Bits Bucket for July 8, 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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http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/15043061/oahu-single-family-home-sales-prices-down-in-june
The median sales price of a single-family home on Oahu and the number of sales decreased last month from the same period last year.
According to Honolulu Board of Realtors statistics released Thursday the median price in June for a single-family home was $562,500, a 3.4% decrease compared to June 2010.
The number of homes sold last month was 248, down nearly 16% from 295 in June 2010.
Condominium sales were also down last month, nearly 20% from the same time last year. The median price for condos sold in June was $301,000, up from $300,000 last year.
According to Honolulu Board of Realtors statistics released Thursday the median price in June for a single-family home was $562,500, a 3.4% decrease compared to June 2010.
Well, as long as the median wage in Oahu is about $200,000/year I don’t see a problem.
Oh wait…
I wonder if the prices go down outside of Honolulu?
Those prices sound really high. I wonder when Hawaii when learn the true meaning of the bubble?
India Real Estate: Developers pulling out of projects
Builders grapple rising costs of debt, land, labour and construction as they pull of low cost housing plans. Plans of several builders to launch affordable housing projects are increasingly getting re-engineered and replaced by mid-to-high end projects, which yield more returns.
More than half a dozen builders – including Ahmedabad-based Bakeri Group, Evershine Builders, Kalpataru Group, Lodha Developers and Indiabulls Real Estate – have either pulled out of the affordable-housing segment or have changed their offering. “People belonging to the informal sectors are not coming out to buy homes; the buyers are from higher socio-economic background than originally anticipated,” Pramod Kumar, chief operating officer at Value & Budget Housing, said. Houses for the low-income category are tagged at Rs 6 lakh or less.
“It is a challenge to offer products at this price point unless low-income housing gets recognition from all stakeholders namely banks, builders and suppliers,” Kumar added. According to PropEquity, a property research firm, between 2009 and 2011, costs of construction material have grown nearly 25%. Steel, cement, bricks and labour constitute nearly 73% of the overall cost of an apartment. Daily wages of labour have gone up from Rs 250 a day in 2009 to Rs 325 a day in 2011. Value & Budget has sold some 1,000 units of their Vaibhava project in Bangalore in Phase-I , but has slowed down the roll-out of Phase-II as it is redesigning the project. Some builders like Bakeri Engineering and Infrastructure shelved their low-income housing project Shreeram Nagar as they aren’t finding buyers for these homes.
http://gmbpost.com/investment-news/india-real-estate-developers-pulling-out-of-projects/
I dollar fluctuates but is roughly equal to 50 rupees. So a day laborer makes $5.00 per day. This has gone up to $7.00 per day. Gas in India is more than $6.00. The day laborer cannot even earn a gallon of gas per day. So Kumar does not see that the laborer will never be able to afford to buy a house. I doubt if the laborer can even afford rent or food. Most of them live in garbage laden huts around the outskirts of towns. These people who work long and hard days all their lives cannot afford housing, clothing, food, education forget about medical, savings etc. I am sure Kumar has a decent salary as he appears to be educated. And yes we here at hbb can vilify these low paid humans as one of the real threats of our economic sufferings by name calling them as Chindians. Way to go Hbb
When I was in Central America a few years ago - the average wage was also about $5/day.
But you could live on the lower end of the scale for that.
Simple foods (fruit, rice, beans, tortillas, eggs, etc.) were very cheap and housing was also cheap.
Bus fares (most were privately run) were also cheap and affordable (but you might not get a seat).
This is nuttiness on your part. All made up crap. Just think analyze what you are posting.
“This is nuttiness on your part. All made up crap.”
Huh? Were you being sarcastic, SUGuy? His description of Central America range true to me, though it has been more like six years since I was last there.
His description of Central America range true to me
It’s India we are talking about. I have travelled to many places on this planet. Are you advocating that a family of 3 or 4 people can live on $5 or $10 dollars a day? Which should include food, rent, energy, medical, clothing, education etc. Give me a break. Ignorance is not bliss.
Families do live on $5-10/day in some parts of the world. I think the point being made was that it was possible to do that in Central America and have a higher standard of living than an Indian.
That being said, the hardship comes from urbanization, not from being in India. If you have a small plot of land in a rural area, you can eke out a reasonable living. However, rural areas have limited opportunities, so people head to the cities in search of a better life. Some succeed, some don’t but the low end standard of living is set by the lowest common denominator.
SUGuy: Of what use is a gallon of gas to the day labourer? You probably don’t know much about that part of the world if you are making that comparison.
1. food - well it’s cheap, though not by much compared to the US - we are talking about staples here - rice/wheat, oil, lentils, basic vegetables
2. rent - none. Most day labourers live onsite in shacks or offsite in slums. Sucks, but that is what it is. Actually they may have to pay off the local goon if they live in a slum.
3. energy - enough to light a kerosene stove, if they are locals they can get it at discounted prices by most day labourers are migrants from other parts of the country, so they have to buy it from the mafia at multiple times the subsidized rate. Or they can gather firewood from the local shrub and add to the haze
4. medical - huh?
5. clothing - discards
6. education - job oriented training onsite for the young’uns
Gloom aside, the fact is that labour has become much more expensive in India than it ever was. There are multiple reasons for this phenomenon
1. a poverty alleviation program pushes cash to citizens in a sort of “make work” program. Folks are now able to live in their native villages and not starve, so less need to migrate in search of jobs. Obviously, it’s a lot cheaper to live off the land in their native villages (where they also benefit from subsidized grains/kerosene/free education however bad it may be).
2. more opportunities in the labour surplus states - mildly better governance has made a huge difference in some areas - industries are opening up and folks in traditional labour surplus states are finding jobs locally
3. further thinning of labour pool in labour deficit states - yeah you better believe there are many states where labour is in shortage in an overpopulated place like India too. and many of the prosperous states are seeing further strain as folks migrate to cities, move abroad, get educated and take up blue/white collar jobs etc
Oh yeah, the day labourer will never afford that house.
“It’s India we are talking about.”
Ah, that’s what bothered you; I get it now. Personally, I thought the compare/contrast of two countries with very similar day-wages and the relative ability to survive on them was interesting.
“Are you advocating that [...]”
I wasn’t advocating anything, just trying to understand the rancor on a non-political post.
Perhaps they should bring a few more kids into the world. I know that if I lived under those conditions the first thing I would think of is having a bunch of babies that I can’t possibly feed. Instead of redistributing the wealth, how about we do some condom drops or send them via direct mail.
“how about we do some condom drops or send them via direct mail.”
I believe that quite a few religious leaders (who are clamoring for new members) might have issue with your idea.
yensoy I find your argument unkind, silly and void of any compassion. Can you live under those conditions and be happy as well as thank full that your kids stomachs were half hungry most days?
“Instead of redistributing the wealth, how about we do some condom drops”
What business is it of yours to decide whether they should redistribute their wealth or use birth control? Are they asking for your wealth?
Why stop at condoms - one of the least effective birth control methods? Why not just sterilize them all?
Perhaps they should bring a few more kids into the world. I know that if I lived under those conditions the first thing I would think of is having a bunch of babies that I can’t possibly feed. Instead of redistributing the wealth, how about we do some condom drops or send them via direct mail.
In Iran, women of reproductive age can get birth control for free. And where is it coming from? The Iranian government.
“What business is it of yours to decide whether they should redistribute their wealth or use birth control?”
If the “they” are the global progressives, I believe it is all of our business. I would rather give my spare cash to charities on the ground or to Sally Struthers
“Are they asking for your wealth?”
I am a middle class guy who pays taxes, so I would say yes.
Now factor in 100% food and fuel inflation since you were last there.
Believe it or not, Mexico has its own illegal problem: Central Americans who sneak into “wealthy” Mexico to work.
Believe it or not, Mexico has its own illegal problem: Central Americans who sneak into “wealthy” Mexico to work.
And you should see the way they are treated. Let us just say Mexico actually enforces their border (in the south) and removes illegals very quickly…
Let us just say Mexico actually enforces their border (in the south) and removes illegals very quickly…
Yup, while bitching that we don’t treat their people well.
When I was in Central America a few years ago - the average wage was also about $5/day.
Must have been union goons.
LOL, Rio.
SU Guy:
The impact of importing slave wages to the United States has only been experienced to the tiniest of degrees so far. The corporatists will not be happy until we are ALL living in trash-laden huts without adequate food, shelter, or medical care. If you like conditions in India, then you’ll love conditions in corporatist America.
Life should not be a zero sum game. I am not in favor of someone losing their job in the US so someone in Chindia can gain. Unfortunately this is what is happening and the main winners are the corporations who are exploiting.
Brazilian min wage: With benefits about $21 a day FWIW.
…living in trash-laden huts without adequate food, shelter, or medical care…..
Enough already. Your getting nickpapageorgio and 2bananna all excited.
What? Poor people make lousy consumers?
Who could have known?
Just get it over with and have government back 100% of all mortgages.That’s where we’ll end up anyway.
Lawmakers Mulling Fate of Fannie, Freddie Split on U.S.Role
(Bloomberg)
The U.S. housing industry is finding political traction in Congress as it objects to plans that would wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and eliminate any government role in mortgage finance.
Two members of the House Financial Services Committee, Gary Miller, a California Republican, and Carolyn McCarthy, a New York Democrat, today introduced legislation to create a government-run replacement for the two mortgage finance companies, which originally were chartered by Congress.
The measure directly challenges House Republican leaders, who have backed bills that would do away with the two companies and aim to minimize the risk that taxpayers will have to bail out future mortgage failures.
“This ideological approach has resulted in a stalemate for years,” Miller said at a press conference. “It’s not getting us any closer to fixing the housing problem.”
He and McCarthy were joined at the event by leaders from two of the industry’s most active lobbying groups, the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Homebuilders.
The legislation reflects concerns by the industry, consumer activists and some policymakers that a complete withdrawal of government support for home lending could deepen the housing recession.
Taxpayer Support
That message has gained momentum even as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to rely on taxpayers for survival. The two have cost the Treasury Department about $130 billion since they were seized by regulators in September 2008.
“There was the idea that people were so tired of taxpayer losses related to housing that the traditional housing lobby would not be able to retaliate effectively,” said Jim Vogel, head of agency debt research at FTN Financial in Memphis, Tennessee. “It’s time to start waving the housing flag again.”
That would be a turnaround from February, when the U.S. Treasury Department recommended selling off the holdings of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac within a decade and the fourth- ranking House Republican, Jeb Hensarling of Texas, said he wanted to do it in half that time.
Since then, homebuilders, real estate agents, investment banks, civil rights leaders and consumer advocates have lobbied to preserve a government role — including the implicit federal guarantee behind Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were created by Congress as private companies designed to expand home ownership.
That’s right you corrupt vipers. Keep @#$%ing with it to keep costs high and affordability low.
All of you will pay. Every last one of you scumbags.
Uh, isn’t it set up so that you and I are going to pay?
Yes but I’m not going pay.
I plan on keeping my head low too, but it’ll be tough to avoid altogether.
Why not just offer two programs: FHA 3.5% down for first-time buyers only (true first-time buyers, not 3-year renters), and a Fannie Mae entity (total government, no private involvement) that buys ONLY mortgages which are QRM-qualified.
Prices will drop like a rock, as they should. After all, why should a house built in 1945 appreciate in cost more than inflation? Labor and materials have been paid for twice over. And new construction is so junky that it’s already the equivalent of 50 years old.
“total government”
The strategy of putting all the lending on the taxpayer and letting prices drop like a rock load up us beasts of burden, doesn’t it? The American Taxpayer is already the biggest FB in the world.
Do you know what “QRM-qualified” means?
Oxide, I think you are smart enough to have a discussion without these dismissive tactics, really. If prices drop like a rock, people will walk regardless of how qualified they are, and the lender will hold the bag. We’ve all been watching this together for the past few years. My thought is that you cannot have your cake and eat it too.
You say you are Q for an M. If you put 3.5% down and the value of your nest went down 50%, would you hang in there for the 30? Would most of the people you know?
I wasn’t referring to what people own, or are walking away from, now. I was referring to the future of Fannie, and future purchases of MBS. I a future incarnation of Fannie buys only QRM mortages, then the burden will NOT be on the taxpayer because the chances of default on a QRM are extremely low. If anything, Fannie might make money on the deal.
There are not enough true first-time buyers for their low down payments to make a difference in the overall market.
And once prices already drop, then they won’t drop 50% more after that. I don’t anticipate any walk-aways if the owner bought at a price/income ratio of a sensible 2.5.
“total government” indeed. Jefferson, et. al. are rolling over in their graves.
Guys, when I say “total government,” I don’t mean a government takeover, okay? I’m just trying to get away from public-private partnerships, implied government bailouts, and too-big-to-fail.
I’m all for private companies buying MBS on the secondary market, so long as they take the fall if they screw up. They knew that mommy would come bail them out, which is why they behaved badly in the first place. Gove should “just say no” to that. You want to play CDS-ville? Fine, so long as you’re willing to play Lehmann-ville.
And why not let Fannie/Freddie a chance to bid on those valuable QRM mortgages alongside private banks?
Since we are talking about lending money, and lending money is NOT an enumerated power of Congress, wouldn’t it make more sense to allow this market to be private again? Trying to turn a private market into a government function in a capitalist country does not make any sense to me.
Representative Miller’s contributors:
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00006954&cycle=2010
Representative McCarthy’s contributors:
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00001148&cycle=2010
It’s obvious who Miller represents. McCarthy is not so obvious.
Landlords Limit Freebies as U.S. Apartment Vacancies Reach Three-Year Low. By Hui-yong Yu - Jul 7, 2011 (Bloomberg)
Rent increases replaced landlord giveaways as U.S. apartment vacancies dropped in the second quarter to the lowest in more than three years, bolstered by rising demand on the West Coast, according to Reis Inc.
The apartment vacancy rate fell to 6 percent in the three months ended June 30 from 6.2 percent in the first quarter and 7.8 percent a year earlier, the New York-based property research firm said in a report today. The second-quarter rate matched the first three months of 2008 and was the lowest since 5.7 percent at the end of 2007, the year commercial real estate prices peaked. Rents rose in all but two of the cities Reis tracks.
“The ongoing recovery and tightening vacancies continue to generate greater pricing power on the part of landlords,” Ryan Severino, an economist at Reis, said in the report. “Vacancies should continue to decline while rents rise at an even faster pace than we observed in the first half.”
Demand for rental apartments in the U.S. has soared as foreclosures forced people out of their homes and prospective homebuyers found it harder to get mortgages. The home ownership rate in the U.S. fell to 66.4 percent in the first quarter, the lowest since 1998, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“There’s still a stigma to buying houses,” said Stan Harrelson, chief executive officer of Pinnacle, a Seattle-based company that manages more than $17 billion of apartments and other commercial properties. “Even with job growth, people aren’t ready to take that step.”
Landlords had a net increase in occupied space of about 33,000 units in the second quarter, down from 45,000 units in the first quarter, Reis said.
$997 a Month
Effective rents, or what tenants actually pay after perks such as a free month, climbed in 80 of the 82 metropolitan areas surveyed, to an average $997 a month from $974 a year earlier and $991 in the first quarter.
San Jose, California, led rent growth last quarter, followed by New York’s Westchester County and San Francisco, according to Reis.
Las Vegas, one of the cities hardest hit by the housing collapse, had an increase in effective rents for the first time since 2008, Reis said. Rents in the city were still down from a year earlier.
Bull$hit.
REIS is part of the Housing Crime Syndicate.
What, vacancies aren’t decreasing?
They’re slowly falling but vacancy rates are at an all time multi decade high.
http://www.census dot gov/hhes/www/housing/hvs/historic/
For the raw data check table 3. Apartment vacancies (5 units and up) are not as bad as 1 unit rentals, but all vacancies are high relative to history.
It is worth noting that (5+ unit structures) are fairly commonly over 10% after 1986 (approximately 58% of the time). The last reported number at the Census is 10.5%. A lot of the vacancy rate is in
Table 1 shows vacancy rates in Q1 at about where they were in 2006.
Eyeballing the data, rental vacancy rates were pretty low (5-6%) commonly until about 1986. Then it was common to see numbers in the mid 7’s until the late 90’s. Then vacancy rates crept up to the mid-8’s/low 10’s for the decade of 2000-2010. The reported number is 9.7% for Q1 2011.
At least one New York judge seems to take the law seriously, at least when offshore banks are involved.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/8624637/HSBC-chief-faces-US-court-sanctions.html
A judge has issued an order claiming HSBC and a law firm deliberately misled the court by filing false and “robo-signed” documents in an attempt to foreclose on the house of a Brooklyn resident
Irene Dorner, the boss of HSBC Bank USA, has been asked to appear at a court hearing on July 15.
Robo-signing involves individuals signing large numbers of foreclosure documents that they have not read or verified.
The judge said Ms Dorner, who earned $2.3m (£1.4m) last year, is personally liable because she is the “captain of the ship” and “bears a measure of responsibility for plaintiff’s HSBC’s action”.
Judge Arthur Schack added: “She should not only take credit for the fruits of HSBC’s victories, but must bear some responsibility for its defeats and mistakes.”
How much TARP/Stimulus money did HSBC Bank USA get?
That would be an interesting data point.
Jobs Seen Boosting Hopes of an Economic Revival- Reuters
U.S. companies probably stepped up hiring in June as the economy recovers from a stumble in recent months, although job growth is not expected to be strong enough to eat into high unemployment.
I wonder how many of the new jobs came from fast-food restaurants and sign flipping?
but ue is now 9.2% and new jobs numbers were WEAKER THAN EXPECTED ??
Every single “analyst” (read Wall Street shill) called it wrong. Big time. Wonder if the ramp job over the last 8 sessions was to sucker in the stoopid money so Da Boyz could pull another Goldman Sachs on these catastrophically misnamed “retail investors.”
Most of those were because the market had sold on worries that Greece wouldn’t get bailed out. But I think yesterday’s exuberance was nearly all on expectations that the jobs number would come in at a completely unexciting 120,000 (barely enough to cover new entries into the labor force on average - probably way low for June when college kids have just graduated). Oops.
U6 went up to 16.2%.
April and May jobs numbers were adjusted down.
Labor market participation was down too (64.1%).
U6 is the number that counts.
Job report this morning was terrible….
No Dave the job market here looks pretty good…we used to have 1 person a week look through our recyclables….but now its at least 3 a week…..so the big OH can be proud of that.
Top Obama adviser says unemployment won’t be key in 2012
Hey, it didn’t keep FDR from being re-elected.
And the advisor is probably correct if the alternative is Romney, Bachmann or Perry…
LOL, dave. Amazingly (and perhaps predictably) their constituents will be sold on this idea. After all, it’s the free-market at work. That actually might even be true, except you’ll never hear them admit it right now, as it works against their political favor.
Why isn’t Sarah running yet???! (I like her because she’s hot)
You, too? I thought it was just me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwggusZYMQE
Here’s Sarah Palin, the supposed Tea Party darling, babbling about her and uber-RINO John McCain’s support for the Wall Street bailout (TARP, first of many, I should clarify). Foisting this power-mad dimwit onto the national political stage was McCain’s parting insult to the American sheeple.
Foisting this power-mad dimwit onto the national political stage was McCain’s parting insult to the American sheeple.
Darn tootin’!
But we in AZ still have to deal with him. However, McCain rarely sets foot inside the city limits of Tucson. I guess we’re too liberal for him. Or something like that.
Oh, well. Our local pols provide more than enough entertainment. Case in point: Didja hear the one about the mayoral candidates who couldn’t figure out how to qualify for the ballot? Well, that’s playing out right now.
That hope and change sure goes a long way…
Cheney-Shrub SHADOW Legacy Effect #3: “We left y’all with the worst POS economy in 80 years…see ya!”
It’s x1 tough nut t’ain’t it $plitBanana…use $ome more “LiquidWrench” and keep at it, don’t let it get the best of yourself!
I don’t get why the GOP zealots keep harping on the hope and change thing. The Obama admin has pretty much been a continuation of the previous admin, extending the same bad policies we had before. Would the zealots be any happier if it was McCain in the oval office? Would the situation be really all that different (other than minimum wage being repealed perhaps?)
Cheney-Shrub SHADOW Legacy Effect #3: “We left y’all with the worst POS economy in 80 years…see ya!”
Let’ see:
Obama in power from 2008-present
Democrats control congress 2007-2010
Democrats control the senate 2006-present
Democrats controlled ALL THREE branches of government 2008-2010 by far wider margins than any republican time of control. They could have passed anything.
Any they did:
Obamacare
$1 Trillion Stimulus
HAMP
etc.
But hey - keep apologizing for the democrats. It is such an easy way to go through life when you have to take NO RESPONSIBILITY…
That’s a pretty good description of why I can’t take the Rs seriously. The Obama derangement on the right is at least as ridiculous as the Palin derangement on the left. And the the best legitimate criticisms of Obama seem to be that he didn’t do what he said he was going to do…which was to really take on the Rs and TPTB. So they can’t even make use of the good stuff against him, but they can’t stand him anyway.
I like Palin alot. And Bristol is the real prize. That $hit doesn’t fall far from the bat.
“But hey - keep apologizing for the democrats.”
Who’s apologizing for them? They’re doing the same stupid things the GOP did before them. And please give “Obamacare” a rest. They way the fruitloops harp on that one would think we nationalized the healthcare industry. It’s basically what Bob Dole was proposing years ago.
I would just like to hear a GOP proposal that didnt’t involved tax cuts for the superrich and lower wages for everyone else.
“…democrats. It is such an easy way to go through life when you have to take NO RESPONSIBILITY…”
As if the Republicans take any responsibility.
Oh I forgot - they take responsibility for any successes and blame any failures on the Democrats.
Partisan politics are ensuring that we get gridlock at best.
“Democrats controlled ALL THREE branches of government”
The 3 branches are the Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary. After Bush’s appointments, Judiciary has become majority Republican-appointed.
I like Palin alot. And Bristol is the real prize. That $hit doesn’t fall far from the bat.
It’d probably be fun to get you and banana together at a party. At least until the cops show up.
They could have passed anything.
,you need too luck up the word philibuster,
2b (or not 2b, that is the question, eh?):
F-I-L-I-B-U-S-T-E-R.
How quickly some people forget.
“I don’t get why the GOP zealots keep harping on the hope and change thing.”
When you all you have is a drum, you bang it, repeatedly. Using talking point language repeatedly like, “public union goons” and “death panels” and “progressive” (as though it’s a dirty word” and “libtards” are great indoctrination tools and short cuts to thinking for those who can’t.
MrBubble
“Democrats control congress 2007-2010
Democrats control the senate 2006-present”
Wrong.
Are you disputing “Democrats”, “control”, or the year ranges?
I’m tired of posting links proving it’s wrong and why it’s wrong for people who won’t let facts get in their way.
It’s wrong. The Dems controlled nothing. You don’t control anything with a majority of less than 1%.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Us_congress
There is no “dispute” except in your fantasy world.
Obama in power from 2008-present
Really. A man who understands things right $piltBanana? When was lil Opie sworn in? How many months was there in 2008? how many days? Ok, let’s keep it simple, who used more White house toilet paper?, Shrub, dickey-boy or lil’ Opie in 2008. You a smarty-pants, you can guesstimate…and I won’t count what Shrub stuffed down Cheney’s throat the last 10 months OK?
Nice little disconnect here between the 100,000 jobs we needed to add to keep UE at 9.1% and the 18,000 we ended up adding in real life.
10 Hard Facts About America’s Economic Recovery
“Looking forward, Biven said he is greatly concerned by the general idea that we need to close the deficit in the short term. Both economists worry that budget cuts currently under discussion will take effect too soon: In the next couple of years, they say, we need more fiscal support, not less. They expressed support for measures that would add some stimulus to the economy, such as an extension of the payroll tax cut. And they predicted that Friday’s Labor Department numbers would show 100,000 new jobs — just barely enough to keep up with growth in the population. The unemployment rate will thus remain at 9.1%. “We are not going to see the 350,000 jobs we need to see,” Shierholz said.”
——-
Economic outlook worsens as U.S. adds only 18,000 jobs in June
“Job growth came to nearly to a halt in June, the federal government said Friday in surprisingly grim new data — an alarming challenge to predictions that the economy would bounce back later this year.
Employers added 18,000 jobs last month, a trivial number in a country with 150 million workers, and the unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent from 9.1 percent. It was a far worse result than expected–economists had forecast 105,000 new jobs.”
Nice post…Thanks…
Our leaders are going to have to come to terms with the fact that jobs are still being offshored and that no amount of incentives or tax breaks can make a $15/hr worker in the US competitive with a $1/hr worker overseas.
So we have two choices:
1) Sink to a 3rd World standard of living (which I believe is the GOP’s plan)
2) Enact tarriffs and trade barriers.
Today in a morning I thought market will be down at least 1000 point, but…it seems now we have worst “bubble” in a market than we had real estate bubble in 2007…
I’ve got no problem trying #2. Yes the economists will howl that it’s a job-killer, but we all know how often economists get it right.
If #2 turns out to be a bad decision, it can always be reversed down the road. But dammit, let’s give it a try.
Nothing seems to shake the stock market. No one can deny now that were are headed string into the official “double dip” and the Dow drops a mere 100 points?
Like Jar-Jar complained to Qui-Gon when their sub lost its power and they were surrounded by aquatic monsters (yeah, I know, that movie sucked): “Whensa you think wesa in trouble?”
I’ve got no problem trying #2. Yes the economists will howl that it’s a job-killer, but we all know how often economists get it right.
+1
2) Enact tarriffs and trade barriers.
Thats what happened last depression I think it was blamed for making it worse I guess we will see? I beleive they will enact trade barriers eventually
History repeats or at least rhymes
But we were a net exporter back then.
Different situation now.
Are they stepping up hiring of US citizens? No? Oh.
Lot of contradictory bullcrap this month.
Jobs up. Jobs down.
Sales up. Sales down.
What it really means: it’s still bad. Real bad.
http://www.aarp.org/about-aarp/press-center/info-07-2011/aarp-to-president-and-congressional-leaders-do-not-cut-social-security-to-reduce-the-deficit.html
Greedy oldsters of the AARP screaming about any suggestion that SS should be cut.
Yeah Sammy! ….let those geezers rot!
Schadenfreude… how appropriate for you.
Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members.~Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973), My Several Worlds [1954].
“…the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life; the sick, the needy and the handicapped. ” ~ Last Speech of Hubert H. Humphrey
“A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.” ~ Mahatma Ghandi
The greatness of America is in how it treats its weakest members: the elderly, the infirm, the handicapped, the underprivileged, the unborn. ~Bill Federer
These AARP geezers have no compunction about voting themselves endless benefits that younger generations, who don’t have a hope in hell of seeing a dime of the money they pay into Social Security, are going to pay for. Not to mention the geezers are the ones that have kept the Republicrat duopoly in power for the past several decades, piling up unpayable liabilities and problems that would be laid to the account of future generations. They probably thought they would die off well before the sins of the fathers could be visited upon the sons, but the reckoning day may have arrived a bit early. By the way, I think the only REAL social security comes from having a family that is willing and able to help take care of you - not a limitless blank check from working taxpayers.
AARP is a greedy, selfish bunch. At some point they, too, are going to have to share the pain. On that, I agree with Obama and any responsible politician who stands up to this shrill lobby.
I don’t know much about the AARP, except that they waste a lot of money on junk mail. Unless you are a little kid in your mommy’s basement, you are part of the responsible community, not just folks older than you. Do you think that just because someone is older than you that they are automatically more guilty?
AARP was an ally of Obama on health care albeit mainly because they wanted to kill off their competition (Medicare Advantage). BTW, I think that the old people are paying by the artificial low interest rates that don’t allow them to make a decent return on their life savings and “inflation” adjustments to SS that don’t come close to the real rate of inflation.
I think the real problems in this country flow from unrestricted imports, outsourcing and illegal immigration driving down wages and both parties have supported it and 98% of the population supports one or the other of the parties so blaming old people for that is unfair. Example both Bush II and Obama want to block the execution of illegal aliens that have not been informed of their right to talk to the consulate. Yes, please Mexico at all costs so we can move to a NAU. If they were here legally we would know they were Mexican citizens and I would agree the consulate must be informed. No papers, no consulate, too bad.
“Do you think that just because someone is older than you that they are automatically more guilty?”
Yes, hey, that’s part of the game these days that people are all too willing to play, old against young, black and brown against white, black against brown, rich against poor, illegals against citizens, Republicans against Democrats, conservative against liberal, Spanish vs. English, unions vs non-union, you name it, the government and media are really good at joining forces in stirring people up into all these artificial conflicts, so they won’t notice their pockets being picked. If you don’t think this is being done on purpose, dream on.
Divide and Conquer!!!!!!!!!! Break the US in a million pieces!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Squabbling interest groups everywhere!!!!!!!!!!!
God bless Texas. I’m no fan of the death penalty, if someone’s guilty I believe a life sentence is worse than death, if they’re innocent and were wrongfully convicted, they have a chance at freeing themselves.
But as far as I’m concerned the guy who was just sent to his reward was an enemy combatant, as are all who are here illegally.
“They probably thought they would die off well before the sins of the fathers could be visited upon the sons, but the reckoning day may have arrived a bit early.”
Is this what your parents think? My folks do not think this way. I do not think this way. The people I know want their children to have a better life than they did.
SS has been in trouble for most of my working life. As a young person, I never expected to collect. Now I am approaching the age when I will be eligible to collect and it is still there.
Experience has taught me that life is unpredictable. Save and watch inflation eat away your savings. Invest in the stock market and watch it crash. Buy a house and watch real estate drop. Get an education and watch jobs disappear overseas.
“I think the only REAL social security comes from having a family that is willing and able to help take care of you”
How many children do you need to have to ensure that one of them will be willing and able? This is why large families are the norm in developing countries like India.
Oh yeah - and the geezers are fighting to ensure that SS will still be there for you. The Republicans have proposed not to cut it for those over 55, so as to gain the approval of those “selfish” geezers. The geezers are not falling for it.
I know parents who literally do not care abuout their children. At all. As a matter of fact, they consider it “unfair” that they should be expected to take care of said kids. It makes them mad.
You may believe that your own parents don’t want you to suffer for them, but that’s beside the point. The point is that our society is faced with the collective decisions of Baby Boomers. These people absolutely DID vote in policies that would benefit themselves at the expense of their kids and grandkids. Offshoring and debt (public, private, and corporate) have been killers for the under-fifty crowd.
“Offshoring and debt (public, private, and corporate) have been killers for the under-fifty crowd.”
They have been killers for the boomers, too. The “collective decisions of the boomers” were really made by a very small subset of people who decided that offshoring was best for company profits. The increase in private debt has been driven by the stagnation of nominal wages, which was driven by offshoring and mechanization.
“I know parents who literally do not care abuout their children.
…
You may believe that your own parents don’t want you to suffer for them, but that’s beside the point.”
Most parents care deeply about their children. Those who don’t care about their children are outliers. The point is that blaming the boomers and the selfish geezers is a Republican strategy to steal Social Security. If I believed they would pay down the debt with it, I might support them.
The point is that our society is faced with the collective decisions of Baby Boomers. These people absolutely DID vote in policies that would benefit themselves at the expense of their kids and grandkids.
A thousand times yes, Big V. My own parents were frugal, honest, industrious, and horrified by the notion of passing their generation’s problems and debts onto their children’s generation. Everything MOST (by no means all) Boomers are not. I make no apologies for calling out the greed and selfishness of the AARP generation, while noting the many exceptions - Ron Paul, for instance.
The point is that blaming the boomers and the selfish geezers is a Republican strategy to steal Social Security.
Happy2Bheard,
Blaming the boomers and privatizing social security are two very separate issues. The Republicans are pushing for privatized SS because their Wall Street pimps are salivating at the chance to extend their looting into the last really large asset pool left to steal: retirement accounts. You can call out the AARP on their selfishness while simultaneously calling out the Republicans on their “privatization” schemes designed to aid and abet Wall Street’s financial warfare against the middle and working classes.
Sorry Sammy, I have to disagree with you. Blaming the boomers is essential to the strategy of privatizing Social Security. It splits the electorate. It is the same strategy in the plan to change SS only for those younger than 55.
Where does Ron Paul stand on Social Security?
Go to his web site and see.
I am not finding it. Can you state it succinctly?
“…that younger generations, who don’t have a hope in hell of seeing a dime of…”
This nothing but bullcrap propaganda that is part of the long range plan to give SS to Wall St. and get idiots like you willing to vote for it!
Gen X &Y FAR outnumber the boomers and Gen X has already had enough children to more than replace themselves, with Gen Y trending in the same direction.
The lull in reproduction was just that, a lull.
But hey, let’s kick grandma to curb because corporate MSM says SS is bankrupt, even thought the REAL numbers say it isn’t and won’t be? Ohhh, what heroically independent thinking.
Once again, the PTB win because the poor and stupid fight among themselves.
This nothing but bullcrap propaganda that is part of the long range plan to give SS to Wall St. and get idiots like you willing to vote for it!
I’m not for ending SS, and I’m absolutely not in favor of “privatizing” SS and “investing” in Wall Street’s rigged casino economy. The dice in that game will always be loaded in favor of the house, and the Republicrats will always see to it that the house wins. It just doesn’t bother me to see deep cuts to SS entitlements.
Everybody else is having to tighten their belts. Let the AARP crowd, which shares a disporportionate blame for the mess we’re in due to their cumulative poor decisions over the past 40-50 years, reap what they’ve sown.
who don’t have a hope in hell of seeing a dime of the money they pay into Social Security, are going to pay for.
Since SS is a “pay as you go system” that statement is patently false.
Reduced benefits? Probably.
No benefits? Not unless they get rid of the payroll tax altogther. I’m sure they want to do that, but so far the payroll tax has not been repealed.
Gandhi was a cretin…and his fans can’t even spell his name.
I’d fight Gandhi.
The British tried that.
Colorado,
I think that was a quote from “Fight Club.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8FRBYOFu2w
It was.
“Gandhi was a cretin”
Tell that to the British.
Crunch,
Thanks for reminding us what the fabric of a first tiered nation is woven of!
Yep, damn straight!
“A nation’s greatness is measured by how (badly) it treats its weakest members.” ~
Mahatma GhandiAyn Rand“…the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children;”
let them eat debt
If the SS door is opened even a tiny crack, that will make it much easier to chip SS away to nothing later on. Of course, they’ll keep the payroll tax as a regular tax. Think of all those tax breaks you could give to the rich when you don’t have to pay out SS.
Exactly. While I agree with Sammy on many things, on this I differ. First of all, no one seems to notice (maybe I’ve missed it) the irony (or whatever) of the fact that Social Security was instituted during the last Depression for exactly the purpose of alleviating those conditions that were brought about by the banksters, etc., then and now. And now during this Depression they want to trash it. How bitterly amusing.
Living in a retirement community and having been on the receiving end of crap from a sanctimonious senior or two with their “I’ve got mine” attitude, I can see why someone might react as Sammy or WT does. I’ve sometimes given in to that sentiment myself. Granted, Social Security has been gamed and bloated and mis-allocated and distorted by shysters with sheepskins from law schools. OK, so fix that. And stop rewarding every illegal who spoinks out spawn to live off of. That would help. End the freakin’ wars all over the planet. Cut off the foreign aid, etc. Dont’ subsidize pharmaceutical corporations through our universities. And on. And on.
Aren’t the seniors getting hammered enough with CD rates and SS COLA’s frozen? also, their home equity has been evaporating. Tax the well-off first, they’re the ones profiting from this recession.
My parents volunteer with a state program that was set up to help seniors figure out their Medicare drug coverage, but inevitably touches on a few other things.
They spend a lot of time referring people trying to live on $800 a month SS checks (no rent because of their paid off house) to the local church food banks.
“They spend a lot of time referring people trying to live on $800 a month SS checks (no rent because of their paid off house) to the local church food banks.”
Yeah, even within the “greatest generation” there is no shortage of people without savings or pensions.
No, senior’s home equity is not evaporating. They bought their houses long before the boom and didn’t re-fi, so they should be fine.
Right?
many seniors will have all their money siphoned off by end of life medical expenses
finally when all the money is gone we will have medical reform
“finally when all the money is gone we will have medical reform”
Don’t. Count. On. It.
Don’t even.
They spend a lot of time referring people trying to live on $800 a month SS checks (no rent because of their paid off house) to the local church food banks.
This brings up a good point. There are plenty of seniors who only the have the $800 check with no savings, no pension and no paid-off house. The size of the SS check is already so small that talk of reducing it is unreasonable.
And where are these people’s children?
Let’s see what happens when parents who dumped their children in Kiddie Kennel daycare centers so they could keep new SUVs in the driveway of their McMansion turn to their offspring in their dotage.
“There are plenty of seniors who only the have the $800 check with no savings, no pension and no paid-off house. The size of the SS check is already so small that talk of reducing it is unreasonable.”
I have little sympathy. They should have had more kids, who could be taking care of them now.
Children die, Pete.
And many mid-century born Americans of only had one or two (or none,) because of overpopulation on this planet, and because that was all they could responsibly feed, house, clothe, and educate without relying on the state to do it for them.
These people built the country you’re living in, as did their parents, and their parents’ parents….
Something to think about when YOU get older.
First of all, no one seems to notice (maybe I’ve missed it) the irony (or whatever) of the fact that Social Security was instituted during the last Depression \
As a 1% payroll tax that quickly capped…
That kicked in at age 65 when the average life expectancy was 62
And if you “applied” for SS as an illegal or someone with an “acute I don’t feel like working bipolar ADHD” syndrome - you would have be laughed out of the SS office
Bananas,
You do know that while the life expectancy at birth was substantially lower, the life expectancy one you reached 65 has not changed anywhere near as much. Most of the difference is from lowering the infant and child mortality rates.
one = once
Not really. If you go walking around an old grave yard, you will see that people rarely lived into their seventies.
Anecdotal evidence is not statistical evidence.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/fun-with-mortality-tables/
“Much more to the point is the number of years people could expect to live after reaching 65: 14 years in 1950, 18.5 years now. Not so impressive a change, is it? And the retirement age is already 66 for my cohort, and scheduled to rise to 67 on current law.”
I am talking about like a hundred or more years ago.
There was no Social Security program back then, so how is that relevant to the conversation?
Isn’t SS like 80 years old? I haven’t ever toured an 80-year-old graveyard, but I’m pretty sure that life expectancy in 1930 was lower than it was in 1950. The thing is, SS, WWII, and the New Deal did a lot to increase standard of living and (drumroll) life expectency.
BTW,
You should try to be less snippety with ppl.
Not really. If you go walking around an old grave yard, you will see that people rarely lived into their seventies.
Back then (100+ years) you were lucky to reach 50. Dying in your 30’s and 40’s was common. Had I lived back then I would have croaked at 43, which is when my appendix was removed. It would have stayed in there until it went kablam, a few days later it would have been game over.
“Much more to the point is the number of years people could expect to live after reaching 65: 14 years in 1950, 18.5 years now. Not so impressive a change, is it? “
I remember reading this on Krugman’s blog when he posted it last year. If you actually look at those numbers, an increase from 14 to 18.5 is an increase of about 30%. So it may not be as big as some people think. Unfortunately, if it is necessary to cut SS benefits by 30% or increase the SS tax by 30%, many Americans would consider that to be a major burden on somebody.
from Wikipedia:
“The first monthly payment was issued on January 31, 1940 to Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vermont.”
A vague impression of how old people were when they died in an “old” cemetary is pretty useless information when you are dealing with someone who claims that you should compare life expectancies at birth as a substitute for a detailed analysis of the future solvency of the Social Security pension program. If you can’t do a real analysis, looking at life expectancy at the age you become eligible to collect full benefits is a much better substitute. That is what Krugman provided (1950 vs now) and what I linked to.
Ms. Fuller hapens to have lived to be 100.
And I’m only terse with stupid comments. Did it to bananas yesterday since his reading comprehension was on the blink. Your statistics skills are taking a vacation today, so you win.
Polly:
I didn’t come on this blog to have a statistics match with yer wide asce. People did not live as long in 1940 as they do today. Did SS only go to people who were born in 1940, or people who were retired in 1940? I understand that you get a bonus for making it past age 4. Took population dynamics and all that jazz. Anyway, your claws are putting a crimp in my back, so get off it. Try having a discussion instead of a fight some time.
“If you can’t do a real analysis, looking at life expectancy at the age you become eligible to collect full benefits is a much better substitute. ”
The error in the simplified analysis, though, is that it ignores the fact that MANY MORE people now live long enough to get benefits than did in 1950.
It is not just a matter of how long each recipient receives benefits, but how many recipients there are.
First of all, no one seems to notice (maybe I’ve missed it) the irony (or whatever) of the fact that Social Security was instituted during the last Depression for exactly the purpose of alleviating those conditions that were brought about by the banksters, etc., then and now.
And the reason why SS started? Well, it was a handy way to get those old people out of the work force so that the younger folks could have jobs.
True. But back then the concept of a “cubicle dweller” who sits in front of a computer most of the day didn’t exist. A lot of those folks performed the manual labor that we have since offshored, and its hard to perform that kind of work when you get old.
“But back then the concept of a “cubicle dweller” who sits in front of a computer most of the day didn’t exist. A lot of those folks performed the manual labor that we have since offshored, and its hard to perform that kind of work when you get old.”
But it’s hard (on the soul) doing this kind of work for the corrupt financial system (without losing one’s mind) and working so hard for those who are trying to bilk me (without going postal).
MrCubicle
Well, if you lose your mind then it’s bye-bye cubicle job.
I know that if I had to do manual labor now that I’m middle aged, I would be in deep doo-doo. I consider any day when my right knee doesn’t hurt as a very good day.
“if you lose your mind then it’s bye-bye cubicle job.”
I’m saying that’s what’s doing it!
From http://www.ssa.gov, the social security website.
“The line chart shows the ratio of covered workers to beneficiaries from 1955 to 2085. In 1955, there were 8.6 workers supporting each retiree. By 1975, that ratio had declined to 3.2 workers per beneficiary and remained between 3.1 and 3.4 over the next 30 years. Current projections have the ratio starting to decline again in 2008, decreasing at an accelerating rate until it reaches 2.1 workers per beneficiary in 2031. Thereafter, it continues to decline by one-tenth of a percentage point approximately every 15 years, arriving in 2085 at only 1.9 workers per beneficiary.”
Given enough time, all Ponzi schemes collapse.
Or they just reduce the payout?
FWIW, the definition of a ponzi scheme is:
“a swindle in which a quick return, made up of money from new investors, on an initial investment lures the victim into much bigger risks”
SS is what is known as a “pay as you go” system. Everone knows that current workers pay for current retireees benefits. No one is expecting to make a quick killing.
Calling it a “ponzi scheme” is merely a tactic used by those who wish to kill it off altogther, and use the payroll tax monies for something else (like tax cuts for the rich or more wars).
Reduce the payout? Sure. But that’s the “crack in the door” that oxide worries about.
There are a lot of assumptions in projections that extend to 2085. One of those is a declining birth rate. Most of the workers in 2085 will not have been born in 2031. Another is a steady or decreasing death rate.
I favor people continuing to work as long as they are able.
“Calling it a “ponzi scheme” is merely a tactic used by those who wish to kill it off altogther, and use the payroll tax monies for something else (like tax cuts for the rich or more wars).”
Bingo! We have a winner!
Reduce the payout? Sure. But that’s the “crack in the door” that oxide worries about.
The door was cracked late last year with the partial, 1 year SS tax holiday. Mark my words, not only will it be extended, it will be expanded. This will continue until workers pay no payroll tax at all, then they’ll phase out the employer match.
Then SS and Medicare will be declared insolvent and be shut down.
Split up the pool of SS taxes collected among those qualified to receive benefits. Don’t fix the benefit and adjust the taxes (or borrow) to fill the gap. Let the benefits vary with the amount of tax collected. Keeps the system solvent and it’s nice and fair.
I repeat:
I’m not for ending SS, and I’m absolutely not in favor of “privatizing” SS and “investing” in Wall Street’s rigged casino economy. The dice in that game will always be loaded in favor of the house, and the Republicrats will always see to it that the house wins. It just doesn’t bother me to see deep cuts to SS entitlements.
Everybody else is having to tighten their belts. Let the AARP crowd, which shares a disporportionate blame for the mess we’re in due to their cumulative poor decisions over the past 40-50 years, reap what they’ve sown.
“I’m not for ending SS, and I’m absolutely not in favor of “privatizing” SS and “investing” in Wall Street’s rigged casino economy. The dice in that game will always be loaded in favor of the house, and the Republicrats will always see to it that the house wins. It just doesn’t bother me to see deep cuts to SS entitlements. “
I am glad to hear you say this, Sammy. I heartily agree with you.
“Everybody else is having to tighten their belts.”
Folks collecting SS are already having to tighten their belts as inflation goes up and their payments do not.
“Let the AARP crowd, which shares a disporportionate blame for the mess we’re in due to their cumulative poor decisions over the past 40-50 years, reap what they’ve sown.
Older folks will always get a disproportiionate share of the blame simply from having been around longer. Sometimes what appears to be a poor decision in hindsight appeared to be a good one when looking in the other direction. Maybe you had a good education and a steady, stable job and then the world changed. Then a series of best choices out of not very good ones lands you in a bad place. Sometimes, the best you can do is to figure out how to make it through next week.
Sometimes our government has taken decisions that I knew were bad ones, but which I had no control over. Do I still get the blame? If I had not voted would I still get the blame? How many Ron Pauls are there?
+10
“If the SS door is opened even a tiny crack, that will make it much easier to chip SS away to nothing later on.”
That is the master plan, and its already begun with the partial payroll tax holiday this year. I expect that congress will fight tooth and nail to renew and even expand it next year. Once they get us used to not paying the payroll tax then they will swoop in an kill “unfunded” Social Security. Also, expect non SS tax to slowly increase on the middle and lower classes.
Michele Backmann must be dancing around in delight at the prospect.
What sacrifice should there be for those that were “allowed” to not pay into the SS tax system ??
Realtors Are Liars
And the DJ’s happy feet for the day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbaNYWkQYYA
DJ,
I’m thinking of buying a good pair of headphones to listen to music. Got my eye on the Audeze LCD-2.
Do I really need an external DAC for my computer to play lossless files?
CCC
You don’t have to but then it wont be very loud….91 db/mw is very low for headphones
So you will need some type of large headphone amplification.
http://www.trancesonic.fm/portal/f76/technics-rp-dh1200e-s-dj-headphone-2298/
Main Features:
Operating Principle: Closed-back, dynamic headphones
Drive Unit (diam. in mm): 50.0
Impedance (Ohm) / 1KHz: 50.0
Sensitivity (dB/mW ): 107.0
Max Input (mW): 3500.0
Rated Input (mW): 200.0
——————–
Audeze LCD-2
Frequency Response: 5 Hz - 20 KHz, usable high frequency extension 50 KHz.
• Distortion: less than 1% even at full output.
• Impedance: 50 Ohms, nominal
• Maximum diaphragm excursion: 2.5mm p-p
• Efficiency: 91 dB/1mW
• Maximum output: 133dB, 15W
Thanks, DJ!
I’m going to be taking the community radio station’s adult deejay course within a year or less. I’ll need a good pair of ‘phones if I make it onto the air.
Wow Slim…lookie what i found….
http://www.djheadphones.org
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/home-price-outlook-worsens-in-june-fannie-mae-2011-07-07
“Home-price outlook worsens in June: Fannie Mae”
Hey Marketwatch Clowns….. How is increasingly affordable housing a bad thing?
Hwy’s gonna post in Mr. Ben’s Weekend thread a que$tion for you all to consider. As you ponder it, keep in mind how a Ginomou$ flywheel that sits between the creation of “economic energy” & the “the di$tribution” of that created “economic energy” might behave. Or, as a German automobile maker who once ran an ad campaign featuring many, many, safety systems developed and honed to perfection in their vehicles once said: “Of course, there is no substitute for the behavior of a “conscientious” driver!
Mr. bear has his “watched pot boiling over” motto, but when it comes to “Bidness” behavior I’ll stick with my favorite:
Straighten up and fly right!
Job$! Job$! Job$!
In his new book, Car Guys vs Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business, Lutz makes the case for why there is now a “historic window of opportunity” for the United States to regain is leadership as the world’s top manufacturer and exporter.
Bring It Home! “No Excuse” Not to Manufacture in U.S., Bob Lutz Says
By Stacy Curtin | Daily Ticker – Wed, Jul 6, 2011
America needs to get back to the basics of creating things of value and there is no better time than now, says Bob Lutz, former vice chairman of General Motors.
“There is a dawning awakening on the part of most Americans that we cannot maintain the wealth of the nation by being bond traders [and] lawyers,” he tells Aaron in the accompanying interview. “At some point the country has to get back to work and create wealth through mining, agriculture or manufacturing.”
He gives three key factors:
Sobered Unions: “[There's] a new sense of realism on the part of the unions that boy, if you overmilk the cow she is going to drop over dead.”
Drive for Competitiveness: There’s “a renewed emphasis on being more than competitive with the Japanese and the Germans,” especially when it comes to the auto industry.
Weak Dollar: “Right now with the dollar where it is and American wage rates where they are, there is no excuse not to manufacture in the United States.”
On the negative we just have far too many people who cannot read write and speak the English necessary to operate all the new high tech machinery we did not have 20 years ago.
If there is x1 thing that “
FreeGreed-Enterprise” is really, really keen at, it’s the seemingly “automatic” ability to fill “economic oppoortunity vacuum$”On the negative we just have far too many people who cannot read write and speak the English necessary to operate all the new high tech machinery we did not have 20 years ago.
During the late 1990s, I was at a breakfast meeting here in Tucson. One of the organization’s guests was a young woman who’d just taken over the family business. That business was a local chain of tire stores.
The woman told me that one of her company’s biggest problems was finding people who could read and write well enough to complete the employment application.
Who was I talking to? Someone you’d recognize. Her name was Gabrielle Giffords.
Bad timing. Everybody who knew how to read/write was doing y2k and web programming in those days.
Not here. I was in the web biz back then, and let me tell you, there wasn’t an abundance of web programming work being done in Tucson.
You get what you pay for.
Hard work for low wages isn’t going to get people with an education and never will.
I don’t know how the pay at El Campo Tire compared to other places in Tucson.
But I do know that, when Gabby took over the company, it was in trouble. And let’s just say that, even though this company was her family’s business, she didn’t exactly shine when it came to turning things around.
The scuttlebutt in the local tire shop employee community was “You still work at El Campo? Better get out of there while the getting’s still good.”
And people got out. Oh, did they ever.
Giffords sold El Campo to Goodyear, and the proceeds from that sale financed her entry into politics. Before she went to Congress, she was an Arizona state legislator. From what I heard, she was pretty good at that job, but I have no firsthand experience, what with my living in a different legislative district.
Hmmm late 90’s that when the gangsta rap music was being promoted in full force…
But of Course Giff had no guts to demand higher standards for graduation to solve this problem once and for all.
scratch her as a candidate..
Nice post Hwy…
Nice post Slim…
No, American wages haven’t gone to $1/hr yet.
I was mentioning yesterday how semi-skilled to skilled muni jobs that pay $10-15/hr used to be considered low pay, but are now considered “good paying” jobs.
I wonder who is going to buy all those houses Warren Buffet says we should be building or all those new $30K+ cars with complimentary insurance? The $15/hr librarian? The $8/hr part time retail clerk?
I don’t think Warren said we should be building houses currently. His point was that eventually we’ll work through this supply and we’ll need to build more houses to replace those that are destroyed and to keep up with household formation. He thinks that once that happens, we’ll need to build more houses which will require more workers. I don’t see any problems with that line of reasoning.
Construction will likely increase eventually. The question is when and at what price those houses will sell at. He doesn’t address either of those questions. Probably because he doesn’t know the answer.
It isn’t for lack of trying.
heheeeheeeheehaahaaahaaheeehaahaaa… (Hwy50™)
“The News Corporation is also dealing with a flight of advertisers, something that users of social media hoped they could accelerate by creating an online campaign to encourage a boycott of the company.”
Move to Close Newspaper Is Greeted With Suspicion:
(Photo): In London, a Rupert Murdoch figure pulling strings of the prime minister and culture secretary.
By JENNIFER PRESTON and JEREMY W. PETERS / NYT
Published: July 7, 2011
“Some said it was a ploy to salvage government approval of the News Corporation’s potentially lucrative controlling stake in the satellite company British Sky Broadcasting, or BSkyB. Others An outpouring of suspicion and condemnation came from all directions on Thursday, and was directed chiefly at the News Corporation’s chairman, Rupert Murdochsaw it as merely a rebranding.
The News Corporation’s decision to shut down the British tabloid The News of the World on Thursday did little to silence the growing uproar over revelations that the newspaper had hacked into the voice mails of private citizens.
Mr. Murdoch’s News International is the largest national newspaper publisher in Britain, a status that affords him tremendous economic and political influence. In addition to publishing The News of the World and The Sun, News International owns The Times of London, a smaller but more prestigious paper.”
My first reaction upon hearing that Rupert was closing down TNOTW was that he will open a replacement publication sooner rather than later.
Rebranding of the news of the world has already begun.
MegaWankerBankers / MegaIn$uranceInc.’$ / MegaChurche$ quasi-Inc.’$ / MegaHo$pitalsInc.$ / MegaForProfit$Gov’tTuitionFee$University’$ / MegaPublic$hools… “How do gnat’s $urvive at O’Hare’s International landing field?”
(This came to my attention via a friend losing their 12 year employment)
“I come to you today with a very heavy heart,” Braddy wrote. “After six months of working with potential donors and a potential buyer of Bethany University, I need to announce that all of these efforts have failed. Each potential donor and potential “buyer” has stepped away.”
Reversal of fortune: Bethany University to close
by Peter Burke /Jun 13, 2011 / Press-Banner - News, Scotts Valley and the San Lorenzo Valley, California
Rev. James Braddy, the Superintendent of the Assemblies of God Northern California and Nevada district, announced that at noon today, June 13, all teaching operations at the university were stopped.
The message was directed toward friends of the 92-year-old Christian institution.
The half-completed cafeteria stands partly-rusted on the Bethany University campus on Monday. Construction was stopped several months ago when the money to pay for reconstruction dried up after it had burned down in an electrical fire.
Now, head 380 miles South down CA’s “golden” coa$t and you might want to take the $2.50 / 1 minute ferry ride past these $uffering $oul’s $anctuary.
Speaking of MegaPimp$, help these “The OC!” wealthie$, they’re $uffering $o!
Gated Harbor Island has just 30 residences on it. It’s also home to two other well known billionaires: Irvine Co. Chairman Donald Bren and developer/businessman George Argyros.
Bond king demolishes home, lists lot for $26M:
July 7th, 2011 / posted by Jeff Collins / OC Register
Billionaire bond guru Bill Gross has done an about-face on plans to build a mansion on Newport Bay’s exclusive Harbor Island, offering the land for sale after demolishing the existing mansion there.
Gross, founder of bond-fund manager Pimco, paid $23 million two years ago for the property, which had an 11,000-square-foot Georgian Colonial home on it at the time.
The Orange County Assessor’s Office listed the value of the lot at $21.3 million at the time the Grosses bought it, giving the home and other structures a total value of $1.7 million. The Grosses apparently believe the value of the lot appreciated by about $5.2 million after going to the expense of tearing down the existing home.
The “rare,” 18,150-square-foot double lot has some of the best views on Harbor Island, the listing says, with “spectacular front-and-center vistas of the Main Channel, Anchor Basin, Bay Island and the Balboa Pavilion.”
But hey, the $erfs are mulling nearby, including Linda-the-Lavi$hly-Living-Lunch-Lady!:
Hey kidz, remember “The OC” is CA’s… #1 GOP re$ort!
“The biggest population we’re serving is not the homeless. It’s the hungry,” said Shannon Santos, the executive director at Someone Cares Soup Kitchen in Costa Mesa.
Food bank: 615,000 at risk of hunger in O.C.
By DOUG IRVING / OC Register
“Picture yourself with a part-time job, and you go out, and your tire’s flat,” Schoeningh said. “You’ve got 40 bucks in your pocket, and that was going to go to groceries at the end of the day. Well, now you’re buying a new tire.
“Those situations happen a lot more frequently than people realize.”
“Are we meeting the entire demand here in Orange County?” Schoeningh said. “We’re not even close.”
“Picture yourself with a part-time job, and you go out, and your tire’s flat,”
Or the serpentine belt broke, or a hose is blown, or you need a brake job or the “check engine” light.
These are nightmare scenarios for the working poor.
“Picture yourself with a part-time job, and you go out, and your tire’s flat,”
I used to have those problems/nightmares up until almost 4 years ago September. Now if I have a flat, I just pull it off the bike, patch it and keep rolling my 20 miles to work. I had some trouble with the “new” Craigslist bike, but since the wheel rebuild, I’m repair free.
Lost 10 pounds so far, saved $200 in ferry fees, no need for insurance or gas. I’ve put on 850 miles since I bought the bike computer, so I do need a new chain and a lot of the saved money gets eaten up by new gear that you realize makes the trips easier. Feels good telling the sheiks to go pound sand.
MrBubble
“Picture yourself with a part-time job, and you go out, and your tire’s flat,” Schoeningh said. “You’ve got 40 bucks in your pocket, and that was going to go to groceries at the end of the day. Well, now you’re buying a new tire.
“Those situations happen a lot more frequently than people realize.”
This guy’s dreaming. $40 won’t even get you a used tire these days.
“More frequently” has got to the understatement of the century. It’s been SOP for the last 30 years.
Harbor Island smells of urine.
Just sayin.
“TrueSerialEnabler$™” …works for me.
He calls ‘em “enablers” applauds the EU snark: “Ignore ‘em, they don’t know $hasta!” “Oh now, NOW, they pro-offer their $age in$ights,… $till charging Fee$!
“Mr. Barroso is on safe ground with the last assertion. Based on what Moody’s et al understood about mortgage-backed securities, CDOs, and the rest of the garbage products whose high credit ratings catalyzed the entire financial meltdown, the average Portuguese water dog understands more about Portugal than Moody’s does.”
Ratings Agencies Are Ruining the World:
By Jeff Macke | Breakout / Yahoo
European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet essentially plugged his ears and ignored Moody’s entirely. Trichet says the ECB will suspend the minimum credit-rating threshold on Portuguese bonds “until further notice”. The move is significant in that it neutralizes the cornerstone of the rating agencies’ power by disregarding the ability of the agencies to impact Portugal’s cost of capital.
Imagine giving three investment banks the power to determine the largest equity portfolios in the world. While it’s unthinkable to suggest some Goldman analyst’s downgrade would force mutual funds to dump a stock that’s exactly the power wielded by Moody’s, Fitch and S&P in the debt market. Fidelity can hold a stock rated “hold”, debt funds often have to dump anything rated “junk”. The Big Three justify this power by claiming they’re protected by the First Amendment. Hate speech is more tightly regulated than the Moody’s right to plunge Portugal into financial ruin.
I’m a fan of the First Amendment; just not when it applies to oligopolies. Exercising my own right to Free Speech: Moody’s, Fitch and Standard & Poors were the enablers of the financial malfeasance. There’s plenty of blame to go around but the vast majority is directed at “big wigs”, “bankers” and the mortgage company CEOs. These are the guys vilified in Senate Sub-committees and movies like Inside Job. The business of ratings is perhaps the only institution involved in the meltdown allowed to continue operating just as they did in the years leading up to the crisis.
Management at the ratings agencies is either criminal or criminally inept. Organizational stupidity knows no borders but it can be controlled. Whatever you think of the ECB or Jean-Claude Trichet the man is right. It’s long-past time for central banks as well as institutional and private investors to start entirely ignoring the opinions of the ratings agencies
But why would anyone trust a rating from an agency that is paid by the companies it rates?
What’s the old saying? “If you’re sitting at a poker table and you can’t tell who the sucker is, then that sucker is YOU!”
How many people KNOW the rating agencies are bought?
+1. “Rating agencies” are part and parcel of TBTF extortion rackets. “Buy our creative financing schemes and pay our exorbidant fees, or we’ll have our lapdogs downgrade you.” These same “rating agencies” have toxic waste MBS bundles AAA ratings so their clients the TBTF banks could fob them off on unsuspecting “investors” and pension funds.
Top Obama adviser says unemployment won’t be key in 2012
The Hill - 07/07/11
President Obama’s senior political adviser David Plouffe said Wednesday that people won’t vote in 2012 based on the unemployment rate.
Plouffe should probably hope that’s the case, since dismal job figures aren’t expected to get any better for Obama and the economy on Friday.
Most economists expect a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to show that the nation added about 100,000 jobs in June. That’s not enough to keep up with population growth, let alone lower the unemployment rate or make a dent in the 9 million jobs lost during the so called Great Recession.
It’s looking more and more like Obama will have to do something no president has done since Franklin Roosevelt: Win reelection with unemployment around 8 percent.
Ronald Reagan, another president Obama is sometimes compared with, was reelected in 1984 when unemployment was 7.2 percent. Obama isn’t likely to see a number that low.
Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics, predicts the nation will have added 110,000 jobs in total in June, with 125,000 added in the private sector. Hiring by the public sector will continue to fall.
The economy would have to add 350,000 jobs every month between now and December 2014 to get back to the pre-recession low of 5 percent unemployment, last seen in December 2007, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
something no president has done since Franklin Roosevelt
Job$! Job$! Job$!
(see Hwy’s post in the weekend thread)
The economy would have to add 350,000 jobs every month between now and December 2014 to get back to the pre-recession low of 5 percent unemployment, last seen in December 2007, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
And as long as the offshoring juggernaut continues it will NEVER happen.
Bullcrap.
UE hasn’t been 5% since the 1970s except in some book cooking bureaucrats head.
God, this Zandi guy has been wrong so many times. He’s still on Tv and news.
And why should be it be? The Repubs blocked a major jobs reformation bill last Sept, yet were given back the House majority 2 MONTHS LATER and people are still blaming Obama.
This means they WILL vote for more Repubs this next election, who will continue to support tax breaks for offshoring jobs.
You can’t fix that kind of stupid.
It’s OK, they’ll wave their “don’t tread on me flags” while they stand in the unemployment line.
Free government workshop for troubled homeowners Monday in Hollywood
By Jeff Ostrowski Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 11:50 a.m. Thursday, July 7, 2011
A free Help for Homeowners workshop is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Westin Diplomat Resort in Hollywood, 3555 S. Ocean Drive.
The event is sponsored by the Obama Administration’s Making Home Affordable Program, HOPE NOW Alliance and NeighborWorks America. Troubled borrowers can meet with mortgage companies and federally approved counseling agents to work on a solution to help them stay in their home.
For more information, go to http://www.MakingHomeAffordable.gov.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/foreclosures/free-government-workshop-for-troubled-homeowners-monday-in-1589073.html - -
“The event is sponsored by the Obama Administration’s Making Home Affordable Program”
affordable
adjective /əˈfɔː.də.bl ̩//-ˈfɔːr-/ adj Definition
not expensive
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/affordable - 49k -
“The event is sponsored by the Obama Administration’s Making Home Affordable Program”
unaffordable (un·af·ford·a·ble)
adjective
too expensive to be afforded by the average person:
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/unaffordable?region=us - 20k -
“TrueAnger!™” + “TrueReducetheDeficitNow!Today!™” sponsored scoreboard read$:
National Investment for all American’s = 0
Private “Bidne$$” = 13
The state parks lose an estimated $1 million a week in revenue from summer visitors with the shutdown, according to the state Department of Natural Resources.
Some benefit from Minnesota state shutdown
By Andy Greder / Reuters / On Thursday July 7, 2011
PINE CITY, Minn (Reuters) - With campers being turned away from Minnesota’s state parks, private campgrounds and resorts are showing slight benefits in the wake of the state’s government shutdown.
“Another impact is dealing with the frustration of the customers,” Person said. “They were chagrined that they were shut out.”
One disgruntled customer asked Person to not charge him sales tax on his bill.
“I said, ‘Gee, I’m sorry. That’s state law,’” Person said. “He said, ‘Well if the government is shut down, I don’t see how they can collect it.’ We had a good chuckle.
There are a hundred different ways of looking at the economy, and a million different statistics. But if you wanted to focus on just one number that explains why the economy can’t really recover, this is the one: $7.38 trillion.
That’s the amount of wealth that’s been lost from the bursting of housing bubble, according to the Federal Reserve’s comprehensive Flow of Funds report. It’s how much homeowners lost when housing prices plunged 30% nationwide. The loss for these homeowners was much greater than 30%, however, because they were heavily leveraged.
Leverage is an amazing thing: When prices go up, the borrower gets all the gains. And when prices go down, the borrower takes all the losses. Some families lost everything when the bubble collapsed, others lost very little. But, on average, American homeowners lost 55% of the wealth in their home.
Most middle-class families didn’t have much wealth to begin with — about $100,000. For the 22 million families right in the middle of the income distribution (those making between $39,000 and $62,000 before taxes), about 90% of their assets was in the house. Now half of their wealth is gone and it will never come back as long as they live.
Of course, rich folk lost lots of wealth during the panic as well. Their wealth is mostly in paper not bricks — stocks, bonds, mutual funds, life insurance. The market value of those assets fell further than home prices did during the crash, but they’ve mostly recovered their value now. The S&P 500 (^GSPC - News) lost 56% of its value when it crashed, but it’s doubled since then. Stocks are down about 13% from peak.
The rich recovered; the rest of us didn’t.
If losing half your meager life savings weren’t bad enough, the middle class has also been falling behind in terms of income for decades. Families in the middle make most of their money the old-fashioned way: Working their fingers to the bone for 40 years for wages and a modest pension.
***
Even with trillions in debt being paid off or written off, very little progress has been made in deleveraging. The debt-to-disposable income ratio has slipped from 130% at the height of the bubble to 115%, but that’s still far more than the 90% recorded in 2000 or the 80% of 1989 or the 60% of 1976. No one knows how far it needs to fall before American families are comfortable with how much they owe.
finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/113086/bubble-destroyed-middle-class-marketwatch?mod=bb-budgeting&sec=topStories&pos=7&asset=&ccode=
Nice article
The rich recovered; the rest of us didn’t.
Here deputy meatson, quick reload! RogerTangoCharlie / $plitBanana & the rest of Curly Bill’$ outlandi$h outlaw$ are load’in up their $catter $hootguns over at “Big-Nose” Koch’s $aloon, They’s been $ipp’in whiskey, $mokin’ cigars and $houtin’ out obscenities, theys seems to be “TrueAngry™” at lil Opie & his “bro’s”:”
Jobs barely rise, dashing hopes of economic revival:
By Lucia Mutikani | Reuters – 28 mins ago / Reuters
Construction employment fell 9,000 last month after declining 4,000 in May. Government employment declined for an eighth straight month as municipalities and state governments continued to wield the axe to balance their budgets.
The report also showed the average workweek fell to 34.3 hours from 34.4 hours. Employers have been reluctant to extend hours because of the uncertainty surrounding the recovery.
Average hourly earnings slipped a penny, more evidence that wage-driven inflation is not a risk.
Analysis: JPMorgan close to becoming the top U.S. lender
By David Henry | Reuters – 15 hrs ago
JPMorgan has been gaining ground on Bank of America for three straight quarters. At the end of March, JPMorgan’s $2.20 trillion of assets were just 3.4 percent short of Bank of America’s $2.27 trillion. JPMorgan already is the most valuable bank in the stock market
The rich recovered; the rest of us didn’t.
Only in papers. Remove the QE’s, Remove the bailouts and bring back Mark to Market, their make belief wealth wil take a substantial hit.
Who can I vote for to implement that platform?
Yeah, me too!
You know the answer. RP or someone like him.
Even Kucinich might agree to these.
How come it’s never the tall guy with the nice hair who has the wind at their back?
Kucinich got a nice hair and a tall wife. 2 out of 3 aint bad at all.
1 out of 3…maybe.
“Who can I vote for to implement that platform?”
Nobody. You and nobody else will ever vote for that party if it existed.
Because you have to give the entire party power. One man isn’t ever, EVER going to make that much of difference.
Oh wait! It does! And has for years. Bet you’ll never guess in a million years.
Hint: it ain’t the big 2, nor libertarians, nor the communists, nor the tea baggers.
“$7.38 trillion.
“That’s the amount of wealth that’s been lost from the bursting of housing bubble…”
How much of that has been replaced by the Fed’s printing presses running 24/7? Would there have been massive deflation if those printing presses hadn’t been turned on?
It is the banks that have been hardest hit in this so far, not the home loaner.
the FED can replace all of it but without money velocity it just sits in Banks.
Or is used to drive up prices in other countries export inflation
Its what japan did to the US a few years ago. Interesting we had a housing bubble here as the yen carry trade boomed
yen carry trade = borrow billions in Yen at 0% and convert to US dollars and buy mortgages at 6-10%
Yeah folks. Our well-being has nothing to do with what we produce. It’s all based on how many little pieces of paper can be exchanged for a house. The more little pieces of paper you can manage to fork over in exchange for a house, the better off you will be. Who says you need to produce food, clothes, or any of the niceties of life? Forget about that. It’s all based on the EXCHANGE of HOUSES for LITTLE PIECES OF PAPER.
We became the nation that “…did each others laundry.”
Compare the headline of the article with the title of the window: “In Shift, Prosecutors are Lenient as Companies Break the Law.”
—-
As Wall St. Polices Itself, Prosecutors Use Softer Approach
“As the financial storm brewed in the summer of 2008 and institutions feared for their survival, a bit of good news bubbled through large banks and the law firms that defend them.
Federal prosecutors officially adopted new guidelines about charging corporations with crimes — a softer approach that, longtime white-collar lawyers and former federal prosecutors say, helps explain the dearth of criminal cases despite a raft of inquiries into the financial crisis.
Though little noticed outside legal circles, the guidelines were welcomed by firms representing banks. The Justice Department’s directive, involving a process known as deferred prosecutions, signaled “an important step away from the more aggressive prosecutorial practices seen in some cases under their predecessors,” Sullivan & Cromwell, a prominent Wall Street law firm, told clients in a memo that September.”
It’s all over but the changing of the name. How about “The United Fiefdoms of Wall Street.”
You have problem with Corporate Communist Capitalism©®™, comrade?
Prosecuters “lenient”? That’s the understatement of the century. These Wall Street sociopaths commit massive fraud, then get off either scott-free (almost NO prosecutions) or with a settlement that includes no criminal charges, fines equal to a fraction of what they stole, and imunity from further prosecution.
Lenient, my a$$. It’s a straight up kleptocracy.
Federal prosecutors officially adopted new guidelines about charging corporations with crimes — a softer approach that, longtime white-collar lawyers and former federal prosecutors say, helps explain the dearth of criminal cases despite a raft of inquiries into the financial crisis.
Though little noticed outside legal circles, the guidelines were welcomed by firms representing banks. The Justice Department’s directive, involving a process known as deferred prosecutions, signaled “an important step away from the more aggressive prosecutorial practices seen in some cases under their predecessors,” Sullivan & Cromwell, a prominent Wall Street law firm, told clients in a memo that September.
The guidelines left open a possibility other than guilty or not guilty, giving leniency often if companies investigated and reported their own wrongdoing. In return, the government could enter into agreements to delay or cancel the prosecution if the companies promised to change their behavior
***
Still, some lawyers applaud the closer relationship between the government and business. “Given the scanty resources that have been committed to corporate crime enforcement, I think the government’s leveraging of its prosecution power from corporations and their lawyers has been critically important,” said Daniel C. Richman, professor of law at Columbia and a former assistant United States attorney in New York.
Of course they neglect to mension the cuts to SEC funding that occ in 2000-2005. Essentially a roll back of regulation in my book.
As far as I can tell this deferred prosecution essentially lets the CEO and past stock holders keep all the winnings of crime and current stock holders pay the miniscule fine.
Another nice article with real reporting and investigative journalism, ie they actually interviewed people involved.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/business/in-shift-federal-prosecutors-are-lenient-as-companies-break-the-law.html?pagewanted=3&_r=1&sq=deferred%20prosecution&st=cse&scp=1
We really need to stop reading the NYT at the same time, Measton…
(For what, exactly are we using our Department of Justice? Is it only there to wrangle and subdue internet poker sites?)
Yeah, pretty much.
Or arrest people for downloading music.
Another nice article with real reporting and investigative journalism, ie they actually interviewed people involved.
Gretchen Morgenson’s financial reporting has been outstanding.
If you’re the financial industry, you are free to extract wealth obviously or deceitfully from the population.
If you dare cross the financial sector, THEN, you’ll do some time.
A former Goldman Sachs programmer convicted of stealing the bank’s high-speed trading software was sentenced Friday to eight years in prison.
Sergey Aleynikov, 41, was convicted in December of theft of trade secrets. He then unsuccessfully sought to have the conviction set aside. The Russian-born Aleynikov was ordered remanded in custody until his sentencing, because he was considered a flight risk.
Prosecutors had sought eight to 10 years, while Aleynikov asked for probation.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/03/aleynikov-sentencing/
Nice article in the local paper
Lady after paying private insurance for decades and using little in the way of medical care developes cancer. Private insurance tells her they are dropping her and she should go on medicare. Finds out the hard way that medicare doesn’t cover all the costs. Notes that private insurance gets to keep all the money and that she and tax payers are stuck with the bill.
Multiply that by millions upon millions and you see why insurance doesn’t want to do away with medicare and medicaid completely. They need a dumping ground.
It’s good to know that the CEO’s of these companies make 10’s of millions each year and that they benefited from the bailout as well.
The whole idea of changing Medicare to a grant based/buy your insurance on the private market is simply nuts. The whole reason for Medicare was that seniors were unable to buy insurance , as they were considered a “bad risk”.
If insurance companies had their way, nobody over the age of 45 would be able to get medical coverage, except at ridiculously high rates.
My new employer keeps reminding me that my insurance coverage costs them almost $20K/year.
Until the system implodes, the status quo works for too many people in the insurance and medical-industrial complex. Like pretty much everything else, nothing is going to get fixed until the Republicans or Democrats (or both) are completely discredited.
Agree 100%.
“Like pretty much everything else, nothing is going to get fixed until the Republicans or Democrats (or both) are completely discredited.”
Or until the number of un and underinsured reaches critical mass and the heathcare boat finally goes over the waterfall.
If the law wasn’t forcing everyone’s boss to buy them insurance, then those prices would go way down.
I do wonder about that. Do you mean the new so-called Obama care law? If so, weren’t rates going through the roof before just this past year or so?
I do wonder about that. Do you mean the new so-called Obama care law? If so, weren’t rates going through the roof before just this past year or so?
Rates are indeed going through the proverbial roof. And here’s my theory on why this is happening:
I think that, deep in the bowels of the health insurance industry, there’s a growing realization that it’s only a matter of time before this country goes to a single payer system. And our beloved health insurance companies won’t be invited to that party.
But, hey, they can still have a party before their Mardi Gras turns into Ash Wednesday. And, better yet, they can pay for that party with our money. That’s why they’re cranking the rates up to the sky.
The law has been forcing employers to buy their employee’s health insurance for like, what, 15 years or something like that.
“If the law wasn’t forcing everyone’s boss to buy them insurance, then those prices would go way down.”
Like they were before the new law was passed?
“The law has been forcing employers to buy their employee’s health insurance for like, what, 15 years or something like that.”
No. Where did yo here this?
Oh wait! You’re being facetious!
My bad.
The law has been forcing employers to buy their employee’s health insurance for like, what, 15 years or something like that.
Uh, what law is this precisely? AFAIK employers provide insurance as a bennie because it’s “usual and customary”. Heck, paid time off isn’t mandatory.
After a little looksie I found this:
http://smallbusiness.findlaw.com/employment-employer/employment-employer-benefits/employment-employer-benefits-health-insurance.html
“Most employers are not required by law to offer health-related benefits to their employees, although the practice of providing health-related benefits is fairly common in many companies and businesses.”
“The law has been forcing employers to buy their employee’s health insurance for like, what, 15 years or something like that.”
I don’t think there’s currently any law that forces employers to buy insurance for their employees, is there? I thought that was a benefit that employers chose to provide in some (most?) cases to make people want to work at their company. And the employee can also choose to opt out and get their own insurance.
No, no, no. There are a bunch of state laws about it.
And the employee can also choose to opt out and get their own insurance.
These days, a growing number of employees are opting out and not having insurance at all. Reason: They can’t afford the deductibles, copays, premiums, what-have-you.
This is exactly what needs to happen Slim. It’s scary to not have insurance, but is just plain stupid to pay for years, only to be denied when you most need it while watching your out of pocket go up each year as well.
No insurance means money back in your pocket. YOUR money back in YOUR pocket that YOU can decided how to save or spend or invest.
Co-pays? The American people should have told them to eff off right then.
Starve the beast!
From Arizona Slim’s link:
“According to the Economic Policy Institute, the share of Americans with employer-sponsored health insurance declined from 64.2 percent in 2000 to 58.5 percent in 2008. Most of that decline occurred during the Bush Administration, and before the most recent recession began.”
This is one of those trends that worried me before the passage of health insurance reform. Rising costs, decreasing coverage - It won’t be too long before only the rich can afford health care. We will be ripe for epidemics.
Unfortunately, in trying to appease the Republicans, we ended up with a Frankenstein’s monster of a bill. I think we would have been better off with single payer.
Damn Obamacare death panels!
Oh wait…
America’s labour market:
Jobless agonistes
Jul 8th 2011, 14:24 by G.I. | WASHINGTON
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/07/americas-labour-market
“HOPES had risen in the past week that America’s economic soft patch was ending. They have just been doused with a bucket of cold water. The job market showed further deterioration in June from May, the government reported today. The number of non-farm jobs rose a meager 18,000, lower even than May’s 25,000 number (itself revised down from the original estimate). The two months together mark a dramatic deceleration from the previous three when payroll growth averaged 215,000 per month.
The unemployment rate, meanwhile, rose for the fourth consecutive month to 9.2%, from 9.1% in May. It was 8.8% in March. The economic recovery celebrated (if you could call it that) its second anniversary on July 1st, and in that time the unemployment rate has moved a lot while ending up almost exactly where it began. America has made almost no progress closing the output gap opened up by the recession. The U-6 unemployment rate, which includes people who have given up looking for jobs and part timers who want full time work, shot up to 16.2% from 15.8% and the average duration of unemployment hit a new high of 39.9 weeks. More women than men lost jobs. Indeed, since the recovery began, women have fared worse than men, a reversal of the pattern during the recession, as a new Pew study documents. Still, the male unemployment rate rose more last month than the female rate.
Digging deeper, the details grow worse. Hourly wages failed to rise and the average work week shrank slightly—bad news for income and thus purchasing power. The survey of households, from which the unemployment rate is drawn, shows a much bigger plunge in employment, at 445,000, than the payroll survey. The household survey is less reliable but is still a useful check. It tells us the payroll report is not understating the strength of the job market.
HOPES had risen in the past week that America’s economic soft patch was ending.
And where does this false hope keep coming from? Certainly not from us. When will people start asking tough questions to the people who keep telling them things are looking up? Or like the proverbial drunk sorority girl at a frat party will they continue to go home with the guy who tells them what they want to hear for the rest of their lives? Even though at the end of every weekend he turns out to be a lying con artist, he’s still more fun than we are, I guess.
Even though at the end of every weekend he turns out to be a lying con artist, he’s still more fun than we are, I guess
That pretty much sums it up. Even though they are beginning to doubt it, the masses are still hoping and praying for the return of the easy money days.
Reminds me of AA and Al-Anon. I guess part of the reason the spouse needs to go to Al-Anon is that when they first send their loved one off to rehab or AA they just want them fixed back to the way they used to be, when their disease hadn’t crippled them yet. They want the person they first met, who was actually an alcoholic…just earlier in the cycle when they’re still fun to be around. Most of them don’t actually want and have no idea what they’re getting if the person actually comes back to them sober. That’s not the person they married.
The masses don’t want a financially responsible system. They want an irresponsible system that still has money to burn.
Everyone prefers a happy drunk over an angry drunk!
That’s a tough analogy, but I like it.
The masses don’t want a financially responsible system. They want an irresponsible system that still has money to burn.
The masses deserve a huge share of the blame for the mess we’re in.
Or like the proverbial drunk sorority girl at a frat party will they continue to go home with the guy who tells them what they want to hear for the rest of their lives?
Short answer: yes.
It’s been that way for the last 30 years. It isn’t going to change anytime soon.
I sincerely hope I’m wrong, but I’m not betting on it.
“Even though at the end of every weekend he turns out to be a lying con artist, he’s still more fun than we are, I guess.”
And this is the core problem. No need to guess.
I’ve seen it every day for my entire life. I don’t know if it’s human nature but it sure as hell is American nature.
How do you borrow 200 billion against $1 and make 10 billion doing it
Posted on July 8, 2011 by maxkeiser|
1 – Use an insolvent balance sheet – backed up by a fiat printing press to loan money to bankrupt investors – to buy ‘insider-stock’ in a company that has zero barriers to entry.
2 – Use that borrowed money to float 50 billion worth of I.O.U.’s in said company – while simultaneously pressuring regulators to scotch current laws and to write new laws eliminating any legal blowback.
3 – Buy shares yourself – in this ‘privately listed’ item in question on an unregulated, newly created ‘insider stock exchange’ to pump up the valuation to $85 billion.
4 – Simultaneously underwrite a sister enterprise that makes a secondary market in ‘virtual currency’ that buys and sells virtual properties amongst ‘friends’ as part of a next generation Ponzi scheme – overlapping both balance sheets of pre-IPO – but count them separately – and never mention the double accounting to clients.
5 – Take the company public – ladder up stock post IPO to a 200 bn. valuation – selling as much as you can before the bubble pops.
6 – Park billions out of reach of the angry mobs and blame the ‘uncertainty’ of the market for the whole affair.
7 – Wait ten years and repeat the whole thing again – but don’t forget to spend a few hundred thousand on the election campaigns of Congress so that no regulators snoop around. If necessary, buy a President.
GM Offering Free Insurance With Purchase of a New Car
July 07, 2011 | FoxNews.com
Want to eliminate your car insurance? Buy a new car.
Huh?
General Motors has begun offering a free year of car insurance with the purchase of any of its new vehicles, but there’s a catch: You have to live in Oregon or Washington.
The pilot program applies to all 2010, 2011 and 2012 model year cars and trucks purchased by September 6th of this year. Anyone with a valid driver’s license is eligible, but is not being offered to fleet or commercial customers.
The insurance is issued by MetLife and includes coverage for both liability and physical damage. Customers can seek to extend it at the end of the first year of ownership, but there is no guarantee that it will be renewed.
The automaker says it is looking to determine the customer appeal of including standard insurance coverage with its vehicles, but has not indicated whether or not it will expand the plan to other states.
“Anyone with a valid driver’s license is eligible,”
If Pablo gets a valid driver’s license would he be eligible?
July 8th 7:21 am
Garciaperez, Pablo M
Charges:
•316.193-6276 Traffic Offense - DUI Alcohol or Drugs
•322.03-467 Nonmoving Traffic Violation - Operate Motor Vehicle without Valid License
•893.13-5330 Cocaine-Possess - Possess Cocaine
I think everyone would be happier with a plan hedging the price of fuel for the length of the payments
The airlines do it. Don’t know why you couldn’t organize a pool of car owners big enough to do the same thing.
Wendy is good.
July 8th 5:04 am
Nietsch, Wendy M
Charges:
•316.193-374 Traffic Offense - DUI and Damage Property
Brian could use some free car insurance.
July 8th 5:03 am
Mohrman, Brian E
Charges:
•316.193-6276 Traffic Offense - DUI Alcohol or Drugs
What about Kathy? If she gets her licence back is she in?
July 8th 2:49 am
Reneus, Kathy
Charges:
•316.193-6276 Traffic Offense - DUI Alcohol or Drugs
•316.061-362 Hit and Run - Leave Scene of Crash Involve Damage to Property
•316.1939-5388 Traffic Offense - Refuse to Submit DUI Test After License Suspended
Scott has a valid DL so he`s down with the program.
July 8th 2:46 am
Stevens, Scott
Charges:
•796.07-2727 Sex Offense - Engage Commit Offer Lewdness 1st Off
•893.13-5330 Cocaine-Possess - Possess Cocaine
•893.13-3695 Drugs-Possess - Controlled Substance without Prescription
•893.13-3695 Drugs-Possess - Controlled Substance without Prescription
•893.13-3696 Marijuana-Possess - Not More than 20 Grams
Now if Juan steals a new GM vehicle, is he covered?
July 7th 10:05 pm
Pinulatiu, Juan
Charges:
•812.014-2792 Veh Theft - Grand Theft of Motor Vehicle
That’s one way to move some Camaros. The people who want one the most can’t afford one…mostly due to the insurance. Won’t end any better than Mitsubishi’s no payments for a year program or whatever it was a few years ago, though. A year later they still won’t be able to afford it and you’ll end up getting your car back.
A year later they still won’t be able to afford it and you’ll end up getting your car back.
Strategic defaults on car loans? What a concept!
What’ll they think of next?
Isn’t that the business model at some of those “we finance anyone” used car dealers?
Sell them the car.
Repo it after about 12 months.
Detail it.
Sell it again for about the same price.
Repeat as often as possible.
It’s been the business model for ALL of them and always has been.
But you left out the other part: selling your trade-in for a profit as well.
You - no car
Them - 2 for one
Sucker!
How about this….
General Motors has begun offering a free year of probation with the purchase of any of its new vehicles.
Here are some potential consumers.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blotter - 42k -
This gimmick is quite common in other countries. In Mexico most brands throw in a year or two’s worth of auto insurance with a new car.
Inventories at U.S. Wholesalers Jumped in May
By Bob Willis - Jul 8, 2011 -Bloomberg
Inventories at U.S. wholesalers rose more than forecast in May, led by the biggest jump in auto stockpiles in five years.
The 1.8 percent increase in goods on hand compared with a 0.7 percent gain forecast in a Bloomberg News survey and followed a revised 1.1 percent increase in April that was larger than initially estimated, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. Sales decreased 0.2 percent in May, the first drop in three months and also reflecting a slump in vehicle demand.
Slowing purchases may prompt distributors to keep a tight rein on inventories, a sign orders to factories may diminish as companies gauge the sustainability of the expansion. At the current sales pace, wholesalers had enough goods on hand to last 1.16 months, the most this year.
“The pace of inventory investment has been picking up relative to spending,” Aaron Smith, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania, said before the report. “Consumer spending should accelerate this quarter, justifying a moderate rate of inventory accumulation.”
The median projection was based on a survey of 32 economists. Estimates ranged from an increase of 0.3 percent to 1.1 percent. The April reading was revised from a previously reported 0.8 percent increase.
Employers added 18,000 workers in June, the fewest in nine months, and the unemployment rate unexpectedly climbed, indicating a struggling labor market, a report from the Labor Department also showed today. The increase in payrolls followed a 25,000 gain that was less than half the rise initially estimated.
Unemployment Climbs
The unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent, the highest level this year. Hiring by companies, which excludes government agencies, was the weakest since May 2010.
Looks like the sharp jaws of reality (ie the death of the middle class) are closing fast.
+1
While the jaws of the Republicrats close on…well, we won’t go there.
Only 14 million more to go!
“I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…”
“The American people sent us here to do the right thing, not for party but for country. So, we’re going to work together to get things done on their behalf. That’s the least that they should expect of us. Not the most that they should expect of us. I am ready to roll up my sleeves over the next several weeks and next several months. I know that people in both parties are ready to do that as well, and we will keep you updated on the progress that we’re making on these debt limit talks over the next several days. Thank you,” President Obama said today about the debt talks.
~ My prayer each night is that team Barry and the D.C. cesspool do NOTHING on my behalf. So far all I have proven to myself is that praying for that is a complete waste of time. Meddlers meddle and they will keep on until the entire bottom falls out.
P.S. Voter are smart!
Pssst: the bottom has already fallen out.
Voters are smart?
Americans are some of the most gullible in the world. I’m a good example since I actually fell for the Obama pitch. I doubt I’ll ever vote again. At this point I’m rooting mass labor strikes and riots so we can burn the whole damn thing down and start over. Put the military in charge for 20 or 30 years (a generation) and start over with a clean slate.
I appreciate your sentiment about ‘doing nothing’, but the quote you gave was specific to the deficit/debt, which is a different thing.
LNKD has a P/E of 1,130.80 - can’t imagine that will end well.
Hasn’t the P/E of most major corporations (not talking about the outliers) trended toward 15? As in, if you’re substantially above this number, your stock is due for a major correction?
Yup, I think you summed it up nicely.
All depends on growth. That is why alot people follow the PEG and not the PE of a stock.
PEG doesn’t look much better
LNKD - PEG Ratio (5 yr expected)1: -11.30
I’ll offer this in conjunction with my “Fractional Corvette” program.
I only want it about two days a year, but the brake and tire wear on those two days will be very high. How’s that gonna work for everybody?
Easy…….measure brake pad and tread wear before and after. Prorate the “wear” items.
It’s what we do in the airplane bidness with carbon brakes.
“Fractional” programs work for bizjets. No reason they wouldnn’t work for Sports cars/big SUVs.
Not very many people can afford a $60K Corvette. But I’m betting there would be a bunch of people that would pony up $15K over 4-5 years to be able to use a Vette 7 days (including 1 weekend) a month.
I keep coming up with all these good ideas, but have no money to implement the plan…….dammit.
I liked your F_ck Truck idea from yesterday. Problem is there are no real barriers to entry so you’d soon have lots of competition.
I liked the truck idea better too. No gaz, just azz. It is CLEARLY the weekend.
Grazz?
Nobody rides for free?
“Liberty has never yet lasted long in a democracy, nor has it ever ended in anything better than despotism.” ~ Fisher Ames (American Statesman)
Tis better to have been free and lost it than never to have been free at all?
Curtis and Darlene must have had one of those 50 year fixed rate mortgages that were so popular 35 years ago.
An official program of the Departments of the Treasury & Housing and Urban Development
Homeowners Facing
Foreclosure
Get Help if Unemployed
Homeowners Struggling
With Mortgage Payments
Explore Eligibility
Lower Your Payments
Lower Your Rates
Homeowners Trying to
Avoid Mortgage Troubles
Get Help With Fallen Home Value
Curtis and Darlene of Chicago, IL (PSA)
Curtis and Darlene had lived in their home for 35 years when Curtis lost his job. That’s when MHA helped them cut their mortgage payments in half. See their story.
http://www.MakingHomeAffordable.gov.
Banks Continue Killing Jobs
NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Reports that layoffs have begun to resume on Wall Street are starting to see some confirmation in the jobs report, with the financial sector being among the industries that shed jobs in June.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ nonfarm payrolls report, the “Financial activities” sector shed 15,000 jobs in June on a seasonally adjusted basis after adding 14,000 in May.
Financial activities include banks, insurance companies, real estate, rental and leasing sectors.
The sector breakdown showed finance and insurance category laid off 8,700 jobs after creating 9,100 in May. Within that, commercial banks shed 3,400 jobs after adding 6,800 in May.
Investment banks are starting to reduce payrolls amid a tough operating environment and tighter regulations. Goldman Sachs recently said in a filing that it may cut about 230 jobs in the New York region between September this year and March 2012, citing economic reasons. The filing did not specify the details of the people it planned to layoff. Goldman plans to add jobs in other countries such as Brazil, India and Singapore.
Credit Suisse started laying off investment-banking employees last week, and the cost-cutting push could claim 400 to 600 jobs the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.
Morgan Stanley recently indicated that it might cut more jobs from its brokerage arm.
The money center banks are also being driven to cut costs as revenue pressures continue and legal costs climb. Bank of America said Thursday that it would layoff 100 people in Connecticut.
They killed our jobs, so I guess its only fair that they eat their own young and kill their own jobs.
“According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ nonfarm payrolls report, the “Financial activities” sector shed 15,000 jobs in June on a seasonally adjusted basis after adding 14,000 in May.”
That just about equals the number of jobs created.
Warren Buffett says the US unemployment rate will fall once housing construction rebounds
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said Friday the nation’s employment picture will improve significantly once residential housing construction rebounds.
Buffett spoke to Bloomberg Television Friday morning as the Labor Department released a weaker-than-expected monthly jobs report. He said the report shows the economy is still a long way off from where it should be, but Buffett remains optimistic about the recovery and sees no danger of a second recession.
“I would bet very heavily against that,” Buffett said. “How fast the recovery will come I don’t know, but I see nothing that indicates any kind of a double dip.”
Most of Buffett’s comments were focused on the long-term outlook. Buffett said he expects unemployment to fall to about 6 percent within a few years, and the 2.5 million jobs lost in the recession will be replaced. The June unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent.
The chairman and CEO of the conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said he thinks people will be surprised how quickly employment improves once the excess houses are bought and normal levels of construction resume.
“We will come back big-time on employment when residential construction comes back,” Buffett said.
The chairman and CEO of the conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said he thinks people will be surprised how quickly employment improves once the excess houses are bought and normal levels of construction resume.
“We will come back big-time on employment when residential construction comes back,” Buffett said.
Yeah we will! So…when will the excess houses be all bought up? When will they even be on the market?
The chairman and CEO of the conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said he thinks people will be surprised how quickly employment improves once the excess houses are bought and normal levels of construction resume.
Ummm, Warren, excuse me for a minute. Where are you going to find people with stable income and employment who are going to buy up all of those excess houses? And you’re only limited to this planet. So no going to Mars to kidnap their potential homebuyers.
No need to go to Mars.
I have heard of a plan that gives green cards to anyone in the world if they buy a home in USA. All I can hope is that the would be immigrant gets 2 US passports if he/she ends up buying one in detroit.
Yeah, and once I match all those Powerball numbers, I’ll be rich……
Lat I heard, the pile of unsold houses was getting bigger, not smaller. So we can start planning for that 2020 recovery.
Aw you screwed him now, because he is definitely thinking on another planet!
It proves you don’t need brains to be rich.
Or may be the Oracle doesn’t want to give his trade secrets…..
I use to respect Buffett, and actually liked the guy. Now I think it was an act. Remember BH’s portfolio of businesses include a lot of home sector needs like Shaw Industries (carpets), Acme Building Brands, Benjamin Moore Paints, Furniture firms, not just See’s Candies.
Of course he has an interest to pump home construction. He’s got shareholders.
“Warren Buffett says the US unemployment rate will fall once housing construction rebounds”
Brilliant! Here’s my prediction: The ground will start to dry out once the rain stops.
Exactly. I don’t understand what people are arguing with in his statement. What he’s saying is very obvious and not the least bit profound. “There will be more jobs once we start building more houses”. No crap.
He knows he will be dead before housing construction rebounds, so it won’t matter to him whether he was right or wrong.
Big V-Good point.
Economic Rebound “Not Happening” in 2011: Achuthan
By Matt Nesto | Breakout
As the financial world emitted a collective groan when the June jobs data crossed the wires this morning, Lakshman Achuthan was calm, unmoved and not surprised. In fact, the co-founder of the Economic Cycle Research Institute says he’s seen it coming for months.
“The economy is down-shifting…you can see in the jobs number that the sand is shifting,” he says.
As a self-described business cycle expert, Achutan’s analysis of data and leading indicators “is able to see through the noise” and allows him to make macro calls on the growth cycle. In fact just two months ago on our sister program The Daily Ticker he said “clearly, unambiguously we will see a global industrial slowdown this summer.”
With so much riding on - and priced into - an economic and earnings rebound in the second-half of the year, Achutan not only pours water on that, but ups the ante by saying he cannot rule out slumping into another recession in 2012. “You have a 4/10ths rise in the unemployment rate over the last 3 months. That doesn’t happen in an economy that is reviving or firming or gaining steam,” he explains.
Further, Achutan says “It’s a growth rate slowdown and that’s what the market really cares about. Recessions and recoveries, that’s old news.”
So assume for a minute that Achutan is right (again) and that the growth rate just stumbles along at 1-2%, jobs growth doesn’t materialize and the various Purchasing Managers Indexes stall. Achutan says that will have a devastating effect on earnings and stocks. “Profit growth is pro-cyclical, meaning it can’t disconnect from the economy” he explains, adding that “you’ll have profits. But if you’re interested in if they’re getting better or worse, it’s going to be really tough for them to get better on a sustained basis in a growth rate cycle slowdown.”
“I’d be surprised if the market really took off on a sustained basis against what the growth rate of the economy is,” he says. “It’s not transitory.”
What do you think? Is this still just a “soft patch” or something more sinister?
30 years of gutting our middle class while thinking they could support our 75% consumer driven economy AND constantly rising prices says, yeah, we’re effed.
The rising consumer costs vector had to cross stagnate/falling wages vector. HAD TOO.
If not this time, then for sure, the next time. Because if it doesn’t correct this time, it will for sure be a next time. This has been the root cause of the last 5 recessions.
February 25, 2010
Pelosi: Health Reform Will Create 400,000 Jobs “Almost Immediately”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the health summit: “It’s about jobs. In it’s life, it [the health bill] will create 4 million jobs — 400,000 jobs almost immediately.”
But first we have to pass it to see what is in it…
Well we do know what was not in it…Jobs!
How the Bubble Destroyed the Middle Class
by Rex Nutting July 8, 2011 MarketWatch
A lot of people say they are deeply puzzled by the slow recovery in the U.S. economy. They look at the 9+% unemployment rate and the mediocre growth in national output, and they scratch their heads and wonder: Where is the boom that inevitably follows a deep bust, such as we experienced in 2008 and 2009?
But there is no mystery. What other result would you expect from the financial ruin of the once-great American middle class?
And make no mistake, the middle class has been ruined: Its wealth has been decimated, its income isn’t even keeping pace with inflation, and its faith in the American economy has been shattered. Once, the middle class grew richer each year, grew more comfortable, enjoyed a higher living standard. It was real progress in material terms.
But that progress has been halted and even reversed. In some respects, the middle class has made no progress in a generation, or two.
This isn’t just a sad story about a few losers. The prosperity of the middle class has been the chief engine of growth in the economy for a century or more. But now our mass market is no longer growing. How could it? The middle class doesn’t have any money.
There are a hundred different ways of looking at the economy, and a million different statistics. But if you wanted to focus on just one number that explains why the economy can’t really recover, this is the one: $7.38 trillion.
That’s the amount of wealth that’s been lost from the bursting of housing bubble, according to the Federal Reserve’s comprehensive Flow of Funds report. It’s how much homeowners lost when housing prices plunged 30% nationwide. The loss for these homeowners was much greater than 30%, however, because they were heavily leveraged.
Leverage is an amazing thing: When prices go up, the borrower gets all the gains. And when prices go down, the borrower takes all the losses. Some families lost everything when the bubble collapsed, others lost very little. But, on average, American homeowners lost 55% of the wealth in their home.
Most middle-class families didn’t have much wealth to begin with — about $100,000. For the 22 million families right in the middle of the income distribution (those making between $39,000 and $62,000 before taxes), about 90% of their assets was in the house. Now half of their wealth is gone and it will never come back as long as they live.
Of course, rich folk lost lots of wealth during the panic as well. Their wealth is mostly in paper not bricks — stocks, bonds, mutual funds, life insurance. The market value of those assets fell further than home prices did during the crash, but they’ve mostly recovered their value now. The S&P 500 lost 56% of its value when it crashed, but it’s doubled since then. Stocks are down about 13% from peak.
The rich recovered; the rest of us didn’t.
If losing half your meager life savings weren’t bad enough, the middle class has also been falling behind in terms of income for decades. Families in the middle make most of their money the old-fashioned way: Working their fingers to the bone for 40 years for wages and a modest pension.
Their wages have been flat after adjusting for inflation. In the late 1960s, the 20% of families right in the middle were earning almost their full share of the pie: they had 17.5% of total income. Their share has been falling steadily ever since. Now, that 20% is earning just 14.6% of all income. Meanwhile, the top 5% captured a growing share, going from 17% in the late 1960s to 22% today.
The housing bubble was the last chance most middle-class families saw for grasping the brass ring. Working hard didn’t pay off. Investing in the stock market was a sucker’s bet. But the housing bubble allowed middle-class families to dream again and more importantly to keep spending as if they were getting a big fat raise every year.
The housing bubble was the last chance most middle-class families saw for grasping the brass ring. Working hard didn’t pay off. Investing in the stock market was a sucker’s bet. But the housing bubble allowed middle-class families to dream again and more importantly to keep spending as if they were getting a big fat raise every year.
Good conclusion. I hope that this article is widely read.
“The S&P 500 lost 56% of its value when it crashed, but it’s doubled since then. Stocks are down about 13% from peak.”
“The rich recovered; the rest of us didn’t.”
Ummm, that was part of the plan wasn’t it? Benny and his crew thought the reassured and emboldened “rich” would then proceed to soak up all the excess inventory and support prices. Guess he didn’t count on the upper middle class’/rich disdain for paying high prices. Many will now simply wait out the inevitable declines - buying jewelry and high end autos while they bide their time - just to pull the chain of the eCONomists.
The housing bubble was the last chance most middle-class families saw for grasping the brass ring. Working hard didn’t pay off. Investing in the stock market was a sucker’s bet. But the housing bubble allowed middle-class families to dream again and more importantly to keep spending as if they were getting a big fat raise every year.
Good article. Some of it depends of definitions.
A middle class family up to the 1970s had 3 kids in a 3 bed/1 bath small house (1500 sq ft) with 1 car. Vacations were to Uncle Jim’s cabin by the lake. Eating out was a once a month (maybe) to the local Italian family run restaurant.
Somehow the definition of the middle class (thanks to reality shows and HGTV) has morphed into 4000 sq ft homes with granite countertops, ss appliances, Jacuzzi tubs and three cars in the three car garage. Vacation became trips to Europe. Eating out averaged to 3-4 times a week.
Note: this does not apply to the average HBBer
Not does it apply to half of the entire workforce.
A middle class family up to the 1970s had 3 kids in a 3 bed/1 bath small house (1500 sq ft) with 1 car.
I don’t think so. My parents were very average (no college degree). We had a 2000 sq ft house in the 1960’s, 4 bedrooms, 2 baths (purchased with an FHA loan). We had two cars. And so did all the neighbors. And in the next development down the road they were building even bigger houses. My parents thought about trading up, but decided it wasn’t prudent (the monthly payment was half a week’s pay for my dad). This was in the late 60’s.
Vacations were to Uncle Jim’s cabin by the lake.
FWIW, places like Disneyworld and Las Vegas already existed in the 70’s and were quite popular. And in our SoCal neck of the woods Disneyland was surrounded by hotels as well. My parents were able to take us to Mexico City and Acapulco TWICE in the span of 3 years (we stayed at a cheap hotel in Acapulco). My dad was a tool and die maker (non-union), very middle class.
Eating out was a once a month
This I agree with. We did do burgers and take out more often though.
North Miami’s Condo Catastrophe
Great story!
Hey Sylvia, you dumb ass, your $450,000 condo is worth ZERO! And you can bank on it!
- “Sylvia Londono, a real estate agent and mother of two, says her condo, which she bought for $450,000 in 2007, is now worth $150,000. She has never moved in, she says, put off by the stench that rises from the site and a nearby sewage treatment plant on rainy days. “It has been the worst experience ever,” says Londono
Now it’s worth $150,000…where did she pull that number from?
Sorry, lady but your condo is not even worh $1.50
Your investment is as worthy as a single share of enron stock.
Every time I read the line…”since the recession ended” I ask myself again, just how damn stupid are these note takers. The recession never ended, it was temporally papered over. They take the word of some government agency as the gospel.
ITEM: U.S. Earnings May See Smallest Gain in 2 Years
By Ashley Lutz - Jul 8, 2011 (Bloomberg)
U.S. corporations are set to report the slowest earnings gain since the recession ended as companies from Ford Motor Co. to McDonald’s Corp. struggled with rising oil and commodity prices and a slowdown in consumer confidence that may continue to hamper spending this year.
Earnings per share for all Standard & Poor’s 500 Index companies rose 13 percent in the second quarter, according to analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Profits gained 18 percent in the first quarter after jumping 37 percent in 2010.
“We aren’t going to see the dramatic increase we’ve seen in some quarters,” said John Carey, who helps manage $260 billion for Pioneer Investment Management Inc. in Boston. “Consumer spending got hammered a bit because of higher oil prices and we have also seen a drop in consumer confidence, which maybe hurt numbers.”
The recession did indeed end. Just not for anyone who wasn’t rich, is all.
I’ll say it again, Barry can go on and start packing if he screws with SS. He’ll be done, doesn’t matter who running against him. The over the hill gang will see to that, period.
ITEM: Liberal senators warn Obama over Social Security cuts in any debt deal By Erik Wasson - 07/08/11 ~ The Hill
Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) warned Friday that President Obama faces turmoil in the Senate and in his reelection campaign if he includes Social Security cuts in any debt-ceiling deal.
The senators said the White House has not communicated effectively to Senate Democrats and they and their rank-and-file colleagues are being frozen out of the process.
“I have talked to some of my colleagues, including some that you might not expect, who say if [White House officials] bring to the Senate a piece of crap that comes down heavy on working people, the elderly and the sick, they have another thing coming,” Sanders said. He added that he would filibuster such a deal.
“I do worry that the White House is misreading the Senate and taking things for granted,” Whitehouse said. “There has not been enough communication to alleviate that potential misreading.”
Sanders wants Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to rule out any benefit cuts, as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has done.
Whitehouse noted that Democrats can support a $4 trillion deficit-reduction package without touching Social Security. He noted the so-far secret Senate Budget Committee plan has more deficit reduction than the House-passed budget without doing so.
Both men said they have only heard of potential cuts to Social Security through newspaper accounts and they do not know what is on the table.
Sources have said that at the very least, leaders are considering whether to alter how inflation is calculated. This move would reduce benefits by an average of $1,000 per year after 20 years, Sanders noted.
Sanders quoted Obama as saying during the 2008 campaign that he would not change the cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security.
“You have a gentleman who ran for president who made a promise to the American people, and it is important he keep it,” Sanders said.
The senators were joined on a press call by a coalition of liberal groups that said Obama would be punished at the polls if he touches the third rail of Social Security.
The House Republicans have painted everyone into a corner.
If Obama caves into them, he is toast. He will get nothing done for the rest of his term. And he will likely lose in 2012.
If Obama does not cave into them and the House Republicans pass the debt ceiling, they will have lost the battle. But they may be able to recover in time to win in 2012, especially with the gerrymandering that is bound to go on between now and then. And a Republican may win the White House. They can campaign as the party of adults. I think Boehner is the big loser in this scenario.
If Obama does not cave and the House Republicans refuse to raise the debt ceiling, then we have another crisis. I think this is the worst outcome for the Republican party. They will have to spin like crazy to get blame assigned to Obama, especially with the rumors of compromise that have been circulating. I think everyone loses in this scenario, but Obama may lose less than the Republicans.
If Obama does not cave and the House Republicans refuse to raise the debt ceiling, then we have another crisis. I think this is the worst outcome for the Republican party. They will have to spin like crazy to get blame assigned to Obama, especially with the rumors of compromise that have been circulating. I think everyone loses in this scenario, but Obama may lose less than the Republicans.
I think this is what Obama is counting on. Especially the “losing less” part.
It’s similar to what happened after the government shutdown of 1995. However, I think that Obama will have more self-discipline than Clinton did during that time. Recall that late 1995 was when he and Monica started messin’ around with each other.
Crash Big Enough To Bring Down Australia And Canada
(BI)
Bill Smead, Chief Investment Officer at Smead Capital Management is not just bearish on growth in China, he’s looking towards a full scale recession in just two to three years.
Smead said that China is beset by bad loans that could add up to $1 trillion.
He told CNBC, “We know that one trillion dollars in the United States economy of $14 trillion caused a deep deep recession. So what is $1 trillion of bad loans going to do in a $6 trillion dollars economy, also an economy that has moved aggressively towards real estate development as the core part of the growth of the economy?”
Smead said that China is due “to go through the cleansing” of bad debt. He argued that China’s incremental raises in interest rates, like yesterday’s .25% increase, only “allows the bad behaviors to go on and it just means your bust is going to be bigger when you finally do it.”
Smead said that he fears that a bust in China could lead to a crash in demand for commodities and currencies.
He is even avoiding owning securities from countries most dependent on China. “We’re in the camp that we don’t want to own Australian bonds, we don’t want to own Canadian bonds,” he said.
“Smead said that he fears that a bust in China could lead to a crash in demand for commodities and currencies.”
And a bust in North America and the Eurozone could lead to a crash in demand for Chinese manufactured goods.
The North American bust already happened. You’re soaking in it.
Barely slowed them down.
Despite the propaganda, Europe is doing better you think and is almost double the market size of North America.
Then there’s South America, another of their largest trading partners…
But as Rio had pointed out, they’re a bit more protectionist south of the equator, and believe in making their own goods, even IPads.
As for barely slowing them down, I have read of stories about shuttered factoris in China. Plus their crazy building boom.
As for the Euros, they too tend to be more self sufficient than we are. The last time I was there Asian cars were conspicuous by their absence.
We’re the only idiots who have wholesaled out manufactiring base to China.
Yes, Brazil is protectionist… only when compared to us. That doesn’t mean they don’t have very healthy trade with China.
Germany is even more protectionist and their trade with China is VERY good.
As for the plants shuttering, yes, you’re right. They had a few riots because that as well. Labor costs are rising and worker are demanding better conditions. But their GDP growth is still over 6%.
That’s double what our’s has been for the last 20 years.
The news of China’s imminent demise is nothing but more distractions from our own very serious problems. “Oh, look! See? We ARE still the center of the universe!”
Only, we’re not.
Back when I was a young Slim and a student at the University of Michigan, I had an economics professor who was one of the world’s foremost experts on the Chinese economy. He was fluent in Chinese, thanks to the U.S. military, which had sent him to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA during the Korean War.
In his post-military career, his ability to read and understand Chinese proved invaluable. But there was a big problem: The economic data coming out of China was not to be trusted. During more than one lecture, he told us about how much effort he and his non-Chinese colleagues had to put into discerning what the actual data really was.
Add this to the corruption for which China is notorious, and you don’t have that stable of a country. I agree with Bill Smead.
Finally someone who gets it. You cannot trust Chinese data like you could not trust the Soviet one.
Now you can trust the satellite photos that show parking lots full of new cars and empty towns and shopping malls.
Does Michelle Obama Know About This?
The Agitator July 7th, 2011
Oak Park, Michigan:
Their front yard was torn up after replacing a sewer line, so instead of replacing the dirt with grass, one Oak Park woman put in a vegetable garden and now the city is seeing green.
The list goes on: fresh basil, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, cumbers and more all filling five large planter boxes that fill the Bass family’s front yard.
Julie Bass says, “We thought we’re minding our own business, doing something not ostentatious and certainly not obnoxious or nothing that is a blight on the neighborhood, so we didn’t think people would care very much.”
But some cared very much and called the city. The city then sent out code enforcement.
“They warned us at first that we had to move the vegetables from the front, that no vegetables were allowed in the front yard. We didn’t move them because we didn’t think we were doing anything wrong, even according to city code we didn’t think we were doing anything wrong. So they ticketed us and charged me with a misdemeanor,” Bass said . . .
City code says that all unpaved portions of the site shall be planted with grass or ground cover or shrubbery or other suitable live plant material. Tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers are what Basses see as suitable.
However, Oak Park’s Planning and Technology Director Kevin Rulkowski says the city disagrees. He says, “If you look at the dictionary, suitable means common. You can look all throughout the city and you’ll never find another vegetable garden that consumes the entire front yard.”
So what is suitable? From another local news report:
. . . we asked Rulkowski why it’s not suitable.
“If you look at the definition of what suitable is in Webster’s dictionary, it will say common. So, if you look around and you look in any other community, what’s common to a front yard is a nice, grass yard with beautiful trees and bushes and flowers,” he said.
God forbid your yard doesn’t include beautiful trees, bushes and flowers. It’s your job, Oak Park citizens, to give Kevin Rulkowski pretty things to look at. According to Bass’s blog, she’s demanding her right to a jury trial. So the city plans to throw the book at her.
My garden isn’t in my front yard for the simple reason that I don’t want my produce stolen. Instead, it’s behind a six-foot fence.
How nice to know that food is not suitable.
However, I’m with Slim for the same reason.
My back yard is so shady that grass won’t grow there, much less a vegetable garden. I have blueberry bushes out front.
So which is it?
Rebounding carmakers watch sales, hiring leap
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7644039.html
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/02/business/la-fi-autos-sales-20110702
“Despite the increases, overall incentive spending across the automotive industry continued at a very conservative pace in June,” Caldwell said. “We haven’t seen a run of spending this low in almost a decade.”
The industry is bumping up against hesitant shoppers such as Kirstin Stone, a recent college graduate who wants to replace her 1994 Toyota truck with 175,000 miles on the odometer.
“Car prices are crazy right now. I might wait for the end of the model year,” said Stone, who lives in Riverside and expressed frustration with several shopping trips to dealers.
Sticker shock Kirtsen? You probably weren’t expecting an ordinary new car to cost as much as a year’s salary, were you?
Here in Tucson, the big parking issue near the University of Arizona isn’t about places to stash cars.
Nope, it’s the bike racks. They’re in demand. Bigtime. Story linky-do here.
Key quote from the story:
[Neighborhood activist John] Patterson thinks the growing enrollment will put additional pressure on the “transition” zone located between Park and Euclid avenues south of Speedway Boulevard. “It will certainly become more dense,” he suggests of this area between the campus and the neighborhood.
The Marshall Foundation controls much of the land in that “transition” zone with its Main Gate Square commercial development and other retail and office projects. The foundation’s executive director, Jane McCollum, sees good things coming from a growing student population.
“It’s extremely positive to have more customers,” she observes. “They help stabilize our small businesses.”
With 3,100 nearby parking spaces, McCollum says, “There’s plenty of parking, and the garages are never full.” Instead, McCollum chuckles, it’s bicycles, not automobiles, that are of concern. “Bike racks are a bigger issue,” she indicates.
The current crop of buyers includes people like Noah Keith, a Buena Park electronics technician, who paid $27,000 last month for a fully loaded Ford Focus to replace a 1989 Honda Civic that had almost 270,000 miles on the odometer.
$27K for a Ford Focus!?!? It’s worse than I thought!
While there are still cars to be bought for under 12k (not many though) the average decent** entry level, compact/sub-compact price of a new car is +/-17K.
Before financing.
**no power windows/seats. no big engine. maybe factory rims. 2 tone grey interior. cd/radio. A/C. power steering/breaks and maybe auto trans. your YMMV by region.
On the upside, mpg is really good these days.
Looks like the DOW is bullet proof…
Jobs Data Hits Stocks, but Earnings Optimism Intact- Reuters
Stocks dropped on Friday and the Nasdaq looked to end an eight-day winning streak as a weak jobs report dashed hopes the economy was emerging from a soft patch, though the start of earnings season next week kept investors engaged.
I guess investors really believe that jobs don’t matter. I guess all those $5 a day laborers in the 3rd world will pick up the slack.
Well don’t the top 1% control 70% of the stock market and the top 0.1% have the backing of the FED. It really doesn’t matter what the rest think.
Remember when Plugs said… Wonder what happened and why no one asks him?
Biden predicts economy will create up to 500,000 jobs a month soon
4-43-2010 By Garance Franke-Ruta and Frank Ahrens
Vice President Biden predicted Friday at a Pennsylvania fundraiser that the U.S. economy would be adding up to 500,000 jobs each month “some time in the next couple of months.”
“All in all we’re going to be creating somewhere between 100[,000] and 200,000 jobs next month, I predict,” Biden said, according to a pool report, adding that he “got in trouble” for a job growth prediction last month. “Even some in the White House said, ‘Hey, don’t get ahead of yourself.’ Well, I’m here to tell you, some time in the next couple of months, we’re going to be creating between 250,000 jobs a month and 500,000 jobs a month.”
“We caught a lot of bad breaks on the way down,” Biden added. “We’re going to catch a few good breaks because of good planning on the way up.”
Say what you will about the Vice President, and, yes, quite a bit can be said. But I’ll give him props for commuting to DC by train for all those many years.
From what I’ve heard, he didn’t commandeer a private car for his commutes. Instead, he just took a seat, and if someone wanted to talk to him about some concern, that was fine by Biden.
Biden seems like an affable guy.
My favorite Biden anecdote: Shortly after he became Vice President, he was on Capitol Hill for something or the other. I forgot what the occasion was.
Any-hoo, one of his former Senate colleagues addressed him as “Mr. Vice President.” Biden’s response? “Give me a f—in’ break.”
Unfortunately for Biden, he delivered that response near a live mike. And that’s how people like Slim know about it.
Maybe they are planning WWIII?
Something like a modern-day crusade for the Middle East??
or maybe is just smoking something very good.
This is priceless humor from WSJ on FHA caps
One of Mr. Sheldon’s clients, Ed Barr, has been pre-approved for a $662,000 loan backed by the FHA, the largest mortgage the agency can insure in Sonoma County, Calif. He is racing to close a sale before the limit drops to $520,950.
Mr. Barr, who owns a wine-making machinery company, said he has excellent credit but a recent divorce left him with little cash for such a purchase. “I don’t have any other alternative,” the 48-year-old said. Without the loan backed by the FHA, which allows for down payments as low as 3.5%, “the sale won’t happen.”
Scaling back loan limits underscores a broader challenge facing the government: It wants more private players to hold mortgage risk, but it doesn’t want to destabilize fragile housing markets.
Craig Van Sant is looking to pay $500,000 for a home with a $20,000 down payment in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. Once the FHA limit drops to $335,000, he would need to more than double his down payment. The only upside, he said, is that “home values slide even more, allowing us to buy more house, if we can pull together all the cash.”
The last line is pricelss, this is a guy who came up with a whopping 20,000 on a 500,000 house.
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/72140684/
Buffett on Housing and jobs
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:h2411:
Guess what America! After decades of profligate spending and astronomical waste by the Republicrats, these pompous a$$es have come up with just the remedy: ask taxpayers to VOLUNTARILY donate from their shrinking paychecks (thanks, Zimbabwe Ben) to pay down the national debt. Yeah, that’ll fix the problem….
I think I’d rather take the money and burn it in my backyard. At least we could roast some S’mores and I’d get something for the money.
Need revenue…
KNOXVILLE - Knox County Sheriff’s Office deputies raided yet another allegedly illegal gambling operation Wednesday night.
The latest raid targeted a poker game inside a private residence in the Bexhill subdivision in West Knox County, according to a KCSO spokeswoman Ashley Haynes.
Deputies discovered eight people around one poker table at 1304 Buxton Drive, and seized approximately $1,000 cash, Haynes said.
No arrests were made, but all information was turned over the Knox County District Attorney General’s Office for possible charges, she said.
The raid follows at least seven other such operations carried out by KCSO within the past five weeks, targeting underground poker games and businesses operating video poker machines.
The raid follows at least seven other such operations carried out by KCSO within the past five weeks, targeting underground poker games and businesses operating video poker machines.
The government hates the competition.
The unregulated and rigged casino on Wall Street, however, continues to flourish under the benign indifference of regulators and law enforcement.
Jay Carney is super smooth in the public speaking dept, he is clear and to the point.
WH’s Carney: “Most People Do Not … Analyze GDP And Unemployment Numbers”
Earlier this week David Plouffe, one of Obama’s senior advisers and an architect of his 2008 campaign, was panned for saying “the average American does not view the economy through the prism of GDP or unemployment rates or even monthly jobs numbers.”
In a condescending way, White House press secretary Jay Carney basically told the press corps the same thing. Carney told ABC News’ Jake Tapper that Americans talk to each other about their feelings of the economic situation rather than “analyze the numbers.”
“I don’t know where, you know, the voters that some other folks might be talking to — but — or — but most people do not sit around their kitchen table and analyze GDP and unemployment numbers,” Carney said. “They do not sit around analyzing The Wall Street Journal or other — or Bloomberg to look at the — you know, analyze the numbers.”
100f and my AC is barely keeping up, which means my eyeballs are burning today and my typing sucks.
I’m running my swamp cooler. Outside temp is around 100. Inside, it’s 84 and I’m okay with it.
http://www.rutherford.org/articles_db/commentary.asp?record_id=716
The New FBI Powers: Cointelpro on Steroids
Listen closely and what you will hear, beneath the babble of political chatter and other mindless political noises distracting you from what’s really going on, are the dying squeals of the Fourth Amendment. It dies a little more with every no-knock raid that is carried out by a SWAT team, every phone call eavesdropped on by FBI agents, and every piece of legislation passed that further undermines the right of every American to be free from governmental intrusions into their private affairs.
Meanwhile, President Obama and John Boehner are exchanging political niceties on the golf course, Congress is doing their utmost to be as ineffective as possible, and the Tea Party–once thought to be an alternative to politics as usual–is clowning around with candidates who, upon election, have proven to be no better than their predecessors and just as untrustworthy when it comes to protecting our rights and our interests. Yet no matter how hard Americans work to insulate themselves from the harsh realities of life today–endless wars, crippling debt, sustained unemployment, a growing homeless population, rising food and gas prices, morally bankrupt and corrupt politicians, plummeting literacy rates, and on and on–there can be no ignoring the steady drumbeat of the police state marching in lockstep with our government.
Great week!
1. My new job is awesome and I will do well.
2. My LL sent me a 1yr. renewal with same terms. No increase. Signed!
Yay!!!! I like when things work out like that. Good for you.