Bits Bucket For November 4, 2010
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Foreclosure Investigation by States to Stay on Track
By DAVID STREITFELD
Published: November 3, 2010
Though some of the players will change, the coordinated effort by attorneys general across the country to investigate — and ultimately reshape — foreclosure procedures is not expected to lose momentum because of Tuesday’s election.
Tom Miller, Iowa’s attorney general, who is leading the effort, handily won his eighth term. And newly elected attorneys general in New York and California are lined up to be full participants in the investigation, which was prompted by disclosures in recent months about improper or sloppy paperwork by mortgage lenders and their contractors.
“This is a bipartisan and united effort with a clear mandate,” said Mr. Miller, a Democrat.
…
The map in this article , how ca voted tells the real story in CA:
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/11/04/3158208/authenticity-instincts-pushed.html
“Authenticity, instincts pushed Jerry Brown past well-funded Whitman”
Who’d've thunk basic issues of character and political experience would trump a flood of Wall Street money in dictating the actions of California voters?
His personality is that of a rock imo.That map of ca reminded me of the usa.All the dems on the coast and the rest of the land area the gop.Interesting how a lot less land area is calling the shots for CA and the usa.It seems if you dont win LA county you are in trouble.Meg should have been handing out 20 dollar bills on freeway off ramps in LA.
I wonder how much losing 150 million on the campaing really effects meg?Is it like one of us losing 100k?
“His personality is that of a rock imo.”
He is getting on in the years; perhaps I am just stuck on fading memories of the progressive CA governor who dated Linda Ronstadt.
“Interesting how a lot less land area is calling the shots for CA and the usa.”
Since it is people who vote, not land areas, I’m not sure why it is interesting/not interesting. If you ran one of those adjustment programs on the map so that the area on the map reflected population, it would look very different.
Ya beat me to the punch, Polly. It’s people who vote, so it’s very misleading when they show a map of the U.S. with those great swaths of red in flyover country.
That’s not to say the independent voters didn’t do an about-face. A 60-plus House seat pickup and seven or eight more in the Senate cannot be pooh-poohed.
And flyover country in California is much less densely populated than flyover in the midwest. Most of eastern California is desolate mountains and desert. But very beautiful!
Most of eastern California is desolate mountains and desert ??
Hwy…I think REhobbyist is dishing your hood…:)
The voters chose the lesser of the 2 evils.
Naw, no problemo scdave,..we’re of “high” HOPE it takes alooooooonnnnnnnnnnng time to CHANGE our area due to population density!
“Interesting how a lot less land area is calling the shots for CA and the usa.”
Do rocks out in the middle of the high desert vote Democrat or Republican?
Do rocks out in the middle of the high desert vote Democrat or Republican?
Must be R, because those states always go R and there’s way more rocks than people :-).
When you pack people into cities like sardines it tends to drive them nuts, and you need a big powerful invasive government to keep them from killing each other.
Who’d’ve thunk basic issues of character and political experience would trump a flood of Wall Street money in dictating the actions of California voters?
As California goes, so goes the nation. Look for this trend to go nationwide in very short order.
Slim - how did Dan Quayle’s drunk fratboy son manage to get elected to Congress in Arizona?
That district (AZ third) has voted a Republican in since 1966.
Ben Quayle loves Arizona, he practically grew up in California.
Slim here.
Dan Quayle’s drunk fratboy son getting elected to Congress is just part of the scenery here. After all, this is the state that did so much for the careers of other corrupt politicians like Ev Mecham and Fife Symington.
I don’t think he’s a drunk frat boy (that was his dad!) He probably inherited his mom’s brains.
YouTube videos show that he takes after his father.
80% of Whitman voters want to “repeal” Obamacare. They must either
1. already be on Medicare
2. fall prey to bumper stickers
3. both.
It makes you wonder about these seniors. What goes through their minds when they find out that their kids can’t afford to take their grandchildren to the doctor?
Is it: “Who cares, I got mine!” ?
Most of them still think it’s 50s and 60s when jobs literally grew on trees and one paycheck could support a small family.
+1 eco!
A few months ago I was at a dinner conversation and this topic cropped up. The older men (60-70) said that “Meh, whatever, it’s just a downswing, it’ll come back up.” I tried to explain that no, it’s not the same, it’s no longer a closed system. Our jobs are leaking away and aren’t coming back. Almost everything follows from that. The younger folks (34-50) agreed with me, or at least they knew what I was getting at. The older guys, at a loss, spouted the usual talking point about “government spending” without thinking.
At that point we all stopped, because we didn’t want to get into a fight.
I’m 62, but I’ve gotten that one figured out. The middle class jobs and upper middle class jobs have been leaking away and more importantly technologically displaced for 30 years but we have been masking that with a series of bubbles. No more bubbles = permanently high unemployment. We will reap what we have sown.
I don’t understand why it’s supposed to be irrational to be on Medicare and object to Obamacare. The latter vastly increases the scope and (I hear) weakens the former.
Although I concede that the whole effort may have been a roundabout way of “saving” Medicare, somehow.
The “New Normal” on the unemployment side may stay north of 8% I am afraid…
Going by the old calculations, it’s been north of 8% for the last 30 years.
As well as inflation being higher than official numbers.
Be afraid, because it now looks like nothing is going to get fixed this time around.
Again.
I have an idea on how to reshape foreclosure procedures. How about this:
Tell the banks that if they decide to build up a massive backlog of foreclosures by allowing people to live mortgage-free in their houses for years on end, and then it gets to the point where they have thousands of foreclosures to process each day, and are therefore unable to process them, then investors will never again be willing to purchase MBSs backed by bad-bank mortgages, and bad banks will be allowed to fail on this account.
Big loser in Tuesday Election: Republican strategy of floating viable female candidates on a tsunami tide of money. It seems local American elections are harder to buy than Republican party operatives reckoned they were. All politics is local, fools!
Big investment in campaign to oust Tom Miller comes up short
By Matt Vasilogambros | 11.03.10 | 2:30 pm
Democratic Attorney General Tom Miller held onto his seat Tuesday night, cruising to victory with 55 percent of the vote and marking the end of a surprisingly tough battle for the seven-term incumbent. In his way was Brenna Findley — a challenger who received hundreds of thousands of dollars and strong support from the Iowa Republican Party. This investment, it seems, did not pay off from the GOP last night.
Seeing weaknesses in Miller’s brand after the Iowa egg recall and general attitudes toward Democratic candidates nationwide, the Iowa GOP saw an opportunity to unseat the perennial favorite. Findley was the clear frontrunner in fundraising, raking in more than $700,000 between July 15 and Oct. 14 — $550,000 of which came from the Republican Party of Iowa.
Outside groups also targeted Miller, including a TV ad attacking paid for by the American Future Fund and another paid for by its sister organization, The Progress Project. Findley also saw wide support from potential GOP 2012 presidential candidates, including former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, U.S. Rep. Mike Pence, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.
…
I was happy to see the corporatist whores Meg and Carly, promoted by the Establishment GOP, go down in flames in California. Those two were nothing but stalking forces for the banksters who want to complete their looting of California. Next time the GOP will be forced to put up candidates who might actually be appealing to the people in CA who actually pay the bills.
Now we have the SEIU calling the shots.
“Those two were nothing but stalking forces for the banksters who want to complete their looting of California.”
Exactly my assumption! I also assume that’s why Joey was so in love with Meg.
in love?
She is a business woman. The unemployment rate is 12.4% iirc..
It would have been interesting to see if she could overcome the very liberal State Legislature, generate some business, and shake things up a bit.
But instead that, we’ll watch the same old govt leftists continue to loot worker’s paychecks and give the money to their cronies.
Boring.
Here is Joey’s business sense
Yesterday he questioned what the harm was of letting the solar industry die in the US and hand it to China who subsidized it’s solar manufacturers.
There is no industry in the US that can stand up to a country that subsidizes the competition and takes care of health care costs. Joey Meg Carly etc would have us hand all of our manufacturing over the China in this fashion.
Let’s say you have a million workers that are in several industries A,B and C. China targets those industries by partially funding production in China. Prices for the goods fall and these million workers eventually loose their job. Now only a fraction of those people eventually find jobs the rest go on unemployment. They all loose valuable manufacturing training over time. Taxes have to go up to support the unemployed and the unemployed purchase fewer goods, thus putting pressure on other industries and creating more unemployed people. Eventually the US looses manufacturing expertise in these fields then China is free to drop the subsidies and make money. This is exactly what has happened in the US. We hid the unemployment with a massive real estate bubble that eventually burst. Now we are paying the price for poor trade policy that encouraged outsourcing and discouraged manufacturing in the US by allowing those that manupulate currency and trade into our open market.
This is exactly what’s been happening for the last 30 years.
China is part of the WTO. They can be pursued for unfair trade. No idea how effective it would be, but it can be pursued.
measton..
Here is Joey’s business sense ‘
Yesterday he questioned what the harm was
Did you know that not even nuclear power has never turned a profit?
Solar is so far away from making a profit that it may never happen. We will subsidize that company, other companies, and then subsidize the buyers of the products forever and ever…
We have to PAY people to build and install this stuff! This is how government “runs” a business. It simply burns (our) money.
Measton, you got a big subsidy for installing your system, right? That’s taxpayer money. Well, we can’t afford to subsidize everyone.
Did you know that not even nuclear power has never turned a profit?
No, I didn’t know that, and I don’t know it now. A nuke plant spend about a million bucks a day in operating costs, and generates about 1.5 or so million a day in revenue. The older plants, which have paid for their upfront costs, are cash cows.
you saying Nuke plants are not government subsidized? That revenues alone pay ALL the costs of doing business and genuinely are profitable?
My $0.02.
You can either continue to prop up the manufacturing of old mouse traps in order to keep jobs, but unless you are also investing in how to build an independently viable mousetrap, you will eventually get your clock cleaned.
This investment should only come from the private sector.
The risk in having government attempt to choose winners is that it’s not their expertise. See Solyndra’s news today (curtailing expansion plans, because they need to figure out how to build their solar panels more cheaply). The US government gave Solyndra a $500+ MILLION loan guarantee. There’s a nice subsidy by the US Government for jobs…flushed right down the toilet.
While China is subsidizing the manufacture of existing technologies, and potentially funding their own Solyndras, there is plenty of private investment occurring in the US, which could eventually create the new technology that will crush any older solar technologies.
See Nanosolar as one potential competition-crushing technology. From a recent press release - “Nanosolar is funding its solar cell factory expansion with its existing cash reserves. The company plans to reach cash-flow positive operations in 2012 without having to raise additional equity capital.” Their goal is to be the worlds lowest cost producer of solar panels within a few years…manufacturing in California.
And how to properly subsidize green tech? See CA bill SB 71, which allows for a sales tax exemption for green tech manufacturing equipment. Not a sales tax exemption for buying any particular technology, but for any equipment used to manufacture green tech. Better to subsidize the fishing pole than the fish.
The construction of a nuclear plant is subsidized by loan guarantees, but those loans are paid back over a couple decades. I believe that once the plant is operating, the government only subsizies the limited liability of the insurance.
I think the GOP faithful were hoping that she would get things back under control in the Golden State, but then again that’s what they were hoping Ahnold would do as well.
It’s hard to comprehend the arrogance of California Republicans, assuming the voters would go for another Republican governor so soon in the wake of the current disastrous Republican governorship. I suppose unbridled arrogance could be a natural consequence of having more money than you can find time to spend?
“Next time the GOP will be forced to put up candidates who might actually be appealing to the people in CA who actually pay the bills.”
And that’s just what the Dem’s did, right? Crap, Ca hasn’t had a great or even good candidate put up by either party in years.
When my family moved to Ca in 1947 we waited for about 6 hours at the border to enter and you couldn’t enter unless you had money in your pocket and proof of a job. I can remember when Bakersfield put people in trouble with the law on a bus with a one way ticket out of town. Now, the only one to get elected is the union backed candidate or the one who promises a big welfare handout.
Gee our old LaSalle ran great,
Those were the days!
“When my family moved to Ca in 1947 we waited for about 6 hours at the border to enter and you couldn’t enter unless you had money in your pocket and proof of a job.”
Say what? Isn’t that … illegal? As in unconstitutional?
They tried to take my banana away from me at the border one time.
They tried to take my banana away from me at the border one time.
Last time I was in DC, my apple was confiscated. I was trying to take it into the U.S. Capitol, and that was a no-no.
So much for having an apple-snack after taking a tour of the Capitol.
“…..tried to take my banana…….”
Keep your personal life out of this…….
Bakersfield, the armpit of California!!!
It’s been awhile I know, did’nt want any civic leaders in the valley of the wind blown shadow of death to think I was bashing new comer residents of their heads with the suggested Chamber of Commerce “Welcome Basket”.
Bakersfried welcome basket:
1. 16 oz of malathion pesticide
2. 1 lb bag of baby carrots
3. 1 quart of local motor oil
+10, Hwy.
Although, where are you finding this “local” motor oil?
Maps show some big oil fields around Bakersfield. Don’t know if they’re still functional.
Although, where are you finding this “local” motor oil?
Oildale, California
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oildale (formerly, Waits and North Side) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Kern County, California, United States. Oildale is located 3.5 miles (5.6 km) north-northwest of downtown Bakersfield,
Trivia:
* Most of the original U-2 spy planes flown out of Groom Lake were built at a secret factory in Oildale disguised as a tire factory.
* It is the hometown of musician Merle Haggard and writer Gerald Haslam, both of whom are often claimed by nearby Bakersfield. Haggard’s famous boxcar boyhood home is still lived in today.
* Buck Owens’ recording studio, used in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s to record most of his hits and also served as the home to radio stations KUZZ and KKXX, was converted from an old movie theatre on North Chester Avenue just south of Norris Road across the street from Standard School. Today it serves as a recording studio that has been used by bands such as Bakersfield-born Korn.
* Oildale is home to the Bakersfield Speedway, a 1/3 mile banked clay oval that was built just after World War II. Merle Haggard’s song “Beer Can Hill” is about him hanging out with race fans on a hill overlooking the track.
* In the movie, The Grapes of Wrath, the scene when the Joad family first enters into the “Hooverville” and are appalled at what they see is based on the Hooverville that existed along the Kern River in Oildale near Beardsley Avenue.
* Daytona 500 winner and NASCAR Busch Series champion Kevin Harvick grew up in Oildale near his dad’s fire station just off North Chester Avenue and attended nearby North High School.
* The K.K.K was very prominent in Oildale in the early ’60s, oftentimes parading down North Chester Avenue.
* Merle Haggard and Gerald Haslam were classmates at Standard School.
* Korn’s second song and first single on their 9th album Korn III: Remember Who You Are is dubbed “Oildale (Leave Me Alone)”. The song’s video, filmed in Oildale, shows various parts of the town.
Those were not the good old days.
that really happened ? there is a song about that
Guthrie Arlo Guthrie or his dad “if you don’t have the do re mi boy” is that what that was about
how about that
It’s a tragedy that the primary voters turned down a thoughtful but bland Tom Campbell for a flash-in-the-pan Carly.
it was the Demon Sheep ad…
+5 for Tom C. reference.
Exactly Sammy…
Seeing weaknesses in Miller’s brand after the Iowa egg recall and general attitudes toward Democratic candidates nationwide, the Iowa GOP saw an opportunity to unseat the perennial favorite.
Give me a break. They were gunning for him because of the egg recall? How about they were gunning for him because he’s taking the lead in the investigation of foreclosuregate? They were trying to make an example of him: ‘See? This is what happens when you take on the banksters.’
The fact that they lost so badly gives hope to those of us who think their should be one legal system for everyone.
Real Estate
Election Spells Doom for Fannie and Freddie
Published: Nov. 3, 2010
By Steve Cook Real Estate Economy Watch
Among the many messages voters sent to Washington yesterday was: Get the government out of financing homes now and let the private sector do it.
The result could spell higher financing costs for homeowners but lower costs and reduced risk for taxpayers.
The midterm election results are particularly important for housing finance, since 2011 will see the significant reform in the government’s role, beginning with the Administration’s recommendations for the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, due early next year. While the Administration will propose a new structure, the new Congress will eventually decide what will happen.
The Republican landslide that swept through the House ensures that the outcome will be a radical policy change that will rely much more on the private sector, especially lenders and investors, and less upon Federal support. Fannie and Freddie will certainly cease to exist in their current forms and government exposure to the risks involved in financing mortgages will be reduced.
…
Coupled with the change of party control in the House, the net result is a pendulum swing away from the philosophy that calls for the Federal government to shoulder a lion’s share of the risk by guaranteeing securitized mortgages, an approach that dates back to the creation of Fannie Mae in 1936.
The election cost some key allies of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac their seats. Most notably Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Penn), who chaired the subcommittee which has jurisdiction over Fannie and Freddie, went down in defeat despite $1.2 million in support from the National Association of Realtors, NAR’s biggest loss of the election. Other losers that NAR backed heavily were Bob Foster (D-Fla) and John Adler (D-NJ).
…
The change of party brings with it a change of committee leadership. Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), currently the Ranking member on the committee, is expected to take over the chairmanship, a post he held before the Democrats took the House in 2008. Bachus recently told Fox News one of is two top priorites is “shutting down, once and for all, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”
…
“The Republican landslide that swept through the House ensures that the outcome will be a radical policy change that will rely much more on the private sector, especially lenders and investors, and less upon Federal support.”
Translation: the wholly owned Wall Street subsidiary and political action arm called the Establishment GOP is going to make it even easier for their corporatist and speculative finance masters to step up their asset-stripping from what remains of the productive economy, while foisting more bad debts and public financing deals onto taxpayers.
This article just made me pop a few veins. It’s the same story of greedy bastards who work to close the cheese factory only AFTER they’ve hoarded their own lifetime supply of cheese.
May I remind Mr. Cook that Fannie and Freddie already WERE private entities? How did that work out for ya? And if he wants government out, well all right. No more implied government backing, no FHA, no HUD, no interest tax deduction, no more greatest fool of last resort, no TARP, no support of AIG. If you guys want to play roulette in your own living rooms, well OK. Just don’t bother to call 911 when you’re bleeding to death. Gov won’t show up because after all you asked government to not tell you how to run your business.
Me confused about the 2 comments above. The GSEs are going away. We never needed them and we still don’t. The NAR got beat on this one. I don’t see the problem here.
Paranoia runs deep.
I won’t argue Ben, because you have more knowledge than I. But if F&F weren’t needed, then why did they come into existence in the first place? One of FDR’s whims to help people who weren’t already rich? And F&F were just fine until eight years ago. Accounting tricks from other banks made other banks look so good that F&F was forced to secure mortgages that were less and less secure just to keep up the same ROI for investors.
And what will happen when they DO “go away?” What happens to all that debt? What happens to all those houses?
“But if F&F weren’t needed, then why did they come into existence in the first place?”
Why did mosquitoes come into existence? Or rattle snakes?
Like many things associated with the govt, it’s almost impossible to eliminate something once it’s no longer useful. Like how Radio Free Europe is still around decades after WW II/Cold War. Fannie was set up in the wake of the great depression; Freddie was supposed to provide competition (for something we didn’t need any more, I know, it makes no sense).
Other countries do fine without a GSE. Post bubble, when we get there, housing loans are some of the most stable in the lending biz. The private markets can do this just fine.
It’s not just these corps; there are a slew of govt ‘banks’ involved in housing that we don’t need, almost all of them with a mission of ‘affordable housing.’ That didn’t really work out did it?
Even stuff like VA loans; I recently posted about a person I know who is pre-approved for $350k from the VA, even though this person is single and makes about $80k/year counting a bunch of over-time that could go away. $350k in Flagstaff is crazy high, and this goes to show why the govt should get out of the housing biz.
One of your points was that “we never needed them,” now you’re implying that they were useful in the past but aren’t anymore. So I guess we did need them at some point.
As recently as three years ago, approving $350K for an $80K FB was SOP for dozens of banks — so should mortgage companies get out of the mortgage business too? We can’t really blame government for following the crowd.
And that’s my main issue with withdrawing government support. Without such programs, larger and larger swaths of the population would be priced out forever as banks catered only to the higher and higher quality clients. We’d have a two-tiered society like most second and third world countries. This doesn’t apply only to housing.
Like many things associated with the govt, it’s almost impossible to eliminate something once it’s no longer useful.
Another example is NATO, which was originally designed as defensive alliance against the USSR. With the breakup of the USSR and Warsaw Pact, NATO really had no further reason for existing. IMHO they should have thrown a great “victory party” then dissolved the organization circa 1992. Instead they kept it and kept adding new countries to the alliance.
“Post bubble, when we get there, housing loans are some of the most stable in the lending biz.”
I assume you mean after housing prices find a stable bottom? Before then, no private lender would want to assume the risk of catching falling knife collateral — would they?
GSE a way to expand the money supply who would buy a bond that was callable by the borrower anytime and not want higher interest rates
Government guarenteed payement now the bonds are almost as good as treasuries easy to sell easy to lend
money supply goes up, standard of living goes up , debt goes up. stops working when Jobs go away though doh-oh
‘I guess we did need them at some point’
Did we need the WPA or the CCC? That’s ancient history. What matters now is do we need them in the future. The way things played out, these organizations were disastrous for the economy and were a big reason the housing bubble lasted as long as it did.
‘We can’t really blame government for following the crowd’
This is incorrect on many levels IMO.
’swaths of the population would be priced out forever’
I can just see the new REIC talking point; buy now before the GSEs are dissolved! Let’s not over think this thing; prices will become affordable because it’s an economic certainty that equilibrium will return.
I don’t get it. Everyone here says there was a housing bubble, everyone agrees prices are too high, everyone agrees that if the GSE’s go away, prices will fall (possibly drastically). And yet some are saying getting rid of the GSE’s will price people out forever? 2+2 is not equalling 5 here.
One of the only arguments I can even begin to accept as reasonable for not eliminating the GSE’s would be that all mortgage lending will stop, house prices will fall too fast, and there will be panic in the streets as main street realizes their biggest investment is a propped up sham.
However, were that to happen, and we experienced the big crush of deflation that was sure to follow, the economy would be on about a 1000% better base at the “end” of the deflationary period. It’s also true that the rich would make a killing as they used their cash in the bank to buy up deflating assets. The only worry they would have is that the cash they had in the banks would disappear as the banks folded like the houses of cards they are. Maybe that’s why the wealthy are buying gold like mad. Getting their assets out of the banks and into hard currencies, so the republicans can initiate the “creative destruction” policy. It will work, but it will work on the backs of the poor and middle class, and those in debt.
“Freddie (FMCC), which has been majority owned by taxpayers since its rescue two years ago, has received $64 billion in federal funds so far and expects to take more in coming periods as house prices fall and more borrowers default.”
I’m not sure I understand the arguments in favor of F and F, either. Most people here rail on the fact that we shouldn’t allow TBTF, and shouldn’t bail them out when they do. These two have proved their biz model doesn’t work. (BTW, when was the last time they officially reported their numbers?)
Letting them go, or dissolving them entirely, would force lenders to keep their own loans or find another source of investors to back them. Seems to me this would be a better way of keeping them honest, rather than the path of least resistance that F and F provide.
“And yet some are saying getting rid of the GSE’s will price people out forever? 2+2 is
notequalling 5 here.”Letting them go, or dissolving them entirely, would force lenders to keep their own loans or find another source of investors to back them. Seems to me this would be a better way of keeping them honest, rather than the path of least resistance that F and F provide.
+ positive infinity!
Yes dissolving the GSE’s would be an immediate help. In their current form they should probably not exist at any time period. I’m taking a longer view. If banks are allowed to monopolize and semi-collude to please shareholders, “our children and grandchildren” will be the ones priced out.
None of this matters anyway. If jobs become increasing scarce and unstable, to the point where you have to move every 3-5 years just to keep a job (not a raise, just keep the job), then then entire mortgage model as we know it is moot.
“I can just see the new REIC talking point; buy now before the GSEs are dissolved! Let’s not over think this thing; prices will become affordable because it’s an economic certainty that equilibrium will return.”
You’re assuming we only move up and down the demand curve. Don’t forget that the demand curve itself can, and often does shit out, meaning the new equilibrium is not the same as the old equilibrium.
‘the demand curve itself can, and often does shit out, meaning the new equilibrium is not the same as the old equilibrium’
I’m way ahead of ya. Like with the shadow inventory (supply) being unleashed, as we see now, the new equilibrium is on its way.
“Let’s not over think this thing; prices will become affordable because it’s an economic certainty that equilibrium will return.”
Already happened in some places (e.g. Detroit); will take longer in markets formerly referred to as ‘a bit frothy’ (e.g. coastal Cali).
“…all mortgage lending will stop…”
Why would you assume private lenders would not be willing to make loans at price points that made sense from the standpoint of buyer ability to repay the loan and stable (not overvalued) price, provided they were not crowded out by competitors who can continuously operate at a loss? The thing that will stop is loans made at price points that result in perpetual losses to the lender.
“If banks are allowed to monopolize and semi-collude…”
I believe this is against antitrust law. Did the financial reform bill manage to tackle this issue (I’m guessing no…)?
“…you have to move every 3-5 years just to keep a job…”
That’s a great argument for having a stock of affordable, stably-priced housing in different jobs centers around the country. Too bad the GSEs delivered the polar opposite when they tried to achieve their affordable housing goal.
“…new equilibrium is not the same as the old equilibrium…”
Comparative statics do not provide an adequate analytical framework for a collapsing bubble. It is better to think of a dynamic flow of transactions through the market, representing the pairing of arriving buyers from a demand queue and prospective sellers from a supply queue.
Next imagine what happens when the demand queue dries at the same time the supply queue is artificially shut off (by foreclosure moratoriums), even as the flow into it swells with a tsunami tide of pending foreclosure inventory. You can see how pretty soon, the crushing pressure of shadow inventory would result in the unleash of a torrent of supply, with no demand to meet it. Under these circumstances, saying the ‘new equilibrium is not the same as the old equilibrium’ is like saying the city of New Orleans was not the same after Hurricane Katrina hit as it was before.
Comment by Professor Bear
2010-11-04 16:39:15
You’re missing the point. Almost the entire discussion here is where on the demand curve will we be. My argument is that the demand curve has shifted and the debate is about the wrong subject.
“You’re missing the point.”
Thanks for the McEdumuckation. Sorry if my explanation required more thinking time than you were willing to spend trying to properly understand it.
Other developed countries’ housing markets get along just fine without GSEs. Why the (false) assumption that we cannot survive without them in the US?
* OPINION
* OCTOBER 25, 2010
How to Privatize the Mortgage Market
Europeans manage just fine without Fannie and Freddie-type agencies.
By DWIGHT M. JAFFEE
Despite the Dodd-Frank financial reform enacted in July, the mortgage market remains frozen and effectively nationalized. Today 90% of the $14 trillion in outstanding residential mortgages is controlled by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the Department of Veterans Affairs, or Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—with the latter two under government conservatorship.
The solution? Privatize the mortgage market.
…
The evidence is strong that private markets can provide the necessary supply of credit to sustain active housing markets. Virtually every European country has well-functioning private mortgage markets without government interventions of the Fannie or Freddie sort, or direct mortgage guarantees.
Despite the world-wide financial crisis and economic downturn, moreover, private European mortgage markets today have delinquency and foreclosure rates that round to zero. European lenders, borrowers and taxpayers all recognize that high underwriting standards obviate the need for government bailouts.
We can create a sound and vigorous private mortgage market in the United States, but no private market can compete with the government-guaranteed and subsidized markets of today.
…
Fannie and Freddie were excluded from the financial reform act passed a few months ago.
This may now prove providential with the election of a new Congress, one that may prove more sympathetic to ideas of getting rid of Fannie and Freddie. Had they been “reformed” a few months ago, it would likely have preserved them in something like their present form.
Virtually every European country has well-functioning private mortgage markets without government interventions of the Fannie or Freddie
Europe has well functioning “socialized” health-care but a privatized housing market.
America has a disaster of “privatized” health care and a disaster of a “socialized” housing market. And a disaster of socializing losses Banking and socializing the extreme wealth inequality of America.
The right is right. America is not Europe.
America has a disaster of “privatized” health care and a disaster of a “socialized” housing market. And a disaster of socializing losses Banking and socializing the extreme wealth inequality of America.
The right is right. America is not Europe.
So, lets look at the upper echelons of those that profit $$$$$$$$$$$ from:
1. Health care / medical Industry Cult
2. Housing loan Industry Cult
Are these particular group of individuals/Corporations concerned about:
1. a personal health care policy?
2. a home loan?
Yep, they sure seem to be INDEMNIFIED by some of the “common ailments” of the general population, therefore, they should be the ones to determine how things are made available & at what cost to everyone that has a need for one of these particular items.
And what will happen when they DO “go away?
The private sector will be the only game in town thats what…So get ready for “much” higher costs to get financing because wall street will suck every last penny out of you if they can…Couple that with elimination of or reduction to some of the federal tax advantages of owning or selling a personal residence and you have a recipe for continued downward pressure on housing prices particularly in high cost area’s…..
‘So get ready for “much” higher costs to get financing because Wall Street will suck every last penny out of you if they can…’
This is why the Wall Street Megabanks should be broken up into smaller, non-systemically-risky pieces: To reintroduce competition into the lending sector. Right now Wall Street has all the Fed-funded fire power they need to turn Main Street into a serfdom. This is not quite what America’s founding fathers had in mind, and we need to muster the collective political will to turn back the clock and cut free from the banking sector parasites.
This is true. In Europe they generally have a very regulated private market. Since regulating private companies is socialist I cannot see this working here.
you have a recipe for continued downward pressure on housing prices particularly in high cost area’s…..”
you got that right
I have to agree with scdave on this one .First, F&F was private
with just a mandate by the Government that created it to begin with ,than turned it private .
F&F was on the New York Stock Exchange as a private Company.
With F&F loans under a certain ratio they had to have insurance on them and they had certain property requirements ,plus loan limits ,income standards .
The originators most likely started sending a lot of fraudulent loans to F&F ,but they always had underwriting guidelines .it wasn’t until the latter part of the boom that F&F started getting into more questionable loan programs .
Lenders were passing on these bundles of loans to Wall Street
and F&F and they were made into securities .
In other words ,this is more a issue of what kind of loan product evolved and how much fraud was in the loan making along with
the faulty marketing of the risk of these loans that were based
on real estate that was artificially inflated by faulty loan making
and easy credit .
Assume that Wall Street could get any trust back ,and that would mean that corruption,fraud, bad loan making and weighting of proper risk ratings would have to be corrected ,than the cost of money would rise ,insurance would be charged
and Wall Street would raise their take because they would become a monopoly . Fixed rate loans wouldn’t even be offered ,like they are not offered in Europe and Canada .
It’s just like private Health Insurance Companies would have to compete with a public option had it come about .
One of the corruptions to the free market these days are monopolies and price fixing . Look at the banks ,one raises the rates on credit cards and they all do .
F&F would tend to set the rates in the market for many years in the past .
What I’m saying is the middleman cut in all kinds of transactions
is one of the variables in rising costs these days ,I mean it’s greedy beyond what it has ever been with a price fixing aspect to it .
Price fixing and monopolies destroy the concept of pure capitalism ,it’s a form of cheating to reduce competition .
Wall Street Megabanks should be broken up
Is that like “mistakes were made?” WHO is going to break up the megabanks? The time to break up the monopolies was the first scare in late summer 2007, at the latest. Instead, all we got was a free-for-all at the discount window. Now it’s too late. Megabank can kill off or buy off anyone who would compete or restrain.
Right now Wall Street has all the Fed-funded fire power they need to turn Main Street into a serfdom.
Yep, however, they seem to subscribe to a recent familiar & popular philosophy:
you’ll take our profit machine,…”From my cold dead hands!”
They might need some serfdom “homeownership” minion to keep voting for minor-income” home Gov’t subsidies for PTB grip to keep from slipping, …the Southern part of the US might be a good “breeding ground”. After all, there’s a long US history of automobile mfg & workers buying homes with their meager salaries.
“Price fixing and monopolies destroy the concept of pure capitalism ,it’s a form of cheating to reduce competition.”
Let’s hope any future GSE reform effort does not fail to reinstate a rule of law in the U.S. banking system against monopolistic collusion.
With the change in leadership, how the Paul’s asking for a big investigation in Freddie and Fannie!
Kanjorski was breathtakingly corrupt. Good riddance. Even 60 minutes did an expose on him a couple of years ago.
I like this website.
http://www.crewsmostcorrupt.org/node/2706
What utter hypocrisy.
Without government intervention, the entire FIRE sector would have completely failed. Disastrously. As in “Great Depression” failed.
Who’s hauling out the toxic Level 3 garbage for Wall St? That’s right, F&F.
It was the repeal of many government regulations that led directly to this mess.
Like I said, you ain’t seen NOTHIN’ yet.
Look for a rollback of credit card reform as well.
Big words since they own most of the mortgages out there. Who will he sell them to?
by The Street
November 02, 2010
How the Election Will Affect Housing
Kenneth D. Lyons
Since Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were seized by the federal government in September 2008, lawmakers, with a few exceptions, have remained surprisingly mum about what will become of them. The Obama administration has promised to deliver a plan for the future of housing finance a few times, but ultimately put it off until next year.
Restructuring Fannie and Freddie in any meaningful way would have been difficult enough when one party dominated Capitol Hill. Now, with polls predicting that Republicans will at least split the legislative branch — if not take it over outright — it may be completely impossible to restructure the government-sponsored entities.
“Will the pace of GSE reform speed up or slow down, depending upon the results of November 2?” asks HSH Associates, a mortgage-data firm, in a recent blog post. “Our guess is neither; even then, once they do, our suspicion is that only minor reforms will come, with substantial reform possibly kicked past the 2012 presidential election.”
…
Summary Box: Freddie posts $4.1B loss for Q3
NARROWER LOSS: Mortgage financer Freddie Mac, rescued and controlled by the government, posted a loss of $4.1 billion, or $1.25 a share, for the third quarter. That narrowed from $6.7 billion, or $2.06 a share, in the July-September quarter last year.
…
Wonder what a “considerable time” is?
Freddie Mac sees no housing recovery soon
Freddie Mac lost $2.5 billion in the third quarter and said it will be a “considerable time” before the housing market recovers.
The McLean, Va., company asked the government for $100 million to shore up its balance sheet in its latest draw on its credit line with Treasury. That is the smallest sum Freddie has asked for since the government put it in conservatorship in September 2008.
Freddie (FMCC), which has been majority owned by taxpayers since its rescue two years ago, has received $64 billion in federal funds so far and expects to take more in coming periods as house prices fall and more borrowers default.
More of MSM using language to distort reality. Their definition of “recovery” and actual recovery are at opposite ends.
Listen to Freddie. They have impeccable credibility.
Goodbye, campaign jobs
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Along with a Republican victory, the conclusion of the midterm elections will bring about a hiring bust for political jobs.
Political campaigns, which have been working in overdrive since the summer, typically hire a slew of consultants, managers, pollsters and fundraisers, providing jobs — many of which go to recent college graduates, students or the previously unemployed.
But what happens to those positions after Election Day? Many simply disappear.
As of August, 200,800 people were employed with campaigns or similar organizations, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, up from 181,600 in the year earlier.
Political campaigns, which have been working in overdrive since the summer, typically hire a slew of consultants, managers, pollsters and fundraisers, providing jobs — many of which go to recent college graduates, students or the previously unemployed.
A few months ago, I read a story about some of the kids who’d worked on the Obama presidential campaign. A few of them got White House jobs, but the story said that those jobs weren’t exactly to the young ‘uns liking.
They were put in charge of things like booking play dates for Sasha and Malia, and well, that gets old real fast. Story went on to say that these disillusioned young people were leaving their White House jobs.
To which I say, good riddance. The kids probably didn’t have much to offer other than a college degree and experience working on one campaign.
Kiddies, if you want to get one of those high-powered policy wonk jobs, you need decades of expertise. And experience.
Now, go out and develop that expertise and gain the experience. And re-apply for a Washington job when you’re all grown up.
Oh, they’ll go back to school for a JD or MPA instead..
And then they’ll become like the DC wonks who drove Harry Truman bonkers. Although Truman admired their lofty levels of formal education,* their lack of common sense riled him.
* Harry was a high school graduate who also took some night school law courses.
What else you gonna do with a poli sci or environmental studies major.
Damn those Republicans, they’re throwing people out of work again.
In Sept, the repubs VOTED DOWN a bill that would have repealed the tax breaks for offshoring jobs and instead, given those tax breaks to local business to hire locally.
So not only did they screw people out of jobs, but they screwed small business as well.
For once, you are right. Congratulations.
again.
They stopped? When? Shirley after Lincoln’s funeral…
“Meanwhile, government ownership means the companies are no longer free to chase after profits, which is how they got into trouble.”
Was that the problem, or was it the political effort to destroy the GSE’s traditionally prudent mortgage loan underwriting standards which got them into trouble? Hopefully the politicians can get to the bottom of the web of deception surrounding the failure of the GSEs before taking any rash actions to reform the system.
Fannie and Freddie Face Uncertain Future
MORTGAGE GIANTS
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are likely to be subjected to renewed scrutiny.
By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM
Published: November 3, 2010
House Republicans have made punching bags of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, criticizing the federal bailout of the mortgage giants and promising to end the government’s longstanding use of the companies to reduce the cost of mortgage loans.
But the Republican takeover of the House could make that goal more difficult to achieve.
Until now, Democrats have been solely responsible for the fates of Fannie and Freddie and, in the current political climate, even longtime allies like Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts have agreed that the companies must go.
But the Obama administration wants to replace Fannie and Freddie with some new form of federal subsidy. And that means Republicans and Democrats now face a choice: compromise, or stand firm and try to blame the other party.
There are powerful reasons to expect that speechmaking will eventually yield to deal-making. Most experts agree that Fannie and Freddie should not survive. The failure to act could anger voters. And something must be done by the end of 2012, when current law requires the government to end its support for the companies.
But House Republicans campaigned on the repeated promise to liquidate the companies, and to allow nothing similar to take their place.
Some Democrats, meanwhile, say privately that they do not mind the status quo. The companies are serving their purpose, making sure that families get mortgage loans. Meanwhile, government ownership means the companies are no longer free to chase after profits, which is how they got into trouble.
Brian Gardner, a political analyst for the investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods “The gap between Treasury and House Republicans is going to be pretty wide. It seems to me we’re in a gridlock state probably for the next two years. I think we’re going to be talking a lot about Fannie and Freddie, I just don’t see an end game.”
…
“Meanwhile, government ownership means the companies are no longer free to chase after profits, which is how they got into trouble.”
LOL, too funny. And unfortunately true. Now the companies are clearly chasing after losses instead of profits.
That’s what being a lender of lowest standards leads to rather directly and obviously during a bubble busting.
Most experts agree that Fannie and Freddie should not survive. The failure to act could anger voters.
Does the average voter even know what Fannie and Freddie are?
How many legislators even know about the F-words?
F&F was turned in to the scapegoat, whipping, boy fall guy, etc. for the benefit of Wall St.
Not that they were paragons of virtue to begin with.
…and I’m sure that there many who would like to see F&F disappear and not leave any paper trails that would incriminate Wall St..
Food Sellers Grit Teeth, Raise Prices
Packagers and Supermarkets Pressured to Pass Along Rising Costs, Even as Consumers Pinch Pennies
An inflationary tide is beginning to ripple through America’s supermarkets and restaurants, threatening to end the tamest year of food pricing in nearly two decades.
Prices of staples including milk, beef, coffee, cocoa and sugar have risen sharply in recent months. And food makers and retailers including McDonald’s Corp., Kellogg Co. and Kroger Co. have begun to signal that they’ll try to make consumers shoulder more of the higher costs for ingredients.
For food executives, how quickly to pass along higher costs presents difficult choices. Missteps could be costly when the economy remains weak. Many Americans, nervous about high unemployment, have pledged allegiance to their pennies and are willing to trade down on brands, switch supermarkets, opt for Burger King over Applebee’s, or stop dining out altogether to save money.
“Food Sellers Grit Teeth, Raise Prices”
It’s the Fed’s unmentioned poor tax (food price inflation) — part of the QE2 deal.
I wonder what is gonna happen on a rainy day like today in the Beeg Apple to the line of peeps who have to stand outside in the half block long line waiting to apply for food stamps behind police barricades.
Emergency food stamps in a Blizzard anyone?
Yes. And if you need to fill a cavity to eat the food, the price of palladium has reached the devilish price of 666. Your dentist will be soon raising prices. Interesting, question is how bad does inflation have to become to raise house prices?
Pulling teeth makes a comeback!
Just more demand on wages that just aren’t keeping up, hardly the road to prosperity.*
*outside of the ivory towers
Protect yourself with silver.
Stop your coffee habit.
$26.25? Nice.
I ran out and couldn’t wait, so I just bought a pound of generic-brand butter at Walmart and paid “only” $2.78 for it. It was marked $3.14 but discounted at the register for some unknown reason.
The name brand was marked at $3.38, iirc.
The $3.14 price irked me, so then and there I decided to make a game out of it, and see how far I can stretch one pound..
Cheap thrills for cheapskates.
Store butter is nearly white. One summer Sunday at the farmer’s market, the butter was awfully darn yellow. I asked the farmer if they colored their butter with carrot juice [Ma in the "Little House" books did that]. The farmer answered, “No, it rained a lot 10 days ago.” Huh? It seems that the excess rain made for extra healthy grass which the cows eagerly munched up and produced some high-qual milk which gave the butter its golden hue. The butter was 2 days old when I bought it.
And yes, it was deathly expensive, but I stretch it too.
..It generally has a pale yellow color, but varies from deep yellow to nearly white. Its unmodified color is dependent on the animals’ feed and is commonly manipulated with food colorings in the commercial manufacturing process, most commonly annatto or carotene.
wikipedia
The farmer answered, “No, it rained a lot 10 days ago.” Huh?
Ten days doesn’t seem like much. Knowing nothing about cows, I’d get a second opinion..
From what little I’ve read, people believe yellow to mean rich and fatty when it comes to cheese and butter. I can’t find any proof of it.
this is odd..
This generic Walmart butter (Great Value house brand) lists ingredients as only two.. cream and natural flavorings. No colorings.
A tub of Challenge Spreadable butter (which I know is mixed with canola oil to keep it soft) lists beta carotene as an ingredient. It’s very yellow.
I don’t have a cube of regular Challenge butter, but i’m curious to know if it also lists the carotene coloring.
re butter… I think annatto can be considered a flavoring agent (as well as a coloring agent)
Say it rains on the 1st. Grass grows well until the 5th. Cow eats in the evening of the 5th, cow puts down nice milk on the afternoon of the 7th, make butter on the 8th (takes very little time), and sell on the 10th. The farmer may have been fuzzy on those 10 days, but it’s still plausible.
At least in the Little house books, butter was white only in winter. You may have summer butter. Annato is a South American plant, carotene is carrots, and “natural flavoring” is code for MSG [thank you lobbyists]. To be honest, Wal Mart butter is fine. I’m just a foodie snob. I try to avoid agribusiness food the same way others avoid sweatshop sneakers. The product is likely fine; it’s the manufacture method that people avoid.
I try to avoid agribusiness food the same way others avoid sweatshop sneakers. The product is likely fine; it’s the manufacture method that people avoid.
I’m with ya, oxide. And, yes, I do pay a pretty penny for my food.
But I’ve noticed quite the difference in my health nowadays. I feel a lot better than when I was eating agribiz food.
oxide.. i was surprised at your comment and tried to find out if it’s really MSG.
Check out this page and tell me what you think.
http://www.wellsphere.com/digestive-health-article/natural-flavorings-in-butter/971392
It’s written by (compared to me) a health nut.
The natural flavoring that is used as an ingredient in…butter, is a natural milk derivative starter distillate (distilled flavors from fermented, cultured milk) that is added to the cream prior to churning. It produces flavor compounds that give unsalted butter a distinctive, pleasing taste. It is similar to those used in the production of sour cream and buttermilk. It is an all natural ingredient that is approved by the USDA and the FDA. …
Why on earth would you buy food at Walmart, or buy anything at Walmart? That butter was probably shipped cross country from some cow factory, left sitting in the sun on a pallet somewhere in transit. Hmmm, healthy. Cheap is sometimes stupid.
I can happily say that I have never been a regular Walmart customer, and cannot even remember the last time I purchased something from the company. Maybe a quart of motor oil several years back.
“……cream and natural flavorings……”
Mouse crap is a natural flavoring.
“Ten days doesn’t seem like much. Knowing nothing about cows, I’d get a second opinion..”
Ten days seems like more than enough, to me. Ever eaten asparagus?
I’m sorry joey, I’m outdated. From wikipedia (monosodium glutamate):
“Glutamic acid and its salts can also be present in a wide variety of other additives, including hydrolyzed vegetable proteins, autolyzed yeast, hydrolyzed yeast, yeast extract, soy extracts, and protein isolate, which must be labeled with these common and usual names. Since 1998, these cannot be included in the term “spices and flavorings”. ”
But now you’re saying that Wal-mart is adding butter flavor to its butter! That means that either the Wal-Mart butter is crappy, OR maybe all butter in general is crappy and Americans just need more flavor than regular butter can give.
The butter color varies with the amount of carotene in the cow’s diet. Annatto or carotene can be added post production.
oxide.. It’s not unusual to find less expensive store-brand products to be of lower quality in some way.
However, Walmart doesn’t make butter and there is no company named “Great Value”.
So who makes Great Value butter? Probably one of the biggest dairy companies, or perhaps two or more. And the lesser price may be due to a very large sales volume.
The same goes for lots of other store brand products. Major name brands companies manufacture the stuff, but can’t compete with their own products. So, the product and package and price have differences.
———
as for all you elitist non-Walmart shoppers, you can pay $2.50 for Nabisco Chips Ahoy cookies at WMT, or you can pay $4.19 for the exact same thing at your store.
Makes no freakin difference to me.. except that i own a few shares of WMT.
Don’t eat junk food– don’t need to save $2.00 to ingest more fat– so I’ll just stick with my local grocer. I’m not an elitist, just putting my money where my mouth is with regards to Walmart’s cannibalistic business policies.
Why limit that to Walmart?
How many mom-n-pop auto shops closed up, or mechanics lost their jobs thanks to Jiffy Lube franchises?
Business is cannibalism.
That very same local supermarket you support was no doubt guilty of closing half a dozen smaller mom-n-pop stores.
Business is cannibalism. joey
Hmmm, dramatic but…
Your Wall Street huckster backers should come up with a better slogan….
thanks, rio
Whenever your come-backs lack any hint of substance, it confirms what I’ve said is unarguably true.
Whenever your come-backs lack any hint of substance, it confirms what I’ve said is unarguably true.
Thank you Joey. Now I understand why my comebacks confirm what you say is unarguably false.
Feed is everything to cattle. Places that you’d
think are great for cows because of the lush,
green grass actually aren’t. Coastal grass does
not have the nutrients that high desert hay has because of the ground elements. Hay from
the Christmas valley is high in everything and
gets premium dollar. You see T & T (truck &
trailer) loads of hay headed for the coast all
year round as dairy farmers on the coast have
to supplement their locally grown feed. So,
to answer the question, yes, the cream content is highly dependent on the feed and the water
content.
Rancher..,
I been reading about how they make butter. It’s just fat globules in milk. When you stir it up real good, the fat separates.
Then you gotta remove the watery stuff. Commercial butter is usually about 80% fat and 15% watery whatever,, and 5% other things.
Handmade butter is more like 65% fat and lots of water because it’s hard to take the water out.
So, if you want a butter with a higher fat content, just remove more water.
———-
Now here’s the question Rancher: When you remove more water, does the butter get more yellow?
Alton Briown once dedicated a whole episode to butter on “Good Eats”. I’ll bet you can find it on youtube.
Don’t know. Do know that fat content is dependent on feed and the feed is what
gives you color in the butter.
I was a rancher, not a milker.
If you can feed cows carrots and get yellower butter, I don’t think the degree of yellow color is indicative of better quality.
But there may be more to it.
People have demanded yellower colored cheeses and butter for hundreds of years.. maybe longer.
Last week I went out and bought 500 pounds of sugar at Walmart for $11.50 per 25 pound bag.
This sugar will easily beat any bank/savings account.
Bare retail shelving is on the way.
Did you give up on silver?
Give up on silver while it is under $100?
Not me.
yeah, but what are you going to do with it later?
remember you can’t eat sugar. wait a minute that is not correct.
wtf needs 500 lbs of sugar? you can’t eat that much in a lifetime.
and who is going to buy your “used sugar”?
Who buys liquor?
now you’re on to something that makes sense…
Last week I went out and bought 500 pounds of sugar
COSTCO has a great deal now on 15 lb boxes of nutmeg.
“Last week I went out and bought 500 pounds of sugar at Walmart”
Where I live, the police would have probably been called to investigate a potential moonshiner!
“Packagers and Supermarkets Pressured to Pass Along Rising Costs, Even As Consumers Pinch Pennies.”
Consumers don’t have the pennies to pinch; There is a shortage of cash in circulation, in case anyone hasn’t noticed.
That’s partially because:
1. People see there is a shortage of cash so people with cash are sticking what cash they have into their mattresses.
2. Banks are relentlessly sucking cash from the economy. Not everyone is a deadbeat; Most people are paying their bills, are making payments on money they borrowed sometime in the past. The banks are happy to receive this money but are not eagar to loan it out again, so money that goes into the bank stays in the bank instead of being put out into the economy to circulate some more.
3. Money is flooding out of this country (where we don’t make things) into other countries (where they do make things). This will continue as long as there is money circulating, which means there will always be a shortage of circulating money in this country. The Fed can pump money into our economy to circulate but sooner or later (probably sooner) this money will leave this country and go somewhere else to circulate.
The money may find its way back to this country to buy up assets, which some people may think is a wonderful thing but it is really not such a wonderful thing because the ownership of these assets will go from us Yanks to somebody else, and these are the people that we will be beholden to and working for (for those of us who will be working).
The Fed wants to lure money out of mattresses (number 1) and get the banks to make loans (number 2), but until number 3 is fixed - the stopping of the flow of circulating money leaving the country - the structural problem that we face will not be addressed which means we will always be short of circulating money.
I agree 100%, unless the gov’t and/or the Fed satrt mailing checks out to households (fat chance).
the structural problem that we face will not be addressed
Good points but the main structural problem with America is we’re too wrapped up in this lending/banking/Fed/Wall Street mumbo jumbo.
We’ve gotten away from what really matters and that is producing real stuff and well paying JOBS.
Protection, nurturing, investing in, producing and defending decent jobs is the ONLY way we will ever get back on track.
“Protection, nurturing, investing in, producing and defending decent jobs is the ONLY way we will ever get back on track.”
Funny how everybody else understands this except for Americans.
…including those out of work.
Remember Rockefeller Center.
You’re diluted cash-boy. It’s a debt jubilee via the printing presses.
The till is empty. As a result, the government is printing new moneys to pay its debts. The government is ‘easing’ its way out of its obligations. Creditors are going to burn. In case you’re wondering, cash is US government debt.
What’s more, they are hoping to ease households and businesses out of their debt troubles too. It’s time to enjoy the debt jubilee not become its victim. Lever up on some other sucker’s dime.
BTW, if we lived in a free country, you’d be right. But we don’t. We have a tyrannical monetary system. Critical thinking, logic, right and wrong, rule of law, fair and unfair, morality, don’t apply.
“The till is empty.”
That’s my point. Print money to fill up the till and the till will immediately become empty again.
Empty tills makes for a shortage of circulating cash which creates deflation.
Your message is diluted Combo. You’ve said this so many times that each post is worth less than the last. Diluted. Not just your message, but you! You are Diluted!
HAHA!
snark off/
The US dollars are coming back home with a vengeance.
Gold knows.
How little have any known of the mind of Gold!
My principals are very happy and have been precious metals investors for working on 10 years. Glad I met them.
Good luck Newbie. We haven’t gotten to the really fun part of the ride yet. Hang in there.
We haven’t gotten to the really fun part of the ride yet.
You mean this isn’t the fun part?
melt ups are fun. the government is short the metals.
gold up 44.10??? holy cow
Somebody thinks Mr. Bernanke will succeed in getting inflation going.
You might well think that. I couldn’t possibly comment.
I bet the crank up the ol’ shrink ray and that 1lb coffee can will become 10ozs.
At some point it becomes too painfully obvious.
My boycott of Haagen-Dazs ice cream continues, since they changed their pints to something smaller, yet didn’t lower the price. And, they never changed it back after prices on dairy fell. It’s been well over two years since I’ve used their product. Ben and Jerry’s never changed size, and they have plenty of flavors which are more than satisfying.
Alas, I should give up ice cream. It is a completely unnecessary indulgence which does nothing but increase the waistline if one is not careful.
make your own. Ah another use for sugar which keeps going up.
But I thought there wasn’t any inflation?! That it was just my imagination?!
It seems American voters just said NO to NAR-funded candidates. Way to go, voters!!!
* November 2, 2010, 11:25 PM ET
Kanjorski Loss: A Blow to Obama’s Economic Policy?
By Damian Paletta
The Republican pickup in Pennsylvania’s 11th congressional district wasn’t just another House race.
Republican Lou Barletta’s defeat of Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D., Pa.) could have a direct impact on the Obama administration’s future economic policy. The 13-term Democrat was expected to play a central role in the government’s efforts to overhaul the country’s mortgage-finance system and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
…
What is the matter with these people, don’t they know BB is king?
Emerging market policymakers vow to combat Fed’s QE2
SEOUL/BEIJING (Reuters) - Policymakers from the world’s new economic powerhouses in Latin America and Asia pledged on Thursday to come up with fresh measures to curb capital inflows after the U.S. Federal Reserve said it would print billions of dollars to rescue the economy.
Emerging economies expressed displeasure at the Fed’s move, making any substantive deal on global imbalances and currencies at next week’s Group of 20 meeting that Seoul is hosting even less likely.
“As long as the world exercises no restraint in issuing global currencies such as the dollar — and this is not easy — then the occurrence of another crisis is inevitable, as quite a few wise Westerners lament,” Xia Bin, an advisor to China’s central bank wrote in a newspaper managed by the bank.
As if the chinese have restraint in issuing IOU nothings.
Riddle us this Xia: Where does a grizzly bear take a crap?
That’s personal!
Policymakers from the world’s new economic powerhouses in Latin America and Asia pledged on Thursday to come up with fresh measures to curb capital inflows
Enough already! We need to stop printing all this damn money.
Man….If we would have only invested 1/2 this money on our people and our jobs instead of the Banks and Wall Street……..
Rio saving the country was never the goal.
The goal is to cement the elites hold on power. Via a series of inflation and deflation central bankers and their backers will own the country. They will control all industry and the flow of money and with this they will control politics.
Will? We’re WAY past that point.
Isn’t it the knowledge that housing has not really bottomed out yet what is holding back investors in mortgage debt at this point? What other risk would an investor in mortgage debt have to worry about at this stage besides that of catching falling-knife collateral? With huge numbers of foreclosures and vacant homes soon to be or already on the market, it is not like there is a shortage of potentially affordable housing available, if only market forces were allowed to drive prices to equilibrium levels where the inventory queue could clear. Too bad for the investors who will get to enjoy riding the falling knife to the bottom — it’s one of the risks gamblers in real estate investment have to shoulder.
* HEARD ON THE STREET
* NOVEMBER 4, 2010
GOP’s Tough House Call
By DAVID REILLY
Sometimes, the status quo isn’t so bad. That will be the line taken by Republicans as the lame-duck session of Congress weighs an extension of the Bush tax cuts. And, rhetoric to the contrary aside, it may also end up being the position of the newly empowered GOP when it comes to any overhaul of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The leading Republican contender for the chairmanship of the House financial services committee, Spencer Bachus, has made clear he would like to do away with the government-backed mortgage giants. And last month he upbraided current committee chairman Barney Frank, for not moving to debate an end to the bailouts of Fannie and Freddie.
That said, even Mr. Bachus has acknowledged the fragile housing market would have to be weaned from government support, rather than cut off abruptly. That is certainly the case given scant investor appetite for mortgage debt not backed by the government. Plus, it would take years to shift to private investors the more than $5 trillion in mortgages the two firms own or guarantee.
Expect that reality to be hammered home to House Republicans by the Federal Reserve. Any quick move that undermines the current mortgage-market status quo is likely to increase the cost of housing credit, running counter to the Fed’s latest $600 billion bout of bond buying.
…
F&F are currently taking out the toxic Level 3 garbage for Wall St. Only when that job is done will there be a real push for getting rid of them..
And then, only so they can hide the incriminating evidence.
It must be nice to be able to rewrite the rules as the game is in progress.
Dollar tumbles after Fed proposes new stimulus
By Dave Shellock
Published: November 3 2010 22:47 | Last updated: November 3 2010 22:48
Long-dated US Treasury bond prices fell sharply and the dollar and equities saw choppy trading as the markets got to grips with the Federal Reserve’s latest efforts to stimulate the US economy.
The US central bank said it would buy a further $600bn of government bonds by the middle of next year – a pace of about $75bn a month. And it gave itself some flexibility by saying it would regularly review the pace of its securities buying and the overall size of the asset-purchase programme “in light of incoming information” – and adjust as needed.
Importantly, the New York Fed said it would temporarily lift a rule limiting Fed ownership of any particular security to 35 per cent.
“This means the Fed can buy a lot more Treasuries as a cap of 35 per cent per bond issue would have limited them to buying about $500bn in Treasuries per year,” said Steven Major, head of global fixed income research at HSBC. “The Fed has also been quite clever in the way it has kept its options open on what maturities of bonds it can buy.”
…
It’s GOOD to be the Banksta!
No post-election shots for Eddie…
Barney Frank’s victory speech
U.S. Rep. Barney Frank reacts to his re-election to a 16th term in House seat from Boston area.
I was hoping to get rid of this tool.
The surreality of the fact that Barney is still in a position of power after his role in the economic collapse is beyond all comprehension. I have no words.
His power has been reduced significantly. Come January he will no longer be chairman of the Committee on Financial Services.
People just click on familiar name. In Southern California,
a dead incumbent Democrat still won the seat over a live
Republican.
Well we learned 3 things in this election.
1. SEIU can still win elections for Harry Reid. Every poll had him down 1-4% yet he wins by 5%. Amazing how all the pollsters got it wrong.
2. California is stuck on stupid.
3. Massachusetts is stuck on idiot.
Every poll had him down 1-4% yet he wins by 5% ??
Thats because the electorate got a reality check once they got into the booth…Oh, they attended all the tea-bag rallies and made all kinds of angry noise which in turn sucked more out-of-state neocon money into Nevada but at the end of the day, when it came time to punch the card, they just said we can’t send this lunatic Angle to D/C..
Either that or the Dems stuffed the ballot box. I would put nothing past any political party in this corrupt third-world country.
The fact SEIU had a contract to install and maintain the voting machines in Clark County had nothing to do with it. Neither did the fact that Harry’s son, Rory, is the Clark County commissioner. And what is one of the commissioner’s jobs? Why to run elections for the county. Pure coincidences though I’m sure.
Polls are wrong sometimes. Instead of the margin of victory being 3 it’s 6 or 1. But when every poll for the past month says Angle by 2-4% and Reid wins by 5%, that’s statistically almost impossible. Swings of 9% don’t happen.
But when every poll for the past month says Angle by 2-4% and (then) Reid wins by 5%, Eddie gets really whiny.
Or Eddie could just be full of hot air or not understand statistics and terms like margin of error.
CNN
With four days to go until the midterm elections, a second straight poll in the most high profile Senate battle in the country indicates Republican challenger Sharron Angle holds a four point advantage over Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
But Angle’s four point margin in a new Mason-Dixon survey for the Las Vegas Review-Journal/8 News Now is within the poll’s sampling error, making it a neck and neck race.
According to poll, 45 percent of likely voters in Nevada are backing Angle, who enjoys strong support from many in the Tea Party movement, with 45 percent backing Reid, the top Democrat in the Senate, who’s bidding for a fifth term in the chamber.
From CS monitor the last poll sums it up
But exit poll results suggested that while voters were unhappy with Reid, he in many cases was a preferable choice.
More than half of all voters said they disapprove of the way Reid is handling his job as senator. But the majority leader kept more than one-third of votes among those who somewhat disapproved of his performance.
***
He kept most of the 50% of people who liked him and 1/3 of the voters that didn’t.
The bottom line is if the GOP had put up a sane monkey they would have won the race but instead the put up Angle.
And what is one of the commissioner’s jobs? Why to run elections for the county. Pure coincidences though I’m sure ??
Poor Eddie…You need the Conspiracy theory to be able to acknowledge why Angle lost…My goodness…Your squealing a little bit I see…I suppose you were one of those Neocon’s that sent Angle money eh ??…Its okay…You will more than recover with your stock market wizardry…Oh, by the way, didn’t we have the same Conspiracy thingee back in 2000 ?? Were you crying foul then ??
I’ve got family and friends in Nevada. As much as they all despise Harry Reid, there was NO WAY they were voting for Sharon Angle. She was a kook. Most expressed dismay for how many votes she actually received.
We learned one thing - E doesn’t understand statistics or the term margin of error
With four days to go until the midterm elections, a second straight poll in the most high profile Senate battle in the country indicates Republican challenger Sharron Angle holds a four point advantage over Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
But Angle’s four point margin in a new Mason-Dixon survey for the Las Vegas Review-Journal/8 News Now is within the poll’s sampling error, making it a neck and neck race.
According to poll, 45 percent of likely voters in Nevada are backing Angle, who enjoys strong support from many in the Tea Party movement, with 45 percent backing Reid, the top Democrat in the Senate, who’s bidding for a fifth term in the chamber.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Also exit polls
But exit poll results suggested that while voters were unhappy with Reid, he in many cases was a preferable choice.
More than half of all voters said they disapprove of the way Reid is handling his job as senator. But the majority leader kept more than one-third of votes among those who somewhat disapproved of his performance.
ie he kept most of those who approved and 1/3 of those who somewhat disapproved. If the GOP put up a monkey that could smile and wave they might have won. Instead they put up Angle.
Nov. 3, 2010, 11:08 a.m. EDT
Republican pledges to scrutinize financial reform
Bachus expects to lead House Financial Services Committee
By Ronald D. Orol, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Following the GOP takeover of the House in Tuesday’s midterm election, a key Republican said Wednesday that the top priority for Republicans is to provide “vigorous” oversight of the Obama administration’s efforts to reform banking and housing.
“We’re going to have vigorous oversight,” said Rep. Spencer Bachus (R., Ala.) on CNBC. “Because you’ve had Senate and House controlled by Democrats, we’ve had no oversight,” he said. “Americans want limited government, more jobs and for their taxes not to increase.”
…
“We’ve had no oversight” simply means the corporate elite were shut out for 2 years. Not to worry though… GOP lackeys will do the bidding of the wealthiest of wealthy…… at the expense of us wage slaves.
‘…GOP lackeys will do the bidding of the wealthiest of wealthy…’
That was my thought, too. Repugnicrats of all political stripes are slaves to the plutocrats who fund their political campaigns.
And so are Democrats
Wrong again my little rightie.
No, I’d say he’s right. The Obama Administration tweeked the plutocrats a little, and the result was a flood of money to the Republicans. That mistake will not be made again.
No, I’d say he’s right. The Obama Administration tweeked the plutocrats a little, and the result was a flood of money to the Republicans. That mistake will not be made again.
Thank you again supreme court for blessing the corporate/Wall Street elite with a club big enough to control all.
From Wi
One of the big law-and-politics stories of the past ten months has been the impact of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, which took away certain restrictions on political spending for corporations and unions.
The impact on political races has been tough to quantify. It’s just hard to know how much of the Tea Party movement and gains on the Republican side are attributable to campaign spending and how much is attributable to other forces.
Still, attempts have been made to make the connection. The NYT’s Michael Luo wrote a piece last month correlating Citizens United and the mad money that’s poured into the campaigns.
The latest attempt comes courtesy of the Washington Post’s Robert Barnes, who takes a look at Citizens United (and another Roberts-Court campaign-finance decision) in light of the senate race in Wisconsin between incumbent Russ Feingold and Republican businessman Ron Johnson.
Is the Roberts Court responsible for Russ Feingold’s troubles?
To a degree, yes, writes Barnes. According to the story, Johnson has invested more than $8 million of his money in the race, and although the two campaigns are competitive with each other financially, outside groups have spent nearly $3 million on Johnson’s behalf.
A WaPo analysis shows 92 percent of the outside spending has supported the Republican. The impact has been obvious: The Wesleyan Media Project said there have been more commercials about the Senate race in Wisconsin than in any state outside Nevada.
“I’ve always been a target in this stuff,” Feingold said during a recent campaign stop. “And this year, I’m getting the full dose: over $2 million in these ads [criticizing him] that used to not be legal.”
The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Pub.L. 111-203, H.R. 4173) is a federal statute in the United States that was signed into law by President Barack Obama on July 21, 2010. The Act is a product of the financial regulatory reform agenda of the Democratically-controlled 111th United States Congress and the Obama administration. The Act, which was passed as a response to the late-2000s recession, is the most sweeping change to financial regulation in the United States since the Great Depression, and represents a paradigm shift in the American financial regulatory environment impacting all Federal financial regulatory agencies and affecting almost every aspect of the nation’s financial services industry.
A little sweet talk while the Republicans and their corporate masters give it to us long and hard.
In other words, BOHICA
“We’re going to have vigorous oversight,” said Rep. Spencer Bachus (R., Ala.) on CNBC. “Because you’ve had Senate and House controlled by Democrats, we’ve had no oversight,”
He’s a damned liar.
The bill that ultimately repealed the Glass Stegall Act was introduced in the Senate by Phil Gramm (Republican of Texas) and in the House of Representatives by Jim Leach (R-Iowa) in 1999. The bills were passed by a Republican majority, basically following party lines by a 54–44 vote in the Senate[12] and by a bi-partisan 343–86 vote in the House of Representatives.
The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Pub.L. 111-203, H.R. 4173) is a federal statute in the United States that was signed into law by President Barack Obama on July 21, 2010. The Act is a product of the financial regulatory reform agenda of the Democratically-controlled 111th United States Congress and the Obama administration. The Act, which was passed as a response to the late-2000s recession, is the most sweeping change to financial regulation in the United States since the Great Depression, and represents a paradigm shift in the American financial regulatory environment impacting all Federal financial regulatory agencies and affecting almost every aspect of the nation’s financial services industry.
Obama drops plan to limit global warming gases.
WASHINGTON – Environmental groups and industry seem headed for another battle over regulation of greenhouse gases, as President Barack Obama said he will look for ways to control global warming pollution other than Congress placing a ceiling on it.
“Cap-and-trade was just one way of skinning the cat; it was not the only way,” Obama said at a news conference Wednesday, a day after Democrats lost control of the House. “I’m going to be looking for other means to address this problem.”
Legislation putting a limit on heat-trapping greenhouse gases and then allowing companies to buy and sell pollution permits under that ceiling narrowly passed the House in 2009 as a centerpiece of Obama’s domestic agenda, but it stalled in the Senate.
Republicans dubbed the bill “cap-and-tax” because it would raise energy prices. They then used it as a club in the midterm elections against Democrats who voted for it. Thirty of the bill’s supporters were among some 50 House Democrats whom voters turned out of office Tuesday.
“I’m going to be looking for other means to address this problem.”
Does this mean he’s going to reduce the duration and size of congress? I can think of no better way to reduce hot air.
“Republicans dubbed the bill “cap-and-tax” because it would raise energy prices.”
I hadn’t realized energy prices had been dropping.
Where does the $600 bn the Fed is about to inject into the economy come from? I remain to this day entirely unconvinced they have figured out how to grow money on trees.
Fed tries to rev up economy
By MARK DAVIS
The Kansas City Star
Tom Hoenig, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, voted against Wednesday’s Fed decision.
DAVID EULITT/The Kansas City Star
Here comes more money from the Federal Reserve — a controversial $600 billion dose of credit aimed at livening up the weak economy.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke hopes the effort will help create jobs by nudging consumers to spend, businesses to invest and foreign shoppers to buy USA. If it whips up a bit of inflation in the process, so much the better.
All that, and possibly more, could come from the Fed’s announcement Wednesday that it will buy $600 billion worth of U.S. Treasury securities in the next eight months, enough to finance the federal deficit all by itself.
…
It’s the same step the Fed took during the financial crisis, when credit markets froze up and threatened to turn the recession into a depression. Then, the Fed pumped $1.5 trillion into the economy even as banks were draining almost as much credit.
This time, however, doubters — including Kansas City Fed President Tom Hoenig — warn that the move risks future inflation and economic disruptions that likely outweigh the relatively little good the Fed will do for an economy already in recovery.
…
So the fed is out buying more treasuries again bidding up price and dropping yields.Isnt this a ponzi scheme?
Interest rates are already low thats not the problem.Most people cant refinace thier house even though they are current on mortgage.
Its funny that rates are so low yet I’m being charged rates from 7-8% for money.Some credit card rates for me for purchases are at 14% and I have excellent credit.Has anyone tried to get a mortgage lately?Get ready to give your left nut.
“Isnt this a ponzi scheme?”
Take it from the chief of the Nation’s largest bond fund:
WSJ Blogs
MarketBeat
WSJ.com’s inside look at the markets
* November 2, 2010, 9:50 AM ET
Pimco’s Bill Gross: Dollar Could Fall 20%
By Matt Phillips
Bill Gross is still banging the anti-QE2 drum. Last week he made waves calling the Fed’s plan to print money and buy bonds a “ponzi scheme.” Now, some comments from Gross on the dollar are making the rounds. Canada’s Globe and Mail reports:
Last week on PIMCO’s website, he likened QE2 to a Ponzi scheme, and warned of the consequences for bond investors.
“Its funny that rates are so low yet I’m being charged rates from 7-8% for money”
Really makes you wonder what the qualification requirements are to receive a slice of the Fed’s latest $600 bn helicopter drop of found money. Also makes you wonder where they found it…
Really makes me wonder what the other side of the trade is. I wouldn’t be shocked if some of Wall Street’s banks’ assets on the books were to go up mysteriously by the same amount as the Treasuries the Fed purchases with thin air money. Just wondering how this helps the banks, because I think that is the Fed’s only real mandate.
For the last year or two the FED has been loaning money to the banks at 0%. The banks have been buying treasuries earning 3-4%. Now the FED is buying back those treasuries at an inflated price.
This is how it helps the banks.
The FED and GSE’s have also been moving moutains of bad MBS debt away from the banks and onto the tax payers.
Thus everyday the banks have more and more cash and less and less bad debt.
The next step is to let the price of well everything collapse. They will of course need someone to blame. Cue republicans. They will be tasked with shutting down the GSE’s and curbing spending. This will cause a collapse in prices. The Banks can then purchase back all those MBS that they sold to the FED and the tax payer for pennies on the dollar compared to what they sold them for.
This is how they are helping the banks.
Just got a credit card offer from BofA, 14%. How generous of them, considering they not only got a bailout from Bush’s TARP, but are borrowing money from US at 0%.
Do what I do. Scribble doodles and rude things on the offer, then use the post-paid envelope to fire your “artwork” back at BofA.
Do what I do. Scribble doodles and rude things on the offer, then use the post-paid envelope to fire your “artwork” back at BofA.
But tear the barcode off them if they have them.
Better still, write something rude on it and send it to Spencer Bachus, the likely incoming chair of the House Banking Committee.
“Where does the $600 bn the Fed is about to inject into the economy come from?”
They have an app for that!
File -> New -> Money
Dialog box opos open, asks how much. Ben Bernanke tyoe in the number, clicks OK. Voila! It is done!
What a strange coincidence. That’s almost exactly what it cost to build the new American embassy in Iraq!
Now this is sad, looks like a blue Christmas for many on w street. It will be a hardship to only get a million or so bonus, instead of the really big bucks. Oh well have to put off the Maybach purchase until next year.
Goldman’s Pay Pool Shrinks Fastest as Traders’ Fortunes Dwindle
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the New York-based bank that makes most of its money from trading and set a Wall Street pay record in 2007, slashed average compensation 26 percent in the first nine months.
Wall Street traders, who typically receive the fattest year-end bonuses among bank employees, are poised to suffer the biggest pay cuts as revenue at their divisions dropped an average of 12 percent so far this year.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the New York-based bank that makes most of its money from trading and set a Wall Street pay record in 2007, slashed average compensation 26 percent in the first nine months. By contrast, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America Corp., which employs branch managers and brokers as well as bankers and traders, raised average pay 10 percent.
While some compensation consultants say traders’ pay will rebound as soon as revenue recovers, new regulation and capital requirements may lead to sustained reductions in the multimillion-dollar awards that sparked popular outrage and spurred investigations by politicians and regulators after the 2008 financial crisis, analysts say.
You’d never know it.
I ALWAYS attempt to avoid this but couldn’t….. Last weekend I had to go into Kent, CT to get some kero to heat the garage overnite. In case you weren’t aware, Kent, CT is destination #1 for the most snobbish, arrogant, new money(stolen of course), EuroTrash driving Wall Street limpwrists and floozies. Before I headed over, I mentally prepared myself so as not to reach out and choke one of these MF’s but figured it won’t be bad because of slowing high finance. Well I was wrong. Dead wrong. The place was swarmed with arrogant Wall Street pukes to a degree I’ve never seen in the 10 years I’ve lived down here. I got my fuel and got the @#$% outta there without going to jail.
LOL. I grew up in Westport and know exactly what you mean.
I dunno how long it’s been since you were around these parts or where you are now but their arrogance is unfawkingbelievable. They drive through redlights, no stopping, traverse route 7 on foot without looking…… I’ll mow one down some day. And celebrate their death.
One day, right after we moved down here I was in the only grocery store in Kent to pick up stuff for wife… it was a holiday IIRC. I had to get a pound of Manteca. The place was very busy but I finally got to the aisle with the baking stuff. I’m looking and find one carton of Manteca on the shelf. I reach up to get it and one of these overdressed Wall St hags snatched it right out of my hand!!!! I was in shock. My $hithook was firmly gripped around this stuff and she literally grabbed it out of my hand and ran off. It blows my mind to this day.
Not long after that, I was in Kent Hardware to pick up 8 gallons of paint that I had ordered. The guy at the register said it was in the back with my name on it. I fetched the two cases and headed to the register. The stuff is heavy you know? So here we go again…. another one of these high dollar banking hags was at the register and she’s taking up the only room on the counter…… Excuse me….. ahem…. excuse me mam….. she slides 6″ and has her hands resting on the counter……EXCUSE ME(a little louder)….. she still ignoring me as I’m ready to drop two cases of paint. So I said, “lady…. move your hands or they’re gonna get crushed” and pushed her out of the way…. She glared at me and I glared right back….. rotten b_tch.
Laws and manners are for us little people.
Like said, it isn’t the money I hate, it’s the bad attitude.
The money just makes the bad attitude go farther.
So here we go again…. another one of these high dollar banking hags was at the register and she’s taking up the only room on the counter…… Excuse me….. ahem…. excuse me mam…..
“…I’m about to throw up, I’ve just had a placenta expulsion flashback memory, lady your lipstick is the same color…ralphhhhhhhhhhhh,…earllllllllllllllllllllllll…”
Never been there but I can imagine.
I was in Newport,RI at the New York Yacht Club’s harbor house two years ago racing sail boats,we are poor sailors. The level of snobbishness at the cocktail parties was at the top level. You could feel the fact they wished we were not there, I was happy to leave, screw your $5.00 Budweiser, tastes just the same as our dollar bottles!
I tell you where else you see such snobbishness. Go to a D.C.-area party that includes a mix of Congressional and Senate aides. Those people really do consider themselves the ruling class, and the rest of us are their subjects.
Been there, seen it.
Or just go check out any yacht club anywhere. Golf and country clubs can kiss my ass too.
And there are whole classes of people who can’t afford to be even “poor” sailors.
And there always will be.
If the NYYC was so great, why did they lose The America’s cup to the blue-collar Austrialians?
And why did it take nouveau riche Silicon Valley guys to get it back?
I wonder If Kissinger still lives there? Met him/wife a half dozen times during gulf war 1 when i worked for WTNH in new haven
——————-
Last weekend I had to go into Kent, CT
“Oh well have to put off the Maybach purchase until next year.”
Forget the Maybach! I’d get a Bugatti Veyron!
Eat my dust Jeremy Clarkson!
Note: Anytime a city or state announce possible layoffs they always mention police and fire fighters. Done for one reason, to stir up the citizenry.
Tucson City Manager: 400 workers face layoff
Arizona Daily Star
A day after a city sales tax hike was soundly rejected by voters, Tucson City Manager Mike Letcher and Mayor Bob Walkup announced an estimated 400 city workers could be laid off.
Which jobs will be cut will be identified by Letcher and discussed by the City Council on Jan. 5.
Letcher said exactly who will be laid off is still to be determined, and the number of layoffs could be greatly reduced by attrition, although he declined to project how much the reduction could be because he said he just didn’t know.
He said those layoffs will include police officers and firefighters if there is not enough attrition in those departments.
Of course they wont investigate all those police and firefighters claims for disability or worker comp first to root out any fraud.
And of course the union wont agree to a 5% lower pension payout to save jobs.
Just adding more reasons never to buy a new car they can steal or break into.
Fire all the welfare recipients especially police.
Slim here.
I can’t help but think that the sitch could be handled the way the little-tiny, one square mile City of South Tucson did it. This little burg said that that its municipal workers would take a 1% pay cut for every $10k in salary.
And guess what? No wails of anguish! No rioting in the streets of South Tucson! Life goes on!
“Anytime a city or state announce possible layoffs they always mention police and fire fighters. Done for one reason, to stir up the citizenry.”
As predatory as the cops have become lately, raising “revenue” by writing speeding tickets left and right I would think the citizenry would welcome the layoffs.
Seen the same thing around here.
The Kansas Turnpike has always been considered the KHPs “turf”. Hardly ever saw a local cop/Deputy Sheriff on it. Up until about 3 months ago…..
Especially from that storm-tossed lifeboat of blue in a giant ocean of red, AKA Douglas County.
(”Blue” is relative, in this case. “Blue” in Kansas = Middle of the Road Republican)
Ah, it is just the white-flight, good people of Lawrence commuting to and from their Topeka jobs.
Government when threatened turns itself inside out, the bone and muscle position themselves to take any damage so as to protect the precious fat within.
Nice.
Many local governments lose money from making stupid decisions and then getting sued for it. Billions.
Like one city that has to retry 4000 criminal cases because the crime lab was caught falsifying evidence.
Ouch.
Fed’s Bond Buying Plan Boosts Futures, World Stocks- AP
World stock markets surged Thursday while the dollar slid against the euro after the Federal Reserve confirmed that it will buy $600 billion in government bonds over the coming eight months in a fresh attempt to shore up the U.S. economic recovery.
Got to flush people into the stock market casino to get the wealth effect going.Retail investors really got burned and are treading lightly.
Yesterday I was accused of being “bitter” over the elections. Not sure where anyone got that idea. Yes, there’s a bit of disappointment, but not much bitterness. For comparison, I was bitter in 2004 when Bush was re-elected. I was bitter when pretty young things 10 years younger than me were buying condos,* painting walls and clubbing it up while I was still slowly saving up to accumulate an emergency fund and pay off my college loans.
I said weeks ago that Republicans winning the House would not be a bad thing. With the filibuster abuse in the Senate, Congress had come to a standstill anyway. Pelosi, for all the anti-christ attacks against her, was a moot point. Republicans had it both ways. They could block progress and then blame Obama for not progressing. Now the Republicans have to put up or shut up.
————
*They bought those condos with ninja loans and no-money down, but i didn’t know it at the time. That’s how i found my way here to HBB the Isle of Sanity.
I have a suspicion that there will be plenty of bitterness for us all to share over the next few years. Changing the icing color doesn’t change what’s baked in the cake.
I’m all for GOPs having a majority in the House. It’s time for them to stop their blathering and put forward some actual spending cuts. A symbolic gesture of their intentions would be for them to cut their own salaries and benefits, they won’t miss it at all…
Chicago firms warn state of job cuts
(Crain’s) — Several Chicago companies notified the state they plan a total of 1,000-plus job cuts by year-end due to loss of business.
Protein Solutions accounts for the bulk of the job losses. The Southwest Side slaughterhouse, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, closed in October, resulting in the loss of 309 jobs, according to a monthly Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act report released by the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
All told, a dozen companies across Illinois notified the state that they may cut nearly 1,500 jobs starting in October. The act, known as WARN, requires firms with at least 75 employees to give the state 60 days’ notice of closings or a certain number of layoffs.
Five of those 12 companies in the October WARN report are based in Chicago.
Rail Terminal Services, a freight company, announced it will close at the end of the year. That will result in the loss of 210 jobs, according to the WARN report.
Illinois Quadel Consulting Corp., which handles the Chicago Housing Authority’s voucher program, will trim 124 jobs at the end of the year after losing a contract.
Collection agency Asset Acceptance LLC planned to cut 55 jobs last month, and consulting firm Thomas & Herbert CVP LLC will trim 54 jobs in January.
19,000 votes are what is separating the candidates for governor. Wonder if it would have been that close had this information been released two or three days ago?
Protein Solutions? What do they make- Soylent Green?
They use every part of the hog, except for the oink.
except for the oink.
BWAHAHAHicHAHAHicHAHAHAHAHicHAHAHic* (DennisN™)
Protein Solutions? What do they make- Soylent Green?
Right? What a ridiculously dystopian name.
Looks like some venture capitalists sunk a fair amount of money into ol’ Protein Solutions just a few months ago:
June 16, 2010: Advantage Capital Partners today announced that it has provided $7.8 million in financing to Protein Solutions, a processor and distributor of portion controlled meat products.
The company employs 375 people and operates a state-of-the-art, USDA-certified facility on the near southwest side of Chicago. Protein Solutions will use the funds to further position itself for continued growth.
Maybe they were just after the “portion controlled meat products.”
If the plant closes, and you don’t file your WARN report, what can they do to you?
“Collection agency Asset Acceptance LLC planned to cut 55 jobs last month”
Asset Acceptance - the collection business is bad?!?! Or are they just converting to robo calls?
It’s all good, India has our back…
India Tries to Reassure U.S. Over Outsourcing Fears
MUMBAI, India — India’s outsourcing companies, often blamed for stealing Main Street jobs, want Americans to know: We’re hiring in the U.S.
They along with President Obama, who arrives in India’s financial capital Mumbai on Saturday, are at pains to reassure the American public that India is here to help the U.S.
On paper, the relationship looks great: Two big markets, two democracies, growing trade. In practice, there’s a creeping sense that it may not live up to the hype. India, emboldened by its growing economic importance, is not playing by U.S. rules. And the U.S., which has lashed out at India’s key outsourcing industry even as it funnels billions to its ally in the war on terror — India’s archrival Pakistan — looks like less of a friend than New Delhi might like.
Many believe business can lead bilateral ties. Obama, weakened by Republican gains in Congressional midterm elections, is bringing 250 U.S. executives including GE chief Jeffrey Immelt and Honeywell’s David Cote, which the U.S. India Business Council says is the largest such delegation to ever accompany a president on a foreign visit. The presidents of six universities, including Georgetown and Duke, are also set to come.
Together, they are seeking more than $10 billion in deals.
“And the U.S., which has lashed out at India’s key outsourcing industry …”
Right, as if all this outsourcing is India’s fault.
We offer to send our good paying jobs to India and India is supposed to decline this offer?
Exactly. That’s how American government and Businesses want it anyway. It’s not us, it’s the damn Indians. They took you job, we had nothing to do with it.
India’s outsourcing companies, often blamed for stealing Main Street jobs, want Americans to know: We’re hiring in the U.S.
True story from the Arizona Slim File: I’m launching a new business venture. It involves online sales, and the e-commerce provider I chose was started in Tucson back in ‘04.
The founder has since relocated the biz to his native India, but guess what? The tech support is right here in good ole Tucson. Matter of fact, I could walk to their office.
So, Slim’s dealin’ with an Indian company that outsources their tech support to the United States.
They are hiring H1-Bs only (with the token caucasion).
Exactly.
Some Tea Part/Repub female was claiming Obama was bringing 2000 people at a cost of $200 million (per day)? Anybody else catch that?
This is a pathetic waste of money, the $200 million a day was perhaps a low estimate.
34 warships sent from US for Obama visit
Press Trust of India
New Delhi: The White House will, of course, stay in Washington but the heart of the famous building will move to India when President Barack Obama lands in Mumbai on Saturday.
Communications set-up, nuclear button, a fleet of limousines and majority of the White House staff will be in India accompanying the President on this three-day visit that will cover Mumbai and Delhi.
He will also be protected by a fleet of 34 warships, including an aircraft carrier, which will patrol the sea lanes off the Mumbai coast during his two-day stay there beginning Saturday. The measure has been taken as Mumbai attack in 2008 took place from the sea.
Arrangements have been put in place for emergency evacuation, if needed.
Should of stayed home and created a plan for foreclosures.
Does anyone know why he is going on this ridiculous trip?
Good question…
China is the country that owns our debt and all they got was this lousy T-shirt with Geithner’s mug on it. India gets a horde of CEO’s and the entire White House staff? WTF? Has there not been enough outsourcing already that the CEO’s are going there to negotiate even more?
Not yet
Korea wants a free trade pack as do US corporate leaders. GOP is likely to push this.
China and India are competitors for our business. Very unfriendly competitors.
China also insists that the China Sea, and by extension, the India Ocean, is their exclusive domain. Sending a full carrier task force sends the message of “eff you, whatcha gonna do about it?”
It’s called “geopolitcs” and it’s a deadly serious game.
If I recall, the guys that attached last year used inflatable boats.
An inflatable Donald Duck floatie is seriously stealthy for suicide bombers.
Silver sure has been running strong, lately.
Going to $100/troy ounce.
Silver is dirt cheap.
Sheesh, Kitco meltdown again…
try goldseek.com for quotes.
If either one of these low-life’s had any ethics they would have already resigned. It will be a clown show, another distraction.
After electoral drubbing, Democrats must now deal with ethics trials
~ The Hill
Fresh from a stinging midterm election defeat, House Democrats must quickly face another embarrassing spectacle: public trials for two of their most prominent members.
Reps. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), two senior House veterans, have opted to fight the separate ethics charges in public ethics trials set to take place later this month and extend into the first week of December.
Drawing criticism from Republicans, House ethics chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) last month announced the trials would occur after the elections. Rangel’s will commence Nov. 15 and the Waters trial will start Nov. 29.
To make matters worse for a party still reeling from their losses, Rangel, who is known for his colorful and rambling speeches, could decide to represent himself at the hearing. The Rangel’s trial would undoubtedly attract a lot of attention from the cable news shows.
“It’s like we’re kicking ourselves in the stomach when we’re already down,” one House Democratic staffer griped. “I’m not looking forward to it.”
Democrats would be better off cutting the ties with these ethnocentric corrupt politicians. I can dream, can’t I?
That would be the smart thing to do.
Jobless Claims Turn Higher; Productivity Up, Costs Down
New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, government data showed on Thursday, underlining the persistent weakness in the labor market.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 457,000, the Labor Department said, reversing the prior week’s decline.
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 443,000 from the previously reported 434,000. The government revised the prior week’s figure up to 437,000.
Seems like those new claims figures are seriously stuck in the neighborhood of 450,000.
Yes, and we’ll have a lot of x-mas temp hires getting to boot soon.
So what, the DOW loves it, they are drooling over their hero BB doing another money bomb.
the DOW loves it, they are drooling over their hero BB doing another money bomb ??
Which could usher in our Georgia friend’s year end prediction…
The fantasy has to blow up at some point. There’s no way this rally is sustainable.
As I’ve said, it’s just for Wall St’s year bonuses.
Well yes they have that programmed in.
The numbers didn’t seem to harsh Mr. Market’s morning buzz. Apparently we don’t need paychecks to have an economy anymore.
That is correct! This is a jobless recovery!
“This is a jobless recovery.”
A somewhat interesting phrase, no?
A reality-less reality. (make-believe)
A fact-less reality. That’s a better proximation.
A fact-less reality.
You’ve just described our entire society.
“That is correct! This is a jobless recovery!”
I think that the last few recoveries have been jobless. The housing bubble masked that for a while, but now that’s over we get to face the real outcome: a U6 index hovering around 17%.
I think that the last few recoveries have been jobless.
ISTR that the much-ballyhooed economic recovery of the early 1990s was of the jobless variety. That was one of the main reasons why George HW Bush lost the 1992 election.
That recovery didn’t start picking up steam until the mid-1990s. Then it became the tech bubble. Which was replaced by the housing bubble. And here we are.
If you could do Windows programming, you sure could find a job. That’s when part of our development went overseas.
This bummed me out. I was hoping for some improvement in the unemployment situation.
Why? The repubs voted against ending tax breaks for offshoring jobs in Sept.
I’m sure all of these unemployed individuals are feeling warm and fuzzy inside, unconcerned about their futures, because the stock market is up almost 2,000 points in the past 4 1/2 months, and commodities prices are taking off like a rocket.
Those unemployed morons gave the very party who extended tax breaks for offshoring jobs, more power… because they were out of work.
Is this a great country or what?
Germany Concerned About US Stimulus Moves
Germany’s Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said on Thursday he was concerned that the United States was trying to stimulate growth by injecting liquidity into its struggling economy.
The U.S. Federal Reserve launched a fresh effort to support the U.S. economic recovery, committing to buy $600 billion in government bonds which lifted riskier assets around the world despite concerns the programme could do more harm than good.
Bruederle also said there was some truth to the criticism that the United States was influencing the dollar’s exchange rate with monetary policies.
He said he was also concerned about increased protectionism in different forms around the world.
In upstate SC our Housing has surely dropped more ,in the last few months . Mid-grade houses in nice areas are selling for 50K and up , this is half or less then the peak . And the Shame of it is we never had a bubble here . The forclosures are dragging down the regular prices , where will it end ?
A lot of us never had a bubble here. Sure, housing prices probably doubled in the last decade as manufacturing jobs continued to leave the already depressed region and real wages for anything but government work eroded, but it was never a “bubble”. Right?
Get’em Blue.
Knew that was coming..lol.
I don`t know how they did it but my LL`s foreclosure was dismissed. The papers we got said they had to pay their own attorneys fees and it was dropped. This coming after another person we know that has not paid the mortgage in 3 years not having to move out because their already auctioned off house had paper work problems and they get to stay. 5 going on 6 years into this and sometimes it gets pretty depressing and I get pretty pissed off. Like now. The article below is not one that I personally know about but I think I am seeing a trend.
South Florida man gets his property back after judge reverses Chase foreclosure
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 5:39 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010
A South Florida man had his foreclosure reversed Tuesday based on a motion arguing the bank was wrong to take the property back at auction while at the same time negotiating a loan modification on the home.
Attorney Scott Haft, of the Palm Beach Gardens-based firm LaBovick & LaBovick, made the motion to vacate the foreclosure judgment based on fraud, misrepresentation and misconduct by JP Morgan Chase, which Haft said had promised a trial loan modification to his client in February.
Haft said Chase was still sending loan modification papers to his client even after the condominium overlooking Miami’s Biscayne Bay was auctioned Aug. 24.
Jeff, it’s gamble they are making. A very serious one. And not all of them are winning.
Here’s the commercial property report from Mesa, AZ:
No buyers
Little money in circulation = little consumer spending = few buyers for commercial property that depends on this spending.
All the money is going to the precious metals and food commodities.
Better stock up!
Why can’t the FED just buy all the abandoned commercial RE?
That happens with QE6!
+1
China might buy it if it’s in their interest. They seem to be in the market for a lot of things that are in their interest.
It’s not like they don’t have the money.
From what I understand, China already has more unoccupied real estate than the entire amount of RE in the US. Maybe they like collecting empty buildings like some collect bottle caps.
All those new pretty looking skyscrapers in China give the country a modern, prosperous look, even if they are unoccupied.
Chinese investors already have large RE holdings in this country.
The FED would like to have the GSE’s and retired people tired of earning 0.5% on their bank accounts to most of the lifting, but don’t worry the FED has purchased a large chunk.
Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve will likely extend the timeframe of its program to buy $1.25 trillion of agency mortgage backed securities (MBS) to give the market more time adjust to the loss of the central bank’s buying power, analysts said.
Earlier this year the U.S. Federal Reserve set a goal of buying up to $1.25 trillion of agency MBS, $300 billion of Treasuries, and $200 billion of agency debt in 2009 to help lower borrowing costs for home owners.
The Fed purchases of agency MBS total $741.608 billion so far in 2009
No buyers ??
No financing = No Buyers……
I don’t want to detract from Oxides main point in her post regarding bitterness of the election so I started a new one here. Comments like this one from Oxide and others always strike me personally considering my personal reaction to the bubble was and is much the same as hers. I believe The Great Housing Fraud perpetrated by Mobster bankers and realtors had a large impact on the public psyche as personified by Oxide.
“I was bitter when pretty young things 10 years younger than me were buying condos,* painting walls and clubbing it up while I was still slowly saving up to accumulate an emergency fund and pay off my college loans.”
Same idea for me, different circumstances. My experience had, has and will continue to have a profound and positive effect on me. That bitterness quickly strengthened me and Mrs. into a defensive posture that we’ve maintained since late 2004. This blog was a big help too. This entire housing saga has gone on much longer than I ever would have guessed.
Being bitter is a waste of time. Sounds like you and oxide have moved on. Soon you will move up!
Yup, it’s all been very educational.
Not that long ago I was wondering why so many people seemed so wildly successful..big houses, fabulous kitchens, big cars. I couldn’t believe that they were getting such great wages here. They weren’t.
No one should ever, ever feel bitter over someone else buying a condo. There may be other reasons to be bitter, but yups buying condos is not one of them.
No one should ever, ever feel bitter over someone else buying a condo. There may be other reasons to be bitter, but yups buying condos is not one of them.
Amen.
I felt that way for a brief moment in 2005, and never again. If anything, the majority of urban condo owners should be pitied — it ain’t easy to get that yoke off your neck in a sour economy. I personally know several people who either couldn’t move away or are paying a hefty mortgage + rent because their condos are languishing on the selling block.
“There may be other reasons to be bitter, but yups buying condos is not one of them.”
Yep! That’s just poetic justice is what that is!
And many more to come…Wonder what the republicant’s will have to say about this? No matter, the claims will be extended, everyone knows that.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Two million people will run out of unemployment benefits next month if Congress fails to act in the coming weeks.
The deadline to file for federal unemployment benefits expires on Nov. 30. If it is not pushed back, 800,000 people will stop getting checks within four days, according to the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group.
Federal jobless payments, which last up to 73 weeks, kick in after the state-funded 26 weeks of coverage expire. These federal benefits are divided into tiers, and the jobless must apply each time they move into a new tier.
Nearly 9.5 million unemployed Americans have collected federally funded benefits, which average $290 a week, in 2010. Almost 15 million people are without work.
If they friggin extend it again I will just… Well, I will be really pissed-off.
“stop…or i’ll yell stop again.”
I think that they will be extended since the Democrats still control the house. It would be interesting if the Senate refused to cooperate, but there are only three outgoing moderate Democrats (Lincoln, Bayh and Spector), so the liberals still have the numbers to pass it. But it will be the last time.
IMO, they might get it extended if they don’t try and attach the bill to any non-UE related legislation. If they try and sneak anything else in there, my prediction will be that the debate will tie it up and effectively kill it.
The repubs now control the House. The dems still control the Senate.
Not until January
Press:
You have NO CLUE how bad it is. What would you say to my brother 17 years as an electrician…and no work…not even cash side jobs ….I have never seen him this moody in my entire life.
Unemployment Offices To Add Armed Guards
36 Offices Beefing Up Security Before Benefits Set To End
POSTED: 3:08 pm EDT October 27, 2010
INDIANAPOLIS — Armed security guards will be on hand at 36 unemployment offices around Indiana in what state officials said is a step to improve safety and make branch security more consistent.
No specific incidents prompted the action, Department of Workforce Development spokesman Marc Lotter told 6News’ Norman Cox.
Lotter said the agency is merely being cautious with the approach of an early-December deadline when thousands of Indiana residents could see their unemployment benefits end after exhausting the maximum 99 weeks provided through multiple federal extension periods
http://www.theindychannel.com/news/25539273/detail.html - 48k -
INDIANAPOLIS — Armed security guards will be on hand at 36 unemployment offices around Indiana in what state officials said is a step to improve safety and make branch security more consistent.
From the Indiana heartland?, I thought that they just voted yesterday to make the Federal Gov’t spending smaller, right? Oh, silly me, I get it,…they were hired to keep them from destroying a Federal building, just like Fort Sumter.
Nearly 9.5 million unemployed Americans have collected federally funded benefits, which average $290 a week, in 2010. Almost 15 million people are without work.
“Shazam-Islam-is-gonna-be-democracy-any-day now-just-watch-and-see!”
Cheney-Shrub 2001
Don’t Stop! Don’t Stop! Don’t Stop!
http://costofwar.com/
You mean these guys?
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68R40I20100928
Collapse of talks fuels steel lockout fears
Hope of avoiding a lockout of 900 U.S. Steel employees in Hamilton has all but vanished.
Rolf Gerstenberger, president of Local 1005 of the United Steel Workers, admitted in a hastily-called news conference Wednesday he’s expecting the gates to be locked against 900 workers after the collapse of a mediation effort Tuesday.
The company will be in a legal position to do that at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. It would be the first steel labour confrontation in Hamilton in 20 years.
“If we don’t give in to what they want then we’re going to be locked out,” he said.
“There are things happening in the plant that lead us to think they will lock us out.”
The market is going to the moon, Alice, to the MOON!
Banksters are high-fiving all over the world.
What if the Dow hits !2,000 before December 31st but then falls back below that number at the end of the year. Will we give Eddie credit for calling it?
Well I’ve been saying 12K **by** EOY. I didn’t say 12K **at** EOY.
If it hits 12K between now and 12/31, I really don’t see it coming back any time soon. Retail sales won’1t be great for X-mas. But nobody is expecting them to be so only surprises I see there will be on the upside. And if the Fed has decided to inflate, in the short run this will be good for stocks.
Plus the Republican victory was big enough that any fears of what Obama will do next have been put away for at least 2 years.
So I am confident 12K this year and I think 12.5-13K by June 1, 2011. After that…either we go to 15K by 12/11 or we go back to 8K. All depends how the Fed actions play out. And I honestly don’t know, nor do I care to take a guess this early on.
You saw it here first, folks. I’ve got your post saved on my hard drive:
So I am confident 12K this year and I think 12.5-13K by June 1, 2011. After that…either we go to 15K by 12/11 or we go back to 8K. All depends how the Fed actions play out.
To be honest, Eddie, you’re probably not far off. I’ve been predicting the real recession will kick in next summer.
‘I am confident’
I think I can speak for most here, when I say you are mistaking me for someone who gives a sh*t what you think will happen.
I am fully confident that Eddie is completely full of himself.
“I think I can speak for most here, when I say you are mistaking me for someone who gives a sh*t what you think will happen.”
OUCH! That’s Gonna Leave A Mark!
I am fully confident that Eddie is completely full of himself.
I am fully confident that Eddie’s posts contain more “I”, “me”, and “my’s” than those of anyone else.
Anyone.
Eddie, I am sure you are probably a pretty good dude and we would proably get along just fine if we were chatting while waiting for a table at Chili’s. Its just that you come accross on this board as THE BIGGEST POMPOUS ASS!
You sure about that, pressboard? You’re going to be waiting for that table for a lo-o-o-o-o-n-g time….
And the truth is that EddieTard is waiting tables at Chili’s.
Why not? He’s worked so hard for it!
Last time we talked about it, I interpreted Eddie’s statements as not caring where we ended up later…only that it would hit 12k at some point before the end of the year. If we don’t take a hit pretty soon he’ll be right on that. I still think we go down eventually, but my faith is wavering due to QE. I’d have never believed it but maybe they really will be able to inflate the market up despite everything trying to take it down.
This isn’t going to end well, is it?
Nope.
i think we see a ton of QE till the 2012 elections after which… the length of unemployment will pull us into another recession from which the fed cannot pull us out.
The bankrupt owner of five North Carolina Ashley Furniture HomeStore locations is closing up shop.
Liquidation sales began last week at all five of FreDe Enterprises’ five Ashley Furniture HomeStore locations in Raleigh, Durham, Clayton, Fayetteville and Goldsboro, said John Spach, marketing director for Ashley.
FreDe filed for bankruptcy in July but had been operating as business as usual. The sudden shift to liquidation took some shoppers by surprise.
Quantcast
Pauletta Gaither of Raleigh didn’t find out about the closures until she stopped by the store Saturday to make a payment on items she had on layaway. She was met by large neon signs declaring “Bankruptcy Furniture Liquidation. Going out of Business Sale. Store Closing Forever.”
‘The sudden shift to liquidation took some shoppers by surprise…large neon signs declaring “Bankruptcy Furniture Liquidation. Going out of Business Sale. Store Closing Forever”
Most furniture stores I see have a variation of this from time to time. Maybe they should have said: ‘Going out of Business Sale. Store Closing Forever. This Time We Really Mean It!”
Boy who cried wolf effect. Can’t even have a legitamate going out of business sale anymore.
My wife towed me into an Ashley furniture store last weekend. For my taste and point of view I can’t see how any of them stay a-float. Great big huge furniture!
Throw back to the 70’s pit groups with cup holders ice cooler under the arm rest type stuff. One bed room set that would take a minimum 600 sq.ft. bedroom to fit in.
Anyway to each their own but this place best pray for a re-birth of the McMansion craze, or change their business plan in a hurry.
Needless to say they received zero dollars from me, we were in and out in roughly 5 minutes.
Those Ashley places get to me too. The bedroom sets have poster beds where each post is about 16 inches in diameter and must weigh 400 lbs. It’s like a telephone pole. The Ashley chain must have bet the ranch on everyone in America buying a McMansion with 6,000 square feet of space.
I went in one once. Their furniture designs were okay, I guess, but it didn’t sing “high quality” to me. I never went back.
Maybe they should have said: ‘Going out of Business Sale. Store Closing Forever. This Time We Really Mean It!”…because my BIL bought us out and his last bankrupthcy was like 6 & 1/2 years ago!
Gold bugs love QE2!
Corn and oil love QEII alike.
I am wondering what the burn life of this fuse is. Higher food and fuel prices will just be another knock on the head for the humans, who will soon have very little to spend on stuff. The stuff makers will have a hard time raising profits while their input costs are going up again, so they will have less to spend on employing said humans. Sales down, profits down, employment down and the government has the pedal to the metal.
It’s about time for an Icelander Party.
It’s about time for an Icelander Party.
Not going to happen. The very party that caused this mess and just voted to extend tax breaks for offshoring jobs, just got more power.
Perhaps I will be a party of one.
A man of the people indeed…..
“Obama is expected to fly by a helicopter — Marine One — from the city airport to the Indian Navy’s helibase INS Shikra at Colaba in south Mumbai.
From there, he will drive down in a Lincoln Continental — the Presidential limousine — to the nearby the Taj Hotel.
Two jets, armed with advanced communication and security systems, and a fleet of over 40 cars will be part of Obama’s convoy.
Around 800 rooms have been booked for the President and his entourage in Taj Hotel and Hyatt.”
You left out the 34 war ships…But hey, Barry said he really wanted “to see the festival of lights”. So what’s 2 billion give or take for 10 days, now that the country is on a even keel. It’s all about Barry 24/7 his peeps love it!
This exact same entourage has followed every President (Democrat or Republican) wherever he goes for the past 30 years.
It only seems to be a problem with Republicans when Democrats are in office.
And, believe it or not, having the American president visit your country is considered to be a big deal.
Despite all of the growling we heard over here about Michelle’s recent trip to Spain, the Spaniards were absolutely thrilled to have her. And, speaking as someone who has lived in Spain, when they’re thrilled, they’re over the moon with happiness.
You bet they were thrilled with all the millions of dollars spent locally by Michelle and her humonguous entourage. I want her to come to my town.
X,
Please provide a link to a trip Bush (or any other president took) that required 800 hotel rooms and 34 Navy ships.
I seem to remember GWB going to his privately owned ranch alot. Can’t recall too many lavish trips to faraway lands. Not that I am defending that ignorant sob…
‘Can’t recall too many lavish trips to faraway lands’
Well, he did announce a space trip to Mars. And there was that little Iraq jaunt.
“And there was that little Iraq jaunt”
That trip was made on a stripped C-141 with the president sitting amidst a plane load of frozen turkeys. Obama’s turkeys are not the frozen kind.
I seem to remember GWB going to his privately owned ranch alot.
As did Ronald Reagan. That ranch (near Goleta, CA) was quite the presidential retreat.
That ranch (near Goleta, CA) was quite the presidential retreat.
Yeah, it was indeed! Now, how is that Ronnie Raygun got that property? And then a CA decision to completely surround it by a wilderness area?
The ranch was originally named Rancho de los Picos after José Jesús Pico, a Mexican immigrant who homesteaded it and built the original adobe house in 1871. The Pico family owned the ranch until 1941, when one of Jose Pico’s sons, Joe, sold it to Frank Flournoy, a surveyor for Santa Barbara county, for $6,000 (equal to $88,653 today). He, in turn, sold the ranch to Roy and Rosalie Cornelius, who purchased additional land for the property.
The Reagans bought the ranch from the Corneliuses for about $527,000 in 1974 (equal to $2,324,937 today) when his second term as Governor of California was coming to an end.
pre-CA/Mexicans:
The walk was prompted by Mr. Reagan’s remarks at the summit meeting in Moscow in May, referring to the Indians’ living a ”primitive life style” and saying, ”Maybe we should not have humored them” in letting retain that life style.”
If you add up all the trips Reagan took to California to spend at the ranch, it doesn’t add to 1 day of Obama’s trip to India.
Facts my dear boy, facts.
Facts my dear boy, facts.
He’s visiting India Eddie, not Indiana.
Google the difference plus this thing called “inflation”. Dang.
W didn’t like to travel outside the US of A. Not too curious about other cultures.
That’s a shame, because other cultures are fascinating. Personally, I can’t wait to get some overseas stamps on my new passport.
Haskell’s still circling the Atlanta airport, looking for a parking spot…
It only seems to be a problem with Republican “TrueBeliever’s™ / “TrueDeceiver’s™” / “TrueHypocrite™” / “TruePurity™” types when Democrats are in office.
From there, he will drive down in a
LincolnKIA Continental — the Presidential limousine — to the nearby the Taj Hotel.Fulton County Officer Charged with Raping 12 year old girl
http://tinyurl.com/22rak2m
Scum of the earth are drawn to law enforcement and the military.
The corrupted seek power and power corrupts.
Do not shoot the messenger.
Atlanta lowered its standards to the point where even a drug conviction does not disqualify an applicant from being a police officer. Nobody in their right mind would be a cop in a major city these days so they have to let in the scum or have no police force.
Fortunate Atlanta standards were lowered prior to your choice to move there.
I have never lived in Atlanta proper. Sorry.
I thought this was an interesting article about how almost everything Ben Bernanke is doing is wrong.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=2241037
[The stock market crash of] 1920 is where I would like to focus my attention. It came on the heels of World War I. A huge number of returning troops came into the workforce, overwhelming labor supplies. There were serious changes in fiscal and monetary policy on top of it. There is much attention paid to a claim that The Fed basically caused the Depression by raising rates from 4.75% to 7%. This is implausible as the triggering cause, although it certainly slowed bank lending. More importantly, there was a large inflation in both asset and general price levels, with the DOW rising from 80 - 120 - a 50% increase in less than a year.
President Harding was urged by Herbert Hoover (then Commerce Secretary) to protect private businesses, including banks, from the consequences of their bad decisions. He refused. The contraction was extremely sharp, with deflation of, according to some estimates of approximately 18% at retail and more than 30% at wholesale. GDP fell by 7%.
Unemployment also rose rapidly, reaching over 11%.
But the recovery was equally swift. Having been purged of inefficient businesses and excessive debt, the economy came roaring back. By 1923 full employment had once again been reached and industrial production registered an astounding 60% increase. The stock market came roaring back at the same time, with the DOW going from 65 to 105 in about a year.
What was different after the crash of 1929?
I wonder what PB thinks about this guy’s arguments.
The asset bubble in stocks of 1929, based on selling stocks on margins (faulty lending again ),raised the prices to a huge bubble that a majority were invested in . In other words ,the size of the 1929 crash was so big
while the earlier one was small by contrast .
We know Europe is better at “socialism” than the USA. Heck they get “free” health care, one month vacations, childcare, good retirements and great social services BUT, BUT……Why is “socialist” Europe better now at capitalism than the USA?
the European recovery is clearly more about exporting than consumption
European Growth Story Continues As Region’s Manufacturing Sector Remains Strong
http://www.businessinsider.com/european-pmi-october-2010-11#ixzz14KT09Aud
Europe’s services and manufacturing industries expanded at a faster pace than initially estimated in October, led by surging output in Germany.
But, the real story is in manufacturing. That index has increased, month-over-month, to 54.6 from the previous 53.7.
So the European recovery is clearly more about exporting than consumption
The European Union’s growth rebound continues with the region’s overall PMI coming in better than expected,
The euro-area economy grew…the fastest pace in four years. Daimler AG and Deutsche Lufthansa AG are among European companies that have raised full- year forecasts in recent weeks.
Those damn krauts! Everyone knows that Capitalism(tm) can’t succeed without an impoverished underclass. Sheesh! What are they thinking?
As I’ve said, the rest of the industrialized world has had their “economic revolution” and social upheaval years ago and are now on the back side and prospering while we are still trying to conduct Cold War business as usual.
Credit is poison (or just people pushing for it …):
www dot bbc dot co dot uk/news/business-11664632
* HEARD ON THE STREET
* NOVEMBER 4, 2010
Captain Ben Charts a Treacherous Course
By KELLY EVANS
Another day, another surge into uncharted territory.
…
There is no guarantee the U.S. economy will be in markedly better shape by June, even with a stimulus of this size. In fact, the Fed’s loose-money policy has driven down the U.S. dollar and pushed up not just stock prices but commodities too. That risks undermining the purchasing power of U.S. consumers—particularly lower-income households that can’t compensate for higher costs by bidding up wages and miss out on the free lunch of asset appreciation.
While there are plenty of reasons to believe the Fed will keep pulling the monetary lever and pushing up assets, there is little historical evidence that QE really can generate a stable, self-sustaining recovery. Investors, in their euphoria, may want to pause for thought as the Fed heads further off the map.
…
I firmly believe the stock market is on the verge of a severe hammering. Da boyz better cash-out their winnings soon. (A little side note: From my stock market investing track-history this can be interpreted as a screaming buy signal).
“…on the verge of a severe hammering…”
Fundamentals would suggest as much, but my impression is the Fed/Treasury has Mr Market’s back. If so, the questions become very tricky:
1) If the Fed/Treasury wants to and can prop up the market, what happened in Fall 2008?
2) If the market was going to crash, why hasn’t it already?
3) Assuming the Fed/Treasury wants to prop up the stock market and believes themselves capable of doing so, what could possibly prevent them from succeeding?
The banks have thrown in the towel for a re-org BK for Tamarack, and have converted over to a liquidation BK.
Boespflug said in late October he hoped to work with the bank to resurrect the loan under terms the court could accept, but that hasn’t materialized so far, as the Credit Suisse filing made clear.
“Liquidation of the (Tamarack’s) assets is the only reasonable course for this case to take,” Credit Suisse lawyers wrote in their motion. “Mr. Boespflug has been unsuccessful in his haphazard attempts at rehabilitation of the debtor, in part, because there is no confidence among creditors that he is acting in their best interest.”
So much for poor old Jean-Pierre Buttplug.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/11/03/1404132/swiss-bankers-want-to-liquidate.html
Dover Motorsports, Inc. Announces Closing of Gateway International Raceway
DOVER, Del.(BUSINESS WIRE) — Dover Motorsports, Inc. announced today that it was ceasing all operations at Gateway International Raceway.
The company previously announced that it would not seek to run any NASCAR Series events at the facility in 2011. The track ran its final NASCAR Nationwide Series event on October 23, 2010.
Denis McGlynn, President and CEO of Dover Motorsports, stated: “Gateway is a tremendous facility in a great racing community, but we are simply unable to operate it with an acceptable return. We truly appreciate the many years of dedication shown by our Gateway employees and their efforts to make Gateway such a great destination for all those passionate about our sport — from racing fans and drivers to sponsors, team owners and sanctioning bodies.”
Does this indicate that the NASCAR bubble is over?
That’s what I am thinking, even in the belly of the beast Charlotte,N.C. ticket sales are way off.
That’s what I am thinking, even in the belly of the beast Charlotte,N.C. (NASCAR) ticket sales are way off.
is because a obamaCare killin the jobs an risen our taxes,
One of the top officers in Nascar was on Undercover Boss a few weeks ago, and implied that the downturn was pretty tough on their business.
Yea they have been going down for about two years now.
I have never been to a NASCAR race, but then again I don’t go to any stadium games either. Don’t care for crowds and won’t waste my money on it. If I do watch a football game it’s on the tube, in the comfort of home.
and implied that the downturn was pretty tough on their business.
Wait until KIA wins the Daytona 500!
BWAHAHAHicHAHAHicHAHAHAHAHicHAHAHic* (DennisN™)
Dover Hits Wall, Spins Out. -should read headline.
+1
No Happy Meal Toys Unless Certain Nutritional Guidelines Met?
By Comcast Finance
Thu, 04 Nov 2010 15:26:34 GMT
San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors has passed a controversial proposal that would ban toys and other marketing incentives from children’s food — like McDonald’s Happy Meals — unless those meals met the city’s nutritional guidelines that limit fat, salt, sugar and calorie content.
In a statement before the vote, city Supervisor Bevan Dufty said lawmakers have a duty to provide nutritional food and make restaurants and companies more conscious of nutrition in their menus.
Back when I was a high schooler, I had a job at McDonalds. Now, before I took this job, I was a pretty healthy pup.
After a few months of Mickey Dees, I was getting this, that, and the other thing. And then I got canned.
I felt down about getting canned, but then a funny thing happened. My McDonalds-free diet was just what I needed. I started getting better.
To this day, I avoid fast food. Thank you, Mickey, for teaching me a valuable lesson.
It was a source of pride that my daughter had never eaten at McDonalds. Then one rainy day, the power went out just as I was starting to prepare lunch. At least DD got the apples and milk with the happy meal. That wouldn’t have been a choice just a few years ago. Hot lunch + indoor playground = happy mom.
Perhaps if we lose power again someday we might go back.
Last time I went I think it was just for their coffee, which is damn good now. But I rarely hit any of the fast food joints now.
But I feel sorry for those kids - you can really see how it affects them, all puffy, pimply and sad.
I read some where that a photographer took a happy meal home and left out on a shelf for 6 months. Little changed except it just waxed over.
May be good for a bomb shelter.
Personally, I don’t care what food choices other people make, that’s up to them. I do know I don’t want a board of supervisors choosing for me.
Personally, I don’t care what food choices other people make, that’s up to them. I do know I don’t want
aboard of supervisorsMONSANTO Corporation choosing for me.“Conservatives have come to accept the basic principles of the welfare state.” ~Jacob Hornberger
I agree with this, that’s why so called conservatives mean nothing to me. Watch what they do, not what they say.
Watch what they do, not what they say.
They really don’t let that get in the way of being re-elected, if fact you might even go far as to say they really could care less what you think. Moreover, they prefer that you just listen to Rash Limpbaughs, as he’ 98.9% RIGHT about everything, and proudly proclaims he’ll do your thinkin’ for you!
The old conservative Taft wing of the GOP died out with the election of Ike, who quickly made peace with the New Deal and moved on. Once you have entitlements like that, you can’t get rid of them. Hence the panic over Obamacare. They’ll never get rid of that, either.
Yep. Ever rising rate hikes combined with more expensive co-pays and getting less service was so much better.
“Conservatives have come to accept the basic principles of the welfare state.” ~Jacob Hornberger
Yeah… welfare for the rich.
Meet Janet Daley, raised as a political liberal in America and converted to a conservative in Britain. On visits to the U.S. she has seen customer service deteriorate at a rate she finds quite alarming.
“[The fault may lie with] politically correct employment policies which demand the hiring of less capable people, anti-employer attitudes encouraged by a school system heavily influenced by Left-liberal ideology, or just the waning of that work ethic which was once so deeply embedded in the American immigrant consciousness. But whatever the cause, it is sad – and not just for the consumer. Having worked in such jobs myself, I know that the only satisfaction to be had from them comes from carrying them out well. Being forced to maintain standards of performance is not a form of oppression: it is a way of encouraging people to see the worth of what they are doing for a living.
~ On Serving the Customer
Last month, I stayed at a Holiday Inn outside of Ann Arbor, MI. A lot of the maintenance/cleaning people looked to be Hispanic, and I don’t know about their immigration status, but there they were.
To a man and woman, they were delightful to deal with. I enjoyed every one of them.
Same goes for the desk staff and the shuttle drivers. Not the upwardly mobile University of Michigan types we hear so much about. They were just salt of the earth Midwestern people.
So, yes, there still is customer service in America. I saw it at this hotel. And at Detroit Metro Airport. And a lot of other places around Ann Arbor.
Meet Janet Daley, neocon nutball
lol, that was funny
On Serving the Customer
The cookbook?
$19.95
2009
Cannibal Press
Hardback
Amazon number 139593334-13434
Ranked in sales popularity: 3,343,972
when you’re a cannibal…every fight is a food fight.
Being forced to maintain standards of performance is not a form of oppression: it is a way of encouraging peon people to see the net-worth of what
theywe are doing for a living.Kinds Regards / Amen,
Lloyd Craig Blankfein
(From inside last years GoldenmanSucks Xmas card stapled to their “bonus” compensation)
Schools are about as liberal as MSM media.
In other words, NOT.
“On visits to the U.S. she has seen customer service deteriorate at a rate she finds quite alarming.”
And you expect 5 star service on 1 star wages?
How… typical.
Now THIS guy sounds bummed out…
Elections: Disaster on the Horizon
http://www.fcnp.com/commentary/national/7698-elections-disaster-on-the-horizon.html
In a few hours elections will be held that will likely degrade our quality of life and send the country hurtling on a downward spiral. If polling projections are correct, America will bring the very people who trashed the economy back into power to finish their unfinished business of destroying our way of life.
How could American voters be so stupid as to return the culprits of our economic meltdown to power while we are still battling to get out of a recession?
The Republicans have worked to turn America into a Third World nation with huge disparities between rich and poor. They have gutted common-sense regulations, turning Wall Street into a casino and food safety into a crapshoot.
Only a country comprised of voters who are poorly educated, easily distracted, emotionally immature, temperamentally volcanic, economically illiterate, and spiritually superstitious, would go down this road to oblivion.
Our infrastructure is crumbling as fast as our education system. America is losing its competitive advantage, falling behind on alternative energy, lagging in science and math, and our toxic politics has lead to paralyzing gridlock.
Instead of this election focusing on answers to save the State, it has zeroed in on the emotional state of angry and embittered suckers known as Tea Baggers. These are the gullible fools and religious fanatics who have been tricked into doing the bidding for radical and enormously rich anti-regulatory and anti-tax zealots such as News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch and oilmen David and Charles Koch. The joke is really on the members of the Tea Party, because they think they are working for “The People”, when they are unwittingly shilling for the Royalists. As a result of their wide-eyed buffoonery, we will all suffer the consequences.
He sounds much more like a complete idiot!
This child like crap about one party ruining everything is a perfect example of the sadly brain washed two party system. It has gotten us right where we are today. Go democraps and republicant’s!
Oh?
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68R40I20100928
It’s called “research” and facts.
It’s called “research” and facts.
Thank you for your attention to this issue.
A comment from that story:
yea, i don’t get it. are the american people so distracted and detached that they just can’t do the research necessary to stop the conservative ’spin machine’ lies and misrepresentations?
These are the gullible fools and religious fanatics who have been tricked into doing the bidding for radical and enormously rich anti-regulatory and anti-tax zealots such as MUrDoch’s “TrueProvoker ™” Faux News and oilmen David and Charles Koch. The joke is really on the members of the Tea Party, because they think they are working for “The People”, when they are unwittingly shilling for the Royalists.
Who actually did the fightin’, dyin’, & killin’ to keep the Southern Plantation owners profitable $$$$$$$$$$ & in the Black? Oh, that right, …well that certainly can’t possibly happen ever again.
Election question: On the FL ballot there were at least a half a dozen judges with names nobody would recognize with two choices for the voters: Keep them or get a new one. With things as they are I and every single person I talked to said the same thing: Throw the bums out and let someone new have a chance - It was universal. The next morning I browsed the results and every single judge had a 3 to 1 vote in favor of keeping him. It wasn’t even close. Who in the hell voted in such huge numbers to keep these guys? Made me really suspicious that the whole thing might be rigged.
“Who in the hell voted in such huge numbers to keep these guys?”
Wasn`t me, I connected my arrows to fire all of them.
Look for hanging chads..
BREAKING NEWS! See what’s really important…
Scenes of chaos as police are called to launch of Kim Kardashian’s New York store
She has a personal fortune of £25 million, has a over three million Facebook friends and can earn $50,000 simply by sending a tweet to her five million Twitter followers.
But the true extent of Kim Kardashian’s fame was made clear last night as a special police task force had to be brought in to control overexcited crowds who were whipped into a frenzy by the star’s mere presence.
The arrival of the 30-year-old with her sisters Khloe and Kourtney at the grand opening of their clothing boutique DASH in New York caused mayhem as fans scrambled for a glimpse of the famous family.
Useless bimbos are the only commodity left made in the USA. We are the World’s number one producer.
i wonder how many of them are on their 99th week of unemployment benefits?
Commodities to Surge on Demand, Dollar, Standard Chartered’s Murthy Says ~ Bloomberg November 4, 2010
Commodity prices are set to surge, driven by a weaker dollar and increased demand, according to Standard Chartered Plc, which plans to boost hiring in metals, agriculture and coal by 10 percent next year as revenue climbs.
“We’re still in a leg up,” Arun Murthy, global head of commodities, said in an interview. “You may have 10 percent, 15 percent retracement in prices, but that would offer a buying opportunity,” said Murthy, who spent 11 years at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s commodities team in Singapore and worked at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. before joining Standard Chartered.
Commodities to Surge on Demand, Dollar, Standard Chartered’s Murthy Says ~ Bloomberg November 4, 2010
Good use of the QE2 money Out of work and faced with bankers front running food and material prices yea that’s the way you do it not
The US Dollar has dropped below 43 Philippine Pesos today - a first since 2008. In addition the PSEi (Phillipine Stock Exchange) has hit new record highs - wish I would have invested there - would have made a hell of a return.
I was in Manila last month… All I could think was “America 2017…”
Hell in 20 years we may be asking the Filipinos to marry our women…
Hell in 20 years we may be asking the Filipinos to marry our women…
Hell in 20 years we may be asking the Chinese-Filipinos to marry our women…
MONTREAL - The Just for Laughs Museum will close its doors on Jan. 1.
The comedy museum, which opened with much fanfare in 1993, has never broke even and the economic model for the museum simply wasn’t working, said managing director David Heurtel.
Just for Laughs founder and head Gilbert Rozon has put in $10 million of his own money to keep the museum going over the past 17 years, according to Heurtel, and the museum was a project dear to the heart of the Laughs head honcho.
The shutting down of the museum is also bad news for the local concert biz, because it means that the two venues housed in the museum on St. Laurent Blvd. – Cabaret and Studio Juste pour Rire – will be closing along with the museum.
“It’s a serious drag,” said Nick Farkas, director of talent buying at Evenko, the city’s top concert promoter. “I’ve seen some of the best shows in my life at Cabaret. We have other places, like the National and (Club) Soda, but Cabaret was definitely one of my favourite places in the world to see a show.”
The comedy museum, which opened with much fanfare in 1993, has never broke even and the economic model for the museum simply wasn’t working, said managing director David Heurtel.
Rip Shakespeare: “What a tragedy!”
A tragi-comedy!
“What if it’s governance as usual with a Republican house? Think about this! Where do we turn then? Do we sit around for the next two years telling ourselves that if the Republicans don’t perform we can always vote them out of office? Yeah? And replace them with just WHOM?
“This, my friends, is why the American people have to remain on full alert. This is why the Tea Party movement has to remain viable and the pressure on these newly elected Republicans has to be intense.”
~ Atlanta radio talker Neal Boortz
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA
Like the repubs have EVER cared about what the voters want.
“Investigators found a half empty bottle of Labrot & Graham Woodford Reserve bourbon in the right back seat floorboard of his vehicle.”
Maybe he just got off Pilosi`s jet.
Partridge Family star, teen heartthrob David Cassidy arrested on DUI charge in St. Lucie County
November 4th, 2010 by TCPalm.com
By Will Greenlee
LUCIE COUNTY — David Cassidy, the famed teen heartthrob of the 1970s best known for his role in the television show “The Partridge Family,” was arrested Wednesday on a DUI charge after a Florida Highway Patrol trooper spotted his white Mercedes weaving on Florida’s Turnpike, according to an affidavit released Thursday.
Cassidy said he was on prescription medications. He told the trooper he’d had a glass of wine around lunch time and took “a hydrocodone” about 3:30 p.m.
After performing field sobriety exercises, Cassidy was deemed to be impaired.
Breath tests about 8:30 p.m. measured Cassidy’s blood alcohol content at 0.139 percent and 0.141 percent — greater than the 0.08 percent legal limit.
So he’s a drunk just like his dad, Jack, was.
Yep, and didn’t Jack go up in a ball of flames?
0.139?!
Most of us would be dead!
19 Iconic Products That America Doesn’t Make Anymore
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/19-iconic-products-that-america-doesn%27t-make-anymore-535569.html;_ylt=AiVx6o1Z13ePc_mqmrbD5LG7YWsA;_ylu=X3oDMTE2MWJpY205BHBvcwMxMgRzZWMDdG9wU3RvcmllcwRzbGsDMTlpY29uaWNwcm9k?tickers=f,ge,mat,DELL,MOT,aapl,bni&sec=topStories&pos=9&asset=&ccode=
Everytime I think of Etch-A-Sketch, I think of the Dilbert strip where the pointy-haired boss asks Dilbert how to reboot his “laptop”. Dilbert takes it, holds it upside down, and shakes it.
Nope. No millions of jobs PERMANENTLY lost there.
For the “there was no wave because Dems still control the Senate” types….
“Republicans picked up 680 seats in state legislatures, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures — an all time high. To put that number in perspective: In the 1994 GOP wave, Republicans picked up 472 seats. The previous record was in the post-Watergate election of 1974, when Democrats picked up 628 seats.
The GOP gained majorities in at least 14 state house chambers. They now have unified control — meaning both chambers — of 26 state legislatures.”
This matters a lot more than winning an extra few senate seats. Redistricting will be done next year. And the control of so many state houses/governorships will mean these new GOP house seats will not be lost any time soon.
For the first time since 1962, Maine has Republican governor, a Republican state house and a Republican state senate. North Carolina has a Republican state house for the first time since the War of Northern Aggression.
North Carolina has a Republican state house for the first time since the War of Northern Aggression.
Another POV could be: “…since Sherman said “Howdy NC, how’s “secession traitorism” working out fer ya?”
BWAHAHAHicHAHAHicHAHAHAHAHicHAHAHic* (DennisN™)
“War of Northern Aggression”
SPIN BABY, SPIN!
“War of Northern Aggression”
Check it out…This one is better…
War of Southern Moronism
Is this good or bad?
Just 32% of Tea Party candidates win
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/11/03/5403120-just-32-of-tea-party-candidates-win
From NBC’s Alexandra Moe
For all the talk of the Tea Party’s strength - and there will certainly be a significant number of their candidates in Congress - just 32% of all Tea Party candidates who ran for Congress won and 61.4% lost this election. A few races remain too close to call.
In the House, 130 Tea Party-backed candidates ran, and just 40 so far have won.
and just 40 so far have won.
Thankfully, some of them, kept the GOPOFC&CC = “The Grand Old Pimp of Fiscal Conservatives & Compassionate Conservatives” from having a majority in the US Senate!
WASHINGTON (AP) - Britax is recalling about 23,000 infant car seats due to faulty harness clips.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission says the clip on the chest harness of the Chinese-made car seats can break loose and pose a risk of cuts or a choking hazard.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2010/11/04/23000-infant-car-seats-recalled/
We obviously need less government regulation or this will continue to happen!
Clipped from the 5min. Forecast…
In case mainstream media coverage made you glaze over, here’s the quick and dirty of the Federal Reserve’s fateful decision…
The Fed will buy $600 billion in Treasuries over the next 8 months
The mortgage securities the Fed bought during QE1 now reaching maturity will continue to be rolled over into Treasuries, as they have been since August. That’s another $275 billion, give or take
There was also the caveat that more of this could be in the works if unemployment stays high and inflation (as defined by core CPI) stays low.
Hmmn… if the federal budget deficit is supposed to run $1.2 trillion during fiscal 2011 (that’s the consensus guess)… and the Fed will purchase $875 billion in Treasuries over the next eight months (that’s two-thirds of a year)…
…then we quickly see the Fed plans to monetize all of all the debt that Treasury plans to spit out from now through the middle of next year, and then some.
This is yet another reason we don’t expect the House Republicans to convert to the gospel of fiscal responsibility any more than they did last time they were in the majority: They can indulge in demon spending unto oblivion… and the Fed will have their back.
“If this were Greece or Ireland,” Bill Bonner wrote yesterday before the announcement, “the government would be forced to cut back. With quantitative easing ready, there is no need to face the music. If bond buyers will not finance America’s trip to bankruptcy, the Fed will provide as much brand-spanking-new money as necessary.”
The main difference between QE2 and its predecessor is this: The bulk of the junk the Fed put on its balance sheet during QE1 was mortgage securities, with about $300 billion of Treasuries thrown in for good measure. Now it’s all Treasuries, all the time.
And most of those Treasuries are of medium-term duration — very few 30-year bonds are in the mix. Thus, the yield on the long bond rocketed past 4% yesterday. It sits at 4.05% as we write.
Mexican Social Security (IMSS) on the ropes:
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/181608.html
Bottom line: payouts to pensioners are exploding (estimated to grow 300% from 2005 to 2012), and that the programs liabilities are equivalent to 56% of Mexicos GDP. Apparently theirs was not a “pay as you go system” abd it invested the funds in gov’t bonds.
The IMSS is also Mexico’s National Health provider. Participation in both programs is voluntary.
The good news it’s only happening in Mexico!
North of the boarder we have a plan! Print, baby print! LOL!
Old Uncle Buck sho is look’n a little weak in da knees. Poor old fellow, don’t worry bout it, Dr. BB is working on a new medication for you. You’ll be just fine, next stop full coma!
You’ll feel like yourself again after this liquidity enema. You might get a few paper cuts on your butt-cheeks.
Romans ‘were first to invent the eco-friendly house’
They gave us roads, built the first sewers and introduced rabbits, chickens and onions to the British Isles.
Now archaeologists say the Romans were also the pioneers of the eco-friendly home.
A study by Oxford University researcher found that a typical Roman Villa built 2,000 years ago has environmental features that many greens would die for.
The academics, from the Institute of Archaeology, compared the attributes of a Roman villa and a 1930s semi - the most common form of housing in the UK.
The remains of a ruined Roman villa at Lullingstone, Kent.
The remains of a ruined Roman villa at Lullingstone, Kent. Scientists believe that the Romans used efficient technology like underfloor heating and kept bathing and drinking water separate
While the typical British semi has radiators placed underneath windows to warm rooms, the Romans relied on efficient underfloor heating to keep their homes warm.
Modern homes use high quality drinking water - processed at huge expense - to flush their lavatories and wash their clothes. The Romans, in contrast, kept drinking and bathing water separate - using aquifers to bring spring water into towns, but relying on cisterns to collect rain water for bathing.
The Romans were also more careful about using recycled materials for building.
Prof Andrew Wilson, an expert in Archaeology of the Roman Empire, said: ‘One of the many things the Romans did for us was to show us ways to be much more imaginative and efficient with their energy use.
‘They made heat and water work much harder round the house than most of us do today.’
The study, commissioned by the energy company E.On, found that Roman Villas were positioned to make the most of the local climate.
Living rooms tended to face south or south-west with glazed windows to catch the sun - making clever use of solar radiation, the report said.
They also used underfloor heating systems called hypocausts which heated the entire room from the floor and walls.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1326664/Romans-invent-eco-friendly-house.html#ixzz14LHe87EO
‘They made women, slaves, heat and water work much harder round the house than most of us do today.’
“…than most of us do today”
Like “we” have a choice?
Bloomberg
Dollar Weakens, Euro Rises as Fed Purchases Boost Higher-Yielding Assets
By Lukanyo Mnyanda - Nov 4, 2010 5:16 AM PT
The dollar fell against its higher- yielding peers after the Federal Reserve said it will buy an additional $600 billion of Treasuries to boost the U.S. economy.
The Dollar Index slumped to its weakest level since December as stocks in Asia and Europe advanced. The 16-nation euro jumped to a nine-month high against the dollar amid speculation the European Central Bank will keep withdrawing its stimulus measures. The pound advanced after the Bank of England refrained from adding to its asset purchases.
“The initial reaction is that risky assets are being bought,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director in London at Forex.com, a unit of the online currency trading firm Gain Capital, wrote in a client note. The Fed remains “ultra dovish and have left the door open to more. That’s not an environment where the dollar can rally.”
…
The Fed announced a $600 billion purchase program, from here until June. Even in dollars, that’s a lot of money to throw into a market. The stated purpose is to lower interest rates even further…trying to coax business into hiring and consumers into spending.
Will it work? Will it create real prosperity…growth…and wealth? Ha. Ha. Nope. No chance.
How can we be so sure? Well, theory and practice. In theory, it makes no sense. Real jobs require real investment by real investors, entrepreneurs and businesspeople. It takes time. Skill. Luck. Giving the banks more money (which is what happens with QE) merely destabilizes serious producers. They don’t know what to expect. Cheap money forever? Will inflation increase? What should interest rates be? They don’t know. So, they wait…and watch…and the slump gets worse. Besides, the economy is correcting for a reason. Any interference is bound to be a mistake.
The lessons from experience are even more damning. There is no instance in all of history when printing press money actually turned around a correction. And if you really could make people better off by printing money, Zimbabweans would be the world’s richest and most prosperous citizens. Followed by the Argentines; they’ve got 25% inflation right now.
Nope; it isn’t going to work. And even if it seems to be working…it will actually be making people worse off.
~ B. Bonner
Without demand for their goods and services, businesses aren’t going to borrow money. Or hire new employees.
That’s where we are right now. Repeated surveys have shown that businesses’ biggest problem is a lack of customers. Flooding the economy with money won’t change this fact.
Gee I wonder why they don’t have customers?
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68R40I20100928
” And even if it seems to be working…it will actually be making people worse off. ”
Bill, Bill … since when is it about the “people”?
Au&Ag are loving BB! Print,baby,print!
KWN Source Confirms Goldman Sachs Long Gold For Years
King World News ~ November 4, 2010
A King World News source out of London has confirmed that Goldman Sachs has been long gold for years. The source stated, “Goldman Sachs has been getting long the metals for years. Goldman Sachs has essentially been acting as their own central bank, buying on dips for years to hedge their currency positions which are being eroded through coordinated global money printing or currency debasement which they knew would take place. They are long the metals as a hedge and as I said have been for many years.”
The London source also discussed the silver shorts:
“If silver holds for a few hours above $25.50, they (local traders who have been invited short) will just capitulate. You could see a $1 move in an hour if there is a race for the exits. Above $25.50, the locals that are short will literally get margin calls and will have to exit their shorts and it could become disorderly on the upside.
The jaws are closing on these shorts. The silver market is underpinned by everyone who is waiting in the wings to accumulate, that is why you saw the extraordinary buying yesterday off of the lows which continues in today’s trading.”
There was also mention that the industrial users of silver are close to losing faith in the banks which have been telling them there are no problems with silver supplies:
“The industrials, when they see that there is tightness or delays in shipping, will then go out and stockpile silver so their assembly lines are not shut down. We would then be talking about potentially tens of millions of ounces required for delivery to these industrial users in a short period of time. The banks have told these industrial users for years that there is no problem with silver supplies. When these industrial users lose faith in the banks, they will move right away to secure stockpiles.”
Another extremely high-level source today out of the United States has confirmed that Goldman Sachs made a fortune in the last gold bull market. The source stated, “Without a doubt that the most money was made over the shortest period of time in late 1978 to first quarter of 1980 by the international investment bankers, particularly Goldman Sachs and Salomon Brothers. Keep in mind, Goldman made money long entering the gold market with perfect timing, and then reversed their gold positions as gold was peaking and made money on the downside as well.”
Well there you have it, Goldman Sachs is extremely long both gold & silver and laughing all the way to their own bank. You can bet Goldman along with other players will be enjoying this short squeeze in gold and silver.
Eric King
——
Goldman always makes money no matter what.
plunging prices for memory chips
This NEVER happens to coffee or oil.
or GOLD!
Elpida Memory reportedly plans production cut
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Elpida Memory Inc. plans to cut production of memory chips for the first time in two years, according to a report published Thursday. The Nikkei business daily reported that the Japanese semiconductor maker may also put off the possible building of a new facility in Taiwan, as it grapples with plunging prices for memory chips. Elpida will cut output at its site in Hiroshima, and at the plant of Taiwanese subsidiary Rexchip Electronics Corp., according to the report. The scope and duration of the cutbacks have yet to be determined, the report said.
Global demand for RAM is down? Say it ain’t so! I thought the emerging economies were going to make for the slack in 1st world demand!
plunging prices for memory chips
This NEVER happens to coffee or oil.
The Fed can buy mountains of memory chips and open a silicon ski resort.
Step closer to Harry Potter’s invisible cloak ~ UK
A new material that could be used to create a real-life Harry Potter-style “invisibility cloak” has been designed by British scientists.
The material, called “Metaflex”, may in future provide a way of manufacturing fabrics that manipulate light.
Metamaterials have already been developed that bend and channel light to render objects invisible at longer wavelengths.
Visible light poses a greater challenge because its short wavelength means the metamaterial atoms have to be very small.
So far such small light-bending atoms have only been produced on flat, hard surfaces unsuitable for use in clothing.
But scientists at the University of St Andrews in Scotland believe they have overcome this problem. They have produced flexible metamaterial “membranes” using a new technique that frees the meta-atoms from the hard surface they are constructed on.
Metaflex can operate at wavelengths of around 620 nanometres, within the visible light region.
Stacking the membranes together could produce a flexible “smart fabric” that may provide the basis of an invisibility cloak, the scientists believe. Other applications could include “superlenses” that are far more efficient than conventional lenses.
Delta flight attendants vote against unionizing
Surprise results give Delta shares a boost
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Flight attendants at Delta Air Lines voted against organizing themselves into a collective bargaining unit, and ended 60 years of unionization at its Northwest Airlines unit, the Association of Flight Attendants said Wednesday.
It was a narrow defeat after a bitter fight, and with a large turnout of voters. Of the more than 20,000 flight attendants working for the Atlanta-based carrier, 9,544 cast their ballots against the union, while 9,216 supported it.
Apparently Delta non-union workers were paid more than Northwest’s workers who had a union.
* NOVEMBER 4, 2010, 2:46 P.M. ET
UPDATE: JP Morgan Expects Refiling Foreclosures In ‘A Couple Weeks’
By David Benoit
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) expects to begin refiling foreclosures “within a couple of weeks,” said Charles Scharf, the head of the bank’s retail financial services unit.
Speaking Thursday at the BancAnalysts Association of Boston conference, Scharf told analysts and investors that the bank risks losing a couple of million dollars for each month that the delay in foreclosure filings goes on, and that while it is being very stringent in its review, it would expect to start refiling soon.
J.P. Morgan has halted filing for foreclosure in 40 states as it attempts to sort through its procedures that have been questioned. Scharf reiterated that the bank does have some issues in its foreclosures, including affidavits being signed by those who hadn’t verified the underlying documents, an issue that has become known as “robo signing.”
But Scharf said there are misconceptions about the bank’s process in foreclosures and reiterated the bank has “no desire” to foreclose on home owners.
“Foreclosing isn’t good for us,” Scharf said. “We don’t want to foreclose; it’s a lot of time, it’s a lot of money.”
…
Good news for California! Bad news for sate employees…
Brown Vows to Cut Spending as California’s Governor
California Governor-elect Jerry Brown promised to slash spending and trim the size of government in a state saddled with a $19 billion budget deficit this year.
Brown, a Democrat, said he’d “find every item of either waste or low-priority spending.” He spoke today at a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Oakland.
“I want to look for ways to organize state government to make it leaner, to make it more responsive and to make it more coherent,” Brown said.
Brown, a Democrat, said he’d “find every item of either waste or low-priority spending.”
Hwy has HOPE, he’ll focus on some CHANGE to low-priority spending in: “The O.C.”
BWAHAHAHicHAHAHicHAHAHAHAHicHAHAHic* (DennisN™)
Luckily the Fed just decided to create $600 bn out of thin air; otherwise this news regarding the steep price tag for a GSE overhaul might be quite concerning.
* The Wall Street Journal
* BUSINESS
* NOVEMBER 4, 2010, 12:57 P.M. ET
Fannie, Freddie Overhaul Could Cost $685 Billion
By NICK TIMIRAOS
The total cost to rescue and then overhaul mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could reach $685 billion, according to estimates published Thursday by Standard & Poor’s.
Fannie and Freddie have already cost taxpayers nearly $134 billion, but S&P analysts said Thursday that the government could ultimately be forced to inject $280 billion into the firms because of a slowdown in the housing market.
Any entities that might replace Fannie and Freddie would need new start-up funding that would go beyond the money already committed.
A consensus of academics, industry officials and investors has coalesced around the idea of using the government to provide explicit guarantees for securities backed by mortgages that meet certain standards. Tough questions loom over how those guarantees would be structured and priced and what entities would provide them.
Analysts estimate that it would cost an additional $400 billion to sufficiently capitalize any entities that would take the place of Fannie and Freddie. Those capital levels could be lower, at around $225 billion, if the government were to retain ownership in any surviving entity.
“As it stands now, we believe that addressing the [companies'] problems is likely to be an expensive repair job for U.S. taxpayers,” wrote S&P analysts Daniel Teclaw and Vandana Sharma.
…
James Galbraith’s Radical Plan to Create Jobs: LOWER the Retirement Age
Initial jobless claims rose 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 457,000 last week. That’s worse than economists were expecting and doesn’t bode well for Friday’s all-important unemployment data.
Economists estimate the economy gained 60,000 jobs in October. Unfortunately, that’s not enough to move the unemployment rate below 9.5%, which is “a calamity,” according to University of Texas Professor James Galbraith.
The pace of job creation remains stubbornly slow and unlikely to accelerate anytime soon, Galbraith says. “We are not going to see the jobless rate being reduced toward 8% or 7% in the course of the next year.”
What’s worse, he notes, is the utter lack of viable solutions coming from Washington. He lists several industries in which the country can use workers, including elder care and alternative energy. Without government support and added stimulus, however, those desperately needed jobs won’t be created.
Galbraith’s radical solution to joblessness: lower the retirement age.
“We have a large cohort of people who have been displaced by a major economic crisis,” he says. “It’s utterly ridiculous to make them subsist on unemployment insurance, when in fact, there aren’t going to be jobs. This is not a temporary condition for a great many people.”
Galbraith claims lowering the retirement age would solve that problem. It’s a win-win, he says, allowing those nearing retirement age to gain Social Security benefits to help pay the bills; and more importantly, it opens up the labor market to younger workers currently crowded out by the large number of 50 and 60 year old workers vying for the same jobs.
The exact oposite of what they are doing across the pond?
So are they going to lower the Medicare age as well?
I don’t think this would create as many jobs as he thinks. Its difficult to live on social security alone, so if you haven’t saved for retirement - or your savings were severely diminished over the past few years - you simply aren’t going to be able to leave your job.
Besides, reducing the retirement age wouldn’t do much to combat the age discrimination I hear so many 45+ YO job hunters complaining about. Sure they can get on the dole a couple years earlier, which may help. But it will make things harder on those who want to - or have to - keep working.
Nicest Canadian couple in world dole out lottery winnings
A retired Canadian couple who won $11.3 million in the lottery in July have already given it all away.
“What you’ve never had, you never miss,” 78-year-old Violet Large explained to a local reporter.
She was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer when the couple realized they’d won the jackpot in July.
“That money that we won was nothing,” her tearful husband, Allen, told Patricia Brooks Arenburg of the Nova Scotia Chronicle Herald. “We have each other.”
The money was a “headache,” they told the paper–mainly, it brought anxiety over the prospect that “crooked people” might take advantage of them. Several people called them out of the blue to ask for money when the news first broke that they’d won the jackpot. So they began an $11 million donation spree to get rid of it and help others, the Chronicle Herald reports:
They took care of family first and then began delivering donations to the two pages’ worth of groups they had decided on, including the local fire department, churches, cemeteries, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, hospitals in Truro and Halifax, where Violet underwent her cancer treatment, and organizations that fight cancer, Alzheimer’s and diabetes. The list goes on and on.
A retired Canadian couple who won $11.3 million in the lottery in July have already given it all away.
She was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer when the couple realized they’d won the jackpot in July.
Canadian cancer patient gives away her $11.3 million dollar lottery winnings.
Why? One reason, is because she could. She is a Canadian cancer patient with universal, comprehensive, quality, no questions asked, socialized health care.
Universal health care frees up a lot of money for a lot of good things.
One of Hwy’s favorite Norman Rockwell’s:
“Each according to the dictates of their own conscience!”
Not exactly a current day mantra of “TrueAnger™” PeeParty tea toadlers or Evangelical “TrueDeceiver’s™” “TrueHypocrite™” / “TruePurity™” repubicans.
“We have each other.”
Kinda gets down to the “inter-political” bone of things…unless of course, your partial to secession.
Reminds me of a very dear friend.
He was, by his own admission, an urban monastic. He lived very simply so that he could give away as much money as possible.
Instead of putting big miles on his car, he got around town by bicycle. Which was displayed in the back of the church during his funeral mass.
Fed announces QE2 and the market loves it. So, presumably, do folks invested in said market which includes just about everyone I know.
Of all the “everyone I know,” at least 50% want the Fed audited and support Boehner and friends’ pledge to bring us back to fiscal responsibility. These events seem to me to be mutually exclusive.
So, how does this play out? I’ve already heard backpedaling from “principle” to things that sound more like that Upton Sinclair quote. (ie - as long as its good for me and my income, never mind what I said a week ago…)
The Financial Times
Bernanke pushes on very long string
Published: November 4 2010 20:11
…
Mr Bernanke hopes QE2 can unleash consumption by lowering mortgage rates. But this effect is likely to be swamped by fears of falling house prices and the number of homeowners shackled to fixed-rate mortgages by negative equity and the stalling of the great refinancing machine.
…
This just in from Tucson: $12 sandwich gets ridiculed.
Well, x2 days ago Mr. Cole rescued a white dove (looks to have been attacked by a feral cat or bobcat.) “Sherman” is eating & drinking and seems to be not on the quick path to death.
Mr. Cole has stated that a grilled-cheese & “organic extra’s” will fulfill his nutrition needs at this Thanksgiving Family feast, I gave approval that his nutritional intake decisions on that particular day are completely up to his own conscience. (This was not SOP protocol in my Kansas upbringing as a child in the ’50’s & 60’s)
Meanwhile in beef state Boise, WinCo has nice looking beef tri-tip roasts on sale for $2.98/lb. They want $5.98/lb for tri-tip steaks. I wonder how many people know that the only difference is a couple of cuts with a sharp knife.
B’BQ pork or fried tofu Banh Mi $2.25 at Pho Tahnh in central Phoenix. Duck is $3-
Remember me talking about how your vote can be and often is ignored?
Here’s a good example:
HOUSTON — Houston residents who voted to turn off the city’s 70 red light cameras might not see the system shut down until next year.
Drivers ticketed for red light violations at intersections must still pay the fines, according to Feldman.
Backers of the group “Citizens Against Red Light Cameras” argue the red lights should be turned off immediately.
“This issue is over,” said attorney Paul Kubosh, who said the city should just pay any early termination penalties and shut off the red light cameras.
CA / Silly-Anti-American Democrapts / Anti-”Red Wave” State!
Ha!
Anaheim voters overwhelmingly back ban on red-light cameras
November 3, 2010 / LA Times / Shelby Grad
Voters in Anaheim on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a ban on red-light cameras in their city.
The vote comes amid growing debate about whether cities are using the cameras to generate revenues. Dozens of Southern California cities have installed the cameras in recent years, arguing they make intersections safer.
Measure K prohibits the Anaheim City Council “from enacting an ordinance which would permit or authorize any red-light camera or other automated traffic enforcement system,”
I’m watching Brazilian news right now and they’re complaining about
“American helicopter money” QE2 inflation
You know it’s bad when South Americans are lecturing us on money.
And well they should; to prevent deflation here, we’re intentionally sparking inflation there.
Those peeps with blue eyes!
* POLITICS
* NOVEMBER 5, 2010
Central Bank Treads Into Once-Taboo Realm
By JON HILSENRATH
The Federal Reserve will print money to buy nearly as much U.S. Treasury debt in the next eight months as the U.S. government will issue.
The Fed’s decision this week to buy $600 billion more of U.S. Treasury debt is setting off a debate about the risks of a central bank entwining its policies so tightly with the government’s fiscal fortunes. The Fed is essentially lending enough money to the government to fund its operations for several months, something called “monetizing the debt.”
…
Gulp!
Attribution: Wall Street Journal
Do you think the retail investors are coming back into the market since it keeps going up everyday?
The consequences of this will accelerate things like this
NEW YORK (AP) — Cable companies have been losing TV subscribers at an ever faster rate in the last few months, and satellite TV isn’t picking up the slack.
That could be a sign that Internet TV services such as Netflix and Hulu are finally starting to entice people to cancel cable, though company executives are pointing to the weak economy and housing market for now.
If “cord-cutting” in favor of Internet video is finally taking hold, that has wide-ranging implications. Consumers who use the Internet to get their movies and TV shows bypass not just the cable companies, but the cable networks that produce the content. The move could have the same disruptive effect on the TV and movie industries as digital downloads have already had on music.
A few weeks ago, the CEO of phone company Verizon Communications Inc. likened cord-cutting to what started happening to the local-phone companies five or six years ago, when people started giving up their landlines in favor of relying solely on their cell phones.
“The first thing when that happens is you deny it,” Ivan Seidenberg said. “I know the drill. I have been there.”
On Thursday, Time Warner Cable Inc.’s chief operating officer, Landel Hobbs, said the company doesn’t see evidence of people dropping cable in favor of the Internet. He said the biggest subscriber losses have been among people who don’t have cable broadband services; high-speed Internet — from cable or a competitor — is key to watching video online. These people seem to be going to satellite or giving up on pay TV entirely.
Inflation in things people need
Deflation in things people don’t need.
From recent posts
Cable TV is set for a collapse.
ProSports collapse - NFL sees rising local TV blackouts due to stadiums not selling out, NBA plans on closing teams, racing shutting down tracks.
Restaurants - Closing fast
Flat screen TV’s not selling price is falling.
Elective surgery #’s falling Hospitals with many empty beds and locally nursing layoffs.
Car sales.
When gas prices get over 3 to 3.50 expect these trends to accelerate.
“Inflation in things people need”
“Deflation in things people don’t need.”
Because … (for the twenty-sixth time) there is a shortage of cash circulating about.
If people have little cash then they are forced (perhaps for the first time in their lives) to make hard choices as to what to spend this scarce cash on.
Should they buy things they don’t need? Lol. They will SELL things they don’t need, not buy things they don’t need.
They will sell things they don’t need in an effort - maybe a desperate effort - to raise enough cash to buy the things they DO need.
But … sell to whom? Why they will sell to whomever it is that has both the cash and the desire to buy something that he doesn’t need. And guess who it is that gets to set the price?
Ah, yes, cash does indeed rule.
..there is a shortage of cash circulating about.
If people have little cash.. hard choices as to what to spend this scarce cash on.
——
Those are two different things. “Circulating” is the key word. Cash is not circulating.
People do have cash but choose to save it.
9 out of 10 people are pulling in paychecks and could spend more if they wanted to.
Savings are locked up tight.
but the cash is out there..
“9 out of 10 people are pulling in paychecks and could spend more if they wanted to.”
Which implies one out of ten do not have paychecks and can not spend more than they want to. It also implies they can’t spend as much as they need to.
This means they will have to sell their toys and such they accumulated during the years of plenty to raise the cash they need.
..The Fed is essentially lending enough money to the government to fund its operations for several months..
i get it.. it’s a new take on the old theme.
We’re supposed to blame the lender (the Fed) and have compassion for the borrower (our government) because a borrower has no choice in the matter, and will always borrow and spend himself into oblivion if the money is available.
i get it.. it’s a new take on the old theme. joey
That means Joey is defending a different banking entity today….
Donald Trump is talking about real solutions . Donald Trump is talking about adding a 25% tax to China goods and it would immediately create more
goods produced here . He says he can’t figure out why the Politicians are letting China get away with it . Donald Trump actually said in essence that can’t believe how this Country has been so stupid .All goes back to jobs jobs
jobs .
“Restaurants - Closing fast”
I’m in San Jose, CA right now. We just went out for dinner at the Outback in the Pruneyard in Campbell, and the place was packed with waiting lines out front. The upscale shopping centers surrounding Willow Glen are really busy with few parking slots open. No sign of a recession around here.
I was replying to measton’s comment.
BTW, the weather has been really nice too.
jobs jobs jobs?
Considering it’s Trump talking, rest assured he’s just talking his own book.