Bits Bucket for January 12, 2011
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
January 12, 2011
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JPMorgan’s CEO Dimon Says More U.S. Municipalities May File for Bankruptcy ~ Bloomberg~
JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said he expects more U.S. municipalities to declare bankruptcy and urged caution when investing in the $2.9 trillion public-debt market.
“There have been six or seven municipal bankruptcies already,” Dimon, 54, said yesterday at his company’s annual health-care conference in San Francisco. “I think unfortunately you will see more.”
Cities including Detroit and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, have raised the prospect of bankruptcy. Still, the number of filings has declined. Five municipal entities sought protection in 2010 compared with 10 in 2009, according to data compiled by James Spiotto, head of the bankruptcy practice at Chapman & Cutler, a Chicago law firm. The biggest last year was a South Carolina toll road with more than $300 million in debt, he said.
I know a guy who is a project manager for a commercial construction company that specializes in municipal projects.. He told me the other day that a lot of lined up work simply vanished because the munis and counties were having trouble selling bonds to finance the projects.
He said that sales were down almost 40% in 2010, and that 2011 is looking even worse and that the company is looking like its going to have to layoff project managers (i.e superintendents) unless things pick up real soon. Given the news above I could see bond buyers being shy. What recourse do the have? Repo a school or a jail?
In FL you can drive through the most po-dunk pos town in the middle of nowhere and you will get to see a brand-new, tuscan-styled, $multi-million-dollar, bling-bling, fire station and/or police station, city hall, etc. All courtesty of the biggest bubble era in the history of mankind. Monuments to greed and stupidity of short-sighted planners. Look and you will see.
But the gold plated fire dept. always saves the slab.
Slabs?????? doubling up dead bodies:
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/01/12/bodies-doubled-up-at-cook-county-morgue/
HA! According to the comments this news means a higher than expected voter turnout for next month’s mayoral primaries!
“HA! According to the comments this news means a higher than expected voter turnout for next month’s mayoral primaries!”
Now that’s just funny, I don’t care who you are.
Case in point:
http://www.workshop.org/contact.html
This is a picture of City of WPB’s new city hall building. Looks suitable for a city the size of NY, and, even then, it would be considered extravagant. For a 2nd-3rd tier city, it’s absolutely outrageous.
Our muni business is picking up - more RFPs anyway. Doesn’t mean funding can dry up after the bids are in.
…rather, doesn’t mean funding cannot go poof…
Uh, that’s 3 buildings and the side facing the viewer is the photo center.
Jamie’s jumping on Meridith’s bandwagon, eh? I guess we know where his shorts are placed…
Jamie’s hair is always perfect so you should listen to what he has to say.
San Diego still in denial. No need to raise any taxes. Pension fund payments in check. Everything is just fine!
Geithner Says U.S. Insolvent ~ Source - Lew Rockwell ~
The U.S. government is insolvent. Who says so? Timothy F. Geithner, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. Geithner sent a letter to Congress on Jan. 6, 2011 asking for the debt limit to be raised. If it is not raised, he warned, the U.S. will default on its debt.
In his words:
* “Never in our history has Congress failed to increase the debt limit when necessary. Failure to raise the limit would precipitate a default by the United States.”
He didn’t say that the government will be inconvenienced. He didn’t say that the government would be forced to muddle through by delaying payments, raising taxes, and cutting non-obligatory programs and services. He said the government will default. This means that the government doesn’t have enough cash to pay its obligations to the many and sundry persons to whom it owes cash unless Congress authorizes an issue of even more debt.
“Here’s the problem with national debt. When you have too much of it, you’re trapped. You can try austerity. You can try refinancing. You can try to ‘grow your way out.’ But at a certain level of debt, it’s too late. You’re already off the cliff. All you can do is fall.
“This is what happened to the Germans after WWI. The reparations demanded by France and Britain were so high that the Germans couldn’t pay. And when they tried to pay, the outflow of capital so weakened their economy that they were even less able to pay.”
~ Trapped by Sovereign Debt ~
~ Bill Bonner
As others have said they’ll either monetize the debt via the printing press or they’ll default. Either way J6P and the entire middle class are in store for some real pain. Soon we’ll all be living off peanut butter, mac-n-cheese and baloney sanwiches.
and baloney sandwiches ??
Yummy…I love Baloney sandwiches….
thats what I was thinking scdave , I love those baloney sandwiches
Baloney is OK, but I prefer bologna.
Skippy just reduced the size of its standard creamy peanut butter jar from 18 oz to 16.3 oz. Jiff had “still 18 oz” blazoned across the label. Even with a 10% reduction in size, $1.33 is a good price, so I bought a bunch. Not going to need to buy peanut butter for a long, long, while.
Watch those expiration dates! I keep a pantry full of food storage and replenish it every 6 months. You get a real sense of how long (or how short) food lasts, even sealed prepared food. Peanut butter is about 12-16 months. Sounds like a long time, but not if you have 5-6 jars around.
““Here’s the problem with national debt. When you have too much of it, you’re trapped.”
The problem with the current debt crises is that there is no buffer, in this case disposable income. For years we the consumer have been functioning on the ‘How a’much’a month it’a gonna cost me’ plan. The end result sped up by irresponsible lending in the housing market was financial enslavement to servicing debt. Checkmate!
““Here’s the problem with national debt. When you have too much of it, you’re trapped.”
No way. “Trapped”? By whom? Every country in the world is “trapped”. Again trapped by whom or what?
If you are “trapped” that means you are trapped by someone or something. Now how can every country be trapped? Everyone is trapped? How and by whom or what?
Who are the trappers and how can they possibly keep everyone but themselves trapped? Do you really think the entire world is going to lie down when the SHTF and remain “trapped”? Lunacy.
“Now how can every country be trapped? Everyone is trapped? How and by whom or what?”
I suppose that would be the Banking Clan. As long as they can buy and own governments while the sheeple are passive then we are indeed “trapped”
Germany only paid, or was only able to pay, the indemnities later extorted because the United States was profusely lending money to Europe, and especially to her. In fact, during the three years 1926 to 1929 the United States was receiving back in the form of debt installment indemnities from all quarters about one-fifth of the money which she was lending to Germany with no chance of repayment. However, everybody seemed pleased and appeared to think this might go on for ever.
History will characterise all these transactions as insane.
- Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill
Germany only paid, or was only able to pay, the indemnities later extorted because the United States was profusely lending money to Europe, and especially to her. In fact, during the three years 1926 to 1929 the United States was receiving back in the form of debt installment indemnities from all quarters about one-fifth of the money which she was lending to Germany with no chance of repayment. However, everybody seemed pleased and appeared to think this might go on for ever.
Sounds like China and America today…
The US took German Patents and brand names after the war as part of the reparations. Case in point, Bayer. Remember the famous asparin brand? The German pharmaceutical company was only able to use its own name again about a decade ago.
I guess China got our patents another way, but the result is similar.
Let them eat cake. Oh, wait…
Why would any thinking person believe anything Geitner has to say?
He’s a Fascist, much in the same way that many within the Political Class are Fascists.
Debt is slavery. It’s precisely what the Political Class wants.
much in the same way that many within the Corporate Class are Fascists.
Debt is slavery. It’s precisely what the Corporate Class wants.
——————————————–
Fixt it for you. Again.
Correct. The “political class” regardless of whether they have an “R” or a “D” after their name are mere pawns of the corporate class.
One thing that the corporate class needs to be wary of: having one of their pit pulls breaking his leash and wrecking havoc. I’m sure Germany’s corporate class thought they had Hilter under control at first too.
But IBM is still here…
Is TTT threatening humanity with the “armageddon” card? That’s just not very original.
“D-E-F-A-U-L-T,
Don’t know what it means to me”
We need some HBB lyricists to step up here. And Aretha Franklin, call your agent.
Maybe Aretha’a piano accompanist could help out - she seems smarter than most of the Washington crowd.
The US is not “insolvent” in the traditional sense, in that the US has tremendous land and infrastructure. Imagine how many Chinese peasants would be grateful just to move onto a 1/4 acre with an intact podunk shack with running water and a flush toilet — probably enough to cancel the debt with China.
Cinton closed the budget defecit simply when taxes were a little higher and everyone had a productive job.
I wonder what would happen if you closed the corporate tax loopholes, played hardball with tarriffs,* means tested entitlements and pensions, abolished the profit-off-the-sick-who-have-no-choice-but-to-pay health care industry, and move troops from the Middle East to the Rio Grande. I think the US would recover fast.
———
*yes I know about Smoot-Hawley, but the US hadn’t undergone several decades of outsourcing.
Stop ruining Lew Rockwell’s talking points!
Better Lew Rockwell than George Lincoln Rockwell….
“The US is not “insolvent” in the traditional sense…”
+1, oxide.
Leave it to the Lew Rockwell folks not to understand that default can be caused by MANY things, not just insolvency.
In our case, with a presumed-large future income base to tax, it would actually be caused by illiquidity, not insolvency. And that’s true even if we ignore all of the land/infrastructure that the Federal government could sell.
Oxide ……yes if they would just do the right things for the Country as a whole . Isn’t that the governing bodies first and foremost duty .Isn’t it the duty of the Justice system to render Justice to all equally and be a check and balance system to laws that might be unconstitutional .Isn’t it the duty of law enforcement and regulatory bodies to enforce laws and
regulate entities ,not turn a blind eye to special interest groups that
lobby and have the power of riches and influence to be above the law if allowed .
.
Just because the losses were going to be huge and it threatened the
exposure of corrupt institutions doesn’t mean that obstruction of justice should of been the course taken . Now the path that has been
taken is a bunch of smoke and mirrors and not really even practical solutions to the problems that came to a head .
The Power Brokers said it was a violation of contract not to award the
culprits bonuses during the banking meltdown in spite of them being insolvent ,yet its OK to break the contracts to the middle class because they dare to want what was earned .
Changing who the Bagholders will be has always been the name of the game as if none of what happened happened and it’s only right
that the real liability be transferred to innocent parties .The moral
hazard of the course that has been chosen is off the charts .
I wonder what would happen if you closed the corporate tax loopholes, played hardball with tarriffs,* means tested entitlements and pensions, abolished the profit-off-the-sick-who-have-no-choice-but-to-pay health care industry, and move troops from the Middle East to the Rio Grande. I think the US would recover fast.
“TrueAmericanPatriotCEO™” / Check
“TrueMedicalLordBaronViceroyDukeKingQueenroyaltyInc.™” / Check
“TrueMilitaryInc.™” / Check
http://memegenerator.net/Foghorn-Leghorn/ImageMacro/887752/Foghorn-Leghorn-boy-i-say-boy-I-think-yer-on-to-something.jpg
“Chinese peasants would be grateful just to move onto a 1/4 acre”
Texas alone would accomodate about the entire population of China under those conditions.
All the best cowboys have Chinese eyes.
That was just about the most perfect deployment of a music quote (album title in this case) that I’ve seen. Kudos.
We would recover miraculously. I wish they would expedite this process.
And yet Geithner is working with Obama to cut corporate taxes. You’d think in these painful times, they’d want more tax revenue, but alas it’s just more of the same old Bush nonsense. Tax cuts for the wealthy, tax cuts for the big corporations, f*** little business, f*** the little guy, hire Wall Streeters for top administration jobs, etc. Obama has disappointed me to no end. I will NOT be voting for him next election, no matter what. For the first time in my life, I may not vote period.
Ditto.
There are millions who agree with you, Grizzly, and Obama knows it. The Dems lost the House because moderates stayed home in droves in November, not because the Tea Party somehow surged up. Obama knows this too. And if he doesn’t know it, he deserves to lose.
The question is whether Obama can thread the needle, as he has done before. My guess says no.
Obama is done. The reason he won was because millions of people like myself, who are not Democrats, voted for him to give him a chance, to see if maybe he’d deliver on some of those campaign promises. We wanted out of Iraq and Afghanistan, not an evaluation of the situation and subsequent continuation of failed military policies. We wanted an end to the all-too-cozy ties between Wall St. and the governing administration, not the continued hiring of insiders and re-treads. We wanted an end to tax cuts for the wealthiest 1%, and the corporations who offshore American jobs, not more financial rewards for those who amass fantastic wealth at the expense of the masses. What we got was a hybrid Bush/Clinton administration, replete with more of the same corrupt economic terrorists whose self interests steer this country towards the point of no return.
+1 Wow, that was awesome!
I’m just waiting for the candidate who comes along and says “I don’t care whether or not we have an agreement with our adversaries not to tariff their goods. We’re going to.”
The thing is, we have 2 choices - either we default on the debt, or we default on the trade agreements. I choose thing 2.
I agree, GrizzlyBear. I have historically leaned Democrat, but most of what Obama has done has really soured me on him. I supported what he was trying to achieve with health insurance reform, but it was a botched job. Almost everything else that he has done on the economic front, I have been completely against. I won’t vote for him again, but I sure as sh-t won’t vote for Palin either.
We went from a net lender nation in the 1980s to a net debtor nation in the same decade.
Everyone should know what will come of this…Not one damn thing! Nothing improper will be discovered.
Item: SEC inspector general examining claim that enforcement chief gave break to 2 Citigroup execs
WASHINGTON (AP) — The internal watchdog of the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating an allegation that the agency’s enforcement chief gave a break to two Citigroup executives when the bank settled charges of misleading investors.
Inspector General David Kotz confirmed Tuesday that his office recently began a review at the request of Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. Grassley passed the anonymous written allegation to Kotz. It said that the SEC enforcement director, Robert Khuzami, directed his staff to drop planned civil fraud charges against the executives after having a “secret conversation” with an attorney representing Citigroup who is “a good friend” of Khuzami.
An SEC spokesman says the Citigroup settlement followed a careful review of evidence and held the executives accountable.
R.I.P., rule of law.
Yep, that’s a common theme all around, it seems. Rule of law has gone by the boards, replaced with the rule of reward for those who break the law (except for a few tokens like Madoff). And they wonder why civil discourse has broken down.
That’s what concerns me the most. People see the impunity with which the Wall Street predators operate, and see that crime DOES pay - very handsomely. They see regulators and enforcers turning a blind eye to blatant fraud, or, if it gets to big to ignore, imposing slap-on-the-wrist punishments. This is feeding a situation where society stops caring about good and bad, right and wrong, and focuses on “getting mine,” morality be damned.
That’s what concerns me the most. People see the impunity with which the Wall Street predators operate, and see that crime DOES pay - very handsomely.
And the nutballs keep telling us about “American Exceptionalism”- how the world still looks towards America as a “beacon of light” and how we’re so special and God’s people and all.
Well, there are a lot of tourists in Rio from all over the world and a lot of them look at America’s politics, health-care, Wall Street and wealth inequality and think a lot of Americans are selfish, dangerous, greedy wackjobs.
Rule of law? Only for the little people now in the USA.
Regulatory capture.
and see that crime DOES pay - very handsomely ??
And if your going to do it, do it BIG because then you only need to do it once to be on easy street…Don’t be fools like the two sisters in Florida who got life sentences for an $11. armed robbery….
“We shall have world government, whether we or not we like it. The only question is whether World Government will be achieved by conquest or consent.”
- Paul Warburg, Council on Foreign Relations and architect of the Federal Reserve System. (In an address to the U.S. Senate, February 1950).
An absence of “rule of law” helps in this mission, does it not, Sammy?
I have yet to understand why so many here do nothing about it. Bitch in every direction possible, about everything imaginable, yet do nothing. Dismiss anything that anyone else is trying to do to rectify the situation, whether or not you even understand what they are undertaking.
Congratulations. You’re getting what you deserve.
In the last election, 95% of the population supported the statist, corporatist politicians Obama and McCain. That gave the financial elites a green light to step up their attempts to control public policy for their own ends, i.e. looting the productive classes and assets in this country.
Agreed
The electoral process has become a pageant versus an actual election. The elites choose the candidates.
More to the point, the vast majority who supported pro-bailout John McCain and pro-bailout Obama, signalled Wall Street and the political establishment that they’re OK with being bent over by Wall Street and the Fed, and having unpayable debts foisted onto their children.
pro-bailout Obama
I had hoped that Obama, unlike McCain, would have the backbone to smack Wall Street until its ears rang (after the apparently “necessary” bailouts), but he has instead licked their asses.
“I have yet to understand why so many here do nothing about it. Bitch in every direction possible, about everything imaginable, yet do nothing”.
Question? What is it that they can or should do? What are your solutions to our problems?
“What are your solutions to our problems?
On a macro level I have none; There are some things (maybe most things) that are well beyond my control (”A man’s got to know his limitations”).
On a micro level I have several:
1. Keep my job. My job means steady cash flow.
2. Keep my health, my most valuable asset. Keeping my health helps me keep my job (see 1 above).
3. Keep on living below my means and stockpile the difference. This stockpile will be put to good use as great opportunities spring into being. (Note: These great opportunities do not appear when times are wonderful, they only appear when times are dismal.)
FWIW.
I’ve talked about it repeatedly. Most people here flame me, tell me I’m nuts. ‘Nuff said.
Exactly, change - like charity - starts at home.
It’s high time to scrutinize one’s decisions and choices and act in ways that run parallel to what we each believe. Perhaps some will be right and some will be wrong.
On the bright side, we have it easy in that stories of what NOT to do abound right now.
4. Keep an escape hatch from the USA. Don’t assume that just because you’re an “American” that other countries will welcome you when the chips are down. Also remember that when it gets to that point that you might not be able to take your wealth with you. Many Europeans neglected this prior to WW2 and paid dearly for their lack for foresight
‘I have yet to understand’
I don’t know how old are you CoSpgs4. I was reading everything I could find about the CFR and the Tri-lats 27 years ago, (and it wasn’t easy to research pre-internet). I was politically active in college, more than most. Back then, professors and media types would consider you an extremist for even mentioning these groups or the Federal Reserve. Now the Fed is openly criticized.
We live in a free society, in spite of these organizations. We settle things with elections, open knowledge or even civil disobedience. The latter is more powerful than you might think. One reason the ‘one worlders’ haven’t gotten everything that they want is most people resist it. The other reason is it won’t work.
Look at Sudan; they’re splitting up. Look at the USSR; as soon as possible, they splintered into as many pieces as they could. Same would happen in China, if they get the chance. The European Union will likely go the way of the Common Market. Free people prefer smaller, more localized government because it’s more representable of their interests and more accountable.
A lot of progress has been made. Twenty something years ago you may have been limited to disagreeing with professors or writing letters to the editor that didn’t get printed. Now you can go on any number of internet outlets and speak your mind. Popular disgust with how we got into this financial mess shows more awareness than I’ve seen in my lifetime. We also have to get on with our lives. And even though I disagree with a lot of the actions I see in the various governments, I like the US better than any other place I’ve been.
“We also have to get on with our lives.”
Words to live by.
“And even though I disagree with a lot of the actions I see in the various governments, I like the US better than any other place I’ve been.”
More words to live by. Thanks, Ben.
“We also have to get on with our lives.”
Words to live by.
You can say that again! And here’s my Tucson, Arizona update:
Yesterday evening, I went to the bicycling community’s pedal-powered vigil for the victims of Saturday’s shootings. There was quite a turnout — more than 150 people on a chilly evening.
Being part of a cycling procession of this type was an experience, to say the least. We rode a loop around the University of Arizona campus, then headed over to University Medical Center, where a huge shrine has been created on the front lawn. If you’re anywhere near Tucson, come by and see it. You will be moved.
The President’s coming to town to give a speech, so I’ll be leaving in a while to go get in line at McKale Center.
Talk to you tomorrow!
I feel the same way, although I’d like it a lot better if there was a lot less immigration, both legal and illegal.
“I have yet to understand why so many here do nothing about it.”
Because I don’t have millions of dollars with which to buy a politician or an entire cable network? Because my company (ie me) is too-small-to-not-fail? Because some people around me are too busy watching American Idol? Because others are bitching about Big Government on the way to pick up “their” Social Security check or corn subsidy or Medicare-paid drugs?
None of that is good reason not to do something, oxide.
Please don’t take that as a snide, personal remark. No matter who said it, my response would be the same.
“I have yet to understand why so many here do nothing about it.”
Why do you and other fox news types perpetually sit in front of a monitor or TV screen and belabor how nobody else is doing anything? Much like the retired pastor sitting under a palm tree bemoaning how “the country has lost it’s ‘moral underpinnings’”.
You people really need to get out of the house and get a life. There are good organizations that need willing people assist AND DO SOMETHING for other without the bitching and complaining. Try it sometime.
I stand by what I said.
.
There really is no need for you to admit your stubborn adherence to an ideological position that works against your interests. You demonstrate it everyday.
CoSpgs4,
You have never proposed a workable solution to any of this.
Since you consider me inept, why in the world are you asking me? You told another poster that he/she needs professional help and said the same to me via association.
Who do you think you are that you’re going to get a satisfactory response from me now?
He who has the gold, makes the rules.
As I’ve often said, a society that puts a price on everything, values nothing.
“internal watchdog”
In English this time: facade.
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/africa/2011/01/2011111214716877786.html
Meanwhile, in a highly significant development all but ignored by the MSM, riots over soaring food prices and a stagnating economy are spreading in Tunisia. Food riots were a precursor to the 2008 global financial crash.
Can you repeat after me?
P O P U L A T I O N
That’s the problem. Too many of us, not enough food to go around. No monetary policy can fix this.
Some countries are more screwed than others. China is a shining star in this game because not only is its population in check, the future also shows a decreasing trend (i.e. even if they were to ease up on the one child policy, a good fraction of their families will choose to have only one child and certainly no more than 2). India is in a bit of trouble, but there is a lot of awareness among the general population and again the growth rate has slowed a lot and might actually trend to zero not so far in the future.
Countries to watch out for - where discussion of population control is out of question - Pakistan, Philipines, Mexico, and to a lesser extent Bangladesh. The future looks grim in these countries.
We need more fatal diseases, fewer bailouts. Simple as that.
Are you the Grim Reaper’s wingman?
The book the “Silent Spring” wrote about this in the 1970s and predicted an overpopulated planet would lurch into starvation in the 1980s.
Didn’t happen.
The USA has almost tripled its population since the end of WWII. Yet no issues with feeding its population.
Where you see starvation in the world today - it is nearly always due to some socialist/central planning policy of the government. Go google the mass starvations in the USSR in the 1930s, the mass starvations in China in the 1970s, the mass starvations in North Korea (1990-present) and the starvation in Zimbabwe in the 1990s/2000s.
What do they all have in common? It is not population growth.
FYI – China is already rethinking its one child law.
FYI – China is already rethinking its one child law.
Of course they are. Because it violates the teachings of the Bible.
More like, it violates the spoiled little emperor boys who grow up only to find that their little queens were either aborted or adopted by American families.
I touched upon the population issue the other day .Over population seems to me has got to be a issue that comes into play on the World stage regarding the distribution of resources and the distribution of jobs .
The jobless recovery in the USA is simply the issue that we don’t have enough jobs to fill the population demand for jobs.There are different reasons for that .We could of had more jobs to support our growth but policies were changed that outsourced jobs and manufacturing .We built our culture on consumer buying going
back to the early days of mass marketing when the Market
Makers convinced people they needed more and more .This
eventually translated to a strong middle class evolving that got a piece of the pie on all this production of goods .
If we are going to have less jobs in America ,than the population
is to high to support enough jobs for that population . It’s a fine line balance to have a population in which the unemployment
rate is low .
You have countries that couldn’t possibly have enough jobs for
the population numbers .American Corporations and Government unthinkingly allowing this transport of jobs and
manufacturing to other shores is unacceptable and is incompetent and a sign of a take over by special interest groups
that are so short sighted that short term gains are the only focus
Now the rah rah talk is that the middle class and the pension
takers should be the parties that pay for this change ,not to mention screwing the young with lack of jobs and a undeserved tax burden .
Oxide–Well the urban wealthy can always find some pretty young village girl to marry. But if they think that the rural poor are unhappy now, it’s NOTHING to how unhappy they’ll be when a large proportion of ‘em have NO real chance of marrying and raising kids of their own ’cause the welthy have absocnded with their potential partners.
This is not a problem unique to China.
All of the best/brightest/prettiest around here move to KC, Dallas, Denver……to replace their best/brightest/prettiest, who move to the NE corridor, or to California.
Brazil has more women than men but a lot is due to women living longer.
From the Economist Brazil has more women than men. But in Rio the imbalance is particularly marked: for every 100 females in the city there are only 86.4 males, according to IBGE, the national statistics agency. That is far lower than the 95 males per 100 females that is the average for Brazil’s big cities. What is going on? And does this explain the size of the bikinis?
…Brazilian women decided to have fewer babies….As a result the fertility rate dropped from 6.2 live births per woman in 1960 to around two today, while people are living longer. In the past ten years, life expectancy has risen from 68.9 years to 72.4 years. An older population means more women in relation to men, because women tend to live longer.
Second, during the past 50 years millions of women have moved away from rural areas and towards cities, where they often find jobs in domestic service. This has further skewed the sex ratio in cities compared with the countryside.
Maybe they’re getting jobs as prostitutes.
Because we all know that you can never overpopulate a country??
See Haiti
See Subsaharan Africa
There are many places in the world that can’t produce enough food for the population. What happens when the oversupply from foreighn countries stops or there is a drought.
I love the reasoning that prior predictions of overpopulation mean it will never happen = housing prices never drop.
Yes technology and fertilizers have increased production but eventually these will not be able to make up for a growing population.
The problem is that governments and religion both get their power from population growth. Thus they tell the masses to go forth and multiply.
Economist convinced Hati to remove tariffs protecting thier farmers and instead import cheaper food from the US.
Before this, the island produced enough food to support thier population.
Now of course, people are starving after the earthquake.
Free market triumphs again.
Do you know where your food comes from?
Much of the phenomenal improvement in farm yield can be attributed to oil derived fertilizers. There is no free lunch - oil is going to get more expensive if it remains available. Also, while further increases in yield are possible, things are getting harder. At the same time, land under cultivations is decreasing and there is a huge depletion in groundwater which is a pretty major source of irrigation. And all this discounts effects of global warming/flooding.
We have overfished our oceans. Fish is used for, incidentally, cattle feed from which we get meat and milk.
Don’t be hung up on someone’s busted prediction. The problems we face are evident - just do some research, maybe travel to some of these hotspots and see first hand what is happening. Someone from Iowa (not saying you are) who is used to abundance might not understand what it is to feed a country of a billion people with arable land a six of the size of the USA.
Overfishing has ended, says retired NOAA fisheries chief.
So, if we don’t have as many kids here, does it help people in Haiti?
“Overfishing has ended, says retired NOAA fisheries chief.”
That’s US commercial fleets. Nice data cropping!
From the same article: “An end to overfishing doesn’t mean all stocks are healthy, but scientists believe it’s a crucial step to getting there.”
All is well!
“Much of the phenomenal improvement in farm yield can be attributed to oil derived fertilizers.”
More likely natural gas derived nitrogen fertilizers.
Actually the book from the early 1970’s was The Population Bomb by Paul Erlich. It’s an interesting read today since his predictions were so far off.
IIRC Silent Spring was published around 1960.
You are correct.
Right wing radio and thought control through grammer must be effecting my brain waves…
You said it, not us. Actually, it was the policeman inside your head.
Don’t you mean Paul Ehrlich’s book and not Rachel Carson’s? Just because he was not spot on at the time still doesn’t mean that he was wrong.
Most of that agriculutural production is brought to you through fossil fuels which have already been high-graded.
I’ve said this here many times before (typically resulting in some pretty nasty responses), but, in all honesty, we need to change/repeal the tax code in this country to stop rewarding children, and start taxing more for people who have children. There’s simply no need for more people in this country, we’ve got more than enough (as does the world), and many of the problems that we see today are simply issues of too many people fighting for too few resources.
The only argument is as what point we have “too many” people. But there’s no argument, there IS a point where every person born decreases everyone else’s standard of living. It’s a question of when does that happen. In Japan/China, I think it happened long ago. In the US, I think we’re also beyond the point where more people bring more prosperity to the masses. Places like Canada? They probably need more people to reach their max potential.
The current US strategy of rewarding those who have more children, even though they place a much bigger burden on local community (primarily through increased school needs) is simply not sustainable. We need to encourage people not to have children, or, at least, not to have more than 1. I’m not a proponent of forcing people to do anything, so IMHO, the only thing that should happen (for people who have more) is increased taxes to help pay for their additional children.
The idea that we need to encourage more children is rooted in the dark ages, and really needs to go away. Even today, we’re seeing the results of this policy with far too many people competing for jobs and higher education, driving down the value of labor, and driving up the cost of education.
So then there would be more room for immigrants (legal or not) to flood through the gates?
Given that Americans reproduce at replacement levels, perhaps what we need to do is raise the drawbridge and remove the welcome mat for immigrants, both illegal and illegal.
Of course Corporations will have none of that.
I decided to not have kids, thanks to Paul Erhlich’s book and all the hype, but do I get any props from Bangladesh? Nope.
You guys are missing the point.
The ability to extract funds from the parents (directly or indirectly) exceeds the amount of the “subsidy”.
Just think of all the things/businesses that would disappear/change, if people quit having kids/”anchor babies”.
If they disappear, so goes part of the tax base.
There would be more competition for highly-paid “contract jobs”. People would be more likely to tell their employers to pound sand and move to change jobs, if they weren’t worried about putting a roof over their kids heads, in a decent community.
So, you could say, any “Child Tax Credit” is really a subsidy to employers, and to unmarried/childless adults.
Americans do not reproduce enough to sustain our current population. All population growth in this country is due to immigration.
The USA has almost tripled its population since the end of WWII. Yet no issues with
feedingpoisoning its population.Ha, you’re “High Fructose Corn Syrup” killing me!
There you go getting on your Sodium Podium.
Now you’ve made me thirsty. I think I’ll get a glass of radioactive arsenic water.
The book the “Silent Spring” wrote about this in the 1970s and predicted an overpopulated planet would lurch into starvation in the 1980s.
So, that’s all you got from her book?
“One man’s woeman’s science is another Corpoorations religion.”
Carson “quite self-consciously decided to write a book calling into question the paradigm of scientific progress that defined postwar American culture.”
The overriding theme of Silent Spring is the powerful—and often negative—effect humans have on the natural world.
“So, that’s all you got from her book?”
Are you surprised? It’s like the Michael Steele, “War and Peace” “best of times, worst of times” gaffe.
C. M. BURNS: This is a thousand monkeys working at a thousand typewriters. Soon, they’ll have written the greatest novel known to mankind. (reads one of the typewriters) “It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times”?! you stupid monkey! (monkey screeches) Oh, shut up.
Don’t blame US — we are barely growing, and face a rising dependency ratio as a consequence.
U.S. population growth slowed, still envied
Robert Groves, director of the U.S. Census Bureau, discusses the first results of the 2010 Census during a news conference last month in Washington, D.C. The population of the United States was listed at 308,745,538.
By Haya El Nasser and Paul Overberg, USA TODAY
Despite the slowest decade of population growth since the Great Depression, the USA remains the world’s fastest-growing industrialized nation and the globe’s third-most populous country at a time when some are actually shrinking.
The United States reached 308.7 million in 2010, up 9.7% since 2000 — a slight slowdown that many experts say was caused by the recession and less immigration.
Even so, U.S. growth is the envy of most developed nations. Trailing only China and India, the nation is expected to grow at least through the next generation because it is one of the few industrialized countries that has a fertility rate close to replacement level. The rate of births needed for a generation to replace itself is an average 2.1 per woman. The USA’s is at 2.06.
…
India and Muslim countries are the ones with most of the population growth. Rest of the world is remaining flat.
Africa seems to be doing thier part as well.
What about Mexico and South America? They don’t seem to be doing too shabby.
IIRC their birth rates have dropped as well.
So were high gasoline prices.
Funny how the American MSM has been silent about this. I know so many people who are buying the “things will improve in 2011″ lie that we are being fed.
Thank you Banking Clan, pretty soon there will be nowhere safe in the world.
My question is where is the analysis that really examines the impact of the end of the stimulus money? I haven’t heard anything except that we can extrapolate slightly improving numbers from the end of last year into much more rapidly improving numbers this year. Why? Where is a discussion of the impact of state and local governments cancelling building and repair programs? Where is the analysis of the impact on the homeland security “private” industry when governments stop buying their toys? Where is a guess at what laying off 5 to 10% of municipality workers will do to the local economies? Where is it?
LALALALALALALA…. I CAN’T HEAR YOU!
Oh, and reduced military spending too. What the heck are all those vets going to do with their leadership experience? Replace the people currently doing entry level jobs? OK. What will the displaced entry level people do?
They aren’t all going to go to college/trade school. And even if they do, they often get suckered into the ones that have limited to zero success getting their graduates into gainful employment.
And the contractors…..oh, the contractors.
Replace the people currently doing entry level jobs? OK. What will the displaced entry level people do?
I don’t anticipate that. My observation in high tech has been that military leadership experience usually gets you nowhere. They don’t trust it for some bad reasons and some good ones. I’d be more concerned about veterans finding other uses for their leadership skills due to nobody in the civilian world valuing them.
So was soaring debt.
“Food riots were a precursor to the 2008 global financial crash.”
Coincidence is not causation.
Did rice riots in the Pacific cause Wall Street to trip and fall? I figure high oil prices caused high food prices and that was caused by overextension of credit.
‘If you ask the average person if they want population growth they would say “No”. If you ask the average Corporation if they want population growth they would say “YES “.If you asked a Congressman if they want more population they would say “YES ‘.because that’s
more votes or more tax money .
If you ask the average Corporation if they want population growth they would say “YES “.
More births == more customers. Who cares about the long term consequences?
IMO, us baby boomers created a genocide back in the 70’s and 80’s by not procreating enough. The 3rd world imports are our govts solution to our shrinking population.In some ways we did the right thing, and in other ways we didn’t. It’s a Yin-Yang.
I’m 1 of 4, and my other half is 1 of 10. We forgot to have children. LOL
Oh but looked how much we helped the 3rd world with our sacrifice.
According to the Washington Post:
The Arctic ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot, according to a report to the Commerce Department yesterday from Consulafft, at Bergen, Norway. Reports from fishermen, seal hunters and explorers all point to a radical change in climate conditions and hitherto unheard-of temperatures in the Arctic zone. Exploration expeditions report that scarcely any ice has been met as far north as 81 degrees 29 minutes.
Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters showed the gulf stream still very warm. Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones, the report continued, while at many points well known glaciers have entirely disappeared.
Very few seals and no white fish are found in the eastern Arctic, while vast shoals of herring and smelts which have never before ventured so far north, are being encountered in the old seal fishing grounds.
Within a few years it is predicted that due to the ice melt the sea will rise and make most coastal cities uninhabitable.
That was from November 2, 1922, as reported by the Associated Press. That was the last time we had a global warming scare. Since then we have had a global cooling scare, which has also faded from the news papers, and now we are back to global warming again. Not that the hyperbole has changed much in 88 years.
http://theresilientearth.com/?q=content/case-doing-nothing-about-global-warming
It is all about a desire for elitist statists to control the individual’s drive to create wealth. Imagine a young Bill Gates establishing a coal mining business today with the growth rate that Microsoft had over 20 years.
That is correct.
Control the finances (financial “elite”); control the communications (MSM) and you have ultimate power.
Why is anyone surprised at all - even really discussing - how and why those two entities and the Federal government are converging to control everything? The Political Class’ quest is ALWAYS to control those three things.
Your responsibility is to stop them from accomplishing that.
Don’t forget movement. That is what they will go for next, they have already started with the real ID system.
I might very well have missed it, but has the HBB discussed what happened this past December 21 relative to content regulation of the internet?
Sometimes I wonder if you’re really a Protestant Fundamentalist. Sometimes you sound like one when you demonize the ’statists’ when its the Banking Clan that’s holding us back.
it’s actually both.
Remember, the “statists” are just the Banking Clan’s puppets.
“Sometimes I wonder if you’re really a Protestant Fundamentalist.”
That’s what happens when a single user has multiple ID’s. They can’t keep all the lies straight.
No I have a different theory.
Global warming, cap and trade, alternative energy all are pushed by the new breed of industrialists who decided that they just can’t compete with the existing energy cartel. The oil/coal/nuclear/hydro is too powerful and too profitable, they want some chunk of it. Not a small chunk by investing but being the captains of the said industry. So they came up with this idea of global warming. It helps them because it is slightly based in science and the fear mongering could work. So when their goal is reached, it will be them who benefit the most not you and me.
Then again my carbon footprint is way way too smaller than Al Gore’s so I am not too worried. I am doing all I can to protect the environment. It’s Gore who is not doing it.
And there are some big, FAT lies in that article. The seals are, in fact, spreading out to the Northeastern seaboard of the US. When I was an older pup on loose during summers on Cape Cod during the late 1970s, I never saw a seal on the shore, ever. Now, the Cape Cod National Seashore has quite the seal population.
Yeah, global warming is actually a global government conspiracy cooked up to be used as a possible excuse to control you.
YOU ARE PARANOID AND YOU REFUSE TO EXAMINE SCIENTIFIC DATA.
We have techniques these days that can be used to measure the carbon levels in the atmosphere from like a million years ago. Not just 88 years.
Oh, and we also happen to be fully aware that WE are releasing carbon into the atmosphere at unnatural rates.
That (1922) was the last time we had a global warming scare….Not that the hyperbole has changed much in 88 years.
and 88 years is a heck of a long time becaus the earth is only about 4,000 years old
the point is that 88 years is a very short time to go from global warming scare to global cooling scare and back to global warming scare.
the point is that 88 years is a very short time to go from global warming scare to global cooling scare and back to global warming scare.
rong. If the world is 4000 years old, 88 years is 2.2% of that 4000 years plus the earth was made in 6 days flat.
Therefore 88 years is a lifetime scientifically speaking wise.
Please hold off on the posts until you sober up. Your hate memos are just too lame.
Please hold off on the posts until you sober up. Your hate memos are just too lame.
What? I don’t understand.
You don’t believe in the Bible?
To be fair Rio there are plenty of Christians who “believe” in the Bible who do not subscribe to the “young Earth” doctrine. Its also worth remembering that American Protestant Fundamentalists are a minority in the global Christian community.
To be fair Rio there are plenty of Christians who “believe” in the Bible who do not subscribe to the “young Earth” doctrine.
And I am one of them.
Its also worth remembering that American Protestant Fundamentalists are a minority in the global Christian community.
But they think they are the only “true Christians” and “real Americans” whereas many of them are dangerous, anti-science, anti-intellectual, ignorant and hateful.
The evangs seem to be making significant inroads in Latin America. I wonder why? Not that they’re all fundies.
Are you sure? I thought the world was 6000 years old?
ANCHORAGE — Soon after Sarah Palin was elected mayor of the foothill town of Wasilla, Alaska, she startled a local music teacher by insisting in casual conversation that men and dinosaurs coexisted on an Earth created 6,000 years ago — about 65 million years after scientists say most dinosaurs became extinct — the teacher said.
“The evangs seem to be making significant inroads in Latin America.”
They’re still a small minority. Like here they make a lot of noise though.
You would think that Moses would have mentioned dinosaurs in the Old Testament. Woulda been a lot easier to fight Pharoh. Or somebody would have mentioned T-Rex eating entire classes of animals on Noah’s Ark. Oh well. Hey Sarah, if the earth is 6000 years old, how did all that oil get under your state? Did God put it there?
“Hey Sarah, if the earth is 6000 years old, how did all that oil get under your state? Did God put it there?”
That’s what they believe. If you ask them how we can see stars that are millions of light years away if the universe is 6000 years old they respond that the speed of light used to be much faster.
We don’t have any eye-witness accounts of dinosaurs because they were all destroyed by the global-warming facists who are just pretending not to be actual dinosaurs themselves as a way to control our grammar.
never mind the short term billions in profit to be made by the high priest politicos of global warming, if cap n trade went through
Never mind the billions in profit to be made by the oil companies as long as we can all keep believing that the scientist-facists are actually dinosaurs designed by Satan to control our grammar.
While I don’t have a full understanding of the issue of climate change, it seems to me that it predicts 1) change and 2) erratic weather.
and 88 years is a heck of a long time because the earth is only about 4,000 years old
BWAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! (fpss™)
“Not that the hyperbole has changed much in 88 years”
The guy who founded the global warming idea an 100 years ago proposed that it was a good thing, as it would be a benefit to agriculture in northern climes.
Even idiots get hijacked.
The guy who founded the global warming idea an 100 years ago proposed that it was a good thing,….Even idiots get hijacked.
Sorry if I’m hijacking your post but I just have to say that Science has come a long way in 100 years.
After all, 100 years is almost 3% of Earth’s total lifespan according to creationists.
LOL. Asking you to knock it off is about like asking my Ex to stop screaming. Probably for the same reasons.
Asking you to knock it off is about like asking my Ex to stop screaming. Probably for the same reasons.
You asked her to stop screaming because the truth hurt?
He asked her to stop screaming because he drove her crazy, kinda like he drives us crazy. Bleue is a Jerque.
Rio, I think even the young earth crowd estimates the age of the universe at a bit over 6000 years. I can’t remember ever seeing 4000 as an age of the world/universe). Is 4000 their estimate of time since Noah’s flood?
ISTR seeing ~4400 years as an estimate that people have come up with by counting “begats” in the bible.
The Age of the Earth is Oct 23 4004 BC from Bishop Usher.
I actually like your tack, Rio. For you can’t reason a man out of a position he hasn’t used reason to get into.
The Age of Aquarius is somewhat later.
There was a Bishop Ussher who added up the begats to get that the universe was created on October 23rd, 4004 BC.
At this point I really don’t know the truth regarding Global warming or Global cooling . All I know is that I don’t like pollution and whats wrong with conservation as a general principal of not being wasteful . For God sakes if we can use the sun or wind more rather than this dependence on oil it would be prudent to do so . I just
like cleaner power sources with the idea of less harm to planet earth . People are going to be fighting over oil ,so why not more ‘power sources to choose from for the future ? It just seems prudent not to put all the eggs in one basket ,namely oil .
I’m actually almost OK with that. I don’t know the best ways to go forward politically, etc. to make what you suggest happen, but the first step is admitting that we have a problem.
I do think that an understanding of climate change can assist in the notion that we need to get off of the consumption/oil test; however, I don’t want it to become an impediment to change.
MrBubble
test = teat
All I know is that I don’t like pollution and whats wrong with conservation as a general principal of not being wasteful . For God sakes if we can use the sun or wind more rather than this dependence on oil it would be prudent to do so
“Don’t…Stop it!” “Don’t…Stop it!” “Don’t…Stop it!”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gulf_Coast_Platforms.jpg
Rio, I think even the young earth crowd estimates the age of the universe at a bit over 6000 years. I can’t remember ever seeing 4000
Maybe, idk, I’m not an egghead intelectual.
All I know is I don’t need any un-American math and science “we’re all victims”, global warming facts and George Soros studies when I have the scriptures backing me up.
again it posts a straw man
again it posts a straw man
“it”?
evildoc, That “it” stuff kinda gives me the heebie jeebies doc, maybe because of that dialogue in Silence of the Lambs:
“It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.”
Who uses such terminology? Your sweet sounding handle makes up for it though.
Look , I just don’t like monopolies . Isn’t it prudent to come up
with many sources of energy rather than let a monopoly of oil
call the shots all the time .
The Irish ended up deciding to just produce one kind of potato
because it was easier . Eventually those crops fails because of
some sort of disease or bug and they were starving to death .
Diversity is protection .
Isn’t it true that monopolies are anti-capitalism because they
just end up becoming price fixing and powerful and it becomes the will of the Monopoly instead of the will of the people ?
—Who uses such terminology? Your sweet sounding handle makes up for it though.—
poifect then.
1922.
And have you seen the data trends for the last 90 years?
do you mean the actual data trends or the altered ones used to “hide the decline”?
Oh gawd. I see that you’ve been on the Interwebs watching Hide the Decline videos. Nice quotes on the Faux News/Rush Limbo talking points as well!
Google has this really neat feature where you can search back over several years.
Heck, back to when they started!
AMAZING!
Yeah, because someone is getting paid BILLIONS of dollars to hide the decline, man. It’s all about mind control. They are going to control you through your THERMOSTAT.
It seems to me that all things economic tend toward equilibrium. Similarly, it seems all of nature tends toward homeostasis. Eventually. Over time. In cycles, as a reaction to an action. Like housing.
Spot the Bubbles ~Puru Saxena
Posted Jan 11, 2011
BIG PICTURE – Let the truth be known, the world is being held hostage by powerful bankers. Thanks to the fiat-money fractional reserve system, bankers have become the ruling elite and as a result, entire nations are going bust.
Make no mistake, the world’s most severe recession in decades was caused by excessive debt and in the boom years, bankers provided the narcotic in the form of cheap credit. A few years ago, bankers willingly handed out unserviceable loans and they made fortunes from the interest payments. In those heady days, major banks made obscene amounts of money and their management went home with hundreds of millions of dollars. When the times were good and most debtors were servicing their loans, profits were distributed amongst the banks’ management, shareholders and bondholders. However, when the music stopped and the credit binge turned into a colossal bust, laws were promptly enacted to ‘bail out’ these morally and financially bankrupt institutions.
http://www.321gold.com/editorials/saxena/saxena011111.html
“Let the truth be known, the world is being held hostage by powerful bankers”
Come on! We all know its all those Escalade driving, steak and lobster munching, iPhone yakking welfare queens who are the source of all of our problems.
Richard
That’s right. Damn lazy welfare trash offshored all our jobs, caused $150/bbl oil, wrecked the economy, destroyed the middle class.
Damn welfare trash.
Damn section 8 trash keeping rent prices TOO Damnnn High!
The rent….. is too damn haaaaaaaa!
Home price drops exceed Great Depression: Zillow
By Al Yoon
NEW YORK | Tue Jan 11, 2011 8:40am EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Home prices fell for the 53rd consecutive month in November, taking the decline past that of the Great Depression for the first time in the prolonged housing slump, according to Zillow.
Home prices have fallen 26 percent since their peak in 2006, exceeding the 25.9 percent drop registered in the five years between 1928 and 1933, the housing data company said in a report on Monday. Prices fell 0.8 percent over the month.
It is a dubious milestone for the U.S. housing market which has failed to gain much traction despite a host of government programs to reduce delinquencies and encourage demand with temporary tax credits and lower interest rates. Many economists expect further price drops, even if there are some anecdotal signs of growing demand, such as in pending home sales data.
“For the next six to nine months, the larger factors affecting the housing market that will produce more home price declines will be the excess inventory of homes, high negative equity and foreclosure rates, and weakened demand due to elevated employment, Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist, said in a blog post.
Declines are accelerating, and it will take a while before falling unemployment and other signs of economic improvement support the market, Zillow said.
Oh, so there’s never been a better time to buy? That’s what my realtor says. Of course, she said the same thing in 2005/2006.
A question…
Were housing prices similarly “bubbly” before the 1928-1933 period? (Or was most of the excess speculation in stocks?)
What I’m curious about is how the % drop then and now relates to affordability, rents etc. and how that is similar/different now.
In 1926 Florida had a real estate crash because of speculation that occurred before the big stock market crash .Easy credit was occurring
the 10 years leading up to the Stock market crash .
But I think the greatest amount of loss took place because of the
speculation in the Stock Market and buying on margin .This crash caused the run on the banks ,the unemployment that followed caused
the drop in equity of real estate rather than speculation in real estate
causing the drop in equity values ,with the exception of Florida .IMHO
It just reached a point that so many people were out of work that
there wasn’t a big demand for real estate . Bankers eventually tried to restructure home and farm loans or worked out a rent back situation so people could keep on working the farm because they didn’t have buyers for foreclosed homes or farms .
My neighbor lost their farm during the Great Depression and my neighbors mother sold a horse so my neighbor could come to California .
The people that I talked to that were living on working farms didn’t
feel the Depression to the degree that City dwellers standing in soup
lines did . I talked to a 96 year old guy that was living in New York
that was a mechanic and they needed those jobs at the time so he was employed and was lucky and he use to see the people standing in the soup lines.
Than you had the horrible situation of the drought that lasted almost
10 years that caused the Dust Bowl Era . So here was a so-called
Natural disaster that complicated the Depression . Actually the Dust Bowl caused a lot of people to migrate to California . All of a sudden the rains came back ……weird .
A lot of people say that the War created the jobs that brought us out of the Depression . War as a job generator isn’t my idea of a good way to create jobs .
Of course the dust bowl wasn’t a strictly natural phenomana either. The WWI driven boom/bust in agricultural prices lead to people tearing up the deeply rooted prarie grasses and planting the land in wheat. When they abandonded that land, instead of drought resistant grasses, Oklahoma and the texas panhandle were covered in untilled former wheat farms, and the soil simply blew away.
Sort of like the undeveloped developments, except with curbs and gutters already in.
Yes I know about that fact and I should of said that the drought
was made worse by errors by humans . People are not aware of how many people died of lung diseases that came from breathing
air filled with dust all the time in those areas .
But if you were going to pen a causative factor for the Great Depression I would say it was the speculation in the Stock Market
on margin .
Duh, the runup of house prices before the Depression was a blip compared to what happened 1999-2005. Why doesn’t somebody write that prices must return to historical inflation adjusted averages?
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/07/updating-the-case-shiller-100-chart-forecast/
You’ve got to love our Not Depression Recession©®™.
Rep. Brady (D – PA) has promised to introduce new legislation to criminalize any political speech which could be perceived as incendiary, and other Democrats suggested that there should be a blanket ban on all speech and symbols which might be conceivably interpreted as incendiary against members of Congress.
Rep. Louise Slaughter (D – NY) insisted that the FCC should work hard to restrict political speech that “could incite people,” adding that “no one owns the airwaves” and that she clearly felt the FCC was not doing enough to regulate political commentary nor to sanction those whose criticism were unacceptable to her.
R.I.P., First Ammendment.
Dem Congressman who called for GOP Gov. to be put against a wall and shot now pleads for civility
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/01/dem-congressman-who-called-gop-gov-be-put-against-wall-and-shot-n#ixzz1ApIGAmeF
“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” President Obama - Jun 13, 2008 - Philadelphia
What did you say? I couldn`t hear you, President Obama told me to go to the back of the bus.
“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” President Obama - June 13th, 2008 - Philadelphia
Sarah Palin weighs in
” After this shocking tragedy, I listened at first puzzled, then with concern, and now with sadness, to the irresponsible statements from people attempting to apportion blame for this terrible event.
President Reagan said, “We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.” Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the criminals who commit them, not collectively with all the citizens of a state, not with those who listen to talk radio, not with maps of swing districts used by both sides of the aisle, not with law-abiding citizens who respectfully exercise their First Amendment rights at campaign rallies, not with those who proudly voted in the last election.”
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=487510653434
Sarah Palin weighs in
Is that sentence actually possible?
Was that the speech yesterday where she said the world looks up to America as a “beacon of light”?
I wonder why she looked like she’d aged 10 years.
Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals
RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)
Isn’t that what Limbaugh and Beck do?
That’s precisely what they do. The radical right has fine tuned and honed that skill into a science. All funded with corporate cash of course.
+1 Jeff…..
“TrueSquealShout&HollerRadio™”
Show-us-the-“TrueProvoker ™” Faux News-money!: $$$$$$$$$$$$
Rash Limpbaughs
Glenbeckinstan
Sarah “BloodLibdo” Palin
Fixed it for you
Alinsky’s Rules for NEOCON HATE RADIO
RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)
actually no.
Alinsky wrote for the Left.
Telling.
Yes, it is very telling as these are the EXACT tactics used by neocon hate radio.
Hypocrisy, how does it work?
I find it interesting that the attacks on Sarah Palin increased soon after she attacked QE2. She may not be presidential material but I don’t think she would get this amount of bad press if she was not in the way of the Goldman Sachs agenda.
She’s an idiot. Plain and simple.
The attacks on Palin inrease every time she opens her mouth. She is a moose. She reminds me of Bullwinkle.
Thank you, Charlie.
Yeah I can remember when “we all killed” JFK.
It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.” Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own.
Cheney-Shrub: “Fellow Americans,…He-has-yellow-cake-uranium!”
Hmm…
I know a lot of people have been thinking lately about rhetoric, and I agree it’s a topic that requires some careful reflection.
However a related thought about how we express ourselves has been nagging at me for a couple of days.
What sparked it was two videos made by individuals that have been in the news in recent days… One was the snowplow damaging a car in Brooklyn and the other was a video of cars being washed away down a creek in the Australian floods.
What stuck in my mind was the difference in the kind of language used.
The commentary on the first video contained many expletives and the second one none at all.
I know I’m sometimes a bit of an old fart, but this some how seems indicative of how we aren’t able to express ourselves articulately in civilized ways anymore.
I have a nephew, presently aged 43, who peppers his everyday speech with the F word - even in polite company, even in front of his mother.
I started saying the N word in response whenever he says the F word. Boy does this get his attention. The first time I did this he turned to me with a shocked expression and said you can’t say that word!
The lyrics of so-called “rap music” are a continuation of this. Lyrics consist of something like this.
Kill the pigs. F the hos. N word! N word! N word!
I fail to see how this should be construed as an “art form”.
it has become fashionable to look and talk gangsta in america.
i see not good in this, i do see good in spirited political debate.
What bothers me most is the inability recognize that different ways of speaking are necessary depending upon the situation and to tailor the manner of speech depending upon the context.
“I started saying the N word in response whenever he says the F word. Boy does this get his attention. The first time I did this he turned to me with a shocked expression and said you can’t say that word!”
“it has become fashionable to look and talk gangsta in america.”
Looks like some people now have excuses to say words and phrases they have been wanting to say all along….
#1. Would MLK be happy with today’s America?
#2. Have we eliminated most racism in America and people really are judged on the content of their character…but lots of people are making a Personal Choice to have a horrible character and that is the real reason our jails are filled to capacity?
#3. What would MLK say about today’s rap and hip hop music constantly swearing and using the “N” word? After he tried so hard to eliminate it’s usage in everyday America.
“#1. Would MLK be happy with today’s America?”
No he wouldn’t, people with your MINDSET are still around. Apparently, you never knew what MLK’s dream was in the first place. It damn sure wasn’t about Black and White people holding hands and singing ku by ya. It was about ending White Supremacy ( the reason why Jim Crow and Racial disparities exist) and American imperialism (i.e. the war in Vietnam). I wonder how many White people would love MLK if they really knew how he felt…..
“#2. Have we eliminated most racism in America and people really are judged on the content of their character…but lots of people are making a Personal Choice to have a horrible character and that is the real reason our jails are filled to capacity?”
Got to love how racist individuals such as yourself attempt to reduce MLK’s actions and beliefs down to a sound bit about being judged by the content of ones character. Here are some other things that were said in MLK’s “I have a dream speech”
http://www.usconstitution.net/dream.html
“But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination….. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.”
“Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.”
“We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating “For Whites Only”. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
#3. What would MLK say about today’s rap and hip hop music constantly swearing and using the “N” word? After he tried so hard to eliminate it’s usage in everyday America.
And why is it so important to YOU that rappers use this word?!? Don’t you hate rap music?!? Why do you care? Or are you using this as an excuse for YOU TO USE THIS WORD?
rio?
Rio what?
I think everybody understands that MLK was trying to get equality
for a race that did not have it here in America . M-X point was why
should his race have to fight for something that was already given
and in part fought for in the Civil War . White groups were trying to hold on to long held power that was a shameful display of trying to put a people in their place.
Wasn’t it James Madison that said that not freeing the slaves would be paid for later? There has been some appalling periods of
history where one group thought they had the right to hold down
another group or enslave another group …It sucks .
We live in a nation where our laws treat people the same regardless of their race. In fact, it is illegal to discriminate based on race. The rest is up to individual people to decide to be racist or not. You can’t force people to feel or not feel a certain way about another group of people. You can make it illegal to treat them differently, but you can’t force them to feel differently.
My dad is fond of saying that there is a generation of people that need to die out before we can get rid of the lingering racism in society. The world that those in their 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s grew up in shaped their views and opinions on people and while some have abandoned those views and opinions, others have not. There will always be racism, but in my opinion, the color of your skin no longer determines your opportunities in life, and that is about the best we can realistically hope for.
” but in my opinion, the color of your skin no longer determines your opportunities in life, and that is about the best we can realistically hope for.”
According to who? Why is it White peoples’ perceptions of racial relations always taken as truth over people of colors’? I have NEVER heard a person of color say that crap.
The truth is people of color still fact substantial barriers in terms of equal social, economic, and educational opportunities. And UNLIKE you, I can cite emperical evidence, and not just my OPINION.
Furthermore, why are you, and other on this site, constantly giving other commentors cover when they make racist statements (i.e. blame the darkies for all of America’s problems)?
There’s still plenty of racism. Just look how white families flee public schools in urban areas.
Agree that there are still substantial barriers in terms of equal social,,economic,and educational opportunities . Its not just a
matter of waving a wan and all the damage of years of oppression goes away and the damage from it . In other words ,climbing a
mountain is hard when you have to start out at the bottom ,in fact
starting from being in a ditch .I’m not so foolish as to not know what you are saying .
Ahh Its not because they are black its because they dont want their kids speaking ghetto and being poor the rest of their lives….
Its English or the lack of it that makes people want better for their kids..
——————–
There’s still plenty of racism. Just look how white families flee public schools in urban areas.
Back in the day you ordered chicken by specifying dark or white as it was improper to say breast or thigh.
I am reminded of the story of a friend of mine about the time his brother came home from basic training for Thanksgiving dinner. ‘Cause in the army at the time, the F-bomb was simply a piece of punctuation, no more remarkable than a comma. Fortunately, his mom was more amused than shocked.
“I know I’m sometimes a bit of an old fart, but this some how seems indicative of how we aren’t able to express ourselves articulately in civilized ways anymore.”
24/7 commercial advertising and 8 hours a day of neocon hate radio will do that to you.
“R.I.P., First Amendment.”
Never let a good tragedy go to waste.
Speaking as someone who knows two people who could have been shot this past Saturday, this is anything but a good tragedy. It is a tragedy, plain and simple.
Slimmie, y’oughta know me by now. I wuz being sarcastic. I am completely horrified by the finger pointing and false “linkage” that has occurred in the aftermath.
My heart really hurts for Arizona. I’ve never heard such unwarranted filth and spew about a state that really doesn’t deserve this, any of it.
But I will say this: Az has had an extremely rough time of it and Obama’s got his nerve flying to Tuscon after having his Injustice Department sue the state for trying to defend itself. If I was governor, I wouldn’t let the SOB’s plane land. I don’t hear about any moments of silence for Border Patrol agents and slain ranchers and citizens who have been adversely affected by the activity coming from the abattoir to the south. These are tragedies, too.
Before pundits and politicians start pointing fingers and making false linkages, it might be a good idea to remember that AZ shares a border with a narco-state where it is de rigeur to shoot, carve up or otherwise snuff journalists, government officials, police and everyday citizens just trying to survive. And they do this with impunity. Don’t think impressionable people don’t notice this, not to mention the fact that Nancy’s House of Representatives cheered and clapped for the hypocritical head of that narco-state on the floor of Congress.
And don’t get me started about the former AZ gov currently having everyone who flies fingered within an inch of their lives if they don’t want nudie photos taken .
Before pundits and politicians start pointing fingers and making false linkages, it might be a good idea to remember that AZ shares a border with a narco-state where it is de rigeur to shoot, carve up or otherwise snuff journalists, government officials, police and everyday citizens just trying to survive. And they do this with impunity. Don’t think impressionable people don’t notice this, not to mention the fact that Nancy’s House of Representatives cheered and clapped for the hypocritical head of that narco-state on the floor of Congress.
Cheney-Shrub: “You Lie! …In the 8 years we were sending American’s National Guard to fight in Foreign Wars x2 in at least x4 individual redeployment’s, no such harmful environment existed in AZ-along-the-border. Dicky,… get your paddle”
Great post, Palmy.
“And don’t get me started about the former AZ gov currently having everyone who flies fingered within an inch of their lives if they don’t want nudie photos taken .”
It IS kind of ironic, with all things considered, that the safest place from intentional and radom gun violence these days, well might be on board a US commercial aircraft.
…and ya know why ? Betcha’ do…
Because the major airlines and the Feds aren’t quite as Batshit Crazy as the rest of America when it comes to that 2nd Amendment Remedies BS.
blanket ban on all speech and symbols which might be conceivably interpreted as incendiary against members of Congress
members of congress only?
“members of congress only?”
Right. Get the mind-set here? ROTFLMAO! Of course, all speech and symbols incendiary by members of Congress against American citizens is OK.
Like their necks are more precious than those of American service men and women mired in unwinnable wars overseas.
The only ones incited to violence by talking heads on the radio are already mentally unstable.
No kidding, but that’s too deep of a concept for most politicians and pundits.
The only ones incited to violence by talking heads on the radio are already mentally unstable.
I never looked at it that way. I feel a lot better about it now.
The only ones incited to violence by talking heads / (Game Master’s) on the
radio“TrueSquealShout&HollerRadio™” are already mentally unstable.The Last Camel Straw! …it’s a game, really.
The Last Straw! A Board Game on the Social Determinants of Health©, Developed by Kate Rossiter and Kate Reeve.
(Hwy once casually stood on the edge of a granite rock wall in the Grand Canyon overlooking the Colorado River, 3,000 ft below…then a sudden gust a wind blasted my backside…whoa boy did gravity find my arse fast!
Note to self: “Bad things” can result from “effects”… unseen / uncontrolled & unaccounted.)
“The only ones incited to violence by talking heads on the radio are already mentally unstable.”
Thank god that’s only 1 or 2 people in the entire country.
Oh wait….
“The only ones incited to violence by talking heads on the radio are already mentally unstable.”
Gee…conservatively, that’s only about …20% of the US population
“Roughly speaking, the mess we are in is the worst since 17th century financial collapse. Comparisons with the 1930’s are ludicrous. We’ve gone far beyond that. And, alas, the courage & political will to recognize the mess & act wisely to reverse gears, is absent in U.S. leadership, where the problems were hatched & where the rot is by far the deepest.”
~ Harry Schultz
During the Great Depression (the first one), 27% of the population still lived on farms. They could take in unemployed relatives and eke out a subsistence living. Now 2% live on farms, which are highly mechanized. When the credit bubble keeping our “prosperity” afloat implodes, things are going to get very, very ugly in the ‘burbs as well as urban centers.
“When the credit bubble keeping our “prosperity” afloat implodes”
You must mean inside the beltway, because in flyover country the ship “prosperity” sank a long time ago.
A long, long time ago.
Not to worry. We now have food stamps.
Calling it Food Stamps was too degrading.
We now call it the “SNAP” program and give them ATM cards.
As in “bend… and snap?”
We now call it the “SNAP” program and give them ATM cards
SNAP: Same ab-Normal American People
ATM: All Terrible Members
Stay Focused!: Food Stamps! America’s #1 Problem
Fannie Mae HomePath program seems to be putting their foreclosed properties on the market at very high prices, at least in the areas I am looking. If anyone gets a chance, check out your area and see if it`s the same thing.
http://www.homepath.com/ - 58k -
Jeff,
Homepath has sold mostly condos in my area, and a few SFH fixers. I previewed one, and you’re right. They threw some taupe/white trim paint on the walls, put in cheap white appliances, and the pool and HVAC (both needed work) wasn’t touched. Fannie does has turnkey+ prices, and the choices are dreadful. Not much inventory in general my area, in our criteria.
The Homepath property I previewed was not marketed as a fixer, but it was. The pricey repairs were left for the buyer (as usual).
Big time games are play by Fannie with their inventory. I monitor certain states every day for a couple years now. Specifically, the status changes where say a house is “in contract” and falls off the list a few weeks later, presuming it is sold yet shows up as much as a year later status’ed as a “new listing” or “price reduced”.
exeter
Thanks, great information.
If I see a house that has the “HomePath” rider beneath its for-sale sign, I keep right on pedaling. Not even worth taking the flyer out of the info-tube.
Jeff,
I just saw a listing that said” Homepath Approved”. I’ll try and find out how it works, and report back here.
Markets Relieved After Portuguese Bond Auction- AP
A relatively successful Portuguese bond auction on Wednesday eased market worries that the country would soon need a financial bailout, though experts warned it is still not clear of danger.
Let’s see how Spain and Italy do tomorrow, selling much bigger bonds
Governor to disconnect 48,000 cellphones in hands of state workers [Updated]
Alarmed at discovering that the state pays for 96,000 cellphones, Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order Tuesday seeking to cut in half the number of devices being billed to taxpayers.
Requiring 48,000 cellphones to be turned in by June 1 will save the state about $20 million a year.
“It is difficult for me to believe that 40% of all state employees must be equipped with taxpayer-funded cellphones,” Brown said. “Some state employees, including department and agency executives who are required to be in touch 24 hours a day and seven days a week, may need cellphones, but the current number of phones out there is astounding.”
Every state could look into it’s perks/freebies, system abuses and cut million$ from budgets. Cuts should always be first on the block IMO, before fee and tax increases.Still the deficit problems are so large and far reaching it is going to take a lot more than cutting off cell phones, it is a start in the right direction however. Good luck California!
Wrong way to do it. Negotiate with the phone companies to provide all 100% of employees with phones, for the same price or even less. Give phones to all employees, and take it out of their salaries. I’m sure they will be thrilled with their $14 group discount plans.
And gain a campaign contribution at the same time. It’s a win-win.
How will they spend their 8 hour work days if they cannot text friends and family?
(Really, I’m nodding in agreement, laughing too! ;-)…but sometimes, that pressboardbox is dark inside, a gloomy kinda dark.)
My sister, a public school teacher, is required to have a cell phone but gets no reimbursement…
But does she need to have service for it? Any cell phone, even if “disconnected” by the carrier, can call 911.
ISTR that 911 capability is required by law. And, no, you don’t need a calling plan to dial 911.
Managers in my office avoid getting assigned Blackberies as long has humanly possible and use any opportunity they can to get rid of them.
I once had a boss who favored those horrible Nextel phones that work like walkie talkies , so one could be interrupted at any time. I flat out refused to take one.
Oh please, wh, do you really think that your sister wouldn’t have a cell phone if she wasn’t a teacher? My husband is a public school teacher and he has a cell phone even though he isn’t required to have one. I’m not “required” to have a cell phone, but as a physician it would be irresponsible for me to not have one.
Since it’s a rural area, yes they probably would have cell phones anyway… My comment was about the article cited above and noting that it is REQUIRED and she does not get it supplied by her employer or reimbursed for it. (And not meaning to imply that she should be reimbursed.)
“It is difficult for me to believe that 40% of all state employees must be equipped with taxpayer-funded cellphones,” Brown said. “Some state employees, including department and agency executives who are required to be in touch 24 hours a day and seven days a week, may need cellphones, but the current number of phones out there is astounding.”
Speaking as someone who’s hard of hearing to the point where I can’t use a cellphone, I favor Gov. Brown’s point of view. In my wanderings about this planet, I witness a lot of cellphone conversations. Very few of them appear to be so important that the conversants can’t wait until they’re face to face or at least out of public view and earshot.
I have had a couple of conversations with my son on the cellphone when I thought he was out of the house, but he was merely in his room.
It was the “pick something up at the store” conversation. While not critical, it saves a 2nd trip to the store.
Another extremely useful call is the “where are you” at the airport one. It can save hours of confusion and frustration.
And public pay phones are becoming scarce, so having one for emergencies is a good thing. My mother has one that she only turns on when she wants to make a call.
Baby Boomers Could Force Economic Catastrophe ~ FoxNews
Lawmakers will look back on 2011 as the year the U.S. started down into a financial Grand Canyon, because the first baby boomers turn 65 this year — the front edge of a tidal wave of baby boomer retirements.
“Over the next 20 years, around 10,000 baby boomers will be retiring each day,” says Andrew Biggs, an analyst at the American Enterprise Institute. “That means more people collecting social security, more people collecting Medicare, more people collecting Medicaid as well,”
That also means the members of one of the most affluent generations will slow down in buying cars and homes and consumer products of all kinds, as they pass their peak earning years and head into retirement.
That could hurt the economy, but it is clearly a financial disaster for the federal government as those 79 million boomers shift from paying taxes into social security and Medicare and start collecting benefits from them.
I don’t think what the Corporate structures are doing today is helping
matters by outsourcing the tax base that is suppose to support the retiring
sectors . In fact , Corporate America is doing the opposite of what supports long term structures and financial obligations in America .The
governing bodies allowing Corporate America doing this under the illusion of Capitalism is just plain irresponsible . Corporate America didn’t fulfill
their obligations to this Country ,fleecing the Country and now wanting to
divorce themselves from long term obligations and run and fleece new
emerging markets .
Before long they will have to raise the retirement age to 75 ,yet industry won’t want older workers because of the health care costs .The power brokers are just saying that the long term worker is no good anymore and it’s better to just let them starve because they don’t want
to pay those promised benefits . They have a whole new World of low
wage workers and Industry can start all over again with exploiting the
worker and gaining advantage and its a whole new way of transferring wealth back in the hands of the top ,something that worker bees took
decades fighting for a better balance of power is all lost .
If they are outsourcing the income they’d better plan on outsourcing the sales, because covering the difference via debt cannot go on forever.
“Before long they will have to raise the retirement age to 75 ,yet industry won’t want older workers because of the health care costs .The power brokers are just saying that the long term worker is no good anymore and it’s better to just let them starve because they don’t want to pay those promised benefits .”
Which is EXACTLY what this propaganda piece is all about.
That, and more distraction from Wall St. who are the folks that REALLY effed us, not boomers, nor pensioners, not FBs, not government employees.
Wall St.
ecofeco …I see the situation the same way you do .To me it’s a big con job . I was disappointed to see just how corrupted the governing and regulatory bodies have become . All this talk about Americans
standing together while the looters rob us blind .The culprits even go
so far as to lay a bum rap on the innocent as if the real culprits can transfer their
guilt to another party like the Prince who had a whipping boy .
Ill. Lawmakers Pass 66 Percent Income Tax Increase
SPRINGFIELD, Ill.(AP) — Democrats in the Illinois Legislature on Wednesday approved a 66 percent income-tax increase in a desperate and politically risky effort to end the state’s crippling budget crisis.
The increase now goes to Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who supports the plan to temporarily raise the personal tax rate to 5 percent, a two-thirds increase from the current 3 percent rate. Corporate taxes also would climb as part of the effort to close a budget hole that could hit $15 billion this year.
Democrats will do anything and raise taxes to infinity before they touch ONE public union salary, benefit or pension.
The good people of llinois and especially Chicago got the government they wanted. Now live with it.
And PS - Federal bailouts are not coming.
Republican Administrations appointed Greenspan and Bernanke, and the GOP has provided political top cover for Wall Street’s rape of Main Street.
BOTH parties suck.
“BOTH parties suck.”
Agreed.
One is tax and spend.
The other is borrow and spend.
Pick your poison.
Bingo Colorado and Sammy…. the best way to demonstrate this is shown below.
“REPUBLICANS will do anything and raise BORROWING to infinity before they touch ONE public union salary, benefit or pension.”
This begets the question;
Why do rightwingers want to increase the burden on tax payers by borrowing money to fund public services?
The answer that ex, lies in the “ownership” society. Nothing beats a captive tax base, just let ‘em paint the walls and they’ll be happy.
+1 to all.
The only thing worse than “tax and spend” is “don’t tax and spend”.
“to infinity before they touch ONE public union salary, benefit or pension.”
The entire Federal Government civilian workforce just had its pay frozen for two years, they are not replacing retiring workers, and they are currently laying off contractors. And plenty of state workers have been subject to layoffs and furloughs for years. That sounds like a “touch” to me.
Pesky facts. How dare you?
How crushing! It’s so crushing that:
(1) Average household income is higher in the DC area than it is across the entire United States.
(2) Housing and rental prices in Washington DC remain at “prohibitively high” levels, as several posters here have complained recently.
Guess what? The t’wains don’t meet. If things are so tough for pay-frozen federal workers, #1 and #2 above wouldn’t be true.
Unless, of course, thousands upon thousands of Federal workers have access to scores of freebies that private-sector workers don’t get. It’s not much of a sacrifice having your pay frozen when your outflow is limited.
If that isn’t true, then DC is full of silver-spooned trust fund babies who really need not worry about frozen salaries.
The good people of
llinoisTexas and especiallyChicagoShrub-Dallasville got the government they wanted. Now live with it.Keep ‘em comin’, SplitBanana,… keep ‘em comin
Leadership in the Texas Legislature, which is dominated by fiscal conservatives, is not expected to support attempts to raise taxes to fill the multibillion-dollar hole. But social service advocates say the state’s safety net system can’t afford any further budget cuts.
How the state of Texas fell into a hole:
Declining sales tax receipts and the recession: State lawmakers write a budget based on an educated guess of how much money will be available to spend during the period for which they’re writing a budget. For example, in 2009, lawmakers wrote a budget for 2010-2011. State government gets about 60 percent of its revenue from sales taxes, so when there’s a dramatic drop in state revenues, or collections, there’s less money to spend. During the economic recession of 2008-2009, Texas saw a drop in state revenues for 14 straight months.
Structural deficit: Some budget watchers say lawmakers created a “structural” deficit in 2005, when lawmakers cut school property taxes by one-third and expanded the business tax to make up the difference. But the business tax brings in billions less each year than the property tax did, meaning that with every new budget, lawmakers must find more and more extra money to make up the difference. The structure of the revenue system creates deficits each year.
Don’t remind me. I was here during the state depression of the early 1980s and it was brutal.
But do so enjoy throwing this in the face of the neocons here.
No, 2ban.
The good ppl of the midwest got offshoring and illigal immigrants from both parties, with the Repubs leading the band. These emergency measures can’t solve the problem, though. Only tariffs can do that.
“plan to temporarily raise the personal tax rate to 5 percent” In government nothing is TEMPORARY other than term in office.
There is nothing more permanent than a temporary Government program.
- I forget who said this
Regan?
“There is nothing more permanent than a temporary Government program.”
Whoo, boy-howdy, testify! Income tax, anyone? Of course, the purpose of the income tax was to finance wars, so as result we have perpetual war.
War on poverty…war on drugs… war on savers.
What we really need is a war on Congress.
That was a poor choice of words on my part given the events in Tucson.
It’s times like this that I wish we could edit what we post here.
War on wars.
I’m very happy that Jerry Brown has proposed to do away with all of the state redevelopment agencies. I would guess that Democratic and Republican voters dislike the idea of them. The only ones who want them are politicians (because it gives them more power) and developers, who crave the tax subsidies for their projects.
He did??? hahaha I knew he’d be good for some fireworks.
Good for him. He is wasting no time getting down to business.
It will be very interesting to see if his plan gets traction from the voters in CA.
His budget relies on 2 things, 1) pretty decent spending cuts ($12.5B or so), and 2) extending what were otherwise “temporary” tax increases.
#2 relies on a positive vote from the people in CA.
There were a few propositions in CA in November that were asking people’s permission to raise taxes/fees. All were shot down.
Folks did agree to allow the state legislature to pass a budget with a simple majority, as long as it didn’t raise taxes…
Brown could be in for an uphill battle without more spending cuts…
“There were a few propositions in CA in November that were asking people’s permission to raise taxes/fees. All were shot down.”
They were. IMO, if Gov. Brown is perceived by the voters here as being straight with them and making good on his claims of frugality, he will get alot those voters behind him in the name of dealing with the problem at hand– people that previously said no to extending the taxes. He’s promised to campaign hard on this, and he’s a persuasive speaker. If I had to bet on this, I’d give him the edge.
IIRC, Will Rogers.
Is this 5% rate the top rate, or does Illinois just flat tax everyone at this rate?
The top rate in CA was 9% when I left in 2006, and IIUC it’s even higher today.
5% is it, and truth be said, it hasn’t increased since 1989. But the “inevitable” argument that’s being used is kind of a cop out.
The current bill stipulates state spending can’t increase more than 2% per annum. The reality is the hike won’t close the gap, not even close - even with their “trees grow to the sky” budget projections. Additional borrowing is needed and that part was voted down, so even with the hike here this is so far from over.
The hike in the corporate rate was reduced, but it’s still steep enough to be very curious (up to 7%). Springfield must remember that IN, MO, WI, etc. (not to mention the Sunbelt state) all want to drink what’s left of our manufacturing/corporate milkshake.
So what will be the rate in Chicago? State + County + City combined?
For income? 5% for the state. There is NOT YET a county or city income tax here. (I expect the idea to come sooner than later, though - perhaps the idea will be broached by our first new mayor in 22 years?)
Interesting. I thought Chicago was one of the highly taxed cities.
It is. Sales tax is 10%+. I don’t know what the property tax rate is, but it also is astronomical.
Tin foil hat time. The machinations of the unseen hand. The unseen hand, of course, no longer belongs to the market. but to those for whom the market exists, who now manipulate it, and the government, for their benefit.
This national debt problem is intractable, and at some point the rhetoric will turn to anger against the aging members of society who are squeezed between forces over which they have no control. Like most of the rest of us. I’m only in my 50s, but trying to think about a way out of the jam leaves ME feeling exhausted. I KNOW that I won’t have what it takes to do this level of scheming in twenty years, from the vantage point of my weekly muleback ride to the general store.
One circumstance comprises old age benefits. Solution One: Cut Medicare by $500B, thereby cutting down on the number of recipients. This reduces the Medicare deficit.
Circumstance Two: Maintain ZIRP, thus ensuring an unexpected level of penury for those on fixed incomes. We can laugh at the term “unexpected”, but really, people who were already out of the work force in 2008 could not have anticipated that their 5% Treasury yields would decline to less than 1%. They have nowhere to turn. Financial stress, coupled with reductions in the medical safety net, will likely contribute to a higher rate of mortality over time. This reduces both the Social Security and Medicare payouts.
Circumstance Three: Ensure inflation, further increasing the level of financial stress for those on a fixed income. Jury rig the numbers so that it’s all good, and people who are not necessarily financially sophisticated are left feeling crazy and blaming themselves, leading to despair.
So, the seniors who were already out of the work force when we all crashed are trapped and really have nothing to look forward to other than an early release program. It’s not like they can jump back in on a part time basis to make ends meet. I don’t know what the stats are, but I believe a sense of self determination and competency contribute to life satisfaction and survival, not to put too fine a point on it. I predict we will see the impact of these compound stressors in lower life expectancy numbers. I don’t know when they will plunge, but they seem resistant to gaming.
OK, tin foil hat off. But the circumstances, which work together to get a large segment of handout seekers off the books as quickly as possible - well, they seem awfully convenient.
For the people who are trapped, my most profound sympathy. For the segment who are out of work and not old enough to get early benefits, I have no solution other than to band together and hot bunk the way the illegal aliens are doing, 8 per apartment, live on beans and rice, and try to stay healthy. When you turn 62, you will have won the lottery and can buy your own shack in Appalachia. Although there may be safety in sticking together. For those of us lucky enough to have jobbes, don’t ever retire, because ZIRP will kill ya faster than old age or illness.
At some point we will all be discarded. Probably at the point where our failures to remember our personal security codes for all the doors becomes a corporate embarrassment. We will all be milling in bewildered hordes in front of SCIFs, cracking anxious jokes because the meetings started half an hour ago.
Personally, I’m betting on the marketing angle with my kids. If we’re going third world, the multigenerational housing thing should be seen as an honorable alternative. Eventually, we will see this meme emerge in the public policy discourse. Sort of like the 2020s/2030s version of the Victory Garden. The heck with the granny shack! I’m talkin’ yer granny lean to, conveniently adjacent to the kitchen, where she will have breakfast and dinner ready and on the table!
Shoot. The vision of my own l’il 40 acres and mule with porch, garden, pasture, stream, woodlot, cave, chickens, and cheerfully boiling still dies hard. But I’ll be toast before opting for isolation in a ZIRP, ZHC (Zero Health Care), ZB (Zero Benefits) environment.
“For those of us lucky enough to have jobbes, don’t ever retire, because ZIRP will kill ya faster than old age or illness”
This will be the fate of most I believe. Work until you just can’t do it anymore, then move in with one of your kids.
This will be the fate of most I believe. Work until you just can’t do it anymore, then move in with one of your kids.
The way of the world for 5000 years until about 1950 for a few select western governments.
Now that these western governments are bankrupt - we will revert to the norm.
Except that a large share of the generation approaching old age either got divorced when the kids were at home, or never got married to begin with. And many of those kids resent it — and certainly haven’t seen “gritting your teeth for the rest of your life for the benefit of family” modeled.
Right wingers blamed the decline of the Black nuclear family on welfare, because it was alleged an alternative income source allowed poor Black women to “marry the government” (the specific words used by conservative thing tanks).
But they are unwilling to blame the decline of the White extended family on Social Security — having the government FORCE the kids to support you in old age.
Ah well, ideological consistency is not as important as the pursuit of funding.
I’m predicting a “gray commune” version of the golden girls.
Right wingers blamed the decline of the Black nuclear family on welfare, because it was alleged an alternative income source allowed poor Black women to “marry the government” (the specific words used by conservative thing tanks).
But they are unwilling to blame the decline of the White extended family on Social Security — having the government FORCE the kids to support you in old age.
Fascinating…I’d never thought of it that way before. Thanks…
However, I think I have to disagree. The White Extended Family was already declined. If White Extended Families had been intact, then the elderly wouldn’t NEED Social Security, and so the gov wouldn’t have started SS.
Government is not a driver. It’s a responder. Or, more accurately…it responds to what is happening to most people, and drives the RESt of the people to follow because they want the government cheese too.
Now that these western governments are bankrupt - we will revert to the norm.
‘Diz ALL the Gubermint’s fault!”
Ha, it’s non-progressive chicken little “ditcher” doomsters like you that delayed the building of the Grand Coulee Dam!
“…The dam was the result of a bitter debate during much of the 1920s between two groups; one wanted to irrigate the ancient Grand Coulee with a gravity canal and the other supported a high dam and pumping scheme. The dam supporters won in 1933 but for fiscal reasons, the initial design was for a dam 260 ft (79 m) shorter than envisioned and could not support a pumping capacity for irrigation.”
* (The other side, known as the “ditchers” favored diverting water from northeast Washington’s Pend Oreille River via a gravity canal to irrigate farmland in Central and Eastern Washington. Many locals, such as Woods, O’Sullivan and Clapp were pumpers while many influential businessmen in Spokane associated with the Washington Water and Power Company (WWPC) were staunch “ditchers”…)
The dam’s power plants fueled an industrious and growing Northwest during World War II.
On August 4, 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited the construction site and was impressed by the project and its purpose. He closed his speech by saying “I leave here today with the feeling that this work is well undertaken; that we are going ahead with a useful project, and we are going to see it through for the benefit of our country.”
Roosevelt envisioned how the dam would fit further into his New Deal under the Public Works Administration; it would create jobs, farming opportunities and it would pay for itself. In addition, as part of a larger heated debate at the time, Roosevelt wanted to keep electricity prices low by limiting private ownership of utility companies, which could charge high prices for energy.
“The way of the world for 500 years……”
I guess “Reversion to the mean” means most of us get to move back into straw huts, dying off with incurable diseases, when we’re not fighting off various warlords.
AKA: current-day Somalia, the Bankster/Tea Bagger/RNC/Randian wet dream.
Nothing wrong with it, I guess……..
‘jobbes’? When was this written, 1708?
I love In Montana.
That is pretty damn funny, isn’t it? LOL
Alternate Circumstance:
Begin to live like a starving artist well before the time to close the job box. You win the lottery the moment you stop gambling.
Been there, done that.
It sucks.
1) Attack healthcare costs: tort reform to reduce malpractice drain on the system, group bargaining on drug prices (You’ll sell us the drug for $x, or it won’t be covered.), non-profit health care funds to replace the profit drive insurance companies we have now… We can slice a good 30-40% out of the cost of healthcare, even before we start implimenting some rationing (which is also needed).
We spend close to twice as much per person as any other nation. Surely we can make some cuts without going “full Canada” and making everyone wait a year or more to see a specialist.
2) We’re going to have to make some Social Security cuts. That is clear. My only demand is that we include everyone in on the cuts… current receipants AND me. If we do not increase the tax, I will pay in about 3x as much as my dad, and more than 7x as my grandfather, as percent of income. If those of us that paid in WAY more have to take a cut, then I think that cut should also be applied to those that paid in way less.
3) We’re going to have to increase revenue, and that is going to have to come from the people with the money… the rich.
Surely we can make some cuts without going “full Canada” and making everyone wait a year or more to see a specialist.
You make some very good points but the wait time to see a specialist in Canada is about 4 weeks not a year.
The median wait time in Canada to see a special physician is a little over four weeks with 89.5% waiting less than 90 days.[50]
The median wait time for diagnostic services such as MRI and CAT scans [51] is two weeks with 86.4% waiting less than 90 days.[50]
The median wait time for surgery is four weeks with 82.2% waiting less than 90 days.[50]
Another study by the Commonwealth Fund found that 57% of Canadians reported waiting 30 days (4 weeks) or more to see a specialist, broadly in line with the current official statistics.
A 2009 Harris/Decima poll found 82% of Canadians preferred their healthcare system to the one in the United States, more than ten times as many as the 8% stating a preference for a US-style health care system for Canada[7] while a Strategic Counsel survey in 2008 found 91% of Canadians preferring their healthcare system to that of the U.S…..A 2003 Gallup poll found only 25% of Americans are either “very” or “somewhat” satisfied with “the availability of affordable healthcare in the nation,”
wiki
Even if it was a year, that’s better than I can do, with no health insurance.
For me, going to the doctor is a no-win situation: he/she says either:
-”You’re okay, pay me $200″, or
-”You’re kinda sick, pay me $200, the specialist $1000, and the drug companies $1000″
-”You are really sick, pay us $100,000″
So, I don’t go to the doc. And look at all the money I’ve saved!!!
Even with health insurance, I postpone trips to the doctor for routine checkups. The tests and exams that they recommend I get yearly, I get every 2 years. Insurance consumes most of my healthcare budget. And my husband consumes most of the remainder with his medications and checkups.
God help you if they find something that needs to be watched. Now you need an expensive test more frequently.
My current philosophy is becoming “You don’t need to watch it, if you don’t know you have it”
I was lifting some heavy bags into an airplane a couple of weeks ago, for the Christmas trip to Colorado and the Desert Southwest (and don’t ask me about the irony of a part-time contracter who can’t afford health insurance injuring himself loading bags for the multi-millionaire’s GTFOO Dodge trip to warmer climates)……I screwed up something. It’s either:
-a groin pull, or
-a hernia.
Haven’t gone to the doctor. Didn’t hurt, unless I did something like lift something, or stand up. Figured the doctor couldn’t do squat for #1, and I can’t afford to fix #2.
As it seems to be getting better, it appears I had #1.
My current philosophy is becoming “You don’t need to watch it, if you don’t know you have it”
Yep. And 90% of the time what they want to watch will not progress anyway. If they watch it for several years and it’s not doing anything, I drop to an every 2 years schedule.
“Malpractice Tort Reform” (HA!) has been passed in most states for years.
Anybody see prices go down?
Federal income tax need not be paid by anyone nationwide. There is no law stating so, as per the Supreme Court (1916).
What do you think of that? (HA!)
“I will pay in about 3x as much as my dad, and more than 7x as my grandfather, as percent of income.”
Have you adjusted for inflation in this calculation?
One of the problems with cutting benefits for current retirees is that they have limited ability to react. Most are incapable of returning to the workforce due to either health issues or age discrimination. A 75 year old does not have the physical capacity of a 35 yo and most would be excluded from many entry level jobs due to “ability to lift 50 pounds” type requirements.
Their savings are earning less due to low interest rates. As they age, they will rely more on medications to maintain health. Reducing benefits may push them into hard choices between food and medicine.
I do favor increasing the retirement age for current workers, but I see issues with that as well. First, it will increase the competition for scarce jobs as teenagers, young adults, and seniors compete for the same jobs. Middle managers and tech workers will continue working, reducing opportunity for the next generation to move into their jobs. Second, older workers who have already been downsized will struggle even longer and be less prepared for retirement as they consume savings prematurely. Some of them will end up on welfare. Third, physically decrepit folks in the over-50 set will apply for disability instead of collecting Social Security.
My Tinfoil Hat lets me eavesdrop on what the CIA, NSA and Trilateral Commission are all saying……
“Which is that we can’t afford to pay for all these old people sitting around doing nothing, and keep ourselves in a style-that-we’ve-become-accustomed. We can’t kill them off directly……too many “Auschwitz” flashbacks.”
“So how ’bout this?…….we’ll impoverish them, cut them off from health care, and kick them out of their jobs at age 45-50……..those tail-end Baby Boomers have been worn down by living thru about eight recessions and 30 years of cost-shifting anyway………with any kind of luck, we can whack a bunch of them before they ever draw one dime out oif the program.”
“Or if we want to be honest, we’ll start a REAL ‘Buyout Plan’…….pay them with a couple hundred thousand bucks up front, while agreeing to a lethal injection in 12-18 months.”
Call it the “Kevorkian Fiscal Improvement Plan of 2011″
You just THINK you’re joking.
Right ,you are just thinking you are joking . Its funny how people that are not going to be affected by final solutions of throwing a
segment of the population under the bus can just pick and choose
who the winners and losers will be . .But ,the Ponzi schemes of
Wall Street must be protected and bailed out .Corporation must be given every break in spite of their betrayal of Americans .
After the stock market crash (1929) ,some Social safety nets were developed ,( Social Security .FDIC Insurance ,other programs ) in reaction to the Great Depression . People would of not even put money in Banks for all these years had it not been for FDIC . Wall
Street would of not been restored had they not been put in their proper place by regulations and separated from bank functions .
The governing bodies let the evil doers out of their box by
de=regulation and all hell broke loose again .
Now all the talk of protecting Wall Street/Corporations and dropping obligations to Social Security and other insurance systems
from obligations that will result in trapped people betrayed .
This transfer of blame to Pension Plans is a con job .
Last night we had a nice little (4.5) tremor centered about 20 miles from here. Both the wife and I awoke for no reason about 2 minutes before it hit. Heard a bang and then the bed did some nice wild dance which was followed some minutes later by a smaller one. Only thought going through my mind was ‘Good day to be a renter’. Turned on the news this am to a new musical theme–rock and roll ‘there’s a whole lot of shaking going on’. Gotta love it!
And which one of you asked “was it good for you” first?
Prior generations had long periods of time when they paid higher federal income taxes than current generations ,so are you going to take those funds into consideration in your analysis of paying for
shortfalls now.Prior generations didn’t have favorable capital gains tax treatment and paid a lot more on taxes on real estate sales ,etc.
The old lady that lives next door to me paid 20 k in taxes on the sale of
her home even with the one time exemption at the time and this was
25 years ago ,now she wouldn’t of paid any taxes. You just aren’t adding up all the ways prior generations contributed .
It’s just not entirely fair to isolate one factor out of many and draw a
conclusion that prior generations didn’t pay enough . Who is responsible for the rise in health costs ,housing costs ,food costs and all the other costs that take away the buying power of people in general ?
If you take most pensions the problem was underfunding from the Corporations .Than you add all the current loss as a result of the
housing loan scam and thats another factor that reduced funds .
Who should be paying for shortfalls now ?
And the state of affairs are a mess right now and Baby Boomer have just started to draw on Social Security .So, its a big mess before BB
even collect so what is causing this shortfall …..Think about what we have been spending money on lately .
Are the ‘tax benefits’ of owning a home real?
Everyone at work keeps saying I should buy a home instead of renting…. they all brag about all the tax benefits they obtain… in Texas, we do not have state income tax, but we do have fairly high property taxes (2.5%); therefore, homeowners are able to deduct high property taxes on top of the home mortgage interest.
Are these benefits real? or are they simply ficticious statements to get more people to buy homes?
Are the ‘tax benefits’ of owning a home real?
As are most tax benefits, they are real to richer people but not as real to middle-class.
The tax benefits mostly subsidize home ownership for expensive homes.
If people are determined to spend as high a share of their income on housing as their lender and budget will allow, the effect of the tax break is to increase the amount they can afford to borrow. This increases the cost of the homes.
What is the advanatge of paying $1 in interest and getting back 30 cents in a mortgage deduction (that is also capped by the AMT).
Tell them you need a better reason than that.
They were quite a bit more real before the bubble when the rates were 7-8% and prices were lower. They were probably very real when parents bought in the late 70s when rates were 12%. Prices are still high due to low rates, gov meddling,shadow inventory,etc. Hopefully prices are elastic if/when these factors ease.
The mortgage interest benefit was negligible compared to the leverage most people had on their rising housing “investment.” Let’s not forget how long that model persisted- certainly for 50 years or so.
That’s all changed.
AMT really cuts into the property tax deduction.
They are probably most helpful to single people, who only get half the standard deduction granted to married people.
They are real for people in the higher (but not crazy high) income brackets. If you’re making 50K a year and buying a 150K house, you’re not going to see much benefit.
If you make 250K a year and buy a 600K house, you’ll see a really big benefit. In my area, a 600K home will have a have a tax bill of ~10-12K a year, which will immediately get you over the STD deduction. From there, you’ll have 20K+ in deductible interest, so, in some cases, you could see a 6K+ reduction in your taxes. It’s certainly not an insignificant number, particularly if you can find more deductible expenses.
For a more “normal” home, it’s pretty insignificant. Your giving up a 6K deduction to take a 10K deduction (for a median priced home in my area), that’s not really a big deal (maybe 1-2K savings per year). It’s a big benefit to the upper-middle, but that’s about it.
$600K is almost a McMansion, even in tony Northern VA. If you make $250K a year and want to buy a $600K house, then you don’t NEED a tax break. Sorry. If you want a mansion, then IMO you should pay for the luxury yourself.
You pay an extra $10k in state taxes plus mortgage interest, and then they give you back $1-2k on your income tax? That may seem like a “savings” to a person with lots of excess income who wouldn’t notice the difference. To me, it sounds like an expense of approximately $8-9k.
Brett, take an hour and figure it out for yourself. I assume that you’ve been taking the standard deduction, and perhaps (just perhaps) the mortgage interest deduction and itemizing deductions could push you into a lower tax bracket. But I doubt it will, unless you have a high income. And then watch out for AMT. Do the math yourself, or if you’re too lazy, ask your accountant to do it for you.
At your income level (I’m guessing over 6 figures based on what you have previously posted) and with only a single person’s standard deduction (not a married filing jointly or head of household), you would be very likely to receive some benefit from the mortgage interest/property tax deductions. The question is whether that amount is enough to make up for the extra cost of owning vs. renting a similar unit and the loss of flexibility. The cost of capital of your downpayment is very low right now, but you have to be ready to lose every penny as interest rates rise unless you think there is going to be a large run up in property values in Austin. If you choose not to use a large downpayment, then you need to set aside money every month to pay off the mortgage when you can’t sell the unit at a profit because of rising interest rates.
Doing a compare and contrast on the two situations is really easy. Guess the cost of a comparable condo to your current apartment. Multiply that number times a good mortgage interest rate. Set that number aside. Multiply it by the property tax rate. Set that number aside. Figure out if you have any other deductible amounts like charity donations. Add that number to the other set aside numbers. Is that number larger than your standard deduction? If yes, subtract the standard deduction from that amount. Multiply that amount by your marginal tax rate (probably 25 or 28%). That is what you “save” with the deduction assuming you have used the standard deduction before.
Last step is to see what your monthly cost for the condo will be. If it is less than your apartment rent, then you add the savings to the tax savings amount. However, if the monthly cost of owning is more than renting, you have to subtract the excess from the amount of the tax savings.
There are a lot of other considerations (expected loss on the unit because of mortgage interest rates going up/more units being built which will increase supply), but that will get you a quick and dirty number to look at. Remember that there are also start up costs in purchasing (mortgage origination fees, inspections, attorney, etc). Also you need to do a lot of research into the finances of the building which takes time which has a value.
And think about it carefully. Would you really move to a comparable one bedroom unit if you bought? Wouldn’t you want to get a two bedroom? Take that into consideration too.
Thank you so much for the information.
With all honesty, I do not feel comfortably buying… I have been out of school of 3 years, and job security scares me… I have not been laido off, but who know what’s going to happen next year or two years down the road.
What if I have to move?
All those questions would not allow me to sleep well at night…
The cost of owning a 1br unit in the building I want is roughly $2200 per month… similar units in the same building are leasing for $1650 per month
If your marginal rate is 28% and $2000 of that $2200 a month is deductible, then the cost of buying is $1640 vs the $1650 of renting IF you calculate it the way the RE folks would like you to calculate it. And it just might be correct if you were in some magical sweet spot where your other deductions were enough to get you itemizing already (hightly doubtful in a state with no income tax) but the additional deductions didn’t shove you over into the AMT. If you’ve been using the standard deduction the last few years (and my other guesses from above are about right) it is still cheaper to rent.
http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/222662/How-Kremlin-style-tactics-are-used-to-hide-EU-excess
THE lid was lifted yesterday on the European Commission’s grubby attempts to cover up its unchecked finances which led to billions of pounds being squandered.
A series of explosive revelations blast the EC’s spending watchdog for its “culture of cover-up” and “Kremlin-like” censorship of facts.
It was claimed the European Court of Auditors systematically tampered with the figures in its annual fiscal report.
Former member Maarten Engwirda said that any criticism levelled at European colleagues was usually “swept under the carpet”.
The European Commission seemingly distanced itself from introducing a stricter monitoring system, Mr Engwirda said in a Dutch newspaper.
Mr Engwirda, who was a member of the Court of Auditors for 15 years, also claimed several countries, including France and Italy, often resorted to fraud and intimidation in the national interest.
“All these misunderstandings never came out into the open because of the Kremlin-style manner of furnishing information,” he said. “But it certainly didn’t enhance our reputation one bit.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-11/sanders-says-bernanke-ducks-request-for-details-on-fed-loans.html
Vermont Senator Bernard Sanders, whose legislative provision forced the Federal Reserve to disclose last month the recipients of $3.3 trillion in financial-crisis aid, said Chairman Ben S. Bernanke ducked his request for more details about the loans.
Sanders, in an e-mailed statement today, said he hopes the Government Accountability Office will uncover details on loan collateral, conflicts of interest and loans to buy cars made by non-U.S. companies. He released Bernanke’s Jan. 5 letter responding to a Sanders missive from Dec. 6.
Bernanke, in the six-page letter, responded to Sanders’ questions without discussing individual borrowers or providing items such as e-mails and phone logs Sanders requested. Bernanke also rejected Sanders’ assertion that the Fed extended loans under one program to investors in the Cayman Islands.
Bernanke wrote his letter “without directly answering a single one of my specific questions,” Sanders, an Independent, said today in a statement. “If Chairman Bernanke won’t answer these questions, I hope that the Government Accountability Office will,” he said, referring to the investigative arm of Congress.
Subpoena time. Bernie Sanders, meet Ron Paul.
My recommendation to Bernie Sanders is
1. Don’t fly on a small plane.
2. Stay inside no public appearances
3. Hire a food taster.
The elite don’t like it when you try to uncover there theft.
So let me understand this…. Avowed socialist Bernie Sanders from my home state forced the corporatist banking crime syndicate to open the books.
The whitewingnuts can’t keep their hobgoblins and scapegoats straight.
The Republicrat duopoly has been able to maintain a monopoly on the levers of power, while enriching the financial elites, through the strategem of putting false “liberal and conservative” or “Democrat and Republican” labels on the approved Tweedle Dee/Tweedle Dum candidates for their puppet show. The thinking five percent of the population has moved beyond that, and will support any candidate of either party who demonstrates integrity and a commitment to the rule of law and the public interest. They don’t have to be perfect, or agree with us 100% on every issue - they just have to have a desire for responsible and accountable governance, an end to business-as-usual politics, and accountabilty with taxpayer dollars and other public resources.
It would be nice if the thinking 5% would be joined by wised-up dupes who voted for the status quo in the last election.
He wasn’t a Socialist until he started asking tough questions.
The same way that used to be a Republican, until I started throwing the “BS” flag on Limbaugh/Beck/TeaParty/NRA/Bankster dogma, propaganda and half-truths.
Two comments great story: http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/woman-builds-french-style-mansion-on-skid-row.html
2) More to this point, and this comment did not seem to post earlier. I think that the press for Sarah Palin grew much worse after she opposed QE2. I think that a great deal of her initial bad press also was because she did not support the agenda of Goldman Sachs. She may not be presidential material but if she was owned she would not be attacked by both parties GS’s hacks. Expect Sanders to face similar attacks.
Um, yeah, about that - Sarah Palin, the Tea Party champion, was the running mate of John McCain, the pro-bailout, statist, corporatist RINO candidate. Her handlers know exactly what the Tea Party rubes want to hear.
All the Tea Partiers I know say something like “I like her, because she is just like us……”
Wrong. Her Neo-con/Tea Bagger generated PUBLIC IMAGE is designed to make you think that she is “just like you”.
Minus all those “just like you” foibles that would show everyone how screwed up you are, if they ever became public knowledge.
And, I see “you” up close every day. You are not qualified to be Junior Dogcatcher, much less in a position to make any important decisions on behalf of the country.
I’ve attended a public appearance of Sen. Sanders. Believe me, his security detail is quite impressive.
Florida’s freeze wipes out thousands of acres of agriculture
Plan on paying more for fruits and vegetables over the next couple of months.
Florida’s freezes wiped out thousands of acres worth of agriculture and millions of cases of food…
Nonsense, FL agriculture is too big to fail. They will just print the oranges.
Good one!
Now while humans might not have mastered the alchemy of printing oranges, the Chinese have figured out how to print good oranges out of bad ones:
http://admpreview.straitstimes.com:90/vgn-ext-templating/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=78d34818cb0dc210VgnVCM100000430a0a0aRCRD&vgnextchannel=f511758920e39010VgnVCM1000000a35010aRCRD
Saw the first Plant City strawberries in the grocery yesterday, at an attractive price. They looked suspiciously (as opposed to naturally) red, like maybe they’d gotten the ethylene gas treatment. But they were actually pretty good in today’s cereal.
Bill, do you mean that there’s a way to artificially redden strawberries? That’s depressing, since I think the red ones taste better.
There are many tricks to enhancing the produce you buy.
What, you thought is all natural?
The good news here, is that the housing market no longer has any effect on our economy going forward. Two experts just stated this last week on a MSM outlet. Forget who or what channel but it does not matter it was said, so it must be true.
Item: U.S. home prices fell 5.1% in November from a year earlier and are expected to go lower as the housing market struggles to find its recovery, according to a report Tuesday. ~USA TODAY
Real estate analytics firm CoreLogic said that single-family home prices declined for the fourth month in a row and at a faster pace. They dropped 3.4% in October year-over-year.
November declines occurred in 44 states, up from 18 in June when federal tax credits for home buyers were still pumping up sales. Sales and prices fell after the credits expired.
Housing and the rest of the U.S. economy are decoupled; hence the housing crash is contained. So go out and buy a car, enjoy a fancy restaurant meal, and revel in the recovery!
Well, to a certain extent, once you wring out the excess of the housing bubble, like too many RE agents, too many contractors, too many home builders, too many DIY stores, further declines in housing prices won’t actually cost more jobs, because there is ALWAYS weather damage/ house replacement/ general maintenance for the contractors/builders and there will always be deaths/moves/etc to keep Realtors occupied. The bubble misallocated billions into a sector above and beyond it’s normal levels, so once the actual work levels fall back to pre-boom prices, you’ll get sustainable economic activity out of the sector.
At that point, housing prices can continue to fall without affecting employment. In fact, the cheaper housing might stimulate other areas when families are able to buy a house and still have disposable income not based on debt.
Of course, I’m not conviced we’ve wrung the excess capacity out of RE yet.
I’ll even go a step farther, and claim that falling housing prices are good for employment, because they reduce the salary that it will take an employer to attract a qualified prospect to relocate. The more housing prices fall, the more liquid the labor market will become, and the easier it will be for young, qualified workers to relocate and lay down roots where their best opportunities are found, and for their future employers to afford to pay them what it costs to get them to relocate.
The good news here, is that the housing market no longer has any effect on our economy going forward.
So the “wealth effect” was real, but now the “poverty effect”(?) is not?
“poverty effect”
It’s only real for those who thought of their homes as providing a third income to their households.
The wealth effect seemed real for lots of people. Or maybe we’re saying the same thing.
Is anyone looking for a brand spanking new (well, four years old) North County San Diego model home, attractively priced for just under $2 million? There is a bathroom for every bedroom in the house!
You’d better hurry, because the sellers are accepting offers as I type.
$1,800,000
2541 MUIRFIELDS Dr CARLSBAD, CA 92009
Beds: 5
Baths: 5
Sq. Ft.: 5,562
$/Sq. Ft.: $324
Lot Size: 0.54 Acres
Property Type: Residential, Detached
Style: Colonial
Stories: 2
View: Evening Lights, Golf Course
Year Built: 2006
Community: MAGNOLIA ESTATES
County: San Diego
MLS#: 081008094
Source: SANDICOR
Status: Active
This listing is for sale and the sellers are accepting offers.
On Redfin: 1077 days
View: Evening Lights, Golf Course
(While sitting on the passenger side of Hwy’s49Dodge flat bed on PCHwy 1 @ Ponto’s in South Carlsbad,…watching the whales going by…Hwy types: “Nix, nix, nix…”)
Pay Your Taxes or We’ll Kill Your Dog
The taxman has never been a popular figure anywhere. But in the tiny Swiss village of Reconvilier, that functionary has assumed the even more detestable profile as the guy who’ll waste your dog if you don’t cough up what you owe.
Webmaster’s Commentary:
Damned good reason for an armed populace right there! After all, at least here in the United States, torture is legal for humans but cruelty to animals is a crime!
Due to their reliance on a militia, the Swiss have one of the highest rates of gun ownership.
“Switzerland, a country of 7.5 million people with an estimated 2 million or more guns in circulation, sits as a heavily armed exception in the heart of Europe, where most countries have strict gun-control laws. Virtually all able-bodied Swiss men are required to serve in the military, which issues them assault rifles or pistols, or both, which they store at home and keep when they leave the service.” - Washington Post 4/29/2007
Oh, and the tax they want them to pay a tax on the ownership of the dog.
Without guns Swiss officials would have no check whatsoever. Ovens would have already been built for dissenters?
Have you ever visited Switzerland?
Yet Switzerland has almost no violent crime, and most of what they do have is perpetrated by immigrants.
Right on, Sammy. A civil country.
“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.”
– Tacitus
“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous their deposits into our country.”
(Anonymous Swiss Banker)
In Switzerland, prospective dog owners are required to take and pass a course on the responsibilities of ownership. And the prospective owners have to pay for this course themselves.
I’ve heard that the Swiss system does a very good job of screening out unfit owners, which we have in great abundance in this country. You’ve heard me elaborating on this topic before, specifically, about nuisance barking. Much of which is caused by irresponsible dog owners.
that policy is racist…discriminating against inner city youths who can’t afford the course…depriving them of the benefits of pet ownership.
Hi Slim, we live between Surprise and Wickenburg on 2.5 acres. Have 3 rescue dogs. One is a bloodhound who found us. No nuisance barking here. If the bloodhound is barking, she is warning the coyotes to stay away (the animal kind). She is also very good at letting us know when anyone is near the property. She has a short term memory problem, so everyone is a stranger but us! LOL
Hey slim, not to mention those owners of big dogs who have these animals serving life sentences in small holding pens. No exercise whatsoever, but as long as they get their food and water every day then these owners can not be contested with animal cruelty.
I am thinking of a big beautiful boxer who has a very long and narrow holding pen, with his dog house at one end of this elongated prison cell.
I am also thinking of a big beautiful collie whose world literally revolves around a six foot radius on a stake on the ground.
What terrible crimes have been committed by these animals that they now deserve life in prison?
Probably due to banning all right wing talk radio…
Corn Prices Spike on Heat Wave in Argentina
Filed under: International Markets, Commodities, Headline News, Agriculture.
When we think corn, we think of the United States. True, the U.S. is the largest producer and exporter of corn. But next comes Argentina, the second largest exporter, and what happens in Argentina affects the price of corn worldwide.
There is an unusual heat wave in Argentina. Corn prices are sensitive to weather changes. The heat wave with temperatures above 90 degrees is causing worry over supplies and prices. On Monday, March corn futures jumped 12 cents per bushel to $6.07 per bushel. Today, corn prices are up another 5 cents.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) releases its latest crop forecast, which is expected to show a cut of 25 million metric tons for Argentina. Analysts are also worried that the heat wave will prevent the corn from pollinating, thus stunting its growth, as reported in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required).
Meanwhile, corn for both human and livestock consumption continues to be diverted to ethanal, the taxpayer-funded scam fuel.
INterpretation
GS is long corn futures.
You can stick a fork in that dead cat bounce in U.S. home prices. Try not to catch yourself a falling knife!
P.S. The fact that the month-on-month drop is larger than the year-on-year drop suggests next month’s year-on-year drop is likely to be larger than the current one.
P.P.S. This sucker is going down.
Home value declines surpass those of Great Depression
By Katie Curnutte
Posted: 01/11/2011 02:03:07 PM PST
Updated: 01/11/2011 02:47:52 PM PST
Zillow Home Value Index chart
Along with the snow and cold, November brought continued declines in home values. In fact, the Zillow Home Value Index has now fallen 26 percent since its peak in June 2006. That’s more than the 25.9 percent decline in the Depression-era years between 1928 and 1933.
November marked the 53rd consecutive month of home value declines, with the Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI) falling 0.8% from October to November, and falling 5.1% year-over-year.
Foreclosures, however, took a tumble in November, with fewer than one out of every 1,000 homes being foreclosed. Unfortunately, that is an effect of the bank moratoriums that took place after the robo-signing issues came to light. Foreclosures are expected to rise again once that effect wears off.
…
“November marked the 53rd consecutive month of home value declines…”
That gets you out to four years and five months, with further declines on the way.
Yep — real estate always goes up, all right — except for when it doesn’t.
Daley Has $7.7 Million of JPMorgan Stock to Divest on Way to White House (Source: Bloomberg)
William Daley has about $7.7 million worth of JPMorgan Chase & Co. shares that he will need to divest to take over as President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, according to administration officials and regulatory filings.
White House lawyers also are reviewing whether Daley will have to recuse himself from some White House discussions to avoid potential conflicts stemming from his work as vice chairman of JPMorgan and his memberships on the boards of Abbott Laboratories and Boeing Co., according to an administration official.
Daley held 114,414 JPMorgan shares when his selection as chief of staff was announced by Obama on Jan. 6, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. On that day, New York-based JPMorgan also said he could retain 101,913 restricted shares and stock appreciation rights that entitled him to buy an additional 100,000 shares at $34.78 each.
Fewer Americans Bought Hybrid Cars in 2010; Green ‘Movement’ Fades, Harris Poll Finds
(CNSNews.com) – Automakers beware! Hybrid cars may dominate at the Detroit Auto Show, but fewer Americans said they purchased a hybrid car in 2010 than in 2009, according to a new Harris Interactive Poll.
In fact, only 8 percent of those surveyed said they “purchased a hybrid or more fuel efficient car” in 2010. That compares with 13 percent who said they had in 2009.
Only 1 percent of Americans said they bought a hybrid car — down from 2 percent the year before.
The poll, released on Monday, also shows that fewer Americans overall are “going green,” as compared to 2009.
In addition to purchasing a hybrid, American adults were less likely to engage in a host of “green” behaviors in their daily life in 2010, including:
– “Making an effort to use less water” (57 percent in 2010 vs. 60 percent in 2009)
– “Purchasing locally grown produce” (33 percent vs. 39 percent)
– “Purchasing locally manufactured products” (23 percent vs. 29 percent)
– “Purchasing organic products” (15 percent vs. 17 percent)
– “Composting food and organic waste” (15 percent vs. 17 percent).
Americans were also less likely to have adopted certain environmental activities endorsed by the Green Movement in the past year.
Another bubble.
Saving the planet for future generations, if it fails, IT fails.
I can’t see why people wouldn’t “go green” from if only from a financial standpoint.
I can beat cars from my neighborhood to the ferry on my bike, I don’t have to pay for gas, parking, insurance, car payments, taxes, registration fees, smog checks and I get a bit of cardio to keep health care costs low. Also, the land by the water wouldn’t need to be a huge parking lot if more people biked there. But really, just tons of money saved!
By setting our thermostat to 67 for two hours in the morning and three hours at night and 62 the rest of the time during the winter and having no AC, we save cash even at a dollar a therm.
With energy-efficient lighting, we run at 80-300W (max), our bills are tiny, even at $0.115/kWh. I can see energy usage much more easily with the smart meter and know that I’m not getting over-charged. These people who have faulty smart meters really just had slow, rusty meters before and now they are finally paying for their waste.
By composting, we don’t have to buy compost to grow our food. We have so little waste that we wouldn’t even need to use the trash service if it weren’t included in the rent (and probably mandated).
By growing some of our food and hunting it, we save cash.
By cooking our own food, we know what goes into it and we save cash.
By re-using some of our water, we would save money if the landlord didn’t pay for it. We merely save energy, but would save cash were we owners.
By purchasing locally grown produce, we keep jobs in our neighborhood so that we don’t have to work for Walmart (i.e. “crawl to Potter”) thus are able to earn a bit more money than otherwise and some pillock in Greenwich, CT can’t buy another boat. By patronizing local shops, we also make it so that we don’t have to drive and waste more money.
By purchasing locally manufactured products, we do much the same as above and can see people face to face if there is a problem.
By fruit gleaning in the community, we get fresh fruit for free and help to feed the under-served.
By community farming, we get fresh vegetables for free and help to feed the under-served.
Yeah, fine, we’re tree-huggers. But is everybody else fabulously wealthy, mentally ill or just plain stupid?
MrBubble
By living in an apartment building with 5 of 6 walls shared with other people, I have only needed heat on for about 10 hours so far this fall/winter.
We only share one wall with the neighbors, but they are Kikuyu and keep the heat up at 90. Good for our bills, I’ll bet. I can’t figure out who is paying for the hot water though. We are on a shared tank and the gas company says that they don’t break it out by customer. We were gone for almost all of the last billing cycle and we turned the heat off completely (not cold enough to freeze pipes), but still had a somewhat high bill for not being there. Maybe $15.
And our summer gas bills are $0 (electric stove), so maybe we’re splitting the bill on a yearly basis. Anybody even had this problem?
The
pollprognosis, released on Monday, also shows that fewer Americans overall are “going green,”American mass “short-term” memory problem: May 2008
Remedy Coming Soon!
If gas gets close to $5/gallon I think we’ll see a resurgence in popularity for all fuel efficient vehicles. At $5/gallon a 36 gallon pickup truck tank would cost $180 to fill up. At $3 it costs $108. I’m sure glad I don’t have one.
“Fewer people bought ANY KIND OF Car….”
Fixed it.
The only thing that sold around here last year was Audi, BMWs and MBs, and work trucks.
All the local dealers are buried in “program cars”.
The local Honda dealer is carrying less than a couple of dozen new cars/vans in inventory
The KIA dealer seems to be doing great.
“All the local dealers are buried in “program cars”.
Buying used rental cars will be the only way for most Americans to get a “newish” car.
I thought that this was a good editorial. It gave some numbers on how much is actually spent on public vs private pensions. Private business spends 3.6% on pension/savings contributions. Nationwide, public institutions spend 8.1%. California public agencies spend 10%. Probably not all of that comes from the taxpayers, but I’ll bet the vast majority does. This guy suggests that the voters of California be offered the opportunity to vote on how much of taxpayer money is spent on public pensions. Sounds reasonable to me, given that the $700 billion in liabilities is beyond unsustainable.
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/12/3317372/viewpoints-state-must-protect.html
But, but that’s São Paulo, it’s different in Rio because of the 2016 Olympics.
Property prices slowing down in Brazil’s largest city
http://www.propertywire.com/news/south-america/brazil-property-prices-slowing-201101104837.html
The real estate market in São Paulo, the economic hub of Brazil and South America’s largest city, is slowing as figures from local estate agents suggest the property market may have peaked.
…after a sharp escalation in prices in recent years, average prices fell by 3.53% in October last year compared with the previous month.
The data, based on the sales performance of 529 real estate agencies, also shows that there was a decrease of 25.6% in the number of properties sold over the same period.
….it is a sign that the market is returning to normal after a period of unsustainable that was boosted by a greater supply of housing credit and falling interest rates. ‘My perception is that prices are where they should be, with supply more adjusted to demand,’ he said in an interview.
Unemployment and foreclosures push up economic stress, reversing trend.(AP)
Higher unemployment and foreclosure rates, especially in South Atlantic and Mountain states, raised the nation’s economic stress in November, according to The Associated Press’ monthly analysis.
One month after economic stress reached an 18-month low nationally, it rose in three-quarters of the 3,141 counties the AP analyzed and in 39 states. Unemployment and foreclosures edged up in more than two-thirds of the states. Bankruptcies rose in half the states.
Florida, in particular, is struggling. Its recovery has lagged behind those of other states that were also ravaged by the housing bust, such as Arizona and California, because Florida’s economy is less diversified.
And Colorado, Idaho and other Mountain states have suffered from a loss of drilling, tourism and construction jobs.
Looks like the DOW is on cruise control now, nothing but soothing news in the financial world.
The dumbing down of the masses by US news
When gas prices hit $4 per gallon back in the summer of 2008, America’s drivers had a collective breakdown. No other single item affects the American psyche like gas prices, which are advertised on every street corner and magnified by the media every time they hit an uncomfortable threshold. No wonder car sales stalled, consumer-confidence collapsed, and some motorists even mothballed their cars, switching to buses or bicycles to get around.
Gas prices retreated during the recession, plunging all the way to $1.60 by the end of 2008–a much-needed break for consumers at a time when many other things were going wrong. But a recovering economy has once again lifted the price of gas above $3, an unusual spike during the winter months, when motorists typically drive less. With the global economy heating up–especially in oil-thirsty China–many forecasters expect oil prices to keep rising, bringing gas prices along with them.
The price of oil and all of its byproducts is notoriously hard to predict, especially ( when it is manipulated by OPEC and Wall Street and the FED this is my addition) since it depends on variables like currency-exchange rates and the activity of speculators making bets on the future. But many analysts expect oil prices to consistently drift higher as global demand rises, millions of new drivers take to the road in developing nations, and drillers exhaust cheap, easy-to-reach oil deposits. U.S. pump prices may not soar toward European levels any time soon, but they could easily rise by 25 percent or more over the next several months, since they usually rise as driving picks up during the spring and summer. Executives at General Motors say they’re prepared for $4 gas. Others think prices could go higher. On top of that, there are serious proposals in Washington to raise the federal tax on gas, to help pay down the mushrooming national debt.
The next gas-price spike, however, won’t be quite as painful as the last one. Here’s why
They list the fact that cars are becoming more fuel efficient and that hybrids and electric cars are on the way. Ignoring that most Americans have not replaced their car over this period of time.
So Don’t worry stock market investors high gas prices, higher taxes, higher fuel costs, more expenses due to service cuts, more fees due to declining tax revenue won’t hurt spending on ipods ipads computers appliances furniture clothes vacations eating out etc etc ???????????????
High gasoline prices sure are a messy way to increase retail sales.
And don’t forget the increased cost of shipping in all the imports.
Why would we have to import these types of vehicles? Oh wait…
During the high fuel price period a couple of years ago, a friend of mine worked for a company that sourced textiles. One of their suppliers re-opened some manufacturing in the American south because (briefly) the increased shipping costs made sourcing domestically competitive.
I know that’s stretching a bit to find a silver lining, but interesting never the less. The impact of fuel costs on the feasibility of global shipping will be interesting to consider going forward.
Plus longer lead times on product development to allow for shipping by boat make it harder for design-driven companies to “turn on a dime”.
I think some smarter companies will take a long hard look at that.
A lot of small cars, both domestic and foreign branded, are assembled in North America..
“A lot of small cars, both domestic and foreign branded, are assembled in North America..”
Yep, but this brings up an interesting coincidence:
Not one real major problem with Toyota vehicles for 40 years until they started making them here.
Same with Beemers.
Same with Mercedes.
I doubt it has anything to do with American management style. Must be the damn unions. Oh wait, those aren’t union shops…
Not sure if this explains it, but I’ve heard that the economics were so good for the Japanese in the late 80s that they could afford to intentionally over-engineer the cars for their intended market. Seems true for the early 90s Mitsubishis that I’ve been involved with.
Quote the chairman (Helicopter Ben): “This fear of inflation is way overstated. We’ve looked at it very, very carefully. We’ve analyzed it every which way… We will not allow inflation to rise above 2% or less… I am 100% certain i can control inflation.”
BTW, the Jefferies global commodity index (CRB) just hit a 27 month high.
Ah, so that’s why US News and World report is running a story that argues $4/gal. won’t hurt as much this time around?
Comfortably numb.
It’s no wonder magazines and periodicals like Time, NewSpeak, and US News are in a death spiral, subscription-wise. Even the dullest of the sheeple are starting to figure out that Establishment propaganda is no substitute for actual news and analysis.
It won’t get to $4gal.
There is no more money for $4gal then there was last year of the the year before or the year before that.
Demand will drop. (well… should, but I’m not betting on the intelligence of the American public)
“…….I am 100% certain I can control inflation (statistically)….”
There, fixed it…..
Merkel Says Germany Ready to Do `Whatever Needed’ to Save Euro
Chancellor Angela Merkel indicated that Germany is ready to revise the terms of a 750 billion-euro ($973 billion) rescue fund for indebted states, saying Europe’s biggest economy will do whatever is necessary to protect the euro.
Merkel, who is due to meet today with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was responding remarks made by European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn in which he called for a “comprehensive” plan to contain the sovereign debt crisis.
“We support whatever is needed to support the euro, also with respect to the bailout package,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin at a joint briefing with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Interesting post I copied from Krugmans blog
GDP is a highly malleable measurement; a knee surgery could cost $100,000 in the U.S. and 1/100 of that amount in China. The contribution toward the GDP of that surgery would be much higher in the U.S. but it is still the same surgery. Which leads me to believe that China, and other countries, are much closer in total output (in real terms) to the U.S. than the official GDP figures reflect.
This is almost certain, it may be that they actually have greater output.
Alternative POV:
CHINA, ECONOMY, FUN WITH STATISTICS! SOURCE: Harper’s Index
“Yeah, About That Whole “China is the Second-Largest Economy in the World” Thing…”:
By Justin Rohrlich December 28, 2010
“Remember back in August, when the headlines were filled with breathless announcements that China had surpassed Japan to become the second-largest economy in the world?
So do I. And, yes it did. By GDP.
This month’s Harper’s Index reminds us of the difference between GDP and GDP on a per-capita basis:
Global rank of China’s economy in 2010, measured by GDP: 2
Rank if GDP is calculated on a per-capita basis: 94
On the afternoon of August 16th, when the announcement was made, Mark Perry, the well-known University of Michigan economist, pointed out on his Carpe Diem blog that, although China now ranked #2 as per GDP, “it ranks #102 [on a per-capita basis] according to the CIA, #99 according to the IMF, and #92 according to the World Bank. In fact, on a per-capita basis in 2009, China ranked behind Namibia, Jamaica, Belize, Thailand, El Salvador, and Albania. And the last time the U.S. had per-capita GDP of $6,567 was back in 1932.”
Robert Reich wrote on Business Insider:
“…Don’t be misled by these numbers. The important thing isn’t China’s ranking, nor the total value of China’s production, nor even the extraordinary speed by which China has reached #2. What’s most important is the share China’s production received and consumed by the Chinese themselves. The problem is it continues to drop.
“The problem is it continues to drop.”
Oh? Other reports I’ve seen say it’s rising.
Once again, we’re being lied to, but by whom?
I think I’ll go with some people I know who live over there, along with news sources in the region like Australia and Vietnam. They say internal consumption is still rising.
The first time I ever agreed with Krugman.
Our GDP is phony period.
Then again I have heard this argument few yrs ago from some Austrian followers like Peter Schiff.
Man, I love it when they finally get it.
What’s Krugman gonna say tomorrow? Bubbles are bad? We need to save?
Oh, the humanity……..
To be honest it wasn’t Krugman but a poster on his blog.
The food riots in North Africa, a story studiously ignored by the MSM, have reached the capital. As usual, you have to go to foreign media outlets to get insightful coverage of events such as this that belie the “all is well, go out and be good consumers” meme of US media outlets.
http://www.english.rfi.fr/node/69632
Unrest spreads in Tunisia as protests hit capital
By RFI
Weeks of unrest in Tunisia have spread to the capital, where the heaviest protests took place on Wednesday. Police opened fire on a demonstration in the central town of Douz, killing two, the AFP wire service reports.
The sacking of the Tunisian interior minister and the deployment of troops has failed to bring calm to the capital Tunis which again erupted on Wednesday.
Security forces fired tear gas on hundreds of demonstrators in the heaviest protests yet in the capital after weeks of demonstrations since December.
Hamdi says trade unions are preparing a general strike scheduled for Thursday.
Last weekend on HGTV there was a show with a Brit couple looking for a summer house in Tunisia.
They were of course worried about the size of the rooms, cost, etc. Hope they considered proximity to their own embassy!
My wife and I watch those shows sometimes, and these people leave us gobsmacked. I keep wondering if they were all filmed in 2006, but according to the guide many of them are more current than this.
The ones that really bug me are the people who think they are buying an “investment property” in some foreign land.. They ask the realtor how much income they might expect, and whatever number they are given, the potential buyers take at face value. Mistake #1. Most of these folks would be better off staying in a hotel when they go to these countries.
Then there was one “Househunter” show (what kind of ammo do you use when househunting, anyways), some couple was moving to somewhere in West Virginia so the husband could start a new job as an asst professor. Of course the Realtor was pushing them up into more expensive houses claiming there wasn’t much available for less (a little browsing on Zillow told me she was blowing smoke up their behinds). But what got me was that they were going into these houses and the wife was turning up her nose and some of them claiming that “the kitchen would need to be gutted”. Well, only because she wanted granite and stainless steel. The kitchen in question looked clean and perfectly functional. If she didn’t get granite, was she going to sit down on the floor and throw a tantrum? I was thinking that instead of choosing between house 1, 2 or 3, the husband should choose a new wife. But his priorities were just as screwed up has hers, so that wasn’t likely to happen.
Ahhh, another comment that unnecessarily ridicules any female in sight. I’m sure there is a way for the couple to remain married without overspending on a house.
I wonder do any of the finance ministers in China really care what this little twerp says?
Geithner Says China Must Lift `Substantially Undervalued’ Yuan
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said China needs to strengthen the “substantially undervalued” yuan because it puts other countries at a competitive disadvantage.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-12/geithner-says-china-must-move-to-prop-up-substantially-undervalued-yuan.html
TurboTax Timmay blathering impotently (again) about how China must let the “substantially undervalued” Yuan rise against the dollar. Or what, Timmay? When you owe a creditor over a trillion dollars, you have very little leverage over what they do or don’t do. And when inflation in China is soaring in part due to speculative influxes of Wall Street’s Bernanke Bucks, the US really doesn’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to lecturing China on their fiscal policies.
Beijng will ignore him, of course.
This is the Achille’s heel of globalism. You can’t control what the other countries do.
I know it’s just me, but do you really need a study to show that you should get up and walk around, to be a little better off health wise?
ITEM: Even Small Breaks From Sitting Can Aid Heart Health, Study Says
Taking small breaks from sitting down such as standing for phone calls or walking to see colleagues may trim office workers’ waistlines and help their heart and metabolic health, a study suggests.
The more breaks people took, the smaller their waists and the lower the levels of a blood marker linked to inflammation, the research, published today by the European Heart Journal, showed.
The study is the first to look at the effects of remaining sedentary on the heart health of a broad swath of the population. The research tried to capture how much people moved as part of their daily routines, the lead author, Genevieve Healy, a research fellow at the University of Queensland, Australia, said in an interview yesterday.
“What we found was the more sedentary people were, the more sitting and the more reclining people did, the worse off they were in terms of cardio-metabolic function and inflammation, such as waist circumference, blood fats, lower levels of good cholesterol and protein inflammation markers,” Healy said.
The researchers drew on data from almost 4,800 volunteers outfitted with devices that tracked their activity for seven days as part of the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The average age of the participants was 46.5 years, and half were men. The participants wore their tracking devices, called accelerometers, for 14.6 hours a day, of which 8.44 hours were inactive and about a third of an hour was used to exercise.
10,000 steps at a minimum.
A journey begins…
Your tax money at work.
Well, when people no longer understand how the simplest things work in life because Rush Limbaugh and 24/7 corporate advertising said so, you end up having to repeat what every fifth grader already knows.
Well, then help my “little fifth grader mind”, will you?
Often, you refer to the term “corporatism”. Infantile as my mind is, I do know that the term was first coined by Mussolini.
That said, what is your definition of “corporatism” in EXACT terms? Note that I know the definition as per Mussolini, who serves as the original source.
The owner doesn’t give a reason…wonder why these stores are closing?
All three local Ashley Furniture stores closing.
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) - 11 News has confirmed three local furniture stores are closing.
The Ashley Furniture stores on N. First St. and North Ave. in Grand Junction are closing along with the store in Montrose.
All three stores are closed right now, preparing for a liquidation sale. The stores will reopen Thursday for the final sale.
In a memo, the owner says it was a painful decision to close the stores. He did not give a reason for the closures and it;s unknown how many people the stores employed. The owner says all orders will be filled and all deliveries will be made.
Two stores in Grand Junction doesn’t make sense. It’s not that large a city (metro pop. 150K). There’s only one Ashley store in metro Boise, pop. 500K. And tiny Montrose (pop. 15K) isn’t that far from Grand Junction.
Montrose isn’t a GJ suburb. I guess GJ had two stores because it was growing so quickly during the oil boom.
Ashley made some serious buy-outs of competitors in order to move into new markets, just before the bubble burst.
Evergreen Solar To Close Devens Manufacturing Facility
MARLBORO, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Evergreen Solar, Inc. (NasdaqCM: ESLRD), a manufacturer of String Ribbon® solar power products with its proprietary, low-cost silicon wafer technology, today announced its intent to shut down operations at its Devens manufacturing facility to better position the Company to pursue its industry standard size wafer strategy and preserve the Company’s liquidity.
The Company intends to completely shut down the Devens manufacturing facility by the end of the first quarter of 2011. Michael El-Hillow, President and Chief Executive Officer, explained the considerations behind the Company’s decision. “While overall demand for solar may increase, we expect that significant capacity expansions in low cost manufacturing regions combined with potential adverse changes in government subsidies in several markets in Europe will likely result in continuing pressure on selling prices throughout 2011. Solar manufacturers in China have received considerable government and financial support and, together with their low manufacturing costs, have become price leaders within the industry.
While the United States and other western industrial economies are beneficiaries of rapidly declining installation costs of solar energy, we expect the United States will continue to be at a disadvantage from a manufacturing standpoint.”
The Chinese have also BOUGHT many US plants and moved them.
This is some long term strategic planning on their part and WILL hurt us.
Little known fact: One of our major exports was… solar power systems.
Two of my favorites in one story, over paid non-profit CEOs and medical insurance fraud:
The Massachusetts registry accused of overcharging for bone marrow testing paid its top executive nearly $208,000 in annual salary, benefits and other compensation, according to the most recent records available through the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office.
Joanne Raymond founded the Caitlin Raymond International Registry in 1986 shortly after the death of her child, according to the organization’s website. Raymond heads the organization and is the highest paid employee, according to public documents available through the website of the Massachusetts Attorney General.
Rob Brogna, a spokesman for Caitlin Raymond’s parent organization, would not discuss her compensation Thursday.
“We’ve only been issuing statements at this point,” said Brogna, a spokesman with UMass Memorial Health Care Inc.
Records for the reporting year that ended Sept. 30, 2009, show Raymond received $169,800 in salary and other income, and $38,100 in benefit plans.
The organization reported “gross support and revenues” of $5.02 million during the period and a surplus of $1.12 million.
The Caitlin Raymond International Registry has suspended donor recruitment in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island over complaints about fees charged to insurers for simple swab tests for potential bone marrow donors.
UMass Memorial Heath Care Inc. charged insurers an average of $4,336 for each person who submitted to a saliva swab test. The test costs an estimated $112.
And we wonder why health care costs are too high.
The Latest Assessment from Fred Reed:
“Pondering Whither America, I reflected on a story, probably apocryphal but which I am going to believe because I like it, about catching monkeys. Tribesmen somewhere craft a heavy pot with a hole in it large enough that a monkey could insert an open hand, but not withdraw a closed fist. They then put monkey food in the pot. The monkey reaches in, grabs the food and, refusing to let go when the hunters approach, is caught and eaten.
Here we have our politics in a paragraph. The American national monkey can’t let go. The party is over, boys and girls, but we aren’t going to adapt.
For example: When people recently found that they could no longer afford the SUVs, the McMansions, the buying of absurdities in a frenzy of competitive consumerism, they just put it on the credit card. The monkey can’t let go. And now they are screwed.
Same-same domestic policy. The US has played War-on-Drugs for half a century, with no results but to make drugs an integral part of the economy. The evils engendered are great. Yet the monkey can’t let go.
It is internationally that the monkey principle really bites. The country is well on its way to being a merely regional power militarily, economically, and diplomatically. Short of a miracle, short of a conceivable but unlikely catastrophe in China, Amricans will soon be medium potatoes. There is nothing we can do about it, but we will bankrupt ourselves trying. We can’t let go.
If you look beyond the Reader’s Digest patriotism of Fox News, and the high-school cheerleading of little Sarah Palin, if you look beyond the national borders, all of this is obvious. “
Sounds to me like Fred has hit the nail squarely on the head!
We can’t let go, won’t let go and will eventually gnaw our own hand off.
“Tribesmen somewhere craft a heavy pot with a hole in it large enough that a monkey could insert an open hand, but not withdraw a closed fist.”
Has this been tried with banksters instead of monkeys and a stack of $100 bills instead of food?
Yes, but they were “too-big-to-get-stuck.”
Actually, they held on to the money so long that they lost over 30 pounds each. This caused their hands to become lithe and thin, so they got away with it.
Unfortunately, they were all seen later at the Steak and Lobster Express being carted away by the coroner’s truck. One had a lobster stuck in his throat, the other was killed by the waiter when he refused to hand over the cash for the bill.
I Fought The DMV To Keep The World’s Greatest License Plate!
“This is Garth Yeaman, the 30-year-old who valiantly struggled to keep the world’s greatest license plate from being destroyed by Virginia’s humorless bureaucracy. He lost the battle, but he’s not giving up the war. We interviewed him. Here’s his story.”
http://jalopnik.com/5727846/i-fought-the-dmv-to-keep-the-worlds-greatest-license-plate
(Hwy youtube’s Twilight Zone, Alien’s have landed episode: “To Serve Man”)
On Jan 5th, 2011 Toll Brothers’ CFO Mr. Connor, says it’s a great time to buy a home. They have a move up client base for McMansions.
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/65684482/
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/pm-calls-for-another-meeting-on-rising-prices/140173-3.html?from=tn
Indian Prime Minister has second meeting in as many days to address soaring food prices. Nothing to worry about, folks, the only way the longsuffering peasants of Southwest Asia will riot is if they can’t get iPads and iPods in white this Spring. And the food riots have been confined to Tunisia - crisis contained.
> No problem, if they get to implement “price controls” that will fix everything. They have worked so well in the past.
“The prices of onion, which is bringing tears to everybody’s eyes, has gone up by a record 82 per cent over the corresponding period last year. And the vegetables are at an overall high of 59 per cent over the corresponding period last year”.
“In order to fight inflation, the Centre could give states credit to control prices if they are able to successfully deliver”.
At 2:00 PM Eastern Time today, the U.S. Treasury announced that our government added another $80 billion to the cumulative budget deficit in December.
And believe it or not, that’s the GOOD news: Washington is bracing for even higher deficits down the road because of the tax relief package the White House and Congress passed in December.
Before that tax package passed, the Obama administration forecast that the deficit for this year would hit $1.42 trillion. Thanks to this newest round of tax cuts, that estimate may now prove to be wildly optimistic.
But even in the unlikely event that the White House’s earlier estimates hold, 2011 is certain to be the third consecutive year of $1 trillion-plus deficits for Washington. More than $4.1 trillion in deficits will have been run up in just 36 months!
~ Martin Weiss ~
The deficits are the only thing keeping the economy going. Wages aren’t putting money into the hands of consumers.
We have a winner.
For the last 30 years.
Hope and change does not come cheap.
Neither do 2 simultaneous wars and Wall St. bailouts and tax breaks for offshoring jobs.
And we should be raising taxes on the wealthy instead of cutting them (as Bush’s Congress did 10 years ago). And we should be dropping the cap on SS taxes instead of cutting it to 4.2%.
You do realize the real purpose behind at cutting SS taxes down to 4.2 percent, right?
It’s not about reducing taxes now.
It’s about reducing benefits paid later.
Most Americans are too dense to understand the former, or the implications of the latter.
The SEC has finally stirred itself to look into fraud allegations surrounding a Chinese microcap stock, while ignoring the vastly bigger frauds being perpetrated by TBTF banks. From THE STREET:
Securities regulators have launched an inquiry into China Green Agriculture(CGA_) as accusations of fraud continue to dog a universe of small Chinese companies with shares listed on U.S. exchanges.
Based in the central Chinese city of Xi’an, the organic-fertilizer producer and its struggles are emblematic of a trans-Pacific controversy, with investors casting doubt on the probity of hundreds of Chinese companies that have come public in the U.S. through a back-door process known as a reverse merger — sometimes known as a reverse takeover, or RTO.
Over the last year, allegations and revelations of financial fraud have beset these companies to such a degree that the Securities and Exchange Commission has launched a wide-ranging probe, according to people with knowledge of the SEC’s investigation.
China Green Agriculture is one of more than a dozen Chinese companies that SEC investigators have shown a particular interest in examining, those same people have told TheStreet. The agency has declined to comment.
China Green’s chief financial officer, Ken Ren, didn’t respond to requests for comment. Scrutiny of the company has grown heated enough that last week China Green hired New York public relations firm Sitrick & Co., which specializes in crisis management. The firm’s principal, Mike Sitrick, confirmed that the SEC had begun an informal inquiry into China Green Agriculture in September. He wouldn’t comment on the nature of the agency’s interest. No subpoenas have been issued to China Green, he said.
Criticism of the company grew so intense this summer — and, indeed, short positions in its stock grew so large — that China Green issued a number of press releases in September defending the accuracy of its financial filings in the U.S. and denying the fraud accusations.
Steelcase to cut 400 Kentwood jobs
KENTWOOD, Mich. (WOOD) - Steelcase will cut 400 jobs in West Michigan over the next 18 months, as the poor economy continues to take a toll on U.S workers.
The company made the announcement Wednesday morning. Officials say 750 jobs will be cut nationwide. Plants in Ontario, Canada and Grand Prairie, Texas will also lose jobs. Some of the work will move to Mexico, as well as a plant in Alabama.
But the bulk of those cuts will come from the closing of the Steelcase East plant located on 52nd Street in Kentwood.
“The poor economy continues to take a toll on US workers.”
not
“Offshoring continues to take a toll on US workers.”
or
“Offshoring, which could easily be reversed by the reinstatement of simple tarrifs, continues to take a toll on US workers.”
It’s just a poor economy with no explanation whatsoever, something no one could have predicted, but is closely linked to house prices.
New poll indicates the vast majority of Americans are total morons that think it is possible to eat their cake, and have it too.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/41044109
“71 percent of those surveyed oppose increasing the borrowing authority”
“Only 20 percent supported paring Social Security retirement benefits while a mere 23 supported cutbacks to the Medicare health-insurance program.”
“51 percent supported cutbacks to military spending.”
$740 billion denence
$740 billion Social Security
(let’s add another $65 billion for SSI (disability administered by SSA, and railraod retirement to give them the COLAs that SS gets))
$500 billion Medicare
$300 billion Medicaid
$250 billion interest on the debt
$150 billion Unemployment
$125 billion VA
Those “untouchables” are only $2.8 trillion of the $3.7 trillion budget.
Surely the other $900 billion is pure waste, like $50 billion for transportation, $50 billion for military pensions, $75 billion for other federal employees retirment, $35 billion for National institutes of health, including CDC and FDA, $60 billion for justice including border security, prisons, courts, criminal investigations. Okay, okay, we like that $270 billion also… Add in a little more “good spending like national forests, national parks, NASA, etc. call it $3.15 trillion of “good spending”.
So what is the last $550 billion spent on? Well, due to the freakish way government accounts for tax credits as expenses rather than moeny they didn’t collect in the first place… $50 billion for earned income credit, $25 billion for child tax credits, Making Work Pay stimulus tax credits $20 billion. Getting rid of those is a tax increase, and no one likes tax increases… so…
Call it $450 billion more that is going somewhere.
$125 billion for education including $40 billion for student loans,
$80 billion in food stamps,
$30 billion section 8 housing $30 billion,
about $70 billion-ish in other “welfare-like programs” like foster care, student meals, WIC, TANF, blah, blah.
That is $300 billion…. We can easily slash HALF of that.
SPENDING CUTS = $150 billion.
There is another $30 billion of “natural resources and environment” that is silly stuff like corp of engineers, United States Gologicaal survey, NOAA, fish and game… We can slash a good 75% of that giving us another
SPENDING CUTS = $22.5
Then of course, is the $65 billion that goes to “internation affiairs”. Easy to cut 75% from that…
SPENDING CUTS = $48.75 billion.
Dept of Ag, Energy, Community development = $55 billion. Slice that 75% and…
SPENDING CUT = $41.25 billion
Look, I just cut $260 billion from the $3700 billion budget… that will cut our deficit from $1.5T to only $1.25T….
And I’m just getting started… What next???
Oh, there is nothing left but tiny little rounding errors? That was the full budget? Oh crud.
Risk of bust after boom haunts Latin America ~ Financial Times ~
Nobody has described the mixed blessings of commodity wealth more pithily than Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo, Venezuela’s oil minister in the 1960s and one of the founders of Opec. “Oil will bring us ruin,” he said. “Oil is the devil’s excrement.”
Half a century later, Latin America is finding new truth in his words. Oil can become a commodity curse. But so too the other raw materials so abundant in the region, from sugar and copper to iron ore and soybeans.
Ostensibly, the continent is thriving. Some even talk of the coming “Latin American decade”, fueled by an Asian-driven commodity boom that has produced a thirteen-fold increase in trade with China since 2000.
But there is a Janus face to this abundance: alongside soaring commodities prices have come extreme economic dislocations, especially in currencies.
The problem is at the “heart of the concerns” among Latin American central bankers, says Augusto de la Torre, the World Bank’s regional economist. “It is a serious risk that needs to be managed.”
Brazil, one of the world’s largest exporters of commodities, recently imposed controls to curb the capital inflows that have pushed up its currency, pummeling manufacturers and putting jobs at risk. Chile, the world’s largest copper producer, has also weighed in to currency markets to help its exporters.
A simple solution: import more stuff. Take those dollars and buy American goods.
It’s just terrible when politicians come down with foot-in-mouth disease.
‘Blood libel’ has particular, painful meaning to Jewish people
The phrase used by Sarah Palin against her detractors usually refers to the false accusations made for centuries against Jews, often to malign them as child murderers — and sometimes leading to massacres of their communities.
By Rick Rojas, Los Angeles Times
January 12, 2011, 3:36 p.m.
…
Yeah You Betcha!
How the Fed spend $2 trillion for 650,000 crappy jobs.
From Trim Tabs:
Almost 60% of Jobs Added in 2010 in Three Lower-Paying Areas: Temporary Help, Leisure & Hospitality, and Retail Trade.
Economists and market strategists spill lots of ink opining about the number of jobs the U.S. economy creates. But we think the nature of the jobs is at least as important for the economy’s long-term health as the number of jobs. On the former point, the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data is disappointing.
In 2010, the BLS reports that the economy added 1.12 million jobs. Almost 60% of these jobs are in one of three relatively low-paying areas—temporary employment (308,000), leisure & hospitality (240,000), and retail trade (116,000).
These jobs are certainly better than no jobs. But for the economy to grow sustainably—without the crutches of $1+ trillion per year in federal deficit spending, zero percent dictated interest rates, and tens of billions per month in central bank debt monetization—American companies need to start generating more higher-paying jobs at home
…while the Repubs voted to keep tax breaks for offshoring jobs.
From the WSJ - Banking Law Hung Up On Down Payments
“Wells Fargo & Co., the nation’s largest mortgage lender, has asked U.S. regulators to set a down-payment standard of 30% on mortgages that wouldn’t have to meet a new requirement that banks retain 5% of a loan if it is securitized. The so-called risk-retention requirement is aimed at preventing future housing meltdowns because lenders could face steeper losses if their loans go bad.”
The gist - as long as the down payment on a new loan is 30% or more, an originator can sell 100% of the loan through a securitization. If the down payment is less than 30%, the originator will need to keep 5% of the loan on their books as an “eat what you kill” incentive to have strong underwriting.
I personally would like the requirement to be 100%, so every originator needs to keep a portion of the loans they originate on their books. However, if the number needs to be something less, 30% is as good a start as any.
Personally, if a pool of residential mortgages originated today (at today’s home prices) was 100% full of loans with 30% down payments, I would guess the risk of loss would be VERY low (30% down implies that the borrowers have some degree of financial discipline, not to mention to be hurt badly, home prices would need to fall by another 30%).
Ah, but at 30% down, they cut qualified buyers by at least 50%.
No churn there either.
Oh, so the consumer takes all the risk? Methinks the bankster needs to keep some skin in the game, no?
Just put a 30% down payment requirement on all loans. In no time at all, mortgages will go from highly toxic to one of the safest assets ever to enter a bank’s balance sheet. No more taxpayer guarantees would be needed…
They would get safer, Professor, but in this environment there are other ugly spectres: Namely long term job loss and/or medical catastrophe.
I’ve pulled up records here where the homes are almost paid off and then the crisis hits.
Amazingly close to 500 posts for a slow news day!
Last (or if not, at least 500th…)
Top tricks to sell your home if all else fails
You might bury St. Joseph in the backyard but maybe you would attract more buyers using some of these other ideas.
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