Bits Bucket for December 23, 2010
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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The 2010 Twice List: Films So Nice We Had to See Them, Oh, You Know …
by John Lopez
December 22, 2010, 1:50 PM
…
Inside Job. If you have any desire to know how exactly Wall Street brought us all to the brink of financial apocalypse, you will find no more informative and entertaining documentary than Inside Job. The beauty of the filmmaking is that it gives a clear sense of the complex monetary cogs that spun out of control in 2008—no mean feat, considering that it was exactly this confusion that was responsible for bringing down financial hydras like Lehman Brothers and A.I.G. You may not need to see this film more than once to understand it, but you will want to see it twice to appreciate it, and then maybe pick up The Communist Manifesto.
…
Prof,
I just want to thank you for all the excellent links and citations you’ve posted here over the years. (Don’t even want to THINK how much $$$ I’ve spent buying your book recommendations–even used on Amazon.)
I view your references as the required reading portion of the amazing class that is this blog. You are, indeed, our Professor!
mwah
De nada.
Sorry if you spent too much on the books. I would have gladly sent my copies on to you after reading them (I customarily donate my financial meltdown books to the SD County Library after I am done with them).
I just want to thank you for all the excellent links and citations you’ve posted here over the years.
Here!, here! x3 Cheers!
…and the HBB life-time “Eeyore Award” goes to:
Mr. San Diego Bear/Get Stucco/Cantankerous-Intellectual-Bomb-Thrower/withered Green Shoots/MegaBank mortgage kudzu slayer/Federal Reserve Corporation muckraker/ Professor Bear, aka…Soupy Sales!New Year’s Day incident
“On January 1, 1965, miffed at having to work on the holiday, Sales ended his live broadcast by encouraging his young viewers to tiptoe into their still-sleeping parents’ bedrooms and remove those “funny green pieces of paper with pictures of U.S. Presidents” from their pants and pocketbooks. “Put them in an envelope and mail them to me”, Soupy instructed the children. “And I’ll send you a postcard from Puerto Rico!” He was then hit with a pie. Several days later, a chagrined Soupy announced that money (mostly Monopoly money) was unexpectedly being received in the mail. He explained that he had been joking and announced that the contributions would be donated to charity. As parents’ complaints increased, WNEW’s management felt compelled to suspend Sales for two weeks. Young viewers picketed Channel 5. The uproar surrounding Sales’ suspension increased his popularity.”
I agree. Prof is one of my favorite posters.
Ditto here…Thanks for all the effort you put into the HBB pbear….
Thanks to Ben for giving us a place to discuss U.S. financial history while it happens. Don’t forget to share a slice of your year-end bonus check with Ben (PayPal link to the right…)
Though Inside Job was great, the story isn’t over. I’m already looking forward to Inside Job: The Sequel –
* The Fed is revealed to have conducted a stealth bailout, worth a large multiple of the $700bn TARP, of financial institutions of all stripes, including foreign banks
* Major U.S. financial institutions are caught up in the robo-signing mortgage documents processing scandal
* As leader of the Congressional Financial Services Committee, Ron Paul takes the Federal Reserve to task
Got popcorn?
I would also like to express appreciation for PB’s daily contributions to this Blog .Happy Holidays to Ben and everybody else . I really love you people ,however I would never admit it .
“I really love you people ,however I would never admit it .”
Housing Wizard — Ditto.
Bear,
I accidentally killed the Bucket that contained the recent discussion on reading material (for the holidays, was the context). Do you remember what date that was?
Revised reading list (it may take me a couple of years to work my way through it…):
The Investment Answer by Daniel C. Goldie
Subprime Mortgages: America’s Latest Boom and Bust by Edward M. Gramlich
The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One: How Corporate Executives and Politicians Looted the S&L Industry by William K. Black
Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse by Thomas E. Woods
Individualism and Economic Order by F. A. Hayek
The Constitution of Liberty by F. A. Hayek
The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism (The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek) by F. A. Hayek
The Road to Serfdom: Text and Documents–The Definitive Edition (The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek, Volume 2) by F. A. Hayek
The Law by Frederic Bastiat
Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century by Thomas E. Woods
23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang
Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich by Robert Frank
All Real Estate Is Local: What You Need to Know to Profit in Real Estate - in a Buyer’s and a Seller’s Market by David A. Lereah
How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities by John Cassidy
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein
Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy by Joseph E. Stiglitz
It Takes a Pillage: An Epic Tale of Power, Deceit, and Untold Trillions by Nomi Prins
The Great American Stickup: How Reagan Republicans and Clinton Democrats Enriched Wall Street While Mugging Main Street by Robert Scheer
The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America–and Spawned a Global Crisis by Michael W. Hudson
Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America by Matt Taibbi
All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis by Bethany McLean
Gracias! And best of luck to you getting Qualcomm sucked out and dry!
Got popcorn?
Yep,… & woolrich freedom throw & a selection of favorite brews,…(Hmmm speaking of which, I think it’s ’bout time to sterilize my biscuits & milk-gravy…)
Its 5:00 somewhere…
It’s now five. You heard it first here.
Systemic theft is getting some good media coverage these days. To all those journalists who are carrying out this research, please keep up the great work. We sincerely appreciate it!
The Wall Street Money Machine
The ‘Subsidy’: How a Handful of Merrill Lynch Bankers Helped Blow Up Their Own Firm
by Jake Bernstein and Jesse Eisinger
ProPublica, Dec. 22, 2010, 3:37 p.m.
Two years before the financial crisis hit, Merrill Lynch confronted a serious problem. No one, not even the bank’s own traders, wanted to buy the supposedly safe portions of the mortgage-backed securities Merrill was creating.
Bank executives came up with a fix that had short-term benefits and long-term consequences. They formed a new group within Merrill, which took on the bank’s money-losing securities. But how to get the group to accept deals that were otherwise unprofitable? They paid them. The division creating the securities passed portions of their bonuses to the new group, according to two former Merrill executives with detailed knowledge of the arrangement.
The executives said this group, which earned millions in bonuses, played a crucial role in keeping the money machine moving long after it should have ground to a halt.
“It was uneconomic for the traders” — that is, buyers at Merrill — “to take these things,” says one former Merrill executive with knowledge of how it worked.
Within Merrill Lynch, some traders called it a “million for a billion” — meaning a million dollars in bonus money for every billion taken on in Merrill mortgage securities. Others referred to it as “the subsidy.” One former executive called it bribery. The group was being compensated for how much it took, not whether it made money.
…
Who was the financial genius that deserves credit for setting up a compensation structure in the American banking sector where executives who blow up their firms get paid millions of dollars in severance pay as a going-away present? Did the terrorists somehow infiltrate the boards of all the major U.S. banks?
Congressman Paul Says Fed Transparency Is His Goal
December 19, 2010
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Congressman Ron Paul, the new head of the subcommittee that oversees the Federal Reserve, said on Sunday he will seek greater transparency but will not be sending subpoenas to the central bank chairman from Day One.
Paul, a longtime critic of the Fed, will be the new chairman of the domestic monetary policy subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee when the new Congress is seated in January.
“Now that doesn’t mean that the first week in January I send over a subpoena for (Fed Chairman Ben) Bernanke and demand that he come over with a pile of papers, I don’t think that would be logical,” Paul said in an interview on C-SPAN.
He will be sending requests for information to others at the Federal Reserve such as the accountants, “and say this is what I want, and to see what happens,” Paul said.
“And then they can still hide behind the law if I want to demand every transaction with foreign banks,” he said, adding that it would benefit Americans to know who was getting bailed out.
…
Here’s hoping that he runs the fed over with a steamroller enough times that they’re flat enough to be translucent. That’s the kind of transparency we need.
Fed Has Aided Stocks, Not Rates or Jobs: CNBC Survey
Published: Wednesday, 22 Dec 2010 | 8:02 AM ET
Steve Liesman
Senior Economics Reporter
The Federal Reserve’s policy to purchase $600 billion of bonds in a program widely known as QE2 has been mostly ineffective at lowering interest rates and will do little to improve the unemployment rate, according to the exclusive CNBC Fed Survey in December.
The survey of 76 economists, bond and stock traders, and analysts, found 63 percent saying the Fed’s program has been ineffective at lowering interest rates.
A similar percentage believes the program will not help lower the unemployment rate.
“I see QE2 as mainly pushing on a string,” wrote Scott Wren, senior equity strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors.
But respondents to the survey say the Fed program has played an important part in raising stock and commodity prices.
…
Originally published December 14, 2010 at 10:10 PM | Page modified December 14, 2010 at 10:25 PM
Bernanke’s policy options may be limited amid Republican scrutiny
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke may find his options for reducing unemployment near a 26-year high are constrained after Republicans take control of the House of Representatives next month.
By Caroline Salas
Bloomberg News
NEW YORK — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke may find his options for reducing unemployment near a 26-year high are constrained after Republicans take control of the House of Representatives next month.
Rep. Ron Paul, of Texas, who has written a book about abolishing the Fed, will head the committee that oversees it. Rep. Darrell Issa of California, who will chair the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has said he wants the central bank to be more accountable to the public.
Republicans are gaining clout over the Fed months before policy makers start weighing whether to expand $600 billion of asset purchases to boost the economy — a program that has aroused the harshest political backlash in three decades.
“They’re clearly not immune from politics,” said former Atlanta Fed research director Robert Eisenbeis, chief monetary economist at Cumberland Advisors. Political pressure will “absolutely” make it more difficult for the Fed to ease further.
“When you’re hemmed in and you’ve found yourself in a hole, stop digging,” he said.
…
Is anybody going to subpoena Jack Welch for starting the offshoring trend which lost us something like 15 million jobs to Chindia in the past 15 years? Or subpoena the lobbyists who loosened the immigration laws which lost another 6 million jobs to Mexico/Central America? I think it’s no accident that the # of unemployed and # of offshored jobs is not so far off. Or, that those lost jobs are the ones you don’t need to hock yourself into student debt to land.
As a former GE disciple and henchman, have no doubt in your mind that it was Just Call Me Jack who started this back in the late 70’s. The games they played and that I was part of would make Tony Soprano look like a chump.
Those aren’t the sorts of people who get supoenas. Really. If you were to get a hearing about offshoring or immigration policy you will have academics who study the issue and perhaps the people from the government agency that puts out the relevant statistics. The closest you would get to a lobbyist would be someone from a partisan think tank, and that isn’t very close.
Though many may disagree with the offshoring trend, was there anything illegal about it? (My sense is that there was not…)
I don’t mind the off shoring but I have a feeling that us americans are subsidizing all this off shoring. Also, off shoring could not occur without the american PTB sanctioning such off shoring. One could only hope that one day they hang from a rope of their own making.
There are little details about offshoring that have to be done properly. For example, if the offshoring involves moving technological know how to an offshore subsidiary, the sub has to pay a fair market price for the tech, but those are little details. There are armies of lawyers making sure that this sort of thing was done legally.
The only investigation that makes sense is whether particular laws or regulations were instrumental in the decision to offshore. Companies don’t disclose that information and they don’t have to. Hence the hearings being limited to testimony by people who study the practice, not the people who do it.
A lot of people didn’t think too much about off shoring as long as it was “blue collar” jobs like apparel, textiles etc…
But once you get into white collar territory the tune changes.
Nobody through much of it as long as there was an asset bubble to make money on. Even the white collars didn’t notice the offshoring until it happened to them directly.
I was actually googling and it’s possible to buy American made clothing online. The prices aren’t too much different from others. The big company (American Apparel) doesn’t have a store near me, but their prices seem high.
I once, long ago, worked as a contractor at a GE nuclear facility.
The site is now a shopping center.
“When you’re hemmed in and you’ve found yourself in a hole, stop digging,” he said.
Alternative plan:
Nathan Bedford Forrest: “Split in two and charge both ways!”
Reporter: Sir, did you say if you found your army between the Germans and the Russians you would attack in both directions?
General Patton: No I never said any such thing. But I wish I had.
By the way, Nathan Bedford Forrest is part of the great trio of American traitors, along with Benedict Arnold and Aaron Burr. The political action organization founded by Forrest is still sadly in operation to this day - selling mouse pads by accounts discussed yesterday.
The damage they have done is far eclipsed by what our elected officials have allowed to happen at the behest of their corporate makers. All meetings with lobbyists ought to be filmed and broadcast at the lobbyists expense, all donations documented and published with votes on any legislation, and any illicit funding should be treason and punished by execution.
If congress thought selling out the public might send them swinging from the gallows, they might think twice before they did it. Might.
In the ongoing soap opera that is Idaho’s Tamarack….
Tamarack was conceived as a from-the-ground-up ski resort. Bad timing on the part of the backers, as it was fully under construction just as the bottom fell out of the real estate market. Owner Jean-Pierre Buttplug (sp.) is in bankruptcy court, the resort owing $350 million and receiving purchase bids down around $40 million.
“Senior lenders are currently reviewing the proposal,” said Credit Suisse spokesman Duncan King in an e-mail.
Boespflug announced Wednesday that Green Valley was his preferred buyer, saying the new company made the strongest offer among three proposals he considered. He plans to finalize details, then submit the bid as a so-called “stalking horse” motion to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Terry Myers by Jan. 16.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/12/23/1465217/founder-wantstamarack-sold-by.html
“Boespflug announced Wednesday that Green Valley was his preferred buyer, saying the new company made the strongest offer among three proposals he considered.”
Strongest offer?…meaning it includes his bil / x3 cousins / great uncle on his mothers side / and a couple other relatives whose relationships are rather murky.
Owner Jean-Pierre Buttplug (sp.)
Heh.
I can’t wait for the Paul/Bernanke Show.
Dr. Paul,” Mr. Bernanke, you responded in recorded testimony before Congress, in answer to a question by Rep.Alan Grayson, that you had no idea where 750 billion dollars of stimulous money went.”
Ben Bernanke: “That is correct, Chairman Paul.”
Dr. Paul: ” Well Mr. Bernanke, we now know from recent statements that you have made to the press that you actually did know because, as we now know, you authorized loaning that money to European Central banks ostensibly to save their banking system.”
Ben Bernanke: ” Yes, Chairman Paul, that is correct. The Federal Reserve Board determined that it was absolutely essential to keep the international banking system from collapsing and causing chaos.”
Dr. Paul: “Well, Mr. Bernanke, that’s quite an entertaining little story but you just admitted to perjury and contempt of congress….SGT. AT ARMS!…ARREST THIS MAN!”
Dr. Paul: “Well, Mr. Bernanke, that’s quite an entertaining little story but you just admitted to perjury and contempt of congress….SGT. AT ARMS!…ARREST THIS MAN!”
And that is EXACTLY what should have happened, but of course the law does not apply to BB or anyone at the un-federal reserve. The best thing about R.Paul being in his new position, is that he will continue to shine a bright light on the lies and corruption within said group of private banksters.
They should be tried and hung in public, IMO.
“They should be tried and hung in public, IMO.”
So let me see if I’m understanding you correctly. In essence what you’re saying is, “give them a fair trial, then hang ‘em.”?
So let me see if I’m understanding you correctly. In essence what you’re saying is, “give them a fair trial, then hang ‘em.”?
Kinda represents an old, nearly forgotten, “local habit” don’t-cha-think?.
Here, here!!
And howz about that 132 BILLION in Kennedy bonds-in-a-suitcase the Italians intercepted while Timmy was on the way to the WES in Beijing?
Just asking, Sir….
-Tinfoilhat
I hope RP wears a kevlar suit from here on out. This guy is a political hero and true patriot imo. Exactly what the ptb can’t have.
Have we gained any of the money back, if so, did we make a profit?
Rush to foreclose by Fannie, Freddie helped feed problems with legal paperwork. ~ Washington Post
During the housing boom, millions of homeowners got easy access to mortgages. Now, some mortgage lenders and government officials have taken action after discovering that many mortgage documents were mishandled.
Today, problems with documents handled by firms on Fannie’s list - and a similar one created by its smaller rival Freddie Mac - are at the heart of federal and state probes over faulty foreclosure practices that now threaten to further undermine the housing market.
Fannie and Freddie, the largest mortgage companies, shaped the practices being challenged in courtrooms around the country. They picked law firms that could foreclose fast and paid them based on how many foreclosures they could process. Speed was essential because delays cost the companies money - and, after they were taken over by the government two years ago, meant losses for taxpayers, too.
The economy is badly bent and the wealthy George Soros wants to fix it. “New economic thinking is needed” says he.
> It’s not NEW economic thinking that’s needed. What we need is the the old fashioned kind upon which the USA was founded and prospered for much of the 19th century. It was based on honest money. The Keynesian fad that began in the 1930s put us on the road to debt-based currency, and look where it has taken us.
> Mr. Soros, you have provided $50 million to set up the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) in New York City. What prompted you to do this?
Soros: It was the crash of 2008, which brought home the fact that there is something broken in economic theory. Two ideas - the rational expectations theory and the efficient market hypothesis - have a monopoly of thought. Neither prepared us for the crash, yet other ideas don’t have enough support. I talked to friends about how to address this and the idea of an institute emerged. Now it’s running away with itself. I have never been involved in any initiative with this kind of self-generating interest before. See ~ “Fixing Economics”
~ Mr. Soros, economists from the Austrian school were warning of the crash all along and you know it.
There is nothing broken in economic theory. What’s broken is that idea that one can sustain an all-capitalistic economy. Moving an economy toward pure capitalism (ie removal of regulations and protections) leads to greed, monopoly, globalization, unemployment, class war, and destroyed environments. By the way, pure communism isn’t much better.
Instead of swinging the pendulum back and forth, maybe Soros will develop a plan for balance between capitalism and communism, and then work on lawmakes to lead in that direction.
Maybe Soros will develop a plan for restoring a rule of law in the international banking system.
Right now, the big money in finance is made by pushing the bounds of the law to the breaking point and beyond, in schemes designed to undermine financial stability. These rainmaking activities have the effect of inducing the Fed to dump helicopter drops of cash on Wall Street’s too-big-to-fail firms. Apparently it’s all legal — otherwise, we would be seeing perp walks today instead of headlines about how profitable the years 2009-2010 were for Wall Street investment banks.
These rainmaking activities…
Hey, how does the Federal Reserve Corpooration Inc. “seed” those dry skies to make rain clouds? Must be a heckva a machine…
“By the way, pure communism isn’t much better.”
Agreed…except for those 200 million killed by national socialists, Mao, Pol Pot, Hoochie Mihn, Lenin, Stalin and Fidel.
Hugo has a nice little example of budding communism going on right now. So far, it’s pretty entertaining to view from afar.
I’m going to buy some popcorn for the Hugo show from some greedy, monopolistic, earth-destroying capitalist right now!
Too bad there’s only one brand to choose from….
“By the way, pure communism isn’t much better.”
Communist Manifesto:
‘All animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others.’
Just for the record, I believe we could do far better as a Nation by reviewing what our Founding Fathers set out to do and trying to get back on track, than by trying to reenact the Bolshevik Revolution. This strategy would require a broad awareness of what transpired in the U.S. banking system from 1913 onwards. With a Fed Centenary just around the corner, now seems like a great time to review how they have done.
Perhaps a Ron Paul-led audit could focus on a 100-year retrospective on how well the Fed has controlled inflation, for starters. How will the purchasing power of the 2013 dollar measure up to that of the 1913 dollar?
Some preliminary hints might be found here:
Year Gold Price
—– ———–
1850 $18.93
1860 $18.93
1870 $18.93
1880 $18.94
1890 $18.94
1900 $18.96
1910 $18.92
1913 $18.92
1920 $20.68
1930 $20.65
1940 $33.85
1950 $34.72
1960 $35.27
1970 $36.02
1980 $615.00
1990 $383.51
2000 $279.11
12-23-2010 $1381
Folks, I think we may have another of those “invisible” bubbles blowing up in plain sight of anyone whose eyes are open (to make it appear before your very eyes, copy and paste the price series into MS Excel, then plot as an X-Y graph).
Just for the record, I believe we could do far better as a Nation by reviewing what our Founding Fathers set out to do and trying to get back on track, than by trying to reenact the Bolshevik Revolution.
Nicely said.
I’m sure that Soros ‘will help’ the dollar. He has sold the dollar short and as Obama and Bernanke continue to debase the dollar he is making more money.
Soros and Roubini both have some great interviews in the Inside Job movie. They both come out looking like geniuses compared to the economists who live inside the Wall Street money machine.
Slow US growth highlights fragility. ~ FT
Richard Berner, the chief US economist at Morgan Stanley, said that without new government initiatives to reduce interest payments and principal balances, the housing market would remain locked in a “vicious circle” in which supply could outstrip demand for years to come.
Sales of existing homes grew by 5.6 per cent in November to a seasonally adjusted 4.68m properties, but that is 28 per cent below year-ago levels.
without new government initiatives to reduce interest payments and principal balances
What a freakin’ Ruble Goldberg machine. We’re at the point where government programs are going to start interfering with each other. Solve the root cause please: fundamentally broke FBs and insolvent banks. Just declare a Grand Jubilee BK for all parties and move on.
[insert pitch for making mortgage debt partially dischargable in BK court, or perhaps a program for non-recourse foreclosure and mild credit hit in return for BK.]
How does reducing principal or interest payments on EXISTING loans change the supply/demand situation? The same number of houses are out there, and keeping prices highe is unlikely to bring new people into the market. Because you KNOW these guys aren’t advocating letting pices fall far enough to stimulate demand. Enough foreclosures would do that nicely, IMHO. Although I certainly am in favor of going back to the old bankruptcy rules. It’s no surprise to me that the tightening up under Bush merely encouraged the CC companies to lend more money to the imprudent. Should have been titled the “Gift to debt pushers act of 2005.”
Reducing payments reduces foreclosures, which reduces shadow inventory (bad), or money losses from fire sales (worse).
Of course, that’s if you BELIEVE what comes out of the mouth of a guy at Morgan Stanley, which likely owns MBS paper and — surprise surprise — wants “initiatives,” that is, GOVERNMENT CHEESE, to help MS with the balance sheet. What great capitalists they are.
I can only speak to Phoenix and I have no hard numbers to back this up (so what’s the point of sharing it, right???), but the few modifications happening appear to be dwarfed by the number of foreclosures occurring. Other than the tax credit, the government intervention hasn’t done much to affect the outcome of the market here. It may have slowed down the fall a bit in the beggining, but as most expected, the market doing it’s thing now.
Maricopa county has a great website where you can access all recorded documents for free and you can look up and read all documentation related to each modification. I’ve yet to find one that involves principal reduction.
The market appears to be working here. Foreclosures are happening en masse and prices generally keep dropping until a buyer is found. Banks appear to have gotten more aggressive with pricing in the last 18 months or so.
“…..no hard numbers……”
Not a problem. The problem is that too many people are using manipulated/fudged/flat-out-BS numbers (whether they recognize it or not).
I’ve been served well over the past ten years by believing what I’m seeing with my two little beady Mk I eyeballs, vs. the crap spewed by the government/MSM/paid-for shills.
Data can almost always be spun to result in whatever outcome you’d like. For me, unbiased observation coupled a genuine desire to understand is much more likely to result in the right conclusion than studying someone else’s data/conclusions.
On the other hand, as my father is fond of saying, “if it sounds like I know what I’m talking about, you’re not listening closely enough”.
CIA creates WIKILEAKS task force, dubs it WTF…
We’re on the same page here, wmbz.
It’s my contention that Wikileaks is Obama’s Fox News. Let me rephrase that…It’s my “hope” that Wikileaks is Obama’s Fox News.
December 23, 2010 “Peninsula News” — DOHA: WikiLeaks will release top secret American files concerning Israel in the next six months, its founder Julian Assange disclosed yesterday.
See what I mean? Who else could do this with any credibility?
Stay tuned.
I get the W (What) and the T (the), but what does the F stand for?
Farfegnugen.
But of course!
Holiday shoppers sprint to end; retail revenue up.
NEW YORK (AP) — Holiday shoppers are racing to the end of the season at a more feverish pace this year, with retail revenue up 5.5 percent during the last weekend before Christmas.
The figure, released by ShopperTrak on Wednesday, is a drastic improvement from the same weekend last year, when revenue dropped 6.2 percent because a big East Coast snowstorm closed malls and kept shoppers at home.
This year’s improvement is especially encouraging for retailers, for whom a big weekend all but sealed a shopping season of healthy revenue gains.
Not sure if this story is really a holiday shopping one, but here it is. My furniture was delivered yesterday. It is gorgeous and will only get more beautiful as it gets older; my bedroom set is from the same company and the natural wood color has grown richer and warmer as it has aged. It is going to be quite an adjustment to have a comfortable sofa again.
I was talking to the delivery guys and one told me that business was so slow a few months ago that some people got laid off. Then things picked up a bit and they were brought back. Sounds like the pick up matched up pretty well with the sale that I took advantage of. He said that things are back down to the slow level that brought on the lay offs in the fall. He sounded worried.
I’d also like to point out that these guys are good at what they do despite it not being a classic “highly skilled” job. They brought the stuff to my apartment without filling my place with the plastic wrap you often find around new furniture. There wasn’t a nick on any of the pieces even though there are plenty of narrow edges that could nick. I was reminded of their excellent warranty policy. And I was warned against using most commecial cleaning products when he saw me with a can of Endust (which I had to clean off the top of the TV). He even did a tiny little bit of sales pitching (”looks like you might need a desk next…”). The man is a good employee. Not beautiful. Not svelte. Never going to get hired by a place like Pottery Barn or Restoration Hardware, but I know good service, and I got it. And they both got a few bucks for their trouble.
brand?
http://www.pompy.com/
Shaker.
Tankxs Ms. Polly!
Bless you for spending some of your cash on America sourced labor, material & products!
Superior craftsmanship demands superior materials:
On the quality of materials we’re unwilling to compromise. We only want the best.
Pompanoosuc Mills works only in six species of North American hardwood. We’ve selected each for its strength and stability as well as its beauty.
Additionally, we make effort to assure that the hardwood is responsibly harvested from sustainable resources.
Gotta second evildocs request. What brand?
If huge ammounts of money start buring a hole in your pocket, you should check out Hardwood Artisains in Federal Plaza on Rockville Pike. BEAUTIFUL stuff if you can afford it, but I’m stuck with an Ikea budget.
I’ve looked at their stuff. Most of it is a little too Mission for me. I like the simple lines, but it isn’t exactly what I want. This stuff is. When you expect to keep furniture for 30 years or more, you have to get it perfect.
Well I’m a big fan of craftsman style stuff, so I’ve been known to drool over it. Especially since my sister works in that little strip-mall.
Uh-oh. I have a weakness for Mission. Mission is basically Craftsman, but took out the Asian overtones.
Greene and Greene’s Gamble house looks like it was built in Japan. It looks good, a little too good.
BEAUTIFUL stuff if you can afford it, but I’m stuck with an Ikea budget ??
Well, thats because you don’t have one of those big, fat, federal paychecks that are required to by this beautiful furniture…Why do you think all their locations are in Virginia…
or maybe because they make the stuff in Northern Virginia and don’t want to expand to national distribution so they sell it close to where they make it?
From the website:
When we launched our furniture company in 1976, my partner Larry Spinks and I, Greg Gloor decided to make beautiful, high-quality furniture and to have some fun along the way. I think that we have succeeded in both regards.
We are exceedingly proud of our company and its products. All of our products are produced locally by highly skilled craftspeople in Northern Virginia.
Well my paycheck isn’t big and fat, but it IS federal. Actually my paycheck IS pretty solid, but my insistance on maxing out my 401k and Roth IRA do shrink my disposable income, albiet not as much as buying too much house or buying at peak prices would have.
Are you in Virginia ??
so they sell it close to where they make it ??
I would rephrase and say “they sell it close to where people can afford it”….
Except, perhaps, in Loudoun County, Va., where median household incomes are higher than anywhere else in the country. This affluent suburb of Washington, D.C., where families take home a median $110,643 annually, tops our list of America’s 25 richest counties.
Like Loudoun, a number of the country’s wealthiest households are tightly concentrated in counties around the nation’s capital. Six of the richest counties lie on the outskirts of Washington: Fairfax County, Va., Arlington County, Va., Stafford County, Va., Prince William County, Va., Charles County, Md., and Alexandria City, Va.
Enjoy your beautiful furniture, Polly. A wise purchase, since you can afford it. We just got back from a family vacation to Hawaii. The kids and my husband had a great time. I relaxed as best I could, but I’m so happy to be back in my beautiful house with its comfortable furniture.
Thanks. But a quick note about the actual purchase. I like having the furniture. I know I will continue to like having it. But I did not enjoy the process of purchasing it at all. As a matter of fact, it made me nervous as all get out. The last few days my reaction was so extreme as to remind me of a full set of law school finals. I was jittery, sleeping so lightly that I barely got any rest. Once everything was in place yesterday I could swear I was having an adrenaline hangover - exhausted, a little nauseated, couldn’t eat.
All that, and I have all the money waiting to get transferred to my checking account once the credit card bill arrives. How do people get addicted to spending money, especially money they don’t have? It makes me a nervous wreck even when I do have it.
I find spending large ammounts of money so stressful, that when I break down and decide to do it, I sometimes don’t do it particularly wisely or carefully. I just rush out and buy it before I change my mind. Very much in the same way that in college I would procrastinate and then do a sub-optimum job on schoolwork.
Arizona resets population estimates.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/12/23/20101223arizona-census-results-high-population-count.html
“Arizona estimated the state had 6.7 million residents in 2009. But census data released this week shows only 6.4 million by 2010.”
I read the article and I didn’t see any mention of the exodus of our Mexican brethren, which IMO could be the 300,000 people that this article mentioned.
Yes, we overbuilt, but we have the room for growth once the exodus from SoCal gets underway in earnest. You can buy a McMansion in Phoenix for the same money as a 3 bedroom condo in Orange County.
http://realestate.msn.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/26889-North-90th-Avenue_Peoria_AZ_85383_M26804-39265?gate=msn&source=a2mszh1t042
they should learn to build houses for a desert climate
when I lived in Phoenix the homes looked like what you would find in CA big Stucco two story homes with dozen’s of windows often facing west so they all had dark screens on them.
I would like a single story with a extra wide roof to shade the windows and NOT a western exposure.
they have ‘em but they are custom mostly not that tract junk
From the article;
“Surprise planned on impact fees paying for its $61 million new City Hall”…..
$61 million new City Hall
They probably under spent on the Fire Dept. Headquarters…
This is only a joke. I realize it may not make it through the screening process but if it does, it`s just a joke. I really don`t have a problem with the end of “Don`t ask don`t tell”
Fighting soldiers from the sky
fearless men who jump and cry
men who mean just what they say
the brave men of the Pink Beret
Rainbow flag upon their chest
These gay men are Americas best
one hundred men will test today but
only three are openly gay
trained to live off natures land
trained in combat holding hands
men who fight by night and day
courage take from the Pink Beret
(Choris)
Rainbow flag upon their chest
these gay men are Americas best
one hundred men will test today
but only three only are openly gay
Back at home a young man waits
his Pink Beret has met his fate
he has died for those obsessed
leaving him this last request
Tell them to ask
Tell them to tell
Because this army life is Hell
I wish I`d never seen the day
That I could test
For the Pink Beret
Rainbow flag upon their chest Actually, the “Army Service Ribbon,” is often called the “Rainbow Pride Ribbon,” ribbon because of its appearance, or the “Welcome to the Army,” ribbon because finishing Basic Training is the only requirement for earning it. A friend used to say that he got three ribbons while in the army-Welcome to the Army (Army Service Ribbon), Welcome to Berlin (Army of Occupation Ribbon) and Stayed out of Trouble (Good Conduct).
I turned in my 60-day notice after the regional management declined to negotiate the 18% increment in rent ~ $320 / month. She said demand was high for luxury apartments in Austin, TX.
They are trying to lease my unit for merely $75 more a month for a new resident, which means they’ll try to bring ~900 more a year w the new tenant.
I argued the cost of having me move out, having the unit empty for a week while turning it around, material costs and marketing costs was more than $900.
She agrees, but said that she couldn’t change the rate because it was not consistent with her business strategy: “I want to take the company to the next level.”
My unit is already listed on their site.
Ah… She also said to call if I ever changed my mind while my unit was still available.
They want to charge you $ 320 more a month, but only $ 75 a month for a new tenant?
“I want to take the company to the next level” What level is that? Bankruptcy? Foreclosure?
They want 320 more from me.
They want 320 + 70 from a new tenant.
It’s good to want things.
She’s going to make it up on volume……
When my last apartment got too expensive, I moved here. Now, I didn’t get a lower price, but I got a much, much, much better location and a better building. The only way to send the message is to move out. It is a pain in the neck, but you are making the right decision.
Just because you can afford the higher price, doesn’t mean that you should tolerate getting bad value for your money.
“The only way to send the message is to move out. It is a pain in the neck, but you are making the right decision.”
I wonder if this is part of her “business strategy”, the part about moving being a pain in the neck for you.
Maybe she figures you will suck it up and pay the extra $320 rather than suffering the pain in the neck by moving.
(I’m trying - reaching - to make some sense of this matter.)
Of course it it. In place tennants rarely get as good a deal as new tennants because new tennants have to be incentivized (I hate that word) to move.
Small (especially individual) landlords will often leave rent flat to keep a really good tennant, but their risk tolerance is generally lower than a large commercial landlord. My place in Jersey City actually charged market rate (same as they would have offered new tennants) for lease renewals. It was weird. I would get my renewal in January, and if I called in March right before my lease ran out, sometimes I could get them to reduce the renewal rate by $50. A few times, my new rent was less than the old one. No idea why they did it, but I stayed in that place for almost nine years.
“In place tennants rarely get as good a deal as new tennants because new tennants have to be incentivized (I hate that word) to move.”
Now, this makes no sense to me. A tennant that has proven to be a good tennant is worth more compared to a new tennant whose value to the landlord is an unknown.
From what I understand good tennants are hard to find. If a landlord finds a good tennant then he should do whatever it takes (within reason) to hang onto him, not drive him away.
Is it wrong to think of tennants as customers? Are there so many good customers out there that they can be so readily driven away?
Combo,
Well, that is a good reason for the people who manage the lease renewals to be in a different department than the folks in the rental office, but I think you will find that they are often the same folks. If they are constantly kicking out good tennants with too high rents, then they have to be kept on staff to show the vacant apartments to new tennants. In my Jersey City place, lease renewal rates were set by some computer in a central office. The people at the office talked about it in hushed tones, as if it were some sacred item handing down perfect market rate rents from on high.
Combo, the problem is that management companies are merging and buying up individual properties. Apartments are not homes; they are revenue generating units. Some regional manager in Chicago doesn’t give a flip about a “good tennant” in DC. All he knows is that the old tennant is paying $1600 a month and a new tennant could pay $1900 a month. It’s a no-brainer for the no-brainers.
And yes, there is demand at all levels, especially in regions Where the Jobs Are. For one- and two- bed apartments, the pretty young things are moving in for a new job. For houses, there are families or military on assistance who stay long-term. Nobody is buying.
Polly makes an interesting point here about the difference here between renting from a small landlord and a big management company. One of the things that a management company’s economy of scale give them is an advertising budget. Once you’ve got enough units that you can budget for a regular vacancy rate, and you’re buying advertising all the time, an empty unit isn’t as much of a double-whammy to your balance sheet. OTOH, most experienced small time landlords are real happy to have a tenant who pays consistantly and doesn’t trash the place.
Oxide, it is more incidious than that.
Good in place tennant is paying $x. To get a new tennant, they have to reduce the rent below $x, but what they do is give new tennant first two months free. Since the new rent is higher than $x when the new tennant actually starts paying it (though less if you averaged it out over the year), the holding company can state that the cash flow from the apartment is the higher number. That cash flow is used to present their numbers to the bank so they can refinance their construction loan or whatever other financing they have in place. I actually had this explained to me by the rental agent at the newest building n my area right before I looked at this place. Unless you are looking for a one year deal, you need to stay away from really new buildings. Their incentives are all screwed up by financing issues.
This reminds me of WaMu booking full amort profit when they actually received only the neg-am payment. What a mess. It doesn’t apply to me since my complex was paid for decades ago. Management wanted to sell the property but it didn’t sell. It’s functional but needs renovation badly and nobody wanted to put up the $$. So they changed to hard-butt managers, who are taking out their frustration on the tennants by jacking the rent.
The City guy told me that apartment complexes hit you with the highest rent raises after the first year. They know you don’t want to move after only one year. After that they are more careful because they know the tennant is more willing to jump ship. Or, the tennat would traditionally buy a house after 1-2 years.
The same happens in many businesses. For instance, TV service: the cable/satellite companies will lure new customers with a great rate. After a year or 2, it resets to something much higher. It’s a pain in the arse to change, and they bank on that fact. Last time, I called up (direcTV) and asked them to match the new customer rate, or I was going to switch. They weren’t interested. A couple weeks later, I called up to actually cancel my service and they practically fell over themselves trying to give me the new customer rate… too late morons. In another couple years, I’m sure I’ll have to repeat.
One of my friends went to the office asking for info about 1br units around the same time I’m moving out. I wanted to test what they offer new tenants.
ZERO Incentives for new tenants… They offered him 1791 per month for a similar unit + 75 parking + 300 admin fee + 100 application + 300 deposit
My renewal rate was 1690 + 75 for parking
Friend said when she worked for a apartment complex in Cali it was part of her job duties each week to trade all the info about upcoming specials, sales, numbers with competitors in the market. They all traded information and management used it to price fix. I think the self storage places around me do this.
“Once you’ve got enough units that you can budget for a regular vacancy rate, and you’re buying advertising all the time, an empty unit isn’t as much of a double-whammy to your balance sheet.”
I’m also guessing that this is because the larger companies have the means to run some statistical analysis and have determined that X proportion of people are willing to stay and pay the higher rent, rendering the vacancy of the 1-X people somewhat irrelevant.
1791 for a one-bed, in AUSTIN? DC apartments are cheaper than that. I know of one that’s practically on a metro and includes one parking space for $1500/month.
$75 for parking is ok, but $100 for an application is insane. $300 for an admin fee is highway robbery. You’re either in a failed condo complex, or your faucets are made of solid gold.
Brett,
Does that at least include utilities?
Zero utilities.
Y’all need to come to Austin.
Downtown is booming!!!
I have a friend who is paying 1702 for 680 sq ft at another complex nearby
Another complex across the street is a tad ‘higher end’, and rates start at 2100 per month for a 1br/1ba
Sleepless: I bet you’re right: one vacancy more or less won’t kill ‘em, and that means that they can maximize the return the get by leveraging tenants reluctance to move for the rest of ‘em.
Brett, the rents in Austin sound truly appalling. Very bubbly. I can’t help hoping that all this building frenzy comes crashing down around the landlords’ ears. Sorry you are being put through the rent wringer.
Well, we’ve had massive migration from other states. ~48k moved to Austin in 2010 looking for jobs. They haven’t built more housing… Builders completed existing projects, but haven’t started new ones…. Almost every apartment complex seems to be in the mid to high 90% occupancy…
I have a friend who is paying 1702 for 680 sq ft at another complex nearby
Another complex across the street is a tad ‘higher end’, and rates start at 2100 per month for a 1br/1ba
That’s positively insane - you can rent in San Francisco for that price.
Brett, I have had this happen to me a few times, and as irony would have it, the first LL that appreciated my clean, quiet, pay-on-time family that LOWERED my rent, owned a small house that we grew out of.
Here is my FL rental history:
Studio Apt $600 –> wanted $750 (we moved)
2 Br townhouse $850 –> wanted $1,200 (we moved)
2 Br house $1,000 –> reduced to $800 (we outgrew the joint)
3br house $1,100 –> I am sure they will try to raise us this summer…
If my current LL comes at me with $1,150+ I am going to respond with $1,100 for 2 years. This was my strategy with the LL that reduced my rent. They loved us, so we offered a 2 year lease…
If you are willing to stay put for 2 years, make her that offer. I’m with Polly though, move on if you gotta…
This is the reason why, absent a bubble, homeownership is good. Moving is expensive. The landlord can use that expense to try to blackmail an tenant into overpaying.
Moving also means the loss of local neighbors, kids friends, the local church, the local businesses you are used to — not much of an issue in a drive-everywhere place, but it makes a difference in walk around places.
But just as you have to continue to rent if they overcharge you to own, so you have to move if they overcharge you to rent.
As employees, we are fungible units of labor.
As tennants/owners, we are fungible units of revenue.
This is like that old Trapper John MD TV show, where Gonzo the hot young doctor lived in an RV in the parking lot. The creators used his living arrangement to portray Gonzo as slightly insane. But now, it is fast becoming the only way to live without going insane. If this goes on, it will be the only way to live without going bankrupt too.
Tenant. Sorry.
Hang in there, Brett. I’ll bet you’ll find a better apartment for less.
With all honesty, I doubt it. I do research for a living, and trust me, I’ve looked everywhere around downtown. All apartment companies have raised rents by A LOT. I’ve been in my unit for two years and I still have the spreadsheet I worked on back on the day comparing all units. Everyone has gone up 200 to 300 dollars.
I will look for a condo to lease about 2 weeks before my move out date and will offer to pay 12 months up front if the owner reduces the monthly rent. That’s my stately going forward.
I am not moving because I can’t afford it, but I will disrespects its customers two years afterbeing a good tenant. If I suck it up this year, theyll come back for 100 more next year and so on.
The only way to prove them wrong is to move out.
I will miss my place, floorplan and location, but my pride is worth more than that.
“All apartment companies have raised rents by A LOT.”
Not directed at you Brett but I have to say this deflation is a real bitch.
Start posting and trying to get renters to bond together. Start dropping hints of trying to get all renters to go to the govt to push for rent control. Perhaps if enough renters get together they can sway politicians.
In many areas, it appears that rents ARE going up despite all the excess housing that was built in response to the bubble. I can only think that this is temporary effect, driven by all the vacant housing that it either held empty by flippers, accidental landlords holding out for wishing prices and REO that isn’t being marketed yet.
Oops, I was trying to respond to Oxide’s comment. See below.
Jim,
Or people wanting to live in the places that they think will keep jobs.
SV guy, this isn’t inflation. In the past, wages would rise to meet the price inflation. Now, since wages are the same, and we are being forced to spend a higher % of our flat income on necessities, and landlords see this, and collude to raise prices to what the market will bear.
We had a long discussion on this yesterday. Yesterday it was the price of salmon and Slim-Fast, but the concept is the exactly same.
It’s a depressing time to live in the US, even for savers who did their best to live within their means. It’s like being the frog in the pot who KNOWS he’s being boiled to death, but can do nothing about it.
Then there’s that guy in Indiana who lives in a trailer on his own 30 acres and is being evicted because he doesn’t have sewer or water hookups.
“…..loss of local neighbors…..”
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
Sometime it’s not…….
How long have you been there?
2 whole years….
A lot of the vacant stuff is not available yet, it is sitting useless while the banks sit on their hands(single family units here in foreclosure filled Bend). The potential rental stock is in limbo, waiting for the banks to foreclose, while the “owners” have jumped ship.
Shrewd/unethical FB’s that are renting out some of these, are rampant. Knowing that your LL may be banking the rent and stiffing the bank means the astute tenant must do more LL research before moving in somewhere.
So stable landlords are raising rents cuz they know that a good tenant is willing to pay more for stability, plus the fact that foreclosures are pushing more customers into their customer base. Tenants that do not want to be forced to move due to an imminent foreclosure on their LL. So in this awful economy/ with record #s of vacanct units, rents are moving up. When more rentals become available(back in the hands of investors) rents could easily fall again.
Sounds like Austin has different dynamics, and rents are moving up due to a robust/ relatively booming economy.
Yup… 48k people moved to Austin this year according to the news…
7% unemployment, great vibe, educated crowd, great weather… It’s very attractive to move here
Increase in rent is the main reason I decided to buy now. When I moved here (edge of the bay area) in 2004 my rent was $825 month. Since then it’s gone up to $1150/month! For a few hundred more a month, I can make payments on a 4 bedroom house. Yes, I do expect it could go down in price quite a bit, but I’m really in it for the long term and I am kind of tired of being cramped in a 1 bedroom apartment without a garage.
I can’t really understand the increase in rent or the management’s strategy. I looked up this property and it was recently purchased for $30M, about $10M more than the previous owners (in this economy?). They went around installed a bunch of washer/dryers in all the units (while people were still living in them) and said that it justified raising rent another $50/month. Now, when I look around all I see are empty apartments. They must think things will pick up in spring or something but I doubt it.
Nobel Laureate Diamond Fails to Win Senate Approval for Fed Seat
Nobel laureate economist Peter Diamond failed to gain U.S. Senate approval for a Federal Reserve Board seat, signifying that earning his profession’s highest honor wasn’t enough to overcome congressional politics.
The Senate adjourned yesterday without voting on Diamond’s nomination, which was first offered in April. The Obama administration now must consider whether to try again in the 2011 congressional session with a smaller Democratic majority in the Senate.
Diamond, 70, said in a Nov. 30 interview that he would accept re-nomination by the White House.
Republicans questioned Diamond’s monetary-policy expertise and compliance with a geographic provision of central bank law. The inaction deprives Chairman Ben S. Bernanke of intellectual support in Fed debates over his efforts to reduce unemployment through an expansion of record monetary stimulus.
“It helps if the chairman has a point person who can advance the arguments and participants feel it’s OK to criticize that person,” said Vincent Reinhart, a former Fed monetary- affairs director who’s now a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. “So you get a lot of the issues aired without the chairman having to expose himself.”
“It helps if the chairman has a point person who can advance the arguments and participants feel it’s OK to criticize that person,” said Vincent Reinhart, a former Fed monetary- affairs director who’s now a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. “So you get a lot of the issues aired without the chairman having to expose himself.”
Translation - Ben needs a sock puppet…
“So you get a lot of the issues aired without the chairman having to expose himself.”
Won’t it better promote Fed transparency, a key policy goal, to have the chairman expose himself?
Speaking of the Fed, thanks Al.
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/12/22/2537901/fed-could-have-saved-many-smaller.html
I’m not sure I want to see Ben Exposed.
Report: Palm Beach County has most food stamp applicants in state
By Ana M. Valdes, The Palm Beach Post
8:30 p.m. EST, December 22, 2010
One in eight Palm Beach County residents now receives government food aid — 151,448 people — a number that has more than doubled in less than two years and which represents the biggest jump of any county in the state.
State officials say a weakened economy and demographic changes in the county may have contributed to the dramatic increase.
“We’ve seen many people who have never applied for anything before find themselves in these circumstances,” said Suzanne Vitale, operations manager at the Florida Department of Children and Families in Palm Beach County.
Joblessness and foreclosures are forcing extended families to move in together and seek government aid, and a county known for tourism and exclusive homes now has more working-class residents in need, Vitale said.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/fl-food-stamps-dcf-20101222,0,5396952.story
hmmmm…. PBC is the welfare capital of FL. And Kiryas Joel is the welfare capital of downstate NY. Draw your own conclusions.
“PBC is the welfare capital of FL.”
Which is interesting, considering Palm Beach proper is second home to some of the wealthiest people in the US, also Boca Raton, Manalapan, etc. Income disparity. Perhaps a microcosm of the future of the US, if we don’t get busy and remedy the situation. (Of course, Boca Raton is also home to some of the sleaziest financial scams and phone rooms ever)
If Riviera Beach ever decided to invade Palm Beach…
“Perhaps a microcosm of the future of the US..”
After having just returned from Africa I hope not, but it does seem we are headed that way.
West Palm Beach is a world apart from the “Palm Beach” we typically conjure. More like the difference between Compton and Beverly Hills. I discovered this during a visit about 12 years ago.
San Diego will be food stamp city soon as people there can not and will not approve “new Taxes”. Pensions, city expenses continue to go higher with no new answers! Bankruptcy for 2011. End of the road as true reality sets in and no more kick the can games are left.
Thinking of putting a bid of $200k on this house. The sales records clearly show the music being stopped in the game of musical chairs. Sal was left without a seat.
Listed
4420 River Pines Ct Tequesta, FL 33469
$274,900 Price Reduced
3 Bed 3 Bath 3,438 Sq Ft
Days on site 225 days
County records
4420 RIVER PINES CT
Owner Information
Name: BANK OF AMERICA NA ASSN TR
Mailing Address: 2424 N FEDERAL HWY STE 360
BOCA RATON FL 33431 7780
Sales Date Book/Page Price Sale Type Owner
Apr-2010 23825/0366 $215,100 CERT OF TITLE BANK OF AMERICA NA TR
May-2006 20803/0191 $550,000 WARRANTY DEED VENTIMIGLIA SALVATORE &
Dec-2004 17994/1404 $451,350 WARRANTY DEED
FOUNTAIN DAVID &
Nov-1993 $175,000
Jul-1983 $172,500
Feb-1981 $154,200
Year Built 1981
Jeff,
Go ahead and give it a shot. Then tell us what they said. I would be surprised if they took it but they might come back with a counter.
Lip
Jeff, this is a perfect example of what we’re discussing below. The bank won’t even get back to you on this. Why would they?
See Martin’s post
|
|
V
$200K should be great, especially a cash offer. Do you love it? Does it make financial sense?
Let us know what happens. I love hearing about bargains!
Love,
REhobbyist
I don’t see a lot of B of A closings (presume the back room processing is overwhelmed), but the banks appear to be dealing in AZ. I have low expectations and I’ve been seeing lots of sales prices of formerly bank owned properties that are surprising me here. Not uncommon to have a property listed at around what comps are listed at and ultimately close more than 20% below that. Especially on higher end stuff.
Good luck!
re food stamp
demograpic changes??
I love the codewords.
Anyone watch “Downsized”, a reality TV show set in Arizona? Brady Bunch-like family, contractor husband/teacher wife, hit hard times and are on food stamps, after declaring bankruptcy. Worth a watch.
When would the banks start selling the houses they are holding?
I don’t see many listings in our area for the past 5-6 months. I’m sure a lot of foreclosures are there but not in the market.
Martin
“When would the banks start selling the houses they are holding?”
Never. Why would they do that now or anytime soon? At this point I suspect it is policy — there must have been a meeting at some point in which TBTF banks (BofA comes to mind) were instructed to “slow things down” and were handed a check (bailout) in order to facilitate that.
It’s frustrating, isn’t it?
the banks will probably wind up selling the houses to other countries to pay off their derivative losses so their people can come here and live
Waiting for the spring selling season? It’s bad PR to kick an FB out onto the sidewalk in winter. Besides, they want the FB to stay in the house to keep the heat on to prevent the pipes from freezing. And they are probably waiting for the new Republican House of Reps to hand out more corporate welfare.
Maybe they realize the buyers are slim to none?
I have noticed the amount of spam jobs.. be your own boss. make $100K the first year, the sky is the limit…has dropped to a few a week from 30-40 last year when i post my resume on CL
One of the major spam distributors got caught and shut down a month or more ago. My quota of drug ads went way down right about that time. Total spam is down to less than 5 a day on average. Most seem to be buy a degree places.
Polly, it’s getting to a point that ALL colleges are “buy a degree” places. On of the offspring is a decade out of college and is now in grad school. OS works for a prof and relates some interesting conversations and events said OS has seen since going there.
So I posed the question, “40 years ago colleges knew their mission was to provide higher education. Is it fair to say that now the college mission is to relieve the student of as much money as possible, and education is an incidental by-product?” After a pause, OS replied “I’d have to agree with that.”
Seems like the banksters are determined to hold on to those vacant homes until physical depreciation is a serious issue. I suppose if you are too-big-to-fail, holding on to physical assets to the point where physical decay begins to seriously erode the market value becomes someone else’s financial loss.
Wall Street motto: Destruction is US
As long as they are allowed to carry the assets at phoney values on their books, why should they care if the value goes to zero?
I guess if top management stood to lose anything, they might care.
See Inside Job to find out what happens these days to top managers of collapsing banks (hint: they don’t move on to tent cities).
As long as they are allowed to carry the assets at phoney values on their books ??
Its called extend and pray…..
Regarding the wine bubble (I hear combo’s footsteps):
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20101223/BUSINESS/101223007/Constellation-sells-Australian–U.K.-business
Constellation sells Australian, U.K. business –
The deal, valued at $290 million, is with CHAMP Private Equity of Sydney and divests Constellation Brands of Constellation Wines Australia and Europe (CWAE). Under the arrangement, Constellation will retain 20 percent of the business and receive approximately $230 million in cash, which the company expects to use to reduce debt.
This is another aspect of the state of the wine business.
Over the last 20 years, Foster’s Group (the Australian beer corporation) bought up wineries all over the world. They own many of the most famous names in California, including Beringer, Chateau St. Jean, and Stag’s Leap Winery.
A few months back, Foster’s re-organized all their wineries into a subsidiary “Treasury Wine Estates” for the express objective of making it easier to sell off ALL the wineries in one step.
http://www.treasurywineestates.com/
My take is that selling over-priced bottles of mediocre wine will be a severe casualty of the new frugality.
Should become interesting in the Finger Lakes.
“Should become interesting in the Finger Lakes.”
Yup, probably like this:
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2010-10-26/business/fl-abandoned-groves-20101026_1_asian-citrus-psyllid-citrus-greening-disease-yellow-dragon-disease
my ceo just went all-in on a winery in norcal..
LOL, I love how this sounds.
Dude, we just spent $8k on Koi!
Bro, we HELOC’d the house and bought a Hummer!
Dawg, my ceo just went all-in on a winery in norcal!
This version of the story also says Brown-Forman may be selling off Fetzer.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-23/constellation-brands-to-sell-australia-u-k-wine-units-for-290-8-million.html
IIUC, Foster’s, Constellation, Brown-Forman, and Gallo basically own the US winery market.
I certainly see some exceptions with houses sitting a year or longer before being listed after a foreclosure, but most appear to be happening in a reasonable about of time. Looks like it’s generally taking 8-10 months from the time when the owner stops paying to the trustee sale in AZ. There are some significantly longer examples, but owners can drag things out in a number of ways if they want to.
My hunch is that a lot of times banks are just overwhelmed with the number of delinquencies and foreclosures that they’re dealing with. Every state has different laws and procedures so it’s not a simple task. I’d bet that foreclosures and the eventual listing for sale of the property will speed up as banks get more accustomed to the volume.
Want to Join a Corporate Board? 7 Tips
Everyone knows that getting appointed to a corporate board can be a huge boost to your career. What’s less well-known is the role that flattery plays in getting nominated to a board seat. Now two business-school professors, Ithai Stern, of the Kellogg School of Management, and James Westphal, of the University of Michigan, have completed a research study about ingratiation and social interaction among high-level managers that uncovers the kind of subtle flattery most likely to land you on a corporate board.
Stern and Westphal surveyed 134 CEOs and 765 board members, asking them to divulge their most effective tactic for boosting a boss’ ego without arousing suspicion.
1. Complimenting while asking for advice. Position the other person as your superior on some important matter, then ask their opinion. (i.e. “How were you able to launch that project so quickly?”)
2. Argue, then give in. Agreeing with your manager right off the bat, all the time, is far too obvious. So put up a little bit of a fight, then cave in. (i.e. “I didn’t see what you meant at first, but now it’s clear. I’m glad you explained it to me.”)
3. Compliment the manager to his or her friends. If you and your manager have overlapping social networks, you can talk about how great the manager is in hopes the praise will eventually get back to him or her-with your name attached, of course.
4. Admit that flattery can be uncomfortable. Preface your obsequious remarks with a phrase such as “I don’t want to embarrass you, but…”
5. Emphasize similarities with your manager. Don’t just agree, point out that you agree. (i.e., “I feel the same way. We should relocate the Miami office.”)
6. Point out agreements your boss didn’t know existed. Research your boss’s opinions by talking to third parties, then drop your own similar opinions into conversations with the boss.
7. Find common social affiliations and talk them up. If your boss serves on the board of a cancer charity, make sure he or she knows how important cancer research is to you. (It is, right?)
Worried that these tactics are too obvious, too transparent? You can use them in moderation and still dramatically boost your chances of winning a board appointment.
How about “gee is that all they are paying you? That doesn’t seem fair compared with those of equal ability.”
+ 1
But, it doesn’t make for all that great an article. Too obvious.
Good god, this sounds EXACTLY like how Obama talks to Republicans.
Back when I chaired an FDA panel I received two invitations to serve on boards of small medical device companies. They were shocked when I declined, but there were plenty of guys willing to do it. I have lots of friends who are whores for drug and device companies (they call it “speakers bureau” or “consultant”.)
Rules governing employee appearance getting tougher due to economy
Last week, a 43-page dress and grooming code at Swiss bank UBS was leaked to the media, and the rules included everything from touching up hair dye jobs to the quality of an employee’s underwear.
While there was outrage over the draconian nature of the guidelines, such appearance mandates are becoming more prevalent in the workplace.
Restrictions on the way workers dress and groom themselves have long been a contentious issue in the nation’s workplaces, but in most cases such guidelines have been found to be legal. And the rules governing employee appearance are only getting tougher thanks to the weaker economy.
“Dress codes are tightening up,” said Dick Lerner, author of “Dress Like The Big Fish.”
“The takeaway from this recession is the reality most firms are doing more with less. For survival, there has been a lot of belt-tightening and companies look at every aspect of their business, and that includes who will keep their job and who won’t,” he said.
As a result, Lerner added, “Sloppy dress in the workplace is gone. Businesses can’t afford sloppy dress, sloppy work, sloppy attitude.”
Indeed, some firms are ratcheting up the fashion police.
UBS got a lot of negative publicity when its 43-page dress-and-grooming edict got out. The over-the-top rules included restrictions on the length of male employees’ nails; when female employees are supposed to put on perfume and how much; and they even mandated the color of worker underwear and said the undergarments should be “of superior quality textiles”.
“Underwear will be changed twice a day. Underwear will be worn on the outside so we can check.”
I just looked for a video clip of that scene from “Bananas.” No luck.
Does that mean the days of MSNUW (Mini Skirt NO underwear)
are gone? <:((
This is the corporate version of “fake it ’till you make it.” If you don’t actually have a balance sheet that is acceptable, you can try to LOOK like the kind of old-money bank that never went in for sub-prime/derivitaves/CDOs/whatever-other-highly-leveraged-disaster-those-crazy-kids-are-into-these-days. exposure.
Agreed. Don’t hit the number, and we’ll come up with some lame control mechanism to make it look like we’re proactively doing something.
Being in the sales group for my company, another common tactic they ask sales to do is start reporting what they’re doing, who they’re visiting, etc. Nothing productive that actually garners business, mind you, just more busy work.
Rules governing employee appearance getting tougher due to economy ??
Not if you are employee for my municipality…Some look downright homeless….
I work with one guy who, if his pants were any lower, he’d need two hairstyles.
YIKES.
My workplace has casual Friday. And they don’t do Dockers-and-polo casual. No, it’s ripped jeans and sweatpants Friday, especially on the admins. It’s embarassing.
Sounds like 80s day!
The last place I worked had a dress code in San Diego
No jeans, collared shirts to show respect for the company
lame. now I have all these nice pants and collared shirts I will never wear.
At least I bought most of them on Ebay so it didn’t cost too much
I haven’t worn a tie in 15 years.
It’s about time. Living in flip-flop land, it’s pretty horrible how informal folks assume they can be, at like, funerals and weddings. I’d actually love nurses to wear those starched white uniforms ala 50s movies, instead of hideous CareBear elastic-waist band sweats. Nurse Betty rules! …A little formality, please.
Hey, everything is OK again…wrapping rooms are back!!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703727804576017742508032956.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_lifestyle
THE TALLY STICKS (1100-1854) King Henry the First produced sticks of polished wood, with notches cut along one edge to signify the denominations. The stick was then split full length so each piece still had a record of the notches.
The King kept one half for proof against counterfeiting, and then spent the other half into the market place where it would continue to circulate as money.
Because only Tally Sticks were accepted by Henry for payment of taxes, there was a built in demand for them, which gave people confidence to accept these as money.
He could have used anything really, so long as the people agreed it had value, and his willingness to accept these sticks as legal tender made it easy for the people to agree. Money is only as valuable as peoples faith in it, and without that faith even today’s money is just paper.
The tally stick system worked really well for 726 years. It was the most successful form of currency in recent history and the British Empire was actually built under the Tally Stick system, but how is it that most of us are not aware of its existence?
Perhaps the fact that in 1694 the Bank of England at its formation attacked the Tally Stick System gives us a clue as to why most of us have never heard of them. They realised it was money outside the power of the money changers, (the very thing King Henry had intended).
Of course tally sticks were simply the accepted accounting method of the day, used by both the high and low as a method of reccording are receipting payments. Especially important in a world where the smallest denomination of coin in regular circulation was the equivalent of half a days pay.
It took the Chinese to invent paper money.
Some things never change.
Economic Report
Dec. 23, 2010, 8:58 a.m. EST
November durable-goods orders fall
By Ruth Mantell, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Orders for U.S.-made durable goods fell in November, pulled down by transportation-equipment orders, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.
New orders for durable goods fell 1.3% in November. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a decline of 0.5%.
…
Never been a better time to sell!
Economic Report
Dec. 23, 2010, 10:11 a.m. EST
New-home sales up 5.5% in November
By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Sales of new single-family homes climbed 5.5% in November, a government report said Thursday, as the housing market continues to show stability at weak levels.
…
I know it’s still too soon to be celebrating, but Barack Obama seems to be turning less Marxist and more Milton Friedman (I would prefer he’d turn into a Von Mises type of president though).
I said a few times here that if we get a Republican majority in Congress, Obama’s ratings will go up.
Here are points that make Obama score high:
1. Extension of the Bush tax cuts another two years. Obama repudiated his Marxist “Spread the wealth around” plans.
2. Repeal of the “Don’t ask, don’t tell thing.” - I work with gays and lesbians. They don’t bite. They are normal people who cannot help their persuasion and they should be allowed to serve their country.
3. The arms reduction treaties. A world with fewer nuclear bombs is a safer world - we don’t want terrorists to get control of nuclear weapons of mass destruction.
Anyhow I think if Obama continues his drift toward libertarianism, as Bill Clinton is seemingly coaching, Obama will get re-elected in 2012 and he will be at least as popular as Bill Clinton, maybe Ronald Reagan.
I have extreme disgust for the Republicans at this point. They would do nothing until they got those tax cuts for the rich.
For those who don’t believe they wanted tax cuts for THE RICH: The House passed a bill which would have done the same extension of the Bush tax cuts, but only for people under $250K a year. The Senate filibustered. Only after the rich received their tribute was Obama able to sign those vaunted bills.
So now, the middle class has been reduced to BUYING civil rights, BUYING nuclear security, and BUYING health care for 9/11 hereos. Yeah, I feel great.
I am not rich and I certainly took advantage of the dividend tax cuts, capital gains tax cuts (from 20% to 15% long term), the increased opportunities in the IRA and 401k plans. Part of the tax cuts included the “catch up” for the 50 and older. I take complete advantage of them.
To throw this out is an attack on the American dream that only a drooling socialist loves.
“THE Rich”
“THE Blacks”
“THE Commies”
All those labels, to villify those not quite like us.
Sad.
Thank you.
Repeal of the “Don’t ask, don’t tell thing.”…They don’t bite. They are normal people ??
You here that sucking sound ?? Thats the final gasps of air the neocons are taking…
here = hear
“2. Repeal of the “Don’t ask, don’t tell thing.” - I work with gays and lesbians. They don’t bite. They are normal people who cannot help their persuasion and they should be allowed to serve their country.”
I really don’t care as to a persons sexual preference but I do tire of hearing the constant banging of the rainbow drum.
My daughter’s boyfriend just got out of the Air Force. Asked him about it.
He said working with them is one thing, but showering/bunking with them is something else.
The Law of Unintended Consequences will come into play, I’m sure.
I can easily see where this will affect military recruiting. Face it, the whole gay lifestyle thing creeps a lot of people out. People will tolerate it to an extent, but will young, hetro people sign up to live with it on a 24/7/365 basis?
One of my brother’s is gay. It’s okay; it is what it is, and he and his Significant Others aren’t flaming about it, and keep it to themselves for the most part. And I can see how some of the laws need to be changed; because it doesn’t say “marriage” they have problems with property, child custody, etc.
BUT…….sometimes, he starts talking about his sex live. Or making comments about how “hot” some 18-21 year old kid is. (he’s over 50). This really creeps me out, and I don’t plan on apologizing for it.
So I guess that makes me a “homophobe”)
“This really creeps me out, and I don’t plan on apologizing for it.”
That doesn’t make you a homophobe, as long as a 50-yr old guy making comments about how “how” some 18-21 year old young lady creeps you out as well.
how –> hot
Yeah, it probably does make you a homophobe.
Israel- best per capita army out there(?)- seems to get by fine with the showering and bunking thing.
Too, all those folks who now CAN ask and tell?
They were there last week and last year.
Bunking and Showering seemed not to be affected.
Trust me, a lot of straight guys can creep you out, too. Most women folk have had first dates where they couldn’t wait for the fresh hell to end.
Whatever became of Henry Paulson’s proposal for a toxic asset SIV?
December 20, 2010
Fed Finally Forks Up Documents Showing It Funded Wall Street’s Off-Balance Sheet Vehicle
The Tax-Payers’ Tab: a Cool $9 Trillion and Then Some
By PAM MARTENS
On December 1, the Fed was forced to release details of 21,000 funding transactions it made during the financial crisis, naming names and dollar amounts. Disclosure was due to a provision sparked by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The voluminous data dump from the notoriously secret Fed shows just how deeply the Federal Reserve stepped into the shoes of Wall Street and, as the crisis grew and the normal channels of lending froze, the Fed effectively replaced Wall Street and money centers banks in terms of financing.
The Fed has thus far reported, without even disclosing specifics of its lending from its discount window, which it continues to draw a dark curtain around, that it supplied, in total, more than $9 trillion to Wall Street firms, commercial banks, foreign banks, corporations and some highly questionable off balance sheet entities. (Much smaller amounts were outstanding at any one time.)
…
The Fed’s Stealth Bailout — Why “Quantitative Easing” Won’t Bring a Recovery
Dec 21, 2010
By Pete Ikeler, Professional Staff Congress of the City University of New York
To working people it is painfully clear that we’re still in the midst of a serious economic crisis. High unemployment, foreclosures and the downward pressure on wages and benefits for those who still have a job are just some of the indicators. But America’s corporate and political elite aren’t quite sure. Like hyenas, they have tasted blood and they want more. For Wall Street investors and the large banks, the past year has shown a return to mega-profits driven by speculation and the huge bailout in taxpayer money they received in 2009.
According to a recent article by Bernie Sanders, independent Senator from Vermont:
BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL
Politics from the Nation’s Capital
The bailout didn’t save anything — except some bank creditors
By: Timothy P. Carney 12/20/10 12:13 PM
Senior Political Columnist
It’s increasingly en vogue to assert — as if it’s some enlightened corrective to populist anger — that the bailouts of 2008 were smashing successes that saved the economy. There’s little evidence of this, and there’s plenty of reason to doubt it. Today, from the Business Insider and investor John Hussman, we get a good analysis of how TARP didn’t help.
He argues that our economy can take the collapse of banks, but that Fed requirements on reserves lead to disorderly liquidations, which cause the stuff to hit the fan. Hussman argues that the key to avoiding a meltdown was changing accounting rules. Anyway, here’s the most interesting part:
The takeaway: maybe “saving the economy” — however it happened — was about blowing up another bubble.
I think there is some revisionist history by those who assert that everything would have been fine if the government hadn’t acted in 2008.
Once interbank transfers froze, the bankruptcy of one bank would have led to the bankruptcy of others, and as they liquidated businesses would have lost their payroll and gone bankrupt as well. EVERY creditor, bondholder and stockholder would have lost much or most of its wealth, and large parts of the economy would have shut down.
It is fair to wonder, however, if IN THE LONG RUN (say beginning two or three years from now) the U.S. would have been better off it that had been allowed to happen.
With perhaps a super-express emergency Chapter 11 procedure and the Fed as universal lender of “debtor in possession” financing substituted for the measures that were take, after all the paper wealth was wiped out, to re-start business.
The distribution of wealth would have been more even, that’s for sure. And on the public sector side, with all those state and local pension funds having virtually no assets, it is certain that measures would have been taken (including constitutional changes) to restore equity in retirement as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_revisionism_(negationism)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_revisionism
‘those who assert that everything would have been fine if the government hadn’t acted in 2008′
And then there are those who say: ‘the bankruptcy of one bank would have led to the bankruptcy of others, and as they liquidated businesses would have lost their payroll and gone bankrupt as well. EVERY creditor, bondholder and stockholder would have lost much or most of its wealth, and large parts of the economy would have shut down.’
This is paraphrasing the South Park joke: ‘We woulda lost ar’ jooobs!”
Of course, questioning these Fed/govt actions isn’t revising history, because we don’t know what would have happened. (We also don’t know what DID happen, because the Fed isn’t audited or even given proper oversight. It’s interesting, though, that they used fear to get what they wanted.)
What we do know is the power of the central banking system was maintained, at least for now. The question is, should it have been? I would suggest that these organizations caused this problem to a large degree. So perpetuating their existence is folly. Then there is the issue of pensions failing, stocks going down, etc; I would suggest these possibilites haven’t been eliminated.
What we have is a secretive group of billionaires, even more entrenched than ever, writing “history” themselves, telling us peasants that they “saved us” from the housing bubbles collapse. But in a free society, moments of crisis are what sparks revolutions that put an end to unjust power arrangements.
So I ask, now that the masters of the universe have saved us, can we have our revolution?
“In a free society, moments of crisis are what sparks revolutions that put an end to unjust power arrangements. So I ask, now that the masters of the universe have saved us, can we have our revolution?”
Well, collapses tend to di-vest the vested interests like nothing else does. Those on the left and right are pretty upset they are still vested.
Note the whitewash of the Congressional report on the financial crisis. Republicans insisted that the word “housing bubble” not be included (among other words), so no report will be issued.
‘the left and right are…still vested’
We’ve lost over 90% of our purchasing power since the Fed was created. At some point these people are going to have to look past their 401k and think about the future.
“But in a free society, moments of crisis are what sparks revolutions that put an end to unjust power arrangements.”
What makes you think we have a free society?
It’s interesting, though, that they used fear to get what they wanted.)”
yes and if that didn’t work what would they have done next ? Pull the army back and shoot all the protestors ?
maybe I have been watching too much of the mini series the “tudors” but its really not that different just better technology.
Blame Bernie Sanders for watering down the audit the fed bill in the senate.
What a moron!
“I think there is some revisionist history by those who assert that everything would have been fine if the government hadn’t acted in 2008.”
I think Iceland demonstrates what would happen, albeit on a relatively micro scale, if we let this system reset. For that matter I think a reset will come eventually, and at a much greater pain to those of us who played no part in the play.
Iceland are Ireland are definately the examples.
Iceland for allowing the collapse rather than saving the financial system, and Ireland (and now the UK) for austerity.
The U.S. response was a third option. An interesting experiment, despite the many differences between the countries.
the bankruptcy of one bank would have led to the bankruptcy of others, and as they liquidated businesses would have lost their payroll and gone bankrupt as well. EVERY creditor, bondholder and stockholder would have lost much or most of its wealth, and large parts of the economy would have shut down.
WT, I’m sorry, but this sounds like typical Fed-speak scare tactics. Large parts of the economy shut down? You mean like investment banks, that don’t do anything socially useful? Or are you saying there would have been mass starvation? You need to be a lot more specific here.
And of course, if creditors, etc., would have lost their wealth that quickly in the absence of bailouts, it was phony wealth to begin with.
Also, and I’m sure you know this, while business bankruptcies are bad news for the firm owners, they are GOOD for the economy overall because employees and capital assets can then be put to work under more competent management. And isn’t the breakup of TBTF banks exactly what PBear keeps demanding to happen by virtue of antitrust law?
“And isn’t the breakup of TBTF banks exactly what PBear keeps demanding to happen by virtue of antitrust law?”
I have a broader objective than that, which is that the same law applies to bankers and banks as to the rest of the U.S.A. I realize that is a lot to ask of an industry which generally operates outside the realm of the legal system that applies to the rest of us.
“I think there is some revisionist history by those who assert that everything would have been fine if the government hadn’t acted in 2008.”
It seems like a few more Lehman Bros collapses plus perp walks for the perpetrators could have gone a long way towards drumming moral hazard out of the system.
To rancher and sfbubblebuyer:
I borrowed your discussion of December 21:
Thanks!
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved&¬e_id=464028471593
I borrowed your discussion of December 21 ??
sfbubblebuyer’s most poignant remark;
“The wealthy kids have massive head starts in education and operating capital”………
I have had this conversation recently with both of my son’s, I guess, in my mind, trying to keep them looking at the glass being “half full” and not “half empty” regarding their personal life and career path’s…
I have asked them to look at all of there friends and ask yourself, who is doing “really, really well” (marriage, house, kids, cars etc.)….Who are doing just okay….and whom are just getting by….
In all cases, the ones that are doing “really, really well” in this 30’s group, are from wealthy families that not only provide money but in most cases, provide high paying jobs either in family businesses or with company’s that the family has relationships with….
All of my well to do friends came from rich familes, in particular from those with a family biz. My closest childhood friend was literally dragged into the the family biz against his will (refusal would have meant NO inheritance).
He complied.
Interesting experiment then in sociology and economics.
Do people from well off families do well because there way through life simply is paved with wealth from above.
Or do successful, motivated mothers and fathers, with good work ethic and with good view of saving and of education, breed and nurture kids who perform similarly.
Or, as with most things in life, do shades of gray come into play.
there = their
I belong to the 30’s crowd. From what I know the most successful peoples are not the ones with the rich parents. Sure the rich kids have it good on terms of jobs, homes, cars, relationships and so on but most of them are aloof and very dependent to their connections for their success. Then again it’s a very small minority so I don’t care much for them.
The most successful people I know are the one who I called “The Clintons.” They do not have rich parents. They are somewhat smart and have mastered the “soft skills”. They are pretty much phony and have no problems lying to anyone if it gains them something. They have no track records of delivering anything successfully, and still these are the people who seem to get promoted every year. Even if they were forced to resign from current post or company, they have no problems finding a higher paying or higher position jobs in another company. These are the same people who have conned banks into loaning them millions for their half a**ed ventures.
This is why I am rooting for the collapse of this fraudulent system. May be in the next system we will have a better shot.
Appearance can be deceiving in regards to home, marriage and happiness. I have been fooled so many times I don’t trust the front most people put out there. I am certain though if SHTF (which it will), things could get a lot interesting. There will be no uncle or dad’s college roommate dangling you the coveted position.
Iceland’s Economic Recovery A Lesson For Ireland
21.12.2010
Words by Paul Nikolov
A new article in The Economist argues that Ireland could learn something from Iceland on how to handle financial difficulties.
The Economist points out, for one, that on the Misery Index (unemployment plus inflation), Iceland’s level of “misery” has been steadily declining, and this year went below Ireland’s, which is on its way up.
The reason for this, the Economist argues: letting the banks fail, and not being a part of a larger currency.
…
“The Economist points out, for one, that on the Misery Index (unemployment plus inflation), Iceland’s level of “misery” has been steadily declining, and this year went below Ireland’s, which is on its way up.”
But in America, the only economic measure that matters is the performance of the stock market, the impact on ordinary people be damned.
WOW. This one is worth a full read:
Alabama Town’s Failed Pension Is a Warning
“Prichard did something that pension experts say they have never seen before: it stopped sending monthly pension checks to its 150 retired workers, breaking a state law requiring it to pay its promised retirement benefits in full.”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/40791768
“Then Prichard did something that pension experts say they have never seen before: it stopped sending monthly pension checks to its 150 retired workers, breaking a state law requiring it to pay its promised retirement benefits in full.”
“The city stopped paying its pensions. And no one stepped in to enforce the law.”
What are the legal options here? Alabama filing suit? Pensioners filing suit, etc.?
In a sense, the pensioners could view the state law as a form of guarantee. Do the pensioners have a case against the state if the state doesn’t pursue enforcement of the law?
We’re seeing this played out all over America. Laws don’t mean anything if there is no enforcement.
Like car break-ins at the malls. Everybody in BFE knows that the smash and grabbers are out in force every December. But do we see any diversion of resources from ticket writing, and stepped up security, or God-forbid, a few arrests at the malls?
Nope. Just public service announcements lecturing us not to leave any valuables in the car.
More resources being devoted to a homicide rather than a minor property crime is hardly something new. It’s not surprising nor necessarily indefensible when presented with various alternatives.
But there is a big difference between a simple car break in and not getting one’s pension. I think there’s a much greater desire for enforcement on pension payments given the financial impact on an individual and the more limited options for recovery.
They can file suit all they want. If there’s no money, there’s no money and no lawsuit can change that.
Coming soon to a municipality near you.
Oprah better start building that wall across the 101 to keep the poor zombies out.
Together again: More retirees moving in with children
Since 1980, one-third more Americans are living in multigenerational households CNBC
When the value of stocks and bonds in your portfolio has declined, tapping the bonds of your family can be a valuable asset — especially in retirement.
Joseph Jastrzebski, a 68-year-old manager at Home Depot, wants to retire soon. When he does, he and his wife, Valerie, plan to move in with extended family.
The Sayreville, N.J., couple already live part-time with their daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren. Once they sell the family home the Jastrzebskis will move in permanently.
“It will afford us an opportunity to save money and have something left for our children,” says Valerie, a 63-year-old secretary. “We are doing it because this is a situation that presented itself that is ideal for everyone.”
Valerie’s daughter, Sarah, mother of a five-month-old boy and step-mom to two teenagers, is working as an administrative assistant while studying for a master’s degree in holistic health studies. She agrees combining their households makes sense.
“A lot of times now with retirement we see someone ends up in a nursing home or other facility like that,” Sarah says. “I think staying with your family is the way to go.”
As retirement investments have been eroded during this economic crisis, the number of multi-generational family households has been growing — returning to a trend from half a century ago.
We predicted this too on HBB. The demand for housing is going down the tubes on a daily basis.
Not so much down the tubes, but into all those spare bedrooms. It’s one way to make a McMansion less of an economic abomination than it would otherwise be.
And get some resident child care.
B…b…but my realtor specifically told me that houses could only go up, because rents would be increasing much more due to all those FBs losing their houses or people unable to get a loan to buy a house. Who ever foresaw that the real “shadow inventory” was moving in with family?
Oh, wait. Us HBB posters foresaw it. It was only the NAR and the economists who “never saw it coming.”
The daughter wants a free babysitting service as well - lets not gloss that over!!
It also depends on how large the house is too - I bet those retirees will soon tire of the step-teenagers !!
“master’s degree in holistic health studies”
OMFG
Better than “Holistic Canine Massage Therapist”.
Look, I like a nice message as much as they next guy, but let’s get real here: there’s a big difference between “chakras” and learning how treat a compound fracture.
The article doesn’t say it, but you know she’s taking out loans for that.
Plenty of rich lonely LOHAS women who need some stroking. Personally I’d rather they visit the herbal lady for their Oprah therapy than to further strain the medical infrastructure. Besides, who wouldn’t want to work in a nice little office with bamboo screens and plastic palm trees chamomile-scented candles?
“LOHAS” ?
LOHAS = a consumer demographic coinage “lifestyles of health and sustainability”.
“master’s degree in holistic health”?
Is that like going to college for a massage therapist? Spend thousands and thousands of dollars in undischargable student loans for a meager career.
Cool - matching 401k is back at most companies. And I just found my company is going to give me a matching contribution for the 2010 year. After one or two years of no match, I was sort of upset.
Of course, most people here on HBB hate stock mutual funds and believe still that you can time the stock market.
401k matching is nice, but remember you need to have the job long enough to get vested for the match to be yours.
I am fortunate in that where I work we are 100% vested immediately.
What is this “match” of which you speak, Kimo Sabe?
Your company certainly timed it. It stopped giving you money for your retirement when stock prices were low, and has started doing so again now that they are once again inflated.
My company was not smart enough. They gave me matching contributions from 2000 to 2008 (started at that company in 2000) and I am 100% vested. IIRC, there were some good runups in 2003 to 2007.
“Gentlemen, I have had men watching you for a long time and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter, I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves.”
— Andrew Jackson
Old Hickory was quite the bad-ass. I wish we could bring him back to clean house.
I was kinda wishing for “Vlad the Impaler” myself.
If Obama ever said what Jackson said, Vlad the Impaler would indeed arrive — to impale Obama.
If anyone’s heads should be on the end of pikes, it should be every member of the Bankster/Wall Street/MNC Cartel.
I really don’t understand why Republicans think that Obama is some kind of brilliant strategist, that wants to turn the country into a bunch of brie-eating, French-like, Commie-Socialist parasites, who can be rolled like a wino if you yell “BOO!”.
All the evidence up to now makes him look like his picture should be next tothe definition of “Peter Principle” in the latest issue of Webster’s.
Give a $400 tax cut to poor slob J6P, while giving a $4 million dollar tax break to the Top 2%ers…….yeah that sounds Socialist to me.
Obama would never say what Jackson said. He’s been bought and paid for by the TBTF banks from day one.
This just in……the son of my former co-worker (C-130 crew member who just got back from Afghanistan) just got a 96 hour deployment warning for the Ivory Coast.
Evidently, the banksters must have some assets tied up over there………
So much for “Home for Christmas”.
Are they going to do evac?
The French and Germans told their people to leave yesterday.
Just chatted w/a guy I hadn’t seen in while. Asked what he’d been up to. He’d been feeling a little out of sorts as a few weeks back his friend had a nervous breakdown in front of him. It seems the friend was simply overwhelmed with all the doomer stuff he’d been obsessed w/ reading on the internet.
Watch out for your loved ones folks. Not everyone plays the duckman (letting things roll off their back) well.
Don’t know if these sorts of stories are still interesting, but I was in a local restaurant last night and overheard the young host telling a customer that he’d just moved his family into a foreclosure in Missoula’s Linda Vista area, which was the up and coming neighborhood with mega development over the last 10 years, bare hills now covered with “nice” places. At least they’re landscaped..
Anyway, the former owner had bought for 300k, this guy said he paid 12k down and the mortgage was ~80k. Hubby is skeptical..I dunno.
The host said the payment was 1000 and he could just barely make it working two jobs (the other at a supermarket chain).
80K mortgage at 5% for a 30 year fixed is $430 per month…
Then maybe wifey was pushing this and the guy wasn’t paying all that much attention…just paying for it. I leave that stuff up to her. lol
These sorts of stories ARE interesting. That guy could be me. The place we bought, which has been foreclosed on a three times (!) since 2002, last sold for 360,000 in 2007. We got it at 189,000 at 4.37% for 30 years after 20% down. Our monthly payment of $1040, tax and insurance included, is about 1/4 of our income, but a good deal of that income is in gratuities. We’d make it without the tip money, but it would be interesting. Funny thing about the other comment about ‘the wife’. I NEVER would have considered buying a house a few years ago, when single, even if I had the money.
Another interesting thing about that story is the host actually telling people that he bought a house. With a couple of exceptions, I make a point to not tell customers that I just bought a house. Folks here tip reasonably well. I take home about $45/day, on top of 8.50 an hour. But if I were the customer, I’d give pause before tipping generously so that someone else can buy a house…. Affording the monthly payments is one thing, but saving for five years for a 40,000 down payment—couldn’t have done it without the gratuities.
since my old BA15 crapped out I am no good at caculating pmt, but I thought 100k was about 1000/mo, but I could be think oldtime interest rates(1980s).
Interesting: I’d never considered the possibility of a sinkhole forming beneath a landfill. I guess nobody else has, either.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/water/hillsborough-plans-more-water-testing-while-landfill-sinkhole-is-filled/1141532
Would a toxic mortgage asset Superfund site be the conceptual equivalent of this in the financial world?
Didn’t they just landfill capacity addition for free?
Interesting MLS listing—the first time I’ve seen this text in the description, but probably not the last:
“Fabulous Mt Baker location near Lake Washington. List agent has not viewed the interior of the home, all MLS information regarding the house is from an exterior visual inspection and county tax assessor records. REO, Not a short-sale. Buyer is aware that property is currently occupied with no access. Cash offers only. Seller may not be able to convey possession at the time of closing. Eviction proceedings may have begun.“
Bout right, for a government to help cover a bunch of POS lying bankster bastards that rob their customers. Then said customers call for their heads. Just make that illegal! I would imagine it will be tried here next.
Dutch Consider Outlawing Calling for a Bank Run
(AP)Thursday, 23 Dec 2010
The Dutch government says it studying a law that would make it a crime to call publicly for a run on a bank.
The move stems from the abrupt October 2009 collapse of DSB Bank NV. The regional Dutch bank was facing claims it overcharged mortgage clients, when a well-respected industry commentator called for all retail clients to pull their deposits.
Investors, skittish after the 2008 financial crisis, followed his advice and the seemingly healthy bank collapsed days later.
In a statement Thursday the government said the law is needed to protect the financial system because with modern communications a run could happen to any bank in “hours not days.”
The government did not say how such a law could address legitimate public questioning of a bank’s solvency.
Bloomberg is sueing the ECB to force foreclosure of documents showing the ECB knew how Greece concealed the full extent of its indebtedness using interest rate swaps (sold to them by Goldman Sachs, naturally) back in March, when they were pushing more responsible EU member nations to pay for the Greek bailout ($144 billion so far, with no end in sight).
From Tyler Durden: “And so the spirit of Mark Pittman lives on. Bloomberg, which last year sued the Fed in a landmark FOIA case, and won (a decision which is being appealed by the kleptocrats but not the Fed), has decided to go transatlantic, and is now suing that smaller and far less viagraed cousin of the Fed, the ECB. Per Bloomberg: “The lawsuit asks the European Union’s General Court in Luxembourg to overturn a decision by the ECB not to disclose two internal documents drafted for the central bank’s six-member executive board in Frankfurt this year. The notes show how Greece used swaps to hide its borrowings, according to a March 3 cover page attached to the papers obtained by Bloomberg News. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet withheld the documents after the EU and International Monetary Fund led a 110 billion- euro bailout ($144 billion) for Greece. The dossier should be disclosed to stop governments from employing the derivatives in a similar way again and to show how EU authorities acted on information they had on the swaps, according to the suit, filed by Bloomberg Finance LP, the parent of Bloomberg News.” And for all those who were concerned that Mutual Assured Destruction is purely a US response to a rat being cornered, it appears the virus has gone airborne: “The information contained in the two documents would undermine the public confidence as regards the effective conduct of economic policy,” Trichet wrote in an Oct. 21 letter, turning down Bloomberg’s request for the documents. Disclosure “bears, in the current very vulnerable market environment, the substantial and acute risk of adding to volatility and instability.”
“Hello, McFly… We got the impression that PGBs moving 350 bps in two hours after Trichet’s own bucket shop of a central bank decided to buy every single outstanding bond in the open market may be a far more potent reason for market “volatility.” As for undermining confidence, perhaps this murder of charlatans should have considered that before they set off on the world’s most ridiculous pilgrimage to the gods of lies, hubris, deceit, market manipulation and propaganda. Lastly, as this is merely a “protect Goldman” exercise, which as everyone knows is the main party involved in this Greek swap “transaction” - who cares: everyone in the world knows full well the high ethical standards of the West 200-based hedge fund.”
Alabama Town’s Failed Pension Is a Warning
Thursday, 23 Dec 2010 ~ The New York Times
This struggling small city on the outskirts of Mobile was warned for years that if it did nothing, its pension fund would run out of money by 2009. Right on schedule, its fund ran dry.
Then Prichard did something that pension experts say they have never seen before: it stopped sending monthly pension checks to its 150 retired workers, breaking a state law requiring it to pay its promised retirement benefits in full.
Since then, Nettie Banks, 68, a retired Prichard police and fire dispatcher, has filed for bankruptcy. Alfred Arnold, a 66-year-old retired fire captain, has gone back to work as a shopping mall security guard to try to keep his house. Eddie Ragland, 59, a retired police captain, accepted help from colleagues, bake sales and collection jars after he was shot by a robber, leaving him badly wounded and unable to get to his new job as a police officer at the regional airport.
Far worse was the retired fire marshal who died in June. Like many of the others, he was too young to collect Social Security. “When they found him, he had no electricity and no running water in his house,” said David Anders, 58, a retired district fire chief. “He was a proud enough man that he wouldn’t accept help.”
Coming soon to LA, Chicago, NYC, IL, CA, NY, NJ, Philadelphia, etc.
(AP) North Korea, warning of a ’sacred war,’ says it is ‘fully prepared’ to use nuclear weapons against its neighbor, as the South stages a massive live-fire military exercise near the border.
But, but, but..
North Korea - Actually the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is an officially atheist country that bans all religion.
It just has to be a peaceful utopia (plus it has free government health care for all).
I thought the N. Koreans were atheists. Or is it Nookyular power their leaders worship?
I suspect the free trade money gets funneled to N. Korea via China. Looks to me the usa is trying to buy a war.
The U.S. Congress is on the job and most Americans feel, deep down in their hearts, that their duly elected representatives will figure a way out of the present embarrassment. For instance, although Congress has failed to pass a budget bill for the current fiscal year which began October 1st, these political wizards have voted $250 billion to keep the federal government going until March 4th. This is called in political parlance “kicking the can down the road.”
Before March 4th Congress must vote on raising the public debt ceiling again. And all those Tea Party candidates who swore they wouldn’t vote for a higher debt ceiling? Watch them cave in. Perhaps with one or two exceptions.
How can prices appear to be going up yet the numbers indicate that there is no inflation?
“Creative math”, or as my grandma used to say “figures don’t lie but liars can figure”.
Despite Greece’s 2011 austerity budget, a financial chill deepens in Europe
Greece passed a budget early Thursday with deep spending cuts, but investors will probably remain leery of lending to Greece and some of its indebted European peers.
Protesters gather during a rally in Athens, Wednesday, Dec. 22. Greek unions are stepping up protests against the government’s tough austerity program, leaving Athens without public transport ahead of a crucial budget vote.
By Jason Walsh, Correspondent / December 23, 2010
Dublin, Ireland
As an unseasonable freeze settles over much of Europe, even the Continent’s balmier southern climates are suffering. But their freeze relates to cash, not the cold.
Greece, the longest suffering of Europe’s so-called PIGS – Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain – approved an austere 2011 budget early Thursday that’s in line with conditions imposed on it in exchange for a European Union and International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout.
The budget aims to reduce the annual Greek deficit to 7.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) from the current level of 9.4 percent. Greek officials say they’re taking control of matters, and that markets will soon start to recognize it.
Perhaps. But despite bailouts for Greece and Ireland and efforts to trim public debt in Spain and Portugal to stave off a financial implosion, EU moves to stabilize the weaker EU economies are doing little to satisfy investors.
…
Here is some data for you to play with; suppose we create a dollar-value index denominated in gold, as follows:
1) Start with the 1850 price of gold (p1850 = $18.93); index the dollar at this gold price to 100.
2) For each subsequent year, the index is updated to the current dollar gold price (pY) as follows:
Index_Y = 100*p1850/pY.
[Gold Price Data Sources
http://www.nma.org/pdf/gold/his_gold_prices.pdf
http://www.kitco.com/scripts/hist_charts/monthly_graphs.plx
The result is a measure of the dollar in terms of the proportional amount of gold one dollar could purchase. Try graphing these numbers to get an idea of how the gold-denominated value of the dollar has changed over the years since 1913:
Year Gold-denominated dollar value index (1850=100)
1850 100.0
1851 100.0
1852 100.0
1853 100.0
1854 100.0
1855 100.0
1856 100.0
1857 100.0
1858 100.0
1859 100.0
1860 100.0
1861 100.0
1862 100.0
1863 100.0
1864 100.0
1865 100.0
1866 100.0
1867 100.0
1868 100.0
1869 100.0
1870 100.0
1871 100.0
1872 99.9
1873 99.9
1874 99.9
1875 99.9
1876 99.9
1877 99.9
1878 99.9
1879 99.9
1880 99.9
1881 99.9
1882 99.9
1883 99.9
1884 99.9
1885 99.9
1886 99.9
1887 99.9
1888 99.9
1889 100.0
1890 99.9
1891 99.8
1892 99.8
1893 99.8
1894 99.9
1895 100.0
1896 99.7
1897 99.7
1898 99.7
1899 99.9
1900 99.8
1901 99.7
1902 99.8
1903 99.9
1904 99.8
1905 100.1
1906 100.2
1907 99.9
1908 99.9
1909 99.8
1910 100.1
1911 100.1
1912 100.0
1913 100.1
1914 99.7
1915 99.7
1916 99.7
1917 99.7
1918 99.7
1919 94.9
1920 91.5
1921 92.0
1922 91.6
1923 88.8
1924 91.5
1925 91.7
1926 91.8
1927 91.7
1928 91.6
1929 91.8
1930 91.7
1931 111.0
1932 91.5
1933 71.9
1934 54.6
1935 54.3
1936 54.3
1937 54.4
1938 54.3
1939 55.0
1940 55.9
1941 55.9
1942 55.9
1943 55.9
1944 55.9
1945 54.5
1946 54.5
1947 54.5
1948 54.5
1949 59.7
1950 54.5
1951 54.5
1952 54.7
1953 54.3
1954 54.0
1955 54.0
1956 54.1
1957 54.2
1958 53.9
1959 53.9
1960 53.7
1961 53.7
1962 53.7
1963 53.9
1964 53.9
1965 53.9
1966 53.9
1967 54.2
1968 48.2
1969 45.9
1970 52.6
1971 46.6
1972 32.4
1973 19.4
1974 12.3
1975 11.8
1976 15.2
1977 12.8
1978 9.8
1979 6.2
1980 3.1
1981 4.1
1982 5.0
1983 4.5
1984 5.2
1985 6.0
1986 5.1
1987 4.2
1988 4.3
1989 5.0
1990 4.9
1991 5.2
1992 5.5
1993 5.3
1994 4.9
1995 4.9
1996 4.9
1997 5.7
1998 6.4
1999 6.8
2000 6.8
2001 7.0
2002 6.1
2003 5.2
2004 4.6
2005 4.3
2006 3.1
2007 2.7
2008 2.2
2009 1.7
2010 1.4
Got green toilet paper?
I find this retrospective on the gold purchasing power of the dollar far more interesting than the Fed-favored international hamburger purchasing power parity index; how about you folks?
Bigger question is why are you still anti gold?
1980 3.1
1981 4.1
1982 5.0
1983 4.5
1984 5.2
1985 6.0
1986 5.1
1987 4.2
1988 4.3
1989 5.0
1990 4.9
1991 5.2
1992 5.5
1993 5.3
1994 4.9
1995 4.9
1996 4.9
1997 5.7
1998 6.4
1999 6.8
2000 6.8
2001 7.0
Stated more succinctly, the dollar price of gold declined by (1-3.1/7.0)*100 = 55.7% over the period from 1980-2001.
Try not to catch yourself a falling knife by purchasing gold at bubblicious price levels.
Year End Giving
As the end of the year approaches, please consider making a donation to ProPublica. Your support will help us continue our critically important work of publishing investigative journalism in the public interest.
DJIA = 11,573; four trading days left to climb 427 points, in order to fulfill Eddie’s prediction of DJIA = 12K by year-end. What odds would you give against his prediction coming to pass? (My personal subjective odds: 4:1 against.)
Did Hank Paulson school the Chinese bankers on blowing housing bubbles? Because it seems our brethren on Main Street, Beijing are facing the same housing price affordability issues to which Californians have long been accustomed.
The funniest cut of all is that we have already had the real-life version of some bits of this Chinese humor e-mail play out in SoCal — remember the news story about the brothel that was used to fund the purchase of an overpriced San Diego County McMansion a few years back? “Welcome — to the Ho-tel Cal-ee-fornia…It’s such a lovely place.”
FT
Beijing’s housing price fury goes viral
By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing
Published: December 23 2010 20:10 | Last updated: December 23 2010 20:10
The anger harboured by Beijingers about sky-high housing prices has been captured in a sardonic e-mail spreading in Chinese cyberspace calculating how long it would take peasants, thieves and prostitutes to buy a home.
With consumer inflation in China topping 5.1 per cent in November, public dissatisfaction at price rises has reached the highest level since records began in 1999, according to a recent central bank survey.
But such surveys cannot convey the acerbic political wit that Chinese people, and especially Beijingers, are famous for when they have to “eat bitterness” – in this case to meet the cost of buying a home.
The e-mail, which has gone viral in various versions, provides unscientific but entertaining estimates of how long citizens would need to work to afford a 100-square-metre apartment in central Beijing, which currently sells for about Rmb3m ($450,000).
As long as there were no natural disasters, a peasant farmer working an average plot of land would just have been able to afford an apartment if he or she somehow had worked since the Tang dynasty, which ended in 907AD, until today.
If a Chinese blue-collar worker had been on the average monthly salary of Rmb1,500 since the opium wars in the mid-19th century and had given up weekends, then he or she might just have been able to afford a place of his or her own.
Prostitutes, the e-mail says, would have to entertain 10,000 customers – a marathon feat requiring them to service one customer a night from the age of 18 until the age of 46 without an evening off.
The thief would need to conduct 2,500 robberies to find the funds to buy a home.
Of course, the e-mail notes, such calculations do not count interior decoration, furniture or household electronics.
…
Brace yourself for the 2011 foreclosure tidal wave
Posted by Scott Van Voorhis December 16, 2010 07:06 AM
No, I haven’t lost it - I’ve read the news this morning about the huge drop in foreclosures.
Sorry if I’m not celebrating as I sip my morning coffee.
Sure, for some struggling homeowners, the temporary halt - foreclosure activity is off by a third since September as banks have taken a step back amid the robo-signing mess - is a badly needed reprieve.
But we are looking at some serious trouble for the real estate market as a whole just a few months down the line.
In fact, RealtyTrac is already predicting another fall in foreclosure activity when the December numbers come out, followed by a spike during the first quarter. Just in time for the start of the spring market.
In fact, foreclosures will surge to new highs in 2011, beating even the 1.2 million home seizures expected for 2010 and the 900,000 recorded in 2009, RealtyTrac’s Rick Sharga has been telling reporters.
If the big decline we are now seeing in foreclosure activity is any indication, we should be in for one heck of a spike come February and March.
Foreclosure activity, from initial filings by lenders to seizures of homes, fell off the cliff in November, rocketing down 21 percent from October and 14 percent from a year ago. Here in the Bay State, foreclosure activity is off even more dramatically, plunging 61 percent from October and more than 41 percent from November, 2009.
It was the biggest drop RealtyTrac has recorded since it started tracking distressed homes in 2005, when the foreclosure crisis, as we know it, began to take flight.
Yet the vast majority of this drop is tied in with the robo-signing mess, which saw banks across the country temporarily halt foreclosure proceedings as they sorted out paperwork problems.
The banks, though, appear to be fast on their way to making whatever superficial paperwork changes they need to get back to the business of lowering the boom on homeowners who have defaulted on their payments.
…
The housing bubble lives on, in the form of bubble-headed commentary from MSM commentators. What we need for housing to recover is the end of denial, and a bottoming out of prices. Confidence will merely serve to convince a few more greater fools to catch themselves falling knives, and that only if they can some how qualify for supersized mortgages to enable them to buy homes they cannot afford.
For Housing to Recover, It Comes Down to Confidence
Published: Thursday, 23 Dec 2010 | 3:34 PM ET
By: Diana Olick
CNBC Real Estate Reporter
Despite the fact that sales of newly constructed home bumped up 5.5 percent in November, month to month, one analyst was prompted to call it, “Another Miserable Report.”
Patrick Newport over at IHS Global Insight noted that while the seasonal adjustments pushed the numbers up, in reality November’s actual sales volume was the lowest ever recorded.
Even the National Association of Home Builders couldn’t muster much enthusiasm. “The gain represents a partial bounce-back from a near-record low, downwardly revised number of new-home sales in October,” went their release.
…
Neither I, nor anyone who studies housing, can make any promises in this market. There is simply no historical context with which to judge.
I continue to believe that while we can argue ’til we’re blue about credit, government incentives, fraud and blame, the fate of the housing market lies in confidence. The minute Americans see a real reason for hope, a lift from the bottom—and a potential for profit— housing will come roaring back.
…
What minuscule fraction of a Wall Street bankster bonus is $151K?
Long Island gets $151K in housing aid
Thursday December 23, 2010 2:30 PM By Ellen Yan
Eileen Anderson
Two Long Island agencies will get a total of $151,000 to beef up efforts to help homeowners in distress, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said in announcing $73 million in housing counseling aid today.
The Community Development Corp. of Long Island will receive $113,000 in two grant. The biggest, $70,000, will help homeowners get loan modifications and recover from mortgage scams, while $42,865.98 will be reserved for housing counseling in general.
…
Daytona prices are back down to 2003 nominal levels — off 46% from the 2006 bubble top.
If November 2010 sales are any indication, next year may see a continuation of price declines. Try not to catch yourself a falling knife buying Florida property!
Housing sales tumble in November
By BOB KOSLOW, Business writer
December 23, 2010 12:05 AM
SOURCE: Florida Realtors
DAYTONA BEACH — It wasn’t a big surprise to regional Realtors that existing housing sales in November were down overall from last year in light of a lingering sluggish economic recovery.
Sales in Volusia and Flagler counties were also down from October, bucking a national month-to-month housing sales rate increase.
“As we bounce along the bottom for a while, we will have these kinds of results, some months up and some down,” said Scott Nieminen of Realty Executives and outgoing head of the Flagler County Association of Realtors .
Realtors in the two-county region sold 593 existing single-family houses in November. That’s down 23 percent from 773 sold a year ago, according to Florida Realtors. It’s the second worst sales month of the year, just ahead of the 588 homes sold in January and down 8 percent from the 645 sold last month.
“Go back three months to the better part of the summer, we had a large pool of investors in the market eager to buy newly foreclosed properties at bargain prices,” said John Leitschuh of Adams Cameron Realty & Co. and the new president of the Daytona Beach Area Association of Realtors. “But then many of the major banks curtailed foreclosures and the investors have backed off.”
…
House Prices
The following are the annual median sales price for existing houses sold by Realtors in Volusia and Flagler counties. The median price for November was $115,000, compared to $130,500 in November 2009.
1999 $84,500
2000 $88,300
2001 $96,770
2002 $109,768
2003 $131,300
2004 $157,800
2005 $204,400
2006 $219,900
2007 $197,200
2008 $165,700
2009 $130,500
2010 $119,209
*Through November. The rest are annual medians.
SOURCE: Florida Realtors
Thank you, Chris Thornberg, for once more speaking the plain, obvious truth to power.
By the way, the Anderson School at UCLA, where Thornberg used to work before his directly honest style ran him afoul of the PTB, is mentioned on the list of Megabank-funded B-schools mentioned in the “Inside Job” movie.
P.S. Megabanksters are criminal, fraudulent, lying scum bags.
Home / Business
HOUSING: Sales fall, pulling prices with them
Rising inventory suggests lower prices ahead, yet buyers reappear
By ERIC WOLFF
North County Times - Californian
Posted: Wednesday, December 22, 2010 9:31 pm
North San Diego County house sales fell for a fourth consecutive month in November, pushing down prices, data from a Realtors association said.
North County house sales and median prices jumped this summer, as state and federal tax incentives motivated homebuyers to close deals before subsidies expired. But the early rush left a vacuum later in the year, and sales have slipped dramatically in recent months.
However, North County agents said December, normally a sleepy period in real estate, was unexpectedly busy as potential buyers hit the pavement looking for deals, and at least one Southwest Riverside County real estate agent said her office is hopping.
In November, North County house sales fell to 584, down 6.8 percent from last November and 5.1 percent from October, and down a third from May’s high for the year, according to a report from the North San Diego County Association of Realtors. Slow sales pushed the median house price down to $460,000, off 1.1 percent from October and down 4 percent from a June high, though up 5.4 percent from November 2009.
“To some extent, the heat at the beginning of the year was responsible for the cool of the end of the year,” said Chris Thornberg, an economist with Beacon Economics in Los Angeles. “We steal sales from the future, but we didn’t gain anything. It (the tax credit) just moved things.”
Indeed, during the 11 months of 2010 tallied by the association, sales fell 4 percent compared with the same period in 2009, itself a slow year.
The association data comes from a listings database managed by Sandicor Inc., and relies on Realtors to enter listings and sales.
The drop in sales drove an increase in the housing inventory, defined as the number of months the market would require to sell all houses listed for sale. If a Southern California market has more than six months of inventory, many observers expect prices to drop. In July, inventory rose to 6.7 months, and in November it hit 7.4 months, a fifth straight month above the magic line.
“There is an inventory of units that causes prices to fall,” Thornberg said. “Prices have to go down. That’s what will get people to buy.”
…
Great stuff here! Check out the graph — no way Yun can spin this as good news, unless he lies like a Used Home Seller.
Paper Economy
Existing home sales improve, but still at distress levels
Sales of existing homes in November rose 6.7 percent over the previous month, but still 27.3 percent below the level a year ago.
By SoldAtTheTop, Guest blogger / December 22, 2010
Today, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Existing Home Sales Report for November showing a slight bounce in sales coming in the wake of the now obviously phony baloney government tax credit sponsored surge in home sales activity seen earlier in the year.
Single family home sales increased 6.7% since October but remained a whopping 27.32% below the level seen last year while prices declined 0.12% since October but climbed 1.18% above the level seen in November 2009.
It’s important to recognize that the annual pace of sales is currently well below the lows seen even during the worst months of 2008 and early 2009.
Further, inventory remains high climbing 6.7% above the level seen in November 2009 which, combined with the slow pace of sales, resulted in a large monthly supply of 9.3.
Clearly, all can now see that the government’s housing tax credit was not only a gimmick… it was a complete failure, a massively wasteful and expensive handout to the housing industry and a futile and likely very dangerous exercise in market manipulation.
…
SoldAtTheTop
‘SoldAtTheTop’ is not a pessimist by nature but a true skeptic and realist who prefers solid and sustained evidence of fundamental economic recovery to ‘Goldilocks,’ ‘Green Shoots,’ ‘Mustard Seeds,’ and wholesale speculation.
Prices are getting ever more affordable in Eddie’s ‘hood.
Atlanta Business News 12:33 p.m. Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Atlanta leads November home price decline
By Michelle E. Shaw
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If the metro Atlanta housing market is staging any sort of recovery, November statistics don’t show it.
The median sale price for existing single-family homes fell to $108,300 in November, down 16.2 percent from a year earlier, according to National Association of Realtors data released Tuesday. It was by far the biggest year-over-year price drop in 19 markets listed in the association’s report for the month, with Phoenix logging the next-largest decline, at 8 percent. Atlanta also had the lowest median price in the group. Eight metro areas saw price gains.
Metro Atlanta sales volume fell 18 percent, although that figure was lower than in many metro areas. The local median price was $109,000 in October.
Nationally, prices improved 1.2 percent from November 2009, but sales volume was down nearly 25 percent.
Is this a surprise?
No. November is the sixth month in a row that the median price dropped from the previous year, inching closer to its lowest point since last January, when it was $105,000. The 2010 peak was in May when the median price was nearly $125,000, 3 percent above the same month in 2009.
What’s next?
On Dec. 28, Standard & Poor’s releases its Case-Shiller Index for October. Case-Shiller and the National Association of Realtors track the existing single-family home prices but use different methodologies. The Realtors’ results are based on monthly closings and produce a median price. Case-Shiller follows properties sold over time, rather than individual home sales, and measures value from a baseline in 2000.
Would you rather bear this tax increase directly, or let your landlord shoulder it and try to pass it on to you as a rent increase?
* ECONOMY
* DECEMBER 24, 2010
Pensions Push Taxes Higher
Cities Tap Homeowners for Revenue as Workers’ Retirement, Health Costs Rise
By JEANNETTE NEUMANN
Cities across the nation are raising property taxes, largely citing rising pension and health-care costs for their employees and retirees.
In Pennsylvania, the township of Upper Moreland is bumping up property taxes for residents by 13.6% in 2011. Next door the city of Philadelphia this year increased the tax 9.9%. In New York, Saratoga Springs will collect 4.4% more in property taxes in 2011; Troy will increase taxes by 1.9%.
Property-tax increases aren’t unusual, in part because the taxes are among the main sources of local revenue. But officials say more and larger increases are taking hold. “This year we have seen a dramatic increase in our cities and towns having to increase property taxes” for pensions and other expenses, said Jack Garner, executive director of the Pennsylvania League of Cities and Municipalities.
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