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Murkowski = The Face of the Combine
Posted by Lexington Green on September 18th, 2010 (All posts by Lexington Green)
I have seen a lot of people writing about Lisa Murkowski’s decision to wage a spoiler write-in campaign, to try to prevent a Tea Party-backed GOP candidate from winning the general election.
Most of the writers look at it, incorrectly, in terms of Sen. Murkowski’s personal psychology. For example, they say she feels miffed about losing a seat that is supposed to be hers by right of inheritance. This motive may exist, but it is trivial.
In Illinois, there has long been an expression which describes the relationship between the two political parties: The Combine. Chicago Tribune writer John Kass seems to have originated this expression. See, for example, this article: In Combine, cash is king, corruption is bipartisan. Kass quoted former Illinois Senator Peter Fitzgerald: “In the final analysis, The Combine’s allegiance is not to a party, but to their pocketbooks. They’re about making money off the taxpayers,” Fitzgerald said. Kass went on: “He should know. He fought The Combine and lost, and the empty suits running the Republican Party encourage their friendly scribes to blame the social conservatives for the disaster of the state GOP.”
Sound familiar?
America, welcome to Illinois.
The way it works is this. The Democrat party is the senior member of the Combine. The GOP is the junior member of the Combine. The game is exactly the same, and whoever is up, or whoever is down, based on the random behavior of those rubes, the voters, does not matter. The game is always exactly the same, and the people who are in on the game, from either party, have a shared stake in defending the game.
The Combine is a term that should be more widely used in Illinois. It is also a word that should be more widely used in the USA in general.
Lisa Murkowski’s family, and her career, exist because of the Combine. Her interest is in preserving the existing game. She is preserving her stake and her family’s stake in a game they have benefitted from. There is no mystery about this at all. There is no need for psychiatry to understand why she is trying to stop Joe Miller. He threatens the game. It has nothing to do with the label “Republican.”
This describes the Political Class to a “T”.
Thanks for posting this.
I don’t get it. She’s a third-party candidate challenging a Republican and a Democrat. She’s challenging the ‘Combine’, no?
no, because the voters put Miller in the gop spot. Primaries allow that sort of thing…but I think you knew that.
A small minority of awakened Alaskans strode out from amidst the Republicrat-beguiled zombies and defied the will of the sleazy, entrenched GOP establishment (a.k.a. the corporate plutocracy’s political arm) to vote for a political outsider, Joe Miller. Murkowski, infuriated at the uppity serfs, refuses to accept a repudiation that usurps the powers of the political and financial elites who are supposed to be running the show.
The Tea Party has the best chance to totally wreck the “Combine” for the coming future, especially this Nov.
Could it be that “talk radio/TV” is a force that allows the sheeple to communicate and organize in a way that we never could? IMO yes.
Example: even though Rush, Hannity or Glenn Beck are not well liked in some circles, they have the power to lead because they can attract an audience [that is willing to buy things advertised on their shows]. The ability to sell feeds the alligator, bringing them more revenue through companies willing to pony up even higher “confiscatory” advertising fees, allowing them even more and more exposure.
It’s a beautiful system. Our fellow libs could also have such a media force but for some reason their attempts at this medium fail to attract sales through advertising. Why?
Liberals have jobs that aren’t conducive to listening to the radio while performing them? Or else they just like music.
Our fellow libs could also have such a media force but for some reason their attempts at this medium fail to attract sales through advertising. Why?
Ah… its called Oprah Winfrey
Libs can’t agree on anything enough to set up permanent media presence. Even worse, they insist on that pesky critical thinking instead of logical fallacies and half-truts, and they insist on using those pesky paragraphs, instead of taking the bumper-sticker way out. Obama was somehow able to unite the libs.
Libs tried with Air America, but AA flopped badly. However, libs have made some inroads: AA’s Rachel Maddow and Big Ed are on MSNBC, and AA’s Al Franken is in now the Senate.
“Libs…..insist on that pesky critical thinking instead of logical fallacies and half-truts…”
Thus ends all possibility of reasoned discussion.
Still, we hold these truts to be self evident….
“they insist on that pesky critical thinking”
Sorry, I do not understand this. Could you give me an example or two of this pesky critical thinking? Because from my standpoint, a liberal is more apt to be in touch with their feelings, but not necessarily with the most effective method of dealing with a problem.
Example: Giving mothers more $$ for welfare if they do not have a male living with them.
Yes, we want to take care of the single mothers, but do we also want to encourage the fathers to live away from their children??? Even in my own family we have young women [breeders] having kids out of wedlock, multiple kids/multiple fathers, and the end result is less desirable than having one father who is there all of the time.
So while the government programs are helpful, they also cause unintended consequences.
“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
..President Thomas Jefferson
“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed [“by their Creator” omitted] with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
…President Barrack Hussein Islama
“We are soooooo screwed”
…zeus matuze
h ttp://w ww.weeklystandard.c om/blogs/
does-president-obama-think-our-rights-come-our-creator
lip:
You forgot the BIGGEST one:
Gov programs encourage shacking up, if you are married you have to combine incomes and most of the time that makes you ineligible for even food stamps…
I qualified for student loans by not being married years ago.
Could you give me an example or two of this pesky critical thinking?
Two basic types of LACK of critial thinking (there are more):
Type A. Killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Type B. Instead of i causing j, it’s really k causing both i and j. This is a more specific version of correlation not equally causality.
Examples:
1. Giving single mothers more for welfare. Critical thinking says that if the mothers have more money, the kids might grow up better and find a job, instead of becoming a criminal and going to prison, which, in the end, would cost the state far more than the original difference in the welfare. Of course, this is a lousy policy to begin with, but I’m just showing the critical thinking. (Type A)
2. The notion that if deficit spending got us into this financial mess, then deficit spending can’t get us out. Critical thinking says that there’s good deficit spending and bad deficit spending. Tax cuts on people who don’t need the money are “bad” spending, while borrowing money to give people stable jobs is much better because you reap the rewards for years, in future taxes, stable communities, and better-educated kids. (Type A)
3. The notion that the government is driving this country toward socialistm. (Rush’s favorite theory.) Critical thinking says that it’s the capitalists, and their job-killing outsourcing/insourcing and monopolistic tendencies, which is doing the driving. The
governmental socialist programs are a response. Yes, they are bread-and-circus programs, but they are a RESPONSE, not the driving force. (Type B)
4. The notion that if a person has a high FICO, then he has the ability to pay his debts, and therefore he’s entitles to a huge mortgage loan. Critical thinking says that it’s not the high FICO that allows him to pay his debts, it’s his high income — which is how he got a high FICO in the first place. (A similar argument can be made that buying a house automatically brings wealth.) All those highly-paid “producers”
in the mortgage industry fell for this one. (Type B)
5. Health insurance companies are raising their premiums. The easy reason for this, and the reason that conservatives are giving, of course, is that evil evil Obamacare. Critical thinking says that evil Obamacare hasn’t even kicked in yet, and that health insurance companies are raising prices to get their profit before the law does kick in, and also to make the law look bad to non-critical thinkers. (I don’t know the type.)
On a side note, Rush Limbaugh is not this stupid. He’s very smart and a good critical thinker — he just uses those logical fallacies to playing on the stupidity of others, to his own advantage of millions of dollars a year.
“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed [“by their Creator” omitted] with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
I daily thank god that I don’t live in a country where it’s mandatory to believe in fictional beings.
Good examples, oxide.
alpha, didja notice the lack of responses following my post?
How could any one respond to such a silly posting. U completely ignored the problems created by you “solution”
Giving welfare more money just makes more babies an more people who want it!
Libs just have no clue!!!
There was a deafening silence.
Perhaps they’re busy coming up with brilliant counter-examples?
U completely ignored the problems created by you “solution”
Giving welfare more money just makes more babies an more people who want it!
Libs just have no clue!!!
Curses! A brilliant counter-example makes fools of us both!
Or perhaps some of us are tired of pig wrestling.
Libs are consistent in one area….when things don’t go their way, it is never their policy that is to blame. It’s those darned morons out in the hinterland who just don’t understand the brilliance of it all.
Obamacare is oppsoed by 65%. That’s not because O-Care is a complete disaster already with premium hikes already in place. No it’s a brilliant scheme, but nobody understands how brilliant it is.
10% unemployment after 2 years of Obamanomics is actually a great thing. But only libs understand the wonder of it all.
Enforcing the AZ immigration law - supported by 70% of the public - is wrong. Why? I don’t know. But liberals say it is wrong, therefore it must be wrong.
Building the GZ Mosque - opposed by 70% - is right. Why? Not sure. But liberals say it is right, so it must be right.
And on Nov 3 the liberal thinking will not be “hmmm maybe we should change our ways to attract voters”. Instead it will be “those stupid voters, what can we do in order to fool them into voting for us again in 2012?”
Enforcing the AZ immigration law - supported by 70% of the public - is wrong. Why? I don’t know. But liberals say it is wrong, therefore it must be wrong.
Slim checking in from AZ: There is widespread support for this law among Independents (our state’s fastest growing form of political affiliation), Democrats, and Republicans. This, despite the fact that there’s a boycott of this state and a lot of bad publicity to boot.
So, it’s not just a conservative plot.
There are plenty of red-hot flaming liberals who are upset about the environmental damage caused by illegal immigration. And more than a few of those enviro-libs support 1070.
Slim checking in from AZ: There is widespread support for this law among Independents (our state’s fastest growing form of political affiliation), Democrats, and Republicans.
I’m sure you’re right inside Arizona…I think that puts you at odds with the left in the rest of the country, though. So for those not in border states it looks like another right versus left argument.
A single strand of barbed-wire can bring the most powerful Caterpillar machine (Combine) to a stop. It gets tangled and wedged into bearings and tears seals to shreds. We need to use our heads and come up with some simple barb-wire type solution to trip-up our bloated, corrupt monster of a system and bring it to a halt before it finishes ruining America. The right man voted into just the right office could just do the trick.
“…The right man voted into just the right office could just do the trick.”
Or the right microbe.
What, you mean this guy?
Are you back among us, ahansen?! We’ve missed you.
xo, Sammy.
IIRC, it was apparent from the beginning that Peter Fitzgerald was going to be a one-term Senator from Illinois. Why? He actually wanted to eliminate waste in gov’t spending, and he wasn’t part of the Old Boys Network (aka The Combine). So I guess he wasn’t the right person in the right place at the right time. In fact, being from Illinois, there will never be a right place for him besides watching the local brand of politics from the sidelines.
I think there’s something to the “liberals not wanting to listen to talk radio” idea. As mentioned here before, I volunteer at Tucson’s community radio, KXCI.
We have a one-hour talk program every weekday noon called “Democracy Now.” And I can tell you, from my exalted perch as a pledge drive phone answerer, people either love it or hate it. Matter of fact, one of my Saturday pledgers referred to it as “the left-wing equivalent of Rush Limbaugh.”
I can also say that, when I ask pledgers to list their favorite KXCI programs, our musical offerings beat the pants off of any talk program that we have. Doesn’t matter if it’s “Democracy Now” or any of our Sunday afternoon public affairs programs. They just don’t get the audience that our music does.
So, attention cause-oriented people: If you want to rally the liberals, get ‘em to sing along with you.
Our fellow libs could also have such a media force but for some reason their attempts at this medium fail to attract sales through advertising. Why?
The liberal equivalent of talk radio is stand-up comedy.
Well, they do have Jon Stewart and SNL…..
Libs have most TV media outlets, and most newspapers as well. They’re doing just fine.
HAHAHAHAHA!!!
Excuse my shouting. That was just soooo funny!
Why? Sounds about right to me - esp. on the newspaper front.
MSM is owned by JUST 6 major corporations.
Corporations. As in “traded on Wall St. with owners who make millions on revenue of billions.”
Any perceived “liberal” slant is just entertainment. A psy-ops game being played on you, the sheep.
You know. Bread and circuses?
Why did he have to use Peter Fitzgerald as the example? He is the son of a bank chain owner, and after he declined to run for re-election in 2004 because he couldn’t get the support of his own party, he became, and is, a bank chairman. Fitzgerald wasn’t around in 2008 to vote for TARP, but I’m sure that he would have been as big a supporter as Boehner was.
Good point. I thought the same but it’s Kass who wrote about Fitzgerald.
I liked the article for it’s central theme.
Sorry to top post
But Ben is scheduled to be live tonight at about 8:15 est so call in or tweet….ok????
http://streaming.wstcwnlk.com/_players/coxradio/index.php?callsign=WSTCAM
Call in and be part of the show! Studio line 203-845-3044. Or tweet @lshiller. (Larry Shiller)
http://www.americansolutionsradio.com/
will there be a transcript?
The podcast should be up tuesday….Ill let you know
thanks, please do
We can all listen to it live streaming, at 8:15 est, right? Through the first link?
We could post about it as the interview occurs, maybe get some calls in. Should be interesting.
yes call in …..
I disagree about there being a single party. They are all concerned about their own skins and like the power-trip, but there are some substantial philosophical differences. One major difference is who Owns the wealth that people create. Rep’s say the maker, Dem’s see is as all government money that you are allowed to keep.
Here is an excerpt from an article out of the Carolina’s 2 years ago. This specifically credits the DEm’s. Rep’s don’t have such ideas:
“Dems Target Private Retirement Accounts
Democratic leaders in the U.S. House discuss confiscating 401(k)s, IRAs
By Karen McMahan
November 04, 2008
RALEIGH — Democrats in the U.S. House have been conducting hearings on proposals to confiscate workers’ personal retirement accounts — including 401(k)s and IRAs — and convert them to accounts managed by the Social Security Administration.
Triggered by the financial crisis the past two months, the hearings reportedly were meant to stem losses incurred by many workers and retirees whose 401(k) and IRA balances have been shrinking rapidly.
The testimony of Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economic policy analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York, in hearings Oct. 7 drew the most attention and criticism. Testifying for the House Committee on Education and Labor, Ghilarducci proposed that the government eliminate tax breaks for 401(k) and similar retirement accounts, such as IRAs, and confiscate workers’ retirement plan accounts and convert them to universal Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs) managed by the Social Security Administration.”
This goes back to the post I made over the weekend about the meetings of TREASURY with the Labor Department to discuss the retirements of Americans. Most of the Dem’s meetings over healthcare and finance have been done behind closed doors. Obama is always mouthing about bi-partisanship, but doesn’t want anything but his own socialist programs. Any opposition is simply dismissed.
That is why I suspect that a sneak attack will make legislation before the Dem’s are forced out in a “lame duck” session when they have nothing left to lose. The current group of Dem’s is a rabid bunch of re-distributional socialists. I would not be the least bit surprised to see an attempt to steal our money before they get kicked to the curb.
The Article was posted by Carolina Journal Online. You can look it up.
Most of the Dem’s meetings over healthcare and finance have been done behind closed doors.
“Since no Republicans in the Senate voted for the bill, and only one in the House supported it, Democrats were always going to focus the negotiations on settling differences among themselves.
“The reality is that no matter which party controls Congress, bargaining over legislation takes place behind closed doors. Open conference committee sessions are used for little more than making statements about the bill.
“Closed-door talks between the House and Senate are nothing new. Negotiations on President George W. Bush’s tax cuts and legislation creating a Medicare prescription drug benefit for the elderly were held in closed-door sessions.”
Diongenes.
Not sure, do you support this socialization of our country?
I do agree that in the end they either want to
1) Take our retirement money or
2) They’ll inflate the currency to such an extent that it’ll be worthless.
I absolutely oppose a Socialized economy. The problem is the FED and the Banking Cartel, in conjunction with the Broker/trader crooks on Wallstreet.
We do not have a “free enterprise” system. We have an Oligarchy.
The collapse of the Ponzi-finance scheme was an opportunity to get rid of Goldman-Suchs, Lehman, JPMorgan, and Citi, along with all the other crooks printing money and destroying our savings. The TARP was a bad idea. It should have been LIQUIDATION time.
The “financial reform” just entrenches the status quo, the group Obama is always railing about.
We need to end the Money-printing FED system. Restore sound currency. Re-instate Glass-Steagal. Liquidate the insolvent banks, and start over with banks that didn’t get 40 to 1 leverage in Hedge Fund bogus accounting.
All the steps taken by this administration and the current group in congress simply put more power into the hands of the people that created the problems, and protected them from their own undoing.
Let’s TAX Goldman-Suchs and the other bankers at 95% of their “profits” that they got from putting free government money into Treasury Bills. They haven’t “earned” a dime. They just wrote themselves big bonuses.
In the meantime, we need to undo Obama”care”. The problem with “healthcare” is that it has nothing to do with health. We have the best MEDICAL care in the world. We have unhealthy people because of their lifestyles. Too bad. Obesity is a major problem, and Free Government Food isn’t helping any. I’ve seen the over-flowing carts of the buyers of “SNAP” program supplements. They don’t buy nutrition, they buy crap, and lots of it, because they like it and the government pays for it.
I could go on forever, but i’ve got to get back to work………..
I’ve been to Ukraine and Slovakia, and Hungary, and a number of countries along the Eastern bloc. I’ve seen what government programs lead to…………collapse.
As they used to say………”We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us”…………….Cuba is even changing its tune.
IN the meantime, OUR political leaders want a model that more closely resembles theirs, to be “FAIR”…. God help us.
We have the best MEDICAL care in the world.
LOL, In which “world”?
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-06/cf-url062210.php
US ranks last among 7 countries on health system performance
New York, NY, June 23, 2010—Despite having the most expensive health care system, the United States ranks last overall compared to six other industrialized countries—Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom—on measures of health system performance in five areas: quality, efficiency, access to care, equity and the ability to lead long, healthy, productive lives, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report. While there is room for improvement in every country, the U.S. stands out for not getting good value for its health care dollars, ranking last despite spending $7,290 per capita on health care in 2007 compared to the $3,837 spent per capita in the Netherlands, which ranked first overall.
France best, US worst in preventable death ranking
Tue, Jan 8 2008
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON, Jan 8 (Reuters) - France, Japan and Australia rated best and the United States worst in new rankings focusing on preventable deaths due to treatable conditions in 19 leading industrialized nations, researchers said on Tuesday.
The World Health Organization’s ranking
of the world’s health systems.
1 France
2 Italy
3 San Marino
4 Andorra
5 Malta
6 Singapore
7 Spain
33 Chile
34 Denmark
35 Dominica
36 Costa Rica
37 United States of America
Number of uninsured Americans rises to 50.7 million
By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY
A record rise in the number of people without health insurance across the nation is fueling renewed debate over a health care law that could to work better at boosting coverage than controlling costs.
More than 50 million people were uninsured last year, almost one in six U.S. residents, the Census Bureau reported Thursday. The percentage with private insurance was the lowest since the government began keeping data in 1987
The problem with “healthcare” is that it has nothing to do with health. We have the best MEDICAL care in the world. We have unhealthy people because of their lifestyles.
You really are a moron, hellbent on arguing things that can’t be compared to try an win a point.
I just said, the problem is not “medical” care. And Health, has little to do with medical care. Unhealthy lifestyles is why “Americans” are unhealthy.
So you go look up a bunch of socialist agency comparisons that use some “metrics” to say we are less “healthy” and a lot of people are “uninsured”. How traumatic.
“preventable deaths due to treatable conditions” ??? What does that mean? Does it mean people didn’t get treatment?
Or does it mean they are grossly overweight ( a treatable condition) and still didn’t get “Fixed”. Well, gee, it must be the government’s fault.
Another great metric: measures of health system performance in five areas: quality, efficiency, access to care, measures of health system performance in five areas: quality, efficiency, access to care, equity and the ability to lead long, healthy, productive lives.
Let’s look at the last ones again: equity and the ability to lead long, healthy, productive lives? What does that mean?
What weighting was given to this? who knows?
The facts are simple. We waste a lot of money on people who go to clinics who really didn’t need to see a doctor.
These are not issues of “medical care”.
I do find it interesting, however, that the Countries listed are the lest “multicultural” in the world. They are mostly White Europeans. So, I would expect their Medical treatments to be superior. The more “integrated” we become, the more money we waste.
Thanks for pointing it out to me.
You really are a moron, hellbent on arguing things that can’t be compared to try an win a point.
I just said, the problem is not “medical” care. And Health, has little to do with medical care. Unhealthy lifestyles is why “Americans” are unhealthy.
So you go look up a bunch of socialist agency comparisons that use some “metrics” to say we are less “healthy” and a lot of people are “uninsured”. How traumatic.
And you’re funny in your own little way. A little scary and unnerving, but amusing nonetheless.
Diogenes, your argument is hitting home with me. I don’t smoke, exercise regularly, have never been obese, and have no family history, and yet here I am after 54 years of excellent health receiving expensive surgery, chemotherapy and radiation for cancer. You always blame people for their health problems, but any child with a disease and many adults with diseases are not at fault. I’m well off and well insured, but we need good universal health care to be available for the many people who can’t afford the kind of treatment I’m getting.
And by the way, the new health care bill will help lots of people who in the past would be cut off from their insurer when they become ill. That is now illegal.
So lets say for argument, all money printing is immediately stopped, thus protecting the currency. Exactly WHERE will the money come from to pay out the retirements which are promised and based on an infinite 8% annual gain? The elephant in the living room is not inflation. It is debt, and without inflation that debt cannot be serviced, even if we raised taxes to 100% and left no one who works with money for food, gas or housing!
Keep in mind that the only way any of us get to go to work at all right now is because this whole top heavy debt ridden monster we are cumulatively created is being kept on life support by the Fed, so are you advocating scrapping our currency, and starting over with no debt and no retirement obligations? Not a bad idea IMO, since there is no way in the known universe we will have the funds to pay out these moneys without massive inflation - specifically wage inflation which will not happen for a variety of reasons.
So which should it be. No one gets anything, or everyone gets virtually nothing?
Why does it have to be one extreme or the other?
The non-inflation solution is bankruptcy and debt reorganization, not complete debt repudiation. Pensions, etc. would not just go away, they would be renegotiated, and lowered down to sustainable levels; levels that are sustainable by the actual current production of the economy, not by borrowing an ever-increasing amount from the future.
I am thinking that is not more than 10 cents on the dollar, given the rest of the world will have to be taxed at a rate so high food will be scarce.
The point I am making, is that short of massive income gains, the tax base will not be there to support even a small percentage of the current debt load. Of course city state and federal employees are entitled to the money they were promised. I would like someone to give me some idea where that money will come from, given the 8% return on investment strategy has failed?
Beyond that, what will happen when the next wave of debt failures hits? hint…(Commercial debt).
Personally, I think inflation seems much kinder than bankruptcy, which will leave large numbers holding the bag and lead to further default, which will lead to further need for reorganization….
If we continue on our current path, we will see disorganized collapse and civil unrest.
The Article was posted by Carolina Journal Online. You can look it up.
Alright, I did. Here’s what I found (from Factcheckdotorg):
“Are congressional Democrats talking about confiscating IRA and 401(k) investment accounts?
My mother has recently brought up a rumor that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid endorse a plan for the government to take people’s 401Ks to make up tax dollars. Is this true and where did my mother get the information? (she can’t tell me).
A:
No. There’s no plan to seize these accounts. One House witness at a committee hearing proposed to allow some people to trade their old accounts for a new type that would be less risky.
We’ve had many queries about this doozy. They all lead back to a Nov. 4 report posted by the Carolina Journal, a publication of the conservative John Locke Foundation of Raleigh, N.C. Its headline proclaimed, “Dems Target Private Retirement Accounts: Democratic leaders in the U.S. House discuss confiscating 401(k)s, IRAs.” The report is wrong. There’s been no such discussion.
What has been discussed is changing 401(k) and Individual Retirement Accounts in the future by limiting the deductibility of donations, and offering as an alternative a $600 tax credit and a new type of account with an annual return guaranteed by the government. That’s a controversial idea to be sure, but it’s a far cry from proposing that the government seize retirement assets that investors have already salted away in 401(k)s or IRAs. Nobody we know of is proposing anything like that.
The Carolina Journal report claims that Democrats on the House Education and Labor Committee held hearings Oct. 7 on “proposals to confiscate workers’ personal retirement accounts.” The report describes in particular the testimony of Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor at the New School for Social Research in New York City. We’ve reviewed Ghilarducci’s written testimony and a video recording of the entire hearing, both of which are posted on the committee’s official Web site and are available to anybody who cares to read or listen. Contrary to the Carolina Journal report, nobody at the hearing talked about confiscating or seizing accounts. We also contacted Ghilarducci independently and asked if she’s expressed support for confiscation. She told us in an e-mail message that she hasn’t:
Teresa Ghilarducci, Nov. 18: It is utterly ridiculous [to suppose] that I advocate seizing 401k assets.”
So you can stop worrying, it’s just the usual suspects manipulating the easily led. (You’re not doing too good finding that honest man, are you, Diogenes?)
Yes, but this is all a lie. The Liberals would never consider doing such a thing. How do I know? Several people on this very board have repeated stated that something like this would never be suggested, must less enacted.
Therefore, you and writer Karen McMahan are clearly nuts. As am I, for bringing up the ultimate goal of those who favor Card Check.
Yeah, quite frankly, you are getting nuts with the card check thing.
Politicians should represent the people, not the highest bidder.
Today’s politicians are careerists beholden to the wealthiest interests who will give them the money they need to hold on to power, or give it to their opponents.
The problems with careerists is they are so eminently corruptible, because they love power so much. “Power corrupts.” It’s the nature of the beast. It’s like a metal being corroded outdoors. Eventually the metal needs to be replaced. The joke is that the US “has the best government money can buy.”
It’s time for that joke no longer have teeth. Politicians should no longer represent the highest bidder.
Even Sleazy Leeza’s own crew can’t spell her name right on their website.
I guess when she told them that she was going to give them something ‘long and hard’…they flinched.
Man, that gal is one angry, bitter, clinger to the ruling class perks.
Wonder what she’s ‘gonna do now? She runs her lips pretty good…I hear there’s money in that in the U’con
Dollar Near 5-Week Low Versus Euro Before Housing Data, Fed (Bloomberg)
The dollar fell toward a five-week low against the euro before a report likely to show confidence among U.S. home builders stayed near a 17-month low, adding to evidence the economic recovery is losing steam.
The U.S. currency dropped for the fifth time in six days versus the 16-nation euro amid speculation the Federal Open Market Committee will say at a meeting tomorrow it’s considering further measures to keep borrowing costs near zero. The Swedish krona traded near a one-week low against the euro after Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt won a second term without a majority in parliament. The pound fell against the dollar and the euro as U.K. home sellers lowered asking prices for a third month.
“We need to see how the housing data drops out,” said Jeremy Stretch, global head of foreign-exchange strategy at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce’s CIBC World Markets unit in London. “It’s also all about the FOMC and whether the market perceives that the Fed are going to get out the big guns again and look at additional easing.”
World markets up as Fed meeting looms- AP
World markets mostly rose Monday at the start of a week that is likely to be dominated by a Federal Reserve meeting and any hints that may emerge from it about further measures to boost the U.S. economy.
I’m still looking for the buying power of the dollar to INCREASE as the amount of dollars continue to disappear into Puffville and as the flow of fiats through the economy slows as the ranks of the unemployed continues to increase and those with money have magically been transformed into savers rather than spenders.
Oh, the pain! Here’s to hoping the pain maxes out the day of the November election.
Puffville ?? LOL…
I’m still looking for the buying power of the dollar to INCREASE as the amount of dollars continue to disappear into Puffville
nothing reduces the amount of dollars already in existence. the amount of dollars in existence has been steadily climbing since dollar were created.
if i’m wrong you should be able to show me some kind of proof, like a valid authentic graph that shows a decline in the number of dollars. i say that there has never been a reduction of dollars in existence in all of history. not even the great depression.
I keep finding RE stories that don’t make sense, or that leave out vital information….
The NY Times has a story about some guy wanting to blow $300K on a one-bedroom apartment. The story isn’t clear about his age - at age 42 he took over a rent-controlled apartment where he’s lived for 20 years, but his photo sure doesn’t make him look 62 years old. He has two degrees but the story doesn’t mention the majors: nor does it state what he does for a living. Why is he so stuck about wanting to live in NYC when he’s from Boston originally - not like he has family ties to NYC.
“I keep finding RE stories that don’t make sense, or that leave out vital information”
It’s not just limited to RE stories, it’s pretty much any kind of news story. The frenzied 24/7 news cycle is so wound up, it reminds me of a garden hose under high pressure, randomly snaking across a lawn, spewing water every which way.
My favorite stories are those of illegal immigrants who have committed some crime or another: “Police are looking for a Springfield man who slammed into a pickup truck and fled the scene on Wednesday. Jorge Ramos-Vamos, a migrant worker from Guatemala City, Guatemala….”. In one sentence, he’s a “Springfield man”, the next he’s from Guatemala. Not to mention he’s a migrant worker, which means he’s in Springfield temporarily anyway, to pick cherries or apples or whatever.
Partial illiteracy combined with political correctness can produce some real howlers.
“Partial illiteracy combined with political correctness can produce some real howlers.”
You got that right.
Especially when it comes to race. Every nonwhite “group” will be named in order to avoid using the term “nonwhite”; or even worse, “majority minority”.
(((shakin my head)))
Well, not today. I noticed the “black wealth gap” is the story du jour.
http://tinyurl.com/26yrax4
They leave out home equity but there’s still something missing here.
“The frenzied 24/7 news cycle is so wound up, it reminds me of a garden hose under high pressure, randomly snaking across a lawn, spewing water every which way.”
POTD!
Having worked in the biz, I could not have described better.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/realestate/19hunt.html?_r=1
Well going from $714 to $1800 a month is a big jump…..but the convenience of not having to move the car twice a week during work hours…means a lot…He could have rented a garage for $150-200 a month
—————————————————
The apartment, large and in very good shape, came with an off-street parking spot. The asking price was $289,000, with a maintenance fee just under $600.
Here’s the link.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/realestate/19hunt.html?_r=1&hpw
I read it too fast the first time. He’s a dir. of government relations at NYU, which I presume is a lobbyist position. IIUC he tries to steer government funds to NYU.
Most of his beefs with his rent contolled apartment had to to with leaky faucets and toilets. Even if his landlord was too cheap to fix this - a problem generated by rent control - why didn’t he fix them? Faucet washers are cheap. An entire Delta faucet is $40. You can gut and replace the innards of a toilet for $20 or go whole-hog and replace it for $200.
Instead he went and blew $300K on an apartment. And now he still is responsible for fixing things.
Thank you Dennis, you are a critical thinker, as is almost all of this blog.
I’m not a critical thinker - I’m a libertarian-conservative.
I can’t believe people choose to live like that. NYC is cool, but not THAT cool.
I try not to poke fun at other peoples’ pride and joy, but….
I never “got” the attraction of living in a place like NYC. A typical response from die-hard residents is “well we have the Met. Opera”. I then ask them “how often do you GO to the opera?” To which the response is generally, “well, never, since I don’t like opera.” The same can be said of other cultural attractions.
If you embrace the “Archie Bunker” lifestyle, why not live elsewhere where it is cheap to do so?
Same with SoCal. They brag about the weather, but most live in their cubicle farms by day and barricade themselves once they get home (they show American Idol in Calif too).
Oh we’ve got the beach nearby. I didn’t know anyone who went to the beach more than once a year.
Dennis:
This guy is the wrong type for ownership….he easily could have paid the super $50 cash and got it fixed…….
I’ll bet mommie wants grand kids and no way is he going find a woman with a dumpy apartment…wanna bet mommie gave him a down payment?
That had to be the sorriest story of the day, yep!
That still doesn’t make sense. How can you raise a kid or two in a one-bedroom place?
Didn’t think he necessarily looked like he would be interested in women. Or in marriage or procreating, whatever the combination! People outside NYC may not get it, understandably. But some kind of virus tends to take over people after a few years, and they can’t seem to imagine living elsewhere. As far as family, they’re probably relieved not to have to go over and help em fix stuff … that’s why they moved to NYC. To be left alone … OTOH, anyone with any sense gets desperate to get the hell out after a decade or so, or soon after the arrival of children.
Wall Street’s Engines of Profit Are Slowing Down
NYT
Inside the great investment houses on Wall Street, business has taken a surprising turn — downward.
Even after taxpayer bailouts restored bankers’ profits and pay, the great Wall Street money machine is decelerating. Big financial institutions, including commercial banks, are still making a lot of money. But given unease in the financial markets and the economy, brokerages and investment banks are not making nearly as much as their executives, employees and investors had hoped.
After an unusually sharp slowdown in trading this summer, analysts are rethinking their profit forecasts for 2010.
The activities at the heart of what Wall Street does — selling and trading stocks and bonds, and advising on mergers — are running at levels well below where they were at this point last year, said Meredith Whitney, a bank analyst who was among the first to warn of the subprime mortgage disaster and its impact on big banks.
Worldwide, the number of stock offerings is down 15 percent from this time last year, while bond issuance is off 25 percent, according to Capital IQ, a research firm. Based on these trends, Ms. Whitney predicts that annual revenue from Wall Street’s main businesses will drop 25 percent, to around $42 billion in 2010, from $56 billion last year.
While the numbers will not be known until after the third quarter ends and financial companies begin reporting earnings in October, the pace of trading this summer was slow even by normal summer standards. Trading in shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange was down by 11 percent in July from 2009 levels, and August volume was off nearly 30 percent.
“What’s happened in the third quarter is that after a very slow summer, people expected things to come back,” said Ms. Whitney. “But they haven’t, and the inactivity is really squeezing everyone.”
The downward slide on Wall Street parallels a similar shift in the broader economy, which has slowed considerably since showing signs of a nascent recovery this spring. And if banks come under pressure, all but the safest borrowers may struggle to get loans.
“Trading in shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange was down by 11 percent in July from 2009 levels, and August volume was off nearly 30 percent.”
This is VERY GOOD NEWS if one intends to someday become a buyer of stocks.
Sell them when they’re hot; Buy them when they’re not.
Look for P/Es to go below eight.
P/E’s below 8?
Good deal if you can get it. My problem is the stockmarket is a computer game these days. I cannot win at it. It is a bet and not an investment.
Roidy
“My problem is the stockmarket is a computer game these days.”
“These days” is the operating term that makes the stock market a computer game.
Patience: When the stock market is no longer seen as a road to quick riches then prices of stocks will be dumped into a listless market by the cash-starved who bought into the market when the market was hot and the prices were high.
P/E’s below 8?
Good deal if you can get it.
Only if the E is real - i.e. not on a stimulus-fed sugar rush as it has been recently.
P/E is overrated as a gauge, until/unless you really dig deep into what’s behind the E.
“P/E is overrated as a gauge, until/unless you really dig deep into what’s behind the E.”
You hit it right there. The E and its validity. Who can trust these companies anymore? The accountants have been corrupted to the point that the financial statements are a work of fiction.
Roidy
Well, I wasn’t so much talking about the validity of reporting good vs. bad numbers, but the validity of the underlying “economic strength” that’s temporarily increased by stimulus spending and/or low interest rates.
Checkout ATRC. Looking forward this is a very cheap stock.
http://www.atricure.com/ Surgical devices the world wants.
http://stockcharts.com/charts/gallery.html?s=atrc
I am overweight this stock and I have no regrets.
I agree Roidy…Your better off throwing a dart at a football pick…
First wait for the attitude that earnings are meaningless to die.
Then wait for the attitude that forecast earnings are meaningless to take hold.
Earnings? Heck, I want dividends. As a very real level, looking at earnings is like adding in the previous owners remodeling expenses into what you’re willing to pay for a house. Looking at earnings has with it the implicit assumption that the company did something worthwhile with the money left over after paying dividends that adds to the ammount people will be willing to pay for the stock.
Not many companies even pay dividends anymore.
The stock market has become a way for business to get rich off the backs of stockholders.
They issue stock, pay the execs big checks and then go bankrupt.Then they emerge out of bankruptcy and issue more stock so the gravy train continues.
I actually think the retail investors are getting wise to the game.
I actually think the retail investors are getting wise to the game ??
Well sure they are….And without them there is no way that the market will throw off the needed rates of return (5%-8%) to fully fund all those pension and endowment funds…Also remember thats the number the actuaries used to stay above water…Since they are behind the curve by three years or more, they need to earn 12% going forward for some time just to get stability….The Illinois pension fund is the most recent example…
But, hey, it’s looking like a good day for Eddie, as Dow edges closer to 11K, for what reason I can’t exactly fathom. Drop in dollar vs. euro juicing things a bit?
Didn’t you hear, the recession is over?
“Look for P/Es to go below eight.”
Look for more FRAUD. P/E is meaningless when traditional accounting is replaced by mark-to-fantasy.
In other words, when the “Earnings” part of ” P/E” becomes just an unsustainable exercise in bogus accounting, it’s useless. There is no value to “earnings” fraudulently arrived at.
The true P/E of most bank stocks approaches infinity as they are technically bankrupt when non-performing assets are accounted for as in GAAP before 2008.
I guess that’s why lots of folks look at the ability of a company to generate cash. At least that’s what I care about.
“Look for P/Es to go below 8.”
I’ve been contemplating this. Should we pick stocks up as they hit 8? Many are already there, Ford, for instance. Or do we need to wait until the S&P average is 8? If we never have another big crash, but rather a slow grind or surprisingly fast rebound (least likely, but possible) the former strategy will probably work better. If we do have another big crash, then perhaps there will be more quality stocks at or below 8.
I think the standard ‘long wave’ theory is to wait until the average is 8, but maybe the manipulation and sheer amount of ‘wealth’ in the world will keep the market from hitting that magic point en masse, and we’ll need to ’snap ‘em up’ as they come. Or should we just be DCAing our way through the apocalypse?
“As Goldman is my witness, Wall Street will never go hungry again!” -Gone with the wind (TARP remake)
Investors are rushing into…..farms and farmland! Who’d a thunk it?
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/19/business/la-fi-farm-land-grab-20100919
Yeah Palmy…. Pimm Foxx and Tom Keane were discussing that on WBBR this morning. Lots of chuckles and ahem’s. This seems like a repeat of the ag land collapse of the late 1970’s.
I think the investor that the book “The Big Short” was written about has been buying farmland for sometime now…
I’ve long thought that I should buy some farmland around here. The only problem is whether I should get government support payments for not growing corn or for not growing wheat.
I thought you got subsides for corn. So you could buy on field and grow corn. Then you’ll get subsidized for growing corn and subsidized again for not growing wheat.
Just don’t let any Monsanto’s GMO corn seed get into your crop from wind, or you’ll be sued out of existence from them. “The Future Of Food” was quite a Documentary.
There is a family whining about how expensive it is to buy fruit and vegetables versus a McBurger. The whole time I’m thinking, “Money don’t grow on trees but fruit does!”
Interesting that they do this, considering most of our produce appears to come from Mexico and China these days. Why not buy farmland in China and Mexico?
Also interesting is the factoid that “Average U.S. farm real estate prices — including the value of land and buildings — have nearly doubled in the last decade to $2,140 an acre.” I wonder how much of that “farmland” was just leapfrog land earmarked for luxury attached product housing.
“The result has been a land rush, particularly in the wake of the food price crisis earlier this decade. The World Bank reported this month that the number of large-scale farmland deals in 2009 amounted to about 45 million hectares, compared with an average of less than 4 million hectares each year from 1998 through 2008.”
Nothing to see, no bubble here. Move along..
Hasn’t the housing bubble been a land bubble all along?
The Philly Manufacturing Numbers did not look very good today….
Some outfit said the recession is officially over.I wonder who paid them?
None of this makes any sense. The DOW was up today. By a not to shabby amount. Most of your Fortune 500s are doing just fine and the big banks are making fat bank.
So tell me again why Wall St. does well when the economy is struggling but not so well when it’s not?
That was all rhetorical, BTW and to point out that the article is either misleading or… misleading.
Sorry Wall St. Nobody is feeling sorry for you out here.
Damn straight!!
According to the US Census, the median income in 1965 was ~$47K and the current median income is ~$54K.
Tom’s Inflation Calculator (ask your doctor!) says that in order for the median income to have JUST kept up with inflation since 1965, it should be…
$332,000.
Game. Set. Match.
Dammit. This was not supposed to post here.
When you see numbers like that, they tend to be adjusted for inflation, so the 1965 number was in 2010 dollars. The actual median family income back in ‘65 was probably something like $10,000.
Eco - come on, you know better than that. The $47k was inflation adjusted, IIRC in 2009 dollars.
Take a look again at your data source.
Escrow for houseowner’s insurance?
It took two and a half months, but my girlfriend finally closed her refi last week. One of the terms added at the last minute required that she fund and pay her houseowner’s insurance out of escrow - in addition to the property taxes. Has anyone else run into this? This is the first I’ve heard of such a thing.
The specific reason the lender cited was the “rash of people not paying their mortgages and trashing the house”. The lender wants absolute assurance that the dwelling is fully insured. Still, I don’t know - would such policies even cover intentional damage?
In my area of NY the lenders automatically set an insurance escrow up unless you tell them not to. And if you don’t have enough of a down payment they’ll require it.
I found I had to repeatedly remind them that I was taking care of my own insurance arrangements. It was still wrong at the closing as was the rate that I had reminded them at least 5x before was not what I had locked in at. The error, of course, was in the bank’s favor.
Sounds about right. Today if you want to own a home and need the bank to help you buy it, expect to get milked daily like a dairy cow. Cash-buyers can expect sudden slaughter much like beef cattle. Welcome to the farm.
“Today if you want to own a home and need the bank to help you buy it, expect to get milked daily like a dairy cow.”
The housing parasites glom onto the host immediately. Fee based flunkies like realtards, “inspectors”, appraisers and mortgage creeps in shiny suits all lined up with their hand out expecting me to hand over $$$. I’m more inclined to $hit in it. Other than added cost, they bring nothing to the transaction.
Think about it…. Transactions are half the rate they were at the peak, $/transaction is down by 30% or more….. these lowlifes are starving.
The FIRE sector is what feeds on housing. They have contributed mightily to politicians. They helped the set up the system which fell apart recently.
These contributors expect payback. They expect politicians to funnel public wealth back to them, in return for what they gave the politicians.
Unless their politicians are turned out, they will be successful in extracting yet more wealth from the public treasury.
Another detail to her refi is that the new lender skwered her on the property tax escrow to the tune of an additional $5,000! That’s total B.S. because anyone can look up any property’s past year taxes and adjust by say 10%.
In hindsight I’m so glad to have stayed out of her business and kept my trap shut. It’s scary when people close to you make money decisions that would make you choke.
It was my experience in the 80s to have the excrow required. In the 90s I was allowed to manage my own taxes and insurance payments. Maybe it was higher downpayments, maybe it was looser standards.
same here, second time around. The CU just took the mortgage pmt with no escrow set up.
Oh, I’ve had lenders try to get me to go the escrow route on taxes, usually they set it up as the “default” - but was always able to get out of it. This absolute requirement to escrow insurance, however, is a first.
She did not get a RE lawyer, IMHO a bad move. No, I am not a fan of litigation, but for every transaction I ever conducted I had representation and consultation - and it paid off in spades. It’s befuddling why people choke on a few hundo to protect themselves when they’re making such large purchases/transactions.
How did it pay off for you, edge?
I have consulted when I had a need, and not when things were very “standard”. And the lawyer I had was useless the one time I really needed them: a buyer backed out after all of their contingencies had expired to buy the how a few doors down instead, and the useless lawyer said it wasn’t worth it to fight to keep the earnest money.
how == house.
Duh. More coffee…
Oh, I had two sellers who tried to get funny with some inspection items - big ones - like hidden plumbing issues and imminent special assessments. They also helped to get to the bottom of some property tax issues, our local codes are quite byzantine and one even caught a mistake with the property’s ID number that could have been messy if left uncorrected. Lastly, I really like having a second set of eyes review all the contracts and loan docs - although the value of that last bit is intangible and varies sharply from person to person.
For buyers with less than 20% down, the loan is PIMI. Assuming the property value increases, over time you can inform the finance company that you will be paying your own insurance and taxes. A lot of buyers don’t know that though.
I have that feature on my mortgage. I works fine. I bought in 1999 so it is nothing new.
Very common - I’ve never seen insurance and property taxes separated when required to be paid from escrow. I prefer to and do pay them myself, but most people I know pay them or are required to pay them from escrow.
“One of the terms added at the last minute required that she fund and pay her houseowner’s insurance out of escrow - in addition to the property taxes.”
Did she ask if the escrow fund pays interest and at what rate? I can understand why a lender wants to make sure those things get paid, but if they want to play with OPM in the meantime, they should pay them for the privilege.
Thank you for this insight! I keep forgetting how much of this is just delay games.
My nurse friend says health insurance companies do this all the time. They make it very easy to fill out a form incorrectly, and corrections all take “30 business days,” just so they can make 30 days more interest off the float.
I chose not to escrow. The mortgage company was more than fine with it based on my credit score and 25% downpayment.
Escrow required as part of the mortgage is standard in my area. I put 20% down on my first home in NY and did not have to escrow. However, when I put 20% down in Ohio, I was told I had to. I argued, and they said if I did not escrow with them they would need to raise my interest rate a quarter percent. My Ohio RE agent said that was standard around here, so I went ahead and escrowed.
Yes, they over-estimated the funds to withhold, but after 12 months I got a check and a statement indicating my projected reserves and why they were sending me money back and reducing my payment slightly for the upcoming year.
Someone is actually worried about national debt?
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/os-older-voters-against-democrats-20100919,0,6945753.story
Syracuse, NY — “Crouse Hospital is buying one of the Syracuse area’s biggest primary care doctors’ practices in a move that could foreshadow big changes in the way Central New Yorkers get their health care.”…..
“Its doctors will become employees of a new subsidiary created by Crouse, Crouse Medical Group PLLC, when the deal closes Sept. 30. Crouse officials declined to reveal the purchase price. The acquisition includes the practice and equipment, but not real estate. Crouse officials said the change will have no immediate effect on Internist Associates patients, but should eventually improve their care.
Experts say the deal may be just the first in a wave of medical practice acquisitions by hospitals in Central New York.
The goal is to get primary care doctors and the hospital working more closely together to care for patients, said Dr. Paul Kronenberg, Crouse’s CEO and a former partner in Internist Associates. A major focus of national health care reform is to integrate what is now a largely fragmented health care system where there’s often little or no communication among doctors, hospitals and other health providers caring for the same patients. To accomplish this, the government wants doctors, hospitals and other providers to share payments and financial incentives for improving care and cutting costs. “Getting a more integrated delivery system is going to be the way future care will be delivered and paid for,” Kronenberg said.
Internist Associates has close ties to Crouse. Before he became CEO at Crouse, Kronenberg was a partner and president of Internist Associates. He gave up his financial interest in the practice when he became the hospital’s CEO. His son, Dr. Seth Kronenberg, is a member of the practice. Dr. Louis M. Green, another Internist Associates doctor, serves on Crouse’s board of directors.”
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/09/crouse_hospital_buys_large_doc.html
A major focus of national health care reform is to integrate what is now a largely fragmented health care system where there’s often little or no communication among doctors, hospitals and other health providers caring for the same patients. To accomplish this, the government wants doctors, hospitals and other providers to share payments and financial incentives for improving care and cutting costs.
Here in Tucson, we used to have something like this. It was called the Thomas-Davis Clinic, and, from what I heard, it was marvelous. Every kind of doctor you could need under one roof. The doctors were well liked in the community and at the local hospitals.
Then along came a California-based HMO. The resulting takeover led to such things as the former Thomas-Davis doctors picketing outside the clinic. Not to mention quite an exodus of patients.
The building still houses some health care types, but Thomas-Davis is nothing but a memory.
The Angry Rich
Paul Krugman NYTimes
These days…. tax-cutters are hardly even trying to make the trickle-down case. Yes, Republicans are pushing the line that raising taxes at the top would hurt small businesses, but their hearts don’t really seem in it. Instead, it has become common to hear vehement denials that people making $400,000 or $500,000 a year are rich. I mean, look at the expenses of people in that income class — the property taxes they have to pay on their expensive houses, the cost of sending their kids to elite private schools, and so on. Why, they can barely make ends meet.
And among the undeniably rich, a belligerent sense of entitlement has taken hold: it’s their money, and they have the right to keep it. “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society,” said Oliver Wendell Holmes — but that was a long time ago.
The spectacle of high-income Americans, the world’s luckiest people, wallowing in self-pity and self-righteousness would be funny, except for one thing: they may well get their way. Never mind the $700 billion price tag for extending the high-end tax breaks: virtually all Republicans and some Democrats are rushing to the aid of the oppressed affluent.
You see, the rich are different from you and me: they have more influence. It’s partly a matter of campaign contributions, but it’s also a matter of social pressure, since politicians spend a lot of time hanging out with the wealthy. So when the rich face the prospect of paying an extra 3 or 4 percent of their income in taxes, politicians feel their pain — feel it much more acutely, it’s clear, than they feel the pain of families who are losing their jobs, their houses, and their hopes.
And when the tax fight is over, one way or another, you can be sure that the people currently defending the incomes of the elite will go back to demanding cuts in Social Security and aid to the unemployed. America must make hard choices, they’ll say; we all have to be willing to make sacrifices.
But when they say “we,” they mean “you.” Sacrifice is for the little people.
“Never mind the $700 billion price tag for extending the high end tax breaks…” mmm, why does that number sound so familiar? $700 billion - haven’t I heard that before, let me think - ah, now I remember, wasn’t that the number bandied about as the price tag of the government’s ‘heroic efforts’ to right this economic ship of fools aka the ‘bailout’? What a coincidence.
It is more to the point just to loot and burn out anyone with more stuff than yourself. It worked for the Cubans.
I’m virtually certain that Paul Krugman has a bigger dwelling, more cars, and makes and has more money than I do.
Where does Paul draw his line in the sand, the same place most elitists do - around everyone but themselves?
I would hope that the arrogant tone of his opinion, which so strongly implies that he himself feels he is not “rich”, offends the sensibilities of everyone who reads that trash.
On the contrary, if he himself is rich, then calling for more taxes on the rich is actually rather selfless and noble of him, no? But I think some people can’t fathom that someone might really do such a thing without some ulterior motive. Which is, in itself, rather revealing. (Plus your argument is a classic straw man.)
What’s so noble about wanting to pay more tax to a wasteful and corrupt government? Also aren’t these people de-facto encouraging more wars and more bank bailouts in the future?
I mean it’s pretty clear where government’s priorities lie, no?
Isn’t that circular logic, garnished with personal insult?
He is really stepping up his rhetoric and today it rubbed me the wrong way. When passions become inflamed it is rarely the likes of Krugman that get caught up in the conflagaration.
Oh, and speaking of strawmen:
“I mean, look at the expenses of people in that income class — the property taxes they have to pay on their expensive houses, the cost of sending their kids to elite private schools, and so on. Why, they can barely make ends meet.”
He doesn’t seem to flinch at making unilateral assumptions about the motives of others, now does he?
Sure, let’s play the class war game. Let’s see where it leads, but here’s a little prediction - it won’t help the economy and it damn sure won’t stimulate house sales/prices.
Sure, let’s play the class war game…. it damn sure won’t stimulate house sales/prices.
Sure it will. Just look at CRA.
(ducks)
“Sure, let’s play the class war game.”
Sure, let’s be good sheeple and let the super rich continue to loot and stripmine the wealth of this country until its all theirs.
Bailouts for the super rich
Reduced pay and benefits for the sheeple
Its all good
Isn’t that circular logic, garnished with personal insult?
If my logic is circular, please show why. (And it was garnished with sly innuendo.)
And my apologies, it wasn’t a classic straw man, it was a classic example of ‘ad hominem tu quoque’. From wikipedia:
“Ad hominem tu quoque (lit: “You too!”) refers to a claim that the source making the argument has spoken or acted in a way inconsistent with the argument. In particular, if Source A criticizes the actions of Source B, a tu quoque response is that Source A has acted in the same way. This argument is fallacious because it does not disprove the argument; if the premise is true then Source A may be a hypocrite, but this does not make the statement less credible from a logical perspective. Indeed, Source A may be in a position to provide personal testimony to support the argument.
For example, a father may tell his son not to start smoking as he will regret it when he is older, and the son may point out that his father is or was a smoker. This does not alter the fact that his son may regret smoking when he is older, and the fact his father was a smoker means he can talk from a position of experience.”
Paul Krugman is a self described liberal along the lines of the European “social democrat”.
America’s elite intellectual liberals “know” that after the socialist revolution, they will be among the state’s leadership.. the privileged class. Wealthy and powerful.
He’s really got nothing to lose by promoting the leftist agenda.
He is really stepping up his rhetoric and today it rubbed me the wrong way. …Sure, let’s play the class war game. Let’s see where it leads,
Yes, lets do. Let’s bring on some real intellectual class warfare now.
And let’s bring it on mean and hard and dirty. You know, just like the rich, powerful and influential have waged it against the middle-class and poor for 30 years.
What’s up with people cowering when the rich cry that’s “class warfare”? Who cares?
I think exeter is Paul Krugman. Or maybe Paul Krugman is exeter.
His defense of estate asset confiscation yesterday (”you’re dead so why should you care if the government takes it”) was breathtaking.
His defense of estate asset confiscation yesterday (”you’re dead so why should you care if the government takes it”) was breathtaking.
As well as the “it won’t affect you - why should you care?!” argument.
Apparently some can’t grasp that a behavior can be wrong/unjust whether or not it affects you or not, and some people try to prevent injustice regardless of who’s on the receiving end of it.
Then again, accepting that philosophy would take away ex’s opportunity to attack people personally rather than focus on the issue.
it won’t affect you…
Tax policy only affects those who either pay taxes or are on the receiving end.
And that adds up.. 100% of us?
The estate tax is very American. It helps deter children of parasites becoming lazy parasites themselves.
“His defense of estate asset confiscation yesterday (”you’re dead so why should you care if the government takes it”) was breathtaking.”
I didn’t comment on the estate tax. You really need to pay note to who is posting.
You can come up for air now…..
“Then again, accepting that philosophy would take away ex’s opportunity to attack people personally rather than focus on the issue.”
When one suscribes to an ideology, thought and rational discussion is a detraction from said ideology. When the ideologue realizes the ideology cannot be defended, he raises the victim flag.
Well done.
I didn’t comment on the estate tax. You really need to pay note to who is posting.
Really?
———
Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-09-19 07:46:36
What’s up with the death tax… err.. estate tax limits? Are those pretty much gone? Nobody cares?
Comment by exeter
2010-09-19 11:03:08
Why worry about policy that you know won’t ever, ever impact you?
————
..and all 4 comments between the two specifically refer to estate taxes.
Newp. I was discussing the expiring tax cuts.
wow.. clueless..
No RunJoeyRun……. fact.
“But when they say “we,” they mean “you.” Sacrifice is for the little people.”
And this is what the sheeple just don’t get. They are clamoring to get fleeced.
The sheep in line for their sheering, the pigs in line at the trough…..isn’t the last stop for all of them the slaughter house?
Before this is all over “rich” will mean anyone making say $25k/yr. or more.
We’ve seen this one before. It always starts out the same way, pointing to an elusive and tiny percentage of the population. Later when the rubber hits the road, however, that tiny portion of the population always seems to melt away into the shadows of the tax code.
Reality then sets in, and pols start speaking of noble traits like shared sacrifice. Next thing that happens is the thresholds start to sink to capture increased tax revenue from more and more workers.
The call to “tax the rich until they ain’t rich no more” is static, it provides useful cover for pols to raise revenue without first answering some really tough questions about spending.
Before this is all over “rich” will mean anyone making say $25k/yr. or more.
You’re a one-man demo of fallacious arguments today, edgie. This one is a classic straw man. From wikipedia:
“Straw man arguments often arise in public debates such as a (hypothetical) prohibition debate:
Person A: We should liberalize the laws on beer.
Person B: No, any society with unrestricted access to intoxicants loses its work ethic and goes only for immediate gratification.
The proposal was to relax laws on beer. Person B has exaggerated this to a position harder to defend, ie, “unrestricted access to intoxicants”"
Yeah, that was a little sloppy. I suppose what I’m trying to say today is that as a nation we’ve been at these crossroads before and each time the result is the same, the truly rich leave the party early and the working class is left paying the tab. The much promised follow through never seems to materialize.
Aside from making “fallacious arguments”, what I’m also guilty of is being too cynical for my own good. Oh well.
I’m coming to the conclusion that Brazil is socialist. I went to the supermarket today and they would not give me ANY meat or milk unless they confiscated my hard earned money.
So they confiscated MY money!
I told you they wuz commie…but you wouldn’t listen…
The basic point is that the recession of 2001 wasn’t a typical postwar slump, brought on when an inflation-fighting Fed raises interest rates and easily ended by a snapback in housing and consumer spending when the Fed brings rates back down again. This was a prewar-style recession, a morning after brought on by irrational exuberance.To fight this recession the Fed needs more than a snapback; it needs soaring household spending to offset moribund business investment. And to do that, as Paul McCulley of Pimco put it, Alan Greenspan needs to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble.
I think it is because ‘rich’ is such a nebulous term - it really means ‘more money than I have’ for all but a few people on the entire planet.
Instead of ‘rich’, simply speak in statistics. $400-$500 = top 1.5% in the US.
high-income Americans, the world’s luckiest people
That pretty much sums up where Krugman comes from, in everything he writes.
Statements like that pretty much cause Krugman to lose all credibility. He’s had quite a case of foot-in-mouth disease lately.
I’m not trying to propose that high-income folks aren’t sometimes lucky - often they are. But you just don’t say things like that and expect to be taken seriously. That Nobel has definitely gone to his head.
The spectacle of high-income Americans, the world’s luckiest people, wallowing in self-pity and self-righteousness would be funny, except for one thing: they may well get their way. Never mind the $700 billion price tag for extending the high-end tax breaks: virtually all Republicans and some Democrats are rushing to the aid of the oppressed affluent.
A now-deceased friend fit the above description to a tee. She lived with her family in Oro Valley, which is just north of Tucson. 3700-square-foot house with a mountain view and a swimming pool. I was in heaven whenever I went out there.
But she was one of the angriest and bitterest people I ever met. Whenever we got together, I’d try my hardest to cheer her up. I’d do whatever I could to get her to see all the blessings in her life, but I just couldn’t.
Alas, she died before her time. I grieve her death to this day.
Oh Martha…. the abused Wealthy/Corporate Elite!!!! We kick them around like dog we need them…… really…. we NEEEEED them. We need them so much that they shift their burden onto us wage slaves.(Yeah… you’re a wage slave too…. every single one of you). We get to pay their tax burden PLUS we pay the interest on the borrowed money they’ve robbed from the US Treasury.
See how we NEEEEED them?
You’re good at insults and mockery. A shame your talent for making a real point is either missing or under used.
And it’s a good thing you *don’t* see the value in publicly mocking a failed economic theory called supply side.
Keep waving the supply side flag.
Great editorial!
According to the US Census Bureau, the median income in 1965 was ~$47K and the current median income is ~$54K.
Tom’s Inflation Calculator (ask your doctor!) says that in order for the median income to have JUST kept up with inflation since 1965, it should be…
$332,000.
Game. Set. Match.
Looks like the thing to do is get a gubmint job…
“Federal pay and benefits per employee now average more than twice that of private workers: $123,049 compared to $61,051. Federal salaries outpaced inflation in the past decade by 33 percent.”
~Washington Times
State workers in ca seem to be doing ok during this recession.
They are now the upper middle class…Very difficult for the private sector employee to match the whole package of earnings and benefits…Particularly, Fire & Police…They are now upper class…
I hate when they say “…and benefits.” Benefits are nice, but have you ever tried to pay your grocer, electric bill, gas station in med credits?
Yeah, doesn’t work so good does it?
This doesn’t point out that fed workers are overpaid, but that the private sector is WAY underpaid.
The White House is alleged to be working on a national campaign against the Tea Party movement. Media commentators are competing with each other in a race to provide an explanation of why and how the movement gained such a strong voice in political campaigns. Many Republicans claim to be bewildered by the phenomenon, and Democrats are naturally highly ticked off and also mystified by this loosely-knit organization, according to Boston conservative radio talker Michael Graham. ~ Democrats and the Tea Party
The Tea Party is not as bewildering as claimed. You have, on the one hand, the big-government Democrat Party. On the same hand you have the big-government Republican Party. Although it doesn’t promote itself as a third party, the Tea Party movement is exactly that; It is the growing mass of voters who noticed that big government is not only unaffordable but destroys basic liberties with its encroaching micro-management of human affairs.
On the one hand…Democrat/Republican big government. On the other hand…Tea Party smaller government. What’s so complicated about that?
And of course the Tea Party is savaged by both the establishment left and right, and the media.
You know they’re doing something right if they’ve got Karl Rove braying like a donkey.
I wish we had a powerful group of left wing whackos chewing on the democrats too. They’re going to end up with way too much power when this all shakes out.
Not gonna happen. The Democrats are experts at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
The Tea Party is the Republican base finally waking up to the fact that they’ve been played for fools for the last 30 years.
“The Tea Party is the Republican base finally waking up to the fact that they’ve been played for fools for the last 30 years.”
The current Presidential polls are proof the Democrats are waking up to the fact they were played for fools in 2008.
Few of us act out of ideaology. Most are just heat seeking.
John Grisham said it well “voted rich, lived poor” (in terms of voting for the Corpratists/WS/Bankers who screwed the average guy with no remose).
He went on to say the Repukes had a brilliant plan for members. Nascar Fans, Religious Right, Soccer Moms, etc… all cheerleading for the WS crowd who could care less about them.
John Grisham is a good man. He pays for poor kids in the south to go to college out of his foundation. He walks his talk in Christianity. I am no fan of organized religion, but this guy has it together.
“The Tea Party is the Republican base finally waking up to the fact that they’ve been played for fools for the last 30 years.”
BINGO…. but much longer than 30 years. This same vapid, vocal but tiny crowd is the same hate group that pandering for Goldwater, Nixon, etc.
Estimated that 30% of the Tea Party is made up of
Democrats.
Here’s an excerpt from a recent article by Pat Buchanan. It’s a reality check for those enamored with the NeoCONS and the repub establishement.
“What is the Republican establishment going to do, what are the neoconservatives going to do, if returned to power?
Are not these the same people who assisted George W. Bush in stampeding the nation into an unnecessary war that got 4,400 Americans killed to strip Saddam Hussein of weapons he did not have?
Are these not the same people who misled or deceived us about Iraq’s role in 9/11?
Are these Republican scribes and senators not the same folks who went all-out for NAFTA and GATT and the WTO and MFN and PNTR for China, those brilliant trade deals that gave us $5 trillion in trade deficits, wiped out 6 million manufacturing jobs and 50,000 factories in one decade, and put us into permanent debt to China?
Are these not some of the same folks who backed the Bush-McCain amnesty and did nothing for 20 years, as millions of illegals invaded America? Now that all America is on fire, they too want to “build the dang fence.”
Are not the National Review and Weekly Standard scribblers and their neocon comrades of the mainstream media not now drumming up another war for Americans to fight, against Iran?
Are these not the same folks who went along with No Child Left Behind and the biggest run-up in social spending since Great Society days?”
You know it’s bad when Pat Buchanan starts looking good.
from cnn
To be sure, the number of Democrats in the Tea Party movement is small. A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll shows that while 96 percent of Tea Party activists identify themselves as either Republican or Independent, only 4 percent say they are Democrats.
Would it hurt your feelings if it is true?
Memory mistake..
Four in 10 Tea Party members are either Democrats or Independents, according to a new national survey.
The findings provide one of the most detailed portraits to date of the grassroots movement that started last year.
The national breakdown of the Tea Party composition is 57 percent Republican, 28 percent Independent and 13 percent Democratic, according to three national polls by the Winston Group, a Republican-leaning firm that conducted the surveys on behalf of an education advocacy group. Two-thirds of the group call themselves conservative, 26 are moderate and 8 percent say they are liberal.
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/polls/90541-survey-four-in-10-tea-party-members-dem-or-indie
Would it hurt your feelings if it is true?
No, I try to separate my feelings from my determination of factual validity. You should try it sometime, it’s eye-opening.
Alapha, thank you for taking time out of your time to think about me.
“No, I try to separate my feelings from my determination of factual validity. You should try it sometime, it’s eye-opening.”
Just because you try does not mean you succeed.
“Just because you try does not mean you succeed.”
True, but anyone who tries deserves more respect than those who don’t and who deserve no respect at all.
“Estimated that 30% of the Tea Party is made up of
Democrats”
Link please and note that a link from Freedom Works itself or any other GOP front group won’t have much weight in validity of those “Estimates”.
T/y
(And note that any link that backs up this point WILL be dismissed as a GOP front group.)
Estimated that 30% of the Tea Party is made up of
Democrats.
I don’t think it’s 30%
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20001743-503544.html
In a collection of three national surveys conducted by the Republican-leaning Winston Group, 57 percent of Tea Party members called themselves Republicans while 28 percent said they were Independents, and 13 percent said they were Democrats. Two-thirds of the group identified as conservative, but 26 percent said they are moderate and 8 percent called themselves liberal. cbsnews dot com
The Tea Party is the Republican base finally waking up to the fact that they’ve been played for fools for the last 30 years.
Here’s to hoping the Tea Party is the Republic base without the right-wing Christians.
An actual fiscally-conservative Republic party minus the rampant moral hypocrisy would be a welcome change.
lavi,
Just curious, what “rampant moral hypocracy” have you seen from the far right? Homophobic, rascist, ???
IMO that describes about 99.9% of all politicians, both sides, and to be sure I’ve seen instances of it, but rampant and limited to just the far right?
Lip
Jeez.. you can’t be serious!!!
Here’s a short list of moralizing hypocrites who were busted for engaging in the very same behavior they harp on others.
The GOP sex offender list (condensed)
David “I love hookers” Vitter
Larry “the gay sex in public senator” Craig
Vito “love child” Fosella
Mark “congressional pageboy molester” Foley
Newt “serial wife” Gingrich
Sarah “abstinence only except for my own retards” Palin
Strom “racist pedophile” Thurmond
Ken “I’m not gay” Mehlman
Gambling Bill”all you folks be virtuous” Bennett
Bath House Boy Sean “I hate gays” Hannity
Ex,
My point was that both sides have hypocrites because that is basically a common trait for all politicians.
I have no energy to talk about the Democratic examples because I have a job [and I'm not doing it right now] but the list would be at least as long. Just Google
democratic hypocrisy
Moral hypocrisy of and by the GOP is trademarked by the GOP. “Family Values” is the centerpiece of their platform. And it is precisely their failure to adhere to family values which makes them bonafide hypocrites.
exeter, I cannot imagine who gave you that set of blinders. It is not hypocrisy at all, merely hype. As old as society. The wolf in sheep’s clothing. Those who wish a seat of power merely pretend to expouse the values that I hold dear. If they truely believed as I do, they would not seek any power at all, except when extremely pissed off by really bad folk.
If you chose to disregard the fact that the GOP campaigns and wins elections based on “family values”, then choses to criticize those that don’t subscribe to those values, then violate those very values, then it is you with the blinders on.
Yah, sure, whatever.
Every member of every religion then who lies, cheats, steals fools around, etc is part of a Moral Hypocrisy?
Yeah, sure.
How about instead… people are fairly bad at keeping moral. If they are part of a group that at least espouses the attempt, then the inevitable human failing will make the whole thing seem hypocritical… at least to the monsters who don’t… even try… to do it right.
Which party again is the one not making the attempt at upholding moral values? Oh yeah… not the GOP.
When will democrats wake up and realize the same thing?
Interesting question. But has the Democratic base been fooled to the same degree that the Republican base has? The Democratic party is such a fractious conglomeration of different interest groups, it’s hard to identify a coherent base to fool.
“I don’t belong to an organized political party, I’m a Democrat”
-Will Rogers
But has the Democratic base been fooled to the same degree that the Republican base has?
Yes. Maybe even more. Don’t you think so? NAFTA, free-trade, regressive taxes. etc.
Good ole’ Will Rogers. Here’s another one of his….
“We have the best Congress money can buy.”
And then Oscar Levant said
“The only difference between the Republicans and the Democrats is, the Democrats let the poor be corrupt too.”
Yes. Maybe even more. Don’t you think so? NAFTA, free-trade, regressive taxes. etc.
The first two are union/blue collar issues. How many of them even vote Democratic any more? I know a decent bit (though no where near all) of union people do, but that’s not many people any more. Blue collar/non-union manufacturers- very few are Democratic voters. That’s who the Reagan Democrats were, and they are pretty much all now Republican.
Regressive taxes have indeed hurt the lower end of the Democratic base, but not to the extent that the Republican base has been economically wiped out by the loss not only of their home equity, but also of the construction, manufacturing, and housing related jobs and small businesses, which won’t return any time soon.
I’m not saying the last few decades haven’t been hard on almost everyone but the truly wealthy, but I don’t think the Democratic base (again, whatever that is) has been so almost perfectly wiped out as the Republican base has during this period, particularly in this grand finale housing/credit bubble and bust.
Their whole way of life lies in ashes, and they just watched their last Republican President push through a major bailout of the fat-cat financial industry. This did not sit well with joe6pack- hence the Tea Party.
They may be finally starting to figure out they’ve been had.
The Tea Party is not as bewildering as claimed. You have, on the one hand, the big-government Democrat Party. On the same hand you have the big-government Republican Party
The proper name of the party is “Democratic,” not “Democrat.”
Using “Democrat” as an adjective is a hallmark of Rush-luvvin’ conservatives. I like it because I can immediately identify the speaker as a synchophant of Talking Point Central. Even members of Congress have adapted the distinction in their speeches on the Floor.
Lots of people who are poorly schooled in grammar do not listen to Rah-Rah radio or subscribe to any particular soldier of the party mentality.
And you hear “the Democrats” referred to everywhere…it’s only natural to shorten that to “Democrat” when you want singular, even if it’s not technically correct.
but destroys basic liberties with its encroaching micro-management of human affairs ??
The tea party are just the neocon’s in new clothing…
“On the one hand…Democrat/Republican big government. On the other hand…Tea Party smaller government. What’s so complicated about that?”
It may have started out that way, but now they are nominating witches on crusades against master-bation, and people who think flouride in our water is a communist plot.
“I dabbled into witchcraft. I hung around people who were doing these things. I’m not making this stuff up. I know what they told me they do. One of my first dates with a witch was on a satanic altar and I didn’t know it. I mean, there was a little blood there and stuff like that. We went to a movie and then had a little picnic on a satanic altar.”
– GOP Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell
Sounds like quite a first date! Honestly, she’s so much fun, I almost want her to win. But then what would the other countries think?
Sounds like quite a first date! Honestly, she’s so much fun, I almost want her to win. But then what would the other countries think?
That we’re tolerant?
But tolerant of what?
And once you’ve had a picnic on a satanic altar, you’ve lost your soul to satan. There’s no give-backs.
You may be interested in reading a political blog on the NYT called FiveThirtyEight. Good analysis of the possible effects of the Tea Party.
Looks like the next generation in China wants to “deleverage” US Gov’t debt. The younger financial types want to develop China’s economy with their money. Go figure.
We don’t need to have the Chinese actually sell our debt. Dump the dollar holdings on the market? Sell the stuff over time? No. Just reduce the rate at which they are buying it, and we’ll be in real trouble.
Let their be a failed auction and The Fed will be forced to use WS to buy the US gov’t debt by more zero percent loans and 3% or more US treasuries. This little game will not end well. Like they say, that which is not sustainable will not be sustained.
The Banksters will get their bonuses paid in Chinese currency no doubt. Thank goodness. I’d hate the see GS suffer. Oh the humanity!
Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/091910dnbusdebt4china.27265cf.html?
Roidy
Quiet fact:
The UK has built up a holding of US treasuries equal to almost have of China now.
UK: $374B
China: $846B
(caveat - the UK data has some kind of underlying phenomenon - not sure what. They generally build up treasuries during the year, and then the balance shoots down in June; this often isn’t reflected until the following year, retroactively. However this year is way more than most for some reason.)
A little back-scratch-QE?
‘You buy my crap, I’ll buy yours’. Really not a bad little set-up.
America would gladly trade all that debt for China’s “most favored nation” status.
This is the thing that get’s me questioning deflation. Kruegman had a post about putting up trade barriers with China, which would force their hand at selling the dollar.
1-2 days later I read an artice about the administration taking China to court on some trade issues.
Pumping money into the banks won’t create inflation but this might have a chance.
The Illusion of Pension Savings~ NYT
Earlier this year, Illinois said it had found a way to save billions of dollars. It would slash the pensions of workers it had not yet hired. The real-world savings would not materialize for decades, of course, but thanks to an actuarial trick, the state could start counting the savings this year and use it to help balance its budget.
Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois approved a plan in April that seemed to help balance the budget, but it may imperil the pension fund.
Actuaries, including some who serve on the profession’s governing boards, got wind of what Illinois was doing and began to look more closely. Many thought Illinois was using an unorthodox maneuver to starve its pension fund of billions of dollars, while papering over a widening gap between what it owed and how much it had. Alarmed, they began looking for a way to discourage Illinois’s method before other states could adopt it.
They are too late. The maneuver, and techniques that have similar effects, are already in use in Rhode Island, Texas, Ohio, Arkansas and a number of other places, allowing those states to harvest savings today by imposing cuts on workers in the future.
Texas saved millions of dollars this year after raising its retirement age for future hires and barring them from counting unused sick leave in their pensions. More savings will appear in coming years. Rhode Island also raised its retirement age for future retirees last year, after being told it could save $90 million in the first year alone.
Actuaries have been using the method for years, it turns out, but nobody noticed, in part because official documents usually describe it in language few can understand.
I was thinking last week - what a vicious place to work state and local government will be when a guy hired two years ago gets everything, and a guy hired today gets nothing. Can you imagine the back-stabbing that will go on? A 24 year-old guy or gal hired two years ago will make (including those way-too-generous benefits) twice as much FOREVER as the same person doing the same job with the same skills as a 22 year-old hired today. A private sector company would implode under those circumstances.
Can you imagine the back-stabbing that will go on?
And this is a Bad thing????????
Think about it, it might be a backdoor way of getting rid of the high priced deadwood, instead of changing the union contract and making it easy to fire them. No more rubber rooms or being transferred to an empty office with little to do..
Think about it, it might be a backdoor way of getting rid of the high priced deadwood, instead of changing the union contract and making it easy to fire them.
In academia, at least during my experience, the high-priced deadwood was very hard to get rid of. Because, quite often, that deadwood was in administration.
Highly paid Administration.
Roidy
It’s incredible how creative we’ve gotten at kicking the cans down the road.
Eventually we’re going to get to that big mountain of cans, and our worn-out-foot will simply not be up to the task anymore.
Along those lines - 8 percent is still the most widely used figure for expected gains in pension funds; both public and private. There was an article the other day that laid out the details. It’s incredible that this is still happening, in an age of extended ZIRP.
I was thinking last week - what a vicious place to work state and local government will be when a guy hired two years ago gets everything, and a guy hired today gets nothing. Can you imagine the back-stabbing that will go on? A 24 year-old guy or gal hired two years ago will make (including those way too generous benefits) twice as much FOREVER as the same person doing the same job with the same skills as a 22 year-old hired today. A private sector company would implode under those circumstances.
Solution? Inflation.
Then the older folks are still luckier than the younger folks. But they’re only luckier for the period of their past - for the future old and young share the same burden. The old folks are still lucky, but only because they’ve had a longer “past” than the young folks.
In other words - the fairest solution is to just make everything suck for everybody going forward.
I was thinking last week - what a vicious place to work state and local government will be when a guy hired two years ago gets everything, and a guy hired today gets nothing. Can you imagine the back-stabbing that will go on?
I spent the bulk of my employee career in academia. The back-stabbing was motivated in part by what’s described above. And it motivated Slim to GTF out and become self-employed.
While self-employment hasn’t been easy (especially these days), when I see any my old university coworkers, they remark at how happy and healthy I look these days.
I can see the headline already
REPO MAN SHOT WHILE CHANGIG LOCKS
Lawsuits say banks changing locks of distressed homes before foreclosures are filed
By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 2:32 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 19, 2010
The home repo business is booming as lenders break records this year to take back properties from delinquent borrowers.
But some homeowners and attorneys complain the banks, and the property preservation companies hired to change door locks and clean homes, are overzealous in their work.
In a handful of recent lawsuits statewide, homeowners say their locks were changed before a foreclosure had even been filed, that personal property and financial papers were rifled through or taken, and that charges are being levied for lawn maintenance and trash removal when HOAs already take care of those services.
Often, homeowners say they can’t even figure out who has been in their home as banks contract with nationwide property preservation groups that subcontract to local companies, which are not state regulated or required to receive special licensing.
In one suit, a man with a criminal record of drug and burglary charges who is working for a property preservation company is alleged to have taken a laptop computer, several bottles of wine and a cordless drill from a Punta Gorda home while there to change the locks.
He also helped himself to a cold beer from the refrigerator, leaving it, along with his fingerprints, on a counter top, the suit says.
“They are emboldened because they are getting away with it,” said St. Petersburg attorney Matt Weidner, who is representing the Punta Gorda homeowner.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/real-estate/lawsuits-say-banks-changing-locks-of-distressed-homes-925273.html
Look out, Ben! Better invest in some body-armor.
scary stuff! Essentially breaking and entering.
Free homes for everyone!! From Bloomberg:
“Ally’s GMAC Mortgage Halts Home Foreclosures in 23 States
Ally Financial Inc.’s GMAC Mortgage unit told brokers and agents to halt foreclosures on homeowners in 23 states including Florida, Connecticut and New York.”
looks like they ran into some kind of legal problem and fear being sued or something..
..GMAC Mortgage may “need to take corrective action in connection with some foreclosures” in the affected states,…
Brokers were told to stop evictions, cash-for-key transactions and lockouts, regardless of occupant type, with immediate effect, according to the document, addressed to GMAC preferred agents…
…the company will extend the closing date on all sales by 30 days. Buyers will be able to cancel their agreement to purchase and get their deposit back, according to the letter…
Today at kunstler…
“What continues to amaze me is that there is no corresponding rise of an intelligent opposition. How did it come to be in our time that Harvard-Yale-Princeton-Stanford and all the other incubators of supposed statesmanship have produced no figures of conviction and good intentions to demonstrate what it means to be resolute amid this grand failure of will? How have we managed to turn out two generations of lackeys, toadies, stooges, and flunkies from these citadels of power?”
We have a tea party and some nutsoid right wing fundamantalists like Palin & Beck. If this is the best this society can produce as an response to Washington’s collective failure we’re done for. Game over.
By Dumbing down the hiring/admitting process to little airhead chicky-poos…seriously…
It has long been my contention that Adults who used to make these critical decisions have turned it over to their staff of 20 something clueless slugs.
So to weed out the critical thinkers, the ones that do not have the exact requirements someone wrote down on paper, even though it may not be needed for the job. This is where we need to start to fix our country…The first line people must be smart Adults and be accessible .
notice how most most companies cannot properly answer a phone or email today?
———————————–
How have we managed to turn out two generations of lackeys, toadies, stooges, and flunkies from these citadels of power?”
Notice how most most companies cannot properly answer a phone or email today?
I sure do! Drives me nuts too.
I’ve heard you say this a much of times, and I have no reason to dispute it. It just struck me that it’s probably a symptom of having more than enough acceptable applicants. Why put any effort/resources into using screeners who know what they’re doing if an idiot can do the screening job “good enough”?
“much” = “bunch”. I sound like I’m speaking a foreign language or something…sheesh.
Do you think the MSM have some hand in only showing us what we want to see. There are many who have ranted about our corporatist/Wall Street centric economy.
They certainly don’t report the U6 rate, do they?
I just heard a guy on CNBC saying that the health care bill was increasing costs for small business.
According to this NYT article, currently small businesses pay 18% more than large business for health insurance for their employees, because they don’t have large pools of insured. The legislation lets small businesses with less than 25 employees get good-sized tax credits to offset the high premium costs. It also prevents insurance companies from raising premiums as employees age or get sick.
84% of small business will be eligible for the tax credits (35% in 2010 for small business with 10 employees or less who on average earn $25,000 or less), which will expire in 2016 as states are required to form buyer exchanges.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/18/health/18patient.html
The trouble with tax credits is that they do nothing to make the health insurance affordable. And you still have to front out the money before you get the credit.
As near as I can tell, the Obamacare law does nothing to control or suppress the rise in actual health care costs. It seemed only to serve as partial implementation of the Democrat’s aim to eventually achieve a single payer system.
In my opinion, tort reform would accomplish more to decrease actual health care costs than any other single thing. Here in Florida, a partial tort reform was included in a 2003 legislative reform of skyrocketing Workers Compensation rates. Since then, the rates have fallen by 63%!
I’m familiar with the Florida law. Yes, if you make it impossible to sue for almost ANY REASON, rates will go down.
You must be an attorney.
I too think serious tort reform is needed in healthcare. I also wish the Republicans would have been active participants in the healthcare debate. If they really would have been (in good faith) I believe we could have gotten it.
Malpractice cost as a percentage of the typical health insurance premium? 10%….. That’s right. 10%.
GMAC halts foreclosure activity in 23 states:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-20/gmac-mortgage-halts-home-foreclosures-in-23-states-including-florida-n-y-.html
“Ally Financial Inc.’s GMAC Mortgage unit told brokers and agents to halt foreclosures on homeowners in 23 states including Florida, Connecticut and New York.”
“The company will also suspend sales of properties on which it has already foreclosed. The letter tells brokers to notify buyers that the company will extend the closing date on all sales by 30 days. Buyers will be able to cancel their agreement to purchase and get their deposit back, according to the letter. ”
uh huh…
I helped a friend going through foreclosure over Christmas. When I went over the documents with the friend, the current bank doing the foreclosure did not have title. There were some funny assignments of mortgage and when we checked on the people signing the papers, the internet showed that the same person was an officer of many banks.
All seems kinda fraudulent. The big mistake is that the bank filed foreclosure before the mortgage was assigned to them. Simply a process of checking the date would have caught that.
This could be a huge mess. It is pretty simple, before a bank starts a foreclosure, they have to be assigned the mortgage and that has to be done properly. Some folks were simply mass producing these assignments in order to get the fee - at least that is my guess. My friend was not involved with ALLY as it was another bank but the same problem.
IT’S OVER!!!!!
————-
Recession officially ended in June 2009
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The Great Recession ended in June 2009, according to the body charged with dating when recessions begin and end.
The National Bureau of Economic Research, an independent group of economists, released a statement Monday saying economic data now clearly points to the economy turning higher last summer.
That makes the 18-month recession that started in December 2007 the longest and deepest downturn for the U.S. economy since the Great Depression.
The NBER said that its committee that made the finding “did not conclude that economic conditions since that month have been favorable or that the economy has returned to operating at normal capacity.”
Rather, it decided that June was when the economy hit bottom, and that it has been slowly but steadily growing since then.
The Great Recessing ended in June 2009.
We are still in the Great Recession.
It all depends on how you define it - the NBER (and the Fed) define it as the act of recessing. However most of the public view it as the state of being recessed. According to the latter, we are very much still in it (as evidenced by pretty much every stat out there, none the least of which being unemployment).
Gotcha!
We are out of the Great Recession because unemployment didn’t go beyond 10% (mostly because of underemployed and people who gave up looking for a job)…
Great Recession, what a load of crap. It was a run of the mill recession. Less severe than 81-82. But the media had to make it seem like it was worse than it is in order to
a) elect Obama
b) show Obama’s greatness once recovery happened
Problem was Obama’s policies have been such a disaster than the recovery is almost non-existent. Had Obama done nothing we’d be at 4.5% GDP growth now and he could have taken all the credit. The MSM would have been gushing over his brilliance. Instead he governed like a typical tax/spend liberal and we’re in the Carter II era. At least thankfully this time without the ugly sweaters as word by Jimmuh Carter.
I was around during the 80-81 recession. This one feels a lot worse than that one ever did.
I lived in Pittsburgh during the early 1980s. Back then, the ‘Burgh’s unemployment rate was up around 20%.
However, our local crime rate wasn’t up through the roof. That’s because we Pittsburghers were like a city full of nosy neighbors. Which made it hard for criminals to get away with much of anything.
As for having a job? You were thankful to have any sort of job. And you also had compassion for those who were out of work — being the shoulder to cry on, keeping them in your prayers, and sending job leads their way. That’s the kind of place Pittsburgh was.
It probably depends where you live; I am in Silicon Valley and this recession is nothing compared to the dot com bust…
What? I thought you had been eaten. Am I gonna have to put another call in to Satan and tell him to stop letting his minions out?
That was to Eddie, BTW.
Get a room, you two.
Great Recession, what a load of crap. It was a run of the mill recession. Less severe than 81-82. But the media had to make it seem like it was worse than it is in order to
Right Eddie…
Eddie’s pretty much got a “self response” built in to most of his posts. You don’t even have to bother.
It also matters whether you focus on the GDP growth rate, the NBER’s preferred approach, rather than the labor market situation, a lagging indicator of recovery which is probably more important to most who live on Main Street.
Phew! That was painless, now we can get back to heavy consuming. We need more stuff!
Seems apropos again
“What do you think?”
“Man.. I dunno.”
“We’ll be here forever.”
“Nope. They want an answer now. Pass me that joint.”
“Screw it. I don’t care anymore.”
We conclude that the.. recession.. is.. over.
“Done. We’re outta here.”
LOL
“Rather, it decided that June was when the economy hit bottom, and that it has been slowly but steadily growing since then.”
Let’s run the numbers against when the powers that be decided to allow home loan buyers to stay in their homes free of mortgage payment. Those monies owed are being diverted into the economy to help form a TEMPORARY BASE before the next big leg down. All smoke and mirrors here but you just can’t keep the game going.
Recession had to end. You can’t have a double dip if the first one never ends. Since NBER has declared an end to the 2008 recession we can welcome in the next recession in 2011.
” it decided that June was when the economy hit bottom, and that it has been slowly but steadily growing since then.”
I missed the bottom… I should have a house a year ago… I’ll be priced out forever :-\
Wow, it sure is a relief to know that the recession is officially over, per the NBER!
I’m sure unemployed millions everywhere are rejoicing.
You have to admit that those trillions from our account did stop the downward progress of some key stats, at least as reported by the Ministry OT. Best to announce victory now before nature resumes its course. How abut that $860,000 per job saved stat, isn’t that a bargain?
Los Angeles seems to have done a bit worse. This is an article header from the Examiner from Los Angeles dated September 17th.
“City of LA stimulus funding of $111 million has created only 55 jobs”
I would have used a Fox News article but there seem to be many here who scoff at anything from Fox.
Yes, I readily admit that they were far more effective in their manipulation than I expected them to be.
Of course, I think they are merely delaying the inevitable, and that the long-term mutex pain they have chosen over the short-term more violent adjustment will end up being more harmful in the longer run. But reasonable minds may disagree on this point.
Blaming Poor Sales, Sea Ray Lays Off 170 From Palm Coast Plant; Future Uncertain. FlaglerLive
Sea Ray, the boat manufacturer and one of Flagler County’s largest and best-paying private employers, laid off 170 workers at its Palm Coast plant on Thursday. That’s at least a third of the plant’s workforce. The lay-offs will have considerable repercussions on a local economy already battered by high unemployment. After falling in summer, local joblessness was on the rise again even before the Sea Ray lay-offs. Figures released Friday put Flagler County’s unemployment rate for August at 16.4 percent, second-worst in the state.
Several local parts manufacturers and lumber yards depend on Sea Ray for big chunks of business. And while Sea Ray is not as large an employer as Palm Coast Data, which has about 1,000 employees, Sea Ray’s median salaries are more than double those at Palm Coast Data, which fall closer to the minimum wage.
One year ago, the Palm Coast plant employed 270. That number rose last spring, when the boat manufacturer geared up for the summer season and was expecting to sell six boats per week from the plant. The boats didn’t sell at that pace, however, and backed up the company’s inventory. At its height in the middle of the last decade, the plant was producing a dozen boats per week.
Several local parts manufacturers and lumber yards depend on Sea Ray for big chunks of business. And while Sea Ray is not as large an employer as Palm Coast Data, which has about 1,000 employees, Sea Ray’s median salaries are more than double those at Palm Coast Data, which fall closer to the minimum wage.
This will be the pattern of the ‘recovery’. Out with the higher paying construction/ manufacturing jobs, in with the minimum wage data entry/phone center jobs.
well even at min wage you can probably afford a trailer…..
Consider exactly what these people are building.. high priced, high maintenance, luxury items.
Their pay rate is immaterial.
Yes and we know only those evil rich folks can buy a Sea Ray anyway so closing this plant completely would be all good.
the parent company, Brunswick seems to be doing OK. And it looks like all they build is boats, engines and accessories these days. Bayliner, Sea Ray..
No billiards or bowling is listed in their profile.
This isn’t the first round of Sea Ray layoffs.. they’ve been letting people go since around 2007 from the various plants.
50 years and counting. I think they’ll make it.
The rich can still easily afford a Sea Ray, even if their marginal rate goes up a couple of points. The problem is Joe6pack can’t afford one without a heloc and constantly rising home equity. That puts a lot less demand out there. Especially with all the used boats being sold by the nouveau broke.
My dad bought an 18′ Sea Ray when I went off to college. I remember that next summer of bliss. We’d roll out of bed around 11, fill up the cooler, and head out onto the lake. Chill out in the sun, spark up a bowl, maybe do a little water skiing. Man, those were the days…
Well, I just got a phone call from my RE agent and it appears that I am now the proud owner of a gopher named Eddie, who will be my friend.
Oh, and by the way, I also guess that I just bought the short sale house that I have been watching for years as they chased the market down to my origional short sale price. Paperwork to follow and I have 5 days to get house inspection done from reciept of it.
From a 2006 FB FSBO DreamPrice of nearly 300k to my Aug 21st, 2010 short sale price of 195k and I’m sure that I ..offered to much.
Sheesh, it’s probably gonna be worth 184-188 or less before I close.
This sure looks like a Go! 31 days between offer and verbal acceptance.
Evil mikey the Renter is screwed…anyone know how to “Operate” a cottonpicking house besides keep feeding it …lots and lots of money ?
It would take 38 years for my current rent rate to add up to your purchase price. Oh and I will not be responsible for any maintenance incurred by the wooden state asset known as a house.
“It would take 38 years for my current rent rate to add up to your purchase price. Oh and I will not be responsible for any maintenance incurred by the wooden state asset known as a house.”
b..b..but lint, the house is mostly a whole lot of really weird 3 colored bricks with a little dash of decorative cedar siding…and I do get a cool FREE pet gopher named Eddie.
Sorry Mikey,
But I brought my cat by earlier today. He said he really liked Eddie.
-Bad V
Hi Big V
Congrats. Keep her dry and feed her money.
Well Mikey, congratulations on ending your hunger strike. It is very difficult to score a bullseye on a falling target.
Congrats, Mikey. I hope that you and your family will be very happy in your new home. May the joys of homeownership exceed the sorrows, and may you never be underwater unless you’re swimming in a lake.
Thanks all,
Ben and you guys really taught me a lot.
This is the 1st and ONLY offer I ever made on a house, it was a short sale and it sure looks like I got it on my terms.
I just made arrangements for the house inspection for this Friday at 1 pm.
If all goes well, mikey should be kicking back, burning oak and elm in the fireplace and sipping Jack Daniels BEFORE the 1st snowflake Wisconsin FALLS. My best friend (besides my Mom, brother, sister and my son) lives 25 down the road and supplies the Amish with wood from the farm so I won’t be hurting for good firewood.
I will have a light in the window for Ben my friends in a this small, quaint Wisconsin town in this Great Place called Flyover Country, if this thing flys like it looks like it’s gonna.
Hellllllo Wisconsin !!
and may you never be underwater unless you’re
swimmingdrowning in a lake.I don’t know about others here, but usually I swim to stay on top of the water, rather than under it
Once the gut-punch of buying it is over, it’s not so bad owning. The REIC leeches are more numerous and annoying than those asian beetles in august when you’re shopping/buying, but you can blissfully scrape them off and go your merry way now.
Get a few good books on ‘fix it yourself’ type things and start learning to shim doors.
If it first you don’t succeed, try and try again:
This house has been on the market twice before. It’s a few blocks away from the Arizona Slim Ranch, and ISTR that the owners first tried to sell back in ‘07.
I see the stucco / brick fence on 4th avenue side was extended up with wood. From the “bird’s eye” view it appears that everything across the street is commercial. Is that a busy street?
Fourth Avenue, north of Speedway, isn’t a super-busy street. But it’s busy enough that I chose to buy a house near Fourth Avenue, and not on it.
And the commercial, if you can call it that, is one block to the south, at Speedway and Fourth. There’s a Southern Baptist church on one side of the street and a home for abused babies and children on the other side.
ahh.. a church (looked like a big dumpster or something in that parking lot). I thought the other was a school of some kind.. playground out back.
That’s not bad.
That crowded furniture makes it look small. If it didn’t have a bunch of crap on the counters I’d guess it was all staged… even the hats on the hat rack.
Take that stuff out so I can see what’s what… but i suppose it’s currently occupied.
It is currently occupied. By wishing-price dreamers.
That’s actually a nice house and yard. What would you guess it’ll sell for? What’s the median income of Tucson? Right now, in Lexington Kentucky, I would guess that house would go for ~250,000 dollars, if it were in a neighborhood of comparable houses and a good school district. But it would get 350,000 in a few of our more swanky neighborhoods. (Our median income is ~50,000 dollars a year. Median house price is around 155,000 last time I checked.)
The median income here is between $35-$40k a year. Which means that this price is unaffordable for most Tucsonans.
As for school districts, it’s in TUSD, which is shorthand for “If you love your kids, send them to a private, parochial, or charter school.”
Swanky nabe? This house is in Feldman’s, which has some very nicely restored properties. And a lot of dumps. Our swanky addresses (within the Tucson city limits) are:
1. El Encanto
2. Colonia Solana
3. Blenman Elm
4. Sam Hughes
5. Tucson Country Club
6. Harold Bell Wright Estates
7. Richland Heights East — and West
8. Winterhaven
Wow, that’s a nice house for $350. In Montgomery County, Md, $350 wouldn’t even buy you a nice townhouse.
Its cute, but pricey for a 90-year-old 3/2. Around here you could maybe get a 40 or 50-year-old 3/2 for that.
Good point, Kim. And, from the promo copy on the real estate agent’s website, we have:
“This beautifully remodeled historic home is completely upgraded and move-in ready with tons of charm including the original hardwood floors, woodwork around all doors and windows, a restored claw foot tub and more!”
What gets Slim’s alarm bells ringing is the word “remodeled.” Why? Because, in Tucson, it’s often used as shorthand for “cosmetic upgrades that leave the original, elderly plumbing and electrical systems untouched.”
I don’t recall seeing a phalanx of electrical, HVAC, and plumbing contractor trucks outside of this place. Which tells me that there have been no significant upgrades to the “under the hood” parts of the house.
I often joke about unloading my 1959 house in San Jose on some sucker. But at least I had pulled all the original galvanized pipe and replaced it with soldered copper. Also the fresh water and sewer pipes out to the street were replaced. Boy did the water pressure increase when I replaced the fresh water pipe from the street!
With my own two hands I replaced the termite-wood around the garage door with new redwood and hung a new metal rollup door. I also tore off and replaced the roof with my own two hands. It’s not rocket surgery as they say….
That’s why I hate ‘updated’ houses. If it was by the owner 10 years ago, it was probably done right. If it was remodeled less than a year before the sale, you’re almost guaranteed to be buying a tarted up pig.
Slim,
Isn’t that a little high??? I mean its a nice enough house but - - - -
Man, you live a long way from the Guadelajara Grill. [we always have to relate good food accessibility in these choices]
Isn’t that a little high??? I mean its a nice enough house but - - - -
Man, you live a long way from the Guadelajara Grill. [we always have to relate good food accessibility in these choices]
In my not-so-humble opinion, this house should be selling for around $200-$250k. But I’m not Marsee the high-powered real estate agent, so whaddo I know?
As for our favorite eatery, the Guadalajara Grill, here’s some good news: It maxed out the space it used to be in. So, it moved a half mile west on Prince Road, and guess what? In its new, larger space, business is booming.
To the point that overflow parking goes into the lots of businesses next door. But I think they worked out some sort of deal with those businesses, which are only open during the day. As in, please let us use your parking lot for our dinner crowd, and we’ll pay you x-amount in rent each month.
Nevada unemployment rises to all-time high 14.4 percent
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Thanks to seasonal hiring among resorts and other employers, joblessness in Clark County edged down to 14.7 percent, from a record 14.8 percent in August. Unemployment in Las Vegas came in at 13 percent in the same month a year ago.
Nevada has claimed the highest jobless rate in the nation since it bumped Michigan out of the top spot in May. Nationally, unemployment was 9.6 percent in August.
The boost in joblessness across the Silver State came as more than 10,000 workers left the workforce, either because they’ve given up on finding jobs or because they think they’ll have better luck finding work in other states. Nearly 200,000 Nevadans, including 142,000 Las Vegans, lacked work and were looking in August. Factor in discouraged workers who’ve quit looking and underemployed part-timers who’d rather work full time, and the state’s jobless rate surges past 20 percent, economists say.
Whatever happened to those statistics that said that thousands of people were moving to Las Vegas every month?
I’m sure we have plenty of kooks on our side of the pond that would love to see this happen here. I have no doubt it could be proposed.
UK Proposes All Paychecks Go to the State First
Monday, 20 Sep 2010 CNBC
The UK’s tax collection agency is putting forth a proposal that all employers send employee paychecks to the government, after which the government would deduct what it deems as the appropriate tax and pay the employees by bank transfer.
The proposal by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) stresses the need for employers to provide real-time information to the government so that it can monitor all payments and make a better assessment of whether the correct tax is being paid.
Currently employers withhold tax and pay the government, providing information at the end of the year, a system know as Pay as You Earn (PAYE). There is no option for those employees to refuse withholding and individually file a tax return at the end of the year.
If the real-time information plan works, it further proposes that employers hand over employee salaries to the government first.
“The next step could be to use (real-time) information as the basis for centralizing the calculation and deduction of tax,” HMRC said in a July discussion paper.
HMRC described the plan as “radical” as it would be a huge change from the current system that has been largely unchanged for 66 years.
Yeah, well all they have to do is eliminate the W-4 form and take whatever they want. What percentage of the population would even know?
20% ???
Instead we should make everyone write the IRS a check every month [including SS taxes, Fed Income Taxes and Medicare taxes]. That would get the Tea Party movement going.
Personal Income Taxes tend to be much simpler in other countries. There often no deductions, except perhaps for dependents. So the amount withheld is the tax paid. In many countries there is no equivalent of April 15 or Filing, as the paycheck deduction pretty much covers it.
I suppose that it’s more complicated in the UK than that however, but probably still simpler than here in the US.
Budget-balancing axes being sharpened
9,800 people could be laid off as agencies seek ways to trim billions
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN
PROPOSED CUTS
• Department of Criminal Justice: 7,353
• Youth Commission: 460
• Comptroller of Public Accounts: 315
• Department of Insurance: 186
• Department of Public Safety: 120
Note: Includes both layoffs and the elimination of vacant positions.
Source: 2012-13 Legislative Appropriations Requests submitted to the Legislative Budget Board
To the children at the Texas School for the Deaf, Mary Monckton is a sunny and engaging speech pathologist determined to help them learn to communicate.
But to legislators, Monckton is an expense that Texas might not be able to afford.
Hers is one of 9,800 jobs that state agencies have offered up for elimination as legislators prepare to trim billions of dollars from the 2012-13 state budget, according to an American-Statesman analysis of agency budget requests.
$21 billion in red ink
While some positions might be preserved or are already vacant, thousands of workers could likely be laid off as the state grapples with a projected two-year budget shortfall approaching $21 billion.
Mike Gross, vice president of the Texas State Employees Union, said he expects there will be much more pressure to lay off employees next year than in 2003, the last time Texas faced a similar budget crunch. State leaders have again vowed to close the gap without raising taxes, but the magnitude of the budget problem is greater this time, in part because of the ongoing recession.
“Texas is not a poor state,” Gross said. “We can afford to do better by our people.”
Interesting link on income distribution in differenct countries. I’d like to see the #’s for the top 1% and top 5%.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality
Does wiki have a page on intelligence or creativity distribution?
Does wiki have a page on intelligence or creativity distribution?
And let’s throw some measure of individual freedoms/respect of private property rights, as well…
The housing recession isn’t over
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The worst is over for the housing market — at least according to Wall Street.
Shares of home builder Lennar were up more than 6% Monday after the company reported a stronger-than-expected profit for the third quarter (it reported a loss a year ago) as well as a 14% increase in sales. Other builder stocks moved higher as well.
The S&P Homebuilders ETF, which includes shares of several housing-related stocks, has been rising on hopes that the real estate market has hit bottom.
The news that the recession that began in 2007 officially ended a year ago helped boost stocks too.
But while traders are popping champagne corks, it’s better to take a closer look at the Lennar (LEN) report. The past three months may have been decent, but the future looks less promising.
For the housing market, at least, it doesn’t look like the recession is over just yet.
Lennar admitted as much, saying that new home orders during the quarter were down 15% from the same period last year.
In a statement, Lennar CEO Stuart Miller conceded that while his firm was holding up better than some rivals, “high unemployment and foreclosures have continued to present challenges for the national housing market.”
In a statement, Lennar CEO Stuart Miller conceded that while his firm was holding up better than some rivals, “high unemployment and foreclosures have continued to present challenges for the national housing market.”
And what about all of that excess inventory, as in, new and used houses? I’d say that the housing glut poses a bit of a challenge for the national housing market.
The U.S. should follow their lead…
Russia to cut 100,000 bureaucrat jobs by 2013: minister
Russia plans to slash 100,000 bureaucrat jobs by 2013, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Monday, in a drive to reduce costs and modernize the country’s bloated bureaucracy.
“We expect that in the three years more than 100,000 federal civil servant jobs will be cut,” Kudrin was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying.
“The overall savings from this by the third year will amount to 43 billion rubles (1.4 billion dollars),” he added.
Russians pay their civil servants alot less too, 1.4 billion for 100,000 jobs is $14k per job.
They may get some sort of pension or retirement benefits and, if so, there is no way to deduce their salaries from the amount saved by laying them off.
Time for a new migratory pattern?
Freedom loving Americans move to Russia and statist Russians move to USA.
Lovin’ it…..
Global warming may make siberia a new fertile crescent…..
hmm.. A warm Siberia. Flat tax is already adopted. Might be nice and cozy.
I took a semester of Russian way back when, but all I recall is being hot for teacher.
Plus they have those neat fur hats.
Plus they have those neat fur hats.
Remember how much President Ford enjoyed his? ISTR that it was one of his favorite hats.
“` you can leave your hat on.. “
joe cocker?
Randy Newman.
All I’ve heard is the Joe Cocker version, which was the one used in 9 1/2 weeks.
Recession Pain Still Real, Despite End: Obama- AP
President Barack Obama said Monday he doesn’t care that the Great Recession has been declared over by a group of economists. For the millions of people who are out of work or otherwise struggling, he said.
So… I guess he ‘feels our pain’? There he goes, channeling Lil’ Willy Clinton.
heh… this is rich. Selected excerpts from that town hall meeting:
..Focusing on the poor economic conditions that existed when he took office, Obama said, “The hole was so deep that a lot of people out there are still hurting.”
..and some time later..
“The first thing you do in a hole is not dig it deeper.”
http://www.seattlepi.com/business/1310ap_us_obama.html
Struggling small ship line Cruise West shuts down
USA TODAY
One of the most storied names in Alaska cruising, Cruise West, shut down over the weekend, ending months of financial struggle.
The small ship line founded by the late Chuck West — a pioneer of tourism in the state known as “Mr. Alaska” — has canceled all future sailings, with the exception of a Danube river voyage scheduled to begin on Wednesday.
“For the last year, Cruise West has aggressively pursued a number of options with interested parties to maintain operations, including investment, selling assets, and selling the company,” the line said in a final statement. “In part because of the most recent dip in the markets and the continued lack of economic confidence, these options have not come to fruition.”
Cruise West chairman and managing director Dick West, the son of founder Chuck West, says in the statement that he is “heartbroken” by the end of his family’s legacy.
“We have done absolutely everything to maintain operations, but with limited resources and the current tight financial market, we simply cannot continue,” West says.
In July, West secured a personal bridge loan of $1.5 million to keep the company running while he tried to find new investors, and in recent days the company sold off its largest ship, the Spirit of Oceanus. But the efforts weren’t enough.
Clipped from the 5Min. Forecast…
We begin a new week with this cheerful thought: Americans are only $6.6 trillion shy of the savings they need for retirement. That’s the optimistic figure arrived at by Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research, published this morning.
To get there, the researchers made an interesting set of assumptions: All retirees will take out a reverse mortgage… And put all their retirement savings into an inflation-protected annuity. They also assumed none of them would need health care or nursing homes.
Hmmn…
The shortfall still amounts to $90,000 per households for all Americans aged 32-64. Give or take a few hundred billion dollars.
The report helps put this disturbing fact in context: Unemployment among people 55 and older is the highest on record — and double what it was at the start of the recession.
We’re going to need a whole new economy to help keep those unprepared for retirement gainfully employed! And yet during the current environment, organic job growth cannot keep pace with population growth in the labor force.
“We’re going to need a whole new economy to help keep those unprepared for retirement gainfully employed! And yet during the current environment, organic job growth cannot keep pace with population growth in the labor force.”
Sounds like a need to start a war and take new territory by force, doesn’t it? There seems to be very few options left: War or Dictatorship for the USA.
Maybe Canada could become the 51st state.
Wally-World coming to the big apple amongst other places…
Wal-Mart to aggressively roll out smaller stores in urban areas to revive US growth.
NEW YORK (AP) — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is planning an aggressive push into urban markets with a new small format that’s a fraction of the size of its supercenters.
The expansion, expected to be spelled out next month at the retailer’s meeting with analysts at its headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., is aimed to pump up sluggish U.S. sales.
Real estate executives said that over this past summer, the world’s largest retailer has been scouring for small locations, around 20,000 square feet, in urban areas including New York City, San Francisco and other cities. That size is larger than a typical drugstore but smaller than a supermarket.
“I see this as a smart move, instead of coming into a market as a 900-pound gorilla,” said Faith Consolo, chairman of real estate firm Prudential Douglas Elliman’s retail leasing division. She noted that Wal-Mart has been talking to landlords and brokers.
“They’re on an aggressive roll,” she added. “This is a creative time. Everyone is thinking out of the box.”
She noted that in New York City, Wal-Mart has been looking in Queens and the lower part of Manhattan.
By~ Gordon T.Long
The United States is facing both a structural and demand problem - it is not the cyclical recessionary business cycle or the fallout of a credit supply crisis which the Washington spin would have you believe.
It is my opinion that the Washington political machine is being forced to take this position, because it simply does not know what to do about the real dilemma associated with the implications of the massive structural debt and deficits facing the US. This is a politically dangerous predicament because the reality is we are on the cusp of an imminent and significant collapse in the standard of living for most Americans.
The politicos’ proven tool of stimulus spending, which has been the silver bullet solution for decades to everything that has even hinted of being a problem, is clearly no longer working. Monetary and Fiscal policy are presently no match for the collapse of the Shadow Banking System. A $2.1 Trillion YTD drop in Shadow Banking Liabilities has become an insurmountable problem for the Federal Reserve without a further and dramatic increase in Quantitative Easing. The fallout from this action will be an intractable problem which we will face for the next five to eight years, resulting in the ‘Jaws of Death’ for the American public.
The ‘Jaws of Death’ is the crushing squeeze of a shrinking gap between incomes and a rising burden of the real cost of debt burdens. Many may say there is nothing new in this, but I would respectfully disagree. There is a widespread misperception of what is actually evolving that stops voters from forcing politicians to address America’s substantial underlying dilemma. It also stops investors from positioning themselves correctly.
Any solutions of real substance are presently considered political suicide. It is wiser to wait for a crisis event to unfold. As White House Chief of Staff and a primary Obama political strategist, Rahm Emanuel has said on numerous occasions: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste”. It doesn’t take much intelligence to understand this also implies looking for a crisis as a political shield, for example from an almost insurmountable political problem such as a generational reduction in the US standard of living.
Before I delve into misperceptions of the ‘Jaws of Death’ and a reduced US standard of living, we need to briefly consider for a moment whether this is a planned outcome or just happenstance? President Franklin Roosevelt said:
“Nothing in politics happens by chance”.
Being in business I have always been very watchful of a slightly different variation of the same theme:
“Strategy is something that happens to you while you are looking the other way”.
Maybe Mark Twain said it better than both of us:
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure and just ain’t so!”
Homebuilders’ confidence stuck at 18-month low
Homebuilders’ confidence unchanged from September, traffic of potential buyers drops.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Homebuilders’ confidence in the housing market stayed this month at the lowest level in 18 months, and more worry that the traffic of potential buyers is falling.
The National Association of Home Builders said Monday that its monthly index of builders’ sentiment was unchanged in September at 13. The index has now been at the lowest level since March 2009 for two straight months.
Readings below 50 indicate negative sentiment about the market. The last time the index was above 50 was in April 2006.
The index is broken into three separate readings. Foot traffic from prospective buyers, an indication of future sales, fell slightly. The index measuring expectations for the next six months was unchanged. Current sales conditions were also unchanged.
“Americans by and large just aren’t that excited about the prospect of buying a house,” wrote Mike Larson, real estate and interest rate analyst with Weiss Research.
Since dipping below 20 in late 2007 (September?), the only time the HMI climbed above 20 was this past spring, when Cash for Shacks stimulus fueled a wave of misplaced optimism that the market had bottomed out.
It hadn’t.
China Province Punishes 300 Employees Caught Gambling, Singing Karaoke
BEIJING — A northern Chinese province has punished more than 300 employees caught gambling, singing karaoke or otherwise neglecting official duties during work hours.
The vast majority were given warnings or demerits, although six officials whose cases were considered the most egregious were fired, a notice from the Shanxi provincial office of discipline and inspection stated Monday.
Another 14 contract employees were let go, it said.
Despite China’s abandonment of orthodox Marxism, tens of millions of Chinese still work for the government, including in state-run industries. Many also hold leading positions in the 78-million-member Communist Party, which maintains branches in a state businesses and government offices.
Over the decades of communist rule, Chinese officials have developed a reputation for sloth, highhandedness and corruption. Many local government bureaucracies also suffer from bloat, with positions offered to the highest bidder and entire families placed on the payroll. Jobs are often guaranteed virtually for life, with only the most serious infractions leading to firing.
However, recent years have seen calls for tighter discipline and better efficiency as the country’s leaders seek to change the bureaucracy’s image — and that of themselves.
Assistant Secretary of Energy Cathy Zoi said that the Department of Energy has a “mandate” to issue regulations that will determine what household appliances are available to Americans in the future.
.. Zoi is the founding chief executive officer of the Alliance for Climate Protection, which was established and chaired by former Vice President Al Gore…
Hang onto your hats.. and the sink garbage disposal.
If they try to ban BBQs, expect a new revolution.
People of age 35 or under have been thoroughly indoctrinated and are far more likely to report your cookout to the authorities than to revolt.
Not as represented by my offspring. Bring the BBQ on!
Rep. Alan Grayson, one of a tiny handful of Congressmen who isn’t a bought-and-paid-for stooge of the banksters, has just sent a letter to Justice Canady of the Florida Supreme Court demanding a halt to all “illegal” foreclosure activity. This comes on the heels of GMAC declaring some sort of moritorium on foreclosures in 23 states, then apparently backtracking. The stink Grayson is about to dig up may end up killing a massive, and illegal, funding loophole for the entire banking industry.
September 20, 2010
Chief Justice Charles T. Canady
Florida Supreme Court
500 South Duval Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1900
Dear Chief Justice Canady,
I am disturbed by the increasing reports of predatory ‘foreclosure mills’ in Florida. The New York Times and Mother Jones have both recently reported on the rampant and widespread practices of document fraud and forgery involved in mortgage assignments. My staff has spoken with multiple foreclosure specialists and attorneys in Florida who confirm these reports.
Three foreclosure mills - the Law Offices of Marshall C. Watson, Shapiro & Fishman, and the Law Offices of David J. Stern - constitute roughly 80% of all foreclosure proceedings in the state of Florida. All are under investigation by Attorney General Bill McCollum. If the reports I am hearing are true, the illegal foreclosures taking place represent the largest seizure of private property ever attempted by banks and government entities. This is lawlessness.
I respectfully request that you abate all foreclosures involving these firms until the Attorney General of the state of Florida has finished his investigations of those firms for document fraud.
I have included a court order, in which Chase, WAMU, and Shapiro and Fishman are excoriated by a judge for document fraud on the court. In this case, Chase attempted to foreclose on a home, when the mortgage note was actually owned by Fannie Mae.
Taking someone’s home should not be done lightly. And it should certainly be done in accordance with the law.
Thank you for your consideration of this request.
Sincerely,
Alan Grayson
Member of Congress
Ultimate Escapes, `Vacation of a Lifetime’ Club, Nears Collapse
Tousignant says he started the club after surviving the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center while working at Morgan Stanley. Photographer: Andrew Serban. Bloomberg
Ultimate Escapes Inc., whose 1,200 members paid at least $70,000 apiece for pampered holidays in villas and yachts from Tuscany to Costa Rica, may be headed for a getaway of its own.
“Let me start off with the bad news,” Chief Executive Officer Jim Tousignant, 49, began a Sept. 9 letter to members. The six-year-old club, he continued, was in default on a $90 million loan and “increasingly likely” to file for bankruptcy protection as soon as this month.
Tousignant says he started the club after surviving the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center while working at Morgan Stanley. He previously founded and sold Multex Inc., an investment research firm. Ultimate Escapes, which went public in 2009, traded at $7.85 last October and now fetches 15 cents.
In an interview last week, Tousignant blamed the 2008 financial crisis for the fiscal woes. Ultimate Escapes raised $15 million from members in January 2009, then fell about $20 million short of its next fundraising attempt, in October, collecting just $10 million from investors. In February, it scrapped another public offering.
“When your cash stops flowing, your expenses don’t stop,” Tousignant said in the interview. “You’ve got staff, you’ve got properties, you’ve got fees, property taxes, mortgages that have got to be paid.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-20/ultimate-escapes-vacation-of-a-lifetime-club-says-it-s-near-collapse.html
Fear not. Sammy is stepping in with his “Ultimately The Universe Sets Itself Right” vacations, wherein these formerly pampered hedonists get to roam our parks and byways, sleeping in cardboard boxes and living off whatever scrap metal they can collect.
Awww, come on, can’t we bail them out?
Let we forget, these, too, are victims. (Sniffle)
A story on a topic that we recently discussed:
Harley-Davidson’s aging biker problem
My brother bought his first HD - a 2007 Fatboy - when he turned 62. I guess he’s up for a Buick next…..
How often did you read that Harley was the only consumer brand whose customers were so loyal they wore the company’s logo tattooed on their chest?
I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple Mac guys got an Apple logo tattoo too.
From the Harley article: A lesson on how to revive US manufacturing by enforcing “fair trade”.
Fighting back at what it perceived as unfair competition, the company won an anti-dumping ruling from the International Trade Commission in 1982, and President Reagan imposed a 45% additional tariff on super heavyweight Japanese bikes.
Given an opening, Harley used the opportunity provided by the tariffs to regroup. It paid more attention to the appearance of its bikes, started to focus on quality, and beefed up its marketing. From 1988 to 1995, annual shipments doubled.
Harley-Davidson’s aging biker problem?
The title is inappropriate. The article is more about them expanding, producing too many bikes and destroying their mystique..
As recently as 2008, Harley built 303,000 motorcycles, nearly double the 159,000 it assembled in 2000.
Live by the bubble, die by the bubble.
In the 1970’s I owned a sportster that was a mess. It was a “Bowling Ball” i.e. AMF Harley. I bought a Honda 750-4 Supersport. I wrecked it, but it never gave me the problems that the Harley did. I’ve never owned a Harley since, but to H-D’s credit they have repented of their sins. Their MCs became reliable and well built in the 80s and beyond.
I’ve owned a lot of motorcycles - mostly Honda. Lately, I’ve been riding really old BMW airhead boxers. I have a R75/6 that belonged to my Dad, a R60/5 w/ sidecar, and a very ugly R100 RS. They do turn heads even if it is to barf in the case of the R100.
Harley is, for the moment, dead. The younger bikers refuse to have anything to do with a classic-styled Harley of any year. The Harleys of the 80s and later were much more reliable, but they still are mired in the custom bike genre of the 1970s and 60s. MC riders in the 1980s and onward ride the rocket bikes, custom cruisers, and touring bikes. Retro may make a comeback, but it will never revive Harley completely because of the fierce price competition. Harley just doesn’t mean what it used to. I had a good friend in Tampa who bought a Yamaha cruiser. He didn’t even consider HD. Paid half of what an Electraglide would cost.
HD recently came out with a $8000 base price bike. I don’t know much about it.
In the end, motorcycles are a toy like a boat, a hunting lease, or season tickets to the proteam of your choice. If your job is in danger or you are working for half of what you used to, then a toy is that last thing on your mind.
Roidy
I always liked the appeal of the classic Brit bikes, especially Nortons, but never really put the cash down to get involved in one. Too dangerous to drive bikes in Silicon Valley IMHO due to the “multi-cultural driving ethic” there.
I do own a real Royal Enfield. It’s chambered in .308 British. Much safer (for ME) than a bike.
Roidy: my brother sold his classic BMW bike to buy the Fatboy.
“my brother sold his classic BMW bike to buy the Fatboy.”
Roidy
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100007647/qe2-in-round-trillions/
More trillions of Fed “stimulus” green confetti set to rain down? No wonder gold is hitting record highs.
Far out man….
Jerry Garcia’s old place in Marin county is up for sale. Any Dead Heads have $4 million spare change lying around?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ontheblock/detail?entry_id=72695
A shame. When Garcia was my age, he’d already been dead for 3 years.
A true story. I first met Jerry around 1962 when he was a guitar teacher at Dana Morgan Music in Palo Alto. My older brother (the Harley guy) took lessons from him. My brother showed talent and Garcia invited him to join some rock band he was starting. But my father put his foot down and forbad it: he said there was “no future in being a rock and roll musician”.
Jerry proved there’s no future in using smack, that’s for sure.
zillow
55 El Mirador Drive, Nicasio, CA 94946
Zestimate: $2,804,500
30 day change: -$92,500 .. (Delay your purchase and save $3,000 per day.)
It’s got a very odd price movement chart. It was zestimated at just $1.5 million around six months ago. Someone’s been fudging the number of bedrooms or something similar in an effort to keep the zestimate high.
band was.. The Warlocks?
Dow at 10,750.
12K on schedule by EOY.
Whose schedule? Don’t trust extrapolation :-).
Ben’s just about to come on the radio show.
sounds like he’s phoning in from a helicopter
are you the sound man, dj?
“Politicians should represent the people. Not the highest bidder.”
This is the basic problem with politics today. The MSM and the government is going full tilt against the non-incumbents. And some of the non-incumbents aren’t very ready for prime time candidates.
But the most important thing is - they are less beholden to the power structure which has caused the mess that exists today. They are less bought and paid for. And that is what I think people are looking for.
You can have a blow-dried, Mitt-Romney-type character with a fantastic pedigree, who is bought and paid-for by Wall Street. Or you can have a disheveled Joe 6 Pack who is nothing special. But I suspect people will be going for the disheveled candidate because they are trying to get people who will represent the people, and not the highest bidder.
I was thinking about political corruption today. There was some case recently of a politician who got caught asking a lobbyist for money.
The problem wasn’t the fact that the lobbyist was giving the politician money for the tacit assurance that the politician would vote the lobbyist’s way. But rather the form that the bribery took.
Certain bribery is okay - when it is not spoken of directly. Other bribery is not okay - when it is explicitly stated.
The result is absolutely the same: politicians receive money to vote certain ways that benefit the payers.
This concept is dangerous and corrosive. We should expect our representatives - politicians - to do what is best for the people, not what is best for his highest bidders, or what is best for his career.
Bill mandates fresh water for Calif. students
Coke & Pepsi own a lot of bottled water companies. Their lobbyist might have hit the lottery. The Govenator is arrogant enough to sign this.No wonder people call us the land of fruits and nuts.
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/state&id=7678059
Yep, Godforbid the kids have to walk outside and use the water fountain. OMG, the humanity. Bottled water is not regulated, and it has been tested to be worse then most tap water, which is regulated.
“We want to get away from those small bottles. They’re expensive and they’re damaging the world,” said Kenneth Hecht.
Since Hecht (California Food Policy Advocates director) dreamed up this bill, I suspect Arnold is throwing the Dems this relatively small bone in exchange for something he wants.
This stuff makes for heavy bedtime reading, even for those of us who saw it coming. The most amazing aspect of the situation to me is that, despite all the gloom-and-doom, homes are not affordably priced relative to incomes in many parts of San Diego. I suppose that is a key point of the article.
* OPINION
* SEPTEMBER 21, 2010
The Recession and the Housing Drag
The more the government tries to prevent prices from finding an equilibrium, the longer it will take for the economy to begin growing again.
By MORTIMER ZUCKERMAN
A decent house has long been a symbol of middle-class American family life. Practically, it has been a secure shelter for the children and provided access to a good public education. And financially, it has been regarded as a safe store of value, a shield against the vagaries of the economy and a long-term retirement asset.
All that seems a distant memory for the millions of American families who must confront the decline in the value of their homes. The pressure to meet mortgage payments on properties that have lost value has been especially shocking for those who have lost their jobs in the Great Recession. Their houses have become a ball and chain, restricting their ability to seek employment elsewhere. They cannot afford to abandon the remaining equity they have in their houses—and they can’t sell in this miserable market.
New home sales, pending home sales, and mortgage applications are down to a 13-year low, despite long-term mortgage rates that plummeted recently to an average 4.3% before rising slightly. New home prices have fallen by an average of 30%. According to David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff, this has reduced home occupancy cost to 15% of family incomes, down from the conventional 25%.
The fall in house prices has eaten away at the equity Americans have in their homes. About 11 million residential properties have mortgage balances that exceed the home’s value, notes Mr. Rosenberg. And given the total inventory of homes and the shadow inventory of 3.7 million empty (foreclosed) homes, he notes that prices might fall another 5% to 10%. That would leave an estimated 40% of American homeowners with mortgages in excess of the value of their homes.
Disappearing equity invites strategic defaults. Homeowners with negative equity are tempted simply to mail in their keys to their friendly lender even if they can afford the mortgage payment. Yet banks don’t want to take the deflated properties onto their books because they will then have to declare a financial loss and still have to worry about maintaining the properties. Little wonder, according to Mr. Rosenberg, that foreclosure has not been enforced on a quarter of the people who haven’t made a single mortgage payment in the last two years.
A staggering eight million home loans are in some state of delinquency, default or foreclosure, Alan Abelson reported in Barron’s in July. He noted that another eight million homeowners are estimated to have mortgages representing 95% or more of the value of their homes, leaving them with 5% or less equity in their homes and thus vulnerable to further price declines.
…
“…Bottled water is not regulated, and it has been tested to be worse then most tap water, which is regulated.”
I doubt that.
Leaving aside the risks many say comes from fluoride, there’s this from the article:
“Not to mention, LAUSD also has to deal with unsafe lead levels in many of its drinking fountains.”
So much for regulation of the water supply.