Bits Bucket for March 9, 2011
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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BofA Segregates Almost Half of its Mortgages Into ‘Bad Bank’
~ Bloomberg
BofA Segregates Almost Half of Mortgages Into ‘Bad Bank’
Bank of America Corp. is segregating almost half its 13.9 million mortgages into a “bad” bank comprised of its riskiest and worst-performing “legacy” loans. Photographer: Jin Lee/Bloomberg
Bank of America Corp. (BAC), the biggest U.S. lender by assets, is segregating almost half its 13.9 million mortgages into a “bad” bank comprised of its riskiest and worst-performing “legacy” loans, said Terry Laughlin, who is running the new unit.
“We are creating a classic good bank, bad bank structure,” Laughlin told investors at a meeting in New York today. He was promoted last month to manage the costs of resolving disputes stemming from the company’s 2008 purchase of Countrywide Financial Corp. “We’re going to get after this, we’re going to do it the right way and we’re going to put it to bed in the next 36 months,” he said.
“We are creating a classic good bank, bad bank structure.”
And this solves the problem … how?
Bad bank gets off-loaded to the public sector, good bank stays in the hands of the banksters to allow the continuation of their bonuses.
Privatize profits, socialize losses.
We need to put a right to affordable and decent bad banks into the Constitution.
Which kind of lolipop do you get in a bad-bank drive-thru?
Which kind of lolipop do you get in a bad-bank drive-thru?
And does it offer dog biscuits for the four-legged backseat drivers? How about bicyclists? Can we use the drive-through too? (At some banks, we can’t.)
When I was carless, I was lucky enough to live in small college towns where people did NOT give me dirty looks when I biked up to the drive-through ATM.
In 2008 the sheeple voted to have their children and grandchildren cover the banks’ bad bets and guarentee that the banksters would never lose a dime on their reckless speculation. Thank you, idiot McCain and Obama voters.
“We are creating a classic good bank customer, bad bank customer… fee structure.”
Debussy: “music is the space between the
meaningnotes”Here is an article by a guy who really gets it:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-2008-crash-isnt-over-only-covered-up-2011-03-08
‘In a Bloomberg Market’s magazine column last year, “Greenspan Cover-up,” Roger Lowenstein, author of “The End of Wall Street,” wrote that in a newly released transcript of a March 2004 meeting Greenspan “argues against disclosing too much to the public lest the Fed ‘lose control of a process that only we fully understand’.”
“Lowenstein was classy, but went ballistic: “This statement ranks as a sign of monumental arrogance. It was Greenspan himself who didn’t understand, much less ‘fully understand,’ that the Fed’s lax mortgage regulation and easy monetary policies were setting America up for a disastrous fall.”
“Then the indictment: “Had the Fed publicized such concerns, it might have led to a crackdown and forestalled millions of bad mortgages that would be written over the following 2 1/2 years. Instead, the Fed released minutes with sanitized phrases that had been stripped of alarming language.”
This is what I’ve been trying to emphasize for years:
‘might have led to a crackdown and forestalled millions of bad mortgages that would be written over the following 2 1/2 years’
What’s worse is that the govt and the industry compounded this folly by insisting the price declines were over, and provided multiple incentives for people to buy houses in the following years!
‘might have led to a crackdown and forestalled millions of bad mortgages that would be written over the following 2 1/2 years’
Hwy50: “Hey Mr. AlanBrain, what’s this tool marked: Volker 14+% ?”
Sir GreenisSpent: “Eh, don’t bother with it, won’t work with today’s “Financial Innovation”
schemesmodels, trust me, I know from my Long-Term experience…”Hwy50: “Hey, what are these over-sized “Keating” brand band-aid’s doing in your tool box Mr. AlanBrain?”
Sir GreenisSpent: “Eh, go away kid, you’re beginning to bother me…”
From 2000 onward, the FBI discovered reported huge increases in mortgage fraud, but were directed to concern themselves with domestic terrorism and to ignore the fraud.
From 2000 onward, the FBI discovered reported huge increases in mortgage fraud, but were directed to concern themselves with domestic terrorism and to ignore the fraud.
True, dat.
These folks sure do have inflated opinions of themselves.
The fact they were so utterly, spectacularly wrong does add the unmistakable element of farce to the unfolding financial drama.
For once, I like something a bank chief has to say.
Bank Chief Rejects Idea of Reducing Home Loans
By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ
Published: March 8, 2011
Showing resistance for the first time against government pressure to write off tens of billions worth of mortgage debt, Bank of America executives said on Tuesday that the idea was unworkable and warned that it would be unfair to borrowers who had managed to stay current on their loans.
“There’s a core problem that if you start to help certain people and don’t help other people, it’s going to be very hard to explain the difference,” said Brian T. Moynihan, the chief executive of Bank of America. “Our duty is to have a fair modification process.”
…
‘There’s a core problem that if you start to help certain people and don’t help other people’
It’s a core problem alright. Let me explain it another way; if you reduce one guys mortgage, you have to reduce his neighbors too.
All this boo-hooing for the FBs has turned the foreclosure world into a circus. I wish you guys could listen to some of the incredible discussions I’ve been having with people at the foreclosed houses these days. I’ll give you one example; I’m working on cleaning up and repairing a house in the Verde Valley. It was a strategic default, as are most I see at at this time. This guy comes to look at it, sent by the realtor. He talks about what is causing the leaks; is it the roof or frozen pipes? Then he volunteers that he has multiple properties he can’t sell. He says he still has equity in his house, but if it goes underwater, “I’ll let it go” as he makes a motion of throwing the keys away.
Then he adds a statement I’ve heard several times from different people in the past few weeks; “This country is going to hell.”
IMO, it’s not going to hell, but the idea of paying back what you borrowed is going by the wayside. Here’s another; I’m talking to a guy who is loading up his stuff. He’s lost one house already and is in foreclosure on a second. On this house, he owned it for over 25 years, meaning he almost certainly refinanced it. He tells me, “I tried to get the them to work with me on a loan modification, but the bank just wants too much.”
That last one was really something. The bank wants too much? Like they are selling it to him! The idea that they want him to pay back what he borrowed wasn’t even in his head.
ben,
reality has been thrown out the window.all these people want something for nothing these days.
Or to put it in the vernacular: “Where’s my bailout?”
’something for nothing’
Or you could say they ate the cake, and don’t want to pay for it. How far a leap is it to then say, I want my credit card balance reduced? Or to heck with it, I ain’t paying for the governments borrowing.
That last one is even more likely and important. How many of us feel we have much input into what DC does? And then it follows that if people have no shame in walking away from what we individually borrowed, we won’t see a personal obligation to make good on the US debt.
As I said, way to go DC, you’ve boo-hooed this foreclosure thing to the point that personal responsibility is considered a foolish notion.
“Dine and dash” on an epic scale. Justified from the largest investment banker down to the smallest FB.
“Dine and dash” on an epic scale ??
+1…..Perfect Metaphor…….
“Dine and dash”
Kind of like employing someone in a job for years, promising them a retirement with benefits, then telling them we can’t afford it when the time for their retirement comes?
And we can’t afford it because the rich refuse to pay the same tax rates as everyone else?
Some times I think the Fed is counting on a nice round of inflation would help out everyone with a mortgage.
What gets me is how the FBs will just up and tell you all the stupid predicaments they’ve gotten themselves into. It’s as if they wanted absolution from you.
‘just up and tell you’
It’s not casual conversation. I’m often at a property and these are the matters that come up. Not necessarily with the former owners, but with potential buyers or people who knew the former owners situation. It’s similar to being at the scene of an accident and discussing with bystanders how unsafe the road is.
“Dine and dash” on an epic scale.
Except they gave you food poisoning and wanted you to pay 5 times what it cost 5 years previously. There’s no good reason to stay around for that.
And many people I talk to can’t wait to take another trip to the buffet.
So many victim stories, so few victims.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - PIMCO’s Total Return Fund (NASDAQ:PTTRX - News), the world’s biggest bond fund, has dumped all U.S. government-related securities, including Treasuries and agency debt, a source familiar with the fund’s holdings said on Wednesday.
In January, Pacific Investment Management Co.’s $236.9 billion Total Return fund slashed its U.S. government-related debt holdings to the lowest level in at least two years and increased cash and debt holdings from other developed nations.”
I guess some people don’t trust the US government to pay back what they owe anymore than underwater home owners.
“but with potential buyers or people who knew the former owners situation. ”
Ah, I see.
One thing to be stupid and another to tell everyone about it.
“And many people I talk to can’t wait to take another trip to the buffet.”
Exactly. The same slop from 5 years ago is now available at a 25 percent discount. Ten years ago you could’ve gotten a decent steak for half as much as now. It’s still too early to return to the buffet in many places, no matter how hungry you are.
“This country is going to hell.”
It sure must look that way for FBs who invested in ten SFRs at the bubble peak which they cannot sell during the bust…
However, to the Financial Genius-Guru’s looking down from the 159th floor, they mutter unperturbed:
“Hey check it out Harry, the marbles movements down on the ground seem to be acting rather oddly don’t ya think?”
That last one was really something. The bank wants too much? Like they are selling it to him! The idea that they want him to pay back what he borrowed wasn’t even in his head.
One of my cousins is a real estate agent in the Midwest. According to my aunt, one of his “bought as an investment” properties was being foreclosed on. So, my cousin told the bank that they could have the darn thing back.
And said bank didn’t want the darn thing back. Bank told my cousin to make an offer.
My cousin made a lowball offer, the bank accepted, and, voila, the house is still his.
What government sponsored program was this under? These sort of things can’t happen without government involvement.
Sounds like a loan that is still owned by the bank, not securitized.
The banks acting as servicers for securitized loans don’t have authority to write them down absent a vote of a majority of the bond holders. Possibly a supermajority. Possibly requiring a vote for every tranche. Or that is how I understand it.
“What government sponsored program was this under?”
Any chance the loan was federally guaranteed, in which case I guess the bank is insured against loss of principle?
HAMP did mention something about banks offering loan modifications to those not too far underwater. Are they?
Granted, HAMP decisions are left to the bank’s discretion, meaning they can say no to otherwise seemingly qualified applicants. Or decide internally what qualified means even if it is different than what is suggested in the legislation. Some will be disgusted with the system when the bank jerks them around; or they feel cheated at least.
Mods supposedly were to be made available to those homeloaners who were not owing more than 125% of the home’s current value and were otherwise current on their loans. New payments were to be something like 31% of the applicants gross pay. Rather than saying yes or no, they have been preying on those hopeful for modification; losing registered mail, etc. So the borrower stays current; thinking they will qualify for a modest payment reduction, only to be rejected after many months.
Banks are not playing fair; the legislation gives them wiggle room; so J6P does not feel like playing fair with them either and uses his own wiggle room. (technically honoring their mortgage contract by offering the keys rather than paying) Banks also default on underwater deals; FBs follow suit. Bank says, “Hey man; its only business; I am sure you understand why we are denying your HAMP application. Thanks for staying current while we thought if over.”
If the banks would have participated in HAMP the way a layperson understood it; they would have modified many more mortgages and possibly had a more favorable outcome with less public outrage. Just my opinion.
And had to take losses at times when their balance sheets would not allow it. Or violate the terms of their servicing agreements with the bond holders and get themselves sued and lose the income stream from being a servicer.
Not as simple as you make it out to be.
Ok but at the level of understanding out there; HAMP offered false hope to people who paid too high a price to ever recover; but were happy to save x per month and would have kept paying on a loser had the banks played.
If they could not help due to the reasons you list; valid as they are; the banks were not upfront about it. Like telling the public that suddenly pulling 1000s of homes off the Oregon pre-foreclosure list last week was part of their October review of mortgages. Honestly??? Why just Oregon then? Are we that stupid to buy what they are selling?
IMO, it’s not going to hell, but the idea of paying back what you borrowed is going by the wayside.
I have to agree with this. I’ve gotten stiffed on many jobs and contracts.
Hard to pay my bills when others won’t pay me.
I’m finding that foot-dragging is increasingly being used as a cash flow management technique. As in the client starts the project — and it’s urgent! They really need it done!
Okay, Client, I’m on it. Here’s a link to what I’ve done so far. What’s your feedback so we can keep this thing going?
And the client falls silent.
I’ve been chasing one client with one of those urgent emergency projects since Christmas. Actually, I’ve decided to stop the chase. When he gets around to getting the rest of the content to me so I can complete his website, I’ll work his project back into my schedule.
In the meantime, I’m seeking other projects.
I’m there right now, only it get’s better.
First they drag their feet, then when they do get back they say “please move ahead, but without the next payment” nor any critic or changes. (can you see where this going?)
Finally they pay and I move ahead, almost completing the project, THEN they have changes.
Hey, did you not see the proofs/mockups? Did I not tell you I won’t move ahead without approval? Needless to say, that doesn’t go over real well.
What this means is that 30 year, fixed rate loans are going away sooner rather than later. The second federal support is scaled back the tiniest bit, no bank is going to take that risk. The ones who walk away now are doing that to their kids.
These folks were too clever by half.
They heard for years about corporate financing. They thought they could then apply corporate finance principles to their own personal finances.
What they never realized is that a corporation is a legal fiction. An individual is an actual physical thing. The legal fiction could always be the bagholder while the executives walked away with the loot. The individual has no bagholder but himself.
half?!?!?!?!
Good catch! If a mere 23% of mortgages are underwater, why is BoA proposing to put 50% of its mortgages into the bad bank catacombs? Perhaps their acquisition of Countrywide resulted in them owning a disproportionately high share of the extant toxic mortgage assets?
Countrywide got HUGE at the peak of the boom. It’s likely the root of the problem.
The FBs who want a “do over” of the worst financial decision of their lives; paying too much for a house. BOA want’s a “do over” of their terrible decision to acquire a company with a significant negative net worth. If bankruptcy is the best solution for FBs (and for many of them it is) I see no reason to allow BOA to set up “bad bank” to allow current shareholders and management off the hook.
BK is an option in recourse states. In non-recourse states I don’t believe it to be necessary.
“The FBs who want a “do over” of the worst financial decision of their lives; paying too much for a house. BOA want’s a “do over” of their terrible decision to acquire a company with a significant negative net worth.”
Let me guess … BofA will get their “do over” but J6P won’t.
I think that many of the big banks are waiting for the time when the IRS will start treating write downs people receive as income again. Strategic defaults will not be as popular when they come with a big IRS bill.
So Angelo Mozillo singlehandedly built a “bad-bank”. What a legacy for a true American entrepreneur.
liz: Yea, but he had help persuading BoA to “buy” it. ‘Cause while countrywide may not have been big enough to consitute a “systemic risk” BoA certainly is. So, another round of taxpayer subsidized bonuses all round.
Will bad BofA offer free checking?
How can a commoner like me tell the difference between BofA and BBofA?
If a mere 23% of mortgages are underwater, why is BoA proposing to put 50% of its mortgages into the bad bank catacombs?
With another leg down, many more mortgages will be underwater?
March 9th, 2011 by maxkeiser
* BofA Segregates Almost Half of its Mortgages Into ‘Bad Bank’
MK: When the Dow Jones crashes by 20% again, BoA will use that opportunity to unload this ‘bad bank’ onto the U.S. govt. Because BoA wants nothing to do with the mess they created, they will be the chief architect of the next crash. This is in essence the very definition of financial terrorism. I am sickened by how the WH is so weak on financial terrorism. In fact, it’s obvious they are a part of it.
I am so sickened I can’t even type a caustic remark.
I am sickened by how the WH is so weak on financial terrorism. In fact, it’s obvious they are a part of it.
—————–
+1
So much for going after the “fat cat bankers.”
What do they mean by this.
Will there be a two banks now? With two CEO’s and will they trade under new names say BOA/bad and BOA/good.
Will they let the CEO of BOA/bad, let’s call him sacrificial lamb smith, take the fall for the entire banking industry and will they take over BOA/bad and close it down to make Americans think they are really sticking it to bankers?
and the other half of the loans will go to the REALLY bad bank, also Bank of America….
How Twitter Is Transforming Trading in Commodities. ~ CNBC
Passing through Giltner, Neb. early last August, farmer Mike Haley used his Twitter account to post a message, or tweet, about a particularly robust corn crop.
“If I was @zjhunn or @cornfedfarmer I would be smiling, best corn iv seen is their area!”
What may have seemed like a passing compliment turned into a $200,000 profit.
The harvest belonged to brothers Zach and Brandon Hunnicutt-known on Twitter as “zjhunn” and “cornfedfarmer” respectively-fifth-generation south central Nebraska farmers who raise corn, soybeans, and popcorn on their 3,500 acres they share with their father and neighbor.
To Zach Hunnicutt, Haley’s tweet was a revelation. “We knew by that point that we weren’t going to have as high yield as we hoped for,” he said in a recent interview. “We knew that if ours might be the best out there,” he added, “that gave us the confidence to maybe hold out a little bit-for prices to go higher.”
Corn prices, in fact, spiked nearly 50 percent between Haley’s tweet and the end of the year. By the time the Hunnicutts sold their corn in December, they were able to lock in an additional $1 per bushel, Zach Hunnicutt estimates-generating another 20 percent, or $200,000 or so, in profits. And about half of last year’s corn harvest is still in storage.
The back-and-forth between the Hunnicutts and Haley, a grain and cattle farmer in West Salem, Ohio, is part and parcel of the way in which Twitter is revolutionizing agriculture markets in the U.S.
Once a convenient outlet for boredom on the tractor, tweeting with fellow farmers has become a way for the participants in a far-flung and isolating business to compare notes on everything from weather conditions to new fertilizers. And now, commodities brokers and traders are paying close attention.
they were able to lock in an additional $1 per bushel, Zach Hunnicutt estimates-generating another 20 percent, or $200,000 or so, in profits. And about half of last year’s corn harvest is still in storage.
I enjoy all my central NE cousin’s horse-trading stories…
City investment boys reading farmers’ tweets about the state of their crops? Sounds ripe for shenanigans!
City investment boys = Hired guns, and boy are they quick at pulling the trigger!
Welfare State: Handouts Make Up One-Third of U.S. Wages
~CNBC
Government payouts—including Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance—make up more than a third of total wages and salaries of the U.S. population, a record figure that will only increase if action isn’t taken before the majority of Baby Boomers enter retirement.
Even as the economy has recovered, social welfare benefits make up 35 percent of wages and salaries this year, up from 21 percent in 2000 and 10 percent in 1960, according to TrimTabs Investment Research using Bureau of Economic Analysis data.
“The U.S. economy has become alarmingly dependent on government stimulus,” said Madeline Schnapp, director of Macroeconomic Research at TrimTabs, in a note to clients. “Consumption supported by wages and salaries is a much stronger foundation for economic growth than consumption based on social welfare benefits.”
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, or 35 percent, to $8.8 trillion, or social welfare benefits would have to decline $500 billion, or 23 percent, to $1.7 trillion,” she said.
Does this figure include all the US soldiers? Soldiers produce nothing and do 100’s of billions in damage to the USA and the globe. As the most dangerous and damaging welfare recipients, American soldiers should also be included in the welfare numbers.
Do Americans have any notion of what the US soldier is costing the American people both in economic terms and loss of all constitutionally expressed freedom terms?
When your friends and family members are taken from you(in America) by American and/or foreign death squads please thank a US soldier.
“When your friends and family members are taken from you (in America) by American and/or foreign death squads please thank a US soldier.”
Lol. I just love this blog.
This happened prior to Patriot Act and TSA gestapo.:
Civil war
Katrina
Waco
Ruby Ridge
US soldiers had no problem executing Americans then. Do you think American soldiers will have a problem mass murdering Americans now? Canadians can be brought in to do the job if Americans GI’s fret:
Canada, U.S. agree to use each other’s troops in civil emergencies
By Ottawa Citizen
Canada West via Canada.com
Wednesday, Feb 23, 2011
Canada and the U.S. have signed an agreement that paves the way for the militaries from either nation to send troops across each other’s borders during an emergency, but some are questioning why the Harper government has kept silent on the deal.
Canada and the U.S. have signed an agreement that paves the way for the militaries from either nation to send troops across each other’s borders during an emergency, but some are questioning why the Harper government has kept silent on the deal.
Neither the Canadian government nor the Canadian Forces announced the new agreement, which was signed Feb. 14 in Texas.
As noted in the article, this will freak out the Canadian left and the American right.
The idea of Canadian soldiers crossing the border to aid in search and rescue or provide assistance during ice storms or forest fires should have every American cowering under their beds.
“The idea of Canadian soldiers crossing the border…”
Modern-day Redcoats, stinking of maple syrup…They’ll be the shock-troops that force socialized medicine on us!
Oh dear lord, let’s just nuke ‘em now, while we still have a chance.
Katrina was 2005. Patriot Act was 2001.
I might need a new keyboard. Sparks and coffee and a new display.
RAW, Afghanistan, US Soldier Throwing Rocks at young Children in Kandahar
http://tinyurl.com/66bvxzc
Ad this to the throwing of puppies off cliffs, raping, torture, et al that US forces commit daily.
There are examples of soldiers doing these things. Videos no less. And they become international news. But there are examples of Canadians doing heinous things too. And Egyptians. And Swedes. Your error is in implying that because the occasional heinous crime is committed by an American soldier, that all soldiers do such things.
War brings out the worst in people. And the best.
War is a disgusting, bloody mess. All sorts of people become embroiled in it.
So el presidente gave soldier a medal for invading, occupying a foreign land without moral or constitutional authority? In fact this American soldier broke the law by going into an undeclared war. You believe this to be a righteous act?
These wars you speak of are American wars of empire. That you attempt to minimize this fact with the participation of Canadian military says more about you that anything else.
All soldiers do not do such heinous crimes(rape, etc.) but all soldiers by virtue of participating in these wars by default enable the heinous crime of war itself.
100% of all US soldiers are breaking the law by participating in undeclared ergo unlawful wars. Do you believe that a law to not kill Americans on American soil will prevent US soldiers from doing just that when so ordered by American politicos?
“People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only
because rough men stand ready to visit violence
on those who would do them harm.”
George Orwell
Yes, and in the USA, those rough men (& women) get their ultimate marching orders from greedy, weak minded, well dressed, expensively manicured… traitors.
The truly weak minded are the lowly retards that actually execute the orders of the “politicos” described. That would be the US soldiers that generally commit whatever atrocity they are ordered to commit. Soldiers can at anytime decide to be honorable men by refusing orders which is precisely why the military seeks low down scum to fill the cannon fodder ranks.
I do not agree with your statement at all. It does not characterize the average soldier, or at least not the people I have met. When things have indeed fallen far enough in this country where our military in the aggregate is no longer motivated by the defense of “an idea”, having placed themselves at the mercy of whatever president happens to ascend to office during their enlistment term, then the government will need to resort to mercenary armies like that guy in the funny hat in Libya.
Libya, Benghazi, security forces drive tank over car with civilians still inside
http://tinyurl.com/6cmk9mp
Anyone left out there that honestly believes that the US soldiers are incapable of doing this here at home to Americans?
If so, then please explain how we are immune from this type of government behavior.
Incapable? Doubtful. On the other hand, we seem to have plenty of savage butchery, stupid cruelty and just all around violent chaos even without the help of the military, at least according to the local media. Where do you live, lint old shoe? Are you insulated from the human condition American Style? Around here hardly a week goes by without some drunk slamming their vehicle into a load of kids, and I’m guessing crushed to death by a plastered soccer mom in a giant SUV is no more wholesome or less horrible than by a bunch west african mercenaries driving an armored vehicle. I have a feeling you could find your worst nightmare just by stepping out some fine evening in Albuquerque and many many other places, no need to wait for martial law or whatever axe you’re trying to grind here on the military.
“If so, then please explain how we are immune from this type of government behavior.”
You’ve given a hand full of examples to prove that a group of 2 million individuals are all bad. You’re assuming that soldiers, some of who fail in their duties under strenous circumstances, will en-mass be willing to inflict harm on their fellow citizens. It’s quite a leap you’re making.
Having said that, no I don’t believe the US is immune to having its soldiers hurting its citizens.
If an order is given to the US military to go out and shoot enought US protesters until the rest go home, that order will not be obeyed as illegal. Politicians will know this and are unlikey to give such an order.
If an order is given to go out and set up check points every 2 blocks in an area where protests are going on, there is a relatively high chance of casualties. Not because the soldiers will be anxious to shoot people, but because they believe they are threatend. If there are enough lintish zealots running around, the soldiers probably would be threatened. The politicians know this too, and if they want to surpress the populace they will get the soldiers out there and count on the lint-types to help start the conflict.
If so, then please explain how we are immune from this type of government behavior ??
Lint…Are you off your med’s today ??
I am no fan of the military establishment as it currently exists and have railed more times than I can count on the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld criminals but your focus appears to be on the soldier instead of D/C , the Pentagon and the military hardware suppliers in this country…
The U.S. is number 5 world wide in domestic murders at 16,000 (2010).
Approx 40,000 die each year in car wrecks.
There are approx 6 MILLION auto accidents each year.
You don’t even want to know the number of garden variety assaults each year.
I’m more worried about my neighbor.
“…..off your meds today?”
I was thinking that his reappearance meant the Iranian Mullah’s Ministry of Propaganda was back from vacation.
That, or an unseen black hole was allowing a digital signal to arrive from Earth, from the intergalactic equivalent of BFE.
scdave,
“but your focus appears to be on the soldier instead of D/C , the Pentagon and the military hardware suppliers in this country…”
You are correct. Explain why my focus should be on anyone beside that guy with gun doing the killing, the raping, the pillaging, et al. If Peter tells Bubba to go to your house and kill your folks then why would you focus on Peter being the problem when Bubba starts killing your family?
What am I missing?
What am I missing?
Peter has the power to throw Bubba in jail and generally ruin his life for failing to follow orders. While you may have an immediate problem with Bubba, Peter is at the longer-term root of the problem. And who elected Peter to be Bubba’s boss and doesn’t really care how Peter does things as long as the job gets done? There’s your real problem.
If Bubba gets the idea that he can mass murder and get away with it by claiming, ” I was just doing my job and following orders.” then Bubba will never have any reason to not commit atrocities.
Your posts suggest that the US soldier should never suffer for the crimes he commits because he was “just doing his job”.
One day you may be this soldiers “job”. Perhaps your whole community will be a soldier’s “job”.
I understand. I’m just telling you, that’s not the root of the problem. Most soldiers (except the really stupid ones who don’t really understand what the words even mean) are aware that “just following orders” is no excuse. They are also aware that disobeying an illegal order will most likely mean the end of their career. If you and yours ever become their “job” you better hope they’re willing to give up their career. Or better yet you should work to elect people who won’t put them in that position.
Agreed. Attacking brave men and women for the policies of our leaders is absurd. The rules of engagement are so limited in both Iraq and Afghanistan, they many times it requires them to show restraint beyond what most people could endure. Example: takes special permission to fire on a mosque even when fire is coming from the mosque. Interestingly, no such restraint is being shown in Libya. Of course, as Time magazine has stated at least some of the rebels fought against our soldiers in Iraq. Foolish for them to expect the same restraint.
Americans are not authorized to be in a foreign countries that have mosques in the first place. Sure is easy for you to say that a population should not act to defend itself from US feds.
Do you recommend that people should resist their enemies? Should Iraqis not fight against the Americans for destroying their country and way of life and families lives?
Should those Americans at Ruby Ridge, Waco, American Indians and in the Southeastern states(1860’s) not have defended themselves against the feds?
Why not enlist yourself then?
link to article, by the way have we really thought this coming intervention through:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2057455-2,00.html
Seems like it would be best to let our enemies kill each other.
“Soldiers produce nothing and do 100’s of billions in damage to the USA and the globe.”
they could provide stability in energy prices…no way to know for sure…would have to pull every soldier from across the entire globe home.
i’m your huckleberry.
They could provide stability If we had a decent pres Bush and OHbahma are not up to par to do such a intelligent act.
We could have just made rings around the oil refinery’s and pipelines in Iraq and let Saddam and sunis sheites and everyone else just genocide each other….at least the oil would be safe… it would have saved thousands of Americans lives too….a nice benefit.
I suspect that to get to such a high figure, they count all the wages of soldiers, government employees, and state and local contractors paid from “stimulus” funds, while excluding the capital gains of CEOs, banksters and Wall Street traders.
And, as usual, count unemployment benefits as ‘welfare’, without mentioning that they always go up during recessions/depressions, and that much of them are paid by the employee and employer.
And they count social security and medicare as ‘welfare’, without noting that both are at least partially, and sometimes completely, paid for by the people receiving them.
They were included in the unemployment numbers until 1987.
Does this figure include all the US Congresscritters? Congresscritters produce nothing and do trillions in damage to the USA and the globe.
If you include also the rest of government workers and the FIRE guys and gals, how many are left?
True.
If Social Security is Middle-Class Welfare, then what is the mortgage interest deduction — earned income?
Social Security Is Middle-Class Welfare
It’s not a savings plan and many seniors don’t need it. Let’s admit it so we can avert a disaster.
by Robert J. Samuelson
March 06, 2011
…
Ah, the latest meme from the Kochtopus and its enablers: all government benefits are ‘welfare’. Except, of course, those that benefit the wealthy and large corporations, which are ‘necessary’.
The author gives us all sorts of rational, reasonable statistics to prove the hole Social Security is in, but he oddly forges to mention a significant one:
If we remove the income cap on Social Security taxes, we could pay full benefits to all promised them, at normal retirement age.
But the rich would have to pay the same rate as the rest of us. Apparently that’s too much sacrifice, too ‘unreasonable’, to occur.
Seems to me that the cap has been going up the whole time that I have paid into the system.
Time to quit inching it up in order to keep it aimed at the middle class, and remove it completely, so the wealthy pay the same rate as the lower and middle class already do.
Is that too much sacrifice to ask, from the one group that has done well (extremely well) in the last decade?
Because it sure seems like the simplest, most ‘reasonable’ thing to do.
Unless you up the maximum payout, you are means testing Social Security.
Yes, means testing. It’s “socialism,” but is there any other logical way?
“…all government benefits are ‘welfare’.”
Kindly stop the strawman BS and address what Samuelson wrote.
I posted below today an article by Krugman pointing out the deception employed by people making exactly the argument Samuelson is making.
Samuelson acts like the trust fund doesn’t exist when he talks about payments out exceeding payments in, but then he includes the gov bonds in the trust fund as a cost to the government.
You can’t count it both ways. As Krugman says ,”there’s no valid approach under which Social Security surpluses don’t count but Social Security deficits do.”
Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment insurance are not handouts. They are all separately funded by those that receive the benefits.
Did you read the Samuelson article I just posted?
“Let’s start with its $2.6 trillion trust fund. Doesn’t that prove that people’s payroll taxes were saved to pay for future benefits, disconnecting them from our larger budget problems? Well, no. Since the 1940s, Social Security has been a pay-as-you-go program. Most benefits are paid by payroll taxes on today’s workers; in 2010, those taxes covered 91 percent of benefits. The trust fund’s $2.6 trillion would provide only 3.5 years of benefits, which totaled $700 billion in 2010.”
‘Doesn’t that prove that people’s payroll taxes were saved to pay for future benefits, disconnecting them from our larger budget problems? Well, no.’
Don’t tell that to alpha sloth…
Perfect timing. My monthly SS “check” posts to our checking account today. Wifey gets hers next week.
To all those on this blog who are still working: Thank you very much.
Well said Bill! Without the coercive and brutal US regime you would not have young FICA people threatened into paying your light bill and rent. You are renting aren’t you?
People get so caught up in partisan talking points that they can no longer be reasoned with.
“I don’t trust my own party and I sure as hell am not going to trust yours.” - Should be the mantra of every American with a brain. To hell with corporate-owned/style “parties”.
Well of course at a very real level, the “trust fund” pays for nothing. It merely represents a call upon current tax revenues. Of course the reason that the drumbeat to eliminate or drasticly cut SS benefits has gotten so loud now, is that instead of regressive payroll taxes being [(put into the trust fund) =(spent on general government expenditures)] we have [(the bonds in the trust fund being redeemed )=(progressive income taxes being dedicated to pay SS benefits)] So rather than the implicit subsidy that those well off enough to have income above the payroll tax limit have gotten for the last ~25 years they’re looking at the shocking prospect that their taxes might have to be raised, possibly to levels that haven’t been seen since that nadir of the American Economy, the 60s.
But of course for almost any concievable scenario, a majority of SS payments ARE funded from contemporary payroll taxes.
“Don’t tell that to alpha sloth…”
Too late! The sloth is afoot, and hears all!
, to explain it:
But I’ll leave it to Krugman the Great
Paul Krugman
NYTimes
“So there are two ways to look at Social Security. You can view it as a stand alone program, in which case payroll tax revenues and the trust fund accumulated out of those revenues are at the center of the story; or you can view it as just part of the federal budget, in which case the relative size of retirement benefits and payroll tax receipts has no special significance — benefits are just one federal expenditure, payroll taxes just one source of federal revenue.
These views aren’t contradictory; which one you want to emphasize depends on what question you’re trying to answer. If you want to know when Social Security, per se, will have a crisis, requiring either benefit cuts or new funding, you want to take the standalone view. If you want to think about the broad direction of the federal budget, you want to just fold Social Security into the total.
But here’s what you can’t legitimately do: you can’t switch views in midstream. You can’t say that Social Security is just part of the federal budget, so the trust fund is meaningless — then say that because there’s no real trust fund, Social Security is in crisis when payroll receipts fall short of benefits. Either you adopt the integrated-budget view, in which payroll taxes and retirement benefits have nothing to do with each other, or you focus on dedicated financing, in which case the trust fund has to count too.
Or to put it a bit differently: there’s no valid approach under which Social Security surpluses don’t count but Social Security deficits do.”
Which is well put. And of course you don’t get to describe this as a “crisis.” It is a long term problem, because of the inexorable aging of the boomer cohort. But the fact that in 2009 we were putting a small (in percentage terms) ammount INTO the trust fund, and in 2011 we are pulling a small ammount OUT OF it isn’t any kind of real inflection point.
“Well, no. Since the 1940s, Social Security has been a pay-as-you-go program. Most benefits are paid by payroll taxes on today’s workers; in 2010, those taxes covered 91 percent of benefits. The trust fund’s $2.6 trillion would provide only 3.5 years of benefits, which totaled $700 billion in 2010.”
First of all, let’s point out that ” The trust fund’s $2.6 trillion would provide only 3.5 years of benefits,” is a deliberately misleading piece of information. The trust fund will never be required to pay _all_ the benefits for a given year, there will always be a large portion being paid for by current workers.
Next up, let’s examine his overall point- that SS is a pay-as-you-go program, not some sort of ’savings account’. OK, are you ready for where that leads us, Sammy?
When it’s pointed out that, by simply removing the income cap on wages subject to SS taxes, we could afford to pay all promised benefits for the foreseeable future, people respond by saying ‘that’s not fair- the rich will pay more in than they’ll get back on average’. Well, so what? It’s _not_ a savings account, as has been pointed out. It’s a program in need of some more funding to shore it up, and the rich can easily afford to provide that funding, by simply paying the same rate of SS taxes as the rest of us already do.
‘Trust fund’ implies that there is money just sitting there. But, as I heard it explained on Planet Money, the money was actually taken and spent, and replaced with government IOUs, aka bonds. So there isn’t actually any money in the SS trust, just the promise to pay. That’s not like a normal trust fund.
“Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment insurance are not handouts.”
These are ponzi scams.
Social Security and Medicare for sure. Unemployment insurance was designed to collect enough in premium to pay for normal spells of unemployment. SS and Medicare require a birth rate that cannot be sustained in modern society.
Gen Y and X outnumber boomers.
You just listed two generations…
2 WORKING AGE generations.
Too bad there aren’t any jobs for those working age generations.
“Too bad there aren’t any jobs for those working age generations.”
So are we better off to have boomers keep working till they drop or pay their SS and Medicare so they will retire and let the younguns have a turn in the workforce.
This boomer is nervous enough about having the SS/Medicare rug pulled out from under me that I intend to work until I drop.
“Government payouts—including Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance—make up more than a third of total wages and salaries of the U.S. population”
How is that even possible when the payroll tax is only 15% of wages? Are unemployment insurance premiums bigger than the payroll tax?
minor quibble, Payroll tax is 14%. 7.5 + 7.5 /107.5. = ~13.95 . Because when you count the employer contribution as a part of the payroll tax (which you certainly should IMHO) you also have to count it as part of the income being taxed.
Good point. The employer’s match doesn’t show up in W-2s, but it’s part of the “compensation package”
“How is that even possible when the payroll tax is only 15% of wages?”
Bernie Madoff: “It’s a proprietary strategy. I can’t go into it in great detail.”
Just think how high that % will be when we are all working as slaves for the overlord.
MyddeltonParker Builders LLC files for Chapter 7
~Tallahassee Democrat
A Florida-area construction company, MyddeltonParker Builders LLC, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy after the company has failed to pay its debt. The company is renowned for appearing on the television show, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”
MyddeltonParker, run by Jake Myddelton and John Parker, has hit hard times that the company blames on the economy, though those who are left with incomplete construction projects blame the company itself.
“The economy had nothing to do with taking money from one person and not paying the people it belonged to,” said Ben Kirbo, a plastic surgeon whose house is not finished because of the bankruptcy filing, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. “From an ethical standpoint, they are completely despicable. They knew what they were doing.”
Parker reported $696,560 in assets and almost $4.4 million in liabilities. Myddelton reported $981,671 in assets and $4.6 million in liabilities, the court papers said, according to the news source.
said Ben Kirbo, a plastic surgeon whose
househumble cottage is not finished because of the bankruptcy filing,PJ Finance Company files for bankruptcy
By Eric Sanderson~ Bankruptcyhome.com
PJ Finance Company, the owner of 32 apartment complexes in Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Arizona and Florida, has filed for Chapter 11 protection, after it came to light that the company owes more than $475 million to creditors.
Currently, 1,700 of the company’s 9,500 apartments are not able to be rented because of a lack of money to maintain their facilities. PJ Finance is looking for investors resources in order to pay off its debt, but a lack of bank help has forced the company into Chapter 11.
A $42 million influx of cash from Gaia Real Estate Investments, LLC is on the table, but because of the lack of aid from banks, the financial support has been put on hold.
There is also an additional outstanding debt of around $4.4 million in addition to the $475 million owed.
The company hopes to use the bankruptcy filing to get cash and investment offers to fund continued operations. Six of PJ Finance’s affiliates are also involved in the Chapter 11 filing.
How the HELL do creditors let you get $475 MILLION in debt?
What does that equal? About 20,000 FBs (@200K), right?
The state wants the money, but it’s for our own protection…
South Carolina Considers Alternate Penalties for Drivers Caught Going Slightly Above Speed Limit | FoxNews.com
South Carolina is considering a bill that would allow police to slap $150 tickets on motorists caught driving less than 10 mph over the limit –10 times the current minimum — but let them skip reporting the tickets to shield low-speed offenders from higher insurance premiums.
According to the bipartisan legislation, windfall revenues would be split between the state and the towns or cities that issue tickets.
It’s not clear how much money the proposal, which was introduced last month and is now under review in a legislative committee, would raise. South Carolina faces a $800 million-plus budget shortfall.
But state Rep. Todd Rutherford, a Democratic co-sponsor of the bill, told FoxNews.com that the legislation isn’t aimed at closing the deficit. While the local ticketing process would help divert revenues from insurance companies to the cash-strapped state, Rutherford said it’s directed at providing additional protections for motorists.
SC police in many smaller towns are already playing the income generating game , too often the girlie games too . Instruct your wife or girlfriends to always go to a well lighted area before pulling over for a blue light . Someone needs to invent or fix a simple and reliable recording device , not for the cops , but for the hapless motorists in many cases.
Someone needs to invent or fix a simple and reliable recording device , not for the cops , but for the hapless motorists in many cases.
There already is one; its called the cell phone
Of course if you record them in MD, they’ll charge you with wiretapping. http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100927/16352111185/judge-tosses-out-wiretapping-charges-against-motorcyclist-who-filmed-cop-with-helmet-cam.shtml
Because the truth hurts and cameras do not lie.
I just watched it. The biker was way in the wrong, but it’s lame the cops tried to squelch the video. They should have turned it around on the biker. “He muted the audio so you can’t hear the sirens,” etc.
Given the massive number of times that cops lie about encounters with the proles why would you even suggest that a cop should not be recorded?
Are you one of those that persists in the idea that cops are good guys?
Please do a better job informing yourself by going to youtube and inputting police brutality. Then go to the net and input police brutality.
Cops are generally criminals and bad apples these days it is safe to say.
“Cops are generally criminals and bad apples these days it is safe to say.”
No Lint, its not safe to say that.
Being a cop is just a decent public sector job with benefits.
Most of the problem cops are the young ones who watch too much tee-vee and are trying to prove themselves.
The older ones, if not under pressure to generate revenue, generally just wanna drive around all day and would be happy if they rarely left the squad car cept to get some donuts…
The older a cop is, the better they perform their job.
my brother is an FBI agent. he is doing white collar crime now but was on a violent crimes task force for years.
he would arrest violent criminals at their workplace…getting their mail at the post office and even had a fake TV delivery and slapped the cuffs on the guy when he was holding the heavy TV.
he was called a pussy once by another agent who always wanted to kick down doors at 2:00 in the morning. he told that asshole that the asshole’s wife and and kids are lucky that he works for a pussy.
Older cops prefer plain crullers to glazed ten to one.
my brother is an FBI agent. he is doing white collar crime now but was on a violent crimes task force for years.
he would arrest violent criminals at their workplace…getting their mail at the post office and even had a fake TV delivery and slapped the cuffs on the guy when he was holding the heavy TV.
he was called a pussy once by another agent who always wanted to kick down doors at 2:00 in the morning. he told that asshole that the asshole’s wife and and kids are lucky that he works for a pussy.
Sounds like the law enforcement people I know.
Most of them are very low key people. To the point where, unless they told you, you’d have no idea what they did for a living.
My mom was a police officer. Retired as a Sargent. Took a huge toll on health. Injured during fights, etc. Also I think she pretty much saw the worst in society all the time. Rotating shifts, etc. Ain’t exactly living it up in retirement, either.
Well, it looks like we now have an anarchist posting on the blog. Welcome, lint! Care to tell us the circumstances of your last arrest?
Bill,
Care to state for the board your love of government?
You can do it! Say, “I am pro-government and believe that adults require a brutal and corrupt nanny police state.”
Without a brutal regime for you to worship you might be free and we cannot have that can we?
Face it Bill, Not everyone is OK with the chains and shackles that you beloved state has put upon them.
Lint,
It’s no mystery that the (pseudo)conservatives prefer an authoritarian, chain’em up, kick’em down culture……. until it’s their ______(fill in the blank with ‘friend’, ‘family’,) taking the beating. Only then do they have an epiphany and begin *thinking*.
“South Carolina is considering a bill that would allow police to slap $150 tickets on motorists caught driving less than 10 mph over the limit –10 times the current minimum — but let them skip reporting the tickets to shield low-speed offenders from higher insurance premiums.”
Many of the photo speed trap tickets work like this since they often can’t prove who was behind the wheel. I got one in a school zone during the summer break; didn’t matter. Rumor has it that this one location brought in over $20k daily.
The whole ticket writing game is just a means of generating revenue.
Can’t collect fines if everyone has their licenses suspended, and everyone walks or takes the bus. So to keep the income flowing, they give themselves carte blance to write a bazillion tickets, while keeping the host alive.
Douglas County, Kansas is Exhibit “A” for a local government trying to increase revenue by writing tickets. Put a bag of microwave popcorn on your dash, and that sumbitch will be popped by the time you get out of the county.
Little known fact: most states receive federal highway money. States that do are also obligated to follow federal guidelines of traffic enforcement, one of which states that vehicles moving together in a safe manner cannot be ticketed if they are within a reasonable speed of the posted limit.
In other words, if the sign says 40, but the traffic ALWAYS moves at 50, you can beat the ticket. And you cannot be singled out.
Most states have a “as the traffic flows” rule. This is why.
S. Carolina could lose their federal money over this.
That is very interesting. It makes sense. That is why it is also shocking. Everybody knows that doing 65 when everybody else is doing 85 can be very dangerous.
Just be sure to check if there are any exceptions in your state and whether they are legal exceptions or not and if not, how often have they been successfully challenged.
Cheerful news this morning:
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/03/09/ny-tv-exec-faces-sentencing-for-beheading-wife/
I remember that story. May he rot in hell.
From yesterday:
——-
ahansen: 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.
Polly: …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.
——-
Yep, that happens. Except for those evil federal workers, employees have NO choice in the matter. HR just sends a letter that X company will raise prices 40%, therefore they are switching to Y company who’s only raising prices 10%. Companies play musical prices such that after a few switches, suddenly Company X is the best again. So much for “keeping your doctor.”
Allena, it’s true that prevention is cheaper, but why would an insurance company bother to pay for prevention OR treatment? By the time any lalady becomes a real issue, the sick person is some other insurance company’s problem.
It’s not much different from housing lenders, is it. Why prevent an FB from taking on a risky oversize loan? Collect the fee on the loan now. By the time the FB gets “sick” and doesn’t pay, he’s the problem of some other lender. And when FB “dies” and forecloses. he’s the problem of government Fannie/Freddie. Just like Medicare.
And then they complain that government is “too big.” Well sure. If the government would only shed themselves of taking care of those pesky Great Unwashed, there would be plenty of corporate tax cuts to go around.
“federal workers, employees have NO choice”
It is no different working for a private company.
I think that is what oxide meant, that if you work in the private sector your employer will switch insurance plans on you every year, whereas in the public sector there is more stability.
“HR just sends a letter that X company will raise prices 40%, therefore they are switching to Y company who’s only raising prices 10%.”
That’s pretty much what happened to us this year.
IMHO that’s mostly a function of size. When I worked for Sovran bank (Which was later assimilated by BoA) the choices for health care were similar and comporable to those available to me when I became a guvvie. Certainly I kept the same HMO that I had when I became a guvvie. To some extant:
small to medium employer = no health coverage
large employer = Whatever single plan the employer offers
really big employer = Choice of plans.*
* unless the employer has a gold plated benefits package, in which case we’re back to a single albiet all or nearly all paid plan.
Buy, Sell or Hold?
Quantitative Easing and the Iron Law of Equilibrium by John Hussman
Inquiring minds might want to take a close look:
http://www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc110307.htm
retail investor is piling back in, time to get out?
http://www.cnbc.com/id/41983415
Uh-oh! Will notify offspring it’s time to get out.
Thanks for the heads-up.
“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.”
Investors are like choir boys…they keep coming back for more.
When a sheep’s fur grows back they get sheared once again.
No, haven’t you heard? Wall St. exists to make everyone rich, everyone’s a winner. Those guys learned their lesson in 2008, it’s different this time. This time they really care. Oooops they made a mistake - that’s all!
Wall street sounds like a ponzi scheme. Just like guvment pensions, SS and Madoff.
you mean…it’s not bush and cheney’s rich oil buddies?
Its the vampire squid. Bush’s buds gouge us at the pump
Oil co’s are but one tentacle of the squid. Sooner or later you will see the beak.
It’s all gonna end in tears.
It’s ending in tears for a lot of people who thought the boom would last forever. The 60 Minutes episode of last Sunday gave to us a hint of how the bust is taking its toll.
The boom led to dislocations of capital. Money (and jobs) went into areas they normally wouldn’t go into. Now the bust has come along and is redirecting that dislocated capital (and those dislocated jobs).
People still going bust since at least 1982:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLWoiC-3b60
“It’s all gonna end in tears.”
is that before or after the gunfire?
“It’s all gonna end in tears.”
Wrong!
It’s all going to end in charter schools with Go-Kart tracks! See, that’s not so bad.
Talked with a buddy who just got married in CA.
The new wife has a condo. Bought in 2005 for $230,000. Today it is worth $70,000. Maybe.
They are renting a place now. They both have good jobs and can make the payments (plus the condo is currently rented).
At least they are not talking about buying another house…
Realtors Are Criminals.
Please post only things not commonly known by everyone. It’s like saying “water is wet”. We all know that already.
Yeah, well some of ‘em are pretty good at covering up their tattoo’s…
+1 LOL, Hwy!
They need a little TLC
‘Underwater’ home loans are Palm Beach County’s new norm
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 10:10 p.m. Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Nearly half of Palm Beach County homeowners with mortgages owe more on their loans than their homes are worth or are nearing negative equity, a sobering marker of an economy still grappling with distressed property sales and plunging prices.
According to a report released Tuesday by Santa Ana, Calif.-based CoreLogic, 44.3 percent of county homeowners in the fourth quarter of 2010 were underwater, or upside down, meaning their home’s value is less than their loan balance. Another 3.9 percent had less than 5 percent equity in their homes.
Statewide, 46.4 percent of homeowners were underwater.
That kind of drop also brings down overall property values, said Jack McCabe of Deerfield Beach-based McCabe Consulting, who isn’t predicting a real estate turnaround for another year to 18 months.
“I wish I had better news,” McCabe said. “I think we’ll see more homes going underwater.”
5 COMMENTS
why won’t the banks just let people who bought in the peak years just overlook the ding on the credit and let them buy if they can prove income
mike
10:23 PM, 3/8/2011
Because of Moral Hazard, that banks got away with. Anyway, not everyone is entitled to a “break” if they re-financed their house and took out $100k to party like a rock star for a few years and now can’t pay the debt.
Where are all the people going that are loosing their homes? are people renting to people with bad credit and foreclosure? There are a ton of people not paying their mortgage, hoa, taxes, insurance. Sooner or later they will have to pay for a roof over their heads.
lifes a beach
11:18 PM, 3/8/2011
I have had several cars in my lifetime. All have lost value the moment driven off the lot, yet I didn’t return the car, or look to get out of it when I was “upside down” on same. A home is not an investment unless it is. It’s a place to live.
My mortgage is very possibly “upside down”… but I’d be paying the same in rent for a comparable home in a comparable neighborhood… only I wouldn’t get the nice tax breaks with Uncle Same… so what’s my incentive to leave?
UpsideUp
7:32 AM, 3/9/2011
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/real-estate/underwater-home-loans-are-palm-beach-countys-new-1307760.html - -
“why won’t the banks just let people who bought in the peak years just overlook the ding on the credit and let them buy if they can prove income”
Huh?
I guess he’s taking it as a given that they’ve already walked away or been foreclosed upon.
It’s a Florida thing.
I had already posted a later version of this story. But I found this and I liked the headline better.
Nearly 50 percent of Palm Beach County mortgages underwater or dog paddling like mad
by Kim Miller
That makes Florida third in the nation for underwater mortgages following No. 1 Nevada, which has 65 percent of homes near or already underwater, and second place Arizona with 51 percent.
Today’s report did not include 2010 data, but we’ve requested it.
But maybe more important than where we were last year, is where we’re headed. And it’s not looking good.
41 Responses to “Nearly 50 percent of Palm Beach County mortgages underwater or dog paddling like mad”
1. tim Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 11:58 am
According to Realtors(i mean Car salesman)..we are at the bottom…Keep drinking the Kool Aid…a historic Bubble and RE Depression does not end yet…yrs to go of selling/foreclosing/modifying prices down on 50% of underwater mortgages..Thousands locally in 2 + yrs of delinquency..how do you think this will end….not well…excpet with those with CASH..waiting for it to filter out..and watching the DEADBEATS go down..one by one…
3. Mr. Bojangles Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 12:22 pm
I am at $95k on a $267k loan taken out in 2007.
7. observing the passing parade Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 12:49 pm
If you combine this set of statistics, with the unemployment rate of 12% + in PBC……and the real honest rate more like 20%…..with the factoid that a third of PBC residents are Senior Citizens who are retired and not working…..and likely have no mortgages so they are not in this game……and combine all of that with the factoid that a disproportionate number of PBC workers earned their income from real estate……brokers, agents, lawyers, appriasers, construction trades, building materials, furniture…..
WE ARE IN DEEP DEEP DEEP DOO-DOO HERE!!!!!
http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/realtime/2011/03/08/nearly-50-percent-of-palm-beach-county-mortgages-underwater-or-dog-paddling-like-mad/ - -
“…Senior Citizens who are retired and not working…..and likely have no mortgages …”
The author shouldn’t be so sure. My sample survey of our county’s online property records show roughly half of the owners in this mostly-senior community have mortgages.
The Not-A-Depression-Recession.
Idaho passes Republican bill to curb union rights
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Idaho state legislature approved a bill on Tuesday to strip public school teachers of many of their collective bargaining rights while protesters in six states rallied against Republican efforts to curb union power.
The Idaho bill, which excludes issues like class size and workloads from negotiations for the state’s 12,000 unionized teachers, was given final approval by the Republican-led House and is expected to be signed by Republican Governor Butch Otter.
The bill also eliminates teacher tenure, limits the duration of teacher labor contracts to one year and removes seniority as a factor in determining the order of layoffs.
Idaho is one of several U.S. states to take up Republican plans for sweeping restrictions on public sector unions in what has become a growing national debate over labor union power.
Republicans say the proposals are needed to rescue recession-battered budgets from deficits, but Democrats and union supporters say they are an attack on organized labor that could linger as an issue into the 2012 presidential elections.
Is there a national Republitard plot underway to strip unions of collective bargaining rights, or is it pure coincidence the same sort of political action is underway in so many different places?
sure its a plot by us retards.
you guys are offensive with your name calling.
its not coincidence, not a plot, its the result of an election as well as the fact that govt workers should not have been unionized, the taxpayer has not place at the collective bargaining table, and the resulting compensation for life is way out of proportion.
“…sure its a plot by us retards.”
You said it, I didn’t.
Charlie, don’t try reasoning with the Prof. He has lost all credibility on this issue. The Democrats have stolen elections for decades on the backs of the public unions. There is now shock that Republicans would actually want to undo some of the incredible power the unions have handed the Democrats.
The Professor loves to use the argument that so many little kids use to justify their wrongdoing. He merely writes, “well, what about Wall Street?” to defend any actions of the public unions.
There are many fans of big government on the HBB. It is funny that they won’t even admit that the public unions have helped to grow the size of the government to its current monstrous size.
thanks for the insight
“There are many fans of big government on the HBB.”
This is where you are confused. Big government and education are two separate issues. You think they are one.
Oh my gosh, thanks for setting me straight. Thank you.
No problem, anything else I can help you with?
There are many fans of big government
on the HBBin Corpoorate Inc. AmericaIt is funny that they won’t even admit that the
public unionsCorpoorations of Private Military Devices Inc. have helped to grow the size of the government to its current monstrous size.Ping-Pong / Jib-Jab / Teeter-Totter
BWAHAHAHicHAHAHicHAHAHAHAHicHAHAHic* (DennisN™)
“stolen elections……on the backs of public unions…”
Can’t have that. But elections being stolen by Corporations is okay, I guess.
Everybody please raise your hand that feels like corporations should be able to buy elections?
Here is another example of the childish, “but they do it” defense.
There is nothing childish about it. It is deadly serious.
Corporations have a very LONG track record of harming people both physically and financially every change they get.
And they have just been given even more right to do so.
Can you tell me the last time a union sold toxic CDOs? Put poison in your food?
Ye… ah.
defense
http://memegenerator.net/Foghorn-Leghorn/ImageMacro/887752/Foghorn-Leghorn-boy-i-say-boy-I-think-yer-on-to-something.jpg
I wonder how many people will decide that teaching is a bad career decision in this country and do something else instead? I had considered it as a retirement career, but no longer, at least in the public schools.
Teaching is a strenuous, challenging occupation with a workday that does not end when the students leave for the day. And teachers are being unfairly vilified by Republicans who are using them as political pawns.
Who would want to enter a field with all of those negatives?
I guess it doesn’t matter to those who intend to remain childless. Why should you pay to educate other people’s kids?
Can you tell me the last time a union sold toxic CDOs? Put poison in your food?
Aren’t Fannie and Freddie government agencies?
What about the many stories of police corruption?
How about the endless tales of public employees being bought off by developers, corporations, etc.?
I just never realized that every public employee was an angel. Silly me. The stupidity on here is just out of hand. And then you have Muggy trying to state that teachers, included in The Department of Education, are not part of big government. And this guy wants to teach kids.
The leftist echo chamber in here just keeps getting worse.
I’m with you on police corruption.
As for government corruption, that’s mostly at the upper management/politician level. They usually aren’t union.
Fannie and Freddie? Since when are board room executives union anything?
Teaching is a strenuous, challenging occupation with a workday that does not end when the students leave for the day. And teachers are being unfairly vilified by Republicans who are using them as political pawns.
Speaking as the offspring of a public school teacher, I heartily agree with the above.
Oh, I should add that while my mom taught school, she was a registered Republican. She no longer is. All the teacher-bashing was a big part of the reason why she left the GOP.
“Muggy trying to state that teachers, included in The Department of Education”
You don’t understand what you are commenting about in this regard. It would be more productive for all of us if you weren’t deliberately misleading.
NYCityBoy, maybe you see so many leftists because you are on the far right?
I guess you are right, I am too stupid to agree with you.
I’m a teacher. Chose to teach in a Title I (poor) very low-performing district. I went to Community College while I worked my way through school. Did undergrad work at Oxford University and got my BA and MA (literature, not Education) from UC. I’m 32.
The vast majority of my colleagues “phone it in” every day, but most bring home $80K+ a year, not including benefits. The parking lot is 95% empty by 3:30 (that’s right folks, we work 185 days, 8 hours a day and get paid upwards of $80K). And I call BS on anyone who says they’re spending hours and hours at home grading papers/planning lessons. It almost NEVER happens unless grades are due/they’re being observed the next day (which only happens once every 2 years for most tenured teachers. BTW, the English Department at my school assigns 4 essays for the WHOLE YEAR. The other departments: NONE (except for the 5 AP classes we offer).
Despite job offers in Irvine, Fullerton, and our local High School of the Arts, I chose my school BECAUSE I’m hispanic and I wanted to help the kids who I see as victims of a totally effed educational system. (Sorry Muggy, but that’s EXACTLY what it is: a huge, bloated, top-heavy system that is interested only in its own growth — the kids are just there to make ADA.) And because the District pays really well — the worst districts often have to when they’re competing with places like Irvine, Newport, and Fullerton for teachers.
I’m Here to crash the teachers-are-Jesus-y crap permeating this blog. I’m here to CRASH the system.
I want tenure gone. I want the Union GONE. I want pensions gone. (I won’t lie — I’d like to keep my health benefits. Still, I understand how infuriating it is to those in the private sector that i — and the CUSTODIAN who empties the trash in my room and vacuums once a week b/c his workload is so heavy — only I know this is BS because I used to be involved in an extracurricular activity that meant I worked 16 hour days at least 30 days a year and I could always find the custodians watching TV in a classroom from about 7-10 pm, that is, if they stayed for their entire shift — get a gold-plated insurance plan for myself and al my dependents for FREE.)
Why do I want all this gone? Because I want the DROSS (those counting time in these jobs until they can collect 80% of their final salary for the REST OF THEIR LIVES) and thereby EFFING the kids over OUT OF THIS PROFESSION. I want to get paid what I’m worth. I want the teachers who work their BUTTS off to get paid like lawyers and doctors and the ones that don’t to go work retail.
I am FURIOUS because all I can see is that we are sacrificing our children for the sake of the adults, and as Jefferson hinted, throwing away our liberty in the process.
It sure appears to be coordinated, same as Republican governors returning high speed rail funds, all at the same time. None of this is happening randomly. It is clearly all coordinated.
Any chance the handing out of generous contracts to public unions, year after year, was coordinated amongst the Democrats?
I checked up on those “generous” contracts that Wisconsin teachers get. What I found:
Starting pay is 25K
Average pay is 45K
Doesn’t sound all that “generous” to me.
Oh, god, this again. Can anybody please stop acting like the only members of the public unions are teachers? This is not just about Wisconsin or teachers. And what about the benefits of those teachers?
Last week I posted a New Jersey kindergarten teacher that is making $79,000 per year. That is not unique here.
And all you posted is average pay. Does that include coaches, janitors, assistants, etc.? I have heard that if a teacher coaches it is treated as two positions. If they make $70,000 as a teacher and $5,000 as a coach then that creates an average salary of $37,500. Statistics lie. Tax bills don’t.
Any chance the handing out of generous contracts to public unions, year after year, was coordinated amongst the Democrats?
No. Pay at local and state levels tends to rise and fall with the economy, regardless of which party is in power at the time. For example, San Diego city and county government has been controlled by Republicans for decades. The supposedly generous pay of city and county workers can’t be pinned on Democrats, whether coordinated or not.
The supposedly generous pay of city and county workers can’t be pinned on Democrats, whether coordinated or not.
but, but, but…what about sage-Shrub Texas?:
Texas Governor “Penny-pincher” Perry: “Ye-Haw! Texas! Yippie-K-Aye!”
The New Twit “TruePurity™” repubicans ride again!
“…generous contracts to public unions…”
That’s pure BS. If you think they are paid too much, why not join there ranks and stop wasting so much of your time b!tch!ng here.
“Oh, god, this again. Can anybody please stop acting like the only members of the public unions are teachers?”
But they are the ones being targetted in Wisconsin, while cops and firefighters are getting a pass.
FWIW, the media has done a gret job of dmonizing the Wisonsin teachers. Spoke with my brother yesterday. He had bought into the whole “they have genrous contracts” BS, until I told him the actual numbers.
His reaction?
“That’s all they get?”
He was under the impression that they were getting near 6 figure salaries. I think that a lot of people believe thay are paid princely salaries.
Coaches in Dallas can make 100k+…but you have to be able to win.
“That’s pure BS. If you think they are paid too much, why not join there ranks and stop wasting so much of your time b!tch!ng here.”
You have really lost your mind, Professor. Your argument is so stupid it is comical.
You bitch about people getting loan modifications. You bitch about loan fraud. You bitch endlessly about Wall Street. You bitch about people spending too much on houses. And here you say, over and over, “if you don’t like it just join them”.
Well, why don’t you just join Megabank, or the fraudsters, if you have such a problem with them? By your logic, or lack thereof, you either need to join one of those groups or shut the f–k up.
“…or shut the f–k up.”
And likewise, by your logic, you should take a government job, since they are unfairly compensated in excess of their private sector counterpart. One little caveat: You might first have to take a few years out of your life to earn a PhD, in order to get one of those jobs that unfairly pays too much to the government slug. But trust me — that is a piece of cake.
What part of “NYC is NOT the majority of Americans” do you not get?
And when you have to pay for the excesses of these unions don’t cry to me. And you will pay. Keep thinking you are separated from it.
And likewise, by your logic, you should take a government job, since they are unfairly compensated in excess of their private sector counterpart.
What the heck are you talking about? You are the one with the “join them if you don’t like it” mentality. Don’t project that on to me.
Why don’t you just cut and paste some articles. That will make you feel better.
NEWSMAKER-Wisconsin governor’s policies polarize state
Wed Mar 9, 2011 10:50pm EST
* Polarizing public opinion
* ‘Calmest guy in the building’
By James B. Kelleher
MADISON, Wis., March 9 (Reuters) - When Scott Walker, Wisconsin’s new Republican governor, kicked off his campaign for the job nearly two years ago, he vowed to take the state, with its long progressive history, in “a new direction.”
Eight weeks into his term, Walker has definitely kept his promise — although negative opinion polls and mass protests suggest many people do not like where he is headed.
Critics, especially in the labor movement, fear Walker’s policies are taking Wisconsin, whose official motto is “Forward” — backward.
The most controversial of the policies is a plan to strip teachers, nurses, highway workers and other public employees of most of their collective bargaining rights.
The proposal prompted large protest demonstrations in the state capital and is being watched closely by Americans as a test of labor rights.
On Wednesday night, Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate side-stepped a boycott by opposition Democrats and approved the curbs on union powers.
The bill now goes back to the state Assembly, where the Republican majority is expected to pass it quickly and send it to Walker for his signature.
In a state that produced two of America’s most famous crusading Republicans — Robert La Follette and Joseph McCarthy — Walker has polarized public opinion.
…
Govt workers are heroes. Heroes deserve whatever they want A million, billion, trillion? each. Get to work and agree to more taxes, fees and fines. Darn lazy private sector consumers!!!
My wife and I are moving out of San Diego, and the city can take a hike as far as we are concerned. The corruption and rife in our government is atrocious!!! Pensions in the hundreds of thousands a year for life are commonplace here and the business tax environment is shark like. And NO I would not work at the city for a million dollars!!!
> all at the same time.
Yep, immediately following elections. What a coincidence.
Most legislative initiatives is copycat stuff, whether union busting, anti-bullying, Jessica’s laws, etc. They pass this stuff around by email or at seminars or governors conventions. There are very few original ideas out there.
Where have you been for the last 30 years, PB?
This has been their number one agenda since Reagan.
It’s working. The rich have turned the clock back on America’s middle class to 1500 feudal society serfdom.
wonder why the democrats didn’t leave the state?
Depends what the quorum rules are.
It’s Idaho, there aren’t any.
Some good data points:
http://images.usatoday.com/news/graphics/2010/2010-08-10-fedpay/fedpay.jpg
Federal avg salary $81,258 + benefits $41,791 = $123,049
Private avg salary $50,462 + benefits $10,589 = $61,051
——————————
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-03-04-federal-pay_N.htm
Federal workers earning double their private counterparts
Sounds like you ought to consider finding yourself a federal government job.
Pretty sure the point was that it isn’t sustainable Professor.
Point taken, though I am skeptical the comparison is valid, especially if based on the current economic situation. Generally speaking, government employees make less during booms and more during recessions compared to private sector workers in comparable occupation. Perhaps this is obvious, but I have to dumb down my points in case Republicrats are reading them.
Sounds like you ought to consider finding yourself a federal government job.
Sounds like you should try rebuilding some of your credibility.
Good for BofA and the big banks for getting what they can from the government. As long as they can get it they should make sure they grab with both hands. I am using Professor Bear logic now. It is painful.
I’m with ya’. I hope Goldman gets to rule the whole universe. They are the best at conquering societies and they deserve to win whatever they can get their hands on. I am a complete follower and always make sure I am rooting for the winning team. Go Goldman!!!
Not only that, but Goldman is good because it is a private firm; their workers are far above parasitic government employees in every sociological metric.
Goldman private? Hah, that’s funny. Well, technically I guess the profits are.
I want to start collecting those Goldman action figures. The senate collection has 100 pieces. That’s a lot of big Macs!
“Federal workers earning double their private counterparts”
Totally bogus. It doesn’t compare like jobs, qualifications, experience. etc. It’s just another right wing effort to drive down wages and benefits of working people.
You are right. There is absolutely nothing to be questioned in the public union system. Anybody that questions the system must hate the working man. I love your borrowing of George Bush’s “you’re either for us or a’gin us” mentality. It is really cool.
“It doesn’t compare like jobs, qualifications, experience. etc.”
A good point. The fed gov’t doesn’t run low paying retail and fast food joints.
Whether or not they can continue to afford paying those wages is another matter. The Feds of course can run deficits, while state and munis can’t.
“The fed gov’t doesn’t run low paying retail and fast food joints.”
That’s not entirely true. They may have less of them, but they do have nonsense, low paying jobs. Look at starting TSA agents. You couldn’t pay me enough to violate the traveling public’s rights.
The TSA guys still get about twice minumum wage, unlike the boyz n girlz who work in fast food or retail.
“You couldn’t pay me enough to violate the traveling public’s rights.”
Same here. That said, for a LOT of Americans. the $16/hr that TSA pays is a lot better than their menial at Burger King or Target.
But the point does stand, most gov’t workers are at least semiskilled. At least that’s what I ahev seen when I peruse the jobs listed at the federal gov’ts job website.
I wonder if they get 10% off of rubber gloves at the TSA…At Target you get 10% off everything.
Lots of government jobs are low skill data entry positions. You only need to be able to type and refrain from throwing yourself out the window out of sheer boredom. Not sure what those jobs pay, but they are definitely low skill.
A good point. The fed gov’t doesn’t run low paying retail and fast food joints.
You ever watch a unionized government worker at the post office or DMV?
Even Burger King puts them to shame with motivation and efficiency…
“You ever watch a unionized government worker at the post office or DMV?”
Maybe it’s where I live, but I get pretty decent service at the Post Office and DMV, and there have been times I have had the pleasure of standing in line in slow moving lines at fast food joints.
Post office maybe, but DMV? You’ve got to be kidding me.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
I’ve lived in California and remember well what a pain in the butt the DMV is over there. Our local one here in the Centennial state isn’t bad at all. Probably because you can do most of the transactions online or via the mail. Took the boy in last year for his learner’s permit. We were out of there, with the actual permit (not the temp paper) in about 15 minutes. Same experience with the driving test: you call in an make an appointment and show up at the appointed time. It was a breeze.
Last year we I challenged our home assessment. The county had a web page to do that. They promised an answer within two months and it arrived on time with alowered assessment.
Our DMV is highly efficient and courteous. The only thing that slows the process down are the unprepared idiots in line.
Back in the 1990’s there seemed to be a “sea change” in the way DMV offices operated. Pennsylvania, Maryland and South Carolina visits since then have been pleasant overall. Florida was the exception. The DMV office in Sarasota was located down a dirt road (in the city limits!) and when we parked to go inside I kept looking around for film crews and cameras. Except for the palmettos, it was like we were on the set of “The Dukes of Hazzard.” And the staff treated the customers as annoyances.
Just did a change of address at the CA DMV online. Pretty painless…
We’ll see what happens when I try to renew the license itself.
$50k isn’t enough salary to buy $400k condoze or $800k houses. Wouldn’t try it with $81k either.
Again doesn’t account for education level
Take Chemists - Many more PHD’s in Federal ranks. Plenty of chemists graduate w a bachlors and work for private labs doing mundane testing. No research.
Take surgeons- The state that they get paid the same is pure BS. My brother is a surgeon and has worked for the airforce and VA and private. His salary was >2x higher in private practice.
Accountants - Yes let’s compare people working on the national budgets to the guys at H and R Block?
As suggested in the USA article when education and job is factored in public don’t make more than private. This is particularly true at higher end jobs.
Let’s compare presidential pay to CEO pay.
Let’s compare Senate and Congress w Board pay given responsibilities.
Let’s compare head of SEC vs Hedge Fund Manager.
Let’s compare head of health and human services or VA to head of insurance company.
The higher up you rise in gov the less you make compared to private industry. The more education you have the less you make relative to private industry.
The higher up you rise in gov the less you make compared to private industry.
Yes, but that just gets them closer to the “exit&slide” that leads straight to: The MegaCorpooration Inc. employee badge brigade!
From the same article:
Overall, federal workers earned an average salary of $67,691 in 2008 for occupations that exist both in government and the private sector, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The average pay for the same mix of jobs in the private sector was $60,046 in 2008, the most recent data available.
Someone has their numbers mixed up. It looks like bennies were counted twice.
As I’ve said, it’s not that federal government workers are overpaid, but that private workers are underpaid and have been steadily losing ground for the last 30 years.
You really have an interesting mind.
What I have, is decades of experience. From rich to poor and inbetween. Coast to coast. North and south.
You should get out more often. Take a vacation! See the country. (i mean this with sincerity and no insult)
Likewise. With every retort you make you demonstrate your inablility to support your mantra.
Why the contempt for the average peon? Are you really that destitute that you think the average wage earner has it so much better than you?
Silver.
Holding at around $36 for three days now.
Bolting to $40 or $30?
Got my $$$ on #47 for the win
I’d say that depends on QE3. If we get QE3 then everything will continue going up (stocks, silver, gold, oil, etc.). If we don’t get more QE then watch out below. Right now I would guess we don’t get anymore QE ‘cos the FED got lots of criticism over QE2. Who will but $125 billion in treasuries for low interest? Nobody besides the FED will settle for such low rates of return. So interest rates rise, that means bonds, stocks and commodities fall.
Of course there’s the chance we will see more QE, that would mean an extension of the various bull markets.
I wish I had a crystal ball…
if?
“he onlee nose how to do von ting andt thatd ees to prindt and prindt and prindt” — MF
Agreed, whatever they call it we cannot finance the debt without printing dollars. Have noted an interesting pattern though ,the more industrial precious metals such a palladium have been relatively weak compared to gold. Same with the industrial metal with a PHD , copper. Markets seem to be saying slowing economy, rising inflation and declining dollar. Seems right but more government intervention seems likely. Can’t believe that Obama wants to run in 2012 with the “real” unemployment rate around 20%.
MSM is picking up on the copper story:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/41994534
Mike, I am afraid that regardless of anyone’s intentions, the minute the market starts to fall we will get QE3. Everyone talks tough until the armageddon threat is presented, then its: “Help daddy Fed! Help!”.
With just one tool left in the shed, wonder which one they’ll grab?
“With just one tool left in the shed, wonder which one they’ll grab?”
Not true—they have eight or nine of the same tool…
Not true—they have eight or nine of the same tool…
lmao Prime…
Different sizes,…or…x1 “Fits ALL”
QE = 10lb sledge hammer. Does alot of damage to the structure trying to get that screw into the wood.
Next QE will be prompt and on the day after Cramer throws a tantrum on TV.
Currently Libyia is on fire and unrest brewing in other oil exporting countries over higher food prices. Those people paid 50% of their income for food. With a 20% rise they pay 60%. QE2 already pushed some of the weaker players (Egypt, Tunesia, Libyia) over the brink. Do we really want to see what it takes to incite a revolt in Saui-Arabia? If QE3 won’t get us there maybe QEX will (X = unkown or 10, either way).
Of course the markets got addicted to uncle Ben’s crack, especially Uncle Sam. Withdrawl is a bitch. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Anyway, I am not too sure about QE3, there’s a lot at stake here. If Saudi-Arabia falls into the wrong hands we have much bigger problem than the stock market tanking 50% and Uncle Sam running out of cash. I also noticed industrial metals like copper and platinum underperforming. I wonder if that’s temporary or a sign of the economy turning south.
The stupid money is pooring into the market, time to leave.
buddy of mine who is a “bug man” in mississippi gave me a stock tip the other day.
My “realtor” just last week asked me what I thought about daytrading penny stocks…
did you tell him to go for it?
I wish I had a crystal ball…
Just go down to Goldman Sach’s and ask them to tell you what they know via the grape vine at the FED.
Probably a T1 line connecting them.
OC3
For the non-nerds, T1 = 1.544 megabits per second (a fraction of a cablemodem.) OC-3 is 155 megabits per second.
Europe blinks on bank test
Wall Street Journal
LONDON—European officials are poised to let regulators in individual countries use their own definitions of a key gauge of banks’ health in coming “stress tests,” threatening to undermine efforts to buttress faith in the Continent’s ailing financial system.
The new European Banking Authority, which is running the tests on 88 of Europe’s biggest banks, has told regulators and bankers that the exams are likely to rely on each country’s definition of an important capital ratio known as Tier 1, according to people familiar with the matter.
Why should financially prudent American households be coerced into bearing the cost of repairing the household balance sheets of underwater American households? Seems patently unfair…
* MARCH 8, 2011, 5:46 P.M. ET
White House Threatens Veto Of Bills To End Housing Programs
By Alan Zibel
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–The White House on Tuesday threatened to veto a Republican bid to end two new Obama administration programs designed to tackle the housing crisis, arguing that the market still needs federal support.
The veto threat comes as House Republicans plan a vote later this week to kill the two programs, both of which are run by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. They are smaller components of the Obama administration’s multipronged attempt at tackling the mortgage-foreclosure crisis.
The first program, which has yet to be launched, aims to assist about 30,000 unemployed homeowners in making mortgage payments while they look for work. The administration called the program “an important tool in helping these Americans struggling to stay in their homes.”
The second seeks to slash mortgage balances for “underwater” homeowners whose mortgages are larger than their homes are worth. The White House said the program “offers a cost effective approach to assisting underwater borrowers and will lead to sustainable long-term homeownership.” More than 11 million, or 23%, of U.S. households are in this situation, according to mortgage data firm CoreLogic.
Republicans call the programs ineffective and a waste of taxpayer money. Ending the programs would save roughly $1 billion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
…
“More than 11 million, or 23%, of U.S. households are in this situation…Ending the programs would save roughly $1 billion over the next decade”
Wouldn’t fixing 11 million underwater household balance sheets cost something closer to the order of $1 trillion than $1 billion? Perhaps these programs help so few people that the cost is not worth worrying about.
Yeah, $1B is very telling - like shooting spitballs at an Abrams tank. Still, just because it’s small doesn’t justify the blatant waste. Far too much rationalization nowadays.
I’m guessing that was a typo. Saving 100 million per year is mere noise in the Federal budget.
I don’t think it is a typo. I just think the program isn’t designed to pay down the loans to fair value. The $30K program is real money. The other one is probably a subsidy to the loan owner as an incentive to write down the loan instead of foreclosing and selling, but no where near 100% of the loss they have to take. The idea is that writing down the loan is cheaper than foreclosing and reselling, particularly with a partial pay off from the government.
Except that isn’t the way lenders think. They know that if they write the loan down this time, they will risk people assuming that the same write downs will be available in the future.
And besides, they don’t want to take the write down now. They hope the market will come back and they won’t have to take it at all. Or, they prefer to take the write down over years and years and not have it hurt next year’s bonus.
What’s the point of dressing gun shot wounds with band-aids? Is it that the Obamanites believe the average American is so terminally stoopid in maths that they don’t know the difference between a million, a billion or a trillion?
Just my guess, but the first tries were an attempt to slow things down. I real attempt to get the banks/bond owners to take the write downs now instead of later is an attempt to speed things up. As for the reason? Your guess is as good as mine. No idea.
Why do politicians ever do anything? Because it’s politically expedient. Because it helps their coffers, their personal situation, or their re-election chances.
If you were running BoA, and had stuffed some hundreds of thousands into Obama’s shorts, you’d expect him to remember where his bread is buttered.
Why should financially prudent American households be coerced into bearing the cost of repairing the household balance sheets of underwater American households? Seems patently unfair…
For the same reason American households are coerced into huge tax bills to pay for public employees. Those public employees are the ones carrying out the relief efforts for the FBs.
I thought we had tax cuts and paid less personal income tax than any other industrialized nation.
We’re paying these salaries by borrowing. And I’m thinking that eventually that money won’t be paid back.
Have you ever heard of property taxes, sales taxes, use fees, etc?
Those aren’t used to pay federal salaries.
“Those public employees are the ones carrying out the relief efforts for the FBs.” — Federal employees, if I am not mistaken.
Plus other countries a have sales taxes (again often much higher than ours) as well as proerty taxes etc.
Depending on your locality, local taxes are fairly low in the US compared to other industrialized nations. So New Jersey sucks? I’m glad I don’t live there.
Correction: Bankers are private, not public, employees.
Public employees provide services. ie you get something back. Bailing out the financially dead not so much.
Remind me again where the TARP money went?
“Remind me again where the TARP money went?”
Why, the Thiefdom of Tarpistan, where the Bernank reigns supreme, of course.
NYCityBoy, I think you need to move to a low tax haven, like Texas or Florida - no state income tax. Living in NYC skews your thinking.
It would be interesting to compare San Diego County population growth over the last decade to growth in the number of housing units, as my impression is that the housing stock was growing like a Santa Ana wildfire until the bubble burst in 2006.
San Diego County growth last decade is the slowest ever
By Elizabeth Aguilera, Staff Writer
Lori Weisberg, UNION-TRIBUNE
Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at 9:27 p.m.
San Diego County experienced its slowest growth rate ever between 2000 and 2010 despite gains in the Hispanic and Asian populations, and its number of non-Hispanic white residents dropped below 50 percent for the first time, according to census data released Tuesday.
…
Hey but look on the brights side. It still costs arm and a leg to buy a 900 square foot house in San Diego……Stay classy San Diego!
I saw some census number the other day and I believe LA county had close to 10 million people, out of a total of 37 million n CA.Fresno had about 500k.
I think San diegos growth is limited by the terrain.LA is pretty much a big valley and the San diego area tends to have more rugged areas that are harder to build on.
Once you get up to eastern elcajon to lets say past alpine their isnt much up there. I have friend who has a small home in ocitillo just over the hill past the golden acorn casino.It is cool over there.
This was an interesting GIS map:
http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/explorer?hp%3Fhp
House Republicans: Failing mortgage-aid programs should go
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/03/08/110006/failing-mortgage-aid-programs.html
Fine with me, as long as the don’t bail out banks for their mortage losses.
“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.” ~H.L. Mencken
The road to hell is paved with government programs.
…with loans that will never get paid off.
The “all government programs are bad” meme.
It recently occurred to me that Reagan was applying for a government position when he said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’ “
Reagan was indeed terrifying.
To the Commies.
…. and grossly under-qualified and incompetent. Anyone in the private sector would be forced to resign for misconduct.
The Coming Rout
Tuesday, March 8, 2011, by cmartenson
There’s a scenario that could play out between May and September in which commodities (including my beloved silver) and the stock and bond markets could all sell off between 20% and 40%. The trigger will be the cessation of QE II and a multi-month pause before QE III.
This is a reversal in my thinking from the outright inflationary ‘buy with both hands’ bent that I have held for the past two years. Even though it’s quite a speculative analysis at this early stage, it is a possibility that we must consider.
Important note: This is a short-term scenario that stems from my trading days, so if you are a long-term holder of a core position in gold and silver, as am I, nothing has changed in my extended outlook for these metals. The fiscal and monetary path we are on has a very high likelihood of failure over the coming decade, and I see nothing that shakes that view.
New (old) rules for first-time home buyers
Don’t get thrown off balance by the adage of stretching yourself financially — the key is sticking with what you can afford. Here are seven tips for those wanting to buy their first home.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/realestate/2009989777_homebuyerrules04.html
I caught the opening of Suze Orman advice special on PBS last night..she started out saying how she was wrong be so gung-ho about real estate and stocks 5 years ago..so we’re supposed to listen to her now? LOL. I decided to put new bike tires on instead.
Governments are about to lose control of the markets
The low interest rate honeymoon is coming to an end, and we can now expect rates to rise and continue to rise for the foreseeable future. For Western economies and their banking systems it is the worst possible time for this to happen. The reason interest rates will go up is because inflation, not deflation, now presents the greatest danger and a policy response is required.
http://tinyurl.com/5uv8ta3
Does this mean that I’ll finally get decent interest on my savings? I mean, jeez louise, even 1.45% (or whatever it is now) at ING Direct is starting to look tempting.
only 1%…
“Governments are about to lose control of the markets”
Why couldn’t they waterboard the economy back to a double-dip recession if necessary to maintain the low rate environment?
If the Bernank lets interest rates rise, it will cut off the transfusion to the banks and their mounting stinky loan losses will sink them. Governments around the world will teeter. On the other hand us wee folk could all afford eating a little better.
So who is the Bernank working for?
Citing economy, Topco closes permanently
Wednesday, March 9, 2011 Ft. Scott, Kansas
Despite attempts to keep the business open, Topco Laminates Corp. officials recently announced that the company has closed its doors.
Former company President Larry Gazaway said in a statement Tuesday that the decision to close the business last Thursday came as unfortunate news spurred by the economy. Slumping sales in the residential housing market, combined with high fuel and raw material prices forced the company to stop production on Feb. 28.
The company manufactured postform laminated countertops and distributed them within an eight-state, 600-mile radius of Fort Scott.
After an analysis of future potential, and signs pointing to continuing national economic decline, the difficult decision to close the firm was made on Thursday, March 3, Gazaway said.
“I hate it,” he said. “I hate it for the 21 people that are now unemployed and I hate it for the town of Fort Scott. “We did absolutely everything possible to keep production going. We were running so far under capacity that something had to give.”
Sounds like Icahn giving investors money back to them and saying he didn’t want to loose money for everyone as he fears a collapse.
Write this on the chalkboard 100 times:
Loose lending later loses loonies and leads to large losses like lottery losers.
Write this on the chalkboard 100 times:
Loose lending later loses loonies and leads to large losses like lottery losers.
Naw, that’s too easy. Try saying it five times real fast.
Hocus Pocus Dominochus FEDdumdum morerumrum conundrum
The company manufactured postform laminated countertops
Kansas / Formica? Uh-Oh ;-/
Hwy50 note to myself: (Survey NE/KS family relatives residences this summer for count on granite kitchen remodels.)
Yes, the granite craze has hit Kansas too.
The local Realtor books are full of 80 year old,800 sf 2br/1bath/no garage crapshacks. But they all have remodeled kitchens with granite countertops.
I hate granite tops.
Ebadi says Arab-style revolt certain soon in Iran
Wed Mar 9, 2011 1:00pm GMT
* Poverty, oppression likely to provide spark
* Urges EU to blacklist top regime figures
GENEVA, March 9 (Reuters) - Iranian Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi said on Wednesday an Arab-style popular revolt would come soon to her country, driven by poverty and the fierce oppression of critics by its Islamic rulers.
But Ebadi, a defence lawyer for Iranian dissidents who has lived outside Iran since 2009 but has close family still there, said human rights campaigners wanted the transition to happen peacefully and avoid a Libyan-style bloodbath.
“With the slightest breeze, there could be a conflagration,” she told a news conference on the fringes of a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council, at which Western countries want an investigation into Iran to be set up.
“As to what will spark that fire and when, it is difficult to predict. But I can say with certainty that it won’t be long in coming,” she said.
Report from the front-line trenches:
$19k house update: Closed last week on the $19k rental house and over the weekend worked on cleaning it up a bit with my GF. Went by yesterday PM to do a few more things and found out that all the appliances had been ripped out (including the kitchen sink) in the last 24 hours! Really pissed, I went to the neighbor’s (a really nice retired lady) and asked if she saw anything. She did. The previous owner had helped-himselself to the items and she told me he was now renting a couple of blocks away. Long story short I got all the stuff back after a slightly heated “discussion” including a visit by a couple of cops. The FBs were even somewhat nice and helpful in the end, but what an ordeal.
Welcome to the Jungle.
…and times aren’t even tough….yet.
Really pissed, I went to the neighbor’s (a really nice retired lady) and asked if she saw anything. She did. The previous owner had helped-himselself to the items and she told me he was now renting a couple of blocks away.
It’s nice to have neighbors like that. And, even in Jungle-like nabes, they’re around. It pays to cultivate them.
Landlord v. renter trench warfare…no thanks!
So, now they know who you are… What’s next?…where you live?
“The FBs were even somewhat nice and helpful in the end, but what an ordeal.”
Wow. They sounds like jerks to me. Glad to hear you got your stuff back, though.
Let me get this straight: he removed the appliances from the property _AFTER_ closing??? Wow, that’s pretty ballsy.
It’s also pretty clearly breaking-and-entering, and theft.
I assume the purchase-contract stated clearly that the appliances were to remain? If not, it should have.
Also, why didn’t you change the locks promptly, palmy?? Personally I wouldn’t want the previous occupant to still have keys after closing.
BTW, was the $19K purchase from the FB, or from the bank?
“….pretty clearly breaking and entering……”
Which is probably what the cops told the guy.
Which is why he brought the stuff back.
Let me get this straight: he removed the appliances from the property _AFTER_ closing??? Wow, that’s pretty ballsy.
Happened to my former landlady. She bought the property next door during a courthouse steps auction. Had to get payment-in-full to the title company within 24 hours.
Then she went into wimp mode. She was too bashful to go next door, introduce herself to the tenants, and inform the tenants that she was the new property owner.
Former landlady had a real problem with being bashful, BTW, I had numerous pep talks with her about being more assertive. And they did no good.
Any-hoo, she didn’t get around to the self-introduction thing for about a month. In the meantime, the former owner’s buddies were over there, helping themselves to this, that, and the other thing. Even though they had no right to go on the property.
If it were me, I’d be all over the phone, calling the police, calling my lawyer, and just generally raising hell. You know me. I’m like that.
Finally, my former landlady’s boyfriend put his foot down. He’d had enough of hearing her talking about the thievery parade next door.
And he had a relative in the towing business. Relative was summoned to the next-door property to tow the junk van that one of the former owner’s brothers had bestowed upon the place. Where it proceeded to sit for years.
I can distinctly recall when the tow truck showed up. Several of the former owner’s people were nearby, glowering at the festivities. But the junk van got hauled away without incident.
Day 1: ALWAYS change the locks first thing.
Seriously, glad you got your stuff back.
Happy birthday Fake Bull Market/Recovery!
Today two years ago the Dow hit bottom at 6.6k, and it has been off to the races ever since. The whole rally is a monument to the bank-owned government scam that is now our unreal reality. Ironically, today is also my birthday.
What? An NAR chairman scandal for me, …on my birthday? Thank you, ptb.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/NPR-chairman-says-board-asked-apf-2082507001.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=3&asset=&ccode=
pressboardbox
Happy Birthday to you!
Enjoy your own personal holiday.
Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday, dear pressboardbox! Happy birthday to you!
NPR, darn. Got too excited. What a schaedenfrude tease…
Well, HB2U, PBB!
Well, hope you get everything your heart desires on your birthday, if you know what I mean. And I think you do. Have a good night’s sleep afterwards.
There is no way we are going to get massive inflation and higher interest rates. Demand for everything will collapse. Seriously you hear them worrying about a uptick in gas to 3.50. What happens if interest rates go to 7% and gas to 5-6bucks a gallon and food rises 30%. 50-70% of service based economy goes pooof. Banks go poof. Demand for manufactured goods goes pooof.
There is deflation in many manufactured goods and housing at the moment. Food prices are a product of market manipulation, possibly poor harvests and ethanol and gov subsidies not to plant. We use 30% of the corn harvested in the US for ethanol now. Want to see corn prices collapse stop using ethanol. You are already seeing meat consumption drop in the developing world that will free up a lot of grain. I believe it takes 15-20g of grain protein to make 1g of beef. Someone posted an article here saying the US cattle herd was very low, just checked it’s at a 53 year low. Oil is up due to middle east unrest. I think you’ll see a spike up and then a massive collapse with the economy.
You are already seeing meat consumption drop in the developing world that will free up a lot of grain. I believe it takes 15-20g of grain protein to make 1g of beef.
Yours Truly has been mostly vegetarian since the 1970s.
I feel much better for it, but truth be told, I have a real weakness for beef jerky. Especially when it comes from grass-fed cattle in the Southern Arizona bioregion. Something about wanting to keep those food miles down.
“We have all been subjects of a giant government experiment, the hypothesis of which fat is bad for us.”
http://karendecoster.com/the-movie-fathead-anti-establishment-anti-lifestyle-fascism-and-very-libertarian.html
“We have all been subjects of a giant government experiment, the hypothesis of which
fatsavings is bad for us.”Try some buffalo jerky sometime.
Yours Truly has been mostly vegetarian since the 1970s.
and that’s why they call you slim.
“and that’s why they call you slim”
I wouldn’t go that far; many of the vegetarians I know are overweight.
I’m slender of build because of the genes on my father’s side of the house. The shortness of stature comes from my mother’s side.
the cycling probably doesn’t hurt either
We can’t stop using the corn crop for ethanol. It would crash gasoline prices. It would crash food prices. It would feed hungry restless millions. It would be an unparalled disaster.
” Demand for everything will collapse.”
measton,
I respect your opinion but after watching behavior through the last 5 years including the 2008 scare, I humbly suggest you’re wrong. People whine, cry, and argue about higher prices but in the end they just hunker down and figure how to keep more balls in the air. There is plenty in people’s budget they can still give up.
A friend told me his last comcast bill was $233. I know many people w/multiple expensive vehicles, new boats, new skis, new $5k road bikes, kids in karate ($6k/year), kids in hockey, middle schoolers getting their hair colored, trips to the theater, boomer rock concert tickets, etc, etc (Perhaps this is how it’s done: Credit, gov largesse, eliminate the daily lattes and high def cable, stop paying the mortgage, wife and/or teenagers head to work)
What really made them stop spending in 2008?
Fear their job was going away and, for a while, true scarcity of credit. Once they realized the ax wasn’t hovering over their heads the spending was back on. That’s what I saw. Until that happens again, the spending continues. That’s my opinion. The whining over prices is white noise while incomes and availability of credit are stable.
At least 15 million people would disagree with you. Not to mention the newly laid off government workers.
Note we haven’t seen significant inflation and interest rates are still very low. I was responding to a post above suggesting massive interest rate rise and inflation were around the corner.
There are plenty who have cut spending already. There are plenty who are living on the edge now. Increase the price of gas to 5-6 bucks a gallon and increase interest rates to 7-8% and these people will be done. The service sector will collapse. Banking will collapse. There are huge deflationary forces out there. If prices of needs and interest rates rise too much these forces will become all too apparent.
The demographic tsunami has finally arrived on shore, and as the baby boomers retire and stop their spending the economy will contract. Remember 10,000 Americans are turning 65 each and every day now for the next 19 years. Asset values will drop across the board wiping out those deeply in debt. The strategic defaults so far are likely just the tip of the iceberg.
Anyone remember this guy’s piece? I posted it back in 2006 I believe.
http://tinyurl.com/66dgsv8
The PTB will just open the doors wide for more immigration.
1. Also note that if these retired people are invested conservatively they have almost no income. Yes Ben there are consequences to ZIRP.
2. They can open up the door to immigrations. Let’s hope it’s the rich people who show up otherwise you are not fixing the problem.
What will be the effect of 100 million boomers not retiring?
Likely higher costs to business.
Older Americans have high expectations of endless public support despite poor personal financial and health decisions. None of the larger trends look good right now, a perfect storm.
“poor personal financial and health decisions”
Even the best savers can get hurt by circumstances beyond their control - extended periods of unemployment at crucial points, stock market crashes, bonds that pay next to nothing, a long distance work-related move at the worst time.
Even those who pursue healthy lifestyles can get injured in car accidents, contract cancer, have genetic predispositions to heart disease, get bad medical advice.
I think the boomers are screwed by demographics more than anything we have done individually.
Real estate tax break advances
Cities, counties will lose hundreds of millions, mayor says.
South Carolina Politics ~ The State
The sale of a home, business and other property would no longer lead to a new, likely higher tax bill, according to a bill approved by a House panel Tuesday.
The bill, H. 3713, would eliminate so-called “point of sale” reassessment, in which a property’s tax value is reset when it is sold.
Point of sale was just one portion of a 2006 statewide property tax reform law designed to give homeowners relief from their school tax bills for their primary residences. That law, known as Act 388, raised the state sales tax by 20 percent to pay for that tax relief, while a constitutional amendment capped the growth in a home’s tax value at 15 percent every five years.
But real estate agents, business owners and others say the point-of-sale provision has hampered sales, causing some would-be buyers to walk away from deals when they learn a property’s taxes will go up after it is sold.
Local governments argue eliminating point of sale — as the House panel advocated Tuesday, including a provision to roll back taxes on properties that have been sold since 2007 — would cut millions from their budgets, already stretched by the recent recession.
Charleston Mayor Joe Riley said eliminating point-of-sale reassessment would hit local budgets hard, cutting $260 million from county and city budgets next year, a figure that would increase to $738 million a year in a decade.
“It will decimate local government’s ability to provide service,” Riley said, adding half of Charleston’s budget goes to pay for police, fire and other public safety operations.
Advocates of repeal say point of sale puts S.C. properties at a competitive disadvantage with others in the Southeast.
“We’ve created a competitive disadvantage based on tax rates,” said Nick Kremydas with the S.C. Association of Realtors, adding eliminating point of sale would let commercial property buyers invest more in their businesses or in hiring.
“But real estate agents, business owners and others say the point-of-sale provision has hampered sales, causing some would-be buyers to walk away from deals when they learn a property’s taxes will go up after it is sold.”
….which means they’re stetching to make the payments as it is. The first little financial emergency that comes along is gonna push these people into Mac-N-Cheese dinners. Special Sunday evening dinners will include Spam and 2 buck chuck. Yeah….livin’ the dream.
Or maybe they don’t like bait-and-switch.
I wouldn’t consider this bait and switch. If the homeowner seller is there for years and there hasn’t been an updated tax appraisal for a while this is pretty much hard to avoid. How can the MLS predict what the taxes will be? It’s the way the local assessors do their job.
I’ve gotten into calling the town’s tax office when I knew there was going to be a large adjustment upon a new house price. Before that call, I ususally pull up the whole street of tax records so I can guess when a home might be underassessed.
Also in NY the tax records might include the breaks veterans and retired people get which means even if there was a recent appraisal you the young non veteran buyer might be paying more than the last owner. It really is important to understand how taxes work in your area before signing that dotted line.
I love the assessors on-line street database.
But the problem is that the since new assessment is only done at the time of (or is it pending?) sale, how can the buyer even come close to guestimating what his new taxes might be?
With the previous system, you could at least trend. The new system allows for too much capriciousness and relies on the fact the buyer will not be able to spend time to appeal nor may not be able to appeal as the new assessment becomes fiat acompli.
Gaddafi’s scorched earth: Libya’s skies turn black as desperate dictator blows up oil pipes and turns his tanks on civilians
By Daily Mail Reporter
* U.S. fears that both sides are locked in a bloody stand-off
* The West wants to ‘divide country and take oil’, dictator claims
* Thirteen-and-a-half hour barrage of bombs on Zawiyah
* Snipers given orders to ’shoot anything that moves’
* ‘We want the international community to support a no-fly zone’, says Clinton
Colonel Gaddafi’s forces today blasted an oil terminal to smithereens as Libya’s bloody civil war entered its blackest day.
Rebels retaliated by firing back with rockets as a fireball exploded from one of the oil tanks and the sky above the Es Sider terminal, in the east of the country, filled with hideous smoke.
A witness said one of the smoke plumes was the biggest he had seen in the conflict so far.
The fresh onslaught came as Gaddafi deployed tanks and snipers to ’shoot anything that moves’.
Forces loyal to the Libyan dictator poured into the city of Zawiyah in a desperate bid to oust the hardcore band of protesters and army defectors who have taken control.
Hello $150/barrel oil!
I am ready!! I have a Prius!!!!! LOL! We pray for it.
My prediction: The U.S. has one of the world’s leading experts in putting out such fires. And, when the time comes, said expert will be in Libya.
The husband of an acquaintance was in Kuwait back in 1990. One of the last things they did before they left was sabotage the cathodic protection on the pipe lines.
Analyze this, from the Brownstoner blog in Brooklyn.
“We’re totally into this one bedroom at the co-op building Caton Towers in Kensington. Plenty of space and light, a cute little kitchen, and dark hardwood floors. The whole package, especially in a full-service, doorman building, is nice indeed. Thoughts on the $1,650 rent? Doesn’t seem crazy to us. Update: this was a Co-Op of the Day in January, asking $280,000.”
A basically middle class area with lots of immigrants. Young college graduates might prefer something elsewhere, but might be priced out. It appears the price they couldn’t get is 14 times the annual rent I wouldn’t want to pay.
Here are the apartment sales prices in 2010, without unit sizes. The building was built in 1965.
135 OCEAN PARKWAY $368,000 7/21/2010
135 OCEAN PARKWAY, 11D $385,000 1/26/2010
135 OCEAN PARKWAY, 6U $418,000 1/27/2010
135 OCEAN PARKWAY, 8R $275,000 3/8/2010
135 OCEAN PARKWAY, 2J $205,000 5/13/2010
135 OCEAN PARKWAY, 3J $160,000 5/19/2010
135 OCEAN PARKWAY, 14M $400,500 6/15/2010
135 OCEAN PARKWAY, 10F $270,000 6/16/2010
135 OCEAN PARKWAY, 14E $275,500 6/24/2010
135 OCEAN PARKWAY, 9T $269,000 6/28/2010
135 OCEAN PARKWAY, 7M $368,000 7/21/2010
135 OCEAN PARKWAY, 2T $275,000 10/4/2010
135 OCEAN PARKWAY, 3D $369,500 11/4/2010
135 OCEAN PARKWAY, 10E $250,000 12/6/2010
This unit is 14H
http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2011/03/rental_of_the_d_140.php
“We’re totally into this one bedroom at the co-op building Caton Towers in Kensington.”
Any time I read (or hear) the phrase “totally into” I can’t help thinking that the person using it is off the charts. As in, off the cluelessness charts.
Is there a doorman?
Hey Mr. Bear, this weeks “Eeyore Award” might be close…
How cheap houses spell bad news
Posted by Colin Barr
March 9, 2011
Higher rates raise monthly financing costs, cutting the amount buyers can put toward principal payments – and driving down prices in lockstep. Why step in front of that steamroller now?
The other bad news for house prices lies in weak employment and wage trends and tightening standards for financing – which may help explain who has been buying houses lately.
With banks increasingly demanding substantial down payments, even supposedly affordable houses are a stretch for many. The median sales price of a new house in 2010 was $222,600, according to Census Bureau data. That means saving a $45,000 nut, plus closing costs, on the median per capita income of $26,530.
At the average U.S. personal saving rate of 5.8%, doing so would take 29 years. Even using the household median income figure of $49,777, you’re looking at 15 years or so just to get the down payment on hand.
http://becauseitreallyispersonal.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/eeyore6.jpg
With banks increasingly demanding substantial down payments, even supposedly affordable houses are a stretch for many. The median sales price of a new house in 2010 was $222,600, according to Census Bureau data. That means saving a $45,000 nut, plus closing costs, on the median per capita income of $26,530.
Well, the above would imply a median house price of around $80k, wouldn’t it? Which also implies that the prices on those “supposedly affordable” houses have a-ways to fall.
“With banks increasingly demanding substantial down payments, even supposedly affordable houses are a stretch for many.”
Silver lining: If prudent downpayment requirements make homes unaffordable at the prices which sellers are currently asking, they will be forced to lower their asking prices to affordable levels in order to sell.
Affordable housing has been a national policy goal for decades, and thanks to the move towards prudent underwriting, its achievement is within view.
Record SUPPLY storage,…DEMAND down = Prices UP!
OIL FUTURES: Crude Retreats On Rising US Oil Stockpiles
WSJ
U.S. crude inventories rose by 2.5 million barrels last week, according to the report from the Department of Energy, a larger-than-anticipated increase. Stockpiles in Cushing, Okla., the delivery point for Nymex-traded futures, rose to a record high of 40.3 million barrels.
Saudi Arabia has said it is increasing production to make up for at least some lost Libyan crude oil. The kingdom’s oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, on Tuesday said there is enough crude oil and spare capacity in the market to meet demand.
“Saudi Arabia has said it is increasing production to…get in while the gettin’s good!”
“winning”!
How hard can it be?
Radical Rick’s corollary: “How tough is it, Hwy?”
Maybe Ron Paul should to do an animated fairy-tale first, then…see if such an impossible act can actually be accomplished!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20040371-1.html
Oh, by the way Mr. Bear, started watching the “Inside Job” a $1.00 RedBox rental…25% into it Mr. Cole, (age 9): “Dad, so this is an award winning “horror” documentary?”
dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun…
Anybody near the fish kill in Cali? Precursor to EQ?
“EQ”?
earth quake?
Younger Koch brother?
(”What ever happen to Hwy’s comic book collection? Mommmmmmmmm, THERE’RE not JUNK!,…what did you do with ‘em!!!!!!!!!!…dang, I had some goodins too!”) :-/
Spider-Man comic sells for $1.1 mln
NEW YORK (AFP) – The inaugural 1962 comic book to feature Spider-Man netted a superhero-sized $1.1 million, the US online auctioneers said.
The copy of the Marvel comic book, in excellent condition, sold through ComicConnect.com with a cover that shows the spidery avenger — in his other life known as the meek Peter Parker — swinging from a high building with a man under his right arm.
Five decades ago, the comic went for just 12 cents.
The big sale has been bested only by the $1.5 million price reached for Superman’s 1938 debut comic book last year. The 1930s to 1950s are seen as comics’ golden age and surviving copies are keenly collected.
“The late 1950s and early 1960s are considered the Silver Age for comic books,” said ComicConnect.com founder Stephen Fishler in a statement.
“People have often wondered how much this near-perfect condition book would sell for, and today we found out,” Fishler said.
What we have learned so far in 2011:
1. If your net worth is over 100 million, you don’t go to jail or pay taxes.
Anybody else have something?
2. If you are a democrat politician and don’t like the outcome of the last elections, just run to another state and hope you can shut down the government to stop laws you don’t like.
3. That the insane $200 Billion deficits of the Bush Administration are now looked upon as the good old days.
And you’re doing God’s work.
4. If you work for the government, you are overpaid, you don’t do anything of use for society, and you are a burden on the taxpayer.
wow, thats some spin
how about
you may or may not do anything, and if you do anything it may or not be worth much ( very likely not worth the total compensation for life )
you may or may not do something useful for society ( you may even do something that is counter-productive for society )
agreed you are a burden on the tax payer.
Right — unlike trust fund babies who spend their lives sucking down alcohol and living the high life, government workers are inherently a waste of other peoples’ money. In the Republitard world, there are no dollars wasted on fire fighters, teachers, police men or military personnel, as these government workers serve no useful purpose.
It is more important to keep the redhead on deck happy than to worry about the fate of the universe.
Exxon’s Tillerson says oil prices not yet hurting US economy, but $4 gas would hit families
NEW YORK (AP) — Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson said Wednesday he doesn’t think the recent jump in oil prices is hurting the U.S. economy — yet.
At the same time, he acknowledged that gasoline prices are approaching an uncomfortable threshold for American families.
Oil is about $104 per barrel, and the national average for gasoline is now $3.52 per gallon. Drivers on the West Coast are paying close to $4. And the price is expected to rise through spring and into summer.
Tillerson told reporters at the New York Stock Exchange that in 2008 American families appeared to change their driving and spending habits when gasoline hit $4 per gallon that June. Gas peaked at $4.11 in July that year as oil climbed to $147 per barrel.
Tillerson said $4 gas “creates some real challenges” for average American families and their household budgets. When gasoline rises above $4 per gallon, it’s a “significant emotional event for a lot of people,” he said.
“Even if you’re paying $50 a month (for gas), $50 a month is significant for the way they have to manage their income.”
Try $50+ a WEEK Mr. Ivory Tower Tillerson.
Just ask your chauffeur or maid or gardener.
If you own a revolver or pistol should you be allowed to carry it on your person without getting a state license to do so?
The right to carry a concealed firearm without a special license issued by the state is often referred to as ‘Constitutional Carry.’ Wyoming is now the fourth state in the Union that recognizes constitutional carry, joining Alaska, Arizona, and Vermont. Prior to Wyoming’s action, Arizona was the most recent state to adopt constitutional carry; Governor Jan Brewer signed the legislation in April of last year, and it went into effect on July 29th.
Here in South Carolina only people with permits, such as police and certain citizens, may carry concealed weapons. The number of lawbreakers who do so is not known. But a revision in the law is before the S.C. House Judiciary Committee that would allow “Constitutional Carry.” A vote, however, has been delayed for a week.
Last night, I was at a lecture at the University of Arizona’s Centennial Hall. This venue seats around 2,000 people and it was almost full.
Before the lecturer started his presentation, he showed an image of a gun with a slash through it. He said that the auditorium was a gun-free zone, and the audience erupted in thunderous applause.
This should be safe. Smith & Wesson just came out with a new model.
The S&W Union Worker.
It doesn`t work and you can`t fire it.
Have you seen the new Free Market Model?
You clean and maintain it for your entire life. When you finally need it, it shoots you.
zingggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg!
So true!!!
82 percent of US schools may be labeled ‘failing’
(AP) – 2 hours ago
An estimated 82 percent of U.S. schools could be labeled as “failing” under the nation’s No Child Left Behind Act this year, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Wednesday.
The Department of Education estimates the number of schools not meeting targets will skyrocket from 37 to 82 percent in 2011 because states are toughening their standards to meet the requirements of the law. The schools will face sanctions ranging from offering tutoring to closing their doors.
“No Child Left Behind is broken and we need to fix it now,” Duncan said in a statement. “This law has created a thousand ways for schools to fail and very few ways to help them succeed.”
Duncan delivered the news in remarks to a House education and work force committee hearing, in urging lawmakers to rewrite the Bush-era act. The law was established in 2002 and many education officials and experts argue it is overdue for changes.
President Barack Obama has highlighted reforming the act as a priority for his administration, and both Democrats and Republicans have agreed that it needs to be changed — though disagreements remain on how.
The current law sets annual student achievement targets designed with the goal of having all students proficient in math and reading by 2014, a standard now viewed as wildly unrealistic.
but……they have killer football and bball programs with shiny stadiums.
TTT sez…
(Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner urged lawmakers on Wednesday to approve capital increases for global lending institutions and warned that failure to do so could harm U.S. influence abroad.
“We live in a dangerous world, the world isn’t standing still,” he told a House of Representatives Appropriations subcommittee where he sought backing for a $1.24 billion budget increase to $3.36 billion for international programs that Treasury oversees.
“Other countries like China are ready to fill any vacuum left by a receding America and we have to take a very careful look when we’re going to cut back things like this to make sure we’re not undermining our core interests,” Geithner said.
Geithner cited specific areas in which the United States might lose clout if it failed to be generous.
“At the World Bank, failure to finance the capital increase would lead to the loss of U.S. power to veto changes to the World Bank’s government agreement,” he said. “At the Asian Development Bank, if the U.S. does not support this capital increase, we will fall behind countries like China and India.”
Playing empire games is expensive!
BRIC countries gain more billionaires -Forbes
NEW YORK, March 9 (Reuters) - Rising steel and oil prices in Russia, more honest disclosure in Brazil and booming economies in China and India have fueled a spike in billionaires in the so-called BRIC countries.
Moscow is now home to the most billionaires with 79, followed by New York with 58, Forbes said in its annual list of the world’s richest people..
The world’s richest man, Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, retained his crown for the second year in a row and made more money than any of the other 1,209 billionaires in the past year — $20.5 billion — taking his fortune to $74 billion.
The magazine said China nearly doubled its number of billionaires to 115, while Russia and Brazil posted two-thirds jumps to 101 and 30 respectively. It is the first time countries outside the United States have produced over 100 billionaires.
Well I bought a house. Wood frame, no HOA, all cash deal and no realtor involved. It`s hanging in a tree behind the house I rent. Birds seem to like it.
did you snap it up or just buy it?
With third world countries now hatching billionaires who needs technology?
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=181903
Sackcloth & ashes (or how the sheeple have learned nothing since 2008).
That was good.
Kinda scary living in a 2nd world country with nukes that ranks 37th in the world on education, ain’t it?
The money shot:
“Absolutely everything, ladies and gentlemen, in our economy and national experience today seems to contain some sort of fraud. I can no longer go to the corner gas station and believe I’m going to get a gallon of gasoline when the pump reads one gallon of delivery. Why should I believe the pump? There’s virtually nothing else in the United States that is what it appears to be, and what’s worse when people get caught scamming they don’t go to jail!”
This NOT hyperbole.
In 2008, 95% of the electorate signalled, with their votes for John McCain and Barak Obama, that they were OK with the corrupt status quo. Does anyone seriously believe these voters will grow a brain or become more conscientious citizens before the 2012 elections? Me neither. Let’s face it: as a nation, we’re screwed. IDIOCRACY is too far advanced to turn things around.
TPTB ignored the first level of moral hazard when they bailed out those on Wall Street who had made disastrous choices. I wonder if those folks knew beforehand that they would get off scott free?
The second level of moral hazard as I see it is what happens when everyone who played by the rules sees these anal cavities getting away with gaming the system. Some subset of those folks will capitulate and join the destroyers as they do it all over again. At some point, and we may have already crossed that threshold, the number of cheaters will outnumber the non cheaters and our country will qualitatively shift from good to bad in ethical terms. Another potential result would be that instead of joining the cheaters directly, folks who had held to a positive ethical line will give up and start fighting back in their own way. In essence there is no longer a reason to hold to an ethical standard unless you in your heart believe that ethics is between you and a higher power.
Perhaps it has always been like this and I have just been deluding myself. It is just sad to completely lose any and all trust in my gov and the vendors.
Who is John Galt?
It sure feels like inflation when I fill my gas tank.
Higher oil, higher inflation? The Fed can’t decide.
Posted by Nin-Hai Tseng, writer-reporter
March 9, 2011 12:04 pm
Higher oil prices are igniting a fierce debate inside the Fed: Will continuing QE2 lead to higher inflation, or will it prevent it?
Up until recently, there was pretty overwhelming support by central bankers to keep U.S. interest rates low by buying up bonds in a second round of quantitative easing with the goal of boosting our slow-growing economy.
But the debate over the right policy prescription is about to get more complex (if it isn’t already), as the Federal Reserve now has to deal with higher oil prices that could add to inflationary pressures.
…