Bits Bucket For December 1, 2010
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The Housing Bubble
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Obama may delay Hawaiian vacation over tax fight
“Washington (CNN) — President Barack Obama is considering at least a short delay to the start of his holiday vacation in Hawaii so he can try to work out a deal with congressional Republicans on the Bush tax cuts that expire December 31, CNN has learned.”
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/11/30/obama.vacation.tax.cuts/index.html
his endless vacations are worth less to him then a chance to increase taxes.
Obama is NOT increasing taxes. Taxes will increase on their own whether Obama goes on vacation or not. That’s generally what “expire” means.
Obama is trying to make YOUR tax cut permanent while allowing taxes ONLY on the rich go up BY THEMSELVES. If you make less than $200K a year,* then you should be rooting for Obama. If you bought into the debt-and-deficit hype, you should be rooting for Obama.
————
*and since you are a small businessman “struggling to survive,” then i don’t think you make over $200K in income. (”income,” not revenue from the business. That is what the Joe-the-Plumber conversation was about.)
Increasing taxes on those with more than us works for most people. It is in a way like offering to beat one’s wife less, or at least not to bloody the face, while still continuing a program of systematic destruction of the whole.
What people are missing is this:
The rich should pay less taxes because the rich have a lot more money than anyone else. Way more.
Also, the rich are the only beneficiaries of America’s economic growth the past 40 years therefore it is important that their taxes be the lowest in American history to reward them for their good fortune.
In addition, if the rich’s tax cuts expire, their income tax bill will go up like 4% and that 4% will be less money they can invest in companies that outsource to China and that will hurt Americans because toasters might then cost $12 instead of $11.
Because there are no jobs making toasters here in America, it is very important that toasters be cheap to buy therefore taxes should be cut for rich people.
If outsourcing were eliminated, along with child pornography and illegal immigration, will increasing the progressiveness of our income tax make things better?
I hate to break it to the rich folks in the USA, but the reason you are going to have to pay more in taxes is because “that’s where the money is”.
J6P = Squeezed Turnip
As far as the poor paying their “fair share”, they are already paying more in taxes vs. the “rich” when you consider the WHOLE tax burden (state and local sales taxes, property taxes, fuel taxes, the list goes on and on).
Total sales taxes are pushing 10% in a lot of areas, even out here in “low tax” flyover country.
Let them eat macadamia nuts.
OK, it’s just that i don’t think people are focused on what the real problem is under the layers of the onion. It is not the tax rates on the wealthy. The wealthy might be “a problem”, but kill them all and we will not have fixed the mess for the rest of us.
We don’t need to kill them all……..
“We don’t need to kill them all……..”
Yeah…just the top 10% and waterboard the rest 24/7 just for $hits and giggles?
Get rid of the 30 million illegal aliens and we will save 200 billion or more per year. The top 1% of tax payers pay 40% of the taxes. The bottom 50% pay less than 3% of the taxes.
+1
Who exactly are “The” rich?
Poor class warfare.
Someone with $250k income (earned through skill and effort) with nothing yet in bank is “The Rich”?
Someone with $250k income (earned through skill and effort) with nothing yet in bank is “The Rich”?
I’d say that sounds more like “The Dumb”.
Amen. If you make $250 gross and “can’t” save a plugged nickel, then something’s seriously wrong with your spending habits.
Seriously.
What about if I made 250,000 this year but lost 150,000 over the last three years? Should I get taxed on all my income this year? this is very unfair and 250,000 does not mean rich at all!
I should only be taxed on 25,000 per year if all is equal? Life is not in a bubble …
Per Rioetc
—Someone with $250k income (earned through skill and effort) with nothing yet in bank is “The Rich”?
I’d say that sounds more like “The Dumb”.—
How is it dumb?
A cardiologist age 33 fresh out of College and Medical School, with 250k in debt, who worked 90 hour weeks for 6 years at $38k/year to become cardiologist, has first year in private practice, income of $250k, overwhelming debt, worked harder to get where he is than most Americans do and has no savings yet.
Is he rich?
No.
What is DUMB is confusing income for wealth. It has been said are folks taking $1 in “income” per year who have a billion in investments. There are new Docs out there with $250 income with net worth negative $250
Obumbler simply tries to split the country via “income” lines. In the old days we had race baiting. Now we have wealth baiting.
A cardiologist age 33 fresh out of College and Medical School, with 250k in debt, who worked 90 hour weeks for 6 years at $38k/year to become cardiologist, has first year in private practice, income of $250k, overwhelming debt, worked harder to get where he is than most Americans do and has no savings yet.
Blah, Blah…. Whatever Dr. That don’t cut it. Sorry. Many have no sympathy for doctors who defend the deadly status quo, or your inefficient corrupt Medical Industrial Complex.
You studied. Big deal. Many have. Write a sad song. What have you done for your people? What have you done for the medical situation in the USA? Not much in the aggregate considering the problem of the richest country in the world and the BS heath system that you encourage.
Sorry if we’re going to raise your tax 4% when you make 5 times the national average wage.
“What is DUMB is confusing income for wealth.”
True, evildoc. But it can cut the other way as well.
Imagine someone who does not earn a very large income, but has managed to save a substantial nest-egg regardles. Should they be taxed heavily because they are thrifty?
No, seriously, 250k annual income and no savings is the stupid.
Baring some catastrophe and even then, the tax laws allow deductions for those.
Per Rioetc…
—Blah, Blah…. Whatever Dr.—-
Thus, conceding debate, Rio does not embrace the question.
Again, you mooks are being used to split the population as in… divide and conquer.
What a Trillion to bail out banks that should have gone under? How much Fed money it turns out going to bail out Europe. Unemployment “insurance” for eternity (was it Sweden or Denmark recently showing the longer unemployment is paid the longer the recipients manage to stay unemployed).
People should be taxed (whether thrifty saver or good earner… or both) based on… cautious… not profligate… government spending.
Social Security should not be cut as is now proposed (at least once we decided to have SS back in the 30’s, which maybe we never should have had) when the government fairly recently raped the SS endowment saying it was ok to do so, becaues the borrowing is backed by the “faith in the US Gov’t”, again while bailing out the banksters with gazillions. Howzat working out?
But, we will label folks who make a couple of you… jealous… as being worthy of the hit, because those evil folks make more than you do. Obumbler calls them “the rich”. I’ve just shown many of them are not rich, to which Rio says “blah”. Strong counterpoint by him, no doubt.
Class envy is as bad as class condescension. Lefties don’t like hearing “if only the poor pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, they’d be rich too”. Righties don’t like hearing, “I’m jealous of anyone who makes more than me, so lets financially rape him, while leaving me alone”. Go figure.
RIOetc, wrote
“You studied. Big deal. Many have. Write a sad song. What have you done for your people? What have you done for the medical situation in the USA? Not much in the aggregate considering the problem of the richest country in the world and the BS heath system that you encourage. ”’
And there we have sad class envy from a guy whose erudite response to my thesis was “blah whatever”.
I’ll answer though.
I studied. I chose the right path. I’m lucky enough to have supportive family and the gifts to do a job most of you can’t or won’t or didn’t qualify to do. There are no guarantees. What has that to do with adding onerous taxes.
What have I done for people’s health? I fear I cannot let you conflate health care policy with individual health care provision. Whichever system is best (yeah, the Saudi King is going Sao Paulo for his surgery… oh wait, no, forgot, it’s New York for that), has nothing to do with taxing folks who earn their bucks. What I do personally is save lives every day, and do a pretty good job of it. Everyone likes to dis us until they need us. But, again, all this reveals is the class envy in place with those objecting to my post. Income is not Wealth and I gave a great example proving that, which has not been disproven by anyone here.
It matters not
One of the signs of weak thought on all these bubble boards since 2005 has been the “industrial complex” whine. Military, Housing, Medical, Food… always gets the “IC” added at end when folks run out of actual thought.
I’ve proven that having a good income is not synonymous with being “rich. Our president talks about taxing the rich. Clearly there is a disconnect. And folks here seem to resent the heck out of those earning decent wage. Rank populism. Sad
Per Rioetc…
—Blah, Blah…. Whatever Dr.—-
Thus, conceding debate, Rio does not embrace the question.
Again, you mooks are being used to split the population as in… divide and conquer.
What a Trillion to bail out banks that should have gone under? How much Fed money it turns out going to bail out Europe. Unemployment “insurance” for eternity (was it Sweden or Denmark recently showing the longer unemployment is paid the longer the recipients manage to stay unemployed).
People should be taxed (whether thrifty saver or good earner… or both) based on… cautious… not profligate… government spending.
Social Security should not be cut as is now proposed (at least once we decided to have SS back in the 30’s, which maybe we never should have had) when the government fairly recently raped the SS endowment saying it was ok to do so, becaues the borrowing is backed by the “faith in the US Gov’t”, again while bailing out the banksters with gazillions. Howzat working out?
But, we will label folks who make a couple of you… jealous… as being worthy of the hit, because those evil folks make more than you do. Obumbler calls them “the rich”. I’ve just shown many of them are not rich, to which Rio says “blah”. Strong counterpoint by him, no doubt.
Class envy is as bad as class condescension. Lefties don’t like hearing “if only the poor pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, they’d be rich too”. Righties don’t like hearing, “I’m jealous of anyone who makes more than me, so lets financially rape him, while leaving me alone”. Go figure.
RIOetc, wrote
“You studied. Big deal. Many have. Write a sad song. What have you done for your people? What have you done for the medical situation in the USA? Not much in the aggregate considering the problem of the richest country in the world and the BS heath system that you encourage. ”’
And there we have sad class envy from a guy whose erudite response to my thesis was “blah whatever”.
I’ll answer though.
I studied. I chose the right path. I’m lucky enough to have supportive family and the gifts to do a job most of you can’t or won’t or didn’t qualify to do. There are no guarantees. What has that to do with adding onerous taxes.
What have I done for people’s health? I fear I cannot let you conflate health care policy with individual health care provision. Whichever system is best (yeah, the Saudi King is going Sao Paulo for his surgery… oh wait, no, forgot, it’s New York for that), has nothing to do with taxing folks who earn their bucks. What I do personally is save lives every day, and do a pretty good job of it. Everyone likes to dis us until they need us. But, again, all this reveals is the class envy in place with those objecting to my post. Income is not Wealth and I gave a great example proving that, which has not been disproven by anyone here.
It matters not
One of the signs of weak thought on all these bubble boards since 2005 has been the “industrial complex” whine. Military, Housing, Medical, Food… always gets the “IC” added at end when folks run out of actual thought.
I’ve proven that having a good income is not synonymous with being “rich. Our president talks about taxing the rich. Clearly there is a disconnect. And folks here seem to resent the heck out of those earning decent wage. Rank populism. Sad really
Many millionaires and billionaires manipulate their wealth to be “0″ all the time.
Income tax is not about net worth, or it would be a “net worth” tax. The law cares not how bad you are at handling your income. Nor should it.
Emperor, you wear no clothes.
evildear,
Income averaging, CME tax credits, et al. C’mon. While these arguments are irrelevant to your original post, and I agree that 250K a year is hardly “rich” in comparison to the eight-figure crowd, the proposed tax “increases” are hardly onerous. The last ten years have been anomalous and obviously catastrophic. Most of us here would be THRILLED to pay 3% more taxes on a $600K+/year take. I know I sure would….
Not disparaging the effort it took to get where you are, just saying the system that enabled you to do so needs some serious tweaking because the middle classes are paying a disproportionate share of the remediation. If no one can afford a $150K bypass/valve replacement anymore, you’re going to end up getting paid on the same scale as the fellow in Thailand who charges $3500 for it.
A little perspective? When my father started his cardio practice in the late 50’s the tax rate was 87% for his income range. He managed. So will you.
Actually you should be rejoicing…if all “rich” folk react the same as you have, you’ll have patients coming out the wazoo!
+1
Creepy Evangelical Patriarchy Movement Shackles Daughters to Their Fathers and Homes
November 29, 2010
“Daughters aren’t to be independent. They’re not to act outside the scope of their father. As long as they’re under the authority of their fathers, fathers have the ability to nullify or not the oaths and the vows. Daughters can’t just go out independently and say, ‘I’m going to marry whoever I want.’ No. The father has the ability to say, ‘No, I’m sorry, that has to be approved by me.’
http://tinyurl.com/24lfel6
Conservative authoritarians want to lock up everyone including their own.
Well at least fringe Islamic sects don’t practice that kind of stuff!
Religion is just plain creepy, regardless of its name.
So the evangelical fundies are no different than the islam fundies. So we agree on something.
Fundies are bad news, no matter what religion.
Jon Krakauer got that point across pretty well in this book:
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
Jon Krakauer (Author)
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I thank you not PB, and I believe your wife would agree with me, for attempting to sustain an inaccurate stereotype with regard to mainstream Mormonism.
For those who would like to learn more about mainstream LDS beliefs go here: http://www.lds.org
Wrong. I don’t have the link, but I saw a recent article about a 42 year old Saudi woman who was suing her father because he turned away every guy she wanted to marry. By Saudi law, a father has to give the okay to whom his daughter is to marry.
I don’t like the fundamentalism at all on either side. I’m one dam proud atheist American.
If the deists Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Paine were alive today, they would consider themselves atheists instead of deists. Deists are one step away from atheism.
Now we get to the heart of the matter. You do not like conservatives because they do not agree to let you have all their womenfolk.
I have found the daughters of strict conservatives much more wild than daughters of liberals. I think political dogma skips a generation.
So as not to be labeled sexist, the son of the police chief of the town I grew up in always had the best drugs.
And the son of the current police chief was shot to death after he murdered a policeman from another town.
And that’s why “preacher’s kids” have a reputation as wild.
As the parent of three teenage-20 something daughters in a very conservative/Bible Thumper area of the country, I’ve seen this with my daughter’s friends time and time again.
Paraphrasing Princess Leia, “The more the parents squeeze, the more the kids slip thru their fingers”
When they go off to college, they either go ape-$hit crazy with the partying, or they have no ability to separate truth from BS, or both. Either way, nine times out of ten, the outcomes are not exactly what the parents have planned.
I’m watching that happen in my own family. At family dinners I always offered my sons a little wine. My sister refused to allow her kids to have a drop of alcohol, even though they drank. Guess what? Her now college-aged kids are always drunk and have gotten hurt/in trouble because they can’t handle their alcohol. My sons could take or leave alcohol. Prohibition doesn’t work.
Prohibition doesn’t work.
In Brazil you can drink at 18. (Actually they don’t pay too much attention to that kind of stuff) Drinking is no “big-deal” here.
Brazilian college kids do not drink nearly as much as American college kids. It’s just not a big deal. Yawn.
I knew a guy growing up whose mother would offer him a little wine with dinner on occasion. Long story short, he’s dead. The guy became a horrible alcoholic and druggie, and died from an overdose. I don’t think it’s one size fits all for every family and individual.
The 21 limit for drinking is idiotic. Especially for anyone in the armed services.
You are basically saying “You’re are responsible enough to go out and get your azz shot at, but not to go out and have a beer.
Let them have a beer/wine when they are 12 years old. 99% of the kids won’t like it very much, and wonder what the big deal is. Worked at the X-GSfixr house.
Rio, I’m against any prohibition. But the Europeans also have a drinking age of 18. Recently the Redondo Beach foreign language institute lost one of their 18 year old students who was hit on a freeway while walking drunk. The students charter drinking busses and make the busses drive around L.A. Now the law is starting to crack down on that. The European kids are trying to get aaround the drinking age laws in the US. So that’s why they charter the buses.
The European kids are trying to get aaround the drinking age laws in the US. So that’s why they charter the buses.
Unless the buses are somehow international territory, I don’t see how this gets around the laws. Maybe it helps them to avoid being caught, but that isn’t the same thing. I also wonder what’s in it for the bus driver/charter company. Isn’t there a massive potential liability issue?
Prohibition isn’t the answer, but instead couldn’t we make punishments more harsh for those who hurt others in pursuit of vice? (including no taxpayer funding of lung cancer treatments for lifelong smokers)
We used to call that the “Wild woman of Wongo,” syndrome in college. People who never had any freedom when they were teenagers sometimes go crazy when they’re suddenly on their own.
Thus the ubiquitous “Girls Gone Wild” series was born.
Too bad I was always too poor to go to Florida for spring break.
My ex is from Kuwait. Kuwait has been very liberal relative to the other arab nations. She was wild with me! And she told me that in high school in Kuwait she would wear mini skirts to school just to dis the authorities at the school.
She told me that Kuwaiti teenagers (back in the early 90s) drove BMWs, Mercedes Benz cars, had pagers, and so on. I figure these days they have the latest gadgets still.
I saw one 60 minutes show on Kuwait. One Kuwaiti woman interviewed, wearing tight jeans at a mall in Kuwait City said that if Kuwait goes fundamentalist, she would move to America.
Not all Muslims are fundies. My girlfriend was Muslim, but the only tradition she would do was go home for Ramaden. She would not hurt a fly.
I think it’s the womenfolk who do the agreeing/not agreeing, dude. How many of you have ever chosen not to date a girl just because her daddie didn’t want you to?
My brother and I are both combat vets and therefore slightly weird old neanderthals but he’s a real trip.
Years ago at family gatherings at our Mom’s place, when my niece started dating, he would become rattled about all these young boys she’d invite over and he’d start cleaning his his deer rifles out of nervous habit.
One poor kid came out on the porch and told me that he didn’t think my brother liked him very much. I asked why and he said that he is cleaning his 30-06 again and he just cleaned it last week.
Sheesh…thank God the girl was cute and the boys were gutsy or she never would have become a happily married young woman.
From the article;
“A father is considered his daughter’s authority until he transfers control to her husband”…
Isn’t that what the necon’s try and tell us that they are trying to eliminate in Iraq & Afghanistan ?? Nation building ?? Womens rights ?? Seems like we should be looking within our own borders before we venture outside of them…
ZZZZZZZZZZZZING!
scdave has it figured out. Call it what it is. Hypocrisy.
“A father is considered his daughter’s authority until he transfers control to her husband”…
That wouldn’t have worked in my family. Not ever.
Reason: The female members of my family are quite outspoken. At any place and any time.
Matter of fact, the expression “Question Authority” was created just for us.
In my youth, we liked the Morman girls. They
didn’t use makeup, didn’t go to movies, didn’t
dance, but…………………….wow
See, that’s because there weren’t enough scarily violent beatings in your house. Rampant fear is required to stamp out individuality and critical thinking.
When you have parents that think ‘love’ equals ’supporting and nurturing your kids and trying to help them learn about the world’ instead of ‘beating the kids senseless whenever they displease you’ you tend to wind up with outspoken individuals.
(Note that ‘love’ equals ‘letting your kids run wild’ results in suboptimal human beings as well.)
‘beating the kids senseless whenever they displease you’
This kind of parenting usually results in kids who become serial killers or Wall Street bankers.
That kind of parenting is the norm.
“TrueDeceiver’s™” / “TrueHypocrite™”
Line forms to the right, …right next to the hanging banner claiming: “We’re Always Right, about EVERYTHING!“
I talked to a Roman Catholic Priest who studied in Toronto in the 1960’s. At that time his textbooks stated that women did not have souls, only men had souls. Soon after he left the church.
“God created Man in his own image. Woman he made from a rib.”
- from the film The Agony and The Ecstasy
And everyone after Adam and Eve was created by a “bone”……..
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
“God created Man in his own image.”
Sure, and middle-east Jesus was 6′2″ tall with blond hair and beautiful teeth.
The Universe is vast, but [man] is supposedly at the center of things.
I’d love to see that textbook. Kind of goes against Marian devotion. Anyway, if woman had no souls, why would they be baptized or canonized as Saints?
Anyway, I’m calling BS on that one. He probably quit for another reason,
It was probably some cranky old monseigneur told him that.
And Mary said: My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord
http://www.catholic.org/bible/book.php?id=49&bible_chapter=1#47
I talked to a Sunni Imam who studied in Mecca in the 1990’s. At that time his koran stated that women did not have souls, only men had souls. Soon after he left the mosque….Not.
I talked to a Shiite Imam who studied in Medina in the 1980’s. At that time his Quaran stated that women were only possessions and could be discarded like dogs if they disobeyed. Soon after he left the Mosque…Not.
I talked to a customs agent in Cairo and he said, “These guys wipe their ass with their hand and then tell you that pork is unclean. WTF?”
“Conservative authoritarians want to lock up everyone including their own.”
Anywhere on the planet too!
Endless vacations?
Does he spend a lot of time in Crawford TX?
What most of you folks defending Obama’s Massive spending on trips around the world, and claims of “vacations” being less than the Republican “vacations” is what you directly point out.
BUSH WAS IN CRAWFORD TEXAS. His Home.
How much does it cost the taxpayer for the President to go home, as opposed to a swanky 5-star hotel with 40 rooms and massive support staff, along with friends and cronies.
I wouldn’t give a hoot if Obama went home, i.e. to Chicago, to “vacation”. he can still take calls, still be attending to business and hang out at his house. But no, he isn’t going to Chicago.
He’s going to Hawaii, probably the most expensive place he can find in U.S. Territory.
Get real. This guy has been having a party on our money since his first day in office. At least Bush had the decency to spend more time at a place that wasn’t running up a tab on the taxpayers.
Comparing “vacation days” isn’t a realistic comparison. We are not upset about him being away. In fact, the more days away from Washington, the better. We’re tired of the costs of making these trips, as if he were the King of England, or some other sovereign lord. He thinks he is. But he is not.
We’re tired of the costs of making these trips, as if he were the King of England, or some other sovereign lord.
I know! King of England. England. Now he’s even got the gall to act like an Anglo or something.
Unbelievable.
“At least Bush had the decency to spend more time at a place that wasn’t running up a tab on the taxpayers.”
Think the “vacation” thing is a distraction and probably not worth arguing about.
And I’m sure the taxpayers spent a pretty penny securing Crawford.
…Obama’s Massive spending on trips around the world…
Yes, because everyone knows that Bush didn’t need any security, helicopters or jets in his FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-THREE* days off in four years, over ONE QUARTER of his time in office.
*Not counting the 487 days at Camp David.
over ONE QUARTER of his time in office.
Oops.
ONE EIGTH.
Don’t know how I forgot he had two terms.
ONE EIGTH.
EIGHTH.
That’s it. I’m done for today.
Perhaps lavi d needs a vacation…..
The reason Obama travels more, is because everyone else in the world wants him to visit.
Bush was like your idiot, redneck, second cousin who insisted on camping on your front lawn in a twenty year old, trashed out camper trailer
Were some of those days off on the weekend? Those are officially “off”, but you know the President probably still takes care of a thing or two. If weekends are included in your number, then Bush only had 18 vacation/holiday days per year for four years. Otherwise, yeah, that’s a lot.
Perhaps lavi d needs a vacation…..
Thanks. I’ll tell my boss you suggested it!
Get real.
Yeah, Shrub & Laura rode matching Air-force 1 mopeds from DC to Crawford…
BWAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! (fpss™)
Are you sure he’s not spending his own salary to pay for his vacations? It certainly wouldn’t be fair to expect the guy to do this super hard, demanding, stressful job in exchange for nothing, would it? He gets predefined vacation time just like everyone else. If he wants to go to Hawaii (where he was born) on vacation, then let him.
You don’t see him getting mad every time you take a vacay, do you?
We need to follow the recommendations of the deficit commission. I wish they would follow it like a cookbook, including retiring tax cuts for the wealthy. We can easily afford it; Tiffany’s and BMW wouldn’t like it.
his endless vacations are worth less to him then a chance to increase taxes.
Bush II, number of vacation days, first year in office - 69
Reagan, number of vacation days, first year in office - 42
Bush I, number of vacation days, first year in office - 40
Obama, number of vacation days, first year in office - 28
Clinton, number of vacation days, first year in office - 21
Carter, number of vacation days, first year in office - 19
Factcheck.org
The GOP vomit evaporates in the presence of factcheck.org.
Why did you do that Lavi?
Why did you do that Lavi?
Huh?
I believe the Republicans are ruthless and the Democrats are clueless.
I tend to lean towards the left because the Dems do much less hypocritical bible-thumping.
I actually like the idea of smaller government, more personal freedom and responsibility. It’s just that these things don’t mean the same to Xtianicans.
But the Republicans’ buddies are leaving the porch light lit for Jesus’ return. Nothing else matters!
The perception might be skewed by days with media attention.
Anything on $ per vacation? Just wondering.
I don’t think money spent for “vacations” will be compared. It’s the days away from the Whitehouse. That makes Obama look more active in “working for the American People”. Ha.
Here’s the deal. We’re paying for Air Force 1 and all the security, whether he uses it or not.
The fuel,meals and hotel rooms are a rounding error compared to the up front costs.
Now whether ANY President or Congressman needs this level of security is another question. IMO, this cocoon we put around our “leadership” can’t help but isolate them from what the “wretched refuse” really think.
A few eggs/tomatos pelting a few limos might go a long way toward getting the message across.
It didn’t work for Bush II. Somebody did manage to egg his limo at his Inauguration (don’t remember which one). It was seen as a major Secret Service failure.
“Here’s the deal. We’re paying for Air Force 1 and all the security, whether he uses it or not.”
Are we paying for 60 to 70 rooms for Michelle and 40 of her ‘closest friends in the chic Costa del Sol in southern Spain whether she uses them or not? Hey, more power to him I guess but this President, his family and friends are living LARGE.
Andrea Tantaros has penned a scorching editorial for the New York Daily News deeming First Lady Michelle Obama a “modern-day Marie Antoinette” for her vacation in Spain with her daughter.
“The First Lady is spending the next few days in a five-star hotel on the chic Costa del Sol in southern Spain with 40 of her ‘closest friends,’” Tantaros writes, pointing to a CNN report that Michelle Obama and her group are expected to occupy 60 to 70 rooms. “Not exactly what one would call cutting back in troubled times.”
A few eggs/tomatos pelting a few limos might go a long way toward getting the message across.
When I lived in Pittsburgh in the early 1990s, President Reagan paid us a call. If you recall your Reagan history, that was the visit when he was speaking at a job training center. A jobless trainee came out of the audience and gave the President his resume.
What was less widely reported was what happened before that event. While Reagan’s motorcade was passing through Downtown, it went past a crowd of angry unemployed people.
A friend of mine was among them, and she was almost crushed by the crowd as it rushed toward the motorcade. Some people in that crowd also pelted the motorcade with tomatoes.
That was Reagan’s only visit to the ‘Burgh while he was President.
On the list of problems facing this country (and the amount of money needed to fix them), Obama’s trips/vacations/state visits are about number 2,387 on the priority list.
Just another Republican tactic to deflect attention from the real problem, which is the MNCs and the banksters screwing the rest of the country, aided and abetted by a fair number of our Republican Party representatives.
Can’t wait for them to be exposed when more Banksters chickens start roosting again, and TARP 2.0 gets rolled out…….
‘the real problem’
Most number crunchers agree the spending problems are:
Medicare
Social Security
Military
Medicare and Social Security would be far less of a “problem”, if we simply:
1. Means tested Social Security and raised the retirement age slightly, to reflect the fact that people today live a lot longer than they did back in 1935.
2. Switched to a single-payer system, covered everyone, allowed Medicare to negotiate drugs prices, allowed insurance companies to compete across state lines, and aligned financial incentives with actual healthcare *outcomes*.
IMHO, #1 financial problem the U.S. is facing is income inequality (U.S. income inequality now exceeds such beacons of democracy as Rwanda and Uganda):
http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
http://8020vision.com/2010/11/16/when-does-the-wealth-of-a-nation-hurt-its-wellbeing/
I say, jack up tax rates on the rich and start requiring mega-corporations and Wall Street banksters to actually *start* paying taxes. According to most Americans these days, I guess that makes me an unrepentent “socialist”.
Jeff:
See above. I think the President pays for his own vacations, although the secret service, etc, will follow him everywhere and of course are not on his dime.
ISTR that the president reimburses the government for the cost of a ticket on a commercial carrier when he travels via Air Force one for either personal or politcal travel.
Right. And where were these critics of presidential travel and vacations when dubya was on vacation? Where was their outrage then? The answer is they were nowhere to be found, because these are neither accurate nor fair criticisms. It’s nothing more than unsubstantiated lies spread around by dittohead sheeple who cannot think for themselves and simply regurgitate untruths fed to them by their puppet masters. Wake up, j@ckasses.
Where was their outrage then?
The “…not 2001-2008… but NOW!!!” …“TrueAnger™” / “TrueReducetheFederalDeficitNow!™” fist shaking, Yell! Scream! Holler! crowd was spectating with “fiscal” noise reducing earplugs intact while Shrub was reading Cheney’s SIS BOOM Rah! x2 war cue cards.
Oh, don’t delay Bammy. Take those deprived girls on a vacation already.
We need it to stimulate the economy! Didn’t Bush tell us all to go on vacay?
Well, look likes its a moot point about Obama vacation. All 42 Republicans in the Senate signed a letter stating that they will filibuster everything…EVERYTHING, until they get their tax cuts for the rich.
What we need is a Senate rule change to make them do a classic filibuster a la Jimmy Stewart.
Bleak midwinter thought:
How will banks with lotsa vacant 4br REO inventory manage to find buyers for all of it, given (1) their insistence on selling for top dollar; (2) the receding wave of baby boomers with families, who might have been willing and able to buy these places during the 2010-2013 period, but who will be aged beyond the point of potential interest from 2014 going forward.
I sense a white elephant glut which is never going to go away.
Mr. Bear
You hit my situation right on the mark. In 2003-2004 We started our search for a single family 4/2/2 in a decent neighborhood. Well here we sit on the verge of 2011 after buy now or be priced out forever, euphoria, denial, it will be a soft landing, TARP, HAMP, I am a victim, Robo signers and all the cr@p that has been well documented here thanks to Ben Jones and many intelligent people. Meanwhile my kids have grown and we are on the verge of not needing a 4/2/2 but a 3/2/2 and soon after a 2/2/2 while the powers that be figure out how to save the banks and the “victims” of the greatest ponzi scheme in the history of the world.
“and many intelligent people.”
Many intelligent people on the HBB, I have a hard time finding intelligent people anywhere else.
+ one.
Second greatest. Social Security is #1.
“Second greatest. Social Security is #1.”
I stand corrected.
How is Social Security a Ponzi scheme? Maybe a reverse Ponzi scheme, since those making more than $100,000 pay less into it than those making more, yet reap more benefits.
Through SS, my kids and other workers send me money every month. They do this on the promise that someone even younger will send money to them when they get old. Like all Ponzi pyramids, it continues to work only as long as you have more new people paying in than you have people above the bottom taking money out. If the working population were to decline, the pyramid would collapse immediately. If the working population simply stops growing, the collapse takes longer but it ultimately happens.
When SS started, there were something like 16 workers for every retiree and life expectancy was less than 70. Now there are only about 3 or 4 workers per retiree. As we old goats live longer, the retiree population is growing faster than the working population. Collapse is inevitable.
If new people stop entering the SS pyramid, it will collapse.
That’s why they make it mandatory to participate (well, for most).
I wouldn’t assert that it is a pyramid. It DOESN’T depend on a geometricly growing number of contributers, which is the defining characteristic of a pyramid scheme. After all, as NoVa points out participation is mandatory, and near 100% of workers. But…for years, a relatively generous benefit/contribution ratio could be maintained by the fact that the outsized Baby Boomer cohort was moving through the workforce paying for the retirement of the smaller Greatest Generation cohort.
The best analogy I’ve seen is to a co-op cafeteria, where people show up, work for 45 minutes and then sit down for lunch. This would work great if people showd up at even intervals throughout the day. But they don’t. If we consider the boomer cohort the dinner rush we can see what’s happening. When the lunch rush showed up the large number of them were able to provide superior service to the smaller number of people sitting down for the “early bird special.” But now a larger number of people are getting ready to sit down to eat, and there are fewer people arriving to work. Inevitably, we can either provide less service than was anticipated, or we can have the workers do more, either by working harder or longer.
Ew, I like that analogy! No, actually, I LOVE it!
I don’t like the result, though.
I better hurry up and grab my tray and tuck in!!!
If SS is a Ponzi scheme, then every insurance company is a Ponzi scheme. Which it is not.
What SS is is a insurance program that has some actuarial problems with is pool of policies. They will have to cut back on benefits or convince the policy holders to kick in extra premiums. SS is not an investment fund - that is what your IRA, 401(k), etc. are supposed to be. Completely different accounting principles for completely different businesses.
“How is Social Security a Ponzi scheme?”
Partly due to accident (no one circa 1935 could have foreseen the juxtaposition of the Baby Boom and the modern medical miracle of increased life expectancies to age 70 and beyond) and partly due to design (pay-as-you-go financing hides the massive liability for future generations of retirees from view).
Any questions?
“If SS is a Ponzi scheme, then every insurance company is a Ponzi scheme.”
WRONG!
Do a little reading up on actuarial cost methods and report back to us when you know enough to not appear abysmally ignorant.
Ummm…professor, I have a question…here in the back. What’s wrong with a Ponzi-scheme? Isn’t that the new normal for everything?
Social Security would be on much better footing if people had continued to smoke and there had been no advances in medicine.
I don’t think it qualifies as a ponzi scheme.
Social Security and municipal style pension plans are doomed to fail because they offer unlimited benefits for limited contributions. Each person should have a specific SS and pension balance based on how much they contributed and how much the fund has grown from investment returns (or losses). Thus if you contributed say $10,000 a year into your pension or SS fund for 40 years you would have a balance of $400,000 plus (or minus) the growth (or losses) of the fund. That amount would then last you for the duration of your life and even if you died on the day of your retirement should be inheritable. IT IS YOUR MONEY. Beyond your contributions, IT IS NOT YOUR MONEY!
This balance should cover ALL of your medical costs and any other money you take out of the system and should NOT pay those lucky enough to live to 95 dozens of times more than someone who dies at 70!
“Social Security and municipal style pension plans are doomed to fail because they offer unlimited benefits for limited contributions.”
Wrong, wrong, wrong!!! Social Security is a final average pay plan. Benefits are limited in many ways, and tied to your lifetime earnings.
Spreading disinformation is a disservice to the HBB.
PLEASE READ THIS BOOK AND GET BACK TO US!!!:
Actuarial Mathematics [Hardcover]
Newton L. Bowers (Author), Hans U. Gerber (Author), James C. Hickman (Author), Donald A. Jones (Author), Cecil J. Nesbitt (Author)
Hardcover
Publisher: Society of Actuaries
Published: May 1997
Amazon Price New from Used from
– $120.00 $84.99
5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Read!
I have never picked up any writ or manuscript that captivated me as much as Bowers and his eloquent text! Without a doubt, this is the feel-good book of the summer! Words can not begin to describe the thoroughness of his explanations, the detail in each computation, and the fluidity with which the lessons flow!
Published on June 16, 1999
“3-4 workers per retiree….”
Is that before or after outsourcing?
I think it’s kinda like a Ponzi scheme because today’s receivers of money are being paid by today’s contributors. It’s not like an investment fund, where you are paid with the returns on your own money. The money you are paying into SS today is going directly to feed today’s old people. When you get old, your SS check will paid for by your kids’ generation.
They set it up this way for two reasons. The first was to protect people in case their investments (or the investment scene in general) didn’t work out. The second was to protect people from inflation. A dollar saved by dad 30 years ago is not that much anymore. Hence, it’s hard for people to “save,” rather than “ivest,” for their future.
The solution is just to say “All right. The young people at any moment are going to have to subsidize the old people at any moment.”
That should work fine. As a matter of fact, the Boomers payed an excess into the SS fund, so that excess should be there to help us help them when they retire. Unfortunately, Congress has been raiding the excess money from SS for a long time, which means it’s not going to be there when needed for its intended purpose.
So, IOW, I think that SS is a Ponzi scheme that would have actually worked if it weren’t for the policies that allowed Congress to raid the piggy bank.
I think a better way to think of Social Security is that Social Security recipients are low-paid federal employees who have contributed a little something to offset their “salaries”.
I think the plan is to take care of the boomer bulge by taking away Medicare. No health care in old age = lower life expectancy.
This is a rough crowd tonight.
I’m just waiting for someone to sugguest a multi-million dollar no-bid contract to the Xe(aka Blackwater) thugs to terminate the over 65 crowd with headshots under the neoCON mantra…
“You’ve gotta Kill SS …to Save it”
For some reason I have a sneaking suspicion that Uncle Sam and Megabank, Inc will end up saddling the U.S. monetary base with the falling knife costs for all these white elephants. Otherwise, wouldn’t the banks be in a bit more of a hurry to sell them?
You’ll have more money for yourself and your family, rather than being in poverty and having enriched the vampire squids.
No no no….
These larger homes would be great opportunities for laid-off workers to turn into bed-and-breakfast joints. This is a thriving industry and a sure-fire moneymaker.
You just gave me an idea for how to stimulate an economic recovery. What if EVERYBODY turned their house into a B&B and then we took turns staying at each other’s houses every night? That would get the money flowing!
Isn’t there a kid’d book like this? Only it is restaurants and the people live on an island that has a massive diamond mine and they take a certain amount of them off the island each year and sell them for supplies. So, I guess it works as long as you have a huge amount of natural resources to export it can work?
I believe you’re describing The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene Dubois. Of course ISTR that the Island in question was Krakatoa. Personally I was more of a The Three Policemen or Young Bottsford of Farbe Island fan myself.
I still like my idea. Find a abandoned/unoccupied McMansion development out near Barstow. Or Phoenix. Or Pueblo, Colorado. String the razor wire, and put up some guard towers.
Voila!….a new minimum security prison for all the banksters/flippers/ponzi schemers that should have been put in jail by now.
That would probably work as well as the Democrat’s idea to tax ‘imputed income’, the “income” you derive if you have a paid-off house, so you don’t have to make a monthly rent or mortgage payment. It’s like getting $1000-$2500 a month, free, depending on the value of the house.
This failed idea was floated around during the Clinton administration. “Imputed Income”. Imagine that.
If you are not constantly slaving to produce income for the government to tax, they try to figure out ways to create more taxes for the government. America. Land of the “Free”.
“What if EVERYBODY turned their house into a B&B and then we took turns staying at each other’s houses every night? That would get the money flowing!”
I’m not sure how this would get the money flowing. If I charged 100 bucks for my neighbor to stay at my house, and they charged me 100 bucks to stay at their house, wouldn’t the money flow be zero bucks?
$100 + $100 sounds like $200 to me. You must not be very sophisticated :-).
Nope, the net would be 0 bucks. The flow would be 200 bucks.
of course that’s simplistic. The gov would tax that $100 both ways.
No way, it’s like publicity…it’s all good, right?
“I sense a white elephant glut which is never going to go away.”
I sense massive sweetheart deals where banks unload prime properties in bulk to well-connected investors for pennies on the dollar who then have the opportunity to either sell for a profit or rent for positive cash flow. The losses will, mysteriously, never make it to the banks balance sheets, and those waiting for great deals on houses end up like Linus in the pumpkin patch.
No mystery, because those sales will be routed-through/funded/laundered by the government in some way.
The masses will not buy these houses because they have no cash.
…and no secure jobs.
Answer: They won’t. $11hr jobs don’t buy houses.
Why do you think they even HAD NINJA loans in the first place?
We passed the ability of J6P to support our consumer economy 20 years ago. It’s all been triage and doublespeak since.
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/11/30/fed-to-release-details-on-lending-programs-wednesday/
Fed to Release Details on Lending Programs Wednesday
“By Meena Thiruvengadam
The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected Wednesday to release data on financial institutions and foreign central banks to which it made more than $2 trillion in emergency loans during the financial crisis, according to a U.S. senator who has long been pushing the Fed to be more transparent in its actions.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, (I., Vt.) plans to hold a conference call with the media Wednesday afternoon to discuss the data.
Sanders pushed for inclusion in financial overhaul legislation, approved by the Congress earlier this year, of a provision that forces the Fed to disclose the name of every company and foreign central bank that received aid from the Fed since late 2007. The Fed also must disclose the amount of assistance each entity received and disclose the terms under which funds were disbursed.
When the Senate adopted Sanders’ amendment to financial overhaul legislation, he said he hoped it would lift a “veil of secrecy” that surrounds the Fed.
The Fed is required to make the disclosure by Wednesday.”
Sanders is a socialist (no really - he calls himself that).
But damn - he is a socialist that wants to pay for socialism the right way. I give him credit.
He refers to himself as a democratic socialist. (I’ve been in the same room with him and heard those very words.)
That’s cool!
I don’t understand your surprise. Every Congressman that had the interest of the American People should have stood against all these bank bailouts and the Fed’s robbing of the American Taxpayer.
He is not concerned with the fact that we have been robbed and put into debt to bailout the banks. He doesn’t like where the money went. As a socialist, he just wants to target the money to his idea of “the rightful owners”. None of the money should have been handed over in the first place.
I am hopeful that we will get some accounting from the FED, but I don’t think we will get much transparency. After all, they’ve gotten away with swindling America for 100 years now. What we need is an UNcreation of the Federal Reserve Act.
Many of the ones that did stand against tarp 1 and tarp 2 are no more.
Russ Feingold RIP
The stampede to Eddie’s year-end DJIA = 12K is on. Don’t stand in the way of these bonus-hungry bulls, driven to a frenzy by a miraculous overnight market transformation, or you may get trampled!
Index Futures:
S&P 500 1,195 +15.40 +1.31%
DOW 11,121 +125.00 +1.14%
NASDAQ 2,142 +25.25 +1.19%
Bulls to ring in December
DECEMBER TRADING STRATEGIES
BREAKING
U.S. stock futures add to gains after ADP report
pcln, cmg,crm,amzn,aapl,goog,nflx do I say more?
How do you know when it is a good time to short these jokers?It seems that short covering is shooting these stocks to the moon.At what point does the covering stop and these stocks crater?What would I be looking for? thx
From an old WSJ: “There is a small god on the trading floor who allows everyone to pick the top correctly once and pick the bottom correctly once, and to be wrong as many times as they’d like.”
Since I have bought at the top once and sold at the bottom once, then I am doomed?
Watch the VIX.
there is no fear. When fear re-appears, then these high-climbers will crater. The short’s won’t be covering, they’ll be raking in their bonuses.
I’m sure you’re right, but it astounds me that there is no fear. To me it feels like we’re building a human pyramid only inches away from the edge of a huge cliff. Although maybe the lack of fear in the VIX is due to all the people like me already being out.
HBBers are self-selected for their aversion to high levels of risk. Wall Street brokers, not so much.
I’m not averse to high levels of risk if there’s a potential payoff proportional to the risk. I’ll just be careful not to put all my eggs in one basket.
Carl, keep in mind that as some level, that’s what the people who were pooling crappy subprime mortgages THOUGHT that they were doing. But it turned out that they really were in one basket after all.
Yeah, I retain a high level of healthy (paranoid?) skepticism of “investments” that are too good to be true or too complicated to understand. That always tells me that while the person selling it to me may understand the true risk, it’s almost certain that I don’t.
“Thank God the U.S. is not Europe” rally time?
Nothing has changed for the stock market to jump like this. It must be short covering, or something along those lines. All of the bad news remains, and there has been no meaningful job creation since the recession began. I’m calling BS on this suckers rally.
The stock market has been in approximately the same place for about, what, 18 months now?
March 6th, 2009. DOW at 6626
Jan 8th, 2010. Peak 10618 before dropping again.
July2, 2010. 9686. The lowest for 2010.
Nov4, 2010. 11434. The highest since Sept 12, 2008 at 11421.
The next can’t miss investment for fools may be to get on the Gold & silver rocket to the poorhouse . Seems I’ve seen several cycles of this in the last 30 years . The old saying “if you can’t eat it or watch it grow , don’t go there” may be a thought . Any metal bugs on here to present the pros ??
They were recommending gold on the 700 club this morning.
The evangelical 700Club is suckering it’s deluded viewers into gold now? That comes as no surprise given the 700Clubs questionable integrity. Harold Hill aka “glenn beck” hawks gold to Fox news goobers while taking payola from gold vendors.
Imagine that.
They follow the last in last out (LILO) investing method.
Well, to give them credit, the frankincense and myrrh futures look terrible.
“Well, to give them credit, the frankincense and myrrh futures look terrible.”
Nice one!
If you believe the US (and the world) can return to sound money policies, then faith in the fiat currencies is reasonable despite lack of historical proof.
We are facing unprecendented financial pressures. In order to maintain our $14 trillion dollar debt we can:
1. Lower interest rates (done that)
2. Economic growth (good luck)
3. Austerity (yeah right, good luck deficit reduction committee)
4. Print Money
5. Default
Gold is a bet that #4 is the only politically acceptable option.
That should make you a real estate bull bigtime. Especially since as a peon, you can leverage up on RE. Only the big boys can leverage up on gold, if they were to come up with the idea.
There is a little pile of cash and a great towering mountain of debt next to it. Which one will consume the other.
I am not a RE bull in general, but certainly there may be some select opportunities in distressed situations.
CRE is going to blow up with all of the balloon payments coming due (can’t extend and pretend forever). If you have a great rent roll of stable tenants nobody is going to sell you the building at a decent cap rate. If you have a great empty building with little prospects of renting, the building is worth less than zero in many markets.
Residential RE is about to make its next leg down. Walkaways, foreclosure gate, confrontation of unemployment - end of unemployment insurance, decrease/end of government support of housing markets, bank crises, etc….What do you think the prevailing median house price will be if we mandatory 20% down payment, no government subsidy of mortgage rates/end of tax deductability of interest, 3:1 loan/income ratio comes into being? I don’t think that is too pessimistic - some think buying residences with cash only is the end game.
Plus precious metals are much more liquid….
I am not a RE bull in general, but certainly there may be some select opportunities in distressed situations.
CRE is going to blow up with all of the balloon payments coming due (can’t extend and pretend forever). If you have a great rent roll of stable tenants nobody is going to sell you the building at a decent cap rate. If you have a great empty building with little prospects of renting, the building is worth less than zero in many markets.
Residential RE is about to make its next leg down. Walkaways, foreclosure gate, confrontation of unemployment - end of unemployment insurance, decrease/end of government support of housing markets, bank crises, etc….What do you think the prevailing median house price will be if we mandatory 20% down payment, no government subsidy of mortgage rates/end of tax deductability of interest, 3:1 loan/income ratio comes into being? I don’t think that is too pessimistic - some think buying residences with cash only is the end game: imagine what the prices would do if everyone had to pay cash.
Plus, precious metals are much more liquid.
Have you noticed all the deflation we’ve been having lately? That’s because we haven’t been printing money. Quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve is not exactly the same as printing money. It may result in inflation, but it’s not. The reason it’s not? Because they’ve been doing this in a more stealthy manner ever since WWII, and they’ve pushed it too far already. They are pushing on a string. I believe there will be defaults, but they will be masked in politically pleasing details that make them look like “mutually beneficial rearrangements” of debt.
IMHO precious metals were a good long term investment if you bought several years ago. There seems to be a growing consensus that the metals might be a good short term investment until February 2011 if history is any indication. It’s been a good run for me so I’ve decided to start taking some profits.
Pros going forward? Hard to say, but here’s my take on it. For now the focus is on the EU, but that’ll subside and the focus will swing back to the U.S. I don’t think Bernanke can continue to save the banks and fend off the credit contraction at the same time. The government is screaming austerity and the consumers will need to buckle down as the storm continues. As a result, I’m thinking the stock market will start to go lower, perhaps next year, and precious metals may suffer along the way. If it happens I’ll become a buyer of PMs.
The case is that China and India love the precious metals and cannot meet their increased demand. My favorite metals are palladium and silver due to their industrial uses. I own shares of mining companies and do not sell them but from time to time write options on them. I am writing them now and do believe that a correction in the metals is imminent.
In my neck of the woods, all the “we buy gold” businessmen are of Indian or Middle Eastern origin.
There used to be a we-buy-gold kiosk in the mall. When the mall began to struggle and storefronts went dark, the we-buy-gold kiosk traded up to a store.
Actually, a lot of those storefronts are filling with Eastern-type goods.
Sounds like a dying mall to me. Does it have an International Furniture Warehouse yet?
Nope, that’s down the street in a living plaza.
Seems I’ve seen several cycles of this in the last
3040 yearsWhen the “roach coach” & the “Snap-on” truck have a hand written sign:
“No worries!, we have a portable digital weight scale!”: “weigh & pay today!”
LOL Hwy…
Things that you can eat or grow can perish too, its value will diminish without care or hard labor. So you need to be careful either way.
Citigroup Said in Talks to Hire Obama’s Ex-Budget Chief Orszag
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-01/citigroup-said-to-discuss-hiring-former-white-house-budget-director-orszag.html
“Citigroup Inc., recovering from its $45 billion bailout in 2008, is in advanced talks to hire former White House Budget Director Peter Orszag, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Orszag, 41, may take a job in the New York-based firm’s investment-banking division, the people said, declining to be identified because the discussions are private. An announcement may come as early as today, one of the people said.
Orszag, an economist trained at Princeton University and the London School of Economics, helped shape U.S. economic stimulus during the financial crisis and overhaul the health- care system. The youngest member of President Barack Obama’s cabinet, he spent 18 months as White House budget director, stepping down in July. “
“Citigroup Inc., recovering from its $45 billion bailout in 2008, is in advanced talks to hire former White House Budget Director Peter Orszag, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Why am I not surprised?
The guy is a jerk (see below.) Plus there’s a long history of Democrats cashing in at Citi after they leave office.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/fashion/10orszag.html?pagewanted=all
Yup, that’s Citi — the bank that rhymes with shhhh! tty.
Post Thanksgiving glut: More real estate inventory on the horizon
To complement the elastic waist band pants we are all probably wearing to accommodate the Thanksgiving gluttony of food, wine, sweets and more, the housing market is also expecting more glut to its already expanded inventory of homes.
As reported on CNNMoney, there is a current “shadow inventory” of homes that are on deck, but not yet on the market. These properties are in the the late stages of foreclosure or have already been taken back by banks, but eventually will make its way through the cycle and add to the already large existing inventory of homes.
…
Pbear, Ben, wmbz & others….
Yesterday on Bloomberg “Surveillance Midday” with Tom Keene is a must watch..Lots of Bubble talk…The whole hour is on housing including long interviews with Case & Shiller…Lots of honest talk consistent with what we have been discussing here for years…
Al Gore admits supporting corn ethanol subsidies was a mistake
http://green.autoblog.com/2010/11/30/al-gore-admits-supporting-corn-ethanol-subsidies-was-a-mistake/
“by Jonas Dalidd (RSS feed) on Nov 30th 2010 at 7:54PM
al gore
Former Vice President and presidential candidate Al Gore has changed his stance concerning ethanol. As vice president, Gore created subsidies for corn-based ethanol. The move, it turns out, was aimed more towards garnering votes for his upcoming presidential run than doing what’s best for the environment. At a recent green energy conference in Athens, Greece, Gore said:
It is not a good policy to have these massive subsidies for first-generation ethanol. One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee and I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for president.”
The corn mafia is strong.
And are probably corporations, not a guy in a John Deere cap.
Alotta Damn Money
Mon Santos.
So he thought that EROEI was positive (there were a few studies at that time that stated such) and that he could get some votes/money and win the election. Win/win in his mind and “the corn mafia is strong”.
Now he realizes that ethanol is a bad deal energy-wise and that he sold out the environment to win an election and that that was not a good idea.
I don’t like the guy, but he is able to change his mind and admit when he’s wrong, two qualities for which I don’t believe that he should be pilloried.
MrBubble
I can’t stand Al Gore, but I have to give him credit for admitting that he was wrong.
States face $41 billion in budget gaps
By Tami Luhby, senior writer
December 1, 2010: 7:42 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney dot com) — The nation’s battered state governments face a collective $41 billion budget gap next fiscal year, a survey released Wednesday found.
…
Isnt CA over 20 billion itself?
Texas may now be looking at 25 billion.
I thought Texas was in balance.
It is now, but when the legislature convenes next March, they must prepare a balanced budget for the next two years. Current projections don’t look very rosey for the next two years.
Hence Gov Perry’s proposal to exit Medicaid.
Isnt CA over 20 billion itself ??
Yep….And that is just what they are admitting…
It’s different this time in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin’s real estate bottleneck
November 30, 2010
By Matt Hrodey
Both Wisconsin and metro Milwaukee’s backlog of foreclosed homes are clearing at a slower pace than in most states and cities, according to a new national ranking. Around the country, many lenders are withholding foreclosed properties from the market to prevent flooding it and lowering prices, but the bottleneck is greater in Wisconsin which ranked 11th in its ratio of foreclosed homes to homes sold.
The ranking, by the real estate research firm CoreLogic, means that both the state and metro area (Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis) have a large number of distressed houses, those with mortgages that are at least 90 days delinquent, compared to homes sales. (The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines a “foreclosed” home as one that’s more than 60 days delinquent.)
Statewide, according to CoreLogic, these distressed homes outnumbered homes sales almost 17 to 1 in August. This was the 11th highest ratio among the 46 states ranked. Maryland topped the list (about 24 to 1), followed by New Jersey (24 to 1) and Illinois (23 to 1); ranking lowest was Alaska with just 2.3 foreclosures for every home sold.
…
VOL. 125 | NO. 231 | Monday, November 29, 2010
A story from The Memphis News
On newsstands throughout the city
Crisis Casts Long Shadow Over City’s Housing Woes
Shadow inventory – the massive backlog of houses either in foreclosure or headed that way – poses a significant threat to the fledging recovery in residential real estate nationwide, including Memphis.
Some parts of Memphis were hit so hard by the foreclosure crises that there is no place to go but up. The question remains: When will we start to see upward movement in these parts of Memphis?
Complicating this recovery is the bulging inventory of houses, a supply that is steadily growing when you consider the number of properties that have not hit the market yet but surely will as soon as the recovery strengthens.
…
Some parts of Memphis were hit so hard by the foreclosure crises that there is no place to go but up. The question remains: When will we start to see upward movement in these parts of Memphis?
Note to Memphis - go study Detroit
“…no place to go but up.”
They were saying that about the Japanese economy back in the mid-1990s. And they are still waiting for it to go up again…
No place to go but up …in flames!
Flipping houses is still profitable, even in the face of double-digit housing price declines? GO FIGURE.
Is US Real Estate Showing Promise: Flipping Houses Still Profitable
By Audrey Howard on November 29, 2010, 12:02 pm
A few markets showed renewed life earlier this year, but mostly due to the federal first-time home buyer tax credit, which finally expired in September. First-time home buyers accounted for a record 50 percent of all home sales in a 2009 study from the National Association of Realtors, up from 47 percent the prior year. (The data go back as far as 1981.) Home values in five major California markets, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, turned negative again in the third quarter after climbing for five consecutive quarters, according to Zillow. Despite an average 3.6 percent year-over-year gain in single-family home prices nationally in the second quarter, prices fell in 70 percent of the 384 metro areas, and many markets experienced double-digit drops, compared with the 2009 second quarter, Fiserv-Case Shiller said in its November home price insights report. Fiserv-Case Shiller expects double-digit declines to continue until the end of the summer of 2011.
…
I’m seeing flipping in Sacramento. The profits are smaller than four years ago, but for the life of me I can’t believe how people are willing to buy a house with shoddy upgrades at an inflated price. These FBs are so lazy that they’re trapping themselves into paying more interest and taxes for “improvements” that they could have done themselves at half the cost.
Hobbyist-
I work for a local gov’t agency that deals directly with sales of real property and I’d say at least HALF of all the transactions I see are going to specuvestors. Most from out of the area who don’t seem to have any grasp of the historical pricing trends in Sacramento, grossly overpaying for real estate in marginal (at best) neighborhoods. 250K for a drywall crapshack in a declining Elk Grove neighborhood? Really? I simply don’t know how some of these people think they’re going to make a profit on these places.
Really? I simply don’t know how some of these people think they’re going to make a profit on these places.
They won’t. And, since they’re specuvestors, they’ll be dumping those properties after the tenants trash them.
Watch for those properties on the foreclosure lists of 2013. Or sooner.
Many of those “specuvesters” are Chinese money using local fronts.
Hey, Vanilla Ice is doin’ it. How hard can it be?
Actually, if home improvement tv interests you, then Vanilla Ice’s show is one of the tops. He’s an interesting guy, he stays in his budgets (which are medium to large) and he mostly knows what he’s doing and explains it much better than most of the other poncey designers on HGTV.
Seriously.
I guess its a good show if you like watching cocky, arrogant, trend-following punks act like big shots.
And if you don’t like that, you should never watch any tv.
As I’ve said, you CAN still make money flipping houses, but it’s a lot harder than it was.
This is the time that separates the pros from the amateurs.
‘Shadow inventory’ imperils housing
Some banks still are delaying foreclosures, but those homes will hit the market eventually.
By JIM BUCHTA, Star Tribune
Last update: November 22, 2010 - 11:43 PM
There’s more evidence that the housing market is likely to get worse before it gets better. A new study reports that the number of houses that are in foreclosure or are bound for it is increasing dramatically. As of August this “shadow inventory,” which includes all distressed sales not yet on the market, has grown 10 percent since last year and will continue to lurk through the market for some time, according to CoreLogic, a real estate research firm.
…
The house next door was supposed to go to trustees sale on 12-3. checked yesterday and now it is 1/12/11.Every month they postpone it and the sale date gets closer.It has been in default since 2/2008.It is the untold stimulous package.Countrywide loan and now with recontrust company.
I ought to buy stock in Home Despot. All of this shadow inventory — when it does eventually sell — is going to need work. Lots and lots of work.
Maybe stock in catipillar.
CAT is a Dow component, so you probably already own some if you have index funds.
Yeah, the hopebuilders will be ready to pounce at the first chance. They’re not likely to let the flippers make too much money before jumping in themselves with brand new inventory.
Which is why developable land is going to get HAMMERED even more than it has been.
I think BlueSky was joking about using cats to knock down excess housing.
In a related matter, the house in San Diego where that bomb guy lived is going to be burned down “for safety reasons”.
Neighbors were ambivalent about the planned destruction, with many expressing fears that the fire will cause harm and others saying it was the right move.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/11/30/national/a210704S46.DTL
“Which is why developable land is going to get HAMMERED even more than it has been.”
Land prices have been quite stubborn, really. I see 5 acre parcels priced at levels which are prohibitive to development considering one can buy a complete house on 5 acres for only a small amount more.
Unlike alot of flippers, I suspect that most owners of undeveloped land don’t really NEED to sell.
I think the banks have cut their own throat on this one. Most state and fed governments are on the verge of really changing the tax structures w/in the next 1-2 fiscal years and I don’t think too many are going to be for the better. Meanwhile energy and big pharma and insurance continue to go up, up, up.
What were they thinking waiting until the noose tightened around buyers’ paychecks before releasing inventory? Uncertainty is only bound to increase going forward. Despite prices falling, I think fear will keep a lot of buyers on the sidelines.
Yup. If history’s greatest buying opportunities were wide open (actionable) to the masses, everyone would be rich!
Now, which one realizes what you’re describing and blinks first?
“What were they thinking waiting until the noose tightened around buyers’ paychecks before releasing inventory?”
I suspect many bankers foolishly bought the Fed’s ‘green shoots of recovery’ spiel, hook, line and sinker. Now it is gradually dawning on them that Fed economists are no better than fortune tellers or astrologers at forecasting the economic future.
What were they thinking waiting until the noose tightened around buyers’ paychecks before releasing inventory? If the problem with politicians is that they’re stuck thinking just one election in the future, than many bankers are thinking one quarter at time.
What were they thinking waiting until the noose tightened around buyers’ paychecks before releasing inventory?
They are thinking that over time they can get the FED and Gov and unaware investors to take most of this stuff off their books.
We have a winner.
As housing problems linger in U.S. and Ireland, so do fears
12:00 AM CST on Tuesday, November 30, 2010
WASHINGTON – Ireland tried to cover the real-estate losses of its banks with a mix of government-backed loans, budget cuts and tax hikes. The losses proved too big to handle alone, so Ireland now has a European-IMF bailout.
A similar bailout last May rescued Greece, where the government spent far beyond its means and then cooked the books to disguise its debts. Ireland went down in a broken housing bubble that has yet to hit bottom.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/columnists/jlanders/stories/DN-Landers_30bus.ART0.State.Edition1.3ee2c08.html - 151k -
More grim housing data
Posted by Jim Buchta
Last update: November 30, 2010 - 6:28 PM
The latest word on foreclosures from CoreLogic: Foreclosure rates in the Twin Cities metro area have increased for the month of September is 1.99 percent for the month of September, an increase of 0.14 percentage points compared to September of 2009 when the rate was 1.85 percent. Foreclosure activity in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington is lower than the national foreclosure rate which was 3.29 percent for September 2010, representing a 1.30 percentage point difference.
Also in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, the mortgage delinquency rate has decreased. According to CoreLogic data for September 2010, 5.58 percent of mortgage loans were 90 days or more delinquent compared to 5.64 percent for the same period last year, representing a decrease of -0.06 percentage points.*
Foreclosure Rates on the Rise
Palin in Siouxland
(SIOUX CITY, IA) A new housing report out today indicates foreclosure rates in the Sioux City area are on the rise.
According to CoreLogic, foreclosure rates were up in September almost 2%. While that’s up from this same time last year, the Sioux City rate is actually lower than the national foreclosure rate.
The report also shows homeowners are having trouble keeping up with their house payments. The local mortgage delinquency rate is over 4% more than it was at this time last year.
Never forget that it was an iceberg that sunk the Titanic.
The 5 Most Ominous Real Estate Markets in the U.S.
By Carla Fried | Nov 29, 2010
If you’re trying to get a handle on your local housing market, the official tallies of homes sold and those for sale now only tell part of the story. Working off of the iceberg theory of market analysis — it’s not just what’s easily visible that you need to worry about — it’s the “shadow inventory” of distressed homes that you need to pay attention to as well.
Shadow inventory is an estimate of homes that aren’t yet in the official sales pipeline, but soon will be. It includes homes that are in foreclosure, owned by banks but not yet on the market, and those whose owners are at least 90 days behind on their mortgage payments. According to a new study from real estate data firm CoreLogic, as of August, the 2.1 million distressed homes in the U.S. represents an eight-month supply of shadow inventory of homes. That’s up from a five-months supply a year earlier.
Add the eight-month shadow inventory to the 15-month supply of homes that are officially on the market, and we’ve got ourselves close to a two-year backlog of supply. A year ago we were at “just” 17 months. CoreLogic says six or seven months is what we would expect in more normal times. So by that measure, we’re close to four times worse than normal right now.
The Most Ominous Housing Markets
…
“While regions such as Las Vegas and Phoenix lead the way in terms of the raw number of distressed homes, the relatively strong sales pace in those markets means they don’t have the most ominous months-supply of distressed homes.”
If I remember correctly, LV and Phoenix have had some of the sharpest corrections, probably making some people willing to buy perceived “deals”.
So we are going to have some really interesting ripples…
If I remember correctly, LV and Phoenix have had some of the sharpest corrections, probably making some people willing to buy perceived “deals”.
That’s exactly what’s happening in Phoenix. And, to a certain extent, in Tucson.
But a word of warning about those perceived deals: You’d better be a handyman. Or woman. Because those deals need work and lots of it.
From the article;
On a state level the most severe backlogs are in:
Maryland: 24.4-month supply of distressed homes.
New Jersey: 24.1 months
Illinois: 23 months
Florida: 20.8 months
Georgia: 19.5 months
New York: 17.8 months
So these mid atlantic states have this kind of inventory?
I have a bulletin for you destination states; The boomers aren’t coming. They can’t dump their grossly inflated shacks in NY/NJ/MD.
We’re number 1!
Because, it is different here, don’t you know. The prices will come back. Everyone is rich. A cop and a low level federal government admin can afford $500k for a house, not because they actually make enough money but because their salaries are somehow worth twice as much if there is a smaller risk of getting laid off.
I believe them. There’s probably AT LEAST 24 months of shoddy condos listed at wishing prices. Pretty young things who moved here in early 2008 on a three-year I/O, maybe? The houses are listed but since the I/O period isn’t up yet, the pretty young things aren’t desperate enough to drop the prices.
I believe you. There must be alot of 650 square foot 1 bed 1 bath condos in that number. Maybe a few 2/1’s.
My favorite destination (Slower Lower Delaware) isn’t faring too well with their inventory glut either.
Buying a condo in your twenties is quite the feather in your cap! Even if daddy paid for it.
Nope, all those young things buying condos in their 20’s did it under enormous pressure from the advertisers, HGTV, and the NAR. And they did it with no money down. To be honest, they can probably afford it…BUT, wait until they realize that they are going to be stuck in that little apartment for a LONG time; after all, it’s a 30 YEAR mortgage. It’s fun to play Cosmo Girl and club it up when you’re 26, but it will be 10-15 years, at least, before they can sell without bringing money to the table. Especially a condo.
Just remember, Md is a full recourse state baby!
So, those numbers explain why Polly and Oxide complain so much about prices. Keep your patience, ladies.
Do I really complain about prices that much? I know I mentioned it in this post, but I try not to do that too often. I’d much rather fantacize about the circumstances that would force GS to buy back all the mortgages it securitized at 100 cents on the dollar.
No, you don’t, polly, but if you want to it’s ok!
In NYS a senior citizen can get “star” credits that reduce their property taxes… any that are sitting in a paid off house may find it cheaper to stay in place as long as possible.
Have some friends who bought a house in upper Westchester from an estate, previous owner was paying less than half the property taxes they pay.
“Maryland: 24.4-month supply of distressed homes.”
That one caught my eye — right on DC’s doorstep, where housing prices are still going up!
“I have a bulletin for you destination states; The boomers aren’t coming. They can’t dump their grossly inflated shacks in NY/NJ/MD.”
Some of them jumped before they sold and now are supporting both locations, with great amounts of stress, I might add. That won’t end well.
I can’t believe the number of people still doing this. I know moving twice (by going to a rental first) is a major pain but people really aren’t considering the fact when they purchase one home how low they might have to go to move their old home. There they sit in a stand off w/potential buyers eating up all their savings as they support both places because they already committed to numbers on their new purchase that did not pan out.
Others w/contingencies are losing the house under contract for similar reasons. Apparently no one’s advising nor has it occurred to them that this is a market where you sell the house you’re in first. Otherwise you might need deeper pockets than you first realized.
Wow, Nassau-Suffolk is second highest region in country, with 30.4 months… Now if only those prices start dropping (esp. in the nicer areas)… they are still insanely high.
San Diego joins in U.S. home price dip
But area was still up year-over-year
By Roger Showley
Tuesday, November 30, 2010 at 1:10 p.m.
San Diego, as well as other key metro areas, saw home prices dip in the latest, widely watched Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index issued Tuesday.
The September report had San Diego down 1 percent from August to September, a slightly worse decline than the .7 percent drop for all 20 metro areas.
It was the second straight decline locally after 15 months of increase and signaled a possible double-dip if the trend line continues.
…
These guys can’t make up their minds. Just a little while ago they were harping the M-O-M numbers, now they’re back to using the Y-O-Y numbers.
Patriotism isn’t the last refuge of scoundrels - statistics are.
Don’t buy in San Diego until at least 2012.
San Diego housing faces 8.5% price reduction
Fiserv sees double-dip from 2nd quarter data; upturn not likely until 2012
By Roger Showley
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.
…
Silly Mr. Bear,…2013
By that time…The Chargers will win the Super Bowl, The Padres will win the pennant, San Diego St. will reach the Final Four, “The Fence” will be electrified, the Navy military/civilian job Yards will gear up for the “Coming Soon!” China…vs…Korea/Philippines/Taiwan/Indonesia/Japan sea engagement battleship Kung-Fu posturing…and then you’ll have to deal with all that soon to “suddenly emerge”: “multiple-bids on my stucco” competition!
Don’t count out the Chargers. Did you see what they did to Peyton?
The more they win, the more the “owners” will threaten a move to _____________________ USA, unless you give ‘em some $$$$$$$$ incentives & perhaps throw in a taxpayer subsidized paved parking lot & new shiny revenue compliant stadium.
I luv public union goons - they will stop at nothing, not save any of their “brothers” and scare taxpayers to death in order to keep padding their pockets…
——-
Camden layoff plan targets a quarter of city’s workforce
By Matt Katz, Mike Newall and Darran Simon
Philadelphia Inquirer 1 DEC 2010
Camden will lay off nearly half of its police officers and a third of its firefighters, while eliminating positions in every other city office, according to a layoff plan approved Tuesday by the state.
The number of layoffs could be reduced in the coming weeks, according to city officials, if there are retirements and if the employee unions make concessions.
But the unions have indicated no plans to deal, and Camden’s Fraternal Order of Police printed 3,000 fliers to be distributed reading: “Layoffs = More Crime, More Assaults, More Shooting, More Murders, Can We Afford This?”
“We are open to discussing concessions,” said John Williamson, union president. “What we are not open to is unreasonable demands and having things rammed down our throats.”
“Layoffs = More Crime, More Assaults, More Shooting, More Murders” ??
Sell fear….
Poverty and a depleted police force = More Crime
A fact is a fact, you can argue they get paid too much, but hard to argue that poverty doesn’t increase crime, and that lac of prosecution doesn’t increase crime.
When I was in Northern Ireland during the “troubles” many Catholic neighborhoods had not seen a regular (RUC) policeman on patrol for years. And the areas were very lower middle class.
Not a safer place in the world…
A lot of neighborhoods here haven’t seen a cop in years, either.
Past results are no guarantee of future performance.
Northern Ireland. Oh.
Have you ever been to Compton? Just as an example.
lower middle class with social safety net does NOT equal no job, no unemployment, no food, starving kids, with a feeling that the corporate elite just gave it to you where the sun doen’t shine, and that you will never regain your future.
A person in the second catagory will take to crime to feed his or her kids. They will be violent toward anyone they rightly or wrongly believe is responsible for their predictament. Since Wall Street Titans are far away behind security fortress they will take it out on local upper middle class. They will be more easily swayed by guys like Chavez or Castro.
When you don’t have anything to loose risking your life seems a more rational thing to do.
Good news amid the gloom:
1) General economic recovery without housing is apparently possible.
2) The theory that housing will have to lead the recovery is apparently false.
Holidays may help San Diego return to year-to-year growth
But leading economic indicators are stagnant, dragged down by home-building
By Dean Calbreath
Originally published November 30, 2010 at 11:45 a.m., updated November 30, 2010 at 3:51 p.m.
For the first time since the Great Recession began, San Diego’s economic outlook seems poised to show year-to-year improvement in November and December, thanks to growing signs of a strong holiday shopping season, according to an index of leading economic indicators released today by the University of San Diego’s Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate.
Five of the six indicators in the index were positive in October, although they were counterbalanced by a sharp drop in home building, according to USD economist Alan Gin, who compiles the index.
Because of the drop in home building, the index showed zero growth in October - the third month in a row that it has been stagnant.
…
Home Prices Falling at Faster Rate, New Report Shows
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 30, 2010
The decline in home prices is accelerating across the nation, according to a new report, and a record number of foreclosures is expected to push prices down further through next year.
…
Maybe they hope to get some of those people who’s UE is running out to buy?
Broad-based Declines in Home Prices in the 3rd Quarter of 2010 According to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices
By Standard & Poor’s
Published: Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2010 - 7:04 am
NEW YORK, Nov. 30, 2010 — /PRNewswire/ — Data through September 2010, released today by Standard & Poor’s for its S&P/Case-Shiller(1) Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, show that the U.S. National Home Price Index declined 2.0% in the third quarter of 2010, after having risen 4.7% in the second quarter. Nationally, home prices are 1.5% below their year-earlier levels. In September, 18 of the 20 MSAs covered by S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices and both monthly composites were down; and only the two composites and five MSAs showed year-over-year gains. While housing prices are still above their spring 2009 lows, the end of the tax incentives and still active foreclosures appear to be weighing down the market.
…
Well there`s no place like home for the holidays….
Fannie Mae to stop foreclosure evictions during holidays
by Kim Miller
Fannie Mae said last night it will put a halt to foreclosure evictions between Dec. 20 and Jan. 3.
The move will not include a moratorium on foreclosures, but will at least allow people to stay in their homes through the holidays.
“Consistent with our practice in previous years, families will not be evicted from their homes during the holiday season,” said Amy Bonitatibus, spokeswoman for Fannie.
Freddie Mac is expected to make a similar announcement later this week.
CitiMortgage said yesterday it has no plans to do a foreclosure moratorium this holiday season, although it did stop foreclosures sales and foreclosure notifications last year between Dec. 18 and Jan. 17.
They are nice people.
More like: all the people who do the evicting put in for vacation time themselves. Fannie couldn’t evict if they wanted to, so they’re making a PR stunt of it.
That is what I thought - a use or lose vacation reality, not so much a happy policy thing. Also, the visuals are terrible for a slow news cycle month.
What happened to wall of separation of church and state that so many on the board scream for???
They should be throwing people out of their homes even on Christmas. In fact - double on Christmas because there is less traffic.
/sat
Wait a minute on that bananna, Christmas is a commercial holiday. You want to wreck the economy?
Christmas is a commercial holiday
Christmas is a religious holiday.
XMas is the commercial version.
I would love to see someone challange Christmas being a Federal Holiday. Not that I particularly like the attack on Christmas, but more just to see the fireworks erupt. Always looking for a little entertainment at someone elses expense.
What happened to the family values that so many evangelical nutjobs harp about? This is an actual expression of valuing families so why aren’t the evangelical nutjobs publicly endorsing this?
See how that works BananaBread?
The December holidays are sort of a blanket time when there is good will toward your fellow humans and the “Christmas spirit” flows. But Christmas was started long ago by pagans and other old religions. The newer religions like Judaism, Christianity and Islam have co-opted this time of year as their own, which is fine! No harm done.
But haven’t you ever wondered why most of the major religions have major celebrations at this time? It’s really about renewal, coming out of the darkness and into the light, the harvest countdown, winter solstice/zodiac type stuff.
So, if you want to worship baby Jeebus, or light some candles, or not eat during the day time and then eat your face off or… do whatever the Kwanzzaans (sp?) do, rock on. Just don’t confuse deeply primal celebrations with something “your guy” did.
MrBubble
Just don’t confuse deeply primal celebrations with something “your guy” did.
Jesus Christ being born exactly on Christmas day can not simply be a coincidence. I mean, do the odds mathematically.
LOL. Good one, Rio! I’m still shocked that it wasn’t the solstice.
In the Bible he not born in the winter time.
In Middle East, it not cold in winter, but sun angle at lowest point.
Not all Christians celebrate on the same day.
It gets plenty cold in the deserts of the Middle East.
It freezes in Jerusalem.
Never been. Talking out of my … Thanks.
Does help with my point above though…
” I mean, do the odds mathematically.”
1 in 365.25 approximately.
The historical Rabbi Jesus was most likely born in late spring. Those “shepards tending their flocks” wouldn’t be out in December.
mediterranean climate, why not.
I sort of think sheparding is not a seasonal job anyway.
It probably has more to do with rainfall patterns and availability of grass than with temperature.
Judaism is 4-6 thousands years old. It is one of the oldest religions. It predates those crazy celts.
Islam - does not have a December holiday. Ramadan changes time of the year depending on the phases of the moon. In 2011 - it will be in August.
Pagans - You are right - celebrated new beginnings, fertility (of soil and women) - etc.
Christianity - Peace on earth, good will towards man, love your neighbor as you would love yourself, turn the other check - etc. Radical ideas at the time. Radical ideas even today. Not copied from tree huggers.
I would argue that Judaism is not that old, based on Abraham being dated at 1800 BCE. Vedic Hinduism and Zoroastrianism are older as is shamanism, Sumerian religions and many, many others. Genesis puts the age of the Earth at 6000 years, not the age of Judaism. It’s really quite easy to look stuff up if you’re not too sure of yourself.
“The oldest documented religion still in existence today is a form of paganism, believing in a god and goddess, it is over 40,000 years old, and was once practiced everywhere, though loosely, by Native Americans, Celts, and ancient Romans and tribal Africans.” etc.
MrBubble
I recently heard for the first time the phrase, “There’s only been one Christian.” To that I add, “But lots of ChINO’s.”
It’s all very creepy to me.
Channukah is a military holiday. The religious part of it is paper thin at best. And it was an appropriately minor celebration (a little special food and a few coins for the kids) until a few score years ago.
But the candles are pretty.
I have sometimes wondered about the primeval roots of holiday festivals at this time. The crops would long ago have been harvested and put away. Animals slaughtered. Hams smoked or salted. Sausage made. Beer brewed. It was probably always a crap shoot about how long it would have to last. In that clime, you can’t get anything into the ground till you can plow it in May, and the growing season is short, although the sunshine is out many more hours a day than that to which we are accustomed.
No doubt the Christmas festival was tied to the Church calendar, in those regions. Michaelmass or some such.
February was the starving month - this I know from oral tradition. If you made it through February, soon the pigs and sheep would start farrowing and lambing. Finn Sheep, a happy mutation, developed and were carefully treasured and propagated. They lamb twice a year, and usually throw twins.
Perhaps the festival really served as a way to cement bonds and build moral support for the months to come. I can see the utility of such a tradition. However, I believe it more wholesome when it was a community come together to engage in the great battle of survival against the cold. How can today’s rioting for the purpose of gathering plastic junk hold a candle to it?
Against this backdrop, I can see how a riotous Spring celebration would have made a wholesome balance. We all survived. We have tales to tell. For those who have had the experience of shaking hands with death, life is very, very sweet.
banana, nobody on the HBB (except maybe Georgia girl) would agree with a foreclosure moratorium, regardless of the excuse for it.
Fannie, Freddie, and Citi are not “the state”.
Exactly.
Wall St. is.
Now that it is clear the economy can recover without housing, isn’t it about time to get rid of this WELFARE-FOR-THE-WEALTHY program once-and-for-all?
* POLITICS
* DECEMBER 1, 2010
Mortgage Tax Break in Crosshairs
By DAMIAN PALETTA And JOHN D. MCKINNON
The co-chairmen of the White House’s bipartisan deficit-reduction commission said Tuesday they would propose a significant paring of popular middle-class tax breaks, including the mortgage-interest deduction, and push for an increase in the Social Security retirement age.
…
One thing that would do is push down housing prices further. People would see who it benefits — sellers and lenders, not buyers.
“One thing that would do is push down housing prices further.”
Mainly in the $500,000 (very upscale) markets, as the mortgage interest deduction has almost no benefit to low-income buyers of affordable housing. It’s mainly a way to funnel lots of money into the hands of folks who already have high incomes and wealth — a kind of stealth reverse-Robin-Hood welfare-to-the-wealthy program. See my post on this in yesterday’s Bits Buckets if you are sincerely interested in the details.
Is it seriously being thought that mortgage interest deduction is welfare for the wealthy? I scratch my head at that. The wealthy folks I know do not owe money on their homes. They have net worth many multiples of the home worth.
Middle class shlepps though, they owe more on the house than their net worth. Pretty easy when net worth is negative.
I think it’s about the benefit for the upper middle class V the middle and lover middle classes….
Know people for whom the standard deduction for a family is better than itemizing… something that they somehow were unaware of when they bought their “tax deduction”.
lover = lower
I am part of the lover middle class. Not much call for that these days.
“part of the lover middle class”
Same here!
Yeah, the benefit effectively caps out when you start hitting the AMT, and the actual poor usually rent.
“Is it seriously being thought that mortgage interest deduction is welfare for the wealthy?”
See my post on this point in yesterday’s Bits Bucket.
Blue almost every doctor I know (and I know a lot of them) under the age of 70 has a big-ass mortgage.
I think a lot of “educated professionals” fell for the “don’t let your let your home just sit there, make it work for you”.
Doctors are small fish and definitely not the elite. You can’t convince them of this but it’s true. Same is true of most in teh top 5-1%.
Doctors aren’t known for their financial acumen.
Most wealthy people get huge mortgages. They do not wish to “settle” for something that is cheap enough to buy with only the cash they have on hand. They figure they’re getting a higher ROI that what they pay in interest, and then they get the tax deduction on top of that.
Most middle-class people don’t pay enough in deductable interest to make it worth it to itemize their taxes, so they don’t get the tax deduction after all.
3 Responses to “Fannie Mae to stop foreclosure evictions during holidays”
1. Alan Says:
December 1st, 2010 at 9:17 am
Be aware they are doing it for the benefit of their own employees and not any altruistic philosophy. Remember this is a government agency and they do not think or behave like the real world.
2. bernie Says:
December 1st, 2010 at 9:25 am
I had a mediation in front of a federal judge and bank of america. the federal judge acted as the mediator. bank of america had submitted 2 false affidavits from an employee who has been called out in a NY court for submitting false affidavits. Having a chance to ask the federal judge face to face what he thought about my motion for sanctions regarding submitting a false affidavit.
He said it wasnt a big deal, and would not affect the case. He went as far as saying, in front of BOA counsel, I had a very weak case.
I was crushed. I remember a friend of mine once lied to a US Attorney, and was sent to prison for perjury. It appears the banks are immune to the laws of the land
3. Renee Says:
December 1st, 2010 at 9:30 am
So does this mean if my home is going to auction tomorrow from the second mortgage holder, they can’t kick me out until January? This is good news.
It’s been quiet over thier off the coast of North and South Korea. No “Smoke on the water” or “Fires in the sky”.
thier = there
If you haven’t found a job in 99 weeks, maybe it’s time to learn a new skill
—–
2 million lose jobless benefits as holidays arrive
(AP) – 9 hours ago
Extended unemployment benefits for nearly 2 million Americans begin to run out Wednesday, cutting off a steady stream of income and guaranteeing a dismal holiday season for people already struggling with bills they cannot pay.
Unless Congress changes its mind, benefits that had been extended up to 99 weeks will end this month.
That means Christmas is out of the question for Wayne Pittman, 46, of Lawrenceville, Ga., and his wife and 9-year-old son. The carpenter was working up to 80 hours a week at the beginning of the decade, but saw that gradually drop to 15 hours before it dried up completely. His last $297 check will go to necessities, not presents.
“I have a little boy, and that’s kind of hard to explain to him,” Pittman said.
The average weekly unemployment benefit in the U.S. is $302.90, though it varies widely depending on how states calculate the payment. Because of supplemental state programs and other factors, it’s hard to know for sure who will lose their benefits at any given time. But the Labor Department estimates that, without a Congress-approved extension, about 2 million people will be cut off by Christmas.
Congressional opponents of extending the benefits beyond this month say fiscal responsibility should come first. Republicans in the House and Senate, along with a handful of conservative Democrats, say they’re open to extending benefits, but not if it means adding to the $13.8 trillion national debt.
So how long do we keep extending?Should it be 200 weeks? There are no jobs, right?
No jobs, depends.
As one of my close relatives says “There are no jobs out there that I want”. Sigh. She’s on a year of unemployment now, cheering on an extension, and she’s not even looking because “If I find a job now, that would mess up my holidays”. Poor babe!
Incredibly, the state isn’t even checking that she does interview for work. And she did get two different job offers which paid more than unemployment, but “not enough to make it worthwhile”! With a kid underfoot, she can even then pull out the card that she needs to work the schedule so much around the kid, and the job offer doesn’t go anywhere! Whew, that was close!
I wonder if a year from now she will come to regret turning down jobs? She doesn’t seem to think that longer and longer unemployment is a blotch on her CV. “If a company has a problem with that, then it’s not a place I want to work anyway”. Jeez!
All I can say is that it’s a shame to see this behaviour when there ARE people who are low-skilled and can’t get a job at all.
From a personal perspective, it makes zero sense for me to retrain for a job that pays $10/hr, when I can make $50-70/hr part time doing contract work.
And especially when that $10/hour job is also part-time.
Food. Shelter. Utilities.
At $10hr, pick 2.
Ex-Gulf, I have said it before and I’ll say it again. In your case, this is absolutely true. You have a ‘monopoly skill’ that it likely would not be in your best interest to ditch. Until airframes start to look like buggy whips.
As your former employer found out, you have much more than a McSkill.
“I am not searching for a job, I am begging for one,” said Felicia Robbins, 30, as she prepared to move out of a homeless shelter in Pensacola, Fla., where she and her five children have been living. She is using the last of her cash reserves, about $500, to move into a small, unfurnished rental home.
Robbins lost her job as a juvenile justice worker in 2009 and her last $235 unemployment check will arrive Dec. 13. Her 10-year-old car isn’t running, and she walks each day to the local unemployment office to look for work.
Jeanne Reinman, 61, of Greenville, S.C., still has her house, but even that comes with a downside.
After losing her computer design job a year and a half ago, Reinman scraped by with her savings and a weekly $351 unemployment check. When her nest egg vanished in July, she started using her unemployment to pay off her mortgage and stopped paying her credit card bills. She recently informed a creditor she couldn’t make payments on a loan because her benefits were ending.
“I’m more concerned about trying to hang onto my house than paying you,” she told the creditor.
When her nest egg vanished in July, she started using her unemployment to pay off her mortgage and stopped paying her credit card bills
Isn’t that backwards from the “new” paradigm?
Yep—she apparently missed the memo.
If she has a lot of equity in the house, then keeping it out of FC is the sensible thing, though it would have been smarter to sell it when she lost her job in order to have that cash available to pay for rent and food.
If she is underwater and trying to hang onto the house anyway, then she is the greater fool.
“If she is underwater and trying to hang onto the house anyway, then she is the greater fool.”
I’m thinking the gov believes there are a lot of people just like her out there and that is what the repeated extensions are all about. They don’t want another explosion in inventory.
At age 61 she’s only a year away from taking early SS at age 62. She’s not in as much trouble as many people, especially if she is near paying off her house (which at her age she should be).
Well cheer up Jeanne, Felicia you tell those 5 kids of yours that the Market is up on fresh signs of job growth!
Stocks rise sharply on fresh signs of job growth
By DAVID K. RANDALL The Associated Press
Updated: 10:07 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2010
Posted: 12:22 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2010
NEW YORK — A report that small businesses are hiring more workers than economists expected sent stocks sharply higher Wednesday.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 200 points in early trading. All 30 stocks in the index rose. 3M Co. and United Technologies Corp. each rose more than 3 percent.
ADP Employer Services said employment at private companies jumped by 93,000 in November as small businesses added the largest amount of workers in three years. Economists had expected private companies to add 70,000 jobs. Private sector employment grew by 83,000 in October, ADP said.
“The U.S. economy is all about jobs and anything that leads folks to believe that there’s a better job market will be good for equities,” said Paul Zemsky, the head of asset allocation at ING Investment Management.
where she and her five children have been living ?
How about we get you a Chastity belt girl or at least get you to planned parenthood for the free B/C pills…My goodness
Why doesn’t she ask her husband for help?
“Why doesn’t she ask her husband for help?”
Which one?
What makes you think she was ever married ??
You`re right. Which biological father?
Yes, Dennis. That’s what I always think when I hear these stories. Everyone acts like the mother of 5 is the person who should get a job and support the family. I don’t care if there are 5 dads. That should mean 5 separate child-support checks each month. I can only think of two explanantions: Either they’re all drugged-out losers, or she is secretly getting money from them and not declaring it.
If you haven’t found a job in 99 weeks, maybe it’s time to learn a new skill
Best career advice I’ve ever gotten: Know how to do as many different things as possible. Or, put another way, have a lot of skills that lead to jobs.
And “they” wonder why those still with jobs don’t feel like spending as they did in the HELOC-raising days.
There’s a lot of variables and a lot of opinions/emotions on this issue, but the idea that one should have ample reserves to get through an extended period of un/underemployment still seem awfully hard to argue with. Sadly, a lot of these folks still think this is all cyclical - a plain old vanilla postwar recession.
Depends what you mean by ample reserves… how do you plan to be out of work for two years?
…and how do you save up when your company hasn’t given out raises in 6 years if not outright wage cuts, while inflation is running WAY past the average raise in the first place?
The off-shoring will continue until morale improves.
What skill is going to change 10% “official UE and 17% REAL UE?
What skill is going stop jobs from continuing to go offshore?
What skill is going to end tax breaks for offshoring jobs?
What skill is going to end the constant and relentless downward pressure on wages?
What skill is going to lower the cost of education?
None.
What skill is going to help a 61 year old find work?
She should get computer training. Then she can compete against 20 somethings in India.
She should get paralegal training. Then she can compete against 20 somethings in India.
She should get nursing training. Then she can compete against 20 somethings from the Phillippines.
She should become an apprentice plumber. Then she can crawl under houses fixing burst pipes.
She should go to work in the fields picking strawberries. Oh wait, it’s December.
She should shovel snow - in South Carolina.
Windy City home prices continue their downward spiral
http news medill northwestern edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=174506
“Some of the worst neighborhoods dropped 20 percent and that might drag down some of the better neighborhoods,” he said.
Some math whizzes over there in Chicago …
Wait to they find out if you lose half of your money in the value of your house – your house then has to DOUBLE in value to get your money back.
Doesn’t seem fair.
…
I can’t get the sales volume for this fall of 2010 outta my head. A considerably smaller number of units (~20%) sold here over the past three months than in the same period in 2008. Recalling conversations from the fall of 2008, friends and neighbors didn’t think things could get any deader.
It will take a few more months for that plunge in sales to ripple through the prices - 1Q 2011 price action will be very interesting.
Onondaga Cty Units Sold Oct 09 - Oct 10 -37.6%
Onondaga Cty Units Sold Oct 08 - Oct 10 -26.2%
Onondaga Cty Median Price Oct 09 - Oct 10 +12.5%
Onondaga Cty Median Price Oct 08 - Oct 10 +13.4%
***********************************
Apparently those that are still jumping in are in the higher price niches. But besides the giant bubble of sub $100k niche for sale (which I suspect is mostly out of state inner city landlords realizing what they’re holding) that’s where the bulge in inventory is so I’m still waiting for a price collapse. Ya gotta have move up buyers. The high income neighborhoods have a lot of retired and near retirement boomers. The numbers that will be coming behind them that can afford those homes at current prices will be dwindling.
So, you have three sales left, all in Manlius?
LOL….you’re probably not too far off, WT. Who knows where these sales are happening. There are the towns who skew to higher income but the trophy homes got built in a lot of communities in the past 5 years. Who knows who may be feeling like the new king of the hill among their more humble neighbors.
I recently spoke to one realtor I was friends with way before she got her license and got a read of a community farther out from Syracuse. She used figures way below what I would have expected when she told me what was moving. I’d say they’re down at least 20-25% from 2 years ago. However I know new homes are still gettting built there and these homes are at least 3x the median sales price. (That’s the problem with spending that type of money in this area….if buyer’s have the sale price, they want to spend it on their dreamhome, not yours because there’s lots and lots of buildable land.) I’ve seen some sale signs closer in, a smattering of different price points. The feeling I get is both buyers and sellers are feeling lost wondering what the heck is next.
On an aside a burst of local properties were adding expensive stonework to their landscaping this summer. What is up w/that? The new local must have.
This goes along with the thoughts I’ve posted here from time to time; that there is no solid economic theory that explains the deflation we’ve seen for many years, or the role of concurrent financial manias.
‘Erroneous economic ideas resemble the living dead, writes John Quiggin in his smart new book…They are dangerous yet impossible to kill. Even after a financial crisis buries them, they survive in our minds and can rise unbidden from the necropolis of ideology.’
‘Consider the undying notion that booms and busts can be tamed in a New Era of endless prosperity. The latest incarnation of this zombie idea — the Great Moderation popularized by Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke — died in a storm of bailouts and foreclosures. Yet the Great Moderation endures in academia, says Quiggin, an economics professor.’
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Zombie-Economic-Theories-bloomberg-1130572667.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=7&asset=&ccode=
So I looked up this Great Moderation. From 2004:
‘Remarks by Governor Ben S. Bernanke…The Great Moderation, the substantial decline in macroeconomic volatility over the past twenty years, is a striking economic development. Whether the dominant cause of the Great Moderation is structural change, improved monetary policy, or simply good luck is an important question about which no consensus has yet formed. I have argued today that improved monetary policy has likely made an important contribution not only to the reduced volatility of inflation (which is not particularly controversial) but to the reduced volatility of output as well. Moreover, because a change in the monetary policy regime has pervasive effects, I have suggested that some of the effects of improved monetary policies may have been misidentified as exogenous changes in economic structure or in the distribution of economic shocks. This conclusion on my part makes me optimistic for the future, because I am confident that monetary policymakers will not forget the lessons of the 1970s.’
‘I have put my case for better monetary policy rather forcefully today, because I think it likely that the policy explanation for the Great Moderation deserves more credit than it has received in the literature. However, let me close by emphasizing that the debate remains very much open.’
http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2004/20040220/default.htm
Reading the FRB, it’s interesting that these guys still don’t know what was happening in the 1950’s with regard to ‘monetary policy.’ They have this theory or that, loosely based on other ‘economists’ ideas.
My point is, this looks like head in the clouds thinking. Long drawn out reasonings, sounding very scientific, when in fact it’s completely clueless to what’s happening in the real world. Is it any wonder the central banks missed the housing bubbles? And given that they were fooled by the stock bubbles too, why does anyone even listen to the Federal Reserve any more?
I am reminded of the old debate:
‘It is still a matter of discussion whether this topic has a historical foundation, in writing or disputation, from the European Middle Ages. One theory is that it is an early modern fabrication,[4] used to discredit scholastic philosophy at a time when it still played a significant role in university education…Dorothy L. Sayers argued that the question was “simply a debating exercise” and that the answer “usually adjudged correct” was that “angels are pure intelligences, not material, but limited, so that they have location in space, but not extension.”[8] Sayers compares the question to that of how many people’s thoughts can be concentrated upon a particular pin at the same time. The answer, therefore, is that an infinity of angels can be located on the head of a pin, since they do not occupy any space there.’
‘Sayers concludes, ‘The practical lesson to be drawn from the argument is not to use words like “there” in a loose, unscientific way, without specifying whether you mean “located there” or “occupying space there.’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_many_angels_can_dance_on_the_head_of_a_pin%3F
‘Isaac D’Israeli (1766-1848)…was an amateur scholar who published a series of books called Curiosities of Literature. D’Israeli writes, “(Thomas Aquinas (c. 1224-1274))… could gravely debate, Whether Christ was not an hermaphrodite [and] whether there are excrements in Paradise.”
‘ D’Israeli writes, “The reader desirous of being merry with Aquinas’s angels may find them in Martinus Scriblerus, in Ch. VII who inquires if angels pass from one extreme to another without going through the middle? And if angels know things more clearly in a morning? How many angels can dance on the point of a very fine needle, without jostling one another?’
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1008/did-medieval-scholars-argue-over-how-many-angels-could-dance-on-the-head-of-a-pin
And back in the first paragraph of Bernanke’s speech, we find this:
‘Several writers on the topic have dubbed this remarkable decline in the variability of both output and inflation “the Great Moderation.” Similar declines in the volatility of output and inflation occurred at about the same time in other major industrial countries, with the recent exception of Japan, a country that has faced a distinctive set of economic problems in the past decade.’
The way I see it we are going from bubble to bubble in different asset classes.The fed seems to want to keep easy street going so they print more money and the US goes more in the hole.Now we have another stock market and gold bubble with probably closer to 20% of people out of work.Manufacturing is sent overseas as we print and borrow more money.
Remember this?
The Other IBM - Catapult - TV Ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZmHDEa0Y20
+1…Good re-call Ben….Just throw money at it….
Bernanke’s medieval grandfather.
Video was funny.Essentially what bernake is doing.throw money at it and hope the problems go away.
So that is how they did it before the printing-press was invented.
I would rather call it the “Great Acceleration”. No wonder Bernanke couldn’t understand hitting the sound barrier.
“Necropolis of Ideology”….don’t they call that “Europe”?
Nope. DC.
* BOOKSHELF
* NOVEMBER 30, 2010
Never Mind Watergate
“Inside the Nixon Administration: The Secret Diary of Arthur Burns,” covers five of the most astounding years in monetary history
…
On members of the administration Burns can be caustic. Henry Kissinger is “admittedly ignorant of economics.” John Connally, who for part of the period is Treasury secretary, is “a thoroughly confused politician.” George Shultz, who would follow Connally at Treasury, is described as “a no less confused amateur economist,” though he rises in Burns’s estimation as the years go on.
Not that Burns comes out much better, even in his own view. At one point he writes, in the diary’s clipped prose, that he is “the only one there with any knowledge of the subject, but even I not a real expert on some aspects of the intricate international problem!” So it turned out. He seems throughout his own diary to grasp that inflation is not the way out of America’s underperforming economy but to be unable—even as chairman of the Fed—to put his foot down.
At the time there were observers outside the White House—not least Henry Hazlitt, a New York Times editorial writer in the 1940s—who had warned from the beginning that Bretton Woods as a system was inherently inflationary and, not to put too fine a point on it, doomed. “Inside the Nixon Administration” gives the impression that, when it came to monetary policy, Nixon, Shultz, Connally and Burns himself were but corks on the water, carried along by economic forces larger than themselves.
…
Wiring down the safety valves can lead to the illusion that the engine is running better. And then…bad “unexpected” things happen.
You left out:
Missing regular maintenance.
Not following any safety procedures what-so-ever.
Cutting corners and using cheap materials.
Operating past specified performance limits.
It’s called the “view from the ivory tower” and “mistaking the map for the terrain.”
Someone the other day posted that when someone says they know what reality is, they are probably blowing smoke.
But there are some people who do know what reality is. Going hungry is reality (contrary to popular myth, food stamps and soup kitchens aren’t universal). Being homeless is reality. Being seriously ill without being able to go to even the emergency room is reality. You learn the real value of things… or you die.
And if you think this isn’t a common, everyday occurrence in this country for millions, you certainly have no clue what reality is.
It does get any more real than that. And the new aristocracy has no clue either.
But there are some people who do know what reality is.
I think you know.
Reality is having to choose between taking your baby to the doctor to be treated for an ear infection or feeding your family for a week - might be 2 weeks now.
Reality is realizing you have just enough money for gas to get to the folks house, but not enough to also get a camping spot for the day after having driven all night, so you just keep driving.
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger? Or maybe wiser.
And maybe meaner and more cunning than the ivory tower inhabitants.
Marie Antoinette didn’t get this either.
Tampa prices only back to 2003 levels.
www2 dot tbo.com/content/2010/nov/30/tampa-home-prices-hit-2003-levels/news-money/
With the amount of foreclosures in the pipelines here, we are no where near bottom yet. I predict another 20% drop at least. Too early to buy yet, guess we’ll have to rent some more.
Not itching to buy actually, but a good deal is a good deal, hard to pass up! So far have not seen any that just made me go AHHHHH! Not here anyway. Maybe I am not into ‘florida’ houses. I was spoiled in Colorado Springs, and hard to find the same here.
Approaching 1990 levels on whole neighborhoods here on the other coast.
Lots of condo’s & townhomes back to 2002-03 or so…single family has not fallen quite as far…Some, depending on where are back to maybe 2005-6…
In June 2002 I sold my condo for $225,000. Prices in the building reached into the upper 400s to lower 500s during the great mania.
The other day I was looking through the MLS and saw that a unit on the same floor as my condo was priced at $249,000.
So, pretty much getting back to 2002 in Hollywood, CA.
So it took 3-yrs to double up, and 5-yrs to return; usually the other way around.
tin foil hat required:
wiki leaks…this guy has been leaking information for some time now. we knew he was going to leak more information.
then…he mentions leaking information about a big u.s. bank…and all of a freakin’ sudden…the whole world wants him arrested?
hmmmm.
then…he mentions leaking information about a big u.s. bank…and all of a freakin’ sudden…the whole world wants him arrested?
I have a good friend who was an Air Force officer for many years. Even though he didn’t have a need-to-know, he saw the same sort of thing that the Wikileakers just leaked.
Matter of fact, he saw this stuff every day. And he had to sign off on a form that noted that he saw it.
So, as far as he’s concerned, the current Wiki-storm is nothing more than a tempest in a teapot.
I wonder if the source (if/when found) of the diplomatic/military info will be tried for treason.
The info released so far is pretty positive for the US.
I’m convinced it was ordered by someone up high and not the work of a single PFC.
Now the bank info…that sounds like retribution from someone who didn’t fare so well from TARP.
The source of the mil/dip Wikileaks data is presumably Pfc. Bradley Manning. He even has his own Wikipedia page up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Manning
“tempest in a teapot”
That’s probably an appropriate description. What I don’t get is why if Wikileaks has something, why not get it out there now rather than waiting until later? I get they’re surfing the publicity wave, but delaying the information either opens the door for someone else to steal the story, or by the time the story gets reported, there will have been so much speculation and hype that the actual story will be a snooze.
It’s advertising. They want potential snitches to know they can get info public through wikileaks.
“I have a good friend who was an Air Force officer for many years. Even though he didn’t have a need-to-know, he saw the same sort of thing that the Wikileakers just leaked.”
Thursday, December 02, 2010 at 7:30pm
Retired Army General Stanley McChrystal, a pivotal leader in U.S. military operations in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2009, will appear as part of Cal Poly Arts’ lecture series.
He will speak on America’s global role and its security issues in a lecture entitled “The State of International Affairs and the Security Challenges Facing America.”
The former Green Beret is known for his candor and innovative leadership. Called “one of America’s greatest warriors” by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, McChrystal is widely credited for battlefield innovations that fused intelligence and operations. His military career ended in a swirl of controversy last June after Rolling Stone magazine published his criticisms of members of the Obama administration.
Gawd’s children are above criticism. For example, they engineered the Pat Tillman “Rambo” story, and when it flopped they let others take the blame.
Everyone responsible for bringing McChrystal to Cal Poly are being named (outed?) already in the press. Yep, it’s our way or the highway for America’s master manipulators.
Here’s to hoping a WikiLeaks expose’ reveals the full story of why Bank of America acquired Countrywide. Why would a bank willingly make such a terrible investment? Enquiring minds want to know.
Could BofA be Wikileaks’ next target?
WikiLeaks chief said in 2009 group had giant bank’s data
updated 11/30/2010 1:00:28 PM ET
2010-11-30 T18:00:28
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — WikiLeaks has several gigabytes of data from a Bank of America Corp executive’s hard drive, the organization’s founder Julian Assange said in a published interview in 2009.
Assange’s whistle-blower organization, which released 250,000 U.S. government diplomatic and military documents on November 28, plans to release tens of thousands of internal documents from a major U.S. bank early next year, according to an interview posted online on Monday by Forbes Magazine.
Assange declined to identify to Forbes which bank would be the subject of the release, but expected the leak to spawn investigations.
Mark Stephens, a London lawyer who represents Assange, said that Assange could not be immediately reached for comment on whether the bank documents he told Forbes about were the same Bank of America documents he talked to Computerworld about just over a year ago.
In an October 9, 2009 interview, Assange told Computerworld that WikiLeaks had obtained five gigabytes of data from a Bank of America executive’s hard drive.
I wonder if Stammerin’ Hank Paulson and Turbo Tax Timmay have any cameos?
Somethings I just don`t understand.
Cops: Grandma threw child to her death at Va. mall
By Sarah Brumfield
Associated Press
Updated: 2:24 p.m. on Tuesday, November 30, 2010
McLEAN, Va. | A Virginia grandmother threw her 2½-year-old granddaughter several stories to her death from a walkway at a shopping mall after a family outing, police said Tuesday.
Carmela Dela Rosa, 50, of Fairfax was arrested and charged Tuesday with murder, said prosecutor Ian Rodway, the chief deputy Commonwealth’s attorney.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/nov/30/va-woman-custody-after-child-dies-fall/ -
Saw this story yesterday. Until they can answer why, and state for a fact that they have witnesses, it may have been just an accident.
Dow up a frisky 250+ points. When a Madoff-scam is working, its really working. When it stops working…?
It’s all good, everything else was but a temporary set back!
~Wall Street Rallies on Strong Jobs and Factory Data- Reuters
Stocks rallied on Wednesday as upbeat U.S. and Chinese data lifted investor confidence about a global economic recovery.
I thought this was worthwhile viewing
Nova “Mind over money” (season 37 episode 7 - now on Hulu dot com)
State Street to cut 1,400 jobs by end of 2011, close offices as part of major reorganization. (AP)
State Street Corp. says it will cut 1,400 jobs, or 5 percent of its work force, beginning immediately as part of a massive reorganization.
It is the second major round of job cuts for the Boston-based custody bank in as many years. About 1,700 people, or 6 percent of its staff, were eliminated early last year as it moved to cut operating costs.
The staff cuts will start in December and will be mostly completed by the end of 2011. The bank did not detail how many of the job cuts will be in the U.S.
State Street, which provides financial services to institutional investors, also said it will close an unspecified number of offices as part of the restructuring plan.
One would have thought that certainly these jobs would have been “saved” by QE2?
Yay! I’m all for smaller banks/investment houses.
Mortgage applications dropped last week
The Associated Press
Posted: 11:55 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2010
NEW YORK — Applications for mortgages tumbled last week, led by a sharp decline in refinancing as rates ticked up.
The Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday overall applications for loans dropped 16.5 percent from the previous week. Refinance applications plunged 21.6 percent, while purchase applications edged up 1.1 percent from the previous week.
The survey adjusted for the Thanksgiving holiday.
The average rate for a 30-year fixed loan rose to 4.56 from 4.50 percent from a week earlier, the group’s survey showed. Rates on the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage, a common refinancing option, increased to 3.91 percent from 3.83 percent.
Mortgage rates have been at or near their lowest levels in decades since spring as investors put money into safer Treasury bonds. That has lowered their yields, which mortgage rates tend to track.
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s survey covers more than 50 percent of all applications nationwide.
Off to Perth until Christmas. Although, we’ve been married since June, my wife really wanted to have friends and family at a small ceremony on the beach in her homeland. I wouldn’t stand in the way one that one and I get to see water go down the loo the wrong way!
Have fun holding down the fort here at the HBB and keep the faith. Many thanks to Ben for keeping it alive. Although, there are viewpoints diametrically opposed to mine espoused/spouted/spewed daily, often with little to no data, somebody usually checks up on it and with respect to housing and the need to change the “system”, most of us seem to be pointed in a similar direction. And it make me feel less crazy. So thanks to everyone for that.
My holiday wishes are that we are all safe and sound. I had heart surgery and another minor surgery recently, so I know first-hand that health is not a “gimme”. In the coming year, I hope that we learn to shop locally, build our communities, use less energy (after MY trip across the globe, of course!), learn to live with fewer things and more ideas and all have a roof (owned outright or rented from a bank or landlord) over our heads, warmth by the hearth and the company of friends and family.
Warm regards this season,
MrBubble
Have a safe trip, a wonderful wedding, and some very happy holidays, Mr. Bubble!
“In the coming year, I hope that we learn to shop locally, build our communities, use less energy, learn to live with fewer things and more ideas and all have a roof (owned outright or rented from a bank or landlord) over our heads, warmth by the hearth and the company of friends and family.”
Wonderful ideas, thanks.
Have a great trip.
…And in “Rand McNally,” people walk on their hands and hamburgers eat people!
— Lisa Simpson to brother Bart, looking at the Southern Hemisphere on a globe.
Wow! I just found out that my Brazilian private medical insurance covers dental. Who’d of thunk it?
I get a “free” crown, x-rays, cleaning and my dentist’s office has A/C, a comfortable couch and nice looking dentist stuff.
What is this private medical insurance you talk about?
Brazil has both private and public health-care. Everyone is covered theoretically. From what I’ve seen and heard, a Brazilian without private health insurance is better off than an American without private health insurance.
In Rio, the public system is actually better than private when it comes to accidents and trauma. If you get into a car accident, they will take you to a public hospital where they will put you back together for “free”. After that, if you have private insurance and are well enough, they will transfer you to a private hospital.
Good doctors in Brazil, too. I’ve met a bunch of them at meetings and am impressed.
8942 SE Ceres St Hobe Sound, FL 33455
$297,000
3 Bed2 Bath 2,250 Sq Ft
$235,000? Nice shack
Good thing uncle sugar has unlimited funds, can’t let the banksters down!
Fed opens vault on 21,000 Wall Street deals
December 1, 2010
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The Federal Reserve revealed details for the first time Wednesday of all the steps it took to stabilize the nation’s financial sector during the markets crisis of the last few years.
The central bank posted details of more than 21,000 transactions with major banks and Wall Street firms between December of 2007 and July of 2010, including purchasing $1 trillion in mortgages, and spending to back consumer and small business loans as well as commercial paper used to keep large corporations running.
Can’t hold back the great American consumer forever, it’s in their blood. Cyber Monday was a huge success, busted a billion in sales.
Fed Survey: Growth Picks up in Most Places- AP
The U.S. economy improved in most parts of the country this fall as factories produced more and shoppers spent more money.
Looks like the bailout announcement parties have already started on Wall Street. How will this latest ad hoc bailout benefit ‘The Street’? I’m guessing it has to do with lots and lots of money precariously positioned European banks owe their Wall Street compatriots, whose insurance costs will now be spread over the dollar currency base instead of borne by the banks which gambled foolishly and lost a bundle on real estate lending PIIGS, but this is just a hunch.
Meanwhile, the dumb shits who write for Marketwatch are making up all kinds of outlandish explanations for the sudden rush of money into U.S. stocks.
Agree with you, PB about the made-up headlines. It looks like insta-inflation taking effect on a day like this.
A big win for the money printers (FED).
I participated, I bought a snowblower part and a four pack of pickles.
We are on a roll, BB&Co. are going to bailout the EU…
US Ready to Back Bigger EU Stability Fund: Official
Wednesday, 1 Dec 2010
The United States would be ready to support the extension of the European Financial Stability Facility via an extra commitment of money from the International Monetary Fund, a U.S. official told Reuters on Wednesday.
“There are a lot of people talking about that. I think the European Commission has talked about that,” said the U.S. official, commenting on enlarging the 750 billion euro ($980 billion) EU/IMF European stability fund. “It is up to the Europeans. We will certainly support using the IMF in these circumstances.”
Bye,Bye Crissy,nice to see your lying azz gone. It only took 30 years.
Dodd decries hyper-partisanship in Senate farewell speech
Sen. Christopher J. Dodd decried an era of corrosive hyper-partisanship in his farewell address Tuesday, saying the political system is “completely dysfunctional” and telling his fellow senators that they could be effective only by working together.
and don’t let the door his you in the azz on the way out…
Heard he is off to Hollywood. Good place for him to hit bottom.
Mr. Kettle, let me introduce you to Mr. Pot……….
The Accidental Rally?
Dollar Defies Bernanke Skeptics to Become November’s Best-Returning Asset
By Wes Goodman - Dec 1, 2010 4:47 AM PT
Sheets of one-hundred dollar bills at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
The dollar proved to be last month’s best investment, beating stocks, bonds and commodities, confounding officials around the world who said Federal Reserve policies would debase the U.S. currency.
The U.S. Dollar Index, which tracks the currency against those of six major U.S. trading partners including the euro, yen and pound, rose 5.09 percent in November. The Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 commodities was little changed. The MSCI All Country World Index of stocks fell 2.2 percent after accounting for reinvested dividends. Bonds lost 1.1 percent including reinvested interest as measured by Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Global Broad Market Index.
While German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s decision to pump $600 billion into the world’s largest economy by purchasing Treasuries was “clueless,” rising bond yields and signs of economic recovery increased the allure of U.S. assets. The gain in the Dollar Index brought its advance for the year to 4.4 percent, trailing the 5.3 percent rally in bonds, 5.5 percent for stocks and 6.4 percent jump in commodities prices.
“Strong U.S. economic figures have helped the dollar,” said Masataka Horii, one of four managers for the $35.9 billion Kokusai Global Sovereign Open fund in Tokyo, Asia’s biggest bond fund. Global Sovereign Open’s dollar-denominated holdings account for 22 percent of its total, the second-biggest position behind the 28 percent devoted to euro assets, he said.
…
How worthless must the printed paper money of other countries be?
See? Told ya.
Delaware National Country Club to close
The News Journal • December 1, 2010
Delaware National Country Club will close its doors at the end of the year, writing the final chapter for one of the state’s oldest clubs.
It was not known Tuesday what would happen to the Mill Creek property, where power had already been shut off because the club had failed to pay its utility bill, owner Ron Holliday said.
Founded 73 years ago for executives of former chemical company Hercules Inc., the 215-acre site was leased by the club from Pettinaro Company, a real estate firm. Holliday said the club has agreed with Pettinaro to terminate its five-year lease. About 70 people will lose their jobs when the club closes. Holliday is trying to find jobs for those people.
Speechless…
The New York Times
December 1, 2010, 1:16 pm
Investment Banking | Legal/Regulatory
Pimco and BlackRock Received Fed Help
By BEN PROTESS
When the credit markets nearly froze in the fall of 2008, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York enticed hedge funds, mutual funds and other big investors to buy highly rated securities backed by car loans and student debt.
The intuitional investors, which collectively borrowed $71 billion through the program, included such market giants as Pimco, T.Rowe Price and BlackRock.
The California Public Employees Retirement System, the nation’s largest pension fund, also borrowed through the program, known as the Term-Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF.
Most of the Fed’s TALF loans came cheap and lasted for a year. The program ended earlier this year.
The disclosures come from Federal Reserve’s release of volumes of previously undisclosed information about the trillions of dollars in loans it made during the financial crisis.
One crucial Fed lending program was the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, a cheap overnight loan system for banks that was similar to the Fed’s discount window.
You name the big broker-dealer, and they’re on the list. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Citigroup all borrowed through this program.
One surprise, however, is that JPMorgan Chase borrowed only three times, all in the fall of 2008. The program started in March 2008 and ended February 2010.
Citigroup, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley kept borrowing through the spring of 2009.
There was a clear advantage to keep borrowing: As time went on, the Fed’s interest rate kept falling. When Bank of America drew its last loan in May 2009, the $375 million loan carried a nominal 0.5 percent rate.
In the same week in October 2008 that banks received TARP funds, Goldman took out overnight loans worth as much as $60 billion. Morgan Stanley borrowed as much as $34 billion in one day that week.
Now, …NOW!,… we’re filled with “TrueAnger™”
Republicans block child nutrition bill:
“Republicans say the nutrition bill is too costly and an example of government overreach.”
“We all want to see our children healthy and active. This is about spending and the role of government and the size of government — a debate about whether we’re listening to our constituents or not.“
(“TrueHypocrite™” seem to be ALL ears these last…10 years!):
http://www.costofwar.com/
By MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press Mary Clare Jalonick, Associated Press
WASHINGTON – House Republicans have temporarily blocked legislation to feed school meals to thousands more hungry children. Republicans used a procedural maneuver Wednesday to try to amend the $4.5 billion bill…
They are the very dictionary definition of “traitors.”
They blocked ending tax breaks for offshoring jobs and now they want the “ghetto crack babies” to starve to death or at the very least, have serious learning disabilities due to malnutrition.
Which means no skills and therefore… crime becomes the only way to survive.
Why do they want a crime state?
Anyone have a copy of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights that they can send to Lieberman? [...] Look at who’s complaining the most about Wikileaks and you realize that it’s the people who benefit from not being held accountable for their actions.
Techdirt
From our Sign of the Times department comes word that Los Angeles is now fining jaywalkers in the downtown area $191 a pop.
Of course, the official line is that it’s about safety, not revenue. The fact L.A. has also jacked up a parking ticket from $40 to $50 and tickets for minor moving violations have doubled? Pure coincidence.
Look for more of this where you live. State and local tax revenues have recovered from last year’s levels, but they remain below 2008 levels.
~ 5Min Forecast
It’s always about safety and the environment.White collar criminals would be proud.
Here in Tucson, the police recently got a grant that enabled them to crack down on…
…jaywalking.
Well, every week, I participate in a weekly walk around Downtown called Meet Me at Maynards. Once this grant-funded crackdown hit the news, it was the talk of the walk.
As in, “Wait at that walk sign! It’ll cost you $184 if you don’t!”
If I can help it, I will NEVER live in another major American city.
Near one, but NOT in one.
Banks get bailed out; FBers get thrown out of their homes and into the street.
That seems fair!
Fed Names Recipients of $3.3 Trillion in Crisis Aid
By Craig Torres and Scott Lanman - Dec 1, 2010 10:52 AM PT
The Federal Reserve Building
A gray sky hangs over the Federal Reserve building in Washington, DC. Photographer: Jay Mallin/Bloomberg
The Federal Reserve, under orders from Congress, today named the counterparties of about 21,000 transactions from $3.3 trillion in aid provided to stem the worst financial panic since the Great Depression.
Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. were among the biggest borrowers from one program, the Term Auction Facility, with as much as $45 billion apiece. Some aid went to U.S. units of foreign institutions, including Switzerland’s UBS AG, France’s Societe Generale and Germany’s Dresdner Bank AG. The Fed posted the data on its website to comply with a provision in July’s Dodd-Frank law overhauling financial regulation.
“We owe an accounting to the American people of who we have lent money to,” Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker said today in an interview on Bloomberg Radio’s “The Hays Advantage,” with Kathleen Hays. “It is a good step toward broader transparency.”
…
Attachment: AIA ALICO
Attachment: Maiden Lane III
Attachment: Maiden Lane II
Attachment: AIG Securities Borrowing Facility
Attachment: AIG Revolving Credit Facility
Attachment: Maiden Lane
Attachment: Bear Stearns Bridge Loan
Attachment: Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility Borrower Data
Attachment: Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility Loan Data
Attachment: Purchases of Commercial Paper
Attachment: Loans to CPFF LLC
Attachment: Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Money Market Mutual Fund
Attachment: TSLF Options Program
Attachment: Term Securities Lending Facility
Attachment: Primary Dealer Credit Facility
Attachment: Central Bank Liquidity Swap Lines
Attachment: Term Auction Facility
Attachment: Agency Mortgage-Backed Securities Purchase Program
At Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Wall Street’s most profitable securities firm, borrowing from the Primary Dealer Credit Facility peaked at $24 billion in October 2008. “Without question, direct government support was critical in stabilizing the financial system, and we benefitted from it,” Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein said in January 2010.
Michael DuVally, a Goldman Sachs spokesman in New York, said today that the Fed’s actions “were very successful.”
Yes they were. For GS and all their friends. Now the Plunge Protection Team, in conjunction with the Treasury and FED are pumping up the financials to keep the markets moving higher into the New Year. Lots of skimming to do before year end, you know.
It’s good to know Lloyd and all his buddies got a big pile of cash from the “bailouts”. They made their money the old fashioned way; they got a free ticket to ride on the taxpayers of the US of A.
“……..critical in stabilizing our Ponzi scheme and our year end bonus plan……..
Fixed it.
No, no, no.
It’s now a “Madoff” scheme.
Get with the times!
Is the Fed’s discretionary lending discrimination policy really legal?
Fed data reveal wide scope of loan action during financial crisis
By Neil Irwin and Jia Lynn Yang
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, December 1, 2010; 6:32 PM
The Federal Reserve pumped trillions of dollars into all manner of banks, investment firms and major companies during the financial crisis, according to documents released Wednesday that reveal for the first time the full scope of the Fed’s emergency lending.
…
I can’t believe I am about to float this question: can anyone recommend safe, family areas of Orlando?
This is preliminary.
Texas?
The NY Times feature item “what do you get for $X” has some doozies today.
What do you get for $2 million?
One is a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Los Banos CA. If you don’t speak Spanish, “los Banos” means “the restrooms”. It’s a town of roughneck mestizo farmers in a smoggy patch of the CA central valley. But it does include a “koi pond” on its 80 acres. After coughing up $2 million, be prepared to pay $25,000 a year in property taxes.
Another is a one-bedroom two-bath “loft” in Minneapolis. Taxes $22,600 a year plus HOA fees of $1,377 a MONTH.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/greathomesanddestinations/02gh-what.html?_r=1&hpw
That place in Minneapolis….the tax/HOA come up to over $39K a year. That’s $3,250 a month. You should be able to RENT a marvelous place anywhere in the US for that scratch. Plus your seed $2 Million should give you enough to live on even at today’s low interest rates. At 1% that’s still $20K. At the historical average of 5% that’s $100K FOREVER.
WTF! They can’t touch up the Frank house with a little white paint before the shoot?
Triple double WTF! 2mil for a 1br. condo in Minneapolis?
Oh, whatever. They dropped it $545k for your ungrateful self. Get on it before it’s gone!
teh stupid, it burns!
I know someone who used to commute from Los Banos to Sunnyvale.
That’s not uncommon but still awful. It’s 50 miles each way and it’s a bad 50 miles on Hwy. 152 and 101. Los Banos is one of those SF bay area exurbs that’s probably getting a maximum hosing now, along with Merced, Stockton, and the like. I wonder who thought it was a good idea to spend the money on a FLW house in Los Banos?
The term the BBC journalists were searching for is moral hazard.
The moral dangers of financial bail-outs
Europe deficit
The people who have got Ireland into its mess are largely the bankers and property speculators, egged on by the politicians, says economist Roger Bootle
* HEARD ON THE STREET
* DECEMBER 2, 2010
Moral Hazard, Thy Price Is $3.3 Trillion
By DAVID REILLY And ROLFE WINKLER
Sunshine doesn’t hurt after all. Bank shares leapt Wednesday despite the Federal Reserve’s detailed disclosure of who got $3.3 trillion of emergency lending during the crisis. That is hardly what investors might have envisaged, given dark warnings from the Fed that such disclosure could endanger financial institutions. The central bank released the data only because of a provision in the Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul bill.
True, it will take time for investors to comb through all the gory details of about 21,000 transactions by multiple emergency Fed lending facilities. And some details may leave firms with egg on their face: Goldman Sachs, which insisted it would have survived the crisis without government assistance, tapped one special Fed facility 84 times to borrow nearly $600 billion in overnight money. Morgan Stanley tapped the facilities more than 200 times.
…
“Best” = “largest decrease in affordability.”
* REAL ESTATE
* NOVEMBER 30, 2010
Slump in Housing Prices Deepens
By CONOR DOUGHERTY And MATT JARZEMSKY
The U.S. housing market is showing signs of falling deeper into a slump that could weigh on the nation’s economic recovery.
Home prices nationwide were down 1.5% in the third quarter, compared with a year ago, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index released Tuesday. The drop reflects the sharp fall in home sales after government home-buying tax credits expired earlier this year. Prices fell even more, by 2%, in the third quarter, compared with the second quarter.
Case-Shiller’s composite index for 20 major U.S. cities fell 0.7% in September, compared with August, not adjusted for seasonal variations. The biggest decline was in Cleveland, where prices fell 3% in September, compared with August. Minneapolis, Portland, Ore., and Phoenix were also big losers, with monthly price declines between 2.1% and 1.5%.
The best showing was in Washington, D.C., where prices increased 0.3% in September from August.
…
How many foreign banks did the Fed bail out with the American People’s money? And was it legal?
And what about all the Wall Street Megabanks currently in the Merry-Christmas process of taking possess of foreclosing on American homes in default status? If they had collapsed, due to their foolish loan underwriting, they would hardly be in a position now to be playing robo-signer foreclosure monopoly, would they?
* REVIEW & OUTLOOK
* DECEMBER 2, 2010
The Fed’s Bailout Files
Which banks were too big to fail? All of them.
Lender of last resort indeed. The Federal Reserve pulled back the curtain yesterday on its emergency lending during the financial panic of 2008 and 2009, and the game to play at home with the kids is: Who didn’t get a bailout?
If you can find a big financial player who declined the Fed’s cash, you’re doing better than we did yesterday afternoon.
The documents aren’t another WikiLeaks dump but are due to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who insisted that the Dodd-Frank financial bill require more transparency about how the Fed allocated capital during the panic. The release of this data on some 21,000 Fed transactions over the last three years is one of the rare useful provisions in Dodd-Frank, but kudos to our favorite Socialist for demanding it.
We learn, for example, that the cream of Wall Street received even more multibillion-dollar assistance than previously advertised by either the banks or the Fed. Goldman Sachs used the Primary Dealer Credit Facility 212 times to the tune of nearly $600 billion. Even in Washington, that’s still a lot of money. Morgan Stanley used the same overnight lending program 212 times from March 2008 to March 2009. This news makes it impossible to argue that either bank would have survived the storm without the Fed’s cash.
The same goes for General Electric, which from late October to late November 2008 tapped the Fed’s Commercial Paper Funding Facility 12 times for more than $15 billion. Thanks to the FDIC’s debt-guarantee program, GE also sold $60 billion of government-guaranteed debt (with a balance left of $55 billion). The company finished a close second to Citigroup as the heaviest user of that program from November 2008 to July 2009. GE is lucky it was too big to fail, or it might have failed as smaller business lender CIT did.
The blogosphere was hurling pitchforks yesterday because some foreign banks also took the Fed’s money, including such prominent names as UBS, Barclays and BNP Paribas, and even names like Dexia and Natixis that most Americans might confuse with pharmaceuticals marketed on TV.
…
I’m starting to strongly believe the world needs to completely overhaul its international banking system. Seriously! Why should an international band of banksters be allowed to systemically rob the rest of us?
The only question is that of how, not whether. I’m sure all the bright minds in finance can come up with some big improvements to the status quo.
* OPINION
* DECEMBER 2, 2010
‘Contagion’ and Other Euro Myths
Restructuring short-term debt as long-term debt—which is what default really means—would hardly be the end of the world.
By JOHN H. COCHRANE
Over the weekend, European finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced a €90 billion fund to bail out Ireland. They also promised that no sovereign bondholder would lose a cent, at least through 2013. The amount of fuzzy thinking behind this decision is even bigger than the heap of euros now being shoveled upon Dublin.
The bailout is being justified on grounds of containing “contagion.” This is nonsense. The notion is that news of an Irish restructuring would scare investors in Spanish bonds, who would start looking at Spain’s ability to repay its debts and then demand higher interest rates.
But haven’t investors in Spanish bonds already noticed that there’s a bit of a problem? And wouldn’t news of a giant bailout make these investors question Spanish finances as much as would news of debt restructuring?
Any contagion is entirely self-inflicted. The only way Ireland’s fate affects Spanish investors is by changing the odds that the European Union (EU) will bail out Spain. And Spanish interest rates are rising, suggesting investors now think a Spanish bailout is less, not more, likely.
This is not, in fact, an Irish bailout. It’s a bailout of the European (including British) banks that lent a lot of money to the Irish government and Irish banks. If European governments want to bail out their banks, let them do so directly and openly—not via the subterfuge of country bailouts. Then they should face the music: How is it that two years after the great financial crisis, European banks make so-called systemically dangerous sovereign bets, earn nice yields, and then get bailed out again and again?
…
Middle class tax break, my arse…
Posted at 4:05 PM ET, 11/16/2010
Who does the mortgage-interest deduction benefit?
By Ezra Klein
Alex Hart has a good post examining whether the mortgage-interest tax deduction — which will cost taxpayers $131 billion in 2012 — is really a “middle-class tax break,” as some people like to claim. The answer is no, but it really deserves a graph:
…
It’s good to be a bankster. Not so good to be a saver or investor.
Bond Report
Dec. 1, 2010, 6:06 p.m. EST
Treasurys knocked, sending 10-year yield near 3%
By Laura Mandaro and Nick Godt, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Benchmark Treasurys tumbled Wednesday, sending yields toward the 3% level, with bonds diving on strength in global economic data and speculation more aid was headed toward the European financial system.
…
Ok, I admit I have been away from this site for quite a while. But is Ben or his surrogates no longer posting? Is this site nothing more than a never ending “bits and buckets” site?
There are occasional articles, but it’s mostly just the daily bits bucket now. Still a lot of the same people arguing the same points, but always a great place to discuss financial developments in the news. Not many people come on and tell everybody they’re wrong anymore.
Wrong!