Bits Bucket For November 17, 2010
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
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I wish myself today NOv 17 a happy birthday. I will be 40 in less than 2 yrs.. Hopefully i will buy my first home in next one year :-))
The next year is too soon to buy. You will be catching a falling knife.
Happy Bday, though.
Knife catchers will catch knives. Let’em be.
Happy self day! I will be 60 when you turn that corner and I agree that we have only just passed the gentle slope of the first loop in this waterslide.
Well, from one November baby to another, here’s a hearty singing of “Happy Birthday!” Have a fun-filled day!
November Scorpio here; 65 on 11/4/2010.
And happy birthday to you too!
45 on 11/4/2010 , half way to 90!!
I’ll raise you three and call.
November 13 for me. Happy birthday!
Happy Birthday M Nair! Perhaps a good birthday gift would be a big bucket of popcorn?
40 ??? Your just a puppy…:)…Happy BDay….
Getting ever closer to age 70. I remember as a kid wondering if I would survive to see the turn of the century. I would imagine many youngsters today will see the turn of the next century.
I’m 50 since OCT still can’t beleive it 50
I owned my first RE when I was 20 something now I rent going backwards in a backwards trending economy
M Nair
Happy Birthday. Enjoy!
38, now that was a time in my life I enjoyed a Joan Of Arc Fantasy Triple. (O’s, not men- I was married to same guy as now.)
CNBC tells us that prices are up 2% from the bottom. Woop woop woopie!
“I wish myself today NOv 17 a happy birthday. I will be 40 in less than 2 yrs.. Hopefully i will buy my first home in next one year :-))”
Ameracan Goverbment skools are tha bess in da werld!
Roque ON!
Actually, I think they do well. I analyzed my university’s students by incoming high school type and the publics outperformed all other school types controlling for many other factors. It’s just that the publics try to serve everyone.
Obviously a foreigner, and I think he did a good job communicating with the righteous, genious bloggers who lurk here. Try posting on the Russian HBB and see how intelligent you come accross. Happy birthday, futue home-moaner.
I think you guys are being unfair. You didn’t give me grief for buying two REOS. You supported Mikey. M Nair plans to wait until almost 2012 to buy. That’s six years from the top - pretty patient.
Of course, I know you’re just teasing him/her.
And we’ll all give good advice during the deal.
“I think you guys are being unfair. You didn’t give me grief for buying two REOS. You supported Mikey”
Homemoaner mikey NEEDS all the support he can get as he is Certifiably Insane!!
Does anyone have any idea where in the Hell they hide those stupid inside winter shutoff valves to the outside spickets in drop ceilings …Where’s my good old handy dandy slumlord landlord when I need him !?!
FB Homemoaner Soution #46: Wait until the pipe freezes and bursts which will remove a portion of the drop ceiling as it drops in a sodden messy heap. Valve should be visible at that point in time.
You should write a “how to” book, press. I will give copies to each client.
Ms. Nair is teasing us. Can’t believe nobody took the “haircut” straight line. Nair indeed.
Happened to see this interview with Volcker in print version of Smart Money mag (apologies if a re-post; via Google search, didn’t see it posted in Oct or Nov). There are 2 pages in this online version…
Q&A With Paul Volcker
PV: We are going to have to reconstruct the whole mortgage market—that’s a challenge for next year and the year following. The mortgage market now is almost a wholly owned subsidiary of the U.S. government. It’s clear Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac need to go. I’d like to see the private sector more involved, as well as stricter underwriting standards.
I think I’m in love with Tall Paul…
Anybody know Mr. Volcker? Maybe we can introduce him to Slim.
Isn’t Paul Volker about 94 years old now?
I’d like to see the private sector more involved, as well as stricter underwriting standards ??
Patience my friend…IMO, its coming like a freight train right at us and the bankers are foaming at the mouth for its arrival…They will charge every fee imaginable for a residential loan along with exorbitantly high interest rates…Why ?? Because they can…I am not any big cheerleader for F & F or FHA but once they are gone the “Bandits” will be running the show as far as residential lending is concerned…
But I think the tide has now turned regarding how people feel about banks and ‘owning’ a home. If they charge every fee imaginable, they may no longer have customers.
If they charge every fee imaginable, they may no longer have customers.
Yes, but you have to understand that we’re dealing with *banks* here. They’re addicted to fees. In recent years, fees have accounted for something like a third of their income.
However, there is a backlash against fees, and not just in banking. Last month, I took a jaunt across the USA, and Southwest was the airline that facilitated it.
Southwest doesn’t charge fees for bags unless, I think, you are bringing more than two. Feel free to correct me on this point.
Any-hoo, on the outside of Southwest’s planes, there’s a sign by the baggage door. It says “Free Bags Go Here.” Or words to that effect.
Yes, Slim, I recently tried to cash a check drawn on Behemoth of A****** and they tried to charge me $6 - even though I have an account with them.
“…the bankers are foaming at the mouth for its (end of F*3) arrival…”
I have to disagree. The current model of collecting a fee on massive mortgage volume, then passing on the risk to F*3 has been very good to them.
Without F*3, they have to actually evaluate clients for risk which is expensive. They’d charge much higher rates, but they’d pay some of that out on bad loans and volume would plunge (both the number and size of mortgages.)
They’d charge much higher rates ??
Which is exactly my point in my line #4…As far as the fee’s, they are going to charge whatever they can get away with and they are all going to charge the same fee’s & interest rates other than a occasional bit of undercutting…The banks could never stand a test of anti-trust..Just look at the interest rates they pay on CD’s…All pretty much the same……Residential loans are going to become very expensive in the future IMO….
Antitrust violations require that they talk to each other about it. When the information is public, there doesn’t have to be any antitrust issue involved. Similar products being offered at similar prices is also called a functioning market.
scdave,
The key is volume. With govt taking the risk, they can pump through almost unlimited volume. If they have to take the risk (cost of default), then volume will drop. Any increase in rates will be more than offset by decrease in volume and the costs of actually having to evaluate and accept risk in mortgages.
Would someone please hire that man in a position of real influence? Please?
Good repost!
Everybody, if there’s something really good. don’t be afraid to repost it.
Y’all gotta watch this. Cracked me up.
Quantitative Easing explained:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTUY16CkS-k&feature=player_embedded
I will not let those who’ve robbed me set the rules of debate. I do not agree with the premise that America’s current debt necessitates cutbacks in Social Security and Medicare and the poor of America need to be subjected to “austerity”. Who says and what do they who say it already have and now want?
The premise is that we are in debt therefore the middle class, elderly and poor need to take a haircut. . I call BS. In fact the middle-class and poor in America have been subjugated to the biggest rip-off in the history of the “law abiding” world. You and me, my friends, are the patsies. To have the powers that be (who are richer than most kings of the past) subject me to constant propaganda that we are now somehow “broke” makes my blood boil. It is a lie.
Why where we not “broke” when we just gave the rich the biggest wealth redistribution in the known world? This new “argument” of austerity for us after we have been robbed is the ruse of our lives. They took most. Now they want it all. S them.
One of the main themes of this blog is that “debt does not create wealth” but debt is a tool that helps create wealth. Look around you. Is there not great wealth? Look at the houses, cars and balance sheets of the rich and large corporations. Is this all an illusion? Of course not. Debt is a tool that has facilitated current, unevenly distributed wealth. If the tool becomes faulty, does all it has already produced disappear? If an ax and saw create a cabin and then becomes worn out, does not the cabin still exist? Our cabin is built. Our tools are shot but we HAVE our cabin. Or do the rich have their 5 estates and now want our cabin as well? The answer should be up to us. How dare our robbers tell us we are now broke.
The rich in America are richer than just and fair capitalism would ever allow. Most of the super-rich’s wealth is protected and maintained by a bizarre “privatize the profits, socialize the losses” perverted form of capitalism. The fact that our public discourse has devolved to how much the middle-class should now sacrifice is a joke as we’ve been sacrificing all of our lives. How much is enough for the lying, rich, lazy powers that be? What sacrifice is enough for their desires for untold wealth at no cost to themselves?
We have ALREADY sacrificed decent paying secure jobs, time off, pensions, health-care and we have sacrificed meaningful lives in exchange for brain-washed mindless consumption and “free-market” claptrap which now only enriches our ministers of propaganda who now have more wealth concentration and power then ever. And you listen to these lying, billionaire, and immoral clowns? They set the rules of debate? Now I need to cut back? AFTER these clowns stole basic pillars of the American way of life? Give me a break. I’m not buying it and you all should not either. It is a lie.
The wealth, money and productive assets ARE there. Most came from the sweat of OUR backs. Are you all going to bend over and let them take everything? Look at Wall Street, the banks and the wealth concentration at the top, criminally maintained on OUR dime.
Yea man, we’re really broke.
Viva la revolucion
Loved it…Rio’s on a Roll
Loved it…Rio’s on a Roll
Hey. Thank you all. I wrote it fast and angry, should have poof-read and corrected some mistakes but it wouldn’t have changed the content.
Why
wherewere we not “broke” when we just gave the rich the biggest wealth redistributionIf an ax and saw create a cabin and then become
sworn out,our ministers of propaganda who now have more wealth concentration and power
thenthan ever.the sweat
ofoff OUR backs.etc.
Cars are not wealth. Capitalism is not fair, and those of us who don’t have any college education but have a net worth of over 1 million dollars are happy that capitalism is not fair
Don’t get too smug about your paltry million dollar net worth Mr. Guppy. To the big sharks you are still a nobody and they are working on prying your wealth away from you via taxes and inflation to add to their mountain of wealth.
BINGO
So many in this country think because they have a million dollars they are benefiting from the system. The reality is that many in this range made their money during the bubble the death of the middle class will be the death of upper middle class, even many of the elite who aren’t well connected will fall. Tell us Elrod how did you make your 1 million dollars?
There are only around 12 million (out of 110 million) households in the US with a net worth of over $1 mm, which includes house value. Raise that to $4mm, and the number is down to less than 4 mm households.
Number of households with $1mm and under the age of 65 is only like 6 million, and house value makes up a large percentage of that net worth number, and other investable assets less so. Hmmm, why do people want to keep wishing prices going, I don’t know?
You are one of 667k in NYC metro area.
One of 235k in LA metro area.
$1mm in net worth with working years ahead of you puts you in a pretty rare club in the US. Anybody that says it’s not a lot of money really doesn’t know what they are talking about.
“Anybody that says it’s not a lot of money really doesn’t know what they are talking about.”
To a wage slave 1 megabuck is a lot of money, just like $1000 is a lot of money to wage slave in Haiti.
To the masters of the universe 1 megabuck is chump change.
That makes no sense.
Elrod, a lot of people on this blog resent that some can end up with more assets than others, even if it’s due to smart, honest work.
No, the resentment is against the vampire squids.
As for fairness, we all end up in the same place: the grave.
No. His comment just doesn’t make any sense.
Also, Bill, Elrod said that capitalism is unfair. That could mean that he acquired his million dollars through some means other than hard work.
“Look around you. Is there not great wealth? Look at the houses, cars and balance sheets of the rich …. Is this all an illusion? ”
Well, ….so far looking at the houses and cars has not been a good indicator, or haven’t you noticed all the foreclosures going on around you??? As for the balance sheets….I am watching the tide slowly going out. Yeah, I think a lot of this is pretty much an illusion.
Yes, this insidious debacle seemingly has no end and certainly no morals. What has this nation come to when not just the Hoytie- but the Toytie as well- suffer these indignities… Oh. the huge manatee…
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-11-16/news/os-heathrow-foreclosure-20101115_1_carts-member-owned-club-foreclosure-suit
You are missing the point my friend. Just because homedebtors don’t own the houses they live in doesn’t mean that somebody doesn’t own them. They are owned, indirectly, by the superrich.
those of us who don’t have any college education but have a net worth of over 1 million dollars are happy that capitalism is not fair Elrod
Congratulations, you possess upper middle-class wealth but you are not who I am speaking of when I talk of the “rich”. You are not even close to having the wealth of power and not even close to joining their club of protected, crony-capitalism. They would not have you. This is an important point.
so far looking at the houses and cars has not been a good indicator, Dale
True as an absolute indicator, but the main point was they are tangible examples of what debt can produce, and what debt can produce does not all disappear when debt collapses.
As for the balance sheets….I am watching the tide slowly going out. Yeah, I think a lot of this is pretty much an illusion. Dale
It is all going to come down to relative wealth between classes because the rich have been engaged in a brutal class warfare against the middle-class for 40 years and are winning.
And it obviously is not an illusion to those pulling the strings:
Highest Earners’ Pay Quintupled in 2009, Government Data Show
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-25/america-s-top-earners-saw-pay-quintuple-last-year-to-average-519-million.html
“…but the main point was they are tangible examples of what debt can produce, and what debt can produce does not all disappear when debt collapses.”
That would mean that ol’ Abe would have to update this statement in his Second Inaugural Address circa 2010:
“…until all the wealth piled by the bond-man’s
two hundred and fifty yearsthree hundred and eighty five years of unrequited toil shall be sunk”(Hwy still hasn’t found any accurate number for the “TrueValueof America2010™” including 92% of the Grand Canyon & Warner Bros. Looney-Tune cartoon collection.)
Congratulations, you possess upper middle-class wealth but you are not who I am speaking of when I talk of the “rich”. You are not even close to having the wealth of power and not even close to joining their club of protected, crony-capitalism. They would not have you. This is an important point.
This is something a lot of folks don’t get. They think that because they own a car dealership or some other small biz that they are part of the “elite”. The true elite snicker at these upstarts.
Speaking of car dealers, anyone notice how there was no “bailout” for all the folks who lost their GM and Chrysler franchises? I’m sure these people were considered “rich” in their communities.
That quintuple/$519 million number was all wrong. Actually, declined 7% to $84 million. Somebody input W2s showing $99,999,999,999 to skew calculations.
******
The Social Security Administration
asked its inspector general to investigate how a $32.3 billion
mistake skewed its statistics on 2009 wages in the U.S.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-02/-invalid-multiple-tax-forms-by-supposed-billionaires-skew-wage-figures.html
“How much is enough for the lying, rich, lazy powers that be? ”
It never is enough. History has shown that time and time again. They won’t stop until they own EVERYTHING.
Very good post Rio.
You summarized my position almost in its entirety.
I would accept a share of a national burden if it was just. It isn’t just. Not while the PIG MEN MONEY CHANGERS gorge themselves at the public trough.
A gradual decay in the public’s respect for the rule of law has already begun. The PTB had better start a second shift at the cake factory because the serf’s are getting upset.
A gradual decay in the public’s respect for the rule of law has already begun. The PTB had better start a second shift at the cake factory because the serf’s are getting upset.
Case in point: The resistance against the new, more intrusive airport security measures. It’s not just an American guy having a hissy-fit on YouTube. It’s Germans showing the world their birthday suits.
I’m from the TSA and we’re here to help you…Now turn your head and cough Fool.
TSA is not inforcing the law, but rather secret government regulations.
Just try and find the law requiring the showing of a government ID to get on an airplane.
Amen!
“He has forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat!”
(Background music,… goes good with morning coffee & “TruthSlayerism™”)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VslzcciRmZg
27 seconds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKeHIVMdCvs - 112k
‘I will not let those who’ve robbed me set the rules of debate. I do not agree with the premise that America’s current debt necessitates cutbacks in Social Security and Medicare and the poor of America need to be subjected to “austerity”.’
How do you expect Wall Street profits and bonuses to keep increasing if you get to keep your promised Social Security and Medicare payments?
“…to keep increasing…”
Squirrel meet nut,…nut meet Squirrel, shake hands & play nice…
http://static-p3.fotolia.com/jpg/00/03/87/96/400_F_3879645_gfngE4BRb6YdXDwHFqvTKbiFCwg8QUWw.jpg
Rio ,,,where has you been …..your basically saying what I was trying to say on Sunday . It’s appalling how the robbers could care less about throwing people into abject poverty .Do you think that they will allow
cat food as the main course ?
Rio ,,,where has you been …..your basically saying what I was trying to say on Sunday .
Thank you and I’m certain you said it well.
It’s appalling how the robbers could care less about throwing people into abject poverty .Do you think that they will allow
cat food as the main course ?
It is appalling and if it gets to that point I don’t believe what “they will allow” will have much longer to do with it.
You go, Rio! I’ve never seen you get worked-up like that. I like the new Rio.
America, stop bending over for Goldman - bumper sticker.
“Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon. That’s always been the difference between us, Daniel.”
Rorschach - the watchmen
would have been nice if bush had invoked Rorschach when he was meeting with Hank Paulson.
Hank Paulson to me is the face of the TBTF Bailout failure of society.
geithner would be the ass.
LOL, michael.
Congress members = bacteria in the colon.
Unions = Huge bloated tapeworms
I just want to say …..Everyone should read Rio’s essay above
because we are right on the crux of being robbed again if your
more of the majority of Americans as far as your financial
position goes or even if you have some wealth that you earned the good old fashion way or even got from your family that toiled ,or more importantly if your someone that needs a job .
I really think that we should start with taking Mozllo’s 1/2 billion
and Hank Paulsons 1/2 billion and than let’s see how much
Goldman has amassed during the crime spree. Enough of the bogus fines that amount to a fraction of the heist .
Would you rather opt for some Government agency looking at your tax returns and deciding how much they are going to take
from you and how much austerity or poverty they think you should bear so the corrupt systems can remain alive and the
super-rich maintain their wealth and power ,along with the casinos,price fixing monopolies , and transfer of jobs and investments to anywhere but the “HAS BEEN USA.”
” to anywhere but the “HAS BEEN USA.”
Put it to music…
“Been had in the U.S.A.
Been had in the U.S.A.
Been had in the U.S.A.
Been had in the U.S.A.
I got in a little hometown jam
And so they put a rifle in my hands
Sent me off to Vietnam
To go and kill the yellow man”
Ooops ! Sorry thar Mr Springfield
Springsteen…
+1 +1 Rio…You got me fired up this morning with that essay…Thanks and I tend to agree…Its like the quote in the movie wall street…”How many yachts do you need”….
Communism - The new black.
nickpapageorgio - The new EddieTard.
This is a wonderful rebuttal, Rio, and a necessary one with which I happen to agree. But the point of my recent screed was that our nascent aristocracy didn’t get that way in a vacuum, nor do they continue to function in one. And we’ve only ourselves to blame for letting them do so, because now we’re going to have to clean up the mess we’ve let them make of our country.
And that means ALL of us. Across the board, and Baby Boomers specifically. As a demographic bulge, it’s always been our fate to take the blame–regardless of our personal ideologies. We are the majority, and like it or not, the onus is on us.
Supposedly, America is a democracy. As such, it is America’s collective responsibility to keep itself informed and engaged, in order to prevent just such unsustainable inequalities as we confront today. But we didn’t. (At least most of us didn’t.)
My criticism, directed specifically at those upcoming seniors who have recently found Economic Jesus, is that WE are the ones directly responsible for our predicament. Boomerz supported off-the-books invasionary wars on behalf of corporate interests. Boomerz bought into the one-car-per-family-member, throw-away mentality. Boomerz screamed bloody murder whenever “someone” told us that our free-market economy was being threatened by “outside interests.” Boomerz “snapped up” more house(s) than they could ever rationally afford. Boomerz spearheaded the mentality that borrowed and borrowed and borrowed, then borrowed some more to buy stuff we didn’t need or even want. Just to be buying stuff.
Boomerz, TeaPartiers specifically, brought us the Wall Street-Cheney cabal (again, as they also did when they were known as the Moral Majority,) a cabal that masterfully exploited the greed, fears and ill-education of the easily-led through such uber-propagandists like Karl Rove and Rupert Murdoch. Boomerez allowed our press to play along with that charade–even joined in the on-going intimidation of the outspoken and the sacking of our first amendment rights under the guise of PATRIOT-ism. And it continues today, abetted by the sincere hypocrisies of the “keep your government hands off my Medicare,” “I got mine” crowd.
Now the Boomer demographic is led by demagogues like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin– who cynically ply their reverse arguments in favor of the very liberties they wish to curtail.
And we let them.
When consequences come down the tube, it’s always easy to blame “Wall Street” or “The Billionaires” or “The Immigrants and Terrorists” but in reality, the only ones we have to blame (and remedy,) are ourselves.
Thanks always for your thoughtful posts, Rio. I didn’t write that one for you….
Pax,
a
now we’re going to have to clean up the mess we’ve let them make of our country…..And that means ALL of us. Across the board, and Baby Boomers specifically.
I wish I would have been more online that day. I still have not read all the comments to your good post.
But most of your points and my points can be reconciled- not perfectly but adequately.
And what could substantially reconcile them would be raising taxes on the very rich, investing serious public money in Main Street capitalism and means testing any “entitlement” cuts.
but in reality, the only ones we have to blame (and remedy,) are ourselves.
Partially, but we the people are not totally to blame. I don’t blame the American people so much that the Republicans became the party of only BIG business and BIG money. And I don’t blame the American people so much that the Democrats became quasi-Republicans when it comes to our jobs and economy.
The system has evolved to become so out of control of our people that this whole debacle came out of the blue for most Americans.
As you know, we are a democratic republic, not a pure democracy. American citizens expect, and have the right to expect, that OUR elected representatives serve OUR interests much more than they do today. Part of serving our interests includes the duty of putting our interests, as a whole, above those of any special interests including banks, Wall Street, corporations or even the baby-boomers.
Our elected officials did not fulfill this duty which is required in a democratic republic.
While it’s true that the majority of the truly wealthy ($50M+) are Republican in orientation (My great-aunt’s, “Young man, when you have something to conserve, you too will be a conservative.” comes to mind,) by no means are the Republican rank and file wealthy. One drive through the scattered trailer estates of the Southern Sierras with all those “Palin 12″ billboards in their drives will suggest as much. (Right, Hwy?)
Conversely, although the majority of academics and educated elite are of liberal orientation, (ask yourself why, btw,) by no means is the average Democrat academically accomplished or ideologically nuanced.
Those labels are increasingly irrelevant to all but those who make their living catering to their perpetuation–and at this point, what does “Republican” or “Democrat” actually stand for? The issues are so clouded by special interests and redefinition as to be absurd, and folks like you and I, who may have expansive social agendas and reductionist authority issues get caught somewhere in the vast, undefined middle.
In the end, I can only put my civic support with those who exhibit a reasoned (if not comprehensive or even fiscally attractive,) political agenda–and that leaves out pretty much everyone who has enough populist $upport to run for national office.
Hence these screeds.
One drive through the scattered trailer estates of the Southern Sierras with all those “Palin 12″ billboards in their drives will suggest as much. (Right, Hwy?)
I must confess sweet lass, I’ve set the alarm to be sounded when the Palin/Jeb III signs were to start replacing the Meg 2010/Beg 2011 signs alongside the scenic roadways…(been basking in the 75 degree 8 minute tossed sunlight too long these Autumn dazes…)
Yes, A Hansen, but only the older Boomers. Gen Jones did and got none of that.
Thank you Rio! Today Mr. Buffet admitted that his buisness was saved by the same “redistribution” of wealth!
Yes, Tea partiers always talk about “socialism”, they don’t see the socialism in those super rich who got their welfare money and the food stumps from the govenment “stimulus” that paid by middle class and from the poor…
As if the majority of Americans knew what was going on with MBS’s
because of the lack of transparency with them and the outright fraud
of the ratings . No, the American people are not collectively responsible because they are left with the ruins while certain groups
got away with the money and other protected groups get to keep their standard of living ,and others still get bail outs .It all depends
on if your a winner or a loser in the unjust proposals on who pays
for this last 10 year round of contrived bubbles and bail-outs designed
to obstruct Justice .
We all have to share in the austerity program designed by the power
groups who most likely are giving themselves min cuts . If the middle
class get a tax break ,the rich should get one to ….after all its only
fair . BS .
Rather than think in terms of what would keep more money in America ,which would be Social Security benefits ,they want to give it to the rich who have no intentions of creating jobs in America or investing in America . Or they would rather give it to the Bankers so
they can scam the next great bubble somewhere in the world .
All the different Monopolies are in bed with each other . Our
President just went overseas begging for voluntary balanced trade and they stuck their finger at him .No the working people got betrayed by the market makers and their co-horts in government .
If it’s the Americans people’s fault because they never expected this
level of betrayal and looting of Americans wealth ,than I say that’s twisted logic to keep the money in the Thieves pockets and the monopolies pockets ,or the protected pockets .
The wealth, money and productive assets ARE there. Most came from the sweat of OUR backs. Are you all going to bend over and let them take everything? Look at Wall Street, the banks and the wealth concentration at the top, criminally maintained on OUR dime. ”
thats right I feel as though a great unseen media mind think is making us feel bad about entitlements like social security now that it isn’t generating surpluses anymore. Or pensions. how can our corporations compete saddled with pensions? I’ve had numerous managers tell me how good we have it and in Asia it’s so sweat shop building electronics I should be happy I’m rich
make me feel bad so I accept no raise, crappy long work hours, cut backs in medical plans, etc.
yet meawhile CEO’s and banksters are making more than ever.
I’m not buying it either. but the push is on to sell it I see it all around. have the workers fight themselves over scraps as a diversion to wall street looting and stuffing FNMA with bad loans that at one time generated fees that made investment bankers rich.
raise social security taxes to 500K of earned income before you cut benefits.
I to am not accepting this collective quilt and we all have to pay for it
BS . I have already had a pension cut 30% ,another one in BK proceedings ,my fixed savings has paid nothing ,and my real estate
went down 40 % .The greedy Health Insurance monopoly killed off my
spouse early ,(but I still had to pay them a bunch of money )and I have had to supplement a relative who can’t get a job for the last year and 1/2 . Oh,I forgot I had to pay for someones
operation because a insurance company screwed them ,and I had to pay for a emergency Dental surgery for another hard press person .
Now they want to take my Social Security after they already have taken a great deal of my productive effort in life .
Speak for yourself if you think we all should have quilt ….I don’t .
BS . I have already had a pension cut 30% ,another one in BK proceedings ,my fixed savings has paid nothing ,and my real estate
went down 40 %
I’ve read your posts Housing Wizard for awhile and they have influenced me and made me think of new things as well as they have confirmed many of my own beliefs. You make much sense of micro and macro events regarding the subjects we discuss on this board. You have a very good grasp of the big picture including much of the financial and legal/moral aspects that escape many of us.
Thank you for your valuable input.
Rio ,nice to know that someone might get something out of my rants once in a while . I said it many years ago ,I only make my feeble posts so better writers and better thinker than I can perfect it .
yet meawhile CEO’s and banksters AND CERTAIN CATERPILLAR LIKE MULTI-INTERNATIONAL CORPORATIONS are making more than ever.
(Hwy gives a loud whistle,….): “…make a hole, we have another recruit!”
Say it bro!!!
Plus 1 Billion
Another Piig to the slaughter
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said the Government will accept European Union support if the banking crisis is too big for Ireland to fix on its own.
Speaking on RTÉ radio this morning, Mr Lenihan said it would work with its EU partners to address structural problems in the Irish banking system, but he refused to set a deadline for the end of talks, which are set to begin tomorrow.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/1117/breaking1.html
Strangely of all the Piigs, Italy is no longer mentioned, perhaps they made someone an offer they couldn’t refuse.
Mortgage industry problems broad, Iowa AG says
Mortgage problems go beyond foreclosure documents; overhaul needed, attorney general says.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The problems in the mortgage industry go far beyond the controversy over flawed foreclosure documents and call for an overhaul of the system of administering home loans, the state attorney general leading a nationwide investigation told a Senate panel Tuesday.
As Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller testified at a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee, senators also insisted that focusing solely on the so-called “robo-signing” is a mistake.
The banking industry, meanwhile, was criticized for maintaining that the problem was mainly technical. That view “shows a certain type of arrogance,” Miller said.
“There’s so much at stake,” he told the panel. The entire system of servicing and modifying mortgages, and foreclosing on borrowers must be changed “so that it works productively,” he said.
I thought the Rocket Docket® was pretty damn productive.
I looked up this victim on the property appraiser site, they refuse to help her stay in her 7000 sq. ft. house. She bought in 1999 listed as $100 QUIT CLAIM with property tax of $11,876 this year.
CLARK MONICA
Mailing Address: 14983 DRAFT HORSE LN
WELLINGTON FL 33414
Total Square Footage : 7103
Total Area Under Air : 4478
Long lines at West Palm Beach mortgage help workshop
By Jeff Ostrowski Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 6:33 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2010
WEST PALM BEACH — Behind on her mortgage and frustrated by bank bureaucracy, Monica Clark looked for help at Tuesday’s government-sponsored mortgage modification fair at the Palm Beach County Convention Center.
After waiting in line for nearly three hours, Clark met with a representative from her lender but left unhappy.
“I’m trying everything to save my home, but they’re not working with me,” Clark said.
But Clark left Tuesday’s event unlikely to be among those statistics. Since her divorce, she has struggled to make payments on her Wellington home. On Tuesday, she was denied a loan modification because HAMP is for borrowers with loans of $729,750 or less. Clark said her loan is for $730,000.
“You guys need to stop the damn nitpicking,” Clark said after her fruitless counseling session. “Let us modify our loans so we can move on with our lives.”
Clark attended the event with her brother, and he, too, left with little promise of help.
“I’m trying everything to save my home, but they’re not working with me,” Clark said.
Why? I’d get the hell out of that albatross ASAP!
Oh come on. I’m sure she’s making around $250K per year and can afford the place, if only the bank would be reasonable.
The comments section of these articles are always interesting.
If you dont pay
You dont stay!
Its really black and white yet all we hear about is who is at fault!
There is no issue, its just a simple fact
simple
11:50 PM, 11/16/2010
simple, I don’t pay and I have stayed for 28months and have not even received an initial hearing. I don’t pay and I do stay….. Simple issue here, Housing market is adjusting downward dramatically, not going to jump back up..PERIOD. Either bank or borrower loses…. I choose to let the bank lose. I don’t give them any info I don’t talk to them and I will delay the process as long as I can. Have been successful thus far. You can kiss my a@@, I choose not to be broke and desolate.
diver4life
1:06 AM, 11/17/2010
Diverfor life you are one on of the leeches thats causing the problem. 28 months without paying I bet your not even saving that money for when they do kick you out and they will. You will never get another home loan unless you have cash to buy one outright. The bank didnt hold a gun to your head and make you sign the mortgage papers you are the scum that is causing the mess. PERSONAL RESPOSABILITY TRY IT
Gr
6:24 AM, 11/17/2010
GR, did you see the statement, Kiss my a@@. Personal responsibility? So you are in my situation. You think you can judge? I did not create this situation, I did not cut jobs, I did not increase tax and insurance rates that they are at a point most people can not afford them. Regardless, I will stay and smile when you grumble and b@tch on these blogs. That is all you are going to do anyway.
diver4life
7:21 AM, 11/17/2010
The scary part is the number of posters on this site that share in diver4life’s views. It seems at times the majority here take the side of the deadbeats fighting foreclosure by looking for any immaterial deviation (when viewed at looking solely at the case at hand) in the process that may have occurred as a stall tactic to continue living rent/mortgage free. Perhaps it’s just the most extreme that are vocal.
The scary part is the number of posters on this site that share in diver4life’s views.
I’m sure it is scary. But it is not new.
…they sow the wind and they reap the whirlwind…..
Hosea 8:7
And air conditioned whirlwind can be comforting but expensive
I don’t think anyone here will dispute that there are some FB’s who are trying to score a few months of free housing, etc.
But we need to stop conflating the bad loans and the document mess that they are (temporarily) exploiting.
The need to have legally accurate and correct contracts and documentation should be the concern of anyone who enters into any sort of contract.
The need to have legally accurate and correct contracts and documentation should be the concern of anyone who enters into any sort of contract.
Thwack! [A nail just got hit on the head.]
With a team of people with varying levels of competency working 60+ hours a week on back to back closings expecting 100% perfection throughout the entire chain is not very realistic. Some people have to deal with reality and not theory.
“The scary part is the number of posters on this site that share in diver4life’s views”.
The banks misplaced the risk and (according to you) overworked their employees in order write more cruddy loans for (agreeably) unfit borrowers so as to pay out huge bonuses, buy back stock to further enrich the monied class and you beat on the guy who, in his own small way, is trying to pull one over on them because he knows that it’s his last act before his financial excommunication and further supplication and genuflecting and prostrating himself at the altar of the rich won’t help him?!
You’re going to be flummoxed by what he (and the majority of us do next).
100% perfection is not the problem. The people who get foreclosed on because of a clerical error get a lot of play in the media but they are a trivially small subgroup and will get compensated.
But if the banks have set up a system in which the notes were never legally tranferred from one entity to the next and those notes cannot now be transferred because they are non-performing and the contract specifies only tranferring performing loans? That is a whole other problem and I hope in my heart that this is the majority of what happened. I want the securitizers to have to buy back ALL the non-performing loans. Doing things right matters. Most of the time it only matters when something goes wrong. That is why you do it right - to protect yourself in case things go wrong. Well things went wrong and there is a chance they didn’t protect themselves. There is a price to be paid for that. A huge one.
I got crticized a lot when I was in private practice for insisting that things be done right. Once I found a description of a process for calculating a money amount that was just wrong - it created a recursive algorithm that never created a number. The senior associate was pissed. He claimed it didn’t matter because no one would ever use it. But I insisted and he fixed it.
Another time I found a spectacularly wrong formula for calculating a change in pay out on some bonds if a tax law changed. The corporate associate was terrifed that someone would find out his whole department had been using that set of documents as a model for months. Again, it wasn’t really meant to be used, but just to trigger enough pain to give the issuer a right to call the bonds. What if the issuer hadn’t been able to access the credit market when it was triggered and formula had been wrong?
Another time, I found a client trying to do something obviously illegal and had to raise it to a partner who didn’t believe that those particular rules were very important. It took me days to convince him to deal with it. When he finally called someone at the proper agency, he found out I was right. End of my career at that firm since if I had just let it go, he wouldn’t have known about it and had no obligation to tell the client no.
This happens ALL the time. Lawyers get sloppy and depend on the fact that the sloppy clauses won’t ever be invoked or won’t be noticed by regulators. Well, this time they got caught. And the clients who decided to get way too agressive on cost cutting got caught. Long live the rule of law.
I got crticized a lot when I was in private practice for insisting that things be done right.
Wish you’d been *my* attorney. On more than one occasion.
“I want the securitizers to have to buy back ALL the non-performing loans.”
That would be lovely, polly. I would love to see that too.
Unfortunately, that woul dprobalby just result in a new round of TBTF bailouts, since the losses would crush all of our big-name banks, and the feds would just bail them out……again.
Good luck getting a new round of bank bailouts through Congress next term. They were warned of the appocalypse and it didn’t happen. A few of them probably believe that only the bailouts are responsible for saving the economy, but not all of them. And the new guys don’t believe it at all. And all of them know how unpopular it would be with the citizens of the country, who now know that even with the rescue, the banks didn’t jump up and volunteer to lend money to everyone.
I could be wrong, but I don’t think so.
“Wish you’d been *my* attorney. On more than one occasion.”
I think Polly would just be fun to listen to.
Brava, Polly!
A level playing field and consistent refereeing is the only way to keep opposing teams playing the same game for very long.
Otherwise the yobs in the stands start a riot.
In this part of the country, if the FB’s were keeping the heat on, keeping the pipes from freezing etc they’d be doing the bank a favor.
If I was made to choose sides in the situation, I’d rather have the FB’s stick it to the banks than the other way around. I HATE BLOATED TOO BIG TO FAIL BANKS.
Awww….shucks…
Why can’t she find the miserable $250 to pay down the loan balance to the $729,750 limit? Her story doesn’t add up.
Why can’t she find the miserable $250 to pay down the loan balance to the $729,750 limit? Her story doesn’t add up.
I would guess that the modifications are on the original loan amount, not the current balance due, but I don’t know.
It may be the original loans were made, in direct response to the GSE limits, to avoid qualifying for an “FHA=type” loan.
In any case, she has strip-mined every dime of equity from the property and just wants to live for free, like some many others.
As the prior comments from one of the defaulters suggest, you can “kiss their azz”, cause they are glad they screwed the bank.
“Let us modify our loans so we can move on with our lives.”
What exactly does that mean?
It seems to some, that loan “modification” is more about debt forgiveness. I’ve talked to many people in the past few months about the housing situation. I’ve expressed my disgust of people with million dollar gulf-front condominiums living basically “for free” for the past couple of years, defaulting on their loans. Many people think it’s great.
They screwed over the bank. At lot hope to get a Free House from this mortgage fiasco.
So, I am always interested in what’s really going on in this process. The papers never really say.
In my personal situation, the house that FREDDIE MAC rescinded my contract, I happened to see the neighbor outside yesterday while I was touring the neighborhood. He tells me the prior owner had tried to get them to sell her the house back at FULL LOAN amount, and they would not. I call B.S. Everyone of these useless bastards wants a “do-over”. If they wanted to make the mortgage payments, they would never have defaulted. They want to “re-fi” at the new selling price. If that is allowed to happen, I guess everyone should stop paying their mortgage and just demand a “do-over”. Prices are much, much lower now.
“Let us modify our loans so we can move on with our lives.” Throughout history people that have gone through financial troubles have had to downsize and, if necessary, go through foreclosure and/or bankruptcy. What makes this person so special she should never have to give up living in a 7k+ sqft home for which she paid (either directly or as a result of refi binges) over $730k? God forbid she has to live like us losers in a one or two bedroom apartment. I wonder what point the author had in putting this in the article. Was the intent to make fun of the whiner? I see no other legitimate purpose.
Throughout history people that have gone through financial troubles have had to downsize and, if necessary, go through foreclosure and/or bankruptcy.…. until of course 2008 when we bailed out the failed, richest-of-the-rich, Wall Street crony-capitalist sociopaths.
I’m sure communism will fix that.
I’m sure communism will fix that.
LOL Dude….that is comically pathetic. “Communism”? Are you trying to be taken seriously by people you are trying to convince? Because I don’t think you are.
Have you come to inhabit a bizarre state where one considers protecting American jobs, defending the American way of life and demanding the same rules being applied to everyone “communism”?
Or when you get scared and confused about the debate do you just lash out as would a 10 year old?
that is comically pathetic ??
Yes, it is…..
HAH, sc.
Eddie here has found a new JBS meme to trot out this week.
Perhaps the troll means “totalitarianism,” as one could argue that churches are communistic –or Wall Street bonus divviers, for that matter.
And certainly Soviet-style “communism” was nothing of the sort–as the politburo and Russian oligarchs so aptly demonstrated.
Ignorance and boogymen–another dumbass puppet of the Kochs.
Not Eddie, he is a cheerleader for the Wall Street boys and the scam market. I post on this site when I see communist propaganda and when I feel like posting on other issues. Communism is responsible for well over 100 million killings and countless atrocities worldwide. Perhaps others can read the 99% well reasoned and informative posts on this site and let the disguised endorsement of communism slide, I cannot.
Just use the Joshua Tree Extension to ignore my posts.
Use your own silly homemade app to ignore ours.
Oops… you don’t have the intestinal fortitude to use your own creation.
I post on this site when I see communist propaganda…… Perhaps others can read the 99% well reasoned and informative posts on this site and let the disguised endorsement of communism slide, I cannot.
What a crock. Good fake speech, but no. No, not even close. Some may let your excuses for your irrationality slide. I cannot.
Your are a paid, insincere shill for the criminal powers who have taken over our country. Or you are full if it, or just dumb. Or in the least, you are misled and ignorant.
For you to even imply that pro-American posters are “communistic” in the face what America was, what we stand for, what America has become and what communism is, leads me to believe you are one of the possibilities listed above.
If you can’t handle truths, just use the Joshua Tree Extension to ignore our posts of truth.
Or at least learn how to utilize logic, examples and facts to at least kinda support your bogus talking points. (Just to keep us on our toes, OK?)
7000 sq. ft. house
I don’t think I could afford a 7000 sq. ft. house if it was given to me free.
Heating it, cooling it, pay taxes on it, cleaning it, maintenance, taxes, cutting the shrubs, cleaning the pool, etc.
you just do like she did. take out multiple re-fi to pay for all your year-to-year expenses, until you can’t take out anymore.
You said “taxes” twice.
- Hedley Lamar
At $11,876 a year in taxes for this house - I thought it deserved to be mentioned twice…
2010-11-17 07:23:31
You said “taxes” twice.
- Hedley Lamar
“I like taxes”
I agree. Carrying costs alone must average over $2,000 a year.
Make that $2000 a month. I pay $1000 a month in rent including utilities. Sounds crazy.
/mo. Why does she need such a big house?
Obviously she needs her space!
Maybe it has a bowling alley, or a basketball court in it.
Oversized houses with one or two inhabitants are spooky IMO. I’d be happy with 600 sf/per person, as long as there was adequate storage.
A friend lived in a 3,700 square-foot house with her husband and mother. This family lived in Oro Valley and that’s a very ritzy suburb of Tucson.
Friend complained bitterly about the utility bills. And the taxes. Oh, could she go on and on about the taxes.
Still my beating heart.
I agree with 2bannana about something!
Total Square Footage : 7103
Total Area Under Air : 4478
2700 sqft… garage???
In Florida, the square footage is all improved square footage, including the caged area for the pool, spa and patio, and the garage.
In Florida, the property appraiser’s office lists
-Living/Business Area
-Total Area under roof
Thanks cracker, like lavi, I had the same question. But hey, I grew up in Phoenix, I think lavi is in Las Vegas, so the natural question is: isn’t every thing “under air?”
Hey, thanks guys.
I was under the impression that square footage - at least as I understood it in AZ, the last place I had a mortgage - only included the space that was heated/cooled.
I took “under air” to mean “under air-conditioning“
Looking at the situation in light of the fact that the values in
real estate during 2002-2007 where the result of fraud and
Ponzi-schemes ,both parties to the contract are attempting to
gain some and pass the loss to a third party known as the
collective taxpayers .If the parties to the contract can’t pass it to the collective taxpayer than the parties to the contract will
try to pass the pain to each other in a further gaming of the come out ahead of the game mindset . Anything that is conceived in fraud ends up producing more fraud .
Lets face it, Lenders/Middlemen aren’t suppose to create fake
wealth creation Ponzi-schemes by faulty lending and faulty
risk ratings on securities to even get the funds to begin with .
The fact that the pawns (the borrowers ) know they were conned into the promises of the industry or they fell for the get rich quick scheme of real estate always goes up makes them
justify any” get even” thing they do.
It’s enough to void out these contract by foreclosure ,but additional gaming to seek undue profits such as getting a property for free or justifying destroying a property before you leave is being malicious ,not that the Market Makers weren’t the most malicious with their contrived markets to begin with .I mean all mortgage holders of the USA could file a class action lawsuit for a contrived Ponzi-scheme against these fake wealth creators ,but they would go BK quickly and only a small fraction of the heist would go back to the class action parties .
There are innocent parties in this whole mess ,but often times
they don’t get any Justice at all .Now we have a situation where
some borrowers are taking Justice into their own hands by gaming the system in any manner possible . I don’t know that two
evils make a right . But anyway you look at it the third party who is suppose to be the great bag-holder isn’t going to want their
taxes raised or their benefits cut to pay for the two parties to
the contract that want what they can game .So far the bail outs
have benefited the lenders more than the borrowers .
Lawmakers seek to change Federal Reserve’s mission
The proposal by Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.) and Rep. Mike Pence (Ind.) would end the three-decade-old “dual mandate” of the Fed, its legal charge from Congress to simultaneously aim for maximum employment and price stability.
They argued that the law creates muddled policy, as Fed officials have to juggle two different goals. They said that the Fed is better suited to fighting inflation and that other parts of the government and the private sector should handle job creation.
“Providing our central bank with a clear and explicit focus on keeping inflation low will serve America better than the broader mandate approach we have today,” Corker said in a statement.
How ’bout we just sh!tcan the FED.
What then?
There is this really neat concept called a “free market” which relies on the ancient laws of supply and demand. Megabanks would die a quick (and merciful for society) death and we might one day see real green shoots. Its just a dream, I know.
What then?
Then, we repeal the National Bank Act of 1863.
I’m all about ENDING the FED. It’s a criminal enterprise.
However, we need to replace it with something and just giving the responsibility back to the Treasury, and Congress is a scary proposition. Until we can disband this pack of thieves, we need to have some control over what they are doing.
A good start would be to DEMAND they control “inflation”. The housing “bubble” could not have happened without cheap money and easy credit. The FED promoted this. We are all paying for it.
Now, they say we don’t have inflation, because they measure cost of goods in ways they and the government agents want. It is not a realistic measure of cost of goods, excluding food and fuel, and adjusting housing based on rents. It’s a fraud.
And yet, they want to INCREASE inflation, to destroy our savings and force spending in a time when everyone is overly indebted.
Morons run the Fed. We need to put a rope around them.
They are not Morons. Our blood is their essential sustenance.
Germany, the Euro, unification and Mitterrand
http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/351531-you-get-unification-we-get-euro
Germany never wanted the Euro but it was the price they had to pay for unification.
They should’ve just annexed the Sudetenland again. There would have been less turmoil.
My point is that Germany was force fed the EURO. They never wanted it. They are also by far the biggest net paying member of the EU and there’s plenty of public outrage about the never ending bailouts for failing Banks and countries. Soon you will be able to run an election simply on exiting the Eurozone and stopping the bleeding. The same is already happening in Austria, Finland and Slovakia. The Plebs are tired of bailing out everything and everybody. Go Iceland! Even if painful in the short run, Iceland was the only country that handled the crisis correctly. All others will sooner or later arrive at the same result after much agony and trillions in bailouts. Who will bailout California, Illinois, NY, etc.? What’s up with BoA, looks like they could use another $100 billion.
What’s up with BoA, looks like they could use another $100 billion.
BofA is dancing ever closer to receivership.
Did someone say dancing with the stars?
“Who will bailout California, Illinois, NY, etc.? ”
And let us not forget that these won’t be one time bailouts either. The underfunded pensions, the handsome gov’t salaries and the hordes receiving welfare will still be there the following year, and so on.
Who will bailout California ??
Nobody I hope….
Mike in Miami –
Didn’t Housing Wizard disagree with you on this exact same post yesterday? Do you have a rebuttal to his counter-assertions? It’s an interesting side debate.
“This is not peace. It is an armistice for twenty years.”
- Marshal Ferdinand Foch
Europe Fears That Debt Crisis Is Ready to Spread
By LANDON THOMAS Jr. and JAMES KANTER
Published: November 15, 2010
LONDON — European officials, increasingly concerned that the Continent’s debt crisis will spread, are warning that any new rescue plans may need to cover Portugal as well as Ireland to contain the problem they tried to resolve six months ago.
While some important details are different, the current situation feels eerily similar to what happened months ago in Greece, where the cost of borrowing rose precipitously.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/16/business/global/16euro.html -
The German manufacturing exporters like a lower valued Euro. I see two different ways to achieve this:
1. Have the Central Bank sell Euros and buy US Dollars. You might get a 5% reduction in the Euro this way but it would cost say $200 billion.
2. Trot out poor little Greece, say how their plight will damage the Euro. The Euro drops 5%. Toss Greece a little bone, $50 billion to tide them over until next time. Wash, rinse and repeat as necessary.
Fed May Hesitate on More Easing After Critics Question Mandate
The Federal Reserve is facing the fiercest political assault on its powers in three decades as it struggles to help revive the U.S. economy.
“The Federal Reserve is facing the fiercest political assault on its powers in three decades as it struggles to help revive the U.S. economy.”
The FED is helping the US economy? Since when did that happen?
He meant helping US megabanks, silly.
“The FED is helping the US economy? Since when did that happen”?
Anyone paying attention knows they haven’t “helped” a damn thing.
Well let me re-state that, they have ‘helped’ drive us into the ditch.
The Fed : : America v Vampire Squid : : US
“Fed May Hesitate On More Easing After Critics Question Mandate.”
This is the best headline I’ve seen in a month. There MAY BE limits to this craziness after all.
“There MAY BE limits to this craziness after all”.
I sure as hell hope so, but will only believe it when I see it.
Will you guys finally admit now that who wins elections does matter at least a little bit? This is the influence of the tea party, despite the fact that a few of their very high profile candidates didn’t get elected. Just a few successes causes congress critters that otherwise wouldn’t have rocked this boat to talk very differently.
Now, that may or may not actually result in a legal change, but it completely changes the assumptions underlying the discussions.
Will you guys finally admit now that who wins elections does matter at least a little bit?
I’ve always thought it mattered:
McConnell Caves on Earmark Ban Under Pressure From Tea Party
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/McConnell-Caves-on-Earmark-Ban-Under-Pressure-From-Tea-Party-5823/
Mitch McConnell has caved to pressure from Tea Partiers and signed on to the activists’ moratorium on earmarks. The move is an “abrupt reversal,” The Washington Post’s Shailagh Murray reports, given that only last week, McConnell was staunchly defending the practice because it doesn’t increase the federal budget deficit all that much.
was staunchly defending the practice because it doesn’t increase the federal budget deficit all that much.
That line made me laugh.
That’s the only reason he was staunchly defending the practice??
I believe his standard line was that a number of good things were done with earmarks.
Earmarks are mostly a re-election benefit for incumbents. Like being able to mail newsletters to their constituents for free (I think it is free). They could do it any time, but you will always get one a few weeks before an election.
Franking is not an earmark.
Former presidents have franking privileges(not the current president mind you and interestingly the current VP does also).
I didn’t say franking was an earmark. What I said is that both are used by incumbents to get re-elected. They bring back goodies to special interest groups in their districts that would otherwise never get specific funding and they get to send out letters touting their accomplishments right before elections (and at other times).
Mind you, the earmark projects might get funding anyway, but the special interest groups would have to compete for tha funding in a fair process in which other groups would also ask for funding for their pet projects. Earmarking just means that they bump up the begging to a higher level.
The “tea party” does not have as much influence as they think they do…They won some battles but lost every major war; AK,CO,NV,DEL….Wars I might add that could have easily been won…
Angelo`s buddy is gonna straighten this out?
Dodd: Robo-signing the tip of the iceberg
By Ronald D. Orol, MarketWatch
Nov. 16, 2010, 6:27 p.m. EST
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The head of the Senate Banking Committee said Tuesday the foreclosure “robo-signing” crisis is the tip of the iceberg of mortgage documentation problems as he called for federal regulators to step up their efforts.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dodd-robo-signing-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-2010-11-16 - -
Forget Ireland, there’s plenty of insolvencies right under our noses:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-pensions-deals-20101116,0,4059864.story
Public pensions on the brink of meltdown in Chitown. All the typical causes - what a mess! Our mayor’s decision to retire was no doubt influenced by this reality.
Bankruptcy Is a Positive Step
Posted on November 15, 2010
by Lyle LaRosh
I’m a third generation San Diegan, and a donor to voiceofsandiego.org. I know Mike Aguirre and have had many conversations with him about this issue. There seems to be such a negative image projected by the Mayor and lack of information by the City Council that detracts from the positive benefits of reorganization in bankruptcy. Obviously the City Council members put in office by public service unions don’t want this as it will diminish their pensions.
…
Why not extend unemployment checks indefinitely? It would only be fair, I mean 99 weeks is not nearly long enough.
Unemployment insurance sent $319 billion to the jobless ~ CNN
Unemployed Americans have collected $319 billion in jobless benefits over the past three years due to the federal government’s unprecedented response to the Great Recession, according to a CNNMoney analysis of federal records.
The cost of such benefits will be central to the heated debate in Congress in coming weeks over whether to extend this safety net for the fifth time this year. Lawmakers must act by Nov. 30 or two million people will start losing extended benefits next month.
The federal government has already footed $109 billion of the bill, and lawmakers are super-sensitive to adding further to the deficit. But advocates are turning up the pressure to extend the deadline to file for federal benefits.
Regardless of what Congress does, employers big and small will be paying the tab for years to come.
God forbid any of these unemployed workers take any jobs from illegal workers. Oh, that’s right those jobs are beneath them. Fat realtard can pick fruit if she has to.
Do realtors get unemployment? I thought their jobs were generally structured as independent contractors or independent small businesses.
I’m just saying there is are plenty of lard-assed lazy people out there who are unwilling to take ANY job and they would be really good at picking fruit if the choice was to starve. Who wants to disagree?
Who wants to disagree ??
I would not…I have witnessed first hand several gentleman who are more than capable of finding a job just sitting back and collecting the check….
Correct. Only those with a paycheck pay into unemployment. Independent contractors are SOL. I went to an open house on Sunday and saw a neighbor who is a RE agent. She is a very fit person, but she has bad back problems and is in constant pain. And she still does open houses every weekend. Her mortgage is only $1200/month, but she isn’t making enough in real estate to get by. She’s looking for clerical jobs but not having much luck.
Tell me about it, REhobbyist!
I had a scare yesterday evening. Was at a business networking event with very tasty Japanese-style food. And quite the array of quality libations. (Me? I chose the favorite beer of bicyclists, Fat Tire.)
Any-hoo, I don’t know if it was the food or the beer, but I started having vision problems while I was talking to someone. I felt sweaty and dizzy too. So, I excused myself and went to a corner to sit down.
I felt better, but not completely right, within a few minutes. I had the presence of mind to go over to the food table and ask the server if there was any MSG used in preparation. I’ve had problems with MSG before.
She insisted that there wasn’t.
Well, I went and sat down in another corner. Read a magazine until I felt well enough to ride home.
And this is very unlike me, but I cut my usual route short because of this whole incident. I really felt the need to get home and rest.
Are you OK today, Slim? Maybe it was the alcohol.
Are you OK today, Slim? Maybe it was the alcohol.
I’ve never had a problem with Fat Tire before. And what really worried me was the sudden onset. Usually, alcohol doesn’t just hit me like a ton of bricks.
I can’t help thinking that there may have been something in the food that didn’t agree with me.
By way of a health update: On this lovely, sunny morning, I’m fine. Resting was just what I needed to do.
I chose the favorite beer of bicyclists, Fat Tire
If you’re ever in Ft. Collins they offer tours at the New Belgium brewery, with free samples at the end.
Did you eat the same stuff as Bill Nye the Science Guy?
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/11/bill-nye-the-science-guy-usc.html
“very tasty Japanese-style food”…vs…”Fat Tire”
Sherlock: “Watson!, the games afoot!
Maybe it was the house. Maybe a natural gas leak. Maybe out gassing from the carpet or something like that. I always get out of the building if I feel that way often I feel better.
I hope all is well now.
“Any-hoo, I don’t know if it was the food or the beer, but I started having vision problems while I was talking to someone. I felt sweaty and dizzy too. So, I excused myself and went to a corner to sit down.”
Have you been under stress lately? It could be anxiety. When my sister died in July, the stress caused these sorts of feelings in me. It presents itself in such a manner that it seems like it could be something much worse. Not that anxiety isn’t the devil incarnate..
Az Slim
MSG could have been the culprit. Just because they say No MSG, that doesn’t mean anything. It could be in an ingredient they used as an ingredient.
I have a really bad time with MSG, too. I once had a headache from h*ll and dizziness come on that lasted a week. That is really nasty stuff. I hope you’re doing better.
MSG could have been the culprit. Just because they say No MSG, that doesn’t mean anything. It could be in an ingredient they used as an ingredient.
Okay, now I get it. I think I’ve figured out the cause.
There was a brown sauce, most likely soy sauce, that they were offering to us. And they were really offering it if you took sushi. And I like sushi.
Shortly after I had my second plate of food, which was heavy on the sushi, ka-wham-o. I turned into a dizzy, vision-limited foggy brain.
Next time, I’ll just say no to that sauce.
Next time, I’ll just say no to that sauce.
That’s what I say when friends offer me the $2 a bottle Brazilian Rum drinks.
Glad you’re feeling better…
AZ Slim
Oh yeah, Soy has a chitload of MSG, and Gluten. Glad to hear you figured it out. I hope you have/had a full recovery.
Do realtors get unemployment ??
No…They are independent contractors…
I wonder whether there could be some sort of middle ground, with people beyond 99 weeks getting a reduced benefit?
Really, 99 weeks SHOULD be enough time to reduce your expenditures significantly, and go through bankruptcy if that is required. I hate to sound too “tough love-y” but for many, a good paying job of the kind that they’ve lost is not in their forseeable future. Painful and unpleasent as it is, they have to go through an agonizing reappraisal to separate their NEEDS from their WANTS and adjust their spending to be closer to the income from the type of job that IS available.
The cost of such benefits will be central to the heated debate in the new “TrueAnger™” PeeParty tea toadlers-Congress in coming weeks over whether to extend this safety net for the fifth time this year. Lawmakers must act by Nov. 30 or two million “TrueAnger™” non-wealthy people who also might vote in 2012,…will start losing extended benefits next month.
“TrueAnger™”: “I don’t have my Cheney-Shrub produced job anymore!” … meets…“TrueAnger™” PeeParty tea toadlers: “As God is our witness, we make a smaller, more Military-Lite, less Farm-Subsidy type of Evangelical “TruePurity™” American Gov’t, we promise!”
Yes ,let extend unemployment ,but lets take the money out of the account of Goldmans until they paid the 20 billion they stole from the
AIG pay-off fraud . We will just tell Goldmans they need to do their
part ……you know like they want the poor people to do their part .
Earlier this week, I was talking with a couple of friends. Seems that their unemployed daughter has moved home from Vegas. She’s been hanging out in her pajamas all day, and this has Mom concerned.
Mom said she was going to take her out on a job-hunt this week.
IMHO, more tough love is needed. Case in point: When I was a young, unemployed Slim in Pittsburgh, I moved into an apartment that was shared by two other young women and an older lady I knew from church.
The young gals decided that my moaning and groaning about my job hunt was unacceptable. So, I was asked to give a daily report on the doorstep, and if they deemed it acceptable, I could come inside.
Their strategy worked like a charm. I found a job within days.
Right on, Slim. I’m off to go pick fruit - well, sell mullet, same thing…
My 22-year-old son with a new degree in graphic design in Sept. has been pounding the keyboard and pavement for weeks looking for a better job than his old part-time college job. He’s interviewing for Christmas retail and two days ago was hired on a trial basis by a company that decorates company trucks and vans. So far he handed in a design yesterday and they gave him another assignment yesterday that he worked on last night. I’m a little worried that they might just be using him, but I’m keeping my mouth shut. At worst he’s producing some work for his portfolio and can get a recommendation from them if they decide not to hire him permanently.
” has been pounding the keyboard and pavement for weeks looking for a better job than his old part-time college job”
He and zillions of other college grads. I know more than a few who are going back for a Master’s degree to “wait out the storm”, but I don’t think it will do them any good. All they’re going to get out of it is more student loan debt.
going back for a Master’s degree to “wait out the storm” but I don’t think it will do them any good.
I’m not certain. Things might be bad but….
I think if you are young, good looking, know the right people and are a go-getter, a Master’s degree CAN make the difference between getting a WalMart cashier’s job or having to work at McDonalds.
“a Master’s degree CAN make the difference between getting a WalMart cashier’s job or having to work at McDonalds.”
LOL! I can already see it. Job opening: WalMart Greeter. Minimum education a Masters Degree. PhD preferred.
Or
Good morning Dr Jones. What do you recommend?
Dr. Jones (PhD not MD): We just got a fresh shipment of honeydew melons and the price can’t be beat!
I think currently you really do have a high % of people that actually can’t get re-employment . The evidence of this is when you read
about 1000 people showing up for one job posted .Further a
person who made 50k before and have all their bills set up for that
income and they can only get a 40k job is going to sink even if they get a job .I have heard of people making 100k before now only able to get 25K a year jobs . Many people have to survive on having 3 part time jobs .Forget about people over 55 years old ,when they
lose their job they even have more hurdles to overcome to ever
become employed again . The jobs just aren’t there and Industry and the Government will continue to cut more jobs .
And what do the price-fixing monopolies do under these recession
conditions …..they raise the Health care costs or offer shitty policies at the same costs good policies use to go for .
The industrial Complex and Wall Street operate outside the Main
Street Economy in the “World is their Oyster ” type mine set .It’s all about where the next bubble or Ponzi scheme is for the Masters of
money changing and investment .
Now the business channel is taking polls on what Main street would
do ,like” Would you invest in GMAC “,type questions . Don’t tell
them shit ,don’t tell them anything about what you will do .
“I have heard of people making 100k before now only able to get 25K a year jobs ”
Amen. That’s pretty much my story. But I took the advice of a wise professor. He always said “get while the getting is good”. So I try to live modestly, and saved “while the getting was good”. It has served me well.
Cassandra …how would you like to be in the spot that you saved
but they want to take it ……you know, to pay to keep the rich
in their standard of living .
“Every morning about this time
she get me out of my bed
a-crying get a job.
After breakfast, everyday,
she throws the want ads right my way
And never fails to say,
Get a job Sha na na na, sha na na na na…”
“And when I get the paper
I read it through and through
And my girl never fails to say
If there is any work for me…”
Some things just don’t change.
Yes, we need to extend UI indefinately.
It’s funny how we cover up the need for large numbers of soup kitchens with EBT cards.
Move along. Nothing to see here. No, we’re not in another great depression.
Maybe they should just start hiring at the DMV and cut down on the wait times. Or build a few bridges to somewhere. Or repair a bunch of bridges that already exist.
Seriously, why spend money on unemployment and not on jobs. Even crummy jobs are better than unemployment.
About damn time…
Home Ownership Gets Tougher as Lenders Restrict FHA Mortgages
The U.S. home-ownership rate remained at a 10-year low in the quarter ended Sept. 30, in part because of rising foreclosures, the U.S. Census Bureau reported. Photographer: Jim R. Bounds/Bloomberg
Home ownership may be falling out of reach for more Americans as lenders toughen their standards for Federal Housing Administration-insured loans beyond what the agency itself requires.
Mortgage lenders including Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp., the two largest, have raised the minimum credit score on FHA-insured loans that they will buy to 640 from 620. About 6.3 million people fall within that range, according to FICO, which created the formula for the ratings.
The higher hurdles for FHA loans, used in about a fifth of U.S. home purchases, add to challenges for a housing market already struggling with record-low sales and surging foreclosures. While lax lending fueled the bust that led the U.S. into recession, the new requirements will stifle the real estate recovery needed to revive the economy, said Ron Phipps, president of the National Association of Realtors.
“We’ve gone from silly to stupid,” Phipps, principal partner of Phipps Realty Inc., said in a telephone interview from his home in Warwick, Rhode Island. “People who should be getting credit can’t get it. To have a healthy real estate market, you need activity. You need transactions.”
Going from 620 to 640 is not much, but it is a start in the right direction.
“Going from 620 to 640 is not much, but it is a start in the right direction.”
Now go from 3 1/2 % down to 7% and we may have something.
Heck, 7% down is still practically no downpayment at all when they roll in closing costs. Although the main reason for downpayments is to lessen the lender’s losses in the event of a foreclosure, I think we’ve forgotten the OTHER effect. They provide good evidence of a borrowers ability to live below their means and SAVE money.
It was a particularly good indication of that when renting was more expensive than owning and you had to prove that you had saved the downpayment yourself out of income, not received it as a gift.
Instead, they are actually going down from 3.5% to 0%.
Many many listings of REO that I see on Redfin say this:
“FannieMae owned [...] Special! Close by December 31, 2010 and receive up to 3.5% in closing costs assistance!”
“to have a healthy real estate market, you need activity. You need transactions.”
Don’t you need money? - you stupid realtard pos.
“We’ve gone from silly to stupid,” Phipps, principal partner of Phipps Realty Inc., said in a telephone interview from his home in Warwick, Rhode Island. “People who should be getting credit can’t get it.”
No, the real problem is that lenders keep trying to give credit to those that can’t afford it. The underlying problem to this whole mess has not yet been eliminated.
“We’ve gone from silly to stupid,” Phipps, principal partner of Phipps Realty Inc., said in a telephone interview from his home in Warwick, Rhode Island. “People who should be getting credit can’t get it. To have a healthy real estate market, you need activity. You need transactions.”
I love these realtor tantrums. Sure, let’s sell a bunch of houses to people who manifestly can’t afford them. Irresponsible borrowers who have been living beyond their means will be protected from their own stupidty. The industry of dissemblers known as the NAR will have to have to get used to dealing with more prudent buyers.
Warren Buffett is a liar. He is a personal representation of what is wrong with the attitude of the World today as Rio was saying.
I think we should take 20% from his wealth ….you know to solve the National debt problem ……oh,they would rather take 20% or all of it
from the peasants until they eat cat food .
what about bill gates, goeorge soros, rupert murdoch, and that kid that invented the facebook?
just curious…if i’m gonna be on the committee that oversses “the final solution” for superich piggies. i want to know what the rules are.
The ” final solution” is to take back the money stolen from the Majority
The “final solution ” is to take back the jobs that were stolen from the
Majority .
The “final solution ” is to take back the ill-gotten gains from the Ponzi schemes and money games .
The “final solution” is taking back control of the government ,but not in terms of the two controlling parties ,but in terms of a new world of
common sense ,void of bribes .
The “final solution ” will require the end of price-fixing monopolies .
The “final solution ” will require a Wall Street that actually allocates
money based on true long tern investments needed ,rather than
playing bubbles that are created by the corrupt Middle-men to begin with .
The ‘final solution ” is the realization that the New World Order without borders only benefits the middle men and exploits the
low wage powerless World-wide .
While the money changers and market makers blame big government
for the ills of society they try to take the heat off the robbery from the Fat Cats who are in bed with the government .
The “final solution” is putting a end to the corruption/fraud cycle
before its to late .
Please note that “final solution” is really really unfortunate rhetorically. Lets all remember our history folks.
Sorry …..might of been a bad choice to use those words . How about the “Just Solution ” as a replacement .
Just, good, appropriate, proper, desired, etc. all work.
it wasn’t your choice of words housing wizard they were mine.
Maybe michael really did intend for there to be an Endlosung for the banksters.
I agree Wizard, we need to attack the corruption and fraud. Isn’t one of moral roles of government to enforce contract? to enforce law?
I’m willing to play the game, but only where the rules are known, and enforced. I’ve probably said this before, but that is why I like Las Vegas. The odds favor the house, and I know that. But it’s a straight game, strictly regulated. While unlikely, I could still win.
Can we say that much about the stock market? Can we say that much about most government?
What’s the point of playing if you can’t win?
Dang it, was is it today? Phase of the moon? Seems like I and every one else needs to publish a manifesto. I’m waiting for the torches and sharp sticks to come out so we can storm the castle. But I digress…
Cassandra
Exactly …What’s the point of playing when you can’t win and
the games are rigged and stacked against you . Moral hazard
is alive and kicking .
I think somebody on the news said there were sun flares going
on right now .
Dublin says aid package might be needed
By John Murray Brown and Tony Barber
Published: November 17 2010 12:21 | Last updated: November 17 2010 12:21
* ECONOMY
* NOVEMBER 16, 2010
Stung by Criticism, Fed Officials Reply
By JON HILSENRATH
Federal Reserve officials, taken aback by sharp criticism of their decision to print money and buy $600 billion in Treasury bonds, are counterpunching to defend themselves and, in some cases, to reinforce their commitment to the policy.
Charles Evans, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and a strong supporter of the Fed’s easing policy, noted in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that the weak economy and low inflation warranted the Fed’s action and that more such purchases might be needed in months ahead if the economic outlook doesn’t turn. “I would continue to want to apply accommodative monetary policy until I had some confidence that that situation was changing,” Mr. Evans said, noting that $600 billion is a “good place to start” the easing program.
…
China announces food subsidies for poor after price spike threatens to spark tensions.
BEIJING (AP) — China’s government announced food subsidies for poor families Wednesday as it tries to cool a double-digit surge in prices that communist leaders worry might stir unrest.
The Cabinet promised to ease shortages of vegetables and grain that helped push up food prices by more than 10 percent in October. It promised more supplies of diesel to end fuel shortages that have disrupted trucking and industry.
The Cabinet said it was not ordering direct price controls but said they could be imposed if necessary. The statement gave no details of the subsidies or how the government would try to increase food supplies.
As posted yesterday they have ramped up purchase of US treasuries to keep their currency low vs the dollar. This of course cuases food inflation. This is harder on China which does not produce enough food to feed all of it’s citizens. Thus they have to subsidize food to prevent riots.
Their plan is to continue gutting US manufacturing and technology by keeping their currency lower than ours. The FED will make this painful for them by continueing to print money. Who blinks first is the question. Given we have elections and there is anti FED sentiment in the air I suspect we will blink first. Then we will have to resort to trade restrictions.
“The statement gave no details of the subsidies or how the government would try to increase food supplies.”
How may trillions in foreign reserves is China sitting on?
China’s government announced food subsidies for poor families Wednesday as it tries to cool a double-digit surge in prices that communist leaders worry might stir unrest.
The Cabinet promised to ease shortages of vegetables and grain that helped push up food prices by more than 10 percent in October. It promised more supplies of diesel to end fuel shortages that have disrupted trucking and industry.
Were is their political equivalent of “TrueAnger™” PeeParty tea toadlers yelling, screaming, hollering: “Small Gov’t! Small Gov’t! Small Gov’t! Small Gov’t! Small Gov’t! Small Gov’t! Small Gov’t! Small Gov’t!
?
“housing issues to persist for the next few months.” ?
Home Prices Will Keep Falling: LendingTree Economist
By: JeeYeon Park
CNBC News Associate
Published: Tuesday, 16 Nov 2010 | 1:46 PM ET
Homebuilder sentiment climbed for the second month in November, according to the NAHB survey released Tuesday, although levels remained at historically low levels. Where does the sector go from here? Daniel Oppenheim, homebuilder analyst at Credit Suisse, and Cameron Findlay, chief economist at LendingTree.com, shared their insights.
“It’s still a very difficult environment—we’ve seen a couple of indicators suggesting that home prices are continuing to decline,” Findlay told CNBC.
“For example, the CoreLogic indicators suggest we saw a 1.9 percent decline in September; the Case-Shiller [home price index] that should come out on Nov. 30 will probably also indicate a decline, so we’re still seeing some challenges there.”
Meanwhile, Oppenheim said he expects housing issues to persist for the next few months.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/40215112 -
Without the September revision, the decline in October housing starts would have been (519,000/600,000-1)*100 = 13.5% — much bigger than expected, I’m sure.
Also, aren’t permits an indication of future home building? How that equates to “more accurate” depends on what the MW writers are smoking, I guess…
market pulse
Nov. 17, 2010, 8:30 a.m. EST
U.S. housing starts fall 11.7% in October
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Construction of new U.S. homes sank 11.7% to an annualized rate of 519,000 in October, the lowest level in 18 months, but permits rose slightly, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. The last time starts were that low was in April 2009. In addition, housing starts in September were revised down to 588,000 from an original reading of 600,000. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected housing starts in October to drop to an annual rate of 600,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis. Permits for new construction, viewed as a more accurate gauge of home building, rose 0.5% in October to an annualized rate of 547,000. Permits were also revised slightly higher in the prior month.
Ok – What do people think.
I have a friend (married –two kids) who used to be very conservative with his money. Saved. Paid off debts. Wanted to pay off the house. Etc.
He sold his house (with lots of equity) and bought a similar house.
He pulled out most of his equity. He is investing it with an insurance company with insurance coverage.
He claims he is guaranteed 0-10% gains every year. Tax free. Risk free. And his principle is guaranteed. He said he did his homework.
Fees are steep the first 5 years (about 3-4%) then stop.
And now he is talking about pulling the rest of equity out and investing in gold.
I asked him:
1. Who guarantees his investment?
2. What if the insurance company goes out of business?
3. You think you might have missed the boat on gold?
4. Anything above what a US Treasury pays has risk - there is risk in what you are doing.
5. What happened to paying off your house asap?
He seems to have gone from one end to the other. Maybe all this free money sloshing around just got him.
His family now seems to be living above their means (new car, cruise, new big diamond ring for the wife, etc.) - it is like the black plague of equity spending…
“What do people think?”
I think he has lost his mind.
“He seems to have gone from one end to the other.”
His timing could not have been worse.
We are now in a CONTRACTING ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT. All the things he used to be doing - “used to be very conservative with his money” - is what he should be doing now.
I have NO idea whether his insurance investment is a good one. There are plenty of people who have gotten into an investment at the right time and made good money. But a functioning market ABHORES the very idea of high, risk-free returns. You can get lucky for a while, but in the end investments sold as giving high, risk free returns usually turn out to be either riskier than they looked at first, or everybody jumps in and the high returns disappear.
Note from FED:
Saving = Bad, Spending = good.
Your friend is helping to ’stimulate’ the economy. Sounds like the plan is working. Your savings are losing value. Your house is loosing value.
What’s your only way out??? Spend. Spend. Spend.
And now he is talking about pulling the rest of equity out and investing in gold.
So, when I was a youngin’ hangin’ out shooting pool in a country Montana bar with my Pa one day, a fight suddenly breaks out between these two drunk fellas, one guy gets punched to the ground, the other guy is standing over him, ready to slam another punch on ‘em, (eyes lean over to see who’s that on the ground?), when suddenly my Pa grabs me by the back of my shirt collar and jerks me aside:
“Son, don’t get too close to another man’s fight”
(Thanks Pa!)
3-4% yearly upfront fees for the first 5 years with a 0% guaranteed rate of return? How do you get out if you need the money? What if the insurer is downgraded (Ambac went from AAA to junk in a few months)? How is this tax exempt?
As for gold, does he not realize it has had a tremendous runup in price, or does he just believe that the last 4 years of past performance is a guarantee of future performance?
Sounds like he needs he may be having mental health issues.
Check for grow lights in his basement.
“Ok – What do people think.”
I think he’s finally woken up and started getting his money working for him. Why let that equity rot in a house? In other words, a slick saleman got to him.
Poor poor bastard.
Major mid-life crisis. Only thing worse than this would be if he had an affair. I think.
He should have just bought a cool car and called it a day.
To me, it sounds to good to be true. But that’s just grumpy ole me.
Sounds to me like he is planning for bankruptcy.
Debt collectors might have a hard time getting at an insurance policy and a pile of gold hidden in a safe.
It sounds like an index annuity. They’re quite good with the returns but they’re only as trustworthy as the insurance company who sells them.
All the states I know of (Texas &New Jersey) insure the insurance policy up to a dollar amount.
Good catch - found a video on it.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/24108012#24108012
He claims he is guaranteed 0-10% gains every year. Tax free. Risk free. And his principle is guaranteed. He said he did his homework.”
bet it doesn’t work out like he thinks it will he’ll pay the steep fees at first and then when he’s ready to get the risk free cash …. somthing will change
U.S. Housing Excess Seen Lasting Four More Years: Chart of the Day
By David Wilson - Nov 15, 2010 10:47 AM ET
So many U.S. homes are unoccupied these days that demand may not catch up with the supply until 2014, according to Josh Levin, an analyst at Citigroup Inc.
About 2.1 million homes now available aren’t needed, Levin wrote in a report yesterday. The estimate is based on the overall rate, along with separate figures for houses and apartments.
“It will take three to four years to work off the excess supply and reach equilibrium,” he wrote. This means housing starts are unlikely to follow “a V-shaped recovery pattern” after plunging in the past few years, the report said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-15/housing-excess-may-last-another-four-years-citigroup-says-chart-of-day.html - 51k -
Best time to buy: Some time after 2014 (if ever)?
Secretary of Transportation LaHood: We’re looking into technology to disable cell phones in vehicles
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said using a cell phone while driving is so dangerous that devices may soon be installed in cars to forcibly stop drivers — and potentially anyone else in the vehicle — from using them.
“There’s a lot of technology out there now that can disable phones and we’re looking at that,” said LaHood on MSNBC. LaHood said the cellphone scramblers were one way, and also stressed the importance of “personal responsibility.”
The hosts of Morning Joe pushed the secretary about the possibility of requiring scrambling technology installed in vehicles.
“I think it will be done,” said LaHood. “I think the technology is there and I think you’re going to see the technology become adaptable in automobiles to disable these cell phones. We need to do a lot more if were going to save lives.”
I notice they tend to lose track of their turn at 4-way stops.
This technology already exists. Most new phones have gps capability. A simple switch that disconnects calls if the phone moves a certain distance, say a quarter-mile, would be all it takes. I’m all for it.
I’m not sure if the GPS in a phone is active in the Faraday cage of a car.
Mine works. I use it as a cheap nav computer.
But there’s no ability to distinguish from the driver and passenger using a phone. And there’s nothing wrong with a passenger using one.
Speak for yourself. Who likes riding in a car with someone yapping on the phone?
Send in an armed drone ….anyway
“I think it will be done,” said LaHood. “I think the technology is there and I think you’re going to see the technology become adaptable in automobiles to disable these cell phones. We need to do a lot more if were going to save lives.”
Speaking as a bicyclist who’s almost been killed by inattentive drivers, many of whom seem to be fixated on their cell phone conversations, I favor this initiative.
I favor arming bicyclists and giving them double O designations.
You can buy cell phone blockers for $50. Some even look like cell phones.
Yes, they are used in Europe in theaters, but I’m pretty sure a jammer is illegal in the US. I was going to build one, never got around to it.
We need to do a lot more if were going to save lives.”
Typical political grandstanding.
“Save lives, protect children, keep us safe from terrorists”, all tried-and-true aphorisms used to extend power or appear to be “solving” a problem.
If we really want to do something about unsafe drivers, we will work to seriously limit the number of people allowed to drive. (Yeah right. The Oil/Auto/Highway lobbies will love that) The assumption that attaining the age of 16 somehow automatically bestows the competence to handle a 2-ton vehicle is ludicrous on its face.
Either that, or pay to bring on autonomous vehicles which guide themselves and institute grave penalties for people guilty of causing accidents after disabling the automation.
October housing starts are lowest in 1-1/2 years
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Starts on new homes slumped to the lowest in 1-1/2 years in October, mainly due to sharply reduced building of multiunit homes, according to a government report on Wednesday that underlined the strains facing the sector.
The Commerce Department said overall construction starts plummeted 11.7 percent to a 519,000 annual rate from a downwardly revised 588,000 in September.
It was the weakest starts rate since 477,000 in April 2009 when the economy was still struggling with the impact of the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
Economists surveyed by Reuters had anticipated a starts rate in October of 600,000 — far higher than the actual outcome.
Permit applications for new building edged up to 550,000 last month from an upwardly revised 547,000 in September, potentially a sign that builders hope for better times ahead.
HOUSING STARTS (down 11.7%!!!)
Privately-owned housing starts in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 519,000. This is 11.7 percent (±8.6%) below the revised September estimate of 588,000 and is 1.9 percent (±9.6%)* below the October 2009 rate of 529,000. Single-family housing starts in October were at a rate of 436,000; this is 1.1 percent (±8.6%)* below the revised September figure of 441,000. The October rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 74,000.
http://www.census.gov/const/newresconst.pdf
HOUSING STARTS (down 11.7%!!!)
Pretty much everything is available below replacement cost today I jcan’t understand how they can keep there doors open…I just saw a 30,000. commercial retail complex in Rocklin California for $66. per square foot…You can’t even do the tenant improvements for $66. per foot…
“There is a really remarkable, rapid shift of power and influence from the United States to China,” Mr. Soros said, likening the U.S.’s decline to that of the U.K. after the Second World War.
Because global economic power is shifting, Mr. Soros said China needs to change its focus. “China has risen very rapidly by looking out for its own interests,” he said. “They have now got to accept responsibility for world order and the interests of other people as well.”
Mr. Soros even went so far as to say that at times China wields more power than the U.S. because of the political gridlock in Washington. “Today China has not only a more vigorous economy, but actually a better functioning government than the United States,” he said, a hard statement for him to make because he spent much of his life donating to anti-communist groups in Eastern Europe.
“China has risen very rapidly by looking out for its own interests.”
And this is not about to change anytime soon.
“They have now got to accept responsibility for world order and the interests of other people as well.”
Lol. China? Is this CHINA he is talking about?
Does anyone here know anything about the history of China and how they feel about the century-or-so of shame forced upon them by the Western powers?
China reminds me of a teenager.
“I’m not a kid any more, you have to treat me with more respect.”
“So start paying rent.”
“What’s with all the hate? Why are you picking on me?”
China reminds me of a teenager
…I’m a lil’ bit pregnant!
“Have you decided on a name?”
“Ambitchin’”
“the century-or-so of shame forced upon them”
Sounds like a personality disorder to me. A very large one.
Soros neglects to mention that he has intentionally personally orchestrated the entire decline.
How is China/India planning to feed its 1.3/1.1 billion people? You’re not much of a super power if you can’t even provide enough food for you population.
Most of the Chinese growth is financed by a huge credit bubble. Remember when Japan was about to take over the world back in the 80s?
Brazil is a much more credible threat than China. They have argicultural and natural resources to back it up.
“How is China/India planning to feed its 1.3/1.1 billion people?”
I guess they’ll buy food from us with the piles of dollars they’ve accumulated. This will be good for the American farmer but no so good for the American grocery shopper.
I don’t know if anyone has seen the ABC News series on China running this week. Diane Sawyer and her merry crew of propagandists have blown so much smoke up the viewers’ arses, it’s amazing everyone doesn’t have big time ‘roids.
Of course, your everyday schmoe who is following the series is all agog about how “advanced” China is and how smart the chirruns are there, and blibbety-blabbity. (This, by the way, is the intended effect of the series, to put Americans in their place and demonstrate to them how dumb and backward they are. Just like illegals from Mexico are so much better. Believe it.) Yesterday some lady was commenting on how “advanced” China is and how f*cked we are and I asked her if she was referring to the series. Oh, yes, she was all wide-eyed about it.
Well, I put period to that real fast. I told her all she needed to know about China is their crappy and poisonous products here in the US, and that China is mostly facade, and that the series is a masterpiece of propaganda. She brightened up considerably.
Any County that has over a billion in population is hiding a major problem .
“…all she needed to know about China is their crappy and poisonous products here in the US, and that China is mostly facade”
Diane Sawyer: “Hwy50, your overall summation?”
Hwy50: “(burbs) excuse me, …well, um,…geez… I reckons alls eyes can suggest is,…“TrueBambooLie™”
CBS “news” consists of DNC talking points. Diane Sawyer’s viewship is a few thousand geriatrics in nursing homes where the waiting room TVs have been set to CBS since Nixon resigned.
Gotta go to work but scrolling down the HBB 1 last time, I think what we have here is a “Target rich environment”.
1. Target rich environment
A combat situation in which an attacker, normally equipped with a superior weapons system ( or in this case the HBB ), is presented with a large number of highly desirable, poorly defended and high-value targets all at once,
On Wednesday, Target (TGT 55.46, +1.67, +3.10%) reported better-than-expected third-quarter profit and forecast the best same-store-sales performance in three years for the current period, which covers the holidays.
LA County Bans Plastic Bags
With a 3-1 vote in favor of the measure, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a sweeping ban on plastic grocery bags in unincorporated areas of the county.
The ban will affect nearly 1.1 million residents countywide and has been called one of the nation’s most aggressive environmental measures to date.
The official measure reads: “No store shall provide to any customer a plastic carryout bag.” Plastic bags that are used to hold fruit, vegetables or raw meat in order to prevent contamination with other grocery items will be exempt from the ban.
Grocers that continue to offer plastic bags will be required to charge customers 10 cents per bag, according to the ordinance. The revenue will be retained by the stores to purchase the paper bags and educate customers about the law (LA Times).
Anyone gonna buy the overpriced GM ipo?Talk about junk.
Not I, but plenty will be falling all over themselves to get in, I’m sure.
CNBC this morning was talking about it. It seems many institutional investors will be buying with the sole intent to flip it. Some will even short it after the expected initial run-up. Commentators thought the stock would be lower than IPO price within about 5 trading days.
cnbc has been hypeing the GM story for about a month.I wonder how big of a cut they are going to get.I get tired of them kissing everyones @ss on the show.Rick santelli is the only one with any good sense.
What reeks is that individual investors basically get shut out of the deal.The same people that balied them out have to buy from the big boys.The stock market is the most rigged casino out there.
As a taxpayer, I’m hoping that it sells for as high a price as possible.
Aldi’s has already figured this all out by themselves.
Hey, at least you can still buy a “Happy Meal” there, unlike in SF and Santa Clara counties.
I don’t get the rule about not allowing the toy with the meal. Seriously. If you want to prevent people from buying their kids crummy food just to get the toy, tell McDonalds that they have to allow people to buy the toy without the food at a cost of no more than half the cost of the meal that includes the toy. Much less intrusive. Doesn’t interfere in the movie marketing industry. Easy, easy, easy to implement. And McDs would make a fortune off the dumb toys.
Lewis Black had an amusing rant about this on Jon Stewart’s show. Something about the city handing out syringes to junkies but no happy meal toy, cuz we don’t want to send the wring message.
Penny wise and pound foolish.
Hamtramck seeks state permission to file for bankruptcy
The Detroit News
The city of Hamtramck, desperate for cash, has asked the state for permission to take an unprecedented step: filing for bankruptcy.
City Manager Bill Cooper said the city of roughly 20,000 people is staring at a $3 million deficit, fueled by a dispute with Detroit. Unless Hamtramck files for bankruptcy, it won’t be able to pay its nearly 100 employees or 153 retirees, he said.
The city sent a letter to the state Department of Treasury last week asking for approval to seek bankruptcy protection. It has not received a reply, Cooper said.
“I’m going to run out of money Jan. 31,” Cooper said. Bankruptcy would allow the city to stave off creditors and force its unions to consider concessions.
How much you want to bet they recently built a new police station, fire station, and city hall?
Hmmm -
The city is responsible for 50% more people in retirement than who actually work for the city???
My guess what is not mentioned in the article - insane union contracts and insane union pensions eat up 100% of the city’s budget…
You realize the vestment time is only 5 years for a lot of municipal plans.
Hamtramck is a tiny city surrounded by Detroit on all sides. They incorporated many years ago so as not to be taken over by Detroit. It used to be an ethnic Polish enclave, with a Dodge plant. Now much more diverse. I’m surprised they survived this long. Check out the kielbasa!
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/679
Come on team Barry! WTH happened to all this hope&change?
Lifelines for the poor are disappearing
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — With more people than ever living in poverty, the government’s unprecedented effort to strengthen the safety net for needy Americans is running out.
Washington has spent tens of billions of dollars since the start of 2009 on programs to help feed the poor, house the homeless and support the unemployed. But much of this money has been used up or is about to expire in coming weeks and months.
A record 43.6 million people were in poverty in 2009, according to Census Bureau figures released Thursday. That’s the most in 51 years of record keeping and equals one in seven Americans. And the situation has likely become even worse this year, with the faltering economy and stubbornly high unemployment rate.
But it could have been even worse had it not been for the federal stimulus program. The Recovery Act kept more than six million Americans out of poverty last year, and reduced the severity of poverty for another 33 million people, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
But obama had such good intentions - and that is what counts.
As an independent I ask: would things be any different had McCain won?
palin wouldnt have her tv show on tlc?
If Palin were veep, she would be gone by now. And the controversy that would cause her resignation would make Spiro Agnew’s look like a minor dustup.
Slim, your dislike is almost visceral, why?
Palin is a low fraud and a Judas Goat deployed by the Establishment GOP to co-opt legitimate anti-establishment anger. True conservatives see right through her. God help this nation if she ever ends up anywhere near the red button.
Who knows? What is probable:
No obama care
The same increase in forces in Afghanistan
The same pullout in Iraq
A huge stimulus but not as big as the obama one
A bailout of GM - but would not have put unions at the front of the line
Smaller 2010 city/county/state union bailout
Somekind of HAMP bailout
Bernanke still at the FED
So in summary – a lot of the same but not as big (with the exception of obamacare).
Who knows? What is probable:
Probably not you. (In summary)
They wouldn’t have, but Barry got a ton of have-not’s hopes up only to piss them away!
I think the part of this to watch is what happens when the Fed Gov stops propping up state budgets.
Which will happen soon.
Hm, maybe not. One advantage of a divided congress is that it will be impossible to pass legislation. I predict no bailouts for states. Shall we have a pool on which state defaults first?
Shall we have a pool on which state defaults first ??
Ahhhhhh Calofornya ??
Count me in Dave, only problem would be finding the sucker to take the other side of the bet.
Shall we have a pool on which state defaults first ??
I pick……………Cali….No……..The fighting IIlini state…
Why? idk, maybe Mid-Westerners face reality quicker than Californians.
I’ve lived in both great states.
“…A record 43.6 million people were in poverty in 2009, according to Census Bureau figures released Thursday. That’s the most in 51 years of record keeping”
“There you go again Hwy,…” Ronnie RayGun
Cheney-Shrub Legacy Effect #3:
“We left y’all with the worst POS economy in 80 years…see ya!”
Cheney-Shrub Legacy “Shadow” Effect™ #86:
“We want him to succeed as president, we really do.”
“Come on team Barry! WTH happened to all this hope&change?”
Do they have a xmas gift card for the Short-Term Memory Co.? I’ll put one in yer x-mas stocking fer ya wmbz…
Saving people from poverty for 6 months to a year isn’t exactly a success
story .
Has anybody noticed that the TV PR campaign is kicking up right now to
remind people of the lie that TARP saved them and the government with
all their socialism to the rich saved them also ? I find it ever so insulting
but people believe that junk .
43 Million in poverty, a full 40 years after LBJ’s War on Poverty was up and running.
Yeah, I know. It’s because we’re not spending enough.
43 Million in poverty, a full 40 years after LBJ’s War on Poverty was up and running…..Yeah, I know. It’s because we’re not spending enough.
OF COURSE we are NOT spending enough, but not where you imply we shouldn’t.
Rather, we are not spending near enough on investment in and on the protection of our industrial and middle class jobs base- things all of our competitors do.
Probably about half of them (43 million in poverty) are here illegally.
Come on team Barry! WTH happened to all this hope&change?
A little help from the Republics would have been nice.
Instead of, “We are going to work with President Obama and the democrats to help the American people”, we got, “I hope he fails” and, “This is going to be his Waterloo”.
Thanks a lot.
The dems controlled the white house/congress (by large margins) and the senate (by a filibuster proof majority) and you are blaming the republicans????
…and you are blaming the republicans
One word: filibuster
Instead of working as the “loyal opposition”, holding the democrats feet to the fire to make sure we got progressive reform for the people, the republicans just opted out like spoiled children, because they weren’t in charge any more.
If our elected leaders would start working together to move the ball forward instead of fighting over it, we’d be lot better off.
How sure are you that the Ds actually wanted to pass any of those things that the Rs never had to actually filibuster?
by a filibuster proof majority
Name 60+ Democrapts in the US Senate,…tick, tick, tick,…do you require more time?
Waaaaa!!!!Why can’t we all just get along?
“A little help from the Republics would have been nice.”
I think the wall street bailouts were perfectly bipartisan.
The rest is noise.
I think the wall street bailouts were perfectly bipartisan.
Oh, hell yeah.
Banks get bailouts, we get campaign fodder.
The DOW was supposed to take off this A.M. what with the GM IPO and some better that expected numbers for a few retailers.
I wonder how much Goldman is making off the GM ipo? The “New GM success story” has got to be one of the biggest fabrications of truth scripted by the modern propaganda machine. What a bunch of hooey!
“I wonder how much Goldman is making off the GM ipo”?
No telling, but I am sure the boyz are drooling over it!
goldman is p@ssing all of themselves with this gm ipo.Even the govt is happy cause I guess they will get some of thier money back.I think the retail investor will end up holding the bag on this deal.This is one of the biggest scams in history.
Why would you invest is this IPO? If you want to own an auto comapny why not ford?They have proven to be a better managed company.
GM ipo is nothing but hype.Everyone thinks they are going to flip this stock and make a quick buck.
I hope the dow tanks again today so it spooks those GM lemmings.
I’m pretty sure the PPT has GM’s back today. Look for a rally into the close.
Something will end up being better than expected.
Hot Topic Posts Slim Profit, Plans To Close Stores, Cut Jobs
Hot Topic Inc. (HOTT) barely kept itself in the black in its fiscal third quarter, as the teen retailer’s earnings plunged 93% on a write-down, weaker sales and lower margins.
The company also announced it is putting a cost-reduction plan in place to “meet the challenges of the current environment.” The moves include closing 40 to 50 under-performing stores.
I’m going to walmart today and pick up some wranglers.I have been inspired by farve.
I read somewhere yesterday that retailers are expecting as much as a 30% increase in any cotton clothing.
Polyester here we come!
Or yard sales or thrift stores. Or even Freecycle.
Cue the Bee Gees!
wranglers on sale for 9.99 at walmart.I picked up a couple wife beaters and now I’m set for two more years.
So why can’t they raise their own funds and have the games anyway?
Report: NY cancels 2011 Empire State Games
Associated Press
ALBANY — A published report says the 2011 Empire State Games have been canceled because of New York’s $9 billion budget gap.
The Poughkeepsie Journal reports that Winter Games administrator Lisa Del Signore has written a letter to athletes informing them that the winter, summer, senior and games for the physically challenged have been canceled.
The winter games were scheduled for late February in Lake Placid and the summer games were set for Rochester in late July. The Olympic-style games are run by the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
The newspaper reports that Del Signore’s letter said the agency has been told by the Paterson administration that there will be no state funding for the games.
The summer games were canceled in 2009 because of budget cuts.
So why can’t they raise their own funds and have the games anyway?
Because fundraising takes work, that’s why!
BINGO! We have a winner!
The games were back in 2010. I imaginge they’ll be back again next year. There has been a real groundswell of anger against any park based cuts and as we’ve seen, the last administration never once stuck to their guns on cuts floated as necessary. I suppose this is just a stick approach to give someone to give up something else in budget negotiations. The people are baited to apply the appropriate pressure.
To tell you the truth, I don’t know what to believe anymore. I’ve been hearing about how bad our state deficit is for at least 2 years. They are all headlines, drama. The cuts almost never happen.
Much hope is placed on the continued recovery of Wall Street.
Freshman physician/congresscritter wants his federal health insurance NOW.
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-11-16/health/bs-md-harris-health-care-20101116_1_health-insurance-health-care-andy-harris
And, since turnabout is fair play, I want the public option NOW.
Freshman physician/congresscritter wants his federal health insurance NOW.
“Despite railing against the evils of government-subsidized health care for the last two years, (Republican) Andy Harris chose to introduce himself on the national stage yesterday by demanding earlier access to his taxpayer-subsidized government health care benefits, and expressing shock that he would instead be treated like all other federal employees in having to wait 30 days for his coverage to kick in,” Kratovil aide Kevin Lawlor said in an email. “It has taken Rep.-Elect Harris less than two weeks to start grabbing national headlines for his arrogance and sense of entitlement.”
Niiiiiiice. This politician is a little more transparent than most.
“TrueDeceiver’s™” / “TrueHypocrite™” / “TrueAnger™” / “TruePurity™”
“If the glove doesn’t fit,…you MUST acquit!”
Typical little self important punk! It’s the same old show with new faces, nothing will change.
Another clueless freshman congress-critter. She is a one-woman argument for the commission to establish new California congressional districts, as hers is gerrymandered safe. She was speaker of the California Assembly and refused to acknowledge the need to fix the deficit. And awards herself and her own aides every possible perk, courtesy of the taxpayer.
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/politicians/articles/?storyId=35003
Yes, but you see she is a public “servant” they tell us that all the time. I guess that’s close to doing “Gods” work, so even though she doesn’t show up to do her “job” she still deserves to be paid.
I say gubmint jobs for all!
During a briefing Monday on employee benefits for new congressmen, staff aides and family members, Harris wanted to know why he would have to wait a month for his new health insurance coverage to start.
The Planet Mars “TrueAnger™” PeeParty tea toadlers Ambassador has a comment to you “earthlings”
Marvin the Martian:
1. “This makes me very angry, very angry indeed.”
2. “Where’s the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!”
3. “Isn’t that lovely?”
“I-not-a-“TrueHypocrite™”-anymore!,…meets…”This-is-the-reason-you elected-me-remember.”
Ho ho, hah hah, hehehehehehe, BwaHaHaAhHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! (Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb-thrower™)
Good Lord…. ?Who’s now the Banana Republic?
The richest 1 percent of Brazilians received 13.31 percent of the total income * 1
The richest 1 percent of Americans receive 24 percent of the total income (up from 9% in 1976) *2
1. http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Americas/Brazil-POVERTY-AND-WEALTH.html#ixzz15YL8aBok
2. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/opinion/07kristof.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Stop being unAmerican! We all know that the elites deserve the lion’s share of the income and that middle class Americans are just overpaid goldbricks!
Get with the program!
“The richest 1 percent of Americans receive 24 percent of the total income”
i wonder what that breakdown would be if you only included the super rich members of the production based economy versus the FIRE based economy.
i’m sure that figure would be difficult to determine because i’m sure most of them have all ten fingers in pie.
just curious.
According to that chart 70% of the population are under 10% of the total income. Where is your middle class?
(Coming to US soon!)
According to that chart 70% of the population are under 10% of the total income. Where is your middle class?
Hey, good point. And it’s hard getting confirming, consistent numbers out of Brazil (especially numbers in English, lol)
Here’s close to the most common, latest figures I run across.
Brazil’s Middle Class Grows to Nearly 50% of Population
http://laht.com/article.asp?CategoryId=14090&ArticleId=351827
RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazil’s middle class has grown steadily since 2003, when President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office, accounting for nearly 50 percent of the population, the O Globo newspaper reported Sunday, citing a new report by the Getulio Vargas Foundation.
The nearly 91 million people in the South American country’s middle class represent 49.22 percent of the population and account for 46 percent of national income.
Quit bashing the rich! They earned it! Who else would come up with the lastest financial engineering and wealth mining operations? Don’t even think about raising their taxes (like under Ike it was 90% …the good ole days) otherwise they’ll leave and bless some other economy with their scams.
otherwise they’ll leave and bless some other economy with their scams.
Hey, look who just climbed through the kitchen window…Howdy Mr. Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb-thrower™, you’re just in time for this topic above,…you may begin…
This scanner crap is complete BullShit! I don’t fly often, but would not go through it. Good luck all you frequent fliers, should be no radiation problems.
TSA Hit With Lawsuits As Revolt Explodes
In one shocking incident, TSA goons pulled down woman’s blouse, exposing her breasts, and laughed about it
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
The TSA has been hit with a number of lawsuits as the revolt against Big Sis, naked body scanners, and invasive groping measures explodes, with one case involving a woman who had her blouse pulled down in full public view by TSA goons who then proceeded to laugh and joke about her exposed breasts.
Let’s not forget that, in the hierarchy of federal law enforcement agencies, the TSA is at the bottom of the barrel. So guess where they’re hiring from.
No Kidding!
They were advertising on pizza boxes. Really they actually were.
Lawmaker blasts ‘big brother’ TSA…
Charges ex-DHS chief Chertoff got ’sweetheart deal’ selling naked scanners to TSA…
Oh, no. Chertoff, aka “Skeletor” is profiting from scanners. This should be illegal.
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/nov/17/duncan-blasts-tsa-security-practices-floor-speech/
Cheney-Shrub nominated Chertoff to the post in January 2005
BWAHAHAHicHAHAHicHAHAHAHAHicHAHAHic* (DennisN™)
“These f@!king “TrueEthical™” + “TruePurity™” Guys!,”
Jon Stewart(Hwy50 modified quote)On my way home from Stockholm this summer I was “felt”, not “patted” down twice at the Stockholm airport. I’ve been patted many times in the US, but they pat you, or at worst lightly rub. In Stockholm I was kneaded everywhere. The second time I actually started to cry, and the last time I cried was more than three years ago when my dad died. That said, I really don’t feel like walking through a body scanner. I haven’t traveled since starting the cancer treatment. Maybe they can send a copy to my doctor and save me an x-ray!
“The head of the Transportation Security Administration is acknowledging that the new pat-downs are more invasive than what travelers were used to in the past.
TSA administrator John Pistole says he has received the new pat-down, as has his boss, Secretary Janet Napolitano.
Some travelers complain that the new inspections target sensitive body areas. Pistole says he understands those privacy concerns, but says the government must provide the best possible security for air travelers.
Pistole was testifying before a Senate committee about TSA policies and procedures. The hearing was scheduled before the recent outrage about airport security pat-downs.”
anyone know if are they patting down little kids?
Not that I know of, but the ‘Net is already joking about it.
anyone know if are they patting down little kids?
This just in.
wow…TSA could be a pedophiles dream job.
(Newser) – Another airport security brouhaha: The TSA body-searched a 3-year-old girl at the airport in Chattanooga, Tenn., prompting screaming and tears. And perhaps embarrassingly for the TSA, the girl happened to be the daughter of a TV news reporter, who captured about 17 seconds of her ordeal on his cell phone. It started, explained dad Steve Simon, after Mandy’s teddy bear was taken from her for screening; she started crying, and had a “tough time” going through the metal detector. The alarm went off twice, which meant she “must be hand-searched.” But, asks dad, “Did it have to be like this?”
Yes, they are “patting down” children. Here is a video of TSA groping a 3 yr old girl (footage immediately follows interview of John Tyner)
http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/23071189
I find it difficult to believe any parent would allow their children to be subjected to this… but then again some parents leave their children inside a broiling car to die in the middle of summer. (shakes head)
“Pistole says he understands those privacy concerns, but says the government must provide the best possible security for air travelers.”
Hence why the Isrealis think these scanners are a waste of money and time.
Here’s how they handle security at Israeli airports. Pretty thorough system, if you ask me.
I can tell you the first time I flew into Germany, what I noticed was how quite it was. The next thing was the officers with German Shepard’s & AK-47’s. Big impact on me. No scanners, no need.
I’ve always wondered, at what point does security get so tight that people refuse to fly? First metal detectors, then xray luggage, then you take your shoes off, next 3 oz in a plastic bag, what comes next? Cavity searches?
I’ve always wondered, at what point does security get so tight that people refuse to fly?
My personal protest will be to ALWAYS ask for the pat-down in the line with the hottest TSA groper (if there is one)…..After a couple stiff drinks of course and in private if that’s possible. I have business cards.
But all kidding aside, it’s getting strange out there.
SAN MATEO COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) — The San Mateo district attorney’s office has a warning for all TSA personnel at SFO — anyone inappropriately touching a passenger during a security pat down will be prosecuted.
Incoming San Mateo DA Steve Wagstaffe says any complaints of inappropriate touching during an airport security pat down will land on his desk.
“The case would be reviewed and if we could prove the elements of it, that it was inappropriately done with a sexual or lewd intent, that person would be prosecuted,” he said.
The charge? Sexual battery.
Fed official can’t utter the word “deflation.”
Eric Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston defends QE2, the Fed’s program to inflate the money supply in hopes of boosting the economy. “As long as the economic outlook doesn’t improve dramatically I would expect that we will purchase the entire amount,” he said, adding, “if the economy were to weaken and we were to get further disinflation and a higher unemployment rate, then we would have to reflect on whether we should take additional action.”
“Further disinflation?” It’s a synonym for deflation. Fed officials are generally averse to speaking aloud words like “deflation” or “depression.” In fact, after the 1930s the word “depression” was all but banned as a way to describe a dip in the economy. “Recession” came into vogue. “Softening” was sometimes used. Even “sideways movement.”
At any rate, the Federal Reserve must keep deflation disinflation at bay at all costs and will try to do so by downright inflating the money supply. The question being argued now is whether or not monetary inflation by the Fed will lead to price inflation for the rest of us.
The Fed also cannot say “monetary inflating.” It substitutes “Quantitative easing.” The phrase “quantitative easing” was coined by British economist, Richard Werner, in 1994. Central banks now substitute it for “inflation.”
“It’s a synonym for deflation.”
No. Disinflation is a second-derivative concept — it refers to a decrease in the rate of inflation. Deflation is a first derivative concept — it refers to a negative rate of inflation (price change).
I say to-MAY-to, you say to-MAH-to.
The distinction is more than linguistic. I recommend a remedial calculus course for anyone who missed my point.
Thank you for the condescending response. I am an engineer; I know what derivatives are and I know the first-second relationship. MY POINT is that all the semantical gobbledy-gook definitions serve to obscure, not to illuminate.
Professor your point is important. If we can’t agree on the meaning of words, how can we have the discussion?
Inflation = increase in money supply, often confused with price inflation, and increase in price, oft but not always caused by an increase in money supply
Deflation = a decrease in the money supply
Disinflation = a reduction in the rate of inflation
Inflation = …
I am going to quantitatively ease some balloons.
I am going to quantitatively ease some balloons.
Sounds like a smuggler to me…
“Thank you for the condescending response.”
Don’t mention it.
“To reclaim our dollar and our economy, Americans must oppose central banking per se. Fiat currencies cannot be ‘reformed’ or ‘managed.’ They are fundamentally subject to ruinous debasement.”
~Rep. Ron Paul
I truly wish all this was being said when trillions were given away in the big real estate bubble. The problem now, since we cannot apparently ask for that money back, is that it is ALL GONE.
I put it out there that there are no good solutions at this point. Either Inflation to pay off the debts, or deflation and default on the debts. So far, even though only a very small percentage of the total debt has gone bad, it has been catastrophic. I hate to think about what happens when it starts to go 10 trillion at a time.
So true GH ,there is a bottomless hole of loss out there just waiting to be realized if you add the leverage games and the BS credit default swaps to the mix .
Roche to cut 4,800 jobs
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Swiss health care company Roche said Wednesday it would cut 4,800 jobs over the next two years as part of its “Operation Excellence Program.”
Roche said it hoped to save about $2.4 billion through 2012, primarily by cutting or adjusting 6% of its work force of 82,000 people.
In addition to the 4,800 job cuts, the company plans to transfer 800 jobs internally and transfer 700 jobs to “third parties,” affecting some 6,300 jobs overall.
Most of the job cuts and transfers would occur in the pharmaceuticals division, primarily in sales, marketing and manufacturing.
In the United States., the company will cut 3,550 jobs. The cuts and other restructuring actions will affect facilities in California, Colorado, New Jersey, South Carolina and Wisconsin. Outside the United States, the reorganization will be focused in Switzerland, Germany
Port Authority plans record service cutbacks
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
With hopes fading for a state financial rescue, a Port Authority committee today is expected to move ahead with plans for record service cuts and layoffs effective March 13.
But that likely won’t be the end of the cutting. Discussions already are under way about a second major round of cuts next July as the agency continues to struggle with chronic budget deficits caused by rising costs and insufficient state aid.
The 35 percent reduction in March would fully eliminate about 48 routes, end all weekend service on 13 others and cause across-the-board cuts in service on the routes that remain. Some 555 of the authority’s 2,755 employees are expected to be laid off.
“We’re now into the mode of looking at next year’s budget and having to cut service further,” spokesman Jim Ritchie said. “It’s likely that we would have to move ahead with a proposal to reduce service again.”
A port? In Pittsburgh?! Dang, maybe we should start calling our marina a port.
Pittsburgh is indeed a port.
It’s at the confluence of three rivers, the Allegheny, the Monongahela, and the Ohio. There’s quite a bit of shipping traffic on them.
In addition to water-borne traffic, Pittsburgh is also a major rail hub. One of America’s busiest freight/passenger rail lines goes right through town.
Right next to that rail line is a high-speed busway that can get you from Wilkinsburg to Downtown in about 10 minutes. I can personally attest to the fact that such a thing is not easy to do on regular streets.
Oh, before the busway was officially opened in 1983, there was a day when you could go out and bicycle on it. I was one of the cyclists who turned out. And it rained. Didn’t matter to me or anyone else there. We rode.
It’s actually two rivers that come together on Pittsburgh. Why they always say three nobody knows…
Because those two rivers make a third river. Besides, we Pittsburghers are too busy following the Steelers to count properly.
You know I think there could reach a point where all this job cutting
is just going a little to far to the point that we are not getting service
anymore .
Corporations have been raising prices ,yet cutting service .Where does
it reach the point that Industry is just using this whole job cut BS as a
ploy to get greater profits and give less ,verses necessary cuts to survive a recession . Somebody just told me about their nephew who just got a
30% cut in wage and was told in essence like it or you will be one of the ones that gets laid off .And what about all the layoffs that than result
in a bunch of hiring offshore from the same Company ,or hiring at cheaper wages locally immediately following lay-offs of higher wage
earners .
It’s really hard being a customer anymore . You go to the bank and they have one employee handling a big line of customers . I swear to God I
waited a hour and 1/2 on the phone the other day to get customer
service on the phone .They just kept on playing the music . Don’t you think they might need to hire more people for the phone . Or what about the BS of only getting a couple of options on the customer service lines but none of the options have anything to do with what your calling for .
Really ,if industry could replace us all by robots or slave labor world
wide workers they would .
Details on my falling knife in Portland area that I am scheduled to close on in Dec.
House was built starting in 2005 and finished in 2006. It orginally sold for ~504,000. 3400 sq. ft, 3 car garage and a very, very small lot.
Bank took it back in early 2010 and it became a Freddie Mac property. Listed at around 400,000 for a few months, went under contract for 380,000 and the deal fell through. My wife “has” to have it and so she is buying it for $365,000.
I could pay cash for it, but instead I am going to take out a $210,000 mortgage. I get ~11,000 in closing costs paid by Freddie Mac if I close before the end of the year. I am using it to buy points down. I will have a 7/1 arm at 2.5%. (Fully amortizing). 2.5% is as low as a mortgage can be bought down to. My payment for principle and interest will be $829 + ~440 for taxes and insurance (~1269) a month payment. I currently rent a 2500 sq. ft home for 1625 a month. I will will still have cash in the bank earning a paltry ~1.3%. I will pay the thing off in 7 years before things adjust.
Houses that have sold in the neighborhood include one for $335,000 in 2009, another one for $385,000 in 2009. Both of the these were equivalent type of houses. Another FB didn’t want to miss out on the 8K housing credit paid 440K for a smaller home (3000 sq. ft), but bit bigger yard in May 2010.
Oh I just remembered, I need make sure that my line of credit application is ready to go the day I close (sarcasm intended).
My preference is to continue renting, but things dont’ always go my way. I am just very fortunate to have sold in AZ before things really crashed.
The only worry I have AZto is that it was built at the height of the bubble. Evidence is that there was very shoddy construction during that period, because they were throwing up houses as quickly as possible. Please keep us posted about maintenance issues if they occur.
I don’t think he is going to tell us, he greased the garage door railing today and raked leaves. Seems like he got a great deal to me. Congrats!
“3400 sq. ft, 3 car garage and a very, very small lot”
The lot isn’t small… the house is big!
“she is buying it for $365,000″
SHE is buying it, but you’re paying for it… do we have that right?
…Just kidding you. If I could get a similar deal here, I might pull the trigger too (not that we need that much space, but we’re planning ahead for a potential in-law situation down the road). Congrats and good luck with the closing. Keep us posted how it goes.
Yes, my wife is buying and I am paying (humor intended).
The reason for the bigger house is I have 4 kids and potential parents living with us. It has a master bedroom on the main floor and upstairs. The master on the main was important because of parents not having much to retire on. (Both mine and hers)
Our oldest daughter will be occupy the master on the main (guest room), and will be on guest basis because she is expected to leave to college when she graduates this upcoming spring. Of which, I will remind her daily in a loving way of course.
I will keep everyone posted on all the happenings of the house and all the maintenance issues. The kitchen is going to be re-done at some point due to the stupid design of it. Don’t even get me started on why buy a house and have to re-do the kitchen the way things are today. Believe me, I have had that discussion many times.
A big house for an extended family? Hmmm, ISTR my father and aunt growing up in one of those.
My parents are not welcome to spend their twilight years in my home, unless they want to sign the SS checks over to me.
We had 4,000 sq ft on a decent size lot (9,600 sq ft), but with a two-story canyon feel, the lot size doesn’t really matter, privacy in the windows and backyard does.
Have you checked out the privacy factor? You’ll feel like you’re in a fancy townhome.
Been there/done that. No thanks.
I’m going for a one-story ranch with a picket fence. I’ve had the McMansion (actually did it twice) and it wasn’t my style. (So Ca) Oregon might be different when it comes to PUDs.
I hate the housing in Oregon and the PUDs. The house I am purchasing is at least on a wide enough street for cards to park on both sides of it.
IF the republicant’s give her the nod they are completely F—ing nutz….
Palin Considering Presidential Campaign in 2012, NY Times Says
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is considering running for president in 2012, the New York Times reported, citing an interview with the 2008 Republican vice- presidential nominee.
Palin, 46, told the newspaper that she was “having that discussion” with her family and her decision would rest, in part, on what qualities she would bring to the race.
She endorsed more than 80 candidates in the 2010 elections, and at least 50 of them won, the newspaper said. She also raised more than $10 million for Republican candidates and the party, the newspaper said.
Her political action committee raised $2.5 million between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30 and contributed $190,500 to candidates and Republican political committees, Federal Election Commission filings show.
She’s got my vote*!
* no, not really.
“Momma Grizzly” will get a vote from Hwy50, “you betcha, by golly!”
“I want all you Anti-American democrapts to register repubican in the 2011 primaries and vote her on the 2012 ballot! It’ll-work-I-just-know-it!”
Rash Limpbaughs
(I-can-shoot-a-moose-standback! background music): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIb6AZdTr-A
The “TrueRogue™” Sarah The Barracuda
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20021350-503544.html
BWAHAHAHicHAHAHicHAHAHAHAHicHAHAHic* (DennisN™)
republicans pick palin to run for president = democrats pick pelosi as minority leader
That’s because people are smart!
How about a mixed martial arts combat between Palin and Pelosi? The survivor becomes the next President.
Ticket sales could substantially reduce the deficit.
That would be like the celebrity boxing match between Tonya Harding and Paula Jones. People forgot Harding was an athlete and Jones wasn’t. It got ugly(er) fast.
Hah! Excellent, Dennis.
DeathMatch 2012. Finally a solution to campaign finance abuses–AND we eliminate half the pols in the deal. What’s not to love?
Apparently Obama dotes on Palin. He sees her as the best bet for another 4 years in office. Even I would be confused and might stay home the next election.
Republicans better get their house in order and soon if they want to keep the momentum up!
Berkshire to Make Loans for Luxury Jet Customers
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. will make loans to clients of its luxury air-travel unit after sales declined during the financial crisis.
The financing minimum is $100,000 and the loans are only available to commercial clients, according to a statement today from Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire’s NetJets business.
Buffett has called the unit Berkshire’s “major problem” for 2009 as cash-strapped clients gave up their accounts and NetJets slid into losses. NetJets Chief Executive Officer David Sokol, who took over in August of last year, has fired pilots and sold aircraft to cope with the slump in demand.
“Owners are able to structure a payment solution that exactly meets their needs,” Sokol said in the statement.
Credit approval for the loans may take “as little as a few days,” NetJets said. The loans are fixed rate and have terms of as long as five years, the company said.
Good News!
Tame Inflation Gives Fed Ammo for Bond-Buying Plan- AP
Consumer prices barely changed for the third straight month, strengthening the Federal Reserve’s hand at a time when it is defending a plan to boost the economy by buying more government debt.
more bs data.
Home price cuts bigger than ever
San Francisco Business Times - by Steven E.F. Brown
Date: Wednesday, November 17, 2010, 1:07pm PST - Last Modified: Wednesday, November 17, 2010, 1:25pm PST
Foreclosures are smothering home prices around the United States, according to Trulia Inc., a San Francisco research business.
Price cuts on homes listed for sale hit an all-time high in 15 U.S. cities in November, with Minneapolis leading the pack, followed by Phoenix and Mesa in Arizona and Baltimore.
Trulia looks at how many homes listed for sale have had their prices reduced.
Fresno, Long Beach, San Diego and Sacramento were the California cities on the list of 15 with the biggest percentage of listed homes with price cuts.
“The market is flooded with distressed homes that are priced to sell and individual sellers are having a tough time competing,” said Trulia.
…
“Foreclosures are smothering home prices around the United States”
Say it ain’t so, we need to do something about this pronto!
How about a foreclosure moratorium?
BTW, 1 million foreclosures over a year occur at a daily rate of
1,000,000/365 = 2,740. Got shadow inventory?
The gift that is going to keep on giving. No dumb ass moratorium will change that.
“The market is flooded with distressed homes that are priced to sell and individual sellers are having a tough time competing,” said Trulia.
Methinks that happened to the property that’s just to the east of the Arizona Slim Ranch.
The “for sale” sign lasted less than two months. It was planted on 9/14/10 and was removed on 11/12/10.
Around here, if a house goes under contract, the “for sale” sign sprouts a “sale pending” rider. In the best case scenario, the “pending” rider is replaced by one that says “sold.”
Neither rider appeared below the now-departed “for sale” sign next door.
Suppose you could buy a $500,000 home now, or wait a year to buy it at an 8.5% ($42,250) discount, for $457,750. Would you buy now, or wait a year?
And please allow me to express my skepticism that San Diego price reductions will be limited to 8.5% going forward.
San Diego housing faces 8.5% price reduction
Fiserv sees double-dip from 2nd quarter data; upturn not likely until 2012
By Roger Showley, UNION-TRIBUNE
Monday, November 15, 2010 at 3:10 p.m.
San Diego County single-family-home prices are facing an 8.5 percent fall over the next year now that buyers no longer have access to state and federal tax credits, Fiserv economists predicted Monday.
…
Actually a savings of over $100K when you factor in property tax at 1.2% a year on $42,250 and interest payments of approximately 5% on the same. OK, very rough math and not factoring in tax credits or the likes, but me I would wait for sure!
What are the specific reasons prices will turn up in 2012?
Realtor games?
There is a house in my nabe that has been on the market for about a month. Its one of three for sale on that street, and its the only one of the three thats a foreclosure/REO (vacant, stickers on the door and windows, etc.). My curiosity got the best of me, so I tried to look it up online. Even though it has a rather cheap looking sign in the yard (from the broker, but no individual agent is listed), it does not appear to be in the MLS. The house isn’t even listed on the broker’s own web site. So I broke down and emailed the agency asking the price. I got an email from one of their agents with prices on the other two houses - but not the REO that is their agency’s own listing.
Tin foil hat is telling me this is a “pocket listing”, and the buyer will be one of the broker’s cronies. Still… odd to have a sign up THAT long for a pocket listing, don’t you think? If the house had sold, there would either be a “sold” sign or no sign at all. Usually around here if a house is under contract it would still be in the MLS (at least until closing became emminent).
Strange.
I see that frequently too Kim. Flipped house appears on the MLS that was foreclosed but never listed. I don’t know if they’re pocket listings or foreclosures that end up at auction.
probably waiting for the realtor to set-up a flop. in other words line up somone who will pay 20K over what the Realtor can buy the house for off the bank then Flop it.
stupid banks or share holders really the realtor probably gives the banker a cut.
Would someone please explain the difference between flipping and flopping houses?
Funny how no one wants to actually LIVE under socialism or progressive ideas…
—————————
Low-tax states will gain seats, high-tax states will lose them
Washington Examiner
By: Barbara Hollingsworth
Migration from high-tax states to states with lower taxes and less government spending will dramatically alter the composition of future Congresses, according to a study by Americans for Tax Reform
Eight states are projected to gain at least one congressional seat under reapportionment following the 2010 Census: Texas (four seats), Florida (two seats), Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Washington (one seat each). Their average top state personal income tax rate: 2.8 percent.
By contrast, New York and Ohio are likely to lose two seats each, while Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania will be down one apiece. The average top state personal income tax rate in these loser states: 6.05 percent.
The state and local tax burden is nearly a third lower in states with growing populations, ATR found. As a result, per capita government spending is also lower: $4,008 for states gaining congressional seats, $5,117 for states losing them.
And, as ATR notes, “in eight of ten losers, workers can be forced to join a union as a condition of employment. In 7 of the 8 gainers, workers are given a choice whether to join or contribute financially to a union.”
Imagine that: Americans are fleeing high tax, union-dominated states and settling in states with lower taxes, right-to-work laws and lower government spending. Nothing sends a message like voting with your feet.
To:
Texas, Florida, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Washington.
From:
New York, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania
With the exception of Louisiana and Washington, this just looks like people moving from colder climates to warmer ones. This has been going on since the invention of air conditioning.
How are they sure it’s tax/spending rates that are causing the shift?
So then how come no one is moving to California?
They are. Millions of ‘em.
Wait, you mean citizens, don’t you?
Never mind!
So then how come no one is moving to California?
I dunno. I just wonder how they control for “taxes and spending” as a variable.
The four lowest-tax states in the country, Delaware, Tennessee, New Hampshire and Alaska are not gaining any seats either.
That list also correlates with net contributors to and net recipients from the federal budget.
Republicans seem to be good and stamping their feet and yelling “small government,” and getting Democrats to agree to send them a large share of the spoils.
N.J. Town Outlaws Sleeping In Public
Police Chief: Ordinance Designed To Deal With Homeless
ROSELLE PARK, N.J. (1010 WINS) — Getting some shuteye in one New Jersey town could land you in hot water, depending on where you lay your head.
In Roselle Park, it is against the law and you could be fined or arrested for sleeping in public.
One resident couldn’t help but laugh when she heard the news.
“Isn’t that a little crazy? I mean, if you fall asleep, like if I were to sit down on this bench and wait for a bus and I fell asleep, that’s against the law?” she said. “Don’t you think that’s a little crazy?”
Even though that’s the letter of the law, Police Chief Paul Morrison said drowsy drivers and napping babies need not worry.
“This ordinance was amended to help assist the police in addressing the increasing problem of homeless people sleeping on benches,” Morrison said.
Business owners said they’re a nuisance and eyesore, but one resident disagreed with the adopted solution.
“It would be easier if they would help them out,” he said.
For provide context, the number of vacant houses and apartments in this country should have included in this story.
Wait, drowsy drivers are okay? I would think sleeping while driving should DEFINITELY be illegal.
MarketWatch News Break
Nov. 17, 2010, 10:36 a.m. EST
Vitner: Foreclosure halts stop homebuilders too
Housing starts dropped to an 18-month low in October, and Wells Fargo Economist Mark Vitner tells MarketWatch News Break that’s due, in part, to the bank halts on foreclosures. And celebrity chefs play Burger Chef, for real.
Get ready to get your asses taxed off, and it won’t be on the evil rich. It will be on the vanishing middle class, who needs them anyway.
Soda pop, sales tax targeted to cut deficit
Wed Nov 17, 2010
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Warning of a “death spiral” without drastic changes, a group of experts on the U.S. federal budget deficit on Wednesday called for a 2011 Social Security tax holiday, a soft drink tax and government spending freezes.
In an ambitious plan to slash the deficit and the fast-mounting national debt, the group also called for a new 6.5 percent national sales tax, as well as lower and simpler individual income and corporate tax rates.
Former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Alice Rivlin and former Republican Senator Pete Domenici — both veterans of Washington’s long-running deficit wars — headed the 19-member group organized by the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank.
Domenici called the deficit “a quiet killer” undermining the economy and compared the effort required to vanquish it to the sacrifices made by Americans during World War II.
At an event to unveil the center’s plan, Rivlin said its twin goals were to boost the economy and “drastic tax reform.”
“a soft drink tax”
Fat taxes pay double-dividends, thanks to the reduction in health care costs if Americans lose weight.
Wow! What a shock…
Low-tax states will gain seats, high-tax states will lose them
Migration from high-tax states to states with lower taxes and less government spending will dramatically alter the composition of future Congresses, according to a study by Americans for Tax Reform
Eight states are projected to gain at least one congressional seat under reapportionment following the 2010 Census: Texas (four seats), Florida (two seats), Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Washington (one seat each). Their average top state personal income tax rate: 2.8 percent.
By contrast, New York and Ohio are likely to lose two seats each, while Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania will be down one apiece. The average top state personal income tax rate in these loser states: 6.05 percent.
The state and local tax burden is nearly a third lower in states with growing populations, ATR found. As a result, per capita government spending is also lower: $4,008 for states gaining congressional seats, $5,117 for states losing them.
But have you seen what property taxes are like in Texas. Sure there’s no state income tax, but property taxes are horrendous.
It was interesting that low tax Wyoming didn’t grow. No state income tax AND low property taxes. And that high tax California didn’t lose any seats.
It was interesting that low tax Wyoming didn’t grow. No state income tax AND low property taxes.
As much as people hate taxes, they usually put a lot of value on being close to customers, suppliers, and a qualified workforce. I find that they, their customers, their suppliers, and their qualified workforce aren’t particularly interested in living in Wyoming if they’ve never lived there before. Something about shopping and dealerships to service their imported cars and decent restaurants that serve something besides beef and like-minded liberal folks to associate with. At least one of those things seems to always get in the way. I like the place personally, and wish I could get a job there like I have in Boulder.
“It was interesting that low tax Wyoming didn’t grow.”
Wyoming Windsock
http://www.wyomingfishing.net/fishtails/ft_windsock.htm
Cops claim wigout over bad hair day
A Lynn couple got tangled in a hairy situation when the cops showed up at their basement apartment after the woman went after her husband with a 15-inch knife when he wouldn’t help her tame her tresses, according to the police version of events.
The couple has kissed and made up. But while Kaukauna Y. Gethers Rudolph, 51, admits she had a bad hair day, she insisted yesterday she’d never ask her husband to do her hair, no matter what police say.
“Men do not know how to do a woman’s hair,” she said. “Would you trust your husband to do your hair?”
Kaukauna admits the big to-do started early Saturday as she sat on her bed, taking out her old hair weave.
Her plan, she said, was to color her short, graying locks with Revlon jet black hair dye and put in her new hair weaves, which she had recently picked up on sale for $3 a piece at a nearby beauty supply store.
As she removed the old weaves, she asked her hubby, Kenneth “Kenny” Rudolph, 48, to fix her some food so she could finish the tedious task. “I was getting sort of hungry,” she said.
He had other plans. Kenny said he didn’t feel like cooking and wanted to go out. Kaukauna said he was “tipsy” and she didn’t want him to leave. A bitter argument erupted. Kenny, apparently alarmed, dialed 911. Meanwhile, Kaukauna claims she went into the kitchen to start cooking. Hence the big knife that was in her hands when the cops showed up.
Police say they heard yelling inside. Kenny answered the door and said his wife “came at me with a knife” and it’s “all about her asking me to help do her hair and I don’t do hair,” according to a police report.
Kaukauna, police said, had her knife behind her back. When a cop reached for it, she tried to shove it down her shorts. She pleaded not guilty to assault with a dangerous weapon and resisting arrest.
Last night, Kaukauna wore a wig over her undone mane. Her new “Sassy Collection” hair pieces — black with red highlights — remained in their packages.
Dang, I wish Oly were here to comment on this story. She’d have some funny things to say about taming those tresses.
Heck, I don’t even know what a tress is.
It’s hair.
Remember how Oly used to talk about trimming her tresses after she’d had a drink or two? And how she’d sing while doing it?
Got that beat, brotha:
Police: Man Shoots TV After Palin Dance
Man Appears At Initial Court Hearing
Posted: 6:52 pm CST November 17, 2010
MADISON, Wis. — Prosecutors said a rural Wisconsin man blasted his TV with a shotgun after watching Bristol Palin’s “Dancing with the Stars” routine, sparking an all-night standoff with a SWAT team..
http://www.channel3000.com/news/25832038/detail.html
* NOVEMBER 17, 2010, 9:15 A.M. ET
Fed’s Bullard: Government Meddling In Housing Finance Has Been ‘Astonishing’
By Doug Cameron
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
A senior Federal Reserve policy maker said Wednesday that new restrictions on the mortgaged-backed securities market could be a core principle of efforts to restructure the U.S. housing finance sector.
James Bullard, president of the St Louis Federal Reserve, also said subsidies to low-income and first-time buyers should be “disentangled” from broader home finance efforts.
Bullard, a voting member of the federal Open Markets Committee, has long called for the government to step back from its dominant role in housing finance.
In remarks opening a conference in St Louis, he laid out principles that he said could guide the reform process.
…
From the 5Min Forecast… Looks like more good times just ahead!
In fact, Monday was the worst day for municipal bonds since the Panic of ’08, the yield on 10-year AAA debt blowing out from 2.75% to 2.93%.
That prompted several issuers to hold off on new financing plans. For instance…
Orange County, Calif., postponed the sale of $160 million in Build America Bonds (about which more below). “The bond market has been pretty volatile and flooded with new issues,” says county controller Mike White
Cleveland’s public hospital system postponed the sale of $100 million in bonds intended to refinance existing higher-interest debt.
“Yields rose in such a way that our refunding didn’t make sense anymore,” says president Mark Moran of MetroHealth System in Cleveland. Heh, if he thinks yields are high now, and it doesn’t “make sense” to enter the credit markets, he’s in for a rude shock.
The Great Recession cratered revenue for states and municipalities all across the nation. Desperate to make ends meet while still maintaining existing levels of services, they did the logical thing: They cried to Washington, D.C.
Of course, as we’ve been observing in excruciating detail, Washington came through — big. Unfortunately, that milk and honey was flowing from a dry teat.
Thus, with morose trepidation, we forecast this morning that the municipal bond market is facing a double whammy day of reckoning, on the two following dates:
Dec. 31, 2010: Funding for Build America Bonds runs out. These bonds were part of the “stimulus” bill passed early 2009, subsidizing municipalities’ costs for public works projects to the tune of $150 billion.
About a quarter of all muni issuance this year has been Build America Bonds. Unless the lame-duck Democrat-controlled Congress moves quickly, this money goes bye-bye in six weeks
June 30, 2011: Still more federal aid expires on this date — some of it authorized by the “stimulus” bill, more under the “jobs” bill passed last summer, totaling another $150 billion to date. Without this money, states would have already slashed a host of programs, including unemployment benefits and Medicaid.
The likelihood the new Republican-controlled House will extend this aid ranges between slim and none. We saw Slim at the train station this morning… he’s leaving town.
Days of reckoning are never “fun” per se. Least of all will these be for the savers and retirees who’ve purchased municipal bonds because they’ve been deemed a safe source of tax-free retirement income for, well, ever.
The iceberg looming beneath the surface: A host of corporate and state pension plans rely on munis too.
Fed’s Bullard: Housing should be key in reform
Monday, February 8th, 2010, 1:59 pm
Source: Reuters
The Obama administration and U.S. lawmakers are missing an opportunity to revamp the U.S. housing finance system, which should be central to regulatory reform, a top Federal Reserve official said in an interview on Monday.
“Fixing the U.S. housing market should be one of the main focuses of regulatory reform legislation, and instead we are kicking the can,” St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard told Reuters.
“That is the wrong approach to regulatory reform. It should be a key pillar,” he said. How to “fix the situation in the mortgage markets … is an issue that the nation has not faced up to.”
The key to housing recovery: Affordable housing prices, in line with the local income and employment situation! Once the collateral is properly priced, the private sector will make loans again. But so long as the federal government is willing to step in and make money-losing loans at unaffordable prices and mortgage interest rates are artificially suppressed to reduce the falling knife risk premium, private lenders will keep their money stuffed under the mattress.
Manipulated markets don’t clear.
Home Ownership Gets Tougher on Restricted FHA Mortgages
By Jody Shenn and John Gittelsohn - Nov 17, 2010 11:41 AM PT
Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) — Home ownership may be falling out of reach for more Americans as lenders toughen their standards for Federal Housing Administration-insured loans beyond what the agency itself requires. Mortgage lenders including Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp., the two largest, have raised the minimum credit score on FHA-insured loans that they will buy to 640 from 620.
…
If there is no FHA bailout risk, then why are officials whistling so loudly as they stroll alongside the grave yard?
FHA’s cash reserves rebounding, audit shows
By Dina ElBoghdady
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 16, 2010; 12:08 AM
The Federal Housing Administration’s cash reserves remain below the level required by law, but they have not deteriorated much since last year and taxpayer funding will not be necessary to buoy the agency even under worst-case scenarios, federal officials said Monday.
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What a joke! This is a total clown show, should join the Big Apple Circus.
A new ’stress’ test, who gives a damn, all the big banks know if they f-up uncle sugar will see to it they have all the money they need to fix their boo-boo’s. Everyone a winner baby!
~Fed Orders New “Stress Tests” for Banks- AP
The nation’s largest banks must undergo new stress tests to show they can weather another recession, and the Federal Reserve said those that pass them can boost dividends paid to investors.
Should be quick test.Ok you are broke what is new?Should we print some more money and how much do you need?QE3 is round the corner.
Good lord, how long (if ever) will it takes these dumb ass dems to figure out Barry has no clue what he’s doing.
Senate Dems Showing Frustration at White House Over Tax Cuts
(AP) Senate Dems remain divided on how to move forward on the Bush-era tax cuts, and some are pointing the finger at the Obama administration, frustrated at what they see is a lack of guidance coming from the White House.
Wayne Newton Wants House Turned Into Tourist Attraction, Neighbors Don’t
Wayne Newton’s Las Vegas estate is a lavish wonderland complete with South African penguins, sweeping crystal staircases and a memorabilia collection to make a celebrity junkie salivate: a Frank Sinatra champagne glass, Nat King Cole’s watch, Steve McQueen’s Rolls-Royce and a Johnny Cash guitar.
Newton said the estate is so resplendent that he wants to open his home to the public and turn it into a tourist attraction, in a project some have dubbed Graceland West.
But Newton’s neighbors are fighting the effort. They are disturbed by the idea of noisy tour buses, unyielding traffic and inane gift shops flooding their affluent neighborhood of ranches and mansions just six miles from the Las Vegas Strip.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/11/17/wayne-newton-wants-house-turned-tourist-attraction-neighbors-dont/#ixzz15ZszeIdG
Wayne Newton Wants House Turned Into Tourist Attraction, Neighbors Don’t
Lonnie Hammargren, the ex-lieutenant governor of NV, has the same problem.
UPS says it will hire about 50,000 temporary workers to handle holiday shipments
ATLANTA (AP) — UPS says it will hire about 50,000 temporary workers to handle the crush of holiday shipments this year.
United Parcel Service said Tuesday that it expects to deliver 430 million packages between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The busiest should be Wednesday, Dec. 22, when UPS expects to deliver 24 million packages worldwide, up nearly 60 percent from a normal day.
Rival FedEx says it expects to move nearly 16 million packages on its peak day, Dec. 13.
Economists watch the predictions from UPS and FedEx for hints about the direction of the economy. Consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, and many consumer goods are handled by UPS or FedEx.
Looks like Pelosi is still in the driver’s seat for house Dems.
Sorry guys.
Are you sorry for the Rs or the Ds?
sorry for humanity.
Foreclosure class actions pile up against banks
(AP) – 2 hours ago
NEW YORK (AP) — Foreclosure-fraud class action lawsuits are starting to pile up against major banks across the country, threatening a besieged industry with billions more in potential losses.
Bank executives are swarming Capitol Hill this week to defend themselves against multiple foreclosure-related investigations, including one by all 50 state attorneys general. Talks are under way in that probe in hopes of reaching a settlement, but that wouldn’t extinguish the mounting threat of an avalanche of class actions.
A congressional watchdog said in a report issued Tuesday that the foreclosure document debacle could threaten major banks with billions of dollars in losses, further prolong the housing depression and damage the government’s effort to keep people in their homes.
The class actions, which could be expanded nationally, seek damages for homeowners whose properties were illegally foreclosed upon by banks using fraudulent documents. Suits have been filed in Maryland, New Jersey and Massachusetts that target Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., HSBC PLC and JPMorgan Chase & Co. In Florida and Maine, Ally Financial, formerly known as GMAC Mortgage, is also being targeted.
Perhaps an even bigger threat are the lawsuits that contend the banks’ foreclosure machinery amounted to a racketeering enterprise. One such case, an Indiana lawsuit against Bank of America, was filed under civil Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations or RICO laws, which allow damages to be tripled.
The race is on for the banks to keep the scandal from metastasizing. Crisis management specialists are working around the clock to help banking executives stem the financial and public relations disaster. Shares of Bank of America, the nation’s biggest lender, are already down 21 percent for the year, making it the biggest laggard in the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones industrial average.
Even if a settlement materializes with the state attorneys general, it won’t necessarily stop all the class actions, although it could slow their momentum and limit their scale. A settlement would also help assuage public distrust and outrage that is fueling a consumer backlash against banks.
The probe by the state prosecutors amounts to far more than an effort to root out the “robo-signers,” whose back-office antics of signing thousands of foreclosure affidavits a day helped trigger the scandal. Lawmakers are also pressuring the banks to re-engineer their entire mortgage and foreclosure process to rid it of what they say is systemic dysfunction.
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Hearings: Foreclosures hit homeowners not in default
By Stephanie Armour, USA TODAY
Foreclosures are hitting homeowners who are not in default and banks are tacking on excessive fees that can drive borrowers into foreclosure, according to testimony Tuesday before a congressional committee.
Diane Thompson, with the National Consumer Law Center, told the Senate banking committee that foreclosures against homeowners who are not in legal default are a widespread problem. She said about 10% of the cases she handles involve homeowners who are not in any default when foreclosures are initiated.
“You’ve even caused me more concern by your testimony,” Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., told Thompson at the hearing.
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11,007…Phew! Able to stay above, thank goodness.
GM- IPO tomorrow it’s all good. As one D.C. half-wit said… “GM is back and it’s really good for the taxpayers”.
GM says prices common shares at $33 each in IPO- AP
General Motors says its common stock will sell for $33 per share when its initial public offering takes place Thursday. The IPO brings the U.S. government closer to getting back part of the $50 billion it gave GM to help it through bankruptcy protection last year.
I’m excited.I think I will pound 6 beers tonight to celebrate.How high does this dog go and how long before it tanks below ipo price of 33?
Just watch out for the Fat Tire-soy sauce-sushi combination. It’ll knock you silly!
LOL! …and never try to plug in your hybrid when you’ve been drinkin’. Shots and Volts don’t mix.
HR 3808 (which would have overridden the President’s veto and retroactively given the banksters a pass on their MBS and robo-signing frauds) was voted down tonight. A rare victory for We the People against systemic banking system fraud.
http://clerk.house.gov/floorsummary/bill-information.php?num=203808
Most Democrats voted to uphold the Veto, doing the right thing for once. Nearly all Republicans voted to override on behalf of their Wall Street puppet-masters.
Does one out of every 155 homes receiving a foreclosure notice seem pretty high to anyone besides me? ESPECIALLY OVER JUST ONE MONTH?!
The Associated Press
November 17, 2010, 1:22PM ET
Fla. chief justice says foreclosures must be open
By BILL KACZOR
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.
Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Canady issued a memorandum Wednesday directing chief judges of the state’s trial courts to make sure foreclosure proceedings are open to the public.
Canady’s memo also emphasized that the Trial Court Budget Commission’s goal of resolving 62 percent of foreclosure cases should not prevent judges from deciding each one fairly on its merits. A $6 million special appropriation for foreclosure cases is 62 percent of what the courts requested to clear the state’s backlog so the goal was set at that level.
Florida had the nation’s highest foreclosure rate last month behind Nevada. One of every 155 Florida housing units received a foreclosure filing in October, 2.5 times the national average, according to the foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac.
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This story is unfolding very quickly!
WSJ Blogs
Developments
Real estate news and analysis from The Wall Street Journal
* Trulia: Real-Estate Price Cuts at 18-Month High
* Home Builder Awards Bonuses to Top Execs
* November 17, 2010, 5:25 PM ET
Bank Regulators Launch Examination of MERS
By Alan Zibel
Federal bank regulators are conducting examinations of two companies that banks use to process foreclosures, amid concerns that banks cut corners on thousands of foreclosure documents, Acting Comptroller of the Currency John Walsh said Wednesday.
Walsh, in remarks prepared for delivery Thursday, said his agency is examining Reston, Va.-based Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, MERS, in conjunction with the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
MERS, which lets lenders package and sell mortgages without recording each transaction with county property offices, has come under fire from critics, who say it doesn’t have the right to act as the legal representative of the mortgage owner in foreclosure cases.
MERS officials have said the company’s activities are legal in all 50 states and have held up under previous scrutiny.
The examination will asses MERS’ “corporate governance, control systems, and accuracy and timeliness of information,” Walsh said in testimony prepared for delivery Thursday at the House Financial Services Committee.
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Duke Says Fed Sees 4.25 Million More Foreclosures Through 2012
November 17, 2010, 4:00 PM EST
By Vivien Lou Chen
Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve expects about 4.25 million more foreclosure filings through 2012, and problems with the home-seizure process may threaten the U.S. housing and economic recovery, Fed Governor Elizabeth Duke said in prepared testimony.
“In the end, an overhang of homes awaiting foreclosure is unhealthy for the housing market and can delay its recovery, as well as that of the broader economy,” she said in remarks that will be presented to a congressional subcommittee tomorrow. A copy of Duke’s testimony was posted on the U.S. House of Representatives website.
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who would buy gm when u can get Ford for 1/2 the price….this ipo will help Ford…..happy i got in on Ford when it was 9 bucks a share 3 months ago
You could’ve done a tad better, sooner.
It was 2 bucks not that long ago.
Yep, at $1.90, I was the poster child for saying “Nah, I’ll wait til it goes down further.”
Homeowners in foreclosure case could see loan modifications
By Julie Schmit and Stephanie Armour, USA TODAY
More homeowners may get home loan modifications under a potential settlement being discussed between banks and state investigatorsprobing improper foreclosures, but big hurdles remain, real estate experts say.
The 50 state attorneys general are investigating whether loan servicers used faulty documents to justify tens of thousands of foreclosures. News of preliminary settlement talks between banks and the investigators broke earlier this week, but Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who’s heading the probe, says any settlement may be months away.
To get more loans modified, lawmakers and regulators will have to find ways to appease mortgage investors, who lose money if a loan’s principal is reduced. Many modifications now involve lower interest rates or longer repayment periods. Such issues are likely to be discussed Thursday at the second congressional hearing this week on the nation’s foreclosure crisis.
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So much for all the bullsh!t articles suggesting that the SoCal housing market is recovering.
SoCal home sales fall to lowest point in 3 years
By Dean Calbreath, UNION-TRIBUNE
Originally published November 16, 2010 at 9:37 a.m., updated November 16, 2010 at 4:16 p.m.
Last month was the worst October in three years for home sales in Southern California, forcing a slowdown in the recent rise in prices, according to a survey released Tuesday by MDA Dataquick, a real estate research firm in La Jolla.
Throughout the region, 16,744 were sold in October, down 7.4 percent from 18,091 sold in September, and down 24.3 percent from 22,132 sold in October 2009. In San Diego County, the year-to-year drop was even sharper, a 25.1 percent fall from 3,671 homes in October 2009 to 2,750 homes last month.
Although it is typical to have a seasonal drop between September and October, last month’s sales - for both the county and the region - were the lowest number for October since 2007 and the second-lowest for October since 1988.
The median price in the region grew 1.1 percent over the year - a much slower pace than in recent months. Between October 2009 and October 2010, the median dropped 2.7 percent in Ventura County and was flat in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. In San Diego County, the median rose 2.9 percent.
“In addition to a lousy economy, the housing market still has a couple of nasty bottlenecks it has to contend with,” said John Walsh, MDA DataQuick president.
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* MARKETS
* NOVEMBER 18, 2010
California Bond Woe Bodes Ill for States
By MICHAEL ANEIRO And STU WOO
America’s strapped states and cities took another hit Wednesday, with California seeing tepid demand for its latest bond sale and other governments pulling about $700 million worth of borrowing deals this week as investors continued stepping away from the municipal bond market.
The normally staid market has grown volatile the past week, posting its sharpest selloff in nearly two years, as investors demand higher interest rates to buy paper issued by states, cities and counties to finance their operations. Localities have been hammered by a drop in tax revenue amid the downturn—and unlike the federal government, most are barred constitutionally from running deficits.
“The tax-exempt municipal bond market is a cold, cold world right now for issuers and taxpayers,” Tom Dresslar, a spokesman for the California State Treasurer, said late Wednesday. He added that the state decided to cancel another $267.3 million bond sale it planned to price next week “in light of market conditions.”
California’s $10 billion bond sale this week was seen as a test of access for governments to the bond markets, and the middling interest signaled that municipalities could have to pay more to attract investors. The state further jolted the market by delaying the close of the bond sale, citing a lawsuit filed Tuesday that challenges a separate tactic the state is using to raise funds.
“California’s timing unfortunately couldn’t be worse,” said Gary Pollack, head of fixed-income trading and research at Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management. “This creates a fear among individual investors and probably could hurt the state in terms of paying a higher borrowing cost than if they’d done a deal at a different time.”
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* HEARD ON THE STREET
* NOVEMBER 18, 2010
Elephants Stampede Over Munis
By ROLFE WINKLER
Perhaps more municipal-bond investors should have voted Democratic.
Thanks in part to Republicans’ blowout election victory, not to mention renewed inflation fears spawned by the Federal Reserve’s latest round of bond-buying, munis have sold off sharply this month. Interest rates for the highest-quality long-term muni bonds have increased by more than half a percentage point since the beginning of November. That’s the sharpest increase in nearly two years.
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* OPINION
* NOVEMBER 18, 2010
‘Buy and Hold’ Is Still a Winner
An investor who used index funds and stayed the course could have earned satisfactory returns even during the first decade of the 21st century.
BY BURTON G. MALKIEL
In the wake of the recent financial crisis, many investors believe that the traditional methods of portfolio management don’t work anymore. They think that “buying and holding” is outdated, and that success depends on skillful timing. Diversification no longer works, they argue, because all asset classes move up and down together, especially when stock markets fall. In other words, diversification fails us just when we need it most. And they suggest that low-cost, passively managed portfolios are no longer useful, that today’s difficult investment environment requires active management.
I don’t agree with any of these arguments.
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Subjective hunch:
1) Once the economy eventually starts to convincingly recover, mattress money will flow back into assets.
2) Stocks will go up when mattress money flows into recovering company shares.
3) Housing will continue to go down for years, as shadow inventory will come to light faster than home buyers show up as the economy begins to recover.
Well, according to S&P, the ten-year return for the S&P 500 as of October 2009 was a rousing: -23.97%.
However, I agree that buy and hold can be a good strategy; my return using that strategy has produced a ten-year return of almost exactly 10% compounded annually, which is slightly better than the S&P 500’s performance.
Of course, I was mostly buying and holding gold, so it must have just been luck.
The Wall Street Journal
* LETTERS
* NOVEMBER 18, 2010
Fannie and Freddie —Who Needs Them?
In your Nov. 16 editorial “The Fannie Mae Republicans,” you say that “everyone—even Barney Frank—claims to want to reform Fannie and Freddie.” Surely there are many who, like me, question the wisdom of continued support for these bureaucracies, whether reformed or not, that are responsible for the destructive housing bubble. Shouldn’t we just get rid of them?
William E. Josey
Atlanta
Home / Business / Columns / Dave Nicklaus
Fannie and Freddie need to be fixed, Bullard says
BY DAVID NICKLAUS
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 2:19 pm
It was Rahm Emanuel who said we shouldn’t let a crisis go to waste, and now James Bullard would like to apply that dictum to the housing-finance industry.
Bullard, the president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, hosted a research conference today on the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the giant government-sponsored mortgage companies. In his opening remarks, Bullard said the current situation — with Fannie and Freddie both in conservatorship, and together with the Federal Housing Administration accounting for some 90 percent of mortgage originations today — is untenable:
Bullard called for reform “according to best principles and sound lending practices.”
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Post #500
Kind of a interesting interview .
http://www.msnbc.com/id/31510813/#40221916
America use to have what they called “The Silent Majority” which was basically the middle of the road working classes of Americans . This
group wasn’t usually involved in any extremes to the right or the left .
Something happened that has created a National nightmare from within .
Idaho Real Estate is driven by In-Migration so as the country heals, it becomes a destination state- safe, affordable, beautiful and fun.