Bits Bucket for June 6, 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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The good news is this house has a pool. The bad news is there is only a foot of green water in it.
“The good news is this house has a pool. The bad news is there is only a foot of green water in it.”
So instead of taking a nice, cooling dip, you’ll be slapping away miskeeters.
OTOH, while the cat’s away….lol.
I would never pay extra for a pool home. It is a liability and expensive to maintain. Joining a gym / club with a pool is the way to go.
For me it would depend on the climate in which I lived. Here in IL where I could only use it three months of the year, forget it, but maybe if I lived in Florida…
How dare they!
I went under contract on a home last week, but pulled out during the inspection period. Still too nervous about paying these “bargain” prices (the home was charming as hell and about 10% under current market, with 4 solid offers on the first day - yes, unfortunately we are back to bidding wars around here). Also, I think the stock market will gravitate downwards this Summer, and want to have a pot of money to be able to buy in on the crashes. So far I have made the right calls (up about 35% on my savings since 2008), but only time will tell.
“I think the stock market will gravitate downwards this Summer, and want to have a pot of money to be able to buy in on the crashes.”
It’s shaping up like a good period to have money parked on the sidelines.
It’s shaping up like a good period to have money parked on the sidelines.
It’s about time. It’s been a bad period for years now.
A QE3 announcement could overturn this in a heart beat.
I’m assuming that will happen. I wonder if they will find a way to do it under the table this time, though.
If I was China, I would be buying up America right now and in the future as the dollar becomes worthless. Cheaper than war.
“If I was China, I would be buying up America right now and in the future as the dollar becomes worthless. Cheaper than war.”
California is balmier than Vancouver.
Comment by AV0CAD0
2011-06-06 11:21:58
If I was China, I would be buying up America right now and in the future as the dollar becomes worthless. Cheaper than war.
———————
I think they’ve been doing this over the past couple of years. From what I’ve heard, a lot of these “investor groups” who are buying up all those “all-cash” properties are Chinese investors.
Makes total sense.
about 10% under current market, with 4 solid offers on the first day - yes, unfortunately we are back to bidding wars around here
If I’d posted that I’d have someone all over me waving her arms I was a troll proclaiming under no circumstances was I to be believed.
But I believe you Natalie because we’re sidelined, not even looking, because of how buyers came out this spring. I wonder if people fear the 20% downpayment potential or interest rates rising after QEII is finished. IAC, we decided to keep our powder dry.
People run screaming from a 20% down requirement like they do from a healthy diet plan. The only ones who don’t run screaming are the ones who already follow it.
Don’t take it seriously, CarrieAnn. I don’t.
Everyone knows you’re nothing of the sort and it says more about the poster than it does about you. When you’re vexed, just ask yourself, WWOD? (What would Oly do?) and think of it as an exercise in compassion.
Whatever happened to Oly?
She passed away in an outdoor accident near her home about a year and a half ago.
CarrieAnn,
We all know you’re not a troll!
People were doubting my stories about all-cash offers and multiple offers, too.
Fortunately, the tide seems to be turning…finally! This is the slowest “spring selling season” I’ve seen in over a decade. All through the years of the “financial crisis,” people were still out-bidding one another in the more desirable areas in San Diego. Prices dipped in late ‘07, only to stabilize when the govt opened up the credit spigot. At best, we got down to around 2003 prices, in general, and the bubble was already in full swing in 2003 in California.
The only bargains were in the barrio neighborhoods, which dropped fairly quickly in 2007, when the credit market froze up. Those people had no buffer, so dropped out easily. Most of the decent areas have held up due to all the Fed/govt manipulation. It looks like we are finally going to see the better areas correct to where they belong, which is pre-2001 levels, IMHO.
It’s been a long, long wait.
Numbers can be fun, and they can be deceiving.
About the number of employees - 50,000 of them - that Mcdonalds said, last month, they were going to hire in one day:
“McDonalds hiring of 50,000: It’s the turnover, stupid.”
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/business/hancock/blog/2011/04/mcdonalds_hiring_of_50000_its.html
Hell, a big McDonalds in a major city can turn over 50K people.
I exagerrate, but not much.
Walmart has 2.1 million employees…I have to wonder what their monthly turnover rate is.
The turnover probably lower now as jobs remain scarce. When I venture into one of the local Wally Worlds, most of the cashiers are old ladies who are probably trying to supplement their SS check. The people I see stocking shelves tend to be younger.
Is it an apple turnover?
I’ve heard that the average American McDonalds store has 15 employees. And, each month, three of them leave. Which means that, in just one business quarter, you should expect to replace your entire workforce.
That pretty much true of fast food places in general. A few people do stay for years, but a couple of months is common.
I think the average MickieD’s has a lot more than 15 employees. I’ve seen that many working in one at one time.
For the Jobless, Little U.S. Help on Foreclosure
By ANDREW MARTIN
Published: June 4, 2011
President Obama has been scrambling to curb the number of foreclosures ever since he arrived at the White House.
At the start of 2009, the administration announced its primary foreclosure prevention initiative, the Home Affordable Modification Program. It provides incentives to banks to modify mortgages, reducing monthly payments for eligible homeowners.
The administration said the program would help three million to four million homeowners, but so far, only 670,000 homeowners have received permanent modifications. In addition, the program was primarily meant for homeowners with risky mortgages; jobless owners are often ineligible because some payment, albeit reduced, is required.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development received $1 billion as part of the financial regulatory reforms that passed last year to help unemployed homeowners. That money will be used to provide government loans to unemployed homeowners for up to 24 months.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/business/economy/05housing.html - -
“President Obama has been scrambling to curb the number of foreclosures ever since he arrived at the White House.”
If Obama’s war on affordable housing doesn’t turn off all HBBers, particularly true liberals such as myself, I am befuddled.
Obviously HBBers don’t constitute much of a voting block.
Nor are they typical voters, red or blue. For the average voter, everything is a popularity contest governed by sound bites.
If Obama’s war on affordable housing doesn’t turn off all HBBers, particularly true liberals such as myself, I am befuddled.
I’ve found this aspect of the Obama policy array to be truly, well, befuddling. But, from the Arizona Slim Family Files comes this possible solution to the problem:
I have a cousin who’s a real estate agent in Minneapolis. And, wouldn’t ya know it, one of his investment houses went into foreclosure. So, my cuz said to the bank, “Take my house! Please!”
Bank’s reply: “We don’t want it back!”
So, according to my aunt, my cousin and the bank settled on a much lower price for the house. And that price is what my cousin is now paying a mortgage on.
So, the takeaway is: Just tell the bank that it can have its overpriced house back. That’ll fix its little banky-wagon.
It does, but you have to contrast it with who the rupublicans are putting up against him.
If it comes down to Obama or Santorum, I’m not voting for frothy Santorum, that’s for sure.
If they ran Olympia Snowe, I’d vote for her over Obama.
Snowe would never make it through the primaries.
Not enough frothing fundamentalism in her positions, so you’re sadly correct.
Being Pennsylvania-born, I’ve had more than a few occasions to hear about Santorum. Especially from my mother, who can’t stand him.
As for my dad, when he was healthy, he was a one-issue voter. He’d vote for anyone who’d follow the NRA line on gun legislation.
These days, who knows. My mother has control of the car, so she’d be the one taking him to the polls. He still has enough of his marbles to vote by himself, but who knows how much longer that will last.
“jobless owners are often ineligible because some payment, albeit reduced, is required.”
There`s the problem, they are requiring “some payment”. Requiring Home Loaners, jobless or otherwise to make some payment is obviously not going to work. So they might as well just go ahead and come out with the program that was in the HBB predictions for the new year.
CAMP
Can`t make your payment, don`t worry about it nobody can.
An aquaintance of mine has a husband who is collecting unemployment. They recently missed their first mortgage payment. She felt they have a good chance at getting a modification. I wanted to ask whether the bank might prefer to see a… well, if not necessarily permanent, than at least “longer term” income stream before approving the mod, but I didn’t want to crush her optimism.
post-2001: the jobless recovery
post 2007-2009: the recoveryless recovery
What’s next? The economyless economy?
The truthless facts.
Last week the pols held an unproductive budget meeting where they said they made some progress.
It’s become a bad joke, save as much as you can and be prepared to run like h*ll. The pols aren’t going to help us.
I agree ejohn…I am usually engaged but I have all but thrown in the towel…Turning all my focus on preservation and preparedness…
And that’s the thing, most people feel powerless and aren’t ready to do the torches and pitchfork thing as they still have something to lose.
Once 90% are making less than $500/wk, its a different story.
“Once 90% are making less than $500/wk, its a different story.”
Exactly. That’s why a healthy middle class is important to the well-being of the wealthy. With a large middle class, the majority of the country has something to lose, and a stake in the maintenance of the status quo. And no one benefits more from the status quo than the rich.
Take that away, and the rich have gotta start riding around in armor-plated limos with bodyguards and the like, worried about expropriation and kidnapping, because the little people have nothing to lose but their chains.
But the rich have such a lust for money, that they can’t seem to help themselves.
Absolutely spot-on, alpha.
Truthless facts have been around for a long time.
“What’s next? The economyless economy?”
That’s the idea. No joke.
See the 2006 Citi Group Plutonomy Report.
You forgot about the early 1980s and 1990s.
Home price bargains coming this summer.
Les Christie, On Wednesday June 1, 2011, 8:31 am EDT
Home prices are already a third off their highs, but this summer could bring the real discounts.
Buyers are still cautious, and anxious sellers will have to price aggressively to get them off the fence.
That could result in a “summer clearance sale,” predicts Pete Flint, CEO of Trulia, the real estate web site.
“We don’t imagine a stampede of buyers, like outside of Macy’s on Black Friday,” he said. “We see this more akin to January sales where retailers are trying to get rid of stock before it gets stale.”
“By the end of the homebuying season, sellers will become increasingly desperate,” said Flint.
Adding to already swollen inventories will be a flood of new distressed properties poised to hit the market.
“By the summer, most of the ‘robo-signing’ delays will be over and more distressed properties will be on the market,” said Celia Chen of Moody’s analytics.
Many banks had slowed foreclosure proceedings until they made sure that paperwork was in order. That put hundreds of thousands of homes into foreclosure limbo: Borrowers were no longer making payments in many cases, but were allowed to remain living in the homes.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Home-price-bargains-coming-cnnm-2447754953.html?x=0&.v=1 - 75k -
Somehow I think these are the only words from that article that sellers seem to see:
“this summer could bring … a stampede of buyers, like outside of Macy’s on Black Friday”
“Home price bargains coming this summer.”
My wife thought she spotted one this weekend — the two-bedroom half of a duplex selling for $380K (the other half has 3brs, but is not for sale). I told her I thought that sounded expensive, but she said it was the first time she saw any SFR (or at least 1/2 of one) in our area (Rancho Bernardo West — 92127) for under $400K.
Sounds like there’s never been a better time to be a renter.
Just where will these buyers come from? The under $500 week crowd?
To quote “The Right Stuff”:
No bucks? No Buck Rodgers.
Another wonderful rant on Beat the Press. I’m not sure why he did it in reaction to the Wash Post article he referenced, but the rant is awsome.
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/beat-the-press/
(I’m hoping that I am actually allowed to post a link this week. All my linked articles got killed last week.)
Here are a few samples:
If anyone at the paper knew arithmetic, they would have noticed that nationwide house prices had sharply diverged from a 100-year long trend, rising by more than 70 percent in excess of the overall rate of inflation. The paper would have also noticed that there was no remotely plausible explanation for this run-up on either the demand or supply side of the housing market.
and
What is perhaps is even more remarkable is that the Post, acting like a low-IQ dog, is unable to learn from its mistakes. It still relies on the new chief economist at the NAR, Lawrence Yun, as its main source of information on the housing market.
So, you get the idea.
“So, you get the idea.”
The idea I get is the Washington Post is dependent on advertising revenue for its existence, and the RE industry supplies much of this advertising revenue, so anything reported by the Post concerning RE should automatically be suspect.
We talk here of the One Percenters and the Ninety-Nine percenters and how one group controls and feeds off the other.
Take a good look a who owns and controls the Washington Post and decide for yourself whether it’s the One Percenters or if it’s the Ninety-Nine Percenters.
Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer, if one of those bottles should happen to fall…
John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, that is my name too! Whenever we go out, the people always shout, “There goes John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt! Da-da-da-da-da-da…”
LOL! I haven’t heard that one for a while!
Not just advertisements… they used to post entire “special sections,” written by re-al-TORS and half advertising. The Washingtime Times was no better. They even mailed their special section right to my apartment. It was those circulars that drove me to HBB.
This spring, I have only received 3 little advert cards for new homes. I don’t think anyone is buying the new luxury condos, or townhomes, or McMansions, because they are still wished-priced and too ostentatious for “these troubled times.” No, it’s the reduced-price close-in small SFH that are selling.
I’ve never been one to believe in the conspiracy theories regarding the media silence surrounding the bubble. It’s possible that stories got killed here and there by an editor worried about losing ad revenue, though I don’t think it was common. The real reason, IMHO, is that journalists (using the term loosely) are just like the rest of us. Most people missed the bubble due to a combination of economic naivete, wishful thinking, and a simple inability to do research. And maybe a little bit of greed thrown in…
Polly, Bink:
I have a different take working in TV stations……Just give the story to the new airhead chickypoo and she will repeat the reelatoorz line.
Use the chickypoo as the benchmark on all the positive bubble stories oh that gushing cutie interviewing a J6P who just made $100k on their house.
Conspiracy…could be, how many seasoned reporters got it right?
Sounds like Dean Baker is going through the anger phase of the housing bubble stages of grief.
While Krugman re-arranges his facial hair and mumbles “Uh, um, mmm”.
I thought the anger stage was anger at the death as part of a greiving process. If the comments he is posting are any indication, his anger is of the “good riddance to bad rubbish” type. That being said, I’ve only been reading him for a few weeks. I have no idea what he was saying about the bubble in 2005.
Dean Baker was the guy who first turned me on to the idea of the bubble in an article that he wrote in 2004 and that knowledge helped me to sell in 2005 and rent a nicer place in the same area. A million thank yous to Dean Baker.
Yep. Dean Baker was one of the early ones. He, Stephen Roach (Morgan Stanley), Ed Leamer (UCLA…though he changed his stance as the bubble grew bigger), and a few others did indeed get it right from the beginning.
RE, just like any market/commodity/service in this country, was/is/ and will be gamed, manipulated and gutted by big money.
And there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it because most of the population is too damn dumb to even know what is going on.
Real estate transactions have, for a long time, been along the lines of “Well, how much does it cost?” - “How much you got?”. And with loans being the “How much you got” component, those with the biggest appetite for debt set the prices.
And, with the government willing to guarantee virtually all mortgages, the quality of the loan didn’t matter - the government would pay regardless. It was a great scam to strip mine wealth from the public treasury.
Now, there are the most tentative mewlings about trying to force lenders and middlemen to create loans that have some possibility of being paid back. Such a quaint concept, and downright unprofitable in the rules of the housing bubble.
But, it was that whole “only make loans that can be paid back” underwriting which limited prices. The deadbeats were still out there, willing to raise as much cash as someone would loan them. Except they couldn’t raise as much money, which kept some rein on prices. With the culmination of the bubble, all restraints were removed, leading to the skyrocketing prices. As the quote goes, “First they made risky loans to safe people. Then they started making safe loans to risky people. Finally, they were making risky loans to risky people.”
Now, with government debt rapidly approaching 100% of GDP, the government is finding it not quite as easy to buy up all mortgages regardless of quality, and the politicians are thus tentatively trying to put some harness on the big political donors’ businesses. A return to tighter lending will result in lower real estate prices, since the worst-at-math will not be able to take out gargantuan loans.
So, I’m waiting to see how all this shakes out. If the reforms fail, and we have a permanent wealth sump from the treasury to the FIRE sector, it seems prices will still slowly go down or stay flat for a long time. If reforms succeed in some real way, we can expect a drop in prices back to sustainable levels.
What are the consequences of the failure of real lending reform? More of what we have now - massive amounts of money being funneled to the FIRE sector, ever growing deficits (which according to Krugman, don’t matter - but the ratings agencies may take issue with it), and the US on the path to a PIIGS-esque ending. And the rest of the world will see the path we’re on and adjust their investments accordingly.
We won’t be the first empire to end because of debt.
Great post, neuromance.
This is precisely why I get so frustrated — the prices are set by those who are willing to take the greatest risks, and who have the worst money-management skills.
When I hear FBs whining about how they can’t afford their mortgages because they were laid off, etc., I just get angry, because **responsible borrowers** always try to factor in these possibilities, and lower their bids, accordingly.
So, you get the idiot borrowers with the least skin in the game, and who refuse to acknowledge that sometimes, life throws a curveball…these are the people setting “market prices.”
He`s broke? How are the people who paid $2.1 billion for houses he sold them over a five-year period doing? Oh I forgot, he`s a victim.
Falling from housing peak: John McMonigle’s ride
By JEFF COLLINS
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Published: June 2, 2011
Updated: June 5, 2011 1:17 p.m.
Luxury home salesman John McMonigle showed up for a bankruptcy court hearing with his trademark good looks: Crisp suit, hair perfectly coiffed, skin tan and glowing.
But his expression was dark and brooding.
Just a few years ago, McMonigle was Orange County’s top agent, claiming $2.1 billion in home sales over a five-year period.
Now he’s broke.
According to bankruptcy court papers, McMonigle, 46, has amassed some $50 million in debts. His assets – even after selling his Newport Beach condo, his cars and personal effects – total $2.4 million – plus the value of the properties he owns that are facing foreclosure.
Critics say McMonigle let his ego get the best of him, that he got reckless, spent excessively and failed to see the housing market’s looming day of reckoning.
He gambled on a lavish – and perhaps impractical – lakeside palace in Newport Coast, once valued as high as $87 million. He borrowed $13.4 million to build a shiny, new office for himself near Fashion Island.
Now both properties are on the verge of foreclosure.
Making matters worse, McMonigle’s wife of 16 years filed for divorce. A week later, he filed for bankruptcy.
McMonigle and his supporters maintain that the charming, soft-spoken salesman is just the latest victim of the housing slump.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/mcmonigle-302968-million-home.html - 174k -
This guy had it all and he is still very successful (3% x $35 million - - do the math). If he had lived just a LITTLE below his means and had saved something - this recession would have been a bump in the road to him…
————————
Some credited his success to his marriage to the daughter of former Nestle USA Chairman and CEO Joe Weller. “John McMarrywell,” some called him behind his back
Tad Baltzer, a former McMonigle Group agent, said the pressure to maintain his top position pushed McMonigle to market a wide array of luxury products, such as yachts and private jets, as well as to launch his M Magazine venture.
McMonigle had been counting on selling $45 million worth of real estate per month, but only closed about $25 million to $35 million per month.
“Making matters worse, McMonigle’s wife of 16 years filed for divorce.”
I’m sure that during fat times she didn’t once say: “shouldn’t we be more consevative with our investments?”
Worked with a trophy wife once who told me that if her husband did not support her in the manner that she expected, she was going to bail ASAP.
I actually kinda admired her for her position. At least she made it clear to the hubby that this was the way it was, before they got married.
Ironically, she died in her mid 30s. From complications/allergic reaction during breast enhancement surgury.
I had a college friend who’s mom died during a nose job. Surgery ain’t risk free.
I don’t understand how these elective surgeries end in fatalities.
Some times surgery can be ironic though.
If I died from something that frivolous, I would feel so stupid.
But not as stupid as some of the “Darwin Awards” winners.
“I don’t understand how these elective surgeries end in fatalities.”
A bad reaction to anesthesia that leads to cardiac arrest?
Color….. I have no idea about medical stuff…. medicine is like cameras to me. I follow the instruction book.
“But not as stupid as some of the “Darwin Awards” winners.”
True. But almost.
Worked with a trophy wife once who told me that if her husband did not support her in the manner that she expected, she was going to bail ASAP.
Wonder if the hubby said - if you lose your looks you are on the curb…
+1 ! I hope he did…
Nah. He was a country boy. Knew a pretty good deal when he saw it.
She was actually pretty awesome. The prototypical “Southern Belle” type. Except when she lapsed into what I referred to as (hysterically funny) “Trucker Wife”. Which could happen literally within seconds.
Her main target was her female friends, who she continually dished crap onto, for staying with loser boyfriends. My youngest daughters loved her (they were 8-10 at the time)
She was totally honest about everything. Her husband had the benefit of knowing exactly where he stood with her. Unlike most married people, who really don’t have a clue about who they married, until the SHTF.
Funny about trophy wives. Despite all the surgery and treatments they grow ugly fast, as if their skull is manifesting through skin like that last frame in Psycho.
It’s a two way street huh? So much for “For better or for worse”
Funny about trophy wives. Despite all the surgery and treatments they grow ugly fast, as if their skull is manifesting through skin like that last frame in Psycho.
My fourth grade math teacher was, to put it nicely, a real babe. All the male teachers, plus quite a few of my guy classmates, were smitten with her.
The fact that she was divorced and drove a hot, just introduced car call the Mustang, only added to her allure.
Well, a few years later, I was at a school-related event. I’d heard that she’d married one of my high school teachers, but I hadn’t seen her since grade school.
To be honest, I didn’t recognize her. She’d aged that much in just six years.
Betcha a dollar to a donut he has a bundle stashed away…The divorce ?? That could have been strategic also…
Given that she’s an heiress and not a trophy wife, it’s definitely strategic. It’s just a question on whether her strategy is to get her money the heck away from his bankruptcy, or to get it the heck away from him period. I’d bet on period.
Critics say McMonigle let his ego get the best of him, that he got reckless, spent excessively and failed to see the housing market’s looming day of reckoning.
He sounds like my cousin, the Minneapolis real estate agent. According to my aunt (his mother), the guy has quite the taste for expensive things. And we Slims aren’t into conspicuous consumption.
Knew this poseur. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
On the Orange County Register’s story about John Mc Monigle, there is (really!) a link to another story titled “Realtors go after blogger who says they lie”. Look for it on the left in blue. -
My schadenfreude is off the charts.
Realtors Are Liars
Realtors are Friars?
April Miller LOBBYIST~REALTOR®
Real Estate Agent
April is a Ministry Spokesperson and Member of the Clergy. She is an Independent Contract Lobbyist at the State Capitol and a REALTOR®.
http://activerain.com/states/OK/cities/Norman - 51k -
Actually, you don’t need to be “clergy” to be a friar. I’ve met a few Franciscans over the years, and most were not Priests.
America’s “Recovery” By the Numbers, Facts
by Amanda_Geronikos on 06-03-2011 12:11 PM - last edited on 06-03-2011 12:28 PM
I’m not an investment banker or a financial planner, but it doesn’t take an expert to see that something is seriously wrong with America’s economic picture. A quick glance at the following numbers and facts reveals that the U.S. recovery isn’t much of a recovery at all:
8: Number of consecutive weeks mortgage rates have been down. (They’ve now plunged to their lowest point since 2002).
2.25 million: The number of homes lost to foreclosure
9.1: The percentage of unemployed Americans. Once hopeful, many job seekers have simply given up (and can you blame them?).
Car Sales: Down
Food Prices: Up
Consumer Spending: Down
Manufacturing Growth: Slow
Gas: Well, it’s just too expensive, no matter where you go.
http://community.comcast.net/t5/For-What-It-s-Worth/America-s-Recovery-By-the-Numbers-Facts/ba-p/7678984 - 98k -
Don’t worry Jeff, that administration insists that we are only experience a bump in the road on our way to a strong economy. We have created millions of new jobs!
Can’t blame anyone but Bush!
“Can’t blame anyone but Bush!”
Thanks for pointing that out; it hadn’t occurred to me.
99% of Americans are to blame. Everyone who sold their freedom to the banks for a pot of soup. Everyone who accepted the notion that they could have what they did not work for, either borrowing from the future, by accepting that which others earned and had taken from them. The people who have cars, houses, furniture, toys, degrees and children that they couldn’t pay for. Everyone who put groceries on the credit card to be paid for some other year. These people elected a government that had no reservations robbing them and their future. These people supported the growth of banking to the point that it sits above our society like a huge mushroom.
‘These people supported the growth of banking to the point…’
Yes, it’s the common theme in the media these days. But here’s what I don’t see pointed out; it’s been this way for decades. Do you think Goldman just popped up with the housing bubble? Just one example; look into who was underwriting Mexican bonds before those bailouts.
Too big to fail has been a part of the financial vocabulary my entire adult life. Why does the media/public only care now? It was no less offensive in the 70s/80s/90s.
I don’t know the answer to fixing this situation, but I do know we have to understand what the situation is before we can try.
I agree on the decades in the building. My suspicion is that a solution will not be from the top down, but that individuals need to find responsibility in their own finances and then have the fiber to demand the same of their representatives in government. I’m not sure on this by any means.
I haev said it before, but a huge amount of what Goldman was doing in the 90’s could have been done just as well (probably better) by a few competent securities lawyers and a bunch of on-line dutch auctions.
Everyone remember the linkedin IPO last week? What was the selling price at the end of the day? What were the shares sold for to the people who got to buy direcly from the underwriters? Any difference is cash that went to the investment banks and the insiders who got to buy at the offering price and did not go to the company as working capital - working capital they could have used to buy equipment, rent space and hire employees without having to borrow. Setting the initial price is what the underwiters are supposed to do (along with marketing/preselling the shares). How good a job did they do at getting close to the right price?
won’t fix everything, but a) bringing back glass-Steagall and b) taxing capital gains as ordinary income is a darn good start
“individuals need to find responsibility in their own finances”
Not only that, but they need to begin to reject the financing of their lives. I know I already said it on Saturday but now that we’ve accepted financing to this degree to get into the game, look how much money we spend to make things “affordable.” Completely asinine.
My suspicion is that a solution will not be from the top down, but that individuals need to find responsibility in their own finances and then have the fiber to demand the same of their representatives in government.
exactly. Just like it built over decades, it needs to be torn over decades.
one by one, we need to stop relying on the banks. Stop borrowing. Stop using credit cards.
How did we get in this mess? one by one, people started using credit cards, and borrowing their future earnings. Little by little, the government got bigger and bigger and took more from the taxpayers.
There’s not a quick fix. Individuals have to take responsibility, and do the “right” thing to fix this, even if they don’t see results immediately.
Do we expect everyone to be “informed” about fixing their own computer software, or their own car? No.
So why beat up on J6P for not understanding all of the endless ways that the business sector can rob them blind?
If you hadn’t noticed from all the complaining from businesses who can’t seem to find “qualified” people, we’re all a bunch of “specialists” now.
And everybody else works under a program where all the cheaters/robbers/liars get found out and punished eventually.
Bad-on J6P for believing that the banksters did what they said they were going to do, police their own.
The banksters/politicos aspired to be “leaders”. And rewarded themselves handsomely, for making some pretty poor decisions. Doesn’t matter, they still get to keep the loot.
At least many of the leaders of Japan did the honorable thing and committed Seppuku after the surrender. Our bankster/politicos class have done as much to trash this country, as the guys in Japan did in starting a war with the US. Not here, we “forgive and forget” and “learn from the mistakes (supposedly)”
Everything I’m seeing tells me that we are trying to double down on all the screwed up decisions that got us here in the first place.
I can’t disagree with you, drumminj. But I would say that the ” big government” was really bank lobbyists who bought Congress and wrote legislation — or relaxed regulations — and thus tipped the playing field in the banks’ favor.* That’s what took more and more from individuals. Not the nanny state.
I know you have conservative views. Are you conservative in the sense that you like status quo without government intervention? If so, then know that the tipped playing field IS the status quo. So — to extend the metaphor — without the help of government intervention to re-level the playing field, individuals are facing an uphill climb. Possibly insurmountable.
That means a very slow unwinding. Credit allowed prices to rise, pricing out wiser cash buyers. In order to go back to a lifestyle where people saved up first and then bought, rather then bought first and paid back later, prices will have to fall to meet people cash supply. Or, wages will have to rise to meet existing prices. I don’t see either happening soon. This could take decades to unwind. By decades, I mean that it could take long enough for you to either lose your job, or long enough for several generations to face a cold hungry and painful retirement, or long enough for some other country (India? Brazil?) to take over, or long enough for cheap oil to run out for good.
I don’t think we have enough time to wait for individuals to re-balance our society.
———-
*The banks cannot function, it seems, without their perks. Look at the huge resistance to the little Qualified Residental program, where, if the down payment is less than 20%, the bank would be allosed to securitize only a measly 95% of the loan. Is that little 5% really enough to literally break the bank?
I don’t blame the citizens for not knowing as much as they should. Even though apathy is a big part of the problem, I’ll admit to being apathetic a time or two in my life.
But. There have been political candidates that have tried to call attention to these things. And people have to make some effort to be informed. One big issue, IMO, is voters being fearful of politicians that aren’t “main-stream.” Because the first thing the media/PTB will do to someone who takes on these organizations is to call them “dangerous.” As if throwing the economy into a tail-spin wasn’t dangerous enough.
There is progress on this. Back in the early 80’s, if a person even talked about the Federal Reserve, they would be called an extremist. If you talked about Wall Street, you’d be called even worse things. Anyway, it’s on peoples radar now and I hope something comes of it.
The truth of the matter is that we are totally screwed. The only think keeping us afloat is the fact that a lot of other governments are even more screwed up than we are.
I’m really tired of even discussing it. Doesn’t matter how we got here, nobody is going to be held accountable anyway.
All I’ve been looking for is a way to avoid being the slowest gazelle in the herd. But it seems that there are just too many lions out there for it to matter.
Yeah, that whole “don’t be the slowest gazelle” thing does kind of assume there are less lions than gazelles.
There are fewer lions than gazelles. But the lions eat over and over and once a gazelle is on the menu, they don’t get to play anymore.
While unsustainable, I’m not too quick to rule out the possibility of a temporary condition of more lions than gazelles.
I’m really tired of even discussing it. Doesn’t matter how we got here, nobody is going to be held accountable anyway.
perhaps that’s part of the problem - looking for someone to blame/hold accountable.
Sure, there are people who should be tarred and feathered (or worse).
However, you, and every individual “consumer” and “citizen” out there can help make the change. Perhaps it’s time to do the “right” thing simply because it’s the right thing, and forget about the people who are doing the “wrong” thing and getting away with it.
Keep dreaming. Scientific state-of-the-art corporate psycho-warfare propaganda is currently unbeatable. And now they have the law on their side. Anything goes.
It will take the usual hardships (read hunger and death) and years (read: decades at best) before people wise up.
I’d love to see an honest show of hands here as to how many commenters are still using B of A, Citi, Wells Fargo, etc. For those who are, YOU are a big part of the problem. Just say f**k you to big banks.
“99% of Americans are to blame.”
Most of them still don’t understand what happened, except that good paying jobs became scarcer and scarcer with each passing year. The more cunning ones jumped onto the bubble wagons, still noy understanding what was happening, but they saw their friends make a quick buck flipping a condo, and decided to join the party. Most are ignorant and indoctrinated. They don’t have a clue as to how banking works
Blaming them is like blaming a cow being led into a slaughter house for its fate.
A friend in Miama worked for a real estate broker who was buying foreclosures in bulk and flipping them. He was doing great and then got stuck. Couldn’t filp the last batch. Shot himself in the head. I guess he accepted the blame.
“Shot himself in the head. I guess he accepted the blame.”
Or maybe he knew Guido would soon be paying him a visit to settle some unpaid loans.
Or he pictured himself as: “Rich, successful real estate developer/owner”,
and couldn’t bring himself to admit he’d become: “Upside-down-by-a-million bucks, out of work for three years, one banana peel away from the Rescue Mission” guy.
The type that commit suicide are often the ones who bragged the loudest and made it a point to tell the less fortunate how lazy and dumb they were.
Not always, but usually.
It sucks to find out you just how wrong you were and then realize you now have to listen to other a*holes who are just like you were.
I watched an episode of “Til Debt Do us Part” the other night. Seemed like a very nice couple with three kids, yet they managed, unknowingly, to spend 12K a month with an income of 8K. Other than the TV in every room they didn’t seem to live extravagantly. They just had no control whatsoever on their incidental purchases (eating out, buying gifts) and were in denial about their debt.
Eating out can do it. Even “casual dining” chain restaurants are expensive.
Wifey’s birthday was yesterday, and we (including our 2 adult and 1 teenaged kids) went to one of theo Briazilian steakhouses for lunch. With tip it was $155. It was fun, but not something I’d want to do on a regular basis.
I guess running a 4K monthly deficit worked when the house appreciated 20-30% per year.
The people on those shows baffle me. I can’t figure out how anyone can spend that much more than their income without even noticing. Not that I am the world’s biggest budgeter. I’m not. I used to write it all down since it was good discipline to see where everything was going while there were still student loans. And I have a friend who allocates a certain amount for each category a month and actually stops spending in that category when the amount is spent. I don’t do that. But the general average for a month? Of course I know it. Or do I? I mean I have to know it because I put $x in the checking account each month and pay for everything (except for occasional exceptions that I call “off book”) out of that amount. But would that be the case if I didn’t have my paycheck deposited in savings and then have to affirmatively move spending money to checking? And I’ve been living below the $x for a while to save up for a vacation and a new computer. I’m not sure I actually know what amount I’ve been living on the last few months while boosting up the balance to be ready for larger expenses.
How hard must this be for people who don’t have a natural affinity for numbers?
Eating out is one of those things that truly baffles me.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I find that sitting in restaurants, where I have to struggle to hear the person sitting across from me, to be a painful experience. And don’t get me started on the food. Or the prices.
Give my the Home Kitchen Cafe any day. And, while I’m at it, a shout out to MrBubble for the curry recipe. I tried it (with some modifications) and it’s awesome. Thank you!
Any time; glad that it worked for you. I whole-heartedly agree with restaurants. So rarely do we get something that’s “worth it” and so often are we ruched and disappointed.
PS: I must recommend the Ottolenghi cookbook out of London. The authors’ story reads like a joke: an Israeli and a Palestinian start a restaurant… But it’s amazing food. Had a dinner party and made the roast chicken with saffron, honey, rose water and hazelnuts; green beans and peas with orange zest and hazelnuts and cous-cous with preserved lemons. It’s also my lunch for the next few days.
I didn’t get a credit card until I was over 30. Even now, the only thing that I use it for regulary is gasoline, and that just because it save me two trips to the cashier. (onc to pay, and one for change) But yeah, polly, I just can’t conceive going that much further into debt every month.
MrBubble-
Responded to your query in yesterday’s BB thread.
Thanks! I got busy with a turkey feast and didn’t check back.
….dont forget Cheney. They maxed out the credit cards and lowered the income with tax cuts, that is going to still for a long time. Then they broke Iraq and Afghanistan… Obama thought he could fix this! hahahaha
Obama: “We’re Beginning to Turn The Corner” On Jobs, Economy
www dot youtube.com/watch?v=W2qHgbEKAHU
President Obama tells a group of employees from the Polypore company in Charlotte, NC that the gains the US made in job growth last month indicate that “we’ve turned the corner” in jobs and the economy.
April 2010
Oh goody gumdrops now Rick Santorum is in the race! 2012 isn’t about economy stoopid. Itz about Mark Foley, Larry Craig, Ted Haggard family values, right kidz?
You left out Anthony Weiner.
Yes, Santorum really adds to the frothy mix that is the GOP field this year.
30+ years of offshoring and hollowing out the economy take their toll. J6P is finally realizing that the economy isn’t going to “bounce back soon” and that we are in long term depression.
30+ years of offshoring and hollowing out the economy take their toll.
ding ding ding we have a winner!
Would the process have continued for thirty years if we had refused to go into debt? I doubt it.
Why not? They’re still offshoring at full speed, even though the American “consumer” is broke and can no longer borrow.
My biz school profs insisted that the American consumer is dispensible and that the slack in demand will be compensated by 3rd world customers. They might not consume as much per capita, but there at 10x+ of them.
What really got to me was the cavalier attitude the profs had towards American workers. I guess once you have tenure you don’t give a damn.
Lol! There is nothing better than having someone with a job for life tell you how great capitalism is.
There is nothing better than having someone with a job for life tell you how great capitalism is.
Most of those biz school profs were a bunch of pricks. Some even bragged to us about how much they were paid (they were paid much better than other profs at the U).
“they were paid much better than other profs at the U”
And nowhere even close to as intelligent. They’re only good for teaching other people to sell the actual ideas and products that are created in the science and engineering quads.
Who you mean by “we,” kemosabe?
Tell me, who was President about 30 years ago, who had the opportunity to refuse to go into debt?
If we were living within our means, we wouldn’t have been able to buy that much more foreign stuff than we sold to them. The dollar would have fallen and some of the marginal cases of offshoring wouldn’t have worked. So You’re right blue skye, it wouldn’t have gone on as long as it has.
No kidding. What do you mean by “we”? It was rammed down our throats.
The biggest problem was the white collar worker bees thought (read: were told) their jobs were untouchable and that the blue collar worker bees made too much money.
Suckers.
Experts back Sarah Palin’s historical account
You betcha she was right!
Sarah Palin yesterday insisted her claim at the Old North Church last week that Paul Revere “warned the British” during his famed 1775 ride — remarks that Democrats and the media roundly ridiculed — is actually historically accurate. And local historians are backing her up.
Palin prompted howls of partisan derision when she said on Boston’s Freedom Trail that Revere “warned the British that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms by ringing those bells and making sure as he’s riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be secure and we were going to be free.”
Palin insisted yesterday on Fox News Sunday she was right: “Part of his ride was to warn the British that were already there. That, hey, you’re not going to succeed. You’re not going to take American arms.”
In fact, Revere’s own account of the ride in a 1798 letter seems to back up Palin’s claim. Revere describes how after his capture by British officers, he warned them “there would be five hundred Americans there in a short time for I had alarmed the Country all the way up.”
Boston University history professor Brendan McConville said, “Basically when Paul Revere was stopped by the British, he did say to them, ‘Look, there is a mobilization going on that you’ll be confronting,’ and the British are aware as they’re marching down the countryside, they hear church bells ringing — she was right about that — and warning shots being fired. That’s accurate.”
bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/view/2011_0606you_betcha_she_was_right_experts_back_palins_historical_account/
The poor thing.
The sad part is that anyone cares about this nonsense.
The sad part is what they don’t care about.
Here in New York, the “issue” is Anthony’s Weiner. This follows a controversy about whether a playwright should be denined an honorary degree from a local public college he didn’t attend, based on what he once said about Israel.
And while slashing public services and raising taxes to pay for past debts and pensions, lots of pols are confronting the “issue” of the horrifying rise in the number of people rising bicycles and bicycle lanes to accomodate them, and their negative consequences for senior citizens.
How do increased bike ridership hurt senior citizens??
Cyclists are running over seniors in large numbers. Not that there is data supporting this, but that’s what bike lane opponents say and the MSM reports them saying.
Bike lanes cost money to construct.
After biking for 12 years, driving for 2 years, and walking for a year and a half, my conclusion is that bikers belong on the sidewalk. Seriously. It’s far safer for a biker to maneuver around 10 walkers than it is for hundreds of cars to maneuver around one biker.
My experience is that bike lanes disappear exactly when you need them most — at intersections where there are separate lanes for left or right turns. Then you’re stuck among the cars. It was easier to cross the streets or make turns as pedestrains do, using the ramps and crosswalks.
I was able to “share the road” in small college towns with a little local traffic, but in any major metro area? Forget it. And if you’re a biker, don’t live where you have to cross a bridge to get to work. They will never put a bike lane on a bridge.
“They will never put a bike lane on a bridge.”
So THAT’S why Portland is such a “great” bike town (he said sarcastically). We actually do have a bike lane on some of our bridges. Of course, they’re also shared with pedestrians so I’m not sure if that counts…
“They will never put a bike lane on a bridge.”
I go over the Golden Gate four times a week on a bike. They’ve closed the West side for construction, so we’ll all be with the tourist pedestrians and tourist bikers (the scariest). But to go to the East bay, there is no way. Blows.
“My experience is that bike lanes disappear exactly when you need them most — at intersections where there are separate lanes for left or right turns.”
Agreed, but that’s why we need a system like Amsterdam.
And that’s the Socialist Republic of Portland where bike lanes and electric charging stations are all the fashion. Imagine what they (don’t) do in small towns in the Midwest. Thankfully I mostly toodled around the area near the universities, where the drivers were more educated.
I live in a region that is sunny and pleasant damn near every day, and I would NEVER ride to work.
It’s a shame.
I’ve only biked in FL at my parents’ place on Siesta Key. “Off-island” looks truly frightening and I remember how my grand-parents used to drive. Yikes.
I’m stuck dropping the kids off at daycare, so I don’t get to bike to work. I’d do it several days a week if I could. And I DID before the kids came along.
SFBB –
We went the nanny route which we are starting tomorrow 3 days a week, so no trips to day care yet. We’d rather not have to leave him, but I could be let go at any time (boss got escorted out last month) and it seems (from my limited observations) that once a woman is out of the work force ,it is difficult to get back in).
The research that I did recommends no biking for kids under 1, so I don’t have to come up with a “kiddie portage” solution until February. The wife starts car commuting tomorrow. I am not excited about having gasoline bills again…
At least every time I bike in, I save ~$5 in ferry fees (depending on Larkspur or Sausalito) which I put in an envelope. My Selle An-Anatomica Clydesdale saddle is going to take 9 weeks to save for at this rate.
MrBubble
We looked into nannies and didn’t find it to be cost efficient for one kid, and didn’t know anybody with kids near us that we could do a nanny share with. Right now I wrangle my wife into dropping the kids off once a week when I can. I’m debating about installing a bike rack on my truck and biking from daycare to work, even if it’s a measly 2 miles.
Just a head’s up on the nannyshare, I have a short-list of really stressful things I’ve endured, and it’s top five. It also ruined a great friendship.
YMMV, but adults can get irrational real fast when you’re dealing with your children and their safety.
There was nothing available for our little guy around here and all of the nanny shares kept falling through. Our next door neighbor is going to help us out in the nanny department.
I used to do the 2 miles to the Larkspur ferry, but I just kept getting fatter, so I stepped it up to 10 to Sausalito and then 20 to the Financial district. At only 35 calories per mile, it takes a the whole week to lose a pound (I eat healthy food, but I loathe dieting). But I save around $20 a week, so that’s sweet too.
We got a rack for the wife’s Mini, but I couldn’t advise you on a truck rack rec. Good luck!
MrBubble
Thanks for the tip, Muggy. My comment regarding FL biking was b/c I thought that you lived there. Now I am doubting my memory…
There’s always “Toss it in the back!” but the bike is a pretty sweet ride my wife got me for my birthday one year, and I’m loathe to let it bounce around in the back.
“Thanks for the tip, Muggy. My comment regarding FL biking was b/c I thought that you lived there. Now I am doubting my memory…”
You got it. I live in the St. Pete area.
Muggy,
That was one of the things that I wanted to avoid, too. Urgh. Now we have 2 tots, but one is at preschool age, which makes the nanny less appealing even if it brings the cost-per-unit down having 2 kids. I figure you need triplets for it to make it a real money saver.
is that anyone cares about this nonsense ??
The intellectual void that you see with many that follow this barker…
She’s the new Reagan; another brilliant patriot.
Remember: Only Republicans are patriots, if you disagree, you are a commie.
Also, remember some Republicans are mavericks.
It goes without saying that no Democrats are mavericks, though all Democrats are tax-and-spend liberals.
Sigh. Here we go again. Republicans vs. Democrats. Blah-blah-blah-blah-blah.
Repbulicans! Rah-rah-rah! Democrats! Blah-blah-blah!
Sis-boom-bah!
“Sigh. Here we go again. Republicans vs. Democrats. Blah-blah-blah-blah-blah.”
Goody! Then I’ll post this little morsel again. For prime-time viewing. (Warning: This may confuse or frighten some.)
Brain structure differs in liberals, conservatives: study
(AFP) – Apr 7, 2011
Google News
WASHINGTON — Everyone knows that liberals and conservatives butt heads when it comes to world views, but scientists have now shown that their brains are actually built differently.
Liberals have more gray matter in a part of the brain associated with understanding complexity, while the conservative brain is bigger in the section related to processing fear, said the study on Thursday in Current Biology.
“We found that greater liberalism was associated with increased gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex, whereas greater conservatism was associated with increased volume of the right amygdala,” the study said.
Other research has shown greater brain activity in those areas, according to which political views a person holds, but this is the first study to show a physical difference in size in the same regions.
“Previously, some psychological traits were known to be predictive of an individual’s political orientation,” said Ryota Kanai of the University College London, where the research took place.
“Our study now links such personality traits with specific brain structure.”
The study was based on 90 “healthy young adults” who reported their political views on a scale of one to five from very liberal to very conservative, then agreed to have their brains scanned.
People with a large amygdala are “more sensitive to disgust” and tend to “respond to threatening situations with more aggression than do liberals and are more sensitive to threatening facial expressions,” the study said.
Liberals are linked to larger anterior cingulate cortexes, a region that “monitor(s) uncertainty and conflicts,” it said.
“Thus, it is conceivable that individuals with a larger ACC have a higher capacity to tolerate uncertainty and conflicts, allowing them to accept more liberal views.”
It remains unclear whether the structural differences cause the divergence in political views, or are the effect of them.
But the central issue in determining political views appears to revolve around fear and how it affects a person.
“Our findings are consistent with the proposal that political orientation is associated with psychological processes for managing fear and uncertainty,” the study said.
“…while the conservative brain is bigger in the section related to processing fear,…”
Kind of brings to mind wild beasts in the forest, no?
“a higher capacity to tolerate uncertainty”
I guess my ex was a Liberal. She never cared about consequences.
Democratic activists urged to be aggressive at Rep. Allen West town hall meetings
By George Bennett Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 1:53 p.m. Sunday, June 5, 2011
Palm Beach County Democratic activists got some coaching last week on getting loud and getting ejected when U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, holds another town hall meeting Thursday in Boca Raton.
“Make your voice heard. Get angry. Get upset - because you are .. .Attend every single town hall and get loud. That’s the only way the media’s going to pick us up,” Craig Borkon of the liberal group Organize Now told the county Democratic Executive Committee.
When one of the roughly 100 partisans mentioned getting tossed out, Borkon said: “Let them throw you out. Finally maybe the media will put something in the paper saying he’s throwing everybody out that disagrees with him.”
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/democratic-activists-urged-to-be-aggressive-at-rep-1520192.html - -
LOL…
“She never cared about consequences.”
Hmm. Yeah. Ya see, it is kind of complex, but being able to tolerate uncertainty isn’t the same as not caring about consequences.
Reagan did enlist and serve in the military(as a calvery officer before WWII when the Army still used horses!)
Reagan rode his horse up the hill of Hawaii shouting ‘Ring them bells! The Japs are coming!’ right before the Pearl Harbor invasion thingy! You betcha! But the liberals wouldn’t listen. They were thinking their complex thoughts like how to destroy America and whatnot.
“I guess my ex was a Liberal. ”
She certainly was! *wink wink*
Mort Kondracke on Fox news said, “the women is an idiot”. I about fell out of my chair when I heard it.
Mort’s conservative brain is being driven by the fear that Palin may get traction in the 2012 election. He knows full well that if she were to get the nomination, independents and conservatives will stay home in droves. Not only will that re-elect Obama, but will also swing those down-ticket races democratic: Reps, Senators, school board.* So Mort’s trying to kill her buzz as soon as possible.
Even if Palin just does one or two primaries, that will steal money that could be put to use one the real candidates.
————–
*Any uninspiring GOP candidate could have the same effect.
Amazing…she’s so popular no one will vote for her.
Depends what you mean by popular. Would you vote for Charlie Sheen or Kim Kardashian?
“he warned them “there would be five hundred Americans there in a short time for I had alarmed the Country all the way up.””
Geez, even Revere himself contradicts Palin. Revere said he had “alarmed” the Americans. How is not the same as “warning” the Americans?
Revere may have tried to warn off the British from showing up once he was captured, but that was not the purpose of the ride. The purpose of the ride was to get the word out to the local militia. If the purpose of the ride had been to warn the British, he could have just walked over to their headquarters in Boston. Of course, if he had done that, there wouldn’t have been any warning to give. The riders (there were many) had to get word out to the militia or the British would have had no problem seizing anything they wanted.
Exactly. The revealing aspect of the whole story is that once again Palin shows she has almost no knowledge of American history, other than what she’s been spoon-fed by her handlers.
And even what she’s been spoon-fed, she garbles and spits out incorrectly.
I think she learned about Boston by watching several episodes of Cheers.
It’s very complex. Perhaps she was counting on her audience being more liberal.
And even what she’s been spoon-fed, she garbles and spits out incorrectly.
Anyone who’s tried to feed a baby will understand this perfectly.
Well of course, Polly. But it looks like one of Palin’s handlers is trying to twist the verbatim text to imply that this wasn’t really a Palin blunder. She was just explaining a nuance, you see. She’s actually quite brilliant.
“Geez, even Revere himself contradicts Palin.”
Of course Palin is wrong, just ask Joe Biden. He will tell you…
When Paul Revere was stopped by the British, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed.
I’m pretty sure FDR did a Youtube video on it.
One of his first…….you know, FDR invented the Internet.
When he wasn’t piloting the lead German bomber over Pearl Harbor.
“warned the British that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms by ringing those bells” ????????????????????????????????????
Were the British going to attack us with bells????
“and making sure as he’s riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be secure and we were going to be free.”????????????????????????????
Is he sending bells?
“bells that we were going to be secure”????? I’m not sure what she is saying here, but I assume she’s trying to say that the warning bells were going to signify that we would be secure. If anything they were warning of war.
I’m not sure anyone can determine what she is saying.
“I’m not sure what she is saying here.”
It has to do with brain lobes. You are obviously a Conservative.
And this is why Sister Sarah continues to generate ratings on TV and comments on The Internets. We know she’s a screw-up, but it’s so much fun to discuss HOW she screwed up that we just can’t let her go.
Lucille Ball and Gracie Allen had to work hard to make their screw-ups believable; Palin just does it so naturally…
“Lucille Ball and Gracie Allen had to work hard to make their screw-ups believable; Palin just does it so naturally…”
Sounds like she missed her true calling.
Considering how much she’s been on TV, maybe she FOUND her true calling.
“Say goodnight Sarah.”
“You betcha, cuz I’m all Mavericky and stuff, and I’m gonna eliminate the deficit while cutting taxes and not touching the military budget…”
Thanks folks for watching the Cheney and Palin Show, brought to you by Texaco ….
“I’m not sure anyone can determine what she is saying.”
Exactly. Because she doesn’t know what she’s saying when she’s saying it. Her mouth just overruns with know-nothingness. It’s just natter and the more people realize it, the better off we’ll be.
Let’s start a list…..
Eisenhower
Kennedy
Johnson
Nixon
Ford (never mind, scratch him)
Carter
Reagan
Bush I
Clinton
Bush the Deuce
Obama
Notice the trend?
At this point, Johnson or Nixon could get my vote over any of the idiots they are talking about as presidential candidates.
Well, if the comments from the story are any indication, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the word Palin at the end of the list. Wow.
We could certainly do better, but if she were to be elected I would have to laugh at all the people whose worst nightmares had come to pass because they could not bring themselves to do what it took to prevent it.
And what is that?
To me the sound bite is simple, and I repeat it often to those I know who somehow still support her after knowing these things:
1. She quit running the state with the 4th smallest population.
2. She threw around the word “Socialist” while running perhaps the nation’s most overtly socialist state, all the while using those negotiations as proof of her qualifications.
And what is that?
Give a just-big-enough slice of her eventual voters an alternative that they could live with. Which includes more understanding them and less making fun of them.
But if socialists are what they are against, as it seems to me, how is it that they can’t realize that she invalidates herself? No ridicule necessary. And why did she quit? I actually liked that she stood up to big oil interests. But the quitting part is a major red flag…I think she’s pulling a Trump, personally.
It’s all pure emotion (or fear if you subscribe to the brain structure theory). Facts and invalidations and “realizing” don’t necessarily go anywhere. You have to understand their emotions.
I do think that the Trump theory makes sense. Does she REALLY want the job? When she didn’t even want to be governor any more?
ENOUGH WITH THIS BLITHERING IDIOT!
(Whew. How long was I out?)
That’s President Idiot to you…you were out a while :-).
“Her mouth just overruns with know-nothingness”
My mom is like this. Love her but she is almost dangerous to be around.
“she was right about that”
Except that’s not what she said.
I read a story yesterday evening about how her followers were trying to get Paul Revere’s Wiki page to reflect the new information that historian Palin enlightened us with. lol
They are wrong:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Revere#.22Midnight_Ride.22
In the days before April 18, Revere had instructed Robert Newman, the sexton of the Old North Church, to send a signal by lantern to alert colonists in Charlestown as to the movements of the troops when the information became known. In what is well known today by the phrase “one if by land, two if by sea”, one lantern in the steeple would signal the army’s choice of the land route, while two lanterns would signal the route “by water” across the Charles River.[14] Revere first gave instructions to send the signal to Charlestown. He then crossed the Charles River by rowboat, slipping past the British warship HMS Somerset at anchor. Crossings were banned at that hour, but Revere safely landed in Charlestown and rode to Lexington, avoiding a British patrol and later warning almost every house along the route. The Charlestown colonists dispatched additional riders to the north.[13][15]
Riding through present-day Somerville, Medford, and Arlington, Revere warned patriots along his route — many of whom set out on horseback to deliver warnings of their own. By the end of the night there were probably as many as 40 riders throughout Middlesex County carrying the news of the army’s advance. Revere did not shout the phrase later attributed to him (”The British are coming!”), largely because the mission depended on secrecy and the countryside was filled with British army patrols, and because the colonists themselves were British.[16] Revere’s warning, according to eyewitness accounts of the ride and Revere’s own descriptions, was “The Regulars are coming out.”[17] Revere arrived in Lexington around midnight, with Dawes arriving about a half hour later. They met with Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who were spending the night with Hancock’s relatives (in what is now called the Hancock-Clarke House), and they spent a great deal of time discussing plans of action upon receiving the news. They believed that the forces leaving the city were too large for the sole task of arresting two men and that Concord was the main target.[18] The Lexington men dispatched riders to the surrounding towns, and Revere and Dawes continued along the road to Concord accompanied by Samuel Prescott, a doctor who happened to be in Lexington “returning from a lady friend’s house at the awkward hour of 1 a.m.”[13][19]
———————————————————-
Must be the same bunch that say the Holocaust didn’t happen and men didn’t land on the moon.
Its not over yet!
http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/06/02/now-you-see-it-now-you-dont-the-43-5-million-teardown/
We’re back below the Eddie line, but to give him credit, the S&P 500 is a lot closer to 1300 than it is to fair value.
When will the statute of limitations run out on 2000 being a reference point for stock prices, and 2006 for housing prices?
Maybe never. Maybe only more unreality can defeat the determination to believe unreality, with enough inflation leading to enough real value declines that the nominal value can be the same.
But at the current rate of inflation, that could take a long time.
He also announced he bought a house to rent out in Atlanta. Then he never mentioned it again. I guess the lunch bell rang and he forgot.
” I guess the lunch bell rang and he forgot.”
LMAO.
Yeah, I remember that also Ben…he threw out all his little metrics with PITI vs. rent…He is the typical personality type that gets his A$$ handed to him by HUD when he decides that he does not want to rent to a certain person or group…
More specifically he bought a house in Atlanta to rent out and told all of us that there would be no more price declines in the less expensive portions of the Atlanta market. He expected declines in the part of the market he wanted to buy to live in, but not for the less desireable houses. That was as low as it could possibly go.
We’re back below the Eddie line, but to give him credit, the S&P 500 is a lot closer to 1300 than it is to fair value.
I thought the Eddie line was Dow 12000?
I remember S&P 1300, but maybe he put it both ways.
My line has long been DJIA 12K. It appears to still be holding…
A different kind of foreclosure:
http://www.digtriad.com/news/watercooler/article/178031/176/Florida-Homeowner-Forecloses-On-Bank-Of-America
Old news but still worth repeating.
That is alot of stash from Obama’s Christmas day give-away…
U.S. Move to Cover Fannie, Freddie Losses Stirs Controversy
WSJ
Dec 28, 2009
By JAMES R. HAGERTY and JESSICA HOLZER
The Obama administration’s decision to cover an unlimited amount of losses at the mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the next three years stirred controversy over the holiday.
The Treasury announced Thursday it was removing the caps that limited the amount of available capital to the companies to $200 billion each.
—————————-
True Cost of Fannie, Freddie Bailouts: $317 Billion, CBO Says
CNSNews | 6/6/11 | Matt Cover
(CNSNews.com) – The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says the real cost of the federal government guaranteeing the business of failed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is $317 billion — not the $130 billion normally claimed by the Obama administration.
In a report delivered to the House Budget Committee on June 2, the CBO said a “fair value” accounting of guaranteeing the two defunct mortgage companies – known as Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) – was more than twice as high as the Office of Management and Budget had accounted for.
“Specifically, CBO treats the mortgages guaranteed each year by the two GSEs as new guarantee obligations of the federal government,” the CBO report said. “For those guarantees, CBO’s projections of budget outlays equal the estimated federal subsidies inherent in the commitments at the time they are made.”
What discourages me is knowing that no matter who sits in the oval office or conrtrols congress, they will keep on pushing on the string.
If the House leadership really wants to cut spending, they could start here. The next budget year starts October 1st. It is within their power to refuse to consider a budget that provides for any federal dollars being used to cover losses of Fannie or Freddie.
Did you complain for “leadership” for cutting spending from:
Obama and the White House?
When Democrats controlled congress from 2006-2010?
I look forward to your glowing posts when the Republican controlled house proposes bills cutting spending and reigning in Fannie or Freddie (only to be shot down in the democrat controlled Senate and Obama White House, of course).
If the proposed cuts were more than token, and if they targetted the military, I might get excited.
The Obama administration has already put forward a proposal to end Fannie and Freddie over a long period of time. Evidently they want to support Fannie and Freddie’s already existing obligations. The administration also wants to raise the debt ceiling with no preconditions, so their position is not logically inconsistent.
As of now, the republican position requires finding a LOT of cuts very quickly. This is one that could be done fairly easily (without figuring out how to get troops out of a war zone quickly and safely) though the financial markets would be in for a pretty wild ride. I’m asking if it is on their list.
Once again, the Dems DID NOT control Congress from 2006-2010. They barely achieved parity because the TINY majority they had just wasn’t enough to have control.
Totally agree with you on this, Polly.
If they really want to cut spending, they need to reduce or eliminate any new debt guarantees, IMHO.
+1
Darn it! We missed the online auction! Who wouldn’t want a disgraced felon’s used underwear? Well, maybe not the pair he wore at his sentencing.
Fraudster Bernard Madoff’s underwear sold for $200
BBC News
Underwear which once belonged to jailed fraudster Bernard Madoff have been sold for $200 (£120) as part of an auction of items confiscated from his mansion.
The event also saw the sale of furniture and household goods, shoes, golf clubs and art, US media report.
Organised by the US Marshals Service, the $400,000 raised will go towards victims of Madoff’s $65bn fraud.
Madoff is serving a 150-year jail sentence after being convicted in 2009.
According to the Miami Herald, 14 pairs of Madoff’s boxer shorts, confiscated from his Palm Beach mansion, fetched a total of $200.
“It went about as expected,” the newspaper quotes auctioneer Bob Sheehan as saying.
“When we sold the stuff from his house in New York, it brought in millions, but that included boats and cars and jewellery. This one was mostly household goods.”
Another buyer paid $31,000 for Madoff’s 1952 Rolex watch, while a work entitled “Nude” by photographer Edward Weston sold for $4,600.
About 6,000 online bidders took part in the auction along with 150 people who attended in person.
Is the buyer hoping that Maddoff’s evilness will rub on him by wearing it?
I hope you didn’t mean that the way it sounded.
By the way, $200K or sounds pretty low for household goods from the a mansion of a guy who appeared to be filthy rich. (I’m assuming bidders were willing to pay twice as much for the Madoff provenance.)
Missed this in Saturday’s Denver Post:
“Colorado congressman Doug Lamborn is one of nine House members asking that funds be yanked from programs that finance the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden.
Just last month, Vice President Joe Biden visited the lab, stressing the administration’s commitment tto science and renewable energy, and commending the Colorado lab for research that already was leading to innovative energy solutions.
The letter, written by California US Rep Tom McClintock, says: “we should not follow the president’s poor planning in increasing the funding for these anti-energy boondoggles.”
Denverpost DOT com/news/ci_18203985?source=rss
Doug Lamborn idiot of the week. Call me when he supports repealing tax breaks to big oil, the sale of national oil nad mineral rights for pennies on the dollar, and of course taxing oil to cover the costs of war in the middle east.
Renewable Energy = don’t be economic girly-man
Real Amerikan patriotards only drive big-azz trucks
Renewable energy is anti-energy????
I guess we should cede dominance in renewables to Germany and China.
I thought the US was out of money:
Camp Roberts to construct city replica to train troops
Camp Roberts is slated to break ground this fall on a multimillion-dollar training compound designed to replicate a real-world city that would better prepare troops for missions overseas.
The new training center is estimated to cost between $10 million to $25 million.
This is why the war machine likes war. It’s much easier to hide the theft.
My guess is that they could probably purchase a large part of detroit for less.
Couldn’t large blocks of Detroit be had for smaller sums?
+1 measton and Blue Skye.
And Detroit has the advantage that parts of the city already looked bombed out. They could call it Destroit.
From a friend’s website:
Encompassing an area of over 138 square miles, Detroit has enough room to hold the land mass of San Francisco, Boston, and Manhattan Island, yet the population has fallen from close to 2 million citizens, to most likely less than 800,000. With such a dramatic decline, the abandoned house problem is not likely to go away any time soon.
I thought the US was out of money:
There seem to be many different definitions of “out of money”. Multiple definitions from the same person depending on how badly they want something.
“I thought the US was out of money:”
It is if you’re not rich.
Here’s a little good news…
State, local governments set to see record job cuts, layoffs.
~ cnnmoney
Don’t look to state and local governments to prop up the job market.
To the contrary, this cash-strapped sector is set to go on a record-breaking layoff binge when the new fiscal year starts on July 1.
State and local governments are forecast to shed up to 110,000 jobs in the third quarter, the first time the blood-letting has risen into the triple digits, according to IHS Global Insight.
“We’re on a downward path,” said Greg Daco, principal U.S. economist at IHS. “It’s not looking good.”
State and local government employment has been a drag on the economy all year, averaging a loss of 23,000 jobs a month over the past three months. Meanwhile, the private sector has created an average of 180,000 a month during the same period.
In May, public employment shrunk by 29,000 jobs, mostly at the state and local level, while businesses created 83,000 jobs, the Labor Department reported Friday. All told, the sector has lost 510,000 positions since its peak in August 2008.
States still cutting
Though tax revenue is starting to rise, states are still wrestling with multi-billion-dollar budget gaps. Federal stimulus funds helped minimize job cuts until now, but that money essentially runs out on June 30.
So states are planning to slash funds for education, social services and local governments, as well as downsize their payrolls even more, in the coming fiscal year.
State and local employment was propped up for the last two years by obama’s stimulus money.
You know - the money that was supposed to go into “shovel ready” projects that instead went to prop up insane public union salaries/benefits/pensions AND to keep these public union folks employed.
Because public unions collect lots and lots of dues. And those dues nearly go 100% to democrat candidates.
It is one hell of a money laundering scheme.
So for the past two years, states/counties and cities have avoided the hard cuts and hard decisions as the stimulus money had flowed in.
They had hoped for a rebound in the economy that would lead to increased tax revenue and would make up for the end of the stimulus money.
It didn’t happen. And the stimulus money is about to end.
And with republicans controlling the house, Stimulus 2.0 probably will not get passed.
So NOW states/counties/cities will have to finally start to face reality.
I saw several examples first hand of the stimulis money going into projects, that employed contractors and bought capital equipment. Paving, sewer plants.
And I just bicycled home on a road that has been re-paved with stimulus money. Nice road surface. Well-marked bike lane. Plenty of room for bikes and cars on that road.
Right. All those cops and firemen and prison guards are such raving liberals.
I defy you to find ONE Democrat in Kern Kounty public service.
(Okay, I exaggerate. In a population of approximately one million souls, 568 are registered Dems. Probably a couple are Democrats.)
Just sayin’, nanners.
And all those layoffs will save a grand total of ~6 billion a year.
I hear the argument all the time that “if you tax the rich, the money you would get won’t be enough, so why bother.”
Very well, if you lay off the government workers, the money you would save won’t be enough either. So why bother?
Protect and help average citizens? What are you, some kind of dang socialeest/commie?
Goldman Sachs is a government agency masquerading as an investment bank, masquerading as a commercial bank to receive FDIC debt guarantees.
The beat goes on…uninterrupted.
–
Source - NPR
If you missed the announcement late last week that Goldman Sachs hired former Republican Sen. Judd Gregg to be an international advisor, don’t blame yourself.
It came out Friday when most people were thinking more about the long holiday weekend ahead than the latest effort by the investment bank to add to its stable of worthies an influential former Capitol Hill lawmaker.
Anyway, the former senator from New Hampshire who, as you’ll recall, turned down President Obama’s offer of the Commerce Secretary’s job, will join Goldman’s board of international advisors, nearly 20 former corporate chief executives and government officials.
–
Source - Huff Po
In the wake of the financial crisis, which has been partly blamed on the excesses of Wall Street banks such as Goldman, Gregg was an outspoken critic of the Obama administration’s effort to tighten oversight of the financial industry. He was also a defender of Goldman during the heated congressional debate over the $700 billion bank bailout.
Early last year, Gregg said that Democrats were overreacting to civil charges filed against Goldman for securities fraud by using the indictment to push regulatory reform. He noted at the time that the allegations had not yet been proven in court.
“It’s really disingenuous for some people to pursue regulatory reform based off this one instance,” the retired senator said on MSNBC. “This is a single event, we don’t even know what the outcome will be.”
Never forget: the government is just the scapegoat for Wall St.
+1
The best government money can buy.
“Amakudari (”descent from heaven”) is the institutionalised practice where Japanese senior bureaucrats retire to high-profile positions in the private and public sectors. The practice is increasingly viewed as corrupt and a drag on unfastening the ties between private sector and state which prevent economic and political reforms.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amakudari
Bumpy Road Still Ahead for Housing, Study Finds
Published June 06, 2011| FOXBusiness
A new study finds the glass is half-full for some of today’s hopeful home buyers, but at the same time paints a not so rosy picture for many U.S. homeowners.
More Americans are able to afford a mortgage today than they were four years ago, according to a report released Monday from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.
The report, “State of the Housing Market,” found that nearly 70.8 million households could afford a median priced home in 2010, as opposed to only 48.2 million in 2007. This is assuming monthly payments are at 28% of their income, or about $900 in 2010. This is down from $1,362 in 2007, with a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and 10% down payment.
But the glass is still half empty for many current home owners — the home ownership rate continues to fall, dropping below 67% in 2010, down from 69% in 2004. This means there are more houses on the market and prices will continue to drop as demand remains low, the survey said.
The survey attributes a drop in demand to more children living with their parents for longer. In the past five years, an additional 1.6 million young adults are living at home.
Also according to the research, it wasn’t the fancy mansions or upscale condos that were damaged most by the housing bubble. The survey found that the nation’s modestly prices homes lost more value than pricier real estate during the recession.
Lower-priced homes fell about three times more in value than homes priced at the higher-end of the market, according to the report. Nearly 15% of homeowners today have properties worth less than their mortgages.
Also according to the research, it wasn’t the fancy mansions or upscale condos that were damaged most by the housing bubble. The survey found that the nation’s modestly prices homes lost more value than pricier real estate during the recession.
———————
That’s because the lower-end homes were owned by the most vulnerable borrowers. Bernanke thought the declines would be “contained,” but when the problems began rolling into “prime” mortgages and neighborhoods, the Fed/govt began massive interventions — foreclosure moratoriums, tax credits, govt guarantees and FHA/GSE loans with higher loan limits, the HAMP program, etc. — which **temporarily** stalled the correction in the upper-mid and higher-end areas.
To those who were watching on the street, it’s obvious to see how this happened, and it’s obvious that the “bottom” has absolutely not been reached in the RE market.
Home » News
True Cost of Fannie, Freddie Bailouts: $317 Billion, CBO Says
Monday, June 06, 2011
(CNSNews.com) – The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says the real cost of the federal government guaranteeing the business of failed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is $317 billion — not the $130 billion normally claimed by the Obama administration.
In a report delivered to the House Budget Committee on June 2, the CBO said a “fair value” accounting of guaranteeing the two defunct mortgage companies – known as Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) – was more than twice as high as the Office of Management and Budget had accounted for.
“Specifically, CBO treats the mortgages guaranteed each year by the two GSEs as new guarantee obligations of the federal government,” the CBO report said. “For those guarantees, CBO’s projections of budget outlays equal the estimated federal subsidies inherent in the commitments at the time they are made.”
“In contrast, the Administration’s Office of Management and Budget continues to treat Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as nongovernmental entities for budgetary purposes, and thus outside the budget,” the report stated. “It records as outlays the amount of the net cash payments provided by the Treasury to the GSEs.”
Paul Revere to exerter’s shadow cousin: The realtors are coming! The realtors are coming!
Realtors go after blogger who says they lie:
June 6th, 2011, by Marilyn Kalfus, real estate reporter / OC Register
“He also has accused real estate agents, in general, of being dishonest.”
The complaint, which Roberts furnished to the Register, was accompanied by a printed version of a post he ran saying that real estate agents lie.
“Realtors take advantage of their status as trusted experts to manipulate buyers, and they feel no responsibility when their statements are exposed as lies,” the statement said.
The Orange County Association of Realtors has filed a grievance against an Irvine real estate broker who writes a blog that takes critical looks at the housing crash, homebuyers and real estate agents.
The grievance says Roberts and two other people have violated a code of ethics rule stating that “Realtors must not knowingly lie about competitors” as well as a general set of regulations governing how MLS information is used on the internet.
The realtors are coming! The realtors are coming!
FIX BAYONETS!
Apparently, Realtors must not tell the truth about their competitors.
Come get it. I’m all over the net now. IDGAF.
“He also has accused real estate agents, in general, of being dishonest.”
I believe I have also accused them of soliciting prostitutes, being spies and setting up rentals as grow houses. But hey, they were all actual stories I found. Oh that`s right, I also compared their business model to that of a pimp/prostitute/ john, which I thought was pretty accurate.
U.S. Stocks Decline as Banks Lead Losses Amid Economic, Regulatory Concern (Bloomberg)
Wells Fargo & Co., the largest U.S. home lender, slumped 2.1 percent after Rochdale Securities LLC’s Richard Bove cut his recommendation for the stock. Photographer: Jin Lee/Bloomberg
U.S. stocks fell for a fourth day amid concern economic growth is slowing and the Federal Reserve will boost capital requirements for the nation’s largest banks.
Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. (C) slumped at least 3.4 percent. Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), the largest U.S. home lender, slid 1.7 percent after Rochdale Securities LLC’s Richard Bove cut his recommendation on the stock. Lowe’s Cos. lost 1.5 percent after JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced its rating on the second-largest U.S. home-improvement retailer.
“The markets are getting concerned that economic growth is not sustainable,” said Mark Bronzo, who helps manage $26 billion at Security Global Investors in Irvington, New York. “I am surprised that the bank sector continues to underperform as they have been laggards all year. Concerns over what the new fin regulations will require, and no real loan growth, continue to hold back these names.”
“The markets are getting concerned that economic growth is not sustainable,”
…for themselves.
There. Fixed it.
heheeeheeeheehaahaaahaaheeehaahaaa… (Hwy50™)
O.C. homes still triple U.S. costs
June 6th, 2011 by Jon Lansner / OC Register
Three typical American homes? Or one residence in Orange County?
That’s roughly local housing affordability, by one method of my mathematical madness. Just ponder National Association of Realtor home price data for metropolitan areas: An Orange County house cost 3.22 times what the median-priced American home sold for in the first quarter.
Then in 2002, your blogger noted that my “Orange Price Premium” was running above the levels of late 1980s peak. I dared to write that the local market had reached a peak. My sanity and math skills — no less, my qualifications for future employment — were severely questioned by numerous readers. Alas, the market upswing — and the “Orange Price Premium ” — went well higher for hal fa decade before crashing into the Great Recession’s real estate debacle.
Ho ho, hah hah, hehehehehehe, BwaHaHaAhHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! (Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb-thrower™)
IATA Warning: Airline profits will crash 54% in 2011
Washington, D.C., United States June 6, 2011
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has painted a grim forecast, reporting that high oil prices, natural disasters and political unrest will devastate profits in 2011.
clearpxl
The latest projection says the airline industry will only make $4 billion USD in 2011; down 54 percent from its March forecast and tumbling 78 percent from last year’s recorded net profit. According to the IATA, the $4 billion is a grim 0.7 percent profit margin for the industry on average.
“Natural disasters in Japan, unrest in the Middle East and North Africa, plus the sharp rise in oil prices have slashed industry profit expectations to $4 billion this year,” IATA Director-General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said. “That we are making any money at all in a year with this combination of unprecedented shocks is a result of a very fragile balance. The efficiency gains of the last decade and the strengthening global economic environment are balancing the high price of fuel. But with a dismal 0.7% margin, there is little buffer left against further shocks.”
The report finds oil prices to be the main culprit. For each dollar increase in the price of fuel, airlines take on an additional $1.6 billion in average costs.
Read more: http://www.allheadlinenews.com
Could the Net be killing the planet one web search at a time?
By Alex Roslin, For Postmedia News
It’s Saturday night, and you want to catch the latest summer blockbuster. You do a quick Google search to find the venue and right time, and off you go to enjoy some mindless fun.
Meanwhile, your Internet search has just helped kill the planet. Depending on how long you took and what sites you visited, your search caused the emission of one to 10 grams of carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming.
Sure, it’s not a lot on its own — but add up all of the more than one billion daily Google searches, throw in 60 million Facebook status updates each day, 50 million daily tweets and 250 billion emails per day, and you’re making a serious dent in some Greenland glaciers.
The Internet has long promised a more efficient and greener world. We save on paper and mailing by sending an email. We can telecommute instead of driving to work. We can have a meeting by teleconference instead of flying to another city.
Ironically, despite the web’s green promise, this explosion of data has turned the Internet into one of the planet’s fastest-growing sources of carbon emissions. The Internet now consumes two to three per cent of the world’s electricity.
If the Internet was a country, it would be the planet’s fifth-biggest consumer of power, ahead of India and Germany. The Internet’s power needs now rival those of the aviation industry and are expected to nearly double by 2020.
“The Internet pollutes, but people don’t understand why it pollutes. It’s very, very power-hungry, and we have to reduce its carbon footprint,” said Mohamed Cheriet, a green IT expert and professor in the engineering and automation department at Montreal’s Ecole de Technologie Superieure (ETS).
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com
Wow. It doesn’t get any more stupid than this.
Slim here with some fantastic news on a 100-degree day with wildfire smoke in the air: I see the monsoon clouds!
There they are, sneaking over the Rincon Mountains! Yup, it’s them all right. I’d know those clouds anywhere.
BTW, if anyone’s here from Texas, have you heard anything about the monsoon storms reappearing in northern Mexico. They usually get the rains before we do.
Texas is only worried about their own record drought now.
The 3rd in 10 years.
Wow. Good luck to both of you. May this year bring you lots of rain, and no more fire!
(We had our wicked wildfires in 2003 and 2007 — they suck.)
Hey -
NPR would like to talk to people who have been affected by the drop in home prices. Have you had trouble selling your house because you owe more than it’s worth? Tell us about your experiences and where you live. We may contact you for a story we’re working on.
Saw this on their facebook page. Flood them with requests to include the obvious: expensive shelter is not a good thing.
Go to NPR’s facebook page
Have you had trouble selling your house because you owe more than it’s worth?
Cause you liberated the “home equity” locked away in your four walls…
I hope NPR asks the question:
Where did the money go?
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=187583
How dumb is the Tea Party? I mean, come on, Sarah Palin?
One’s hand over their heart does not make one a good candidate. Oh sure, they all wax patriotic when the camera rolls. But what is Palin’s history as a Presidential candidate?
She has one, remember? She ran as an equal part of John McCain’s ticket.
And what did John McCain do? After campaigning on “personal responsibility” and “capitalism” he suspended his campaign to return to Washington DC and stump for passage of TARP, which did not have sufficient votes in the Senate to pass at the time, and shepherded it through The Senate as the cornerstone of his campaign just a couple of weeks before the election.
Where was Sarah? In full support of this action: She has not said one word negatively about Mr. McCain’s acts in that regard, either during that time or since.
Now, three years into this, we have the facts to go with what Sarah Palin personally enabled, both at the time and since:
Banks took that money and remained in business. We have since discovered that they have been foreclosing on people without any evidence that they hold the alleged debt in question. A Fortune study pointed out what I have been asserted for four years: The banks do not own the paper in a majority of the cases.
The banks have NOT ceased the practices that got them in trouble. Credit-default swaps and other derivatives are still traded over the counter. There is no nightly mark to market. In point of fact, Kanjorski (former Rep D-11, PA) codified the practice of marking “assets” to fantasy values which continues to this day. There has been $9 trillion in market loss on residential real estate if you believe Zillow, but only $500 billion in removed debt from the Fed’s Z1 in mortgages. Where did the rest go? While certainly some was lost equity, not all was. The rest is being actively hidden, an act of intentional and legalized deceit that Palin and McCain actively supported in 2008 and continue to support today.
While she says The Fed has done “bad” things (in an oblique way) she has not committed to a zero inflation policy through enforcement of The Federal Reserve Act via something like reinstatement of the Coinage Act of 1792s sanctions for non-compliance. And until and unless she does, she’s not for “sound money.” All the arm-waving is of no value until and unless you hear something solid that can be reduced to an actual policy. I haven’t heard any such thing - have you?
There has been no recognition that the ponzi scheme of exponential “growth” has been a false God since 1983 under both Democrat and Republican administrations. Until this is recognized, admitted to and dealt with we cannot fix what’s wrong with the economy. Chief among these facts are labor and environmental arbitrage.
She has refused to demand that every illegal immigrant go home. Now. We have some 8 million Americans who would like a job but can’t find one. We have some 20 million illegal invaders. The math is obvious. A “secure border” at some future date does not address the problem that is here and now.
She has no energy policy. Sorry, “Drill drill drill” isn’t an energy policy. Petroleum is a dead end street. Yes, we have to do it for now, but it’s not an energy policy - period. Nor is natural gas. There are solutions but they’re not found in sucking off the oil companies, which she’s very, very good at. They’re found in paths like LFTRs (thorium salt reactors); high-temperature nuclear designs can be deployed that are much safer than the common water-cooled units we run today, they have process heat available, and with that process heat we can produce liquid hydrocarbons for transportation fuel from coal. The result is an energy policy that is self-contained in our nation and which we can fuel for over one thousand years at today’s consumption rates, and for roughly five hundred years given expected population growth. That’s a plan forward that will work. “Drill drill drill” will not do anything except make the oil companies rich and you poor.
She has yet to put forward what her view of “Constitutional Government” is. Get rid of the TSA? Zero the Department of Education? Zero Agriculture? Eliminate the Nazi-style police state tactics such as those used on Guerrera in Arizona? Sue Indiana for their violation of the Constitution under their State Supreme Court ruling? I’ve heard nothing that speaks to original intent, Constitutional Government and individual liberty. Zip, zero, nada.
Now maybe you can all overlook these facts. After all, she’s cute. But I vote for policies, not euphoria. I vote for expressed principles that have been reduced to acts, and in this case Palin has a major problem found in the acts of the other half of her ticket in 2008 - an act which led to over a million people losing their homes through questionable circumstances and an ongoing economic Depression that had its costs transferred to the taxpayers through bailouts and fraud.
Will Palin jail any of these jackasses? If she will I certainly haven’t heard her promise to do it. In fact, all I’ve heard thus far, since 2008, constitutes support of those very jackals that destroyed the economy in the first place.
So tell me… exactly what policies has Sarah Palin espoused that you think would make things better?
I can’t name one, and that’s a problem.
Sammy, you should spend as much time figuring out how to claim political asylum in another country as you do thinking about Palin, because we’re going to need it if she get’s elected.
She’ll make the both of the bUsh years seem like a birthday party.
Why do you say that? Is there an evil genius beneath the blundering clown?
BEHIND, not beneath. Her handlers and “advisors” are who we’ll have to worry about.
Yes, it’s the puppet masters, not the puppets (whom we vote for), who pose the real danger.
Ecofeco, I don’t spend much time thinking about Palin. I spend more time thinking about the kind of future my children will face since we’ve become a nation of imbeciles. It should be out of the question for a low fraud like Palin to get elected; then I remember my fellow countrymen gave Bush, whose epic incompetence was on display his entire first term, a second term, and were then duped by a self-proclaimed champion of hope and change whose campaign contributers read like a who’s who of corporatist predators. Given the dumbing-down of the American populace, a President Palin is just the next logical milestone on our road to IDIOCRACY.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSROlfR7WTo
The intro to IDIOCRACY, or why the intelligent in America are an endangered species.
No insult intended either, Sammy. I too am concerned about our future as it seems it isn’t going to be a good one.
The last thing I ever expected was to end up living in the corporate dictatorship we have now.
I read an interesting article here
http://actualsciences.com/major-principle-and-promoted-actions-of-neoliberalism/
introducing me to the term neoliberalism. I suppose it means the same thing as neocon that used to get bandied about here, I don’t really know. Really, it has nothing to do with Liberalism, but rather with the hyjacking of the nation state by monied interests. I take a simple view; the current president is a puppet of these interests (I am sad that is the case), the past one(s) were and the next one is going to be. It’s all that’s allowed on the menu.
I expect that in the near future, alternative lifestyle (of thinking people) is going to make the opting out brief exercise of my generation look like a kindergarden field trip.
It’s all that’s allowed on the menu.
—————-
Bingo. Once a candidate becomes “popularized,” you can be sure they are under the control of the puppet masters.
Florida foreclosure deadlines lengthened to 450 days
by Kim Miller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
4:58 PM Monday, June 6, 2011
Federal mortgage giant Fannie Mae released new deadlines today for completing a foreclosure, increasing Florida’s timeline from 185 days to 450 days.
The new policy is in effect for all foreclosures referred to an attorney beginning Jan. 1, 2011 and takes into consideration the time between the referral to the foreclosure sale.
Whether this increase will have any impact on Florida’s foreclosures is unknown. According to RealtyTrac, the average Florida foreclosure is currently taking 619 days. The national average is 400 days.
But it does appear to be an acknowledgment that foreclosures are taking longer and threatening attorneys with fines for missing a deadline isn’t working.
The strict timelines have been partly blamed for shortcuts taken with paperwork at the Law Offices of David J. Stern. According to sworn statements taken by the Florida Attorney General’s office of former Stern employees closed-door screaming matches would erupt between Stern and a supervisor about the speed at which foreclosures were processed.
Fannie Mae fired Stern in the fall. The Plantation-based firm laid off much of its staff and stopped doing foreclosure work.
About 100,000 Stern files statewide are being transferred to other firms, including 9,000 in Palm Beach County.
Firms halting coverage as reform starts: survey
30% of companies say they’ll stop offering health plans
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Once provisions of the Affordable Care Act start to kick in during 2014, at least three of every 10 employers will probably stop offering health coverage, a survey released Monday shows.
While only 7% of employees will be forced to switch to subsidized-exchange programs, at least 30% of companies say they will “definitely or probably” stop offering employer-sponsored coverage, according to the study published in McKinsey Quarterly.
The survey of 1,300 employers says those who are keenly aware of the health-reform measure probably are more likely to consider an alternative to employer-sponsored plans, with 50% to 60% in this group expected to make a change. It also found that for some, it makes more sense to switch.
A 4% economic-growth rate for 2011 now looks like a pipe dream. In that case, assumptions about corporate earnings may be high, especially with the Federal Reserve’s latest bond-buying program winding down. Kelly Evans discusses.
“At least 30% of employers would gain economically from dropping coverage, even if they completely compensated employees for the change through other benefit offerings or higher salaries,” the study says.
It goes on to add: “Contrary to what employers assume, more than 85% of employees would remain at their jobs even if their employers stopped offering [employer-sponsored insurance], although about 60% would expect increased compensation.”
A number of competitors will emerge in the insurance market once reform provisions start to take effect, according to the McKinsey Quarterly study. These firms will be needed to provide a transition for those moving from employer-sponsored insurance to other coverage options.
…thereby forcing their employes to keep the thousands of dollars they were paying each year out of their paychecks into ever increasing high deductibles, often denied claims, overpriced health plans.
The horror!
This why a strategy or maxing out your 401K Iras hide cash gold coins and then filing for medicaid or BK seems the next logical survival tactic.
Looks like Weiner’s on the chopping block now, although he’s refusing to make the first cut by resigning.
I’m not a guy, but these “chopping block” and “cut” metaphors are making me cringe. Reminds me of FGM, if you wanna know the truth.
He was a bit testy at the press conference…
His wife wasn’t at the press conference. I am wondering when one of these wives is going to take a page out of Lorena Bobbitt`s playbook. I’ve got a good Lorena Bobbitt joke, tried to post it here once but I couldn’t slip it past the goalie.
On a TV show today, they maintained that reverse circumcision was possible and dared you to Google it. I am afraid to look!
I just saw the headline, “were all adults to the best of his knowledge.”
Uh, o.k.
She’s doing it again!
Meredith Whitney: State finances are worse than estimated
“FORTUNE — Meredith Whitney is issuing a fresh warning to mutual funds, banks, and politicians: The state of state finances is far worse than what you think, or at least than what you’ve been willing to tell the investors and taxpayers who will eventually carry the burden. In a new report released today to her clients, Whitney summons what appears to be the most comprehensive set of data ever assembled on state budgets and debt.
Her conclusion is that the future deficits that need to be closed, either by new taxes or draconian cuts in social services, are far bigger than the official numbers show, and that debt levels, when all liabilities are counted, vastly exceed the official estimates.”
Watch how quickly our financial elites prod their Republicrat political marionettes to summon her to Capital Hill and try to intimidate her into silence.
Once again, I would like to remind everyone about CAFRs.
http://cafr1.com/
Really crappy website, but do the recommended research.
Our government, from federal to local, is a corporation, NOT a republic.
It amazes me. there appears to be more vitroil spoken about Sarah Palin then there was about Adolph and Bruno, even Hirohito.
I am old enough to know what was being said at that time!
I wonder why there is so much hatred now!
Perhaps it is because of the availability of news and internet information, where all biases can be expounded upon without fear of the necessity of defending positions.
* U.S. NEWS
* JUNE 7, 2011
Second-Mortgage Misery
Nearly 40% Who Borrowed Against Homes Are Underwater
By ROBBIE WHELAN
Almost 40% of homeowners who took out second mortgages—extracting cash from their residences to cover everything from vacations to medical bills—are underwater on their loans, more than twice the rate of owners who didn’t take out such loans.
The finding, in a report to be released Tuesday by real-estate data firm CoreLogic Inc., illustrates the consequences of easy borrowing amid the housing boom’s inflated prices. The report says 38% of borrowers who took cash out of their residences using home-equity loans are underwater, or owe more than their home is worth. By contrast, 18% of borrowers who don’t have these loans were underwater.
It’s not clear how much cash withdrawn from homes during the boom was used to acquire luxuries such as expensive automobiles, and how much went to basic necessities, including tuition expenses, or renovations intended to raise a property’s value.
What is clear is that home-equity loans, which account for about 10% of the U.S. mortgage market, have been a headache for homeowners and lenders alike. Second mortgages refer to any loan taken out on a property that is subordinate to the first mortgage, and include home-equity loans or lines of credit.
Second mortgages are weighing on a fitful recovery, in which housing has figured as particularly weak spot. The S&P/Case-Shiller National Index last week showed that home prices tumbled 4.2% nationwide in the first quarter, its third straight quarter of price declines after a modest recovery in early 2010. Nationwide, prices have fallen 34% since their peak in 2006. The inventory of unsold homes will take 9.2 months to sell, the National Association of Realtors said recently, about 50% higher than what is considered a healthy level.
“When a homeowner’s house is underwater, “it’s harder to get a credit card or a car loan, you can’t put your home up for a small business loan,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “There are all sorts of little, pernicious effects that you don’t necessarily think about.”
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Gold firms as dollar slides to one-month low
By Jan Harvey
LONDON | Tue Jun 7, 2011 6:35am EDT
LONDON (Reuters) - Gold prices firmed in Europe on Tuesday as the dollar retreated to a one-month low against a basket of currencies, hurt by warnings from a Chinese foreign exchange official of the risks of excessive dollar holdings.
Spot gold was bid at $1,547.95 an ounce at 1006 GMT (5:06 a.m. ET), against $1,543.05 late in New York on Monday. U.S. gold futures for August delivery rose $1.90 an ounce to $1,549.10.
The metal rose toward $1,550 an ounce on dollar weakness after the head of the international payment department at China’s foreign exchange regulator said China should guard against risks from excessive holdings of dollar-denominated assets.
“This last move this morning from the low $1,540s to almost $1,550 is mainly on the back of dollar weakness, which has been consistent since Asia came in this morning,” said Standard Bank analyst Walter de Wet.
“We think we’re going to break above $1,550 and test the all-time highs,” he added. “Some of that is on expectations of more euro strength relative to the dollar following the ECB meeting on Thursday. We think the ECB is going to be fairly hawkish.”
Gold tends to have an inverse relationship to the dollar, because it becomes cheaper for holders of other currencies when the U.S. unit weakens, and it is sometimes bought as an alternative asset.
Expectations the European Central Bank will be quicker to raise interest rates than the Federal Reserve has led the euro to rise nearly 10 percent relatively to the dollar this year.
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