Bits Bucket For September 26, 2010
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Wait a minute, many folks like to crow about how thrifty and safe credit unions are…
Credit Unions Bailed Out ~WSJ
U.S. Backs $30 Billion in Bonds to Stabilize Key Institutions; Subprime Legacy
Two years after the peak of the financial crisis, the federal government swooped in to stabilize a crucial part of the credit-union sector battered by losses on subprime mortgages.
Regulators announced Friday a rescue and revamping of the nation’s wholesale credit union system, underpinned by a federal guarantee valued at $30 billion or more. Wholesale credit unions don’t deal with the general public but provide essential back-office services to thousands of other credit unions across the U.S. The majority of retail credit unions are sound, but they will have to shoulder the losses through special assessments over the next decade.
Note that these were not the small credit unions that service retail customers; these were the _wholesale_ credit unions that service the retail customers.
In other words, they’re big banks.
Furthermore, it’s interesting that these entities were required by law to hold only extremely-safe investments. And yet they were gorging at the MBS trough.
……….it’s interesting that these entities were required by law to hold only extremely-safe investments. And yet they were gorging at the MBS trough.
Well, excuse me, sir. What do you mean by “extremely safe investments”. By definition, we were told that Moody’s, S&P and Fitch were the RATINGS Agencies, approved by the Government to assess the quality of investment securities. They got the seal of approval from the SEC. They rated MBS trash as AAA super-good investments.
All kinds of businesses bought this stuff because the rules said they could only invest in AAA rated securities. They did.
We need to lay blame where it is due, on the SEC, the FED, the Office of Thrift Supervision, the “Agencies” and Wallstreet Banksters that ran a scam on the world, selling worthless paper to unsuspecting marks.
The purveyors of these “certificates” should be in PRISON because they knew the bills would not be paid from the day the papers were issued. That is why the “securitized” them and SOLD them.
To us…………..and everyone else, including thrifts.
As I mentioned yesterday, the real defrauded parties in the MERS scam may be those who bought MBS thinking they were super-safe investments.
Interesting angle, Dennis. But I doubt that it will stick in court.
In securities filings, the underwriter has to disclose all the _known_ risks.
But the way that the paperwork for MERS assignments would end up performed so sloppily that foreclosure could not be completed in a timely fashion to reclaim the collateral was likely not a known risk.
Thus, no fraud occurred; caveat emptor.
‘That’s OK, we’ve got AIG,or MGIC insurance and John Paulsen said they were solid’.
Note that these were not the small credit unions that service retail customers; these were the _wholesale_ credit unions that service the retail customers.
In other words, they’re big banks.
And your local CU is still safer and offers better service than the brand banks.
We need to lay blame where it is due, on the SEC, the FED, the Office of Thrift Supervision, the “Agencies” and Wallstreet Banksters that ran a scam on the world, selling worthless paper to unsuspecting marks.
…and the administration that deliberately gutted and hobbled them as well as consumer protection agencies. Hint: it wasn’t the current one.
Oddly enough, Friday on WBBR some pandering was made to allow CU’s to engage in more risk. Currently they’re allowed to lend 12.5% of reserves. There is legislation in congress to boost that to 27.5%.
Note that I heard this before the friday afternoon report of CU implosions.
Which still make them far safer than banks.
Respose to Joey’s post the other day:
Comment by joeyinCAlif
2010-09-23 08:45:04
here’s a stupid idea to boost the economy…
The bank sells me an REO at today’s negotiated price with the qualification that, should it’s market value fall within some time period, that amount is refunded or credited to the buyer, or deducted from the loan.
(Any rise in value belongs to the buyer as usual.)
—————–
Joey,
This “call option” (buyers get the upside, and lenders get the downside) is exactly what got us into this mess in the first place. The buyers in this scenario will have absolutely no incentive to pay a reasonable price for the home if the govt is taking the risk on the downside. Prices will be bid up well beyond fundamentals, and the stage will be set for a new “financial crisis” within a few years.
BTW, they are already doing this with the FHA loans. The FHA (that’s us, the taxpayers) are on the hook if prices drop and the “owners” decide to walk — and they have every reason to walk, because many of the buyers over the past year+ have used the tax credit as their 3.5% downpayment. Again, we have very weak buyers with **no skin in the game.**
You cannot have rational pricing if buyers don’t bear the losses that are a consequence of their irrational buying decisions.
Well stated, but needless to say, it is pointless to reason with Joey when he goes into bankster propaganda mode.
Extremely well put, CA renter.
PB, please stop with the attacks. Thanks.
What attacks?
You’re always going after Eddie and joey. You and exeter and a handful of others. It gets old.
“You’re always going after Eddie and joey.”
As a matter of principle, I only ‘go after’ posts which I find to be misleading. If certain posters often make posts that I find misleading, then that is their problem if I point it out and they don’t like it.
You and handful of others using alternate usernames gets old.
I don’t find their posts misleading. Sometimes I find I agree with them; other times, I don’t. Par for the course.
I think most of us could accuse others here of being misleading on occasion. That’s the nature and limits of cyberspace. On blogs, we can only rely upon what we read and “read into” the motivations and proclivities of others.
The attitude of “it’s their problem, not mine” is troubling. Have you considered that others here might appreciate reading “trollish” ideas if only to support what they already believe to be true?
Don’t get me wrong, PB. I often appreciate your posts and take the time to read the non-San Diego articles you supply. But, I appreciate joey’s and Eddie’s posts as well, whether I agree with them or not.
You’re always going after Eddie and joey. You and exeter and a handful of others. It gets old.
Whatever CoSpgs4, you don’t add much, last time someone really got “old” with you you implied that someone would bury them in a 6 foot grave. LOL, and wow, impressive in your circle maybe.
If you can’t bring it, don’t be mad when others do.
What are you talking about?
Correct PB. Nobody can understand why a wage slave would make excuses for his master.
well, aren’t we the elitist, demeaning people who earn wages. What are you.. someone’s boss? The slave master?
Why would a wage slave make excuses for his master Joey? You’ve run from that question for weeks now.
RunJoeyRun.
wage slave.. wage slave.. What sort of elitist malcontent would insist on using such a derogatory term for honest, hard working Americans.
..Opponents of capitalism compare wage labour to slavery (see wage slavery).
For example, Karl Marx said “The slave, together with his labour-power, was sold to his owner once for all… The [wage] labourer, on the other hand, sells his very self, and that by fractions… He [belongs] to the capitalist class; and it is for him… to find a buyer in this capitalist class.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_labour
Like him or not, Karl Marx was a brilliant man. He understood economics far better than most of our present-day “experts” do.
I’m a wage slave RunJoeyRun. And you are too but for some reason you’re too embarrassed to admit it.
Now….. why would a wage slave make excuses for his master RunJoeyRun????
Lots of people fell for the $8K tax credit, right? They bought a home just because of that. Then prices fell and that $8K in “savings” evaporated.
I’m just suggesting another sales technique. This one doesn’t involve the government or the Fed or FHA or anyone except the property owner (the banks) and the buyers.
Buy an REO, and if the market value falls by the end of next month, you get a refund or principle reduction. But after that, you are stuck with the mortgage.
People aren’t buying because prices continue to fall. This refund provides a cushion, and is an incentive to buy a house now.
If they’re gullible enough to go for the $8K tax credit, they’ll be all over this, imo.
Understand that it’s not meant to solve any macroeconomic problems. Like I said in the first sentence, it’s only meant to boost the economy.
And these banks are supposed to get this “cushion” money from where?
What money? The home is owned by the bank.
The bank writes a loan, gives that “money” to you, and you give the money to the seller (you give it back to the bank) in exchange for the house.
——–
If the home’s value falls, the bank doesn’t lose anything by giving you a refund. If you had NOT bought it, the value of their REO fell and the bank would still “lose” that amount.
Why reward fools who choose to overpay?
If the bank sells the house for the fool’s price **without** the price guarantee, they make more money.
If they can sell today for X, why would they need to guarantee the price?
They don’t need to sell the house later as an REO. They are selling it *today* at today’s price X. Why should they take X-Y (amount of the price drop) when they can get X?
Can they get X today? Sales are slowing.. X is shrinking fast.
Anyway, what is X?
X is whatever they get, with or without an incentive, be it a tax cut, or a rebate, or a set of dinnerware.
—-
Here’s my thinking.
Sales of any kind drain resources from the overall effort to support the RE market. “They” won’t let prices crumble until all means of support, public and private, have been exhausted, imo.
One of the things that supports this current situation is large numbers of people who are on the fence, but will buy a home if given the slightest encouragement.
I say encourage them. Get those people into homes and out of the market… the sooner the better.
If it’s good enough for Wall St., it’s good enough for Main St.
It was they who invented OPM, wasn’t it? Guess they forgot about “goes around, comes around.”
Don’t get me wrong, I agree that skin in the game and real consequences are the only real motivators to responsible investing.
One more:
Comment by joeyinCAlif
2010-09-23 08:22:02
TARP money is secured loans, with interest and even prepayment penalties.. so please explain what you meant by “at taxpayer’s expense”.
——————–
TARP is just the icing on the cake. The biggest bailouts came in the form of asset purchases and debt guarantees. Then there are the GSE mortgages and the FHA guarantees (we have still to see what the losses on these will be, we won’t know for many years). This runs into the **trillions** of dollars.
This is from November 2009, when it was up to three TRILLION dollars:
http://money.cnn.com/news/storysupplement/economy/bailouttracker/
What about a massive inflation attempt and losses from reduced fixed-income instruments as net losses of $trillions that will never be “paid back”. Unless you own a bank, the Fed is killin’ ya’.
Is it legal for the Fed to make (essentially) zero interest loans to select corporate entities, which don’t happen to include Main Street households?
If so, and anyone knows where it says they are allowed to do what they have been doing, please share. I thought there were laws against discriminatory lending, but I try to keep an open mind.
Yes, we should absolutely add those to, pressboard. Good thinking.
I wish some articulate posters here would edit the Wiki article on TARP. It’s written in very technical language that I can still understand is B.S.
To add to Ca renters post . I know a friend who just bought a auction
property . Bank of America was the Lender but they transfered the
loan to F&F and sold it at Auction with the loss going on F&F books .
In other words ,there was no F&F buyer that had taken out a loan and purchased the property from the time that Bank Of America was
carrying the defaulting paper ,so F&F took that defaulting loan off the hands of BOA .The only question is what did F&F buy the defaulting
paper at ,total loan value or a reduced sum from BOA . My guess is BOA got the boom price loan value . These are the hidden bail-outs that exceed the 700 billion TARP and are into the trillions . They are using F&F as a dumping ground with taxpayers backing the loss.
Could you imagine Hank Paulson going in front of the public saying we need 10 trillion to start cause I need a big gun .These are the hidden
bail outs.
Absolutely, Wiz.
This is what I was referring to WRT the GSEs and FHA loans.
Essentially, all these govt “programs” were designed to shift future losses from the private sector to the public sector. When a loan is refinanced from say a Wells Fargo (portfolio) loan into a GSE loan, it’s like having the GSE buy the loan from WF.
For as long as housing prices were kept artificially inflated, these transfers could occur under the guise of “helping homeowners” by lowering their interest rate/payment. IMHO, prices have been propped up these past few years so this transfer could take place. It would have been politically unpalatable to transfer the loans if they were already severely underwater. They will let housing (and loan) prices drop **after** the GSEs and FHA have taken most of the risk off of the private lenders’ balance sheets.
CA Renter..
why did you do that? You repost my nick with another “stupid” question I asked, and then go off on some tangent that has nothing to do with my question.
TARP money is secured loans, with interest and even prepayment penalties.. so please explain what you meant by “at taxpayer’s expense”.
I asked about TARP.. get it? T-A-R-P.
Taxpayer Asset Reallocation Program?
I’d have to try to find the post, but I believe you were debating with another poster about taxpayer money going to the financial industry (you were opposing taxpayer money going to GM while favoring “saving the banks,” IIRC) and claimed that the money was being paid back by the financial industry.
I was trying to point out that the TARP funds, which policymakers are pointing to as “the bailout,” are just the icing on the cake. The REAL bailouts, which are far greater than TARP, will likely never be paid back.
Not trying to pick on you, joey. I just don’t get a chance to read here during the day, and wanted to respond to these posts.
Financial oligarchy, manipulated markets and deliberate attacks to gut financial legislation
http://pubrecord.org/special-to-the-public-record/7637/financial-oligarchy-reigns/
I had no idea about the correlation between the dramatic market drops and the legislation that was before Congress at the time. Fat finger, yeah, right.
Palmetto,
That’s a rather lengthy article and does a great job lambasting the “Central Bank” and the Oligarchy it creates. I had to stop reading about 2/3 down, but I came to simple conclusion:
If everyone knew how the FED operated and how money is created, they would be appalled. That is why I have been a RON PAUL supporter and supporting ENDING the FED.
However, because our school boards, media, and universities are controlled by the people and funding engendered by the FED ’system’, they can keep the people ignorant.
Look at the treatment of the “tea parties” by the media. Just as with Ron Paul, they try to paint them all up as Kooks. It usually works.
Most of them are just angry at the tax and redistribution policies that are bankrupting (have bankrupted) our Nation. But as you can see, the “Financial Reform” Bill passed by the Congress and Obummer only gave the FED more power and made the Big Banks more powerful.
I am hopeful a strong movement of the Tea Parties will sweep the Country, but the MEDIA is very dominant in painting images of reality that works in the interest of the Oligarchs. Propaganda is an artform when you don’t know that what is being presented as “information” is a distorted version of the world, disguised as fact, and presented to give you a feeling that you are well-informed on the subject. CBS, NBC, CNBC, Newsweek, Businessweek, Time, ABC, NYT, WaPo, and all the rest….”informed sources said”. AP, REUTERS, storytelling and diversionary tactics rule the day.
Why is the same story on every page of every paper and the same rhetoric on every broadcast station??? One big happy family.
We must end the FED and break up the Big Banks. Prosecute Goldman Suchs, Citi, AIG, Countrywide, etc, etc. for FRAUD and possibly Treason. That should include Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and the host of parasites supporting the system. Not likely, but it would be a good start.
Most of them are just angry at the tax and redistribution policies that are bankrupting (have bankrupted) our Nation.
You are ignorant of American history. We need progressive taxes to “redistribute” wealth back to the averages that is used to be.
Your lack of knowledge of historical wealth distribution in the modern age is breathtaking and a testament to the powers of big money propaganda to affect average, (uneducated in the facts) Americans.
We need progressive taxes to “redistribute” wealth back to the averages that is used to be.
Bingo!
The Tea Party has been co-opted by the Republican Party in order to divert the Tea Partiers’ anger away from big banks.
People need to stop buying into the propaganda that taxes are bad. They are necessary to keep money (with no debt offset) circulating through the economy.
After reading profile after profile of these “angry” teabaggers, it astonishes me that they even get airtime when they’re more discredited than the Laffer Curve. Not one of this nitwits is off the government teat, how lovely to bash the government while sucking on it.
I had no idea about the correlation between the dramatic market drops and the legislation that was before Congress at the time.
It’s it most commonly known as “extortion” and is supposedly illegal. But I guess if you have a few billion dollars to throw around, it’s not.
Sounds much like today’s practice of trading on free (zero interest) loans from the Fed.
Coffee’s on, smells great, two cups and a shower and gone for the day. Enjoy everyone.
Rainy day here today. We’re back in a drought so the rain is welcome. Got some indoor things to do until the NFL games come on. May even brew another pot of coffee.
Can wade phillips save his job today?The texans are actually improving this year.
One tidbit before I’m gone..
Beginning January 1, 2013, ObamaCare imposes a 3.8% Medicare tax on unearned income, including the sale of single family homes, townhouses, co-ops, condominiums, and even rental income.
= 1.6 real estate agents. Nice.
Will the 3.8% cover the entire cap gains on the sale of a house, or will there be a $500K/$250K exemption?
DennisN…Exclusion is deducted first…
Goggle this;
http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/realestate.asp
So you still get the exemption on the sale of your primary residence, and the tax is then only on net income from the sale, and is only for people with adjusted gross incomes over $200,000/individual or 250,000/filing jointly.
The net profit these wealthy people make on a RE transaction will be taxed to support Medicare- in other words, to pay for a program most Americans (and most Teapartiers) support. This will reduce deficit spending, which many (including Rancher) at other times claim is very important.
Thanks for the misleading information, Rancher. (Don’t worry, we know you were just regurgitating a talking point you’d been fed somewhere.)
Naaaa, he probably got the same E-mail that I got the other day from one of my ditto-head friends.
Another pathetic lie by a wingnut apologist gets demolished.
I saw a blurb about that the other day. Of course the (ahem) party that pushed in the health care bill did not advertise that tidbit of the 3.8% sales tax.
The $600 deal and 1099s is not even as hot as that issue. People will wake up about that. When they do, I’m afraid they will vote in the religious Taliban party as a vote against the party of taxes.
An alternative view of tax cuts for the wealthy (I include myself)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/business/26view.html
Republicans who think abortion is wrong = Taliban who stone women (and gays) to death and cut off heads of infidels…
Got it
Extrapolated 2banana
Republicans who think abortion is wrong won’t stop until they enslave every woman from conception to birth, to be sure she won’t get an abortion. Brave new world.
that was good satire. thanks for sharing the funny
That was a perfect Sunday morning post. It just gave me a warm fuzzy reading it first thing.
Thanks Rancher
Warm and sunny here in Boise, was in the high 80’s yesterday which probably helped BSU beat the Beavers from cloudville. I even got the Boise Project staff to tell me that irrigation season is targetted for a shut-off on 12 October.
Coffee is in the mug and Condoleezza is attempting to help me cook breakfast. Dukie on the other hand is still sound asleep.
Rancher…I am heading your way in the morning…Will stop in Dunsmuir to fly fish for 1/2 day…Then, on our way to Seven Feathers…After that, on our way over to the coast in Brookings…I will give you a honk on the horn as I go by…
I’ll be the tall guy on the side of the road wearing
a raincoat. It’s my time to be the “Greeter”.
Yeah I read you Rancher! I’m back into the coffee habit again after laying off. It’s a couple of cups of that and then a 3 or 4 mile run an hour later. This morning in L.A. it was another good run and the weather is gorgeous, although I wish it was five degrees cooler!
Hey Ex, you can add Carl Paladino to your list of hypocrites.LOL. Unbelievable!
Great stuff!
Google-up “accidental candidate paladino” for an article.
Is it too early to point out that Raygun’s last blast of Cold War aggression turned into an irrationally exuberant arms race between the Soviets and the U.S.A. which mutually assured the destruction of one another’s sovereign financial viability?
Shia LaBeouf gets down to business for ‘Wall Street’ sequel
By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY
The research he did for his role in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps transformed Shia LaBeouf into a convincing proprietary trader. But having his eyes opened to economic realities has left the actor with a grim sense of the future.
“We’re living through the twilight of American economic dominance,” says LaBeouf, 24. “We’re at 10% unemployment, things are not looking good. If there was an optimist in me walking in, he is dead.”
That’s some serious doom and gloom for someone whose career is clearly on the rise and who’s dating his Wall Street leading lady —Carey Mulligan.
But LaBeouf has his focused gaze trained on the bigger, darker picture.
“We’ll be the first generation that has less to look forward to than the generation that preceded us,” he says. “Game over. Our biggest export is consumption, and now we no longer have money to consume. Contagion is coming. People think we can’t have soup kitchens here again? It’s going to get rough.”
…
“Our biggest export is consumption, and now we no longer have money to consume. Contagion is coming. People think we can’t have soup kitchens here again? It’s going to get rough.”
Yep. The Fourth Turning is at hand.
We - the collective “we” - are entering this Fourth Turn with one set of values and will emerge with quite another set of values.
Rhyming history, Interesting Times,… and all that.
Cash, baby.
The beauty of the The Fourth Turning is that at the end of the crisis, there is reason to hope again. Maybe not for us Boomer/Gen X straddlers….but hey we had some good years earlier, didn’t we? Our childhood may not have included overwhelming material things but we believed we could do anything we set our mind to. And many of us got to experience a loosely cohesive social environment.
Many of us studied hard but had the opportunities to play just as hard. Our pay went up (even if our buying power didn’t) and we patted ourselves on the back. There was always a new job to jump to and we told ourselves it would never end. Now its time to be adults. Someone has to explain it to the Heroes generation we’re raising.
I hope I live long enough (always have to consider that cancer may come back) to see the inflection point when America has turned itself around and there is hope for the future again. Even if I don’t see the evidence myself, I know it will happen.
Sometimes I think the Boomers just have to give up their stranglehold on our culture and mindsets could start turning toward problem solving right there. Right now Boomers are still trying to save the old system. I wonder what black swan will lead to crying uncle.
Speak for yourself. I didn’t. I’m part of that group that always came AFTER the plaque of locusts and found everything stripped and broken.
Also, stop blaming the boomers! The “Greatest Generation” those who lived and fought in WWII, controlled this country until the turn of the century. It was their mindset and policies that controlled the boomers.
And one last thing: did anyone here vote for anybody on Wall St.? Of course you didn’t, yet it is they who have been running this country since the 1980s.
And one last thing: did anyone here vote for anybody on Wall St.? Of course you didn’t, yet it is they who have been running this country since the 1980s.
Hear, hear!
Maybe that 10 percent that is left will enjoy that golden era promised after they’ve suffered thru the 4th turning.
Maybe just making it thru alive will be good enuff. Maybe not.
“People think we can’t have soup kitchens here again?”
We would already have them if they (our govt)weren’t hiding it with the food stamp benefit card. Plus, general mdse $ can come on Ca.’s version. This GD is going to look different, imo.
My thought exactly, awaiting.
We _do_ have soup kitchens right now. We just don’t embarrass people by making them stand in line.
Instead, we give them something that looks/acts like a credit-card, and let them buy the soup-kitchen soup at any retail food store.
Until the money runs out.
Until food-stamp recipients refuse to accept their benefit cards that are denominated in dollars, and instead demand that they be denominated in some other currency, it is impossible for the money to run out.
They can print as much more as they need at will.
We have a Banking Cartel called the Federal Reserve.
The money NEVER runs out. They just print us some more.
The Treasury is supposed to sell bonds to get money. Lately, no one wants them for low interest rates, so the
Treasury prints up Bonds and sells them to the FED.
Amazing. A money printing cartel controlling the finances of the great American enterprise………could it be so???
I understand that the Fed can print money at will, but how will the state of Colorado get a hold of some of that cash? I really doubt that the Federal Reserve will just give to the state for free.
The Feds have carte blanche for borrowing, so I guess the USDA foodstamps will keep flowing.
But what happerns when the Fed is the only lender Uncle Sam has left? Maybe by that point we’ll all be on foodstamps?
I can’t believe that Uncle Sam will allow the states to run out of food-stamp funding. It plays far too critical a role in keeping the masses from rioting.
The states will have to find cuts elsewhere, but not in food stamps.
Unless those states are dumb enough to turn down federal money… like Texas.
In Colorado -
In response, my question is, well, what does Colorado have that the Political Class wants? Better steel yourself to pony up.
How about some land? Why not offer your land or house as a bribe to the powerful on the East Coast? Perhaps then they’ll give you the food stamps that you and your neighbors already have paid for via federal taxes.
Perhaps you should ask your pals in Boulder for other advice.
That said, have a nice day.
Why is turning down money dumb, if the benefactor pushes mandates that you want no part of?
Eventually, more states will become like Texas and tell the Feds to stick it. People all over the country will eventually recognize that the Feds’ freedom-robbing requirements aren’t worth the money.
You’re partly right. The only reason the stats turn down the money is because they don’t want to follow fed rules or regulations.
But usually, those rules and regulations are to the benefit of the many and not the few. Like safer roads, medicine, consumer rights, welfare, education.
People like to beat up on the federal gov all the time when the reality is… it’s your local gov that is screwing you the most.
..and there’s the practicality of it. Putting bankruptcy and social hardship and disruption ahead of pride is not really smart. This usually leads to getting voted out.
Again, not very smart.
Dang. I said that backwards!
“Putting pride ahead of disaster is not really smart.”
Oops.
FWIW, Colorado Springs is so broke they can’t even water the parks.
My pals in Boulder? Oh please. I’m not even a registered Democrat.
If there was no Air Force Academy Colorado Springs would dry up and blow away like a tumbleweed (it already is anyway). But I guess that kind of welfare spending is OK.
In Colorado -
You didn’t address the issue at hand, but decided instead to deflect it. Okay, whatever.
BTW, Colorado Springs isn’t broke. The city’s tax receipts have gone up for most of 2010. There aren’t many cities that can claim that these days.
Taxing the residents so that parks can get watered helps make the residents broke. With that in mind, the folks in the Springs decided that brown grass is acceptable. If the folks up your way don’t agree, then you are free to say yes to LOCAL taxes.
Just don’t expect people in the Springs, in Kansas or in Ohio to pay for your green parks. That’s your responsibility, no theirs. Too bad your pals in Loveland and Boulder disagree, since you think getting money from the Federal Government to beautify your town is good idea.
Those living in the Springs are trying to become fiscally sound and you’re giving them sh*t for it. Interesting.
If that’s not what you think, refute it. But you sure come across as if that’s the case. See your Texas comment above.
I mentioned Texas, not In Colorado.
Surely you are not saying that Texas is trying to be fiscally responsible?
The people in suburbia here in Boise get almost free irrigation water for their yards. This was planned on purpose. New subdivisions MUST continue their water rights and installed pressurized irrigation systems for each home: otherwise Boise would have to increase the capacity of their “city water” just to water people’s lawns. The burden is shifted from the city to the HOA.
Under Idaho water law, your lot inherits the water rights of the farmer’s land that you now occupy. So subdivisions here have the elusive dream of the “green party”: non-potable grey water is used to water your lawn and garden. The only use for potable “city water” is for in-house use.
No, but I did say that Colorado Springs is attempting to be fiscally responsible. I know not whether Texas is fiscally responsible - I’m not versed in such matters.
With Texans shunning the Feds when possible, I’d say they are trying to be socially responsible. You know, Texans taking care of local and state issues rather than expecting people in Wisconsin, Georgia and Hawaii to do so.
I realize you don’t care much for that view, but that’s why there are states like New York, Taxachussets and California to live in as well. Enjoy your turf, and let Texans enjoy theirs.
We have a Banking Cartel called the Federal Reserve.
The money NEVER runs out. They just print us some more.
Of course they print more. By printing more, they buy time to enrich the Federal Reserve’s interest group….the super rich.
BTW, Colorado Springs isn’t broke.
It’s just a little wacked out right? LOL
No soup kitchens? Come to Ohio. Free meals to any kid under 21. You just have to live in the right zip code, per Obama. Keeping the Roman mob fed so they dont riot.
it would look bad on you know who’s watch.
I went to see the first Wall Street with some friends/co-workers when it first came out. At the end, all of the rest of them were disappointed at the “sad ending.” I protested. I thought it was an uplifting ending. But, they protested, Charlie Sheen was going to jail. I’m glad they pushed becaue it forced me to explain my emotional reaction. Yes, it is a happy ending because he realized that what he was doing was wrong, that wrong was going to be punished and he figured out that his honest, hard working father was the best person he had ever known. A very, very good ending.
A year and a half later, I was in law school so I could come out and fight bad guys. Which I didn’t do immediately what with the student loans and all, but is, actually, a reasonable chunk of what I do now. And my father, possibly the best person I have ever known, is very proud of me, even though I can’t tell him about the getting the bad guys part of my job since we can’t disclose that sort of stuff.
“even though I can’t tell him about the getting the bad guys part of my job since we can’t disclose that sort of stuff.”
polly, can’t you talk about that kind of stuff after-the-fact? Once an investigation has progressed to trial & sentencing, what prevents disclosing past work on a case?
The only thing I could think of was if it was RICO/mob-related work, and the knowledge getting around could be hazardous to your health.
I’m curious…
I tend to work on the very early stages so getting to the end takes a while. And, if we do our job very well, people realize that they can’t win in court, and things never become public. A lot of law enforcement is civil, not criminal. Civil enforcement stuff is not always public.
I can brag about areas that other people in my department started working on years and years ago and now are very different because of their efforts.
“Civil enforcement stuff is not always public.”
I totally get that a lot of enforcement is civil and entered into as voluntary agreements when a party realizes that they don’t like their odds in court.
But I strongly believe that all such agreements should be public record. The government should not be in the business of entering into confidentiality agreements to keep information from away from the general public.
And, IMO the public needs to see a few banksters swinging from a few oak trees (figuratively, if not literally). Until I see that happen, it’s just going to be business as usual.
hi Polly,
first off i want to thank you for helping me with a legal question years ago. it had to do with how much you could give to your spouse without incurring a tax. thank you again for your help.
i want to ask you about the term ‘bad guys’.
in the legal profession it is pretty easy to know who you mean. but the term lends itself to easy answers.
the military call the enemy ‘bad guys’ and their allies ‘friendlies’. but it wasn’t always the case.
back in the days of WWII and earlier they named their enemies. germans, and the japanese were named, not fashionably termed ‘bad guys’.
the part that i object to is that anyone can be termed a ‘bad guy’. don’t like a legal protester? just call him a ‘bad guy’ and go after him. generic terms lend themselves to abuse.
naming the enemy requires a certain sense of responsibility for what one does. depersonalization make it easier to abuse.
i think the military should be calling the enemy by their names. what say you?
Well my use of the term “bad guy” here is because I am not disclosing things. In the very early stages we don’t yet know if someone has done anything legally wrong. If there is no violation, we back off. I don’t use that term in the office. We use the name of the industry or the name of an actual person or company.
However, in general, I think the use of such terms is complex psychologically. I prefer not to think that way on a day to day basis as it could, long term, get in the way of being objective. We are professionals and we take our “protect and defend” oaths seriously. This is about the law, not personal opinion. People with closed minds don’t do well with us. Also, it is natural to get excited when you think you see a violation that can be pursued, but people who are working on emotion rarely get the job done.
In the military it is probably way more complex. I once read that it is very hard to get soldiers to actually aim at people on the opposing side. Giving those people names would probably make it even harder. Lots of people probably consider that a good thing, but the people who run the military, understandably, do not.
And politicians do it too. Wasn’t there once an episode of West Wing where Jed Bartlett complained that not using his opponent’s name made him sound senile but his advisors insisted that he wasn’t allowed to remind people of they guy’s name? Silly, yes, but I bet that scene is based on what real election advisors tell their clients. I personally hit the mute button whenever political ads come up, but that is just me.
I once read that it is very hard to get soldiers to actually aim at people on the opposing side.
the military has largely solved that problem. they found that people could be conditioned to shoot if they gave them pop up targets in the shape of a human with little time to think. the faster they hit the targets the more the number of hits and the higher the score. it translates into being more ready to shoot to kill, which as you say, in war is a good thing.
all your points are well taken.
but i’d still be more comfortable if the military used ‘al-queda’ or ‘taliban’ or some other more descriptive term than just ‘bad guys’. it makes it sound more like a video game than the serious business of war.
thank you for your thoughts..
Snipers often have a tough time hitting their human targets after watching him magnified through a scope for any length of time.
A sniper may select someone to kill and then spend some time watching and waiting for the potential victim to settle down and stop moving about so the sniper can get a clear shot.
The more he watches the more human the target becomes. When the opportunity to pull the trigger presents itself something deep inside the sniper causes him to flinch and thus he misses hitting the intended victim.
It used to be snipers were sent out on missions alone; Now they are sent out in pairs: One guy is the sniper, the other guy is the spotter.
A sniper really doesn’t need a spotter, he can do his own spotting, just as it was done in the old days. But if a sniper is paired up with a spotter then the sniper carries with him the burden of not letting his spotter buddy down. Hence a successful kill shot.
And this is the Great Secret of the military, of how they get young men to do what they ordinarly would never think of doing on their own: The military BONDS young men to one another and then they use this bonding to their advantage.
In combat soldiers don’t die for the flag or their country; They die for their buddies.
Snipers often have a tough time hitting their human targets after watching him magnified through a scope for any length of time.
One of our customers who is a very manner full, soft spoken, honest, calm and all around a decent man raising his new born daughter was one of the two people who flew from the US to Desert storm before the war started in a civilian air craft. His mission was for 2 weeks only. His duty was to take out the dug in tanks of the Iraqi army. The helicopters would drop him off and would give him a pick up location. What surprises me about this individual is that he is very calm and easy going in a Forest Gump kind of a way. He told me that he did not care about anything else that was happening in Iraq and all he wanted to do was come home alive to his new born daughter. He was a single father with a new born. He still is our customer and his daughter is in college now.
“I once read that it is very hard to get soldiers to actually aim at people on the opposing side.”
Not if the “soldier” is a white supremacist.
“I had to start shooting the black first because when I shot the white person first, the black would always run” — Joseph Paul Franklin
“People with closed minds don’t do well with us.”
Hence the reason for endless supply of jokes and quips by the ignorant toward anyone with any education.
“once read that it is very hard to get soldiers to actually aim at people on the opposing side. Giving those people names would probably make it even harder.”
Not really, just call them “Mondays”; everybody hates Mondays
A year and a half later, I was in law school so I could come out and fight bad guys. Which I didn’t do immediately what with the student loans and all, but is, actually, a reasonable chunk of what I do now. And my father, possibly the best person I have ever known, is very proud of me, even though I can’t tell him about the getting the bad guys part of my job since we can’t disclose that sort of stuff.
Polly,
It’s great to have a real-life superhero here on the HBB.
Great, heartwarming story. Your dad has every right to be proud.
Thanks for all the work you do in trying to keep the bad guys down.
He’s a star, at 24. So he has his $millions already and can survive the deindustrialization of America very well by investing in the industrialization of Chindia.
Would Shia be a multi-millionaire if America had never existed? Perhaps he thinks he owes us something back.
We are all profiting only from the remnants of the freer economy we had decades ago and particularly by being a much freer economy even 25 years ago compared to many nations now.
To try to dream up a socialist dream of implying that the young man owes America for his becoming wealthy is being a Wesley Mouch.
Oh, yes. It is absurd to think that someone who has earned millions here might actually feel an obligation to help out his fellow countrymen.
Johnny Depp certainly doesn’t seem to share that vision. He makes money here, moves to France, then denounces the United States.
Class act.
But can he keep his millions?
Does TTT have a handle on this foreclosure snafu? It seems like quite a bit bigger a problem than, say, a Turbo Tax glitch which results in under reporting one’s taxes.
California orders Ally Financial to stop foreclosures in state
California attorney general Edmund G. Brown Jr. demanded that Ally Financial stop foreclosures in the state if it could not “immediately prove” its compliance with the law.
The order comes four days after Ally said it had found a “technical” problem with documents it submitted in support of them. An employee of Ally’s GMAC mortgage unit, Jeffrey Stephan, admitted in sworn depositions that he signed off on 10,000 documents a month without reading them.
“I’m taking this action to protect California homeowners facing the tragedy of foreclosure,” Brown said in a statement. “They are clearly in jeopardy since an Ally Financial official admitted his review of thousands of critical foreclosure documents was really a sham.”
State attorneys in Illinois, Iowa, Texas and Florida have also announced they are investigating the matter.
Ally — in which the U.S. Treasury holds a 56 percent stake after a $17 billion federal bailout — said on Monday that it had initiated a temporary moratorium on evictions and sales of repossessed homes in 23 states while it reviewed individual cases. The 23 states on the company’s list are those that require a court order for foreclosures.
…
Woo-hoo!!! more free rent!!! It just gets better everyday.
Is this part of the ‘green shoots’ that we’ve been seeing in our economy??
Gee this sounds like Jerry is running for office…..
If I had a “technical problem” with one of my IRS filings, I’m sure they would forgive me.
Bloomberg
Asia-Pacific Bond Risk Rises, Credit-Default Swap Prices Show
September 23, 2010, 9:24 PM EDT
By Tom Kohn
Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) — The cost of protecting corporate and sovereign bonds from default in Asia and Australia climbed, according to traders of credit-default swaps.
The Markit iTraxx Asia index of 50 investment-grade borrowers outside Japan rose 3 basis points to 126 basis points as of 8:35 a.m. in Hong Kong, Credit Agricole CIB prices show.
The Markit iTraxx Australia index rose 1 basis point to 123 basis points as of 10:30 a.m. in Sydney, according to ICAP Plc.
The Markit iTraxx Japan index, which rolled to a new series this week, was at 100.5 basis points as of 10 a.m. in Tokyo, according to BNP Paribas SA. Japan was shut yesterday for a public holiday.
Credit-default swap indexes are benchmarks for protecting bonds against default and traders use them to speculate on credit quality. A drop signals improving perceptions of creditworthiness, while an increase suggests the opposite.
…
Looks as though gold bullion is starting to show up as the protection (or insurance, if you will) against various world currencies defaulting, eh?
Gold price increases are a natural consequence of currency devaluation to avoid debt default. So long as gold prices go up in response, owning gold provides a natural hedge (”insurance”) against this sort of devaluation.
This seems like an easy enough question to answer, provided one could get the data.
Bank Losses Lead to Drop in Credit Card Debt
By CHRISTINE HAUSER
Published: September 24, 2010
While consumers have done their part by shying away from exceeding new credit limits and turning increasingly to debit cards, the question is to what extent are consumers voluntarily reducing their balances, and to what extent are banks making the decision for them.
The answer has wide implications for the broader economy as banks try to determine whom to extend credit to — and how much — and as businesses try to adapt to the changes in consumers’ spending patterns.
“There is a lot of debate going on right now among economists,” said Cristian deRitis, the director of credit analytics with Moody’s Analytics, which is studying the issue. “Is there truly deleveraging or are charge-offs removing a lot of balances?”
…
The debate is over. It’s the write-offs that are reducing overall credit card debt. More money going “poof.”
Got cash?
“Got cash?”
Yup…but I’ll have a little less cash come Friday morning when I drop a couple of cashier checks at closing and pay for my stupid house if all goes as planned.
41 days from offer to closing on this short sale and my nutty RE agent jokes that I shouldn’t move in, she’ll relist and we’ll flip it for 260k, take the money and we’ll freak everyone out.
This chick is way crazier than me and that’s really pushing it.
Hey congratulations Mikey. I just saw some recent posts about your house.
Let us know when it is in shape for an HBB meet-up - thanks for the idea, Jane - or random guests in search of snow, brats, beer, Friday night fish and the like.
Party at Mikey’s house!
I don’t think people change their bill paying habits over night. A slow payer will most likely stay a slow payer. In our industry we just increase the prices on those individuals and when they pay in 90,120 days we are getting a good amount of interest but reflect it as price increases. If you reflect as interest they bitch.
For the Unemployed Over 50, Fears of Never Working Again
Stuart Isett for The New York Times
Patricia Reid, 57, lost her job at Boeing four years ago and has struggled to find a new position.
By MOTOKO RICH
Published: September 19, 2010
…
College educated, with a degree in business administration, she is experienced, having worked for two decades as an internal auditor and analyst at Boeing before losing that job.
But that does not seem to matter, not for her and not for a growing number of people in their 50s and 60s who desperately want or need to work to pay for retirement and who are starting to worry that they may be discarded from the work force — forever.
Since the economic collapse, there are not enough jobs being created for the population as a whole, much less for those in the twilight of their careers.
Of the 14.9 million unemployed, more than 2.2 million are 55 or older. Nearly half of them have been unemployed six months or longer, according to the Labor Department. The unemployment rate in the group — 7.3 percent — is at a record, more than double what it was at the beginning of the latest recession.
After other recent downturns, older people who lost jobs fretted about how long it would take to return to the work force and worried that they might never recover their former incomes. But today, because it will take years to absorb the giant pool of unemployed at the economy’s recent pace, many of these older people may simply age out of the labor force before their luck changes.
…
A job is a terrible thing to waste. But still there are Early Retirement seminars being offered where I work. After three hours of charts and such folks who attend these seminars emerge with stars and dollar signs in their eyes.
These seminars are promising TEN PERCENT annual returns.
TEN PERCENT!
One True-Believer told me:
1. I need to retire now and cash out my pension and my 401K and turn it all over to the seminar “experts” so they can generate for me a conservative ten percent return.
2. I need to retire now and glob onto Social Security ASAP because if I don’t do so now then I won’t ever get any money. He said they - the SS folks - can’t cut SS once a person is signed up for it.
3. Being retired offers up a lot of free time, so he plans on contracting back to the company he is retiring from to earn extra income. He feels he is so valuable an employee and will be missed so badly that the company will end up begging him to come back to work.
Anyone who can easily be led to believe that such a return is possible today using a “conservative” vehicle is _clearly_ a sheep waiting to be shorn.
There is no protecting people from themselves.
My parents volunteer to assist other seniors deal with Medicare part D programs. They end up getting a lot of other questions too. When my mother complains about a couple that refuses to even look at a reverse mortgage because they want to leave the house to their son or a husband that refuses to sell a car worth $500 too much to let his wife (suffering from severe dementia) to get free support services, I tell her this:
You can’t fix stupid and you can’t fix mean.
I don’t think it helps much, but it is about all I can offer.
Whenever someone guarantees me a 10% return, I clutch my 0.25%-yielding T-bills for my needed feeling of security.
Early retirement was a simple decision for me - in 2006. Sell the bubble-price house in San Jose and get out of town. But that situation certainly doesn’t fit into the picture today. People who waited are not going to see that large RE paycheck in the future.
Yep, that was a good move, Dennis.
When I was laid off at the end of tech bubble I was approaching age 59. I knew I would not work in my field again so we just moved on. We quickly left the high-cost DC area to lower cost (at the time) Florida. Bought a relatively cheap house and found a non-professional job to pay the bills and to provide medical coverage until we were within COBRA distance of age 65.
So much has changed. COBRA costs are apparently much higher, and people are stuck wherever they are if they own a house. And finding a job? Good luck with that. It’s almost impossible for someone to do now what we were able to do then.
When I retired early, I was in good enough shape to qualify for a non-HIPAA Blue Cross policy. It’s always good to try for one as the premiums are lower than for an equivalent HIPAA policy.
Geez I’m still 7 years away from 65 and Medicare….
7 years away from 65 and Medicare….??
Me also…Navigating from here to there is Job numeral uno for me…
7 years away from 65 and Medicare….??
Me also…Navigating from here to there is Job numeral uno for me…
This is what BITES about the American “healthcare” system.
We spend half our lives like a dog chasing our tails BUT chasing our tails in fear because our system sucks.
+1, Rio
COBRA? Medicare? I see even some of our anti-liberal posters sure do enjoy those government programs- when it benefits *them*. Everyone else’s benefits are, of course, rank socialism.
I suppose you would also criticize fans of Hayek in Russia back in 1974 for using government programs there.
The U.S. does not have a free market economy. Over half of some engineering disciplines, including mine, are for government work or contracting.
Over 58% of the American people (I posted before) depend on some sort of government check either directly or indirectly.
So it’s fallacious to criticize capitalists who paid into the system to collect that which they paid in.
Just like food stamps or unemployment bennies, (and unlike in the USSR), no one is forced to take COBRA or Medicare.
And yes, I do think if you bang your drum all day about ’socialism’ you should ‘put your money where your mouth is’, and refuse these ‘collectivist’ benefits.
Our founding fathers put their lives at stake for what they believed was right, but you big-talkers won’t even refuse a government benefit because by golly, you paid for it (even if it ends up paying you more than you paid in- a distinct possibility with Medicare).
Anyone can talk the talk, it’s walking the walk that means something.
I do think if you bang your drum all day about ’socialism’ you should ‘put your money where your mouth is’, and refuse these ‘collectivist’ benefits.
Yes, this is a standard tactic of the big-government set. Insert the government into every part of life, so as to affect just about everyone in some way, and then slam critics as hypocrites for using government services. Did you go out of your house today? Aha, you stepped on the sidewalk! Which is maintained by the government! So how dare you suggest scaling back the government’s role in life– you’re biting the hand that feeds you! Did you breathe in and out? Why the government gave you clean air! Etc., etc.
Sorry, it won’t wash. I can do exactly the same thing to the socialists. You propose higher taxes? Why don’t you first pay those higher taxes yourself? You are a hypocrite for enjoying lower taxes while proposing raising them. You want socialized medicine? Why don’t you line up at government clinics, yourself, instead of going to private doctors?
+1
(Alpha refuses to get it).
You propose higher taxes? Why don’t you first pay those higher taxes yourself? You are a hypocrite for enjoying lower taxes while proposing raising them.
I only call for higher taxes on the very wealthy. The beginning of our soaring deficits and casino economy coincided with, and was largely caused by, their decrease under Reagan. I never call for higher taxes on the middle or lower classes. As has often been shown, we pay higher rates than the wealthy already.
You want socialized medicine? Why don’t you line up at government clinics, yourself, instead of going to private doctors?
I would have to lie about my income to qualify for most ‘government clinics’ care. But the idea doesn’t fill me with terror- I have received excellent care at a state university hospital. And I’ve gotten flu shots at a health clinic, and the staff were as professional as anywhere else I’ve been.
And I don’t call for a health care system of government clinics. I call for a system wherein the doctors are free to practice where and with whomever they wish. But when we hand them our insurance card, it’s from a single-payer universal coverage plan. A system that seems to work better than our system pretty much everywhere else in the world. And it’s way cheaper.
“I see even some of our anti-liberal posters sure do enjoy those government programs- when it benefits *them*.”
It’s called greedy hypocrisy. And the hate, ignorance and selfishness of these ignorant types will be exposed for what it is.
I only call for higher taxes on the very wealthy
Exactly! You want others to pay the taxes, not you.
I call for a system wherein the doctors are free to practice where and with whomever they wish. But when we hand them our insurance card, it’s from a single-payer universal coverage plan. A system that seems to work better
So you can work any way you want, as long as you work for the government. Great. Yes, that seems to work better if you cherry-pick statistics and ignore a lot of factors. Galbraith thought the Soviet Union’s economy was working better than ours.
Exactly! You want others to pay the taxes, not you.
As pointed out LVG
The elite pay a lower effective tax rate than most on the HBB.
The top 400 pay a wopping 16% effective tax rate. The middle class pay over 20% and upper middle class may be paying close to 30% in effective tax rates.
So it’s fallacious to criticize capitalists who paid into the system to collect that which they paid in.
Then it would be fallacious to criticize a capitalist society that received socialized healthcare within a system in which they had paid into too.
Sorry, it won’t wash. I can do exactly the same thing to the socialists. You propose higher taxes? Why don’t you first pay those higher taxes yourself?
It washes well. Most of us middle-class pay way higher total taxes than the super rich.
If you like that, you are ignorant of the numbers.
Alpha, when I was using it, COBRA was mandated by the govt but there were no tax dollars going to those who were on it. As far as Medicare is concerned, I’d sure like to see it, and Social Security itself, become needs-based in the (near) future.
I agree COBRA was self-funding, as was Social Security.
“needs-based”
Where is the cutoff? Federal poverty level? Sounds like the welfare trap - make one penny too much and buy insurance on the private market. Pretty tough if you are 80.
Or would you recommend a stepped down cutoff - at each step, get a 10% reduced benefit? Or pay increasing taxes on the benefit until it is wiped out?
Does your 401K and other assets play into the calculation? Isn’t this punishing the savers?
The PONZI scheme in action is what has made all the difference, Bill. That, and two-income earning households.
You escaped mostly unscathed (for now, anyway). Those 10 years younger than you are getting creamed. Or reamed. Take your pick, or select both.
Better hope you live well, then die quickly as you near age 70. In 10 years or so, all bets are off, even for present-day retirees. A hundred million people will blame you for their relative destitution.
It’s almost impossible for someone to do now what we were able to do then.
Now that your over 65 and on socialized healthcare, do you feel more sympathetic to those who don’t have it?
How ‘Wall Street’ changed Wall Street
By Francesco Guerrera
Published: September 24 2010 22:07 | Last updated: September 24 2010 22:07
In late 1987, Frank Partnoy, then a maths student at the University of Kansas, had an epiphany. As he sat in a cinema watching Wall Street, Oliver Stone’s depiction of the corrosive effects of greed on the financial industry, Partnoy decided he wanted to be part of it.
“I was naive but it actually inspired me. It made Wall Street seem exotic and alluring,” says Partnoy, 43, who went on to work for Credit Suisse First Boston and Morgan Stanley as a derivatives specialist, an experience he chronicled in his 1997 book Fiasco: Blood in the Water on Wall Street. Now a professor of law and finance at the University of San Diego, he says: “If you are a math major at the University of Kansas and you see a cheque with six zeroes, it is going to get your attention.”
He was not alone. In the two decades since its release, Wall Street and its lead characters, the father-of-all-evil Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas in an Oscar-winning turn) and the corruptible ingénu Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen), have exuded an almost hypnotic attraction on scores of would-be bankers and traders.
“[The movie] became a cult phenomenon on business school campuses,” says Ken Moelis, 52, a former UBS banker who now runs his own advisory boutique and is one of Wall Street’s best-known dealmakers. “[After they joined the industry] these kids told me that they watched it so many times I thought they knew more about Gordon Gekko than their families.”
…
Sounds like he got Partnoy’s Complaint.
His story sounds like those guys who watched Apocalypse Now and decided to enlist because helocopter assaults looked cool.
I love the smell of Napalm in the morning!
Filmmakers should know that no matter in how bad a light you portray a situation, some people will get motivated the “wrong way”.
………have exuded an almost hypnotic attraction on scores of would-be bankers and traders.
So, i guess, there is really no cure for being a sociopath. Rather, we should send them to business school and hope they become traders, rather than shysters and con-man on the streets of our neighborhoods.
I must admit, I did meet quite a few on college campuses while I attending. They all wore ties and stuffed shirts, and though replete with ignorance about most subjects, felt somehow superior to the intellectual crowds in the science, arts, and academic courses.
… and though replete with ignorance about most subjects, felt somehow superior to the intellectual crowds in the science, arts, and academic courses.
You’ve just described America’s right wingers to a ‘Tea’.
So you’re saying that left-wingers don’t advocate trading carbon credits? But that’s okay, n’est-ce-pas?
After all, it’s not as if Al Gore and his pals are Enron…and, besides, the ends justify the means. Even if Gore is a crook, looking the other way is permissable because “it’s for a good cause.”
No, I’m saying many right wingers, and particularly Tea Partiers, are new age ‘know-nothings’, who don’t believe in or even comprehend the scientific method.
They believe that if there is a large group of people around you saying the same thing in an angry tone then you must be right. The same is true of those who flock to religion.
“No, I’m saying many right wingers, and particularly Tea Partiers, are new age ‘know-nothings’, who don’t believe in or even comprehend the scientific method.”
What?
Tell me. What are the Tea Party people trying to accomplish? Is that what they say, or what adherents of Alinsky say?
Might be true.
It also might be true of a large group of hippies, unionizers, socialists and communists. And environmentalists.
Tea Partiers aren’t un-American because they disagree with the government. No group is. Or so I’ve been taught.
‘aren’t un-American because they disagree with the government. No group is’
‘He makes money here, moves to France, then denounces the United States. Class act’
That’s correct, Ben. People who make their money here - despite disagreeing with U.S. government policy - and then move overseas only to complain about said policy AFTER they have made theirs are pieces of x.
Depp didn’t stick around to solve any problems once he had his. He ran away. He is un-American.
‘Depp didn’t stick around to solve any problems once he had his.’
I don’t know anything about this guy, but I suppose he should have used his special movie powers to solve problems.
‘People who make their money here - despite disagreeing with U.S. government policy - and then move overseas only to complain about said policy AFTER they have made theirs are pieces of x…He ran away. He is un-American’
And sooo…
‘Tea Partiers aren’t un-American because they disagree with the government. No group is’
I’ll be sure to run any future plans about where I’ll live or what I say by you then, if I intend to call myself ‘american’. (Come to think of it, I don’t because I’m a citizen of these united States).
What are the Tea Party people trying to accomplish?
They have no idea. But they are mad and distracted.
“You’ve just described America’s right wingers to a ‘Tea’.”
+1
Tea Partiers aren’t un-American because they disagree with the government. unless their party is out of power.
So, i guess, there is really no cure for being a sociopath.
There is no cure but one can find a support group in today’s Republican party.
LOL!!! (come on, that was funny!)
Opinion: Walking away from a mortgage might make sense
By Lindsay A. Owens
Special to the Mercury News
Posted: 09/26/2010 12:01:00 AM PDT
Millions of middle-income home- owners are struggling to pay down bloated, underwater mortgages while wealthier Americans are simply mailing in the keys to the mansion and calling it a day.
According to last week’s Pew survey, only 25 percent of Americans who had trouble paying their rent or mortgage during the recession thought it was OK for homeowners to stop paying their mortgages and abandon their homes.
Yet, according to a 2009 report from Oliver Wyman, hundreds of thousands of homeowners who had no trouble paying their mortgage decided to heed the advice of economists and strategically default. While the wealthy are settling into their new apartments and rebuilding wealth, middle-class Americans are going deeper into debt to save homes they may lose.
In my research on homeowners in default in Santa Clara County, I have spoken with many individuals who are cashing out 401(k)s, borrowing from friends and family and using credit cards to pay their mortgage. Sadly, homeowners who are least able to pay their mortgage, whether because of unemployment or a ballooning adjustable-rate mortgage, sacrifice the most to keep their mortgages solvent. If this trend continues, expect to see increasing levels of wealth inequality for many years to come.
Why doesn’t the middle class walk away? There are several reasons. Many individuals I interviewed feel as though their contract with the bank is sacred. But nothing was sacred to the mortgagers
who hawked predatory loans and the banks who sold loans to the highest bidder. In fact, Morgan Stanley, one of the major traders in mortgage-backed securities, recently walked away from several of its San Francisco buildings.
It’s time for average Americans to start seeing their mortgage papers for what they are: records of financial transactions, not moral documents.
…
A deal is a deal. The bank had all the risk to them priced into the deal. They have some really smart, doctorate-educated, highly paid staff who researched all of that stuff. Let the bastards have it.
Why doesn’t the middle class walk away?
Maybe because unlike the wealthy they don’t have 3 other paid for houses.
Also know as the upper-class version of “homesteading”.
If this trend continues, expect to see increasing levels of wealth inequality for many years to come
Yep…Just like the recession of 1981-83, there will be many millions of people who will never recover..Long term un & under employment along with just not enough time left…
there will be many millions of people who will never recover..Long term un & under employment along with just not enough time left…
And many more of us will get dragged down by taxes enacted to help those who are down and out…
exactly..
And many more of us will get dragged down by taxes enacted to help those who are down and out…
Taxes for corporations and those of means are at at an all time low. You’ve been brain punked.
Probably not…To be simplistic about it the saying goes “You can’t get blood out of a turnip”…Taxing their way out won’t work…IMO, look for major tax reform going away from taxing income and significant adjustments to the entitlement models…
People forget that even Buckingham Palace was once a foreclosure.
The Duke of Buckingham built the place to his own specifications as the ultimate “McMansion” when he was rich. But he had a gambling addiction which proved his undoing. The royal family bought up all his gambling IOUs and used them to take over his house.
Places like that can have 1000 year financing.
UPDATED: Long Beach Councilman Steve Neal’s home in default
Neal seeks help, vows he’ll resolve debt situation
By Paul Eakins, Staff Writer
Posted: 09/20/2010 01:20:20 PM PDT
Updated: 09/21/2010 03:23:12 PM PDT
LONG BEACH, CALIF. — Long Beach, Calif., 9th District Councilman Steve Neal’s house loan is in default. The councilman says he hopes to get the problem resolved. (Jeff Gritchen / Press-Telegram..)
…
“I got into what’s called an Option ARM loan,” Neal said. “That was a very bad financial decision on my part.”
An Option ARM loan gives homeowners multiple payment options each month, which allows them to pay only the interest or other small payments. It is different from the subprime loans that led to the skyrocketing number of foreclosures nationwide over the past three years.
Yet, similar to a subprime loan, Neal’s required payments eventually grew beyond his ability to pay, he said.
“A lot of it was me, and not realizing how drastic the payments were going to change,” Neal said. “The lesson for me is … read the fine print. And when dealing with these transactions, it’s probably good to have an attorney go over it.”
…
“The lesson for me is … read the fine print”
Or, go to Wal Mart and spend $5 on a calculator…
Heck there’s a calculator built right into Windows.
It didn’t matter what the fine print said or didn’t say. The mania fever was high when this lemming signed the dotted line.
The mentality was: Option ARM? Who cares? ARMS are tomorrow’s worry; Today’s worry is to get a chunk of RE before I am priced out forever.
priced …… out ……… forever.
The call of the Realtor ™. The illusive loss of place when one can’t hope to ever own a “home” because you didn’t rush in to buy one.
You Are More Likely to Default on an ARM Loan – Here’s Proof
By Brandon Cornett | 9/17/10 |
We have often warned first-time home buyers about the risks associated with adjustable-rate mortgages. Now we have some new data to back it up. A recent report released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reveals that home buyers who use ARM loans to purchase a house are more likely to default than those who use fixed-rate mortgages.
…
that was the specuvestors’ *instrument* of choice, wasn’t it?
ARMs are leverage tools to allow people to buy more than they can afford (i.e., although I cant afford the fixed rate, I certainly can afford one month LIBOR right now and if it rises I’ll just HELOC - I am a pro and have been to all the seminars, its time to make my money work for me rather than vice versa). Why would we need proof are problematic?
Up here in the Great White all mortgages are ARM loans. The longest you can lock in for is 5 years. Most people opt for a 6 month variable rate and hope for the best. Mortgage interest is not tax deductible as well. House prices are teetering or falling in most major markets. Oh yea, in Ontario you day H.S.T. on any property over $400,000 which amounts to $52000 at 13%. Land transfer adds another $6-10,000. It’s a good time to buy.
Is that you Pay Homeowners Sales Tax on any property over $400,000??? Is this a tax on the rich??
If it’s under $400,000, what do you pay??
That’s worse than the rake at any casino, and many people think casinos are immoral for stealing people’s money. They got nothing on Ontario.
And people still want to buy a house there??? Kidding, eh??
Most houses in the G.T.A. Greater Toronto Area are well over $400000. Under 400k no tax. And people still want to buy. Go figure. It, the H (harmonized) S.T. is on new houses from what I understand.
Megabank, Inc to investors: “We’re not responsible for creating that steaming pile of toxic mortgage securities you foolishly swallowed.”
* LAW
* SEPTEMBER 23, 2010
Banks Pressed on Sour Home Loans
Investors in Pool of Securities Seek to Force Lenders to Buy Back or Modify Problem Mortgages
By CARRICK MOLLENKAMP
Big U.S. banks are facing legal pressure to make up for losses tied to pools of soured low-end mortgage loans.
In the latest effort, a group of investors in 2,300 mortgage securities worth roughly $500 billion is seeking to force several banks that originated or are now servicing faulty subprime-mortgage loans to repurchase or modify them.
Some investors ‘had no idea that their money was being invested in mortgage-backed securities,’ says Talcott Franklin, a Dallas lawyer.
The move follows other similar efforts. Bond and mortgage insurers, hard hit in the housing crisis, have filed lawsuits accusing lenders and banks of sticking them with flawed loans marred by poor underwriting and faulty appraisals.
Federal Home Loan Banks in Pittsburgh, Seattle and San Francisco have sued Wall Street banks, seeking to force them to buy back mortgage-backed bonds. In July, the Federal Housing Finance Agency issued 64 subpoenas to obtain information about loans underpinning securities sold to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The banks and lenders are fighting these efforts, saying they aren’t responsible for the housing crash.
And the outcome is far from certain and could depend on potentially contentious negotiations and litigation that could drag out for years.
In any case, analysts say the efforts could force banks to disclose difficult-to-obtain information about the loans, such as how poorly they might have been originated or are being managed.
That data could be used to force banks to repurchase as much as $133 billion in souring home loans, according to Compass Point Research & Trading, a Washington, D.C., boutique investment bank.
…
………..accusing lenders and banks of sticking them with flawed loans marred by poor underwriting and faulty appraisals.
I love this one. It sounds like a tort lawyer’s wet dream. A defective product. Yea, that’s the ticket.
Almost every profession in the world now is held to “standards” of behaviour which are actionable in the event of some bad consequences.
Doctors, engineers, scientists, even lawyers have minimum standards of practice. It’s time for bankers and brokers to get a good dose of product liability. NO more “not responsible” for the product you bought, even though it was clearly defective.
They’ve tried this approach with guns, cigarettes, ladders, and a whole bunch of other stuff. How about fraudulent investment paper?
While various businesses might be “punished” by way of product liability, the stinging lash of higher costs of doing business is felt on the back of the consumer.
Seriously?
Who do you think allowed the banks and investment houses to “get away with it”? It’s not as if there aren’t regulations via SEC, FICA and so on.
Our Legal Eagles (majestic as they are) LET the bankers et al get away with the fraud because they wanted their cut.
Lawyers are part of the Political Class. Bankers and investment houses are their friends.
Banksters should be in jail. As should tens of thousands of lawyers.
Our Legal Eagles (majestic as they are) LET the bankers et al get away with the fraud because they wanted their cut.
No, it is because the regulations were watered down, were not enforced and wrongs were ignored. Why? Not for “cuts” but because the super rich rigged the system so for their benefit.
Florida:The Vacant-home State?
by Douglas Kennedy | September 24, 2010
Earlier this month, Wayne Garcia walked across a stalled housing development in Land O’ Lakes, Florida just north of Tampa. “It’s an outrage,” he said as he strolled past dozens of empty home sites. “This should never have been approved. This should never have happened.”
Five years ago, architects promised “Connerton” would become the largest city in Pasco County. Today it looks like a graveyard of unfinished and unoccupied homes.
“There were supposed to be 15,000 homes here,” Garcia explained as he stepped over the unhooked plumbing of one side street. “Today’s there’s 233.” And Connerton isn’t alone. Florida now has hundreds of stalled building sites. It also has a record 300,000 vacant homes.
…
Got bulldozers?
Got bulldozers?
i hope not. they have value (at least most of them do). bulldozing them would be like acting out a version of the broken window fallacy.
What, are 1,000 people once again moving to Florida each day?
they would have value if no one moved to florida. they just have to be sold at a lower price than the people who own them are willing to sell for..
Conner Town? Sometimes the names speak for themselves. Res ipsa loquitur.
I remember passing many billboards back during the boom, along I-75 and I-275 pronouncing Connerton as the new place to be. Don’t miss out! They aren’t making anymore land!
Went to have dinner at the Cheesecake Factory last night (DH’s b-day, so he got to choose). The mall was PACKED. The parking lots were full (something usually only seen on Black Friday and the weekend before Christmas), folks even had to wait for one of the “Siberian Spots”. It was like I was in an alternative reality, let me tell you. Just about everyone but us had a bag (one bag per group seemed the norm; only a few groups had more than one bag). Cheesecake Factory had a 50-minute wait, so we went home and I made a pizza.
What gives?
There were way too many people there for it to be explained by “no one is paying their mortgage”. And yet the crowd did not seem the type to watch the stock market too closely. Its wasn’t just teens wanting to “be seen” - teens were only a small minority, in fact.
Surreal.
Where are you? (DC?) I ask because I don’t see this at our local mall.
“Chicagoland”. This was the mall in Schaumburg, Illinois.
Our malls (and Cheesecake Factories) have been like that with only late 2008-early 2009 as the exception.
We just figured it was the “no one’s paying their mortgage” factor.
It is pretty surreal though, isn’t it?
Stocks have been rallying like crazy. I’ll probably sell a significant portion at 1,200, take my subtantial gains and buy again after the election. The only way the Democrats have a chance is to pump up the market so people don’t focus on the crappy economy. They will do anything in their power to make sure I get a decent return.
Yes.
I was at Target yesterday and witnessed the same thing. Target! I wondered what the heck was going on? Every line 3-4 people deep many w/loaded carts. You would have thought it was pre back to school or that a hurricane was coming and people felt obliged to “stock up”! But many just had cheap and I mean cheap Halloween decorations. Others were stocking up on snack bars.
The LL Bean store in the same plaza had quite a few shoppers as well. At least that could be linked to the change of seasons.
And it wasn’t because it was a dreary day. The weather was just beautiful. Some times I think certain Americans are just on shopping autopilot.
Looks like Herb Alpert is a FB.
Grammy-winning trumpeter Herb Alpert and his wife, singer Lani Hall, have listed a house in Pacific Palisades at $2.6 million, the Multiple Listing Service shows….
Hall, 64, was part of Sergio Mendes & Brasil ‘66 until 1971. She and Alpert married in 1974. The couple purchased the house in 2006 for $2.48 million, according to public records.
So they expect price appreciation for a house they bought in 2006?
Linkey.
http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-hotprop-sept25-20100925,0,4875043,full.story
The article discusses several people who expect to make money on a property that they bought circa 2006. Oy veh.
We have tons of sellers like this in San Diego County. It’s like the bursting of the housing bubble never happened. What’s really freaky is that they occasionally get their prices!
Did you ever notice how the MSM always puts the listing price and the previous-purchase price at opposite ends of the story?
So they expect price appreciation for a house they bought in 2006?
Just as long as Herb’s arts foundation doesn’t go bankrupt (they do lots of good work), he can afford a little red ink …
An old friend called me the other day asking if she could stay with me because she is being evicted. The water was cut off last friday and the deputy delivered the notice that they are coming on Wednesday to clean the place out.
This is a white female college graduate, English major, technical writer who just turned 50,
and she’s turning to me for help?
WTF?
Ive been combing the desert for decades and ain’t found shit!
I feel bad for her because she no experience functioning in these types of situations like some people do:
I come home one Friday
had to tell the landlady I’d-a lost my job
She said that don’t confront me
long as I get my money next Friday
Now next Friday come I didn’t get the rent
and out the door I went
So I goes to the landlady
I said, “You let me slide?”
I’ll have the rent for you tomorrow, the next day, I don’t know
So said let me slide it on you know people
I notice when I come home in the evening
She ain’t got nothing nice to say to me
but for five year she was so nice
Loh’ she was lovy-dovy
I come home one particular evening
The landlady said, “You got the rent money yet?”
I said, “No, can’t find no job”
Therefore I ain’t got no money to pay the rent
She said “I don’t believe you’re tryin’ to find no job”
Said “I seen you today you was standin’ on a corner
leaning up against a post”
I said “But I’m tired, I’ve been walkin’ all day”
She said “That don’t confront me
long as I get my money next Friday”
Now next Friday come I didn’t have the rent
and out the door I went
So I go down the streets
down to my good friend’s house
I said “Look man, I’m outdoors you know
Can I stay with you maybe a couple days?”
He said “Uh, Let me go and ask my wife”
He come out of the house
I could see in his face
I know that was no
He said “I don’t know man, ah she kinda funny, you know”
I said “I know, everybody funny, now you funny too”
So I go back home
I tell the landlady I got a job, I’m gonna pay the rent
She said “Yeah?” I said “Oh yeah”
And then she was so nice
loh’ she was lovy-dovy
So I go in my room, pack up my things and I go
I slip on out the back door and down the streets I go
She a-hollerin’ about the front rent, she’ll be lucky to get any back rent
she ain’t gonna get none of it
Let her eat cheese-cake.
Maybe she thinks it’s time for you to give her a handout. She is as entitled as everyone else, is she not?
“Maybe she thinks it’s time for you to give her a handout. She is as entitled as everyone else, is she not?”
Of course I’ll help her if no one else will, she’s one of my “diaper buddies” from backinthaday. Besides, it might be interesting watching a woman in a powersuit cook on a hot plate:
“hey spook, whats that smell?”
“Don’t worry, just some afro sheen; them eggs bout ready?”
What a difference half a decade makes!
Downsizing is booming
Smaller homes trendy again as baby boomers look to shed excess room and recession makes large homes too costly
By Tanya Mannes
Saturday, September 25, 2010 at 10:51 p.m.
Home-size trends
• From 1973 to 2007, new homes increased 50 percent in floor area. That trend is now reversing.
• The percentage of new homes with three or more bathrooms was 24 percent last year, down from a peak of 28 percent in both 2007 and 2008.
• After increasing for almost 20 years, the percentage of single-family homes with four or more bedrooms topped out at 39 percent in 2005; it was 34 percent last year.
• In the 1970s, most new single-family homes — 67 percent — were one story. The percentage of one-story homes declined steadily for more than three decades, dropping to a low of 43 percent in 2006 and 2007. The share of single-family homes with one story increased to 47 percent last year.
…
In the organization’s most recent survey, 95 percent of homebuilders said they were building smaller and less-expensive homes than in the past because that’s what consumers want.
Melman said the U.S. consumer consistently cites affordability and operating costs — mainly energy — when asked about concerns in buying a home. Small homes cost less to heat and cool.
Demographic changes play a role. As baby boomers age, they are transitioning to smaller homes that need less upkeep. Other factors in downsizing include the difficulty of qualifying for a large mortgage and the fact that many people have smaller amounts of equity in existing homes to roll into a new home.
Adding to the trend, there is a crop of first-time homebuyer, lured to the market by tax credits, who are seeking affordable small homes, he said.
…
Oliver Stone On The Crimes Of Wall Street
Posted by majestic on September 14, 2010
Aaron Ross Sorkin dines with Oliver Stone at the favorite lunch-spot of Wall Street titans — and Stone doesn’t disappoint in his dissection of the crimes of the rich and famous! From the New York Times:
“You know, half the people in this place could be prosecuted.”
Oliver Stone, the film director, was sitting across from me over a late lunch in the Grill Room of the Four Seasons restaurant in Midtown Manhattan last week.
In one corner was Stephen Schwarzman, the chairman of the Blackstone Group; Felix Rohatyn, a special adviser to the chairman of Lazard, was leaving as I was coming in, as was Barry Diller, the chairman of IAC/InterActiveCorp. And Sanford Weill, the former chairman of Citigroup — “the mother of all evil,” Mr. Stone said with a wry smile — had just dashed out.
If one man epitomizes the populist view of Wall Street and corporate America, it is Mr. Stone, whose new film, “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” opens next week. It is the sequel to his hit movie “Wall Street” in 1987. The original tapped into the zeitgeist of the moment — “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good,” as Gordon Gekko said — by capturing the lust for money and power that led to the market’s crash.
Two years after the height of the latest financial crisis — Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in the wee hours of Sept. 15 — the country is still grappling with the aftermath of a period that looks suspiciously similar to the one Mr. Stone depicted two decades ago.
And so it seemed only fitting that we were having lunch at the epicenter of what’s left of moguldom, surrounded by the real-life characters who populate Wall Street. For a moment, I’m a bit worried Mr. Stone won’t be able to keep his food down.
“Look, Wall Street’s gone crazy. It’s banking on steroids,” Mr. Stone said, getting a bit irritated. “Banks don’t mean what they did. When I was a kid, you had a savings account; you made 3 to 4 percent. Now you make zero, and Goldman Sachs is a bank holding company.”
If Wall Street is ever going to overcome the distrust that so much of the public has about the finance industry, it is going to have to win over the likes of Mr. Stone, whose father worked as a broker under Mr. Weill.
…
Ollie Stone sure likes to cast stones, doesn’t he? Alas, his house is made of glass, too.
He is hardly the paragon of virtue.
When I was growing up, I thought there was a clear distinction between objective “documentary” films and “propaganda” films.
But then I grew up.
There is a long distance covering many shades of grey between the two. Even purportedly objective documentary films like the BBC “Planet Earth” throw on a fringe environmentalist spin from time to time. Stone’s films like JFK conflate the truth with a political agenda (”a left-winger commie like Oswald just couldn’t be solely responsible for shooting JFK”). By the time you get to Michael Moore films there is little to differentiate one from the work of a partisan political cartoonist.
I’m afraid for the future when I consider than an entire generation will grow up “learning history” from such works.
At least “Triumph of the Will” stands clearly as a self-described propaganda film.
It’ll be up to today’s X-er and Millenium generations toclear this crap out of the way and see to it that history is actually taught to the youngins’.
I hear ya on today’s lack of true delineation between “documentaries” and “propaganda” films. Political Class folks push out little other than propaganda. When “non-biased” films like Gore’s enviro-wacko films are distributed direct to public schools, you know you’re in trouble.
Take heart in knowing that few of today’s 30- and 40-year-olds haven’t bought into the propaganda drivel shoved down their throats repeatedly since birth. It’s why Gen-X is a scrappy lot. They were exposed to a lot of politicized crap, and most recognized it for what it was. The problem has been that until very recently, Gen-X hasn’t been in the position to do anything about it. That is starting to change.
There are lots of hard-nosed 40-year-olds out there. There is no way they are going to accept their kids and grandkids going through the same b.s. they went through. Thank goodness.
“There is no way they are going to accept their kids and grandkids going through the same b.s”
You mean the homeschool crowd? The ones who teach their kids that the Earth is 6000 years old and that Jesus had a pet dinosaur?
News is anything someone don’t want you to know; everything else is advertising.
“You mean the homeschool crowd? The ones who teach their kids that the Earth is 6000 years old and that Jesus had a pet dinosaur?”
You may not be a registered Democrat, but you sure are a liberal.
Only a liberal jumps to such ridiculous conclusions.
Or porn. Of the mind, spirit, body or soul.
The only “homeschoolers” I know are some hardcore atheists in San Jose who don’t want their children exposed to “prayer in the schools” and “socialist dogma”.
The only ones I know are GOP control freaks. But they are doing a hell of a job!! So, kudos to em.
It’ll be up to today’s X-er and Millenium generations toclear this crap out of the way and see to it that history is actually taught to the youngins’.
The first thing they will teach is nuttballs don’t write it and FOX news tried to distort it.
Ollie Stone sure likes to cast stones, doesn’t he? Alas, his house is made of glass, too.
He is hardly the paragon of virtue.
Why don’t we talk about the message, not the messenger.
You know why.
..For a moment, I’m a bit worried Mr. Stone won’t be able to keep his food down.
This writer’s infatuation makes me wanna gag.
..Mr. Stone added, “It’s silly to be simplifying and say Wall Street is evil,” pausing for a moment before stopping to correct himself. “Goldman Sachs is evil, maybe.”
“Most of the people I know on Wall Street are good people. Like my father. He really would like to make some money, yeah, but they would also like to do good for society,” he said.
Yeah.. it’s pure silliness.. But that doesn’t disqualify it as one of Stone’s movie themes.
Dumb questions of the day:
1) Will there soon be perp walks on Wall Street?
2) If Obama can’t get the job done properly, is there another politician who might be willing and able to restore a rule of law in the U.S. banking system?
no, and no. can I interest you in another hand-crafted bailout?
Certainly there must be at least a couple of politicians in a country with a population of 300 million who would be interested in restoring a rule of law in our banking system?
There probably is……..too bad they will never get elected to any meaningful office.
“Hope and change” will mean something when William K. Black gets appointed the the SEC, or the Justice Department.
Never going to happen (unfortunately).
May I benefit from the collective wisdom please? I want to get replacement windows for my house, a thousand-sq-ft south Austin bungalow built 1942 I think. I currently have (mostly painted-shut) double-hung sash windows with outside hanging screens.
I want to replace them with double-hung sash windows that work and are more energy efficient. I like the period look of the screens, so I will keep them.
I really don’t know anything about new windows and I don’t understand what vinyl windows are, although they have been recommended to me.
I’m going up to the Anderson window showroom to look at replacement windows tomorrow.
Does anyone have any advice or suggestions about replacement windows? What I should look for, what I need to ask, anything I need to be careful about?
hip, I got a big recommendation on American Craftsman windows from a guy who got them at Home Depot. Had them installed at his house and they cut his electric bill by $100.00 a month. He couldn’t be more pleased. If you look online at the comments about these windows, the reviews are mixed. Apparently you have to be precise with the installation if you are putting them in an older home.
That must be one big house. Or averge electric bill isn’t even $100 per month.
They may use electric heat/water heaters in Texas.
Here in Boise, with an energy star certified house, I get peak electric bills of about $75 for a 2k sq ft house running the A/C in summer. Peak gas bills of maybe $180 in winter (it gets down to zero deg. in January).
Electricity varies widely in cost per kW/hr. In Boise we pay about 6 to 7 cents per kW/hr. In NYC it’s more like 15 cents per kW/hr.
See map at
http://www.think-energy.net/electricitycosts.htm
We pay roughly $0.04-kWh out here in eastern Washington within the Columbia River hydro-power PUD network. Our peak charges of $130/mo occur in the middle of winter when it’s well below freezing; we have an “all-electric” R36 spec house of 1550-sq-ft, and a family of four.
Vinyl windows means most, if not all, of the frame is hard vinyl.
Double glazed (2 panes of glass with either gas of vacuum in-between) are the most efficient. Single pane (the most common) are not.
Almost every brand make both. Research consumers reviews on-line to find out who is currently the 1st and 2nd best.
Actually for really harsh environments they are making triple pane windows now.
One issue to consider is “replacement” versus original installation windows. As a short-cut in older houses, the “replacement” style is wedged into the opening left when they cut the old window frame out with a saw. This probably doesn’t seal as well as if you tore the trim off completely and put in a regular window, as you would do in new construction.
My installer put in Simonton brand windows in San Jose, and they worked well. But I sold that place less than a year later so can’t comment on long-term durability.
My present house was built with Certainteed argon-filled double-pane vinyl windows. Again so far so good. Be aware that the “Certainteed” brand is a franchise affair and independent factories build them around the country, so quality may vary.
Are you sure you want “double hung” windows? That means that both the upper and lower panels can move. The standard nowadays is “single hung” which means only the bottom panel moves.
Pella and IIRC Anderson are very pricey, and they try to upsell you to wood-frame rather than vinyl windows. Some wood frames are “paint grade” but the real high-end is “stain grade” for those with matching BMWs.
vinyl frames are huge and ugly. i could not do it, so i went with metal clad. why do the vinyl versions need so much frame??
My advice is, take your time and educate yourself. Vinyl is low-maintenance, but it’s, well, vinyl. You can’t paint it, so if you change your mind about the color, you’re stuck.
Ask about the glass thickness and pane spacing (in double glazed windows). If you have muntins, you have a choice of simulated or true divided lites. There’s also a choice of counterweights or springs in the mechanism.
My beef with a lot of windows at places like Anderson and Home Depot is that they seem so tinny and cheesy when you rap them with your knuckles. Why are automobile glass and store window glass so much more substantial?
Some people say single-glazed windows are better than double-glazed, if you use energy efficient storm windows. See
www dot period-homes dot com/ph3-wind.htm
BTW, what is an outside hanging screen? I can’t picture it. Are you talking about shutters?
They’re all pretty good these days. Anderson makes a popular retrofit window but they are fairly expensive (I think) They will preserve the look of older homes. If you don’t know much about windows consider having a pro at the local glass/window/big box store measure and install them. The steel counter balances in those old windows can be useful so grab as many as you can during the tear out.
If energy efficiency were my primary concern, window type wouldn’t be. Even the best windows have a disappointing R-value of somewhere around R-3, and they’re expensive. Lots of window area means lots of heat or cooling losses.
Just a set of heavy, thermal drapes can jack that up to around R-7. Some sort of movable insulation, like foam core, folding shutters can go a lot higher… add reflective coverings for better performance. But they aren’t really pretty and have to be opened and closed at appropriate times.
the main thing is air leaks.. I’d bet that old windows that are painted shut and are air tight are better insulators than new ones that can move.
another thought..
the monthly utility bills commonly include information on how to get an energy efficiency analysis. I guess someone comes to your home and inspects it, and probably has some construction experience, and is up to date on the latest and greatest gadgets.. and probably knows the local weather patterns and everything else involved.. and makes recommendations on how to save energy.
If I lacked the expertise and that service were available at no cost, i don’t see why it shouldn’t be considered.
Nothing destroys the look of a vintage Bungalow like vinyl windows, you can see ‘em a mile away, and as a former 20s bungalow owner, no way no how would I replace with vinyl. …sensitivity to aesthetics will pay off in the long run, that’s usually why people buy vintage, so avoid doing anything that looks like home depot.
This is an out of the box idea.
How about we get a Former Marines Party?
There is no way in tarnation that two houses of Congress controlled by Marines would resemble the cesspools they have become over the past thirty years. Bribery by lobbyists would be promptly reported and prosecuted. You want rule of law? You want to see the corrupticrats shake and tremble? You want to get things done effectively and efficiently and without mass manipulation?
Ergo, Consider Electing the prospective members of the Former Marines Party!
PS - I anticipate the usual pushback from those amongst our membership who do not think things through. Thus I anticipate rant and hyperbole in response to my unfamiliar idea. To these knee jerk respondents, please note: my proposal to stand up and elect former Marines is not the same thing as proposing an armed revolt or military coup.
There is no such thing as a “former Marine”. Once you are a Marine, you stay a Marine until you die.
However, there are Marines no longer on active duty service.
DennisN,
Darn. I just can’t get the nomenclature right.
Once I proudly introduced a Marine First Sergeant-who-had-left-the-service-and-taken-advantage-of-the-GI-Bill to my colleagues as an “EX-MARINE”, and if looks could have killed I would be dead.
I was informed offline that an “EX” had been dishonorably discharged. The appropriate term, I was informed, is “former”. Now you, who are in a position to know the fine points, tell me that “former” is also a no-no.
So is it OK to refer to Marines who are now working as civilians and no longer wearing the uniform as “MARINES”??
Egads, I’d like to get it right. I am going to be an embarrassment to my son when he comes home on leave if I make fundamental errors like that.
Thanks for any insight.
while they seem to prefer “former”, I don’t see anything that justifies the distinction.
Wikidictionary
“ex”
Noun
ex m. and f. singular & plural
1. ex-husband, ex-wife or ex-partner.
2. Former; referring to a condition that has ended.
After doing some looking around, it’s almost like the marines painted themselves into a corner with the idea that “once a marine, always a marine”.
The problem is that some guys do such despicable stuff that not even marines want to be associated with them.
Lee Harvey Oswald was once a marine. He is among the few that are considered “ex”-marines.
Despite that, his Wikipedia page refers to him as “A former U.S. Marine”…
seems like the only foolproof way to address them is jarhead..
There was one ex-marine who wore his uniform to a Tea Party rally.. caught some flack for that (pun intended). I might vote for him.
Here’s another headline: Former Marine Cycles Across U.S. for Solar Bibles
i mean.. marines/military personnel exhibit a whole rainbow of political colors, just like any other occupation.
and another thing. We are 300 million people demanding that government do 300 million different things. Why subject marines to such abuse? That’s what politicians are for…
and another thing. We are 300 million people demanding that government do 300 million different things. Why subject marines to such abuse? That’s what politicians are for…
+1 About the most sensible I’ve ever seen you post.
Marines like politicians swear to uphold our laws found in the constitution. Marines and politicians are both braking the law of the land by way of the ongoing unlawful wars. Unlike politicians, marines are raping and mass murdering children, women. Oh ya I almost forgot, marines are killing men that choose to defend their country from the federal occupiers and destroyers.
unlawful wars?
King Lint declared them unlawful?
http://www.chinahush.com/2010/09/24/china%E2%80%99s-bizarre-phenomena-buildings-die-unnaturally/
The key to Chinese growth: build new construction, then blow it up and build something else!
Was the tulip mania crash as global and protracted as the housing crash is proving to be?
U.K. House Prices Drop Most in 18 Months as Market Weakens in All Regions
By Scott Hamilton - Sep 26, 2010 4:01 PM PT
U.K. home values dropped by the most in 18 months in September as all of Britain’s regions posted price declines, Hometrack Ltd. said.
The average cost of a home fell 0.4 percent from the previous month to 157,600 pounds ($249,000), the London-based property researcher said in an e-mailed statement today. That was the third consecutive monthly drop and the biggest since March 2009. Housing demand fell the most since January 2009.
The report adds to mounting evidence that the housing market is weakening as the U.K. government prepares the biggest budget squeeze since World War II and banks curb lending. Bank of England Chief Economist Spencer Dale said last week that values may fall further after the small size of declines during the recession surprised people.
September’s price declines are “part of an ongoing re- pricing process which began six months ago in early spring, and which is set to stretch well into 2011,” Richard Donnell, Hometrack’s director of research, said in the statement. “Growing concerns over the economic outlook and public-spending cuts are weighing heavily on would-be purchasers.”
…
Didn’t a massive stock market crash follow the last time two-year Treasury yields were this low? I know it is probably different this time and all…
Two-Year Treasury Yields Near Record Low as Manufacturing May Be Slowing
By Wes Goodman - Sep 26, 2010 6:21 PM PT
Treasury two-year yields were about three basis points away from a record low as economists said an industry report this week will show manufacturing growth slowed in September.
Two-year notes yielded 19 basis points more than the upper range of the Federal Reserve’s target for overnight loans between banks on speculation the central bank will increase its Treasury purchases this year to keep borrowing costs down. The spread narrowed to 16.95 basis points last week, the least since Dec. 15, 2008, a day before the Fed last reduced the rate. The Treasury is scheduled to sell $36 billion of two-year notes today, the first of three note sales this week.
“The economic numbers won’t improve,” said Tomohisa Fujiki, an interest-rate strategist in Tokyo at BNP Paribas Securities Japan Ltd., whose U.S. unit is one of the 18 primary dealers that are required to bid at the government’s debt sales. “The Fed is going to increase its Treasury purchases. Yields will fall into year-end.”
…
* BUSINESS
* SEPTEMBER 27, 2010
The Shrinking Banking Industry
After a Collapse, End of a Dream
By DAN FITZPATRICK
Steve Jonsson is still grappling with what it means to be branded a failure 11 months after the bank he founded went down.
“I basically aspired to be a banker since college,” said the 59-year-old. “Now I’m pretty much a marked person. It’s a little depressing, I guess is the best way to put it.”
Flagship National Bank, the Bradenton, Fla.-based financial institution founded in 1999, is one of 40 Florida financial institutions to fail since 2007. Mr. Jonsson admits to several mistakes before regulators seized Flagship, and amid his reflections is a look at how messy, interconnected and speculative lending became in that state amid a real-estate boom.
Atop his list of regrets are the loans he made to politically connected figures. Mr. Jonsson gave a $1.8 million loan to Florida state Sen. Michael Bennett.
Mr. Bennett’s status as an elected official gave Mr. Jonsson “comfort,” and he said he never suspected a state senator would let the loan go sour. The senator and a development partner had some land rezoned for medical use, but the building was never built.
Mr. Bennett, a member of the state’s Senate Committee on Banking and Insurance, said he offered to buy back the loan, but those discussions ended when the bank failed.
“I don’t think I’d ever lend money to a politician again if my life depended on it,” Mr. Jonsson said.
…
* BUSINESS
* SEPTEMBER 27, 2010
Banks Keep Failing, No End in Sight
Since WaMu Fell, 279 Lenders Have Collapsed; Lost Jobs, Curtailed Lending and the Big Get Bigger
…
“There’s a lot of pain out there, and there are a lot of people in the industry who won’t go back,” says Mr. Quantz, 41 years old.
The city of Clinton, Utah, may never be refunded $83,000, a portion of their cemetery-maintenance funds that wasn’t insured when nearby Centennial Bank failed without a buyer.
In nearby Ogden, Utah, Weber State University lost $100,000 in scholarship money that had been pledged by Barnes Banking Co., a 119-year-old local institution that failed in January. The scholarships, to be distributed in $1,000 increments, represented one quarter of in-state tuition, says a Weber State administrator. Earlier this month, the college restored the Barnes Banking Lecture Hall to its original name: “Room 110.”
Failed bank assets are now strewn across the banking system.
The FDIC is burdened with $38 billion of remnants it is trying to sell. They range from virtually worthless mortgaged-backed securities to office decorations such as plastic Christmas trees.
The tough times follow cresting prosperity in which banks with few loan losses chased customers into hot real-estate markets. When the subprime mortgage bubble burst, failures were concentrated among mortgage lenders such as IndyMac Bank, which left $1 billion of depositors’ money uninsured when it failed in 2008.
Various autopsies of expired banks all point to real estate as the primary cause. A tally by SNL Financial LC found that 94% of bank failures since 2008 had either residential or commercial real-estate as their largest category of delinquent loans. KBW says their riskier construction loans were 23% of their total portfolio, compared with 7.2% for the industry as a whole. The delinquency rate of commercial real estate was 13.5%, far above the current national average of 1.7%, SNL said.
The Imperial Capital Bank unit of Imperial Capital Bancorp in La Jolla, Calif., specialized in real estate. Like many other small banks, it extended beyond its home turf and made loans nationwide. The bank more than doubled its assets to $4.1 billion in the five years ended in 2008, according to an FDIC report. Then, the nine-branch bank purchased $826 million of mortgage-backed securities.
Real estate accounted for more than 95% of its loans, compared to 35% or less for its peers. The bank failed in 2009.
Some economists argue that, for all the damage, the failures’ impact on the economy was muted because the largest banks that failed or came close were quickly absorbed by other institutions or helped by the government.
“I don’t think enough banks have failed, or have been failing fast enough, to have a macro-economic impact,” says economist Edward Yardeni.
Surviving banks have raised more than $500 billion in new capital, reducing the risks of new failures by boosting rainy-day funds.
Failure can occasionally jumpstart lending. To conserve capital, regulators often block sickly banks from making new loans. When a bank buys the assets of the failed institution, that buyer often resumes lending.
Since acquiring operations of the failed Frontier Bank in Everett, Wash., last April, Union Bank N.A. has started originating loans in Frontier’s region in western Washington and Oregon. Though Union lowered interest rates on certificates of deposit, “We desire to grow our loan portfolio and are eager to find ways to make loans that make sense,” says Tim Wennes, chief retail banking officer for Union Bank, a unit of San Francisco-based UnionBanCal Corp.
Such consolidation also means the biggest are getting bigger: Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo hold 33% of all U.S. deposits, up from 21% in 2006, according to SNL Financial. That gives them more market power to squeeze out smaller competitors.
John Squires, who was chief executive officer of Old Southern Bank when it failed in March, protests that his larger competitors in his Orlando, Fla., neighborhood all survived thanks to heavy doses of government support, which allowed them to raise capital more easily.
“Absolutely unfair—the big boys have the clout,” says Mr. Squires. “Community banks are in jeopardy all over the country.”