Bits Bucket for March 8, 2011
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Charlie Tango,
There seems to be a misunderstanding WRT my post the other day.
Here is what you wrote:
Comment by CharlieTango
2011-03-03 08:56:16
the philosophy of limited govt and limited taxation leads to prosperity and opportunity for all, including labor.
there is a difference between labor and unions.
===================================
The data show that there is a **NEGATIVE** correlation between low taxes and “prosperity and opportunity for all, including labor.”
Since you’ve again asserted, since my rebuttal, that your theory is right, I’d like to see some evidence.
If you have any factual evidence to prove your assertion that:
“…limited govt and limited taxation leads to prosperity and opportunity for all, including labor.”
I would love to see it.
==============================
This was my post from the other day:
Now, let’s see if the facts back this assertion.
The top marginal tax rate was in the 70-94% range from 1936-1982, a period that many would consider to be America’s “peak” years. (1982 marked the beginning of our credit bubble, the growing divide between the rich and poor, the growing movement toward the outsourcing of jobs, and the dismantling of the middle class, IMHO).
The only other time we saw such low top marginal rates was the period right before…the Great Depression. (Coincidence? I think not.)
http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/151.html
——————————–
Corporate tax rates (~1988-present) are at low levels not seen since 1941.
And, from the information I can see, cap gains taxes are at the lowest rate since the 1930s.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/189189-u-s-dividend-cap-gains-tax-rate-history-possible-relevance-to-future-taxation
——————————–
How have tax rates impacted our economy, and how has it impacted Amercan families, particularly the “middle class”?
A huge share of the nation’s economic growth over the past 30 years has gone to the top one-hundredth of one percent, who now make an average of $27 million per household. The average income for the bottom 90 percent of us? $31,244.
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-in-america-chart-graph#
The bad news is that the vibrant growth has fizzled, for the time being at least, and fewer Americans seem to be benefiting from what growth there is. Plus, much of the added wealth over the last couple of decades came from women working more, which raised household incomes but also masked problems like fewer jobs and falling pay for manufacturing workers. There’s also a much bigger gap between middle and high earners today than there was in the ’60s and ’70s, which means the wealthy are capturing a larger and perhaps unfair share of the nation’s wealth. “The middle class is a lot farther away from the very top than they were 40 years ago,” says Shierholz. “So even if typical households were gaining ground in absolute terms, they’d be losing out relative to households at the top.”
http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/flowchart/2010/10/15/how-the-middle-class-is-shrinking
—————————
Again, I will ask the question:
If low/no taxes, no unions, and a small/weak government is the answer to our problems, can somebody PLEASE show us a single example of a country with these qualities that has a thriving economy and middle class, with a standard of living that is equal to (or better than) those found in more “socialist” countries.
Statistics can be found here:
http://www.nationmaster.com/cat/eco-economy
———————-
Please, let’s have a dialogue based on FACTS and LOGIC, rather than the regurgitation of propaganda put out by the corporatists and financial elite who seek to benefit at our (ALL WORKERS) expense.
ca_renter,
your leftist, high tax, pro union spiel is based on facts and logic while opposition is regurgitation of propaganda.
you talk a lot about proof, evidence and logic. you think lack of evidence provided by you is proof provided by you. specifically you claim that you have provided data that show no evidence ( in your opinion ) that small govt is beneficial therefore you have proved that large govt is beneficial. a sample logical construct: a=b, b=c, therefore a=c. your version goes more like:
dataSet[a] CONTAINS NO SUPPORTING EVIDENCE of concept[b] Therefore concept[b] DOES NOT EXIST.
in the competition between left and right philosophies there is no (nor can there be) a controlled experiment that results in proof that either philosophy “works” we have to rely on common sense.
my “common sense” convinces me that the 70%-94% tax rates are a huge disincentive yet your “common sense” convinces you that this is the way to fund your needs from other people’s earnings.
there is too much distance between the two of us to agree on anything including that the other’s argument has merit.
A community of workers and government is ideally like a symbiotic host/parasite relationship in nature. The host gives up some of its blood to feed the parasite and in a successful setup gets some benefit back (digestion/grooming/whatever). There is a natural optimum size for the parasite. If it is too inefficient or too large, or feeds only for its own benefit, the host wastes away. In that case, the relationship is not symbiotic, rather predatory.
Sometimes another parasite, say a vampire squid, attaches itself to the host and destroys the symbiotic relationship by overfeeding, fooling the host’s immune system into attacking its symbiotic relationship with the government and unions, which was its best defense against the vampire squid.
It’s quite diabolical.
The squid is feeding on the host through the socalled gov. In exchange for their cooperation they are being engorged.
I am not thinking of janitors here.
prosperity and opportunity for all
“…from 1936-1982, a period that many would consider to be America’s “peak” years.” - CA renter
“”Bills of Exchange” were used to “clear” trade throughout the world. The clearance center for international “Bills of Exchange” was in London, UK. The success in facilitating international exchange of goods by means of “Bills of Exchange” lies in the statistic which shows that the volume of trade in real terms was larger in 1890 than it was in 1990.” - Ingo Bischoff
clark,
Does that have anything to do with low tax rates and the well-being of labor?
It has to do with prosperity and opportunity for all.
With this information it brings in to question was the period from 1936-1982, really a period that many would consider to be America’s “peak” years?
From the looks of past trade volume, maybe things in 1936-1982 could have been much much better with lower taxes and lower restrictions?
The volume of trade in real terms was larger in 1890 than it was in 1990.
1890 was a peak.
On a relative basis, maybe prosperity and opportunity for all was more obtainable and therefore maybe things were better back then in some ways?
Something squished trade volume after 1890,… a rise in tax levels and restrictions?
How that affected prosperity is a good question.
I don’t think Ingo Bischof is much of a source.
The other factor was at one point around 1700 or so the early Americans did Not have a word for unemployment, it didn’t exist.
So what happened between the period of No unemployment and the record trade volume of 1890 that is different from the period 1936-1982?
Increases in union power and influence alongside tax and regulation increases making their biggest gains ever, resulting in huge increases in prices for goods, after a very long time of stable prices, resulting in a lower standard of living for many that otherwise would have lived better?
My post didn’t go through.
A.)The early Americans didn’t have a word for unemployment.
B.)Prices were stable for a very long time.
C.)Along came the unions, and tax and regulation increases.
D.)Prices rose resulting in lower standards of living.
E.)Then trade volume dropped.
It seems that C. helped to cause D. and E. which lends support to the idea the philosophy of limited govt and limited taxation leads to prosperity and opportunity for all.
Also, alpha-sloth, the fact remains, and Ingo does seem to know quite a lot about history and money.
Clark,
Just got a chance to read your posts here. I’ve been very busy, but will address your posts in a few days.
Thanks for your response.
“In that case, the relationship is not symbiotic, rather predatory.”
Sounds to me like vampire squid banking.
“which means the wealthy are capturing a larger and perhaps unfair share of the nation’s wealth.”
Fair by whose standards! I hate this word. I don’t see anything on my birth certificate that says the world is fair or anything in it. Is it fair that someone has CHF, autism, or diabetes. Get a grip people, get a life and live it to the fullest.
Wow
And when they capture 90% of the wealth and most work for nothing more than food and basic shelter will you still be defending the elite leaches who own our gov.
Again I have no problem with people who earn a lot of money by providing value. Most of the elite make a lot of money manipulating markets, manipulating gov, and stealing with hidden fees and churning accounts, bailouts etc etc.
Oh please! Most poor people are scamsters; they’re just not smart enough to do it in a big way. Do you know how much EITC fraud there is?
And, to bring it back to housing, 50% of claims for the “first time homebuyers tax credit” were fraudulent! http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114008700
These weren’t rich people! These were poor leaches.
They were imitating their masters who taught them that working is for suckers.
Crime at the top begets crime at the bottom.
“Most
poorpeople are scamsters”Fixed it for you. (if I got the strikethrough to work correctly
)
Do the poor do more damage with their piddly scams than the rich do with theirs?
I actually believe that most people strive to be honest and often fall short.
I also believe that the percentage of scamsters probably does not vary much by income level. But I have never seen it studied, so this is no more than a feeling based on personal experience. The IRS might have a more realistic feel for it as they do actually track how accurately people file at all income levels.
The kinds of scams perpetrated do vary by income level, because that is a matter of opportunity and not inclination. Rich folks are not going to try to take the EITC. Poor folks are probably not stashing money away in tax havens.
“Poor folks are probably not stashing money away in tax havens.”
It’s called working “under the table”.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
It’s on the countrys birth certificate.
Good grief *answer the question*
“If low/no taxes, no unions, and a small/weak government is the answer to our problems, can somebody PLEASE show us a single example of a country with these qualities that has a thriving economy and middle class, with a standard of living that is equal to (or better than) those found in more “socialist” countries.”
I say that, if they prefer to live in a country with lower taxes and a smaller government, there is a country nearby that spends only about 16 percent of its Gross Domestic Product on government.
That would be Haiti.
Alright! We finally found one. Haiti!
And would the tribal areas of Pakistan count?
maybe not a country, but close. how about hongkong.
CT–
Have no horse in this race, and would love to hear a cogent argument in defense of your position. (Really.) Resorting to a rote definition of logical inference does not qualify as a specific and factual rebuttal. I.E ,; taking the argument up to a philosophical level does not negate the validity of renter’s original assertion.
Certainly “common sense” would mitigate against an unregulated market without democratic authority? Are you simply arguing degree?
PS
Coming up tomorrow. Buy you a drink?
i would be honored, but my dance card is a bit full this week.
i’ll take a rain check.
we are starting to see some nice warmer spring like weather, tons of snow on the mountain. i played tennis in bishop park today and no roses yet in bloom, no blossoms yet, not much green, some red looking willows along the owens at bishop tuffs.
currently storms are coming thru but they have little punch and spring like conditions are winning the battle.
are you going to do some skiing?
Look for the little old white-haired banshee in a (!) pink powder suit and 195’s (just to be perverse,) melting the chutes on Scotty’s. Hope the backside’s open and the avi’s are blown to smithereens.
YeeeeOOOOW, doods.
oh yeah,
i didn’t think i was winning this debate with my comments re logic, mostly i’m trying to say to the other side: please stop crowing about how you have proved your point with data and logic because that did not happen.
i am arguing a matter of degree but i think the degree we currently find ourselves at re size of govt / govt spending is so, so far beyond a balance point that leads to continuance of not only our standard of living but the opportunity to better my personal standard by hard work and some luck, that the debate should be about size of govt more than degree.
Somehow I seriously doubt you’re assertion that you’re interested in any “hard work” and I’d be willing to wager you haven’t seen a day of hard work in your lifetime. But I do get the feeling that you expect everyone else to “work hard”.
Define “hard work”.
The hardest working person I have ever known worked 80 hour weeks for months on end in multiple jobs, some very physically demanding, and still could not afford a place of his own.
ex, I got the impression CT’s in construction– which in the Sierra summertime, is very hard work indeed.
Pre-communist Hong Kong is an example of small government/no union success. Denmark is an example of large government/union success. Both can work under the right set of conditions. Neither is representative of the idealized system. Given time, absolute communism fails, as does absolute capitalism. Arguing about which is better is pointless because neither has been proven to work sustainably.
The issue to me is not about which system has the biggest GDP but which is the best place to live. Both have their merits. For me, given the choice between drinking Tuborg with some leggy Danish musicians or hanging out at the casino with Suzy Wong, I’d probably go with the Danes.
I don’t think any of us are arguing in favor of communism at all.
Personally, I think a highly transparent and accountable government should own, regulate, or control things related to a society’s needs. Capitalism is great for our “wants” but has a horrible track record WRT providing for our needs without heavy regulation and/or subsidies. All too often, we end up with large profits for the few, while the working people drain their savings to provide basic necessities for their families.
Charlie Tango wrote:
specifically you claim that you have provided data that show no evidence ( in your opinion ) that small govt is beneficial therefore you have proved that large govt is beneficial.
————————
I never claimed that *large* government is beneficial; just that no/little government is not necessarily beneficial.
You’re the one who made the claim that:
“…limited govt and limited taxation leads to prosperity and opportunity for all, including labor.”
I’m just asking you for evidence.
If there is NO evidence that your claim is true, what are you basing your beliefs on?
If I have a belief that is not based on evidence, and if someone shows evidence that the opposite of my beliefs has more merit, I either change my mind or set about gathering up some evidence.
…in the competition between left and right philosophies there is no (nor can there be) a controlled experiment that results in proof that either philosophy “works” we have to rely on common sense.
—————————
Hogwash.
There is plenty of evidence to show that low/no taxes do not “lead to prosperity and opportunity for all, including labor.” There is plenty of evidence over many years, and the evidence tends to hold true even in different countries with different cultures, economies, etc.
If you have any evidence to the contrary, please show it.
1982…pretty close to peak oil in the united states.
relevant?
U.S. oil production peaked in 1970.
my bad…no relevance whatsover…back to facts and logic.
Carter tried to save us.
+1
Britain lost a huge percentage of its brightest and best during the 70’s as a result of super-tax policy. The country has never fully recovered.
But lets play ball and raise taxes on the “rich” so each and every person receives the same pay - Say $50k no matter how much they earn or how long they work. Each American $50k a year, no matter how many years of education, no matter what IQ or contribution and no matter if they actually do much of anything at all productive. That which made America a land of opportunity would be the cherished model for socialism and communism which are models which fail over and over.
What is missed is that Americans are now required to compete with cheap offshore labor, while those in a position to profit from the cheap labor and beneficial tax terms of off-shoring are making massive incomes while the rest suffer and must lower their standards to try competing.
The Republican AND the Democrat party are both supporters of off-shoring.
The suffering of the poor is about lack of opportunity, not a handful of rich people not paying their fair share. The basic fact is the going rate for a days labor on the world market is shockingly low - on the order of a dollar or two a day…
“Britain lost a huge percentage of its brightest and best during the 70’s as a result of super-tax policy.”
Sorry, but I’m not convinced that the pigmen are the “best and brightest,” or that wealth is an automatic qualifier for such (Paris Hilton anyone?). In fact, I’d like to deport most of them (pigmen), after stripping them of their ill-gotten gains. Blankfein, Dimon, Fuld, et al…. we don’t need those pigs. People like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, whose net worths dwarf the aforementioned swine, have gone on record on multiple occasions about how they are taxed too little.
buffet is smart enough to know that all he has to do is talk about how undertaxed he is and folks like you will give him a pass.
he is a snake in the grass too…just like the other pigmen you mentioned.
Nice strawman, but you’re wrong again. I’m no Warren Buffet fan, and actually consider him to be part of the problem, as I have mentioned here before.
I’m with you, Grizzly.
Toss all these “capitalists” into the sea, and our world would be a better place, IMHO.
GH,
I have yet to see anyone here post anything that said everyone should be paid the same, irrespective of education, productivity level, etc.
What we are saying is that those at the top are NOT getting that money because of productivity or educational level, etc. They are getting it because they are in control of money flows. And as more money flows in their direction, the greater their power to control money flows even more, directing even more money in their direction.
Do you **HONESTLY** believe that the top 1% all got their wealth as a result of hard work, productivity, or education?
2 comments about those motherjones links:
1) I wish the 1st chart used medians rather than averages. If you are out of high school and making a chart, use the median not the average. Beyond that the charts are great.
2) Look at those nested comments! It gets down to 1 word before a line break! What fool approved that design?
For those who think union members run things, ask yourselves this:
“Who does NOT have to deal with this type of treatment, union members, or the financial elite?”
The answer to that question will tell you who runs this country, and why they want to get rid of unions (so the financial elite can get MORE power and money, as the only ones who have the strength and incentive to oppose them are the unions).
Why don’t the elite have to go through TSA screenings? Aren’t their planes just as capable of being flown into buildings or other targets? Why are they always excluded from the indignities suffered by the workers in this country?
http://news.travel.aol.com/2011/02/28/why-did-tsa-pat-down-kids-adults-getting-off-train/?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3%7C203969
good job, you have logically proved that because i don’t stop at the Airline terminal to be fondled before driving to may hangar that unions don’t run things.
oh the logical torture!
IIRC the TSA guys aren’t union, but they want one.
FAA is union
APA is union
ATC is union
Teamsters are union.
AMU is union
Food service and janitorial are union
Try flying your plane into public airspace without first dealing with air traffic control….
Try flying your plane into public airspace without first dealing with air traffic control…
In a nutshell, you won’t get very far. And, if you’re in the air and fail to respond to their radio calls, you’ll find yourself under all sorts of scrutiny.
actually i do it quite frequently,
i used to talk to ATC continually but these days if i do i talk to the tower and ground controllers only.
many towers have shut down so its easy to fly from a to b without having to talk to ATC.
class ABCD airspace require that you talk to atc at some point(s), if they are “open”. class EFG airspace there is no such requirements.
20 years ago i could fly from mammoth lakes to south lake tahoe and back only at night otherwise i would have to talk to south lake tahoe tower and south lake tahoe ground. south lake tahoe is no longer class D and you don’t have to talk to anyone.
if i fly to portland oregon to see my dad, i land at a small satelite airport and again no atc contact on that flight.
avionics have improved and radar services are less frequently available. most pilots talk to atc a lot and why not take advantage of free govt services?
“if you’re in the air and fail to respond to their radio calls, you’ll find yourself under all sorts of scrutiny.”
it really doesn’t work that way, you call ATC they don’t call you, if they are not already talking to you they don’t know to which frequency you are tuned. how about this, if you bust class B airspace action will be taken if you don’t do some contacting and groveling first.
I fly back and forth from FL to NC without a word to anybody.
The TSA is a prime example of “public workers” that I for one would welcome being without.
Years ago, German airports were patrolled simply by combat ready soldiers (with automatic weapons). I felt pretty safe.
“Years ago, German airports were patrolled simply by combat ready soldiers (with automatic weapons)”
I think they all are now, international airports, at least. Although in America, they’re usually cops, not soldiers.
I felt the same way until I saw a Greek soldier drop his weapon on the ground while sitting down to drink coffee.
lol
Did that Greek soldier drop and do 30 push-ups then and there? I seem to recall that was the standard punishment.
“The TSA is a prime example of “public workers” that I for one would welcome being without.”
I agree, they are useless. But I wouldn’t blame them. They are doing what they are being told to do.
They have a turnover rate that is more than twice that of the average federal employee. The average TSA screener is the paid the princely sum of $16 per hour.
My wife did this for a while. With OT, she bought home about $600 /wk and we got full health coverage at the subsidized rate of $190 / mo for the family. A LOT better than she would have done in retail, food, banking or anywhere she was qualified in the private sector.
The big problem is that they transferred over the ex Huntley people into management and favoritism ruled. It was not a happy place to work…
No look at the money
Unions have been decimated over the last 3 decades they couldn’t be weaker. The elite control an ever larger share of the wealth of this country and run the gov.
Yesterday I was talking to my brother about the protests. I was there on Saturday and the place was packed. Protesters filled the road around the capital on all 4 sides. Very little news coverage. While I was talking to him there were 6 count them 6 adds financed by Koch brothers and their kin trying to pump up Walkers dismal public approval ratings.
Now tell me who is winning.
I think the unions would get a lot more sympathy and support if they were not run by communists and revolutionaries. Now, there are public employee unions that are not run by disgusting anti-American Marxists, but we see images of them walking hand in hand with those very same groups.
I am not sure if you realize how ridiculous the unions come off when the public at large sees images of dirty young adults wearing red, beating drums, blowing whistles, displaying anti-American/pro-communist signs and desecrating the Wisconsin capital building.
Wow nice piece of propaganda nick. Dirty young adults what are you some old man.
I have been to the rally and those people beating drums are practicing their rights as Americans to protest. I know guys like you would love to see a Sadam style of democracy where protesters were thrown in jail and your strong man was elected with 90% vot in a rigged system, we’re not there yet but sadly we are getting closer.
Nice try. I was not saying they don’t have the right to protest, just saying the way they are going about it will not help their public image. Unions have gone off the reservation with their anti-capitalist pro-communist associations.
“Dirty young adults what are you some old man.”
Middle aged but still young enough to have working eyesight.
A little bit like the gay pride parades. Sure they have the right to parade in flaming drag, but they would gain far more acceptance if they toned the message down a bit.
A little bit like the gay pride parades. Sure they have the right to parade in flaming drag, but they would gain far more acceptance if they toned the message down a bit.
A subdued pride parade? That would be no fun whatsoever!
The point of a parade is not “acceptance,” it is for celebration and gloating. In-your-face nyah nyah nyah of one’s antagonists is why parades were invented. They are as old as warfare.
I’d far prefer they toned down the whole Veterans Day thing, for example, and returned it to its original intent– Armistice. But it’s a lot more fun to make a huge hoo-rah over division rather than assimilation.
I am old enough to remember when it was “Armistice Day”. It was a
day to celebrate the end of a war; a war so vast and deadly, so
unlike any the world had ever seen that it was known simply as “The
Great War”.
The change from a day to celebrate the end of a war to a day to
celebrate warriors came in 1954. That year there was a Red under
every bed, the U.S. and U.S.S.R. were engaged in a (sometimes) “Cold
War” by exploding larger and still larger thermo-nuclear bombs, and
oh yes; the year i got my Polio shots. My mother wept, and laughed
as she wept as she hugged me when it was announced there was a
vaccine for Polio: But that’s another story.
With the hindsight of half a century it seems plain that a
holiday to celebrate the end of a war went against the grain of a
government with ambitions of Empire. How much better for instilling
a martial spirit it would be to have a holiday honoring warriors, and
by extension war! Then too, the draft had continued from December of
1941 to then (and would continue ’til 1973); it must have seemed an
easy way to throw a bone to the millions of young men enslaved for
two years.
Or perhaps the irony of celebrating the end of ‘The War To End All
Wars’, the ‘War To Make The World Safe For Democracy’ doomed
Armistice Day regardless. How much blood, how much treasure has been
wasted since the first Armistice Day!
Still, it would be nice to have a day to honor and celebrate Peace…again.
CA…….
Why don’t we drug test executives every 60-90 days????
After all they can steal 100 times more in their office, then i can from their loading dock!
I’m all for it!
“…Why are they always excluded from the indignities suffered by the workers in this country?”
Because the “elite” are far fewer, highly-interconnected (known to each other and by all,) and thus simpler for security agencies to keep tabs on. It is assumed that people are going to act in their own self-interest. (Fuld isn’t likely to blow up his own plane, for instance– our economy notwithstanding.)
It takes far more resources to protect celebrity say, Jolie/Pitt or Ben Bernanke standing in a public screening line, than to tacitly or explicitly allow them bypass.
Having a great deal of money poses the same issues as having very little. You don’t get much privacy except on the far far ends of the Laffer curve.
I don’t think that’s why they are exempt at all, though.
Let’s be honest, EVERYBODY will tend to act in their own best interests. Dick Fuld is a financial terrorist. Are you saying he is above the law, or that he is less willing to commit a terrorist act?
I believe the majority of people at the **very top** of the wealth spectrum have a touch of sociopathy. They have to, in order to get there, and it’s the only way to convince themselves that they are somehow “worthy” of that excessive wealthy while the workers “deserve” to live paycheck to paycheck, without healthcare or a living wage. These people are far more likely to commit crimes than the family depicted in that video, IMHO.
If this doesn’t send chills down your spine, I don’t know what will (I suppose it’s “for our own good”):
Tiny spy planes could mimic birds, insects
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110228/ap_on_re_us/us_hummingbird_drone
If we want to fix our budget problems, the first place to cut is our “spy” technology. I understand we want to know what our enemies are doing, but I’d rather be attacked by terrorists than have our govt turning some of this spy stuff on U.S. citizens. They are going way too far, IMHO.
I thought there was something suspicious about that mosquito that was flying around my office yesterday when I swatted it.
One of those mosquitos would be neat to have in a poker game. Or flying behind a blackjack dealer in Vegas.
Hmmmmm…
Wait til the paparazzi get hold of one. We’ll get pix of Lindsay Lohan taking a dump.
That certainly does send a chill down my spine!
Those pix are already on the internet, but they are a little grainy and its hard to tell if Lindsay has been eating enough fiber.
“Wait til the paparazzi get hold of one. We’ll get pix of Lindsay Lohan taking a dump.”
^dying laughing here^
You may have destroyed a million dollar drone…
Kabul (Reuters): A 16-billion dollar prototype spy-plane the size of a crow was shot down by a 10-cent shotgun shell today in what what military technologists are calling history’s priciest game of Duck Hunt.
don’t Arabs use hawks to hunt other birds as a sport?
These little drones would not stand a chance.
This stuff will soon be cheap enough for the average citizen to operate…the government is the one that is going to be hating this.
Been the hobby store lately?
While not insect small, you can buy an off-the-shelf system for less than $500.
They’re startin to bug me
Someone had posted:
The “Medicare For All” option might end up looking “unexpectedly” expensive, in which case there would definitely be demand for private options that covered less and cost less.
—————-
If you consider the fact that taxpayers **already cover the most expensive patients** (seniors, indigent, young children, prisoners, etc.), we would more likely find that “Medicare for all” is “unexpectedly” LESS expensive than the capitalists are trying to claim.
The problem is that we socialize the losses (taxpayers cover the most expensive patients), while privatizing the profits (leaving all the healthy, 20-65 year-olds) to the private market.
I’d like to at least have the option to try “Medicare for All” with the ability to pay out-of-pocket or pay for additional, private insurance for more/better services.
It’s in the Obamacare law the any state may opt-out of the Exchange system — IF the state comes up with its own plan which still covers the same people under the same regulations for the same (or less) cost.* The opt-out option was slated to begin in 2017, but President Obama moved that date to 2014.
supporting link: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/political-fix/654cfa66-4372-11e0-ae9e-0017a4a78c22.html
It seems like a little change, but Tthe liberals were pretty happy about it. Activists in California — including Wendell Potter, who knows more about health insurance than anyone — are working on a single-payer type option. If they can formulate a plan that convinces (Dem) California that it will be cheaper than an Exchange, then California may have no Exchange at all. That would be the death knell for private insurance in California — and may start a state-to-state domino effect. (depending on whether the plan works)
———-
*States can’t opt out of Obamacare altogether, much to the chagrin of Republican governors. If a state refuses to implement an Exchange, or implement their own plan, the feds will do it for them.
It seems like a little change, but Tthe liberals were pretty happy about it. Activists in California — including Wendell Potter, who knows more about health insurance than anyone — are working on a single-payer type option. If they can formulate a plan that convinces (Dem) California that it will be cheaper than an Exchange, then California may have no Exchange at all. That would be the death knell for private insurance in California — and may start a state-to-state domino effect. (depending on whether the plan works)
The Vermont legislature’s already working on single payer, and has been for several years. The newly elected governor, Peter Shumlin, also backs single payer, so look for it in the Green Mountain State soon.
Seems like the private insurers in CA are almost playing Russian Roulette by implementing 40+% rate increases at a time when there is a serious movement afoot to create a true public option. They must know something the rest of us do not.
You can bet a lot of big money will be thrown in teh way of this. The pigs will fight to keep their nose in the trough.
It really makes the insurance costs to the 20-65 crowd seem a lot more expensive if the Government is picking up the high risk already
But ,this was my contention from day one that the Health Care Companies
were trying to shift all high risk to government and they enjoy the low risk pool .
In fact, big Business likes to shift a lot of their costs to the government .
Roads are built and maintained for the commerce of business ,(interstate transport of products )and the
people use the roads mainly to get to work and get to shopping .
Business benefits by the populace being educated so they can be good workers for business and the system .
Police keeps the peace and business prospers by the peaceful ability
to conduct business .
The DMV regulates driving and takes care of offenses to produce
a successful road system ,while insurance companies profit from
charging car insurance . Inspection of food and other products by the government maintains confidence in system ,does business pay for this …no .
The Judicial system and all security systems keeps business able to operate as well as the Judicial system handles disputes of business .
The IRS system and other tax systems collects taxes for the purpose of maintaining the reasonable functioning of the commerce
system . Public transport systems function often to the benefit of
business .
Public recreation paid by government is often times a adjunct to
business .Libraries help educate the sheeple . Public welfare programs keep people from rioting in the streets which wouldn’t be good for the peaceful conducting of business and selling things …look at what happened in Egypt .
The mail system benefits business in advertising and you name it .
Law enforcement benefits even Hollywood when they want to make a Movie . Government regulatory agencies keeps business generally from being a free for all . Government security at airports is
again a aid to business .
It’s just very easy to add to this list on how government funded enterprises helps and aids business ,such as government taking care of the welfare of illegals when business reaps the rewards of cheap labor and more people buying . Business enjoys a lot of subsidies to business from the government coffers such as billions a year to the
Oil industry and farmers is another example of government funds at work . Tax loopholes to the rich and and tax loopholes like the mortgage deduction benefits the housing business ,along with all the
subsidies or government housing programs . Business gains by government welfare being spent at their stores .
Public lighting of streets ,public response to disasters , public funded street cleaning ,you could go on and on how government aids business
.So as far as health insurance goes ,the Government already has the lions share of the high risk pool . Its the Health Insurance and AMA and drug Companies high profit motive that is driving up the costs
while just wanting the gravy customers . Business likes to shift costs to the government . So I guess we should tax them less . How about all the costs involved with Multi-national companies operating in other
Countries in which costs are shifted to government .
nPolly posted this many moons ago: Health insurance companies will not cover preventive care or screenings because those diseases are delayed until old age.
For example, a health insurance company may deny a $200 heart scan. Why bother? The person is likely to have the heart attack after 65, when the person is on Medicare. The insurance company doesn’t care if the person has a heart attack or not; as long as someone else pays for it, they can save two hundred bucks now.
Another reason to deny routine care: what if they find something? Then the health insurance company will have to pony up for even more tests and treatment.
Another reason to deny routine care: what if they find something? Then the health insurance company will have to pony up for even more tests and treatment.
Years ago, I worked for a boss who was quite ill. Which meant that little ole Slim had to step up and take responsibilities in the office that were well beyond my job description. Not that I got paid for it, but that’s a different rant.
Any-hoo, my very ill boss had a pretty good idea of what was wrong with her. She begged her HMO to test her for it. The HMO refused.
She had to fight-fight-fight until the HMO finally relented and okayed the test. Indeed she had what she suspected. And the HMO paid for the treatment. Grudgingly, of course, but they did pay. And my boss got better.
The reasoning behind preventive care is that it’s a lot cheaper to treat an illness or malady in its early stages than its developed ones.
Reconstruction, rehabilitation, and maintenance is a bitch on insurers’ bottom line.
Can you believe someone once argued here that prevention was NOT cheaper?
Part of not providing preventative care is because the disease will not require treatment until the covered person is on Medicare. Part of it is because people change insurance companies fairly often even before they are eligible for Medicare. So even if something may become an expensive condition in 5 years, there is a very good chance that the person will have a different insurance company, either because they changed jobs or the employer switched companies.
I get a lot more information about available preventative programs since I became a fed and got on the fed BC/BS plan. Part of it may be OPM requesting it as part of the bid, but I bet a lot of it is because once people start in a fed job, they are a lot more likely to stay on the same plan for long time than a person with a private employer.
Also, people like preventative care and I have something like 17 different plans to choose from. The BC/BS is the most expensive one. If they want me to stick with it, they have to provide some value.
If they want me to stick with it, they have to provide some value.
A concept that seems to elude much of the private health insurance industry.
My HMO (Kaiser) is pretty good with preventative care and anything routine, and if you have something serious and they happen to have a specialist in that area, then you’re in luck…
….but god help ya if you need anything that they are not good at/don’t have an expert in.
Yes, you are 100% right, Wiz.
Here is something I saw in Greece many moons ago:
The politicians wanted to win votes (and elections) so went on a platform to get even with those evil drug companies (in this case it was for insulin). They mandated a 25% (or whatever it was) price cut. They were a hero to the masses. They were doing something! Government is in control. Socialism works!
But companies and importers react…and say adios to selling their product in Greece. And there were fifty thousand Greeks (imagine the number in America) who used this insulin from the companies in question.
But these people needed the drug and will have to buy it somehow….in this case via another country and paid about a fifty-percent mark-up to make this work, and also the import tax (which Greece is famous for).
So guess what…black market insulin became popular…as fishermen run up to Italy…pick up a pallet of this stuff on ice…and came back to sell off the pier.
People now had to pay twice what they used to pay under the “old system” before government medicine ever got involved.
But that’s the evil Drug companies refusing to do business unless they get top dollar . They would rather sell less than give a break based on volume sold .
Here’s what I see.
A friend of mine is getting chemo for prostate cancer.
The new drug he is getting costs 16,000 dollars a dose and he may get this monthly for a year. His doctor tells him this is 4x as expensive as expensive drugs were a decade ago. The insurance company has helped with his copay. Their plan of course is to maximize how much they extract from insurance/medicare. They know the patients won’t be able to pay for it so they jack the price up to the moon and then give the patient a kickback to cover their portion of the cost.
Out of curiosity - where would your friend be if this new drug was never discovered/developed?
Who says it wouldn’t have been developed? I’d say there is still plenty of money in medicine, but it is getting out of hand. Note in your world there would be no medicare and no gov sponsored research. Many drugs would not be available if that came to be.
Getting a different treatment for prostate cancer. There are a lot of them, but some have long term side effects that the chemo probably avoids.
My father is on a similar protocol. His monthly out-of-pocket cost is around $4K, with the rest billed to MediCare. MediCare pays about (surprise,) 4K of the 12K remainder to the provider(s). Exaggerated billing is the only way to circumvent the cruddy reimbursement rates insurers allow for “experimental” procedures and medicines. (And by “experimental,” we’re pretty much talking anything that’s not available as a generic or performable by a first-year resident.)
As this treatment becomes more and more accepted, its mass production will certainly become more efficient. Given the number of BB’s with incipient prostate cancers, and the dwindling reimbursements available to pay for them, costs will only come down.
So in a very real sense, my father and your friend are subsidizing the research and development of a new treatment protocol– and getting the benefit of a less-invasive (and one hopes,) more effective treatment in return.
My concern is for when individualized genetic modifications become available and the only people who can afford them will be the Jamie Diamonds and Paris Hiltons of the world.
Ewwwww.
Regarding that story about Greece - if it’s true, it shows incompetent negotiating skills on the part of whichever bureaucrat came up with the deal.
However, most other countries around the country negotiate with pharmaceutical companies and pay much less than Americans do.
In fact, I did see on C-Span a number of years ago that our VA hospitals do the same thing with certain items like oxygen tanks. However, Medicare does not, so one arm of the government pays more than another for the same item.
This came up back in 2003 when Bush added prescription coverage to Medicare. The allies of the pharmaceutical industry in Congress made sure to include language in the law that banned Medicare from negotiating lower prices on drugs for the seniors.
As a result the government is able to use its purchasing power to pay less for printer and copier paper than you or I would pay at our local OfficeMax, but Medicare is forbidden by law to do the same thing to save some of our tax money when it buys medicine.
Well it hit the news in Oreon. Hundreds of foreclosures pulled from their scheduled sales by BofA’s Recontrust. Sounds like they could have to be refiled, restarted from the beginning. This time to be legal they could have to bring each case before a judge, as note transferring methods of MERS has violated the way that non-judicial foreclosures legally need to be processed in our state.
Oregon judges, in at least five cases(search the business news from March 7 at Oregonlive dot com) acknowleged that a problem exists when the transferring of a mortgage note occurs via MERS. These note transfers skirt requirement-by-law that spell out how non-judicial foreclosures are to be legally completed. They need to be recorded and endorsed locally by municipalities or the non-judicial foreclosure can not legally proceed.
Bank of America, when asked for comment, said the reason that they rescinded hundreds of trustee sales in Deschutes county last week alone is tied to the internal review that they initiated last fall. Claiming they are wanting to be sure that home-owners have exhausted their alternatives to foreclosure; not acknowleging that they have been proceeding illegally. They did not really address the concerns that MERS makes non-judicial foreclosures problematic because of legalities or that they had been explicitly acting outside of Oregon law regarding the processing of non-judicial foreclosures.
Is this significant? If average time in some states to foreclose on delinquent owners is well over 2 years, is this just another small bump in the road, or does it allow people already processed an avenue to appeal sales of their properties that have already occured and were done, as it turns out, in an illegal manner?
Will title companies refuse to issue title insurance in some cases?
I believe that my wife’s home will be our abode for the summer-rent free; but that likely would have been the case anyway had they not pulled the sale. It may mean a minimum 150 days for the process to repeat from the start; it may mean a judicial route will need to be followed for many of us in non-judicial/auction state. Pure conjecture on my part; it is actually too messy for me to get my brain around! Meanwhile, non payers, new forecosures to be, they have become so back logged as to be getting more resources thrown at them by the bank; and faster processing will be on its way after this litle MERS illegality blip is overcome.
It has also been announced seperately that hiring more staff and consolidating foreclosure efforts is happening within BofA. So maybe this will push banks such as BofA into allocating more resources to their foreclosure arms; and allow for faster and more accurate processing/seperation of huge numbers of non-paying homeowners from their homes. Just foreclose, already, just do it right; fairsy squarsy!
“Hundreds of foreclosures pulled from their scheduled sales by BofA’s Recontrust. Sounds like they could have to be refiled, restarted from the beginning.”
Extend-and-pretend is alive and well in Bend.
“…fairsy squarsy!”
It has been well over a year now since some close friends of ours lost their home to a Bank of America foreclosure action. I raised a question on a local talk radio show about whether the seeming arbitrariness of the timing on foreclosures raises the scepter of class action lawsuits against Bank of America by early foreclosure victims relative to those who are enabled to live rent-free for an indefinite period of time. I can only hope some enterprising class action attorneys can figure this out to the advantage of themselves and millions of robo-signed FBs.
There is no right to be part of the class of people against whom the law is not enforced unless some illegal form of discrimination is going on.
For example, speeding laws are enforced only sporadically. If you get a ticket, and because the cop is busy with you, the next guy who is speeding does not get one, you have no right to get your ticket voided.
I would think such a lawsuit would have to be based on the foreclosures not actually being legal if they were based ont he flawed MERS or robo signing, as apposed to the financial benefit of delayed foreclosure.
the next guy who is speeding does not get one ??
Thats because its just like hunting limits..When they bag a certain amount, then that limit for that day is exhausted..It has little to do with “traffic safety”….Not suggesting they set limits, but, if your out on traffic control and you don’t come back with a reasonable amount of tickets for the shift you worked, my bet is it will not be looked upon very kindly…
From Wikipedia
Scepter: “…a symbolic ornamental rod or wand borne in the hand by a ruling monarch as an item of royal or imperial insignia.”
I told him I was skeptical of the specter of a scepter.
Even if, as seem perfectly possible, the transfers of MERS notes is a nulity, ISTM that the ORIGINAL holder still has the right to foreclose, since the borrower is in default. So long as the original holder sends the proceeds to the trust it is a distinction without a difference.
But some law would have to changed or ignored; whichever I guess would be splitting hairs. Or they could just make all the non-judicial foreclosures that were illegal go to court to get the non-payers out.
Mostly since my wife and I have sunk 160k into our home that is now selling for the same amount, we really just want to squeeze a few extra months out before we pack the boxes. The fact that our mortgage is unpaid is to us a difference without a distiction; nothin against the bank, per se, but those dummies are trying to make it up on us with 9/month checking fees and 60/yr credit card fees. We will give them their fees; but we aren’t paying the mortgage, so I guess they win.
So the original note holder will foreclose out of the goodness of its heart; then give the proceeds to the rightful trustee/current noteholder with nothing for itself. I guess the noteholder would be more than happy to grease the wheels and pay to have the foreclosure “serviced” though.
But…your point is so good it could get us kicked out of our house sooner than later….
“So long as the original holder sends the proceeds to the trust it is a distinction without a difference.”
Why would the original holder want to send the proceeds to the trust?
And what if the original holder is dead? (out of business?)
And a digruntled soon-to-be-ex-employee shredded the orginal note before leaving.
And on what grounds would the original holder be able to foreclose? He’s been paid in full!
The fact that the rest of the transfers were illegal, and therefore illegitimate, just means that no one now has standing to foreclose. The only person who did, the original holder, has been paid. The current holder may have standing to sue the heck out of somebody, but it won’t be the FB, who’s done nothing wrong. (No one is under an obligation to honor an illegal contract.)
He has been paid in full by the person that he was supposed to transfer the mortgage to, but he didn’t make the transfer so the person who thought they bought it, but didn’t really get it can sue to get their money back. Then the originator is left with the right to collect on the debt and not much else.
None of this will actually happen in the volume needed. The threat of it happening is the issue. Some sort of deal is going to get worked out.
But the original holder did what he was paid to do, Polly, he transferred the mortgage to a second party via MERS. The fact that such a transfer doesn’t hold up in a foreclosure just goes to show what a bad deal the second buyer of the mortgage got, but I don’t see how it negates the original transaction.
If this trend takes hold, it could actually be bad news for FBs.
In some states at last, judicial foreclosures can result in deficiency judgements, whereas non-judicial foreclosures cannot.
When there is no blood to be obtained from the turnip, lenders seem to go non-judicial. But if other factors like MERS force them to go the judicial route, they may well also try to routinely get the deficiency judgement in the hopes of selling it for pennies, or holding onto it in the hopes that the FBs luck turns down the road.
This is an interesting turn of the worm.
Interesting point.
If you are already in court, it doesn’t cost much more (any more?) to file for the rest of the money you are owed. It may not be worth it to try to collect, but you might as well establish the claim. Heck, even if you don’t try to collect, you can sell the claim to someone else for a few pennies on the dollar.
Exactly my thought, polly. If they have to go the judicial route, I suspect the lenders are likely to try to come away from it with the deficiency judgement in hand.
Across the entire FB population, they would certainly generate some revenue this way. Down the road, some of these people will become solvent again (and thus able to be collected from), and not have had the sense to go BK while they were insolvent (or perhaps had too much income to do so).
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110308/wl_asia_afp/australiacourteducation
Coming soon to state near you, as our “everyone’s a winner” NEA-staffed educational systems continue to turn out cretins ill-equipped to function in society. Of course, such mindless drones are the perfect recruits for the Republicrat voting rolls.
“…perfect recruits for the Republicrat voting rolls.”
They also make easy marks for a parasitic banking industry looking for a steady supply of plankton on which vampire squids can engorge themselves.
The easy marks aren’t limited to the illiterate, they also include the millions of lemmings who are able to read just fine but choose not to.
Bingo. Every McStain and Obama voter, in other words. Not necessarily congenitally stupid, but willfully ignorant and easily manipulated by TPTB.
If only all the voters who voted for McCain or Obama would suddenly spontaneously combust, there might just be a chance for society.
If only all the voters who voted for McCain or Obama would suddenly spontaneously combust, there might just be a chance for society.
Ohnoes!! That would leave Ralph Nader to rule the world!
I’d take Nader at least he is honest and has the publics best interest in mind. The guy spends next to nothing on himself so you know he is not motivated by money. No friends of Angelo loans, no junkets to California or Europe on the Koch brothers dime, no effective kick back, no taking a lobbying gig at the end of his term, no high priced speaking tour, and no presidential library wink wink nod nod,
The guy spends next to nothing on himself so you know he is not motivated by money.
Having done a photo shoot of Mr. Nader, I can personally attest to the above. Especially when it comes to his wardrobe.
He has been my protest vote for five elections now. I have met him and talked to him several times and I agree with all your statements. Does not mean I agree with all his positions but an honest person in the WH would be a welcome change.
“If only all the voters who voted for McCain or Obama would suddenly spontaneously combust, there might just be a chance for society.”
I guess reducing the population of the US to only those who voted for Ron Paul would solve some problems. The survivors could bring in all of the H1Bs they wanted to do the work of those raptured.
ISTM that non-voters are as responsible for the results of the election as those who vote for either party. If the half of the electorate that don’t vote started voting for third party candidates, they might have an effect on the outcome of an election.
What effect would it have on policy? 2/3 of the Senate would still be in place as would all of the federal judges that had previously been appointed (not that judges set policy, but they do rule on the legality of laws). Not all of the new voters would vote for the same candidate. We might see previously uninvolved citizens voting a new labor party.
Ralph Nader has also been one of my favorites for years.
There are a few out there who have the public’s best interests at heart.
The People of Wisconsin are angry and danged near ready to riot about 7 blocks from Walker’s old house on the Wauwatosa-Milwaukee border.
In Walker’s conservate hometown of Wauatosa, Wi where I used to live, Republican Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner and Wauwatosa Republican State Senator Leah Vukmir were hosting the events at the Wauwatosa Library were booed and put to “shame” when Sensenbrenner suddenly stopped and adjurned the townhall meeting in a small packed library room at the Tosa city hall.
It’s on YouTube and you can see that the People are HOT and now after the republicans and their heavy handed tactics from the local to state levels .
I love the smell of Recalls in the morning.
http://tinyurl.com/6cffz8a
You really play that partisan game, Mikey. Keep telling yourself that you are on the good side, aligned with angels. Maybe it helps you sleep at night.
“booed and put to “shame” when Sensenbrenner suddenly stopped and adjurned the townhall meeting”
What? They didn’t bring the inflatable rat?
“You really play that partisan game, Mikey. Keep telling yourself that you are on the good side, aligned with angels. Maybe it helps you sleep at night.”
No time for you now NYCityBoy, I’m really, really busy forging passports, phony travel papers and voter ID cards for all of the outside agitators we’re sneaking into Scott’s Kingdom of Wisconistan.
Good luck with that. If you are doing some hardcore printing you may want to consult with Bernanke.
Good luck building your Utopia. Have a High Life and a smile. Something tells me the Utopia you want to build will really suck.
I really like reading Mikeys comments. At least it is a local, unfiltered viewpoint.
Not to mention completely biased.
Biased ? Can’t tell what you’re bleating NYCB
Everybody loves my fuzzy little butt.
Even the small town local press had a big front page photo of mikey’s smiling mug, front and center on their small town paper, from the anti- Walker budget bill town hall meeting that Senator Dale Shultz(R) had last week.
This isn’t NYC, San Francisco or Chicago, it’s small town Wisconsin speaking.
Follow the link and read what this group of about 500 concerned citizens had to say about Walker and his Trojan Horse budget bill when they stood up to the microphones in front of their Senator Shultz (R).
http://tinyurl.com/4kzjwnx
Sorry but my cute photo was only available in the printed edition of the paper.
Biased ~~ only to the Faux News sheeple, only to the Faux News sheeple.
Say Baaaaa baaaah NYCB, baaaaa
“Something tells me the Utopia you want to build will really suck.”
Thank god the PTB have done such wonderful jobs for the rest of society.
Oh wait…
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others
“WASHINGTON — At least three of the Wisconsin state Senate Republicans currently demanding that public workers sacrifice benefits, wages and even collective bargaining rights for the sake of the budget have applied for and received hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal farm subsidies, a Huffington Post review of state and federal records shows.
From 1995 through 2009, state Sens. Luther Olsen, Dale Schultz and Sheila Harsdorf all had stakes in farms that received between them more than $300,000 in taxpayer funds.”
Here in Walker’s Wisconistan, We all have to suffer but some of us need to suffer less than others.
http://tinyurl.com/4qabj4a
Rock on, Mikey!!!
Slim here in the great state of Arizona. Where similar efforts are underway. There’s a recall effort against our governor, Jan Brewer.
Not to mention a push-back against various bits of legislation targeted at illegal immigrants. Recall that last year, there was quite a backlash against SB1070.
That backlash had a largely Latino element to it, but now it’s spreading to the business community. Which doesn’t like how such legislation plays nationally. It’s hurting business, and they’re not happy about that.
Not happy about the national perceptions? Or, not happy because it’s gotten a little more difficult to hire really cheap labor?
Not happy about the national perceptions? Or, not happy because it’s gotten a little more difficult to hire really cheap labor?
Answer: Not happy about the national perceptions.
BTW, there are wide swaths of Arizona’s business community that do not hire illegal immigrant labor. For the most part, such hiring is concentrated in the agricultural, construction, janitorial, landscaping, and hotel/restaurant sectors of our economy.
But which businesses are most concerned about the perception issue? Wouldn’t it be businsesses related to tourism and conventions? In other words, hotels, restaurants, etc.?
But which businesses are most concerned about the perception issue?
All sorts of businesses. More than a few of them are trying to recruit employees from out of state and guess what, some of those potential employees don’t want to move here.
Both sides are working on recalls.
i will bet my hard earn dollar that when it is time to vote, this Dale guy will vote with the repuglicans regardless of what he says.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=181755
Another AG whitewash on HAMP.
California Offers Mortgage Assistance to Help Families Keep Their Homes
FoxNews.com
Hundreds of distressed homeowners line up in a crowded gymnasium in Compton, Calif., desperate for solutions to the foreclosure crisis.
In California, this scene is all too familiar. Though national unemployment ticked down for the third month in a row to 8.9 percent, foreclosures accounted for nearly 44 percent of California home sales in 2010, and so far there has been little relief on the horizon for those who cannot pay their mortgages.
However, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel for 100,000 homeowners who are struggling to make ends meet as state officials plan to give up to six months of mortgage assistance to qualified applicants as part of a new state program.
“It would be a very, very substantial help,” says homeowner Joe Chavez, who came with his wife to the community event armed with a thick folder full of home mortgage documents, hoping to find a way to keep his house.
Chavez, a former cable contractor who was laid off last year, believes that having the state make his mortgage payments temporarily could buy him enough time.
“This would give us at least a chance to — a little chance to — breathe while I get employed again.”
As part of the program, Keep Your Home California, the state plans to hand out $2 billion, with a $50,000 maximum benefit to any one homeowner.
But real estate and business experts wonder whether this expenditure will be money well spent.
“We are a very struggling real estate market. We have a very high unemployment rate, high duration of unemployment and putting $2 billion dollars into the hands of homeowners isn’t necessarily the best thing for our overall economy,” says Paul Habibi, the associate director for the University of California Los Angeles’ Ziman Center for Real Estate, who adds six months may not give those who are unemployed enough time to find a new job.
“a former cable contractor who was laid off last year, ”
Sorry, how can a contractor get “laid off”?
I prefer the term “self-unemployed,” for this situation.
Lots of telecom field workers are 1099 employees regardless of the fact that all of their work is sourced from one place.
Nice to avoid healthcare payments for people who climb poles* and work around high voltage lines.
*Yeah, I realize that the bucket truck has largely replaced climbing poles these days.
Yeah, I realize that the bucket truck has largely replaced climbing poles these days.
Not around here. Periodically, I hear a clunking and clanking sound outside my studio window. It’s made by some contractor climbing the telephone pole that’s just east of said window.
Contractors can easily be laid off.
Here’s how it works:
Most “contractors” are actually modern day temp employees. Their paycheck is handled by the placement agency while they actually work for another company. They act and function like regular W2 employees, but they are considered “contractors” by the company they physically work at.
Real contractors can be “laid off” as well. Most contractors don’t have very many customers and there is always that one customer who is the bread and butter customer. Lose that one, and the rest can’t make up the difference.
chance and hope.
we will be at the bottom when all these money renters are too despondent to even show up at these assistance rallies.
when there is no chance…and no hope…then i will buy.
When houses take the form of small piles of radioactive powder, that will be the bottom and the time to “snap them up”.
To have a lot of foreclosures where the buyer or the lender isn’t paying the tax bill is a huge problem with the States short fall in taxes .Shouldn’t the entities that caused this disaster be taxed more to compensate
for this short fall that they created ?
The damage that lenders caused to the entire functioning of the markets is unheard of .
To have a lot of foreclosures where the buyer or the lender isn’t paying the tax bill is a huge problem with the States short fall in taxes
Not to mention what happens around foreclosed properties. I just got off the phone with our local constabulary. I was reporting a car that appears to be abandoned. And it’s parked next to a house that hasn’t been occupied for a couple of years. Said house was foreclosed on last year.
The lenders don’t care. They are run by CEO’s with golden parachutes. They get paid big money to fail.
Exactly. Win or lose, they are getting paid.
Hell, they can even be convicted and go to jail and they are STILL going to get paid.
“for 100,000 homeowners who are struggling to make ends meet as state officials plan to give up to six months of mortgage assistance to qualified applicants as part of a new state program… with a $50,000 maximum benefit to any one homeowner.”
Am I missing something here! Struggling to make ends meet and CA is going to give you $50K for six months of mortgage assistance!!????
I notice that it never creeps into this discussion the discussion we had a couple weeks ago about the public unions. These programs, always portrayed as bank bailouts, are also make busy programs for government employees. In the summer of ‘09 I asked a friend’s wife how work is going. She said they were very busy. I asked her what she was doing. She said, “a lot of foreclosure prevention”.
This is more giveaways to public unions and other protected classes to buy votes. The other day Ben posted something about always blaming Wall Street. Even the Prof jumped on that one, as if he is not one of the biggest of the “well, Wall Street is bad” crowd. It was pretty repulsive. I didn’t read much of the thread. I couldn’t stomach it.
It is amazing how many people, even on the HBB, have become big government fans. Some like big government in the form of Wall Street bailouts. Some like big government in the form of government cheese. The lovers of big government are the people that feel a strong economy can be had by having armies of apparatchiks that dream up silly programs and draw blood from the government. They are cast as poor victims when anybody questions their ride on the gravy train.
Every place you see a mess you see big government. And every place you see big government you see armies of bureaucrats, whether in the classrooms of America, the board rooms of Wall Street or the foreclosure prevention offices of a town or county near you. There are too many fans of this monstrous government. Everybody can justify their slice of the government they like. The only way it will end is when it all comes crashing down. And sure enough it will.
“I asked a friend’s wife how work is going. She said they were very busy. I asked her what she was doing. She said, “a lot of foreclosure prevention”. ”
Ahh, personal anecdotes. You just can’t make a good right-wing argument without one!
None of us here are for “big government.” What we ARE for is government doing it’s damn job and enforcing regulations already on the books that protect society from 2 legged predators at ALL levels.
Exactly, eco.
===============
NYCBoy wrote:
Every place you see a mess you see big government.
Nope. Every place we see a mess we see big business (especially finance, as of late). VERY different from the boots-on-the-ground workers you like to rail against.
you just don’t understand salinasron…it’s complicated…just worry about the charlie sheen meltdown…we will handle the rest.
My home is paid off but I have a gambling problem at the casinos and as a result I am struggling like you wouldn’t believe. I know if I got this 50K all my problems would be over. I know I got a gambling problem but in my defense my home is paid off unlike these other 100K homeowners. I need that 50K. We were all gambling so in my mind I am just as or more qualified to get my 50K just like everyone else.
You shoulda been a Banksta!
50k divided by 6 months is $8,333.33 a month. That’s a mortgage for a 2 million dollar house. Talk about something rotten in Californmark! If you have a 2 million dollar house you bought, you are not one of the ‘poor, downtrodden masses.’
I love a lot of things about California, but the government isn’t one of them.
Where’s my 50K to help with the rent, huh? Landlady just raised ours $100 month.
Right. Why are renters always left out of these give-aways? Oh, that’s right. We don’t owe money to the banks, so we don’t get to qualify for the goodies!
It’ll be a lot less whenever the handling fees are taken out.
Got that right.
Board members are liars.
Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Robert J. Haynes defended his $72,700-a-year salary as a board member for Blue Cross Blue Shield today — saying it doesn’t jack up premiums as public outrage continues over an $11 million golden parachute for the healthcare giant’s former CEO.
“The cost of health insurance is not affected very much. It’s about $1 million that board members get paid, with $13 billion in revenue it’s like pennies a year,” said Haynes, who said he’ll continue to take his salary until a committee made up of Attorney General Martha Coakley and Blue Cross Blue Shield officials weigh in on the issue.
“I want to sit with the board. I want to talk to Martha Coakley. I want to put a community together to talk about whether or not that’s a reasonable thing to do,” said Haynes, who said Coakley and the health care company are going to meet in the next couple of days to put together a committee to explore health care compensation for board members and executives.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1321653
“I want to sit with the board. I want to talk to Martha Coakley. I want to put a community together to talk about whether or not that’s a reasonable thing to do,” said Haynes, who said Coakley and the health care company are going to meet in the next couple of days to put together a committee to explore health care compensation for board members and executives.
And I hope that Martha gives you a good talking to, Mr. Haynes.
Yep unions are winning when their leaders are getting bought off by the financial elite with cush board jobs.
That’s always been the way of the ruling class to subvert the rebellions. Throw the rebel leaders a bone to lead their followers off the field.
72K? And there’s a problem with that?
Paging Palmy and Dr. Hiaasen!!
PALMETTO — A plan to expand a public charter school, the Manatee School For the Arts, hit a few bumps Monday night at a hearing before the Palmetto City Commission.
Carlene Johnson, a neighbor of the school, said she objected to a small go-kart track that school officials wanted to include in the project.
http://www.bradenton.com/2011/03/08/3014330/school-plan-hits-a-bump-in-palmetto.html#
“However, a parent, Lenell Houser, spoke in support of the plan, which would teach science through the physics of NASCAR.
LOL. Some reporter needs to go more in depth with this one. It’s not passing the smell test. A go-cart track is an expensive and odd way to teach physics.
man…it’s so easy to spend other people’s money.
I went to a high school that was considered pretty good in science. We had 3 science AP classes (bio, chem and physics) back before they were considered mandatory. One of the two chemistry teachers had a phd in chemistry. We sent 2 to 5 kids to MIT out of classes of around 200 every year. I was told during my MIT alum interview that coming out of my high school and with a good recommendation from Doc, I could use MIT as a safety school.
We had 3 fairly pathetic labs in 1st year physics (one had to do with measuring accelleration of gravity using a paper tape and a weight and a little machine that put a mark on the paper at specific time intervals). Actually, I don’t remember any others. Maybe that was the only one. We had no labs in 2nd year physics. It wan’t ideal, but we still learned physics.
You didn’t have the glass round cylinder with sawdust and a tuning fork. I remember that from my early days at Berkeley in the physics lab on Saturday while all the upperclassmen where at the football stadium cheering on the Cal team.
Nope. No sawdust or tuning forks that I can recall.
I like a good hands on learning experience as much as the next person, but you can learn vector analysis without it. Maybe one of the other labs involved inclined planes and different coeffiecients of friction? Very basic stuff. You could do it a lot more complicated by putting the experiment on the computer - click here to change the material to polished metal where before it was wood.
Now that I’ve thunked on it a while, why don’t they just race around the school track? Isn’t NASCAR just racing around an oval anyway? Or will it be banked, like a real NASCAR track? That would be really expensive, I would think.
Maybe it’s instead of a track? That’s even stupiderer.
Reads like something from The Onion to me. Sheesh.
Go-karts don’t draw huge pensions. Cut a few positions and save the karts!
They require expensive tune ups and union laborers in the pit.
Palm Beach County foreclosure activists joining statewide rally today in Tallahassee
By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Palm Beach County homeowner advocates have organized a bus trip to Tallahassee this week hoping to raise awareness about the ongoing plight of people in foreclosure and concerns they have about how banks are repossessing homes.
Two buses are expected to leave Miami today at about 8 p.m., scooping up people on both coasts as they make their way to Tallahassee.
The 2011 legislative session begins today.
Foreclosure Hamlet and Foreclosure Fraud, both of which helped bring attention to the issues of so-called “robo-signing” and other questionable foreclosure activities, planned the trip. It is being supplemented by several South Florida law firms, but riders must also pay $30.
As of late Monday, about 50 people had signed up to ride on the buses. Another 50 have said they will drive on their own.
“The problem of foreclosures and all the related issues for home owners are getting worse, not better,” said Ron Kaniuk, a Boca Raton-based foreclosure defense attorney with the firm Ricardo, Wasylik & Kaniuk, which is sponsoring the trip. “Bankers are aggressively working to get legislation enacted that would further strengthen their position against homeowners.”
Lawmakers may consider a handful of foreclosure-related bills this year, including SB 1288, which allows for non-judicial foreclosures on commercial properties. Florida is one of 23 states that requires a judge’s approval for a foreclosure.
Anthony DiMarco, a spokesman for the Florida Bankers Association, said that while the group unsuccessfully sought legislation last year that would take home foreclosures out of the courts in some circumstances, it is not doing so this year because of changes that may occur at the federal level.
Last week, however, bills filed in the House and Senate — HB 1191 and SB 1964 — would make several foreclosure-related changes for homeowners.
Called the Florida Fair Foreclosure Act, the bills spell out what banks must include in the foreclosure complaint, including a “clear chain of custody for the promissory note and mortgage.”
But both bills also create a shortcut to foreclosure that can be taken with the written consent of the homeowner or when a property is abandoned.
“Who determines if the property is abandoned,” asked Michael Redman, who runs the Foreclosure Fraud website. “We have seen too many cases where the banks come in and determine the property is abandoned even when it is clear there is someone living in the property.”
Rep. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, who is sponsoring the House proposal, said a judge would still have to review the foreclosure and vest title to the bank, but there would not be a traditional hearing process or foreclosure sale.
“It’s an expedited process, but still goes through the courts,” she said.
For more information on the bus trip to Tallahassee, go to foreclosurehamlet.org or 4closurefraud.org.
Sometimes I hate to be associated with this county.
Why? Because people object to being treated like peons without rights?
MLS: Phoenix home price median could dip below $100,000
“Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service Inc. presents a sobering picture for Phoenix-area home prices in May 2011, based on its Pending Price Index.
Consider this: The average home price in May 2007 was $350,400. February’s average was $156,000. That’s nearly a 56 percent drop in less than four years.
What will turn this around?
Significant numbers of qualified buyers.
That means Phoenix needs jobs.”
http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/blog/business/2011/03/mls-phoenix-homes-could-dip-below-100k.html
“That means Phoenix needs jobs.”
But Citibank said jobs didn’t matter, that the “Plutocracy” could carry the economy.
you know I’m sure jobs has something to do with it. The real problem is it is way to easy for people to walk away.Until all the foreclosed buyers are able to buy again there will be problems.
Jobs are for loser third-world countries.
‘Cause WINNERS have stock options.
NO winners have stock options that get repriced if the stock goes down, and get bailouts from the gov, and get to trade with insider information.
Yep. That’s the real “winners.”
And don’t forget back dating.
Not only jobs, but pay raises also.
India is giving out average 13% hike in salaries this year. Lat year it was 12%. People there have more than doubled their salaries in the last 5-6 years. Fine, inflation is there but people still see the money growing.
http://www.samachar.com/Indian-employees-can-expect-129-avg-salary-hike-this-year-ldivLfebecb.html
Here, may salary has gone up 4% in 12 years. Maybe time to try out India.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that India’s situation will end badly. They are located in one rough neighborhood, with lots of enemies, and the economic instability is going to lead to some serious warfare. I think I would rather be in Indiana when TSHTF.
Isn’t India the country where people are rioting over the price of onions?
I was reading somewhere that there are a lot corruption scams going on there. Most are in billions of dollars and one was 40 billion dollars, some 2G scam. Some people stole 40 billion dollars just from one project.
NYCityBoy, you’are right. That place might correct real bad as 90% of their population is still living on $2 per day and houses there are priced more than NYC.
That onion story is over. The Govt. imported a lot of onions and vegetables to shut up masses and to prevent another Egypt/Libya. Let’s see what happens there when Oil hits $120.
“Maybe time to try out India.”
Good luck with that. Most of the countries currently growing their middle class really don’t want foreign workers unless it’s for the menial jobs.
NYCityBoy, do you know how long India has been in existence?
ever wondered why india a country having the largest population of muslims never had a problem with homegrown islamic terrorists. please explain.
“That means Phoenix needs jobs.”
Too bad they burned the legs out from under the stool which supported their home building industry.
Your post reminded me of one of my all-time favorite confrontations I had with a home builder, back in the summer of 2005 or so. He was visiting from Phoenix, as his ex-wife lived up the street from me at the time. I rather unassumingly engaged him in a discussion of the housing situation, and he was cock-sure that the Phoenix construction boom was going to go on ad-infinitum at a high rate of parabolic growth. I never saw him again after that to compare notes, and I don’t even see his ex-wife around anymore, as she moved out of the house after realizing that she and her new hubby did not have the means to both pay their overpriced mortgage (on a 2005 bubble-peak purchase) AND furnish the interior with niceties like a functioning kitchen range. Some people seem predestined to bear the brunt of the housing bust, and this particular couple was especially predisposed.
Consider this: The average home price in May 2007 was $350,400. February’s average was $156,000. That’s nearly a 56 percent drop in less than four years.
And I’m here to tell you that very few of those houses were worth anywhere close to $350k in ‘07. Or at any other time.
Supply and demand Phoenix built way too many homes
Realtors Are Liars
All Real Estate is Local — D’OH!
8 March 2011
Last updated at 03:51 ET
Welsh housing market activity falls ‘considerably’
Houses for sale RICS said there was a lack of buyer confidence
* Second monthly house price fall
* Welsh housing market tops UK poll
* Plunge in house prices predicted
Activity in the Welsh housing market has fallen “considerably”, with prices and sales dropping, say experts.
The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) found that 27% more of its members reported sales falling in February.
It said house prices also saw a notable slump, with 58% of its surveyors reporting a fall.
Property demand stabilised in Wales, but RICS said it was low in the UK due to high deposits needed by lenders.
RICS said surveyors continued to report that a lack of buyer confidence was affecting the market, and said newly agreed sales, which are a good indicator of market activity, dropped significantly.
Elsewhere, newly-agreed sales were most positive in London, south west England, Yorkshire and Humberside and Scotland, while other parts of the UK experienced particularly negative readings, RICS said.
…
Hmm. Any history of the Welsh on debts? Oh, wait a minute…
LOL
+1 LOL!
Just wait until the panic in the oil market gives way to bust. The Canucks ain’t seen nothin’ yet. This could spell the end of the Canadian equity locusts snappin’ up investment properties in San Diego, too. I will welcome the development when it happens.
Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Housing market set to cool
By: Julian Beltrame
Posted: 03/8/2011 1:00 AM
OTTAWA — Canada’s housing market is continuing to moderate, and that may be a good thing, say economists.
The value of building permits issued by municipalities — a forerunner of construction activity — unexpectedly fell sharply in January by 5.1 per cent to $5.4 billion, against a 0.5 per cent rise that economists had expected.
Most of the decline occurred in the non-residential sector, which fell for the third straight month to $1.7 billion, down 13.3 per cent.
The moderation in home building permits was not severe, however, dropping a mere 0.9 per cent to $3.7 billion after a strong December. On unit terms, rather than value, residential permits actually rose two per cent to 216,600 annualized.
Manitoba was one of six provinces to see a drop-off in the value of permits for the month, with $135.3 million worth of residential and non-residential permits being issued by Manitoba municipalities in January, a decline of 17.3 per cent from the final month of 2010. But it was still a 12.5 per cent improvement over January 2010’s total of $120.3 million.
…
posted yesterday at end of day by RMS:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/time-for-fed-to-disprove-ppt-conspiracy-theory-2010-01-05
The FED is and has been the only support for the stock market.
Nice to know you get to pay taxes so the party for the rich continues.
Lets buttress the above with this piece:
“Buttonwood: Betting on Ben”
http://www.economist.com/node/18178399
great
“When you buy equities, you are betting on Ben.”
That is real assuring.
“Buttonwood
Betting on Ben
Central banks have been supporting share prices
LET all equity investors give thanks to Ben Bernanke.”
This is supposed to be news? We went around and around about this on the HBB years ago, to the point where everyone got sick of discussing the subject. And an army of trolls came on to insist that anyone who merely suggested the stock market was propped up by the Fed or the Plunge Protection Team or whatever was some kind of tinfoil-hat wearing loony.
Looks like we are right after all, as reported by The Economist magazine.
Buy stocks: The stock market always goes up!
They probably don’t do it directly.
They probably loan massive money to certain Hedge Funds that do the FEDS bidding and get to skim the cream off the top.
Cut outs.
I see it here first. Then in The Economist. Then a few years later, in the MSM. The very existence of the housing bubble followed such a pattern.
Of course, you won’t hear the NAR or the financial sector ever speak of a housing bubble. Despite the fact that their industries have been strongly impacted by imploding mortgages. Well, the financial sector was bailed out so they’re okay. NAR might be stinging a bit, but you won’t hear the word bubble from them.
“They probably don’t do it directly.”
So far as I am aware, mob bosses don’t typically carry out assassinations of rival clan members directly. They employee hit men for that purpose.
“The PPT was established by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 after the 1987 stock crash to coordinate the government’s response to market meltdowns. ”
Inconceivable!
“Conspiracy theories about the so-called “plunge protection team,” or PPT, have been on the rise ever since the U.S. government started to bail out financial institutions in late 2008 under the administration of then-President George W. Bush, ”
Even more inconceivablerer!
I thought these guys were the ‘free marketers’? And now we have a socialist president? Someone please relieve my cognitive dissonance.
‘now we have a socialist president?’
Socialism is just a word, and not a very useful one.We haven’t had a president that believed in limited govt in over 100 years, maybe a lot longer than that.
Now we have Emperors! Did you hear today Obama is keeping Bushs torture camp open and also through Executive Order can lock up anyone he pleases indefinitely, without trial?
IMO, we’ve got a lot bigger problems in this country than insider stock deals. These problems transcend left/right, (or insert here your favorite phony dualism).
and also through Executive Order can lock up anyone he pleases indefinitely, without trial?”
I wonder how long before its a crime to be negative on housing and maintain blogs contrary to the interests of Lord Bernake and the bankers ?
BINGO
The problem is that a small group of financial elites control the gov and the press.
Again follow the money
Unions are making more money
Politicians get trinkets
The elite are stripping an ever greater share of GDP and gov handouts.
“Did you hear today Obama is keeping Bushs torture camp open and also through Executive Order can lock up anyone he pleases indefinitely, without trial?”
Yes.
I refer to it as a concentration camp; because functionally, thats what it is. Now, if Adolp Hitler used the same language Obama is using to justify them, would that make it correct?
Locking people up without trial or charge forever; and its a black person doing it?
of all people, we should know better.
(((shakin my head)))
‘a black person doing it’
I was thinking about this the other day; years ago, when there weren’t many women in congress, people used to say that if we had more mothers in positions of power, there would be no wars. That sure didn’t turn out to be true.
Cake anyone?
I wonder where the PPT get’s their money from? I wonder if the money they get is “off budget” and does not have to be accounted for.
“I wonder where the PPT get’s their money from?”
The Fed has a technology called a printing press.
Those bailout-funded bankers’ bonuses are levitating home prices in the high-end areas at a point when less pricey housing markets have little to prop them up (same in London as in high-end US markets).
I’m sure glad the banksters have put their ill-gotten bonus bounty to good use.
House prices: London £1m houses jump, rest of country falls
House prices in London are defying the slump in the rest of the country, because of the impending increase in stamp duty for properties worth £1 million.
By Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Editor 7:00AM GMT 08 Mar 2011
An influential monthly survey of house prices said a sharp divide had opened up between the capital – where prices are rising – and the rest of the country where prices are falling.
The introduction of a new, higher, stamp duty level of 5 per cent for properties worth £1 million or more, which comes into effect in April, is thought to be the main reason, encouraging top end houses to suddenly start selling at their asking price.
Previously the highest rate of stamp duty, which hit all properties above £500,000, was 4 per cent. The change in rates will add £20,000, for instance, to a buyer’s fees of a £1.5 million house.
The relatively robust health of the City, with the return of bankers’ bonuses, is another factor allowing high-end London property prices to defy the economic forces bedevilling the rest of the country, where a dearth of easy mortgages and nervous buyers has put the housing market into a trough.
…
The Financial Times
Retail gloom dulls housing recovery hopes
By Norma Cohen, Economics Correspondent
Published: March 8 2011 00:05 | Last updated: March 8 2011 00:05
Signs of improvement in the housing market are offset by evidence that hard-pressed shoppers are tightening their belts, with a closely watched retail survey reporting the weakest reading since May 2009.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors survey for February showed that, while house prices were still falling, they were doing so at a slower pace than in recent months and that house prices in London have actually turned the corner.
…
I went over to nordstroms a couple weeks ago because I had a gift card. I was amazed at their ridiculous prices for everything.Shirts were over 50.00. I’m back shopping at sams club for clothes.I got a nice button down shirt for 15.00.
I have to laugh when I walked bu louis vitton and ther was a guy in a suit acting important as you walk in the door.
I’m old enough to remember the “designer jeans” craze of the late 1970’s (the beginning of the middle/working class fascination with “designer” brands in my opinion). After a couple of years of this most of my friends were “over it” and returned to classic Levi’s 501’s.
It was a shift in status symbols, but only partly based on price…
I think we are seeing some variations on that status symbol shift now that being frugal can be spin-doctored into being ecologically correct and otherwise virtuous in a fashionable way. (I’m not poor! I’m practicing a sustainable lifestyle, so I’m still “cooler-than-thou”.)
I’m not poor! I’m practicing a sustainable lifestyle, so I’m still “cooler-than-thou”.
Yee-gads, whyoung, why did you have to bring back memories of those Green Drinks meetings I used attend?
They were filled with the “More Sustainable than Thou” types. It was hard to avoid rolling my Slim eyes when they started talking.
OTOH, I found them a lot easier to deal with after I had a nice, tall brewski. The alcohol made them a lot more entertaining.
The Goodwill and Salvation Army have even better prices. If you have the time and the patience, you can leave with an armload of well-labeled clothes for under $20. I only buy undergarments and shoes brand new.
We just got back from a cruise out of Jacksonville Fl, to Key West And the Bahamas for 5 nights . Everyone should try that , at least once . We played it very low key , hitting it before the Spring break . There are a lot of nice folks out there , at least if one steers away from the pool deck ,party crowd time , but they are nice too , the spenders, the ones that make the cash for the boat we guess. We loved the Bahamas , where we hired a knowledgeable taxi driver who was also a Real estate agent to do a private 2 hr. tour and he showed us all the different housing types too , including Baintown .A reasonable $80 for 2 hrs . We always were back on the boat an hour before sail-times. We left a family of 7 at Key West as they may have partied too hard to show back up in time. The ship blew it’s horn , and stayed an extra 30 minutes , in vain ,for them .
Someone’s cheap vacation just turned real expensive then and there.
It is not too expensive to rent a car to drive from key west to jacksonville…
We need to put a right to cheap, decent vacations in the Constitution.
I was watching Jimmy Buffet video the other night. That guy has really parlayed a personality and tropical “good times” lifestyle into a fortune. My hat’s off to him. Key West has been one of the beneficiaries of his music and persona.
I wonder how many people moved to Florida, thinking they were moving to ‘Margaritaville’?
People mistake the feeling they get on vacation with how they think they would feel if they lived there full-time. It’s not the same when you have bills to pay, and you’ve got to go to work.
People mistake the feeling they get on vacation with how they think they would feel if they lived there full-time. It’s not the same when you have bills to pay, and you’ve got to go to work.
We get a fair number of such people here in Tucson. Our local job market hits ‘em like a ton of bricks.
And there are plenty of agents waiting to aid them in that particular delusion too.
People mistake the feeling they get on vacation with how they think they would feel if they lived there full-time. It’s not the same when you have bills to pay, and you’ve got to go to work.
With enough travel, it’s not hard to be able to size up a place in a few days. However, to go to the next step as to what it would be like to actually live and work there, that’s much more difficult. It’s exceedingly difficult if it’s another country, even if you’ve been a frequent visitor.
“It’s not the same when you have bills to pay, and you’ve got to go to work.”
Florida summers can be pretty miserable. Like breathing water.
There has never been a better time to rent in San Diego. If you can’t afford your rent and $4 gas, you can threaten to move closer to work if your landlord won’t reduce the rent to an affordable level. By contrast, San Diego home owners may have to cut back on luxury expenditures to pay for $4 gas, a pricey mortgage and necessities.
Business, The Neighborhood Files
Gas Prices Rise to Average $3.92 in San Diego County
The price of gas rose 32 times in the last 34 days and is now an average $3.92 Monday.
By Khari Johnson
March 7, 2011
I was practicing using my cruise control yesterday.Was going around 60 and people blowing buying me at 80.Kind of dangerous to go slow and conserve fuel.
Try taking the 101 north from Mesa to Scottsdale. Nice wide open straight new highway with three or four lanes. When they had photo radar cameras there, they had pictures of people doing 100, 110, 120 on a fairly regular basis. Gives “life in the fast lane” a paradigm shift.
Just a guess on my part, but if 20% of the ones doing 100 plus were also texting or talking on the cellphone, they could account for 80% of the accidents and fatalities. Of course, drinking, doing meth or coke, interacting with passengers, etc would only spike the odds upward.
Around the time the speed limit went from 70 to 55 (early 1970’s, don’t remember the exact year) around KC on 435 you had to be doing around 120 to get stopped as there were just too few going the speed limit to stop everybody.
Nothing has changed.
Except now, you have six lanes of people doing 80 plus, instead of two.
Until a cop car parks on the side of the road for any reason. Then it slows down to 20mph.
It’s amazing how much extra fuel you use at 75 vs 55. We had a chance to verify that a few years ago, driving Alligator Alley in Florida. A level highway with a constant direction eliminated a lot of variables (wind, etc.). IIRC, the MPG dropped about 15% between those two speeds, driving a crossover SUV. A sedan with a lower drag coefficient might not have as much of a penalty.
Of course we didn’t dare drive at 55 any longer than it took for the MPG reading to stabilize!
My car’s sweet spot is about 65. I’ll get 31 or 32MPG. Put it up to 75 and I’m only at 26. I’ll ride the slow lane at 65 until gas gets back to a reasonable level.
My car’s sweet spot is from 50 to 75.
Modern, fuel injected, overhead cam, computer controlled engines only care about stop and go or bad gas when it comes to mpg.
Or serious headwinds.
You can also ride a bicycle, but be respectful of others out there as it could cost you your life. ATTN - Not for sensitive viewers:
“Car Runs Over Bicyclists”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l45AS1Wynbc
thats one reason I dont ride the bike much.You have a bunch of dummies on the roads these days.
To me, the best thing about living in Austin was the ability to ride your bike- or walk or skate- almost anywhere without getting on a road (except to occasionally cross one). Best bike paths I’ve ever experienced.
Austin is a world all it’s own. It’s full of conservatives though alpha. How did you make it there?
“How did you make it there?”
Well, I don’t live there any more, so I guess that tells you something.
Actually, I found it to be full of liberals. At least in comparison to the rest of Texas.
Austin is a strange place. It’s the capital of a state of hard core conservatives, but it’s populated with a lot of liberals.
The city’s schizophrenia is more than I can handle.
I think about this every time I get on my bike. It’s sobering to realize that any ride could be my last.
Yeah, but there’s a sense of fulfillment there that should not be discounted. Getting to work requires extra effort and planning and one learns to depend on their body and test their limitations.
Dangerous, yes it can be, but way more meaningful than trying to find fulfillment through retail therapy, or searching for the lowest rates on auto insurance, or the best refi rates.
Dancing with death is not MY idea of fulfillment.
I LOVE riding bicycles. But in most areas, anywhere other bike path is guaranteed death or injury.
Guaranteed.
And then there’s crashing by yourself. Borrowed my brother’s bike while I search for a replacement to my stolen one and wiped out on some wet boards yesterday. The guy who wiped out after me was all bloodied up and just turned around and went home. I felt fine other than a dinged up elbow. Then I woke up this morning and realized that I am not 12 years old…
It’ll be safer when some of these gas-gazzling dingbats end up with donkeys and push carts.
carpooling could make a comeback!
ENERGY: Local gas prices blow past 2008 milestone
Climbing worldwide demand combines with in-state refiner shutdowns
By ERIC WOLFF - ewolff@nctimes.com North County Times - The Californian | Posted: Monday, March 7, 2011 7:56 pm
The Mobil gas station on the corer of Palomar Airport Road and Paseo Del Norte in Carlsbad on Monday. (Photo by Jamie Scott Lytle - Staff Photographer)
Local gas prices are higher than they’ve ever been at this time of year, even during the big price spike of 2008, according to data from AAA.
The San Diego County average price for regular unleaded on Monday was $3.92, 11 percent higher than on March 7, 2008, the year that gas prices eventually peaked at $4.63, according to AAA.
The average price Monday in Riverside and San Bernardino counties was $3.88, and 10 percent higher than the equivalent price in March 2008, when the average cost per gallon topped out at $4.60 in June 2008.
…
Back then it was big news every day. 24/7.
Daily sob stories on how this was killing families and businesses. How it was killing the economy. What were those moron politicians doing and thinking?
Today - you barely hear about it anywhere in the news.
Hmmmm - -wonder why????
It’s a boogeyman conspiracy theory!!! God help us Mildred!!!
Back then the MSM hated Bush. Today the Haloed Hopium Dispenser gets a free pass from them.
You’re deluded if you think Bush didn’t get a free pass on everything. You can start with the WMD lies.
And that is why partisanship is even sillier. Hold them all accountable. I believe it was Pelosi that took impeachment off the table. I believe you really like her.
Indeed I do. In fact I like her alot.
And how about you?
that’s discusting. Yuck!
Mildred? Is that you?
Goldman Sach has a much bigger position this time around.
That’s why you aren’t hearing all those stories on only-6-corporations-own-all-of MSM. That and it’s even worse this time around for the average person. Don’t want to scare the sheep, ya know?
Ummm…I don’t know where you are but I’m hearing about the high gas prices constantly. Lead the local and national newscasts. Have been all over the paper the last week or so. Not even gonna mention the Internet. Read Yahoo or any of the other big news sites? Half their stuff is gas related.
I get shivers whenever i drive by that gas station. i think it’s for the people who shop at the outlet!
Rising Gas Prices: All Signs Point to Obama
Administration and Fed policies fuel latest spike; consumers and economy suffer
Media reports blame rising gasoline prices on Mideast turmoil, but industry analysts say the real reasons are closer to home — at the White House and the Federal Reserve.
President Barack Obama’s moratorium on drilling and his anti-oil policies continue to rattle energy markets and fuel ongoing price hikes at the pump. And no one — least of all Obama — is surprised.
…
why are these tanks full and crude keep going up:
http://www.energyindustryphotos.com/largest_oil_storage_facility_in.htm
“his anti-oil policies”
I’m no fan of Obama. But he hardly deserves the blame here. I would say the traders and other financial manipulators have more to do with it.
I don’t enjoy the pain at the pump, but it is my hope that gas gets so astronomical that there is no other choice but to develop alternative energy sources (and I’m not talking bio fuels, either). It has to be done. We’ve pissed away opportunities since the 1970s. Now it will have to be done “under the gun”, so to speak.
The game is beginning to change. Up to now the game has been how to keep the train running at 100 miles per hour. Alternative energy themes of the past decade were all about borrowing energy from the future, just mirroring the monetary credit expansion. The best alternative is conservation, but we haven’t done much toward that, on the contrary. The global real estate bubble has wasted enough energy to last a generation. Now it’s in reverse and the price of oil is still going up. ZIRP. Anything to keep up the speed.
JMO, the hot money phoney commodities shortage will choke this train, conservation will be imposed. Probably it will come as a shock.
They said of the Great Depression that at the first everybody wanted to buy seed, but there wasn’t seed to be had. Then seed could be had but there wasn’t any money to buy it. Could be oil this round?
“The global real estate bubble has wasted enough energy to last a generation.”
That sounds like an exciting aspect of the bubble to explore further. Why just think of all the HELOC junkets to LAS - that alone was a lot of dino juice!
JMO, the hot money phoney commodities shortage will choke this train, conservation will be imposed. Probably it will come as a shock.
At $5+/gallon - you won’t need to impose anything.
Conservation will come about very naturally…
very true nothing price wont fix!
“Conservation will come about very naturally…”
Just like in 2008, people will be in a panic to unload their gas guzzlers and will pay a premium for 4 cylinder cars they were turning their collective noses up at just a few months before.
The problem is that it will fix it with massive unemployment and a collapsing economy.
This is why gov should have taxed gas and used the money to cut payroll taxes. Make work cheaper and fuel more expensive.
This idea was from a Bush economist Greg Mankiw.
Just like in 2008, people will be in a panic to unload their gas guzzlers
Sweet, maybe it’s time to get a replacement for my 12 year old SUV.
Some of us actually use our “utility vehicles” for the utility.
“This is why gov should have taxed gas and used the money to cut payroll taxes.”
This is why gov should’a lived within its means all along, encouraged personal responsibility for the safety of the nation, and not blown the biggest global credit expansion in history.
Take a look at the oil price chart from August of ‘08. Just after oil hit $147/bbl (and the talk was 200 even 300), it dropped to less than $60 in a matter of less than a month. The run up is fueled by speculation, nothing more, and after enough suckers pile on, it will dive again. (IMHO).
I love to bike, and have a wide array of bicycles, plus the ability to ride 50-70 miles at a stretch…but when you have young children it starts to get complicated.
If this city were flat, we could conceivably ride everywhere. But living atop a hill with no streets at less than a 15% grade, well.
That said, even though I am well aware that my quality of life would greatly erode - I am all for $10 gallon gas. The earth cannot handle any more growth. It is unsustainable.
SFRenter:
What are your best 50-70 mile rides in the area?
“when you have young children it starts to get complicated”
I was dismayed that I couldn’t bike with my newborn for a year, but what’s stopping me from biking with him after that?
“even though I am well aware that my quality of life would greatly erode”
Would it? I’ve been car-less for many years now and I couldn’t be happier. Nice that we have a car in the family since I got hitched, but I don’t get to drive it very much.
MrBubble
I live in the 4th largest city in the nation and barring an insignificant number of exceptions, you will NOT make living without car here.
There are NO commuter trains to the ‘burbs or even out of the inner city and absolutely NO mass transit of any kind on the fringes of the city, let alone the ‘burbs.
That almost 2 million people that have NO access to mass transit.
Dammit I need a grammar checker.
I just type too fast.
I have found a wonderful alternative energy source–my quadricep and hamstring muscles. Been commuting by bike to work 3 days a week on average for months, and it’s a lovely way to start the day. I haven’t filled my tank since January 22nd.
Unless you’re hauling things or going some insane distance, commuting by bike can be pretty easy, especially when there is so much traffic that there’s no time penalty.
Bravo! Keep it up! As you already know, you’re only helping yourself. As you point out the health benefits alone are priceless! My commuting by bike adventures started in 2006 and the car went bye-bye in 2007. About half of what I save goes to savings, a quarter goes to better food, and a quarter goes to vacations.
Growing up I was always told how my grandfather rode the streetcar with his carpenter tools in search of jobs during the first depression. So we bikers can have our own getting around stories for this depression.
That’s nice for you. Unfortunately, it would be too expensive for me to bike to work, whether in time or (if we relocated) housing costs.
It’s 20 degrees and its starting to flurry. Cycling would be so not fun right now.
It’s 20 degrees and its starting to flurry. Cycling would be so not fun right now.
I rode in the snow a week ago Sunday. Yup, we had snow here in Tucson on 2/27. Didn’t stick to the ground and made a big wet mess out of the streets.
Funny enough, cycling in the cold has kept me from getting sick. While it’s yucky to admit this - the snots are flowing so freely when it’s cold that I don’t think a virus stands chance. It also seems to help with dry skin too.
While it’s yucky to admit this - the snots are flowing so freely when it’s cold that I don’t think a virus stands chance.
And it’s even more fun to blow one’s nose by attaching thumb and forefinger to it, then tossing the loogie in the direction of something you don’t like. Campaign signs of candidates I disagree with are my favorite target.
Riding through snow adds to the workout factor in a major way too. It’s not just the extra work of pushing through the snow, but the effort to keep balanced.
“Now it will have to be done “under the gun”, so to speak.”
Isn’t that how we do things in this country? Thinking ahead is so “UnAmerican”.
All the time. I have customers like this. They drive me up the wall.
At this point, it’s pretty much ingrained in our society. Can’t have the sheep thinking for themselves, ya know?
Let’s get ready to rumble!
The boys in Springfield (IL) are aiming to pick a fight with the holiest constituency of holies - seniors. Folks, this is gonna be good.
Senate President Cullerton said yesterday that taxing pensions is fair game, and he went on to clearly insinuate that doing so might possibly reduce the tax rate for the rest of us. Currently, IL does not tax pension and SS benefits. The datails are in play of course, but it should be plainly obvious that there’s a intergenerational ploy at work here. Now where will this lead to?
What are union public goons going to do?
They work 25 years as a public union goon and support all the public union goon candidates that promise more free stuff to the public unions. They then stuff their pensions the last few years with massive OT, retire at 90% of salary with COLAs, throw in a disability or two and expect to be paid tax free for the next 40 years.
Then their plan is to retire to cheaper places (ie - places with no public union goons in the government) and live the life of a prince with no work as the tax-free pensions checks roll in every month.
There you go again. You won’t make any friends here with that attitude.
Well, I have since had the time to read a little deeper into this particular issue and here’s the deal:
No one at the statehouse wants to admit this, but the real money would come from taxing ALL seniors. The Department of Revenue says that if only those making more than $100k are taxed the revenue would be $70M, if you lower the threshold to $50k then it rises to $276M, but if you tax ALL of them (those making less than $50k) then it ballons to the eye-grabbing headline figure of $1.9B.
Please note, these are the state’s own figures - specifically from the IL General Assembly’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability.
If there’s money in the poor then it’s only because there are so many of them!
“If there’s money in the poor then it’s only because there are so many of them!”
Congratulations. You’ve just figured out how the entire country works.
Yes, I’m being serious.
So all retirees are also public union goons who retired with 90% pensions after only working 25 years ?
Link ?
Should be entertaining. Will the oldsters mob the capital waiving canes and oxygen hoses? Will the teamsters and farmers come out to support them? Will there be parking meters?
In NY, pensions are taxed, unless you are a teacher. It’s in our constitution!
Exempting any group is just plain wrong. I thought we were in this together? Oh yeah, all animals are equal - but some are more equal than others.
Plus, apply the tax to where the pension is paid from - not from the state of residency. Better yet, make pensions contingent on residency requirements - you want to collect your pension - then you have to reside in the jurisdiction in which you earned it. Otherwise why bother? It just sends IL, NJ, NY taxpayer money to AZ, FL, NC, etc.
Interstate commerce clause says you can’t.
It’s a constitutional thing.
No problem. Most 65+ seniors don’t have much in their 401Ks.
The ones they are after are the 55+ crowd that have unfairly impoverished others by saving only for themselves.
In CA pensions are taxed if you live in the state by both the state and the feds. If you have over a certain dollar amount your SS pension is also taxed.
In Canada everything is taxed. Some things twice.
That’s probably why it’s a third-world nightmare, with high rates of infant mortality and peculiar ideas about bacon.
You forgot their 3rd rate health care system and 37th ranked education system
Oh wait. That’s us.
HAHAHAHAHAHAA
It will NOT reduce the tax rate for everyone else.
Back to housing for a moment…
We viewed a home that peaked out interest last night, although this investment group is asking premium dollars, and they can kiss our arse. They threw in new carpet, and a few cheap things, but the cabinets and appliances are cr*p (old/original).
We were thinking of asking for the Transfer Disclosure Stmt up front of any offer. Any feedback from experience on this one?
We’ve always bought new, so no freakin idea.) Fixing a flat roof on the garage and Aluminum wiring isn’t cheap, and God knows what else is lurking. Nice neighborhood, but you can slightly hear the fwy.
The lot is small, all cement pool/spa small backyard, but some parts of the house sing to us. It’s come down $10K a month, still higher than it should be. No offers right now. Fell out of contract already. Why? (No doubt anyone will be honest w/us.)
Any advice, comments, etc., are more than welcomed. You can even slap me around. I’ll live.
I haven’t discovered Aluminum Wiring yet, but it might be a possibility by the year of the home.
Westlake Village ?
My landlord asked what my plans are when the lease is up in June I said I could go another year, kinda early to ask though ?
Hi cactus (neighbor)
No, east Simi. Nice neighborhood, very 1950’s w/ trees, all one story homes, and really nice people. After living in Wood Ranch (4K sq ft) and Mountain Meadows (2,100 sq ft) with all the snot noses, we want a hometown neighborhood. Minor EQ damage around this area in ‘94. Cute homes.
WR types would stick their noses up, but we like it.
Are you thinking of jumping back into the market at a sweet spot? Make your LL work for you as a tenant. We got our T O apt rent reduced, and they have numerous vacancies. Wait until they hear….”we bought” Our LL is a slumlord.
My Brother lives in east simi, newer home, South side of royal, I think I get off at Tapo to get to his house. I drive by memory so forget street names.
High water table in some areas is the reason for earth quake damage watch out for flood zone, check insurance company they have all that info.
I might go another year renting? I like the Moorpark area near the JC might buy there if I get the urge to buy.
I work in Westlake so its up the 23, but it’s wider now !!
When I left in 2006 it was a 2 laner nightmare.
Mountain meadows what do they have to be snot nosed about ? They must have moved from TO.
I did my homework at the city for FEMA Flood Zone areas, and the Grading Reports, due to the massive earthquake damage that Simi had. Turns out the house that we like is on a 100% cut lot. A house that sold that we had an interest in, was on a major filled lot, that had a host of permits pulled in ‘94. I am glad I do my due diligence. Like I trust any
R E “Professional”
Mountain Meadows has a certain tude. They are living in circa 1984, when we all moved into it new.
I like the Jr College side of Moorpark. Talk about an ideal climate. Moorpark has the best weather around these parts. Lived there 14 years.
Home inspection first.
The fact that housing prices are coming down is just a return to a normal economic environment. They will continue to go down until they get to a place where people can afford the payments.
The bubble popping is a horror for the Fed and Government but it is a very good thing for most people. When folks say that pension funds lost money, they never had it. When folks say that it will cause the banks to go under, they already are.
We can’t afford the government so it will shrink. Either by a democratic process or another one. But it will happen and life will go on.
Housing prices will over correct.
Yes. And perhaps young couples will get a nice buy on a moderate house. Hooray
It depends. Try to time the market and you’ll get slammed. Try to buy in a marginal neighborhood in the hopes of a recovery and get slammed.
“Housing prices will over correct.”
Someone tell that to the lovely folks here in San Francisco. It just ‘aint happening. Bubble burst? Not here.
“Bubble burst? Not here.”
San Fran has been traditionally over-priced. I believe it will continue. On the plus side there are some new condos that were slated in the $900’s now for sale in the $400’s. That’s a burst to me, but still not affordable housing by any means. May I suggest another area of the country?
Underwater mortgages rise as home prices fall- AP
The number of Americans who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth rose at the end of last year, preventing many people from selling their homes in an already weak housing market.
preventing many people from selling their homes in an already weak housing market.
My version: “Preventing many over leveraged people from selling their houses for their dream price, in a housing market that is bringing true affordability to prospective buyers.”
Better get more government involved. Perhaps in the name of affordable housing, and buying votes, we can keep these prices up.
“Better get more government involved. Perhaps in the name of affordable housing, and buying votes, we can keep these prices up.”
Think about the children!
Underwater mortages rise as prices decline:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Underwater-mortgages-rise-as-apf-1329138840.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=5&asset=&ccode=
What I’d like to see is a rise in the number of folks who confess they are underwater. I’m still shocked at how many will only admit to being “about even” or “a couple grand” underwater, when I follow the market as much as - if not more than - most agents and know it has to be $30,000+ at the very least.
Another thing: I regularly see new listings on Redfin that last sold in 2006-2008 asking $20K - $50K above that. Get real, people! Even the MSM and local fishwraps have published articles saying we’re at 2002-2003 pricing levels.
“Few homeowners in states hit hard by foreclosures, including Colorado, Georgia and Nevada, have 20 percent or more equity in their homes.”
If they wait long enough they might get there.
Ok people I just saw the speech Michael Moore made in Wisconsin a couple of days ago that you can google very easy . Some highlight lines from the speech below that I was trying to write down quick .
“America is not broke”.
“400 Americans have more money than 150 million Americans ”
“The wealthy have stolen the souls of the working class .”
“….give up pensions,give up your life .”
“Banks,Wall Street,Fortune500 Companies now run the Republic.”
“”The rich control the message.” “They buy the media .”
“Keep your head down and nose to the grindstone and you might
be a rich man one day.” (message of the illusion the rich want to
give people)
“Hand over trillions or we will crash this economy.” (Moore was
referring to the blackmail from the elite for the bail outs .)
“”They have bought and paid 100’s of Politicians .”
“Hedge funds played a Nation full of suckers .” Millions lost their
jobs and homes anyway.”
” Government run by Billionaires for Billionaires is a affront to
humanity.”
” The rich have overplayed their hand.” “They had to strip our
souls.”
“The only thing that is broke is the moral compass of our rulers.”
“There is a hell of a lot more of us than them.”
“Madison is only the beginning .”
Interesting speech actually .
Now another interesting tape on youtube is … YouTube The slum dwellers in Cairo that you can google . I wonder if the rich would be satisfied if we are reduced to this as a people here in America .
The rantings of a lunatic. There are far less fringe left wingers that would make a better point. It would be like me posting the rantings of Beck.
It is hard to take seriously such a fan of large government. I bet there has never been a do-gooder program he hasn’t liked, no matter how badly it worked out in practice.
The government has grown too damn big. Anybody that espouses growing government just wants to make our problems worse. We need more freedoms and less government. One of the freedoms that needs to return is the freedom to fail. Another freedom that needs to return is to compete in a market that is free of competitors that are all funded, directly or indirectly, by the government. This goes from SBA loans to big bank bailouts. Government has distorted every market and still people want more.
“The only thing broke is the moral compass of our leaders.”
What a clown.
Every one of his statements are factual and true and I challenge you to refute them. You can’t so you attack him personally. So GOP-ish.
Get a new playbook.
Factualish I think you meant to say.
And your proof?
there is some truth in what moore says and some truth in what beck says.
recognizing it and acting upon it is the hard part.
That’s probably a fair summary.
I’ll note that in Wi there was almost no press coverage. In fact one article said the protests were winding down despite 70-100k people showing up throughout Saturday.
As stated above while talking to my brother there were 6 commercials in a span of 30 minutes pumping up Walker. All likely paid for by Koch brothers and their billionaire friends who are trying to steal wisconsin.
No bid contracts to purchase state owned power plants are just the start. Next up toll roads gov buildings with lease backs, other essential services.
All these things are of course a tax on the middle class but in this case much of the tax money doesn’t go to their neighbors it leaves the state in many cases and is used to make the elite stronger so they can steal more.
The death of the middle class will be the death of the upper middle class and many of the low lying elite. Many are just too dumb to know it.
“…was almost no press coverage.”
Sounds like the PTB is getting either bored or scared. Why else would the coverage wind down? While such unrest can be useful and be made to aid certain agendas, maybe it was starting to hit a little too close to home?
Besides, if all those people are camping out at the capitol that means they aren’t in the malls shopping or at the open houses.
They are now kicking protesters out in the PM from the capitol. They are planning on enforcing the no staying on the lawn or outside at night rule. They are planning on pushing for a permit process to protest and I suspect making it very difficult to get a permit.
Predictable low-intensity reaction. It bums me out because there seemed to be a chance there to reintroduce debate about the wars back into the national discourse, not to mention some other important issues.
No “crisis” can go on for more than one week. It is an MSM law.
Government run by Billionaires for Billionaires is a affront to
humanity.
But he wants more government, doesn’t he?
While I’m sure he made salient and factual points (and usually does), I really have no respect for him these days after watching Bowling for Columbine.
Marketplace Morning Report
Rising interest rates could hurt British homeowners
The Bank of England is set to raise its rates, which means U.K. homeowners face the daunting prospect of increased mortgage payments.
so if the FED doesnt do QE 3 can we expect rates to rise too?
Let’s hope so. One of my saving-for-a-house money market accounts is now earning a paltry .45% APR.
thats a slap in the face.
Kim
OMG, can I relate to your house $ interest post. With all our $ in the bank to put down 100%, we earned $242- (Interest 1099 for 2010). For petesakes, we’re buying a SFH in in So Ca. Pinch me!
“No Way Out” of Debt Trap, Gross Says: U.S. Living Standards Doomed to Fall
Yahoo finance | March 8 2011 | Stacy Curtin
Debt, debt and more mounting debt is plaguing countries around the globe. In this U.S., states across the country face a collective $125 billion shortfall for fiscal 2012, while Congress is facing a budget gap nearly 10 times that size. PIMCO founder and co-CIO Bill Gross has previously said that if the United States were a corporation, no one in their right mind would lend us money.
For the last decade, we’ve been “relying on the kindness of strangers” to help cover our debts, he tells Aaron in the accompanying clip. By “strangers” he is referring to our foreign counterparts, like China for example. Basically, for years Americans have spent their hard-earned dollars on less-expensive Chinese made goods. With great gratitude, China turned around and used all those dollars to buy up U.S. Treasuries and other dollar-denominated assets. But now after years of reckless spending, America’s debt level is nearing a breaking point and can no longer rely on foreign capital as a last resort.
If the country cannot come to grips and cut back on entitlement programs, U.S. debt will continue to grow and governments around the world will loose faith in the U.S. dollar. Foreign goods would become more expensive, says Gross, while our standard of living would drop.
Under the second option, if entitlement programs are cut, many Americans would naturally have to learn to live on less and take a hit to their standard of living.
“There is really no way out of this trap and this conundrum at this point,” says Gross. From an investment perspective his advice is to stay clear of “bonds in dollar denominated terms” and to be “wary of higher interest rates going forward.”
We had a surplus just 11 years ago. Squandered by two out of control spenders.
There was no surplus. That is one of the biggest jokes in American government history. Robbing from Social Security and riding the massive tech stock bubble doesn’t count as a surplus.
+1
Saying the U.S. had a “surplus” under Clinton is like saying “unemployment is only 9%” today. Sure - if you “don’t count”
everyone who has exhausted their unemployment benefits, the UE rate “looks” lower, but that is an absurd insult to every one’s intelligence. Similarly, declaring that the U.S. was in “surplus” during the Clinton years on the basis of then current accounts only, and “not counting” unfunded liabilities, is equally asinine.
Let’s all stand up and cheer Obama - he’s brought us unparalleled prosperity - if you “don’t count” the bottom 99.9% of the population.
“There was no surplus under Clinton”
LOL. Looks like history is being busily rewritten by the Kochtopus.
‘history is being busily rewritten by the Kochtopus’
The ’surplus’ was a paper smoke and mirrors job, done partly by raiding the SS fund. That’s real fiscal discipline, huh? Plus it was only the annual budget. So flush with stock bubble era revenue, using money that wasn’t theirs, and that now the SS fund needs, these people in DC managed to have a fake surplus a couple of years out of how many? 70?
If we’re gonna get anywhere on important issues, we at least have to have an honest discussion of the facts. BTW, I don’t know anything about Koch, but focusing on them is like people that mention Soros all the time.
The idea that Clinton’s surplus was funded by raiding the social security trust fund has gained a lot of traction, but it simply isn’t true. The money in the trust fund was used to buy government bonds, which pay interest, and are recorded in the budget as such. It’s not like they secretly transferred the money without entering it into the books.
The alternative would have been to use the surplus to buy (or ‘prop up’ if you prefer) stocks and commercial bonds. The money had to go somewhere.
Either way, the government spent less than it took in under the Clinton administration, therefore it ran a surplus. A Republican administration would have blown the money somehow, probably by starting a war and giving huge tax breaks to the rich, at the same time.
It’s not often I defend a Democrat (or Republican for that matter).
‘The money in the trust fund was used to buy government bonds’
Yeah, but what kind of bonds? If what you say is true, then SS should be fine. As for wars, I think Clinton did that too.
“Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?”
“Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price–we think the price is worth it.”
–60 Minutes (5/12/96)
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1084
“If what you say is true, then SS should be fine.”
It’s really not in as bad trouble as some would have you believe (from eHow):
“Misconception
That the Social Security Trust Fund, established in 1983, is a savings fund is a misconception. American wage earners do not pay taxes into the fund, only to withdraw them at retirement. Instead, the trust fund is an accounting device for placing any surpluses produced by the Social Security program. These surpluses are invested in government bonds and, as a general rule, all future pension payments will be made either from the returns on those government bonds and/or from the taxes of future workers.
Warning
Because the Social Security program is reliant upon the taxes of existing workers, there is the danger of a fiscal imbalance if the number of retirees drawing benefits exceeds the number of workers paying into the system. It is projected that, starting between 2018 to 2020, the program will have to start drawing on the U.S. Treasury Notes accumulated during the surplus years. In the late 2040s or early 2050s, the Treasury securities may be exhausted. Beyond the early 2050s, Social Security will be running a deficit under its current terms.
Considerations
Even the worst projections for the Social Security program’s future deficits indicate that it will still be collecting roughly three-fourths of its required budget. Eventually, the demographic imbalance that led to the program’s deficits are projected to right themselves. The problem is serious, but in no way is Social Security in danger of collapse.
Read more: When Will Social Security Run Out of Money? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_4585973_social-security-run-out-money.html#ixzz1G3Hhzgdj
National debt outstanding increased every year under Clinton. National debt doesn’t increase if the government actually runs a surplus. On 9/30/99 outstanding government debt was 5.65 trillion, on 9/30/2000 outstanding national debt was 5.67 trillion, so government ran a 20 billion deficit. Close to flat, but still a deficit.
Gross is nutz… The Bernake and the clowns in congress have it all under control. Print baby print! Screw the debt!
It now costs ten cents to print a dollar (just two years ago it was six), from what I understand. What happens when the printing cost exceeds the denomination?
Add more zeros to the denomination.
So printing a hundred dollar bill costs 10 dollars?
no, it costs the same. ten cents. I could see a $100 bill eventually costing more to print than $100 the way inflation is going. but how do you “do” change for larger bills without spending more than they are worth? I am sure coins now cost more to make than they are worth.
You forgot the part where he advocates taxing the elite more. That was posted yesterday.
Does he advocate not handing money to elites in the first place? I mean we hand out billions and collect millions in taxes. It’s still a loss for the taxpayers, no?
BTW, that’s Buffet’s plan too. Hand me the billions and I will pay you back (in taxes) millions.
butters..What is your beef with Buffett about?
Buffett’s a rich liberal. That causes near-fatal cognitive dissonance in some. (see: George Soros)
Too many to list.
BTW, I have no issues with Soros. I may dislike his stands on some issues but I don’t have any grudge against Soros.
“If the country cannot come to grips and cut back on entitlement programs, U.S. debt will continue to grow and governments around the world will loose faith in the U.S. dollar. Foreign goods would become more expensive, says Gross, while our standard of living would drop. Under the second option, if entitlement programs are cut, many Americans would naturally have to learn to live on less and take a hit to their standard of living.”
Sounds like the only difference is the distribution of the pain, and what is given up. Basic economic security, or the ability to buy 20 T-shirts per person per year.
The gap between what we produce and what we consume has been filled with loans, QE, creative accounting, BS and hot air. It looks like time is about up and once again our consumption and production will align, voluntary or otherwise. Looking at the clowns in congress that bicker about a measly $60 billion when trillions are at stake, there is no doubt in my mind that it will be otherwise. That means it will simply happen as opposed to it being planned and coordinated, even if that leads to protests as protected fiefdoms are exposed to market forces (see Wisconsin).
In a chaotic financial collapse desperate politicians will take desperate measures. I am trying to keep a low profile financially. Keep your valuables out of reach of gubermint. A look into the history books at similar events (Argentina, Great Depression, Weimar, etc.) should provide some guidance about what could happen. Typically gubermint will pick the low hanging fruit, savings accounts, safety deposit boxes, currency reform, IRAs and 401Ks come to mind. I am not saying that all these things will happen, but once the word is out the Uncle Sam is a deadbeat things might happen very fast. See Madoff, he ran his Ponzi scheme for 18 years without a hitch and then it comes crashing down within days. Ponzi schemes work just fine until the day they implode.
“protests as protected fiefdoms are exposed to market forces (see Wisconsin).”
From:
http://teacherportal.com/salary/Wisconsin-teacher-salary
Starting pay is 25K
Average pay is 46K
Some fiefdom. Truck drivers with GEDs are paid better.
I was a math teacher once, in NC. I worked 70 hours a week, dealt with crazy parents, hormonally challenged teenagers and a very unsupportive administration. All for a measly $45K p.a.
I moved on to greener pastures working half as much and pulling twice what I made as teacher. If a truck driver with GED makes better money than that is what they should do. Once teachers become scarce pay will increase accordingly.
Or maybe, just maybe, teachers work out of conviction and aren’t chasing the mighty dollar as their accusers claim.
Pay will NOT increase, but idiocy will.
Yeah, but cut WHICH entitlement programs? The ones for the rich or the ones for the poor?
I first read a report like this in the 1980s citing this and other factors contributing to the eventual decline in living standards.
They were right.
Another scary good book was “Geopolitics of Super Power” (Colin S. Gray) most of which came true as well. 1988. (I read a pre-press edition in 1997)
“87″ 1987.
sheesh
did Gross really say loose?
stupid gov’t we have. they could have just let the bush era tax cut to expire and be done with it. instead we got more tax cut. what a deal.
Placido Polanco company files Chapter 11
South Florida Business Journal
Banking & Financial Services, Commercial Real Estate
The owner of a Coral Gables office condo that was hit with a foreclosure last year, Tamach Gables Square LLC, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy March 7.
Principals of the company included businessmen Carlos Gonzalez and Oscar Vega, and Major League Baseball player Placido Polanco of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Tamach Gables Square, at 75 Valencia Ave., has 46 office condo units that sold slowly after construction.
A year ago, Boca Raton-based Sun American Bank (NASDAQ: SAMB) filed a notice of foreclosure against Tamach Gables Square. Gonzalez, listed as president of Tamach Investments, also heads Tamach Group.
The bankruptcy petition said the company has between $10 million and $50 million in debt, and a similar range for assets. It is described as a single-asset real estate company, meaning it was founded only to develop the office condo.
The company’s bankruptcy documents said the largest creditor is Sun American Bank, which was listed with an unsecured claim of $20 million.
Several other apparent investors appeared on the list of unsecured creditors: Frezo Financial Services LLC, $1.9 million; and MLB Gables Square LLC, $3.15 million; and Poli Real Estate Investments Corp., $812,128.
yahoo Finance tech ticker
“Meanwhile, neither side as gotten serious about reforming entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, which account for more than a third of Uncle Sam’s budget.
If the country cannot come to grips and cut back on entitlement programs, U.S. debt will continue to grow and governments around the world will loose faith in the U.S. dollar. Foreign goods would become more expensive, says Gross, while our standard of living would drop.
Under the second option, if entitlement programs are cut, many Americans would naturally have to learn to live on less and take a hit to their standard of living.
“There is really no way out of this trap and this conundrum at this point,” says Gross.
”
Not just public workers will face cuts, Governments seem to have spent all the money and may have trouble borrowing more if they keep their promises to the working class.
Lets see here.
SS has a dedicated tax to fund it. While it’s beginning to run a deficit, its contribution to the overall deficit is relatively small, a drop in the bucket of the 1.7 trillion dollar deficit.
Now I can understand when people say that foodstamps and medicaid are “entitlements”, but worker bees contribute over 12% of their income (including the employer’s match) over the course of their working lives, which for most people will span close to 50 years.
How is SS an “Entitlement” when we all contribute into it? Is it simply because it’s a “pay as you go” plan?
How is SS an “Entitlement” when we all contribute into it? Is it simply because it’s a “pay as you go” plan?
I guess because it’s not a surplus that the government can raid anymore
It’s an entitlement for the demographic segment that gets more from the program than they pay in. It’s a tax for the others. Just like any other government program.
You mean THESE entitlement programs?
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1249465620080812
Government in CA wants more more money. needs more money!!! I get these things all the time brought home by my kids along with over priced candy they are supposed to sell.
“Fschool Families,
Next week our State Representatives will decide whether to extend for five years sales, income, and vehicle taxes that are set to expire this year. Gov. Jerry Brown mostly protected K-12 schools in his proposed 2011-12 budget, but that plan depends on voters agreeing to extend taxes set to expire this year. The first step to place the tax extensions on the ballot is for two thirds of legislators to agree to put it on the ballot. Possible ramifications of not extending these taxes include further decreases in staffing, increases in class sizes, and further cuts to Arts, Sports, and other Extra-Curricular activities.
If you would like to have a say in this decision contact them A.S.A.P. !
Assemblyman Jeff Gorell: Assemblymember.Gorell@assembly.ca.gov or (805)230-9176
State Senator Tony Strickland: Senator.Strickland@senate.ca.gov or (805)306-8886
the vehicle tax discourages people from buying a new car. They should eliminate the tax and more people would buy spurring job growth thus income taxes.
In CA you pay tax when you buy the vehicle new. If it is resold 12 in the first year it is re-taxed with each sale. It is taxed when you have to buy tags so that you can drive it on the highway. Part of that license tag goes to pay for mental health services and other things. Welcome to our state.
elimiate the tax and you might actually sell some cars..
Isn’t California famous for its traffic jams?
“Isn’t California famous for its traffic jams?”
Indeed, an exclusive preserve.
CA reminds me of the HOA I used to suffer with when I owned a Townhome, always broke , always raising fees, buildings getting old can’t afford repair, super high water bills, etc. HOA members didn’t want to cut back because 1) other HOAs were higher 2) the high cost of gardening maintained the re-sale value because of curb appeal. uh huh
Now I hear the fee is 435 a month and the townhomes are very hard to sell because of the high fee, I think the HOA reserves are not funded per CA law so probably very hard to get a loan to buy one. consequnecly they have dropped by 50% from the peak.
Is this what’s in store for CA ? Does everyone who owns property in CA belong to a spenthrift Government like HOA that won’t cut because of curb appeal ? Special Assesments next ? Can’t afford to fix anything ? Raise taxes to stay compliant with the law but still under funded ?
Church for sale!
www redfin com/IL/Arlington-Heights/401-S-Evergreen-Ave-60005/home/27310887
A sign of the times? First time I’ve seen THAT on Redfin.
Well, look at this one:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ontheblock/detail?entry_id=64845
Is it a church, is it a castle or is it a rather extraordinary home?
AWOL Lawmakers Undermine American Democracy
IBD’s Capital Hill | 3/8/2011 | Ed Carson
Mass demonstrations and even elections do not equal democracy without the necessary governmental and cultural institutions. That’s why so many experts are wary of the future of Egypt and Tunisia now that they’ve ousted dictators.
In much of the Mideast, mass demonstrations and shutting down the government are understandable, because there are no other options for expressing popular will and anger. But just as a doctor might prescribe chemotherapy for a cancer patient but never for someone in good health, preventing duly elected legislative bodies from even operating is bad medicine for America.
The Wisconsin and Indiana Democratic lawmakers that have fled their states are undermining and delegitimizing elections and representative democracy. Of course, that’s not their goal. They just want to block Republican officials from passing specific legislation that they oppose. But that’s the end result of their actions.
If political leaders and groups don’t recognize the legitimacy of elections or elected officials, what is legitimate? In Madison, union protesters are chanting “This is what democracy looks like,” but that is not the case. Yes, political protests have a long and often proud history in this country. But if a sizable minority or even a majority-of-the moment decides the power of the street is more legitimate than elected officials, then we’re not America, we’re Thailand.
Despite all the media hype of a radical, dangerous Tea Party movement, millions of committed activists organized, made their voices heard and then took their case to the ballot box last November. But what happens if liberals refuse to accept that “elections have consequences” when “they” lose?
Going down a road where major political factions ignore elections that don’t go their way is dangerous. So it would be best if the AWOL legislators don’t succeed, regardless of merits of their policy positions. There will an opportunity in the next few election cycles for voters to change their minds and elect a new slate of representatives — or not. Because that’s how the system works. That’s what democracy looks like.
Yes we should just sell our power plants for pennies on the dollar in no bid contracts.
Yes we should just sit back while they cut taxes for the rich while raising them on the working poor, and cutting middle class benefits and increasing fees on the middle class.
Nice puff piece.
Note by the next election cycle most of Wi assets may have already been stolen.
There is not one union goon protesting in Madison because of a power plant sale.
The union goons are there to protect their insane salaries/benefits and pensions.
They want it all and are not going to give up a penny. They don’t care about a massive deficit or massive tax increases or the results of a free and fair election. They want their MONEY and POWER UNTOUCHED.
They are there to make sure AS A CONDITION OF EMPLOYMENT - that you must join their union. They are there so that UNION DUES are deducted from your state paycheck before you even see it.
spoken like a true idiot.
Have you been to the protests? No
There are over 100,000 that show up through out the day and you claim to know what they are all thinking without even being there. Many are not even in unions.
Why it Meatson calling people names all day? Can someone make him a cup of chamomile tea?
“Why it Meatson calling people names all day?”
In his defense, this time the shoe kind of fits…
“The union goons are there to protect their insane salaries/benefits and pensions.”
Uh, they agreed to all the pay cuts.
Can you even hear yourself?
A now-deceased friend held a politically conservative viewpoint. She was fond of saying that IBD made the WSJ look like Pravda.
“Despite all the media hype of a radical, dangerous Tea Party movement”
Whatever the “Tea Party” started out as representing; it has been co-opted and subjugated to the more fascist factions of the Republican party.
Opposing big bloated Federal government and out of control spending programs has always had my support. So have the notions of personal liberty and Constitutional rights. The primary difference between the Democrats and Republicans these days seems to be just where they want ever-increasing Big Government to spend the money it doesn’t have, first. Maybe this is because the bankster elite has bought and paid for them both. That would tend to explain things better than anything you see or hear in the Make Believe Media. That would tend to explain why all the mealy-mouthed campaign promises go bye-bye the day after every election.
“…groups don’t recognize the legitimacy of elections or elected officials, what is legitimate?”
Hmm, let me guess. Buying politicians maybe. Yes, that’s legitimate ‘cos our supreme court says so.
Legitimate is whatever the group in charge decides to do. It stays legitimate as long as they have the power to back up their actions.
Everything Ghadaffi or any other dictator did was legitimate until he lost the power to enforce his version of legitimacy.
I believe we did try to kill him in 1986 so maybe not the best example.
Tried but failed. Of course there are always people/groups that don’t agree with one’s own version of legitimacy.
Everything Hitler did was also legitimate within his area of control. Obviously enough other people with enough military power backing them disagreed.
Legitimate is whatever the chief says, period. It stays legitimate until the chief is disposed. Then the new chief gets to make up another set of rules.
Let’s not confuse legitimate (= lawful) with morally right or wrong.
Global press covers ability of SLA to take out $50 and then $100
March 8th, 2011 by maxkeiser
“The Silver Liberation Army (SLA) forced the Silver market into backwadation to support the collapse of JPM and enrichment of Silver Vigilantes and Silver Revolutionaries around the world. We will continue to take physical delivery of Silver to keep this market in backwardation indefinitely until JPM stock collapses and Blythe Masters, Jamie Dimon and the rest of the financial terrorists are bleeding margin calls from every orifice.“
really ?
“backwadation?”
That’s not even a word.
Other than that, good find wmbz.
Freshman Democrat Joe Manchin: Obama has ‘failed to lead’ on budget
~ The Hill
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin ripped President Barack Obama on his budget proposals in a Senate floor speech Tuesday, a rare rebuke from a freshman Democrat who clearly is worried about the politics of deficit spending as he faces a tough reelection in 2012.
Manchin charged the president with failing to lead the way in reducing spending, while also criticizing Republicans for offering “partisan” and “unrealistic” budget proposals.
“Why are we doing all this when the most powerful person in these negotiations — our president — has failed to lead this debate or offer a serious proposal for spending and cuts that he would be willing to fight for?”
The full-throated rejection of the president’s spending proposals by a politically vulnerable Democrat is just the latest worrisome sign for Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who have yet to rally their party around a unified spending plan. Indeed, Democratic leaders are having trouble just keeping moderates on board — Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) also have expressed skepticism that Democrats are willing to cut enough spending to satisfy voters and make a dent in the deficit.
Between the Wall St., the Blue Dogs and Repubs throwing the entire nation under the bus to block him, gee I wonder why?
mccaskill and nelson, moderates?
Reid: Save federal funding for the cowboy poets!
File this under: Did Harry Reid just say that?
In the middle of his tirade against House Republicans’ “mean-spirited” budget bill on the Senate floor Tuesday, the Senate Majority Leader lamented that the GOP’s proposed budget cuts would eliminate the annual “cowboy poetry festival” in his home state of Nevada.
Reid clearly has a soft spot for the Baxter Blacks of the poetry world and thinks Republicans don’t.
“The mean-spirited bill, H.R. 1 … eliminates the National Endowment of the Humanities, National Endowment of the Arts,” said Reid. “These programs create jobs. The National Endowment of the Humanities is the reason we have in northern Nevada every January a cowboy poetry festival. Had that program not been around, the tens of thousands of people who come there every year would not exist.”
In the middle of his tirade against House Republicans’ “mean-spirited” budget bill on the Senate floor Tuesday, the Senate Majority Leader lamented that the GOP’s proposed budget cuts would eliminate the annual “cowboy poetry festival” in his home state of Nevada.
Here in Tucson, similar events are falling under the budget axe. Some have just-plumb disappeared. Others have begun charging admission. And others have remained free but have really kicked it up on the fundraising and the seeking of event sponsors.
We need to put a right to affordable and decent cowboy poetry into the Constitution.
I think that I shall never see,
A cowboy make good poetry.
But I like their music, especially Hawaiian cowboy slack-key guitar.
RIP Sonny and Gabby…
Harry- Don’t close up the brothels ! You’ll throw all those working girls out of ‘work’! Thwy cant make their condo payments and will depress the market more.
An Oldie But Goodie From the Guy on the $5 Bill:
Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war.
- Abraham Lincoln
Nailed it, didn’t he?
Do you know the specific case he was referring to about the corporation being given excessive power?
Hint: it was railroads.
U.S. Treasury Drew Down Its Cash Balance by $81.6 Billion in Just First 4 Days of March
Monday, March 07, 2011
By Terence P. Jeffrey
(CNSNews.com) – The U.S. Treasury is depleting its cash at an accelerating pace, drawing down its cash balance by $81.6 billion in the just the first four days of March, leaving the federal government with only $108.9 billion on hand, according to the Daily Treasury Statement released Monday afternoon.
At the beginning of February, the Treasury had $349.1 billion in cash on hand, but spent that down by $158.5 billion during the month, ending February with only $190.6 billion on hand.
Were the government to continue to draw down its cash balance at the $20.4 billion-per-day rate that prevailed in the first four days of March, it would spend its way through its final $108.9 billion in little more than five days.
Under current law, the U.S. Treasury may only run the national debt up to $14.294 trillion. At the end of February, according to the Treasury’s Monthly Statement of the Public Debt, the total debt subject to this legal limit was $14.142331 trillion—just $151.669 billion short of the limit.
Had the Treasury not spent down the $81.6 billion in its cash balance in the first four days of this month and borrowed that money instead, it would have significantly reduced its remaining legal borrowing authority.
Associated Fruit lays off half its workers
The 70-year-old Phoenix-based company says without credit extension, it will fold ~ Mail Tribune
The economic ripples from 2010’s late spring frost have turned into a financial tsunami for one of the Rogue Valley’s major pear industry players.
Phoenix-based Associated Fruit laid off half of its year-round staff on Friday and indicated it would operate on a truncated scale during the coming season.
“We buy crop insurance every year, but this year it didn’t make up for level of loss,” said Associated Fruit President David Lowry. “We expected a normal year, and then we had a couple nights where it was extremely cold and the pears froze.”
Lowry declined to say how many employees were laid off, but said it was at least a dozen across all parts of the operation.
In another era, the 70-year-old company could have negotiated a disastrous year such as this one, when the crop was less than 50 percent of predicted tonnage, without resorting to layoffs and downsizing. But declining land values have shrunk the amount of dollars lenders are willing to forward growers.
“Basically, we just ran out of land value collateral to satisfy (South Valley Bank & Trust’s) requirements,” Lowry said. “The irony of the Oregon land-use system designed to protect farming was that in overprotecting land, it becomes so devalued that you can’t use it to raise money for collateral.
“An orchard on exclusive-farm-use land doesn’t have much value under the Oregon land-use system. An acre of orchard land might be worth $10,000, while that same acre might be worth $100,000 closer to town. You can see the horrific impact it has on a company’s financial position.”
Farming is tough business.
The banks, buyers and suppliers are all out to eff you, let alone nature itself.
Re-post from late yesterday:
Tired of high housing prices? Join the “Sovereign Citizens”:
Taking squatting to the next level. Coming to your hometown soon:
http://www.ajc.com/news/clayton/fbi-sovereign-citizen-cases-861611.html
I’ve been hearing a little here and there about “sovereign citizens.”
Basically they are loons. But their premise is interesting.
They don’t recognize modern government because it all went corporate. This means the country went from being a sovereign to being a business and that the Constitution makes no recognition nor mention of corporations.
In fact, the Founding Fathers loathed corporations, but the nation was eventually forced to create them to get certain public woks projects done.
When they were given personhood was when it all went to hell. This was done not recently, but back in 1886.
From “Gangs Of Amercia”:
Although 1886 is universally considered the year in which corporations won their first Constitutional right, it should be noted that as early as 1819, the Supreme Court had begun to establish a legal status for corporations in America that exceeded the traditional legal status enjoyed by corporations in England.
There’s 192 Countries That Exist In The World & We Give Foreign Aid To Over 150 Of Them!” Rep Poe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ocVj6UWiDI
speculators back in crude oil and greedier than ever:
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/03/07/speculators-double-down-on-oil/
CHICAGO (AP) — As a historic bull market reaches its second birthday, everyday investors are piling back into stocks, finally ready for more risk and hoping the rally has further to go.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index has almost doubled since March 9, 2009, when it hit a 12-year low after the financial crisis. And the Dow Jones industrials are back above 12,000, about 2,000 points shy of their all-time high.
Little-guy investors appear to be on board. Since the beginning of the year, investors have put $24.2 billion into U.S. stock mutual funds, according to the Investment Company Institute. They withdrew $96.7 billion in 2010.
“It didn’t feel right to be back in until now,” says Richard Dukas, who heads a public relations firm in New York City. “I still don’t want to put all my money in the market, but I believe we’ve come through the worst of it.”
After the 2008 financial meltdown, Dukas and his wife converted their 401(k) retirement accounts into cash. They had been burned during the bubble in technology stocks a decade ago, and Dukas says he has been “extremely skittish” ever since.
Now Dukas, 48, says 85 percent of his portfolio is back in mutual funds, although he maintains a small cushion of cash.”
things that make you go Hmmmm
buy high and sell low is really going to pay off for these people.
“Little-guy investors appear to be on board.”
Federal Open Market Committee - Minutes: The chumming appears to be working.
SUCKERS!
Are California firms closing or leaving? ~ Orange County Register
More than one in five (21%) of California small-business owners do not expect to be in business in California in three years, according to a recent survey by Small Business California, an advocacy group in San Francisco.
It’s a number Small Business California President Scott Hague calls “scary.”
Yes, if California lost a fifth of its small businesses it would be scary. About 83% of California’s businesses (78% of Orange County’s) have fewer than 10 employees.
But here’s the question: Are they closing their businesses forever or moving away? Some respondents thought the question was asking whether their businesses can survive and others put the emphasis on whether they would stay in California or move their businesses out of state.
The answer either way is yes for many of the 342 of the 1,335 poll respondents who gave longer explanations when responding to a recent Small Business California poll.
“I think taxes, regulations, access to capital and the feeling of a hostile business climate all contributed,” Hague said.
I’d almost feel sorry for them except that after having lived and worked out there and seen how they treat their employees, I can’t.
They break EVERY labor law in the book as often as possible.
NEW YORK (AP) — Financial companies pushed stock indexes higher Tuesday on hopes that large banks may soon raise their dividends.
Bank of America Corp. rose 4.4 percent, the most of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones industrial average, after chief executive Brian Moynihan told an investor’s meeting that the bank could earn more money over the next two years as its business stabilizes. That led analysts to note that large consumer banks may raise their dividends. Banks slashed dividends during the 2008 financial crisis to cut costs.
Financial stocks in the S&P 500 index rose 2 percent, the most of any of the index’s 10 company groups. American Express Co. gained 4 percent, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. gained 3 percent.”
Thus God’s will is made plain
And lo, there was great fraud and much rejoicing.
Hey what happened to Wikileaks big release about a large American bank? It never happened, did it? Or maybe it wasn’t newsworthy??
Anyone know?
Funny you should ask that question, sfrenter. My walking buddies and I were discussing it last night.
My take on the sitch: Julian of Wikileaks fame is like that guy who’s always telling his ladies how wonderful *it* will be. But, for some strange reason, *it* never seems to happen.
quick google on it:
The huge cache of bank documents held by Wikileaks is dated and perhaps a bit dull.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/41495951/Will_The_Wikileaks_Bank_of_America_Bombshell_Be_a_Dud
Hmm. 2006, eh? But that would be the peak of the bubble.
Sounds more than interesting to me.
BofA Selling Commercial Real Estate Assets, Risk Chief Says
Bank of America Corp. (BAC), the biggest U.S. lender, is a “very active seller” of commercial real estate as the firm seeks to limit losses on assets accumulated through acquisitions, Chief Risk Officer Bruce Thompson said.
Commercial real estate loans in the core portfolio fell 28 percent in 2010 to $48 billion at the end of the year, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender said in a presentation on its website today. The decline is part of the company’s strategy to reduce so-called legacy assets, Thompson said today at an investor presentation.
Thompson is working with Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan to decrease the chance of writedowns after the company repaid U.S. bailout funds that were required to bolster capital drained by lending losses. Commercial property prices fell about 40 percent from their 2007 peak through the end of last year, according to Moody’s Investors Service, after U.S. unemployment of more than 9 percent shrunk demand for office space and pressured sales in shopping complexes.
“Credit quality for commercial real estate is showing signs of stabilization,” Bank of America said in its annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission last month. “However, we expect that elevated unemployment and ongoing pressure on vacancy and rental rates will continue to affect primarily the non-homebuilder portfolio.”
economy of welfare:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/41969508
“The economist gives the country two stark choices. In order to get welfare back to its pre-recession ratio of 26 percent of pay, “either wages and salaries would have to increase $2.3 trillion.”
That’s a alot of Chinese and Indians out of work, huh?
Our economy resembles many of the stars in the night sky - burned out, but you can still see the light.
That’s pretty much it.
A 70% consumer driven economy needs, well, consumers. And consumers need, well, jobs. Jobs that can buy more than just food, shelter, clothing and a ride to work.
Yet, this would seem to be commie rocket science to the PTB.
Pennsylvania budget calls for deep spending cuts ~cnnmoney
Calling the state’s fiscal problems unprecedented, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett unveiled Tuesday a budget that asks state employees to forgo pay increases and pay more for their health care.
The state is facing a budget gap of more than $4 billion, and its new governor is keeping his promise not to raise taxes to close it. Instead, he is looking for concessions from public employees and for cuts from a wide array of agencies. Also, some 1,500 positions would disappear in the budget that cuts overall spending by 3%.
“We have to spend less because we have less to spend,” Corbett said. “We must tax no more because people have no more to give.”
Corbett, a Republican, is tackling his budget problems in much the same way as other governors around the nation. Many are taking an ax to employee compensation, education and social services. But unlike state leaders in places such as Wisconsin and Ohio, Corbett is not looking to reduce public worker unions’ collective bargaining rights.
Hits to state workers
The governor is leaning hard on education — both K-12 and college level. Together, these suck up 38% of the state budget.
“Education cannot be the only industry exempt from recession,” Corbett said. “We need to change the whole system. We need a new set of priorities: child, parent and teacher — and in that order.”
“Education cannot be the only industry exempt from recession,” Corbett said. “We need to change the whole system. We need a new set of priorities: child, parent and teacher — and in that order.”
Uh-oh, Tom, those are fighting words. And I’m sure my mother heard them. And she’s getting angry. Very angry.
Memo to Gov. Corbett: You seriously don’t want to annoy my mother, who taught in PA public schools for 22 years. BTW, Tom, she’s still a member of the teacher’s union.
Bloomberg
AAA Rating
For now, Standard & Poor’s maintains a stable outlook on its top AAA rating on U.S. debt, assuming the government will “soon reveal a credible plan to tighten fiscal policy.” Debate over closing the budget gap thus far has centered on potential spending reductions. S&P says a deficit-closing plan “will require both expenditure and revenue measures.”
Measured against the size of the economy, U.S. federal tax revenue is at its lowest level since 1950. Tax receipts in the 2011 fiscal year are expected to equal 14.4 percent of GDP, according to the White House. That compares with the 40-year average of 18 percent, according to the Congressional Budget Office. So if tax receipts return to their long-term average amid an economic recovery, about one-third of the annual budget deficit would disappear.
Likewise, individual federal income tax rates have declined sharply since the top marginal rate peaked at 94 percent in 1945. The marginal rate — which applies to income above a numerical threshold that has changed over time — was 91 percent as late as 1963 and 50 percent in 1986. For 2011, the top marginal rate is 35 percent on income over $373,650 for individuals and couples filing jointly.
Not Overtaxed
Americans also aren’t overtaxed compared with residents of other advanced nations. In a 28-nation survey, only Chile and Mexico reported a lower total tax burden than the U.S., according to the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation.
In 2009, taxes of all kinds claimed 24 percent of U.S. GDP, compared with 34.3 percent in the U.K., 37 percent in Germany and 48.2 percent in Denmark, the most heavily taxed OECD member.
“By the standard of U.S. history, by the standard of other countries — by the standard of where else are we going to get the money — increased tax revenues have to be a part of the solution,” said Jeffrey Frankel, an economist at Harvard University who advises the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston and New York.
Lots of times you hear the argument: “If you tax the rich they will leave the country”
Good maybe they can go and wreck somebody else’s economy. As far as the US is concerned mission accomplished.
Another nonsensical argument I heard was that taxes in Kenya and Russia are much lower than in the US. Great, then go to Kenya or Russia and run your business from there. Good luck with that idea, don’t forget to hire some mercenaries.
The only way to get out of the current mess is to raise taxes on people than can afford to pay them, like back in the 50s when the US was still communist/socialist and the top tax rate was 60+%. However, most of it has to come from the 3 biggest spenders which are Social Security, Medicare/caid and defense. Chances are none of the above will happen voluntary.
Baby Face Walker is now backpedalling. He’s now prepared to compromise. (r) state senators are now woozy, another (r) senator is changing is party affiliation, Coward Senator Sennsenbrenner(r) cowardly shut down a town hall meeting because the crowd wasn’t singing his corporatist tune.
Strike up the band and sing the GOP anthem…..
My my, at waterloo napoleon did surrender
Oh yeah, and I have met my destiny in quite a similar way
The history book on the shelf
Is always repeating itself
Waterloo - I was defeated, you won the war
Waterloo - promise to love you for ever more
Waterloo - couldn’t escape if I wanted to
Waterloo - knowing my fate is to be with you
Waterloo - finally facing my waterloo
My my, I tried to hold you back but you were stronger
Oh yeah, and now it seems my only chance is giving up the fight
And how could I ever refuse
I feel like I win when I lose
Waterloo - I was defeated, you won the war
Waterloo - promise to love you for ever more
Waterloo - couldn’t escape if I wanted to
Waterloo - knowing my fate is to be with you
And how could I ever refuse
I feel like I win when I lose
Waterloo - I was defeated, you won the war
Waterloo - promise to love you for ever more
Waterloo - couldn’t escape if I wanted to
Waterloo - knowing my fate is to be with you
Waterloo - finally facing my waterloo
eBay: nothing inside…just the empty box!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220750873694
China Says Property Demand Driven by `Unreasonable’ Speculation
By Bloomberg News - Mar 8, 2011 8:00 PM PT
China Vanke Co., the nation’s largest publicly traded developer, said this week the outlook for demand for its homes will withstand government measures. Photographer: Keith Bedford/Bloomberg
China’s rising property market in the past few years was driven in part by “unreasonable” demand from speculators, according to Qi Ji, Vice Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.
“The government’s property curbs are targeted principally at those who don’t have an immediate need for housing as accommodation,” Qi said in a press briefing in Beijing today. “Our basic aim is to direct the limited supply of housing to those who need it the most.”
…
At least one guy gets it:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-2008-crash-isnt-over-only-covered-up-2011-03-08