Bits Bucket For December 7, 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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Too late for bed, too early for coffee — AGAIN!
It’s OK, Bear. There must be a lot of articles to link to.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/us/politics/07cong.html?hp
“The package would cost about $900 billion over the next two years, to be financed entirely by adding to the national debt, at a time when both parties are professing a desire to begin addressing long-term fiscal imbalances.
It would reduce the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax on all wage earners by two percentage points for one year, putting more money in the paychecks of workers. For a family earning $50,000 a year, it would amount to a savings of $1,000.
For a worker slated to pay the maximum tax, $6,621.60 on income of $106,800 or more in 2011, the cut would mean a savings of $2,136. That would replace the central tax break for middle- and low-income Americans in last year’s economic stimulus measure, White House officials said.”
Details still being figured out. Seems to benefit people like me more than is really warranted. This is messy politics at its messiest.
“It would reduce the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax on all wage earners by two percentage points for one year, putting more money in the paychecks of workers. For a family earning $50,000 a year, it would amount to a savings of $1,000.”
So the point is, now that the Social Security trust fund financial position has been determined to be on a sound and prosperous basis, they can afford a payroll tax holiday?
Seems to be more an aknowledgement that putting the payroll tax in the Social Security trust fund is an accounting pretention that isn’t needed anymore.
They could have hashed out another set of stimulus checks, but that is complicated as you have to hash out what the max income will be to get it, how much you get per kid, etc. And you have to actually send out checks. And you have to tell people who normally don’t earn enough to file a tax return to file this year or miss out on their checks. I think there were fraud issues with the last set of checks (and the equivalent of payday loans and all sorts of other unsavory things).
This option basically puts 90% plus of the burden of enforcement on employers. Of course, you get slightly odd results. For example, I will get substantial benefit from this where I didn’t get the last stimulus check at all. Seems an odd compromise, but there it is.
This may not help lower wage earners any ,as they already get credits , especially if they have dependents under 18.
I still remember Bush 1 stating we can’t afford child credits ,as someone has to pay the bills. That all changed when Clinton came in , his policy was for lower wage families to get those credits ,and rightly so. That’s why I am a Democrat .
Jess, it does affect lower wage earners. Many of them pay only the payroll taxes as they don’t earn enough to pay federal income taxes. This gets them a small amount in every paycheck.
Example. If you earn $26,000 a year and get paid every other week your weekly paycheck before other stuff is take out is $1000. Normally you would be paying your half of SS and Medicare on that for a reduction of about $77. But payroll taxes are going to go down by 2 percentage points, so that reduction is reduced by $20. You get to take home an extra $20 per paycheck. Not fabulous, but it will put a little extra food on the table.
Also interesting is the result for someone who earns the maximum wages subject to SS taxes. He or she will take home an extra $83 every other week. And because it is a reduction of a nondeductible tax, it does does not increase federal or state income taxes. My estimate is that for the max SS wage earner in a high tax state, it is the equivalent of about a 3.5% salary increase.
And thats why cities controlled by Democrats for decades have degenerated into depopulated ghettos of the entitled underclass. Keep voting for politicians who agree that you deserve the better part of my paycheck just because you suck air; soon your $200/month food stamp entitlement might buy you a day’s worth. Thank you Aladinsane!
And thats why cities controlled by Democrats for decades have degenerated into depopulated ghettos of the entitled underclass.
You miss a lot of big picture stuff Chuck4- stuff not spoon-fed to one-dimensional thinkers by hateful bigots on am radio.
The greatest crime of our age is not the muggings, not the carjacking and not the armed robberies. No. Far from it.
The greatest crime or our age is the white collar, Wall Street, corporate, banker, send-our-jobs away so the super-rich can further loot the middle class crime. This is the crime that has destroyed our economy and our way of life. What party bears most blame for this greatest crime? The Democrats or the Republicans? Maybe both?
The type of crime of which you speak of is a distraction for those who don’t want to, or are unable to think too deeply about the big heist going on around them.
This helps to protect the perpetrators of the greatest crime being committed against Americans.
“This helps to protect the perpetrators of the greatest crime being committed against Americans.”
+1
People get bent out of shape because a welfare queen buys a steak with her food stamps, but ignore the real bandits, who wear suits and carry briefcases.
My mother used to idolize executives, thinking they were model citizens. She isn’t alone.
+2 Rio….
Carlos4 is a wage slave peon just like the rest of us. Born into peasantry and will leave the earth a peasant.
He just hasn’t figured that out yet.
Well said Rio - What the “rich” missed then killing the middle class is that this was the goose that laid the golden egg. Kill the middle class, no more golden eggs.
This is already happening as banks sustain massive losses in all loan units.
“Seems to be more an aknowledgement that putting the payroll tax in the Social Security trust fund is an accounting pretention that isn’t needed anymore.”
Do you have a link to that ‘acknowledgment’?
Poverty stricken ghettos rife with car-jackings, strong arm robberies, and street corner crack dealers are the symptom, not the disease. To harbor contempt for individuals on food stamps is to completely miss the scene which plays out in front of your own very eyes. The disease is the horrifically inequitable distribution of wealth; the twisted ideology that a CEO is worth 550x that of his lowest paid employee. Rapacious greed and an insatiable thirst for power, at the expense of the masses, is what has put this country on the fast track to modern day misery.
I can assure you, Carlos, that Bakersfield, CA. is not controlled by Democrats.
Grizzly…. you really need to contribute more often.
Remind me again which party voted to continue tax breaks for offshoring jobs?
I think it’s the same party that demonizes people who have to use welfare.
Fantastic posts, Rio and Grizzly. Thank you!
I still haven’t seen anything in the media about the 0% cap gains rates for “poor people” - something like those under $18K gross for singles. That’s the current tax code.
I’m thinking I should take my unrealized small cap gains on my SPY this year. I could sell SPY and buy it back the next day - IIRC it’s not a wash sale unless you claim a capital loss. But it’s hard to plan when Congress doesn’t get its act together.
The package would cost about $900 billion over the next two years, to be financed entirely by adding to the national debt
Meanwhile the market had a mild rally due to the news. I guess deficits don’t matter, not as long as the Federal Reserve keeps conjuring more simoleans.
Or the market is rising BECAUSE the projected increase in the number of simoleans trying to find a home on Wall Street, rather than the idea that the underlying business will be more profitable. More money chasing the same ammount of product (in this case dividends) usually leads to higher prices.
Lets see, we have debated for nearly a year the extension of UI benefits, on again, off again, jerking around not only the receipients of the benefits, but also the state agencies that have to administer the program, over what $12 billion? Chump change in Washington.
And now, we propose an unfunded $900Billion tax holiday. Sheesh.
Its time that the politcos start acting like adults. There is no way that the deficit problem can be mitigated without both substantial spending cuts AND substantial tax increases. I don’t see any near term bubbles to come to the rescue this go-around.
In my state, Chase Bank administers UE payments. The state merely takes your name, checks to make sure you are qualified and then kicks you off when your done.
Comment by ecofeco
2010-12-07 16:14:13
In my state, Chase Bank administers UE payments. The state merely takes your name, checks to make sure you are qualified and then kicks you off when your done.
—————-
This just seems so…wrong.
Here we are debating tax cuts, and India is giving 200% Bonuses to their Employees. They get a Diwali bonus, and New Year Bonus/Christmas. Looks like they get a bonus every quarter. The lowest I saw was 25% of Base Salary. Whose money is it btw?
WTF.
Google this: India Inc brings out the goodies: Bonuses seen hitting 200%
(Looks like they took off the link fearing backlash from west).
That’s what tax breaks for offshoring jobs will get you… in the other country.
Get our $3 trillion back from the Eureopeans, GE, Harley Davidson, AARP, SEIU , GM, and any others that Bernanke and Obama gave our money to.
I think most of those trillions are in the hands of some of our highest-placed financiers. It’s not Harley Davidson or GM that are the problem…it’s the large financial institutions, hedge/wealth funds, etc. that have convinced our govt/Fed that we have to throw taxpayers’ money at keeping their asset prices inflated. THAT is the real crime.
“Too late for bed, too early for coffee — AGAIN!”
You need Candice Swanepoel to tuck you in, give that keyboard a rest.
“Too late for bed, too early for coffee…”
Hmmmmm…..it’s Miller Time!!!!!
Realtors are dishonest.
Realtors are broke. (not just morally)
I thought they were liars?
Why….. why….. I think you’re right!….. realtors are liars!
And doctors spend a lot of time in school. Seems pretty random there exeter.
Let us know when Ben’s Housing Bubble Blog becomes Ben’s Medical School Blog.
you have to be smart enough to out fox a realtors.
Do tell.
you have to be one step ahead of them and no all the games they do play.It can be done.
Thank you for that red hot stock tip.
This article has a couple of interesting quotes.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-06/your-underwater-mortgage-needs-a-blow-up-raft-commentary-by-caroline-baum.html
“How can such a small sector of the $13.3 trillion economy exert such a strong downward pull on the whole thing? Real residential investment, as it’s formally known in the gross domestic product report, accounted for 2.4 percent of GDP in the third quarter. At its frothiest, in 2005, that share stood at 6.2 percent, a three-decade high.”
If it fell to zero, it would hit the economy less heavily than it already has.
“To date the wealth effect in stocks hasn’t been large enough to offset the potent poverty effect in real estate. Owners’ equity in household real estate, or the value of assets minus liabilities, fell from a peak of $13.1 trillion in 2005 to a low of $5.9 trillion in the first quarter of 2009, according to the Fed’s Flow of Funds report. That’s a whopping 55 percent decline in four years.”
“By the second quarter of 2010, owners’ equity had climbed back to $7 trillion. Even with the 87 percent rebound in the Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index from the March 2009 lows, household net worth is still below its 2007 peak.”
Stocks and homes are owned by different people. The young and middle class are more likely to have a higher share of their wealth tied up in housing — when a middle class family makes that 20 percent downpayment, that is often close to everything they have. Now it is often less than zero (if it wasn’t zero to start with).
The older and richer own stocks. Even they have taken a beating compared with the 2000 bubble.
The article fails to define “real residential investment”. Is it just new home sales - reflecting the home construction industry? Does it include all resales?
“How can such a small sector of the $13.3 trillion economy exert such a strong downward pull on the whole thing?”
GDP mearsures the amount to goods and services produced in a year. It is a measure income and belongs on the income statement.
Housing prices is a measure of stored wealth and belongs on the balance sheet.
GDP and stored wealth are two different things, however a change in one can lead to an extreme change in the other.
— when a middle class family makes that 20 percent downpayment, that is often close to everything they have. ……
You’re kidding, right?
We went through 5 to 7 years of No down payment, reverse amortization, Pick-a-pay loans. Who put down 20% if they did not already sell a prior unit during the “bubble”?
Even today FHA provides 3% down loans, and you can get most of that provided as a bonus.
The reality is most everyone counted the “gain” in prices as earned income and are now claiming a loss. It seems to me that most of the ones loosing are simply opting to not pay the mortgage and have about 2 years of rent-free living to look forward to.
I think the 20% down people are a huge minority in the recent past.
And, even now, most of the new buyers are either all-cash or some FHA type of loan. The latest stat i read was the government (fha,Fannie and freddie) comprised about 90% of the US housing market.
Schwarzenegger Proposes $9.9B In Cuts
Sacramento Bee political columnist Dan Walters tells us he thinks we shouldn’t overstate the scale of the problem
Schwarzenegger on Monday unveiled a plan that relies largely on cuts to health care and social services for the poor.
About $7.4 billion of his proposal would come from cuts, include reducing cash assistance to needy families by 15.7 percent in April, then eliminating the entire welfare-to-work program in July.
He is proposing to eliminate vision coverage and increasing monthly premiums for Healthy Families, a program that provides health coverage for children of low-income families.
The governor also is asking the state to limit prescriptions and cap physician visits to 10 a year for Medi-Cal recipients.
I was talking with my carpool about how medicaid is already better insurence than most people get at work. They don’t get stuck with high deductible plans.
High deductible plans for people who are already (by definition) poor is a little useless. Hospitals already consider many people who are admitted to the hospital with high deductible plans to be essentially uninsured. They get the benefit of the insurance company’s negotiating power to reduce the size of the bill from the chargemaster rate, but they can’t afford to pay the bill they end up with.
This may be changing as more middle class people end up with the high deductible plans, but a few years ago, they told us that high deductible insurance meant about the same thing to them in terms of amount collected as no insurance at all. The accounting was very different. For example, an uninsured person would get a $20K bill and not be able to pay it. A high deductible person would have a $3K or $4K bill and not be able to pay it. With the high deductible person, most of the loss was the agreed discount for people covered by the insurance company, but in the end, no revenue was no revenue.
So that $16k is just smoke and mirrors intended to make everybody else think they’re getting a good deal and a whining point when complaining to politicians about the cost of the uninsured? It’s like the airlines and their “I know I’m getting hosed,” pricing.
I was told the better analogy is hotel rates. The “rack rate” of the hotel is what they would charge on New Year’s Eve if all other hotels in town had been sold out for 10 months and the local fireworks/ball drop was moved to be right outside the picture window of your suite. What you actually pay off season when 50% of the rooms in town are empty is something else. The uninsured are the ones who get charged the New Year’s Eve with a view rate.
Seems that when insurance companies and hospitals are negotiating, someone has to throw a number out first. As a general rule the person who throws out the first number is at a disadvantage. So the hospitals throw out the first number but they use one so absurd that every one knows that it isn’t reaslistic. That forces the insurance company to put out the next number.
If you are interested in researching this at a particular hospital, you look for their “cost to charge ratio.” I don’t think they make it public, but if you could find it, don’t be surprised to find it below 25% - way below 25%. By the way, this doesn’t work in MD. Maryland has a schedule for hospital charges, essentially setting the final negotiated amount that the hospitals get. At least that is what I remember. Not sure if they still have cost to charge ratios, but I believe that hospitals in MD are not allowed to charge anyone the New Year’s Eve with a view rate, even if they are uninsured.
I remember being blown away by the hospital charges when we had our first child. (Admittedly a while ago now).
We were sent a substantial bill and told to present the bill to our insurance company. When we informed them we didn’t have insurance, they sent us a new bill. The amount was lowered by 50%!
“High deductible plans for people who are already (by definition) poor is a little useless.”
They’re pretty useless for middle class people too. I know someone who “toughed out” a chest pain because he didn’t want to get stuck with an ER bill.
I do agree that an HD plan for the poor is basically no insurance, but for most middle class folks it’s little to no better than that as well.
I probably should have said upper middle class. And it depends a little on the plan. My uncle has a high deductible plan, but the deductible is only $2000 and his employer puts about $2000 in the health savings account for him each year. Not sure if they put anything in the account for the kids. I think not.
That’s nice that they put $2000 into his HSA every year. I wish my employer did that.
“My uncle has a high deductible plan, but the deductible is only $2000″
$2,000 isn’t a “high deductible”. I’m hearing $5K and $6K, which used to be for the entire family, but now its per person.
“High deductible” is actually a technical term. If you don’t have high deductible insurance, you aren’t eligible for a Health Savings Account. The balance of an HSA is retained from year to year (unlike flexible spending accounts where you lose what you don’t use up before the expiration date). So even though there are other plans that have much higher deductibles, my uncle’s plan is considered high deductible or he wouldn’t be able to have the HSA. That is why I specified his high deductible plan was only a $2000 deductible one. High deductible cannot be interpreted by natural language standards. It is a legal term.
“High deductible” is actually a technical term.
Correct. Our new plan is 1500/3000 and is officially labelled a “high deductible plan”, so I’m off to the credit union to open am HSA.
I expect those deductibles will continue to grow over the decade and eventually a 5K/10K plan will be considered “normal”.
I’d better start saving (more).
Noooo….In Colorado. You are supposed to be spending. We don’t have enough demand. What if you put more money in your HSA and are healthy next year? The economy will fall apart. It is all up to you!
Have no fear Polly, we go through enough prescriptions plus the wife will probably have carpal tunnel surgery next year, to meet our deductibles.
“Our new plan is 1500/3000 and is officially labelled a “high deductible plan”, so I’m off to the credit union to open am HSA.”
Ditto. Ran the math and for 2011 will be moving to this plan.
I’m off to the credit union to open am HSA.
I’d love to be able to do this at my credit union. Back when I had an HSA, there wasn’t a financial institution in this state that offered the bank account to go with it.
So, I was forced to deal with Mellon Bank. And, in order to deposit money into my account, I had to mail it to a P.O. box in Pittsburgh. There was no provision for Fedex-type deliveries in case you needed to send a check in a hurry.
Needless to say, the lack of local financial options killed any interest I had in continuing with an HSA. I just have a plain old crummy high deductible “insurance” policy now.
I looked into HSA accounts since I have a high deductible plan through my work. The fees on them were insane - $10-$20 a month I think, so I voted that thing down.
Hospitals already consider many people who are admitted to the hospital with high deductible plans to be essentially uninsured.
A lot of doctors and dentists think the same thing.
an uninsured person would get a $20K bill and not be able to pay it. A high deductible person would have a $3K or $4K bill and not be able to pay it.
See? Progress…
Its almost a George Bush moment (like when he marvelled at how wonderful it was that a poor woman had 3 jobs). I can already hear him saying: “Hey, that’s great!”
And yet Americans buckle down, enduring an increasingly dysfunctional heathcare system, consoling themselves with the fact that they gave the socialism bogeyman the slip.
“I was talking with my carpool about how medicaid is already better insurence than most people get at work. They don’t get stuck with high deductible plans.”
So how was the walk?
So how was the walk?
The carpool folks basically agreed. The consensus was that we’ll all be uninsured in just a few years anyway.
The consensus was that we’ll all be uninsured in just a few years anyway.
Public option, anyone?
If we are all uninsured there will be a heck of a lot of doctors out of work.
Maybe they will move to Canada.
“If we are all uninsured there will be a heck of a lot of doctors out of work.”
I think we are getting there already. There used to be long waits to see my GP. Not anymore. I have my annual checkup in a few weeks, so it will be interesting to see how quiet (and empty) the waiting room is. The last times I’ve been there I was the only non medicare patient in the room.
we just had a insurance meeting
where we all found out we will be paying 28 dollars a month more for Blue cross PPO plan so its about 300 dollars a month familiy plan.
Plus dental another 15 bucks it all adds up
10 dollars a visit plus 2K deductable per year
I wonder how the health insurance reform is going to change all this ?
How much did your employer contribute? Or was the $28 the total cost increase?
“I wonder how the health insurance reform is going to change all this ?”
If you have an under 26 child they can stay on your plan.
“If we are all uninsured there will be a heck of a lot of doctors out of work.”
When the scheduled surgrey cases disappear and their hospital census goes down, the doctors will do what they always do…
Raid the Nursing Homes for Medicare patients.
“Hi Mr. J6pack Senior, I’m Doctor Doom and I must say that you look very good for 89. The nurses mentioned that you occassionally are having a little problem peeing. Why don’t we just wing over to the hospital to see if we can fix that”
When the scheduled surgrey cases disappear and their hospital census goes down, the doctors will do what they always do…
Raid the Nursing Homes for Medicare patients.
“Hi Mr. J6pack Senior, I’m Doctor Doom and I must say that you look very good for 89. The nurses mentioned that you occassionally are having a little problem peeing. Why don’t we just wing over to the hospital to see if we can fix that”
Pardon me for sounding skeptical, but does this really happen?
“Pardon me for sounding skeptical, but does this really happen?”
I used to give anesthesia at a couple of hospitals many years ago and a few of our surgeons attempted to make this sort of thing happen when things got a little slow.
We had a more than a few battles over anesthesia/surgical risks and complications verses patient benefits among seniors. Of course, this was in the old days.
They paid more attention to this issue when one of the Nuring Home Raiders did a cystoscopy proceedure on highly respected and well loved retired local priest from the nursing home that got infection after the proceedure and died from that complication.
New York Times reported recently (yesterday?) about a doctor who is going to prison for putting stents in people who didn’t need it. I believe he was prosecuted for Medicare fraud. He claims they were all medically ncessary.
Several of the MD’s these hospitals were charged with major Medicare frauds and a couple went to jail after I pulled the pin and left the scene.
One of them was the Chief of Anesthesia, my old boss!
IMHO, they were all well off and didn’t need the money, they were just dangerous, greedy and amoral.
Several of the MD’s these hospitals were charged with major Medicare frauds and a couple went to jail after I pulled the pin and left the scene.
One of them was the Chief of Anesthesia, my old boss!
IMHO, they were all well off and didn’t need the money, they were just dangerous, greedy and amoral.
And, mikey, you just summed up why I so deeply distrust the medical profession. Too many people like the ones described in your “IMHO” paragraph.
“300 dollars a month familiy plan”
wow ours is 700+ for family.
“New York Times reported recently (yesterday?) about a doctor who is going to prison for putting stents in people who didn’t need it. I believe he was prosecuted for Medicare fraud. He claims they were all medically ncessary.”
Ever notice all the Latino kids running around in Texas with shiny silver crown work?
There is a good documentary called “Sick In America” that documents very well the overtreatment of Medicare patients. One documented case of an 80 year old woman dying of congenital heart failure on whom they did something like 50 procedures including a full pelvic workup.
One of the thought provoking thesis of the documentary is the idea that much of Big Medicine owes its existance to the ready supply of insured patients supplied by Medicare.
One of the thought provoking thesis of the documentary is the idea that much of Big Medicine owes its existance to the ready supply of insured patients supplied by Medicare.
And here comes some more Slim thoughts on this topic:
Years ago, when I lived in Pittsburgh, I needed surgery. I had a cyst, which got abscessed twice in less than a year, and that puppy needed to come out.
After the second doctor (in a low-income clinic) drained the abscess, he gave me the news about surgery: I needed it ASAP. And, said the doctor, it would have to be done in hospital under general anesthesia.
Well, I wasn’t too happy about that idea.
However, when I saw the surgeon, he noted my lack of health insurance. And he told me that he could do the surgery on an outpatient basis under local anesthesia, and that the hospital would take me as a Hill-Burton case. He also offered a substantial reduction on his fee.
Any-hoo, uninsured outpatient Slim came through that surgery with flying colors.
—And, mikey, you just summed up why I so deeply distrust the medical profession. Too many people like the ones described in your “IMHO” paragraph.—-
How many, specifically. Who here trusts… any “industry”?
We see reports of priests harming children? Thus distrust religion?
It’s easy to be snarky about industries. Harder to recognize that pretty well all fields are occupied by… well… people. People have bell curve ethics and character. “Climate Change” scientists fudge to get grants. Religious figures fleece the flock. Politicians lie to the sheeple. And, never mind around here all the resentment of “big”. Big Oil, Big Food, Big Pharma, Big Real Estate.
Yes. It is tough when no one out there can be trusted
Still Slim, I’ll take good care of you if you show up in my evil hospital.
Wish I could have fewer patients. Day too busy as it is.
regards
your evildoc
Still Slim, I’ll take good care of you if you show up in my evil hospital. (drivel)doc
He might. It’s his job.
But if you’re not well-insured or healed…..God help the rest of your indebted, ill life….
Thanks doc for feel-good, tainted-industry defending meaningless platitudes of nothing.
Regards
Truth
Really,
Do back up your claim that my assertion I would take good care of Slim should she show up at my hospital is ” feel-good, tainted-industry defending meaningless platitudes of nothing.”
I sense hostility and see lack of substance.
Charming… and vapid… as always.
Regards
Your Evildoc
Do back up your claim that my assertion I would take good care of Slim should she show up at my hospital is ” feel-good, tainted-industry defending meaningless platitudes of nothing.”
DrivelDoc,
You are not very good at reading are you? You really aren’t. Is it ego or you’re just not a good reader?
I said you might take good care of her. And you might. (if her condition were obvious)
It’s your job. You’re a DOCTOR not an intellectual.
You might be very good at treating. Although from your lack of reading comprehension and ignoring facts, I would say you might be a better doctor at treating than you would be at diagnostics.
Inflated ego has no place in diagnostics and you suffer from an inflated ego.
In you, I sense a misplaced sense of superiority. Probably not earned, or you wouldn’t project it so insufferably.
Smarmy… and vapid… as you’ve probably been since you got your MD degree.
Regards
Your Buddy
His mouth moves, but he says nothing.
He whines in the bowels of Ad Hominem, losing a fray he creates.
cheers.
Your evildoc
He whines in the bowels of Ad Hominem, losing a fray he creates.
So I nailed it again……
I know evilCrock…… Relax….It happens sometimes…
Regards
Someone who can read.
And it says the same thing, again meaning nothing.
All good
Medicaid covers essentially nothing– and that badly.
Once you’re stabilized, you’re out and you’re on your own.
Try finding a specialist who takes it. Then try getting an appointment. Then try finding someone to repair what Medicaid has “fixed.” That said, next time you don’t have cholera or TB, be grateful for Medicaid.
As for high deductible insurance policies; the “high” deductible is only the beginning. Your annual out-of-pocket (per person,) can typically run to three times the deductible after all the “reasonable and customary,” “medically unnecessary,” and “we don’t feel like paying for that,” charges are added into the equation. Better save about 15K per year per person in that MSA if you expect it to cover anything life-threatening.
There are several new dentist opening up in my mothers neighborhood that have huge banners that say - “Medicaid accepted”(actually it’s in Spanish and Medicaid is the only word I can understand).
“Acceptamos Medicaid” ?
“There used to be long waits to see my GP. Not anymore.”
The last time I visited my GP, I took a book with me, thinking that I was in for a long wait. However, I hadn’t even finished reading one page when my name was called.
By long waits I meant I would call in Monday and maayyybeee they could squeeze me in by Friday.
Fast forward to today:
“When can I come in?”
“Can you be here in 30 minutes?”
“I was talking with my carpool about how medicaid is already better insurence than most people get at work. They don’t get stuck with high deductible plans.”
People with high deductible plans are also covered by Medicaid. What do you think happens when they get seriously ill and exhaust their savings?
Great sceme they’ve got going. People believe they are covered by their employer or cover themselves, and object to taxes. But it is taxes that really will pay for health care if the need ever arises.
Can you “own” a house and qualify for medicaid, or do yo have to lose everyting first?
You have to have no assets. I think you are allowed a $2000 car.
I don’t think you can get Medicaid when you have another health insurance plan. What you might get is a partial break on your bill from the hospital through their charity care policy. I strongly recommend you arrange your illness or injury to happen in the first half of the hospital’s fiscal year. They budget for this stuff and they can run out. Also, ask for a copy of the policy. Sometimes larger amounts have to get approved at very high executive levels.
You think I am kidding? I’m not.
If you can’t pay the bill and your insurance won’t cover it and you aren’t eligible for public assistance then you go bankrupt. Unless someone at the hospital convinces you to max out a credit card or pay on some sort of multi-year extended payment plan. Washington Post has a story a few years ago about some 26 year old who was supporting both his parents who incurred a huge emergency room bill for a smashed finger. He was paying $26 a month or something like that. I don’t remember what the term of the loan was, but it was many years.
A poor senior citizen can have Medicaid as their supplemental insurance, but only if they have income less than $1000/month.
I believe you are correct. My appologies. I’ve always thought of the “dual eligibles” as a category all my themselves. And you do need to be very poor to qualify.
A poor non-senior citizen can also have both Medicaid and a private payer policy, provided their total monthly income does not exceed the State poverty requirements and no significant assets exist to offset.
BC even has a protocol for double billing third-party payers.
“Can you “own” a house and qualify for medicaid, or do yo have to lose everyting first?”
A friend’s mother had a paid for house, but put it in the daughter’s name years ago in order to qualify for MediCal and eventually Medicare since her husband didn’t amount to much in life. The plan worked until the daughter took a 125% loan against the place in order to live large back when Greenspan chummed for suckers.
In Massachusetts one of the ways people can “spend down” their assets to qualify under the dual eligible program is to pre-pay their funeral expenses.
I am not kidding.
No, I don’t think so. Medicaid is very hard to qualify for unless you’re dirt poor. You can have a house, but for a couple you have to make less than $1200/month.
http://www.nd.gov/dhs/services/medicalserv/medicaid/eligible.html
Sacramento Bee political columnist Dan Walters tells us he thinks we shouldn’t overstate the scale of the problem ??
And here is a interesting perspective from someone who posted on the blog following the article;
If anyone thinks Jerry Brown is going to come in and fix everything you must be delusional, stuck in a time zone from the past, or you are a retiree who has no clue as to what is going on with the real economic conditions and the current economic market trends.
Ladies and Gentlemen the economy we are living today is of historic proportions, never anticipated by some, the worse night mare for many, and an economy where your children might need to help you to survive, or vice versa.
This is a time for families to unite and forget whatever dislikes they had in the past, this is a time to network with as many people as possible, this is a time to reassess your future and depending on your age self employment might be your only option.
Whatever politicians do will not get you a job today or tomorrow, will not get you the benefits you or your family need, and will not fix whatever financial issues you might have. It is time to re-invent yourself and decide today what your future will be and take action.
This is a time for families to unite
What about single people? Is uniting not an option for us?
I guess you can form coops with other like minded people. But I think the intent of the article is to trumpet the return of the extended family, where mom and dad hand over the family home (hopefully paid for) to the kids in exchange being cared for in their old age.
Love the one you’re with…love the one you’re with…love the one you’re with…doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-DOO, doo-doo-doo!
Shaaa - na - na - na - na - na, live for TODAY!!
And don’t worry, ’bout tomorrow, hey hey hey…
There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
(Some) people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind …
Don’t need to be blood relatives to be a family…Many of my friends are like blood family to me…MANY……
You must have very good friends. A lot of people who like to pretend they are my friends wouldn’t give me $5 if asked.
I find it is best to help friends with time and skills. A lot of people are too proud to take money, but they will be delighted to accept your help with a project that you know how to do and they don’t. Sometimes you have fudge a few things (like telling them that you were going to take a vacation day that day anyway), but it lets everyone keep their dignity.
A lot of people who like to pretend they are my friends wouldn’t give me $5 if asked ??
Its when you have not asked and they come is when you know they are truly your friend…
I had lots of “just like family” friends when I was younger. But later they move on or we drifted apart. I’ve tried to hang on but lives change, you’re not the same. Then actual family members intervene, which is annoying, but blood is thicker than water.
So I’m not so sold on that notion anymore, and wish I lived closer to actual family.
I considered a handful of guys I was in the army with to be like family. We’re still friends, but I’ve learned since then that most people weren’t as needy and looking for more family as I was. What I considered a traumatic life-changing event was for many of them just a job. Took me a while to process that…and then made me realize how good my pre-army life had been compared to theirs.
EU urges austerity as rescue fund won’t be boosted- AP
European finance ministers pressured the eurozone’s weaker members Tuesday to get a grip on their finances, a day after they refused to increase the euro750 billion bailout fund.
Euro at risk of collapse, says Treasury watchdog as economic crisis sweeps Continent.
Destined to fail? Leading economists point out that currency unions have a history of eventually collapsing
‘General consensus’ is the currency unions ‘eventually fail’, said Professor Steve Nickell, a senior member of the Office for Budget Responsibility, as he was quizzed by MPs on the powerful Treasury Select Committee.
These currency unions - essentially forms of trade agreements - work when economies expand but fall apart when economies contract, as do most trade agreements.
Contractions kill trade agreements because it is then that protecting home markets becomes the top priority.
“Euro at risk of collapse, says Treasury watchdog as economic crisis sweeps Continent.”
Could we kindly change the subject to U.S. tax cuts and upbeat economic forecasts? I’m tired of worrying about the Eurozone debt crisis already.
So Julian Assange is arrested. I wonder how many hackers downloaded that insurance file and what banking info will soon be released. I know the gov code writers have been warned w/their jobs not to touch the Wikileaks site. So obviously its about cleaning up the evidence before it has a chance to see the light of day.
–Not just code writers. But really, if you’re dumb enough to voluntarily put classified material on an uncleared machine, you SHOULD be fired IMHO.
Was it really just a warning not to download/look at it at work? I thought it was more general than that. The link isn’t on the home intranet page, so it isn’t really that easy to check the announcement anymore. Whatever it is, I don’t see an issue.
one of my brother’s is an FBI agent and the other has higher than top secret clearence at his company.
both were told to just NOT go tot he site. they just don’t want any appeareance of improrpriety.
The number of official mirror sites is over a 100 now.
There are supposedly a lot more unofficial mirrors in place already.
VISA and Mastercard have now shut down payments to Wikileaks. Julian Assange was denied bail in England and now according to the Guardian:
WikiLeaks: US Senator Joe Lieberman suggests New York Times could be investigated
Chair of Senate homeland security committee tells Fox News paper has committed ‘at least an act of, at best, bad citizenship, but whether they have committed a crime is a matter of discussion’
(people are really freaking out I think)
I was employed in the private sector as a software engineer when the Windows source code was leaked and was told that any attempt to access the leaked code would be cause for immediate dismissal.
I was employed in the private sector as a software engineer when the Windows source code was leaked and was told that any attempt to access the leaked code would be cause for immediate dismissal.
Aw, darn. Someone needs to give that source code a good editing. Windows is way too bloated.
I believe most of the complexity associated with Windows has to do with the HAL (Hardware Access Layer) and the fact that there are no standards for anything and indeed cannot legally be standards, since each hardware manufacturer must either license or work around a plethora of patents held by other companies.
I didn’t mean to imply that it’s only stupid to do it at work. After all, your home computer isn’t authorized for the storage of classified information either. Part of getting a clearance IS agreeing to constraints on ones behavior that may well not apply to others.
Well, I don’t have an official clearance, but working for the government at any level is a privilege, not a right. Following rules that seem a little silly (not reading information that is technically classified but now available for anyone in the world to read is a little silly) is part of the price for that privilege. Small price to pay.
For me (when you put all the little silly things together) it’s a big price to pay. Which is why I’m no longer associated with the USG for my employment. I was good at my job, but was not a “good soldier”.
I was good at my job, but was not a “good soldier”.
Similar crap is endured in Corporate America.
Similar crap is endured in Corporate America.
Yeah, that’s where I am now. So my employer does a few silly thing here and there. They would never be dumb enough to order me to not read something in the news. It’s stupid everywhere, but mil/gov takes it to a whole ‘nother level.
“They would never be dumb enough to order me to not read something in the news.”
You should have seen our “Standards of Business Conduct” at HP. Of course Mark Hurd was exempt, until the board decided to dump him.
My problems with corporate america had more to do with spending weeks or months of my time doing things that were either inherently unethical or it was obvious from day one that if anyone in the corporate finance department with half a brain cell left looked at them, the project would never get funded. There is actually a lot less money/time wasted in government in my limited experience.
Government “code writers”? I don’t know about that, but as far as I know all federal employees have been warned not to read classified materials that they are not authorized to read. This was not a warning not to do it on our office computers, but a warning not to do it at all. And I haven’t. I’ve heard journalists describe basic outlines of some of the content, but that would have been almost impossible to avoid during the last few weeks.
As far as I know, the rule does not apply to messages taken from banks because they are not classified.
The man at the centre of a political, legal and technical maelstrom sparked by the Internet release of secret U.S. diplomatic cables has surrendered to British police. But Julian Assange vows to fight extradition.
The 39-year-old WikiLeaks founder was arrested under a European Arrest Warrant after turning himself in to police in London early Tuesday.
I’m appreciative of “information/news” being ripped from the hands of the Corp/Gov’t “TrueDeceiver’s™” …But maybe it ought to “released” by a statement such as the “Oh, really? …is that so? Committee” or the “TrueNothingbuttheTruth™” shadow journalists association. I’m quite hesitant when someone (as in x1 “TruePurity™” person) is the sole arbitrator of truth distribution. I’ve gone from “wikileaks” to “Julianleaks” in my reference to his “relevations”. If there is a wikileaks “Release Committee” they need to get some like Doris Day to be their spokeperson.
The government is just warning it’s employees that wikileaks information is just too dangerous for them to handle. It could cause thoughtcrime.
Exactly. And nobody wants that.
I always try to be vague when mentioning info when I’m uncertain how public it is. The person who mentioned this to me and his counterparts wouldn’t fall into the category of curiosity seekers.
Government “code writers”? I don’t know about that, but as far as I know all federal employees have been warned not to read classified materials that they are not authorized to read”
maybe the government will start to warn employees away from certain Blogs ? You might hesitate to buy a house.
Captain Renault: “We haven’t decided whether he committed suicide or died trying to escape.”
There’s a much bigger story (IMHO) that’s below the covers on this Wikileaks thing. I agree, there’s some evidence shredding going on right now, but the reaction of the govt to this leak is somewhat mind-boggling. I have NO faith in the belief that he actually did what he’s accused of; this really feels like a movie; where the main character is being framed by the government to silence him.
Problem is, the more press they give him, the more people start to take interest in his site. If the government is perpetrating a “frame job” what EXACTLY did he do that p**sed them off so much?
One of the babblers (I think Eleanor Clift) on the McLaughlin Report the other night commented that all the earlier release of information regarding the wars, defense, etc. didn’t seem to provoke such an intense reaction, until it was mentioned that he would release information on a major US Bank.
Yup, when I read that I knew he was toast. You don’t mess with the banking clan.
i pointed that out the other day.
makes you go hmmmmm.
Yeah, leaking banker secrets really crossed the line.
Ha. A work group I was a part of used to do a lot of travel for classified work. So, obviously the spouses could tell from the increasing tempo when something was up.
The worst ones cackling in public about it were the wives who worked in the banking sector. I suggested once that they pass around a couple little passwords for bank transfers. They looked at me like I was making a joke about a felony.
Comment by palmetto
2010-12-07 08:07:40
One of the babblers (I think Eleanor Clift) on the McLaughlin Report the other night commented that all the earlier release of information regarding the wars, defense, etc. didn’t seem to provoke such an intense reaction, until it was mentioned that he would release information on a major US Bank.
——————–
Bingo!
It’s the bank(s) they’re trying to protect. We need to realize who our real masters are.
What of the things he is accused of do you think he didn’t do? Post classified information? If so, who do you think did it? Is it the sexual assault you think he didn’t do? I haven’t heard any details about that at all, so I’m not sure how we can evaluate it.
“sex by surprise” - lol
What is society becoming when a women can’t get naked and jump into bed with a guy she just met without something bad happening.
Consensual sex turned into nonconsensual sex when the rubber broke. So how many others have the Swedes or Interpol hunted down for that one?
I provided a link about an hour ago but don’t think it’s going to show up.
The story I read was that he was visiting Sweden, and staying in the home of one of the two women. One thing led to another, and they ended up in the sack.
While he was staying there, he met some other woman who he knew, and he had sex with her too. And in this case, they didn’t use a rubber at all, so woman #2 is concerned and calls woman #1 and tells her all about it. Now woman #1 is furious and wants to get back at him.
He won’t win any citizenship awards for his behavior, but if this is really what happened then all of the charges seem overblown.
The story I read was that he was visiting Sweden, and staying in the home of one of the two women. One thing led to another, and they ended up in the sack.
And this is why I suggest the names of nearby hotels and bed and breakfast inns when some fella says he wants to come visit me in Tucson.
Reason: I’d rather have my house to myself unless I’m madly in love with you, fella.
“Consensual sex turned into nonconsensual sex when the rubber broke. So how many others have the Swedes or Interpol hunted down for that one?
I provided a link about an hour ago but don’t think it’s going to show up.”
As upset as all these governments are, I am a little suprised that Assange wasn’t accused of sleeping with 15 year olds and molesting their pet hamsters.
Pumpkin Overlords, if you don’t like the message, kill the freakin’ messenger…or at least, their character.
This is getting confusing.
Philip J. Crowley, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, told CTV’s Question Period Sunday that the Internet whistle-blower site has harmed the careers and even the safety of innocent people.
“Julian Assange is wrong and has really done great damage … in exposing these classified documents he is putting (our) sources at risk,” Crowley said. source: toronto dot ctv dot ca
Meanwhile the same Philip J. Crowley……
The United States announced today that it will host Unesco’s World Press Freedom Day event in 2011, from 1-3 May in Washington, DC.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/12/152465.htm
Press Statement
Philip J. Crowley
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Public Affairs
The theme for next year’s commemoration will be 21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers. The United States places technology and innovation at the forefront of its diplomatic and development efforts. New media has empowered citizens around the world to report on their circumstances, express opinions on world events, and exchange information in environments sometimes hostile to such exercises of individuals’ right to freedom of expression. At the same time, we are concerned about the determination of some governments to censor and silence individuals, and to restrict the free flow of information.
We mark events such as World Press Freedom Day in the context of our enduring commitment to support and expand press freedom and the free flow of information in this digital age.
Maybe Assange found Animal Chin?
Noting confusing about it, Rio. This country is run by sociopathic hypocrites.
BINGO
The lengths men in power will go to protect that power. I’ve heard the prosecutor initially dropped the case but was forced to restart it. I reallly hope they get the banking info out there.
I reallly hope they get the banking info out there.
I read it is out there in that 1.5 Gig “insurance” file with the 256 key encryption. Even the military can’t crack that kind of code yet. My question to the computer people.
Even if the password is not released now…will that be able to be cracked in the next few years?
It is dangerous to assume that anything that cannot be done now because of a constraint on computing power, will not be able to be done in the future. Predicting exactly when it will become doable is another story.
Banking strikes back:
Assange’s website, meanwhile, came under increasing financial pressure Tuesday - with both Visa and MasterCard saying they would block payments to the controversial website.
In a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press, Visa Inc. said it was taking steps “to suspend Visa payment acceptance on WikiLeaks’ website pending further investigation into the nature of its business and whether it contravenes Visa operating rules.”
MasterCard sent a similar statement, saying it would suspend payments “until the situation is resolved.”
The move chokes off two important funding avenues for WikiLeaks, a loosely knit group of activists who rely on individual donations to fund their operations.
PayPal Inc., a popular online payment service, has already cut its links to the website, while Swiss authorities closed Assange’s bank account on Monday, freezing several tens of thousands of euros, according to his lawyers.
WikiLeaks is still soliciting donations through bank transfers to affiliates in Iceland and Germany, as well as by mail to an address at University of Melbourne in Australia.
WikiLeaks is still soliciting donations through bank transfers to affiliates in Iceland and Germany, as well as by mail to an address at University of Melbourne in Australia.
Oh, well. There’s always hawala.
I do not think that what Assange is doing is wise, but it seems to me that in China it is illegal to speak of or post regarding Tienanmen Square, and perhaps a host of other sensitive political issues. Funny how when the tides are turned censorship is suddenly upon us here in America.
I am guessing the most damaging material is the BOFA documents which apparently show evidence of violations of stock market manipulation and fraud.
I downloaded the older one, not sure if there is a newer one.
I didn’t realize who Julian is. Mid 90s I used to hang out in a chat room on the internet (IRC). Assange used to hang out there as well. I didn’t realize this because the media mentions some other handle he used when he was younger.
Update:
4Chan and Anonymous have launched massive DOS strikes against all hosting and SAAS providers who blocked or denied service to Wikileaks.
If you don’t know who that is, here’s some serious advice. Research them but DO NOT visit their website or attempt to contact them. They make the Russian and Chinese mob hackers look like amateurs and are not to be trifled with. (yeah, I said “trifled” ’cause this is a family board)
Cold here in central S.C…17 degrees, this AM.
That’s when you find out how crappy a heat pump system is! Runs constantly, trying to keep it 64 inside. The fire place works great so plenty of wood burning for the next few days&nights.
1/4 inch of ice on the dog bowls this am in FL. Brrrrr.
Heat pumps are not that good for temperatures below 40 degrees.
Fireplaces are a lousy back-up. They barely heat and consume alot of wood.
Invest in a good wood stove.
The next time it is this cold the power may be out.
Happened up here last winter. No power for 2 days in the middle of a blizzard. The wood stove kept the house pretty warm. I felt like a mountain man growing a beard, chopping wood and keeping the stove going all day/night. Then I figured out I had to set the alarm every three hours at night to feed the stove.
No wonder Mountain Men were so crabby.
The kids slept in sleeping bags and thought it to be a great adventure. Most neighbors either moved in with us or drove to someplace where there was heat.
We heat with wood. Two cords will last us through the winter. We heat with a Alderlea wood stove made in BC. Superbly designed and
built in SS and cast iron, highest efficiency rated
stove on the market. We stuff it full at night and
in the morning we still have a nice bed of coals
to get the morning fire started.
What about if you live in CA where the state wont let you burn wood in certain time periods?They will arrest you and throw you in jail for trying to stay warm.
Statewide? or regional? either way, the air resources board in CA is insane. So glad we
don’t live there.
Urban areas only, Rancher. Those of us with rural power grid, or self-contained woodlots are exempt.
I heat with passive solar, a very well-insulated small house, fireplace with catalytic heat exchanger, and a good collection of sweaters, hats and late at night, mittens.
Interesting, Rancher. My future in-laws over in the cold, Slavic hinterland do the same. Theirs were (one in each bedroom, one in kitchen serving as stove) hand made by her paternal grandfather when they settled there after WWII. I stayed toasty the whole time!
We burn Madrone, an almost ash less fire,
heat out put similar to Eucalyptus but without
the ash buildup. We go for a week before
cleaning out the bin. Large glass insert in
the door and during the night, both cats curl
up by the fire.
Heat pumps are not that good for temperatures below 40 degrees….Fireplaces are a lousy back-up. They barely heat and consume alot of wood….Invest in a good wood stove….The next time it is this cold the power may be out.
Sometimes I have no idea what you all are talking about.
Blame it on Rio
Blame it on Rio
LOL…
But OK I’ll admit it…. Houses in Rio don’t have heating but my neighbor has a fireplace. I should have built one too because they look so nice. And there are about 30 days or nights a year where the temperature dips below 60 degrees and a humid 56 degrees feels COLD in the tropics.
When the cold gets that brutal at night I need to wear socks under my slippers.
Rio - I thought that you had some real cold weather last summer (your winter) which devastated the coffee crop. Coffee over $2.15 on the mercantile exchange. Don’t know what it is retail in the super market?
Rio - I thought that you had some real cold weather last summer (your winter) which devastated the coffee crop. C
I heard that too. But two things:
I spent last summer (Brazilian winter) in the USA and I heard it was cold in Rio but..
The three main coffee growing areas in Brazil: Mogiana, Sul Minas and Cerrado are usually much colder I think than Rio in Brazil’s winter too.
Don’t most heat pumps have resistance heating backup?
Those pellet stoves sound attractive since they are “self feeding” from the hopper. You can fill the hopper and it will keep burning for quite some time - at the least overnight.
I’ve thought of one but they share the same fault my natural gas furnace has: if the electricity goes out, so does your heat. Pellet stoves could stand to have a “wind up” spring mechanism to keep feeding during power outages.
My emergency backup now is a natural gas fireplace which is surprisingly efficient. It kept the whole house up above 50 deg. F one night when the power was off for a day and it got down to 8 deg. F overnight.
The air handling fan unit should have auxiliary strip heaters to boost the heat output when the heat pump falls below it’s heat balance point, i.e. approximately 45 degrees F outside for most units. Two stage heat pump thermostats accomplish this changeover and also usually have an “emergency heat” mode which bypasses the heat pump and puts the heat strip on when thermostat calls for heat regardless of outside temperature.
Early in the winter season, I force the heat strip on for short durations to burn off accumulated dust before putting the unit in to heat mode. The accumulated dust can cause the heat strip to draw more than rated current for a short while and either trip it’s breaker or blow a fuse. You may want to check for blown fuses or tripped circuit breakers.
Tankxs for the detailed info…
“Cold here in central S.C…17 degrees, this AM.”
That’s a typical winter temperature for eastern WA. Our spec house is rated at R36, and the heating system usually runs for 10-min, and rests for 10-min, an evening ballet. However we recently had a cold snap down to -17dF/-34dF wind chill, and the heat pump ran continuously to hold us at 68dF.
That would be R-38 in your roof, R-21 in walls. These high R-values are quite effective only if they are optimally installed and if thermal by-pass is addressed.
Typical installation is so poor that extra energy points can be taken if the installation is of good quality. Even if this is the case the air-sealing requirements are typically not enforced nor complied with.
R-value alone does not tell the story.
Watching Holmes on Homes, bad installation can render the best insulation worthless.
I like that show. I can relate to first having to fix the previous knucklehead’s mistakes before you can complete the job.
Yeah, 17 degrees f is just beyond the capacity of a heat-pump.
We once owned a (used) house that had a geothermal heat pump. There was no outdoor unit, just a pattern of slight depressions in the front yard where the heat exchange pipes had been trenched in when the house was built. This was in PA, where winter temps are too much for regular heat pumps. Worked like a charm.
Point taken, although in that case you’re not trying to pull heat out of 17 degree air, you pulling it from warmer earth.
Jim Rickards: At Least One Swiss Bank Has Started Refusing To Hand Over Physical Gold To Clients. ~ Business Insider
Jim Rickards of Omnis has an interesting anecdote about global gold mania.
He tells King World News of a client of a major Swiss bank who was refused access to his one ton of physical gold ($40M) and was forced to make threats to convince the bank otherwise:
“Correct, and through all of that eventually the individual did get his gold…it took lawyers, it took threats of publicity, it took a lot of pressure to do that, which my inference is that that gold was not there. The bank had to scramble, go out and find it somewhere before they could make good delivery.”
To be safe, Rickards says you should take out your gold out of the banks before governments freeze physical holdings.
The risk isn’t unfeasible. Gold is already treated as a paper asset, sold in futures, options and ETFs. All you need is a government order and “gold” becomes something that isn’t to be backed by real gold. At which point you’d be wise to have real gold in a treasure chest at home.
Ain’t austerity budgeting fun?
Repairing California
The tide begins to turn
For once, California’s prospects seem better in the long term than in the short
Dec 2nd 2010 | LOS ANGELES | from PRINT EDITION
CALIFORNIA has changed direction this year. This is not because of a conservative backlash in the mid-term elections, for there wasn’t one—California bucked the national trend and elected Democrats to all eight of its statewide offices. The legislature remains solidly Democratic. Even the new governor who takes office next month is in fact an old one: Jerry Brown last had the job in 1975-83.
Instead, the change of direction is constitutional, and comes as the cumulative result of a number of decisions that voters made this year, through the state’s peculiar brand of “direct democracy”. In the three decades since Mr Brown’s last reign, voters had created, through the cumulative effect of ballot initiatives, a Byzantine system of governance, taxation and budgeting that left California helpless when the Great Recession hit. In the course of 2010 they have passed reforms that could make the system work again. It will, however, take time.
In the near term, things may get worse before they get better. Unemployment, at 12.4%, remains higher than in any state except Nevada (wrecked by a property crash) and Michigan (devastated by the downsizing of the car industry). A lot of houses are still in foreclosure. Tax revenues remain far below their pre-recession levels though October was a strong month.
A state budget was finally signed in October after a record delay of 100 days, but it was based on silly projections and gimmicks. Mac Taylor, the legislature’s independent analyst, estimates that the budget remains $25.4 billion, or about 29% of spending, in deficit for this and the next fiscal year, with annual deficits of about $20 billion thereafter until 2016. State spending—on welfare, education and much else—has already been cut by about $16 billion in three years, and must be cut more.
This is the mess that Mr Brown is about to inherit. He takes office on January 3rd and must present a balanced budget to the legislature just one week later. And Mr Brown knows better than anybody else how hard that will be.
It was he, as governor in 1978, who had to implement (having opposed it) Proposition 13, the most infamous of all ballot initiatives. Created by an anti-tax, small-government insurgency that foreshadowed the “tea-party” movement, “Prop 13” cut property taxes, capped their subsequent rise and required two-thirds majorities in the legislature to raise any tax at all. It thereby undercut the main funding source of local governments, especially school districts. Before it, school districts collected and spent their own revenues. Ever since, they have had to rely for much of their funding on Sacramento, the state capital.
In the following decades, voters kept tightening the fiscal straitjacket with more “ballot-box budgeting”. Loving education but hating taxes, they mandated lots more spending on schools, the largest bit of the budget. Enraged about the latest grisly crime, the voters repeatedly mandated tougher sentencing. This led to a surge in prison spending and overcrowding so inhumane that in 2009 a panel of federal judges ordered the state to release or transfer some 40,000 of its roughly 164,000 inmates. The Supreme Court this week heard arguments in California’s appeal. From fast trains to stem-cell research, Californians voted for good things while neglecting to pay for them.
…
Someone tell me when Californians voted for a massive entitlement program for illegals.
Someone tell me when Californians voted for a massive/corrupt public unions with excellent salaries/gold plated benefits and insane pensions.
illegals are the meal ticket for democrats in ca.meg should have given little nikki a 100,000.00.That would have helped her gain some votes in la county.
Didn’t CA recently vote to change the 2/3 majority to raise taxes to a simple majority? I had read somewhere they had…this may mean a rise in taxes in the short term, but in the long term, it should lead to less unfunded mandates which will improve CA’s budget and health.
IIRC what passed was moving from a 2/3 to a simple majority to establish a budget, NOT to raise taxes.
CA passed another law that made fees be considered taxes and also subject to 2/3rds.
Yep, more mandates to spend, more restrictions on raising taxes to fund the mandates.
This is the mess that Mr Brown is about to inherit.
Remind me why Meg 2010 (a Republican) spent 165 million dollars $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ of her own money so that she could have that particular “FUN” job? (Some unnamed folks really take this “Golden State” motto seriously!)
For the same reason Bloomberg spent a ton to become mayor of NYC and works for one dollar a year.
It would give her something to do.
Instead it should have been two-thirds to raise any spending.
Short sighted cons……
short sighted populous
Taylor says U.S. headed for recession
By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
NEW YORK | Mon Dec 6, 2010 2:32pm EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. economy is headed for a new recession, said John Taylor, chairman and chief investment officer of FX Concepts, which should likely benefit the dollar and weigh on commodity prices.
“It’s a new recession. We’re already growing, but the numbers show that the U.S. government is still the primary creator of this growth,” Taylor said on Monday at the Reuters Investment Outlook Summit.
Taylor runs the world’s largest currency hedge fund with assets under management of around $8.5 billion.
“I would argue that by the middle of next year, we will be in a recession and our fiscal hands will be tied,” he said.
Taylor has maintained in previous interviews that the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing program, designed as a way to help jump-start the economy, won’t necessarily prevent a recession.
Banks in a recession tend to demand the repayment of loans, and if the debt is denominated in the U.S. currency — and in most cases they are — then investors are squeezed as they scramble to find dollars to repay the debt. That should be dollar-positive, Taylor said.
This was what happened in late 2008 when panic in the markets — precipitated by the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers — drove the safe-haven dollar higher against most major currencies.
“It’s kind of perverse. When the U.S. economy is doing badly, the dollar goes up and when the economy is doing well, the dollar goes down.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6B52NK20101206 - -
“Banks in a recession tend to demand the repayment of loans, and if the debt is denominated in the U.S. currency — and in most cases they are — then investors are squeezed as they scramble to find dollars to repay the debt.”
Paging Combo!
You mean crditors won’t accept woolongs for payment? What’s a Space Cowboy to do?
Damn shame considering they’re worth more than the dollar.
investors are squeezed as they scramble to find dollars to repay the debt.”……………
i’ve got a whole stack of dollars. I would gladly lend them for a secured loan at 12% interest.
For a 1% or less loan, i just sit on them. Why risk losing money for a no-return investment.
Do you see the problem here, Ben Bernanke??? You keep trying to drive rates down. they are down so low, it makes no sense to lend.
Very true, Diogenes.
The cure for our malaise is higher interest rates and lower asset prices…but you’ll never hear it from “them.”
The U.S. economy is headed for a new recession,
This is good because Americans have grown tired of the old one.
Yeah, this old recession’s getting a bit dull and out of fashion. It’s time for Recession 2.0.
we do need a new recession, the last one didn’t work.
+1, Charlie. +1. (and make this one a double)
Sadly, there’s a fair ammount of truth in that statement.
“we do need a new recession, the last one didn’t work.”
we do need a new recession,the last one was not allowed to work.
“This is good because Americans have grown tired of the old one.”
I think I just hurt myself laughing.
Wasn’t it just last week when the pols were discussing a federal payroll freeze, delaying the onset of Social Security, eliminating the mortgage interest deduction and further measures to reduce the structural deficit? Now the talk is of extending the Bush tax cuts, extending unemployment benefits, reducing the payroll tax, etc. Isn’t this pretty much a case of slamming on the brakes one moment, then flooring the accelerator pedal the next?
* TODAY’S MARKETS
* DECEMBER 7, 2010, 8:09 A.M. ET
Futures Jump After Tax-Cut Deal
By POLYA LESOVA
U.S. stock futures rose sharply on Tuesday, together with oil, gold and other commodities, as investors reacted positively to a deal to temporarily extend tax cuts to all Americans.
Just over two hours before the start of trading, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were 76 points higher at 11429. The Standard & Poor’s 500 futures rose 9.9 points to 1232 and Nasdaq 100 futures added 19 points to 2209.5. Changes in futures don’t always accurately predict early market moves after the opening bell.
On Monday evening, President Barack Obama outlined a tentative deal with the Republican Party to extend tax cuts for all Americans for the next two years and renew unemployment benefits for millions of people.
…
Yes, I love how a massive deficit reduction plan gets created, and one way better and more effective than anybody expected to see out of the commission, and government responds by making the deficit worse.
I bet if we offered the government a bandaid for its papercut, it would cut the finger off just to spite us.
The GOP is doing everything possible to shut down Obama… including throwing us under the bus.
But by golly, we’ll give them more power in the next election for doing so ’cause he couldn’t fix 8 years worth of train wreck in 2 years! And, and couldn’t create more jobs even though the GOP successfully voted to keep tax breaks for offshoring jobs, it’s still all his fault!
December 7, 2010, 7:45 am
The Deal
So the tax deal is out. Obama extracted some concessions, with the big surprise being a payroll tax cut. How much better do these concessions make the thing?
Well, for starters we have the two-year extension of the Bush tax cuts. As I pointed out yesterday, the CBO estimated that such an extension would reduce unemployment relative to what it would have been otherwise by 0.1 to 0.3 percentage points in 2011, twice that in 2012.
To this, the deal added $120 billion in a payroll tax cut; $56 billion in extended unemployment benefits; about $40 billion in extension of other tax credit. Also, expensing of business investment.
I’d discount the last item: we’re awash in excess capacity, and likely to stay that way for years, so I don’t expect business investment to be noticeably affected by tax breaks that give an incentive to move spending up in time. The rest is about $220 billion, or about 0.75 percent of GDP over the two-year period. What’s the multiplier on that? Pretty high on UI, which will get spent; less on the rest. Overall, probably less than 1. So let’s say that this raises GDP by 0.7 percent relative to otherwise; rule of thumb is that one point on GDP is half a point on unemployment, so add 0.35 points to the CBO numbers.
That’s a two-year average; what about timing? Both the payroll tax break and the unemployment extension are for the first year only. So, a bigger boost next year, fading out in 2012. Since all the evidence says that elections depend on the rate of change of unemployment, not its level, this is actually bad news for Obama: he’s setting himself up for an economic stall in the months leading into the 2012 election.
Oh, and he’s overpromising again:
Millions of new jobs? Millions? Not by my arithmetic.
…
Well, given that there are X jobs being created, Y jobs being lost, and Z jobs that will be created by this tax cut, I’m sure that X + Z will be in the millions. (As will Y.)
December 6, 2010, 2:28 pm Investment Banking
Dr. Doom Predicts Another $1 Trillion in Housing Losses
By EVELYN M. RUSLI
Giuseppe Aresu/Bloomberg News
As Nouriel Roubini heads to Athens to meet with investors and policymakers potentially about the debt crisis in Europe, the economist says he’s increasingly worried about a problem closer to home: America’s real estate mess.
The country’s real estate problems are “underappreciated,” and banks could face another $1 trillion in housing-related losses, Mr. Roubini said in a phone interview with DealBook on Monday. At the same time, he played down the issues in Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Spain, calling the matter “contained” for now.
The United States “real estate market, for sure, is double dipping,” Mr. Roubini said. “The apparent increase in prices has been fully reversed, demand is falling, and supply is going to increase.”
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/dr-doom-predicts-another-1-trillion-in-housing-losses/ - 55k -
‘The country’s real estate problems are “underappreciated,”…’
Don’t blame us HBB posters!
That’s funny. It wasn’t that long ago when busloads of New Yorkers were descending on Florida claiming that our houses were “undervalued”. Lots of them bought on easy credit to capture the “low” prices.
Debt hit Ireland Faces Toughest Budget in History:
Those poor overextended debtors. They spent more than they made and now have to reduce the standard of living. Good thing the US has nothing like that to worry about.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Debthit-Ireland-faces-apf-4008797829.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=2&asset=&ccode=
“Good thing the US has nothing like that to worry about.”
+1 Austerity is for little countries.
I still don’t get the implications of this for entitlements, which I thought were already in a precarious position, but perhaps genius is at work here (Goolsbee?): If the percentage increase in employment more than offsets the percentage reduction in payroll tax, and the former sticks after the latter fades, I think we’re good!
Wallets Could Benefit From Payroll Tax Change
December 7, 2010
A tentative agreement between the White House and Republicans in Congress would reduce payroll taxes by 2 percentage points in 2011. The possible change would allow employees to keep a little more money in their wallets. For more details, Steve Inskeep talks with NPR’s John Ydstie.
…
Well … it will help me pay for the new high deductibles on my health insurance.
This is still a long way from passing. There are democrats who are saying they won’t necessarily support the… oh who am I kidding? At least my wife and I will score some tax breaks this time around. The last “stimulus” was a direct transfer from our wallets to some other schmuck.
Pearls of wisdom from the Bernake…
“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.” – 7/1/2005
“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.” – 2/15/2006
March 28th, 2007 – Ben Bernanke: “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 – Bernanke: “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 – Bernanke: (the subprime fallout) “will not affect the economy overall.”
Ooops… Clipped from Jim Quinn at The Burning Platform.
Are they factual Bernanke quotes?
To the best of my knowledge, however I did not fact check them.
I do remember one or two of them though.
Dude….. let’s establish this fact. There is no way Bernanke didn’t see it coming which begets the question;
Why is he lying? And please lets not get caught up on “he’s over educated” etc. Clearly he’s lying.
Why?
“Too big to fail is the coolest thing since sliced bread when it comes to increasing the power of the FED” -B. Bernanke (to himself at any random moment)
No question that he has lied, that has been exposed. However the one body that can do anything about it refuses to even open one of their investigating committees into the facts, much less an audit.
So if Congress won’t do anything he is free to keep doing what he does. IMO opinion the reason is, if the curtain were pulled back and we got to see what’s truly going on at the un-federal reserve that would be the end of this particular factional reserve system.
So instead, lie on Ben and leave a bigger steaming pile for the next guy.
“Why is he lying? And please lets not get caught up on “he’s over educated” etc. Clearly he’s lying.
Why?”
If BB=liar, and realtors=liars, then BB=realtor
Who knew? BB is a closet realtor. Could anyone have seen this coming?
They are real quotes, but they were far from factual.
ben bernake cant seem to get it right:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QpD64GUoXw
Great video! BB was and still is just flat out wrong! Of course he is disconnected from the real world, but sure does influence it.
I suspect he is lying rather than just wrong.
Suspect? Holy suffering $hit.
“We’ve never had a decline in house prices on a nationwide basis.”
We have now.
Adult life
Bernanke met his wife Anna, a schoolteacher, on a blind date. She was a student at Wellesley College, and he was in graduate school at MIT. The Bernankes have two children. They refinanced their Capitol Hill home in late 2009 because they “had an adjustable-rate mortgage and it exploded.” Now they have a 30-year fixed rate mortgage at a rate of a little over 5%. Bernanke and his wife own one car, a Ford Focus.
If you took away MIT, their Capitol Hill home and the Ford Focus. Put Mr. Bernanke in some beat up clothes pushing a shopping cart with a bottle of Mad Dog in his hand. He would make one hell of a homeless guy.
he seems awefully nervous about something.
Now that you’d mention it, I’d be nervous too if I were the Tariq Aziz of the United States. It never ends well in the long run.
He’s nowhere near as entertaining. I’ve listened to Tariq, and Bernanke is no Tariq.
I don`t know who it was, but some dude on one of the financial shows last night said Bernanke was pumping money into the system as if it was the manufacturing based economy of the 1930`s where it probably would have worked. But according to this gentleman we now have a service, technology and information based economy which is why, according to him it isn`t now or never will work.
He’s wrong. We have a consumer based economy, so unless there are more jobs created and ones that pay more than $12hr, we’re screwed.
‘…“had an adjustable-rate mortgage and it exploded.” Now they have a 30-year fixed rate mortgage at a rate of a little over 5%.’
Does anyone else besides me find it a bit odd when the over-fifty set goes for the 30-year fixed payment plan?
Dec. 5, 2010
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s Take On The Economy
Talks to Scott Pelley About Unemployment, The Deficit and Pressing Economic Issues
(CBS) Pelley: How would you rate the likelihood of dipping into recession again?
Bernanke: It doesn’t seem likely that we’ll have a double dip recession. And that’s because, among other things, some of the most cyclical parts of the economy, like housing, for example, are already very weak. And they can’t get much weaker. And so another decline is relatively unlikely.
Bernanke: It doesn’t seem likely that we’ll have a double dip recession. And that’s because, among other things, some of the most cyclical parts of the economy, like housing, for example, are already very weak. And they can’t get much weaker. And so another decline is relatively unlikely.
I can’t help but think that this will be added to the running list of HBB quotes by Bernanke.
December 7th, 1941.
Four U.S. Navy battleships were sunk and all of the four other battleships present were damaged. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed, 2,402 personnel were killed and 1,282 were wounded.
Japanese losses were light, with 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 65 servicemen killed or wounded. One Japanese sailor was captured.
Total U.S. combat casualties in the war against Japan were 95,660 dead or missing and another 202,610 wounded.
True story from the Arizona Slim file: One of my closest friends was married to a fellow whose first wife did something very brave (or foolish) on 12/7/41.
She was living on Oahu, and she saw the planes coming. So, she got in her car and drove over to a place where she knew a lot of military wives were. Using her car, she ferried them to safety.
Looks like Joe Lieberman will have to make another call now:
Lebanese Newspaper Publishes U.S. Cables Not Found on WikiLeaks
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/12/lebanese-newspaper-publishes-us-cables-not-found-on-wikileaks/67430
I see the DOW is giddy over the proposed tax break extensions.
Oil, silver, wheat, gold also up big…
more credit to subprime borrowers for autos:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/40546621
DOW gets giddy over any prospect of more borrowing. Bankster is king.
Yeah, there’s a little something for nearly everyone in that proposal, what could possibly go wrong? It took until 2010 but for the first time in human history our congresscritters apparently think they’ve figured out a way to make everyone happy.
Except the people who are actually worried about the national debt.
Yep. Extending the Bush giveaways to the corporate elite adds $1 trillion to the debt in just 2 years.
Let’s have a tea party and celebrate.
They want the tax rate low for the final wave of wealth extraction from the US.
Don’t worry … be happy.
I am reminded of a friend of mine that pointed out that in a marriage, even if you are both debt-averse, if the things that you WANT to spend money on are different, the easiest way to plaster over the differenc is often debt. And so, on a national we’re proposing balancing an unpaid-for extension of unemployment benefits with unpaid-for extension of tax cuts. Yeah, there couldn’t be anthing wrong with that.
So, if you have $5000 of “extra” money a year, both will only want to spend $4000 of it, but you won’t want to spend it on the same stuff so the total spending desired by the couple is $8000 resulting in $3000 of deficit spending if both get to spend all they want? Makes sense I guess. Call in that Canadian woman who is on TV after Suze Orman. She’ll figure it out.
Somewhat atypically, in that household, she was the one who wanted a new sporty car, while he drove the old Taurus wagon.
Couples are good at giving each other permission to buy stuff. I won’t say anything if you buy X if you don’t say anything when I buy Y.
We can always borrow more from people ever farther in the future. If at some point there are no more people, there’s nobody to pay back. What can go wrong?
You just think you’re joking.
One interesting note on the past two weeks’ worth of political news: Tax cuts are easy; program cuts are hard.
To true! To cut programs you need commissions, studies, and massive grandstanding. And that’s before you even get a bill to the floor of either house!
“I see the DOW is giddy over the proposed tax break extensions.”
The test conditions for the economic petri dish couldn’t be better; we will finally know if tax cuts for the wealthy create jobs for the workers.
How many replications of this experiment are necessary to conclude that it is a failure?
BWAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! (fpss™)
“My oh my…says Br’er Wabbit”… “It’s the wealthy’s “troubles” that makes the monkey chew on hot peppers.”
Except these tax cuts have been in existence for almost 10 years already. This is just a continuation of what already is in place.
It’s always worked.
They didn’t call it “TRICKLE” down for no reason.
What do you call a box of tampons with the strings all tangled together?
a Groupon.
Ain’t no Groupon when she’s gone.
It’s not warm when she’s away.
Ain’t no Groupon when she’s gone
and she’s always gone too long
anytime she goes away.
Wonder this time where she’s gone,
wonder if she’s gone to stay
Ain’t no Groupon when she’s gone
and this house just ain’t no home
anytime she goes away.
And I know, I know, I know, I know, I know,
I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know,
I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know,
I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know,
I know, I know, I know
Hey, I ought to leave the young thing alone,
but ain’t no Groupon when she’s gone,
ain’t no Groupon when she’s gone,
only darkness everyday.
Ain’t no Groupon when she’s gone,
and this house just ain’t no home
anytime she goes away.
Anytime she goes away.
Anytime she goes away.
Anytime she goes away.
Anytime she goes away.
Love that song.
Bill Withers is an under appreciated talent. “Lean On Me” and “Just The Two Of Us”, and “Grandma’s Hands” are other great songs Bill wrote.
Ireland faces toughest budget in its history
By SHAWN POGATCHNIK The Associated Press
Posted: 9:40 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010
DUBLIN — Debt-struck Ireland braced for the painful details Tuesday of the toughest budget in its history, a condition for receiving a massive international bailout.
Finance Minister Brian Lenihan’s 2011 fiscal plan aims to lower the deficit from this year’s estimated 32 percent of gross domestic product, a postwar European record. It was being unveiled and voted on Tuesday in parliament as protesters gathered in exceptionally icy weather outside.
The day’s first protester arrived at dawn and left under police custody. The unidentified man drove up in a cherry picker covered in anti-government placards, parked it near the parliament gates, then began blasting pop music from loudspeakers and throwing tennis balls from the elevated platform. Police tore down the protest signs and seized the vehicle.
“The banks have brought this country to its knees. We’ll be paying for their mistakes for the rest of our lives,” said Alice Dunleavy, 30, a civil servant joining a line of nervous cash-seekers outside a Bank of Ireland branch. The queue snaked along the icy sidewalk as customers found automated teller machines nationwide refusing to dispense currency — a daylong software breakdown, the bank insisted, that sent fears and pulses racing.
as customers found automated teller machines nationwide refusing to dispense currency — a daylong software breakdown, the bank insisted, that sent fears and pulses racing
What an AMAZING coincidence!!!!
Isn’t it?!
“The banks have brought this country to its knees. We’ll be paying for their mistakes for the rest of our lives,”
Next step:
The banks will start buying Irish national assets with the tax-payer’s bailout money.
1. Banks ruin country and impoverish its citizens
2. Banks demand taxpayer bailout money
3. Country institutes austerity and decades of debt to bailout banks
4. Banks or their proxies then take the taxpayer bailout money and buy up the ruined country’s assets for cheap.
5. Sometimes….there is a step 5. Step 5 is where the people wake up and realize enough is enough.
Banks and their proxies do not like step 5.
Yeah, but how often does that happen? Every couple of hundred years? If you’re lucky?
5. Sometimes….there is a step 5. Step 5 is where the people wake up and realize enough is enough…..Banks and their proxies do not like step 5.
Yeah, but how often does that happen? Every couple of hundred years? If you’re lucky?
It’s not totally the same but……… USA seems to have meaningful political “status-quo disruptions” about every 80 years or so.
1776 .. 1861 .. 1930’s … ? hmm
Good spot! I didn’t even see that one!
Yes. Very interesting.
Cut the price of Irish Whisky in half and see how quickly we rush to help (us) you -
Chinese internal demand, not exports driving Chinese growth now:
For those who think China is still totally dependent on its export machine or its exports to the USA for its growth, you will find the following numbers startling. According to the following sources, Chinese exports contributed only 17% to China’s growth. Exports to the USA are just 30% of China’s exports. This means that exports to the USA accounted roughly for just 5.1% of Chinese economic growth in 2009.
http://www.uschina.org/statistics/tradetable.html
Analysis: More than decoupled, China is in league of its own
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69P0XH20101026
BEIJING (Reuters) - What’s weak is strong, what’s down is up, what’s loose is tight — pretty much everything that defines the American and European economies these days finds its diametric opposite in China…China is increasingly in a league of its own.
The world’s second-largest economy is growing near a double-digit pace….
Two years on from the global financial crisis, the contrast with the rich world is striking. In the United States and Europe, growth is sluggish, a slump into outright deflation is a real risk and central banks look set to loosen policy further.
So the evidence is in: China is decoupled, influenced by, but ultimately independent from other major economies.…Decoupling has become a much more solid thesis now than three years ago when we only talked about it hypothetically,
…WHAT EXPORT RELIANCE?
China is so often described as an export-dependent economy that people can be forgiven for thinking that this is true — that it is inextricably coupled to external demand. It is not.
Looked at on a value-added basis, exports contribute about 17 percent to Chinese growth, Kevin Lai, an economist with Daiwa Capital Markets in Hong Kong, said.
While not negligible, this is far lower than other Asian countries from South Korea to Singapore….China is not so dependent on exports.
Ha, can’t wait ’till they get a National Holiday that requires a corn-fed Turkey & all the fixin’s type celebration!
Would now be a good time to buy the dip on The Precious™?
“row, row, row your float gently up the stream,…merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is just a trade”.
thats a great buying opportunity.
Welcome to Zombieland: Ladera Ranch, California
ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. (MONEY Magazine) — Joshua and Irene Vecchione are cleaning the dinner dishes one evening in October when Joshua’s cellphone rings. It’s Rhea from the Chase collections department, and she wants to know if he has $123,000 today. That’s what it will take to get the Vecchiones current on their mortgage.
Rhea is a new caller, but Joshua has been talking with Chase reps a lot since February 2009, when he and Irene stopped making the $8,000 monthly payment on their five-bedroom spread in Ladera Ranch, Calif., an upscale development in south Orange County.
After a few months, they were allowed into a trial mortgage-modification program, which let them pay less than half as much and kept Joshua on the phone as Chase requested more and more documents.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/07/real_estate/ladera_ranch_foreclosure.moneymag/index.htm
“Rhea is a new caller, but Joshua has been talking with Chase reps a lot since February 2009, when he and Irene stopped making the $8,000 monthly payment on their five-bedroom spread in Ladera Ranch, Calif.,”
If I stop making my $1,700 monthly rent payment on my three bedroom spread in Tequesta Fl. I will be thrown out in 60 days.
“The O.C.!”
“The Vecchiones, who own the toy store in Ladera…”
“…They bought it for more than $1.1 million in 2006 — the height of the bubble — with a high-rate, interest-only mortgage. Paying it meant staycations and other cuts, but they figured they could refinance in a couple of years, as the house grew in value.
You know how the story ends, but in 2006 few people (especially in the O.C.) had any idea what was coming, and lenders were hardly waving folks away from the cliff.“
Oh, Where Art Thou?,…sweet, sweet nectar of the “$200,000″ “Single Deposit Transaction?
“…The exotic loans also attracted flippers, who set the market’s torrid pace. Troy Lowder says he went through four houses in Ladera; a friend and family members did the same, buying as tracts were first developed. “We all went from neighborhood to neighborhood, Phase 1 to Phase 1,” he says. Lowder made more than $200,000 on one deal.”
It’s true, …he who laughs last, laughs Lowder!
Hey Troy, here’s some gift wrapping for ya
http://b.saaraa.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/rd-sign-e1267828047806.jpg
“…Troy Lowder, the flipper, lost his last house in Ladera, purchased in 2006 with a mortgage that didn’t even require paying the interest due every month.
He had planned to sell at a profit in a couple of years, but comparable houses were soon going for $400,000 less than he had paid. And since both Lowder and his wife worked in real estate, less money was coming in.
“It sucks. We lost everything,” says Lowder. But he says he’d play the game again in another boom”.
Hey I’d put all my cash on Britain winning if June 1940 came around again too.
But it won’t.
“It sucks. We lost everything,” says Lowder. But he says he’d play the game again in another boom”.
Yeah he would. Which is why there will never be another boom until he and those like him are completely out of the game.
Job openings rise in October to most in 2 years- AP
Employers posted a sharp increase in job openings in October, raising hopes that hiring could pick up in the coming months.
Most likely holiday jobs. We will know in Mid January.
flipping cheeseburgers and stocking shelves?
That wold be my guess.
Have a friend, a laid off paralegal, who can’t even get a call back from retail stores about part time holiday work.
Wonder who, if anyone, they are actually hiring.
3.36 million job openings
15 million out of work.
woo. hoo. Break out the Keystone, we gonna party now.
And the telling stat:
(but) Companies hired 4.20 million people during the month, down slightly from September’s 4.21 million.
Dec 8, 2010
THE BEAR’S LAIR
The perils of bailouts
By Martin Hutchinson
The European Union bailout of Ireland and its previous bailout for Greece, when examined closely, bore a distressing resemblance to the 2008 US bailouts of Bear Stearns, AIG and Citigroup. The authorities poured more resources into assets that had been shown to be defective, without sufficiently enforcing the painful purging and liquidation that was necessary. By doing so, they reduced wealth, prolonged recession, and made the eventual collapse of the global financial system more likely.
The parallels between the European Union financial crisis and the US housing finance crisis are closer than they seem at first glance. In the Austrian economic terminology, both involved “mal-investment” - caused by excessively low interest rates or often artificial government subsidies - in assets and activities that later turned out to be worthless, or nearly so.
Indeed, the parallel is increased by the prevalence of fraud and corruption in both cases. In the US crisis, part of the mal-investment was in housing itself, through the encouragement of endless McMansion developments - houses that were not worth their cost the day they were built, and because of their poor construction quality will deteriorate exceptionally rapidly. The other part, in home mortgages, a substantial portion of which were obtained by fraud, has been extensively anatomized elsewhere, but it is by no means clear that the eventual losses on home mortgages will be any larger than those on the houses themselves.
In Europe, the areas of mal-investment varied from country to country. In Ireland, Spain and Britain, the problem was partly one of housing finance as in the United States. In Britain, planning restrictions limited the creation of housing mal-investment directly, causing a housing price run-up even more extreme than in the US. In Ireland and Spain both housing and housing finance caused problems, with low interest rates on euro borrowing playing a similar role in those countries to the over-expansive monetary policies of Federal Reserve chairmen Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke. (The euro’s critics in the US overstate their case in my view; while the euro was over-stimulative for much of the eurozone, foolish US policy created interest rates that were too low for the entire United States, not just part of it.)
…
Big Bank Sitting On A Big Pile Of Copper ~ WSJ
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM - News) has emerged as the mystery buyer of more than $1 billion of copper, accounting for more than 50% of all the metal stored in official London warehouses and stoking worries about an impending supply shortage.
The New York bank’s purchases have caused a stir in commodities circles in recent weeks. The London Metal Exchange late last month revealed a buyer had snapped up a large chunk of the exchange’s copper stockpiles, leaving some to question whether a trader was trying to corner the market for the metal.
J.P. Morgan’s appearance as the owner of the copper alleviated some of those worries.
The bank bought the copper mostly on behalf of clients, according to a person familiar with the matter, so it doesn’t directly own all the metal. But the buying spree does leave a large swathe of copper in the hands of one bank and its clients.
“J.P. Morgan’s appearance as the owner of the copper alleviated some of those worries.”
Yeah. It’s a relief to know that the Fed’s henchmen aren’t subject to anti-trust laws.
The London Metal Exchange late last month revealed a buyer had snapped up a large chunk of the exchange’s copper stockpiles,
Now why would “they” do such a thing?
Everyone is buying metals and oil - even with real demand dropping sharply.
It is going to be an interesting day when they all try to “lock in” their profits…
Gasoline prices are really starting to get some bad press here this week. Something about paying well over $3 gal. when it’s 15 degrees outside really gnaws at people.
Seems like Megabank, Inc is girding for a wild ride of PM inflation…
Great. So the banks are all using taxpayer TARP and interest-free unlimited FED money to buy up and monopolize necessary commodities to sell at an inflated rate to taxpaying citizens. Is there any reason why we shouldn’t round up all of the banksters and chop their heads off? We could corner the market in bankster heads.
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM - News) has emerged as the mystery buyer of more than $1 billion of copper, accounting for more than 50% of all the metal stored in official London warehouses and stoking worries about an impending supply shortage.
I wonder where they got the money to do this.
Makes you wonder whether they might also be trying to ’store’ housing inventory for sale when the economy picks up again. Of course, copper stores much better than vacant housing, as the latter quickly undergoes severe physical deterioration when no owner-occupant is present to maintain it.
Of course, copper stores much better than vacant housing, as the latter quickly undergoes severe physical deterioration when no owner-occupant is present to maintain it.
And that very thing is playing out in my own nabe. We have several see-through houses around here. Trust me, they’re going downhill in a hurry.
I wonder if it was J. P. Morgan who stole all those catalytic converters from the cars at our local Nissan dealership.
Ah, yes. The catalytic converter. My dad was one of the developers of that technology. At a very early age, I knew how to say words like “palladium” and “platinum.”
“J.P. Morgan’s appearance as the owner of the copper alleviated some of those worries.”
Dear god. We’re doomed.
Property Trax: Mother of all foreclosure battles in its 25th year in Florida, for longest such dispute on record, lawyers say
http://m.host.madison.com/mobile/business/real-estate/article_09e2de2a-0178-11e0-aae4-001cc4c002e0.html
UPS to require photo IDs for shipping packages
The Associated Press
Posted: 9:28 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010
NEW YORK — UPS is now requiring photo identification from customers shipping packages at retail locations around the world, a month after explosives made it on to one of the company’s planes.
The Atlanta-based package courier said Tuesday the move is part of an ongoing review to enhance security. The directive will apply at The UPS Store, Mail Boxes Etc. locations and other authorized shipping outlets.
UPS customer centers have required government-issued photo identification since 2005.
Of course the person shipping the toner bombs used a fake ID.
Cutting minimum wage and welfare, adding low income workers into paying income tax for first time, cutting spending by 9%.
Why can’t we do that?
——————-
Debt-hit Irish publish harshest budget in history
Ireland unveils toughest budget in history, faces tight parliamentary vote amid angry protests
DUBLIN (AP) — Finance Minister Brian Lenihan says Ireland must endure the toughest cuts and tax hikes in its history as an unavoidable price for saving the debt-burdened nation from bankruptcy.
Lenihan’s emergency 2011 budget unveiled Tuesday contains euro4.5 billion ($6 billion) in spending cuts and euro1.5 billion ($2 billion) in tax rises.
Lenihan told lawmakers he believes Ireland’s economy can grow despite the fact that almost all 4.5 million residents face “a traumatic and worrying time.” Hundreds outside parliament protested the cuts in icy weather.
The budget — which raises income taxes and cuts welfare payments and the minimum wage — faces a parliamentary vote later Tuesday. Analysts expect it to pass amid suggestions that some opposition lawmakers will abstain.
Lenihan says the plan — the fourth emergency budget for Ireland since 2008 — will cut spending by a further euro4.5 billion ($6 billion), about 9 percent, and raise taxes by euro1.5 billion, 5 percent.
“The banks have brought this country to its knees. We’ll be paying for their mistakes for the rest of our lives,” said Alice Dunleavy, 30, a civil servant joining a line of nervous cash-seekers outside a Bank of Ireland branch. The queue snaked along the icy sidewalk as customers found automated teller machines nationwide refusing to dispense currency — a daylong software breakdown, the bank insisted, that sent fears and pulses racing.
Critics chiefly on the left of Irish politics warn that the cuts will drive tens of thousands of people into poverty, lengthen unemployment lines to new records and strangle hopes of economic recovery. Lenihan insists Ireland has no choice.
Last month, Ireland was forced to admit defeat in its two-year effort to fight its runaway deficit while plowing at least euro45 billion into a bank bailout. The escalating bank bill put the nation on course for bankruptcy next year as its borrowing costs surged to unsustainable highs on bond markets.
Ireland is expected to begin borrowing soon from a euro67.5 billion ($90 billion) bailout fund unveiled last week.
It’s not that we can’t do that. But we don’t need to, at least as long as our benefactor continues to buy our depreciating bonds with no end in sight. The day we can’t issue new fiat money without repercussions is the day we need to tighten our belts.
Now all they need is a potato famine
We are involved in a Global War on Terrorism. This is no time to be cutting back.
where are the Lepricauns when you need them?
Cutting minimum wage and welfare, adding low income workers into paying income tax for first time, cutting spending by 9%.
Why can’t we do that?
Sounds like a Bankster’s wet dream.
Then we’re living the dream.
Good riddance: Shinn leaves NBA:
By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo sports
Ho ho, hah hah, hehehehehehe, BwaHaHaAhHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! (Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb-thrower™)
“Stern wants tax deals the state gave the New Orleans Saints to stay, but he can forget it. Those franchises aren’t created equal in the football-steeped Bayou, and it’s hard to believe a debt-ridden state government is going to cut a sweetheart deal for the Hornets.”
“…Truth be told, NBA commissioner David Stern told Shinn to get his fanny back to New Orleans, because Shinn wanted to relocate to Oklahoma City and never look back. He was too poor to be an NBA owner, and nickel-and-dimed his franchises to mediocrity. His sexual assault civil trial in Charlotte turned one of the best, most supportive expansion cities ever into a dispassionate fandom that would never believe in the NBA again.
Now, Shinn can’t pay his debt on loans to the NBA, and he’s selling the team to the league office under the presumption it can find a new owner to keep the team in Louisiana.”
The Richest Man in the World’s [Carlos Slim's] House CNN video
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2010/12/03/exp.lkl.carlos.slim.house.cnn
“…Oh, and the banks’ way of saying thanks for all of this: Get over it.”
Commentary: Moral hazard is the payoff of Fed’s emergency lending:
David Weidner covers Wall Street for MarketWatch
“…Moreover, the Fed’s disclosure covers only the emergency programs it launched as the credit markets froze. It doesn’t cover today’s lending. We’re told leverage is falling at these banks, but the Fed’s lending rates are still near zero. Cash is cheap.”
“TrueDeceiver’s™” i.e., wee little tiny footnote:
“And when Morgan Stanley’s John Mack was arguing in September 2008 that his firm had more than $100 billion in assets to ride out a potential run on the investment bank, he didn’t mention that the bank was borrowing tens of billions from the Fed each night, ultimately tapping the central bank for more than $1.9 trillion, including the brokerage’s foreign units.”
More auto loans going to sub-prime buyers and terms improving as credit market thaws.
DETROIT (AP) — Consumers with less than stellar credit are getting car loans again as lenders loosen their standards, and the trend is likely to continue as more lenders get into the business.
The percentage of loans going to sub-prime buyers rose 8 percent in the third quarter, their first year-over-year increase since 2007, according to a report issued Tuesday by Experian, a credit reporting agency. For new cars, the percentage of loans going to sub-prime buyers rose 13 percent over the July-September period in 2009. The increase for used cars was 3 percent.
The majority of loans — 63 percent — still going to buyers with prime credit scores, which is defined as a 680 or above. But even that is settling into a more normal pattern. Before the recession, when credit was very loose, just 51 percent of loans were going to prime buyers, according to Melinda Zabritski, director of automotive credit at Experian. Last fall, when credit was tight, 66 percent of loans went to prime buyers.
Who thought the bailed-out auto and banking industries woudn’t do this? They know nothing bad will happen to them.
Why not? When the loans go bad they simply unload them on the taxpayer.
Just like GM did when they turned in ObamaMotors.
I’ve been getting a lot of serial junk mail telling me I’m pre-qualified to buy a new car.
My credit, nor my income, are good enough to buy a new car right now.
While others in-debt themselves mightily in real estate mortgages we will wait for big sell-offs in silver in order to acquire dirt cheap metal that has no counter party risk.
Again, deep sell-offs are required for us to buy silver at this point.
Those bullion banks with the help of the feds want the monetary metals to tank as do those with hoards of cash looking to buy metals.
Big silver declines are simply gifts given to those with money and discernment.
Again, deep sell-offs are required for us to buy silver at this point.
At what price would you do most of your buying? $24?
I would definitely be a silver buyer between 20 and 24.
Scale into positions incrementally.
AZ Brewer: Here’s your free Gov’t death sentences…Oh, and sorry I’m not available for further comments at any time in my near future…
Cutting budgets and blaming Obama?:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2010/12/03/exp.lkl.carlos.slim.house.cnn
Added On December 7, 2010
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer blames President Obama’s health care plan for budget cuts. CNN
And, in a sorta related note, there’s this:
During the campaign, more than a little hay was made over the state of Jan Brewer’s health. There have rumors about her having something or the other.
But they were never proven one way or the other.
Now that she’s been re-elected, we are indeed having death panels here in AZ. Guy on the state’s equivalent of Medicaid was just denied a liver transplant. And he died.
One wonders what will happen if Jan Brewer is revealed to have some liver problem of her own.
Foreign medical vacation.
Was that a trick question?
She can get a transplant cheaper in mexico with a Chinese organ from a prisoner. Whoopie !
WHAT DO I WIN!!!!
(see my post from yesterday on this subject. I predicted that within 24 hours forward or back that it would be blamed on the health plan)
‘Constructive Gridlock’ Could be the Future for Wall Street- CNBC
Though the new Congress hasn’t even been seated yet, Wall Street already may be getting what it wanted from the November election rout.
Constructive Gridlock? Jobless Recovery?
This newspeak is like fingernails on a chalk board.
Some European Countries Are Bankrupt: Jim Rogers
CNBC.com
Some countries in Western Europe are bankrupt or are having serious liquidity problems and they should be allowed to restructure their debt, famous investor Jim Rogers told CNBC Tuesday.
On Tuesday, European Union ministers are meeting to discuss ways to solve the debt crisis sweeping through the euro zone, after 16 finance ministers from the euro zone decided Monday to make no new move to solve the crisis.
“You need to let Ireland go bankrupt. They are bankrupt, why should innocent Germans, Poles or anybody pay for mistakes made by Irish politicians,” Rogers said.
Greece is also insolvent, Portugal has a liquidity problem and countries like Belgium, France and even the UK have various problems, he added.
His words echoed some remarks made recently by officials from Germany and even by the European Central Bank governing council member Nout Wellink, who said it was not the ECB’s job to save countries on the brink of bankruptcy.
“This is a serious problem we have in the West, somebody has to deal with it,” Rogers said.
Shut Up, Jim! Nobody’s bankrupt if we keep giving them money. Bernanke will say when a country is bankrupt.
Survey shows more homeowners would walk away if their homes are underwater
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 1:14 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010
A growing number of homeowners would consider walking away from an underwater mortgage as lenders face increased criticism over irregularities in home loan and foreclosure practices.
According to a survey released today by market analysts at RealtyTrac and Trulia, about 48 percent of homeowners with a mortgage said a strategic default is an option they would consider if they owed more on their home loan than the house is worth. A strategic default is when a homeowner who can afford to pay his or her mortgage decides it makes more financial sense to stop making monthly payments and risk a foreclosure.
Rick Sharga, senior vice president of RealtyTrac, said the recent disclosures by banks and lenders that foreclosure documents may not have been properly handled is partly responsible for the increased willingness to walk away.
“I think there is just less and less faith in the lending institutions,” Sharga said. “People are saying, ‘If they aren’t going to play fairly, I don’t need to play that game either.’”
The survey of 2,034 homeowners and renters conducted in November, found that 58 percent of respondents believe a housing market recovery won’t occur until 2013 or later. About 22 percent said a recovery won’t happen until 2015 or later.
“More and more, American homeowners, sellers and buyers are tamping down their expectations for a swift recovery in the housing market and bracing themselves for a long, slow climb back to a healthy market,” said Pete Flint, co-founder and CEO of Trulia. “Government incentives have come and gone and historic lows in interest rates have done little to spur recovery. Then, as if prospective buyers had more to be concerned about, the robo-signing issue caused a ‘what’s next’ fear to surface in the minds of consumers, who, frankly, have lost faith in banks and their government to make good decisions.”
Rick Sharga, senior vice president of RealtyTrac, said the recent disclosures by banks and lenders that foreclosure documents may not have been properly handled is partly responsible for the increased willingness to walk away.
“I think there is just less and less faith in the lending institutions,” Sharga said. “People are saying, ‘If they aren’t going to play fairly, I don’t need to play that game either.’
Karma’s a bee-atch, baby!
‘the increased willingness to walk away’
IMO, what these guys are describing may be true on the margins, but nobody likes to throw good money after bad. People have been walking away from underwater houses for a long time now. As I described years ago, in the Texas bust, it was a bit of a shock when we would read about very rich people walking away from residential and commercial properties. Over time, it became a common belief that there was no shame; it was just a business decision. And this was at a time when Texans in general probably leaned more toward honoring contracts than the US population does today. I wish that the media/pundits could grasp this issue, instead of spinning it with each “new” development.
About this:
‘Government incentives have come and gone and historic lows in interest rates have done little to spur recovery’
Not only was a lot of $ spent for no positive benefit, a bunch of people probably bought houses that wouldn’t have otherwise. And what happens when they are underwater? Oops!
Finally:
‘to spur recovery’ …’tamping down their expectations for a swift recovery in the housing market and bracing themselves for a long, slow climb back to a healthy market’
Well, Mr Flint, you’ve got it wrong. The post-bubble recovery will be in the form of lower prices, and when people can afford houses again, the market will be healthy.
Replace Bernanke with Ben Jones! Would that be a pay increase for you Ben?
Comments
Those of us that have already been “fortunate” enough to get a home mortgage modification continue to struggle. It seemed like a great idea at the time. But after losing 30% or more of your home’s value with no relief in sight, you wonder if it was all worth it. We were sold on using credit, credit, credit by the financial institutions, now we were sold on “the great bailout”.We are ready for cash and a hand shake like our parents and grandparents before us. Better late than never, I guess.
John Archon
3:58 PM, 12/7/2010
The Magic Kingdom is “transformed” by Hogwarts mischief…
Disney hides Anaheim parks’ attendance numbers:
December 7th, 2010, by Sarah Tully / OCRegister
“…One industry analyst said he and others believe Disney is trying to hide the poor performance of Walt Disney World in Florida, the company’s flagship destination, by releasing only U.S. averages.”
You go Suzie “TrueDeceiverspokeperson™” girl!:
“Our reporting of park financials has evolved over time given our international expansion efforts, and we believe this disclosure is appropriate to our business as it is conducted today,” said Suzi Brown, a Disneyland Resort spokeswoman, in a statement.
“…I think some of that is because of attendance being cannibalized by the new Harry Potter attraction,” Samadi said.
Brown denied that the company is trying to mask figures or avoid comparison with the Harry Potter attractions.”
I am sure the numbers are being manipulated for our safety. Mega-corporations have only our best interests in mind and I sleep better at night knowing they are looking out for me.
Hmmm… Disneyworld is way bigger than the Anaheim “resort”. The number of hotels and restaurants that Disney operates in Orlando dwarfs those it offers in Anaheim.
That said from what I have heard business in Anaheim is booming, fueled mostly by locals who purchase annual passes.
More nooze from the nabe: The water line project de la familia Aho is all done. I saw them digging out the rest of the old line on Sunday.
And that old galvanized line was very close to the ground surface. (ISTR that the current code says that, within the City of Tucson, a water line has to be buried 18″ deep.)
I didn’t see the trench for the new PVC line being dug much deeper than the old trench. So, we shall see how long it lasts.
If I remember correctly, it goes under their driveway. I suspect they won’t do a good job ‘patching’ the driveway and that sucker will burst sooner rather than later.
You’re right, sfbubblebuyer. The line goes under a driveway that is shared by the residents of — and visitors to — four different houses.
And you know me and my curious nature. I’ve been monitoring this project from my fenced-in backyard and while bicycling around the nabe. I’ve seen firsthand that they’ve done a pretty lame job of patching the driveway.
So, I think that it’s only a matter of time before some heavy vehicle parks with a wheel right above this new PVC water line and…
…crunch!
That will be followed by that wheel going into a water line-created sinkhole.
Yep.
I guess what my professor told us on the first day I sat in a college economics class still holds true: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH.
market pulse
Dec. 7, 2010, 1:14 p.m. EST
U.S.sells 3-year notes; bond market extends losses
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - The Treasury Department sold $32 billion in 3-year notes (UST3YR 0.82, +0.13, +18.23%) on Tuesday at a yield of 0.862%, with only tepid demand from investors on a day when yields were rising. “The results were slightly disappointing considering the backup in rates,” said strategists at RBS Securities.
…
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH
Appears he was only “marginally” right in that assertion…
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH - unless you are a member of Congress.
No such thing as a free lunch?
Ever heard of “expense reports.”
Did you also know that board members of large corporations often have the company pay their personal taxes? Or are given and then FORGIVEN personal loans?
If private investors won’t buy US debt then Bernake will
QE3 isn’t that a little like bidding on your own auction ?
Try to drive the price up
John Boehner and Ron Paul
Today may be their day.
“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. 7 or 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.
Boehner is giving me flashbacks to Growing Pains. And is he seriously trying to derail what promises to be the best entertainment in this next Congress? What a boner!
The label on the “TrueAnger™” PeeParty tea toadlers dance dress given to them by the ““TruePurity™” repubican establishment” reads:
“Used & Abused Inc.”
(Designed by: “kick’em-to-the-curb” Inc.)
(Imported from Glenbeckinstan)
Splurges on lattes, lacy bras and other little luxuries offer a reprieve from frugality
NEW YORK (AP) — Few companies were clobbered harder than Starbucks in the recession. The coffee chain with outposts on every corner came to represent all that was wrong with American businesses and shoppers: unchecked expansion, self-indulgence and mindless credit-card swiping.
But now customers who swore off frivolous spending during the recession are lining up again for their $4 caffeine fix. The company’s net income nearly doubled and revenue rose 17 percent in the most recent quarter compared with a year earlier, as more Americans allowed themselves a small treat.
After seeing their retirement funds and home equity shrink severely, consumers tightened their belts in a shift some economists dubbed the New Frugality. Fortunately for the world’s largest latte purveyor and other peddlers of small luxuries, Americans have a short memory when it comes to the economy.
Affordable luxury goods like gourmet coffee, lingerie and high-end skin cream have been enjoying a comeback since the stock market began to rally in August and higher-income Americans started feeling better about their finances.
I’ll confess to a little affordable luxury buying when I go to the food co-op each week. I’ve been touring the co-op’s selection of beers and ales from around the rule. The only rule I have is that a single bottle must be under two bucks.
Can’t say that I’ve found any standouts yet. But I’m having fun with the tour.
An article in the local paper over the weekend says that RV unit sales in 2010 are back to pre-recession levels. Surprising if true.
Hey, those foreclosed families have to live somewhere!
A larger RV dealer where we are has reloaded his once nearly empty lot, so I guess they are snapping up some good deals again and hitting the road. Good thing gas prices are staying so low!
I say utter BS. The RV industry is hurting big time.
A friend of mine work..ed at one of the largest RV repair depots in the nation.
They haven’t called him back yet.
Fear Factor: Big Banks Not Out of the Woods, Say Atwater and Englander
Dec 07, 2010 Investing, Recession, Banking
Reports last week told a tale of U.S. banks more susceptible to a collapse in commercial real estate here at home than the crisis unfolding over European debt.
“We are far more worried about the value of commercial real estate than what will happen with Spain, Italy and Portugal,” Gerard Cassidy, RBC Capital Markets banking analyst, told The Wall Street Journal.
The lack of concern about Europe was evident Tuesday morning: European sovereign debt weakened after policymakers ruled outimmediate aid for Portugal and Spain, or an increase in the $1 trillion crisis fund, Bloomberg reports. Still, U.S. stocks were higher in the early going, with financials leading the way, amid excitement over President Obama’s tax deal with the GOP and thegovernment’s sale of its remaining stake in Citigroup.
But the picture is not so cut and dry, Peter Atwater, President and CEO of Financial Insyghts, tells Aaron.
“From a regional bank perspective, commercial real estate remains a shoe to be dropped,” says Atwater. But the European debt crisis should be top of mind for the top five or six banks that “represent 70 percent of all U.S. deposits and loans,” he says.
FORT LAUDERDALE —
South Floridians woke up Tuesday morning to temperatures hovering around the very low 40s that sometimes felt like the mid-30s because of the wind chill factor.
In Fort Lauderdale, a low temperature record of 42 degrees for Dec. 7 that had been in place for 169 years was broken, said Dan Gregoria, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami.
“It was at 7:24 a.m. when the temperature reached 40 degrees,” Gregoria said.
30`s here feels a hell of a lot colder than in Connecticut.
Palm Beach Post
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Shelters to reopen at 7 p.m.
Lows will again drop into the 30s and freeze warnings are expected.
Updated 3:13 p.m.
Farmers finding damage
Growers warn of ‘dramatic effect’ on prices
Opening shelters on below freezing nights is counterproductive to fixing the homeless problem.
Dude, I am L O V I N G this weather. Loving it.
I had ice on my car this morning. So I would guess it was at least 32 in Miami. This sucks! Especially for fruit trees (Avocado & Mango) that are not used to the cold.
Ice or a layer of frost?
Isn’t it pretty much always at least 32 degrees out in Miami?
Egypt: Sinai shark attacks could be Israeli plot
THE MEDIA LINE
Israel rejects the notion as “too ludicrous” for comment; German woman killed near Sharm e-Sheikh, Russian tourists also mauled.
Egyptian officials say they have not ruled out the possibility that a fatal shark attack in Sinai on Sunday could have been a plot by the Mossad.
“What is being said about the Mossad throwing the deadly shark [in the sea] to hit tourism in Egypt is not out of the question, but it needs time to confirm,” South Sinai Gov.
Muhammad Abdel Fadil Shousha was quoted as saying by the Egyptian state news site egynews.net.
Those wascally iswaelis.
And those so sharp egyptians.
Half of Americans Say Home Recovery at Least Two Years Away
Almost six in 10 U.S. adults say a housing recovery is at least two years away, and more than a third say flawed lender practices are partially to blame, according to a survey by Trulia Inc. and RealtyTrac Inc.
Half of Americans Say Home Recovery at Least Two Years Away…..a third say flawed lender practices are partially to blame,
I don’t know if I’m half impressed or two thirds disappointed.
With proper medication*, you can be both! See our ad in the Sunday paper for more information.
*(may have some side effects)
(Hwy plays our “North Country” background music: “Oh, Canada…Oh, Canada”)
BWAHAHAHicHAHAHicHAHAHAHAHicHAHAHic* (DennisN™)
“TrueBambooLie™” …or…”How to win friends next door & influence their partnership in your global pursuit of other Nations resources”
WSJ /BUSINESS / DECEMBER 5, 2010 By JEREMY PAGE
China Clones, Sells Russian Fighter Jets
“…In the past two years, Beijing hasn’t placed a major order from Moscow.
Now, China is starting to export much of this weaponry, undercutting Russia in the developing world, and potentially altering the military balance in several of the world’s flash points.”
The agreement stipulated that the aircraft—to be called the J-11—would include imported Russian avionics, radars and engines and couldn’t be exported.
But after building 105, China abruptly canceled the contract in 2004, claiming the aircraft no longer met its requirements, according to Russian officials and defense experts.
“…Three years later, Russia’s fears were confirmed when China unveiled its own version of the fighter jet—the J-11B—on state television.
“When the license was sold, everyone knew they would do this. It was just a risk that was taken,” said Vassily Kashin, a Russian expert on the Chinese military. “At that time it was a question of survival.”
The J-11B looked almost identical to the Su-27, but China said it was 90% indigenous and included more advanced Chinese avionics and radars. Only the engine was still Russian, China said.
Now it is being fitted with a Chinese engine as well, according to Zhang Xinguo, deputy president of AVIC, which includes Shenyang Aircraft.
China’s rapid mastery of Russian technology raises questions about U.S. cooperation with the civilian faces of Chinese arms makers.
The Aviation Industry Corp. (AVIC), China’s state aerospace company, builds fighters, for instance. But it is also making a new passenger jet with help from General Electric Co. and other U.S. aerospace companies. A GE official says the company has partnered with foreign engine manufacturers for decades “with elaborate protections built in place” that have preserved the company’s intellectual property.”
A GE official says the company has partnered with foreign engine manufacturers for decades “with elaborate protections built in place” that have preserved the company’s intellectual property.
Ummm, have you been having these engines built in China for decades?
Wait until they start undercutting Boeing and Airbus. I guess the US could fight back by not granting FAA certification.
This is the part that’s going to surprise a lot of transnatcorps who THINK they are going to control Chinese markets.
A big, nasty surprise.
Same with India.
And we’re giving tax breaks to corporations for doing so.
ZipRealty to lay off 42 in Charlotte
Charlotte Business Journal
ZipRealty Inc. will lay off 129 real estate agents in North Carolina, including all 42 of its employees in Charlotte.
According to a company filing with the N.C. Department of Commerce, the layoffs are being conducted in connection with the possible closing of its operations here and in Raleigh. ZipRealty has 87 sales agents in Raleigh.
The company’s local office is at 11121 Carmel Commons Blvd, Suite 305, in south Charlotte.
The N.C. layoffs are slated for Jan. 31. Some agents may remain as independent contractors with the company.
ZipRealty is a residential real estate brokerage firm and operator of a residential real estate website. The California-based company (NASDAQ:ZIPR) operates in 22 states and the District of Columbia.
It warms my heart to hear about out of work Realtards.
Experts say housing recovery is still years away
Rising mortgage rates and foreclosures will continue to be drag on market
WASHINGTON — The housing market will remain depressed, with record high foreclosure levels, rising mortgage rates and a glut of distressed properties dampening the market for years to come, industry experts predicted on Tuesday.
“We don’t see a full market recovery until 2014,” said Rick Sharga of RealtyTrac, a foreclosure marketplace and tracking service. He said that he expected more than 3 million homeowners to receive foreclosure notices in 2010, with more than 1 million homes being seized by banks before the end of the year.
Both of those numbers are records and expected to go even higher, as $300 billion in adjustable rate loans reset and foreclosures that had been held up by the robo-signing scandal work through the process. That should make the first quarter of 2011 even uglier than the fourth quarter of 2010, he said.
Wall street is criminal, say it aint so:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/10-reasons-to-shun-stocks-till-banks-crash-
2010-12-07?pagenumber=1
I am reminded of that old CCR song “Someday never comes”
Business must be getting much better…
Fountain Powerboat to create 411 jobs
Triangle Business Journal -
Boat maker Fountain Powerboat Industries Inc. will receive $150,000 in state incentives as part of a plan to expand an existing facility in Beaufort County, Gov. Beverly Perdue’s office said Monday.
The company will spend $5.1 million on the project, which is designed to create 411 jobs in Washington, according to a written statement issued by the governor.
FPBI already employs 75 full-time employees in North Carolina; the company has its executive office and manufacturing facilities on a 65-acre campus along the Pamlico River in Beaufort County.
Fountain is privately owned by Liberty Associates LC. Liberty Associates is also the parent company of Donzi Marine LLC and Pro-Line Boats LLC. Both of these Florida-based boat lines will move to the Washington, the written statement said.
The new jobs will have an average salary of $35,657. By comparison, the county’s average salary is $29,952.
The state incentives come from the One North Carolina Fund. These grants also require a local match that will have to amount to at least $150,000.
Are they good for open ocean sailing? After all, those banksters need getaway boats!
Looks like all they are doing is moving jobs.
My guess is the local business taxes (and of course, other financial considerations) are more favorable.
Elizabeth Edwards was a 1st Class Act. John did some good in law, but no comment on his personal life. He’s win on the pool equipment case makes children safer in public pools, and his HIV Blood case, has made our supply safer.
Here’s to you, Elizabeth. You were bright, moral, and you will be remembered as a 1st Class Act. Wow, life is short. Sometimes shorter than we think.
Excellent, wipeout. Elizabeth was put though hell, IMO, and I’m sure the stress did nothing for her health. Her husband may have done some good legally, but I have no respect for a piece of crap who publicly humiliates a woman who put him through law school, bore and brought up his children and endured the public spotlight on his behalf.
RIP, Elizabeth.
palmetto-
You’ve got that right about John. I like to divide people into what you do for a living, who you pretend you are, and who you really are (when you think no one is looking). I get the feeling Elizabeth’s public personna was who she was. I liked and respected her. John on the other hand…
Your post was so you…
she seemed like a nice lady.Sad that her life has ended.
Jennifer, if you`re going to be wearing body paint you might want to get out of the cage and get to the gym first. I gotta go, Beef, it`s what`s for dinner.
Nearly-nude PETA protester objects to upcoming Ringling Bros. circus
By Alexandra Seltzer Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 5:51 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010
WEST PALM BEACH — There was a half-naked tiger clawing at its cage in downtown West Palm Beach this afternoon protesting the Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus coming to town.
That tiger was 21-year-old PETA member Jennifer Hammer, sporting panties and pasties covered by orange paint, black painted stripes, a tail and cat ears, while sitting in a 2-by-3 foot cage in front of Centennial Square.
“The animals suffer more than this,” Hammer, of Broward County, said. “I don’t believe animals should be used for our entertainment.”
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/nearly-nude-peta-protester-objects-to-upcoming-ringling-1103963.html -
Wow. Did I just go through the whole postings today and make not one dyslexic mistake?
Maybe I should drink more?
NEW YORK (AP) — President Barack Obama’s tax-cut proposal spurred a widespread sell-off in Treasurys on Tuesday as traders expected the plan to create deeper budget deficits.
Yields on Treasurys shot higher as their prices fell. The 10-year yield jumped to 3.13 percent from 2.93 percent, its highest level since June 22. The yield traded as high as 3.17 percent in the late afternoon.
In a compromise with Republicans, Obama agreed to extend Bush-era tax cuts for two years. The plan would also extend unemployment benefits and cut payroll taxes for a year. Estimates vary widely, but some put the cost in the range of $900 billion over the next two years.
Appetite was weak for the Treasury’s midday auction of $32 billion in three-year notes. Investors bid for 2.9 times the amount offered, the lowest demand for the notes since February. The notes sold at the highest rate in five months.
The Treasury is scheduled to sell $21 billion in 10-year notes Wednesday.