Bits Bucket for January 29, 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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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Bank of America fights judge’s order halting 8,900 Nevada foreclosures
Bank of America is moving to appeal a Nevada county judge’s order halting more than 8,900 foreclosures.
In one of a growing number of foreclosure cases across the country in which judges are questioning whether notices and documents were improperly prepared, Nye County District Court Judge Robert Lane issued a preliminary injunction against BofA’s ReconTrust subsidiary, blocking it from proceeding with non-judicial foreclosures statewide until a Feb. 28 hearing.
The case involves a borrower, Suzanne A. North, who sued the bank on Jan. 11 arguing that ReconTrust filed foreclosure papers when it did not have the legal standing to do so.
In a court filing Wednesday obtained by the Las Vegas Sun, Bank of America says that Bank of America and ReconTrust are in compliance with Nevada foreclosure laws and that the borrower’s case will ultimately fail.
The bank also argues that the harm the injunction “caused to the public interest is overwhelming,” and quotes U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to support its case.
“Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner opined that ceasing the foreclosure process is `very damaging’ and harms the public as communities are forced to live longer with empty homes, there is increased downward pressure on home prices and increasing blight,” the bank said. “The order also harms those subject to the foreclosure process because those individuals, especially those in mediation trying to stay in their homes, are now forced into a state of limbo for an unspecified duration.”
I’m in Nevada right now and I just saw an ad on TV from a law firm about ‘don’t make a payment until your balance is reduced.’ From the web page:
‘New Executive Order to Reduce Balances! President Obama has ordered banks to consider principal reductions as part of the homeowner bailout plan!…
# Do you owe the bank significantly more than your home is worth?
# Is the bank threatening to foreclose?
# Have you received a Notice of Default?
# Are you falling behind on other bills because your house payment is too high?
# Do you think your payments should be lower?
http://www.pandalawfirm.com/contact_balreduce.html
Unreal!!!
slimeballs
Oh, please Sir, May I have another?
The flock of sheep that got sheared once or twice or three times before - or even more times than that - are being lined up to get sheared again.
The public still believes that buying a house is the “best way to be rich”!
We’ve been through the most extraordinary mania in history, and yet no lessons have been learned. It’s completely mindboggling!!!
“and yet no lessons have been learned”
I think some people are still in the earlier phases (sort of like the stages of acceptance for dying… don’t remember the order but things like denial, anger, bargaining, etc.)
The Great Depression was a long haul, way over a decade, and was a continuing grind that made a permanent impact on behavior of a generation. This is probably just gonna take a while longer.
Think in terms of Great Turnings, of a Fourth Turning.
The Great Depression was a Fourth Turning. So is this Turning we are now somewhere in the midst of.
“We’ve been through the most extraordinary mania in history, and yet no lessons have been learned. It’s completely mindboggling!!!”
If the politicians didn’t do away with the tax on forgiven debt these greedy people would have learned something. And Obama has the gall to say, “We’re going to get through this together.” Sorry, sir, but this is a republic; I’m not responsible for my neighbor’s debts.
It was a mistake from day one to start this bail out stuff on private contracts of mortgages . With the amount of money they have spent so far they could of given everyone in America a 100k and it would of been cheaper .
When people see the Banks getting bailed out they want theirs
also . Bail out Nation . Really ,how do you compensate for a
Ponzi-scheme that raised values that were destined to crash to this degree ? People can’t sell the homes they can’t pay the payments on . The whole idea that was peddled during the boom was use your house for leverage or quick appreciation or buy now or get priced out forever . When people have a contrived belief that real estate values are solid and you can refinance or sell and it doesn’t turn out that way.
As long as the populace remains ignorant of the fact that we are indeed a republic, you will remain responsible for other people’s debt, rms.
Just as the Political Class wants.
“With the amount of money they have spent so far they could of given everyone in America a 100k and it would of been cheaper.”
Afraid not. Where are you getting your numbers?
“Afraid not. Where are you getting your numbers?”
You are absolutely correct Polly, that $33 Trillion has not been spent so far.
Maybe what Housing Wizard meant is that the current path of policy seems to be headed there.
Is that what you meant to say, HW?
What I mean is any homeowner that bought a house during the bubble years from say 2002 to 2007 ,not the 300 million population .
Not that this would be the proper solution . A lot of money went to capitalize the culprit Banks and investment houses ,buy off loans at par value ,pay off credit default swap bets , on and on .
But ,the truth is many of these borrowers didn’t buy the property for long term use anyway .
My question is this . If a entire market for that time period was the result of over all fraud and faulty lending and appraisals and a Ponzi -scheme ,than who should be compensated ,if any party ?
My point is the way they went about these bailouts doesn’t seem to be solving the problem .
Ben-thank you for this blog. I am sorry I did not know of this resource back in 2006; and instead got my industry info from UHS’s, appraisers, mortgage brokers and the like. Even though sales had slowed by 2006; salespeople had the brilliant strategy that if it did not sell in x amount of time; then raise the price! And this strategy worked!(for awhile while the price curve was still rising even though the # of sales had commenced falling)
I have no idea why Recontrust has not resumed foreclosure sales in earnest if the banks really have their ducks in a row.
In Deschutes County, Or, Recontrust has not done any auctions since October, and when you look at their “sold” page, only ONE property show up for all the counties of Oregon combined.
They are scheduling them at 25 per daily 10am time slot(ie 25 sales scheduled at 10:00 A.M. on any given day), then pushing them out one month when the time gets nigh. The ones scheduled for Feb 1 were just pushed out until March 1, and only a handful remain on the docket for Feb 2-Feb 15, when there were well over 100 there before.
They have rescheduled my wife’s 5 times; we have been expecting ownership changing action on their part since November. Why are they not proceeding as per their posted schedule? Also, how can as many as 25 be processed at the 10:00 A.M hour each day? Do they really plan on processing that many per day; or will the vast majority of these sales need to be rescheduled due to logistics? It sure does not seem like they are proceeding in earnest here in Deschutes County or in all of Oregon for that matter. And what about the other repo people from other banks who also may be vying for “courthouse steps” time?
Will they not eventually end up accruing even more shadow inventory with new defaults each day but 0 sales for 3+ months?
Mike….. I appreciate you sharing your experience here.
“salespeople had the brilliant strategy that if it did not sell in x amount of time; then raise the price! And this strategy worked!”
In case you all missed, they’re doing the same thing now. Raising prices. See my post below regarding MBA’s forecast of falling mortgage apps by 36%.
recontrust has been pushing my neighbors sales back for 3 years now.I think you have some time.
Maybe they think that by raising prices, people will think that the houses really ARE worth the money. Like on the “news.” Repeat a lie enough times and people think it’s true. However, they can’t seem to figure out that there are no buyers out there, on the fence or otherwise.
A coworker has been trying to sell his modest house for three years. He bought it 16 years ago, so he could sell it for less than he bought and still break even. But, he said to me, it’s not a foreclosure, and so the bottom feeders don’t want it. Investors don’t want a small well-kept house for a reasonable price. They want a foreclosure that they can paint and flip.
So, it appears the we are at a second Mexican standoff. The first was in 2006 - 2007 when we physically ran out of buyers. Back then, the mortgages hadn’t reset yet so sellers could still try to sell without “giving the house away.” Buying activity went down. Those folk are still in winding through foreclosures.
Now, we’re in another standoff between the banks who don’t want to book a loss and the Smart Money who refuse to catch a falling knife, hence the 36% drop in applications. Who will blink first? I think that will depend on the Fed, and on the conditions of the homes themselves.
This will end well.
“Who will blink first?”
It would be hard to bet against the Fed led cartel, no?
It won’t be me.
Good write points Oxy.
The Fed suddenly has more problems on its hands than the housing market.
Look at Egypt. Guess who helped create the massive food price inflation over there that has led in part to what we’re witnessing now?
40% of our corn crop now goes to the sick joke known as “Ethanol,” driving up food prices across the globe. And the idiots in DC are giving huge incentives to the agribitches to do so. Nucking Futs!
Ben, great to hear you are in Nevada.
If you happen to be in the Vegas area, I’d like to invite you to lunch or dinner.
Isn’t it about time for another HBB meetup?
Yes, it sure is. So get yourselves on down to Tucson, people!
Tucson or Vegas either is fine with me….
Will travel wherever you guys are going.
How is this going to effect the end of the year Christmas Bonus/Christmas party for the top bankers? Just wondering.
From ZH: Further confirming that America deserves each of its elected officials, in this case a Treasury Secretary whose intellect is increasingly put into question with every single utterance out of his mouth, was Tim Geithner’s statement from Davos earlier that inflation on a global level is “not high on the list of concerns” although probably while looking at pictures of tear gas being fired at protesters in Tunisia, Algeria, Yemen, Morocco and now Egypt he added “emerging markets across the world are certainly ‘feeling some pressure’.” If by pressure he means revolutions, then he is certainly spot on. As for Egypt’s soon to be deposed leaders, Timmy has four words of advice: please kill the dollar. “Geithner told the World Economic Forum that emerging markets could manage their inflation problems better if they loosened their currencies’ links to the dollar, a measure that economists say would lead in most cases to an appreciation against the greenback.” And there you have it: America continues keeping the world hostage courtesy of the dollar’s reserve status, able to export inflation at will knowing that the US consumer is irreplaceable, and the only recommendation we have to the world is to continue devaluing the dollar (yes, a weaker dollar means stronger opposing non-dilutable currencies), an act for which we are sure the US middle class thanks him.
At least a portion of the unrest in Egypt is positive for America’s exports. The tear gas that they are using is made in the USA, more specifically in Pennsylvania ! hahahahahaha
Rise in Church Foreclosures Nationwide
Last spring Calvary Baptist Church in Paterson, N.J., faced foreclosure after it was unable to pay its $30,000 per month mortgage.
The strain of possible financial ruin and even shutting the church after 125 years, tested the faith of its congregants and the senior minister, Rev. Dr. Albert Rowe.
“[The bank] filed the papers,” Rowe said. “There was a date set for us to have a hearing but I did not think that we would lose the church … I always had faith that, you want to call it a miracle, or something would happen. I always believed that.”
Calvary isn’t alone in its financial predicament.
According to real estate watchdog CoStar Group, there’s been a dramatic rise in church foreclosures: 200 since 2008, up from just hand full a couple of years before.
But not everyone is seeing gloom and doom.
“When you do the math it sounds like we had a tsunami of church foreclosures,” said Simeon May, CEO of the National Association of Church Business Administration. “But when you think about the fact that there are over 300 thousand churches in the country and 200 of them filed for foreclosure, that’s very miniscule number.”
Pastor Rowe’s saving grace was his entire pension. He and several other church members used their personal funds to prevent the church’s financial collapse. Its money he’s confident will be repaid once the economy improves.
“I just took it out and I really didn’t think it was a big deal,” Rowe said. “I haven’t gotten any of my money back yet, but I’m sure I will get it back.”
And that, he says, is ultimately in the hands of a higher power.
Would be great if this is the beginning of the end of organized religion and people switch to Deism at the least.
Too many sheep out there for that to happen. Baaaa!
Oh please please make the next one Joel Osteen’s stadium church…
How can the church be in debt $30k a month after 125 years? Must have borrowed to the hilt for expansion!
I grew up as a Southern Baptist. No self-respecting SB church would be without a parking-lot-fund envelop next to the hymnal!
“But when you think about the fact that there are over 300 thousand churches in the country and 200 of them filed for foreclosure, that’s very miniscule number.”
Pretty good odds…
It’s money he’s confident will be repaid once the economy improves.
“I just took it out and I really didn’t think it was a big deal,” Rowe said. “I haven’t gotten any of my money back yet, but I’m sure I will get it back.”
One real problem is the schismatic nature of religion. Every little splinter group wants their own congregation and own building. There’s an evangelical group here in Boise called the Calvary Chapel. One faction has a nice big campus down by the mall. But another faction wants to build their own church building near my subdivision on a oddball donated parcel of land. I’ve been to numerous zoning meetings where the church guys try to get all sorts of building code waivers since they don’t have the money to build it properly. The county of course turns them down and they go off and pout at various prayer sessions.
In the early days of Christianity, believers met in small groups in their homes. Reason: They were trying to keep things quiet so that they wouldn’t be found out by The Authorities.
Then things got a whole lot more complicated. Experienced this myself a few years ago. Church I was attending decided that it needed a $2.5 million children’s center. So, the Yes to the Future capital campaign was off and running.
Well, pardon me for saying this, but I just didn’t see what the need was.
I grew up attending Sunday school in rooms with cinder block walls — that was in one church’s Christian education wing. And I attended Sunday school in another church’s basement. I emerged from these experiences unscathed.
Needless to say, I didn’t give one red cent to the capital campaign. And it was one of the key motivators for me leaving that church.
Oh my word…… Z-Slim! That’s exactly what our church did. Nursury, pre-school to compel people to come to our church. At the time, our church by-laws included membership and I was one of them. I was the *only* nay vote on spending this money. Of course I was made out to be the badguy but the demonization was worth it because now they *listen and think* when we discuss this stuff. I was the lone voice then back in 2005, much like we were on the HBB. Honestly it’s much too late to salvage anything now. The denominations district has now taken over and no decisions are made by the church board.
I’m under the impression that when very main stream churches (located in areas that already have good quality nursery schools and day care available) do this sort of thing, it often has to do with the jobs that will be created. You can get a lot of power in a contained group by being the body that gets to hire the builder, the director, the teachers, the nurse, the groundskeepers, etc. If the good quality day care/nursery schools are hard to come by in their area, building them can be a great way to attract new members. If the organization is out of the main stream, they are sometimes more motivated by keeping the young kids within their faith/culture as they will not be exposed to other holidays, etc.
Besides all that, I bet the conferences for “How to start/run your church’s nursery school/day care center” are a total blast. Seriously, a few hours about liability insurance and employee background checks and all the rest are about how to celebrate Christmas and Easter with 3 year olds and maybe a session or two on organic snack time and building toys. Then bring on the steak houses and/or the drinks with little umbrellas all charged to the expense account. Good times.
Last week this came up and I told you all about the same experience our church is having. What’s disturbing in this particular article is this;
“It’s money he’s confident will be repaid once the economy improves.”
This is the same BS I heard as a response when I brought up the issue of the huge (for our church) mortgage payment created by equity withdrawl(for “improvements” and to backfill falling attendance and giving). Of course my response to them is even if the economy improves, attendance is down and flat. An improving economy is not going to solve the cashflow problem. Response? Dumb looks.
Of course my response to them is even if the economy improves, attendance is down and flat.
Unchurched Slim here. You know what turns me off about a lot of churches? The edifice complex, that’s what.
You spend enormous amounts of time and money on buildings. Meanwhile, there are hurting people out there. Lots of them. More than a few might be receptive to, ahem, some sort of ministry.
And I’ll start with the homeless encampment that’s in the block just down the street. It’s within easy walking distance of several churches. And where are those church members? I haven’t seen any over there.
Slim you’re taking the words right out of my mouth.
“You spend enormous amounts of time and money on buildings. Meanwhile, there are hurting people out there. Lots of them. More than a few might be receptive to, ahem, some sort of ministry.”
+1zillion, Slim!
The church I attended (back in college) that I respected the most was one that met in the cafeteria of a local school. They were plenty large enough to buy a building, but they _chose_ to remain there so that they could spend their funds on more important things than buildings.
I had a lot of respect for that position…
I’m starting to think they should change the tax code. Instead of church income being entirely tax free, make them pay taxes on the income but bestow generous tax DEDUCTIONS for conducting their missions. i.e. they don’t pay tax on the income that goes toward food for the poor, but income that goes for ohh-shinies is taxed. Yes, I knew Jesus threw the money-changers out of the church, but what if the church itself is a money-changer?
Some kinds of church *income* is taxed, oxide. It is called unrelated business income. Income is not taxed based on what it is spent on.
Equally unchurched Bub here, but I get updates from my parents. In the Bible belt town where I grew up, every church has to have its own “community center” with a basketball court, classrooms, daycare, etc. The competing churches are engaged in a kind of arms race to attract membership by having the most extravagant extras. Apparently there isn’t much loyalty from one protestant denomination to another, and so people leaving for a better activity center is really a problem that keeps the churches building and spending money.
Somebody in town tried to start a non-denominational truly community-wide community center, using an old unused high-school building, but the church folks wouldn’t send their kids there because too many of the “wrong” (read: minority or not church-going type) kids went there . They’d rather build multiple expensive buildings for each of their different churches and switch between them than take a chance on their kids interacting with others outside their circle.
Glad I don’t live there anymore. I’d rather be a janitor in a real city than a city councilman in a small town in the Bible Belt.
Glad I don’t live there anymore. I’d rather be a janitor in a real city than a city councilman in a small town in the Bible Belt.
My parents were driven out of the Bible Belt during the early 1950s. The Jim Crow was a big turnoff. Case in point: Mom’s boss fought in WWII and was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Roosevelt.
Well, he came home, got a management position with the VA, and could only get served in one bar and one restaurant in Bartlesville, OK. Reason: He was full-blooded Cherokee.
“Every little splinter group wants their own congregation and own building.”
That’s because there’s some charismatic individual who sees dollar signs. Lots of them. Religious leaders learned to shear their sheep long before banks and banksters came along.
Religion is creepy.
Religious leaders learned to shear their sheep long before banks and banksters came along ??
Yep……..Not just from their leaders either…Some parishioners are just as bad if not worse…They prey on the weak within their own congregation….
Bank legally bound by loan-modification promise
A bank is legally bound by its promise to try to work out a loan modification with a homeowner to avoid foreclosure, a state appeals court has ruled.
Thursday’s decision by the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles involved a homeowner who said she refrained from protecting her home in a Bankruptcy Court filing after the bank promised to negotiate new loan terms - then foreclosed and evicted her.
The court refused to undo the foreclosure but said the owner, Claudia Aceves, could sue the bank for fraud. Her lawyer, Nick Alden, said the ruling should also help financially distressed homeowners who make several months of reduced payments in reliance on a bank’s promise to modify their mortgages.
“The homeowner has no choice but to work with the bank,” Alden said. Typically in such cases, he said, the lender will reject the final payment as insufficient, declare the borrower unqualified for a loan, and foreclose.
A lawyer for U.S. Bank, the lender in the case, was unavailable for comment.
I have to agree banks are a sleazy bunch these days.
I am sure in most of these cases, the FB is not even in the ballpark of being able to pay their mortgage, but IF the bank agrees to modification terms and the FB follows through the bank should be legally bound to the agreement like any other promise.
Note the article said the bank agreed “to try to work out a loan modification”.
“The word “try” offers to the bank a lot of wiggle room.
The bank didn’t say it “would” work out a loan modification it said it would “try” to work out a loan modification.
If you look at this whole loan modification thingy as efforts to pursuade FBs to stay and pay rather than mail in the keys then it all makes sense.
All parties in an economic transaction, whether it’s buying tomatoes at the market, or acquiring a company, act in their own self-interest.
Loan-mods are no different. Banks should act in theirs. Ditto for the FB’s.
The blunt truth is that the FB’s have the IQ of a rock, and I’m probably insulting the rock here.
Yoda says: There is no try. There is only do or not do.
Slim, the courts say the same thing.
Combo, You’ve nailed the issue, BUT, there are ways to prove that a bank did not try. If you sent them the information 10 or 12 times and each time they said they didn’t receive it and in the course of the law suit it turns out that the standard procedure was to throw away all the paper in the fax machine’s output tray at the end of the day? Good evidence of not trying. If the bank cannot produce any paper at all where it calculated what you could afford and showed that amount was insufficient to pay back your loan even if the interest rate was reduced to practically nothing and the term extended to 50 years?
Note I am not including “If they can’t produce any analysis of what the house would sell for in foreclosure and whether you could afford to pay an amount close to that.” They are not obliged to do reduce the amount of the loan, but they have to show that they at least looked at a few options.
Please note, that none of this is really all that important. The real issue here is how do you measure the damages that the borrower suffered because the work out didn’t happen. The answer in the long term, of course, is that they probably were helped. All the bank has to do is show that *if* they had modified the loan, the payment would have been $x and that such an amount would surely have caused the borrower to redefault again soon and that the amount they would have been paying would have been larger than they would have spent on a rental BINGO, no damages. They would have paid less if they had left at the time of the original foreclosure action, and they would have lost the house anyway. No monetary damages. Ain’t the law grand?
Her lawyer, Nick Alden, said the ruling should also help financially distressed homeowners who make several months of reduced payments in reliance on a bank’s promise to modify their mortgages.
Squeezing the last dollars from the FB…
Yeah - we will try to help you
You people think that squeezing is a bad thing.
I squeeze a nickel so hard the buffalo p00ps!!!
Yet, I don’t have a problem plonking down $10K for a camera lens that I covet.
As always, I fail to see to see the problem. Squeeze those FB’s hard, I say. Less problems for the taxpayer.
And one shudders to think toward what use that 10K lens might be directed….
Welcome back! What did you learn? What did you destroy? What’s for dinner?
Alas, I am a lot more boring than you think. I like pretty things.
I brought back more spices than I need. I learnt how to cook new things. I destroyed more irrational people on general principle (and that would be new because?)
Dinner is awesome as always.
Welcome one, welcome all. I have only two iron-clad rules. (1) You will pick up anything I forget, and (2) I don’t do “dislikes” masked as “allergies”.
Squeeze those FB’s hard, I say. Less problems for the taxpayer.
14% mortgage rates = House fire out!…something to salvage…taxpayers relieved.
(Federal Reserve Chairman drives around cheering town in firetruck with American flag waving)
These r3tards, oxygen-wasting tax-monkeys will never learn anything. Their job is to pay for the smart people. Your job is to be that smart person.
“Squeezing the last dollars from the FB…”
PRECISELY
I kinda like this ruling from the Judge because if your damaged by fraud you should have recourse to sue for damages . Now the
FB has to prove that the Bank promised a loan modification
opposed to a bunch of papers that in small print most likely said it was a trial and subject to review and being pulled if income ratios
don’t meet qualifications .Could a bunch of those FB’s even qualify for the loan modification ? It just goes back to the fact that you can’t make a bad loan good or if a person is unemployed that can’t make the payment they end up defaulting .
And how would you reduce the principal balance for each specific case . Do you reduce principal for the specific FB’s qualification for a loan ,or do you reduce it to the current
price of property in the area or the foreclosure prices and than see if they qualify for the loan ?
I can understand them taking people out of toxic loans that had time bombs build in to them ,but how do you right the wrong of
property values that crashed and FB’s that can’t qualify under any circumstances ? Mortgages can’t be welfare programs .
Yup, just like in Bleak House.
SPOILERS: Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce was a contested will case, where several parties fought over the considerable estate. The case had been in court so many years that the lawyer fees had drained the entire estate. Of course, the parties didn’t know that. But the lawyers, who must have known, continued to fleece the parties until the bitter end. Good ol’ Dickens..
One of my favorite novels of all time!
PS :- My father bought it for me on my tenth birthday on a “recommendation”. I don’t think he knew what he was doing.
Right ,the big problem with the a civil lawsuit is you have to be able to afford it .Now that I think about it because so many people would need to sue it could be problematic for the Court system . It goes back to this is so big that its hard to deal with
by any normal recourse process .
Tax refund? Buy a house!
knoxnews.com
Did you know you only need a 3.5 percent down payment to buy a home if you’re eligible for FHA financing? If your tax refund is a sizable chunk of change, now’s a great time to buy because it’s a buyers market, no doubt about it. For first-time homebuyers, now’s an especially advantageous time to take the plunge.
The most common loans for first-time buyers, without a doubt, are Federal Housing Administration loans. FHA loans require only a 3.5 percent out of pocket down payment. For instance, on a $100,000 loan, the buyer would only need to come up with $3.500 and the seller could pay the rest of the closing costs. Still a bit short on funds to close? The nice thing about FHA is that it allows gifts from blood relatives. So if you need some help, Daddy can close the gap. You are limited to a base loan amount on average of $200,160, but that doesn’t usually pose a problem for first-time buyers.
Tennessee Housing Development Agency specifically targets first-time homebuyers. It sets interest rates below current market rates, offers reduced mortgage insurance, and can assist with down payments if you go to class and learn about budgeting and home buying. I spoke with a couple the other day, and we figured out they were getting paid roughly $360 an hour to go to class for eight hours. Not a bad deal, huh? However, you must income-qualify for this program. It’s designed to assist moderate- to low-income families. I guess the reasoning is that if you make a certain amount of money, you can afford a down payment. And its loan limit cap mirrors FHA for the most part. THDA can be used to finance FHA, Veteran, Rural Housing or conventional loans.
Speaking of Rural Housing and Veterans, these are also great deals for first-time homebuyers. Both offer 100 percent financing without monthly mortgage insurance! Of course, you have to fit into a niche to qualify for either. If you aren’t a veteran or have a pertinent connection to the qualification guidelines, you can forget about VA. But it has no income limit, no loan limit, and the seller can pretty much pay for all closing costs. What a deal! With Rural Housing, you not only have to income-qualify, you must also property-qualify. Like it sounds, Rural Housing loans encourage buying homes in less populated areas.
With foreclosures abounding, great deals exist that allow for instant equity for first-time homebuyers. But be aware, most of these programs mentioned are quite particular about the condition of the property. Any health and safety issues must be addressed before closing. Many times the banks that own foreclosure properties want to sell “as is.” It can be difficult to marry first-time buyer financing with foreclosures, but it can be done. Just be sure to work with a Realtor who is experienced in this area and a lender who knows their stuff.
So, if you’re getting money back from Uncle Sam, stop paying rent and start building equity in a home of your own!
usda loan is 0 down for rural areas. You would be amazed at what they consider rural. 20k and less population.So all those outlying areas around phoenix qualify as rural. Party on dude! But now you have to show a paycheck stub.
“instant equity”
I always loved that bubble term.
Some parking spaces for the Super Bowl selling for nearly $1,000
A parking spot at a private garage a tenth of a mile away from the site of the Super Bowl is selling for nearly $1,000, an online parking broker reported this week.
The spot costs $990 and features access to a restroom, on-site security and the ability to tailgate.
Other spots the same distance from the stadium are selling for $550, proving that you can put a price on access to a bathroom while tailgating. If you’re interested in walking a mile to the stadium, a spot can be yours for $55. The NFL will operate a lot at Six Flags, which is also a mile away. For $71.40 the league provides a shuttle, but no tailgating.
These FB’s are so freakin’ st00pid that it’s hard to comprehend.
Couldn’t you just hire a limo to drive you to the game and back, etc., if you were so inclined at a tenth of the cost?
I saw this lack of common sense first-hand while traveling through Spain and India. People are so caught up in the status-symbol of a car that they fail to understand its purpose.
I saw this lack of common sense first-hand while traveling through Spain and India. People are so caught up in the status-symbol of a car that they fail to understand its purpose.
Tell me about it. When I was a summer study abroad student in Valencia, Spain, I lived with a family that wanted a coche. Oh, boy did they want a coche.
Never mind the fact that parking in their area was tight. They wanted that coche.
We American students were quite happy to walk all over Valencia. We found that fascinating. And, occasionally, we’d mix things up by taking the city’s fabulous public transit.
Heck, my dad is like that. There is no hope for humanity!
But a lot of hope for clever capitalists. I’m down with that.
PS :- “Hello, Dad! I richer than you for a reason. It’s called common-sense.”
We American students were quite happy to walk all over Valencia. We found that fascinating. And, occasionally, we’d mix things up by taking the city’s fabulous public transit.
It’s all about novelty. You probably grew up in a family that had cars. So walking and using public transportation was a new experience. The Spanish family never had a car and was looking for a new experience in their lives.
Hence the beauty of selling “aspirations” to the aspirationally-minded.
If you’re wealthy enough, no need to flaunt it. Just pay for it and execute.
Class differences sing out so loud, it’s hard to ignore them.
game, schmame…they want to TAILGATE.
BFD IMO.
Like a bad bank, I am back.
Wonderful trip to the Spice Coast of India. I would say “best. trip. ever.” but then I say that about every trip of mine.
If you are interested, the pics are in the link of my name.
Nice pics. You look a lot like the actor Tim Roth who plays in “Lie to Me”.
Spice coast, eh? Did you meet up with any of the Bene Gesserit?
Different kind of Spice Coast.
Think peppercorns, and nutmeg.
Bene Gesserit! They be cool!
Always excellent photos….It amazes me how much of the GNP of these ancient civilizations went to building religious symbols.
Now stop with the teasin where is the pic of UUUU.
Nice Eye.
When are you going to Tuscany?
Been there. Wanna go back. I think I’d like to go back in Winter. Less traversed grounds, etc.
I have some of the greatest stories of my youth from Tuscany. Everything from getting coveted recipes from a chef (yes, it’s brilliant!) to acting as the de-facto translator (yes, there were “benefits”.)
I’ve p33d into the Arno on a summer night (and a done a lot more on the banks!)
You can’t buy those kinds of memories.
I just want to buy the pictures and I think you have the eye to catch the images I want.
I love the architecture, the arches, the stucco and the colors.
Do you have any pictures on your website?
Thank you!
I live to shoot pictures for people like you who can appreciate it.
My website above has a ton more (did you see it?) I upload continuosly (every few months?) so keep checking.
Very nice pictures, FPSS. Welcome home!
So is India full of smart resourceful people who can survive just fine without taking any American jobs? (we had a discussion about this yesterday.)
No.
India didn’t take anybody’s job. No country or citizen has a right to a particular job.
That’s subjective. Many would disagree with you.
If companies want the goodies provided by this country (legal structure, intellectual property protections, limited liability, infrastructure of all sorts, and access to the “American consumer,” etc.) then they should employ American workers.
India looked at American jobs, looked at computers, and decided to upgrade their power grid because that gave them the most American jobs dollars for their infrastructure buck. Then they trained their workforce in very specific areas. You think it’s a coincidence that India was suddently flush with a supply of workers bees who just so happened to understand American software and American credit card customer service? No, those jobs were stolen.
And those in India sure think they have a right to American jobs.
Welcome back, FPSS!! Missed having you around…
Glad to hear your trip was awesome…
very nice pics FPSS!
Thanks, I work hard for them.
Next trip already planned for July, and the one after that for next Jan too.
with all the talk of India’s potential, do you think India is the “real deal” or merely another bubble in the making? Any street level observations? Thanks.
Combination of “real deal” and “bubble”. A bit complex to explain in a short deal.
There are very strong bubble elements though.
This is an interesting question born from the background assumption of the dollar being the real deal. When the dollar itself is being debased to sustain the economy on an unprecedented basis, its amusing that some question the validity and structure of other economies.
Look, the dollar is underpinned by the oil. Watch the stock market tank monday morning because of the events in Egypt undermine the notion that its strong. Lets face the facts, the US cannot and will not pay any of the debt it owes to anyone other than by debasement. Too bad the world is discovering the lies and bullshit behind it, guess what, if the world has to choose between the dollar and eating, they will choose to eat. Perhaps its something for the Feds policy makers to keep in mind before they unleash another round of monetary diarrhea.
US cannot pay back its debt? Clinton was poised to do exactly that as little as 10 years ago.
The US debased the dollar because it globalized and spread around American jobs so much that the American government couldn’t support their own aging and declining population. Even after the excesses of Reagan, Clinton balanced the budget VERY quickly, simply because almost everybody in the US had a real job and because Clinton didn’t lower taxes. Unfortunately, he also signed onto the globalization process which lost all those jobs.
That, coupled with Bush’s wars and tax cuts, and a population drawing on SS and Medicare (by far the largest part of the American budget), is what did this country in.
Billion-dollar fund will help struggling Florida homeowners
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 4:41 p.m. Friday, Jan. 28, 2011
Thousands of struggling homeowners in Florida will receive up to a year-and-a-half’s worth of mortgage payments from the state’s Hardest Hit program, which opens for applications next month.
It’s the first time the more than $1 billion in federal funding will be available statewide. Lee County homeowners were able to request funding beginning in the fall as part of a test of the program.
Aimed at unemployed homeowners or those who have jobs but don’t earn enough to pay their mortgage, the money, which was announced last year, can be used to make loan payments for up to 18 months and to bring delinquent loans current.
The highest amount a person can receive is $35,000.
“We believe between the two strategies we can help about 20,000 people,” said Cecka Rose Green, communications director for the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, which is overseeing the program.
Green acknowledged the help is modest considering the number of troubled loans in the state. About 19 percent of Florida borrowers were either 90 days past due or in foreclosure during the third quarter of 2010, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/foreclosures/billion-dollar-fund-will-help-struggling-florida-homeowners-1216812.html - -
waste of money as usual.
Geez our rent is less then 15K a year pay the rent for a year, a few courses so I have no student debts to worry about …update the skills…Now FLoorRiddah which has a better ROI..
————-
The highest amount a person can receive is $35,000.
35 k is a lot of money , how high were those loan amounts ?
The loan amount doesn’t matter to these Harry Howmuchamonths. It’s probaly 2 years of staying in the house. And, of course after that they’ll get kicked out anyway. Geez, no wonder these state governments are in the red. They spend on all the wrong stuff.
Well yes it’s a bail out for the Bank because the FB will default anyway . And I agree this sort of spending is not my idea of
what money should be going to .
“no wonder these state governments are in the red. They spend on all the wrong stuff.”
From the article.
It’s the first time the more than $1 billion in federal funding will be available statewide
USA IMMIGRATION NEWS
Indians account for nearly half of H1B visa holders
Monday, 24 January 2011
An official report revealed that Indian nationals accounted for approximately half of H1B visa holders. Most of them worked in technology-related section.
According to the Government Accountability Office, from fiscal year 2000 to fiscal year 2009, most of the approved H-1B workers including initial and extensions for both employers subject to the cap and cap-exempt employers were from Asia.
Of the total number of workers whose H-1B visas were approved during this period of time, people born in India made up 46.9 percent.
“Over the last decade, the top four countries of birth for approved H-1B workers were India, China, Canada and the Philippines. Across all 10 years, about 64 per cent of approved H-1B workers were born in these four countries, with the largest group from India,” said the report.
The majority of approved H-1B workers from India or China worked in the technology field and increasingly held advanced degrees.
However, recently a cap of H1B visa applications for 2011 has been introduced with a limit of 65,000 for general category. The new immigration cap is likely to affect Indian workers the most.
“In the private sector nobody would do last in, first out. You do, you know, who are the most productive and you say to the others look it would have been nice if we could afford it but the world isn’t that way,” Bloomberg said.
If the law isn’t changed and the mayor has to lay off 15,000 more teachers it would mean:
* Firing every teacher hired in the last five years
* Many of them teaching in poor and minority communities
* At a time when there are 1,200 teachers in the system who received an unsatisfactory rating last year.
… and if it wasn’t last in, first out the municipalities would fire the highest paid first (regardless of ratings). There is a reason civil service laws were written. Or worse, the first fired would be the ones who contributed (monetarily- to the reigning party) the least.
Bingo, Kirisdad.
The 82nd Legislature: Schools shudder at cuts
Houston-area school leaders warned of layoffs and larger class sizes Wednesday after the Texas House proposed much deeper budget cuts than they had expected.
Houston-area school leaders warned of layoffs and larger class sizes Wednesday after the Texas House proposed much deeper budget cuts than they had expected.
The House’s budget proposal, which serves as a starting point for the state’s spending plan, cuts between $5 billion and $10 billion from public schools. Because schools spend most of their money on personnel, 80,000 to 100,000 education jobs are on the line statewide, according to estimates from the firm Moak, Casey & Associates.
Wanna bet no football programs will be cancelled and no coaching staff will be laid off?
Football is a necessity. Mathematics is a luxury.
So run it by me again…why do you love living there so much?
Austin is different from Texas.
why do you love living there so much?
What he’s posted lately, it’s safe to say that Brett doesn;t have any kids. So these wacky stories about education in Texas don’t affect him personally.
Any talk of canceling or cutting footballs programs would literally get you shot… because everyone knows that football teaches a greater lesson about life than science ‘n stuff.
And let’s face it, if it weren’t for sports scholarships, a lot of kids wouldn’t be going to college.
http://larouchepub.com/pr_lar/2011/lar_pac/110126fed_bankrupt.html
The Fed Is Also Bankrupt
While printing another $600 billion and feeding the hyperinflationary new commodity speculation of many actually bankrupt financial institutions, the Federal Reserve has tried to hide its own bankruptcy with an “accounting change,” as was reported last week, and dump it on the Treasury. This “minor accounting change” should be thoroughly investigated.
During the past two years’ collapse the Fed has allowed banks to get paid full “value” for largely worthless mortgage-based securities (MBS) by buying the MBS itself to the tune of $1.25 trillion—beginning with $30 billion of Bear Stearns’ crap in March 2008. The Fed has about $50 billion in bank capital, provided to it by the Treasury. So the Fed has now leveraged itself 23:1 on its MBS “assets” alone, and 40:1 on its total asset book, just as the Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and Goldman Sachs of Wall Street did until the crash. The Wall Street Journal editorialized 9 months ago, “Although its profits are very high, still there are reasons to be concerned about the Fed’s paper-thin capital position. It has a more risky portfolio than it’s ever had before, including $1.25 trillion in mortgage securities that could lose market value if interest rates rise or if it has to sell them quickly.” Being forced to acknowledge a 10% loss on that MBS portfolio would wipe out the Fed’s big annual profits and capital combined.
On Jan. 6 the Fed changed its weekly balance sheet rules so that when those losses occur, they will be charged to the Treasury—not against the Fed’s capital, as with any private bank—and become long-term debts of the Fed to the Treasury. In other words, a bailout of a bankrupt.
Just four days earlier, on Jan. 2, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had announced agreements with the major banks that issued huge volumes of MBS. Fannie and Freddie agreed to drop their demands that the banks buy back the fraudulent MBS junk, the pools of now-defaulted mortgages, on Fannie’s and Freddie’s books. They agreed to settle for less than 5% of the buybacks to which they are entitled—thus Fannie and Freddie will keep absorbing virtually all of the losses on those mortgages/MBS themselves; and the Treasury will keep bailing them out for doing so.
Just nine days before that, on Christmas Eve 2010, the Federal Reserve and Treasury quietly announced “unlimited financial support” to Fannie and Freddie for three years. This bailout was supposed to have been explicitly limited by Congress to $300 billion, in the 2008 act that put Fannie and Freddie into government conservatorship. But it has already reached nearly $200 billion, and Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner were indicating—in their own clandestine way—that this bailout will go much higher. The “unlimited support” means Bernanke is ready to buy and hold more toxic MBS; with the impacts of hyperinflation and higher interest rates, combined with home values continuing to fall and homeowners defaulting, those losses will get much bigger.
Brian Smedley, a rates strategist at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch and a veteran New York Fed staffer, hinted at the bankrupt-Fed threat in his research note on the “minor accounting change” of Jan. 6: “The timing of the change is not coincidental, as politicians and market participants alike have expressed concerns since the announcement [of the "QEII" money-printing policy] about the possibility of Fed insolvency in a scenario where interest rates rise significantly.”
The Fed needs a bail out the Fed need a bail out . Name of the game _ Anyway possible to pass the loss to the taxpayer .
How can they possibly be insolvent when they can instantly print as much fresh, clean digital money as they need to remain solvent with the push of a button?
This line of thinking seems like lunacy to me.
There is no limit to the digital printer other than political backlack.
It’s not quite that simple.
If you do the math on a 30 year mortgage, then the total amount of money that gets paid to meet the capital and interest repayments is upwards of 2 and half times the original capital borrowed.
So the Federal reserve can afford to take a 50% haircut on those MBS instruments, and it still won’t be bankrupt. In fact, if it did get paid the full amount for them that would create problems with the amount of money sucked out of the economy.
Debt is not money. Debt is a flow of money…
THANK YOU.. why didn’t I think of that. We often forget that a bank can make a 100% ROI…if they stick around long enough to collect it. And that’s usually the WORST return. I read on HBB that 7 years is the point of maximum profit. Because mortgages are front loaded with interest, it’s best for a bank to collect 7 years of mostly interest, and then sell the home to a new buyer with a new front-loaded mortgage…than it is to stick it out for 30 years.
Was this discussed? Did you guys see this?
“Forecast: Mortgage originations to drop 36%”
http://www.freep.com/article/20110126/BUSINESS04/110126025/Forecast-Mortgage-originations-drop-36-
-The banking thugs own forecast say that apps (thus sales and refis) will fall by over a third this year?
- How does this align with the realtard gangster rasing prices? (Yes they’re raising prices….. we discussed it here)
- How can NARScum possibly twist this into a “wonderful spring selling season”?
Sales and refis falling from an already low level speaks directly to the fact that prices are grossly inflated. You can yammer about “jobs” all you want but unless those jobs are lifetime jobs that pay well, the jobs argument falls apart. We already know what’s in store for new jobs and it ain’t good paying jobs of yesteryear.
Without a doubt, the housing market has already pulled at least 20 years of future sales out of the market.
Selling NINJA/nodoc mortgages meant they were scraping the bottom of the barrel with NOTHING left in reserve.
Lack of good jobs pretty much ensures no housing recovery for 10 years.
It took at least 6 years for RE to recover after the S&L disaster. A recovery that was also helped by the tech boom.
Went to an open house today in a house that’s been on the market a few months. Asked the realtor if the seller would be flexible on price, and he said, “no way, another realtor got into trouble (with the seller) when he suggested his buyer offer below list price.”
The realtor was actually pretty cool, and admitted that prices were probably not going to rise for a long, long time to come.
Did y’all know you can’t buy liquor on Sunday in Texas? And most car dealerships are also closed on sunday?
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Jenkins: For the sake of the state budget, Texas legislators should repeal blue law
Posted:01/28/2011 5:48 PM
Earlier this month, Gov. Rick Perry met with both Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Speaker Joe Straus to reiterate their commitment to balancing the budget while strengthening Texas’ job-friendly environment. They said they shared the same goal to “keep our economy growing, create jobs, and balance the budget without raising taxes or eliminating any truly essential services.”
I’m sure many small business owners across Texas raised a toast to that.
Of course, policymakers seeking to raise revenue without raising taxes should first look to the most egregious anti-business law still on the books in Texas: the outdated ban on Sunday liquor sales.
Despite America’s overwhelming repeal of Prohibition more than 75 years ago, Texas remains one of the last holdouts continuing to block the sale of distilled spirits at private retail stores on Sunday. This outdated ban costs small business owners tens of millions of dollars in lost sales revenues, and costs the state millions annually in forfeited tax revenues.
Texas remains one of the last holdouts continuing to block the sale of distilled spirits at private retail stores on Sunday
Ahhh - you have it easy.
Come to Pennsylvania.
No beer or liquor sold on Sunday.
Monday - Saturday you can buy beer at the state beer store (by the CASE only) and wine and liquor at the state wine and liquor store. Or you can buy a 6-pack at certain bars at a 200% mark-up.
Let us just say - these state run stores have terrible selections and hours (but have gotten somewhat better in the last few years). The Pennsylvania solution to people running to NJ and Delaware to shop for beer/wine/liquor?
Make it a crime.
With a massive change in those in power in PA from the last election – many feel the days of state beer and wine stores may be coming to an abrupt end.
With a massive change in those in power in PA from the last election – many feel the days of state beer and wine stores may be coming to an abrupt end.
Hooray! (I’m a PA Keystoner through and through. Even though I’m living in Arizona.)
Where I was stationed in the Air Force there were what were called “Blue Laws”, meaning no liquor sold on Sundays. But these laws did not apply to military bases.
Soooo, the town’s alcoholics learned to become our best friends and would asked be invited up to out base on Sundays to booze it up.
It was a win-win. They got a win because they got to drink on Sundays and the drinks were cheap. We got a win because they paid for our drinks in addition to their own.
I love capitalism, don’t you?
If someone ever asks you what Ricardo means, you should bring up this example!
You can’t buy liquor on Sundays at a store, but all bars and restaurants sell liquor in Austin. Weird…?
“This outdated ban costs small business owners tens of millions of dollars in lost sales revenues…”
Lost revenue? What, after all these years Texans haven’t figured out they need to stock up on Saturday? Unless they’re in such a stupor they don’t even know what day of the week it is.
You can’t even buy beer in SC on Sunday.
In NM you have to wait until after 12noon on Sunday.
Of Texas’ 254 counties, 74 are completely dry and many of the rest are moist. The patchwork of laws can be confusing, even to residents. In some counties, only 4 percent beer is legal. In others, beverages that are 14 percent or less alcohol are legal. In some “dry” areas, you can get a mixed drink by paying to join a “private club,” and in some “wet” areas you still need a club membership to get liquor-by-the-drink, reports the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
The newspaper demonstrates how variable the alcohol laws can be, even within small geographic areas. “Move from Fort Worth to Arlington and you’ll be surprised that you can buy beer but not wine at the grocery store. Move to Grand Prairie and you can’t even find beer there, but you can buy alcoholic drinks at restaurants in both towns. Then move to Burleson, which has alcohol sales in the Tarrant County portion of the city but not in the Johnson County side of town.”
Of Texas’ 254 counties, 74 are completely dry and many of the rest are moist ??
Texas….The freedom loving State…
Not for the hardcore Southern Baptists, who are legion in Texas. No alcohol. Period! No dancing, either.
That’s one thing cali has going - liquor stacked to the ceiling at safeway, 7×24.
AZ does has some off-limits hours for alcohol sales. As in, not before 10 a.m. on Sunday. Other than that, it’s party on.
I believe it’s noon on Sunday here in neighboring NM… but we probably sleep later anyway. Up until fairly recently, alcohol sales were also prohibited on election day. I was glad they changed that one because if there’s ever a day where I absolutely *must* have a drink, it’s on that first Tuesday of Nov.
Azslim, if I am not mistaken, that Az law was recently repealed. I haven’t tested it lately. Did so a few years ago though.
“That’s one thing cali has going - liquor stacked to the ceiling at safeway, 7×24.”
Kalifornia does have a daily time slot where alcohol cannot be purchased. I believe it’s from 2AM - 6AM.
This outdated ban costs small business owners tens of millions of dollars in lost sales revenues, and costs the state millions annually in forfeited tax revenues.
I’d love to know if this has actually been studied when other states have eliminated blue laws. I would imagine that most serious drinkers in Texas have learned to buy enough booze on Saturday to ensure that they won’t run out on Sunday. A change in the law could mean that the total amount of beer, wine, etc. sold in Texas will not increase significantly. The liquor stores, on the other hand, will incur added expenses by opening 7 days a week instead of 6.
I cannot speak for others but I used to throw “epic” dinner parties, and Sunday brunches.
Still do but a lot less than the glory days.
New York had these laws barely six years ago. I made my share of “mistakes” but one rapidly learns how not to run out.
Seriously, who designs these laws?
who designs these laws ??
Our forced dogma landlords….
One should just p1ss into their grandmother’s mouth on general principle!
In New England they are left over from the Puritans. In most of the states that were part of the original 13 colonies, I imagine the origin is similar, though perhaps not from Puritans specifically. Why anyone else bothered with them? Your guess is as good as mine.
My parents talk about a time in MA when no stores were open on Sundays but grocery stores and gas stations. Nothing. Department stores appealed for and got permission to be open on Sundays between Thanksgiving and New Years at some point, but I don’t know how long that lasted before they finally gave in as everyone was hauling up to New Hampshire to shop on Sundays.
Back in 2008 when I lived in Maryland, I found you could not buy liquor from stores on Sunday. And liquor was only sold at liquor stores or in restaurants. You could drink liquor in restaraunts any day of the week there though.
Beer & wine stores are private businesses, wine & liquor is run by the State of Maryland. And some of the state stores are now open on Sunday.
Indiana doesn’t allow liquor or beer sales on Sundays. I’ve been here 4 years and still forget when I’m doing shopping on Sundays.
Also, everyone gets carded. At my age I consider it a compliment.
Rick Perry is a nutcase…. I hope he doesn’t run for president or we’ll be screwed!!
These are his solutions to the budget cuts to public education in Texas …
—-
“Well, there is a lot of fat to cut from our public schools, especially those in our biggest urban areas like Houston and Dallas. I am concerned that some the highly diverse Magnet public schools in this city are becoming hotbeds for liberalism. Do we really need free school bus service, Black History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, Asian-Pacific Heritage Month, ESL, special needs and enrichment programs like music, art or math Olympiad? I think we should get back to the basics of the three Rs, reading writing and arithmetic. I mean when is the last time a 6th grade science fair project yielded a cure for a disease?”
“I really don’t see why high schools should have to teach college level courses like calculus, economics, physics, chemistry or biology. Not all children go to college anyway. Texas has plenty of on the job training programs that teach skills and trades. Oil field workers need to know how to operate machines that extract oil. They don’t need calculus to do their job.”
“Lt. Governor David Dewhurst and I have met with leaders in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and area evangelical churches. The goal is to establish affordable fundamentalist Christian learning and cultural centers that would serve as an alternative to public schools. Republican members of the State Board of Education have graciously agreed to step down from their positions and serve as curriculum specialists for the Christian cultural centers. A limited number of tuition waivers will be made available for economically disadvantaged Christian Republican voters.”
Please tell me this the Onion…
No. He is for real. And he just won re-election.
And now you know why the state has a $25 BILLION deficit.
Oh, and Texas DOES NOT HAVE “…plenty of on the job training programs that teach skills and trades.”
Not even close.
Wow, I thought that was an Onion article, too.
Holy cow!
“I really don’t see why high schools should have to teach college level courses like calculus, economics, physics, chemistry or biology…”
Wow. I think he finally found a Constitutional way to get rid of teaching evolution in schools. Stop teaching biology entirely.
Does Governor Perry know that the three R’s are considered pretty much done by the end of the 8th grade? After that it’s just extra vocabulary for the SAT and “business math” for the kids who simply couldn’t handle trig. And almost every kid had those “college” courses in 10th and 11th grade. Is he suggesting that Texas do away with high school altogether?
“Is he suggesting that Texas do away with high school altogether?”
Not likely as it would be devastating to Amercan Football programs across the state.
So true!!
How could Texas survive without HS football?!?!?
“I think we should get back to the basics of the three Rs, reading writing and arithmetic.”
One would think that if students can handle AP classes then they have the “3 r’s” down pat.
It’s amazing that this nutjob want’s all Texas schoolchildren to be educated vocationally. But I guess he thinks that he can base an economy off of drilling for oil and building houses. Let the Chinese teach their kids mathematics and physics so they can invent the next generation of technology.
I thought those skilled jobs are mostly performed by mexicans without HS degrees
Drilling and construction is already performed by mexicans without HS degrees.
“A limited number of tuition waivers will be made available for economically disadvantaged Christian Republican voters.”
Good ol’ Christians!!!
I bet they won’t be teaching evolution in those schools
Fundies are sick in the head.
Ya think?
I hope his daughter marries a black man. (If he has a daughter.)
Bacon…the crack cocaine of the meat groups
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Why Bacon Is A Gateway To Meat For Vegetarians
NPR | January 28, 2011 | Eliza Barclay
Recently, an old friend who’s been a vegetarian for more than 15 years shocked us with a story: Last weekend, she ate bacon. Several strips. Straight out of the frying pan where her boyfriend was cooking it.
This wasn’t the first time she’d encountered it sizzling there, in all its glistening glory. But for some reason, this time it overpowered her. She was guilty yet gleeful when she told us that she’d allowed bacon back into her life.
But she’s not alone. We’ve heard this story before from many people. It seems that bacon has a way of awakening carnivorous desires within even some of the preachiest of vegetarians. And we set out to find out why.
We asked some scientists who study how food tantalizes the brain, and sociologists who’ve looked closely at vegetarianism, about bacon’s seductive powers.
Beef jerky is what led me away from vegetarianism. That and my body’s inability to pull enough protein out of a vegetarian diet.
This is well-worn territory.
It’s called umami. There are specialized receptors on your tongue for this “savory” sensation.
In fact, all of Japanese cuisine is based on this scientific idea.
If you are just discovering this, you must be middle-American. This is, like, sooooooooooo, last millenia!
restricted diets encourage food fetishes.
Sweet mother bacon! Food of the gods. I knew a girl who would order it as an appetizer. She said it went great with a martini.
The best vegetarian alternative to bacon is thinly sliced, crisply fried shiitake mushrooms. But it’s still not the same.
“The best vegetarian alternative to bacon is thinly sliced”
I dated a vegetarian for a few years, and I found the microwaveable fake-bacon was actually fairly tasty; definitely not as tasty as _real_ bacon, but still enjoyable.
Soy products are poison for hypothyroidism though. I have relatives with thyroid problems. My blood test a year ago showed marginal, but the doctor said not to be alarmed. I am skinny. Nevertheless, I avoid soy fake meats.if you gotta have meat, make it salmon, lake trout, halibut, snapper, tuna.
Soy products are poison for hypothyroidism though.
And that very thing happened to me back in November 2000. Here’s what I did about it:
To the best of my ability, I’ve cut soy out of the ole diet. That’s still my M.O. today.
But, after my diagnosis, the doctor was hot-to-trot to put me on thyroid meds. No way, sweetie.
What I did was make kelp, a rich source of iodine, one of my basic four food groups. For the first three weeks after diagnosis, I couldn’t get enough of the stuff. Then, for several months afterward, I had several chomps of kelp a day. Tapered it off in the summer of 2001.
First change for the better that I noticed: I was out walking former landlady’s dog in late November/early December 2000. He usually wanted to start the walk at a dead run, but, for a long time, I didn’t feel like it.
Well, one night, our walk starts, he’s in dead run mode, and heck, I was racing along with him. Darn, that felt good.
Feeling all-the-way better didn’t happen until the early months of 2002. At that point, I felt like Prometheus unbound. And I’ve felt that way ever since.
So, beware of soy, everyone.
I have a sister who has severe thyroid problems.
She also insists on eating nothing but “health food” junk which is all soy: soy milk, TVP, tofu, tofu burgers, the lot.
She has enourmous health problems: a knee replacement already, the other knee bad, bad hips, had to have disc fusion in her back, you name it.
She got mad at me and told me to mind my own business when I tried to explain the correlation between too much soy and thyroid problems.
Fermented soy is still good, no?
Don’t buy it. I am a meat lover but bacon never did it for me.
“I am a meat lover but bacon never did it for me.”
Then you aren’t worthy of your name. I dub thee ‘margarine’.
LOL!
LOL X2!
I loved bacon, but had to cut way back as I got older because it’s now very hard on my stomach.
I still enjoy a BLT or club sandwich every now then.
Krugman shreds the SOTU response:
NYTimes
President Obama’s State of the Union address was a ho-hum affair. But the official Republican response, from Representative Paul Ryan, was really interesting. And I don’t mean that in a good way.
Mr. Ryan made highly dubious assertions about employment, health care and more. But what caught my eye, when I read the transcript, was what he said about other countries: “Just take a look at what’s happening to Greece, Ireland, the United Kingdom and other nations in Europe. They didn’t act soon enough; and now their governments have been forced to impose painful austerity measures: large benefit cuts to seniors and huge tax increases on everybody.”
It’s a good story: Europeans dithered on deficits, and that led to crisis. Unfortunately, while that’s more or less true for Greece, it isn’t at all what happened either in Ireland or in Britain, whose experience actually refutes the current Republican narrative.
Let’s talk about what really happened in Ireland and Britain.
On the eve of the financial crisis, conservatives had nothing but praise for Ireland, a low-tax, low-spending country by European standards. The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom ranked it above every other Western nation. In 2006, George Osborne, now Britain’s chancellor of the Exchequer, declared Ireland “a shining example of the art of the possible in long-term economic policy making.” And the truth was that in 2006-2007 Ireland was running a budget surplus, and had one of the lowest debt levels in the advanced world.
So what went wrong? The answer is: out-of-control banks; Irish banks ran wild during the good years, creating a huge property bubble. When the bubble burst, revenue collapsed, causing the deficit to surge, while public debt exploded because the government ended up taking over bank debts. And harsh spending cuts, while they have led to huge job losses, have failed to restore confidence.
The lesson of the Irish debacle, then, is very nearly the opposite of what Mr. Ryan would have us believe. It doesn’t say “cut spending now, or bad things will happen”; it says that balanced budgets won’t protect you from crisis if you don’t effectively regulate your banks — a point made in the newly released report of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which concludes that “30 years of deregulation and reliance on self-regulation” helped create our own catastrophe. Have I mentioned that Republicans are doing everything they can to undermine financial reform?
What about Britain? Well, contrary to what Mr. Ryan seemed to imply, Britain has not, in fact, suffered a debt crisis. True, David Cameron, who became prime minister last May, has made a sharp turn toward fiscal austerity. But that was a choice, not a response to market pressure.
And underlying that choice was the new British government’s adherence to the same theory offered by Republicans to justify their demand for immediate spending cuts here — the claim that slashing government spending in the face of a depressed economy will actually help growth rather than hurt it.
So how’s that theory looking? Not good. The British economy, which seemed to be recovering earlier in 2010, turned down again in the fourth quarter. Yes, weather was a factor, and, no, you shouldn’t read too much into one quarter’s numbers. But there’s certainly no sign of the surging private-sector confidence that was supposed to offset the direct effects of eliminating half-a-million government jobs. And, as a result, there’s no comfort in the British experience for Republican claims that the United States needs spending cuts in the face of mass unemployment.
Krugman - The Dr. Phil of Economics with even less credibility.
OK, rather than name calling why don’t you refute what he said. Seriously, show us where he is wrong in his description of Ireland and England. This is exactly what’s wrong with America, you get very little debate of ideas and a lot of name calling.
At some point you lose all the credibility. He is most likely right about those countries but after blowing one bubble after another like he suggested in this country, I am not sure his prescription would have worked in Europe either.
I will not listen to Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld in regards to Wars and I refuse to listen to Krugman/Greenspan/Bernanke/Pauson/Geithner about economy, period.
“At some point you lose all the credibility. ”
At what point did Krugman lose all credibility?
I would pay to see an economist’s death match between Krugman and Yun.
Don’t hold your breadth. Krugman doesn’t debate anyone. IIRC, there was an Autrian Economist who was raising money to debate Krugman. Krugman would not respond at all.
A simple google search will prove you wrong on this. Plenty of face to face debates and even more written debates.
Yeah, and Limbaugh wanted to debate Obama too. It’s easy to debate when you can win over an audience with bumper-sticker logical fallacies.
Read anything by Krugman and wait for the “conservative’s fault” punch line.
He left out Germany. A rather large part of Europe the last time I looked.
One of the most “socialistic” countries over there, who, much to the consternation of “free market” neocons who have been predicting (and praying for) it’s downfall for the last 20 years, is doing just fine, thank you.
This is off topic, but what do you all think about buying land? I figure that without the house on it, it shouldn’t go down in value too much.
Unfortunately I live in Colorado. Unless you like Desert scrub, you’ll be paying a lot of money for land. (If I see one more ad for “Has Mountain view” because there’s a mountain visible on the horizon…)
P.D. Eastman: “Go Dog!,…Go!”
Dog with silly hat: “Do you like the price of my land?”
Dog scratching his ear: “No, No I do not like the price of your land!, will you sell it for 55% less?”
Dog with silly hat: “Stupid Dog, go away!”
Dog scratching his ear: “Good-bye!”
Dog with silly hat: “Good-buy Indeed!”
I’ve wanted a Dodge Challenger since about, oh, about 1970.
I always thought that if I was just patient, their prices would come down to something that I could afford.
Fast forward thirty years, and now that I’ve joined the “contractor” labor force, they are even more unaffordable now. Developments in the past 60 days make it appear that it isn’t going to change anytime soon, if ever.
Guess I should have gotten one back in the 80’s.
Moral of the Story: Patience isn’t always rewarded.
Erik,
I made the leap you are pondering. 40 acres nestled against the Rockies in Montana. I still own my primary home in Kalifornia.
Did I purchase well below market? Yes. Do I think the price will go below what I paid? It very well may.
The bottom line for me is I feel much better about having something tangible and beautiful beyond description than having some WS shylock tell me what he thought I’d like to hear.
With everything the PTB are trying to engineer in this rigged economy who knows what the future will bring? See X-GSfixr’s example.
“One in the hand is worth two in the bush”. This will always be true.
My advice would be this. If you can afford it without going into debt then proceed with caution. Do your homework. Spend time in the areas you are considering. Check zoning laws, etc. Would you be happy living there? After digesting this info for some time your gut will tell you what you need to know. I looked for a good 10 years before I pulled the trigger.
If you need to leverage debt to make this happen you don’t need it. Stay away from any long term debt in this environment, imo.
Any advice for newbie like me? I have wondered about that as well. I would like to buy some farmland that can be rented out. Any suggestions?
Where are you at in your life? Where do you want to be in life?
Having a clear goal is the first step.
Have you done any research on arable land? If so tell us what you already know then we’ll go from there.
I am in my mid 30’s. Still planning on working for as long as I can. Looking at arable lands as a place to park some of my savings. If I save enough money I may retire early and use that land to grow varieties of vegetables and sell it locally. I know it’s a dream at this point. Water and warm (not hot) weather are the most important things as far as I know. I want to buy lands where things can be grown all seasons unlike in the Midwest.
More money has been lost by men (and I do mean men and not women) by these “live-off-the-land” fantasies than has been by all the inflation attributed to the Fed.
I would stick to what you know best.
FPSS, you may be right about that.
I have a coworker whose grandfather owns some 200 acres of land which he rents out. The coworker said that the Grandfather collects $30/40000 per year. That kind of peaked my interest.
The grandfather’s cost basis is probably low enough to make it work. I suspect your costs might not allow this.
I like your basic mindset of obtaining hard assets.
Maximize your income and minimize your taxes. Both easier said than done. Not impossible though.
If desert scrub is all that’s available, why buy in Colorado? If you’re not planning to live on the land, consider another state. One with water.
FDIC Sues Sen. Jack Murphy, The chairman of the powerful state senate banking committee faces a federal lawsuit filed against him by the FDIC.
The FDIC is taking State Senator Jack Murphy and seven others to court for allegedly floating over $70 million in construction and development loans that failed when Alpahretta-based Integrity Bank went under. The bank lost millions as a result.
In addition, the FDIC says the loans disavowed Georgia limits on lending and loan policies, and showed general acts of negligence. Murphy is chairman of the State Senate Banking and Finance Committee and was on the board of Integrity Bank when it went belly-up in 2008.
You can’t make this shtt up…
Georgia…. home of housing fraud thuggery including Murphy(r) and Johnny ISuckSon(r).
Collective Lament of the Obamites:
We’ve been tricked
We’ve been duped
We’ve been bamboozled
We’ve been hoodwinked
We’ve been run amuck
We’ve been lead astray
WE’VE BEEN HAD!
….. and Obama haters get OWNED.
I find it telling that the FDIC and SEC are going after small-fry fraudsters in places like East Dogpatch, Georgia, while turning a blind eye to the vastly larger and more systemic frauds being perpetrated by the Republicrats’ patrons on Wall Street and the multi-national corporations.
Why
Big drug dealers commonly gun down smaller dealers.
Again are gov is run by of and for Wall Street Elite.
Consider this eliminating the competition.
“Murphy is chairman of the State Senate Banking and Finance Committee and was on the board of Integrity Bank when it went belly-up in 2008.”
Wow, talk about an obvious conflict-of-interest!
How can anyone effectively regulate a bank when also on the board of that same bank, and thus also on its payroll?
Un-freakin-believable. That’s pretty egregious.
Of course, how better to loot a bank than by being both its regulator and one of its directors??
Is this a great country or what?!
From Obama’s address to the Muslim world in Egypt two years ago:
“On economic development, we will create a new corps of business volunteers to partner with counterparts in Muslim-majority countries. And I will host a Summit on Entrepreneurship this year to identify how we can deepen ties between business leaders, foundations and social entrepreneurs in the United States and Muslim communities around the world.”
“On science and technology, we will launch a new fund to support technological development in Muslim-majority countries, and to help transfer ideas to the marketplace so they can create jobs. We will open centers of scientific excellence in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and appoint new Science Envoys to collaborate on programs that develop new sources of energy, create green jobs, digitize records, clean water, and grow new crops. And today I am announcing a new global effort with the Organization of the Islamic Conference to eradicate polio. And we will also expand partnerships with Muslim communities to promote child and maternal health.”
Oddly enough, I see nothing in here about how the US will export Zimbabwe Ben’s QE-spawned hyperinflation that will spark food riots and uprisings across the Muslim world.
On economic development, we will create a new corps of business volunteers to partner with counterparts in Muslim-majority countries.
And Yours Truly would have jumped at the chance to partner with entrepreneurial Muslim women interested in starting businesses.
I keep hoping that we’ll export the skill and knowledge of the Wall Street Bankster crowd to China and India……after all, how selfish would we be, if we kept their skill and leadership all to ourselves?
+1, GS!
The news about the Egypt riots is pretty alarming . Basis for revolt is said to be poverty and unemployment . They want to remove their leader . This is big news . Any thoughts ?
“The news about the Egypt riots is pretty alarming . Basis for revolt is said to be poverty and unemployment . They want to remove their leader . This is big news . Any thoughts ?”
I find it heartwarming on a very basic level.
“I find it heartwarming on a very basic level.”
+1.
I’m glad that someone somewhere in the world has the guts to ask for better government, and a better shake economically.
We certainly don’t find that among the sheeple here.
Egypt doesn’t have unemployment and food stamp programs from what I’ve heard.
Again food stamps are for the elite not for the poor. Starving people have a way of turning on leaders and removing them from power
Again food stamps are for the elite not for the poor. Starving people have a way of turning on leaders and removing them from power.
—————–
Exactly right, measton.
To quote a fiend of mine:
“Egypt ain’t a domino, it’s the whole ball of wax.
It’s been the premier place for Islamic scholarship for hundreds of years, the font of Arab nationalism, and almost 30% of all Arabs live there.”
“On science and technology, we will launch a new fund to support technological development in Muslim-majority countries, and to help transfer ideas to the marketplace so they can create jobs.”
‘I also plan to summon all living muslim Nobel award winning scientists to, …………(listens to inner ear monitor), oh wait, never mind’
“‘I also plan to summon all living muslim Nobel award winning scientists to, …………(listens to inner ear monitor), oh wait, never mind’”
There was a time (Islamic Golden Age) when the Muslim world did lead in science and technology, as well as many other areas.
It would be interesting if Islamic societies could compare and contrast their place in the world then and now, and figure out what has changed. My take is that the primary difference is in how much free thought is allowed.
The Islamic Empire was perfectly set up for cultural, scientific and economic success. First of all, the conquest of their lands was fairly easy and happened quickly. Much easier to have all sorts of success in places that are not razed to the ground with most of the people dead.
Second, the religion itself has several requirements that are very condusive to scientific advancement. I’m dredging this up from memory, but my recollection is that Islam has an an ideal that all people be able to read the Koran, the words of the prophet, themselves. This means that everyone who can, has to at least try to become literate and to speak Arabic as a religious obligation. Well, having a common language and a large literate population is great for a lot of things, but trade and sharing of knowledge are the biggest beneficiaries. Next requirement is that any Muslim who can afford it, is supposed to go on the Hajj at least once in their lifetime. So all the rich guys get to travel enough to see the nice stuff in places beyond their local boarders and are very likely to bring samples home. If it is a particularly beautiful carpet, they bring that. If it is a doctor who knows how to cure a bad case of travellers tummy, he is likely to just bring the guy home with him to teach all of his doctors how to do the same thing. Remember, where ever this guy goes, he can communicate because lots of people can speak, read and possibly write Arabic. As far as I know, Islam did not have a hierarchy set up to decide that certain types of science were inconsistant with doctrine.
In Europe, on the other hand, any boy who showed signs of being clever was likely shipped off to a monastery to learn to read and write Latin. Almost no one else could read or write. And the monks mostly concentrated on copying religious texts, though a few monastery trained boys got to go work for the higher ranks as clerks. The Church decided what scientific texts were OK to keep around based on whether they matched with doctrine, so if a Greek medical text came up that talked about the chest and did not indicate that men had one rib less than women did, the works of that entire author might be ignored. Travelling was not a religious ideal, though I suppose going to saints shrines meant there must have been was some of it. I think it was a later development and mostly done locally as opposed to across large chunks of continents.
How hard is it to figure out which group was going to have better science?
I heard the Muslim way of thinking about God is what hampers them in the sciences nowadays.
For example, most Christians think God created the basic laws of the universe which everything follows. i.e. gravity, motion.
But the Muslim understanding is there are no fundamental “laws”, but that Allah is actively behind everything that happens. i.e. it’s Allah who decides a ball will fall and Allah who decides it will bounce back up a certain way. They think that Allah makes this decision EACH AND EVERY TIME A BALL IS DROPPED ANYWHERE AND ANYTIME IN THE WORLD. So there can be no “laws” if Allah makes a billion decisions a second on how everything in the world is going to work at any given point. Thus no reason to figure things out through science.
“But the Muslim understanding is there are no fundamental “laws”, but that Allah is actively behind everything that happens. i.e. it’s Allah who decides a ball will fall and Allah who decides it will bounce back up a certain way.”
So how do I find out who Allah likes in the Super Bowl? Does Allah consider the point spread? Do they know about this in Buffalo? If they did, it would have taken a lot of heat off of Scott Norwood who missed that last second kick against the Giants.
With eight seconds remaining in the game, Norwood’s Buffalo Bills trailed the New York Giants by a single point. They chose to try a 47-yard field goal, which would win the game and the championship for the Bills.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCHZFwDCNyA - 129k -
Wait a second. Who was that Giants player thanking when he looked to the sky after that kick?
“… Allah is actively behind everything that happens.”
This belief relieves one of personal responsibility.
If events are totally controlled by some Other then one could not possibly be held responsible for anything that happens even if this whatever that happens is the direct cause of his own actions.
And, from what I see going on around me, this mode of thinking is not limited to Muslims.
“Who was that Giants player thanking when he looked to the sky after that kick?”
That kick cost me about $1.5K.
“That kick cost me about $1.5K.”
Well now you know who to blame. Evidently, Allah is a Giants fan.
Many Muslims have already studied and researched the downfall of their once great empire
And it’s the same thing as with all empires… the status quo is maintained at all costs by the elite, leading to stagnation and extreme fanaticism is all schools of thought, but especially religions, which becomes the only apparent hope for the oppressed masses who have lost the ability to educate themselves and are constantly co-opted by demagogues.
I know it sounds cliched, but that doesn’t make it any less historically true.
Repeatedly.
My realtor starting sending listings for the ‘hood where some of our $215k offers were flat out rejected. Most of the homes closed around$250k and now asking prices are $280k.
The best part? A colleague of mine live there and says the HOA is reporting a lot of unpaid accounts and even foreclosed on a house that a bank wouldn’t take back.
Just watching cement dry over here… what we’ll probably do is take the next few years to save what we can, and have my wife get her masters and get credentialed in NY so we can explore some options before buying down here if that’s what we decide.
Bill, we went to Citrus Park Mall today and that area is very nice. Are you living around there? If so, how do you like it?
Egypt in Turmoil
What’s happening in the Mid-East may have serious impact on the cost of operating our motor vehicles.
“Egypt has long been an important partner of the United States on a range of regional issues. As a partner, we strongly believe that the Egyptian government needs to engage immediately with the Egyptian people in implementing needed economic, political and social reforms.” ~ Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Mrs. Clinton couches her remarks in appropriate diplomatic terms, but it isn’t going to be easy to calm the agitated masses who want President Mubarak out. Do the demonstrators in the streets of Cairo really want the responsibility of a freer society? Or do they merely want a government that will be more efficient in supplying their wants? Most important, from our point of view, will the disruption lead to far higher prices for gasoline at U.S. gas pumps? We notice diesel fuel presently selling for $3.29 a gallon. Still quite cheap compared to prices in many other countries, but a kick in the pocketbook nevertheless. Warning to Cairo
It’s interesting to observe citizens in the Mid-East agitating to get rid of dictators while many citizens of the USA seem to be getting ready to shop around for one.
And nobody wants to talk about the role of Muslim Brotherhood. I am all for them picking the government they want but things could get really sh*** if the radicals like MB captured the power.
“while many citizens of the USA seem to be getting ready to shop around for one.”
???
“If you want to make money, really big money - do what nobody else is doing.”
~J. Paul Getty
Which is?
I hate when every successful rich SOB starts talking in nothing but cliches.
It’s called “pontificating” and yeah, thanks for nothing.
” - do what nobody else is doing.”
Or do not do what everybody else is doing.
This may not help you make money but it just might help you keep it.
“Congress must absolutely raise the public debt ceiling again.”
If it doesn’t all hell would break loose.
Deep down in their hearts Americans generally believe the U.S. “numero uno” status in the world is secure. A tad shaky at the moment, but we’ll fix it. We always do. After all, U.S. government bonds and the dollar underpin the global financial system.
The Treasury yield is used as a benchmark for all borrowing, a point of comparison for debt around the world. A default on U.S. government debt would cause unthinkable chaos, so that can’t be allowed to happen. Which means Congress must raise the debt ceiling….again. If not, the dollar would fall and credit markets would seize up around the world.
If Congress fails to raise the limit, the Treasury has a number of cash-management tricks that could delay a default for a few months. If that fails, analysts believe the government is more likely to stop making Social Security payments to Americans than miss an interest payment to China. Dangers in the debt-limit debate.
“Which means Congress must raise the debt ceiling … again. If not, the dollar would fall and credit markets would seize up around the world.”
But, but, but raising the debt ceiling means MORE money will be borrowed. If the borrowing was to stop then the value of the dollar would not be constantly diluted which would be good for the dollar, not make it fall.
I don’t get how living within one’s means - whether it is an individual, a family, a state, or a country - is such a bad thing.
Okay, I’m glad to not be the only one who was questioning that. Thought for a minute that my mind was getting fuzzy.
Japan downgraded over debt
By Aaron Smith, staff writerJanuary 27, 2011: 12:25 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Standard & Poor’s downgraded Japan Thursday because it expects the country’s “fiscal deficits to remain high in the next few years” as it continues to deal with problems like debt, deflation and an aging population.
http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/27/news/international/s_p_japan/index.htm - 90k -
Plugs is a regular laugh riot…
Biden: Mubarak not a dictator, protests not like Eastern Europe
Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is not a dictator and shouldn’t step aside in the face of mounting protests against his nearly 30-year rule.
We still ended up with Palin as vice president.
So…. Mubarak stayed in power 30 years because the people love him so much they kept electing him? No? He is King of Egypt? No? Emperor of Gaza? No? So how does he stay in power? Could it be…. he’s a dictator? (Biden, seriously, stfu!)
Uncle Joe is dead wrong. Taking it to the streets is the most democratic action anyone can take.
Saw a caption on MSNBC that the US taxpayers are forced to give $1.5 billion per year to Egypt. some $1.3 billion of it goes toward military (to protect against who? Why, a neighboring nation that we taxpayers are forced to fund with hundreds of more millions of dollars, no doubt). $250 million of US taxpayer money is for social programs of Egypt! Imagine that! Multiply this by dozens of other countries we taxpayers are forced to fund. Then you see part of the insanity. Foreign aid must be stopped in it’s tracks. Also, stop the war!! The US has no business fighting other region’s problems. After 2001 we should have limited our focus to Afghanistan and Pakistan for one year. And if we could not get Bin Laden at the end of that year, just nuke all the mountain hideouts, then be completely of the middle east by September 11, 2002.
I thought my favorite Pres., Obama promised in 2008 to get us out of the middle east. What happened?
Nothing wrong in helping out countries in terms of education, medicine, foods, etc.
It all starts with Israel. Cut military aids to Israel, no need to purchase the support of any other middle eastern dictator.
I think you are right. At the risk of being flamed an anti-semite (anti-Zionist?), i say we must give Israel nothing, nada, and we must make sure we tell the entire world. After that, withdraw all taxpayer aid from all nations. If you want to help starving Africans, write your own check. Not one of us should be forced to pay for a non-citizen.
If you cut the aid to Israel (and it is billions, not hundreds of millions), then you have to live with the consequences. Our aide to Israel is nearly all required to be used to buy US military equipment. So, if you cut them off, you either have to vastly increase our own purchases from the military contractors or let them downsize by leaps and bounds. Well, that might be OK. I’m not sure. However, the former USSR had some bad experiences with large, sudden decreases in employment in their military industrial complex - the people who used to work in it left to find work elsewhere and they didn’t check in with their old bosses before they left.
The other problem is no longer having leverage over Israel. If they lose the funding, they will certainly build up their own capacity to supply their needs, probably in partenrship with India. Israel and India are natural allies - from their remembered ire at their occupation by the Brits to their current ire toward Pakistan. Well once they tool up to fulfill their own needs, their is no reason why this India/Israel military industrial complex won’t decide to go out and sell to pretty much anyone they feel like. All without asking the US for permission anymore because they much less reason to defer to us.
Please remember that Israel has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. I don’t know that there is any country or other entity out there looking to buy that they would sell to, but they can. Only doing it will make the US very, very unhappy. If they don’t care so much about keeping the US happy, there is some risk, however small it might be.
I don’t know if keeping all this from happening is worth $4 billion (I think that is rounded up a bit) a year. But somebody does.
It’s interesting that you mention both the $1.5 billion for Egypt and the war in Afghanistan. The war probably costs at least $1.5 B per week, not to mention the human cost of killed and maimed service members. Ending that war would be a nice place to start reducing federal spending.
Every time I hear about Republican members of Congress complaining about the federal deficit, I wish the reporters interviewing them would go back to their votes during the Bush years and ask whether they supported Bush’s two wars, tax cuts which went mostly to the wealthy, and the Medicare prescription benefit. All of these things were done without any compensating spending cuts or revenue increases. Of course, when the issue of the increase in deficits came up, Cheney famously said “Deficits don’t matter.” But reporters never ask Republicans about any of that. It must be considered ancient history by now. That’s our liberal MSM at work.
I bet Cheney has a different answer in regards to deficit now since he’s not in power anymore.
The current republican party is one giant ball of hypocrisy. Not to mention it’s wrong on economy, wrong on wars and wrong on personal liberty/freedom.
Egypt uses that money to buy a lot of US weapons and military services. Thus it is a way to send money to the military industrial complex.
E-mails Suggest Bear Stearns Cheated Clients Out of Billions
“They were selling investors like Ambac a “sack of shit.”"
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/01/e-mails-suggest-bear-stearns-cheated-clients-out-of-billions/70128/
I think that was one of the major revenue sources for all Casinos.
Good thing GS didn’t let talent like that slip away. I can see now why we needed to bail these pigs out and keep them paing large bonuses.
Insurance companies invest money awarded to accident victims, and dole it monthly as annuity payments. These are people who can’t work because of crippling injuries, so if the insurance company gets wiped-out then taxpayers must step in to provide support. Wall street steals from the infirm because it’s indirect and easy.
Boy, is the hopium ever triumphant here in NoVa.
I found my way onto a line today at a chain retailer’s. One clerk on, no separate lines for “pick ups” vs. “purchase”, people sorta milling about. An imperious woman summoned me to stand behind her. OK, I’ll go with the program.
So I made a comment about patronizing a local place next time, this one orders the finishing materials from North Carolina and it takes two weeks to turn an order around. Lady sez “where ya gonna find one?” - I sez, “walk up and down the sidewalk in your local town”. She sez, “There’s no such thing as walkable in Montgomery County”.
I took the bait, and commented on the failure in plans and controls which allowed rapacious builders to erect crapshacks in unliveable towns. Being allowed to inspect their own houses, in an area of the country where building codes are already among the nation’s most lax, leading to visible deterioration in anything built over the past twenty years.
She’s having problems keeping up with the deterioration of a townhouse she owns, and is retiring away from the area soon. But she owns enough property that she’ll still be able to make bank. I mentioned that I was in the vicinity for one reason, and one reason only: to earn enough dough to get my youngest through college without debt. She lights up and says her youngest is done and gainfully employed, and just bought a house, YAY!!. I look at her. She says, brightly, “But it’s in Chicago, I’m sure it’s better there.”
It is folks who’ve been in the area 25+ years, who are keeping the crapshack prices up in Maryland (and here in NoVa). They’ve got a number in mind that they “need” to bank, from watching their equity and the bubble prices go up post 1998. Many of them became FB’s twenty five years ago or more, and it worked for them the way it was supposed to work.
Buy a house that made sense on the basis of fundamentals in ?1975-1980?, trade up to Potomac over the years to ‘raise the kids’, keep the original, watch the equity and comps go up after 1998 on both of them. Almost ANY number is a net positive on the basis of nearly paid off mortgages.
The aspirational gravy number, including govt pension, is $3M in the bank plus pension. Of that $3M, half is gravy from selling paid off first and second houses.
Given the good woman’s degree of “smug” coupled with “ignorant”, I would have loved to stick my tongue out at her. No credit to them, she and her cohort rode the right wave of demographics, and are now among the elect. I’d love to kick a hole in it, but the fact is, we are fooked and people like her are not.
She’ll bid up the prices on her retirement destination as well. For people like us (aka “the fooked”), the only viable countermeasure is to go to an area where people like her would not be caught dead. Given that they are wholly suburbanized artificial constructs, there should be a finite number of places to which they will converge.
Hopefully she and her ilk will flock to dense crapshack enclaves. Destination golf courses flanked by concrete jungles, where they can all bask in their collective brilliance as they whine to one another in HOA meetings that are marvels of oneupsmanship. May they vote themselves sanctuary city status and get eviscerated by common charges and exponential increases in property taxes to support their illegal aliens. The smuggest ones will be the ones who bought for cash, and therefore will not be personally impacted by the increased fees and taxes they muscle in as they grasp control over the local governance.
Clearly I am envious. I need to start thinking happy thoughts.
Lessons to be learned: demographics convey a permanent advantage. Schadenfreude is a law of nature, and it flows downhill. You can’t fix stupid, but nevertheless the stupid live large. That undermines one of my fundamental premises. Maybe I ougtta examine some of the others.
For people like us (aka “the fooked”), the only viable countermeasure is to go to an area where people like her would not be caught dead.
Welcome to the trailer park.
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/106610/20110129/china-censoring-egypt-protests-are-they-afraid.htm
China is censoring news of the protests in Egypt. Oh my. Could they possibly be afraid that the 800 million or so marginalized Chinese peasants and laborers who are watching their food costs soar while the corrupt ruling class lives large, might get ideas?
Maybe there is a method to Blackhawk Ben’s madness after all.
Gosh, I thought “higher prices” were a good thing!
/sarcasm
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