Bits Bucket For December 6, 2010
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
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This is an interesting article. I’ve seen the Case-Shiller numbers ad nauseum but had never before seen them broken out by low/mid/high property values before. Apparently their statistics have always included this information but to my knowledge it hasn’t been discussed in the press.
For 16 major regional areas, S.& P. publishes separate indexes for the top, middle and bottom thirds of homes in the area, as measured by price. Those figures show that from the beginning of the decade through each area’s peak, prices of lower-value homes rose faster than either of the other groups in each of the markets except one, Denver, where the rises were virtually identical for all groups.
The latest figures show that prices of lower-cost homes have fallen further from the peak in each of the 16 areas.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/business/economy/04charts.html
‘DURING the great housing bubble, it was the least expensive homes whose prices went up the most. And now it is those homes that are suffering the most.
“That is where the most creative lending was,”’
That’s not quite how I recall it: There were plenty of creative ARM loans made in the prime, Alt-A and other high-end slices of the mortgage market. But while the tsunami wave crests of subprime ARM resets are already behind us, the higher-end ARM reset tsunami wave crests are not scheduled to end until 2013 or so.
I saw homes in Riverside county jump from $125K in 2000 to $500K in 2005 at the peak, where homes which had started in the $400K range here in San Diego along the coast neared a Million.
The $125K homes now sell for about $200K in Riverside County where the $400K homes are still near a Million.
Condos similarly skyrocketed and then fell back sharply all over the So Cal area, so I would say lower price homes did see a harder swing.
As for the ARMS now resetting, each is a much bigger chunk of change, so the impact will be much larger as each fails it might be 3 Sub Primes worth of loss…
“…as each fails it might be 3 Sub Primes worth of loss…”
Not only that, but as the high-end ARMs go into default, and the owners either walk away or get foreclosed, a crushing nass of high-end inventory will weigh on the prices of lower-quality housing like a crush of stampeding Cambodians amassed on a bridge.
These human stampedes are as deadly as that of any herd animal.
Coming from an electronics background feedback loops are well understood. In layman’s terms we are in a less the less loop, where each preceding failure generates an avalanche of new failures.
It appears that the Fed has taken the approach of allowing the failures and then trying to clean them up in real time, but there are too many and the law of unintended consequences (my favorite law) seems to rule the day.
thatthose“(my favorite law)”
Have you read Taleb’s books?
Not yet on Taleb. I like Asimov and the foundation trilogy for what is happening today.
He basically theorized that individual behaviour in a group could be calculated and the outcome of the groups behaviour could then be calculated. You just need enough data points. Complexity level? Beyond comprehension. consequences of actions taken without these data points? Unintended!
If you wait for perfection, nothing will ever happen.
“He basically theorized that individual behaviour in a group could be calculated and the outcome of the groups behaviour could then be calculated.”
Psychohistory!
Its a shame that Asimov painted himself into a corner and never finished the series.
Wait tell San Diego county goes bankrupt! You want to see home prices fall? Get out of the way. Smart homeowners sold a few years back and left the state. What a mess.
They might just go up. A municipality with no debt might be more desirable.
San Diego will end up more like Greece or Ireland in bankruptcy. 100% of retirements will be kept and everything else will be cut. Raises will be given to ALL city managers.
Of course in many areas, high prices resulted in alot of overbuilding. When there is an oversupply of housing, the top tends to fill first and the bottom drops out of the lowest price housing. Look at vacancy levels in various parts of metropolitain Detroit for a picture of an extreme oversupply of housing.
“the latest figures show that prices of lower-cost homes have fallen further”
Allow me to make an interpretation. It’s is the price of lower cost AREAS that are falling most rapidly.
……and here’s why.
Take a look at some of these areas, towns, villages, hamlets and as small as intersections of no-where land. Because these areas were untouched by the bubble very early on, only to outsiders did they appear to be cheap. Once they hit the radar and thus presumed to be cheap, prices as much as quadrupled and in most cases doubled at a minimum. These areas are not economically viable towns at all. We’re talking areas that exhibited post-industrial decline before the bubble began; declining population, rising taxes, evaporating business centers, etc. It’s not that there aren’t good paying jobs there. There are NO jobs locally and nothing commutable.
There is no economic fundamental to support anything but falling prices yet prices went through the roof in the hopelessly declining areas during The Great Housing Fraud years.
Nice summary on the small town price spiral exeter….Spot on…
We were very interested in buying a vacation/2nd home in Brookings Or…Changed our mind on the idea…Dodged a bullet there…I remember prices were just getting crazy for the houses overlooking the harbor…6,7,8+ k….All the bullet points were being touted…”The Boomers are coming”…Its the “Banana Belt” on the southern Oregon coast..Blah,Blah,Blah…Last trip we saw a house there for $290,000….
Thank you Dave.
They’re still dropping, and will continue to drop. People are waking up to the fact that
Brookings is a long way from good medical
help and decent shopping.
“They’re still dropping, and will continue to drop.”
You can say that again….. and again….. and again.
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Actually that article discusses the lower-priced houses IN major metro areas, e.g. LA, SF, DC, etc., not the lower-priced areas out in the sticks.
This is precisely what happened to backwater logging towns all over western Washington. Pre-bubble, you could drive through these poverty stricken places and they looked like something out of a movie. Towns where dilapidated houses rotted away, their yards strewn with garbage and muddied up kids toys, and generational drug, child, and alcohol abuse cast a pall over dreams of happiness. Next to nobody wanted to live there. Jobs were scarce, and well-paying jobs non-existent.
Fast forward to the halcyon days of the bubble and prices were skyrocketing, infestors buying houses sight unseen. All of a sudden there was a buzz, with grand promises of “downtown renovation” and chatter of “everybody wants to live here.” The promise of jobs and better times gave even the most skeptical a sliver of hope. The great metamorphosis had begun, and gone would be the days of abject poverty and despair. The locals bought into it hook, line, and sinker as developers and infestors promised the world. They were saved. Then, like a cold stiff breeze ushers out the last warm fall day, the music stopped. Alas, there were no jobs. There was no magical transformation. All that remained were empty promises and broken dreams, and buildings and dwellings in foreclosure, with locals saddled by huge debt loads, poorer than they had ever been, and ashamed and angry that they fell for such a ruse.
Grizzly…. that is beautiful. Thank you.
This is precisely what happened to backwater logging towns all over rural Oregon.
Nice summary Gbear….
the bubble pretty much impacted anyplace where they were giving out easy credit…which is pretty much everywhere.
FWIW I didn’t see the big appreciation bubble in my burg. A lot of entry level houses were built but there wasn’t a lot of appreciation in Loveland (Neighboring Ft. Collins was another stoy).
They did overbuild at the entry level and those houses have lost value compared to a few years ago (say 200K -> 160K) and are selling at below 1999 prices.
Anything above that didn’t sell all that well during the bubble as I know several folks with 300K+ houses that they couldn’t sell at the realtors fantasy prices. From what I saw those houses didn’t rise a whole lot above their 1999 prices, maybe 20% tops.
“Banks in trouble need to be restructured and broken up, if necessary.”
- Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner
Well did that get your attention?
No Tim didn’t say it, but a recent Chancellor of the Exchequer DID say that in this NY Times article. Prof Bear posted it last night around 11 PM so it bears reposting again this morning.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/opinion/06darling.html
The euro zone states also need to deal with banks carrying unsustainable debt. Last summer Europe carried out so-called stress tests on its banks to see which ones were at risk of collapse. But these tests were insufficient (as I noted at the time). The tests did not pay enough attention to the banks’ interrelationships, not just in Europe but globally. Banks in trouble need to be restructured and broken up, if necessary.
“When things don’t fall apart on bad news, you know that the market is no longer vulnerable,” said Randy Frederick, director of trading and derivatives at Schwab Center for Financial Research in Austin, Texas. “The overall sentiment is pretty solid.”
Sounds like the rhetoric espoused in the months leading up to the housing crash.
Doesn’t sound like Randy believes in the Plunge Protection Team (but that he does believe in Santa Claus…).
We need a rating system similar to a baseball player’s batting average that can go next to the name of any “professional-financial-advice-giver” so we can see how they did during past bullbles/busts. I have a feeling most would be sporting a substandard grade an be in danger of bs-ing themselves out of a job.
So even when things are bad, the market doesn’t fall because people feel good? Umm….sounds like a time when the market is extremely vulnerable. Because if you pile on enough bad news, people will (eventually) stop feeling so good.
And if you pile on enough BS, the market will eventually collapse under an unbearable mass of disinformation.
I’m not sure I agree with that. There’s been an unbearable mass of disinformation about the stock market ever since I was born. And when I was born Winston Churchill was PM in the UK.
So, what I want to know is– if the mortgage interest deduction is eliminated, will this be deemed a case of reckless deregulation, globalization and corporate elitism? Just wondering.
Good morning all. Planning on moving to Palm Beach County as a permanent renter. Thinking about Jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens, (Juno? Tesquesta?) Any help, advice or recommendations?? Thanks!
All nice areas, I am currently renting a 3/2/2 single family with pool in Tequesta Pines for $1,700 a month, a little high but way below the cost of owning in this neighborhood at $275,000 which is way down from the peak. Lived in Gardens for 20 years, a lot of great neighborhoods and some not so great. Jupiter, Juno same deal. A lot depends on if you have kids for school zones etc. But you have targeted some nice areas in Northern Palm Beach County. By the way I looked at 2/2 apartments for sale on Realtor.com this weekend and there are some that are back to early 90s pricing like Chasewood in Jupiter so I would imagine you could find a good deal on a rental there.
Jupiter is nice. Accessible beaches, little traffic, not as crowded. If my job wasn’t in Miami that’s where I’d be living.
Lots of rentals on Golf View Drive in North Palm Beach.
Since QE2, QE3, QE4, …, are already priced in now to Wall Street investor expectations, what ammunition does the Fed have left at this point?
Indications
Dec. 6, 2010, 7:33 a.m. EST
Bernanke comments weigh on stock futures
U.S. futures fall as jobs data disappoint
By Simon Kennedy, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock-market futures pointed to a lower start for Wall Street Monday following strong gains in the previous week, as investors eyed comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as well as the surprise departure of Pfizer Inc.’s chief executive.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJZ10 11,353, -11.00, -0.10%) fell 12 points to 11,352.and S&P 500 futures (SPZ10 1,220, -3.30, -0.27%) dropped 3.2 points to 1,220.30. Nasdaq 100 futures (NDZ10 2,180, -7.00, -0.32%) were down 3.25 points at 2,184.00.
The moves came after Wall Street on Friday shrugged off disappointing payrolls data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed slightly higher for the session and was up 2.6% over the course of the week.
In a Sunday interview on CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” Bernanke said the Fed could commit more money to boost the economy after last month announcing $600 billion of asset purchases. He said any decision would depend on inflation and the efficacy of the existing program, as well as how the economy looks overall. See full story on Bernanke’s interview.
Mike Lenhoff, chief strategist at Brewin Dolphin, said Bernanke’s comments could be interpreted either way for markets.
“It shows the determination on the part of Bernanke and the Fed to reinflate the economy. The bad bit is that if it’s actually needed then things aren’t working out so well,” Lenhoff said.
…
“Bernanke comment weighs on stock futures.”
These Bernanke comments were taped last Tuesday, and even then they were not such a big surprise.
The stock market will do what it must, and stock market analyists and commentators will endlessly dream up explanations.
Ben said he is 100% confident that he can handle the situation.He did not look like a confident man to me.
Is there anyway the public can see how much the fed has on reserve?
As I said last night ben said he was not printing money.The money was coming from reserves.I just dont believe it folks.
“…how much the fed has on reserve?”
Would that be something like counting how many dollars are in the Social Security Trust Fund?
I believe the Fed has at least a dollar more than they need or want…
Imagine if we could just log into our bank account from time to time and add a zero…
“He did not look like a confident man to me.”
No question about it. His inflection was weak and the delivery seemed tentative.
‘Is there anyway the public can see how much the fed has on reserve?’
Yes, by conducting an independent audit and making it public. You would think this would be mandatory and done yearly. (BTW, I am 100% sure they have audits of some sort, we just don’t get to see them).
This raises an important point; let’s take Bernanke at his word. Suppose they do have trillions in retained earnings or some other “reserves.” That’s enough cash to influence all sorts of things and amounts to tremendous power. And with the lack of true oversight (audits, for example) how can we ever know the level of personal enrichment, market manipulation, etc?
Why is such a secret operation tolerated?
“Why is such a secret operation tolerated?”
I’d have to guess it is because members of the PTB would be exposed to scrutiny in ways they would find disagreeable.
I wonder if julian assange has any dirt on fed?
Bernanke’s greatest hits
7/1/2005 - “We’ve never had a decline in house prices on a nationwide basis. So, what I think what is more likely is that house prices will slow, maybe stabilize, might slow consumption spending a bit. I don’t think it’s gonna drive the economy too far from its full employment path, though.”
2/15/2006 - “Housing markets are cooling a bit. Our expectation is that the decline in activity or the slowing in activity will be moderate, that house prices will probably continue to rise.”
March 28th, 2007 – “At this juncture . . . the impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the subprime markets seems likely to be contained,”
May 17th, 2007 – “While rising delinquencies and foreclosures will continue to weigh heavily on the housing market this year, it will not cripple the U.S.”
June 20th, 2007 – The subprime fallout “will not affect the economy overall.”
October 15th, 2007 – “It is not the responsibility of the Federal Reserve – nor would it be appropriate – to protect lenders and investors from the consequences of their financial decisions.”
February 29th, 2008 – “I expect there will be some failures. I don’t anticipate any serious problems of that sort among the large internationally active banks that make up a very substantial part of our banking system.”
June 9th, 2008 – Despite a recent spike in the nation’s unemployment rate, the danger that the economy has fallen into a “substantial downturn” appears to have waned.
July 16th, 2008 – Freddie and Fannie “…will make it through the storm”, “… in no danger of failing.”,”…adequately capitalized”
September 19th, 2008 – “Most severe financial crisis” in the post-World War II era. Investment banks are seeing “tremendous runs on their cash,” Bernanke said. “Without action, they will fail soon.”
Do you think we could trade Bernanke for Baghdad Bob and two first-round draft picks?
“Ben said he is 100% confident that he can handle the situation.”
Greenspan said the same thing while decreeing that regulator’s warnings were a threat to the economy.
Since QE2, QE3, QE4, …, are already priced in now to Wall Street investor expectations, what ammunition does the Fed have left at this point?
Moral suasion?
buy some stock in pcln and get rich.Dow 15000 is baked in, goldman said so.
An observation. I watch a small area in the Boston suburbs looking to low ball somebody who needs out quickly. I’m starting to see more trapped “home owners”. I’ve seen it in 3 or 4 times the past couple of years but in the last month, two places within blocks of each other have come onto the market with ludicrous asking prices. I searched the records and have found that both are serial refinancers who have managed to triple the size of their mortgage in since 2000. They now owe half a million in an area where the comps are going for $400K. The only option I can see would be a short sale. The rental rate for the area is about $2000-2500/month for equivalent houses and even at a 4% mortgage these people will be bleeding $500-1000 per month. I really wonder how much of the market will be effectively unsellable due to these type of people.
Here in Phoenix its a large number. From my experience in 85310 about 90-95% of the houses on the market were short sales, and many of those were left on the market while the banks and creditors tried to figure out what was a realistic short sale.
Here, if you have a house that’s not underwater, it gets snapped right up. We sold our house in a week and we had two competing bids.
people will pay a premium it seems for a quick close and no realtor shenanigans involved with short sales.
Nothing is unsellable. It just may not be sellable at a profit.
Well, OK, some stuff is unsellable, but you won’t find many of them in neighborhoods where homes generally rent for $2000 to $2500 a month.
That’s the other thing that gets me. Technically, they if they sell at $400K they will be selling for a profit. Both properties were purchased in the 90’s for between $150-170K. I don’t know why they refinanced or what they did with the money but if they didn’t they could have $250K.
Is MA recourse or non-recourse?
By the way, this question is embarassing. I grew up in MA and I’m admitted to the bar in MA (inactive).
It is a recourse state
Although if the owner is underwater, can’t bring enough money to the table, and the lenders aren’t willing to approve a short sale at a market price, the house IS pretty much unsellable. You can wait and buy it from the bank when and if they ever get their act together.
Agreed, but your conditions are sort of a timing issue. Something might be unsellable *today*, but that is because of the bank and the owner - the bank won’t approve the short sale and the owner won’t/can’t bring money to the table. It isn’t so much that the house for sale can’t be sold.
There are a few that are close to unsellable, even in reasonable areas. I’m thinking of the house that was next door to my grandfather’s house that was really close to the lake and had a completely messed up leaching field. The residents were allowed to live there, but if it had sold, there would have been no chance of getting a residency certificate. It didn’t come with enough land to create a new leaching field. The cost to run the sewer line past the house was just gigantic. The most likely purchasers were the owners of the surrounding houses if they wanted to add the land to their own properties (probably taking down the house and filling in the foundation at great expense). The only other purchasers would have been people who wanted the lake front (about 15 to 20 feet) that came with the house. The entire value of the house was wrapped up in the value of being able to have enough lake front to have a small boat on a small lake.
So in that case, the house was almost (not quite) unsellable. For a real unsellable house, I think you would need to look for a superfund site. You don’t ever want to be in the chain of ownership of something like that. Not on a bet.
The entire value of the house was wrapped up in the value of being able to have enough lake front to have a small boat on a small lake.
Something tells me that people aren’t willing to pay a fortune for such a thing. Especially if the fortune involves tearing down a house and doing the environmental remediation that the leach field/septic may require.
Of course for a superfund site, the market can put a price on it, it’s just that the price is negative.
Heh….. Hobo…. If you choose to view The Great Housing Fraud as a controlled collapse in the same way the collapsed played out in the late 80’s, the fun is just beginning in new england and mid-atlantic.
I searched the records and have found that both are serial refinancers who have managed to triple the size of their mortgage in since 2000. They now owe half a million in an area where the comps are going for $400K.
Expect 12 months of price downgrades as they follow the market down
Then 2 years of the people living there without paying their mortgage including feeble attempts to short sell it
Then another 12 months as the bank tries to figure out how to sell it as a foreclosure.
Expect 3 years of zero maintenance. What happens if the roof springs a leak? does the bank fix it? do you think the owner will make repairs if a pipe breaks?
Do you think they have insurance to cover damages??
Do you remember the Realtor from St. Petersburg who said she was “gonna strip this sucker”.
It’s similar to Bush’s “this sucker’s going down”.
Isn’t a resumption of larger-than-recent housing price declines technically possible from here? And wouldn’t that constitute a further weakening of the housing market?
Just trying to get my facts straight here…
Dec. 5, 2010, 7:01 p.m. EST
Fed could commit more to easing: Bernanke
…
Bernanke defended the Fed’s already-announced $600 billion purchase of Treasury securities, pointing out that high unemployment is a major concern while inflation is dangerously low.
“We’re getting awfully close to the range where prices would actually start falling,” which would lead to falling wages and an overall downward spiral for the economy, Bernanke said.
Critics who say the Fed risks overheating the economy and fueling inflation “are not looking at the risks of not acting,” he said. “Fear of inflation, I think, is way overstated.”
The risk of a double-dip recession “doesn’t seem likely,” Bernanke said, because some of the most cyclical parts of the economy, such as housing, “can’t get much weaker” than they already are.
…
Overheating…Phoooie! I sent out 14 resumes last week all having to do with video audio radio tv and not a single response…not even from the 2 that were almost no pay intern “jobs”
I guess he has never heard of the state and local government sector. Montgomery County, MD recently announced that it is facing a $350 million budget shortfall. I believe the first fix they announced was laying off 10% of the fire department. Announced cuts in the school budget means there will have to be jobs eliminated there as well. And you better believe that the cuts in maintenance and road repair is going to hit both county workers and businesses that contract with the county.
People who have no money because they got laid off from state and local government work are just broke as folks who get laid off from building houses. And there will be no cuts in tax rates while the county is bleeding money this quickly at current levels.
That’s what BB just said. “High unemployment is a major concern”.
Werent they also saying there was no inflation when home prices were doubling?There inflation numbers relied on rents rather than home prices directly.
Anyone know what % a member bank has to keep on reserves right now?Shouldnt the reserve requirement be going down in this current environment so there is more money to lend?
Shouldnt the reserve requirement be going down in this current environment so there is more money to lend?”
No.
the reserve requirement is to cover losses when loans go bad. do you think the condition of bank balance sheets has been improving as housing prices decline?
And what about property deterioration? The original over-priced book value was 245k. The “real” price should be about 110k. That was before the “owners” stole the appliances, tore out the toilet, kicked in the doors and crapped all over the carpet.
What would you value such a fine investment as being worth.
Do you think 245k is anywhere near the final sales price????
that last quote is gonna end right up there with his “contained” statement.
Well there are two problems IMHO. Real estate prices still have a ways to fall, especially in upper-middle class markets. In the same way that Detroit is an example where RE prices didn’t rise but the credit bubble allowed prices to stay at levels that were unsupportable, the huge ammount of MEW has allowed large ammounts of the rest of the economy to survive on borrowed time.
We simply can’t have an economy based on borrowing money to sell each other cheap cr@p made in China. We need a large number of people who and use their labor to make products that sell for more than the raw materials cost. Lending money to the bottom 60% of incomes is NOT the same as PAYING salaries to the bottom 60%. All of a sudden the well off have come to the realization that the rest simply can’t afford to pay them back. And even trying is a drag on current consumption.
“We simply can’t have an economy based on borrowing money to sell each other cheap cr@p made in China. “
Sure we can. Ever heard of the Citi Group Plutonomy Report?
Heck, they even say we can have a consumer driven economy without… consumers.
Only two things are deflating: middle class wages and home prices.
•Oil is at $89 a barrel, up 21% in the last year.
•Gold is trading at $1,413, up 23% in the last year.
•Silver is trading at $30, up 66% in the last year.
•Copper is trading at 4 per pound, up 26% in the last year.
•Corn is trading at 573 a bushel, up 49% in the last year.
•Soybeans are trading at 1,300 a bushel, up 23% in the last year.
•Wheat is trading at 779 a bushel, up 41% in the last year.
•Pork is trading at 104 a pound, up 23% in the last year.
•Beef is trading at 106 a pound, up 28% in the last year.
•Cotton is trading at 130 per pound, up 78% in the last year.
•Sugar is trading at 29 per pound, up 32% in the last year.
•Coffee is trading at 205 per pound, up 40% in the last year.
Looks like all of that cheap money found a home in the commodities markets.
According to this long term CRB chart, commodities have just now resumed their trend started in about 2002.
http://www.crbtrader.com/crbindex/images/crb-b7.gif
But what does that mean? Are China, India and Brazil not richer now, eating and buying more? Has the world’s population grown faster than new sources of raw materials?
How does one separate money printing “bubbles” from actual fundamental demand?
How did “Brazil” get on the same list as China and India? If China and India are richer, it’s only because we’ve been giving them our jobs, which makes them an invited parasite. Their gain is our loss, so there is no net change. Furthermore, when we go down, they go down.
The actual socioeconomic structures have not changed. Hence, there is no reason to believe that the global population has experienced or will experience a sustained net gain in demand for commodities at the retail level.
How did “Brazil” get on the same list as China and India?
I think because Brazil has a “B” at the beginning of Brazil. It’s one of the quickly developing “BRIC” countries. (Brazil, Russia, India, China)
If it was not on that list I think they might be called the “RIC” countries. And: (covered in the next point)
If China and India are richer, it’s only because we’ve been giving them our jobs, which makes them an invited parasite. Their gain is our loss, so there is no net change. Furthermore, when we go down, they go down.
At first that was correct however, we’ve reached the point where there IS now a net change. It is not a zero sum game anymore. USA has given these countries (especially China) the ability to grow their own internal demand in their own domestic economies in addition to just selling to the USA. Brazil’s growth too has been fueled much by internal demand as well as the USA/China commodity connection.
The actual socioeconomic structures have not changed. Hence, there is no reason to believe that the global population has experienced or will experience a sustained net gain in demand for commodities at the retail level.
But they have changed due to those countries in fact becoming richer. I’ve seen it first hand in Brazil since my first trip here in 1988. 25% of Brazil’s population have emerged from poverty the past 20 years. It is not a total mirage. Much, if not most, is real. This represents a great change in the socioeconomic structure of Brazil and the story is similar in China, Russia and India.
Brazil Dude:
How can the US give anyone the ability to grow their domestic demand? Haven’t China and India been around a lot longer than the US? If they wanted to change their ways and grow their own demand, then they would have. They haven’t done so because they either can’t or won’t. Too much communism and corruption and all. I don’t see that disappearing, do you?
One should always be suspicious of a richer, stronger entity reaching down and offering to “give” a helping hand.
Brazil and Russia should observe the same, although they are not even close to being on the level with Chindia.
How can the US give anyone the ability to grow their domestic demand?
In China’s case:
By giving them our manufacturing base we gave them access to a huge amount of capital. Capital is needed to develop economies.
By giving them our manufacturing we gave them access to manufacturing process. Manufacturing process is needed to develop economies.
We also gave them the ability to turn more quickly to a form of capitalism. Some form of capitalism is needed for economic development.
Haven’t China and India been around a lot longer than the US? If they wanted to change their ways and grow their own demand, then they would have.
But because of the above reasons, they just did didn’t they? They knew what they needed and were given the chance to do it. They took their chance.
Too much communism and corruption and all. I don’t see that disappearing, do you?
I don’t know. What I do see in the BRIC’s is a state partnership with highly controlled capitalism greatly increasing.
One should always be suspicious of a richer, stronger entity reaching down and offering to “give” a helping
hand.
It was to help the American fortune 500 companies who’s almost 50% of profit now come from overseas. The problem, as you know, was that it shafted American workers. But corporations don’t care. Their market is getting bigger.
Brazil and Russia should observe the same, although they are not even close to being on the level with Chindia.
Brazil is actually on a much higher level than Chindia if you look at the percentage of the population that is lower-middle class and above.
Brazil’s internal demand:
Brazil’s Economy Grows Record 9 Percent on Strong Demand
Tuesday, 08 Jun 2010
http://www.moneynews.com/Markets/LT-Brazil-Economy/2010/06/08/id/361403
Brazil’s economy grew by a record 9 percent in the first quarter on strong domestic demand, the government reported Tuesday, a surprisingly good result that prompted a revision of the 2010 growth forecast to 6.5 percent.
“It was more than I’d hoped for,” Economy Minister Guido Mantega said. “It shows that the Brazilian economy had one of the best recoveries in the world. Only China has had growth of this magnitude.”
he IGBE said industrial output jumped 14.6 percent in the first quarter compared with the same period last year. Services expanded by 5.9 percent, and the powerful agricultural sector grew 5.1 percent.
The report said those numbers point toward strong internal demand.
China internal demand:
“Boosting domestic demand and moving people into cities are priorities to maintain China’s fast long-term growth,”
http://www.nuwireinvestor.com/articles/chinas-strong-demand-for-copper-could-send-prices-soaring-56397.aspx
China’s Strong Demand For Copper Could Send Prices Soaring
..China’s expansion is the trigger, with consumption of copper there expected to reach half of the world’s total in the decade ahead, although, it produces barely 10 percent now.
…The next phase of China’s economic plan is fueling a relentless appetite for electricity, spiking demand for copper.
…The surge in prices has been sparked by a classic supply/demand imbalance, mostly driven by emerging markets - especially China.
China’s is on pace to almost triple its copper consumption to 20 million tons by 2020, when it will account for 49% of world copper sales,
China’ Next Phase of Development Moves to Hinterlands
“When politicians say China is a developing country , it’s true,”
“Boosting domestic demand and moving people into cities are priorities to maintain China’s fast long-term growth,” he said.
Over the next 15 years, the country will need 50,000 skyscrapers, 170 mass transit systems and urban housing for 350 million people, according to a 2009 study by the McKinsey Global Institute. That could double the domestic market for autos, appliances, televisions and other consumer goods.
“There is absolutely torrid growth taking place in central China,” Daniel
All those countries have always had access to capital, but they have always bungled it because they are not capitalists. A parasite always gets healthier when attached to a host. That does not make it any less of a parasite.
Higher corporate profits? Not any more.
Trade policies change.
No, they did NOT always have access to the amount of capital required. Nor the science or tech.
Maybe you’ve heard of the cause. It was called “The Cold War.”
All those countries have always had access to capital, but they have always bungled it because they are not capitalists.
Well they certainly are now state partnered capitalists.
And China did not have access to any meaningful capital during its Mao decades and right after. Where would it have gotten it? Western Banks?
In new (China) economy, consumption and capital play key roles
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bw/2009-09/28/content_8744147.htm
One way to understand the differences between China’s old and new economy is to break GDP down into its three components: final consumption, gross capital formation and net exports.
Final consumption - spending by households, businesses and especially government - will provide the largest contribution to GDP growth, according to Dragonomics, a Beijing-based research house.
…future investments will be directed increasingly toward infrastructure projects and industrial retooling. The shift away from export-oriented manufacturing investments will help produce a more well-rounded industrial base.
Four other trends are shaping the Chinese economy: greater consumer spending, a more forceful government role, the growth of domestic companies and a more productive relationship with Taiwan…
…Despite popular assumptions in the West, China’s economy has not been a one-trick export pony. While exports have certainly helped fuel China’s booming economy, their contribution to GDP has been more modest than is generally believed.
From 2003 to 2007, at the height of China’s growth, net exports contributed about 16 percent to GDP - a significant but not overwhelming share.
Gross exports, which make up a much larger share of GDP, do not deduct the value of imported components that are eventually shipped abroad. But even in those years, consumption and capital formation, rather than exports, were the primary economic drivers.
While the rest of the world was busily buying inexpensive Chinese goods, China’s own domestic economy - the urban private housing sector, in particular - was chugging along without encouragement from over-leveraged Western consumers.
Looking ahead, the economy will tilt more heavily toward domestic consumption.
…Many domestic companies are rapidly acquiring the scale, capital, expertise and market savvy needed to compete in domestic and foreign markets. Previously obscure companies are now giants.
Oh, eco.
Residents of poor, ill-managed, communist/socialist countries have been blaming the US for their troubles since the dawn of time. Well, since the dawn of the US anyway. They are losers because losers lose, not because of the US. I’m pretty sure Brazil is doing a lot of business with the Chinese these days, so they’re getting the trickle-down effect. But when the US pulls its teat away from Chindexico, their pinkist ways will once again cause them to pink out. Haven’t we been getting evidence of this effect in Chindexico already? The welfare of the nations meets its end.
It is NOT the US that was blame, but the world banking system and scientists who could be and WERE tried for treason if they even so much as wrote a friendly letter to the commie side.
It really was as simple as capitalists vs. communists. And it worked. Their sphere of influence and therefore access to money and raw materials simply wasn’t big enough.
We really did win the Cold War. But we are now paying the price.
As for the noblesse oblige of the US, I’m pretty sure Rio has mentioned many times that Brazil has a lot of INTERNAL demand. I know for a fact that China does.
Dudes:
Sorry to be a bore, but it’s the ripple effect. The new internal demand that happened after nothing changed except for us giving them our jobs? Same sort of ripple effect you get from increased lending. Stop throwing stones in the water, and the ripples will stop coming.
Sorry to be a bore, but it’s the ripple effect.
Big V Dude,
I don’t call it a bore. I call it wrong and surprisingly uninformed. What you are attempting to prove with no proof again, is that no other countries can internally grow economically- that only the USA can grow. Or if other countries grow it is because of a zero sum game taking growth from the USA. Why would this be expected? This is not how global economies work.
This thinking is a huge mistake. America is no longer as important as we used to be. Another example: The EU is a bigger economy than the USA now. The EU has more fortune 500 companies than does the USA. Did they get this only because American economy has declined. No. In total numbers we have not even declined.
It is a fact that the BRIC developing countries are growing because of internal demand now. I’ve posted many articles discussing this.
I have posted dozens of sourced articles in the past and three tonight supporting the position of growing BRIC countries’ having their own substantial demand. It is obvious and a well known fact. I also live it. I see it. What do you offer to support your position of “ripple effect?”
I have not seen any proofs posted from you supporting your position. Please post something substantial if you are confident in your position.
Are those futures prices or actual prices for these things paid on the retail market? Because I haven’t seen the actual price for any of that stuff going up around me.
Food is getting cheaper. The holiday sales prices of last year got quickly converted into regular prices, and now the holiday sales prices of this year are a lot lower than those of last year.
I am paying less for a bottle of wine this year than I did 10 years ago. I’m talking about a bottle of, say, BV cab. 10 years ago, that bottle was $10-11 everywhere you went. Today, it’s $8.
Even the cost of firewood is lower this year than last. I am buying wood from people who purchased land for speculative reasons and can’t sell it. Now they need to sell the wood off their land just to help with their stupid mortgages/expenses. Granted, the price of propane is way up, but who cares when you can substitute with something cheaper? Which of course brings us to the topic of energy prices - Fossils vs. renewables - but that’s for another thread.
Are those futures prices or actual prices for these things paid on the retail market? Because I haven’t seen the actual price for any of that stuff going up around me.
I’m guessing you ride a ten speed bike or skateboard and haven’t noticed the price of gasoline climbing higher.
It hasn’t even risen to $3/gallon yet. The “normal” price would be $3/gallon. If it hadn’t been for the recent volatility/speculation that sent it up to $5, and then back down to under $2, then it would have been about $3 this entire time.
Take away the subsidies we pay to Chevron and Exxon in the form of military presences in their pet countries of business, and it would be $5.
BTW, I drive a Prius. Bought it in early 2002. I just love the way the naysayers don’t say anything about that anymore.
The “normal” price would be $3/gallon.
Adjusted for inflation a gallon of gas from 1987 to 2004 was approx. $2.00
You cannot determine the fundamental value of anything just by picking one arbitrary point in time, adjusting for inflation, and extrapolating. There are factors other than inflation at play. For instance, crude is highly influenced by speculation and government (non-monetary) policy.
The people who are driving commodities prices up today are the same ones who drove them up about, what, 1.5 years ago? When wheat and rice went up like 5x or some huge number and gas went to $5/gallon. That lasted for a number of weeks, IIRC. They are the same people who thought the stock market and MBS were the way to go. They are using oversimplistic models based on a set of rules that no longer applies.
The old rules went out the door when we offshored our manufacturing base to Chindexico. When the people mentioned above decided to cheer on globalization, they did it because it brought them higher dividends. The flash of big money has now blinded them permanently. They are not ABLE to see the error in their ways. They, like, CAN’T realize that offshoring has changed the rules in a big way - that the privileges of the past are gone.
The new rules do not dictate inflation as a consequence of QE. The new rules dictate that we have no jobs, and monetary policy can’t really change that. These speculative market movements chan’t really change that either.
I live in the 4th largest city in the nation.
NOTHING has gotten cheaper and food prices rose over 50% this year. Gas just up went again. Home insurance went up. A new stripped down compact car still cost 15K+. Apt rentals are almost equal to a house. And wages have been stagnate or falling for 8 years.
Don’t move, Big V. The shock might be too much for you.
Maybe you should move, eco. There is no good reason for food prices to be going up where you live, while simultaneously going down over here. Also no reason not to buy a house if an apartment costs just as much.
Jobs. The job market here is far better than 90% of the rest of the nation right now. And that still isn’t saying much.
I also have an established business. No matter what anyone else may say, you don’t just transplant a business. Some yes. Others no. I have one of the latter.
Prices don’t matter when you have no income. Income rules the day.
Meanie! Why’d you have to go and post actual data.
As I’ve been saying for 2 years now, FB-wants-a-do-over.
Nice data points.
Why can I still get 4 great ears of corn for $1 in the OC in CA? Loss leader? -
Even home-grown terrorists apparently don’t like to throw money away on rent. This could be just the gift for that hard-to-buy-for Libertarian/survivalist on your list.
Unabomber’s Montana land for sale; ‘very secluded’
AP
– Sun Dec 5, 6:15 pm ET
LINCOLN, Mont. – A 1.4-acre parcel of land in western Montana that was once owned by Unabomber Ted Kaczynski is on the market for $69,500.
The listing — by John Pistelak Realty of Lincoln — offers potential buyers a chance to own a piece of “infamous U.S. history.”
“This is a one of a kind property and is obviously very secluded,” the listing says. It doesn’t say who owns the property.
The forested land, which had been listed at $154,500, does not have electricity or running water. Photos posted with the online listing show tall trees, chain-link fences topped by barbed wire and a tree with “FBI” carved into it, though it’s not clear why. Pistelak said Friday he couldn’t immediately comment on the listing, and he didn’t return phone messages on Sunday.
For 1.4 acres with no well or utilities?
What does other raw land go for around there?
Can’t imagine the “piece of history factor” is that valuable.
And the cabin has been shipped off to the ‘Newseum’, so no renting it out for parties, weddings, and the like.
I’m going to buy and slap a doublewide on it and collect some rent.
Didnt they haul his cabin away as evidence?
Didnt they haul his cabin away as evidence?
They did! Remember the photo of it on the back of that flatbed truck?
A nostalgic destination for Tea Party retreats and gun fests.
Yes, and fitting since Kaczynski was quite the right winger.
Sorry, this retreat was occupied by a Communist revolutionary.
Ruby Ridge… Lincoln…. It’s a tea-bag boy paradise.
“Can’t imagine the ‘piece of history factor’ is that valuable.”
You’re right! The promoters are missing the boat; They should emphasize the Historical Value of the place!
Image if Jesse James onced lived there. Or John Dillinger. Or if this was the true place that housed Al Capone’s vault.
Remember, this is the place where Ted the Nut hatched out his devious plots while the FBI spent years looking for him. Why, with the proper amount of publicity this place could even be deemed to be a National Monument and people could be enticed to drive for miles and stand in line for hours just to get a peek.
Those of us on the coasts probably have no real idea how isolated BFE Montanna is. Out there many High Schools have real difficulty fielding a team for six man football.
Out there many High Schools have real difficulty fielding a team for six man football ?
Well, they can always play soccer….
Paging Colorado….:)
Paging Colorado….:)
You need eleven to field a team, preferably 20 players.
Plus its really hard to play in that Montana snow. Maybe with an orange colored ball.
Just teasing ya a bit…:)
What happens is everyone gets to be on the team and play both offense and defense. So you run into quite a few of nerdy little guys here who played a *lot* of ball in HS.
No wonder the FBI couldn’t find him — the composite picture of the unibomber we saw for years and years didn’t look anything like the real item.
He also hand made all of his bombs, parts and all.
If his brother had not turned him in, I don’t think the FBI would have ever found him.
Luckily, the FBI has moved on to instigating terrorist, they are so much easier to catch that way.
I don’t think the FBI instigated as much as controlled the situation with the would be bomber in Portland. They do this all the time in murder for hire schemes, which does not mean they are instigating murder. They are just allowing the would be murderer to prove their case by acting as a hired assassin and allowing them to hire them which they need for proof.
In this case rather than allowing this schmuck to find the other schmuck in Escondido who actually had bombs the FBI tricked him into thinking he need look no further. Put those two together and we would have a mess.
The FBI prevented the guy in Portland from abandoning the plot and flying to Alaska for a real job.
Possibly abandoned this time… As far as I am concerned he believed he had a real bomb and went through ALL the steps he thought would kill real people. What would have happened had he actually got his hands on some explosives. No less guilty than the stupid idiots who hire FBI agents to kill a spouse etc. Just because they did not actually kill does not mean they did not conspire to do so and would have done so had the FBI not intervened.
In this case Kudos to the FBI for thwarting a bombing instead of investigating one!
This sounds more like the FBI hired him.
We of course have only heard from the FBI and they never exaggerate.
At some point, when you encourage a person to do a bad thing, you become culpable as well.
By the same standard would you not also consider then that persons “tricked” by the FBI into hiring them as a hit man to kill their spouse are also innocent victims? A person hires another person who has represented to them that they are a hired assassin and you pay them to kill someone? How is that the FBI encouraging crime, any more than going along with this person’s much more dangerous plan. The FBI prevented him from obtaining REAL explosives or many people would be dead today.
What kind of police work would advocate telling people they are under investigation before they attempt to commit a crime?
What about undercover agents who pose as drug buyers or sellers? I suppose ALL of them are encouraging crime.
In this case not ONE person lost their lives and an individual hell bent on killing innocent people was thwarted and arrested without the loss of a single life. An individual who by his own admission was full of hatred and driven to kill!
Listing at http://www.northwest-national.com/18-1011.htm
Apparently city water and power are available but he never got them installed. That’s really too small an acreage to go “off the grid” as it were. There’s not enough trees to cut for firewood although he probably could get a firewood permit cheap from the neighboring national forests. Did he own a truck? IIRC he didn’t own much.
Lincoln MT is right up against the continental divide on the Pacific side.
I worked in defense with a guy who reminds me of Kaczynski. He bought up a square mile in Kansas for his retirement, and claimed he was going to put up a tall perimeter fence topped with razor wire.
A tall chain link fence topped with razor wire around 640 acres wouldn’t be cheap. I didn’t know defense workers made that kind of money (other than Bill).
You don’t know my pal. He ate the same thing every day at work for years: turkey baloney sandwitches. According to him they were cheaper than regular baloney.
He never spent a dime on anything that wasn’t a necessity. All his money went into SF bay area RE. He sold his last holding there in September 2005. He isn’t stupid, just cheap.
He bought up a square mile in Kansas for his retirement, and claimed he was going to put up a tall perimeter fence topped with razor wire. He ate the same thing every day at work for years: turkey baloney sandwitches……He never spent a dime on anything that wasn’t a necessity.
I like it.
Your work really hard and eat only turkey baloney sandwiches for 40 years, don’t spend a dime on anything but necessities so you can get old and then move to your isolated, razor wired, tumbleweed complex in most likely the windswept, drive you nuts part of Kansas.
This guy gonna beat the system!
He basically doesn’t like people.
He also claimed he would set up machine-gun nests around the perimeter, but that might have just been talk.
I did some googling and found he now owns a 3K square foot house on 1 acre near Manhattan KS. So maybe he dialed back his threatened “bunker” retirement.
If you want a bunker in Kansas a decommissioned missile silo is the way to go.
I knew Californians who came here and bought remote properties, built trophy homes and set up elaborate security systems..then wandered in to the town bar every night because they were lonely out there.
Maybe the Internet has changed all that.
You don’t know my pal. He ate the same thing every day at work for years: turkey baloney sandwitches. According to him they were cheaper than regular baloney.
I show cost of at least $10/ft before razor wire and $50/ft for each gate. Times 21,000+ ft. That’s a lot of turkey baloney for just the fence :-).
“He basically doesn’t like people”
That’s okay. Us locals don’t like California migrants either.
Unless he grew up or lived for an extended period out here, he’s going to hate it. Then he’s going to start bitching at all the locals about how crappy Kansas is.
It’s gonna be tough digging holes for fence posts out there in the Flint Hills. There’s a reason that area is pastureland.
Throw in a blizzard or two, baseball sized hail, an F4 or F5 tornado, and 100 plus temps in July thru September…
Kansas isn’t the end of the Earth. But you can see it from here.
No he’s a 4th generation Kansas native, born and bred there.
I don’t see how he can remind you of Kaczynski, except for being in seclusion. Kaczynski was not a survivalist. He was on the run from the law. In hiding. He was not a “right-winger”. He was a University leftist that chose violence to promote his agenda, much like the Puerto Rican bombers that Clinton pardoned.
Yeah, unlike Bush who invaded Iraq peacefully to promote Dick Cheney’s agenda.
Editorial: A metastasizing mortgage mess
Minnesotans have a plan for resolving ongoing mortgage crisis.
Last update: December 4, 2010 - 7:29 PM
One of the year’s most chilling reads comes from an unexpected source: the Congressional Oversight Panel. In language both dry and dramatic, the report makes it clear that the mortgage mess is metastasizing and that it could again bring the American financial system to its knees.
The under-the-radar report didn’t garner headlines, but it’s must-reading for policymakers and taxpayers. Debate should be starting now over how to head off a second bailout, or how to improve upon the first one if necessary.
Bad loans made to borrowers who couldn’t pay are only a part of the mortgage problem, according to the Nov. 16 congressional report. The financial industry’s failure to abide by basic legal requirements in transferring mortgage loans — a process often rushed as loans were bundled to sell to investors during the housing bubble’s heyday — also has cancerous dangers.
Without proper documentation, it’s difficult to establish ownership of the various pieces of bundled mortgages that have been bought and sold. That has far-reaching consequences, none of them good. “Clear and uncontested property rights are the foundation of the housing market. If these rights fall into question, that foundation may collapse,” the report’s authors conclude.
…
The FIRE sector NEEDS a clue-by-four. And so do the American people.
Bring it on.
Posted at 10:51 AM ET, 12/ 2/2010
Congressional hearing: Do banks lack the legal standing to foreclose?
By Ariana Eunjung Cha
A state judge, law professor and consumer attorneys are testifying before Congress that in many cases the banks trying to foreclose on borrowers do not have the legal standing to do so, according to prepared remarks.
New York State Supreme Court Justice Dana Winslow said Thursday in written remarks that “standing has become such a pervasive issue” in the cases he sees “that I frequently use the term ‘presumptive mortgagee’” to describe the entity trying to foreclose.
Winslow described a litany of problems with documentation about mortgages that go far beyond the “robo-signing” that led to the current uproar over foreclosures. He said it’s unclear whether MERS, the electronic system used by the majority of lenders to record mortgage assignments, gives it the right to foreclose, as well as whether trusts — where many mortgages wound up after they were pooled and traded — also have that right.
However, Winslow acknowleged that “the judiciary may have inadvertently contributed to the creation of the foreclosure crisis, by accepting, without question, the submissions of lending institutions seeking foreclosure,” Winslow said.
The hearing before the House Judiciary Committee chaired by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) is the second on foreclosures this week. During a hearing Wednesday by the Senate Banking Committee, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac blamed mortgage servicers for causing the current foreclosure crisis.
On Thursday, Conyers emphasized that as of last year, about 2.5 million homes were lost to foreclosure and that current projections estimate that as many as 13 million homes will be lost to foreclosure by the time the current crisis abates.
“Yet the big Wall Street firms, other mortgage lenders and servicers, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - all of whom received taxpayer bailouts to the tune of billions of dollars over the last couple of years - have in many instances turned a blind eye toward homeowners in similar financial distress,” he said.
…
A note: in NY state, the lowest-level trial courts are called “supreme court”.
The first level appeals courts are called, “supreme court, appellate division”. What would be called a supreme court in any other state is called “court of appeals”.
NY, like CA is on my list of places to never, ever live.
wife is the primary on that fbi job she interviewed for. now she just needs to pass the background check and polly.
I hear polly is a pretty tough chick.
A govt worker? You socialist.
Has Polly met your wife yet?
Well, I’m perfectly willing to approve of Michael’s wife on his say so, but I expect the polygraph tech will want to ask a few questions first.
How does that food chain thing work again?
Value Sinking Fastest on Homes Priced Low to Start
By FLOYD NORRIS
Published: December 3, 2010
The latest figures show that prices of lower-cost homes have fallen further from the peak in each of the 16 areas.
As a result, the pain of lower prices is being felt most strongly by homeowners who are most vulnerable, both because they may have taken out mortgages whose interest rates rose after initial teaser periods ended and because those owners are more likely to be facing prolonged unemployment.
While mortgage interest rates are low now, underwriting standards are tougher than they were during the bubble, and would-be buyers of lower-priced homes are likely to face more difficulty in getting mortgages than prospective purchasers of more expensive homes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/business/economy/04charts.html -
The 6 trillion dollar question is whether the prices for more expensive homes won’t fall as far, or whether they just haven’t fallen as far YET. A mixture of the two IMHO.
whether the prices for more expensive homes won’t fall as far, or whether they just haven’t fallen as far YET ??
I have heard a few stories about the high cost housing around Scottsdale tanking…Ben or others in AR. may have better info…One that I heard from a friend that is interested in purchasing there was a house that previously sold for 1.5 mil just went for $650,000…
…or whether they just haven’t fallen as far YET…
I track the Irvine, Ca. market closely and prices are
on the average stubbornly high. (with a few exceptions).
IMHO, its just a matter of when, not if.
Update on my Encinitas, CA ‘hood. A home a few doors down, bank-owned and empty over a year finally sold last week for $426K. Built in 1998 it originally sold for $219K, 2nd owner paid $326K in 2001, 3rd owner paid $585K in 2006, then lost it to foreclosure two years later. Bank finally got possession in January 2010–tenants had to be evicted and kept getting extensions– and put on market for $469K, but didn’t bother to paint the exterior or replace a broken window, so the property looked distressed. So, they finally accepted $426K. Everyone is happy that someone’s finally living there, though it’s a reality check that prices are returning to 2001 levels, which were already bubbly.
More crap from the NYT. They say in their story that those areas that are falling the most, the “low-end” areas has the highest rise in prices.
It would follow that they would also have the largest drop, since the whole pricing scheme was a “bubble”. the rest of the reasoning is leftist NYT crap. They want to try and make a case for fleecing the poor, or discrimination, or some of their other fantasies.
they then go on to say the VEGAS is suffering a similar fate. Most of the bubble houses in Vegas were half a million. They don’t go on to explain how the “rich” areas of Vegas are the result of phantom agents.
It’s simple. High rise in price. Big fall in Price……adjusting to the “mean”.
With all these billionaires around the world, when will our paltry cash reserves be king?
Forbes’ List
When Forbes first began compiling its lists of the 400 richest Americans back in 1982, just 13 of those people were billionaires. In 2010, every person on the list was worth at least a billion dollars, and the highest-ranked person, Bill Gates, was worth $54 billion.
Forbes’ 2010 list of the world’s billionaires includes a whopping 1,011 entries. Of those, 75 people are tied for last place with a net worth of $1 billion. These people come not just from the United States, but also from India, Turkey, China, Romania, Italy, Poland, Malaysia, Pakistan and other countries. And while a few familiar names grace the bottom of the list, like J. K. Rowling and James Dyson, many of these mere billionaires — and even some of the richest people on the list — are relatively obscure. You don’t have to be a Warren Buffett or a Sergey Brin to find yourself at the top.
Too much wealth concentration can lead to civil unrest.
http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/111448/new-rich-how-much-does-it-take?mod=bb-budgeting
Too much wealth concentration can lead to civil unrest.
The PTB are always in denial about this until they find themselves facing a firing squad, and only then do they wonder how they let things get so out of hand.
To put it another way, income inequality tends to grow unitil it becomes non-linear and unpredictable at the upper bound.
It was for such events that the guillotine was invented.
“Forbes’ 2010 list of the world’s billionaires includes a whopping 1,011 entries. Of those, 75 people are tied for last place with a net worth of $1 billion.”
The Opoortunity for taxpayer subsidized sports stadiums & their adjacent parking structures continues on “unabaited”
We are all going to be billionaires before we know it if Bernanke keeps printing us to prosperity. Just the poorest, most pissed-off, billionaires in history.
Could I sell you some Tulips to plant around your McMansion?? The prices are going up rapidly and they may be a source of newfound wealth…………………
Did they mention where the middle class is standing?? Has the middle class become wealthy as well?
NOPE
And how many people will EVER have a net worth of a million dollars?
How many will have a postive net worth?
Pssst, that’s what “net” means.
In America, that number is less than 10%.
Your chances of living in poverty for at least a year are much higher. 60%
Really Forbes? Tell me just how do you measure the wealth of these people? These lists strike as an example of editorial hooey… How could anybody possibly untangle or trace back ownership of all the assets in the in the US, or worldwide, or even under the control of a single person. Is it really even possible to accomplish?
You have better luck using capture/tag and recapture to measure a fish population, that’s difficult but achievable.
Do the super wealthy really want the public to know how concentrated the distribution of wealth is? Maybe some like to brag, but how many remain effectively hidden?
It’s not like we’re weighing chickens in a supermarket, right?
Most people of serious wealth are their own, personal corporations. As such, certain information about a corporation is, by law, public record.
Much of their investments are also in…. other corporations, who again by law, must disclose who certain of the majority stockholders are along detailed profit/loss/expense statements.
This does not means that the very wealthy don’t try very hard to muddy the trail, but Forbes, like most business news organizations, have people paid to slog through that mud.
Yet another good reason here to rent: In case your bomb factory gets discovered and condemned, it will not be your own real estate investment that gets burned to the ground.
Personal note: This story broke the night my family and I attended a midnight showing of the latest Harry Potter movie. The I-15 freeway was shut down when a bomb went off at the rental home featured in this story.
‘Bomb Factory’ In California Home Leads To State Of Emergency
Categories: National News, Crime
01:00 pm
December 2, 2010
by Mark Memmott
The news from AP that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger “has declared a state of emergency in San Diego County following the discovery of what police called a virtual bomb factory in an Escondido-area home,” led us to some startling reports about what’s been uncovered there.
…
so is the owner of the home going to be able to apply for unemployment benis?
I remember when Escondido was a half decent town.
Merkel doesn’t wanna play ball with too-big-to-fail profligates…
Bloomberg
Germany Snubs Pleas to Increase Aid Fund, Introduce Joint Bonds
December 06, 2010, 8:47 AM EST
More From Businessweek
By James G. Neuger and Tony Czuczka
Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) — Germany rejected calls to increase the European Union’s 750 billion-euro ($1 trillion) aid fund or introduce joint bond sales, signaling its refusal to bear extra costs to stamp out the debt crisis.
With EU finance ministers gathering in Brussels today for their monthly meeting, German Chancellor Angela Merkel rebuffed pleas from Belgium and central bankers to boost the emergency fund to save countries such as Portugal and Spain from falling prey to speculation.
“Right now I see no need to expand the fund,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin today. She said EU treaties bar joint bond sales, which might force up Germany’s borrowing costs, the lowest in Europe.
European political discord pushed down bonds in Spain and Portugal today, reversing gains made last week after purchases by the European Central Bank briefly eased concern about the spreading crisis.
…
I hear rumors that Germany has a contingency plan to re-convert to Deutsche Marks, a plan I would applaud. Already, many Germans are refusing to take Euros not minted in “D”.
That’s part of the rumor, too. If it’s true, we could see some currency “adjustments”.
AM Report: Is the Fed Becoming Too Politicized?
Dec. 6, 2010
Ben Bernanke appeared on ‘60 minutes’ to defend the Federal Reserve’s recent stimulus move against intensifying criticism, drawing the central bank further into the political sphere. Sudeep Reddy and Neal Lipschutz discuss. Also, Ianthe Jeanne Dugan discusses the move by cash-strapped states and cities to sell naming rights to parks, bridges and train stations.
If the American people knew how much of this nation is foreign owned, their jaws would drop.
And we’re not talking about just private property, either.
Clough: Developers creeping back to South Florida as demand for rentals rises
By Alexandra Clough Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 9:21 p.m. Friday, Dec. 3, 2010
Two respected Palm Beach County-based home builders are planning new rental communities in South Florida. The moves are a further sign that developers are tiptoeing back into the housing market.
Kolter Group LLC has dusted off plans to build a rental community near Lake Worth. In addition, Ram Development Co. of Palm Beach Gardens is scouring South Florida for apartment sites.
Kolter will build a 204-unit garden apartment complex on U.S. 441, north of Lantana Road. The complex, dubbed Woodwinds, will consist of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. Rental prices have not yet been set but they will be around $1.10 per square foot for the units, which are expected to start at $750 square feet for the one-bedroom units, said Bob Vail, Kolter vice president.
The move comes as Kolter has decided to build 4001 North Ocean, a condominium on State Road A1A, just north of Gulf Stream. 4001 North Ocean is the first newly planned condominium in the county since the real estate bust, and it may be the first newly planned condo in the Southeast United States. The project will consist of 34 condos and four villas, with prices ranging from $1.4 million to $3 million.
“Two respected Palm Beach County-based home builders are planning new rental communities in South Florida.”
Since when is “respected” used as an adjective for “builders” ?
Filed under: Hazardous pay + O.T.
Explosive-laden Calif. home to be destroyed:
AP News
“…that that they have no choice but to burn the home to the ground this week in a highly controlled operation involving dozens of firefighters, scientists and hazardous material and pollution experts.”
Ho ho, hah hah, hehehehehehe, BwaHaHaAhHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! (Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb-thrower™)
Damn renters — let one of them into the hood, and the next thing you know they are turning their rental home into a bomb factory…
It’s funny how the news travels.
This is last week’s news.
Lawrence Yun was on C-Span’s Washington Journal this morning, should be available to stream from c-span dot org soon if not already.
Thank you, Mr. President!
President Obama saved the day Friday by signing into law a two-week stopgap spending bill to keep the government running through Dec. 18. This gives Obama more time to negotiate a deal with Republicans on taxes and spending for the rest of fiscal 2011 before he flies to Hawaii on Christmas holiday.
Lest we forget. Congress never got around to passing a 2010-2011 federal budget. More important matters cropped up, such as running for re-election. The present budget year began October 1st.
Lest we forget. Congress never got around to passing a 2010-2011 federal budget. More important matters cropped up, such as running for re-election. The present budget year began October 1st.
yeah - a certain party that controlled by congress by a huge majority could not do its one main consitutional job. As they feared getting clobbered at the polls. And they still got clobbered.
There. Was. No. Huge. Majority.
Unless you mean from 2000 - 2008?
Would somebody kindly explain to me, an apparently financial -illiterate person, Orrin Hatch’s statement:
“Let’s take care of the unemployment compensation even if it isn’t … backed up by real finances,” Hatch said. “We’ve got to do it. So let’s do it. But that ought to be it.”
Haven’t we been living in a period of “fantasy finances” for a while now?
How else did all those mortgages and derivatives get made?
he wants to extend unemployment benis for another 99 weeks?
No.
Few people collect 99 weeks as that is the maximum and only for states with the highest unemployment rates.
This would allow people exhausting the initial 26 weeks (or the first tier or two of extra benefits) to collect some additional weeks.
Anyone who has gone beyond 99 weeks is still out of luck.
The Fed Has a $110 Billion Problem with New Benjamins
CNBC Washington
A significant production problem with new high-tech $100 bills has caused government printers to shut down production of the new notes and to quarantine more than one billion of the bills in huge vaults in Fort Worth, Texas and Washington, DC, CNBC has learned.
Initially scheduled for release in February of 2011, the new bills were announced with great fanfare by officials at the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve in April.
At the time, officials announced the new bills would incorporate sophisticated high-tech security features, including a 3-D security strip and a color-shifting image of a bell designed to foil counterfeiters.
But the production process is so complex, it has instead foiled the government printers tasked with producing billions of the new notes.
Isn’t this about the 5th “new” $100 bill in the last 10 years?
I think the big problem is that the older bills are still accepted and these remain the bills which are counterfeited. To make this program work, the bills should ALL be swapped out as fast as possible, so that folks become suspicious of older notes.
I received a very old $100 from a customer last year. No strip, no watermark etc. It did glow red under UV though and was apparently a good bill, although in the past I have found myself stuck with bad bills which had apparently been reprinted from lower denominations which had been bleached and looked very real to me at the time.
To make this program work, the bills should ALL be swapped out as fast as possible, so that folks become suspicious of older notes.
It’s not that easy around the world and I read almost half of US currency bills are held around the world.
Lots in Brazil but since Brazil’s economic rise and stability the past 15 years, there are now less than in the past I think.
That’s the precise reason to do it. When I was in ‘Nam, the military scrip money was changed out at least twice in the year I was there. You got one day’s notice to exchange the old for the new, and after that the old was worthless.
Bleaching takes out the color from the microscopic red and blue silk threads embedded
in the paper.
Hmmm the one I got stuck with some years back had blue and red threads and was apparently reprinted.
“An official familiar with the situation told CNBC that 1.1 billion of the new bills have been printed, but they are unusable because of a creasing problem in which paper folds over during production, revealing a blank unlinked portion of the bill face.”
That doesn’t make sense to me; I think the writer meant to use the word inked.
Auto correct strikes again!
Silver quietly takes out $30/ounce.
Americans continue to be non-participants in the silver inflation hedge while Asians are converting 40 to 60 percent of their savings into silver/gold.
Viewing the future of the USA populace with certain dread………..
Gold Imports by China Soar Almost Fivefold as Inflation Spurs Investment
Bloomberg
China’s gold imports jumped almost fivefold in the first 10 months from the entire amount shipped in last year as concern about rising inflation increased its appeal as a store of value, said the Shanghai Gold Exchange.
Imports gained to 209 metric tons compared with 45 tons for all of 2009, Shen Xiangrong, chairman of the bourse, told a conference in Shanghai today. China, the world’s largest producer and second-biggest user, doesn’t regularly publish gold-trade figures and rarely comments on its reserves.
Bullion soared 27 percent this year as the dollar dropped on concern that the trillions of dollars governments are pumping into the global economy may debase the value of currencies.
“Given China is the world’s biggest gold producer, the sharp increase in its imports is a big surprise,” said Hiroyuki Kikukawa, general manager of research at IDO Securities Co. in Tokyo. “People there need to buy gold to hedge against inflation as the country’s tightening monetary policy drives investors from stocks and properties to gold.”
China’s investment gold demand may reach 150 tons this year, up from 105 tons last year, the World Gold Council’s Cheng said. That compares with 3 to 4 tons 10 years ago, Cheng said.
“The investment demand we estimate already reached 120 tons in the first three quarters, and it usually spikes in the fourth,” Cheng said. Global investment demand for gold of 1,901 tons last year exceeded jewelry consumption of 1,759 tons for the first time in three decades, according to London-based researcher GFMS Ltd.
aren’t asians pretty big gamblers? They like to wager big.
They sure are big gamblers! Check out the action in Macau sometime.
Or, if that’s a bit of a hike, just watch ‘em the next time you go to Vegas or Reno.
about 15 years ago while at the Mirage Hotel in Vegas, I was sitting at the nickel machine losing away at a rate of $5 an hour or so while a wealthy looking Chinese man sat down at the card table across the walkway from me and put down 4 piles of $100 bills - each around 8″ high Close to a Million my my estimate. Every now and again they would call someone over who would take a stack of bills and return with more chips.
I could not help but wonder if he was gambling his life savings or just throwing away a little chump change. He remained expressionless the whole time I was there, but when I left there was only about a single half pile of money left. We were pretty poor at the time I remember thinking that had to be several years of gross earnings…
“Silver quietly takes out $30/ounce.”
When houses in the city got to expensive, homes 40 miles out seemed cheap by comparison, and then apartment conversions seemed like a smart investment.
Not that I agree with the guy but interesting that the Swiss are pressing down on this but don’t do so on tax cheats, adn criminals.
GENEVA – The Swiss postal system stripped WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of a key fundraising tool Monday, accusing him of lying and immediately shutting down one of his bank accounts.
The swift action by Postfinance, the financial arm of Swiss Post, came after it determined the “Australian citizen provided false information regarding his place of residence during the account opening process.”
Wikileaks:
Over the weekend they shut down and attack-hacked his site so he mirrored it. They kicked him off US servers so he’s on a “pirate” one in Europe today. They took him off Paypal and today they took down his Swiss bank account. And so far he’s only released only a small fraction of leaks he has obtained.
His insurance according to him: ALL of the unedited, unredacted government, BP and BofA leaks and more have been released to thousands of supporters in a 1.5 gig file and if he is killed, prosecuted or shut down, the 256 key encryption password to the file will be released making all files readable. He calls this “insurance” his “thermonuclear device”.
I wonder what the PTB are saying about this little wrinkle.
I really wish he had focused on this stuff initially. He could have done a great service.
I really wish he (wikileaks) had focused on this stuff initially. He could have done a great service.
I was thinking the same if you mean the corporate angle. However, is this “great service” still not possible?
Julian Assange needs to put up or shut up soon.
His 15 minutes of fame are in overtime.
So far all of his leaks are basically stuff we already knew about.
If he has evidence of criminal activities of government or of corporations - what is he waiting for? Oh yeah - to keep his mug in the newspapers and for donations.
I bet the number of people leaking info to him has sky rocketed. Now everyone knows where to send the info.
Unfortunately, I think the end result will be a US firewall to protect us from this terribly dangerous information.
Unfortunately, I think the end result will be a US firewall to protect us from this terribly dangerous information.
This guy says there will be but it won’t matter. The whole article is a must read:
WikiLeaks a blueprint for things to come
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/41846.html
the power of the state mobilises against WikiLeaks.
… Formerly quiet seas are now roiling,….They want all of this to disappear and be forgotten.
… Every politician everywhere has felt compelled to express their strong and almost visceral anger. But to what? Only some diplomatic gossip….
Has Earth become a sort of amplified Facebook, where an in-crowd of Heathers, horrified, suddenly finds its bitchy secrets posted on a public forum? Is that what we’ve been reduced to? Or is that what we’ve been like all along? That could be the source of the anger. ….
It’s this triviality which has angered those in power. The mythology of power - that leaders are somehow more substantial, their concerns more elevated and lofty than us mere mortals, who must not question their motives - that mythology has been definitively busted. This is the final terminus of aristocracy; a process that began on July 14, 1789 came to a conclusive end on November 28, 2010. The new aristocracies of democracy have been smashed, trundled off to the guillotine of the internet, and beheaded.
Of course, the state isn’t going to take its own destruction lying down. Nothing is ever that simple.
…A few months ago I wrote about how confused I was by Julian Assange’s actions. Why would anyone taking on the state so directly become such a public figure? It made no sense to me. Now I see the plan. And it’s awesome.
You see, this is the first time anything like WikiLeaks has been attempted. … This is a new thing, and as well thought-out as WikiLeaks might be, it isn’t perfect. How could it be? It’s untried, and untested. Or was. Now that contact with the enemy has been made - the state with all its powers - it has become clear where WikiLeaks has been found wanting. WikiLeaks needs a distributed network of servers that are too broad and too diffuse to be attacked. WikiLeaks needs an alternative to the Domain Name Service. And WikiLeaks needs a funding mechanism which can not be choked off by the actions of any other actor.
We’ve been here before. This is 1999, the company is Napster, and the angry party is the recording industry. It took them a while to strangle the beast, but they did finally manage to choke all the life out of it - for all the good it did them. Within days after the death of Napster, Gnutella came around, and righted all the wrongs of Napster: decentralised where Napster was centralised; pervasive and increasingly invisible. Gnutella created the ‘darknet’ for file-sharing which has permanently crippled the recording and film industries. The failure of Napster was the blueprint for Gnutella.
In exactly the same way - note for note -the failures of WikiLeaks provide the blueprint for the systems which will follow it, and which will permanently leave the state and its actors neutered. Assange must know this - a teenage hacker would understand the lesson of Napster. Assange knows that someone had to get out in front and fail, before others could come along and succeed. We’re learning now, and to learn means to try and fail and try again.
This failure comes with a high cost. It’s likely that the Americans will eventually get their hands on Assange …But what he’s done can not be undone; this tear in the body politic will never truly heal.
Everything is different now. Everything feels more authentic. We can choose to embrace this authenticity, and use it to construct a new system of relations, one which does not rely on secrets and lies. A week ago that would have sounded utopian, now it’s just facing facts. I’m hopeful. For the first time in my life I see the possibility for change on a scale beyond the personal. Assange has brought out the radical hiding inside me, the one always afraid to show his face. I think I’m not alone.
And to think that a good friend, who’s a veteran of the U.S. military officer corps, is on the side of Wikileaks.
Why?
Because he saw firsthand what the misuse of classification and invocations of national security can do. And it’s nothing good.
Unfortunately, I think the end result will be a US firewall to protect us from this terribly dangerous information.
The gov/mil are already ordering all their people to not read any of it…I know they’d love to be able to order the rest of us to not read it as well. My thought is if the info is out there anyway, why would you want your gov/mil people to be less informed than everyone else?
I think you know my politics here. Yet I support Wikileaks 100%.
It’s essential that we know what our “leaders” are up to.
WikiLeaks a blueprint for things to come
The author is 100% correct. Think ‘torrents.
Welcome to the revolution.
Tech prophet John Walker (founder of Autodesk, Inc.) has revealed the future of the internet:
The Digital Imprimatur
http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/#SI_doccert
If “they” turn off your digital ID you disappear. Your back account, drivers lic. Passport are deactivated. Wikileaks maybe the excuse Big Brother has been waiting for.
“…and for donations.”
Paypal says it has suspended the account WikiLeaks uses for collecting donations…
The new world order.
PayPal is not the only game in town.
Julian Assange needs to put up or shut up soon.
It looks like with his “insurance” plan he will put up if shut up.
Sounds like they’ve taken a page or two from the “How to deal with terrorists” playbook.
Step 1. Cut off funding.
Step 2. Pressure international community to follow step 1.
Then again, Julian Assange could always try hosting the website in Iran, Russia or Venezuela.
Then again, Julian Assange could always try hosting the website in Iran, Russia or Venezuela.
True - but one wrong leak of just one document and you end up in a gulag, stoned as infidel or tortured as an enemy of the state.
Those states have zero tolerance for dissent. Spamming your website will be the least of your troubles.
Perhaps, if Julian Assange had only leaked documents related to the Palin family, he would be the Grand Marshal of his own ticker tape parade.
if Julian Assange had only leaked documents related to the Palin family
Maybe you are on to something big nickpapageorgio.
I’m starting to think Sara Palin might be a communist revolutionary mole. I am learning how much federal taxpayer money she sought to bring to Alaska and it is startling.
And those red high heels, the ones with the bow….red..
http://www.tcoasttalk.com/2010/12/05/virginia-resident-gets-foreclosure-notice-on-port-st-lucie-home-she-sold-in-1994/
PORT ST. LUCIE — About 10 p.m. the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Cathy Hammers abruptly was woken up by a continuous loud banging on the front door of her Virginia home.
With two kids in college and a third touring the country in a rock band, she thought law enforcement was at her door with bad news of a possible car accident involving a family member.
Instead, Hammers was served foreclosure papers by Texas-based Nationstar Mortgage and the Fort Lauderdale law firm of Marshall Watson on a Port St. Lucie home Hammers and her parents sold in 1994 — a property she hasn’t owned or seen in 15 years.
Smells like a fishy mortgage company to me. I hope she sues the carp out of ‘em.
with so many foreclosures there is bound to be mistakes.It would be a miralce if they got it all right.
Wikileaks: Brought to you by the CIA
from whatreallyhappened dot com
Everything you wanted to know
about Wikileaks but didn’t know to ask
Julian Assange
He’s a guy with a vague history…
Who travels the world without visible means of support…
His parents: Members of an LSD “cult” that abused kids…
Hmmm…
He’s not against war…
He hates the 9/11 truth movement…
He has no info about the Bush or Obama White House…or the Federal Reserve Bank…or Goldman Sachs (but he is helping take down Bank of America)…
His “leaks” paint Pakistan as a threat and foreign politicians the CIA doesn’t like as jerks…
He believes Osama is alive…and probably in Pakistan…
Everything else he “leaks” is stuff we all already knew…
The mainstream media loves him…
I found that at the link you cited, but it’s exactly what you posted with no attribution. Anyone posting at a blog could have said that.
“Turn out the lights, the party’s over….” RIP
Former Cowboys QB, MNF personality Don Meredith dies at 72
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Don Meredith, one of the most recognizable figures of the early Dallas Cowboys and an original member of ABC’s “Monday Night Football” broadcast team, died Sunday. He was 72.
Meredith’s wife, Susan, told The Associated Press on Monday her husband died in Santa Fe after suffering a brain hemorrhage and lapsing into a coma. She says a private graveside ceremony is being planned and that family members were traveling to Santa Fe.
“He was the best there was,” she said, describing him as kind, warm and funny. “We lost a good one.”
Another famous Meredith moment occurred in 1974 at the Houston Astrodome. The Oakland Raiders were in the process of beating the Houston Oilers 34-0.
A cameraman had a shot of a disgruntled Oilers fan, who then made an obscene gesture. Meredith said of the fan. “He thinks they’re No. 1 in the nation.”
So long “Dandy Don.”
Wow.
Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez blames natural disasters on capitalism
Floods have killed 32 people and left 70,000 homeless ~UK
President Hugo Chávez today blamed “criminal” capitalism for the rains and flooding that have brought chaos to Venezuela, killing 32 people and leaving 70,000 homeless.
Chávez has taken charge of rescue operations, inviting 25 families to take refuge in his palace and ordering space made for others in ministries, barracks and even a shopping mall.
“The developed nations irresponsibly shatter the environmental order, in their desire to maintain a criminal development model, while the immense majority of the earth’s people suffer the most terrible consequences,” Chávez added.
He criticised the “arrogance” of rich nations. “The environmental imbalance capitalism has caused is without doubt the fundamental cause of the alarming atmospheric phenomena,” he wrote in his weekly “The Lines of Chavez” column.
“The world’s powerful economies insist on a destructive way of life and then refuse to take any responsibility.”
And his oil exports had nothing to do with climate change, right?
Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez blames natural disasters on capitalism
I thought they were due to Ayn Rand and deregulation.
I thought they were due to Ayn Rand
Now that you mention her, she was quite interesting:
http://www.alternet.org/books/145819/ayn_rand%2C_hugely_popular_author_and_inspiration_to_right-wing_leaders%2C_was_a_big_admirer_of_serial_killer_
One reason why most countries don’t find the time to embrace her thinking is that Ayn Rand is a textbook sociopath. Literally a sociopath: Ayn Rand, in her notebooks, worshiped a notorious serial murderer-dismemberer, and used this killer as an early model for the type of “ideal man” that Rand promoted in her more famous books — ideas which were later picked up on and put into play by major right-wing figures of the past half decade, including the key architects of America’s most recent economic catastrophe — former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan and SEC Commissioner Chris Cox — along with other notable right-wing Republicans such as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Rush Limbaugh, and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford.
So what, and who, was Ayn Rand for and against? The best way to get to the bottom of it is to take a look at how she developed the superhero of her novel, Atlas Shrugged, John Galt. Back in the late 1920s, as Ayn Rand was working out her philosophy, she became enthralled by a real-life American serial killer, William Edward Hickman, whose gruesome, sadistic dismemberment of 12-year-old girl named Marion Parker in 1927 shocked the nation. Rand filled her early notebooks with worshipful praise of Hickman. According to biographer Jennifer Burns, author of Goddess of the Market, Rand was so smitten by Hickman that she modeled her first literary creation — Danny Renahan, the protagonist of her unfinished first novel, The Little Street — on him.
What did Rand admire so much about Hickman? His sociopathic qualities: “Other people do not exist for him, and he does not see why they should,” she wrote, gushing that Hickman had “no regard whatsoever for all that society holds sacred, and with a consciousness all his own. He has the true, innate psychology of a Superman. He can never realize and feel ‘other people.’”
After seeing an old interview on YouTube with her by Mike Wallace (who, himself, looks every bit of 25) there was no doubt she was a lunatic.
I didn’t know that stuff about her. As we have heard before, words means something. What adult world did she envision as the one she wanted to live in?
I feel better now.
US Housing Market To Rebound In 2011 -Freddie Mac Economist
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20101206-708546.html
Macroeconomic factors suggest the U.S. housing market will improve in 2011, Freddie Mac’s chief economist said in a note Monday.
Accelerating economic recovery, low mortgage rates, a bottoming of home prices and increased affordability of homes at current low prices will be behind the improvement, said Frank Nothaft, the chief economist at the mortgage finance company.
“These forces will support a gradual recovery in the housing and mortgage markets,” he said.
The housing market has been falling since its peak in summer 2006. The subprime crisis, the rapid decline in borrowers’ credit and poor underwriting of loans during the boom have all contributed to depressing home sales and mortgage rates since then.
Housing was expected to recover this year, but economic and employment uncertainty stunted it.
In a bid to keep the flow of money to consumers, the Federal Reserve is expected to keep its federal funds rate at the current range of 0% to 0.25% for most of next year. This is expected to keep rates on 30-year fixed-rate loans below 5% throughout 2011.
Despite this, some analysts expect home prices to drop another 5% to 10% in the next year, and housing to stay depressed until late 2011 or early 2012.
“…and housing to stay depressed until late 2011 or early 2012.”
Ergo if you are renting a place that works for you and rent is affordable, there is no reason to buy until after 2012…
I love how these people keep assuming that these two things can happen at the same time. I still get blank looks when I tell people I want to buy at peak mortgage rates because that’s when prices will be the lowest.
Most people have no clue about the inverse relationship between interest rates and bond prices, provide other things are equal.
Now try to convince them that all assets (including houses) can be valued in terms of an equivalent discounted cash flow, and they will look at you really funny, especially if you reiterate that higher interest rates reduce the present value of a future cash flow.
I’ve had this discussion endless times. *sighs*
So then the USA is going to become a manufacturing based economy…yesterday?
Bernanke comments hit stocks
The Federal Reserve chairman says more bond purchases might be needed to help the US economy.
Posted by TheStreet Staff Monday, December 06, 2010 8:02:25 AM
Some “Sunny Yunny” quotes collected by a Realtor:
Realtors: “Let’s Party Like It’s 2006!
http://tycoonreport.tycoonresearch.com/articles/842467928/realtors-let-s-party-like-it-s
the abysmal record of predictions by “Sunny Yunny” (as Mr. Yun is often derisively called by bloggers) since 2007 is legendary.
Here are some of his overly “sunny” quotes about the real estate market since that time:
November, 2007: “I don’t anticipate any further major sales declines”
January, 2008: “A meaningful recovery in existing home sales could occur as early as spring”
Feb 2008: “The market is scratching the bottom”
May, 2008: “Because the prices are going down so fast, we’ll be hitting the stabilization point sooner.”
July, 2008: “I think we are very near to the end of the housing downturn”
September, 2008: “The winter months are always weaker (for home sales), but this winter will be better than last winter. There is this great pent-up demand that cannot be held back any further.”
November, 2009: (at the NAR convention): Yun predicted that sales activity would continue to rise by as much as 15% in 2010, that the inventory of homes for sale would be reduced to just 6-7 months of national supply, and that housing prices would stabilize and even show a modest 3% to 5% appreciation in 2010.
No end in sight to U.S. economic crisis as ’scariest jobs chart ever’ shows post-recession unemployment is at its worst since World War Two
Daily Mail Reporter
As unemployment in the U.S. nears the dreaded 10 per cent mark, it is a chart to chill the bones of any job hunter.
Comparing previous recoveries from all 10 American recessions since 1948 to the current financial crisis, the stark figures show almost no improvement in employment figures in the past year.
Some commentators have described the comparison as ‘the scariest jobs chart ever’, pointing to the fact that only the 2001 recession took longer to bring employment back to pre-crisis levels.
Even then, the total percentage of jobs lost bottomed out at two per cent, compared with six per cent this time round.
The job chart will heap further pressure on Barack Obama’s attempt to stimulate the economy as plans were drawn for a temporary extension of the Bush-era tax rates for all taxpayers.
Back to back posts
“US Housing Market To Rebound In 2011 -Freddie Mac Economist”
“No end in sight to U.S. economic crisis as ’scariest jobs chart ever’ shows post-recession unemployment is at its worst since World War Two”
Silver lining: The labor market can only go up from here (I think!)…
Want to bet? (it might, but I’ve now seen 3 “jobless recoveries” in my lifetime)
’scariest jobs chart ever’ shows post-recession unemployment is at its worst since World War Two
That means Americans are the laziest since WWII.
This is the product of the “entitlement culture”. Americans feel they are entitled to have a job and entitled to work for a living. But as soon as there are no jobs and no chance of a job, and no opportunity for making real money, well that’s when Americans stop getting jobs.
(I am an often befuddled, old tea-partier on socialized medicare, social security and I approved this message)
I have to admit that this chart, which suggests year-on-year U.S. consumer price inflation is at its lowest level in half a century and still trending downwards, suggests that inflation is not in the near-term outlook.
On a related note, given the apparent failure of Japan’s attempt to stem deflation by using QE, why should we expect it to work in the U.S.? Is the Fed just better at these sorts of operations than the BOJ?
Bernanke 1, inflation hawks 0
Posted by Colin Barr
December 6, 2010 6:34 am
Like it or not, history shows Ben Bernanke is right to say inflation isn’t knocking at the door.
Bernanke, the widely criticized chairman of the Federal Reserve, shot back Sunday evening at the inflation hawks who claim quantitative easing – the Fed’s plan to buy $600 billion of Treasury debt over eight months, in hopes of boosting asset prices and nudging a sluggish economy forward – will send inflation soaring and destroy the dollar.
When hawks cry
“We’ve been very, very clear that we will not allow inflation to rise above 2% or less,” Bernanke said. “We could raise interest rates in 15 minutes if we have to.”
But Bernanke knows his 15 minutes of inflation-fighting fame aren’t coming any time soon. As long as one American in six is jobless or underemployed, there’s no reason to expect inflation to lift off, no matter what the Fed does.
And don’t just take his word for it. Economists at Goldman Sachs last week noted that since 1950, inflation has never risen during any two-year period that started with unemployment above 8%.
It is, admittedly, a small sample, with only three periods registering above 8% on the jobless scale since World War II: 1975, 1981-1984 and 2009-10. But in each case inflation fell during the subsequent two years by between 1 and 2 percentage points (see chart, right) — even during the 1970s, now recalled unfondly as a bubbling cauldron of inflation.
…
Something else that nobody at the Fed seems interested in talking about: A huge accumulated excess of capacity in the capital stock (massive housing oversupply included) due to the recent easy-money-fueled expansion (1982-2006). This is gonna weigh heavily against reflation efforts going forward no matter how you cut it…
With oil prices up by 10 percent in the last week or so and gold hitting a new record today, I am having a hard time believing my eyes on that inflation chart.
One possible hunch: The Fed is exposing the dollar to a succession of stepwise devaluations, realized through sporadic 10 percent increases in the price of oil and such, but punctuated by periods when prices are flat or falling. This strategy serves to give dollar debtors breathing room without locking in inflation expectations.
How else do you explain the conundrum of super-low official inflation coupled with rampaging gold and energy prices (in dollars)?
How else do you explain the conundrum of super-low official inflation coupled with rampaging gold and energy prices (in dollars)?
Massive speculation? Bubbles? Easy and cheap money?
Where have i heard this before…
Huge numbers of dollars seeking a safe home in the metals.
Just getting started on the metals mania.
Are metals anything like postage stamps? Someone I met with a foreign accent told me I could make like, 40% return on my investment.
More views from the ivory tower.
They really ought get out and do the basic shopping instead of having their nanny/maid/personal secretary do it.
I consider it a healthy sign when central bankers disagree. I only worry when they seem to speak with a unified voice.
market pulse
Dec. 6, 2010, 1:10 p.m. EST
Fed’s Lacker: Unemployment shouldn’t be targeted
By Steve Goldstein
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Monetary policy can be steered off-course by targeting unemployment, Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker said in a speech on Monday, according to a transcript of his remarks to the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce. “At some point we will need to respond by reducing the provision of liquidity to the banking system to prevent inflation from accelerating, as it often can when a recovery picks up steam. Further balance sheet expansion now could require more rapid balance sheet reduction later on, complicating the withdrawal of monetary stimulus when it becomes necessary to maintain price stability,” said Lacker, who has frequently noted that previous periods of low inflation didn’t necessarily lead to deflation.
…
I think we are seeing competition for BB replacement. When teh sht hits the fan they’ll need a change of face, to someone who had voiced objections to BB.
I don’t see it happening any time soon, as the entire financial system has apparently not collapsed yet (much to BB’s credit), and he apparently represents Wall Street and international megabank interests very well.
Arizona Cuts Financing for Transplant Patients
PHOENIX — Even physicians with decades of experience telling patients that their lives are nearing an end are having difficulty discussing a potentially fatal condition that has arisen in Arizona: Death by budget cut.
Effective at the beginning of October, Arizona stopped financing certain transplant operations under the state’s version of Medicaid. Many doctors say the decision amounts to a death sentence for some low-income patients, who have little chance of survival without transplants and lack the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to pay for them.
“The most difficult discussions are those that involve patients who had been on the donor list for a year or more and now we have to tell them they’re not on the list anymore,” said Dr. Rainer Gruessner, a transplant specialist at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. “The frustration is tremendous. It’s more than frustration.”
Organ transplants are already the subject of a web of regulations, which do not guarantee that everyone in need of a life-saving organ will receive one. But Arizona’s transplant specialists are alarmed that patients who were in line to receive transplants one day were, after the state’s budget cuts to its Medicaid program, ruled ineligible the next — unless they raised the money themselves.
Francisco Felix, 32, a father of four who has hepatitis C and is in need of a liver, received news a few weeks ago that a family friend was dying and wanted to donate her liver to him. But the budget cuts meant he no longer qualified for a state-financed transplant.
He was prepared anyway at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center as his relatives scrambled to raise the needed $200,000. When the money did not come through, the liver went to someone else on the transplant list.
“I know times are tight and cuts are needed, but you can’t cut human lives,” said Mr. Felix’s wife, Flor. “You just can’t do that.”
“I know times are tight and cuts are needed, but you can’t cut human lives,” said Mr. Felix’s wife, Flor. “You just can’t do that.”
It turns out, you can.
Now, if the guy was 72, I’d be cheering them on. But 32, with a decent chance of living another 10 plus years, it’s a shame they couldn’t swing this.
I’m taking bets on how long before this is blamed on the new health care bill.
1 day? Yesterday?
SEC sees financial fraud cases increasing
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top Securities and Exchange Commission official said on Monday the number of fraud schemes is on the rise, taking billions of dollars from Americans, and warned investors to be more vigilant.
The statement came as the Justice Department and SEC disclosed the results of its latest sweep of cases from mid-August through November, announcing 231 criminal cases and another 60 civil cases involving more than $8 billion in losses.
“As more and more people look to third parties to invest their money through intermediaries and money managers and the like, the frequency with which we might see these types of schemes … is on the increase,” said SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami.
He also told reporters that the Internet had made it easier for such scams to proliferate and the anonymity the Web allows made it harder for law enforcement to prosecute such cases.
Cases ranged from Ponzi schemes with promises of large returns to business investment schemes.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the public should be skeptical about offers, even those by people they know, noting that some of those prosecuted in the sweep had solicited funds from their own churches.
“One man in Texas allegedly targeted his fellow parishioners, asking them to invest with him and claiming that his success in foreign exchange trading was ‘a blessing from God,’” Holder said.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the public should be skeptical about offers, even those by people they know, noting that some of those prosecuted in the sweep had solicited funds from their own churches.
“One man in Texas allegedly targeted his fellow parishioners, asking them to invest with him and claiming that his success in foreign exchange trading was ‘a blessing from God,’” Holder said.
Yup, good old affinity fraud. Just like the Baptist Foundation in AZ a few years back.
Captain Renault: I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.
[aloud]
Captain Renault: Everybody out at once!
Free Internet a Civil Right for ‘Every Nappy-Headed Child’
~ The words of Obama FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, daughter of Congressman James Clyburn.
Ummm, I’m 53 years old and have hair that couldn’t hold a curl if it tried. Could I have some free Internet too?
Paying almost 50 buckaroos a month to a mediocre cable company is getting old faster than I am.
Is she related to Don Imus?
What’s wrong with free internet?
buddy of mine has had “free” internet for several years now. neighbor is too stupid to put a password on her wireless.
some folks even get “free” cable.
nothing wrong with “free” anything.
(sarcasm)
Exactly! Just ask the banks about those interest free loans they’re getting!
News Calgary & Alberta
‘Cat poop coffee’ comes to Calgary
This gives new meaning to the term ‘steaming cup of Joe.’
“Coffee connoisseurs and there’s probably a group of people who will have a cup just say they had a cup.
“It’s such an unusual, odd and unique product.”
Produced in the Doi Chaang region of northern Thailand, Kopi Luwak is made when the common palm civet — a small, tree-dweller Cutler said is closer to a raccoon than a cat — eats coffee cherries.
Once passed through the animal’s digestive system, workers pick the seeds out — by hand — and they are processed.
The end result is what Cutler describes as one of the most unique blends of java you can find.
“It’s very smooth,” he said.
“It’s got both a fruity and an earthiness, it’s almost got a natural sweetness to it which is very unusual.” And this kind of coffee doesn’t come cheap.
A single cup will set you back $25 (including tax) while a 50 gram tin will sell for $60.
Despite the high price, Cutler said they’ve already taken orders for 25 cups and have pre-sold 11 tins.
“It’s a very exclusive-type product,” he said.
Just finding Kopi Luwak is tough. “My understanding is there is only 1,000 kg produced each year so the supply is obviously very, very limited,” said Cutler.
“I’ve been able to obtain 41/2 pounds, which will translate into about 125 cups.”
‘Cat poop coffee’ comes to Calgary……..“I’ve been able to obtain 41/2 pounds, which will translate into about 125 cups.”
Is it just me or is that crappy math?
Just more proof that some people have lost their minds…..
Where’s Darwin when you really need him?
http://www.darwinawards.com/
Very… old news.
I’ve had it … it is very smooth coffee.
WASHINGTON – An outline of a bipartisan economic package is emerging that would temporarily extend the Bush-era tax rates for all taxpayers, while extending jobless benefits for millions of Americans.
I think this was called on HBB repeatedly.
Is that outline emerging from the House or the Senate?
And I wouldn’t be too excited quite yet. There’s an enormous reservoir of opposition to extending these tax cuts for the super-wealthy.
Well they better hurry. Less than 9 days until the selloff begins to avoid higher capital gains.
I have doudts but what do I know
“Goldman Sachs is bullish on the U.S. economy for 2011, and forecasts U.S. stocks will see their third straight year of gains.
The investment banking powerhouse sees the S&P 500 (INDEX: .SPX) gaining nearly 25 percent to a level of 1450 in the next 12 months, fueled by strong corporate profits, easy monetary policies and an improving U.S. economy.
Goldman (NYSE:GS - News) sees stocks gaining as the U.S. economic growth accelerating from 2.5 to 4 percent by the end of 2012, but says investors will continue to have doubt. (Watch comments by Goldman’s Chief U.S. Investment Strategist David Kostin in the video clip later in this story.)
They’re confusing the behavior of the stock market with the real economy.
Goldman is desperately trying to pull retail investors into the market.When people see stocks going up everyday they think they can make a quick buck at the casino.Once goldman has sold all of its positions to the retail investors it shorts the market and make a ton of dough on the downside.You have to see the games they play ahead of time.think like them and you can make some cash too.Right now everyone is chasing quick returns for year end.
“Goldman is desperately trying to pull retail investors into the market.”
Now that the economic outlook has turned out ‘much worse than expected’ back in the green shoots days of early 2009, why would anyone who has stayed out of the market be wise to get back in at the moment?
“…think like them and you can make some cash too.”
I didn’t realize great vampire squids actually thunk.
But I agree with you about their business model (suck’em in, spit’em out, making long profits on the intake and short profits on the bathroom break).
Just added to my Amazon wish list: This book on the subprime boom and bust by a former Federal Reserve Board member with a penchant for honest accounting (unfortunately deceased)…
Subprime Mortgages: America’s Latest Boom and Bust [Paperback]
Edward M. Gramlich
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Gramlich was on the University of Michigan economics faculty for many years. While I didn’t take any of his economics classes, the word
on the U-M campus was that he was a good prof and a nice guy.
Any-hoo, during my most recent (and brief) visit to the University of Michigan economics department, I came across a display case showing the department’s history. Dr. Gramlich was featured prominently. And to that part of the display, I said, “Greenspan blew him off.”
Bernanke and Geithner would be blowing him off today if he were still around…
“President Barack Obama called Monday for more spending”
“to win the future.”
Would it cost less if we played for a tie?
Obama warns of new ‘Sputnik moment’ for America
By ERICA WERNER The Associated Press
Posted: 7:25 a.m. Monday, Dec. 6, 2010
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Warning of a future where America could lag other nations, President Barack Obama called Monday for more spending on education, innovation and infrastructure to ensure that doesn’t happen.
Without detailing specific new proposals, the president told community college teachers and students it was time for an American “Sputnik moment” — referring to the 1957 Soviet satellite launch that jolted the U.S. into jump-starting its own space and science programs.
“We need a commitment to innovation we haven’t seen since President Kennedy challenged us to go to the moon,” Obama said.
The speech was a preview of Obama’s State of the Union address early next year and his 2011 agenda as he grapples with a divided Congress over the next two years, aides said.
“Right now the hard truth is this,” Obama said. “In the race for the future, America is in danger of falling behind. That’s just the truth. And if you hear a politician say it’s not, they’re just not paying attention.”
The president set out a goal that no politician would dispute: for America “to win the future.”
The disagreements will come over how to get there, with Republicans certain to be skeptical of any new program that costs tax dollars.
The Sputnik moment will come when the Chinese move on Taiwan, and dare us to do anything about it.
A lot of people had a Sputnik moment back in 04 and 05 buying houses and condos at astronomical prices because they thought that real estate only went up and the whole world was getting rich and they were being left behind. How did that work out?
NASA = about 1% of the Federal budget and has been stable the last 20 years
Entitlement Spending = 50% of the federal budget and growing
And the difference?
I’m entitled to my entitlement. I paid for it.
The ‘tax’ you can’t avoid: Oil prices rising.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The price of crude is perilously close to $90 a barrel and the average cost for a gallon of gas is inching toward $3 nationwide. If they keep climbing, that could put a serious dent in economic recovery hopes for 2011.
A spike in oil and gas prices is often referred to as a tax on consumers. That’s because people have little choice but to suck it up and pay higher prices. As a result, consumers may spend less on other things that are not considered as vital.
Part of the problem is that the Federal Reserve may be fueling (pardon the pun) the rise in oil with its controversial plan to buy $600 billion in long-term Treasury bonds.
Fed critics argue that this quantitative easing program, the second since the onset of the financial crisis two years ago, may weaken the dollar further and lead to higher commodity prices.
I still see a large number of late model SUV’s and retro muscle cars out there. I am for freedom and I understand some families need larger vehicles, but why be so quick to bend over and just piss your hard earned money away? I mean…$4+/gal gasoline is not what I would call a distant memory.
Home fuel oil (#2 diesel) is over $3 here in central S.C. Reg. gas is around $2.70. I will not be the least bit surprised if oil goes to $100.00 and $4+ gas returns.
~ Crude Oil Edges Up to 26-Month High on U.S. Stimulus Measures, Cold Snap.
Oil edged up to a 26-month high on speculation the U.S. may extend stimulus measures, bolstering fuel demand in the world’s largest oil consuming country, and on cold-weather forecasts for the U.S. and Europe.
Crude extended its longest advance in four weeks after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the Fed may expand bond purchases beyond the $600 billion announced last month. Winter weather in parts of the U.S. and Europe boosted demand for heating fuel.
“There’s been enough supportive economic news as of late to support the move higher, and the cold weather is helping,” said Tom Bentz, a broker with BNP Paribas Commodity Futures Inc. in New York. “The market continues to have a firm tone.”
“I am for freedom”
lmao.
Glad you enjoyed it.
I just paid $3.37 for gas, it’s been creeping up every week.
~ 5Min. Forecast…
The immediate litmus test comes early next year, when Uncle Sam once again bumps up against the official debt ceiling. It’s $13.8 trillion this morning. The ceiling is set at $14.3 trillion.
Whenever this happened in the past, Congress simply voted to pass a new ceiling into law. Some of the new Tea Party delegates have pledged to vote against it.
“Whether we like it or not,” incoming House speaker John Boehner has stated hoping to squelch the movement, ”the federal government has obligations and we have obligations on our part… We’re going to have to deal with it as adults.”
Our suggestion to the group: Vote “no”… shut down the government for a few days, as they did in 1995, and at least signal to the holders of trillions of U.S. dollars on foreign shores that there’s at least a few members with a backbone left in the elected body.
“Ha!” one member laughed. “Fat chance.”
Only in Washington can dealing with your debts by paying them off be considered childish. The “adult” thing to do, apparently, is to commit fraud by diluting the currency until its worthless… and wipe your debts clean with the paper.
“rack up” ?
It was probably east to pick her out of the lineup when they said, turn to the left please.
Woman sentenced for stealing identity to get bigger breast implants
By Jon Burstein
Sun Sentinel
Posted: 1:42 p.m. Monday, Dec. 6, 2010
A Tamarac woman who broke the law to get bigger breast implants was sentenced Monday morning to two and a half years in federal prison.
Shatarka Nuby, 29, pleaded guilty in August to aggravated identity theft and a credit card fraud charge, admitting she pilfered another woman’s identity so she could rack up nearly $20,000 in bills.
Nuby had faced up to seven years in prison.
She has said that she needed new implants because the old ones gave her breathing problems.
While it’s rare for someone to use a stolen identity to pay for plastic surgery, it has happened before in Broward County.
A Fort Lauderdale woman was sentenced last year to five years’ probation after pleading guilty to stealing another woman’s identity to put down $5,000 for a tummy tuck.
east easy
Shatarka Nuby
Is that her stage name?
so she could “rack up” ? nice word-smithing.
Silver Prices Hit 30-Year High
NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Silver prices reached a 30-year high as ongoing European debt-contagion fears and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s talk about a possible third round of quantitative easing brought out the sparkle in gold’s cheaper alternative.
Silver for March delivery was testing $30 in midday trading. Silver prices were rising 68 cents to $29.96 as investors sought the inflation protection attributes of gold’s “poorer cousin” and security from economic uncertainties. Speculators took advantage of the spike.
It is beyond my belief, that there can be one soul out there that does not think BB will do a “QE-3″ ++. Who knows how much his cast of clowns are ‘printing”.
Eyes on the Fed
Everybody hates the Fed
Bernie Sanders, a self-described socialist from Vermont, has joined conservatives like Sarah Palin in criticizing Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.
By Chris Isidore, senior writerDecember 6, 2010: 3:10 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney dot com) — The Fed is taking heat from just about everyone lately.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has been under such fierce attack that he made an unusual appearance on “60 Minutes” Sunday to defend himself and the Fed’s policy.
But it’s not just conservatives joining together to criticize the Fed and its boss.
Some on the left are also starting to show disdain for the Fed’s controversial plans to spend an additional $600 billion on long-term Treasuries, known as quantitative easing.
Unlike their conservative counterparts, liberals aren’t too worried about the Fed causing runaway inflation, or weakening the U.S. dollar with such an enormous purchase of Treasuries. Their criticism of this new round of quantitative easing is that it’s too small.
“It’s a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough,” said Josh Bivens, economist with the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-supported think tank. “So it’s tough to be a cheerleader for it.”
Critics on the left think the Fed should be pumping far more money into the economy — perhaps double the $600 billion it has committed to spend, according to some liberal economists.
And liberals are also concerned about the Fed dishing out what they see as sweetheart deals for Wall Street, and not doing enough to help the average Joe.
Last week’s release of previously undisclosed details of the Fed’s help for major banks and Wall Street firms, as well as the nation’s largest corporations, brought a stinging attack on the Fed from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent and self-described socialist who caucuses with the Democrats.
Sanders, who was one of the authors of the provision that required the Fed to release the data to the public, charged revelations of the trillions of dollars the Fed loaned to major banks and firms during the height of the crisis showed that it wasn’t doing enough to help average Americans.
“What I’m saying is not that the Fed’s power should be curtailed but that it should be redirected,” he said. “I want the Fed to work for the needs of small businesses and ordinary Americans.”
…
Ted Turner urges global one-child policy to save planet
CANCUN, MEXICO— From Monday’s Globe and Mail
Climate change and population control can make for a politically explosive mix, as media mogul Ted Turner demonstrated Sunday when he urged world leaders to institute a global one-child policy to save the Earth’s environment.
Mr. Turner spoke at a luncheon where economist Brian O’Neill from the U.S.’s National Center for Atmospheric Research unveiled his study on the impact of demographic trends on future greenhouse gas emission, a little-discussed subject given its political sensitivity.
Mr. O’Neill’s study concluded that a rapidly rising global population is contributing to an acceleration of emission growth, and that widespread availability of family planning could reduce the amount of emissions reductions required in 2050 by as much as 30 per cent.
nutcase
Ted Turner urges global one-child policy to save planet
Overpopulation is a self-correcting problem if ever there was one.
Yes. Case in point:
U.S. Birth Rate Hits All-Time Low
Teen birth rate also falls to record low
By Robert Longley
Continuing a 12-year decline, the U.S. birth rate has dropped to the lowest level since national data have been available, according to statistics just released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The rate of births among teenagers also fell to a new record low, continuing a decline that began in 1991.
…
Now if we could just get that immigration situation under control,…
The missing link
I was gonna say “whacko.”
why doesnt teddy donate some of the 2 million acres he has tied up?
Cutting back on global warfare and hanging war criminals would also drastically reduce emissions. Of course many lives would also be saved in the process.
Is John Boehner about to let us down?
Quite likely. And he may do it on Wednesday.
“Incoming House Speaker John Boehner has discussed ways to prevent Rep. Ron Paul from becoming chairman [of the House Financial Services subcommittee] or to keep him on a tight leash if he does.
“If Boehner, who will help determine who gets to chair subcommittees as early as Dec. 8, rejects Paul, he may have to contend with thousands of grassroots supporters and dozens of younger lawmakers who see Paul as a hero. Boehner, through a spokesman, declined to comment.” ~Newsweek.
>This is a very touchy situation. Rep. Ron Paul is scheduled to become chairman of this subcommittee, but bankers hate him because of his “oddball ideas” concerning a return to sound money. This puts Rep. John Boehner in a tough position. If he kow-tows to the big banking interests and prevents Paul from taking the chair (or muzzles him if he does) there will be an outcry from millions of Ron Paul supporters.
USPS Loses Millions On Counterfeit Stamps
As Postal Service grapples with service cuts and massive budget shortfalls, an estimated $134.4 million of its annual revenue is quietly slipping away to things like counterfeit stamps — identified as a steady, recurring risk.
25 years in foreclosure and still going strong in florida:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703865004575648900250047766.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEADNewsCollection
She offers no apologies for not paying her mortgage for 25 years, saying that when a foreclosure is in dispute, borrowers are entitled to stop making payments until the courts resolve the matter.
Holy Cow…
Attorneys’ fees and court costs from previous cases hadn’t been paid, or the amounts were wrong, she argued. One brief said that “Defendant Campbell specifically denies the existence of any ‘debt.’”
Looks like she stiffs everyone.
In response, Ms. Campbell filed for bankruptcy, effectively blocking the foreclosure until a stay is lifted by a bankruptcy-court judge.
It is technique - but in the end was it really worth it?
“in the end was it really worth it?”
Worth it = 25 years of free housing
OK, how are these distributed? Does some guy standing in a dark alley say: “Psst! Hey pal, wanna buy some cheap stamps? They fell off a post office truck.”
LMAO off this ben bernake video compilation of his expertise:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QpD64GUoXw
International Bankers, Federal Reserve, inflating the dollar
Who runs America?
By Philip V. Brennan Monday, December 6, 2010
(Note: I wrote this some time ago but it remains pertinent, especially now when the Federal Reserve is inflating the dollar on a massive scale.)
“The real truth of the matter is, and you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. Since the days of Andrew Jackson.” Franklin Roosevelt in a letter to Edward M. House (President Wilson’s closest aide), dated November 23, 1933.
The nation, the media tells us, is all agog over the results of the presidential election. What they won’t tell the American people is that the outcome won’t make a dime’s worth of difference – the president-elect will simply march to the tune of those wonderful caring folks who stand behind the scenes and pull the strings.
This is not simply my opinion. You read what FDR wrote about the people who ran things when he was around, and they continue to run things today. The rest of this column will be the statements of other statesmen and politicians who have been warning against a not-so-secret cabal of international moneymen who control just about everything in Washington and most every other place on the face of the earth.
And remember, this is not little old me talking. It’s Abe Lincoln, for instance. During the Civil War he thwarted the international banking community which lusted after the opportunity to lend the North big bucks, and collect big bucks in interest for years to come.
Lincoln said: “The privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of Government, but is the Government’s greatest creative opportunity…”
On February and March, 1862, and March 1863, Lincoln received Congressional approval to borrow $450 million from the people by selling them bonds, or “greenbacks”, to pay for the Civil War. They were not redeemable until 1865, when three could be exchanged for one in silver. They were made full legal tender in 1879.
Thus, Lincoln solved America’s monetary crisis without the help of the International Bankers, thereby enraging them.
The London Times later raged about Lincoln’s greenbacks: ‘If that mischievous financial policy which had its origin in the North America Republic during the late war in that country, should become indurated down to a fixture, then that Government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off its debts and be without debt. It will become prosperous beyond precedent in the history of the civilized governments of the world. The brains and wealth of all countries will go to North America. That government must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe.’ “
In 1876 the German Chancellor Bismarck said about Lincoln: “He obtained from Congress the right to borrow from the people by selling to it the ‘bonds’ of States…and the Government and the nation escaped the plots of the foreign financiers. They understood at once, that the United States would escape their grip. The death of Lincoln was resolved upon.”
Lincoln himself once said: “The money power preys upon the nation in times of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few and the Republic is destroyed…I feel at the moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war.”
…
Anybody still wonder where I get my ideas?
Lincoln also much company who shared his same observations.
“To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. If we run into such debts, we (will then) be taxed in our meat and our drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labor and in our amusements. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they (will) be happy.”
– Thomas Jefferson (1791) –
Toxic mortgage securities in a deep freeze
By Aline van Duyn
Published: December 6 2010 19:29 | Last updated: December 6 2010 19:29
The toxic mortgage securities at the centre of the financial crisis have turned into a healthy investment for some.
Securities linked to billions of dollars worth of subprime and other risky US mortgages have soared in value this year, generating returns of more than 30 per cent in some cases.
Yet even as investors buy and sell these distressed assets linked to mortgage loans, the sale of securities backed by newly originated private-sector mortgages continues at close to zero.
“In many respects 2010 has been a tale of two markets,” said Paul Jablansky, managing director at RBS, at a recent New York seminar. “[It has been] the best of times in the secondary market and the worst . . . in the primary market.”
…
Assembly line processes were a great innovation for automotive manufacturing; perhaps not so great for foreclosure processing?
Widespread ‘robo-signer’ errors spur lawsuit seeking class status
By Christine Stapleton
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 8:28 p.m. Monday, Dec. 6, 2010
Christopher Contreras didn’t have a chance, according to his lawyer.
Even though Contreras was behind on his payments and trying to modify his loan, the law firm of David J. Stern filed to foreclose, Elizabeth Boyle said.
But the foreclosure should not have been filed because it was based on the sworn affidavit of a “robo-signer” who checked off on thousands of foreclosures every month without verifying the owner of the loan.
“You should never practice law like it’s an assembly line,” said Boyle, who filed a complaint last month in Sarasota against GMAC and Stern’s law firm. Filing the foreclosure before the owner was verified meant Contreras’ credit score took a hit and his home remains in foreclosure limbo.
According to Boyle, countless other Florida homeowners lost hope of resolving their foreclosures when Stern’s firm prematurely filed foreclosure cases based on the affidavits of robo-signers. What makes Contreras’ case special is that it is the flagship in a proposed class-action lawsuit attacking the practice of robo-signing.
Contreras’ case and another filed recently in federal court are evidence of a new trend in mortgage litigation.
Until the robo-signing crisis in September, cases were filed by individual homeowners against their own lenders and mortgage servicers. But as the magnitude of robo-signing, document errors, unfair fees and potential fraud become known, attorneys realized there could be enough victims with similar complaints against the same firms to form a class.
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