Bits Bucket for February 21, 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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Taking this from a debate I was having on Piggington’s in response to the public union issue. Would love to hear the opinions from HBBers.
………..
People are being intentionally fooled into thinking that the division of power lies between public and private sector workers. It doesn’t.
The division of power lies between labor and capitalists (specifically refering to those who do not labor for their money, but take a portion from the productivity/labor provided by others — those who provide capital, vs. labor). It always has, and it always will. Do not believe what you are told to believe by those who seek to benefit at your expense. Do your own research and look for EVIDENCE of what they are telling you to be true. You won’t find it.
OTOH, there is plenty of evidence to show that a more equitable allocation of resources results in a safer, more productive society and overall better quality of life for the majority of the working people.
They are using “divide and conquer” techniques to tear this country apart. It’s not a coincidence that the propaganda regarding “evil unions” began as the anger against the bailouts of the financial industry was beginning to build (which is what the Tea Party was originally about, before it was co-opted by the Republicans).
“They are using “divide and conquer” techniques to tear this country apart.”
So true. When I was younger we were told that private sector unions were the cause of the early offshoring and we bought it hook, line and sinker, especially those with college educations. Then they started offshoring non-union jobs as well.
The race to the bottom continues at full speed.
Whoopee! We’re all gonna be poor!
I wish I could ‘off shore’ my plumber! $70/hr - geessh.
What do you do, push paper around and think you’re worth twice that? I hope he raises his rates to $100 per, just for you.
I like the US system the way it is and the current tension between the governmental unions and the states is a normal function of the entity (the state) fighting to survive.
Unions helped our industry to become the best in the world, through training, safety, etc, but then they got too powerful and they killed many of their companies. GM comes to mind, but there are many others.
We’ve gotten to the point where the cities, the states and even the US cannot keep kicking the can down the road. If these governmental entities were corporations, their unfunded liabilities would make them insolvent. But they play by different rules than corporations so they have to fight it out in public.
In the end the unions will loose, especially when it becomes evident that their members have become pampered do nothings that are sucking the life blood out of everyone else who kick back and relax once they get their jobs.
It reminds me of a survey I made years ago ( I am a mere safety inspector ) and we opened a closet door to check out the chemicals that they’re using. Low and behold, the building janitor was taking a nap, leaning back in his easy chair. To me that was such a visual picture of how some people do their job.
Unions themselves aren’t really the problem.
It’s their parasitic nature that’s the problem.
Both CA’s and Lip’s posts point this out, whether or not intentionally. The labor/production vs. capital discussion is vital, as it points out the negatively symbiotic state both are now in. Both now are intent on draining wealth from the middle class to serve their own political ends, whether those be societal or individualistic.
It reminds me how moot any ongoing discussion is about sending jobs elsewhere. Offshoring is not what is important.
That’s symptomatic, not causal.
Instead, it’s the United States’ increasingly diminished ability to project power that’s the real problem. I mean ALL power, not just militaristic or economic, though I do include those two.
“Unions themselves aren’t really the problem. It’s their parasitic nature that’s the problem.”
“Both now are intent on draining wealth from the middle class to serve their own political ends, whether those be societal or individualistic.”
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: unions are big business. BIG business.
Yeah, just look how unions have run Southwest Airlines into the ground.
Damn Teamsters!
Great book out on German labor unions (saw the author on Book TV)
according to him, they are effective , relevant and NOT corrupt because workers are always free to leave.
Budget Battle: Day 7
Union leader says National Guard has toured prison
e-mail print By Patrick Marley and Jason Stein of the Journal Sentinel
Updated: Feb. 21, 2011 1:41 p.m. |(881) Comments
“Madison — As the budget stalemate drags on between unions and Gov. Scott Walker over his plan to repeal most public worker union bargaining rights, the National Guard has toured at least one state prison in recent days.
Last week, a half dozen National Guard members in plainclothes toured Redgranite Correctional Institution, said Lenny Wright, president of the AFSCME Local 281, which represents the prison’s correctional officers.
Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie initially said the National Guard had not visited Redgranite, but half an hour later confirmed it had happened. He described the visit as routine, saying unit commanders regularly visit prisons to understand how they operate.
“It wasn’t any specific contingency planning,” he said, referring to any possible strike.
Wright said prior to the tour he had already told the prison warden that his union local would not strike or have its members call in sick to disrupt security at the prison. But Wright said that the National Guard members had toured the prison with its security director and that he believed the purpose of the tour was to make sure the National Guard was ready to take over in the event of a strike…”
http://tinyurl.com/5wopldc
“They were in plainclothes but they were there,” Wright said.”
Yeah, you would tend to notice a small gang of lost Wisconsin NG’s wondering around lost in a Wisconsin Confinement Facility.
Both now are intent on draining wealth from the middle class
No the union members are/were the middle class.
Unions have lost completely They represent something like 7% of private adn 12% of public workers.
I like the first part of LIPS post
“I like the US system the way it is and the current tension between the governmental unions and the states is a normal function of the entity (the state) fighting to survive.
Unions helped our industry to become the best in the world, through training, safety, etc, but then they got too powerful and they killed many of their companies. GM comes to mind, but there are many others.”
I would say that we are on the other side of the pendulum now. Unions are weak and thus corporations are destroying the middle class. Corporate elite now have all the wealth. Our trade policy and housing bubble and FED activity and TARP all speak to the weakness of labor and strength of the elite.
“Unions have lost completely They represent something like 7% of private adn 12% of public workers. ”
False! 36% of PUBLIC sector workers are unionized. The 7% PRIVATE sector number is correct.
Agree very much with you about where the pendulum is, measton.
“It’s their parasitic nature that’s the problem.”
I propose to broaden that a bit: Parasitism is the problem.
I don’t agree with everything the Mormons stand for (otherwise I would join), but I do very much admire their fervently anti-parasitic (aka self-reliant) approach to life.
“In the end the unions will loose, especially when it becomes evident that their members have become pampered do nothings that are sucking the life blood out of everyone else who kick back and relax once they get their jobs.”
May we ask if you used the Standard Tea Party Accident Investigation Template or did you borrow the Koch brother’s Fault Tree Analysis software to dream up this Great Big Line of anti union BullShit Oh, mere humble safety inspector.
Exactly. People need to figure out that if they are worth less than 5 million or so, they are in the same league as somebody making minimum wage as far as the top 1% are concerned - in other words, completely irrelevant.
I am a taxpayer, and I am as concerned about government waste as anybody, but…priorities, people! Sense of scale! All the overpaid janitors taking naps in the country are NOTHING compared to the thefts Wall Street has perpetrated. If the house is on fire, first put out the fire, then worry about doing the laundry or wiping down the bathroom mirror.
This kind of argument is non-productive.
To say that it’s okay for me to be a perpetrator because I perpetrate “less” than somone else is a key reason why we’re in such a mess.
Moral relativism sucks. Thank you for illustrating it so succinctly.
CoSpgs4, I don’t think you clearly understand what “moral relativism” means.
On a more practical level, taking a “sin is sin” position and ignore the relative impact of a particular wrong is pretty stupid. Perhaps one could debate the merits of that position in a philosophically abstract world, but that is not a world in which I live.
No, I think I DO understand it.
You just don’t particularly like it. To justify one’s own theft by comparing it to that of Wall Street is a crock of sh*t.
It’s also the weakest point in any pro-unionist’s argument. They are stealing from unwilling, non-union people. They attempt to justify that theft by comparing it to the theft perpetuated on Wall Street.
If you don’t like that truth, too bad. It is what it is.
It’s also the weakest point in any pro-unionist’s argument. They are stealing from unwilling, non-union people. CoSpgs4
Thank you! Finally someone mentions the unmentionable. Theft. But it even goes further than that because all workers are in a sense stealing from the unwilling but screwball communists are too busy stealing my money (that I’ll have someday) to realize it.
Look. By demanding a paycheck, an employee steals his corporate employer’s money everyday he goes to work. Now some Berkley Birkenstalker will tell you that the corporation is willingly paying the money but that is false and a ruse. Do you think the employer WANTS to pay the worker money? Of course not. Why would it? The American corporation is unfairly put in a position where it HAS TO pay its workers.
Stemming from liberal, big-government policies shoved down American’s throats in the 1860’s and the 1930’s, nowadays the American worker has the corporation over a barrel and will not show up to work if not paid. This is a form of extortion that directly robs the upper management and shareholders of what is rightfully theirs and therefore is theft of the unwilling.
Worker compensation, benefits and labor laws are theft. Thank goodness America is becoming more business friendly. Union busting, outsourcing, overworking and underpaying are needed defense mechanisms that corporations now can utilize to combat this theft.
Ha! Thanks, Rio.
Charming letter from a spry old guy from Texas…
“Dear Editor: I will be 89 years old this year. I served as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division in Europe during World War II. Consequently, I studied Adolf Hitler. One of his first acts as chancellor of Germany was to get rid of the unions: raiding union halls, busting heads and arresting union officials.
The current bill in the Wisconsin Legislature to eliminate the union membership of public employees is a fascist act. I guess you have many fascists in Wisconsin. Citizens of Wisconsin: Vote them out.
William L. Bonning”
San Benito, Texas
Charming letter from a spry old guy from Texas…
And even at age 89, I wouldn’t mess with ‘im!
The American corporation is unfairly put in a position where it HAS TO pay its workers.
That’s awesome :-).
And speaking of this:
I studied Adolf Hitler. One of his first acts as chancellor of Germany was to get rid of the unions: raiding union halls, busting heads and arresting union officials.
He was also big on gun control if I’ve heard right. So if a person believes in labor AND the 2nd amendment, who is he supposed to vote for? Whatever PTB that managed to get those two things championed by opposite parties in a two-party system certainly earned his money that day.
Pushing someone is not the same thing as stabbing them in the chest with a butcher knife.
The janitor is not stealing. The Wall Street looting of the taxpayer is stealing.
I too find it kind of silly that we are grousing about union fatcats while taking our eye off the ball, taking our eye off of the people who caused these titanic financial implosions.
I agree in part, but why isn’t Geitner, Rangle, or Sibelious doing time in the Big House for income tax evasion. The Bamster wants to keep his YES people around!
In my experience, unions are made up of people. Some are slackers and some are passionate about their work.
The “problem” is not that we have unions. The Problem is that we have debt and irresponsible spending at every level, from personal to FedGov, and the the leadership class are/have become corrupt.
BINGO
Never let a good crisis go to waste is playing out before our eyes. Only a small minority of gov and private workers are unionized.
“Never let a good crisis go to waste…”
The Wisconsin governor’s office certainly has shown he understands this principle.
“Only a small minority of gov and private workers are unionized.”
From data referenced below,
PUBLIC sector = 36%, PRIVATE sector = 7%.
Where is that hard boiled motivated negotiator on the public sector management side? Answer: They don’t exist.
From http://www.bls.gov website:
Highlights from the 2010 data:
–The union membership rate for public sector workers (36.2 percent) was substantially higher than the rate for private sector workers (6.9 percent).
(See table 3.)
–Workers in education, training, and library occupations had the highest unionization rate at 37.1 percent. (See table 3.)
–Black workers were more likely to be union members than were white, Asian, or Hispanic workers. (See table 1.)
–Among states, New York had the highest union membership rate (24.2 percent) and North Carolina had the lowest rate (3.2 percent). (See table 5.)
Good find.
And we can also add that private sector unions BENEFIT from public sector unions. It’s the weakening of the private sector unions that has enabled the last bastion of the middle class (public unions, and the few remaining private unions) to be threatened.
It takes a lot of coin to get the dead voters up to vote. they don’t vote for cheap.
The truth is simple. From the dawn of man, until the 1900s, when you got too old to work, your kids took care of you.
Some how we got this idea that we could take enough from our kids via higher prices on goods allowing pensions and higher taxes via Social Security, that we could live to out 90s in a lifestyle that was comerable to that which we had when we were working.
Truth is, any company that pays pensions to prior generations of workers, is undercut by a newer company that doesn’t pay pensions, and goes out of business.
Now, pretty much only governemnt and utilities, which do not have to worry about competition undercuttng them and putting them out of business offer pensions.
Truth is, Social Security was only payable because of a growing population and ever increasing tax rates.
The battle is between not between private and public. The battle is not between capitalists and labor.
The battle is between those that think they are getting their “golden years” were promised, and those that are expected to, but can not possibly actually pay for it.
There are half as many GenX as would be needed to privide my parents (now 70) and the Baby Boomers the kind of retiremnt they were promised.
It is time for everyone that is planning a nice retirement to wake the F up and realize that it simply can not possibly happen.
“The truth is simple. From the dawn of man, until the 1900s, when you got too old to work, your kids took care of you.”
I think life expectancy was something like 35-40 years back then, so you usually dropped dead while still “young”. Very old people were rare.
I would have died at 43 back in the good old days (appendicitis) and I wouldn’ have needed a pension either.
Well dammit it’s time to institute those death panels Ol’Bammy is uh rootin’ fer and get rid of dem over 43 peeples!!! No need for health insurance then right Martha? Then we can have us a tee pardee!
The death panels already exist. They work for the insurance companies and the authors of Medicaid eligability rules.
We simply expect that 65+ year-olds face the same death panels as everyone else. Well, actualy… expect is the wrong word. More like, it is INEVITABLE that 65+ year-olds will have to face the same death panels as everyone else.
Hey, whenever somebody can show the MATHEMATICS of how the States or the Feds can ever pay the entitlements already promised, please share them. You have a Nobel prize awaiting, if not sainthood.
Until then, defaulting on all Treasury and State muni securities seems like the thing to do. Then, confiscate all assets of the Fed and the TBTF banks, using our well armed militias known as the Army, Navy and Marines.
A little force majeure in the morning wouldn’t hurt our feelings.
High death rates to childhood disease was a significant cause of low life expatency in the 1800s. For example, in 1850, life expactancy fro birt was 38 years, but if you could make it to 10, then on avereage you could expect to make it another 48 years to 58. If you made it to 20, you’d have an average life expectancy of 40 more years to 60. If you made it to 30, then you’d average another 35 years to 65.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005140.html
By 2000, we’d almost doubled the life expectancy for a new born, from 38 years in 1850 to 75 years.
However, when looking at what that does to retirement…
In 1850, if you could make it to 60, then on average you could expect another 15-16 years or so. In 2000, if you made it to 60, then you could expect another 20 years.
Adding an extra 4.5 years to the end of the average 60 year-old’s life is NOT the cause of our problems.
The cause of our problems is the massive baby bust that happend in the late 60s and early 70s, and the lack of echo boom in the 1980s.
There are 1.6 baby boomers paying for the retirement of each person in their parent’s generation.
When the peak of baby boomer retirement hits in a decade, there will only be .8 gen Xer payng for each baby boomer.
There are half as many of us as needed to pay their retirement.
The “half as many of us” is a MUCH bigger factor than the them living 25% longer after age 60.
I’m still waiting for alpha to post a link to the figures, but he says that Gen Y outnumbers boomers.
Crikey! Do I have to do everything for you people? You could have just googled the first line of my quote, but Noooo…
“In the United States, the actual “Echo Boom” refers to the surge in live births starting in 1982. This new “baby boom” period spanned thirteen years, continuing through 1995.[8][9][10][43] Today, there are approximately 80 million Echo Boomers.[9]”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Y
“Seventy-six million American children were born between 1945 and 1964,”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomer
Note that there are 80 million echo boomers born in just a 13 year span, whereas the baby boomers numbered only 76 million in a nineteen year span. Not to mention many boomers have already kicked the can.
There’s no demographic reason we shouldn’t receive our social security. Just political rhetoric from the usual suspects.
Thanks.
So we see once again they are flat out lying to us and have been for the last 20 years.
Comment by darrell_in_phoenix
2011-02-21 13:28:34
High death rates to childhood disease was a significant cause of low life expatency in the 1800s. For example, in 1850, life expactancy fro birt was 38 years, but if you could make it to 10, then on avereage you could expect to make it another 48 years to 58. If you made it to 20, you’d have an average life expectancy of 40 more years to 60. If you made it to 30, then you’d average another 35 years to 65.
——————-
Exactly. Thank you, darrell.
“I think life expectancy was something like 35-40 years back then, so you usually dropped dead while still “young”. Very old people were rare.”
I think what you’ll find is the poorer communities and worker/laborers had a lower life expectancy. The wealthy lived to about the same time age we do now. Consider the age of most of the founding fathers at death or most of the early Presidents. Go into a historically wealthy community and check out their headstones. Man if that fact right there isn’t an argument for the progress brought about by early unions, I don’t know what is. (Safety regulations, child labor laws, 40 hour work week) The problem was always, as in all systems, that no one checked the growth of hubris in the power structure.
As part of that debate, also posted this suggestion WRT California’s budget problems. Any thoughts, input, or opinions would be greatly appreciated.
——————–
My suggestions for fixing California’s budget problems:
1. Roll back the pension boost enacted by Gray Davis (and friends) from 3% @XX to 2% @ 55 for public safety workers. I’m an ardent supporter of defined-benefit pension plans, but this increase was totally irresponsible, and I said so back then. Because this increase has been there for so long, and because many older workers have adjusted their finances because of it, those with 10 years or less left before retirement will need a lump payment, perhaps of $50K-$150K (a drop in the bucket when compared to the relative savings) in order to make up for the fact that they are too close to retirement to make up the difference.
2. Cut pay of municipal and state workers by 10%, if they haven’t already been cut (many have).
3. Get serious about illegal immigration, and either demand that the federal government supports all of the illegals and their children, OR charge the employers of illegal immigrants for **every single benefit** used by their workers AND their dependents (legal or not), and include infrastrucuture expenses AND the expenses related to administering this program.
[If we "fix" the illegal immigration problem, it will eliminate about 25-40% of the costs associated with education and prisons, and possibly "welfare" programs -- all of these being the largest expenses in the state.]
4. Get rid of Prop 13 protection for all residences except a SINGLE, primary residence. Eliminate inheritability of Prop 13 protection IF the heir intends to “step-up” the cost basis upon death of a parent.
5. Get rid of Prop 13 protection for all commercial properties except for a SINGLE property (held by an individual or a trust/LLC controlled by that person). Eliminate the ability to pass Prop 13 protection from seller to buyer via corporate/LLC loopholes.
Once those things are done, see where everything stands, and then raise certain taxes, if necessary. I have a feeling we’d end up with a surplus if we enacted the changes noted above, though.
One note…we’ve already largely debated the pension issue. I’d like to keep the focus more on the other ideas, or the ideas as a whole.
The bottom line on the pension issue: Ben Bernanke’s attempts to levitate the markets into perpetuity while inflating away the US government’s debts and obligations (and exporting inflation to countries like China) are going to destroy the value of pensions. Yes, the agreed-on amounts will be paid, but hyperinflation will have destroyed the buying power.
Does anybody know any wheelbarrow manufactorers? I’m looking to go long.
“Yes, the agreed-on amounts will be paid, but hyperinflation will have destroyed the buying power.”
Not sure about the hyperinflation (or even what the exact definition of the term is, for that matter), but I generally agree with you that inflation is preferred to outright default on pensions and other fixed-dollar obligations in the Fed’s political calculus; hence inflation is the likely way forward, provided it can be successfully engineered.
Totally agree, PB: inflations is the less politically-volatile solution, so inflation is the likely outcome. Default is much more likely to result in political upheaval.
So inflation it is, but not right away.
Inflation has been raging since early 2009, when the Fed/govt started pouring gas on the fire.
Don’t look at the CPI, look at asset prices, and think about where they *should* be, and where they *would* be, if not for all the money pumping and govt guarantees.
Look at stocks, bonds, commodities, housing, etc…and there is plenty of evidence that inflation has been with us awhile.
Just to note, #3 (illegal immigration) would force the employers to realize the TRUE cost of illegal employees, and if they have to pay the reat cost, they might actually find that (gasp!) Americans would be “willing to do those jobs.”
If people only knew how much they subsidize not only illegal immigration, but the profits of the companies that use illegal labor and the “savings” of individuals who employ illegals as maids and landscapers, perhaps there would be more protest.
Housing: It used to be that the larger farmers provided housing for their seasonal and migrant workers and bore the costs. However, in just our small area we have FIVE sprawling taxpayer subsidized apartment complexes for “farmworkers” and THREE USDA subsidized sprawling home developments. (the developments are open to citizens who are not farmworkers, gee, thanks, provided they put in sweat equity as a down payment). Thus, the farmers have shifted the cost of housing to the taxpayer.
Food: While illegals are not eligible for food stamps, they can get them for their American born children. The red, white and blue cards are a real popular item around here.
Medical: Decades ago, local farmers started a charity clinic to provide medical care to their workers. Somehow this got turned over to the county, so this is another way that taxpayers got the costs of medical care of illegal workers shifted to them. I use the place, since I’m paying for it. I think everyone in Hillsborough County should. It’s a helluva lot better than an HMO. Emergency medical care, however, is not covered. The hospitals take the hit for that, and pass the costs on. Guess who pays for the ambulance?
Education: The taxpayer bears the full burden of this, including ESOL and bilingual teachers, etc.
Crime: The taxpayer also pays the cost of this, including the recent case, which I will post in a separate link, of the guy who molested a chihauhua. A couple of years ago we had a gang of three of these illegals abduct and repeatedly rape two local women who were closing down a bar and grill. Only recently has the case finally ground to a depressing close, with all three going to jail. Not only do we bear the costs of the perps’ incarceration, but one of them leaves behind a son he fathered with his illegal immigrant girlfriend. Guess who is paying for the son’s food, welfare, health and education?
Thus do companies and even individuals shift the burden, both financial and emotional, to the taxpayer.
To solve the emergency room bills, have patients sign personal notes for costs, the state buys the personal notes(at a discount), and collects any funds from the income tax refund, or schedules it as a tax to be collected with the income tax for the next 20-30 years, and , if not paid, collected with the estate tax.
Might work, might not, but may be worth trying.
Just wait until Mexico runs out of oil…
It’s a tradeoff with an externality: Those who employ them get to pay far less for labor, but the CA state tax base bears many costs of providing them with services on which they pay no taxes.
Sounds like yet another way to privatize the profits and socialize the losses.
Yes, exactly the point I was trying to make.
We taxpayers are subsidizing the *employers* of the illegal immigrants.
Let us know when you run for office
I’ll second your prop 13 response if we also do away with the home mortgage interest deduction as well.
Safety members as have teachers become a sacred cow in the pension world. Safety retirement is a hoax. Go back to when it was first enacted and see the false studies that backed it up. See the Ventura decision that added enormous extra income to their retirement that was not intended. I’ll with you on the roll back to 2% from the current 3%. But let’s base final retirement on the final 5 years (high) average and cut out the crap of uniform allowance, etc to count as paid compensation toward retirement.
In my dream world a Senator’s retirement would be straight social security, just like we the people. His/her medical coverage would be medicare, just like we the people. All pay increases for said Senator would be voted on by …….. we the people. I would make military duty for offspring of all Senators mandatory. If said Senators vote for war , or merely authorize funding for ‘democracy building’, little Johhny & Suzy Senator are going right where the action is.
In my dream world there is no such thing as an anchor baby. Instead we would have anchor politicians, bankers, & Wall Street con-men. As in they would be lashed onto deployed anchors (Think of the fishing possibilities!). I would leave no stone unturned when investigating fraud and corruption. To think we let Madoff plead guilty boggles my mind. I would want to know everything about everybody who was involved. I bet the results would surprise some of us.
In my dream world, if a business was found to have illegals under their employ, said business would be liquidated with all proceeds going to the Social Security system. Or some other government system that has been decimated my non-contributing illegal aliens. The former business owner would do hard time. It would be between he and his cell mate who the husband would be.
In my dream world all budgets, both state and federal, would be balanced annually. I would set aside a small portion of this budget for a rainy day fund. I would make our currency sound money. I would give the ability to create it back to we the people.
In my dream world our borders would be secure. But you would have the ability to travel freely within our nations borders, without harassment. There would be no TSA, Homeland Security, Czars, or any of the other unconstitutional BS we have been subjected to. Anyone caught referring to the Constitution as a “living document” would get a fork in the eye. I would close down every one of our overseas military bases. A dirty little secret is we will be anyway when our currency collapses. See the former USSR for guidance.
In my dream world, English would be the national language. Anyone would be free to speak whatever language they preferred but all government business would be conducted in English. You would still be able to get bi-lingual labels on all Home Depot products.
In my dream world you would pay all costs when you lose a court case.
In my dream world we would greatly reduce the third party administrative costs associated with health care insurance. We would eliminate frivolous medical lawsuits, I’m still dreaming’ bear with me. We would provide a minimum level of care for all legal citizens. No hairplugs or penile extensions, I know damn!
In my dream world there wouldn’t be any parades to celebrate your ‘alternative’ lifestyle. If you want to celebrate it, do it in the privacy of your own home. If little Johnny has two mommys I certainly don’t want to hear about it. There would also be a ‘white history’ month. Seems everybody else in the color spectrum gets some face time, why not us? Leave your liberal guilt elsewhere.
Oh and before I wake up, you would have to put 20% down for all home purchases and I would appoint Ben Jones Secretary of the Treasury. I would have to verify he was delinquent on his taxes before any official nomination, of course.
May I copy and send to some of my friends?
By all means Rancher. I hope you enjoyed it.
Ca renter …I don’t believe they have the right to adjust any
worker bee benefits until they actually tackle the corruption of Wall Street/Bankers ,lack of fair trade policies and tariffs , and the price fixing gouging of the Health Care Monopoly system that has put all systems into lack of balance. Real great for Wall Street /Corporate that they got trillions in bail outs with no reform and everybody else should pay .
I have written many times on how much of a family budget should go to what to have a sustainable economy with a strong middle class . Any lack of balance to that just means that some sector is getting more than a balanced share therefore its ill-gotten gain .
How much should the 3/5’s people get?
3/5??
Let us know when you run for office, too!
Amen, brothah!
“To think we let Madoff plead guilty boggles my mind. I would want to know everything about everybody who was involved. I bet the results would surprise some of us.”
Is the rendition program still in operation?
“There would also be a ‘white history’ month. Seems everybody else in the color spectrum gets some face time, why not us? Leave your liberal guilt elsewhere.”
Haha, White history month is 24/7, 365 days a year. Turn on ANY TV, and see nothing but White peoples perspectives and beliefs, and history (aka Western civilization) is ALL about White people. What else do you people want?!?
salinas ron,
Agree with you on all your points, and would be more than happy to see the MID go away.
BTW, uniform allowances do not count toward pensions in any of the instances I’m aware of. They also average the last three years or so, in many cases. I have no problem averaging the last five.
Here in AZ we decided to get serious with illegal immigration back in 2007 with the manditory everify law. Prior to this, I couls walk in off the street saying my name is John Smith and my social is 111111111, and as long as I could flash a drivers license and SS card that I bought on the street for $20,the emloyeer could claim he didn’t know the docs were fake. The employee wasn’t guilty of identity thefy because the name and SSN were not of a real person.
Plausable deniability of knowledge.
The 2007 law said that if an employeer chooses to not run an employee through everify (you put in a name and SSN and the computer says yes they match or no they don’t), then that is evidence they knew the person was an illegal.
No more plausabile deniability of knowledge.
When the law was about to go into effect, there was this big argument as to whether the law only applied to new hires, or if it applied to ALL existing employees to. The courts said, ALL employees, not just new hires.
As the law was about to go into effect, companies were running existing employees, and firing illegals. Illegals were packing up and leaving. OHS NOS!!!!!!
We’re a state where the economy IS construciton and population growth. We already have hundreds of thousands of houses more than we need, and now we’re going to make a million or more illegals pack up and leave??? A house in Phoenix wouldn’t be worth $.02 if 20% of our population packed up and hit the road!!!
So, the legislature rushed through a change to make the law only apply to new hires. We don’t want to get rid of our existing illegals… at least not yet. We just want to discourage more from coming here…. Or, at least, make the citizens think we are working to make sure no more come here.
Ask yourself… what would happen to CA’s economy, house prices, etc. if 20% or more of the population packed up and headed back to whatever country they came from?
It would probably improve, even though housing prices (and rents) would likely fall, which I think is a good thing.
When they did the “Day Without a Mexican” thing a few years back, everyone was commenting about how nice everything was — no crowds, no traffic, everything was nice and peaceful. It would do us a lot of good in CA to get rid of a few million people. We’re overcrowded, and don’t have enough water to keep up with the population growth.
Please help me understand this. I would be glad to trade a 1% anticipated pension reduction in exchange for an upfront payment of $50K - $150K. What am I missing here? Is the trough THAT gold laced?
Other post didn’t go through, so please forgive me if this double-posts.
This, regarding the public service unions:
People are being intentionally fooled into thinking that the division of power lies between public and private sector workers. It doesn’t.
The division of power lies between labor and capitalists (specifically refering to those who do not labor for their money, but take a portion from the productivity/labor provided by others — those who provide capital, vs. labor). It always has, and it always will. Do not believe what you are told to believe by those who seek to benefit at your expense. Do your own research and look for EVIDENCE of what they are telling you to be true. You won’t find it.
OTOH, there is plenty of evidence to show that a more equitable allocation of resources results in a safer, more productive society and overall better quality of life for the majority of the working people.
They are using “divide and conquer” techniques to tear this country apart. It’s not a coincidence that the propaganda regarding “evil unions” began as the anger against the bailouts of the financial industry was beginning to build (which is what the Tea Party was originally about, before it was co-opted by the Republicans).
—————-
As has been mentioned here before, the private sector workers benefit from public unions because they help set a floor for wages and benefits.
If the disparity between public and private compensation becomes too great, workers will migrate to the public sector, forcing private sector employers to compete by increasing compensation and/or other perks.
IMHO, if the unions in Wisconsin fail, this will mark the begining of the next leg down, and ALL employees — public and private — will see drastic cuts in their wages and benefits. I’m not sure people understand the gravity of what we’re dealing with. There will be NO floor for wages and benefits in the U.S. if public unions are destroyed. They are the only thing propping up the middle class in the U.S.
I for one abhor unions. In my life I have been forced (closed shop) to work under their leadership and they did little other than line their pockets with my money. They looked and acted like the typical Mofia hood. Work practices protected the lazy. The only time I voted for Pres. Reagan was the election after he fired the air traffic controllers and hung tough. I like conviction in the face of adversity.
You should read about work life before unions in the US.
work life before unions in the US ??
Nothing wrong with unions whatsoever….But, unions have no place in the public sector…There is no competitive force (like the private sector) that works to keep the public sector unions in check…Hence, we have water meter readers that make $84,000. per year…
The competitive force that counted the public unions is the voters. If you don’t like water meter readers who make that much, vote out the politicians that agreed to the contract that made it happen. Easy. Unless the public union members are more than 50% of the electorate?
When people don’t vote, it means that they are choosing not to fight the salaries you object to, not that they can’t.
The teachers union in my county mails out an “apple ballot” to let people know which candidates for local and state office they prefer. I voted against nearly 100% of the local candidates on their ballot. Their “power” made it just as easy to oppose them as it did to support them.
If you don’t like water meter readers who make that much, vote out the politicians that agreed to the contract that made it happen ??
And what part of the “public sector” collective bargaining don’t you understand ??
You vote the person out, so friggen what…The contract is in place…The public sector unions have a strangle-hold on the process…Thats why they are all up in arms in Wisconsin… Its not the pay or benefit cuts its “collective bargaining” that they want desperately to retain…Why ?? So they can bend the agency over the next chance they get and will get back everything that they gave up this go around and some….
And when the contract is up for renegotiation, the new politicians change it. Just because a clause exists in the current contract, doesn’t mean it has to exist in the next one.
Refusing to negotiate is to admit that when the arguing starts, the voters as a group are not going to agree with you. If the voters would agree with you, doing the negotiation out in the open is free re-election advertising.
the contract is up for renegotiation ??
So what…..Its a empty quiver for the agency because they can’t fire them and the union most likely has binding arbitration….Hell, the union Sacramento civil’s went to court over furloughs for god’s sake…
Renegotiate everything. Everything. If binding arbitration is preventing the politicians from changing the contract and there is a law requiring binding arbitration, elect people who will get rid of the binding arbitration requirement. Seriously, I don’t get the lack of imagination here. My mother was on the school committee in our home town for a while. She said that the arbitrators always sided with the teachers, because, as one of the arbitrators told her once, “you have the money.” They were right back then. But they wouldn’t be this time around.
If something can’t go on forever, it won’t. So if you want to change it, elect politicians that will change the laws so that a negotiation can happen, but don’t wave your wand and decide that the only fair rule is one where the politicians can just change anything they want without talking. Talking is good. It is where the compromise happens.
Thank you, polly.
Well one thing’s for sure, a return to a six day work week and a twelve hour work day isn’t going to do much to bolster consumer spending.
a return to a six day work week and a twelve hour work day ??
Thats what reasonable labor laws are for…No need for “unions” to protect from sweat shop labor…
There are no labor laws preventing 12 hour days & 6 day weeks.
Especially when there is the threat if layoffs.
Exempt employees don’t even get overtime.
You know how many holidays the law forces employers to give each year? Zero. Even Iran & China grants holidays to workers.
There are no labor laws preventing 12 hour days & 6 day weeks ??
NO ??? Google it….
California Labor Laws - Overtime & Minimum Wage Regulations
Where does it say they can’t make them work those hours?
And CA? They break the labor laws with impunity there.
Return? Many places have been doing this for decades. It’s what happens when you lay off a lot of people. The rest have to pick up the slack.
are you inferring CA safety workers pension is determined by taking 3% of their salary multiplied by their years of service? If that’s the case, that is TRULY outrageous and cuts do need to be made. Even 2% seems unfair to all the taxpayers paying for this…
Yes, that’s correct, in many cases.
Yes, it’s irresponsible, and unsustainable.
I believe the 2% formula is sutainable, especially if we enact the rest of what I’m proposing.
Instead of trying to tear public workers down, we should be trying to build private sector workers UP. Many private sector workers had wonderful benefits, too, at one point. However, too many people bought into the lies that “unions are bad,” and “debt equals wealth,” so they are largely reaping what they have sowed.
Corporations will ALWAYS have money on their side. The only way for workers to ensure they get what is due them as a result of THEIR labor, is to stand together and defend one another against policies that seek to strip them of their purchasing power, while enriching those who do no labor, themselves (capitalists).
Ack!…”sown,” not “sowed”
Interesting SNAFU with one Wisconsin Law Enforcement union offical and the press. He also might be between a rock n’ a hard place with his wife.
Capitol Times February 15, 2011
Crime and Courts: Troopers union official: Walker didn’t do us any favors.
Tracy Fuller is in a tight spot. As a state trooper, he might be called on to deal with protests planned this week at the Capitol. Among the protesters will be his wife, a state worker.
“When I got home from work today, she asked me if I would help her make protest signs,” he told me on Monday. “When she asked me that, I’m thinking to myself, this evening I’ll be making protest signs, and after I give her the signs I could be called to confront my own wife as she pickets the Capitol….”
http://tinyurl.com/68zoat5
It was posted on Wisconsin Law Enforement Association(WLEA) website which includes the Capitol Police as well as the State Troopers(who protect the govenor) Association, which is a different group yet their memberships overlap.
He then pulled it off the website and this story, with some corrections, followed in another news source.
TPMDC
Police Union Official Pulls Down Anti-Walker Press Release After News Coverage
Eric Kleefeld | February 20, 2011, 11:49P
Tracy Fuller, the head of the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Association, has pulled down the statement that he posted online, in which he regretted the endorsement that the Wisconsin Troopers Association — of which he is a member, but is not officially qualified to speak on its behalf — had given to Gov. Scott Walker (R).
“I am in no position to speak for the Troopers Association on any issue, other than just being — I am a member, that’s the truth. Because the reason that I am a member, and I’ll give you this piece of information, the Troopers’ Association does a lot of beneficial things in this state.”
The local CBS affiliatein Madison, Channel 3000, had reported Fuller’s statement constituted a repudiation of the endorsement by the organization itself; and we here at TPM picked up on the story. In fact, the two organizations, the WLEA and Troopers Association, are different groups with overlapping memberships — the WLEA also includes state Capitol Police, University of Wisconsin police, Department of Transportation field agents, and dispatchers for the State Patrol and Capitol Police…”
http://tinyurl.com/4zw6xhn
“When she asked me that, I’m thinking to myself, this evening I’ll be making protest signs, and after I give her the signs I could be called to confront my own wife as she pickets the Capitol..”
I just loved that line because this sort of thing is going on all over the state!
Our welcoming signs at the state borders should read…
“Welcome to Wisconsin, Land of Confusion, Union Busting and Family Adventures.
The Koch’s, the Teabaggers and lying Govenor Scott Walker”
Troopers will be next after teachers and fire fighters.
The whole pension concept is crazy in the first place if one wants to give it a little thought.
Pensions are wages paid in promises instead of actual cash, hence employers welcome them since they don’t have to lay out cash until sometime well in the future - on somebody else’s watch.
Employees welcome them as well because it gives them an excuse to spend everything they earn now instead of saving up for the lean and maybe very mean days of old age.
The promise of pensions especially work well for those folks who are bad at numbers and have little problem in depending on total strangers for their financial well-being.
The concept of pensions is an unrealistic one. Its also completely backwards in our modern credit addicted, instant-gratification society of slacker workers. As long as we are talking unrealistic, lets go really preposterous: I propose a system where a company hires you and gives you the pension up front with the promise that you will do actual work some day many years from now. Now that would really sell and attract “top talent” in our workforce.
Excellent points, combo and pressboard. The whole concept of a pension is stupid.
It’d be like if I hired someone to paint my house, with the terms being that part of the payment would be made when the job was finished, and the rest paid 40 years from now. Who would agree to such an arrangement?
But it’s even worse than that, because with a pension I’m not even promising the payments myself, I am promising that some unknown third party will pay them. This violates a basic principle of contract law, i.e. one who is not a party to a contract cannot be held liable.
one who is not a party to a contract cannot be held liable ??
Incorrect if you were born and still reside in the USA……
Pensions make a tremendous amount of sense mathematically.
In a large pool of workers, we know that a very few will live to be very old (lets say 105), a lot more will die at around the expected age (guess 82), and a few will die early (about 62). As long as the group is large, you can predict what amount will be needed to provide payments based on a formula for all of those workers until they die and they don’t need the money. The children of these workers won’t get a large money bonus if mom and dad die young, but they won’t be faced with large additional costs if mom and dad run out of money to live on when they outlive their savings.
If every worker has to save for retirement individually, there are no large populations at play. If you want to be safe, you have to assume you are going to live to 105 and save enough to live that long or risk being a burden to your children or the state or just committing suicide if you have the ability once your cash is gone. Pretty easy if you are rich and have lots of capital. Not so easy for everyone else. And yes, it will depress spending among the people who “get it.” There will be a lot who don’t get it. They will be a burden on their relatives, or something else will have to happen. Maybe giant workhouse/orphanages for the elderly who are childless or whose kids won’t take them on? Granny, meet Oliver Twist.
Oh, and LHVG, since the “person” obliged to make the payments is the government or the company and they are considered essentially immortal under US law, the “person” who made the promise does have the obligation to pay. It just isn’t a “natural person.” The fact that a different set of actual humans provide the money is irrelevant. If you want to change that, then you are talking about a major upheaval in US law. Good luck with it. It would essentially mean that corporations and governments could never enter into a contract for anything ever again because someone would be able to say that since there has been a change in a few shareholders or citizenry, the corp or government can’t be held responsible for making it promised payments. Unless you are going to provide an arbitrary cut off? Say payments 3 months into the future is OK, but 20 years isn’t? Where is the cut off?
“Pensions make a tremendous amount of sense mathematically.”
Until:
1. The ratio of retired workers to employeed workers reach a tipping point and skew the math, and …
2. The longitivity of retired workers is lengthed which furthur skews the math.
Combining 1 and 2 means the numbers will not work.
“Pensions make a tremendous amount of sense mathematically.”
It depends:
- Yes, in the case of traditional defined benefit pension plans, funded in advance of retirement out of current corporate earnings.
- No, in the case of pay-as-you-go government pension plans at a time of an advancing demographic tsunami wave of baby boomer retirements.
- The problem w/ even the mathematically sensible variety of pensions is time-consistency. Like Lucy, who somehow always succumbed to the temptation to pull the football away from Charlie Brown just as he was about to kick it, a greedy CEO will always face the temptation to try to reduce promised pension liabilities once the work to earn them has already been conducted, in order to increase corporate profits. Charlie Brown’s retirement is hard to guarantee with many greedy and dishonest CEOs on the loose.
People living longer than they expect is just as much a problem with individual saving as with pensions.
Current workers aren’t supposed to be supporting current retirees. That money is supposed to already be there. The fact that regulators and employees didn’t insist on proper funding of pensions is a problem of implementation, not a problem with the concept.
Current workers supporting current retirees is a problem with Social Security, but since the SS formula doesn’t involve anything like 3% per year of service based on an average of highest 3 years of salary defined to include overtime and other absurdities, that system is in comparatively good shape if you compare it to CAPERS and a few others.
The fact that a different set of actual humans provide the money is irrelevant. If you want to change that, then you are talking about a major upheaval in US law.
The corporate legal fiction concept has run its course. At some point, reality intrudes and you have to deal with actual people. And no amount of regulation can fix a concept that is flawed from the start.
Repealing corporate law would be an upheaval, but so were the acts of guaranteeing freedom of speech in writing and abolishing slavery. More accurately, abolishing corporations (or eliminating their right to own property and be parties to lawsuits) would reverse a century or so of the ossifying and highly unfortunate trend of creating government-chartered business cartels.
And yes, I understand the idea of mathematical pooling of risk. But as with other economies of scale in corporations, the benefits are outweighed by the social costs. The mathematical idea doesn’t take into account the human factors– unacceptable concentration of power, the agency problem, the waste and bureaucracy.
The legal fiction of corporations (or something like it) has existed since the middle ages. Good luck getting rid of it.
The continuing myth that the baby boom generation is the largest generation. Someone do the Math.
The Boomers are the greediest generation.
The company I work for USED to have a fully funded pension plan, but not anymore. That’s because they pretended they were going to get an eight-plus percent return on the stash they had piled up so they didn’t stick any more money into the stash. Oops.
That’s one strike against retirees. Another strike is the company has almost as many people retired as they have working. Retired workers do not produce; this puts them in a very precarious position.
Also - strike three - the company I work for wants to maintain its legacy of increasing the dividend it pays out every year, but the revenues just are not there. Soooo … to keep the dividend increasing the company is going to have to somehow cut costs.
“to keep the dividend increasing the company is going to have to somehow cut costs”
Hasn’t this been the mantra of Corporate America for the past 3-4 decades?
Increasing the dividend isn’t much of a problem when the economy is expanding, it’s when the economy contracts that it becomes a problem.
Rising revenues - even if they are rising only because of inflation - can translate into rising earnings and hence rising dividends. This rise may be nominal rather than real but nevertheless it is a rise. But in a contracting economy something very real has to give.
“That’s because they pretended they were going to get an eight-plus percent return on the stash they had piled up so they didn’t stick any more money into the stash.”
No pension manager could have seen the Fed’s ‘extended period of low rates to get the economy back on its feet’ coming!
The number of retired workers is irrelevant since the money owed to them was booked and set aside while they were still working.
‘the money owed to them was booked and set aside’
I remember studying pension accounting in college. It is ‘booked’, but the rules don’t require that it be set aside.
“That’s because they pretended they were going to get an eight-plus percent return
Hahaha. I remember that - the ol’ “conservative” 8 percent return. Hahahaha… *weeps*
“…rules don’t require that it be set aside.”
True for government pensions, only partially true for private, as a key provision of ERISA (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) was to require employers to fund private defined benefit pension liabilities in advance. ‘Pension liability’ as defined by ERISA enabled employers to discount future pension payments for anticipated return on pension fund investments and probability of exit from the plan (i.e. pension costs reductions due to various reasons, including death, disability, termination of employment, etc). You might imagine what problems arise with assumed returns on pension funds when the economy shifts from double-digit returns on pension funds to a period of near-zero returns as we are currently enjoying (the image of a train rounding the bend to cross a canyon with a washed-out bridge comes to mind).
A key reason we had a 401(K) revolution, which effectively ended the US era of private defined benefit pension plans, was that it enabled employers to shift retirement liability away from private corporations to their employees. Who would have thought that ERISA, which was intended to improve US retirement income security, would have the unintended consequence of destroying the very system it was supposed to strengthen?
Who would have thought that ERISA, which was intended to improve US retirement income security, would have the unintended consequence of destroying the very system it was supposed to strengthen?
Well…considering it passed, I bet somebody did.
“Well…considering it passed, I bet somebody did.”
That thought crossed my mind as I wrote the above post…
“The whole pension concept is crazy in the first place if one wants to give it a little thought.”
The concept of a properly-designed and administered defined benefit pension system, which is to set aside money into a pension fund while current employees are working in advance of when it will be needed to fund their retirements, seems reasonable enough. This might even work in a society whose banking system was subject to a firm rule of law and whose politicians and corporate leaders who were honest.
The only thing pensions are incompatible with is the insatiable desire for profits that grow faster than revenues.
BINGO.
X2
“Employees welcome them as well because it gives them an excuse to spend everything they earn now instead of saving up for the lean and maybe very mean days of old age.”
According to my mom, her father (whom I never met, due to his untimely demise) recognized in 1935 that the Social Security system would destroy American households’ habit of thrift.
I wonder how much longer it will take the many geniuses who call themselves economists to come to this conclusion?
“American households’ habit of thrift.”
When was this period of thrift? The 1920s?
BINGO!!!
“Employees welcome them as well because it gives them an excuse to spend everything they earn now instead of saving up for the lean and maybe very mean days of old age. “
Thank god there’s no inflation or jobs being offshored or downsizing or wage concessions or illensses.
‘a company hires you and gives you the pension up front’
when they blow it and end up broke, we the taxpayers will still have to pick up the pieces.
Not so much. The PBGC only insures a small part of pensions that blow up; not like the FDIC, which makes depositors whole on up to $250,000 in an insured account. A firm that unloads a pension on the PBGC is engaging in an act not unlike that of a homeowner walking away from a mortgage, with the pensioners filling a role analogous to that of a lender who ends up holding the bag on falling-knife collateral.
The PBGC is not currently funded the government.
Not insurance; welfare. Because we can’t *let people go starving* and all that, we will be forced to take care of them.
when they blow it and end up broke, we the taxpayers will still have to pick up the pieces ??
Yes…GM & AIG are just your latest examples…
“The only way for workers to ensure they get what is due them as a result of THEIR labor”
Many do and it is based purely on their labor and not those in the herd around them. While visiting my daughter in LA I visited with some of her high school friends who have gone in and out of employment. All are very active, not letting this economy take them down. One has a book coming out in December, another just landed a $20K increase in salary to $90K based on his contributions at work (IT).
Wall Street American destroyed the value of many pension plans and I can’t help but think this is a big effort to avoid the piper on Wall Street paying for their crimes regarding those funds
.Wall Street and Corporations are trying to protect themselves from
the private sector comparing themselves to the Government wage sector while wanting people to accept underfunded pension plans that was their responsibility to fund proper . When inflation hits those salaries and fixed benefits they aren’t going to have as much buying power in the future either .
With the exception of some of the formulas that pad pension funds based on overtime and things like that ,I’m not that interested in
taking benefits away from workers in the public or private sector .
What I am more interested in is attacking the Health Care Monopolies that make the cost of the defined health care benefits unsustainable .I believe health care costs can be reduced by 50% . I’m interesting in attacking the systems of the Capitalist of Wall Street that are non-productive casinos that want the lions share of profit at the expense of the Government and Private sector bee-hive workers .
Everything boils down to what type of systems you have and how much goes into the coffers of the various powers that vie
for the money . The systems worked for years until various
monopolies and corruptions in the systems sought to get more than a balanced economy could sustain .
The speculators have taken on a more important position in
the scheme of things than is sustainable or productive ,in fact they have mis-allocated resources . This is the sector that should pay for years for their greed .
I want 50 Billion back from Warren Buffet , 500 billion from the personal wealth of the Power Brokers /Bankers of Wall Street that created this mess, and every Corporation that has benefited from the 10 year cycle needs to pay back the money from the fake systems . A tax to Corporation for 10 years for underfunding pension plans . A tax for 10 years to make up for the loopholes that were given for outsourcing and other government welfare that screwed up our economic balance ,and immediate new laws that tax anything that is anti-USA growth
for jobs for American workers .
Also of course the immigration problem is taxing the system and it’s not sustainable but as usual those creeps in power want to avoid addressing the problems and take it out of hide of the wrong people . Ca renter had great suggestions regarding dealing with those problems that are always kicked down the road .
It’s apparent that all the solutions that the Power Brokers are coming up with are a sure way for Wall Street and Corporation America and Monopolies to come out on top .
When Wall Street and Corporations and Corporation Monopolies
like Health Care sought to change the entire financial systems
by their new form of greed ,it created much of the problems
we face now . It won’t take away the fact that Medicare is unsustainable ,but again I say in part that is due to the Health Care Monopoly price fixing . For God sakes they showed their
true colors when they raised health care prices in a recession .
Think about this , if less money goes into the hands of the worker ,more money goes into the hands of people that don’t have the welfare of America at heart . Government workers are creating jobs in the private sector by their spending power ,
think about that . Now its just a matter of getting the private sector up to par so millions don’t seep into poverty .
Not to say that some Unions don’t need some adjustments based on policies made under a false economy ,just like the housing prices were determined for about a decade under false pretenses created by the financial sector .
Just my 2 cents that they aren’t approaching the problems in a just and fair and balanced manner while they never want to look at the true Culprits to the problems like Industry giving our jobs away to foreign countries and Monopolies price fixing
instead of capitalist competing within a closed system (not using foreign slave wage monopolies to reduce Americans standard of living ).
I say ,stop looking at taking it out of the hide of the worker bee ,either Government or private, and solve the real lack of balance and Government welfare to the top .Not to say that some Union Contracts weren’t sustainable and need some adjustments .
What I am more interested in is attacking the Health Care Monopolies that make the cost of the defined health care benefits unsustainable .I believe health care costs can be reduced by 50% . I’m interesting in attacking the systems of the Capitalist of Wall Street that are non-productive casinos that want the lions share of profit at the expense of the Government and Private sector bee-hive workers .
Count me in!
Work for the abolishment of health insurance!
That is the basic cause of high medical costs!
What did your parents do before there was health insurance?
they kept their money and paid the doctor and hospital bills directly.
I have three children, and each of them was paid for before the birth with payments to the doctor and the hospital so there was no additional costs to me, and , by the way, that included 5 days in the hospital for the wife, which was standard practice at that time.
Soon as heallh insurance came up, all of the costs for medical procedures went up , and are still going up.
My doctor raised his office visit cost by 100% when the medical insurance plan came in , because he had to pay for the insurance company costs.
Oh, well, believe it or not!
Agreed.
There should be no health insurance for anyone, period. Not through corporations or through government.
If everyone paid for their costs directly, costs would drop precipitously. Not only would competition be restored, but numerous, massive efficiencies would be introduced.
Lawyers and the larger Political Class would hate this, of course.
Another great post, Wiz! I agree, they are trying to make public sector workers the scapegoats for Wall Street and the regulators who enabled them to destroy our economy.
The public sector workers did NOT cause the financial crisis. The bankers did, and THEY should be the ones who pay the price.
Thanks for your input.
I want $10 billion from Sen. Schumer, who caused the run on Indy Mac. Add your favorite politician here.
Silver seems to be doing well.
Mine is getting tarnished slightly.
The fingerprints do show.
“Doing well”? It’s hitting 31-year highs.
http://www.kitco.com/market/
You pumper.
Kind of like “Drive ‘til you qualify” - precious metals edition.
Foreclosure mediators: Banks pushed us to fail
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 9:10 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 20, 2011
Florida’s Supreme Court sought a foreclosure lifeline in forcing banks and borrowers to mediation. It was hoped a judicial referee could help unclog court dockets and free struggling borrowers.
But in documents obtained by The Palm Beach Post and described in a recent court order, mediators complain lenders and their attorneys are stifling the system by pressuring negotiations to end in a stalemate.
In some cases, mediators report that deals were struck for trial payment plans or to seek a loan modification, but that banks or their attorneys asked for the meeting to be recorded as an impasse.
The motive for a deadlock, homeowner advocates say, is money. Declaring a different outcome stalls the process and could mean a return to mediation if an agreement falls through. At the same time, several of the state’s large foreclosure law firms also run title companies, which can pick up business when a home is repossessed.
An estimated 350,615 foreclosures clog Florida courts. Many experts argue it is not until those cases clear that Florida’s economy and real estate market will rebound. The mediation program, which is only for homesteaded properties, was designed to reduce judicial workload and give borrowers a chance to save their homes.
More than a year after mediation became a required step, however, barriers including the impasse complaints and trouble contacting borrowers have limited the program’s success.
A December report on seven of Florida’s 20 circuit courts found just 6 percent of homeowners referred to mediation left the negotiating table with an agreement. One mediation management company says that agreement rate is lower than reality because of how mediations are tallied.
The program has seen similar results in Palm Beach County. Between July and September, 1,949 foreclosures were referred to mediation. Of those, 152 mediations were conducted, with 27 ending in a written settlement.
“Settlement in these cases is not in the economic interest of the foreclosure law firms or servicers handling the foreclosures,” said Boca Raton foreclosure defense attorney Ron Kaniuk of Ricardo, Wasylik & Kaniuk. “The law firms not only do the foreclosure work, they do the evictions and the bank-owned home sales and the title work, so if they modify a loan, if they come to a settlement and the foreclosure case ends, their work ends.”
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/foreclosures/foreclosure-mediators-banks-pushed-us-to-fail-1270055.html - -
It’s all matter of squeezing the last drop of blood from home-debtor TurnipHeads.
Walk away. It’s precisely what the bank doesn’t want. And walking away is the TurnipHeads only means of recovering from the mistake of paying a grossly inflated price for a house.
It seems like capitalism could work beautifully in this instance if the TurnipHeads and the banks who loaned them the money were just enabled to sort it out between themselves, without putting others (e.g. taxpayers) who were nonparties to the TurnipHead-lending transactions on the hook for bailouts.
I agree but the problem with that scenario is that the balance of power is massively tilted in the banks favor. The OnionHeads don’t stand a chance.
Don’t you think that if the government completely stepped back and and washed its hands of any bailouts, and the foreclosure mess that the banks would be more inclined to negotiate with FBs?
I’m personally against principal reductions, but if the MBS holders would concern themselves with “return of capital” rather than “return on capital”, they might be able to work something out. Folks who aren’t happy with just a rate reduction and/or extension of terms should just pack their boxes now. But there are a lot of sentimental folks and “I made a promise” folks out there who might reach a deal… but not as long as the banks are holding out for government cheese.
“…but not as long as the banks are holding out for government cheese.”
And meanwhile, the vacant houses are crumbling into desuetude… seems like quite a waste to me, but then I don’t work for HUD.
comment from
Foreclosure mediators: Banks pushed us to fail
I’m a deadbeat!!! But, I am not broke, destitute and struggling to stay in a home where I will never recoup my money. 31 months and still have not been scheduled for an initial hearing. Not even scheduled for mediation. The funny thing is that the person who buys this house will buy for less than half. Why should he or she benefit from my downfall? I will use the system just as the banks and lawyers do. All you who stand in judgement Kiss my A##
diver4life
12:04 PM, 2/21/2011
Why should he or she benefit from my downfall?
I was prepared to agree with him until this statement. My answer would be “because he or she has been living at a much lower standard of living while you’ve been living beyond your means all these years and his or her sacrifice deserves to be rewarded”?
Not sure if this was posted already, but thought it was interesting. This is regarding the U.K., but is entirely applicable to the U.S. It’s not the whole article, but I apologize, Ben, if it’s too much. There’s just so much good stuff here! It’s important that everyone understands how the financial crisis is performing the same way in most developed nations, and that it is the result of the financial industry’s misdeeds, not the public unions.
———————
Rich Get Richer When Governments Tout Austerity: Matthew Lynn
By Matthew Lynn - Feb 7, 2011 4:00 PM PT Bloomberg Opinion
Remember all that stuff about how the credit crunch was going to usher in a new age of austerity? The financial industry would shrink; the gulf between the haves and the have-nots would close; and taxes would rise for the top earners, forcing them to contribute more to society.
Well, guess what? It didn’t happen.
In fact, we just had a “rich-get-richer” recession. U.K. data suggest the gap between the wealthy and the poor has widened. We can give up any idea that it is going to close by itself. The government usually bails out the rich; the wages that the highly skilled can command are rising all the time; and globalization means the well-off increasingly occupy a whole different economy than the rest of the country they live in.
While the U.K. economy as a whole may be struggling, people at the top end of the income range are doing surprisingly well.
Tax Cuts
What’s true of the U.K. is probably true of most of the developed world. There’s nothing very unique about the British economy. In the U.S., the tax cuts introduced by President George W. Bush favored the rich. Wall Street pay has recovered fast, while average hourly earnings for ordinary workers rose only 1.9 percent last year. It’s a fair bet the same trends are evident everywhere.
That poses the question of whether the rich can just keep on getting wealthier than everyone else. Here’s why they will.
First, the bailouts just help the wealthy. Governments used to subsidize manufacturing industries. Now they rescue the banking industry, where most of the wealthy work. Central banks use quantitative easing to try and revive the economy. Yet that mainly works by boosting asset and commodity prices. If you invest in hedge funds trading oil futures, you’ll have done well from QE. If you are just the average guy who pays more to fill up the fuel tank of your car, then you’re the loser. In effect, banking bailouts and QE use the state to help mostly the rich.
Third, globalization has allowed the very rich to increasingly cut themselves adrift from national economies. London’s bankers, lawyers and consultants are as much a part of the emerging-markets boom as they are of the U.K. economy, possibly more so. They arrange initial public offerings for Russian mining companies and restructure debt for Dubai property empires. What happens in the U.K. doesn’t make much difference to them. The same is true for the professionals working in most major business centers.
Some of those trends we can’t do much about. Some we can: We don’t need to bail out banks. And we don’t have to boost the economy by helping asset prices.
It was a nice idea that the credit crunch would narrow the widening inequalities that are opening up everywhere. But it hasn’t happened. Instead, societies will need to ask the question: Are we really comfortable with the huge gap between rich and poor? It won’t close by itself.
(Matthew Lynn is a Bloomberg News columnist and the author of “Bust,” a book on the Greek debt crisis. The opinions expressed are his own.)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-08/rich-get-richer-as-governments-tout-austerity-commentary-by-matthew-lynn.html?source=patrick.net#related_categories_tags_top
“Rich Get Richer When Governments Tout Austerity”
Who’d've thunk that somebody would have to pay a real price for making banksters whole on hundreds of billions of dollars they threw down a real estate rathole?
As I’ve said. There is 2 economies. One for the rich and one for the rest of us.
Socialism for them and no-holds-barred capitalism for us.
“is”? Oops.
I think you meant “be”.
“is be”
Perhaps some of Sister Sarah’s blood libelists could enroll for remedial coursework?
Bill Clinton and George Bush to preside over center for civil discourse at University of Arizona
By IBTimes Staff Reporter | February 21, 2011 1:01 AM EST
A new center called the National Institute for Civil Discourse, launched at the University of Arizona in Tucson, will see leaders from diverse ends of the political and academic spectrum coming together to develop workshops, conferences and programs to promote civil discourse.
Bill Clinton and George Bush to preside over center for civil discourse at University of Arizona.
Former Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton will be heading the Institute as Chairmen, according to a report in The Washington Post, while the Board will comprise renowned public personalities such as former secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright; Kenneth M. Duberstein, chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan; Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren; Trey Grayson, director of Harvard University’s Institute of Politics and former representative Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.).
The Institute has been established in the wake of the tragic shootings in the city in early January this year, which killed six people and severely wounded Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords who is still in rehabilitation. According to the Provost of the University, Meredith Hay (as quoted in the Post), the Tucson shootings though not directly related to the issue of public discourse or policy nevertheless led the University to think of creating a dedicated space or center for civil discourse.
…
“Former Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton will be heading the Institute as Chairmen,”
I just threw up in my mouth a little.
Please note it’s George H. W. Bush 41 and Bill Clinton.
Yes, I do note, by my reference to Bush’s CIA. He was head of the CIA before becoming prezzy.
He was head of the CIA before becoming prezzy.
According to one of my bicycling buddies, Bush was a pretty good CIA director. And how did my buddy know this? She was a CIA employee. Got hired out of college and retired after a long career.
Evidently, they became good friends while working to raise money for the Tsunami victims a few years ago.
Evidently, they became good friends while working to raise money for the Tsunami victims a few years ago.
Indeed they did.
There was a Super Bowl (I think it was the 2004 edition) when they shared a box. TV cameras spotted them joking and laughing and having a great old time. They’ve been good friends ever since.
In other Presidential “Who knew?” friendships, we have the curious case of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. Recall that in 1976, Carter came from 33 points down to beat Ford in a fairly close election. Needless to say, Ford was not pleased with this result.
However, after both men left the White House, they became quite friendly. And remained so until Ford’s death in 2006.
Nobody realizes how crappy a job the Presidency is until they sit in that seat. Then they realize what their predecessor was up against. I’d wager that George W. Bush 43 and Barack Obama become chums a dozen years from now.
I’d wager that George W. Bush 43 and Barack Obama become chums a dozen years from now.
That’s already happening. They talk on a pretty regular basis.
As for the other side of the coin, none of the current living ex-Presidents seem to care much for Jimmy Carter. Especially Bill Clinton. Recall the funeral mass for Ted Kennedy. The Carter and Clinton parties were seated as far apart as possible.
“Bill Clinton and George Bush to preside over center for civil discourse at University of Arizona.”
They’re gonna have Monica Lewinsky as a guest speaker, where she’ll tell all about her civil discourse with Boffo Bill.
This has got to be a sick joke. Ought to be in The Onion. Billy and Georgie can tell all about their “civil discourses” with the innocent civilians they bombed, maimed or whatever abroad. About the civil discourse of the various foreign dicktaters they propped up. Oh, and let’s not forget the “civil discourse” of George Bush’s CIA. Can you say “extraordinary rendition?”. Now that’s some civil discourse right there.
I hear there’s gonna be a real peach of a course on “How To Raise a Viciously Stupid Slacker Kid to Become President”.
Of all the things slick willie is, stupid isn’t one of them.
Note: I have held his hand, and only his hand, in mine three separate times. I also have a story I will share with any of you if met in person of me, Clinton, his Secret Service detail & a grassy knoll.
OK — I propose a future HBB meetup in SV
“Of all the things slick willie is, stupid isn’t one of them.”
Wow. Just…wow. First Dennis N. wants me to note that this was about the senior Bush, and now it is thought I was referring to Bill Clinton as a viciously stupid slacker. Holeeeeeeee Moleeeeeee!
Ok, let me spell it out: Unless slick willie bonked Barbara, the senior Bush spawned the slacker, and headed the CIA. Both of which, IMHO, disqualifies him to make any pronouncements about “civil discourse”.
slick willie is also disqualified for pronouncements on civil discourse, but for different reasons, which I have outlined.
I wasn’t attacking you Palmy. We seem to be in general agreement overall. My not very well explained point was the intellectual chasm between W. & Willie.
Sorry for my own misunderstanding, SV. Yes, we are in agreement overall and I really enjoy your posts.
Anyway, this whole “civil discourse” thing is so manufactured. On the whole, Americans are pretty civil, IMO, to the point that they allow themselves to be bent over without complaint.
“On the whole, Americans are pretty civil, IMO,…”
Perhaps the problem is the undue amount of publicity the MSM gives to political candidates whose supporters’ home pages feature gun sites targeted at rivals’ political districts.
Perhaps the problem is the undue amount of publicity the MSM gives to political candidates whose supporters’ home pages feature gun sites targeted at rivals’ political districts.
And we take that one rather seriously around here. Matter of fact, one of the most photographed items at the University Medical Center shrine said, in essence, “This [peace symbol] not this [gun sight crosshairs].”
To all of you who didn’t get the chance to hang out at the UMC shrine, you really missed something special. People speaking respectfully to each other, and believe me, that shrine attracted people with all sorts of viewpoints.
It also attracted quite the cadre of remarkable volunteers. Like the retired professor who rode over on his bicycle to be a peer counselor to anyone who needed it. And the people who brought the candles. They’d just hand you a candle, help you light it, and then you were expected to share your flame with someone else.
As for the hospital staff, they came outside too. To a man and woman, they didn’t seem to be interested in talking with the shrine visitors. But that was okay. We just let them have their space.
Oh, I forgot, there’ll be a course called “Thank you sir, can I have another?” for all those whose jobs have been eliminated and outsourced thanks to Billy-boy’s NAFTA wet dream.
Maybe he can do something about cleaning up Hillary and Rahm’s potty mouths.
After yesterday, I can think of one poster here who might want to enroll. And each of you will of course have your own list of candidates.
“After yesterday, I can think of one poster here who might want to enroll. And each of you will of course have your own list of candidates.”
Cool Bill ~ you n’ the boyz get the sheets n’ hoods and I’ll grab a rope !!
No noose is good noose.
And how many millions of taxpayer dollars will this pointless scam be costing us?
And how many millions of taxpayer dollars will this pointless scam be costing us?
It’s being funded with private donations. And $1 million have already been raised.
The donations are almost certainly tax deductible. That doesn’t mean they “cost” $0.15 or $0.28 or $0.35 for each dollar donated, because those donations might have been made to other places if this one didn’t exist, but there is some cost for private donations to places like this.
“It’s being funded with private donations. And $1 million have already been raised.”
A fool and his money are soon parted.
In future, if you are going to hurt somebody, please do it with civility.
And if you’re going to be hurt, graciously accept your beating.
With his foreign secretary out on travel, Winston Churchill himself drafted the declaration of war on Japan after 7 December 1941.
It was very polite, and Winston was criticised for this fact.
But his response was simply, “when you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite”.
My favorite ‘polite’ Churchill anecdote (from a party he attended):
Woman: “Sir, if I were your wife, I would poison you.”
Winston: “Madam, if I were your husband, I would happily drink it.”
Perhaps some of Sister Sarah’s blood libelists could enroll for remedial coursework?
Methinks that they wouldn’t gain admission to the UA. Which has greatly raised its admission standards in recent years.
BTW, I just participated in another round of business school admission interviews over the weekend. My interviewing partner (a local real estate broker) and I found most of the students to be impressive on paper *but* they really struggled with the “presenting themselves in person” part.
OTOH, the two older students really sparkled. Something about having some life experience outside of school.
The Institute has been established in the wake of the tragic shootings in the city in early January this year, which killed six people and severely wounded Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords who is still in rehabilitation. According to the Provost of the University, Meredith Hay (as quoted in the Post), the Tucson shootings though not directly related to the issue of public discourse or policy nevertheless led the University to think of creating a dedicated space or center for civil discourse.
Slim’s starting to see some opportunities in this.
As mentioned here before, I’m a photographer and have quite an extensive portfolio of Tucson events. I’m also a University of Arizona vendor. So, I’m going to start making a few inquiries and see if I can’t pick up some business from this new institute.
Stay tuned…
Be a love and see if you can’t hoover up the entire amount donated for yourself, I would feel much better knowing that the wealth transfer was to someone decent like yourself.
Maybe you could get Palin and some of her blood libel gang to visit the new institute for training in civil discourse, then snap some photos of the sessions!?
Just trying to help you out with your entrepreneurial vision…
If they hadn’t jumped on the shooter, it’s been reported that two bystanders were drawing their ‘right to carry’ weapons. If they had been able to be faster and dropped their hammers, look at all the tax dollars that would be saved.
“A new center called the National Institute for Civil Discourse, launched at the University of Arizona in Tucson, will see leaders from diverse ends of the political and academic spectrum coming together to develop workshops, conferences and programs to promote civil discourse.”
I think money would be better spent on something a bit more productive like a new mental health facility. It could serve two purposes; helping people like Jared Laughner before they reach that level, and deprogramming brain dead progressives who continue to pur forth the notion that political discourse had anything to do with this shooting.
s/pur/put.
Perhaps governance by Republican dictatorship is not in Wisconsin’s future, after all?
* BUSINESS
* FEBRUARY 20, 2011, 8:23 P.M. ET
Moderate Wisconsin Republicans Offer Compromise
By DOUGLAS BELKIN and KRIS MAHER
Opponents to the governor’s bill to eliminate collective bargaining rights for many state workers demonstrated in the rotunda of the State Capitol in Madison, Wis., on Sunday.
With Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker maintaining a hard line on his budget bill and Democratic senators refusing to return to Madison to vote, attention is turning to a group of moderate Republican senators to negotiate a compromise to the stalemate that has drawn thousands of protesters to the state capital for a sixth straight day.
The proposal, written by Sen. Dale Schultz and first floated in the Republican caucus early last week, calls for most collective bargaining rights of public employee unions to be eliminated – per Mr. Walker’s bill – but then reinstated in 2013, said Mr. Schultzs’s chief of staff Todd Allbaugh.
“Dale is committed to find a way to preserve collective bargaining in the future,” said Mr. Allbaugh in a telephone interview.
…
Somehow I don’t think the protesters will be buying a politician’s promise. I know I wouldn’t. I don’t care which side is making the promise.
Similar to the ploys we see the dictators in the Middle East when the masses get angry. More democracy is around the corner so you can all go home.
I saw some overfed lady on the news last night with a soundbite about how Americans should support her and her fellow govmint workers, because they’ll hold the line and establish some standards for the rest of us who aren’t so lucky to work for the govmint.
Swear to jeebus. They’re willing to take the pay and benefits the rest of us can’t get, so we’ll all have some hope for the future.
Palmy,
If the disparity in compensation between govt and private employees becomes too great, private sector employees would migrate to the public sector, which would force the private employers to maintain higher wages and benefits.
You see, even non-union, private sector employees benefit from strong unions.
Again, the division of power is between capital and labor, NOT private and public sector workers.
They are trying to deceive you into thinking private sector workers will somehow benefit from the demise of public sector unions. They won’t. As a matter of fact, if the public sector unions take a beating, you can be sure that workers in the private sector will be going down with them.
One of the governor’s supporters (a politician, I just don’t remember which one) was on the radio this morning. When asked what it was about the collective bargaining issue that cost money since the union had already conceded on the financial one, he said it was a matter of flexibility on things in the future, like safety issues.
Yes, when asked why Wisconsin couldn’t afford to bargain with its unions, he said that they were going to need to save money in the future by making the public jobs more dangerous.
The 401(K) generation’s fugly retirement outlook is coming into view, and will only worsen as the losses from the 2008 financial collapse are eventually distributed to bagholders, many of whom I predict will be baby boomers nearing retirement.
* RETIREMENT PLANNING
* FEBRUARY 19, 2011
Retiring Boomers Find 401(k) Plans Fall Short
By E.S. BROWNING
Patti and Bob Webster had planned to retire in North Carolina but say they need to keep working.
The 401(k) generation is beginning to retire, and it isn’t a pretty sight.
The retirement savings plans that many baby boomers thought would see them through old age are falling short in many cases.
The median household headed by a person aged 60 to 62 with a 401(k) account has less than one-quarter of what is needed in that account to maintain its standard of living in retirement, according to data compiled by the Federal Reserve and analyzed by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College for The Wall Street Journal. Even counting Social Security and any pensions or other savings, most 401(k) participants appear to have insufficient savings. Data from other sources also show big gaps between savings and what people need, and the financial crisis has made things worse.
This analysis uses estimates of 401(k) balances from the end of 2010 and of salaries from 2009. It assumes people need 85% of their working income after they retire in order to maintain their standard of living, a common yardstick.
Facing shortfalls, many people are postponing retirement, moving to cheaper housing, buying less-expensive food, cutting back on travel, taking bigger risks with their investments and making other sacrifices they never imagined.
“Inevitably, we find that, for the average person, there is not enough there,” says financial adviser Paul Merritt of NTrust Wealth Management in Virginia Beach, Va., who has found himself advising many retirement-age people with too little savings. “The discussion turns out to be: What kind of part-time work do you want to do after you retire?”
…
Then there was this scary quote from the article.
“Since the housing and financial markets began to collapse, about 39% of all Americans have been foreclosed upon, unemployed, underwater on a mortgage or behind more than two months on a mortgage, says Michael Hurd, director of the Rand Corporation’s Center for the Study of Aging.”
It’s ugly. Between housing losses and paltry pensions, the Baby Boomers are looking at a bleak future.
Given their cumulative poor decisions and fecklessness in passing their cumulative intergenerational debts and problems onto the unborn, the boomers deserve nothing less.
Now your generation is passing on their debts to unborn generations.
Don’t blame me. I supported Ron Paul.
It is each our own responsibility not to finance their retirement at the cost of our own by paying their wishing prices. Other than that, wish ‘em good luck.
It’s ugly ??
Its worse than ugly….I know that it has me rethinking my plans going forward…
My daughter asked me just today if we have enough saved up for retirement. I very honestly answered that I am not sure…
My mother in law recently had to retire after forty years of working very labor intensive jobs (health issues). One employer of over twenty years never paid in social security (and ended up in jail afer finally getting caught). Only one employer in her career even had an available retirement plan, thus her 403b has only $40,000 or so in it. With that and her generally dismal earnings all her working life it is up to us to make up for what it costs over the $800 per month in social security.
Luckily for her my wife and I can and will do that. Her sister couldn’t, although she would do something if she had a steady decent job herself. I really don’t know what she would do if we couldn’t, or wouldn’t, help.
She is one of those people that I respect as she did the best she could with a poor, incomplete education. She had never asked for a dime from the government when she clearly was well below poverty wages raising her kids, with no child-support from the drunk ex-husband. She would have qualified for food stamps, housing or any number of programs, but would not take it.
She’s not a victim and doesn’t see herself as one, but she never was able to move up the ladder no matter how hard she tried. While so many a-holes are lazy and take all they can, and so many crooks prosper, I wish more people like her had material success and could live and easier retirement.
HottyToddy,
I’m sorry to hear about your MIL, and am heartened to hear that you and your wife are willing and able to assist her.
Unfortunately, this is the reality for far too many people.
“Facing shortfalls, many people are postponing retirement, moving to cheaper housing, buying less-expensive food, cutting back on travel, taking bigger risks with their investments and making other sacrifices they never imagined.”
And what is so bad about that?! Maybe they should have been doing that all along. People in this country have a problem with understanding the difference between what they need and what they want!!
Maintaining a “lifestyle” for me was all about raising children. When they grew and moved out, I downsized the house, the fleet and everything else. Then I saved the rest. Retirement will not be a lifestyle shock in the least. What is so mysterious about making preparations?
When they grew and moved out, I downsized the house, the fleet and everything else. Then I saved the rest.
My plan, exactly. Though about 15-20 years away.
How can the economy be growing if individuals are still contracting? (in a consumer/service based economy that is)
You’re confusing the economy for us with the economy for the rich, which is doing just fine, BTW.
That 85% sounds a bit high. Is that comparing gross income to gross pension? I guess if you still have a mortgage and kids at home/going to university you would need that much.
Spending on health care goes up with age.
Polly is right. I can attest to that.
I think the 85% might be based on retiring in place, with some number of years of mortgage payments still ahead of you.
Retiring to a lower cost area and buying an inexpensive house for all cash means we can live comfortably on about 50% to 60% of our old income.
HOWEVER, private pensions don’t have COLAs. SS will never again have a COLA that’s equal to the real inflation rate. So as you get older, what you need to live on must come more and more out of your own money (savings, 401k balances).
“What kind of part-time work do you want to do after you retire?”
IF they can even find any and that’s a big IF.
I have many friends who are like the grass hopper. They refied their house and bought toys and believed the lies that RE Only Goes Up,& It’s Different Here. They are screwed. I don’t feel sorry only pity. No economics taught in schools, only class envy or blame some one else. It’s not MY fault, bad corporations, good Bamster, bad Wall Street, good unions. So much for thought. Let’s watch IDOL or the Gramies, and make sure that we’ve got our lottery tickets.
If you find money in Ft. Worth and turn it in it’s yours after 60 days if no one claims it. If you turn in found money in Dallas the city just keeps it:
http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/02/19/2862392/found-money-is-the-citys-money.html
Don’t ever live in Dallas if you can help it.
Foreclosures stretch to an average 17 months, may get longer
By Julie Schmit, USA TODAY
Updated 1h 20m ago |
The average U.S. borrower in the throes of foreclosure hasn’t made a mortgage payment in 17 months, up from nearly 11 months two years ago — and the time frame may get even longer.
Banks and mortgage servicers, who collect payments for lenders, are taking more time to complete foreclosures because of huge volumes of defaulted mortgages. Other factors include time-consuming reviews for loan modifications and additional delays that followed revelations late last year about improperly filed foreclosure documents in tens of thousands of cases.
Last year, the number of days that the average borrower in foreclosure went without making a payment stretched from 410 in January to 507 in December, says LPS Applied Analytics, which tracks 37 million mortgages. Before the foreclosure crisis, the norm was more like 250 days, says Herb Blecher, LPS senior vice president.
“Loans are spending longer in the process,” Blecher says.
Nearly 2.3 million homes were in foreclosure at the end of January, according to LPS.
…
The average U.S. borrower in the throes of foreclosure hasn’t made a mortgage payment in 17 months, up from nearly 11 months two years ago — and the time frame may get even longer.
According to control fraud expert William K. Black, this is part of the plan. Why? Because the longer that the banksters can take before they recognize these foreclosure-driven losses, the more time they have to loot their companies.
“…the more time they have to loot their companies.”
Let me guess the ending to this story: The shells of companies left behind by the lying looters who run them are dumped on the American tax payer in the form of yet another round of bank bailouts?
Well, if it’s anything like the S&L cleanup, in which William K. Black played a major part, there were something like 1,000 prosecutions.
I’m waiting patiently for those prosecutions.
6 of the biggest mortgage lenders say N.J. high court overstepped its boundaries
Published: Sunday, February 20, 2011, 11:35 AM Updated: Sunday, February 20, 2011, 11:40 AM
The Associated Press
NEWARK — State Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner made a splash in December when he ordered six of the nation’s biggest mortgage lenders into court to show why their foreclosure operations shouldn’t be suspended over reports of widespread irregularities.
State attorneys general around the country have increased pressure on lenders over the past year, but New Jersey is believed to be the first state whose Supreme Court has stepped into the fray so boldly.
Too boldly, according to the banks’ court filings. With the court hearing looming next month, the banks say they’d already begun remedial action months before New Jersey’s court order and that suspending their operations would damage already shaky housing markets and lead to further deterioration of hard-hit neighborhoods.
…
Boo hoo.
Real estate bust, bank failure ruin buyer’s dream
By Andrew Dunn
Published: Monday, February 21, 2011 at 8:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, February 21, 2011 at 8:00 a.m.
It was to be his retirement home, a place where Gary Jack could roll his chair down to the water and cast out a line. If he caught a fish, great. If not, oh well. Look at that view.
Three years later, the beautiful lot overlooking the northern reaches of the Cape Fear remains nothing but trees.
And though he made all his payments on the loan, Jack now finds himself battling foreclosure to keep it.
“All my dreams of having a house on the water were shot,” Jack said. “I thought I had all my bases covered.”
He’s one of many – particularly in Brunswick County – who have gotten caught in that type of situation.
Bank loans for vacant lots typically only last for two or three years, though borrowers were often told they could refinance.
When the notes came due in the middle of the housing collapse, the new economics of lending meant those options all but disappeared. And the foreclosures began.
It’s a small but significant part of the foreclosure problem in the county, which is still reeling from the bust fueled by years of ever-increasing land prices.
“It’s not uncommon,” county Clerk of Superior Court Jim MacCallum said. “In terms of the overall percentage, it might be small. But it is not uncommon.”
…
“And though he made all his payments on the loan…”
No, he missed the balloon payment at the end. Another FB elevated to victimhood by the MSM.
“Buyers – some investors, others hoping to build a home near the coast – were accepted for an interest-only two-year loan with 10 percent down.” $500,000 for a LOT?! (Article says he put $50K down.)
Now there’s a real “gotcha”, even if land prices were to go up.
Since banks make loans on land for only two or three years the committed borrower MUST refinance the loan every two or three years. This means the borrower puts himself at the mercy of the bank (and an unpredictable economy) every two or three years.
Oh, the pain!
Please, Sir, may I have another?
There’s some serious BS in this story. This guys is confined to a wheelchair, presumably no longer working as a builder. ‘he bought a lot …with his life savings…Jack put $50,000 down and had been paying $2,200 a month, he said.’
If this was his life savings, how did he expect to afford to build a house? If the lot cost a bundle, the house would have cost a multiple of that amount.
‘Buyers – some investors…were accepted for an interest-only two-year loan with 10 percent down.’
Oh, some investors! They were going to MAKE money on these lots. So they were gambling with high-risk, borrowed money.
‘When the time came, they found they could not refinance’
And a lender is supposed to refinance an underwater lot? We hear a lot of criticism about poor lending, but somehow it’s a sob story when it isn’t repeated.
‘Attorney Robbie B. Parker…is representing Gary Jack…in his foreclosure proceedings’
Yeah, let’s get a lawyer in there to take even more of this guys money. Here’s a tip for those facing foreclosure; you don’t need a lawyer, just some boxes.
‘The planned luxury development was to comprise 730 homes on a sprawling tract near Mount Misery Road’
Misery Road indeed…
It was the part about him not being able to go fishing that got me…..
“I want to make this my home,” he said.
….. sniffle……. a HOME!!!…. I want my HOME!!!….. WTF is a “home”??
Get yer $hit off the lot. The bank owns it now. Boo fawkin hoo.
The part that got me was the possible Karmic ramifications of a home builder missing his shot at acquiring a retirement home by the lake.
Karma has a way of vindicating indeed.
What makes me puke is the repetitive, unyielding pandering by the MSM for the retirement/”home”/self-entitlement cultural lie. It’s ingrained very deep. I know you know what I’m talking about;
1) “I’m going to retire early” sez a 35 year old
2) “My retirement home”, ie, 6,000sqft in the middle of no-where on some body of water. A retirement home is a nursing home so get used to it.
“Retirement” is purely a western phenomenon developed last century as a result of industrialization. Where dad went to work in a paper mill and the company retired him after 36 years of service, then he collects a small pension and SS. The company rehired the retired employee.
Remember those days of lifetime jobs parallel with 15 or 30 year mortgage payments? Well they’re gone and they’re not coming back. Do I agree with it? No. But it’s time the MSM stop acting as if “retirement” is something a person decides when they get old. The company decided to retire my father. Not the other way around.
There’s some serious BS in this story. This guys is confined to a wheelchair, presumably no longer working as a builder. ‘he bought a lot …with his life savings…Jack put $50,000 down and had been paying $2,200 a month, he said.’
Here in Tucson, there was a guy who helped his daughter renovate her house. And he was in a wheelchair. Guy also fixed up his own place, which was out in the ranch country.
Just because you’re in a wheelchair doesn’t mean that you can’t do things. One of my good friends (not the guy mentioned above) plays all sorts of wheelchair sports.
And don’t ever respond to his invitation to go kayaking. His arms are so strong that he’ll be fresh and energetic long after your arms have ceased to work.
My point is that his condition probably means he isn’t able to earn what he had been, and if he threw down a sizable amount of his life savings, there was no way he could afford to keep the lot, much less build a house. We don’t have enough information to say for sure, but I’m guessing he was one of the ‘investors’ in the ’sprawling luxury’ home thing.
“There’s some serious BS in this story.”
I just had time to skim it before posting, which was already long enough to notice the strong odor of BS…
I wish Gov. Walker would go over the heads of the unionized teachers and speak directly to High School students who came out of the womb badly screwed over by the greed and avarice of public sector workers and the irresponsibility of local, state, and Federal governments that have always deferred the day of reckoning.
Yes, let him explain to the children, how when Mommy and Daddy were living large, spending way more than they had to house, clothe and drive little Jimmy in style, voting in spendthrift lawmakers to enable the state to do the same, it was all the time the $50K elementary teacher who screwed them over.
“it was all the time the $50K elementary teacher who screwed them over.”
Nope. All this time is was the Communist Unions that screwed them over.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-20/merkel-faces-hamburg-test-in-first-of-seven-state-votes-amid-debt-crisis.html
Angela Merkel, like her Obama Administration counterparts, has been slavishly committing her nation’s taxpayers to endless bailouts to cover the bad bets of irresponsible borrowers and reckless lenders, despite overwhelming public opposition. Now voters in Hamburg have handed her (banker-owned) party a stunning rebuke. This MIGHT force her to start taking a tougher line when it comes to EU demands that German taxpayers sign up to bottomless bailouts of the PIIGS (and soon the European core states as well). I suppose the IMF (funded mostly by US taxpayers) and Ben Bernanke will now step up to have US taxpayers and future generations pay for the banksters’ bad bets.
Yes, the ruling CDU went from 42.6% down to 21.9%. There are 2 main reasons for this, a failed school reform in Hamburg and of course the banking & EURO disaster. The bad news is that ALL mainstream parties back the banksters, similar to Republicans and Democrats. The banksters bought both sides of the aisle. In Germany you have the following parties:
CDU (center right)
SPD (center left)
Gruene (environmental, liberal)
Linke (very left, former East German communist party)
FDP (socially liberal, economically staunch capitalist)
What a diverse group of parties. They only ever agree on very few things:
1. raising their own salaries
2. rasing taxes on the working population
3. bailing out banksters and failing countries such as Greece and Ireland.
Voting, in Germany as well as in the US, will do absolutely nothing in terms of stopping the flow of money from taxpayers to banksters.
Wisconsin’s Blow to Union Power ~ NYT
Will the governor’s fight against public employees’ collective bargaining rights sweep the nation?
F.D.R. Warned Us
James Sherk is the Bradley fellow in labor policy at the Center for Data Analysis at the Heritage Foundation.
“It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.”
That wasn’t Newt Gingrich, or Ron Paul, or Ronald Reagan talking. That was George Meany — the former president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O — in 1955. Government unions are unremarkable today, but the labor movement once thought the idea absurd.
Public sector unions insist on laws that serve their interests — at the expense of the common good.
The founders of the labor movement viewed unions as a vehicle to get workers more of the profits they help create. Government workers, however, don’t generate profits. They merely negotiate for more tax money. When government unions strike, they strike against taxpayers. F.D.R. considered this “unthinkable and intolerable.”
Government collective bargaining means voters do not have the final say on public policy. Instead their elected representatives must negotiate spending and policy decisions with unions. That is not exactly democratic – a fact that unions once recognized.
George Meany was not alone. Up through the 1950s, unions widely agreed that collective bargaining had no place in government. But starting with Wisconsin in 1959, states began to allow collective bargaining in government. The influx of dues and members quickly changed the union movement’s tune, and collective bargaining in government is now widespread. As a result unions can now insist on laws that serve their interests – at the expense of the common good.
Union contracts make it next to impossible to reward excellent teachers or fire failing ones. Union contracts give government employees gold-plated benefits – at the cost of higher taxes and less spending on other priorities. The alternative to Walker’s budget was kicking 200,000 children off Medicaid.
by the Heritage Foundation huh?
uh huh… wink.
“I wish Gov. Walker would go over the heads of the unionized teachers and speak directly to High School students who came out of the womb badly screwed over by the greed and avarice of public sector workers and the irresponsibility of local, state, and Federal governments that have always deferred the day of reckoning.”
He’d better come well armed and with an escort platoon of bribed Wisconsin Highway Patrol offcers and an ambulance.
I don’t believe WHAT you and the whole world saw marching around were little tiny Muppets carrying all of those anti-Walker protest signs in Madison and all across Wisconsin. Some of those kids signs had STICKS attached to them !
Seems like the Wisconsin kids don’t appear to like him and once kids get something in their heads, they seem to like to stick together.
I still have a vivid image in mind of the time those U of W students played the prank of placing a replica of the Statue of Liberty up to her neck in Lake Mendota, back in the late-1970s. Berkeley has nothing on Wisconsin students in the history of political activism!
By the same token government workers could get totally screwed if
they didn’t have some bargaining ability. We wouldn’t want our government workers walking around in rags . To be fair Government Workers provide a lot of vital functions . I have never been a Government worker ,but they should be fairly treated just like the private sector should be .
To be fair ,the fake housing prices and the fake health care prices ,
along with other price fixing has created costs that made the
Union negotiations in sink with what was going on in the economy at the time .
Lets face it ,all systems are crashing and the contracts were made under good stable conditions in which you didn’t have one sector trying to get more than their fair share . I agree that adjustments are needed ,but to just attack the middle class and taxpayers and
Unions isn’t looking at the whole picture as to what is wrong .
In Ireland, the “nationalist” (IRA’s political arm) Sinn Fein is backing a public referendum on the craven sellout of the Irish taxpayers by their current prime minister, who struck a sweetheart deal with his bankster pals over the vehement objections of his own people (sound familiar?). Now that deal, which transferred the liabilities for massive Irish bank losses onto Irish taxpayers, is in danger of being undone as support is growing for a national referendum, a la Iceland, that the banksters and their political puppets will surely lose. So much for “Eurozone crisis contained.”
Adams backs rescue deal referendum
(UKPA) – 22 hours ago
Sinn Fein would agree to a referendum on the multi-billion euro rescue deal from the International Monetary Fund and Europe.
Party President Gerry Adams said the country could not afford to draw down the 85 billion euro loan.
Asked if he would put the IMF/EU package to the people, Mr Adams said: “If that’s the way of strengthening whoever happens to be in government, if that’s the way of putting it up to the European Union in the Irish interests, yes of course.”
In Iceland they just send the new and improved Icesave bill back to the voters who rejected the previous bill and will likely reject this one. I wonder how much play this is getting in Ireland?
I seem to remember they are supposed to pay the UK/Netherlands $25k per person. I can’t see Icelandic voters going all out for that.
Iceland put the bank officers in the slammer. Why couldn’t we do the same and add a few pols to the mix?
“Sinn Fein would agree……….”
Be mostly mick myself, my money is on the Sinn Fein boys.
Not mick but I concur with you 100%.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1358972/Libya-protests-Gaddafi-flees-Tripoli-parliament-building-set-alight.html
And another one gone and another gone, another one bites the dust!
Gaddafi’s son said the family would fight until the last bullet. Guess Gaddafi is fighting elsewhere.
This ‘dynasty’ is coo-coo for coco-puffs:
‘The younger Gadhafi…accused anti-government elements of “sedition.” “This is a national treason,” he said. “Each one of us wants to be a leader; each one of us wants to be a prince.”
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/02/21/libya.protests/index.html?hpt=T1
‘Speaking on state television on Monday, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi said: “Our spirits are high and the leader Muammar Gaddafi is leading the battle in Tripoli’
(note to Saif; I think your dad already took off).
“We will keep fighting until the last man standing, even to the last woman standing … we will not leave Libya to the Italians or the Turks.”
But will you fight until the last Prince standing? And who said anything about Italians or Turks?
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/02/201122131439291589.html
Maybe he’s appealing to Libya’s history: occupied by Ottoman Turks through WWI and Mussolini’s Italians through the first half of WWII.
‘appealing to Libya’s history’
Yeah, I know, but that’s reaching a bit.
BTW, the other day I had a recent pic of Col. Gaddafi on my screen. Someone came by and said that ‘Spock hadn’t aged well’.
Heck the Tea Party people probably discuss “the Redcoats are coming!”
Even Florida posters on this blog complain about the “Yankee invaders”.
I watched on CNN….What a condescending ass…Did you see his hand Gestures and Finger waving ?? It was as if he was admonishing
adolescent children….
“It was as if he was admonishing adolescent children….”
I, too, find the entitlement mentality disgusting.
“…and said that ‘Spock hadn’t aged well’
lol… I was kinda working on my taxes Ben and that just made my day !!
(all of the ice cold 7UP up my nose was just a minor irritation)
Muammar Gaddafi does live mortgage free in a tent, so he can pretty much relocate any where.
He’s another type of FB: a F’ed Bedouin.
Looks like the “president” of Yemen agrees with John ‘Democracy is a Virus’ McCain:
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh rejected demands Monday that he step aside, comparing the anti-government protests in his country to a virus sweeping through the region.’
“This is a virus and is not part of our heritage or the culture of the Yemeni people,” he told reporters. “It’s a virus that came from Tunisia to Egypt. And to some regions, the scent of the fever is like influenza. As soon as you sit with someone who is infected, you’ll be infected.”
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/02/21/yemen.protests/index.html
Most amazingly, the big concern three decades ago was over the virus of communism. Now it seems the world’s plutocrats are quaking in their boots over a viral outbreak of democracy! Who could have foreseen this fortuitous development?
You had better wait to see who the elect before calling this fortuitous. Lots of bad people win elections.
Now it seems the world’s plutocrats are quaking in their boots over a viral outbreak of democracy! Who could have foreseen this fortuitous development?
Some people who are quite despised these days mentioned it once or twice a few years back when they decided to take out a dictator in the region.
And, somehow, you believe that it is a democracy that will arise from the ashes?
From what part of history of this area do you derive that belief.
Most Arabs are very pro-Democracy as long as they’re out of power.
Comment by traderjack
2011-02-21 16:48:47
And, somehow, you believe that it is a democracy that will arise from the ashes?
From what part of history of this area do you derive that belief.
Agree. The difficulties come AFTER the current leaders are thrown out. There is no guarantee that what comes next will be better than before; but for the sake of the people in these regions, I hope they are successful in elevating intelligent, benevolent leaders.
People walk away from underwater auto loans all the time. What is the reluctance to walk away from the grossly inflated mortgage payment on a rapidly depreciating asset? Your typical PotatoHead doesn’t expect FordMotorCredit to forgive the principal on your $50k auto loan for a truck thats worth $12k, what is it about a shanty that people come unglued about and have unrealistic expectations of?
People walk away from underwater auto loans all the time.
Happened in the nabe I used to live in.
There was a church at the end of our block. Except for Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings, the place was seldom used.
Which meant that the church parking lot was the perfect place to dump that vehicle on which you no longer wished to make payments. And, oh, did we have more than a few payment-makers that had gone on strike. Did we ever.
Most people (certainly not all) who walk away range in the 30 to 50 year old’s. These type of people think they are entitled to a college education that mommy and daddy went into to hock for and they have no sense really of the work hard in America and invest in our future plan.
Pretty much for the most part this country is in a whole lot of problems that are just starting to play out.
“Most people (certainly not all) who walk away range in the 30 to 50 year old’s.”
Well, I agree, only because that is the age range statistically most likely to “own” a mortgaged house. I can show you a sense of entitlement in any age group.
The difference, I would think, is that banks are less likely to allow you to live comfortably and payment-free in your auto than in your home with a defaulted mortgage.
Au&Ag are doing their job!
Which one? Spiking up in a time of great political turmoil, I assume?
Never been a better time to sell the rally…
3 years ago, when gold was just poking over $800 per ounce, many on this board were astute bubble watchers and “knew” gold should be sold if you had it.
Now, with gold poking over $1400 per ounce, it must be an even better short? If you bought at $800 you’d be up 75% in 3 years, which is somewhat better than the .01% many savings accounts were offering.
When people stop wondering what is the deal with “gold” and instead focus on what the deal is with the “dollar”, some things will make more sense.
Like why do people assign much value at all to the currency of a bankrupt nation with kleptocrats printing trillions like madmen?
Is it because the banksters intentions are good and the current administration favors the “little guy”?
Just askin’…
I was one who thought gold was in a bubble three years ago. The fact that it continues to ramp up does not change my opinion on that. Pointing out that the price is even higher now is not a convincing argument that only fundamentals are in play. The money supply has not gone up 75%, so the play must be that it will, if this commodities thing is all about how many dollars there are.
Cobalt, if you put the word “houses” where you have “gold”, my take on this would be obvious.
“The money supply has not gone up 75%”
Maybe not the “reported” money supply?
For example, the reported unemployment rate is 9%, I think the actual rate is over 19%.
The govt. is engaging in doublespeak, IMHO.
‘When people stop wondering what is the deal with “gold” and instead focus on what the deal is with the “dollar”, some things will make more sense.’
The problem with gold is that the untutored masses have collectively discovered its safe haven value at a time of great currency uncertainty. Once the masses start patting themselves on the back for their superior financial insights, all the ducks are in line for the Masters of the Financial Universe to pull the rug out from under them.
PB -
I have in on good authority from execs at top 20 US wealth managers that very few of their clients have significant (400 oz bar or more) exposure to gold.
The blogs have all sorts of vocal goldbugs hanging around, but with the exception of the Peter Schiffs, James Sinclairs, Jim Rogers and John Paulsons of the world, big wealthy investors haven’t gotten onto the precious metals bandwagon.
Buying precious metals is shorting the fiat currencies. Some currencies maybe “sounder” than others. Gold will pull back if/when QE2 comes to an abrupt end, but current gold cheerleaders doubt this can be allowed to happen without catestrophic consequences to the economy. Only time will tell…
There would be no need for unions if corporatye America played fair with the rank and file since in life you can trust very few people to play by the rules ( kinda like sports without officials) then for major business and gov’t employee’s we need unions?
Yup. And I note that the 1930s were another time when reasonable people protested and felt drawn to Marx’s ideas on the worker class (aka proletariat) versus the ownership class.
cough * ownership society * cough
Where are the boundaries of the ownership class today, as opposed to the 1930s? The lines are considerably more blurred today - I mean who doesn’t get a smile on their face when their 401k balance goes up? But what players make that happen?
The hooks are in deep and Pogo was right.
“We have met the enemy and they is US.”
Comment by Professor Bear
2011-02-21 10:14:37
Yup. And I note that the 1930s were another time when reasonable people protested and felt drawn to Marx’s ideas on the worker class (aka proletariat) versus the ownership class.
—————-
As has been noted here before, there are many similarities between the period of the Great Depression and today. IMHO, this is why the Tea Party was co-opted by the Republicans, and why the message was quickly gotten out that “unions caused the financial crisis.” They’ve been warming up the sheeple ever since the anger against banks and bailouts began growing.
Notice…no Tea Party protests on Wall Street. Not a coincidence, IMHO.
Uncle Sam: Jacking up your airfare
February 21, 2011 5:00 am
By Becky Quick, contributor~ CNN
It’s hard to defend all the fees that airlines charge, but it sure is easy to get mad at all the taxes the government tacks on.
Which item do you think has the most federal taxes and fees attached to it: (1) a can of Budweiser, (2) a carton of Marlboro Reds, (3) a Smith & Wesson Centennial revolver, or (4) a roundtrip airline ticket from Chicago to St. Louis?
If you guessed the beer, cigarettes, or gun, you’d be wrong. Federal taxes and fees tally up to about 5% for the beer, 18.2% for the cigarettes, and 10% for the revolver. But buying an airline ticket pushes the boundaries of government taxation, initiating a slew of taxes and fees most of us never knew existed — a passenger ticket tax, a flight segment tax, a frequent-flier tax, a cargo waybill tax, a commercial jet fuel tax, and a 9/11 fee, just to name a few. I recently found a reasonably priced fare of just $151 for that roundtrip ticket to St. Louis. But tack on the fees and taxes and the total price came to $185.80, a markup of more than 20%.
Now, I’m generally not one to defend the airlines, and I can rattle off a long list of things I hate about air travel, from endless lines at security to tightly crowded seats to the stale-smelling air on most planes. And the airlines haven’t won any sympathy from me with their latest round of nickel-and-diming, charging extra for everything from checking a bag to changing a ticket to the right to stretch out in an exit-row seat. But airline travel is what I consider a necessary evil, both for business and for leisure.
More important, the airline industry is an extremely critical part of our national infrastructure and our economic growth. And to be carrying such an unfairly disproportionate burden of fees and taxes seems, at best, short-sighted from a national policy perspective.
Tell that to any airline executive and you’ll get the same reaction: “We’ve been complaining about that for years — where have you been?” That’s what I heard from Gordon Bethune, the man who led Continental Airlines (UAL) from a company that was losing millions and facing bankruptcy to one that regularly reported a profit and improved customer loyalty to boot.
He says that the airlines are an easy target for the government, and that it’s a big reason airlines have had so much trouble earning healthy profits. “The government doesn’t think anything of adding fees and thinking it doesn’t matter,” Bethune tells me. “Well, it does. There’s an elasticity of price for airline tickets, and every extra dollar they take is one we lose.”
Well, they don’t pay for that expensive air traffic control system, so it all evens out.
As certain as death and taxes and, well, death taxes
With governments scrambling to cover deficits here’s some of their most outrageous new taxes ~ MSNBC
If you needed any more proof that our state, local and federal budget spending is out of control, here it is. In an effort to get out from under record deficits and support their spending habits, politicians from Seattle to New York and everywhere in between have cooked up some outrageous taxes.
Some of these taxes are already on the books, some are just up for debate, but all show you just how far politicians will go to put a little more of your money in their pockets.
Sin tax
Let’s start with so-called “sin taxes,” which have always been popular with politicians. Taxing items seen as vices — such as smoking, drinking and gambling — is seen as an easy way to raise tax revenue. But the definition of “sin” seems to be expanding …
Card tax
Here’s proof that some politicians are a few cards short of a full deck. Anyone who purchases a deck of cards in the state of Alabama must pay a “card tax” of 10 cents. However, the law claims that the tax must be levied on the purchase of any deck containing “no more than 54 cards” so if you are lucky enough to find a deck with 55 cards, you’re home free! Really, how much money can this possibly raise?
Nudity tax
In Utah, any businesses where “nude or partially nude individuals perform any service” have to pay a 10 percent sales and use tax. This tax is applied to all revenue from admission fees as well as merchandise, food, drink and “services” sales.
Tanning tax
As part of the controversial Patient Protections and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (better known as healthcare reform), there is now a 10 percent excise tax on using a tanning salon. This tax is expected to raise a surprising $2.7 billion dollars over 10 years.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41648856/ns/business-personal_finance/
Texas has a case before the Supreme Court regarding it’s very own “pole tax”.
The justification:
“In its appeal, Texas said it isn’t levying the fee to discourage pole dancing. Instead, the state says, by deterring people from going to clubs, the fee would help reduce rapes that it claimed are linked to drinking alcohol while watching dancers disrobe. “
Instead, the state says, by deterring people from going to clubs, the fee would help reduce rapes that it claimed are linked to drinking alcohol while watching dancers disrobe.
Deterring people from going to these clubs? In what planetary reality is Texas speaking from?
Because in this reality, people who want to see this sort of, ummm, performance will do all sorts of things. Including the payment of a (gasp!) tax.
“…help reduce rapes that it claimed are linked to drinking alcohol while watching dancers disrobe.”
I’ve never ever heard of this happening in the 30+ years I’ve lived here.
Dancers being robbed? That happens sometimes. Raped? They are more likely to have problems with their boyfriends.
“However, the law claims that the tax must be levied on the purchase of any deck containing “no more than 54 cards” so if you are lucky enough to find a deck with 55 cards, you’re home free!”
Is that why you often see a blank card or two in so many boxes?
3 years ago during the peak of the crash, no one would lend to anyone. Compaines that were unprofitable, and lacked cash reserves went under. Ignoring the financial sector we had GM, Chrysler, Linenes and Things, Mervyns, Bennigans.. On a more local level, the franchise owners of all AZ Krispy Kream and Fazolis, a local grocery store chain called Bashas, a major franchisie of Whataburger and Del Tacos went under.
Then came the mass liquidity. Companies that had cash reserves to make it through 2008 seemed to make it through 2009 and 2010. Well, it seems to me we are entering round 2.
Blockbuster is unable to refi debt and talking liquidation, and in the mean time is closing a huge number of stores. Rob and Stucky furnature is shutting down. Borders is in bankrutcy, will be closing half its stores. JC Penny has new leadership and is talking about store closings. American Eagle, Anchor Blue bankrupt and closing.
So, is this the start of round 2? Companies that had cash reserves, and were given access to liquidity via bailouts, have now burned through that and are being forced to face the inevitable?
That looks more like retail taking a hit because of lack of customers with money to burn.
Yes, I definitely feel that the next leg of the downturn is almost upon us.
It could be far worse than the first part, IMHO.
Dear Wisconsin Cops and Firemen unions,
What is the deal? Are you really “unions”? Do you all really believe in the idealistic concepts and the history of “unions”? Or are you all just worried about keeping your little piece of a dwindling pie? Because this might be your last chance to make a stand and show what you’re really made of.
As I mentioned yesterday. I think the unions under attack should refuse to cede collective bargaining but offer to take a greater reduction in benefits and pay than even the Republican plan requires. This would save face on both sides, save the state money and keep the union from being busted.
But there is even another thing that some of the other union “brothers” should do that would turn the tide. Firemen and cops, it’s time for you to step up to the plate for your fellow unions. Why no sick-outs today or strike type actions to protect your weaker union teachers and janitors? Because you were hypocritically exempted this time? You will let yourselves be played politically so a weaker union can be crushed? Even when you might be next? Why not offer to take a 10% pay cut too in exchange for a settlement that would save the teachers and janitor unions under attack?
Wisconsin cops and firefighters, you are next. If this goes down your unions are next. This is classic divide and conquer. Together, you all still have enough clout to turn back a tide that would eventually engulf all of you. Step up to the plate and protect and defend your “brothers” because if they go down there will be no one left to protect you.
Because you were hypocritically exempted this time?
Bingo…………….
I believe the firefighters were out supporting the protests.
The cops there is a bit of disagreement but atleast one on the highway patrol says publicly he’s sorry he supported Walker.
Too late I’m afraid boys.
Under Walker’s plan, the teachers will save $1000 in Union dues. Makes sense !
Rio,
As mentioned yesterday, they DID offer to accept wage and benefit reductions.
Walker doesn’t care about that. He want’s to eliminate collective bargaining. That is the real issue — he’s trying to bust the unions.
And yes, firefighters and cops are supporting the teachers, and other workers; but cops and firefighters (at least in the cases I know of) are not allowed to strike or have “sick-outs.” It’s against the law, for public safety reasons.
As mentioned yesterday, they DID offer to accept wage and benefit reductions.
I know that. The key word was more. “offer to take a greater reduction in benefits and pay than even the Republican plan requires.”
firefighters and cops are supporting the teachers, and other workers; but cops and firefighters (at least in the cases I know of) are not allowed to strike or have “sick-outs.
Some are supporting them in the protest I know. They should support them more. There are ways to bend but not break laws in “strikes”. And they could offer wage concessions to take the heat off their fellow union “brothers”.
Did my first draft of my fed and local taxes last night. No surprises, but I did check out the AMT form. irs.gov has an online calculator that will tell you yes or no on doing the form and mine said no, but I did it anyway just to check things out. I discovered that, given how much “space” I have for more deductions before the AMT kicks in, that any deductible mortgage interest/property taxes in excess of about $1450 a month would pop me into AMT land, limiting the value of the deduction to about $400 a month if only federal taxes are considered (I didn’t bother with the state calculation). And that assumes no increase in state/county income taxes, additional charitable contributions, etc. I recommend that everyone who doesn’t already have a mortgage figure out this number. It is important information to have and a computer telling you “you don’t owe AMT” isn’t enough info.
To get the number, figure out your AMT tax even even though it is less than your regular income tax, divide the number by your highest marginal rate and divide that by 12. If you increase your deductions by that amount a month, you will end up owing the AMT amount, not the amount calculated with the regular form.
Just a public service announcement by your friendly “I don’t use tax software. I can do it myself.” geek.
“divide the number” refers to the amount by which your AMT tax is less than the regular tax, not the entire AMT tax amount. Sorry. Skipped a step in there.
“Did my first draft of my fed and local taxes last night.”
You’re way ahead of me. I haven’t even bought the software yet. Last year I tried to get an early start, but the past two years I kept getting revision after revision on a couple of broker statements. Wouldn’t you know, the year I don’t start early is the year there are no revisions (knocking on wood).
I got inspired after a conversation with my boss who was around during the last government shut down. He mentioned that it might be worth it to try to get the paperwork in just in case there is a shut down and things get backed up. It is probably too late to get it all processed and the refund back, but you don’t really want your stuff to be part of the back log if you can avoid it.
I put the likelihood of a shut down pretty darn low (maybe 5 to 10 percent), but even that is high enough to stay up late to do the rough draft of something I have to do eventually anyway.
Michigan Orders DPS to Cuts Costs, Close Schools
myFOXDetroit.com
DETROIT - State education officials have ordered the emergency financial manager for Detroit Public Schools to immediately implement a plan that balances the district’s books by closing half its schools.
The Detroit News says the financial restructuring plan will increase high school class sizes to 60 students and consolidate operations.
State superintendent of public instruction Mike Flanagan says in a Feb. 8 letter that the state plans to install another financial manager who must continue to implement Bobb’s plan after he leaves June 30. Flanagan’s said approval of Bobb’s plan means the district can’t declare bankruptcy.
Bobb filed his deficit elimination plan with the state in January, saying it would wipe out the district’s $327 million deficit by 2014
Please note that upping high school class size to 60 students usually means that classes that normally run less than two sections (physics, advanced bio, calculus, etc.) will be canceled.
I think every study that connects class size to student achievement was done by a teachers union. It is a myth.
Good students will absorb the information. Bad students will misbehave.
Detroit schools will stop spending when they run out of money. The budget crisis might instill in students a bit of urgency - it might be a good thing.
I had a college class with 300 students.
I had several with 400 students. I loved those classes. The teachers were always part educators, part revival preachers. Of course I was self motivated. If i was lazy probably wouldn’t have done well in them.
“If i was lazy probably wouldn’t have done well in them.”
I’ve taught classes of several hundred. For the handful of students who later came back to ask me to write a letter of reference, I have always mentioned in their letters the challenge they overcame of mastering a challenging subject taught in a large-scale lecture format.
“Good students will absorb the information. Bad students will misbehave.”
I think class size does matter, especially when you’re talking 60 kids. What if the misbehaving students are too much of a disruption to the ones honestly trying to learn? This isn’t quite as applicable in college where students pay to be there and (more or less) chose to be there. That’s not the case for high school.
As a former elementary school teacher, I can easily debunk the theory that class size doesn’t matter — especially at the elementary level.
We spent a lot of time in small groups and in working with students, one-on-one. There is no question in my mind that small class sizes make a BIG difference.
Here is yet another excellent article from Professor Piggington:
Posted: Sunday, February 20, 2011 1:40 pm | Updated: 8:05 am, Mon Feb 21, 2011.
San Diego Home Prices: Reasonable Again
For a long time I’ve been making graphs that measure San Diego home prices in comparison with both local incomes and rents. While there are obvious limits to cramming an entire county’s worth of diverse housing stock into a single metric, I think these graphs are an important because they provide a first swipe at determining whether the San Diego housing market as a whole is cheap, expensive, or somewhere in between.
As of year-end 2010, the answer was most definitely “somewhere in between.”
…
The payment-based ratios (the third and fourth graphs) don’t tell us much about valuation pressures, but they can tell potential home buyers how much they would be paying on a monthly basis were they to buy with a mortgage right now. When we consider that the median historical monthly payment has, compared to incomes and rents, been roughly 50 percent higher than it is right now, the answer there is “not much.”
Thus, despite the facts that San Diego homes are not particularly inexpensive, and that further home price declines are very much a possibility, it could potentially make a lot of sense to buy a house right now if certain conditions are met. But that is a topic for the next article.
Meanwhile, up in LA, they’re spending money on everything except the mortgage. Story from the LAT:
After bankruptcy filing, couple’s spending continued
Unbelievable this clueless couple would open themselves up to public scrutiny. Stupid is as Stupid does. They would be perfect for the TV show ‘Til Debt Do Us Part.”
We should all carry those charts around with us. When someone says, “we could not have ssen this coming”, you have justification for slapping them upside the head.
“Wisconsin is Burning” Fox News what’s up with that?
Despite war-like language from Fox News, Wisconsin protests stay non-violent
If one read Fox News headlines yesterday they might have confused the protests in Madison, Wisconsin for those in Bahrain. In Madison some 60,000 union supporters were met by about 2,000 Tea Party counter-protesters. Despite the potential for conflict, the Madison Police Department reported zero arrests and actually complimented the civil exercise of democracy.
Fox News consistently used language which suggested the protests in Madison were about to get ugly. These headlines included
“Teacher Unions Targeting Opponents’ Homes”
“Union Showdown in Wisconsin Capitol”
“Obama Offers Tactical Support to Unions in State Budget Battles”
“Wisconsin Protesters Face Off Over Anti-Union Bill”
In fact, despite all the Fox News reporters on the scene, there were no visible “showdowns” between anti-Walker and pro-Walker protesters. No “face offs” took place, as the union protesters simply let the Tea Partiers come, express their own viewpoints, and then leave with no disruptions.
The headlines are just the recent development in a continual theme from the “fair and balanced.” Over the last week Fox News has suggested that the protesters may turn violent at any second. While showing footage of some protesters Fox News ran a tag line at the bottom of the screen which read “Wisconsin is Burning.” Karl Rove and other commentators have referred to the protesters as a “mob” which is trying to create “anarchy” in Madison.
http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-national/despite-war-like-language-from-fox-news-wisconsin-protest-stay-non-violent#ixzz1EceaBVRt
Wasn’t the same language used for tea party protests by most of the media including some people here?
“Wisconsin is Burning.”
That’s the just all of the smoke coming out of Ian’s Pizza and Salads on State St.
They’re making a killing serving donated pizza’s to the protestors…
“Ooops, wait Faux News…wait…come Baaack here …nobody has been KILLLED !!”
They’re making a killing serving donated pizza’s to the protestors…
And I’ll bet no one’s protesting about that. (Darn, I miss pizza from the Midwest. The home of our nation’s best pizza.)
Thanks Arizona Slim for the article. I think they blame the economy for their troubles and not their bad habits. That is the way with many, many people. They think if the bubble had just kept growing, all would have been OK. But for some strange reason the bubble deflated.
They will not connect their behavior with the results.
Excellent points. But they were right on the fact that if the bubble just kept going they would have been ok. What a flippin’ nightmare it would have been had it gone on an additional few years.
Thanks Arizona Slim for the article. I think they blame the economy for their troubles and not their bad habits. That is the way with many, many people.
You’re welcome!
Having been in biz for a while, I can recall a time when just about every business-in-a-rough-patch used September 11 as the reason why. Sales down? Had to be because of September 11. Revenue down? It was that dastardly September 11 at work again.
These days, September 11 isn’t the excuse that it was back in ‘02 and ‘03. Nowadays, it’s that thing called The Economy.
So, I was watching Meet the Press on Sunday. The Democrat starts going off abut how the last balanced budget was under a Democrat in the late 90s, and how we need to get back to what gave us that surpluss.
So, you want stock prices to be 4x a reasonible value, for a select few individuals to make billions while the middle class purs ni trillion of hard earned savings, only to see it all collapse, the billionaires keep most of their gains, and the middle class have their savings virtually wiped out….
Really? Really??? That is what we need to get back to?
The NASDAQ went from 500 in 1991 to 5000 2000, back to 1200 in 2002.
Now we’re back above 2800.
Okay… but take the 2000 high and inflation adjust, and we’d need to be at 6400 to break even so we’re still off 56% from the inflation adjusted high…. arguably, already over priced and well into another bubble.
Really? That is the solution? Create another short-term bubble that generates excess tax receipts for a few years from fake, untimatly unrealizable profits, then destroys 50-75% of the investors wealth?
If that is the Democrat plan, then I want no part of it.
Of course, the Republican plan seems to be a bifurcation of the population in to a elite few have and the great teaming masses scraping by on poverty wages and no social safety net. I want even less part of that.
I thought you all might enjoy reading this portion of some negative replies to my suggestion that People should consider strategic default:
Clark, What I am wrong about is my unwillingness to buy into the “strategic default” as a viable solution to an upside down mortgage position. I do not defend the banks nor will defend those who are doing wrong.
By way of background, I am a loss litigation consultant, with more than 20 years – hands on experience, and helped set-up and initiate systems & processes for HFC, B of A & several regional banks in the 90′s. My specific area of specialty is/was Human Factoring – how & why people respond, in this case, to default positions. I have done the studies & watched how institutions respond to consumers is a seemingly antiseptic manner without being “human” to the stressed consumer.
Currently, I am the creative head of a national default solution platform that runs in harmony with but is independent of, banks. Our platform is a reversed engineered process that is completely consumer driven. I personally designed the consumer response mechanisms & discovered that they work relative to base integrity and fundamental truths.
Believe it or not, when someone is giving the opportunity to do the right thing AND you can minimize the pain (for most), people by in large do the right thing. Think about it – you see someone drop a quarter, you pick it up and hand it to them, no thought. If they drop a $100 bill & don’t know it & nobody else sees it but you, do you feel the same sense of doing right? The elements & conditions are exactly the same, the increased stimulus became the difference however, right is right.
Many try to spin the contractual rights into their favor but the system breaks down because ultimately, the consumer loses in the short & long term and globally. Bottom line Clark, people borrowed the money and are obligated to pay it back and must do the best they can to what is right whether it is Wells Fargo or you who loaned it. Strategic default is not part of that equation.
Appraisal – Many fail safe strategies were implemented in the 90′s (the acquisition 2nd & 3rd independent opinions) and continued to be modified. Entering the 21st century the online analytics made a greater presence and were widely used as a fail safe. All of these were to protect the bank AND the consumer. Remember, the banks assumed the greater risk not the borrower.
From 2002-2006 the market was spiking upward and IF the value was pushed, it was relatively risk free because of market conditions. Loans got underwritten BUT had to pass through the secondary online valuation analytic or it could not be approved which means – no loan.
“Strategic default” by definition & design lacks integrity and is independent of contractual rights of the consumer. Who has the right to strategically default? Nobody – there is absolutely no provision(s) in the mortgage loan contract that allows a borrower to strategically default therefore, it’s wrong.
So why do people do it? Because it seems easy and, wow – “I must be missing an opportunity to take advantage of a condition” now pervasive mindset. Those people want something for nothing and feel entitled to do so for irrational reasons. People who default care only about one thing – themselves, not the future value or lack thereof, of real estate.
Your idea of mass strategic defaulting to bring housing prices in line with whatever you believe is fair is completely unfair to the far greater majority who work hard and went the extra miles to keep their word & in accordance to the business obligation – contract, they signed.
Your argument will never wash because it’s foundation lacks integrity pure and simple.
Integrity is what you bring to a condition, not the reverse.
Currently, I am the creative head of a national default solution platform that runs in harmony with but is independent of, banks. Our platform is a reversed engineered process that is completely consumer driven. I personally designed the consumer response mechanisms & discovered that they work relative to base integrity and fundamental truths.
What, pray tell, is a creative head? Are you an art director? A graphic designer? Or a marketing manager?
“national default solution platform”
WTF is that? Do you really need to use that many words to say “loan adjuster?”
I would bet he’s in marketing.
Glad I’m not the only one who couldn’t figure out what he was saying.
Funny how he thinks strategic default isn’t an option. It’s the ONLY option for most people.
“Bottom line Clark, people borrowed the money and are obligated to pay it back and must do the best they can to what is right whether it is Wells Fargo or you who loaned it.”
Bottom line, Mr Creative Head, is that if lenders were stoopid enough to make large loans to people who clearly had zero hope of ever repaying it, then at least they deserve to go bankrupt, and even better, the folks who made these lending decisions should go to jail for not protecting investor interests.
A lot of People strenuously state that it is a matter of honor and integrity for FB’s to continue to try and pay off their upside down mortgages, and that’s why many people don’t walk, they’re shamed into staying when instead they should strategically default.
A few more choice bits:
Steve said, “… 2. Appraisal fraud, how much fraud could they possibly create – a 20% differential?? … The 90’s established rules that prevented that from happening because of a condition that existed in the late 80’s. BUT IF it did happen & get through that gauntlet, that was once again against the cheating created by the mortgage broker who blatantly violated their fiduciary duty – not the bank. Get the distinction yet??
…
Contracts are drawn up and created FROM honor & integrity or have you forgotten that?
Lastly, had the banks been able to see this coming & are greedy pigs as you espoused, do you really think they would have really chosen this position?”
“…do you really think they would have really chosen this position?”
Whether they be greed pigs or just plain stoopid, they fully deserve the full Joshua Tree treatment…
the full Joshua Tree treatment
Haven’t heard that one in a while. Hard to believe we’ve all been here that long.
Haven’t heard that one in a while. Hard to believe we’ve all been here that long.
Well, smack me with a 20-pound trout!
…and a geoduck.
“and a geoduck.”
I miss Oly. Sigh.
I agree that their is an obligation to pay it back but very few subscribe to that theory. They will come up with some reason that it is OK to not pay. Such as the business concept of “strategic default” (like it was just a game), or the banks committed “fraud” (which they probably did), or that the rules changed in the middle of the mortgage (which also occurred).
Give people long enough time and they will think of a moral reason to not fulfil an obligation. The only reason I accept is that they are unemployed and don’t have them money. That is a risk that has always been there since the first loan.
I tend to think of all the moralizing from banks (as recently exemplified by Joey who used to post here) as part of their business strategy to extract as much as possible from greater fools who are willing to take on unrepayable debt burdens.
I agree that their is an obligation to pay it back but very few subscribe to that theory. They will come up with some reason that it is OK to not pay. Such as the business concept of “strategic default” (like it was just a game), or the banks committed “fraud” (which they probably did), or that the rules changed in the middle of the mortgage (which also occurred).
Give people long enough time and they will think of a moral reason to not fulfil an obligation. The only reason I accept is that they are unemployed and don’t have them money. That is a risk that has always been there since the first loan.
“Currently, I am the creative head of a national default solution…”
How is it that in this republic I am coerced to be liable for the giddy debt and foolish investments of others?
Well, your first mistake is thinking this a republic. It’s not. It’s a plutocracy/oligarchy/corptacracy.
Or a plutolicorptacracy who’s main principle is rectocranialinversion.
How can people endorse default when it’s no longer a contract between the banker and borrower but now its the taxpayers dime that is called for with bail outs . It is no longer the original contract
that it was when the borrower and lender made it .
Real Estate was always tied into property taxes and that’s all the more reason why the Bankers didn’t have the right to mess with
real estate .
If the bankers made these contracts than let them pay for the defaults ,not the taxpayers ,otherwise we are all paying for these defaults .
The “two classes” analysis ignores a little something. Unionized public employees have gotten richer too, in more and more years of retroactively enhanced pensions. Other workers, including those worse off, have been sacrificed to pay for this in higher taxes and lower public services.
There are three classes — the political class, the executive class, and the serfs.
The political class negotiates its pensions in back room deals with the incumbent politicians they keep in office, and they force others to pay in higher taxes and diminished public services.
The executive class negotiates its salary and bonuses in back room deals with the board member cronies they appoint, and force others to pay for in diminished investment returns and lower private sector pay.
The serfs are in no position to force anyone to pay anything, and must take what they can get in the marketplace on increasingly poor terms.
The political class is now mobilized to point the finger at the executive class by the events in Washington. The executive class has been pointing the finger at the political class for some time. If you are one of the serfs, don’t be fooled by either.
I see no mention of how every single entity, both private and civil, deliberately underfunded their employees pensions while hoping to make up the difference playing the markets.
Damn unions!
Oh wait.
It seems the Wisconsin brouhaha over union collective bargaining may be a smokescreen. The budget bill contains a clause permitting the state to award no-bid, sealed contracts for operation of power plants in the state. And who’s in that industry? Why, it’s the Koch brothers, who directly and indirectly were the biggest donors to Scott Walker’s campaign. They already have a presence in Wisconsin and are looking to expand their activities there.
This info came to me via a certain well-known orange-colored “progressive” website
but the post there contains links to the budget bill itself, where it is all spelled out in black and white.
If not for the protests and fleeing state legislators and whatnot, this would already be a done deal.
Clearly the union busting is a head fake to distract the public from what is really going on.
The country is doomed.
You are correct. See my post above.
Guess the Dems didn’t read the bill or they’d have been shouting this from the rafters.
I see this debate as a head fake and a power grab also ,not to say that some adjustments aren’t necessary regarding pensions ,but to take away future rights of Union members doesn’t seems right
either .
Working conditions could really go down hill the more you take away rights of workers . I just can’t see how anybody would endorse the sort of unbalance that would result from workers losing the gains they made in a 100 year period regarding public and private workers .
I just can’t see how anybody would endorse the sort of unbalance that would result from workers losing the gains they made in a 100 year period regarding public and private workers .
Really? What if it would make them a lot of money?
Obama is bankrolled by banksters - nothing to see here
Soros and others bankroll the lefties - it’s all for the good cause
Koch Boys give money to tea parties - the world’s collapsing, we are all going to die!
God, I am sick and tired of this hypocrisy and nonsense!!!
God, I am sick and tired of this hypocrisy and nonsense!!!
I know, you are right, but it will always be there. You just need to decide, at what time, which side (with all it’s BS) is more on most people’s side.
Unless you’re not most people. But even then, you have to decide the morality of what a few have done to most Americans.
A chalk board isn’t needed to determine wealth trends and their consequences.
Wis. budget plan may tilt political playing field
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110221/ap_on_re_us/us_wisconsin_budget_union_politics
MADISON, Wis. – The high-stakes fight in Wisconsin over union rights is about more than pay and benefits in the public sector. It could have far-reaching effects on electoral politics in this and other states by helping solidify Republican power for years, experts said Monday.
While Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to wipe out collective bargaining rights for most public employees has galvanized Democrats and union members in opposition, the GOP could benefit long-term by crippling a key source of campaign funding and volunteers for Democrats.
…”It would be a huge landscape-altering type of action, and it would tilt the scales significantly in favor of the Republicans,”
…Nancy MacLean, a labor historian at Duke University, said eliminating unions would do to the Democratic Party what getting rid of socially conservative churches would do to Republicans. She called unions “the most important mass membership, get-out-the vote wing of the Democratic Party.”
“It’s stunning partisan calculation on the governor’s part, and really ugly,” she said.
If anyone can explain this puzzling recent price history for a foreclosure home on the San Diego MLS, I would be appreciative. In particular, since the bank that owns it is selling it in “as is” condition, what makes them think they can justify selling it at a marked-up price of $409,000 - $341,415 = $67,585 when they did nothing to make it salable?
Property History for 13785 Via Cima Bella
Date Event Price Appreciation Source
Jan 28, 2011 Price Changed $409,000 – SANDICOR #100071613
Dec 15, 2010 Listed (Active) $444,000 – SANDICOR #100071613
Aug 22, 2010 Delisted (Cancelled) – – Inactive SANDICOR #2
Aug 02, 2010 Relisted (Active) – – Inactive SANDICOR #2
Jul 21, 2010 Sold (Public Records) $341,415 – Public Records
This home was foreclosed
Foreclosure is a process that transfers the right of home ownership from the homeowner to the bank or lender. A home goes into foreclosure when the owner stops paying his mortgage loan payments. and bank-owned
Short for “real estate owned,” REOs are foreclosed homes owned by banks and lenders..
In particular, since the bank that owns it is selling it in “as is” condition, what makes them think they can justify selling it at a marked-up price of $409,000 - $341,415 = $67,585 when they did nothing to make it salable?
Because they really need the money?
I often wonder if these are really “bank-owned” or if they are “investor-owned,” but this one does specifically say it was an REO.
Just remember that a lot of listings that are purported to be “bank owned” are really being flipped by investors who buy them at auction. I don’t know if it’s legal for them to advertise them as “bank-owned” or “REO,” but I see it all the time.
For the curious, a one-month decline of 5.9% occurs at an annualized rate of ((1-0.059)^12-1)*100% = -51.8%.
Oh, and a 1-month decline in sales of 23.5% occurs at an annualized rate of ((1-0.235)^12-1)*100% = -96.0% (but of course this is just a seasonal anomaly, according to real estate ‘experts’).
Try not to catch yerselves falling knives.
Home sales volume and prices slip in January
The number of sales falls 0.5% from January 2010 and 23.5% from December, and the $239,000 median price is down 3.2% year-over-year and 5.9% month-over-month.
February 18, 2011|By Alejandro Lazo, Los Angeles Times
California’s housing market remained weak in January with the median home price declining from a year earlier and sales volume dipping below the historical average.
Sales fell 0.5% to 27,706 from January 2010, according to DataQuick Information Systems. They also dropped 23.5% from December, although January sales typically fall from December volumes.
…
Wouldn’t excluding distress sales at a point when they dominate the market tend to result in misleadingly upward-biased estimates?
And I call total BS on this line:
“While declines in home values were expected in previous boom areas, such as California and Florida,…”
HBB posters, though not many others, expected US home prices to decline in bubble zones and elsewhere before it happened.
Real Estate Outlook: Declines in Unexpected Cities
By Carla Hill | February 21, 2011 10:55 AM EST
No news can sometimes be good news. According to the December Home Price Index, recently released by analytic firm CoreLogic, “2010 shows home prices stabilized with the average annual HPI index showing no change relative to 2009.”
Month over month, however, home prices were still down in December, with prices declining by 5.46 percent from November. This was the fifth straight month of declines.
Home prices were also down in some unexpected areas. While declines in home values were expected in previous boom areas, such as California and Florida, declines have now been surfacing in some new, unlikely cities.
A recent article in the New York Times highlighted the affects of this down market on such areas as Seattle, Minneapolis, and Miami.
According to Zillow.com, Seattle is down about 31 percent from its mid-2007 peak, and could see another 10 percent dip on the horizon. Stan Humphries, the chief economist for Zillow, sees a 5 to 7 percent decline in the rest of the nation’s future.
He says, “If these declines are sustained, as we expect to happen in many markets, the result will be a “double dip ” in home values, defined as two periods of sustained declines in home values separated by a brief period of stabilization or recovery.”
It’s not all gloom and doom. Some states are seeing positive appreciation. Corelogic reports that “excluding distressed sales, the five states with the highest appreciation were: Hawaii (+6.15 percent), North Dakota (+6.03 percent), West Virginia (+3.53 percent), New York (+3.27 percent), and District of Columbia (+2.64 percent).
…
He says, “If these declines are sustained, as we expect to happen in many markets, the result will be a “double dip ” in home values, defined as two periods of sustained declines in home values separated by a brief period of stabilization or recovery.”
——————-
He doesn’t note whether or not it’s important that the “period of stabilization or recovery” was entirely due to govt/Fed intervention.
This is really the continuation of what should have been happening during that brief “recovery” period.
Bloomberg
Home Sales Probably Fell, Durables Rose: U.S. Economy Preview
February 20, 2011, 12:07 AM EST
More From Businessweek
By Bob Willis
Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) — Home sales probably fell in January, while orders for long-lasting goods climbed, a reminder that housing lags behind manufacturing as the U.S. recovery strengthens, economists said before reports this week.
Combined purchases of new and existing homes fell 2 percent to a 5.5 million annual pace, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Durable-goods bookings increased 3 percent last month, the survey showed.
Unemployment hovering near 9 percent means foreclosures may keep rising, adding to a glut of inventory that is depressing property values, hurting builders and homeowners. Growing exports, combined with increasing profits and tax incentives signed into law by President Barack Obama in December, will probably keep orders flowing to companies like Caterpillar Inc.
“Housing is basically flat on its back, and manufacturing is growing very fast, probably the biggest contrast in the economy,” said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight Inc. in Lexington, Massachusetts. “Home prices are still on the way down.”
…
Huh? didn’t we just a report posted here that UE is again at 10%?
Only manufacturing profits are increasing due to offshore production and they are at a record level. Domestic production is down considerably.
• The Dow sells 1.2 billion shares a day; down 25% from last year and the market goes up!
• Mark to market changes, truckloads of free Fed money (.25%), QE, and Fed stock purchases are Ben’s policies to drive the markets up and create a sense of improvement.
• HFT (73% of market trades vs 30% four years ago) and EFT by their nature double each transaction and are doing more to increase the market than the stimulus with their super fast computers
• Possibly because of market increase consumer demand has gone up, but for goods that are produced offshore.
• The tax rate for US domiciled companies is 35% and they pay 2% average for their offshore profits of which they have parked one trillion so as to avoid US taxes.
• US companies want to bring these profits home but are holding up the government threatening to remove their R&D and or their domicile if a cheap rate (like 5% in 2004) isn’t given.
• Some believe repatriation would create up to 2.4 million jobs (A.L. Stern) although it is hard to see.
• In 2004 almost all repatriated profits went to paying increased dividends.
• 70% of IBM and HP sales are abroad. Intel 82%. Ditto MS who arbitrage thru Ireland.
• A US company can arbitrage it’s foreign tax with a mix and match tax credit from foreign payments !
• US corporate profits for the last quarter were a record with 65% coming from offshore vs 11% ten years ago.
• Few companies have an America first policy for production (Cisco excepted) but cost average and then full transfer to foreign countries.
• If you thought Securitization was ridiculous you should understand ETFs better. Yikes !
My point is that if the US gov continues to allow Chindia to force it’s manufacturers to accept Chinese currency only and at a pegged rate as they hoard the US dollars and then lend them back (along with investment purchases) then the US should respond.
(a.) Tariff barriers for any goods or services that could be provided from within the USA
(b.) Limit the speed of super fast computers when making HFT and EFT trades to eliminate the unfair trading advantages this offers (it allows knowledge of trades happening before they are executed).
(c.) Give a tax reduction to 5% for repatriated profits for 90 days
(d.) Tax all US companies at the full 35% thereafter on their world wide incomes net of foreign tax credits that cannot be arbitraged.
They threaten to move their IPR and head offices to other countries if these steps are taken. They know that the majority of their market still is in North America.
We are being fed garbage statistics designed to make us feel better it seems.
When are they going to put the shadow housing inventory on the market? When will they put a quantum on how much HFT trading has affected the market?
And what are they doing about ETF controls? Nothing !
I’m glad you made this post above me Patrick . Until people can see the whole picture of what is crashing our economic systems ,that would cause millions of Americans to go into poverty as well as
a underfunded tax base , the rich will get richer and the middle class will die .
Yes, good post, Patrick.
O.k., this mega pisses me off. The abandoned home next to me is now constantly being shown! By who? WTF. It has a “secure” sticker across the front door and window, and yet in public records there NO action against the house, other than a piddly public water lean.
How is it that Mega Bank take all kinds of bailouts and do this? If we the taxpayers bailed these assholes out, I demand that this freaking house be auctioned off. Right freaking now.
I have seen the same in my n’hood (Miami Shores). A house comes on the market mega cheap. I call the realtor, no answer, no returned call, nothing. 24 hours later the house if off the market and 2 month later it shows up as sold on the county website. Looks like some inside deals going on here. Nobody in the general public ever even had the chance to enter a bid.
There are people who do nothing all day but sit at their PCs at home and work the on-line county auction.
And just as quickly, they can line up a buyer. All from their PC and can be done in one day.
“Pocket listings.”
Muggy,
We see the same thing here, but often with REOs and short sales.
There is so much fraud going on, it’s sickening.
Meanwhile, those of us who just want to buy our family home are stuck in rentals waiting…waiting…waiting.
OTOH, if the economy goes the way I think it will when this union thing blows up, we might actually find ourselves “thanking God for unanswered prayers.”
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=180591
Bernanke, you stupid bastard.
Yes, you.
And Trichet, and the rest of the Central Bank fools.
But especially you, Bernanke.
There’s dumb and then there’s really dumb. Let’s take a short walk back down history lane.
You were sure there was no housing bubble.
Then you were sure it wouldn’t pop.
Then you were sure when the subprime problem hit, that it wouldn’t cause a recession.
Then you were sure you had it under control with Bear Stearns’ hedge funds.
Then you were sure you had it under control with Bear Stearns itself.
Then you were sure it was under control with Lehman, even though you had to know Citibank and others were refusing their collateral in the repo market.
You were sure QE would support higher bond prices - and lower yields. The exact opposite thing happened.
You were sure QE2 would suppress long end yields. The exact opposite thing happened.
Oh yeah, you made excuses both times, but in fact you publicly said that in both cases the exact opposite thing would happen that did.
Now let’s look at what happened just today.
Oil went up almost $7 today for the WTI contract. For each dollar that crude oil rises, we transfer roughly $95 billion (estimates vary from $90-100) outside of the United States.
That’s a direct hit to GDP.
In ONE DAY the entire impact of your so-called “QE2″ was ERASED.
Your entire gambit and what you sold to Congress and President Obama was that you could “restart” credit expansion with your policies. Implicit in your policy was a need to do so, because without it you cannot succeed. The World Economic Forum at Davos released a paper saying that we needed, collectively, to add one hundred trillion dollars of new debt to the system to support the paltry growth numbers you and your economists are putting up. Worse, the CBO stuck up numbers in the TBAC report that show another doubling of Federal Debt in the next nine years and a rough quadrupling of debt service costs to $800 billion, implying a paltry 3% blended rate.
We had the collapse starting in 2007 because people couldn’t afford the debt they already had and yet your entire scheme, to succeed, requires doubling all systemic debt AGAIN.
So how are you going to do it Ben?
Who’s going to take on that debt, and how are they going to service it?
You know damn well it can’t work, and won’t. You also know damn well you’ve goaded and prodded the Federal Government into taking on $4.5 trillion in debt we cannot afford, or nearly 30% of GDP.
How are you going to take that back off Bernanke? You keep being asked this, but all you say is that you’re confident “you have the tools.”
Uh huh.
You don’t have jack and you know damn well you can’t pull your pump-job back one iota without laying bare on the table the fact that the Federal Government is supporting 12% of GDP with borrowed money. If it disappears we have an instant Depression worse than the 1930s.
The bad news is that if you keep this crap up it will disappear by force of the market, there’s not a damn thing you can do to prevent it, and that day is rapidly approaching.
EVERY prediction you’ve made about the economy over the last five years has been wrong.
All of them.
The market is rising only because you’re “promising” infinite leverage.
But infinite leverage means certain financial ruin if you’re wrong about external forces. And the economy is not a closed system under your control. You cannot control other nations, you cannot control commodity speculators and you cannot control other central banks and politicians. You think you can force China off their peg, but they can suppress riots longer than we can. You think you can keep printing but now Egypt has gone down, Libya is collapsing and if Saudi Arabia folds you’re instantly ****ED and so are the rest of us.
Never mind that it’s not just the Middle East. What if Venezuela folds? Mexico goes feral with their drug war? How about South Korea, which now has how many banks closed due to runs?
The longer you keep this crap up the worse the instability will become. Eventually something will break that’s important, and then it’s too late.
You can’t win this game Bernanke. And the longer you keep trying to protect the banks that should have been shut down and taken into receivership in 2007 the more damage you’re going to do. When the history books are written on this catastrophe your name is going to be featured in bright lights as the personal architect and chief jackass who pontificated that he knew it all because he studied The Great Depression.
Yeah, you studied it all right. And now you’re duplicating the mistakes made then, writ even larger.
There are no statesmen left in this nation when it comes to Congress. Not one who will haul your ass in front of them by force of subpoena, put your clear and public record of “accuracy” in front of you and then demand that you justify your twisting of the clear English language to come up with “2% inflation” as your “interpretation” of STABLE PRICES.
You’re going to fail Bernanke. You’re failing right now. You’ve destroyed one nation’s government and this evening, as I write this, a second is falling apart. The madman behind the second, Qaddafi, has apparently ordered his military to strafe civilians, murdering hundreds.
But behind it all, your policies and those of your cronies, believing in an indefinite Ponzi Scheme of exponential debt without bound, are responsible for every bit of what’s happening today worldwide - and what is to come tomorrow.
The only way you can stop it is to admit you were wrong, pull liquidity and allow the insolvent institutions to collapse. And collapse they will - all of them. I’m convinced you know that too. And I’m also convinced that there’s three words you will never utter so long as you infest Washington DC: I ****ed up.
So here we sit as Americans, with no solution. There is nobody in Congress or The Administration that has the balls to stop you, and you’re too much of a douche to admit you blew it and do what should have been done three years ago.
As a result, all we have left is to be prepared for what’s to come.
It’s not going to be pretty, and I hope Americans are ready for it.
Congratulations Ben Bernnake. Your place in history is secure, and I’m sure Beelzebub thanks you daily for your cooperation.
Some day I’m quite sure you’ll meet him face-to-face.
Bernanke, you stupid bastard.
Woa………woa……easy…….lets take a deep breath here.
I agree with that article BUT that might have gone too far. Name calling, some say is the last refuge of those who can’t express concepts in a civil, coherent manner. We are all human beings here.
I’d have a lot more to say on the subject if Bernake wasn’t such a Dic*k.
Excellent. Thanks for posting.
Great post . I can’t even stand to look at the guy anymore .
Oil’s going parabolic. Yipppeeeee!!!
Another exceptional rant by Mr. Denninger!
It’s different in San Luis Obispo, CA. No jobs, high priced homes, and the recovery is building steam. The propaganda is so thick you have to scrape it from your shoes!
“Small rise in SLO County home prices is expected”
http://tinyurl.com/5r88cgo
Lots of action going on in the Arab Nations . I want to see the Revolution .
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