October 26, 2010

Bits Bucket For October 26, 2010

Post off-topic ideas, links and Craigslist finds here




RSS feed | Trackback URI

401 Comments »

Comment by Hard Rain
2010-10-26 03:59:50

Once in a while to gauge how the best and the brightest are fairing during these dark days I examine the weekly Nantucket real estate transfers. Oddly, buyers identities are usually hidden behind a Delaware LLC or trust of some sort . Since it’s time consuming to dig through LLC papers I exclude the pedestrian buyer and focus only on those above five million.

I was concerned sales might be slowing since for 24 straight weeks, retail investors have been pulling tens of billions of dollars out of U.S. mutual funds. That had me worried that true pillars of our economy might be suffering. Thankfully that doesn’t seem to be the case, they still have our pensions. The five million plus sales from the past week include the usual deserving folk; a Morgan Stanley VP, two pension hedge fund managers and the biggest to a true defender of our Fifth Amendment rights.

30 Washing Pond sells for $20,000,000; listed in June for $23,950,000, it went to Purchase and Sale on July 28th and closed on October 13th”
The manager of LLC which bought the property is listed as one Elizabeth A. Tilney.:

“Schuyler Tilney, the Merrill managing director, “had a special relationship with Enron,” according to the New York Times. When called to testify before Senate committee examining Enron’s deals with the Bank in July 2002, Tilney invoked his Fifth Amendment right and refused to testify. Tilney was part of a group of Merrill executives who invested about $16 million in LJM2, one of the offshore partnerships set up by Fastow. These investments created a conflict of interest in Merrill’s ability to advise other investors with respect to Enron, say critics. Merrill earned about $40 million in investment banking fees from Enron between 1997 and 2001.
Tilney was a close personal friend and even vacationed with Enron CFO Andrew Fastow. His wife, Elizabeth A. Tilney was a senior Enron executive and personal friend of Ken Lay, who after receiving a letter from Enron whistleblower Sherron S. Watkins complaining about CFO Andrew Fastow’s partnerships and the possibility that Enron would “implode in a wave of accounting scandals,” directed Wakins to devise a crisis management strategy with Ms. Tilney (despite the fact that her husband had invested in one of those partnerships — LJM2). Ms. Tilney was also the marketing executive who in 1997 introduced the company’s new logo, the “crooked E. and set up the companies values campaign.

In another instance, Merrill Lynch was set to make a $17 million profit on a bogus energy trade that allowed Enron to book $50 million in profits. When one Merrill executive expressed ethical reservations, a second responded that the firm had “17 million reasons” for completing the deal, according to the SEC. Schuyler Tilney, a Houston-based Merrill banker who managed the firm’s relationship with Enron, later wrote in a memo to his colleagues that “we were clearly helping them make earnings for the quarter and year (which had great value in their stock price, not to mention personal compensation).”

Comment by Hwy50ina49Dodge
2010-10-26 06:39:17

When one Merrill executive expressed ethical reservations, a second 297 others responded that the firm had “17 million reasons” ;-)

Ho ho, hah hah, hehehehehehe, BwaHaHaAhHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! (Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb-thrower™)

 
Comment by Steve J
2010-10-26 07:57:29

Just goes to show that Madoff was doing it all wrong.

 
Comment by cactus
2010-10-26 08:51:02

Moral Hazard

or does that only apply to working folks who may walk away from a couple hundred thousand in their mortgage ?

so new neighbors move in with their 2 big dogs. left this am with one of the dogs running around on top of the roof of the next door duplex and the other one barking and jumping up on the fence. I would hate to be attached to this guy esp. if I owned the other half of the duplex.

Comment by Arizona Slim
2010-10-26 09:30:11

so new neighbors move in with their 2 big dogs. left this am with one of the dogs running around on top of the roof of the next door duplex and the other one barking and jumping up on the fence. I would hate to be attached to this guy esp. if I owned the other half of the duplex.

Alas, I have a lot of experience in dealing with neighbors who own barking dogs. Here’s what I’ve learned:

1. The authorities often advise that we, the hapless folks who are forced to listen to the barking, go and talk to the owners. Well, fat lotta good that does. You’d be better off if you had a conversation with a brick wall.

2. Anonymous reporting to law enforcement and/or animal control is a good thing to do. The sooner you do it, the better. Don’t let this situation fester.

3. Creating a video record of the dog(s) in action is also good. Especially when you’re in court in front of a judge.

Your video can be as simple as walking around your back yard, pointing your camera at the lovely flowers as the dog(s) are barking away on the other side of the fence. If you really want to give your neighbors some international fame, post your videos on YouTube.

4. Letters from lawyers add a certain, ahem, note of authority.

Take, for example, my yappy pug-owning neighbors, with whom I’ve struggled for years. Seems that controlling their dog is just to-o-o hard. Well, earlier this year, they got a letter from my attorney.

Among other things, my lawyer pointed out the existence of two businesses that they operate from home. One’s a day care. The other’s a livery van that plies the Nogales-Tucson-Phoenix route, and let’s just say that it’s not taking air passengers up to Sky Harbor Airport.

Any-hoo, their lawyer responded with all sorts of “couldn’t possibly be our dog” BS, and that’s SOP in these cases. Missing from their lawyer’s letter was any mention of the livery van business. Only the day care business was acknowledged.

Well, the dog kept right on barking, and then, on Tax Day, utter silence. I was delighted! They finally realized that I mean business!

Turns out that on April 15, there was a big Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on livery van services like the one my neighbors operate. And, wouldn’t ya know it, the parent company of their little operation was busted.

I think the sudden quieting of their dog — which I seldom here now — had something to do with that raid. Something about not wanting to call attention to themselves. Which annoying their lawyer-hiring neighbor has already done.

Comment by Hwy50ina49Dodge
2010-10-26 10:41:19

Good fer you Slimster! ;-)

There’s THOSE words again: “legitimate bidness” & “slave-traders”

“Today’s indictments allege a remarkable degree of coordination among alien smuggling organizations and shuttle company operators - all of whom shared a common currency - people and money,” U.S. Attorney Burke said. “According to the indictments, the defendants conspired to transport thousands of people across the border and onward to destinations throughout the United States - much of it playing out in the light of day under the guise of legitimate business.”

(Hwy once had to deal with Mary Meth & her band of MerryMen, they had 23 barking dogs (x2 with x3 legs but a howling set of x2 lungs), & even though x22 acres separated us, them dang dogs drowned out the coyotes)

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Arizona Slim
2010-10-26 11:16:35

Thanks, Hwy.

Although that ICE raid wasn’t anything that took place in this nabe, it sure was welcome news locally. Those shuttle companies have been ubiquitous for years. And more than a few of us local yokels have wondered about the legality of their operations.

As for the legit companies, one of my former clients owned Allstate Transportation Service here in Tucson. (She and her dad sold the company about 10 years ago.)

They were very committed to doing things the right way. As in, dealing with meeting planners who needed 15 vans to take conventioneers on day trips to Tombstone or the Desert Museum.

They also took pains to hire drivers with great safety records. And that’s something that the In Plain Sight-targeted companies don’t do. You’re lucky to be riding with someone who has an Arizona Commercial Driver’s License.

Needless to say, the legit operations don’t have anything good to say about the shuttle companies.

One more thing, and this relates to Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport: If you’re running vans-full of passengers in and out of that place, you have to have a special sticker on your windshield.

It’s renewable every year, and, trust me, Sky Harbor has lots of law enforcement types who check up on such things. The aforementioned shuttle companies don’t have such stickers.

 
 
Comment by Hwy50ina49Dodge
2010-10-26 10:57:11

go and talk to the owners. Well, fat lotta good that does.

Extra ’specially if they tend to look some what like this:

http://bitchspot.jadedragononline.com/realconservative/files/2010/08/skinhead.jpg

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Arizona Slim
2010-10-26 11:18:26

That’s a problem that more than a few of us peace and quiet-seekers have had to deal with. Which makes the whole notion of talking to your neighbors informally, or through the mediation that’s required in many areas, a joke.

BTW, Pima County no longer requires that people undergo mediation during the barking dog complaint process. However, a lot of other jurisdictions still do.

 
 
Comment by Kim
2010-10-26 11:13:06

Slim, I want you in my neighborhood!!!

(Even though we haven’t experienced any of the problems like you’ve had)

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Arizona Slim
2010-10-26 11:19:40

Well, you are welcome to invite me over any time you want. I’m a great houseguest — if something’s broken, I’ll fix it. Or if you have a home renovation project, I’ll join in.

 
 
Comment by ahansen
2010-10-26 12:43:05

I believe I pioneered the post-it-to-You-Tube strategy in 2005 when my repeated requests to the County dogcatcher to quiet her personal dog collection resulted in all kinds of County-led repercussions–against me. Not the least of which was my permanent banishment from posting to YouTube, for reasons I’ve never managed to get them to explain. (Why the goodlord invented multiple IP addresses, btw…)

My advice is to the bark-abused is to email the vids to the offender first to corroborate your claim, then when they still deny responsibility and you’ve posted them online, don’t send out a blanket email to the County supervisors, judiciary, and Resource Managers directing them to the 29 posts-with-extensive-commentary naming their employee in the title. I would also recommend taking the precaution of having your international viral fan base link to as many other video sites as possible so when YouTube pulls your ouvre, it still lives on in the interwebs. :-)

Post Script:
The offending individual, a house flipper as it turns out, went underwater along with the crash and both she and her barking dog collection were foreclosed out of town. The now-abandoned house sits, blissfully quiet, with only the wind blowing the creaking aluminum corral gate back and forth, back and forth, back and forth….

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Arizona Slim
2010-10-26 13:05:45

Post Script:
The offending individual, a house flipper as it turns out, went underwater along with the crash and both she and her barking dog collection were foreclosed out of town.

Which just points up something that’s common to most irresponsible dog ownership cases. If they’re irresponsible about how they take care of their pets, they’re irresponsible in other areas of life.

Such as how they run their business affairs. The neighbors who refused to quiet their pug have a shuttle van business that seems to be in a bit of federal hot water now. And I think the reason the dog is being kept so quiet *may* have something to do with that.

These folks have also become quite wary of making other noise that might catch my attention. Take, for example, the loud thumping that I heard a few weeks ago.

It sounded like someone was digging outside of my back yard, and yes, I’ll admit that my fence is getting on in years. But, if you’re going to take it down, it would be a good idea to talk to me first.

So, I went out into my back yard. Fence was fine. From the back yard of the pug’s residence, I heard rapid-fire chatter in Spanish. No thumping sounds.

I peered through the fence. Didn’t see any of them. But the sound of my feet crunching on the crushed rock in my back yard probably alerted them to my presence.

I can’t imagine what they were digging up (or burying) in their back yard. Something that they brought home via the shuttle? I dunno.

But I do know that there have been no further thumping sessions in their back yard.

 
 
 
Comment by Watching and Waiting
2010-10-26 10:00:51

If the dog has been left to run around on the roof, this would be an issue for the local Humane Society — animal cruelty. Call them.

 
Comment by aNYCdj
2010-10-26 10:42:12

Hmmmm Insurance fraud, dog falls off HIS roof…. dies, dog owner sues for not having neighbors roof secure from animals or people.

I would hate to be attached to this guy esp. if I owned the other half of the duplex.

 
 
Comment by ahansen
2010-10-26 12:21:38

Nice intro, Hard. Thanks.

 
Comment by ecofeco
2010-10-26 16:51:10

I was one of those who was close to the Enron implosion. I will NEVER again respect or trust ANY large corporation. Only a fool or an insider would.

Corporate capitalism is corrupt to the core.

 
Comment by Rain
2010-11-22 22:26:59

Completely false. Aside from the biased description of the Tilneys, you’re looking at the wrong property — the Tilneys bought a new house in Nantucket that month, but not Washing Pond, and not for $20 million. If you’re going to go to the trouble of sifting through other people’s business, might as well do it right. :)

 
 
Comment by combotechie
2010-10-26 04:43:04

“Futures, World Stocks Lower As Earnings Disappoint.”

This is the headline from today’s Yahoo Finance. It is much different from some previous day’s headlines when the market soared up a bunch of points.

The market is treated as a yo-yo and retail investors who repeatidly get sucked in and shaken out are also treated as yo-yos. These investors are what feeds the Wall Street Machine.

But it is too bad for Wall Street that the retail investor is running out of money (money powered by hope) to feed into this machine.

Look for lower volume and lower prices in the coming year or two as this depression thingy rolls on and the political scandals really begin to burst forth.

Comment by pressboardbox
2010-10-26 07:03:21

Dow 30k by next Christmas. Buy now or be priced-out forever.

With all the bad news of the day, if the Dow is down by more than an eensy-weeensy little bit by the end of the day I will be shocked.

 
Comment by mrktMaven FL
2010-10-26 07:20:26

Wall Street doesn’t need retail investors at the moment.

By buying assets at bid up prices, the Fed is gifting Wall Street profits and promises to continue gifting via interest on reserves and other clever schemes.

Also, don’t forget, the guys on WS are in the catbird seat and can reverse positions on a dime — they can go short before or as the market tumbles. Heck, they can build expectations beyond reasonable levels (2 trillion in QE) and induce downdrafts etc.

As long as the Fed and Treasury are doing Wall Street’s bidding, WS will have its way with Main Street.

Comment by ecofeco
2010-10-26 16:53:51

As I’ve said, the game is rigged, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make some money as long as you don’t get greedy and remember to be a little pilot fish when swimming with the sharks.

 
 
 
Comment by wmbz
2010-10-26 04:45:17

Warning signs of foreclosure crisis were ignored, says FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair ~ Washington Post

Sheila C. Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., said Monday that federal officials should have recognized “warning signs” in recent years that the mortgage industry was cutting corners in the foreclosure process.

Bair, one of the country’s top banking regulators, said both the federal government and the financial industry should have questioned how it was possible that banks were cutting their costs in foreclosing on homes without running afoul of standards.

“Sadly, those types of questions were not asked,” she said at a housing conference in Arlington.

Speaking at the same event, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said banking regulators plan next month to issue the first formal federal assessment of the latest foreclosure crisis, which has raised questions about whether lenders have been seizing people’s homes legally.

Comment by edgewaterjohn
2010-10-26 05:03:19

So NOW they’re concerned over corners being cut? I suppose that by seizing on this they think they’re off the hook for what was happening on the front end, eh?

Comment by combotechie
2010-10-26 05:11:34

“So NOW they’re concerned over corners being cut?”

Not quite NOW, more like AFTER those pesky elections are over and done with.

Comment by arizonadude
2010-10-26 05:27:07

Got to keep the squatters happy so the show up to vote.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
Comment by alpha-sloth
2010-10-26 05:55:46

If you guys could see past the horror of letting some FBs sit in their houses for a few extra months, you’d realize that this is how you nail the banksters. By not letting them, once again, break the law.

Show us the notes. Don’t have ‘em? Why? And why did you hire people to say you did have them? Because that’s a crime.

That’s how you bust people. Saying they were greedy jerks might make us feel good, and it’s probably true, but it’s not against the law. You’ve got to find actual laws they broke.

Investigations by 50 state AGs and countless private lawyers, which ‘foreclosuregate’ is bringing about, will be a great way to do this. This is how we open the door to everything they’ve done over the last few years.

As I’ve pointed out before, Watergate started out as an investigation into a ‘third-rate burglary’. But it didn’t stop there.

Comment by polly
2010-10-26 06:02:08

+1

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 06:05:13

“…you’d realize that this is how you nail the banksters.”

I certainly hope your faith in the United States of America is not misplaced. I have recently taken the impression that the banking sector operates above any rule of law, but I will happily stand corrected if evidence to the contrary surfaces.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by alpha-sloth
2010-10-26 06:27:40

I certainly hope your faith in the United States of America is not misplaced.

I’m not saying ‘mission accomplished’. I’m just saying let’s see where this leads. And my faith is in the ‘greed’ of the private lawyers, and the political ambitions of the 50 AGs. And the difficulty of covering up widespread crimes from so many different investigators.

 
Comment by pressboardbox
2010-10-26 06:33:08

There is no way “they” are going to “nail the banksters”. Nail the taxpayers and savers, yes.

Cops don’t get speeding tickets.

 
Comment by Hwy50ina49Dodge
2010-10-26 06:45:23

I certainly hope your faith in the United States of America is not misplaced.

verses:

The gravitational & physical punishment of personal & professional Mal-investment

Place your bets ladies & gentleman!…

 
Comment by polly
2010-10-26 06:56:33

My faith is in the fact that this really is a zero sum game. If the lawyers can prove all the bits and pieces and the terms of the original purchase agreements were properly written so the securitizers have to buy back the bad loans, then every penny of the money that has to be paid back has a home somewhere and a person who will be delighted to get it back. The pension funds (in the US and in Europe - remember the little Norwegian fishing village?), the university endowments, the insurance companies, etc. all would like a chance to add some of that cash to partially heal their own bottom lines. Oh, and the hedge funds that bought up this crud at pennies on the dollar. Nobody enforces legal rights like a hedge fund looking for a gigantic payoff.

By the way, my favorite outcome for this whole thing is that someone figures out that the loan notes were never really transferred to the bond trusts and can’t be now because the loans are not performing and the trust can’t accept them. A judge might just have to order the purchase price be repaid without even having to look into the quality of the original loans/sufficiency of the disclosure. Then it will be the sloppiness itself that causes the problem, not even the fraud. I really like that outcome, and it would be more efficient than bashing out the proof of the original loan issues.

My one worry is that someone will again get all hysterical that if we are too “mean” to the banks they will stop lending. Well, I thought we already proved that being nice to them didn’t get them to shove capital at the world, so I’m hoping that no one dares to pull this one out again. Or at least that it doesn’t work.

 
Comment by Housing Wizard
2010-10-26 07:01:20

I don’t think the court system could handle all the lawsuits
that would be necessary to right the wrongs . The real lawsuit should be that Wall Street loan Middlemen created a Ponzi-scheme in the loan markets / credit markets .You have to have deception and fraud every step of the way to create that degree of epic crash of this Ponzi-scheme that fueled the fake wealth creation of real estate market .

 
Comment by aNYCdj
2010-10-26 07:08:23

Well I don’t see them being nice and lowering interest rates or offering fixed rate cards with the money the fed gave them.

The Fed boxed themselves into a huge corner by allowing banks to offer only variable interest rate cards to new customers….that should not have happened.

And I wonder how many will be forced to give up their fixed rate and default when it’s time for a renewal card?

My one worry is that someone will again get all hysterical that if we are too “mean” to the banks they will stop lending.

 
Comment by Jim A.
2010-10-26 07:16:47

Polly, the problem with that plan is that the next step would be for the PTB (and Rep or Dem, wouldn’t make any difference) TARP the mortgage writer to keep the banks balance sheets from collapsing.

 
Comment by polly
2010-10-26 07:53:53

You can TARP a bunch of “AAA bonds that have lost a lot of value recently but I bet that will pass and they will turn out to be OK because after all, there has never been a time when real estate values went down overall in the US.” But can you really tell a bank, OK, get together Y hundred thousand of the worst mortgage notes that you were just forced to take back and repay the bond purchasers $X billion dollars and we will pay you the same thing for them even though everyone knows they are worth less than one quarter of that even with interest rates in the basement?

TARPing bonds is one thing but I think TARPing indivdual bad loans is something else entirely. The only thing left is more bad accounting tricks and there will be enough information out there after the law suits so everyone will know what the stuff is really worth whether they have to mark to market or not.

Can you tell I’ve spent too much time thinking about this?

 
Comment by Arizona Slim
2010-10-26 07:56:24

Can you tell I’ve spent too much time thinking about this?

I get that impression.

But keep on thinking, polly. There’s far too little thinking being done these days.

 
Comment by Jim A.
2010-10-26 08:10:36

Well I was using TARP as a synonym for bailout, which I understand is what alot of the money appropriated was used for, rather than for buying toxic assets which seems to have been the original plan.

 
Comment by In Colorado
2010-10-26 08:20:35

“Cops don’t get speeding tickets.”

Funny anecdote:

I was chatting with a guy who is a cop in our little burg. He told that a a friend of his, a sheriff’s deputy, was transporting a prisoner to Denver in a marked sheriff’s squad car.

He was pulled over by a state trooper and issued a citation for speeding on the interstate.

 
Comment by DennisN
2010-10-26 08:33:47

polly,

I think you are right - it’s nice to separate the separate causes of wrongdoing. As I mentioned the other day in re the LA Times story about that investigator, I see two pushbacks happening.

- The trusts will push back the mortgages onto the loan originators due to faulty assignments, and demand their money back.

- The loan originators will push back onto the fraudulent FBs who took out liar loans.

Unfortunately for the loan originators, they are the only deep pockets defendants in this group.

 
Comment by In Montana
2010-10-26 08:52:49

Hooray for the adversarial court system. For once.

 
Comment by potential buyer
2010-10-26 09:49:10

To say that banks are using bad accounting tricks to pad their books is to infer that the auditing companies are in collusion with them. That’s really stretching it. There’s no way any firm such as KPMG, etc. would do this.

OK, they may be bad, but they have to be legit.

 
Comment by polly
2010-10-26 10:22:18

The regulators gave them permission to abandon mark to market rules. It wasn’t collusion with the auditors so much as everyone was told officially that it was OK to lie for regulatory purposes. I don’t actually know if those rules are still in place or not.

 
Comment by Hwy50ina49Dodge
2010-10-26 10:59:46

He was pulled over by a state trooper and issued a citation for speeding on the interstate.

In the CSA, (Confederate State of Alaska) …that’s known as a Family BIL Feud. ;-)

 
Comment by michael
2010-10-26 11:41:01

another funny anecdote:

my brother is a special agent with the FBI. he was escorting a convicted felon to prison. a car on the side of the road opened their door into oncoming traffic.

the criminal was startled by my brother swirving to miss the woman and exclaimed “damn her…don’t she know that shit is ilegal?”

 
 
Comment by combotechie
2010-10-26 06:08:26

Yep. And as the scandals emerge from the darkness and into the light the stock market will go into a power dive just as it did during the Watergate days.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
Comment by whyoung
2010-10-26 06:14:24

And remember they convicted Al Capone of tax evasion.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by DennisN
2010-10-26 07:19:41

Recall that the National Firearms Act (NFA) was not originally so much a “gun control” law as a trap for gangsters. The NFA gave a short list of guns favored by gangsters (submachine guns, sawed-off shotguns, etc.) and made them subject to a burdensome transfer tax (excise tax). The cops could bust gangsters caught with these weapons who couldn’t show they paid the transfer tax.

 
Comment by Jim A.
2010-10-26 07:50:32

‘Course that tax hasn’t been raised, so at $200 it’s not very burdonsome anymore.

 
Comment by Steve J
2010-10-26 08:01:39

There was no real proof against Capone. The case hinged on his lifestyle vs. declared income.

Based on that, all of my neighbors are heading up the Mob.

 
Comment by polly
2010-10-26 08:20:21

If someone looked at your neighbors’ finances, they would probably be in debt up to their eyeballs. No need to be a mob boss when you haven’t paid for any of your stuff.

 
Comment by REhobbyist
2010-10-26 11:15:02

But they didn’t have American Express in those days, or HELOCs. Just bootlegging.

 
Comment by Steve J
2010-10-26 11:33:42

I think there were home equity loans back then as Texas outlawed them during the Depression. (since made legal)

 
Comment by SaladSD
2010-10-26 13:04:12

Anyone watching HBOs Boardwalk Empire? Interesting to see Al Capone as a young thug and the pervasive corruption. Ah, the good ol’ days…

 
 
Comment by Housing Wizard
2010-10-26 06:25:48

There were many crimes committed on loan applications during the origination of loans . The loan products were faulty also , just like some Car Company breaks were .Can you design loan products that will fail like car breaks and market them to the Secondary market like they were’t faulty and grade them AAA risk .What would we of thought if Toyota put bets on these faulty breaks
with a insurance company that they would fail so they could make a lot of money because that’s what was done with AIG regarding these faulty Ponzi-scheme loan securities .

We would be appalled at cars without breaks on the road ,yet
the Loan peddlers could reek their damage with faulty liar loans .
Loans are tied to property taxes also so the loan process and
appraisal can’t be based on faulty product,faulty demand, and liar loans and
false marketing of the securities to get the money in the first place .Where the loan bundles rated that they were a good investment based on a gamble of real estate going up because nothing else conforms to making good low risk loans ?

If faulty breaks could affect everybody on the road ,imagine all
car breaks being faulty and the mayhem that would cause and that’s what took place in the financial /loan markets .

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by polly
2010-10-26 08:46:46

The difference is that investment banks are allowed to make products (bonds) that are designed to fail as long as the disclosure was sufficient. I know you don’t want to believe it, but it is true. Hashing out the sufficiency of the disclosure is another matter. Of course, the “betting against them” part adds a lot of evidence when you are trying to prove how much the bank knew, but securities are subject to different rules than consumer products. They just are, and saying you don’t like it doesn’t change that fact.

Good grief. I thought people around here were generally opposed to judicial activism.

 
Comment by Housing Wizard
2010-10-26 18:45:41

Polly ,how could the disclosure be sufficient if it was rated AAA
investment grade and it was nothing but junk high risk loans and faulty loan products that the middlemen even got a discount on them because of the lack of quality.You could sell securities in a break company but if the breaks failed there would still be liable parties .

Your suggesting that Corporations or middlemen have no liability
on how they misrepresent risk or products or they are not liable if they create a Ponzi-scheme . If the MBS security -holders end up being liable I will be surprised .

 
 
Comment by jeff saturday
2010-10-26 06:40:57

“If you guys could see past the horror of letting some FBs sit in their houses for a few extra months,”

Posted yesterday

In 2002, a Boca Raton (Fla.) accountant named Joseph Lents was accused of securities law violations by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Lents stopped making payments on his $1.5 million mortgage.

The loan servicer, Washington Mutual, tried to foreclose on his home in 2003 but was never able to produce Lents’ promissory note, If his mortgage holder couldn’t prove it held his mortgage, it couldn’t foreclose.

Eight years after defaulting, Lents still hasn’t made a payment or been forced out of his house. Lents’ debt has grown to about $2.5 million, including unpaid taxes, interest, and penalties.

Lents is irked when people accuse him of exploiting a loophole. “It’s not a loophole,” he says. “It’s the law.”

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by alpha-sloth
2010-10-26 10:56:27

‘“It’s not a loophole,” he says. “It’s the law.”’

And he’s right. The fact that they can’t seem to produce this guy’s note at all makes me think there’s more to this than just the banks getting a little ahead of their paperwork. Either way, the banks are in trouble for their robo-liar-signing. But if they’ve lost complete track of the original notes, then that’s a far bigger story, with many more ramifications, and one that definitely needs to be investigated.

That’s how we nail ‘em.

 
 
Comment by LehighValleyGuy
2010-10-26 07:00:18

If you guys could see past the horror of letting some FBs sit in their houses for a few extra months, you’d realize that this is how you nail the banksters. By not letting them, once again, break the law.

OMG, we agree on something. Right on, alpha. Finally, you are advocating solving the problems using age-old principles of state property and contract law, instead of having Congress belch out another 1,000-page behemoth.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by alpha-sloth
2010-10-26 11:12:21

I think there’s a lot of agreement on both ends of the political spectrum about going after the banksters. You definitely see it on the left, and you seem to see it in some elements of the Tea Party (I think it was one of their early rallying points, before they were co-opted by the Glen/Sarah/Koch brothers bait-and-switch). That’s why the banksters are so desperately trying to invent other issues, or frame this issue, in ways that split the people.

I predict that next they’ll say demanding that the banks follow the rule of law is anti-business socialism. A give-away to the welfare queens.

 
Comment by SaladSD
2010-10-26 13:06:46

The bailouts have eliminated any leverage banks normally would have….unintended consequences are a bee-atch.

 
 
Comment by edgewaterjohn
2010-10-26 07:33:11

Well this all goes to show how mammoth this event is, the bankers started by taking their time with the foreclosures and they still ‘effed them up - and they’re still up to their necks in them to boot.

Some people are going to be staying in their houses regardless of what anyone does or doesn’t want - simply because the banks and politicians are not in control of the situation. They keep reacting and hanging on for dear life - hoping that some new technology or macro development materializes to get them off the hook.

Come on folks, doesn’t this appear to be turning into a good ‘ol free for all (chaos)?

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Ben Jones
2010-10-26 08:02:02

‘how mammoth this event is…the banks and politicians are not in control of the situation…doesn’t this appear to be turning into a good ‘ol free for all’

Years ago, I was living on an island off the Texas coast. There was a hurricane in the gulf of Mexico, but it was a ways off, not headed our way; it was sunny but a bit windier than usual. The Weather Channel was there though. They had that guy they always send to storms doing live feeds about every 15 minutes. I flipped over to see what they were saying, and here’s this guy holding the microphone, clutching his hood with his rain slicker billowing and he’s losing his footing in the wind gusts. He was probably a mile from where I sat; I was looking out the window at the sunshine, palm trees gently swaying. I happened to know exactly where he was, standing in the breeze-way of some resort towers. The wind off the ocean always gets concentrated between the towers. But a viewer would think the hurricane was gonna hit any minute, and this guy was certainly risking his life! Truth was, it never even rained.

I’ve gotta go. Houses to foreclose, you know…

 
 
Comment by Arizona Slim
2010-10-26 07:54:12

Show us the notes. Don’t have ‘em?

That can be enough to stop a foreclosure dead in its tracks. From a recent NYT story:

“For years, lenders bringing foreclosure cases commonly did not have to demonstrate proof of ownership of the note. Consumer advocates and consumer lawyers have complained about the practice, to little avail.

“But a decision in October 2007 by Judge Christopher A. Boyko of the Federal District Court in northern Ohio to toss out 14 foreclosure cases put lenders on notice. Judge Boyko ruled that the entities trying to seize properties had not proved that they actually owned the notes, and he blasted the banks for worrying ‘less about jurisdictional requirements and more about maximizing returns.’”

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by jeff saturday
2010-10-26 08:28:50

“Show us the notes. Don’t have ‘em?”

What would happen if on Dec. 7 when I go to the hearing to set the sale date of the house I am renting, my LL used the “Show us the notes” defence and it was granted by the judge, I then asked the judge not to make me pay rent because it could be my name on the note that they don`t have.

 
Comment by In Montana
2010-10-26 09:19:30

“Lenders and their representatives have sought to minimize the significance of robo-signing and, while acknowledging legal lapses in how they documented loans, have argued that foreclosures should proceed anyway. After all, the lenders say, the homeowners owe the money.”

This seems to be the sum total of the lenders’ argument. If so, they’re in a heap o’ trouble.

 
 
Comment by Lesser Fool
2010-10-26 10:07:03

Reminds me of how they nailed Al Capone.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 06:03:21

“I suppose that by seizing on this they think they’re off the hook for what was happening on the front end, eh?”

Pretty funny how the nation’s top banking regulators seemed abysmally oblivious while bloggers were left with the task of calling attention to reports on Central Valley ag workers earning $30,000 a year who qualified for $700,000 jumbo loans with which to financially hang themselves. Seems like the Fed is a little late to the party, no?

Comment by scdave
2010-10-26 07:23:55

Pbear, wmbz & others…Read Mauldin’s latest e-letter if you want to get real angry about these bandits…

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Steve J
2010-10-26 08:04:14

Did the guy who wrote that book use to post here?? Those stories sound familiar.

 
Comment by Hwy50ina49Dodge
2010-10-26 11:02:43

Tankxs, scdave

 
 
 
Comment by pressboardbox
2010-10-26 06:29:53

Fraud is ok when money is being made. Fraud is only bad if money and jobs are being lost. Case in point: Has a Madoff-type ever been busted when times were good and his “investors” were happy? No. Always happens only when the tide goes out.

 
 
Comment by Natalie
2010-10-26 05:34:50

“Bair, one of the country’s top banking regulators”. I am not sure what “top” means. She just happens to be one of the strongest proponents of mortgage principal reductions for people that leveraged themselves to the hilt, in an effort to keep the dream of a home purchase out of the reach of responsible homebuyers and cash out of the pockets of the people that sacrificed for it.

Comment by oxide
2010-10-26 05:43:39

Do you have a link for this little screed, Natalie? I would be interested if Bair truly said the she supports cram-downs for “people that leveraged themselves to the hilt,” or if she has some limits in mind and strings attached.

Personally, I’m on the side of strings and limits. And to be honest, I think the Obama Admin is on the side of strings and limits. HAMP was a “failure” for a reason. They touted the program, but how many FB’s truly walked away with the permanent (not the tiral period) government cheese? Yes, Obama & Co. were surprised at the number of FB’s who were swimming naked, but they didn’t loosen the standards on HAMP.

On a side note, I’m also curious about Elizabeth Warren’s view on cramdowns. Warren had a famous exchange with Tim Geithner, where she stressed foreclosures in totality, while Timmy Boy stammered something to the effect of “we can’t and aren’t going to save everybody.” Say what you will about Timmy, I think he gets a point for that.

Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 06:19:41

“we can’t and aren’t going to save everybody.”

The evidence from the HAMP program shows they could save a lot fewer than they believed they would be able to save. This in turn points to an abysmal failure to grasp the magnitude of the problem the HAMP was supposed to address.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by polly
2010-10-26 06:32:43

HAMP is a voluntary program where the banks get a few bucks from the government to subsidize their paperwork costs as a vague attempt to inventivise them to do something they really don’t like doing. The results are, as expected, not particularly exciting. As Ben has pointed out here several times, you can’t make something like this mandatory (outside of some sort of court proceeding) without abandoning about a thousand years of contract law.

Banks are congenitally terrified of loan modifications, in part because they have a knee jerk reaction that the market price for the property will always be better than what a “deadbeat” can afford if they just wait for a month or two and partly because they are terrified of being “played” by people who get a modification when they really can afford to pay.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 06:40:41

“The results are, as expected, not particularly exciting.”

Perhaps the results were as you expected, but the certainly did not live up to the advertisement.

 
Comment by Jim A.
2010-10-26 06:50:15

Banks are congenitally terrified of loan modifications, in part because they have a knee jerk reaction that the market price for the property will always be better…. So really not noticeably smarter than the FBs and their “wishing prices,” after all…. Arguably this is a case where smart and stupid get you to the same place. ISTR reading somewhere that the median debt servce POST MODIFICATION was 63% of income. So a high re-default level and further price declines would seem to be in the bag. That in turn would incentivise the banks to foreclose rather than modify. And it would incentivise them to sell quickly.

 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 06:32:48

HAMP was a “failure” for a reason. They touted the program…

Hmmm…

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Housing Wizard
2010-10-26 07:29:15

If the quality of loans were so bad that even a loan
modification can’t save the FB than what does that tell you about the original loan ?

During a mania people didn’t care what type of loans they went on because it was just a matter of getting the house
that had future value, It wasn’t about paying off a loan you could afford ,it was about having a asset you could sell short term for great gains or re-finance the loan and get more money.How can you save some flipper that bought 5 houses at peak market value ,or a cherry picker making 15 bucks a hour buying a 700 k house ? How can you save a person who lied on their loan application and inflated their income by 100% or 200 % and they
planned on getting rid of the property by the time the teaser rate went up or borrowers that engaged in cash-back fraud when they purchased the property ? How can you even save
honest borrowers that didn’t lie on their loan application but
are up-side down on their loan to value and can’t sell the property if they needed to move without forcing them to beg for a short sale ? What about the walk-a ways that could afford their payments put don’t choose to pay on a property that has gone down in value to the degree it has ,or they don’t want to bring the money to escrow to cover the short fall to pay the loan balance on the sale ?

It’s a dysfunctional real estate market to say the least ,but what can you say about the aftermath of a fraud fueled
real estate mania that was financed by a Ponzi-scheme .

 
Comment by Arizona Slim
2010-10-26 07:59:03

If the quality of loans were so bad that even a loan
modification can’t save the FB than what does that tell you about the original loan ?

It tells me that the original loan was unsustainable.

 
Comment by In Montana
2010-10-26 09:27:53

Has anyone here ever seen a story or TV news segment that featured a flipper or wannabe RE mogul as *poor homeowner* who just needs a helping hand? I sure haven’t.

 
 
Comment by Natalie
2010-10-26 06:46:48

Each year is a different twist. Read these, keeping the applicable year in mind, and tell me you dont get chills. One major difference with her proposals v. others is that she thinks taxpayers should share with the banks in losses associated with principal writedowns. Also read her answer as to whether this creates moral hazard, which evidences that she has no idea of what it means.

http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/the-home-front/2008/12/19/sheila-bair-we-need-foreclosure-mitigation-now

http://loanmodificationhomeownerresources.org/2009/12/13/fdic-chairman-sheila-bair-wants-to-force-banks-to-reduce-principal-for-homeowners-on-brink-of-foreclosure/

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by oxide
2010-10-26 08:31:16

Thank you for the links, Natalie!

The first link says nothing about blanket cram-downs, Bair does say that “If you document the income and meaningfully reduce the payment, you should improve your redefault rate.” In other words, somebody attached a String in the form of income. My guess would be that the extravagant buyers would be screened out based on income, which of course would reduce your redefault rate, likely by increasing the initial default rate.

The second link is a near-opinion piece which is likely to cherry-pick their quotes. The most inflammatory statements about neg-ams and principle reductions are NOT uttered by Bair herself, but by non-profit advocates. I don’t pay attention to non-profit advocates — they look for the sobbiest single mother to show on the news.

The most liberal provision from FDIC is this (not a direct quote from Bair): “Under the average loss-sharing agreement, the FDIC pays as much as 80 percent of losses on a residential mortgage up to a set threshold, with the acquiring bank absorbing 20 percent. Any losses exceeding the threshold are reimbursed at 95 percent of the losses booked by the acquirer.

It looks like there is a String in that there is a set threshold for FDIC reimbursements, AND the bad bank has to find another bank willing to take the rest of the loss. the 95%… I’m fuzzy. I don’t know if this provision ever became a real program, or if it was a simple floated idea.

 
 
Comment by Jim A.
2010-10-26 07:06:43

I think that the answer is that HAMP is the sort of insufficient and too late response that is typical in an unfolding catastrophe. When the poo really hits the fan, peope often just don’t realize how desprate the situation is, so their response is geared to a much smaller problem. “I smelled smoke, but I wanted to get my purse,” is the sort of thing you hear after club fires about the time just before all hell broke loose. That’s part of what made captain Sullenberger’s miracle on the Hudson so amazing. I’d wager that most pilots would have tried to return to the airport, and therefore crashed on a neighborhood. HAMP, the homebuyers credit and most of the other responses to the housing crash were predicated on the idea that if we just goosed the market a little bit, everything would be fine, and we could land back at the airport.

Bubble prices are NOT supportable, and much of the wealth that they represented is going to disappear. Since they weren’t paying much attention, the PTB didn’t realize just of stupid and unsupportable the loans and house prices got during the bubble. They instituted actions that might help people who were “a little underwater,” and “almost able to pay their bills,” without realizing how completly absurd and unsupportable the debt levels of the average FB were. There’s nothing wrong per se with having a bunch of band-aids around, but don’t expect to patch bullet wounds with them.

/rant

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 07:13:40

“…predicated on the idea that if we just goosed the market a little bit, everything would be fine, and we could land back at the airport.”

This idea was completely ludicrous from the perspective of anyone who had a clue, and any policy which was predicated on it was doomed from the start.

 
Comment by Jim A.
2010-10-26 07:19:42

PB–yep. I’m reminded of the beginning the the reimagined Battle Star Galactica. The PTB are saying “We’re at war.” But round here we’re saying “The war is over, we’ve lost.”

 
Comment by Arizona Slim
2010-10-26 08:02:40

But round here we’re saying “The war is over, we’ve lost.”

Point of history: After Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox, got his butt kicked by the Allies in North Africa, he came to the same conclusion. So, he tried to get a meeting with Hitler so that he could share his thoughts, and, maybe-just-maybe, get der Fuhrer and the Third Reich PTB to negotiate a truce with the Allies.

Hitler’s aides blew Rommel off. And Rommel never forgot the snub.

Fast-forward to the summer of 1944, a bomb went off near Hitler, but failed to kill him, and guess who was implicated in the plot. Rommel was forced to take poison a short while later.

 
Comment by In Colorado
2010-10-26 08:27:25

I’m reminded of the beginning the the reimagined Battle Star Galactica. The PTB are saying “We’re at war.” But round here we’re saying “The war is over, we’ve lost.”

IIRC it was Adama who was saying “we’re at war” while President Roslyn was saying “the war is over, we’ve lost”

 
Comment by Housing Wizard
2010-10-26 08:41:15

But, who pays for the cram-downs ? To the degree you would have to cram down a loan to be in line with true market value
now is eye-popping . The investors of loans (you know pension plans and what have you ) don’t want to pay for it ,the middle-men of loans don’t want to pay for it and the taxpayers really don’t want to pay for it . Foreclosures are the only way to clear the faulty loans ,otherwise everyone will default to get a
cram-down . The investors were conned into buying the notes
so if they can sue the Middlemen than some will recoup their loss that way .That’s why just giving the Wall Street Middlemen and Banks money bail outs or relieving them of their toxic loans by using F&F as a dumping grown wasn’t the answer because loss goes on the backs of the taxpayers .

They are trying to find solutions to the problem without regard to moral hazard or Contract Law . A foreclosure is suppose to be the remedy against a party that doesn’t pay and defaults .If your saying the taxpayers should pay for the loss because the loan market was fake and all contracts are void ,than thats one thing . Contracts that are conceived in fraud are voidable .

 
Comment by Jim A.
2010-10-26 10:31:12

Well the idea behing a cram down is that if the bank (servicer really) forecloses that money is gone anyway. The bond holder loses either way so you might as well save the high transaction costs of a foreclosure => REO => Sale. The problem ISN’T figuring out who takes the loss, that doesn’t change. The problems are:
1.) Without an arms length transaction, you’re dealing with an appraisers estimate of the value, and we all know that they’re all honest to a fault so that could never cause problems.
2.) The you’re relying on the same FB to make the new payments, and if house prices fall again you’re likely to have a re-default.

 
 
 
 
Comment by ecofeco
2010-10-26 16:55:05

They ALL saw it coming, but couldn’t push back from the table.

 
 
Comment by edgewaterjohn
2010-10-26 04:57:24

Wow, the IAR reports September sales data for Chicago is ugly - down just shy of 27% y-o-y for the city proper. The region and the state weren’t so hot as well with having declines well into the twenty percent range.

September 2010 was the weakest September for sales of this event by far, beating even 2008 by a considerable margin! Prices are also down, but this data suggests another leg down in prices is waiting in the wings.

Comment by REhobbyist
2010-10-26 06:19:50

Stay safe, today Edgewater. Quite a storm headed your way.

Comment by edgewaterjohn
2010-10-26 07:11:11

Thanks hobby! Just got in from fighting the wind on the outbound trip (not too bad yet) - but I doubt I’ll have to peddle at all on the way home!

 
 
Comment by Kim
2010-10-26 06:48:20

Love their use of the words “High Affordability Conditions”. LOL

Comment by edgewaterjohn
2010-10-26 07:20:03

That median price history leaves me breathless (~$267k to ~$185k). It’s exactly four years now since finding the HBB - and in 2006 even a 2% drop in prices was vigorously debated, and thought to be pretty much unthinkable for our town by many, many people. Viewed in the context of all the inventory added in the last two decades, last month was a real gut punch for the fans of reflation.

 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 09:50:03

“…data for Chicago is ugly…”

About to bottom out very soon, barometrically speaking.

Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 12:19:08

“barometrically”

That was a pun.

Comment by ahansen
2010-10-26 21:59:36

And a durn good’n Prof. I’m gonna appropriate it.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
 
 
Comment by WT Economist
2010-10-26 05:07:19

Interesting times in the bond market. Long term yields are at rock bottom levels due to fears of deflation. But TIPS yields are negative due to fears of inflation.

We know we are screwed, but we still don’t know how we are screwed. Instead of Golidlocks, we’re pinned down waiting to see which bear mauls us.

Comment by 2banana
2010-10-26 06:36:21

But TIPS yields are negative due to fears of inflation.

?????

TIPS are negative becuase of deflation.

And, of course, the government gets to decide how to measure inflation (that will be a story for another day when food/housing/energy prices are up 30% but inflation, as measured by the government, shows 2%).

Comment by Jim A.
2010-10-26 08:17:33

umm..If deflation hits, you’d be better with a stack of $100s than TIPS that have negative returns in a no inflation or deflationary market.

Comment by 2banana
2010-10-26 08:21:14

Obviously - some people feel differently and are buying TIPS at a -0.55%

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Jim A.
2010-10-26 09:31:04

Well the implication is that THEY are worried about high rates of inflation as measured by the CPI. If you’re worried about high CPI, buying TIPS at -.55% is a reasonable purchase, compared to locking in a fixed (and currently low) rate of return.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by jeff saturday
2010-10-26 05:19:13

Fannie Mae halts all foreclosure cases handled by David J. Stern

by Kim Miller
8:41 PM Monday, October 25, 2010

Fannie Mae said today it has halted all foreclosure proceedings that were handled by the David J. Stern law firm in Plantation, adding to a previous announcement that it would no longer send new business to the company.

According to spokeswoman Amy Bonitatibus, Fannie Mae has suspended all activity on cases with the Stern firm that are not already subject to a foreclosure pause by servicers.

“We are working closely with our regulator on this matter,” Bonitatibus said. “In instances where we learn that a firm is not adhering to our requirements or to applicable law, we immediately engage and take appropriate action, which may include suspending or terminating the firm, and notifying appropriate law enforcement and regulatory authorities.”

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 05:28:13

The Deal by Allan Sloan
Want to get away with murder? Become a bank.

GMAC and BofA have now resumed foreclosures in some states. By the time you see this, J.P. Morgan may have done so too.

By Allan Sloan, senior editor-at-large
October 26, 2010: 5:40 AM ET

FORTUNE — The biggest danger to the U.S. capitalist system doesn’t come from communists or community activists or left-wing academics. It comes from some of the nation’s biggest financial institutions. These companies, which helped create the financial meltdown that touched off the Great Recession, have now found yet another way to undermine the public’s faith in capitalism and markets: the foreclosure fiasco.

Even before the foreclosure problem appeared, the level of public distrust of our financial and political systems was approaching the pathological. It’s going to get even worse when the true lesson of this episode sinks in. To wit: If you screw up big-time when you deal with a giant bank, you’re toast. If the giant bank screws up when it deals with you, it gets a do-over.

Sure, many — probably most — of the people whose mortgages are being foreclosed got in trouble because they overreached or lost their jobs, not because anyone cheated them. But if we’re going to have rules, they ought to be binding on everyone. If I’m supposed to obey the law and pay my bills, the people I’m paying ought to have to obey the law too.

You miss a payment on your credit card or send it in a few days late, you get whacked. Forget to make a loan payment, your credit rating gets vaporized. But if a bank doesn’t do its job properly — for example, if you can’t get a knowledgeable and competent human on the phone to deal with a loan modification or a paperwork screwup because the bank is holding down back-office costs to save money — it ends up being your problem, not the bank’s.

Comment by Hwy50ina49Dodge
2010-10-26 07:58:35

But if a bank doesn’t do its job properly,… it ends up being your problem

But if a bank,… / phone Co. / electric Co. / Hospital / Drug Co./ real estate/escrow agent / Airline Co.,..doesn’t do its job properly — it ends up being your problem ;-)

Comment by lavi d
2010-10-26 12:36:35

But if a … phone Co…doesn’t do its job properly — it ends up being your problem

I’ve always thought that it would be wonderful to give the phone company a 10-digit vendor number and then, when they called to ask why I hadn’t paid my phone bill, make them punch the number in - twice - and then put them on hold for twenty minutes and then mysteriously “lose their call”.

One can dream…

Comment by Hwy50ina49Dodge
2010-10-26 12:51:16

1-800-382-5968 ;-)

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
 
Comment by Steve J
2010-10-26 08:13:39

Vote with you feet people.

That’s how I handle it.

Comment by In Colorado
2010-10-26 08:32:27

“Vote with you feet people.”

Sometimes the options are limited or nonexistant.

Comment by ecofeco
2010-10-26 17:00:20

Sometimes?! :lol:

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
Comment by polly
2010-10-26 08:37:28

Even when you vote with your feet you don’t always get great service. I had to call USAA about a year ago because a check showed up on my account that I knew wasn’t mine. I called them up to tell them - figured it would be a 5 minute phone call tops. I ended up on the phone for nearly an hour. Turns out the gentleman who originally deposited the check used his member number, not his account number on the check and his member number was the same as my account number. But it took a while to figure this out and they told me I had to stay on the phone while they a) figured it out, b) found someone who knew what the rules were for fixing it and c) found someone even more important who had the authority to fix it. I stayed on the line because, given his member number, the guy was clearly an elderly veteran and I didn’t want him to end up bouncing a check, but I was a little pissed at USAA.

Hmm…maybe that is an example of competence on the part of the bank. I certainly don’t think Citi or any of the others could have handled it better. I just wished they could have e-mailed me a script I could have read giving them verbal permission to reverse the deposit so I didn’t have to wait on the phone the whole time. I’m sure they were recording the phone call. It would have been crazy not to.

Comment by GrizzlyBear
2010-10-26 22:20:46

That’s a ridiculous amount of time to handle that. I used to work for B of A (blech). USAA should have been able to look at a copy of that deposit item, verified his name and cross referenced his account number, and had you off the phone in less than 5 minutes, thanking you for bringing it to their attention.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 05:31:53

Sex, Drugs, and the Subprime Meltdown

— Jay Mallin/Zumapress.com

Author Michael W. Hudson on the fraud-riddled industry that fueled America’s biggest housing bubble.

— By Andy Kroll

Tue Oct. 26, 2010 3:00 AM PDT

“Foreclosuregate,” as the latest horrible housing mess to befall the US is now being called, is yet another aftershock from the financial earthquakes of 2008 and 2009. But despite dozens of books chronicling Wall Street’s collapse, few authors have charted the breathless rise and spectacular fall of the subprime mortgage industry behind the catastrophe.

Investigative journalist Michael W. Hudson’s new book, The Monster: How A Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Lenders Fleeced America—And Spawned A Global Crisis, does just that. A staff writer at the Center for Public Integrity, Hudson gives subprime the full treatment it deserves, tracing the industry from its birth—in the ashes of the savings and loan crisis—to its implosion, decades later.

Comment by Hwy50ina49Dodge
2010-10-26 08:04:40

Tankxs! Mr. Bear

 
Comment by butters
2010-10-26 08:19:31

I like Michael Hudson but at this time I am only interested in the “sex” chapters.

 
 
Comment by wmbz
2010-10-26 05:41:07

Orange Growers Fall Victim to Property Bust ~ WSJ

As if the real-estate bust hadn’t wreaked enough havoc on Florida, farmers say abandoned lots left behind by would-be developers have become a breeding ground for a plague that is killing thousands of the state’s orange trees.

A type of tiny lice known as the Asian citrus psyllid has made its home in the orchards, spreading a disease known as citrus greening, or yellow dragon disease, which causes trees to produce shriveled, bitter oranges before killing them. Since being spotted in 2005, the disease has spread to all parts of the state. And with no known cure, citrus greening is threatening to cripple a $9 billion-a-year industry that supplies 90% of U.S. orange juice.

“It’s been one uppercut after another,” said Jackie Burns, interim director of the Citrus Research Education Center in Lake Alfred, Fla., which has studied the outbreak. She said she has no doubt that “grove abandonment” has helped spread the disease.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says millions of acres of crops have been devastated by the disease in the southern U.S.

Comment by oxide
2010-10-26 05:48:30

This is true. My local nursery had to order their Meyer lemon trees from California because Florida is infested. The guy in the nursery said that Florida citrus growers refused to cut down their orchards. They would rather squeeze out one or two more crops than to prevent the spread of the disease that would destroy the trees anyway.

I noticed in my local grocery store that oranges are being shipped from South Africa. South Africa? Why do we need oranges from South Africa? Are US oranges too expensive these days? We’re freaking offshoring everything these days!

Comment by aNYCdj
2010-10-26 06:52:43

OX:

My Foodtown brand of apple juice states: concentrate from China

Comment by Elanor
2010-10-26 09:11:46

Because we just don’t grow enough apples here in the U.S. :roll:

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
Comment by Hwy50ina49Dodge
2010-10-26 12:44:28

concentrate from China

Who supplied the the water?

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
Comment by GrizzlyBear
2010-10-26 22:24:52

Most apple juice from concentrate is coming from China nowadays. There are only a handful of domestic brands which are produced here. I don’t drink it anymore. I don’t trust ANY food from China.

I was checking out some frozen fish the other day which is a US brand. The packaging showed it was from Singapore. Sorry, not interested. I’m done with this foreign food crap.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
Comment by Bill in Carolina
2010-10-26 07:02:04

Oxide, ever think that maybe the U.S. crop isn’t ripe yet? They don’t ripen year-round.

That occasional peach you see in a grocery store in March wasn’t grown in Georgia or South Carolina.

Comment by oxide
2010-10-26 08:43:20

Maybe so, but I never remember seeing South Africa on an orange growing up. It was always California and Florida. Have we always had South African oranges and they only recently had to label them?

On a side note, those crops do take some time to ripen. My lemon tree blossomed in May but three three lemons that survived are still just sitting on the tree. I think they’re ok, just slow.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by REhobbyist
2010-10-26 11:21:10

That’s the great thing about growing citrus - they stay ripe on the tree for months, unlike apples or cherries. So you can go grab one fresh when you need it.

 
Comment by ecofeco
2010-10-26 18:34:12

They do? I used to live in the middle of an orange grove. It’s more like a few weeks, but that’s good enough.

 
 
 
 
Comment by combotechie
2010-10-26 05:53:55

“And with no known cure, citris greening is threatening to cripple a $9 billion-a-year industry tht supplies 90% of U.S. orange juice.”

Expect the price of orange juice to soar.

“She said she has no doubt that ‘grove abandonment’ has helped spread the disease.”

Grove abandonment was no doubt due to financial concerns, probably due to the lack of money available to keep the groves from being abandonded.

Sooooo, here is a case where the lack of money - as in DEFLATION - will ultimately cause a rise in prices - as in price INFLATION.

Less is more: Less money leads to less product being offered for sale which means more money needs to be in hand to buy that product.

Comment by cactus
2010-10-26 09:08:51

Orange groves were pulled up in Fillmore CA and replaced with nursery stock, trees and stuff for all the new homes that needed landscaping …….

Comment by Hwy50ina49Dodge
2010-10-26 10:30:29

Oh My! Ojai!;-)

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
Comment by ecofeco
2010-10-26 18:38:54

Lack of money is called, “being poor” or having less income.

“Deflation” is the lowering of prices due to not being able to sell to people who are poorer.

The only things “deflating” in this economy are wages and RE.

 
 
Comment by pressboardbox
2010-10-26 06:44:42

I don’t see the problem. We can just import orange juice from China.

Comment by Jim A.
2010-10-26 08:18:54

Gee if they adulterate milk with melamine, I wonder what they’d adulterate orange juice with, sugar water and battery acid?

 
 
 
Comment by 2banana
2010-10-26 05:41:33

I can’t remember - is GMAC part of ObamaMotors or was it spun off to Ally Bank?
—————–

Short Sales Resisted as Foreclosures Are Revived
New York Times | 10/26/10 | Michael Powell

PHOENIX — Bank of America and GMAC are firing up their formidable foreclosure machines again today, after a brief pause.

But hard-pressed homeowners like Lydia Sweetland are asking why lenders often balk at a less disruptive solution: short sales, which allow owners to sell deeply devalued homes for less than what remains on their mortgage.

Ms. Sweetland, 47, tried such a sale this summer out of desperation. She had lost her high-paying job and drained her once-flush retirement savings, and her bank, GMAC, wouldn’t modify her mortgage. After seven months of being unable to pay her mortgage, she decided that a short sale would give her more time to move out of her Phoenix home and damage her credit rating less than a foreclosure.

She owes $206,000 and found a buyer who would pay $200,000. Last Friday, GMAC rejected that offer and said it would foreclose in seven days, even though, according to Ms. Sweetland’s broker, the bank estimates it will make $19,000 less on a foreclosure than on a short sale.

“I guess I could salute and say, ‘O.K., I’m walking, here’s the keys,’ ” says Ms. Sweetland, as she sits in a plastic Adirondack chair on her patio. “But I need a little time, and I don’t want to just leave the house vacant. I loved this neighborhood.”

Comment by Kim
2010-10-26 05:59:00

“She owes $206,000 and found a buyer who would pay $200,000.”

GMAC is plain foolish for turning down that deal. As far as bank losses on short sales go, that’s one of the smallest losses I have seen!

Comment by CrackerJim
2010-10-26 08:56:26

I think there is more to the story than what Ms. Sweetland says.

 
Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 09:02:09

There’s probably mortgage insurance on her mortgage.. and the bank can’t collect it if they allow the short sale. So it might be more profitable (or less costly) to let it foreclose.
I have no doubt the bank ran the numbers..

 
 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 05:42:29

After the illegal immigrant domestic story and now this, one has to wonder what other skeletons might lie hidden in Meg’s walk-in closet.

Meg Whitman’s son, Griffith Harsh V, accused of sexual assault of Princeton classmate: report

By Corky Siemaszko
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, October 25th 2010, 11:14 AM

Comment by wmbz
2010-10-26 06:39:51

I wonder if Meg was kin to Slim Whitman, he had a great voice. She does look a good bit like him except no mustache, that you can see.

Comment by REhobbyist
2010-10-26 08:38:17

LOL, wmbz, I couldn’t let that one go by!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXULwgzezUg

Comment by wmbz
2010-10-26 10:40:54

You gotta love old Slim! He could really shift gears on the octave scale.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Arizona Slim
2010-10-26 11:20:49

I wish I could sing like that.

 
 
 
 
Comment by aNYCdj
2010-10-26 07:01:29

she is one of the oldest looking 54 year olds i’ve seen….

Comment by Arizona Slim
2010-10-26 08:05:27

Agreed. I’m about to turn 53, and I can’t believe that Meg’s only a year-or-so older.

 
Comment by butters
2010-10-26 08:26:01

May be it’s the guilt of cheap money and winning a lottery at ebay.
Most people can’t process that kind of fame and money that comes so suddenly.

Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 09:10:55

winning the lottery?

Whitman joined eBay on March 1998, when it had 30 employees[17] and revenues of approximately $4 million. During her time as CEO, the company grew to approximately 15,000 employees and $8 billion in annual revenue by 2008.[18] Originally, when Whitman had joined eBay, she found the website as a simple black and white webpage with courier font. On her first day, the site crashed for eight hours.[19] She believed the site to be confusing and began by building a new executive team.[16] Whitman organized the company by splitting it into twenty-three business categories. She then assigned executives to each, including some 35,000 subcategories…

yeah.. she’s just an idiot who hit the lottery..

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by butters
2010-10-26 09:50:53

I didn’t call her an idiot. But, she still own the lottery, the dot-com lottery.

 
Comment by Hwy50ina49Dodge
2010-10-26 10:19:30

Whitman organized the company by splitting it into twenty-three business categories ;-)

eBray Eeyore customer Service #:

1-800-no one here to speak with you-EVER!

Please press 1 if you have a problem with that…
Please press 2 if you desire a immediate response…

(Hwy presses 2) CLICK! …humming dial tone.

 
 
 
Comment by REhobbyist
2010-10-26 11:22:25

I don’t know, dj, unlike me, she still has hair!

 
 
Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 09:08:16

hmm.. one would think Whitman’s son has to beat the girls off with a stick.. as do the other big-money heirs and heiresses.

Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 11:25:25

“…has to beat the girls…”

Isn’t that sort of thing against the law on your planet, Joey?

 
Comment by In Colorado
2010-10-26 11:41:33

That may be so, but with guys like that sometimes the girl they can’t get is the girl they want.

Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 12:58:56

yeah.. i bet you see it all the time on teevee..

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by In Colorado
2010-10-26 13:20:04

I’d say its human nature to want what you can’t have.

As for teevee, I try not to watch it, especially the network junk.

 
Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 13:47:10

“guys like that”?
how the hell do you know what guys like that feel or how they think? (as if they all think the same way)

Maybe if you stood to inherit billions, you’d feel OK about raping someone, and you project that on him?

 
Comment by In Colorado
2010-10-26 14:25:39

“how the hell do you know what guys like that feel or how they think?”

I’ve met a few over the years.

 
Comment by In Colorado
2010-10-26 14:33:53

Why are you getting so bent out of shape Joey? Was a nerve hit?

Anyway, to clarify: In my younger years I had the opportunity to hobnob with some really wealthy folks ( I went to school with their kids). I saw this “attitude” A LOT from the zillionaire heir crowd.

 
Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 14:37:15

You forgot to mention you are a very good judge of character.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 15:33:31

“…you’d feel OK about raping someone,…”

Or at least believed that if you did it, money would rain down to save your arse.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 15:34:39

“You forgot to mention you are a very good judge of character.”

… ditto …

 
Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 15:44:57

i just get a little weary of the incessant prejudice against anyone who has money, or anyone who makes money, or who’s somehow connected to money, or connected to business or banks or anything big-money related..

Why do you people live in the USA? We are the money capital of the world! We are all about money. Money is premier.
People who have it reign supreme. Americans do not feel guilty about being wealthy. To the contrary, we admire big money. We the people pool our money, and bribe our govt so they will do what our particular special interest wants them to do. Money is unabashed power. This is America.

If it doesn’t suit you, get out. Go find a commie country where you’ll be happier. Stop trying to change America.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2010-10-26 16:20:14

If it doesn’t suit you, get out. Go find a commie country where you’ll be happier. Stop trying to change America.

You’re funny when you get mad.

 
Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 16:45:15

rio.. you already found your spot, so it doesn’t apply to you. May you live happily ever after.

 
Comment by ecofeco
2010-10-26 18:49:54

It’s not the money, it’s the BAD attitude and criminal hypocrisy that comes with.

“Nobleese oblige” is not just some “good idea”, but a very practical way for the rich and powerful to not get the “little people” mad at them and then find themselves on the wrong end of “uh oh.”

Nobleese oblige is dead in this country. The few exceptions aren’t enough to outweigh the criminal abuse by the rest.

 
Comment by ecofeco
2010-10-26 18:52:17

“If it doesn’t suit you, get out. Go find a banana republic where you’ll be happier bribing the government to let you do whatever want. Stop trying to change America.”

Fixed that for you.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2010-10-26 19:35:09

rio.. you already found your spot, so it doesn’t apply to you. May you live happily ever after.

Thank you Joey. But from the one-sided, talking point inanities that you parrot, I think that what I’ve “found” in life would just confuse you or in the least anger your sponsor.

 
Comment by Housing Wizard
2010-10-26 20:31:52

Joey ,it’s all about a fair game and a fighting chance because the rule of law and Justice applies to everyone . As it stands now the rich team is cheating and the poor team got a
fleecing . The American way is giving a fair chance to the individual ,not padding the pockets and sitting up stacked decks for the rich .Capitalism has to be regulated or the powerful
will gain unfair advantage and Society will suffer as a whole
by this mis-allocation of resources as we are bear witness to
the meltdown of the housing Ponzi-scheme .

 
 
 
 
Comment by Hwy50ina49Dodge
2010-10-26 10:27:07

“…there wasn’t enough evidence to expel Harsh, who took a year-long leave of absence” ;-)

So, he had to stay home in his room, sit in the corner with an logo eBay dunce-hat on, and play with his Wii ’till bed-time uh?

Comment by evildoc
2010-10-26 12:51:29

his Wii Wii

 
 
Comment by ecofeco
2010-10-26 18:41:08

Offspring of wealthy parents has a big ego and entitlement issues?

Whooda thunk?

 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 05:46:41

“Harsh” sounds like a real sweetheart, doesn’t he?

Rape accusation against Whitman’s son kept quiet
October 23, 2010 5:34 pm

The son of Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman was accused of sexually assaulting a female classmate while a student at Princeton University–a school that lists Whitman as one of its most generous donors.

Critics contend that the incident has been downplayed by university officials, unwilling to embarrass the former e-Bay CEO who has donated more than $30 million to the Ivy League school.

Griffith Rutherford Harsh V was never arrested or charged with a crime in connection with the 2006 incident. Princeton dealt with it quietly and internally, ultimately allowing Harsh to continue his education. He graduated with the class of 2009, three years after his rape accusation—and two years after the inauguration of Whitman College, the residential living complex his billionaire mother donated $30 million to help build.

A young woman, a classmate of Harsh, told university officials that she awoke one morning with a black eye, bruised and bloodied face, and no memories from the previous night. Harsh admitted to having sex with the woman, but insisted it was consensual, and that her injuries had come from falling down.
..

Comment by REhobbyist
2010-10-26 06:28:50

If my sons had indulged in Griffin Harsh’s purported behaviors, I doubt that they would now be working for Mitt Romney’s son’s private equity firm, as Harsh is. The new American dynasties.

Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 06:49:30

Whitman’s husband suddenly in media glare
October 07, 2010|By JULIET WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer

Dr. Griffith Harsh, the Stanford University neurosurgeon and husband of Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, stood quietly by his wife’s side last week as she vehemently denied knowing the family’s housekeeper of nine years was an illegal immigrant.

As the couple was peppered by questions before the glare of dozens of cameras, Harsh never said a word. By the end of the day, however, the media spotlight was trained on the publicly reticent doctor.

Throughout their 30-year marriage, Harsh has quietly followed his own professional and intellectual pursuits as Whitman, the billionaire former chief executive of eBay, took on high-profile corporate roles.

But their experiences did not prepare them for the public scrutiny of a close governor’s race, and the heightened focus on their personal lives that burst around them last week.

Until then, Whitman had succeeded in keeping Harsh and the couple’s two adult sons, Griff Jr. and Will, out of her race for governor, speaking only generally about them in sound bites and anecdotes that complement her campaign narrative.

She has not issued the standard flier picturing her smiling family. Her sons have not appeared on the campaign trail. Griff Harsh V works for Tagg Romney, the son of the former Republican presidential candidate and Whitman friend Mitt Romney, and Will is a senior at Princeton. Whitman’s husband sometimes attends speeches when he is not performing surgeries at Stanford Medical Center, where he is on staff.

“Griff has always had an understated, modest demeanor,” Whitman writes in her book, “The Power of Many,” which is about corporate success. “He dislikes anything ostentatious or showy, and he is very serious about living an authentic life focused on things that matter — family, faith, friends, health, the stewardship of land, important ideas.”

Comment by REhobbyist
2010-10-26 11:26:47

Griff Harsh was a young assistant professor neurosurgeon when I was a resident. Quiet and not nice.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Arizona Slim
2010-10-26 11:47:16

Was he one of the boys who was walked out on by the author of Walking Out on the Boys?

 
 
Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 13:09:59

Californians don’t deserve effective, proven leaders who know how to handle business, jobs and money. They deserve just what they have, and worse.

Go ahead. Elect the old hippy and embrace the tax-n-spend welfare state. I really don’t care.. no skin off my nose.. but at least be honest about it.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 13:22:06

“to handle business (Goldman Sachs), jobs (illegal immigrant domestics) and money (to buy justice)…”

 
Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 13:43:18

i see you can’t be honest about it..

but having no conscience, it doesn’t bother you. All that matters is dollars in your pocket. You’re no better than what you accuse GS of being.

 
Comment by measton
2010-10-26 14:28:07

Goldman Sachs whose executives have donated $100,000 to the Whitman campaign, manages a part of Whitman’s fortune. As CEO of eBay, Whitman earned approximately $1.78 million resulting from a practice known as spinning (IPO) whereby executives who did business with Goldman Sachs could reap profits by getting early deals before the public on hot IPOs offered by the bank. While Whitman was on Goldman’s board, she served on the compensation committee, which approved multi-million dollar bonus packages for then-CEO Henry Paulson and his top aides. Public domain documents reveal that Whitman has a multi-million dollar stake in 21 different investment funds managed by Goldman.Given Goldman’s major investments in California state finances, all these various ties to Goldman Sachs have led to considerable controversy

Spinning = You give me your inside information and I’ll hand it to some other executives to profit from. In exchange we’ll give you some inside info and early spots on IPO’s guaranteed to go to the moon.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2010-10-26 14:33:13

but having no conscience, it doesn’t bother you… You’re no better than what you accuse GS of being.

Gosh, I don’t think he deserved such bile. Just relax Joey.

I know the world seems very confusing, scary and disjointed when Goldman people can’t buy everything they want, but sometimes, somethings are just not for sale.

 
Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 15:31:05

IPO’s… “guaranteed to go to the moon”.

Again with the guaranteed moon shot?

Make up your mind. Either you believe investments can be guaranteed, or can go to the moon, or that they can’t.

They can’t do either, of course, and saying some do in order to support a political POV is ludicrous.

Anyway, the undecideds are few and far between. You anti-Whitman types are wasting your breath.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 15:35:48

“…but sometimes, somethings are just not for sale.”

Like the California governor’s office, for example.

 
 
 
Comment by butters
2010-10-26 08:41:01

The Duke case has totally changed my mind in regards to incidents involving college kids. I don’t want to be cruel but I bet the girl got a nice payout for not filing reports. May be that was her intention all along.
In my college days I have seen few of these girls who had no idea where they ended after a few drinks. So there it goes…..

Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 08:52:15

Fine, but what about the bruises, and the other girl with the broken ankle? Hard to sweep all of that under the rug, no?

P.S. I noticed Meg will address a women’s conference today.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 09:44:59

Can’t help but wonder how Meg might respond if the subject of the treatment of sex criminals comes up?

 
Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 10:03:34

jeeze bear..

with all your anti-Whitman mudslinging, a person might think you had something to lose if she gets elected, like a cushy govt pension.. or something.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 10:54:20

“…something to lose…”

I have a teenage daughter, and I have problems with the appearance that sex crimes may have been covered up by money flows.

Do you think sex crimes are no big deal, Joey?

 
Comment by aNYCdj
2010-10-26 11:07:08

women want equal rights well…… if someone knocked your cap off and said FU, you’d hit him back…..

fair is fair

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 11:21:28

“you’d hit him back….fair is fair”

And break his ankle? Even if I was lots bigger than him (or her)?

I think not. What do you think, Joey?

And by the way, how do you feel about folks who have so much money that they can buy off the law? Is this sort of thing OK, provided one of the parents is a former Goldman Sachs board member?

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 11:37:20

“Do you think sex crimes are no big deal, Joey?”

crickets

 
Comment by michael
2010-10-26 12:37:40

“And by the way, how do you feel about folks who have so much money that they can buy off the law?”

they should get very long illustrious carreers in the Senate…if they have money that is.

 
Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 12:55:38

fess up bear..

Why don’t you want her as governor? What’s the real reason?

How much money might it “cost” you (money extracted from hard working private sector middle class paychecks)?
Afraid you’ll lose your share of the $100 billion in govt employee pensions?

money grubbers.. they come in all sizes..

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 13:20:09

“Why don’t you want her as governor?”

1. Goldman Sachs ties.
2. Inconsistency between her stance on illegal immigrant workers in her own home versus everywhere else.
3. Questions in my mind about whether she might have bought justice for her son.

Any questions, little Joey?

 
Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 14:10:35

questions..
I just asked four. You answered one. So, you can’t have scored higher than 25% on that test.

Teacher, grade thyself.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2010-10-26 14:34:44

Why don’t you want her as governor? What’s the real reason?

Because it will make you really wonder about stuff?

 
Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 14:44:39

rio.. lay off the cachaça for a while.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2010-10-26 16:32:05

cachaça

Unique stuff but I’m not sure if I even like it. It’s made from sugar as is rum but most rum is made from molasses and is “mellower”.

I don’t think cachaca will ever really catch on in the USA but a bottle that costs $3 here costs $20 in California.

 
Comment by ecofeco
2010-10-26 18:58:02

“1. Goldman Sachs ties.
2. Inconsistency between her stance on illegal immigrant workers in her own home versus everywhere else.
3. Questions in my mind about whether she might have bought justice for her son.”

And let’s not leave out that despite the growth of eBay, it’s a steaming pile of crap.

 
 
Comment by REhobbyist
2010-10-26 11:30:25

It’s funny how men and women see the Duke case differently. I don’t think they raped her. On the other hand, they hired a stripper to come to their house. The media treated them like they were altar boys, not the entitled yahoos that they are. And don’t forget the case this past spring of the Duke lacrosse player who murdered another student.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Arizona Slim
2010-10-26 12:37:22

And don’t forget the case this past spring of the Duke lacrosse player who murdered another student.

ISTR that the murderer was a University of Virginia student. As was his victim.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2010-10-26 14:37:01

The media treated them like they were altar boys, who hired a stripper…

 
 
Comment by ahansen
2010-10-26 22:18:18

V.
Where are you now when we really need you?

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
Comment by ecofeco
2010-10-26 18:54:39

Nothing new there REhobbyist.

It’s the history of every aristocracy that ever existed.

 
 
Comment by aNYCdj
2010-10-26 07:17:38

Hey its college, back in the old days women took full responsibility for doing drugs, drinking till they passed out and wound up in some strange mans bed.

Comment by Steve J
2010-10-26 08:21:07

Now a days it’s different. You can change your mind after the fact.

Remember, the police and DA have rules they have to follow. Even if there is not enough for an official investigation, Universities can still procede on the basis of guilty until proven innocent.

 
Comment by Elanor
2010-10-26 09:21:19

That was before the rise in availability of drugs that could be slipped into someone’s drink unknown to the drinker. Of course all college students are now aware of this practice and should take precautions.

Comment by REhobbyist
2010-10-26 11:34:20

My nephew woke up on a Las Vegas street about five years ago, sans wallet. Last thing he remembered was buying drinks for a couple of young women in a bar. He changed his ways after that incident.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Elanor
2010-10-26 14:45:11

Wow. You have to be on your guard everywhere these days. I hope he didn’t suffer any physical or major financial harm.

That reminds me…I recently watched The Hangover on HBO, and I can’t say I really enjoyed it despite its great word of mouth reviews. Couldn’t get past the whole premise of a night of debauchery based on the ‘date rape drug’. What an old fuddy duddy I must be.

 
 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 09:46:40

Did they take full responsibility back then for the bruises which showed up on their faces?

Comment by aNYCdj
2010-10-26 11:04:20

well they were drunk or stoned….maybe its different today, back then you didn’t hit women period.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by REhobbyist
2010-10-26 11:39:44

It’s not different today, dj. Average young man weighs 175 lbs; young woman weighs 130 lbs. My sons would never hit a woman. And I don’t think they’ve hit any men either (other than each other). Most people don’t ever hit.

 
Comment by SaladSD
2010-10-26 13:23:30

Also, even if they weigh the same, the muscle and fat percentages are way different. A friend of mine was “bigger” than her boyfriend and was shocked, on a dare, that he could take her down in 2 seconds flat. So though I agree that women are foolish to put themselves in vulnerable situations, if they are lulled into thinking things are “cool” in a particular social setting, they can easily be blindsided.

 
Comment by ecofeco
2010-10-26 19:04:20

The amount of women being arrested for assault has increased over the last decade.

Far too women these days think they can act however they want and are finding out different. The hard way.

That said, the best rule is still… walk away as fast as you can from any kind of trouble like that.

And stay away.

 
 
 
 
Comment by Kim
2010-10-26 08:28:28

“Princeton dealt with it quietly and internally, ultimately allowing Harsh to continue his education. He graduated with the class of 2009, three years after his rape accusation—and two years after the inauguration of Whitman College, the residential living complex his billionaire mother donated $30 million to help build.”

This story says as much about Princeton University’s ethics as it does about those of Meg Whitman & family.

Comment by ecofeco
2010-10-26 19:07:25

And there you have it. Good find Kim.

 
 
 
Comment by wmbz
2010-10-26 05:51:36

Cuba self-employed to pay taxes up to 50 percent

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba has set income tax rates at 25 to 50 percent for its soon to be expanded private sector, with the biggest earners paying the most taxes, according to official decrees published on Monday.

The rates will range from nothing for those making 5,000 pesos — equivalent to $225 — or less a year to 50 percent for those in the highest bracket, which is more than 50,000 pesos, or $2,252.

The new tax rates came out in the Official Gazette as the government prepares to cut 500,000 workers from state payrolls and issue 250,000 new licenses for self-employment to create new jobs in President Raul Castro’s biggest economic reform so far.

Those making more than 5,000 pesos will have to pay taxes, starting at a rate of 25 percent and rising from there as income increases.

The cash-strapped government is looking to the self-employed to increase tax revenues to help pay for expensive social programs such as free health care and education.

Comment by 2banana
2010-10-26 05:56:55

It reads like democrat talking points…

Comment by REhobbyist
2010-10-26 06:31:58

No, 2banana, our U.S. progressive income tax rates would guarantee that independent business people making that little money would pay 0% tax.

Comment by 2banana
2010-10-26 06:41:44

You need to put things in perspective.

The average wage in Cuba is about $5/day.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by oxide
2010-10-26 07:18:29

Let’s say that $5 a day is the equivalent of a $60K job in the US. Then:

$225 –> $9K –> 0% tax
$2252 –> $90K –> 50% tax

Plus many grades in between. Those are pretty high taxes, admittedly. But if Cubans get free healthcare and free education and housing is cheap, then this doesn’t sound far off of Scandinavia.

I guess we’ll find out how good these rates are when we know how many government workers take Raul up on his offer and start their own business.

 
Comment by Cassandra
2010-10-26 10:56:15

I don’t buy the “equivalency” argument.

$5/day will buy you a Mercedes?

 
 
 
 
Comment by combotechie
2010-10-26 05:59:41

“The cash-strapped government is looking to the self-employed to increase tax revenues to help pay for expensive social programs such as free health care and education.”

Boing! An underground economy - a black market - is about to spring into being (if it hasn’t already done so) and be fed some very serious money.

Comment by Bill in Carolina
2010-10-26 07:06:58

“… pay for expensive social programs such as free health care and education.”

What? Why do they have to pay for something that’s free? LOL.

Comment by AmazingRuss
2010-10-26 08:25:59

Presumably because they can’t borrow and spend. This is why republicans look down on them.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
 
 
Comment by Housing Wizard
2010-10-26 05:53:11

I actually feel that the fraud associated with the origination of loans and the marketing of them was the original crime .Why wouldn’t that corrupt system process foreclosures like a slaughter house afoul of the law in keeping with their true colors . I think also the message here is there isn’t any regulators watching or auditing the loan system . What kind of
message is this about the Feds being a regulatory agency ? Seems like there isn’t any meaningful regulations or watchdogs or auditors. This makes the current financial reform a joke also in that it calls for
regulators to gage and regulate the activities of Banks and Middlemen .Looks like they won’t discover things until it’s to late and a outside lawyer has to discover the crimes or the Court system runs into it . They needed to have financial reform that just controls
things by defined laws that had hard punishment if violated with constant audits .The moral hazard of how entities acts when they aren’t busted but bailed out instead keep coming back and will continue to haunt the financial system until the correct reform comes about .This meaningful reform came about after the crash of 1929 and was undone by de-regulation and all the other self-governing that doesn’t work in the financial arena . The Kingpins of this financial crisis had to much of a say
so in the financial reform package just as the Health Insurance Monopolies had to much of a say-so in Health care reform .
much of a say-so in h

Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 06:13:16

What kind of message is this about the Feds being a regulatory agency?

What kind of message is it that their regulatory authority was recently increased?

 
Comment by pressboardbox
2010-10-26 06:42:39

I have a feeling the banks were just doing what they were told by the Feds when they went into rapid “robo-signing” mode. The word from the top was “step up foreclosures” and they were just trying to do it. Now the government has changed its mind and we are seeing the effects of that. I just wish there was a way to blow the lid off the whole corrupt scam and expose the true villains.

 
Comment by oxide
2010-10-26 07:28:45

The message being that there was change in the Administration in the middle of this? The liberals a comforting each other listing all the new legislation that Obama has signed, but internally I’m seeing changes in the executive branch.

A few months ago there was an article about Fannie and Freddie hiring auditors to look for fraud on applications, especially liar loans, which of course were the worst performers. Their intention was to shove those loans back down the banks’s throats and get them off the taxpayer scrolls. (the bank would be made whole by some other bailout mechanism like AIG, but at least Fannie/Freddie would be rid of them.) Did we ever see a follow-up on that?

 
 
Comment by wmbz
2010-10-26 05:55:18

Ahead of the Bell: Home Prices
Index of home prices in 20 cities likely fell in August from July as housing market weakens

WASHINGTON (AP) — A gauge of home prices in 20 large U.S. cities is likely to dip in August, reversing four straight months of gains, as the weak economy caused buyers to shy away from purchasing homes.

The Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller index of home prices in 20 major U.S. cities is likely to dip about 0.6 percent in August from a month earlier, forecasts Quinn Eddins, director of research at Radar Logic Inc., which tracks the housing market.

Though the report looks at prices in 20 cities, the trends vary. Prices are setting new lows in foreclosure-plagued Las Vegas, which is down 57 percent from the peak in August 2008. By contrast, San Francisco’s prices are down only 5.4 percent in that same time period.

 
Comment by skroodle
Comment by In Colorado
2010-10-26 11:46:43

I saw something similar on 60 Minutes last Sunday (which I only watched to see their Top Gear story).

 
Comment by ecofeco
2010-10-26 19:13:08

Reminds me of “pink slip” parties after the dot com bomb.

Networking with the dead is very constructive. :lol:

 
 
Comment by Housing Wizard
2010-10-26 06:00:23

There was a time in the history of USA tax law that the higher income
brackets paid a 70% rate on certain portion of income ,course they had more write offs to offset that high tax rates .

Comment by 2banana
2010-10-26 06:45:51

There was a time (until WWI – almost 150 years) that there were NO income taxes in America.

It was even used in advertisements in Europe to encourage people to immigrate to America. “No King and no income tax.”

How did we manage to build a 1st rate country? How did we manage to grow? How did we build things? How did the government function? How did roads, bridges and schools get built?

Comment by Housing Wizard
2010-10-26 07:57:14

Zbanana . I think in the past we had better regulations ,at least after the stock market crash of 1929 we enacted some pretty good regulations in the financial markets . The fleecing that came about by the Corporation structure and monopolies wasn’t as prevalent in our
productive years . In other words there was a much better balance
that allowed the middle class to make head-way in the USA .Than everything started going into the corruption stage that has eroded
law and order and the balance of powers .

Comment by Hwy50ina49Dodge
2010-10-26 09:11:59

there was a much better balance
that allowed the middle class to make head-way in the USA

Yep

File under: “Mission nearly accomplished”: ;-)

Homes = Wall St. manipulation/extraction scheme (Large $ denominations)

Oil/Energy = Wall St. manipulation/extraction scheme (small $ denominations)

Coming Soon:

Food = Wall St. manipulation/extraction scheme (small $ denominations)

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
Comment by SaladSD
2010-10-26 13:32:05

If you read about the early days of motoring you’ll realize there were no roads besides dirt tracks, many following what were originally foot and horse paths, and there was no signage beyond what a particular community wanted to erect. 8 mph was considered a fast speed. So, I don’t think many roads, as you are imagining, were built before the 1920s.

Comment by Arizona Slim
2010-10-26 13:53:12

Point of history: Many of the leaders of the Good Roads movement were bicyclists.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
Comment by ecofeco
2010-10-26 19:18:06

“How did we manage to build a 1st rate country?”

Uh, we didn’t. The history of America until WW1 and more importantly, WWII, was of a second, if not third rate, country.

Most immigration demand, again prior to WWII, was created and accomplished by… hucksters.

You think our current mess is something new?

 
 
Comment by scdave
2010-10-26 08:24:08

course they had more write offs to offset that high tax rates ??

Yes they did but to get those write offs you had to invest capital…In turn that created jobs…

Comment by REhobbyist
2010-10-26 11:45:58

No you didn’t, scdave. I remember being able to write off all my business expenses and interest, even though I was a W2 employee.

 
 
 
Comment by 2banana
2010-10-26 06:14:20

The Cynically Ruthless Barney Frank, Enabler Of The Mortgage Meltdown
By THOMAS SOWELL
IBD

Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts best epitomizes the cynical ruthlessness that hides behind their lofty rhetoric.

Having been a key figure in promoting the risky mortgage lending practices imposed by the federal government on lenders, and on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy these risky mortgages from the lenders, Frank blamed the resulting collapse of financial markets and the economy on everybody except Barney Frank.

In February 2009, as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Congressman Frank summoned the heads of some of the biggest banks in the country before his committee. In the words of the Los Angeles Times, these bankers “endured hours of hectoring” by “indignant lawmakers” on that committee.

These bankers were in no position to talk back to members of this committee, much less point out how committee members — including Chairman Frank — had themselves promoted laws and policies responsible for the current economic disaster.

Congressman Frank has never hesitated to use his power ruthlessly. On one occasion, he threatened bankers with summoning them before his committee and forcing them to reveal their home addresses — which would of course put their spouses and children at the mercy of any kooks that might come along.

Meanwhile, Congressman Frank could piously invoke “social justice” in defense of similarly ruthless community activist groups like Acorn or National People’s Action, which had in fact besieged the homes not only of bankers but also of public officials who dared to oppose their agendas.

In Frank’s words, these groups were simply people who “cared about equity” and who were just “trying very hard to preserve some equity and some social justice.”

But the harassment and shakedown activities of such groups were perhaps best captured by the words of a leader of one of these groups, who addressed her followers by saying: “We want it. They’ve got it. Let’s go get it.”

These were not just idle words. The dirty little secret that few in the media seem to want to discuss is that community activists, including Jesse Jackson, have over the years extracted literally billions of dollars from financial institutions, as the price of peace and of not challenging these institutions in hearings before federal regulators, as these groups are empowered to do under the Community Reinvestment Act.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=550868

Comment by pressboardbox
2010-10-26 06:50:55

What is wrong with the world that Barney Frank even has a job. Nobody, not even a crackhead nutjob, should take that man seriously. Unfathomable surreality.

Comment by wmbz
2010-10-26 10:36:12

Slobbering Barney… the kooks that vote for him love, he’s the banking queen!

 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 06:52:14

Congressman Frank has never hesitated to use his power ruthlessly.

“Now boy, you squeal like a pig!”

Comment by Bill in Carolina
2010-10-26 07:08:45

ROTFLMAO!

+100

 
 
Comment by alpha-sloth
2010-10-26 13:48:27

And yet the Dodd-Frank bill looks like it will end too-big-to-fail.

 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 06:23:39

Can’t wait for this story to break. Go Matt!!!

Posted: Today,11:44 A.M. EDT | By Matt Taibbi
Bank of America Admits Many Foreclosure Mistakes

So I’m on my way to Florida, to work on a story about the foreclosure crisis. On my way I wanted to post this bit of news, that Bank Of America has conceded to a significant percentage of errors in its review of pending foreclosures.

This clashes directly with what it said on October 18, when it said that an initial review indicated that “the basis for our foreclosure decisions is accurate.” It now says that between 10 to 25 of the first few hundred foreclosures it reviewed were faulty. And that’s only what the bank is admitting to.

Comment by SaladSD
2010-10-26 13:34:52

Matt is my hero, one of the best investigative journalists left anymore. Seems to be channeling Norman Mailer.

Comment by oxide
2010-10-26 14:26:25

His article on the Tea Party is telling. He describes how surprised he was at the amount of medical hardware, expecially oxygen tanks, walkers, and scooters paid for my — what else — Medicare.

 
Comment by awaiting wipeout
2010-10-26 15:44:34

SaladSD
Absolutely. He truly is a real journalist, and seems to be an objective political atheist type, as he gets to the truth, and that’s his bottom line. He doesn’t pussyfoot around with weapons of mass distraction. Ben J.(of HBB fame) is in the same league, imo.

 
 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 06:25:40

* October 25, 2010, 9:28 AM ET

Bank of America Faces Bearish Tide

By Dave Kansas

Steven M. Sears over at our sister publication, Barron’s, says the market has an increasingly dim view of Bank of America’s outlook.

He writes “According to trading patterns, some options traders are betting that BofA’s $11 stock could fall to $2.50 by 2013. Indeed, its $2.50 puts that expire in January 2013 have been actively traded since Tuesday.”

That would be a very grim performance. And Steven says that nearer-term options activity underscores the negativity around BofA. In order to fund November $10 and $12 puts, these traders are selling bullish calls in large numbers. Such a trade is made when investors have high confidence a stock is heading down.

The storm clouds for BofA include the mortgage foreclosure fiasco and a still challenging housing and lending market overall. Over the weekend, BofA admitted to its first errors in its internal examination of foreclosure processing.

Comment by Arizona Slim
2010-10-26 13:56:37

The storm clouds for BofA include the mortgage foreclosure fiasco and a still challenging housing and lending market overall. Over the weekend, BofA admitted to its first errors in its internal examination of foreclosure processing.

Another storm cloud: How BofA treats its retail customers. This is the bank for which the term “Move Your Money” was coined.

 
Comment by ecofeco
2010-10-26 19:21:30

Bank of India is going down. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch.

 
 
Comment by pressboardbox
2010-10-26 06:25:53

No Bubble - No Profits:

Just imagine if they weren’t allowed to use fraud to make profits also.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-new-wall-street-no-bubble-no-profits-2010-10-26?dist=beforebell

 
Comment by Lint
2010-10-26 06:28:43

The Idiocy of Politics
Why no intelligent discussion can ever occur in the hellscape of politics…
by Stefan Molyneux

http://tinyurl.com/2dc82dj

So intelligent.

Comment by Hwy50ina49Dodge
2010-10-26 08:24:41

“…$700 Billion for F-22 dog-fights with the Taliban” ;-)

BWAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! (fpss™)

 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 06:30:58

Megabank, Inc would rather leave neighborhoods riddled with vacant homes than to screw up the comps with short sales. Price discovery is to be avoided at all costs.

Short Sales Resisted as Foreclosures Are Revived
By MICHAEL POWELL
Published: October 24, 2010

PHOENIX — Bank of America and GMAC are firing up their formidable foreclosure machines again today, after a brief pause.

But hard-pressed homeowners like Lydia Sweetland are asking why lenders often balk at a less disruptive solution: short sales, which allow owners to sell deeply devalued homes for less than what remains on their mortgage.

Ms. Sweetland, 47, tried such a sale this summer out of desperation. She had lost her high-paying job and drained her once-flush retirement savings, and her bank, GMAC, wouldn’t modify her mortgage. After seven months of being unable to pay her mortgage, she decided that a short sale would give her more time to move out of her Phoenix home and damage her credit rating less than a foreclosure.

She owes $206,000 and found a buyer who would pay $200,000
. Last Friday, GMAC rejected that offer and said it would foreclose in seven days, even though, according to Ms. Sweetland’s broker, the bank estimates it will make $19,000 less on a foreclosure than on a short sale.

I guess I could salute and say, ‘O.K., I’m walking, here’s the keys,’ ” says Ms. Sweetland, as she sits in a plastic Adirondack chair on her patio. “But I need a little time, and I don’t want to just leave the house vacant. I loved this neighborhood.

Comment by ecofeco
2010-10-26 19:23:47

BoA and GMAC need a little time as well to make some money before they get hammered by states AGs and bond holder lawsuits.

 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 06:39:01

I heartily agree with Obama’s decision to encourage the banks to roar ahead with foreclosures, provided that justice is ultimately served to any banks which are found in violation of the law.

Newsweek
Should Obama Halt Foreclosures?

Some say a moratorium is the only way to protect homeowners from fraud, but the banks disagree.

As the American economic malaise moves into its third year, the plague of home foreclosures continues to spread. It’s hardly news that people are still losing their houses, unable to keep up with payments because of job losses or bad decisions on loans that should never have been made.

What is alarming, though, is that another wave of foreclosures is headed toward America’s suburbs, threatening further injury to the housing market. In the next three years, there are likely to be 3 million more homes seized, according to RealtyTrac, a real-estate-research firm. That would be as many as were seized from 2008 through today, a period that included the worst of the recession. In September alone there were more than 100,000 foreclosures, the most since RealtyTrac began following the numbers in 2005.

Regardless of any moratorium, banks already own a massive portion of the American housing market. Financial firms currently have an estimated stockpile of more than 900,000 foreclosed houses, according to RealtyTrac. Only about a third of them are up for sale.

If banks stopped new foreclosures, and sold only from their current inventory at the current rate, it would take nearly a year and a half before they ran out. That means whether or not further foreclosures are delayed, vacant homes will litter American neighborhoods for years to come.

Comment by pressboardbox
2010-10-26 06:57:43

“That means whether or not further foreclosures are delayed, vacant homes will litter American neighborhoods for years to come.”

-Ask a bankster if he cares.

Comment by Hwy50ina49Dodge
2010-10-26 10:05:13

“…Ask a bankster if he cares.” ;-)

How was it that the Clampett’s come by to find their Beverly Hills Mansion?

 
 
Comment by 2banana
2010-10-26 07:43:56

Two sides of the issue:

“A moratorium would keep people in their homes, give banks an incentive to work things out with the homeowner, and help the real-estate market start to recover,” Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida told NEWSWEEK.

And encourage every other homeowner to stop paying their mortgage when they see their neighbors get great rates and principle reductions from not paying their mortgage…Talk about a moral hazard.

OR


The healing process in the housing market can’t begin until foreclosures from the bad days of the recession go through, said Peter Wallison, an economist with the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. “The longer we delay in foreclosing these homes and putting them back on the market, the longer we will have to wait for the housing market to recover,” he told NEWSWEEK.

Comment by CrackerJim
2010-10-26 09:48:45

“A moratorium would keep people in their homes…”

He means keep people in houses that do not belong to them whereas they pay nothing for that pleasure. I am sure many of these people now wish they had opted for the most expensive house possible since they were going to be living rent free.

 
Comment by oxide
2010-10-26 14:38:56

And in this case, I agree with you, banana. If Alan Grayson want to subsidize my rent along with their mortgage payments, then I’m all for it.

 
 
 
Comment by wmbz
2010-10-26 06:50:22

Puerto Rico unveils tax cuts to reignite economy

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Puerto Rico’s governor on Monday announced plans to cut business and income taxes by more than a $1 billion annually over the next seven years in an attempt to jump-start the U.S. territory’s economy.

Governor Luis Fortuno laid out the plan in a special address to the Puerto Rican legislature after a weekend vote by lawmakers to slap a six-year tax hike on offshore manufacturing firms operating on the island.

Fortuno called the plan the biggest tax relief package in Puerto Rico’s history and said ordinary taxpayers would see a 50 percent reduction in their taxes when the reform is fully implemented.

Businesses would receive an average 30 percent cut, he said.

Comment by 2banana
2010-10-26 07:47:40

PR also is massively cutting their government employees.

Is Governor Luis Fortuno allowed to run for president? What will happen when a bunch of gringos start moving to PR due to the sane government? Will there be a German day on the island?

Comment by Steve J
2010-10-26 08:27:16

They are really in bad shape - the big rum manufacturer is moving to St. Croix. PR will lose half a billion in tax revenue.

 
Comment by In Colorado
2010-10-26 11:49:20

Do Puerto Ricans call Americans “gringos”? I thought that was a Mexican slang.

Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2010-10-26 11:57:40

Do Puerto Ricans call Americans “gringos”? I thought that was a Mexican slang.

Brazilians call Americans and Europeans “gringos” .

I never thought of a French dude as a gringo but they are down here.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by In Colorado
2010-10-26 13:21:13

Fact is stranger than fiction.

 
Comment by alpha-sloth
2010-10-26 13:58:40

I think gringo means whitey in the Hispanic (and apparently Brazilian, too) world. So it’s good for most Euros. I wonder if they call Spaniards gringo? Ask them, Rio.

 
 
 
 
Comment by Hwy50ina49Dodge
2010-10-26 08:15:34

after a weekend vote by lawmakers to slap a six-year tax hike on offshore manufacturing firms operating on the island.

Yikes, I personaly know x2 “TrueAmericanFlagWavers™” / “TrueHypocrite™” busyness “bidness” people that this will directly affect their “TrueAnger™” back here in the “States”. The 1st thing out of their mouths will be: “Diz ALL Lil’ Opie the (non-Hawaiian) Kenyan Muslim-Indonesian Islamist’s fault!” ;-)

 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 07:03:57

Oct. 26, 2010, 9:12 a.m. EDT
US Stock Futures Slide Further After Case-Shiller Data

By Kristina Peterson

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures slid further Tuesday after an index of home prices fell in August, ending a long string of monthly increases.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 47 points to 11068, while Standard & Poor’s 500-share futures shed 6 points to 1177 and Nasdaq 100 futures lost 8 points to 2100. Prior to the data, Dow futures had been down 37 points, while S&P 500 futures lost 5 and Nasdaq futures were off 7. Changes in stock futures do not always accurately predict stock moves after the opening bell.

U.S. home prices fell in August from a month earlier, ending their climb since April, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price indexes. The index of 10 major metropolitan areas fell 0.1% in August compared with July, while the 20-city index declined 0.2%. Adjusted for seasonal factors, the 10-area index fell 0.2%, while the 20-area declined 0.3%.

 
Comment by fisher
2010-10-26 07:27:12

“Val Kilmer feeling sting of housing market? — Actor slashes ranch price by $10 million”

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Pecos-Kilmer-feeling-sting-of-housing-market-

“The October 2003 edition of Rolling Stone carried an article about Kilmer, quoting him about living in the ‘homicide capital of the Southwest’ where 80 percent of the residents are drunk.”

Heh heh. I remember the howls of protest about that comment. I think he was pretty much on target.

Comment by 2banana
2010-10-26 07:52:18

In 2005, Esquire magazine interviewed Kilmer about the emotional toll on an actor playing American veterans of the Vietnam conflict. He said many were “borderline criminals or poor … wretched kids” who “got beat up by their dads” and “couldn’t finagle a scholarship.”

On May 4, Kilmer was given a police escort to the county courthouse in Las Vegas, N.M., where he admitted feeling “the sting of my words” when he read them. He said his comment about intoxicated residents was a warning to a Rolling Stone writer to drive safely, and he never meant to disparage veterans in the Esquire piece.

I think he watched too many re-runs of Platoon. Anyway - a $10 million drop in his house price is about a 33% cut. At least he is not following the market down…

 
Comment by alpha-sloth
2010-10-26 14:40:50

Sounds like more of a business than a home:

“According to a website for the Pecos River Ranch, the lodging rate there is $200 a night for one of the six bedrooms, each with its own private bath and kitchen, plus $65 an hour for guided horseback trips, $50 an hour for guided bike trips or hikes and $100 an hour for jeep tours. ”

Or maybe that’s the rich guy’s version of taking in a roommate.

Comment by fisher
2010-10-26 16:30:00

My favorite part of the Kilmer saga that was not mentioned in the linked article was Kilmer having to prostrate himself to the country board to get a zoning variance to allow him to rent those rooms in the first place. Oh, man, the video of the contrite actor going before this panel of small town old timey hispanic board members who where pissed at him for his uh.. candid comments about the state… priceless. He *is* an actor of course and I’m sure it was easy for him to play the role of a repentant California elitist. Though why go through the humilation unless he really does needed the money?

I personally thought Kilmer’s politically incorrect comments were hilariously accurate. New Mexico never really emerged from Third World status despite its admission to the Union. We’re used to grinding poverty, huge disparity in wealth distribution, rampant corruption in government and business and just general chaos. We are pre-adapted to the social disintegration that is coming to the rest of the United States, courtesy of the Vampire Squid and its friends.

Comment by Arizona Slim
2010-10-26 16:35:29

New Mexico never really emerged from Third World status despite its admission to the Union. We’re used to grinding poverty, huge disparity in wealth distribution, rampant corruption in government and business and just general chaos.

Years ago, when I was bicycling across New Mexico, I made the mistake of referring to a resident (who had a Spanish surname) as Mexican.

Her indignant reply: “I’m not Mexican. I’m NEW Mexican!”

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by fisher
2010-10-26 16:56:48

Well, fer goddsakes Slim, don’t make *that* mistake again! When I say “old timey” I mean it. Some of these folks trace their family here back 500 years… and I’m talking about the europeans, not native americans!

 
 
 
 
Comment by oxide
2010-10-26 14:42:12

What is wrong with these actors? They have millions and all they can do is screw it up. They can’t take a quick half mil and go on the Oil City plan and live quietly where we don’t have to hear about them, oh n-o-o-o-o-o,…..

Comment by ecofeco
2010-10-26 19:28:59

Actors don’t have rich parents who can teach them some rudimentary skills of keeping money. They have agents who push them to their physical limit of making personal appearances to keep their name fresh and accountant who are trying to steal their money.

Over-indulgence and exhaustion are not conducive to making sound decisions.

 
 
Comment by ahansen
2010-10-26 22:43:00

Hah.
Last month I was reading a Santa Fe “lifestyle” mag that featured a puff piece on Kilmer’s spread and thought to myself, “This place has got to be going on the market soon….”

 
 
Comment by wmbz
2010-10-26 07:58:56

U.S. Falls in Annual Corruption Survey ~ nytimes

PARIS — Perceptions of corruption in the United States have worsened over the last year, knocking it out of the top 20 in global rankings released Tuesday by the watchdog group Transparency International.

The top and bottom three countries on the list remain unchanged from 2009: Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore are seen as having the world’s cleanest governments, while Somalia, Afghanistan and Myanmar, are seen to have the most corrupt.

Finland, Sweden, Canada, Netherlands, Australia, Switzerland and Norway rounded out the top 10. Japan ranked 17, Britain ranked 20.

The United States, which ranked 19th in 2009, fell to 22. Also falling in the rankings were the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Madagascar and Niger. “Notable among decliners are some of the countries most affected by a financial crisis precipitated by transparency and integrity deficits,” the organization said.

Nancy Boswell, the head of the organization’s U.S. branch, told Reuters that the subprime crisis, the disclosure of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme and political funding disputes had hurt America’s ranking.

“We’re not talking about corruption in the sense of breaking the law,” she told Reuters. “We’re talking about a sense that the system is corrupted by these practices.”

Comment by Steve J
2010-10-26 08:31:18

I noticed that the more socialist countries at top and the free market countries at the bottom.

Comment by 2banana
2010-10-26 08:52:27

And mostly white and Christian.

And very homogeneous populations (so much for diversity). And with massive mineral deposits.

And a liking for pickled fish.

If you are going to notice things – don’t stop at just the PC things…

Comment by Steve J
2010-10-26 09:41:28

Singapore matchs none of you criteria.
(not sure on the pickled fish)

The do have socialized medicine though.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
Comment by measton
2010-10-26 14:41:43

the religions in Denmark, the most prominent is the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark which is the official state religion. However, pockets of virtually all faiths can be found among the population. The second largest faith is Islam, due to mass immigration in the 1980 and 90s.

In general, Danes are not very religious, with church attendance being generally low. According to a 2005 study by Zuckerman, Denmark has the third-highest proportion of atheists and agnostics in the world, estimated to be between 43% and 80%. Another study by Eurobarometer Poll 2005, 31% of Danish citizens responded that “they believe there is a god”, whereas 49% answered that “they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force” and 19% that “they do not believe there is any sort of spirit, god, or life force”. Though Christmas is considered to be Denmark’s most celebrated holiday, this is mostly due to cultural, rather than religious, reasons.

As we’ve all seen with pedophilia, violence, money scandles relgion is absolutely not a good indicator of corruption. I suspect it attracts a lot of scumbags who know if they get caught they can just find jesus.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
Comment by measton
2010-10-26 14:46:51

New Zealand is dominated demographically by Christianity, at just over half of the population at the 2006 New Zealand Census although regular church attendance is probably closer to 15%. Prior to European colonization the religion of the indigenous Māori population was animistic, but the subsequent efforts of missionaries such as Samuel Marsden resulted in most Māori converting to Christianity. 1/3 claim no religious affiliation.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
Comment by alpha-sloth
2010-10-26 15:02:06

There are countries that match all of your criteria that did poorly in the index. How do you explain that?

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
 
 
Comment by jeff saturday
2010-10-26 08:14:52

Question

Dec. 7 I will go to the court hearing to set the sale of the house I am renting. If my LL comes up with the defence of the broken chain of title, can I ask the judge to not make me pay rent because the missing name on the title might be mine?

Comment by Kim
2010-10-26 11:40:48

You can try! ;)

How much longer does your lease run? At the very least I would ask the judge if you can put rent into an escrow account instead of turning it over to your LL.

If you really want to live on the edge and throw ethics to the curb in exchange for the similar free roof deal the FBs are getting, find out if LL will agree to accept only half the current rent (or less) for the duration of the foreclosure. If he says no, into escrow it goes. Attempt this at your own risk, of course.

Comment by alpha-sloth
2010-10-26 15:05:50

I like your ideas, Kim, but why do you think they require throwing his ethics to the curb? If his LL isn’t paying the mortgage, what’s wrong with a mutually-agreed reduction in the rent? I also don’t see the risk.

 
 
Comment by REhobbyist
2010-10-26 12:35:35

Hilarious, jeff! I’m glad that you have a sense of humor in all this. Goes to show that being a renter of a distressed house, while inconvenient, is greatly preferable to FB status.

 
 
Comment by wmbz
2010-10-26 08:32:18

What a shock! NOT! I have been watching the ‘regulatory’ noose tightening around the necks of small businesses for over 30 years now.

Small businesses losing out to red tape ~USA Today

In an economic climate with few jobs and cutbacks on basic city services such as police protection and firefighting, you would think cities and states would be overjoyed when someone was willing to open up a new business, bringing with him jobs, economic vitality and tax revenues. You might think that, but you’d be wrong.

Instead, cities and states stifle new small businesses at every turn, burying them in mounds of paperwork; lengthy, expensive and arbitrary permitting processes; pointless educational requirements for occupations; or even just outright bans. Today, the Institute for Justice released a series of studies documenting government-imposed barriers to entrepreneurship in eight cities. In every city studied, overwhelming regulations destroyed or crippled would-be businesses at a time when they are most needed.

Time and again, these reports document how local bureaucrats believe they should dictate every aspect of a person’s small business. They want to choose who can go into which business, where, what the business should look like, and what signs will be put in the windows. And if that means that businesses fail, or never open, or can operate only illegally, or waste all their money trying to get permits so they have nothing left for actual operations, that’s just too bad. This attitude would be bad enough in prosperous times, but in a period of financial strain and high unemployment, it’s almost suicidally foolish.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2010-10-21-mellor26_st_N.htm

Comment by Hwy50ina49Dodge
2010-10-26 10:00:34

“…removing reducing even a single law can unleash entrepreneurial energy and create hundreds of jobs” ;-)

GOP: “Stand back there’s gonna be a stampede,… “Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!”

In post election news today, the Federal minimum wage is being reset to: $4.25

Comment by butters
2010-10-26 10:17:39

Actually the minimum wage should be reset to $0.01.

Comment by Hwy50ina49Dodge
2010-10-26 11:10:26

It is along the Cali/Ariz/NM/TX border, but it been quite detrimental for US “bidnesses”. ;-)

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
Comment by oxide
2010-10-26 14:44:48

Actually the minimum wage should be reset to $0.01.

It already has been. Look at the little “made in” sticker on anything from Wal-Mart, and increasingly, Safeway. :sad:

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
Comment by ecofeco
2010-10-26 19:36:11

Actually the minimum wage should be reset to $0.01.

Ebenezer, is that you? Tiny Tim says “Hi!”

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
 
Comment by ecofeco
2010-10-26 19:33:16

“Instead, cities and states stifle new small businesses at every turn..”</I.

Where have I heard this before? Oh yeah. Me.

As I’ve said, it’s your local government that is hurting the average small business owner, not the fed.

Good find wmbz.

 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 08:54:01

26 October 2010 Last updated at 10:59 ET
US house prices dip again in August

Foreclosed home in Las Vegas US house prices are being weighed down by an overhang of unsold repossessed properties

US house prices began falling again in August after the expiry of homebuyers’ tax credits, a survey suggests.

Unsold inventory

A tax credit for homebuyers expired in April, leading to a steep drop in home sales over the summer.

That same effect now appears to be feeding into house price data, which are published with a two-month lag.

June and July saw more stable prices, suggesting that the actual drop-off in prices in August was sharper than the fall in the index, which tracks a rolling three-month average.

Compared with last year, the index published by rating agency Standard and Poor’s was up 1.7%, somewhat lower than analysts’ expectations of a 2.1% year-on-year rise.

But prices remain 29% below their peak of May 2006, according to the index, having only recovered some 5% since bottoming out in May 2009.

Meanwhile, the inventory of unsold houses - including many foreclosed properties owned by the big US mortgage lenders - remain at a historically high level, suggesting continued downward pressure on home prices.

According to housing market analyst Bill McBride, the unsold houses represent almost 11 months worth of supply, well above the historic norm of four to five months.

“The housing market appears to have stabilised at new lows,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at Standard & Poor’s.

“At this time, it does not seem that any of the markets are hanging on to the temporary momentum caused by the homebuyers’ tax credits.”

 
Comment by sold in 05
2010-10-26 09:05:53

Improving water systems — and infrastructure generally, if properly done — would go a long way toward improving the nation’s dismal economic outlook. According to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, every dollar invested in water and sewer improvements has the potential to increase the long-term gross domestic product by more than six dollars. Hundreds of thousands of jobs would be created if the nation were serious about repairing and upgrading water mains, crumbling pipes, water treatment plants, dams, levees and so on.

Millions of jobs would be created if we could bring ourselves to stop fighting mindless wars and use some of those squandered billions to bring the nation’s infrastructure in the broadest sense up to 21st-century standards…does any politician talk about this????,or is it just bail out the bankster……

Comment by Hwy50ina49Dodge
2010-10-26 09:47:09

Millions of jobs would be created if we could bring ourselves to stop fighting mindless wars

Hey now, we can’t have Iran sending more bags of cash $$$$$$$$$ to Pakistan/Afghanistan Islamic democracies than the US of A, that would be unpatriotic!

 
Comment by alpha-sloth
2010-10-26 15:11:01

does any politician talk about this????,or is it just bail out the bankster……

I’m told that since we run a trade deficit with China, any investment in our own infrastructure is a waste, since a portion of the workers’ paychecks will go towards buying Chinese-made crap. Apparently, running any trade deficit whatsoever negates all value in investing in your own country.

 
Comment by ecofeco
2010-10-26 19:38:06

Local construction politics is so crooked they make the banks look saintly.

 
 
Comment by wmbz
2010-10-26 09:20:37

The New Wall Street: No Bubble, No Profits- MarketWatch

The bailouts have come and gone, leaving a vastly consolidated, less-competitive marketplace. Washington’s swipe at the industry, the Dodd-Frank Act, largely avoided remaking the industry or ending “too big to fail.” The economy isn’t exactly humming, but the market is up, interest rates are low and deals are getting done.

Comment by Hwy50ina49Dodge
2010-10-26 09:42:49

and deals are getting done ;-)

“Where Art Thou?,..Oh, my dearest…$100,000 / $250,000 / $400,000 Single Transaction / Deposit of thy sweet, sweet, sweet, nectar of remembrance?

 
 
Comment by jeff saturday
2010-10-26 09:29:59

Realtors are wonderful people and they have made the world a better place to live.

Comment by wmbz
2010-10-26 10:09:57

Couldn’t agree more, if not for real-a-tards we may all be living in dirt floor thatched huts of our own making. Or down by the river in a van with orange shag carpet.

Comment by REhobbyist
2010-10-26 12:38:26

Cue Georgiagirl.

 
 
Comment by jeff saturday
2010-10-26 13:49:35

Why Use a REALTOR®?

1. Your REALTOR® can help you determine your buying power.

2. Your REALTOR® has many resources to assist you in your home search.

3. Your REALTOR® can assist you in the selection process by providing objective information about each property.

4. Your REALTOR® is really f®cking honest.

5. Your REALTOR® can help you negotiate.

6. Your REALTOR® only cares about what is best for you and your family. Your REALTOR® is not the least bit concerned about their commission.

7. Your REALTOR® can guide you through the closing process and make sure everything flows together smoothly
especially the big FAT commission check your REALTOR® will receive for sticking you with a home you could never possibly afford.

8. After the closing you will never see your REALTOR® again. Your REALTOR® will not be around to bother you through that pesky foreclosure process.

Comment by ecofeco
2010-10-26 19:39:19

:lol: I’ve hurt myself laughing.

 
 
 
Comment by Hwy50ina49Dodge
2010-10-26 09:32:22

Filed under: “TrueBambooLie™” trading across the “unenforceable” communist divide…;-)

Special report: Faked in China: Inside the pirates’ web:
By Doug Palmer and Melanie Lee Doug Palmer And Melanie Lee / Reuters

WASHINGTON/GUANGZHOU (Reuters)

I had ordered the bag from a website called http://www.ericwhy.com for this special report, which explores the growing problem of counterfeit merchandise sold over the Internet.

Reuters wanted to trace the problem from a consumer in Washington D.C. to the shadowy producers based in Guangzhou China, where my colleague Melanie Lee found the illicit workshops and markets.

“Whole industries now have been attacked, not from the street, but from the Internet.”

Visitors to http://www.ericwhy.com can choose from more than 1,800 imitation Louis Vuitton bags, ranging from a pink shoulder tote and a tiger-colored “Whisper bag” to a simple bright red clutch.

The one I ordered cost $122 with a $40 shipping fee, so by my definition it was not exactly cheap. But comparable bags sold at a local Louis Vuitton retail store were $1,000 or more.

I entered my Washington D.C. address and credit card information, and instantly got an email from my credit card company warning of possible fraud on my account. Soon, I received a second email, this one a receipt with a Worldwide Express Mail Service (EMS) tracking number so I could follow my package.

Comment by Bill in Carolina
2010-10-26 10:31:09

Is it really fake when it’s made by the same factory as the brand-name item, but just shipped out the back door in a plain brown wrapper?

Comment by Kim
2010-10-26 11:47:06

IIRC, Louis Vuittons are still made in France or Spain.

 
 
Comment by ecofeco
2010-10-26 19:41:37

Brand piracy is a far, FAR more profitable, lucrative and safer business than the drug trade.

 
 
Comment by wmbz
2010-10-26 09:46:43

Ha! I love the way this is written.

Vestas CEO: Job Cuts Needed To Remain Competitive

STOCKHOLM (Dow Jones)–Vestas Wind Systems A/S (VWS.KO) is cutting 3,000 jobs, primarily in Denmark, due to an imbalance between orders and employees at the company’s operations in northern Europe.

Comment by In Colorado
2010-10-26 11:54:18

Apparently it US subsidiary (based mostly right here in the Centennial state) is doing OK.

 
 
Comment by michael
2010-10-26 09:51:14

a fake news comedian is the most influential man in america. man…we are doomed.

Comment by butters
2010-10-26 10:45:35

Agree Glen Beck sucks. I am surprised to find Stewart to be so insecure. Stewart wants to “beck” the Beck.

 
 
Comment by wmbz
2010-10-26 09:51:57

Activist Stomped on Outside Paul and Conway Senate Debate in Kentucky

(NEWSCORE) - The fifth and final campaign debate between U.S. Senate candidates Rand Paul and Jack Conway was marred Monday by a confrontation outside the venue in Lexington, K.Y. in which an activist was pushed to the curb and stepped on, FOX 41 reported.

Lauren Valle, a volunteer for the liberal MoveOn.org advocacy group, was allegedly assaulted by a Paul supporter as she attempted to give the Republican candidate a mock award highlighting GOP links to big business.

The incident was captured by TV news crews.

“These supporters were not very nice to me and my message, which is the same as everyone else — I just wanted to get out here with a sign, but I got my head stepped on,” Valle said. “I have a bit of a headache.”

Comment by Arizona Slim
2010-10-26 10:32:46

“These supporters were not very nice to me and my message, which is the same as everyone else — I just wanted to get out here with a sign, but I got my head stepped on,” Valle said. “I have a bit of a headache.”

I hope she’s pressing charges. And filing a civil lawsuit.

 
Comment by Hwy50ina49Dodge
2010-10-26 12:35:48

One can only wonder what type of “bumper-sticker”,… “they” spotted on her car! ;-)

Comment by oxide
2010-10-26 14:46:40

“Coexist?”

 
 
Comment by jeff saturday
2010-10-26 12:56:56

Man, I hate it when I get my head stepped on. That`s almost as bad as when I got my —- caught in my zipper. Now that will make you an activist for button up jeans.

 
Comment by alpha-sloth
2010-10-26 14:19:15

Pretty ugly, especially in a still somewhat tight election. This could really cost Rand some votes- maybe even the election.

Comment by alpha-sloth
Comment by exeter
2010-10-26 17:02:27

So typical of KKK, John Birch’ers and white supremacists.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by aNYCdj
2010-10-26 17:59:17

and you think certain minority people don’t do the same thing?

guess which color gets reported

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by wmbz
2010-10-26 10:01:27

Russian bears treat graveyards as ‘giant refrigerators’

A shortage of bears’ traditional food near the Arctic Circle has forced the animals to eat human corpses, say locals.

Russian bear Bears are reported to be raiding graveyards in search of food in Russia’s Arctic Circle republic of Komi.

From a distance it resembled a rather large man in a fur coat, leaning tenderly over the grave of a loved one. But when the two women in the Russian village of Vezhnya Tchova came closer they realised there was a bear in the cemetery eating a body.

Russian bears have grown so desperate after a scorching summer they have started digging up and eating corpses in municipal cemetries, alarmed officials said today. Bears’ traditional food – mushrooms, berries and the odd frog – has disappeared, they added.

The Vezhnya Tchova incident took place on Saturday in the northern republic of Komi, near the Arctic Circle. The shocked women cried in panic, frightening the bear back into the woods, before they discovered a ghoulish scene with the clothes of the bear’s already-dead victim chucked over adjacent tombstones, the Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomelets reported.

Comment by Bill in Carolina
2010-10-26 10:33:20

How deep do they bury people in that neck of the woods? Certainly not Six Feet Under.

Comment by DennisN
2010-10-26 11:17:43

It’s hard to dig deep in permafrost.

 
 
Comment by REhobbyist
2010-10-26 12:43:10

I got to visit St. Petersburg in June for the first time. It was very warm, and our museum guide remarked on the record heat. We drove by people in bathing suits sunning themselves outside their office buildings - people were very excited about it then. Apparently the fun wore off as the summer wore on.

 
 
Comment by wmbz
2010-10-26 10:06:21

The Best of Times For Stocks May Be Ahead ~ CNBC

The midterm election may be setting the stage for a political power struggle in Washington, as Democrats and Republicans jockey for control of Congress, but it’s also stacking the deck for a much-anticipated Wall Street rally.

As such, tactical investors should be reviewing their portfolios-and upping their equity exposure-to take advantage of any post-election pop, says Joe Zidle, an investment strategist for Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

“Right now there’s fear about the U.S.economy, regulation and taxes and those are legitimate concerns, but as we look at the market our view is that it’s actually a good time to be buying equities,” he says.

History seems to agree.

According to the Stock Trader’s Almanac, the market’s sweet spot during any four-year presidency cycle is historically the fourth quarter of the midterm year and first quarter of the pre-election year.

Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 10:49:24

“…stacking the deck for a much-anticipated Wall Street rally.”

The DJIA is up from 10K to over 11K (10%) in what, a month or two?

When is the rally scheduled to begin?

Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 11:55:32

DJIA around 7/31/10 ~ 9600
today (near 10/31/10) ~ 11,200

Annualized rate of return from 7/31/10 to the present (rough calculation):

((11,200/9,600)^4-1)*100 = 85 percent.

When is that rally gonna start again?

Comment by Hwy50ina49Dodge
2010-10-26 12:33:20

I’m finished with picking up my “nickels” in front of the “steam roller”, ya’all can continue, all the best! ;-)

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
Comment by sleepless_near_seattle
2010-10-26 15:54:31

Agreed. See the poll I posted before. There is so much info out there about when stocks do what. Perhaps even elections are forward-looking events such that investors stocked up in anticipation of results similar to those in the past, such that the run-up happens before the event, instead of after?

Does selling right now make me a contrarian? Or contrary to the contrarians? I’m so confused…

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
 
 
Comment by wmbz
2010-10-26 10:17:50

Here’s an idea, and it would ‘create’ millions of new driving jobs. Abolish trucks and trains period. Make it mandatory all deliveries be in a Prius or the like, with a little trailer for hauling. Problem solved…Next.

Big trucks may face fuel consumption regulations ~ Driveon

The government on Monday proposed the first regulations limiting fuel consumption of work trucks — from big-rig trucks to concrete mixers, buses, even heavy-duty pickups — saying the rules finally address the thirstiest and most-polluting vehicles on the road.

The proposal, which would take effect with 2014 models and ratchet up through 2018 models, requires a public comment period and other procedures, and wouldn’t be final until next year.

The rules would raise the cost of trucks and the diesel engines most of them use, but the government says the payback in fuel-cost savings would be as fast as one year for heavily used over-the-road trucks.

Even so, “We are concerned that this could price some buyers out of the market,” says Kyle Treadway, chairman of the American Truck Dealers and owner of a Kenworth dealership in Salt Lake City. Lower fuel consumption is good, he agrees, but the federal proposal “is expected to add thousands of dollars to the cost per truck.”

Comment by In Colorado
2010-10-26 11:57:57

“The rules would raise the cost of trucks and the diesel engines most of them use, but the government says the payback in fuel-cost savings would be as fast as one year for heavily used over-the-road trucks.”

Given that trucks like these are used for years and can easily accumulate up to 1 million miles and still run strong its seems that truckers should be clamoring for more fuel efficient rigs.

Comment by Carl Morris
2010-10-26 12:34:58

Whoever is paying for the fuel (trucker or trucking company, depending on employment arrangement) DOES want more fuel efficiency as long as driveability is not too negatively affected. They want to see hard evidence that it’ll be enough to more than cover the additional cost (including interest on that cost over about 4 years) before they spend that money, though…and they don’t trust any of the governments numbers for costs or savings.

Comment by In Colorado
2010-10-26 13:31:41

I’ll do some back of the napkin math.

Let’s say that rigs current get 10 mpg (on the high end).

That would be 100,000 gallons over 1 million miles.

If you could save 10%, that would be 10,000 gallons, which at today’s prices would be approaching $30,000.

Of course there might be trade offs: durability and cost of maintanance.

I just never understand some people’s knee jerk reactions to higher fuel efficiency and other standards. Automakers, especially the big 3, have almost always had to be dragged kicking and screaming by the gov’t into providing the safety features and levels of performance that we take for granted today.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Carl Morris
2010-10-26 13:57:51

I think the “knee jerk reactions” tend to be related to people’s personal vehicles…they’re willing to pay more for gas in order to avoid feeling like they’re driving a late 70s car that was neutered from the factory to keep the government happy. As far as I know nobody complains when it improves performance. Just like the truckers, though, nobody trusts the governments numbers.

 
 
Comment by measton
2010-10-26 14:51:03

Here is #1 reason

FED is printing money like there is no tomorrow.

Here is reason #2

Oil production will peak

Energy efficiency is a guaranteed tax free return.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 13:37:51

Business doesn’t pay for fuel. Business pays nothing. The retail consumer pays for everything.

An inefficient engine in an old, paid off truck probably costs a whole lot less to operate than the costs of new govt regulations and new equipment.

So, their product or service can be sold for less with the old “inefficient” vehicles.

Ultimately, saving a few gallons of fuel can can cost consumers lots of money.

Comment by CrackerJim
2010-10-26 22:16:17

Business doesn’t pay for fuel. Business pays nothing. The retail consumer pays for everything.

What the hell are you talking about? Business pays nothing?

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 23:59:58

well.. How can a business afford to buy a tank of gas if we don’t buy any of it’s products?

When the cost of fuel rises, where does the extra money come from?
Does a business cut back, or lay someone off.. or does it just raise prices to compensate?

If it cuts back, we lose services or products.
If it lays someone off, we lose a job.
If it raises prices, we pay more.

One way or another, we pay all the costs of doing business.

 
 
 
 
Comment by SaladSD
2010-10-26 13:46:00

I heard a new story a few months back saying that just some simple and inexpensive design changes could boost fuel efficiency, but that many in the trucking industry fetishize certain chunky, “manly” and non-aerodynamic designs. The Hummer syndrome.

Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 13:53:05

Don’t believe everything you hear..

Business cares about one thing: making money. If pink paint was proven to increase fuel mileage, every truck on the road would be painted pink.

Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2010-10-26 16:41:47

Business cares about one thing: making money.

It’s the main thing but not the only thing businesses care about.

From your writings, I think you’ve always been an employee.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 17:07:47

rio.. and from what you claim to believe, i doubt your business would have the slightest interest in making money. Banking on government handouts and subsidies seem more your style.

 
Comment by SaladSD
2010-10-26 18:00:01

Now, now. Ya’ll should read the very interesting review of a new book on Adam Smith, a snippet below. Appears Mr. Smith wasn’t a hard-ass moneyman after all:

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/10/18/101018crbo_books_gopnik

 
Comment by exeter
2010-10-26 18:56:11

“From your writings, I think you’ve always been an employee.”

BINGO. Born a wage slave and will die a wage slave.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2010-10-26 19:13:51

rio.. and from what you claim to believe, i doubt your business would have the slightest interest in making money. Banking on government handouts and subsidies seem more your style.

If you really think that, absent your real motivations, you are not nearly as smart as you wish to appear but actually don’t.

 
 
Comment by measton
2010-10-26 18:44:42

True
#1 tax credits give a huge advantage to gas guzzlers. I think a dentist I met said he wrote off the F350 the gas the maintenance everything all so he could drive to work. There are many repair and maintenance businesses that would be driving used minivans if not for the tax credits for massive pickups.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by CrackerJim
2010-10-26 22:09:08

There are no tax credits for massive pickups or for any business use vehicles for that matter (except for government approved and mandated “green” vehicles, i.e. subsidy for otherwise noneconomical vehicles). There are depreciation expense writeoffs that serve only to eliminate the income tax on such expenses, not the actual cost. Depreciation schedules on vehicles is not influenced by gas mileage. The dentist still has to pay for the F350 and pay for the fuel and maintenance. Effectively he will not owe tax on the money spent as it is considered an expense BUT he still has to spend the money. If he buys a gas guzzler, he WILL be spending more of his money.

 
Comment by CrackerJim
2010-10-26 22:11:13

BTW, ALL esxpenses associated with commuting to and from the workplace are NOT deductible and must be separately reported. Only business use mileage is considered a business expense.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by X-GSfixr
2010-10-26 10:26:32

Hawker Beechcraft Death Watch, Part II

Went by the local H/B dealer this morning to pick up some parts. The guy at the parts window said that his regional sales rep was one of those who got a layoff notice last Friday.

Parts are the most lucrative end of the airplane business. Laying off salesmen is a bad sign.

As far as 2banana’s comments yesterday……

-Might I suggest that a complete, ready to roll bizjet built for the civilian market, is a more complicated piece of equipment than a fuel tank for a cost-no-object government program.

Cessna tried moving their piston single engine production to Independence, Kansas in the mid-90s, for the same reasons that H/B “says” they want to move to Baton Rouge; If you want to see how that worked out, check the FAA website and see how many ADs have been issued against Independence-manufactured Cessnas, especially in the first 3-4 years of production. They were having so many problems, they were bringing back a bunch of the old timers under contract, and flying them via company airplane from Wichita to Independence every day.

I would expect that H/B would have the same problems, or worse. First of all, H/B management has shown ZERO ability to manage their company over the past 10-20 years…..basically, they were the red-headed stepchild in the Raytheon conglomorate.

Second of all, in spite of the advertisements, GA airplanes are not Mass Produced, at least in the way you think cars are mass produced. The biggest name in the business, Cessna, might deliver 300 jets this year and in their best years maybe double that.

They have been “lean manufacturing” for a long time. Meaning, in this case, they have a minimal number of employees, and run those guys into the ground with overtime to meet their numbers. Which means, in reality, that they don’t have time or the inclination, to cross-train people. Which means that there are certain critical manufacturing processes that may only have one or two guys in the WHOLE COMPANY, that have the expertise to do those critical procedures.

At Cessna, we had the “Radome Guy”. He fit all the radomes on the noses of the aircraft at the factory, mainly because he could do them fast, and not screw up the radome and cause it to be scrapped (last time I checked, they were $10K bucks). When we had one to replace in my department, we “borrowed” him from the factory. Mainly because none of our guys did enough of them to get proficient on fitting them.

There are probably a thousand other critical functions that require the same level of skill when building an airplane. None of these guy want (or need) to move to Baton Rouge, LA, and take a big pay cut while doing it. Especially since most of these skills are readily transferable to Cessna, Learjet, Spirit Aerosystems, the Boeing mod center at Wichita, various subcontractors, etc.

Their Wichita-based subcontractors aren’t going to move there either. H/B business is a small part of their business for most of them. So now, they have to truck subassembles components down from Wichita.

Yeah, they might try to use their “Expert Systems” to get things up to speed in Louisiana in 5-7 years. I personally don’t think they have that much time.

As far as their “average” pay is concerned. All the pups making $8-10 dollars an hour were laid off two years ago. In my old department, most of the guys left have 10-15 years of seniority. I expect that it’s the same way company wide, and at H/B.

Before going off on a knee-jerk rant about the unions, educate yourself. Kansas is a “Right to Work” state. Which means that union membership is optional. Which means that the IAM has never had as much power in Wichita, as the UAW had in Michigan. Look back at the last five contracts. Contracts with a bunch of 2-3% year pay raises, and
“contract signing bonuses” of a couple thousand buck every 3-4 years.

That’s why I left, after 20 years. I had no family ties to Wichita, wasn’t going any higher up the salaried-exempt scale, and could do better (pay and quality of life wise) becoming a corporate flight department maintenance manager/supervisor.

(Of course, these are my direct observations, and info I get from some of my former buddies, who are now mid-level managers or better. You can choose to believe me or not, machts nichts to me.)

Comment by cactus
2010-10-26 13:19:45

They called it “Tribal Knowledge ” at L3 . Managers hate it and fight against it constantly. Always looking to hire the one guy who will ferret it all out and write it down in procedures and documents.

Comment by In Colorado
2010-10-26 14:15:44

” Always looking to hire the one guy who will ferret it all out and write it down in procedures and documents.”

After which they will lay him off.

Kidding aside, the reason nothing gets documented, especially in the world of tech, is because management is always pressuring the rank and file to do more with less (especilly time).

For this reason documentation always falls to the wayside. The only companies that do it are those that have a gov’t gun (FDA, FAA, etc. ) held to their heads.

Comment by X-GSfixr
2010-10-26 17:03:19

And the “documentation/logbook entry” will say something like “…….complied with per Aircraft Maintenance Manual, XX-XX-xx……, Rev. whatever, dated x-xx-xxxx”.

The GA OEMs think they can replace their experienced Field/Customer Service help with a call center and an Expert System. ……maybe, if myself and other guys like me spill our guts, and tell them everything we know. Can you say, “Fat effing chance?”

Dirty Secret #1- All maintenance manuals, no matter what kind of equipment you are working on, are written by the company legal department. Reason? As a CYA measure during a product liability suit. Why? So they can muddy the water during trial by saying “Well, they can’t document that they followed the maintenance manual to the letter”. NOBODY follows the M.M. to the letter……nobody in the real work has the time, or the customers willing to pay the freight.

Even my buddies in the Feds will admit this (off the record). They know they can shut down every airline and ground every airplane, if they look long enough. So they are like us, try to concentrate on what’s important, and leave the BS to the lawyers and pencil pushers. And we all hope like hell we never fook up, because there will be hell to pay if something bad happens.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
 
 
Comment by wmbz
2010-10-26 10:32:17

Tennessee Industrial Jobs Declined 13.7% Over Past Two Years

EVANSTON, Ill., Oct. 25 /PRNewswire/ — Industrial employment in Tennessee fell 13.7% over the past two years according to the 2011 Tennessee Manufacturers Register®, an industrial directory published annually by Manufacturers’ News, Inc. (MNI) Evanston, IL. MNI reports Tennessee lost 61,289 manufacturing jobs and 613 manufacturers over the past two years.

Manufacturers’ News reports Tennessee is now home to 7,506 manufacturers employing 383,278 workers.

“Decreased demand continues to affect Tennessee manufacturing, particularly the transportation sector and industries related to the housing market,” says Tom Dubin, President of the Evanston, IL-based publishing company, which has been surveying industry since 1912. “But losses have definitely slowed over the past year.”

Comment by In Colorado
2010-10-26 12:03:31

“MNI reports Tennessee lost 61,289 manufacturing jobs and 613 manufacturers over the past two years.”

Isn’t Tennessee one of those non-union, low wage, biz friendly, “right to work” states?

 
Comment by pismoclam
2010-10-26 21:02:52

With the recession and the fact that more people are drinking whisky, I would think that Whisky employment in Tenn. should be on the rise ???

 
 
Comment by mrktMaven FL
2010-10-26 12:19:03

As the nation grows restless, will the court side with the tyrants or the people?

Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve won’t join a group of the largest commercial banks in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to let the government withhold details of emergency loans made to financial firms in 2008.

The Clearing House Association LLC, a group of the biggest commercial banks, filed the appeal today. Under federal rules for appeals, a lower court’s order requiring disclosure remains on hold until the Supreme Court acts.

 
Comment by Happy2bHeard
2010-10-26 12:23:15

This is in response to Spook’s comments from yesterday.

“People tell me (mostly liberal white people) that I cannot oppose homosexuality because “its not a choice, its how God made them…”; the old they were born that way, get over it routine…

so,

can people be born white supremacists?

and if so,

should we all accept the practice since “its not a choice, its how God made them, they were born that way…”

I have noticed that there appears to be an innate, human tendency to classify people into an us-them dichotomy. This tendency does not always express itself along color lines. Sometimes it is geographic or class based.

Examples: When I lived in Dayton in the 70s, people there told jokes about Kentuckians and called them “Briars”, regardless of color. In eastern Iowa, they told jokes about the Czechs. Where I grew up in Pittsburgh, they were Pollock jokes. My grandmother used to talk about the High Germans and the Low Germans.

So, saying that the white supremacist is “how god made them” is partially true. We seem to be made to make tribal distinctions. How that is expressed is determined by culture.

Regarding gays: There are people who are born with both sets of genitalia. Whichever choice they made, I would not consider them to be homosexual.

I see homosexuality as a continuum on the choice spectrum. There are some who were made that way by life circumstances (e.g. childhood abuse) and there are some who were born that way. In the case of childhood abuse, you may be able to “cure” the homosexuality if you can heal the trauma from abuse. For instance, a girl raped by her father may be unable to trust men. Most of the homosexuals I have met are able to form healthy relationships with people of both sexes and I believe they were “made that way”.

Comment by Blue Skye
2010-10-26 13:53:21

My little children were apparently “made” to lie and steal. Their human nature was not nurtured by me along those lines. We make choices.

Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 14:30:59

i think babies are all pretty much the same.. evil.

Then parents and society get to work, and repress or remove as much of the bad stuff as they can.

 
Comment by Happy2bHeard
2010-10-26 16:57:09

Precisely. We have to teach our children not to be unthinkingly racist or classist. We have to teach them to recognize when they are responding to unconscious bias and not to facts. We also have to teach them when to use their feelings to stay safe.

We have to teach them how to be men and women. How much of being male is innate and how much is choice? Some of the early feminists would like to believe that it is all learned. But any parent will tell you a lot of personality and gender difference is hard-wired. We need to teach respect for individuality and respect for society.

Some of these things are conflicting. Young children will have more difficulty with nuances, so hard and fast rules are appropriate at that age. E.g. which strangers they should trust.

There may be circumstances under which it is appropriate to lie or steal. Taking necessities during a disaster is different from shoplifting during ordinary times.

 
 
 
Comment by patrick
2010-10-26 14:13:58

To Canadians the USA has always represented a law abiding country. You are our best friends; we watch your media as much as you do.

We see your jails are crammed with plea bargains, guity or not, for small offences. We see multi millionaire frauds going unpunished.

We see no top down direction of intellectual property thefts, this mortgage crisis, the loss of manufacturing jobs.

You call very large companies “small” if privately owned and give them enormous tax breaks. Why?

We see elected “sheriffs” supposedly determining the law to enforce.

It really hurts to see our best friend in such a state.

Bank hidden inventories sounds like they knew what could happen. Do you not have a registry office where all mortgages for each county are registered with the original filed there?

We look and talk like you; we have a multicultural law abiding society; our population contains a high percentage of university graduates - and our hockey teams beat you guys ! And I think our economy will soon be like yours - even with our free health care, abundant energy supplies, and mounties !

Please get your house back in order soon. You are always welcome up here in Canada.

Comment by Blue Skye
2010-10-26 15:13:09

Thanks Patrick,

I enjoyed my stay at the Waupoos Marina this summer. The meals at the winery are fantastic.

All our hockey teams are in your National League.

Comment by Cassandra
2010-10-26 17:54:13

And all US children are above average.

 
 
 
 
Comment by sleepless_near_seattle
2010-10-26 15:09:06

How will stocks react to the midterm elections?

Up, and to the right! But of course!

Comment by sleepless_near_seattle
2010-10-26 15:28:17

I’m guessing this is mostly “Repubs are better for business and, therefore, stocks” banter but still…

Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 15:59:06

i read a MarketWatch (?) article this morning.. can’t find it now.. that had some statistics.
This quarter tends to lean towards a significant rise in the stock market… something to do with elections cycles, iirc.

 
 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 16:18:03

Buy now, and compete with all-cash Wall Street investors who are “doing good” (God’s work?).

Number of Californians entering foreclosure rises 19% in third quarter

The jump from the previous quarter is the first time the measure has increased since early 2009, according to data from MDA DataQuick. However, the numbers are down from the same period last year.

By Alejandro Lazo, Los Angeles Times

October 27, 2010

Fresh data shows the number of California homes entering foreclosure jumped nearly 19% in the third quarter from the previous quarter, the first time the Golden State has logged an increase in the key measure since hitting a peak early last year.

It is too soon to tell whether the increase represents a further deterioration in homeowners’ ability to pay their mortgages or just improved efficiency on the part of lenders, analysts said. Big banks were overwhelmed in 2009 by the sheer number of delinquent borrowers and efforts to work with troubled homeowners, and the lenders could be playing catch-up, analysts said.

Of all the California homes that made it all the way through the foreclosure process during a two-year period ended in June, 80% had been resold by the end of the third quarter, according to DataQuick, indicating that a healthy demand for foreclosed properties exists.

Foreclosures accounted for 35.5% of the Golden State’s resale market in the third quarter, down from 35% the previous quarter and 42.7% in the year-earlier quarter. A healthy chunk of demand for foreclosed homes is coming from investors. At formal foreclosure auctions statewide last quarter, 22.7% of foreclosed homes were bought by investors, DataQuick said.

“There is still a lot of investor money out there,” said Leo Nordine, a Los Angeles real estate agent who sells foreclosure properties on the behalf of several major lenders. “It’s a funny economy: The regular people seem totally broke, but there is a lot of investor cash out there.”

He said banks were trying to sell foreclosed properties to people who will actually live in them. Bank of America and Wells Fargo, as well as mortgage titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have instituted policies that allow offers from people who will live in the homes to trump offers from investors, he said.

There are too many investors and not enough real people,” Nordine said. “Wall Street is doing good, and it looks like that is where a lot of this money is coming from.

Comment by Arizona Slim
2010-10-26 16:36:52

“There are too many investors and not enough real people,” Nordine said. “Wall Street is doing good, and it looks like that is where a lot of this money is coming from.“

They’ll have fun losing it all in the residential rental market. A few lousy tenants will hasten the process.

 
Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 16:48:46

Yes, there’s lots of money out there.
But why would private investors who are flush with cash (since they stopped buying MBS) want to actually own physical property?
Do they suddenly like the idea of land lording, managing property and getting their hands dirty?

something don’t jive..

Comment by Arizona Slim
2010-10-26 16:56:26

Do they suddenly like the idea of land lording, managing property and getting their hands dirty?

No, they don’t. And it will be an absolute laugh riot to live in the neighborhoods where they’ve bought property. Those houses will depreciate from:

1. Tenant abuse
2. Lack of maintenance
3. Shoddy repair work

Investment properties, my foot. More like eyesores.

Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 17:22:22

i just had a vision of azlender with a box cutter in one hand, and a crowbar in the other, trying to open some painted-shut windows on that apt house.

yeah.. i mean.. why buy RE now of all times? And why buy physical? The article states certain percentages which might be accurate, but it doesn’t name dollar amounts.
It quotes at least the one RE agent, and is likely just another RE puff piece.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
Comment by Georgiagirl
2010-10-26 18:12:51

I have a friend who works for investors in Atlanta who are buying homes at the courthouse steps, rehabbing and selling. Lots of them.

Comment by Georgiaboy
2010-10-26 18:59:25

We need a rehab. Our whole family does.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
 
Comment by combotechie
2010-10-26 17:07:16

“It’s a funny economy: The regular people seem totally broke, but there’s a lot of investor cash out there.”

I know a guy who owns about twenty houses bought over the past 30 years or so. He just a few months ago added two more to his list.

He has been conditioned over these past 30 years to buy the dips; Such conditioning isn’t about to be easily turned around.

Comment by sleepless_near_seattle
2010-10-26 20:22:23

That seems to be the best investment right now. Real estate you bought 30 years ago. Probably paid off and spewing cash. Anyone know where I can buy that? ;-)

 
 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-10-26 18:07:56

I frankly have no idea how to evaluate the veracity of this kind of story.

Suggestions?

It Gets Worse: Meg Whitman’s Sons’ Racism and Entitlement Were Stuff of Legend

Meg Whitman’s sons, Griff and Will Harsh, have been kicked out of prep schools, an eating club, dormitories, and Princeton’s class of 2008, say people who know them. One incident involving the n-word is already internet famous.

Yesterday we documented big brother Griff’s beer-throwing and sheltered ways. Today, a glimpse at Will Harsh’s little brother blues—and how he compensated with white entitlement, according to a tipster/commenter and classmate:

Griff’s non-refundable membership to Cottage [eating club] was paid in full when he got suspended. So some of the officers would let Will attend some meals and formals events in his brother’s place until Will got banned from there.

The story goes that Will yelled “what are all these n!ggers doing here” one night when all the members of the Black Arts Company where there to celebrate a show they had performed. Cottage is know as one of the whiter clubs on campus so I assume that he was shocked to see so many black people there in a night. He was already on notice with Cottage officers because of an altercation he started with a bouncer early in the year.

This account varies from Guest of a Guest’s version, which has Will hurling the n-word at a specific person. Unless, of course, there was more than one epithet-related ban?

Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2010-10-26 19:22:37

Meg Whitman’s sons, Griff and Will Harsh, have been kicked out of prep schools, an eating club, dormitories, and Princeton’s class of 2008, say people who know them. One incident involving the n-word is already internet famous.

Does all that human stuff really matter in life?? The fact is, their mom made a whole lot of money. Worship it.

Jeez

Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 20:09:47

“What the hell is this??”

“It came in the mail today. Don’t look at me.”

“Well.. He’s your son.”

“No! He’s your son!”

“Rio! Get in here!”

Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2010-10-26 22:10:49

“What the hell is this??”

Besides a poorly constructed hypothetical narrative?

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
 
 
Comment by Housing Wizard
2010-10-26 19:03:34

I would like to propose a thought . What if the MBS security makers
didn’t comply with the law in the making of the securities in the first place
and none of these MBS loan bundles were lawfully passed to the investors
because of the complex nature of the real estate chain of title on liens .

What if its not just a snag in paperwork but a greater problem of not complying with the laws to begin with in the formation of these
securities . Maybe securities were complying when it came to unsecured
debt ,but not complying when it came to secured debt/loans with rights of foreclosure . Did Wall Street create a Ponzi-scheme in securities that
didn’t even comply with the law and it was so complicated but in the final
analysis voidable because it didn’t comply with long standing real estate
laws and ownership laws and chain of title laws ? It seems like a lot of cover-ups have been going on and a extra ordinary desire to change the paper-work on these loans or transfer them to other entities so the paper-work can be changed .

Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-26 20:21:11

What if..

Can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube. It just makes a bigger mess if you try.

No matter how badly the banks may have messed up, they are the hub of the economy and the govt will not allow them to suffer much.. and in no case beyond their ability to cope.

post-election, BO and Co. will put an end to this foreclosure snafu.. FB-squatter hopes will be smothered.

Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2010-10-26 22:17:26

No matter how badly the banks may have messed up, they are the hub of the economy

And the world is flat and the stars revolve around the earth and……..and………..we’re all superstars

what a crock of BofA lying, thieving, traitorous BS

 
 
 
Comment by Housing Wizard
2010-10-26 22:08:34

Joey , I was just listening to the Dylan Ratigan Show . Dylan had Professor William Black on the show . He was saying in essence that 49 % of the loans were fraudulent and 85% of Countrywide loans were fraudulent and of course he went on about the incorrect marketing of securities . William Black also addressed the situation of the Fed Chairman taking these fraudulent loans from the Banks without even checking the junk ,but now
he is talking about examining it years after he accepted it . William Black
in essence said they all need to be fired and he goes on to say that the
entire market was fraudulent and thats the only way you can describe it .

As you know massive fraud has been my theme song for years on this blog and I
have always felt there were more effective ways to resolve the matter than giving the culprits the money ,keeping the fraudulent system alive and covering up the crimes so Justice could not prevail .

You can’t have corruption ,fraud ,and Ponzi-schemes being the hub of our economy because it spells disaster . You can purge the system that produced the biggest crime spree in history .

People on this blog like to BS that this Wall Street Ponzi-scheme was all legal ,but thats is BS . The idea that we should just move on and you can’t put the toothpaste back in the jar is not the normal way crimes are handled in a rule of law Country .This was a cover-up from day one .

The Politicians are so bought off now that it’s a joke going to the voting booths and yes the Politicians are going right along with the cover-up and
the bailing out of the culprits who are their benefactors . Until this mess
slaps you directly in the face Joey you will continue to poo poo the
necessary solutions .

Comment by joeyinCalif
2010-10-27 04:55:00

You and Black might be perfectly correct, but it won’t change the govt’s strategy one iota. Economic recovery is TBTF.

 
 
Name (required)
E-mail (required - never shown publicly)
URI
Your Comment (smaller size | larger size)
You may use <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> in your comment.

Trackback responses to this post

  • The Housing Bubble Blog
  • The Housing Bubble Blog
  • The Housing Bubble Blog