Bits Bucket for May 4, 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
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”The federal government sued Deutsche Bank Tuesday, saying the bank committed fraud and padded its pockets with undeserved income as it repeatedly lied so it could benefit from a government program that insured mortgages…The government said the bank made substantial profits between 2007 and 2009 from the resale of the risky mortgages, leaving the government to foot the bill for loans that defaulted. The mortgage insurance is issued by the Federal Housing Administration.’
‘The lawsuit said the bank carried out the fraud through its subsidiary, MortgageIT, which employed more than 2,000 people at branches in all 50 states. Deutsche acquired MortgageIT in 2007…At a news conference, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said the bank “repeatedly and brazenly” engaged in a pattern of reckless lending practices for mortgages “that were really ticking time bombs,” sometimes failing even to verify that a mortgage applicant had a job. “In fact, they often seemed to treat red flags as if they were green lights,” he said.’
‘The lawsuit noted that MortgageIT hired an outside vendor, Tena Companies Inc., to conduct quality control reviews of closed FHA-insured loans in 2004 but then never read letters that Tena wrote identifying serious underwriting violations. “Instead, MortgageIT employees stuffed the letters, unopened and unread, in a closet in MortgageIT’s Manhattan headquarters,” the lawsuit said.’
‘Still, the prosecutor said the government found no evidence of the criminal intent necessary to take the case beyond a civil lawsuit. “Every lie is not a crime,” he said.’
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Feds-sue-Deutsche-Bank-apf-2077140144.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=1&asset=&ccode=
Definitely worth reading until the payoff line at the end:
‘Still, the prosecutor said the government found no evidence of the criminal intent necessary to take the case beyond a civil lawsuit. “Every lie is not a crime,” he said.’
And here’s more evidence in our Ministry of Truth at work:
Circulation fell at most of the largest U.S. newspapers compared with a year ago, despite new rules that give publishers more flexibility to boost their totals.
The figures released Tuesday, for the six months ended in March, mark the first time that newspapers have calculated circulation under the looser guidelines from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Among other things, the changes make it easier for newspapers to lump separate editions under different titles into one total. They also allow some copies that are distributed free of charge to be tallied.
Newspaper advertising rates are based on (now inflated) circulation numbers.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/New-rules-dont-stop-newspaper-apf-3544442336.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=1&asset=&ccode=
Wow. Good find about the newspapers. I used to work at a newspaper (as well as other mass media) and circulation numbers are always fudged.
Oh… and damn those regulatory roadblock to free markets!
Oh wait…
“Every lie is not a crime,”
——————————————————————————–
I’ll remember this the next time I do my taxes. It goes good with “If you believe it. It’s not a lie.
You can’t help but contrast this with the “broken windows” theory, which holds that you need to crack down on every little thing in poor neighborhoods to prevent people from being emboldened to commit more serious crimes.
We’ve ended up with a white collar riot.
That only works if the people you are arresting can’t afford legal representation.
Interesting that they would run this up the flagpole with a European bank, not a Wall Street one.
Every lie is not a crime? Fraud? Huh?
My thoughts exactly, Skye. Then again, I’m sure it might have something to do with the Fed’s largesse to foreign entities. I smell “clawback”.
Another day in the lifr of the Corrupt States of America.
But hey! After 10 years we finally got Bin Laden! And maybe there won’t be an NFL strike after all!
So quit yer bellyachin’ about not being able to find a living wage job, serf! And go buy a house, dang it!
Yeah!
Its all good!
Bammy is all hood dawg!
USA! USA! USA!
http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lkjsa0vvlq1qzu2tdo1_400.gif
I tried to post this yesterday, since the filter doesn’t much seem to care for the link. Paul Craig Roberts carries a lot of weight with me, having worked as Assistant Treasury Secretary under Reagan.
“Osama bin Laden’s Second Death
By Paul Craig Roberts
If today were April 1 and not May 2, we could dismiss as an April Fool’s joke this morning’s headline that Osama bin Laden was killed in a firefight in Pakistan and quickly buried at sea. As it is, we must take it as more evidence that the US government has unlimited belief in the gullibility of Americans.
Think about it. What are the chances that a person allegedly suffering from kidney disease and requiring dialysis and, in addition, afflicted with diabetes and low blood pressure, survived in mountain hideaways for a decade? If bin Laden was able to acquire dialysis equipment and medical care that his condition required, would not the shipment of dialysis equipment point to his location? Why did it take ten years to find him?
Consider also the claims, repeated by a triumphalist US media celebrating bin Laden’s death, that “bin Laden used his millions to bankroll terrorist training camps in Sudan, the Philippines, and Afghanistan, sending ‘holy warriors’ to foment revolution and fight with fundamentalist Muslim forces across North Africa, in Chechnya, Tajikistan and Bosnia.” That’s a lot of activity for mere millions to bankroll (perhaps the US should have put him in charge of the Pentagon), but the main question is: how was bin Laden able to move his money about? What banking system was helping him? The US government succeeds in seizing the assets of people and of entire countries, Libya being the most recent. Why not bin Laden’s? Was he carrying around with him $100 million dollars in gold coins and sending emissaries to distribute payments to his far-flung operations?
This morning’s headline has the odor of a staged event. The smell reeks from the triumphalist news reports loaded with exaggerations, from celebrants waving flags and chanting “USA USA.” Could something else be going on?
No doubt President Obama is in desperate need of a victory. He committed the fool’s error or restarting the war in Afghanistan, and now after a decade of fighting the US faces stalemate, if not defeat. The wars of the Bush/Obama regimes have bankrupted the US, leaving huge deficits and a declining dollar in their wake. And re-election time is approaching.
The various lies and deceptions, such as “weapons of mass destruction,” of the last several administrations had terrible consequences for the US and the world. But not all deceptions are the same. Remember, the entire reason for invading Afghanistan in the first place was to get bin Laden. Now that President Obama has declared bin Laden to have been shot in the head by US special forces operating in an independent country and buried at sea, there is no reason for continuing the war.
Perhaps the precipitous decline in the US dollar in foreign exchange markets has forced some real budget reductions, which can only come from stopping the open-ended wars. Until the decline of the dollar reached the breaking point, Osama bin Laden, who many experts believe to have been dead for years, was a useful bogyman to use to feed the profits of the US military/security complex.
Paul Craig Roberts [email him] was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during President Reagan’s first term. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He was awarded the Legion of Honor by French President Francois Mitterrand. He is the author of Supply-Side Revolution : An Insider’s Account of Policymaking in Washington; Alienation and the Soviet Economy and Meltdown: Inside the Soviet Economy, and is the co-author with Lawrence M. Stratton of The Tyranny of Good Intentions : How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice.”
“After 10 years we finally got Bin Laden!”
Yeah, his “second death”. My contempt-o-meter is pinned all the way over. Anyone see the photograph of the White House team watching the take-down in “real time”? Meh. I think they were watching an episode of “American Idol”. Hillary had her hand over her mouth in horror because her favorite contestant was going home.
Nice try, dip-sh*ts.
“Anyone see the photograph of the White House team watching the take-down in “real time”?
I think Obama thought they were playing on X-Box Live.
They were watching a snuff film.
“I think Obama thought they were playing on X-Box Live”
To hear Obama’s speech, one would think he had the controller in his hand during the entire game.
“Think about it. What are the chances that a person allegedly suffering from kidney disease and requiring dialysis and, in addition, afflicted with diabetes and low blood pressure, survived in mountain hideaways for a decade? ”
Umm…he wasn’t in mountain hideaways for a decade. He was in huge house in a comfortable suburb for at least 5 to 6 years of that decade. There is no reason to believe he wasn’t in another location with electricity an running water and places to store medical equipment for a number of years before that. Pakistan is not a reliable western ally. We have no reason to believe anything they claimed about his location. No reason at all.
“Pakistan is not a reliable western ally.”
Right, there a stooge.
The comments about Pah-Kee-stahns (Bammy speak) credibility remind me of the wife who gets mad at the secretary because her husband cheated on her.
(((shakin my head)))
The Faux News anchors say pockeeston, so it’s even catching on with the moronocracy.
His last couple of videos showed him pretty ill. He couldn’t even move his arm in the last one.
I bet he had been in a hospital(and not a Pakistani one) more than a few times in the past 10 years.
A lot of people benefitted from keeping him alive.
He was in the American hospital in Dubai a month before 9/11. I wish they would release his medical records, but I’m sure they are classified.
“he wasn’t in mountain hideaways for a decade.”
You’re right!
“He was in huge house in a comfortable suburb for at least 5 to 6 years of that decade.”
You’re wrong!
Thanks for playing!
“The Faux News anchors say pockeeston, so it’s even catching on with the moronocracy.”
There it is! Moronocracy.
Obama did what Bush could not…… I hope to see more of this
I hear we have Panetta to thank..
the OBL staged event was to get the sheeple’s mind off the fake birth certificate. USA! USA! USA!
““He was in huge house in a comfortable suburb for at least 5 to 6 years of that decade.””
“You’re wrong!”
“Thanks for playing!”
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WRONG_ABOUT_BIN_LADEN?SITE=OKOKL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
In 2007, for instance, when bin Laden issued a video, some in the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center believed his face did not show the strain of someone who had endured years of airstrikes, moving furtively across rough terrain, former senior intelligence officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss secret intelligence.
In hindsight, they were right. By then, bin Laden had likely been living in Abbottabad for roughly two years, with easy access to groceries and medicine.
Obama: “Justice has been done.”
I’m assuming he meant frontier justice.
frontier justice would have been 2 bullets to the back of head. If you don’t believe me just ask the Chinese.
That government-guarantee ripoff scam was exclusively for US banks. Didn’t the rest of the world get the memo?
Well, “no, you don’t look fat in that dress” isn’t a crime. But putting $150k/annum in the “income” box for a part-time assistant manager at the Burger King and selling the loan on that basis looks like one to me.
Skye - Responding to you from yesterday…ha! No January lust this past year. In fact, I’ve been strangely calm. I’d say that’s worth it.
Good for you. Not everything is economics.
Posted a story that may take awhile to pass spambot muster. It’s about newspapers having loosened rules allowing them to report higher circulation numbers but I think I scanned over this the first time and it’s a doozy:
“Advertisers had a say in the new circulation rules; their industry controls two-thirds of the seats on ABC’s board.”
We knew they had influence but that’s a chokehold.
“Advertisers had a say in the new circulation rules; their industry controls two-thirds of the seats on ABC’s board.”
What a surprise! The stated purpose of the MSM is to inform the public and shape public opinion. The actual purpose is to sell products.
This is a very important piece of confirming information, IMO.
If advertisers control the board, I would think they’d want real numbers and not inflated numbers, since the rate they pay is directly proportional to the number of subscribers. Why would they pay the newspaper for non-existent subscribers?
Large guys scamming the little guys?
Why do they pay for advertisment flyers that are handed out for free?
The name of the game is to get the word - their version of the word - out. If the word is contained in some sort of bonified news media then it, by association, has some credibility.
Shocked I tell. Just shocked!
Realtors Are Liars.
You really know how to tell it to ‘em.
Bin Laden died twice.
You really think Bush would have let that go to the next guy?
Oh, so THAT’S why he’s being such a sore loser and “declined” Obama’s invitation to Ground Zero.
You need to check up on your Bush family history and their relationship to the House of Been Lyin’.
OK, walk us thru your theory.
Bronc, I have neither the strength nor the inclination to go over everything that has transpired since 9/11, all the various articles, investigative reports, etc. I do recall some of outrage immediately following 9/11 that all flights were grounded, except for State Department flights ferrying various Saudi citizens, including members of the Bin Laden family, out of the country to their homelands at taxpayer expense.
Paul Craig Roberts’ article pretty well sums things up. But let’s say, for the sake of argument, that OBL (who was once a CIA asset, to the point that his group was known as “Al CIA-duh”) died not too long after 9/11, but was rumored to be alive, with bogus taped screeds broadcasted whenever his boogeyman status would serve some twisted end. Bush, Cheney, various high level members of the military/spy complex, State Department, etc. would all know this. But they could never admit to it, of course.
And the following administration would of course also know what the real situation was, and perhaps OBL was of more use to them if he was thought to be alive, for awhile, especially if the US is still mired in Afghanistan.
But, things change. Economy tanking, Obama’s numbers going down, endless war, the Middle East and North Africa imploding, birtherism at an all time high, gas prices through the roof, etc. OBL is no longer a useful boogeyman, so hard on the heels of the Petraeus/Gates/Panetta shuffle (I mean, jeez, Jay Carney barely finished his press conference), he gets “taken out”. Obama gets the credit for this bogus ruse.
Just to really stick a thumb in GWB’s eye, Obama invites him to a Ground Zero rally. GWB declines. Why? Fit of pique, really. He knows it’s bogus, BO knows it’s bogus. GWB knows BO is just having some fun with him, too. He’s pissed. And there’s nothing he can do about it. What’s he gonna say? “BO is BSing you, we got him a long time ago.”?
Protocol would dictate that GWB would at least want to join OBL at Ground Zero. But he’s reacting just like the sore loser/spoiled brat he always was.
I’m pretty sure you can research that in the Boston Globe. They ran a story about two Bin Laden brothers flown out “for security reasons” by our government at a time when there were no flights yet taking place. It took place just days after 9/11.
They had been living in condos on the waterfront not far from the USS Constitution.
“State Department flights ferrying various Saudi citizens, including members of the Bin Laden family, out of the country to their homelands at taxpayer expense.”
Deportation?
So, basically you are making up a story for which you have no proof that fits in with your preconceived notions of what you want to be the truth.
Polly, Bronc asked me for my “theory”. So I laid out a scenario. But I stand firm in my agreement with PCR. Just about everything that’s happened since 9/11 (including 9/11) stinks like 10 day old fish. Surely you don’t dispute the fact that OBL was a CIA asset at one time? An asset that went awry. Much of this information is on-line. I’m sure it has been much discussed in your current hometown.
But whatever the case, now would be a good time to use the “death” of the boogeyman to boogey on out of Afghanistan. I certainly hope that takes place.
Palmy, I responded to this a while ago, but it hasn’t showed up. I will try it again later.
On this: “now would be a good time to use the “death” of the boogeyman to boogey on out of Afghanistan,” I absolutely agree with you.
And just to add, recently there was some sort of Op-Ed online about how members of the military who were killed in the Middle East abbattoir, died in vain. Somebody had to say it. This is being said more and more. Yes, what exactly did they die for? Someone please tell me.
Couldn’t we have staged OBL’s second death in a safer territory? I mean sending in helicopters into another country near one of their military installations seems a bit risky for a ruse, doesn’t it? Even if they wanted to send troops into Pakistan for part of the ruse, couldn’t they have chosen somewhere other than next to their West Point?
Wouldn’t it have been safer and just as plausible to “find” bin Laden in a remote hideout in the mountains of Afghanistan and “kill him” there where we wouldn’t potentially create a major international incident with a nuclear power?
Occam’s Razor seems to come into play here. If it was a ruse, it will be incredibly difficult to keep the truth under wraps given the number of people involved. I suspect we are hearing the truth though, so I guess we won’t hear the conspiracy theories come true (as the ruse is uncovered), they will simply linger as the conspiracy theory continues to be a theory.
Palmetto, how could they possibly cover up something for 10 years that likely would have had dozens or even hundreds of people in the ‘know,’ not to mention OBLs crew. People are blabbermouths by nature; somebody would have said something.
Bronc, that’s a reasonable question. Couple of answers:
First, spooks (spies) know very well that in order to effectively hide or cover up something, just make it so incredible no one would believe it. This is ancient tradition that carries on to today.
Secondly, while people may be blabbermouths by nature, they can clam up tighter than a tick when their careers or lives, especially the lives of their families, are on the line. No one wants the Bradley Manning treatment, either. Or the Helen Thomas treatment, for that matter.
my original post did not go thru because I used the word Bee Jay
…and Clinton
…and a former president
People are blabbermouths by nature; somebody would have said something.
And, since people have such a tendency to blab, conspiracy theories seldom hold up for very long. Sooner or later, the loose lips start flappin’ the truth.
…. speaking of liars.
Apparently, so are newspapers, now.
http://tinyurl.com/3j462z6
Nice link to The Onion. Americas finest news source.
About that Photoshopped paper in the image: I don’t see what would have been so awful about just filling that paper with plain white?
You just make a selection around the edge of the classified image on the paper, then fill it with 100% white. Easy-peasy. Even Hillary’s right elbow wouldn’t have known the difference.
I call an epic fail on this Photoshopping job.
Interesting. Good find Montana.
My “favorite” commenter on jobs, the guy from Challenger, Gray and Christmas, was on NPR this morning. He was very excited that there were only 36,000 lay offs announced last month which is lower than it has been. Also, they were evidently for Benign reasons like mergers. No mention that corporations are sitting on piles of cash and that often leads to lots more M&A activity. Also no mention that the 4 week moving average of new unemployment claims was over 400K last week. And then, he talked about the composition of the layoffs that were announced. Seems they were highest in CA, DC and NJ. CA and NJ are dealing with austerity measures that he said was the path of other states in the coming months. DC is indicative of cut backs in federal spending (probably means contractor cut backs) that will also continue.
So everything is great despite the fact that the cuts he is seeing are likely to continue and/or accelerate over the coming months. And lets ignore the fact that actual new unemployment claims are going up.
This is the worst recurring feature on Marketplace.
And those “austerity” cuts came with virtually no measurable amount of “austerity”. Imagine if we ever actually implemented the real thing?
So Polly, do I owe you a dollar now?
Well, I don’t see any legislation on the horizon extening the unemployment benefits for the 99ers and I believe Michigan has recently cut its base unemeployment benefits to 20 weeks from 26 weeks. So, yup, I’d say your prediction of about a month ago is a bust. Did we actually have a bet? I don’t remember that, but if that is your recollection, please give the dollar to the charity or homeless person or street musician of your choice.
Hi Polly:
Whats going to happen when mass suicides hit the 99 ers?
There have been some, but with no jobs no income…maybe mass suicides like in the chinese plants will get the Big OH off his butt?
http://www.unemployed-friends2.org/
What will happen is unemployment numbers will ‘drop precipitously’ and it will be hailed as a recovery! Hopefully they won’t pick bridges during commute hours and mess with the job-havers.
I agree and state budgets tend to start on July 1st so that is when the layoffs due to budget cuts will be concentrated. Since that is also around the time QE II ends it should be an interesting Summer. However, QEIII in some form will reappear to prevent some of the slowness.
We have another prediction! I am not at all as confident in my ability to predict Fed behavior as some types of Congressional behavior, so no bet on this one. I have no idea if there will be a QEIII, but tracking the predictions is fun. So, should we check back with you on July 1st to see if QEIII has started? You may substitute another date if you think it will take a while for the Fed to decide to start up the presses. Would you prefer August 1st? September 1st?
Shoveling out ever more money to corporations and and the wealthy when the economy already HAS beaucoup excess capacity does NOT increase productivity and put people back to work. It just leads to non-productive actions like merger-manias, and highly leveraged attempts to cash in on rising stock prices. Why WOULD any CEOs hire more people and buy new plant when they can meet current demand without doing so?
U.S. Becomes Net Exporter Of Fuel For First Time In Nearly 20 Years
-Lila Shapiro, Huffpost
“According to data from the Energy Department, starting last November — with the exception of the month of January — the U.S. began exporting more petroleum products than it imported.
In February, the U.S. exported 54,000 more barrels of petroleum products each day than it purchased abroad, with diesel and finished petrol leading the increase. According to the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, U.S. refined product exports rose in the first quarter of 2011 to 2.49 million barrels per day, a 24.4 percent year-over-year increase, the Financial Times reports.
In the first quarter of 2011, imports dropped to 2.26 million barrels a day, a 14.4 percent year-over-year decline, according to the FT.”
http://www.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MTPNTUS2&f=M
with diesel and finished petrol leading the increase.
Enable an addicted dependency then manipulate$ it.
“Homes” = check
gasoline = check
food suppliers = check
medication = check
In the first quarter of 2011, imports dropped to 2.26 million barrels a day:
Cheney-Shrub: “we need to build a refinery every week for the next 20 years! Rebates for Hummers?, hey,… that sounds great to us”
I thought ‘drill, baby, drill’ meant that the resulting oil would flood our domestic market and drive down prices. But those crazy b@sterds are selling the excess on the world market! Who’da thunk?!
They just need to drill even more. Then we can have a two way conga line of full tankers crossing the oceans, while gas climbs to $5 a gallon.
Or just ship it around the world and back to the US just for the hell of it (…oh yeah, and to drive the price up).
This is already done every day.
Yep looks like the economy is booming? Oil consumption is through the roof???????????????????????????????
So… we export AND import the same product at the same time and then claim supply shortage?
Nope. Nothing wrong with this picture. Free market baby!
A little information on Osama’s wife that was shot from ABC news:
The wife, one of five wives, was his youngest, 29-year old Amal Ahmed Abdul Fatah, identified by U.S. authorities as the woman pictured in a passport that a Pakistani TV station said was found in the compound after the raid.
Amal Ahmed was in the bedroom with bin Laden when the Navy SEALs closed in.
“Bin Laden’s wife rushed the U.S. assaulter and was shot in the leg, but not killed,” said White House press secretary Jay Carney.
Bin Laden married Amal Ahmed when she was a teenager. She was a gift to him from a Yemeni family.
Explained Steve Coll, author of the book The Bin Ladens, “She was a very young woman by the account of the bodyguard who brought her to meet bin Laden from the tribal family that had presented her to bin Laden, presented her to bin Laden for marriage.”
Since Islam “limits” men to 4 wives he actually divorced a wife. Doesn’t say how young of a teenager she was when he married her but since she was a “gift”, I guess he could not have complained. All I get for gifts are neckties.
They’re really gilding the lily with the “wife” story. A little bit of human interest, just to punch the whole invention up a tad.
Seriously, The Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen couldn’t have don’t a better job.
“couldn’t have don’t a better job.”
L.M.A.O. I meant “DONE”, not “DON’T”!!! That’s what you get when you haven’t had enuf cawfeee.
Sorry, folks. The palmster is a bit giddy today over the whole Been Lyin’ thingie.
Not only has he died at least twice, but just wait for it: he’ll rise from the dead and that’ll really get ‘em! I mean, when you think about it, he does sort of resemble many of the old time Jesus Christ depictions.
Sing along with ole’ palmy now:
“Fairy tales
Can come true
They can happen to you…”
So this is why that song has been in my head all day. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out where it had come from.
Pal wins nut job of the day! Hand it over Hwy.
OK, that’s funny.
You can go ad hominen on me all ya want, boyz. Makes no never mind to me. But if I wuz you, I’d embrace the fairy tale. Because that’s a heckuva lot easier to swallow than the alternative.
Now, if you believe this whole improbable scenario, then maybe you should be on the horn to your Senator or Representative asking why we’re pissing away billions in Pockeestahn, our supposed ally (lmao), to shelter OBL. Ask them:
“If bin Laden was able to acquire dialysis equipment and medical care that his condition required, would not the shipment of dialysis equipment point to his location? Why did it take ten years to find him?
How was bin Laden able to move his money about? What banking system was helping him? The US government succeeds in seizing the assets of people and of entire countries, Libya being the most recent. Why not bin Laden’s? Was he carrying around with him $100 million dollars in gold coins and sending emissaries to distribute payments to his far-flung operations?”
Lemme know what they say.
“…How was bin Laden able to move his money about?”
-Kinda like the Vatican does? Layer upon layer of couriers, satellite entities, tertiary accounts? A lot of drug cartels have been operating this way for decades without being located or captured, either.
-And home dialysis is not all that complicated. A compact unit is about the size of an end table, and easily operated by one person.
-Osama was not particularly beloved by many of his Saudi relations. (Bush family friends, several of whom held duel Saudi/America citizenship.) They were flown out of the country right after 911 to protect them from crazed retaliation by perhaps a less nuanced element of American society?
You’re gonna have to do a lot better than this, Palmy. No way Obama was going to risk this politically with Pakistan if he knew OBL was already dead.
Oh, and he pronounces it “Pahki-stan,” because that’s how it’s pronounced. Unless you enjoy being perceived as willfully ignorant.
So those big, bad Navy seals had to shoot a little woman? Maybe they felt threatened when she ululated?
“All I get for gifts are neckties.”
Careful what you wish for, you just might get your wish!
Dude, a woman can stick a knife in you just as easily as a man. Shooting somebody in a pitched room-to-room gunfight who is in motion in your direction is completely reasonable.
Executing civilians? Sure, go after the servicemen who did it. Civilian casualties as a result from an op? Go after whoever ordered it if you feel the casualties were unwarranted. I will side with the soldier in the field on anything even resembling a ‘close call’ as they are the ones bearing the misfortune’s slings and arrows so you don’t have to. And if you think the soldiers shouldn’t have been involved in the first place, blame the leaders who sent them there, not the soldiers.
I will side with the soldier in the field on anything even resembling a ‘close call’ as they are the ones bearing the misfortune’s slings and arrows so you don’t have to. And if you think the soldiers shouldn’t have been involved in the first place, blame the leaders who sent them there, not the soldiers.
Seconded.
she was a teenager. She was a gift ??
Just move all the women & children to a isolated location and then nuke the rest of those swinging D@$^ bastards…
Some of our closes allies in the Middle East still sell brides.
Yo! Steve J….Don’t be slammin the free market. Goldman Sach’s and JP Morgan might get all upset.
she was a teenager. She was a gift ??
Teenage, Middle-East Bride:
The Gift that Keeps on Giving
(Or you can stone her)
Barney Frank tries to restructure the Federal Reserve
CNNMoney
Rep. Barney Frank took on Wall Street as one of the writers of the sweeping Dodd-Frank financial reform bill last year. Now he is taking on the Federal Reserve.
The Massachusetts Democrat announced Tuesday morning that he’s introducing a bill that would dramatically downsize the Federal Reserve’s policymaking committee, eliminating five regional Fed presidents from having a say in the central bank’s decisions.
The Federal Open Market Committee, or FOMC, is structured to include 12 voting members, made up of seven Fed governors and five presidents from regional Fed banks.
The committee meets eight times a year to vote on interest rates and other monetary policy decisions that affect the entire U.S. economy by influencing credit conditions, inflation and unemployment.
Frank’s main complaint is with the selection process. Unlike Fed governors, the regional bank presidents are not selected by elected officials, but by a board comprised of business leaders in their communities.
“These men and women are chosen by a self-perpetuating group of private citizens who disproportionately represent the private financial services industry,” Frank said in a statement.
Frank believes his bill, if passed, would make the Fed’s decision-making process more transparent and democratic.
Just in time to mute Hoenig and Fisher.
I would call Barney Frank the fox guarding the hen house, but fox implies intellect. This is the guy who said that Fannie and Freddie represented good investments.
BTW just got word from a loan broker about a new FHA product that allows for a 510 credit score.
From ABC News about Obama’s wife:
The wife, one of five wives, was his youngest, 29-year old Amal Ahmed Abdul Fatah, identified by U.S. authorities as the woman pictured in a passport that a Pakistani TV station said was found in the compound after the raid.
Amal Ahmed was in the bedroom with bin Laden when the Navy SEALs closed in.
“Bin Laden’s wife rushed the U.S. assaulter and was shot in the leg, but not killed,” said White House press secretary Jay Carney.
Bin Laden married Amal Ahmed when she was a teenager. She was a gift to him from a Yemeni family.
Explained Steve Coll, author of the book The Bin Ladens, “She was a very young woman by the account of the bodyguard who brought her to meet bin Laden from the tribal family that had presented her to bin Laden, presented her to bin Laden for marriage.”
The MSM is really layin’ it on thick. Not only is there this little slice of life sidebar about the wife, but there was another sidebar about how one of the Navy Seals was born of Mexican immigrant parents or some such thing. LaRaza probably wrote the story. (Hey, stick this in there, willya?)
There’s something for everyone in this fairy tale. Anyone can play!
” but there was another sidebar about how one of the Navy Seals was born of Mexican immigrant parents or some such thing”
Maybe he has some relatives who are Zetas?
L.M.A.O.! Except I shouldn’t laugh. Didn’t the Mexican gubmint train the Zetas, with the help of the CIA? Wasn’t Been Lyin’ a creature of US creation?
Our gubmint creates our enemies, so they can have a merry game.
Yup, they were elite forces that turned into drug cartels. I guess the money was better.
Bin Laden was actually a creation of the Saudi government and a wealthy father.
He used his inheritance to help the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan against the Russians. Through his Saudi connections, we were able to supply arms to the Mujaheddin as well. His money and connections are what got the CIA’s attention. The combination of all those factors eventually led to him becoming the leader of Al Queda after the Russian pullout.
Obama’s wife? No wonder he wanted Osama dead. Dude was bangin’ Obama’s secret Muslim wife!
Obama’s wife?
Shhhh, don’t confuse ‘em, they can barely stay on script with the “birther” (non-Hawaiian) lil’ Opie is destroying America rant.
Buying Beats Renting in 80 percent of U.S. Cities
USNewsandWorldReport
Thanks to falling home prices and rising rents, would-be home buyers have the upper hand this house-hunting season. In nearly 4 out of 5 major U.S. cities, it’s now cheaper to buy a home than to rent. That’s up from 72 percent of cities last quarter, based on the Rent vs. Buy Index released by online real estate resource Trulia.
“With home prices nearing a double-dip and more foreclosures expected to flood the housing market over the next two years, the decision between renting and buying a home across most of the country has clearly moved in favor of buying,” said Ken Shuman, head of communications at Trulia, in a press release. “As we head into the summer buying season, those looking to buy a home should be encouraged by improvements in the market and feel optimistic about their chances of finding an affordable home, much more so than in previous years.”
Areas with the most affordable housing market conditions tend to be cities hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis, including Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Miami. Meanwhile, those with more affordable rental markets included New York City, Los Angeles, and Seattle. Omaha, San Jose, and Detroit had some of the largest quarter-over-quarter jumps in favor of homeownership.
Despite the overwhelming data supporting home buying this season, experts emphasize that above all, the real estate market is local.
More NAR propaganda on marketwatch site today: Six tips to finding the best deals on rent - Competition heats up for decent rentals at affordable prices
Maybe in NYC, DC, LA yes. One way to notice how glutted the rental market in some larger flyover metros is to scroll through craigslist. By the time one has spent 5-10 minutes reading through 100 listings and clicks to the next page, the last 10 listings have been bumped to the top of the next page because there are so many listings being added.
It’s not propaganda entirely. There are many reasons to buy in many markets. That said, if you’re planning on going anywhere in the next 10 years you’d better plan on renting. Flexibility is probably the number one reason to rent.
They never add in the extra amount you have to save to make sure you have enough to pay off the loan if it goes underwater because of selling in a higher interest rate environment or when the shadow inventory is getting to market or anything like that. Real cost for those of us in recourse states.
What criteria did they use ?
Another article I read said that it was better to buy if a house is priced at less than 200x monthly rent ! The actual number is more like 100-120x. Using 200x allows this ridiculous conclusion about buying.
So, be careful of these headlines without looking at how they came to this conclusion.(I didn’t read this particular article.)
You may be able to afford that vacation this summer but can that vacation town afford you?
FALMOUTH — The police patrolman’s union has asked for the chief’s support to get the town’s nationally renowned July Fourth fireworks display canceled.
The Falmouth Police Patrolmen’s Federation wrote a letter Monday to Police Chief Anthony Riello, asking for his support in canceling the Fourth of July event because of low staffing levels and exorbitant overtime costs.
“With the current level of staffing and the anticipated strain on our patrol officers because of the lack of staff, we feel that an extra event for the enjoyment is an extra that should be canceled,” Robert Murray, president of the patrolmen’s union wrote in the letter obtained by the Times.
Murray did not return a phone message from the Times seeking comment.
The Fourth of July fireworks bring about 75,000 people to Falmouth every summer, and the event has been a tradition for more than 30 years, said Joseph “Dutch” Drolette, president of the Falmouth Fireworks Committee.
It costs roughly $70,000 to pay for the fireworks display, Drolette said, but no taxpayer money is used and all of the money is raised through private donations.
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20110504%2FNEWS%2F105040322
Private donations were most likely primarily from small businesses that would make money off the influx of visitors so it’s not surprising fundraising is behind. I think torganizers would ask donors to dig deeper as so often happens locally except for how thin the police force is being spread. This could be political leverage to get some guys back on the force. With tourism being the biggest driver of income on Cape Cod, I cannot see Falmouth truly giving up it’s fireworks. There will be the desired public backlash.
Tsk, tsk, all is not well on the Irish Riviera. Well, not to worry. The boyz from Southie will still be there, brawling and barfing.
Ain’t that the truth.
Yeah, it’ll still be a wicked pisser.
lol! palmetto made a funny.
Just heard on the news that home sales (not sure if new or not) dropped 61% in Cambridge.
Wouldn’t it be wicked-awesome if they did another first-time-buyer tax credit?
At 10am in the morning no less.
I do not understand this statement:
“With home prices nearing a double-dip and more foreclosures expected to flood the housing market over the next two years, the decision between renting and buying a home across most of the country has clearly moved in favor of buying,” said Ken Shuman, head of communications at Trulia, in a press release.
If housing prices are falling why is it better to buy than to rent? If someone pay $30,000 in rent over the next two years but the house that he/she rents drops $50,000 isn’t he better off renting?
And why do I doubt they’re including taxes and maintenance on the purchase side in their calculations?
My guess is they’re comparing rent with the traditional PITI mortgage payment, which includes taxes. But yes, I’ll bet there’s no maintenance dollars in their calculations.
But yes, I’ll bet there’s no maintenance dollars in their calculations ??
The most overlooked and under estimated part of any real estate purchase except for bare land…
Agreed. If you’re a tenant and something like the A/C fails you call the landlord. If you’re the “owner” you call the service company and get ready for a big bill.
Buy now before prices drop lower!
Well I agree that their statement doesn’t parse well. The only way that you can have it make any sense is thinking that what they mean is that it’s a good idea to start looking now to be ready to BUY into the second dip. But IMHO there’s a near zero chance of going back to the runaway rising prices of the bubble. I’d guess that we’ll bump along near bottom with little to no real appreciation for a long time. Wile finding an exact bottom might make theoretical sense, the days of “buy now or be priced out forever” fever won’t return for a lifetime IMHO.
If you’re buying at $100,000 and take a mortgage for $80,000 for 15 years at 4.25% your payment is $601 monthly. If you buy the same home for $80,000 with a $64,000 mortgage at an 8% mortgage rate your payment is $611. I’m of course assuming that people take a rational mortgage for a rational period of time. Unfortunately we live in a society where people shop on monthly payment.
Long term mortgages and short term low paying jobs. Yea, that sounds like a winner to me.
16 Amazing Facts on the Middle Class Squeeze
By Michael Snyder
Apr 28 2011
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/04/16-amazing-facts-on-the-middle-class-squeeze/237949
from the article:
“The number of children living in poverty has gone up by about two million in the past two years. This is one of the reasons why automatic anti-poverty spending has increased dramatically in the recession. ”
But I thought we were destroying ‘the future of our children’ when we ran deficits in a depression. Turns out we’re feeding the children- that’s a good way to have a future. No matter, better cut that spending so the wealthy keep their tax cuts (for the children!).
From yesterday’s WSJ: 1 in 7 in US receive food stamps
The map accompanying the article shows KY, TN, SC, GA, AL, MS, LA all with 18% or more of there residents on food stamps. Outside of the deep south only ME, MI, NM, OR have as high of percentages receiving food stamps.
Good thing that KY, TN, SC, GA, AL, MS and LA are “Right to work” states. More like “right to be poor”
Yeah, you’d think all those ‘failed’ liberal states would be getting the majority of food stamps, not the conservative, freedom-loving states.
+1 Alpha
Right to work……. for less.
Yeah, you’d think all those ‘failed’ liberal states would be getting the majority of food stamps, not the conservative,
freedompoverty-loving states.There, I fixed it for you.
Outsourcing started when all these states used their “right to work” laws and tax breaks as incentives to bribe companies to relocate from the Northeast and MidWest.
Thus dropping the “race to the bottom” flag.
“From yesterday’s WSJ: 1 in 7 in US receive food stamps”
I see that toothless Oregon’s rate is higher than most of the deep south. No surprise to me.
Here is the automatic party line of democrats and socialists when the questions come up to cut government spending and live within our means.
1. Children will starve
2. Grandma will eat cat food
3. Grandma will be kicked into the street and live the gutter
4. Polluted and dirty air will follow
5. Polluted and dirty water will follow
6. Women will die
7. Minorities will be hardest it
It is Sooooooooo predictable.
“It is Sooooooooo predictable.”
I always hear we need to cut the deficit at once- for the children!
But these children are apparently part of the problem, demanding to be fed when we have tax cuts for the wealthy to pay for.
To be fair the republicans say the same thing except they say it behind closed doors and they snicker a little at the end.
LOL
1. Children will starve
2. Grandma will eat cat food
3. Grandma will be kicked into the street and live the gutter
4. Polluted and dirty air will follow
5. Polluted and dirty water will follow
6. Women will die
7. Minorities will be hardest it
So all these things will just take care of themselves, just like they do in other low tax havens like Haiti?
Here’s another one:
Jobs will be lost, not created.
2banana, I’d like to understand how it is that you believe that good-paying private sector jobs will be created to replace the good-paying government jobs (and associated private sector contractor jobs) that will be lost.
If cutting government spending and government jobs will lead to an increase in private sector jobs, when will we see them? What will they pay? Where will they be?
Do you really think high taxes and insane public unions with insane salaries/benefits and pensions is the way to prosperity?
See California (or Detroit or Camden, etc.).
See the insane public unions in California.
See socialists run California
See good jobs leave California.
Where do they go?
To Texas.
Compare/contrast.
Texas is in about as much trouble as California. And I think they go to China, not Texas.
When will we see the private sector jobs? What will they pay?
Do you really think cutting public sector jobs in an era of globalization will lead us out of the Great Recession? In 1 year? In 3 years? In 10?
Do you really think only public sector union jobs will be affected by these government cuts? How many private sector jobs depend on government spending?
to replace the good-paying government jobs
Are well-paying government jobs a good thing? Thought experiment: If everybody worked for the government, where would the money to pay the government workers come from? What if all but 1 person worked for the government? All but 2? All but 20?
Aren’t government jobs a net loss as far as tax dollars go? It’s true we need government and government jobs, but we ought to realize that each one of them is a net loss in tax dollars. Government-created jobs aren’t a good thing for tax revenue; private-sector jobs are. The more government-created jobs there are, the less private sector jobs there will be.
How many poor people have created jobs?
See nation with strong middle class democracy and environmental standards.
See the good jobs leave nation with a strong middle class democracy and environmental standards.
Where do they go
See the jobs flee to countries that allow slave labor, jailing and killing protesters, and polluting until the water is green and radioactive.
Texas is not in the great shape you think it is either. Take a look at education per Reuters
The stark contrast in inaugural menus last month highlights the different approaches the two most populous U.S. states are taking to deal with massive budget deficits.
Perry, a Republican, campaigned on the strength of the Texas economy and made political hay of the fact the Lone Star state had avoided California’s massive deficit, pegged at $25.4 billion through the upcoming budget year.
Now Texas faces a budget deficit estimated as high as $27 billion for the upcoming two-year cycle of 2012-2013. To close the gap, state legislators have proposed steep cuts in funding to education and welfare programs.
California and Texas are in similar budgetary dire straits following a painful U.S. recession that severely crimped state tax receipts and other critical revenue sources.
How many rich people have created jobs after they got rich off labor?
I’ll answer it for you…. NONE.
“insane public unions with insane salaries/benefits and pensions”
2banana, what makes the salaries/benefits and pensions insane? Are there any salaries/benefits and pensions that are sane? What would fair salaries/benefits and pensions look like?
“Aren’t government jobs a net loss as far as tax dollars go?”
How many private sector jobs does that government job support? Is there a multiplier effect of additional jobs in the economy?
Even if you believe that we should cut government, is this the right time to do it? In the short term, the loss of government jobs will lead to an additional drop in spending and another leg down in the economy. Do you expect that taxes will go down for the rest of us when the former government workers (and private sector contractors) are collecting unemployment instead of paying taxes?
ISTM that cutting government jobs now creates additional deflationary pressure on the economy. Creating private jobs in China does not counteract that pressure in our economy.
You did not just say Texas.
Can you even hear yourself?
2banana, what makes the salaries/benefits and pensions insane? Are there any salaries/benefits and pensions that are sane? What would fair salaries/benefits and pensions look like?
Minimum wage. no pension, no benefits?
After all, those teachers making 45K in Wisconsin were living lavishly on their “insane” salaries.
“2banana, what makes the salaries/benefits and pensions insane? Are there any salaries/benefits and pensions that are sane? What would fair salaries/benefits and pensions look like?”
This is a serious question, 2banana. If I can understand what you think is justified, maybe there is a solution that satisfies both sides of this issue.
I think there are some for whom any pension is too much. And I think just about everybody would agree that some public employees have gamed the system. Where do you fall on this continuum?
Can we cut defense and oil co handouts first?
A hand out is a hand out. The big ones go to oil, not grandmas.
thank you
Run Banana Run!!!
<i.But I thought we were destroying ‘the future of our children’ when we ran deficits in a depression. Turns out we’re feeding the children- that’s a good way to have a future. No matter, better cut that spending so the wealthy keep their tax cuts (for the children!).
We all know that welfare is OK when its for the wealthy!
the children of tomorrow are feeding the children of today.
“we” are tapped out.
The children of tomorrow will never get here if we don’t feed the children of today.
Then we cant afford these 3 wars. We are “tapped” out.
Come on! There’s ALWAYS money for wars! Surely you understand that.
I agree with that sentiment.
Did our little chicken hawk do his patriotic duty and serve?
Nooooooo he didn’t. First to raise a fist, first to run from the responsibility.
from the article:
“Medical Bills Behind 60% of Bankruptcies
Even the insured suffer. Medical bills are behind more than 60 percent of all personal bankruptcies in the United States, and most of those bankruptcies are among middle-class homeowners. ”
Good thing we have the best medical system in the world. Now if we could only afford to use it…
We are insured privately. Premiums are up from 600/quarter to 2100 per quarter. Deductibles are now $1,000 per head. Prescription coverage 50% selected drugs; they wont cover the ones advertised on TV even with the diagnoses. So since everyone seems to almost meet their deductible(broken finger for daughter, girl problems for the wife, back trouble for me, chronic sinusitis for the boy.) Out of pocket expense is 4000+8000+3000(uncovered meds). Last year our medical was 22k. Our income was also 22k. And our bubbly $$ is now gone, so something will have to give this year.
Each workplace has reacted accordingly regarding insurance. High costs to offer any insurance= the grocery cut wife’s hours, the school keeps her at 3.5/ day(Linda the lunch lady lives lavishly); and I am a substitute teacher(no bennies). The only hope is a full time job with bennies or we will be collecting some sort of dole due directly to the exponential costs of being covered.
We could get Oregon Health Plan, but prerequisite is that your child does NOT have insurance. We could cross our fingers, drop insurance for the kids, and hope nothing big happens. We could lose our paid for house in this gamble, I guess this asset is main reason we carry the insurance anyway.
WITH a Blue Cross/Anthem private payer policy (in effect for 30+ years,) AND MediCal (having exhausted my savings and assets the previous year paying for uncovered medical expenses,) my out-of-pocket medical expenses for 2009-10 were billed at $244,681. This with a $2500 deductible–and a family full of doctors.
You would be amazed at what your insurer can weasel out of:
-Deductibles, co-pays, we-don’t-wanna-pays
-Medically unnecessary
-Not reasonable and customary
-Not covered by your policy
-Physician outside PPO
-Experimental protocol
-Denied
One reconstructive surgery alone was billed at 89K. Blue Cross covered $623 of it. Curiously, however, at age 58, I was still being billed for maternity benefits….
And for those of you complaining about providing Medicaid for the poor, let me hasten to assure you, I cost it NOTHING because no properly specialized physician who practiced in the State of California would accept it. Not even a pair of eyeglasses for my punctured eye.
AND I HAD “GOOD” INSURANCE.
HousingWizard had a similarly unsatisfying experience, IIRC, and his beloved wife died as a result.
Now Congress is considering block grant$ to the States to buy health coverage from the insurance industry. Nice.
Sounds like it really sucked for a lot of people in need; but the norm is to expect your insurance co to stick it to you. in 2007, they stuck me with $45,000 bill; I let the surgeon’s staff get preapproval for me; Ithought it was indeed covered; Blue cross then deemed the procedure(laser discectomy) experimental.
Oh oh.
Speaking as someone in the know, most of those advertised medications have little to no advantage over tried and true generics.
The pharma marketing machines is repackaging old medications in new delivery vehicles, sponsoring hackish “research” with researchers on or soon to be on the company payroll. Many medications barely slide by FDA approval and then magically become marketed as the latest “cure for what ails ya”, again on the back of aforementioned hackish studies.
A lot of what I see comin out these days is basically snake oil and as someone who despises fraudsters it is infuriating that the cost of our health system is being inflated on the order of 20-25% ( yes hundreds of billions of dollars) to pay for unnecessary or ineffective drugs and surgery. I am not a surgeon per se but I have seen and heard enough to think that there are very many unecessary procedures happening.
The unholy alliances between the hospital and clinic admins/pharmas/insurers/and bankrolled docs (although I still believe MOST docs got into health care for the right reasons) is sucking us dry.
Come on indioadjacent, everyone KNOWS it those dang regulations and overpaid union janitors that make medicine so costly! If they would just get rid of those, the free market would take care of everything!
And all that other collusion and fraud would just magically disappear as well!
Blue cross then deemed the procedure(laser discectomy) experimental.”
I almost had one of those but refused to pay the 15K up front that was sprung on me last minute. Spine center what a joke of a place they sent me a padded bill years later I refused to pay until they corrected it, they didn’t and it was sent to a collection agency which I explained to simply ” prove it ” 50 dollar ice pack I don’t think so completely made up charge.
credit is still good last time I checked. Medical billing is a 3rd world joke in this country
has a regular microdiskectomy months later. insurance payed about 2500 out of a bill for 20K . I paid about 600 the rest went away as it was over the agree amount contracted by Blue Cross. biazarre world of insurance
Moustapha Abou-Samra was the surgeon he is very good. This was back in 2002 I think ?
Had a regular one too after the spine center in T.Oaks hacked me up; they got 5k up front and 6 months later I still needed a regular fusion/discectomy.
Dr Chiu, if I remember correctly. He ripped me off more than Blue Cross; but at least I did not pay the $45,000 bill; the real deal discectomy plus fusion, complete with one night hospital stay, billed out at $18k. And it was covered by Blue Cross.
How did “band aid” surgery cost $45k? in a word; several departments come at you. Billing scam following psychological preying on folks in pain scam.
The govt doesn’t want a good medical system by default. they want you to die quick so you don’t have a chance to collect SS. Maximum sheeple pay in and minimum sheeple payout is the govt business model.
Sounds like insurance company practice.
A lot of it would be expected in this great recession but there were a few very disturbing statistics in there assuming they are factual…Like this;
“Almost 25 percent of all U.S. households now have zero or negative net worth — in 2007, that number was just 18.6 percent”.
I believe it. There’s a reason all those payday loan stores have been popping up like weeds lately.
“Almost 25 percent of all U.S. households now have zero or negative net worth — in 2007, that number was just 18.6 percent”.
Assuming home equity is included in their net worth calculation I’m surprised the number isn’t even worse.
You think it isn’t?
Our state shut them all down. Now they’re shutting down the pot stores. J6P can’t catch a break.
Smoke more pot and watch less TV. Pot is better for you.
Comment by Muggy
2011-05-03 14:26:32
You have little ones, yeah? How are they doing? Ripping the blinds off and whatnot?
Muggy - I have one little guy…just turned 7. He’s great. He’s not the destructive type. He has made a bunch of new friends in the neighborhood and regularly plays outside with them. And that’s the reason why I bought the house (and when I did). If I waited for bottom, he’d be grown to an age where playing in the backyard no longer mattered. Thanks for asking!
And that’s the thing. There ARE other factors than the market in timing a house pruchase.
Exactly Jim…
“There ARE other factors than the market in timing a house pruchase.”
And that’s exactly what the NAR is counting on.
“Thanks for asking!”
No prob. I need to hear how other parents are doing and what they’re thinking. The main reason for me to buy a house would be to ground my kids in a good ‘hood/school system.
Glad to hear he’s doing well.
Pakistan property experts say US government description of ‘$1m mansion’ was way off the mark
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/04/osama-bin-laden-hideout-worth
He paid a million back in 2005 and he’s already underwater. (not mine, but it seemed an appropriate place to repeat it.
Perhaps the $1M estimate was made by someone who live in DC.
Yea, we can’t have the SEALS going into a trailer hood.
Some “good” news in our morning fish wrap, here in S.Carolina.
The morning paper advises us that the county feels it must raise our property tax (just a little) to meet its expenses in the new fiscal year. It also will reinstate a 2 percent sales tax on prepared food to fund a new ballpark.
The city has already approved a new tax on electricity and aims to boost our water bills in order to make improvements at the water works and to repair sewer lines. There is no indication that our INCOME will rise to meet the increased cost of keeping a roof over our head and the wolf from the door.
The politicians shrug. “What are we to do? We must provide all these services you demand and costs keep going up.”
It’s plain to see we are being bit by the stagflation bug. That’s when expenses beyond our control (taxes, fees, utility rates, general price increase, etc.) climb steeply and our income does not. The consequence is a lower standard of living.
Most of us saw this coming.
“We must provide all these services you demand and costs keep going up.”
“…to fund a new ballpark.”
I’m curious as to who “demanded” the new ballpark? Around my neck of the woods it’s usually the team owners and liquor distributors in an unholy and temporary alliance with the trades unions and connected contractors who “demand” such things.
Well, old ballparks are just so passé now a days.
we are being bit by the stagflation bug ??
Yep….
And so now we are going to have to deal with endless conspiracy theories. This a week after the big news story was Obama displaying his birth certficate to quell the conspiracy theories of racist idiots.
Somebody explain to me the rationale behind this “conspiracy” - taking TEN YEARS to find the guy, and then finding that he’d been hinding in a nation that is suppossedly our ally? That doesn’t make the US look bad? Yeah, the Illuminati really pulled one over on the world. The alleged mastermind behind the deaths of 3000 or so American citizens on American soil remains at large for nearly a decade, with every military, law enforcement, and intelligence resource available to two Administrations it still took 10 years to track bin Laden down, and even then he had to ratted out, if we choose to believe the official story (which of course we don’t because - duh! Conspiracy!).
That’s a pretty poor performance and hardly what I would expect from the all-powerful shadowy evil forces that control everything.
So you’re saying it’s just a coincidence that we’ve never seen Geithner and Bin Laden at the same time?
I think some people find conspiracy theories perversely comforting.
It’s the idea that someone/something can be “in control” instead of being at the mercy of the chaotic forces in the universe.
Black Swans are unsettling.
Obama displaying his birth certficate to quell the conspiracy theories of racist idiots.
so people who don’t believe he was born in Hawaii are racist, by default?
I’m not on the side of the “birthers”, but if there are requirements for one to hold an elected office, isn’t it reasonable for the electorate to want to see that the candidates actually meet the qualifications?
I don’t think that makes one racist….
Keep that denial alive.
Have any other Presidents been asked to prove they are American?
Did any of the “birthers” complain about John McCain being born in Panama?
Will hard core “birthers” believe any proof presented?
Are any “birthers” non-White?
He was born in Hawaii of an American mother. He has already presented 2 official documents, both of which would satisfy passport requirements. And they still won’t let it go.
Maybe you are right. Maybe there are one or two that are not racist. They are merely crazy (sorry - eccentric
) and stubborn.
Did any of the “birthers” complain about John McCain being born in Panama?
To be fair, McCain didn’t get elected. But honestly I don’t know.
Whether there’s any amount of proof that will be sufficient is irrelevant to the issue of being “racist” or not.
Perhaps there’s a clear “risk” with Obama that it’s worth asking. Perhaps there are folks who have looked into things for the last XXX presidents, but this was the only one worth bringing up.
Who knows. I’m just saying that it doesn’t make one racist to want an elected official to prove they meet the qualifications of the position. I don’t know any birthers, so I don’t know their motivation. I don’t know if they’ve looked at the qualifications of other presidents. I think it’s pretty ridiculous to not only make such an accusation of an individual, but to paint with such a broad brush as well.
Couldn’t resist posting this one:
http://finance.yahoo.com/focus-retirement/article/112608/human-capital-net-worth?mod=fidelity-changingjobs&cat=fidelity_2010_changing_jobs
“But what’s the value of you? That is, how much are your future paychecks worth? That number is your “human capital” — and some experts say it should be a key part of your overall financial planning.”
It appears they forgot to include globalism and currency devaluation in this Pollyanna piece of crap.
LOL, that article has been sloshing around for more than a week now. Evidently leveraging home and hearth is not enough, so we should leverage our future labor as well. Of course this begs the question - what is the future labor of one’s offspring worth - and can it too be leveraged?
Reminds me of when I started working at the airlines. Upon getting hired many of my cohorts immediately began to extrapolate their anticipated wages (published wage scale) over about thirty years and promptly concluded they were millionaires!
No kidding, this revelation was usually immediately followed by a trip to the nearest light truck dealership.
this revelation was usually immediately followed by a trip to the nearest light truck dealership ??
LOL…Amazing how often I see this…Spend it before you have it mentality…
I worked for one of those .com outfits during the late 90s. CMGI (= Cash Money Gets Incinerated) stock went from like $30 to over $300 back down to less than $1. All those jokers with stock options went out and spend money like crazy figuring the cash would come pouring in for years to come. I managed to cash out some vested options in late 99, the rest went down with the ship.
One particular case of Schadenfreude was about this one boss a$$hole. In mid 2000 when the bubble was bursting he fired half the crew and got 1,000,000 options @ $13. Somehow the IRS counts that as income and charges income tax. At 36% that’s $4.7 million. He wasn’t allowed to sell for 6 month. 6 month later the stock was around $1 which left him over $3 million in the hole with the IRS. They even came after his house and his Harley. Couldn’t have happend to a nicer guy..hehehe. I had Schadenfreude overload.
A friend was a war tax protester during the Vietnam era. When the IRS finally caught up with her — ISTR that was during the 1980s — they cleaned her clock.
Even so, she didn’t regret what she’d done.
The a$$hole boss must have exercised those options and not sold them the same day. You hear stories from every new company that makes it big where employees did that, the stock later went down, and they owed a big tax bill with no cash to pay it.
I joined a tech company in the summer of 1999 and toward the end of the first year I held my breath daily, hoping the stock wouldn’t tank before I could sell my meager number of options. The P/E got to over 300. The descent started soon after I exercised and sold. Many co-workers never exercised/sold any of their options because (I’m not making this up) they “didn’t want the big tax bill.” Some of them could have retired in their 30’s and 40’s.
By the end of 2000 they didn’t have to worry about a big tax bill any more. They still don’t.
what is the future labor of one’s offspring worth - and can it too be leveraged?
That sounds awfully familiar…what system used that? You know…the one where you were worth more if you could produce offspring that would also work for the system?
“But what’s the value of you? That is, how much are your future paychecks worth? ”
I recall reading in biz skool that David Bowie once sold securities that that gave the holders rights to his future concert revenues.
And David was lucky enough to become a “name” act who wouldn’t have problems selling tickets. He’s one of a very few.
For the rest, the concert ticket selling biz isn’t that good. Especially nowadays, when discretionary spending is down.
‘I recall reading in biz skool that David Bowie once sold securities that that gave the holders rights to his future concert revenues.’
http : // en.wikipedia.org /wiki/ Bowie_Bonds
“It appears they forgot to include globalism and currency devaluation in this Pollyanna piece of crap.”
You see that a lot. Usually by someone who hasn’t ever had to worry about their membership at the country club.
wife and i both got new jobs.
we are thinking about buying a house.
there is falling knifesign the likes of which God has never seen in the DC metro area.
new builders with names i have never even heard of…can’t fathom where they are getting their cash.
Michael, care to make a wager based on Case-Schiller number for the DC area? I bet the January 2012 number will be no lower than the January 2011 number. The Jan 2011 non-seasonally adjusted number, announced on March 29th, was 183.75.
It really is different there.
Gov. Chris Chrsitie to private sector white collar workers: Your getting paid OT for working over 40 hours a week is interfering with my millionaire corporate buddies ability to buy porterhouse steaks and create jobs overseas:
http://mobile.nj.com/advnj/pm_104345/contentdetail.htm;jsessionid=B7EBABCEB35E15BF6EB54F31161A23A2?contentguid=YsKYv5uP
Get back to work, serf!
And don’t even think of leaving at 5:00PM!
The beatings will continue until morale improves, Part Nine.
Hey GS - What do you think of the 787? Do you think that its composite body might be the source of some unexpected surprises down the road?
When I worked for Very Large TARP bank back in Cincinnati employees were required to swipe ID badges both to enter and exit the building. Written timecards were audited against badge swipe times and employees disciplined and terminated for discrepancies.
I interviewed for a job at Freddie Mac in 2002 and you needed an ID card to get into the men’s room.
Back when I worked at the bike shop, I had to fill out a time sheet. One fine morning, I got a call from the boss, who was concerned about the discrepancy between my sheet and my coworker’s.
I signed out shortly before closing time because business was so slow. And my coworker told me to close up early for the same reason.
Boss gave me a stern lecture about keeping the doors open until closing time. Didn’t matter if the store was deader -n- a doornail.
Then the boss told me that my coworker was logging extra hours. And, for that, the coworker was fired. He now owns his own bike shop. I wouldn’t shop there on a bit.
white collar and overtime?
does not compute.
He looks like he’s never worked an hour of overtime in his life nor missed a single day of those steaks.
Since when do white-collar employees get overtime pay? I know as a salaried employee I never did.
Maybe he’s talking about govt workers.
The article specifically said private sector workers.
“Under a proposed rule, the state Labor Department wants to eliminate a provision that requires private employers to pay employees overtime if they spend less than 80 percent of their time on administrative work.
State officials say the formula has been used by white-collar workers in court to successfully recover unpaid overtime and creates an unfair burden on employers who need to track when managers are taking out the trash and when they are doing payroll.”
On The Money: Internet Police
Billion Dollar Plan Raises Privacy Concerns
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – With California deep in debt, a controversial plan has emerged that calls for private vendors to monitor what you buy on the Internet.
The Board of Equalization (BOE) says it could raise a billion dollars a year in previously uncollected use taxes, but critics call it haunting to hire “Internet Police”.
One of those critics is Monique Bell, who started My Kid Sister Clothing Company, three years ago in Stockton.
“If you wear it, we sell it,” Bell told CBS 13 inside her Stockton home.
Bell is the owner of My Kid Sister Clothing Company, an Internet portal that allows her customers to find clothes for kids – and the whole family at a discount. She’s concerned by the BOE plan – a staff proposal to identify Internet buyers who use her site and others, to purchase things from out-of-state vendors.
“I think it’s like Big Brother. It’s definitely very chilling,” said Bell. The Internet entrepreneur told CBS 13, “I think our customers are just going to stop buying from us. We’re going to see a dramatic drop in sales.”
Under state law, if you buy something online from an out-of-state company with no physical presence here – since you are not paying sales tax, you are supposed to pay a use tax to the State of California, but many people never do.
That could change however, under the BOE proposal, which would authorize California to spend up to $10 million to hire private vendors to track down what you purchase over the Internet.
They’d be better off passing something similar to the NY law that compels online businesses to collect sales tax for california shipments. It’ll be easier to enforce against Amazon and the few dozen other large retailers than to try to enforce it against millions of residents.
So you order an item and someone decides to tax you. What happens when you send it back because you don’t want it? Who is going to do the record keeping?
Gov. to unions: Concessions or layoffs.
Hartford, Conn. (WTNH) - Governor Dannel Malloy said Wednesday morning that if there is no concession deal from state employees there will be at least 4,000 layoffs.
The word comes as the Malloy is set to sign a $40 billion, two year budget deal given final approval from the legislature over night. The bill raises taxes by about a billion and a half dollars a year starting July 1st. The Governor will sign the budget deal in a ceremony at 3pm.
Meanwhile, negotiations with the state labor unions are continuing today as state commissioners and department heads are getting final instructions on layoff notices that will start going out on Friday.
~Nobody “sacrificing” anything in my neck of the woods, that I can tell. Still hauling a$$ in gas guzzlers from gas station to gas station.
Paying for gas forces painful sacrifices
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Aljolynn Sperber, a single mom in Los Angeles, says she can no longer afford to visit her family in Sacramento because of the cost of fuel.
“If I fly or drive it’s expensive either way,” she said of visiting her relatives 400 miles away, who she has not seen in six months. As a result, “I manage all on my own,” Sperber says, “but with a toddler it’s hard.”
Like Sperber, the recent run-up in gas prices has left many Americans in a very tough spot.
Even as gasoline prices hover below the record high reached in July 2008 when the national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline was $4.11, they are, overall, higher for the year than they were three years ago.
If the Energy Information Administration’s price projection of gas averaging $3.70 a gallon in 2011 proves to be true, the average American household will pay over $4,300 for the year, representing the largest annual expenditure ever, according to the Oil Price Information Service.
As a result, most are forced to cut back in areas of their spending where there is hardly any cushion.
$4 gas spreads nationwide
“Gas prices are like Chinese water torture for consumers,” said Mark Cooper, Director of Research at the Consumer Federation of America. “The problem is, once you buy your car and once you buy your house your gasoline consumption is pretty much set,” he said.
“If the price goes up, people have real difficultly cutting back, and that means they will have to find other areas to cut back which are more discretionary.”
If you want to visit your family often, MOVE WHERE THEY LIVE! What kind of energy hogging idiot to you have to be to want to visit your family every weekend when living 400 +miles away?
I have family 60 miles away that we visit at most once a month. I have family 800 miles away that we visit once a year.
“~Nobody “sacrificing” anything in my neck of the woods, that I can tell. Still hauling a$$ in gas guzzlers from gas station to gas station.”
I roll by them on my new (used) bike, The Tank, see the $4.33 regular unleaded price and “I have to laugh” (insert Asst. Greenkeeper Carl Spackler laugh here).
I don’t wanna sacrifice! Wah! Everything should be easy! Wah!
A few weeks ago, I was at the library. While I was locking my two-wheeler to the bike rack, I noticed a guy approaching people in the parking lot, saying that he needed gas money. Said that his vehicle was parked on the north side of the building.
Well, epic fail on that, Mr. Panhandler. The north side of this particular library is for staff parking. Patrons get to park in front of the building, on the west side.
I went into the library and told the security guard about the guy hustling money. A lady standing next to me said that she was just hustled.
The security guard went outside and told the guy to leave the library premises pronto-pronto.
BTW, there was nothing in the staff parking lot that matched the description of the vehicle the guy was mentioning in his panhandling pitch.
LOL. For the FL crew:
http://www.baynews9.com/article/news/2011/may/239468/Anti-tourist-cards-left-on-out-of-state-cars-in-Bradenton
Nice Bits.
Two deaf men stabbed in Hallandale Beach bar after sign language mistaken for gang signs
By Barbara Hijek
Sun Sentinel
Posted: 11:41 a.m. Tuesday, May 3, 2011
HALLANDALE, Fla. — Two deaf men were stabbed at the Ocean’s Eleven Sports Lounge and Grill, a Hallandale Beach bar, Saturday night when Barbara Lee, another patron, thought the men were throwing gang signs at her, reports WTVJ NBC News-6 in Miami.
The men, one of whom is deaf and mute, were using sign language.
They were just at the bar to celebrate a birthday.
When Lee, 45, confronted the men, they motioned for her to go away.
She left the bar but returned with 19-year-old Marco Ibanez, who is accused of pulling out a knife and stabbing the men.
Lee and Ibanez remain behind bars, where they’ll be learning a whole new language of legal terms.
See, this is why we should be able to carry.
How did we allow our kids to get so seriously stupid?
That guy Pruner was a Pinhead 30 years ago and he is still a Pinhead.
As home sales pick up, some buyers wait for ‘ideal’ in Greenwich
Lisa Chamoff, Staff Writer
Updated 10:32 p.m., Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Investing in real estate, especially in Greenwich, was long seen as a smart move, but Sekou Kaalund has a different mind-set as he navigates the housing market.
Kaalund, who has watched the value of his starter townhouse in Glenville shrink since buying it in 2004 for his growing family, is taking the time to look for the ideal home at the right price. While tenants occupy his Glenville home, which was on the market before renting quickly, Kaalund is also renting a house in Cos Cob with his wife and two children, testing it out with the option to buy.
“You’re not concerned about big appreciation,” said Kaalund, who works in finance. “It’s more important to me to lock into the house that I want and I can live in for 20 years.”
It’s an approach that many buyers seem to be taking as the traditional spring market in Greenwich has gotten under way.
The “pent-up demand,” as Wiesen calls the busy season, has led to an inventory that’s “picked over.” The homes that have gone into contract are what buyers found were ideal — the right location and, most importantly, the right price.
For example, a modified ranch at 18 Watch Tower Lane in the Havemeyer Park section of Old Greenwich was put on the market for just under $1.3 million and was under contract a week later, closing in April for slightly above its asking price. It had previously sold in 2007 for $1.2 million.
“People are fighting over” houses that are priced correctly for their condition, said Julianne Ward, an agent with Prudential Connecticut Realty. “People don’t want to do work. They want to move into a house and just live there.”
Ward said homes priced at $3 million and below tend to be moving. In fact, the $2 million to $3 million price range was one of the few segments of the market that saw growth in the first quarter of 2011, with 19 sales, a 36 percent jump from the 14 transactions in that price range over the same period last year.
Ward said she has some other clients, like Kaalund, who are renting while looking for the ideal home. Some have sold their homes already and weren’t able to pull off a subsequent transaction.
Shore & Country owner Russell Pruner said the spring has seen more accepted offers and more contracts.
“The real question now is really how long does it last and what’s the depth of the market,” Pruner said. “We’re going to find out when we move forward.”
http://www.greenwichtime.com/ - 134k -
It seems to me gas prices are very carefully fixed. Ever notice when prices go up they go up by virtually the same amount at every gas station no matter the brand?
There is NO real competition and behavior one might have thought illegal some years back seems quite acceptable today.