Bits Bucket for January 14, 2011
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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New Hit to Strapped States ~ WSJ ~
Borrowing Costs Up as Bond Flops; Refinancing Crunch Nears
With the market for municipal bonds tumbling, cities, hospitals, schools and other public borrowers are scrambling to refinance tens of billions of dollars of debt this year, another sign that the once-safe market is under duress.
The muni bond market was hit with the latest wave of bad news Thursday, prompting a selloff that sent the market to its lowest level since the financial crisis. A New Jersey agency was forced to cut the size of a bond issue by about 40% because of mediocre demand, and pay a higher rate than expected. And mutual fund giant Vanguard Group shelved plans for three new muni bond funds, citing market turmoil.
“We believe that this delay is prudent given the high level of volatility in the municipal bond market,” said Rebecca Katz, spokeswoman for the nation’s biggest fund company.
“Refinancing crunch nears.”
Breaking news: Cash rules.
Breaking news: TBTF appears to trump cash.
Illinois, sucks to be you!
D’oh
Gee, thanks Palmy.
Seriously though, when I travel I am going to start to tell people I’m from Iowa or something.
Happy New Year Palmy. I found this website that gives state tax burden rankings. They combine state, local and property taxes in their computations. You have to scroll down to get from 1977 to 2008.
Anyway, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut,Vermont, Wisconsin, Maryland, and California are among the highest taxed states. Illinois was #30 before they increased the state income tax rate to 5% this week. Florida, Louisiana, New Mexico, Texas, Nevada, New Hampshire, Tennessee and Alaska are in the bottom ten.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/336.html
So much for Wisconsin trying to lure businesses away from Illinois. Good luck with that!
Wouldn’t businesses be mostly concerned with corporate taxes?
We’re no. 18. I wonder if they included the exorbitant vehicle registration fees in that?
Texas is really low. Certainly prop taxes are included in that??
Never mind…property taxes not included.
Makes a differences, doesn’t it?
Sales taxes are also fairly high in Texas.
too bad the rank is the highest marginal rate, not the per capita total tax.
This news requires the proper context.
Google “CAFR”
College Cuts Imperil Dream That Fueled Silicon Valley
Brown Cuts Imperil California Dream (Bloomberg)
California’s culture of innovation, which propelled the growth of Silicon Valley and Hollywood, was built on a public higher-education system that spawned 56 Nobel Prize winners and is home to one campus that produces 1,000 engineers a year.
Now, as governments in China and India boost funding for expansion of their universities, Governor Jerry Brown’s proposed 16 percent cut in the higher-education budget jeopardizes the flow of talent that powers Google Inc., Apple Inc. and the rest of California’s knowledge-based economy. The elite University of California system may no longer be able to guarantee admission to the top 12.5 percent of the state’s high-school seniors. Annual tuition for residents, which was less than $4,500 a decade ago, is scheduled to rise to at least $11,124 in the next school year.
“Now, as government in China and India boost funding for expansion of their universities …”
Gee, I wonder why China and India have all this money for expansion of their universities and we seem to have so little?
george bush?
No. Sarah Palin, Fox News and Talk Radio.
I could have sworn $15/hr village employees did it….
Ooops…. my mistake. It’s the unemployed people. That’s it.
THAT”S RIGHT! It’s those damn welfare queens and unions!
Not those tax breaks for offshoring jobs. No siree!
and Talk Radio ??
More like “Hate Talk” Radio….
Tune into hate radio WNAZI on the east coast and KKKK broadcasting on the west coast for inflammatory talk and hate, round the clock.
“and Talk Radio ??
More like “Hate Talk” Radio….”
Paddle FASTER Hwy…I hear Banjo Music.
Hwy…Hwy !?!
One of the great mysteries of the universe is that those who spend less than they earn have money and those who spend more than they earn do not.
But the ability to do so comes down to ones salary. Something tells me that the masses working for $10 per hour will never be part of the group that spends less than they earn, which works right into corporate America’s, and Megabank, Inc’s, hands.
“But the ability to do so comes down to ones salary.”
No, the ability to do so is strictly related to the ratio of one’s salary to one’s expenditures.
I was able to save money back when I was making $12K. Of course, I made many choices that made that possible: very cheap apt with a roommate, very few optional expenditures, etc. I pinched pennies, but it was really not even painful.
Sure, it is much easier with a higher salary, but there are definitely two variables in the equation, one of which is much easier to change than the other.
Sorry, Prime, but you’re a statistical outlier. It is next to impossible for most minimum wage types to save money given the cost of living, health care, etc.
Exactly. Ever tried squeezing blood out of a turnip?
When was that prime? 20 years ago?
“One of the great mysteries of the universe is that those who spend less than they earn have money and those who spend more than they earn do not………………..”
This only applies to the general population. IF you are a Bankster, you can spend money you don’t have, money you lost and money that you should never have gotten, and still have more money than anyone else.
It’s a shame to live in a society that allows such rampant criminality where the rule of law applies to everyday people, but the Financial “elite” writes their own rules, subsidized and guaranteed by the US Federal Government and it’s various agencies.
Also, you must consider that should Ben Bernanke’s INFLATION plan work out, the debts of all the banks will be relinquished, but the more you saved, the less you will have as a result of loss of value.
All the rules of good conduct have been discarded to support bad governance and bad investment decisions. Expect every trade you make to be ‘Front run” by Goldman Suchs and JP Morgan. It’s the Red Queen race for us. The faster we run the further behind we will get, as the FED prints more and more and more (while denying that is what they are doing).
And gee, the dog ate my balance sheet. But take my word for it, we’ve got good assets to cover any potential losses….Ha.
Amerika has no rules anymore. The banks can make any rules they want and when the old rules don’t work to their advantage, they’ll just have the Treasury, FED, Office of Thrift Supervision, SEC, FASB, and all the other “regulators” shuffle the papers around and hide any losses. They can’t lose.
I believe in the longer term, our money will turn to vapor, as the Banks convert all their paper to Mansions and estates and we are left holding empty promises.
It’s all just a paper promise, anyway, isn’t it??
You speak the truth my friend ,they have to be stopped .
Exactly Diogenes, and when people see the leaders breaking the rules, then why should they have follow the rules?
Totally agree with you guys.
There is not enough wealth because that wealth has been shifted UP (into very few hands) over the past few decades.
Maybe because they spend a lot less per student, and their universities lack posh residence halls, student centers, sports faciities, etc.
They also lack American university’s Coaching contracts and sports draft sytems.
Dang socialeest/commies!
India still doesn’t. Don’t know where the reporter got the idea from.
Not true. The govt there has expanded the university system and has made education a fundamental right for every child. Do you realize that this is an achievement that was not possible since its independence? Schools there give kids bicycles for free and 3 eggs per week free including a midday meal.
Today the 96.5% of kids are enrolled in school. Not bad for a country which did not even have a 30% literacy rate not too long ago.
The report is talking about college education and not primary school. University system has “expanded” but has neither kept up with demand nor with population (see for instance the number of private colleges), nor with skill requirements of the country.
Here is a fun fact:
California spends more on pensions than it does on its state university system.
http://www.heartland.org/custom/semod_policybot/pdf/27578.pdf
Talk about eating you seed corn…
Yep, the state’s fiscal condition will continue to fester until the legislature and governor do the dirty work to reform pensions. So far they’ve only changed the situation for new hires. But the contracts have to be changed now, despite the threats of lawsuits.
Legislation allowing Bankruptcy is the “Only” remedy IMO….Its the only way you can get out from under State “Guaranteed” pensions….
“Changing the situation for new hires” made me laugh out loud. The idea that a new lower pay, lower class citizen is going to be funding such largess is truly rib-splitting.
Like I say, people making $12hr aren’t going to buy new cars.
Let alone houses.
They’ll restore funding to univesities when high school graduates are banned from them and they start serving those over 55.
Eh… what?
I hate to break it to the author but most of the brilliance, if you want to call it that, is fueled by Stanford & Ivy League grads.
Examples:
Google - Stanford
eBay - Don’t know Omidyar’s pedigree but Whitman was I.L.
Apple - No college degree required
And on and on ………
I’m not trying to diminish a solid education. I personally think the UC system should concentrate on Mandarin & Spanish language classes. Since the PTB have determined that blue collar work is beneath us our newly developed language skills would permit us to act as liasons between the owners and worker bees.
Isn’t this global economy thing great!
The value in higher education is where one’s studies broaden minds and build critical thinking skills. Once it becomes a ticket to a job (which for most it is) then it’s broader value to both society and the individual is markedly diminished.
FWIW, skills from trade schools and work experience put a roof over my head, while knowledge gained from college helps me understand why politicans and bankers do what they do to us.
There’s a big difference between education and job training, I think there a lot of “uneducated” college grads: they lack critical thinking skills and make better sheeple.
“college grads: they lack critical thinking skills and make better sheeple.”
A college grad who saw college as nothing but a ticket to getting a job: “These charts prove that the recession is over and that the economy is improving.”
A college grad who went to college to sharpen his critical-thinking skills: “The exponential increase in the number of people at food banks tells me that the recession ISN’T over and that the economy is getting worse.”
Critical thinking? Isn’t that some kind of socialeest/commie plot?
I wish i could agree with you, Edgewater, but sadly it’s BS. Here’s a typical interview:
Interviewer: I’m looking for someone who can do X Y Z computer skillz.
College grad: I can do X and Y but I only had one semester of Z so I’m not as good. however, I’m a well rounded person and I can think critically and solve you problem.
Interviewer: NEXT!
Apu in Mumbai: My School taught me X Y Z. Just email me your work and I’ll email it back… at 40% pay.
Interviewer: What did Plato’s Cave represent?
Apu in Mumbai: huh?
Interviwer: Congratulations!
That’s why it’s good to have a little of both (actually a little of as much as one can absorb about anything).
This notion that education/learning stops after a certain age/level or that it cannot occur outside a classroom is ludicrious. Just as our forebears had to hunt/farm each and every year of their lives, so must we now try to learn each and every year of ours.
Those old postwar expectations and conventions regarding personal education aren’t doing any favors for anyone right now.
Oxide, I learned most of my computer skills OJT. Latest example, I am designing a GUI and learned MS visual C# C++ forms, and how to create a DLL for each. The C# windows Forms stuff is far easier. Learned to do this all within one week. Used Google and MSDN searches to figure it all out. You don’t learn how to do effective web searching in a college class.
Last Fall I wrote a little SSL tunnel Java class in NetBeans. Made it modular for other apps to use it. Again learned all about it by Google searching and analyzing the information.
Oxide, I learned most of my computer skills OJT.
I did too. And, thank you, bill in Tampa, for outlining your skills. You never know when one of us HBB geeks will need ‘em.
I learned most of my computer skills on my own.
Where I live, oxide’s example is the rule.
1990s was the last decade for tech OJT.
What college did Bill Gates and Steven Jobs graduate from again??
I remember, the same one Larry Ellison graduated from.
Gates didn’t graduate, but he did attend Harvard. And since many here have great contempt for Microsft’s products, maybe that’s not something to brag about (that he didn’t finish school).
I will concede that Gates was a cunning businessman, but IMHO that’s an innate skill.
I think his point is that none of the three even graduated from college, at least prior to their success in their respective careers.
Having grown up in “Silicon Valley” and worked in that industry for decades, I can assure you that most of the engineers working there are transplants from other places. You don’t even have to consider the H1-B visa people.
Yep………
Google - Stanford
Larry Page did his undergraduate work at the University of Michigan College of Engineering. I met him at the annual engineering alumni banquet a few years ago.
Still one of the best engineering programs around. My dad has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in M.E. from UM. The Blue, it runs deep in our family.
Agree with you on the best engineering programs sentiment. )My dad has a BS in ChE from U-M.)
Also one of the most open-minded and enthusiastic parts of the U-M. Yes, I know. Most engineers aren’t known for being open-minded. But most engineers are not *Michigan* engineers.
First all colleges should eliminate remedial classes….that is a BIG sign of failure in the public school system.
Propose some system that if you are in the top 5% of sat scores GPA etc…you will get a grant to lower your cost get 2250 out of 2400 and get free tuition….problem solved.
No, DJ, the mission of state universities is to make them accessible to students from all walks of life who qualify to get in. When my younger son and his then-girlfriend applied to college, they both wanted to go to Cal. She got in and he didn’t. He was upset because his grades and SAT scores were higher. I had to point out to him that she deserved special consideration because she was a life-long foster child whose mother was in and out of jail for drug offenses and whose father was in prison. She lived in three places during the five months she dated my son. He gave her some earrings for Christmas and she asked him to keep them for her because her roommates routinely stole her belongings. Cal gave her some remedial writing classes during the summer before she started. She will graduate in the spring.
And don’t forget the legacy of the “land grant” colleges…
Because they happened to live in Champaign Ill., my grandmother and all of her siblings were college graduates in the 1890’s.
The University of California system IS the “land grant colleges” of that state.
UC is a three-tier system. Students who need remedial ed are supposed to go do that part at the junior college level.
“UC is a three-tier system.”
To be more accurate, California higher ed is three tier.
Tier 1: UC. Very competitive to get admitted, especially Berkeley, Davis and San Diego.
Tier 2: Cal State. Much easier to gain admission.
Tier 3: Community Colleges. All are admitted. Super cheap, completing an AA degree guarantees a transfer to a Cal State school.
Tier 2: Cal State. Much easier to gain admission.
And, speaking as someone who has done business with them, “easier” only applies to gaining admission. When it comes to getting paid for work done, they’re like Fort Knox.
Actually the UC system’s selectivity rating is:
Berkeley 99
UCLA 90
Davis/San Diego tied for third at 84.
No offense to the elite people who came out of UC, (mediocre moi who graduated out of Cal State), but I knew a Berkeley grad who got fired for his underperformance. He is a boomer. He had coasted for years until that company had enough. Another Berkeley grad there only writes documents on how to build software. That is all he did since 2006. What a waste of his superior education! I do remember a Harvard grad, about a year out of Harvard, who actually lived up to my expectation of confidence and brilliance. He studied Mathematics.
For the most part, it is not about what college you went to, but your own drive.
That’s good for her…but if i remember here at NYCity Univ. they had something like a 70% dropout rate in the first 2 years after they spent money giving remedial courses to get in. vs like 25% who were accepted without needing them…. i have to find the figures
Propose some system that if you are in the top 5% of sat scores GPA etc…you will get a grant to lower your cost get 2250 out of 2400 and get free tuition….problem solved…….
That is exactly how Universities used to be run. You are trying to eliminate 30 years of work creating “diversity” in the University system. If you are white and score high, you should be replaced by someone who is black and scored low. Problem solved.
There’s a similar sort of policy at the state universities in AZ. If you get a high enough score on some test (SAT or maybe AIMS, which is an Arizona thing) you get free tuition. It sounds reasonable at first, until you think about it a little. Scores on standardized tests like the SAT tend to highly correlated to family income. So the result is that the children of lawyers, dentists, corporate executives, etc. get a free eductation, while the children of plumbers and truck drivers have to pay. Of course, we taxpayers pay massively for these universities, which really means that we pay maybe half of the cost for some kids and the full cost for other kids. So it’s more welfare for high-income people.
OK mike then those with family income under $50K get the free tuition first….those above get zero interest loans for 10 years….
California now seems prepared to burn the legs of the chair on which the economy rests in order to heat the room. Good luck with that plan!
Another day another “couldn’t see it coming” :
t turns out that Schwab did not live up to those promises during the financial crisis, for which it agreed this week to pay $119 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators, most of which will go to investors who bought into Schwab’s marketing hype for a fund full of risky investments that was promoted as a safe way to do better than a money market fund.
Companies that settle with the S.E.C. neither admit nor deny the commission’s allegations. But they seldom are as eager to point the finger of blame elsewhere as Schwab was. There was no hint of remorse that the fund had concentrated fund assets far more than it had told investors it would, or that it had made numerous misleading statements when the fund was crashing.
Instead, the firm says it never could have seen the disaster coming:
“The decline in the YieldPlus fund was the result of an unprecedented and unforeseeable credit crisis and market collapse. Until the credit crisis, the YieldPlus Fund was consistently one of the top performing funds in its category for eight years.”
I got an idea, instead of a wrist slap how ’bout locking some of these folks up…
“… unprecedented and unforseeable credit crisis and market collapse …”
Lol.
Unforseeable??? Loaning billions of dollars to folks who had no chance whatsoever of ever paying it back was unforseeable?
I love this blog.
Schwab’s marketing hype for a fund full of risky investments that was promoted as a safe way to do better than a money market fund.
This may be a second reason that the super-low-interest rates from around 2002 to 2005 hurt the economy. Almost no return on a MM fund helped foster demand for anything that would promise a decent return, such as these funds.
I remember reading something from a guy who ran a Madoff “feeder fund”, which took deposits and then parked them with Bernie. He said that people would do ANYTHING for a couple points of return. I think part of it is a macho thing - you say N%, and somebody in the conversation says N+4%, and you look like a loser.
You’re not looking at the current situation. I have pointed out numerous times that the only reason the markets are pushing to new levels is that there simply isn’t any other place to go. I think now is worse than then.
It’s the FED’s entire scheme. Zero interest rate. Free money to Banks to speculate. What do you think will be the result?
This may be a second reason that the super-low-interest rates from around 2002 to 2005 hurt the economy. Almost no return on a MM fund helped foster demand for anything that would promise a decent return, such as these funds.
——————
This is exactly what happened, and it’s also what has caused the “pension crisis.” Pension funds had to keep taking on more and more risk because they had to meet their targeted return rates. This forced them into risky MBSs and credit default swaps, not to mention large RE deals at the peak.
Privatize reckless greed, socialize responsibility.
Texas Straight Talk from Dr. Ron Paul - Jan. 10, 2011
* “The problems the Fed was originally created to solve now look minuscule compared to the problems it has created.”
* “We are STILL in the dark on so much of what the Fed has done…”
* “The solution is to return sanity and freedom to monetary policy. Forcing the entire country to use a medium of exchange that is subject to the whims of elite bankers and their cronies on Wall Street is not sanity. Hoping that an unchecked, all-powerful, behemoth banking cartel will solve any economic problem is not sanity.”
> Jim Rogers: “We’ve Had 3 Central Banks In The History Of America, 2 Of Them Failed And This Will One Will Too!”
Americans have shown themselves unworthy of Dr. Paul.
Sammy, I get where you’re coming from, but to indict all “Americans” is rather unfair. There are many Americans who support him, myself included. I happen to think I’m worthy of Dr. Paul and I happen to think I’m worthy of more folks like him in government.
Many people may not understand Dr. Paul, due to the braying of the MSM, political opportunists, dumbed down schools,etc.
Palmetto,
95% of the voters in the last election supported the statist, corporatist, pro-bailout Obama and McCain. Five percent supported Ron Paul. My point is, the American people are getting exactly what they voted for, and deserve. Most of them will refuse to wake up until it’s far too late.
Yes, Palmy, you are worthy.
The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it.
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957
I supported Ron Paul, also. Remember when the debates were on, the “sponsors” hardly gave RP the time of day, asking almost no questions, as if he weren’t even on the panel? He had to inject himself into the discussions… That’s SLANTED Journalism for sure. It was embarrassing.
I thought he had finally been given a platform to be better known.
Most of the press simply dismissed him as unelectable, and unpopular. I am thankful the “new media” is making the “mainstream media” more irrelevant every passing day.
Fox News silenced Ron Paul during 2008. But the network gave him a lot of publicity only when it was certain either McSame or Romney would be the nominee.
“We’ve Had 3 Central Banks In The History Of America, 2 Of Them Failed And This Will One Will Too!”
Personally, I don’t care about the 2 that failed. All of the people who had invested in those banking schemes are long dead. I don’t have enough years ahead of me to make up for a financial wipe-out today.
Like so many others, I am looking to the future with visions of poverty.
“Simpson’s ex-wife is still living in the home, 23 days after it was sold.”
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 12:08 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011
“The trend in the last few months is that new filings have been down, but what is more important is the upward trend in the number of homes repossessed by the banks,” said Brad Hunter, chief economist with MetroStudy in Palm Beach Gardens. “To me, that’s an indicator of the kind of pressure we will see on home prices.”
The number of bank repossessions jumped 50 percent in Florida last year compared with 2009, with 122,912 homes going back to the bank. In Palm Beach County, bank takeovers more than tripled, with 8,979 homes repossessed.
One of those homes was co-owned by Jeff Simpson, who was on the mortgage with his ex-wife.
The Palm Beach Gardens house entered foreclosure in 2009 and was set for sale Dec. 20. Although the bank requested that the sale be canceled, a judge denied the motion and the home was auctioned five days before Christmas.
While Simpson acknowledges some poor financial planning on his part, the bleak economy also cost him and his wife their jobs. He accepts that the bank has the right to take the home but says the process has been baffling.
Simpson’s ex-wife is still living in the home, 23 days after it was sold.
“What’s hard is the lack of communication about what is going on,” he said. “What everything really means is never explained.”
“He accepts that the bank has the right to take the home but says the process has been baffling”.
I don’t doubt it one bit, the banks have been baffling people with bull$hit for a long, long time.
Why can’t we throw bankers who baffle the world with BS into jail for fraud and start over again with some honest bankers dedicated to restoring trust to the system and to their profession? A banking system devoid of trust is not sustainable.
“honest banker” = oxymoron of the year.
A banking system devoid of trust is not sustainable.
———————————————————————
Doing God’s work is always sustainable.
“A banking system devoid of trust is not sustainable.”
That’s actually true. Banking systems, money, finance, etc. depend on trust and confidence for their existence. Hence the term “fiat” currency.
I am 100% confident that no matter how much the big 5 banks lose in bad loans, the FED will cover all the loses at taxpayer expense.
Why haven’t we heard about the latest “bonuses” this past year?
I just read that the banks will have a record year. You know for certain they are lapping up some gravy from the big banker bowl. slurp. slurp.
Because 95% of Americans continue to vote for candidates who ensure the bankers can engage in irresponsible, reckless, and often fraudulent conduct with impunity. Let’s start putting the blame where it really belongs.
The same voters who gave Repubs more power this last election… even after the Repubs voted to KEEP tax breaks for offshoring jobs.
THAT’S why they do what they do. Because they CAN.
I nominate PBear for new banking commission chair!
As the saying goes, “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull$hit”
Isn’t Simpson out looking for the real mortgage holder?
Oh, wait. I’m thinking of a different Simpson.
“Simpson’s ex-wife is still living in the home, 23 days after it was sold.”
Maybe she’s furniture like in the movie Soylent Green?
Anchor Blue sinks, retailer closing all stores
San Francisco Business
Anchor Blue, a casual apparel retailer, said Thursday that it will close all 117 stores, including its Bay Area locations.
Anchor Blue’s Bay Area locations include Antioch, Concord, Richmond, Daly City, Newark, Tracy, Milpitas and San Jose.
The clothing retailer targeting teenagers and young adults has been in business for more than three decades.
In the aftermath of the Great Recession, young adults have reined in their spending at a faster clip than their baby boomer counterparts who are closer to retirement.
“In the aftermath of the Great Recession …”
“…aftermath …”
Now there’s an interesting word, as in it suggests this Great Recession thingy is somehow over and done with.
“In the “In the aftermath of the Great Recession …”
The word “aftermath” struck me too. I have gone through 3 hurricanes since 2005, the first 2 we were in the eye wall for 18-20 hours with no break from the storm, it was a bummer but when it was over it was over. The last one “Wilma” which was not forecast to be too bad (they were wrong) the eye of the storm passed directly over us. We went outside for about 15 minutes and it was an eerie feeling, the first half of the storm had already been worse than anyone thought and you could see the other half coming. The second half of the storm did most of the damage including dropping a palm tree that crushed the bed of my F-250. I get the same eerie feeling about this “Great Recession”. It feels like we are in the eye of the storm.
To me, it’s more like feeling the feeder bands of wind gusts as the storm approaches. I think the storm is still approaching from the warm gulf waters, and still building strength. I’m getting buffeted by gusts, but the full impact is only seen on the radar.
Also, I don’t think the storm is hitting the country all at once. It’s going around taking out parts of the country bit by bit.
Remember Hurricane Mitch in 1998?? Most people probably don’t, but it was one of the worst on record. It took out parts of the leeward islands, headed up the caribbean toward the Gulf of Mexico before turning around and swamping most of Central America, then set it’s sights to plow through southern Florida, headed into the Altlantic and attempted to blast Bermuda as a subtropical storm. The remnants of it made it all the way to England where it created turbulent storm conditions. The “storm” lasted nearly a month from formation to dissipation.
That’s how this one feels to me. A traveling maelstrom intent on doing as much damage as she can before fading into history.
I get the same eerie feeling about this “Great Recession”. It feels like we are in the eye of the storm.
—————–
Agree with this.
Part of the permascam job from on high is to pretend that all is well in the economy unless uncontrolled panic is raging on Wall Street. Never mind that 18 pct U6 unemployment rate — we are in recovery!
In the new World where insovency is power, the aftermath now precedes an event.
The “aftermath” of many disasters (floods, earthquakes, etc.) usually see the most fatalities.
Well for the banksters and Wall Street, the recession IS over. But if you have a job that involves MAKING things or even SELLING thing, it isn’t. “Jobless Recovery” is a clueless and meanspirited oxymoron.
The MSM, at the behest of their corporatist owners, are trying desperately to make the sheeple believe it’s OK to go out and max out their credit cards on stuff they don’t need and can’t afford. Gotta consume to keep the economy going….
Is it 2004 all over again? Of course not. Is it better now than 12 months ago? Yes.
Personal income tax receipts to the federal government are up each of the last 3 months.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703791904576076292963638196.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
I am expecting to pay over $60,000 in federal and state income taxes for 2010. for 2011 though, far, far less!
You must make some good bucks bill in Tampa . Good for you ,i like to see someone other than bankers making some good bucks .
$191,000 from my work, $30,000 in investment capital gains, but add $160,000 for My IRA conversion. that is about $380,000. Arizona top rate of 5% and federal of 35% might bring a bigger surprise. A total of forty percent is roughly $160,000
A good deal was already wit held.
Obammy, spend it where you see fit. Cocaine babies?
My son bought some clothes from the local Anchor Blue at 60-70% off. His first time ever buying anything from there.
I just got back from the JC Penneys store in Nampa. I got two nice 100% cashmere sweaters for $30 each - marked down from $100 each “list”.
In the aftermath of the Great Recession, young adults have reined in their spending at a faster clip than their baby boomer counterparts who are closer to retirement.
Uh-oh, the startup adults have stopped spending so much! Our consumer economy is doomed!
You raise an interesting point, Slim. Will the twentysomethings of today acquire spending/saving attitudes more akin to those of their greatgrandparents (those still alive) who have memories of Great Depression I? Also,since every generation consciously tries to break away from the beliefs of their forebears, will all the boomer must have items (McMansions, etc.) become identified with the oldsters? Will BMW become associated with old farts much as the boomers now think of Buicks– the cars of their parents?
Wonder what the professional marketing gurus think of this.
I think it may have more to do with forever student loans sucking up all of their spare change. These loans affect trade school and community college students as much as traditional 4-year college students. I think many schools have encouraged loans for living expenses in addition to tuition.
I think many schools have encouraged loans for living expenses in addition to tuition.
My credit union branch, which is near the University of Arizona campus, is now advertising student living loans.
Mind you, this credit union just lost $1.5 mill in the third quarter of 2010. Here’s hoping that they don’t take another bath on this batch of student loans.
I sincerely hope those “student living loans” are not taxpayer-backed.
That’s OK…
…a new CANDLE STORE is opening up in the Boise mall. That must be a sign that everything is turning up roses.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/01/14/1487744/four-new-stores-to-open-at-boise.html
So far no “Pirate Shops” seen around here.
JPMorgan Chase’s profit jumps 47 percent in 4Q- AP
JPMorgan Chase says its fourth-quarter profit jumped 47 percent as the company was able to set aside less money to cover loan losses.
What a crock. They’re cannibalizing their already-inadequate reserves set aside to cover non-performing mortgages (which are soaring) to create the illusion of decent earnings.
So what else is new?
They are after the shadow cash.
You mean, the taxpayer bailout cash. Which thanks to their Republicrat puppets, they’ll get.
If they show a profit, why would anyone give them a bailout? More like, they already used the bailout and accounting to build up their profit to make them look attractive private investors. Kinda like Flip This House: New Paint, “newer” roof, New carpet.
They show a profit on creative accounting and pretending their non-performing mortgage loans will be repaid. Meanwhile, issues like their still-undisclosed position on silver - they allegedly engaged in massive, naked shorting and price manipulation - remain unresolved.
Of course, when you have a trading model that says you can trade risk-free thanks to the U.S. taxpayers, you can do pretty much whatever you like.
Because it decided it isn’t going to have to take back all the crap loans it sold off to MBS buying suckers.
Basically, they think they can make it so long and expensive for the idiots that bought the loans to get claw backs, that no one will even bother trying.
I really think those claw back clauses were bogus also . The bogus system was designed to not get the foreclosure until the teaser rate ran out and the unqualified buyer ran out of options and either had to sell ,
refinance, or stop paying . The bogus loan system was design to kick
the can of just how unqualified the borrower was down the road .
This defies the normal concept of a seasoned loan in which with time
the loan becomes more stable . In the case of these modern day
Ponzi-scheme loans the loans became less stable with time as real estate prices became more and more bogus .
For the industry to take all the risk ratings of prior lending cycles ,yet have all the risks of no underwriting standards was just the hallmark of a Ponzi-scheme .
Make no mistake the Money Changers were fraudulent about the risk and fraudulent about the way there intent was to pass this risk to
the stupid duped investors which in a lot of cases weren’t allowed to
put these funds in this sort of risk .
So why is the Government responsible for losses in Pension Funds ? The culprits who were fraudulent should be responsible . This is another way of passing the liability back to the actual people who invested in good faith .
You have to look at the concept of how this bogus fraud took funds
that could of been invested in real AAA grade investment during that time period instead of the bogus marketing that took those funds .
And now they attack underfunded pension plan and ones that loss money because of the Ponzi-scheme and they are trying to attack the
pensioner ,as if they are responsible when they have been
victimized . This is all a plot to transfer the liability to the worker
bee . When you combine this with the skyrocketing cost of health care ,of course they can’t honor their pension benefits ,but who should pay ,the victim ,or the culprits ,they think the victims should pay .
You guys just don’t get what is happening here .
Most pension plans are based on the faulty concept of a fixed annual return on investments of 8% compounded annually.
All that died in 2001.
Yet, the funds were not kept up by taking more money from their future “beneficiaries” , but the same models have been allowed to continue. It is one of the reasons the FED is trying to boost stock prices. It makes the Pension plans look solvent.
The simple truth is, there just isn’t enough money to pay them.
Oh, they’ll get their money. It will buy a month’s electric, a few bags of groceries and some heating oil.
The annual vacation in Aruba? Sorry. Ain’t gonna happen.
“The simple truth is, there just isn’t enough money to pay them.”
Oh? How do you figure when every business headline shouts about the record profits of most Fortune 500.
There was, is and always will be plenty of money for the pensions. In fact, most companies are guilty of DELIBERATELY, and AGAINST federal regulations, underfunding their pensions.
Oh but that’s right, federal regulations are just dang socialeest/comminism.
Yes, you CAN Google it.
Also the point is had the funds been properly funded also without losses based on Ponzi schemes lowing the amounts , the
issue of funds wouldn’t come up for at least 20 years because there would of been at least enough money to fund for that long
based on what would of been the earnings for the long time periods
before 2001 in which the yields were higher .
A lot of what is cracking the back is the high cost of health care .
What about those people that had stock options as their Pension
Plan ,like the Countrywide employees or the Wash Mutual employees .I was talking to this poor bank teller who was telling me she was going to retire and all her pension money in the Company stock was gone because of the BK of her Company .I guess there are some lawsuit against Mozillo regarding employees being screwed out of their retirements .
At least in Private Industry they started diverting away from the
defined Pensions anyway and moved over to 401k matching type programs ,so it just leaves a small % that were still on the defined benefit type of plans ,maybe with the exception of higher level employees .
That leaves the Government Pension People . Don’t know to much about the funding of those plans put I know many of those plans lost a lot of money in MBS investment .
It doesn’t bother me that Government salaries kept up with inflation because that is what salaries are suppose to do . The fact that Private industry screwed their employees regarding inflation adjustments in increased wages is just one more slap in the face to the private industry worker .
The PR machine loves to point out the excessive padded pension plans rather than look at the average pension plan .But
no doubt the health care aspect of some of these plans are a real back breaker .
Lets face it nobody want to pay for health care costs anymore ,
the employer ,the individual ,anybody .
So why is the Government responsible for losses in Pension Funds ? The culprits who were fraudulent should be responsible . This is another way of passing the liability back to the actual people who invested in good faith .
You have to look at the concept of how this bogus fraud took funds
that could of been invested in real AAA grade investment during that time period instead of the bogus marketing that took those funds .
And now they attack underfunded pension plan and ones that loss money because of the Ponzi-scheme and they are trying to attack the
pensioner ,as if they are responsible when they have been
victimized . This is all a plot to transfer the liability to the worker
bee . When you combine this with the skyrocketing cost of health care ,of course they can’t honor their pension benefits ,but who should pay ,the victim ,or the culprits ,they think the victims should pay .
You guys just don’t get what is happening here .
——————
Wiz,
Thank you so much for saying this. I’ve been trying to explain this to so many people — on this and other blogs (and in real life) — but the elite-controlled MSM has been trying to intentionally divert the public’s attention and anger away from the true culprits (the financial industry and the regulators and politicians who enabled them), and are using the unions as scapegoats for what has happened.
The unions are NOT the cause of the “pension crisis.” Wall Street (and the Fed, et al.) have caused the pension crisis.
Ca renter …I don’t say what I say to get anything because they have already reduced dramatically one of my pensions and the
other is in BK proceedings . I am expecting a tiny buy out on the
one in BK proceedings that will amount to pennies on the dollar because of the way that fund was set up and what all the clauses were .
I say what I say to prevent a widespread screwing of the Majority
because I have already taken the screwing . I wasn’t able to save myself ,but maybe ……..
It’s so clear to me what they are doing ,while they try to pit
generation against generation . Blame it on Unions and Pension
Plans but never dare talk about the looting . Support a high priced health insurance monopoly and just renege on the
benefits rather than attack that price fixing monopoly .
You would think the Wall Street jerks in their Ivory Towers
would not want to see their customer base go down the tubes
but its all about taking the money and running now and
transferring the pain to the Majority .
More banks walking away from homes, adding to housing crisis
By Mary Ellen Podmolik, Tribune reporter
January 13, 2011
A new type of property is adding to neighborhood blight: the bank walkaway.
Research to be released Thursday, the first of its kind locally, identifies 1,896 “red flag” homes in Chicago — most of them are in distressed African-American neighborhoods — that appear to have been abandoned by mortgage servicers during the foreclosure process, the Woodstock Institute found.
“The whole concept of charging off creates this limbo land,” said Dan Lindsey, an attorney at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago. “There’s still a lien that can follow the borrower.”
In November, a U.S. Government Accountability Office report on the frequency and impact of abandoned foreclosures noted that Midwestern industrial cities, including Chicago, seem to bear the brunt of bank walkaways, leaving neighborhoods in deeper distress and cities left to shoulder the associated costs of dealing with unsafe, often unsecured homes.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/realestate/foreclosure/ct-biz-0113-walkaway–20110113,0,7716930.story - -
Barney “Fannie Mae” Frank and Chris “Countrywide” Dodd, and their fellow Democrats, pushed the banks to make loans to poor credit risks, not the the banks were any slouches when it came to loaning money to non-creditworthy applicants. Here is the natural result. How’s that “ownership society” working out so far, Republicrats?
I haven’t noticed many politicians taking “ownership” of this outcome. Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.
Maybe Ron “HBB” Paul can straighten some of this out.
I believe he can, but he has to know that at least some of the people have his back. So, I’ll place a call to his office and at least let them know he has my support. Not to mention phoning my rep and Senators with the same message.
If anyone else is of like mind…
(Sammy Schadenfreude’s comment is still stinging…)
Look , this has all been a big scheme from day one of the meltdown to transfer the liability or loss to the victims or the taxpayer . The first responders to the crisis sought to Obstruct Justice and divert from normal due process and contract law
with a ballsy plan to con the Public with FIRE FIRE give us the money .
The Politicians went along with it ,which means they are either incompetent or in bed with the culprits .
I’m thinking that there must be a way to foil this overall plan to
transfer the pain to the majority . It should go right back to where the liability belongs .
There needs to be a serious discussion also on why the Government thinks giving tax breaks to Corporations that are outsourcing and out manufacturing or being middle men for
foreign-manufacturing calling themselves American Companies
so as to avoid tariffs is acceptable . Not only is it destroying the tax base of this Country ,but its destroying the wage base and
a number of other long term systems .It’s destroying the cash flow that creates more jobs also .
We ,as a Country cannot live on selling real estate to each other
or just creating products for the rich ,or a health care system that only the rich could afford at this point .
Its very telling that its getting to the point that the upper 15 %
class ,and more important the upper 5% will be the only parties
that can afford what use to be common benefits of the worker bees .
These Market Makers and Market definers are nuts ,simply nuts ,but you can be assured that any liability to the worker bees they will try to transfer to the government who can’t afford it in the final analysis .
Get real everybody ,this is the plan ,to take the standard of living of the majority to pay for the looters of Wall Street /Corporations and the elite .The other monopolies need to be busted for their price fixing BS and no doubt tariffs need to be
extended to any Corporation that claims they are a America
Company that isn’t anymore on products where by their wage
base is foreign . I won’t get into the evils of the Insurance Companies in this post . IMHO of course .
All true, but nothing will change so long as 95% of the American electorate displays what amounts to a “Stockholm syndrom” of fawning acquiecense to their abusers, i.e. the Republicrats who beguile them with empty slogans every election, then rule as if Wall Street was their sole constituent.
“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.”
— Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead)
“Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings” by Gregory Y. Titelman (Random House, New York, 1996). Mr. Titelman agrees that this saying has its roots in the Bible, specifically Jer. 5:21 (King James version): “Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not.”
: : “There are none so blind as those who will not see. The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know. The proverb has been traced back in English to 1546 (John Heywood), and resembles the Biblical verse quoted (above). In 1738, it was used by Jonathan Swift in his ‘Polite Conversation,’ and is first attested in the United States in the 1713 ‘Works of Thomas Chalkley’…”
I’ve never read Ayn Rand and never will.
In Illinois, if the property taxes aren’t paid after two or three years, the state puts it up for a tax sale. The winning bidder at the tax auction then has the right to collect the back taxes on the house, and after a certain amount of time they can petition to take title to the house if back taxes remain unpaid. So given that the original lenders are dragging their feet, added to the time frames set by state law, when all is said and done these houses will very easily be abandoned for at least six years.
Well, there’s going to be more of that here - a whole lot more.
First, the early 2011 price action I’m seeing in my part of the city is brutal. That’s not hyperbole. More observation is needed but if what I’ve seen in the first two weeks of the year is any indication - we ain’t seen nothing yet. Properties 70% off have trouble catching a bid, condos going to auction for barely five figures - in solid locations too. This is what I thought “the bottom” would look like pricewise, but something makes me think this isn’t the bottom at all.
Second, as part of this week’s tax deal there will be no property tax relief, no $325 “rebate” checks to property owners. More importantly is the fate of the property tax exemptions. Do our fellow citizens even realize those exemptions are on the chopping block!?
Rising taxes in the face of steeply falling prices - 2011 is going to be the most interesting year here yet.
Where are you located?
Agree, not bottom yet - not sure it’s even in sight.
North side of Chicago.
At this moment the debate over the validity of distressed sales in setting comps is in full cry here. On the local boards the shills work overtime to convince others that these outliers will remain the exception - good only for cash paying wizards - not the masses.
Are you in or near zip 60660?
I have a friend who lives in a condo on Sheridan in a late 1960’s era high rise. A lot of her neighbors are older/retired so there are sales because of moving to assisted living or estate sales and prices have been really impacted.
(But since many have lived there so long they have no mortgages and the assessments aren’t outrageous the financial health of the association seems OK for now.)
60660 begins across the street from me. Yeah, what you describe is typical of the “Condo Canyon”. The real trouble spots at this moment are in the new/converted buildings that saw lots of turnover during the boom. (ex. 6030 N. Sheridan) Older buildings have problems too, FWIW my nextdoor neighbor went FC last year. He’s still here, but yesterday the shut off notice for his internet was mistakenly in my mailbox - so uh oh - because he is as quiet as a church mouse.
Right Kim ….within 5 years the property would go to TAX SALE . In the meantime you have property that has gone downhill ,and than it’s put back on the Government to unload it . The Bankers must do the math and figure that abandonment is less costly . A person could take over a abandoned property ,pay the taxes and claim ownership by
adverse possession in some states ,but that isn’t usually done if a mortgage is on the property. One wonders why they haven’t foreclosed
on some of these properties . At first I thought the lenders were just waiting for more bailouts . Than I thought the snag was the proper
passing of title to the loan was the problem along with having to many foreclosures . Now all those factors combined can be creating a situation that these non-performing assets values are in the minus figures and abandonment is the choice .
i use to think that some of this junk was going to be worth 22 cents on the dollar ,but when you go into a minus on it ,well just throw it back to the government . And we wonder why there is a shortage
on property taxes collected .
This all goes back to the fact that these money changing thugs had no right to throw this Ponzi-scheme on the USA . Real Estate is tied into the public coffers because of property tax for one thing and that should of barred these creeps from tampering with market values by faulty lending and mis-ratings on securities . You just don’t mess with a system that was tied into so many other things .Incomes were tied
to property values and they tried to mess with shelter and incomes and taxes . Same thing with messing with health care to the point
it BK’s a Nation .
Local Phoenix paper had a story about how banks and Habitat for Humanity are working together to put poor people into houses.
Read into the details… The bank took back a worthless, stripped, gutted, delapidated POS house, then the donated it to Habitat for Humainty. The tax break they took on the donation was more than they could have sold it for.
The bank wasn’t “doing good”. They were taking advantage of a loophole.
Down here in Tucson, the local Habitat chapter hasn’t gotten into this yet. They’re still in the “build new stucco boxes” mode.
A couple won a new house built by construction students here ia raffle, place valued at 300k. I keep wondering about the income tax they will owe, and if they will be able to take out a mortgage to pay it.
I can’t wait until the saga ends that promoted that having a stylish
home with a bunch of overpriced china crap in it was the highest
goal in life to achieve .
The advertisers are powerful . What you see would be homeowners rejecting houses because they don’t have stainless steal ,it gets so stupid .Bunch of zombies being set up to go into debt .
When I was young it was cool to have a decor that was creative
and unique and inexpensive and comfortable .
The advertisers want you to change your decor every 3 to
7 years . This is very expensive to do . The fashion industry wants you to change you fashion every 6 months . This all goes back to the long trend of Marketing that is designed to make you feel out of touch if your not hip and changing with the times,
HZ…….. +eleventy billion.
“This all goes back to the long trend of Marketing that is designed to make you feel out of touch if your not hip and changing with the times”
Like how everyone “needs” a smartphone these days.
Like how everyone “needs” a smartphone these days.
I’d like to have one that’s ergonomic enough for me to hear.
“Like how everyone “needs” a smartphone these days.”
I have resisted the urge to take on a $79 bill for the next two years. Therefore, I am still using my 5 year old Motorola, which certainly not impress anyone. It’s a frickin’ phone, I don’t care. The only problem is that it’s only working on speakerphone, as the earpiece does not work. I need a new phone, but I do not want a new contract with AT&T. Which brings me to the question: does anybody have any recommendations for a good, cheap cell phone?
Which brings me to the question: does anybody have any recommendations for a good, cheap cell phone?
I’ve heard mostly positive reviews of the Tracphone.
Depends on how much you use it, but you could try pay as you go Virgin or Tracphone (sp?). Virgin, we no longer use, ran the phone over (by accident) and then switched to Tracphone (as we had a spare phone that we got when the inlaws came over - just as well they got stuck in the Grand Canyon on a tour bus - snow - their $10 phone got signal when others didn’t).
Or you could see if you could pick a phone off ebay or craigslist and get it activated for your current line.
Tracphone. Mrs. Exeter has one for 9 years now. About 200-$250 per year and the service is great. My employer gives me one and if it weren’t for the fact we have a child, I wouldn’t have one at all.
I have a Net10 phone. Every 60 days you need to add more minutes to the phone and the cost is ten cents per minute.
The good thing is that if you add the extra minutes before your old ones expire then your unused minutes roll over. I have over 3000 rollover minutes and the phone costs me about $16/month.
Bear, I recomment that you consider going to Costco or Sam’s to pick up a ‘prepaid’ phone. Got one for my Marine son this Christmas. T Mobile, the phone was around $70 and is perfectly acceptable. The pay as you go fee is $30 per month for 1000 minutes and unlimited texting and data downloads. I figured out - it took me awhile - that the pricey contracts are the price you pay for the latest and greatest. For a person who is not an early adopter, pay as you go is the low cost option.
I guess that is the ‘prepaid’ part in a prepaid phone. You take the hit for the phone cost up front, instead of bundling it with a two year contract. OK, I know it took me awhile. Whaddya want from a Luddite.
It’s really late, but thanks for all the suggestions. Sorry for such a poor post which was not only missing a word, but was lacking in info. I already have an account with AT&T, but I have been month to month for years now, and contracts do not interest me. I am on the 450 minute per month deal, with rollover, for like $40 or whatever. The iPhone would require me to re-up, and purchase a data package. Eff that. I don’t need it. Instead, I just scored a like new Nokia for FREE. A friend had it, but got an iPhone or something for Christmas, so gave me this thing. Perfect. If I’m going to buy anything fancy, it’s going to be an iPad.
most of them are in distressed African-American neighborhoods ….
why are their such neighborhoods? is this due to black racism?
I thought we had successfully “integrated” all the “hoods”.
We’re almost there…
I want to know when the meek is going to inherit the earth.
Just after the strong inherit the rest of the universe.
So there this shanty we’ve been watching and previously made an offer on but couldn’t actually be sold because of foreclosure limbo, even though it’s listed on MLS. For $hits and giggles, I took a look at it yesterday and low and behold the price was raised 10%. So I emailed the UHS I submitted the offer to and asked what was up with the price escalation and if the dump can actually be sold. His answer? “Gives it space for a low ball offer to actually come close to pay off number.”
Now I don’t know if this is real-tard logic or bank scum games but either way it makes no sense. The price paid during bubble years IS the problem, not the solution. Anyways, he said the foreclosure is nearing completion.
I’ve been noticing a slew of last years rejects rehitting the MLS. I keep track of places on the market, making note of original price, reductions, and sales price in a spreadsheet. Since the first of the year, about 6 listing that were taken off the market have been relisted at their original asking price. All of them had reduced their price during the previous listing, one by 125K.
Reduce your previous offer by 10%. Make sure they know it is all cash.
Well there is no question I’ll square their arrogance….. if they finally get the place through legal system.
Yes, but make it 20% and tell them that this gives them room to come up and feel like they made a good deal.
“Now I don’t know if this is real-tard logic or bank scum games”
Both is my guess, I used to see it with banks on car repos, they would add at least 10% to the price over blue book. Most end up at the auction.
I don’t think this place will go to auction but it’s not going to sell at the old price, forget adding 10%. They got no offers on it except for mine and it was a 50% offer 6 months ago. Stupid bastards.
ISTR reading this bit of advice on the HBB:
Your first offer is your best offer. Take it.
A point which takes on added gravity when one’s carrying costs are taken into account.
If sellers are waitin’, then sellers are payin’.
There was a house we were watching that did this. After sitting on the market for 2 years they changed realtors and went up on the price. Then they rented it. Now it’s back for sale at a lower price. ???
That would explain some of the ridiculous list prices I’ve been watching come on here. It’ll probably work on the people transferring in from the outside that aren’t already familiar w/ the market.
I guess they haven’t seen the news about bank walkaways, yet.
Pawleys Island man says lottery win saves home
PAWLEYS ISLAND(AP) — A Pawleys Island man says winning $200,000 in the South Carolina Education Lottery has saved his home.
John Davis says he went to a hearing on Monday about the possibility of losing his home to foreclosure.
Tuesday he let the computer pick his numbers for the Palmetto Cash 5 drawing at a gasoline station in Surfside Beach, adding a dollar to increase his winnings in case he got a winning ticket.
Wednesday, Davis discovered he had won.
The single father of two girls says he’s had a tough year, financially. Davis says he had just $6 in his bank account when he won. He works at a car dealership and says he plays the lottery almost every day.
Davis says he plans to pay off most of his debt and will take a cruise with his daughters when the weather warms up.
“Davis says he had just $6 in his bank account when he won.”
Now here’s a real genius; He had just six dollars in his bank account and he is playing the lottery.
A true example of dumb luck. Very dumb luck.
Even dumber, he plans to pay off ‘most’ of his debt, and then take his daughters on a cruise.
Let’s hope he saves some to pay the taxes on his winnings. “Hope” is the key word here, since this guy clearly has the financial savy of rocks.
savy = savvy
They take taxes out before they give you your check.
“Pawleys Island man says lottery win saves home”
Very close to one of my predictions for 2011. Now, has anyone found a stain in the likeness of Jesus on the carpet of a foreclosed house in Arizona yet?
Comment by jeff saturday
2010-12-31 12:49:14
1) A stain in the likeness of Jesus will be found on the carpet of a foreclosed house in Phoenix Arizona.
2) A man in Miami who sold his food stamps for 30 cents on the dollar will win the lottery and buy a condo on the beach.
3) Angelo Mozilo will die from skin cancer.
4) The government will announce the new CAMP program. (can`t make your payment, don`t worry about it nobody can)
5) The FHA will come out with their new (Don`t ask don`t tell) loan application for their new 120% LTV mortgage program.
LOL…….thats how crazy this World is now .
Found one in my toilet once a long time ago. And what did I say.
“Jeez us!”
Didn’t one of the HBB commentators predict this would happen? I coulda swore it.
Oh, it was Jeff Saturday. Good goin’, Jeff.
Major Florida trucking company files for bankruptcy
TAMPA - Cargo Transportation Services, a $100-million trucking company with operations in the Tampa Bay area, filed for bankruptcy in a hurry this week after its bank cut off its funds.
Company officials are concerned they will lose huge amounts of fruits and vegetables in their trucks, among other things. Many of the company’s 200 trucks are loaded with produce, and its drivers don’t have money for fuel, according to a bankruptcy filing.
Cargo Transportation Services, or CTS, has asked a judge to let it access its cash in the short term until its bankruptcy case is worked out, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Tampa.
CTS is a South Florida trucking company that has a regional headquarters in Tampa and a facility in Clearwater. About a third of its business is hauling produce, according to a 2007 article about the company in The Produce News.
Company executives and its bankruptcy lawyer weren’t available Thursday. But a bankruptcy filing shows it rushed to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday after Comerica Bank started seizing money in its bank accounts. The bank also seized CTS’ accounts receivable, or the money the trucking firm gets from its customers.
Don’t produce trucks deliver all the green shoots?
1500 miles x 1 gal/10 miles x $3.25/gal x 200 trucks = ~~$97500 for gas.
44000 lbs capacity x $1.19/pound wholesale beans x 200 trucks = ~~$10.47 million.
Hmmm, maybe the mob can pony up a hundred grand.
I have to wonder why the bank took such action on what appears to be an operational business with legitimate accounts receivables?
Overextended?
Carbon trading tempts firms to make greenhouse gas
“the value of the carbon credits is up to 100 times the cost of incinerating HFC-23. The resulting income of Chinese companies alone is estimated to reach $1.6 billion by 2012.”
article here
Take me hostage, PLEASE!
Ah the unintended consequences, one group figures out to beat the scam set up by another group/gubmint and make money on the deal.
Rise of the Preppers: Survivalists Get a Makeover
PopularMechanics | 1/12/11 | Sharon Weinberger
As a truck driver hauling produce and food up and down the West Coast, Tom Martin knows first-hand how vulnerable the U.S. food supply is to disruption. “I know what our supply chains are like,” he says. “I know grocery stores rely on just in time services; they only have three days worth of food in any grocery store.”
In a disaster, that food will be gone in less than a day, and if you don’t have food stored up, you’ll be stuck, says Martin, who is one of a growing number of “preppers,” or people who are prepping for large-scale disaster. The American Preppers Network, an online forum Martin started in 2009 that quickly grew to 4000 members in nearly all 50 states.
Are preppers just another group of paranoid doomsdayers? Not at all. Many of the scenarios they prepare for, like hurricanes, are quite real, unlike some of the outlandish scenarios (like a United Nations takeover, religious cleansing or government despotism) that drive more extreme members of the fringe. Jerry Young, a longtime prepper in Reno, Nevada, says he has list of 137 scenarios he’s preparing for, though “only a handful of those” are things he’s seriously worried about. “Mostly of my preparations are for natural disasters,” he says. “But the basic preparations apply to all of them.”
http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/survival/stories/american-preppers-survival-natural-disasters
Not a bad article. Also check the LDS church. Wacky or no, food storage is a requirement for their religion, so they have it all figured out.
The LDS church has an excellent policy for its members. And they are not stingy in sharing their knowledge, from time to time, they give seminars open to the public on food storage. They recommend (or used to) six months to a year’s supply of food.
PS. We have or have had members of LDS on this blog and I’ve not been impressed by the way some posters have treated them.
http://www.providentliving.org/
I’m not LDS, and don’t go along with LDS doctrine, but have the greatest respect for LDS members. The church teachings on provident living are much more sound and appropriate for the times than the typical mega-church message of “God loves you and wants to make you rich (as long as you contribute generously to ‘His’ work, meaning, me the televangelist).”
are you suggesting that the money i just sent that televangelist isn’t going to make me rich, like he said it would?
dammit. I knew i should have bought some more lottery tickets.
I bank with Zion’s Bank, which formerly was the official church bank of the LDS church. Sometime back the LDS President had a change of mind and Zion’s was spun off as a separate entity. It maintains its Mormon-heritage frugality. And even today it pays 1.1% on MM accounts, which is historically bad but pretty good for the present day.
Isn’t LDS church headed by a prophet? Can’t he pick stocks for LDS financial institutions?
Just sayin’….
Don’t know about their stock picking acumen, but to their credit, the LDS church “General Authorities” have consistently warned their members about the perils of going into debt to buy stuff they cannot afford.
Not defending the LDS, but many misunderstand the definition of the word “Prophet”. In common secular usage it is used to describe someone who is clairavoyant. In religious terms it means someone who speaks for God, more often than not laying down the law. In some contexts it can be used to refer to predicting future events, but that is not the core definition of what it means to be a Prophet.
I thought churches were non-prophet.
LOL!
The LDS head talks directly to G_d. That why they got rid of the whole polygamy thing.
There are two specific features of new homes built in Idaho. One is a dedicated single-plug outlet in the garage wired to a dedicated 20A breaker - for your “game freezer”. The other is that kitchens have a walk-in “Mormon sized” pantry.
Today I picked up a 5 gal bucket in which to keep bulk flour. These 5 gal white plastic buckets with sealing lids are an LDS standard for bulk food storage, and will hold a 25 lb bag of flour, rice, etc. I slid it into the pantry on the floor and found that it cleared under the first shelf with about 3/4″ to spare. Obviously the first shelf was installed to clear a “Mormon bucket”.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/world/africa/14tunisia.html?_r=2&hp
Finally, a major MSM outlet reports on the growing youth uprising against an entrenched, corrupt, unresponsive government. The riots started when a 26-year-old university graduate, who was selling vegetables from a cart because that was the only way he could generate any income, however menial, was slapped and humiliated by police who confiscated his unregistered cart and produce. The young man, in despair, returned to his home town and immolated himself in the main square in an act of protest. That was mid-December; he died on January 4th. While the rioters originally were protesting sharply rising food prices, especially for sugar, and lack of employment, they are now looting the homes of the kleptocracy that has profited from decades of corrupt rule. This report notes that they are torching banks, too. Something tells me this disorder is not going to be confined to Tunisia, either. Similar conditions exist across the Arab world.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-14/india-s-inflation-accelerates-to-8-43-adding-pressure-for-higher-rates.html
B…b…but Ben Bernanke assured us that his endless Quantitative Easing wouldn’t be inflationary.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-14/ecb-s-weber-says-inflation-risks-in-euro-area-could-well-move-to-upside-.html
ECB head Weber says inflation “could well move to the upside.” Translation: The ECB and other central banks that have kept lending rates artificially near zero to “spur recovery”, meaning, to prop up markets, will be FORCED to raise interest rates, sending Eurozone economies into an even faster tail-spin.
Maybe more Americans should have listened to Ron Paul’s warnings about un-sound money.
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/8653949/hundreds-protest-over-high-prices-in-south-jordan/
Unrest over high food prices spreads to Jordan. Food riots and soaring prices preceeded the 2008 financial crash, you’ll recall.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-14/india-s-sensitive-index-falls-10-from-peak-on-rate-concern.html
Indian stock market plunges on inflation fears. Why do I have this sense of deja vous?
Ordinarily, the Reserve Bank of India is very measured and conservative in its actions and in general run very professionally. But this action I don’t understand - how on earth are they going to fix food price inflation with monetary policy?
By pushing up interest rates they’re making the problem worse. This move will attract even more foreign money into India to benefit from interest rate arbitrage and eventually will be inflationary.
Apart from growing more food, India should get its infrastructure together, especially the supply chain to ensure that food is not wasted/spoiled in transportation or storage.
Yensoy,
Right now, interest rates are so low that people have no incentive to save, since their savings will be eaten away by inflation. This more or less forces them to speculate, which is one of the big factors (aside from nature) in the run-up in commodity prices, including food. Plus, in India and Bangledesh, a lot of “investors” are borrowing money at cheap interest and using it to play the market. Wall Street firms are doing the same thing with the $105 billion a month in POMO gambling money the Fed is supplying them with at virtually zero interest. The only way governments like China and India can defend themselves against inflation is to hike up interest rates and curtail speculative borrowing, and start attracting much-needed liquity.
Of course, under Obama’s continuation of the Bush-era War on Savers, broadened more generally into a War on Responsibility, the endless flood of uber-cheap Bernanke Bucks will continue until inflation becomes such a problem that the sheeple will finally tear themselves away from their iPads and DTWS and start demanding responsible governance. Except by then, it will be too late.
People for the most part aren’t speculating in onions, or rice, or lentils. True there are hoarders, but they are not going to hoard less because interest rates are high.
The only correlation I see is that liquidity gives rise to a rush to buy real estate at the cost of productive farmlands. That is happening but it is at the margins.
Is Faster Pussycat back from his trip yet?
Hey Sammy. I believe that it’s “déjà vu” as in “already seen”.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/201111410345507518.html
This is stunning. Little wonder you won’t see this on MSM network news. Large, fairly peaceful, but insurrectionary crowds have massed in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, and are demanding that the President and his coterie step down. Security force members are openly sympathetic with the protestors, who have clearly lost their fear of the repressive state security apparatus and aren’t just demanding lower-priced sugar, as they were early on, but rather a wholesale change to their corrupt, unresponsive government. Foreign tourists are being evacuated.
I hope the implications of people being pushed beyond their limits due to inflation and lack of opportunity are not lost on policymakers, who need to rein in Bernanke’s runaway printing press and start curbing rampant speculation on commodities that is driving food prices much higher than they need to be, and strangling real economic growth (as opposed to feeding the casino economy).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/9361546.stm
The gov’t of Tunisia has just announced a State of Emergency, probably meaning things are going to get ugly since protesters show no signs of backing down. Among the buildings attacked by rioters was the country’s central bank. Houses of relatives of government officials who have enriched themselves at the country’s expense have reportedly been looted.
This is stunning. Little wonder you won’t see this on MSM network news.
Personally, I’m a big fan of Al Jazeera. A lot of reporting that you just can’t find here in the States.
Sad but true. RT is another good news source, as well as many of the UK and European flagships like the Telegraph.
This is unbelievable . I suppose information will be suppressed here in the USA because wouldn’t want all those peons to get any
ideas about how to respond to culprits who are stealing from the Majority . In the USA we must suppress meaningful debate because a nut job might kill someone . Lets learn how to talk nice about starving and being robbed . In fact lets learn to not utter a
protest and lets stand together in acceptance at anything our government does in conjunction with the Lobbyist .
I’m into peaceful protest but I can understand why starving people
get a little anxious .
Interesting point . The more a person has nothing to lose the more they are inclined to resort to violence . In fact , if you corner a person they can come out fighting far more violently
than approaching them from a different direction .
“Lets learn how to talk nice about starving and being robbed.”
HW, thanks for the laugh. I nominate (it’s a good day to nominate) It for the quote of the month!
Hmmmm. I thought the riots in Tunisia weren’t getting any press here because it’s all happening on a faraway continent that is of little interest to most American Idol-watchers. Housing Wizard’s explanation makes much more sense.
Deutsche Bank Bond Salesman Blasts Chris Christie After “Bankrupt”
~ Joe Weisenthal
Yesterday we noted how a New Jersey muni bond offering was pulled just a few minutes after Chris Christie said at a town hall that healthcare costs were threatening to “bankrupt” New Jersey.
Now it’s a little unclear if the connection was real. For one thing, yesterday was an ugly day in the muni market. For another thing, everybody knows that healthcare costs are a huge issue everywhere. And beyond that, people also know that words like “bankruptcy” may be a bit hyperbolic.
Still, all the talk of muni bankruptcies aren’t making muni bond salesmen happy.
Bloomberg quotes head of bond trading at Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management in New York, Gary Pollack, as saying “He is scaring some people when he says the state is going bankrupt… it wasn’t timed well.”
It’s known as full disclosure.
How DARE a governor tell the truth like that!
I’m shocked, I tell you, SHOCKED!
Notice how all the other politicians are calling Christies comments “a rookie mistake.” Yes, he needs to learn to lie and dissemble like all veteran politicos.
We’re so screwed.
That governor will never make it in sales. Never.
If bond buyers do the diligence to know this already, then what they heck are they doing buying the bond?
(i mean, if they DIDN’T do the diligence.)
Oh please, Oxide. “Investors” who fail to do due dilligence aren’t fools, they’re VICTIMS deserving of our sympathy and taxpayer-funded bailouts.
It rated ‘investment grade’. What more diligence is there than that?
U.S. Retail Sales Climbed in December for Sixth Straight Month
Sales at U.S. retailers rose in December for a sixth consecutive month, capping the biggest one- year gain in more than a decade.
and then came january and Febuary. We’ve moved past back to school and the holidays.
But we haven’t had the SuperBowl yet!
Aren’t gasoline sales included in retail sales figures? And haven’t gas prices been going up for, oh, about the last 6 months?
Ye…ah.
Nobody up yet?
An observation from Long Island: a house on the market for the past year didn’t sell at $799,000. Just offered for rent at $4,000 per month.
Anyone care to comment on the price-to-rent ratio?
At $4,000 per month - you can get a pretty decent apartment in mid-town Manhattan.
Not a family sized apartment.
i’m paying $ 2,500 a month in northern va for a townhouse that would probably list for the same amount.
Breakfast, lunch, dinner and rent…… it’s too damn high!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4o-TeMHys0
High rents encourage further negative household formation.
Give these FBs all the rope they need…
Them rents are to damn high
These days I can’t even get high,
They been taking my doe ,got nothing to show
and it’s all because rents to damn high .
Them rents are to damn high
Get me off this train ride .
Need another location with more inspiration ,
them rents is to damn high .
Them rents is to damn high
Aint no caves to run to hide
I lost my home ,I’m all alone and
those rents is to damn high .
Them rents is to damn high ,
have already reached the sky
Give me a break ,I’m on the take
because those Rents is to damn high .
(author unknown -OK its me …I’m getting really childish )
EXCELLENT!
That was _awesome_, Wiz!!
It’s 200, suggesting if you had to choose between renting or owning THAT home, you should rent it. (As a rule, don’t buy at ratios above 120.)
That said, there may be better deals for you on other houses (lower rent and/or sale price relative to your personal wants and needs).
We’re gonna have to do something about this 120 ratio in places like Austin and DC, where the traditional ratio is being skewed by rent that’s too damn high.
Luckily for DC, the government has a big-time hiring freeze on (they fill openings will internal shuffling), a pay freeze, and flat funding for contractors. This is really cut down on people moving to the area.
Even with high rents, the price to buy a condo similar to my apartment in a neighboring building is well over 200. And in my apartment that rent includes all utilities (heat, water, gas, electricity). In the condos, you would have to pay for those items as part of the maintenance.
From the HBB, I’ve learned that the sale price should be 100-120x the monthly rent for the area. In other words, if $4k is what the local market will bear, then the sale price should be between $400k-$480k.
Doesn’t 4k rent imply the ‘value’ of the home is about 400k?
One would think so. Especially on Long Island where the property taxes are so high. 120 times the rent might be pushing it.
That a house like this would be available for rent at all is remarkable. Very nice neighborhood, beautiful house, etc.
People here are in uncharted waters; prices need to come down quite a bit and nobody knows what a “fair” rent is for these kinds of houses.
The democrat path to prosperity. Taxes, taxes and more taxes. And do not cut one item of spending.
Funny - The state of Wisconsin welcomes the Illinois tax rate increases.
You see - Wisconsin is run by Republicans. They actually lowered taxes and cut spending in the middle of a recession.
Homework questions for today:
Which state is going to see job growth?
Which state is actually going to collect LESS in taxes after massively INCREASING the tax rate (I know it sounds like a trick question)?
Which state would you move to if you were starting a business?
Which state do you think people will want to move to just to live or retire?
Why don’t people want to live in states controlled by public unions and insane taxes?
Extra Credit: States cannot declare bankruptcy. Democrats still control all Illinois state houses and the governorship because they won the elections (although their margins will be smaller). There is no bailout coming from obama’s stash. How do they survive? (This is a trick question).
——————————
Quinn signs tax hike into law
Personal rate jumps to 5 percent, retroactive to Jan. 1
January 13, 2011
Chicago Tribune
SPRINGFIELD — Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn followed through Thursday on his vow to sign the 67 percent increase in the personal state income tax as soon as it hit his desk.
The personal income tax rate immediately rises to 5 percent, up from 3 percent. The corporate income tax rate rises immediately to 7 percent, up from 4.8 percent.
Quinn, House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton — all Chicago Democrats — muscled the tax hike through in the eleventh hour of the lame-duck legislature. They wanted to fill a more than $6 billion hole in the state budget, help pay old bills and send more money to schools. Only Democrats voted for the bills.
Quinn said he would sign the bill as soon as he physically got it from lawmakers. He got it Thursday. The increases are retroactive to Jan. 1.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-quinn-signs-tax-hike-20110113,0,3428614.story
The republican path to prosperity. Borrowing, borrowing and more borrowing(thus costing more than taxing). And do not cut one item of spending.
FIXT
The “It’s about - ” shtick is so tired anyway.
You’re carrying around alot of guilt.
I’d never confess that here.
i was opening my mail at work the other day and came across a tax form for some local jurisdiction. in the top left corner of the form it says:
“it’s about kids”.
Income tax in Wi is 6% and has been for more than 10 years, ie it’s still higher than Ill.
Plus, as bad as property taxes are getting here, in WI they have historically been higher. WI is indeed a high tax state, especially in the local context.
IN and MO will be the big winners here, maybe IA a little, and maybe even TN and KY a tiny bit, but not WI.
Yes, but Republicans run WI, so that doesn’t count in the IL bashing.
The rent is too damn high………..
Trying to rally the ChineseMiracle workers this morning?
(look below)
Them rents is to damn high ,
I’m a victim of a lie .
The tax man a’coming ,but
I will be a running ..cause
them rents is to damn high .
Company involved in Chesterfield project files for bankruptcy
Richmond, Va.
A limited liability company that owns a portion of the massive Roseland project under way in northwest Chesterfield County has filed for bankruptcy protection.
Casey Sowers, one of the project’s developers, confirmed that Roseland Village LLC, which owns 345 of the 1,300-acres on which the mixed-use development is planned, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Thursday.
The company will attempt to return to profitability while paying back creditors. If it can’t, the company will be liquidated, with the assets sold to pay creditors.
Sowers said the company, like many others across the U.S., is facing heat from banks due to economic conditions and filed as a means of fighting off foreclosure.
More than 5,500 homes are planned to be built within the Roseland project along with multiple commercial sectors and an office park. The zoning for what would be the area’s largest development was approved in August 2008.
Filed under: “The Tolls are too damn high!”
China to retry farmer given life for evading tolls:
The court in central Henan province had sentenced Shi Jianfeng to life imprisonment for fraud for avoiding highway tolls that added up to more than 3.68 million yuan ($560,000), the official Xinhua News Agency reported. He was also fined 2 million yuan ($302,000).
Shi mounted fake military license plates on his two trucks so they could avoid paying tolls more than 2,300 times between May 2008 and January 2009 when he ran a business transporting gravel. Military vehicles don’t have to pay highway tolls.
News of the verdict triggered an uproar among Chinese who argued in online postings and commentaries that shorter sentences were given out for the more serious crimes of rape or murder. The comments also strayed beyond Shi’s case to popular complaints that highway tolls are too high, especially for a farmer.
Wondering what the bottom line of his business would have looked like minus the $560 grand? How can China be growing so much with the government strangling business like that? Maybe everyone is using fake military ID…
It sounds like he’d be losing a lot of money if he had paid the tolls. From the article:
“Shi said in court he earned about 200,000 yuan (30,300 dollars) from the transportation of the sand and gravel.
The court also fined Shi 2 million yuan (303,000 dollars) and deprived him of his political rights for life.”
Bet he regrets not paying those bribes to who ever turned him in.
… deprived him of his political rights for life.
ooooh, how terrible! Does he know what he is losing?
I knew someone who parked illegally at work, figuring that tickets would cost less than parking in the garage. He was right. I don’t know if he could have continued this indefinitely; he was let go a year after they moved into the new building.
Funny! I have a cousin in Italy. I first visited him 25 years ago. He took us through Rome and I commented on the illegal parking everywhere. Seriously, people were parked on sidewalks, grassy road dividers, anwhere. Jammed in there, who knows how anyone got out. Anyway, he explains that “in Italy”, the parking citations cost the same as the permit. We laughed at how Italian that seemed. Guess it really wasn’t.
$560,000 / 2,300 = $243.47
That is an expensive toll!
Around here tolls are about 80 cents, so 2,300 x $.80 = $1,840
I think commercial trucks pay a lot more, though. This guy was hauling gravel, although they never say the size of his trucks.
Yes this story is all over the news but the numbers totally don’t add up. Which is the whole point why bloggers are wondering aloud what’s going on. You know, you can’t mess with math, even in China.
IRS Proposes Requiring U.S. Banks to Disclose Accounts’ Owners
The Obama administration says U.S. banks should disclose to the IRS bank accounts owned by foreigners, resurrecting a Clinton-era proposal that was opposed by banking groups and Republicans.
The Internal Revenue Service proposed regulations Jan. 7 that would pave the way for the U.S. for the first time to routinely share information with other governments about their citizens’ deposits in U.S. financial institutions.
The move is designed to help governments around the world pierce bank secrecy, the agency said. It follows a successful three-year effort by the U.S. to pressure Switzerland and its biggest bank, UBS AG, to reveal the U.S. owners of undeclared accounts held offshore.
“There is a growing global consensus regarding the importance of cooperative information exchange for tax purposes that has developed,” the agency said in a notice in the Jan. 7 Federal Register announcing the proposal.
The IRS proposal comes on the eve of the issuance of separate regulations that will require foreign banks to identify U.S. customers to the IRS and withhold 30 percent of U.S. interest and dividend payments from account holders who provide inadequate information to determine their U.S. status.
“TruePurity™” Trivecta
Switzerland / IRS / “…a proposal that was opposed by banking groups and Repubicans.”
(If the reporter had found a way to insert “Snow White”, he’d had a gem)
No fiat dollar will be allowed to escape…
Will the university still be able to function?
UC Berkeley slashes jobs
The hammer is falling at UC Berkeley, with word that the university is laying off 150 managers and support staff.
The news, which was delivered in a campus bulletin late Thursday, comes just days after Gov. Jerry Brown proposed slashing $500 million from the UC system next year.
The job cuts are on top of 600 positions that Cal has already eliminated since last year.
Campus officials say they got a jump on the problem last summer when they hired an outside consultant — at a cost of $7.5 million — to come up with recommendations for streamlining operations.
No more “big government.”
Next eliminate high school. If the parents are affluent, their kids can get a high school diploma. If not, the kids are consigned to low wage jobs.
But by all means, pay the pensions. No cuts in Social Security or Medicare for those over 55. Keep the income tax low — raise the regressive payroll tax on workers (but not the retired) if you have to. And repeal Obamacare — or at least the part that provides benefits for someone other than seniors.
As long as they are not getting rid of instructors, what’s the problem?
The instructors do not run the school.
I’ve made a pretty good living from doing things that universities need to be outsourcing anyway. They don’t need perma-staff for the creation of websites and printed materials.
Furthermore, the maintenance of said websites doesn’t need specialized expertise. I set them up with content management systems so that site work can be done by anyone who knows how to use a browser.
When they cut the real need programs I somehow think that the original purpose of government is being hijacked. When government funds have to go to responding to crisis of crashing Ponzi schemes rather than
real need programs all that we gained as a civilized society is lost .
“Campus officials say they got a jump on the problem last summer when they hired an outside consultant — at a cost of $7.5 million — to come up with recommendations for streamlining operations.”
I wonder how many pensions that would have paid for?
inflation “calm” just like BB said it would be…
Retail Sales Rise in Dec, Inflation Calm- Reuters
Sales at U.S. retailers rose slightly less than expected in December while underlying inflation remained calm, government reports showed on Friday.
Higher priced gasoline, sell some and retail sales go up, but not core inflation. Too volatile to include in the core inflation stats, but not too volatile to count as increased sales.
These guys ought to be ashamed of themselves!
“Calm” is not how one defines the expensive whirlpool in the fuel tank.
yup its so calm I saw the new skippy peanut butter smaller jar right next to the bigger jar at the same price….no inflation here
“Do not accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience. You will find it a calamity.” `Samuel Johnson
As we await foreclosure in my wife’s house, BofA has extended auction date for 5 months-one month at a time. We are eagerly awaiting action at this point, but the bank keeps moving our sale date. Wife was getting behind on HOAs.
What does it mean, exactly, when the HOA sends a certified letter saying outstanding dues will be pursued aggressively and a lien will be placed against the property unless HOAs are brought current within 30 days.
Since the bank keeps giving us more time; we have sent a check for the HOAs while we wait for the bank to foreclose; but we are wondering if a lien ever was placed by the HOA would that make us move out? Or else what are the ramifications of having a lien placed against the property?
“What does it mean, exactly, when the HOA sends a certified letter saying outstanding dues will be pursued aggressively and a lien will be placed against the property unless HOAs are brought current within 30 days”.
Just that, the HOA places a lien against the property and hopes to see it satisfied once the property is sold. I have never heard of an HOA being able to force a sale due to lack of dues payments. Read the HOA agreement.
I misspoke I meant the HOA wants the lien settled prior to the sale, but since it is being foreclosed upon, my guess is they’ll have to get in line to settle the lien. Or it (the lien) will follow the property, that’s the way it works in my state. Just be sure and check with someone in your area that knows the process.
I don`t know but I saw this the other day.
Home once valued at $460K bought by HOA for $1,900
Non-payment of maintenance fees can lead to foreclosure, eviction
Daniel Vasquez on condos
Sun Sentinel Columnist
January 11, 2011
Mark Michaelson has learned the hard way that a community association may take away your home for not paying maintenance fees. Florida foreclosure laws and court-ordered auctions give homeowner and condo associations the opportunity to strip titles of delinquent owners and take possession of their properties.
“It happened to me, it could happen to you,” Michaelson said. “In the end, I think it’s better for an association to work something out with owners like me who are behind in payments rather than take over the property for themselves.”
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/realestate/condos/fl-foreclosure-purchases-condocol-01120110111,0,5530901.column - 171k -
So much for due process…
Generally speaking, if you’re giving up the property to foreclosure anyway, go ahead and let them put a lein on the property. A lein means the property can’t be sold until the lein is cleared (paid off), - but it will be the bank’s problem to clear the lein. You may want to check with an attorney, however, to make sure the HOA can’t come after you with a personal judgement (mortgage is non-recourse, but HOA dues may not be).
You won’t have to move out if the HOA places a lein - they’ll have to foreclose on you in order to kick you out, and its not even close to being worth it to them, especially given that you are underwater from your primary mortgage. If your community has ammenities such as a pool, club house, or community parking lot (vs. garage or deeded parking space), it wouldn’t be unheard of for the HOA to ban you from their use until your dues is made current (check with your attorney for state-specific laws).
I would think the HOA might make your life a smidge less miserable if you’re up front and non-evasive with them. Explain that foreclosure is expected at any time. Hopefully they’ll proceed with the lein, but hold off on any collection calls, etc. they or their property managers might otherwise initiate. I wouldn’t expect any sympathy or forebearance (not that you’re asking for any), but given the economic climate and housing market, I’d be surprised if they haven’t been through this before.
In AZ, HOAs have gotten wise and stopped putting liens on properties for non-payment of dues. It costs them money to do so and they don’t ever get their money. Apparently, if the property is underwater, the lien is wiped out on dues not paid by the owner prior to the foreclosure. Once the bank takes it back, dues start piling up and have to be settled upon sale to the next owner. The only way they get any money for the dues not paid prior to foreclosure is by pursuing the owner for dues directly through a personal judgement.
At least that’s how a guy that works for an HOA management company explained it to me. Didn’t make much sense at the time, but he was explaining why HOAs stopped putting liens on properties and started pursuing personal judgements instead.
Those HOA fees are to damn high
to high
Those HOA fees are to damn high
> An interview with a former credit card thief, Dan DeFelippi, 29, who was convicted of credit card fraud in 2004. He spills the beans on how ID theft is done.
> DeFelippi doesn ‘t like debit cards: “I always recommend against them. With debit cards, it’s your real money in your bank account you’re playing with. So if someone gets your debit card information and uses it, your cash is gone until you fill out a lot of paperwork and persuade the bank to give it back to you. Credit cards are much better at protecting you against fraud. And if you’re worried about debt, you can always pay them off every month.”
Article: ~ Secrets of Credit Card Thievery ~
Bernanke has little use for debit cards as well.
Link?
http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/111759/secrets-of-a-former-credit-card-thief?mod=bb-creditcards
http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/blog/devil-details/for-safetys-sake-dump-the-debit-card/1035/
Another, more detailed analysis.
Can you get an ATM card without it also being a debit card, anymore? Or is even an ATM card too dangerous? Kind of ironic if ID theft gets so advanced that we all have to go back to cash. Or the ’safety’ of credit cards.
I had my bank lower my ATM/Debit Card to $1.00. I can still get up to $500 from the ATM but debit is limited to $1.00. There is a way to get more, but I don’t want to say, ask your bank when you lower the limit.
Great, so my choices are:
1. Debit Card:
Thieves love these because they take real money.
Dataminers look at what you bought and bombard you with advertisements.
2. Credit Card:
You’re stuck with Indian customer service.
Dataminers look at what you bought and bombard you with advertisements.
You’re slapped with fees, interest rates, and privacy issues. Yes you can get out of them, but you have to fight Indian customer service to do so.
You’re stuck wondering every month whether they will credit your payment on time, or if you’ll be “late” and your FICO will drop 100 points. (at least it will no longer trigger Universal Default.)
3. Cash:
You’re stuck going to ATM every day.
Or, you’re stuck walking around with hundreds of dollars of cash, which thieves also love.
And if you go to the ATM to get the cash, you’ll need an ATM card, which, as I mentioned above, seem to be both ATM and debit cards, nowadays.
You forgot that “cash” may be forged these days too.
Don’t lose your card. Be careful where and how you use it. I never use mine for purchases of less than $20 if I can help it. It’s just a lot faster to use cash.
Quit buying into the fear.
market pulse
Jan. 14, 2011, 9:58 a.m. EST
Jan UMich consumer sentiment surprisingly dips
By Steve Goldstein
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — An index of consumer sentiment unexpectedly fell in January, according to the preliminary poll released by Thomson Reuters and the University of Michigan. The index fell to 72.7 from 75.2, compared to expectations of a rise to 76.0.
Unexpected, yea right.
We better get some economists over there to fix that model.
My prediction for the new year is more “unexpectedly.”
(how’d I do last year?)
Lot 354: America’s housing meltdown (video)
http://www.kcet.org/shows/socal_connected/content/economy/lot-354-a-tale-of-americas-housing-meltdown.html
Foreclosure Crisis Hits Here Again:
“After a brief respite, the foreclosure storm is again raining down on Volusia and Flagler counties”.
http://www.news-journalonline.com/business/real-estate/2011/01/13/foreclosure-crisis-hits-here-again.html
You mean temp $12hr temps jobs aren’t enough to pay mortgages?
Once again, the law of unintended consequences asserts itself.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/business/14rural.html?ref=business
Auditors See Rising Defaults in Rural Loans
Seeking to buoy a strained rural economy in the midst of the recession, Congress ordered up a huge increase in federal mortgage guarantees for small-town home buyers as part of the 2009 economic stimulus package.
Tammye H. Treviño, administrator of the Rural Housing Service, said the program had some problems but achieved its goals.
The response from lenders was immediate. The value of federally backed rural home loans soared to $16.2 billion in fiscal 2009, up from just $3.7 billion two years earlier. Last year, the guarantees reached nearly $16.8 billion.
Now, a newly released audit has found that the rural loan program, administered by the United States Department of Agriculture, was plagued by lax government oversight and many of the same sloppy banking practices that fed the broader mortgage debacle.
Although the auditors looked at only a tiny sample of the 133,053 loan guarantees made in 2009, they estimated that tens of thousands might have been done improperly and warned that a wave of defaults might be looming.
One of the things I think people don’t think about is how poor many of our rural areas are… offering no down payment loans there? geez.
There were few jobs in rural areas after the manufacturing jobs were shipped overseas. There certainly aren’t many thinky-work jobs in the sticks. Thinky workers demand coffee shops and Whole Paychecks.
” in the midst of the recession”
Well, how ’bout that.
<”…was plagued by lax government oversight and many of the same sloppy banking practices that fed the broader mortgage debacle.”
But I thought LESS government was a good thing?
Sitting here laughing about Jimmy McMillan and saying to myself “it’s too damn high” as I quick read todays posts. “It’s too damn high” can be applied to nearly every single post related to reporting data. Unemployment, housing inventory, housing prices, foreclosures, food costs, government spending, etc…..
The only thing that isn’t too damn high is salaries to buy stuff that is priced………….. Too Damn High!!
My income ain’t to high ,
I ain’t going to lie ,
I got a beef and I need relief
cause those rents them are to high .
Democrats are upset with the GOP’s name for the ObamaCare repeal legislation. The , “Repealing the Job Killing Health Care Reform Act.” They are upset that it includes the word “killing.” C’mon folks, let’s be serious about this. The word “killing” appearing in legislation in regards to jobs is not inciting hatred or spreading vitriolic rhetoric. But the vote is set for next Wednesday.
Here’s the deal, the bill - H.R. 2 - will be voted on to repeal ObamaCare in its entirety. It will likely pass the House, but we know it stands little chance in the Senate and even less of a chance on Obama’s desk. So then the Republicans will vote on H.R. 4 - repealing the 1099 provision of ObamaCare. This is seen as their first attempt to dismantle ObamaCare piece-by-piece … and what a piece to start with!
~ Clipped from Neal Boortz
These guys need to grow up. Giving bills juvenile partisan names or reading from a Constitution they have no intentions of upholding are pointless exercises.
Repealing the Job Killing Health Care Reform Act is the title of the bill? This doesn’t bode well for the whole session. I sense a repeat of the Gingrich over-reach.
Yup. And if they don’t act up their fanboys think they’re sloughing off.
Them health bills are to high ,
they passed a bill ,but I’m moaning still ,
cause them health bills are to high .
“and even less of a chance on Obama’s desk.”
Maybe he’ll sign it in the spirit of reaching across the aisle.
Screw the hungry, you’ll need to be gubmint certified first!
City puts a stop to homeless outreach
Couple must have proper permit to continue feeding dozens each day
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Bobby and Amanda Herring spent more than a year providing food to homeless people in downtown Houston every day. They fed them, left behind no trash and doled out warm meals peacefully without a single crime being committed, Bobby Herring said.
That ended two weeks ago when the city shut down their “Feed a Friend” effort for lack of a permit. And city officials say the couple most likely will not be able to obtain one.
“We don’t really know what they want, we just think that they don’t want us down there feeding people,” said Bobby Herring, a Christian rapper who goes by the stage name Tre9.
Anyone serving food for public consumption, whether for the homeless or for sale, must have a permit, said Kathy Barton, a spokeswoman for the Health and Human Services Department. To get that permit, the food must be prepared in a certified kitchen with a certified food manager.
Anyone serving food for public consumption, whether for the homeless or for sale, must have a permit, said Kathy Barton, a spokeswoman for the Health and Human Services Department. To get that permit, the food must be prepared in a certified kitchen with a certified food manager.
My parents’ church has to follow the same requirement in order to host its weekly community dinners for the homeless. So, that’s what they do. Feeding the hungry is part of their Christian mission, after all.
While it looks bad to stop any help for the poor, health codes for food are pretty damned important.
Along with all the other pesky, government interfering, hold-a-gun-to-my-head, laws on health and sanitation.
Damn commies!
Indians using American job dollars to educate their workforce to steal even more American dollars…Chinese companies threatening to release more CFC’s in the air just to profit from carbon credits…perfectly good beans and tomatoes rotting in the trucks because the company can’t afford a couple thousand dollars for fuel…$250 toll roads…houses abandoned for half a decade just for tax reasons…public school systems fast turning into pay-only systems which will surely lead to only the rich (not the smart) being able to read and write…rent that’s too damn high…
Is anybody else finding today’s bits bucket to be especially depressing today? The tone of these events have something in common: they point to a general decline in society. Like watching a sick friend die slowly. You know a lot about the disease but you can’t do nothin’.
But the market’s up!
The sun will shine tomorrow, tomorrow.
-Lil Orphan Annie
There’s always… tomorrow!
Yep, same here. Plus I’ve been reading Noam Chomsky every night this week. Not the most hopeful of writers, although very enlightened and enlightening.
It’s time to look for that plot of land on which to build Hobbiton.
Funny, I’ve always found reading Noam to be uplifting. He very often goes out of his way to reiterate his overriding point that we the people really hold the power. Plus, he constantly deconstructs the illusion of omnipotnence around the PTB.
I am a Noam newbie. What I’ve been reading is a Bill Moyers in-depth interview with him from 1989. Even at 20 years old, it’s very informative and eye-opening. Maybe later I’ll get to the uplifting part!
He wasn’t too uplifting back then. At some point attendees at his lectures would get so distraught that they would ask him to say something positive. He came up with a good reply. It was to remind the audience of ths situation in this country 100 years ago. Blacks were severly oppressed, women didn’t have equal rights, etc. These things were changed through popular movements. Ordinary Americans get off their butts and organized to fight against injustice and change occurred.
So, if you look at the big picture, things are much better than they were 100 or 200 years ago, even if there has been some backsliding over the last 35-40 years as the corporate sector has gained more power over American life.
Current non-fiction is more depressing than the news. Current non-fiction:
—-
Obama sucks. (Heritage Foundation) [20% off]
Hillary sucks. (AEI) [30% off]
Chicken Soup for People Who’s Jobs were Outsourced by the CEO on the Yacht But Think It was “God’s Will.”
Yet Another Aspect of the Honorable Civil War.
Generic Environmental book: Chap 1. Trees/birdies/pupfish are dying off and it sucks. Chap 2. Painstaking research proving that tree/birdies/pupfish are dying off. Really, they are. Chap 3. It sucks but there’s hope. We need to band together, call our Congressman, and sing Kumbaya on speakerphone. [bargain bin]
Chicken Soup for Soul who is Depressed by Other Non-fiction Books.
Ghostwritten Bio of Guy with Lucky Genetics.
Shotguns Yay! (S. Palin) [NYT bestseller]
—-
No thanks! I’m reading The Rise of Teddy Roosevelt.
I have never found that denying the truth ,no matter how
depressing , makes me feel better . It prevents real solutions ,or acceptance if that be the case if there is no solution . The truth sets you free ,if anything . Its like when a friend just tells you want you want to hear .
We can’t forget how the sheep just wanted to believe that real estate always goes up and they could sell to a greater fool and live the life style of the rich and famous ,that was the con.
Besides the truth is ………Them rents is to damn high .
“The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the State.”
– Dr. Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister
“To the rulers of the state then, if to any, it belongs of right to use falsehood, to deceive either enemies or their own citizens, for the good of the state: and no one else may meddle with this privilege” Plato
Indians are not stealing your jobs. It is just that it is cheaper to produce something that’s more expensive here. You cannot have the worlds reserve currency, live a kings life, produce everything and expect the world to only buy from you, give everything they have for you. Got it? The problem with Americans is it is always about them, them, them. Nobody else in the world can be anything more than an ant. They cannot accept others….well…going forward that is one thing that some here will have to accept, that is, they will face tough competition.
Listen….America dug its hole when Nixon introduced fiat currency. Stop blaming others, its not their fault that you decided to lie, cheat, steal and destroy all over the world in exchange for oil, produce, goods and services. You should know that greed of some here know no bounds, the situation today is a result of that.
Your not serious are you ?
Oh yeah, he’s serious.
It is our fault.
It’s our fault for allowing Congress to eliminate the tarrifs and tax penalties that once prevented unscrupulous Americans from selling out the system that made them.
Only we have the power to reverse this serious mistake.
No, we don’t.
At least not until we fix our short term memory problem and…
Oh wait! It’s American Survivor Idol!
Brahma,
The thing to remember about liberals living in America is that they deem themselves entitled. Always have, always will. Entitled to the best, high-paying jobs and entitled to the best of services.
Whether others elsewhere must work the most menial of jobs is immaterial. All that matters is whether their sense of entitlement is sated. If it is, great. All Indians can have high-paying jobs. If it is not sated, then all Indians are incompetent hacks and deserve what they get.
These are the same folks that whine incessantly about “outsourcing of jobs” and “evil corporations”.
It matters not that others in places such as India or Poland (or anywhere else) can do the job just as effectively at half the cost. It also matters not that they themselves might be employed by a foreign company, or have wages paid for by foreign companies via taxation.
All that matters is their sense of entitlement.
Exactly. All they do is whine, outsourcing, India, China, Phillipines…
F**k…with the infrastructure and talent that exists in this country, one could be building ways to redefine energy, production, distribution, transportation. Whatever happened to cheap energy? tap that and you will see a jobs explosion. Nothing prevents the US from exploiting its vast desert areas for power production via solar and wind. Cheap abundant energy if you can figure out the technology to make it “cheap”. Problem is that requires investment in R & D and a national energy vision but no we decided to bail out bankers and flip houses.
Some want everything for free and the world to bend over for them and take it. Guess what…they just said “No mas”.
Who ever said that America should give India Jobs ? Isn’t that the responsibility of India to up lift their own people . India is just being a opportunist thinking they are entitled to be raiders of
the American system . Who is the party that thinks they are entitled ,the Americans who are entitled to their own job base
or the Indians who want to rob the Americans job base . Get serious .
It is not that they were *given* jobs. It is just that they produced something cheaper and thus *assumed* the jobs. If another place can produce greater benefit the jobs will go there, it is not that they are forcing you to keep them.
F*** whats the matter with you? It is the job of India to lift their own people? Of course, nobody will do your work for you anywhere, they just did. It is not that you gave them your jobs, it so happens to be a big market for goods produced here, did you know that Intel sells only 18% of its products here in North America? The rest is the world demand, largely from China, India, Japan. So should they shut their doors and tell you to sell your stuff somewhere else? After all by your logic it is the responsibility of Intel to sell its stuff.
In my example above, who benefited? Of course Intel by its higher revenues, pays more taxes, more taxes benefits the schools, fire departments, police. So by extension of your argument…Indiam China should be mad that they lost all that revenue which could have benefited their systems and should blame America for their bad infrastructure.
You get real. Stop whining. We have benefited handsomely by the kindness of foreigners. hell…you should be happy they sell you their oil for worthless toilet paper that is our currency. ha ha….a bottle of water costs more than a bottle of gas. So they should tell you to go find your own oil…it is not their job to give it….by an extension of your argument.
The fact are America needs others more than they need us.
Wow, just wow!
Texas Short Seller Fights China Fraud in $20 Billion U.S. Shares
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-13/texas-short-seller-fights-china-fraud-in-20-billion-u-s-shares.html
People, don’t invest in what you don’t understand. Now how hard is that?
Good Article!
But Madoff said he knew what he was doing!
City Of Detroit Sends Out Thousands Of Incorrect Property Tax Bills
Detroit’s Ombudsman says a snafu in the finance department has created anxiety for homeowners.
Nearly 60,000 Detroit property tax bills we mailed out with the wrong interest rate.
“In an environment where we are told on a daily basis that the city is broke, it makes absolutely no sense what-so-ever that the city can not get their game together so that they collect money and collect it on time.” City ombudsman, Dorian Brown, says her office has been swamped with calls.
“Service delivery is linked to the resources the city has to provide them, this is outrageous that the city has not prioritizing the collection of tax money which is needed to provide the services we all deserve.” Brown stated.
“It’s the year 2011, we’ve got all kinds of technology, we’ve got an administration that tweets for Gods sake, but we can not manage to get tax bills out, and money is so desperately needed in this community, that’s a problem.” Brown continued.
Deadline for paying detroit property taxes has been extended to Jan. 19, due to the holiday and budget furlough days.
“In an environment where we are told on a daily basis that the city is broke, it makes absolutely no sense what-so-ever that the city can not get their game together so that they collect money and collect it on time.”
How does the wrong interest rate on a property tax bill affect someone not paying their property tax bill on time?
Industrial production rises by most in 5 months- AP
Industrial production rose in December by the largest amount in five months, providing the economy with solid momentum heading into the new year.
For a moment i read that as “industrial pollution.”
That’s the kind of mood I’m in today.
Should read:
“Been down so long looks like up to us.”
TERESOPOLIS, Brazil — A new and ominous rain began falling again Friday in mountain towns where mudslides and flooding killed at least 495 people, hindering rescuers efforts to reach survivors even as relatives hauled the dead down the hills to freshly dug graves.
The known death toll rose by one overnight in three cities north of Rio in one of Brazil’s deadliest natural disasters on record. Officials feared, however, that number could sharply rise, though they would not venture a guess of how many remain missing. Local reports put it in the hundreds.
Hundreds of rescuers were in the area and officials said the problem was getting them to remote areas isolated after roads were washed out. Despite the new rains, no more mudslides have been reported.
Hope Rio isn’t in harms way .
During a presentation in Chicago yesterday, Jim Rogers may have well laid the foundation for the next bubble, namely rice. His comments may have also spooked some of the weaker hands in gold, which has tumbled by $20 today, primarily on concerns what Chinese tightening may do to demand for the precious metal. Of course, how tightening is bad for commodities and good for stocks is one of those questions that can only be explained by the Fed’s third mandate. From Bloomberg: “While gold “may go down for awhile,” the metal is “going to go over $2,000 in this decade,” Rogers, who owns gold, silver and rice, said today during a presentation to business executives in Chicago. Gold touched a record $1,432.50 an ounce in New York on Dec. 7. The price closed today at $1,387. “I’d rather own rice,” Rogers said. “I’d rather own something that’s more depressed than gold.””
Rogers has long been bullish the MOO complex, and the recent surge in food prices merely validates his most recent predictions.
Sammy sez: Rice, the staple of diets in Asia, is the foodstuff to watch. For now, food riots have been limited to North Africa. But when rice starts to surge, unrest could hit Asia, which would force China, among others, to hike interest rates to get control over runaway inflation and speculative hot-money flows that are causing local asset bubbles. At that point global markets are going to crash hard, as the punchbowl of limitless credit at near-zero interest rates gets yanked away.
“I’d rather own rice,” Rogers said. “I’d rather own something that’s more depressed than gold.”
Unlike gold, you can eat rice, and it stores well. Makes sense to me…I’m going to check on our rice supply this weekend.
The vampire squids/banksters have manipulated and screwed up the market for everything and anything that can remortly qualify for being an “investment”.
The only thing left is commodities, and that’s currently a work in progress.
Of course Joe Q Dumbazz won’t be able to put 2 + 2 together; he’ll tune to Faux News and be told it’s somehow “the government’s fault”……mainly by giving out food stamps and government cheese.
Sometimes I wonder if I’m entirely too cynical…….then events prove that I’m not nearly cynical enough.
Now you’re getting it!
At least rice is something the average Joe, or HBBer, can easily stockpile. Maybe not enough to fill a silo, but your basement or pantry.
Off to the supermarket!
Wasn’t there a “run” on rice a year or two ago? I seem to remember some stores (Costco?) limiting how many bags could be bought at one time…
Doesn’t Rogers live in a Asian Country ? The problem with listening to any kind of investment advice is I don’t trust the adviser ,especially when I don’t know what the adviser stands to gain if I take the
advice . Remember real estate agents advice during the boom .
Is what we have today real investment or is it a bet on where the
birds will flock to and than fly away from ?
Viva Iceland!!
2 ex-Landsbanki executives arrested in Iceland
(AP) – 6 hours ago
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — Two former senior executives with Iceland’s failed Landsbanki bank have been arrested over allegations of market manipulation, the special prosecutor’s office said Friday.
Accountability - what a concept!
Let’s hope their punishment is more than: x8 hrs + Iceland metal flag-pole + wet tongues.
Lenin on hyperinflation:
“Hundreds of thousands of rouble notes are being issued daily by our treasury. This is done, not in order to fill the coffers of the State with practically worthless paper, but with the deliberate intention of destroying the value of money as a means of payment. There is no justification for the existence of money in the Bolshevik state, where the necessities of life shall be paid for by work alone.
Experience has taught us it is impossible to root out the evils of capitalism merely by confiscation and expropriation, for however ruthlessly such measures may be applied, astute speculators and obstinate survivors of the capitalist classes will always manage to evade them and continue to corrupt the life of the community. The simplest way to exterminate the very spirit of capitalism is therefore to flood the country with notes of a high face-value without financial guarantees of any sort.
Already even a hundred-rouble note is almost valueless in Russia. Soon even the simplest peasant will realise that it is only a scrap of paper, not worth more than the rags from which it is manufactured. Men will cease to covet and hoard it so soon as they discover it will not buy anything, and the great illusion of the value and power of money, on which the capitalist state is based will have been definitely destroyed.
This is the real reason why our presses are printing rouble bills day and night, without rest.”
“There is no justification for the existence of money in the Bolshevik state, where the necessities of life shall be paid for by work alone.”
Did Lenin’s definition of ‘work’ include standing in bread lines for hours a day?
And the result for many Russians was starvation.
Initially ol’ Vlad had to back down because the land owning peasants (kulaks) basically cut off the food supply to the cities and threatened the revolution in a very delicate phase (late teens-early twenties). An uneasy truce of sorts followed, but don’t worry ol’ cuddly Uncle Joe eventually made sure they paid - the terror famines of the thirties in push for collectivization.
The terror famines were horrific and their legacy influenced the eventual break up of the USSR fifty years later.
Yes, but the Bolsheviks paid off the New York banks that loaned them the money to pull off their revolution, with generous interest. That’s the important thing.
dude sounds like a creep
This morning I’m hearing from our workers down on the floor that their paychecks are smaller (first payday of the new year).
This is because Making Work Pay expired, isn’t it? IIRC, it was allowed to expire.
Yup, there were articles that warned that for low wage earners that the temporary social security reduction would not offset the loss of “Making Work Pay”.
Good thing the high earners didn’t lose anything though, that would have been truly tragic.
I’m pulling in an extra 140 bucks a month thanks to this.
So a tax cut results in a tax increase?
Is this like the Earned Income Credit in which they get certain taxes back that they paid (like SS) if they make under a certain amount?
So they are paying less in SS so are getting less back?
Making Work Pay was a 2009 stimulus measure. It reduced the federal witholding for most workers. In all the hub bub of the past fall it was allowed to expire. The result is that take home pay reverted back to pre-2009 levels for these people today. The upcoming FICA reduction will help a little - but the bottom line is that no one’s 2011 take home is going to be a straight 2% more than their 2010 take home. (probably closer to flat).
Bottom bottom line: cash is a little bit more the king for these people today.
EIC is only for, and pertains only to, those with children.
no. earned income ‘tax credit’ is giving people who make less than a certain amount more money than they paid in taxes, if any, it’s taking from those who pay in, and giving to those who don’t.
Tried living on what that requirement is?
Yeah, they’re really making fat bank and getting one over us.
I can’t tell if checks are getting smaller, but the paper they are printed on seems to be getting cheesier and the printing quality shittier. They still cost more each time I have to order them.
Nope. No inflation there.
> The December Consumer Price Index rose 0.5 percent and is being touted as an indication of relatively benign price inflation. Actually, it’s the biggest increase in 18th months and - on an annualized basis - is a price inflation rate of nearly 6 percent.
While everyone is in a skittles induced Riverdance over at the Dow, Muni’s have started their long awaited meltdown.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=CXE
Many penetrated down through their 52 week lows.
http://finance.yahoo.com/lookup?s=muni
Stand by for QE3….
“While everyone is in a skittles induced Riverdance over at the Dow…”
Pure poetry!
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/cq?d=v1&s=agg,%20bab,%20babs,%20babz,%20bbk,%20cmf,dia,%20ief,%20mln,%20mub,%20nyf,%20shy,%20tfi,%20vrd
Munis not looking so good. Is this the next shoe to drop?
“The SEC is ramping up a probe into troubled muni bonds. Sources are telling the FOX Business Network they are looking at disclosures made in the bond documents, they are known on Wall Street as prospectuses. What they are looking at whether municipalities, cities and states, are adequately disclosing their budget woes to investors who buy these bonds. More than any other investment, muni bonds are held by retail investors; average people looking to cash in on the triple tax free status. That’s why the SEC is concerned.”
Why is it that the SEC never detects fraud BEFORE it blows up in the public’s face?
And why are they suddenly worried about disclosure on muni bonds?
They weren’t too concerned about it when the banksters were selling CDOs and CDSs…….because the buyers were “sophisticated investors who can do their own due diligence”.
Munis not looking so good. Is this the next shoe to drop?”
yea maybe and higher taxes to try and fix the problem
Texas budget proposals call for thousands of job cuts
AUSTIN — Budget recommendations being prepared for Texas lawmakers are expected to call for eliminating at least 8,000 state jobs, officials said Thursday.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst told reporters that a Senate version of a base budget for the next two years would eliminate 8,000 positions. A House budget bill expected to be released Tuesday also recommends reducing the state work force, House budget chief Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, said in an interview with The Texas Tribune.
Sounds like there might be some unexpected vacancies in those tony downtown apartments.
Here’s hoping that Brett can take advantage of them.
That’s because them rents are to damn high .
Wouldn’t it just be easier to do the Illinois shuffle and just raise income and corporate taxes by 75%?
Of course - 2 x the Texas 0% income tax still equals 0%
Hmmm - what party runs Texas?
PS - I wish there was a state (or even large city) run by democrats that looked to cut taxes and cut spending in order to balance their books and help their economy.
There used to be some. Why don’t they exists - even just a handful?
They Dems have been cutting spending left and right here in the Centennial state, year after year during most of the past decade.
The only answer to shortage of money is that you go to where the money is and that is where you tax . Regarding the current state of affairs ,these are also the culprits .
The Republitards that run things around here have been cutting taxes and services for the last fifteen years.
Replaced by jacking up state and local sales taxes, to pay for stuff like road repair and the bus system.
Local statewide sales tax was 3% for years. Currently, adding all the state, county, and city taxes, local sales tax rate is in the 9+% range. Food is NOT sales tax exempt.
Do food stamp recipients pay sales tax? If so, that’s 9% off the amount of food you can buy.
I don’t understand the rage against subsidizing mass transit. Every person we can get to leave their car at home is one less person clogging up my road.
Washington state is making massive budget cuts after sales tax increases and state income tax were rejected at the polls this fall. This includes public health clinics and pre-natal care for poor women that had been proven to improve infant health. Some government programs make sense.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013931685_budgethealth14m.html
Frank Parsons files for Chapter 11
Washington Business Journal -
Frank Parsons, one of the largest office supply companies in the Washington area, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, and has secured $5 million in new financing.
The debtor-in-possession financing game from Wells Fargo Bank. The cash infusion will help the company reorganize and strengthen its business, it says.
Frank Parsons says it expects no disruption in products, services or support for its customers.
“The Frank Parsons brand remains strong, as does our commitment to our customers, employees, and strategic business partners,” said chief executive J. Michael Lane in a statement. “The lifting of our heavy debt load has re-energized our employee-owners and will help us emerge a much stronger and more successful business.”
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/01/20111141219337111.html
Breaking news: Tunisia’s President has fled the country as the Army takes over. Meanwhile, protests over inflation are escalating in Jordan.
I sure am glad Uncle Ben assured us his money-printing would not be inflationary.
He should’ve dumped his wife. She and her huge extended family were the primary cause of all the resentment. She isn’t too hot either. Well, men are pretty stupid when they stop thinking with their brain.
Global food chain stretched to the limit
Soaring prices spark fears of social unrest in developing world
“We are entering a danger territory,” Abdolreza Abbassian, chief economist at the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said last week.
The U.N.’s fear is that the latest run-up in food prices could spark a repeat of the deadly food riots that broke out in 2008 in Haiti, Kenya and Somalia. That price spike was relatively short-lived. But Abbassian said the latest surge in food stuffs may be more sustained.
As long as the bankers get their bonuses and the taxpayers get the bill, it’s all good.
Damn - and investing in developing nations was all the rage too.
I wonder how those Brits made out in the “International House Hunting” episode I watched…
I wonder how many of those tourist complexes in Tunisia are going to be looted.
How about all that property in Mexico that people where buying
to retire in or as a second home ?
But the DOW is up 50.
We are heading into a massive bull market according to many experts. Since housing, construction and unemployment now have little to no effect on our economy it’s blues skies for w street.
That plus the fed is readying QE4 to set sail, so it’s all good. With luck we can run a 2 trillion dollar deficit this year, which is double plus good!
While all those new Repubs who were sent to Washington do nothing but grandstand. So much for the party of fiscal responsibility.
This is no party of fiscal responsibility, pure myth, as any thinking person knows. Both parties are complete spend freaks, screw the country/taxpayer as hard as you can, over and over.
However they set the perfect example for the great American consumer, spend money you don’t have!
wmbz,
You and I know that, but 95% of our fellow citizens are still being duped each and every election. Baaaaaah! Baaaaaaaah!
This is directly related to the price-of-salmon discussion from last week. Americans pay ridiculously low prices for food — something like 15% of their resources. In other parts of the world it’s more like 50%-60%. Coupled with rent,* doesn’t most of the developing world live paycheck-to-paycheck? And isn’t unemployment ridiculously high too? It’s a lot easier to organize marches and riots when everybody has the day off.
Rising food prices here just make us grumble and cut out the Starbucks. Rising food prices there result in riots and starvation.
———-
*which is…wait for it…too damn high.
Yeah - but the rest of the world has free and enlighten health care.
So when they get shot or clubbed in the demonstrations- they do not have to worry about it….
Yep ,them food costs are to high .
Weren’t some of those people eating mud patties during the last
food crisis ? Actually I have always been thankful that food costs
in the USA haven’t gotten so out of control like some other Countries
have .I mean compared to the inflation in some areas food costs have
been lower in term of inflation for the last 20 years in the USA .I hope food costs don’t skyrocket …hope …..hope …….hope .
Zbanana …..your funny ….If you get free health care are you more likely to be a violent demonstrator verses people who
do not have good coverage . That would be a good study for
a grant for a University . My hunch is that it would contribute
to more VIOLENT behavior knowing your covered on the health care with no deductible .
U.S. accuses man of threatening regulators
I expected this article to be about Geithner. Its still worth reading: An excerpt -
“In one alleged email, McCrudden is said to have told an CFTC lawyer: “You can tell that fucking corrupt piece of Goldman Sachs shit (G.G.) I am coming after him as well.”"
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/US-accuses-man-of-threatening-rb-2697666853.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=1&asset=&ccode=
Just another nut case. Thank god he’s only one of 2 in the entire country that listen to hate radio.
I am so glad our gubmint is striving for oil independence! Up yours sez OPEC…
OPEC ministers say world can handle $100 oil
Other exporters indicate that cartel may not increase crude production
CAIRO — The global economy can withstand an oil price of $100 a barrel, Kuwait’s oil minister said on Saturday, as other exporters indicated OPEC may decide against increasing output through 2011 as the market was well supplied.
Analysts have said oil producing countries are likely to raise output after crude rallied more than 30 percent from a low in May because they fear prices could damage economic growth in fuel importing countries.
Let’s see if it can handle $100/lb corn and rice.
Gasoline prices are already edging down where I live.
MoDOT looks to cut 6 percent of staff
Friday, January 14, 2011
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Missouri Department of Transportation is looking to eliminate more than 6 percent of its work force by 2013 to help reduce costs to the state, which is currently facing an estimated $500 million budget shortfall. While testifying before a Senate hearing Thursday, MoDOT director of program delivery Dave Nichols said the department hopes to eliminate 400 jobs from a department that employed 6,300 last year. The department has already eliminated roughly 200 positions since 2010, hoping to avoid layoffs by leaving vacated positions unfilled. Nichols said the department hopes to further save cost by putting a freeze on major equipment purchases and facilities projects, adding that MoDOT had to become “faster and leaner.”
Heck the Government really provided a lot of jobs for years and years .
Wonder what is going to happen to the level of service .
I noticed when I went to the Bank the other day they had a long line with few workers .
With all this job cutting going on one wonders how much service is going to be provided . This service society that I liked for years is vanishing . I have had workers complain to me about how they are being overworked ,and on many levels you can see that people are tired and resentful .
This is another moral hazard of a unjust Society . The employees become hostile on some level and god knows what that produces .
All the advances of modern day Society that made working pleasant and
not like” selling your sole to the Company store ” just to survive are leaving and being replaced with a unbalance of power to the employer .
“I noticed when I went to the Bank the other day they had a long line with few workers . “
And that would be different from any other time at any other business, why?
No its happening at other business also . Why is it that stock prices
are up but the service is down . Part of the price of a product is the service you get . This is a excuse to fire a bunch of people and get
the public use to less and less . It was like when you use to get a
fill up at the gas station and a employee would do it and clean your windows to boot . ‘I’m not talking about dead weight employees but employees that are essential to reasonable service. .
If I had a alternative place to go I would but the next place is equally low on help .Maybe I’m spoiled ,but all this serves to turn off the consumer in the final analysis . The more unpleasant the
experience ,the longer the wait ,the more people will withdraw .
Fed’s Rosengren: Not Yet Time to Reverse Stimulus- Reuters
The US economy needs a far better footing before the Federal Reserve reverses its current policy, and even more stimulus may be needed if the housing market hampers the rebound, a top Fed official said on Friday.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Fitch-downgrades-Greeces-bond-apf-3340043220.html?x=0&.v=5
Fitch downgrades Greece to junk status, market still goes up.
Pure insanity.
Look out, South Carolina. You’re gonna get sued for not being cordial to unions! Federal officials are ticked. Look out!
WASHINGTON – The National Labor Relations Board is threatening to sue four states that recently approved amendments to their constitutions guaranteeing the right to a secret ballot in union elections. The agency says the amendments conflict with federal law. Employers have the option to recognize a union if a majority of workers sign cards that support unionizing.
The amendments have already taken effect in South Dakota and Utah. They are expected to become effective soon in Arizona and South Carolina.
You voted in November for the secret ballot method of voting when workers are choosing whether or not to set up a union. And now the federal government wants to throw out that decision (by YOU) in favor of the unions’ preferred “card check” method.
I prefer card check and so does the rest of us working stiffs.
How about you?
I cannot parse this badly written article.
Cliff Notes, anyone?
BUSTED: Obama Lied About No More Wall St. Bailouts » By Dr. Pitchfork
Obama pats himself on the back for the passage of the Dodd-Frank Financial “Reform” bill, saying there will be no more Wall St. bailouts
* “Because of Financial Reform, the American people will never again be asked to foot the bill for Wall St’s mistakes.”
* “There will be no more taxpayer-funded bailouts. Period.”
* “If a large financial institution should ever fail, we will have the tools to wind it down without endangering the broader economy.”
This sounds great, but it’s complete baloney. How do we know? Because in SIGTARP’s recent report on Extraordinary Financial Assistance Provided to Citi, Geithner admits, in no uncertain terms, that the fabled “resolution authority” will never actually be used and that taxpayer-funded bailouts are still on the table. The report notes:
* “As Secretary Geithner told SIGTARP, while the Dodd-Frank Act gives the Government ‘better tools,’ and reduced the risk of failures, ‘[i]n the future we may have to do exceptional things again’ if the shock to the financial system is sufficiently large. Secretary Geithner’s candor about the prospect of having to ‘do exceptional things again’ in such an unknowable future crisis is comendable. At the same time, it underscores a TARP legacy, the moral hazard associated with the continued existence of institutions that remain ‘too big to fail.’”
In other words, in spite of Obama’s claims, and in spite of the very specific language within the bill itself, Geithner reserves the right to break the law (”do exceptional things”) in order to save the big banks the next time they get into trouble. Moreover, we have every expectation that the government will do exactly that. We still have Too Big To Fail, and according to Geithner, Too Big To Fail means there WILL be more bailouts the next time around.
Sorry, Mr. President, you’ve been BUSTED!
How about all the secret bail outs ? There are many forms of bail outs .
When you give banks 0 % interest and it causes artificial low interest rates that burn the masses (War on Savors ),it’s a form of a bail out . If Banks
can pass junk at par value to Fand F and than the taxpayers have to pay for the losses ,than it’s a form of a bail out . If government gives 8k
incentives to purchase real estate ,it’s a form of a incentive to help a industry ,or a bail out .If you have a system where the Government backed loan product and is the biggest lending source ,because private would
charge a lot more in these times ,than thats a bail out . If you give a
cash for clunkers program ,thats a bail out for that industry . If you give tax breaks to the wealthy and give tax breaks for outsourcing ,that a bail out . If you do not render justice ,its a bail out . If you keep corrupt system alive ,just so thugs can have their casinos ,that a bail out ,or protection ,whatever you want to call it . If you give government funded appliance rebates for purchases ,that’s a bail out . I could go on and on . If you let Corps under fund their Pension plans and than
allow them to BK on it by fake restructuring ,and than put the burden on a government pension insurance ,thats a bail out . I could go on and on . If you allow health care price fixing monopolies to rape the public
thats a form of bail out to that industry .
POW!
Sounds like crapper sales are off over there also…
Bathroom manufacturer Ideal Standard has announced the closure of its Middlewich ceramics production site, which could mean the loss of 249 jobs.
The company is also closing sites in Revin and Dole in France, in proposals it says are “necessary due to worsening market conditions and trends affecting the European construction and ceramics sanitary ware markets.”
A statement released by the group said: “The UK and France continue to be core markets for Ideal Standard International and the company remains committed to maintaining a strong presence in both markets. The group will develop its business by investing in new products to serve the markets, strengthening customer service and continuing to build market competitiveness.
“The company and its management do not take these kinds of decisions lightly especially when it affects the livelihood of its employees. However, the company believe that this is a necessary step to regain efficiency and to safeguard the company’s current position and future prospects in the ceramics industry across Europe.”
From Van Hoisington Investment Management: “From the standpoint of most households, the home is the main component of wealth, not stock market investments. The continuing drop in housing prices serves to underscore the ill advised and likely temporary drop in the personal saving rate that was so critical to economic performance late last year.”
The problem is that with even the Fed itself confirming that it no longer cares to even attempt to reflate housing, and merely is seeking the make the wealthiest even wealthier, why bother? Why even speculate what the theoretical framework behind the Fed’s actions and what proper policy should be, when Bernanke has now made it clear that the Fed cares not one bit about its two key mandates, both of which have been made irrelevant to its only real prerogative: inflating stock prices to as high levels as possible, asset bubbles be damned.
The market is already pricing in QE 4.
Sammy , it’s all been smoke and mirrors from day one because the
hustlers …..oh I mean Bankers, were in deep shit .Lets not forget their losses from leverage in the shadow world of banking where the leverage
was sometimes 40x ( unlike regulated banks limited at about 10x’s.)
How can they say that banks were regulated when the could sell to
the unregulated firms who could leverage to the absurd degree they did ? De-regulation opened the floodgate for regulated banks to go into territory that no regulated banks should of been allowed . Than they made the unregulated Investment Banks ,like GS, into Banks, just so
they could qualify for the bail outs ,but this was long after the Feds was lending to any entity ,when it should of been restricted to regulated
banks.Essentially,the blackmailers put the Feds in the position of having defaults on all those short term loans that jerk gave ,so a bail out had to take place because it would of been default on the short term loans
that added up to billions and billions . The hustlers just put the Federal
Government in the position that sub prime borrowers put the bankers in .
Its a act of gross incompetence or collusion for the Governing body and the Feds to allow themselves to be put in this position .
The one lesson that the screwball Fed Chairman didn’t get was you can’t inflate a fake and fraudulent RE market based on faulty lending after it crashes . It’s simply because the unqualified buyer can’t afford to hold long term until real prices go up to the fake prices that crashed …like
maybe 20 years .i remember Hank Paulson giving all the BS talk about holding on to the toxic asset until the market returns and the tax payer
might make money . It was all a con job and the government wonders why all the plans didn’t work out . Because you don’t hire the culprits
to devise the plan, you dumb asses .
If anybody can understand what i just said I will give you a brownie point .
It has to help Megabank, Inc’s profitability to pay zero percent or so on savings accounts while lending at “market rates.”
Jan. 14, 2011, 12:29 p.m. EST
J.P. Morgan’s profit jumps 47%
Financial-services giant’s results buoyed by investment-banking fees
By Alistair Barr and John Spence, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. reported quarterly results Friday that were buoyed by a recovery in mergers and acquisitions and other investment-banking businesses like underwriting equity and debt offerings.
…
Profit is up becuase they have figured out that the MBS holders aren’t going to be able to give back the loans. They’ve figured out they can make it so long and expensive to force the give back, that none will bother.
Darrell …that is the problem with crime and civil infractions ,Justice isn’t speedy and it isn’t cheap . I think a lot of the cover up’s were for
the sole purpose of exceeding the Statue of Limitations anyway .
This contrived scheme that you tend to forget about because you get
all wrapped up in the new slap in the face is getting annoying .
Geithner warns of future intervention
Government ‘may have to do exceptional things again,’ Treasury secretary says
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/geithner-warns-of-future-bailouts-2011-01-13?siteid=rss&rss=1
(If this was already present, I apologize.)
Translation: QE 3, QE 4, QE 5 - we must not, cannot, let the banksters pay for their mistakes.
It also serves as a reminder that the ultimate cost of bailing out Citigroup and the other ‘too big to fail’ institutions will remain unknown until the next financial crisis occurs,” SIGTARP added in its report.
No Sht??
Orderly wind down
When Geithner said “exceptional things” he wasn’t referring to old-school bailouts like the ones that saved American International Group Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!aig/quotes/nls/aig (AIG 53.85, -0.15, -0.28%) or Citigroup, according to Treasury officials.
Yeah right??
Instead, Geithner was referring to the possible orderly wind down of a failing institution under new powers given to regulators by last year’s Dodd-Frank bill.
Sure??
My guess is that this is only true if the elite have completely exited the banks and are sitting on cash. Then they will be more than willing to watch the whole think implode.
We have a winner.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-14/fed-saw-housing-bubble-in-2005-failed-to-alter-policy-of-rate-increases.html
Fed Officials Saw Housing Bubble in 2005, Didn’t Alter Policy
Federal Reserve staff and policy makers identified a housing bubble in 2005, and failed to alter a predictable path of interest-rate increases to slow down the expansion of mortgage credit, transcripts from Open Market Committee meetings that year show.
Led by then-Chairman Alan Greenspan, the FOMC raised the benchmark lending rate in quarter-point increments to 4.25 percent from 2.25 percent at the end of December 2004. The committee also removed uncertainty about the pace of rate increases by telegraphing that future moves would be “measured” in every statement.
The “measured” pace language helped fuel the housing boom by keeping longer-term interest rates low and was inappropriate at the time given the uncertainties about both inflation and asset prices, said Marvin Goodfriend, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
“It was a major mistake of the Fed,” said Goodfriend, who attended some of the 2005 meetings as a policy adviser to the Richmond Fed. “It gave markets a sense that the Fed was on top of everything to a degree that wasn’t the case. It gave the impression that this was a mechanical adjustment to normality. The market was overconfident.”
These statements also give the impression that the Federal Reserve can do things beyond its actual power.
Stat of the day.
Single-family home building permits issued in Lee County, Fla., in 2005: 22,000.
In 2010: 600
Another reason municipalities are in trouble.
I think 600 is excessive in Lee County at present.
I understand that inflating a new stock bubble is good for the elite few billionaires. But, I do not understand if, or if so, how that is supposed to help Main Street. Or, have they just given up on helping Main Street and have now embraced biafacation of the United States social classes.
Republicans say they are not sending more money to the states, but instead will make it cheaper for them? So, they are going to allow the states to further cut education and medicare spending… Really? That is their solution? Pour a few trillion into the hands of the elite while cutting the lifelines holding up the poor and the future generations?
There are two States in the Union, the United States and Wall Street /Bankers lane/Monopoly Corp America .
Where have you been for the last 30 years, Darrell?
Wall St. started effing Main St, 30 years ago.
Deregulation? Junk bonds? The Keating 5? Savings & Loan dereg and then meltdown? Repeal or dilution of most consumer and labor protection laws?
The 1980s were a real blast.
It was a gradual sort of effing of Main Street I would say and than it picked up steam .
“Mid South Community College Receives $3.4 million DOL Grant for Aviation Tech Program…….”
“The grant is funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009…”
http://www.midsouthcc.edu/?id=161
From my personal observations, and talking with people I know across the country, 30-40% of the A&Ps in the country are either unemployed or under-employed. My SIL got his A&P in December of 2008, still hasn’t found a job in the business. The shop I used to work at, which has been open since 1972 and had NEVER had a layoff, laid off 20% of it’s staff last year……a local airline closed their shop last year, 600 guys were given the option to transfer, or take early retirement.
Why are we spending $3.4 mill to open a new A&P program, when there is no demand for A&Ps, and training programs across the country are closing?
“We also appreciate the tremendous commitment Fedex Express has made……..”
Basically, this is a $3.4 million dollar subsidy to Fedex, to keep the job market flooded with more mech applicants than there are open positions, so they can keep their labor costs down. These guys will be trained to pass the FAA test, and how to work on Fedex airplanes, nothing more.
The PTB have been predicting a “shortage” of aircraft mechanics since at least the ’70s………ain’t happened yet.
Here in Montana we’re training carpenters.
Whatever for Montana ,surly not home construction .
““We also appreciate the tremendous commitment Fedex Express has made……..”
Basically, this is a $3.4 million dollar subsidy to Fedex,”
No way! Free market businesses don’t need tax breaks or subsidies, only the lazy welfare queens do!
Like that “shortage” of computer techs and programmers that “force” us to have bring in H1-Bs?
Right. I can’t think of one safe educational or training program to recommend to my children.
Trades were insourced into oblivion. College grads are a dime a dozen in all fields. Lawyers are toast. I hear a lot of talk about the sciences, but engineers and other tech folks have been downsized. If everyone who is capable of the math goes into the sciences, there will be a glut, especially when Chinese and Indians come into the labor market in droves.
I hear about a shortage of nurses, so hospitals have been importing them from the Philippines. Surgical travel is becoming common. The education and health care bubbles will be bursting soon.
I have encouraged my youngest to finish his bachelor’s degree. I figure with the degree and a one year certificate in a program, he will have a leg up on those who have associate’s degrees. Who knows, it may get him into retail management at slightly better than minimum wage.
First, the electronic mortgage superhighway. Then, the pileup.
By Ariana Eunjung Cha and Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, January 2, 2011
In the early 1990s, the biggest names in the mortgage industry hatched a plan for a new electronic clearinghouse that would transform the home loan business - and unlock billions of dollars of new investments and profits.
At the time, mortgage documents were moved almost exclusively by hand and mail, a throwback to an era in which people kept stock certificates, too. That made it hard for banks to bundle home loans and sell them to investors. By contrast, a central electronic clearinghouse would allow the companies to transfer thousands of mortgages instantaneously, greasing the wheels of a system in which loans could be bought and sold repeatedly and quickly.
“Assignments are creatures of 17th-century real property law; they do not coexist easily with high-volume, late 20th-century secondary mortgage market transactions,” Phyllis K. Slesinger, then senior director of investor relations for the Mortgage Bankers Association, wrote in paper explaining the system.
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On March 4, 1994, the MBA unveiled its plan to county recorders who were charged with keeping track of titles signifying the ownership of land. Not everyone was sold on the idea.
“There needs to be some outside control or oversight,” one recorder said, according to a transcript of the meeting.
Another said that if errors were put into the electronic system, “they’re really hard to track further down the road.”
Sixteen years down the road, the mortgage business is a mess. The electronic clearinghouse has become a reality; Virginia-based Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, a registry with 67 million mortgages on file, has become part of the industry’s standard operating procedure.
Critics say promises to increase transparency and iron out wrinkles in recordkeeping haven’t panned out. The firm, which tracks more than 60 percent of the country’s residential mortgages but whose parent company employs just 45 people in a Reston office building, is now on the firing line.
MERS is facing lawsuits from across the country seeking unpaid county recording fees. Several state courts have rejected attempts by MERS to act on behalf of banks seeking to foreclose on delinquent mortgages. And Congress is weighing legislation that would bar home loan giant Fannie Mae from buying any mortgage listed in MERS, potentially a death knell for the registry.
…
This system has been in operation this long and it’s only now that it’s being questioned ? Is this a little weird or is it just me .
Apparently the MERS was no problem for anyone while the bubble was inflating, as almost nobody ever was foreclosed: While real estate was always going up, anyone who lost their job or otherwise lost their ability to make payments was inevitably able to sell for more than what was owed on the note. Once the bubble popped, and a large fraction of homeowners lost their ability to make payments at the same time they found themselves underwater, the need to foreclose on delinquent owners led to the discovery of the underlying problems with MERS blurring the lines of ownership.
That seems like the answer PB because MERS isn’t a issue unless you
have a foreclosure .
There’s always that ONE guy driving slow in the fast lane…
POSTED: January 1, 1:25 PM EDT | By Matt Taibbi
An Extremely Long Metaphor to Explain Mortgage Chaos
Happy New Year, America…
…
Imagine, say, a family of twelve, two elderly parents in Iowa and ten adult children scattered in different states all over the country. Mom and Dad on the farm own one Ford F-150 that they owe $300 a month on. Every month, the truck gets passed to a different family member, who in turn becomes responsible for the monthly payment. But no matter who has the car and whose turn it is to come up with the $300, the truck stays in Dad’s name and the money, in the end, comes to Ford Finance via Dad’s checking account.
Looking at this as an individual and unique case, you wouldn’t think there was much that was inherently wrong with this setup. Obviously the family arrangement violates the spirit of many laws and procedures — vehicle registration (from month to month, the true owner of the car is hidden from the state), credit application (Pops technically committed credit fraud if he got the car loan in his own name knowing the children would actually be paying), and taxes/fees (the state misses out on its registration fees every month, when the car is informally “sold” from child to child without the nominal paperwork fees being paid to the DMV of the state in question). But again, looking at this as an individual case, not many people would say any of these “violations” were major moral transgressions, if they were really moral transgressions at all. After all, this is family!
But once you take this setup and institutionalize it, and employ it everywhere on a vast scale, it becomes seriously problematic. This is particularly true if, say, Pop begins allowing his kids to “rent” the car out to non-family members, so long as they kick a small fee upstairs. Say it’s March and Pop gives the truck to son Jimmy in Toledo; in April Jimmy gives the truck to his buddy Rick in Akron, charging the $300 payment plus a $20 convenience fee. May: Jimmy gives the car to his girlfriend Trudy in Phoenix, telling her to wire $300 plus another $20 back to Pops in Iowa; she in turn lends the car to her occasional lesbian love interest Madison, who begins renting the car on a day-to-day basis in Tuba City as part of her family’s Painted Desert Resort and Tourism business, etc. etc. And she’s now kicking the fees back to Iowa.
Within a year Pop is buying fifty vehicles an hour and shuttling cars to new customers all over the country, collecting millions in fees every day; he becomes a billion-dollar corporate fixture, hiring the entire local Elks club to come with him to work as support staff.
So now, to take this already absurdly overwrought metaphor one final painful step further, there is a string of grisly homicides being committed on highways across America. Witnesses spot that original F-150 truck and the license plates at each of the murder scenes, but when cops come looking for the truck owner, they find old Pop in a wheelchair in Iowa, alibied on the night of every crime by forty-five fellow members of the Dubuque Elks. They drag Pop into the station to question him, but he won’t give up which of his boys did the crimes — hell, he doesn’t know, anyway.
This, roughly, is what MERS is. The functional effect of MERS is to create an obfuscatory wall between the homeowner and the actual owner of his mortgage loan. The problem with MERS is a paradox at the heart of the “ownership” question. On the one hand, MERS is the legal assignee of a lot of these mortgage notes. On the other hand, it’s not the “real” owner of the notes, in any way that could ever help you, or the state, or the investors in mortgage-backed securities.
…
The trouble with MERS is that it does not provide the public with a reliable way of tracing title. Let’s say you want to buy a house at a foreclosure sale. You look at the county records and discover that there are no mortgages outstanding on the house, so you’re good right? Well, idk, did you check with MERS first? What about that other outfit that competes with MERS, McMERS? Did you check with them?
There is just no way for ppl to be sure of what’s going on with the title as long as MERS is allowed to operate that way.
Sounds like title insurance liability may have just climbed from a level near zero towards a new level somewhere in the stratosphere.
That is ONE extremely stupid and bad analogy.
I should of known that Mozillo was behind MERS. Why doesn’t this surprise
me at all .
In the immortal words of Gomer Pyle, USMC:
“SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE!”
The Atlantic Home
What, Exactly, is the Problem With Foreclosures?
By Megan McArdle Jan 14 2011, 8:57 AM ET 96
Since he has frequently made the point in the comments section that non-lawyers are egregiously misunderstanding the issues at stake, I have asked Rob Lyman to explain what he means. Rob used to have his own blog, once upon a time, and as you can see, the world lost a great blogger when he gave it up.
…
The day Simple Sarah is seriously in contention for the WH may be the day I leave the country.
Sarah Palin’s effort to defuse controversy backfires with ‘blood libel’ comment
By Karen Tumulty and Peter Wallsten
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, January 13, 2011; 12:00 AM
The presidential-quality stagecraft was there: an American flag over Sarah Palin’s left shoulder and another over her heart. So was the rhetorical polish, with its invocations of the Founding Fathers and the Constitution, God and Ronald Reagan.
…if the statement that Palin put out Wednesday was designed to tamp down the criticism of her incendiary style of politics, it turned out to have the opposite effect.
Within minutes of the video and its accompanying Facebook post going viral on the Internet, all of that was subsumed by a new furor over Palin’s choice of two words to describe her critics in the media: “blood libel.”
…
I think Sarah Palin is a moose. She does provide some entertainment, though.
SP is so dumb that, when she was running for VP, she actually said that people should be expected to take their own losses if they borrowed more than they could afford against a house. Not saying she’s wrong about that particular issue, but still. The other candidates at least knew better than to say it in public.
“The day Simple Sarah is seriously in contention for the WH may be the day I leave the country.”
Good luck with that because that will also be the day no country on earth will another American.
“…will want…”
*sigh* I hate being sick.
Hopefully you will recover fast, like I did (one night and one morning sick last week; steady recovery from there…).
Posted on Sunday, 01.09.11
BUSINESS MONDAY
Foreclosure crisis hits home for all
Courts, local governments and lenders were caught unprepared to deal with the debilitating ripple effects from South Florida’s housing collapse, compounding and prolonging the crisis.
BY TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA
tolorunnipa@MiamiHerald.com
In the years since South Florida’s housing market began its historic crash, a debilitating ripple effect has spread to many of the region’s institutions, sparking a number of satellite problems, ranging from fabricated foreclosure documents to faulty mortgage note transfers.
Major lenders, local governments and county courts have spent the last three years trying to deal with the fallout from the housing crisis. Each institution quickly found out it was unprepared and undermanned to handle the crisis, and most have been trying to play catchup ever since.
“I don’t think they realized how long it was going to extend and how deep it was going to go,” said Shari Olefson, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer and author of Foreclosure Nation. “People made mistakes rushing into the crisis, but I think people are making the same mistakes trying to rush out of it.”
Banks losing track of mortgage notes and foreclosure law firms fabricating documents are perfect examples of those mistakes, she said.
As institutions have struggled to adjust to the housing downturn, distressed homeowners have borne the brunt of the crisis, falling prey to long wait times, lost documents and, in some cases, fraud.
The long-term impact of these institutional log-jams remains to be seen, but housing analysts say the robo-signing scandal, modification mix-ups and growing foreclosure case backlogs are likely to extend the housing downturn for years to come.
The foreclosure process now takes nearly two years to run its course in Florida, meaning the local court system will be dealing with this crisis long after the default rate returns to normal.
And major banks have spent much of the past three months retooling their foreclosure processes — under the watchful eye of 50 attorneys general that have launched an investigation of lender malpractice in foreclosure cases. The investigation may result in some kind of settlement, forcing the banks to significantly reform their practices.
When the housing and lending markets will return to a pre-boom normalcy — or if they ever will — is anyone’s guess.
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By the numbers
265,000 — Total foreclosures in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties since 2007.
23,348 — Total permanent South Florida mortgage modifications under the federal government’s Home Affordable Modification Program, HAMP.
48 — Percentage of homes worth less than the amount of the mortgage in Miami-Dade County.
10,000 — Mortgage counselors hired by Bank of America in 2010.
600 — Average number of days it takes to complete a foreclosure in Florida.
174,000 — Property tax appeals filed by South Florida homeowners in 2009.
109,496 — Pending foreclosure cases stuck somewhere in South Florida’s court system.
10,000 — Foreclosure affidavits signed each month by GMAC employee Jeffrey Stephan, the first bank employee exposed as a so-called “robo-signer.”
$9.6 million — Amount granted by the Florida Legislature last year to help close out 347,000 foreclosure cases from its backlog in 12 months.
200 — Foreclosure cases Miami-Dade courts would need to dispose of per day to meet the Legislature’s goal.
Worst of foreclosure crisis yet to come for Utah, U.S.
Staff and News Services
First published Jan 13 2011 07:29AM
Updated Jan 14, 2011 06:38AM
The bleakest year in the foreclosure crisis has only just begun.
Lenders in Utah and the rest of the nation are poised to take back more homes this year than any other since the U.S. housing meltdown began in 2006. About 5 million borrowers are at least two months behind on their mortgages, and industry experts say more people will miss payments because of job losses and loans that exceed the value of the homes in which they are living.
Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at foreclosure tracker RealtyTrac Inc., said, “2011 is going to be the peak.”
The firm predicts 1.2 million homes will be repossessed this year — up from 1 million in 2010.
Utah remains one of the hardest-hit states in terms of foreclosures, with one in every 29 households —32,520 properties — receiving a foreclosure filing last year, according to RealtyTrac. That’s up nearly 20 percent from 2009. Only Nevada (one in 11 homes), Arizona (one in 17), Florida (one in 18), and California (one in 25) have higher rates.
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Top Foreclosure Rates by State:
1. Nevada (one in 11 households)
2. Arizona (one in 17 households)
3. Florida (one in 18 households)
4. California (one in 25 households)
5. Utah (one in 29 households)
Notice how Florida is the outlier; otherwise, the four sand states of California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona are one contiguous block of high foreclosure states. No wonder the real estate bust seems so bad out west — it’s everywhere!
The Associated Press
January 13, 2011, 11:44AM ET
Louisiana’s foreclosure filings jump in 2010
By ALAN SAYRE
NEW ORLEANS
A total of 15,753 properties received some type of foreclosure filing in Louisiana in 2010, more than doubling the total from two years ago, a national tracking firm said Thursday.
Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac said those notices ranged from an initial notice of default to outright seizure and sale by a lending institution. That total jumped 34 percent from 2009 and 120 percent from 2008.
Still, the number is below the national average and far beyond the foreclosure hotbeds of California, Florida, Arizona, Illinois and Michigan that accounted for half of 3.82 million foreclosure filings nationwide last year, RealtyTrac said.
Nationally, one in every 45 housing units received a filing last year. In Louisiana, one in every 120 housing units was targeted, ranking the state 38th in the nation.
But RealtyTrac chief executive James Saccacio said last year’s national record would have been even higher if some lending institutions had not stopped foreclosure proceedings because of legal questions.
“Many of the foreclosure proceedings that were stopped in late 2010, which we estimate to be as high as a quarter million, will likely be restarted in and add to the numbers in early 2011,” Saccacio said.
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Riverside County ranks second in 2010 foreclosure filings
By Staff, City News Service
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Riverside County had the second-highest foreclosure rate in the state in 2010, a real estate tracking firm reported today.
A total of 55,184 mortgage default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions were recorded countywide last year, down about 21 percent from 2009, according to Irvine-based RealtyTrac.
Data showed that 1 in 14 households — about 7 percent of the county’s housing stock — slipped into some stage of foreclosure in 2010.
Stanislaus County ranked No. 1 in foreclosure filings, with about 7.3 percent of the county’s housing inventory going into default, according to RealtyTrac. San Joaquin County was just behind Riverside, with 6.94 percent, followed by Merced County, with 6.93 percent, and San Bernardino County at No. 5 with 6.7 percent.
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Why do the ‘experts’ (aka foreclosure bean counters) predict prices will bottom out in the year of peak foreclosures? Given that it took seven years from the onset of the early 1990s housing bust to reach a price trough (1990-1997), and that this one is so much worse, wouldn’t it be reasonable to expect it to take longer to find a bottom this time around? Seven years would get you to 2013 (2006 + 7) but I expect it will be after 2013 when the serial bottom callers are finally proven correct.
January 14, 2011
Home foreclosure crisis approaches peak
The number of U.S. homes receiving a foreclosure filing will climb about 20 percent in 2011, reaching a peak for the housing crisis, as unemployment remains high and banks resume seizures after a slowdown, RealtyTrac Inc. said.
“We will peak in foreclosures and probably bottom out in pricing, and that’s what we need to do in order to begin the recovery,” Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac’s senior vice president, said in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. “But it’s probably not going to feel good in the process.”
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I will go with after 2013 ,it certainly isn’t going to be 2011 PB for the bottom . But you never know . They keep trying desperately to call a
bottom so people will not hold back from RE purchases ,but job insecurity is holding many back more than anything now I think , Watching people catch a falling knife for the last 5 years hasn’t been very fun ,but its been worse watching the amount of people getting laid off .
“…but job insecurity is holding many back more than anything now I think…”
Not to mention the return of down payment requirements…
“Much of the housing industry opposes the Wells Fargo proposal, saying that a 30 percent down payment standard is too high.”
This is where competition is supposed to provide an optimal answer, as in principle, if a 20 percent down payment requirement were a better underwriting standard, lenders who offered it would have a competitive advantage over Wells Fargo and anyone else offering a 30 percent down payment requirement. There is a tradeoff, as those making a 30 percent down payment cannot afford to borrow as much money, implying a smaller interest payment to the bank, but they also will presumably face a lower risk of default.
Of course, the free market can not be expected to work very well when all kind of risk subsidies are in play (e.g. federally guaranteed mortgage loans…).
I have been thinking for several years, up to maybe a year ago the bottom will be 2012. But I won’t be surprised if it is beyond 2013.
In order for the private sector to get back into lending without Government backing would be that it would have to bottom and than 20% down payments
or 10% with insurance would have to become the norm .In the meantime
the taxpayers pay for the loans that have been made for a number of years
now . The rates will be a lot higher when the Private sector takes over ,if
it can until confidence is restored ,which won’t be easy .