhaust heat had to go somewhere.
“Dhat turkel, he daid…he just don’t knows it yet!”
“Bell council members cut salaries 90%; some will forgo pay:
By Ruben Vives and Jeff Gottlieb, Los Angeles Times /July 27, 2010
Council members agree to take $8,000 a year, and the mayor and vice mayor say they’ll finish their terms without pay. Meanwhile, attorney general subpoenas documents and D.A. continues its probe.
“Mayor Oscar Hernandez and Vice Mayor Teresa Jacobo went a step further Monday and said they will finish off their terms without pay.
Hernandez also apologized to residents for the high salaries the city paid to administrators, a reversal from the defiant tone he struck last week.”
“I apologize that the council’s past decisions with regard to the indefensible administrative salaries have failed to meet that test.” Hernandez said he will not seek another stint as mayor.
How do WE THE PEOPLE…get this type of report for the FEDERAL RESERVE CORPORATION? ;-):
The group also demands “a full disclosure of administrative salaries, and any retainers or project contracts provided by outside consultants, followed by a forensic audit by a neutral third party.”
I don’t know about other states, but such information is public record in Arizona. Refusing to provide it is a class 6 felony. So when I go in to the business office, and they resist, I remind them of this.
but such information is public record ??
State attorney General said he may look into it…
In any public spending, budgets, prison records, most criminal records all the way from murder to parking tickets. I can go down to the police station and ask see officer scdave’s activity log for the officer’s last shift and allow me to see it. For a fee I can get a copy.
There remains some debate over things an officer’s disciplinary file. Much on line now. example: http://apps.supremecourt.az.gov/publicaccess/
Officer scdave? Do you mean that our very own scdave is on the force? If so, be safe out there!
I don’t remember what scdave does, but I’m pretty sure not a cop.
bad sarcasm
Refi update:
Last week I posted that my girlfriend was refinancing her condo to take advantage of the low, low rates. At the time I opined that her appraisal might show that she had lost roughly $60~$75k.
Boy was I wrong! The apprasial came in at a mere $5k less than the peak purchase price of ~$450k. (This might explain why I am not an appraiser.)
Anyway, she offered some additional info that I found very curious. First, she knew enough to say that the reappraised value would be used as a comp for other deals. But, more interesting was that she said the lender was further reducing her rate by .25% due to the amount of “equity” she has (~30%).
Hmmm, I thought - when has a lender ever voluntarily offered a lower rate without any prodding whatsoever? Why would they do such a thing? Well, think about it - an owner with (relatively) lots of equity, steady income, good credit - there’s virtually no risk for them at all.
BUT - the big question: by offering the borrower a slightly lower rate - could they in fact be passing this off as a loan mod? Were they “making home affordable” for someone who - for all intents and purposes - only wanted home to be more affordable - not needed home to be more affordable? If so, I wonder if this is widespread - the lenders are picking the low hanging fruit and letting the real FBs twist in the wind (not that I care, mind you)?
When I began to pay back my college loans, they sent me a bill. After I reliably paid a couple bills, they sent me a coupon book. After I reliably paid three or four coupons, they offered me a 1/4% interest rate cut if I paid direct out of checking. They do it all the time.
We forget that for every $100K they loan, they make at least $100K in revenue, if they care to wait long enough. And that’s at low interest. At high interest it’s closer to $200K revenue. Of course they structure the loan so that their $100K is front-loaded*. As combo says, it’s well worth their while to keep you paying. That’s a truckload of profit for the tiny expense of processing a measly 360 electronic payments. A computer can probably do it in 4 seconds for 10 bucks.
as to your other question, of course you’re right. Your gf gets a lot of attention while the FB’s are being given the run-around. And the bank exec gets to go in front of some Congressional Committee and wax poetic about the number of families that his esteemed institution kept off the street through the goodness of their hearts. Makes me want to puke, and puke onto them. Or better yet, rent until retirement and then pay cash. At least the rental agencies do your maintenance, give you a pool, and pay your taxes.
———–
*I read — here on HBB — that paying 7 years on a mortgage is the most profitable for the bank, because that’s the most interest intensive period. Then the bank wants you to sell so they can start another 7-year frontloaded mortgage. I also remember reading some stat that the average household moves — lo and behold — every 7 years. Why? maybe because 7 years is when the NAR begins whispering into the man’s left ear that he “deserves” to trade up?
“I read — here on HBB — that paying 7 years on a mortgage is the most profitable for the bank, because that’s the most interest intensive period.”
False.
This borders on “urban legand” status, and pops up over and over. But it is not in the least bit true.
All mortgages are what is called “simple interest”. That means the interest is computed by simply multiplying the balance by the interest rate. So there is no “front-loading” of interest—you simply pay interest that is proportional to the balance. And unless you are paying a neg-am or an I/O payment, the balance declines over time (until it is zero at the end of 30yrs), so the interest also declines over time.
Mortgages are typically not “simple interest”. Your best bet is to Google “simple interest vs. compound interest” or something.
Short explanation of the difference: In a mortgage, you are paying “interest on interest” (hence compound interest). The interest that accrues (typically over a monthly period) is applied to the balance of the mortgage and one pays interest on that new balance. In simple interest you only pay interest related to the original balance. I believe a typical 30 year mortgage can be looked at as 360 different simple interest loans.
You are not paying “interest on interest” on a mortgage, unless you are paying less than your interest payment every year.
You are simply paying the interest to the bank first and the principle second in 30 years worth of even payments. This is so that you don’t pay interest on interest. Banks could equalize the payments such that you pay an equal amount of principal and interest every year, but most people rather it be averaged into even payments.
The lack of understanding of how mortgage interest works on this site is astounding. No wonder the average person doesn’t get it.
Paying interest on interest would be a correct interpretation if there are prepayment penalties, but in most states there are not.
And if you were paying “interest on interest”, then your total payment of 30 years interest + principal would be reflected on your bill. It would be pretty darned obvious.
In a mortgage, interest in “compounded” - typically monthly - and therefore it’s compound interest. It should be easy to find tables showing you the cost of a loan with simple interest vs. compound interest. Did you try to Google “simple interest vs. compound interest” or something. like I suggested?
Try the wiki page on “compound interest”, it mentions The interest on U.S. mortgages is compounded monthly. for example. Sounds like compound interest to me…
Michael, what you are missing is one important distinction: for a note in which interest is paid in regular installments precisely when the interest _would_ be compounded, simple interest and compound interest are the same.
Each month, a mortgage that is technically “compound interest” receives a payment that is the current accrued interest (principal times interest rate for the period). That means there is no interest added to the principal, so the next month, there is no accrual of interest earned on the previous month’s interest.
The only time the “compound interest” matters is if you don’t make a payment, or make one that does not pay the full interest accrued in the previous period. In that case, yes, you could potentially begin to accrue interest on the unpaid interest from the previous month.
You say: The only time the “compound interest” matters is if you don’t make a payment, or make one that does not pay the full interest accrued in the previous period. In that case, yes, you could potentially begin to accrue interest on the unpaid interest from the previous month.
This is precisely how US Mortgages typically work. So doesn’t this make a mortgage loan a compound interest loan? Your original statement was All mortgages are what is called “simple interest”. A simple interest loan does not accrue interest on the unpaid interest from the previous month.
Correct. Prepaying the first seven years principal payments, which are relatively small, can save the borrower interest expense over the long haul. Of course we then get into Time Value of Money issues. But with banks paying close to nothing on interest bearing accounts it probably does make sense to prepay principal.
I like your thinking, edgewater. No reason not to suspect a bank of ulterior motives. But it just may be that they’re required to give her the prevailing rate.
Possibly, but she had settled the rate last week, when the lender offerred the additional .25% they made it clear to her that it was because of her level of equity - not because the market rate had gone down.
It is often the case that there is not one common motivation. Corp bank guidlines are being passed down, but perhaps the lending officer is having a bad month/quarter and under his/her metrics needs to ‘close’ more mortgages and was taking no chances.
It never ceases to amaze me how employees work towards their personal metrics.
58% Favor Repeal of the Health Care Bill
Monday, June 14, 2010
For the second week in a row, 58% of Likely U.S. Voters favor repeal of the national health care plan adopted into law by Congress in late March. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds 36% oppose repeal.
These findings include 47% who Strongly Favor repeal and 28% who are Strongly Opposed.
Rasmussen Reports has been tracking sentiments about repeal since the plan’s passage, and opposition to the legislation remains as strong since its adoption as it was beforehand. Support for repeal since March has ranged from a low of 54% to a high of 63% in mid-May. Opposition has ranged from 32% to 42%.
The Obama White House last week began a public relations initiative to sell the plan to voters as the mid-term elections near. Right now, a number of Democratic candidates – and incumbents, in general – are hurting in part because of the voter backlash against the health care plan.
I’ll say it again — if that’s what they want, then repeal Medicare too.
And not just for those currently under age 55, as Paul Ryan proposes.
I’m curious as to what England is doing - it’s announced plans to privatize at leats parts of its “successful” nationalize medical system.
ObamaCare is going to be a disaster. With or without public option.
I’m curious as to what England is doing - it’s announced plans to privatize at leats parts of its “successful” nationalize medical system.
What they need to do is privatize parts, keep most of what they have and spend more money per person.
USA health care spending per person $6400
Britain health care spending per person $2700 source: NPR
England’s system has been very successful for money spent. Better than USA’s. Britain covers everyone and laughs at our BS system.
What really torques me about the health care bill is the lack of a public option. Remember when Obama said that it needed one in order to keep the insurance companies honest? And then he stopped saying that?
Well, the insurance industry got to him in a big way. Happened in a back room deal that was revealed earlier this year.
At this time last summer, I was marching in Downtown Tucson, at rush hour rallies in favor of the public option. I still remember the chant:
“What do we want?”
“Public option!”
“When do we want it?”
“NOW!”
These rallies were organized by MoveOn.org and Organizing for America (which is what Obama for America became after the 2008 election.) I can’t help thinking that both groups — and their supporters — were played for fools.
I’m gonna be the Obamabot here. I still think that the back-room Obama deal was the only way we got a health law at all. I believe it was big pharma who played a large part in killing Hillarycare. He needed the other health care industries to sign on to get any bill to go anywhere.
With their premium hikes, the health insurance companies are currently putting themselves out of business, albeit in slow motion. And unlike the banks, they are not too big to fail.
We don’t know yet how the Exchanges are going to work. We’re only 3-4 Senate votes away from a PO. I suspect if there’s any funny business or collusion, the Senate will be much more open to adding a Medicare buy-in to the Exchange.
With their premium hikes, the health insurance companies are currently putting themselves out of business, albeit in slow motion. And unlike the banks, they are not too big to fail.
And, here’s another fun trend: All those new regulations are probably going to make the health insurance business a lot less fun. Which means that more than a few of the diversified companies (Aetna springs to mind) will announce that they’re getting out of the health insurance market.
I’m reminded of a local precedent. Back in the 1990s, there were quite a few Medicare HMOs operating in southern Arizona. Much to their astonishment, the HMOs found out that seniors weren’t that profitable. After all, those darn geezers needed (gasp!) health care.
So, within a very short period of time, the Medicare HMOs dropped their senior customers here. Happened to a good friend of mine, and she wasn’t a happy camper, let me tell you.
Then that should be interesting. They may end up forcing the government to do exactly what they didn’t want — national healthcare…………lol
The insurance companies that do health insurance may not be too big to fail overall, but there are a number of states or at least large regions of states that have very few insurance companies who write policies. It would be interesting to see what would happen if an insurance company that has 30% or more of a particular market were to cease doing business there. I think the state politicians might have a cow. Perhaps a whole herd of them.
Some years back KY changed their insurance laws, so people with a pre-existing condition could not be denied. Everybody left except one - BCBS was the last man standing with 100% of the (non-group) market in KY. It took a change in the law and a few years for Fortis to return. There may now be three or four providers of private non-group health insurance in KY, but not like it used to be.
this health care grab for control of 1/7 of the economy is another domino in the socialist takeover of our country,,,other than people w/ existing conditions being denied coverage..our health care system is fine…remember there will nt be enough drs to go around…we dont want this…………….work and pay for your insurance.
I do work, and I do pay for my insurance.
Now, if you mean other people, well, just what part of “5 unemployed people for every job opening” do you not understand?
Or what part of “job-lock” do you not understand?
Be careful of what you wish for.
I’m gonna be the Obamabot here.
I am shocked.
What really torques me about the health care bill is the lack of a public option.
And this is probably the reason so many want it repealed. The rest want it repealed based on disinformation (costs small business more, jail for non-compliance, etc.) and direct interest in the status quo.
That, and it really is confusing for the average person even with the website, although I’ll admit the website is helpful.
58% Favor Repeal of the Health Care Bill
This is why we live in a Republic.
Sometimes it enables us to get beyond, “I already got mine, so F U”.
I wonder what percent of those 58% have medicare, great plans and just know insuring everyone is going to cost them something. Wahhaaa! Bunch of entitled wimps.
But hey, I say repeal it to as long as you let everyone buy into Medicare or the VA system or offer a real public option.
Competition is good!
Its not really that. There’s always a hugh backlash against things that people do not fully understand.
However, over time, they get used to it. Didn’t they do the same for social security?
Yep. Same problem with slavery, women voting and vacinations.
All true examples.
People have gotten used to slavery?
If it is a Rasmussen poll, then if you do not have a land-line telephone or do not answer it between the hours 3:00 pm to 8:00 pm then you do not exist. I would be very surprised if less than half of the Rasmussen respondents were over the age of 60. Most of the respondents have medicare, or will get it in the next few years.
Of course, Rasmussen asks such questions of its respondents but does not report them, which is why it is considered to be a very suspect operation.
Thinking about the crushing burden of public employee pensions, and federal, state, local and personal debts, I wonder if the whole country has run on an assumption of inflation?
Without inflation to devalue those debts, governments and mortgage holders are toast.
I wonder if the whole country has run on an assumption of inflation?
In a environment of high unemployment and flatline or falling wages…
They ran on the assumption of growth. When the growth was exported overseas, they covered it with inflation.
Yeah, we already had the inflation - in housing prices, education, medicine - the increases of which outpaced wage growth for quite some time.
Therefore, is it not a tad ironic that so many seem to think that more inflation is the way out of this?
I just read a book, the Lords of Finance, about central banking in the run up to the Great Depression.
According to the author, while much of the New Deal merely served to mitigate the damage from the Great Depression, one thing actually helped. Going off the gold standard and in effect cutting the value of currency relative to gold in half. This generated inflation which devalued debts.
Now we are already off the gold standard.
The book also said that the inflation vs. depression choice faced in Europe after WWI, and it was basically about which classes of people would end up paying for the massive war debts. Germany inflated and wiped out its middle class savers, while benefitting speculators. England re-linked with gold at a high rate and its workers faced years of high unemployment.
I guess another way to frame this might be to say that so many people were broke going into this, so its curious that many think they are going to somehow be made “unbroke”.
“I just read a book, the Lords of Finance, about central banking in the run up to the Great Depression.”
I am in the middle of that now, the book was a gift from a friend. Its a very easy read, and I also highly recommend it.
“Going off the gold standard and in effect cutting the value of currency relative to gold in half. This generated inflation which devalued debts.
Now we are already off the gold standard.”
What’s worse, with no small amount of help along the way from the Fed’s printing press technology, we have cut the value of the currency relative to gold by 97 percent since 1968 (42 years ago):
1968 $35/oz
2010 $1,167/oz
Cumulative percentage decline in the dollar relative to gold:
(35/1167-1)*100 = -97 percent.
I suppose there is no law of mathematics that rules out further declines from here in the dollar’s value relative to gold.
“1968 $35/oz”
Except that the $35/oz price in 1968 was nonsense. It meant nothing considering that the public was not allowed to buy or sell at that or any other price.
It was an arbitrary value picked by the government several decades earlier, signifying nothing.
Except that the $35/oz price in 1968 was nonsense. It meant nothing considering that the public was not allowed to buy or sell at that or any other price.
It was an arbitrary value picked by the government several decades earlier, signifying nothing.
Yep. Thus gold’s immediate rise to $160 or so after Ford legalized private ownership of gold coins in 1973.
(Hovering in the $100-200 range in the late 70’s until the 1980 bubble peak around $800)
“Thus gold’s immediate rise to $160 or so after Ford legalized private ownership of gold coins in 1973.”
You guys are reassuring me. Now for the big question: Is gold the bubble du juor?
Is gold the bubble du juor?
I think treasuries.
“I think treasuries.”
I agree, packman—rates clearly can’t stay this low forever.
But I am unwilling to bet against them in the short-term, since I think they can and likely will go lower.
Gold is not in a bubble. You can’t have a bubble until the general public is going “all in”. So far, they are not participating in any significant way, other than selling their jewelry to “Cash-4-Gold”-type ripoffs.
Well federal pensions ARE inflation adjusted,* so inflation won’t get us out of the difficulty of paying for them.
At another level, the value that a majority of people put on dollars today versus dollars in the future implies a pretty high rate of inflation. Witness the rates that people are willing to pay on CCs and for payday lenders.
*SS and the old Civil Service Retirement Systems are fully indexed to the CPI. The newer Federal Employee Retirement System IIRC is adjusted by CPI - 1%.
Without inflation to devalue those debts, governments and mortgage holders are toast.
Being that the government and mortgage holders are in collusion, what might that tell you our future holds?
People always taking of property values.
DES MOINES, Iowa – Acres of mud strewn with dead fish greeted hundreds of eastern Iowa residents Monday after a weekend dam break left their lakefront properties overlooking little more than a small stream.
The Lake Delhi dam in Delaware County gave way under the rapidly rising Maquoketa River on Saturday, decimating the nine-mile-long lake and adjacent property values.
“The water’s gone, dead fish are laying there on the bottom — it’s a pretty nasty looking scene,” said Irv Janey of Marion, who owns a condominium on Lake Delhi. “It was a beautiful recreation area and to see it drained, it just makes you sick.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_missing_iowa_lake“
A similar thing happened in Viriginia 3-8 years back. A small lake just disappeared, due to a fissure or something. Folks were left looking at a mudhole. I don’t know what happened to the area later, though.
Also, on Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia, some of the people who had waterfront property far back in the feeder creeks started to see a lot of sand and silt come in. It filled up their property to the point where they had docks literally in the middle of their grassy back yard. There was a lot of complaining, but I don’t think anything was done for them. Too few people actually affected, there was no loss of life or anything, and it was an expensive fix just for the sake of a handful of property values.
All lakes that were created by dams ultimately fill up with silt. Nature at work.
All lakes period; at least in most places. E.g. the meadows in Yosemite valley were once lakes, eventually filled with silt to become meadows.
Of course new lakes get formed too all the time (geologically speaking).
I was in the Wisconsin Dells this summer and people were still talking about this happening last year there.
I was in the Dells the day that happened! That was in June 2008. But Lake Delton is tiny compared to this one in Iowa. The dam was repaired, and the lake was refilled by summer 2009:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Delton
I guess they really ARE making more waterfront property?
Waterfront property is actually quite easy to make. Just take a look at satellite photos and check out all the canals in Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa, etc. In many places there’s probably 30 miles of “waterfront” for every 1 mile of beach.
Not a bad thing actually, given that the main purpose of these canals is to allow you to park your boat and get it out to the ocean (though many are fixed-bridge - blocking decent-sized boats from going through; these are mostly for drainage).
I’ve never looked into it, but I’ll bet the same thing is done in various places with inland rivers, especially in flat land; e.g. on the Mississippi.
They’re taking down a bunch of Dams on the Klamath river in California starting in 2020. A whole bunch of lakefront property will be mudfront property.
This just happened to Tempe Town Lakes, Tempe AZ. High end condos over looked it.
Last time I was up there, those high-end condos had been severely marked down. A lot of them were for rent too.
Hey fellow HBBers. Will be getting my signing bonus this week. I’m thinking that I withdraw all the cash and put it into a deposit box so that it is sweep immune.
Wondering if the bank will have enough cash on hand to make the transaction. If they don’t I’m not sure what they do? Go to corporate for help.
Should be a fun way of fuc4ing with the bank.
Watch out, they’ll report you to DHS!
When I withdraw $10-$50k, the bank asks me to call ahead 2-3 days in order to have enough cash on hand.
Typically if it’s 5k or less they’ll have it on hand at a branch. The small ’satellite’ type branches that are little more than ATM housing areas wouldn’t unless you call ahead at let them know a few days in advance.
The ATM’s often have more cash than the vault.
I need advice about what options there may be out there with my cash reserves.
As you know, out wonderful government is doing wonders to help savers with the almost zero interest rates.
Do you have any suggestions?
What do you think about short-term corporate bond funds?
Thank u so much!
Hello , does anyone have the You Tube link about the banks being made whole by the fdic/treasury for reo/short sales. Someone posted a link a few weeks ago and I can’t seem to find it.
Thanks,
Search youtube for “Elizabeth Warren” to get started.
Sad to say, I only recommend money market funds and T-bills. I don’t worry about getting 0.10 percent interest. My gut feeling is that as soon as I focus on high yields, the force of greed will bite me where it will hurt the most.
Different subject: Yesterday morning a do-nothing worker got fired. His firing was years overdue. He was the guy who speaks very poor English but brags about having five houses (one in the Bahamas) and has expensive cars for his adult children. He’s from Vietnam. I figure he must have been high ranking as a young man in Vietnam and got very special treatment over here in the U.S. But he’s the worst liar I’ve ever met. If he has five houses, he got them by lying his way to wealth. Several people and myself caught him in a lie about some work he claimed to have done. But the problem is some of those people who he told that to did the work themselves! He was trying to get a job from them!
This is another sign that justice is returning to America. The dishonest people are doomed. The economically ignoramous $30k millionaires are doomed too.
“He’s from Vietnam. I figure he must have been high ranking as a young man in Vietnam and got very special treatment over here in the U.S. But he’s the worst liar I’ve ever met. If he has five houses, he got them by lying his way to wealth.”
Tom Vu: “You a-makea-monnee in weaw estate”.
One of my favorite neighbor-families (yes, I do like some of the neighbors around here) lives next door to a Vietnamese family.
This family has distinguished themselves by doing a lot of un-permitted additions and modifications on their house. At all hours of the day and night, I might add. (My friends love that.)
If that isn’t bad enough, they’re also fond of showing off heavy weaponry to each other. And they’re stupid enough to be doing this so that my friends can see what they’re doing.
What really frosts my friends is that they’ve reported all this stuff — the house work without building permits, the displays of weaponry that non-military people can’t have — and the response of the authorities has been ho-hum at best.
Zero interest rates are an excellent incentive to buy gold.
Okay…doing things I never thought I would do.
The sprayer on the garden hose broke…..used duct tape on it instead of buying a new one.
Historical trivia: 3M stayed in business during the Depression largely because people bought Scotch tape to fix what they had instead of buying new. Not sure I’m liking the parallel here…
More historical trivia: the original Scotch tape was masking tape for auto stripes. To make the tape easier to rip off, 3M only put adhesive on the outer edges of the tape. People interpreted this that 3M was being stingy with their adhesive — especially when they began using the tape for more permanent fixes. So people accused 3M of being “Scotch” (cheap).
So people accused 3M of being “Scotch” (cheap).
Speaking as someone who’s Scottish on both sides of the house, I resemble that remark!
Slim,
One 1/2 of my gang of heathens hail from up in the Gournock valley hills, across from Misty Law and the Barony of Ladyland, in North Ayrshire, Scotland. It’s old smugglers country and a cheaper more lovable bunch of cutthroats and rouges you’ll never meet.
I do have 50% Norwegian blood in me, so they therefore consider me an interloper, absconder and somewhat of as an American spendthrift.
I may still have a few open warrants on me.
My parents grew up in the depression. My dad did that Duct Tape with garden hose deal decades ago. We never were self-conscious to water the front plants from a duct-taped garden hose in the front yard where people could drive by and observe an old hose. We were used to his self-reliance that we never thought it odd. Rather than buy new shoes, he’d get his shoes repaired. It was cheaper to do so.
My folks were loyal patrons of the shoe repair guy in West Chester, PA. One of the town’s oldest, continually operated black-owned businesses. And Mr. Briley pretty well had the borough (which had a significant black population) trade locked up.
As for outside-the-borough white folks like us, we went to Briley’s because it was THE place to get shoes fixed so that they could go for another ten years.
When you HAVE a comfortable broken in pair of shoes, resoling is a no brainer even if it doesn’t save you much money.
Shoo Goo - awesome stuff. Used to use it all the time to “repair” the soles of my shoes; though that was when I played basketball outside a lot; the soles would wear out far faster than the uppers.
If it moves and it shouldn’t, use duct tape. If it doesn’t move, but it should, use WD-40.
An old classics. It is true and will need to be spread as we move away from a pure consumption mode.
Everything else, use Windex
Corollary - if it jams, force it. If it breaks then it needed fixing anyway.
“If it moves and it shouldn’t, use duct tape. If it doesn’t move, but it should, use WD-40.”
…and if this fails, whack it with hammer like it was a snake.
Don’t forget this little favorite. If it moves tax it, if it keeps moving regulate it, and if it stops moving subsidize it.
In an episode of King of the Hill, Hank pulled out his can of WD-40 to work on a lock. The WD-40 cap was stuck, so he pulled out a smaller can of WD-40 to spray the first cap. Great gag.
A couple summers ago I posted about the shades I made to cover the windows of our coast house between our stays there. I made them from space blankets (less than $2 each) with the edges bound with duct tape (not the regular kind, but a stiff shiny kind that you peel off a paper backing). The cover for the picture window has duct tape reinforcement lines running horizontally, to make it less floppy.
They are excellent, very effective! As soon as you put them up you can feel the heat from the sun diminish. They don’t look attractive enough (to put it mildly) to use them as an everyday window cover, but they are awesome to reduce the heat coming in a window somewhere that you don’t look at (and who cares what the Joneses think, right?)
My apartment is so hot because the building’s central water loop and in-unit central units are so bad, I’m tempted to do this at home. $300 bill for 83 degree temperatures I bet. Groan.
Try it out on a window - as a test, you could hang a space blanket or part of one over without doing the specialized duct tape border bindings - $1.29 or so investment.
We hang ours on the inside of the blinds, but you could tack them to the window frame or hang them from push pins and jury-rig a way to have them rolled up when the sun isn’t on the window.
You would save money. And they don’t look THAT bad.
hey, hip. Glad to see you back and posting!
(don’t recall seeing a comment from you in a while).
My cell phone will be in service 11 years come September. Bought one replacement battery for it. My wife’s (same model) has about 9 years on it.
Wow, really….APee & Pee cells won’t work with old sim cards, how do you do it?
Okay…doing things I never thought I would do.
How many people in America who “bought” a “home” with less than 20% down …can say the very same thing?
Many fear job loss, but have no savings for it
45 percent could not cover expenses for more than a month without job
MSNBC
Despite being warned for years to save, almost half of Americans face the worst-case scenario if they are laid off: out of work and out of money.
Forty-five percent of Americans surveyed by insurer MetLife said they could not pay their bills for more than a month if they lost a job, and 65 percent said they couldn’t cover their expenses for three months.
Though they lack a financial cushion, many Americans are fearful that they could find themselves out of work. The 2010 MetLife Study of the American Dream, conducted from April 14 to 21 and released Monday, found that 55 percent of Americans are concerned they will lose their job.
Yeah, and that’s the crowd that’s going to drive us back to boom prices. Ok, sure.
Why would anybody worried about losing his job need to save a penny. We have a government that will pay them not to work forever apparently. UE is the new savings.
No kidding. I’m aghast at the 99 months of unemployment. My wife and I have been out of work before, usually not for longer that a few months, and we’re paranoid about having enough cash to get by. We have a full year of both salaries saved up, and don’t even feel comfortable yet. (If we had no mortgage, that’d be a different matter. Also, we’d have 2.5 years of savings.)
Actually it’s 99 weeks. But that’s bad enough.
“Actually it’s 99 weeks”
They’re not done yet.
FWIW, UE doesn’t even come close to paying the bills. It works OK if you can move back in with mom and dad, but if you have rent, groceries, gas, insurance, car payments, etc. You’ll be broke before the end of the first week.
That depends partly on where you live. Massachusetts pays up to something like $600/wk. That would pay my bills here.
Of course, I live in rural Texas, not Massachusetts. The reason I know roughly how much they pay is that I got UE from Massachusetts a few years ago, because that’s where my employer was paying the UE tax.
I could pay my basic bills for about 25 years without a job. But that’s because I’ve saved a lot and I don’t have high bills.
Oh, yes, and my savings have done very well in the last 10 years.
This jump in building permits for S. D. County is great news for prospective home buyers, as these new homes will suck demand away from the growing inventory backlog of existing homes, which, as I pointed out a couple of days ago, already is saturated with more than 1 home for sale per $1000 variation in price range below $1 million.
The likely consequence: LOWER PRICES GOING FORWARD.
Local housing permits at highest level in 2 years
By Jennifer Davies, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Monday, July 26, 2010 at 5:05 p.m.
The number of housing permits in San Diego County last month rose to their highest level in two years.
There were 558 residential permits issued in June, a jump of almost 63 percent from the previous year when 343 permits were pulled. It’s also a 27 percent increase from May, which had 440 housing permits. For the first six months of the year, the total number of residential building permits was 2148, a 28 percent increase from the first half of 2009.
While the increase is heartening, the numbers are far off their peak, said Alan Gin, an economist at University of San Diego.
“This will probably be the second worst year for building permits in San Diego County — second only to last year,” he said.
He estimated that some 4,000 building permits will be issued in the county by the end of the year. In 2009, just 2,990 permits were issued. By way of comparison, around 7,445 residential permits were issued in 2007.
On a statewide level, 4,238 housing permits were pulled, a 19 percent increase from June 2009 and up 34 percent from May. For the first half of the year, 21,149 permits were pulled, a 17 percent increase compared to the first six months of 2009 when 18,083 permits were issued.
Liz Snow, chief executive officer of the California Building Industry Association, said she continues to worry about the sluggish pace of the recovery.
“The fact remains that we’re still hovering around the record-low production levels of the past two years, and the industry is still facing an uphill battle,” she said.
For nonresidential activity, the numbers were especially bleak, Gin said. The valuations in June for nonresidential buildings in San Diego County was $46.4 million, an almost 16 percent drop from the $55.1 million valuations in June 2009.
“We are way off in the commercial area,” Gin said.
…
Why does every idiot in the media talk about how far things are off peak. Why don’t they ever talk about how far they are off of historical averages. THE PEAKS ARE ABERRATIONS! They are just as damaging to the economy as troughs. You don’t want to climb backup there, you idiots, or you’ll start sucking productive money back out of the economy preceding another crash in the sector. You want to be back to a sustainable level.
More importantly, I’m guessing that the permit/existing inventory for sale ratio is still way out of wack.
City council votes to slash officials’ pay 90%
BELL, Calif. (AP) — Under pressure from outraged residents and facing a probe by the California attorney general, the beleaguered City Council of this small blue-collar city voted Monday to slash its salaries by 90%, and two members said they will not seek re-election when their terms are up.
The council voted unanimously to set every member’s salary at what Councilman Lorenzo Velez is paid — about $8,000 a year. The other four council members have been making about $100,000 a year for their part-time service on the City Council of this largely working-class city of about 40,000 residents southeast of Los Angeles. About 17% of Bell’s residents live in poverty.
The move came days after a scandal erupted over the pay of council members and other city officials. The city manager, who made nearly $800,000, has already resigned. And Attorney General Jerry Brown on Monday revealed he had subpoenaed hundreds of city records.
Mayor Oscar Hernandez said he would take no salary for the rest of his term and apologized for the excessive pay given to top officials, an about-face after he last week defended salaries of the city manager and other staff.
“My priority has been to make Bell a city its residents can be proud to call home,” Hernandez said in a statement published on the city clerk’s website. “I apologize that the council’s past decisions with regard to the indefensible administrative salaries have failed to meet that test.”
These people should be in jail.
strange…if they were making that much $$$ wouldn’t people have seen the big McMansion the new cars boob jobs? wayyyy before now.
Do ya think he saved a big chunk of that $800K salary, so when this day happened he had several mill stashed away?
NYTimes
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN
For almost two years, Goldman Sachs has been spinning what many believed was a far-fetched tale.
Goldman has maintained that it had entirely hedged its exposure to the American International Group before A.I.G. collapsed in September 2008. Goldman’s chief financial officer, David Viniar, has repeated over and over again: “We had no direct exposure.”
Wall Street laughed. Congress laughed. The media laughed. Impossible!
Just last week, Elizabeth Warren, the chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel, reiterated her skepticism during a Senate hearing. “We cannot evaluate the credibility of their claim that they had nothing at stake one way or the other in the A.I.G. bailout,” she said.
A popular narrative has been constructed that government officials, led by Henry M. Paulson Jr., then Treasury secretary and the former chief executive of Goldman, and Timothy F. Geithner, then the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, saved A.I.G. to save banks that were exposed to the insurance giant - and in particular Goldman.
So what was Goldman’s exposure? According to some newly released documents, perhaps far less than its detractors maintain.
First, some numbers by way of background. Goldman Sachs originally had bought about $20 billion in protection against an underlying portfolio of collateralized debt obligations, or C.D.O.’s, with exposure to A.I.G. By that September, given the decline in the value of those instruments, Goldman’s gross exposure was $10 billion. A.I.G. posted $7.5 billion in collateral, leaving Goldman exposed to a potential $2.5 billion loss.
But documents released by the Senate Finance Committee late Friday suggested Goldman was trying to brace for that potential loss. It now appears that Goldman had hedged itself against such a potential loss by buying $1.7 billion in insurance on A.I.G. from more than 30 different banks, and made other bets against A.I.G. worth more than $600 million. Whether it would have all paid off remains an unanswered question.
Whether any of the big banks, including Goldman, could have withstood the domino effects of an A.I.G. collapse is uncertain. But Goldman seems to have been better prepared for the worst than anyone would have believed.
No one doubts that GS profited at both ends,
1. They get paid by AIG
2. They get paid by those that sold them insurance against AIG stock.
I have no doubt that GS knew what was going to happen and how it would be handled. I suspect they also had a say in when it happened. ie just before GW leaves. It’s the same plan BP is using. The well is just about to be capped so time to jetison the old CEO with all the garbage and bring in the new CEO just in time for capping the well.
States face another $12 billion budget shortfall.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — States filled an $84 billion gap to balance their 2011 fiscal year budgets, which took effect earlier this month. But they could collectively face a new $12 billion hole if Congress fails to help cover growing Medicaid costs.
Without another injection of government money for Medicaid, four states — California, Texas, North Carolina and New York — could face new gaps exceeding $1 billion each, while 21 others could see shortfalls over $100 million, according to a budget report issued by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The Recovery Act initially paid out additional money for the insurance program — which helps the poor — through Dec. 31, the halfway point for most states’ 2011 budgets.
Did they really fill those budget gaps? A closer look is needed, because my state did come up with something they call a budget - but it sure as heck isn’t balanced. In fact, the cuts involved in balancing it won’t be made until after the November elections. How many other states are doing this? Seriously, those FY 2011 are balanced only in theory - just like the banks’ balance sheets.
“Did they really fill those budget gaps”?
I wondered that right off the bat.
In my broke state S.C. they contort the numbers all the time and we limp along. Of course we get a new lottery game every time you turn around, which is constantly claimed to be our up coming savior.
The details:
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/illinois.budget.deficit.2.1827119.html
When the states run out of accounting tricks and hit the wall it will be “interesting” to say the least.
Why sweat over a little $12 bn shortfall? DC demonstrated in Fall 2008 that it can cook up $700 bn+ with the stroke of a pen; by comparison, $12 bn is a mere flesh wound.
Per the latest Q2 census data - looks like the recent (since 1995) efforts to pump up home ownership are failing dramatically.
(this of course presupposes - as the census bureau does - that having a mortgage is actually considered “ownership”)
Just wait until all the thousands of folks who stopped paying their mortgage some time ago are relieved of the rights, privileges and obligations of home ownership. Judging from what I have recently read about the number of mortgages in default, I am guessing we have only seen the tip of the iceberg thus far.
Do you know how many homes correspond to a 1% drop in the home ownership rate?
Here is a rough guesstimate:
Number of U.S. households: 113 million(?)
Number of homes corresponding to a 1% drop in the home ownership rate: 1% of 113 million = 1.13 million homes
Got shadow inventory?
What’s interesting to note about packman’s graph is how, for decades, the home ownership rate stayed between 63% and 66%.
Then, after 1998, the trendline shoots up, peaking in 2005. And now we’re back down to 67% — just 1% above the top end of that three percentage point spread.
It will be tremendously ironic if the various ownership society initiatives ended up resulting in less people owning than if they hadn’t been done in the first place.
However not so funny if you’re a tin-foil-hat type that feels that the behind-the-scenes premise is actually just that; a move to actually transfer ownership away from private hands, under the guise of programs announced as intended to do just the opposite.
“…if you’re a tin-foil-hat type that feels that the behind-the-scenes premise is actually just that; a move to actually transfer ownership away from private hands,…”
Yoo-hoo, Eddie…
More plausible story: Uncle Sam wants to transfer the ownership rights to housing into the hands of its special class of more deserving Americans. Discrimination is bad and illegal, unless the government is doing it.
It almost looks like Clinton decided circa 1994 to turn step on the home ownership accelerator pedal. It worked great right up until the housing crash in 2005.
And he had HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros egging him on.
Here is great evidence that the housing market can continue to thrive without the training wheels of the $8K first-time buyer credit, as prices went up from April-May 2010 in 19 of 20 U.S. markets, despite the expiration of the credit on April 30, 2010.
Economic Report
July 27, 2010, 9:57 a.m. EDT
U.S. home prices increase 1.3% in May from April: S&P
Rise for 20 metro areas works out to 4.6% from May 2009, data show
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Home prices rose 1.3% in May compared with April in 20 major U.S. cities on a seasonally unadjusted basis, according to the Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday by Standard & Poor’s.
Prices have moved up 4.6% in the past year, the data showed.
Prices rose in 19 of the 20 metropolitan areas tracked by Case-Shiller in May compared with April. Read the complete release.
…
Here is great evidence that the housing market can continue to thrive without the training wheels of the $8K first-time buyer credit, as prices went up from April-May 2010 in 19 of 20 U.S. markets, despite the expiration of the credit on April 30, 2010.
Well except one thing - inertia.
Just the act of prices going up will spur demand - albeit artificial speculative demand. Lots of people have seen prices going up and are jumping in figuring that we’ve already hit bottom. Plus there are lots of people still closing on houses that went to contract before Apr 30th. I know of one such person still waiting for a short sale to go through in order to close (and get his tax credit).
Once the floor is gone again for a long enough period (more than just 1 month), then this inertial artificial demand will be overcome by the lack of actual true demand and of course the still-huge inventory overhang and prices will start falling again. Then even the artificial speculation demand will go away.
(p.s. I know your comment was tongue-in-cheek)
Apartment Rentals Surge in U.S. on Home Foreclosures, Job Gains
U.S. apartment landlords are seeing a surge in rentals as mounting foreclosures reduce homeownership and an improving job market for young adults encourages them to find their own places to live.
The number of occupied apartments increased by 215,000 in the 64 largest U.S. markets in the first half of the year, according to MPF Research, almost twice the units added in all of 2009 and the most since the firm began tracking the data in 1992. The vacancy rate declined to 6.6 percent last month from 8.2 percent in December.
“Overall demand is pretty stunningly strong in the first half,” Greg Willett, a vice president at the Carrollton, Texas- based apartment-industry research firm, said in an interview.
Investors are betting the expanding ranks of renters will lead to earnings increases next year of about 5 percent to 10 percent or more for apartment real estate investment trusts such as Equity Residential and AvalonBay Communities Inc. UBS AG this month raised its rating on AvalonBay, Essex Property Trust Inc. and Post Properties Inc. to “neutral” from “sell.”
The change signifies a “less bearish” view on apartments, while acknowledging that “headwinds will remain,” according to the July 7 report by New York-based analysts Dustin Pizzo, Ross T. Nussbaum and Derek Bower.
How will the porcine beauticians figure out how to paint lipstick on this pig?
Bloomberg
Vacancies Climb as U.S. Home Ownership Falls to Lowest Level in a Decade
By Kathleen M. Howley - Jul 27, 2010 7:48 AM PDT Tue Jul 27 14:48:42 UTC 2010
About 18.9 million homes in the U.S. stood empty during the second quarter as surging foreclosures helped push ownership to the lowest level in a decade.
The number of vacant properties, including foreclosures, residences for sale and vacation homes, rose from 18.6 million in the year-earlier quarter, the U.S. Census Bureau said in a report today. The ownership rate, meaning households that own their own residence, was 66.9 percent, the lowest since 1999.
Lenders are accelerating foreclosures as borrowers fall behind in mortgage payments after the worst housing crash since the Great Depression. A record 269,962 U.S. homes were seized in the second quarter, according to RealtyTrac Inc. Foreclosures probably will top 1 million this year, the Irvine, California- based data company said in a July 15 report.
“There are a lot of people losing their homes and either moving in with family or renting places to live,” said Patrick Newport, an economist with IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts. “Foreclosures are still going up.”
The share of homes empty and for sale, known as the vacancy rate, was 2.5 percent, matching the year-earlier period and down from 2.6 percent in the first quarter, the Census Bureau said.
Foreclosures are included in a part of the Census Bureau report that also tracks vacant properties under renovation or tied up in legal proceedings. There were 3.7 million such empty homes in the second quarter, up from 3.5 million in the year earlier period, the report said.
…
The fact that empty inventory is still increasing after almost 2 years of record-low housing starts indicates just how bad things are out there; and how big the bubble was.
Within easy walking distance of the Arizona Slim Ranch, there are at least half a dozen see-through houses.
Quite amazingly, the San Diego home builders are already firing up the bulldozers again. I see it on my daily commute…
This is one of the biggest drawbacks to the efforts from on high to withhold used home supply from the market. The builders are getting a false price signal that it is time to resume building. Further increase in the 18.9 million vacant U.S. homes is the likely consequence.
so this is PB. i wouldn’t have known it if NYboy hadn’t said it.
BTW, what is the name of that acting school in Pasadena you attended. Is this it?
American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA)
I am trying to persuade my daughter to broaden here educational options (she is a junior in HS this year); any other suggestions for theater-oriented schools?
That’s the school. Most of the people at the school were already grownups. I was too young to be so devoted. have her go to all the auditions she can for productions around here ,but give her a ford focus and don’t let her move to LA when she does graduate.
The vacancy rate means a lot less with all those units that are vacant and not for sale.
This is just one of the many reasons I detest the D.C. cesspool. This lying lowlife piece of trash, will get off, and go right back to lying and cheating.
Rangel, ethics committee in last-minute bargaining
WASHINGTON – The Associated Press has learned that New York Democrat Charles Rangel is making a last-minute effort to settle his ethics case. A settlement would mean that Rangel must agree that he committed some ethical misconduct.
The talks were confirmed by people familiar with the situation, but who were not authorized to be quoted by name.
Rangel stepped down earlier this year as chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee because of an earlier ethics charge. A settlement would spare him an embarrassing ethics trial. It also would be a relief for other Democrats, who fear that an dragged-out ethics proceeding during the fall election campaign would hurt their ability to maintain their House majority.
Isn’t Rangell’s district pretty Democratic already?
The demographics are heavily in his favor.
Wasn’t Charlie Rangle originally a “reform” candidate to replace the booted-out Adam Clayton Powell?
Yep. Now Powell’s son is running against him.
Pretty much proof that even reform and idealistic politicians have a shelf life before transforming into a graft lovin’ sellout scumbag politician. He could have his own TV show. “Mighty Morphin Power Rangel”
Have you guys gotten around to discussing his H.R. 5741 yet? When you do, let me know, that ought to be hoot!
Rangel’s a complex guy:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/07/23/rangel.profile/index.html
Bankrupt Real Housewife of New Jersey Teresa Giudice forced to auction ALL her possessions (including jet ski, grand piano and snow plough) ~ Daily Mail Reporter
The Real Housewives of New Jersey are known for living large and spending lavishly.
But now Teresa Giudice, star of the hit US reality TV show, will have to watch her beloved material goods being auctioned off to the highest bidder.
Teresa, 38, who is known for her catchphrase ‘fabulous!’, and who owns online boutique TG Fabulicious, declared bankruptcy with her husband Joe last October.
Papers show that the couple owe $104,000 on various store credit cards, including $20,000 to Bloomingdale’s, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom. They also have unpaid bills of $85,000 for home repairs and $12,000 in fertility treatments.
Their total debts (estimated at $8.7 million) far outweighed their assets (estimated at $2.2 million).
In June a trustee for their bankruptcy case alleged in court papers that the couple had tried to hide their assets. They supposedly concealed profits from her book Skinny Italian and his stake in a pizzeria.
The trustee, John Sywilok, also accused the pair of undervaluing items so they could be saved from the bankruptcy and stay safe from auction. These included a pool table and even their wedding rings.
Now, those much-loved things will be going up at auction on August 22nd at their New Jersey mansion.
During the show’s first season, the Giudices were seen moving into the $1.7million house and shopping almost constantly.
But when things took a drastic financial downturn for the family last year, Teresa said they hoped for ‘a fresh start’ by filing for bankruptcy.
Teresa has been married to entrepreneur Joe for 10 years and the couple have four daughters, Gia, nine, Gabriella, five, Milania, three and eight-month-old Audriana. The children enjoy an endless round of music and dance lessons.
Teresa said: ‘Due to the economy, most of my husband’s real estate ventures failed despite his hard work and effort.’
The couple’s possessions for auction can be viewed online.
Items available for purchase include a jet boat, a snow plough, a grand piano, two flat-screen TVs, decorative fireplace accessories, a faux marble chess set, a suit of armour and several chandeliers.
The family’s lawyer Jim Kridel said they hadn’t lied about their assets or undervalued their property.
He told People.com: ‘You can’t sell used, personal property for the sticker price. A $5,000 chandelier won’t sell for $5,000. Nobody will buy a used mattress. The real issue in bankruptcy is, what’s the value of everything? And at the time of the bankruptcy, these things didn’t have any value.’
Teresa herself is apparently upset. Her lawyer continued: ‘I don’t think Teresa is happy seeing all her belongings displayed on the Internet. Clearly they are under the microscope because they are famous.’
None of this seems to have dampened Theresa’s passion for shopping though. Earlier today she tweeted: ‘I love my newest pair of A7 jeans that Meital suggested I wear. They have (the) most gorgeous clothing.’
Bankrupt Real Housewife of New Jersey Teresa Giudice forced to auction ALL her possessions (including jet ski, grand piano and snow plough)
“ALL” being emphasized because…. jet ski, piano, and snow plough are some of life’s most basic necessities?
Bankrupt Real Housewife of New Jersey Teresa Giudice forced to auction ALL her possessions (including jet ski, grand piano and snow plough)
Hey, she just did what was pounded into her head to do from the time she watched her first Barbie commercial. We even make TV shows about people like her. Oh yea, she was on one of those. There were no victims here because everyone made money and we got growth. Numbers got added to other numbers. That’s why we are here.
Big deal. When you train a monkey to dance what’s the big deal if it dances?
A snow plow may very well be a necessity in New Jersey.
Nah. I got by just find in record 36″ of snow this past winter with just a shovel.
If need be I could have gotten the neighborhood kids to shovel for a fairly small amount. For the amount that a snowblower costs you could probably pay kids to do it for 20 years.
U.S. Cities, Counties Poised to Cut 500,000 Jobs, Report Finds
Bloomberg
U.S. local governments may cut almost 500,000 jobs through next year to cope with sliding property taxes, a decline in state and federal aid and added need for social services, according to a report released today.
The report, a result of a survey by the National League of Cities, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National Association of Counties, showed local governments are moving to cut the equivalent of 8.6 percent of their workforces from 2009 to 2011. That suggests 481,000 employees will lose their jobs, according to the report, which said the tally may yet rise.
“Local governments across the country are now facing the combined impact of decreased tax revenues, a falloff in state and federal aid and increased demand for social services,” said the study, which was released in Washington today.
Construction jobs decline in 85 percent of U.S. cities
Dayton Business Journal
The number of construction jobs declined in 285 out of 337 cities nationwide for June, including in Dayton, according to the latest government data compiled by the Associated General Contractors of America.
Officials with the AGC said the data shows that weak overall demand for construction is outpacing the benefits of the $135 billion in construction-related stimulus spending.
“The overall lack of demand for new construction is hurting more than the stimulus is helping at this point,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “While more metropolitan areas have started adding construction jobs, most are still experiencing losses nearly four years after the construction downturn began.”
Well, the rate would’ve been at least 423% had Obama not spend tens or hundreds of billions creating shovel-ready jobs.
Be sure to praise your kids or grandkids regarding how noble they’re being to take it on the chin to support The Messiah and his ambitions.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER —
The first layoff notices are being distributed today and Wednesday to 1,000 shuttle program employees at Kennedy Space Center, according to Florida Today.
United Space Alliance announced the layoffs earlier this month because of long-range plans to reduce the workforce as the shuttle program nears retirement next year.
The government plans to turn over a large portion of its space program to private contractors.
The government plans to turn over a large portion of its space program to private contractors.
What space program? The shuttles are clunkers ready for the museum, the Ares lifter projects have been cancelled. Our guys and gals are going to have to hitchhike on Russian rockets to get to the ISS.
New Leak Found on Gulf Coast. ~ July 27, 2010
The Coast Guard is responding to a new oil leak on the Gulf Coast.
This spill involves a well in a portion of Barataria Bay known as Mud Lake, near Bayou St. Dennis about 10 miles south of Lafitte, Louisiana.
Although this latest spill is unrelated to the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, it’s blocking vessels of opportunity based in Lafitte from accessing the Gulf, as officials assess air quality and other health and safety issues at the site. (Boats staged in other areas are unaffected).
“It’s apparent that some type of vessel has hit the well head, has laid it over,” said Donald Nalty, COO of oil spill cleanup contractor ES&H, who just returned from a flyover of the site in single engine seaplane. “It’s probably about a four inch casing and it’s spewing out oil and natural gas.”
Nalty said the oil was coming out as a mist and was dusting nearby marshes.
Is it OK to post a humorous story here?
Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank caused a scene when he demanded a $1 senior discount on his ferry fare to Fire Island’s popular gay haunt, The Pines, last Friday. Frank was turned down by ticket clerks at the dock in Sayville because he didn’t have the required Suffolk County Senior Citizens ID. A witness reports, “Frank made such a drama over the senior rate that I contemplated offering him the dollar to cool down the situation.”
Linkey
http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/sorry_barney_no_discount_BSco6dW9b1VTgrL7GcCFrN#ixzz0utYGQrik
What a drama queen.
Fwank is just plain sick and sickening, he should be behind bars, not at a bar. Sporting, in his case a hot pink jump suit.
Funny that Barney would freak out over just one of his dollars while he votes routinely to spend hundreds of billions of ours. Kudos to the gay ferry ticket guy who gave him such a hard time.
I think it was a hard time that Barney was looking for.
Has there ever been a previous episode in U.S. economic history when home prices climbed against the backdrop of deteriorating consumer confidence?
I’m thinking hair-of-the-dog stimulus may have met a brick wall of cold turkey detox…
WRAPUP 3-
U.S. consumer confidence dims, home prices climb
Tue Jul 27, 2010 1:25pm EDT
* Unemployment, wage worries erode US consumer confidence
* Home prices gains to stall with unemployment near 10 pct
* “Dark cloud over consumers” won’t lift without new jobs
By Lynn Adler
NEW YORK, July 27 (Reuters) - Job worries drove July U.S.
consumer confidence to its lowest since February, with one in
six people expecting lower income in the next six months,
underscoring the precarious state of economic recovery.
Home prices rose in May but display no signs of a sustained
rebound as long as unemployment flirts with 10 percent and a
record stockpile of foreclosed houses looms over the market, a
separate report showed on Tuesday.
Single-family house prices remain 29.1 percent below peaks
four years ago, according to a Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller
index.
The deepest housing crash since the Great Depression
dragged the U.S. economy into recession, and is doing little to
stimulate broader growth as many economists fret about a
possible double-dip recession.
The Conference Board, a New York-based business and
economics research group, reported that consumer attitudes
worsened this month as did expectations about jobs being hard
to get. For more see [ID:nN27219358] [ID:nNLLRIE6A9].
“Concerns about business conditions and the labor market
are casting a dark cloud over consumers that is not likely to
lift until the job market improves,” said Lynn Franco, Director
of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center.
The group’s index of consumer attitudes fell to 50.4 in
July from an upwardly revised 54.3 in June, below the median
forecast of 51 in a Reuters poll.
The “jobs hard to get” reading, meanwhile, rose to 45.8
percent from 43.5 percent.
The tepid consumer data tempered stock market gains. U.S.
Treasuries fell in the face of new supply.
“There have been quite a few headwinds — the fiscal
stimulus is fading, the European situation certainly did have
an impact on consumer confidence and inventories are being
brought more into line,” said David Sloan, economist at 4Cast
Ltd in New York. “But clearly the big problem for consumers is
jobs.”
U.S. unemployment stood at 9.5 percent in June, the lowest
in nearly a year, but reflected people leaving the workforce
rather than a trend toward greater hiring.
New jobless benefits claims, to be reported by the Labor
Department on Thursday, are seen are seen dipping to 459,000 in
the week ended July 24 from a surprisingly high 464,000 the
prior week
“Without consumers on board, the economic recovery is
looking dangerously vulnerable,” Paul Dales, U.S. economist at
Capital Economics in Toronto, wrote in a report. “Falling
consumer confidence and the growing likelihood of a double-dip
in house prices have put a further dent in the already
deteriorating outlook for consumption growth.”
Consumer sentiment fell to a nearly one-year low in July on
renewed fears about economic stability, according to the
Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers
earlier this month. The final data will be reported on Friday.
U.S. single-family home prices rose more than expected in
May, but still reflected robust spring sales spurred by
now-expired homebuyer tax credits, the S&P/Case-Shiller home
price indexes showed.
…
Can I have another bailout, then? ‘W’ was an idiot but at least I got a bailout. Feldstien told Alfred E. Newman to give me one. Blankfein got a big one. Dimon got a big one. Thain got big one.
I want another little one.
Roidy
Has there ever been a previous episode in U.S. economic history when home prices climbed against the backdrop of deteriorating consumer confidence?
Probably did in 2001-2002. Amazing what Feddling* will accomplish.
*Fed meddling
“Probably did in 2001-2002.”
In the Bay Area, the low end kept climbing while the high end essentially shut down.
I suspect a similar reflation effort in the current episode will not work, due to the crush of inventory at all levels…
My “low end” house in San Jose (1,000 sq. ft. Cambrian Park) did apparently climb at a much faster rate during the bubble than did more established ritzy places (e.g. Los Altos or Cupertino). The bottom end has crashed much more severely than did places at the higher end if I read my Zillow correctly.
Banks Charge States Millions in Debt Binge to Fix Subprime Bust
Jul 27, 2010
Bank of America Corp., owner of the most-active subprime lender, Countrywide Financial Corp., earned $2.9 million in interest and fees for a line of credit Arizona used through June to balance a budget undermined by the housing- market collapse.
Morgan Stanley, fined $102 million by Massachusetts last month for allegedly breaking home-lending laws, shared in $579,000 of fees from helping run a $120 million bond sale for the state last week that pushed debt payments from this fiscal year into future budgets. Wachovia Bank NA and Bank of America managed $400 million of Chicago transportation note sales in 2009 and 2010 to cover delayed state funds even though Wachovia’s parent Wells Fargo & Co. and Countrywide have been sued by Illinois for steering minority borrowers to subprime loans.
New Jersey, New Hampshire and other U.S. states also needed budget-balancing help that enriched the same Wall Street firms that touched off the longest economic slump since the 1930s by packaging loans to unqualified borrowers. States issued $92 billion of long-term debt since Jan. 1, 2009, generating about $488 million for banks based on the average underwriting fee of $5.30 per $1,000 of bonds, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
“You’re basically rewarding those who got you into the mess,” Arizona’s Treasurer Dean Martin said in an interview.
A combination of a Kleptocracy (the elites who steal and shrug because they’re essentially untouchables) and an Idiocracy (a population which keeps electing politicians who keep the system in place).
A Kleptidiocracy?
Treasury to hold conference on Fannie, Freddie
By ALAN ZIBEL The Associated Press
Posted: 10:09 a.m. Tuesday, July 27, 2010
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, which has been under fire for not developing a concrete plan for mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, says it will hold a conference next month to discuss their future.
The administration said Tuesday the event will be held Aug. 17 at the Treasury Department.
The financial overhaul signed by President Barack Obama didn’t address their future, despite protests from Republicans that it was incomplete without a plan for the two companies. The Obama administration has said it wants to wait until next year to determine their future.
So far stabilizing the pair of mortgage buyers has cost taxpayers $145 billion.
The government created the two companies as a hybrid of a private company and a federal agency to help make mortgages available. They buy home loans from lenders, package them into bonds with a guarantee against default and sell them to investors.
They own or guarantee about half of all U.S. mortgages, or nearly 31 million home loans worth more than $5 trillion.
Prepare for a tidal wave of bulls–t to sweep over the land. There is no way the government is going to voluntarily relinquish the stranglehold they have finally achieved on the mortgage market. Governments consolidate power. They don’t give it back.
Yep.
This “conference” is as apt to be as much about stealing property and wealth vis-a-vis “eminent domain” as it is about restoring free markets.
Probably more so - what’s the big deal about property rights anyway?
RE the Census Bureau data. Here is the bottom line for me.
Total housing units up 1.14 million from 2Q09 to 2Q10. On the low end of normal, but not low enough. Given the pace of housing starts last year, it will be going down.
Occupied housing units up 783,000. Not bad all things considered. But it could get worse.
Vacant housing units, up 358,000. Whether they are for sale, for rent, or held off the market, this has to start going down before things improve.
“Total housing units up 1.14 million from 2Q09 to 2Q10.”
Interesting coincidence with one of my earlier posts:
‘Do you know how many homes correspond to a 1% drop in the home ownership rate?
Here is a rough guesstimate:
Number of U.S. households: 113 million(?)
Number of homes corresponding to a 1% drop in the home ownership rate: 1% of 113 million = 1.13 million homes‘
BP Oil Spill: Clean-Up Crews Can’t Find Crude in the Gulf
As Size of Slick Shrinks, Experts Say Oil is Breaking Up, Staying Below Surface. BURAS, La.
For 86 days, oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico from BP’s damaged well, dumping some 200 million gallons of crude into sensitive ecosystems. BP and the federal government have amassed an army to clean the oil up, but there’s one problem — they’re having trouble finding it.
The leak is capped and the spill appears to be shrinking, but where is it going?
At its peak last month, the oil slick was the size of Kansas, but it has been rapidly shrinking, now down to the size of New Hampshire.
Today, ABC News surveyed a marsh area and found none, and even on a flight out to the rig site Sunday with the Coast Guard, there was no oil to be seen.
I seem to recall hearing about an oil tanker that broke up near Scotland, oh, sometime during the 1990s.
This happened during a storm that pounded the living shhh! out of the Scottish west coast. And, IIRC, the storm served as a very effective oil slick pulverizer.
What I have read is that due to the fact it was light sweet and not heavy crude, the ocean does a very good job of eating it up. It’s when it gets inshore the real problems arise.
The stuff from Alaska is heavy crude. Does that explain why the Exxon Valdez stuff persisted so long?
“What I have read is that due to the fact it was light sweet and not heavy crude, the ocean does a very good job of eating it up. It’s when it gets inshore the real problems arise.”
“Metabolism slows by about a factor of two or three for every 10 deg C you drop in temperature… breakdown of oil in very deep waters… is going to happen very slowly because the temperature is so low… [where] researchers saw the oil at 800 to 1400 m depth..” SciAm August, 2010, p.14
MrBubble
At its peak last month, the oil slick was the size of Kansas, but it has been rapidly shrinking, now down to the size of New Hampshire.
That’s deflation.
But we all hope this is good news.
O.C. manufacturer moves jobs to China
Multi-Fineline Electronix Inc. in Anaheim is laying off 85 workers and transferring the work to China, a company spokesman confirmed today.
The company makes flexible printed circuit boards and related component assemblies for the electronics industry.Spokesman Lasse Glassen said the layoffs are part of a consolidation the company announced in May.He said all the company’s manufacturing work is being transferred to lower-cost facilities in China.The headquarters, however, will remain in Anaheim as will the company’s R&D and prototype work, Glassen said.
Multi-Fineline Electronix Inc. in Anaheim is laying off 85 workers and transferring the work to China….The company makes flexible printed circuit boards and related component assemblies for the electronics industry.
This is nothing to worry about. It will just free up American workers to manufacture more complicated stuff.
And I hope they have fun communicating with their Chinese suppliers. That can be a real adventure.
Gonna need mo money…
Chiang: State to run out of cash in October
Sacramento Business Journal
State Controller John Chiang, who has been at the center of the budget crisis and the minimum-wage battle for many state employees in recent weeks, has urged the governor and legislative leaders to agree on a budget as soon as possible — and back away from threats of delaying the process until 2011.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday said the state might not have a budget until after he leaves office next year, unless legislative leaders are willing to make concessions about reforming the financial plan and tax systems. The governor says the Legislature must change public pensions for state workers.
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat from Sacramento, said Democrats are willing to hold out and not give in to the governor’s demands.
But the bipartisan standoff could have a dramatic financial effect on the state, Chiang said.
“Failure to find consensus on an honestly balanced budget is not an option,” Chiang said in a news release.
France declares war against al-Qaida
Jul 27 05:01 PM US/Eastern
PARIS (AP) - France has declared war on al-Qaida, and matched its fighting words with a first attack on a base camp of the terror network’s North African branch, after the terror network killed a French aid worker it took hostage in April.
The declaration and attack marked a shift in strategy for France, usually discrete about its behind-the-scenes battle against terrorism.
“We are at war with al-Qaida,” Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Tuesday, a day after President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the death of 78-year-old hostage Michel Germaneau.
The humanitarian worker had been abducted April 20 or 22 in Niger by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, and was later taken to Mali, officials said.
The killers will “not go unpunished,” Sarkozy said in unusually strong language, given France’s habit of employing quiet cooperation with its regional allies—Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Algeria—in which the al-Qaida franchise was spawned amid an Islamist insurgency.
The Salafist Group for Call and Combat formally merged with al-Qaida in 2006 and spread through the Sahel region—parts of Mauritania, Mali and Niger.
Officials suggest France will activate accords with these countries to stop the terrorists in their tracks.
France could take the heat off of us. They could nuke Mecca with the “force de frappe” and then declare “we have disproved your erroneous cult religion forever”. Bet the al-Qaida attacks on the US would drop off.
(Only the French could make a thermonuclear bomb force sound like a milkshake!
)
So I take this headline to mean that after Dec. it will be sunshine and lollipops.
Consumers to Stay ‘Gloomy’ Till December: Economist
cnbc July 27, 2010
Consumer spending is likely to remain depressed possibly into December, as worries persist about jobs and income, Ken Goldstein, chief economist of the Conference Board told CNBC Tuesday.
“The back-to-school sales in August are probably not going to be all that great,” added Goldstein, whose responsibilities include analyzing current trends in labor market activity for the industry group the Conference Board.
“It’s a harbinger of what we are likely to see this holiday season. This is a gloomy consumer. There’s nothing lifting this gloom-and it’s not going to over the next few months.”
as will the company’s R&D and prototype work, Glassen said
Suuurrre!
If they don’t have enough fun communicating with the manufacturing people, trying to talk to the R&D people will be a real gas. Especially when they start noticing that their designs start showing up in other products.
Say what you will about the U.S. legal system, but we do have pretty good standards for intellectual property protection. China? Not so much.
“It’s a harbinger of what we are likely to see this holiday season. This is a gloomy consumer. There’s nothing lifting this gloom-and it’s not going to over the next few months.”
Yeah, blame it on the gloom, like if folks just changed their attitudes, all would be well. Forget about jobs & mountains of debt.
Psychological economics is all the rage, but quite unconvincing unless they take budget constraints into consideration. Give me the happiest consumer in the world, and if he is broke and his credit ruined, he still won’t spend a dime.
“Give me the happiest consumer in the world, and if he is broke and his credit ruined, he still won’t spend a dime.”
They may resort to “other” alternatives…
Our fearless leader seconds your response, Lisa. Though his response wouldn’t have a hint of sarcasm or disgust.