The Housing Bubble

Woo hoo I’m rich!!!

Drop in gas prices a boon to consumers

As the summer driving season revs up, Boston gas prices have fallen 19 cents from a month ago, and analysts are predicting more relief is on the way.

The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular dropped to $3.68 yesterday, down from $3.74 a week ago and $3.87 one month ago, according to GasBuddy.com.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/2011_0627oh_what_a_relief_it_is_drop_in_gas_prices_a_boon_to_consumers/srvc=home&position=4

Bank CEO sees promise here
Financial institution acquired Chestatee State in December

The CEO of one of America’s top performing banks said he sees great potential in Georgia and Forsyth County.

George Gleason, who is also chairman of Bank of the Ozarks, made a visit this week to north Georgia along with the bank’s board of directors.

“We hope to have two to three times as many offices in Georgia over the next few years,” he said, noting that the state has traditionally been real estate-driven in regards to banking.

“There are challenges, but the real estate business here is still good.”

And that’s a good fit for Bank of the Ozarks, one of whose main strengths is in real estate lending, Gleason said.

“We may be the largest bank in the country that came through the real estate market crash unscathed,” he said. “Now everyone got a few bumps and scratches, but we were able to make it basically unharmed.”

http://www.forsythnews.com/section/2/article/9141/

I beg to differ:

http://banktracker.investigativereportingworkshop.org/banks/arkansas/little-rock/bank-of-the-ozarks/

Yep, if’n you can getcha a Section 8 voucher, you, too, can live the good life and turn up your nose at a 1970s ranch. Oh, and you can spend your money on a couple of spoiled dogs rather than rent, perish the thought. This story just reeks of arrogance and entitlement.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/housing-vouchers-a-golden-ticket-to-pricey-suburbs/2011/06/23/AGDNc7kH_story.html

Well, well, well. What have we here? The former chief panty sniffer at Lehman is now the treasurer for the World Bank!!!! All I can say is, I hope the b*tch does for the World Bank what she did for Lehman. L.M.A.O.

http://www.bankingtimes.co.uk/2011/06/25/ex-lehman-chief-risk-officer-appointed-world-bank-treasurer/

Another section 8 story, this time from LA county. Relocating folks to the burbs. That’s EXACTLY what’s been happening around here. I spoke with a couple over the weekend who live in a relatively nice development, part of which went Section 8. Needless to say, they’re not too happy about it. Can you imagine being a schmuck still paying a high mortgage in a supposed upscale community, only to find your neighbors are Section 8? That’s gotta hurt.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/22/local/la-me-section-eight-20110622

Peorians living in fear

This eye-witness account is from Paul Wilkinson, president of the Altamont Park Neighborhood Association:

Tonight, around 11 p.m., a group of at least 60-70 African American youth marched down one of the side streets (W. Thrush) to the 4 lane main drag (Sheridan). They were yelling threats to white residents. Things such as we need to kill alll the white people around here. They were physically intimidating anyone calling for help from the police. They were surrounding cars. Cars on the main drag had to slam on their brakes to either avoid the youth blocking not only all four lanes, but a large section of the side street as well. fights were breaking out among them. They were rushing residents who looked out their doors, going on to porches, yelling threats to people calling the police for help.

Cars were doing U turns on the streets just to avoid the mob, mostly male. One youth stated his grandfather was white and several assaulted him on the spot. One police officer answered the call. The youth split into two large groups, one heading north, the other south. They were also yelling racial threats to the police officer but he was outnumbered. Another police car did not show up until after the youth finally dispersed and the patty wagon (van) also eventually showed up.

Residents are very shaken, both black and white alike. This is the fifth large mob action in about a month with smaller groups of 10-12 are out threatening children and adults a few evenings a week or later into the night. The times vary, even occuring during the day. In talking to the police officer, they are short staffed. Residents were advised to simply keep inside and to lock their doors. In other words buckle down, it’s not even safe to sit on your porch or go into your yards.

“The fifth large mob action in about a month.” Wow. This is really outrageous. Why is this neighborhood having to put up with this? “Residents were advised to simply keep inside and to lock their doors”? Seriously? That’s the best we can do for our fellow citizens’ safety?

We have a bit of cliff-hanger going on in South Carolina at the moment, and it has to do with financial austerity. Governor Nikki Haley must sign off on the state budget before Wednesday, OR veto all or parts of it. The Republican Party is on pins and needles because she may not okay taxpayer funds for the GOP’s state primary election. The political club would be forced to hold a meeting to pick its nominees instead of opening the voting places with taxpayers footing part of the bill.

And the S.C. Arts Commission is fearful Haley may nix $2.1 million the legislature approved for its operation. The Commission has mounted a vigorous campaign to show that if it can’t continue its operation the arts will fall into the hands of well-to-do and the rest of us will have to do without. ??

This is a tough call for the young governor, and it’ll be a big test of her nerve. All the states in the union are facing financial headwinds and the danger of the economy slumping back into recession is not over, despite wishful thinking on almost everybody’s part. It’s imperative that state and local governments cinch in their belts, bite the bullets, and live within the taxpayers’ means - which are very apt to become surprisingly slender in the second half of this year.

My father in law is a geologist who lives in the backwoods of Pennsylvania. He’s now talking about having to move out of his retirement/dream home due to fracking. He says numerous ground water supplies have already been contaminated.

This article reads like it was written by the oil and gas industry. Unfortunately, I know about as much about geology as I do ancient Japanese culture.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303936704576398462932810874.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Maybe moving to Oil City wasn’t a great idea after all.

We have this thing…Called a digital printing press.

Fed May Buy $300 Billion in Treasuries After QE2
(Bloomberg)

The U.S. Federal Reserve, which injected $2.3 trillion into the financial system after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008, will keep buying Treasuries to keep market rates down as the economy slows.

The Federal Reserve will remain the biggest buyer of Treasuries, even after the second round of quantitative easing ends this week, as the central bank uses its $2.86 trillion balance sheet to keep interest rates low.

While the $600 billion purchase program, known as QE2, winds down, the Fed said June 22 that it will continue to buy Treasuries with proceeds from the maturing debt it currently owns. That could mean purchases of as much as $300 billion of government debt over the next 12 months without adding money to the financial system.

The central bank, which injected $2.3 trillion into the financial system after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008, will continue buying Treasuries to keep market rates down as the economy slows. The purchases are supporting demand at bond auctions while President Barack Obama and Republicans in Congress struggle to close the gap between federal spending and income by between $2 trillion and $4 trillion.

“I don’t think the Fed wants to remove accommodation in any way, shape or form,” said Matt Toms, the head of U.S. public fixed-income investments at Atlanta-based ING Investment Management, which oversees more than $500 billion. “It’s quite natural for them to reinvest cash,” he said. “That effectively maintains the accommodative stance.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-27/ron-paul-s-anti-fed-message-drives-2012-white-house-bid-gaining-respect.html

Are the sheeple finally waking up?

Why China is headed for a hard landing, Part 1. (Gary Shilling) (Bloomibergi)

China’s labor force is aging. Its consumers save too much and spend too little. Its political and economic policy tools remain crude. Its state bureaucracy seems likely to curb spending just as exports weaken, and thus risks deflation. … Even China’s middle and upper classes had only 6 percent of Americans’ purchasing power.

…[China] believes in the misguided concept of global decoupling — the idea that even if the U.S. economy suffers a setback, the rest of the world, especially developing countries such as China and India, will continue to flourish.

This concept is flawed for a simple reason: Almost all developing countries depend on exports for growth…the majority of exports by Asian countries go directly or indirectly to the U.S. … Wages remained low, due to ample labor supplies, and held down consumer spending… [So the Chinese have their own version of under $500/week. Whoda thunk.]

…But before you worry about China’s becoming No. 1 any time soon, consider the remaining gap between its economy and the U.S. economy. In 2009, China’s GDP $3,709 [per capita] was only 8 percent of the U.S.’s $46,405.

=======

China achieved most of its growth by selling exports to the US. If the US suddenly stops spending (likely, and soon), then the Chinese will realize that they can’t have their own consumer economy because they don’t have any good consuemrs. China will either have to blow up a debt bubble for people to buy the stuff, or stop making the stuff (layoffs). Then what will happen to those workers packed into those overpriced sardine flats in Beijing?

I’m just a silly lib, but have the Chinese considered cutting corporate taxes and getting rid of insane regulations? That why they can all keep their jobs even without consumer demand!

Saved by China?

China business:By Malcolm Moore, in Shanghai, Peter Foster in Beijing and Andrew Cave in London
Enter the dragon ‘to save the euro’

It is in the interest of cash-rich China to help resolve the eurozone debt crisis, but Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, who is visiting Britain and Continental Europe, will want a share of the West’s buying power in return .

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao realised that his economy needs struggling Europe to keep buying its goods.

As Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, stepped off his plane in Birmingham on Saturday, it was difficult to avoid the feeling that the UK, and Europe, have never looked weaker in Chinese eyes.

In private, senior Chinese diplomats are now openly scornful of Britain’s economic prospects and have even asked why Mr Wen should grace such a weak trading partner with three days of his time.

Indeed, it is telling that the first stop on Mr Wen’s tour is Longbridge, the old MG Rover car factory that passed into Chinese hands in 2005. Once a byword for poor productivity, wildcat strikes and trade union power in its British Leyland and Austin Rover days, the plant is now host to China’s biggest industrial presence in the UK. Owned by Shanghai Automobile Industry Corporation, the factory designs and assembles MG cars in the UK made from car parts manufactured in China.

However, the Longbridge site remains the only major example of Sino-British co-operation, something that the Prime Minister, David Cameron, whose advisers have helped co-ordinate the visit, is determined to change.

On Mr Cameron’s visit to China last year, a target was announced for increasing bilateral UK-China trade to $100bn by 2015, from its 2010 total of $63bn and Number 10 sources said yesterday that they believe that “progress has been made” on hitting that figure.

Ford, GM, Chrysler Asked to Study Fuel Economy Rules of 56.2 MPG
(Bloomberg) - Jun 26, 2011

Automakers including Ford Motor Co. (F) and Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) that sell vehicles in the U.S. may have to boost car and light truck fuel economy to an average 56.2 miles per gallon by 2025 under a White House proposal presented last week.

In separate meetings with Ford, General Motors Co. (GM) and Chrysler Group LLC on June 22, the Obama administration asked the three largest U.S. automakers to analyze the effects of a 56.2 mpg fuel-economy target, two people familiar with the talks said.

That represents an improvement of about a 5 percent per year in each company’s fleetwide average fuel economy from 2016 when they are required to have a 35.5 mpg average for vehicles sold in the U.S. The Detroit News reported the administration’s plan yesterday.

Republicans including Environmental Protection Agency administrators for every Republican president since Richard Nixon joined other Republicans this week in requesting Obama to write “aggressive” fuel economy standards for 2017 to 2025, the years covered by the rule now being drafted.

Increasing fuel economy by the amount proposed could cost at least $2,100 per vehicle, according to a document prepared last year by the EPA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, who have said they will publish a proposed rule by Sept. 30. California’s Air Resources Board is also helping write the rule and was represented at this week’s meetings, according to the people familiar with the talks.
Rigidity of Jello

“We continue to work closely with a broad range of stakeholders to develop an important standard that will save families money and keep the jobs of the future here,” Clark Stevens, a White House spokesman, said in an e-mail. “A final decision has not been made, and as we have made clear we plan to propose that standard in September.”

Any number being floated now is early in the process, Greg Martin, a spokesman for Detroit-based GM, said in an interview.

“There’s a way go to in this process,” said Martin, who said he doesn’t know what the White House said in the meeting. “Any number out there right now has the rigidity of Jello.”

Realtors Are Liars

“No man can be a good citizen unless he has a wage more than sufficient to cover the bare cost of living, and hours of labor short enough so that after his day’s work is done he will have time and energy to bear his share in the management of the community. We keep countless men from being good citizens by the conditions of life by which we surround them.”

– Theodore Roosevelt

Fed will continue pumping gambling money to its Primary Dealers even after QE II officially ends.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-27/fed-seen-buying-25-billion-a-month-in-treasuries-after-qe2-comes-to-end.html

The Federal Reserve will remain the biggest buyer of Treasuries, even after the second round of quantitative easing ends this week, as the central bank uses its $2.86 trillion balance sheet to keep interest rates low.

While the $600 billion purchase program, known as QE2, winds down, the Fed said June 22 that it will continue to buy Treasuries with proceeds from the maturing debt it currently owns. That could mean purchases of as much as $300 billion of government debt over the next 12 months without adding money to the financial system.

The central bank, which injected $2.3 trillion into the financial system after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008, will continue buying Treasuries to keep market rates down as the economy slows. The purchases are supporting demand at bond auctions while President Barack Obama and Republicans in Congress struggle to close the gap between federal spending and income by between $2 trillion and $4 trillion.

The little people don’t need to know what their betters are making. It would only ‘confuse’ them.

Companies lobby to hide disparity in CEO, worker pay
By Peter Whoriskey
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — One financial figure some big U.S. companies would rather keep secret is how much more their CEO makes than their typical worker.

A group backed by 81 major companies — including McDonald’s, Lowe’s, General Dynamics, American Airlines, IBM and General Mills — is lobbying against new rules that would force disclosure of this comparison.

A House committee Wednesday approved a bill that would repeal the disclosure requirement.

Disclosing such comparisons “can mislead or confuse investors,” said Rep. Nan Hayworth, R-N.Y., who filed the bill to repeal it and who counted three financial firms among her top donors. “It creates heat but sheds no light.”

The vote was largely along partisan lines: Republicans supported repeal, angering Democrats.

Hey Housing Crime Syndicate goons……. if you can’t find a smidgen of honesty, why don’t you sign in right here on this post and tell us how sales are.

Thanks,

~Realtors Are Liars

Yesterday I was watching CTV Newsnet. It’s a Canadian 24 hour news channel, and it has the scrolling headlines across the bottom of the screen. One of those scrolling headlines caught my eye, it approximately said:

“Government debt is one of the oldest and most successful forms of investments in human history. Now it’s becoming more popular with household investors.”

It struck me as odd. There was no actual story related to that headline (though that’s not uncommon.) The only current event it could be tied to is the upcoming defaults in Europe, but then that wouldn’t be the right headline. Are they trying to get the Canadian public to run out and lighten the banks’ load of soon-to-be bad government debt? Has anyone else seen anything else like this?

Does anyone here have any experience buying foreclosed houses through HUD? I know you need to used an agent to bid on them. There are two that we’re interested in. Is there a way to get the utilities turned back on for an inspection? Also, are the prices they are listed at real prices? Or are they really just the starting bid?

Time to blow the whistle on the banks
Mark Crosby
June 28, 2011

‘Should we remain hostage to the possibility that financial institutions in western Europe might drown in the foolishness of their Greek loans?’

‘Should we remain hostage to the possibility that financial institutions in western Europe might drown in the foolishness of their Greek loans?’ Photo: Reuters

Financial failures have their place, writes Mark Crosby.

WILL Greece default and lead us to global financial crisis II, as many alarmists seem to be predicting? Well, if it does, bring it on. The first global financial crisis is unfinished business, and needs to be finished before economies in Europe and the US properly recover. Supposedly the great risk facing financial markets is that a default in Greece will bring down banks across Europe and potentially elsewhere, leading to the sort of chaos that we observed after the failure of Lehman Brothers in 2008.

What we learned from Lehman Brothers’ collapse was that financial markets are interconnected. We learned that in many countries, financial institutions were undercapitalised and lacked liquidity. Financial institutions also held toxic assets. What we seem not to have learned from the GFC is that financial institutions sometimes need to fail.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/time-to-blow-the-whistle-on-the-banks-20110627-1gnfh.html#ixzz1QUR4pm83

So…What ever happened to the Daimlers? http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/?p=2844

WTH? You consumers need to get out there and consume…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans spent in May at the weakest pace in 20 months. . .the worst result since September 2009. And when adjusted for inflation, spending actually dropped 0.1 percent. Incomes rose 0.3 percent for the second straight month. But adjusted for inflation, after-tax incomes increased only 0.1 percent in May, after falling by the same amount in the previous month

Elderly woman asked to remove adult diaper during TSA search
Florida Freedom Newspapers

A woman has filed a complaint with federal authorities over how her elderly mother was treated at Northwest Florida Regional Airport last weekend.

Jean Weber of Destin filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security after her 95-year-old mother was detained and extensively searched last Saturday while trying to board a plane to fly to Michigan to be with family members during the final stages of her battle with leukemia.

Her mother, who was in a wheelchair, was asked to remove an adult diaper in order to complete a pat-down search.

“It’s something I couldn’t imagine happening on American soil,” Weber said Friday. “Here is my mother, 95 years old, 105 pounds, barely able to stand, and then this.”

Sari Koshetz, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration in Miami, said she could not comment on specific cases to protect the privacy of those involved.

“The TSA works with passengers to resolve any security alarms in a respectful and sensitive manner,” she said.

In passing: Marc Faber, the often quoted financier: “The debt level, especially in the US, if we include the unfunded liabilities of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and these entitlement programs, is beyond repair. And this will necessitate printing more money. Also, in my view, there is no real political will to address the issues, because who ever would cut entitlements, will not be re-elected. So we have a tyranny of the masses.”

← “Tyranny of the masses.” Good way to put it. The majority of voters want more money from the public treasury, not less. Therefore, political candidates cannot promise to operate the federal government within the limits of its income. That isn’t possible without imposing austere measures in the popular entitlement programs.

This the voters would never approve.

“Buy American act” surely they are kidding…

Home Depot Accused Of Violating “Buy American” Law
By Henry Blodget | Daily Ticker –

In 1933, in an effort to protect American jobs, the US enacted something called the “Buy American” Act.

The law mandates that public buildings be built using only materials that have originated from the US and a few favored countries, like Canada and Israel. Home Depot has now become the latest American company accused of violating it.

In theory, rules that require the American government to only buy products and services from American companies sometimes sound like they make sense, especially with the US unemployment rate above 9%: Why should the government spend American tax dollars to help foreign companies compete against US companies?

In practice, however, the global economy has become so intertwined that it is extremely difficult to define what constitutes an “American” product.

Is a Toyota that was built by American workers in a domestic plant in Tennessee an “American car”? If not, why is that Toyota really less of American car than a General Motors car built primarily of parts imported from China? And what if the GM car was built in Europe by European workers and then imported to the US–would that be an American car?

Beyond the challenge of defining what is and isn’t an American product, there is the reality that American-made products do not always provide the best value for the money relative to imported products. And in an era defined by massive government budget deficits, shouldn’t government spending get the most possible value for American taxpayers?

In any event, The Department of Justice is now investigating Home Depot for possibly violating the Buy American Act. In the last six, several other companies have faced similar investigations, including Office Depot, Fastenal, Staples, OfficeMax, and W.W. Grainger. All of the companies have settled by paying fines, which have totaled about $30 million.

BIG SKY, Montana (Reuters) – Lawmakers should change the tax code to discourage household and business borrowing that threatens the stability of the financial system, a top Federal Reserve official said on Monday.

“You are all very aware that our country has gone through a difficult financial crisis and that we are still only beginning to make our way back from its impact,” Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota told the Tri-State Bankers Summit in Big Sky, Montana.

The current tax code allows households to deduct interest payments on home mortgages and corporations to deduct interest payments on debt.

Policymakers could make new crises less likely to occur if they limit such deductions, which subsidize the kind of excessive borrowing that helped trigger the recent financial crisis, Kocherlakota said.

Nice to see the DOW heading north, what with all the good monetary info. flooding in.

Christie: The unions stuck it to Malloy
June 27, 2011 at 12:29 pm
by Tom Cleary

Just a few days after Malloy saw his concessions deal with the union fall apart, his rival appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

Christie laughed as one of the show’s host Joe Scarborough mentioned Malloy’s name, and then took him to task for lecturing and preaching about how his concessions deal was the proper way to deal with a budget crisis and then leaving the people of Connecticut hanging when the deal fell through.

“Dan Malloy was lecturing me about how he can get it done, he’s conciliatory he negotiates with people. He got these big concessions in return for big tax increases,” Christie said. “So now what do the people of Connecticut have? Big tax increases with no concessions because the union stuck it to him.”

“He went around and trumpeted the 1.6 billion in concessions that he got and they voted it down. So now the people of Connecticut have the tax increases without the labor concessions,” said Christie. “And now what he is going to have to do is lay off up to 7,500 people. I’d say that’s going to make him even more popular in Connecticut.”

http://www.greenwichtime.com/ - 136k -

International Judges Order Arrest of Muammar Qaddafi
June 27, 2011| Associated Press

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – International judges ordered the arrest Monday of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi for murdering civilians, as NATO warplanes pounded his Tripoli compound and world leaders stepped up calls for him to end his four-decade rule.

The International Criminal Court said Qaddafi, his son Seif al-Islam and his intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanoussi are wanted for orchestrating the killing, injuring, arrest and imprisonment of hundreds of civilians during the first 12 days of an uprising to topple Qaddafi from power, and for trying to cover up the alleged crimes.

The warrants turn the three men into internationally wanted suspects, potentially complicating efforts to mediate an end to more than four months of intense fighting in the North African nation.

The warrants will be sent to Libya, where Qaddafi remained defiantly entrenched. But when the U.N. Security Council ordered the court to investigate the bloodshed in Libya, it also urged all nations and regional organizations to cooperate with the court.

Presiding judge Sanji Monageng of Botswana called Qaddafi the “undisputed leader of Libya” who had “absolute, ultimate and unquestioned control” over his country’s military and security forces. She said there were “reasonable grounds to believe” that Qaddafi and his son are both responsible for the murder and persecution of civilians.

From down under…

Average household food bill nears $200 as food inflation tipped to surge as high as 5pc From: The Daily Telegraph

The average household food bill is nearing $200 amid warnings of soaring inflation. Picture: File

FAMILIES already hurting from the rising cost of living are facing yet another cruel blow to their budgets - the price of food is set to soar.

Analysts believe food inflation will surge as high as 5 per cent in the coming quarter and continue to rise over 18 months, pushing the average household’s weekly food spend dangerously close to the $200 mark.

With electricity prices set to rise 17 per cent in the next 12 months, further compounded by increases to gas, water, rates and taxes, the surge in food prices is merely the latest in a long line of rising costs helping to erode the savings of Australian families.

Retailers, burdened with excessive input costs - including electricity, labour and commodities, both overseas and domestically - have been left with no choice but to pass on costs to the consumer.

According to Citigroup’s June equities report, the input costs for food and liquor in the three months to May rose 25.2 per cent on the previous corresponding period, driven by soft commodities such as coffee, wheat, canola, sugar and oil and partially offset by a stronger Australian dollar.

It said supermarket inflation had started to accelerate, with predictions of more than 4 per cent by September.

Australian Food and Grocery Council chief executive Kate Carnell said inflation was more around the vicinity of 5 per cent and that prices for commodities like sugar and wheat, both fundamental for many food products, had increased 20 to 30 per cent in the last few years.

The grim forecast comes as the Daily Telegraph today reveals the average consumer is paying $1300 a year more than two years ago for exactly the same basket of groceries.

Comment by Kim
2011-06-26 15:21:01

“Good article. This is worth the read, HBBers.”

Illinois Stiffs Vendors From Mortuary to IBM as $4 Billion Debt Piles Up

By Tim Jones and Melissa Silverberg
June 24, 2011 12:01 AM ET

Illinois, which borrowed to make its two most recent annual pension payments, is tied with California as the lowest-rated state in the estimation of Moody’s Investors Service, at A1.

In January, lawmakers approved increases of 67 percent in the state income tax and a 46 percent in the corporate income tax. Those, however, weren’t sufficient to cover the backlog, and the bills will be passed onto the fiscal year that begins July 1.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-24/illinois-stiffs-vendors-from-mortuary-to-ibm-as-4-billion-debt-piles-up.html - 73k -

“The inherent vice of Capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent vice of Socialism is the equal sharing of misery.”

~Winston Churchill

Appears this summer may be a rough one…Some more “misguided youth”

Woman’s leg broken, others hurt in Spring Garden mob attack
Philadelphia Daily News

A WOMAN’S leg was broken and several other people were injured Saturday night when a large group of teens accosted pedestrians in Spring Garden, police and witnesses said.

Philadelphia police responded to two reports of pedestrians being assaulted by a large group of young people along Broad Street about 9:30 p.m.

One of those reports came from Emily Guendelsberger, 27, city editor for local arts and entertainment content for the Onion, the satirical newspaper and website. She was walking with seven friends on Green Street near Broad when they were accosted, she said. Guendelsberger, who remained hospitalized with a broken leg yesterday, declined to comment further.

A friend who was with her at the time, Daily News staff writer Molly Eichel, said that they were walking down Green Street when a group of teens was walking down Broad. “We heard kids yell, ‘Run, run,’ ” Eichel said. “Some kid just came out of nowhere and punched my friend Charlie in the face.”

Eichel said that when her group tried to run, about 20 teens chased them down the street. “They were kicking kids down and punching them when they were down,” she said.

I have a friend who’s a mechanic, black fellow I’ve known for years, he’s in his 50’s. We talk about every damn thing except sports. He comes from a very large hard working family. This morning he says to me, you know David something is very wrong with this country, I can feel it. It’s been going on for years. Politicians are liars and just make matters worse, it doesn’t matter who you vote for, they are in it for themselves, plain and simple. He went on to say that he does not think that “things” will ever come back to the way they were prior to the recession. Because things got out of hand, peoples eyes were bigger than their stomachs, they want it all and want right now. I’ll work until the day I die, got to feed my family.

Dave has no savings works pay check to pay check, earns every bit of it and rarely complains. There are a whole lot of people out there in the same boat as Dave. They know something is not right and know they can’t do anything about it, so they are frustrated and rightfully so.

Former Citi VP Charged With Embezzling $19M
Published June 27, 2011 | FOXBusiness

A former vice-president at Citigroup was arrested and charged with skimming $19 million from the bank and diverting into his personal account.

Gary Foster, 35, was a vice-president in Citigroup’s treasury finance department, according to a statement released by federal prosecutors in New York. He was arrested Sunday in New York after arriving on a flight from Bangkok.

Foster, who’s been charged with bank fraud, was scheduled to appear in court on Monday.

According to the federal complaint filed against him, Foster transferred money from various Citigroup accounts to Citigroup’s cash account and then to his personal account at a different bank.

Between July 2010 and December 2010, he allegedly moved about $900,000 from Citigroup’s interest expense account and about $14.4 million from Citigroup’s debt adjustment account to the bank’s cash account. Later he wired the money out of Citigroup’s cash account to his personal account at another bank in eight separate wire transfers, the complaint alleges.

Prosecutors say Foster attempted to cover his tracks by creating a phony contract or deal number that was used in the wire transfer to create the appearance that the transfer was tied to an actual contract.

“The defendant allegedly used his knowledge of bank operations to commit the ultimate inside job,” U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said in a statement.

Citigroup said in a statement: “We are outraged by the actions of this former employee. Citi informed law enforcement immediately upon discovery of the suspicious transactions and we are cooperating fully to ensure Mr. Foster is prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

Twice as fast as Concorde: The supersonic jet that will fly from London to New York in TWO HOURS By Daily Mail Reporter

It has been eight years since Concorde was retired from service, and with it the supersonic dreams of millions around the world.

Now supersonic travel is on the cards again after a manufacturer unveiled plans for a plane that will travel twice the speed of Concorde.

HyperMach claims its SonicStar aircraft will be so quick that travelling from London to New York will take just two hours.
Return of supersonic travel: The SonicStar aircraft will be twice as fast as Concorde - so quick that travelling from London to New York will take just two hours. It was unveiled at the Paris Air Show

Return of supersonic travel: The SonicStar aircraft will be twice as fast as Concorde - so quick that travelling from London to New York will take just two hours. It was unveiled at the Paris Air Show
SONICSTAR’S SPECS

Maximum cruise speed - Mach 3.6
Long-range cruise speed - Mach 3.1
High-speed cruise speed - Mach 3.4
Engines - Two SonicBlue S-MAGJET Hybrid Supersonic 4000-X Series
Thrust - Flat-rated to 54,700lb
Wing area - 1,800 square feet
Landing distance - 4,800ft
Range - 6,000 nautical miles
Highest Altitude - 62,000ft

CABIN

Length - 64metres
Height at maximum - 2.6metres
Width at maximum - 2.7metres

A trip from New York to Sydney, meanwhile, will be cut by a staggering 75 per cent - from 20 hours on a commercial airliner to just five hours.

British firm HyperMach revealed its plans for the 20-seat plane at the Paris Air Show last week.

It will be able to cruise at Mach 3.1, a speed made possible by S-MAGJET hybrid gas turbine engine technology; nobody has ever travelled that fast before.

Its top speed, however, will be Mach 3.6.

Richard Lugg, the chief executive of HyperMach, said: ‘Mankind has always been inspired to do things better, quicker and faster and that is our ambition.’

HyperMach plans to build its engine by the end of the decade and to have the plane itself constructed by 2025.

With relatively low fuel consumption, the Sonic Star ‘overcomes the economic and environmental challenges of supersonic flight to revolutionise the way we travel and drive air transportation forward into the future,’ claims HyperMach.

By using electromagnetic currents across the fuselage to suppress the sonic boom, the plane is able to overcome the noise regulations that constrict supersonic travel.

It has a range of 6,000 nautical miles and its 54,700 thrust class S-MAGJET engine - actually two engines - is optimised to fly the aircraft at 62,000ft.

But it is the reduction in jet engine emissions that HyperMach believes will prove the secret of SonicStar’s success.

Debt Hamstrings Recovery
Inability of Nations, Consumers to Get Out of Hock Weighs on Global Economy. WSJ

The Federal Reserve is just days away from ending one of the major steps to aid the U.S. economy—but the effort has done little to solve the original problem: The government and individuals alike are still heavily in debt.

Around the globe, the inability of governments and households to reduce their debt continues to cast a shadow over Western economies and the financial health of individuals. Today, U.S. consumers have more mortgage and credit-card debt than they did five years ago, and the U.S. budget deficit is worsening. At the same time, European governments are having to throw billions more …

Hold it, I thought it was different in limey land…

Business Digest: No one’s moving, no one’s buying… Habitat is just the first to go. JUNE 27, 2011 - Read a full report at the Sunday Times

Retail experts say that so many shops could close this summer that some British shopping streets and malls could be left virtually empty. The miserable forecast follows the collapse of the homeware chain Habitat and that of Homeform, owners of Dolphin Bathrooms and Moben Kitchens.

Other high street names on the verge include fashion chain Jane Norman, which will go into administration unless a buyer is found within days, and Clinton Cards, where a radical restructuring is expected to lead to many of its 700 outlets closing, or worse. Kesa, the French owner of Comet, is weighing up “strategic alternatives”.

The retailers are in trouble because of the shift of many consumers to internet shopping and the big drop in people moving home and wanting to refurnish. But there’s also the general slump in consumer confidence and the fact that some chains over-expanded during the boom and took on too much debt.

Nick Moser, head of insolvency at the international law firm Taylor Wessing, said: “I would be amazed if others were not on the brink of insolvency.”

Iran to stage missile wargames from Monday

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards are to launch military exercises on Monday with the firing of different range ballistic missiles, the state news agency IRNA reported.

The exercises, codenamed Great Prophet-6, are to start on Monday, said a Guards commander, General Ami Ali Hadjizadeh, quoted by IRNA, without specifying how long the manoeuvres will last.

“Short-, medium- and long-range missiles will be fired, especially the Khalij-Fars, Sejil, Fateh, Ghiam, and Shahab-1 and -2 missiles,” he said.

The general, whose force carries out war-games each year in the Gulf region, said the latest exercises were “a message of peace and friendship to the countries of the area.”

Soros Says a Euro Exit Mechanism Is ‘Probably Inevitable’ Amid Debt Crisis June 27 (Bloomberg)

Billionaire investor George Soros said it’s “probably inevitable” that a mechanism will be put in place to allow weaker economies to exit the euro.

“There’s no arrangement for any countries leaving the euro, which in current circumstances is probably inevitable,” Soros, 80, said at a panel discussion in Vienna yesterday on whether liberal democracy is at risk in Europe. “We are on the verge of an economic collapse which starts, let’s say, in Greece, but it could easily spread. The financial system remains extremely vulnerable.”

Concern Greek lawmakers will fail to pass austerity measures to ensure the next installment of the nation’s bailout is roiling global markets and pushed the euro to a record-low against the Swiss franc last week. Greece is one of three euro- region members to have sought international bailouts amid the sovereign debt crisis.

“I think most of us actually agree that” Europe’s crisis “is actually centered around the euro,” said Soros. “It’s a kind of financial crisis that is really developing. It’s foreseen. Most people realize it. It’s still developing. The authorities are actually engaged in buying time. And yet time is working against them,” he said.

The euro was created in 1999, with 11 member states — Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Finland, Austria, Portugal, Spain and Ireland. Greece was the 12th country to adopt the shared currency in 2001, while Estonia is the newest member of the euro region, joining this January.

Doctors Turn Away Insured on Low Payments
By Drew Armstrong - Jun 27, 2011 (Bloomberg)

U.S. doctors are turning away an increasing number of patients, including those with private insurance, according to a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Physicians were willing to accept about 88 percent of patients who had private insurance in 2008, down from 93 percent in 2005, the study released today found. Patients in Medicare, the U.S. health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, also had a harder time finding a doctor. About 93 percent were accepted by physicians in 2008, down from 96 percent in 2005.

The drop in doctors willing to take private insurance was caused by low payments for services as well as administrative hassles from health plans, said Dr. Tara Bishop, an assistant professor of public health at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York.

“At a moment when the country is poised to achieve near- universal coverage, patients’ access to care could be a casualty of the collision between the medical profession and the insurance industry,” Bishop said in a statement.

The health-care overhaul signed into law in March 2010 requires people to buy private insurance policies and provides tax subsidies to help with the purchases. The Congressional Budget Office projects it will expand coverage to 24 million people.

The U.S. government is planning its own assessment of access to physicians under a “secret shopper” program that will have surveyors contact doctors’ offices trying to get appointments. Jay Carney, a White House spokesman, said at a briefing with reporters the initiative hasn’t started and that similar approaches have been used by past administrations.

In 2009, 57 percent of Americans under age 65 got health coverage through work, and 20 percent were on Medicaid or other public insurance programs, according to the Menlo Park, California-based Kaiser Family Foundation.

There are always strings…

S.C. qualifies for $140M in fed money, groups say
The State News Paper

South Carolina could tap more than $140 million in federal money to save teacher jobs, school advocacy groups said Monday.

But that would require state and congressional lawmakers to agree to go after the money.

South Carolina is the only state that has not received money from the so-called federal education jobs fund, meant to preserve teachers’ jobs during The Great Recession, the groups said in a press conference. They called on S.C. political leaders to agree to apply for the money.

“We can’t do anymore,” said Paul Krohne, director of the S.C. School Boards Association. “It’s now up to the state and congressional leadership to make this happen and get these needed funds.”

The groups also want political leaders to apply for a portion of a $700 million federal “Race to the Top” money. That money would go toward strengthening education programs and creating new preschool ones.

But state Superintendent of Education Mick Zais and Gov. Nikki Haley, both Republicans, have said they will not apply for the “Race to the Top” dollars. Zais has said the federal dollars come with strings attached and would be used to start programs the state later would have to find a way to pay for on its own.

We really need to get this over with, the U.S. dollar is done as the worlds reserve currency, sooner or later…

Dollar seen losing global reserve status
By Jack Farchy in London (FT)June 27, 2011

The US dollar will lose its status as the global reserve currency over the next 25 years, according to a survey of central bank reserve managers who collectively control more than $8,000bn.

That marks a departure from previous years, when the central bank reserve managers have said the dollar would retain its status as the sole reserve currency.

UBS surveyed more than 80 central bank reserve managers, sovereign wealth funds and multilateral institutions with more than $8,000bn in assets at its annual seminar for sovereign institutions last week. The results were not weighted for assets under management.

The results are the latest sign of dissatisfaction with the dollar as a reserve currency, amid concerns over the US government’s inability to rein in spending and the Federal Reserve’s huge expansion of its balance sheet.

“Right now there is great concern out there around the financial trajectory that the US is on,” said Larry Hatheway, chief economist at UBS.

The US currency has slid 5 per cent so far this year, and is trading close to its lowest ever level against a basket of the world’s major currencies.

Holders of large reserves, most notably China, have been diversifying away from the dollar. In the first four months of this year, three quarters of the $200bn expansion in China’s foreign exchange reserves was invested in non-US dollar assets, Standard Chartered estimates.

The prediction of a multipolar currency world replacing the current dollar dominance chimes with the thinking of some leading policymakers.

Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, last year proposed a new monetary system involving a number of major global currencies, including the dollar, euro, yen, pound and renminbi.

The system should also make use of gold, Mr Zoellick added. The results of the UBS poll also point to a growing role for bullion, with 6 per cent of reserve managers surveyed saying the biggest change in their reserves over the next decade would be the addition of more gold. In contrast to previous years, none of the managers surveyed was intending to make significant sales of gold in the next decade.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303627104576412172854764168.html

Bernanke “loans” the TBTF banks billions at near-zero interest, then they turn around and loan it to black holes like New Jersey for 9%. Of course NJ will default, and of course the Republicrats will ensure the taxpayers get billed for the full amount plus interest plus fees. Crony capitalism at its finest.

Here’s something that’s probably difficult to quantify but I’ve been wondering how many of us are out there wtg for the sthtf, wtg to purchase, wtg to for a buying opportunity. I don’t mean how many hbbers but how many Americans. Or even what’s the proportion worldwide that is reading up every day and just watching, waiting.

I know there are no answers for this. Truly I wonder when market capitulation comes if I’ll even want to buy or if I’ll feel like there’s a better place for that still dry powder. Personally I’m looking forward to be able to talk about it all publically even though I think the hbb and several other sites are the best thing since sliced bread. Of course I’d still show up every day for the intelligent & insightful discourse as long as Ben still felt like making this space available.

But I have a hunch the reveal is nigh. And athough it’s ultimately frightening there’s a piece of me that is just so ready for J6pk and his higher income deniers to get a clue…..and then the real work begins.