Bits Bucket for April 15, 2011
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Realtors Are Liars
Attorneys get paid to lie.
Less than three minutes. Dammit!!!!
Realtors want to be paid so they lie.
Interesting…
—————
Western banks abandon Russia
AFPC Russia Reform Monitor | 4/13/2011 | Ilan Berman and Amanda Pitrof, eds.
Several western banks are abandoning their attempts to do business in Russia. According to Bloomberg, at least six European and U.S. banks have announced plans over the last year to either cut back their operations in Russia, or close up shop there altogether. The institutions in question include Morgan Stanley, Spanish lender Banco Santander, and Britain’s Barclay’s. Though the Kremlin has begun a new push to build its fledgling mortgage industry, many foreign investors and companies have found it difficult to cope with the country’s state-owned institutions, which maintain control over half of the banking system’s total assets, and are only growing with time. Other banks, however, are staying, and Russian banking analysts remain bullish. “Russia remains a growth story, and there is huge potential for banks to tap the rapidly growing consumer lending market,” says one banking expert in Moscow.
I heard a story from an engineer who used to work in Moscow during the Soviet Regime: At her power plant, and many other industrial installations, the walls were plastered with posters labeled “Quality” and “Excellence” and “Value” and “Teamwork.” Meanwhile, the actual place was falling apart.
the walls were plastered with posters labeled “Quality” and “Excellence” and “Value” and “Teamwork.”
Geez, I hope that never
startshappened 30 years agofinds it’s way to America.Now now, what you’re seeing aren’t “posters;” those are Successories. Very different concept altogether.
Speaking of Successories, has anyone ever heard of Despair.com? It’s the antithesis of Successories. And one heckuva a good time for anyone who’s of a cynical turn of mind.
My favorite Despair.com poster: Get to work. You are not being paid to believe in the power of your dreams.
Love that site.
Goldman Sachs company motto:
“Our client’s intrests always come first.”
Goldman Sachs company motto:
“Our client’s intrests always come first.”
Slim’s corollary:
Typos: Another one of the fine services that we offer.
“Our client’s interests always come first.”….. after our HFT protocol.
Yep. The interest the money is making, that is.
“Our client’s
intrestsalways come first.”When I saw a Ford leaving the assembly line with a “QUALITY IS JOB 1″ decal installed upside down, I knew the domestic autos quality was on the decline, this was the early 90’s, looks like i was right.
(Supposedly Ford quality is making a comeback, but I’ve been hearing that same story my whole young life).
Accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya plant
http://tinyurl.com/no2288
Do you know how much force it takes to do that kind of damage? Holy moly! It looks like a small nuke went off!
many foreign investors and companies have found it difficult to cope with the country’s state-owned institutions, which maintain control over half of the banking system’s total assets,
Umm how is this different than the US. Don’t the GSE’s and bailed out TBTF banks control the vast majority of total assets. These institutions are state owned or atleast their liabilities are state owned.
The difference is it’s cheaper to purchase American politicians.
Russians have priced themselves out of the market.
Russians have priced themselves out of the market.
Wow.
What if there were an exchange where people could buy/sell politicians?
Comment by 2banana
2011-04-15 05:10:00
Interesting…
—————
Western banks abandon Russia
AFPC Russia Reform Monitor | 4/13/2011 | Ilan Berman and Amanda Pitrof, eds.
Several western banks are abandoning their attempts to do business in Russia. According to Bloomberg, at least six European and U.S. banks have announced plans over the last year to either cut back their operations in Russia, or close up shop there altogether.
I call bull sh*t.
The REAL reason is because if the “white shoe boys” try to do over there what they do over here, they will wind up in a dungeon eatin swill and picking lice out their beards.
When Putin jail Kordokovsky, or what ever his name is, they dragged his name through the mud like he was Farrakhan. But upon further review, Putin was simply doing what the regulators here should have done.
+1 Putin.
Russian don’t play that sh*t.
Throughout the rich banker community testicles ascended and sphincters shut tight when Putin put a BILLIONAIRE in jail.
They didn’t think it could happen to one of their own.
LOL
Go Putin!
That was my reaction to the story.
Putin had a simple rule for oligarchs: You do your business, I’ll do the politics. Sort of like separation of church and state. Khodorovsky tried to dabble in politics. Putin showed him what the ex KGB chief and black belt judoka could do.
That’s pretty much it Spookwaffe. Putin is not going to allow western banks do to them them what they did to us.
Funny how it turned out the bankers would destroy instead of the commies.
1. Illegals now do most of the work in jobs that teenagers once got…
2. Raising the minimum wage is a payoff to unions - who use it as a basis to calculate their own insane wages.
—————–
Teenage Wasteland: Jobless Rate For Young Is 25%—and Rising
CNBC | 4/14/11 | John Melloy
A quarter of teenagers were jobless in March, representing a surprising increase from February, even as the unemployment rate for the rest of the population decreased.
This figure may only get worse if budget-strapped states raise the minimum wage, and it could also be a sign of greater structural damage underlying our economy, analysts said.
The unemployment rate for 16- to 19-year olds jumped back up to 24.5 percent in March, up from 23.9 percent the prior month, according to the latest jobs data from the Labor Department.
The total unemployment rate fell to 8.8 percent from 8.9 percent.
“Even when comprehending that teen employment is volatile in nature, the data that exists serves up some shock and awe,” said Brian Sozzi, a retail research analyst with Wall Street Strategies, in a note Wednesday. “If these (wage) increases do go through, the prospect for teen employment will remain grim as employers search for workers with advanced skills to fill positions.”
ok so is it immigrants or ex-realtors taking their jobs?
“Illegals now do most of the work in jobs that teenagers once got…”
On another note, kudos to the great state of Georgia. Hope Nathan Deal signs that bill into law. The cheap labor and open borders lobbies are cryin’ all over the place about it. Not a moment too soon for this bill, because as I understand it, Hotlanta is well on its way to becoming LA East, or worse. I wouldn’t go near that city on a bet. Kind of ironic how it became a major business and travel hub, and the Mexican cartels apparently agree.
Georgia.
Has a long history of stamping out low-paying jobs. They also do not really tolerate changes in their “bidness” models.
Peaches
“Has a long history of stamping out low-paying jobs.”
Isn’t that the standard procedure in the plantation minded south?
“The bill would authorize law enforcement officers to verify the immigration status of certain criminal suspects and allows them to detain those found to be in the country illegally. It would also penalize people who “knowingly and intentionally” transport or harbor illegal immigrants.
It also would require employers with 10 or more employees to use a federal database called E-Verify to check the immigration status of new hires.” (Huffington Post April 14, 2011)
——–
During the height of the pro-immigration movement, the bleeding-heart liberal rag The Nation published an article in favor of immigration, that the immigrant are “community leaders” and “they just want a better life’ and that Americans are against immigrants because “they don’t like brown people.” The next week’s issue was stuffed with letters to the editor counter to what the Nation wrote. And that’s the bleeding heart liberal readership. I think we’re going to see a lot more state laws demanding papers.
And I don’t think eVerify is too much to ask. Goodness knows I’ve had to present a pile of “papers” every time I started a new job.
“The bill would authorize
law enforcementPol-fleece fee officers to verify the immigration status of certaincriminal suspectsfarm-agricultural workers and allows them to detain those found to be {working} in the country illegally. It would also penalize people who “knowingly and intentionally” transport or harbor [or hire]illegal immigrantscotton pickin’ peach pickers.Edited for an alternate interpretation.
During the height of the pro-immigration movement, the bleeding-heart liberal rag The Nation published an article in favor of immigration, that the immigrant are “community leaders” and “they just want a better life’ and that Americans are against immigrants because “they don’t like brown people.” The next week’s issue was stuffed with letters to the editor counter to what the Nation wrote. And that’s the bleeding heart liberal readership. I think we’re going to see a lot more state laws demanding papers.
And I don’t think eVerify is too much to ask. Goodness knows I’ve had to present a pile of “papers” every time I started a new job.
Speaking of liberals and illegal immigration, I just finished reading Thom Hartmann’s latest book, Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Re-Build our Country. To call Thom a bleeding-heart liberal is like calling the sky blue. Of course he is one.
Then you get to his thoughts on illegal immigration. Guy’s very much opposed to it, and he points out that Cesar Chavez was too. And why was Cesar against it? Because it undercut the wages of his United Farmworkers Union, that’s why.
Hartmann’s opposition boils down to the cheap labor aspect, and he believes that this country should do a whole lot more to protect American workers. And I agree with him.
The answer to illegal immigration is the same as the answer to illegal drug use. In both cases we are supposed to be the land of the free. It should be legal to immigrate here easily and legally, and it should be legal to use drugs as you see fit. The only cases where these actions should be stopped is where they pose a danger to other persons.
In other words , come here if you want. you are a free person. All men are created equal are they not? People claim this will overwhelm our system and therefore we can’t do it because our social institutions will fail. Do we exist to server our institutions or do they exist to serve us? If they fail they needed to change. Put something in place that won’t fail and that properly serves our needs.
It’s not racist for the citizens of this country to demand that it’s laws be respected, it’s leaders enforce the laws, and the lawbreakers be punished. It is however small minded to create laws to restrict access to immigrants in a nation founded on immigration, and create laws imposing restrictions on another persons actions that do not impact our own freedoms.
It should be legal to immigrate here easily and legally, and it should be legal to use drugs as you see fit. The only cases where these actions should be stopped is where they pose a danger to other persons.
+1, MethGuy!
So when 100 million Chinese move here, will you be changing your language?
Because that’s how it works in reality.
+1, MethGuy
LOL!!!!
“we are supposed to be the land of the free”
The National Anthem is not the law of the land. You get all the rights of an American citizen when you become one.
Force all immigrants to learn to speak ENGLISH if they want any government bennies….like food stamps medicaid…school for their kids
The robo-signing crisis is blamed for stalled foreclosures, but law firms’ woes may keep pace slow
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 5:43 a.m. Thursday, April 14, 2011
Investigations by attorneys general nationwide into lender activity, a federal regulatory consent agreement announced Wednesday, a giant shadow market of distressed homes and Florida’s inquiries into the state’s largest foreclosure law firms have left banks reluctant to file foreclosures.
4 COMMENTS
I am getting multiple offers from my bank to due deed in lieu of foreclosure. They are willing to pay me to execute the document. Funny thing though, they are not willing to put a number in writing. Not paying your mortgage for 34 months can be to your benefit. I have not even been scheduled for an initial hearing. My attorney wants me to take the deal. Hmmm. seems to me that my attorney just wants to make a quick buck. Don’t think he has my best interest at heart……lol
diver4life
7:07 AM, 4/14/2011
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/foreclosures/the-robo-signing-crisis-is-blamed-for-stalled-1399015.html - -
“Not paying your mortgage for 34 months can be to your benefit.”
34 months of no rent payment would be $57,800.00 for me, after tax $ too. I would consider that to my benefit.
This guy is worried about his attorney making a quick buck.
offers from my bank to due deed in lieu of foreclosure
“Due” say…
Isn’t that “due” tell?
I am definitely looking forward to tonight’s 60 Minutes special on foreclosure fraud. In it, the head of the FDIC, Sheila Bair, will call for a cleanup Superfund to cleanse the country of toxic mortgages.
Banks so poorly handled documentation on millions of mortgages that many today cannot prove that they own the homes they want to foreclose on. The resulting rash of lawsuits from people seeking to save their homes has one of the government’s top banking regulators worried that the torrent of litigation will delay the real estate market’s recovery.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chair Sheila Bair tells Scott Pelley banks should be forced to contribute billions to a clean-up fund that will help stressed homeowners stay in their homes and stave off lawsuits – there are 30,000 already – that threaten the economic rebound [...]
Like last year, banks are expected to foreclose on a million mortgages this year, a scenario that could generate more lawsuits over mismanaged paperwork. “I think that this litigation could easily get out of control,” says Bair. “…We’re already feeling like we’re falling behind it,” She thinks a large clean-up pool funded by the banks that would pay homeowners to accept a bank’s ownership claim without a lawsuit is necessary. “I would assume it would be billions [that the fund would need],” Bair tells Pelley.
Why does it need to be in a fund? Why not let each bank negotiate with the owner on what would be required to get them to acknowledge that they haven’t been paying, can’t possibly get caught up and that *someone* other than themselves has the right to get ownership of the house?
Oh, the banks are just servicers and under their contracts have no authority to do this? So why would the “pool” have any more right to do it? When do the bond holders have their say? The Fed doesn’t own all this stuff. And a bunch of the people who do own it now are private equity/hedge funds who specifically bought it in order to make a killing. Well, they want their killing and they have the muscle (cash) to wait until they can get it.
They are going to need to figure out a way to work this through the courts. Federal regulators (remember I am one of them) often don’t have a very high opinion of state regulators. Not because of the quality of the people, but because their resources are even more limited than ours are. But property rights are a state legal issue. There is no shortcut.
Fixing flawed foreclosures could cost lenders billions
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 9:20 a.m. Friday, April 15, 2011
The nation’s largest lenders and mortgage servicers face bills of up to $2 billion to right flawed foreclosure procedures and comply with federal consent orders announced this week.
But industry experts said Thursday that price is easy for big banks, which may identify far fewer homeowners to reimburse than consumer advocates would like.
The consent orders, the federal government’s first set of sanctions sought against companies since the foreclosure scandal broke in the fall, require lenders to hire consultants to review specific cases and compensate homeowners who suffered financially because of foreclosure malpractice.
“There’s probably going to be a relatively small number of reimbursements,” Cecala said. “For someone who hasn’t made payments in a year or two, it’s hard to say they have suffered financially or that their foreclosure was unjustified.”
The foreclosures eligible for review by the consultants must have been filed, pending or repossessed between Jan. 1, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2010. More than 51,000 foreclosures were filed in Palm Beach County during that period.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/foreclosures/fixing-flawed-foreclosures-could-cost-lenders-billions-1403010.html -
Violins playing a sad song.
COMMENTS
I am very happy for those that can pay their mtg, however some cannot, I took a pay cut early last year which really hurt our financial situation and we could no longer afford our 2300 pmt on a house that cost 250,000, I agree that these banks could help those to stay in their homes which wuld cost them alot less in fees than it is to hire people that really do not know what they are doing. I’d like to see a bank step up to do that.
Sheri Oavl
11:59 AM, 4/15/2011
How the heck is a house that costs $250,000 costing $2,300 a month? $1800 is a more reasonable number, including taxes.
Another great outdoor weather day in the making. Will be heading out to Laguna Seca for my second day of volunteering at the Sea Otter Classic. Today and tomorrow will be the busiest on the tracks and the injuries will be up. The downhill is longer and the jumps getting brutal. I must say it’s been a while since I’ve owned a bike but there are some nice one’s for sale. Hard to part with $3500-$5000 for a two wheeler even with gas what it is but the temptation is there. I did learn a new term “credit card bike” vs racing, touring, and mountain biking. It’s a bike that you ride 50 to 200 miles a day (without toting gear) and then use a credit card to check into a motel.
And in answer to someone from yesterday. I get up every week day at 3:30am, at the gym by 4:45am and workout to 6:15am or longer and go to bed around 10-10:30pm.
Hard to part with $3500-$5000 for a two wheeler
Alternate plan “C”:
Buy a $150.00 42# (lbs) x5 speed. Pocket the $3,350.00 for some other pleasure. Enjoy the rapid muscle development & weight loss-maintenance. Oh, and the sensation you get when you hop on a 16# (lbs) x10 speed, delightful.
You are very fortunate to need so little sleep.
I sure wish I could function on 5 hours of sleep.
I often do for extended periods of time. I’m sure with a little practice, you could learn.
Nope. It’s a scientific fact that the average person needs 7-8 hours of sleep.
It’s also another scientific fact that not everyone has the same metabolism, physiology or chemistry. Humans fall “within a range” of body types.
Exactly, everyone is different and requires different amounts of sleep. Just like you cannot change from a morning person to a night person (or vice-versa) just by trying really hard.
I used to be a 7-8 hours of sleep / night person. When I finished my PhD, I temporarily became a 3 hours of sleep morning/night person. More recently I have tended towards a 5 hours of sleep morning/night person. It’s hard to help raise kids, hold down one of those day job thingees, avidly pursue a couple of hobbies (including the HBB hobby) and find time to sleep enough, but it seems worth the struggle.
I learned my no-sleep limits when I was in the Army. I can do the 3-4 hours a night for 2 or 3 weeks but then start to go bonkers. Left to my own devices, I sleep about 7-8 hours a day.
Hard to part with $3500-$5000 for a two wheeler even with gas what it is but the temptation is there. I did learn a new term “credit card bike” vs racing, touring, and mountain biking. It’s a bike that you ride 50 to 200 miles a day (without toting gear) and then use a credit card to check into a motel.
When Yours Truly bicycled around the United States during the 1980s and early 1990s, I did so without a credit card.
Why? Because credit cards were very difficult to get back then. I finally got my first card — after being turned down by the credit union the first time I applied — back in 1990. And that card had a hard $300 limit on it.
Why wasn’t I okayed for a higher limit? Because the credit union told me that my income wasn’t high enough.
Defaulting on the Dream
States Respond to America’s Foreclosure Crisis
The Pew Charitable Trusts
April 2008
Overview
Few imaginable economic events send the same
message of fear and foreboding in America as a
housing crisis. For most Americans, their homes are
their greatest asset. And for the states, industries
dependent on housing are cornerstones for economic
growth and fiscal stability.
Almost every state in the country has seen a significant
increase in mortgage foreclosures, largely triggered by
defaults on subprime mortgages. Yet greater
challenges lay ahead. Based on new foreclosure
projections by the Center for Responsible Lending, Pew
estimates that one in 33 current U.S. homeowners will
be in foreclosure, primarily in the next two years—the
direct result of subprime loans made in 2005 and 2006.
Among the states hardest hit are Nevada, where one in
11 homeowners could soon be in foreclosure;
California, with one in 20; Florida, with one in 26, and
Georgia, with one in 27.
…
First of all, please warn viewers when a link is a PDF.
This article is an example of, I don’t know anymore, alternative reality? We have a “charitable trust” boo-hooing the “crisis”. The CRL is in there, doing their usual foreclosure pimp role. I even see the Harvard housing guys, still not called to account for their REIC cheerleading. But let’s look at a couple of passages.
‘From 2002 to 2006, home prices in many areas
exceeded sustainable levels. Record numbers of
loans were pushed through the mortgage
lending system, with real estate markets
promoting homes as an investment with rapid
double-digit returns. Liberal lending practices
allowed for growing numbers of prime and subprime loans requiring no minimum downpayment; loans with adjustable or “teaser”
rates that, after a short time, required payments
often well beyond what the borrower could
afford; loans that did not pay down principal
(and in some cases even allowed it to grow);
loan applications without documentation proving
that the borrower could actually afford the loan;
and overly aggressive real estate appraisers and
loan brokers.’
‘During the housing boom, borrowers were told
routinely that if all else failed, they could simply
refinance their loans. However, when home
prices stopped rising at record rates, the
housing bubble burst and many borrowers found
they owed more than their homes were worth.’
‘Investors providing mortgage capital lost
confidence that loans were valuable assets. And
as lenders began to tighten their loan
requirements, many borrowers no longer had
the option to refinance.’
‘…many of today’s foreclosures result from the structure of the loans
themselves. A growing number of borrowers are
missing payments because, as interest rates and
monthly payment amounts reset, they can no
longer afford the loan.’
Hey Pew people! Did it ever occur to you that they paid too much for the house? Or, as is almost never mentioned, a bunch of these people refi-ed, over and over, and stuffed thousands of dollars in their pockets. Let’s just get past that, and to the root of the matter;
Foreclosures are how house prices fall after a boom.
Let me ask everyone reading this; do you suppose the “owners” of the houses are going to voluntarily reduce prices? Or the lenders? Or is the govt going to step in and mandate affordable housing? Or the billionaires behind the Pew trusts? No. It has to be forced on the system. Call it financial reality reasserting itself, or whatever. This is the process by which prices come back in line with incomes.
“First of all, please warn viewers when a link is a PDF.”
Sorry about that; forgetting about the old HBB rules.
But thanks for offering your perspective. I know the report is ancient history, but I like to look back from time-to-time at what was being said back when the dimensions of the housing bust were first coming into view. Especially reports like this one, which offer a peculiar policy stance on what everyone should recognize as mutual agreement between FBs and lenders to transact mortgage loans that clearly would never be repaid.
No. It has to be forced on the system.
We’re sorry,… we didn’t mean to hurt anyone,… we promise we won’t do it again,…really,…trust us,…we’ll behave voluntarily, we’ve learned our painful lesson$, won’t happen again,…ever!.
Bank-robbers in NYRE Industrial-Complex Inc. “leadership” ExecutivesA recent Mr. Ben perspective I mutter non-nonsensically 2hrs into a social gathering of Medical-Hospital Industrial Complex gathering:
“How about a vastly oversold failure?” Ben Jones
Very good aphorism for American housing 2001-2011…
* LAW
* APRIL 14, 2011, 8:54 P.M. ET
‘Robo-Signing’ Case To Draw Sanctions
By RUTH SIMON
A federal bankruptcy judge ruled that she would impose sanctions on Lender Processing Services Inc. for submitting a false affidavit in a foreclosure case that included an inadequate review of information known as a “robo-signing.”
The case involved a closely watched Chapter 13 bankruptcy filing by borrowers LaRhonda and Ron Wilson Sr. The couple’s mortgage loan was serviced by Option One Mortgage Corp., now known as American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc., which employed LPS to manage loans when a borrower files for bankruptcy.
Option One’s attorney alleged that Mr. Wilson was delinquent on his mortgage, and asked to foreclose in March 2008. The Wilsons’ attorney later proved that the borrowers had made the mortgage payments.
Even so, the foreclosure motion in the Wilson’s case included a notarized affidavit submitted by Dory Goebel, an employee of a predecessor company to LPS, that stated that the couple was delinquent on loan payments between November 2007 and February 2008.
In a sharply worded decision filed April 7, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana Elizabeth W. Magner called an affidavit filed by LPS “nothing other than a farce” and said she would hold another hearing to determine appropriate sanctions.
“The facts in this case are unique,” a spokeswoman for LPS, based in Jacksonville, Fla., said in a statement. “LPS has not signed foreclosure-related affidavits containing substantive borrower information of the kind discussed here since 2008. When LPS did execute such documents, review processes were in place.”
The Wilsons’ lawyer couldn’t be reached for comment.
…
Sanctions? How about “time”?
I am all for throwing out the deadbeats, but folks need to be given the opportunity to fight the system when mistakes are made.
The robo-signing scandal has resulted in housing market constipation. Beware of a massive inventory dump at some future point in time.
The robo-signing crisis is blamed for stalled foreclosures, but law firms’ woes may keep pace slow
By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 5:43 a.m. Thursday, April 14, 2011
Foreclosures statewide came to a near halt during the early part of 2011, but that doesn’t mean the housing market, or South Florida’s economy, is off to the races.
A first-quarter report to be released today by Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac showed that Florida’s foreclosure filings were cut nearly in half compared with the end of 2010 and fell 62 percent compared with the same time last year.
In Palm Beach County, court actions to repossess homes fell 63 percent between January and March from the fourth quarter of 2010. The decrease was 57 percent compared with the same three-month period last year.
The near-unanimous conclusion of real estate experts and economists for the molasses-like quality of foreclosure proceedings is a continued hangover from the fall’s robo-signing scandal - a recurring theme heard the past several months even as some predicted an early-year end to the lull.
…
Too big to punish: Banks cut a deal on robo-signing scandal.
By the Editorial Board STLtoday.com | Posted: Tuesday, April 12, 2011 9:00 pm | (11) Comments
The 2008 financial crisis introduced most Americans to the concept of “too big to fail.” Now comes a not-unrelated corollary: “too big to punish.”
Federal banking regulators have begun signing deals with 14 mortgage-servicing companies — some of them arms of “too big to fail” banks — that would enable the servicers to avoid as much as $20 billion in fines for finagling foreclosure documents.
The consent agreements would end the government’s investigation into the so-called “robo-signing” scandals that erupted last fall. Mortgage companies acknowledged that they’d been processing home foreclosures without obtaining documents that established the provenance of the loans.
In most cases, that was because the mortgage companies had sold the loans, which then were chopped into pieces and sold as mortgage-backed securities. Determining precisely who owned the loans in default was problematic, so companies solved it by forging documents and signatures.
The consent agreements, in effect, will require the companies to promise not to do that again. The servicers will have to stop foreclosing while loans are in the modification process. They must promise to stop bouncing consumers from one office to another and establish a single point of contact.
But they may not have to pay a dime in fines. And, more significant, they won’t be required to try to work out mortgages that might be saved.
…
“Too big to punish”
So long as brain-dead MSM writers keep repeating this, and complacent sheeple keep accepting it, I guess it will remain so.
But I offer an alternative perspective: Since fewer than, say, 10 major Wall Street banks are largely responsible for the clusterfock that is the U.S. mortgage crisis, how about if the Department of Justice get off their haunches, figure out who was primarily responsible for getting us to where we are, and take action to prosecute them. We need the moral hazard problem which created this mess drummed out of the system, or else we can look forward to a repeat performance in the near future.
Cause who buys gas and food anyways???
——————————-
U.S. consumer prices climb 0.5% in March
Marketwatch | 4.15.11 | Jeffry Bartash
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The prices paid by American consumers rose sharply again in March, mainly because of higher gas and grocery costs, according to the latest government data.
The consumer price index rose 0.5% last month, the Labor Department reported Friday. The so-called core rate rose a lesser 0.1%.
Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected CPI, which tracks inflation at the retail level, to rise by 0.5% overall, or by 0.2% on a core basis.
Prices up - wages down. What is that called again (hint - NOT inflation)?
————————
Real Wages Fall For 5th Straight Month
IBD’s Capital Hill | 4/15/2011 | Ed Carson
Real earnings fell for a fifth straight month as wages fail to keep up with soaring gasoline prices and other costs. Inflation-adjusted earnings for all private workers dropped 0.5% in March, the worst monthly drop since July 2008, according to Labor Department data. Nominal wages were flat while consumer prices climbed more than 0.5% for a second straight month.
Year over year, inflation-adjusted weekly pay sank 0.4% That’s the first drop in a year and down from a 2.2% gain in October.
Since October, real weekly wages have dropped at a 3.8% annual rate — matching the decline set in July 2008, when oil prices peaked above $147 a barrel.
What is that called again (hint - NOT inflation)?
Chasing profits and globalization.
Misery.
On the radio this morning some reporter was saying that “consumers” just need to “understand” that inflation isn’t as bad as they think it is.
Kind of hard to do when half the workforce earns less than $500/week and most of their income is spent on food and gasoline. I guess they can trade down from Kraft Mac-n-cheese and Oscar Mayer bologna to the store brand.
Translation: Debt = wealth.
Craft Mac-ncheese? Must be nice. Time these folks learned from the Chinese a 50lb bag of rice costs just $25 and can feed a family for weeks. Now for dinner… The cracked crab or lobster? I cannot decide so I will have both
You poor person. I cook both and then throw one on the floor.
“…some reporter was saying that “consumers” just need to “understand” that inflation isn’t as bad as they think it is.”
Marie Antoinette would be proud!
Vegetable bandits strike as food prices soar
‘We’ve never seen anything like this,’ tomato firm boss says; truckload of frozen meat also stolen. ~ The New York Times
The high price of produce, especially for tomatoes after the deep winter freezes, has attracted more than heightened attention from consumers. A ring of sophisticated vegetable bandits was watching, too.
Late last month, a gang of thieves stole six tractor-trailer loads of tomatoes and a truck full of cucumbers from Florida growers. They also stole a truckload of frozen meat. The total value of the illegal haul: about $300,000.
The thieves disappeared with the shipments just after the price of Florida tomatoes skyrocketed after freezes that badly damaged crops in Mexico.
That suddenly made Florida tomatoes a tempting target, on a par with flat-screen TVs or designer jeans, but with a big difference: tomatoes are perishable.
“I’ve never experienced people targeting produce loads before,” said Shaun Leiker, an assistant manager at Allen Lund, a trucking broker in Oviedo, Fla., that was hit three times by the thieves. “It’s a little different than selling TVs off the back of your truck.”
Industry and insurance company officials said it appeared to add a new wrinkle to a nationwide surge in cargo theft.
Bogus trucking company
In the case of the stolen tomatoes, the thieves seemed deeply versed in the ways of trucking companies and the produce industry. Transportation company executives and a law enforcement official said the criminals appeared to have set up a bogus trucking company with the intention of stealing loads of produce and other goods.
The company, based in Miami, was called E&A Transport Express, according to Master Cpl. David M. Vincent of the Florida Highway Patrol’s cargo theft task force.
The company registered with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in late February, according to the agency’s online database. That was right around the time produce prices were soaring.
“They were just sitting and waiting, watching the produce because they knew it was climbing,” said Clifford Holland, the owner of the transportation brokerage firm Old North State, which was a victim of the gang. “It was like a snake in the grass and they struck.”
Don’t you need to have contacts with retail sellers to offload multiple truck loads of fresh produce? And moving it from one truck to another isn’t easy. And there would be lots of people who touch the transaction, some of whom may be ignorant enough for it not to hurt too much to give them immunity in exchange for testimony. This should be the easiest theft in the world to solve. Maybe one or two levels harder than a stolen elephant.
Maybe they could sell it at a farmer’s market?
Yes, they could, for premium prices and almost no paper trail.
If you’re considering a farmer’s market, make sure it’s a “producer’s market” run either by the local gov or a non-profit. At a producer’s market you can sell only what you grow. At any other farmer’s market, including Eastern Market in DC, they more often than not sell leftover California produce at farmer’s market prices. (one lady whispered this to me when i was ther.) If the veggies are banged-up, so much the better; it looks “organic.”
In the comment section for this article, a couple people complained of illegal immigrants stealing from private garage sales and gardens.
The practice of stealing from private gardens is the lowest of the low. It concerns me enough that I’m considering installing a big fence with a locked gate around my veggies. And there aren’t a lot of illegals where I live.
Farmer’s markets require you register in advance. Plus a lot of them have long term relationships with the people who bring produce. Some confirm that the sellers are actually local producers. And commerical tomatoes don’t look all that much like tomatoes grown for a local market. They are too uniform in shape and size and they are unripened compared to the stuff sold by a local farmer. And most farmers markets that I go to don’t have the capacity to sell several truckloads of anything. This would be a logistical nightmare.
In the news today, Monsanto is genetically engineering RFID chips into each tomato.
Seriously though, don’t be surprised if we do not start seeing genetic “tagging” of food products to make it harder to steal as things change from bad to worse leaving many with only hope for a better future.
Late last month, a gang of thieves stole six tractor-trailer loads of tomatoes and a truck full of cucumbers from Florida growers.
Gives new meaning to the term, “Hot Tomatoes”
““I’ve never experienced people targeting produce loads before,” said Shaun Leiker,”
Welcome to the real world, Shaun.
Goldman Sachs -Long on chutzpah, short on friends
The firm that came to dominate world finance
http://www.economist.com/node/18557354
If you need a friend, get a dog.
— Gordon Gekko.
“As for Congress’s ability to prey on the rich, we must keep in mind that rich people didn’t become rich by being stupid.”
~Walter Williams
You never answer why you pander and apologize for those use you.
Stockholm Syndrome?
They didn’t become rich by being ethical either.
There’s plenty of ethical rich people…none I know of in Congress though.
“ethical rich people”
That’s like Diogenes with his lantern searching Athens in daytime for an honest man.
Please Congress Does Not prey on the rich they certainly don’t prey on the elite. My effective tax rate this year 24%. Top 400 paid 15% likely lower when you figure in hidden money overseas.
Well taxes are paid in dollars not percentages. The 400 who paid 15% will pay more a in few years than you’ll probably earn in your lifetime.
Some of them became rich just by being born.
we must keep in mind that rich people didn’t become rich by being
stupidJesus emulators.”Those poor, poor, oppressed rich people! *sniffle*
And those rotten abusive janitors who abuse them!!!
Foreclosure Fight Needs to Find Fast Answers
http://www.cnbc.com/id/42592108?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS
Given the chance I’d just b!tch slap this punk! Sounds like grade school all the time. It’s always someone else’s fault.
Republicans Will Be to Blame if US Defaults: Geithner -Reuters
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Thursday told Republican lawmakers that they would shoulder the blame if the country got too close to defaulting on its debt and roiled markets worldwide by not approving a debt limit increase.
In yet another warning about the perils of not allowing the U.S. to borrow more to fund spending already approved by Congress, Geithner said it would be deeply irresponsible for lawmakers to use debt limit negotiations for political gains.
Congress must agree to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling or the legal amount that the country can borrow. But Republicans have said they are unwilling to do so without reforms on government spending and have threatened to take negotiations to the deadline.
“(Lawmakers) will say there’s leverage in it, we can advance it. But that would be deeply irresponsible and they will own the risk,” Geithner said.
“It won’t happen in the end, but if they take it too close to the edge, they will own responsibility for that miscalculation,” he said.
Well I’d say both parties will be to blame.
Take a look at what GW’s tax breaks for the elite, medicare prescription drug plan, and wars have done to the budget. Take a look at the Reagan years.
“Well I’d say both parties will be to blame.”
You think there are two parties? That’s funny!
Only in terms of Kabuki theater
Timmy is a genius. If lawmakers fail to authorize irresponsible borrowing, they will themselves be responsible. Shocking.
I am not shocked at all. I figured that is who Geithner is. But I do not think he is a genius, just a puppy.
In USA, there is no leader yet to emerge, who can lead the way out of this on-going recession/Armageddon whatever it called.
That’s because they all work for the elite.
The way out is
1. Tax the elite
2. Let banks fail in a controlled fashion
3. Create JOBS improving infrastructure and energy infrastructure.
4. End wars
5. Tax oil cut payroll tax and income tax for middle class
6. Trade restrictions for countries that don’t understand copywrite and intellectual property laws, or don’t meet minimal environmental laws.
7. Immigration reform and expell illegals
8. Socialized medicine that uses cost benefit analysis with private insurance if you want stuff that doesn’t meet the cost benefit analysis.
Seconded.
Trade restrictions for countries that don’t understand copywrite[sic] and intellectual property laws
With the exception of this.
Our IP laws have been corrupted to benefit large corporations and copyright/patent trolls, not individual creators or inventors.
Abuse of the copyright and patent systems is stifling American innovation.
Do you think we could get Putin to do the job?
“I figured that is who Geithner is. But I do not think he is a genius, just a puppy.”
Geithner is brilliant, likely a genius. He has also worked day and night to ascend to where he can be most effective in his cause, the new world order. Joe Sixpack’s falling standard of living is just an irritation, a sticky note for later.
“Geithner is brilliant, likely a genius.”
Did you forget the sarcasm tags?
I’m not convinced. If he is so brilliant, how come his HAMP program is such a horrific flop, as many HBB posters predicted long before if flopped? Hard worker — sure. Politically connected? Of course. Genius? Hmmm…
Secretary Geitner’s role in this is purely for public consumption, IMHO. The Washington Post reported this week that there were a number of Wall Street executives in town reading the riot act to the House freshmen about the dire results if they even got close to not upping the debt limit. As in plunging stock market and jumping bond yields dire. Oh, and peeved banks deciding that the president’s mean words were less of problem than actually dealing with uncertainty about return of principle on treasury securities.
The limit is going to get raised. No one cares who j6pack blames if there is a delay. Who Wall Street blames is all that they care about for now.
Why play this game every few months? Let’s raise it to 100 trillions or whatever. It’s not like the limits, rules or laws mean anything to them. The last thing I want is these bloviating idiots on my TV when I am watching the next big thing Charlie Sheen is upto.
Looks like gubmint bank is kicking a few more to the curb.
Mortgage layoffs continue: this time it’s BofA
~LA Times
In the latest round of downsizing for the incredible shrinking home-loan business, 1,500 Bank of America Corp. loan processors and underwriters will lose their jobs.
Bank of America ATM The Charlotte, N.C., bank is closing half of its 200 small loan fulfillment centers across the country, including 27 in California, where 128 employees have been notified of layoffs, spokesman Dan Frahm said Thursday.
“This is really an effort to align ourselves to the new reality of a significant downturn in mortgage origination volume,” Frahm said.
Bank of America expects its mortgage lending volume to drop about 25% this year from 2010, when the refinance business was booming as interest rates dropped.
Most of the home-loan operation originally was part of Countrywide Financial Corp., acquired as the mortgage meltdown took hold in 2008.
Frahm said an additional 350 workers in the bank’s closing processing centers will be assigned new jobs — in the outreach unit to assist distressed borrowers.
There was no formal announcement of the latest layoffs, which came as no surprise.
In the latest round of downsizing for the incredible shrinking home-loan business, 1,500 Bank of America Corp. loan processors and underwriters will lose their jobs.
And I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there aren’t a few whistleblowers in their ranks. Y’know, the sort who have some juicy things to share with Wikileaks and their ilk.
Now that BofA doesn’t have to pay those 1,500 employees, maybe BofA will scale back that checking account fee they just increased. If my checking account monthly average falls below $1,500.00, I get hit with a twelve dollar fee that month. That’s a lot of gasoline I could buy. Oh, wait, nevermind.
Greedy Banksters.
Yonkers cuts include 700 layoffs, all sports and pre-K
Westchester County, New York
YONKERS — In an effort to close an $87 million budget gap, Superintendent Bernard P. Pierorazio has proposed deep spending cuts including over 700 layoffs and elimination of funding for interscholastic sports and extracurricular activities.
“We don’t do these cuts lightly,” Pierorazio said Thursday. “They all have a serious impact.”
Yonkers would drop its prekindergarten program, which serves 1,773 children this year, to save $10.7 million, and cut full-day kindergarten, instead offering only half-days, for a savings of $6 million. Full-day kindergarten has 2,025 children now.
Don’t think of it as a cut. Think of it as privatization. Now the parents will get to pay for more child care. They will have an incentive to spend their money wisely. They are guaranteed to get better quality care for their children at much lower cost. This will lead to even greater savings to the town in the future because the children that come out of these private programs will be more prepared for first grade and have higher school achievement throughout their academic careers.
Or maybe they will end up sitting on the floor in someone’s house watching tv for hours at a time.
Meanwhile in my town, a referendum to increase the school tax just passed by a large majority. It is estimated that it will increase the average property tax bill by $700 per year.
Sometimes I want to secede from organized society.
Elanor
Are you on the east coast?
Who on God’s green earth would vote for such an increase?
By now, one should have an immunity to “for the children” taxes.I just don’t get it.
I hear ya. I’m on the Middle Coast, north of Chicago, in a place where the excellent schools keep property values up (and the riff-raff out, LOL).
My one hoped-for consolation is that our property is below the median price-wise, so maybe our share of the tax increase will be lower than average.
I would NEVER buy into a place where school taxes could be levied.
Ah, but we were young(er) and naive about the ways of taxing entities back in 1990!
Our elementary and middle school district spends something over $13,000 per pupil per year, yet we are considerably outstripped in spending by neighboring communities. It boggles the mind.
Those pushing the referendum were well organized and motivated. In a town where only 20% of households have school-age children, the passage of this tax increase was a good bit of PR (and perhaps a bit of fear-mongering?)
GH, being still somewhat ignorant about all this, what is the alternative to school taxes being levied?
Those pushing the referendum were well organized and motivated.
You can’t say it - can you?
PUBLIC UNIONS.
3/4 of any school budget goes toward employee salaries/benefits and pensions.
When the budget goes up - 75% of the increase goes towards these costs.
And public unions are well organized, motivated and financed. They thank you for your “investment”.
Yet most unions have taken wage freezes along with massive layoffs.
But lets keep SCREAMING unions and ignore the bad investments the administrators made, the sweetheart BIL deals, the wasted money on “fact finding” trips, the crooked as hell schoolbook system and then all the other little mistakes by the school boards that eventually add up to big bucks.
Damn union janitors!
Wrongamundo. Not around here! This community is all about (mostly) well-to-do professionals. It was parents who organized for victory. Parents, parents, parents. Because little Emily and Conor deserve nothing but the best, and the parents want everybody to pay for it.
I begin to see the wisdom of charging tuition to attend public school in affluent areas.
My folks were not rich, but probably considered the high end of middle class and put 4 of us through private school. It is time Americans took responsibility for their own kids, their own lives and their own expenses instead of trying to foist them on someone else. It is pretty easy to want the best when someone else is paying eh?
“It is pretty easy to want the best when someone else is paying eh?”
It is pretty easy to take responsibility on an upper middle class income.
Of course Polly that wont demand Yonkers kids learn to speak English……too many projects and illegals….so the middle class gets stuck again….I guess my best friend will sell her house and let Yonkers turn into the new Camden NJ….crime city…
Were felonies committed by banksters at Wall Street Megabanks? Is it really hard to investigate these sort of crimes? Whose duty is it to ensure that criminals in high places are brought to justice, and why are they not carrying it out? Do large campaign finance flows from Wall Street to K Street serve to completely undermine any semblance of a rule of law?
I want to see news stories showing criminals getting escorted off the premises of their Wall Street workplaces in orange jump suits. I want to see justice roll down on these guys like a tsunami; instead all I see is this trickle of a dried-up salt creek, gently lapping at the fringes of their profit margins.
Perhaps some politician will step up to the plate in a 2012 presidential campaign to root out systemic Wall Street corruption. If so, he gets my vote. Perhaps (s)he could start by cleaning house in financial regulatory agencies which have shown a perpetual willingness to tolerate financial felonies by those at the top of the U.S. financial system.
One more thing: As long as the MSM keeps saying these guys are “Too BIg to Jail” and the sheeple keep allowing themselves to be brainwashed, I guess it will be so. But I am unwilling to accept this.
Feds finally take action against big banks and other mortgage lenders and servicers involved in foreclosure misconduct
By Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist
Three federal agencies have taken action against 16 mortgage lenders and servicers, charging they had patterns of misconduct and negligence in handling defaults on mortgages and foreclosure processing.
A review by the agencies showed the financial institutions had significant deficiencies in processing foreclosures including:
• The filing of inaccurate affidavits and other documents.
• Inadequate oversight of attorneys and other third parties.
• Inadequate staffing and training of employees.
• The failure to effectively communicate with borrowers seeking to avoid foreclosures.
The four largest banks in America – Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., and Wells Fargo & Co. – were among the financial organizations charged by the Federal Reserve Board.
Ally Financial Inc., HSBC North America Holdings Inc., MetLife Inc., The PNC Financial Services Group Inc., SunTrust Banks Inc., U.S. Bancorp, and Wells Fargo & Co. also were subject to enforcement action by the Federal Reserve.
These banks make up 65 percent of the mortgage industry or nearly $6.8 trillion in mortgage balances, according to the Federal Reserve.
…
Perhaps some politician will step up to the plate in a 2012 presidential campaign to root out systemic Wall Street corruption. If so, he gets my vote. Perhaps (s)he could start by cleaning house in financial regulatory agencies which have shown a perpetual willingness to tolerate financial felonies by those at the top of the U.S. financial system.
I know that rocks will be flying in my direction, but what the hay, I’m ready. My prediction is that politician will be…
…Barack Obama.
Yes. Him. The bipartisan compromiser in chief.
Why do I make this prediction? Because he needs to get his base fired up again. Right now, they’re icy cold toward him, and that’s not good. Especially if he wants them to go out and help his re-election campaign. Not to mention the independents. Not all of them are Republicans in drag. Quite a few are former Democrats.
His speech from earlier this week shows that striking a more populist pose could actually help him. So, expect to see and hear a lot more of it.
That would be a major about-face, but you may be right. Maybe he could get us out of 3 wars while he’s at it.
“…striking a more populist pose…”
He has shown that inclination from time-to-time, but doesn’t seem to back it much with action…
Walsh Says Fixing Mortgage Servicing Problems Will Be “Messy”
By Meera Louis and Lorraine Woellert - Apr 14, 2011 9:54 AM PT
Fixing the broken foreclosure process will be “messy” but is necessary to restore integrity to the system, John Walsh, acting Comptroller of the Currency said.
In a speech in Washington today, Walsh said that an agreement announced yesterday that will force mortgage servicers to review two years of loans and pay restitution to borrowers who were damaged should not affect other efforts by law enforcement officials to assess wrong-doing.
“My hope is that our enforcement actions will establish a framework, and the actions that state law enforcement officials and the other federal agencies may take will be complementary to, and consistent with, what we are doing,” Walsh said. “This is a messy process, and it will take time to put things right.”
…
Read, “never.”
World’s oldest man dies at age 114. He was a lifelong renter. It’s a great read. He would have been a very interesting man to talk to.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110415/ap_on_re_us/us_obit_world_s_oldest_man
“He was a lifelong renter.”
Renting is good for longevity, as you don’t have to ever worry about getting foreclosed or that the value of your house might drop by hundreds of thousands of dollars, and you never need to do any home maintenance or yard work, unless you feel the urge to do so.
“and you never need to do any home maintenance or yard work”
Out here is pretty much a given that renters do their own yard work (lawn mowing).
Lifelong Renter Dies…
Problem is, rents go up. At least if you buy right, your housing costs are locked in, and eventually they get cheaper, once the darn place is paid off.
My family lives 97-104 yrs, and they all have/had paid off homes.
In the end, we are all just “renters.”
I have a modest proposal: If the current leaders at the Fed and the Treasury are not up to rooting out systemic financial crime, replace them with some new leaders who are.
In financial crisis, no prosecutions of top figures
Lack of legal action stands in stark contrast to the 1980s’ S&L scandal
By Gretchen Morgenson and Louise Story
The New York Times
updated 4/14/2011 6:38:20 PM ET 2011-04-14T22:38:20
It is a question asked repeatedly across America: why, in the aftermath of a financial mess that generated hundreds of billions in losses, have no high-profile participants in the disaster been prosecuted?
Answering such a question — the equivalent of determining why a dog did not bark — is anything but simple. But a private meeting in mid-October 2008 between Timothy F. Geithner, then-president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Andrew M. Cuomo, New York’s attorney general at the time, illustrates the complexities of pursuing legal cases in a time of panic.
At the Fed, which oversees the nation’s largest banks, Geithner worked with the Treasury Department on a large bailout fund for the banks and led efforts to shore up the American International Group, the giant insurer. His focus: stabilizing world financial markets.
…
“why, in the aftermath of a financial mess that generated hundreds of billions in losses, have no high-profile participants in the disaster been prosecuted?”
Not really that difficult to understand. Look at who was running the treasury department at the time, GS via Hank Paulson. Look at Dodd, Frank, Summers, Geithner, etc. The entire crew is involved knee deep. The people running Wall Street are the same people running this government. The rule of law has completely broken down as far as the financial markets are concerned. They will keep on extracting as much money as possible for as long as possible. They are fully aware of the fact that sooner or later the house of cards will collpase. Do they care? Not really as long as they managed to get theirs. Just have to make sure the police and military stays funded and loyal in case the anger among the debt serves boils over.
Things in EURO-land don’t look much better either. Bailouts and credit downgrades ju jour. Silver @ $42, inflation picking up steam…this sucker is gonna blow.
Prosecuted?! Hell, they were given promotions and government jobs!
Because we all know it was those damn unions that created our problems!
Justice Department Must Decide Whether Goldman Violated Laws, Levin Says
By Clea Benson - Apr 14, 2011 3:13 PM PT
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein
Blankfein, seen here as he testified at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee hearing on Wall Street and the financial crisis, in Washington, April 27, 2010. Photographer: Chris Kleponis/Bloomberg
The U.S. Justice Department and regulators will have to determine whether employees and executives of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) violated any laws when they traded securities tied to the housing market and testified to Congress about the transactions, Senator Carl Levin said.
The Michigan Democrat, who released the findings of a two- year inquiry into the 2008 financial crisis yesterday, said today in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s “Street Smart with Carol Massar and Matt Miller” that he wanted to send the report to federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Lawmakers don’t have the authority to declare whether the activities were illegal, he said.
“That is not for Congress to determine whether or not a crime was committed or whether or not he violated the security laws,” Levin said, referring to Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein. “That is for the Justice Department and that is for the SEC to make those determinations.”
…
No it didn’t. Let’s find some white supremacists and blame them for some hate thing. —– Eric Holder
#NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement
This comes as a complete shock! This administration is so much different than past administrations.
Obama’s $5 Billion Weatherizing Program Wastes Stimulus Funds, Auditors Find | FoxNews.com
President Obama’s $5 billion stimulus injection into a decades-old program to help lower energy bills for millions of low-income families by retrofitting their homes to improve efficiency has been plagued by reports of mismanagement, waste and fraud in several states. (AP)
President Obama’s $5 billion stimulus injection into a decades-old program to help lower energy bills for millions of low-income families by retrofitting their homes to improve efficiency has been plagued by reports of mismanagement, waste and fraud in several states. (AP)
President Obama’s $5 billion stimulus injection into a decades-old program to help lower energy bills for millions of low-income families by retrofitting their homes to improve efficiency has been plagued by cases of mismanagement, waste and fraud in several states.
The most dramatic example can be found in Delaware, where “gross mismanagement and potential fraudulent activity” that federal auditors found last year could affect hundreds of homes, a senior administration official told FoxNews.com. The subsequent repairs and inspections reportedly will cost the state a significant chunk of the $7.5 million remaining from $13.7 million of stimulus it received in 2009.
Delaware is the only state where the weatherization program has been suspended, but problems have surfaced in other states, including Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee and Virginia.
“It’s a complete cesspool of waste,” Leslie Paige, vice president of Citizens Against Government Waste, told FoxNews.com. “When it’s over, we will never know how much went down the tube. They cannot track the money. By the time they get to it, a lot of the money will be gone.”
The Delaware News Journal reported last week that much of the costs for the low-income housing program stemmed from paying contractors to do simple, inexpensive fixes — like insulating attics or sealing gaps — but who instead went the path of replacing furnaces, windows and doors, all at a much greater cost. Much of the work was authorized by an administrator and a contractor, neither of whom is still employed with the state program, the newspaper reported.
“The cash grab that went on was just amazing,” Allen Luzak, a weatherization expert with the Delaware Energy Office told the newspaper.
So far, only 689 homes have been retrofitted while roughly 6,000 families are on the waiting list for help. The attorney general’s office has been investigating the program for the past year but hasn’t filed criminal charges yet, spokesman Jason Miller told the newspaper.
An alternate headline could be “Local fraudsters exposed by Obama’s trusty auditors.”
Thank you!
And please note that Obama’s program wasn’t a “waste.” It’s the usual — shady characters generally love to steal taxpayer money for their own purposes.
So the operation was a success, even though the patient died.
A fox news “report”? You may has well have posted a world net daily “article”.
The Delaware News Journal reported last week that much of the costs for the low-income housing program stemmed from paying contractors to do simple, inexpensive fixes — like insulating attics or sealing gaps — but who instead went the path of replacing furnaces, windows and doors, all at a much greater cost. Much of the work was authorized by an administrator and a contractor, neither of whom is still employed with the state program, the newspaper reported.
I’m here to tell you that replacing windows costs a heckuva lot of money. And it doesn’t do much to tighten your house. Place can still leak like a sieve.
OTOH, a few boxes of caulk and Great Stuff sealant can make quite a different. Trouble is, you don’t have to hire someone to apply it. With just a wee bit of practice, anyone can become quite good at caulking and Great Stuffing.
Middle men and director/managers were skimming?
Shocked I tell you…
Foreclosed? The tax man may want his cut
http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/15/real_estate/taxes_mortgage_debt/index.htm
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Did you lose your house to foreclosure this year? Did your lender forgive some of your mortgage debt because the house sold for less than it the mortgage balance?
If so, you could be facing a big tax hit.
41Email Print It is IRS policy to tax forgiven debt you are personally responsible for as if it is income. Say, for example, your credit card company settled a $10,000 debt for 50 cents on the dollar. You’d have a debt forgiveness of $5,000, which the IRS would count just like your wages.
IRS policy? I guess you can call enforcing the law of the land an agency’s “policy.” You could also call it their constitutional obligation as part of the executive branch to enforce the laws passed by the legislative branch and signed into law. Send the reporters back to 6th grade civics class, please.
Polly,
I was just happy to see a possible glimmer of hope, all this fun money sucked out of homes, will possibly be taxed.
Money is lazy. Per the IRS (link omitted to get the post through the spam filters. Use Google).
The Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007 generally allows taxpayers to exclude income from the discharge of debt on their principal residence. Debt reduced through mortgage restructuring, as well as mortgage debt forgiven in connection with a foreclosure, qualifies for the relief.
This provision applies to debt forgiven in calendar years 2007 through 2012. Up to $2 million of forgiven debt is eligible for this exclusion ($1 million if married filing separately). The exclusion does not apply if the discharge is due to services performed for the lender or any other reason not directly related to a decline in the home’s value or the taxpayer’s financial condition.
Travel-booking website Expedia Inc.(NYSE: EXPE - News) last week said it will spin off its travel media unit, TripAdvisor, awarding shares in the new entity to owners of Expedia stock. But investors in most Expedia bonds will get nothing in the deal and will be left with debt backed by a smaller, riskier company.
Companies such as Expedia are increasingly resorting to spinoffs, share buybacks and other financial engineering to boost market value, often to the detriment of bondholders. And in a switch, holders of investment-grade bonds are more at risk than those holding high-yield securities, because the safer bonds typically provide fewer protections against such shareholder-friendly actions.
I’m sure the CEO came out ahead in this deal, my guess is conservative investors and pension funds came out poorly. Kind of like me taking out a 500,000 loan to buy an old farm house and then spinning off the farm land to my brother debt free.
Hey maybe the US could spin off everything but DC into a new country leaving all the debt with DC.
I like it!
(You don’t mind, right Polly?)
Corporate merger and aquisition rules don’t apply to countries. Sreiously, if the bond holders wanted the protection of having their obligations backed by all the assets of the company at the time they took out the debt, they could have tried to negotiate for it. I’ve never heard of such a thing. I think they would have had to mess around with warrants on preferred stock for any spin offs, or something like that.
For countries? You get what you get. You can’t have foreign sovereign bonds convertable into equity interests, though you might be able to get them backed by a specific stream of income. I did a lot of foreign sovereign debt issuances back in the day. From a technical perspective they were pretty darn simple. We could do a take down of a tranche in about 48 hours. Faster if there hadn’t been too much time since the last one so there wasn’t much to update.
Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail?
Financial crooks brought down the world’s economy — but the feds are doing more to protect them than to prosecute them
Illustration by Victor Juhasz
By Matt Taibbi
February 16, 2011 9:00 AM ET
Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.
“Everything’s f’d up, and nobody goes to jail,” he said. “That’s your whole story right there. Hell, you don’t even have to write the rest of it. Just write that.”
I put down my notebook. “Just that?”
“That’s right,” he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. “Everything’s f’d up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there.”
Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world’s wealth — and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people.
…
Carol Cain: Prostitution, pot legalization could make Detroit attractive, Fieger says ~ freep.com - WWJ-TV CBS Detroit
Could Detroit be the new Amsterdam — a city where prostitution and marijuana are both legalized to help attract young people and turn the troubled city’s prospects around?
Why not, barrister and occasional mayoral candidate Geoffrey Fieger said during a taping of “Michigan Matters” on what he would do if he walked in Detroit Mayor Dave Bing’s shoes and tried to address the city’s woes.
“I could turn it around in five minutes,” Fieger said.
“I’d shovel the snow and I’d clean the streets and parks. Then, I’d tell the police department to leave marijuana alone and don’t spend one dime trying to enforce marijuana laws. I also would not enforce prostitution laws and I’d make us the new Amsterdam.”
“We would attract young people,” Fieger said. “You make Detroit a fun city. A place they want to live and they would flock here.”
Fieger, who ran as a Democrat for governor, appeared with Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, who took exception to his idea.
“How does that fix the schools or unemployment or illiteracy in the city?” Patterson said.
Besides, the outspoken Republican leader added, “Have you been to 8 Mile recently?” in reference to strip clubs and other elements found along certain stretches of the road.
Fieger still thought the idea had merits.
“Don’t let any self-appointed, self-righteous person say we couldn’t do it,” Fieger added. “The city of Detroit couldn’t get any worse.”
“We would attract young people,” Fieger said. “You make Detroit a fun city. A place they want to live and they would flock here.”
Here are some young fun people that would flock there.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blotter - 43k -
Meet the Flockers.
Fieger is great entertainment. Anyone from Michigan knows what I’m talking about.
Could Detroit be the new Amsterdam — a city where prostitution and marijuana are both legalized to help attract young people and turn the troubled city’s prospects around?
Or they could ban public unions, make the rest of the city a right-to-work city, change all insane current pensions into 401ks, privitize everything they can, etc.
But whores and pot makes more sense…
I have said it before and will say it again - democrats will do ANYTHING - from cutting school programs, cutting police/fire, making prostitution legal, closing parks, etc. before they TOUCH one insane public union salary/benefit/pension.
“Or they could ban public unions, make the rest of the city a right-to-work city, change all insane current pensions into 401ks, privitize everything they can, etc.”
They could, but I doubt it would bring the auto industry back. It would probably make a few private businesses wealthier though.
Detroit has bigger problems than public unions.
Detroit has bigger problems than public unions.
Nearly 100% of Detroit’s budget is eaten up by mostly union salaries/benefits/pesnions.
Hard to improve a city when every dime of your budget is spent before you get it…
Except to go deep in debt.
I have said it before and will say it again - republicans will do ANYTHING - from cutting school programs, cutting police/fire, making prostitution legal, closing parks, etc. before they TOUCH corporate welfare.
See how that works?
…until it doesn’t.
“TruePurity™” advocates/disciples are consistent with their National goals:
Prostitution = bad
non-existent Gov’t regulation of Wall St Inc. = Wonderful for “bidness”!
pot legalization = bad
Unlimited Political contribution$$$$$$$ from Alcohol Industry Inc. = Wonderful for “bidness”!
Could Detroit be the new Amsterdam — a city where prostitution and marijuana are both legalized to help attract young people and turn the troubled city’s prospects around?
The nearby city of Ann Arbor decriminalized MJ back in the 1970s. Or the 1960s. (Help me out here, folks. Pot hazy memory in effect here.)
Any-hoo, the $5 dope fine was the stuff of legend when I was in college. One of my friends got very close to being fined, but the cop warned her first. So she put out the joint she was smoking.
Calming markets is a great excuse for a failure to root out systemic crime.
In Financial Crisis, No Prosecutions of Top Figures
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON and LOUISE STORY
Published: April 14, 2011
It is a question asked repeatedly across America: why, in the aftermath of a financial mess that generated hundreds of billions in losses, have no high-profile participants in the disaster been prosecuted?
Answering such a question — the equivalent of determining why a dog did not bark — is anything but simple. But a private meeting in mid-October 2008 between Timothy F. Geithner, then-president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Andrew M. Cuomo, New York’s attorney general at the time, illustrates the complexities of pursuing legal cases in a time of panic.
At the Fed, which oversees the nation’s largest banks, Mr. Geithner worked with the Treasury Department on a large bailout fund for the banks and led efforts to shore up the American International Group, the giant insurer. His focus: stabilizing world financial markets.
Mr. Cuomo, as a Wall Street enforcer, had been questioning banks and rating agencies aggressively for more than a year about their roles in the growing debacle, and also looking into bonuses at A.I.G.
Friendly since their days in the Clinton administration, the two met in Mr. Cuomo’s office in Lower Manhattan, steps from Wall Street and the New York Fed. According to three people briefed at the time about the meeting, Mr. Geithner expressed concern about the fragility of the financial system.
His worry, according to these people, sprang from a desire to calm markets, a goal that could be complicated by a hard-charging attorney general.
…
There is no sheriff on Wall Street today. It’s covered up in the name of market stability.
Where’s the sheriff?
April 15, 2011
By Dave Davies
Our theme today is accountability.
We begin with a revealing story in the New York Times by Gretchen Morgenson and Louise Story about why, after a financial crisis that nearly crashed the economy and generated hundreds of billions in losses, there hasn’t been a single prosecution of a high-profile player on Wall Street.
By contrast, after the savings and loan debacle of the 1980’s investigators referred more than a thousand cases to prosecutors, and more than 800 bank officials went to jail.
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Food prices: World Bank warns millions face poverty
14 April 2011
Last updated at 12:32 ET
The World Bank has warned that rising food prices, driven partly by rising fuel costs, are pushing millions of people into extreme poverty.
World food prices are 36% above levels of a year ago, driven by problems in the Middle East and North Africa, and remain volatile, the bank said.
That has pushed 44 million people into poverty since last June.
A further 10% rise would push 10m more below the extreme poverty line of $1.25 (76p) a day, the bank said.
And it warned that a 30% cost hike in the price of staples could lead to 34 million more poor.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13086979 - -
What? You think the super rich actually care?
Bill Gates, maybe. The others, not so much.
They will when they get caught by surprised in the riots and overthrow.
Just like Marie Antoinette cared… too late.
Amazing, the two people I know that work for World Bank haul in well over 200 K each per year tax free
Someone needs to shut them down……………………
That can’t be right. We all know the rich and even just the affluent are over-taxed!
The odd aspect of this situation is not that economists got it so wrong. Rather, it is the misplaced hope that an insular conversation, fueled by high levels of government subsidy and conducted in the theoretical stratosphere, grounded in spurious assumptions which are far removed the din and clutter of the real world, could possibly get much right.
How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: September 2, 2009
I. MISTAKING BEAUTY FOR TRUTH
It’s hard to believe now, but not long ago economists were congratulating themselves over the success of their field. Those successes — or so they believed — were both theoretical and practical, leading to a golden era for the profession. On the theoretical side, they thought that they had resolved their internal disputes. Thus, in a 2008 paper titled “The State of Macro” (that is, macroeconomics, the study of big-picture issues like recessions), Olivier Blanchard of M.I.T., now the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, declared that “the state of macro is good.” The battles of yesteryear, he said, were over, and there had been a “broad convergence of vision.” And in the real world, economists believed they had things under control: the “central problem of depression-prevention has been solved,” declared Robert Lucas of the University of Chicago in his 2003 presidential address to the American Economic Association. In 2004, Ben Bernanke, a former Princeton professor who is now the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, celebrated the Great Moderation in economic performance over the previous two decades, which he attributed in part to improved economic policy making.
Last year, everything came apart.
…
They got it wrong because they don’t live in the real world of tight budgets, layoffs, stolen pensions, medical bankruptcy and $500 a week paydays… that half the working population does.
They got it wrong because:
1) People make bad bets on investments. Unless those investments are allowed to be burned out - and have investors lose money on their bad bets - they’ll never learn prudence. Privatizing profits and socializing losses eventually reaches a breaking point.
2) We saw three bubbles over the course of 20 years, each inflation and collapse sucking wealth out of the public and funneling it towards Wall Street.
3) People don’t understand that with stocks, the people who reliably make actually money - cash - are the house. Plenty of people make money during bubbles - but how many actually cash out their chips and walk away with actual cash? A few, based on what I’ve observed. Very few.
4) Keynesian economics is fatally flawed in one basic way - it encourages deficit spending during downturns, but did not take into account that governments will refuse to back away from deficit spending during good times. They will spend until the debt becomes so high that a debt crisis is created. Communism sounded good, but “from each according to his ability to each according to his needs” meant that people would mindlessly toil for others and not be able to build their own wealth, and ignored that people are not ants, but self-interested beings.
Your Money with Chuck Jaffe
April 14, 2011, 6:46 p.m. EDT
A propped-up market no more, analyst says
Trainer: Investors need to do their homework
By MarketWatch
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — David Trainer, president of New Constructs Inc., a Nashville-based investment research firm, said that the days of the market being propped up by the administration and the policies of the Federal Reserve look like they are coming to an end, and that will create a much tougher environment for selecting stocks.
…
At what point did the stock market BEGIN to be propped up by the Fed and “the administration” (i.e. Geithner = the Fed)? What gave them the right to make wealthy investors whole while Main Street households and small businesses were thrown under the bus? Is this part of the Fed’s mandate?
Your Money with Chuck Jaffe
April 14, 2011, 2:20 p.m. EDT
Trainer: ‘Supported’ market due for a letdown
A propped-up market no more, analyst says
David Trainer, president of New Constructs Inc. in Nashville, said that the days of a market being propped up by the administration and the Federal Reserve appear to be ending, which will create a much tougher environment for selecting stocks.
…
A watched pot never boils.
Your Money with Chuck Jaffe
April 14, 2011, 2:20 p.m. EDT
Trainer: ‘Supported’ market due for a letdown
It’s been 20 minutes since I got off the phone with a co-worker, and I am still processing his claim that, “Now is the time to buy.”
…sigh…
As opposed to when, dude? As opposed to when?
The only thing I’m buying is a Realtors Are Liars bumpersticker.
Hmm…that would look good next to my Paul/Kucinich 2012 bumpersticker.
I genuinely hope the next 30, nay….10, years do much to unwind this idea that one must be in real estate and that there is “a time to buy.”
So, when prices are rising I should buy because, if not, I’ll be locked out. And when they are falling I should buy because “there are great deals out there!” and “These conditions won’t be around for long!”
Whatever.
I have bought and sold 3 homes. I tried to do 1 of them “for sale buy owner,” but I was blackballed. Yes! Realtors are scumm. 6% is absurd!! Why do we pay it?
Friend of mine recently sold her house to a co-worker before it ever hit the MLS. She had a seller’s agent, co-worker had a buyer’s agent. Each agent agreed to take just 1% since the only thing they were needed for was paperwork. That was pretty decent.
I saw an internet ad today (from Toll I think) that said…
“It’s not a buyers market unless you buy now”
Geez, ya think?
How are fines an order of magnitude smaller than the profits from Wall Street fraud operations supposed to deter future fraud?
* MARKETS
* APRIL 14, 2011
Banks Near Deal With SEC
Wall Street Is Keen to Settle Fraud Charges Involving Toxic Mortgage Bonds
By JEAN EAGLESHAM
U.S. securities regulators are in talks with several major Wall Street banks to settle fraud allegations related to mortgage-bond deals that helped unleash the financial crisis, according to people familiar with the matter.
The expected settlements, some of which could be reached as soon as next week, collectively mark the biggest attempt by enforcement agencies to hold Wall Street accountable for its role in the subprime mortgage bust.
The cases highlight the aggressive tactics banks used to sell these securities to investors who suffered big losses. They also show how the banks’ desire to keep the $1 trillion mortgage securities business going helped fuel the housing bubble.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is aiming to reach a series of settlements with individual firms over the sales of the investments, rather than a big industrywide deal, according to people familiar with the matter.
The settlements are expected to vary significantly among banks—but few, if any, are expected to surpass the $550 million penalty that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. paid last year to settle allegations that it misled investors in a mortgage-bond investment called Abacus 2007-AC1. That penalty was the largest ever paid by a Wall Street firm to settle SEC charges. Goldman didn’t admit or deny the allegations.
…
You do know that if the fines were raised to levels that were to really punish and deter, we could pay of the national debt.
Except for those damn union janitors!
* The Wall Street Journal
* MARKETS
* APRIL 15, 2011, 11:05 A.M. ET
BofA’s Profit Falls 36%, Misses Street View
BY DAVID BENOIT AND MATT JARZEMSKY
NEW YORK—Bank of America Corp.’s first-quarter profit fell 36% as revenue tumbled across the majority of its businesses, but it set aside less for potential loan losses.
The nation’s largest bank by assets, which nearly foundered during the financial crisis, has continued to struggle with righting its ship. It said Friday it changed its chief financial officer after less than a year on the job, as well as naming a new legal chief.
…
* April 14, 2011, 5:28 PM ET
RIP: Joseph Battipaglia, Popular Wall Street Strategist
By Kristina Peterson
Wall Street veteran Joseph Battipaglia, chief market strategist at Stifel Nicolaus, died at 55 from an apparent heart attack on Thursday according to Fox Business News.
Battipaglia, well known in the finance industry for his opinionated views, was the former chairman of investment policy at brokerage Ryan Beck & Co, before it was acquired by Stifel in 2007. He also worked in executive positions at Gruntal & Co. and as an analyst at Exxon Corporation and Elkins & Co.
Battipaglia made a name for himself a decade ago as a consummate Wall Street optimist, remaining bullish on stocks up to and following the he bursting of the Internet bubble. His willingness to express his opinion to anyone who asked, unlimited availability and never-ending enthusiasm for the financial markets made him a media darling.
…
All your money won’t another minute buy
Dust in the wind
All we are is dust in the wind
This has to terrify the Masters of the Universe. They have so much to lose, and can’t do anything about it.
Why would anyone in their right mind buy a home currently if they thought they might be able to buy a comparable place for 10%-15% less in just a year? In this part of the country, that amounts to a discount of over $30,000. And if the 10%-15% price decline is on a national basis, California prices are likely to fall by more, as our prices became relatively more overvalued during the housing bubble.
Many people (my wife included) like to worry about saving a buck here or there. Why isn’t it worth waiting a little while to save tens of thousands of bucks, and have far greater inventory to choose from as well?
Buy later or overpay now…tough choice!
April 13, 2011, 10:28 a.m. EDT
Home for sale this spring? Your outlook is bleak
Impediments to recovery continue to dog the housing market
By Amy Hoak, MarketWatch
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — It’s spring, that time of year when many prospective home buyers begin the hunt for their next residence. But with home-price declines, more foreclosures to come and slow improvements in the employment market, some say it’s likely this year’s buying and selling season will be another bust.
“We’re all hoping that this spring and summer will bring about a housing rally, but there are too many impediments for that to happen,” said Anthony Sanders, a professor of finance and real estate at George Mason University.
Some are using the dreaded phrase “double dip” to describe trends in the housing market today — particularly regarding home prices that began to show signs of improvement, but then petered out and began falling again, deflating hopes that the market had started to recover.
That may be especially true in the West, where, according to Clear Capital, home prices in the region dropped 4.3% in the first quarter, compared with the fourth quarter, hitting “double-dip territory.” Prices seem to be flattening elsewhere in the country, the firm said. Clear Capital is a data provider of real-estate asset valuation and risk assessment.
Nationally, home prices were down an average 3.1% in January, compared with the year before, according to the Case-Shiller home-price index, which takes into account prices from 20 major cities across the country. Read more on Case-Shiller report.
By the National Association of Realtors’ measure, the national median price on an existing home fell 5.2% in February, compared with a year ago, to $156,000 — the lowest the national median price has been in nine years. Read more on National Association of Realtors report.
Prices could fall 10% to 15% on a national basis this year, said Jason Kopcak, head of whole loans at Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial services firm. Estimates from CoreLogic, a provider of consumer, financial and property information, figure prices will drop another 5% this year before they begin to bottom out into next year.
…
Should you buy? Before you answer that question, ask yourself another question: How long would you plan on owning a home if you bought one today?
“If they can wait 10 years plus [before selling], they can make a great return,” Kopcak said, adding that the current market can represent a great opportunity for those who are ready and willing to buy and hold for a while.
I will never understand why anyone buys a house without expecting to be there at least 10 years. Plans may change and you may end up having to sell sooner, but to buy something knowing it’s only for a couple of years? Don’t get it. Ok, a condo as a first home, perhaps. But even then, I’d expect to commit at least 5 years. SFH? 10 minimum.
Since I was 18, I’ve never lived in a place more than 7 years. Because I’ve never had a job that lasted 7 years. In fact, I think I’ve had one local move in my life, when I was five.
An older friend was stunned when I told her I didn’t have a land phone line, but then she acknowledged that a lot of young people had only a cell phone. I said, “You know why? Because we’re ALWAYS F&$@#*ING MOVING!!”
“If they can wait 10 years plus [before selling], they can make a great return,”
If you bought in San Diego in 2006, when the median price was $517,000, then at the moment, five years later, you are looking at a median of $325,000, with nobody in sight to sell to if you have your home on the market.
But I’m sure the Fed will make it all good by 2016, and home prices will be fully reflated by then — just like they way they bounced back in Japan after their housing bubble went bust in the early 1990s.
I passed by a well dressed women standing at an busy intersection this morning, holding a poster board that read…
“My family is soon to be homeless”. “We need $2100.00 please help” Followed by, Thank you with smiley faces.
This is the first one like this I have seen around here.
Could be worse, it could read…
“My home is soon to be family-less”. “We need $210,000.00 please help”
Friend of mine has been unemployed for 2 years. Yesterday, he got 2 job offers. One in his field (printing) and one at Lowe’s (first time in 2 years he was offered a job at a retail store - Lord knows he applied to man).
He took the printing job and starts next week.
man = many
Congrats to your friend.
I have a friend who works for Lowe’s. When the store isn’t busy enough they tell her not to come in.
Here in Tucson, I haven’t seen crowds in Lowes or Home Depot since 2005. So I’ll bet that their employees get a lot of “don’t come in today” calls.
I might have taken both.
Broke U.S. States’ $48 Billion Debt Drives Unemployment Aid Cuts
(Bloomberg) - Apr 15, 2011
Missouri state Senator Jim Lembke had enough of what he calls Washington’s runaway spending. So he and three fellow Republicans in the state with an unemployment rate of 9.4 percent blocked $105 million in federal aid for those out of work.
“It’s not free money — it’s borrowed money from China,” he said in interview. “We’ve got to send a message to Washington: Stop the spending, stop the madness.”
In the nation’s capitals, from Trenton, New Jersey, to Phoenix, Arizona, tax-leery businesses and the Republican politics of fiscal restraint are making unemployment benefits the next program to face cuts because of the fiscal turmoil that’s persisted since the recession ended almost two years ago.
States slashed spending and raised taxes during the past three years to eliminate deficits in their general budgets. Now, more than half have run out of cash in their unemployment trust funds after joblessness, now 8.8 percent, peaked at 10.1 percent in October 2009. They have borrowed more than $48 billion from the federal treasury to pay benefits.
Groups as varied as local Chambers of Commerce to the National Employment Law Project, which works on behalf of the poor, have raised concerns about the escalating payroll taxes that will be needed to escape debt and replenish state funds.
Through 2015, employers face as much as $24 billion in automatic tax increases triggered in states indebted to the U.S. government, according to a study by the National Employment Law Project and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, two groups who advocate against budget cuts that hurt the poor.
Missouri state Senator Jim Lembke had enough of what he calls Washington’s runaway spending. So he and three fellow Republicans in the state with an unemployment rate of 9.4 percent blocked $105 million in federal aid for those out of work.
“It’s not free money — it’s borrowed money from China,” he said in interview. “We’ve got to send a message to Washington: Stop the spending, stop the madness.”
**********************
This kind of took my breath away because I wouldn’t have thought the states could intefere w/federal aid. But the states do have to pay it back so I can see where the motivation for control comes in. I think to cut this money off is to admit these people’s incomes are not coming back, that this isn’t an ordinary recession, and they have to make decisions to move on and take care of themselves. That is what the polliticians fear. They don’t want to admit our economy is going to experience permanent powering down.
Your local government has direct investments in Wall St.
Wall St… who decided that corporations should maximize stock value by sending jobs to China and then buying the mfg products for sale back here.
In other words, by seeking maximum returns on their Wall St. investments, your local government is culpable in jobs losses that resulted in tax revenue loses.
Oops.
And then there was just plain malinvestment by the local governments and fleecing by the I-Banks to the tune of billions…
But we all know it was the damn union janitors fault, so no worries!
Grapes of Wrath, anyone? As much as they are able, people will flee to where they believe the jobs are or where they might possibly still be able to collect unemployment or where they would prefer to be homeless (warm).
I suspect another leg down in housing is forthcoming in states that are doing this.
If the Republican-controlled states can chase their poor folk out and retain control, they may win this gamble.
ALERTS TO THREATS IN 2011 EUROPE : BY JOHN CLEESE
The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have therefore raised their security level from “Miffed” to “Peeved.” Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to “Irritated” or even “A Bit Cross.” The English have not been “A Bit Cross” since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from “Tiresome” to “A Bloody Nuisance.” The last time the British issued a “Bloody Nuisance” warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.
The Scots have raised their threat level from “Pissed Off” to “Let’s get the Bastards.” They don’t have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.
The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from “Run” to “Hide.” The only two higher levels in France are “Collaborate” and “Surrender.” The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France ’s white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country’s military capability.
Italy has increased the alert level from “Shout Loudly and Excitedly” to “Elaborate Military Posturing.” Two more levels remain: “Ineffective Combat Operations” and “Change Sides.”
The Germans have increased their alert state from “Disdainful Arrogance” to “Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs.” They also have two higher levels: “Invade a Neighbor” and “Lose.”
Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels .
The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.
Australia , meanwhile, has raised its security level from “No worries” to “She’ll be alright, Mate.” Two more escalation levels remain: “Crikey! I think we’ll need to cancel the barbie this weekend!” and “The barbie is canceled.” So far no situation has ever warranted use of the final escalation level.
– John Cleese - British writer, actor and tall person
LOL! I needed to read that.
I think I’ll be an honorary Aussie this weekend and grill some steaks.
The Scots have raised their threat level from “Pissed Off” to “Let’s get the Bastards.” They don’t have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.
Speaking as someone who’s of Scottish descent on both sides of the house, I concur with the above. We annoy very easily. And you don’t want to see us in revenge mode.
My dad’s family reportedly has ancestry in the Outer Hebrides. Combined with the Dutch heritage on my mother’s side, it’s a stubborn and thrifty mix.
Cornish, Scottish, Irish, and German here. Makes for another thrifty, stubborn mix of people who love to tell stories. You should see our family reunions. You’d better come with a story, that’s all I have to say.
“And you don’t want to see us in revenge mode.”
That’s like Irish Alzheimer’s: we forget everything but our grudges.
May as well, the few who will be left up there probably can’t read anyway.
Detroit library could close most of its branches
$11M shortfall may mean closing 12-18 sites for city’s public gem
-The Detroit News
Detroit —The Detroit Public Library could close most of its neighborhood branches and lay off more than half of its workers because of an $11 million shortfall caused by plunging tax collections.
One month after laying off 80 workers, library administrators said deeper cuts are needed and outlined three options: Shut 18 of 23 branches and lay off 191 of the remaining 333 workers; 15 branches and 163 workers; or 12 branches and 135 workers.
Here’s a guy whose life was turned around, thanks in part to the Detroit Public Library. His books tell the story, and I highly recommend them.
Birds Eye plant in Fulton closing ~ centralny.com
Another blow to Fulton’s economy announced this morning. Officials with Birdseye plant say they will be closing the plant in December.
FULTON, N.Y. — The city of Fulton is set to lose another manufacturing plant. The union representing the workers at the Birds Eye plant tells us the company informed the workforce of about 300 workers today. They are shutting down operations for good at the plant in December.
The plant is also being temporarily shut down starting today through Sunday. Production at the frozen food plant will start back up again on Monday.
Pinnacle, the company that owns the plant, said they will begin phasing out employees in August. They have decided to move operations from Fulton to Wisconsin saying it would be more cost efficient to do business there.
This is another in a long line of blows to the workforce in the city of Fulton.
How could it be more efficient in Wisconsin? I thought Wisconsin was full of union thugs.
And it’s kinda weird to move a frozen food plant. I guess it’s too expensive to grow peas or corn in New York?
Pinnacle: owned by the Park Avenue based Blackstone Group. Check,instincts still intact, Carrie. I wonder how much of our food supply is not controlled by private equity and other such interests. Blackstone is currently the world’s 5th largest PE group. (wiki)
From Wikipedia: Pinnacle Foods Group LLC is a leading packaged foods company headquartered in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, owned by The Blackstone Group. Pinnacle Foods is a key player in the shelf stable and frozen food categories and their products can be found in more than 85% of American households.
The company was founded in 1998 as Vlasic Foods International, acquiring the Swanson TV dinners, Open Pit and Vlasic Pickles brands from the Campbell Soup Company. In 2003, it acquired Aurora Foods, based in St. Louis, Missouri. The Blackstone Group bought Pinnacle Foods in 2007. In 2009, Pinnacle Foods acquired Birds Eye Foods, Inc.********
I don’t know if Missouri or Wisconsin where these jobs are heading are non-union or if these states have lower tax rates. But I’m thinking if work centers are moved as easily as chess pieces who wants to sign up for a 30 year mortgage?
Locals news just reported it was BirdsEye’s intention to move the company closer to where the crops were grown.
That’s odd. CNY (Fulton is just north of Syracuse) is surrounded by farmland.
According to NY Dept of Ag, we most certainly do grow what BirdsEye wants in NY but maybe our farms are too independent still?
SWEET CORN
Produced statewide, sweet corn had a value of $69.9 million. Concentrations are found in the Lower Hudson Valley and around the Genesee Valley. The 2005 fresh market crop worth $60.5 million, placed 4th nationally and the processing crop valued at $9.34 million ranked 5th.
ONIONS
An important crop with receipts of $49.0 million in 2005. Onions are grown in New York’s muck soils in Orange, Orleans, Oswego, Madison and Wayne counties. The state ranked 6th in production for 2005 with 301 million pounds.
SNAP BEANS
Grown in the Central and Western regions for fresh and processing. The 2005 crop was valued at $35.8 million. Fresh production accounted for 59 percent of the total and puts New York 5th across the nation. Processing sales of $12.8 million rank New York 2nd.
OTHER VEGETABLES
Tomatoes: $21.5 million, 13th nationally
Pumpkins: $21.9 milllion, 6th nationally
Cucumbers: $15.3 milllion, 5th nationally
Squash: $29.1 million, 5th nationally
Green Peas for Processing: $11.4 million, 4th nationally
Cauliflower: $3.35 million, 3rd nationally
http://www.agmkt.state.ny.us/agfacts.html
“But I’m thinking if work centers are moved as easily as chess pieces who wants to sign up for a 30 year mortgage?”
As I’ve said for 30 years.
I don’t think Wisconsin is known for being super business-friendly. Maybe someone cut them a good tax deal.
Wait. Wisconsin ?
Why does that name ring a, union busting, non-right to peacefully assemble and air grievances, no bid discount favoritism contracts…
…bell?
168-Year-Old College In Jackson Closing Doors
Lambuth University Has Struggled Financially For Years
JACKSON, Tenn. — Officials of Lambuth University have decided to close the school.
After a board of trustees meeting, officials made the announcement Thursday afternoon that the United Methodist Church-affiliated private university would close its doors on June 30, according to The Jackson Sun.
Lambuth has struggled financially for years and was appealing a loss of accreditation, which would mean students there couldn’t obtain federal student loans.
University President Bill Seymour calls it a heart-breaking decision to close the school, which was opened in 1843.
Seymour says all efforts are now focused on graduating about 90 students eligible to receive an accredited degree by July.
WARNER ROBINS, Ga. —
Authorities say three girls selling lemonade to raise money for a hospitalized toddler were robbed of $150 at their stand in central Georgia.
Houston County sheriff’s Lt. Jon Holland said a man and woman approached the girls Saturday afternoon and asked them about their lemonade stand.
Holland said a 13-year-old girl was holding the jar containing the money when the man snatched it from her hand.
WMAZ-TV reports that 21-year-old Amber Umbarger of Warner Robins was arrested in the area, and deputies are searching for a male suspect. Holland said both face charges of robbery by sudden snatching.
The girls were trying to raise money for a cousin of one of the girls, a 2-year-old who will soon undergo treatment for an intestinal disease.
I hope that this guy, if found guilty, not only has to return the money he stole, but is made responsible for raising every bit of additional money that this hospitalized toddler needs.
Amen to that, Slim. I can think of no better justice.
It’s heroic on the part of the girls, but this is a good example of why we need nationalized health care of some kind. How far is that $150 going to go in any kind of medical environment? Neighborhood bake sales and passing the collection plate at chruch aren’t going to cut it anymore — unless they are collecting for the morphine drip.
It’s going to get worse.
Whatever the Fed is up to behind the scenes is working wonders for PM prices!
Metals Stocks
April 15, 2011, 1:06 p.m. EDT
Gold rallies to record; silver hits 31-year high
Gold futures rise as U.S. dollar weakens
A close near this level would be a record for the metal, which last reached that landmark a week ago, when it settled at $1,474.10 an ounce.
Earlier, the contract traded as high as $1,488.60 an ounce, an intraday record for gold.
Silver also surged, with the May contract adding 96.1 cents, or 2.3%, to $42.63 an ounce — the metal’s highest level in 31 years.
Silver prices have rallied almost 37% this year. They’re poised to mark a gain about 5% for the week after closing last Friday at $40.61.
“We view upside inflation risks as more likely than positive growth shocks in the U.S.,” analysts at Deutsche Bank wrote in a weekly report issued Friday. “This should mean that when the [Federal Reserve] eventually tightens monetary policy, it will not derail the rally in precious metals.”
…
The DOW and Oil are enjoying the day also!
Also the FED’s actions are only playing a very minor roll in the movement of PM’s and many other commodities and I am sure it really bugs the Bernake. Losing control is something that does not compute in the program.
Intel, AMD wrestle with declining PC sales
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices are set to report first-quarter financials next week, as the chip giants wrestle with growing concerns about the trajectory of the personal computer market.
These worries were underscored this week when both IDC and Gartner Inc. reported a decline in PC sales in the first quarter as the consumer market weakened and the sector took a hit from the rise of tablets, now seen as a serious threat to segments of that sector.
“Low prices for consumer PCs, which had long stimulated growth, no longer attracted buyers,” Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa said in a statement on the first-quarter PC data. “Instead, consumers turned their attention to media tablets and other consumer electronics.”
I’ve long thought that PC-type computers — as in, something with a standalone keyboard, mouse, CPU, and monitor — would become the province of content creators. As in, people who are involved in the production of still images and motion media (like video).
Reason: You need the computing power that this setup offers. And, sorry, PC platform, but Apple still controls much of this market.
As for everyone else who *consumes* content, well, a laptop, netbook, tablet, or smartphone works just fine.
Pretty much.
As for Intel and AMD, it’s their chips in those other products as well.
Which makes this article very misleading.
Hey techies….
Daughter and wife want tabs. I’m not keen on paying for PC’s or notebooks as I generally get them for near nothing after the end of projects but they really want one. I like Xoom more than I Pads but generally, I don’t like anything (crab)Apple based on my opinion that they’re all geek appeal, fair or not.
What your tech knowledge-based opinions on these piece of overpriced stuff? Apple or Motorola?
Here’s a blunt comparison of tablets versus low-cost PCs:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/222759/my_200_laptop_can_beat_your_500_tablet.html
Yo Slim, what’s the quick story on Rita Ranch?
If your taste runs to ‘burbs full of stick -n- stucco snout houses, Rita Ranch is the place for you. Oh, and if you like to drive everywhere because almost nothing is within walking distance, you’ll love it.
But tell us how you really feel.
I saw some haircut prices in Rita Ranch online the other day, and I figured that it was a newish remote development, i.e., the canary in the coal mine. I don’t like to drive for everything either. On a good note I didn’t see any snow in the photos. Thanks, Slim!
At first glance I thought Rita Ranch was going to be someone from wmbz`s post….
“Prostitution, pot legalization could make Detroit attractive”
I noticed that I could buy almost exactly ten gallons of gas for an ounce of silver as I biked by the gas station this morning. I could get more than ten gallons for that ounce this afternoon, but I’ll be on the bike and there’s no way to carry all that gas…
6 banks shuttered; makes 34 closed in ‘11
By MARCY GORDON The Associated Press
Updated: 9:01 p.m. Friday, April 15, 2011
Posted: 5:48 p.m. Friday, April 15, 2011
WASHINGTON — Regulators on Friday shut down a total of six banks in Alabama, Georgia, Minnesota and Mississippi, boosting the number of U.S. bank failures this year to 34. There were 157 bank closures in 2010 amid the shattered economy and piles of bad loans.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized the banks, the largest by far being Superior Bank, based in Birmingham, Ala., with $3 billion in assets and about 70 branches in Alabama and Florida.