Bits Bucket for January 7, 2011
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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View the HBB Photo Gallery *updated 4/13/2008
“Hurry! It won`t last” Listing of the day.
2015 Graden Dr Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410
$318,000
4 Bed 3.5 Bath 3,300 Sq Ft
Drum Roll…………..
Days on site 861 days
The next shoe to drop:
“The Federal Family Education Loan program (FFEL) allows private financial institutions to provide students with loans, but the government assumes the risk of default, and pays the financial fees while the student attends college. This amounts to privatized gains combined with socialized loans….
Under the FFEL program, financial institutions like Sallie Mae, Bank of America, National Education Loan Network, JPMorgan Chase, Wachovia, and Wells Fargo would originate these FFEL loans with students, and then sell them on the secondary credit market. In 2008, the credit market dried up, and the private lenders had nowhere to sell these government guaranteed loans. So, the government stepped in to buy up these loans and protect a program that was already a massively wasteful corporate boondoggle.
The bailout was authorized with HR 5715 Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act (ECASLA). The bill allowed for the Department of Eduction to produce three different programs, the Loan Purchase Commitment Program, the Loan Participation Purchase Program, and a buyer-of-last-resort Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Conduit.
This purchase program — which amounted to the department of education buying privately-originated student loans that were intended to be securitized but now could not be — was radically expanded in 2009 and 2010, with a purchase amount target of about (you guessed it) $120bn. (”The hidden message of the consumer credit release” )
i watched a little video once discussing the cost of going to college.
one of the features was a dude that was 30K in debt who was working on his photography degree.
some things just boggle the effing mind.
we have a nephew staying with us. he is $40k in student loan debt after one year of studying acting.
his sister doing the same and is in year 2.
no-one in their family recognizes the downside it is just normal to them to have this debt.
Ai yi yi.
We’re saving for DD’s college education. However, if she decides to major in “acting”, we’re taking it all back. The chiquita will be on her own.
It is nice to read comments from people who have some common sense!
See below:
Comment by michael
2011-01-07 07:22:45
i watched a little video once discussing the cost of going to college.
one of the features was a dude that was 30K in debt who was working on his photography degree.
some things just boggle the effing mind.
Reply to this comment
Comment by CharlieTango
2011-01-07 07:34:10
we have a nephew staying with us. he is $40k in student loan debt after one year of studying acting.
his sister doing the same and is in year 2.
no-one in their family recognizes the downside it is just normal to them to have this debt.
(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Kim
2011-01-07 07:46:06
Ai yi yi.
We’re saving for DD’s college education. However, if she decides to major in “acting”, we’re taking it all back. The chiquita will be on her own.
Reply here
Photography degree? Degree?
Hate to break the news to this dude, but you don’t need to get a degree to be a photographer. What do you need to do?
1. Get a camera and shoot a lot of photos. Then, edit mercilessly to separate the good stuff from the rest.
2. Study the work of other photographers. The Internet is a great venue for doing this.
3. Repeat the first two steps for decades.
Slim, you’re out of touch. You need a degree just be a janitor these days.
Well certificate at least. (no joke) But any job that is “unskilled” labor (get your chair sittin’ butt out there and try that “unskilled labor” for a few weeks), requires a degree to get a job.
Apprentice programs and career paths were wiped out in the 1980s and replaced by “degrees.”
Now you know the other major reason for the “education bubble.”
Apprentice programs and career paths were wiped out in the 1980s and replaced by “degrees.”
Here in Tucson, which is in the right-to-work state of Arizona, apprenticeship programs still exist. When I was taking construction classes at Pima Community College, part of my curriculum consisted of the entry-level classes that were required by the local trades apprenticeship programs.
I also meant to add that without at least an associates degree, you will never rise above “worker bee” no matter how skilled or smart you are.
Unless you’re an expert brown-noser, that is, and even then, you aren’t getting into the front office no matter what.
“…isn’t unskilled…”
Damn interruptions.
Yes, Slim apprenticeships still exist. Just not in the significant numbers they used to.
Not anywhere near.
40K for a photography degree? That is insane.
As I’ve said before, a lot of these students at expensive 4 year institutions would have been better off getting an AA from the local community college for under 10K in something like bookkeeping or auto mechanics or nursing.
They’d actually have some useful skills and no debt.
or nursing ??
In “huge” demand…Male nurse, 30 years old, at least 6′.2″ 220 pounds….You could almost call your own shots…Kind of similar to a professional athlete being a free agent…Ditto for a “traveling nurse” particularly in ICU….I have met a few, and they make a “boat load” of money…
Yes I am a male nurse and it is extremely rewarding. But, you better be suited for this profession or you will burn out quickly. I have a laugh when I see suggestions since nursing is such a hot field, the unemployed need to career switch. Start with being a nursing assistant first and if you find it works for you, then nursing may be the place to be.
Yes I am a male nurse and it is extremely rewarding. But, you better be suited for this profession or you will burn out quickly.
Agreed, aznurse. (And where might you be in AZ? I’m in Tucson and am always up for meeting other HBB-ers.)
Nursing isn’t one of those fields where you go to work, put in your time, then go home. That’s because you don’t just *do* nursing, you *are* a nurse.
Focker’s a male nurse.
One of my steps worked as a nursing asst in a jail in Cali. He wasn’t that tall but he was young and strong and very cool.
He made good money whenever he needed to work. It was pretty flexible.. He ended up going to medical school and is an MD now.
Some people are cut out for being a nurse, some aren’t. I can’t “clean butts” which is what a nurse I know used to call the clinical work she was doing at the time. I have a hard time with rank smells and bodily fluid clean-up. Just the smell of vomit makes me gag and potentially vomit myself. For some reason, I am able to clean up after my dog which is rank, too. Maybe I could get used to being a nurse.
Does being a male nurse get you laid? That’s the most important question IMO.
While the local CC is practical in real life, it loses out to the “snob factor” in real life as well. Which is a damn shame.
I believe the pecking order is roughly:
DeVry, Phoenix, et al
CC
State / small private uni
Big name state
Big name regional
Big name polytechnic
Ivy league
Eco, on the ‘high’ end, IMO it’s research rep that determines prestige. Therefore, a ‘big name state’ (such as Berkeley or - dare I say - U VA) beat the ‘big name polys’ every time. Note I am talking strictly about prestige, and not about graduates’ job prospects.
“some things just boggle the effing mind.”
When the food runs out lions frequently eat their young.
no offense…but that makes more sense to me than going into deep debt for a photography degree.
no offense…but that makes more sense to me than going into deep debt for a photography degree.
Take it from someone who’s made a nickel or two as a photographer: You do not need a degree in this field!
Yeah but Slim you did get a degree from UM, even if it’s in another unrelated subject. Sometimes just having the degree is important.
I had a physics degree but worked as a EE for many years. A friend had a degree in (shudder) sociology but ended up a hospital CEO making the big bucks. And all three of us are in the general cohort.
I have a degree in Art and Design and focused in photography, any one need any black and white film processed and printed? I make buggy whips too!
Photography should be a 2 yr AA, not a 4 yr degree for sure, then get ready to carry a pro’s stuff for 5 years.
More practical than most liberal art degrees though as I now do all my own design work and have won awards for it.
any one need any black and white film processed and printed?
I have about a dozen rolls of bulk-loaded T-Max that I just bought some developer for.
This will probably be the last set of negs I ever process…
…sniff.
In 2008, the credit market dried up, and the private lenders had nowhere to sell these government guaranteed loans. So, the government stepped in to buy up these loans.
The HELL?!? If the private lenders couldn’t sell the loans, FINE! Let them hold and service the loans their own damn selves. The government should only step in if the student defaults. And if the banks cry and whine that they have to wait for 9 years of payment checks to come in to make their profit, rather than making all their profit at once (on the sale), then let them choose to make no student loans at all and realize no profit at all. Let the students go to the government directly for the loans.
I’m starting to think that government intervention is far worse than government takeover. Especially when that “intervention” is essentially a subsidy to the middleman.
Public-private partnerships are always vulnerable to abuse. Always. The public part wants to accomplish a policy goal. They probably could do it directly, but they are told they must do it together with the private part. The private part doesn’t care about the policy goal at all but wants to make money. It *can* work, but there is absolutely no reason to assume that it will. And since they are often set up in the context of legislation, if the facts on the ground change, it is almost guaranteed that things will go wrong. It is very hard to get Congress to react quickly to something as annoying as facts or market conditions.
Why did no one want to buy a guaranteed loan? Aren’t those much better than the ones secured by real-estate?
It wouldn’t surprise me if entities did want to buy, but the terms weren’t good enough for the banks. So they write a few talking points about “being competitive in the world,” and hit up the US government for a larger profit.
I feel very badly for students today, who are trying to go to school for twice or three times the costs that I paid just 10-15 years ago at the same school. As someone who works in higher education, I really get to see what I consider waste of student dollars, some of which get spent placating the government through mandatory reporting. If you want access to the government’s dollars, you hire the staff to accommodate. And then there are huge staffs running programs for students that don’t make a dime’s worth of difference in terms of what they learn in the classroom. I say let them go be social on their own, or let them run them themselves, and keep costs low. That benefits everyone.
What allows institutions of higher education the ability to raise tuition and fees? I posit it is the student’s willingness to borrow themselves into oblivion and the government’s willingness to let them *and* fund it. My salary depends on this horrible relationship, but even I can see it.
You might be very interested in a school that decided to sever their ties to the government cheese, and who have managed to keep their costs in check. $20,000 per year, *including* room and board.
http://www.gcc.edu/
http://www.gcc.edu/ ??
Berrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…..Good luck getting some West coast Hermosa Beach college bound to go there….
Manhattan Beach, on the strand, for five years..long, long time ago.
Manhattan Beach, on the strand, for five years..long, long time ago.
Hermosa beach, a dumpy rental a block from the strand, five weeks … long, long time ago.
As I posted above, it’s no longer a matter of choice. You either have a degree of some kind or you stay a bottom of the rung worker bee for life.
BACK TO WORK? High Hopes for December Jobs Report ~~ AFP
In a bright outlook for the last month of 2010, economists are predicting that employers added a net total of 145,000 jobs in December and that the unemployment rate dipped to 9.7 percent in a hiring trend likely to continue into this year.
This might not be the depression Harry Dent predicted for years. Also note the S&P 500 was depressed for the last ten years, so market cycles tend to revert to the normal patterns. Same will happen to employment. Some pundits actually still think the US will have a labor shortage of skilled workers in a few years. Hard to believe that from this time though!
Hi Bill you know i hate to keep asking people this dumb question, but what skills? So maybe i can start now to be ready for the shortage.
That’s the $64,000 question.
I suspect that many of these skills will involve master degrees in hard sciences. I don’t think that there will be many that J6P will be able to pick up during a semester or two of evening classes at the the local Communiy College.
Son starts on his master’s in theoretical math next week.
He’ll be working for a hedge fund in 2 years.
The unemployment rate of new math Ph.d grads is 30%:
http://www.aimath.org/news/postdoc/data.html
“He’ll be working for a hedge fund in 2 years.”
That would be a real tragedy.
Most go to work for NSA.
“The unemployment rate of new math Ph.d grads is 30%:”
Similarly tough times in the early 1990s led my newly-minted math PhD friend to seek employment overseas.
Most go to work for NSA.
I’ve heard, via one of my clients, that the NSA is considered to be quite the choice gig for mathematicians. As security agencies go, it’s much better run than, say, the CIA or the FBI. And their IT equipment is very, very good.
NSA used to prefer to recruit at the undergrad level so they could catch you before you got all involved in the culture of academia which makes people want to publish stuff and present at conferences and talk to folks from other countries, etc.
IT equipment is very, very good
So they use Apple products, huh?
Yeah, well my apple product needs some flash!
You might start by asking what jobs cannot be outsourced. Who is going to be skilled to repair that $30K automobile, your heater, your air conditioner, your plumbing (major), your…you get the idea. It’s either going to be highly technical or skilled craftsmen jobs that will prevail.
As mentioned before, I took construction classes at the local community college. This college’s HVAC program was quite well respected in the local trades community, and the graduates didn’t seem to have much problem finding work.
I know HVAC PM’s earning $200k plus bonus. These guys have 1 year certificates in HVAC. They’re hungry, smart and love what they do.
I saw a little news item yesterday about shoe repair shops. They’re having a hard time finding youngsters who want to learn the trade. Of course in a throwaway society, the demand for their services may be declining.
I saw a little news item yesterday about shoe repair shops. They’re having a hard time finding youngsters who want to learn the trade. Of course in a throwaway society, the demand for their services may be declining.
When I was growing up, Mom took our old, worn shoes to Mr. Briley. He was a black man and he was *the* shoe fixer in the borough of West Chester, PA. Didn’t matter who you were, when you were in his shop, he was Mister Briley.
Guy was a master at his trade and a real pleasure to watch and converse with.
Any-hoo, none of his sons wanted to take over the business. So, it was sold to a Korean immigrant family. I don’t know if the biz still exists — West Chester has gotten rather upscale — but if it does, go there.
“I know HVAC PM’s earning $200k plus bonus. These guys have 1 year certificates in HVAC. They’re hungry, smart and love what they do.”
I know a guy who has an HVAC business. He’s so broke these days that his college age daughter qualifies for Pell grants. It wasn’t too long ago that he was making money hand over fist.
Yep. Now that new construction has fallen off a cliff, there a glut of HAVC techs out there.
So much for that field.
Plumbers as well.
Mechanics, er, EXCUSE me, auto techs, don’t start making money until after about ten years and several employers. And your wrench turning days are pretty much over by age 50.
Any other ideas?
but what skills ??
“Male” nurse if you can hack it…Personally, I could not….
You can say that again Dave. My brother is an RN and I have no idea how the hell he does it. You couldn’t pay me enough to scratch some guys balls when he can’t do it himself because his hands and arms are smashed to smithereenies…… good grief.
He’s got his eyes on the balls.
That’s how he does it.
And that’s why I was never attracted to medical profession. Not even a high profile MD would cut it for me. Can’t deal with sick people day in and day out.
but what skills?
Web development
Database administration
Mobile device apps
Nursing
And what about everyone else with an IQ lower than 120?
Which would be, only most of the population?
Let them eat cake?
How’d that work out?
I believe the IQ is scaled so that, by definition, 100 is the median, so 50% are above and 50% are below that score.
Exactly, aNYCdj. What skills? Can you name them specifcally?
In the 1980s, it was personal computers. How’d that work out? In the 1990s it was Tech (internet, networks) How’d that work out? In the 2000s, it was FIRE. How’d that work out?
And throughout all of those decades I kept hearing it was nursing and truck driving, but most nurses and truck drivers I’ve met bust butt for less than 50K.
Plumbing and HVAC are still strong, but not everyone can crawl under sinks or houses (tried it lately?) or survive in sub-freezing cold basements or 150f attics.
I still think that Corporate America will continue relying on Chindia for its “skilled” labor needs in the future.
Depends on what you mean by “skill.” From what I’ve heard here on HBB, “skilled” labor is largely drone work, even with computer code. India seems to have done the equivalent of “teaching to the test” when training their populace to steal American jobs. Enough to pass spec, but little thinky involved.
Thinky work is much more difficult and takes more background, which is why other countries still come politely to the US, and then take home tech to reverse engineer (just read an article on it this morning.)
One problem/opportunity (depending on how you look at it) with the other countries’ people who come politely to the US: They like it here. I mean, they *really* like it here. That is why so many of them want to stay here.
A lot of the “thinky” work is being offshored (I saw this first hand at HP, a lot of “architect” jobs were being offshored). And even if we can hang on to it, it’s beyond 80% of the population.
“Joint Venture” between China and the Morg (JP and Stanley) I love it. Hope they do China like they did the US, and then I hope China does them like China did their own financial fraudsters. Sit back and enjoy the show.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE7060DG20110107
They like it here. I mean, they *really* like it here ??
And their kids will never return to their parents native land….Their grandkids will be detached even further…
Their grandkids will be detached even further…
If their family’s anything like the ones I’ve known, including my own, the grandkids will be very curious about their roots.
And they’ll want to make a pilgrimage back to the Old Country. Where, in a day or two, they’re going to realize that they are Americans and no longer people of the Old Country. I speak from firsthand experience on this point.
I like the concept of immigrants becoming Americans and staying here actually . This whole idea of just coming to America and
making the money and than going back to to cheaper cost Country with a boat load of money was not the original patterns of the
original immigrants .
I don’t like the Gravy Takers concept . That’s my new word of the
day the”Gravy Takers”. In my book anybody that collect a Social Security income from the USA should have residency requirements
I know I’m going to get flamed from this post ,but you know how much I’m into the concept of keeping the money flows in the Country that provided you the wealth .Course the rich are probably the greatest Gravy Takers there are. Exploitation of
workers World wide is a form of Gravy taking .
“One problem/opportunity (depending on how you look at it) with the other countries’ people who come politely to the US: They like it here. I mean, they *really* like it here. That is why so many of them want to stay here.”
Then they should take what they have learned here, what they like about it, and apply it to their homeland. Make their own country a better place to live. All of these people jumping through hoops to come to America to “make a better life” need to direct that energy to their homeland, where their family and friends reside. We have/had a good thing here because of the efforts of the people. I’m not really too fond of our country as a landing spot for all the people of the world who are disenchanted with their own spot. We do not have the resources for this. It degrades our country in the long run, and we are already seeing the disastrous effects of it.
I’m not really too fond of our country as a landing spot for all the people of the world who are disenchanted with their own spot. We do not have the resources for this. It degrades our country in the long run, and we are already seeing the disastrous effects of it.
The same things were said during the immigration waves of the 19th and early 20th centuries. And, take it from someone who’s descended from the disenchanted with their own spot, the people from other places will continue looking to the USA for a brighter future. We do have that going for ourselves, after all.
It’s not sustainable. We simply don’t have the resources for it. No single country does. Anybody denying that is not seeing the big picture.
“Their grandkids will be detached even further…”
One of my best friends was of Japanese ancestry. His parents took him to Japan one time. When people came up to him and started speaking Japanese, he didn’t know what the hell they were saying. I wouldn’t have that problem, though, because they speak English in Ireland.
+1
+1 for slim.
Do you really want to lose the people who are educated, law abiding and tax paying.
Then again, what makes one American? Born here? Having family here?
“Joint Venture” between China and the Morg (JP and Stanley) I love it. Hope they do China like they did the US, and then I hope China does them like China did their own financial fraudsters. Sit back and enjoy the show.
Oh hell yeah, palmetto!
I still think that Corporate America will continue relying on Chindia for its “skilled” labor needs in the future.
I dunno. I’m just a web/database/backend hacker with an AA degree and I’ve had recruiters call me almost every day this week.
Lavi, do you work with PHP/MySQL? And, if you do, which website content management systems?
do you work with PHP/MySQL? And, if you do, which website content management systems?
I’ve been hand-coding database-backed websites in PHP/Perl, Apache and MySQL for part of 10 years. The other part was spent writing back-end Perl scripts to do Document Management and other fancy-pants bit-shuffling.
I use Drupal on my personal website (not lavidavegas), but I haven’t done a whole lot of customizing on it - I’ve hacked together an image display page as an add-on, but not using Drupal modules.
I use Drupal on my personal website (not lavidavegas), but I haven’t done a whole lot of customizing on it - I’ve hacked together an image display page as an add-on, but not using Drupal modules.
Drupal can be quite the challenge to customize. And woe to those who stray too far away from the 960 Grid for the site design. That can be a real adventure [evil grin].
“I dunno. I’m just a web/database/backend hacker with an AA degree and I’ve had recruiters call me almost every day this week.”
I know plenty of people with your skill set that have had their jobs offshored. Heck, at HP almost all the IT work is done offshore these days. Maybe you’re doing OK due to geographic location.
Exactly, Colorado.
Good for you lavi_d, but don’t get too complacent. I sincerely wish you the best even if we don’t always agree, but I also must warn you to not be complacent.
As Colorado said, there are many with your skills and experience who no longer have a job and can’t get one.
We all know that there has been a lot of outsourcing. I see this as finding an equilibrium in the wealth of laborers in developing countries and first world. Wages and standard of living go up in the developing countries and down in the first world. The leak of jobs from the US has to end eventually. There is some inefficiency involved in having US citizens unemployed and also having US companies having to work around language barriers, different cultures and distance. Then there is the issue of who’s going to by the developing country’s products if the first world gets too poor.
The leak of jobs from the US has to end eventually
Once every job has been outsourced and corporate headquarters relocated to Dubyi or Shanghai. Then it will stop.
Wages and standard of living go up in the developing countries and down in the first world.
Yes, and when the world goes flat and all 6 billion of us reach the same level, our standard of living will be akin to… what, Libya? Central Mexico?
No thank you. Too many Americans died to make this country free for innovation, too many bright young minds risked coming the US to be free to innovate, too many of us have paid too many taxes to keep this country free for innovation and to absorb the failure inherent in risk-taking, for us to give it away. Yes, I said “give it away.” Unlike bubble housing prices, Americans earned it.
That’s true. Wages aren’t the only thing that attracts business. Politics and infrastructure factors into risk and cost. Similarly a business will pay more to lease an office in a prime location. They will pay more to hire workers in countries with other benefits.
WOW oxide, you sound like a ditto-head.
Moderates are like that.
Liberals think we’re to conservative and conservatives think we’re too liberal.
“Unlike bubble housing prices, Americans earned it.”
Previous generations earned it, for the most part. The current generation seems to prefer riding one bubble after another. Anything is fine as long as it isn’t real work.
Great post, oxide.
A massive number of unemployed and underemployed people doesn’t give FICA taxes the boost needed to handle the onslaught of Baby Boomers on the Social Security system. We’re told some 10,000 a day will be signing up for Social Security checks. A day . . . until 2019.
We’re told some 10,000 a day will be signing up for Social Security checks
Ha, in the Fall of 1945, 750,000 / PER MONTH of military service men & women return back to US soil after having been out of the country fighting in foreign lands.
Yeah, 750,000 per month / that’s what 25,000 per day? / Millions came back, went home, took off their uniforms, put on civilian clothes made lemonade and went out and sat on the front porch and waved to the passers-by. Later on some of them got jobs, went to work and did what ever else naturally follows (wink,wink).
Now, …now 66 years later, the “TrueAnger™” complain bitterly about their fellow American countryfolks Sit-U-Ation. Oh, the agony of ‘em, all those babies…
I don’t care they had a lot of babies. What angers me is that they expect me to pay 7x as much as they did, and be happy if I get back 75% of what they got.
“and be happy if I get back 75% of what they got.”
OPTIMIST!
“We’re told some 10,000 a day will be signing up for Social Security checks. A day . . . until 2019.”
That’s 10,000 every day turning 65 for the next 19 years!
Full retirement age is not 65 any more. 66 1/2 or so (goes up a month per year).
More “moving the goal post.”
What an effing surprise.
We’re told some 10,000 a day will be signing up for Social Security checks ?
“The Time For Change Has Come”……….
Plan on It….Prosper from It…..
As usual, the economists got it wrong.
!03,000 not whatever they actually expected. Just 6,000 more than previous month and substantially less than the 150,000 needed to absorb new entrants into the job market.
Expect Dow to go up on expectation that Bernake will QE3.
“…substantially less than the 150,000 needed to absorb new entrants into the job market.”
yet the rate went down…can someone explain this?
if it’s simply becuase “folks who stop looking for a job are no long included’ then that’s just crazy talk.
But that is what the radio reported. Seriously, I’ve been out of work before. December is a horrible time to look for professional positions. The pace of work actually slows down in many places in December. There are parties. People take long lunches to run out and buy gifts. People try to get home early for cooking chores. And there are a lot of folks out on vacation because their kids are out of school. And, oddly enough, while the amount of time people actually work goes down, the work that has to get done may go up if you are dealing with a fiscal year that ends with the calendar year. So adding the burden of hiring people onto the normal end of year rush is just one level too much. Anyone who is familiar with that cycle is going to recognize that if you want a break from sending out resumes, December is the time to do it.
Not that there aren’t things you can do. Research you can do. Revising resumes and getting cover letters ready to send out is all possible in December. But, the people who do those phone interviews don’t count that as “actively looking.” You have to send out the resumes and try to call people who aren’t at their desks. That activity goes down in December.
Mid November - Mid Jan is bad for professional jobs.
Holidays, year end and new budget all impact negatively. You should see job postings if any starting late January.
I was lucky tha the two times I’ve laid off were mid year and I found a new job in about a month each time.
Whoo hoo! Only 15 million more to go!
Bank of America to charge consumers with low balance $9 for monthly maintenance. The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — Bank of America will begin offering greater rewards to its most affluent and active banking customers but reduce services for its most basic users, executives said this week, as the financial industry seeks to make up for lower revenues amid heightened federal regulations.
Under the new program, consumers who carry low account balances would be subject to a $9 monthly maintenance fee. Meanwhile, those with at least $50,000 in deposits and investments would receive priority customer service and higher interest rates on their savings. The new accounts will be tested in Arizona, Georgia and Massachusetts this month and are slated to be rolled out nationwide late this year or early next.
When I first moved to NYC for law school, you had to have $3000 in your combined acccounts (checking and savings) to avoid fairly massive fees in the checking account. So is this really a “new” thing or just going back to what the big banks used to do back in the day?
Of course, back then that $3000 in a savings account earned some interest. Requirements were lower in the local savings bank in rural NH for college, but they probably had a secret deal with the college to get your parents’ address if you ran off with uncovered checks on your account. You had to have a local account because a lot of merchants in town would only take checks from local banks. Nobody had credit cards that I can recall. Not even the roommate whose father was a high level executive at one of the major TV networks.
I wonder whether this is driven by the new rules that make it harder to chisel people with overdraft and other penalty fees. The poor may be a bit less of a profit center, and banks will have to go back to their core business of lending you an umbrella when the sun is out.
It was a normal thing in that neighborhood to chat with people in line at the post office and find that they were there to buy a money order to pay a utility bill. The lines at that post office could be very long. Time was the real cost of not having a checking account. Funny thing was that once I was working at a law firm, I got access to the private banking group at the same bank. The firm sent a messenger over with stuff like deposits. A nice young woman would call me in my office if there were any issues. Almost no time needed at all, but it was a little creepy. I dumped them as soon as I figured out that in New York I didn’t need a local bank and that USAA could handle everything on-line and by phone.
Back in ‘86, I was working in the processing center of a bank. I didn’t bother getting an account there. On payday, I was NOT the only Luddite standing in line at the bank branch downstairs to cash my paycheck.
MegaBank Inc. provides inCENTive for wee lil’ folks to: “move-your-money”
Back in the 1990s, I had a business account with Bank of America. In order to avoid being charged, I had to keep at least $2,500 in my account. Well, back then, such a high minimum balance was a real hardship. A friend told me about a local credit union that didn’t have that requirement, so I closed the BofA account and went over to the credit union.
Yet another reason to switch to a credit union.
switch to a credit union ??
Yep….I am keeping the checking account at “Wells” only for Convenience (2 blocks away)…
Under the new program, consumers who carry low account balances would be subject to a $9 monthly maintenance fee. Meanwhile, those with at least $50,000 in deposits and investments would receive priority customer service and higher interest rates on their savings.
Under the new program, small banks would be allowed to fail while the TBTF megabanks would receive taxpayer funded bailouts, priority service from the FED, and the ability to borrow money at 0% and loan it back to the government or FED at a higher interest rate.
..while at the same time, selling the fed its toxic assets.
Thank god we don’t have socialism in this country.
Oh wait…
wmbz, you are frickin’ prodigious! How the heck do you have the bandwidth to breathe, cover the nut, eat, AND find all of these nuggets in your spare time??!!
Man, I have got to be doing something wrong. If I had your productivity, I would have knocked down a Ph.D. in my spare time during the couple years I have been eddimacated by all y’all.
Thank you for your impressive contributions.
Professor Bear, not trying to diss you by any means! You deserve your own thanks.
I am up early and have had enough caffeine to feel more or less benevolent. Normally I avoid all human and online interaction untill after the first potful.
Thanks greatly to ALL of you for my continuing education. And for being the tribe around whom I feel safe in not being materialistic. (Except for my vision of forty acres and a mule and playing Tiddly Winks at night with a couple old friends with whom I have seen much water go under the bridge).
Nobody holds a candle to PB’s ability to post and usually with links. I am an early to bed early to rise type(up by 5 AM)daily. I hit a few sites in the morning and post what I think is relevant to our current economic situation, trying to keep it toward the housing market. Unfortunately politics is unavoidable.
I have learned a great deal on this board through the years and while many of us don’t agree with each other, it sure does keep the gray cells busy and that is a good thing!
Mr. Ben Jones rendered a wonderful service when he started this blog!
I have learned a great deal on this board ??
Ditto here…..
X3. Thanks to Ben and this site!
wmbz & PB have contributed enormously to making this board what it is: a focal point for invaluable information and insights that penetrate the dumbed-down MSM propaganda fog. Thank you, gents.
Second that.
Professor bear spends enormous amounts of his time trying to help others here.I think he has been around her since 2004.Enjoy all the articles he digs up.
Is he really a professor?
Considering you have to ask, it really doesn’t matter that he is or isn’t.
Most profs are ivory tower eggheads. Our Bear doesn’t fit that mold.
Ditto that wmbz & PB are priceless .
Ditto that wmbz & PB are priceless .
Agreed. These two provide most of the grist for this here mill.
I wholeheartedly agree!
Would you guys get a room?
“Professor Bear, not trying to diss you by any means! You deserve your own thanks.”
No offense taken. I think of this blog as a friendly collaboration rather than a competition, and I appreciate the insights I glean from the articles and perspectives shared here.
“”The bubble caused a lot of over-investment in these markets,” said Celia Chen, a housing market analyst for Moody’s Analytics.. “It’s all collapsing because of the recession and over-valuation.”
So, bring on the contenders.
Chen estimates that Las Vegas home prices won’t return to their pre-recession peak until after 2032; in Phoenix, the rebound will take until 2034; and Salinas, Calif., and Naples, Fla., won’t come back until sometime around 2038.”
Moody’s hmm, funny how they couldn’t figure this out before rating the MBS AAA ….
Predicting when house prices will retrun to peak would require you know what wages are going to do. House prices here in PHX won’t return to peak level until wages have doubled. That could be 5 years or 100 years depending on how much monompoly money the fed prints out of thin air.
She’s not talking about inflation adjusted prices. I’m guessing it’s just to get a point across, one that we figured out here years ago; Adjusted for inflation, we’ll never see these bubble prices again in our lifetime.
When you get your head around that concept, it changes a lot of things about the housing market.
+75
Yup. Just as it took a couple of generations to forget the lessons of the GD; it’s going to take a good long time to forget the lessons of the Great Recession.
When the next baby boom cohort nears retirement Wall Street will blow another bubble or two in order to steal their life’s savings. That’s how it works.
I certainly believed that a couple of years back, Jim. But now I am wondering whether the Fed’s liquidity fire-hose really has reduced the overall pain somewhat.
Now I am wondering whether we might exit the Great Recession without having experienced insufficient pain to learn the lessons that needed to be learned.
If so, we might have a recurrence in much less than the three generations one would otherwise expect…
I think youight be right Prime.
PIC- the NBER’s opinin notwitstanding, I don’t think we’re anywhere near done with this downturn yet. And the political appetite for “more-firehose” is starting to wane.
“it’s going to take a good long time to forget the lessons of the Great Recession….”
They said the same thing about the Savings & Loan disaster.
Didn’t event take half a generation.
Probably because it now has nothing to do with the people and everything to do with the manipulators.
Exactly rms. Eggs-actly.
+75 X 2
“Adjusted for inflation, we’ll never see these bubble prices again in our lifetime.”
And I’ve made that statement here many times and long ago. It cannot be overemphasized. And most people reject it when I state it in person. They seem to miss the adjusted for inflation part. But further to the point, I don’t think we’ll see bubble prices nominally for a decade or more. The easy money hucksters in the shack building business are falling out left and right. We’re left with old time superintendents running a 3 man crew and willing to work for less to keep his guys busy.
Well the return of higher nominal prices depends very heavily on whether all the money that we’ve been pumping into the economy ever does something other than pushing up equity prices and saving banks by bailing them out of their bad decisions. Because if it starts showing in stuff that is measured by the CPI, nominal prices are likely to start going up.
Decades for home prices to recover ~ cnnmoney
Move over, Cleveland. Make room, Detroit. Beat it, Buffalo. There are some competitors for the title of America’s most depressed real estate market.
These are not old Rust Belt post-industrial cities, where the manufacturing economy vanished years ago; these cities were flourishing as recently as 2005. But they got crushed by the housing bubble, and most won’t recover from the damage until at least 2030.
“The bubble caused a lot of over-investment in these markets,” said Celia Chen, a housing market analyst for Moody’s Analytics.. “It’s all collapsing because of the recession and over-valuation.”
So, bring on the contenders.
Chen estimates that Las Vegas home prices won’t return to their pre-recession peak until after 2032; in Phoenix, the rebound will take until 2034; and Salinas, Calif., and Naples, Fla., won’t come back until sometime around 2038.
And these are nominal prices: Inflation-adjusted recovery will take even longer.
“The economies were very closely tied to residential construction,” said Chen. “Now, housing is over-supplied and that part of the economy will not come back for a long time.”
Do I hear 2050….anyone…2050?
If you’re talking real-prices as opposed to nominal-prices then I’m gonna go with “never”.
Florida prices never hit the peak of the “original bubble” back in the 20’s EVER. Even during this bubble.
There’s a logic to my statement. You can only go off the gold standard once. Think about it.
And you can only have the second member of a couple enter the workforce once.
You can go from 17% mortgage rates to 4% mortgage rates more than once, but you have to get back up to 17% rates (or thereabouts) before you can start the second round.
What about the third and fourth members of the household? Yes, some families are doubling up. Not hard to do in a McMansion.
I think it is still pretty unusual for American families to have 3 or 4 adult members of a household. Of course, if you do have another person around, she or he doesn’t even have to work to save the household some bucks in daycare/afterschool programs.
“I think it is still pretty unusual for American families to have 3 or 4 adult members of a household.”
I think it’s more common than you think. In CA, it’s nothing for Hispanic families to have 4 or 6 adults in the same household working. Same goes for Asian families. Lots of extended families of immigrants sharing the costs associated with household formation.
When my aunt sold her house in Bellevue, WA, it was purchased by an Asian family. It was a larger, two-story home, and they basically turned it into two separate houses (upstairs, downstairs) where several generations lived.
The law of supply and demand. Still not repealed. I do wonder what the long term difference will be between the rust belt, where demand has been slowly declining over decades, and the bubble belt, where supply spiked.
slowing demand in the rust belt=supply spike in bubble belt.
6 of one and half dozen of the other right?
Well the same immediate effect on prices, but I suspect that the fact that the bubble-belt has a bunch of higher end houses that are vacant will mean that the effects may be different than in say, Detroit, where the inner city has slowly depopulated. The time-frame is different as well. Unlike the obviousness of “prices are too high,” in the bubble, I really don’t have any kind of strong gut feeling about how the bubble-belt and rust-belt may differ. I’m just interested in the speculations of others here.
I wonder who elected to use the word “recover” to describe the process of returning to peak pricing. It appears to be misused.
Or to paraphrase what Inigo Montoya said: That word doesn’t mean what they think it means.
“The economies were very closely tied to residential construction,” said Chen. “Now, housing is over-supplied and that part of the economy will not come back for a long time.”
Arizona’s economy has been closely tied to residential construction for, oh, half a century. And one of the big problems that our state is having is trying to come up with Plan B. You’d be amazed at how many people are trying to revive the construction boom, and that’s just not happening.
You’d be amazed at how many people are trying to revive the construction boom, and that’s just not happening.
That just warms the gritty cockles of my heart.
I landed in Tucson in ‘83′ and watched “growth” lay waste to some of the most beautiful pieces of desert - Pontatoc Canyon, Honeybee Canyon, the Tortolita Mountains.
It’d be nice to think that the wholesale blading of the desert has been at least reduced to a crawl.
Maybe it’s just me, but developing a desert is lot like building beach houses.
SEC probes California over Calpers: report
(Reuters) - The U.S. securities regulator is examining whether the state of California violated securities laws by failing to disclose the risks attached to its public pension fund, the New York Times reported, citing a person with knowledge of the investigation.
California Public Employees Retirement System, also known as Calpers, suffered steep losses during the financial meltdown. The value of the fund’s assets had plunged to $160 billion from a peak of $260 billion in 2007, though they have since recovered to about $220 billion.
It is unclear whether investigators are focusing on the failure to disclose risks and the amount of money it might need to cover any shortfall or on any possible conflicts of interest in steering investments to related parties, the subject of a separate investigation by the attorney general of California, it said.
Securities and Exchange Commission officials declined to confirm an investigation to the New York Times. A spokeswoman for Calpers said it had not been contacted by the SEC about its accounting or about financial disclosures, the news daily said.
The hear-no-evil, see-no-evil TBTF fraud abetters of the SEC will do another one of their perfuctory investigations, assess slap-on-the-wrist penalties, then go back to watching lesbiantrannymidgetporn.com. They will never risk roiling the markets by actually enforcing the laws or protecting the investing public.
Why not look into the investment consultants that CalPERS hires?
What are you, some kinda dang commie?!
These investigations should focus on
1. What were traders/managers incentives.
2. What did the traders/managers invest their own money in.
3. Who do they work for now and how much of a raise did they get.
Pretty weird that a investigation is just starting now . I have been shocked at how slow the investigations have been and in my book
there should not of been any Bail Outs until it could be determined
what went wrong and who was liable . Trying to change liability by Bail
Outs and delayed justice is simply Obstruction of Justice .
Many people would argue that the USA couldn’t take that level of
exposure and it would of created a total lack of confidence ,but that is the very thing that uproots corruption and changes systems for the better . Now its just smoke and mirrors and new Bubbles while the corrupt underbelly is alive and kicking .
+1
WH: Obama to name Washington veteran Sperling to top economic post.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will name Gene Sperling as director of the National Economic Council on Friday, a move that will place a veteran policy and political player in the White House to work with a divided Congress.
The role gives Sperling broad oversight of the administration’s economic policies as the White House contends with near-double digit unemployment and looming legislative battles on the budget and deficit. His appointment comes amid a broader shake-up of Obama’s senior staff as the White House ramps up the president’s re-election campaign.
Sperling, 52, currently a senior counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, will assume his new role as the White House seeks to accelerate the recovery and find an antidote to the sky-high jobless numbers. That will place him at the center of a debate with economic ramifications for the country and political implications for Obama when he seeks re-election in 2012.
There already is an antidote to sky-high jobless numbers. Crack down on illegal employment and tax the outsourcing. But those are third rails.
Just lie about the number of unemployed and poof! the problem is gone.
Same with inflation.
Retails sales figures.
H1-bs needed.
Level 3 “assets.”
The list is long.
The DOW is looking upward today, I assume some cheerier news is in the pipeline this AM. When do retail outlets cut lose their temps? January, once the shelves are re-stocked?
After the rush of return/buy what you really want is over. Maybe a little longer if they expect a huge wave of gift card redeemers. Then they are gone.
And let’s not forget the mythical pent-up demand from people who couldn’t make it to the mall in December due to snowstorms. That’ll make January a boom month. Yeah, yeah, that’s it, that’s the ticket.
Well, I never made it to the stores to get that computer that I need (mine is a month shy of 8 years old). I’m busy this weekend, so I’ll probably do that MLK weekend which I guess makes me part of the “pent up demand” crowd. Of course, snow had nothing to do with it. I just don’t like spending money very much and insist on doing a little pre-shopping before I commit to a big purchase.
Many retail businesses take a physical inventory in January, so they might keep the temps a bit longer for that.
This week and next is when they let them go.
10 places to buy a home in 2011 (MSNBC)
[excerpted, they give a full blurb in the article]
———-
Here we go, in no particular order:
Austin, Texas: Best all-around city
Population: 799,267
Median home price: $122,921
Deerfield Beach, Fla.: Most affordable town with a view
Population: 74,584
Median home price: $89,400
Broomfield County, Colo.: Best jobs
Population: 55,000
Median home price: $239,000
Durham, N.C.: Best city to retire in
Population: 223,284
Median home price: $174,900
Woodbury, Minn.: Best place to raise kids
Population: 58,515
Median home price: $245,000
Warner Robins, Ga.: Best military town for the buck
Population: 53,629
Median home price: $124,900
Madison, Wis.: Best college town
Population: 562,000
Median home price: $199,900
Pocono Mountains, Pa.: Best vacation-home location for the price
Population: 340,000 for the whole region
Median home price: $78,000 for Pocono Lake; prices vary throughout the region
Portland, Ore.: Best city for Gen-Y
Population: 551,302
Median monthly rent: $1,200
San Francisco: Best city, period, price be damned
Population: 815,358
Median home price: $682,800
———–
Broomfield County, Colo.: Best jobs
Population: 55,000
Median home price: $239,000
I work in Broomfield. Pay is low compared to other major metro areas.
10 places to buy a home in 2011…and experience almost no competition for any job you might need, …once you locate the job!
These “best cities” lists seem to be a scam to me. They appear to just change of the list slightly and then generate a different list of cities. It seems the goal is to list every city or town as the “best” at something. Clearly it is more advertising than journalism as a 10 minute review would generate numerous unanswered questions as to why the listed cities or towns popped up. I wonder if they are paid directly by the locality for the reference, or just by the fact that each locality in the US is listed at the best at something, and then the localities themselves use it as advertising which in and of itsself generates publicity and revenue.
change of = change the name of
“These “best cities” lists seem to be a scam to me. They appear to just change of the list slightly and then generate a different list of cities.”
Agreed, the token Colorado town used to be Louisville, and before that it was Fort Collins.
“Austin, Texas: Best all-around city
Population: 799,267
Median home price: $122,921″
Median home price: $122,921 <–No way, José!
That includes the other side of I-35 to you know.
For example E. MLK Jr Blvd?
Chris Rock once said, “Doesn’t matter what city you’re in. If you’re on Martin Luther King Boulevard, you’re in a bad neighborhood.”
+1 Chris!
Yup.
Chivalry is dead - women killed it.
–Chris Rock/Dave Chappelle
Yup, a MLK blvd in Tampa. Wonder if my rent would be any lower on that street?
Folks outside Texas who read that number might be surprised at the amount of property tax, as well…
I hadn’t heard the name Warner Robins since working for the USAF back in the late 1970s…..
Home of Warner Robins Air Logistics Command “WRALC”. Main supply hub for the entire AF. WRALC is just outside Macon GA. Looks like a boring place to live.
Why not Norfolk VA instead, since San Diego is too expensive?
San Francisco? Are you kidding? Decades of insane city government has ruined this once great city. Roving gangs of “lord of the flies” feral youth will shoot you, then a homeless drunk will pee on your corpse. Meanwhile the city government debates which is more important: being an illegal alien sanctuary city or a nuclear-free zone.
I have to nitpick about Madison. It’s the state capitol of Wisconsin. Not just a “college town” like, say, Chapel Hill or Ann Arbor.
Shortly after college, I took a bike trip in the Upper Midwest and Canada. When I got to Madison, I noticed that it had a bit more, ahem, heft than my beloved Ann Arbor. Reason: It wasn’t just a college town. It also was a state capital.
Is heft a good thing or a bad thing?
Madison is like Des Moines with a big university.
Austin? BULLcrap!
Overpriced with really bad traffic and only 2 kinds of jobs: MacJobs or masters-required.
But if you’re a yuppie urban hipster with money to burn, then this is your kind of place.
Even the old timers (previous hipsters) are getting fed up.
House GOP Challenge Obama on Debt Limit…Ha,ha,ha!
Item: House Republicans tell the White House a request to raise the $14.3 trillion debt limit will require spending cuts to win their approval, a marker in a new era of divided government.
>> The debt limit will be extended, period! Without any significant cuts. The repubs will do a little chest pounding to appease the tea party types.Nothing more nothing less, the finger pointing will continue, while w street and the banksters keep right on raping and pillaging. The Constitution will continue to be used as striking paper.
The folks that voted for “change” will get the middle finger, but of course they will vote the same way next go round. I know all this because my crazy magic 8 ball said so, and it’s rarely wrong.
Obama won because GenX bothered to go out and vote for him. I think GenX is going to stay home next time.
obama won because mccain picked palin as running mate imo.
McCain’s campaign also left a great deal to be desired. In terms of its internal organization and functioning. And its message. The same could be said for Hillary Clinton’s and John Edwards’ campaigns.
By comparison, Obama’s campaign was a paragon of orderliness and discipline. Having quite the cadre of youthful supporters also helped.
And in 2012 she will be the top dog on the ticket.
You betcha.
While that definitely helped him, I think what pushed him over the top was the poor choice of Republican candidates. When you are young and don’t have any assets, it’s easy to fall for bs artists with no substance such as Obama, and much easier to be in favor of wealth redistribution. Most of us older, educated people wouldn’t even hire Obama for a minimum wage entry-level position at our work place, much less for a position involving decision making. Oh - to be young and stupid again.
“GenX bothered to go out and vote for him…”
&
“When you are young and don’t have any assets…”
Oh but Gen X does have a stake in the game, they’re the ones that bought a lot of the houses and condos during the bubble. If my peer group is any indication then I would say, speaking in terms of proprotion of income and future earning power, Gen X is deeper into RE than the Boomers. Around here you have to get down to Gen Y/Milennials to find skepticism towards RE.
Meanwhile, discussing RE and gov’t/tax policy with my Gen X peers is futile. Their taxes are buried in their MTG payments and so far they aren’t asking any questions…so far. As for house prices, they simply point to their parents’ experience and leave it at that.
You may not be young but have no doubt in your mind…… you’re still as stupid as the day you were born. And appears you’ll stay that way until you’re in your grave.
Yes. Anyone that can see through Obama is stupid. What an ignorant thing to say. I judge people based on their actions and my own due diligence. It is clear that you do not and have a slanted political agenda, as you judged me on nothing more than calling Obama out.
die…. quickly.
Sorry, saying you wouldn’t hire the President of the United States for a minimum wage job says volumes about you. It’s obviously more than just “calling Obama out.”
I’m sorry, he’s President and you’re not. He wins. In fact, he did something nobody in the history of the world has done before. What have you done? Oh yeah, your older and educated. Good for you.
It is your choice to value people based on wealth and position. I chose different valuation methods.
Your high school degree and 1 year certificate in am radio listening is getting the best of you.
Most of us older, educated people wouldn’t even hire Obama for a minimum wage entry-level position at our work place ??
I smell a neocon….
Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School
George W. Bush is a graduate of Yale and got an MBA at Harvard. Would you hire him?
Some of the law firms I know in the SF bay area don’t go out of their way to hire Stanford Law graduates. The reason is that they too often bring a sense of hubris and entitlement - what these firms want to hire are scrappers who will do all the dogwork required in a law firm.
The top 3 law schools - Yale, Stanford, and Harvard - vary greatly in their student selectivity. Yale and Stanford are damned difficult to get into since their incoming class is something like 125 students. Harvard Law’s incoming class is several times that size. And Harvard stands alone in refusing to release median GPA and LSAT scores of their incoming class, since IMHO they probably aren’t that high.
“Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School” I guess you never heard of diversity and affirmative action programs. It’s not as if he got in on ability.
They are plenty high. Graduating from Columbia and Harvard Law in the last 25 years is a VERY different thing than being a legacy to Yale and getting into Harvard Business while your father is big deal in Washington more than a decade earlier. (So is being the head of the Harvard Law Review.) The transition to a far larger emphasis on merit in admissions happened around that time. Read “The Big Test” for more info about the transition.
My guess is that Harvard’s LSAT’s and GPA’s are a little lower on average than Yale’s, but that is because Yale is THE geek school, especially for philosophy types. Not so sure about Chicago and Stanford. The weather is nicer in California and Chicago might attract some of the economics nerds, but when you are about to spend that much money on three years, the Harvard name is hard to resist. It is just part of the Harvard image that they aren’t second to anyone in anything. Unless you are/were an admission’s officer at the school, and would like to share some real numbers with the class?
When you are young and don’t have any assets, it’s easy to fall for bs artists with no substance
By that reasoning, PALIN would have carried the day. Try again, Rushbot Tim.
I personally think Palin would be much worse, but I do not remember her pandering to the rebellious, cool vote of the MTV crowd. Maybe I missed it, and she actually was doing topless Spring Break appearances and such. Whereas, Obama targeted the poor, the uneducated and the younger crowd in the hopes they would believe what he said and that he had the competence to make it all work out for the greater good somehow.
Not sure about Palin but I would have definitely done a better job than any president since Nixon.
I think GenX is going to stay home next time ??
I depends…If the neocons get their way and try the “Forced Dogma” again (see; Palin, Romney, Pence, Huckleberry and a number of others) it will be a Obama or Hilary victory in 2012…
I guess I should forego political predictions here, since I predicted that Obama would become president only if somebody assisinated president Hillary.
Well said. Wall Street’s errand boy, Crybaby Boehner, will do PR stunts like read the Constitution and wax indignant about the need for spending cuts, before directing his “tax less, spend more” Republicans to go along with never-ending increases in spending and the debt limit, so long as Wall Street keeps the payola coming.
We the People are so screwed. And it’s our own damned fault.
I disagree. They will demand at least one substantialish but mostly symbolic spending cut. Preferably a particular program or at least something that is easily described. If they were being the least bit honest, it would be farm subsidies, but I don’t think that will be it. The stimulous funds are done and gone so that won’t work, though I’m sure that would be their preference. Earned income tax credit is a possibility but it was started by Reagan and they did say that anything that increases taxes paid is off the table - the EITC is really outside that realm, but it is called a tax credit, so maybe not. Student loan stuff is tempting, but hard to sell since so many people are dependant on it. If there are any renewable energy programs that are structured as grants rather than as tax credits, that would be my guess for the chopping block. It won’t save much money (I’m not even sure if there are any such programs), but this is a war of words, so money is less important.
Changing the federal retirement system again? Perhaps a TSP-only system for new hires?
Maybe. I haven’t heard that the federal plan is underfunded which would help with that one, but I don’t know what assumptions are being used. It would certainly save the government contribution to the pension. Not very big compared to overall government spending, but neither is the sacrificial lamb I offered, if it even exists. Not sure if the administration made any promises to the federal unions when they put out the two year pay freeze, not that this would matter much. And the Senate is a little less sensitive to federal employee ire than the House is. I think Jim might have come up with a winner here. Definitely a possibility.
Though, of course, it will be hard to argue that it saves any money unless they admit that the federal governement will have to do some hiring.
Wall St Errand Boy…… quite accurate. The borrow and spend republicans will never learn.
Democrat lawmakers push 75% state income tax increase
(in illinois)
On the main page of the chicago tribune if interested in the article. I’m sure this will work out well.
“As a measure of how desperate state government’s finances are, Cullerton said the state would use the income-tax hike to borrow $12.2 billion. Of that, $8.5 billion would pay overdue bills and $3.7 billion would cover a government worker pension payment lawmakers skipped when putting together the current budget, he said.”
So we’re increasing taxes to make it easier to borrow more money.
Also real glad to see that there’s not one mention of spending cuts, pension reform, etc.
Real glad.
How long before states and the Federal government start raiding private pension funds, like they’re already doing in Europe?
They are? Details?
I ask because my FIL has a private German pension and AFAIK its still paying him.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-25/hungary-follows-argentina-in-pension-fund-ultimatum-nightmare-for-some.html
Hungary is forcing people to convert private pensions to the government-run (yikes!) system, which they can then raid to cover budget shortfalls, just like Ireland did when they raided over $17 billion from the national retirement fund as their contribution toward the EU’s $85 billion dollar bailout.
Wall Street, on the other hand,is desperate to loot pension funds, which is why their Republican stooges are pushing so hard for “privatizing” social security.
Wall Street, on the other hand,is desperate to loot pension funds, which is why their Republican stooges are pushing so hard for “privatizing” social security. Well of course, since like the bubbly RE market, equity prices are primarily supported by more new money coming in.
Pensions are already invested on Wall Street.
PensionsSocial Security
Ok, FWIW, Hungary is hardly representative of “Europe”. I have a hard time believing that the Germans are considering nationalizing private pensions.
That said, the Clintons did float a trial balloon suggesting a “one time” tax on IRAs and 401Ks during the dot com bubble. Never got off the ground.
Is Germany more representative of Europe than Hungary? Europe is a continent that stretches from Russia to Portugal and Norway to Greece.
Of the EU, I would say that Germany is more representative than perenially broke and until recently communist Hungary.
But let’s look at some stats:
Hungary:
GDP per capita: ~13,000 USD
Mexico:
GDP per capita: ~10,000 USD
European Union:
GDP per capita: $33,000 USD
Germany:
GDP per capita: ~41,000 USD
Draw your own conclusions.
before states and the Federal government start raiding private pension funds ??
Well, I would not include the Fed’s since they have they hammer of “taxing” the crap out of us, and you can bet they will…It will just come in a different form then the one we are use to…This time, the tax increases are coming in the form of “Tax Reform”….
Now, as far as the “State’s” raiding the pension funds, that could happen if they finally get the power from DC to declare bankruptcy…If they finally get that power, they pensions will be vulnerable….Until then, they are sacrosanct…
Most pensions are under funded.
How many states tax 401(k) contributions? That’s a fair ammount of income that isn’t taxed in my state (Maryland) anyway.
All you have to do is add a single line to the state tax return requiring people to add their 401k contribution into their taxable income. Heck, you can even make the company put it in the “state income” box on your w-2 with a few months notice.
There is talk of linking the increase to an offsetting relief in property taxes, but so far nothing has been set. They are in a pickle - the county/muni situation is such that no revenue stream can be comprimised.
This may very well turn into a battle between the state and local gov’ts as the boys at the statehouse have already stated that any additional funds raised by this increase would not find their way to increases in county/local distributions.
Here in the city we have three layers of pensions with big problems, BIG problems. But hey, as long as there’s a cool new restaurant to try out each weekend - who cares?!
It would be interesting if the press would tell us the state deficit per person. Here in Idaho the deficit is $340 million, or around $226 per person. I’m not sure but that sounds fixable to me.
Illinois deficit is “at least” $13 billion. With a population of around 13 million, that’s around $1,000 per person, or four times the per capita deficit of Idaho.
California has a budget deficit of around $19 billion. With a population of around 38 million, that’s around $500 per person, or half the per capital deficit of Illinois.
Of course the problem with per capita figures for debts and deficits are that they carry with them the implication that they should be paid for on a per capita basis. And yet generally, taxes are either proportional to income, or progressive, so that is the way we’ll pay for them. So how do the deficits compare to receipts?
It would be harder to calculate that.
A while ago we discussed the odd fact that there isn’t that much of a spread in household income among the states - certainly not enough to compensate for cost of living differences. Same but to a lesser extent with income per capita per state.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_income
And yet generally, taxes are either proportional to income, or progressive,
Sales taxes
Fee increases
Service cuts
and of course the biggest tax of all inflation
will be felt by low and middle income people the most.
will be felt by low and middle income people the most. Only in the sense that CPI measures what the middle class buys. If you look at what the wealthy buy disproportionately, dividends and interest, those have gone up in price more quickly than the CPI.
Good point about the sales taxes, Measton. Most states rely heavily on sales taxes, which are regressive, meaning that they take a larger proportion of the income of low-income folks than high-income folks. Years ago I read an analysis the state and local taxes collected in Arizona, income, sales, and property taxes, along with everything else. It turned out that the system as a whole was regressive.
“It turned out that the system as a whole was regressive.”
The rich didn’t get rich by writing checks to the gov’t.
US Adds 103,000 Jobs, Unemployment Falls to 9.4%- AP
The nation’s unemployment rate dropped to 9.4% last month, its lowest level in 19 months. Employers added 103,000 jobs in December, an improvement from November’s revised total of 71,000 but far below most analysts’ expectations.
URGENT: The unemployment rate drops to 9.4 percent — its lowest level in 19 months — as employers added 103,000 jobs in December, but also because some people gave up on their job searches.
Buy some aapl stock and all will be fine. Cramer and goldman said it’s a great time to buy.
Goldman has a sordid history of betting against the “investments” that they’re touting. And Cramer told his flock to buy Lehman at $60, before it crashed to zero.
Citigroup Seeks Buyers for CitiFinancial
Friday, 7 Jan 2011
Citigroup is seeking buyers for CitiFinancial, the largest consumer finance company in the US, in a deal that could raise hundreds of millions of dollars and mark a milestone in the bank’s efforts to break with its troubled past.
People close to the situation said that after months of restructuring, Citi had begun contacting potential buyers for CitiFinancial, which was one of the building blocks in its ill-fated plan to become an all-purpose “financial supermarket”.
Arent they loan sharks?
I was thinking a bit about the study referenced the other day by Rio that suggested that something like 1/2 of all foreclosures are due to financial hardship stemming from medical issues.
My personal studies have concluded that if one includes mental illness and deficiency into the accepted definition of “medical issues” then the number is actually much higher, maybe 80%?
Without including retardation as a cause I just can’t see hitting even the 50% number realistically, except as a scapegoat.
If you checked the study, it noted that the data were collected before the recession began.
I would suggest that the results would likely be much different now, and would largely reflect a willingness to follow the flock and buy way too much house at peak pricing.
Say it isn’t so! Rio misled us in an attempt to support a bleeding heart agenda? For shame.
With regard to the gold market “crash”, does anyone have numbers on what percentage of the total market, both physical and ethereal, is leveraged?
That info might shed better light on the PM bubble situation compared to the housing bubble and the burst thereof.
Ugghhh, got laid off. This whole low living expenses thing may come in handy. Got a good severance so everything should be normal for quite a while. Doesn’t mean I’m gonna take a 6 month vacation before I look, though :-).
Sorry to hear that Mr. Carl,…what type of work?
Embedded firmware, code and test, in hard drive storage array expansion enclosures. Sorry to post and then be gone all day…it was a busy day :-).
Sorry to hear that.
Figure out and adopt your “starving artist” budget as soon as possible.
Good luck.
Already almost there, thanks to the HBB. Housing only costs me $200 a month and we have no car payments and almost no other debt.
“Housing only costs me $200 a month and we have no car payments and almost no other debt.”
How do you manage that?? Paid-off house?
$200/mo sounds cheap even just for just property taxes and insurance, most places…
Paid cash for a doublewide to bubblesit in. $200 is the lot rent this year.
I am very sorry to hear that, Carl. I hope you find something soon. There were layoffs at DH’s company this week too. A friend’s employer is making them all re-interview to keep their job. These were good paying, professional middle class jobs - the kind we especially hate to see disappear.
I hope you find something much better soon.
I bet there is a better job out there waiting for you to find it.
Lousy Carl…Hope you find something new soon…
Good luck to you. If there is an upside, it seems like the labor market is on the upswing right now, so perhaps it will be relatively easier now to find another position than it would have been over the past couple of years.
i am really sorry ,there is nothing that I hate more than someone getting laid off . Good luck to you .
Sorry to hear it happened to you but I’m glad you were prepared and have a good austerity plan already in place.
What kind of work do you do ?
See above…
Don’t worry, John Boehner has got you covered. American dream and all…
Very sorry to hear it, Carl… Best of luck with the hunt; hope you find an even better gig.
Bummer! I hope you get a new position soon and can bank your severance.
It does sound like you have your fiscal house in order so that is good to hear. Best of luck.
I’m glad to see AMPEX advertising on the HBB. Do Ben & the site a favor and click on these advertisers, and buy some silver rounds while you’re at it. With the Fed’s endless QE money printing that could be the only counter to Zimbabwe-style hyperinflation.
Greetings from Mumbai, HBB fellow denizens!
Glad to inform you that the bubble is alive and well here. It’s different here, woof woof blah blah, it’s “special”, etc. Just read the various arguments from 2006, too much work to reproduce.
Off to Kerala in a few days.
Great food all day everyday though.
Have a great trip FP!
Always do.
Whenever someone asks you what the payoff was from not participating in the bubble, I am happy to be your poster child.
PS :- Invest in experiences, not “stuff”. Much better in the long run.
“Great food all day everyday though.”
Just don’t drink the water, or you’ll have to change your moniker to “Faster Pussycat, Run Run”.
There is some truth to it but times change.
Not all bubble consequences are bad. This is one of them. You’d be surprised. I know I was.
That was certainly my father’s experience in India ~30 years ago. ‘Course I’m not sure that he went to Bombay.*
*As Mumbai was then known.
fpss: I hope you’re taking the train. Enjoy the fabulous weather!
“Off to Kerala in a few days.”
Enjoy some fresh fish!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1344584/Dance-teacher-Ashley-Blumenshine-arrested-sex-car-student-16.html
An “epidemic” of hot High School teachers having sex with students - where oh where were all these adventurous hussies when I was in school? Back then, most female teachers looked like Ben Franklin.
Sextra credit?
LOL…….
Most twenty somethings these days have the emotional maturity of a 16 year. ie. they simply refuse to grow up. Or are incapable of a mature relationship.
Yes, what where were they when I was a young lad needing an twentysomething hottie to show me the ropes? I feel so cheated that I was never “victimized” in such a fashion.
You can say that again! Here’s a data point from my very own nabe:
‘Tother day, I was in my casa, all the windows and doors were closed, and my furnace was running. (Been cold here in Tucson. As in, freezing temps or below at night, and barely into the sixties during the day.)
Any-hoo, what should I hear but boom-thumpa-thumpa! boom! Sounded like one of those boom cars that the drug dealers like so much. Dang, thought that the neighbors and I chased those guys outta here.
Turned out that the racket was coming from the student dump across the street. I’ve posted about that place before. Daddy bought it for Princess as an investment, and she and her roommates proceeded to turn the place to sh—! before she graduated in ‘09. Now her brother and his roommates are finishing it off.
Well, I went across the street, and since I figured that the residents inside would probably not hear me knocking, I banged on the door.
And one of them answered, all the while chastising me for being so *rude* as to bang on his door. Well, well, well.
You know me. I turned his BS right back at him and said that it was pretty rude to have the stereo turned up so loud that the sound could be heard in a house across the street with all its doors and windows closed *and* the furnace running.
That was a couple days ago. Haven’t heard the loud stereo since.
That was a couple days ago. Haven’t heard the loud stereo since.
Way to go, Slim!
Thanks, Lavi.
Here’s the other side of the neighborhood student equation. Yesterday, I was having trouble getting my antivirus software subscription to renew. Was able to download and install, but dang if I could get that thing to work.
So, I called a local company called Student Experts. They’re college kids who work on computer problems, and they are *good.*
My Expert is named Jose, and he lives just up the street. He’s an electrical and computer engineering student, and, as he puts it, he’s way too busy to party. I believe it. I’ve never seen a proliferation of red beer cups outside his house. Unlike a lot of the other student houses around here.
In short, if you’re looking for computer help in Tucson, support the students who are the good guys and gals. Call Student Experts.
Is that the “shortage of good men” I hear so often?
I think it’s just publicized and prosecuted more now a days.
“Back then, most female teachers looked like Ben Franklin.”
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! So true!!!
Hackers Find New Way to Cheat on Wall Street
“GMGruman writes ‘The high-speed trading exchanges that conduct the business of buying and selling stocks and mutual funds are so fast that hackers can introduce delays of a few microseconds completely unnoticed by today’s network monitoring technology — and manipulate prices in the process to reap millions of dollars to the detriment of everyone else, InfoWorld’s Bill Snyder reports. This kind of activity creates new reason to distrust Wall Street and shows how the computer networks we all rely on for conducting business and moving information are ripe for undetectable hacking’”
BWHAHAHAHAAHAA! The prop desks use HFTs to game the system and screw retail investors, while the SEC looks the other way. Now the grifters are getting cheated by hackers? Wall Street won’t like the competition.
SWEET!
Go hackers!!!
It seems Moody’s and Merideth disagree. Who to believe? What a conundrum.
Moody’s Investors Service said yesterday in a report that this year won’t bring any defaults on state debt it rated. There were no defaults last year involving state and local securities it rated, the New York-based company said.
The U.S. government will face pressure before October to help states that have taken on too much debt, Meredith Whitney, the banking analyst who correctly forecast a Citigroup Inc. dividend cut in 2008, said in September. Last month, speaking on the CBS show “60 Minutes,” she predicted defaults of more than $100 billion in local debt and said municipal finances posed “the largest threat to the U.S. economy” next to housing.
Congressman Paul Ryan, the Budget Committee chairman in the U.S. House of Representatives, said Republicans don’t intend to save states from debt defaults.
“We are not interested in a bailout,” the Republican from Wisconsin said yesterday in Washington. Ryan said some states are “already telling us” that, when asked how he would respond if he was told one was in danger of defaulting.”
So does this denial really mean “yes the federal government will bailout states” ?
Moodys, S&P, and Fitch all gave AAA ratings to bundled mortgage backed securities that were toxic waste. ‘Nuff said.
Yes I hope you caught my sarcasm
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1344913/Animal-death-mystery-Two-MILLION-dead-fish-wash-Maryland-bay.html
More mass animal deaths. Very strange.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/banks-hit-on-mass-foreclosure-ruling-2011-01-07?siteid=yhoof2
This could get interesting. The Mass. High Court has ruled on the side of FBs against banks that foreclosed on them using fraudulent documentation.
A few more state-level decisions like this, and the Banksters are going to have to spend some real bucks on their DC pi$$-boyz to pass another CYA law at the Federal level.
So far, it looks like their attempt at bypassing the government with the MERS system, and the subsequent Robo-signer fiasco, is going to be the legal bullet that they won’t be able to dodge.
Eventually, after they spend a bunch of time and money, they might be able to get paperwork straightened out enough where someone could actually foreclose. This could take a while…..in some cases, a long while. I can see where the cost of straightening out the paperwork can exceed the value of the property.
Nobody wants to pay to do it right, but everyone doesn’t mind paying the price to do it over.
Haven’t you heard?
All the states AGs are ready to cut a deal and settle.
The Very brilliant cartoon video I posted yesterday was removed, searching the phrase The American Dream turned up another copy though, for those that might be interested in seeing a good compilation of how the housing bubble and The Federal Reserve Bank were created, the damage its done, and how people might view it all, it’s funny too, and short:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPWH5TlbloU
Cute.
Thanks for re-linking, clark.
“Some debts are fun when you are acquiring them, but none are fun when you set about retiring them.” ~ Ogden Nash
Got a booze Problem? Want to beat it?
Aldehyde dehydrogenase may be the answer!
The liquor industry might not be very excited about this report, but a lot of alcohol addicts and their families might be eyeing this news with a great deal of hope.
Chilean researchers are developing a vaccine against alcoholism that could be tested on humans starting next year and works by neutralizing an enzyme that metabolizes alcohol.
The genetic therapy is based on aldehyde dehydrogenase, a group of enzymes that metabolize alcohol and are thus responsible for alcohol tolerance, said Juan Asenjo, who heads a team of researchers at Chile’s Faculty of Sciences and Mathematics and the private lab Recalcine..
It would work like patches or pills that help smokers kick the habit, but with better efficiency by specifically targeting liver cells and avoiding collateral effects on all cells.
~ Beating Booze
neutralizing an enzyme that metabolizes alcohol
So does this mean you get sick right away not 14 beers in?
I was wondering if it meant you could get drunk on one beer, and enjoy the buzz all night long…
World Markets Digest Conflicting US Jobs Data- AP
Stocks dipped Friday after figures showed fewer U.S. jobs were created in December than expected. Upward revisions to previous months’ data, however, reined in the disappointment.
So… it wasn’t only me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaxgmmjNrpA&feature=related
Japan’s great depression. America, meet your future. Anyone care to invest in hive-style housing for the barely solvent?
$20 a day to live in a closet!
It didn’t take long for the tables to turn in Japan. It still amazes me that so many millions don’t think this can happen here. It’s happening, but in the land of instant gratification if something does not happen right away then it must not be happening!
No worries BB will just print us out of debt!
Nah, in America the barely solvent will move straight from their McMansions to their SUVs, and from there to a cardboard box under the overpass.
Besides, that place still at least looked CLEAN. Japan is a very different society than the US of A. I bet that in the US the hassle of running hive-style housing for the barely solvent wouldn’t be worth the returns. I think such a venture probably presupposes some basic decency and considerate behavior amongst the tenants and with the landlord, which I wouldn’t bet on in the US.
Japan’s cultural and racial homogeneity definitely helps them in this matter. $600 a month for a closet sure seems steep, as you can rent an apartment for that kind of money in flyover country.
I could see something like this as a Section 8 program in the US. Convert empty office space into the hive like housing depicted in this story and stick the unemployed and underemployed into them, with a soup kitchen on the main floor to feed them. Much cheaper than the system we have now.
~ If indeed uncle sugar doesn’t throw money at sinking states, then get ready for some much more serious assaults on your pocket book. Budget cuts will have to happen also, and everyone in gubmint state or federal hate that thought.
Item: House Budget Chief Ryan Says No Bailouts to Prevent U.S. State Defaults ~ Bloomberg
Congressman Paul Ryan, the Budget Committee chairman in the U.S. House of Representatives, said Republicans don’t intend to save states from debt defaults.
“We are not interested in a bailout,” the Republican from Wisconsin said yesterday in Washington. Ryan said some states are “already telling us” that, when asked how he would respond if he was told one was in danger of defaulting.
U.S. states face a combined $140 billion in deficits in the next fiscal year, the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said Dec. 16. State tax collections remain below pre-recession levels, according to the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, New York. No state has defaulted on its debt since Arkansas did in 1933.
Right, we had enough money to bail out the banks, but we cannot bail out the states (which actually provide services necessary for people to live and work in a peaceful, productive society).
Now that the *important people* (financial elite) have been bailed out, time to piss on the masses.
This article was supposed to appear on page A4 of today’s dead-tree-edition of the WSJ, but it is not there. Luckily, it is available online.
It seems like the denial phase of the housing bubble stages of grief is finally giving way to reality!
The Wall Street Journal
* U.S. NEWS
* JANUARY 6, 2011, 7:40 P.M. ET
Hard-Hit Cities May Not Fully Heal for Years
By M.P. MCQUEEN
Some cities battered by the housing crisis may not fully recover for decades, and lenders in those places are likely to remain cautious for years, a study by the Mortgage Bankers Association concluded.
The report said some hard-hit cities in California, Nevada and Arizona may not return to pre-bust housing price levels, adjusted for inflation, until 2030, citing data from Moodys dot com.
The study was conducted by James R. Follain, a senior fellow of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, and was sponsored by the MBA’s Research Institute for Housing in America. It analyzed the housing bust’s impact on 82 metro areas in the middle of severe economic decline.
Some neighborhoods in declining cities, such as those plagued by vacant and foreclosed homes, may deteriorate so badly that home values in those neighborhoods will be depressed for many years, Mr. Follain said. As a result, buyers and lenders are likely to remain wary, he said.
The study found that Stockton, Modesto, Vallejo and Salinas in California, as well as Cape Coral-Fort Myers and Port St. Lucie in Florida, were among the metro areas with the largest price drops from 2006 through 2009.
Stockton saw average home prices drop 75%, adjusted for inflation, while Modesto and Cape Coral suffered declines of 73% and 60%, respectively.
Most of the cities on the list were victims of the housing crisis, a change from prior years when cities in decline were mostly old manufacturing hubs such as Buffalo, N.Y. and Cleveland.
“The housing crisis leads to a completely different list with declines that surpass the competition for the worst housing declines in the U.S. since 1980,” the report said.
New Orleans topped the list of declining U.S. cities by population mainly because of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. New Orleans’s population was 1.3 million in 2005 prior to Katrina but declined to 992,000 in the aftermath.
The report, titled “A Study of Real Estate Markets in Declining Cities,” also lists the Rust Belt cities Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn and Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, Mich., as among the areas suffering the largest price drops. Prices were off 33% in Detroit and 28% in Warren during the 2006-2009 period.
Sorry, but they are no where NEAR reality.
Housing prices, adjusted for inflation, may not return to peak levels for 30 years…. Ha ha ha ha haha….
House prices, adjusted for inflation, will NEVER, EVER, EVER return to peak prices. They may return to peak prices, but not until wages have doubled to make them affordable again at that level.
Medain house needs to be about 3x median household income. That is where it is returning to, and that is where it is going to stay.
“They may return to peak prices, but not until wages have doubled to make them affordable again at that level.”
Spot on; thanks for catching the glaring error in this geek report.
uncle sugar doesn’t throw money at sinking states ??
Good !!!!!!! Maybe they will go the next step and allow states to declare bankruptcy….
I agree 100% !! That’s what is screaming to happen! However the “bailout” mindset is damn near impossible to break. Far to many people just don’t want to go through the process.
The system is far to imbalanced it’s time to pay up.
Just Eat It!
Jan. 7, 2011, 12:12 p.m. EST
Bank stocks hit by foreclosure ruling
By John Spence, MarketWatch
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — Bank stocks fell sharply Friday as Massachusetts’ highest court reportedly ruled two foreclosures were invalid because banks didn’t show they owned the mortgages.
The decision is the latest setback for banks after some lenders halted foreclosures in 2010 following claims they didn’t have proper documentation.
The court upheld an earlier ruling against Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC 30.92, -1.23, -3.83%) and U.S. Bancorp (USB 25.93, -0.36, -1.37%) , according to the reports.
Shares of Wells Fargo, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM 43.00, -1.48, -3.33%) and Bank of America Corp. (BAC 14.07, -0.37, -2.56%) were all down more than 2% in recent action, while U.S. Bancorp was off 1.2%.
The SPDR KBW Bank ETF (KBE 25.97, -0.51, -1.93%) slipped 1.4%.
Oh, Bear, you’re a man after my own heart. You posted a Wierd Al video link.
As for the banksters, I have this to say: Bon apetit!
Jan. 7, 2011, 12:09 p.m. EST
The job market: a lost decade
By Ruth Mantell, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The number of jobs in the U.S. economy today is about the same as 10 years ago. That’s already bad news, but combine it with an ever-growing population competing for those positions, and you see why the unemployment rate has been hovering around 10%. But, as the following charts show, some job seekers are in a much more difficult place than others.
…
A cynic or conspiracy theorist could make the case that the housing bubble was all about generating bubble employment, so they could outsource a big chunk of the employment base without anyone noticing.
No way dude! That’s just crazy talk! The next thing you’ll be saying it was also to hide falling wages the falling value of the dollar!
What are you? Some kinda dang comminist?!
+1 Grizzly.
DJIA = 12K, we never knew thee!
Jan. 7, 2011, 12:01 a.m. EST
Unwinding the underperformance
Commentary: Stocks give investors reasons to prepare for pullback
By Tomi Kilgore
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Wall Street’s tepid response to an astonishingly strong reading of the labor market, for whatever reason, may be a warning that it is time to start preparing for a pullback.
Automatic Data Processing’s (ADP) National Employment Report showed that private-sector payrolls increased by 297,000 in December, or about triple what was expected.
Accordingly, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note jumped 13.7 basis points and the U.S. Dollar Index surged 1% on Wednesday. The 1% rally in crude oil futures, helped by a bigger-than-expected drop in inventories for the latest week, was even more impressive since they were down more than 1% early in the session.
Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA 11,627, -70.69, -0.60%) rose just 0.3%, with only 17 of 30 components contributing to gains.
…
“Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA 11,675, -22.55, -0.19%) rose just 0.3%, with only 17 of 30 components contributing to gains.”
The PPT got busy after lunch today. It was all upside from 1p onward…
Wall Street’s tepid response to an astonishingly strong reading of
What does this guy smoke? Does banana Bernanke supply hashish too?
Here’s my reading of unemployment: Forget about the headline number and focus your attention on U6 — stuck at a highish 16.7% with no letup in sight.
The Week in Charts
Jan. 7, 2011, 2:13 p.m. EST
In charts: Underemployment, ADP, ISM
By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch
The still-high ranks of underemployed
The underemployment rate, U-6 to the stat-geeks, stood at a still-elevated 16.7% in December. That figure includes those who are discouraged and those who are working part-time when they want to work full-time. The headline unemployment rate fell to 9.4% for December, the lowest in one-and-a-half years.
…
My dream is just to live long enough to see the stock market crash. Apparently that is asking quite alot.
The stock market will never crash again. You’ve just lived through what should have been its crash.
It came close, but the game is now permanently rigged.
Doesn’t mean it won’t someday.
Quick, name 5 great empires. “Former”, that is.
‘LOS ANGELES (AP) — KB Home surprised Wall Street with a profit for the fiscal fourth quarter, despite delivering fewer homes. KB Home earned $17.4 million…for the three months ended Nov. 30…down 83 percent from a profit of $100.7 million…a year earlier, when KB Home benefited from a $191.7 million tax benefit.’
‘The homebuilder’s revenue dropped to $451 million from $674.6 million…Housing revenue declined 28 percent, while land sale revenue slid to $1.9 million from $52.7 million.’
‘KB Home delivered 37 percent fewer homes, but that was partly offset by a 14 percent increase in the average selling price. The Los Angeles company delivered 1,918 homes at an average selling price of $232,500 during the quarter.’
‘Fourth-quarter net orders slipped 25 percent to 1,085, while the cancellation rate rose to 29 percent from 17 percent in the prior-year period. The company’s backlog fell 37 percent to 1,336.’
‘Homebuilders are a bellwether for the housing market and the economy. Each new home built creates, on average, the equivalent of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in taxes paid to local and federal authorities, by some estimates.’
About this last part: ‘a bellwether for the housing market and the economy. Each new home built creates’
Old myths die hard. Houses don’t create anything. If they did, we could build our way to prosperity.
‘WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sketched a more optimistic view of the economy Friday but said the Fed’s $600 billion bond-buying program is needed because unemployment will likely stay elevated for up to five more years…Bernanke said unemployment is likely to be around 8 percent two years from now.’
‘Other threats to the economic outlook, Bernanke said, are: — A depressed housing market, where growth in foreclosures could push down home prices even more.’
This is where I reject the economics held out here by the AP and the Fed, among others. Lower house prices reflect a healing of the bubble, and foreclosures are the function by which that occurs. Lower prices are a boost, not a threat to the economic outlook.
You’ll like this one: Greenspan to critics: prove me wrong!
http://www.marketwatch.com/video/asset/greenspan-prove-i-was-wrong-2011-01-07/881A4154-8710-4BCB-952B-219E94F704FB
“Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan discusses the dangers of current fiscal policy while challenging his critics to prove him wrong on any decision he made as Fed chief.”
Easy Al is really reaching. He knows it’s impossible to prove him right or wrong. I had an old boss, an academic scientist, who used the prove me wrong argument. I knew when he went to that he was out of ideas and covering his ego.
It’s easy to flip it. We’re screwed. If you didn’t screw up, tell us who did, and what you did to try and stop it at the time?
“…challenging his critics to prove him wrong on any decision he made as Fed chief.”
It seems altogether too simple through the lens of the rear-view mirror. Too-big-to-fail, a policy of which the Greenspan Fed was a principle supporter and executor, led Americans to the false assumption that the almighty Fed would always be able to rescue too-big-to-fail firms from foolish gambles. And Fed-supplied easy money in the early-2000s led to the most massive housing bubble in the history of the U.S.A. Now the housing bubble has collapsed, and ‘too big’ has failed.
Does that about sum it up?
He sure did miss with his call on housing! Not sure whether that qualifies as a Fed ‘decision’ or not, though Fed policy certainly had no small role in fueling the bubble.
‘MASHED IN MASSACHUSETTS. That’s why economists — even Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan — are worrying lately about “froth” in the housing market. It’s not that they expect home prices to plummet across the country or mass foreclosures to ruin banks (although, if things were to get really bad, that’s a possibility in some regions). Rather, they see that an almost inevitable retrenchment in home price appreciation will act like rain on the economy’s real estate-fueled parade.’
“…retrenchment in home price appreciation…”
Notice the writers of this 2005 article were not sufficiently bold as to suggest that home prices might actually decline, as the wording suggests that home price appreciation might slow but would certainly never stop. Either they were too chicken to mention that home prices might steeply drop, or else they couldn’t foresee the possibility.
” Lower house prices reflect a healing of the bubble, and foreclosures are the function by which that occurs. Lower prices are a boost, not a threat to the economic outlook.”
I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir, but we as a country aren’t ready for that long view. I was 15 in 1980 when Reagan asked, “are you better off now than you were four years ago? And it’s been the same ever since. Did he get that evil ball rolling? I recall Clinton using it later as well, could be wrong though. Anyway, it would take quite a leader to make a slogan like “suffer now, prosper later” work.
Who would believe it?
“Lower prices are a boost, not a threat to the economic outlook.”
Let’s hope the new class of Republicans in Congress, who presumably don’t like taxes, catch on to this: Currently unaffordable housing prices represent a reservoir of housing market wealth which can potentially fuel a long period of U.S. economic growth without the need to raise taxes, but only if prices are allowed to return to affordable levels.
Their are some brains that are so full of delusion there is nothing that can be done for them! ~ Madam Moonbat sez…
Pelosi: Democrats Lost House Because of … Bush! (AP)
“We still would have lost the election because we had 9.5% unemployment. Let’s take it where that came from. The policies of George W. Bush and the Republican support for his initiatives, tax cuts are for the wealth, recklessness by some,” Minority Leader Pelosi told CNN.
Oh, for pete’s sake! Lady needs to check her calendar and note that Mr. Bush left office on January 20, 2009. The election of which she speaks was held last year.
And, yes, you’re hearing this from me, a staunch advocate for health care reform, but here goes:
I think that Obama’s — and by extension, the Democrats’ — huge blunder was not concentrating on jobs back in 2009. To recycle a phrase from the Clinton years, they should have focused like a laser beam on jobs.
I can recall Obama, in a very dismissive tone of voice, saying that unemployment was a lagging indicator. This was shortly after he became President.
Well, he was right on saying that unemployment is a lagging indicator. Indeed it is. But the dismissive tone of voice wasn’t at all appropriate. I was hoping to hear a follow-up comment saying, well, something like what Clinton said about focusing like a laser beam on bringing unemployment down.
“I think that Obama’s — and by extension, the Democrats’ — huge blunder was not concentrating on jobs back in 2009″
You make a good point! Even though most folks have short attention spans, they don’t when they have no job. Promises are easy to make but take effort to keep. That’s why one should tread carefully in the “promise” dept.
She’s half right.
However, if the Democrats had kept to the theme that years of toil and sacrfices would be required to turn this country around, perhaps they wouldn’t have been blamed when everything wasn’t rosy right away.
If you are unwilling to challenge the extent of entitlement, especially among Generation Greed, expect it to devour you.
But they did concentrate on jobs. First thing they did was to pass almost a trillion dollar stimulus. Not sure who got that?
Morris Hubbartt
Weekly Market Update Excerpt
* Of serious concern for the dollar is the 8 plus trillion dollar market cap in outstanding US treasuries. That massive market cap is accompanied by a never-ending supply of new Government issued debt. If you take inventory of the outstanding liabilities, the numbers are staggering. The US National debt just hit $14 trillion.
* I believe the biggest statistical nightmare, from a fundamental perspective, is the $112 trillion in unfunded liabilities. Think about that term, “unfunded”. That is double-speak for debt. That debt is real and it is owed.
* Thomas Jefferson, remember him? Well, he warned of the immense damage that would occur if the people assigned control of the money supply to the banking sector. “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies”.
Apex Tool Group to lay off 129 in Monroe
Charlotte Business Journal
Apex Tool Group will close its operation in Monroe, eliminating 129 positions.
The layoffs are slated to occur between May and August, according to a company filing with the N.C. Department of Commerce. Affected employees will receive severance packages and an opportunity to apply for open positions within the Maryland-based company.
Apex Tool Group’s Monroe operation is at 3012 Mason St.
The company is one of the largest worldwide producers of industrial hand tool and electronic soldering products.
Union: AT&T cuts 350 MI jobs - 110 in Grand Rapids
GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) - 350 Michigan AT&T workers were informed Friday their jobs could be lost, according to a union official.
Ryan Letts of the Communications Workers of America said 110 of the jobs were in the Grand Rapids area. Letts says automation and technological change was a big reason as was the trend of more people moving to cell phones only.
He says the company has been making similar cuts across it’s 22-state region in recent years.
Company officials were not reachable for comment.
More young people are winding up in nursing homes
SARASOTA, Fla. – Adam Martin doesn’t fit in here. No one else in this nursing home wears Air Jordans. No one else has stacks of music videos by 2Pac and Jay-Z. No one else is just 26.
It’s no longer unusual to find a nursing home resident who is decades younger than his neighbor: About one in seven people now living in such facilities in the U.S. is under 65. But the growing phenomenon presents a host of challenges for nursing homes, while patients like Martin face staggering isolation.
“It’s just a depressing place to live,” Martin says. “I’m stuck here. You don’t have no privacy at all. People die around you all the time. It starts to really get depressing because all you’re seeing is negative, negative, negative.”
The number of under-65 nursing home residents has risen about 22 percent in the past eight years to about 203,000, according to an analysis of statistics from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That number has climbed as mental health facilities close and medical advances keep people alive after they’ve suffered traumatic injuries. Still, the overall percentage of nursing home residents 30 and younger is less than 1 percent.
Get sick or hurt in this country and it’s your own damn fault. Especially if you can’t afford a lawyer.
Mother and daughter ‘kept body of dead grandmother in their bungalow for months to claim her pension’ ~ UK Mail ~
Olive Hazel Maddock and her daughter Jasmine Maddock are accused of keeping their dead mother and grandmother in their semi-detached home. They are charged with preventing the decent and lawful burial of 95-year-old Olive Maddock in Wallasey, Merseyside. Both women were bailed by Magistrates and must appear before a Crown Court on a later date.
Must be pretty desperate folks.
There is good news: Credit is flowing to bad borrowers again.They seem to be getting lots of do overs lately.
“As the auto industry continues to make a slow recovery from tough times of the past two years, lenders are finally loosening credit restrictions and approving car loans for customers with less than prime credit ratings. In the third quarter last year, for instance, the share of new vehicle loans to “credit-challenged” consumers rose 12.7 percent compared with the same period in 2009, said Experian, one of the nation’s major credit reporting agencies.
Loans to borrowers with subprime credit scores as low as 550 were among categories that grew the most….Credit restrictions were the biggest reason people stopped buying new cars during the recession, but “that’s not a problem anymore,” said Marty Horn, sales manager at Nashville’s Crown Ford.
Mystery of mass animal death epidemic deepens after 8,000 turtle doves fall dead in Italy with strange blue stain on their beaks
Blue stain believed to be sign of poisoning or hypoxia - lack of oxygen that is precursor to altitude sickness
* Cold weather and overbreeding blamed for deaths of two 2million fish in Chesapeake Bay
* Disease behind deaths of 100,000 fish in Arkansas River
* At least nine incidents of mass animal deaths across the globe
* Hundreds of confused birds plummeted to their deaths in multiple locations in the U.S.
* Rapid movement of Magnetic North Pole towards Russia may have caused bird deaths
Thousands of dead turtle doves rained down on roofs and cars in an Italian town in the latest in a growing spate of mass animal deaths across the globe.
Residents in Faenza described the birds falling to the ground like ‘little Christmas balls’ with strange blue stains on their beaks.
Initial tests on up to 8,000 of the doves indicated that the blue stain could have been caused by poisoning or hypoxia.
That’s gotta be global warming.
Naw. Just librul BO.
It’s happening in Canada too.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/technology/Dozens+birds+found+dead+near+Quebec+City/4077033/story.html
news.yahoo.com/s/usnews/20110107/ts_usnews/thebadnewsbehindafallingjoblessrate
Unemployment 9.4%, but the fine print is discouraging. The economy did add 103,000 new jobs in the latest month, which accounted for about half of the steep drop in the unemployment rate, according to forecasting firm IHS Global Insight. But the number of new jobs is much lower than economists expected, and the current pace of job creation is far too weak to offset all the jobs lost during the recession. The other reason the unemployment rate fell is a shrinking labor force. Nearly 400,000 unemployed people stopped looking for work in the most recent month, because they felt no jobs were available. They gave up, in essence, and dropped out of the labor force. And that is not what is supposed to happen as the economy recovers and workers, in theory, become more optimistic.
Such “discouraged workers” have become a key variable in the jobless numbers, and in the overall direction of the economy. There are now about 4 million Americans classified as “discouraged” or “marginally attached to the labor force,” which basically means they’d look for work if they thought it were available–but they don’t, so they’re not. That’s in addition to about 14.5 million people who count as unemployed, because they’re actively looking for jobs. Four million labor-force dropouts may not sound like a lot compared with a total labor force of nearly 154 million, but those marginal workers represent the difference between healthy growth that would bring the economy roaring back, and the kind of tepid growth we have now, which leaves millions of consumers feeling unsure about their jobs and anxious about the future.
[See why "recession-proof" jobs are a myth.]
A shrinking labor force also masks deeper weaknesses in the economy. The size of the U.S. labor force peaked at about 155 million in October 2008, right after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the financial panic that led to millions of layoffs. Back then, the percentage of adults either working or looking for work was 66 percent, about average for the last two decades. The labor-force participation rate has since fallen to 64.3 percent, the lowest level since the early 1980s. Fewer Americans are working, and fewer Americans want to work. If the participation rate were still 66 percent, unemployment would be closer to 12 percent–a number nobody would tout as cheerful news.
There’s usually a decline in the size of the labor force during recessions, as people who might ordinarily work decide to go back to school, or to stay home and help out around the house, until the job market improves. But the decline in the size of the labor force over the last two years is the sharpest since World War II, and economists now think the labor force could be shrinking permanently. Bank of America Merrill Lynch recently predicted that labor-force participation will tick upward as the recovery picks up, but then resume a gradual downward trend that’s been in place since 2000. Their analysis shows that a shrinking labor force could whack a full percentage point off of GDP growth annually.
9.whatever% (oh hell, 10%) to 9.4% is NOT a steep drop except in some alternative universe of the deranged.
Snake loose in Boston subway.
How long before a Samuel L Jackson movie, “Snakes in Mo Fo Train!”?
Stanford is losing coaches to the housing bubble.
Stanford Athletics
Coaches’ Housing Fund
Ask any successful college athlete, “Who has been the most significant influence on your career?” The answer will probably include the name of a coach. A coach not only sets the tone and standard for an entire team, but also shapes the overall college experience of each studentathlete.
That is why the coach is a team’s most important recruit.
Stanford’s intercollegiate athletic program, arguably the best in the nation, attracts some of the country’s most respected coaches. Unfortunately, many head and assistant coaches struggle to enter the increasingly expensive housing market in the Bay Area, currently the most costly surrounding any Division I school (“Attracting Valuable
Coaches to the Priciest College Town,” The New York Times,
November 10, 2007). Living in one of the nation’s most vibrant economic and cultural regions affords myriad benefits not found at other universities, but it presents a real challenge for Cardinal athletics.
Every year, Stanford loses talented coaches who, despite competitive salaries, cannot afford to buy local homes for their families. They pursue opportunities in more affordable areas, sometimes coaching teams against which the Cardinal competes. Sought-after coaches have declined offers from Stanford simply because of the cost of housing.
The athletic department has discussed possible solutions to this dilemma for a number of years, but was unable to make real progress due to limited resources. Now, during The
Stanford Challenge, the university has established the Coaches’ Housing Fund (CHF).
To make this possible, Stanford seeks $40 million for the CHF, the proceeds from which
shall be used for the following purposes:
1. Buying Local Homes
Through the CHF , the athletic department seeks to acquire a combination of 6 to 10 single-family detached homes and 6 to 10 condominiums in the Stanford area. These dwellings may be purchased by the department using CHF funds or given to the department by donors for the benefit of the CHF. Such dwellings will be made available to head and assistant coaches for rent at affordable rates. In addition to providing immediate housing, the use of affordable department rentals will allow coaches to save toward the purchase of their own homes.
2. Building On-Campus Housing The CHF will also enable the athletic department to build an on-campus housing development comprising 19 three-bedroom, single-family homes of approximately 2,000 square feet each and 3 twin homes (6 dwellings of approximately 1,800 square feet each). This development will be located along El Camino Real between Serra Street and Stanford Avenue, at the edge of Escondido Village on Olmsted Road. Construction is scheduled to begin in summer 2008, and it is anticipated that some of the homes will be ready for occupancy by early 2009. Homes in the Olmsted development will be made available to coaches and staff at affordable rental rates. Again, affordable department housing also helps coaches save for homes of their own.
3. Helping Coaches Buy
In addition to the purchase and construction of homes, the CHF will allow the athletic department to create a transition fund to help coaches buy their own homes. For example,
after a successful coach has lived in an athletic department-owned condominium for three years, she might be offered a retention bonus from the CHF to assist with a down
payment on a home of her own. In addition, the CHF will allow the athletic department to offer low-interest or forgivable housing loans to coaches.
http://giving.stanford.edu/get/file/g2sdoc/CoachesHousingFund.pdf -
How much does a Stanford coach make? I going to guess more than a union public school teacher.
In other words, another public subsidy to the sports business.
“How much does a Stanford coach make?”
Unless you are the head coach of the football or maybe basketball team, not enough to live there.
$650,000…………….. for all homes
(including condominiums)
$714,500………… for resale houses
$733,750……………for new homes
$480,000………. for condominiums
San Jose Mercury News,
March 10, 2008
From the Editors of American Banker
Loan Markdowns in Bank M&A Deals Rekindle CRE Worries
Some yearend bank deals gave new meaning to the abbreviations M&A and CRE: More Anxiety about Crummy Real Estate loans.
The banks that agreed to buy Wilmington Trust Corp., Marshall & Ilsley Corp. and Whitney Holding Corp. took surprisingly big markdowns on their loans to homebuilders, apartment owners, office property developers and other commercial real estate borrowers.
Investors and analysts had been hoping these lenders and their competitors were getting a handle on problem loans to businesses by devaluing them and modifying terms. The markdowns suggest otherwise. They raise fears that banks are either downplaying the depth of their troubles in commercial real estate or being blindsided by rapidly increasing losses.
American Banker
January 7, 2011
The Case Against Homeownership
Time Magazine Sept 2010
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2013684-1,00.html
(I’m assuming PB or another fabulous HBB’er posted this, but it’s worth repeating.I read this in the Doc’s waiting room this morning.)
Many thanks for posting that, and I hadn’t seen it!
Hope you don’t have what I had last night (I probably should have gone to the doc today, but didn’t…)
This Time photo gallery should be of interest to DennisN:
In Boise, Housing Struggles to Emerge from Its Malaise
The Idaho city may be a reflection of nation-wide trends
This is a great article. Let’s hope it is the leading edge of a trend towards increased honesty in MSM reporting!
“…our leaders, with our encouragement, went much too far. The dark side of homeownership is now all too apparent: foreclosures and walkaways, neighborhoods plagued by abandoned properties and plummeting home values, a nation in which families have $6 trillion less in housing wealth than they did just three years ago. Indeed, easy lending stimulated by the cult of homeownership may have triggered the financial crisis and led directly to its biggest bailout, that of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Housing remains a drag on the economy. Existing-home sales in July dropped 27% from the prior month, exacerbating fears of a double-dip recession and accelerating the accompanying slide in stock that took the Dow Jones industrial average to a seven-week low. And all that is just the obvious tale of a housing bubble and what happened when it popped. The real story is deeper and darker still.“
From the comments section of that Time article, words well said…
…quit blaming everyone else. It is my fault, it is your fault. We all have a part to play…all of us, (albeit some more than others). And the more we stop looking within and continue to try to blame everyone else for the issue, the worse off we will be. If people hadn’t lapped up the houses that we being pumped out like donuts at a Krispy Kreme, the builders wouldn’t have built them. If we all learned to live within our means, the debtors of the world would no longer have a stranglehold on how we live our lives.
…the debtors of the world no longer have a stranglehold…
Was it the debtors who gave out the easy money loans like candy on Halloween? I hadn’t heard about that…
It’s not my fault. I rented through the housing bubble. I didn’t work as a real estate agent, mortgage broker, or in the construction industry. I bought my last car used, with cash, when the previous one died after 15 years. I haven’t bought anything on credit in years, although I did make payments on some medical expenses in 2005. I have been practicing frugality and self-denial for many years.
The beauty of the internet is the old news stories which tend to stick around forever, like this one dated May 31, 2005:
“These are heady days for real estate. First-time home sales hit a record in April. The National Association of Realtors reported on May 24 that existing-home prices climbed 15.1% in the prior year, to a record $206,000 median price, with the strongest gains in the West and Northeast. “We continue to expect that the year 2005 will see the new all-time record,” wrote John Herrmann of Cantor Fitzgerald in a May 24 report. He thinks housing will stay strong until at least 2010.”
You can’t expect them to just give it away!
High-End Homes That Won’t Sell
Despite steep markdowns, these expensive homes from across the country just won’t sell
So the NAR’s stranglehold on Washington dates back to Herbert Hoover’s time as Secretary of Commerce. No wonder it is so hard to break it! This goes to show you that the damage from top political leaders’ missteps can long outlive their time in power.
“…
Yet it wasn’t until the 20th century that Washington started throwing major resources at turning everyone into a homeowner. In 1919 the government took over the Own Your Own Home campaign that the National Association of Real Estate Boards (the present-day National Association of Realtors) had launched. As Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover was a booster, declaring that “maintaining a high percentage of individual homeowners is one of the searching tests that now challenge the people of the United States.
…”