Bits Bucket for April 3, 2011
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Las Vegas real estate brokerage files for Chapter 11
By Steve Green (contact)
Las Vegas Sun April 1, 2011
With two of its owners already in bankruptcy, a Las Vegas real estate brokerage filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization Thursday.
The filing was by EXTREME TEAM, also known as BARBIE Ltd. and doing business as RE/MAX EXTREME. It listed assets of nearly $495,000 and liabilities of about $896,000.
The company owns its office property at 107 E. Warm Springs Road, with its interest there valued at nearly $456,000. Wells Fargo Bank holds a $474,000 note against the property, the filing says.
Another creditor listed is Nevada State Development Corp. of Reno, owed about $392,000.
Barbie Ltd. generated income of $225,000 so far this year, the filing says. In 2009 its income was $2 million, declining to $1.5 million in 2010.
Records show the company is owned by Barbara Reed, Edward Reed and Irene Klein.
In 2009, the Reeds, RE/MAX Extreme and others were sued by Tae-Si Kim and Jin-Sung Hong, who alleged securities fraud and misrepresentations involving an investment property real estate deal.
That suit said the Reeds were doing business as the Reed Team and were licensed real estate agents of RE/MAX International Inc. RE/MAX EXTREME is a franchise of RE/MAX International, the suit said.
The Reeds denied the allegations in the lawsuit. But last August, U.S. District Judge Philip Pro rejected a motion by the Reeds’ attorneys that breach of fiduciary duties claims in the lawsuit against them be dismissed.
Records show Barbara and Edward Reed filed for personal Chapter 13 bankruptcy last July and personally listed assets of about $1.4 million against liabilities of about $1.2 million.
While bankruptcies automatically put lawsuits on hold, the Reeds’ attorneys this month agreed to allow the Kim/Hong lawsuit to move forward in federal court in Las Vegas.
That was after attorneys for Kim and Hong filed papers in bankruptcy court saying they were trying to recover at least $462,000 in damages arising out of their former relationship with the Reeds, whom the plaintiffs say acted as their real estate agents in the real estate investment deal at issue.
Barbie, Extreme,….
I may need a new needle for my Schadenfreude meter. Mine bent when it hit the stop.
These stories warm my hardened heart.
How are you bankrupt with assets worth $1.4 mil and debts of $1.2 mil? That sounds like a nice positive balance sheet to me. It might be less than they had before and it might become negative if another large debt is proved against them, but it isn’t bankrupt yet.
Maybe some of the assets were protected (401Ks< IRAs, etc).
OK, possible. But it says “personally listed assets.” Would that list inlcude assets that can’t be reached by creditors? Still very bizarre.
It could just be a re-org bankruptcy.
Yep. Just because you have more assets than debts doesn’t mean you’ve got adequate cash flow to keep your plates spinning.
Maybe the realtors want to offload their pension burdens.
The insolvency test may be satisfied in one of two ways: (1) liabilities exceeding assets (true in about 99% of all BKs) and (2) monthly expenses exceeding monthly income. Often both are present at the same time, but occasionally a case arises in which someone is relatively asset rich, but the assets are illiquid (real estate being the paradigmatic example) and more is going out the door each month and they can’t service their ongoing debts.
Most likely it’s due to fantasy valuations of their assets, like all the banks are doing.
Hi. I recently visited Las Vegas for the first time. Quite amazing in so many ways. Especially that the RE bubble took hold there so strong. There is development along the strip. But just a block or two back from either side of the strip block after empty block of raw land. And people were buying one bedroom condos here for upwards of $500K ?????????? There’s enough land to expand the city ten times over. (Assuming there is enought water and power. But space is not an issue.)
“Only 15,800 brokers met Thursday’s deadline to complete license renewals for 2011. The Sunshine State licensed 43,000 loan originators at the end of 2010. During the real estate boom in 2007, the number was 82,000.”
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/realestate/bad-market-tougher-standards-drop-ranks-of-florida-mortgage-brokers/1161220
Oh the Pain….And the big loser….the Yellow pages.
And the Biggest loser - the taxpayers and the unborn, who have been and will be saddled with covering the bankers’ losses on mortgages that never should’ve been originated in the first place.
Thank you, Bush voters. Thank you, Obama voters. Thank you, McCain voters. Maybe someday you’ll start taking responsibility for your role in this massive swindle: electing the enablers.
I wonder how that stands in returning to a long term mean.
“The next big shoe to fall will be interest rates going up on municipal bonds — that means a lot of these bonds will start defaulting.”
~Rep. Ron Paul
~ Ah, who cares! We’ll print our states out of their problems also. If we can bailout Europe certainly we can bail out out states. The Bernake has it all figured out, no worries.
Bailout packages are waiting for all who are big enough to extort by threatening “the Recovery”.
Why would the Federal Reserve bail out states? Where is the profit in that and how does that help the big banks?
The states are not Wall Street banks. They don’t matter to the Fed or Treasury, except as venues for taxation and facilitating corporate looting.
You bet your @ss they matter. Wall St. has their blood funnel on Calpers money, as well as other pension funds, and they certainly don’t want to lose access to all that good gravy.
As I said, “They don’t matter to the Fed or Treasury, except as venues for taxation and facilitating corporate looting.“
Defaults = State layoffs = More Defaults on bank loans = Bankster Bonus peril
—any questions?
Since when are bankster bonuses tied to those issues?
Everyone knows they really aren’t, silly. The bailouts just have to be presented in an extortion-like manner - it looks better as far as not stirring public outcry if the bailouts go to the states, not the banks. Of course the bonuses will be enormous either way.
Yeah, their bonuses aren’t tied to anything. If they don’t get them, they’ll move off to Burma or wherever, and work their magic there.
And then we’ll be sorry!
Banks like JP Morgan, acting in cahoots with corrupt municipal politicians, have offered dirty “creative financing” deals that can implode in the local rubes’ faces - with Jefferson County, AL, being a prime example. While JP Morgan’s local accomplices went to prison, the banksters, naturally, got off with the usual slip on the wrist: piddling fines, but no perp walks for the biggest crooks in this arrangement. Matt Taibbi, as usual, tells it like it is, unlike his MSM “peers” who have glossed over this and all other examples of systemic bankster fraud and criminality.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/looting-main-street-20100331
If you want to know what life in the Third World is like, just ask Lisa Pack, an administrative assistant who works in the roads and transportation department in Jefferson County, Alabama. Pack got rudely introduced to life in post-crisis America last August, when word came down that she and 1,000 of her fellow public employees would have to take a little unpaid vacation for a while. The county, it turned out, was more than $5 billion in debt — meaning that courthouses, jails and sheriff’s precincts had to be closed so that Wall Street banks could be paid.
If Bernanke and company can contain interest rates on Treasurys, then why not as well on munis? I’m missing the decoupling that Dr Paul is suggesting which would lead to a large increase in municipal bond interest rates but not on other classes of bonds…
The Bernank can contain interest rates on munis—as long as he/they are willing to buy up all of them.
These guys bailed out a Japanese fish farm financier.
Will they bail out Peoria?
I bet not.
I would bet good money that if you look beneath the surface, the “Japanese fish farm financier” owed a large sum of money to someone in the protected-class. In other words, if they had gone BK due to being illiquid or insolvent, BoA, Goldman, Morgan, or one of the others would have taken a bath.
Peoria most likely cannot make the same claim, and therefore should not expect the same treatment.
Lawrence Yun is live on C-SPAN Washington Journal today at 8:30am ET taking calls…
we’re having Yun today!
Spookwaffe,
Was just about to copy and paste (to respond to) your comment from yesterday regarding poison oak.
Some people are **extremely** allergic to the stuff, and the only way to really fight it is to go to the doctor and get the shot and meds (steroids).
I had it so bad once that the doctor actually said, “Oh, s**t!” when I showed him my arms. They were swollen up to about three times normal size, and had deep lesions running lengthwise, with all manner of puss and stuff coming out of them. Very gross (sorry for TMI, all). I had tried to take care of it myself with topical cortizone, etc., but it just got worse and worse. After the shot, it was amazing how fast it began to heal.
Best of luck to you, and I hope you heal soon! That is not fun stuff!
Pus. Puss is an entirely different matter.
“Pus. Puss is an entirely different matter.”
…but never a good thing when used in the same sentence!
Oops! You caught me making a spelling boo-boo.
“I had it so bad once that the doctor actually said, “Oh, s**t!”
Don’t you hate when that happens?
Once again, thanks for the tip.
Its much better, Im just annoyed at having a skin problem that takes this dam long to heal (((shakin my head)))
Even Nam was never this bad.
“Even Nam was never this bad.”
The Agent Orange kept the poison ivy in check. If it wasn’t for that stupid commie EPA, we’d be using it in our backyards now.
Instead of using agent orange we should have carpet bombed the Ho Chi Minh trail with poison ivy seeds.
“we should have carpet bombed the Ho Chi Minh trail with poison ivy seeds.”
Bad idea, Vic Charles would have gotten out their tweezers, collected them all, and “chi-commed” them into a boobie traps; they would have the women and children do this.
You’d be pickin them seed out your buttocks for years.
“Even Nam was never this bad.”
Oh yeah…did you ever try to locate a country store and buy 4 small tubs of artifically flavored strawberry ice cream with those tiny wooden spoons when you’re totally lost and wandering in the jungle somewhere off the Ho Chi Minh Trail ….now THAT’S bad, that was really bad!!
You’ve got Viet Cong in you backyard??
Some people are **extremely** allergic to the stuff ??
That would be me…..Hospitalized once as a youngster…Needed shots on a number of occasions…
The Mun Yun on job gains (PARAPHRASED)
Ah using a sports analogy, you give up 8 touchdowns and then you score 3 touchdowns, Ah that doesn`t mean you OK.
The Yun man just said…
Fannie and Freddie are now requiring a credit score of 760 while in “normal” years it was 720.
Hey exeter is he telling the truth?
is he telling the truth ??
Yes he is assuming you are seeking the best pricing…
Yun is pronounced Yoon.
So the Yun loon says it is not important for “homeowners” to know who “owns” their mortgage. All they need to do is pay down the loan and “build equity”. That is contrary to what the “victims” and some judges are saying and doing.
Posted: 7:57 p.m. Saturday, April 2, 2011
“A Palm Beach Post review of cases in state and appellate courts found judges are routinely dismissing cases for questionable paperwork. Although in most cases the bank is allowed to refile the case with the appropriate documents, in a growing number of cases judges are awarding homeowners their homes free and clear after finding fraud upon the court.”
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/foreclosures/foreclosure-crisis-fed-up-judges-crack-down-disorder-1369862.html - -
“All they need to do is pay down the loan and “build equity”. That is contrary to what the “victims” and some judges are saying and doing.”
Yep, sounds good to me! I’ll just double up on those payments and chase the market down to the bottom. At the bottom I’ll have no equity but I’ll have my dignity and the chance to sell the house without a short sale, no money to put down on another one and someone at the bank will receive a big bonus.
Ron, that’s not true.
You will have equity. It’s just that you will only have 50% in equity to the actual cash that you pumped into the place.
Traditionally, with the FED’s gamed built-in inflation, you would end up paying about 2 to 3 times the loan amount to settle the loan.
But, with the Fed’s working hard to create inflation, that house you bought for $50,000 was worth $150,000 when you paid it off, 30 years later. It looks like a great deal. After all, you lived there for 30 years, and except for repairs, maintenance, taxes and insurance, you get back every dollar you paid in over the years.
The problem, of course, is that that $150,000 will really only buy $50,000 in real terms when you re-value the money. So you paid out 150k to have 50k of real savings. But people seldom look at purchasing power, they look at the face-value of the money figure. Ask someone from Brazil or Zimbabwe or other countries that have experienced a currency crisis. A peso ain’t worth much.
‘…it is not important for “homeowners” to know who “owns” their mortgage.’
Is it important to know whether whoever “owns” their mortgage has proper title?
“Is it important to know whether whoever “owns” their mortgage has proper title?”
Have there been any cases where a house could not be sold by someone who was not upside down on their mortgage or in foreclosure because of the robo signing?
Let me rephrase that.
Have there been any cases where a house could not be sold by someone who was not upside down on their mortgage or in foreclosure because of a broken chain of title?
Yun, as usual, is lying. When it comes time to buy, I won’t touch a house unless the title ownership is clear and validated by my real estate attorney. Already FBs are refusing eviction from houses they haven’t made payment on in months, because the bank can’t prove they own the mortgage. FBs have also reoccupied houses they were evicted from, causing the new “owners” to either back out or face months of costly litigation.
Yun, I realize the public are idiots, but the NAR’s days of fooling most of the people all of the time are numbered.
On April 7th the U.S. House Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy will have Mint officials on the carpet to answer questions about the difficulty it is having meeting demand for gold/silver coins.
“The U.S. Mint is planning a major overhaul of the metals composition of coins and how they manufacture them. The Coin Modernization, Oversight and Continuity Act of 2010 gives the Mint greater flexibility in meeting the demand for bullion coins as well as meeting the demand for gold and silver numismatic items.”
~The Mint recently asked for public input on its plan to change the metal composition of certain U.S. coins. Both the cent and nickel cost more to produce than their face values. Beware suggestions we resort to steel or aluminum coins. That’s a certain sign of rotting currency.
- Demand for U.S. silver and gold bullion coins is strong and the mint can’t keep up. The trouble is the supply of planchets (blanks) which come from outside producers. The April 7th hearing will exmine the logjam.
Article: Coin Shortage
Simple, just offer 1.5¢ for every penny that comes in. Banks will be flooded with penny rolls in no time. All that copper…
And yes, the currency would be rotting, literally. Gold simply doesn’t corrode away.
Wondering if Bernanke will speak to the inflation problem at his up coming quarterly speech.
U.S. consumers face “serious” inflation in the months ahead for clothing, food and other products, the head of Wal-Mart’s U.S. operations warned Wednesday.
The world’s largest retailer is working with suppliers to minimize the effect of cost increases and believes its low-cost business model will position it better than its competitors.
Still, inflation is “going to be serious,” Wal-Mart U.S. CEO Bill Simon said during a meeting with USA TODAY’s editorial board. “We’re seeing cost increases starting to come through at a pretty rapid rate.”
“going to be serious”
“We’re seeing cost increases starting to come through at a pretty rapid rate.”
Hyperinflation in our future?
Garage and yard sales will become more popular.
“Hyperinflation in our future?”
Hyperinflation? as in lots of money sloshing about to finance these higher prices?
Or higher prices offset by fewer sales?
“Or higher prices offset by fewer sales?”
I don’t foresee salary inflation (global wage pressure), but I do have evidence of higher prices (price hikes and volume or service decrease), so as your purchasing power goes down, it comes down to choices. Eventually, you’re priced out of survival. That is what scares me. I also am concerned about what inflationary pressures will due to housing prices.
It is my belief our monetary system with eventually implode. But when?
When? 2007.
It’ll be deflation when they shift into overdrive with another round of the incredible “shrinking” packages. The propaganda machine will be in full gear trying to convince the public that a dozen was never intended to be 12, but instead supposed to be 10. The 2 extra in 12 was an entitlement.
The riots won’t start until they tell J6P that a six pack should only contain 5 beers.
“The riots won’t start until they tell J6P that a six pack should only contain 5 beers.”
That’s GD funny!
They’ll just quietly go to six ten-ounce beers.
They’ll just quietly go to six ten-ounce beers.
But, but, but,…the cans will still be the same size, amazing ain’t it?
There seems to be an on-again/off-again effort to introduce aluminum bottles as the new domestic big-brand beer medium. They are usually 16 ounces, and come in four-packs. They’re more expensive per ounce than regular bottles or cans, but it’s harder to determine due to the different sizing and packaging.
That’s how they getcha!
Already happening. A friend told me that Steinlager Beer went to 11-ounce cans. Hope they don’t try that with Bud Light.
I saw some beer being sold in “stubby” bottles format that were less than 12 ozs.
I agree with alpha: it’s much easier to not notice a difference in volume when there is also a different in packaging, so that is the likely route.
“That’s how they getcha!”
They never get me. I always look at weights and measures before I buy. Haagen Dazs went to smaller than a pint ice cream packages, and I never bought one since. I do not buy much processed food period, so they can all go eff themselves.
Will it matter to J6P when ground beef is $10/lb?
And just think, now all you have to do is carry a small pair of wire cutters to remove that orange tag on their ears…
“He Belongs to me!”
“Does not!, it not yerin’s,…”
“I’m tellin’ ya pilgrim, those 1 ear cows is mine!”
Not to those getting food stamps.
“Not to those getting food stamps.”
Since the gov’t fudges the inflation numbers, the food stamp folks won’tbe getting COLAs either.
“Hyperinflation in our future?”
A watched pot never boils.
A more likely future seems to be some variant on the late-1970s / early-1980s inflation experience: A few years of higher-than-expected inflation which nobody could have seen coming, which would serve to loosen the noose of debt which currently tugs at the necks of so many deeply-indebted American households and government entities, followed by a few years of ultra-high interest rates which would serve to stamp out inflation.
Not sure how this works when savings are as low as they are currently, though I do note that the U.S> household savings rate has recently turned the corner from a low point that spans decades.
I’ve been reading a few stories lately of people who bought houses “because they’re a good inflation hedge.” This plays right into Bubbles Bernanke’s hand. Get that cash off the sidelines and into real estate. Alas, it can’t work. The more people pay to fill up the car, eat, and warm their abode, the less they have for house payments. I see a further erosion in house prices. Or, perhaps, “the great vampire squid upon the face of humanity” will buy up all houses and condos, and siphon rent from every living human being upon the land.
Or, perhaps, “the great vampire squid upon the face of humanity” will buy up all houses and condos, and siphon rent from every living human being upon the land.
Already happening. Aren’t we seeing stories of behind-the-scenes bulk sales of shadow inventory? They’ll flip the better inventory to the public end-consumer for exhorbitant prices. The crap — they’ll rent to the Section 8’s until the houses fall in.
“The more people pay to fill up the car, eat, and warm their abode, the less they have for house payments. I see a further erosion in house prices.”
+1, Grizzly.
If inflation drives up the costs of necessities, then people have less to pay for everything else.
“Or, perhaps, “the great vampire squid upon the face of humanity” will buy up all houses and condos, and siphon rent from every living human being upon the land.”
Rent is too damn high party
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPdkxYuMPiM
Comment by oxide
2011-04-03 10:22:15
Or, perhaps, “the great vampire squid upon the face of humanity” will buy up all houses and condos, and siphon rent from every living human being upon the land.
……………
Already happening. Aren’t we seeing stories of behind-the-scenes bulk sales of shadow inventory? They’ll flip the better inventory to the public end-consumer for exhorbitant prices. The crap — they’ll rent to the Section 8’s until the houses fall in.
———————-
Exactly right, oxide. And this is what worries me about the “not everyone needs to own” propaganda that’s being spewed these days.
While most of us would agree that not “everyone” should own, I do believe that, in general, it is best if people can own thier own house, purchased at an affordable price, with no gimmicky loans, and that can be paid off before retirement.
followed by a few years of ultra-high interest rates which would serve to stamp out inflation.
PB, wouldn’t the ultra-high interest rate also be applied to government debt? If so, could the government survive higher interest rates?
Bwahahaha! Wal-Mart. Always the high price for crap. Always. Wal-Mart is a shell game, anyway. People buy stuff there because of the perception of low prices, and often find out what they bought ain’t all that cheap. Especially when it breaks, malfunctions, unravels, etc.
Big box stores blow chunks anyway. Eliminate the competition, even the little guys in a locale, then jack ‘em up. I’ve had the pleasure of working on a marketing project involving a big-box store. Craperoooooooo! They’re an insult to humanity.
I do like Costco.
We agree on that. I live on their wild Alaskan salmon,Hawaiian bowls, yogurts, dried blueberries, olive oil and mixed nuts.
+1 on Costco. You can’t get fresher meat anywhere but a cutters shop.
Was in Wal-Mart last weekend. (didn’t buy anything) They now sell Starbucks Via, which are little tubes of instant coffee, like the iced tea mix. Price: $7.99. Hey, I thought, that’s pretty good, at Sbux they’re $10.99. Then I looked closer: 7 packets. Sbux sells 12 packets. Who’ da thunk? Yuppity Sbux is cheaper than Wal-Mart.
Serious inflation is much worse apparently than the “bull$hit” inflation variety we have been experiencing.
“going to be serious”
I guess the warehouse-on-wheels concept doesn’t work so well when fuel prices skyrocket.
got rickshaws?
But real men and women don’t drive cars. Real men drive pickups and the ladies huge SUVs.
Took the lad to a soccer game in yuppie Highlands Ranch yesterday (we won 6-3 vs. one of those snooty super expensive clubs). I have never seen so many full sized SUVs in my life in one place.
Big vehicles are a pain to make a left hand turn opposite of, and to have to back out of a spot, parked by one. I’m w/ you In Colorado, I can’t stand SUV’s or the people who own them. I’ve had my fill of snotty.
Here’s the SUV of choice in my particular circles. I do have to give the ladies credit. They never make any negative comments on my more mainstream choice. But it is kind of weird to see how many of them chose this one particular vehicle in seemingly copy cat keeping up w/the Joneses fashion.
http://www.mbusa.com/mercedes/vehicles/class/class-R
Truth be told, perhaps if my hubby had a surgeon’s or specialist’s income I’d be rallying for one of these myself. I think they’re beautiful.
CarrieAnn
The MBZ was on the top most expensive cars to repair list by Forbes in 2009. I agree, they are nice, but I am partial to the 3&450’s of long ago.
My husband had a J*g Convertible, and I’ll tell you, it was very expensive for preventive maintenance and repairs. I made him get rid of it. Now he drives a paid off Vette, and it’s been a better car and cheaper to maintain. Geez, I miss having money to buy toys. LOL
Now we are like all the other schumbs (sp?), just trying to get through life.
That’s what my wife bought. Most people seem to think they’re ugly so you can pick up used ones really cheap. It’s kind of grown on me…we think of it as more of a minivan than an SUV.
“you can pick up used ones really cheap”
I have a feeling that your idea of cheap is a bit different than mine. $2K is in my ballpark.
But then, I am lucky that I don’t have a job that depends on what people think of my car.
I have a feeling that your idea of cheap is a bit different than mine. $2K is in my ballpark.
I hear you…I paid $3500 for my last car back in 1999 that had sold new for $24k in 1991. I was into tinkering back then, though, and my wife is decidedly not. But still, she paid $26k for a car that was $70k new only 4 years and 40k miles ago. To me that’s still cheap. As we’ve discussed here at other times…look at what you get for $26k new.
“I have never seen so many full sized SUVs in my life in one place.”<
Haven’t been to Texas in few years, have you?
Every fifth car is full sized SUV. Every third car is full size PU truck. This no exaggeration.
They never made sense to me until I rode in one and drove one. Quiet, high up - good visibility, ample horse power, and you can hit a pot hole big as the grand caynon and not know it. This is a Chevy Suburban. It belongs to my eldery (somewhat off her rocker crazy aunt.) Of course a single 80 year old needs a vehicle that seats six!
She is alway borrowing my Mazada Protege since it’s easier to park. 
I’ve driven them and can’t fathom why anyone would want one.
Glad to see at least someone is speaking the truth WRT inflation.
The US has been exporting inflation for decades. Now it is washing back up on our shores. Double whammy; deflation with rising prices.
“The US has been exporting inflation for decades. Now it is washing back up on our shores.”
The economic version of raw sewage.
I am seeing some pretty dramatic price increases at the supermarket lately. Not only are ice cream containers shrinking, the price continues to go up! A loaf of French Bread used to be 99 cents, now its $1.50. Produce is through the roof, fresh or frozen. Meat is going up (chicken breasts are up 25% from a year or two ago). Eggs are up, so is bacon.
It’s taking some creative work with the weekly sales flyers to keep the budget from busting. And when I visit Wally World, it doesn’t seem all that cheap anymore.
We buy our broccoli and cauliflower at the 99.99C Only store (grown in US only), and our lean proteins at Costco. We only buy “can’t find it elsewhere” stuff at the market. Other than that, it’s not good for us, and we leave it there. We’re geezer’s in training.
Some of those Super Wally Worlds have a pretty good grocery section. So much of our food choices have fueled our health care crisis. We’re trying to opt out.
+1 buy local!!
I just went through this last year. 50% inflation has destroyed my budget.
And it’s still creeping up.
“The U.S. has been exporting inflation for decades. Now it is washing back up on our shores.”
Yep, this how I see it.
We borrowed money by the trillions but this borrowed money left the country after it was spent; It went to places such as China where the cheap goods we spent all this borrowed money on was manufactured. Price inflation was held down because manufacturing costs were very low in China. Middlemen - such as Walmart - made big profits because they bought cheap from China and sold at a much higher price - but still a cheap price - to consumers in the U.S.
But now … But now China has lots of money and we don’t. Because China has lots of money THEY get to buy up what they need while we get to do without. For those things we can’t do without we have to compete with China - a country that has lots of money (money that we sent to them) to bid up prices.
In short, we Americans are really quite stupid.
“In short, we Americans are really quite stupid.”
True, but in many cases we were given no choice.
Exactly. Wouldn’t want regulate those poor, overtaxed, oppressed corporations, now would we?
Who exactly is going to regulate them, when they own the political process?
Good post, Combo.
If this is true, which I believe it to be, then the Bernanke has accomplished his goal, which is to have positive inflation.
The goal 2% annually. Meaning, you and I get robbed of our savings at an annual rate of 2%. This, according to the Bernanke is sound economic policy.
Unfortunately, whenever this has been tried before, the lag from the beginning of the “inflation” to the next big economic shock of 10% or greater inflation has consistently been unmanageable. Expect MUCH higher inflation numbers than those officially released by the FEDs.
And, of course, bear in mind that “food” and “fuel” costs aren’t included in the numbers, so even if your food costs double, there is no inflation until the price of an I-pod goes up 10%. Then we got problems by the Bernanke’s twisted economic doctrines.
Diogenes, myself and several other posters have just seen 50% inflation and the rest are about to.
2%? 10% In my dreams!
Quick off-topic: Just saw a commercial promoting high-fructose corn syrup. They even have a website: cornsugar.com. Have fun…
Is this the commercial?
http://www.cornsugar.com/video-gallery/
“The body can’t tell the difference; Sugar is sugar.”
Lol. And this is supposed to be the selling point of corn syrup.
There is a difference.
High-fructose corn syrup
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-fructose_corn_syrup
My very limited understanding about the problem with sugar (whether cane, beet corn - whatever) is that it is sugar, not what kind of sugar it is.
Sugar is a simple carbohydryte thus the body readily and easily absorbs it into the bloodstream. Larges doses of sugar immediately floods into the bloodstream and puts pressure on the pancreas to pump out massive amounts of insulin to handle the load. Do this on a regular basis and the pancreas wears itself out and diabetes sets in. Plus, because the body can’t burn all the sugar that is suddenly put into it, it converts it into fat and stores it in the body and obesity sets in.
Complex carbohydrates - because they are complex - take time for the body to break down into simple sugars and thus are slowly dumped into the bloodstream and hence the cells of the body don’t get shocked as they do with simple sugars.
This is my understanding; I welcome any clarification regarding the issue.
combo-Well stated.
Add some protein to your carbs and it slows down digestion, and keeps your glucose level down. Daily exercise is mandatory. My blood sugar runs higher than norm, so I compensate with balancing food groups. I weigh under 95 lbs now, and no meds ever. I reversed my diagnosis of Pre-Diabetes.
Good for you, Awaiting!
Why Thank You, CA Renter. I found my new east/west (complementary) MD through The Institute Of Functional Medicine’s- practice search engine (by zip code). He’s been a real help, and he believes meds are the last resort. How’s that for really practicing medicine!
That’s awesome, Awaiting.
I’ve been consulting with a naturopathic doctor for the past few years, myself. Agree with you that pharmaceuticals should be the treatment of last resort.
Combo,
The only thing I would add is you forgot to tie your post into the ‘Cash is King’ feedback loop.
Cash is King- ask any sugar daddy.
High fructose corn syrup is not sugar, at all. It is a chemical derivative that is made from corn. It taste sweets and they call it sugar, or actually, corn syrup. It is made in much the way sour mash is made for producing alcohol. It has similar properties to alcohol in the bloodstream and in the brain.
The corn industry and the FDA promote this as a government approved sugar substitute. It is now in everything, including all the soft-drinks that everyone is consuming. Along with just about every other food you can buy off the shelf, including bread. Why is it in bread? Because it makes it taste sweeter, and people will buy bread that has the sweeter taste in preference to bread that doesn’t.
HFCS came into most rapid use at the time the MDA and others were connecting obesity with heart disease and diabetes. Their goal was to decrease the fat content of food, claiming it was the FAT in the food that was the problem, rather than the fat in the person. Since that time the FAT content of the U.S. diet has been declining to levels about 20% lower than when this campaign started. Everywhere you look, you find “reduced fat” products.
The problem, of course, is that the FAT makes the food taste good.
That’s why people prefer fatty foods. They taste better.
To compensate for less taste, since HFCS was FDA approved, manufacturer’s of food products with reduced fat have been putting in HFCS. HFCS is about 10 times sweeter than sugar and costs less to produce. It has been the perfect substitute.
However, the rate of heart disease and diabetes had been steadily climbing, not declining with reduced fat diets.
The reason is the problem is NOT the fat in the food, the problem is being fat. That creates diabetes and heart disease.
But the biggest problem with HFCS is that it tricks the brain, just like alcohol, into failing to provide a signal that you have comsumed 700 to 900 calories and should be getting full. Unlike sugar, when consumed, you don’t feel full. You can drink 5 of 6 cans of beer and still eat a full meal. You can drink 5 or 6 HFCS sodas and do the same thing. HFCS does not satisfy anyone’s appetite, so you tend to eat more and consume more calories, leading to obesity and the problems associated with it, including hypertension.
And, of course, the biggest problem is the soft drinks. You tend to think of “drinks” as not having calories, like water. If you drink some of the coffee drinks with all kinds of creme, or if you drink several large “sodas” during the day, you don’t count that as having eaten, but you have consumed as many calories as if you sat down and had a full meal.
I consider HFCS a poison and have removed as much of it from my diet as possible, but you can’t find Ketchup or Jelly or most other “foods” that don’t have it as a primary ingredient.
We’ve had cane and beet sugar for generations and not had an obesity problem. The sedate “lifestyle” is part of the problem, but the fast foods are full of HFCS, so take a better look at HFCS and it’s role in the American diet. Get the “fat” out hasn’t been working because HFCS has been substituted.
“I consider HFCS a poison and have removed as much of it from my diet as possible, but you can’t find Ketchup or Jelly or most other “foods” that don’t have it as a primary ingredient.”
If you live near the southern border, and are a bit fearless, you can cross the border and shop at Mexican supermarkets. They will have the familiar brands, but they are made in Mexico and won’t have HFCS.
I agree transfats and HFCS are both killers. Do not engage in it very often but when I really want a coca cola, I drink the Mexican imports. The real sugar really is good.
Kosher for passover foods don’t have corn syrup, so catsup and jam/jelly and a few other foods that are sweet can be found around this time of year without it.
For most of the stuff, it will cost you a pretty penny.
Why is CS not Kosher, Polly?
Is it the processing?
I don’t use ketchup much, so I make it on the spot. Tomato paste, a bit of white vinegar, salt, and granulated sugar to taste. Maybe a little water to thin it out.
It tastes much sharper and fresher than the bottles.
Corn is one of the grains that “rises” when it is combined with water, so Jews from Northern Europe don’t eat it during Passover. Matzah is made from flour, but it has to be less than 17 minutes from the moment the water hits the flour until it is fully cooked so that no fermentation can take place. Kind of bizarre if you ask me. Rice also off the list. Barley, rye, wheat, etc. Quinoa is fine because it is a new world grain and the people who made the rules didn’t know it existed when they made the list. Like I said, bizarre. Jews from Spain, the middle east and Northern Africa have different rules and allow at least rice. I’m sure there is plenty of info on the net.
My family never worried about corn derivatives when I was growing up. Couldn’t have afforded to get rid of that much food anyway. Passover is expensive. But it is a reason to clean the kitchen really well once a year.
The sugar lobby has kept sugar tariffs in place for too many years. This also keeps HFCS cheaper than sugar.
This also keeps HFCS cheaper than sugar.
but HFCS is also subsidized by the USDA. The USDA subsidizes the price of corn, leading to overproduction (the USDA pays farmers the difference between market value and a fixed price), further lowering market price. Thus, corn prices (and HFCS) is subsidized by the taxpayers.
Which is why it’s ridiculous for the gov’t to step up and try to tax products containing HFCS. Rather than raising taxes, they could simply stop spending tax dollars to subsidize corn farmers.
Diogenes-
Hunt’s Ketchup has a no HFCS variety, sold at the Dollar Store. We buy it.
Salty and sweet make you eat more, thus they make more money off your addiction.
That’s what is so great about the Costco free demo samples. I get the taste treat, and don’t buy it. We keep it out of the house.
sold at the Dollar Store
= Not produced in the USA
Mandarin Oranges = China
? what do they pack the mandarin’s in?… syrup…where do they get the water to make the syrup?
x1 example of what to be aware of…. :-/
I’ll be brief: High Fructose Corn Syrup is not “produced” anywhere in Nature.
So, what man-made chemistry are you mixing with your blood today? :-/
That’s the way it is, like it of Knot.
Corn industry spokesman: “It’s gooood fer ya!”.
I’ve been mixing quaaludes and oxycondin and I feel great!!
Speaking of edibles & stuff:
(Destination: outdoors to the garden, see ya at the HBB firepit a tad later)
Here’s something to chew on:
Garden As If Your Life Depended On It, Because It Will
By Ellen LaConte
30 March, 2011 / Countercurrents org
Spring has sprung—at least south of the northern tier of states where snow still has a ban on it—and the grass has ‘riz. And so has the price of most foods, which is particularly devastating just now when so many Americans are unemployed, underemployed, retired or retiring, on declining or fixed incomes and are having to choose between paying their mortgages, credit card bills, car payments, and medical and utility bills and eating enough and healthily. Many are eating more fast food, prepared foods, junk food—all of which are also becoming more expensive—or less food.
High-fructose corn syrup IS a sugar, not a substitute. It has the same type of carbon backbone with the OH groups off the sides. There are three main simple sugars, which combine to form other sugars.
If you take off some OH-groups and replace them with chloride, you get Splenda.
I don’t think our obesity is due to the sendentary lifestyle as much as it is to portion size. One experiment I’ve always wanted to try was to watch old movies or newsreels which featured a lot of dinner scenes, just to compare what and how much people ate over the decades. I would bet that some dinner in a 1940’s movie has 2/3 as much food as a typical dinner at Chili’s.
Try “half” the size of a of typical meal served at any regular restaurant.
All you anti-chemical folks, something watch out for: There are a ton of new labels out there that the product has “NO SUGAR ADDED!!” especially canned fruit and fruit snacks aimed at kids. Parents will see than and think: o good, it’s just plain fruit, not heavy syrup. That’s because they add sucralose (Splenda), which is not sugar. Check the ingrediant list.
I signed up for the email list for HFCS, and sent them a nice message saying how I was eagerly awaiting their Orwellian propaganda.
Funny thing is, HFCS is not “corn sugar.” They only applied for the name change; FDA hasn’t approved it yet. Forcing the issue, perhaps.
On a couple of the anti-HFCS spoof Youtubes, some industry plant came onto the comments with a diatribe that HFCS is “just like honey.” Unfortunately, it IS chemically like honey. But honey isn’t as sweet. And who would put 8 teaspoons of honey into a can of Coke? That’s how much HFCS is in there.
In the book “Good Calories, Bad Calories,” Gary Taube notes that, contrary to what the commercial says, you body really can’t handle HFCS. You know sugars, but you can’t quite figure out a sugar with 55% fructose, so it goes to the liver, where the liver turns it directly to fat. (Either that or it really messes with the blood sugar. I’m not sure which, I’ll have to check the book again.)
I cannot stand the taste of artificial sweeteners.
I hate HFCS. I try as hard as I can to never eat the crap. I only buy bread which doesn’t have it, stay away from processed food and drinks, and I seem to only eat it accidentally once in a blue moon.
Thanks for your informative posts, oxide!
Comment by Ben Jones
2011-04-02 08:16:03
‘The current government…is center-right, so…’
This is what I mean about labels being used to confuse and divide, to the point of being meaningless. Center or right of what? What the center was yesterday, or 2 years ago, or 20? Aren’t we perpetually conditioned as to what is “moderate?”
Here’s one example; what is left or right on foreign policy and the use of force in the US? “the September 25, 2001, War Powers memo by John Yoo…; “no statute can place any limits on the President’s determinations” as “these decisions, under our Constitution, are for the President alone to make.”
“Yesterday, Hillary Clinton told the House of Representatives that “the White House would forge ahead with military action in Libya even if Congress passed a resolution constraining the mission.”…”the administration would ignore any and all attempts by Congress to shackle President Obama’s power as commander in chief to make military and wartime decisions,” as such attempts would constitute “an unconstitutional encroachment on executive power.”
I don’t see any left or right here. How about the TARP thing; Was there really a left or right involved? Or globalism? Or central bank policy? Have you ever heard anyone say they were a “moderate” on Fed policy?
What really matters is what a person does, not what they call themselves or what others call them. People get so wore out by all this BS, you end up with the attitude Carl made here today:
“But none if this matters because the people who do this stuff for a living are so good at co-opting movements that threaten the status quo. You could set this all up and within a few years it would be back to two groups at each other’s throats while both were being robbed blind.”
IMO, all this is why we have such a hard time making positive change in this country.
——————————
What if we have NO political parties, and instead, we vote for PEOPLE, not parties.
I think the whole “party” system, no matter how many “choices” we are given, is designed specifically to herd people into groups so the PTB are better able to control us. It makes it far easier to divide and conquer.
I’d rather have publicly-sponsored campaigns and debates, with full transparency of all candidates — their political history, any influence they’ve had, their current and past political and business affiliations, etc. We should have voter information guides that are comprehensive, rather than TV ads and direct mailers. Anyone who is too lazy or apathetic to read the information guide (with the same questions posed to each candidate, and a space for them to make personal remarks) shouldn’t vote.
It’s interesting you should mention the voter information guides. In years past, I worked as a canvasser for one private organization that provided “voter information” guides. It is true that the votes we focused on were specifically the ones which my group found the most aggregious or the most favorable to our own interests.
Nonetheless, we gave the outline of the legislation and the votes that each legislator tallied on our score sheet. This gave people an opportunity to look at key issues and see how various legislators were voting.
The “campaign finance reform” bill of McCain/Feingold made this ILLEGAL. We could no longer distribute information without being in violation of the “law”. That is one reason I found the “law” so ridiculous. It provided no real reform, but prevented the free dissemination of information to other “citizens”. We couldn’t provide flyers with tallies of votes by incumbent congressmen.
That is why I called the “Incumbent Support anti-reform Act”.
It is also when I began to have contempt for McCain. He’s managed to keep himself in office WAAAY too long. He’ll pass any bill that’s good for him.
There will always be “parties” of some sort, putting forth and supporting candidates. Established parties at least have addresses.
* Document Number: 00000XXXXX
* Auction Date: Friday, February 18, 2011
* Auction Price: $383,400
* Buyer: BEAR STEARNS TRUST 2005-8
* Filing Date: Wednesday, February 9, 2011
I was looking for our future home online yesterday, and I found this. Bulk sales might be part of the reason the MLS is dry. (So Ca) I left out the doc number due to legal paranoia.
Who’s doing the selling, awaiting? Fannie/Freddie? Considering F/F is taxpayer bailed, is it even legal to withold inventory from the taxpayers? It’s like no-bid contracts for Halliburton…
Florida — the sad state of our state
“…I hope this Legislature will pause, reassess the consequences of its decisions on the future of Florida, reject extremist ideologies, and recommit to Florida’s heritage of commonsense values.”
http://www.tampabay.com/news/article1161109.ece
I wonder what he means by “extremist ideologies”. those tend to be the ones that go against whatever new spending program Democrats like Graham wish to institute upon us. Ending any program, no matter how expensive or useless is always “extremist”. I am tired of this misuse of the language.
Here’s one of those programs that’s gone overboard:
“The Florida Forever Act and its predecessor land-acquisition programs, which have saved almost 9.4 million acres of our most environmentally sensitive lands for the public is, after 44 years, being zeroed out of the budget.”
Saved the lands for the public? really? you ever been to one. No?
neither have I. They are simply fenced off so that only government bureaucrats and government employs have access. We don’t get any use of them at all. I would be fine with limiting development, but as usual, the do-gooders in universities and goverment agencies want to explore the lands in a government paid-for Range Rover, on publicly paid time, while “researching” the impact of some native flora or fauna. You and I, however, cannot set foot to them, as the penalty is trespassing on “public property”?>?
I think there is some justification for untouched lands. But it is problematic. People want access to public lands. Perhaps a better approach would be to use a permit process to give a limited number of the general public minimal levels of access (e.g. limit fishing, no hunting, hiking only, or some combination depending on the needs of the protected land).
Rafting in the Grand Canyon is limited.
Rafting in the Grand Canyon is limited.
Yes, and a blast! I did a 14-day trip a few years ago. What a fun time.
“in a growing number of cases judges are awarding homeowners their homes free and clear after finding fraud upon the court.”
Foreclosure crisis: Fed-up judges crack down disorder in the courts
By Christine Stapleton and Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 7:57 p.m. Saturday, April 2, 2011
Angry and exasperated by faulty foreclosure documents, judges throughout Florida are hitting back by increasingly dismissing cases and boldly accusing lawyers of “fraud upon the court.”
A Palm Beach Post review of cases in state and appellate courts found judges are routinely dismissing cases for questionable paperwork. Although in most cases the bank is allowed to refile the case with the appropriate documents, in a growing number of cases judges are awarding homeowners their homes free and clear after finding fraud upon the court.
Still, critics say judges are not doing enough.
“The judges are the gatekeepers to jurisprudence, to the Florida Constitution, to access to the courts and to due process,” said attorney Chip Parker, a Jacksonville foreclosure defense attorney who was recently investigated by the Florida Bar for his critical comments about so-called “rocket dockets” during an interview with CNN. “It’s discouraging when it appears as if there is an exception being made for foreclosure cases.”
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/foreclosures/foreclosure-crisis-fed-up-judges-crack-down-disorder-1369862.html - -
O-oh MERSy MERSy me…
So help me out here: if I “doc shop,” and find a broker that will guarantee that my loan will be sliced and diced, can I go ahead and “buy” a house, stop making payments, and… just… do nothing and enjoy a free house?
TARP Bank Programs Turn Profit After Three Financial Institutions Repay $7.4 Billion
3/30/2011
US Dept of the Treasury press release
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced that the Troubled Asset Relief Program’s (TARP) investment in banks has now turned a profit after three financial institutions repaid a total of $7.4 billion in TARP funds today to taxpayers.
“While our overriding objective with TARP was to break the back of the financial crisis and save American jobs, the fact that our investment in banks has also delivered a significant profit for taxpayers is a welcome development,” said Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. “We still have more work to do repairing the damage caused by the crisis and strengthening the recovery, but today is an important milestone in our efforts to recover taxpayer dollars as we continue winding down TARP.”
With today’s proceeds, taxpayers have now recovered $251 billion from TARP’s bank programs through repayments, dividends, interest, and other income. That exceeds the original investment Treasury made through those programs ($245 billion) by nearly $6 billion. Treasury currently estimates that bank programs within TARP will ultimately provide a lifetime profit of approximately $20 billion to taxpayers.
Based on current market conditions, Treasury expects that TARP investment programs taken as a whole – including financial support for banks, AIG, and the domestic auto industry; as well as targeted initiatives to restart the credit markets – will result in little or no cost to taxpayers. The lifetime cost of TARP is likely to be limited to funds disbursed for Treasury’s foreclosure prevention programs, which were not intended to be recovered.
Treasury currently estimates that bank programs within TARP will ultimately provide a lifetime profit of approximately $20 billion to taxpayers
Back at Camp “taxpayerswhodon’thavajobanymore”:
(Hwy50 dumps a wheel barrel full of $100.00 Fed Inc. Notes): “Hey look everyone, this was sitting in the alley behind the US Treasury, there was a handwritten cardboard sign said: “for Americans only!” Dig in fella’s, but hey, the realtor’s that are liars, gotta count to a thousand first, backwards!”
Uh, wasn’t the original number 700 BILLION?
What about the rest of the “bailouts”? You know, the ones worth **trillions** of dollars in guarantees and purchases of toxic securities? What about those.
IMHO, the TARP was created as a means to deflect attention away from the real bailouts.
House GOP bill would make its budget law, period
AP
The Republican legislation to “deem” its federal budget law - Senate approval or not - passed the House Friday 221-202 after colorful debate that included lessons meant for children on how a bill becomes a law.
Under the bill, the budget already passed by the House and rejected by the Senate becomes law if the Senate does not reverse course and approve it by April 6. The current budget that pays for the government runs out two days later, meaning that if no agreement is reached on spending for the remaining six months of this budget year, part of the government would shut down on April 9.
A shutdown would mean that lawmakers and President Barack Obama would not get paid, a provision some have questioned because the Constitution explicitly says the president’s pay can’t be changed in the middle of his term.
Ah, the old “deemed to have passed” tactic is raising its ugly head again. Looks like the republicans were taking notes when their opponents were in charge.
When was the last time you noticed the Federal Government, President or Congress, caught up in what the Constitution says?
So unconstitutional that I’m not even sure where to start. Seriously, this wouldn’t pass muster even if the Senate actually passed it and the president signed it. The Supreme Court has alllowed a lot of delegating of responsibilities to agencies in the past (see all sorts of legislation where the most fundamental issues of how it will work is left to regulations) but I don’t see how you can pass a law that says that what the House passes is the law even if the Senate doesn’t pass the same text and president doesn’t sign it. That 221 American citizens (never mind legislators) think this is OK at any level is just bizarre.
That 221 American citizens (never mind legislators)
“TrueAnger™” = “Now!,…NOW, we’re truly ANGRY!” (before, we were just sorta upset & a tad uneasy)
Bizarre is right, especially in light of the reading of the Constitution in January. Were they not paying attention?
Actually, legislators got paid in all the past shut downs. They considered themselves essential. And since the shut down can’t stop until they pass a budget, it is fairly clear that they should be essential, though they could work without being pay if they wanted to.
I, on the other hand, would not be able to work/volunteer during a shut down. I said here before that I would probably keep working even during a shut down, that I had enough stuff on my computer that as long as I had it with me, I couldn’t see not doing anything. Evidently that wouldn’t be allowed. You can’t get into the buildings at all (even though my building is privately owned). And most importantly, doing anything that leaves a footprint on a government computer during a shut down is grounds for dismissal when things start up again. So, if I had my computer with me, I couldn’t turn it on, type on it, log on to the network, read e-mail, listen to voice mail messages, etc. Nothing. I mean, I might be able to get my representative to do something if they tried to fire me, but it would be easier to just not do it. If we get to Friday and nothing has been passed, I’ll leave the computer and all my papers and data in the office. Safer that way.
Shut it down or shut-up…I have grown weary of the idle threats…
LOL…
It started with a $500,000 loan to Santa Barbara Police Chief Cam Sanchez in 2001.
Then three more loans in 2002, to a police officer, a city planner and a waterfront department employee.
In 2003, the number of city loans crept up to 4.Two more police officers and two additional waterfront employees were the recipients.
Slowly, the number grew. Every year the city loaned more money.
And now, today, Santa Barbara has loaned about $4.4 million to city employees to help them buy homes.
About half of the loans came in 2007 and beyond after the mortgage meltdown and the economy began to collapse.
“This whole thing is nuts,” said Ernie Salomon, a City Hall watchdog activist. “The fact that the money was lent is bad enough, but the fact that it was lent out of the reserve fund is unforgivable.”
Santa Barbara city officials say that no one could have foreseen the mortgage meltdown in 2002, when the program was approved, a year after the city loaned police chief Cam Sanchez $500,000 to buy a home.
http://www.thedailysound.com/032411-SANTA-BARBARA-MORTGAGE-LOAN-PROGRAM-MILLIONS
the city loaned police chief Cam Sanchez $500,000 to buy a home.
Ha, Santa Barbra is a rough town, bad ruthless criminals live there, I’m surprised they where able to attract anyone “skilled & fearless” enough to take on such a hellish job. :-/
Police Chief for coastal wealthy community = Qualified applicants are extremely rare in America.
SB actually has some serious Hispanic gangs. East side v west side.
Reckon they need $$$$$$$$$$$ for their property tax bills, or their low-cost rental units.
Santa Barbara city officials say that no one could have foreseen the mortgage meltdown in 2002 ??
If lending the money was such a sound investment strategy, then any bank would have been glad to make the loans.
obviously, the loans were made because they could not have been gotten elsewhere. that’s corruption, plain and simple.
Comments regarding Santa Barbara. Most working classes would not be able to live in town without programs like this; as corrupt as they seem or have become. I remember something that helped teachers get loans as well. But I was a vegetable broker at that time; fell into farming after a long route to graduating pre-law at UCSB and stayed. Loved it in Goleta for a number of years. But the escalation of home prices extended up and down the coast making it very unaffordable by about 2000.
The service industry has been practically “outsourced” to communities like Ventura and Lompoc. Even Goleta had become a land of million dollar starter homes for awhile (2005ish). There is quite an impressive train of commuter headlights going south on the 101 from Lompoc or Santa Maria at 5:00 AM. And a bottleneck in Monteceito on the 101 for those northbound; with commuters desperately trying to be on time for work at the mercy of the 101.
What a life; 3 hours spent commuting each day to serve the wealthy only to have a few waking hours in your own pad located 60+ miles away. Too bad for them gas is now pushing $5/gal.
Can you rent a $2500 pad when you work for 10.00/hour? NO! So lots of people that work in SB can’t afford to live in SB.
And we have bedroom communites being pushed ever farther away. Coming from Ventura is very time consuming and hard to pin down when you will arrive at work as there are few to no other routes to take when the 101 is jammed. Ventura to SB should be 30 minutes/ can take 2 hours during commute times and you better hope for no accidents. Yet no-one seems to want to take a train or bus(at least that is how it was when we left for good in 04).
When I owned a home in Goleta(1995-2004); often joked that we couldn’t afford to live in it. When we did we usually crammed into the granny flat upstairs that was 400 square feet. Since that was mostly untenable for the 4 of us(met my wonderful wife from Santa Maria trying to make it in SB, she ended up going from hair to selling vegetables with me as her boss); but my $30/hr job required a good back; it was better to rent out the whole compound and live in Oregon, where I decided to take us due to a teaching program that would have me.
Taxes, bad as they were, were only $3600 per year. The new buyers paid $875k for the home and taxes were more like $12,000.
The “fake” money from UCSB students mommies and daddies that allowed us to rent the compound out for $3500 per month was too good to give up (our payment was $1500). But we finally listeded to one thing Jim Cramer said, and that was to “ring the register” and cash out our equity gains. I guess they are still going for 650k; that is a fall but nowhere near the $275k I bought it for after the last big dip in 1995. It was literally one of the only properties I could afford with a 60k down; it needed the granny flat to make it pencil out.
I had no idea my good fortune at the time of purchase, I was tired of flushing the rent money away, single, and I could inhabit the granny flat for about $500/month as long as I kept the main house rented which was easy being close to UCSB.
For awhile it was harder to spend money faster than the equity gains we were making. One thing we knew though; ringing that register was one time deal and we would likely never be owners on the south coast again. But with the increased gangs we said good riddance to Cali and haven’t been back even to visit since 2006. I miss the surfing, but a thick rubber suit goes a long way and now I enjoy Oregon surfing!
Blah Blah. SB has a ways to fall, still, I am afraid.
Damn public employee pensions!
Oh wait…
Getting the melted-down reactors under control could take months:
I don’t think that’s part of the MSM script:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/sns-ap-as-japan-earthquake,0,1465172.story
The same type of incompetence plays out over and over again.
1. New Orleans, build a city below sea level in an area that is hurricane prone, but don’t have a backup plan when the dike breaks.
2. BP, drill in deep water but no clue what to do in case anything goes wrong.
3. Build nuclear power plants near fault lines within reach of tsunamis. To top it off place the backup systems so that they are the first thing that gets taken out.
Of course nobody could have seen it coming, especially if you have your head up a dark hole. I would expect a similar response in any other country.
1. There is no “back-up” plan for when a dike breaks. The City had tons of money to re-build and re-enforce the dikes, but only built for catagory 3 storms. The money was used just like the EPA’s SUPERFUND for EPA cleanups. Most of it went to “administrative costs”. Very few sites got cleaned up. Government at work.
2. The BLow-out preventer was the backup system. It failed. You don’t usually have a backup plan for a backup plan, unless you are the government. Then you have lots of plans, none of which work.
3. Bad luck. It seems from the data most recently coming in, a huge portion of the coastal land mass sunk several feet from the earthquake. Walls built to stop water intrusion proved to be too low when the drop in ground elevation factored in. The backup plan was to have the generators take over. The generators got flooded. Safety factor was probably too low, although I question the wisdom of Nukes on Fault lines. Japan has NO energy of its own. It relies totally on imports. What should they do?
In summary. Bad stuff happens. Sometimes, really bad stuff happens.
You don’t usually have a backup plan for a backup plan, unless you are the government
Some companies do take diaster recovery for real.
For example, some data centers have battery backups *and* diesel generators.
It seem to me that the MSM overhyped the story. The reactors are ruined and the utility should be attacked for not putting seawater on the reactors in a timely manner because they wanted to save the economic value of them. However, stories talking about bullet trains that disappeared with 100’s on board fell of the radar screen. Did they ever find them? I do not know. How many died due to dam brakes, refinery fires, gas line breaks, I do not know but they all occurred. I am sure we will hear about any radiation deaths but so far they are none. Can’t make good public policy without facts.
Sure you can. Just ask any politician!
For anyone who thinks that Medicaid is a really great deal:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/02/health/policy/02medicaid.html?ref=health
I recall someone here saying that Medicaid recipients were getting free orthodontia. And an Escalade and free steaks too.
“I recall someone here saying that Medicaid recipients were getting free orthodontia.”
In W. Virginia they don’t have any teeth, so no worries.
And to make matters worse…how do we expect the unemployed or poor people to get back into the job market with bad teeth? Since we have become a nation of salespeople, not factory workers, people notice a nice smile..it’s good for business.
If bad teeth disqualified a person from employment then the entire UK would be unemployed.
Just sayin.
They have lower standards there……..Its all becoming face to face today…
“How can an already overtaxed Medicaid system handle such a huge influx of people?” asked Dr. Michael A. Felton, a family doctor in Church Point, La., near Lafayette.
Solution: Print more money. A rather obvious solution, at that.
Housing bubble hits ethic column in the New York Times…
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/magazine/mag-03Ethicist-t.html?src=recg
Notice, though, the language: have happened. As if it’s over an there is nothing else to do but let banks sit on inventory forever.
“You have an unusually strong ethical compass — and no future in real estate.”
Speaks volumes doesn’t it.
+1 “Both parties should be satisfied after the deal closes, or it was not a good deal.” -NAR (’jus kidding)
I have a foreclosure story from our town in unglamorous Central Texas. There’s a 2700 sq. ft. 1950s house on one of the best streets in the city (a very well-preserved early 20th century neighborhood near downtown). I saw the interior this fall, and it’s very nicely maintained (the garage was scrupulously neat) and with no signs of flipperage. It’s quite a mystery why the thing is going into foreclosure. The only obvious problem is that it’s on the wrong side of the street, so it backs to industrial and one of the busier streets in town. Anyway, it’s been on the market for a couple of years now, bouncing between a high price of $270k and a low of $245k. 100 per square foot is not unreasonable for the area, but it is top dollar ($50 per square foot is more average in the city, with $36 and $37 per square foot for foreclosures in less desirable areas). Anyway, the house just went into foreclosure. The house is now priced at $205k, which they say is $74 per square foot, although the realtor.com explains helpfully that lower offers are often accepted on foreclosures. This is just the beginning of the 2011 real estate season, so it’s going to be interesting to see what effect the $205k price has on prices elsewhere in the neighborhood.
In other news, I was reading a kitchen and bath renovation magazine from this spring, and one of the featured stories involves a woman who ripped out the outdated black granite in her kitchen to put in $10k in white marble. To make the story all the better, she had built the blooming house herself 8 years previously in 2000! This is the first outdated granite story I’ve ever seen, but presumably, it’s not going to be the last.
Granite is going to be remembered as the olive-formica of the bubble era. As in: “I liked the house, but the kitchen was just so bubble.”
In 20 years you will see neat little stacks of granite left out by the curb for the trash truck.
White marble was pretty popular in the Great Depression.
It’s quite a mystery why the thing is going into foreclosure…………….
perhaps this is a “cash-out refi” property wherein the bulk of it’s value was siphoned off a few years back for a luxury cruise, a new sports car, a fancy new wardrobe and some really cool do-dads to boot.
All the money’s gone. All that’s left is the house…………….
Or to pay medical bills
Or that.
If you can find the very, very few who actually paid a medical bill or made the house handicap accessible….we should forgive these loans
“The house is now priced at $205k,…”
I’ve understand that Texas has high property taxes, and I’m not sure if that’s based on the assessor’s wishes or actual sales price. Any idea of the estimated taxes for this place?
I’ve got the taxes: $6700 a year, based on an assessment of $246k. Their taxes have been pretty stable over the past few years. I’ve seen a number of other homes in the area where the taxes have literally tripled from 2004 to 2011 for no clear reason.
More on the foreclosure history. The owners bought in 2006 (!) and started trying to sell in spring 2008 (!), so it took 3 years to foreclose from that point. As I mentioned, I didn’t see any signs of excessive consumption around the house and they sold it almost immediately after buying, so these are my theories:
1. They bought a second house without first selling the first.
2. They couldn’t afford the house to begin with.
One of these days, I expect I’ll hear the story. There’s a very classic New Englandish colonial for sale for $250k a few blocks away. One of my neighbors knows the owners, and she said that the owners were long gone and might let it go for high 100s. I was very interested (the photographs of it looked fantastic), up until I saw the house in person. It was built in 1937 and the bathrooms are largely untouched since then (original tile work in poor shape, troubling water stains on one of the walls) and the paint is peeling everywhere you look. I have no idea what a middle class family with kids was doing in this house–maybe an OD on This Old House magazine? The tax assessment is $7800 a year, based on a (ludicrous) valuation of $297k. I wouldn’t touch it with a 10 foot pole.
I am expecting more foreclosures in this neighborhood, based on how many empty houses I’m seeing that have been for sale for a long time. Another likely in the area was listed for sale for $200k for a while and then went off the market. Around March 20, I was walking past that house when I noticed that the Christmas tree (!) was still up.
“I’ve got the taxes: $6700 a year, based on an assessment of $246k.”
$500/month to rent your own place? Ouch!
I’m paying $2269/yr based on an wishful assessment of $181k, which rose slightly due to an increased hospital levy.
The assessed value is immediately set to the sales price if ut is higher. If it’s lower, you have to protest.
Aparently real estate agents must all have the same design training.The pictures of 99.9% of for sales have rooms with no rugs and no curtains of just minimal valances. For years sellers have been advised for years to de-clutter. But the bare floors and no window treatments seem very recent and widespread. It does seem to make places look better. But don’t many condos / coops require a minimum 80% - 90% of carpeting? The the pictures of apartments for sell show the same decor or lack thereof. Of many the housepoor owners can’t afford much furnishings?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/liamhalligan/8423520/The-US-recovery-is-little-more-than-an-economic-sugar-rush.html
UK Telegraph: US “recovery” nothing but an economic sugar rush. Sad and telling that we have to turn to foreign media, or blogs, to learn the true state of the US economy. If emphirical observation isn’t enough, that is.
I would expect nothing less from our Corporate owned media
Yet the sheeple trust it implicitly.
Just like they believe union janitors and teachers are the cause of our economic crisis.
And before anyone says: “You don’t get it, because you live in low tax Colorado”, I hear the same rhetoric here, that teachers are paid “lavishly”, even though the average pay in our school district is in the low 40’s.
Damn librul corporate media!
Oh wait…
“US “recovery” nothing but an economic sugar rush.”
More like an economic whippit.
Whipped-cream charger From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A whipped cream charger (also called whippits, whippets, or nangs) is a steel cylinder or cartridge filled with nitrous oxide (N2O) that is used as a whipping agent in a whipped cream dispenser. The dinitrous oxide in whipped cream chargers is also used by recreational drug users as an inhalant for its psychoactive effects. Chargers are also used as a cheap source of nitrous oxide for small, powerful model rockets.
Whippets, those were the days…
“Whippets, those were the days…”
A 90 second vacation from the planet.
LMAO. I (and I think WE) know this all too well! I’m starting to like you Jeff.
One day at a time for me now now exeter. You know the best friend I have in the world to this day was a kid I got in a fight with in 5th grade, he still lives in my hometown in Ct. the guy I am closest with down here is a Cornell educated attorney who has views very similar to yours, we have spirited discussions which usually end with those convinced against their will are of the same opinion still kinda thing and then we go back to talking about things we share similar views on, which is most things like work, the economy, family, sports, etc. Anyway, I have liked you for a long time.
Thank you. And likewise, ODAAT. I never much think about it anymore it’s been so long.
And regarding the whippets…. I’ll preface this by saying I didn’t succeed upon exiting in house treatment back in early 1985. My first job after in house was at a well known Dairy not far from Bennington, VT, night shift loading trucks. Cases upon cases of ready-whip were shipped every night. In my case, each day was a 8hr vacation from planet earth!!!
Anyways it was about 6 months after that when I finally got it/understood and have been that way since.
From the article:
“Already, $414bn of US taxpayers’ money was spent on sovereign interest payments during the last fiscal year - around 4.5 times the Department of Education budget. And that was with yields kept historically and artificially low by QE.
Global investors are increasingly wondering what happens when the money printing stops and those debt service costs rise. More and more interest is being shown in the fact that America’s total sovereign liabilities, including off-balance sheet items such as Medicare and Medicaid, amount to $75,000bn – no less than five times’ annual GDP.”
This is one reason why we need to GTFO of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. We cannot afford it! We are so broke right now, yet we are spending billions we don’t have on phony wars. How come we’re not out of there yet, Obama? Obama lied.
“Global investors are increasingly wondering what happens when the money printing stops and those debt service costs rise.”
What is there to wonder about? We’re either gonna default or monetize the debt.
Amen!
Recontrust is back in action in Oregon! Bofa foreclosure arm is rescheduling its “lost” Oregon sales, of which my wife’s will be a part, sales starting in August. And they are scheduling no less than 54 foreclosure sales for 10:00 A.M. sharp at the courthouse in Deschutes county on Aug 15.
Can they even hope to sell that many (even just back to the bank) in ONE day??? have not seen our domicile back on the list just yet, but they are putting scores on the docket each day, more than seem possible to process!
Are you suggesting they are trying to Robo-Sell the homes?
MIB,
You had mentioned yesterday about new mansions being built in Bend.
Is any of this taking place near Collins Road?
I am talking about Tumalo area, so yeah, but not specifically. I really like the area you refer to;my kid caught his first trout in Shevlin Park. Where I am seeing lots of building is in the resort of Eagle Crest up on Cline Butte; people who bought lots (some of the lots were 250k at one point) are developing them I am thinking. Old redmond folk lament the loss of good motorcycle trails and marvel that anyone would pay any kind of money for the scrub brush out here! And the mansions get noise from cycles that buzz by on the BLM. Some homes right on trails so not really a super cozy co-existence!
I walk by this one house that has been frozen for 6 months, no one working there on a mostly built home. Thought the owners had run out of money at a bad time…roofing in the driveway, ready to go up; jetted tub in the garage, shower enclosure in the front yard.
Turns out they built 6 inches too high and architectural review board stopped construction on it!(oh, before you add that last bit; can you make the thing a foot lower?)
Its starting to deteriorate; tied up in owner v resort review board litigation—thinking about driving by and picking up a new jetted tub to use as a water feature…Just kidding BTW
Thanks.
test
The other day I was talking with one of my neighbors whose friend is in FB limbo. Bank of America was stringing him along with a short sale, then told him he had to enroll in HAMP. He found a short-sale buyer; however, BoA then arbitrarily pushed back the short sale date by two months, and the buyer bailed. In the meantime B0A asked the FB to pay $800 a month (from his unemployment benefits) as a sign of “good faith” although by this time the FB had figured out he was being played, and refused to pay another dime. He’s also demanded to see proof that BoA actually holds the mortgage. He’s been living in the house rent-free for over 18 months now.
Now here’s the real news: this FB supposedly found out that if bank does a short sale, they have to eat the difference between the mortgage loan value and the price they get for the house - but if they let the house go to foreclosure, Uncle Sam will pay them half the difference between what they loaned on the house, and what they subsequently recover from the final foreclosure sale. Meaning yet another huge backdoor bailout for the banks, which also eliminates their incentive to do short sales.
Can any REIC insiders comment on the veracity of this claim?
Sounds about right from what I have heard. Keep in mind that the Megabank already unloaded the loan for almost full value to Fannie/Fred so the GSEs (taxpayer) are really the ones taking the hit. Also keep in mind that the accounting keeping track of all this is allowed to be so smoke-and-mirrored to death that the whole thing will be presented to the public as a “profitable win-win” for the taxpayer.
Does BofA own or merely service the loan?
The Federal Reserve owns all of the loans and will pass all the loses onto the US taxpayer, i.e., me and you, in the form of massive printing of more dollars for their member banks to speculate in stocks and commodities for a new round of Financial Sector profits.
Financial profits account for most of the gains in US GDP.
Printing money is good. Good if you are a banker or own lots of commodities or stocks.
If you don’t, you lose.
I don’t know.
(In answer to question to previous question as to whether BoA owns the loan or is the servicer). Diogenes, I DO know more than I want to about the Fed’s symbiotic relationship with the TBTF banks.
“…but if they let the house go to foreclosure, Uncle Sam will pay them half the difference between what they loaned on the house…”
I too would like confirmation of this.
If true, it means our economy is toast.
The economy is not toast. The FED will continue to print money to give to their favored banks, to spend on stocks and commodities, and occasionally make a few loans(probably too risky), thereby putting more and more money into the eCONomy to stimulate “growth” and business “investment”.
Endless streams of dollars will flow from the rich “investors” down to the people who will receive them as income for doing menial tasks.
See.
It will all work out really good as long as don’t don’t stop printing up more “money”.
From the 1920’s song of the same name:
I’m in the money,
We’re in the money,
We’ve got a lot of what it takes to get along………………..
You know it.
The Depression really did have some very cynical and cutting songs about the economy, didn’t it? Many disguised as upbeat party music.
“this FB supposedly found out that if bank does a short sale, they have to eat the difference between the mortgage loan value and the price they get for the house - but if they let the house go to foreclosure, Uncle Sam will pay them half the difference between what they loaned on the house, and what they subsequently recover from the final foreclosure sale.”
NOT true.
The servicer/lender/investor/borrower/2nd-lender incentives are all laid out quite clearly in the HAFA and HAMP program documents. You can find them easily by googling “HAFA servicer incentive fees”.
The servicer has a clear incentive to complete a qualifying HAFA short sale, since the gov will pay them $$$ to do so ($1500 for the service). If they also hold the second, they can get paid up to $6K for releasing the 2nd lien on a 3-for-1 basis, if the 1st “investor”, generally Fannie, agrees to take a corresponding $2K hit. The borrow can be paid up to $3K in Cash-for-Keys.
This is all publicly available info. There is no corresponding payment to the service if the house goes into foreclosure, other than the fact that they collect continuing monthly servicing feels up until it goes into foreclosure. But they collect those anyway the whole time before it goes to short-sale or DIL.
Total inventory of available homes: 7.3 million
http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/why-the-housing-market-is-three-times-worse-than-you-think.html
It would take over 17 months at current sales pace to clear all these out.
There’s a chart in this article for total months’ supply of distressed homes, by state. I was surprised how many states are in worse shape than Nevada and Arizona. Both are actually lower than the nationwide average.
NY has the healthiest LTV in the country. Wow. One perk of not taking part in the bubble drama. One thing I’ve noticed is the ongoing civic projects that are keeping people employed. We’ve got brandy new fire stations (guess they were playing catch up), 2 new professional malls going in, 2 parks being developed in a town w/less than 12k people, and restaurants that were based in Syracuse moving out to the burbs. In Syracuse, ground is being broken on the new cancer treatment center this spring. I heard Skaneateles is getting a new sports medicine facility aimed toward elite athletes. (Something this area tried to get but was blocked by the town) Also the schools are getting part of the threatened budget cuts reinstated. And the defense sector seems to go untouched as it’s rumored the talent pool is pretty deep here.
Upstate really can’t say they’re being forgotten by Albany now.
Who knew it would play out like this? I certainly have to say I have egg on my face w/all the doom and gloom I was sharing w/certain friends 3 years ago. And in my town it only takes $10k - $25k in property taxes a year (plus whatever they tack on this year) and a 8.5% sale tax to keep it all going. ; ) Party on Garth!
The Suit gets an award for transparency..
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/03/31/135024746/white-house-wins-open-government-award-keeps-it-secret
I’m having a hard time sympathizing with folks who have to pay “extra interest” on an FHA loan. If they signed the contract, they agreed to do it. If they don’t like the contractual terms, then they can get a loan somewhere else; I have to assume that nobody put a gun to their heads to force them to sign the contract under duress (”Either your signature or your brains are going on that contract”)
For that matter, I doubt anyone even forced them to become a home owner. With a five percent rental vacancy rate in desirable San Diego, it’s not like we have run out of available rental units.
It’s also unfair that only a certain favored class of Americans qualify for low-downpayment FHA loans. Whatever happened to the notion of anti-discrimination in lending?
Extra interest charged to pay off FHA loans early comes under fire
Critics say the FHA’s policy of charging a full month’s worth of interest on loans even if sellers and refinancers pay them off at the beginning of the month is unfair.
Reporting from Washington—
Could the federal government’s booming FHA mortgage program be forcing homeowners to pay tens of millions of dollars of extra interest charges when they sell their houses or refinance their loans?
Critics say yes. The government says the critics aren’t providing the full picture.
Those critics include Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), who is sponsoring legislation that would prohibit Federal Housing Administration lenders from collecting a full month’s worth of interest from sellers and refinancers who pay off their mortgages — close escrow — before the final day of the month.
No other major source of financing — not Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or even the VA — requires interest payments from borrowers beyond the date they pay off their loans. On an FHA loan, however, if you sell your house and close early in the month, you are charged interest through the rest of the month.
To illustrate: Say you pay off a $200,000 FHA-insured mortgage April 5. You’ll be charged an extra $820 to cover interest for the remaining days of the month, according to estimates prepared by the National Assn. of Realtors, which supports Cardin’s bill. If you pay off the same loan April 15, the additional interest would total $492.
Where does the money go? Ted Tozer, president of the Government National Mortgage Assn. (Ginnie Mae), which bundles FHA loans into bonds and sells them to investors, said it flows to the bondholders, who are guaranteed payment of interest for the full month even if the balance is paid off much earlier.
Tozer said the approach afforded FHA borrowers a slight discount on their initial interest rates — probably in the range of 0.10% to 0.15% — compared with conventional loans.
But critics charge that the extra interest payment has a far greater economic effect on FHA sellers and refinancers — often cutting their proceeds by hundreds of dollars — than the barely perceptible rate break they received on the mortgage itself.
“This is an issue of fairness,” Cardin said. “Homeowners should not have to pay interest on loans that they have fully repaid.”
…
Small change. Be glad not to have a Canadian Mortgage if you sell your house.
‘Just passed through the town of Adelante, CA — “Land of Unlimited Possibilities.”’
Update to my post from yesterday. Adelante provides the last evidence of the housing bubble to be found along the stretch of Hwy 395 between SoCal and Death Valley. Why the home builders overlooked such a craptacular opportunity to construct McMansion tract home developments across the full breadth of the Mojave Desert will always remain a mystery to me.
(RE: Adelante)
“Sounds like a great place to house the section-8 folks.”
I would think with one out of seven homes reported vacant, Las Vegas would be still better, as the homeowners could presumably find work in Vegas as waiters and barmaids. So far as I could tell, there was no evidence of any employment base for the thousands and thousands of tract homes around Adelante, except perhaps the nearby correctional facility.
“as the homeowners could presumably find work in Vegas as waiters and barmaids”
Don’t forget hookers and strippers! They can make good coin.
On the other hand, with so many bedrooms and baths in all those tract home developments around Adelante, I see no reason an enterprising hooker operation couldn’t set up shop there and make plenty of bank to pay the mortgages on the “home business” locations.
Adelante, CA
Mr. Bear, what’s this place then?:
Adelanto is located in the Mojave Desert at 34°34′34″N 117°25′58″W / 34.57611°N 117.43278°W / 34.57611; -117.43278 (34.575990, -117.432713)
Iffin’ you goes a tad north just a bit on Hwy395, you “discover” this place maybe,…
“Dunmovin”, CA
Really!
I noticed that (Adelante / Adelanto). The loverly missus agrees we saw a sign that said Adelante. I myself never was good with those Spanish endings (-e or -o).
BTW, now having experienced long drives along both Hwy 50 and Hwy 395, I have to say that it is a toss up to say which is more desolate…
Why the home builders overlooked such a craptacular opportunity to construct McMansion tract home developments across the full breadth of the Mojave Desert will always remain a mystery to me……..
two words: no water.
That explanation would make more sense to me if there were more water in evidence around Adelante (Adelanto?)…
Filed under: “Don’t do as I say, do as I do!”
No marriage or homemoaners penalties here:
How You Can Pull a GE on Taxes:
WSJ / ROI
(Modified by Hwy50):
I spoke to
Gil CharneyHwy’sBro, principal taxsmirkerresearcheratH&R Block’sheeheehe Tax Institute, to see how a regular Joe-the-plumber could pull a GE. The verdict: It’s more feasible than you think—especially if you’re self-employed.Good find.
Looking for lousy weather?
“In the end, it was Fargo, N.D. earning the title as America’s Toughest Weather City. The combination of the city’s infamous blizzards, extreme cold and spring floods proved too much for Bradford, Pa. in the final. ”
America’s Toughest Weather City Champion
http://tinyurl.com/3tpdtoy
As a final comment before I give up for today, which has little if nothing to do with housing or bubbles or stuff like that, I noticed on an NPR show early this morning that the host was actually put out by Obama’s shirking of the War Powers Act. It seems that even the support team for Obama is a little disillusioned with the use of American forces without some pending US crisis or imminent attack.
The host even referred to Obama as George w. Obama. He even noted that, at least, Bush had the good grace to go to Congress before committing US troops.
The remainder of the show and the subsequent shows went back to cheerleading for their glorious leader, but, at least, they did note that there was a “change” in the policy stance of the Obama administration, equating this to the strains of office of ANY president who needs to look after the needs of the US, which of course is a really big stretch when we are looking at the invasion of Libya.
It was refreshing to see that NPR could, for one brief moment, recognize that the “Constitutional Law Professor Genius, Community Organizer in-chief, was really pushing the limits of his powers as the president and the legal “doctrines” are stretched beyond anything the Bush administration could have dreamed up.
Now, I’ll take another quaalude and relax. Nothing to worry about. Hope and Change. Yes, we can. I get it. yea….It’s all good.
Realtors Are Liars
…and from the “damn public pensions cost too much” dept…
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7503071.html
Metro adds $12 million in write-offs
Metro has added $12 million to a pile of wasted investments, redundant design work and dead-end proposals that it announced it would write off last month, bringing the total assets ditched to $180 million.
Damn overpaid janitors!
Oh wait… 180 MILLION?
The banks are still up to their old games with REO.
I spent some time back in VT and border towns in upstate over the weekend for my fathers 90th birthday. The two REO dumps we’re interested are still empty and in foreclosure limbo. One of them I made an offer on last fall even though ownership is unclear. We have our own access to the place(wink) and decided go back in and take a look. It was winterized at some point since last fall, the 4Sale sign is gone and no other activity. WTF are they waiting for? Spring selling season?(Oh goody Martha! The spring selling season is here!!), Waiting for an asteroid to punch a hole in the roof? I don’t get it.
The other dump is another in foreclosure limbo. The occupant has left but he’s been fighting the foreclosure in court. His biz has failed, wife left and yet he’s attempting to hold onto the house by parking a pickup truck and track loader broadside at the head of the driveway. Since early December he’s been able to delay foreclosure some how some way.
There is much less housing talk up there now. My sense of the sentiment is that they think prices have stopped falling and they may be right but sales are *definitely * static as the prices are still absurdly high. Now I don’t know what the next step is but it seems to me the price structure supports are non-existent. Stagnant/falling sales volume, sporadic building here and there and a crappy economy suggests that the sales volume will continue declining until the price structure fails. The other sentiment is “yes, I could only sell for X but it’s worth X+75%.” My response was, “it’s worth what it will sell for today and that amount is far less than the amount you believe ‘it’s worth’”.
This entire thing is a friggin’ disaster. I’ll take my mobility and opportunity that mobility offers before I trade places with these dumb-asses. They’re stuck and their only hope is believing the lie that their house is a path to riches. It’s the only hope they have left so let them believe it. You take away that hope and they’ll be throwing themselves of the nearest bridge.
Giant Vampire Squid (and Obama’s #2 campaign contributor) Goldman Sachs faces fresh “embarrassment,” but, as usual, no consequences, for new disclosures of its role in the subprime collapse.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110403/ts_alt_afp/usfinancebankingcompanygoldman_20110403184110
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Senate will soon issue findings of a probe of the US mortgage meltdown that fueled the global financial crisis, with Goldman Sachs likely to face fresh embarrassment over its role, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, whose high-profile inquiry commission subpoenaed Goldman’s and other executives last year, is due to release its report on the subprime implosion of 2007 and 2008.
The paper, citing people familiar with the matter, said the report was expected to release emails from securities firms that developed or sold subprime mortgages and financial vehicles including collaterized debt obligations (CDO).
CDOs were used to help Wall Street firms bet against the housing market. When the housing bubble burst, several of the top CDOs were downgraded to “junk” status, and their values plunged.
Goldman, the Journal reported, created CDOs in 2006 and 2007 to shield its exposure to the US housing market, and has been accused of making large bets against the market while selling bullish positions to group that were not expecting the market to fall.
People familiar with the matter said Goldman and Deutsche Bank — both of which have been criticized for misleading investors in the housing market — were expected to draw particular scrutiny in the report, the Journal said.
Totally unrelated to housing, but fascinating nevertheless.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8423689/Could-this-couples-Bible-codices-tell-the-true-story-of-Christs-life.html
They are the British couple at the centre of the gripping revelation that has exhilarated Biblical scholars and historians alike: the discovery of 70 ancient lead and copper sealed books, bound with wire, whose pages could be contemporary accounts of the final years of Jesus’ life.
The books, credit card sized codices, are thought to be among the earliest existing Christian documents, possibly predating the writings of St Paul.
David Elkington, 49, a religious author, and his wife Jennifer revealed that the codices had been found in a remote cave in eastern Jordan - a region to which it’s believed early Christians fled after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.
”We are now working with the Jordanian authorities to repatriate the artefacts,” they announced four days ago. And then the couple promptly disappeared.
A tirade of vicious death threats, they claimed, had left them fearful for their safety and they retreated to a remote rent farmhouse in Gloucestershire where, last week, The Sunday Telegraph tracked them down.
What is about religion that brings out the best in people?
Yes kill those that may actually find the truth was JC was a weed head.
How Wachovia laundered billions for Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel. Naturally, the penalty was a slap-on-the-wrist fine, with no bank officials indicted.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/03/us-bank-mexico-drug-gangs
On 10 April 2006, a DC-9 jet landed in the port city of Ciudad del Carmen, on the Gulf of Mexico, as the sun was setting. Mexican soldiers, waiting to intercept it, found 128 cases packed with 5.7 tons of cocaine, valued at $100m. But something else – more important and far-reaching – was discovered in the paper trail behind the purchase of the plane by the Sinaloa narco-trafficking cartel.
During a 22-month investigation by agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and others, it emerged that the cocaine smugglers had bought the plane with money they had laundered through one of the biggest banks in the United States: Wachovia, now part of the giant Wells Fargo.
The authorities uncovered billions of dollars in wire transfers, traveller’s cheques and cash shipments through Mexican exchanges into Wachovia accounts. Wachovia was put under immediate investigation for failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering programme. Of special significance was that the period concerned began in 2004, which coincided with the first escalation of violence along the US-Mexico border that ignited the current drugs war.
Criminal proceedings were brought against Wachovia, though not against any individual, but the case never came to court. In March 2010, Wachovia settled the biggest action brought under the US bank secrecy act, through the US district court in Miami. Now that the year’s “deferred prosecution” has expired, the bank is in effect in the clear. It paid federal authorities $110m in forfeiture, for allowing transactions later proved to be connected to drug smuggling, and incurred a $50m fine for failing to monitor cash used to ship 22 tons of cocaine.
Yet YOU TRY and deposit 10K or more all at once and the Feds will be knocking on your door, PRONTO!
Republicans propose $4 trillion in cuts
By Carl Hulse
New York Times
Posted: 04/03/2011 06:34:12 PM PDT
WASHINGTON — House Republicans this week are planning to propose a steep reduction of more than $4 trillion in federal spending over the next decade by reshaping popular programs like Medicare, the party’s budget chairman said Sunday, opening a new front in the intensifying budget wars.
Appearing on the TV program “Fox News Sunday,” Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who heads the budget panel, also said Republicans would call for strict caps on all government spending that would require cuts to take effect whenever Congress exceeds its limit.
“We are going to put out a plan that gets our debt on downward trajectory and gets us to a point of giving our next generation a debt-free nation,” Ryan said, even as he predicted that the politically charged initiatives he intends to lay out in the 2012 budget beginning Tuesday would give Democrats a “political weapon to go against us. But they will have to lie and demagogue to make that a political weapon.”
Ryan’s comments came as Republicans and Democrats remained divided over how to reach an agreement that would avert a government shutdown as early as Saturday, when a budget bill now financing the government is set to expire.
While Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Democrat in the Senate, said progress toward a resolution was being made, neither he nor other top lawmakers could guarantee that government agencies would be able to stay open after Friday.
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When is Bernanke going to declare the end of major hostilities in the War on Savers from the deck of the ship?
Fed’s Low Rates Crack Nest Eggs
A long spell of low interest rates has created a windfall worth billions to banks, mortgage borrowers and others it was designed to benefit. But for people trying to save money, or live off existing nest eggs, those same low rates—held down by the U.S. Federal Reserve—can spell disaster.
MONEY
APRIL 4, 2011
Fed’s Low Interest Rates Crack Retirees’ Nest Eggs
By MARK WHITEHOUSE
PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla.—Forrest Yeager, a 91-year-old resident of this seaside community, had been counting on his retirement savings to last until he died. The odds are moving against him.
Jim and Eileen Keller have $200,000 remaining and fear they will eventually have to rely solely on Social Security.
With short-term bank CDs paying less than 1%, the World War II veteran expects his remaining $45,000 stash to yield just a few hundred dollars this year. So, he’s digging deeper into his principal to supplement his $1,500 monthly income from Social Security and a small pension.
“It hurts,” says Mr. Yeager, who estimates his bank savings will be depleted in about six years at his current rate of withdrawal. “I don’t even want to think about it.”
Mr. Yeager is among the legion of retirees who find themselves on the wrong end of the Federal Reserve’s epic attempt to rescue the economy with cheap money.
A long spell of low interest rates has created a windfall worth billions to banks, mortgage borrowers and others it was designed to benefit. But for many people who were counting on their nest eggs, those same low rates can spell trouble.
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“A long spell of low interest rates has created a windfall worth billions to banks, mortgage borrowers and others it was designed to benefit.”
At what point did the Fed’s mandate get altered to include picking winners and losers in the asset markets?
Sermon urges Winnetka to back affordable housing
Retired pastor speaks out in favor of controversial plan
Rev. Paul Allen and Gail Schechter, director of the Interfaith Housing Center of the Northern Suburbs. (Keri Wiginton/Tribune)
By Megan Twohey, Tribune reporter
8:52 p.m. CDT, April 3, 2011
A housing debate that has raised questions about the identity of wealthy Winnetka spilled into church Sunday, when a retired pastor took to the pulpit to proclaim that efforts to keep affordable housing out of the village are at odds with God’s vision.
The Rev. Paul Allen, pastor emeritus at Winnetka Congregational Church, has been a vocal supporter of a plan pending before the Village Board that would help create for-sale and rental properties for those who make far less than the median household income of $201,650 but not less than $45,000.
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The next housing shock
April 3, 2011 5:00 PM
As more and more Americans face mortgage foreclosure, banks’ crucial ownership documents for the properties are often unclear and are sometimes even bogus, a condition that’s causing lawsuits and hampering an already weak housing market. Scott Pelley reports.
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Taylor Bean Ties to Freddie Mac Loom in $1.9 Billion Mortgage-Fraud Trial
By Tom Schoenberg - Apr 3, 2011 9:00 PM PT
Lee Farkas, the former chairman of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp., heads to trial today as the accused mastermind of a $1.9 billion fraud conspiracy. Looming in the background will be the company’s relationship with the bailed-out federal mortgage financier, Freddie Mac.
Farkas, 58, is charged with orchestrating a scheme involving fake mortgage assets that duped some of the country’s largest financial institutions, including Bank of America Corp. (BAC), targeted the U.S. bank bailout program and contributed to the failure of Montgomery, Alabama-based Colonial Bank. Freddie Mac was the most important ingredient in Taylor Bean’s growth into the largest U.S. non-depository mortgage lender by 2008.
Lawyers said they expect the trial before U.S. Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, to last about a month. Prosecutors said they plan to show the jury more than 950 exhibits, including e-mails, corporate filings, property records and a photograph of Farkas’s jet.
“This is truly one of the most complex cases that we’ve seen,” Patrick Stokes, deputy chief of the Justice Department’s Fraud Section, said in court last month.
Prosecutors described in court papers the loans sold to Freddie Mac during an alleged seven-year conspiracy as the “lifeblood” of Taylor Bean, once the 12th-largest U.S. mortgage lender. Six people have already pleaded guilty to conspiracy and agreed to testify against Farkas, who faces a possible life sentence on 14 counts of wire, bank and securities fraud.
Farkas has denied any wrongdoing. His lawyer, William Cummings, a former U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, declined to comment.
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GOP moves to eliminate Fannie, Freddie
By: Susan Ferrechio
04/03/11 8:05 PM
Chief Congressional Correspondent
“The principal problem facing the Republicans is they have a tremendous part of their own caucus who are very sympathetic to the real estate industry,” said Mark Calabria, director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute.
Congressional Republicans are moving aggressively to wind down mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but they face resistance not only from Democrats, but members of their own party who fear rapid elimination of the two entities would destabilize the fragile housing market.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and House Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, introduced identical bills in the House and Senate that would end the government conservatorship of Fannie and Freddie within five years.
The firms, known as government-sponsored enterprises, or GSEs, have cost taxpayers $150 billion since the government rescued them from near-collapse in during the housing crisis of 2008.
“The events of the last three years have made it clear that never again can we allow the taxpayer to be responsible for poorly managed financial entities who gamble away billions of dollars,” McCain said, introducing the bill in the Senate last week.
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