Bits Bucket for February 4, 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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Fed Balance Sheet Grows to Record Size in Week (Reuters)
The U.S. Federal Reserve’s balance sheet grew to a record size in the latest week, spurred by its $600 billion bond-buying program aimed to support economic growth, Fed data released on Thursday showed.
The balance sheet — a broad gauge of Fed lending to the financial system — expanded to $2.452 trillion in the week ended Feb. 2 from $2.426 trillion the prior week.
It narrowly surpassed the prior record of $2.451 trillion set three weeks ago as it has been buying Treasurys with the goal of stimulating investments and holding down borrowing costs. This second round of Fed bond purchases, or ‘quantitative easing,’ dubbed QE2, began last November.
The central bank’s holding of U.S. government securities jumped to $1.138 trillion on Wednesday from last week’s $1.114 trillion total.
Who cares what the number is? They don’t. That’s the whole point of QE.
“Fed Balance Sheet Grows to Record Size in Week (Reuters)”
We are talking about an electronic entry in a black box of a Fed-controlled computer somewhere behind the scenes, right? What constrains them from sticking whatever number they want in as the size of their balance sheet and announcing the new number to the world? Given the apparent arbitrariness of the number, what is it’s real-world significance? It’s not as though they can create real wealth out of thin air, or has Dr Bernanke figured out how to do that?
Energy Daily (sorry, no link)
President Obama, aiming to boost the energy efficiency of U.S. commercial and public buildings by 20 percent by 2020, Thursday said he would propose in his fiscal 2012 budget an array of new tax incentives and other federal subsidies to spur private sector investment in building upgrades and encourage stronger or more effective efficiency standards in state and local building codes.
Obama…will ask Congress to change the current tax deduction for commercial building upgrades into a “more generous” tax credit…and loan guarantees for efficiency upgrades at schools, hospitals and other commercial buildings.
“the president’s [fiscal 2012] budget will propose new competitive grants to states and/or local governments that streamline standards, encouraging upgrades and attracting private sector investment,” the White House said.
“So to pay for [these tax breaks], I’ve asked Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars that we currently give to oil companies. They are doing just fine on their own. So it’s time to stop subsidizing yesterday’s energy; it’s time to invest in tomorrow’s.”
However, the president’s proposal to whack oil industry tax breaks has drawn vociferous and effective opposition from the industry, … The GOP-controlled House would certainly block any renewed effort by the administration to scrap oil and gas production incentives …
…The study said market forces alone could not achieve the needed efficiency improvements because most real estate developers, building owners and occupants are focused on near-term financial returns and care little about the long-term benefits from more expensive efficiency improvements.
———
Too bad every municipality and big corporation just completed building huge, grossly-overbudget, bling-bling buildings for themselves during the credit boom. Nobody needs your “upgrades”.
“Too bad every municipality and big corporation just completed building huge, grossly-overbudget, bling-bling buildings for themselves during the credit boom.”
Exhibit A:
http://tinyurl.com/4e5ysmu
City of West Palm’s new monstrosity of a city hall complex. Looks like something out of the Roman era. Ceaser’s palace ain’t got nothing on this.
It clearly shows the attitude of “public servants” in this country.
They obviously think they are special people who deserve only the best because they have a job in government.
This clearly shows in all their contracts for full retirement “benefits” after 20 years “service”, no matter the age of the “retiree”. It’s beginning to bankrupt a lot of cities and states and will continue until we put an end to this non-sense.
“bling-bling buildings”
for a bling-bling economy
However, the president’s proposal to whack oil industry tax breaks has drawn vociferous and effective opposition from the industry, … The GOP-controlled House would certainly block any renewed effort by the administration to scrap oil and gas production incentives
Mind numbing
Oil and gas companies are making money hand over fist, many pay little or no taxes at all. Never mind that retrofitting buildings would create jobs both for installation and in manufacturing, never mind that it would reduce the need to import oil by reducing demand. Exxon must get it’s pound of flesh.
The Energy Daily is a pro-industry paper, generally full of self-professed free-marketers… who whine the moment somebody threatens to take their government cheese.
The article goes on to say that Dems may also keep tax breaks for oil companies “in a time of rising oil prices.” Talk about having us over a barrell!
The rich didn’t get rich by writing checks, did they?
To congressmen, maybe.
“To congressmen, maybe.” -good one. Except those are manila envelopes stuffed with cash, or free yachts, lux cars, jet rides, insider tips, etc. You get the idea.
…and jobs for the Congressmen after they “retire”.
Exxon paid $30 billion in federal income taxes in 2007. That doesn’t include the taxes their employees paid. Where is the outrage at Google paying a 2.6% federal income tax rate?
How about they push to have more nuke plants built instead.
The gov has been giving these same loan guarantees to the nuke plants for a very long time. Plenty of push there.
At least he’s not Big Oil. There are so many ways to reduce imports of foreign oil. It’s a mixed bag, but I applaud this action.
Why don’t you name some of those ways. I say we limit electronic devices to one per household in order to reduce energy consumption. What do you guys think?
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/interest-rate-rise-could-trigger-house-price-collapse-20110203-113320-984.html
“OTTAWA - A new report predicts that Canada’s housing market is poised for a collapse and is only waiting for the trigger of rising interest rates expected for later this year — a view that flies in the face of many other forecasts.
Capital Economics calculates Canadian home prices could fall by about 25 per cent — and even as much as 35 per cent — over the next three years once the Bank of Canada begins tightening monetary policy.”
“Ironically, Merrill Lynch’s current chief economist Sheryl King disagrees ……Canada does not have the same underlying issues as the U.S., even if the run-up in prices is similar. Particularly, lending practices are tighter in Canada, dampening speculation, and homeowners are not allowed to walk away from their homes without penalty.”
Sheryl; timing, timing, timing.
Having a mistress in Ontario, who stubbornly sunk her teeth into a falling ice knife two years ago, I watch this with some interest. She is an example of loose lending practices, despite the Canadian Urban Legends. Less than 5% down and PITI over 50% of gross. She at least locked in the interest rate for 10 years, despite all the howling from the mortgage broker. Rate resets will shock most of the leveraged speculators I know in her circles.
On the subject of recourse, I’ve seen some bits of information indicating that the mortgage can easily be discharged in bankruptcy, and possibly one gets to keep the residence. Can anyone confirm this?
Is this the same Merrill Lynch that fires analysts that call a spade a spade when evaluating Irish bank debt??
What we need to keep track of is how much of the bad debt has been moved ont the GSE’s books or concentrated in one bank that they will later fail on the tax payer dime?? When enough has been transferred you can bet they won’t care a wink when interest rates rise.
What we need to keep track of is how much of the bad debt has been moved ont the GSE’s books or concentrated in one bank that they will later fail on the tax payer dime??
THE PERFECT BAILOUT: Fannie And Freddie Now Send Taxpayer Cash Directly To Wall Street
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/535882/THE-PERFECT-BAILOUT%3A-Fannie-And-Freddie-Now-Send-Taxpayer-Cash-Directly-To-Wall-Street
they’re still sending billions of dollars of taxpayer cash directly to Wall Street, in what might be described as the “perfect bailout.”
How does this bailout work?
Fannie and Freddie got a “blank check” from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner at the end of the financial crisis. This blank check allows the housing giants to lose as much money as they want, with the taxpayer footing the bill.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — A top government financial regulator said on Friday banks have taken only about half the hit they will experience from commercial real estate losses, and that while banks will remain under strain from commercial properties, no systemically important firms appear at risk.
“While we expect significant ongoing CRE-related problems, it appears that worst-case scenarios are becoming increasingly unlikely,” Patrick Parkinson, the Federal Reserve’s director of banking supervision and regulation, told Congress.
So we are half way there. Once all or the majority of this debt is dispensed with the FED will have no problem raising rates and smashing real estate and raising unemployment. Then when we reach the bottom the banks will start lending again using the piles of cash they have been handed by the FED.
Whoops forgot the link
Fed official says banks have taken about 50% of the hit they are going to take on CRE already. Once they have offloaded this debt the FED will be more than happy to start raising rates and let everything fall.
news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110204/bs_nm/us_financial_cre
Any prediction about what that would do to the CA$ as compared to ours? I guess it depends to some extent on whether they expect interest rates to rise in both markets?
J.P. Morgan Chase knew of Madoff fraud scheme, suit alleges
Washington Post
NEW YORK - J.P. Morgan Chase executives stood by silently as their client Bernard Madoff ran his epic Ponzi scheme, hoping to protect the bank’s investments and continue doing business with him, a newly released $6.4 billion lawsuit alleges.
Irving Picard, a court-appointed trustee seeking to recover money for former Madoff clients, made the accusation in his complaint against the second-largest U.S. bank, an edited version of which was made public Thursday.
“While numerous financial institutions enabled Madoff’s fraud, JPMorgan Chase was at the very center of that fraud, and thoroughly complicit in it,” the complaint filed with the U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan says.
“For whatever it’s worth, I am sitting at lunch with [a bank employee] who just told me that there is a well-known cloud over the head of Madoff and that his returns are speculated to be part of a [P]onzi scheme,” the complaint quotes from a June 15, 2007, e-mail by an investment bank risk officer.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/03/AR2011020306649.html
Was the Fed in the Madoff fraud loop? Hopefully Ron Paul and friends will explore this and other interesting questions over the near-term future.
I doubt it. Madoff was pretty small potatoes. And his nefarious dealings are much older than the banks or the banks bailout.
As long as 95% of the electorate mindlessly returns the Fed’s Republicrat accomplices and enablers to Capital Hill, there is no chance that these hearings will go anywhere. The banksters know they can loot with impunity, because they are dealing with a mass of sheep.
“While numerous financial institutions enabled Madoff’s fraud, JPMorgan Chase was at the very center of that fraud, and thoroughly complicit in it,”
Is there ANY modern day financial scheme, scam, fraud, flim-flam, or ponzi that JPMorgan is NOT involved in ???
Find one and stun the crowd.
Was Gollum Sux some how left out on this one?
They were much too busy running their own Ponzi-scheme called The Economy.
The Fed and Treasure Departments are the action arms of Goldman Sachs. Their leaderships will be generously rewarded with future positions at GS for enriching Wall Street bankers while looting the productive economy.
TurboTax Timmy is counting on this.
Here’s my favorite part from the FT this morning
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/14982e98-2fd5-11e0-91f8-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1Czvbr3Pk
That was after a JPMorgan employee had a “troubling conversation” with Aurelia Finance, a Swiss company that had purchased and distributed Madoff-linked structured products from the bank, about plans by JPMorgan, identified in the lawsuit as JPMC, to redeem its money from a feeder fund.
“The Aurelia Finance representatives repeatedly opposed JPMC’s plan. At two points in the conversation, the Aurelia Finance representatives made threats to [JPMC Employee 3], referring to “Colombian friends” who could “cause havoc” and telling [JPMC Employee 3] ‘we know where to find you’.”
U.S DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY HAS TOLD BANKS - IN WRITING - IT MAY INSPECT SAFE DEPOSIT BOXES WITHOUT WARRANT AND SIEZE ANY GOLD, SILVER, GUNS OR OTHER VALUABLES IT FINDS INSIDE THOSE BOXES!
According to in-house memos now circulating, the DHS has issued orders to banks across America which announce to them that “under the Patriot Act” the DHS has the absolute right to seize, without any warrant whatsoever, any and all customer bank accounts, to make “periodic and unannounced” visits to any bank to open and inspect the contents of “selected safe deposit boxes.”
Further, the DHS “shall, at the discretion of the agent supervising the search, remove, photograph or seize as evidence” any of the following items “bar gold, gold coins, firearms of any kind unless manufactured prior to 1878, documents such as passports or foreign bank account records, pornography or any material that, in the opinion of the agent, shall be deemed of to be of a contraband nature.”
DHS memos also state that banks are informed that any bank employee, on any level, that releases “improper” “classified DHS Security information” to any member of the public, to include the customers whose boxes have been clandestinely opened and inspected and “any other party, to include members of the media” and further “that the posting of any such information on the internet will be grounds for the immediate termination of the said employee or employees and their prosecution under the Patriot Act.” Safety deposit box holders and depositors are not given advanced notice when failed banks shut their doors.
Read more: http://dinarvets.com/forums/index.php?/topic/52464-do-not-use-safety-deposit-boxes/?s=bbf77104ac23081bb5e2f1d2a4f4868d#ixzz1CznwzE9x
Solution: Don’t have a safety deposit box.
Hide your valuables in a place only you know about. Find a way to disclose the location to your heirs after your death.
Exactly! I don’t have a safety deposit box, never have, never will.
It is interesting to me that some people who do not at all trust banks willingly pay banks money to hold their valuables safe for them.
I already sold my valuables to a clown on the side of the road giving cash-for-gold.
friend of mine’s grandparents hid two gold bars (about snicker bar sized) in their vaccum cleaner during the depression.
I know a well-to-do woman who lives alone and has a safe in her house, but she doesn’t keep her most-valuable valuables in her safe, she keeps them somewhere else.
Her less-valuable valuables are what is kept in her safe. She feels if crooks break in to steal then they will go after what’s in her safe and won’t spend a lot of time looking in other, less obvious places.
So…. What you’re saying is…. Treasure maps to buried chests of gold are going to make a comeback?
WOOHOO!
Where’s the buried chest Combo? - ARRRRGGH.
Funny story about buried treasure. As a teenager my father was a bit of a hoodlum, and pilfered from the local snowbird communities in the winter. He buried a shoebox full of jewelry in a wash here in phoenix with the intention of returning to collect it at some point in the future. Off he went into the military, met and married my mother, and had a son (me).
Years later, we took a family trip back cross-country to AZ to collect his ill gotten bounty. Turned out progress had continued it’s forward march, and that drainage ditch was now a paved over parking lot offering RVs at discount prices. I was a little kid at the time, but I remember quite clearly trying to explain to my dad that the solution was as simple as a long tunnel from a nearby dirt lot.
That RV lot is still there today, and presumably so is the buried treasure beneath. Be careful where you bury your chest!
That RV lot is still there today, and presumably so is the buried treasure beneath. Be careful where you bury your chest!
True story from up the street: Young couple was fixing up a house that, ahem, had seen better days. Their fixup project including landscaping the yard.
One fine day, while they were digging in the yard, they unearthed a box with cremains. No idea whose cremains they were. Young couple re-buried them.
No idea whose cremains they were.
St. Joseph?
Solution? Refrain from reading WorldNetDaily.
So you’re saying this isn’t true? Might not be….I can’t find much on the googles.
Not that it matters….like someone said above, why would people who distrust banks want to trust them to hold on to their valuables?
ah just saw awaiting and gsalts posts below….
the DHS has the absolute right to seize, without any warrant whatsoever, any and all customer bank accounts, to make “periodic and unannounced” visits to any bank to open and inspect the contents of “selected safe deposit boxes.”
I can’t find a mainstream link that’s talking about it.
But if it’s true, I rest assured that the Tea-Party freedom patriots will be protesting in the streets about it soon. Because that’s what they are about. Freedom.
CRS Report for Congress
Homeland Security:
Banking and Financial
Infrastructure Continuity
http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/crsreports/crsdocuments/RL31873_09052003.pdf
OK, I just wasted a few minutes perusing that report. Exactly where does that CRS report say “the DHS has the absolute right to seize, without any warrant whatsoever, any and all customer bank accounts?”
I’m ready to call wingnut BS.
I didn’t even give the “Report” a cursory glance, so George, you might just be right. Lesson learned.
Wingnut BS alert confirmed.
Put a loaded mouse trap (or two) in the safety deposit box. It makes such a nice surprise for the inspecting agent. Best tape or glue them towards the end so that they can’t see them. They discharge when he sticks his fingers in there. Of course they are not allowed to tell you according to the Patriot Act.
Russ Feingold one of a handfull to vote against the un-Patriot act. Banks/FED/corporations figured a way to get rid of him, with massive campaign support for his opponent.
Home of the brave and the land of the free….
Why does everyone call them “safety” deposit boxes now?
Down at the credit union, they’re called safe deposit boxes.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Did you REALLY think you had “rights?”
BTW, banks have been raiding customers’ safe deposit boxes at will for decades.
Now do you see now why your grandmother/great grandmother only trusted the Bank of Mattress?
Housing prices to drop 25%, forecaster predicts
Published On Thu Feb 03 2011
By Tony Wong Business Reporter
Construction crews work at a housing development near Derry Rd. E. and Thompson Rd. in Milton, Ont.
PAWEL DWULIT/TORONTO STAR
House prices in Canada will fall over the next several years by as much as 25 per cent, creating a massive impact on the economy and possibly pushing the country into recession, says a forecast.
“The recent housing boom has resulted in the largest rises in house prices ever seen in Canada, which have been similar in magnitude to those during the recent boom in the U.S.,” said Capital Economics analyst David Madani in a report released Thursday. “Unfortunately, the subsequent falls in prices could also be just as severe as those elsewhere.”
Madani is predicting house prices will fall by a cumulative 25 per cent over the next several years, or “in the same ballpark as the recorded declines in the U.S. and other countries.”
The effects on consumer spending and housing investment could be significant and perhaps strong enough to “push the economy into another recession,” says Madani.
Financial agencies such as the Canadian Mortgage Housing Corporation, which provides mortgage loan insurance, could also be exposed to significant losses, he argues.
“We conclude that housing prices have formed a bubble and are at risk of falling substantially over the next few years.”
…
Can’t sign-twirlers save the market? Should we tell them about sign-twirlers?
I think the sign-twirlers account for most of the new jobs created in place of those vanishing middle class positions.
An interesting article from 2005 about sign twirlers.
http://vdare.com/sailer/051218_labor.htm
What I love are the new robot sign twirlers. Here’s a fun video of the robot overlords who are TAKIN ARRR JERBS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DOuBKsEiPfQ
Funny stuff. Sign twirlers have definitely multiplied lately though, strange that it has become such a big part of the landscape over the last few years.
Speaking of which, what in the world is with all the “WE BUY GOLD” stuff lately? I swear -everyone- is buying gold now. “BARBER SHOP - WE BUY GOLD”, “GAS STATION - WE BUY GOLD”. Is there seriously -that- many people out there looking to offload their shiny stuff? Whole stores devoted to buying gold. That barber shop/gold buyer has a lady standing out there on the roadside -every single day- here in phoenix. 114 degrees and she’s out there waving at traffic holding the sign. What in the world is going on?!?
It’s like the check cashing stores that popped up by the hundreds in the 2000’s. Never understood how there could be -that- much demand for places to cash a check or get a payday loan.
“What in the world is going on?!?”
The real question is who is behind this? Clearly the lady in front of the barbershop is just a middleman. I’m guessing its the Chinese buying it all up, but I could be wrong.
Speaking of which, what in the world is with all the “WE BUY GOLD” stuff lately?
Lots in Rio too.
What going on is that it’s an obvious sign of the peak or soon to be peak.
You know Colorado, I never really thought of the whole “who is behind this” angle….
Tin foil hat territory here, but now I’m actually curious where all this gold is going.
Or for that matter, where it is coming from. If a person is selling their gold at a barber shop or gas station, I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest maybe that gold didn’t belong to that person for a particularly long period of time. “Ownership” might be a little sketchy there.
Massive fencing operation? Money laundering? China building FT KNOX JR? I have no idea.
Second question - what are these barber shops and gas stations paying for gold? Are they hitting -anywhere- near the spot price or are they just quoting people pennies on the dollar (another possible proof of illicit dealings afoot)?
It’s just weird all the way around. I certainly feel like I’m out of the loop on this one. Precious metals aren’t my area of expertise and the ebb and flow of such is absolutely arcane to me.
Good News! Looks like I am may others were wrong, commercial property is on the up-swing!
Item: U.S. Commercial Property Recovery Spares Economy Another Blow
Commercial Property Recovers in U.S. (Bloomberg)
From Manhattan office towers to apartments in Florida to retail properties in Washington, commercial real estate values are rising, defying predictions of a collapse that would drag the U.S. economy back into recession.
Prices of commercial properties sold by institutional investors surged 19 percent in 2010, the second-biggest gain on record, according to an index developed by the MIT Center for Real Estate. Investments in office properties, the largest part of the market, more than doubled last year to $41.6 billion, according to Real Capital Analytics Inc., which tracks commercial property sales globally.
Near record-low interest rates are luring buyers with the prospect of cheaper financing and higher returns. Lenders are beginning to sell distressed properties and loans as rising earnings give them a cushion to absorb losses. Investors, convinced the worst is over, have pushed prices on commercial mortgage-backed bonds to the highest level in two years.
“Give a little credit to the strategy put forward by the government: keeping interest rates low and giving lenders some flexibility to hold these troubled assets on their books for a while,” Dan Fasulo, managing director at New York-based Real Capital, said in a telephone interview. “Now that values are on the upswing, it’s given owners and lenders more wiggle room to work out these troubled situations.”
How exactly is vacant propery gaining value?
Because until they actually rent out the space at a lowed rate, they can assume the cash flow from the building will be at their wishing prices?
Geez polly, is that actually true? I know banks can book full amort payment on neg-am mortgages even if the FB only sends a check for the minimum amount, but in that case, at least the FB signed up for something (and is bound to pay the fully amortized amount sooner or later).
But an empty storefront has no legal income promises for any payments. By this reasoning, I should be able to claim income on my empty bedroom, even if I never even tried to rent it out.
They aren’t even pretending it’s not rigged anymore.
I don’t know, but I can easily imgine that if you got a loan to rehab a building (putting in high speed internet or whatever), and the loan was based on comparable rents from buildings with the characeristics you plan to add at the time of the loan, then that assumption might stay in place until you actually have to rent out at a lower rate. I don’t expect they could get a refi of the rehab loan based on that, but until the refi has to happen, renting out at a much lower rate might put them in violation of their loan covenants and give the bank the right to additional payments or trigger a requirement to get some insurance or something.
The real fraud flavor thing that you get in rental apartment buildings (and I got this direct from the rental agent at the building I looked at right before I saw this apartment), is that the landlord uses the cash flow on the apartments in that exact month to get their construction loan refi. That means that even if they have to give you 6 months free to get you to sign up, as long as the refi happens in the 7th month or later, your full rent payment is counted in the cash flow of the building even though your annualized rent is half of that.
You know, I wondered if something fishy like this might be going on…..
I had an experience not too long back with the commercial real estate market. I had an idea for a business that I wanted to try out last summer, just a simple idea and worth a few months work to see if it’d take off. I got my ducks in a row, started working on business licensing and other basics. I needed a decent location with visibility from the street. To that end, there is vacancy - EVERYWHERE around here.
I realized quite quickly that everybody was still completely batshit insane about how much rent their vacant buildings should command.
There’s a building a few blocks from me that was a free-standing state farm office at some point in the distant past (you can still see the shadow of the stickers on the windows). It’d be -perfect-, a little over 1200 square feet, GREAT frontage to a VERY busy road intersection. More impressively, it’s been completely vacant since at -least- 2000. The owner keeps putting money in it - the graffiti is frequently cleaned off and the building was stucco’ed over a few years back to improve it’s aging exterior. The leasing company wanted a ridiculous amount for the lease and wouldn’t budge. No discount, no concessions. It didn’t matter if I was willing to pay up front for 4-6 months. It didn’t matter that the building had stood vacant for a DECADE.
I couldn’t wrap my head around it. In a “normal” world you’d think the rents would simply drop until they hit demand and filled the vacancy. If -I- owned a commercial building I wouldn’t want it sitting there empty like a noose around my neck year after year. -ANY- rent is better than -NO- rent.
Unfortunately, this world stopped being “normal” a long time ago.
“How exactly is vacant property gaining value?”
I’ve yet to figure this one out myself.
I’ve seen massive commercial property sit vacant for YEARS. Buildings. Acreage. Developed. Undeveloped. And they NEVER lower the asking price.
My guess is they are huge tax write offs for some one.
“giving lenders some flexibility to hold these troubled assets on their books for a while,” “owners and lenders more wiggle room to work out these troubled situations.”
Meanwhile renters and buyers are shafted on a daily basis.
Banksters have been better at buying legislators than retailers.
Okay that’s confusing, Say rather Banksters have been better at buying legislators than retailers have.
My observations show more and more for lease and sale signs on my side of town. To the point you start worrying about where you live.
Manhatten of course is flush with the profits of market manipulation. Not sure they are a good example.
Here in Tucson, the city is full of “for sale” and “for lease” signs on commercial property. Same goes for our suburbs and unincorporated areas.
We also have quite a number of see-through properties. Meaning that they were recently built, but never occupied. Or that the tenants have gone elsewhere, but their signage is still on the building.
Commercial real estate is on its back…Far worse than residential…The only relative strength is in apartments and select locations i.e. Manhattan…
I’d actually like to find a commercial building at a fire sale for personal use, but so far haven’t had much luck. Everything I’ve inquired about has been nutty. A friend’s mom saw something and it got forwarded to me. I giggled, you could build a new building for much less.
So are you in Virginia Beach ??
If the U.S. central bank can keep a lid on interest rates, then couldn’t the Canadian central bank do the same? Or is it different up in the Great White North?
Home prices could dive if rates rise, analyst says
STEVE LADURANTAYE — REAL ESTATE REPORTER
From Friday’s Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Feb. 03, 2011 6:57PM EST
Last updated Thursday, Feb. 03, 2011 7:00PM EST
Higher interest rates could “easily” cause Canadian home prices to collapse, Capital Economics warned in a bleak report that suggests the housing market is likely to suffer the same sort of crash that has plagued countries such as the United States.
…
China isn’t interested in pegging its currency to the CAD. They’re not going to keep the CAD at par if the Canadian Central Bank tomorrow brings down rates to zero. So if the Canadian Central Bank forces lower interest rates, the CAD will drop sharply.
Financial Crisis Could Happen Again: FCIC’s Angelides By: CNBC.com
The financial crisis that crippled the economy could happen again, Phil Angelides, chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) told CNBC Thursday.
Blaming regulators for lacking backbone and corporate management for being imprudent, Angelides said it was “striking how little has changed” since the crisis came to a close.
Although these factors are not at play due to the recession, Angelides said that “a lot of the same risk factors are there.”
Angelides emphasized that in the time leading up to the financial crisis, the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York were “always behind the 8 ball because they really didn’t understand the system they were overseeing.”
“The lack of knowledge, the lack of understanding by our regulators, the riskiness of our corporate leaders, almost sent us over the cliff.”
Angelides emphasized that in the time leading up to the financial crisis, the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York were “always behind the 8 ball because they really didn’t understand the system they were overseeing.”
BS BS BS BS BS
They understood the system.
My guess is the vast majority of WS CEO’s understood what would eventually happen. A much smaller number understood when it would happen and how it would be triggered.
Agreed. Total BS.
Please explain how rapidly falling prices qualifies as a “crisis”?
Give me more crises.
When the politically well connected are trying to sell, you’re darn tootin’ it’s a crisis.
If the unemployment rate moves up today, that should propel the DOW upward, since that would be considered good news in this jobless recovery.
Don’t laugh, it just happened: Market futures surge on much smaller than expected jobs number.
This country is beyond parody.
And we worry about Egypt………..
This country is beyond parody.
I hope you are wrong because being beyond parody is not even funny.
Unemployment falls to 9.0 pct., only 36K new jobs
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Unemployment-falls-to-90-pct-apf-1708751437.html?x=0
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/node/3164
Meanwhile, the MSM (with the notable exception of CNN) blithely glosses over the storm building in Egypt and the Middle East. Crisis contained….
The radio announcer’s reaction to the 9.0% unemployment was so positive, for a few minutes I assumed that she had read the 36,000 new jobs number wrong and the real one was 360,000. When the actual story came out, there were a few “we are disappointed” quotes so it became obvious that 36,000 was the correct number.
Of course, we got a standard disclaimer that the low number was caused in part by the weather because so few construction jobs were created. No comment that the 9.0% number was also probably affected by weather because people were aware that pounding the pavement doesn’t work when hiring managers are home shoveling out their cars.
And the Challenger, Grey and Christmas dude just said that the low unemployment number means that people aren’t looking anymore because they just started their own small businesses.
Probably as snow shovelers?
“…because they just started their own small businesses.”
Let’s see,
*You pay both the employee and employer’s side of FICA
*Business License Tax
*Overhead
*Your own Medical Premium
*Work harder than ever in a brutal economy
Best of luck to all, even if that was true. You need an iron stomach and reserves.
Let’s see,
*You pay both the employee and employer’s side of FICA
*Business License Tax
*Overhead
*Your own Medical Premium
*Work harder than ever in a brutal economy
Best of luck to all, even if that was true. You need an iron stomach and reserves.
Story of my life.
And the work harder than ever isn’t just when you’re working. It’s the process of trying to find work. That’s brutal, let me tell you.
Az Slim,
Oh, you’ve got the finding work reality right. Those who still have $, don’t want to part with it (no hope), or will try and get the work for almost free. Hey, I need to eat and pay bills , too.
So, you give a little free, hoping they’ll “sign up” and they use you. Kinda like a Chamber Of Commerce.
The race to the bottom.
So, you give a little free, hoping they’ll “sign up” and they use you. Kinda like a Chamber Of Commerce.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten hosed on that one. But I’m learning.
Case in point: Right after the Tucson shootings, there was a flurry of local tributes to the victims. I attended one such event, which was part of a regular weekly event that I go to.
Any-hoo, about a week later, I got a panic-stricken call from one of the organizers. Did I have any photos of the tribute? A national magazine was looking for some. And what the organizers had wasn’t good enough for publication.
I told him that I’d given up on bringing a camera to the weekly event, as it had become quite obvious that no one was going to hire me as a photographer. Yes, there were plenty of people who wanted me to do free photography, but it’s hard to make it as a professional photographer if you’re not being paid.
So, long and short of it was that the organizers of this events had no publication-quality photos to provide to this national magazine. And I’ve told both organizers that if they want my pro-level photos, well, they can hire me.
Az Slim
Thank you for that cautionary tale to add to my experience and database.
I’m looking for FT work in my field now, again. I looked at 100 Commercial R E Developer websites (I have a Professional Directory) and the well is dry. If REIT’s are doing so well, why aren’t they hiring?
Maybe I should hang out a sign as a Psychic? There are a bunch of gullible people out there. (Oh yeah,I have morals, darn.)
Slim :
I offer to dj for Free or minimal if its Zydeco soul and blues….if you want me to play Lady GaGa you have to pay full price…
This happens even in larger companies. One client needed a test done in a special machine. They wanted to send us preliminary samples, we would test them, and if they liked the way our machine worked, they would send us more samples (and pay for those). BS. They intended their “preliminary” samples to be the real ones they wanted. After we “tested” our machine on those samples, we would never hear from the client again.
I did a couple tests on some of our own samples we had laying around, sent them, and asked if the machine worked well enough for them. We did get a small contract, but it was a lot more trouble than it was worth.
This is a microcosm of private sector, and I have very little other than unprintable adjectives for private sector.
The volume on this prop desk driven stock market melt-up is 25% lower than already anemic daily volumes. The last of the retail investors have long since pulled out of this rigged casino market.
It’s actually true. The most efficient and most profitable corporation has no employees at all.
Aren’t they called “hedge funds?”
Idiot Realtor Doing What Idiot Realtors Do Best: Acting Like An Idiot.
http://www.news-journalonline.com/business/real-estate/2011/02/03/realtor-not-afraid-to-stand-out-in-the-crowd.html
“If you think real estate in Daytona Beach, you think Aswin Suri,” Crouch said. “I’d like to get my Roadside Realtor brand as big as that, and by standing in front of 4,500 people a day, it’s only a matter of time.”
Suri, who also is British, chuckled when first told of Crouch’s plan. “I’m very flattered,” he said. “I think he’s very brave doing what he’s doing. Sometimes you’ve got to go against the grain.”
“Brave” LOL! Yea standing by the road with a sign is very brave.
I found it amusing that the name of Suri’s firm was ‘Exit Realty’. There’s a name that says a lot about Florida real estate. Everybody’s looking for the exit.
funny how stories just pop up here locally, at superbowl time, that the local market will prolly come back this year.
http://market-ticker.org/
Employment report: IT SUCKS, despite the cheerleading from the Wall Street fluffers at CNBC.
And that’s the best fudged, massaged, seasonally-adjusted, tweaked-to-the-max number they could come up with. Things must really be pretty bad.
There is hiring in my city, but it’s mostly pretty specialized and because of the economy, years of experience and job specific certs are abundant for the choosing.
Hey hey hey!
Step right up and getcha unemployment numbahs!
Evidently about half a million people vanished from the US last month, as they no longer figure into the Gubbermint unemployment numbers.
Where’dthey go??? Alien abduction??? Rapture??? Not hardly. Look for the missing to re-appear on the next food stamp recipient count.
Gen.(Ocide) Ben(ron) Bernanky-panky must be so thrilled
“Evidently about half a million people vanished from the US last month, as they no longer figure into the Gubbermint unemployment numbers.”
If you subtract half a million workers from both the numerator and the denominator of the unemployment rate calculation, other things equal, guess which way the unemployment rate moves?
Maybe the shadow workforce can snap up the shadow inventory?
Maybe the shadow workforce can snap up the shadow inventory ??
I heard a analysts on Tom Keene “Surveillance” this morning regarding the shadow inventory….Their firm was predicting another 6% down for housing in 2011…He said that if the lenders were to put all the shadow inventory on the market right now that by the time the market cleared, housing prices would be down another 40%…
Did the guy say what housing prices would do after that? That’s what I’m afraid of. Putting all that shadow inventory on at once will drop prices, yes, but all that inventory will be snapped up, fixed up, and flipped right into another bubble. In other words, I have a choice to either pay rock bottom prices for a POS, or be priced out AGAIN.
Oxide…I think the key to any future bubble will revolve around easy financing just like our current one…I just don’t think loans going forward are going to be that easy to get, therefore, I would speculate that there would be no future bubble…
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Sensex-tumbles-441-points-on-inflation-interest-rate-concerns/articleshow/7425564.cms
Indian stock market tumbles on inflation concerns - thank goodness Zimbabwe Ben is exporting all of his QE hyperinflation overseas!
In a way the inflation game plays to Americas Strength. Manufacturing tumbles hurting India and China. Food Exports gain value bringing cash back to the US.
Yes we have to destroy the lives of, well, billions to do it but the Masters of the Financial Universe will be made whole.
Not if the world decides to price things in a different currency. If the US keeps at this friendly oil regimes will have riots like in Egypt. If they do the dictators we support will fly away and the oil. If oil starts being priced in say Chindian currencies, its goodbye. You may like to think otherwise but if the world has to choose between eating and supporting the dollar, they will choose to eat. FD.
Before the lives of billions are destroyed, you will also have to deal with the margin collapse at companies that can no longer pass on costs to consumers. Its a big deal because a large percentage of the fortune 100 companies here sell more overseas than here. Guess what happens when margins collapse? Layoffs!! first in the private sector, next in the government.
The notion that the US can print is way out of the mess of its creation is false.
“If oil starts being priced in say Chindian currencies, its goodbye.”
I’ve never been able to buy this argument.
Whatever currency oil is “priced in”, our currence is exchangable for that currency at some exchange rate. So oil will always be “priced in” our currency in some sense—just priced in it after exchange calculations instead of priced in it initially…
I get that oil could get more expensive, but I think it could do that regardless of what currency it is “priced in” first.
Of course
technical error on my part. Practically, if oil gets expensive (some say > $4.50 a gallon) the US will take a big hit. We depend more on cheap oil. IMHO its generous given the state of the economy. But I really do not know how the oil is cheap/expensive people put their numbers together when we have a civilian employment ratio like below.
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/EMRATIO
Little known fact: just before we invaded Iraq, they were in the process of converting their oil trading to Euros instead of dollars.
While you have a point that the US is in a better position being a leading producer of food items, the fact is that US is still exporting its inflation thanks to China’s dollar peg. Remove the peg and the dollar will tank 20%, producing inflation of roughly the same percentage overnight.
Suspended animation
Falling prices and rising foreclosures cause a policy quagmire
America’s housing marketFeb 3rd 2011 | Washington, dc | Rhe Economist from print
http://www.economist.com/node/18070210?story_id=18070210&fsrc=rss
It’s for the children. (and the firefighters)
The Real Estate Lobby Is Ready to Rumble
Financiers, homebuilders, and real estate agents are uniting to save mortgage subsidies
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_07/b4215033159758.htm
Barbara J. Thompson plans to put a human face on the high-stakes debate over whether to preserve cherished U.S. government subsidies for home loans. Hundreds of faces, in fact. Next month, she’ll lead a legion of “everyday people” to Capitol Hill to affirm the virtues of homeownership and urge Congress not to abandon federal support for low-cost mortgages. “These are your neighbors, they’re the people who teach your kids at school, they’re your firefighters,”
I have to give the police and firefighters unions credit. They have done an AMAZING job of spreading the lie that cops are firefighters are low paid civil servants.
90% of every police officer i have ever met was a complete prick.
“90% of every police officer i have ever met was a complete prick.”
While driving a neighborhood I like, I saw what I believed to be a vacant house. I asked the neighbor about the house, and it was owned by police officer. He told me I wasn’t the first to inquire, and told me the cop pulled a gun out in front of his young child to investigae the inquiry by checking the backyard. It scared the hell out of the neighbor’s son. He told the cop it happened 2 weeks earlier, prior to the cop pulling out his revolver. He told me the cop doesn’t like inquries. It was vacant, barely maintained, and I was urged not in inquire.
What a looney! (What’s that house used for, ran across my mind.)
10-4 Colorado and I agree most abuse power, having been there.
Homedebtorship is now a “virtue”?
The MSM language is more insidious by the day. At least the article refers to the Great Housing Fraudsters as the “real estate industrial complex”.
Inside Ashton Kutcher’s Bachelor Pad (money . cnn . com):
This Hollywood Hills home was supposed to be the No Strings Attached [nice subliminal plug, CNN!] star’s bachelor pad. But then he married Demi [what, no plug for her?]. Now it’s on sale for $2.6 million…
Mr. Demi Moore bought this L.A. home in 2004 for $1 million. It was supposed to be his bachelor pad, but then he fell in love or something…Kutcher and his dad, Larry, remodeled the entire home, expanding it from 2,002 square feet to 3,235 square feet….Kutcher is selling tours of the home, including his pool, through Gilt.com.
———
Because the home was just too darn small for two people.
BTW, what does Mr. Demi Moore mean by a “tour?” You have to pay just to walk through it, like Monticello or Paul Revere’s house? Do you pay extra to Look at the Pool?
“Kutcher is selling tours of the home, including his pool, through Gilt.com”.
I am sure there are plenty of idiots that would pay to walk through this guys house. Calling him a star is beyond a stretch though.
He’l always be the moron in that sitcom to me.
Video late fee? Forget about that mortgage
Collection agency for bankrupt Hollywood Video using questionable tactics
~ msnbc.com
Is it a scam? Is it just a big misunderstanding? Or has a collection agency in Oklahoma broken the law?
Hundreds of thousands of people who rented movies from Hollywood Video or Movie Gallery had collection notices put in their credit files without any notice or chance to contest the charges.
Both companies filed for bankruptcy last year and their outstanding debts were turned over to National Credit Solutions (NCS) in Oklahoma City.
Many of those people who found collection notices in their files claim they don’t owe money to either company.
A few weeks ago, Seattle teacher Martin Piccoli had the credit limit on his Discover Card slashed from $8,700 to just $600 because of an NCS collection notice he didn’t know about. The bill was $166 for “overdue videos and late fees.”
“I was just blown away,” he says. “I can firmly state that I owed them nothing and that I never received any communication from them: no phone calls, no mail, absolutely nothing.”
When Piccoli contacted NCS, the representative was able to recite the videos he had rented in 2009 and 2010. He recognized the titles, but disputed the late fees.
“Indeed, if I had owed late charges on the 2009 videos, Hollywood Video would not have let me rent the other videos in 2010,” he wrote in his complaint to the Washington state attorney general’s office.
Piccoli assumed that if Discover had discovered the negative information in his file, others would, too. The NCS representative said she could make that bad mark go away if he paid on the spot.
“I felt like I was being mugged in a way,” Piccoli says.
Advertise | AdChoices
He paid, and the collection notice was gone the next day.
Piccoli is one of 48 people who have filed similar complaints about NCS with the Washington attorney general’s office.
Maybe this is why Netflix stock is up over six dollars a share today.
Either that or WallStreet figures all the snowbound and unemployed consumers will be clamoring for rentals of It’s A Wonderful Life and Gigli.
Holy cow! I didn’t realize just how insane Netflix stock became. Now I feel really really stupid for selling awhile back. Sometimes its hard not to take the profit on the table…
I knew it was rolling, but I didn’t realize the stock had flown into the stratosphere. 218$. Wow.
“He paid, and the collection notice was gone the next day.”
I’ve read that some cities have issued false collection activity on parking tickets that never existed, and frustrated victims paid rather than wade through the morass of red tape.
I’ve read that some cities have issued false collection activity on parking tickets that never existed,
Hey! I just saw the first parking ticket on the window of a car that I’ve ever seen in Rio. What’s up with that? They don’t have parking meters here- just official people in gray smocks who have their own “territory” and charge you about $2 to park on the street. But they earn their money because they “guide” you into your parking space. It looks really helpful.
Parking garages cost way more.
Can you enter Canada if you have video late fees?
+1 Alpha…
don’t they stone you for that?
You joke, but the current trend is to not allow Americans into any country these days unless they are SQUEAKY clean.
“When Piccoli contacted NCS, the representative was able to recite the videos he had rented in 2009 and 2010.”
They had records of him renting the videos, but no records of him returning them, and having a mechanism to pay up over the phone… isn’t this extortion?
And how much do you want to bet that NCS is selling that rental information to data miners, thus double dipping. Glad I haven’t rented a video in 10 years.
It’s an outright scam. Period.
In these cases you pay, then file in small claims. Often where you have an actual relationship with a company they take away this right, but in cases where the charges are simply trumped up I would sue for fraud, losses related to my credit damage, emotional anguish etc. Every collection agency has to be registered in the state they do business in and have a service address listed for purpose of filing suit.
I know this because we sued a collection outfit that kept calling our phone for someone who had presumably owned that number in the past. These dirt bags called several times a day for 6 months before I had enough.
In my state, people have been ARRESTED for late video returns! (mind you, they WERE several months late)
This is why Redbox and Netflix are putting the Hollywood and Blockbuster out of business.
But seriously, how hard is it to return a video on time or very close to it?
Hundreds of thousands of people…
…had collection notices put in their credit files without any notice or chance to contest the charges.
This happens all the time.
This is an old scam: send out fake invoices to thousands of businesses and see who pays.
Housing finance changes likely to mean less government backing for some buyers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/03/AR2011020307205.html
$729,750 Current FHA loan cap
$625,500 Proposed
bfd
I’ll take a $100,000 decline over nothing.
+1
What people don’t get about housing inflation and the aging 78M Baby Boomers, is that when prices stay real and flat, their property taxes due as well, and that helps them keep their homes in the winter of their lives.
Granted, the cap is 2% a year for an increase per Prop 13 (Ca), but if prices stay stable the Boomers are better off.
No?
i’m still flabbergasted by the notion that the federal government was/is guaranteeing $ 729K mortgages…flabbergasted.
Insane, right?
If you can afford a house anywhere NEAR that price, you sure as hell don’t need any help and neither does the bank.
Inside Meredith Whitney’s ratings agency
Whitney, however, adamantly told the Financial Times that her firm’s work is “far more transparent” and “the credibility is far greater” than that of her big, downtown rivals. So she’s applying to become a Nationally Recognized Statistical Ratings Organization (NRSRO), that magic designation that makes a firm’s opinions the final word on creditworthiness for key players in the Wall Street machine. Pension funds, money market funds, and many big insurers can only buy debt rated “investment grade” by an NRSRO; and bank capital regulation is based on NRSRO credit ratings.
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/02/03/inside-meredith-whitneys-ratings-agency/
Well she couldn’t have picked a better time to jump in the ratings game as her competition has been shown to be corrupt and criminal.
“Nationally Recognized Statistical Ratings Organization (NRSRO)”
There is no place for this kind of crock in a free-market economic system.
Let the ratings agencies compete on the merits of their ratings. I would trust Meredith Whitney’s outspoken views a billion times more readily than that of the bought-out-and-sold big-three ratings agencies, any day of the next millennium.
Warren Buffett: “Get down on your knees and thank the LORD for Bernanke” (From a Video clip)
lol…of course he would say that.
‘Middle East Democracy ‘Virus’ - McCain’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUoQsdKgagM
And this:
‘(CNN) – John McCain says he’s going to sit out this upcoming presidential race when it comes to supporting a particular candidate, even though his former running mate might be among them. McCain’s endorsement would of course be at least a symbolic boost to several candidates, especially for Sarah Palin should the former vice presidential candidate decide to run.’
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/04/john-mccain-sitting-out-2012/
This just in; broadcasting live from the Death-Star, John McCain has offered to lead a 100 year war on the Democracy Virus in Arizona, but only if the citizenry makes him their King. One crowned, McCain noted his throne will be moved around to his various palaces. When asked by reporters how many palaces he owns, McCain said he wasn’t sure.
but…but… she’s his soul mate!
Not endorsing your own choice for VP is pretty bad. For both of them.
Not endorsing your own choice for VP is pretty bad ??
Which just confirms what a “pawn” he was/is…A leader my a$$…He blows with the wind…
“especially for Sarah Palin should the former vice presidential candidate decide to run.’
IF she does run, and hope that she doesn’t! Not having McCains endorsement would have zero effect on her chances of getting the nod.
Last year, when McCain was running for re-election, Palin came to a campaign rally at the Pima County Fairgrounds.
I heard that quite the crowd came out to hear Sarah. Once she was finished speaking, McCain got up for his part of the presentation. And people started leaving in droves.
Senility is creeping in on ol’ Grandpa. Now he can’t get far enough away from The pAlien.
Looks like we will need a Fat-Czar and gubmint mandates to trim down the lard butts.
Item: American Waistlines Expand at Fastest Pace Among Rich Nations, Study Find. ~Bloomberg
Americans grew fatter at a faster pace than residents of any other wealthy nation since 1980, during a period when obesity worldwide nearly doubled, researchers found.
Almost 10 percent of the world’s population was obese in 2008, according to studies published today by the medical journal The Lancet. The percentage of people with uncontrolled hypertension, or high blood pressure, fell, with high-income countries showing a larger drop. Cholesterol levels declined in North America, Australia and Europe, but increased in East and Southeast Asia as well as the Pacific region, researchers said.
The rise in obesity, as measured by body mass index, is worrying and may lead to an increase in diabetes, said Majid Ezzati of Imperial College London, who led the research. Ezzati suggested taxing sugary drinks and sweets as well as rethinking transportation, such as adding bike lanes.
“We are at best buying some time” Ezzati said in an interview yesterday. “We have to get very serious about BMI, beyond good intentions.” Policy changes may begin to reduce obesity in as little as five years, he said.
Michelle is already the Fat Czar.
Nothing like food inflation to take care of that. Get ready for a skinny America.
Unfortunately, the poor tend to eat the worst. High carbs, sugar, low everything else…
But when you’re really poor, you can’t even afford carbs.
Almost 10 percent of the world’s population was obese in 2008,
Man….even more Brazilians are getting fat.
And that just ain’t right.
Man….even more Brazilians are getting fat ??
NOOOOOOOOOO !!!!!
Tell me it ain’t so….They are not going to need to revert back to the “one piece” bathing suit are they ??
Fatterer and dumberer.
That why the PTB get away with what they do. Because they can.
Ticker
Despite improving profits, rising demand and generally positive flow of economic data, companies did not meaningfully increase their hiring in January. Only 36,000 payroll jobs were added in the month, much lower than expected.
Rising demand??
Rising profits from slashing jobs and using temp workers.
Questar sets record for natural gas delivery
SALT LAKE CITY — Questar Gas Co. hit a new high Wednesday as it set a single-day record for the amount of natural gas delivered to its area customers. Freezing cold temperatures drove gas volumes to the highest levels in the utility’s 82-year history.
Questar Gas delivered 1.13 million decatherms of natural gas — enough gas to supply more than 14,000 typical households for an entire year — eclipsing the previous 24-hour record of 1.1 million decatherms set in Dec. 2009.
Based on current weather forecasts, Questar Gas expects continued high volume for the next few days. Questar Gas serves more than 900,000 customers in three states, including approximately 870,000 Utah homes and businesses, 30,000 in Wyoming and 2,000 in Preston, Idaho.
“Cholesterol levels declined in North America, Australia and Europe, but increased in East and Southeast Asia as well as the Pacific region, researchers said.”
One word “Statins”. My father’s death was from a rare form of Parkinson’s, which was the cause of many deaths, as it turns out from my research of Statin users. His started with the name of a face part.
We’re tight financially, and we eat veggies, lean proteins, and minimal junk. We are both thin and healthy. There is excuse for obesity. I don’t care how poor you are. It’s habits. Period. Oh, and the daily tread or whatever is a must. (We’ve been somewhat overweight a long time ago.)
There is “no” excuse for obesity.
GH- We buy our broccoli, cauliflower, and bags of baby carrots from the 99C store. It’s grown in California. The baby carrot bag we get there lasts 3-4 days. We buy our lean proteins at Costco in bulk.
Being finally strapped and eating well takes some problem solving, but it can be done. Hey, they might even walk or bike to the store. What a concept! (We do it when we can.)
“One word “Statins”. My father’s death was from a rare form of Parkinson’s, which was the cause of many deaths, as it turns out from my research of Statin users. His started with the name of a face part. ”
Huh?
Lipitor?
Do some searches on the internet about Statins. It was amazing what our family uncovered, and what we heard in a meeting floored us. We had no idea.
I talked to a Cardio MD who gave me the good and the dangers of Statins. He takes a lifestyle approach to his patients, unless it’s a real (DNA) issue.
I was in the 3% on Lipitor who developed muscle-wasting disease.
Numbers drop immediately, but energy drops, for some, over time.
Thousands in NM without natural gas service
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - With tens of thousands of people across New Mexico without natural gas service, Gov. Susana Martinez on Thursday declared a state of emergency, ordered government offices be shut down Friday and urged schools to “strongly consider” remaining closed for the day.
Demand has soared because of extremely cold weather across the state since Tuesday. New Mexico Gas Company said rolling blackouts in West Texas also impeded the delivery of natural gas to New Mexico.
Martinez declared a state of emergency for the entire state, urging residents to turn down their thermostats, bundle up and shut off appliances they don’t need for the next 24 hours.
Same’s happening here in the Tucson area. There are 14,000 without natural gas service.
I’m doing fine, don’t worry. The only weather-related bummer is that my beloved KXCI was knocked off the air yesterday. Transmitter up on Mt. Bigelow is fubar.
Any-hoo, I have a big stack of CDs to audition for possible KXCI airplay, so that’s what I’m doing while I’m working.
Verizon sees ‘record’ first-day sales with iPhone- AP
Verizon Wireless on Friday said its first day of taking online orders for the iPhone produced record sales, and it’s stopped taking orders until Wednesday.
OMG a shortage of iphones
I better get down there quick, I don’t want mine to be scooped up. How will i show my face at work.
6 Terrifying New Weapons Being Created by the Pentagon
http://www.alternet.org/story/149750/
In the future, the power of magnetism will be harnessed to make today’s high explosives seem feeble, “guided bullets” will put the current crop of snipers to shame, and new multi-purpose missiles will strike targets in a flash from high-flying drones. At least, that’s part of the Pentagon’s battlefield vision of tomorrow’s tomorrow.
Ordinarily, planning for the future is not a U.S. government forte. A mere glance at the national debt, now around $14 trillion and climbing, or two recent studies showing how China’s green technology investments have outpaced U.S. efforts should drive home that fact. But one government agency is always forward-looking, the Department of Defense’s blue skies research branch, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Blue Skies indeed.
The bat bomb is still my fav — that was mad genius.
” But one government agency is always forward-looking, the Department of Defense’s blue skies research branch, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).”
DARPA…and the idiototic American masses feared Saddam’s balsa wood Drones of Death, his invisable nukes and non-existent germ factories.
It’s gonna take a lot more than mere duct tape and plastic sheets to protect us from our own gubermint’s tricks and lies.
Pakistan to dissolve, resize Cabinet
ISLAMABAD (AP) - Officials say Pakistan’s ruling party has decided to dissolve the prime minister’s Cabinet and form a smaller one. The move is a bow to opposition demands.
The decision was announced on Friday by ruling party member Jahangir Badar.
It follows criticism that the Cabinet, which had more than 50 ministers, is too bloated and costly for a country facing a financial crunch.
Badar says it would be up to the prime minister to determine when the dissolution would happen.
The ruling Pakistan People’s Party has tried to forge stronger ties to opposition groups to gain cooperation on making changes to tax laws and other economic policies.
Pakistan is relying on billions in loans from the International Monetary Fund, which has demanded that it reform its economy.
At last week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the JPMorgan Chase chief executive once again lambasted the media and politicians for portraying all bankers as greedy evil-doers.
It was at least the 12th time since the start of the financial crisis that Dimon has complained about Wall Street critics painting all bankers as cut from the same cloth. But the timing of his latest outburst seemed odd.
Obama has showered on Dimon, even though JPMorgan spent more money than any other Wall Street firm to lobby against key parts of last year’s financial regulatory reform law.
Dimon has worked hard over the years to sell investors and analysts on the notion that JPMorgan doesn’t play by the same set of brass-knuckled rules as Goldman Sachs Group, Citigroup or even Bear Stearns — which Dimon acquired with a healthy dollop of taxpayer help in the early days of the crisis.
He also likes to portray himself as a regular guy, who just happens to run a banking colossus.
Dimon is just as aggressive as any banker when it comes to looking for ways to generate fees from credit cards and other staple consumer banking products.
Indeed, JPMorgan under Dimon tried to make the most of its long relationship with convicted Ponzi king Bernard Madoff.
In a lawsuit unsealed on Thursday, the Madoff trustee alleges that the bank began drawing up plans in 2006 to sell structured notes tied to the returns of the many so-called feeder funds that funneled money to Madoff. The trustee, Irving Picard, said that JPMorgan went ahead with its structured note sales despite red flags — because the “potential upside reward for investing through Madoff was simply too good to pass up even if there was a fraud.”
MORTGAGE REFORM
One way Dimon is trying to put his country before his bank is by seeking to take the lead among his peers in calling for major reform of the U.S. mortgage market. We should have standard national laws. We don’t. We should have standard foreclosure laws. We don’t. Standard servicing clauses. We don’t.”
Oh I’m sure he’d like to do away with state prosecutors and states that have non recourse rules for lending.
You can’t put lipstick on a PIG.
Sociopaths always blame their victims.
At last week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the JPMorgan Chase chief executive once again lambasted the media and politicians for portraying all bankers as greedy evil-doers.
It was at least the 12th time since the start of the financial crisis that Dimon has complained about Wall Street critics painting all bankers as cut from the same cloth. But the timing of his latest outburst seemed odd.
Obama has showered on Dimon, even though JPMorgan spent more money than any other Wall Street firm to lobby against key parts of last year’s financial regulatory reform law.
Dimon has worked hard over the years to sell investors and analysts on the notion that JPMorgan doesn’t play by the same set of brass-knuckled rules as Goldman Sachs Group, Citigroup or even Bear Stearns — which Dimon acquired with a healthy dollop of taxpayer help in the early days of the crisis.
He also likes to portray himself as a regular guy, who just happens to run a banking colossus.
Dimon is just as aggressive as any banker when it comes to looking for ways to generate fees from credit cards and other staple consumer banking products.
Indeed, JPMorgan under Dimon tried to make the most of its long relationship with convicted Ponzi king Bernard Madoff.
In a lawsuit unsealed on Thursday, the Madoff trustee alleges that the bank began drawing up plans in 2006 to sell structured notes tied to the returns of the many so-called feeder funds that funneled money to Madoff. The trustee, Irving Picard, said that JPMorgan went ahead with its structured note sales despite red flags — because the “potential upside reward for investing through Madoff was simply too good to pass up even if there was a fraud.”
MORTGAGE REFORM
One way Dimon is trying to put his country before his bank is by seeking to take the lead among his peers in calling for major reform of the U.S. mortgage market. We should have standard national laws. We don’t. We should have standard foreclosure laws. We don’t. Standard servicing clauses. We don’t.”
Oh I’m sure he’d like to do away with state prosecutors and states that have non recourse rules for lending.
You can’t put lipstick on a PIG.
finance.yahoo.com/news/Special-report-Jamie-Dimon-rb-2853653141.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=7&asset=&ccode=
Man arrested in $1.5-million heist at Bellagio casino
Police think Anthony Carleo is the armed man who stole high-value poker chips and fled on a motorcycle in December. He had been staying at the very Las Vegas hotel he’s accused of robbing.
Anthony Carleo needed to ditch some “cranberries.” Fast. And this week, authorities said, he found an eager buyer.
The man agreed to meet Carleo at the lavish Bellagio casino, where in early December a gunman had swiped $1.5 million in casino chips, including $25,000 chips known as cranberries, and sped off on a motorcycle.
Las Vegas police say Carleo sold the man a $25,000 Bellagio chip that Carleo said had been stolen. The next night, court papers said, Carleo sold the man four more.
When the man told Carleo he wanted to assemble a crew to rip off Las Vegas casinos, Carleo’s reaction was blase, police said. He had already robbed the Bellagio, they said he told the man, who turned out to be an undercover officer.
Police arrested Carleo late Wednesday at the Bellagio — where he had been staying on and off since the theft — on suspicion of armed robbery and burglary. His bail was set at $15,000, according to jail records, and he is scheduled to appear in court Monday.
Carleo, 29, is the son of local Municipal Court Judge George Assad. “I think it goes without saying that as a father, I am devastated and heartbroken to see my son arrested under these circumstances,” the judge said Thursday in a statement.
Carleo once worked as a real estate broker in Colorado, public records show. He filed for bankruptcy in 2009, and in court papers said he was a full-time student with $30 in his checking account and nothing in his savings. Among his possessions, court papers said, were a Taurus .40-caliber pistol and a 2007 black Suzuki motorcycle.
“Money isn’t everything,” he wrote on his Facebook profile, “but it’s right up there next to oxygen.”
Carleo once worked as a real estate broker in Colorado, public records show. He filed for bankruptcy in 2009, and in court papers said he was a full-time student with $30 in his checking account and nothing in his savings. Among his possessions, court papers said, were a Taurus .40-caliber pistol and a 2007 black Suzuki motorcycle.
Guy sounds like a real piece of work, doesn’t he?
so he has been a criminal for a while
Ben swallowed a Porcupine
February 4th, 2011 by maxkeiser
The problem at the Fed is that long rates are driving higher – responding to the overall loss of confidence in the US government bond market – posing a risk to the balance sheet of the Fed – precipitating the need to launch QE3 to buy back lots of bonds and keep those rates low (the US is now the biggest buyer of US bonds, pulling ahead of China recently). So why not just reverse course and start raising rates? Why not just do a Volcker, take the hit, and rebuild?
The answer is what I call the ‘Porcupine dilemma.’ Once swallowed, these low interest rates are not easily coughed back up. Contrary to Ben’s claim on “60 Minutes” recently, he can’t just gradually reverse course, start raising rates, and start recalibrating the economy in 15 minutes. No. The clue is in the debt needed to fund $1 of GDP that has gone from a 1:1 ratio to a close to 6:1 ratio during the past two decades; i.e., the amount of debt that has been created is geometrically (astronomically) higher than the recent, simple, linear move down in rates would suggest. Ben has swallowed a porcupine. And there is no way this thing is coming out the way it went in. The only way forward is hyperinflation.
Did he swallow the porcupine or shove it up America’s azz?
No, he shoved it up China’s azz. Masterful move really, and much as I hate Bernanke and whatever the Fed has stood for, this is the only play that makes sense when you have a tailgator who refuses to pass you. You slow down.
And if the tailgator doesn’t slow down or swerve in response, a crash results…
No you can change your trade policy.
What ever happened to Wiki-Leaks’ promise of exposing massive fraud at a megabank by the end of January? Wasn’t that the advertised time frame? I want my fraud tid-bits. Is fraud even illegal anymore? I’m not so sure its even frowned upon.
Yep he’s loosing a lot of cred at this point.
You want a guess? If he has somethingreally good, he is wairing to release it until charges are just about to be filed against him in the US, or when the grand jury is meeting on his case or even around the time of a regular trial. Great strategy to show how some of his operation is a real service to justice and truth and all that right before someone is going to hold him responsible for the stuff he did that is illegal.
“…going to hold him responsible for the stuff he did that is illegal.”
Don’t we presume innocence before proof of guilt, or is that history post-Gitmo?
Your basic rights were repealed in the 1980s.
Anthony Martin
* Conservative Examiner
Does Assange have scandalous banking documents implicating Obama?
* January 31st, 2011 11:24 am ET
…
Making worms squirm can’t be that challenging, can it?
WSJ Blogs
Deal Journal
An up-to-the-minute take on deals and deal makers.
* Deals of the Day: Alpha Agrees to Buy Massey
* Mean Street: What the Egypt Crisis Means for Your Money
* January 31, 2011, 9:25 AM ET
Julian Assange Says He Likes to Make Banks ‘Squirm’
By Shira Ovide
Last night, a “60 Minutes” interview with Julian Assange, the man behind WikiLeaks, tackled the question of whether the anti-secrecy organization is turning its Klieg light to Wall Street.
Assange was asked about the speculation that WikiLeaks has a cache of internal Bank of America documents.
“I won’t make any comment in relation to that upcoming publication,” Assange said.
…
In other words, he’s got nuthin’.
Then why the reference to ‘that upcoming publication’? I’m personally holding out hope…
Work to begin on $800 million Lake Norman community
MOORESVILLE, N.C. The developers of Langtree at the Lake, a planned 300-acre mixed-use community at Lake Norman in southern Iredell County, are partnering with a national real estate development firm to begin work immediately on the development’s first phase of luxury apartments and retail space.
Mooresville-based Langtree Properties has formed a joint venture with RL West Properties of Toledo, Ohio, which will infuse an undisclosed amount of capital into the project. The joint venture, announced Thursday, will be called Langtree Development Company LLC and will be an RL West Properties project.
Mooresville developers Rick Howard and his son, Brad, have been planning the $800 million commercial, residential and retail development at Interstate 77 Exit 32 for six years.
The project includes nearly 4 miles of waterfront and about 2 miles of I-77 frontage at the exit. John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts plans to build a 300-room Embassy Suites hotel and 75,00-square-foot convention center in Langtree at the Lake.
RL West Properties is a nearly 60-year-old real estate development and property management company with a presence in at least 40 states.
Rick Howard, president of The Langtree Group, said in a statement that RL West is well capitalized and has a “proven history of performance in all areas of development.”
“RL West is thrilled that our capabilities and resources can make the original vision a reality,” Steve Welly, president of RL West Properties and Langtree Development Co., said in the statement.
“This is about economic development. Period,” said Brad Howard, vice president of the Langtree Group. “The world is ready
to begin taking risks again. It has been a difficult road, but our dream is now a reality. I look forward to local job
creation, sales and property tax generation, and most of all I hope this sparks the willingness for others to begin to
build again.”
Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/02/04/2035460/work-to-begin-on-800-million-lake.html#ixzz1D0vKIGVi
One Mistake on the Lake is enough!
Where are all these people going to come from to fill these hotels and f’in floating boxes of air, and why?
If you build it they will come!
Builders gotta build, and the next wave of savvy buyers is in the wings waiting to snap up wealth building homes!
Condo towers aren’t the only thing sitting around unfinished:
http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S1957711.shtml?cat=500
“A lot of people are wondering how a $2.6 million courthouse renovation ballooned into a $14 million project in one of the poorest counties in the state.”
I’m sure they’ll find some way to blame the pensions.
That’s a REALLY big courthouse, in what appears to be a deserted area! How much crime can there possibly be?
How much crime can there possibly be?
I wonder if they have a police force to match the building? Having grown up in a small town I can report that when cops are bored they can always find more crime. Usually takes the form of harassing non/low-tax-payers for things that they would normally be left alone about.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Tighter budgets at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission could mean killing vital technology upgrades needed to catch swindlers, the agency’s chief said on Friday in a blunt appeal for more funding.
With congressional Republicans threatening to restrain her agency’s budget, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said the agency faces severe challenges in doing its existing job and in taking on new duties mandated under 2010’s Dodd-Frank market reform law.
Denying needed budget increases could force “our market analysts to continue to use decades-old technology to recreate market events or to monitor trading that occurs at the speed of light,” Schapiro told the annual SEC Speaks conference.
“We need to ask ourselves if we want our chief securities regulator to have to pull the plug on data management systems and on a digital forensics lab needed to recreate the data that sophisticated fraudsters leave on hard drives and iPhones.”
She added that some of the Wall Street firms regulated by the SEC spend more money on their technology budgets alone than the agency spends on its total operating costs.
news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110204/bs_nm/us_financial_regulation_sec
GOP DEMS all do WS bidding.
We don’t need no regulation.
We don’t need no stock control.
“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Tighter budgets at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission could mean killing vital technology upgrades needed to catch swindlers, the agency’s chief said on Friday in a blunt appeal for more funding.”
Tightening regulatory oversight budgets is one way to ensure the swindlers can continue scamming without any interference from a Rule of Law.
During the Bush admin, almost ALL the watchdog agencies were gutted.
Because regulations stifle fra.., er, “innovation” and is not “business friendly.”
Hundreds to lose jobs with Bowling Green plant closing
BOWLING GREEN, OHIO — Around 200 people will lose their jobs over the next 12 months as Cooper-Standard closes its Bowling Green manufacturing plant.
The Novi, Mich.-based automotive supplier says overcapacity in the North American auto industry has forced them to make plans to permanently close their hose manufacturing facility in Bowling Green. The company will relocate the business and equipment to existing Cooper-Standard hose facilities in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky and Atlacomulco, Mexico.
“The decision follows an extensive review of the company’s current hose manufacturing capacity, as well as future market trends and forecasts for vehicle production rates in North America,” writes Cooper-Standard in a statement on their website.
…mostly… Mexico.
Home Depot to close stores in Michigan, North Carolina and Louisiana
ATLANTA (AP) — Atlanta-based Home Depot says it will close four under-performing stores.
Company spokesman Stephen Holmes said the stores are in Holland, Mich.; Gentilly, La.; Rocky Mount, N.C.; and Greenville, N.C.
Holmes says the stores were not expected to meet financial goals.
these stores once opened as “green shoots”. guess the jobless recovery doesn’t need commerce.
Santelli Slams CNBC Panelists for Spinning Jobs Report
CNBC’s floor reporter criticizes ‘kool-aid drinkers’ for trying to find good news in the ‘disappointing.’
Jobs are heading up and down at the same time. The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced the morning of Feb. 4 that only 36,000 jobs were added in the month of January, but the unemployment rate dropped from 9.4 percent to 9.0 percent.
The mainstream news media will likely latch on to the dropping unemployment rate, despite job gains that were less than one-fourth of the consensus estimate of 148,000 jobs added. One of the CNBC panelists noted that the increase was “way below consensus.”
CNBC’s Rick Santelli even lashed out at some of the CNBC “Squawk Box” panel that were discussing the latest jobs report.
“[W]e have overwhelming evidence the jobs market is disappointing, and all of you are trying to look for that one half of spaghetti in a 50 lb. spaghetti bowl. This is not great data,” Santelli claimed. “We know that the U6 probably gives you a better indication of the true unemployment rate …”
CNBC’s Steve Liesman interjected: “It went down, Rick. It went down - ”
“Yeah, what is it?” asked Santelli.
“It went down Rick, to 16.1 [percent],” Liesman said.
“Oh boy, guys! 16.1 [percent] is probably the unemployment rate. That’s cause celebre,” Rick sarcastically shouted on the trading floor of the Chicago mercantile exchange.
Meet the Real Housewives of Miami: A Cuban Barbie, a snarky Lebanese beauty and a hot NBA wife sign up for new show
It’s a hit reality franchise which has spawned series in cities all over the U.S. including New York and Atlanta.
And now, a brand new series of Real Housewives promises an even bigger dose of socialising, squabbles and big spending.
The six ladies from new show The Real Housewives of Miami were unveiled today and include a ‘Cuban barbie,’ a ’snarky Lebanese beauty’ and a ‘hot NBA wife.’
And if a sneak peak of the series is anything to go by, there will be drama and disputes galore in the series, which will air on Bravo later this month.
The group of women include Adriana DeMoura-Sidi, a Brazilian bombshell who may have gone through a ‘traumatic’ divorce, but has found love again with her new fiance Frederic.
Then there’s Texan-born Lea Black, a strong supporter of President Obama with a nine -year-old and a lawyer husband.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1353415/Meet-Real-Housewives-Miami-Cuban-Barbie-Lebanese-beauty-NBA-wife.html#ixzz1D1No8gRk
I recall reading that the reality tee vee craze was huge in Argentina during the 2001 currency collapse. We aren’t the originators of this trash, if that’s any consolation.
They are all pretty woman, and hopefully not empty shells. (Although, how they want to aquire fame is a clue.) They just won God’s looks lottery.
“The six ladies from new show The Real Housewives of Miami were unveiled today and include a ‘Cuban barbie,’ a ’snarky Lebanese beauty’ and a ‘hot NBA wife.’”
Sheesh…God Lord Spare Me, that is one, run of the mill, useless high maintenance six-pack if I ever saw one.
LOL…….
From The Economsit magazine:
“When Barack Obama first unveiled the Home Affordable Modification Programme (HAMP) in March 2009, the hope was to modify 3m-4m mortgages by subsidising payment reductions through the Troubled Asset Relief Programme (TARP), a bail-out fund. But by the end of last year, only 522,000 loans had been permanently modified. Of the $50 billion originally allocated to the programme, just $1 billion had been spent, according to Neil Barofsky, the TARP’s watchdog. ‘It’s remarkably dispiriting,’ he told Congress on January 26th.”
It sounds like good news to me: we saved $49 billion.
“The Treasury argues that many borrowers it thought were eligible for help turned out not to be because they earned too much, their homes were too expensive or were not their primary residence, or because they couldn’t meet documentation requirements. Many who were eligible, it says, got a private modification instead.”
Even better. The restrictions built into the law prevented the taxpayer from being ripped off, and in the end they only found 1/50th the number of “honest victims” they expected.
http://www.economist.com/node/18070210
What a coincidence that they all have the same hair, makeup, and figure. Yeah, they’re real all right.
Is the Fed’s Real Target 1,755 for the S&P?
cnbc
Consider it the Fed’s chicken-or-the-egg dilemma: Do rising stocks drive down unemployment or does lower unemployment drive up stocks?
One view of the relationship between the two suggests that it is the former and not the latter, hence the continuation of the central bank’s easy-money policies.
Nick Colas, chief investment strategist at BNY ConvergEx, has run a comparison and found an interesting relationship that often sees unemployment fall when stocks go up.
The upshot: If the economy does get to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s target of 8 percent unemployment by 2012, that would mean the Standard & Poor’s 500 would have to rise to 1,755-a stunning 35 percent gain from current levels and beyond even the already-bullish prognostications for this year.
“That’s not our price target, but it may just be the Fed’s,” Colas wrote in a note to clients.
Has another country, or even the U S, had a statistical recovery like we are witnessing?
I don’t recall ever seeing so much misinformation, fibbing, or propaganda before. Is it just me, or has the last 7 years been an anomaly? (since the GD Era)
Its just you. We all fully buy all the shit.
It’s just you because the BS has been thick and heavy for the last 30 years.
In the 1980s, they changed every known stat and formula that covered the economy.
Unemployed
Inflation
M3
Job creation
Taxes
etc.
If they had stayed with the old formulas, it would have been obvious even to the fatterer and dumberer that this country was sliding downhill fast.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703652104576122220220538048.html
Lawsuit says Bank of New York Mellon swindled investors by creating false trades. Will anyone EVER go to prison over crimes like this, or are we so far down the road to Republicrat banana republic kleptocracy that banksters can break the law with total impunity?
No big playa will go to jail, “they” our benevolent gubmint may serve up a minor small fry once in a while. Just to show the serfs they are on the job. Money talks and Bull$h!t walks, the controllers of our system know how to fleece the system very well, been doing it for decades.
However the dream lives on that someday “justice” will be served! It won’t.
I described my experience applying for a mortgage in 1994 as a colonoscopy, even as we put 40% down.
Well guess what:
“One loan officer describes it as a “financial colonoscopy” on your credit, and he suggests that anybody applying for a mortgage be prepared for it.”
“What he’s talking about is the combined effect of new credit transparency standards that have been imposed on lenders by mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. As of Feb. 1, Freddie Mac began requiring lenders to dig back 120 days into your credit bureau files to detect any “inquiries” — signs of your applying for credit anywhere else — and then to check out whether any applications were approved. If they resulted in significant new debts, your mortgage deal could be affected, and your lender might have to revise the terms or the rate you’re being offered.”
http://therealdeal.com/newyork/articles/a-financial-colonoscopy-on-homebuyers-credit-could-be-a-deal-breaker-kenneth-harney-says–2
“I described my experience applying for a mortgage in 1994 as a colonoscopy, even as we put 40% down.”
Same here, 1996. I guess the banksters like to mix it up by alternating between colonoscopies and K-Y jelly lube jobs?
Suppose there was an Arab dictatorship and a democracy broke out? Who knows? Perhaps crony capitalism will some day end in America, as well…
So BoA ‘only’ has 1.3m delinquent mortgage loans. How many do the other Wall Street Megabanks have in their possessions?
* BUSINESS
* FEBRUARY 5, 2011
BofA Sets Mortgage Cleanup Unit
BY DAN FITZPATRICK
Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Brian Moynihan shook up his mortgage team Friday, tapping adviser Terry Laughlin to run a new unit responsible for cleaning up the bank’s mortgage mess.
The “Legacy Asset Servicing” group will monitor the bank’s 1.3 million delinquent loans, handle oversight of foreclosure efforts and deal with investor demands to repurchase bad mortgages. Mr. Laughlin will report directly to Mr. Moynihan. The two executives previously worked together at FleetBoston Financial Corp.
…
Mubarak has gotten over 70 billion in wealth being the Leader of that
Country . Pretty big salary for a public servant that he likes to call himself .
POS stealing from the Country while his people starve .
That dictatorship business is pretty darn lucrative, no? Sounds like he ‘Madoff’ even better than a lot of Wall Street banksters!
I’m with the Republicans on this one: Get the gubmint off the people’s housing market’s back! I may vote Republican in the next presidential election if the platform strongly supports this approach. Our federally-subsidized housing market is FUBAR, and any politician who does not get on board with this reality is not worthy of getting elected.
America’s housing market
Feb 3rd 2011 | Washington, dc | from PRINT EDITION
WHEN the federal government took control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two teetering mortgage-finance agencies, in September 2008 it was meant to be temporary. Yet their surreal existence as shareholder-owned prisoners of the state looks likely to drag on for years.
Nobody is happy with the status quo. The federal government routinely guarantees 85% or more of newly issued residential mortgages, primarily through Fannie, Freddie, and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). But withdrawing that support is impossible while the housing market is so fragile. The Treasury is scheduled to release a proposal for overhauling America’s housing-finance system as early as next week. But rather than resolve the status of Fannie and Freddie, it is likely to lay out several options, none of which is likely to become law any time soon.
The role of the FHA, which is to guarantee mortgages with low downpayments to families of modest means in return for a fee, is relatively uncontroversial. The big debate is to what extent the federal government should also guarantee mortgages to middle-class families. The Treasury’s options will include doing so through a stand-alone federal agency—perhaps a nationalised version of Fannie or Freddie—or by selling an explicit government guarantee for a fee to any lender, much as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation charges banks to insure their deposits.
Neither option is likely to satisfy Republicans who have previously pushed either to wind up or to privatise both agencies in the next two years. Since taking control of the House of Representatives in January they have agreed to a longer transition period but still insist the federal government should no longer have a substantial role in the mortgage market.
…